Blog

Marketing is about reaching people. But far too often, marketers spend their time performing repetitive, robotic tasks that could be better handled by software.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to substantially change this. According to research from McKinsey, the marketing and sales sectors have the largest possible benefit from implementing AI-based solutions in the coming years, with up to $2.6 trillion in increased value.

Here are three ways modern marketers are using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to create more effective lead generation strategies and get them back to what they do best: Connecting with people.

How to Leverage AI for Lead Generation

Artificial intelligence makes marketers more efficient by shortening the time it takes to move from research to outreach. AI tools can be trained to spot patterns and draw conclusions that might otherwise need a human expert to spotlight.

1. Create Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) that match your biggest wins.

When your sales team wins a deal, the next logical move is to go after similar accounts. But replicating that ideal customer and tracking down best-fit, lookalike prospects can be a slog. AI software can dramatically speed up this process by analyzing closed-won (and closed-lost) opportunities and generating a profile that can be matched against your contact database for strong lookalikes.

For example, say your sales team just closed on a medium-sized business in the SaaS industry that has 50+ salespeople, uses Salesforce, and is located on the East Coast. AI can take these attributes (and others) to create a target list of lookalike accounts.

This process works for buying committee members, too. If most of your customer buying committees consist of marketing directors at enterprise-sized companies who use Marketo, AI can identify that trend and provide you with a dynamic list of prospects who fit the criteria of an ideal buyer.

To accomplish this, you need the right tech at your disposal. Tools like ZoomInfo’s RevOS platform, with its database of over 100 million company records, can automatically analyze your past deals, identify similarities between them, build your buyer persona, provide a list of lookalikes, and create a targeted account universe.

If you’re already a ZoomInfo customer, click here to get 20% off HubSpot products.

Automated demographic, firmographic, and technographic data all play a part in drawing your absolute best-fit accounts — which means you can spend time crafting a compelling message instead of conducting research.

2. Personalize your campaigns with up-to-date data.

Professionals who run account-based marketing campaigns know that one size definitely does not fit all. How can they cover all the angles of a large buying committee without spending too much time trying to qualify their prospective leads?

The answer is buying signals. With a modern, AI-driven marketing platform, marketers can be alerted when a target account has significant changes that might inform, alter, or elevate their ABM approach:

• A prospect gets a new round of investment: They’re likely to be greenlighting budgets for new or upgraded tools, so tailor your ABM campaigns accordingly.
• A new executive is hired, or an internal champion gets promoted: Now’s the time to strike with an ABM campaign that targets a new leader who is likely reassessing their team’s contract.
• A target account visits your website: With real-time insight into the companies visiting your site and which pages they landed on, you can quickly send a targeted message while you’re still top of mind.

There are dozens of different types of buying signals that can inspire personalization.

For example, Rocks & Gold sends real-time alerts of B2B companies in buying mode based on their history of hiring dynamics. This includes when a prospect, customer, or stale deal:

• Starts growing or decreasing in company size
• Makes leadership changes
• Announces a new fundraising round

This type of insight gives you a competitive advantage by helping you customize your message to speak directly to the circumstances that make them a good fit right now.

3. Use intent data that illuminates the last mile of prospect interest.

You know which accounts you’d like to target. You have the campaigns that will resonate with their buying committee. But timing is everything — are they ready to hear your value proposition right now?

Intent data answers that question. By using AI-driven systems that can match corporate IP addresses and user profiles to web data, marketers can be aware when a prospect is actively in the market.

How does it work? Say a prospect account visits your website and downloads your marketing content on a pretty predictable but relatively rare basis. As the second quarter is coming to a close, that company is suddenly filling out lots of forms and engaging with your how-to videos. An AI-powered intent data system connects those dots — and elevates the significance.

On top of that, it connects the dots outside of your website. Say your company sells project management software. Intent data can track which companies are searching for terms like “project management vendors” or “project management software free trial” and consuming content on external websites — including your competitors.

If a current customer is searching these terms, it could be an indication of future churn and you can get ahead of the problem. If it’s an ideal prospect, it indicates a level of interest in making a purchase and enables you to target them with relevant content.

There are many tools that track and monitor intent-based keywords in HubSpot’s partner ecosystem. Benefits include:

• Market clarity: Gain a clearer understanding of whom to target and how or when to engage with them
• Efficiency: Increase ROI by reducing wasted time and effort pursuing bad-fit prospects
• Impact: Quickly increase leads and ABM effectiveness

AI Marketing Tools & Software

There are hundreds of AI vendors, each with unique tools and technology to help make your marketing efforts easier, faster, and more successful. Here are a few we’d recommend:

1. Personalize your website experiences with Justuno

According to Forrester, 56% of marketers strongly agree that personalized content is key to ABM success. Justuno empowers marketers to convert more website traffic through personalized pop-ups and onsite messaging that is customized to speak to the unique visitor’s interests and priorities.

2. End-to-end content engagement with Paperflite

According to the Marketing AI Institute, the top use case for Marketing AI is analyzing existing online content for gaps and opportunities. That’s exactly what Paperflite does. Paperflite centralizes and curates all of your marketing and sales content into a single interface, and provides recommendations to surface the right content for the right opportunity.

3. Manage email replies for B2B sales and marketing with LeadGnome

As your company grows, manually managing email replies becomes daunting — at a certain point you need AI to scale your business. LeadGnome automates email reply management, which helps increase open and deliverability rates so you can engage customers faster.

Marketing is part art and part science. Using AI to eliminate the drudgery and cut down on the guesswork gives marketers the ability to bring their A-game to every campaign.

With AI-driven marketing tools, your next campaign can use the science of cutting-edge technology, while your reps tackle the part that only a seasoned marketer can supply: the art of connecting with people.

Consumers in every market are constantly receiving a barrage of texts, emails, and ads from different companies trying to get their attention — so how can your brand stand out and stay top-of-mind? One way is via drip marketing.

Drip marketing helps marketers maintain constant contact with both current and prospective customers by constantly reminding them of available products, services, and special offers. But what is drip marketing, and how can it benefit your business? Here’s all you need to know plus a few examples.

In the early days of drip marketing, paper mail and flyers were mailed to recipients on a marketing list or after they made initial contact with the business. Of course, as marketing adapted to the digital age, drip marketing in the form of social media and email marketing became more popular.

Now you know what drip marketing is, but how does it work? Furthermore, how can you company use it to its advantage? Here’s what you need to know.

How does drip marketing work?

The way drip marketing works depends on the medium being used. The three most common mediums are email, social media, and direct mail.

Email Drip Marketing

Email drip marketing typically begins with an online form a prospect or customer fills out. Once the form is completed, that person is entered into an autoresponder program that will send automated emails from that point forward.

The emails can be personalized with the contact’s name and specific mentions of the action they took. For example, “Hi Jane! Thank you for signing up to receive our weekly marketing newsletter.”

Social Media Drip Marketing

Social media’s role in drip marketing is becoming more and more common in a digital world. With this form of drip marketing, social media accounts are consistently updated with texts, photos, or videos surrounding a particular marketing effort.

For example, a social media account for a TV network might market for a particular show premiere by releasing behind the scenes clips, photos, or graphics to build audience excitement.

Direct Mail Drip Marketing

Direct mail has long been used in drip marketing efforts, and has seen many updates over the years in the form of software and digital printing. These advancements have made direct mail more automated, personalized, and easier to manage.

No matter the method used, a common trend in drip marketing is the “Law of 29.” This unwritten rule in marketing says most prospective customers will not buy something until they have seen an ad for it at least 29 times. While 29 may be a bit too specific, the point remains that a key to generating lead generation is staying top-of-mind for potential customers by continuously creating points of connection.

Examples of Drip Marketing

Now that you know how drip marketing works, here are a few examples to help inspire your next campaign.

Disney+ Email Campaign

To keep subscribers in the loop of the latest releases on the streaming app, Disney+ releases frequent email updates — including a weekly “What to watch this week” message. In this email, Disney+ reminds fans that its latest Marvel series, “Ms. Marvel,” is currently streaming and that its season finally is airing that week. It also highlights behind-the-scenes content of the show.

Many companies and networks are dabbling in the world of streaming services. So this method of drip marketing is especially useful for Disney+ because it helps the service stay top-of-mind ahead of competitors like Hulu and Netflix.

Stranger Things’ Twitter Updates/h3>

Ahead of the premiere of the second part of Stranger Things’ fourth season on Netflix, the show’s Twitter account regularly shared posts to remind fans. Finally, on the day of the premiere, the account shared a clip of one of the character’s, fan favorite Eddie Munson, performing an epic guitar solo with the words “Now Streaming” in bold letters.

The video clip was compelling enough to go viral with more than 30,000 retweets and 120,000 likes.

New York Times Email to Win Back Customers

Not only is drip marketing effective for generating new leads, it can also win back old ones. Sometimes customers may invest in a product or service only to stop returning later.

In my case, I was subscribed to the New York Times, but I eventually ended my subscription to cut down on my monthly fees. However, I still get updates from the New York Times, including the special offer below to subscribe for just $1 a week.

Drip marketing is an excellent tactic to keep current customers in the know of your business’ products and services. It can also convince new prospects to commit to buying from your company. Finally, you can also win back old customers by keeping in constant contact with them. Now that you have a solid grasp of drip marketing and its uses, you’re ready to plan your next campaign.

Traditional metrics (like clicks, shares, and scroll times) can tell you a lot about campaign performance, but they can’t measure how customers feel about your brand. That’s where neuromarketing comes in. As a supplement to more standard marketing performance metrics, neuromarketing can help you analyze the emotional response to your campaigns.

Neuromarketing tells us what colors, pictures, music, or messages resonate the most with audiences. Your team can use this data to identify customers’ ad preferences.

Take a deep dive into how neuromarketing works for popular brands.

Let’s turn to P&G for a real-world example of neuromarketing at work.

In partnership with marketing firm Dentsu Data Labs, P&G designed an experiment to find mobile ads that emotionally resonated with their audience. During testing, the company worked with Sticky, a webcam eye-tracking tool by Tobii Pro, to measure engagement of on-the-go users.

What they found was intriguing — the time spent watching video ads on social media was not equal to the time they spent focusing on the ads. Social platforms’ impressions and watch rates did not correlate with real customers’ engagement.

Moreover, Sticky detected which video ad details triggered a desire to interact with the brand. Eye tracking data became actionable insights, highlighting content P&G should change to retain audience attention.

The big takeaway: Knowing what the brain actually resonates with is more important than knowing what people say they like or how much time they spend watching ads.

To grab your customer’s attention, make them feel something and compel them to act. Marketers need to focus more on neuroscience and less on web metrics and in-person interviews.

Neuromarketing Research

Neuromarketing research commonly uses either brain-scanning technology or physiological measurements to assess consumers’ subconscious preferences. This can help inform advertising, product development, or marketing materials.

Neuromarketing is typically done through brain scanning — either with fMRI or EEG technology — or physiological tracking, including eye movement measurements, facial coding, or body temperature and heart rate measurements.

fMRI and EEG technology have different strengths.

“Normally we use EEG to measure dynamic stimuli, like video, TV shows, commercials, online user experience. In such cases, it is interesting to see the brain responding moment-to-moment,” Dr. Roeland Dietvorst, Lead Behavioral Scientist at NN Investment Partners, told the Neuromarketing Science and Business Association. “We use fMRI mainly for static stimuli, like packaging design, campaign slogans, pay-offs, outdoor messaging.”

Measuring physiological tracking is typically much easier to do. Many tools are available in the marketplace, including FaceReader by Noldus, which measures facial expressions, or the eye-tracking software mentioned above.

However, even though leveraging neuroscience to inform your marketing strategy is an exciting opportunity, the tactic still seems more suited for a time when Black Mirror storylines are a reality.

In fact, people often ask, “Is neuromarketing even ethical?”

Below, let’s dive into that question.

Neuromarketing Ethics

While neuromarketing aims to determine how consumers respond to brands or campaigns – a rather innocuous study – not everyone is convinced that it’s ethical.

The book “Towards Ethical Neuromarketing 2.0 Based on Artificial Intelligence” addresses ethical issues such as, “Will algorithms predict future behavior?” and “Is neuromarketing immoral?”

In and of itself, neuromarketing isn’t unethical. However, companies must hold themselves to a high standard of ethics when studying their consumers.

For instance, brands shouldn’t intentionally promote anything harmful, deceptive, or illegal. Additionally, you shouldn’t study minors to figure out how to get them hooked on a product.

Neuromarketing should be used to create effective ads and eliminate ads that just don’t work, and that’s all.

The main ethical questioning has more to do with your product or service and less with how you market it. If you’re ever in doubt, ask yourself if the product or service is good for the customer.

In actuality, neuromarketing has already permeated the content space.

Advertising agency BBDO collaborates with Immersion to use smartwatch biometrics — including heart rate — to predict the success of their ads. One of Immersion’s studies correctly identified which BBDO’s ad would produce the largest sales bumps with an impressive 83% accuracy.

To help you envision a world where neuromarketing is widespread, here are eight practical ways you can refine your marketing efforts with the help of neuroscience

1. Brands can tell more compelling stories.

In 2019, Renault released the newest version of their CLIO hatchbacks. To celebrate, the company released a commercial to highlight the car’s 30 years in development. The ad followed the love story of a lesbian couple that also took place over 30 years.

The world split into two camps. Haters were sure that the couple’s story had nothing to do with Renault as a brand. Other marketers praised the campaign for its boldness, originality, and the strong emotions evoked.

Neuromarketing settled the argument. The video ad reached very high likeability and brand recognition compared to other commercials, according to Alpha.One’s EEG and eye-tracking study.

“From 31 participants in our EEG and Eye-tracking study who viewed the commercial in a large reel of other commercials, 30 correctly identified the commercial as belonging to Renault,“ wrote Dietvorst on LinkedIn.

The audience’s emotional response peaked when the couple expressed happiness and affection. They developed compassion, becoming invested in love story’s ups and downs.

The audience’s emotional response to this ad suggests that telling great stories — chock-full of conflict, surprise, and emotion — triggers the release of oxytocin, the empathy chemical. You emotionally engage your audience and, ultimately, make them care about your brand.

Pro tip: When creating ad copy, develop stories about overcoming adversity and how that journey changes people to trigger an emotional response.

2. Businesses can focus on ads that boost sales.

Bolletje, a food company that makes healthy cereal, created two TV ads promoting the same product to the same audience. Yet, two campaigns brought drastically different results — one generating 250% higher sales.

 

The company sent questionnaires about both campaigns to figure out why the skinny jeans ad led to more sales. Surprisingly, the result showed almost identical numbers of likeability, brand recognition, and overall grade.

