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Nobody wants to sit there pinching, poking, and squinting at their phone just to view your website. So it should come as no shock that 50% of people will use a business less often if their site isn’t mobile friendly, according to Google.

But how can you be sure that your website is mobile friendly? Sure, you could check it on your own smartphone. But what about the hundreds of other kinds of phones and tablets that your visitors are using?

Today we’ll cover a selection of mobile friendliness tests that will give you clear answers and actionable tips. For each test, we’ll put our own site through the wringer, so you can make an apples-to-apples comparison of the results. Then we’ll take a look at what it means to be mobile friendly and how it can impact your SEO. But first… what even is a mobile friendliness test?

• What is a mobile friendly test?
• 10 Best Mobile-Friendliness Tests
• What does it mean to be mobile friendly?
• Does mobile friendliness affect SEO?
• Is responsive the same thing as mobile friendly?

A good mobile friendliness test will look at a wide range of factors. These include technical factors such as:

• Site speed
• CSS and Javascript use
• Plugins like Flash or Java

They’ll also include usability factors like:

• Is the text readable without zooming?
• Does the content fit the screen without scrolling sideways?
• Are links and buttons easily clickable?

But while most mobile tests will consider the same factors, not all of them will give you the same results. That’s why we’ve assembled a list of the 10 best mobile friendliness tests to consider.

1. Website Grader

Get Your Grade Right Now

Website Grader is HubSpot’s own test, powered by data straight from Google Lighthouse. It offers a 30-point assessment of factors that affect your mobile friendliness. Then it shows you easy-to-understand recommendations to improve your site.

Not sure what the recommendations mean? Click through into free video lessons on how to optimize a responsive website for mobile.

What stands out:

• Also grades your website’s performance, SEO, and security at the same time.

Offers actionable tips: Yes

Cost: Free

2. Google Mobile Friendliness Test

Instead of a grade scale, like some other tools, Google’s mobile test offers a simple pass/fail. Either your “page is usable on mobile” or your “page isn’t usable on mobile.”

If it isn’t, you’ll see a list of reasons why it failed. (We’ve included a screenshot below of the results from a failing website. Their URL has been hidden to protect the innocent.)

The one downside of Google’s Mobile Friendliness tool is that it only tests individual pages and not your website as a whole.

What stands out:

• Clicking on the reasons for failure will show you a screenshot of the affected area.

Offers actionable tips: Yes

Cost: Free

3. Page Speed Insights

Google’s Page Speed Insights is like the bigger, stronger cousin to their Mobile Friendliness Test.

Instead of a simple pass/fail, you’ll get individual ratings on various performance metrics that have a direct impact on your user experience. The upshot to this is that you’ll get a much more in-depth understanding of your website’s performance. The downside is that if you don’t already understand these terms, you’ll have some studying to do.

This makes Page Speed Insights ideal for sites that are supported by a web developer or dev team.

What stands out:

• Provides a detailed list of diagnostics and actionable improvement opportunities, along with an estimate of potential time savings.

Offers actionable tips: Yes

Cost: Free

4. MobiReady

MobiReady starts by offering interactive visualizations of how your site looks on various devices. Beneath that it gives you a score between 1-5, and compares that to the scores of the top 1,000 Alexa sites for context.

Underneath all of that, you’ll get a list of results, both good and bad, that explains the what, why, and where to find these issues.

What stands out:

• Any failing results include a link that points towards how to fix it.

Offers actionable tips: Yes

Cost: Free

5. WebPage Test

WebPageTest’s results start with simple summaries that are easy to understand, even if you’re less technically inclined. For those with more dev skills, clicking on these results will take you on a deep dive into your performance issues and related tips.

After that, you can switch to one of 14 different categories of results, including your core web vitals, content, and image analysis.

What stands out:

• See how your page loads as a filmstrip, short video, or waterfall of processes.

Offers actionable tips: Yes

Cost: Free

6. Pingdom

Pingdom provides you with both a letter grade, as well as a score from 1-100. Beneath that, you’ll get a short list of performance improvement recommendations. Clicking on them will reveal plain-language explanations for your problems.

These explanations won’t turn a novice into an expert, but they provide a good place to start.

What stands out:

• Allows you to choose the geographic region of your test. (For example, North America, Europe, Asia, etc.)

Offers actionable tips: Yes

Cost: Free

7. Bing Mobile Friendliness Test

Bing’s Mobile Friendliness Test is a fast and simple tool that’s good for a quick check-in.

Just like Google’s Mobile Friendliness Test, Bing’s tool gives you a simple pass/fail, along with a list of reasons why. Unlike Google’s test, many of Bing’s reasons don’t come with any explanation.

What stands out:

• Shows a simple rendering of what your site would look like on a mobile device.

Offers actionable tips: Kind of

Cost: Free

8. SiteChecker

SiteChecker gives a grade on a scale of 100, and a wealth of information about your site’s performance. And while they call it a Mobile Friendliness Test, you’ll get a large list of improvement recommendations for both desktop and mobile.

You’ll see suggestions for content, coding, linking, social media, and more. And for each issue, you’ll find a “how to fix” button that provides info on why it matters and what to do.

What stands out:

• Also provides a detailed accounting of your site’s CSS and Javascript files.

Offers actionable tips: Yes

Cost: Free with 7-day trial

9. WooRank

WooRank is a marketing SaaS that’s known for its SEO extensions and plugins. Their website scoring tool will analyze the performance of your site, including its mobile friendliness.

