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Marketing your nonprofit can be challenging.

Thankfully, learning from others that have already engaged with nonprofit marketing, leveraged trends, and found success can be helpful when it comes to developing your own strategy.

In this post, discover expert insight and tips from HubSpot’s Nonprofit Marketing Trends Report for 2022 that will help you build the brand awareness you’re looking for.

Nonprofit Trends to Watch in 2022

1. Collect donations on social media platforms with native donation features.

TikTok has grown in popularity for nonprofits in reaching audiences and collecting donations. In fact, almost 75,000 donations were made within the app in support of various organizations and causes in 2021.

Its donation feature is a native TikTok tool, so it’s valuable for nonprofits looking to use it as you can reach your target audiences on the platforms they already use rather than directing them down a donation path off the app. The image below displays the donation CTA on the Malala Fund’s TikTok profile.

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Other platforms like Instagram and Facebook have charitable donation tools, and Twitter recently launched a profile tipping option that nonprofits can leverage to connect donations on a profile.

2. Championing user-generated content.

User-generated content is content created by your audiences that relates to your business. So, for example, someone posting a picture on Twitter where they’re wearing athletic wear from a company.

According to HubSpot’s recent report, user-generated content is valuable for nonprofits and is a must-have for 2022. When leveraging this trend, a best practice is to share user-generated content from the groups you support. Doing this is beneficial because sharing a direct story from those impacted by what you do demonstrates the results of your efforts and can inspire those you reach out to to contribute because they’ll know you’re actively making a difference.

3. Personalized and segmented campaigns to generate donations.

Segmentation is essential for all businesses because consumers expect to see content related to their interests. When it comes to nonprofit marketing, this can dictate the strategies you use to fundraise for your business.

HubSpot’s Nonprofit Marketing Trends report calls attention to the following statistics when it comes to reaching your audiences:

• 1 in 4 donors between 18-29 prefer social media communications from nonprofits.
• Younger donors prefer recurring donations — almost half of 18-29-year-old donors and more than one-third of 30-44-year-old donors give monthly.
• Gen Z and Gen X prefer to donate via Facebook, social media, texting, and mobile apps.
• Boomers and Gen Xers want to hear from nonprofits quarterly or yearly rather than monthly or weekly.

Putting the statistics above into practice can look like sending text message donation campaigns to Gen X audiences and creating a social media donation challenge on TikTok to reach your audiences between 18-29. You can also segment CTAs on your website based on user age and past donation behaviors or send different email newsletters depending on recipients’ interaction with your business.

4. Partnering with other businesses.

HubSpot’s report says that, in 2021, nonprofits partnered with tech companies, local restaurants, influencers, and other nonprofits to leverage the power of community to build brand awareness and support for the causes they champion.

A key takeaway for nonprofits is to develop partnerships with businesses relevant to the causes you support. For example, Bed-Stuy Strong is a mutual aid network of neighborhood residents that support other residents. It hosted a free winter market for community members and partnered with Brooklyn Packers and Tamales of Hope to distribute food to those who attended.

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It’s important to note that your partnerships don’t need to be with other nonprofit organizations, though. If you can develop a relationship with a relevant local business that can further your cause, you can still generate awareness and spread your message.

6. Experimenting with NFTs.

Non-Fungible Tokens are one-of-a-kind digital pieces of content that cannot be replicated and belong exclusively to the person that has purchased them.

 

It’s an emerging channel for nonprofits, but if you’re looking to get in on it, you can partner with artists who can create NFTs relevant to your business and host virtual auction events where you can sell them to people and use profits to support your cause.

NFT4GOOD was a collection of 88 influential Asian-American and Pacific Islanders NFT cards. Each NFT purchase gave the buyer exclusive ownership rights to one of the cards, and all of the proceeds were given to the NFT4Good Community Fund to support Asian American organizations. The NFTs generated $80,000.

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Over To You

When creating your strategy, consider the strategies and trends on this list that other nonprofits are already leveraging. If you choose to use them, you’ll find yourself engaging in conversations with your target audiences, driving donations, and creating an impact for the communities you support.

According to a 2021 HubSpot Blog Marketing Trends Report, 69% of marketers surveyed say they use automation in their marketing role.

Whether automation is a new or standard practice in your company, we want to help you avoid common traps marketers often fall into.

In this post, we’ll discuss them and alternatives that solve these challenges.

1. You have dirty data.

In a 2021 state of marketing automation report, 58% of B2B professionals say the number one tactic that most amplifies the success of their marketing automation tool is quality data.

Dirty data can cost brands not only money but also time, as they take actions based on inaccurate information.

This can be anything from duplicate records and naming inconsistencies to outdated contact information and incorrect attribution.

A simple example of dirty data is an email list that’s never been cleaned. Your list likely has disengaged users, spam addresses, and duplicate emails that threaten the integrity of your data.

This will lead to low engagement numbers, damage to your IP reputation, high email marketing costs, and a loss of leads.

For your automation to function properly, it’s essential that you work with clean data to ensure your work will be worth the effort you’re putting in.

2. You picked the wrong automation tool.

A HubSpot Blog research report on media and content planning revealed that finding the right tool is a roadblock for many marketers.

In fact, 45.9% of those surveyed who don’t rely on marketing automation say the biggest obstacle they face is that they can’t find platforms with the capabilities they need.

In addition, 59% of B2B professionals say they don’t feel they’re utilizing their marketing automation tools to their fullest potential, according to the state of marketing automation report.

So, not only are marketers struggling with picking tools, they also struggle to use them.

Picking the right marketing automation tool is essential, as it will determine how successful your strategy is. Here are the top features to look for in marketing automation software:

• User-friendly, intuitive interface
• Advanced analytics and reporting
• Knowledge base and customer support tools
• Integrations
• Scalable options

Check out this article on the top marketing automation tools available on the market.

3. Your marketing and sales teams aren’t aligned.

The worst thing you can do with marketing automation is operating in a silo. At the end of the day, marketing is a function designed to support sales, products, and other business sectors.

As such, it’s imperative that your marketing team bring in all necessary stakeholders to build workflows that align with teams beyond your own.

This is particularly important with marketing and sales teams who work hand-in-hand to turn leads into marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) then sales-qualified leads (SQLs) and finally customers.

Have you thought about what processes would benefit your sales team? This could look like an automated email from a sales rep once a lead has completed a high-intent behavior.

Of course, to define what that behavior is, you have to define that with the sales team.

Marketing automation software can enable sales reps to focus on converting leads instead of tedious tasks.

4. You don’t train your team.

According to the state of marketing automation report, 31% of B2B professionals say the most significant barrier to using marketing automation tools is lack of training, the most popular answer after lack of resources.

Automation tools are powerful but worthless if your team doesn’t know how to use them.

Holding training sessions will ensure that key stakeholders know your tool’s capabilities, are aware of current workflows and understand the processes to create new ones.

Here are a few tips for training your team:

• Curate your training to the team – Information overload is a very real thing. To prevent this from happening and keep your sessions productive, only teach what’s relevant to that team.
• Invite service provider reps to participate – No one will know the software better than its reps. Reach out to your provider and see if they provide training sessions.
• Hold a multi-step training process – One session likely won’t be enough to efficiently train your team. Make sure you hold multiple sessions, using a combination of various learning strategies to promote learning.

5. You set and forget.

Although automation does suggest a set-and-forget approach, the reality is it’s very hands-on.

The difference is that your attention is going to something else. Instead of focusing on output, you can direct your attention to assessing performance and optimizing.

6. You only leverage only one type of automation strategy.

Too often, marketers start using marketing automation, get familiar with one set of tasks, then focus on that. Never expanding beyond what they already use.

This is how you miss out on opportunities to improve your brand. Take advantage of all of the features your software offers to maximize efficiency.

There are probably a lot of little tasks over the course of your work day that don’t seem time-consuming individually. However, if you add up all of the time you spend posting on social media, updating contact information, and other tasks, you end up with a large chunk of your day spent on things that can probably be automated.

Poke around your marketing automation to see which processes you can make more efficient. For example, in the HubSpot software, users can bulk update lead contact information instead of clicking into each record and changing details there.

The more processes you automate, the more time you’ll have each day to strategize with your team about content, lead generation, and lead nurturing tactics to keep attracting quality leads to your site.

Here are automation strategies you can leverage:

• Chatbots
• Task management
• Lead scoring
• Lead nurturing
• Contract/quote automation
• Lead rotation
• Drip campaigns

7. Your automation software doesn’t integrate with your CRM.

A marketing automation system is supposed to make marketing easier. A CRM system is supposed to make managing leads and customers easier.

If your automation software and CRM don’t talk to each other, then you are making a lot more work for yourself.

Before deciding on marketing automation and CRM platforms, make sure they can integrate with one another, and make sure you have the budget to make it happen.

8. You don’t have a goal.

Take advantage of the ease of use marketing automation software provides and invest time and efforts into determining your goals first. Once you have them, you’ll want to assign these goals to each automated effort – social media, email workflows, and so on – to ensure it’s easy to track progress.

After all, marketers need a way to measure success when it comes to marketing automation, and one means of doing so is by evaluating goal attainment. For example, here at HubSpot, the Visual Workflows tool lets you set a specific goal for each automated workflow.

A goal might be a new lead transitioning into a marketing-qualified lead based on certain behaviors, such as downloading a specific number of content offers.

HubSpot Visual Workflows also allows you to track the percentage of contacts in each workflow that achieve the goal, which is another great way to measure the success and ROI of your marketing automation.

9. You don’t segment your email list.

You have a database full of qualified leads, but you’re using marketing automation software to blast out tons of emails that aren’t customized at all. As a result, your leads are churning because your emails aren’t useful to them.

The solution? Develop a lead nurturing strategy that includes email list segmentation so you’re sending specific emails to specific people that they’re more likely to open.

With the right marketing automation software, it’s easy to execute an email list segmentation strategy that delivers strong results. For example, HubSpot customers can use the Visual Workflows App to target their emails based on dozens of criteria, both demographic and behavioral.

Marketing automation is a powerful tool for any company – the trick is knowing how to optimize it and which pitfalls to avoid. By keeping these in mind, you’ll ensure your automation is working at its maximum potential.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in Nov. 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness

A 2021 Mckinsey & Company report found that 78% of consumers are more likely to make repeat purchases from brands that personalize. Nearly 80% are also more likely to refer their family and friends to these companies.

As we know, personalization is the name of the game in customer experience nowadays. In this post, we’ll dive into key personalization trends you should know in 2022.

Demand for personalization is increasing.

According to Twilio’s 2022 State of Personalization Report, 62% of consumers say a brand will lose their loyalty if they deliver an un-personalized experience, up nearly 20% from 2021.

Another report by Zendesk suggests that customer experience is more important to consumers now than it was before.

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This uptick in a need for personalization didn’t just start recently, it grew in part due to the pandemic in 2020. This was a time of uncertainty that forced most consumers indoors and online for an extended period of time.

The Mckinsey & Company report reported that 75% of consumers tried a new shopping behavior during the pandemic. Consumers are seeking more valuable experiences from the brands they engage with.

In fact, the same study revealed that over 70% of consumers now expect personalization and are frustrated when they don’t find it – making personalization a must-have for today’s brands.

Online personalization is prioritized.

According to a 2021 Zendesk report, 65% of customers want to buy from companies that offer quick and easy online transactions.

The report also found that online companies are outperforming, with ecommerce brands leading in consumer engagement.

Here’s why: Online offers many more opportunities for personalization than in-person. You can target users to see your ad then follow them through their journey, as they discover your products and consider purchases.

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In-person, customers typically see generic displays followed by generic store experiences. Meanwhile, brands are unable to collect any data regarding items customers viewed and considered unless there was a purchase.

With these obstacles, many brands find it easier to personalize their marketing efforts online.

Omnichannel is the main way forward.

Only 35% of companies feel they are successfully achieving omnichannel personalization, up 13% from 2021 – according to Twilio’s 2022 State of Personalization report.

With consumers now actively engaging across multiple channels, effective personalization depends on an omnichannel approach that meets consumers where they are, not where brands expect them to be.

When it comes to personalized marketing, this is pretty badass.

Kudos @JetBlue! pic.twitter.com/sly4OEuKBl

— Cole Cook (@cwcook22)
June 24, 2022

One 2021 report by Vonage revealed that 26% of consumers are very likely to stop buying from a business if they can’t switch between communication channels.

However, McKinsey & Company notes some roadblocks to a seamless omnichannel strategy. Here are the two main ones:

• Traditionally, digital and customer-facing channels work independently so changing requires interlinking software and hardware.
• It involves changing the customer journey flow, which involves retraining staff and updating the process.