Image Source

So what caused a 250% sales difference? A neuromarketing study using fMRI technology explains.

Eye-tracking and MRI technologies detected the specter of emotions the two ads aroused. As it turned out, the ad featuring aqua yoga elicited negative emotions. Viewers felt disgust, danger, and fear, which distracted them from the product.

Meanwhile, the ad featuring skinny jeans activated positive emotions like value, surprise, and expectations.

Pro tip: Before launching your next campaign, make sure it evokes positive emotions like sympathy, trust, value, or compassion. This prevents negative associations with your brand.

3. Companies can host more engaging conferences.

At a major global conference in Houston, Immersion Neuroscience put INBands on attendees and measured their immersion during certain presentations. They discovered that concise, energetic talks generated the most emotional engagement.

On the other hand, longer talks needed to revolve around a strong narrative, or they couldn’t hold an audience’s attention. Additionally, they realized the brain responds well to multimedia-heavy presentations due to the high variety of stimuli.

What we like: Tracking attendees’ emotional engagement during presentations can help companies refine their conferences by cutting out boring talks. Instead, provide attendees with relevant, compelling presentations.

4. Brands can design more effective ads.

The main goal of neuromarketing is to gain insight into what would make an ad more effective. That includes where ads are placed.

For instance, a recent neuroscience study revealed that positioning of display ads influences buying decisions regarding high- and low-calorie foods.

In a nutshell, researchers asked 57 participants to rate food images that appeared on the center, top, bottom, left, or right side of the screen.

Participants evaluated the desire to eat and buy, their liking, and willingness to pay for each image.

The study results uncovered that a banner for high-calorie food is more likely to draw attention and conversion if placed on the bottom right side. In contrast, ads for low-calorie food are most effective when placed on the top left side.

Pro tip: Leverage neuromarketing to find the ads that resonate most and where to place them.

5. Brands can sell more by using FOMO.

The fear of missing out, otherwise known as loss aversion, is a widely used tactic in marketing and sales.

In fact, 62% of consumers in a study from peer-reviewed publication Science were more likely to gamble their money than lose any money.

Here’s the scenario consumers were given.

If you were given $50, would you rather:

• Keep $30.
• Gamble it, with a 50/50 chance of keeping or losing the whole $50.

When the experimenter posed that question to the subjects, 43% of the subjects chose to gamble.

Then the options were changed to:

• Lose $20.
• Gamble, with a 50/50 chance of keeping or losing the whole $50.

With that slight change, there was a 44% jump in the number of people who gambled.

When more studies were done like this, 100% of subjects gambled more when the other choice was framed as a loss.

A 2021 study from University College London also revealed that urgent language leads to sales. Phrases such as “The #Sale is ON!” and “Only a few left in stock” on Facebook ads increased overall memory for advertisement information. In contrast, ads with no FOMO triggers performed worse.

The neuromarketing takeaway is that framing will greatly impact people’s behavior. And people are loss averse.

Pro tip: You can implement this method by changing the language of your ads. If you can pose the outcome of not buying your product or service as a loss, then you can sell more.

6. Brands can ensure their packaging is effective.

Brands might consider using neuromarketing to measure viewers’ emotional reactions to different packaging designs and determine which packaging option evokes the highest level of position emotion and engagement.

Let’s see how Alpro, a Belgium company that markets plant-based milk products, applied neuromarketing to build barista-preferred packaging. Working with neuroscience company Alpha.One, Alpro leveraged eye-tracking to measure engagement.

A change in color scheme and adding a cup with latte art led to a 3.6% growth in logo recognition. These slight changes held the audience’s attention more than the previous packaging.

Image Source

What we like: Small changes in color and more straightforward communication through images can evoke a better reaction from the target audience and result in a sales boost.

7. Businesses can determine the right price for a product or service.

Pricing is all about psychology.

For instance, University of Florida marketing professors Chris Janiszewski and Dan Uy wanted to evaluate whether consumers will truly evaluate a product as more fairly priced if it’s $19.95 rather than an even $20. They conducted a range of experiments and found people “create mental measuring sticks that run in increments away from any opening bid, and the size of the increments depends on the opening bid.”

Or, put another way: If you see a product priced at $19.95, you might wish it was $19.75 or $19.50, but you’ll be thinking in terms of nickels and dimes. However, if you see a product priced to the nearest full dollar — such as an even $20 — you instead might wish it was priced at $19 or $18, moving the range further away from the actual price.

Pro tip: Rely on neuromarketing to evaluate consumers’ subconscious reactions and determine the right pricing. Just asking a focus group if your product is priced fairly, can lead to groupthink and obscure the truth. (Check out the Lays pricing study below for more.)

8. Brands can evaluate website performance.

That’s exactly what Taskworld did to boost its site conversion rate by 40%.

To figure out if the site was effective, Shiv Sharma, Marketing Consultant at Taskworld, used heatmaps to see where new visitors clicked when signing up. What fields are they struggling to fill out? What question in the sign-up form causes leads to drop off?

Image Source

Thanks to heatmaps, Sharma discovered crucial glitches in the sign-up form that took only five minutes to fix. Those minor changes increased their website conversion by 40%.

Companies that Use Neuromarketing

Some world-known brands tested out neuromarketing years ago, ranging as far back as 2009. However, we’ve compiled a list of new neuromarketing case studies so you can gain insights and learn from each of these examples.

1. Frito-Lay

Frito-Lay worked with Neurensics, a neuro market research company, to understand the impact of a price increase of 0.25 Turkish Lira on Lays chips in Turkey. The prime question: Would a price change lead to a decrease in revenue?

To find out, Neurensics used both an EEG to study brain responses to the updated price and a standard questionnaire. The results showcased that what people say can strikingly differ from what people actually think, proving that buying decisions are often made unconsciously.

First, participants answered questions about the likelihood that they would buy a bag of chips after the price increase. Second, the same group answered the “expensive” or “cheap” questions about the same Lays products while an EEG device measured brain activity.

The difference in results of the two methods was staggering. According to the traditional questionnaire, Lays should have lost 33% in revenue. The EEG results showed only a 9% drop in sales.

Once applied, parent company PepsiCo experienced only a 7% loss in revenue from the price change.

Pro tip: Asking people for their opinion on prices, packaging, or ads can lead to incorrect predictions. Instead, you can rely on neuroscience and unconscious behavior to measure changes.

2. Philips

Philips wanted to select packaging for an ultra-light iron that appealed most to buyers and increased purchases. They designed two visuals with left and right hands holding the iron.

With Neurensics, Philips tested out both visuals to determine which one caused a positive emotional response.

Image Source

The fMRI study showed that participants found the left-handed packaging disgusting and dangerous. The familiar, right-handed image activated attention, trust, and the same level of expectations. But why?

The Neurensics team explains this phenomenon as a mental simulation: “An unconscious process where the brain simulates using the product or experiencing a situation.”

An iron held with the left hand is a more difficult mental simulation to conjure when 90% of the population is right-handed. This leads to feelings of disgust.

With this new information, Philips pivoted to the packaging with the right hand holding the iron.

3. Steereo and Spotify

Can you use neuroscience to predict the next record-breaking song? Steereo, a platform that plays new music exclusively for rideshare drivers, posed this question to Immersion.

Immersion tracked subtle changes in listeners’ heartbeats to gauge emotional responses to music. The study accurately predicted hit songs with 92% accuracy.

They also estimated the numbers of super fans and followers for those songs on Spotify with 67% accuracy.

Compare this to traditional survey analysis of songs’ likeability, which resulted in no correlation to real hits.

Use Neuromarketing in Your Business

We live in an age of data overload where you can measure almost anything. But Google Analytics will never be able to accurately gauge the most important element of your marketing campaign — its ability to make your audience feel something.

Fortunately, the neuromarketing space is rapidly evolving, and this technology is becoming more affordable and practical for marketers today, leading to its mainstream use tomorrow.

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

The bigger your sales and marketing teams get, the harder it is to align these efforts. Often called “smarketing”, sales and marketing alignment is critical to ensure that these departments are working in tandem to target the right customer base, create more conversions, and drive more sales.

Not sure how to get started? Check out these tried-and-true best practices for integrating your sales and marketing teams.

Smarketing By the Numbers

Companies face a hard truth. No matter how great their sales and marketing efforts, between 10 and 15 percent of leads become conversions. As a result, businesses face a dual challenge: Reaching as many potential customers as possible and getting the highest number of those reached to take action and make purchases.

Without effective alignment between sales and marketing, this is like shooting in the dark — even as marketing generates potential leads, sales can’t capitalize because both teams have different priorities. The result is that even 10 percent becomes a tough number to hit.

But don’t just take our word for it. Recent survey data found that organizations with tightly aligned sales and marketing teams saw 27 percent faster profit growth, and 36 percent higher customer retention. What’s more, 56 percent of these companies met revenue goals and 19 percent exceeded them.

When it comes to conversions, meanwhile, leads nurtured by a company with strong marketing-sales alignment spent 47 percent more than those left to make purchases on their own.

Put simply? While independent sales and marketing teams can still drive revenue, they’re better — and more profitable — together.

Before we dive into best practices for aligning marketing, sales, and strategy goals, let’s break down how smarketing works. Three components are critical:

Organize Sales Around Buyer Personas

Buyer personas aren’t just valuable to your marketing staff; they also educate sales reps on who they’re selling to, what they care about, and how to help them. Consider your buyer personas as you organize your sales team, create sales enablement content, and set up your CRM email templates.

Designate Staff to Receive and Qualify Leads

One avenue through which sales and marketing will always be connected is through lead sharing. As marketing generates leads through content offers and campaigns, they pass them to sales to qualify, nurture, and convert.

Who on your sales team accepts marketing qualified leads? If you can’t easily answer that question, you should review your sales team structure and designate someone (if not a small team) to receive and assign these leads. If there’s one place where sales and marketing need to be aligned, this is it.

Facilitate Training as Needed

Have sales hold product demonstrations for marketing (perhaps the same ones they give prospective customers). Alternatively, ask sales if they have had some trouble with specific questions during their calls. Smarketing is just as much about education as it is about alignment.

Aligning Sales and Strategy

Before you can get smarketing initiatives off the ground, it’s critical to align sales and marketing operations. Not sure how to get from silos to shared goals? We’ve got you covered with the following smarketing alignment tips.

1. Don’t let losses get you down.

Sales and marketing alignment doesn’t happen overnight. This means that your first few campaigns may not go as planned. Despite your best efforts, you may find that customers aren’t responding as hoped and conversions aren’t coming up as expected.

Building your smarketing team means looking at these losses as lessons rather than failures. By analyzing what worked, what didn’t, and how you can improve, sales and marketing can develop a shared vision of success.

2. Look at the big (and small) picture.

Both short- and long-term goals matter for successful smarketing. The challenge? Marketing often looks at the short-term impacts of specific campaigns, while sales target the long-term benefits of loyal customers. Effective smarketing means meeting the middle to get the best of both worlds.

3. Think like your customers.

What do your customers want? Both sales and marketing teams have unique insight into this question; while marketing may understand what gets customers interested, sales has the experience to turn interest into investment. Together, smarketing teams can get a more complete understanding of the ideal customer experience.

4. Identify target segments.

Sales and marketing teams need to identify key target segments to make the most of collaborative efforts. By pinpointing a common customer profile as most likely to respond favorably, smarketing teams can work together to craft the perfect approach.

5. Keep your efforts focused.

Once you’ve identified your target market, keep it in sight. While it may be tempting to shift your focus and pursue potentially easier options for one-off sales, a complete focus on your target market can help teams build a polished and purpose-driven framework for success.

6. Define key metrics.

What are your metrics? While conversions are the ultimate goal, smarketing teams also need to define milestone metrics that help measure the impact of current efforts. These could include email open rates, newsletter signups, or website visits — anything that indicates rising (or falling) consumer interest.

7. Stay true to your core values.

Last but not least? Know where your value lies. This means understanding not just what your product or service is and what it does, but also why it matters to customers and how it can address their specific pain points.

By cultivating a deep understanding of your core value propositions, smarketing team members can ensure they’re all speaking the same language.

Ready to take your smarketing to the next level? Start with the following best practices.

1. Meet Regularly

The best way for sales and marketing to stay connected is to make connection a priority. Regular meetings are an effective way to avoid silo-ing these teams. Here are a few tips:

Have an onboarding smarketing meeting with every new salesperson.

In order to support sales successfully, it’s important to share processes, resources, and best practices from the start. Use this time to get to know each other and share how marketing will support the sales team. If you’re onboarding a large number of salespeople, hold a monthly meeting to set these expectations and field any questions new folks might have.

Attend sales weekly meetings.

Attending weekly sales meetings allows marketers to know how sales is doing with their quota and goals, and offer support when needed. Use this time to share the upcoming campaigns, content, and offers that marketing will be promoting that week. Also ask for content ideas and recommendations for your future offers and blog posts.

Have a monthly meeting with sales managers.

Marketing and sales managers should meet on a monthly basis to analyze results and evaluate their service-level agreement. Important metrics to share are lead generation, marketing qualified leads (MQLs), percent of leads worked, and lead-to-customer conversion rate.

Attend events together.

Whether it’s an industry meetup group, happy hour in your office, or an organized conference — spend time together in a casual setting. Attending an event together provides you with a unique opportunity to get to know your sales department outside of the traditional work environment.

2. Create a Team Email

Have an email alias that gets sent to both sales and marketing teams. Use this to share important information in both directions. A shared email address also allows external teams to share pertinent information with both groups.

3. Define Your Content Creation Process

Your sales reps talk with leads all the time and know what gets prospects excited about working with your company. The problem is that reps don’t have the time to write down this feedback. How can you help? Make sure to put together a process to gather this input. Here are two tips:

Hold brainstorm sessions at weekly meetings.

Have a five-minute brainstorm session at a sales meeting to ask what content they would like to share with prospects or attract more leads.

Use a shared Google document to collect ideas and references.

Have a shared Google spreadsheet where sales can add ideas or certain references for content creation.

4. Coordinate Content Marketing with Sales

Marketers are constantly promoting new offers and content, so it’s important to keep the sales team up-to-date with these promotions so they know what recent offer their leads are receiving.

Here are the basic steps for coordinating your offers with sales:

Include your promotion on a shared calendar.

Build a Google Calendar and add the date and time of your promotion (it might be an email, webinar, or social media campaign) along with the URL, main talking points, and description of each offer. Make sure to invite your sales team to this calendar so they can see it on their personal accounts.

Email the offer to sales.