In a matter of seconds, they’ll give you a score between 1-100; however, you’ll need to sign up for their service to see the reasons behind it. This makes WooRank’s test a good option for those who are already in the market for a suite of SEO tools.

What stands out:

• If you sign up for an account, your results are connected to the rest of their tools.

Offers actionable tips: Upon signup

Cost: Freemium

10. BrowserStack

BrowserStack’s tool is different from the others on this list, in that it’s actually a responsive design test. (We’ll explain more about the difference later on.) So while it won’t give you a grade, or a list of improvements, it will let you see how your site renders on over a dozen different devices.

We’re including it in this list because it’s extremely useful when used in tandem with another mobile friendliness test. Your visitors will judge your site on how it looks, just as much as they will on how it works.

What stands out:

• Paid accounts can also run interactive testing on over 3,000 different browsers and devices.

Offers actionable tips: No

Cost: Free

What does it mean to be mobile friendly?

“Mobile friendly” means that your website (or app) looks good and performs well on a smartphone or tablet. Many factors contribute to mobile friendliness, but they all boil down to a good user experience.

To be considered mobile friendly, your site needs to be fast, simple, and easy to use no matter what device the reader is using.

Does mobile friendliness affect SEO?

Yes, mobile friendliness absolutely does affect your SEO. In a rare bit of transparency, Google announced in 2015 that they would be “boosting the ranking of mobile-friendly pages on mobile search results.”

That’s a big deal, considering that 64% of searches are done on a mobile device, according to research by Sistrix.

But what about desktop searches? Does mobile friendliness affect them? That’s a little less clear; however, in 2018 Google signaled its intent to switch to mobile-first indexing. That’s a fancy way of saying that Google would be considering your mobile version first when choosing what to index.

And while indexing and ranking are not the same things, we know that Google only maintains one index. That means it’s reasonable to assume your mobile friendliness may potentially influence how well you rank in desktop searches.

Is responsive the same thing as mobile friendly?

Responsive design is a great way to be mobile friendly, but they’re not the same thing. Think of mobile friendliness as the goal, and responsive design as the way to get there.

Responsiveness means that your website automatically adapts to whatever device the reader is using. The text and images will scale to fit the size. The layout will rearrange to suit the screen. And whether a visitor arrives on a smartphone, desktop, tablet, or even an e-reader, they’ll still find a quality user experience.

Don’t let a bad mobile experience put you in a pinch

As you can see from the screenshots, the scores that you receive can vary wildly. Because of this, it’s important not to get too hung up on chasing a number. Use your grade as a guide, but focus on the improvements, and work toward a great mobile experience for your visitors.

Why Is Comparative Advertising Effective (Comparative Advertising Examples)

Popeyes

Why this example works:

Sprint

Why this example works:

Cocoon by Sealy

Why this example works:

Adidas

Why this example works:

Kroger

Why this example works:

Bounty

Comparative Advertising Law

United States Comparative Advertising Law

Australia Comparative Advertising Law

Hong Kong Comparative Advertising Law

Comparative Advertising Pros and Cons

You can face legal action.

As mentioned above, many countries have laws protecting consumers and other businesses from comparative ads.

You need to produce your ad with the utmost care and attention, otherwise, you may face legal action from your competitors. If you’re a big name brand, publications will likely report on it, which can also negatively impact your reputation.

Comparative Advertising Can Help Your Business Grow

Is there someone (or hopefully, several someones) at your company who it seems like everyone wants to work with?

Perhaps it’s someone with amazing soft skills which get them pulled into brainstorms. Or maybe they’re the go-to consultant for some of the most impactful business issues. Or maybe it just seems like everyone on your team really, really likes them.

Soft skills have the power to grow your career in the same way hard skills and talent can. But what exactly are soft skills? And why are they so important to growing your career? Keep reading to find out, or use the links below to jump to a section.

What are soft skills?

How to Acquire Soft Skills

The 7 Soft Skills

Soft skills can be taught, but they’re not as straightforward as hard skills which are the specific qualities that can be clearly defined, measured, and taught for success in a job.

With hard skills, you can learn advanced techniques and methods that yield measurable results. They can even be tied directly to the business’s bottom line.

But when it comes to soft skills — things like small talk, empathy, and flexibility — they’re not an exact science, but they’re just as impactful.

You need hard skills to land a job, but you need soft skills to progress in your career. So we’ve rounded up a list of the soft skills most critical to building a successful career — and how you can acquire them.

How to Acquire Soft Skills

Soft skills are unlike hard skills in that they require situational awareness to know when to use which skill. When you’re hired for an accounting job, you know that most days you’ll need to the do hard skills you learned in school like mathematical formulas, bookkeeping, and probably some work in a spreadsheet application. However, it’s not as cut and dry when you’ll use soft skills because they are dependent upon intangible factors.

This is why acquiring soft skills is so unique. Practice is the best way to acquire soft skills and demonstrate them effectively. And you might be wondering, “How can I highlight soft skills in my role?” The answer is simple — having a genuine concern for others is the main ingredient to strengthening your soft skills and growing your career.

Listen to your coworkers and leaders to understand their success, challenges, opportunities, and concerns. Then see if there are any skills, experiences, advice, or resources you can offer.

Practice doing this in your meetings, one-on-ones, and even on your lunch break with the team. You’ll be surprised by how quickly you acquire these soft skills and grow your career.

Here are seven soft skills and examples that will help you make an impact on your coworkers and your career.

