Author Archives: i4lead

As an ‘external’ marketer, I have to say that I hadn’t given much thought to internal marketing until I started writing this article.

My first thought was … that’s not my job. But the more I dug into the subject, I realized that’s not entirely true.

Anytime I share a new content series or blog campaign across our internal channels and encourage my colleagues to help promote it, that’s internal marketing.

When I lead onboarding sessions for new hires or recognize my teammates for their great work as part of our performance review process, that counts too.

*quietly adds internal marketing to resume*

Here’s everything else I learned about internal marketing — the benefits, the strategies that experts recommend, and a few more examples of what it looks like in practice.

Table of Contents

• What is internal marketing?
• Who is responsible for internal marketing?
• Why is internal marketing important?
• Benefits of Internal Marketing
• Internal Marketing Strategies
• Internal Marketing Examples

A happy workforce is the key to a successful internal marketing strategy, so employee experience is a big factor here.

Every connection point that an employee has with the company — from onboarding to the exit interview — should be represented accordingly.

Internal Marketing vs Internal Communication

When I was a baby marketer, I couldn’t really understand the difference between marketing and communication because the two terms were often used interchangeably in the field.

Here’s how I used to simplify it:

• Marketing is brand promotion.
• Communication is information sharing.

Internal communication and internal marketing go hand in hand, but the two aren’t an exact match.

Going back to our definition of internal marketing above, it focuses on the act of promoting a brand to its employees to encourage them to buy into the company’s values and products.

For example, an internal marketing play could be giving employees free access to the company’s products for personal use. That’s in and of itself isn’t technically internal communication.

The purpose of internal communication is to keep everyone informed of company updates and aligned with core objectives.

If HR sends a company memo announcing a new process update, that’s an example of internal communication that doesn’t really fall under internal marketing.

These are very rigid examples, but the reality is that these two processes work together and often blend into each other.

Internal Marketing vs External Marketing

The main difference between internal and external marketing is the audience.

Internal marketing is focused on employees, while external marketing is for prospects and customers outside of your organization.

But the concept of promoting your brand and encouraging buy-in to your products and services is true in both cases.

Why is internal marketing important?

Internal marketing is important because it directly supports employee engagement.

And data shows that high engagement leads to:

• An 18% boost in employee productivity.
• Up to 43% less turnover. Nice.

When employees feel connected to their work, they tend to work harder. All that extra effort leads to increases in customer satisfaction and loyalty, sales, and ultimately, profitability.

Remember how I said internal marketing isn’t my job?

Well, technically, it isn’t. However, I do participate in (and promote) internal marketing efforts as an employee.

*keeps internal marketing on resume*

Benefits of Internal Marketing

I mentioned employee engagement as a huge plus for investing in internal marketing. I talked to the experts and compiled a few more reasons to consider below.

You’re building a team that (actually) cares.

Holly Andrews, managing director at KIS Finance, says the best internal marketing strategies help employees feel invested in the bigger picture.

“An effective internal marketing strategy does more than align people with company goals. It builds a team that genuinely cares,” says Andrews.

“I remember when a new hire once said, ‘I actually feel like I‘m part of something here.’ That’s the goal — making sure everyone feels like they‘re not clocking in but connecting with the brand’s story.”

You’re cultivating a sense of community at work.

Mike Szczesny, owner and vice president of EDCO Awards & Specialties, shared how internal marketing allows him to connect with his employees — and why that’s worth it.

“An internal marketing strategy that celebrates wins, shares behind-the-scenes stories, and highlights the impact of our work helps cultivate a crucial sense of belonging,” says Szczesny.

“The benefits are numerous — higher employee satisfaction and retention, a stronger employer brand that attracts top talent, and a workforce that’s truly invested in our success as a company.”

He continues, “At the end of the day, our people are our greatest asset, and an internal marketing strategy that makes them feel valued and part of something bigger pays dividends.”

You’re creating greater brand alignment.

For Remy Smidt, brand strategist at Fazer, one of the biggest benefits of internal marketing is alignment from top to bottom.

“If you walked into NASA during the ’60s and asked what they were up to and why they were there, everyone would say, ‘to put a man on the moon,’” says Smidt.

The bottom line is that everyone knows what the business is working toward, is engaged and excited about the mission, and understands their part in making it happen. That’s the result of good internal marketing.

Internal Marketing Strategies

I also talked to the experts to tease out a few internal marketing strategies that they use at their own companies. Here are five of my favorites.

1. Personalize the onboarding process.

Each new hire has a different learning style and set of responsibilities, so make sure your onboarding process reflects that.

As Hnatiuk notes, promoting your mission and culture code during onboarding is also a great way to get employee buy-in from the start.

As an incoming marketer at HubSpot, I completed a general get-to-know-the-company onboarding track and a team-specific blog and marketing onboarding track. The format was a mix of videos, live sessions, and independent research.

It was comprehensive, engaging, and just what I needed to feel invested as a new employee.

2. Use storytelling to engage employees.

Employees want to understand their role in your brand’s story as you progress through each chapter together.

Sounds corny, I know. But I’ve left jobs in the past because I didn’t feel like I was actually contributing to the end goal.

I couldn’t understand why the work I was doing was worth it (and nobody was telling me why, either), so I disengaged.

Building your brand’s story into your internal marketing strategy and reminding employees what you’re working toward builds transparency and trust.

Speaking of …

3. Create transparent communication channels.

Here’s where internal communication meets internal marketing.

Keeping your employees well-informed is a special yet indirect form of promotion that inspires your employees to become your biggest ambassadors.

Your internal marketing strategy should clearly outline your communication channels and outreach process to allow you to easily share timely and relevant updates with your teams.

And don’t forget that communication is a two-way street. Be sure to create ways for employees to reach out about problems and issues or with feedback and suggestions.

As Glaser said, transparency builds trust. And the first step is effective communication.

4. Integrate values into daily actions.

I love this one.

Sharing your company values during onboarding is great, but it shouldn’t be the only touch point. As Stelle says, all of your internal marketing messages and materials should reinforce your mission, beliefs, and North Star.

Employees can easily advocate for your brand if they know what they’re advocating for and why.

5. Send regular employee surveys.

I’m a big fan of asking people what they want instead of trying to guess. I’m willing to bet big money that the companies who give their employees pizza parties instead of tangible benefits aren’t asking the right questions.

Send employee feedback surveys often and ask specific questions about your internal marketing activities. What do they like? What do they want to see more of? What isn’t resonating with them?

Then, use these insights to refine and improve your strategy.

Internal Marketing Examples

OK, onto the fun part. I’m giving you a peek behind the curtain at some of my favorite internal marketing plays as a HubSpotter.

The Culture Code

This one’s probably a given, but HubSpot’s Culture Code is SO good. It started out as an internal document and, in the true spirit of transparency, has been publicly available for years.

Our culture code has also been known to attract new employees, which feels like both an internal and external marketing win.

Product Learning Hours

Each month, our Product Marketing team hosts a “Product Learning Hour” which is a training session for the entire marketing team on the customers, products, and use cases for HubSpot’s customer platform.

From product demos to continued learning, these sessions ensure everyone is aligned on our messaging. This helps us do our jobs better as ‘external’ marketers.

Side note: I also co-led a learning and development program specifically for the HubSpot Blog team. We focused our curriculum on topics our peers were invested in the most, like technical SEO, networking, and time management.

Here’s one of the activities we did:

Just another example of internal marketing in action (and attempt #3 of me making the case to include internal marketing on my resume).

Peer Recognition Programs

I 🧡 my peers, so I’m always looking for opportunities to sing their praises.

At HubSpot, we have several options to provide peer feedback including the more formal submit-through-the-portal feedback loop that filters into performance reviews.

But one of my favorites is our weekly ‘Friday Props’ roundup on Slack.

Every Friday, folks across our media org have the option to tag someone they’re grateful for that week and share a word or two about what makes them special.

Here’s one someone left for me a while back:

“I’m giving my peer praise to Alana Chinn, one of the hardest-working and most versatile people on this team. If you’re on the Blog Team, you know how much of a force she is.”

BRB, crying.

Let Your Company Culture Sell Itself

Good internal marketing starts with an investment in your employees.

When you build a strategy that inspires brand advocacy at every level, you’ll be able to put some of the hard selling on autopilot while you focus on delighting your employees, prospects, and customers.

And then you, too, can add internal marketing to your resume.

As a seasoned content marketer, I can assure you that content marketing has vast benefits for any business. It is one of the most effective methods of growing audience engagement, developing brand presence, and driving sales.

If you‘re curious about content marketing and a little skeptical of its rewards, you’ve come to the right blog.

I’ll explain its importance and the kind of perks it can provide your business.

According to our 2024 State of Marketing Report, 50% of marketers set their sights on increasing their investment in content marketing this year.

Consistent, high-quality, and engaging content impacts audience decision-making more than any other technique.

Consistency in brand messaging is one of the many factors determining your business’s growth and success. Big brands know how to portray their brand consistently and at every customer touchpoint.

The same reasoning applies to content marketing—your content must have a unique and identifiable voice, style, and pitch across all distribution channels.

Content consistency establishes your credibility, builds trust, and strengthens your reputation.

We know the content you create has to be consistent. However, why is content marketing so beneficial? Here are the top benefits of content marketing.

Why Content Marketing Works

Content marketing works because humans are highly visual creatures.

I know you probably weren‘t expecting to get into science today, but I promise it connects to marketing. More than 50% of the human brain’s cortex is dedicated to visual processing.

Furthermore, research shows that 90% of the information humans notice and send to their brains is visual. Therefore, content marketing, such as videos, graphics, visual ads, and blog posts full of graphs and charts, will surely resonate with your target audience.

Moreover, we are firmly rooted in the social media age, where content is king and more and more consumers are discovering new brands and products via social media. Our recent social media study found that 40% of Gen Z, 40% of Gen X, and 43% of Millennials have discovered new products via social media in the last three months.

You can boost brand and product awareness by creating sharable, engaging content that thrives on social media.

Benefits of Content Marketing

1. Your audience will stick around longer.

Great content is an important asset.

It can create positive experiences for your potential customers and compel them to come back for more. It‘s your ticket to capturing your audience’s attention and continually reinforcing a positive brand impression.

For example, one of my favorite social media accounts to follow is Duolingo on TikTok. The language-teaching app is known for its unique, funny, and entertaining presence on the platform.

Duolingo always provides entertainment value, so I keep it at the top of my mind whenever I get the itch to learn a new language. Whether I break my streak because learning a new language is hard is a different story.

2. You’ll have better traction on social media.

Since I brought up social media, it‘s important to remember that it’s one thing to increase your social media followers across channels, but it’s quite another to create trendy content.

