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This week’s Masters in Marketing is near and dear to my heart, if not my taste buds.

As a naturalized Chicagoan, it is my duty and honor to introduce you to one of the city’s most disgusting — and most beloved — substances.

The herbaceous flavor of Jeppson’s Malört (Swedish for “wormwood,” the drink’s only flavoring) was (in)famously described by comedian John Hodgman as “pencil shavings and heartbreak.”

To find out how CH Distillery markets a liqueur that’s only reliably available to 2.7 million people and tastes like burning rubber, I talked to Anna Sokratov, brand manager at Jeppson’s Malört at CH Distillery in Chicago.

Sokratov has the enviable job of getting people excited to drink what has been called “the worst beverage in the world.” In 2023, Sokratov co-created an ad campaign featuring photos of people tasting Malört for the first time, with the tagline, “Do not drink. Responsibly.”

Lest you think any of this is an exaggeration, please know that Malört was legal during Prohibition because it was convincingly sold as a medicine … for stomach worms.

Lesson 1: Build community around shared experiences.

At first sip, Malört does not seem like an exercise in community-building, unless that community is your enemies.

But Sokratov describes a scene familiar to any Chicagoan who’s seen the inside of a bar: One person takes their first shot of Malört (this is not a sipping alcohol, trust), and everybody around them cheers. Soon, everybody wants to try it. Most regret it.

“Whenever you talk about Malört, people always share a crazy story or [give you] the most obscene way to describe the flavor,” she says. “And in a weird way, it creates community.”

Sokratov also points out that most Chicagoans aren’t enjoying a shot of Malört by themselves after a long day at the office. It’s more of a rite of passage, a “way to connect with people through stories of what you think it tastes like.”

“We thrive off of people talking about us and sharing the good and the bad of Malört,” Sokratov says.

Take the recent campaign “I Malörted,” which compares a shot of Malört to voting for a candidate you dislike (not mentioned: that you have to hold your nose for both).

It’s not just a funny ad, it’s supporting local businesses — Malört drinkers can get an “I Voted”-style sticker from more than a hundred bars and liquor stores around Chicago.

Lesson 2: Break the fourth wall.

The first Malört ad I ever saw was in 2022, in season one of the Chicago-set TV show The Bear, of all places. Sokratov says it was one of the first ads they ever ran — for nearly a century prior, Malört relied on word of mouth and Chicagoans pranking out-of-town guests.

Since marketing Malört is such a new phenomenon, Sokratov feels a lot of freedom to be funny, to be outlandish, to be experimental. (In fact, one of the people she looks to for inspiration is previous marketing master Greg Fass of Liquid Death.)

It’s an old saw at this point that authenticity drives consumer loyalty. But less is said about what authenticity looks like. “People are really looking for brands that break that fourth wall,” Sokratov says. “They want to see the people behind the brand.”

Past and present employees appear in a series of ads featuring Malört faces (Google it), which are underscored by the tagline, “Do not enjoy. Responsibly.” Malört may be a lot of things, but it’s neither dishonest nor indirect.

Lesson 3: One size does not fit all.

Sokratov raises an eyebrow at the adage that marketing is about storytelling. Tell stories — plural.

She says that it’s a mistake to think that Malört’s taste means that there’s not a lot of nuance in marketing it. “One size does not fit all when it comes to something like this.”

“It‘s easy to try and fit this brand into one single category of ‘everybody thinks it just tastes bad,’” Sokratov tells me. “But it’s a lot more complex than that.” Though Malört employees have joked about just putting a photo of a toilet on an ad, they’d rather explore the multiplicity of taste experiences.

Part of the fun of trying Malört for the first time is trying to describe the taste. Sokratov has heard “gasoline” and “used Band-Aid,” which do sound like quite disparate flavors, though I’m not willing to confirm.

Redditors have described the taste as “turpentine,” “old tire and bug spray,” and “all your hopes and dreams being snuffed out at once.” In 2018, Chicago Magazine quoted such poetry as “the liquid equivalent of a Chicago winter” and “a punch in the face.”

For the record, I like Malört, but I think it tastes like grapefruit and rubbing alcohol with a violent aftertaste of burnt tire.

If the taste is experienced so differently, “then the story we tell should be different to a lot of other people,” Sokratov says. Throughout its history, Malört has not been shy about using different descriptions of its product, which include such gems as “Malört: Kick your mouth in the balls.”

Not every ad campaign will be a viral success, but “we still learn about the people who drink it.”

Lingering Questions

This edition of Masters in Marketing introduces a feature we’re calling Lingering Questions. The rules of play are simple: Each person we interview gives us a question we’ll ask of the next master of marketing. They don’t know who it will be (and sometimes neither do we).

Since Anna Sokratov of Malört is the first in this series, a fellow Chicagoan and I came up with a question to kick things off:

Malört is one of Chicago’s mascots. What would Malört’s mascot be, and why?

Sokratov: A 31-gallon galvanized steel trash can with a lid. Both are perceived as being unappealing or gross, and the cans last a long time — similar to the long-lasting flavor of Malört.

Sokratov gave us a question that our next master of marketing will answer in next week’s newsletter, and I promise that you will not want to miss their answer: What unconventional marketing approach would you like to take, and how would you go about doing something you haven’t done before?

Subscribe below to see next week’s answer and the next lingering question.

One of the most underrated skills you can have as a marketer is marketing research — which is great news for this unapologetic cyber sleuth.

From brand design and product development to buyer personas and competitive analysis, I’ve researched a number of initiatives in my decade-long marketing career.

And let me tell you: having the right marketing research methods in your toolbox is a must.

Market research is the secret to crafting a strategy that will truly help you accomplish your goals. The good news is there is no shortage of options.

How to Choose a Marketing Research Method

Thanks to the Internet, we have more marketing research (or market research) methods at our fingertips than ever, but they’re not all created equal. Let’s quickly go over how to choose the right one.

1. Identify your objective.

What are you researching? Do you need to understand your audience better? How about your competition? Or maybe you want to know more about your customer’s feelings about a specific product.

Before starting your research, take some time to identify precisely what you’re looking for. This could be a goal you want to reach, a problem you need to solve, or a question you need to answer.

For example, an objective may be as foundational as understanding your ideal customer better to create new buyer personas for your marketing agency (pause for flashbacks to my former life).

Or if you’re an organic sode company, it could be trying to learn what flavors people are craving.

2. Determine what type of data and research you need.

Next, determine what data type will best answer the problems or questions you identified. There are primarily two types: qualitative and quantitative. (Sound familiar, right?)

• Qualitative Data is non-numerical information, like subjective characteristics, opinions, and feelings. It’s pretty open to interpretation and descriptive, but it’s also harder to measure. This type of data can be collected through interviews, observations, and open-ended questions.
• Quantitative Data, on the other hand, is numerical information, such as quantities, sizes, amounts, or percentages. It’s measurable and usually pretty hard to argue with, coming from a reputable source. It can be derived through surveys, experiments, or statistical analysis.

Understanding the differences between qualitative and quantitative data will help you pinpoint which research methods will yield the desired results.

For instance, thinking of our earlier examples, qualitative data would usually be best suited for buyer personas, while quantitative data is more useful for the soda flavors.

However, truth be told, the two really work together.

Qualitative conclusions are usually drawn from quantitative, numerical data. So, you’ll likely need both to get the complete picture of your subject.

For example, if your quantitative data says 70% of people are Team Black and only 30% are Team Green — Shout out to my fellow House of the Dragon fans — your qualitative data will say people support Black more than Green.

(As they should.)

Primary Research vs Secondary Research

You’ll also want to understand the difference between primary and secondary research.

Primary research involves collecting new, original data directly from the source (say, your target market). In other words, it’s information gathered first-hand that wasn’t found elsewhere.

Some examples include conducting experiments, surveys, interviews, observations, or focus groups.

Meanwhile, secondary research is the analysis and interpretation of existing data collected from others. Think of this like what we used to do for school projects: We would read a book, scour the internet, or pull insights from others to work from.

So, which is better?

Personally, I say any research is good research, but if you have the time and resources, primary research is hard to top. With it, you don’t have to worry about your source’s credibility or how relevant it is to your specific objective.

You are in full control and best equipped to get the reliable information you need.

3. Put it all together.

Once you know your objective and what kind of data you want, you’re ready to select your marketing research method.

For instance, let’s say you’re a restaurant trying to see how attendees felt about the Speed Dating event you hosted last week.

You shouldn’t run a field experiment or download a third-party report on speed dating events; those would be useless to you. You need to conduct a survey that allows you to ask pointed questions about the event.

This would yield both qualitative and quantitative data you can use to improve and bring together more love birds next time around.

Best Market Research Methods for 2024

Now that you know what you’re looking for in a marketing research method, let’s dive into the best options.

Note: According to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing report, understanding customers and their needs is one of the biggest challenges facing marketers today. The options we discuss are great consumer research methodologies, but they can also be used for other areas.

Primary Research

1. Interviews

Interviews are a form of primary research where you ask people specific questions about a topic or theme. They typically deliver qualitative information.

I’ve conducted many interviews for marketing purposes, but I’ve also done many for journalistic purposes, like this profile on comedian Zarna Garg. There’s no better way to gather candid, open-ended insights in my book, but that doesn’t mean they’re a cure-all.

What I like: Real-time conversations allow you to ask different questions if you’re not getting the information you need. They also push interviewees to respond quickly, which can result in more authentic answers.

What I dislike: They can be time-consuming and harder to measure (read: get quantitative data) unless you ask pointed yes or no questions.

Best for: Creating buyer personas or getting feedback on customer experience, a product, or content.

2. Focus Groups

Focus groups are similar to conducting interviews but on a larger scale.

In marketing and business, this typically means getting a small group together in a room (or Zoom), asking them questions about various topics you are researching. You record and/or observe their responses to then take action.

They are ideal for collecting long-form, open-ended feedback, and subjective opinions.

One well-known focus group you may remember was run by Domino’s Pizza in 2009.

After poor ratings and dropping over $100 million in revenue, the brand conducted focus groups with real customers to learn where they could have done better.

It was met with comments like “worst excuse for pizza I’ve ever had” and “the crust tastes like cardboard.” But rather than running from the tough love, it took the hit and completely overhauled its recipes.

The team admitted their missteps and returned to the market with better food and a campaign detailing their “Pizza Turn Around.”

The result? The brand won a ton of praise for its willingness to take feedback, efforts to do right by its consumers, and clever campaign. But, most importantly, revenue for Domino’s rose by 14.3% over the previous year.

The brand continues to conduct focus groups and share real footage from them in its promotion:

What I like: Similar to interviewing, you can dig deeper and pivot as needed due to the real-time nature. They’re personal and detailed.

What I dislike: Once again, they can be time-consuming and make it difficult to get quantitative data. There is also a chance some participants may overshadow others.

Best for: Product research or development

Pro tip: Need help planning your focus group? Our free Market Research Kit includes a handy template to start organizing your thoughts in addition to a SWOT Analysis Template, Survey Template, Focus Group Template, Presentation Template, Five Forces Industry Analysis Template, and an instructional guide for all of them. Download yours here now.

3. Surveys or Polls

Surveys are a form of primary research where individuals are asked a collection of questions. It can take many different forms.

They could be in person, over the phone or video call, by email, via an online form, or even on social media. Questions can be also open-ended or closed to deliver qualitative or quantitative information.

A great example of a close-ended survey is HubSpot’s annual State of Marketing.

In the State of Marketing, HubSpot asks marketing professionals from around the world a series of multiple-choice questions to gather data on the state of the marketing industry and to identify trends.

The survey covers various topics related to marketing strategies, tactics, tools, and challenges that marketers face. It aims to provide benchmarks to help you make informed decisions about your marketing.

It also helps us understand where our customers’ heads are so we can better evolve our products to meet their needs.

Apple is no stranger to surveys, either.

In 2011, the tech giant launched Apple Customer Pulse, which it described as “an online community of Apple product users who provide input on a variety of subjects and issues concerning Apple.”

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Apple invited a select group of individuals to participate. It reportedly shared two monthly surveys that included open-ended questions about customers’ experiences. Then, Apple used the feedback to iterate on its products.

But you don’t have to be HubSpot or Apple to run a successful survey. Tools like SurveyMonkey, TypeForm, and Google Forms (my usual go-to) make creating digital surveys easy and affordable.

You can also run smaller-scale surveys in your Instagram Stories via the Poll and Questions Stickers.

What I like: They are fairly easy to create and distribute, and can gather both quantitative and qualitative data.

What I dislike: It can be challenging to garner participation as it puts most of the work on the participant.

Best for: Evaluating experiences with a product or service

Pro tip: To boost survey participation, consider offering an incentive or gift. Many loyal customers and fans will want to participate. However, offering something small in exchange for the time and thought will undoubtedly win over others.

Independent makeup brand LiveTinted did a commendable job with this recently. They offered all survey responders 10 reward points in their loyalty program and a chance to win one of three $100 gift certificates.

You may also want to consider using running a “tracker.”

HubSpot Senior Product Marketing Manager Max Iskiev shares, “A tracker is a survey you run repeatedly over a certain time period. For example, we run the Consumer Trend Tracker twice a year, which captures data on the latest trends. I love being able to see key trends change over time and analyze them to make predictions about the future.”

4. Social Media Listening

In between the sea of travel photos, food, and current events chatter, people are talking about your brand. They may be journalists, competitors, or customers, happy and disgruntled — you just don’t always know it.

According to Mention, 31% of company mentions on X (formerly Twitter) don’t include a handle or tag. But social media listening can help you stay in the loop there and on other platforms.

In a nutshell, social media listening is the process of monitoring and analyzing social posts that mention:

• Relevant topics of interest (like your industry or type of product)
• Your brand name, tagline, or product name
• Your competitors
• Your branded hashtags

This gives you insight into conversations you may have never noticed otherwise.

You can see what the public thinks about your product or business, how they feel about their experiences with them, and get an overall pulse on your competitive landscape.

But how do you get started with social listening?

Many platforms have built-in tools like the ability to “follow” hashtags on Instagram or LinkedIn. But Swetha Amaresan, ​​a Sr. Marketing Coordinator at Paramount, shares a more all-encompassing approach in this article: What Is Social Media Listening & Why Is It Important? [+Expert Tips].

HubSpot Academy also offers a free social media monitoring and listening course you can check out.

What I like: Social listening is a pretty low-maintenance form of market research. Of course, you need to dedicate time to reviewing and analyzing any activity, but it should be a fairly quick, routine task if you’re doing your due diligence.

What I dislike: There’s no guarantee of valuable insights here. It’s more of a “just in case.”

Best for: General market and competitive analysis

Pro tip: If you’re a Marketing Hub Professional or Enterprise User, use HubSpot Social Inbox. It’s our native social listening tool that allows you to create streams dedicated to your different channels and hashtags.

5. Observation

You can learn a lot when you just sit back and pay attention. That’s where the power observation lies.

Observational market research is a form of primary research where you monitor subjects in a natural or controlled environment and take note of their behaviors. But here’s what makes it special — there are both digital and real life approaches.

A real-life example of observational research is “secret shopping.” This is where people are hired to shop at particular retailers so they can evaluate their staff and customer service. Secret shopping can be done totally organically, or with controlled scenarios the teams must be put in (i.e., completing a return).

Digital observation can look like user testing of your website (controlled) or the review of website heatmap data (natural). And it’s much more common these days.

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What I like: Conditions of the experiment typically allow subjects to act as naturally as possible, so results are pure and valuable. There are also both in-person and online alternatives.

What I dislike: This is another method that can be very time-consuming. Also, if your subjects know they are being observed, they could alter their behavior.

Best for: Evaluating and optimizing performance for a website or in-person service

Pro tip: UserTesting, HotJar, and LuckyOrange are three tools I’ve used in the past to learn about my clients website performance. They are all extremely helpful digital observation options that also offer quantitative data.

6. Internal Data Analysis

Analyzing internal data is one of the most effective ways to conduct market research because it’s not hypothetical.

This form of primary research is based on insights from your real life customers, and past performance and can be qualitative or quantitative.

What kind of data should you be analyzing, though? That will depend on the objective at hand, but some common areas include:

• Sales Numbers
• Website Statistics (i.e., page views, conversion rates, clicks)
• Customer Lifetime Value
• Product Ratings/Reviews
• Product Specific Statistics (i.e., usage rates)

Netflix is extremely vocal about its use of this marketing research method, publishing public reports like “What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report.”

They regularly look at data like this to personalize and curate content on the platform, improve its service, and even develop new original content.

Gathering data isn’t easy, but start where you can. Tools like Google Analytics are easy to set up and great for tracking website traffic performance, while Hotjar and LuckyOrange can capture and analyze user behavior.

HubSpot users can take advantage of our platform’s free marketing analytics and reporting. The tools unite all of these elements we mentioned as well as the performance of ads, social media engagement, and email. This gives you the most complete picture of your state.

What I like: This method is less time-consuming than others. It must be completed on a consistent schedule, but doesn’t require regular action. It can also produce qualitative or quantitative data.

What I dislike: You need a healthy sample size to draw accurate results.

Best for: Conversion rate optimization and website optimization

7. Experiments and Field Trials

Field trials, similar to observation, occur in the subject’s natural environment. But like traditional experiments, they are controlled. In other words, you have a specific hypothesis you’re testing (your variable), and everything else is the same.

Sometimes, experiments and field trials can uncover preferences that individuals aren’t consciously aware of.

As my HubSpot teammate Pamela Bump explains, “ Sure, you can look at the data that already exists or survey your persona for baselines…But you won’t truly know how they’ll act until you test them in the moment on your own platform or channel.”

“For example, we did a large voluntary survey of email subscribers and top readers a few years back.”

While these readers gave us a long list of topics, formats, or content types they wanted to see, they sometimes engaged more with content types they didn’t select or favor as much on the surveys when we ran follow-up ‘in the wild’ tests, like A/B testing.” 

Pepsi saw similar results when it ran its iconic field experiment, “The Pepsi Challenge” for the first time in 1975.

The beverage brand set up tables at malls, beaches, and other public locations and ran a blindfolded taste test. Shoppers were given two cups of soda, one containing Pepsi, the other Coca-Cola (Pepsi’s biggest competitor). They were then asked to taste both and report which they preferred.

People overwhelmingly preferred Pepsi, and the brand has repeated the experiment multiple times over the years to the same results.

What I like: It yields qualitative and quantitative data and can make for engaging marketing content, especially in the digital age.

What I dislike: It can be very time-consuming. And, if you’re not careful, there is a high risk for scientific error.

Best for: Product testing and competitive analysis

Pro tip: “Don’t make critical business decisions off of just one data set,” advises Pamela Bump. “Use the survey, competitive intelligence, external data, or even a focus group to give you one layer of ideas or a short-list for improvements or solutions to test. Then gather your own fresh data to test in an experiment or trial and better refine your data-backed strategy.”

Secondary Research

8. Public Domain or Third-Party Research

While original data is always a plus, there are plenty of external resources you can access online and even at a library when you’re limited on time or resources.

Some reputable resources you can use include:

• Pew Research Center
• McKinley Global Institute
• Nielsen
• Forrester
• Relevant Global or Government Organizations (i.e United Nations or NASA)

It’s also smart to turn to reputable organizations that are specific to your industry or field. For instance, if you’re a gardening or landscaping company, you may want to pull statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

If you’re a digital marketing agency, you could look to Google Research or HubSpot Research. (Hey, I know them!)

What I like: You can save time on gathering data and spend more time on analyzing. You can also rest assured the data is from a source you trust.

What I dislike: You may not find data specific to your needs.

Best for: Companies under a time or resource crunch, adding factual support to content

Pro tip: Fellow HubSpotter Iskiev suggests using third-party data to inspire your original research. “Sometimes, I use public third-party data for ideas and inspiration. Once I have written my survey and gotten all my ideas out, I read similar reports from other sources and usually end up with useful additions for my own research.”

9. Buy Research

If the data you need isn’t available publicly and you can’t do your own market research, you can also buy some. There are many reputable analytics companies that offer subscriptions to access their data. Statista is one of my favorites, but there’s also Euromonitor, Mintel, and BCC Research.