Once your offer has been promoted and you start getting leads, you should email the sales team with the following information:

• Offer talking points. Include two to three bullets about the offer. Assume the salesperson hasn’t read the offer — what main concepts should they know when talking to prospects? Good talking points usually include: stats, business use cases, or “how to” advice.
• Lead views.Make sure to include the list of the leads your offer is generating so sales can take action. If you have a CRM, you can easily generate views and share them with your sales team.
• A quote of the week. Similar to the talking points, including a more general quote that sales can use on their calls to keep the conversations up-to-date. The best quotes are the ones that are data-driven and relevant, so try to include a recent industry trend or stat.

Build follow-up email templates for your promotions.

Offers are a great way to generate new leads and re-engage old leads. Build email templates for your sales team to start a conversation. This email should be specific about the offer and how your company might help with the prospect’s interest.

5. Set Shared Goals

Historically, sales and marketing function with different key performance indicators (KPIs) and, therefore, different goals. Most goals are separate — sales may be focused on monthly revenue, while marketing may hone in on website traffic.

A good smarketing strategy prioritizes shared goals, too. There are a few KPIs — like conversion rate and lead value — that both teams can measure and influence. Identify these KPIs for your sales and marketing teams can work towards.

6. Share Reporting and Analysis

What do your sales and marketing teams track and measure? What do they learn from their analysis? Just as you keep your communication and ideation channels open between marketing and sales, make sure each team shares their learnings, too. You never know what your salespeople and marketers could learn from seemingly unrelated KPIs and analyses.

7. Celebrate Sales’ Wins and Expertise

Marketing is responsible for promoting all aspects of your company, including your products, brand, and salespeople — the folks your prospective customers will connect with and, hopefully, trust. Leverage your marketing resources to showcase your sales team’s expertise. Here’s how:

Ghostwrite a blog post under your salesperson’s name.

Consider ghostwriting a post under your salesperson’s name. Interview them on the topic, transcribe your conversation, and turn that into a blog post. This can help the salesperson establish credibility and familiarity with their leads.

Get them to use social media.

If your salesperson is active on social media, then encourage them to share your company’s content. You can even write some lazy social media messages for them, so all they have to do is copy and paste them on their favorite networks.

8. Shadow Sales Calls

It’s also worth taking some time to sit next to your sales team and listen to their calls. This is a great learning experience that will help you step into your sales team’s shoes and see how they illustrate the business use of your product or service. You can also get ideas for future content creation and how to build follow-up emails for your offers.

9. Organize Sales Enablement Resources

Marketers work hard to create sales enablement resources such as brochures, company overviews, and presentations, but all that hard work goes to waste if your sales team can’t find (and use) them.

So try to keep all your sales enablement resources in one shared place where sales can easily access them. This location is a great place to also host your campaign calendar, links to relevant offers, and specific content for a market or persona.

10. Have Fun Together

Finally, some of the most important advice is to try to get to know each other as people. Organize lunches, outings, and celebrations, and just have fun. This helps build trust among team members and ensures that people feel comfortable leaning on each other for support.

Need help coming up with an outing idea? Check out this list of fun corporate team-building ideas — from improv workshops to karaoke.

Sales + Marketing = Smarketing

Aligning your sales and marketing team helps both teams reach their goals and boost company revenue. Apply these sales and marketing best practices to improve your smarketing strategy, and you’ll see an exponential growth in conversion rate, revenue, and customer retention.

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

With fall on its way, the countdown to September’s INBOUND 2019 event is in full-swing. Every year, thousands of marketers and their peers gather to learn, inspire, and network. That last one — networking — gets a lot of us pretty excited. After all, it’s how 85% of people say they’ve landed a job. And personally, if I’m really into an event and I’m feeling super energetic, I love to network. But I don’t always feel so peppy. Then what?

Sometimes, we have to fall back on an arsenal of conversation starters. It helps to spark a discussion, even when it’s taking every ounce of willpower you have not to go home, turn on Netflix, and order sushi.

We’ve got your back. Here are some of the conversation starters that we’ve tried and have seen succeed. Bookmark them for your next networking event.

Listen to the audio version of this post:

17 Great Conversation Starters to Break the Ice at Networking Events

1. “Hi, I’m ‘X.'”

It actually works. Just be sure you have something to follow your introduction, so that you don’t end up staring at each other in silence. And as you’ll see, that’s the key to most conversation starters — be ready with a follow-up. Saying “hi” is just your way to get the ball rolling, so be sure you can keep the exchange going and take it to the next level.

(Note: Use your first name, instead of “X.”)

2. “Are you having issues with the Wi-Fi?”

Good news: The answer is almost always “yes.” Plus, I don’t know about you, but I think we all have war stories of when the internet stopped working for us at the worst time — those are always great conversation starters.

3. “That [food or beverage] looks great. Where did you find it?”

This question can offer a few different answers. The person might just tell you where they got it, or they could go into a description or a comment on the quality. Not sure where to go from there? Tell them about a place where you once had the best version of whatever they’re drinking or snacking on. But frame it as a question — “Have you ever been to Hawaii? I once had the best fish tacos there.”

This technique also works with neutral compliments, like telling someone that you love their laptop bag or jacket. Most people enjoy receiving positive feedback, and will probably follow up with a story about where or how they got it. (And if they don’t follow up, ask them about it — remember, keep the conversation going.)

4. “Do you know if there’s a coat check?”

I always like to leverage the communal confusion that occurs at every event. When you first arrive, no one really knows what they’re doing. But anyone who does will jump at the chance to be “in the know.”

5. “I can’t believe how cold/hot/beautiful it is today.”

Talking about the weather sounds so cliché, but it actually works — especially if people are visiting from out of town. Maybe someone from sunny California, for example, is traveling to Boston for INBOUND this year. Of course, that would require you to ask the person where they’re from, first. But once you have an answer, you can even make a joke about it — “Boy, I bet you’re glad you left Los Angeles behind for a few days of chilly New England weather.”

6. “Are you here with colleagues?”

If someone you’re speaking with is at the event with a group of people, that can allow your circle to expand — if you’re proactive about it. You can tactfully express interest in meeting someone’s co-worker by asking what the different roles are on that person’s team, and responding with something like, “You know, I’ve always wanted to learn more about X. Would you mind introducing me to your colleague who works on that?”

But if that person is flying solo, you can generate some empathy as a fellow lone wolf. That doesn’t mean you should cling to that person the entire time, but a “me, too” is always nice. Just be sure not to leave it at that — follow up with an idea of where to meet some of your fellow cohorts, like mentioning that there’s supposed to be a great breakout session later.

7. “You guys look like you’re having the most fun over here. Mind if I join this conversation?”

Of course, you’ll probably want to say that to people who actually look like they’re having a good time. And really, who’s going to say “no” to that? If they do, chances are, you’ll want to find another group to hang out with, anyway.

8. “Are you here to see anyone in particular?”

If you’re both interested in meeting the same people or seeing the same sessions, this question will help you establish that common ground. Regardless of the answer, you’ll learn more about each others’ goals and reasons for attending the event, which promotes an exchange of ideas and knowledge. And that can create opportunities, even after the event is over — you never know when that person might need your expertise down the line, or vice-versa.

9. “Did you all come here together, or did you meet here?”

This question is a great one when you’ve joined a group of strangers. It also opens up the conversation to everyone in the group, instead of limiting it to the people sitting right next to you. And the more people chatting, the better — it’s another opportunity for you to learn about everyone’s goals and exchange ideas.

10. “Well, while we’re here, I might as well introduce myself.”

If the event is big enough, chances are that you’ll have to wait in line for something — a keynote, the restroom, or food, to name a few. And, as the least patient person on the planet, I can attest to the effectiveness of using that time to do something other than focusing on how slowly the line is moving. Put that energy toward something productive, like meeting the people around you.

11. “Did you hear X speak?”

Being at the same conference, sessions and speakers are guaranteed common ground, so use that to your advantage. It’s a great starting point that can go in a lot of different conversational directions — did you see that person speak at a different event? Did you read their work? What did you think of the talk?

12. “Have you ever been to X down the street? I’ve really wanted to check it out.”

This question is a great one when you’re attending an out-of-town event. If there’s a restaurant there that you’ve heard good things about, you can ask locals and visitors alike if they want to check it out, too.

And if you’re a local yourself, and you’re chatting with visitors, you can recommend that they see the place while they’re in town. Mention that you haven’t been there in a while, or that you’d love to go back. If there’s a shared interest in going, you can suggest heading over together or sharing a cab.

But if they’re not interested in going to that particular venue, ask them if they can recommend where to go, or if there’s another place they wanted to check out. You could suggest heading there together, too, but make sure you’re not being too pushy — sometimes, people really just want to take a break to be alone, so don’t take it personally.

13. “Are you speaking at this event?”

Be sure to have a quick follow-up if the answer is “no” — like asking if any of that person’s colleagues are speaking, or which sessions they plan on attending. Questions like that can prime you to learn more about what the person does, and how you might be able to learn from each other.

But if the answer is yes — jackpot. That’s a great opportunity to ask them what they’re speaking about, and what made them so interested in the topic. And be sure to mention you’re looking forward to attending, and what you hope to learn from it.

And if that person already spoke, but you missed it — “Bummer,” you can tell them. Just be sure to ask if there’s somewhere you’ll be able to watch it online, or when their next speaking engagement is.

14. “Is this your first time at this event”

If the answer is “yes,” use that to make the person feel like an expert, without overwhelming them. Ask them for insider tips on how to make the most of the event, what was different about it last year, and what they’re hoping to do this year. That can lay the groundwork for uncovering shared interests.

But first-timers can empathize with you, and you can even ask them some of the same questions, like what made them come to the event in the first place and how they’re liking it so far. You’re still opening up the conversation to a potential “me, too” moment, and might find an opportunity to participate in a session together.

15. “Did you understand what the speaker meant when she said, ‘X’?”

This question creates a great opportunity to start chatting with some of the people who were sitting next to you during a session, instead of silently/awkwardly shuffling out when it’s over. If you legitimately didn’t understand something, don’t be embarrassed — it might have confused other people, too. Brainstorming different interpretations of a talk can actually be kind of fun — it gives you a chance to be creative and possibly share ideas with someone who has a fresh perspective.

And even if that person did understand what was confusing you, asking them to explain it might accomplish a little bit of ego-stroking. But keep the conversation going — especially if you actually want to learn more about what that person has to say.

16. “I’m tired of talking to my colleagues — I see them all the time. What are you guys talking about?”

This one is a spinoff of a pickup line from comedian Pete Holmes’ podcast. His original version was, “I’m tired of talking to my friends, what are you guys talking about?”

It’s a line that’s effective in a number of scenarios, because it’s most likely true. It’s not that you don’t like your colleagues — but as long as you’re surrounded by new people, why not gain some of that fresh perspective I mentioned earlier? It shows an interest in getting to know the folks who are there, and sets the tone for you to exchange funny office stories, which is always a great icebreaker with someone unfamiliar.

17. “Alright, I’ve got an awesome marketing joke for you.”

This only works if you actually have an awesome marketing joke. Luckily, my colleague Corey Wainwright wrote a list for you here, so you’re all set.

Ready to Network?

Sometimes, we joke that if all else fails, you can just say to the person standing next to you, “I need a drink!” If it’s been a long day, it’s likely that the person will agree with you, and might even be interested in joining you. (But please, drink responsibly — all of your great conversation starters will go to waste if you end up overdoing it.)

The point is, as long as you’re being appropriate, you can start a conversation about nearly anything. And if it helps to know, I thought I’d mention that my personal favorite icebreaker is the use of those neutral compliments I went over in #3. I figure, if it worked with a celebrity chef I once met at an event, it’ll work at INBOUND, right?

We can’t wait to see you there—grab your tickets, and be sure to say hi.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in July 2014 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Opening a marketing email is such a regular task, consumers often don’t give it a second thought. As email marketers, though, we know the other side of the story. Finding new HTML email inspiration can be a daunting task.

When you’re an email marketer, your to-do list often looks like this: Generate opt-in leads, segment your lists, set up lead nurturing workflows, draft clear and concise email copy, check your emails for deliverability, optimize for plain text and HTML, and so on. “Where’s the fun in this?” you may wonder.

Thankfully, there are plenty of email marketing geeks out there (ourselves included) that do think all of that’s kind of fun. These less glamorous aspects of email marketing — though critical to your campaign’s success — don’t paint the entire picture of what amazing email marketing really is.

While plain text or bare-bones emails can still be extremely effective, sometimes you want to amaze your subscribers with creative, captivating, or delightfully understated email designs. Some brands out there have also figured out how to create emails that are pretty darn beautiful. If you’re looking to dabble in something a little more adventurous for your next email marketing campaign, check out the examples below for inspiration.

Table of Contents:

• Email Newsletter Design Examples
• Nurturing Email Design Examples
• E-commerce Email Design Examples

Email Newsletter Design Examples

1. Collaborative Fund

In design, red and yellow serve as powerful color choices. While red is known to convey power or passion, yellow is often considered both bright and energizing. Although many companies use a big block of color at the top of their newsletters to draw people in, the folks at Collaborative Fund took it a few steps further by combining red and yellow bursts of color throughout the whole email. Pretty powerful, right?

Color aside, they leveraged clean divides to separate these blocks, while incorporating different textures — like that crumpled paper — to create a really compelling experience.

Image Source

Pro Tip: When done well, incorporating an array of textures, via high-quality graphics or photography (like the crumbled paper used above), can make the 2D experience of viewing an email more visceral and engaging.

2. Domino

This newsletter from Domino covers a lot of information: design with storage restrictions, giveaways, a profile piece with Chelsea Handler, bathroom and bedroom design tips, and a call-to-action.

To make this more easily scannable, Domino paired these short descriptions with high-quality images. Like the Collaborative Fund example, they also used clear, horizontal divides to separate each topic.

Image Source

Pro Tip: Incorporating contrasting colors can help with creating division between sections and draw the eye from each section with ease.

3. InVision LABS

This is a much more concise email from InVision, which includes a clean design and an eye-catching color. The blue background causes both the call-to-action and the white box near the bottom of the email to command attention. The fanned-out product images help the recipient understand what the announcement entails before diving into the explainer copy.

Image Source

The colorful experience doesn’t stop with the email. The bright blue color is carried through to the corresponding website, making this a strong example of seamless branding.

Are you inspired by InVision’s clean design and ready to create your own campaign? Use a free email marketing software like HubSpot to create and send your message to the world.

4. GrubHub

This email from GrubHub is a great example of product promotion … because it doesn’t sound or feel like product promotion at all. Instead of saying, “Hey, you like food. You should order it using our service!”, the email tells a story with the help of a really cool piece of interactive content: a quiz to see what you should serve at your party (see what they did there?).

