Author Archives: i4lead

Over the past few years, TikTok has seen explosive growth, and it shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, by the end of 2022, TikTok is predicted to reach 1.5 billion monthly active users.

But there’s another big player in the game of short-form video — Instagram Reels, which Instagram launched in 2020 to provide a space for Instagram users to post short, ‘snackable’ content that mirrors what you’d see on TikTok.

We’ve already covered the debate of TikTok versus Instagram Reels, so I won’t go into that here.

Instead, I spoke with an Instagram influencer and consultant, Kar Brulhart, who has grown her own Instagram account from 0 to 45,000+ viewers and obtained over six figures in less than 10 months using Reels — all organically.

Here, we’ll cover Brulhart’s tips for how brands can leverage Instagram Reels to reach new audiences and acquire new customers.

But first — why Instagram Reels over TikTok?

The Benefits of Instagram Reels

“A lot of brands think they need to be on multiple platforms in order to have a voice and a presence, but it’s more important to get very good at one or two platforms, and have a voice and message and community there,” Kar Brulhart told me.

She adds, “We forget these platforms are about community, and we have to nurture our audiences in order to get results.”

Brulhart told me she’s decided to put all her eggs in the Instagram basket because she ultimately finds the platform more user-friendly, and there are more features and benefits for a business owner compared to TikTok.

This makes sense: Instagram is owned by Meta (formerly Facebook), which provides users with extensive advertising tools and opportunities. While TikTok is attempting to provide similarly robust advertising capabilities, it’s ultimately still in early stages and has a long way to go.

Brulhart does acknowledge TikTok has its advantages: It can serve as a great way to generate brand awareness and funnel audiences to your website or Instagram, land brand partnerships, and it can help entrepreneurs and brands keep up with trends. Her strategy is to use TikTok to post to TikTok for more brand awareness, identify buzzy trends and sounds, and then leverage that information to reach new audiences on Instagram.

Ultimately, Brulhart told me brands could be leaving money on the table if they aren’t using Reels. As she puts it, “I went from less than 2,000 followers in February 2020 to over 15,000 the next month through Reels, because Instagram is pushing Reels to new audiences. And 75% of the people who find my account are coming from Reels — compared to Stories and posts.”

If you’ve determined Reels is a viable option for your business, you might be wondering how to get started with it. Let’s dive into that, next.

(Note: These tips are from Brulhart — if you’re looking for a more high-level overview or curious how brands are already using Reels, take a look at Everything Marketers Need to Know About Instagram Reels, first.)

5 Tips for Succeeding on Instagram Reels, According to a Reels Influencer

1. Find your niche, and post consistently.

Kar Brulhart’s niche is Instagram coaching and growth, so she told me she’s focused her entire content strategy around these two key themes.

“I repeat myself often,” Brulhart says. “People get nervous about sounding repetitive, but you need to repeat yourself often, and constantly remind people of your offers.”

It can be tempting to create content on popular or trending topics even if they’re not a direct match for your product or services, but that isn’t a good idea. Social media marketing isn’t just about attracting an audience — it’s about attracting the right audience.

Additionally, posting often and on a pre-determined schedule can help you see growth on the platform, since social algorithms reward consistency. Brulhart began seeing success when she continued to post often about similar themes that mattered most to her intended audience.

2. Add context in your captions.

“Short video works really well on TikTok — like audio trends, and lip-sync trends — and what you should take away from that is you don’t have to put your entire message into a 15 or 30-second Reel,” Brulhart recommends.

She adds, “Instead, it can be something relatable and inspirational, and then in your caption, you can add that context.”

Consider, for instance, the following Reel, in which Brulhart posts a few quick text phrases in the Reel itself (like “I was bullied by a man in my first job in NYC”), but then elaborates extensively in the caption:

3. Be obsessive about your data.

As marketers, we’re already data-obsessed. Data can help you identify what’s working well, what needs improvement, and what should be ditched entirely. And your Reels strategy should be no different.

As Brulhart puts it, “I would suggest looking at your data every seven to 30 days, analyzing it, and figuring out which Reels perform well — then, take that same topic and create a carousel post, and add more context in the caption of that post.”

She says, “Half of your audience isn’t seeing your content at any given time, so be repetitive because chances are, people didn’t see it the first time.”

A brand’s success with Reels, Brulhart believes, lies in the marketing team’s ability to experiment and use data to figure out the strategy that works best for that particular brand. For instance, perhaps your audience is more into trends and relatable content over educational Reels, which is information you can only uncover through analytics.

Brulhart says, “Where I’ve seen the most success with my clients is when they aren’t afraid to pivot and change their strategies because the platform is constantly evolving, and there are always new features so it’s important to consistently test out those new features — especially because Instagram rewards those accounts that jump on the new features early.”

4. Create behind-the-scenes content.

When I spoke with Brulhart about this ‘newfound rise’ in short-form video, she reminded me it’s been a long time coming. For instance, Snapchat first came on the market with short-form video content back in 2012.

“These platforms have democratized video,” Brulhart told me, “and made it cheap and easy and fun to create videos. And it’s who we are as people — we like to overshare, and we like to create videos to share our lives.”

Post-pandemic, social media users are craving more authentic, relatable, behind-the-scenes content from influencers and brands alike.

For instance, in 2020, roughly half (42%) of Gen Zers said they wanted content described as fun— which surpassed Gen Zers’ interest in romantic content (29%) and exciting content (27%).

And, post-pandemic, 34% of HubSpot Blog Survey respondents said they still seek out more positive and uplifting content than they did pre-pandemic.

As Brulhart puts it, “It’s not about perfection or aesthetics anymore — the stories that work the best are those vulnerable, personal, behind-the-scenes content. So don’t be afraid to switch from professional aesthetic to something more approachable and fun.”

One brand that Brulhart admires for their short-form video strategy is Duolingo. The language-learning app goes viral often because they’ve begun using their owl mascot in funny, relatable TikToks (like seen below).

Humanizing your brand is a vital component of any good social media strategy. The more your audience can relate to your brand, the more they can trust your brand.

However, it’s important to note, you don’t want to copy something just because it’s a trend — it should also make sense for your brand, and feel authentic and real. As Brulhart says, “My biggest failures is when I’m just doing a trend. It doesn’t work — people smell it.”

5. Hire someone to create Reels-specific content.

If you’re interested in taking your Reels strategy to the next level, you’ll want to consider hiring someone with expertise creating engaging short-form videos for social.

Brulhart told me, “If you have the budget, hire someone who has a resume to show you they can create content specifically for Instagram or TikTok (i.e. a Reels video editor).”

If possible, you’ll want to hire someone with a proven track record on Reels who can ensure your content is appropriate for the platform and will perform well.

If you don’t have the budget to hire someone full-time, however, that’s okay, too — in that case, Brulhart told me, “Make sure your brand is tying its Reels back to your business’ content pillars. Don’t make the mistake of just jumping on a trend because it’s funny or cute … What ends up happening is you’ll get an influx of followers, but not the right followers. It’s key to make sure everything ties back to your business objectives.”

Additionally, if you don’t have the budget to hire someone full-time, consider enrolling in Brulhart’s Social Department membership, in which she sends trending audio as well as niche-specific ideas to people every week to save them time on Reels.

You’ll also want to consider how you can leverage other content creators to help tell your story in ways you can’t think of — brand or influencer partnerships can help you with this.

Ultimately, Reels can be an incredibly powerful tool for reaching new audiences and increasing brand awareness and loyalty — but it’s not for everyone. If you’re unsure whether Reels is right for you, test it out for a few weeks and then analyze performance to figure out whether it’s worth your marketing resources.

Who knows? Maybe Reels is the missing piece in your social strategy. 

Feature Image Credit: Kar Brulhart (used with permission)

Imagine this: as a content marketer, things are going pretty well for you — you’re confident about your upcoming campaign, the ROI from your last couple were stellar, and projections for the new one looked just as good, if not better, than ever before.

And then something happened, and you need to pivot your content.

Maybe it’s a sudden trend or global event that diverts your audience’s attention. Or, perhaps a competitor’s campaign launch has everyone talking, and you’re unsure if your current content strategy is good enough to outshine theirs.

Regardless, this shift has impacted your company directly, which means, your entire campaign is impacted directly.

With that being said, now you have to decide if you need to pivot your content plan — and quickly. But how do you respond to an event like this?

We asked HubSpot managers to give their insights about how to navigate major changes that alter your content planning. The HubSpot Blog also surveyed 1,000 marketers to learn more about their content planning practices.

In this post, we’ll learn what they have to say. We’ll go over how to identify when you need to pivot quickly, and strategies you can take in order to make that transition as smooth as possible.

How to Pivot Your Content Plan

When something major happens to alter your content strategy, think about how it will affect your business goals. After all, the content you’re creating reflects the goals of your business.