What I like: Same as public domain research

What I dislike: You may not find data specific to your needs. It also adds to your expenses.

Best for: Companies under a time or resource crunch or adding factual support to content

Which marketing research method should you use?

You’re not going to like my answer, but “it depends.” The best marketing research method for you will depend on your objective and data needs, but also your budget and timeline.

My advice? Aim for a mix of quantitative and qualitative data. If you can do your own original research, awesome. But if not, don’t beat yourself up. Lean into free or low-cost tools. You could do primary research for qualitative data, then tap public sources for quantitative data. Or perhaps the reverse is best for you.

Whatever your marketing research method mix, take the time to think it through and ensure you’re left with information that will truly help you achieve your goals.

When I first considered different AI SEO tools to try, I was overwhelmed by the options available.

A weekend of testing revealed that popular tools weren’t always the best fit for my SEO workflows and processes. I learned that there is no one-size-fits-all solution when you’re looking for the ideal AI SEO tool.

The right choice depends on your unique objectives, processes, and budget.

This guide will help you make an informed decision by exploring AI in SEO and how to use these tools effectively.

I’ll uncover the essential features to look for in each tool you consider and share valuable insights gained from testing top solutions.

Whether you’re a freelancer, in-house marketer, or consultant, this guide will help you identify the AI SEO tools that align with your goals.

Table of Contents

• How Marketers Use AI
• What Is AI SEO?
• How to Use AI for SEO
• How I Tested the Top AI-Powered Tools for SEO
• AI SEO Tools: Top Features in 2024
• 17 Best AI SEO Tools
• Free AI SEO Tools

How Marketers Use AI

As a content marketer, I use AI tools to help with a range of tasks, from research and brainstorming to project management and analytics.

Digital marketers also use AI to support content creation, most commonly writing copy for social posts, blogs, and websites.

A huge caveat is that AI-generated content usually isn’t ready to publish right away. It’s best to put AI drafts through human review to ensure accuracy and quality.

In short, instead of marketing coming down to AI vs. humans, the two should work together.

AI in SEO involves using advanced algorithms, including machine learning and natural language processing, to process and analyze large volumes of data.

This allows SEO professionals to optimize their SEO strategies and automate specific tasks.

The impact of AI on SEO is significant — with 84% of bloggers and SEO specialists reporting that AI and automation influenced their SEO strategy in 2023.

AI doesn’t just replace human effort but enhances it through intelligent automation. This unveils insights and optimization opportunities that would be challenging for SEO professionals to identify manually.

According to our recent State of AI report, data shows that marketers who use AI save an average of 12.5 hours per week, which equates to 25-26 additional working days per year. Here are some effective ways to use AI for SEO.

Building a Smarter Content Strategy

AI’s data processing capabilities can help you develop a smarter content strategy that prioritizes and aligns with your target audience’s needs.

For instance, use an AI-powered toolkit to analyze survey data, customer reviews, interviews, and sales call records to uncover valuable insights for your messaging.

These insights will help you identify high-value keywords and topic clusters to target. Additionally, you can uncover gaps, opportunities, and trends.

From there, you can map out a focused content calendar that targets high-opportunity terms and create content formats that resonate with your audience.

Automating Repetitive Tasks

While you should focus on implementing your SEO strategy, use AI to automate repetitive tasks that are challenging to manage at scale, such as:

• Site crawls and technical audits across millions of URLs.
• Continuous rank tracking across devices and locations.
• Backlink monitoring and opportunity identification.

For example, an AI content optimization tool can suggest improvements, but changes must always be reviewed and approved manually.

Before publishing your content, use an AI SEO tool to suggest and automatically create internal links within your website.

This can improve ‌site structure and user experience and help distribute link equity more effectively.

How I Tested the Top AI-Powered Tools for SEO

As an SEO professional, I was eager to see how the latest AI SEO tools could help me improve my SEO workflows and drive better results.

However, I know not all AI SEO tools are created equal. Throughout my testing process, I used the following criteria:

• True AI and machine learning capabilities: When choosing tools to include in this list, I prioritized those that use advanced technologies like natural language processing and neural networks over simplistic rules-based systems or rebranded legacy software.
• Intelligent optimization, not full automation: Despite AI’s potential for automating specific SEO tasks, I looked for tools that complimented my effort and strategic decision-making. The most beneficial AI SEO tools helped improve my expertise by providing intelligent automation and data-driven recommendations instead of dictating my entire process.
• Specialization for SEO use Ccses: Since SEO is an intricate, multidisciplinary practice, I expanded my testing to include platforms purpose-built for core SEO needs like keyword research, content optimization, technical audits, and rank tracking, in addition to AI writing tools and content assistants.
• Seamless integration: Any AI SEO tool must integrate with CMS tools, analytics stacks, and other essential marketing technologies you’re using. I prioritized solutions with robust integration capabilities through APIs, native connectors, or third-party partnerships. Ease of setup and installation was also a key factor.

AI SEO Tools: Top Features in 2024

While your specific needs and preferences will determine the AI SEO tool you pick, there are essential features that every dependable AI SEO tool should have.

To help you select the most effective solution, consider these features and capabilities:

A Robust AI Core

Look for tools that incorporate advanced natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning algorithms.

As you do this, don‘t just take the vendor’s word for it. Dig into ‌ documentation, examine case studies, and seek out user feedback on platforms like G2 and TrustRadius.

A robust AI core will have a track record of success and continuous improvement.

Tailored for SEO-Specialized Features

The tool you choose should cover crucial aspects of SEO, from conducting in-depth keyword research to optimizing on-page content, from performing technical site audits to tracking rankings in real time.

It should also provide insights into your competitors‘ strategies, giving you a comprehensive view of your SEO landscape.

These specialized features ensure that you’re getting generic AI assistance and targeted support for your SEO efforts.

Seamless integration

No tool exists in isolation. The most effective AI SEO tools offer seamless integration capabilities through APIs and connectors, allowing them to work well with your existing tech stack.

The integration process should also be straightforward and cause minimal disruption to your workflow.

Look for tools that have established partnerships with leading platforms, which often indicates better integration possibilities.

Responsive Support and Active Development

Even the most advanced AI SEO tools can’t replace good old-fashioned customer support. Seek out vendors known for their reliability and commitment to product development.

They should offer quick, accessible technical assistance through multiple channels.

Scalable Performance and Pricing

Finally, consider the tool’s ability to handle increasing amounts of data and usage without compromising speed or accuracy.

Your AI SEO tool’s pricing should be flexible, offering options that fit various budgets and needs.

Remember, the most expensive option isn’t always the best, so look for a balance between cost-effectiveness and reliable performance.

By considering these factors, you can identify an AI SEO tool that meets your current needs and can evolve alongside your business, providing long-term value in your SEO efforts. Let’s look at the 17 best AI SEO tools.

I have included both free and paid tools to help with all parts of the SEO process, including strategy planning, content optimization, and technical SEO.

17 Best AI SEO Tools

1. HubSpot AI Tools

Price: Create a bundle to get a quote.

I use HubSpot’s suite of AI tools to work more efficiently, develop my SEO strategy, and create optimized content that ranks higher in SERPs.

What I love about these tools is that they are designed to allow for easy transitions between manual and AI-assisted creation, giving me the best of both worlds.

The most impressive thing about HubSpot’s AI-driven content generation tools is that they’re adept at generating copy for a wide range of needs, from blog posts to landing pages to marketing emails and beyond.

Here’s how I use HubSpot in my day to day:

• I scan my website using the SEO suggestions tool to identify optimization opportunities automatically. This tool ranks recommendations by priority, so it’s easy to see which actionable insights will be the most impactful.
• I leverage the AI content writer, which helps me brainstorm topics and fill out my editorial calendar. It’s also useful for drafting email copy and pitching guest posts to chase high-quality backlinks.
• Once I have ideas, I turn to the AI blog writer to transform them into comprehensive, engaging blog posts. All I have to do is feed the tool an outline or a set of bullet points, and it creates well-structured content that follows SEO best practices. From there, I can review each post and add the final touches — this tool is invaluable for maintaining a consistent blog output without sacrificing quality.
• The AI paragraph rewriter is my go-to tool for updating existing content and maximizing its reach, effectiveness, and longevity. It rephrases and revitalizes the copy, ensuring my posts remain relevant, engaging, and SEO-friendly.

What I like: HubSpot’s AI-powered tools are designed to complement your creative process, offering the flexibility to toggle between manual and AI-assisted content creation. It facilitates enough efficiency to produce high-quality content at scale.

Bonus: HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator uses AI and Semrush keyword data to craft optimized blog post titles, outlines, and content.

2. AlliAI

Price: Starts at $299 per month.

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AlliAI helps you easily optimize your website experience for SERPs. One feature I particularly enjoy is its bulk on-page optimization; I use it to set up SEO rules for my entire website. The program also handles code changes on individual pages.

I’ve also used AlliAI’s automated SEO A/B testing, which uses user behavior data to optimize search page titles and boost organic traffic.

What I like: This AI SEO tool works with all CMS platforms and doesn’t require coding experience, which makes it an excellent choice for anyone new to the technical side of SEO.

3. RankIQ

Price: $99 per month.

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RankIQ is an SEO toolset that I recommend to fellow SEO professionals who focus heavily on blogging for marketing.

The platform includes several features that make it easier to create SEO blog posts, including the SEO content brief creator, which I use to identify relevant keywords and generate a blog outline in minutes.

I also like using the content-optimizing writing assistant to see which supporting keywords I can add to my posts so they’re more likely to rank at the top of SERPs.

If you want to refresh older or underperforming posts, RankIQ’s tools can help you do that in less than 30 minutes.

What I like: RankIQ has an extensive keyword library of low-competition, high-traffic search terms that make it easy to find high-ROI opportunities.

4. INK

Price: Starts at $39 per month.

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INK is an AI writing tool designed to enhance your content’s search engine performance.

It analyzes top-ranked content to help you create outperformant posts. As an SEO assistant, INK identifies keywords to improve your content’s visibility, making it particularly useful for optimizing posts targeting high-competition keywords.

Beyond content generation, INK offers versatile features, including keyword research and clustering.

The keyword clustering feature allows you to input a list of keywords or import data from popular SEO tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Google Keyword Planner.

INK then analyzes these keywords, strategically grouping related terms and building topical clusters for improved SEO results. This level of granular keyword optimization sets INK apart from many other platforms.

What I like: Ink AI offers keyword clustering features, which aren’t offered on many other platforms.

5. Jasper

Price: Starts at $49 per month (per user).

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Jasper is an AI writing assistant that transforms a single brief into a comprehensive set of marketing assets, including SEO blog posts, emails, and social media copy.

Its standout feature is the intuitive campaign dashboard, which significantly simplifies team collaboration by providing a centralized hub for all marketing initiatives.

Jasper truly excels in AI-powered content creation. The tool consistently generates high-quality, engaging, relevant suggestions, proving invaluable when struggling with writer’s block.

Jasper ensures consistent branding by maintaining a brand’s unique voice and tone across various content types. It allows users to customize their tone and ensures consistent branding regardless of which team member uses the tool.

This unified, on-brand messaging is crucial for building strong recognition and loyalty with your audience.

What I like: Jasper allows for tone-of-voice customization that helps keep your brand consistent across content.

6. Paraphrasingtool.ai (All-In-One Bundle)

Price: $20 per month.

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Paraphrasingtool.ai is a writing assistant I use to paraphrase content while ensuring it’s grammatically correct, human-written, and highly clear.

The AI tool also includes detailed definitions of the words used in paraphrasing, which makes it useful for speeding up research on topics that require more technical knowledge.

What I like: You can paraphrase recorded audio, which is helpful for video-based research and repurposing content like webinars and interviews.

7. NeuronWriter

Price: Starts at $23 per month.

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NeuronWriter is a comprehensive tool that combines AI content creation, internal linking, and competitor analysis.

It leverages natural language processing (NLP), Google SERP data, and competitor insights to help create high-ranking blog posts tailored to search intent.

The tool’s strength lies in its AI content generation, powered by NLP and analysis of top-ranking Google pages.

By understanding true search intent, NeuronWriter provides highly relevant and engaging content suggestions, ensuring the produced content meets both ranking and engagement criteria.

NeuronWriter is more than just an AI writing tool. It offers critical SEO analysis, providing insights into on-page optimization opportunities and competitive gaps.

The integrated competitor research feature reveals tangible data on successful strategies within your niche, helping your posts outperform the competition.

What I like: NeuronWriter simplifies content management by combining SEO features with an editorial calendar.

8. OutRanking (SEO Writer Plan)

Price: $79 per month.

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OutRanking is an AI-powered SEO software that enhances your entire SEO content strategy. It goes beyond improving individual pieces of content by providing in-depth keyword research tools that focus on building topical authority.

A standout feature of OutRanking is its ability to transform keyword research into a comprehensive content calendar prioritized around your SEO goals.

This functionality simplifies the process of systematically establishing topical authority, turning what would typically be a daunting, labor-intensive task into a streamlined workflow.

This calendar feature is a game-changer for those struggling with developing a cohesive content roadmap.

While OutRanking offers a starter plan, it’s limited to five SEO documents. The SEO Writer Plan is recommended for more robust capabilities.

This plan includes 15 documents, automated optimization, and internal linking features, providing a more comprehensive toolkit for SEO content creation and strategy.

What I like: OutRanking helps you create a prioritized content calendar tailored to your SEO goals. It builds topical authority, an otherwise daunting task.

9. Surfer SEO (Scale AI Plan)

Price: $219 per month.

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Surfer SEO is a comprehensive AI-powered tool that accelerates content creation while optimizing for search engine rankings.

Its standout feature is the ability to generate high-quality content briefs and outlines tailored for top search performance.

By analyzing top-performing content, Surfer identifies crucial elements such as topics, word count, and semantically related terms needed to outrank competitors.

This data-driven approach provides a solid strategic foundation for content creation.

Surfer’s AI capabilities extend to full content generation in ten languages, a valuable feature for managing multi-lingual content demands and streamlining global content workflows.

The tool employs a two-step process: first, it generates an outline for review, then proceeds to a full draft. This approach allows for quality control and course correction before investing significant effort.

Surfer AI can automatically determine the best tone of voice for each article based on SERP analysis or match your brand’s unique tone.

Additionally, the tool provides automated optimization and the ability to scan SERPs to find the optimal tone of voice for each article.

What I like: SurferSEO generates an outline first, which you can review and change before it creates a full blog post.

10. Scalenut

Price: Starts at $39 per month.

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Scalenut offers a comprehensive suite of SEO marketing tools, including a keyword planner, SERP analyzer, article writer, and content optimizer.

This feature-rich software leverages AI to analyze potential keywords’ search volume and relevance.

A standout feature is the article writer tool, which uses real-time SERP data to generate thorough content outlines and briefs tailored for maximum visibility and rankings.

Simply inputting a focus keyword provides a solid framework for creating SEO-optimized content from scratch.

The built-in editor enhances this process by providing real-time feedback and recommendations as you write, ensuring your content meets all necessary SEO criteria.

Scalenut’s keyword research capabilities are equally impressive. The tool surfaces high-value, relevant keywords and metrics like search volumes and competition levels.

This data-driven approach helps you identify areas to focus on and create content topics that build genuine topical authority.

The combination of the article writer‘s SERP-based outlines and the post editor’s real-time optimization feedback provides an efficient workflow for increasing the visibility of your content.

This integrated approach makes Scalenut a powerful tool for comprehensive SEO content strategy and execution.

What I like: Scalenut’s customer support is exceptionally fast and friendly. The company often releases new features to keep up with the latest AI SEO trends.

11. Pictory

Price: Starts at $29 per month.

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Pictory is an AI video generator that creates high-quality videos in a matter of minutes. All you have to do is upload a video script to the platform.

Pictory uses it as the foundation for the video’s content. You can make final tweaks before saving or publishing it.

I increase website dwell time and engagement on blogs and socials by adding videos that complement my written content.

Honestly, I don’t have much experience creating videos manually, so I use Pictory’s AI tools as an efficient shortcut.

Pictory is handy when repurposing webinars, podcasts, and even Zoom meetings.

What I like: Pictory is remarkably user-friendly, and its short learning curve makes for a faster ROI.

12. NitroPack

Price: Starts at $21 per month.

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A slow, unoptimized website can significantly harm your search rankings and user engagement.

NitroPack, an AI-driven SEO tool, addresses this issue by streamlining website performance optimization, making it a game-changer for SEO professionals, especially those more versed in content creation than coding.

NitroPack automatically handles crucial technical tasks such as compressing and resizing images, caching, and optimizing for code.

These features work together to ensure pages load quickly across all devices, improving search rankings and user experience.

One of NitroPack’s standout qualities is its seamless integration with existing web hosting platforms and content management tools.

The installation process is straightforward, with clear documentation that allows users to optimize their website’s performance.

By automating these technical SEO tasks, NitroPack enables content creators to focus on their core competencies while achieving superior website performance.

What I like: This AI SEO tool offers a test mode to try out new features without affecting your website’s user experience.

13. NeuralText

Price: Starts at $19 per month.

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NeuralText is a comprehensive SEO and content tool for keyword research, AI copywriting, and content optimization. It uses data from top-ranked pages on SERPs to generate high-quality, well-researched content.

I like that the AI copywriting features include over 50 content templates spanning blog posts, social media ads, and brand slogan ideas.

I also use NeuralText’s content optimization editor to improve both new and existing blog posts based on its tailored recommendations.

What I like: The keyword research tool makes it easy to identify long-tail keywords and uncover search intent.

14. MarketMuse

Price: Starts at $149 per month

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MarketMuse is an AI-powered content intelligence platform designed to optimize content creation and improve SEO performance.

At its core, MarketMuse employs advanced topic modeling, using AI to analyze large datasets and identify relevant topics, subtopics, and related terms.

This ensures comprehensive content coverage and helps creators address user intent more effectively.

The platform excels in content evaluation, assessing existing material to identify gaps, redundancies, and opportunities for improvement. This feature is particularly valuable for content audits and strategic planning.

MarketMuse also generates detailed briefs with key topics, questions, and keywords, guiding writers to structure content that aligns with user intent and SEO best practices.

Real-time feedback is another standout feature of MarketMuse. As you create content, the platform provides instant suggestions to improve structure, readability, and keyword usage, enhancing overall SEO performance.

Additionally, MarketMuse conducts thorough SERP analysis, examining search engine results pages to understand high-performing content for specific queries.

This allows users to benchmark their content against competitors and create more competitive material.

What I like: By combining AI and machine learning, MarketMuse delivers a comprehensive suite of tools for content research, creation, optimization, and performance tracking. This all-in-one approach makes it an invaluable resource for content marketers and SEO professionals, streamlining the content creation process while ensuring SEO effectiveness.

15. Content Harmony

Price: starts at $99 per month

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Using AI, Content Harmony analyzes search trends, user intent, and competitive landscapes to create comprehensive briefs.

These briefs include target keywords, related topics, questions to address, and insights from top-performing content in the same niche.

This initial step ensures that you have a solid foundation from which to work by including key SEO elements from the outset.

Content Harmony’s AI also conducts thorough competitive analysis. It examines top-performing pages in search engine results for targeted keywords, providing users with insights into what type of content ranks well.

Furthermore, it performs content gap analysis, identifying areas where a user’s content may be lacking compared to competitors.

This feature enables content creators to fill these gaps and potentially outperform their competition strategically.

What I like: Beyond individual content pieces, Content Harmony ‌also includes workflow management tools, supporting content teams from ideation to publication with features for task assignment, progress tracking, and collaboration.

16. Link Whisper

Price: starts at $77 per month

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Link Whisper is a powerful WordPress plugin designed to simplify and enhance website internal linking.

This tool is particularly beneficial for content-heavy blogs and sites with extensive archives, as it helps maintain a robust internal linking structure, which is crucial for SEO and user navigation.

The tool significantly reduces the time required for internal linking, transforming what used to be a time-consuming task into a quick, efficient process.