If you‘re one of those businesses that doesn’t see much traction despite having a huge following, it’s time to use content marketing to your advantage. Quality content can help your business gain traction on social media.

Track the performance of your content campaigns using HubSpot’s analytics software.

3. Your audience will trust you.

I’ve found that creating content helps businesses build relationships with their audience. Engaging content can answer customer questions and interact with customers.

When a business creates value without taking anything in return, its audience will likely trust its advice and recommendations.

Ultimately, when your content shows up at the right place and at the right time with the right audience, it‘ll improve your brand’s reputation.

The more quality content customers see, the more likely they are to associate with your company positively.

For example, I am obsessed with Fenty Beauty‘s social media content marketing strategy and how the brand places trust and audience interactions at the center of its content strategy.

Fenty’s Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube channels all focus heavily on providing tutorials and educational content about makeup, skincare, and their products.

The tutorials show viewers how the products work on different skin types and how to mix and match products to achieve different looks. Moreover, the brand is constantly responding to consumer comments on its platform.

These tutorials and genuine interactions build trust with its audience.

4. You’ll generate more and better leads.

I’ve found that Content marketing can also generate leads. When your audience views your content, they’re more likely to purchase from you in the future.

Additionally, calls-to-action (CTA) placed directly in your content can generate new leads for your sales team.

So, how can content generate leads?

According to Lindsay Kolowich, former team manager of the HubSpot Academy Acquisition Content Team, “Content is a great way to guide users to a landing page.

Typically, you create content to provide visitors with useful, free information. You can include CTAs anywhere in your content — inline, bottom-of-post, hero, or even side panel.

The more delighted visitors are with your content, the more likely they will click your call-to-action and move onto your landing page.”

For example, I’m helping a dance studio in my neighborhood by running its TikTok and posting dance content to drum up interest in the studio and attract new students.

I post videos of instructors doing gravity-defying stunts and explaining complex moves.

Each video ends with a call-to-action to sign up for classes via the studio’s web store.

The TikTok account still has a small following since it‘s new, but I’ve already seen new students register for the classes I’ve promoted. Many have told the instructors they learned about the classes via TikTok.

5. Original content can improve conversions.

A couple of examples I will bring up later will dive a bit deeper into this, but believe me when I say the content you post influences conversions.

It helps your audience connect with you and gives them the information needed to make educated purchases.

Even more, if you’re using blog content to bring in traffic, consider using original graphics rather than stock photos, as marketers report the former as least effective in helping them meet their goals.

Additionally, your content should always include a CTA and guide your readers on what they should do next.

6. Your business will become more visible thanks to SEO.

The more consistent, high-quality content you produce, the better it’ll be for your SEO efforts.

For example, I discovered the pole dance studio that sparked my dance journey via a blog post.

Again, I’ll dive much deeper into this example later, but to keep a long story short, the information I found on that blog helped me trust that studio, see it as an authority on dance, and convince me to register for classes.

Your content should help your business become visible online and build trust and authority with your audience.

7. Great content can position your company as an authority in your industry.

As I‘ve hinted, creating quality content will also help build your authority online. If your business is established as a credible place to get information, you’re more likely to rank higher in search engines.

Plus, your customers are more inclined to trust you if they view you as an industry expert. Your content should demonstrate your expertise in your field and provide valuable answers to your audience’s questions.

8. Quality content can build brand awareness.

Sure, anything can build brand awareness, but I’ve found that content marketing does it uniquely.

Our HubSpot marketing experts have written about something called the Surround Sound strategy.

In a nutshell, this content strategy does more than just rank your blog article on page one. It makes your content (and, therefore, your brand) appear everywhere your potential customers are looking for your product.

To execute this strategy, write about topics your customers are interested in so they begin to associate your great content with your brand.

9. You’ll cultivate loyal brand fans.

Taking brand awareness a step further, everyone who raved about your content and associated all those great feelings with your brand is likely to become a brand advocate before ever purchasing your product.

Wait, what?

I promise it’s true; brand fans can be just as loyal and influence their friends and family’s buying decisions as potential consumers see that a business provides value to its current audience. One of the more successful ways companies can do this is through content marketing.

For example, while I may not be in the market for children‘s meal plans because I don’t have children yet, I am obsessed with the Kids Eat In Color blog and Instagram content. I recommend it to my friends and family who have children with picky eating habits. See how well that can work?

10. You’ll save money on your marketing strategy.

Since HubSpot first assessed the cost of content marketing ten years ago, the practice has remained the most cost-effective marketing strategy available.

Upfront costs for content appear steep, and that’s a fair point.

Estimates for blog content range from $150 a post to $3,000 for a freelance writer, but you could hire a full-time staff writer to create content for you regularly.

In the long term, when compared to paid advertisements, video marketing, and traditional marketing, content wins the battle with Frank from finance every time.

11. You‘ll meet your audience at different stages of the buyer’s journey.

What I love most about content marketing is its ability to connect with consumers at any stage of their buyer’s journey. Remember, there are three stages:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision

I‘ll share my own consumer story as an example.

Years ago, I wanted to start a fitness journey but had difficulty maintaining a consistent gym routine. So, I took to Google to figure out why I couldn’t be consistent in the gym. At this point, I was aware of my buyer’s journey.

I know there‘s an issue (I can’t stick to my gym routine), and I want a solution. During this stage, I stumbled upon a blog by a local pole and aerial fitness studio that had a post called “5 reasons you’re not sticking to your fitness routine.”

I read the studio‘s post and learned that I likely didn’t stick to my routine because I found it boring and didn’t derive any joy from committing. So, I should look into alternative, more interesting exercises.

Now, I‘m in the consideration stage. I know why I can’t stick to the gym; it’s boring, and I must consider alternative exercises. So, I started researching alternative forms of fitness and what those types of exercises entail.

At some point, I stumbled upon the studio’s Instagram and found videos detailing their different alternative exercise classes, from pole dancing to aerial silks.

Even better, there were videos tailored to beginners, such as “What to wear to your first pole dance class” or “Debunking myths about aerial hoops.”

Finally, I decided pole dancing would be my best choice, which led to the decision stage. I’m compiling a list of pole dance studios near me to consider.

The initial studio I stumbled upon has been with me this entire journey, so naturally, I decided to enroll in its classes.

By utilizing content marketing, your business can be like my favorite pole studio and meet potential consumers at any stage of their journey.

12. Educate and empower your audience to make better buying decisions.

I‘ll be honest: The customer isn’t always right.

Sometimes, potential customers may make the wrong decision regarding a requested service or product or not understand a business’ method or protocol.

These misunderstandings can often cause friction between a business and its customers. Fortunately, content marketing helps level the playing field.

For example, one of my favorite creators on TikTok is Theresa Va Dam.

She‘s a hairstylist and salon owner who makes videos educating potential clients about hair health, salon dos and don’ts, and typical issues that can arise when styling hair.

The videos aim to promote her business, educate and empower potential clients to make the right decisions when booking hair appointments, trust her process, and ask the right questions about their service.

All this makes for a smoother interaction and a higher chance of the client returning.

Content creation is crucial in today‘s marketing landscape. I simply don’t believe a marketing strategy is complete or effective without incorporating engaging, shareable, and unique content.

Creating a content marketing strategy is one of your marketing team‘s most important steps. So, audit your current content (or start creating if you haven’t already) and determine what works for your business. And don’t be afraid to try something new.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

I love using videos for marketing — and today’s apps make producing video content easier than ever. Better yet, there’s a place for all types of video — highly-produced, live-streamed, and long- or short-form.

Whatever video production tips or techniques you use, your efforts can pay off in a big way. A whopping 88% of marketers share a positive ROI with video — a number that’s practically unheard of with just about any other medium.

I’m sharing some of the most effective video production tips below to help you dive into the world of video marketing.

Table of Contents

• Understanding the Different Types of Marketing Videos
• 16 Video Production Tips for Your Next Marketing Video

Understanding the Different Types of Marketing Videos

Before I go any further, I want to address the elephant in the room.

Video consumption has changed drastically over the last several years, as have consumer expectations of production quality and video format.

You can check out the latest stats on video marketing here.

Short-form videos have become increasingly popular with the rise of TikTok, Reels on Facebook and Instagram, and YouTube Shorts. These tend to be low on the production scale and create a more real-life effect.

Best of all? They can be edited quickly and easily with AI-enabled tools like Clip Creator.

That said, not all short-form videos are minimally edited. Commercials, B2B videos, and other types of short-form content (under 5 minutes) are often highly produced.

Long-form videos tend to go into more detail, sharing in-depth information, and these can be highly produced or minimally edited as well. What’s more, these longer videos can be cropped into short-form content that people are more likely to watch.

Live stream videos can be either short- or long-form, and depending on the platform, they can take a variety of different formats: stream-of-consciousness, ask-me-anything, or highly organized.

Live streams are my favorite because they help you get to know the person or people behind the brand and get a real sense of who they are and what they stand for.

Why does video type matter for video production?

When you know what type of video you’re going to create, it’s easier to identify which video production tips are most effective — and helpful — for your needs.

With that in mind, before you start planning your marketing video shoot, I recommend taking some time to identify the type of video you’re creating, where you’re going to publish it, and what your audience expects.

16 Video Production Tips for Your Next Marketing Video

Most smartphones and web cameras today make video production more accessible than ever — and 91% of businesses use video in their marketing.

This means that there’s room for all types of video content. And while big budgets still have a place in video marketing, it’s no longer a barrier to entry.

However, whether you’re going to a pro, handling your shoot in-house, or DIYing it, take note of these video production tips and identify which are most relevant to your needs. I’ve broken them out into tips and techniques for pre-production, production, and editing.

Video Pre-Production Tips

Be well-prepared and organized for your video shoots. If you show up to your shoot — wherever it is — unorganized and decide to “wing it,” your final product will look unprofessional and sloppy.

This is true even of live-streamed ask-me-anything videos. While you can often test ideas and play around, it’s best to — at a minimum — have a list of talking points so you don’t end up rambling.

By taking even a short time to prepare yourself, it’s easier to focus your efforts on directing your actors (or yourself) rather than figuring out last-minute logistics.

Time is of the essence, so don’t waste hours trying to figure out which angle you want or what line needs to be delivered next. Know exactly what you want before the day you film by following the steps below.

1. Be original.

The concept for your video project should be original and creative. Don’t take the easy route and copy someone else’s idea.

Instead, conduct persona and keyword research, find out which types of video content are popular and successful in your industry, and double-check to make sure another brand hasn’t covered the exact same angle already.