7 Soft Skills You Need to Achieve Career Growth

1. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and manage your emotions and the emotions of others. It’s made up of five key elements:

• Self-awareness
• Self-regulation
• Motivation
• Empathy
• Social skill

You can read more about the specifics of the attributes of emotional intelligence in this blog post if you want to learn more, but in the context of the workplace, emotional intelligence boils to a few key abilities:

• Can you recognize and regulate your emotions and reactions in the workplace?
• Can you build rapport and positive relationships with other people?
• Can you empathize with others?
• Can you give — and receive — effective, constructive feedback?

It might not sound like the most important skill for job growth and success, but in some cases, it is. In an analysis of new employees who didn’t meet expectations during the first 18 months on the job, 23% failed due to low emotional intelligence. (Take this quiz to rate your emotional intelligence and identify areas where you can improve.)

2. Team Player Attitude

The ability to play well with others is a soft skill you’ve been working on — unknowingly — since your first day of pre-school or daycare. You might not have known it when you were fighting over blocks or figuring out the rules of a made-up game, but you were actually preparing for a lifetime of workplace collaboration.

Whether you’re an individual contributor or a people manager, you have to work with other people — in meetings, in brainstorms, and on various cross-functional projects within your company. A positive, can-do attitude when it comes to working with others is essential to team harmony, which means you need to be able to run an effective and inclusive meeting, be open to new ideas, and work respectfully with others.

Read our guide to running better meetings for all personality types here, and brush up on these rapport-building questions to get to know and work well with any team member you encounter.

3. Growth Mindset

In any job, no matter what the role, you’ll encounter roadblocks, disappointments, and other situations that might frustrate you. A soft skill that’s critical to your ability to persevere is having a growth mindset — a term psychologist Carol Dweck coined to refer to a frame of thinking that reflects viewing your abilities, talents, and intelligence as skills you can grow and improve upon.

Someone with a growth mindset might look at a failure to meet a quarterly goal as an opportunity to identify their strengths and weaknesses to tackle the next quarter’s goal. A person with a fixed mindset, however, might say to themselves, “I’m not good at blogging,” and let that negative outlook — without any belief in the capability of improvement — impact their next quarter’s success, too.

Watch Dweck’s TED Talk to learn more about the growth mindset here — and try to find places in your daily correspondence or reflections where you can reframe your outlook by viewing a challenge or setback as a way you can grow.

4. Openness to Feedback

This is part of emotional intelligence, but especially when it comes to the workplace, being open and able to receive development feedback is critical to success at a job — especially a new job.

Think about it: Constructive feedback helps you do the best job you can, and if you take it personally or react defensively, you aren’t able to hear the feedback and adapt it to your current strategy.

The key to giving and receiving feedback is to come into the conversation from a place of kindness: You aren’t receiving constructive feedback because that person hates you personally, it’s because they want you to be the best you can be. You should be chomping at the bit to receive feedback that can help you more effectively hit your goals.

If you don’t feel comfortable with feedback yet, try immersion therapy — make feedback a part of your daily to-do list. Ask for feedback from more people you work with to get immediate help honing your skill set — and to help make it easier to take.

5. Adaptability

No matter what your role, and no matter what your industry, the ability to adapt to change — and a positive attitude about change — go a long way toward growing a successful career.

Whether it’s a seat shuffle or a huge company pivot, nobody likes a complainer. It’s important not only to accept change as a fact of life in the constantly-evolving business world, but as an opportunity to try out new strategies for thriving in environments of change (remember the growth mindset?).

If you don’t feel comfortable with frequent changes, either on your team or at your company, write down your feelings and reactions, instead of immediately voicing them. By laying out how you feel and why you feel a certain way, you’ll be able to distinguish legitimate concerns from complaints that might not need to be discussed with your team.

6. Active Listening

You probably can tell the difference between when someone is hearing words you’re saying and when they’re actively listening to what you’re saying. If someone is typing while you’re presenting at a meeting, or they’re giving you that slack-jawed look, they probably aren’t really hearing what you’re saying.

Active listeners, meanwhile, pay close attention to meeting presenters, offer up clarifying questions or responses, and refer back to notes in future discussions. They don’t need things repeated to them because they heard them the first time — making active listeners not only respectful colleagues, but more effective workers, too.

If you think you could stand to improve your active listening skills, challenge yourself not to look at your various devices during meetings — instead to focus completely on speakers, and take notes by hand if needed (which is proven to help with memory retention).

7. Work Ethic

You can’t succeed in a role without being willing to put in the time, effort, and elbow grease to hit your goals, and company leaders and hiring managers are looking for people who will put in the extra legwork to succeed without being asked.

If you want to get a new job or get promoted, it’s essential that you hone your work ethic — so quit bellyaching and put in the extra time you need to succeed. Or, if excelling means learning new skills or tools, dedicate time to learning those outside of work hours so you can make your time in the office as effectively as possible.

What weaves all of these soft skills together is a positive attitude. It might sound cheesy, but believing that there’s a positive outcome in any and all challenging situations will help you navigate the day-to-day of your job while making other people really want to work with you. These soft skills are harder to teach, but the payoff might be even bigger, so make sure you’re investing time and effort into auditing and improving your soft skill set.

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

It’s almost here…

Thanks for your interest in our upcoming Executive Leadership Report and its corresponding pillar, “Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader: Data from 300+ Marketing Directors on How to Take Your Team to the Next Level“.

