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Microsoft Excel lets you do more than simply create spreadsheets — you can also use the software to calculate key functions, such as the relationship between two variables. Known as the correlation coefficient, this metric is useful for measuring the impact of one operation on another to inform business operations.

Not confident in your Excel skills? No problem. Here’s how to calculate — and understand — the correlation coefficient in Excel.

A correlation coefficient of +1 indicates a “perfect positive correlation”, which means that as variable X increases, variable Y increases at the same rate. A correlation value of -1, meanwhile, is a “perfect negative correlation”, which means that as variable X increases, variable Y decreases at the same rate. Correlation analysis may also return results anywhere between -1 and +1, which indicates that variables change at similar but not identical rates.

Correlation values can help businesses evaluate the impact of specific actions on other actions. For example, companies may find that as spending on social media marketing increases, so does customer engagement, indicating that more spending might make sense.

Or they may find that specific advertising campaigns result in a correlated decrease of customer engagement, in turn suggesting the need for a reevaluation of current efforts. The discovery that variables do not correlate can also be valuable; while common sense might suggest that a new function or feature in your product would correlate with increased engagement, it might have no measurable impact. Correlation analysis allows companies to view this relationship (or lack thereof) and make sound strategic decisions.

So how do you calculate the correction coefficient in Excel? Simple! Follow these steps:

1. Open Excel.

Step one: Open Excel and start a new worksheet for your correlated variable data. Enter the data points of your first variable in column A and your second variable in column B. You can add additional variables as well in columns C, D, E, etc. — Excel will provide a correlation coefficient for each one.

In the example below, we’ve entered six rows of data in column A and six in column B.

2. Install the Analysis Toolpak.

Next up? If you don’t have it, install the Excel Analysis Toolpak.

Select “File”, then “Options,” and you’ll see this screen:

Select “Add-Ins” and then click on “Go”.

Now, check the box that says “Analysis ToolPak” and click “Ok”.

3. Select “Data” from the top bar menu.

Once you have the ToolPak installed, select “Data” from the top Excel bar menu. This provides you with a submenu that contains a variety of analysis options for your data.

4. Select “Data Analysis” in the top right-hand corner.

Now, look for “Data Analysis” in the top right-hand corner and click on it to get this screen:

5. Select Correlation.

Select Correlation from the menu and click “OK.”

6. Define your data range and output.

Now define your data range and output. You can simply left-click and drag your cursor across the data you want to select, and it will auto-populate in the Correlation box. Finally, select an output range for your correlation data — we’ve chosen A8. Then, click “Ok”.

7. Evaluate your correlation coefficient.

Your correlation results will now be displayed. In our example, values in column 1 and column 2 have a perfect negative correlation; as one goes up, the other goes down at the same rate.

The Excel Correlation Matrix

Excel correlation results are also known as an Excel correlation matrix. In the example above, our two columns of data produced a perfect correction matrix of 1 and -1. But what happens if we produce a correlation matrix with a less ideal data set?

Here’s our data:

And here’s the matrix:

Cell C4 in the matrix gives us the correlation between Column 3 and Column 2, which is a very weak 0.01025, while Column 1 and Column 3 yield a stronger negative correlation of -0.17851. By far the strongest correlation, however, is between Column 1 and Column 2 at -0.66891.

So what does this mean in practice? Let’s say we were examining the impact of specific actions on the efficacy of a social media campaign, where Column 1 represents the number of visitors who click through on social advertisements and Columns 2 and 3 represent two different marketing taglines. The correlation matrix shows a strong negative correlation between Columns 1 and 2, which suggests that the Column 2 version of the tagline significantly decreased overall user engagement, while Column 3 drove only a slight decrease.

Regularly creating Excel matrices can help companies better understand the impact of one variable on another and determine what (if any) negative or positive effects may exist.