While these aren’t minor challenges, they can be addressed with the right team and resources.

Companies will prioritize first-party data as privacy concerns mount.

With the end of third-party cookies and the recent data privacy laws, brands have had to pivot their approach to collecting data. This shift has caused a domino effect, impacting personalization strategies.

According to Twilio’s 2022 State of Personalization Report, 37% of brands exclusively use first-party data to personalize customer experiences, a six percentage point increase compared to 2021.

Why? The first reason is higher quality data, according to 54% of respondents. The report shows that accurate data is a particular challenge for brands, keeping them from fully implementing personalization strategies.

Other reasons include better privacy and easier management.

Collecting first-party data enables companies to make better decisions more quickly and integrate their systems more easily for a seamless experience – for both marketers and consumers.

Key Tips About Personalization

1. Customization is not personalization. Customization is explicit, while personalization is implicit.
2. You can achieve intent-driven personalization by understanding what people engage with on your site.
3. Never forget that no matter how much technology changes, the key to great marketing is having an in-depth understanding of users.
4. The future of marketing is in making websites, products, or experiences personal in a deeply meaningful way.
5. The personalization of search results offers an opportunity to increase your visibility for really relevant searches.
6. The potential to engage customers contextually based on a need and serve that in real-time will drive mobile devices as they become payment vehicles.
7. Personalization has moved beyond segmentation to algorithmically-driven content.
8. Personalization is about leveraging what you can from individuals when they come to your inbound customer touch-points.
9. Don’t think about the different groups you want to market to. Think about the power of one and how to reach that person in the most customized and creative way.
10. The three-step approach to personalization is: listen, educate, and engage.
11. Think in terms of customer-centric recommendation engines rather than company-centric selling engines.
12. Personalization is about creating a natural conversation between companies and customers.
13. The three keys to balancing personalization and privacy are company transparency, consumer choice, and accountability.
14. With personalized ads, the goal is to reach the highest point of relevance at the lowest sense of intrusion.
15. Instead of thinking of data privacy as a limitation, consider that what needs work might be the value proposition.
16. Marketers can get too focused on the details and forget to focus on the most important aspect: relevancy.
17. Personalized marketing is not just for customers and prospects – it can affect change within an organization.
18. We’ve moved from opt-in, permission-based, and customized address fields in personalization to online relevant conversations that engage and excite.

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

As the world constantly changes, it can be hard to stay up to date with ever evolving consumer behaviors, preferences, and trends.

But, as marketers, knowing your buyer persona — and what motivates them — is absolutely vital.

To help both marketers and business professionals alike, we surveyed over 1,000 consumers across the U.S., talked with industry experts, and did a deep dive into generation-by-generation data to learn:

• What trends they’re following.
• Which online platforms they use.
• How and where they prefer to shop.
• What they think about returning to the office.
• and much, much more.

With this look into the minds, interests, and purchasing motives of today’s consumers, we hope we can better help you meet your target audiences where they are.

Without further adieu, let’s dive into the biggest consumer trends you’ll need to know about in 2022 — and beyond.

The State of Consumer Trends in 2022 [Top Findings You Need to Know About]

1. More and More, Gen Z Differentiates Themselves From All Other Age Groups

One of the most fascinating things to dig into when looking at survey results were the vast differences between Gen Z and other age groups — including their closest predecessor, Millennials. 

When taking a deeper dive into our generation-by-generation data, we found that Gen Z:

• When it comes to shopping, generations are highly influenced by price, quality, and product reviews. Gen Z especially values brands that have active communities around them.
• TikTok and Instagram are the most used social media apps among Gen Z women, while men spend much more time on YouTube.
• Gen Z is all about YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Not only for social networking and entertainment but also for discovering (and buying) products.

The findings above weren’t the only interesting points to call out. Our lead researcher and analyst, Maxwell Iskiev explores the differences between how all age groups shop and discover products with this follow-up guide:

How Each Generation Shops in 2022 [New Data from Our State of Consumer Trends Report]

2. People trust recommendations from influencers more than their loved ones.

For decades, word of mouth has proven to be a solid source for product referrals or recommendations.

But now, word of mouth from friends or family is seeing competition from a somewhat surprising source: online influencers. 

And in 2022, 30% of consumers now report influencer recommendations are one of the most important factors in their purchasing decisions, compared to 27% for recommendations from friends or family.

The Shopping Trends of 2022 & Beyond [State of Consumer Trends Data]

Why do people prefer to get recommendations from perfect strangers instead of friends or family?

To them, a great influencer might not feel like a perfect stranger. In fact, a great influencer might feel like a down-to-earth, but well-trusted expert or thought leader in an industry they’ve zoned in on. 

 Think about it this way, would you rather take a makeup recommendation from a friend who knows less about the beauty industry, or an influencer who’s gained a following by doing countless makeup tutorials and reviews on TikTok on Instagram?

In this post, Sr. Content Strategist Caroline Forsey dives even deeper into the shopping trend above and a handful of others you should keep in mind this year and beyond.

3. While social media channels are fun and emerging, search is the most valuable tool.

While age groups like millennials and Gen Z are quick to dive into new and emerging channels, especially those in the social media realm, they still turn to online searches, TV, and other utility channels to learn about everything from trends to products.

When asked where and how they discover new products, most consumers — regardless of age group — pointed to web searches.

To learn more about the other top channels consumers discover products or brands on, as well as the content they love to see when they’re there, check out Maxwell Iskiev’s post: The Top Channels Consumers Use to Learn About Products [New Data] or our FREE and downloadable State of Consumer Trends Report PDF.

4. If you don’t have a mobile-friendly strategy — you could fall behind.

It’s no secret that each new generation gets more and more mobile and digitally connected. And, as the years go by, technology, websites, and social media networks are getting more and more mobile.

But, today Gen Z and Millennials aren’t the only ones finding themselves surfing the web on mobile devices. Now, most consumers regularly use mobile devices for everything from search, to social media, to even online shopping.

These findings aren’t surprising to us. In our 2022 Web Strategy Report, web managers we polled described mobile optimization to be an incredibly effective strategy for marketing and site growth. 

5. Some consumers are stepping into Web3, but most don’t even know what it is.

While some consumers, especially those in younger generations like Gen Z and millennials, are ready to throw their whole wallet into the metaverse and cryptocurrency, most are still getting their first taste of the Web3 world.

In fact, 51% of our survey participants say they don’t even understand what Web3 even is yet.

While Web3 experts believe this technology will continue to grow in the coming years, businesses don’t need to pivot their whole strategy to get ahead of it right this second.

However, as the technology gets more prominent and accessible, it’s still helpful to learn about the potential opportunities and risks of the Web3 space. 

That’s why Caroline Forsey interviewed a handful of Web3 experts to learn more about how it could impact how consumers use the world wide web in the future.

Here is a quick, overarching summary of what Web3 could mean for future internet usage from Anna Seacat, VP of Marketing and Web3 Community at Proxy.

While Web3 might be a new concept to many, expect to hear more about it as the technology becomes more accessible to consumers and businesses in the coming years. For more expert predictions around this, hear what our CMO Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan, our SVP of Marketing, have to say about it in this episode of Marketing Against the Grain.

 

For more insights, check out these guides:

• How Web3 Technology Will Impact Consumer Trends [Expert Insights]
  
• How Businesses Could Shift in Web 3 [Executive Insights & Podcast]
• Everything Brands Need to Know About the Metaverse

6. Consumers crave video, and effective brands are taking notice.

By now, you know that video has played a powerful role in the lives of consumers. Not only do consumers stream more video than ever, but year-over-year, HubSpot researchers find that most brands consider it to be their most effective type of marketing content. 

But, not just any video will result in a conversion, purchase, or view. While you don’t need a huge budget to woo your audiences, you will need to create content they’ll actually enjoy, keep their attention on, and be persuaded by.

This video interview and post from Wistia CEO, Chris Savage goes into great detail on his tips for leveraging video to humanize your brand.

For more on how marketers are benefiting from video in 2022, also check out our 2022 Video Marketing Report.

7. Stores and online retailers aren’t going away, But social commerce is growing.

A few short months ago, it seemed like social commerce features on Facebook and Instagram were just launching and gaining visibility. And although consumers still prefer to shop at stores and on the sites of online retailers they know and trust, some have started to make purchases via their favorite social platforms. 

When we asked consumers to select the top three ways they prefer to buy products, a whopping 73% still prefer to shop in-store, while an unsurprising 53% said they like to buy from online retailers.

Despite how new social commerce is, one-tenth of consumers or 12% like to buy products directly from social media. And, with this trendd starting to grow, we’re already seeing some brands thrive on social commerce channels.

Take Pink Tag Boutique for example. The Kentucky-based clothing and accessories business saw immense growth on the Facebook Shops. They attribute $44,448 in incremental sales from the tool, and have seen 66% greater average order value from social commerce buyers compared to those who bought directly from the company site.

For more examples of brands that are already excelling in social commerce, check out this post.

You can also find more shopping trend data in this follow-up report from Caroline Forsey: The Shopping Trends of 2022 & Beyond [State of Consumer Trends Dataa]

8. Back to the office? Consumers would rather quit.

For the last two years, consumers — for the most part — have been stuck working at home. And, while many initially found it to be a tough new transition, a lot of us have learned to love it. 

Now, as offices turn the lights back on, and managers expect their teammates to come running back in, some currently remote or hybrid employees are saying, “Not so fast.”

While there still is a large chunk of consumers who would return to the office if asked to (roughly 46%), most survey participants (54%) would rather quit.

Even in times of financial uncertainty, it seems that consumers care more than ever about job flexibility — even in a time when job security is of larger concern.

It’s likely that some of the key things consumers and employees are craving at work are flexibility and work-life balance.

After all, countless studies show that it’s not healthy to make your job your entire life.

So, if you’re managing a team or planning an office re-entry strategy, keep your employees’ needs in mind. Below are just a few of the other workplace factors that could keep employees from looking elsewhere. 

For more on this, stay tuned for our upcoming coverage on workforce trends.

9. Many consumers consider themselves “creators.”

When looking at our survey results for the question, “Would you consider yourself a creator?”, we found that 30% of 18-24-year-olds and 40% of 25-34-year-olds call themselves content creators.

What’s great for brands here? Your very own audiences might jump at the chance to create content for you, which could in turn help them build online influence.

But, what exactly IS a “creator”? Check out this deep dive by Caroline Forsey to learn more: If Everyone’s a Content Creator, Is Anyone?

10. Consumers care about their privacy. Brands should too.

Throughout the last two years, marketers have been pivoting due to privacy changes like Apple IOS 15’s email privacy rollout and the looming phaseout of third-party cookies. But, they might not want to stop there when it comes to considering consumer privacy.

Across generations, our data found that consumers are more likely to trust, interact with, and purchase products from brands that they trust with their data.

And, while lots of data is certainly helpful for brands when learning about audiences, consumer trust is the best way to earn loyalty.

In fact, in his post about fostering a privacy-first world, HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar gives tips on how marketers can create strategies that feel personalized, but use data in an ethical, trustworthy, and transparent way.

As a marketer, it’s important to identify which data points you really need and don’t need from your consumers and transparently explain how data like cookies or contact information is used when consumers are asked to give it out.

What’s Next for Consumers, According to Trend Analysts

Now that you’ve read through the biggest findings of our Consumer Trends Report, you might also be asking, “What trends and themes could come in the next six months — or beyond?”

To give you a taste of just a few trends to keep on your radar, we reached out to Julia Janks of Trends.co to learn what she and her team of trend analysts will be focusing on. Here are three of the nine trends they’re keeping on their radar.

1. Gifting strategies could catch the eyes of consumers.

Forget loyalty points — gifting is the new customer retention strategy. As remote everything continues to rise, keeping connected to clients and loved ones will be key.

Source: &Open

Gifting powerhouse 1-800-FLOWERS had a record-breaking year in 2020, and venture capital is flowing into startups like &Open ($7.2m last May) and Gracia (~$14m since its 2017 launch).

Companies will also use gifting to target employees, since worker retention is at an all-time low, and the average cost of replacing an employee is about seven months of their salary.

2. Voice search and audio SEO opportunities will grow.

The world of podcasts is growing faster than the entire internet did back in the early 2000s. Spotify alone now hosts 3m+ shows (that’s ~43x the number of titles on Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV+, combined).

3. Consumers will visit pop-up shops — in the metaverse.

Pop-up shops in the metaverse are a thing now. And, brands like Hogan are already testing them out.

We could see the metaverse shopping industry continue to grow with consumer interest, as 30% of consumers HubSpot surveyed think more brands should consider virtual stores.