The setup process for Link Whisper is straightforward and user-friendly. Once activated, it integrates seamlessly into the WordPress dashboard, offering a clean and intuitive interface. This ease of integration makes it accessible even for those who may not be highly technical.

Link Whisper excels at providing intelligent internal linking suggestions. When editing a post, a dedicated “Link Whisper” section displays contextually appropriate internal links based on a thorough scan of the entire site.

This feature ensures that relevant content is interconnected, enhancing the site’s SEO and helping users discover related articles.

The plugin’s AI-driven suggestions are generally accurate, identifying the best places to add internal links. While most recommendations are spot-on, users may occasionally encounter less relevant suggestions, which can be easily adjusted.

What I like: One of LinkWhisper’s standout features is its bulk-adding capability. This feature is handy for updating older content, allowing users to add multiple internal links across various posts in a fraction of the time it normally takes.

17. Frase

Price: Starts at $15 per month

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Frase is a comprehensive AI-powered content creation and optimization tool designed to streamline your content creation process.

It is particularly valuable for content marketers, SEO professionals, and writers who aim to efficiently produce high-quality, SEO-friendly content.

Frase offers a wide range of powerful features to enhance content quality and SEO performance.

Its AI-driven content research capabilities allow you to quickly gather information on any topic and summarize key points from top-ranking pages.

Frase assists writers in crafting comprehensive and competitive content.

Additionally, it provides content optimization tools that analyze your drafts against top-ranking content. This analysis provides actionable suggestions for improving SEO elements like keywords, headers, and readability.

A standout feature of Frase is its ability to generate detailed content briefs. These briefs include outlines, keyword suggestions, and competitive analysis, helping writers structure their content effectively.

This feature ensures that content is well-planned and aligned with SEO best practices.

What I like: Frase’s answer engine helps users identify and address common questions about their topic. By integrating this feature, content creators can enhance the relevance and value of their articles, improving user engagement and satisfaction.

Free AI SEO Tools

If you want to get started without breaking the bank, check out my favorite free AI SEO tools. They’ll still save you time and boost SERP rankings.

Note: all of these tools have premium paid versions — but still offer some helpful features at the free level.

ChatGPT

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ChatGPT is one of the most popular AI-powered chatbots, partly because it has many uses, including some SEO tasks.

While I don’t recommend ChatGPT for long-form content generation, I do use it as a quick escape from writer’s block. Specifically, it’s helpful for ideation, keyword brainstorming, and quickly generating ideas for titles and meta descriptions.

It’s worth noting that with generative AI, the output quality depends on the input quality. To up your ChatGPT prowess, browse our 70 AI prompts for marketers.

What I like: You can save conversations by topic or project, which keeps ideas organized.

Perplexity AI

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Perplexity is one of my favorite research tools because you can upload PDF files to receive a summary of key insights. The free version allows you to upload three files daily, and you can ask multiple questions related to the files you upload.

What I like: The focus feature lets you specify which types of sources you want the tool to use when generating an answer.

QuillBot AI

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When you need a quick paraphrasing tool, use QuillBot — it lets you paraphrase up to 125 words at a time for free. The free plan also provides basic summaries and text generation with a limit of 50 AI prompts per day.

It’s a handy little refining tool I like to use when I have writer’s block or when I want to summarize an article for a social post or email marketing copy.

What I like: It offers a Chrome extension, so you don’t need to switch back and forth between tabs.

Level Up Your Marketing With AI SEO Tools

While testing the tools in the list above, I was surprised by the sheer range of capabilities AI SEO tools now offer, from AI writing assistance to comprehensive content optimization.

My favorite tool among those I tested was HubSpot’s AI Tools. I was impressed by its seamless integration of AI across various SEO functions, from content creation to optimization.

I found its ability to toggle between manual and AI-assisted creation particularly valuable, as it allowed me to maintain my creative input while benefiting from AI’s efficiency.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how some tools, like LinkWhisper, addressed specific SEO challenges I‘ve long struggled with, such as efficient internal linking.

The time savings these tools offer are substantial—a factor I hadn’t fully appreciated before this deep dive.

Ultimately, I‘ve learned that while AI SEO tools are powerful, they’re most effective when used to complement your own expertise rather than replace it.

The key is finding the right balance between using AI’s capabilities and applying your own strategic thinking and creativity.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in May 2023 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

 

Welcome to Creator Columns, where we bring expert HubSpot Creator voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.

I started my marketing career as a junior community marketer. I should have been pretty prepared for the job. I’d spent £50,000 on my marketing degree and four years studying.

Yet, just a few hours into my first day, I realized I wasn’t well-prepared. I was woefully inept.

Right after lunch, my manager asked me to create one-pagers, blogs, email subject lines, and case studies. “This,” he described, “is marketing bread and butter.” And yet, I had no idea where to start.

My degree claimed I could ‘do marketing,’ but I had no clue how to write persuasively, convince customers, or use words to catch the eye.

Yet, all of these new tasks involved persuasive copywriting, something I knew nothing about.

Fortunately, I quickly discovered behavioral science. I learned how psychology could reveal the secret to persuasive copywriting. Later, I interviewed experts like Richard Shotton, Rory Sutherland, and Jonah Berger, quizzing them on how they write better copy.

Over a decade, I’ve discovered dozens of copywriting tips that work. A treasure trove of tactics that I wish I’d known all those years ago. So, just in case you’re in the same position as me, here are the eight copywriting tips I wish I’d known when I started in marketing.

Copywriting Insights I Wish I Had From Day One

1. Write Concrete Copy

In his book (2023), Richard Shotton shared arguably the most important copywriting study.

In 2021, Richard and his colleagues Mike Treharne and Leo Burnett showed participants vague phrases and concrete phrases and asked them to remember both.

Concrete phrases, like “fast car,” were recalled with 6.7% accuracy, while abstract phrases like “innovative quality” were forgotten, with only 0.7% recalled.

There’s a concrete takeaway here. Don’t use vague or abstract terms in your copywriting. Instead, use concrete phrases that readers can visualize.

This copywriting tactic will not only help with memorability but also boost sales. A 2022 study (cited in Magic Words) suggested that changing an Oreo product description from “150 grams per pack” to “15 cookies per pack” increased sales.

The concrete descriptions made Oreo’s benefits more salient and made customers more likely to buy.

2. Anchor Your Claims

Huel, the rapidly growing protein shake company, knows how to use concrete phrases in their ads.

Rather than using technical descriptions (left of the image), they use easy-to-visualize examples like eggs, oranges, salmon filets, and bananas (right of the image).

But can you spot the other tactic they use?

Each of their concrete examples acts as an anchor. Readers know salmon filets contain plenty of omega-3, so the anchor makes Huel’s drink seem even more nutritious.

One study on San Francisco residents (cited in Blindsight) found that the average political donator sent $64 to their candidate over the election campaign.

But simply telling a donor “someone else offered $400” increases the average to $143. Like Huel’s “salmon filet, ” this anchor changed the donor’s perception and behavior.

Read more:

• Anchor Text: What It Is, Why It’s Important, & How to Optimize It

3. Don’t Hide Effort

In 2003, researchers Chinander and Schweitzer showed students two different presentations: one on electronic ink and the other on optical switches (both were as dull as they sound).

Half the students were told that the presentation on electronic ink took eight hours to prepare, while the optical switch presentation took just 30 minutes. The other half were told the opposite: that the optical switch presentation took eight hours to prepare, while the electronic ink pitch was whipped together in 30 minutes.

In both scenarios, the presentation was the same.

Hearing that a presentation took longer to prepare made the presentation more engaging. Simply learning that effort went into it made students rate it higher.

This finding can easily be applied to your copywriting. Simply highlight the work you’ve put in, like I did with this Reddit ad. Tweaking my copy to say, “I’ve spent 480 minutes listening to marketing experts … Here are the six best marketing lessons I’ve heard,” boosted my click-through rate by 45%.

4. Be Very Specific

Take a closer look at that last ad. You’ll notice I said “480 minutes,” not eight hours or one working day. I was very specific on purpose.

A 2006 study compared ads with non-specific numbers versus ads with specific numbers.

The researchers Schindler and Yalch found that ads for a law firm performed better when stating it served customers for “10 years” rather than “a decade.”

Ads suggesting that a fictitious deodorant lasted precisely 47% or 53% longer were deemed more accurate by 199 participants, compared to a non-specific “50% longer” claim.

Perhaps that’s why Heinz reminds customers of its 57 varieties, while KFC raves about its 11 secret herbs and spices.

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5. Present Tense Persuades

In 2023, best-selling author Jonah Berger ran a study analyzing 500,000 product reviews.

Jonah and his team compared reviews written in the present tense (“the soup is delicious”) with reviews written in the past tense (“the soup was delicious”).

They discovered that reviews written in the present tense received 26% more helpful upvotes, making readers 12% more likely to buy.

It’s a vital finding that many forget. This Tesla post (reposted by Elon Musk) would have been more persuasive if it mentioned how the company was growing, rather than how it grew.

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6. Almost Always Alliterate

Participants in one 2022 study (cited in The Illusion of Choice) were shown one of two proverbs. Half were alliterating proverbs, the others were non-alliterating proverbs with the same meaning.

Some participants read that “a break will help you flourish.” Others read that “a break will help you blossom.” Some read how “barking dogs seldom wound,” while others read that “barking dogs seldom bite.”

Later, the participants were asked to recall the proverbs. The alliterating versions were 22% more memorable.

Maybe that’s why so many companies opt for alliterating slogans. Nestle claims “Good food, good life.” KitKat says, “Have a break, have a KitKat.” While Jaguar tells customers “Don’t dream it. Drive it.”

But this tip isn’t just for swanky slogans. Expert copywriter Harry Dry shares how to apply this tip on a typical website call to action.

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Read more:

• 27 Copywriting Examples From Businesses With Incredible Copywriters

7. Don’t Fear Negations

Negative words like nobody, none, no, nothing, and nowhere attract attention.

Two researchers in 2022 analyzed 15,608 posts on Facebook and X and found that posts with negation words gained more engagement.

A tweet promoting a newsletter was 17.8% more effective if a negation was used, while a negation-packed Facebook post received 17.6% more engagement.

Perhaps that’s why this famous IBM line has stuck around for decades.

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8. Second Person Pronouns

In 2022, a group of three researchers studied thousands of brand posts on Facebook, comparing their engagement and impressions.

They discovered that posts containing second-person pronouns (you, your, you’ll) increased the performance of the posts.

It wasn’t just Facebook posts. Blog titles that include “you” and “you’ll” made readers feel more engaged and made the brand behind the post appear more favorably in the reader’s eye.

Next time you write a post, consider adding a “you.”

These 8 tips are what you need to craft compelling copy. Now don’t forget it took me 10 years to find these tips but just 8 ½ minutes for you to read this post. So bookmark this blog, you might want to save it for a rainy day.

This blog is part of Phill Agnew’s Marketing Cheat Sheet series where he reveals scientifically proven tips to help you improve your marketing. To learn more, listen to his podcast, Nudge, which is a proud member of the HubSpot Podcast Network.

 

Today, data wrangling is an essential skill in almost every role, making Excel an essential skill. But, the days of lying about your Excel proficiency are over; instead, you can use the best AI tools on the market for Excel.

While analysts and data scientists need serious expertise, I’m just someone who regularly has to export data from multiple tools and leverage Excel to report on marketing performance across different channels.

Since I use the program so much, I’ve become pretty adept at more complicated Excel features, but there’s no doubt it can still be time-consuming and tricky.

So, I wanted to see how all the recent advances in AI could make those hours spent in spreadsheets easier and how much time I could save.

I went and found some of the best AI tools for Excel, tested them, and compiled my findings below.

How I Tested the Best AI Tools and Plugins for Excel

There’s a lot you can do in Excel. I use everything from simple formulas to more advanced macros. I tested the tools and plugins for:

• Accuracy: Often, I’m dealing with really big data sets, as I’m sure many of you are. These can make calculations and formulas complex, so an Excel tool needs to be capable of handling tasks with accuracy.
• Ease of Use: There’s nothing worse than a confusing tool. Excel itself can be confusing enough, so a clear interface and good UX should be a given here.
• Speed and Reliability: We turn to AI to be more efficient. A tool needs to be quick and reliable if I’m going to invest time and money in it.
• Range of Features: There’s a lot AI can do in Excel. The more features a single tool has, the better.

For testing purposes, I downloaded a sample spreadsheet containing office supplies sales data to be used in every tool, eliminating possible variables.

The Best AI Tools and Plugins for Excel

1. Ajelix

Pricing: Free plans are available. Standard plans cost $9 per month. Business plans cost $40 per month, and business plus plans cost $200 per month.

Even though I work in Excel and Google Sheets a lot, I’ve never been great at remembering complicated formulas and functions. With Ajelix, I don’t have to.

Within two minutes of jumping into Ajelix, I was able to type out what I was trying to do with my data, and the tool spat out multiple formula options for me to try.

When I first opened the tool, I got a really nice, user-friendly dashboard. Since I tend to struggle with formula mistakes, I clicked on the “Generate Formula” option.

In my sample sheet, I wanted a quick way to find out how many pencils were sold. So I gave the Ajelix tool the gist of what I wanted with the prompt, “Sum the number of units in Column E when the value of Column D is in pencils:”

Ajelix instantly returned a formula with a handy “copy” button. It also gave me an alternative to try if the first one didn’t work.

Then, I spotted the “Chat with AI” button and decided to try it out.

The button took me to a chat with all the information about my formula already loaded. I asked the AI assistant to expand my formula to include the number of desks sold as well, and instantly received the formula.

The formula worked perfectly. But to test the AI assistant a little more, I told the tool that the formula didn’t work. I instantly received another way to try to achieve what I needed.

What I liked: Ajelix is a user-friendly tool that seems to be geared toward the average business user rather than a data expert. In addition to AI assistance, you can also use the business intelligence (BI) functionality for advanced data visualization.

It’s worth noting you’ll need to pay to use Ajelix long term to AI functionality. But pricing is pretty reasonable at $6 per month for the Standard plan or $20 per month for a business plan.

2. GPTExcel

Pricing: Free plans are available. Paid plans cost $6 per month.

GPTExcel is another handy and cost-efficient tool that uses AI to help users streamline how they use Excel.

It has a formula generator, but I also wanted to try out the Scripts feature. With the Script tool, you can explain what you want your script to do, or you can reverse the process by providing GPTExcel with a script and having the tool to explain it to you.

In my sample spreadsheet, I decided I wanted to generate automation where any row where the Sales value in Column G exceeds $200, the row would be highlighted.

Here’s what I gave GPTExcel and what it provided for me:

I went back to my Excel sheet with the script and put it to the test.

After opening the VBA (Visual Basic for Applications — a Microsoft programming language) editor in Excel and running the macro, here were the results:

The first time I ran the macro, I got an error, but that was on my part.

I failed to give GPTExcel the correct name of the sheet, and it assumed the sheet was named the default Sheet 1. But my sheet was called SalesOrders, so I had to adjust the script to get it to run.

Once it did, I found the script was not very sophisticated and had highlighted the column headers in the sheet as well.

If you know Excel, any issues with the output will be quite obvious for you to fix, but someone unfamiliar with the software might struggle. Also, like many generative AI tools, you need to be extremely specific with your request to get the right output the first time.

What I like: GPTExcel is extremely easy to use, and provides a handy pop-up guide with do’s and don’ts to avoid common errors. Pricing is very low at $6.99 per month, but this still limits you to 100 queries per day (as opposed to four on the free plan).

Overall, this is a great tool for quickly generating macros, and SQL experts might find that feature useful, too.

3. Formularizer

Pricing: Free plans are available, offering 100 usage credits per month.

At one point in my career, I had an entire document filled with template formulas to quickly copy and paste into Excel. But I still had to go through them each time and change out cell ranges, values, etc. to match my needs.

With Formularizer, I wanted to see if a text prompt would be quicker and easier.

(Plus, to be honest, sometimes I come across a formula in one of my own sheets and forget what it does and why I put it there.)

Formularizer lets you paste in a formula and get a written explanation of what it does.

I used a prompt to generate the formula I needed and used terms like “Column E” because I could not upload a spreadsheet for the tool to analyze. This feature is currently in Beta.

Here’s what I provided:

“Create a formula that calculates the total for Column E as it corresponds to the values in Column B.”

My goal was to calculate units sold in the “East” region from my sample data. Here’s what Formularizer gave me:

This is what I pasted into Excel, which worked perfectly: =SUMIF(B:B, “East”, E:E).

Now, I wanted to see if Formularizer could explain a formula to me. I gave it this formula:

“=INDEX(C:C, MATCH(MAX(SUMIF(C:C, C:C, G:G)), SUMIF(C:C, C:C, G:G), 0)).” The formula shows me the rep with the highest number of sales and returns that person’s name. I pasted it into the explainer tool in Formularizer.

It did a great job, considering it had no context to work with. I was impressed by the summary.

What I like: Formularizer is fast and really easy to use, thanks to its intuitive chat interface. The free version is very useful for quickly generating complicated formulas if you know your data well. However, only the paid version will allow you to upload a sheet to be analyzed.

4. Promptloop

Pricing: Free plans are available. Individual plans cost $49 per month. Company plan pricing is available upon request.

Promotloop uses AI models to take care of a few common tasks in Excel. You can prompt the AI to categorize text data, answer questions based on information in your data set, and create dummy data so you can test your sheet.

When I first logged in, I was asked about the task I needed to complete.

I explained I needed help cleaning sales data, as data cleaning is one of the core functionalities of Promptloop — but I could also have skipped this and gone straight to the dashboard.

Since I was on the free plan, my data was limited to 25 rows once I attached my Excel workbook.

For the follow-up question, I explained how I needed to clean the data, saying, “I would like to categorize the data into product types from row D. So Pencil, Pen Set, and Binder should be categorized as Small while Desk should be categorized as large.”

Promptloop then gave me an opportunity to clarify the columns and the expected output.

It then very quickly processed the task and provided me with an output file to download.

After hitting the “Download” button, it took me a couple of extra steps to actually get the data and sheet, but it did work as expected.

What I like: Promptloop is very useful if you have a lot of text-based data to sort through. Responses to surveys, especially those where the user can input free-form text rather than selection options, are one example of where Promptloop could come in really handy.

That being said, I wasn’t as fond of the experienceon this tool compared with others on this list. There were a few unnecessary steps and clicks along the way.

5. ChatGPT

With the release of GPT.4, ChatGPT is more powerful than ever. Having had frustrations with ChatGPT and spreadsheet-based prompts previously, I wanted to see what changed.

First, I asked ChatGPT what it could do if I gave it a spreadsheet to work with. It came back with answers, including data analysis, cleaning, visualization, transformation, formulas, and automation. So, I put it to the test.

First, I had it create a pivot table, providing no other instruction.

Here is what it provided to me, which I was able to download as a CSV file:

Next, I asked it to visualize the data in the pivot table. It did a pretty great job delivering a color-coded bar graph:

Finally, I asked it to help me with a macro using the following prompt:

“Can you give me a macro I could run on this data in Excel for Mac that let’s me keep a running track of the total units sold by each rep?”

In response, it gave me a script that it claimed would create “a summary of the total units sold by each representative and output the result to a new sheet named “Summary.” If you run this macro periodically, it will update the totals accordingly.”

I tried it and hit a little snag, but I went back to Chat-GPT and let it know which line was highlighted in the Debug Tool. It immediately gave me a new output that worked perfectly.

What I like: Since ChatGPT now has such advanced language capabilities, even a complete Excel beginner could use it to complete tasks for the tool quickly and easily.

While you need the paid version at $20 per month to access this level of ability, it was one of the most straightforward experiences on this list.

6. Formula Bot

Formula Bot handles lots of data and Excel-related tasks. For many features, you must install Formula Bot as an add-on to either Excel or Google Sheets to use its capabilities, but some simpler, generative AI features are available via the browser app.

To begin, I selected the “Free Analysis” feature on the dashboard to see what it would do with no instruction.

First, I had to add my data. I could upload an Excel file or choose from some interesting connector options like Google Sheets or Facebook Ads:

After uploading my spreadsheet, the only option I could see was the “Start Chat” button.