We especially love the saturated GIF they used to promote the piece of content, as it really commands the recipient’s attention.

Image Source

Pro Tip: Motion catches the eye. We see this throughout social media and other forms of media. Adding this feature to your emails can appeal to viewers enticed by the motion factor in public-facing content. Learn how to create a GIF using Photoshop.

Nurturing Email Design Examples

5. Handy

We love this simple welcome email from Handy. The color scheme is consistent, relying on gray for the base, and bright blue to draw attention to the logo and calls-to-action.

There’s a nice balance between text and visuals here, and the tile design makes it easy to skim through. Finally, we love that they used non-cheesy stock photos to represent their brand, which makes them more genuine and lovable from a consumer perspective.

Image Source

Pro Tip: Nowadays, most viewers have some level of ability to sense whether an image is a stock photo or originally captured content. If you must use stock photography, take your time when looking through image databases, and filtering for images that represent not only the tone of the email and message but the overall aesthetic and feel of your brand.

6. Litmus

You might expect a beautiful email from a company that’s announcing an email design conference — and Litmus doesn’t disappoint. The email starts out with a bold burst of color, which grabs readers’ attention. Below this, you’ll find a clean design that includes concise copy, whimsical illustrations, and a great use of white space.

At the bottom of the email, you’ll see a live Twitter feed showing tweets that use the conference’s official hashtag. That social media factor is a really cool touch that we’re willing to bet increased engagement, while simultaneously informing folks about how to stay connected at the event.

Image Source

Pro Tip: Being imaginative and using icons and illustrations can be a rewarding and simple way of getting messaging across. Consistent look and feel makes the difference, showing intention and design-strategy. You can find free icon packs that include the most commonly used icons, at websites like FlatIcon.com.

7. Uber

As marketers, we know that charts and graphs can serve as an effective way to illustrate information. But what about incorporating graphs into emails?

This email design from Uber skillfully demonstrates the power of data visualization through the use of simple graphs. Rather than relying on words to explain their lowered rates, Uber whipped up a few comparative visuals to do the job. Thanks to the bright blue color choice, it’s easy for recipients to understand how the rates have shifted in just a quick glance.

Image Source

Pro Tip: Excitement is more difficult to elicit from audiences than one would think. The above serves as an example of how Uber uses their historical data to galvanize excitement for new offerings from the company. The potential of what’s to come is correlated to what has happened. Show what’s been done before showing what’s to come, letting consumers know their excitement is secure.

8. Cuyana

Here’s a product promotion email Cuyana sent to people who signed up for a new product’s “early access” list. The email is centered entirely around showcasing the new product, but in this case, that’s exactly what the folks who opted in to the “early access” list were looking for.

The design of the email is clean and sophisticated, thanks to a brilliant use of negative space and attractive fonts. This approach is very true-to-brand for a women’s apparel and accessories company. We love the use of consistent coloring — especially the signature orange hue they chose for the call-to-action button at the bottom.

Image Source

Pro Tip: This is an example of an email made using HubSpot. Click here to check out more email marketing examples from our library.

E-commerce Email Design Examples

9. J.Crew

Sometimes, words can be overrated. Why not let a picture tell the story for you? That’s what J.Crew did in this email, anyway. The email is promoting a sale, but you wouldn’t know it right away: All you see is the copy, “This is worth the scroll,” along with a very long (and very scroll-worthy), high-definition picture of an ice cream cone. We love the subtlety. Yum!

Image Source

Pro Tip: If you make it to the bottom, you’ll notice that the tip of the ice cream cone acts like a directional arrow, pointing recipients toward the call-to-action. Photography can serve as more than a static image, it can be an interactive guide, leading the eye throughout the message.

10. Apple

This holiday email from Apple balances white space with product displays to create a really interesting experience.

While the products all share a similar color scheme, what’s really compelling is their positioning. By strategically arranging the products, Apple was able to create visual patterns that alternate throughout the email. This approach is among the best for displaying the confidence of a brand in its products. It allows the products themselves to be the focus of the message, as well as the means through which the messaging is conveyed.

Image Source

Pro Tip: Drafting or sketching out the design for an email at the start of the process can make creating eye-catching messaging an easily attainable goal and can save you time.

11. Union Made Goods

Consumers get a lot of emails from e-commerce businesses showcasing holiday gift ideas from their websites, and this is an example of one of these emails done well. They opted for a simple design here, which includes a really nice use of both color and white space, making the copy and images that are there pop a little more.

We really enjoy how the simplicity allows for the mind of the reader to be less focused on distracting elements within the message. Instead, they can fill in the negative space with imaginings of how the products displayed — or others sold by the company — could bring about the desired reaction from the mothers in their lives. It makes one wonder, “What does mom have?”, “What does she need?”, or “What would she like?”

Image Source

Pro Tip: Offering something like a discount on a purchase, without overselling, inclines readers to take a look at their own time, with the knowledge that they will receive incentives for engaging further.

12. Casper

This welcome email from Casper does a stellar job of providing an overview of what joining their 1+ million member community will get you. From their community numbers, it is clear they have put a lot of time and work into creating a product and reputation so you can rest assured. (Get it? “Rest,” because it’s a mattress company? Ah, nevermind!)

They list a few of the perks you get from a membership, and then immediately jump into establishing educational value, offering tips for sleeping. This alone isn’t compelling enough to make someone a loyally attentive Casper email-subscriber, but it does further connect the brand and product(s) to consumers’ experiences. We love how they use simple graphics and concise messaging to subtly associate themselves with the solution to sleep challenges.

Image Source

Pro Tip: Keep it simple, allowing viewers and consumers to conclude for themselves that they need what you have to offer.

13. Shwood x Stanley

In the e-commerce world, the quality of visuals in your emails can have a huge impact on whether recipients stick around to look through the whole email, or quickly hit the “delete” button. This email from Shwood x Stanley places a big emphasis on those high-quality visuals. We especially adore the textured backgrounds, as well as the ways in which they play with light and shadows.

Image Source

Pro Tip: When using multiple images in an html email, consider what colors complement and contrast with each other. This consideration can make the experiences of transitioning from section to section seamless for the viewer, compelling engaged attention throughout the message.

14. Harry’s

For seasonal emails like this one from Harry’s, you might consider using color schemes that go with the season. To promote their winter gift set, the folks at Harry’s cooled down their color scheme with traditional winter colors like green, blue, and brown. They also struck a nice balance between text and visuals, and helped to make their email easier to skim by using a simple tile design.

Another thing we love are those bright red calls-to-action; they look pretty clickable … wouldn’t you agree?

Image Source

Pro Tip: Simply put, there is no replacement for good product photography. If you’re diving into the ocean of original product photography, check out this Beginner’s Guide to Product Photography.

What other companies out there have you noticed are creating beautiful email marketing? What stands out about their approach? How can you take this and add your own original spin, making something new for your brand’s messaging?

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in May 2012 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Finding a good Instagram caption is a challenge, especially if you run the Instagram profile of a business. Why? Because if you want to build a consistent brand on Instagram, it’s important to maintain a distinctive voice on every post, video, or reel. That’s harder than it sounds.

If you’re tired of writing captions from scratch, there’s no need to keep searching. We’ve compiled the best Instagram captions for every type of brand and for every type of post. Whether you want to sound cool, make a funny quip, or come across as cute, you can incorporate many of these captions into an Instagram business strategy. Just make sure your audience would find your caption funny, clever, or the right amount of sassy.

Click one of the following links to jump through some of our best IG captions:

• Short Instagram Captions
• Business Instagram Captions
• Quote Instagram Captions
• Funny Instagram Captions
• Clever Instagram Captions
• Cute Instagram Captions
• Sassy Instagram Captions
• Song Lyrics for Instagram Captions
• Holiday Instagram Captions
• Seasonal Instagram Captions
• Selfie Instagram Captions
• Vacation Instagram Captions

Next time you’re contemplating a witty line of text to go with your Instagram photo, take a look at our complete list of captions that suit any mood or occasion you’ll be sharing with the world. You can also customize these captions to make them perfect for your feed. First, we recommend saving some time by downloading our kit of additional IG caption examples, which you can use to inspire your caption creation process.

Short Instagram Captions

A picture is already worth a thousand words — there’s no need to go on and on in your captions. Let the photo or video speak for itself and keep it brief. Take the captions below and change them to suit your exact post. It may be enough to tag someone who’s in the photo, give credit if you’re reposting, or prompt people to check out your bio.

1. @[account]
2. Credit: @[account]
3. This week’s photo dump.
4. Photo dump sacrifice for the algorithm god.
5. Scroll →
6. More info in bio.
7. Link in bio.
8. Sneak peek →
9. [Product] in production at our factories.
10. @[account] x @[account]. Coming soon.
11. Loading…
12. [The most dominant color in your post, ie “Red,” “Blue,” etc]
13. [Hashtag relevant to your post]
14. [Emoji relevant to your post]
15. [Relevant word 1] + [Relevant word 2]
16. Happy [weekday]! [hashtag]
17. Happy [holiday of the day]! [hashtag]
18. You can find me at [place you most often frequent].
19. In [place where the photo was taken].
20. An ode to [item in the image or video].
21. Thinking about [relevant word].
22. Weekend.
23. [Month].
24. 2:38 pm. [Or time when the photo was taken]
25. Time passing.
26. From the archives.
27. Mentally here.
28. Couldn’t pick one.
29. That’s all for now.
30. I can’t. I simply cannot. [Emoji]
31. Sunset.
32. Spring.
33. Summer.
34. Winter.
35. Fall.
36. Immediately yes.
37. Immediately no.
38. Say more.
39. Say less.
40. Mood.
41. My go-to.
42. My favorite hour.
43. Taking it slow.
44. Grateful.
45. Once upon a time…
46. We/I/You/@[account] know(s) what’s up.
47. The only thing stopping you is you.
48. Good food, good mood.
49. And the boredom award goes to…
50. My life, my rules. At least 62% of the time.
51. We’re all still healing.
52. Be the type of person you want to meet.
53. It starts with you.
54. Call it what you want.
55. I’ve never been a fan of change, but I’d follow you anywhere.

Business Instagram Captions

If you’re running a business account, you should use your captioning to humanize your business more than your average paid ad.

Your business Instagram captions are an opportunity to give your brand some personality while getting the word out about your product or service offering. Here are some of our go-to captions that prospects and customers will love.

1. Good evening, [city]! We’re in town for [event] at Booth [#]. Stop by and say hi!
2. “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.” -Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook
3. Our [#]-person squad completed the [road race name]! And we did it all for the post-run sneaker selfie. 👟
4. We got product in the pipeline … check back for an exciting announcement on [date]!
5. Diversity isn’t a recruitment metric — it’s an ingredient for success. At [company], we thrive on the unique backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of our people.
6. Spot the CEO. 😉
7. At [company name], our best asset is our people.
8. We had a great time with our customers at [meeting/event]! @[client/partner], you guys rock.
9. Thrilled to have [customer] at our office today! Come back any time. 😊
10. [Company name] is off for [holiday]! We hope you all have a safe long weekend.
11. Big things have small beginnings. [Company]’s HQ began right here.
12. “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” –Herman Melville
13. How many [company name] employees does it take to spell “TEAM”?
14. Want to work with these awesome people, working on a lot of awesome things? We’re hiring! Click the link in our bio to see our current openings.
15. Check, check, one, two … is this thing on? [Company name] is now on Instagram! Follow us to learn about our culture, product, and (awesome) people.
16. Tired of [customer pain point]? We’ve got good news. Click the link in our bio to learn about [product]’s latest feature.
17. [Company] presents our latest product — made with love just for you. ❤️ Link in bio to learn more.
18. Stop wasting time with [customer pain point]. Our [product] will help you achieve [X] more efficiently — just ask our current customers. Check out our latest case study here: [Link]
19. Handmade in [location] and delivered to your door. That’s the [Company] promise.
20. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. When [company name] gives you [type of product], you make money.

Quote Instagram Captions

If you can’t find the words yourself, there’s a quote out there to help you convey that idea.

Using quotes for your Instagram caption is a great way to evoke and share your emotions. Quotes can propel people to think more open-mindedly, and optimistically — or even motivate them to do something great. Below is a list of some of our favorites.

1. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” –Nelson Mandela
2. “Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” -Margaret Mead
3. “You change the world by being yourself.” -Yoko Ono
4. “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” -Abraham Lincoln
5. “What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have.” – Oprah Winfrey
6. “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” -Dalai Lama
7. “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” -Mae West
8. “Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
9. “I would rather die of passion than of boredom.” -Vincent van Gogh
10. “Success isn’t about the end result, it’s about what you learn along the way.” -Vera Wang
11. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” -Confucius
12. “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” -George Addair
13. “You become what you believe.” -Oprah Winfrey
14. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” -Theodore Roosevelt
15. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” -Walt Disney
16. “Love the life you live. Live the life you love.” -Bob Marley
17. “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” -Maya Angelou
18. “Embrace what makes you unique, even if it makes others uncomfortable.” – Janelle Monae
19. “Success is a collection of problems solved.” – I.M. Pei
20. “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” -Thich Nhat Hanh
21. “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” -Gandhi
22. “I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do.” -Haruki Murakami
23. “We become what we think about.” -Earl Nightingale
24. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” –Winston Churchill
25. “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” -C.S. Lewis
26. “If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.” -Lao Tzu
27. “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein
28. “If you are working on something that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.” -Steve Jobs
29. “Security is mostly a superstition. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” – Helen Keller
30. “Stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals.” -Michelle Obama

Funny Instagram Captions

We don’t always have to take social media so seriously, so explore some funny Instagram captions for your upcoming posts.

Instagram can be a tool to convey aesthetic picture taking or stoic model shoots, it can also be a fun place to share a laugh or lighthearted content, too. Sharing a funny caption can boost your page’s personality, and potentially brighten someone else’s day. We hope the following captions make you crack a smile.