2. Plan it out.

While a plan is ideal for any type of video, it’s an absolute must for highly-produced brand videos. Write a script, draw out a storyboard, and create a shot list before you start filming.

Plan your B-roll shots, so you have extra footage when it comes time for editing (more on that below). If you think writing a video script is the same as writing a blog post — think again. Check out our advice here.

But, if you find yourself stressed out with the idea of creating a script, AI is making it easier than ever. I’ve used ChatGPT often to create video scripts for Facebook ads, podcast episodes, and, yes, even my live-streamed videos.

3. Be selective when choosing video subjects.

Bringing others into your video?

If you’re bringing in talent, set high standards when casting actors for your projects. Pick someone who can deliver dialogue naturally, who can memorize lines, and who isn’t stiff in front of the camera. If possible, plan time for a few run-throughs to work out any mispronunciations or giggles.

If you’re inviting people on your team or other colleagues, make sure they understand your goals and know what you expect from them. That might mean sharing talking points, sample questions, or a script to help them prepare.

Then again, if you’re shooting a video with clients or customer success stories, spend plenty of time in advance prepping them so you can get the most out of your time with them.

4. Carefully consider the set.

The post-pandemic years have dramatically changed people’s expectations of what’s professional and what constitutes a believable set.

That was even changing pre-pandemic — remember the BBC anchor whose daughter sauntered in during an interview circa 2017?

That only became more commonplace in recent years — and with TikTok, any location can now be your stage.

That said, regardless of what type of video you’re shooting (unless it’s satire), don’t try to fool your audience by “set dressing” your office to simulate another location. Choose your location and own it.

Want to show up in different places? Make sure you do that. Shoot your video projects in locations other than your office — in front of textured and interesting backdrops, but ones that also aren’t too busy.

Video Production Tips

You can always touch up your footage when you edit afterward, but remember that editing takes time.

If you can make everything look as close to perfect as possible during filming, you’ll save yourself a lot of valuable time in post-production.

If you shoot a scene and it doesn’t come out great, learn from what went wrong the first time and shoot it again. Below lays out how to do it.

5. Be cognizant of sound quality.

Don’t come off as an amateur with poor sound recording quality. Use lapel or lavaliere microphones — both of which are hands-free — when shooting sit-down interviews, or use microphone and boom setups for bigger shots.

Using your webcam? Some have built-in noise-canceling features, but I’ve found that external podcast microphones like the Blue Yeti (my personal favorite) capture the best possible sound quality.

If you’re filming a video with a smartphone, you can purchase microphones that fit into the phone’s headphone input to quickly and easily improve sound quality.

6. Set up lights.

You don’t want your footage to be under or over-exposed, so set up lights and eliminate any unwanted shadows. I’ve found ring lights to be fantastic options — just be mindful of the reflection in your glasses.

In a perfect world, a three-point lighting setup is best to illuminate video subjects from a variety of angles. Check out this video for a DIY guide to lighting:

7. Use a tripod.

Use a tripod to keep your video stable — and not wobbly, as it most certainly will be if you hold it yourself. Get a standing tripod or a tabletop tripod for tighter shots to keep your video looking professional.

8. Focus.

Make sure the camera is in focus — and then lock the exposure so it stays in focus.

Most smartphones and modern webcams do this automatically, but it’s worth your time to make sure your video quality is up to snuff. Be mindful of keeping shots white balanced to keep lighting neutral and even, too.

9. Obey the rule of thirds.

The rule of thirds involves splitting up your shot into thirds, horizontally and vertically, and framing your subject off-center. It creates movement and life in your shot the way a straight-on, centered shot won’t.

Here’s an example — try to film individuals in one of the side panels of the divided frame, like so:

Video Editing Tips

Make sure your content is remarkable and tailored to your target audience. Edit your video so that it gets to the point and doesn’t drag on.

Remember, you don‘t have long to capture (and hold) your viewer’s attention, so make sure that the beginning of your video is engaging, informative, and relevant to the viewer and that she’ll clearly understand the message.

What does that look like in action?

For example, if you’re using a platform like YouTube, you’ll want an eye-catching intro screen that draws your audience in.

Relying on the video content? Choose an interesting hook to kick things off, and then dive into your video content.

10. Align the flow of the video with the emotional response you want to evoke in viewers.

The tone, structure, and pacing of your video have a major influence on its effectiveness and the emotional impact on your audience.

Tell a compelling story — build tension and drama by arranging shots according to your storyboard and script.

However, I’d caution you to remember that, like all marketing, your video content isn’t about you or what’s interesting to you. It’s about what’s interesting, thought-provoking, or engaging for your audience.

Focus on their needs and expectations first.

11. Leverage B-roll.

Cover up your cuts with B-roll footage that complements the narration. You can find B-roll and other stock footage on sites like Vizeedy if you didn‘t film it yourself.

It’s best to keep your shots all in the same setting to maintain the video’s consistency. I recommend taking the extra time to go back and film more B-roll if you need it.

12. Use background soundtracks.

Light background music can cover any ambient sound and provide tone and emotion to your video that words and images otherwise can‘t.

You can find royalty-free stock soundtracks that you’re allowed to use on sites like AudioMicro — make sure you’re not using songs that are licensed, or else it could result in your video getting taken down.

13. Optimize video text.

Keep the style of your text and titles simple, classy, and sharp.

Choose a clear and bold font, keep words on your video screen to a minimum, and use text animations to keep the viewer engaged with new additions to the video they watch.

14. Remember to use transcripts and captions.

Where captions are helpful during the video, transcripts are highly beneficial for long-form videos like workshops and lectures. They’re closely related and should be considered for a number of reasons:

1. Accessibility. If your audience has an audio impairment, including transcripts and captions helps them experience your content. It can also help people who speak a different language consume or translate your message.
2. Convenience. If you’re trying to get people to slow their scroll on social media, whether at work or in situations where they don’t want the volume on, including captions makes it easier for them to understand you.
3. SEO. Including transcripts and captions can improve your SEO performance.

Scripted videos are easy — your transcript is baked into the video production process.

Don’t have a scripted video? The good news is that with AI, most cloud-based video production services automatically transcribe your content.

If not, it’s quite easy to plug your marketing video into an online tool and produce a transcript. Even if it’s not perfect, it gives you something to edit.

Pro tip: Particularly for videos with lower production value, I love using transcripts as editing tools. I’ve tested CapCut, Loom, and HubSpot’s Clip Creator, which make video editing a breeze with AI.

Editing videos is now as easy as highlighting the transcript you want to crop out and clicking delete. Obviously, this isn’t the best solution for high-production-value videos, but it’s great for the more casual videos that are popular.

15. Don’t stress about going viral.

Sure, viral means more eyes on your video. However, just because a video goes viral doesn’t necessarily translate into huge sales. Focus on creating content that resonates with your audience first.

16. Optimize your video for the platform.

Be mindful of where your video will exist while you’re editing.

Is it for your website, YouTube, or Facebook?

Each platform has different specifications — for example, on Facebook, where 85% of viewers watch videos without the volume turned on, you‘ll want to use captions, so people can follow along without the sound.

YouTube videos don’t count views until someone watches for 30 seconds or more, so make sure the first 30 seconds are as interesting and eye-catching as possible.

Ready on the set?

Now that you’ve got all these video production techniques at your disposal, it’s time to put them to use.

Whether you’re creating high-production content or a more casual short-form or live stream video, a little preparation goes a long way when it comes to creating effective marketing videos.

Now it’s your chance to dive in!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2011 and has been updated and for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

“Just GPT it” is all the rage right now.

(Okay, okay. It hasn’t caught on just yet. But my Uber driver said it, and I hope it sticks.) 

But our marketing leader this week isn’t sweating it. She doesn’t think SEO is going anywhere.

“I remember when people were saying up to 50% of queries were going to be handled by voice assistants. The SEO industry was in a tizzy over it,” she told me with a laugh. 

“And the only thing I ask my Alexa for is the weather. So I wouldn’t write [Google] off.”

She’s also HubSpot’s senior director of global growth, so I’ll take her word over my Uber driver’s . 

Lesson 1: Go non-monogamous with Google. 

The HubSpot Blog team has been running on Google fumes for years, and we’ve racked up millions of views in organic traffic based on high-intent searches. It’s also how we attracted many of our current customers.

Aja Frost, who started on the Blog team in 2017 (back when “SEO strategy” was based on our own personal whims that day), knows Google’s value better than anyone. 

But she tells me it’s time for a new playbook. 

“The encroachment of AI search has required us to lean into other channels like YouTube, micro-apps, and areas we see as more defensible against AI. And it’s pushed us to figure out new ways to be ultra-helpful to our reader,” she says.

Frost’s tip for any marketing leader? Spread the love. Test out Substack, team up with creators, or invest in your own micro-apps.

Google is still a viable channel. It’s just not the only one. 

Lesson 2: The days of reverse-engineering algorithms are over — and that’s a good thing.

I asked Frost — in the same tone of voice you’d use to avoid scaring the neighborhood cat — if she’s concerned about the future of SEO in the midst of AI search. (I asked timidly because, you know… SEO is still her job.) 

But she adamantly shook her head. “I think it’s one of the most exciting developments over the last two years. For so long, we have all just oriented toward Google, and reverse-engineering the Google algorithm has, in many ways, stifled innovation in content marketing and SEO.”

She adds, “If there is a more competitive landscape, then the relationship between SEO or content strategist and search engine could change pretty dramatically. It could be a much more collaborative, mutually beneficial relationship.”

Frost sees the future of SEO as a shift from obsessing over algorithms to building real partnerships with search engines. 

Is there a world where Google takes input from little old me, a content creator? We’ll see. 

Lesson 3: Stop writing off marketing channels as “dead.” 

One of Frost’s pet peeves is knee-jerk reactions to industry hype. 

“What bugs me is when people say any channel is dead, and this applies to search, too,” she says. 

“I definitely don’t think search is dead. I don’t think podcasts are dead. I don’t think any channels are dead. I think you can make any channel work really well for you.”

I’m seriously hoping MySpace is “no longer with us”, but I concede her point. 

She adds, “That doesn’t mean we should all go out and invest in channels that aren’t working for us — but it does mean don’t write something off if your intuition says it could work.”

Lesson 4: Focus on expertise. 

Questions like “How do I do XYZ?” get funneled straight to ChatGPT these days. So if your SEO strategy revolves around basic definitions or info keywords, brace yourself for a traffic drop.

But when it comes to complex or opinion-based topics, readers still want the human touch.

Case in point: my recent obsession with LED red light therapy. 

Those at-home LED masks cost about a bajillion dollars, so I wanted to know: Will I look like a newborn baby if I purchase the mask, or will I be shining a bright red light in my face for 10 minutes while the company’s CEO laughs all the way to the bank?