I asked the chat to give me “Which region has the highest sales?” from my sample sheet. Disappointingly, I was given a CSV file to download with the answer, and it had just grouped the unit data into regions without giving me a direct answer.

I decided to try one of the other AI features to see if I fared any better.

This time, I wanted to upload a PDF and convert it to an Excel spreadsheet.

I uploaded a PDF containing data to see how well it would translate to an Excel sheet.

(Note: Formula Bot also allows you to paste text to be turned into a spreadsheet, which is handy.)

Formula Bot asks you to select a couple of options after uploading your PDF. It also recommends that you don’t try to turn non-table data from the file into Excel data or try to combine multiple tables into one sheet in your workbook.

Converting the PDF file only took a couple of seconds and the spreadsheet was ready for download right from the same screen.

When I downloaded and opened the Excel file, the data was perfect and ready for use.

What I like: The interface of Formula Bot is and the tool is relatively straightforward to use. You don’t need to sift through dozens of tutorials to figure out how the platform works. However, it did feel a little glitchy here and there.

The PDF to Excel feature was impressive, and with the paid add-on ($9-13 per month) right within your Excel workbooks, some of the advanced features like sentiment analysis or text classification would be interesting to see.

Making the Most of Excel

Of all the AI tools for Excel I tested, two stood out as my favorites. ChatGPT turned out to be way more adept than I thought, especially when it came to data visualization. It’s a system that I already use, and many marketers fall in the same category. If you’re hesitant about using a new system, you can’t beat ChatGPT.

However, if your looking for a more robust program focused on excel, go with Ajelix. The program was especially helpful for generating formulas that I don’t have memorized. Beyond that, Ajelix’s AI chat allowed me to answer questions with ease.

If Excel is a part of your job, checking out these AI tools can save you time and help you supplement any gaps in your knowledge.

On TikTok, anyone can go viral. You don’t need to be a videographer or social media expert to get traffic to your videos.

In fact, the most popular videos I’ve seen on my For You Page aren’t overly produced or too serious. The videos that get me to stop scrolling are the ones that are short and silly and let me know exactly what I’m about to watch.

To increase your chances of being seen, there are a few tips and tricks that top marketers and content creators swear by.

From leveraging trending audio to green screen effects, read on to discover the 13 best TikTok tricks, according to HubSpot’s Social Team and TikTok marketers.

Table of Contents

• 13 Best TikTok Tips and Tricks
• Tips for Making Great TikTok Videos

Tips for Making Great TikTok Videos

To find out what type of organic content works well on the platform, I asked some marketers for their best tips for making great TikTok videos.

Focus on the hook.

If there’s one thing marketers can agree on, it’s that your TikTok video needs a hook. Every marketer I spoke to suggests that capturing your viewers’ attention within the first few seconds is essential for engagement.

As a TikTok user myself, I couldn’t agree more. If I can’t immediately tell what the video is about, I keep scrolling.

“Viewers want to know what they’re getting from a video before they watch it,” says Petra Khan, associate director of strategy at ICUC.Social.

“Grab their attention right away with eye-catching visuals. For example, a close-up shot or a colorful visual, such as a splash of bright color or an enticing shot of a finished recipe.”

If you’re just getting started on TikTok and not getting many views yet, your hook can be what takes you to the next level.

“If your videos aren’t getting off the ground (i.e., getting less than 500 views), just focus on nailing the first three seconds,” suggests Xavier English, co-founder at Supermix.

He recommends “taking inspiration from what hooks are working for other creators in your niche and then getting very experimental with the different ways you can introduce or frame the same content.”

Meg O’Neill, a marketing expert and Instagram coach, recommends that if you’re using the storytelling format, jump right in to hook viewers immediately.

“Get right to the point!” she says. “As soon as your finger hits record, start telling your story from the middle.”

Use TikTok Studio.

If you’ve been on TikTok for the last couple of years or so, you’re probably familiar with Creator tools, the suite of features that enable creators to see their analytics and stay on top of trends.

In May 2024, TikTok replaced its “Creator tools” with TikTok Studio. The new tool allows creators to create, edit, upload, manage, and analyze their TikTok account and content performance.

You can access it within the platform or as a separate app.

Monitoring your engagement, checking on top-performing videos, and analyzing follower behavior is essential if you want to make good TikTok videos. You have to see what’s working and what needs adjustments if you want to stand out and reach your audience.

This is also true if you plan on running ads on TikTok — you should always monitor video ad performance to make sure you’re reaching the right people and meeting your goals.

Go into content creation with fresh eyes.

As marketers, it’s our job to be data-driven, tell our brand story, and promote the company. However, this knowledge can also get in our way.

When it comes to creating videos on TikTok, we sometimes have *too much* context to be a good judge of your own content, suggests English.

“We’ve seen a lot of videos fail because the moment we actually put them in front of fresh viewers, we realized something really basic was missing,” English says.

“For example, the start didn‘t make any sense to someone who didn’t have all the context we had about the topic, or the way they interpreted a certain visual was confusing, even though no one on our team interpreted it that way because we already knew the message we were trying to convey.”

Pro tip: So, how do you overcome this challenge? English’s suggestion is to “take off your context goggles,” especially during the scripting and editing processes.

13 Best TikTok Tips and Tricks

1. Find the right niche

“The algorithm favors niches. If you get traffic based on a particular style or type of content, videos outside of that won’t perform as well,” Nicole Phillip, social media lead at the Hustle, told me.

Of course, finding the right niche isn’t so easy. You have to find the sweet spot between the content that works for your brand and the content that your audience finds valuable.

To strike this balance, Phillip suggests experimenting with different types of content to see what resonates — and then stick with it.

Example: Mia Swinehart from Gathered Nutrition

Content creator and registered dietician Mia Swinehart has built a loyal audience (500K+ strong) by sharing health-conscious, balanced, and predominantly plant-based recipes.

While her audience has come to love her recipe videos, she also explores different angles within her niche — like grocery hauls and meal prep hacks — to keep her content fresh while staying true to her brand identity.

2. Don’t delete low-performing videos.

You post a video thinking it will get a million likes. Instead, it disappears into the TikTok void, leaving you with nothing to show for your hard work. Your gut reaction is to delete it, but Phillips has a different take.

“Don’t be discouraged by low performance, especially in the beginning. It takes a while for the algorithm to feed you to the right group of people and for you to find your footing before something takes off,” Phillips says.

Phillips also points out that virality often happens when you least expect it, so be careful when deleting videos. “Don’t delete low performing videos because you never know when the algorithm might pick it up and serve it to the right audience,” Phillips says.

3. Post at the right time.

According to HubSpot’s 2024 Social Media Trends Report, these are the best times to post on TikTok:

• Between 6-9 p.m.
• Between 3-6 p.m.
• Between 12-3 p.m.

And the best day to post on TikTok is Friday.

Keep in mind that every audience is different, so it’s worth checking your analytics to see when your audience is most active. You can do this by navigating to your profile, hitting the three lines in the top-right corner, and tapping “TikTok Studio.”

Then, tap “Analytics.” This opens a dashboard with your follower growth, video views, likes, comments, traffic sources, and shares.

4. Stitch top-performing or relevant videos.

The Stitch tool enables you to combine another video on TikTok with the one you‘re creating. It’s another way to collaborate with other TikTokers and expand your reach.

Start by looking for top-performing videos in your niche. You can do this by using the search bar and typing keywords relating to your brand. Or, check if any videos directly mention your brand.

Once you find a video to stitch, tap the Share icon on the right-hand side.

Then, tap Stitch. This will open an editing tool where you can select five seconds of the video to use in yours.

Let’s look at stitching in action with an example from Puma.

Example: Puma

In case you’re out of the loop, latte art is a huge deal on TikTok — amassing over 2.4 billion views. When one user put the Puma logo on top of a steaming cup of coffee, the brand decided to join the action by “stitching” the original video and attempting to recreate it.

This is a great example of a brand collaborating with its audience and leveraging user-generated content.

5. Use the green screen effect.

TikTok has an entire library of filters and effects, but one stands out from the rest: the green screen effect.

Like a traditional green screen, this effect lets you stay on-screen while different images appear in the background. By incorporating visual aids, it adds a whole new level of storytelling.

This filter is ideal for explaining topics, providing recommendations, or whenever visuals could complement your story.

For instance, suppose you’re a fitness influencer. You could explain the proper form of an exercise by referencing photos in the background. In this case, the background visuals enhance your commentary rather than distract from it.

Example: Levi’s

Using the green screen effect, Levi’s recommends different jeans using product photos in the background. Viewers can easily follow along, and seeing pictures of the jeans may pique their interest.

6. Leverage trending audio.

90% of TikTok users say sound is essential to the TikTok experience. It grabs people‘s attention and adds flavor to your content. And for many users, it’s the starting point for creating a great video.

Image Source

Pro tip: Not sure what sounds are trending right now? TikTok’s Creative Center ranks the most popular music and audio clips each day. You can even filter the results by region, which is helpful if your audience is in a different location.

Example: Duolingo

Duolingo is a fan favorite on the platform, especially for its funny, trendy, and sometimes chaotic videos featuring its mascot, Duo the Owl. Duo can be seen dancing to popular songs and acting in skits that incorporate popular audio clips, like in the example below.

7. Try vlog-style videos.

Vlog-style videos feel more personal and intimate — which might explain why they’re so popular on TikTok.

These videos typically include multiple clips tied together with a voiceover describing the series of events. It‘s highly engaging and lets viewers feel like they’re living in your shoes.

Example: Netflix

This example shows Netflix using the vlog style to take its audience on a journey. While most of us won‘t walk a red carpet in our lifetime, we can still get a peak of what the experience entails — and how our favorite actors behave off-screen. It’s also a great way to showcase “behind the scenes” content.

8. Incorporate both niche and trending hashtags.

Making a TikTok is half the battle — you also need to ensure it lands in front of your audience. Hashtags are one way to get there.

Adding hashtags in your description gives your videos a better chance of being seen, allowing you to drive discoverability, build brand awareness, and extend your reach. But how can you do it?

This may sound counterintuitive, but only targeting popular hashtags is ineffective. While they command a larger audience, they’re also highly competitive. On the other hand, niche hashtags have fewer people searching for them, but those who do are highly engaged and interested.

For example, #workout is a popular hashtag with over 95 billion views, but #coreworkout is more niche with a fraction of the audience.

A well-rounded hashtag strategy should include both niche and popular hashtags. Take a look at the example below.

Example: Dunkin’

Fall is just around the corner, and Dunkin’ is getting everyone hyped for its seasonal menu. To get the word out, the brand incorporates a variety of hashtags to reach more people.

For instance, the video below uses #fall, a trending hashtag (15+ billion views), and #pumpkinszn, a more niche hashtag with fewer views (40+ million). By including #pumpkinszn, Dunkin’ can tap into a smaller, more engaged audience.

9. Respond to comments with video.

On TikTok, almost every brand has the same goal: to connect with its audience. Often, that connection forms in the comment section. It’s where viewers go to ask questions and share opinions.

But instead of replying to a comment with text, you can now respond with another video. This allows you to dive deeper into topics, answer questions, and keep your audience coming back for more.

Example: Glossier

When a TikTok user asked Glossier how to use one of its products, the brand didn‘t miss the opportunity to reply with a video explaining all the ways to use it. In doing so, the brand adds value while highlighting the product’s versatility.

10. Add value with “how to” TikToks.

“How To” videos and tutorials are an easy way to provide value to TikTok viewers without sounding overly promotional. Plus, positioning yourself as an expert or authority in your niche keeps your brand, products, and/or services top-of-mind for viewers.

For instance, if you’re a travel brand, you could film videos of must-see attractions, restaurant recommendations, and travel tips — like the example below.

Example: Travel + Leisure

Travel + Leisure provides all the content you need to “kick your wanderlust into high gear.” From hotel recommendations to photography tips, the brand has you covered, positioning itself as a gold mine of advice for the travel-obsessed.

11. Leave a CTA in your description and/or comments.

Need more engagement? Sometimes, it’s as simple as asking for it.

The ultimate goal of a CTA is to persuade users to do something — follow your TikTok page, visit your website, leave a comment, and so on. So ask yourself, “what do I want my viewers to do?”

Whatever you choose, it should help you move closer to your primary goal (i.e., drive website traffic, increase brand awareness, etc.).

Your description and comment section are prime real estate for CTAs. Use this area to ask questions, encourage users to follow you, or drive traffic to your website, blog, or other social channels (ie, “More tips on my blog, link in bio!”).

On top of that, if you’re running ads, we recommend using a marketing integration tool to sync all your lead data to your CRM. (P.S. You can do this using the TikTok-Hubspot ads integration!)

Example: Fenty Beauty

In this TikTok, Fenty Beauty shows different ways to use one of its products. Then, to encourage engagement, they add a relevant question in the description that also incorporates a brand-specific hashtag (“Which #POUTSICLE look was ya fave?”).

Another way to invite users to take action is to set up a TikTok shop for your business. This allows users to see the products you have available. You can even create videos where the CTA is to click on your products.

12. Add subtitles to your videos.

TikTok videos became more accessible with the introduction of auto-captions.

Although you can manually add captions — which allows for greater flexibility to play around with text color and font — you can also use the Captions tool. With just a click, you can generate subtitles for your videos, allowing others to read or listen to your content.

Image Source

Pro tip: Including text overlays and captions is a great way to make your content accessible and tap into social SEO, suggests Khan. “It also happens to be a workaround for instances in which people are watching on mute,” she says.

Example: Formula 1

If you‘re into car racing, there’s a good chance Formula 1’s TikTok is on your radar.

But have you ever noticed how often they add subtitles to their videos?

Take the example below, which uses colorful captions and emojis to add an extra layer of interest to the video. And if you mute your phone, you can still follow along without skipping a beat.

13. Explore top-performing videos in your niche for inspiration.

The most successful videos on TikTok are creative, out-of-the-box, and often quirky by nature. That’s a tall order — which is why every brand should explore the top-performing videos in its niche for inspiration.

Start by typing keywords relating to your brand in the search bar. Then, click the filter icon and sort by relevance, like count or date posted. If you choose to sort by the like count, it will populate TikTok videos that have gone viral using that specific keyword.

Once you’ve identified some top-performing videos, brainstorm ways to recreate them while adding your own spin.

Experiment With TikTok to Achieve Results

My biggest takeaway about TikTok tips and tricks is that there isn’t one right path to success. TikTok is a platform that relies on experimentation, and brands willing to get creative see the most success.

If you’re new to TikTok, start with the tips in this article — and give yourself room to experiment with different videos, filters, and concepts.

Don’t be discouraged if you post a video that doesn’t get much traction. Instead, try another trending tactic, see what your competitors are doing, and then lean into whatever style or format sticks.

TikTok is an engaging platform once you reach the right people. My suggestion is to keep posting videos, engaging with users, and try to have fun to get the most out of the platform.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Understanding your audience is a hard job, but decoding the Gen Z, Gen X, Boomers, and Millennial shopping habits is where the real challenge lies. All generations shop differently, so you need to do some deep research to find out how things function in their “worlds.”

To help you determine where to meet audiences where they are, we surveyed thousands of U.S. consumers of all generations to learn about their shopping habits, media consumption, and the latest trends they’re following.

For those in a rush, we’ve put a quick generation-by-generation overview below with links to the deep dive of each age group. To see a broader side-by-side comparison of how all generations handle each stage of product discovery and purchases differently, jump to our comparison section.

Millennial Shopping Habits

Gen Z Shopping Habits (ages 18-24)

• Social media, searching on the internet, and word-of-mouth are the top ways Gen Z discover new products.
• Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are the top social media apps among Gen Z.
• Of Gen Z, 37% have bought a product based on an influencer’s recommendation in the past three months, and 43% have bought through an in-app shop.
• One in two Gen Zers want companies to take a stance on social issues, specifically racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, gender inequality, and climate change. When companies advocate for these issues, it has a strong impact on Gen Z purchase decisions.
• Ads on streaming services beat cable TV for reaching Gen Z. Retail discovery is still relevant but less frequent than digital channels.

Jump to our Gen Z deep dive >>

Millennial Shopping Habits (ages 25-35)

• Social media, internet search, and YouTube ads are also the top ways Millennials discover new products.
• Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok are the top social media apps among Millennials.
• Of Millennials, 43% have bought a product through an in-app shop in the past three months, and 36% have bought based on an influencer’s recommendation.
• Of Millennials, 47% want companies to take a stance on social issues, specifically racial justice, income inequality, climate change, affordable healthcare, and LGBTQ+ rights. When companies advocate for these issues, it has a strong impact on Millennial purchase decisions.
• Ads on cable TV beat streaming services for reaching Millennials by a small margin. Retail discovery is still relevant but less frequent than digital channels.

Jump to our Millennial deep dive >>

Gen X Shopping Habits (ages 35-54)

• Gen X prefers to discover new products through search, social media, and in retail stores.
• Gen X discovers new products on social media more frequently than any other channel, even though it isn’t preferred.
• Of Gen X, 90% use social media — Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are their favorite apps.
• Of Gen X, 19% have bought a product through an in-app shop in the past three months. The same number bought based on an influencer’s recommendation in that period.
• Of Gen Xers, 40% say companies should take a stance on social issues, specifically climate change, affordable healthcare, racial justice, and income inequality. Further, 40% say companies shouldn’t engage with social issues, and 20% aren’t sure.

Jump to our Gen X deep dive >>

Boomer Shopping Habits (ages 55+)

• TV ads, internet search, and retail stores are the top ways Boomers discover new products.
• Social media falls flat for boomers — just 20% have discovered a product on it in the past three months, and only 11% have purchased a product on a social app in that time.
• About half of boomers say companies should not take a stance on social issues. When it comes to influencing their purchase decisions, social issues simply have no impact on a majority of Boomers.

Jump to our Baby Boomer deep dive >>

A Generational Comparison of Today’s Shopping Trends [Side-by-Side Data]

Where do consumers discover products?

Social media, internet search, and YouTube ads are key for reaching Gen Z and Millennials, while TV, search, and retail are favored by Gen X and Boomers.

As far as social media, Boomers and Gen X use Facebook more than any other app.

Meanwhile, Gen Z is all about YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Not only is Gen Z communicating with friends and being entertained, but they’re also discovering (and buying) products on social media more than any other generation.

What drives consumers to buy products?

When it comes to making purchase decisions, all generations are highly influenced by price, quality, and product reviews. Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X also value brands that have active communities around them and a social media presence.

Additionally, whether a percentage of the proceeds from their purchase will be donated to charity is highly important to Gen Z.

Where do consumers like to buy products?

All generations favor buying products in person at a store over any other channel, but this preference decreases significantly with age. Buying through online retailers like Amazon and directly from a company’s website is also popular.

Gen Z and Millennials are most interested in buying through social media and from a company’s mobile app.

Ready for more of the insights you need to reach your target audience?

Let’s take a deep dive into the shopping habits of today’s consumers, as well as how each generation compares, based on data from our 2024 Consumer Trends Survey of over 700 consumers in the U.S.

Shopping Trends by Generation (A Detailed, Data-Driven Breakdown)

Gen Z Shopping Habits in 2024 (ages 18-24)

So, where is Gen Z discovering new products? Let’s start with the digital elephant in the room: social media.

Social media drives Gen Z product discovery.

Our most recent survey shows that 40% of Gen Z has discovered new products on social media in the past three months, and 41% of them say it’s where they discover products most often.

Social media is also the number one way Gen Z prefers to discover new products, according to 40% of those aged 18-24.

All of this really isn’t surprising considering 93% of Gen Z use social media, for an average of 4 hours and 20 minutes per day.

You may also be wondering which platforms they’re using, so let’s take a glance:

YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok have reigned as the top three platforms by usage in the past six months. Over half of Gen Z have used Snapchat and Facebook in the past three months, and 38% have used X.

When it comes to the social media apps Gen Z uses most, TikTok, IG, and YouTube come out on top again, but in a different order.

TikTok is used most, likely due to its focus on short-form videos and powerful algorithms, making it hard to put down.

But TikTok and Instagram are only the most used social media apps among Gen Z women, while men spend much more time on YouTube.