“The content HubSpot creates is intended to help businesses around the world grow better by addressing their current needs. When we have to pivot our content plans quickly, it is because those needs have changed quickly,” says HubSpot’s Vice President of Acquisition, Emmy Jonassen.

Let’s take a look at advice from Jonassen, as well as tips from managers across the marketing field — including Senior Social Media Manager Kelly Hendrickson, Global Brand Marketing Manager Alicia Collins, and Content Growth Strategy Manager Karla Hesterberg.

Let’s get started!

1. Know when to pivot.

Knowing when to switch up your content strategy is never an easy decision to make. There are a couple of aspects you should consider when you find yourself needing to re-work your content strategy, but first is knowing when the right time is to do that.

“The toughest part about pivoting your strategy is knowing when,” Hendrickson says. “As a social media manager, I would ask myself, ‘Right now, can we provide value to our audience?’ ‘Can we provide content that will be helpful and welcome in the social space?’“

46% of marketers surveyed by the HubSpot Blog said they knew it was time to pivot because their previous content strategy was experiencing poor engagement.

If you’ve realized that altering your strategy will help you deliver more valuable, helpful, and timely content to your audience, then it’s a good time to pivot.

Ultimately, content plans should serve your business goals, but also deliver worthwhile content to your customer that’s timely. If your content isn’t providing a timely lens to customers, it might be time for you to pivot your strategy.

A content audit could be a good way to determine if you need a shift. Per the HubSpot Blog survey, 36% of marketers conduct content audits to identify gaps in their content strategy.

Take a look at your content plans. If your information aligns with your business’s goals, that’s great, but does it align with the times?

Instead of devoting all of your content planning to a new product launch, for instance, change up the frequency of your posts to include more content that can serve your customer’s needs depending on what’s going on in the industry, or in the world.

2. Put your audience first.

So, you’ve decided it’s a good time to pivot. How do you cater to the new shift in your audience’s lives, though?

Check your audience’s web behavior — you’ll find information that relates to what your audience is thinking about. For instance, if keyword search reports have indicated that keywords are changing from “local marketing tips” to “online marketing tips,” think of it as a clue that needs are shifting.

However, this shift isn’t exactly what you planned for — in fact, the content you’ve planned for is already scheduled, ready to go, and ultimately different from the results you’ve found from researching web behavior.

Hendrickson’s team was in the same boat. “In our case, we found we could provide our audience with helpful information,” she says. “But that information was not our previously produced and scheduled content.”

So, what do you do?

“We paused all publishing and pivoted immediately based on audience needs,” says Hendrickson. She and her team saw that they needed to rework how they catered to the needs of their audience with different content, so after some web behavior analysis, they found their answer. “At that time, an immediate need for our audience was tips about remote work and leading with empathy.”

She continues by saying, “We made that decision by looking at our audience, as we always do, and figuring out what challenges they were facing and prioritizing our changes there.”

According to a survey conducted by the HubSpot Blog, 46% of marketers have adapted content to reflect the issues going on in their customers’ lives.

When in doubt, start with your audience and put yourself in their shoes. What would you want to see from your favorite brands during certain times of year or periods of change?

If you have a large audience, it’s important to make sure your content addresses the needs of different groups you’re looking to serve. 38% of marketers surveyed by the HubSpot Blog said their biggest mistake when pivoting their content plan is focusing too much on one segment of their target audience.

As you look to pivot, take a holistic approach to addressing the needs of your broader audience.

3. Change your content lens.

We’ve talked a lot about how thinking about the customer will help guide your pivot decision and content planning. When you’ve got an idea of the type of content you need to deliver to your audience, the next step is the delivery itself.

“We need content and campaigns that are helpful and understanding,” Collins says. So while your content is framed around helping the audience, does the caption convey an understanding, empathetic point of view?

When you deliver content, you’re reflecting your brand and your brand’s goals. If one of your brand’s goals is to connect with your customer, you must change your message delivery to reflect comprehension of the situation.

Per the HubSpot Blog survey, 43% of marketers have changed the tone of their content to be more empathic and authentic in recent years.

“Companies and customers are operating in different ways — we can’t always assume that the same types of marketing will resonate,” Collins notes.

For instance, let’s say a major cybersecurity issue upends your industry and is seen everywhere, from LinkedIn posts to newspaper headlines. Rather than shying away from the issue, consider how you might provide content that focuses on IT safety and security, or more generally, tips and tricks for successful online marketing and sales strategies.

4. Connect with other colleagues.

“During major industry or global changes, it becomes especially important that we understand our audiences’ needs so we can create relevant and helpful content fast,” Jonassen remarks.

Recall that Hendrickson’s team had to recognize the new needs of their target audiences, and discovered that remote work and how to lead during hard times was increasingly popular. From there, they were able to conduct research and figure out a plan.

However, if you’ve found that your team is struggling to collect insights, or you don’t know how, reach out to other colleagues to come up with a game plan that will be helpful to you. While your customers need actionable, timely, empathetic content, you need to understand how to figure out their other needs, as well.

“We start by analyzing user behavior, talking to our Sales and Customer Service teams, and interviewing prospects and customers,” Jonassen says.

Similar to social media and branding, it’s important for team members working on customer acquisition to analyze how their customer will be thinking about their lives differently, so you can create offers that will be relevant to their new lifestyle.

If you find yourself struggling to deduce how your customer thinks because you don’t interact with them directly, think about the colleagues you have who do have a customer-facing role.

Sales and Customer Service colleagues are a great place to start — they’re in constant contact with customers, and because of that, will have a good grip on recognizing common problem areas among customers.

The best part about this strategy? It fits any business size. Even if your company is a small but mighty one, there’s at least one person constantly communicating with customers, and leading hiring efforts. They’re your front lines (and usually, talking to them is free, and less time-consuming than conducting multiple research quests).

5. Don’t overestimate your pivot.

When you recognize you need to shift, you don’t have to launch an entirely new product or completely re-identify your brand. In fact, that’s something you shouldn’t do.

Hesterberg states, “Don’t change everything at once. The worst thing you can do in a situation like this is pivot too hard and too fast in your rush to meet short-term needs.”

It can be startling to customers if a company overhauls their entire strategy overnight (Do you remember the “IHOb” fiasco?), and leave them confused.

My grandmother always used to say, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” a mantra that should apply to your pivot process planning. Changing what your brand stands for can be messy, time-consuming, and confusing for customers.

“Remember that content strategy is always a long game — your short-term strategy can’t compromise your ability to solve for the ongoing, long-term needs of your content property. Find key areas where you can be flexible to meet immediate needs, but know what you can’t budge on,” Hesterberg suggests.

Your pivot should be a balanced addition to the strategy you already have in place. Half of marketers surveyed by the HubSpot Blog said when they last pivoted their content, their content plan changed a moderate amount.

In every campaign you make, one of your goals is most likely to serve the needs of the customer. Keep these tips in mind, and stay calm throughout the storm.

6. Get ready to experiment.

Digital marketing is ever-evolving, and new platforms and features can often be a driving force behind a content pivot. According to the HubSpot Blog survey, 68% of marketers have pivoted their content plan to leverage a new social media platform. We’ve seen this play out in real-time with more brands looking to capitalize on the rise in popularity of TikTok in recent years.

In addition to emerging platforms, jumping on new features of existing platforms can be a key part of a content pivot. Per the HubSpot Blog survey, 77% of marketers have pivoted their content plan to try leveraging a new feature on an existing social media platform, such as Instagram Reels. 

Experimentation and flexibility are important for content pivots. When exploring new platforms and features, it can take some time for brands to navigate what their audience wants to see on a new medium.

The interview question, “What makes you unique?” is not an opportunity to confess weird habits or odd quirks. It’s a chance to provide the interviewer with insight into how you’d be the best candidate for a role, while proving you’re someone who can think on her feet.

Essentially, “What makes you unique” really means, “What makes you an exceptionally good candidate?”

To avoid an awkward conversation, you’ll want to be prepared to answer “What makes you unique?” in an interview. Here are seven sample answers to ensure you’re proving yourself an incredibly valuable company asset.

7 Sample Answers to “What Makes You Unique?” and Why They Work

1. “I am a very good communicator and find it’s easy for me to relate to other people.”

Consider mentioning a personality trait you feel would be a good fit for the business. After reading the job description, make a list of attributes that could make you an exceptional candidate.

Additionally, including a personality trait in your answer allows you to display how you’re a good fit for a role in which you have little prior experience.

For instance, if you’re applying for a position as a team leader, it’s critical that you demonstrate strong communication skills and an ability to connect with a diverse group of people. If you tell the interviewer, “I am a very good communicator and find it’s easy for me to relate to other people”, you’re able to match your personality to components of a successful leader.

Effective communication is a critical trait to emphasize in interviews — if you consider how 86% of employees cite lack of collaboration as a main component of workplace failures, you can begin to appreciate why effective communication is so important. 

2. “I really enjoy learning new things and am constantly seeking out new learning opportunities.”

