Author Archives: i4lead

So, you’ve finally got your foot in the door at your dream company. You’ve submitted the perfect resume and made a lasting impression during the phone screen. All there’s left to do now is to win over the hiring manager in the face-to-face interview.

As a well-informed candidate, you’re doing your research on the company and preparing your answers to the most important interview questions you can think of — the most notorious of them all being: “What is your greatest weakness?”

You don’t want to respond, “I tend to work too hard,” or “I am too much of a perfectionist.” That can easily come across as scripted and insincere at best and lacking in self-awareness at worst.

Alternatively, you don’t want to respond with weaknesses that will prevent you from succeeding in the role. For instance, if you’re applying to be a project manager, you don’t want to admit that you’re “not very good with time management.”

Fortunately, there are ways to answer this question that will help you demonstrate your value as a candidate. Here, we’ve cultivated some incredible answers to the mainstay, “What is your greatest weakness” question — and don’t worry, these answers aren’t “perfectionism”.

1. Choose a weakness that will not prevent you from succeeding in the role.

When an interviewer asks, “What is your greatest weakness?” they want to find out:

• Whether you have a healthy level of self-awareness
• Whether you can be open and honest, particularly about shortcomings
• Whether you pursue self-improvement and growth opportunities to combat these issues, as opposed to letting these weaknesses hold you back

Ultimately, you’ll want to use this question to demonstrate how you’ve used a weakness as motivation to learn a new skill or grow professionally. Everyone has weaknesses — your interviewer doesn’t expect you to be perfect.

If you’re applying for a copywriting position with little necessity for math skills, you might admit, “I struggle with numbers, and don’t have much experience with data analytics. While math is not directly tied to my role as a writer, I believe it’s important to have a rudimentary understanding of Google Analytics to ensure my work is performing well. To tackle this weakness, I’ve been taking online courses in data analytics.”

An answer like this shows the hiring manager that you recognize your areas for growth and are able to act on them without being told to do so. This kind of self-starter attitude is a plus for virtually any team.

2. Be honest and choose a real weakness.

The answer “perfectionism” won’t cut it when talking about your biggest weakness because it’s not a real weakness. Perfectionism can never be attained — it’s a fear-based pattern that leads to short-term rewards like getting the job done early and exceeding expectations. However, in the long-term, trying to attain perfectionism leads to burnout, low-quality work, and missed deadlines. Burnout is one of the biggest contributors to decreased productivity, turnover, and low employee engagement — all of which cost a company money, time, and talent.

Instead, choose a real weakness. Underneath the desire to do perfect work may lie a weakness of trust. Perhaps you don’t trust that you’ll be able to make mistakes on the team, so you strive to do everything perfectly. That’s a real weakness that you can definitely overcome.

3. Provide an example of how you’ve worked to improve upon your weakness or learn a new skill to combat the issue.

Hiring managers don’t expect you to overcome your weaknesses completely overnight. Everyone has areas they must constantly work on to keep them sharp. Think of it this way — if you’ve dedicated six months to working out, you won’t be able to stop one day and maintain your progress. It’s an ongoing process that you have to work at.

4. Think about weaknesses in your own personal life.

If you humanize yourself in the interview, it’ll allow your interviewer to connect and visualize working with you in the future. It’s not just about weaknesses that pertain to the job. For example, if you are an introvert and you notice your preference for quiet time stops you from taking risks, this is a relatable weakness. When you demonstrate your self-awareness this way, it shows you understand that self-improvement correlates to work performance.

5. Think of where you’d like to be and what support you need to get there.

Overall, growth is a part of life. Think about people you look up to that may be related to the field that you’re in. Ask yourself what character traits those people have and what work you might need to do in order to get there. By providing an example of how you’re working to improve your area of weakness, you’ll give the interviewer a glimpse into a few positive attributes about your awareness, including that:

• You know how to identify and mitigate issues that come up.
• You’ve found a helpful solution to a problem that you and perhaps others on the team face, which means you can be an immediate resource to the team.

• You demonstrate self-awareness and an ability to take feedback from others.

More often than not, you’re going to need to look outside of yourself to overcome a weakness. Whether you look to your supervisor, the HubSpot Blog, or a mentor for help, the simple act of seeking help demonstrates self-awareness and resourcefulness — two skills that are hard to teach, but valuable to learn. Tapping into your resources shows the interviewers that you can solve problems when the answer is not yet clear. That’s a character trait that has a place on any team.

Briefly share an example of a time when you asked someone for help in an area that you’ve identified as a weakness. This gives the hiring team a clear picture of how you’ll work with the team to balance out that weakness.

6. Don’t be arrogant and don’t underestimate yourself.

The most important thing you can do when responding to the question “What is your greatest weakness?” is exhibit confidence in your answer. (If lack of confidence is your weakness, keep reading.) Even if you’re not the most confident person, I’m going to assume you’re at least honest with yourself. If you’ve identified an area of weakness and you’re sure about it, let that assurance shine through in your answer. There’s no need to feel embarrassed about something you’re genuinely not good at as long as you’re working to get better.

Before you start expressing a genuine weakness to your interviewer, get comfortable with the types of answers that make hiring managers want to work with you. Take a look at the following examples and find a few that fit your personality and work style. Then, practice reciting them aloud so they come naturally to you.

Ready? Here are examples of how you might answer “What is your greatest weakness?” and why they work.

1. Lack of Patience

Sample Answer:

“I don’t have much patience when working with a team — I am incredibly self-sufficient, so it’s difficult when I need to rely on others to complete my work. That’s why I’ve pursued roles that require someone to work independently. However, I’ve also worked to improve this weakness by enrolling in team-building workshops. While I typically work independently, it’s important I learn how to trust my coworkers and ask for outside help when necessary.”

This answer works because the weakness — the inability to be patient when working with a team — doesn’t hinder your ability to perform well in the role, since it’s a job that doesn’t rely on teamwork to succeed. Additionally, you display an eagerness to develop strategies to combat your weakness, which is a critical skill in the workplace.

2. Lack of Organization

Sample Answer:

“I struggle with organization. While it hasn’t ever impacted my performance, I’ve noticed my messy desk and cluttered inbox nonetheless interfere with my efficiency. Over time, I’ve learned to set aside time to organize my physical and digital space, and I’ve seen it improve my efficiency levels throughout the week.”

Plenty of people have messy desks. This answer works because it’s a relatable and fixable weakness. You note that disorganization doesn’t interfere with your ability to do your job, which is critical, but you also acknowledge it might make you less efficient. To ensure you’re performing at 100%, you mention personal steps you’ve taken to improve your organization skills for the sake of self-improvement alone, which suggests a level of maturity and self-awareness.

3. Trouble with Delegation

Sample Answer:

“I sometimes find it difficult to delegate responsibility when I feel I can finish the task well myself. However, when I became manager in my last role, it became critical I learn to delegate tasks. To maintain a sense of control when delegating tasks, I implemented a project management system to oversee the progress of a project. This system enabled me to improve my ability to delegate efficiently.”

This answer allows you to demonstrate an ability to pursue a new skill when a role calls for it and suggests you’re capable of flexibility, which is critical for long-term growth. Additionally, you are able to showcase a level of initiative and leadership when you mention the successful implementation of a new process that enabled you to succeed in your past role, despite your weakness.

4. Timidity

Sample Answer:

“Oftentimes, I can be timid when providing constructive feedback to coworkers or managers, out of fear of hurting someone’s feelings. However, in my last role, my coworker asked me to edit some of his pieces and provide feedback for areas of improvement. Through my experience with him, I realized feedback can be both helpful and kind when delivered the right way. Since then, I’ve become better at offering feedback, and I’ve realized that I can use empathy to provide thoughtful, productive feedback.”

This answer works because you’ve explained how you were able to turn a weakness into a strength through real-world experience. Typically, timidity can be seen as a flaw in the workplace, particularly if a role requires someone to provide feedback to others. In this case, you’re able to demonstrate how timidity can be used as a strength, through thoughtful reflection and practice.

5. Lack of Tactfulness

Sample Answer:

“My blunt, straightforward nature has allowed me to succeed over the years as a team manager, because I’m able to get things done efficiently, and people often appreciate my honesty. However, I’ve recognized my bluntness doesn’t always serve my employees well when I’m delivering feedback. To combat this, I’ve worked to develop empathy and deeper relationships with those I manage. Additionally, I took an online leadership management course, and worked with the professor to develop my ability to deliver feedback.”

Oftentimes, facets of our personalities can help us in certain areas of our work, while hindering us in others. That’s natural. However, you must demonstrate an ability to recognize when your personality interferes with the functions of your role, and how you can solve for that.

In this example, you first explain how your blunt nature allows you to be successful in certain situations. Then, you mention that you understand your bluntness can be seen as a lack of empathy and provide examples of how you’ve attempted to solve this issue. Ultimately, your awareness of how you might be perceived by others shows a level of emotional intelligence, which is a critical asset for a team leader.

6. Fear of Public Speaking

Sample Answer:

“Public speaking makes me nervous. While I don’t need to do much public speaking in my role as a web designer, I still feel that it’s an important skill — especially when I want to offer my opinion during a meeting. To combat this, I spoke with my manager and she recommended I speak at each team meeting for a few minutes about our project timeline, deadlines, and goals when developing a website for a client. This practice has enabled me to relax and see public speaking as an opportunity to help my team members do their jobs effectively.”

In this example, you mention a skill that isn’t applicable to the role, but one which you nonetheless have been working to improve. This shows your desire to meet more business needs than necessary in your current role, which is admirable. Additionally, it’s impressive if you can show you’re willing to reach out to your manager with areas in which you want to improve, instead of waiting for your manager to suggest those areas of improvement to you. It demonstrates a level of ambition and professional maturity.

7. Weak Data Analysis Skills

Sample Answer:

“I’m not great at analyzing data or numbers. However, I recognize this flaw can prevent me from understanding how my content is performing online. In my last role, I set up monthly meetings with the SEO manager to discuss analytics and how our posts were performing. Additionally, I received my Google Analytics certificate, and I make it a point to analyze data related to our blog regularly. I’ve become much more comfortable analyzing data through these efforts.”

In this example, you’re able to show your desire to go above and beyond a job description and actively seek out skills that could be helpful to the success of your company as a whole. This type of company-first mentality shows the interviewer you’re dedicated to making yourself a valuable asset, and try your best to understand the needs of the whole department, rather than just your role.

8. Indecisiveness

Sample Answer:

“Sometimes I struggle with ambiguity and making decisions when directions aren’t clear. I come from a work environment that always gave clear and direct instructions. I had such a strong team and leadership that I haven’t had much practice making decisions in the heat of the moment. I’m working on this by leaning more into my experience and practicing listening to my gut.”

This answer works because you’re demonstrating that you can both follow a leader and sharpen your leadership skills. It’s alright to not know what to do in the moment. Admitting that you relied on strong leadership shows that you can be a follower when needed, but knowing when to step up is important, too. With this answer, you’re showing that you’ll step up if a situation calls for decisiveness.

9. Harsh Self-Criticism

Sample Answer:

“My inner critic can be debilitating at times. I take pride in producing good work, but I feel like I struggle feeling satisfied with it, which has led to burnout in the past. However, I’ve started to push back against this inner voice by taking care of myself before and after work. I’m also learning to recognize when my inner critic is right and when I need to dismiss it.”

This answer works because your interviewer may relate; we all have harsh inner critics. It’s also effective because 1) It shows that you’re willing to work on your weaknesses outside of work, not just during business hours, and 2) It demonstrates your inner critic may have valid points. Discerning when to dismiss it is key to prevent burnout and increase productivity. Realizing how the inner critic may inhibit good work ethic demonstrates your willingness to grow and be an effective worker.

10. Micromanaging

Sample Answer:

“I used to work in industries where I had to cultivate a solid work ethic in my employees. This style of training has been so ingrained in me that I’ve forgotten to discern who may need that coaching and who does not. I’ve been reading books on effective delegation and team building to work on this shortcoming. One technique that works for me is assuring myself that if I establish clear expectations, then my team will follow. I’ve also learned to trust my team members.”

This answer works best if you’ve been in a leadership position before and are applying to a managerial role. However, you can still apply it to past experiences where you did have to show leadership. This answer shows that while you may be used to running your crew or team a specific way, you’re willing to admit when your method isn’t the most effective. Showing your flexibility demonstrates your ability to grow.

11. Talkative

Sample Answer:

“I enjoy developing a relationship with my coworkers by engaging in conversation, and that’s a great team-building skill. However, I have a habit of carrying on a conversation to a point where it may distract other coworkers. I have learned since then that there are other ways to connect with my coworkers, and that if I’m asking about their day, I need to keep it brief and redirect myself back to my work. “This answer works because it shows you’re aware of how your talkative tendencies may be distracting in the workplace. It takes a lot of courage to admit that. It also shows you are willing to develop a relationship with coworkers but not at the cost of productivity.

12. Trouble Maintaining a Work-Life Balance

Sample Answer:

“I’ve struggled with work-life balance, especially after I started working remotely during the pandemic. This increased my stress levels to the point where my productivity was at an all-time low and I didn’t bring my best self to work. Because I want to continue working remotely, I’ve started adding more structure to my day and instituted a sharp start and end time. I’ve already seen improvements in my levels of focus during work hours.”