Lastly, we asked Gen Z which social media app is their favorite. TikTok is used most, and it’s also a favorite social media app among Gen Z.

But there are so many ways to interact with Gen Z on social media that it’s more important than ever to use a format that captures their attention and makes your brand stand out.

We asked how Gen Z consumers prefer to discover new products, and here’s what we found:

Our research from earlier this year shows that short-form video and social media marketplaces are the top marketing trends of 2024, so the fact that Gen Z is fully embracing these channels to discover products isn’t surprising.

Of Gen Z, 48% say they prefer to discover new products on social media through short-form videos, and 1 in 4 prefer to find out about products from influencers.

On top of that, 27% of Gen Z have made a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation in the past three months, the highest of any age group.

The signs to invest in these channels couldn’t be clearer. Did I mention that they also have the highest ROI of any marketing trend? Another powerful trend we identified in our Social Media Trends 2024 research is selling directly on social media.

Considering 43% of Gen Z has bought a product on social media directly on the app in the past three months, and 29% prefer to discover new products through social media shops, there’s never been a better time to get started.

Our recent Instagram Marketing Report explains why the app presents such an incredible opportunity for social selling, and we even published a data-backed guide on the top tools and strategies for selling on Instagram.

YouTube Ads trump social media for reaching Gen Z men.

Of Gen Z, 21% have found new products through YouTube Ads in the past three months, and 19% say it’s where they discover products most often.

Overall, YouTube Ads are a good way to reach Gen Z, but they still can’t dethrone social media.

Gen Z women prefer to discover new products on social media, while discovering products through YouTube Ads is strongly preferred by young men.

SEO still matters for Gen Z.

Of Gen Z, 28% have found new products by searching the web in the past few months.

Sixteen percent of Gen Z say searching the internet is their preferred way of discovering new products, but how exactly is Gen Z searching online? A whopping 74% of Gen Z use their mobile phones most often when shopping online, while just 16% use a computer.

Additionally, 67% of Gen Z use their phones most often when looking up a question on a search engine.

This means you should be optimizing your website to be mobile-first to offer the best experience to your users. To learn more about the top SEO strategies, check out our Web Traffic & Analytics Report.

Retail discovery is less frequent, but still relevant for Gen Z.

While 21% of Gen Z has discovered new products in retail stores in the past three months, when we asked where they discover new products most often, it came in at #4.

So Gen Z is still visiting retail stores, but they’re discovering products through online sources much more often.

Does that mean hope is lost for retail? Not quite. Of Gen Z, 14% still say it’s their preferred way to discover new products, behind social media, YouTube ads, and searching the web.

Ads on streaming services beat cable TV for Gen Z.

Of Gen Z, 36% have discovered new products on film/TV show streaming services in the past three months. Beyond that, 22% of Gen Z have also discovered new products on music streaming services like Spotify, with 12% of them saying that music streaming is where they prefer to discover new products most often.

Does that mean cable TV ads are lost on Gen Z? Considering less than one in five have discovered a new product through their television in the past three months, it isn’t the best channel to reach those ages 18-24 (though still very relevant for older age groups).

Half of Gen Zers say companies should take a stance on social issues.

Gen Z is known to be vocal about the causes they believe in, but does that tenacity for the environment and social justice translate to their purchase decisions? Let’s take a look.

We asked whether companies should take a stance on social issues, and 40% of Gen Z say they should.

We then asked those who want companies to take a stance on social issues which issues are most important to them. Racial justice was by far the top issue for Gen Z (36%) as well as climate change (36%), followed by gender inequality (33%), and LGBTQ+ rights (17%).

The burning question is whether these sentiments translate to purchase decisions, and we found that they have a significant influence on Gen Z, dwindling slowly with each generation.

• Of Gen Z, 16% have chosen a product based on it being owned by a small business in the past three months
• Only 2% of Gen Z prefer to choose a product based on the brand’s commitment to diversity/inclusion.
• Of Gen Z, 49% have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a person of color in the past three months.
• We found that 43% of Gen Z have chosen a product based on the brand being woman-owned in the past three months.
• Of Gen Z, 30% have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a member of the LGBTQ community in the past three months.

Not only that, but brands taking a stance on these issues also make a significant portion of Gen Zs more likely to purchase. Below are just a few of the factors that impact Gen Z purchase decisions, aside from the product itself.

• Corporate Trust: 84% of Gen Z say they‘re more likely to buy from a company that treats its employees well, while 83% say they’re more likely to buy from a company that they can trust with their data
• Economic and/or Environmental Impact: 60% of Gen Z say they’re more likely to buy from a brand actively trying to reduce its environmental impact, while 46% are more likely to purchase products from small businesses.
• High DI&B Standards: 53% of Gen Z say they‘re more likely to purchase based on a brand’s commitment to diversity/inclusion, while 51% say a brand advocating for racial justice makes them more likely to become a customer. Additionally, 39% of Gen Z say they’re more likely to buy products from brands owned by a person of color.
• Gender and LGBTQ+ Advocacy: 42% of Gen Z say brands that advocate for gender equality are more likely to get their purchases, while 37% of Gen Z are more likely to buy from brands that advocate for LGTBTQ+ rights.

While Gen Z is strongly influenced by Environmental, Social, and Governance (or ESG) initiatives, there are other factors in their purchase decisions that are even more important – let’s take a look.

What drives Gen Z’s purchase decisions?

The top factors in Gen Z’s purchase decisions are unsurprising, with price, quality, and look/feel taking the lead.

But, when we ask Gen Z to choose the three most important factors in their purchase decision, we find some interesting insights. Take a look at the top eight most important factors when Gen Z is forced to choose just three of those they consider:

While price and quality still lead, we see that donations to charity, an active community, recommendations from influencers, and how brands treat their employees rise to the top.

Granted, these are nowhere near the top factors in this group’s purchase decisions, but for those who consider them, they are critical.

One other thing to note is that recommendations from influencers drive Gen Z purchase decisions even more than recommendations from their friends and family (55% vs. 24%, respectively) – yet another reason to leverage influencer marketing.

How does Gen Z prefer to purchase products?

When it comes to making purchases, 55% of Gen Zers still prefer to buy things in-store (the lowest of any generation), but online channels are close behind.

One in two Gen Zers prefers to make purchases through online retailers like Amazon, while 37% like to go directly to a company’s website.

Of Gen Z, 23% prefer to buy through social media apps, while 22% favor going through a company’s mobile app.

How does Gen Z like to pay?

Of Gen Z, 47% have purchased a subscription for a physical product in the past three months, the highest of any generation. But when we asked which payment model they prefer, Gen Z still largely favors buying a product for full price as needed.

And that wraps it up for Gen Z! Now we can talk about their slightly older, yet noticeably different counterparts, Millennials.

Millennial Shopping Habits in 2024 (ages 25-34)

Social media drives Millennial product discovery.

Of Millennials, 43% have discovered new products on social media in the past three months, and 34% of them say it’s where they discover new products most often. Social media is also the primary way Millennials prefer to discover new products, according to 34% of those 25-34.

Similar to Gen Z, 90% of Millennials use social media for an average of 4 hours per day, slightly lower than that of Gen Z.

As far as the platforms they use, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are the top platforms by usage in the past three months. Over half of Millennials have used TikTok in the past three months, and 37% have used Snapchat.

When it comes to the social media apps Millennials use most, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram lead the way.

But just like with Gen Z, the app used most differs sharply by gender. Millennial women use Facebook the most, followed by Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Meanwhile, Millennial men use YouTube the most, followed by Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok fourth.

We also asked Millennials which social media platform is their favorite. When it comes to Millennials’ favorite social media app, Facebook stays at number one but Instagram pulls ahead of YouTube.

Now that you know which platforms Millennials prefer to find new products on, here are the formats they want to see on social media among those who use it.

Millennials favor feed posts, ads, and social media marketplaces when looking to discover new products. They also turn to influencers and social media shops to discover and buy things.

Since Millennials tend to favor Facebook and Instagram, building a presence on these platforms is key. Setting up an online shop on both platforms and leveraging influencer marketing are among the highest ROI strategies you can use to get your products seen and bought.

Millennials Discover Products Through Search Slightly Less Than On Social

Discovering new products through searching the internet comes fourth on the list.

Of Millennials, 32% say they discover new products most often by searching the internet, just 11% behind social media.

When we asked what Millennials’ preferred channel for discovering new products is, 23% said searching the internet, lagging behind social media by 11%.

So search is a leading channel for product discovery for Millennials, but how are they searching? Seventy percent use their mobile phones most often, compared to just 20% who use a computer, highlighting the importance of optimizing your site to be mobile-first.

When it comes to online shopping, 73% of Millennials use their phones most often, while 16% use a computer.

YouTube Ads are the third-best way to reach Millennials, especially men.

Of Millennials, 41% have found new products on YouTube in the past three months, and 29% say they discover new products on YouTube the most.

On top of that, 29% of Millennials say YouTube is their preferred channel for discovering new products.

Overall, YouTube ads are the third best way to reach Millennials, but just like for Gen Z, when it comes to targeting Millennial men, YouTube rises to the top.

Retail discovery is less frequent, but still relevant for Millennials.

While 43% of Millennials have discovered new products in retail stores in the past three months, when we asked where they discover new products most often, retail comes in at number six.

Like Gen Z, Millennials are still going to retail stores, but they’re finding products online more often. We found that 22% of them say they prefer finding new products in retail stores, behind social media, searching the internet, YouTube Ads, and word of mouth.

Cable TV is slightly better for reaching millennials than streaming services.

Of Millennials, 27% have discovered new products through TV/film streaming services in the past three months, and 17% of them say that’s where they discover new products most often. Additionally, 9% of Millennials say podcast ads are how they prefer to discover new products.

When it comes to cable TV, 29% of millennials have discovered new products through their television in the past three months, and 17% of them say that’s where they discover new products most often, comfortably ahead of streaming services.

Additionally, 18% of Millennials say cable TV is where they prefer to discover new products, beating video streaming services.

Advertising on music streaming services is also a great way to reach Millennials — 27% of them have discovered new products through music streaming services in the past three months. Of that group, 8% say that’s where they discover new products most often.

ESG matters to millennials.

Of Millennials, 47% say companies should take a stance on social issues.

We also asked Millennials who want to see companies engaging in advocacy which social issues they want to see companies have a stance on most.

Among Millennials who want companies to advocate for social issues, 44% want to see brands take a stance on racial justice, followed by income inequality (38%), climate change (32%), affordable healthcare (39%), and LGBTQ+ rights (24%).

While racial justice is top of mind for both Gen Z and Millennials, Millennials put less of a priority on other identity-based issues like gender and sexual orientation.

Instead, they prefer to see companies tackle issues like income inequality, climate change, and affordable healthcare.

This might be because Millennials are older and more likely to be part of the workforce than Gen Z, making them more conscious of wealth inequality and the cost of healthcare.

While a sizable group of Millennials wants to see companies taking a stand, do these sentiments actually affect their purchase decisions? Just like with Gen Z, the answer is yes.

• Of Millennials, 59% have chosen a product based on it being made by a small business in the past three months.
• We found that 49% have chosen a product based on the brand’s commitment to diversity/inclusion in the past three months.
• Of Millennial respondents, 47% have chosen a product based on the brand being woman-owned in the past three months.
• Forty-two percent of Millennials have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a person of color in the past three months.
• Of Millennials, 27% have chosen a product based on it being owned by a member of the LGBTQ+ community in the past three months.

On a 5-point scale from much less likely to much more likely, we asked all Millennials in our survey how the following attributes impact their purchase decisions, if at all. Here’s what we found:

• Corporate Trust: 82% of Millennials are more likely to buy from a company that treats its employees well, and the same amount are more likely to buy from a company that they can trust with their data.
• Economic and/or Environmental Impact: 51% of Millennials are more likely to buy a product made by a small business, while 48% are more likely to buy from a company that actively tries to reduce its environmental impact
• High DI&B Standards: 47% of Millennials are more likely to purchase from a brand committed to diversity/inclusion, while 43% say a brand advocating for racial justice makes them more likely to become a customer. Additionally, 42% of Millennials say they’re more likely to buy products from brands owned by a person of color.
• Gender and LGBTQ+ Advocacy: 46% of Millennials say brands that advocate for gender equality are more likely to get their purchases, while 36% of Millennials are more likely to buy from brands that advocate for LGTBTQ+ rights.

While ESG strongly matters to Millennials, let’s see how these issues stack up against other factors in their purchase decisions.

What drives Millennial purchase decisions?

Just as they do for all generations, price and quality are the top factors when it comes to Millennial purchase decisions.

Now let’s see which of these are most important to Millennials by forcing them to choose just three of the factors they consider.

Unsurprisingly, price, quality, reviews, and features remain in the lead. But a brand’s social media presence, whether a brand has an active community around it, whether the brand donates to charity, and recommendations from influencers rise.

While these aren’t even in the top eight factors in Millennials’ purchase decisions, among those who consider them, they are highly important.

How do Millennials prefer to purchase products?

Of Millennials, 52% prefer to buy products in-store, while 46% favor going through online retailers like Amazon. About one in three like to purchase directly from a company’s website.

When it comes to mobile apps, 39% of Millennials prefer purchasing through social media, and one in five like to go through a company’s mobile app.

How do Millennials like to pay?

When it comes to the payment model they prefer, 41% of Millennials say they favor buying products at full price when they need them.

On the other hand, Millennials prefer purchasing a product in payment installments (26%) and on a subscription basis (34%).

Now that we’ve covered Millennial purchase habits, let’s take a look at how Gen X likes to shop, which differs significantly from what we’ve seen so far from the younger age groups.

Gen X Shopping Habits in 2024 (ages 35-54)

Gen X prefers to discover products through social media, with other channels close behind.

One in three Gen X’s say they prefer to discover new products through social media and 28% say that social media is how they discover new products most often — tying with internet search as the channel they discover new products on most frequently.

Additionally, 35% of Gen X have discovered new products through online search in the past three months, placing it among the top discovery channels.

So, we know Gen X is all about searching online, but which devices are they using most when shopping on the web?

Two-thirds of Gen Xers say they use their mobile phones most for online shopping, while 16% are on a computer and 11% use a tablet most frequently. This is similar to what we saw with Gen Z and Millennials.

But unlike those younger age groups, where social media is the clear favorite channel for product discovery, Gen X likes to find items through a much wider range of channels, so let’s take a look at the others that have a meaningful impact on those ages 35-54.

Television ads are relevant for Gen X.

Of Gen X, 33% have discovered new products through TV ads in the past three months, and 55% of them say that TV ads are where they discover products most often, slightly behind social media and searching the web.

Additionally, 16% of Gen X say they prefer to discover new products through TV ads.

Retail has the widest reach for Gen X, but digital channels are seen much more frequently.

Retail is the top channel Gen X has discovered new products in the past three months. But while 35% of Gen X found a new product in a brick and mortar store in that period, when it comes to the channels Gen X discovers new products on most often, retail is behind social media.

Does that mean that retail is being forgotten by Gen X? Not exactly, because 27% of Gen X still prefer to discover new products in retail stores, tied in second with social media.

But it does signal that Gen X is shopping online more often than they visit retail stores, even if they prefer the latter. While this could be about convenience, a symptom of the pandemic, or a reflection of our increasingly digital world, it is important to reach Gen X virtually while keeping in mind their affinity for a real-life shopping experience.

Gen X Discovers Products On Social Most Often & It’s Most Preferred

Social media is the number one channel Gen X discovers new products on, according to 40% of those 35-54. And, at the same time, 28% of Gen Xers say they prefer to discover new products on social media, coming in at number one on the list of their favored channels.

This can be explained by the fact that 92% of Gen X use social media. While 14% spend under an hour on it every day, the rest average 3 hours and 25 minutes of daily use. So, Gen X is using a lot of social media and seeing ads on it more than anywhere else.

Regardless, 40% of Gen X have discovered a product on social media in the past three months. On top of that, 26% of Gen X have bought a product directly in a social media app in that same period. So let’s take a look at which social media apps Gen X is using.

So Gen X is definitely on Facebook and YouTube, while a little over half are on Instagram, and 45% visited TikTok and Twitter in the past three months. Now let’s take a look at which social media platforms Gen X uses most:

Facebook and YouTube stay in the lead, a trend that continues when we look at Gen X’s favorite social media apps.

Now that we know which platforms are most popular among Gen X, here’s a look at how the age group prefers to discover new products on social media among those who use it.

While the current trend for advertising to Gen Z and Millennials is “make content, not ads,” Gen X isn’t bothered by being advertised to more directly, preferring to see ads on social media.

But since the trend is to make ads as enjoyable and un-intrusive as possible, you should still try to make your Gen X ad campaigns feel authentic, fun, and relatable, making for a better experience regardless of generation.

Coming in second, 32% of Gen X also favor discovering new products through social media marketplaces where purchases happen outside of the app. This reinforces the previous insight we uncovered about Gen X preferring real-life shopping experiences, even if they’re discovering products on social media.

Still, 30% of Gen X prefer to discover new products through in-app shops, but keep in mind this is only among consumers.

In the past three months, 26% of Gen X consumers have bought a product directly on a social media app, and the same amount made a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation.

The impact of influencers is surprising here — 29% of Gen X prefer discovering new products through influencers, which is a higher percentage compared to Gen Z, where only 22% prefer buying based on influencers.

One in three Gen Xers say companies should take a stance on social issues.

Of those in Gen X, 40% say companies should take a stance on social issues, while 40% say they shouldn’t, and 20% aren’t sure.

We also asked those who want to see companies take a stance which social issues are most important for businesses to champion. Here’s what they said.

Among factors like climate change, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, gender, and income inequality, affordable healthcare appears to be the most important social issue for Gen X (51%).

Now, let’s take a look at whether these ideals actually impact Gen X’s purchase decisions. Among all Gen Xers in our survey:

• Of Gen X, 42% have chosen a product based on it being made by a small business in the past three months.
• We found 36% of Gen X have chosen a product based on the brand’s commitment to diversity/inclusion in the past three months.
• Beyond that, 28% of Gen X have chosen a product based on the brand being woman-owned in the past three months.
• Additionally, 28% of Gen X have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a person of color in the past three months.
• Twenty-one percent of Gen X have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a member of the LGBTQ+ community in the past three months.

While these numbers are lower than what we’re seeing with Gen Z and Millennials, social factors are present factors in Gen X’s purchase decisions. We also asked all Gen Xers in our survey how the following attributes impact their purchasing decisions, if at all, using a 5-point scale from much less likely to much more likely.

• Corporate Trust: 70% of Gen X are more likely to buy from a company that they can trust with their data, while 74% are more likely to purchase from brands that treat their employees well.
• Economic and/or Environmental Impact: 43% of Gen X are more likely to buy a product made by a small business, and 60% are more likely to buy from a business that actively tries to reduce its environmental impact
• Moderate DI&B Standards: 36% of Gen X are more likely to purchase from a brand committed to diversity/inclusion, and 54% say a brand advocating for racial justice makes them more likely to become a customer. Additionally, 32% of Gen X say they’re more likely to buy products from brands owned by a person of color.
• Gender and LGBTQ+ Advocacy: 57% of Gen X say brands that advocate for gender equality are more likely to get their purchases, while 44% of them are more likely to buy from brands that advocate for LGTBTQ+ rights.

We know that social issues are part of Gen X’s purchase decisions, but which other factors do they consider, and which are most important? Let’s take a look.

What drives Gen X’s purchase decisions?

Unsurprisingly, price and quality are the top factors when it comes to Gen X purchase decisions. But let’s take a look at which factors Gen X finds most important when forced to choose just three of those they consider in their purchase decisions.

Whether a brand has an active community around it, a brand’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, and whether a brand donates a portion of its profits to charity all rise to the top. While these are nowhere near the top factors in Gen X’s purchase decisions, for those who consider them, they are highly important.

How does Gen X prefer to purchase products?

Of Gen Xers, 62% prefer to purchase products in-store. 47% favor online retailers like Amazon, while about one in four like to go directly through a company’s website, and 26% prefer to purchase products through social media apps.

How does Gen X like to pay?