By mentioning your passion for learning new things, you’re demonstrating you’re growth-focused and unafraid of challenges.

Additionally, answering the question in this way allows you to remind the interviewer why you’re uniquely qualified for the role — while other candidates might have more prior experience in the industry, you’re proving your desire to exceed expectations of the job quickly.

3. “My prior experience in customer service has provided me with unique technical skills that I can apply to this role.”

If you have prior experience in a role vastly different from the one for which you’re applying, you might use this as an opportunity to explain how your background uniquely qualifies you. With an answer like this one, you’re able to alleviate concerns the interviewer might have with your lack of experience in the field.

It’s critical, however, that you provide specific examples of how your prior experience has provided you with certain transferrable skills.

For instance, you might say, “My prior experience in customer service provided me with technical skills and an extensive knowledge base for how our product works. As a marketer, I will be able to use this knowledge to ensure we’re meeting our customers needs with every campaign we launch.”

It’s also important to highlight: Previous job experience has declined in importance when it comes to recruiters evaluating candidates. In fact, between 2017 and 2021, that number has dropped from 92% to 62%. So it’s okay if you feel your prior work experience doesn’t perfectly align with the role for which you’re applying, as long as you can explain how your skills will help you succeed. 

4. “Working at a startup gave me an opportunity to understand the ins-and-outs of the industry, and to take on tasks I might not have at a larger company. I think this experience gives me a slight edge over other applicants.”

Similar to the answer above, this answer is a good one if you’re attempting to switch industries. If you think your prior experience could deter interviewers from seeing you as exceptionally qualified, this is an optimal chance to prove them wrong. Consider how your background has allowed you to gain unique skills that others, who followed a more linear career trajectory, might not have. 

For instance, if you previously worked at a small startup and now you want to transfer to a large corporation, it’s important you mention how those skills will make you successful in this new role.

5. “I’m not afraid of failure. In fact, I think it is an essential part of the experimental process that gets you to success. For example … “

This answer shows your interviewer that you’re not afraid to take risks. Of course, you’ll only want to say this if you have a positive example to reinforce the importance of failure in the workplace.

You don’t want to sound like you make mistakes all the time, but you’ll stand out if you mention how you turned a failure into a success.

For instance, you might say, “I’m not afraid of failure. In my last role, we tried to streamline our SEO process and, along the way, found we’d accidentally decreased traffic to our site. However, this initial failure allowed me to see the errors in our previous procedure. My team and I came up with a more successful strategy to avoid these mistakes in the future, and ended up increasing traffic by 20%.”

With this answer, you’re showing you’re capable of remaining flexible and open-minded when something doesn’t work right away, and you know how to take failures and use them as learning opportunities — a critical skill for any work environment.

6. “When solving problems, I apply both logic and emotional aspects in equal proportion. For instance, I’m trained in SEO and understand how to use analytics to ensure a marketing campaign is successful, but I also majored in design and know how to apply creativity to a project as well.”

If you’re stuck on deciding how to demonstrate your unique qualifications, start by thinking about how other people approach problems at your company, and how you differ.

For instance, most people are either logical and use analytics to solve problems, or emotional and use creativity. It’s rare to find someone who is both. If you truly believe you combine these two aspects, it’s an impressive ability you should highlight.

7. “I’m exceptionally organized, and at my last company, I was able to apply this skill to improve our process and increase ROI by 33%.”

Remember, when your interviewee asks “what makes you unique”, she’s really wondering “how will you help our company?” At the end of the day, it’s critical you tie your answer back to how you will solve problems for the company. 

48% of recruiters say improving quality of hire is their top priority in 2022 — so you’ll want to ensure your answer highlights how you will excel in the role for the long haul.

To avoid sounding like you’re bragging, consider a personality trait or skill set that helped your last company achieve results. If the results are quantitative, make sure you have the specific numbers to support your claim. However, it’s also appropriate to share qualitative results, such as, “my organizational skills led my manager to trusting me with a major project within the first two months in my role.” Ultimately, providing examples shows the interviewer you’re results-driven, and aren’t just saying generic phrases to answer her question.

Keeping track of SEO trends is like hitting a moving target.

From algorithm updates to evolving innovation — it can feel like the goal post is always moving. And while the goal of SEO remains the same — to boost your presence in relevant search results — the tactics for getting there look different from year to year.

Here, we’ll cover the top SEO challenges facing marketers in 2022 and the five biggest trends to watch this year.

SEO Challenges in 2022

A HubSpot Blogs survey identified the top three challenges of SEO marketing:

1. Algorithm changes.

The number one challenge for marketers is keeping up with algorithm changes. This doesn’t surprise me — in 2020 alone, Google ran more than 500,00 experiments that led to 4,000+ changes to search.

If you’re like most marketers, this stat can feel pretty overwhelming. After all, how can you succeed when Google keeps rerouting the path to success?

The key is to respond to these changes strategically. For one, this means staying on top of industry news. If there’s a significant algorithm change, the SEO industry will likely comment on it.

The second strategy may sound counterintuitive — which is to wait until the dust has settled after an update. Why? In some cases, Google discovers a change has not panned out as expected and they revert back.

2. Not ranking.

SEO is a long-term game. Unlike paid search, organic results take time to show results — and it’s usually a culmination of smaller efforts.

To use a metaphor — SEO is like a mutual fund slowly building over time. It’s not the stock market, where you see gains and losses in real time. This can be helpful to mention when clients expect quick results.

There are some “solutions” to fix a low ranking, such as technical SEO and content marketing. However, even more important is developing a long-term strategy that focuses on three to four initiatives at a time.

3. Keyword research.

Keywords are the foundation of SEO. But today, rather than scanning for just a keyword, Google takes a high-level look at your website to get an overall sense of its tone, scope, and relevancy.

This means that keyword stuffing is out. Instead, the goal is to understand user intent, or the deeper problem your users hope to solve. With this understanding, you can perform better keyword research and write content based on this insight.

Check out this helpful article on how to add user intent to your keyword strategy.

5 SEO Trends to Leverage in 2022

1. Voice and Mobile Search.

“Hey Google, what’s a good substitute for heavy cream?“

This was a question I asked my Google Assistant last week while baking a cake, hands covered in flour. It looks like I’m not the only one using voice search — around half (44%) of all internet users in the US use a voice assistant.

There’s no denying that voice search is becoming a part of our daily lives. But how can we optimize our content for people searching with their ears — not their eyes?

The answer is clear — optimize your site for mobile. Since most voice searches occur on mobile and smart devices, it makes sense that Google prefers mobile-friendly sites with fast speeds.

Another strategy is reworking your content to include common questions users may ask. For example, identify long-tail question keywords and include them in your h2 or h3 headers.

2. Tightened page headers.

In 2021, Google rolled out a new search ranking feature called Passages. This feature lets Google rank specific sections of a page (or “a passage”) semi-independently from the page itself.

In other words, instead of ranking an entire page on relevancy, Google will now score for relevance in specific sections of a page.

For marketers, this change is no cause for concern – assuming your pages are organized. If not, it’s a good idea to tighten your page headers to provide more context for different sections, enabling Google to understand your content regardless of the markup.

Keep in mind that other page-ranking factors still apply — so don’t skip on backlinks, SEO-optimized copywriting, and other ranking strategies.

3. Emotionally-Charged headlines.

Have you ever clicked on a headline that was too compelling to resist? Turns out, a lot of research has gone into identifying a formula for clickable titles.

According to one recent study that analyzed 5 million headlines, emotional titles — either positive or negative — had a higher click-through rate than neutral titles. In fact, titles with a positive sentiment had a 7.4% higher CTR, while those with a negative sentiment had a 7.2% higher CTR.

Image Source

That said, emotionally-charged titles can drive clicks — to a point. Go any further, and you quickly enter clickbait-land. For instance, the same study found that “power words” — or words specifically designed to grab attention — can negatively affect CTR.

Power words include terms like unbelievable, insane, and crazy. While these may work on social media, they can hurt your organic CTR — so use them sparingly, if at all.

4. Video in search results.

You’ve likely come across a YouTube video in a Featured Snippet. These tend to appear for “how-to” searches where the reader is looking for step-by-step instructions.

For instance, imagine you’re stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire. One Google search for “How to fix a flat tire” will lead you to the following video:

Video Snippets are just the beginning — we predict Google will continue to incorporate video into search results. With that in mind, it’s essential to optimize your own videos for Search.

Here are a few ways to get there:

• Add Chapters to your YouTube videos. Chapters break up your video into sections, usually by topic. This layer of context allows viewers (and Google!) to understand the contents of a video. It also makes it easy for Google to use different clips from your video for Featured Snippets.

• Include Closed Captions (CC). Closed captions help YouTube and Google understand every word in your video. While YouTube can automatically generate captions, these aren’t always accurate so it’s better to add your own manually.
• Optimize your title, tags, and description. Videos are like webpages — they have titles, descriptions (like meta descriptions), and tags (like meta tags). Optimize these using SEO best practices.