At first, this might seem like a “strength” weakness — pouring yourself into work is great, right? That means you love your job. But if it impacts your productivity and your relationships with coworkers, that is not so great. This answer works because it doesn’t just say, “I work a lot, so my home life suffers.” It says, “I work a lot to the point of burnout, and I’ve realized that I need to structure my day.” If you’ve struggled with work-life balance issues in the past, it’s important to state how you’re restoring that balance and how it has impacted your work.

There’s Strength In Every Weakness

Regardless of whether you’re bad with numbers or you tend not to speak up in group settings, there’s a strength behind every weakness. The strength is in how you work to overcome it. Leaning on your teammates who excel in those areas is a great way to show that you’ll work well on the team and that you know how to use your resources to solve problems. Taking professional development courses shows that you’re willing to work toward improvement. No matter which of these answers you share with the hiring team, they’ll be more than happy to help you grow and exceed the expectations of the role.

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

Do you celebrate International Cat Day, Pizza Day, or Talk Like a Pirate Day?

There are a plethora of observance days worldwide during which marketers can share content relevant to their industries, get involved in a movement, or simply generate more awareness. But odds are, you probably don’t acknowledge these days until you see your favorite brand posting about it.

These social media “holidays” are a fun way to connect with new and existing followers who share an affinity for a specific food, fictional character, or pet.

While we don’t suggest sharing content on social media and then adding an irrelevant holiday hashtag to it, these holidays can be a chance to promote your brand in a relevant way. Not doing so could cause you to miss valuable opportunities where your brand can join the conversations taking place among members of your target audience.

To help you plan for trending holidays, we created a list that you can bookmark, as well as a downloadable calendar so you can receive automatic reminders.

Downloadable Holiday Calendar

To help you keep track of all these unique holidays, here’s a Social Media Holiday Google Calendar.

Aside from 2022 holidays, we’ve also set dates on the calendar to repeat annually — either on the exact date they occur or the weekday they occur within the month.

Want to finish out your 2022 calendar with some upcoming holiday posts? Tap the + symbol in the lower right-hand corner of the calendar below to add it to your own Google calendar.

Use the Above Template to Plan Out Your Social Media Holiday Posts

National & Global Holiday Calendar: 2022

The list isn’t exhaustive (there are a lot of food-specific holidays out there), and these dates and hashtags may still be subject to change. But this is a great starting point for social media marketers who want to learn more about what’s trending and how they can plan their content in a way that will be fun and engaging on social platforms.

• January 2022 Social Media Holidays
• February 2022 Social Media Holidays
• March 2022 Social Media Holidays
• April 2022 Social Media Holidays
• May 2022 Social Media Holidays
• June 2022 Social Media Holidays
• July 2022 Social Media Holidays
• August 2022 Social Media Holidays
• September 2022 Social Media Holidays
• October 2022 Social Media Holidays
• November 2022 Social Media Holidays
• December 2022 Social Media Holidays

January 2022 Social Media Holidays

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• January 1: New Year’s Day #NewYearsDay
• January 2: Science Fiction Day #ScienceFictionDay
• January 4: National Trivia Day #NationalTriviaDay
• January 5: National Bird Day #NationalBirdDay
• January 11: Human Trafficking Awareness Day #HumanTraffickingDay
• January 11: Clean Off Your Desk Day #CleanOffYourDeskDay
• January 13: National Sticker Day #NationalStickerDay
• January 15: National Hat Day #NationalHatDay
• January 17: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Third Monday of January) #MLKDay
• January 20: Cheese Lovers Day #CheeseLoversDay
• January 20: Get to Know Your Customers Day (third Thursday of every quarter) #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
• January 21: National Hugging Day #NationalHuggingDay
• January 24: National Compliment Day #NationalComplimentDay
• January 25: Opposite Day #OppositeDay
• January 28: Data Privacy Day #PrivacyAware
• January 31: Community Manager Appreciation Day (Last Monday of January) #CMAD

February 2022 Social Media Holidays

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• February 1 – 28: Black History Month
• February 2: Groundhog Day #GroundhogDay
• February 2: World Wetlands Day #WorldWetlandsDay
• February 4: World Cancer Day #WorldCancerDay
• February 5: National Weatherperson’s Day #NationalWeatherpersonsDay
• February 7: National Send a Card to a Friend Day #SendACardToAFriendDay
• February 8: National Boy Scouts Day #BoyScoutsDay
• February 9: National Pizza Day #NationalPizzaDay
• February 9: Safer Internet Day #SID2022
• February 11: Inventors Day #InventorsDay
• February 12: Chinese New Year #ChineseNewYear
• February 13: World Radio Day #WorldRadioDay
• February 13: Super Bowl LV (Varies each year based on the U.S. Football season) #SBLV #SuperBowlSunday #SuperBowl
• February 14: Valentine’s Day #ValentinesDay
• February 17: Random Acts of Kindness Day #RandomActsOfKindnessDay
• February 18: National Battery Day #NationalBatteryDay
• February 20: World Day of Social Justice #SocialJusticeDay
• February 20: Love Your Pet Day #LoveYourPetDay
• February 21: International Mother Language Day #IMLD
• February 21: Presidents Day (Third Monday of February) #PresidentsDay

March 2022 Social Media Holidays

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• March 1: Mardi Gras #MardiGras
• March 2: National Read Across America Day #ReadAcrossAmerica & #DrSeuss
• March 3: World Wildlife Day #WorldWildlifeDay
• March 4: National Grammar Day #NationalGrammarDay
• March 4: National Employee Appreciation Day (First Friday of March) #EmployeeAppreciationDay
• March 4: National Day of Unplugging (First Friday of March) #NationalDayOfUnplugging
• March 6: National Dentist’s Day #DentistsDay
• March 7: National Be Heard Day #NationalBeHeardDay
• March 7: National Cereal Day #NationalCerealDay
• March 8: International Women’s Day #BeBoldForChange
• March 8: National Proofreading Day #NationalProofreadingDay
• March 10: National Pack Your Lunch Day #NationalPackYourLunchDay
• March 10: National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day #NWGHAAD
• March 11: National Worship of Tools Day #WorshipOfToolsDay
• March 11: Popcorn Lover’s Day #PopcornLoversDay
• March 12: National Girl Scout Day #GirlScoutDay
• March 14: Potato Chip Day #NationalPotatoChipDay
• March 14: Pi Day #PiDay (To go the extra mile, post this at 1:59, as Pi equals 3.14159…)
• March 13: Daylight Savings #DaylightSavings
• March 15: National Napping Day #NationalNappingDay
• March 15: World Consumer Rights Day #WorldConsumerRightsDay
• March 16: National Freedom of Information Day #FreedomOfInformationDay
• March 17: St. Patrick’s Day #StPatricksDay
• March 18: Awkward Moments Day #NationalAwkwardMomentsDay
• March 19: National Let’s Laugh Day #NationalLetsLaughDay
• March 19: World Sleep Day #WorldSleepDay
• March 19: Red Nose Day #RedNoseDay
• March 20: International Day of Happiness #InternationalDayofHappiness
• March 20: World Storytelling Day #WorldStorytellingDay
• March 20: First Day of Spring #FirstDayofSpring
• March 21: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination #RacialDiscriminationDay
• March 21: World Poetry Day #WorldPoetryDay
• March 22: World Water Day #WorldWaterDay
• March 23: National Puppy Day #NationalPuppyDay
• March 23: American Diabetes Association Alert Day #AmericanDiabetesAssociationAlertDay
• March 25: Tolkien Reading Day #TolkienReadingDay
• March 26: National Spinach Day #NationalSpinachDay
• March 26: Purple Day #PurpleDay
• March 27: Earth Hour Day #EarthHour
• March 30: Doctor’s Day #NationalDoctorsDay
• March 30: National Take a Walk in the Park Day #NationalWalkInTheParkDay
• March 31: World Backup Day #WorldBackupDay
• March 31: Transgender Day of Visibility #TDOV
• March 31: Equal Pay Day #EqualPayDay

April 2022 Social Media Holidays

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• April 1 – 30: National Stress Awareness Month
• April 1: April Fools Day #AprilFools
• April 2: World Autism Awareness Day #WAAD
• April 3: Find a Rainbow Day #FindARainbowDay
• April 4: Hug a Newsperson Day #HugANewsperson
• April 5: World Health Day #LetsTalk
• April 6: National Walking Day #NationalWalkingDay
• April 10: National Siblings Day #NationalSiblingsDay
• April 10: Encourage a Young Writer Day #EncourageAYoungWriterDay
• April 11: National Pet Day #NationalPetDay
• April 12: International Day of Human Space Flight #InternationalDayOfHumanSpaceFlight
• April 15: National Tax Day #TaxDay
• April 15: National High-Five Day #NH5D
• April 16: National Stress Awareness Day #StressAwarenessDay
• April 16: National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day #PJDay
• April 17: Haiku Poetry Day #HaikuPoetryDay
• April 18: National Columnists’ Day #NationalColumnistDay
• April 20: National Look-Alike Day #NationalLookAlikeDay
• April 21: National Administrative Professionals Day #AdministrativeProfessionalsDay
• April 21: Get to Know Your Customers Day (third Thursday of every quarter) #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
• April 22: Earth Day #EarthDay2022
• April 23: National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day #COUNTONME
• April 23: National Picnic Day #NationalPicnicDay
• April 23: World Book Day #WorldBookDay
• April 23: Arbor Day #ArborDay
• April 25: National Telephone Day #NationalTelephoneDay
• April 25: World Malaria Day #EndMalariaForGood
• April 28: Denim Day #DenimDay
• April 29: International Dance Day #InternationalDanceDay
• April 30: National Honesty Day #NationalHonestyDay
• April 30: National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day #AdoptAShelterPetDay
• April 30: International Jazz Day #JazzDay

May 2022 Social Media Holidays

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• May 1: May Day #MayDay
• May 1: International Workers Day #IntWorkersDay
• May 3: World Press Freedom Day #WPFD2022 #PressFreedom
• May 4: Star Wars Day #StarWarsDay & #Maythe4thBeWithYou
• May 4: International Firefighters Day #InternationalFirefightersDay
• May 4: World Asthma Day #WorldAsthmaDay
• May 4: Thank a Teacher Day #ThankATeacher
• May 5: Cinco de Mayo #CincoDeMayo
• May 6: National Nurses Day #NursesDay
• May 7: World Password Day #WorldPasswordDay
• May 7: Space Day #SpaceDay
• May 9: Europe Day #EuropeDay
• May 9: Mother’s Day #MothersDay
• May 12: National Limerick Day #NationalLimerickDay
• May 12: National Receptionist Day #NationalReceptionistDay
• May 15: International Day of Families #FamilyDay
• May 16: Love a Tree Day #LoveATreeDay
• May 17: International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia #IDAHOT2022
• May 21: National Memo Day #NationalMemoDay
• May 21: National Bike to Work Day #BTWD
• May 21: Endangered Species Day #EndangeredSpeciesDay
• May 24: National Scavenger Hunt Day #NationalScavengerHuntDay
• May 27: Heat Awareness Day (Last Friday of May) #NoFryDay
• May 28: Hamburger Day #NationalHamburgerDay
• May 29: Paperclip Day #PaperclipDay
• May 30: Memorial Day (Fourth Monday of May) #MemorialDay #MDW
• May 31: World No-Tobacco Day #NoTobacco

June 2022 Social Media Holidays

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• June 1: Global Day of Parents #GlobalDayOfParents
• June 4: National Donut Day #NationalDonutDay
• June 5: World Environment Day #WorldEnvironmentDay
• June 6: National Cancer Survivor’s Day #NCSD2022
• June 6: Higher Education Day #HigherEducationDay
• June 8: World Oceans Day #WorldOceansDay
• June 8: Best Friends Day #BestFriendsDay
• June 13: International Children’s Day #ChildrensDay
• June 14: World Blood Donor Day #GiveBlood
• June 14: National Flag Day #FlagDay
• June 19: Juneteenth (Freedom Day) #Juneteenth
• June 20: World Refugee Day #WithRefugees
• June 20: First Day of Summer
• June 20: Father’s Day #FathersDay
• June 21: National Selfie Day #NationalSelfieDay
• June 21: World Music Day #WorldMusicDay
• June 21: International Yoga Day #InternationalYogaDay
• June 24: National Handshake Day #HandshakeDay
• June 25: Take Your Dog to Work Day #TakeYourDogToWorkDay
• June 27: National Sunglasses Day #NationalSunglassesDay
• June 30: Social Media Day #SMDay

July 2022 Social Media Holidays

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• July 1: National Postal Worker Day #NationalPostalWorkerDay
• July 2: World UFO Day #WorldUFODay
• July 4: Independence Day (United States)
• July 7: World Chocolate Day #WorldChocolateDay
• July 11: Cheer Up the Lonely Day #CheerUpTheLonelyDay
• July 12: Malala Day #MalalaDay
• July 15: Give Something Away Day #GiveSomethingAwayDay
• July 15: Get to Know Your Customers Day #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
• July 17: World Emoji Day #WorldEmojiDay
• July 18: Nelson Mandela International Day #MandelaDay
• July 30: Talk in an Elevator Day #TalkInAnElevatorDay
• July 30: International Day of Friendship #DayOfFriendship