For the Julia’s full list of trends to watch, check out 9 Things Trends.co Analysts Will be Watching in The Next 6 Months & Beyond — and don’t forget to check out Trends.co for more business news, innovative ideas, and industry trend coverage.

Dive Deeper into Consumer Trends

In the post above, we gave just a few highlights of our State of Consumer Trends Survey, as well as our predictions for what’s to come. To learn more interesting themes, check out these follow-up posts:

• The Top Shopping Trends of 2022 [State of Consumer Trends Data]
• The Top Channels Consumers Use to Learn about Products in 2022
• How Each Generation Shops in 2022 [State of Consumer Trends Data]
• 9 Things Our Trends Team Will be Following in the Next 6 Months & Beyond
• How Web3 Will Impact the Future of Consumer Trends [Expert Insights]

Want all the data in one place? Click below to download the full findings of the survey in our State of Consumer Trends Report

Consumer Trends Post Authors

You may just be getting started with ebook creation as a marketing tool or reconsidering the role of ebooks in your existing content strategy.

Regardless of where you are in the process, you’re likely asking yourself an important question: What are the best ebook formats for your marketing library? This is a valid question because the ebook format you choose will determine the success of your efforts.

Here, we’ll cover all ebook formats and how to choose the best one for your project. We’ll also explain how HubSpot’s ebook templates can help you achieve your marketing team’s lead generation goals.

Ebook Formatting Templates

First up, download our kit of ebook templates so you can get an idea of the ebook formats that are available to you.

Featured Resource: 36 Free Ebook Formatting & Creation Templates

Download Your Free Ebook Templates

Our collection of 36 free ebook templates will help you create and format your ebook content for an incredible reader experience in Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe InDesign, and Google Slides. You can format your ebooks to best suit the needs of your marketing team and the preferences of your content readers.

Best Ebook Formats for Content Creation

If you’re a content creator, here are the ebook formats you should consider first.

1. Adobe InDesign

Adobe’s advanced design software gives content creators a myriad of options for creating and formatting their ebooks.

These advanced features do come at a price, but experienced marketing designers rely on Adobe InDesign because of those features.

Click Here to Download 6 Adobe InDesign Ebook Templates.

Pros

Adobe is known for being feature-rich. As a result, you can expect your ebooks to look their best when made with InDesign, as you’ll be able to create and incorporate original design elements right into your document.

Cons

For an inexperienced designer or the marketer who just needs to release a serviceable ebook, the bells and whistles that InDesign offers might not be necessary. InDesign’s interface and usability aren’t the most straightforward and could require you to put in more effort than is needed for your final deliverable.

2. Google Slides

Google Slides is a simpler tool for making an ebook compared to InDesign. The fact that the ebook lives online means you can collaborate in real-time with your team members to make a fantastic deliverable. Oh — and it’s free, which is helpful if you have a limited marketing budget.

Click Here to Download 6 Google Slides Ebook Templates.

Pros

Google Slides is a great tool for marketers who need to make a good ebook quickly, especially if you’re working alongside team members and sourcing feedback from them. Google Slides’ interface is arguably more straightforward than InDesign’s, meaning you can move and edit creative elements faster if you’re new to both tools.

Cons

Because Google Slides is primarily a presentation tool rather than an ebook creation tool, you may miss out on some necessary features that would help make your ebooks attractive enough to warrant your leads’ attention.

Conversely, you might need to make design elements elsewhere, such as an Adobe software tool or Canva, and later import these creative elements into your Google Slides deck. This could create an inconsistent creation experience if you need to track down design elements after you’ve created them.

3. Microsoft PowerPoint

A slightly more advanced option than Google Slides — but not quite as advanced as Adobe software — PowerPoint is another presentation-making platform that can be used to design an ebook.

Pros

PowerPoint has some features that Google Slides doesn’t, such as better effects for designing. PowerPoint is also an offline software, meaning you can build your ebooks without Wi-Fi.

Cons

PowerPoint is a paid software instead of a free tool available in Google Workspace. You also won’t be in sync with your team if you’re collaborating with them on edits and additions. Lastly, while it has better creative features than Google Slides, it doesn’t come close to the advanced features of InDesign.

Click Here to Download 6 Microsoft PowerPoint Ebook Templates.

Best Ebook Formats for Consumption

The ebook formats in this section are best for content consumption as you can embed links, mimic a real book, and spice up your content. The formats include:

1. Interactive PDF

The best ebook format for ebook consumption is an interactive Portable Document Format (PDF).

PDFs are the go-to option for content marketing ebooks for many reasons. Among them are the consistency of their design and readability on different devices.

We at HubSpot use PDFs for our ebooks because we can embed links to relevant pages and sources in them. We can also upload them right into our content library and trust that the design will appear as intended, even if our leads open the ebook in Chrome, Safari, or Preview. The document will also appear the same if they open it on their phones or on a desktop device.

The interactive nature also means we can include an open text box for readers to complete an activity in the book (like in our Content Marketing Workbook). Another plus? Readers can complete the activity in whatever application they’re consuming the content.

2. EPUB

EPUB, short for electronic publication and saved with a “.epub” file extension, is another way for you to save your ebooks.

EPUBs rose in popularity after becoming a prominent ebook format for e-readers. But, given its accessibility on Apple macOS and iOS products via Apple Books, the format is also a viable — though somewhat limiting — option for content marketing ebooks.

One unique feature of the .epub file format is its scroll ability. To mimic the reading of an actual book, readers can view one page at a time and must scroll or swipe horizontally. That’s in contrast to vertical scrolling with PDFs. The epub format gives your readers the feeling of reading a book as opposed to interacting with website content. However, this also means readers might have to do more work navigating the content and finding the information they need.

Additionally, video and audio files can be embedded in the .epub format, unlike PDFs, which means your readers can consume more interactive content without leaving the ebook.

If you’re tired of the PDF option and want to spruce up your content format, you can save your InDesign ebooks as a .epub file. Just be prepared for some readers being unable to read your content, which is something you likely don’t want to be the case. This is because the format is limited. For example, Amazon Kindle devices can’t read .epub files. Readers will have to convert your ebook into another format if they want to read it on their Kindles.

How to Choose the Right Ebook Format

The ebook format you choose directly affects how your ebook performs after publication. Here are a few tips to help you choose the correct one for your project for best results.

1. Consider your target audience.

Who are your consumers? This is the first question you need to answer before choosing an ebook format. Your content needs to be accessible to your readers. For example, if you’re targeting a huge audience, you’ll need to consider an ebook format compatible with several digital devices.

2. Decide how you’ll market your ebook.

How you plan to market your ebook is also a significant factor when choosing a format. When it comes to selling an ebook, you’ll be self-publishing because you need to quicken up the process. You can do so either on your own site, or on a platform such as Amazon.

Self-publishing means you get to use your resources to market your ebook. Therefore, you’ll need a way to reach a huge audience, which may mean using an ebook format like AZW that’s compatible with different platforms. This will give you the highest level of flexibility in terms of the number of platforms that your audience can comfortably read your book.

3. Consider the nature of your ebook.

Another factor you need to consider when deciding on the best ebook format is its nature. Is it mostly words, or will there be graphics and images? Will you be adding helpful practical digital products like Google Sheets that readers will need to download? All of this will determine the best ebook format for your project. If possible, come up with a list of all the different types of content that your ebook will contain to ensure the ebook format you choose supports all of them.

If you’re selling an ebook containing digital images and illustrations with sound or video, you’ll need a format that supports these features. For example, the EPUB format supports videos, color images, and other interactive elements, while MOBI doesn’t.

Avoid the temptation of assuming what an ebook format will look like once you’re done. Sometimes, the end product can be very far from what you expect it to be, and correcting it will be expensive. Inquire and do thorough research on all features before settling for any format.

4. Consider the security or privacy of your ebook.

Writing an ebook from start to finish takes a lot of time and energy, so the last thing you want is everyone editing it once it’s released. This can have several implications for your brand. For example, your audience may end up receiving false information about your project, and the false content may give undesired results. If they’re editable materials in your ebook, ensure there is a way for the reader to create a separate document first to avoid editing the entire document. This also protects your readers’ privacy by preventing them from unknowingly filling in their personal information on a public document.

You also want to ensure the security of your ebook by preventing illegal sharing, printing, and copy-pasting. This is especially crucial for high-ticket ebooks, as it limits readers from sharing your content for free. If limiting sharing is important to you, it’s advisable to use a format like EPUB that’s protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM). The latter locks files in a particular platform and protects them from illegal sharing.

5. Think about the budget.

If you have two or more ebook formats that work well with your project, the best way to break the tie is to consider the cost. How much will it cost you to launch your ebook using each format? Is it feasible? In addition, consider how much it would cost if you wanted to expand. The best ebook format is cost-friendly at the beginning and in the long run. If it’s cheap initially but limits your growth, it’s not worth it. A good ebook format should not only make launching your product easier, but it should also be cost-friendly when you decide to expand.

Choose the right ebook format and get started.

There are several ebook formats in the market that are popular for publishing ebooks. However, like everything else in business, what works for one publisher might not be the best option for another. Take your time and research the features every format offers and see which one best fits your project.

In addition, consider the cost, the kind of content your ebook has, and most importantly, the delivery method that works best for your audience.

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

We’ve all heard this maxim, “First impressions last”, so we are aware how important it is to strike a good impression.

Showed up late for a job interview? That’s a bad first impression. Eat a clove of garlic and forget to brush your teeth before a first date? Also a bad first impression.

It turns out that the “make a good first impression” principle holds true not only in face-to-face encounters but in email interactions as well. The outcome of giving a good impression in emails goes a long way to connect with potential business contacts or customer

When you send a welcome email to a new blog reader, newsletter subscriber, or customer, you’re making a first impression on behalf of your brand. To help ensure you’re making the best first impression possible, we’ve rounded up some examples of standout welcome emails from brands big and small.

Pro Tip: Use HubSpot’s free email marketing software to easily create a high-quality welcome email sequence like the ones featured below.

Each example below showcases different tactics and strategies for engaging new email subscribers. Let’s dive in.

The Components of an Impressive Welcome Email

One factor that really impacts the customer onboarding process is the welcome email. While there’s no one-size-fits-all format, there are several key components that can help your email stand out from the crowd and connect with your intended audience. These include:

1. Compelling Subject Lines

Making sure recipients actually open your emails is the first step in making a good impression. Subject lines are critical, so opt for short and straight to the point subjects that state clearly what you’re sending, who it’s from, and why it matters to potential customers.

2. Content Recommendations

While the main purpose of welcome emails is to introduce your brand, it’s also critical to add value by providing the next steps for interested customers. A good place to start is by offering links to the great content on your website that will give your customers more context if they’re curious about what you do and how you do it.

3. Custom Offers

Personalization can help your welcome emails stand out from the pack. By providing customized introductory, offers on products consumers may be wanted. By basing it on the information they’ve provided or data available to the public via social platforms, welcome emails can help drive ongoing interest.

4. Clear Opt-Out Options

It’s also important to provide a clear way out if users aren’t interested. Make sure all your welcome emails contain “unsubscribe” options that allow customers to select how much (or how little) contact they want from you going forward. If there’s one thing that sours a budding business relationship, it’s the incessant emails that aren’t easy to stop. Always give customers a way to opt-out.

10 Examples of Standout Welcome Emails

So what does a great welcome email look like? We’ve collected some standout welcome message series examples that include getting started messages, thank you emails, and offer templates to help you with your customer onboarding process from start to finish — and make a great impression along the way.

1. Virgin America

Type of welcome: Get Started

A welcome email is a perfect medium for introducing folks to the characteristics (and eccentricities) that make your brand unique.

For Virgin America, that means putting the “I love you” hand symbol front and center. This small gesture signals to the recipient that the folks at Virgin America care about their customers. The playful accompanying copy, “Welcome aboard,” and casual call-to-action, “Grab a seat,” also helps to position Virgin America as a hip, fun-loving brand right off the bat.

2. Food52

Type of welcome: Get Started

Sometimes the tiniest of elements in a welcome email can speak volumes about a brand. And when it comes to Food52’s welcome email, their preview text at the top of the email, “We brought snacks,” definitely accomplishes this.

Also known as a pre-header or snippet text, the preview text is the copy that gets pulled in from the body of an email and displayed next to (or beneath) the subject line in someone’s inbox. So when you see Food52’s welcome email in your inbox, you get a taste of their brand’s personality before you even open it.

Food52’s welcome email also does a good job of building trust by putting a face (make that two faces) to their name. As soon as you open the email, you see a photograph and message from the company’s founders.

3. Monday.com

Type of welcome: Video

From the subject line, down to the conversational tone in the email body, the image of a welcome email above keeps it friendly and simple, so the focus stays on the introductory video inside.