Of Gen Xers, 60% prefer to purchase a product for full price as needed, while 20% favor payment installments, and also 20% like to use a subscription plan.

Now that you know all about Gen X purchase habits in 2024, let’s end with a deep dive into the shopping habits of Baby Boomers.

Pro tip: Commerce Hub Software offers handy tools that make billing customers and collecting revenue super easy.

Baby Boomer Shopping Habits in 2024 (ages 55+)

Cable TV drives boomer product discovery.

Boomers’ shopping habits stand out the most of any generation. While Gen X shares some similarities with Gen Z and Millennials in terms of frequently shopping on social media, Boomers are discovering products in their own way — through cable TV ads.

Over half of Boomers have discovered new products through television advertisements in the past three months, and 40% of them say their TV set is where they discover products most often.

Leveraging online search is second-best for reaching boomers.

Boomers are better than younger generations when it comes to searching the internet, with 46% of them having discovered a new product through online search in the past three months.

Of those who discover new products through online search, 39% say it’s the channel they find things on most often, coming in second after TV ads. It is also the second most preferred channel for product discovery among Boomers.

So, which devices are Boomers using most often when shopping online? Unlike all other generations, 41% of Boomers use their computers most often for online shopping, while 46% use their phones more frequently.

Boomers prefer retail shopping more than any other generation.

Of Boomers, 50% have discovered new products in retail stores in the past three months, and 39% of them say that’s where they find new items most often. Additionally, 33% of Boomers prefer discovering new products in online stores over any other channel.

Social media falls flat for Boomer product discovery.

When we ask Boomers about their preferred way to discover new products, just 17% say through social media, and it ranks behind all the channels we just mentioned, as well as word of mouth and direct mail (snail mail).

On top of that, just 20% of Boomers have discovered a product on social media in the past three months, and only 8% have purchased a product on a social app.

Regardless, two in three Boomers use social media. While about a third of them spend less than an hour on social media a day, the other 65% are spending over an hour on it daily.

But which apps are they using?

70% of Boomers who use social media are on Facebook. Over half use YouTube; about one quarter are on Instagram, Pinterest, and X. 59% of Boomers who use Facebook also say it’s the app they use the most, with YouTube coming in second at 24%.

So you know where to find Boomers on social media, but what kind of content do they want to see when discovering new products?

Similar to Gen X, Boomers are perfectly content with being advertised to more directly, though the current trend of “making content, not ads,” popular with Gen Z and Millennials, is sure to improve their experience.

Boomers also favor buying through social media marketplaces where purchases happen outside of the app, showcasing their preference for real-life shopping experiences.

Unsurprisingly, Boomers are the least interested of any generation in discovering new products through in-app shops or through influencers, with 10% saying they prefer to find products this way.

Almost half of Boomers say companies shouldn’t take a stance on social issues.

Boomers are often considered the polar opposite of Gen Z, and in the case of whether companies should take a stance on social issues, the two groups are completely at odds. While one in two Gen Zers think companies should engage in advocacy, about half of Boomers say they shouldn’t.

Still, one in four Boomers want to see companies taking a stance on social issues, so let’s take a look at which ones they want to see businesses speak on the most.

The social issues Boomers want to see companies advocating for most are climate change, affordable healthcare, racial justice, and income inequality. This is right in line with the issues we saw were important to Gen X, though climate change is significantly more important to Boomers than any other generation.

Keep in mind the above is only among Boomers who want to see companies take a stance on social issues, which is just 26% of them. For the rest, social issues are either irrelevant or simply aren’t something they want to hear about when interacting with brands.

• Of Boomers, 4% have chosen a product based on it being made by a small business in the past three months.
• Further, 3% of Boomers have chosen a product based on the brand’s commitment to diversity/inclusion in the past three months.
• We found that 6% of Boomers have chosen a product based on the brand being woman-owned in the past three months.
• O f Boomers, 5% have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a person of color in the past three months.
• Five percent of Boomers have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a member of the LGBTQ+ community in the past three months.

While one in five Boomers have chosen a product based on the brand being a small business in the past three months, identity-based issues are clearly not resonating with Boomers.

But is that due to Boomers being averse to companies taking a stance on social issues, or is it because they simply don’t consider them in their purchase decisions?

To find out, we asked all Boomers in our survey how the following attributes impact their purchase decisions, if at all, using a 5-point scale from much less likely to much more likely.

When looking at issues related to identity, from the middle to the right side of the graph above, Boomers are overwhelmingly likely to say they have no impact on their purchase decision. A small percentage of Boomers say they are more likely to purchase when it comes to identity-related issues, while an even smaller group says they’re less likely to buy.

So it’s much less about whether they’re for or against a certain social cause — these issues are simply just not part of their purchase decisions, with a few exceptions.

It turns out Boomers are overwhelmingly more likely to buy from companies they trust with their data and those that treat their employees well.

Boomers are also more likely to buy from companies that donate a portion of their profits, try to reduce their environmental impact, and are small businesses, though many also say these actions have no impact on their purchase decisions.

Since Boomers generally aren’t impacted by ESG initiatives, let’s dive into the factors they do consider in their purchase decisions and find out which are most important.

What drives Boomers’ purchase decisions?

Price and quality are the most considered factors in Boomers’ purchase decisions, far above any other generation.

But which are the most important? Let’s take a look at what Boomers prioritize when forced to choose just three of the factors they consider when making purchases:

Here, we see a similar picture as before, with the addition of the way a brand treats its employees and whether a product is a necessity or a luxury.

While the latter is part of 21% of Boomers’ purchase decisions, just 3% of them take how a brand treats its employees into consideration, though it is highly important for those who do.

How do Boomers prefer to purchase products?

Of Boomers, 78% prefer to purchase products in-store. Fifty-six percent favor online retailers like Amazon, and another 33% like to shop directly from a company’s website.

Boomers also prefer using a company’s mobile app over ordering by phone or through social media.

How do Boomers like to pay?

Boomers overwhelmingly prefer buying products at full price whenever they need them, according to 78% of those over age 55. Eighteen percent of Boomers prefer paying in installments, and just 4% favor a subscription model.

Still, 13% of Boomers have purchased a subscription plan for a physical product in the past three months:

Consumer Spending by Generation

When the economy takes a hit, everyone adjusts their spending. And here’s how different age groups are handling it, based on our January 2024 research with 701 U.S. consumers:

Gen Z balances saving, spending, and enjoying.

Gen Z strikes a good balance between saving and spending. Almost half (43%) are saving more carefully, maybe because of student loans or wanting to be financially secure.

On the flip side, 17% are spending more freely. This flexibility might be because they feel able to adjust everything easily or because they’re getting more independent.

They’re all about finding deals (43%) and cutting back on non-essential stuff (34%), which is, frankly, surprising for this generation (in a positive way). I’d say that Gen Z is spending on what they need for life but still leaving some room for fun and enjoyment.

Millennials manage money, love deals, and savor life.

Millennials are mirroring Gen Z’s cautious optimism. They’re exercising financial responsibility, with 43% of them tightening budgets but also allowing some flexibility — 14% loosening budgets.

This could be due to factors like starting families or managing mortgages while still wanting to enjoy life’s experiences.

Just like Gen Z, they‘re adept at finding deals (41%) and being mindful of their spending (37%). As a Millennial, I’d say we’re all about balancing our financial aspirations with living our best lives in the moment.

We‘re aware of our responsibilities but still want to invest in great experiences because life isn’t just about surviving; it’s about living.

Gen X prioritizes stability through smart spending.

Gen X seems to be the very conservative generation when it comes to spending, which is not necessarily bad. Actually, if we all played safe with the money like Gen X does, we could avoid overspending.

With a significant portion (51%) tightening their budgets, it’s possible that Gen X witnessed economic downturns. That’s why they want financial stability more than anything.

Their focus on seeking deals (45%) and cutting back on non-essentials (47%) shows a strong commitment to smart financial practices.

Only 13% are willing to loosen their budgets, which may indicate potential fear or even trauma from debt repayment. They may also worry they‘ve reached their peak earning potential and won’t receive further salary increases.

Baby Boomers are playing safe.

Baby Boomers definitely have the most cautious spending habits of all the generations.

With 68% tightening their budgets, it‘s pretty clear they’re taking a conservative approach, possibly due to factors like retirement planning or going through an uncertain economic climate.

Their expertise at finding deals (54%) and extremely careful spending habits (71%) likely come from years of financial responsibility. With only 7% spending more freely, it shows how careful Boomers are with their money.

Meeting Your Targets Where They Are

While this guide has what you need to know right now, consumer shopping habits change rapidly — that’s why we’ll be running this same survey every few months and reporting back on any trends you need to be aware of.

And, for even more data on the key consumer trends that could impact your marketing strategy in the next six months, check out our State of Consumer Trends Report.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

 

Digital marketing quotes are an invaluable source of insight and direction to help you navigate the challenges and opportunities of the digital landscape.

My favorite, “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing,” is a quote from Tom Fishburne, the founder and CEO of Marketoonist.

This quote reminds me that if done right, marketing should seamlessly integrate into the customer’s experience without ever feeling intrusive or forced.

And this is just one of many nuggets of wisdom I’ve discovered over the years.

I’ve curated this list of my favorite quotes across various categories. And as a bonus, I’ve also included at least one quote from a HubSpot employee who’s an expert in each category.

Let’s dive in.

Why use marketing quotes?

Quotes are a powerful way to tap into the wisdom and experience of others. They offer valuable perspectives and capture the essence of important concepts in a concise, impactful manner.

Whether it’s an inspiring quote to motivate your team or a content marketing quote to provoke discussion about one of your strategies, quotes can be a powerful way to help guide you and your team toward achieving your goals.

The abundance of marketing quotes include content marketing quotes, famous marketing quotes, branding marketing quotes, inspirational marketing quotes, storytelling marketing quotes, social media marketing quotes, and digital marketing quotes.

1. “It’s not what you sell that matters as much as how you sell it!” – Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder, HubSpot

In today’s competitive landscape, customers have their pick when it comes to purchasing a product. The difference you can make is how you sell your product to stand out from competitors.

2. “Many companies have forgotten they sell to actual people. Humans care about the entire experience, not just marketing, sales, or service.” – Dharmesh Shah, CTO and co-founder, HubSpot

Successful businesses treat their prospects and customers as humans, not just numbers. Keeping the humanity of your customers foremost in mind will transform the way you do business.

3. “Ignoring online marketing is like opening a business but not telling anyone.” – KB Marketing Agency

In the Internet Age, it is vital to your business’s success to have a presence online. Online marketing is the name of the game.

4. “Marketing’s job is never done. It’s about perpetual motion. We must continue to innovate every day.” – Beth Comstock, former CMO and vice chair, GE

It may be tempting to sit back and relax after launching a long-worked-on campaign, but marketers always need to be a step ahead of their customers, preparing the next campaign or piece of content.

5. “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” – Peter Drucker, management consultant, educator, and author

This is the heart of inbound marketing: selling your product or service to those who are already looking for it — whether they know it or not.

6. “Integrated marketing offers opportunities to break through to consumers in new markets.” – Betsy Holden, senior advisor, McKinsey and Co.

Be on the lookout for integrated marketing opportunities so you can expand brand awareness to new, relevant audiences.

7. “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” – Tom Fishburne, founder and CEO, Marketoonist

Everyone is tired of being sold to. We are constantly bombarded by ads, so we tend to ignore them. Instead of fighting for customers’ attention, create content that captures their interest and offers them real value.

8. “To continue winning the internet marketing game, your content has to be more than just brilliant. It has to give the people consuming it the ability to become a better version of themselves.” – Michelle StinsonRoss, MD of marketing operations, Apogee Results

People want to know what’s in it for them. What value does your product or service offer them that it’s worth their time, attention, and money?

9. “Business has only two functions — marketing and innovation.” – Milan Kundera, writer and playwright

Innovation creates new ideas while marketing sells them. Master both to achieve all your goals.

10. “Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like.” – Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO, Airbnb

The quality of your customers is more important than the quantity. Those who love what you offer will be far more loyal and likely to spread positive reviews than those who are only mildly pleased by your offering.

Digital Marketing Quotes

The world of digital marketing is ever-changing — the following quotes will help you think about ways to ensure your digital strategy remains relevant and impactful for your target audience.

11. “Businesses get blinded by the allure of a large subscription list, but unengaged subscribers aren’t just not interested in what you’re sending, they’re actually harming your deliverability.” – Meghan Keaney Anderson, vice president of marketing, HubSpot

It’s often tempting to hang onto every hard-won subscriber you’ve ever gained. However, it’s essential to regularly clean your list because email service providers (ESPs) use engagement signals to decide if your emails go to the inbox or spam folder. Focusing on quantity over quality can hurt your email performance in the long run. Instead, prioritize engagement.

12. “Marketers need to build digital relationships and reputation before closing a sale.” – Chris Brogan, president, Chris Brogan Media

In the digital age, customers have access to endless choices and information. As a marketer, you must prioritize creating digital touchpoints for potential buyers to know, like, and trust your brand. Differentiating your brand and building trust is crucial in today’s oversaturated market.

13. “Less is more. Keeping it simple takes time and effort.” – Jeff Bullas, CEO, Jeffbullas.com Pty Ltd.

It can be tempting to jump on every platform and follow every trend, but spreading yourself too thin is counterproductive. Instead, prioritize mastering a few key strategies or channels before expanding further.

14. “Instead of one-way interruption, web marketing is about delivering useful content at just the right moment that a buyer needs it.” – David Meerman Scott, keynote speaker and author

Good marketing should never feel like an interruption. Instead, it should enhance your audience’s experience at each touchpoint. Timing and relevance is the name of the game.

15. “Content, in all its forms, is the single most critical element of any marketing campaign.” – Rebecca Lieb, founding partner and analyst, Kaleido Insights

Content, whether articles, videos, or social media posts, forms the foundation of every digital marketing campaign. No matter how great your strategy, channels, or timing, they can never make up for poor content quality.

16. “Inspiration is the most important part of our digital strategy.” – Paull Young, charitable giving lead, Facebook

Let your marketing be driven by and inspire creativity. Aim for original ideas and innovative approaches that resonate with your audience.

17. “Digital marketing is not the art of selling a product. It is the art of making people buy the product that you sell.” – Hecate Strategy

As a marketer, your job is never to “push a product onto an unwilling consumer.” Instead, it’s about understanding your audience thoroughly enough to craft messages, experiences, and campaigns that seamlessly connect their needs/pain points to your product.

18. “Don’t build links. Build relationships.” – Rand Fishkin, founder, SparkToro

Link building can sometimes feel impersonal and spammy. Instead, build genuine connections with influencers, partners, and customers. Nurturing these relationships cultivates a strong network and naturally increases opportunities for more “organic” link placements.

19. “Discoverability equals sales in the digital world.” – Dev Chandan, founder, Dev Chandan

This one is self-explanatory. Potential customers can’t buy from you unless they know you exist.

20. “Before you create any more ‘great content,’ figure out how you are going to market it first.” – Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett, co-authors

Creating high-quality content is only half the battle. A solid distribution strategy ensures your content reaches the right people at the right time. No matter how “great” your content is, it has no value if your audience never sees it.

Sometimes, you might want to lean on the words and experiences that a successful person you admire once said or described. Here are some famous quotes you can apply to your business’s marketing efforts to help you do just that.

21. “Instead of interrupting, work on attracting.” – Dharmesh Shah, CTO and co-founder, HubSpot

Honey attracts flies better than vinegar. Don’t push your way into a prospect’s life; they’ll find the interruption annoying and so be more likely to write you off. If, on the other hand, you attract customers, they’re more likely to stick around because they are there of their own accord.

22. “Just because you are the loudest, doesn’t make you right.” – Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder, HubSpot

Focus on the clarity and truth of your message, not the noise you can make.

23. “Content is king.” – Bill Gates, co-founder, Microsoft

Content that educates and helps prospects solve their problems is more likely to lead to a purchase and long-term customer satisfaction.

24. “Master the topic, the message, and the delivery.” – Steve Jobs, co-founder, Apple

You will only convince others if you are convinced and knowledgeable yourself. Be sure you know what you’re selling, why you’re selling it, and how it can help your prospects.

25. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.” – Benjamin Franklin, a founding father of the United States

This quote is pretty self-explanatory, but it’s revolutionary when you apply it to marketing.

26. “It’s important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away.” – Douglas Warner III, former CEO, J.P. Morgan Chase and Co.

In this day and age, it’s easier than ever for consumers to choose the provider they like best from the comfort of their sofa. One bad experience can send them fleeing to your competitors. Be sure to give a reason for your customers to stick around.

27. “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” – Walt Disney, co-founder of The Walt Disney Company

The magic of a good product or service, along with an excellent customer experience, will keep customers around and lead them to tell others about your business.

28. “Brand is just a perception, and perception will match reality over time.” – Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO, SpaceX

Don’t underestimate the power of brand perception. Starting with a clear, strong brand vision can help you guide brand perception, but you have to stay vigilant about how others perceive your business.

29. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou, Civil Rights activist and poet

Focus on making people feel good about your company and your offer to create lasting positive impressions.

30. “Marketing is really just about sharing your passion.” – Michael Hyatt, NY Times best-selling author

We can all smell marketing that isn’t sincere. The best thing is to be selling something you believe in and are passionate about. People will buy your authenticity.

Content Marketing Quotes

The following quotes provide new ways for you and your team members to approach creating, publishing, and distributing your content and ideas — no matter the products or services your company produces and sells.

Check out our Content Marketing Strategy: A Comprehensive Guide for Modern Marketers to learn more about content marketing for your business.

31. “When it comes to content, the best marketers know that self-promotion is good!” – Kieran Flanagan, vice president of Marketing, HubSpot

While many marketers shy away from self-promotion for fear of seeming “spammy,” when executed effectively, promoting your content should be a win-win for you and your audience. The key is simply to focus on the value and relevance of your promotions.

32. “What separates good content from great content is a willingness to take risks and push the envelope.” – Brian Halligan, CEO and co-founder, HubSpot

Don’t be afraid to explore new ideas, formats, channels, etc. It’s essential to strike a healthy balance between maintaining what’s currently working and being willing to innovate and experiment.

33. “Quality content means content packed with clear utility and is brimming with inspiration, and it has relentless empathy for the audience.” – Ann Handley, CCO, MarketingProfs

Understanding your audience — their needs, pain points, goals, etc. — is crucial for creating high-quality content that effectively engages them. Without this deep understanding, crafting content that genuinely resonates and adds value is impossible.

34. “Marketing is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content Marketing is showing the world you are one.” – Robert Rose, chief strategy officer, The Content Advisory

One significant advantage of content marketing is that it allows you to “demonstrate” rather than “proclaim” expertise. Rather than simply telling your audience you can solve their problem, you have several avenues and formats to showcase your product and expertise “in action.”

35. “Content marketing is really like a first date. If all you do is talk about yourself, there won’t be a second date.” – David Beebe, founder and CEO, Storified Hospitality Group

It’s always about your audience — their problems, needs, and how your product can help them meet their goals. Your content must center your audience at every stage, from messaging to marketing.

36. “Focus on the core problem your business solves and put out lots of content and enthusiasm and ideas about how to solve that problem.” – Laura Fitton, INBOUND and influencer relations, HubSpot

This is a foolproof way to create relevant, high-quality content consistently. Creating content around the core problems your product solves ensures you’re attracting, engaging, and creating value for your ideal audience.

37. “Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” – Andrew Davis, author and keynote speaker, Monumental Shift

Content is a powerful way to attract, engage, and build relationships with prospective customers. Every content touchpoint is an opportunity to educate, build credibility, and establish trust with your audience. The byproduct of this trust is the eventual decision to buy and recommend your product.

38. “Content marketing is the gap between what brands produce and what consumers actually want.” – Michael Brenner, CEO, Marketing Insider Group

Content marketing acts as a bridge between products and consumers. As a marketer, your role is to use your content to demonstrate how your products or services solve your audience’s specific challenges. This means crafting messages directly addressing your audience’s pain points and illustrating how your offerings can solve those problems.