I didn’t turn to GPT for my skin aging concerns; I turned to Google, and asked, “What do dermatologists say about LED red light therapy?”

This isn’t supposed to be an infomercial for red light therapy (although any brands looking to give one away, hit me up ✋), but the point holds: People still turn to websites for answers to more complex, nuanced questions. Not AI. 

Frost is all-in on adding expertise (the extra “E” in Google’s new E-E-A-T rankings) to your posts. 

As she puts it, “You’re talking to me because I have a ton of experience in SEO. This content wouldn’t pack the same punch if you were chatting with someone who just joined the SEO team. In general, the more expertise the better.”

She has some additional advice, as well: “Make sure you really outline that expertise in the post itself with relevant information and examples. Highlight to Google — and more importantly, the reader — that you know what you’re talking about.”

Art and marketing are made for each other, and this week’s master proves that.

He’s done collabs with brands like Nike, Heineken, Crocs, and the NBA … But it’s not all about advertising.

He‘s also a serious artist in his own right, a luminary at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and his work’s been spotlighted everywhere from NBC to The Washington Post to Hypebeast.

In the venn diagram of art, pop culture, and marketing, Matt Zaremba lives smack in the bullseye.

And it makes me think I should really get a hobby.

1. Want to sell your product? Personify it.

You get the sense that Matt Zaremba’s mind is always in story mode.

Take a recent collab with ASICS on an older, previously archived running shoe: When asked how his team came up with the “Small Wins Add Up” campaign to show off the shoe, Zaremba doesn’t even blink.

“First off, we know you can run in this thing, but 98% of people buying the shoe are not running. They’re just trying to look cool, probably in a city somewhere… They want to be on-trend,” he tells me, effortlessly spinning a story of who this desired consumer would be. (He’s not wrong — I just bought $160 Cloudnova shoes to look cooler while I run … errands.)

“So then I ask myself, ‘What’s the sentiment? This product walks into a room… What does it look like and sound like? Does it have an accent? How can we personify it?'”

From there, his team starts riffing — talking about the state of the world today, and how everyone is a little burnt out, and how sometimes just getting up in the morning is a major accomplishment — and voila. A campaign is born.

“Right off the bat, we came up with this idea that small wins add up. So then we go back to the drawing board… How do we visually represent small wins? How do we give a little wink to running, but keep the human element that people have all sorts of little wins they should celebrate?”

Zaremba does this for all his marketing campaigns, and it’s sound advice: Get to know the ins and outs of your product, and what story people will tell themselves when they buy it.

And think outside the norms when it comes to that story: Are you sure you’re selling a running shoe, or are you actually selling the message that little wins matter?

Because at the end of the day, a Stanley is just a water bottle with a really cool story.

2. Don’t use the first idea that comes to you – find the fresher angle.

One of Zaremba‘s proudest campaigns is one he did with Nike a few years back. It was a big moment for him — at the time, Nike was one of the biggest brands he’d ever worked with.

Zaremba knew it would be easy to make a splash with a big-name celebrity. He could stick the shoes on LeBron and call it a day. (Relatable, I know).

But he didn’t want to do that.

“The shoe reminded my team of our childhood — it kind of tapped into the Sandlot (the movie). So we decided to take a moment to reflect our own team. We did a yearbook shoot of all our actual employees wearing a special jacket we made, along with the sneakers. And we had the school-picture cloud background.”

“We presented the campaign as ‘This is who we are, and who we are is the same as you.’”

I‘ll admit most marketers aren’t regularly working with Lebron-sized budgets, but the takeaway still matters: Your first idea is probably the too-obvious one, and you should keep thinking. Unexpected angles will surprise your audience and make them feel like they’re seeing something new.

And ideally, they’ll see pieces of themselves in your marketing then, too.

3. Marketing should make your buyer feel confident — not insecure.

Fashion is a notoriously confidence-crushing industry. Plenty of major fashion and beauty brands thrive off making their consumers feel less-than. They want you to know you’re not cool yet, but you will be when you wear those jeans or that jacket.

But Zaremba calls that kind of marketing “empty calories and empty suits.”

“Sure, you’ll find a cohort of people who you’ll grow with because you’re showing them what they’re not. But eventually they’ll find a brand that makes them feel like they are enough, and they’ll switch to that brand,” he says.

His MO? Being as humble and relatable as possible: “Fashion brands should offer tweaks to your journey of style and culture. I don‘t want to talk down to people and say, ’Oh, you don‘t know this musician?’ I‘d rather be like, ’You gotta check this out.’ There should be no ego in it.”

Whether you’re a B2C or B2B marketer, the sentiment stands — personifying your brand as the “cool kid” works for some brands, but what works better for most is simply being helpful, curious, and encouraging.

The holidays are pretty much here, and my head is still spinning from how fast 2024 went by. And if you‘re a marketer, your head may also be spinning trying to figure out this year’s holiday shopping trends.

You needn‘t worry; I’ve got you covered with insights from our most recent consumer trends report. Let‘s explore consumers’ minds and determine what marketing and shopping trends you’ll need to leverage this season.

Table of Contents

• Holiday Shopping Trends
• Holiday Marketing Trends
• What’s Next?

Holiday Shopping Trends

Last Christmas, I was scrolling through Instagram on my sister‘s couch (as I’m prone to do) when I saw a photo of two velvet blouses by a shop I love called Midnight Hour.

My sister had just given me money as a gift (best sister ever), so I used some of the money to buy both tops directly through the business’ Instagram.

Our 2024 Consumer Trend Tracking Report shows that my shopping experience aligns with most consumers.

More consumers will take to social media for their shopping.

Social media is the #1 channel for product discovery for Gen Z, my fellow Millennials, and Gen X. While it‘s not the top channel for Boomers, our findings indicate they’re rapidly warming up to social media shopping, too.

In fact, a third of our survey respondents say they have discovered a product on social media within the last few months.

Furthermore, our report shows that 1 in 4 social media users have bought a product directly via a social media app, a 39% increase from last year. So, this holiday season, brands and businesses should expect more consumers to discover and purchase products via social media.

So, lean into tools like Instagram Shopping, TikTok Live Shopping, or TikTok Shop so you can meet consumers where they are at (social media) and have them buy directly from your platform.

Remember when I said I was scrolling through Instagram on my sister‘s couch? I wasn’t scrolling via my laptop; I was on my phone when I discovered and purchased the blouses, which brings me to another consumer shopping trend.

Mobile Shopping and purchasing will be on the rise this season.

Regarding online shopping, mobile phones are used more than any other device, especially among Gen Z. Our report shows that 71% of Gen Z use mobile phones most often when shopping online.

Moreover, 63% of consumers in our survey, across generations, use mobile when looking up a question in a search engine. This plays into how consumers shop because most will use their mobile phones when searching for questions about products.

For example, I Googled durable winter tights on my smartphone a few days ago and was shown a few brands to check out. After enough research, I bought a pair via my smartphone.

This holiday shopping season, ensure your website is optimized for mobile shopping and browsing since most consumers will do their online shopping and product research from their mobile devices.

Consumers will seek their favorite influencer’s stamp of approval.

I don‘t follow many influencers, and I can’t recall the last time an influencer convinced me to buy something, but that marks me as an outlier as more consumers look to influencers to help make buying decisions.

Our report shows influencers impact purchasing decisions more, with over a fifth of social media users (21%) buying a product based on an influencer recommendation in the past three months.

And if you‘re trying to attract Gen Z, it’s crucial to know that Zoomers hold influencer recommendations in higher regard than recommendations from friends and family (9% vs 7%, respectively).

More consumers are also following virtual influencers. In 2024, 28% of social media users follow virtual influencers, up from 25% in 2022.

Consider finding influencers who align with your brand and vision and sparking collaboration with them so you can better connect with your audience.

Holiday Marketing Trends

So, we know what shoppers are doing this year. Let’s see what brands are doing.

Brands will provide relatable, authentic holiday content.

So, what do consumers want brands to put in their metaphorical stockings this year? Relatability!

According to our report, consumers crave relatable content, but only 63% say that the content brands post on social media seems authentic or relatable.

Of the types of content brands post on social media, 90% of consumers say funny and relatable content is the most memorable (or 52% and 38%, respectively). 63% say it’s more important for a marketing video to be authentic and relatable than polished and high-quality.

I predict that brands will address this gap this year by creating funny, relatable content that caters to consumers’ interests.

Businesses will promote corporate responsibility.

I also see more brands releasing marketing content that takes a stance on important issues or demonstrates corporate responsibility.

50% of U.S. adults say brands should do more regarding social advocacy, and I have already seen some brands answering that call.

As part of its holiday marketing, True Religion collaborated with Grammy Award-winning rapper Megan Thee Stallion for the denim company‘s holiday collection.

The company hosted an event with the rapper’s Pete & Thomas Foundation, a foundation that supports underserved communities.

The “Where Wishes Come True” event focused on providing holiday gifts to those in need, including LGBT and at-risk youth.

True Religion‘s marketing video from the event hit all the points I mentioned above. It’s authentic and relatable, featuring candid footage of Megan Thee Stallion shopping and having fun with fans and gift recipients.

Participants also shared their genuine excitement about spending time with the star and what she and True Religion mean to them. Megan Thee Stallion’s sense of humor and charisma also shine, contributing to some funny moments in the video.

And, of course, by centering the event on helping LGBT and at-risk youth, True Religion is taking a stand for the LGBT community.

Some brands may leverage AI-generated content, but be careful!

We may also see brands dabble in AI content this holiday season, but I must warn against hopping on this trend too quickly. As I said before, relatability and authenticity are vital in reaching consumers this holiday season.

An overreliance on AI can prevent authentic branding from shining through, alienating your audience. For example, Coca-Cola released its annual holiday ad, which was generated using AI. The ad received heavy backlash from viewers who found it “creepy” and impersonal.

Prepare to see more influencer and content creator collaborations.

Instead of relying heavily on AI in your ads, I suggest leveraging influencers and content creators to build authentic connections with your audience. This is another trend I expect to gain prominence this season.

For example, Fenty Beauty is leveraging influencers like Stephanie Valentine to promote products that create holiday looks.

Image Source

What’s Next?

Now that you‘ve learned about these key holiday trends start getting ahead of the Black Friday buzz by preparing and finalizing your holiday campaigns if you haven’t already done so.

In the meantime, I‘ll likely be back on my sister’s comfy couch this year to do more online shopping. Happy holidays!

To effectively lead a marketing team, you have to know what you’re working towards. Whether your focus is to increase revenue or improve your customers’ understanding of your products, starting with a clear priority helps guide all your efforts in 2025 and beyond.