Monday.com is a task management tool for teams and businesses, and the welcome email you get when you sign up makes you feel like a CEO, because Roy Man is speaking directly to you. The email even personalizes the opening greeting by using the recipient’s first name, and this is well known for increasing email click-through rates (especially if the name is in the subject line).

The more you can make your email sound like a one-on-one conversation between you and your subscriber, the better. If you have just so many details that you need to inform your new customer about, follow Monday.com’s lead and embed them on a video, rather than spelling them all out on the email itself.

4. Kate Spade

Type of welcome: Thank You

Let’s face it, the internet-using public like us are constantly bombarded with prompts to sign up for and subscribe to all sorts of email communications. So as a brand, when someone takes the time to sift through all the chaos in order to intentionally sign up for your email communications, it’s a big deal.

To acknowledge how grateful they are to the folks who actually take their time to subscribe, Kate Spade uses a simple but effective tactic with their welcome emails. They say “Thank You” in big, bold lettering. y placing that “Thank You” note on an envelope, Kate Spade recreates the feeling of receiving an actual thank you letter via mail. (The 15% off discount code doesn’t hurt either.)

5. Lyft

Type of welcome: Get Started

If there’s an ideal “attitude” that welcome emails should give off, Lyft has it. The company’s simple but vibrant welcome email focuses entirely on the look and feel of the app, delivering a design that’s as warm and smooth as the lifts that Lyft wants to give you. At the same time, the email’s branded pink call-to-action draws your eyes toward the center of the page to “Take a Ride”, an inviting language that doesn’t make you feel pressured as a new user.

6. Munk Pank

Type of welcome: Our Story

The Munk Pank’s welcome email is the story of why the company was founded. This is a healthy snack store founded by a husband and wife. In their welcome email, they mention that they started the company because they never seemed to find nutritious snacks to keep them energized and on the go.

This is an excellent version of a welcome email because they let their customers know they can relate to the problems they’re facing and they’ve been there. This helps in building trust and relatability; it also gives customers a peek into what they should expect from their products.

The email ends by sharing the company’s mission to help them live a healthy lifestyle. This welcome email lets subscribers know that they’re joining a tribe that is concerned about their healthy eating and lifestyle; a mission that goes beyond snacks.

7. Who Gives a Crap

Type of welcome: Why Us

Who Gives a Crap is an organization that sells organic toilet paper, and they’re very passionate about it. Their welcome email is equally fun and informative. They state all the reasons why you should opt for organic and eco-friendly products. Then, they sweeten the pot (pun intended) by noting that they donate 50% of their profits to global sanitation projects.

The email reminds the buyer that they still get the toilet paper at the same price they do in the supermarket. They also have a compelling call to action in their welcome email that offers 10% of their products for people who subscribe to their email list. The company added their “Shop Now” button for convenience, so if readers are convinced to buy, they can do so in one click.

8. SAXX Underwear

Type of welcome: Offer

SAXX Underwear specializes in men’s underwear, and their welcome email is very catchy and creative. Their subject line “welcome to you and your balls” is just a taste of how they use a humorous and relatable tone to connect with their audience.

Their welcome email is very visual, too. They demonstrate their comfort guarantee with images of models wearing their boxers.

The welcome email also gives a 10% off code for their first-time buyers and directs them to their store. Besides the offer, they present their refund policy boldly to provide reassurance for prospects who may be unsure. These gestures help to build trust with their new subscribers and encourage them to buy from them.

What really stands out in the SAXX Underwear welcome email is the tone of the copy and the careful yet bold and catchy choice of words.

9. InVision

Type of welcome: Video

When you sign up for InVision’s free prototyping app, the welcome email makes it very clear what your next step should be.

To guide people on how to use InVision’s app, the company’s welcome email doesn’t simply list out what you need to do to get started. Instead, it shows you what you need to do with a series of quick videos. Given the visual, interactive nature of the product, this makes a lot of sense.

10. Drift

Type of welcome: Get Started

No fancy design work. No videos. No photos. The welcome email Drift sends out after signing up for their newsletter is a lesson in minimalism.

The email opens with a bit of candid commentary on the email itself. “Most people have really long welcome email sequences after you get on their email list,” Dave from Drift writes, before continuing: “Good news: we aren’t most people.” What follows is simply a bulleted list of the company’s most popular blog posts. And the only mention of the product comes in a brief postscript at the very end.

If you’re trying to craft a welcome email that’s non-interruptive, and laser-focused on adding value instead of fluff, this is a great example to follow.

Bonus Example: HubSpot’s Welcome Email Templates

Need a little help in getting your welcome email efforts off the ground? We’ve got you covered with welcome message templates to streamline the connection process. The example below is one of four templates offered in our free kit (which also includes 40+ customer email templates) and showcases a straightforward example of a great welcome email.

Simply fill in the details, tweak the text to reflect your brand voice, and start sending.

Now that you’ve seen some great examples of welcome emails, let’s dig into the process of writing a great email and catching customer attention.

1. Write a catchy subject line.

Research shows that while more than 90% of welcome emails are opened, just 23% of them are actually read. That means if your welcome email doesn’t catch the eye of your new customer, they may not know you sent it at all.

The best tool you can leverage to increase email open rates is the subject line. A catchy and actionable subject line can draw customers in and make them curious about your content.

When writing subject lines, be sure to include what your email is promoting and how it will benefit your customer. Remember to be concise, because the reader can only see a sentence or two in the preview. A good rule of thumb is that your subject line should provide enough information to peak the reader’s interest, but not enough so that they need to open your email for the full details.

2. Restate your value proposition.

Although this may seem like an unnecessary step to take, it can actually provide some significant benefits.

The most obvious benefit is that it provides the customer with some reassurance that they made the right decision signing up. It’s never a bad thing to remind customers why they created an account with you, and it clarifies exactly what they can expect to achieve with your product or service.

This also gives you the opportunity to clearly explain any ancillary services or features that you offer that could create more stickiness with your business. This is especially true if you have a complex solution with unique features that customers might not know about.

3. Show the next onboarding steps.

Now that you’ve reminded them why they signed up, get them fully set up with your product or service. Usually, there are steps that users must take after signing up to get the most out of the platform. Examples include:

• Completing their profile information
• Setting preferences
• Uploading necessary information (e.g. contacts into a CRM, profile picture for a social media profile, etc.)
• Upgrading their account or completing an order

4. Generate the “A-ha” moment.

This is one of the most important steps to take in a welcome email, and there’s a substantial and data-driven reason behind that. Former Facebook head of growth, Chamath Palihapitiya, discovered that if you can get a user to acquire seven friends within 10 days, they were much more likely to see Facebook’s “core value” and become a returning active user. This is known as an “a-ha moment,” in which the customer understands how they benefit from using your product or service.

The goal is to get the user to this aha moment as quickly as possible so your product sticks and the customer achieves success as soon as possible. This will produce a better overall customer experience and ultimately help your business grow.

To get this done, first identify your business’s “core value” and the obstacles or prerequisites customers must complete to receive this value. Then you can use your welcome email to guide new customers through these tasks.

5. Add helpful resources.

As mentioned in the previous step, you want the user to see the value immediately. But, customer success doesn’t stop there. Depending on the nature and complexity of your product, customers may need additional help. For example, customers might require guidance on troubleshooting, utilizing advanced features, or getting the most value out of your core features.

It’s likely that you’ve already created help content addressing common questions from customers. Whether it’s tutorial videos, an FAQ page, or helpful blog posts containing best practices, this help content is essential to customer success. Why not include it in your welcome email? This gives them the tools they need upfront without forcing them to search for the information after a problem arises.

6. Provide customer service contact information.

The final step to setting your customers up for success is making sure that they know how to contact you. You can spend all the time in the world creating excellent help content, but you can’t foresee every possible problem that will arise for your customers.

Even if you could, customers are only human, and not all of them will be willing to pore through your help resources to find the answer to their questions. So it’s best to be forthright with customers on how they can get in touch with you for additional help.

Adding this contact information to your welcome email is a great way to lay the foundation of trust needed for building a relationship. It drives customer loyalty and reassures readers that you are available if they need you. Avoid sending customers on a treasure hunt just to find a way to ask you a simple question. This will lead to frustration and send them into the arms of your competitors.

7. Conclude with a call-to-action.

You should wrap up your welcome email with a call-to-action that entices customers to begin the onboarding process. After you’ve demonstrated your company’s values and explained how you’re going to help them achieve their goals, customers will be eager to get started. So, make things easier for them by providing a button at the end of the email that triggers the first step in the onboarding process.

Here’s one example of what this could look like.

How to Write an Employee Onboarding Welcome Email

The onboarding process has a huge impact on how the new employees feel about your company, so it’s important to give it the time and energy it deserves. One of the important parts of this process is the onboarding welcome email. It has to match the company’s tone and outline all the expectations you have for the new employee. If this is your first time writing an onboarding email, you’ll find the following steps helpful.

Here are the steps to follow when writing an onboarding email.

1. Decide on the content of your onboarding email.

Before you start, it’s important that you are aware of the content of an onboarding welcome email.

The contents are going to vary based on the conditions. For example, an email onboarding remote employees is completely different from an onboarding email for an employee who will work onsite.

For an onsite employee, the onboarding email should include:

• Welcome events
• First-day schedule
• Arrival instructions
• How to access their workstation
• Break room details (where to warm lunch, get coffee, etc.)
• Dress code
• What they’re required to bring (passport, ID, social security work, or any other paperwork)
• Parking information
• Contact information

For a remote employee, the content may include:

• First-day schedule
• Contact information
• Sign up details for collaboration tools
• Welcome video conference meeting (time to be held)

Again, you can change the content based on your company’s needs.

2. Decide on the tone you want to use in your email.

The next thing you need to decide on is the tone you want to use in your onboarding email. Do you consider your company friendly, casual, or super formal? Whatever your answer is, it should reflect on the tone of the onboarding email. This gives the employee an idea of the kind of workplace environment they should expect. It also sets the tone for how your new employee is expected to use when representing your brand.

3. Draft your onboarding email.

The next step is to draft your onboarding email. While the tone of your email might change to fit your needs, here is an example of a template you can use.

Dear [Employee’s name],

We are very excited to welcome you to [company name]. Please remember to carry your ID to get easy access to our premises. We expect you to be in the office by [time], and our dress code is [formal/super casual].

At [company name], we pride ourselves on creating the best environment for our employees. As you’ll see, our team has already prepared your workstation for you and set up your software to make your first day easy. You’ll also be given access to your designated parking spot, a customized company bag, t-shirt, and mugs, among other goodies.

Our team has also planned all the details for your first week to ensure you settle easily. You’ll receive a document with your schedule and agendas for your first week from HR when you arrive. Human Resources will also help you fill in the required paperwork and answer all your questions. After the meeting with HR, you’ll be assigned a mentor who will show you the ropes in our company and how we get things done.

Our team is excited to meet you during the [planned event].

If you need any clarity prior to arrival, please reach out to me by phone [phone number] or email. I’ll be more than happy to help.

Welcome to the [company name], [employee name]. We are looking forward to working with you and watching you grow and soar to greater heights!

Warm Regards,

[your name]

[your signature]

4. Edit your email.

After writing your email, make sure you edit it to ensure you include all the necessary details. You can also use tools like Grammarly for any grammatical errors. You can also have a colleague double-check the email. Remember to attach any necessary documents, links, or images as supplemental information.

5. Send or schedule the email.

Lastly, send the email or schedule it to ensure it is received in a timely manner. For example, you want to avoid sending an onboarding welcome email on Sunday evening, which may give the wrong impression.

This will allow the new Employee to be psychologically prepared and find the necessary documents.

Make a Great First Impression

Bottom line? Whether it’s in-person, over the phone, or by email, first impressions matter. Your welcome email is often the first chance a prospective customer or contact has to see what your brand is all about and if you don’t stick the landing, they’ll likely go somewhere else.

Luckily, writing a great welcome email is simple. It’s not necessarily easy, but if you focus on what matters such as compelling subject lines, great content, personalized offers, and always, always a way to opt-out, your first impression can help lay the groundwork for long-term relationships.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If you’re considering spending any amount of money on ads to reach your target audience, you’d better spend it in the right place.

That is, somewhere with over 2.9 billion unique monthly visitors and 5 billion daily interactions.

Somewhere like Google.

Google Ads was launched just two years after what has become the most popular website in the world: Google.com. The advertising platform came on the scene in October 2000 as Google Adwords, but after some rebranding in 2018, it was renamed Google Ads.

Given Google’s expansive reach, chances are you’ve seen (and probably clicked on) a Google ad, and so have your potential customers.

It’s no secret that these days, the stronger and more focused your paid campaigns are, the more clicks you generate — leading to a greater probability of obtaining new customers.