If you’ve arrived on this page, we know our content so far has made you eager to see the full report. Check back on this same page on November 1, 2022, for our full report and corresponding blog posts.

We hope you enjoy what we’ve got in store for you! 

Worried you’ll forget? Click here or below to set a Google Calendar reminder that will notify you when the report is live.

Curious what’s in store? Here are a few topics we’ve got coming for you: 

• What Help Scout’s VP of Brand Considers When Promoting Individual Contributors & People Managers [+ How These Promotions Differ]
• The Top 8 Marketing Challenges Expect to Face in 2023 [HubSpot Data + Expert Tips from Sprout Social, Microsoft, and ZoomInfo]
• The Top Goals of Marketing Leaders in 2023 [New Data + Expert Insights from Uber, Dropbox, and ClickUp]
• How to Get Buy-In from Some of the Top Marketing Leaders: 3 Execs Discuss What KPIs Matter to Them 
• Which SEO Metrics Matter Most, According to Semrush’s VP of Brand Marketing
• Neil Patel’s 5 Solutions to Marketers’ Biggest Challenges in Five Minutes or Less [YouTube] 
• … And more! 

We’ll also send this content out in our Marketing Blog Newsletters, so be sure to subscribe to the HubSpot Marketing Blog by clicking the banner below and never miss a beat!

For many brands, TikTok is a scary, unknown place. What do you post? How do you use the trending sounds? I’ve rounded up small businesses that have generated thousands of likes and followers on their TikTok profiles alone.

In this article, we not only list successful small businesses on TikTok with a breakdown of their strategies but also hear from some directly on what influenced their success.

Note: In this article, we define small businesses as those with one to 25 employees.

1. POPFLEX

Founded by influencer and content creator Cassey Ho, POPFLEX has amassed 2.5 million likes and 116K followers since first posting in May 2020.

What’s the key to its success? Leveraging Ho’s loyal community and telling honest stories.

@popflexactive Time for a gym bag upgrade? Meet the all-in-one Valentina Duffle 💐
#dufflebag
#duffle
#functionalfashion
#blogilates
#bags
#gymbag
#ShowOffLandOFrost
♬ Classical Music – Classical Music

Ho grew in popularity on YouTube as a fitness instructor sharing pilates workouts and advice, hence the name @blogilates. After years of success, Ho launched the apparel brand, POPFLEX.

“It’s such a huge benefit to work with a social media personality like Cassey, who already has not only a fanbase but a loyal community that she has built trust with,” says Lexi King, PopFlex’s social media lead. “We are an extension of that at POPFLEX.”

Knowing that these two brands are deeply connected, King says they focused on sharing the behind-the-scenes journey of building and growing POPFLEX.

“…People love seeing the ‘why’ and the process behind our products,” says King, “it makes the brand relationship less transactional and more of a relationship.”

She says that instead of selling a product, they walk viewers through finding solutions to their most pressing problems. On TikTok, each account feeds the other, creating what King calls an ecosystem.

“If you happen to be scrolling TikTok and come across Blogilates’ video promoting a product, that will likely lead you to check out POPFLEX where you can then see the product on different bodies through our try-on videos or see more of the functionality behind the product,” she says.” It’s about creating an ecosystem of content, it’s like telling one big story.”

In addition to storytelling and leveraging their founder, King shares that the brand invests in building relationships with diverse content creators, through partnerships and gifting.

“Seeing our products promoted on external influencer/creator accounts helps build our awareness and trust with the consumer while also giving our customer real, raw, and unpaid reviews,” says King on gifting products to influencers.

Unlike many other brands on TikTok, POPFLEX doesn’t only rely on trending dances to gain traction.

“Doing trendy dance moves doesn’t always need to be your answer to increasing your reach,” says King. “You can find a unique way to utilize a trending audio to push your product and educate your audience about your brand.”

She continues, “In fact, being different and interpreting trends in unique ways has been some of our best performing content.”

If there’s one piece of advice King could offer other small businesses, it’s this: Succeeding on TikTok involves trial and error.

“You have to find what brings your audience in, weeding through what works and what doesn’t,” says King. “The only way to figure that out is by posting and by not being afraid to test new things — new creators, posting at different times, new angles, trends versus storytelling, etc.”

2. Faces Cosmetics

While some brands steer away from pushing their products on TikTok, others find great success in doubling down on this strategy. Faces Cosmetics is one of them.

About 90% of the TikTok videos this brand posts on TikTok are directly related to its product, specifically the quality, performance, and durability.

The reason this strategy works so well is that in just a few seconds, the video addresses user pain points and shows how the product solves them – all while leveraging trending sounds.

@facescosmetics And it’s latex free 😜 Secure those lashes baby!
#makeup
#mua
#lashes
#facescosmetics
#lashessecured
♬ original sound – IT GIRL 💕

Here’s another tactic that’s worked exceptionally well for Faces Cosmetics on TikTok: Building up a story surrounding the product, hooking in viewers, then revealing the truth at the end.

While this may sound like a risky approach, it’s one that brought the brand 3.1 million views in a single video and a host of new customers.

For instance, in the video posted below, the brand’s founder posed as a content creator trying a new product that’s been making its rounds on social media. Spoiler alert: It’s her product.

@facescosmetics I wish i knew about this sooner omg!
#lashes
#makeup
#ulta
#facescosmetics
#lashessecured
♬ original sound – Faces Cosmetics

She tries it on, addresses common customer pain points with this product line, then ends the video with the big reveal and a restock announcement.