But sometimes, you may struggle to identify your organization’s most important goals. For this reason, we surveyed 700+ marketing executives to help you make the right decisions.

Let’s examine the top goals of marketing management for the upcoming year and share some advice from leaders at ClickUp, RocketReach, Uber, and more on how to achieve them.

Top Marketing Manager Goals in 2025

1. Increase revenue and sales.

According to our survey, “increasing revenue and sales” is the top priority for most marketing leaders going into 2025, with just over 20% reporting it.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Our core job as marketers is to impact a business’ bottom line by attracting the right audiences and driving leads down the pipeline for sales.

Gaurav Agarwal, ClickUp’s chief operating officer, once echoed this sentiment to me: “As a fast-growing company with industry-leading NDR, adding new revenue sustainably is always a top priority. We have to be hyper-focused on building out different growth and sales capabilities to achieve that goal.”

Tips to achieve this marketing manager goal:

To increase revenue, marketing leaders must identify areas of their customer journey that can be further optimized. Additionally, marketing leaders will want to focus on lead generation.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to effective lead generation. To improve your lead generation strategy, you might test out new landing pages or calls to action. Try creating stronger offers or re-focus your efforts on more powerful lead nurturing campaigns.

It’s also important to continually test new platforms — like TikTok or podcasting — to reach new audiences.

Reflecting on revenue as a goal, Michelle Keene, Vice President of Product Marketing at Rocket Lawyer, told me when years are “expected to be dominated by economic uncertainty, the shift to profitable growth [rather than growth at all costs] will only be accelerated — moving from a nice idea to a requirement.”

To combat this challenge, Keene offers five key principles for marketing leaders to follow:

1. Move from a revenue-only goal to a revenue and cost-of-acquisition goal.
2. Find technology solutions that enable CAC measurement at the program level.
3. Evolve your marketing attribution models.
4. Deeply understand your target audiences and their needs to deliver the right messages at the right time.
5. Encourage ongoing deployment of hypothesis-driven experiments and optimizations.

She added, “As a marketing leader, I embrace this challenge, prioritizing efficient growth. While any mindset shift is challenging, the benefits far outweigh the change management costs.”

“It can transform the way senior executives view marketing — not as an expense, but as an investment — which is really empowering and energizing for me.”

2. Get a better understanding of customers and their needs.

Next, marketers leaders ranked “getting a better understanding of customers and their needs” as their second biggest priority in 2025.

This makes sense, considering they also said the industry’s biggest change in the past 12 months has been an increased focus on the customer and their experience with brands.

Your happiest customers can be not only your most lucrative but also your strongest advocates for your brand out in the wild. Customers stay loyal to brands they love and want to recommend them on social media and to friends and family. But how do you build this kind of commitment?

Tips to achieve this marketing manager goal:

Jennifer Chou, Senior VP of Marketing at RocketReach, believes having a strong understanding of your customers is a vital first step in building brand loyalty.

She told me, “Marketing is about storytelling and helping people envision how your solutions can help them achieve their goals. Having a better understanding of your customers and their needs is critical to creating that intangible connection that builds affinity, consideration, and, ultimately, loyalty.”

She continues, “Customers want to relate to companies in new ways. They want to feel that ‘the company understands what I’m dealing with and is building products for me’…This means we need to know their challenges and goals as well or even better than they do.”

To cultivate a strong relationship between your brand and its community, also ensure your marketing materials convey your brand’s values.

People will feel more connected to your business if they believe your company cares about issues that matter most to them.

As Daniel Godoy, Microsoft’s Global Head of Programmatic Evangelist, says, “The best way to win trust is by upfront stating the values your brand cares about and having transparent communication that highlights your purpose commitments.”

Create better customer experiences with personalization.

As more and more marketers are realizing, loyalty also really comes back to creating a great customer experience. In fact, according to Adobe, 86% of consumers will pay more for a superior customer experience.

We marketers need to dig deeper into what our buyers are looking for from our offering and their interactions with us. What would make being your customer easier or more enjoyable?

Personalization can be key to this.

Zendesk found that 70% of customers expect anyone they interact with at a business to have the full context of their previous engagement and actions.

And, in our survey, 86% of marketers admitted a personalized experience increases sales moderately or significantly.

What are some ways you can personalize your marketing?

• Address your buyer by name in all interactions, including email, website, phone calls, and in-person meetings.
• Make recommendations based on their specific needs, concerns, demographics, or past behavior.
• Have team members respond personally to all social media engagements. While AI can be very helpful with personalization, this is one use case where it can come off as robotic.

But these are just a few ideas. Don’t be afraid to ask your customers what they want and need. Ask for feedback after interactions or purchases. Good or bad, the insights can only help you improve.

Additionally, create opportunities for your customers to interact with each other.

You might create a Facebook or Slack group so your customers can engage with each other, share industry best practices, and get ideas or suggestions to help them work through their business challenges.

Back in 2019, HubSpot’s Social team created a Facebook group and has since leveraged it to foster a stronger sense of community among its members.

3. Increase brand awareness/reach new audiences.

This arguably goes along with our first two points, but according to our research, the third priority of marketers in 2025 is increasing brand awareness and reaching new audiences.

I mean, think about it. Of course, this is to help increase revenue and sales, but its success depends on understanding your audience.

If your business is entering new markets, you must take the time to understand your new customers so you can effectively show how your product helps them.

Tips to achieve this marketing manager goal:

According to our survey, marketers think the most important information to know about their customers is:

• How they consume content (33.43%)
• Their demographics (31.77%)
• Products they’re interested in buying (27.9%)

Based on this information, you can better understand the value your marketing must deliver and what new audiences would be attracted to.

Every audience is different, of course, but in general, there are some trends you can use to start testing. For instance, more than half of consumers prefer to learn about products by searching the Internet or social media.

That means a strong SEO or social media strategy is a great place to start when trying to build brand awareness and increase reach.

Creating product-led content on your website and social media can help show prospects what your product is all about and how it works long before they make a purchase.

Let’s say you work for a video editing company, for example.

By writing content like “Why Video Marketing Matters” and “5 Ways to Create Higher-Quality Videos,” people interested in video will be introduced to your brand as a player in the space.

But you don’t want to stop here. Go further by creating comparison articles that target high-intent X vs. Y keywords. Even if your software isn’t well known in buyer cycles, you can compare yourself to popular competitors and, once again, help explain your role in the industry.

Once readers learn that you are an option for them and find value in your content, they’ll be more likely to explore your site further. It’s content marketing 101.

If you’re marketing to Gen Z or millennials, it’s also imperative you use social media for product education. It’s Gen Z’s favorite channel for learning about new products and millennials’ second favorite (right behind search engines).

More on that in: Social Media Marketing: The Ultimate Guide

Top Marketing Manager Objectives Based on Trends

Our survey also revealed several emerging trends that marketing leaders are intrigued by and planning their strategies around. Here are the top three.

4. Invest in personality-led content and creator partnerships.

Where there’s social media, content creators can’t be far behind. Thus, it should come as no surprise that marketing manager objectives also include investing in influencer and creator partnerships in 2025.

Influencer marketing has been proven to foster engagement, drive traffic and clicks, and generate conversions and sales. Modern consumers tend to trust influencers more than brands, finding them authentic and relatable.

That’s likely why Sprout Social has found that 49% of all consumers make daily, weekly, or monthly purchases because of influencer posts. Knowing this, it’s wise not to sleep on the marketing power of influencers and creators.

But how do you get started?

Tips to achieve this marketing manager goal:

Influencer marketing campaigns can take place on a variety of platforms (Instagram, YouTube, etc.) and come in all different shapes and sizes, including:

• Affiliate or Discount Codes
• Contests and Giveaways
• Sponsored Posts
• Gifting
• Takeovers
• Collaboration

Start by identifying the platforms your audience is most active on and who they are engaged with on them. From there, fellow HubSpotter Ramona Sukhraj breaks down the different possibilities and how to develop your influencer marketing strategy in this article.

5. Diversify paid media across direct, indirect, and brand models.

With more competition on search engines and social and increasingly elusive algorithms across them all, the importance of paid media can’t be ignored.

In 2023, advertising their products and services effectively was one of the top goals of marketers, and now that focus has turned to diversification.

Advertising isn’t what it used to be. This isn’t the days of Mad Men’s Don Draper and creating quippy billboard slogans — at least, not entirely. Beyond the more classic channels like print, TV, radio, and direct mail, many brands now advertise almost exclusively on digital platforms.

Many digital advertising platforms offer helpful tools for nice targeting, creating engaging ads, and iterating quickly if something isn’t working.

Google’s responsive ads feature, for instance, tests various headlines and descriptions and ultimately displays the combination that performs best with an intended audience.

Meanwhile, Facebook allows A/B testing and is known for having one of the most robust audience-targeting tools available for social media.

Tips to achieve this marketing manager goal:

Overall, marketers today have a wealth of paid advertising options, and it’s smart to experiment with them. Like influencer marketing, start by identifying where your audience consumes content and looks for answers.

Next, see what advertising options it has that are relevant to your goals.

For instance, if you’re trying to boost downloads on a particular offer, perhaps you want to run a Facebook Lead Ad. Mix and match your options while being mindful of your budget and see what delivers the best results.

Learn more about your paid advertising options in: The Ultimate Guide to PPC Marketing

6. Update SEO strategies for AI-driven search.

You didn’t think we’d talk about 2025 and not mention artificial intelligence (AI), did you?

Rounding out the top goals for marketing leaders, according to our survey, is updating SEO strategies for AI-driven search.

AI search isn’t limited to assistants like Alexa, ChatGPT, and Claude anymore. It’s also being adopted by leaders in the space, such as Google, with AI overviews.

Source

HubSpot’s Kieran Flanagan expects AI to shift SEO in three main ways. It will:

1. Decrease click-through rates on search engines.
2. Force search engine experts to be more holistic digital marketers.
3. Make customer-centric strategies more important than keyword-focused ones.

So, what can we do?

Tips to achieve this marketing manager goal:

Here’s what Flanagan advised in a recent article:

• Create high-quality, expert content: Your content can’t just answer common questions with relevant information anymore. Everyone can do that. Now, it needs to provide credible perspectives, authoritative tips most readers won‘t find elsewhere, and other elements that comply with Google’s EEAT philosophy.
• Optimize for featured snippets: Structure your content so it’s easily scannable and provides direct answers to common queries. As AI overviews are slowly replacing featured snippets, we believe the criteria for appearing here may be similar.
• Focus on user intent: Tailor your content to address specific user needs, which can improve your chances of being recommended as an answer in LLM-generated search results.
• Build authority and backlinks: Like search rank in general, high-quality backlinks and mentions can signal to LLMs that you’re a trusted source. Keep making this a priority.