Lastly, it doesn’t hurt to embed videos into your website and blog posts — which can improve bounce rates.

5. Tweaking content for “People Also Ask.”

While browsing Google, you may have noticed something new: People Also Ask (PAA). In fact, 43% of search queries now include a PAA box.

With a prominent position at the top of the SERP, everyone wants to rank in this highly-coveted feature. Luckily, you can increase your chances by making some minor tweaks to your content.

Since the majority of PAA boxes start with question words, like “what,” “why,” and “when,” it’s a good idea to incorporate questions and answers into your content. You can use a keyword research tool to identify long-tail question keywords, then include these questions in your page headers.

Or, consider adding a FAQ section at the bottom of your web pages. Not only does this summarize key points for the reader, but it also has useful SEO benefits.

Back to You

The only constant in the SEO world is change. While it may feel like these changes are out of our control, so much is in our control — namely in how we react. Start by keeping an eye on trends and following the best practices in this article to help you navigate the changing landscape.

As we continue to progress into the digital age, a new era of the internet is emerging: web3.

Much of what is (and can be) is up in the air but one question we can try to answer now is what it means for marketers.

Let’s break down what web3 is, when it will launch and how it could impact marketers in the short- and long-term.

To understand what it is, let’s take a trip down memory lane.

In the late ‘90s, the world was introduced to the first version of the internet. It wasn’t nearly as complex as it is today, with just basic fonts, gray buttons and blue hyperlinks. Very reminiscent of how a website would load today stripped to HTML.

Then, it evolved to Web 2 around 2005, a phase in which consumers could consume content like never before on blogs, and later, social media.

However, as the internet evolved, so did the methods businesses leveraged to market to consumers online. This has led to growing privacy concerns among consumers who are struggling to trust their data in the hands of brands.

Although the FTC has created some guardrails surrounding data privacy, there’s still a lot that leaves consumers wary.

Just look at the evolution of Amazon. What was once an online bookstore has now transformed into a tech conglomerate with its hands in ecommerce, digital streaming, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.

In a deep dive into the business, comedian Hasan Minaj argued on his Netflix show “The Patriot Act” that Amazon has control over the most important 21st-century commodity: data.

“Data about how we spend our money and what parts of the internet we’re using,” he says.

For many, that’s a scary realization. That’s where Web3 comes in.

The goal is that this new iteration of the internet will empower consumers to own and operate tech platforms themselves instead of sacrificing their data by relying on big tech companies.

How would that actually work? Through cryptocurrencies (also known as tokens) and blockchains.

Essentially, when you own a token, you own a piece of the network known as the blockchain. The more tokens you have, the more control you have over the network and the direction it’s headed in.

On a day-to-day basis, tokens would play a role in most, if not all, digital interactions from social media and gaming to digital art and events.

Critics of this approach say it would only be a veiled attempt at decentralization, as the power would still be in the hands of the few with the most money.

When will Web3 launch?

The short answer: We don’t know. There have been talks surrounding web3 for years now, but it’s still very much in its infancy.

A lot of the infrastructure needed to make it a reality is still being built and there’s no set timeline for when it will be completed.

So why the sudden buzz? Well, cryptocurrency is booming right now. In fact, venture capitalists invested over $27 billion in crypto-related projects in 2021, according to an article by The New York Times.

So, this idea of an internet built around it has everyone talking.

How Web3 Could Impact Marketers

1. Limited Access to User Data

In the short term, web3 could mean more data privacy for users.

Currently, companies make money based on the data they collect from users. Either by using it to feed their marketing strategies or by selling it to third parties.

Proponents of web3 believe that a consumer should play a more active role in how their data is used and who they share it with, given the immense value it holds.

Would it make it harder for marketers to collect consumer data? Possibly. It would force marketers to be more transparent with data collection and usage while finding new creative ways to reach their target audience.

2. A More Community-Focused Approach

Web3 is all about redistributing power to the average consumer.

The idea is that consumers will decide and promote the ideas they’re most interested in, instead of being in the passenger seat. With this shift, marketers will have to lean more on building a strong community.

As distrust of brands and how they use data grows, community is more important than ever.

3. More Reliance on Content Creators

Currently, many content creators feel at the mercy of the platforms they publish on with strict guidelines on what they can post to limited earning potential. Web3 would arm them with full autonomy.

In a CMS Wire article, Charlie Neer at MIQ, a leading programmatic media partner, explained this shift.

“Currently, when an individual downloads a song, the creator gets a fraction of the total revenue and the host (think Spotify or Apple Music) makes out like a bandit,” said the chief revenue officer. “The same goes for creators on YouTube, Twitch, etc. This is going to rapidly change with the Web3.0 revenue model, and the content creators will be the ones in control.”

Of course, we’re still a long way off from web3 becoming a reality. However, it’s something that marketers need to be aware of and keep an eye on.

Instagram likes to keep marketers on their toes. Just this past year, we’ve seen a speedy roll out of new features, an expansion into video, and a plethora of new shopping options.

But it’s not only the platform that’s evolving — the audience is too. Now it’s up to marketers to evolve their Instagram strategy to better align with audience preferences, behaviors, and habits in 2022.

Here, we’ll cover five main challenges marketers are facing on Instagram and the best strategies to solve them.

5 Instagram Challenges Marketers Face

1. Knowing which hashtags to use – and how many.

From the platform that gave us #ThrowbackThursday and #WednesdayWisdom, it’s no surprise that hashtags play a huge role on Instagram. But they can also be difficult to crack — how many should you use? Should you stick with the popular hashtags or target more niche ones?

HubSpot and Mention’s 2022 Instagram Engagement Report answers some of these questions.

For one, while it may sound counterintuitive to avoid popular hashtags (like #travel or #photography), it’s better to lean into niche communities. The reason? Even though niche hashtags have fewer posts, they typically have a more dedicated community following them.

In fact, the report found that hashtags targeting specific interests and communities — like geographic locations and TV shows — garnered the most engagement.

When it comes to the number of hashtags you include your post, one thing is clear — the more the better. The report finds that using many hashtags doesn’t seem to harm post performance. But a word of caution here — always keep your hashtags relevant to your niche. Otherwise, you may reach the wrong audience in an effort to increase engagement.

2. Securing budget for Influencer Marketing.

For many marketers, influencer marketing seems out-of-reach — after all, don’t you have to spend big bucks to partner with mega influencers? Think again.

While it seems like a best practice to partner with influencers with tons of followers, HubSpot’s Instagram Engagement Report says your efforts are more worthwhile if you partner with influencers that may have fewer followers but a more engaged community (known as micro influencers). Another study even found that the fewer followers an influencer has, the better their engagement rates tend to be.

Micro influencers provide smaller, highly-engaged audiences without the hefty price tag of a mainstream celebrity — making this type of marketing more accessible to a variety of brands.

With 97% of marketers planning to increase their investment in influencer marketing on Instagram this year, now is a great time to give it a try.

3. Posting at the right times.

Timing is a detail easy to overlook in your marketing strategy. But with social media algorithms favoring recent content, it’s more important than ever to target the right people at the right time.

The HubSpot’s Instagram Engagement Report offers some clear insights on timing your posts right:

• Content posted between 6 PM and 9 PM generate the most engagement
• Mornings from 5 AM to 12 PM offer the lowest engagement rate
• From Monday to Friday, the engagement rate stays about the same, but the weekend holds a slight edge.

While these stats give a general picture of when to post — this doesn’t mean these times will work for you or your audience. It’s important to explore where your audience is located and when they’re most active.

You should also consider if your content lends itself to a certain time of day. For instance, a coffee shop might prefer to post in the morning or during the afternoon work slump.

No two audiences are the same. Ultimately, you should test different days and times and see which posts perform the best with your unique audience.

4. Writing compelling captions.

There’s a lot of pressure when writing Instagram captions — it has to be compelling and memorable — and less sales-y and boring.

The first mistake you can make is skipping the caption entirely. According to the report, including a caption gives you a significant boost in engagement, from just under 4% to over 6%.

When the time comes to write a caption, the most important “rule” is to lead with your brand voice. If you need to create one, start by noting a few adjectives that describe your brand, then use them to craft relevant captions.

For example, the brand Nike is known for messages of inspiration and motivation — whereas the brand Lego is known for being fun and creative, just like their captions on Instagram.

Check out this video for more advice on writing great captions:

5. Knowing what content your audience wants.

If you’re on Instagram, you might assume images are the most engaging type of content on the platform.

As it turns out, video is king — bringing an average of 24 comments and 1,097 likes per post, according to the HubSpot’s report. Other research shows videos are more “sticky” and shareable.

Following closely behind is carousel posts. As a refresher, these are posts that contain multiple types of media (image or video) that users can scroll through. They offer more interactiveness than static posts because the user has to scroll through the content.