Little wonder then that Google Ads has become increasingly popular among businesses across all industries.

In this guide, you’ll discover how to begin advertising on Google. We’ll cover features specific to the platform and teach you how to optimize your campaigns to achieve the best results with your ads.

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads is a paid advertising platform that falls under a marketing channel known as pay-per-click (PPC), where you (the advertiser) pay per click or impression (CPM) on an ad.

Google Ads is an effective way to drive qualified traffic, or good-fit customers, to your business who’re searching for products and services like the ones you offer. With Google Ads, you can boost your website traffic, receive more phone calls, and increase in-store visits.

Google Ads allows you to create and share well-timed ads (via both mobile and desktop) among your target audience. As a result, your business will show up on the search engine results page (SERP) at the moment your ideal customers are looking for products and services like yours via Google Search or Google Maps.

This way, you reach your target audience when it makes sense for them to come across your ad.

Note: Ads from the platform can span across other channels, too, including YouTube, Blogger, and Google Display Network.

Over time, Google Ads will also help you analyze and improve those ads to reach more people so your business can hit all of your paid campaign goals.

Discover how HubSpot can help you better manage your Google Ads.

Additionally, no matter the size of your business or your available resources, you can tailor your ads to suit your budget. The Google Ads tool allows you to stay within your monthly cap and even pause or stop your ad spending at any point in time.

Now, onto another critical question: Is Google Ads really effective? To answer this, let’s consider a few statistics:

• Google Ads has a click-through rate of nearly 2%.
• Display ads yield 180 million impressions each month.
• For users ready to buy, paid ads on Google get 65% of the clicks.
• 43% of customers buy something they’ve seen on a YouTube ad.

Why advertise on Google?

Google is the most used search engine, receiving over 5 billion search queries daily. Not to mention, the Google Ads platform has been around for nearly two decades, giving it some seniority and authority in paid advertising.

Google is a resource used by people worldwide to ask questions answered with a combination of paid advertisements and organic results.

Need another reason? Your competitors are using Google Ads (and they might even be bidding on your branded terms).

Hundreds of thousands of companies use Google Ads to promote their businesses, which means that even if you’re ranking organically for a search term, your results are being pushed down the page beneath your competitors.

If you’re using PPC to advertise your product or services, Google Ads should be a part of your paid strategy — there’s no way around it (except maybe Facebook Ads, but that’s another article).

Google Ads Best Practices

If you’ve tried unsuccessfully to advertise on Google, don’t give up. There are many reasons why your Google Ads could be underperforming. But, first, let’s cover some standard Google Ads best practices.

1. Use a PPC planning template.

Download this Template for Free

Using a planner keeps your PPC projects organized. With Google and HubSpot’s PPC Planning Template, you can view how your ads will appear online, see your character counts, and manage your campaigns all in one place.

2. Avoid broad keyword terms.

You really need to nail it for your keywords, which is why testing and tweaking should be a part of your strategy. If your keywords are too broad, Google will be placing your ad in front of the wrong audience, which means fewer clicks and a higher ad spend.

Review what’s working (i.e., which keywords generate clicks) and adjust them to best match your ads with your target audience. You likely won’t get the mix right the first time, but you should keep adding, removing, and tweaking keywords until you do.

Tip: Review the keyword strategies that we cover below.

3. Don’t run irrelevant ads.

If your ad doesn’t match the searcher’s intent, you won’t get enough clicks to justify your ad spend. Your headline and ad copy need to match the keywords you’re bidding on, and the solution your ad is marketing needs to solve whatever pain point that searcher is experiencing.

It’s a combination that will yield the results you’re looking for, and it may just be a few tweaks away. You have the option to create multiple ads per campaign — use this feature to split test which ads work best. Or, better yet, use Google’s Responsive Search Ads feature.

Tip: Read our best practices for ad copy.

4. Improve your Quality Score (QS).

Your Quality Score (QS) is how Google determines how your ad should rank.

The higher your QS, the better your rank and placements on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). If your quality score is low, you’ll have fewer eyeballs on your ad and fewer chances to convert.

Although Google lets you know your Quality Score, it’s your responsibility to improve it.

Tip: Keep reading to learn how to improve your QS.

5. Optimize your ad landing page.

Your efforts shouldn’t stop with your ad — the user experience after a click is equally essential.

What does your user see once they click your ad? Is your landing page optimized for conversions? Does the page solve your user’s pain point or answer their question? Your user should experience a seamless transition through the conversion process.

Tip: Review landing page best practices and implement them to increase your conversion rate.

These common terms will help you set up, manage, and optimize your Google Ads. Some of these are specific to Google Ads, while others are generally related to PPC. Either way, you’ll need to know these to run an effective ad campaign.

1. AdRank

Your AdRank determines your ad placement. The higher the value, the better you’ll rank, the more eyes will fall on your ad, and the higher the probability of users clicking your ad. Your AdRank is determined by your maximum bid multiplied by your Quality Score.

2. Bidding

Google Ads is based on a bidding system, where you, as the advertiser, select a maximum bid amount you’re willing to pay for a click on your ad. The higher your bid, the better your placement. You have three options for bidding: CPC, CPM, or CPE.

• CPC, or cost-per-click, is the amount you pay for each click on your ad.
• CPM, or cost per mille, is the amount you pay for one thousand ad impressions; that is when your ad is shown to a thousand people.
• CPE, or cost per engagement, is the amount you pay when someone takes a predetermined action with your ad.

And, yes, we’ll review bidding strategies below.

3. Campaign Type

Before you begin a paid campaign on Google Ads, you’ll select between seven campaign types: search, display, video, shopping, app, smart, or performance max.

• Search ads are text ads that are displayed among search results on a Google results page.
• Display ads are typically image-based and are shown on web pages within the Google Display Network.
• Video ads are between six and 15 seconds and appear on YouTube.
• Shopping campaigns appear on search results and the Google shopping tab.
• App campaigns use information from your app to optimize ads across websites.
• Smart campaigns have Google finding the best targeting to get you the most bang for your buck.
• Performance Max is a new campaign type that lets advertisers access all Google Ads inventory from a single campaign.

4. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Your CTR is the number of clicks you get on your ad as a proportion of the number of views your ad gets. A higher CTR indicates a quality ad matching search intent and targeting relevant keywords.

5. Conversion Rate (CVR)

CVR is a measure of form submissions as a proportion of total visits to your landing page. Simplistically speaking, a high CVR means that your landing page presents a seamless user experience that matches the ad’s promise.

6. Display Network

Google ads can be displayed on either search results pages or a web page within Google’s Display Network (GDN). GDN is a network of websites that allow space on their web pages for Google Ads — these ads can be text- or image-based and are displayed alongside content relevant to your target keywords. The most popular Display Ad options are Google Shopping and app campaigns.

7. Extensions

Ad Extensions allow you to supplement your ad with additional information at no extra cost. These extensions fall under one of five categories: Sitelink, Call, Location, Offer, or App; we’ll cover each of these ad extensions below.

8. Keywords

When a Google user types a query into the search field, Google returns a range of results that match the searcher’s intent. Keywords are words or phrases that align with what a searcher wants and will satisfy their query. You select keywords based on which queries you want to display your ad alongside. For example, a searcher that types “how to clean gum off shoes” will see results for advertisers that targeted keywords like “gum on shoes” and “clean shoes.”

Negative keywords are a list of keyword terms that you do not want to rank for. Google will pull you from the bid on these keywords. Typically, these are semi-related to your intended search terms but fall outside of the realm of what you offer or want to rank for.

9. PPC

Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a type of advertising where the advertiser pays per click on an ad. PPC is not specific to Google Ads, but it is the most common type of paid campaign. It’s important to understand the ins and outs of PPC before launching your first Google Ads campaign.

10. Quality Score (QS)

Your Quality Score measures the quality of your ad by your click-through rate (CTR), the relevance of your keywords, the quality of your landing page, and your past performance on the SERPs. QS is a determining factor in your AdRank.

Click to get our free guide on how to use Google Ads.

How does Google Ads work?

Google Ads displays your ad to potential leads or customers who are interested in your product or service. Advertisers bid on search terms, or keywords, and the winners of that bid are placed at the top of search results pages, on YouTube videos, or on relevant websites, depending on the type of ad campaign selected.

Many factors impact your ability to create effective and high-performing Google Ads. Let’s cover them below, plus some Google Ads examples.

AdRank and Quality Score

AdRank determines the placement of your ads, and Quality Score is one of the two factors (the other being bid amount) that determines your AdRank. Remember, your Quality Score is based on the quality and relevance of your ad, and Google measures that by how many people click on your ad when it’s displayed — i.e., your CTR. Your CTR depends on how well your ad matches searcher intent, which you can deduce from three areas:

1. The relevance of your keywords
2. If your ad copy and CTA deliver what the searcher expects based on their search
3. The user experience of your landing page

Your QS is where you should focus most of your attention when you first set up your Google Ad campaign — even before you increase your bid amount. The higher your QS, the lower your acquisition costs will be and the better placement you’ll get.

Location

When you first set up your Google Ad, you’ll select a geographical area where your ad will be shown. If you have a storefront, this should be within a reasonable radius around your physical location. If you have an ecommerce store and a physical product, your location should be set in the places where you ship. If you provide a service or product that is accessible worldwide, then the sky’s the limit.

Your location settings will play a role in placement. For instance, if you own a yoga studio in San Francisco, someone in New York that enters “yoga studio” will not see your result, no matter your AdRank. That’s because Google’s main objective is to display the most relevant results to searchers, even when you’re paying.

Keywords

Keyword research is just as important for paid ads as it is for organic search. Your keywords need to match searcher intent as much as possible. That’s because Google matches your ad with search queries based on the keywords you selected.

Each ad group that you create within your campaign will target a small set of keywords (one to five keywords is optimal), and Google will display your ad based on those selections.

Match Types

Match Types give you a little wiggle room when it comes to your keyword selections — they tell Google whether you want to match a search query exactly or if your ad should be shown to anyone with a search query that’s semi-related. There are four match types to choose from:

• Broad Match is the default setting that uses any word within your keyword phrase in any order. For example, “goat yoga in Oakland” will match “goat yoga” or “yoga Oakland.”
• Modified Broad Match allows you to lock in certain words within a keyword phrase by denoting them with a “+” sign. Your matches will include that locked-in word at the very least. For example, “+goats yoga in Oakland” could yield “goats,” “goats like food,” or “goats and yoga.”
• Phrase Match will match with queries that include your keyword phrase in the exact order but may include additional words before or after it. For example, “goat yoga” can yield “spotted goat yoga” or “goat yoga with puppies.”
• Exact Match maintains your keyword phrase as it is written in the exact order. For example, “goat yoga” will not show up if someone types “goats yoga” or “goat yoga class.”

If you’re just starting out and don’t know precisely how your persona will be searching, move from a broad match to a more narrow approach so you can test which queries yield the best results. However, since your ad will be ranking for many queries (some unrelated), you should keep a close eye on your ads and modify them as you can gain new information.

Headline and Description

Your ad copy can be the difference between a click on your ad and a click on your competitor’s ad. Therefore, it’s important that your ad copy matches the searcher’s intent, is aligned with your target keywords, and addresses the persona’s pain point with a clear solution.

To illustrate what we mean, let’s review an example.

A search for “baby swim lessons” yielded this result. The copy is concise and uses limited space wisely to convey its message and connect with its target audience.

The Swim Revolution knew to put the keyword in their headline, so we instantly know that this ad matches what we’re looking for. Furthermore, the description tells us why this is the best option for swim lessons because it addresses the concerns of their persona — a parent looking to enroll their baby in a swim class.

They use words like “skills,” “fun,” “confidence,” and “comfort in the water” to ease our nerves about putting a baby in a pool and to prove to us that we will get what we want out of this class — an infant that can swim.

This kind of ad copy will get you clicks, but conversions will result from carrying this level of intention into your landing page copy.

Ad Extensions

If you’re running Google Ads, you should be using Ad Extensions for two reasons: they’re free, and they give users additional information and another reason to interact with your ad. These extensions fall within one of these five categories:

• Sitelink Extensions extend your ad — helping you stand out — and provide additional links to your site that offer users more enticing reasons to click.

• Call Extensions allow you to incorporate your phone number in your ad, so users have an additional (and instant) way to reach out to you. If you have a customer service team that is ready to engage and convert your audience, then include your phone number.

• Location Extensions include your location and phone number within your ad so Google can offer searchers a map to find you easily. This option is great for businesses with a storefront, and it works well for the search query “…near me.”

• Offer Extensions work if you’re running a current promotion. It can entice users to click your ad over others if they see that your options are discounted compared to your competitors.