1. My favorite exercise is a cross between a lunge and a crunch … I call it lunch.
2. I need a six-month holiday, twice a year.
3. We tried to be normal once. Worst two minutes of our lives!
4. There are 16-year-olds competing at the Olympics and some of us (me) still push on “pull” doors.
5. That awkward moment when you’re wearing Nike’s and you can’t do it.
6. I’m just a girl, standing in front of a salad, asking it to be a cupcake.
7. What if we told you … you can eat without posting it on Instagram?
8. I know the voices in my head aren’t real, but sometimes their ideas are just too good to ignore.
9. We don’t know what’s tighter: Our jeans or our company culture.
10. Friday … Our second-favorite F word.
11. We don’t care what people think of us. Unless they’re our customers. We definitely care what customers think of us.
12. All you need is love … and investors. All you need is love and investors.
13. Hi, we’re [company name]. We build amazing apps and eat amazing apps.
14. They say “Do what you love and money will come to you.” Let’s see what happens, I just ordered tamales.
15. My favorite subject in school was recess.
16. No thoughts brain empty just tacos and cats.
17. [Food item] so good it’s got me weak in the knees.
18. The best part about waking up is going to sleep eighteen hours later.
19. The older you get, the better you get, unless you’re a banana.
20. Bring the alcohol! Because no great story started with someone eating a salad.
21. Don’t worry if plan A fails. There are 25 more letters in the alphabet.
22. If you’re not supposed to eat at night, why is there a light bulb in the refrigerator?
23. First rule of Sundays: If you can’t reach it from your couch, you don’t need it.
24. If you fall, I will be there. Signed, Floor.
25. The first thing I do after coming to work is logging off.
26. I used to think I was indecisive, but now I am not so sure.
27. Friends buy you lunch. Best friends eat your lunch.
28. Darn it, just accidentally had another thought again.
29. My goal this weekend is to move… just enough so people don’t think I’m dead.
30. You think nothing is impossible? Try getting me out of bed before 12 PM.
31. Looking at these pictures won’t fix all your problems, but it’s a good start.
32. My sauce is too hot that’s why you’ll never ketchup.
33. Google Maps said it’s MY TURN.
34. I got my haters seasick, they see me and get sick.
35. If there would be an award for being lazy, I would send someone to pick it up for me.

Clever Instagram Captions

Trying to come up with some clever IG captions on your own can be a lot of work, so we’ve done it for you. Below we’ve compiled a list of our favorite clever Instagram captions for all your witty caption needs.

1. Patience — what you have when there are too many witnesses.
2. Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s the Clarendon filter.
3. “Life is short.” False — it’s the longest thing you do.
4. Happy Sunday! There may be no excuse for laziness, but I’m still looking.
5. Rejection is just redirection.
6. Better an “oops” than a “what if.”
7. Anyone looking for a heart? Selling mine for $2. (Used, good condition)
8. The world is changed by your example, not your opinion.
9. Seven billion smiles and these are my favorite.
10. Stop working hard and start working smart.
11. I found your nose. It was in my business.
12. Imposter complex is just a byproduct of success.
13. Life is simple. It’s just not easy.
14. The best times begin at the end of your comfort zone. So you can catch me on the opposite end of the end of my comfort zone.
15. When nothing goes right, go left.
16. “Success is making those who believed in you look brilliant.” -Dharmesh Shah
17. “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.” -Harry Truman
18. The world changes by your example, not your opinion. So get acting right.
19. It’s always a good idea to be on the right side of history.
20. When you learn, teach. When you get, give.
21. Don’t quit your daydream.
22. Legend has it that if you look hard enough you’ll see the weekend approaching!
23. It’s time to make new memories. But first, five tequila shots.
24. I’m on a seafood diet. I see food, I eat it.
25. Sorry I didn’t get back to your text. I was too busy converting oxygen into CO2.
26. Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun.
27. “Arguing with a fool proves there are two.” -Doris M. Smith
28. Well, enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What do you think about me?
29. We’re all one more minute closer to dying. What’s one more shot going to do?
30. There’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If you find it, let me know so I can get some.

Cute Instagram Captions

If there’s one thing people on the internet love to see — it’s anything and everything that falls into the category of cute. Whether you’re posting your adorable pet, your significant other, or a picnic by the park, we’ve got all the cute Instagram captions that you need to complement them.

1. Don’t give up on your dreams. Keep sleeping.
2. My fave sound is you snoring next to me.
3. Here’s to a hundred more years with you.
4. Happiness is watching you do what you love 💗 Hopefully that’s me.
5. I like you more than [food]. And I looove [food].
6. Wearing a onesie to bed just in case my SO steals the covers again.
7. Cuddle time with the pup 💞
8. Just showing off my [item] a little. Be jealous.
9. Always wear cute pajamas to bed; you never know who you’ll meet in your dreams.
10. You got me like 🥴️
11. I’d move to [state] for you. And I hate [state].
12. 🥺️👉👈
13. I have no idea what I was doing before you came around. Sleeping, probably.
14. No one can touch my books or my tacos 😤
15. Not me standing there like🧍‍
16. Don’t mind me while I drink my tea 🍵
17. Did someone say [something you like]? 🏃💨
18. They say elephants have a perfect memory. So do I when it comes to you.
19. My pup is the salsa to my whole enchilada.
20. I hate it when I’m singing a song and the artist gets the words wrong.
21. Being an adult is like folding a fitted sheet. No one really knows how.
22. Here’s a🥇for being the cutest human to walk this earth.
23. Me before you:🌱 Me after you: 🌻
24. 🤟
25. Just got that Friday feeling.
26. Are you a timekeeper? ‘Cause time slows down when I’m with you.
27. I can’t see heaven being much better than this.
28. I’m not lazy, I’m on energy-saving mode.
29. My pillow is my best friend (sorry, [best friend’s name])
30. A day doing [activity] is a day well-spent.
31. I don’t know who’s cuter, me or my reflection?
32. Being a full-time angel is so exhausting.
33. With you, everything is twice the fun and half the trouble.
34. Sweeter than a cupcake.
35. Put me on your wishlist.

Sassy Instagram Captions

Your Instagram posts are your way to express yourself, so if you’re bold, sassy, and not afraid to show it — let your caption do the talking.

For those that want to give their Instagram posts some more pizzazz, try throwing in one of these sassy captions.

1. What’s a queen without her king? Historically speaking, more powerful.
2. Be a little more you, and a lot less them.
3. We’re an acquired taste. If you don’t like us, acquire some taste.
4. Well-behaved people don’t make it into history books.
5. Be sunshine mixed with a little hurricane.
6. We got 99 problems, but an awesome marketing team ain’t one.
7. Sometimes you just need to do a thing called “what you want.”
8. You can’t do epic stuff with bad people. And we got the best in the biz.
9. It’s not called being bossy, it’s called having leadership skills.
10. You did not wake up today to be mediocre.
11. A bad attitude is like a flat tire. You can’t go anywhere until you change it.
12. We’re entrepreneurs. They call us dreamers, but we’re the ones who never sleep.
13. All of us have the capacity to light up a room. Some when they enter, others when they leave it.
14. Brains are awesome. I wish everybody would have one.
15. Common sense is like deodorant. The people who need it most never use it.
16. You see that? That’s my patience leaving.
17. I’ll have you know, I’ve completed plenty of marathons. [Show 1], [Show 2], and [Show 3], to name a few.
18. Everyone has that one annoying friend. If you don’t have one, then it’s probably you.
19. Above: A photo of me pretending to be listening.
20. Oh, you sent me an email? Expect a response in approximately never.
21. Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
22. If you like me, raise your hand. If not, then raise your standard.
23. If you don’t succeed the first time, then burn all the evidence you tried.
24. Underestimate me. That’ll be fun.
25. I like my coffee how I like myself: Dark, bitter and too hot for you.
26. People say I act like I don’t care. It’s not an act.
27. They say good things take time … that’s why I’m always late.
28. Focused. Intelligent. Motivated. Oh, and cute.
29. “The question isn’t who is going to let me: it’s who is going to stop me.” -Ayn Rand
30. It’s okay if you don’t like me. Not everyone has good taste.
31. I’m a work of art, showing you the art or working.
32. I only show up wearing my best and you shouldn’t expect less.
33. You couldn’t even outshine my shadow.
34. Please don’t call me, I’m out of your range.
35. If you’re sleeping on me I hope you’re tossing and turning.

Song Lyrics for Instagram Captions

People of all different backgrounds can relate to music. Beyond the different chords and melodies are lyrics that tell a story, echo a feeling, or inspire others.

To convey the message or emotion you want in your Instagram caption, use one of these iconic song lyrics.

1. “I’m gonna live like tomorrow doesn’t exist.” — Sia, “Chandelier”
2. “I live for the nights that I can’t remember, with the people that I won’t forget.” — Drake, “Show Me a Good Time”
3. “I hope you never lose your sense of wonder.” — Lee Ann Womack, “I Hope You Dance”
4. “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” — John Lennon, “Imagine”
5. “If you give, you begin to live.” — Dave Matthews Band, “You Might Die Trying”
6. “Outlining my findings, using life as a stencil.” — Kero One, “In All the Wrong Places”
7. “Feeling good living better.” — Drake, “Over My Dead Body”
8. “Say oh, got this feeling that you can’t fight, like this city is on fire tonight.” — OneRepublic, “Good Life”
9. “Time makes you bolder.” — Fleetwood Mac, “Landslide”
10. “If I fail, if I succeed, at least I’ll live as I believe.” — Whitney Houston, “The Greatest Love of All”
11. “The rest of the world was in black and white, but we were in screaming color.” — Taylor Swift, “Out of the Woods”
12. “Lightning strikes every time she moves.” — Calvin Harris, “This Is What You Came For”
13. “We aren’t ever getting older.” — Chainsmokers, “Closer”
14. “Sing with me, sing for the years, sing for the laughter, sing for the tears.” — Aerosmith, “Dream On”
15. “Life is good.” — Future & Drake, “Life is Good”
16. “Life without dreaming is a life without meaning.” – Wale, “Aston Martin Music”
17. “But like the sun, know you know I find my way back ‘round.” — J. Cole, “Crooked Smile”
18. “I will overcome any hurdle or obstacle that’s in my path.” — OutKast, “Knowing”
19. “I’m way up, I feel blessed.” — Drake, “Blessings”
20. “Eat, sleep, and breathe it. Rehearse and repeat it.” — Dua Lipa, “New Rules”
21. “I’d rather be dry but at least I’m alive. Rain on me.” — Lady Gaga, “Rain On Me”
22. “And I know that I gotta be above it now. And I know that I can’t let them bring me down.” — Tame Impala, “Be Above It”
23. “I’m on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shine ain’t always gonna be gold, hey, I’ll be fine once I get it, yeah, I’ll be good.” — Kid Cudi, “Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)”
24. “There’s much more to life than dyin’ over your past mistakes and people who threw dirt on your name.” — Lil Nas X, “Sun Goes Down”
25. “They say the loudest in the room is weak, that’s what they assume, but I disagree.” — Tyler the Creator, “911/Mr. Lonely”
26. “You don’t have to be like everybody else, you don’t have to fit into the norm, you are not here to conform.” — Marina, “Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land”
27. “Throw me in the fire, baby, I’ll survive.” — BROCKHAMPTON, “RENTAL”
28. “When you being real, you ain’t worried ’bout who fake.” —Megan Thee Stallion, “Money Good”
29. “We’re so young, boy, we ain’t got nothin’ to lose.” -Doja Cat, “Kiss Me More”
30. “If someone talked to you the way you do to you, I’d put their teeth through. Love Yourself!” -IDLES, “Television”

Holiday Instagram Captions

Around the holidays, you want to post and share the memories you’ve made throughout the years. For whichever one you’re celebrating, take some inspiration from our favorite Instagram captions and spread some holiday cheer.

New Year’s Instagram Captions

1. “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” — Abraham Lincoln
2. Didn’t make it to midnight.
3. Resolutions are made to be broken.
4. Ringing in the new year — like a bell.
5. “Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one.” — Brad Paisley
6. New year, same me.
7. Time to show off my bubbly personality.
8. Any excuse to wear glitter.
9. Starting off the year on the right foot.
10. There are 12 months ahead of us to make a difference.
11. Day 1 of 365
12. Sip, sip, hooray!
13. All you need is a fresh start.
14. Save water, drink champagne.
15. The best has yet to come.

Valentine’s Day Instagram Captions

1. Roses are red. Violets are blue. Consider this post my Valentine to you.
2. Don’t tell me you love me. Tell me you’re outside with pizza.
3. All I need is you. (And maybe wine + chocolate too.)
4. Cupid called, he wants his arrow back.
5. 99% of my socks are single, and you don’t see them crying about it.
6. I will do anything for love. Except that. And that. Or that. Or…
7. I followed my heart and it led me to the fridge.
8. Look at us. Hey. Look at us. Who woulda thought? Not me!
9. In love with my best friend.
10. I’m better when I’m with you.

Halloween Instagram Captions

1. Creepin’ it real.
2. I brake for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
3. Oh my gourd, Becky, look at her bat.
4. You’re just my (blood) type.
5. How to eat candy corn: don’t.
6. #squadghouls
7. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
8. Driving me batty.
9. “Scary hours.” — Drake
10. Resting Witch Face

Thanksgiving

1. I’m wearing my elastic pants.
2. “For those of you who cannot be with family this Thanksgiving, please resist the urge to brag.” — Andy Borowitz
3. On a veggie diet this Thanksgiving: Carrot cake and pumpkin pie.
4. “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” — Oprah Winfrey
5. I think, therefore I cran.
6. Bad day to be a turkey.
7. Need fuel for Black Friday.
8. “Okay, guys. I have exactly 28 minutes before I have to baste again.” — Monica
9. Grateful. Thankful. Blessed.
10. Who made the potato salad?
11. There’s always something to be thankful for.
12. To-do list: eat, drink, nap.
13. I only have pies for you.
14. Gobble ’til you wobble.
15. Love at first bite.

Christmas & Hannukah Instagram Captions

1. You sleigh me.
2. Fa la la la llama.
3. “O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, your ornaments are history.” — The Cat
4. “It’s not what’s under the Christmas tree that matters. It’s who’s around it.” — Charles M. Schulz
5. Dear Santa, let’s not talk about this.
6. Rebel Without a Claus
7. Doesn’t Santa have anything better to do than watch us while we’re sleeping?
8. All I want for Christmas is you (and wine would be nice).
9. Say it ain’t snow.
10. Drop it like a top.
11. Wishing you a latke love this Hanukkah.
12. I want to eat 8 latkes for the calories of one.
13. One little candle can light up an entire room.
14. Keep calm and spin that dreidel.
15. Deck the halls with matzo balls!
16. It’s Christmas time and I’m the gift.
17. The best gift is to be present with the ones you love.
18. Baby, it’s cold outside.
19. Merry everything and happy always.
20. Treat yo elf.

Seasonal Instagram Captions

As the seasons come and go, why not share your joy for the next one on your Instagram? Whether you love the sunshine in the Summer, or snowfall in the winter, you can share that excitement with others.

Ring in the new season with some of these witty, seasonal captions.