The takeaway here is to tell stories that will resonate with your audience.

3. Hoodjabi

With over 125K followers and 4.3 million likes, all of Hoodjabi’s viral content has one thing in common: great use of a trending sound.

@hoodjabishop A lifechanging experience 🥹🥹
#hoodjabishop
#modestfashion
#hijabessentials
#hoodiehijab
♬ The sound of love – Mandy & Boots- Viral 🔈Creator

Although every video features Hoodjabi products, they don’t focus on the products themselves. Instead, they focus on lifestyle – always in a funny, engaging way. 

So, how do they do it? I spoke to Hoodjabi founder Kady Meite. In addition to her humor, she attributes her TikTok success to her understanding of the app. 

“Because I personally use TikTok every day, studying the app comes easy,” she said. “Whenever I hear an audio, based on the wording of the song or theme of the trend, I automatically think ‘How can this apply to my brand?’”

Whether it’s for building brand awareness, promoting products, or community building, Meite says there’s always a way to leverage a trend.

“Way too often, I see other small businesses get stuck on views and why certain videos they worked so hard on aren’t getting any traction,” she says. “Once you click that ‘post’ button, you should be working on new content, generating ideas, or producing.”

Meite recommends that small businesses focus instead on posting as much as possible to get their name out there. She believes virality is driven mostly by consistency.

“ It has nothing to do with hashtags or certain times of the day,” said Meite. “Just post and post consistently – the right audience will find you.”

She adds that on a platform like TikTok, reusing and recycling old content is welcome – including photos. 

“TikTok loves photo dumps with the right caption, trending audio, and great brand pictures,” Meite says. 

For small businesses with limited time and resources, this is great news. You don’t have to start from scratch every time, a new trend offers an opportunity to turn old content into your next viral video. 

If there’s one lesson to take away from Hoodjabi, it’s this: Take time to understand how the platform works, don’t agonize over views, and focus on creating content that will resonate with your audience.

4. Bobbie Goods

TikTok accounts like Bobbie Goods show us that simplicity can go a long way on social media.

What once was a drawing account from an artist evolved into a brand selling coloring books, stickers, and more.

What’s most interesting here is noting how the content in this account shifted once it became a brand. In the early days, the videos had little focus, allowing viewers to simply enjoy the drawings as they came alive on screen.

Over time, the brand started incorporating more behind-the-scenes content, from packing orders to creating new products.

@bobbiegoods add eco friendly gift wrapping to your next order! available now in my shop ☺️ @noissueco
#noissuepackaging
#fyp
#packingorders
#smallbusiness
#etsy
♬ Real Love Baby – Father John Misty

Another interesting note? Bobbie Goods doesn’t rely on trending sounds to make or break their content, showing once again that there are multiple roads leading to success on TikTok.

5. Omsom

Food brand Omsom isn’t just on TikTok to promote its products. After perusing just a few videos, you’ll find that there’s an emphasis on celebrating Asian, and specifically Vietnamese, culture.

Omsom invites its viewers to gain knowledge of the history behind Vietnamese cuisine as well as challenge longstanding myths related to Asian foods.

@weareomsom PSA: there are no proven harms of consuming MSG!!!
#msg
#asiancuisine
#asianfood
#immigrantstories
#stigma
♬ original sound – Omsom

But that’s not all you’ll find scrolling down their profile.

Omsom also shares tons of food recipes, behind-the-scenes content from the founders, and relatable lifestyle content.

@weareomsom

The Omsom team has HAD IT with these red flags 🤣🚩

♬ Whatcha Say – Jason Derulo

Having this content mix ensures they appeal to a range of buyer personas, from Vietnamese consumers looking for a taste of home to curious eaters.

6. SplayTray

When your product is as good as SplayTray’s, there’s no fancy strategy needed (although that never hurts).

On TikTok, all it takes is finding the right trending sounds to show off your product’s most impressive features.

Take this video below, which earned nearly 270K views.

@splaytray

You definitely need it.

♬ THE SOUND WE DONT REALLY NEED – Skeetersbedtimestories

The audio overlay – a conversation between two friends resisting the temptation to make a purchase – mixed with a simple video compilation made for a straightforward product demo that speaks for itself.

So, when in doubt, keep it simple.

There you have it – 6 brands using completely different strategies and killing it on TikTok. Whether you’re a small, midsize or large business, there’s a piece of advice in here for every TikTok marketer.

Social media is the top-used channel among marketers and is an ever-evolving space for brands, businesses, and creators to be part of.

As a result, social-led brands have become more popular, as consumers expect relevancy and trendy conversations on social media. In this post, we’ll explain what a social-led brand is and what it takes to become one.

What is a social-led brand?

A social-led brand uses everything about its social media presence, from assets to tone, in all of its marketing and branding efforts. Essentially it is led by how it acts on social media channels. For example, a brand with a humorous voice on social media maintains that same voice on billboards.

Popeyes is a great example of this, especially when it comes to its who-has-the-better-sandwich feud with Chick-fil-A. Popeyes says they have a leg up in flavor and also in the fact that they’re open on Sundays when Chick-fil-A is closed. It made a joke about its open hours on Twitter (shown below),

Image Source

And maintained the same humor in a highway road sign.

Image Source

Social-led brands are also tuned in to current conversations and trends on social media and use them in their own marketing, like using a trending meme to promote a product.