• App Extensions provide a link to an app download for mobile users. This reduces the friction of performing a new search to find and download the app in an AppStore.

Google Ads Retargeting

Retargeting (or remarketing) in Google Ads is a way to advertise to users who have previously interacted with you online but have not yet converted. Tracking cookies will follow users around the web and target these users with your ads. Remarketing is effective since most prospects need to see your marketing multiple times before becoming a customer.

You can select from one of five campaign types on Google Ads. Let’s cover the optimal uses for each and why you might choose one over the other.

1. Search Ad Campaigns

Search ads are text ads that are displayed on Google results pages. As an example, a search for “pocket squares” returns sponsored results:

The benefit of search ads is that you’re displaying your ad in the place where most searchers look for information first — on Google. And Google shows your ad in the same format as other results (except for denoting it as an “Ad”), so users are accustomed to seeing and clicking on results.

Responsive Search Ads

Responsive search ads allow you to enter multiple versions of headlines and ad copy (15 and four variations, respectively) for Google to select the best performers to display to users. With traditional ads, you create one static version of your ad, using the same headline and description each time.

Responsive ads allow for a dynamic ad that is auto-tested until you arrive at the version that is best suited for your target audience — for Google, that means until you get the most clicks.

2. Display Ad Campaigns

Google has a network of websites in various industries and with an array of audiences that opt in to display Google Ads, known as the Google Display Network. The benefit to the website owner is that they’re paid per click or impression on the ads. The benefit to advertisers is that they can get their content in front of audiences that are aligned with their personas.

These are typically image ads that draw users’ attention away from the content on the webpage:

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3. Video Ad Campaigns

videos. Remember, YouTube is a search engine, too. So the right keywords will place you in front of a video, disrupting the user’s behavior just enough to grab their attention.

Here’s a video advertisement that pops up in the middle of another video on how to tie a tie:

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4. App Ad Campaigns

Google App Campaigns promote your mobile application through an ad displayed on Google Search Network, YouTube, Google Play, Google Display Network, and more.

You can run ads that encourage your audience to install your app or, if they already use it, to take a certain action within your app.

Unlike other ad types, you don’t design an App ad campaign. Instead, provide Google with your app’s information and audience, and place a bid. Google does the rest to get your app in front of the right eyes:

Image Source

5. Shopping Ad Campaigns

Another type of Google Ad is Google Shopping Ad Campaigns. Shopping campaigns, like these other types of ads, are displayed on SERPs and include detailed product information such as price and product imagery. You can run a Shopping campaign through Google Merchant Center, where you input specific product information that Google pulls from to create your shopping ads.

Instead of marketing your brand as a whole, Shopping Ads allow you to promote specific products and product lines. That’s why, when you search for a particular product on Google, you’ll see ads for different brands pop up along the top and/or side. This is what I see when I search “running shoes.” The ads at the top are Google Search ads, but the specific products advertised on the side are Shopping ads optimized for the keyword “running shoes”:

How to Use Google Ads

Convinced that you should start using Google Ads? Good. Getting started is simple, but requires a few steps. Here’s a step-by-step guide for setting up your first campaign on Google Ads.

1. Set up your Google Ads account.

First, go to the Google Ads homepage. On the top right-hand corner, click on ‘Start Now.’

You’ll be directed to sign in with a Google account or set up a new one.

2. Choose your business name and website. 

After signing in, you’ll be taken to a page where you’ll provide your business name and website. The URL you provide is where anyone who clicks on your ad will be taken.

3. Select your advertising goal.

Next, select your main advertising goal. You have four options: Get more calls, get more website sales or sign-ups, get more visits to your physical location, and get more views and engagement on YouTube.

4. Craft your ad.

The next step is to create your ad. This requires creativity and can be a bit challenging.

Thankfully, Google gives you tips on what to write. But, of course, the most important thing is to write an ad that’ll attract and convert your audience.

5. Add keyword themes.

On the next page, you can choose keywords that match your brand. Google will suggest a few for you; if you’re not familiar with keyword research, we suggest selecting the ones Google has suggested to start. After selecting the right keywords, click ‘Next.’

6. Set your ad location.

The next page lets you choose the location or locations where you want your ad to appear. It can be near your physical address or anywhere else.

7. Set your budget.

Here, you’ll either use the budget options offered by Google or enter a specific budget.

8. Confirm payment.

Lastly, provide your billing information.

And that’s how easy it is to create your first Google ad!

As you can see, setting up your paid campaigns on Google is relatively easy (and quick), mostly because the platform takes you through the setup and provides helpful hints along the way. If you have your ad copy and/or images created, the setup should take you no more than 10 minutes.

What may be less obvious are all the additional things you need to do to make sure your ads are optimally set up and easily trackable. Let’s cover these together. These are the steps you’ll take once your ads are submitted for review.

9. Link your Google Analytics account.

You likely have Google Analytics set up on your website (if not, here’s how to do it on WordPress) so you can track traffic, conversions, goals, and any unique metrics. You also need to link your Analytics account to Google Ads. Linking these accounts will make tracking, analyzing, and reporting between channels and campaigns much easier because you can view these events in one place.

10. Add UTM codes.

Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) codes are used by Google to track any activity associated with a specific link. You’ve probably seen them before — it’s the part of a URL that follows a question mark (“?”). UTM codes will tell you which offer or ad led to a conversion so you can track the most effective parts of your campaign. UTM codes make it easier to optimize your Google Ads since you know exactly what’s working.

The trick, though, is to add your UTM codes at the campaign level when you set up your Google Ads, so you don’t have to do so manually for each ad URL. Otherwise, you can add them manually with Google’s UTM builder.

11. Set up conversion tracking.

Conversion tracking tells you exactly how many customers or leads you’ve acquired from your ad campaigns. It’s not mandatory to set up, but, without it, you’ll be guessing the ROI of your ads. Conversion tracking allows you to track sales (or other activities) on your website, app installs, or calls from your ads.

Manage and organize your ads with our free Google Ads Kit and Templates.

12. Integrate your Google Ads with your CRM.

There is something to be said about keeping all of your data in one place where you can track, analyze, and report on it. You already use your CRM to track contact data and lead flows. Integrating Google Ads with your CRM gives you the ability to track which ad campaigns are working for your audience so you can continue marketing to them with offers that are relevant.

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Google Ads Bidding Strategies

Once you’ve set up your ad campaigns and have tracking in place, it’s time to start bidding. Remember, your ability to rank in Google Ads depends on how you bid. While your bid amount will depend on your budget and goals, there are a few strategies and bid settings you should be aware of when launching your paid campaign.

Automated vs. Manual Bidding

You have two options when it comes to bidding on your keywords — automated and manual. Here’s how they work:

• Automated Bidding puts Google in the driver’s seat and allows the platform to adjust your bid based on your competitors. You can still set a maximum budget, and Google will work within a range to give you the best chance at winning the bid within those constraints.
• Manual Bidding lets you set the bid amounts for your ad groups and keywords, giving you the chance to reduce spending on low-performing ads.

Bidding on Branded Search Terms

Branded terms are those with your company or unique product name in them, like “HubSpot CRM.” There is much debate on whether to bid on your branded terms or not. On one side of the debate, bidding on terms that will likely yield organic results could be seen as a waste of money.

On the other side, bidding on these terms gives you domain over these search results pages and helps you convert prospects that are further along the flywheel. For instance, if I’ve been researching live chat tools and am heavily considering HubSpot’s Live Chat, then a simple search for “HubSpot live chat software” will yield precisely the result I’m looking for without the effort of scrolling.

The other argument in favor of bidding on your branded terms is that competitors may bid on them if you don’t, thereby taking up valuable real estate that should belong to you.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

If the idea of spending money to convert prospects into leads makes you uneasy, then you can set a CPA instead and only pay when a user converts into a customer. While this bidding strategy could cost more, you can take comfort in knowing that you only pay when you acquire a paying customer. This strategy makes it easy to track and justify your ad spend.

Additional Resources to Optimize Your Google Ads

Your ad copy and headline is not the only component that will make your paid campaign successful. Getting a user to click is only the beginning … they should arrive on a landing page that’s optimized for conversion and then be taken to a Thank You page that tells them what to do next.

If you want your Google Ads to produce qualified leads and customers, then check out these additional resources and use them as guidelines as you set up your Google Ads campaign.

• Landing Page Best Practices will teach you how to set up a landing page that’s prime for conversions so you don’t waste those precious clicks.
• Optimized “Thank You” Pages shows you what to do with your new lead post-conversion, how to keep them on your site, and ways to maintain their attention.
• Tips for Mobile Google Ads teaches you the key differences between desktop and mobile ads and how to optimize both.
• Optimizing Google Ads Costs will show you how we, at HubSpot, maximize our Google Ads spend to get the best ROI.
• Quality Google Ads Examples That Convert shares examples of Google advertising campaigns that got it right.

Google Ads Tips

Now that you know how to use and set up a Google Ad campaign, here are a few short tips or best practices to follow to help you create successful campaigns.

We’ve covered these at length throughout this post, but their importance can’t be overstated. Use this as a checklist you can refer to again and again.

1. Have a clear goal.

It’s vital to define your objectives before you create your ad, instead of creating an ad first and then tweaking it to fit your objectives. Sit down with your marketing team to prepare an advertising plan and create SMART goals for your Google Ads campaigns.

2. Create a relevant landing page.

When prompted to add your URL when creating your ad, ensure that the URL you provide leads to a relevant landing page. If your ad is interesting enough to get clicked, you could undo all that great work if it directs them to a poor landing page.

Therefore, optimize your landing pages so that your ad will help convert a curious visitor into a paying customer. Check out our landing page guide so you know exactly how to create great landing pages.

3. Use the right keywords.

Keywords are super important, so it’s only right that you choose the best ones for your ad.

Long-tail keywords are some of the best types of keywords because they are very specific and can target one business.

For example, say you run a cat clinic. A generic keyword like ‘cat clinic’ won’t target people in your area, but something like ‘cat clinic in belvedere’ is more likely to attract the right audience.

4. Automate the process.

You can maximize conversions by optimizing the bidding process. Tools like Smart Bidding can increase or reduce bids for you, depending on the chance of success.

Therefore, you’ll spend money only when there’s a higher chance of success.

5. Use Ad Extensions.

Extensions can take your ad performance up a notch. These extensions allow you to specify your locations, services, goods, or sales promotions.

For example, you could include a telephone number in your ad so people can call you to inquire about your services right away.

6. Use negative keywords.

Google Ads allows you to include negative keywords. Using these keywords indicates what your product or service is not, thus preventing you from showing up in irrelevant SERPs.

Using the cat clinic example, you might only cater to cats and not dogs or other pets. In this case, you can exclude terms like ‘dogs’ and other qualifiers.

7. Measure and improve upon your strategy.

When you integrate your ads with Google Analytics, you can track important metrics like page popularity, the keywords that drive the most traffic, and more.

Collecting and analyzing these and other metrics will help you improve the quality of your ads, boost your conversions, and increase revenue over time.

Start Your Google Ads Campaign

Given its reach and authority, Google Ads should be a part of your paid strategy. Use the tips we covered to get started, and remember to refine and iterate as you go.

There’s no such thing as a Google Ads campaign that doesn’t work — there are only ones that need a bit more work. Using the strategy and information provided above, you have what you need to create a successful Google Ad campaign that drives clicks and converts leads.

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

Twitter has more than 192 million daily active users — a number that is projected to continue growing over the coming years. However, that the platform has millions of users doesn’t guarantee that you’ll become a Twitter power user or that you’ll get thousands of followers, even if you tweet regularly.

Gaining followers and engagement on Twitter is easier said than done. Despite your best efforts, it can seem like you’re screaming into a void. Nevertheless, the good news is that it’s possible to grow a following and become a power user on Twitter.

In this article, we’ll consider what differentiates Twitter power users from the rest and how you can become a power user too.

The term also refers to people who spend plenty of time using a system, app, or tool. And their near-obsession with the device, app, or system gives them a higher mastery over it than casual users.

According to research by the Pew Research Center, 10% of Twitter users are Power users, and this small number of users are responsible for about 80% of tweets on Twitter.

They are also known as SuperTweeters. Power users aren’t limited to just a few tweets. Instead, their Tweet count runs into tens of thousands or even more.

This number isn’t astounding, considering that most of them have accounts that date back to the early days of Twitter. Since they’ve been around for a long time and have been super-active, it only makes sense that they have loads of tweets.

For example, Twitter power user Naval has more than 200,000 tweets.

While they might appear similar, most celebrities aren’t power users.

For instance, although popstar Taylor Swift has over 90 million followers, she has made around 700 tweets since 2008. So she certainly doesn’t count as a power user account.