August 2022 Social Media Holidays

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• August 1: Respect for Parents Day #RespectForParentsDay
• August 2: National Coloring Book Day #NationalColoringBookDay
• August 8: International Cat Day #InternationalCatDay
• August 9: National Book Lovers Day #NationalBookLoversDay
• August 10: National Lazy Day #LazyDay
• August 11: National Sons and Daughters Day #SonsAndDaughtersDay
• August 12: International Youth Day #YouthDay
• August 12: World Elephant Day #WorldElephantDay
• August 13: International Lefthanders Day #LefthandersDay
• August 15: National Relaxation Day #NationalRelaxationDay
• August 16: National Tell a Joke Day #NationalTellAJokeDay
• August 19: World Photo Day #WorldPhotoDay
• August 19: World Humanitarian Day #WorldHumanitarianDay
• August 20: National Lemonade Day #NationalLemonadeDay
• August 26: National Dog Day #NationalDogDay
• August 26: National Women’s Equality Day #WomensEqualityDay

September 2022 Social Media Holidays

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• September 4: National Wildlife Day #NationalWildlifeDay
• September 5: International Day of Charity #CharityDay
• September 6: Labor Day #LaborDay
• September 6: Read a Book Day #ReadABookDay
• September 8: International Literacy Day #LiteracyDay
• September 10: Stand Up To Cancer Day #KissCancerGoodbye
• September 11: National Day of Service and Remembrance #911Day
• September 12: Civic Day of Hacking #HackForChange
• September 12: National Grandparents Day #NationalGrandparentsDay
• September 12: National Day of Encouragement #DayOfEncouragement
• September 12: National Video Games Day #NationalVideoGamesDay
• September 15 – October 15: Hispanic Heritage Month #hispanicheritagemonth
• September 19: Talk Like a Pirate Day #TalkLikeAPirateDay
• September 21: International Day of Peace #PeaceDay
• September 21: Miniature Golf Day #MiniGolfDay
• September 22: Car-Free Day #CarFreeDay
• September 22: Hobbit Day #HobbitDay
• September 22: First Day of Fall
• September 26: National Pancake Day #NationalPancakeDay
• September 26: European Day of Languages #EDL2022
• September 27: World Tourism Day #WTD2022
• September 28: World Rabies Day #WorldRabiesDay
• September 28: National Good Neighbor Day #GoodNeighborDay
• September 29: National Women’s Health and Fitness Day #FitnessDay
• September 30: International Podcast Day #InternationalPodcastDay

October 2022 Social Media Holidays

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• October 1: International Day of Older Persons #UNDOP
• October 1: International Coffee Day #InternationalCoffeeDay
• October 1: World Vegetarian Day #WorldVegetarianDay
• October 1: World Smile Day #WorldSmileDay
• October 2: International Day of Nonviolence #InternationalDayOfNonviolence
• October 3: National Techies Day #TechiesDay
• October 4: World Animal Day #WorldAnimalDay
• October 4: National Taco Day #NationalTacoDay
• October 4: World Habitat Day #WorldHabitatDay
• October 5: World Teachers Day #WorldTeachersDay
• October 10: World Mental Health Day #WorldMentalHeathDay
• October 11: International Day of the Girl #DayOfTheGirl
• October 14: World Sight Day #WorldSightDay
• October 14: National Dessert Day #DessertDay
• October 15: Global Handwashing Day #GlobalHandwashingDay
• October 16: World Food Day #FoodDay
• October 16: Bosses Day #BossesDay
• October 17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty #EndPoverty
• October 20: World Statistics Day #StatisticsDay
• October 21: Reptile Awareness Day #ReptileAwarenessDay
• October 21: Get to Know Your Customers Day (third Thursday of every quarter) #GetToKnowYourCustomersDay
• October 24: United Nations Day #UNDay
• October 25: Greasy Foods Day #GreasyFoodsDay
• October 30: National Publicist Day #NationalPublicistDay
• October 30: Checklist Day #ChecklistDay
• October 31: Halloween #Halloween

November 2022 Social Media Holidays

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• November 1: World Vegan Day #WorldVeganDay
• November 1: National Authors Day #NationalAuthorsDay
• November 1: National Cook For Your Pets Day #CookForYourPetsDay
• November 3: National Sandwich Day #NationalSandwichDay
• November 4: National Candy Day #NationalCandyDay
• November 6: Daylight Saving Time Ends #DaylightSavings
• November 8: National Cappuccino Day #CappuccinoDay
• November 8: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine (STEM) Day #STEMDay
• November 11: Veterans Day #VeteransDay
• November 13: World Kindness Day #WKD
• November 14: World Diabetes Day #WDD
• November 15: Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day #CleanOutYourRefrigeratorDay
• November 15: America Recycles Day #BeRecycled
• November 16: International Day for Tolerance #ToleranceDay
• November 16: National Entrepreneurs Day #EntrepreneursDay
• November 17: International Students Day #InternationalStudentsDay
• November 19: International Men’s Day #InternationalMensDay
• November 20: Universal Children’s Day #UNChildrensDay
• November 21: World Hello Day #WorldHelloDay
• November 25: Thanksgiving Day #Thanksgiving
• November 26: National Cake Day #NationalCakeDay
• November 26: National Day of Listening #DayOfListening
• November 27: Small Business Saturday (The last Saturday of November) #ShopSmall
• November 29: Electronic Greeting Card Day #ElectronicGreetingCardDay
• November 30: Computer Security Day #ComputerSecurityDay

December 2022 Social Media Holidays

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• December 1: World AIDS Day #WAD2022
• December 3: International Day of Persons with Disabilities #IDPWD
• December 4: National Cookie Day #NationalCookieDay
• December 5: World Soil Day #WorldSoilDay
• December 6: Microwave Oven Day #MicrowaveOvenDay
• December 8: Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day #PretendToBeATimeTravelerDay
• December 10: Human Rights Day #HumanRightsDay
• December 10: Nobel Prize Day #NobelPrize
• December 10: National Salesperson Day #SalespersonDay
• December 11: International Mountain Day #InternationalMountainDay
• December 21: Crossword Puzzle Day #CrosswordPuzzleDay
• December 21: First Day of Winter #WinterSolstice
• December 27: No Interruptions Day #NoInterruptionsDay
• December 31: New Year’s Eve #NYE

Sources: National Day Calendar, Sprout Social, TrackMaven, Holiday Insights, Brownielocks, National Peace Corps Association, Sparkflow, There’s a Day for That

While it’s not important to celebrate every single social media holiday, being aware of the holidays can help you brainstorm ideas for your marketing and implement fun, themed posts into your social media content calendar.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2017 but is updated annually for comprehensiveness. The most recent update of this post was November 2021.

The malls are decked with holly, your inbox is filling up with holiday-themed promotions, and you’ve deemed it socially acceptable to start listening to your favorite holiday playlist on Spotify… or maybe that’s just me. 

Either way, the holiday season is here, and marketers are gearing up to finish off the year strong. But just like shopping for gifts, planning your holiday campaign is something you don’t want to shove off until the last minute.

There’s going to be a lot of spending going in over the next month or so, which is why it’s important to have a plan for reaching your customers and prospects before your competitors do.

Haven’t started planning your campaign yet? Don’t panic.

We’ve mapped out a comprehensive guide with everything you need to launch a holiday marketing campaign this season. From offer templates to free holiday-themed stock photos, we’ve peppered this step-by-step guide with resources designed to get your campaign up and running right away.

1. Decide on a campaign theme.

While creating content has become ingrained in the day-to-day lives of most inbound marketers, launching a campaign is a little different. Unlike a tweet or an infographic, campaigns require you to align all of your marketing channels around one specific goal or message.

Holiday campaigns — like all campaigns — typically run for a concentrated period of time. Depending on your industry, they can start as early as October and often spill over into January.

Now that you know what you’re in for, let’s not waste any more time. Below we’ll kick off this process by walking you through establishing your campaign and offer.

2. Choose your campaign goals.

Before you start creating an offer, you need to determine what it is that you’re looking to achieve. What is the ideal outcome of this campaign? 

Once you define your focus, you can begin to create goals that will be used to benchmark your campaign’s performance once it’s wrapped. Your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART goals, for short). Here’s an example of how to structure this type of goal:

Generate [number] leads focused on [topic/product] by [date]

Depending on what you want to get out of your campaign, your goals might look something like this:

• Generate 1,000 leads who are interested in our annual holiday sale by December 5, 2021.
• Generate 5,000 sign-ups for our holiday shopping app by November 30, 2021. 
• Collect $50,000 in donations for charity XYZ by December 20, 2021.

To help you better align your marketing efforts with SMART goals, check out this free goal setting template. You can use this template to summarize your goals, calculate your greatest marketing need, and set deadlines.

3. Define your target audience.

With goals in place, the next step is to define your target audience. The more information you can gather about the people you’re trying to reach, the better. Where are they hanging out on social media? Do they prefer to consume information on their desktop or mobile? This will help you make smarter marketing decisions when it comes time to create content and plan promotions.

If you already have a few buyer personas in place for your marketing efforts, you’ll want to start by narrowing your focus. Does your campaign pertain to all segments of your audience? If not, you’ll need to immediately weed out the folks who you don’t want to include.

If you don’t already have buyer personas or would like to create campaign-specific personas, we recommend you check out our free buyer persona templates. These templates will make it easy for you to build out and organize your persona data.

4. Create an offer.

The offer that you create will serve as the center point for all of your campaign initiatives. Typically offers take shape in the form of ebooks, whitepapers, templates, online courses, videos, tools, etc. You can also choose a digital e-gift card from somewhere like Rybbon. While there are a lot of options to choose from, we advise you to run with an approach that makes the most sense for your intended audience. 

Think about it: If you know the people you’re trying to reach are typically strapped for time — particularly during the holidays — you might want to create a set of easy-to-use templates instead of a lengthy ebook, right?

If you decide to take the ebook route, we can help — you can download our free, customizable ebook templates. We’ve already taken care of the design element, so all you have to do is focus on writing the content. And if you’re in search of some compelling visuals to use throughout your offer, download our 250 free holiday stock photos here. 

5. Create a landing page.

Once your offer is created, you need to provide a place for it to live. This is where the landing page comes in. 

Considering your landing page is the page that you’ll be driving traffic to, it needs to be convincing. Here’s a list of some of the essential elements you should include:

• Compelling headline. This is how you’re going to capture the attention of potential visitors. For tips on how to craft the perfect headline, turn to this guide.
• Interesting visuals. Your landing page shouldn’t just be a jumble of text. Think about how you can provide visual context for your offer.
• The benefits of your offer. This typically takes shape in a bulleted list. The goal here is to drive home what the visitor can expect to get from this offer, and why it matters.
• A form. This is how you’ll collect information in exchange for the offer. Keep in mind that there’s no magic number for form fields. In fact, the amount of information you need to ask for on a form will vary from business to business. That said, if you don’t really need a piece of information, don’t ask for it.

If you need some more guidance as to what goes into a great landing page, check out this roundup of 19 brilliant landing page designs. 

6. Design a promotion plan.

“If you build it, they will come,” said no marketer ever. Now that your content has been created, it’s time to figure out how to get the word out. Here are some of the promotion tactics you should be implementing per channel: 

Email Marketing

If you already have a list of people you know will be interested in your offer, that’s great. If you want to slice and dice your database to go after a more specific group, you should take care of that segmentation first. For HubSpot customers, it’s easy to segment your database using a smart list in the Lists App. (Here’s a resource to help you get started.)

During the holiday season, we’d argue that segmenting your list is more important than ever. Due to the increased number of incoming promotions and the limited amount of time busy shoppers have, well-targeted emails will often take priority over mass messages. 

Once you’ve squared away your recipients, you can kick off the actual email creation process through platforms like Sendoso. Here are some noteworthy elements to keep in mind while crafting your email:

• Subject line. Focus on what the offer solves. Check out this helpful post for tips on improving your subject lines.
• Body copy. The body of your email should be short and sweet, much like the copy on your landing page. This is also a great opportunity to incorporate personalization using personalization tokens. Here are some great examples to get you thinking about personalization opportunities. 
• Sharing Options. Don’t forget to add buttons to your emails that allow recipients to quickly pass your offer along to their network. 

Check out HubSpot’s Template Marketplace to find an email template that fits your needs. 

Blogging

Once you’ve sent an email to get your offer on the radar of your intended audience, it’s time to build out your reach even further. Blog posts serve as an effective campaign element for attracting people to your offer, and can be approached in a couple of different ways. 

One way to use your blog to promote your offer is to create a simple “promo post” — that’s what we call them, anyway. This post is typically a very focused piece offering a quick introduction to the offer, advice on how to implement it, and a compelling CTA to drive people to the landing page.