Spring Instagram Captions

1. Hello, spring!
2. “And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.” — Louis Armstrong
3. April showers bring May flowers.
4. I think I just experienced all the seasons in a single day.
5. I love allergy season, said no one ever.
6. Currently soaking up the sun and smelling the roses. Please leave a message after the beep.
7. I owe a lot to the inventor of flip-flops.
8. “Here comes the sun, and I say… It’s all right.” — The Beatles
9. “Warm winds in the springtime.” — SZA, “Warm Winds”
10. Springing into the new season.

Summer Instagram Captions

1. “Live in the sunshine. Swim in the sea. Drink in the wild air.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. Life’s a beach.
3. School’s out, sun’s out, guns out.
4. “A little bit of summer is what the whole year is all about.” — John Mayer
5. 90% happy, 10% burnt.
6. Girls just want to have sun.
7. “Summer lovin’ had me a blast, summer lovin’ happened so fast.” — Grease
8. Happiness is a cold popsicle.
9. Life is better by the pool.
10. “Summertime and the livin’ is easy.” — Ella Fitzgerald, “Summertime”
11. “Here comes the sun, and I say… It’s all right.” — The Beatles, “Here Comes the Sun”
12. Tans, tans, tans across the board.

Fall Instagram Captions

1. My favorite color is October.
2. “Wild is the music of autumnal winds amongst the faded woods.” — William Wordsworth
3. My favorite kind of weather.
4. It’s never too early for pumpkin spice.
5. Meet me in the corn maze.
6. Crisp air. Apple cider. Flaming foliage.
7. Pumpkin spice and everything nice.
8. “Anyone who thinks fallen leaves are dead has never watched them dancing on a windy day.” — Shira Tamir
9. Leaves are falling, and autumn is calling.
10. “Days in the sun and nights in the rain. Summer is over, simple and plain.” — Drake & Majid Jordan, “Summer’s Over”
11. Falling never felt so good.
12. Painted in the colors of fall.
13. Sweater weather.
14. Even the leaves fall for you.
15. Channel the flannel.

Winter Instagram Captions

1. “In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” — Albert Camus
2. If it’s snowing, I’m not going.
3. Cozy nights. Good books. Hot chocolate.
4. Do you want to build a snowman?
5. Running on caffeine and holiday cheer.
6. “Winter is not a season; it’s a celebration.” — Anamika Mishra
7. Merry and brrrrrrright.
8. Having snow much fun.
9. ‘Tis the season to be freezin’.
10. “Timb’ laces get tighter and parka hoods flip up.” — Drake, “Come Winter”

Selfie Instagram Captions

Selfies are a celebration of something unique, beautiful, and full of life — you! So when you share your next selfie, complement it with one of our favorite selfie Instagram captions.

1. Me, myself, and I.
2. Be yourself, there’s no one better.
3. It’s the happiness for me.
4. Smile! The happiness is right under your nose.
5. My favorite filter is reality.
6. Self-care selfie!
   Conquer the world one smile at a time.
7. It’s a great day to have a great day.
8. The greatest gift you can give someone is a smile.
9. Self-love is the best love.
10. “But she looked powerful. She wore the sun like a shiny pin on the side of her hair.” –Lilian Li
11. I don’t need a hairstylist. My pillow gives me a new hairstyle every morning.
12. All-natural.
13. No filter.
14. Morning hair, don’t care.
15. Quick #OOTD
16. Anything but basic.
17. Hard to be down to earth when you look out of this world.
18. Looking like I don’t know how to lose.
19. Beautiful from halo to toe.
20. I’m ready for my close-up.

Vacation Instagram Captions

When you want to treat yourself, a vacation is always a great reward.

It’s a chance to experience different cultures, food, music and scenery. When you’re out exploring the world, share some of your favorite travel moments with these awesome Instagram captions.

1. A chance to get away from the everyday.
2. Work. Save. Travel. Repeat.
3. Staycation loading…
4. Collect the moments, not the materials.
5. Another destination off the bucket list.
6. An adventure to fill the soul.
7. The scenic route is always better.
8. I need a six-month vacation, twice a year.
9. Be back never.
10. Catch flights, not feelings.
11. Always take the scenic route.
12. I’ve never met a vacation I didn’t like.
13. An adventure a day keeps the doctor away.
14. Travel is an investment in yourself.
15. Some call it vacation, I call it heaven.
16. “I hate traveling.” said no traveler ever.
17. If you need me, call me on my shell phone.
18. I can sea clearly now.
19. Happiness comes in waves.
20. A change in latitude helps my attitude.

Features of Good Instagram Captions

Want to write a caption from scratch? I totally get it. If you’re anything like me, you take about four minutes choosing a filter for your Instagram photo, and about four hours deciding on a caption.

Worst of all, after much creative effort and advice from friends, I’m usually barely able to write a caption that goes beyond, “Had a fun day with friends!” And I’m a writer — go figure.

The point is, writing a good caption is hard. Whether you create one from scratch or choose a pre-written one, it should fulfill a few requirements.

1. Your caption is on-brand.

Whether your Instagram page is personal or for your business, your captions should be on-brand, or reflective of your brand identity.

This encapsulates the nature of your Instagram’s branding and tone of voice. For example, if your page is based on self-love, you should use captions that are friendly in tone, and use inclusive language to make people feel good when they scroll through your Instagram profile.

2. Your caption is simple.

Instagram captions can fit up to 2,200 characters, but you don’t have to use all of them for your caption to be considered a good one. You ideally want to keep your captions clear, short, and simple for easy readability. You also want to keep your audience’s attention enough to read it to finish.

The exception to this is if you’re making posts that champion storytelling or other lengthy formats. Ultimately, it comes down to what your audience is looking for.

3. Your caption is memorable.

While your Instagram caption doesn’t have to be a profound piece of literature, you can make it memorable in a number of ways. Depending on the type of post you’re sharing, you can make it hilarious, thought-provoking, inspiring, or anything you want it to be.

Want more inspiration? Check out our Instagram page to see how we incorporate fun, witty, and engaging captions into our social media content. The captions often complement the post itself and prompt engagement from users. Instagram Insights metrics such as comments, likes, and saves show you how well you’re engaging users and whether your captions are effective in prompting likes and comments.

Here’s one example from HubSpot with the caption “You can’t spell ‘CRM’ without ‘R’”:

Don’t underestimate the power of a good caption. They can help you generate more engagement and turn your followers into customers.

How to Make Engaging IG Captions

Instagram captions can actually be used strategically, and in many cases help personal or business pages to increase engagement on the platform — and here’s how.

1. Ask your followers questions.

If you’re looking to entice your followers to interact or like your posts more, you could ask them for their opinion, recommendations, or even personal stories to make your page more interactive.

For example, if you’re running an Instagram page for fashion, ask your followers to comment under your newest post about their favorite designers, collections, or trends buzzing in the industry.

Or if you’re promoting a product or service, ask your followers to chime in on what they’d like to see, a problem they need solved, or even ask for a product review or testimonial on how your business has positively impacted them.

2. Add a CTA.

If you advertise your business, product, or free resource, add a clear and enticing call to action.

It doesn’t have to be the entire IG caption, but including it on the tail end of your post’s description can lead your followers from simply liking your post to visiting your online storefront or website.

3. Incorporate relevant hashtags.

You can use up to a maximum of 30 hashtags on a typical Instagram post, these give you a lot of possibilities to attract viewers based on your topic, location, industry, product, or service. Though, you shouldn’t feel pressured to use that many, just choose the ones you find essential, or even come up with your own personally branded one.

Capture the Feeling with an Instagram Caption

Even though an image is worth 1,000 words, a well-written caption couldn’t hurt. These days, the caption can make just as much of a statement as the image! For all of the occasions that are worthy of a post to your feed, use one of the quotes from this list and customize it to make it your own.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The digital marketing landscape is always evolving.Whether you’re a seasoned marketing professional or new to the field, marketing classes can help you stay on top of current industry trends or skill up.

However, signing up for a bootcamp or going to university for traditional courses can be quite expensive. This is where self-paced online courses come in — but which do you choose?

Why take marketing classes?

It’s no secret that individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher are more likely to find employment and earn higher incomes than those who don’t. But did you know that earning a certification can follow this same trend?

Given the rate at which new digital marketing technologies and software are developed, it can be overwhelming to learn through blog posts and ebooks alone. Online marketing courses and certifications make it easy to sharpen your skill and expand your knowledge.

Jump to:

• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• SEO Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Web Development and Site Design
• Online Advertising Courses
• Other Digital Marketing Courses

Even if you’ve been in the marketing industry for several years, online marketing courses can still be of use. Whether you’re interested in a refresher course or want to learn something new –– like creating a website from scratch — online courses can help you acquire the skills needed for continued success.

Want to learn more about brands and organizations that offer free courses on the list below? Scroll to the end of this post, or jump to the section.

Free Online Marketing Courses

Online marketing is a broad category. We’ve removed the guesswork out of searching for the best marketing classes and categorized them by topic below. 

Free Content Marketing Courses

Successful marketing efforts begin with excellent content. Whether you’re just starting your content marketing journey or need a quick refresher, the courses below will help you up your marketing game.

1. Internet Marketing for Smart People – Copyblogger

2. Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content – Coursera

3. The Strategy of Content Marketing – Coursera

4. How to Write Web Copy That Sells – Skillshare

5. Content Marketing for B2B Enterprises – Udemy

6. Copywriting Quick Start: Top FREE Writing Tools & Hacks – Udemy

7. Copywriting Quick Start: Top FREE Writing Tools & Hacks – Udemy

We recommend newbies start with the Copywriting Quick Start Guide from Udemy while more seasoned marketers will benefit from Coursera’s Viral Marketing course.

Free Social Media Marketing Courses

If you’re not using social media for marketing purposes, you’re missing out. Each social platform requires specialized content so you’ll want to keep current on best practices and trends. For example, what may work on Facebook may not be as effective on a platform like TikTok.

The courses below will help you make killer social media campaigns in addition to learning how to analyze campaign metrics.

8. Developing an End-to-End Instagram Marketing Strategy For Your Business – HubSpot Academy

9. How to Use TikTok for Business – Udemy

10. Diploma in Social Media Marketing – Alison

11. Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate – Meta BluePrint

12. Social Media Analytics – Quintly

13. Social Media Quickstarter – Constant Contact

14. Semrush Social Media Fundamentals Course – Semrush

15. Become a Social Media Marketer – LinkedIn Learning (one month free)

We recommend Semrush’s Social Media Fundamentals to get started crafting your own campaigns, followed by Quintly’s course on Social Media Analytics.

 

Free SEO Marketing Courses

Your superb content is only effective if users can find it. That’s why search engine optimization (SEO) is so important. Learn SEO best practices with the courses below.

16. SEO Training Course – HubSpot Academy

17. SEO Training Course by Moz – Udemy

18. SEO – QuickSprout

19. SEO Specialization – Coursera

20. Semrush SEO Toolkit Course – SEMRUSH

21. Online SEO Training – Yoast

We recommend HubSpot’s SEO Training for beginners, but if you’re already familiar with SEO basics, try Udemy’s Moz course. If you’re already using Moz as your preferred SEO tool, this course will help you get the most value from it.

Free Email Marketing Courses

Email campaigns feeling a little lackluster? We’ve got you covered. Increase open rates with snappy subject lines that make your audience want to click. Create engaging copy that has them asking for more.

Learn how to create email campaigns that stand out with the list of courses below.

22. Email Marketing Basics – Google Digital Garage

23. Email Marketing Made Easy for Beginners – Udemy

24. Email Marketing for Beginners – Skillshare

25. Email Marketing Unlocked – Neil Patel

Our top pick is Google’s Email Marketing Course. It gives you a great foundation of basics and best practices to follow to craft a winning email campaign. The quizzes between each module will also help ensure that you’re retaining information along the way.

Free Web Development and Site Design Courses

Web development and design may not be considered part of a marketer’s wheelhouse but knowing the basics could make things easier in your day-to-day – especially if you are uploading content yourself.

Being familiar with HTML and CSS is increasingly valuable as a marketer since they are the foundation of many marketing tools. Check out our top picks below.

26. Make a Website – CodeAcademy

27. Learn Javascript – CodeAcademy

28. Learn Ruby – CodeAcademy

29. Learn Python 3 – CodeAcademy

30. Learn HTML & CSS – CodeAcademy

31. Learn to Code Awesome Websites – General Assembly

If you’re just getting started with web development, CodeAcademy’s Make a Website course is the most accessible for newbies. Got the fundamentals down? Try out their course on Ruby instead.

Free Online Advertising & PPC Courses

While organic traffic is great, paid ads will also be part of an effective marketing strategy. Whether choosing pay-per-click ads on Google or your social media platform of choice, it’s important to use your advertising budget wisely.

The courses below will walk you through creating your first paid campaign to researching the best keywords for PPC ads.

32. What Digital Advertising Is and How to Do It – HubSpot Academy

33. How to Build a Paid Media Strategy – HubSpot Academy

34. PPC University – Wordstream

35. Advertising Your Business Online – Alison

36. Advanced Competitive Research Practices with Semrush

37. Copywriting 101: Crafting Your First Ad Campaign – Skillshare

38. Semrush Advertising Toolkit Course – Semrush

If you’re completely new to digital advertising, HubSpot’s What Digital Advertising Is and How to Do It is the perfect starting point. You’ll learn advertising fundamentals and a step-by-step guide for creating campaigns.

Those wanting to dig deeper into PPC should opt for Wordstream’s PPC University.

Other Free Digital Marketing Courses

Now that we’ve covered some marketing basics, it’s time to have a little fun. Maybe you are already a wiz at creating email and ad campaigns and want to enhance your graphic skills.

The courses below will help you create eye-catching designs, utilize video content, or become an image editing pro.

39. Graphic Design Basics – Canva

40. Graphic Design Specialization – Coursera

41. Photoshop 2020: One-on-One Fundamentals – LinkedIn Learning

42. InDesign 2020: Essential Training – LinkedIn Learning

43. Video Marketing Course- HubSpot Academy

44. Event Marketing Course and Certification – Eventbrite

45. Brand marketing: Planning a Successful Event – Skillshare

46. Affiliate Marketing for Beginners – Udemy

47. YouTube Ads Certification – YouTube

Canva is a widely used tool to quickly create visuals for everything from email campaigns, to infographics to resumes. Their course on Design Basics will help you become a better visual communicator and embrace your inner designer.

Free Marketing Certifications (h2)

Perhaps you’d like to go beyond learning a new skill for fun and are looking for something with more structure that can be used to validate your knowledge or increase your earning prospects. Completing a certified program will do just that. You get the benefits of learning a new skill and also the credibility of completing a course from an industry-recognized institution.

The good news is you don’t have to spend a ton of money to achieve that. Below are our top picks for the best free marketing certifications you can get online.

48. HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification – HubSpot Academy

49. HubSpot Content Marketing Certification – HubSpot Academy

50. Semrush Content Marketing Toolkit Course – Semrush

51. Email Marketing Course – Sendinblue Academy

52. HubSpot Email Marketing Certification – HubSpot Academy

53. Digital Marketing Course – Google Digital Garage

54. Free Social Media Certification – HubSpot Academy

Benefits of a Digital Marketing Certificate

The most well-known benefit of earning a marketing certificate is the potential for better pay and career advancement, but there are plenty more rewards to reap by honing your skills. Here are a few of the top advantages of earning a digital marketing certificate.

1. Specializing in a Marketing Niche

The “jack of all trades, master of none” mantra is the marketer’s enemy.

Any experienced marketing professional will advise someone looking to enter or grow into the field to narrow their focus.

There are simply too many roles within marketing to specialize in all of them.

Certifications come in handy because they’re narrow enough in scope to give you a high-level overview of how the skill fits into a larger marketing strategy but tactical enough to show you exactly how to execute the skill in your day-to-day work.

2. Communicating Advanced Marketing Concepts

Whether you’re interviewing for a marketing role or pitching a client, one thing’s for sure — you’ll need to sound like a skilled marketer.

Sure, you can fake it ‘till you make it, but I don’t advise this route. Shibboleths will only get you so far before someone notices a gap in your experience.

Certification courses are comprehensive education tools that will teach you essential marketing lingo and exactly what it all means.

Best of all, you’ll be able to communicate advanced concepts confidently without over or under-explaining which can undermine your credibility.

3. Building Your Resume

When it comes down to it, your resume will almost always precede your presence.

Before an interview or a client meeting, people will look to your resume and portfolio first to verify your skills.

Adding the certifications you’ve received after completing marketing courses is a smart way to get picked up by resume scanners and it’ll catch the attention of human eyes, too.

Even if you have several years of experience, a certificate can still help get your foot in the door so you can speak in detail about your experience during an interview.

Where to Find Free Marketing Courses

The free courses we mentioned above are amazing resources for budget-conscious marketers. They’ll teach you the basics of the subject and give you some tactical knowledge you can apply right away.

If you want to become more competitive in the job market or if you have a bit more time and resources to dedicate to furthering your education, check out the following platforms. They’re not all free, but they’re affordable and will provide you with up-to-date course material.

1. HubSpot Academy

HubSpot Academy offers certification and training courses to teach people how inbound marketing and HubSpot software work. Classes are often taught by marketers at HubSpot and are made up of video lessons, quizzes, and tests.

Most HubSpot Academy classes are available free of charge, and if you pass the certifications, such as the two below, you get a nifty certificate and badge to share on your social media profiles.

2. Copyblogger

Image Source

Copyblogger is a content marketing company that creates content about content (so meta).

Its blog provides a ton of great resources about digital marketing, and this class, “Internet Marketing for Smart People,” is made up of ebooks and emailed lessons, and other course materials.

Copyblogger adopts four pillars of content marketing success, which it delves into over the course of this class.

3. Coursera

Image Source

Coursera offers MOOCs (massive online open courses) created and taught online by universities such as Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California system.

These courses start at various times throughout the year, so browse the catalog to see when one lines up with your schedule.

4. Udemy

Image Source

Udemy is another online learning platform that focuses specifically on courses related to skill building for working professionals.

One thing to note about Udemy: The classes we’ve highlighted are free, but the site features a myriad of other paid options for as little as $10, in some cases. Additionally, while some of the courses are free, they may require a Pro membership to get an official certificate.

If you have a good experience with a free course, try a paid one to get even more value from the content on this site.

5. WordStream

Image Source

Wordstream is a search engine and social media marketing software company that helps marketers drive the greatest ROI from their paid search and social media campaigns.

These free guides and ebooks distill learnings and best practices for users with varying levels of expertise running pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Here are some of its topics and offerings:

6. edX

Image Source

edX is another MOOC provider that features free courses offered by top-tier universities, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston University.

Like Coursera, classes are taught online and start at specific times throughout the year.

7. LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com)

LinkedIn Learning hosts hundreds of courses taught by industry experts from all around the world.

Image Source

The best part of LinkedIn Learning is that the course suggestions are customized to your profile.

If you have content marketing as a skill in your LinkedIn profile, the algorithm will suggest relevant courses, such as how to start a podcast or track the ROI of a content marketing strategy.

Similarly, your role will also influence the suggestions you see. As a marketing writer, I get recommended copywriting, SEO, and social media marketing courses. If I were a data scientist, I may be recommended courses on programming languages and machine learning.

To access the platform, the first month is free then up to $39.99/month.

8. Alison

Image Source

Alison offers over 4,000 online classes in various professional skills users can take at their own pace.

This content repository includes courses that lead to certificates and diplomas — you choose which is best for your goals.

For an even more rigorous curriculum, you can choose a learning path that combines several lessons and courses into one learning track that gives you a well-rounded learning experience.

9. Meta Blueprint

Image Source

At this point, you probably already know what Meta is (formerly Facebook) and what it does.

What you might not know is that the platform offers several training and certification programs.

Meta Blueprint offers self-paced and live e-learning courses for marketers seeking to grow their organizations using Facebook. While the course materials are free, the certification exam is not and can range between $99 to $150.

Blueprint offers classes in different languages on how to use Facebook and Instagram.

10. quintly Academy

Image Source

quintly is a social media analytics tool that offers courses through quintly Academy.

The self-paced course provides an overview of social media analytics, benchmarking, and goaling using downloadable written materials and video lessons. These courses are available to take at no cost — simply sign in to enroll for free.

11. Google Digital Garage

Image Source

Google is another company you’ve probably heard of before, and its digital marketing course offers a ton of valuable information if you plan to advertise on the search engine.

You can even take a Google AdWords certification at the end of the process that helps you beef up your resume.

Google has expanded its course offerings to include other types of digital marketing, too, so check out the site for up-to-date insights in the marketing world.

12. Codeacademy

Image Source

Codeacademy offers free, interactive coding classes that take you from bare-bones to building a fully functioning website.

The courses we’ve highlighted below just scratch the surface, though. Codeacademy offers a variety of course topics so you can truly focus on your niche.

These classes include lectures and a workspace in the same browser window so you can see the effect of your work as you create it — how cool is that?

13. General Assembly

Image Source

General Assembly offers live online courses that can be accessed for free or for a fee.

These courses specialize in technical skills and disciplines like the fundamentals of HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript.

Each one is categorized as one of five types that range from full-time immersive learning to on-demand learning. Once you choose your time commitment, simply find a course that works with your schedule.

14. Canva

Image Source

Canva helps people easily make beautiful images for web design, and Canva Design School offers design courses that are valuable for any kind of storyteller.

The Creativity course explores the challenges of constant creation and innovation and how to do it well — with visuals, of course.

Become a Marketing Powerhouse with These Free Certifications

I’m sure all marketers (myself included) can agree that furthering our education in this field is a worthwhile way to advance our careers or businesses.

Earning a certificate from a reputable online course is one of the most convenient ways to accomplish this.

Whether you want to take a free online marketing class or you’d like to devote more time and resources to a paid one, you can’t go wrong with one from this list.

Just remember to focus your studying on a specific sector of marketing and develop a niche skillset — you’ll be well on your way to success as a consummate marketer.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in May 2018, but was updated in July 2020 for comprehensiveness and freshness.

When setting up a paid Facebook ad, there are a lot of boxes to be checked.

Are you targeting the right people? Did you choose the right bidding model for your ad? Are you running the right type of ad? If we’re being honest, it can get a little confusing.

To help simplify the process for you, we’re breaking down the step-by-step process of running an ad on Facebook. And to make it even better, we put together a checklist to help you keep all of your campaign details straight.

With this resource in hand, let’s dive in to help you build the right ad for the right audience on this expansive platform.

Why advertise on Facebook?

With more than 2.9 billion people using Facebook every month, and nearly 1.9 billion users every day, Facebook offers a unique opportunity for marketers to augment their organic efforts.

• Your business can reach large audiences. Facebook is considered one of the “Big Four” of social media. With a platform regularly attracting so many people, it’s a well-worth shot at giving your brand more exposure and prospects.

• You can filter who sees your ad. When building your advertisement, you can set parameters from demographics such as age, interests, behaviors, and more to increase the likelihood of clicks. This is important because your ad spend can be allocated to prospects who may derive the most value from your offering.

• Facebook has built-in ad analytics. Ad performance tracking is recorded and available in real-time from the moment you begin your advertisement. You can use these metrics to understand better what’s working and how to improve your advertising strategy for future campaigns.

The trouble is, with both an investment of time and money on the line, there’s not much room for oversight. To capitalize on this platform’s audience and effectively create and run Facebook ads, you must first learn Facebook Ads Manager.

Facebook Ads Manager

Facebook’s Ad Manager is a sophisticated dashboard that provides users with an overview of all their campaigns.

Facebook Ads Manager features, otherwise labeled Ads Center features, are divided into four parts:

• Summary: This section summarizes your recent spend amount, ad performance, and key metrics like reach, post engagement, and link clicks are readily available reporting on performance. You can even enable autogenerated recommendations to boost performing well-performing posts in this section.
• All Ads: For businesses running multiple advertisements in a given period, you can select a specific ad to view more detailed metrics or edit things like your ad’s budget. You can also pause or delete the ones of your choosing in this section.
• Audiences: This section has any audience you’ve created for your ads. When you select a specific audience, you’ll see which ads reached those prospects and can make changes based on demographics as you see fit.
• Automated Ads: This section is only available if you’ve created Automated Ads. Best fit for beginners and those looking for a simple way to gain exposure, but without the precision, you may achieve manually. This section will list all your Automated Ads and a summary of recent results.

1. Create an account with Facebook Ads Manager.

To use the Facebook Ads Manager, you’ll need a Facebook Business Page (learn how to set one up here). This is because you can’t run ads through personal profiles.

Then, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to https://www.facebook.com/business/tools/ads-manager.
2. Click the button that says “Go to Ads Manager.”
3. Confirm your information on the ad account setup page.
4. Set up your payment method.
5. Save changes.

Once set up, the Ads Manager becomes the control center for your Facebook ads.

2. Start creating an ad through Facebook’s Ads Manager.

Once you log into the Ads Manager, you’ll see a performance dashboard where all of your campaigns, ad sets, and ads will be listed including the results they’ve driven for your Facebook page. Unless you’ve already created an ad for your Facebook page, this dashboard will be empty.

To create a new campaign, ad set, or ad through the Facebook Ad Manager, tab over to the type of ad you want to create and click the green “Create” button to far left of these ad types, as shown below. You can see from this screenshot that we’re currently set to create a New Campaign.

3. Choose an objective.

Facebook’s Ads Manager, like many social media advertising networks, is designed with your campaign objective in mind. Before getting started, Ads Manager will prompt you to choose an objective for your campaign:

There are 11 different objectives to choose from. The list includes everything from general brand awareness, to getting installs of your app, to increasing traffic to your online store.

By choosing one of these objectives, you’re giving Facebook a better idea of what you’d like to do so they can present you with the best-suited ad options. As shown in the screenshot above, Facebook’s ad options include:

• Brand awareness
• Reach
• Website traffic
• Engagement
• App installs
• Video views
• Lead generation
• Messages
• Conversions
• Catalog sales
• Store traffic

Let’s say, for sake of this blog post, you’re looking to drive more traffic to your website. When you select this option, Facebook will prompt you to enter the URL you’re looking to promote. If you’re using marketing automation software, be sure to create a unique tracking URL with UTM parameters for this to ensure that you’ll be able to keep track of traffic and conversions from this ad. For HubSpot customers, this can be done using the Tracking URL Builder.

Once selected, Facebook will then display the ad option that makes the most sense in terms of achieving this objective.

Featured Tool: Facebook Advertising Checklist

Don’t forget to download the Facebook Ads Checklist and save it for Facebook ad campaign best practices.

4. Choose your audience.

Your next step is to configure your target audience — you can do this for each ad set that belongs to the same campaign. If you’re just starting out with paid advertising on Facebook, it’s likely that you’ll have to experiment with several different targeting options until you reach an audience that fits just right.

To help you narrow your focus, Facebook’s targeting criteria are accompanied by an audience definition gauge. This tool — located to the right of the audience targeting fields — takes all of your selected properties into consideration in order to come up with a potential reach number.

If you’re wavering between choosing a specific audience over a broad one, consider your objective. If you’re looking to drive traffic, you’ll probably want to focus on the type of people you know will be interested in your offering. However, if you’re looking to build brand awareness or promote a widely appealing offer, feel free to focus on a more general audience.

Facebook’s built-in targeting is vast, including options such as:

• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Languages
• Relationship
• Education
• Work
• Financial
• Home
• Ethnic Affinity
• Generation
• Parents
• Politics (U.S. only)
• Life Events
• Interests
• Behaviors
• Connections

You also have the option to select a Custom Audience — this allows you to target people on Facebook who are in your company’s contact database, visited a page on your website that has a tracking pixel, or use your app or game. To learn more about how to set up a Custom Audience on Facebook, check out these instructions. (And for more on the specifics of these criteria, visit this Facebook targeting resource.)

Once you find a group that responds well to your ads, Facebook allows you to save these audiences to be used again later — so you may not need to dive into this step once you’ve been running Facebook ads for a while.

5. Set your budget.

Facebook allows you to set either a daily budget or a lifetime budget. Here’s how they differ from each other:

• Daily budget. If you want your ad set to run continuously throughout the day, this is the option you’ll want to go for. Using a daily budget means that Facebook will pace your spending per day. Keep in mind that the minimum daily budget for an ad set is $1.00 USD and must be at least 2X your CPC.
• Lifetime budget. If you’re looking to run your ad for a specified length of time, select lifetime budget. This means Facebook will pace your spend over the time period you set for the ad to run.

Facebook Ads Cost

The cost of advertising on Facebook isn’t bound to a set price, but instead differs on the scope and type of bidding model and strategy your business uses. These numbers are based on approximate rates derived from a 2020-2021 AdEspresso study on Facebook Ads Cost.

Bidding Model	Average Facebook Advertising Cost
Cost-per click (CPC)	$1.00
Cost-per-like (CPL)	$1.07
Cost-per-download (CPA)	$5.47
Cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM)	$7.19

Bidding Types	Bid Strategy
Spend-Based Bidding Based on spending full budget for most value possible	Highest Volume: Reach as many prospects as possible. Highest Value: Using the budget to maximize high-value sales over quantity.
Goal-Based Bidding Based on the value you want to achieve	Cost Per Result: Strive to keep costs amount to the cost per purchase to stay profitable, but not guaranteed to adhere fully. Return On Ad Spend: Aim to keep ad spend average to a ROAS control, but not guaranteed to adhere fully.
Manual Bidding Based on how much you can bid dynamically	Bid Cap: Setting a maximum bid across auctions; good for advertisers who understand predicted conversion rates.