The trend is clear — great marketing in 2022 must go beyond photos. Start by looking at your current strategy and identifying opportunities to incorporate carousels and play around with video formats like Reels and Stories.

Final Thoughts

Instagram is constantly evolving, along with the audience on it. Knowing when — and how — your audience interacts with the platform is crucial for aligning your content and generating more engagement. Start with the tips in this blog and always test your strategies regularly.

Finding a new job can be a nerve-wracking experience. You pour your heart and soul (not to mention your entire work history) into this document and wait by the phone (or your inbox) for the interview requests to come in.

Fortunately, there’s a better way to communicate your skills and achievements to a potential employer than the traditional resume and summary.

Before you send out resumes for your next career move, learn how a statement of qualifications can help you stand out as a candidate.

What is a Statement of Qualifications?

A Statement of Qualifications (SoQ) is a shortlist that highlights your most applicable skills and experiences. Your traditional resume, fleshing out each qualification through your relevant work history follows your SoQ.

You can think of a Statement of Qualifications in relation to the adage “don’t bury the lead.” It comes from the world of journalism and it’s a constant reminder that you should write the most important thing first. Why? Because if you don’t hook the person reviewing your information in the first few sentences, there’s a possibility they won’t read the rest of your resume.

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Your job as an applicant is to make sure that you put your most impressive qualifications at the top of your resume so the reader can’t miss them.

A well-written Statement of Qualifications will instantly capture the recruiter or hiring manager’s attention and encourage them to read your resume thoroughly and with the mindset of “this person is well-qualified for the role.”

How to Write a Statement of Qualifications

Now it’s time to dive into how to write a statement of qualifications that stands out.

1. Review SoQ examples.

Starting with a solid example can help you get started. We’ve included some Statement of Qualification examples below to aid your writing. A bit of research before you start writing will save you time in the long run and help you create the most professional-looking product possible.

2. Select your strongest skills and most impressive accomplishments.

No doubt you’ve achieved a great deal during your career. Look at the SoQ as an opportunity to highlight the most important achievements and the skills that best serve you in your role. This brings us to…

3. Tailor your SoQ to the job you’re applying for.

If you only take one piece of advice away from this article, please let it be this. Your SoQ must be tailored to the specific job you’re looking to get.

You should use keywords from the job posting and touch on each of the main qualifications through your bulleted list of accomplishments. You’re basically saying, “I’m the best person for this job because I’ve already succeeded at what you need me to do.”

4. Focus on results.

It’s one thing to say that you “Improved sales for the Eastern region of XYZ Company.” It’s another thing (and incredibly more powerful), to say that you “Increased sales by 600% and became the highest-grossing sales manager in the history of the company.” If you can, demonstrate the tangible results you’ve created to be a standout candidate.

5. Use action verbs.

Use an active voice throughout your resume, being very direct in your SoQ. You can use words like:

• Reduced
• Expanded
• Managed
• Facilitated
• Improved
• Created

6. Use fewer words for more impact.

We’ve all been forced to read something that used 400 words to communicate what could have been done in five. Don’t be that person. When it comes to your SoQ, think short, impactful, and to the point.

7. Review your spelling and grammar.

Between spellcheck and (free) programs like Grammarly, your resume, and any other materials you send out into the world to represent you should be error-free.

That being said, it’s very difficult to edit your own work. Once you’ve sent your resume through a grammar program, ask a friend to review it for you. Employers want to know that your written communications are strong and if hired, you work with strong attention to detail.

Statement of Qualifications Template and Examples

When drafting your SoQ, take care to structure this section properly for maximum effect. You can use the following Statement of Qualifications template to hit all the important points:

1. Your current job title or relevant certification and your years of experience
2. Two or three qualifications and skills you possess that would help you excel in your desired role
3. Tangible outcomes (with data) pertinent to the responsibilities you would have in this position

Let’s take a look at two different SoQs for the same person, a call center employee interested in moving to a similar role in a new company.

What Not to Do

• Experienced call center employee with customer service skills.
• Responsible for addressing customer concerns.
• Fast and accurate data entry skills.
• Applauded for good work.

What To Do

• Detail-oriented call center representative with 7+ years of experience delivering outstanding customer service.
• Achieved an average call time 15% shorter than the team average.
• Retrained struggling co-workers resulting in a 25% decrease in repeat calls.
• Won “Highest Call Taker” award 15 months straight.

SoQs for Special Situations

One of the most common questions regarding SoQs is: “What if I’m early in my career, or making a career transition and don’t have demonstrated experience?”

Everyone was a beginner at one time. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, and you’ve probably achieved more than you think. When you have recently graduated and are just joining the workforce, it’s acceptable (and encouraged) to discuss both your education and any internship experience you’ve had. An example of this could be:

• Business Attorney graduated Cum Laude from XYZ University with a 3.9 GPA.
• Internship experience in administrative, transactional, and employment law.
• Attended multiple court appearances, including evidentiary hearings.
• Reviewed discovery and assisted in the preparation of depositions.

As you progress throughout your career, your bullet points will strengthen. As a mid-level employee, you’ll discuss personal on-the-job achievements, and then eventually, as you move into senior leadership, you’ll have leadership achievements to touch on — not only what you achieved for yourself, but how you contributed to the organization as a whole.

Of course, there are very few people in the workforce that knew what they wanted to do directly out of college and have stayed the course over a 40-50 year professional lifetime. Most workers will move into entirely new companies, roles, and industries, at least once. For those looking to move into an entirely new field, an SoQ will look slightly different.

A Statement of Qualifications example for an individual changing fields will have less to do with specific accomplishments in the industry they are choosing to leave and will focus more on the transferable skills that will appeal to recruiters in the new industry. These skills include (but are not limited to):

• Leadership skills
• Management skills
• Teamwork skills
• Communication skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Project management skills
• Interpersonal skills

Notice that every single one of these skills is important for any industry you can think of. If you can prove that you’ve demonstrated these skills in another environment, you build their confidence in your ability to perform well in a new situation.

Use a Statement of Qualifications To Stand Out From Other Applications

Applying for jobs can be a daunting task for even the most qualified individuals. Thankfully, using a strong and well-written Statement of Qualifications at the beginning of your resume can help you stand out.

Compound Annual Growth Rate, CAGR, is your rate of return for an investment over a specific period.

Calculating CAGR by hand is a rather involved process, so below we’ll go over how you can quickly calculate CAGR in Excel.

CAGR Excel Formula

The formula for calculating CAGR in Excel is:

=(End Value/Beginning Value) ^ (1/Number of Years) – 1

The equation uses three different values:

• End value, which is the amount of money you’ll have after the period has passed.
• Beginning value, which is the amount of money you began with.
• Number of years, which is the total number of years that have passed.

Below we’ll go over an example of how to calculate CAGR for a five years time frame in Excel using the sample data set shown below:

1. Identify the numbers you’ll use in your equation. Using the sample data set above,

• The end value is 2143 (in cell B6).
• The beginning value is 1000 (in cell B2).
• The number of years is 5 (in cell A6).

2. Input your values into the formula. 

Excel offers many shortcuts, so you can simply input the cell numbers that contain each of your values into the equation. Using the sample data set above, the equation would be

=(B6/B2) ^ (1/A6) – 1

This is what it looks like in my Excel sheet:

Note that the equation changes color to correspond with the cells you’re using, so you can look back and check that your inputs are correct before running the equation.

You can also enter actual values into the formula instead of cell numbers. The equation would then look like this:

=(2143/1000) ^ (1/5) – 1

3. Once you’ve entered your values, click enter and run the equation. Your result will appear in the cell containing the equation, as shown in the image below.

CAGR Formula in Excel as a Percentage

Your default result will be shown as a decimal. To view it as a percentage, right-click on the cell your result is in, select Format Cells and then Percentage in the dialogue box.

Your result will be converted to a percentage, as shown in the image below.

Now let’s go over a shortcut for calculating CAGR in Excel using the Rate function.

How To Calculate CAGR Using RATE Function

The RATE function helps you calculate the interest rate on an investment over a period of time.The formula for calculating CAGR is: 

=RATE(nper,, pv, fv)

• nper is the total number of periods in the time frame you’re measuring for. Since you’re calculating annual growth rate, this would be 12.
• pv is the present value of your investment (must always be represented as a negative)
• fv is future value.

Note that the standard RATE equation includes more variables, but you only need the above three to calculate your CAGR.

Let’s run an equation using the sample table below where nperi is 12, pv is 100, and fv is 500.

1. In your sheet, select the cell that you want to contain your CAGR. I selected cell B5.

2. Enter the RATE formula and input your numbers. Note that you always need to express your present value as a negative, or you’ll receive an error message.

This is what my formula looks like.

Note that you can also simply enter the cell numbers that your values are in. With my sample table the formula would look like this:

=RATE(A2,,-B2,C2)

3. Click enter and run your equation. Using the sample data, my CAGR is 14%.

Now you know how to quickly and easily calculate your CAGR in Excel, no hand calculations required.