On the other hand, power users might not be famous people or brands right from the go, but their power usage of Twitter has grown their accounts to incredible numbers over the years.

What are the Characteristics of a Twitter Power User?

So, what makes Twitter power users different from casual users? Here are five characteristics that set them apart from other users.

1. They tweet multiple times a day.

The power user isn’t a casual observer on Twitter. Instead of sitting back to read tweets from others, they are active users of the app, which is reflected in the number of tweets they post every day and over time. In addition, most of their tweets see impressive engagement numbers, such as numerous retweets and replies.

2. They have a high follower count.

Another characteristic of power users is that they have many followers. We’re talking about accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers, and some of them even have followings that run into millions.

3. They have a niche.

Rarely do you find Twitter power users talking about various subjects. In most cases, they only talk about a niche topic, such as marketing, politics, tech, or business.

4. They are likely to have a blog or website.

Power users are often quite popular because they exist in other spheres. Several of them usually have a blog or website where they expand on their thoughts and tweets.

5. They have access to unique features.

Since the release of
Twitter Blue, one of the characteristics of many power users is that they have access to unique features like folders for bookmarks, customized icons, and more.

Twitter Power Users Examples

Here are some popular Twitter power users:

1. Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

Is there a more powerful business person on the planet than Elon Musk at the moment? We don’t think so. While some people can like him and others can dislike him, his tweets move markets and spark conversation. For that reason, he’s undoubtedly a power user.

2. SlimJim (@SlimJim)

The official Twitter handle of the American snack brand is a power user.

Although a brand account, it has a personal touch and is self-branded as “the ceo of follow backs.” You don’t have to look far to find a Slim Jim tweet turned into a meme — such as this one.

3. Robert Scoble (@scobleizer)

This is one of the most recognized power users on the app. He often tweets about technology, and his account uses some of the latest and premium Twitter features.

4. Guy Kawaski (@GuyKawaski)

Guy Kawaski is another power user. He’s the author of several best-selling books and shares valuable content on topics related to economics, technology, and business.

5. Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano)

Fabrizio is one of the most popular football journalists on the planet and certainly qualifies as a Twitter power user. He tweets multiple times in one hour and earns thousands of likes and retweets within minutes of posting.

6. Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan)

Chris shares plenty of insights on social media daily and is one of the most popular social media experts. Like other Twitter power users on this list, he tweets multiple times a day, sharing information that either amuses or informs his followers.

How to Become a Twitter User

You can become a Twitter power user too. While you might not grow a following that runs into the millions, you can significantly improve your reach and engagement.

Here are some of the tips that can help you.

1. Tweet at the right time.

Tweeting at the right time is one of the cornerstones of becoming a Twitter power user. Nearly every post on improving your Twitter presence lists this tip — and for a good reason.

Therefore, you need to find the best time when your audience will be free enough to engage with your tweets. Each audience has different peak hours, so it’s up to you to determine the peak time for your audience.

Twitter analytics tools can help you find out what this time is by tracking when your followers engage with your posts.

2. Focus on mobile users.

When it comes to Twitter, mobile is king. Most people use the app on their mobile phones, so you must focus on appealing to this demographic. Twitter does an excellent job of optimizing your tweets for mobile, but if you want to become a power user, you must go beyond what Twitter provides to give the best experience to your audience.

One thing you could do is use images that are clear on mobile. Also, if you’re linking to your website or blog, ensure that the site is optimized for mobile users.

3. Ask for users to engage — don’t wait for it to happen.

Ask, and you shall receive, which proves true in Twitter’s case. So if you want people to like, retweet, or reply to your tweets, simply ask them to.

Adding a ‘please retweet,’ ‘like this,’ or ‘reply to this,’ is more likely to shoot up your engagement than tweets that lack the pleas.

However, you should be careful to offer something valuable in return. This doesn’t mean starting a like-for-like or retweet-for-retweet chain. Instead, it’s vital to offer valuable content or information that people will want to share and retweet.

4. Use action words.

People are more likely to do something if you ask them to do it, so it is recommended to use action words in your tweets.

Including subtle or even direct requests makes people notice your tweets and can encourage them to take the desired action. Remember that this method works best if you’re providing value to your followers.

Slim Jim is an excellent example of a power user that uses this technique. See how it asks followers to reply to this tweet? You can do so too.

Pros of Becoming a Twitter Power User

1. It helps build your brand.

If you’re running a business, the increased exposure that becoming a power user gives you can immensely help your Twitter marketing strategy.

2. It will drive traffic to your website.

Being a Twitter power user can direct referral traffic to your website. For example, you can include your website link in your bio or tweets. You can find more ways to direct traffic to your website from Twitter here.

3. You might get verified.

As a power user, you can apply for Twitter verification. If you use Twitter, you’ll know that getting verified confers a feeling of power and authority to your account. At the very least, it indicates that your handle is an authentic account.

4. It helps you stay on top of trends and news.

Twitter is a significant source of news and trends. By being a power user, you’ll always stay in the loop.

Cons of Becoming a Twitter Power User

1. You have to constantly publish tweets.

If you’re just starting, one of the most challenging things, and certainly a disadvantage of being a power user, is how often you’ll need to push out content. We’re talking multiple times a day and even multiple times an hour.

2. There’s a risk of addiction.

Being a Twitter power user means you’ll likely have to be online most of the time. As a result, there’s a risk of becoming addicted to Twitter, which can be harmful if not kept in check. Therefore, a balanced and conscious effort to prevent addiction is essential.

3. You have to work around the character limit.

Since Twitter has a 280-character limit, it can be challenging to express thoughts coherently, even if you create a thread.

4. Your Tweets can get lost in the noise.

Millions of tweets are sent out daily, and with new tweets published every second, your tweets can get buried quickly. You can mitigate this by offering highly valuable content and using Twitter hashtags.

Your Path to Becoming a Twitter Power User Starts Here

We hope this is an excellent starting point for anyone thinking of becoming a Twitter power user. Although there’s so much more to Twitter than these tips we’ve provided, adhering to these guidelines will help you increase engagement on your Twitter account. Remember, the goal isn’t to reach a million followers. The goal is to provide valuable content that other users can’t help but retweet, putting you on the path to becoming a power user.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2009 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

“Your next business idea, delivered weekly.” That’s our job over at Trends.

And, when we say “business ideas,” we’re not just talking about businesses you can start. We’re also talking about the next idea that’s going to help business operators, including insights on emerging consumer trends they can leverage in their marketing strategies.

While you’ve likely learned about some of the latest consumer trends to watch in the State of Consumer Trends Report, we wanted to dive even deeper into the future business trends we plan to follow in the coming months.

Take a look at the following nine trends that we think will pop over the next six months, including NFT subscription services, virtual pop-up stores, direct mail marketing, and more.

9 Trends We’re Watching in the Coming Months

1. Gifting

Forget loyalty points — gifting is the new customer retention strategy. As remote everything continues to rise, keeping connected to clients and loved ones will be key.

Source: &Open

Gifting powerhouse 1-800-FLOWERS had a record-breaking year in 2020, and venture capital is flowing into startups like &Open ($7.2m last May) and Gracia (~$14m since its 2017 launch).

Another new player, Goody, sent 10,000 gifts in its first two months and has raised $32m since its 2020 launch. Co-founder Edward Lando told TechCrunch that the app serves as an additional acquisition channel for early D2C brands and a “giant shopping mall” for Gen Z consumers.

Companies will also use gifting to target employees, since worker retention is at an all-time low, and the average cost of replacing an employee is about seven months of their salary.

Wellbox, for example, is a platform for businesses to send gifts to their workers that made $4m+ in revenue in its first year.  

2. Direct Mail Marketing

Seth Greene, the bestselling author of seven marketing books, told Trends.co that “with all the changes in online media platforms like Google and Facebook, direct mail delivers better results than ever, with fewer restrictions.”

Our research backs this up, particularly when it comes to “digital interactive” — physical mail used to drive readers online — where response rates are ~9%-10%, roughly double what they were five years ago.

Source: 25 Direct Mail Trends for 2021

Some niches we expect will emerge in this space include:

• Voice-activated calls to action: Integrating smart-speaker apps into direct mail campaigns so readers can take action with an Alexa command
• VR integrations: Physical mail that pairs with a VR headset to provide deep, interactive experiences
• Old-school postcards: Direct mail marketing companies focusing on postcards, like PostcardMania, which reportedly made ~$84m in revenue last year

3. Return of Retro

The resurgence of direct mail is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the bigger trend of all things retro.

Subscribers to the r/Retro subreddit have doubled to 10k+ since 2020, and r/80sDesign has hit 86k+ subscribers.

Retro search terms are also going wild on Amazon. For example, weekly searches for “retro home decor” have increased 290% in the US in the last year, according to Jungle Scout.

Here’s how we expect to see the trend manifest over the next 6 months:

• Shutter-Lovin’: Film, old-school cameras, and darkrooms
• Experiences: Roller rinks and arcades
• Gaming: Old-school games and accessories
• Advertising: Brands leveraging the ’80s aesthetic in their ads

Can you tell which are from the 1980s vs. the 2020s? Only the top right one is original ’80s (Source: Eye on Design)

4. Audio SEO

The world of podcasts is growing faster than the entire internet did back in the early 2000s. Spotify alone now hosts 3m+ shows (that’s ~43x the number of titles on Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV+, combined).

Source: Internet Live Stats and The Podcast Host

But the tools that help listeners discover new content haven’t kept up.

Sixty-five percent of people who’ve never listened to a podcast say the reason is that they don’t know where to start. Meanwhile, great new shows struggle to get recognition, and audiences tire of seeing the same old suggestions.

Audio search is due for an overhaul. Some solutions we may see emerge in the coming months include:

• Audio search engines, like Fathom, which recently raised $15m for their AI-driven podcast player and audio search engine
• Tools that let podcasters turn audio into snackable visual content for platforms like TikTok, similar to Audiogram
• Audio SEO tools, like the Ahrefs or Keywords Everywhere equivalent for audio
• Interactive/immersive podcast apps, like Entale and Adori, which allow podcasters to include relevant links, images, polls, and offer codes so that they appear on the listener’s screen at the right moment

5. NFT-Powered Subscription Services

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is one of the most popular digital art collections in the world. BAYC NFT owners have exclusive licensing and commercial rights to their apes, leveraging many token holders to build their own startups.

One such startup is the Bored Breakfast Club. It’s a coffee subscription service and NFT collection that uses NFTs to establish an exclusive online community of coffee enthusiasts.

In their subscription model, anyone who owns one of the 5k Bored Breakfast Club NFTs is entitled to receive free shipments of exclusive coffee blends.

The NFTs also unlock access to an online community, live events, content, and discounts on additional bags of coffee.

Source: Bored Breakfast Club Website

Many big brands like Cameo, Wrangler, and Time magazine are already experimenting with NFTs for exclusive community access, but the Bored Breakfast Club is one of the first to tag on a subscription component.

It’s still early days, but should the model prove successful, it will open up a whole new world of potential NFT subscription products, way beyond coffee.

6. B2B Influencers

The B2B influencer space is currently underdeveloped and largely unmonetized. While the overall influencer marketing industry was pegged at ~$9.7B in 2020, the bulk of that was focused on B2C campaigns.

But that is set to change, as ~80% of B2B brands surveyed in 2020 say they plan to either maintain or increase their influencer spend.

Not surprising, since research from Demand Gen shows that B2B clients consider sponsored third-party or co-branded content more trustworthy than content straight from a vendor.

Source: Oktopost

We expect to see a number of tools and services emerge to help brands identify and manage influencers and document their influencer strategy.

This could take place in B2B industries where subscription spending is highest, such as engineering, sales, HR, and customer service.

Influencer marketing more generally might grow stronger with each new generation. While 26% of social media users ages 25-34 have purchased a product marketed by an influencer in the past three months, 33% of social media users in the 18-24 age range have done the same.

7. Virtual Pop-Up Shops

Pop-up shops in the metaverse are a thing now.

Italian fashion brand Hogan recently took part in Decentraland’s Fashion Week with a virtual pop-up store, and jewelry label Pandora teamed up with Animal Planet to launch an in-game virtual pop-up called “Pandora Island.”

The new metaverse shopping industry could continue to grow with consumer interest. In a HubSpot survey of more than 1k consumers, 30% of participants said more brands should consider virtual stores in the metaverse.

While we’ll definitely see more of these, brands won’t necessarily need to dive headfirst into the metaverse in order to participate in the trend.

A virtual pop-up shop is essentially anything that creates a unique online shopping experience for your customers, separate from your existing website. This could be an event or even a landing page dedicated to a new product line.