Once your model and strategy are determined, you can further specify your budgeting and turn to the advanced options — this option is linked at the bottom of the screenshot shown above. This section allows you to specify a few things:

Schedule

Choose whether or not your want your campaign to run immediately and continuously or if you want to customize the start and end dates. You can also set parameters so that your ads only run during specific hours and days of the week.

Optimization & Pricing

Choose whether or not you want to bid for your objective, clicks, or impressions. (This will alter how your ad is displayed and paid for.) By doing so, you’ll pay for your ad to be shown to people within your target audience that are more likely to complete your desired action, but Facebook will control what your maximum bid is.

If you don’t want Facebook to set optimal bids for you, you’ll want to opt for manual bidding. This option awards you full control over how much you’re willing to pay per action completed. However, Facebook will provide a suggested bid based on other advertisers’ behavior to give you a sense of what you should shoot for.

Delivery

Delivery type falls under two categories: standard and accelerated. Standard delivery will show your ads throughout the day, while accelerated delivery helps you reach an audience quickly for time-sensitive ads (Note: this option requires manual bid pricing).

6. Create your ad.

What do you want your ad to look like? It all depends on your original objective.

If you’re looking to increase the number of clicks to your website, Facebook’s Ad Manager will suggest the Clicks to Website ad options. Makes sense, right?

This ad option is broken down into two formats: Links and Carousels. Essentially, this means that you can either display a single image ad (Links) or a multi-image ad (Carousel) with three to five scrolling images at no additional cost.

A Links ad will be displayed like this:

A Carousel ad will be displayed like this:

Once you decide between the two, you’ll need to upload your creative assets. It’s important to note that for each type of ad, Facebook requires users to adhere to certain design criteria.

For single image ads, Facebook asks that users adhere to the following design recommendations:

• Text: 125 characters
• Ad Headline: 25 characters
• Image ratio: 1.91:1
• Image resolution (including CTA): 1080 x 1080 pixels

For multi-image ads — also known as Carousel Ads — Facebook provides the following design recommendations:

• Recommended image size: 1080 x 1080 pixels
• Image ratio: 1:1
• Text: 125 characters
• Headline: 40 characters
• Link description: 20 characters

Remember that these are the ad options for the “Traffic” objective.

If you selected “boost your posts,” you’d be presented with different ad options like the Page Post Engagement: Photo ad. This ad has a unique set of design recommendations. To explore all of the ad options and their design specifics, refer to this resource.

Once you select an ad type, the Ads Manager will prompt you to identify how you’d like to display your ad. The options they provide are as follows: Desktop News Feed, Mobile News Feed, and Desktop Right Column.

Here’s how each ad would appear:

Desktop News Feed

Mobile News Feed

Desktop Right Column

Be aware if your ad isn’t associated with a Facebook page, you’ll only be able to run Desktop Right Column ads. To leverage all three display locations, you can learn how to create a Facebook Page here.

7. Monitor your ad’s performance metrics.

Once your ads are running, you’ll want to keep an eye on how they’re doing. To see their results, you’ll want to look in two places: the Facebook Ad Manager and your marketing software.

According to Facebook, here are some of the key metrics to look for (and their definitions):

• Performance. Can be customized further to include metrics like results, reach, frequency and impressions
• Engagement. Can be customized further to include metrics like Page likes, Page engagement and post engagement
• Videos. Can be customized further to include metrics like video views and avg. % of video viewed
• Website. Can be customized further to include metrics like website actions (all), checkouts, payment details, purchases and adds to cart
• Apps. Can be further customized to include metrics like app installs, app engagement, credit spends, mobile app actions and cost per app engagement
• Events. Can be further customized to include metrics like event responses and cost per event response
• Clicks. Can be further customized to include metrics like clicks, unique clicks, CTR (click-through rate) and CPC (cost per click)
• Settings. Can be further customized to include metrics like start date, end date, ad set name, ad ID, delivery, bid and objective

Regardless of which of these metrics you use to measure the success of your advertising efforts, you can find the data in the Ads Manager.

8. Reporting on Facebook ad performance.

You can receive custom reports via email as well. Here’s how to set it up:

1. Navigate to Analyze and Report through the upper main menu.
2. Choose Ads Reporting.
3. Select Create Custom Report.
4. Select and open a saved report.
5. Choose Save As next to the save icon. Give your report a name and check Schedule Email.
6. Follow the prompts to edit and confirm your reporting preferences.

While there are certainly a lot of details to keep straight when planning a paid Facebook ad, it’s important that you don’t lose sight of the big picture. Reporting on clicks and conversions from Facebook is important. However, if you’re using URLs with specific UTM codes, you have an opportunity to measure your ads’ full-funnel effectiveness using your marketing software.

Tracking URLs will help your marketing software keep track of how many leads, or better yet, how many customers you’ve gained from your advertising efforts. This information is useful in determining the ROI of this source, and can also be used to inform your overall Facebook marketing strategy.

If you’re a HubSpot customer using our ads tool, this process is already taken care of for you. You can also create unique tracking codes for your Facebook campaign by navigating to the Tracking URL Builder on the Reports Home page. All you’ll need to do is plug in the URL, attach a campaign, and choose the source you want the URL to be attributed to in your Sources Report. Once your ad launches and you start getting traffic and conversions on your website, you’ll be able to easily track how many visits, contacts, and customers you’re generating.

Consider Facebook Ads Manager for Your Next Campaign

Now that you know how to set up an ad, it’s time to create one of your own so that you can spread brand awareness on Facebook and generate traffic and leads from your ideal prospects on the platform.

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

Have you ever seen a product, service, or marketing ad and thought, “Who in the world is this for?” We’ve all seen marketing campaigns that have fallen flat because they didn’t connect with their target audience, or it was unclear who the target audience was.

Understanding target audiences is key to the success of any marketing campaign because consumers will feel as if they connect with your brand. If you’re unsure how to find your target audience, here’s what you need to know.

What is a target audience?

Target Market Vs. Target Audience

Types of Target Audience

How to Find Your Target Audience

Target Audience Examples

They are also used to define the buyer persona of a business, as well. Buyer personas are a representative overview of a business’s ideal customer drawn from data that makes up a target audience. Some of these demographics and behavior areas are:

• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Employment
• Income

This information helps understand the customer and how they make purchase decisions. Targeting a specific audience will help your campaigns reach the correct people who will relate most to your company’s message and products.

Always make sure to understand the difference between target audience and target market. While similar, their difference is critical for marketers.

Essentially, you can describe your target market by finding your target audience. If a target market were “marketers aged 25-35,” the target audience would be “marketers living in Boston, Massachusetts aged 25-35.”

Types of Target Audience

When we talk about types of target audiences, we’re talking about more ways to define who you’re creating a campaign for. You can segment your audience into groups or define them further using categories such as:

Purchase intention

This refers to groups of people looking for a specific product and wanting to collect more information before doing so. Some examples include consumers buying a new laptop, vehicle, clothing, or television. This data is necessary to see how you can better direct your messaging to your audience.

Interests

This is data about what people are into, like hobbies. Knowing this data helps you connect with your audience in a relatable way and unearth buyer motivation and behaviors. For example, when the weather is warmer and road racing season begins, consumers who enjoy road biking as a hobby are likely most interested in new road bikes in the spring.

For example, suppose you find many potential audiences interested in traveling. In that case, you can figure out how to use that message in your marketing campaign to appeal to more potential buyers.

Subculture

These are groups of people who identify with a shared experience. An example of this would be a specific music scene or genre of entertainment. People define themselves by subcultures, and companies can use those cultures to understand who they’re reaching out to.

An example of reaching a subculture is thinking of how they relate to your business, especially if you have a large potential audience. For instance, Netflix markets to their subcultures, people who watch specific types of content, using social media accounts directed to those subcultures.

As you’ve probably guessed, coming up with a target audience involves some research, which goes into fleshing out who you want to reach and how you can get there in a way that stands out from competitors.

If you’re ready to find yours, follow these steps below:

1. Use Google Analytics to learn more about your customers.

Google Analytics is excellent for obtaining demographic details about your audience and their interests. With Google Analytics, you’ll be able to see website insights broken into different sections, like age, gender, and location. These sections are labeled clearly on the dashboard and provide colorful graphs for you to interpret.

Above is an example of the age overview in the Audiences portion of Google Analytics. Notice the breakdown of the numbers and how the graphs give you an excellent visual. This tool can be a great asset in getting insight into who’s visiting your website and how your content fits into their lives.

2. Create a reader persona to target blog content.

With reader personas, you’ll never forget who you’re writing for. Your reader persona should be near identical to your buyer persona because your blog should contain content that’ll be useful for your readers. For example, marketers probably want to read blogs about digital media.

The difference between a reader persona and a buyer persona is that a reader persona generally focuses on the challenges your persona might face. How can you write content that solves those challenges?

For example, if one of the challenges you’ve identified in your buyer persona is “Marketing Mario wants to find a solution to low ROI on ad spending,” you can use a reader persona to think of content surrounding helping that challenge.

3. Look at social media analytics.

When are your followers most engaged with your social media channels?

Is it when you post a funny meme on Instagram or create a poll on Twitter? By looking at these questions, you can get a couple of clues into what content your audience is interested in, thus, filling in one of the parts needed to find a target audience.

Every social channel is different and has a diverse audience, so looking at your analytics across all platforms is essential. For example, Twitter tends to have a younger audience, while Facebook tends to have an older one. On the same note, Twitter is based on short-form content, while on Facebook, you can post long-form content and videos.

Instagram is a visually-based social media platform, so visually appealing content would thrive on the channel. Knowing these things, you can begin to plan your strategy accordingly.

Analytics can tell you who is looking at your profile. Moreover, they can tell you what’s working and not working content-wise.

By posting content your audience is more interested in, you can gain followers in your target market.

4. Use Facebook Insights.

If you have a Facebook page, Facebook Insights is precisely what you need. Facebook gives every page a vast set of insights for free. These insights work similarly to Google Analytics — you’ll receive critical information required to create a target audience.

You can see who and from where your visitors are by accessing the People tab on your Insights dashboard. Below is an example of how Facebook shows location demographics. It seems that a primary location is the East Coast, so it’s safe to say that part of the target audience for this page is located in East Coast cities.

Other areas Facebook focuses on include interests and integrations with other social media platforms, like Twitter. The insights report tells your audience’s lifestyle, such as if they purchase items online.

Insights like these can help you far into your campaign planning, past finding a target audience, so it’s a valuable tool to check on now and then.

5. Check up on website performance.

Monitor your best- and worst-performing content areas on your website. Your website can be the introduction to your company for a lot of your target audience, so sprucing up what interests them is a great way to attract more audience members.

By looking at what blog posts or landing pages are captivating your audience, you can repurpose content that isn’t and promote the content that is. For instance, if your blog post about email marketing was a hit with audiences, share it on your socials to expand your reach.

6. Engage with social media audiences.

Interacting with social media followers is so important because they’re your audience. When you create your buyer persona, they’re the users you should look to. Remember to keep this step in mind if you don’t have social media accounts yet.

Ask your followers what they want to see, and use tools like Instagram Stories and replies to get their response for how/what you’re doing. Whatever engagement you get, positive or negative, can influence how you attract more audience members.

For example, try tweeting something that invites a CTA, like “Send us a picture of your favorite outfit to wear with our new hats!” This evokes a response, responses you can analyze the language of and imitate to grow your audience.

1. Target

Target differentiates its content based on social platforms. For example, check out its Twitter account. The language is relaxed, engages users, and is generally geared toward a younger millennial crowd. This is because most of Twitter’s users are younger.

Alternatively, check out this Facebook post, a partnership with Jessica Alba, an actress focused on her family.

 

This move was probably made because Target’s target audience for Facebook campaigns is families, while its Twitter focuses on younger people. Target, as a global brand, has different target audiences.

For campaigns, they might focus on a specific audience over another or social media channels in general. Target found their target audiences and how they’re represented differently and used that to their marketing advantage.

2. Lightlife Foods

Similarly to the example above, let’s look at plant-based food company, Lightlife Foods. On Instagram, Lightlife posts high-quality images of recipes using their products. Occasionally, they work with Instagram influencers in the same market.

On Lightlife’s Facebook, however, they’ve invested heavily in video content. This is probably because it’s been proven that video content on Facebook performs exceptionally well. Lightlife is most likely targeting an audience that loves to watch videos on Facebook, whereas on Instagram, they’re most likely targeting not only foodies but influencers in their industry.

3. Apple Music

Let’s look at how Apple Music is reaching its target audience.

On Twitter, the streaming service prides itself on being free of ads, most likely to sway potential audience members away from similar streaming services that don’t provide the same benefit. They post playlists and other content only reachable by visiting the website.

Most of its Instagram content, however, leverages videos. Apple Music uses its Instagram to post snippets of interviews and other premium content with a subscription. Apple Music likely sticks to a formula based on where its content types perform best.

4. Vans

Vans has been a popular shoe brand among skateboarders and self-proclaimed “misfits” since the 1960s, but its target audience has expanded over the years. Vans has kept up with its changing target market by segmenting its audience and creating different Instagram accounts that appeal to various target audiences. Each account appeals to multiple people, from skaters to surfers to snowboarders.

Image source

For example, the account @vansgirls appeals to women and features content relevant to that demographic.

Image source

5. Netflix

As mentioned, Netflix has different platforms and content that appeal to the various subcultures of people subscribed to the streaming service. For example, Netflix found that over half of its subscribers watched anime in 2021. As a result, the streaming platform announced it was adding 40 new anime titles in 2022.

Image source

6. Fortnite

Fortnite is one of the most popular online video games to date, and recent statistics have shown an impressive amount of overlap between fans of anime and those of video games. 21% of gamers watch anime in a typical week and are 12% more likely to watch it than the average consumer.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that Fortnite decided to team up with Dragon Ball Z’s anime franchise to include DBZ-related skins and characters in the game. It’s likely Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, found that many of the game’s players are anime fans — the game developer decided to collaborate with one of the longest-running and most popular anime franchises to date.

Image source

Target audiences are meant to engage consumers and give a good idea of how to market to them. If your brand has multiple target audiences to appeal to, then Vans’ and Netflix’s methods of segmenting their audience and distributing different kinds of content could fit your business. If you have a singular audience, you can still benefit from knowing everything you can about them.

Happy campaigning!