According to a 6-month analysis of HubSpot’s Marketing Blog run by my colleague, Ginny Soskey, promo posts proved to be the most effective lead generators out of the seven post types we typically publish. While this may vary depending on your industry and audience, it’s certainly a type we’d encourage you to explore on your own.

Promo posts aside, it’s also a great idea to add a CTA for your offer to a post that aligns with its subject matter. You can create an entirely new post and revisit older, related posts to swap out their CTAs. This way, if people who reach the end of your post are looking for more information or a deeper dive into the subject, they can click through to the offer.

Social Media

Now that you have some tangible promotional material in place, you can start promoting it through your social media channels. Whether you share the related blog post or a link to the landing page, be sure that you’re switching up the messaging so you’re not repeating the same tweet or Facebook post over, and over, and over…

You’ll also want to tailor the post to the platform you’re posting it on. For example, maybe you create a teaser video for your offer to promote it on Instagram and then use a colorful visual when you serve it up on Twitter:

The holidays provide an interesting opportunity for businesses looking to explore platforms they wouldn’t typically try. With busy consumers looking for holiday help and inspiration in all corners of the internet and social media, you may find that it’s worth promoting your campaign on a wider variety of platforms. 

Wherever you’re sharing your content, you’ll need a place to organize and plan your distribution strategy. For that, check out this free social media content calendar. 

PPC

Paid advertising can be a great tool to boost some of your inbound efforts — especially around the busy holiday season.

If your budget allows and you know there’s search demand for your offer, you may want to experiment with putting a little money behind some of your campaign assets to promote them on social media. For advice on how to create successful paid advertising campaigns across the three main social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn — check out this guide.

7. Create lead nurturing paths.

What will happen to your leads once you’ve generated them? And once the holidays have come and gone, what will they mean to your business?

Before you launch your campaign, it’s best to design a plan for qualifying and developing your leads once they’ve filled out your form.

Email Segmentation

With marketing automation software, you can use email nurturing to keep leads engaged with your business and move them closer to a sale. 

Before you can begin creating emails and workflows, you need to take another look at your list to determine if there are opportunities for segmentation. Dividing your list of leads will make it easier for you to deliver more contextual follow-up emails, which will help you separate yourself from holiday inbox chaos, and ultimately help recipients see the value in your relationship.

Email Nurturing

Next, determine what content you’ll use to nurture your leads. You can narrow your focus by honing in on what your goals are for this nurturing process. Do you want them to turn these people into sales? Subscribers? Are you looking to direct them to a particular page? 

For your campaign, it might make sense to re-engage those leads with helpful, related resources.

And to track your progress, make sure you set a goal for your workflow. If you’re a HubSpot customer, you can do so in HubSpot’s Workflow App, which makes it easy for you to gauge the performance of your email sequence. 

8. Take the campaign live.

Now that you’ve got everything in place — offer, landing page, blog promotion, nurturing workflows, etc. — it’s time to take your campaign live. 

We recommend issuing a “soft launch” before you initiate any promotion, as this will provide you with an opportunity to run through all of the steps yourself to ensure that everything is functioning as it should be. If you can get a few colleagues to fill out the form and run through the stages too, it’ll be much easier for you to spot any glitches or missed marks. 

Once you know everything is sailing smoothly, it’s time to kick up promotion and start driving traffic to your landing page. 

9. Measure and report.

This is the final — and arguably the most important — step in the process. Once your campaign has had some time to gain traction, you’ll want to dive into its performance and see what you can learn from it. 

Remember those goals we set all the way back in step one? Now is the time to determine if you actually hit them — and if you didn’t, identify what might have prevented you from doing so. Analyzing where people dropped off in your workflows, blog posts that flopped, or areas of your offer that fell a little flat might reveal what held your campaign back from reaching those numbers. Take note of these details, and use them to inform your next campaign strategy.

If you need some help defining what numbers you should actually be concerning yourself with, check out this introductory guide to inbound marketing analytics. This resource will walk you through how to effectively analyze the following: your website and landing pages, search engine optimization, paid search, blogging, social media, email marketing, and lead nurturing and automation.

Creating a holiday marketing campaign isn’t all that different from creating a marketing campaign during the rest of the year. The main difference lies in the themes and offers you create. Although the process is similar, these campaigns usually have different goals and expectations because people are more likely to convert during this time of year.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Bringing a new product to life can be challenging. You know that you have an idea that can bring value to a target market, but you aren’t exactly sure how to bring your product to that market.

This process can become especially difficult if you’ve never done it before, as you may not even know where to begin. Thankfully, a blueprint exists in the new product development process, which is a strategy that will help you bring your ideas to life. Read on to discover how it’s done.

New Product Development Process

New product development refers to the process that goes into bringing a new product to market, from brainstorming an idea to understanding if it fits into the market, ironing it out to prototyping to final commercialization.

Although it can be a rather lengthy process that sometimes requires iteration, it’s all done to ensure that your product is the best it can be before it reaches your customers and solves their needs in the best possible way.

Let’s discuss the different stages involved in new product development.

1. Idea Generation

The new product development process begins with idea generation, where you brainstorm an idea (or ideas) that will help you solve an existing customer problem in a new and innovative way. As you’re coming up with ideas that will help you solve customer needs, it’s important to have a robust understanding of your target market and the pain points they have that you want to solve.

Your initial idea generation stage can be as simple as saying “What if we did this?” and then they become more ROBUST during the research stage.

2. Research

Once you’ve developed a product idea, the next step is conducting research to FLESH IT OUT. There are various steps you can take to do this, like:

• Market research to understand the current sentiment in your industry and if there are any holes that your product will fit into, and if there will even be demand for it.
• Competitor analysis to understand if customers think there are things your competitors’ products or services lack that you can incorporate into your product to better fit your target market’s needs.

During this stage, you can also get early feedback from customers about what they think of your ideas before coming up with a final definition for your product. One of the best ways to get this feedback is through surveys, where you can easily and quickly collect information from existing customers. A high-quality tool like Lucky Orange can help you create these surveys, and with it, you can ask multiple choice questions about types of products they may be interested in, or more open-ended questions that give you more insight into customer opinions.

This stage may include a bit of iteration because your research may tell you that you need to refine your original ideas and adjust your research scope before moving on to the next stage.

3. Planning

The third stage is planning, where you formulate a final product idea/definition based on your initial idea and research and begin coming up with your plans to bring it to life.

When you define your final product, you’ll want to begin planning for what you’ll need in order to create it. For example, if you’re creating a physical product, you’ll need to source the necessary materials or find production partners that will assist in manufacturing.

Planning also involves coming up with a marketing strategy that will help you effectively market when your product is completed, pricing models that make sense for your product, and that your customers will pay.

It’s also critical to identify the teams that will be involved in your product development process that will help bring it to market, from the marketing teams that will promote your product to any possible external partners that will assist with production.

4. Prototyping

The prototyping phase is when you come up with a sample product that is a mockup of what will be created during mass production.

This prototype is often referred to as a minimum viable product (MVP), which is a basic version of your tool, still similar to your final product, that will help you get a sense of how it functions and identify any areas that need to be improved.

You may make multiple prototypes and go back and forth between this stage and the testing stage before you have a finalized prototype.

5. Testing

Before launching your product you need to test it to ensure it will work as advertised and effectively solve your customer needs. So, during this stage, you’ll share your prototypes with target audiences and ask for actionable feedback on how the product works.  

Essentially, you want your product to be used in situations that are similar to real-world use cases so you know exactly what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes the results of your testing will require you to go back and make changes to your prototype, as mentioned above.

Once you feel as though your prototype is finished and ready to solve your customer needs, you’ll begin product development.

6. Product Development

This stage involves creating the final product that will be commercialized once completed. You’ll use the insights gained from testing your MVP to make final touches to your prototype, and begin mass production.

Depending on your type of business, you’ll likely have a different process for product development. For example, if you’re a SaaS business, your internal software development or programming teams will likely work to finalize code. If you create a physical product, you may outsource labor for certain components and assemble final products in your warehouse.

Whichever your process is, your planning stage should’ve helped you identify how your product development will go.

7. Commercialization

The final stage of your new product development process is commercialization, where you introduce your products to market. This is the culmination of your brainstorming, research, iteration, where your audiences can finally make use of what you created.

You’ll enact your marketing plans to make your audiences aware of your new product, and enact campaigns that will entice them to become customers.

Although this is the final stage, many businesses launch their products and, over time, return to make improvements to their products based on customer feedback and market changes to ensure they’re always providing the best possible customer experience.

From Brainstorming To Reality

When you complete your new product development process, you’ll have brought your brainstorming ideas to fruition, and created a real product or service that solves a customer need. If you find success, you’ll have created a valuable strategy to replicate that will help you continuously innovate and create new products, giving customers the delightful experiences they desire.

According to 2021 HubSpot Blog Research, most marketers search for new or emerging social media platforms on a weekly or monthly basis.

When you visit the App Store or Google Play and search “social media,” there are hundreds of apps to choose from. But, as the pool of social platforms grows, will any of them really change the game for marketers this year?

The truth is, probably so. The year 2020 changed the way we did just about everything — including socializing. Social distancing became a familiar part of our lives leaving a void for personalized communication we used to have in-person.

Nevertheless, humans are adaptable, and several new social networking sites have emerged in the last twelve months to recreate the communities we’ve had to abandon abruptly.

2022 Social Media Trends

The hottest social media trends thus far are audio-based social networking and live streaming.

Live streaming video (32%) was the second-highest trend social media marketers invested in this year, behind short-form video content. The survey also revealed that streaming performed better than expected for 52% of social media marketers surveyed.

This comes at a time when platforms like Twitch and Discord are rising and expanding beyond gaming.

As for audio, Stephanie Morgan, social media expert and founder of the marketing agency Social Lock, sees a bright future for this new type of community.

“Audio-based social networking is a relatively new concept, but it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon,” she says.

HubSpot Blog Research found that 65% of social media marketers ranked live audio chat rooms among the top three most effective social media formats.

Watching the growth of young, promising social channels will help you determine which are worth joining and which aren’t worth your time.

And, if you do end up joining a hot new social channel early on, you may have more time to pick up on what promotional content works there. This will put you ahead of competitors that launch their accounts later and might struggle to come up with creative post ideas.

To help you stay on the cutting edge of social media, we’ve compiled a list of eight young social platforms that you might want to put on your radar this year. These platforms have all gained a large user base, interest from investors, or news buzz in recent months.

For each platform, we’ll walk you through how it works, its user base, why it might be promising to marketers later on, and how you should approach it today.

1. Twitch

Year Launched: 2011

Number of Users: 140 million monthly active users

Twitch is a live streaming platform that allows creators to interact with their audience in real-time. Its leading traffic driver comes from video game enthusiasts.

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Players can record themselves playing popular games like Fortnite and Minecraft while the audience watches and engages. Some creators also offer exclusive content to those who choose a paid subscription plan.

In addition to game content, you’ll find videos and live stream relating to cooking, music, and just about anything on this social network. Twitch also offers interactive live shows, from esports events to festivals to its 30 million average daily visitors.

The audience on Twitch skews young, with 70% of its viewers between 16 and 34 years old. From a brand perspective, it’s a great community-building platform where marketers can connect on a personal level with their target audience.

From Q&As to behind-the-scenes content, there are various ways brands can engage their audience.

According to 2021 HubSpot Blog Research, 75% of B2B social media marketers plan to increase their investment in Twitch compared to 28% of B2C marketers.

Similar to influencers on other social networks, streamers can make a living on Twitch through subscriptions, ads, and donations.

Brands can choose from a variety of ad placements, including the homepage carousel and live broadcast integrations. They can also sponsor specific streamers whose viewers are highly engaged.

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As Twitch’s audience diversifies and expands beyond gaming, this makes it easier for brands to find their way in. In addition, brands aren’t limited to working with streamers on the platform. They can build their own presence through a branded account and features like emote, which are emoticons you can use on the platform.

2. Discord

Year Launched: 2015

Number of Users: Over 100 million monthly active users

What once was a gaming platform has now evolved into an expansive chat app.

Here’s how it works: The platform operates on servers, which are community groups that allow video, audio, and text chatting. Every user can build their own server or join one created by another member.

When it first launched, Discord was popular among gamers who wanted a platform to stream games and connect with the broader gaming community. After raising $100 million in funding in 2020, Discord announced plans to expand beyond this community.

In a blog post, co-founder and CEO Jason Citron shared that its users wanted this change.

“Games are what brought many of you on the platform, and we’ll always be grateful for that,” wrote Citron. “As time passed, a lot of you realized, and vocalized, that you simply wanted a place designed to hang out and talk in the comfort of your own communities and friends.”

The brand underwent a brand redesign and reframed its messaging to make it a platform for all.

Discord does not do ads on the platform currently, making it a solely organic play for brands. Startup investment platform Otis had had great success in this arena.

In a Digiday article, Otis’ head of marketing, Cam Lay, shared that they’ve built a strong community of 600+ members by sharing tips and regularly engaging with users.

They also leverage their community to get feedback and gain insights into how their audience feels about their products and services.

Discord offers brands a fantastic opportunity to build brand loyalty and trust. To be successful on a platform like this, brands must be invested in their audience and willing to play the long game.