They first gained popularity as an alternative to the real deal during national lockdowns, and, despite a dip in 2021, interest is picking up again.

Some big bands that have already experimented with this format include Lancôme, Hoover, and Dunkin’.

Source: Dunkin’Shop

8. Luxe Eco-Friendly Products and Packaging

Conscious consumption is in vogue. Younger generations in particular are driving up demand for products like this 0.56-oz. container made from recycled plastic ($14) and this chair manufactured from old fishing nets ($375).

They are also demanding more from brands, and are willing to pay to save the planet.

While eco-friendly shampoo bars tend to be more cost-effective than traditional shampoo, consumers are happily splashing out for the high-end options: A single Viori bar costs $16, ~3x the price of a comparable amount (20 oz.) of Dove shampoo.

Source: Subreddit Stats

We expect that eco-friendly packaging will also boom as the rapid rise in ecommerce continues to drive demand for sustainable packaging.

Solutions could include compostable packaging from leftover bamboo and sugarcane pulp, like those made by Ecoinno, which recently raised $6m in funding.

9. Gamified NFT Marketing

NFT platform Neon launched the world’s first NFT vending machine back in February.

The machine accepts fiat currency, making it possible for people to invest in NFTs using their credit card — without the need to convert to crypto first.

We expect to see similar NFT marketing initiatives like arcade machines or mobile games that allow players to collect NFTs as they play.

Louis Vuitton has already released a “Louis the Game” mobile app, which includes 30 embedded NFTs that could only be collected by playing the game.

GAP is another big name brand that has incorporated a gaming component into their NFT collection to encourage continued customer engagement.

Source: Twitter

How to Stay Up to Date

Staying up to date on today’s trends and data can be crucial to building marketing or business strategies that meet your audiences where they are. But with trends always moving quickly, the idea of tracking them can be overwhelming. Here are a few handy resources that can help your brand in its quest to stay fresh, relevant and up to date. 

• HubSpot’s State of Consumer Trends Series: This month, HubSpot will be publishing a series of blog posts, like this one, and a brand new data-driven PDF all about the latest consumer behaviors, preferences, shopping habits, and trends marketers and brands need to know about in the coming month. Click here to see our State of Consumer Trends Report, where you’ll find links to the content in our series and a handy, free PDF.
• Subscribe to Trends.co: Want to learn about trends that impact all areas of business and step up your game even more? Check out and subscribe Trends.co today to learn all about the business ideas, innovations and — well — the trends that are changing the game in your industry. 

Manual data entry might be one of the most tedious and inefficient tasks in the corporate world. Not only does it put you to sleep, but it also wastes precious time and resources, slashing your productivity to bits.

According to Zapier, 94% of workers perform time-consuming, repetitive tasks. Fortunately, there’s technology that can automate these mind-numbing tasks, eliminating human error and letting you focus on the work that actually matters — workflow automation.

By leveraging self-operating processes that run manual tasks, workflow automation can help your business save time and money, diminish errors, and boost productivity.

Table of Contents

• How does workflow automation work?
• Workflow Automation Examples
• Best Workflow Automation Software

How does workflow automation work?

Workflow automation typically relies on a series of if/then statements to trigger another task. It then branches off depending on the action that was taken by a lead, employee, or another stakeholder.

Let’s walk through an example workflow for turning a form submission into a deal opportunity.

• A website visitor submits a form.
• The action automatically enrolls the visitor in a drip campaign. It creates a new deal and sets the status to “New.”
• The first email of the drip campaign is sent to the lead, requesting to schedule a meeting.
• The lead clicks through to the meeting scheduler and creates an appointment.
• A thank you email is sent to the lead, confirming the date and time.
• The CRM creates a new task and assigns it to a sales rep.
• The sales rep then reaches out personally, ending the automated workflow.

Here’s what a workflow can look like from start to finish.

Image Source

Almost every department in your business can benefit from workflow automation. Whether it’s marketing, human resources, or finance, the technology can help you work smarter, not harder.

Below, we’ll cover some of the most popular workflow automation examples.

Workflow automation can be used in virtually any team and in any business scenario. While it’s mostly related to marketing and sales, it can also be used in customer service, operations, human resources, and finance.

Marketing Workflow Automation

Image Source

Some of the most repetitive tasks in marketing, such as sending emails and posting social media updates, can be automated with workflow automation. With marketing automation software, you can schedule your entire social media calendar and set up workflows that nurture certain types of prospects with email offers.

Automated workflows in marketing include:

• Subscribing a user to a drip campaign when they download a resource from your website
• Welcoming a user to your company after they purchase a product
• Reminding a user to check out after they’ve added various items to their cart
• Scheduling social media posts across multiple platforms
• Distributing marketing tasks across team members

Additional Reading

• Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Automation
• Marketing Automation Benefits
• B2C Marketing Automation
• Email Marketing Workflows

Sales Workflow Automation

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Sales workflow automation streamlines tedious lead and prospect management tasks, so that reps can focus on selling, not entering data. Aside from taking leads automatically through the pipeline based on their actions, an automated sales workflow can enroll prospects in drip campaigns and update deal stages as the deal moves forward.

Automated tasks in sales include:

• Placing each lead at a different stage of the pipeline when they take a certain action
• Moving a lead out of the pipeline if they’ve stopped responding to emails
• Sending an introduction email from a sales rep to a lead after they download an ebook
• Updating the deal stage once the lead has scheduled an appointment or meeting
• Creating tasks for sales reps once a lead has scheduled a meeting

Additional Reading

• Beginner’s Guide to Sales Automation
• Sales Automation Stats
• Sales Force Automation
• CRM Automation

Customer Service Workflow Automation

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Workflow automation is incredibly useful in customer service. Aside from launching surveys, workflow automation can take care of tickets, cases, and common questions by sending a series of emails or creating tasks.

Automated tasks in customer service include:

• Creating a new ticket in the system when someone reaches out through social media or email
• Onboarding customers with a series of helpful emails
• Sending NPS® surveys and enrolling them into different email campaigns depending on their rating
• Assigning tickets a priority label depending on the tone of the message or email
• Resolving and archiving tickets once a resolution has been reached

Additional Reading

• Beginner’s Guide to Customer Service Automation
• Customer Relationship Automation
• Customer Service Software Tools
• AI Chatbots Tools

Operations Workflow Automation

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Operations is the lifeblood of any organization, and it, too, can be automated to reduce instances of manual data entry.

Automated tasks in operations include:

• Deleting duplicates once they have been detected or merging two properties if they’re the same
• Managing team permissions for new team members
• Establishing priorities for different businesses processes
• Automatically compiling reports at the end of every quarter
• Creating tasks in third-party tools such as Asana, Slack, or Zoom

Additional Reading

• Guide to Business Process Automation
• Ultimate Guide to Operations Hub

Human Resources Workflow Automation

Instead of having to manually enter all your new hires’ personal information — like addresses, social security numbers, and other employee information into payroll, expense, and insurance systems — HR automation software can do it for you in minutes.

Automated tasks in human resources include:

• Removing candidates from the database if they’ve been inactive for a period of time
• Sending emails to candidates that haven’t made it to the final round
• Filtering candidates with certain keywords in their job history
• Sending W2s to current employees
• Collecting employees’ feedback after they’ve been at the company for a period of time

Finance Workflow Automation

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By allowing you to build forms, design workflows, and track processes, finance process automation software can streamline all of your travel requests, reimbursements, and budget approvals.

Automated tasks in finance include:

• Taking an expense approval process from start to finish
• Managing vendor and contract approvals
• Assigning priorities to ACH and wire requests
• Managing travel expense requests depending on location and activity
• Approving budgets based on a predetermined set of parameters

Now that you know everything about using automated workflows, let’s take a look at the top tools you can use.

Best Workflow Automation Software in 2022

1. HubSpot: Best All-in-One Workflow Automation Software

Image Source

HubSpot’s marketing, sales, service, and operations software operates on a single platform, making it one of the best choices for all-in-one workflow automation. Everything is linked together, allowing you to align all of your teams’ processes and reducing friction from task to task.

You can easily hand leads from marketing to sales, connect a service ticket with an existing contact record, and clean up customer data — all in one user-friendly platform.

Best for: HubSpot is highly recommended for growing businesses that have yet to try workflow automation and for enterprise businesses with established processes. You can begin with a Starter subscription, then upgrade as you require more functionalities. Especially recommended for marketing, sales, service, and operations departments.

Pricing for Marketing Hub: Free; $50/month (Starter); $890/month (Professional); $3,200/month (Enterprise)

Pricing for Sales Hub: Free; $50/month (Starter); $500/month (Professional); $1,200/month (Enterprise)

Pricing for Service Hub: Free; $50/month (Starter); $400/month (Professional); $1,200/month (Enterprise)

Pricing for Operations Hub: Free; $50/month (Starter); $800/month (Professional)

2. Nintex: Best Enterprise Workflow Automation Software

With over 3 million workflow applications operating on their platform right now, Nintex helps more than 8,000 enterprise customers manage, automate, and optimize their business processes, with no coding experience required.

By offering a multitude of workflow automation tools — like process mapping, advanced workflows, and process intelligence — your business is able to map out each of your processes, execute them, and monitor their performance.

Best for: Nintex is highly recommended for enterprise businesses with established processes. It’s a robust software that pairs a user-friendly workflow design tool with powerful integrations that will connect every single one of your apps. Especially recommended for IT, law, HR, and finance departments.

Pricing: $910/month (Standard); $1,400/month (Enterprise)

3. Kissflow: Best Beginner-Friendly Workflow Automation Software

Trusted by over 10,000 companies, including Domino’s, Michelin, and Pepsi, Kissflow offers an all-in-one workflow automation software that lets your business create workflows that automate tasks in your human resources, sales, finance, administration, marketing, and purchase departments.

With over 50 pre-installed business process management apps — such as expensing and sales orders, conditions and triggers, and reporting dashboards for your workflows — Kissflow can streamline almost all your business processes.

Best for: Kissflow is highly recommended for small companies that are just now starting to try workflow automation. The tool’s simplicity and user friendliness will make it easier to begin automating processes. Especially recommended for procurement, HR, and finance departments.

Pricing: $200/month (Basic); $495/month (Advanced); $1,900/month (Fully Loaded)

4. Integrify: Best Everyday Administration Workflow Automation Software

Integrify is a workflow automation software that lets you build workflows in a drag-and-drop builder and run parallel or sequential flows. By being able to collaborate on tasks and requests, test your processes, and set up reminders, you can easily streamline your business processes and automate manual tasks.

Integrify also offers workflow examples and a user knowledge base, a rest-based open API that allows you to integrate with external databases, and the ability to import and export data from Excel and even PDFs.

Best for: Integrify is highly recommended for small-to-medium businesses that are looking to automate everyday tasks. Its drag-and-drop “Process Builder” makes it simple and easy to take a process from start to completion. Especially recommended for administration departments.

Pricing: Pricing available upon request

5. Zapier: Best Workflow Automation Software for Connecting Apps

With the ability to connect to and share data with over 1,000 web apps, like Facebook, QuickBooks, and Google Drive, Zapier can automate almost any type of business process. All you have to do is build a workflow in their editor, pick the apps you want to include in your workflow, and design it.

For example, if you want to be able to save all your attachments in Dropbox, you can design a workflow that automatically copies any attachment from your Gmail inbox to Dropbox and then sends you a Slack message about the download.

Best for: Zapier is highly recommended for freelancers and small-to-medium businesses that use a wide variety of tools that aren’t talking with each other. For instance, if you’re using MailChimp to send emails and Typeform to collect leads, you could connect those two tools using Zapier. Especially recommended for marketing and service departments.

Pricing: Free; $19.99/month (Starter); $49/month (Professional)

6. Flokzu: Best Project Management Workflow Automation Software

Without writing any code, Flokzu allows you to create tasks, deadlines, business rules, and notifications. Their software also sends pending tasks to each of your project’s assignees’ inboxes, and as each stage of a workflow is complete, it’ll automatically assign each new task to a user or role.

Additionally, Flozku offers a reporting dashboard that displays your business processes’

performance and metrics, like the amount of currently delayed tasks there are, tasks assigned to each user and role, tasks completed, and the time each task took, which will give you the necessary data to refine and optimize your future workflows.

Best for: Flokzu is highly recommended for individual teams that want to optimize their time management and task workflow. A key feature of this tool is that users will receive pending tasks in their inbox, making it an excellent project management tool. Recommended for any team.

Pricing: Free; $19.99/month (Starter); $49/month (Professional)

Workflow Automation Will Help You Grow Better

Workflow automation is critical for businesses that want to scale and grow without letting anything fall through the cracks. By letting technology complete manual tasks, you can effectively grow your business without any growing pains.

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