These brands also learn what customers expect from brands and businesses they like on social media. For example, social commerce is rising in popularity as customers shop on the channels they use. A social-led brand would recognize this and might make an Instagram Shop so its followers can visit its page and make a purchase without leaving the app.

Overall, two things make up a social-led brand: its social media voice that it carries to different channels and leveraging current and buzzy trends.

How to Become a Social-Led Brand

The most essential characteristic of a social-led brand is cohesiveness.

The branding and messaging you use originates from your social media accounts and are consistent on and off social media, from Instagram captions to email newsletters to physical mailers.

As mentioned above, social-led brands also know what’s buzzy at any given moment. You’ll know what people are discussing, what they’re excited about, and what’s driving clicks and engagement. You’ll also participate in conversations in a timely manner, not weeks after a meme has run its course.

Southwest Airlines recently tweeted about passengers on a flight who were given a free ukulele and treated to an in-air lesson. People on Twitter immediately began talking about how they wouldn’t want that to happen on their flight, like Jon Ostrower, who said he likens the situation to giving his kids glitter.

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Amtrak was tapped into the conversation and reminded everyone that its trains have a quiet car that is always free from the disruption of a ukulele lesson.

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Social-Led Brands Leave Longer Lasting Impressions

Culturally relevant brands are more popular with consumers and leave long-lasting impressions, so being a social-led brand positions you for success.

When you can tap into trending topics, have conversations, and share content consumers enjoy, you’re more likely to attract interested customers, inspire purchases, and build brand loyalty.

Wondering how Instagram’s new Collab feature works? We’ve got you covered.

In this post, we’ll dive into how this new feature works, the benefits for brands, and the steps to use it. Plus, get a few tips on how to leverage it.

• What is a collab post on Instagram
• Why use an Instagram Collab post?
• How to Create an Instagram Collab Post
• Tips for Making Instagram Collab Posts

What is a collab post on Instagram?

In the Fall of 2021, Instagram announced the “Collabs” feature, which allows an feed post to live on two users’ profiles.

You 🤝 Me

We’re launching Collabs, a new way to co-author Feed posts and Reels.
Invite an account to be a collaborator:

✅Both names will appear on header
✅Share to both sets of followers
✅Live on both profile grids
✅Share views, likes and comments pic.twitter.com/0pBYtb9aCK

— Instagram (@instagram)
October 19, 2021

Here’s how it works: User 1 will create the post and invite User 2 to be a collaborator. Once User 2 accepts, the post will live on both users’ profiles. They will both share ownership of the post as well as the engagement (likes, shares, comments).

Currently, Collabs is only available in the feed and on Reels. That means that you can’t add a collaborator on Stories, the Shop tab, or anywhere else.

Why use an Instagram Collab post?

For influencers and brands, the Collabs feature is a huge opportunity.

Businesses work with influencers to reach audiences they normally wouldn’t, i.e. discoverability.

This feature allows them to land directly on their target audience’s feed without having to do more work. They can also track performance much easier – no need to wait for influencers to send a report, they can look at the analytics directly.

Lastly, when two users share a post, they remove the risk of competition with both fighting for engagement.

From the content creator’s perspective, this feature not only allows for more transparency but also makes it easier to share product recommendations.

How to Create an Instagram Collab Post

1. Click the “+” sign to create a new feed or Reel post.

   

2. Create a feed post or Reel then tap “Next.”

   

3. Once the editing is done, tap “Tag People.”

   

4. Tap on “Invite collaborator.”

   

5. Search for the collaborator’s account and add them.

   

6. Wait for them to accept. Once they do, the post will be shared with their followers and they’ll be listed as co-author.

From the invitee’s perspective, they’ll receive a notification about being tagged on a post and will have to review the request.

Note: If your request is denied, the invitee will still be tagged in your post but will not be listed as a co-author and it will not show up on their feed.

Tips for Making Instagram Collab Posts

If you’re ready to get started using this feature, here are some ideas and tips on using collabs:

• Use collabs for:
  • Giveaway winner notifications
  • Influencer partnerships
  • Follower shoutouts, i.e. user-generated content
  • Co-marketing campaigns
• Make sure you have a pre-existing relationship with the users you invite to collaborate.
• Only collaborate with creators whose audiences align with your ideal user persona.
  

In June 2022, Mozilla Firefox 102 was released with a feature that strips query parameters from URLs that track users as they navigate the web. The feature is called “Query Parameter Stripping,” and the purpose is to protect the privacy of users who don’t want to be trailed online.

Now that Firefox has given its users the ability to strip query parameters, here’s what marketers need to know.

What are query parameters?

Query parameters are a set of texts that are automatically added to the end of a URL to pass on data. These parameters identify specific content or actions based on the data being passed.

Query parameters appear as a “?” followed by a series of text. To add multiple parameters, an “&” is added in between each branch. For instance: www.example.com/?branch&product

To better understand what a query parameter is, let’s use the link to this HubSpot blog post about using video to humanize your brand. The link to this blog post is:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing-tips-from-wistia

However, if I were to click on this same link on Facebook, the URL would appear as:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing-tips-from-wistia?fbclid=IwAR3NRxcZoMVwLND43N-5xVwa3VvYiL0xrq_Cfc5uiPPdk5qIPKZ9vBqPFCI

Everything after the “?” doesn’t make a difference in terms of where the URL takes you but it provides Facebook (and for the sake of transparency, HubSpot) information about who’s clicking, what they’re clicking, and why.