3. TikTok

Year Launched: 2017 (Founded in 2016)

Number of Users: 1 billion monthly active users

In 2018, the lip-syncing app, Musical.ly merged with a similar one-year-old app called TikTok. Today, it’ now more popular in app stores than other prominent social media platforms and is expected to reach 1.5 billion in 2022.

For those who remember Vine or Musical.ly, TikTok is like a mix of the two.

The platform allows you to film short videos that play on a repetitive loop just like Vine. But, like Musical.ly or Snapchat, you can add fun effects, AR filters, text, and musical overlays to zest things up. Like similar video platforms, it has been primarily adopted by users under 30 years old.

Once you make a video, the app also allows you to optimize it by adding hashtags to make it easier to find via search.

One way hashtags have been embraced on TikTok is through its “Discover” tab. This area of the platform allows you to sift through trending hashtags and join in on the fun. When you post a video that responds to a challenge, you can include the corresponding hashtag so those following the challenge can see your videos.

Along with being widely discussed by publications including the New York Times and Digiday, the app has also gained notoriety from comedians like Jimmy Fallon. Here’s a clip from The Tonight Show where he talks about the app and tells fans to compete in his #tumbleweed challenge:

In addition to being fun and entertaining, the app is “leaking into brand territory,” according to Krystal Wu, HubSpot’s former social media community manager. She explained that more brands are on the platform, adding that, “The Washington Post is on TikTok and they are pretty popular too.”

The Washington Post, as she mentioned, has already gained over 1 million followers.

You would expect the newspaper to post content with a more serious or investigative tone. However, the Post shows off a lighter, behind-the-scenes look at its newsroom.

In this example, one of its journalists struggles to walk up the stairs to the sounds of MGMT’s “Electric Feel”:

Brands like Guess have also started to experiment with TikTok.

To highlight its new line of denim clothing, Guess launched the #inMyDenim challenge encouraging users to publish videos of themselves wearing Guess denim with Bebe Rexha’s song, “I’m a Mess.” playing in the background.

At the moment, fashion, publishing, and entertainment companies are starting to play with TikTok. As the platform grows, we might see it expand to other industries that are able to get creative and visual with their marketing tactics.

In 2021, 46% of social media marketers surveyed in a HubSpot Blog Research study revealed that Tiktok offers high ROI, ranking third behind Instagram and YouTube. For that reason, 93% of marketers who leverage TikTok plan to increase their investment or continue investing the same amount in 2022.

While you might not want to focus all of your social media resources on TikTok just yet, it’s a great time to familiarize yourself with the app and start experimenting with a few fun videos.

You could also try to brainstorm a few challenges or video ideas that could align well with your brand and the platform’s young audience. If you see any brands that are in a similar space as you, follow them for some added inspiration.

4. Clubhouse

Year Launched: 2020

Number of Users: 10 million active weekly users

Unlike traditional social media sites Facebook or Twitter which provide an asynchronous platform for communicating and sharing content, Clubhouse leverages synchronous, audio-only connectivity between the audience and the speakers.

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It’s not quite a podcast, but a more personal way to share information with your audience who can talk back to you in real-time.

You might be wondering “What actually happens in Clubhouse?” And the truth is: It’s a little bit of everything. Topics like starting a business from top venture capitalists, relationship discussions hosted by celebrities, and even comedy clubs by up-and-coming comedians all find their way in front of live audiences.

Part of the sudden uproar about this new social media network stemmed from the way it contradicted every other social platform available today.

It was invite-only — the antithesis of how we’ve come to understand and leverage social media. The developers of the app said they wanted to get Clubhouse just right before releasing it to the public, but users already part of the in-group served as gatekeepers to thousands of conversations happening daily.

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How can Clubhouse work for marketers and brands? That’s yet to be determined, but professionals are experimenting right now. The race to crack the code on Clubhouse is a fast one as content creators are building their audiences quickly in hopes of securing monetization opportunities when they become available.

Not sure how to leverage it? Consider hosting an informal focus group, starting a conversation about a high-traffic blog article your company has published or contributing to a conversation hosted by a thought leader in your industry.

5. Twitter Spaces

Year Launched: 2020

Number of Users: Unspecified

Similar to Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces is a beta version of the app’s newest audio feature. This voice chat alternative to the social platform’s traditional 280 character tweets is open to anyone with an iOS device, but only a select group of people chosen by Twitter can create their own space to start a conversation.

While the app is similar in nature to Clubhouse, Twitter is venturing into this new audio-only territory to discover opportunities and threats in this type of community. Clubhouse has addressed its challenges with enforcing community standards – an opportunity Twitter wants to figure out to make the platform safe for everyone.

Morgan predicts some promising insights about the newest audio-only social network by Twitter,

“Spaces will be a great feature on Twitter because it’s already a dialogue-friendly, majority non-visual platform,” she says.

She anticipates that hosting live discussions, training sessions, and customer Q&As could be a few use cases for businesses to utilize Twitter Spaces once it is released to the public.

6. Caffeine

Year Launched: Founded in 2016 and unveiled in 2018

Number of Users: Unspecified

Caffeine.tv, a platform built by ex-Apple designers, allows you to create live broadcasts for friends and followers. The broadcasts show up in a feed where you can give an emoji reaction or respond with comments.

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Along with live video broadcasts, you can also stream your computer or TV screens as you play video games. This makes Caffeine a possible competitor to the slightly older game-streaming service, Twitch.tv. Similar to Twitch, which offers you money for high views or subscriptions, Caffeine has launched a monetization program that rewards engaging broadcasters.

The company hasn’t specified user numbers yet, but its Crunchbase profile reveals that it has over $290 million in investments so far.

Aside from investor interest, the platform is starting to make waves. Back in 2019, the platform was used to broadcast the 2019 X Games in Aspen. In 2021, the Ultimate Rap League and musician Drake used the app to stream the rapper’s birthday event.

Caffeine’s success so far demonstrates how live video and video platforms are gaining quick adoption from younger audiences, especially in the Gen-Z age group. If the app continues to gain interest, marketers might consider using it to show off their brand through a variety of strategies, like behind-the-scenes content, Q&As, or other live videos.

This platform could also be useful to marketers in a wide variety of industries, including news, entertainment, gaming, and sports.

If live-streaming could help your company spread awareness of a product, it might be a good time to familiarize yourself with both Caffeine and Twitch.

As you learn more about the platforms, be sure to determine if your audience is actually using either of them and what they’re using them for. You should also check out what similar brands are doing if you find any with active accounts.

If you have an idea for a live stream that seems too out of the ordinary for Facebook or Instagram, Caffeine could be an interesting place to test it. Because the platform is new, there might not be many norms or rules associated with what content works or doesn’t work just yet.

7. Instagram Reels

Year Launched: 2020

Number of Users: Unspecified

We can’t deny that TikTok changed the game for social media since its debut in 2017. It’s still on our list this year as the platform continues to reinvent itself and expand into new audiences.

In 2019, Facebook took notice of the TikTok trend and responded with Lasso, but ended the effort to make room for Instagram Reels.

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Reels is now in direct competition with TikTok, offering a similar video creation functionality. Instagram users can create videos adorned with special effects, music, and transitions notorious for keeping users in a loop.

How can reels work for your business? Everything from sharing product releases to how-to guides, Reels can be an engaging method for brands to make a presence with the Gen Z audience. If you’re not sure how to start, The Social Impact has some fun and informative examples of how to use Reels.

Not sure how to leverage this new Instagram feature? Start with your brand. Reels are a fun type of content that can display your brand’s personality. You don’t need fancy camera equipment or a director to publish content that has the viral factor.

If your team simply doesn’t have the capacity to produce this content yet, consider tapping an industry influencer to create reels on your behalf.

8. Houseparty

Year Launched: 2016

Number of Users: 20 million+

Houseparty is a group video messaging app that allows video chats that can host eight users at a time. To make things more fun for everyone in the chat, you can use video filters, stickers, and other fun effects while a live conversation is in session.

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While the app itself has been around for a few years, it has gone through a few evolutions and recently gained large bumps in interest and users. The app first started as Meerkat, but rebranded itself to Houseparty and revamped its features. Since then, Houseparty has climbed app store charts and risen from 1 million to 50 million users in 2020.

Although the app does offer ad space, marketers of the future might use it in other creative ways. For example, a small makeup company might sponsor a “houseparty” where an influencer can answer beauty questions and show attendees how to use one of their new beauty products.

Although it might sound promising, still keep in mind that this app has a number of big-name competitors, including Snapchat and Zoom.

This app might also take added time and creativity. If you don’t have time to host a houseparty or can’t think of one that would effectively market your product, you might want to prioritize other platforms first.

How to Navigate The New Social Media Landscape

A marketer who discovers a hot new social channel first can become an expert on posting engaging content before their competitors even sign up.

But, while it’s important for marketers to keep interesting platforms on their radar, the first priority should still be to focus time, effort, and resources on the platforms that are already thriving.

To make sure you’re balancing your time between new and old channels accordingly, focus on growing and refining strategies on the successful platforms, then timebox an hour or so once a month to look into newer platforms.

If you find a platform like TikTok, that’s both relatively new and has a fast-growing user base, brainstorm, and schedule a few experimental posts.

Be sure to use experimentation time wisely and on the right platforms. While TikTok is a great place to experiment and doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere soon, there’s always a chance that an extremely niche platform, like Clubhouse, could get overshadowed by a larger competitor – Twitter Spaces.

When you’re determining which platforms are worth watching or experimenting on, here are six questions your team should ask themselves:

• What are its active user numbers? Big numbers could mean that the platform is gaining momentum and that you have even more chances to engage with a large pool of users.
• Are publications or thought leaders talking about it? If a platform doesn’t specify exact numbers, but a lot of people, prominent figures, or news publications are discussing it — it might be promising.
• Do older platforms have a similar tool and a bigger user base? If an older platform does the same thing, people might hesitate to adopt a newer platform. For example, marketers primarily use Stories on Instagram as opposed to Snapchat. Although Snapchat pioneered the story, the Instagram interface and experience are things that a lot more people know, understand, and trust.
• Will my audiences understand how to use the platform? Will my audiences understand how to use the platform? It might be challenging to get a less tech-savvy person to join Snapchat or TikTok, but they might love a platform like Facebook or Twitter because the interfaces might be easier to understand. Pick platforms that your audience can easily use and enjoy.
• Will audiences even be interested in the platform? Will audiences even be interested in the platform? While a tech novice might not enjoy TikTok, a teenager might get bored on a platform like Facebook. In fact, younger people prefer visual apps like TikTok and Instagram. While you want to pay attention to the level of adaptability, you also should pay attention to how your audience wants to consume media.
• What type of content or post could we use to promote our brand on the platform? You should always make a plan of action when considering or launching a social platform. If you can’t come up with any interesting ways to market your specific product on a niche platform, you might want to hold off on making an account. On the other hand, experimenting with different posting strategies could allow your brand to look creative and cool to the platform’s audience.

Should you follow the social media trends of 2022?

Consumer behavior changes quickly in the digital space, and businesses that adapt to social media trends could see success.

If you keep an eye on this kind of marketing research and tailor it to your target audience, you can craft a stellar social media plan that drives awareness and shows your brand in a creative light.

Remember, every trend won’t work to achieve your goals, so don’t venture into this new social media landscape without the most up-to-date data.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Even though Field of Dreams is one of my favorite movies, the saying “If you build it, they will come” sadly doesn’t apply to content marketing. Too often, we forget that content marketing consists of two separate words — content and marketing. Creating content is usually the most fulfilling and enjoyable part of a marketer’s job but distributing that content is just as important.

After all, if no one sees your content, they definitely won’t come.

This is why it’s important to understand marketing channels and which ones you should use to leverage your content marketing goals. In short, marketing channels are the different tools and platforms you use to communicate with your target audience. So, while the decision to use specific channels should come from your audience insights, it’s essential to understand different channels’ value.

To learn more about the marketing channels that are being used by businesses today, the HubSpot Blog surveyed more than 1,000 global marketing professionals working in B2B and B2C companies to find out the channels they leverage. In this post, we’ll discuss the findings that will help you understand how to amplify your reach, resonance, and revenue, all while prioritizing what matters most: your customers.

Top B2B Marketing Channels

According to HubSpot data, the top channels used by B2B marketers are social media, websites and blogs, and email marketing (as shown in the image below).

Social media is the top-used digital marketing channel likely because of LinkedIn (which is reported as their most effective channel). It’s filled with business-minded individuals, which is exactly who you want to reach as a business-to-business marketer.

B2B marketers likely focus significant effort on website and blogging channels because buyers often rely on websites before making purchasing decisions, so a website is a great way to convey information to people involved in B2B sales.

SEO is one of B2B marketers’ primary marketing strategies, likely because of the popularity of websites. Using keywords that are hyper-related to your business helps you draw customers to your website, as they can search for keywords directly related to what you offer and come upon your site in SERPs. Considering that search engines are the primary source of discovery for new products and services and people make 97,105 searches on Google per second, SEO has significant implications for businesses using the strategy for advertising.