Imagine a world where you could start the sales process by selling directly to your best-fit, highest-value accounts. No wasted time trying to market to unqualified leads who aren’t the right fit for your business. Meaning, you could move straight into the phases of engaging and delighting your target accounts.

Talk about efficiency, right?

Account-based marketing allows you to weed out less-valuable companies early on and ensure Marketing and Sales are in complete alignment — in return, your team can leap into the critical processes of engaging and delighting those accounts much faster.

ABM helps your business work and communicate with high-value accounts as if they’re individual markets. By doing this — along with personalizing the buyer’s journey and tailoring all communications, content, and campaigns to those specific accounts — you’ll see greater ROI and a boost in customer loyalty.

Before we take a look at the additional benefits of account-based marketing and specific tactics you can implement at your company, let’s review its relationship with another important strategy: inbound marketing.

Account-Based Marketing and Inbound Marketing

Batman and Robin. LeBron and D-Wade. Peanut butter and jelly. Arguably some of the strongest partnerships ever to exist 💪. These dynamic duos are forces to be reckoned with.

Similarly, when paired, account-based marketing and inbound marketing have the power to make waves (the good ones) for your business.

You might be wondering, “How exactly does this partnership work?”

Well, we just reviewed the definition of account-based marketing — as you learned, ABM is a highly-targeted strategy.

Meanwhile, inbound marketing is more foundational — this methodology and growth strategy allows you to attract customers through the creation of valuable content, SEO, and a delightful customer experience.

Rather than interrupting your target audience and customers (as you would with outbound marketing), inbound marketing allows you to more organically provide your audience with the information they want when they want it.

Inbound lays the foundation for a strong ABM strategy by allowing for highly-targeted and efficient resource allocation of high-value accounts. Here are a few more reasons to implement both ABM and inbound marketing strategies at your company:

• Inbound marketing helps you attract target accounts and then ABM accelerates the flywheel so you can win and delight those accounts with a remarkable customer experience.
• Inbound marketing lays the foundation for a strong ABM strategy — ABM builds off of inbound by allowing for targeted and efficient resource allocation of high-value accounts.
• With this combined approach, you attract a broader group of prospects than you would while using just one method.
• Your content has a two-for-one value — you can create and use content that serves both an ABM and inbound strategy (e.g. create a personalized case study for a target account that you also share on your website).
• Software — such as HubSpot’s account-based marketing tool — exist to make it easy to implement ABM and inbound strategies in a complementary way.

🧡TLDR: Combine ABM and inbound marketing to grow better.

Account-Based Marketing Framework

ABM works differently from a traditional sales funnel. Though ABM can be implemented across different industries and types of businesses, a general framework needs to be followed to ensure its effectiveness. Here are the key components of an account-based marketing framework.

Marketing-Sales Alignment

The working relationship between sales and marketing organizations is mentioned several times throughout this article, because its importance can’t be overstated. To have a comprehensive approach to ABM, and to ensure target accounts receive an engaging buying experience, marketing and sales have to be on the same page.

When implementing ABM, sales and marketing organizations will need to agree upon resource allocation for each target account, assigning roles and responsibilities to ensure a seamless transition for the customer between marketing and sales activities, and determining how to measure the success of their efforts.

Account Qualification

How does your company determine what constitutes as a high-value account? Creating an ideal customer profile for the accounts your company wants to target is a key component to answering this question and creating an ABM framework. It’s also worth noting both marketing and sales should be participating in these conversations.

As you determine what qualifies a potential account, consider these factors:

• Financials: With your company’s sales goals in mind, consider how much revenue can be generated from an account.
• Scalability: Based on what you know about the potential account’s business performance, is there potential to grow the account in the future? Consider additional offerings your company could provide to retain and grow the account.
• Competitive Landscape: Who are your competitors selling to? Understanding who is currently in the market for products and offerings like yours can help you identify future account opportunities.

Go-to-Market Approach

Once marketing and sales are aligned on approach and which accounts to target, it’s time to map out a go-to-market plan.

Understand exactly how a new customer would move through the sales process using an ABM approach. While preparing to go to market, you may find areas of friction that need to be addressed or areas of poor communication that can be strengthened.

Additionally, because a personalized experience is so important in account-based marketing, your team will want to be on the lookout for additional ways to add value and deliver a premium experience to these accounts.

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Account-Based Marketing Strategy

In order to get the most out of an account-based marketing approach, you’ll need a sound strategy in place. Consider following these steps to create and implement an effective account-based marketing strategy.

1. Create alignment between your sales and marketing teams.

Marketing-sales alignment is crucial for successful account-based marketing implementation. In order to create a custom buying experience, a customer will need to have a seamless transition from being acquired as a lead through the final sale.

To improve synergy between marketing and sales, both organizations must commit to clear communication and find a middle-ground to ensure the marketing team is acquiring leads the sales team can properly sell to.

If you’re just getting started with ABM, having a small task force of one marketer and one salesperson who work together to identify and sell to target accounts is sufficient. As your efforts scale, prioritize having your marketer support additional salespeople, as one marketer can typically remain aligned with up to 10 salespeople, and each salesperson can manage up to 10 accounts.

2. Conduct research to determine account personas.

Once marketing and sales align on their approach, the organizations can work together to ensure your company is targeting the correct account personas.

This usually begins with a period of research to identify which accounts to pursue. When identifying customer personas for an account-based marketing approach, marketers should consider:

• The mission, vision, and business objectives of their ideal customer.
• If any high-value accounts are currently engaging with your company’s Inbound approach.
• The current stage of business maturity, company size, and growth trajectory.
• Revenue model, and spending patterns.
• The tools and platforms their ideal customer is currently using.

Though there are countless ways to identify key accounts, what’s most important is that marketing and sales agree on which accounts to target.

According to HubSpot Academy professor Kyle Jepson, “If your marketer is targeting one list of companies, and your salespeople are working a different list, you’re going to end up with an account-based mess.”

3. Create account plans.

After determining which accounts to target, it’s time to build account plans. This entails having the marketing and sales teams work together to map out the potential leads they’ll need to attract to reach their target accounts, and what content they’ll need to produce to engage with this audience.

When creating an account plan for your ABM strategy, keep these best practices in mind:

• Though account plans for different customers can have some similarities, each plan should be tailored to the needs of that particular account.
• Each account plan should be able to address these two questions: Who is included in the buying decision for this sale (e.g. decision maker, influencer, Legal, blockers, end-users)? What content is needed for each member of this buying committee?

4. Attract contacts associated with target accounts.

Ideally, using Inbound methodology will help you attract contacts associated with your target accounts. If you need additional contacts, your next step is to determine where your ideal contacts are currently going to find solutions related to what you offer and make sure your company is visible and represented in these spaces.

Places you may get in front of contacts include events, industry publications such as blogs and newsletters, and targeted ad placements. While it can be tempting to try to get visibility for your company through all available avenues, prioritize the channels that are most relevant to your target accounts and contacts.

5. Get the buying committee involved.

As you build relationships with key contacts, make sure both sales and marketing are actively engaging everyone who will be involved in the buying decision.

Though this point in the buying process is typically led by sales, marketing should be ready to support by creating relevant materials to reinforce messaging.

To measure the health of an ABM strategy, marketing and sales teams can use the following metrics:

• Identifying the buyers associated with target accounts and tracking interactions with these buyers.
• Data points related to the health of the deal—creation date, velocity, and close rate.
• Revenue attributed to target accounts.

Once this strategy is in place, your marketing and sales organizations can repeat the process with new and existing key accounts to attract and retain high-value customers.

There are a number of benefits associated with account-based marketing. We’ve compiled the following list of commonly-noted results that positively impact all types of businesses.

1. Keep marketing and sales aligned.

Cross-team collaboration and improved communication across any organization are beneficial to growth. In terms of account-based marketing, this transparency and alignment will ensure your marketing and sales teams are focused on the same goals, stick to the mutually agreed-upon budget, and understand the specific roles of each internal stakeholder.

This alignment helps ensure all communications, interactions, and content are consistent for the accounts you work with. Meaning, no matter how long an account works with your company, your team members can pick up where others left off at any point in time without question — this creates a seamless and delightful customer experience.

🧡The easiest way to maintain internal account-based marketing alignment is with the help of software, like HubSpot, which makes connecting your marketing and sales teams exceptionally easy.

2. Maximize your business’s relevance among high-value accounts.

Account-based marketing requires you to personalize everything (e.g. content, product information, communications, and campaigns) for each account you invest your resources in. Through this personalization and customization, your relevance among these accounts is maximized.

That’s because your content and interactions are tailored in a way that shows them how your specific products, services, and other offerings are what they need to solve their challenges. Meaning, ABM allows you to angle your business in a way that makes it the most relevant and ideal option for your target accounts.