How do query parameters help marketers?

The information from query parameters helps marketers optimize their company’s websites to create a more user-friendly experience. Essentially query parameters play a significant role in evaluating the touchpoints consumers encounter online on their path to purchase (attributions).

Query parameters also help track content performance across different platforms — they also help companies figure out the right ads to have on their websites to boost ad revenue.

How will this affect marketers going forward?

For now, the feature is a setting that has to be manually activated by the Firefox user. Once activated, any significant navigation event — like opening a new window or tab, clicking links, or redirects between URLs — will result in the removal of query parameters from the destination URL.

This could impact attributions for sites like Facebook, HubSpot, and other websites using query parameters in the sense that some attributions may not be reflected accurately.

Going forward, marketers using query parameters should be aware that users of Firefox 102 and beyond may not accurately reflect attributions.

Marketers should also be prepared for the possibility that Mozilla could make Query Parameter Stripping a default setting in the future. Preparation could be using other methods to track user behavior. Another method would be to gather data through website audits to optimize the usefulness of your site to consumers.

TikTok, like many social platforms, often rolls out new features to improve the app experience and offer new opportunities for creators and users.

It recently launched a feature that calls into question whether, in the future, the app will require its own unique SEO strategy. Let’s discuss this.

TikTok’s New Search Feature

TikTok’s new search feature is primarily seen in comment sections, where keywords are hyperlinked next to a magnifying glass icon. Pressing on the linked keyword brings you to a discovery page of videos related to the keyword.

For example, Steven Lim made a video sharing new need-to-know features of iOS 16. A user left a comment about one of the features Lim mentioned, haptic keyboard, and it’s hyperlinked and leads to a larger selection of videos about haptic keywords.

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Hyperlinked keywords can also appear at the top of comment sections, and clicking on them leads to a selection of videos on the same topic. The Pasta Queen shares authentic Italian recipes on her account, and the comment section of a recent video is headed by a hyperlinked “pasta recipe” keyword.

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The feature is currently available as part of a limited run test and, according to TechCrunch, TikTok has not yet made an official comment.

What’s the potential with this feature?

The feature comes at a critical time for TikTok’s impact in the search world, as Google has recently acknowledged the platform’s impact on its Search product.

Prabhakar Raghavan, Google’s Senior Vice President of Google Knowledge and Information, said that 40% of young people go to TikTok or Instagram when looking for a place to eat, as opposed to Google Maps or Search. This means that users, albeit part of a specific generation, favor the content on TikTok when finding answers to their questions.

As mentioned above, TikTok has not made official comments on how to use the new feature. But, if rolled out officially, it will likely have significant power for creators looking to build a following and brand awareness, and for those using the app for discovery.

For creators, brands, and businesses, we can assume that the new search feature gathers context for videos from keywords in comments, hashtags in captions, and actual video content (on-screen text and voice). In the future, it would make sense that a TikTok SEO strategy would involve optimizing videos with related keywords to help hyperlinked keywords appear in comments, in comment section headers, and to help videos appear in relevant queries.

For TikTok users, SEO on TikTok would mean that the app would become a more powerful search engine as searching for keywords or clicking on hyperlinked keywords would bring them to a library of snackable content that will answer their specific questions.

Do you remember when you were introduced to long-division in grade school? You found yourself needing multiple steps to solve a single problem. It probably seemed like a very daunting and impossible task before your math teacher showed you a hack that broke down your seemingly endless series of steps into only a few.

The same can be said about business. Initially, we all have to go through “long-division” level processes, procedures, and series of daily tasks. These might include entering a new marketplace, testing out new messaging and branding, pushing for new profit margins, or onboarding new clients.

But we can convert the long-division within our business into short-division, making our efforts much simpler and more manageable.

How, you may ask? Through the power of strategy.

I’ve had plenty of experience helping companies scale — in fact, I’ve launched over 35 brands and generated over $175 million in revenue for clients worldwide, and I currently host the Webby-nominated top 100 marketing podcast iDigress, which provides actionable insights to help businesses grow.

Here, I’m going to walk you through the three reasons many business strategies fail — and how you can succeed.

Why do so many business strategies fail?

When you have the right business strategy or series of strategies in place working for you, it will have you screaming “I have the power” like He-Man.

But if everyone supposedly has a business strategy in place already, why are 65% of businesses still failing during the first ten years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics?

The culprit for most business strategies failing comes down to the 3 Cs: complexity, confusion, and complications.

They are slowed down by trying to implement complex processes. The roadmap, messaging, and foundation upon which the business strategy is built are confusing. The business can’t act decisively because the strategy is overly complicated.

The three primary reasons your business strategy probably isn’t working:  

1. It’s undeniably not working for you, but you refuse to change it.
2. No one understands it and therefore cannot execute it properly.
3. You’re doing a ton of tactics and calling it a “strategy” when it’s not.

So now that we’ve addressed the elephant, how do we get rid of it?

Piece by piece.

There are three components necessary in creating a successful business strategy that can serve as our “short-division” hacks to growing our business: simple, sustainable, and scalable.

We will expand on how to incorporate these three components into developing business strategies that do work while also including episode references throughout from the Strategy Hacker’s podcast iDigress, which is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network.

How to Create a Successful Business Strategy, According to the Strategy Hacker

1. Start simple. 

The quickest route to success is a straight line. A straight line, in its purest form, is simple. We must embrace and integrate the power of simplicity within our business strategy.