 

Email is a powerful channel for B2B marketers because it helps share educational content with customers. In fact, 40% of B2B marketers say that newsletters are critical to success. When sending emails, subscriber segmentation and message personalization are the most effective strategies.

In 2022, you can expect B2B marketers to continue their investments in blogs and email marketing and increase their investments in social media.

Top B2C Marketing Channels

B2C marketers invest in the same top channels as B2B marketers, but the order is different: social media, email marketing, then websites and blogs. However, despite using similar channels, B2C marketing is typically focused on offering enjoyable content and quick solutions than B2B desire to build long-lasting business relationships with their customers. 

The focus on social media likely centers around the fact that 3.6 billion people worldwide were using social media in 2020, and Statista predicts this number will grow to 4.41 billion in 2025. Given this, B2C customers are likely already on social media. When using social media, the trends that marketers typically choose to leverage are short-form video content and influencer marketing.

 

While you may only associate email marketing with newsletters, you can use it for B2C-type content like personalized communications, time-relevant notifications like product launches and sales, and cart abandonment emails for reminders. Also, email is an owned media channel — nobody is dictating when, how, and why you can contact your prospects (but keep in mind that customers will unsubscribe from oversaturation).

When it comes to websites and blogging, the two work hand in hand; blogging helps you generate brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, convert leads, and, most importantly, establish yourself as a source of authority. When you create your blogs with SEO tactics in mind, you’re even more likely to meet your marketing needs as you’ll surface in SERPs when customers make queries related to your business content.

Like B2B marketers, B2C marketers will continue their investments in websites/blogs and email marketing and increase their investments in social media.

Omni-Channel Marketing

While it may seem best to focus your efforts and investments on one single marketing channel, that strategy no longer suffices. In fact, HubSpot research shows that 92% of marketers leverage more than one channel, and 81% leverage more than three.

Neil Patel, CMO & co-Founder of NP Digital, champions this tip and says that marketing is shifting its focus: “All good channels eventually get saturated. In 2022, brands will prioritize all channels and go more omni-channel…It’s the only way to stay competitive.”

A strategy that many marketers leverage with omni-channel marketing is content repurposing, with 82% of social media marketers repurposing content across various social channels. This practice, however, is more popular for B2C companies than B2B companies.

Video Marketing

If you’ve yet to consider video marketing, now is the time to do so. Video can boost conversions, improve ROI, and help you build relationships with audience members. Video is the top media format marketers leverage their strategies. In addition, 69% of consumers prefer to learn about what a brand offers through video.

When creating video, short-form content takes the cake for both B2B and B2C marketers, and they plan to increase investments in the strategy for 2022 (29% of marketers even plan to leverage it for the first time). When sharing video, the most popular channels are Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, with Instagram being among the most effective video marketing channels.

 

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is when a business partners with a relevant, popular creator in their industry to put out advertisements or specific pieces of content. It’s a valuable marketing channel, and 71% of marketers say that the quality of traffic generated from influencer marketing is better than other ad formats. Leveraging influencers to meet your marketing goals can be beneficial in terms of generating brand awareness, as well as increasing social proof.

Consumers trust marketers less and less, and they shy away from sales-to-drive leads type content. Instead, they trust influencers, as they view them as a person like themselves, especially when they share common interests. The content that influencers create is a form of user-generated content, a.k.a word-of-mouth marketing.

53.6% of B2B marketers and 59.5% of B2C marketers who use the strategy say it is effective. Your competitors are already sharing this high-trust and high-return content with their audiences, and you should be too. A bonus is the return on investment (ROI) for influencer marketing, with every one dollar spent totaling $5.78 ROI.  Marketers will also continue using the channel in 2022, with 87% planning to continue investing the same or increasing their investments.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engines are also one of the highest converting marketing channels, and HubSpot data found that 56% of marketers say that it is effective in helping them meet their goals.

This means that optimizing all of your business’ existing channels will likely bring traffic and increase conversions. While a website may be your first thought when optimizing for SEO, this also applies to your YouTube channel, Google Maps Google My Business profile, your blog, and even your podcast episodes.

To build a thriving organic presence online, consider implementing the pillar-cluster model into your blog (35% of B2B and 59% of B2C marketers report it as an effective strategy). By doing this, you’ll create a single pillar page that provides a high-level overview of a topic and hyperlinks to cluster pages that delve into the topic’s subtopics — signaling to Google that your pillar page is an authority on the topic.

Other SEO tactics that marketers report as effective include using a search insights report, optimizing photos or videos for visual search engines, and optimizing load speed.

Podcast Marketing

55% of the U.S. population aged 12 and above listened to podcasts, and 37% listened in the last month for an average of six hours per week. The demand for audio content has exploded, so it’s worth considering podcasts to meet your audience where they already are.

Not only is demand high, but podcasts and their hosts can help you develop a unique relationship with your audience as episodes feel conversational and share a more human side of your business.

Podcasts also create more opportunities for interaction, as customers aren’t restricted to listening while staring at their phone screen. For example, your ideal listener can play an episode in their car during their morning commute, while walking their dog, and while they’re cleaning their house.

Featured Resource:How To Start a Podcast For Your Business

According to researchers in the neuroscience field, storytelling is one of the best ways to capture attention and resonate with consumer emotions. The human brain is programmed to crave, seek out, and respond to a well-crafted narrative — that’ll never change.

Only 1 in 3 marketers reported leveraging podcasts or other audio content in their strategies, but 53% of those that do say that it is the most effective media format they use. In addition, 51% of those who already use the channel will invest more in 2022, and 26% of marketers plan to leverage it for the first time in the upcoming year.

Word of Mouth Marketing

70% of consumers say that trusting a brand is more important today than ever before. Unfortunately, consumers also trust brands and the paid content they create less than ever before. So, what’s a marketer to do when the very people they need to persuade don’t trust them? They need to rely on their customers’ recommendations of their brand to inspire other customers to make purchases, also known as word-of-mouth marketing.

People trust other consumers over marketers because marketers have an agenda. They promote their products and services to generate sales, but customers will only rave about a product or service if it truly benefits them. If you’re skeptical, consider the following research findings:

• Consumers report that a person like themselves (another consumer) is 14% more credible than a brand employee.
• 39% of consumers build trust in a brand from peer-to-peer conversations than from a brand’s paid advertising.
• 9 out of 10 consumers read reviews when making purchasing decisions.

Word-of-mouth marketing doesn’t just have to be a face-to-face conversation, though. For example, satisfied customers will post about you online, tell their roommates they like your service, and leave positive reviews on your product pages. Only one of those examples involves an actual, in-person conversation, but they all include consumers vouching for your brands’ credibility and authenticity to inspire others to purchase your products.

You can encourage this type of marketing by creating a customer experience that meets your audience’s needs and providing top-notch customer service. In other words, you need to serve your customers’ needs before your own.

Over To You

Different marketing channels bring various benefits, but most businesses can find a way to use different channels in their marketing strategies to meet business goals.

After all, your audience is likely diverse and spread out, so using different channels creates multiple points of contact, which, in turn, will help you nurture leads and increase conversions.

 

Yes, you own or work for a business that sells products or services. However, you are also a consumer. For just a moment, take off your business hat and put on your consumer hat.

Every day, you research items from pet shampoo and carpet cleaner in your personal life to CRM systems and social media schedulers for your professional life.

Our world is filled with hundreds or thousands of items for anything your heart desires. With so many options, we become easily distracted, following the next shiny object to another site, another company, or another method of meeting our needs altogether.

Marketers know this, and so they’ve had to find a way to recapture our attention when we’ve been squirrelled by another option. Once they’ve got our attention, they have another opportunity to sell their products to us.

You can put your business hat back on. Isn’t it frustrating when you see how many people visit your website and look at a product, and leave without ever making a purchase? You’ve managed to attract them to your business, but what good is paid advertising and a beautiful website if shoppers don’t convert to customers?

Thankfully, marketers have a solution for this. It’s called “retargeting” and you’re about to learn everything you need to know about LinkedIn Retargeting.

LinkedIn Retargeting

If you own a business, work for a business, or are looking to be hired by a business, you know that LinkedIn is a necessary platform. While you may opt out of more “social” social media like Facebook or Instagram, employers look to LinkedIn to find new employees and vet potential candidates, and most professionals use LinkedIn as a networking tool.

In the third quarter of 2020, LinkedIn reported more than 690 million users. Like many types of social media, it could be considered a “necessary evil.” Fortunately, it can also present an opportunity to recapture the attention of prospective clients and customers.

What are Linkedin Retargeting Ads?

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Also known as remarketing ads, LinkedIn retargeting ads allow you to reach LinkedIn users who may have previously interacted with your brand in some way (so they have some level of interest), yet they haven’t purchased from you.

How to Retarget on LinkedIn

Retargeting through LinkedIn is a 7-step process (with a potential 8th step):

1. Users see an ad in their LinkedIn feed.
2. The user clicks on the ad.
3. They are brought to your website.
4. They interact in some way, perhaps filling out a form in exchange for an offer.
5. The user becomes a lead in your system.
6. Their history is stored in cookies and the data is sent to LinkedIn.
7. Retargeting ads are shown to the user.

And hopefully…

The user takes the steps to become a customer.

You might be wondering how the cookies know how to communicate with LinkedIn. This is done through a piece of code called an Insight Tag that gets installed on your website. The pixel is able to track conversions, website audiences, and website demographics for all your LinkedIn ad campaigns. It then passes this data from your website to LinkedIn, letting it know that you’ve got someone interested who needs to be reminded you exist.

LinkedIn Retargeting Cost

Any smart business person is going to wonder if Linkedin Retargeting ads provide a worthwhile ROI. Before you learn how to create these ads, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to know:

In their pilot study, Linkedin’s 2,000+ Matched Audiences campaigns reported an average of:

• 30% increase in click-through rate (CTR) with Website Retargeting ads.
• 14% decrease in post-click cost-per-conversion (CPC) with Website Retargeting ads.
• 37% increase in CTR with contact targeting.

Retargeting allows you to capture and convert leads that would otherwise be lost. Because of this, successful Linkedin retargeting campaigns will also increase your conversion rate and lower your average cost-per-lead (CPL).

Sound like something you could benefit from? Read on to learn the “How.”

Creating LinkedIn Retargeting Ad Campaigns

Thankfully, you don’t have to be a tech genius to set up a LinkedIn Retargeting Ad. They’ve made it fairly user-friendly so as long as you have access to your website code, and basic knowledge of how to navigate inside it, this is doable. With good directions (they’re coming, don’t worry), you can be well on your way in a short period of time. If you have access to a website designer who will help you, that’s great too.

Let’s take a look at the overview first and then we’ll dive into specifics:

• Create a LinkedIn advertising account
• Build LinkedIn Retargeting Audience
• Use Matched Audiences in a LinkedIn Retargeting Campaign

How to Create a LinkedIn Advertising Account

If you are not yet using Linkedin Campaign Manager, start here and follow the prompts to set up your account.

Then, you can set up your campaign:

If you are new to Linkedin ads and would like some assistance creating and managing campaigns, consider using a program like Rollworksto help.

Assuming you’ve done all of that and are already running LinkedIn Ads, let’s look at how to set up a Linkedin pixel.

How to Install a LinkedIn Advertising Pixel

Earlier, we mentioned the Insight Tag. This is the most important piece of the retargeting ads puzzle because, without it, your website and LinkedIn won’t communicate.

1. To find your unique Javascript code, head to Linkedin Campaign Manager.
2. Check the box next to your business account and then look at the Campaigns tab.
3. From the Account Assets tab dropdown, click on Insight Tag.
4. Select Install my Insight Tag.
5. Choose I will install the tag myself.

1. Copy all of the tag code.
2. Choose I’m Done.
3. Go to your website and paste the Insight Tag code at the end of the <body> tag in the global footer.

Once this is done, it’s time to check each page to make sure the Insight Tag has been installed properly.

1. Head back to the Campaign Manager and look for the Insight Tag under Account Assets. When a tag has been installed correctly, it will send a signal from your website to Linkedin. Whenever a LinkedIn member visits that page, the domain name will appear here.
2. It may take up to 24 hours for a page visit to verify, so you may need to come back and check the connection later.
3. Check the Status column for all verified domains (they’ll show up as active/green).

LinkedIn Advertising Pixel for Google Chrome

The next step is necessary to ensure that this system works with any users on Google Chrome. They have more safeguards in place to prevent third-party cookies, so you’ll need to do an extra step to make this work.

1. Make the SameSite attribute ‘None.’
2. Add the Secure label to your cookies.

If you’re not sure how to work with SameSite attributes, it may be good to bring in a developer for help. Once this step is done, Google Chrome users will join the party.

Linkedin Retargeting Options

With the Insight Tag installed, we can begin Building Linkedin Retargeting Audiences. All the options are on one page, so it’s fairly easy to do.

1. If you’re not already there, log into your Linkedin Campaign Manager and select the account you’ll be working with.
2. On the Campaigns page, find the Account Assets tab and select Matched Audiences.
3. Click on Create Audience on the right side of the Matched Audiences page.
4. Select the audience type you’d like to build.
5. Follow the rest of the page’s flow and then choose Create to build a new audience.