3. Deliver consistent customer experiences.

For your ABM strategy to be remarkable, you must maintain a long-term sense of delight among your accounts. Each account should feel as though they’re your business’s market of one. Tackle this by offering consistent customer experiences.

ABM is a strategy that requires major alignment between Sales and Marketing — so hone in on that when working to deliver those consistent experiences. Ensure all team members are aware of where an account is in the buyer’s journey — then, deliver personalized and timely communication, campaigns, product information, and pricing details.

4. Measure your return on investment.

With account-based marketing, you can easily measure return on investment (ROI) for each account you invest your resources and time in. This is beneficial because you can confirm whether certain accounts you invested in were ideal for your business.

Then, you can nurture and delight those accounts long-term to retain them, as well as identify and target similar accounts in the future. If your ROI proves the ABM tactics you implemented worked, use that data to propel your strategy forward.

5. Streamline the sales cycle.

Depending on your business, industry, and resources, the sales cycle typically looks something like this:

1) Prospect → 2) Connect → 3) Research → 4) Present → 5) Close → 6) Delight

With account-based marketing, this cycle is streamlined — by focusing your efforts on specific high-value target accounts, you save time and resources — meaning, you’ll have more time to focus on the stages of the cycle that positively impact your bottom line:

1) Identify Target Accounts → 2) Present to Target Accounts → 3) Close Target Accounts → 4) Delight Accounts

ABM streamlines your sales cycle by helping you stay efficient. Rather than experimenting with different tactics to prospect and qualify a large pool of leads, ABM ensures the accounts you target are the right ones for your business and vice versa. The sales cycle is also streamlined by your marketing and sales alignment as well as the consistent and personalized customer experiences you provide.

6. Expand business through account relationships.

The saying “quality over quantity” applies to account-based marketing. The process requires you to invest significant time and resources in engaging and delighting a group of carefully chosen, high-value accounts, versus trying to quickly close deals with less-qualified leads who may not be the best fit for your company in the long run.

By taking the time to build these trusting relationships with accounts, you’ll expand business by retaining those valuable customers longer. And considering it costs more to obtain customers than retain them, this will positively impact your bottom line.

Additionally, as a result of personalized, thoughtful, and consistent customer experiences, accounts will become loyal to your business over time — and loyal customers become your best marketers, promoters, and brand advocates. In other words, your accounts will help you expand your business among their networks (e.g. partners, customers) through referrals, word-of-mouth marketing, testimonials, and more.

Now let’s cover some account-based marketing tactics you can apply to your strategy to improve the likelihood of success.

ABM tactics are the building blocks of your strategy — so, work through the following list to ensure your ABM efforts and investment are successful.

1. Use a Strategic Account Planning Template.

To unify your account-based marketing team, use a strategic account planning template. The free template will help you outline your initiatives for each unique account, such as the:

• Business Overview
• Key Business Initiatives
• Customer Relationship Landscape
• Customer Products and Revenue
• Account Competitor Analysis
• Buying Process and Selling Points
• Relationship Goals & Strategy
• Sales Opportunities, Targets and Risks
• Action Plan

Download the Free Account-Based Marketing Plan Template

2. Secure organizational ABM alignment.

One of the most important account-based marketing tactics is arguably one of the most straightforward: Secure organizational ABM alignment.

This means getting all internal stakeholders on board with the various factors related to your account-based marketing strategy. In doing so, it’ll be easier for your business to create consistent experiences for accounts and make sure your strategy is as efficient and streamlined as possible.

For example, your VP of Marketing and VP of Sales should secure organizational alignment and spread awareness regarding:

• Marketing and sales team members who are directly involved in the strategy.
• Account buying committee members and any other account stakeholders.
• Your business’s point-of-difference for each target account.
• ABM budget and resources.
• ABM goals and KPIs.

3. Build your ABM team.

Marketing and sales leaders will want to align on how to build your ABM team. They should identify a minimum of one marketer and one sales rep who will be completely dedicated to the accounts you work with.

These people will create and publish content for accounts as well as work to manage and close business deals with each account’s buying committee. (As a rule of thumb, try to limit your team size to no more than ten sales reps and one marketer.)

In addition to the marketer(s) and sales rep(s), don’t forget to identify any other internal key players — such as customer success reps — who should be aware of and aligned on your ABM strategy.

4. Identify and pick your ideal set of target accounts.

Identify and pick your ideal set of high-value target accounts to invest your time and resources in.

Here are some recommendations on how you can do this:

• Set search alerts for your ideal customer profile on LinkedIn.
• Create a workflow that filters incoming qualified leads based on specific criteria (e.g. company size, industry, etc.) and tags them as an ideal customer type in your CRM.
• Ask, “If we could replicate one deal from last year, what would it be?” Then, use the characteristics of that deal (e.g. industry, company size, value) to help you identify other good-fit customers.
• Pick target accounts based on a particular industry or geographical location.
• Review major companies and leads who are using and engaging with your inbound content but don’t have a deal attached (yet!).
• Identify the lighthouse accounts you could use for reference.
• Stick to no more than 10 accounts per sales rep.

5. Encourage Marketing and Sales to create account plans together.

Throughout this guide, you’ve probably picked up on the fact account-based marketing is a team effort. That’s why ensuring appropriate marketing and sales team members are involved in account planning is so important.

Make sure Marketing and Sales ask the following questions while they work on account plans:

• Who will we need to know at each account (e.g. buying committee members and account stakeholders)?
• What content will we need to attract and engage account buying committee members (and any other stakeholders)?
• Which channels will we use to share content with the right people at each account?
• How will we (marketers and sales reps) provide the right type of support throughout each stage of the strategy and sales process — in other words, how will sales help at the outset and how will marketing support in the later stages?

🧡Store your account plans as pinned notes in your HubSpot CRM, Google Docs, Asana Boards, pinned messages in Slack, and more to allow for easy access and collaboration.

Here are a few other tips Marketing and Sales can use to make account plans successful:

• Ensure Marketing and Sales align on your product or service’s value proposition and point-of-difference for every account.
• Create personalized content — or update existing content — so it’s tailored to each unique account.
• Customize your allocated resources and budget for each account.

6. Attract contacts from high-quality accounts.

Next, you’ll want to attract the buying committee members and stakeholders of your target accounts. Depending on how long you’ve been in business and any previous ABM work you’ve done, you may or may not already have contacts for specific accounts.

The key to successfully attracting high-quality accounts is to personalize content to those accounts — this will help you elevate brand awareness and maximize relevance among audience members.

Here are some GDPR-compliant recommendations for attracting high-quality accounts:

• Engage accounts on social media (e.g. determine which platforms they’re on, join the groups they’re in, contribute to conversations they’re a part of, and share helpful and relevant content you’ve created).
• Produce a podcast or video series and invite a leader from the account to be a special guest.
• Sponsor a booth at a target account’s conference or event.
• Send direct messages via social media and direct mail via email or post.
• Communicate through LinkedIn InMail outreach (do this simply and without ever leaving HubSpot via the LinkedIn integration).
• Build custom landing pages tailored to the needs, questions, and concerns of accounts.
• Offer gifts for engagement and interaction (e.g. prizes, swag, and discount codes).
• Distribute content such as blog articles across channels that are relevant to each account (e.g. website, social media, and magazines).
• Create ad campaigns and social ads to target different factors such as location, skill, and job title.
• Ask current contacts, accounts, and customers for referrals.
• Invite contacts to (physical or digital) events and ask attendees to invite their colleagues.

7. Forge strong relationships with the account’s buying committee.

Once you’ve attracted high-value accounts, it’s time to forge strong relationships with their buying committees. This is something your team will likely work on over an extended period of time — in fact, it often takes months and even years to develop these bonds. Think of this tactic as one tied to delighting your accounts — you never stop the process of delight.

Here are some thoughts on how you can forge strong, long-lasting relationships with an account’s buying committee.

• Provide education around the value your business — and your product/ service — brings accounts through tailored interactions and engagement.
• Create and share personalized content, such as case studies, to prove the ways you’ll exceed expectations and resolve the challenges of each account.
• Communicate one-on-one when possible to make buying committee members feel like they’re your only priority.
• Host events with and for account members (e.g. dinner) so they get to know your brand and team on a personal level.
• Stick to organized, well-timed meetings.
• Use email sequencing to enhance all communication, be professional, and maintain consistency.

8. Measure and analyze your ABM results (and iterate as needed).

While working through and upon completion of the tactics above, it’s crucial you monitor your success. By reviewing and analyzing your ABM results, you’ll identify any gaps or parts of your strategy that need to be changed. This will allow you to make your strategy more effective for your business, marketing and sales teams, and accounts.

Here are some examples of common account-based marketing KPIs that provide insight into how you’re doing:

• Deal creation
• Account penetration (net new contacts added to an account)
• Account engagement
• Deal-to-close time
• Net-new revenue
• Percent of deals closed

🧡For support with your analysis, enlist the help of HubSpot’s library of 12+ ABM reports and pre-built ABM reporting dashboard to gain valuable insight into how to modify your ABM strategy for greater success.