An easy way to do this is by simplifying the structures, systems, and steps involved in creating and executing your strategy so that everyone can understand it.

For example, let’s imagine your current process for determining how marketing is performing is by reviewing a series of reports. This takes a ton of time and energy, and the people who review the reports don’t always understand the terms or references included in the report. To make matters worse — even after all of that, you still aren’t sure about why things aren’t working.

When you simplify and streamline your processes, the time it takes to understand, make decisions, identify weaknesses, amplify strengths, delegate tasks, and execute is significantly shorter.

By incorporating a higher level of simplicity within your business, things naturally become more effortless. Look at all the areas where the team spends the most time. Maybe you have friction points in using expensive, ineffective software or creating multiple reports that no one understands.

Instead of keeping things as is because “we’ve always done it this way” or “this process worked in the early days,” allow yourself to get basic with everything.

Simplifications lead to making smarter decisions. Create S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals using a unique set of criteria to ensure your objectives are attainable within a specific time frame.

Additionally, many business strategies don’t work because business leaders haven’t removed unnecessary roadblocks. These might include too many audience profiles, too much data, too much busy work that doesn’t produce results, or too weak of a brand positioning.

When you remove complexity, confusion, complications, and clutter from the business equation, you’re left with clarity. And that clarity can help you generate consistent business conversions.

Clarity is a powerful thing to have, but how do we align clarity into a solid business strategy? Below are a list of some episodes that can help:

• Ep 29: How to master the three modalities to growing your business

• Ep 24: How to activate the power of strategy to achieve business success
• Ep 43: How to define your number to achieve your business goals this year
• Ep 37: How to build trust currency: a masterclass on increasing brand equity
• Ep 33: How to determine if you’re the Tylenol or chocolate cake to your audience

2. Focus on sustainability. 

The most efficient business strategies are the ones that don’t just work today but continue to work tomorrow, next week, and even six months from now.

When you’re developing and implementing a strategy, you can’t set-it-and-forget-it. Strategy is a living and breathing system that requires constant evolution to continue to be effective. Create strategies with the end in mind.

The friction you typically hear from many businesses struggling to develop and enable true strategy is that they are always busy, and always in “go-mode.” They would rather execute blindly out of the need to do something, instead of strategically planning out their moves — which leads to a higher chance of success.

Sometimes, it’s not that your efforts won’t work. It’s understanding the bigger picture of what efforts are most essential to focus on right now to position yourself for true sustainability first, and then scaling second.

You can’t scale if you aren’t stable, and some business leaders’ full of zeal forget that.

When was the last time you looked at your customer journey through the eyes of your ideal customer? Is your journey optimized and systemized to give the right value at every stage? Are your marketing, branding, SEO, and selling initiatives in alignment with where you are in your business right now?

Some businesses’ customer journeys and initiatives are stuck on awareness mode when they need to switch to sales, acquisition, and conversions mode. So which mode are you? Ep 34 of iDigress shares a 5-point customer journey blueprint that can be modified to fit your current business situation and address all of these questions:

1. Awareness
2. Interest/Attention
3. Conversions
4. Relationship Building
5. Advocacy

Sustainability requires a certain mindset and level of tenacity accompanied by patience, poise, and persistence.

3. Ensure your strategy is scalable. 

Consistency is key for sustainability, but in order to scale one must be willing to fail. Unlike sustainability, scalability requires a different focus, and a little more risk tolerance.

When you’re evolving your business strategy to pursue next-level growth, your mindset has to expand to see infinite possibilities.

You will need to identify, isolate, and innovate. For instance, you’ll want to:

• Identify your ideal customer profile, what’s working, and what’s not working
• Isolate the best opportunity for next-level growth
• Innovate your offerings to meet the additional needs of the consumer  

The business strategies that generate the most money and continue to work are designed as living, breathing plans of action that can be expanded to handle high-level growth and capacity.

In order for your business to scale effectively, you must have a clear path on what you need to do to make that leap in growth. Ep 48 of iDigress reflected on the four lessons Kieran Flanagan, SVP of Marketing at HubSpot, attributes to HubSpot reaching one billion in ARR and the business, marketing, and mental approach necessary to start achieving disruptive growth in your specific marketplace.

Scaling business growth is all about leveraging strategies that can scale to generate consistent revenue growth without adding a ton of extra costs. This keeps your profit margins high.

Any campaign, business, or movement that scaled quickly in a very sustainable way probably…

• was easy to identify, understand, and share
• was attractive to the eyes, heart, and soul
• was so social it transcended audiences, countries, and languages
• was there at the right time, and used the right platform and distribution methods

One way to improve your odds of scaling astronomically, which we discuss in Ep 44 of iDigress, is by embracing the E.A.S.T. framework with your efforts. Here’s how it works:

• Step 1. Make it Easy
• Step 2. Make it Attractive
• Step 3. Make it Social
• Step 4. Make it Timely

Applying E.A.S.T. may seem very simple in scope. However, many still fail to implement this framework successfully when it comes to marketing, branding, sales, and communication.

Strategy serves as the pen and paper to create the story you want for your business.

With strategy, you can map out the business you want to build, remove anything you don’t like, and add anything that you desire to create the organization you want. But it’s not instantaneous. It takes time. Yes — even with “short-division” hacks.

It all builds on top of each other. Simplicity lays the foundation for sustainability, which lays the runway for scalability — and, all the while, you can use strategy as your guiding light to help you navigate as you continue to level up.