Keep in mind that it takes 48 hours to build an audience. You also need at least 300 members before you can send retargeting ads to those users. Different audience pages will look slightly different so we’ll review these next.

Website Audience Set Up

This variation will retarget users who visited a page on your website using Website audiences. You’ll need the Insight Tag for this audience.

1. Name your audience. You’ll have to remember this name later in your campaigns, so be specific.
2. Add key pages from your website under Match a URL that… You can add multiple links to one audience.
3. Pay attention to page rules:

• Equals – this is the exact URL you list and is great to use when you want to restrict subpages.
• Starts with – includes all pages starting with whatever you enter.
• Contains – you’ll be asked to type in a word or string. This option would make it easy to group URLs in a pattern, like related products, service offerings, or blog topics whose URL string includes the same keyword or phrase.
• AND/OR: Use AND to retarget users who both visit a page URL and visit another URL containing a word you specify. Use OR to group URLs and retarget people who visit any page listed.

Video Audience Set Up

To retarget users who viewed a video ad, follow these steps.

1. Name the audience.
2. Choose viewing percentage (25%, 50%, 75%, or 97% of the video).
3. Select lookback period (30, 60, 90, 180, 365 days in the past).
4. Click the checkbox next to the video campaigns you want to include.
5. Hit Create.

Lead Gen Form Audience Set Up

Follow these steps to retarget audience members who opened or submitted a lead gen form.

1. Name your audience.
2. Choose the engagement level. This can be anyone who opened your lead gen form (including submissions) or only people who have submitted your lead gen form.
3. You can specify how long ago the audience members engaged with this form: between 30 days to a full year.
4. Check the box next to the campaign(s) you want to retarget.

Company Page Audience Set Up

To set up an audience of users who have interacted with your company’s LinkedIn page, follow the process below.

1. Name the audience.
2. Choose an engagement type. Engagement on a company’s Linkedin Page includes a page view or a click on your page’s header CTA.
3. Select how recently audience members engaged.
4. Click Create.

Event Audience Set Up

Do you host events on LinkedIn? Retarget LinkedIn members who RSVP to your event (you can do this for past and upcoming event registration).

1. Name the audience.
2. Check the boxes next to Event names to include the events you want.
3. Click Create.

How to Use Matched Audiences for LinkedIn Retargeting

Want to use a matched, or lookalike audience for LinkedIn retargeting? Here’s how to set it up:

1. Create a Linkedin Campaign.
2. Use Matched Audience in Campaign.
3. Scroll to Who is your target audience.
4. Select Audiences > Retargeting.
5. Select from one of the options of Matched Audiences.
6. Choose the Matched Audience under that type.
7. Finish the campaign setup.
8. Create your ads and launch the campaign.

LinkedIn Retargeting Best Practices

You’ll want to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to LinkedIn Retargeting Ads. Follow these best practices to make sure your advertising dollar stretches as far as possible.

• Refine your ad content over time. If you notice certain pieces of content aren’t resonating with your audience, don’t be afraid to refresh it until you figure out what works. Images and ad copy should reflect the retargeting audience you’re trying to reach.
• Create multiple ad formats depending on the stage your prospective customers are in. Continue testing formats and use the format that will best move them towards your objectives.
• Be flexible. You’ll be learning what works and what doesn’t as you go. When you discover something isn’t creating the results you want, change it.

Final Thoughts

There’s no need to accept lost leads. When someone heads to your website, downloads content, or interacts with your brand in any way, it’s because they are interested in what you offer and how you can help them.

Rather than counting them out if they don’t immediately convert, focus some of your advertising dollars on recapturing their attention and gently guiding them back to your company and what you can do for them. You have the solution to their problem — make sure they know it.

During the 1950s, Volkswagen sold a bus. Although now considered a classic vehicle, the bus remains an icon for the car company decades later.

The cool part? Volkswagen announced their new VW Bus — it’s electric and features sleek, modern styling. Volkswagen’s marketing for the vehicle is eye-catching, unique, and fun, and it complements the original “hippie” vibe the company was once known for.

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Volkswagen also released a TV commercial for the bus that’s clever, minimalist, and on-brand. It introduces the new vehicle with the song The Sound of Silence playing in the background (hint: electric cars are silent) and ends with a short message on the screen for viewers to read: “Introducing a new era of electric driving.”

This sentiment touches on the fact Volkswagen is contributing to society’s interest in electric, eco-friendly vehicles. It also relates to this being a new era for the bus.

So, who works on this type of marketing? Who helps create content that excites consumers about new and updated products, like the Volkswagen bus? Who encourages consumers to buy? Product marketers.

What makes product marketing unique? How is it different from conventional marketing? Let’s unpack the differences.

Product Marketing vs. Conventional Marketing

Product marketing is strategic whereas conventional marketing is all-encompassing.

Product marketing is considered a component of conventional marketing. In fact, if you look at the seven Ps of marketing, you’ll see product marketing is one of the most important aspects of a business’s marketing efforts.

Product marketing is focused on driving demand for and adoption of a product among existing customers. It’s focused on the steps people take to purchase your product so product marketers can build campaigns to support this work.

Product marketing is about understanding a specific product’s audience on a deep level and developing that product’s positioning and messaging to appeal to that audience. It covers the launch and execution side of a product in addition to the marketing strategy for the product — which is why the work of a product marketer lies at the center of a business’s marketing, sales, and product teams.

Conventional marketing is focused on broader topics under the umbrella of marketing such as lead generation, SEO, and anything related to acquiring and converting new leads and customers. It’s about promoting the company and brand as a whole, including the products that are sold. These marketers make sure there’s a consistent, on-brand message behind all of the company’s content.

Why is product marketing important?

Product marketing is a critical part of any business’s marketing strategy. Without it, your product won’t achieve its maximum potential among your target audience. To understand its importance, let’s look at the goals of product marketing.

Product Marketing Goals

• Understand your customers better.

When you implement a product marketing strategy, your target audience can see the value of having that specific product in their lives. Understanding how many customers gravitate to your product lets you conduct customer research.

• Target your buyer personas effectively.

Alongside understanding your customers in general, you can figure out the type of buyer persona to target for the future. Knowing the exact needs of your target can help you when innovating your product to better suit their needs.

• Learn about your competitors (products and marketing tactics).

When you market your product, you can compare your strategy and results to those of your competitors. What features and benefits of their products are making a statement within the market? What ideas haven’t they explored? What does their product offer that yours doesn’t? You can use this research to your advantage when crafting your product marketing strategy.

• Ensure the marketing, product, and sales teams are all on the same page.

Making your product offering abundantly clear for both buyers and your employees is mutually beneficial. Every team working together in your business can have a better understanding of the purpose of the product and better communicate that in their operations.

• Position the product appropriately in the market.

In product marketing, you want your product, brand image and tone to be consistent and evoke the right feelings intended for your audience. When you brainstorm your brand positioning, some questions to consider are:

1. Is this product suitable for today’s market?

2. How is this product different from our competitors’?

3. Is there a way to further differentiate this product from our competitors’ offerings?

4. Are there any products we’ve sold in the past that we wouldn’t market or sell again? If so, why not?

• Boost revenue and improve sales.

There are also questions you, as a product marketer, will have to ask yourself and reflect on in regards to your product. Asking yourself these questions will help you ensure your product is a success among customers.

1. Is this product suitable for today’s market?

2. Is this product appropriate for our customers today?

3. How is this product unique from similar products of our competitor’s?

4. Is there a way to further differentiate this product from those of our competitor’s?

5. Are there any products we’ve sold in the past that we wouldn’t market or sell ever again now that we look back? Is so, why not?

As you can see, product marketing requires you to look at your products from a strategic perspective to ensure they’re successful among customers in your current market.

Now, let’s take a look at the specific responsibilities you have as a product marketer (or product marketing manager).

Your responsibilities as a product marketer may vary slightly based on industry, company, products, and company size and resources. If you’re working for a startup, you may be a product marketer who also helps create the content the broader marketing team produces due to limited resources and budget. As the business grows, you may move onto a team whose sole job is product marketing.

Let’s take a look at six common product marketing responsibilities.

1. Identify the buyer personas and target audience for your product.

You must identify the buyer personas and audience for your product so you can target customers in a way that’s convincing and makes them want to make a purchase. This will allow you to tailor your product and its features to solve the challenges your audience is facing.

Pro tip: Use templates to create buyer personas for your business. Having a tangible outline of who you’re catering to can help align different teams in your business, and better position your product in the marketplace.

2. Successfully create, manage and carry out your product marketing strategy.

A product marketing strategy (which we’ll review shortly) allows you to create, build, and execute content and campaigns — this supports the steps that will lead your buyer personas and customers to make a purchase.

3. Work with and enable sales to attract the right customers for your new product.

As a product marketer, you have to maintain a direct relationship with sales. You’ll work with sales to identify and attract the right customers for the product at hand and provide sales enablement materials to reps to ensure they understand the product inside and out, along with all of its features.

This way, you and your teams are on the same page in terms of what’s being shared with customers, allowing you to provide a consistent, on-brand experience for anyone who comes in contact with the product.

4. Determine your product’s positioning in the market.

One of the most important parts of your job is determining the product’s positioning in the market. Think about this process in terms of storytelling — your positioning requires you to create and tell the story of your product.

As a product marketer, you’ll work with the broader marketing team and the product team to tell this story by answering critical questions like:

• Why was this product made?
• Who is this product made for?
• What challenges does this product resolve?
• What makes this product unique?

5. Ensure your product meets the needs of your target audience.

You must also make sure your product meets the needs of your customers and target audience. Through the research conducted to determine your buyer persona’s and target audience, you should have uncovered the pain points and challenges you’re working to solve with your product.

If your product doesn’t meet the needs of your customers, they’ll have no reason to make the purchase or choose your product over your competitor’s.

6. Keep your product relevant over time.

Your product needs to stay relevant over time. As needs, expectations, and challenges change and evolve, it’s your job to make sure your product marketing strategy, and the products themselves, remain relevant among customers.

This means you may have to manage slight changes in your product marketing strategy (which we’ll discuss next), or updates and modifications to the product itself (you’ll likely work with the product team, who actually creates the product, to do this).

Now, let’s take a look at five steps that can help you optimize your product marketing strategy.

1. Define your product’s target audience and buyer personas.

One of the main roles you have as a product marketer is to define a specific target audience and create buyer personas for the product being sold (different products will likely have different target audiences). This is the first step to marketing your product.

By understanding your customers and their needs, challenges, and pain points, you’ll be able to ensure all aspects of your product marketing strategy (as in, the rest of the steps we’ll define below) are tailored to that target customer and persona. This way, the product and the marketing content that’s created for the product will resonate with your audience.

2. Determine the positioning and messaging to set your product apart.

After performing your customer research and learning about your audience, you’ll have identified their needs, challenges, and pain points. From here, you can think about how to highlight the ways your product resolves those challenges for your customers.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve differentiated yourself from your competitors. After all, they are your competitors because they solve the needs of your customers in a similar way to your company.

The key to setting your product apart is positioning (which we touched on earlier) and messaging. Positioning and messaging answers key questions your customers might have about your product and what makes it unique and then turns those answers into the main points behind your product’s marketing strategy.

It’s your job as the product marketer to ensure your customers and audience know the answers to these questions and don’t have to dig around for (or make assumptions about) them.

Examples of questions you’ll need to answer to develop your product’s positioning and messaging include:

• What specifically makes our product unique?
• Why is our product better than our competitors’?
• Why are our product’s features ideal for our target audience?
• What will our customers get out of our product that they cannot get from our competitors’ products?
• Why should our customers trust and invest in us and our product?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you can compile these responses into one, impactful, and shareable statement that captures your positioning and messaging as a whole. To do this, follow these steps:

• Turn the answers to the positioning and messaging questions into an elevator pitch.
• Use action words to excite your customers.
• Ensure the tone of your statement captures the tone of your brand.
• Focus on the benefit of your product as a whole (not just one specific feature).

Pro Tip: As product marketers, you should ensure the sales, product, and (the broader) marketing teams are also aware of your positioning and messaging around the product so they too can communicate the same information to prospects and current customers.

This allows you to ensure the entire company is consistent in the content and information they share about your product. Additionally, you can provide this information to your support team if you think it’s necessary, as they may be fielding support calls and working with your customers who’ve already invested in the product.

3. Set goals for your product.

Next, you’ll want to set goals for your product. These will vary based on your specific product, the type of company you work for, your overall marketing goals, and more — your goals will be specific to your business and situation. However, let’s review some common goals product marketers aim to achieve:

• Increase revenue
• Engage with customers
• Improve market share
• Gain customers from competitors
• Boost brand recognition

Pro Tip: Feel free to combine several of these goals or just choose one to focus on — every company and product will have different goals. The key is making sure you view and set these targets in the SMART goal format, meaning they’re specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

Use a free template to help you create and achieve your SMART goals.

4. Price your product.

As a product marketer, you’ll also have to contribute to the discussion of the price of your product. Depending on the company you work for, you might work with other teams on this part of the strategy, or it might be a job just for you and your fellow product marketers. Either way, you can consider competitive vs. value-based pricing.