Account-Based Marketing Tools

As you’re moving target accounts through the sales process, automation is a key component to streamlining ABM efforts.

ABM automation allows your business to target key customers with a customized approach to seamlessly move them through the sales process. When looking for account-based marketing software, you’ll want to make sure your platform has the following functionalities:

• Identification: The ability to accurately identify potential customers and accounts.
• Engagement: Cross-platform functionality to help your company keep the conversation with potential customers going.
• Analytics: You’ll need access to relevant data to understand how well your approach is performing.

An example of a product that offers these key features is RollWorks, an all-in-one account-based platform that seamlessly integrates with your CRM.

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Account-Based Marketing Examples

Now that you understand the fundamentals of an account-based marketing strategy, let’s walk through a few examples of how ABM has worked for real businesses.

1. Restaurant Furniture Plus

This wholesale restaurant furniture supplier previously relied on search traffic and paid Google ads to attract new customers.

After identifying their ideal customer (scaling chain restaurants), the company implemented an account-based marketing strategy to get in front of restaurant owners who were a good fit for its products. This strategy has helped Restaurant Furniture Plus save money on paid advertising, and increase its base of recurring customers.

2. HealthLink Dimensions

Healthcare data company HealthLink Dimensions partnered with marketing agency Acclaro to implement an account-based marketing strategy. HeathLink Dimensions sought to expand their offerings to health insurance providers, and ran into challenges getting new contacts in its funnel.

After working with Acclaro to use an ABM strategy, HealthLink Dimensions experienced a 234% increase in its new customer pipeline.

3. BlueYonder

BlueYonder is a supply chain-management company that helps businesses optimize their supplier activities.

In 2019, the company began testing an ABM approach with a small group of accounts. This initial test leveraged advertising and personalized content for the initial group of accounts and resulted in $10 million generated in pipeline.

B2B Account-Based Marketing

B2C companies typically focus their marketing efforts on touching a pain point or desire of the end-user, with hopes that the individual will make the decision to buy. B2B works a little differently.

When selling to other businesses, there is rarely one person making a purchasing decision. Depending on the size of the company you’re selling to there may be an entire group of people who all provide input on the final buying decision.

An ABM strategy can be particularly helpful for B2B companies who are looking to build long-term relationships with key accounts. In fact, 76% of B2B marketers who used ABM in 2020 reported an increased ROI compared to other forms of marketing.

LinkedIn Account-Based Marketing

According to the 2021 Not Another State of Marketing Report, over 70% of marketers said their company uses social media to target accounts. LinkedIn can be a beneficial platform for targeting accounts, especially for B2B companies.

LinkedIn has a feature called Company Targeting that allows you to use LinkedIn’s directory of over 13 million company pages for your ABM efforts. With this tool, you can upload a list of companies you’d like to reach, and create ad campaigns that can specifically target individuals at these companies.

Additionally, LinkedIn can help you create a more personalized experience for your target accounts through genuine relationship-building with your buying committee.

Using LinkedIn to find and engage with the right decision makers at the companies you’d like to work with can be a helpful, thoughtful alternative to using third-party data to identify potential contacts.

Here’s how Adobe used LinkedIn to support account-based marketing efforts.

Grow Better With Account-Based Marketing

Account-based marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By working through the tactics we’ve listed above and implementing software — such as HubSpot’s ABM software — for your marketing and sales team to use together, you’ll identify valuable accounts more efficiently, reduce any friction impacting your flywheel, and grow better.

Blogging has always been an effective content marketing strategy. However, sometimes, it can be difficult to put pen to paper – or more accurately, words to the screen.

That’s where blog post templates can come in handy.

In this post, we’ll equip you with a blogging template to use in Google Docs that follows a standard writing formula to capture your audience’s attention.

Why Use Google Docs for Blog Post Templates

The number one reason to use Google Docs for your blog post templates is the collaboration features.

The platform allows you to:

• Share templates.
• Manage editing permissions.
• Request feedback on your content.
• Download and convert into other file formats.
• Back documents up the cloud.

Google Docs also allows you to easily copy documents. This means that once you create your template, anyone on your team can copy it and save it in their own folder.

Beyond the collaboration features, you can also work on your document offline – so if you are working in an area with no Wi-Fi, you can still get your work done.

Another helpful tool is the version history and recovery. Say you start writing one night and take out a whole paragraph. Then, the next day, you reconsider and decide you want to add it back in.

By accessing your version history, you can retrieve that paragraph and either copy it into the new version or restore the old one.

Additionally, if there are multiple users, you can see who made what changes. This makes it easy to know who to reach out to in case you have additional questions.

Google Docs Blog Post Template

A comprehensive, high-quality blog post doesn’t have to be long.

In fact, shorter is often sweeter for your readers who have limited time to devote to reading the massive amounts of content on the web.

But well-written blog posts should include three sections, which you may be familiar with if you close your eyes and think back to elementary school writing classes: the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. Here’s what’s included in each.

Have you ever tried to ___________? If so, you’ll know that it’s difficult because ___________________________. So what do you do?

Many people have found success by using ___________________. But there are a few things you should know before you implement ___________.

This post will tell you what you need to know to make sure ____________________ and successfully ________________.

If you’re looking for a _____________, here are the key things you’ll want to keep in mind:

• Make sure your ____________ lets you _______________. If it doesn’t, you’ll have trouble ___________.
• Ensure your ___________ has a ____________ so you can ____________.
• Any good ______________ should let you _____________. This is important because _________________.

While not necessary, some great bonus features of a great _____________ are __________, ____________, and _______________.

Now that you know ________________, you’re ready to __________________ without worrying _______________.

Download 6 Free Blog Post Templates Now

Introduction

The introduction sets the stage for the problem you’re about to solve.

You’re not providing specific solutions in this section, just why it’s worth resolving. Here, you want to be relatable, getting your readers to nod in agreement.

An introduction like that could apply to any problem, product with a few language tweaks.

Note: While your blog will sometimes promote your own product or service, it shouldn’t exist solely for that reason. First and foremost, the content on your blog should help your readers solve a common problem.

Do you see why that structure works for an introduction? First, it presents a problem (“Have you ever tried to,” and “it’s difficult because”).

Secondly, it sets up what the post will be about (the solution “people have found success.”)

Lastly, it explains why it’s important you know those things (“to ensure,” and “that will let you successfully.”)

Body

The body explains the solutions to the problem you set up in the introduction.

Now that you’ve identified a problem for your reader, they’re ready to hear your proposed solution.

Your body can be written in paragraphs, with bullets, numbered lists, multiple headings, or a mix. Make use of whichever format is easiest for you.

Each section explains what your product (or, again, service with very minor language tweaks) should have to help the reader meet the goals outlined in your introduction. Then, it reiterates why that’s important.

Conclusion

The conclusion wraps up your post with a brief statement that’s reflective of the problem your post solved.

You can also use the conclusion to prompt your readers to engage in further conversation in the comments.

The conclusion should be kept short, however, to ensure readers don’t abandon your blog post before realizing there’s a call-to-action to covert on.

Filling in the Google Docs Blog Post Template

Alright, you’ve seen the template. Let’s fill in the blanks, shall we?

I wrote about social media monitoring tools because it’s something I know about; and as a result, I was able to write this “sample” blog post really quickly.

You’ll experience that, too, when you write about something you know inside and out! You just needed a little push – or a template to get you started.

Free Google Docs Blog Post Templates

Want other templates that can apply to various types of blog posts? We’ve got you covered. This download includes templates for creating:

• A how-to post
• A list-based post
• A what-is post
• A newsjacking post
• An infographic post

Download 6 Free Blog Post Templates Now

Writing a Blog Post Template

The template content I’ve provided here is not intended to be copied and pasted into every blog post you write – that results in duplicate content for which you’ll be seriously punished in the SERPs.

It’s simply meant to show the structure you can follow to write a blog post because there really is a formula to it that makes it easy to write content that’s helpful for readers, and relatively quick and painless for you.

Feel free to swap in synonyms for words and phrases you see in the template, as long as it’s all original language.

It’s also important to note that this blog post gives you a template to help you start writing but there are other components of a successful blog post that you shouldn’t ignore.

I hinted at it above, but what would a blog post be without a call-to-action? It certainly wouldn’t help you drive any leads, that’s for sure. And to generate more click-throughs, you should spend some time crafting an excellent blog title.

You also need to think about optimization – did you include important keywords and internal links to other pages on your website?

Finally, remember that there are other structures for blog content that work, too. We don’t follow the same structure for every blog post we write, and we’ve seen structures other blogs use that work really well for them.

So go forth! Explore. Experiment. Get creative.

The goal isn’t that you follow this rigid template, it’s that you consistently create content that helps your reader. If you’re facing writer’s block, this template should help you out of that rut.