You can also check out these resources from HubSpot:

• How to Write Content that Generative AI Search Engines Will Cite, According to Experts
• 6 Steps Bloggers are Taking to Prepare for AI in Search [New Data]

Setting (And Achieving) Goals Like a Marketing Leader

Determining your top goal depends on your company’s needs.

If your company seeks visibility, an increase in traffic may show you are moving in the right direction. If your company is struggling to meet its financial goals, revenue from your marketing initiatives may be your core goal.

Your goals and KPIs should incorporate many thoughts, but some priorities and focuses also remain universal in today‘s market. So, use the trends and advice in this article to explore your business’s possibilities and the best opportunities to achieve its goals.

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

I’m not sure which social platform is winning the algorithmic gymnastics competition this year. Is it Instagram? Maybe TikTok?

Either way, it seems like all of our favorite channels are actively competing for gold, which presents quite the range of social media marketing challenges for us.

From algo updates to unpredictable trends, we’re always left wondering: Which platforms will provide the highest return? Where’s our audience hanging out now? And how can we create content they’re actually interested in?

These are all fair questions. In fact, our latest social trends report shows that they’ve manifested into the biggest challenges social media marketers are facing this year.

Here’s what the data says.

Top 6 Social Media Marketing Challenges in 2024

1. Creating engaging content.

As someone who creates content, I can tell you firsthand that creating good content is hard. And the standard for good content is always changing.

It looks like I’m not alone in this thinking because our survey shows that 17% of marketers said creating engaging content would be their biggest challenge this year.

The key to high-quality content creation is meeting your audience at the intersection of what they care about most and what’s trending on their favorite platforms.

Sprinkle in a few fickle social algorithms, and you’ve created one of the most complicated recipes of all time.

That’s why it’s no surprise to me that this feels like a pressure point for marketers.

How to Overcome This Challenge

Rachael Samuels, director of social media at Sprout Social, believes dedicating time, resources, and headcount towards social media is vital for long-term success.

As she puts it, “The social landscape is becoming increasingly saturated with new networks and seemingly endless potential audiences to engage. Social teams of one are no longer enough to keep up with the demand.”

Samuels adds, “As consumer preferences and expectations continue to grow, social marketers require greater investment in their teams and resources to be successful.

Brands must ensure social is prioritized as a critical communication tool and provide their teams with the resources needed to produce creative, relevant, and authentic content.”

As a former social media team of one, I wholeheartedly agree that lack of time and resources are blockers for content creation.

However, if you’re not in a position to increase your social media headcount, here are a few more ways you can beat the engaging content challenge:

• Repurpose content across channels to get the most bang for your buck. For example, take one of your 1,800-word blog posts and rework it into punchy short-form content for channels like Instagram or TikTok. HubSpot’s free AI paragraph rewriter is great for this.
• Use social media AI tools to streamline content planning, creation, and posting across your social channels — and to open up time for more creativity.
• Pull tips from the video below on how to create an effective social media content calendar:

2. Keeping up with features and algorithm updates.

I already mentioned the fickle social algorithm, and here it is again, rearing its not-so-pleasant head in challenge number two.

Our data shows that 16% of marketers are having trouble keeping up with new social media features and algorithm updates.

After looking at just one example of Facebook’s algorithm from Meta, I get it. (Not the algorithm, but why this is giving social media marketers a headache.)

Source

And coming from a blogger who has been quietly beefing with Google over their all-too-regular algorithm changes, you can trust and believe that I understand the struggle.

How to Overcome This Challenge

As marketers, we can’t stop the algorithms from changing. But we can take steps to be proactive, stay informed, and adjust our content to meet new demands. Here’s how:

• Get to know the algorithms on your most frequently used channels. It’ll be easier to navigate the changes if you already know the basics about how things operate.
• Stay up to date on the latest algorithm changes. Sources like HubSpot (cough, cough), Sprout Social, and Hootsuite are great resources here.
• Create content your audience wants to engage with. Content relevance is a big ranking factor for most algorithms, regardless of platform.
• Post on social media at the right time. The more engagement, the better your chances of showing up in-feed — so catch your audience online early and often.

3. Finding ideas for new content.

Based on our survey, 16% of marketers also reported that finding ideas for new content is a big challenge this year.

Why? It can be exhausting (and tricky) to consistently pitch new ideas for social platforms, especially when they already feel overcrowded with content.

Luckily, we’re at a point now where we can tap AI to help generate new content ideas if we’re feeling stuck. In fact, the below ChatGPT prompt is one of my favorites as a writer:

“Give me [number] of [content type] ideas about [topic] that would appeal to [target audience].”

Here it is with the blanks filled in: “Give me five blog post ideas about social media that would appeal to marketers in 2024.”

And here’s the response I got:

I also talked to an expert about this challenge — let’s see what she recommends.

How to Overcome This Challenge

Christina Garnett, former principal marketing manager at HubSpot, suggests researching what already exists when looking for new ideas.

“When trying to find the new you must consume and see what kind of content is already available and then look for gap opportunities.

Are there questions not being answered? Different perspectives not being shared? Maybe the content exists but not in a format that is tailored for a specific learner or audience,” says Garnett.

She adds, “Once you determine what you can create, you need to determine who needs it, and how it can best be packaged to improve their experience. Content has the same need to find product-market fit as products and solutions do.”

4. Reaching their target audience.

Up next, 15% of marketers also identified reaching their target audience as one of their top social media challenges.

Creating engaging content and finding new ideas is great, but what’s the point if your audience never sees it? (Like if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it … )

The good news is we already have a great piece on the blog that explains how to find your social media target audience. I’ll summarize a few of the action items below.

How to Overcome This Challenge

• Identify or create buyer personas. Think about who your current customers are. What are their jobs? Age? Income?
• Find out where your audience is most active. This will help you prioritize which social media platforms to focus on.
• Look at your competitors. Who are they appealing to? Who’s responding to their posts and engaging with them?
• Survey your customers. Ask what type of content they consume, what social media sites they like, or who they follow.

Then, use all of this info to meet them where they are on social.

5. Creating content that generates leads.

Lead generation is also proving to be a hurdle in 2024. 14% of those surveyed report creating content that generates leads as a top social media challenge this year.

Lead generation is a job all on its own. Group that with content creation, trend monitoring, and community management, and you’ve just described the duties of the quintessential social media marketer.

To take some of the pressure off, here’s how you can build a strong social media lead gen strategy.

How to Overcome This Challenge

To start, consider driving your audience from certain social platforms back to dedicated landing pages, or track clicks on specific CTAs for each of your social media campaigns.

Let’s say you’re running a campaign aimed at driving revenue towards a new product offering, create a product landing page and link to it on each of your social profiles. That way, you can track how many clicks come from each page, and alter your strategy accordingly.

For example, if you’re seeing most clicks coming from Facebook, that may indicate that it’s a good idea to put paid advertising behind your Facebook strategy.

Speaking of paid advertising, social media ads and influencer marketing are also powerful ways to generate leads through social media.

Talkwalker’s former CMO Elena Melnikova emphasizes the importance of reading the room when creating ads for social media:

“Too commercial, and this young audience will scroll past your brand, looking for the next dance routine. Read the room. Follow the trends. Be spontaneous,” notes Melnikova.

And when it comes to influencer marketing, Melnikova says:

“Savvy brands will work with influencers to create content. And with the majority of TikTok influencers being Gen Z, they‘ll understand how to ensure their content stands out, and increase a brand’s engagement figures.”

6. Keeping up with new trends.

Last but certainly not least, our data shows that 14% of marketers cited keeping up with new trends as one of their top challenges for this year.

At this point, almost everything materializes as a trend — whether it’s a new platform, an old meme, or even just a sound (I’m looking at you, TikTok).

But the reality is this: Every trend isn’t a good fit for every brand.

Sometimes the most popular social platform isn’t the right place to find your audience. Or maybe your customers aren’t familiar with, and therefore wouldn’t appreciate, that trending phrase that everyone is using in their videos this week.

(For example, I said “sometimes, you need to eat an entire cucumber” to my mom yesterday, and she had no idea what I was talking about. Shoutout to @logagm on TikTok.)

The constant struggle between what’s current and what resonates with your audience makes it difficult to determine which trends to tap into.

How to Overcome This Challenge

I have two nuggets of advice for this one.

First, find a way to keep a pulse of the latest social media trends.

Follow industry leaders like Sprout Social, sign up for expert newsletters like The Marketing Millennials, or see what your audience is currently talking about on forum sites like Reddit.

Also, track the latest news and releases from your favorite social media channels (or curate a network of insiders like Annie-Mai Hodge on LinkedIn) to be the first to know about new features and algorithm updates.

The second is to choose the methods with the highest ROI. And if you don’t know how, take a look at HubSpot’s free lesson on How to Measure Social Media ROI to learn more.

Like I said earlier, it’s not worth it for every brand to hop on every trend. If it can tie back to your audience’s interests and your biggest business outcomes, you’re in the right place.

Challenge(s) Accepted

There you have it! The six biggest challenges that social media teams are facing in 2024.

Now that you know which challenges you’re up against, take the time to brainstorm solutions that will help you level up your social media strategy — for next year and beyond.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

There’s a shift occurring; in our businesses, homes, and media. 

You all see the signs. Things are changing all around us. 

The Holiday season is upon us!

I love this time of year, personally. It means time with family and some high-quality excuses for whipped cream consumption. 

For B2B marketers, however, we mistakenly believe content engagement slows to a halt. 

Let’s talk turkey.

B2B Professionals Still Consume Content in Q4

We may feel like the final days of the calendar year mean business activity dies, but recent data from NetLine reveals a different story.

While October is historically the month where consumption rates peak, November and December remain prime months for strategic content marketing and sales engagement.

Thus, contrary to popular belief, B2B professionals remain highly active in the year’s final weeks. 

NetLine’s data shows remarkable consistency:

Here’s how November and December registration averages stack up against January through October registration averages.

• 2020: 4.3% lower
• 2021: 10% higher
• 2022: 4.5% lower
• 2023: 11.1% higher

(It’s also worth noting that November 2024 is pacing at a similar rate to 2021 and 2023.)

The data suggests that many B2B professionals are using this time to reflect, plan, and prepare for the upcoming year. 

It’s not a major surprise in this case, but it is certainly worth further exploration.

Industry-Specific Engagement Trends

Some industries demonstrate particularly strong end-of-year content engagement.