Competitive vs. Value-Based Product Pricing

Competitive pricing means you’re basing your product’s price off of the similar products your competitors sell. It’s ideal for companies who have created a product similar to one that several other companies sell.

If you believe your unique features warrant a significantly higher price than those of your competitors’, you might choose to price your product above the other similar products on the market. A good way to evaluate the fairness of the pricing of all of your competitors is by studying financial reports and industry trends.

Value-based pricing allows you to maximize your profit, although it’s a bit more time-consuming to establish in comparison to competitive pricing. It’s ideal for companies selling a product with very few competitors on the market or one with exceptionally new and unique features.

Value-based pricing quantifies your item’s value in a way your customer can relate to their profitability. It allows you to base your product’s price on its value for your customer rather than whatever the market, industry trends, and your competitors say.

5. Launch your product.

Now it’s time for the most important part of your role as a product marketer — not to mention, the most exciting: the launch of the product you’ve been marketing.

There are two main parts to the launch to focus on as a product marketer: the internal launch (what goes on within your company upon product launch) and external launch (what goes on outside of your company, with customers and audience members, upon product launch).

Internal Aspects of a Product Launch

As previously stated, your job as a product marketer entails making sure the entire organization is on the same page about your product. This way, your customers only receive consistent and accurate details about the product.

The marketing, product, and sales teams at your company should be aware of the following information:

• The product’s benefits
• Any available product demo information
• Sales training opportunities on your product and details about how it’s used
• What the positioning and messaging looks like
• Who your buyer personas and ideal customers are
• What the goals for your product include
• What your product’s features are
• The pricing of your product
• How your product is being launched to customers

Now, you might be wondering how to provide this information to marketing, product, and sales. Which channels are ideal for sharing these details with your fellow employees?

Here are a few examples of ways to do this:

• Sales enablement kit (ideal for sales)
• Presentation (ideal for the broader marketing department and product)
• Knowledge base (ideal for support)

External Aspects of a Product Launch

Externally, there are many ways to market your product launch so your current base of customers, prospects, and target audience learn about whatever it is you’re selling.

First, determine where you’re going to focus your product marketing efforts. Here are some examples of channels and places to do this (you might choose several of these or just one to focus on depending on your needs, goals, and resources).

• Social media
• In-store
• Product launch event
• Blog
• Website landing page
• Exclusive product preview (prior to the official launch)
• Promotional event/ campaign (in-person and/ or online)

On whatever channel you choose to focus your product launch marketing efforts, you should include relevant product information (focused on your positioning and messaging) so prospects and customers can learn all about your product and why they need it. This includes your product’s features, what makes it unique, pricing, demos for customers, training for customers, and any other materials you’ve created and want to share.

Congrats! You’ve just worked through the steps to marketing a product. Remember, this process is one that should be thought about and updated as your products change and evolve so they remain relevant among your customers. (This shouldn’t be an issue as long as you have a member of your team focused on product marketing, considering it’s one of their main responsibilities.)

Let’s review four real-life examples of stellar product marketing.

1. Apple

Apple is a household name for leading technology products and software. Not only are its products gorgeously well-designed; it’s also super useful. But Apple’s product marketing doesn’t focus on the many product features — it markets the user benefits.

Image Source

Apple doesn’t simply list the impressive features of their products; the brand uses those features to tell consumers who they could be and how they could work if they have those products. Apple tells a narrative using its products and encourages people to buy in the process.

2. Billie

Billie is a women’s razor brand. In a highly competitive market, Billie has helped its products stand out. How? It established a sharp competitive edge (no pun intended) by doing what no razor brand had done before — show body hair in its advertising.

Not only did this advertising approach get Billie’s audience talking about the brand, but they also appreciated the brand’s accurate portrayal of women’s bodies and body hair. These differentiators were more than enough to set Billie apart from other razor brands and products.

3. Pepsi Cola

As a brand, Pepsi has positioned itself as one with youthful energy and excitement, and this can be seen consistently through its product marketing campaigns.

Pepsi’s customers are mainly aged between 13 and 35 years old with modern and active lifestyles, so it only makes sense to hire popular celebrities like Doja Cat for a commercial in a homecoming tailgate.

Through highly targeted positioning, repetitive advertising, and consistent branding, Pepsi has become a truly global household name and product.

4. MailChimp

There are dozens of email marketing tools on the market, but MailChimp hasn’t been fazed by competition. In fact, the company has risen above its competition by positioning itself as more than an email marketing tool: it’s an all-in-one marketing platform that helps businesses grow.

Like Apple, MailChimp primarily highlights its benefits for the end-user, not just its product features. A recent rebranding and site redesign further drives this narrative home.

Start Marketing Your Products

Product marketing is the process through which a company brings a product to market. Being a product marketer (or product marketing manager) means you’re at the center of your company’s marketing, sales, and product teams.

You’re an integral part to the success of your product, as you create and manage your product’s specific marketing strategy, but you also serve as a liaison between all three of these departments, ensuring everyone is on the same page with your product, it’s features, capabilities, and more. So, start developing your latest product’s marketing strategy to ensure it’s a success among your target audience and customers.

This post was originally published in February 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

In the world of search engine marketing (SEM), more and more marketers are buying into PPC campaigns. Google Ads specifically has increased its revenue from year to year. In 2021, Google advertising revenue accounted for $53.1 billion — 81% of Alphabet’s overall sales.

I once heard a new business owner define their target market as … wait for it … “everyone”.

*cringe*

While it’s nice to believe that everyone would be interested in purchasing your product or service, it’s not wise to define your target market as such.

Not only does this definition (or lack thereof) create way more work for you; it also does a disservice to your actual target market — by over-widening your scope, you fail to inform and educate your audience about how your product or service can improve their lives.

This is where segmentation, targeting, and positioning come into play. We developed this guide to help you understand how and why you should invest time into better understanding your audience and targeting your marketing. Let’s dive in.

At its core, STP marketing helps you to better target your marketing messages and better serve your customer base.

The model can also reveal niche markets, uncover new customer or market opportunities, ultimately making your marketing efforts more efficient and cost-effective.

Conducting an STP Marketing Analysis

STP allows you to take a large, anonymous audience and define how your different products (or different components of the same product) relate to specific consumer segments within that larger audience — thus understanding how to position your product(s) and messaging to grab the attention of each segment.

Let’s unpack each part of the segmentation-targeting-positioning model.

1. Segmentation

Segmentation refers to the process of dividing your audience into smaller groups based on certain characteristics. This process allows you to group your individual audience members into similar groups so you can better communicate your products, features, and benefits that may be most relevant to them.

You can segment your audience based on one or more of these criteria:

• Demographics, which typically answer the question of who your buyer is (e.g. age, gender, education, location, and profession)
• Psychographics, which answer the question of why your buyer buys (e.g. priorities, personality traits, and beliefs and values)
• Lifestyle traits, such as hobbies, entertainment preferences, and non-work activities
• Behavior, such as brand loyalty, channel preferences, and other shopping habits

Segmentation may sound a little familiar to another process we often discuss here on the HubSpot blog — creating buyer personas. The two are very similar as they help you drill down the most important factors in your target audience.

But where buyer personas help you create a handful of customer profiles that represent your broader audience, segmentation allows you to split your audience into countless groups, each of which you can uniquely target.

For example, let’s say Paws & Tails is a Chicago pet-sitting company that offers pet-sitting, dog walking, and boarding services. Given the vast number of pet owners in the city, they need to segment their audience into smaller groups to better understand how to position their services.

Based on their research and current customer base, they split their audience into three main segments:

• Segment A is made up of high-income pet owners who work often and need daytime dog walking and pet pop-in visits.
• Segment B is made up of middle-class individuals and families who travel and need overnight boarding or pet-sitting services.
• Segment C is made up of older pet owners and retirees who need help caring for their pets.

2. Targeting

With your audience segments in hand, it’s time to move on to the targeting phase. First, however, you must decide which segments are worth targeting with your marketing. To decipher this, ask yourself some questions about each segment:

• Is this segment composed of enough potential customers to justify targeting? Would it yield enough profits if the segment were to convert?
• Is it measurably different from the other segments?
• Is it accessible by all members of Marketing and Sales?
• Is your company equipped and able to serve the segment? Are there any physical, legal, social, or technological barriers that could prevent that?

Choosing what segments to target is a strategic decision. Thankfully, certain strategic planning models like the PESTLE analysis can help you better understand the viability of each segment.

It takes a lot of work to successfully target a segment of your audience. Whether you’ve identified two segments or ten, don’t feel the need to target more than one segment at once. Plus — targeting one at a time will help you better position your marketing for each specific segment.

Following our example from before, Paws & Tails conducts research to better understand its Chicago audience. Paws & Tails finds that Segment A makes up 60% of its market size, Segment B makes up 30%, and Segment C makes up 10%. Moreover, Segment A has a higher average income and is willing to pay more for pet-sitting and walking services. Because of this, they choose to focus on Segment A.

3. Positioning

At this point, you should understand the demographics, psychographics, motivations, and pain points of the segments you’ve chosen to target, which can provide a place to start when it comes to positioning your product or service.

First, take a step back and examine your product or service through the perspective of your chosen segment. If you were in their shoes, why would you choose your product over a competitor’s? What features or benefits are most relevant to you, based on the motivations and pain points you’ve identified?

This information is important to defining your brand positioning and understanding how it stacks up next to your competitors. One way to understand where you, well, stand is by building a positioning map, which is “the visual plotting of specific brands against axes, where each axis represents an attribute that is known to drive brand selection.”

The segment you choose to target should dictate what two attributes you plot on your positioning map. For example, let’s say Paws & Tails decides Segment A selects pet-sitting brands based on two attributes: service area and reliability.

By understanding 1) what the target segment deems most important for brand selection and 2) where its competitors succeed (and fall short), Paws & Tails is able to identify an open market opportunity and position its marketing to best fit the needs and goals of its audience.

Using Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning in Marketing

The STP model is a priceless addition to any marketing strategy, regardless of your industry, product, or audience. It prioritizes efficient and effective marketing and ensures you’re delivering only the most relevant, targeted messaging across the board.

It also plays an important role in developing other strategies, such as your buyer personas, customer lifecycle stages, and core brand proposition.

By leading with a consumer-centric approach like STP, you can be sure that every inch of your marketing is relevant to your audience — thus, increasing the likelihood that they convert, purchase, and become lifelong customers.

Examples of Great Market Segmentation and Positioning

Brands are segmenting, targeting, and positioning their audiences and marketing constantly, oftentimes without us (consumers) even noticing. Ever seen a brand or product and thought “Huh, that’s perfect for me” or “Wow, right place at the right time”? Yeah … you’ve been subject to the STP model.

Let’s review a few examples of great marketing segmentation and positioning.

1. Panera Bread

With countless fast casual restaurants on the map, it’s hard to decide where to eat when you’re in the mood for a quick meal. For some reason, Panera Bread always comes to mind (at least for me).

Panera has successfully cornered the “health-conscious” and “climate-conscious” segment of the fast casual dining industry. Is Panera’s food so different from other fast casual options? Not entirely.

But by branding themselves with the perspective that “we believe that good food, food you can feel good about, can bring out the best in all of us”, Panera remains top-of-mind as a place to get high-quality food, fast.

2. AllBirds

Like dining opinions, there are so many shoe brands on the market. But AllBirds didn’t let that stop it from carving out a new niche in a busy space full of comfortable, active shoe options.

How did AllBirds position itself to set itself apart from the competition? By elevating its eco-consciousness and placing that front and center in its marketing. According to the AllBirds website, the brand “crafts with planet-friendly natural materials, like merino wool and eucalyptus trees, because they’re our best chance for a sustainable future.”

At first glance, AllBirds shoes don’t look too terribly different from other running or walking shoes. However, its audience segment that cares about sustainability and earth-conscious products knows the difference.

3. Billie

No longer can businesses simply segment their audiences by “men” and “women” — the individuals within each broad gender group vary too much, and razor brand Billie took note of this.

In an effort to extinguish the “pink tax,” Billie markets cost-friendly razors and associated products. Moreover, they work to normalize body hair and other forgotten or shamed parts of women’s bodies.

Through this positioning, Billie is able to set their products apart from competitors and create a strong, positive community around their brand.

4. Hinge

The world of online dating is a busy, strange place. From Tinder to FarmersOnly.com, there seems to be a place for everyone to meet, well, anyone. Hinge came on the scene only a handful of years ago, yet it has skyrocketed to the top of the list of the most popular and reliable dating app.

Time and time again, I’ve heard that Hinge is a favorite because it works — meaning it helps people meet people and make real relationships. You wouldn’t think a dating app would position themselves to eventually be unnecessary, but that’s exactly what Hinge has done. In fact, its mission statement is to “[build] an app that’s designed to be deleted.”

By putting the needs and desires of its audience front and center, Hinge has created a more trustworthy, in-demand online dating experience and set itself apart from its competitors.

The Case for Using STP Marketing

The segmentation-targeting-positioning model is designed to help you better target your marketing messages and better serve your customer base. It’s a win-win for you and your customers!

This article was originally published October 29, 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.