39. “One of the best ways to sabotage your content is not to tie it to your goals. Know why you’re creating content.” – Ellen Gomes, senior content marketing manager, Glint Inc.

All content should have a goal, whether broad or specific. It’s crucial to understand why you’re creating content, how you expect it to perform, and where it fits into your overall strategy or sales funnel.

40. “There are three objectives for content marketing: reach, engagement, and conversion. Define key metrics for each.” – Michael Brenner, CEO, Marketing Insider Group

When setting content goals, it’s essential to determine which metrics you’ll be paying attention to. A simple trio to monitor effectiveness is reach (how many people see your content), engagement (how many people interact with your content), and conversion (how many people take the desired action your content encourages.)

Inspirational marketing quotes exist to help you spark new ideas and excite your team members about the endless number of opportunities in the field. They also can positively motivate your team to produce unique marketing content for your audience.

41. “Recruiting great marketers should be your number one priority.” – Kipp Bodnar, CMO, HubSpot

A talented, hard-working, and collaborative marketing team is key to the success of all your marketing efforts.

42. “Do the right thing as marketers to build trust.” – Jon Dick, vice president of marketing, HubSpot

Trust is the foundation of any relationship, including between a business and prospective customers. As marketers, we’re often the first point of contact a person has with our brand, so it’s essential we start the relationship off right by building trust.

43. “Take a risk and keep testing because what works today won’t work tomorrow, but what worked yesterday may work again.” – Amrita Sahasrabudhe, vice president of marketing, FastMed Urgent Care

Marketers are tasked with relentless creativity. Risk-taking and trial-and-error will eventually lead to success.

44. “Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.” – Joe Chernov, vice president of marketing, Pendo.io

At the end of the day, it’s not about you — it’s about the customer. Aim to change the way customers feel about themselves when they use your product or service.

45. “Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz, former football coach at Notre Dame

All three — talent, motivation, and attitude — are key to being an accomplished marketer.

46. “The creative process is fueled by divergent thinking — a breaking away from familiar or established ways of seeing and doing.” – The Innovator’s Toolkit, Harvard Business Essentials

Don’t be afraid to think outside the box — even if it means failing several times before finding success.

47. “If you take a risk and it doesn’t go as planned, welcome to the club.” – Fran Hauser, startup investor, advisor, and author

Failure sucks, but it happens to the best of us. Only those who get back up and try again will see success.

48. “The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” – Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook

Risk-taking is the first step in innovation. Be prepared for both success and failure, but don’t fail to act.

49. “We need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and be what people are interested in.” – Craig Davis, co-founder, Sendle

Davis’s perspective offers us a paradigm shift; it’s not about stealing people’s attention, it’s about winning it.

50. “Speak to your audience in their language about what’s in their heart.” – Jonathan Lister, vice president of global sales solutions, LinkedIn

Getting personal is the best way to a prospect’s heart. Make sure you know who you’re selling to, what their story is, and how your solution can help them.

Marketing Career Quotes

A marketing career is both exciting and challenging. These quotes are tidbits of advice from industry leaders and trailblazers to inspire you and foster resilience. They are potent reminders to embrace growth by taking risks, running experiments, and being willing to pivot when necessary.

51. “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” – Steve Jobs, co-founder, Apple

It’s important to create things you’re genuinely proud of. Ensure that every piece of content, campaign, or project reflects your commitment to your craft and aligns with your values.

52. “Execution and failure are a part of the process. You have to accept that.” – Morgan Debaun, CEO, Blavity

Planning is essential, but avoid getting stuck at this phase. You’ll never feel completely ready, so you need to take the leap at some point. Sometimes things will work out, and other times they won’t. But when they don’t, remember that failures are learning opportunities and a natural part of every journey.

53. “The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.” – Robert Greene

Always keep learning and expanding your skillset. Stay adaptable, curious, and open to new ways to apply your knowledge.

54. “Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.” – Denis Waitley

The digital landscape is dynamic. Staying ahead in this niche requires staying current on new technologies, platforms, and shifts in consumer behavior. However, it’s crucial not to follow every latest trend mindlessly. Instead, prioritize strategic adoption over reacting impulsively to changes.

55. “Always deliver more than expected.” – Larry Page

Do your best to exceed expectations in every interaction with your audience, clients, and partners.

56. “My advice for anybody who is trying to learn to do marketing is to niche yourself down in a specific industry…if you pick something, be the best at it.” – Brittany Thompson, social marketing and media manager, Virtual Resort Manager

The age-long debate is whether to niche or not. While there are compelling arguments for both, niching down at the start of your career is a great way to build expertise quickly, understand the nuances of that particular market, and position yourself as an expert.

57. “I’ve spent my entire life relying on light bulb moments and jumping in full-force.” – Emily Weiss, founder, Into The Gloss and Glossier

Embrace moments of creativity and inspiration. Learn to trust your instincts, embrace bold ideas, and recognize timely opportunities.

58. “I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow.” ― Marissa Mayer, co-founder and CEO, Sunshine

No matter how long you work on a strategy or a project, there’ll always be something that can be further improved or tweaked. Learning how to recognize when to stop refining and start implementing is important.

59. “Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.” – Tony Robbins

Beware of the sunk cost fallacy. If data shows your current approach isn’t working, don’t hesitate to pivot. Stay focused on your goals, but remain flexible in your methods.

60. “Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength.” – Sara Blakely, founder, Spanx

Starting with a blank slate allows you to approach ideas, strategies, and platforms without preconceived notions. This means you can evaluate every opportunity with fresh eyes, free from biases experienced marketers may have. It opens the door to seeing unconventional opportunities they might overlook.

Branding Marketing Quotes

Branding marketing quotes will help you consider how you share and promote your content and think of new and exciting ways to establish your business’s image.

Read our Ultimate Guide to Branding to learn more about branding your business and content.

61. Don’t push people to where you want to be; meet them where they are.” – Meghan Keaney Anderson, vice president of marketing, HubSpot

Tailoring your content to meet customers at every stage of their buyer journey is crucial. By consistently focusing on adding value and enhancing their experience, you strengthen the relationship while guiding them smoothly through the sales funnel.

62. “People will ignore or skip anything they don’t like. So brands have to start making things they love.” – Steve Pratt, partner, Pacific Content

Your audience is spoiled for choice. The only way to break through the noise is by giving them something worth paying attention to. This means crafting authentic, relevant, and engaging content.

63. “Smart marketers and smart brand managers understand the importance of leveraging frame of reference to build their brands.” – Mark Shapiro, chair, Vistage Worldwide, Inc.

Use familiar ideas and contexts to align your brand and offering with what your audience already understands or believes.

64. “Brand equity is the sum of all the hearts and minds of every single person that comes into contact with your company.” – Christopher Betzter, brand strategist

Everyone who interacts with your brand is a potential advocate or detractor. That’s why it’s crucial to consistently deliver positive experiences across all touchpoints, whether with customers, partners, or the public.

65. “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is — it is what consumers tell each other it is.” – Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit

Brand perception and word of mouth heavily influence a new buyer’s purchasing decisions. Ensuring that every interaction leaves existing customers satisfied is essential for managing your brand’s reputation and cultivating a loyal army of advocates.

66. “Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.” – Walter Landor, founder, Landor

Consumers’ perception of a brand often carries more weight than its utility. For marketers, this highlights the importance of strategic positioning and messaging in influencing consumer behavior and loyalty — especially within competitive markets.

67. “Branding is about signals — the signals people use to determine what you stand for as a brand. Signals create associations.” – Allen P. Adamson, co-founder, Metaforce

Your brand’s signals include everything from visual representations to core messaging. Be strategic and deliberate about how these signals align with your brand’s identity.

68. “Never lose sight of your brand, its value, and its inherent need to be fed, nurtured, and placed above all else!” – Chet Baker, senior vice president of corporate development, Entrinsic Health Solutions

Your brand is an asset that will outlive any individual promotion, strategy, or product. For this reason, it’s essential to never lose sight of your brand’s values.

69. “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” – Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO, Amazon

Again, the importance of your brand perception and reputation can’t be overstated. When the dust settles, and a funny ad or discount promotion isn’t there to actively influence the audience, what do they say about you?

70. “Your brand is a story unfolding across all customer touch points.” – Jonah Sachs, author

Every customer interaction with your brand counts. From the first point of contact to post-sale communication, each interaction shapes customer opinions and experiences.

Email Marketing Quotes

If you’re looking for some inspiration about getting the most out of your email marketing campaigns, here are a few of my favorite quotes to get your wheels turning.

71. “Your email list is one of your most valuable assets.” – Amy Porterfield, online marketing expert

Unlike social media or blogs, your email list is a channel you wholly own and control. It allows you to bypass third-party platforms, algorithms, and noise and open up a more intimate line of communication with your audience.

72. “Email has an ability many channels don’t: creating valuable, personal touches — at scale.” – David Newman, marketing expert

Email is one of the few channels that enables direct, personalized communication with your audience. When executed well, each email can feel like a one-on-one conversation, even when reaching a large audience simultaneously.

73. “Personalization — it is not about first/last name. It’s about relevant content.” – Dan Jak, marketing consultant

For content to be effective, it needs to be relevant to the person consuming it. As marketers, we must leverage data to profile, segment, and engage our audience. This means moving past the basics of personalization to craft and deliver experiences tailored to each email recipient.

74. “I want to do business with a company that treats emailing me as a privilege, not a transaction.” – Andrea Mignolo, executive and team coach

Would you prefer emails from a brand that builds a relationship with you or one that sees you only as a sales target? As marketers, we must step back, put ourselves in our audience’s shoes, and ask, “Would I want to receive this email?”

75. “Email is the most effective channel for keeping customers engaged over time.” – Megan Marrs, marketing specialist

Email marketing is based on opt-in consent. This means that the people who receive your emails have specifically indicated an interest in hearing from you directly. Combined with a consistent, personalized, and value-focused content strategy, this creates a powerful opportunity to nurture and sustain long-term relationships with your audience.

76. “When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” – David Ogilvy, advertising tycoon

Like most people judge a book by its cover, most of your audience will judge your content by its headline. No matter how great your content is, your headline will often make or break its performance.

77. “Your goal should be to own quality time in your customer’s inbox.” – Andrew Davis, marketing speaker and author

Getting into your customer’s inbox is just half the battle; you must also earn their attention and trust once you’re there. Most people receive hundreds of emails every day, so make sure you’re giving them a reason to care specifically about yours.

78. “Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed.” – Dan Zarrella, author and social media scientist

Leveraging data, whether from CRMs, social analytics, or ESPs, is crucial for making informed decisions and optimizing campaign performance.

79. “Email marketing is like a first date. If you’re too pushy, you won’t get a second one.” – Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital

Have you heard the saying, “You only get one chance to make a first impression”? Well, email marketing works the same way. If your initial email feels like another item cluttering your recipients’ inboxes and demanding their attention without payoff, you risk being sent to the spam folder or ignored altogether.

80. “Reaching the inbox isn’t your goal — engaging people is.” – Matt Blumberg, author and tech entrepreneur

Your most important email marketing metric shouldn’t be your list size. Instead, focus on how much of that list engages with your content and converts consistently.

Storytelling Marketing Quotes

Storytelling marketing quotes can improve the impact of the stories you and your fellow marketers tell about your business, branding, and products on your customers and target audience.

Develop your storytelling skills with our Ultimate Guide to Storytelling.

81. “Nothing sticks in your head better than a story. Stories can express the most complicated ideas in the most digestible ways.” – Sam Balter, senior marketing manager of podcasts, HubSpot

Storytelling is a great way to communicate or simplify your message. Weaving compelling stories into your content engages your audience’s emotions and makes your message more memorable.

82. “If your stories are all about your products and services, that’s not storytelling. It’s a brochure. Give yourself permission to make the story bigger.” – Jay Baer, content marketer and co-author

Your story shouldn’t feel like a sales pitch. Instead, it should seamlessly integrate your product or service into a broader narrative that resonates with your audience.

83. “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” – Steve Jobs, co-founder, Apple

Stories are powerful tools that shape the audience’s sentiments and actions. Learning how to weave stories effectively is an important skill that will be invaluable for crafting your brand’s identity and perception.

84. “You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything.” – Beth Comstock, former CMO and vice chair, GE

In today’s saturated digital market, you must craft a compelling narrative about your product or service that conveys why your audience should care about it and what sets it apart.

85. “The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” – Brandon Sanderson, author

Rather than outrightly telling your audience what to think, prompt them to engage with the ideas in your stories and deeply engage with the narrative.

86. “Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form.” – Jean Luc Godard, director, writer, and editor

Stories are a great way to convey the impact and value of your solutions without making them too complex. Framing marketing messages within a narrative context makes your offer more understandable and compelling.

87. “Make the customer the hero of your story.” – Ann Handley, chief content officer, MarketingProfs

Your story’s focal point and protagonist should always be the customer rather than your product. In this narrative, the product is simply the catalyst propelling the customer forward on their hero’s journey.

88. “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.” – Robert McKee, author

With so many messages vying for our attention simultaneously, stories have become one of the most powerful ways to cut through the noise and create an impactful narrative.

89. “And do you know what is the most often missing ingredient in a sales message? Storytelling. Good storytelling is a vital component of a marketing campaign.” – Gary Halbert, author

A great story transforms a sales message from a “transactional pitch” into an engaging narrative. It allows the marketer to drive the sale in an impactful and enjoyable way for the audience.

90. “The brands that win are the brands that tell a great story.” – Mitch Joel, author and founder, Six Pixels Group

A great story humanizes your brand, makes it memorable, and allows your message to resonate more deeply with your audience.

Social Media Marketing Quotes

Social media marketing quotes are a great way to influence the strategies you implement at your company and provide thoughts about how social media can positively impact your marketing efforts.

Learn everything you need to know about social media marketing in our Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing Campaigns.

91. “Social media marketing is about creating content that brings your audience together as a community and inspires authentic conversations while increasing your brand’s awareness.” – Krystal Wu, social media community manager, HubSpot

Social media is a powerful channel for creating genuine interactions and discussions with your community. Sharing content on these platforms allows you to leverage real-time engagement to nurture the relationship with your audience and increase brand visibility.

92. “It’s important to be where your audience of potential customers is today, and where they might be tomorrow.” – Andrew Delaney, senior manager of social media, HubSpot

Not all social media platforms are created equal. You also don’t need to be on every major platform. When choosing where to focus your effort, you need to understand where your audience currently spends time, where they might be gravitating, and how they consume content on those platforms.

93. “Social media requires that business leaders start thinking like small-town shop owners.” – Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO, VaynerMedia

Don’t be afraid to do things that don’t scale. Allow your business’s soul and personality to shine through in your interactions. Create genuine, personal relationships with your audience and adopt a long-term approach rather than fixating on quick wins.

94. “Social media was designed to SHARE what you’re doing and who you are, not BE what you’re doing and who you are.” – Richie Norton, author

Social media should amplify your brand, not control it. It should complement your strategy, not dictate it. Avoid getting caught up in performing for the algorithm and losing your authenticity and unique brand identity.

95. “I use social media as an idea generator, trend mapper, and strategic compass for all our online business ventures.” – Paul Barron, Foodable Network CEO

Social media is a great way to stay up-to-date on emerging trends, competitor performance, and current market sentiments.

96. “Going viral is not an outcome; it’s a happening. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. Just remember, fans are vanity, and sales are sanity.” – Lori R. Taylor, founder, Rev Media Marketing

Virality is very hard to predict and not a reliable measure of success. Focus on what is within your control and optimize for tangible business results like conversions and sales.

97. “Social media is about the people! Not about your business. Provide for the people, and the people will provide for you.” – Matt Goulart, founder, Ignite Digital

A great social media strategy is an “audience-centric” strategy. Every piece of content should be framed around your audience’s needs, interests, challenges, etc. This shows your audience that you care about them and are not just promoting your business.

98. “Social marketing eliminates the middlemen, providing brands the unique opportunity to have a direct relationship with their customers.” – Bryan Weiner, board of directors, Cars.com

Social media interactions provide the rare opportunity for real-time, one-on-one conversations with your audience. Leverage this opportunity to build authentic relationships, directly address feedback, and create deeper human connections with your audience.

99. “Our head of social media is the customer.” – McDonald’s

The customer is king. This means that how you strategize, optimize, and engage should be directed by the feedback you receive on every interaction.

100. “Don’t use social media to impress people; use it to impact people.” – Dave Willis, writer and pastor

Always prioritize content quality over chasing trends or engagement farming. But remember, creating meaningful interactions and impactful content doesn’t mean you can’t inject fun and creativity into your messaging.

Start Using Marketing Quotes to Inspire Your Team

Marketing quotes can inspire your team members to produce their best work, drive home the points you make in meetings, and help you shed light on any situation at work. No matter what your company does, there are several quotes you can use to help you work towards your specific marketing goals both individually and with your team.

So, review the sections above and find some quotes to save on your desktop, write them down in your notes, or share them with your co-workers today.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If you‘re a business owner looking to build your start-up from the ground up, you’ve likely read plenty of blogs looking for advice on marketing your business—but I‘m guessing there’s sometimes been a frustrating lack of resources for your particular challenges.

Most marketing guidance centers on the perspectives of brands that are already established or have a sizable following. But what about the business owners who are starting from zero?

We chatted with start-up expert Annie Katrina Lee, whose previous experience includes marketing for Twitch, Pinterest, Amazon, and various start-ups.

If you want advice on marketing from the ground up, you’ve come to the right spot.

1. Start with the customer.

When learning how to build your start-up, you probably want a step-by-step guide that provides instant, tangible results.

That’d be nice, wouldn’t it?

Except Lee says that’s not the correct approach.

“A very common fallacy is when startups feel like they have to take a very specific piece of advice, whether it’s a best practice or something that they read in a blog,” she says. “I think when things are so definitive like that, it’s a bit misleading.”

Lee notes that start-ups that take straightforward, one-size-fits-all advice will often be disappointed when their journey doesn’t unfold as planned.

(And, trust me, I see the irony: Here I am, in a blog post, telling you not to take definitive advice from a blog post. But please bear with me.)

Rather than looking for step-by-step guidance, try approaching your marketing strategy as a framework that starts with your customer.

Lee says speaking to your core audience and customers is one of the best ways to develop that framework.

“If you don’t know who your customer is, then you don’t know what their needs and motivations are,” she explains. “And if you don’t know what their needs and motivations are, how could you communicate with them?”

Which brings us to our second point:

2. Get feedback.

Wistia‘s CEO, Chris Savage, told us that if a brand’s marketing resonates with 10 of its customers, it will resonate with 10,000 — and Lee says there’s some truth to that.

“The thing about marketing that’s hard is it is a blend of art and science,” Lee says. “The qualitative feedback of 10 people in a focus group is the art. What are you hearing? And how are you translating that feedback?.”

It also doesn’t hurt to pull feedback from a larger pool of respondents.

“If you survey 1,000 people, both potential customers and existing customers, you can compare, evaluate, and synthesize that feedback together. Which, to me, gives you a bigger picture than just one focus group.”

3. Start organically.

Lee says you want to build an organic audience… Meaning, you don’t want to rely on paid advertising to get your earliest customers.

“That should come in a much later stage,” she explains. “I’m 100% in the camp where you want to jumpstart things pretty grassroots and organically.”

That early organic stage could involve crafting a basic framework for your brand’s voice, tone, or visuals.

“That will allow you to simultaneously create organic content, test it, and get it out there while also collecting feedback,” Lee says. “I don’t think it needs to be such a linear process in the beginning, but I do believe that paid advertising would be a little too soon for that early of a stage.”

It all goes back to learning about your audience. By organically appealing to your target consumers, you can accurately assess the best channels to reach them so you’re not spending money and time in the wrong places.

“If you know who your audience is, you’ll know which channels to prioritize,” Lee says. “I think a lot of early-stage companies make the mistake of trying to do too much at once, which can muddle your message.”.

4. Focus on your product.

Of course, marketing is crucial in the early stages of any business, but you have to have a product that your audience can believe in and connect with. You can’t just sell people a bag of air.

“I’m always of the belief that it starts with the products,” Lee explains, adding that she believes product-market fit must come before any attempts at marketing

According to Lee, this part of the process involves early interviews and gathering information from consumers, which can be applied to your product’s positioning and messaging.