• Technology: +15% content requests from November to December
• Finance and Healthcare: Significant spikes as budgets finalize
• Transportation and Logistics: Doubled engagement since 2020

Each sector shows unique patterns, but the overarching trend remains consistent: professionals are actively seeking insights and strategic information.

How Much Does Content Consumption Shift from November to December? Content Format Comparison (2020-2023)

Not all content formats maintain equal appeal. 

Below is a comprehensive table that includes total registrations, Month-Over-Month (MoM) differences, and percentage deltas for each content format since 2020.

Content Format	November Total Registrations	December Total Registrations	MOM Delta (%)
eBook	1.5M	1.4M	–4.71%
Guide (Merged)	454k	437k	–3.87%
Cheat Sheet	231k	228k	–1.52%
White Paper	190k	177k	–7.03%
Article	148k	149k	+0.96%
Webinar	65k	79k	+20.68%
Playbook	42k	48k	+13.74%
Report	38k	36k	–6.94%
Tips and Tricks Guide	30k	28k	–4.75%
Research Report	25k	24k	–4.50%

The four formats I want to focus on are smack dab in the middle of this table: White Papers, Articles, Webinars, and Playbooks. 

Of this group, Articles are the format least associated with a purchase decision.

For our purposes, we’ll dive further into the three formats with greater intent signals: White Papers, Webinars, and Playbooks. 

I highlight these formats due to their high association with purchase intent according to NetLine’s 2024 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report.

The significance here is that B2B professionals registering for these formats are likely preparing for investment in 2025.

Of the three, White Papers are the only format with a significant drop-off. 2021 saw a massive, probably COVID-driven spike, but the format has declined 29.4% since.

Considering that B2B marketers upload more White Papers to NetLine’s platform compared to any other format, this is something marketers must be aware of.

Meanwhile, Webinars and Playbooks have experienced steady, year-over-year growth, with Webinars up 20.6% and Playbooks up 13.7%, respectively.

They hit on some of the key factors marketers and sellers would want to know:

• High Popularity of Format
• High Association of Purchase Intent
• Increased Consumption of Format in December Compared to November

What’s the Point?

If you observe prospects engaging with Webinars and/or Playbooks in the month of December, get in touch with them.

The likelihood of this user making an investment in the near future is higher and therefore should be prioritized.

These figures highlight the most significant growth and declines among content formats.

Understanding Who is Consuming During the Holidays

We’ve demonstrated that B2B professionals remain highly active in content consumption during November and December.

Industries like Technology, Finance, Healthcare, and Transportation show notable engagement spikes with high-intent formats like Webinars and Playbooks seeing increased interest in December

All in all, these signals indicate it’s prime time for marketers to prioritize outreach.

But to whom should you be reaching out to?

Individual Contributors will always be the most prolific content consumers. They could be involved in the buying committee, but chances are they’re just using your content today to level up.

Throughout the year, the C-Level consumes more content than many expect, especially in the months of November and December.

Here are a few nuggets worthy of being called out:

• C-Level and Director content consumption has grown 28% from November 2021 to November 2023
• November typically sees individual contributors leading engagement
• December becomes dominated by decision-makers finalizing strategies

That last bullet is proven by the progression of consumption across the C-Level.

Notice that in years unaffected by a pandemic (2020) or the onset of inflation and recession (2022), C-Level professionals consistently show higher content engagement in December than in November.

We’re still collecting November 2024 data but I’m eager to see what December’s trends look like in the first week of January.

The bottom line here: the C-Suite is looking ahead to the new year. December is a perfect moment to capture their attention. 

Which Words Drive Engagement?

Regardless of Job Level, seizing the opportunity can come down to using the right word or two to strike at the right moment.

NetLine’s analysis revealed that most registration at this time of year revolves around “Reflective/Forward-Looking Content Titles”.

Reflective/Forward-Looking Content Titles are defined as titles containing keywords that indicate content focused on retrospection, trends, forecasts, or planning for the future.

These titles front assets featuring topics likely to resonate with B2B professionals preparing for the next year or reflecting on past performance.

Here’s an idea of which terms drove the most registrations in November and December.

Strategic keywords can significantly boost content registration. 

Push your content to be both forward-thinking and actionable in the moment. It’s a tricky balance, but absolutely worthwhile.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Q4…

While competitors might be slowing down, you shouldn’t be.

Smart marketers are capitalizing on these final weeks as B2B professionals actively consume and prepare for 2025, and seeking strategic insights.

To take advantage of these insights, focus on these actionable recommendations:

1. Double Down on Engagement: Don’t wind down—gear up for Q4 opportunities
2. Prioritize Interactive Formats: Focus on webinars and playbooks
3. Create Targeted Content: Develop ROI-driven, future-focused assets
4. Leverage Seasonal Keywords: Use reflective and forward-looking language

Five weeks remain in 2024—make them count.

In 2023, my team and I began working on perhaps one of the most ambitious content audits ever conducted on the HubSpot Blog. We’ve run content audits in the past — but not like this.

We ran the audit in three phases:

• Phase 1 addressed our oldest content.
• Phase 2 evaluated our lowest-performing content.
• Phase 3 assessed the value of our topic clusters.

When it was all said and done, we audited over 10,000 blog post URLs and over 450 topic clusters.

In this post, I’m going to focus on phase one of our audit. I’ll walk you through how we audited our oldest content and how we took action. Plus, I’ll share the results we found.

But first, let me give you some background on why we decided to run an audit of this magnitude.

Why We Audited

It all started in early 2023. At the time, my team was called the Historical Optimization team and we sat at the intersection of HubSpot’s SEO and Blog teams.

We were responsible for updating and optimizing our existing blog posts and finding growth opportunities within our library. (We’ve since evolved into what is now the EN Blog Strategy team.)

In case you’re new here, the HubSpot Blog is HUGE.

For context, the blog was home to 13,822 pages in February of 2023, the month we began our audit. Ahrefs’ Mateusz Makosiewicz even declared it as the “biggest corporate blog … ever” in an SEO case study earlier this year.

Image Source

While we are fortunate to have a high domain authority and drive millions of visits per month, having a blog of this size does not come without challenges.

As our library ages, the amount of opportunity for new content across our blog properties and clusters shrinks.

So, we decided to audit our library to find opportunities for optimization.

We hypothesized that we could uncover “greenspace” and “quasi-greenspace” — topics that we have covered but haven’t capitalized on that well — by auditing the oldest 4,000 URLs in our library.

Although this was only about a third of our content library, we believed we’d be able to unearth some traffic opportunities and give our blog a boost.

Around the same time, we started to feel the effects of Google’s March 2023 Core Update that emphasized experience, which our Technical SEO team immediately started addressing.

However, another part of that algorithm update emphasized content freshness and helpfulness. In other words, how cutting-edge and useful our content is to our readers.

This is where we really felt a sense of urgency.

Because we had 4,000 URLs with published dates ranging from 2006 to 2015, we already knew that this chunk of content was not fresh or helpful.

So, we got to work and audited those blog posts over the course of ten weeks.

Eventually, we added phases two and three to our plan so we could further address unhelpful content and clusters.

How We Audited Our Oldest Content

1. Define our goals.

Before we started auditing the content, it was important for us to determine the objectives.

For some publishers, the goal of a content audit may include improving on-page SEO, enhancing user engagement, aligning content with marketing goals, or identifying content gaps.

For this particular audit, it meant uncovering “greenspace” and “quasi-greenspace” in our blog library, and improving our overall content freshness.

We also had to determine the scope of our audit.

There’s no right or wrong way to approach this. Depending on your goals and the size of your website, you could audit the whole thing in one go.

You could also start with a small portion of your site (such as product pages or specific topic clusters) and build out from there.

Since HubSpot has such a large content library, we opted to limit this audit to our oldest 4,000 URLs. Not only was this more manageable than reviewing all of our content in one audit, but this also targeted URLs that were more likely to benefit from an update or prune.

We also did this knowing that we would later address the rest of our library during phases two and three.

2. Gather our content inventory.

Once we established our goals and scope, we had to gather the oldest 4,000 blog posts and put them into a spreadsheet.

This process can vary depending on the tools and CMS you use. Here’s how we did it using Content Hub:

1. Log into HubSpot and navigate to the Blog page in Content Hub.

2. Navigate to the Actions drop-down and click Export blog posts.

3. Select File format and click Export. This will send all of your blog post information to your email. You will also get a notification in HubSpot once your export is ready.

4. Download your export and open it in your preferred spreadsheet software (I’m usually a Google Sheets girlie, but I had to use Microsoft Excel since the file was so large).

5. Review each column in the spreadsheet and delete the ones that are not relevant to your audit. We immediately deleted the following:

• Post SEO title
• Meta description
• Last modified date
• Post body
• Featured image URL
• Head HTML
• Archived

6. Once the irrelevant columns were removed, the following remained:

• Blog name
• Post title
• Tags
• Post language
• Post URL
• Author
• Publish date
• Status

7. Filter the Post language column for EN posts only. Delete the column once the sheet is filtered.

8. Filter the Status column for PUBLISHED only. Delete the column once the sheet is filtered.

9. Filter the sheet by Publish date from oldest to newest.

10. Highlight and copy the first 4,000 rows and paste them into a separate spreadsheet.

11. Name the new spreadsheet
Content Audit Master.

If you’re feeling fancy, you can also create a custom report in Content Hub and select only the fields you want included in the audit so you don’t have to filter as much when setting up your spreadsheet.

3. Retrieve the data.

After compiling all of the content needed for our audit, we had to collect relevant data for each blog post.

For this audit, we kept it pretty simple, only analyzing total organic traffic from the previous calendar year, total backlinks, and total keywords.

We did this because our recommended actions for each URL were determined during post-evaluation. (We’ll cover this in the next step.)

We obtained organic traffic data from Google Search Console and used a VLOOKUP to match each URL with its corresponding number of Clicks.

Then, we got backlink and keyword data by copying and pasting our audit URLs into Ahrefs’ Batch Analysis tool and exporting the data into our spreadsheet.

At the time of our audit, the Batch Analysis tool could only analyze up to 200 URLs at once, so we had to repeat this step 20 times until we had data for each URL.

Luckily, Ahrefs has rolled out a Batch Analysis 2.0 tool since then, which can analyze up to 1,000 URLs at once. So, if we were to do a similar audit in the future, it would take much less time to retrieve this data.

4. Evaluate the content.

Next, we assessed each piece of content by using the collected data. Then, we evaluated the post itself to determine the following:

• Type of Content
• Freshness Level
• Organic Potential

Type of Content

The HubSpot Blog is home to many different types of blog posts, each serving a unique purpose. Labeling each post helped us determine its relevance and became a key factor in our decision to update or prune.

While this isn’t an exhaustive list of all the content types you could find on the HubSpot Blog, we narrowed it down to the following for the purposes of this audit:

• Educational: A topic that can educate the user on a pain point or problem they know they have.
• Thought Leadership: A topic that can educate the user on a pain point or problem they didn’t know they had until an expert drew it to their attention.
• Business Update: A HubSpot-related piece of news or a press release that is likely not evergreen.
• Newsjacking: An industry-related piece of news or a press release that is likely not evergreen.
• Research: A collection of data or the results of an experiment that is used to educate the reader. This topic may or may not be evergreen, but the content is not and needs updates to stay fresh.

Freshness Level

Because the posts in this audit hadn’t been updated in a long time, none of them could be considered 100% “fresh.” However, we took different types of freshness into account when determining what action needed to be taken on the URLs.

For example, some topics, such as Google+, are so outdated that an update would be silly. However, plenty of topics were still evergreen, even though our content was not.

The following scale helped us make decisions on whether the URL had value with regard to freshness:

• Outdated: The topic is outdated, and an update may not be possible.
• Stale: The topic is evergreen, but it would need an extensive update to make the content more competitive.
• Relatively Fresh: The topic is evergreen, and it would only need a moderate update to make the content competitive.

Organic Potential

To determine the organic potential of each URL, we had to ask ourselves the following question: Will anyone search for the content on Google?

• Yes: Someone would definitely search for this, so we’ll need to optimize/recycle the content.
• No: Someone would not search for this. There’s no point in optimizing/recycling the content since there’s no possible focus keyword.

For all of the posts marked “Yes” for organic potential, we recommended a focus keyword for the re-optimized content to compete for. We did this by evaluating the existing title, slug, and content. Then, we did some keyword research on Ahrefs and reviewed the Google SERP for that query.

We also included the focus keyword’s monthly search volume (MSV) to help prioritize which updates to perform first. We did this by plugging the recommended keyword into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer and adding the MSV to our master sheet.

For an extra layer of caution, we also checked for cannibalization on all posts marked “Yes” for organic potential. There are a few ways to do this:

• Do a site search and see if any URLs come up for the focus keyword.
• Plug the focus keyword into Google Search Console to see if any URLs come up.
• Plug the focus keyword into Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer, scroll down to Position History, search your domain name, and filter for Top 20 and your desired time frame (I usually check the last six months). If multiple URLs are found, that may indicate cannibalization.

If the focus keyword was flagged for cannibalization, we either found a different focus keyword or noted that the URL should be redirected to the fresher post.

If no cannibalization was found, then we had the green light to move forward with updating the post.

5. Recommend an action.

Once a post was completely evaluated, we turned the insights into action items.

Each URL was placed into one of the following categories:

• Keep: No action is needed because both the content and the URL are good.
• Optimize: The content is good but outdated in terms of freshness or SEO practices. Keep the spirit of the article, but refresh and re-optimize to improve performance.
• Recycle: The content is not salvageable, but the URL still has value (in terms of backlinks or keyword opportunity). Create new content from scratch, but retain the URL.
• Prune: Neither the content nor the URL has value from an organic standpoint.

Audit Insights

Out of the 4,000 URLs we audited, 951 (23.78%) were categorized as posts with organic potential and recommended for optimization or recycling. Additionally, 2,888 URLs were recommended to be pruned. That’s about 72.2% of the audit.

These posts either did not have organic potential, posed a cannibalization risk, or were so outdated that there was no point in updating them.

The remaining 161 URLs either did not require any action or had already been redirected.

How We Took Action

The action taken for a URL was determined by its potential for organic traffic.

The URLs with organic potential were delivered to our Blog team and recommended to be optimized or recycled.

Meanwhile, the URLs with no organic potential were delivered to our SEO team and recommended to be archived or redirected.

First, let’s walk through how we took action on the posts recommended to be optimized or recycled.

Taking Action on Content with Organic Potential

Before addressing any of the 951 posts with organic potential, we needed to figure out the following:

• Our capacity for strategic analysis and brief writing
• The capacity of our in-house writing staff and available freelancers
• Our capacity to edit the updates

We coordinated with stakeholders and determined we only had the bandwidth to update 240 posts in 2024 (in addition to the dozens of blog posts we update each month). This initiative was internally known as the “De-Age the Blog Project” and was led by my EN Blog Strategy teammate Kimberly Turner.

Once we knew how many posts we could take on, we had to narrow down which ones to prioritize. We did this by evaluating the complexity of the lift required for each post update:

• Simple Update: The content updates needed are relatively light, making them suitable for freelancers.
• Complex Update: The content updates needed are heavy, making them better suited for in-house writers.
• Recycle: Content is not salvageable, but the URL is. Rewrite the post from scratch, but retain the URL.
• No Opportunity: Pass on updating.

We originally prioritized updating the simplest URLs first, but later pivoted our strategy to tackle the URLs with the highest MSV potential, regardless of update complexity.

We did this because we wanted to get the most we could out of our updates.

De-Age the Blog Results

Initially, we projected that these updates would be complete by the end of H1 2024, but we had to shift our strategy … again.

Like many other publishers, we felt the effects of Google’s March 2024 Core Update as well as the introduction of AI Overviews.

After having placed the De-Age the Blog Project on hold while we addressed the issues, we deprioritized the project entirely in favor of higher-impact workstreams.

SEO, am I right? It always keeps you on your toes.

Despite sunsetting the project before it was complete, we were still able to perform 76 post updates. Six months after the updates were implemented, the cumulative monthly traffic for these posts had increased by 458%.

This goes to show that even updating a small portion of URLs can make a big difference.

Taking Action on Content with No Organic Potential

While the De-Age the Blog Project was taking place, we also took action on the 2,888 URLs that were recommended to be pruned.

Since the initial audit didn’t include recommendations on how to prune, we had to go back and re-review each URL to determine how we would prune.

Here’s how we evaluated the posts:

• Archive (404): The URL has less than 10 backlinks and the backlink profile does not have value.
• Redirect (301): The URL has more than 10 backlinks and/or the backlink profile has value.

How exactly did we determine the backlink profile value? Rory Hope, HubSpot’s head of SEO, recommended we follow these steps:

1. Login into Ahrefs and submit the URL into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer search bar.

2. Select Overview from the left-hand sidebar.

3. Scroll down and click Backlink Profile.

4. Scroll down further and select By DR under Referring Domains.

5. Analyze and investigate any referring domains that are > 50.

6. Navigate to the Referring Domain you’re investigating > 50 by clicking the number.

7. Analyze the Referring page.

Select Redirect (301) if:

• The Referring page link is from a domain that still receives Domain traffic.

Select Archive (404) if:

• The Referring page link appears to be “spammy.” You can determine this by asking the following questions:

• Does this website only publish low quality guest post (SEO-led) content from lots of different topics?
• Does this website still publish content? If not, ignore it.

• The Referring page is from a website that you see linking to a lot of EN Blog posts, through a RSS style automated linking system.

Additionally, all URLs labeled “Redirect (301)” required a new URL to be redirected to.

When choosing a new URL, we did our best to pick the most relevant and similar page. If we couldn’t find one, we redirected to the pillar page of the cluster that the post belonged to.

If for some reason, the URL didn’t belong to a cluster or there wasn’t a pillar page, we redirected it to the HubSpot Blog homepage.

Decision-making for some content types was easier than others. For example, we were able to automatically assign 301 redirects to URLs that were flagged for cannibalization during the initial audit. We also automatically assigned 404s to URLs with less than 10 backlinks labeled as Newsjacking and Business Updates.

Everything else was manually reviewed to ensure accuracy. To make the evaluation process easier, we followed this decision tree:

It took my team about two and a half weeks to ensure that every URL had the correct label. In the end, we had 1,675 URLs assigned to be redirected and 1,210 URLs assigned to be unpublished and archived.

Once each URL was evaluated, we were finally ready to take action.

After coordinating with Rory and Principle Technical SEO Strategist, Sylvain Charbit, we decided to prune the URLs in batches instead of all at once. That way, we could better monitor the impact of redirecting and archiving a large quantity of content.

Originally, we planned to implement our prune in five batches over five weeks, allowing us time to monitor performance during the weeks in between.

Batches one and two contained URLs meant to be archived and unpublished, and batches three through five contained URLs designated for 301 redirects.

Because there were so many URLs to unpublish and archive, we worked with developers on HubSpot’s Digital Experience team to create a script that would automatically unpublish and archive URLs and redirect them to our 404 page.

Then, we were able to implement the 301 redirects with the Bulk URL Redirect tool in Content Hub.

Note: Although we were able to work through this process internally and finish before our deadline, I want to acknowledge that manually evaluating over 2,000 URLs can be tedious and time-consuming.

Depending on your resources and the scope of your audit, you may want to consider hiring a freelancer to help your team work through a task this large.

Content Pruning Results

While we successfully implemented each batch, this process didn’t come without a few road bumps.

Midway through our pruning schedule, Google rolled out the March 2024 Core Algorithm Update. We ended up placing our pruning schedule on hold so we could better monitor performance during the update.

Once the update was complete, we resumed the rest of our prune until it was complete.

Because of the volatile search landscape in 2024, we didn’t see the traffic gains we’d hoped to see once the prune was complete. However, we did celebrate a massive win for overall content freshness on the blog.

At the start of our audit in 2023, we calculated the freshness of our content library by looking at each URL’s publish date and quantifying the number of days since they were updated.

For example, say the current date is November 12, 2024, and you have a post that was last updated on February 19, 2008. Based on the 2024 date, the post from 2008 is 16.7 years old or 6,110 days.

Once we had all of the ages for every post on the HubSpot Blog, we averaged those numbers to determine the average age of our content library, which was 2,088 days (5.7 years).

Since pruning 2,888 URLs (and updating hundreds of URLs from the audit and beyond), the HubSpot Blog’s average age has dropped to 1,747 days — that’s 341 days younger than when we started.

As content freshness and helpfulness play an even greater role in search algorithms, being nearly a year younger can make a big difference.

What’s Next?

Earlier in this post, I mentioned that this audit is only one of three that my team has worked on in 2024.

Our phase two audit focuses on the lowest-performing posts that were not included in phase one, totaling over 6000 URLs. Then, phase three assesses the value of our Blog’s topic clusters.

We’re still taking action on the results from these audits, but I’m so excited to share the process and insights when they’re complete.

Ultimately, content auditing is a job that is never truly done — especially when working with large libraries. You finish one audit, then it’s on to the next.

Although the work can be tedious, the rewards of improving content quality, user experience, and performance make it worth the effort.