She says, “Partnering with product teams to set that foundation will make the marketing process much easier.”

5. Get personal.

With the rise of AI, consumers want more authenticity from brands before investing in them. That said, you may want to find a way for your brand to get personal with consumers and display its unique personality—a challenge that many established brands struggle with.

“I have yet to see a brand do it extremely well,” Lee says. “Maybe Duolingo because its face is the owl.”

Duolingo’s iconic owl, Duo, has taken on a life of its own, especially on TikTok. The language learning company is among the most followed on the platform and connects with its audience by having the owl participate in online trends (or by acting comedically unhinged).

Don‘t worry; you don’t have to be unhinged on TikTok to get your brand off the ground.

“I think people generally resonate with personal stories,” Lee says. “And I think there’s always a way to get your story out there.”

As Lee said earlier, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to building a brand from the ground up.

However, if you develop your products and brand voice and build a solid, organic relationship with your target audience, you’ll create a solid framework to help set your business up for success.

As people, we all have big goals — both personal and professional. I’ve been asked in countless interviews about my five-year plan for my career.

I’ve also had lengthy internal monologues about whether I want to buy a house, the countries I want to travel to, and the mountains (literal and figurative) I want to climb.

However, a desire without a plan is just a dream. I want to make sure I make my long-term goals a reality. That’s why I love five-year plans. That’s enough time to take the steps to prepare for lofty accomplishments.

So, in this post, I’ll share my tips for creating five-year plans that you can actually stick to. I’ll also share examples of what these steps look like in practice. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

• What is a Five-year plan?
• Benefits of a Five-Year Plan
• What to Cover in a Five-Year Plan
• Five-Year Plan Tips
• Five-Year Plan Template
• How to Make a Five-Year Plan
• Five-Year Plan Common Mistakes
• Five-Year Plan Example

Benefits of a Five-Year Plan

1. It can give you a fresh start.

Whether professional or personal, a five-year plan can serve as a reset for your life. Who doesn’t like a fresh start?

After all, that’s why New Year’s resolutions are so popular. They give us something to look forward to. There’s also something to be said about writing out a detailed plan. It can be a great motivator to put something in motion.

Personally, I’ve said countless times that I want to be fluent in Spanish. However, it’s not until I write a detailed plan for how that will happen that it feels real.

2. It gives you clarity.

Sometimes, a path seems scarier than it actually is because we don’t know what it looks like.

Creating a plan is like pointing a flashlight on a dark road. A more accurate description is that it turns that dark, twisty road into a clear path forward. This doesn’t mean there won’t be any bumps in the road, but at least you’ll know exactly where you’ll land and how to get there.

For example, working for HubSpot was a longtime goal of mine. I took the time to assess why I wanted to work for the company — the great culture and renowned blog pulled me in. Then, I made a plan on how to get here. I started by taking Academy classes and networking.

I never knew if my plan would work out precisely, but I did have time for introspection, giving me clarity on why I liked a company.

3. It serves as a reminder of what’s at stake.

In your daily life, it can be easy to forget that every day, we’re shaping our future. The decisions we make today affect what our lives will look like years from now. Having a visual reminder of this can keep you focused on your goals.

For example, I spoke to my colleague, Kaitlin Milliken about five-year goals she has had. She mentioned that she wanted to see the Philippines and explore the country her family immigrated from.

“When I first made the decision, I was still in college and didn’t have the money or time to make that trip,” Milliken says. “That goal was a great motivator for a lot of smaller choices, like saving, being smart with my vacation time, and making the space to plan the trip.”

4. It helps with professional development.

Having a five-year plan encourages you to think about and plan for the necessary skills and knowledge you will need in the future. This can guide your professional development journey and activities, such as training, education, or gaining specific experiences.

If you need a plan designed to help you with this, grab HubSpot’s free professional development plan to help you understand where you’re at, where you want to go, and how you’ll get there.

5. It helps with risk management and mitigation

If you’re a business owner, having a five-year business plan can help you manage and mitigate risks as much as possible.

By forecasting potential challenges and market changes over a five-year period, you can develop and implement contingency plans, diversify your income streams, adjust your business model in response to market demands, and maintain financial stability.

A five-year business plan makes it easier for you to navigate through potential pitfalls more effectively and sustain growth even in fluctuating economic conditions.

What to Cover in a Five-Year Plan

Before you get started with your plan, there are a few things you’ll need to figure out ahead of time.

1. Areas of Focus

Your five-year plan can cover various areas from education, career development, finance, hobbies, or even health. It’s up to you. Don’t feel stuck having to stick to one category and choose the ones that best interest you and fit your needs.

For example, one of my goals is to learn a second language, specifically Spanish. This is a personal goal for me that’s right at the intersection of education and my hobbies.

2. Values

Putting down your values in writing will help you discover your “why” (more on that later). This step will also help you narrow down what’s most important to you and shape the goals you set for yourself.

Why do I want to learn Spanish? Well, it’s a super helpful language to know if you live in the U.S. Beyond that, I really want to travel throughout Spain. Being fluent in the language would help me better connect with people throughout my journey.

3. Goal Path

Your five-year plan is only as successful as the effort put into creating it. To create a viable plan, it has to be actionable. Once you’ve got an idea of the goals you’d like to include, start researching the path to attaining them.

For example, if you’d like to set a career goal to become a marketing director, start looking at the steps and credentials required. Do you need to skill up? Is there a pathway at your current job? Doing some initial research will set you up for success.

Learning a language involves lots of steps. I decided to buy a few language textbooks and download Duolingo on my phone. Beyond that, I’m researching if there are local classes in my area that I can sign up for. A structured classroom setting can often be helpful for adults learning a second language.

4. HARD Goals

Tackling heartfelt, animated, required, and difficult (HARD) goals can be a rewarding but challenging part of a five-year plan. These types of goals will push you out of your comfort zone and help you achieve things you didn’t think were possible before. Think of these goals as highly ambitious but achievable with a five-year timeline.

Think of HARD goals this way:

• Heartfelt — what reasons are behind achieving this goal?
• Animated — what gets you excited about achieving this goal? Get specific.
• Required — what is it going to take to achieve this goal? What will you need to accomplish in six months to a year to stay on track?
• Difficult — what skills will you need to accomplish this goal, and how will you obtain them?

Let’s apply this to my desire to learn Spanish:

• Heartfelt — I want to learn Spanish so I can communicate with folks who may not be fluent in English and so I can travel to Spanish-speaking countries.
• Animated — the idea of visiting Spain and speaking with the locals gets me excited to learn.
• Required — I know that finding a local Spanish class will help me stay on track and develop a basic understanding of the language. Beyond that, I want to practice every day.
• Difficult — I need to know a substantial number of vocabulary words to become fluent. I will spend time drilling flashcards every day to help me learn more helpful verbs and nouns.

Now that we’ve covered the groundwork, we’ve got more tips to help you create a five-year plan that keeps you motivated and inspired.

Five-Year Plan Tips

If creating a plan from scratch makes your eyes glaze over, check out these tips to help you start getting some ideas on paper. I also asked Kaitlin Milliken, a senior program manager at HubSpot, to share how these tips help her shape her five-year plans.

1. Give yourself space to brainstorm.

To help you focus better when creating your plan, do a bit of pre-work.

Give yourself time to really think about what you’d like to accomplish and the things that are most important to you. For example, you could write out a list of potential goals or ideas and rank them in order of importance, including notes about why they are important.

Milliken often works through this exercise. This helps her decide what she wants to work on, which goals can be accomplished quickly, and which are most complicated and need to be a part of her five-year plan.

“I always start broad. I sit down with a note book and write out what I want to accomplish — totally blue sky. I can organize and narrow this list down later,” she says.

2. Consider separating long-term and short-term goals.

Once you’ve jotted down some goals, decide which are better suited for short or long-term ones.

Completely paying off debt might be a long-term goal, but deciding which debt to tackle first could be a short-term goal. It may also help to divide them up into a 30-60-90 day plan to help best set a timeline.

I asked Milliken how she decides which goals fall into each category. For example, Milliken says she wants to run a half marathon. However, that’s a goal she can work toward in a year.

In contrast, “I want to learn Tagalog — a language I don’t have a background in — and to build the program I run at work to support different departments at HubSpot. These are loftier goals that fit better in a five-year timespan,” she says.

3. Break down annual goals into monthly ones.

Tackling lofty goals can be overwhelming. This is why it’s important to break them down into smaller tasks that are manageable so you don’t get discouraged along the way. Let’s say you want to save $10,000 in a year. You can break that amount down into a recurring monthly payment of $833 or even split it into smaller weekly payments.

Milliken told me that she starts off each year with a lofty set of goals — like writing a few short stories, saving a certain amount of money, and getting a promotion at work.

From there, she decides which goal posts she needs throughout the year to check her progress. For example, she’ll set a savings goal every month.

“I also check in on my long-term goals every six months. Am I spending enough time on professional development to build my leadership skills? Am I on track to manage a team within the next five years?” Milliken explains.

4. Find an accountability partner.

Sometimes, life gets in the way and throws us curve balls — greatly impacting our ability to stay motivated and consistent. Having an accountability partner can help you stay on track.

This could be someone you check in with monthly, a close friend, a family member, or a mentor. Whoever you choose, just make sure it’s someone who will keep you honest. Perhaps they’ll even have their own five-year plan, and you can take this journey together.

“No matter the goal, I tell my best friend Meg. She encourages me to put in the time, celebrates my wins, and is the perfect accountability partner,” Milliken says. “If you’re looking to find your own accountability partner, you’ll want someone who can both keep you on track and be happy for you when you reach your goals.”

5. Don’t be afraid to make adjustments.

Remember that your five-year plan is yours. You can make adjustments as you see fit once you start tracking your progress. If your priorities change, update your plan.

Milliken says her first job out of school was in journalism, so her initial five-year plan for her career focused on being a great reporter. However, “as I worked in the field, I discovered that I loved editing and working with other people,” she says. “I adapted my goals to reflect those new discoveries.”

Milliken notes that her five-year plan changed from working for a top newspaper to finding a role that allows her to work with writers, giving them feedback for improving their work.

Five-Year Plan Template

If you‘re ready to create your own five-year plan, we’ve got you covered.

HubSpot created the following five-year plan template for you to download.

In it, you’ll find a short and long version, both designed to help you break down your plan into actionable goals for each year.

Download this five-year plan template

Next, let’s dive into how to fill out your plan.

How to Make a Five-Year Plan

1. Know your “why.”

This is single-handedly the most important step in creating a plan.

A clear “why” is your North Star. It’s what will guide you throughout your journey and motivate you to keep moving forward.

It can take a while to narrow this down. You’ll know you have the answer when it’s linked to a core value or belief. Otherwise, you have to keep digging.

One way to get to this is by just asking the question over and over again. For instance:

• I want to learn American Sign Language. Why?
• To become more connected to another culture. Why?
• To broaden my perspective. Why?
• To be a more understanding, tolerant, and inclusive person.

Now, we’ve taken something at surface level and brought it down to a personal, human level.

2. Choose your objective.

When creating a five-year plan, you want to review your life as a whole and decide what your objective will be.

Are you focusing on your professional career, your financial goals, your business, or your spiritual growth? Or perhaps you’re taking a more holistic approach and combining all of these elements.

If you don’t know where to start, use this: “In five years, I want to be [fill in the blank].” This will help you figure out goals that you may not have vocalized before.

Here are four core pillars you should always consider:

• Career.
• Health (physical and mental).
• Finances.
• Relationships (with self and others).

Depending on your goals, you can also add categories for religious or spiritual development, recreation, and service.

Don’t forget bucket list items. Have you been wanting to learn a new language? Or perhaps you want to visit every country in the world. Bucket list items are perfect for five-year plans because you can spread them out over a long period of time and have fun tracking your progress.

3. Start with the big ideas, then narrow your focus.

When you’re first writing your five-year plan, start with an end goal for each year.

From there, break it down by:

• Process — what steps will you take to meet this end goal?
• Success metric — how will you gauge success?
• Benefit — how does this end goal bring you closer to your five-year plan?
• Resources — which resources will you leverage to achieve your goal?

This process will help you turn your broad ideas into clear action items that can be executed.

Research will play a big role in this, as you will need to identify resources and set a structure to meet your goal.

For instance, say your five-year financial plan is to be debt-free.

That’s the big idea, but you need to dive deeper. How exactly will you achieve that? Your research will likely suggest setting a budget, paying off your most expensive loan first, consolidating your debts, and more.

Once you know the key action items, you can break them down by year.

This is a S.M.A.R.T. goal in action. The more specific you are, the better you will be at fulfilling your five-year plan.

More on that in the next section.

4. Make it S.M.A.R.T.

To give you the best chances of success, every goal should pass the SMART test. That means being:

• Specific — the vaguer your goal, the harder it will be to reach.
• Measurable — you must be able to quantify your goals because otherwise, how will you know you’ve reached them? This doesn’t always mean assigning a figure to a goal. It can also be a feeling.
• Achievable — while it’s good to push yourself beyond your limits, your goal should be attainable and realistic based on where you stand currently.
• Relevant — how does this goal fit within the bigger picture? Does it align with your personal values? What’s the impact on your life?
• Time-bound — it’s not enough to say it’s a five-year plan. You have to create a timeline and set milestones at specific points within your journey.

5. Allocate your resources.

Determining the resources (financial, human, technological, etc.) you need to achieve your goals, be it growing your business, getting a sound education, improving health, buying a home, or traveling, is a vital step in your Five-year plan. Here’s how to do this:

Financial Resources

• Budgeting. Calculate how much money you’ll need for different phases of your plan. For instance, if you plan to buy a home within five years, you would start by budgeting for the down payment, closing costs, and any potential renovations.
• Savings and investment. Determine how you’ll accumulate the necessary funds. This could involve setting up a savings account specifically for a large purchase or cutting back on unnecessary expenses to increase your savings. For a business plan, you’ll have to identify sources of funding, such as internal profits, loans, investors, or grants.

Human Resources

• Staffing plans. If you’re running a business, plan for hiring based on the skills and personnel required at different phases of your plan. If your goal is to increase production capacity, you might need to hire additional production staff. Also, consider the training needs to upskill existing employees to meet future challenges.

Informational Resources

• Research. Spend time researching the best strategies and tools for achieving your goals. This could include reading books or talking to people who have achieved similar goals. With business, you might need to allocate time and funds for ongoing market research to stay ahead of industry trends and consumer preferences.

Educational and Developmental Resources

• Learning materials. Invest in the necessary books, courses, or seminars needed for personal development or education. For example, if you’re aiming to learn a new language, you might reach your goals quicker if you participate in advanced language classes or immersion experiences.
• Professional development. If you’re looking to move up the career ladder, you can attend workshops, networking events, or conferences.

6. Monitor and adapt.

Finally, establish a system for regularly reviewing and evaluating your progress. There are many ways to do that, including the following.

Tracking Progress.

You can set regular intervals (monthly, quarterly, or annually) to review your progress against the goals and milestones you’ve set.

This could involve checking if you’re on schedule to save a certain amount for a down payment on a house, assessing improvements in your physical fitness, or reflecting on your advancement in learning a new skill.

Feedback Mechanisms

Use tools like apps, spreadsheets, or simple checklists to measure your progress quantitatively and qualitatively. For example, if your goal is to improve fitness, you might track workout frequency, diet changes, and body measurements.

Journaling or Documentation

Keep a journal or log of your activities and achievements. This not only helps in tracking progress but also in reflecting on what you have learned and what strategies have been most effective.

External Feedback

Sometimes, getting perspectives from your friends, family, or mentors can provide insights into how well you’re doing and what you need to adjust. They can provide objective feedback on areas you might not have considered.

Remember that circumstances change—financial situations can shift, personal interests may evolve, and unforeseen challenges might arise. Be prepared to adapt your goals and plan accordingly.

For instance, if a career opportunity requires moving to a new city, you might need to adjust your financial or personal development goals to align with this change.

Five-Year Plan Common Mistakes

We’ve covered what to do and best practices. Next, let’s talk about what not to do. Here are some five-year plan pitfalls to avoid.

1. Not Setting Clear Goals

If your goals are vague, it’s going to be nearly impossible to hit them. You can’t accomplish a goal that’s not clearly defined. When it comes to setting your five-year plan, specifics are key.

In the past, my goal was to “find a job I’m truly passionate about.” That goal was way too vague. What type of job makes me feel energized? What about my past jobs did I love, and what do I want to focus on? My broad goal didn’t cover these areas.

To refine that goal, I switched it to “find a job that allows me to build out a new content property and run that new program.” That helped me find my current role where I run HubSpot’s AI blog.

2. Not Doing Enough Research

If you’ve set any formal education or career goals, thoroughly researching requirements is a must. Skipping this step could cause you to miss important prerequisites and derail your goals completely.

One of my close friends wanted to become a licensed therapist. He needed to do the research to see what programs were available, how much they would cost, and how long they last. Without this information, he never could have moved forward and achieve his goal.

3. Failing to Set a Timeline

To achieve your goals you must track them. In order to track your progress, you need deadlines in place. Without deadlines you run the risk of aimlessly moving along (or not at all) without hitting important milestones — hindering you from accomplishing long-term goals.

I’ve tried learning Spanish in the past. However, I had no real timeline for that goal. I pushed off taking classes and working on flashcards because I had no timeframe for my goal.

4. Keeping a rigid plan that no longer suits you.

Yes, staying on task with your plan is important, but it is meant to serve you. If the plan you originally set no longer suits your needs, it is perfectly fine to make adjustments. The plan is not set in stone, and it should be revised as needed.

“One of my goals was to get a dog — one that I finally accomplished after years,” Milliken says. “Getting a dog took so long because I needed to move across the country. I was looking at shelter dogs at the time but ultimately decided to wait until after I moved.”

Milliken noted that if she had stuck to her original timeline, a pup would have made her move much harder. She also would have raised her dog in a small apartment instead of waiting for a place with a yard.

Now that we’ve covered our bases, let’s look at some plan examples and templates to help you quickly get started on your own

Five-Year Plan Example

Don’t let the task of creating a plan from scratch in Excel put you off. There are plenty of ready-to-use templates that will make light work of formatting so you can focus on hitting your goals.

1. HubSpot

Best for: Personal or professional use

Using our downloadable five-year plan template, we were able to create a detailed five-year plan, broken down by year, process, success metric, benefit, and resources.

What I like: I like that this template allows you to specify your goals, the resources you need to achieve them, the process you’ll take to get there, and how these goals will benefit you.

I also love how, in addition to a five-year plan template, you also get four other templates for skill development, SMART goal-setting, management by objective, and performance improvement plan.

2. 24 Slides

Best for: Professional use

If you’re looking to create a more visual plan to help you stay on track, 24 Slides has an easy-to-customize five-year business plan template.

This template has space to include both short and long-term business goals, plus it includes a variety of charts to help you build an engaging presentation.

It’s a good option if you’d like to create a five-year plan that can be presented to stakeholders within the company.

Image Source

What I like: I love how comprehensive this five-year business plan PowerPoint template is. With 14 slides, it allows you to define all the touchpoints in your business, where you plan to go, and how you plan to get there.

I also like how it allows you to track important metrics like revenue, gross profits, sales, tax, and interest expense over a span of five years.

3. Template.Net

Best for: Personal use

This personal five-year personal development plan from Template.Net offers a quick way to jot down your goals and strategize how to achieve them.

The categories are simple: objective, goals, timeline and activities, and have additional space for you to write out any reminders you’d like to set.

Be sure to include your “why” in the objective section to keep your reasons for creating the plan top of mind.

Image Source

What I like: I like how this template allows you to divide your life plans into several categories and define your goals, timelines, and activities to guide you. I also like how it urges you to keep a journal that details your daily activities, aspirations, and learnings in both life and art.

Accomplish More With a Plan

If you want to add more structure to your life and play a more active role in shaping your future, consider creating a five-year plan. While things may not pan out exactly as you‘ve expected, you’ll be surprised at how close you’ll get to what you wished for.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in May 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.