The Excel Correlation Formula

If you prefer to enter the correlation formula yourself, that’s also an option. Here’s what it looks like:

X and Y are your measurements, ∑ is the sum, and the X and Y with the bars over them indicate the mean value of the measurements. You would calculate it as follows:

• Calculate the sum of variable X minus the mean of X.
• Calculate the sum of variable Y minus the mean of Y.
• Multiply those two results and set that number aside (this is the first result).
• Square the sum of X minus the mean of X. Square the sum of Y minus the mean of Y. Multiply those two numbers.
• Take the square root (this is the second result).
• Divide the first result by the second result.
• You get the correlation coefficient.

Easy, right? Yes and no. While plugging in the numbers isn’t complicated, it’s often more trouble than it’s worth to create and manage this formula. The built-in Excel Toolpak is often a simpler (and faster) way to pinpoint coefficients and discover key relationships.

Correlation ≠ Not Causation

No article about correlation is complete without a mention that it does not equal causation. In other words, just because two variables rise or fall together doesn’t mean that one variable is the cause of the other variable’s increase or decrease.

Consider a few very strange examples.

This image shows a near-perfect negative correlation between the number of pirates and the global average temperature — as pirates became more scarce, the average temperature increased.

The problem? While these two variables are correlated, there’s no causal link between the two; higher temperatures did not reduce the pirate population and fewer pirates did not cause global warming.

While correlation is a powerful tool, it only indicates the direction of increase or decrease between two variables — not the cause of this increase or decrease. To discover causal links, companies must increase or decrease one variable and observe the impact. For example, if correlation shows that customer engagement goes up with social media spending, it’s worth opting for a slight increase in spending followed by a measurement of results. If more spending leads directly to increased engagement, the link is both correlated and causal. If not, there may be one (or more) factors that underpin the increase of both variables.

Keeping Up with the Correlations

Excel correlations offer a solid starting point for marketing, sales, and spending strategy development, but they don’t tell the whole story. As a result, it’s worth using Excel’s built-in data analysis options to quickly evaluate the correlation between two variables and use this data as a jumping-off point for more in-depth analysis.

With the potential to increase your brand awareness and build a reputable brand being so high on Instagram, understanding how to use it is essential.

While there are various ways to market yourself or your business on Instagram, it’s impossible to do so without first understanding your Instagram engagement rate.

Discover below ways to increase your engagement rate and the industry benchmarks to measure yourself against.

• What is an Instagram engagement rate?
• Why does your Instagram engagement rate matter?
• What is the average Instagram engagement rate?
• How To Calculate Your Engagement Rate On Instagram
• How to Increase Your Instagram Engagement Rate

Why does your Instagram engagement rate matter?

Instagram engagement rates are significant because they measure an audience’s interest, brand relevance, and social authority.

Audience Interest

If your content appeals to your target audience, your engagement rate will be higher.

If you take the time to review your best-performing content — i.e., posts with the most likes, shares, saves, and comments — you’ll get a feel for what your users want to see.

It’s important to note high impressions may indicate that your content has been viewed a lot, but engagement is typically defined as concrete interactions with your posts.

Relevance

If you have a high engagement rate, it’s likely your audience sees you as a relevant source of information.

They may favor your content over competitors because your content sets you apart. However, if you have a high engagement rate now, will it stay the same in three months? Is it higher than it was last year?

If you aren’t monitoring your engagement rate and using it as a benchmark for relevance, your score can decline.

Social Authority

While you’ve probably already identified your target Instagram audience, it’s never bad to add new followers and fans to the list.

These new users will take notice of your engagement — your followers, likes, comments, etc. — to decide whether or not to follow you.

They’re likely to move on to your competitors if they notice your brand’s engagement, a.k.a. social authority is not strong.

What is the average Instagram engagement rate?

There is no one-size-fits-all definition of a “good” engagement rate. It can vary by industry, B2B vs. B2C, and a series of other factors.

However, Instagram does have higher engagement rates than other social media networks.

According to the HubSpot Instagram Engagement Report, posts on the platform generate 23% more engagement than Facebook, even though Facebook has 2x more monthly users.

If you want a numerical value to compare your score to, Rival IQ found that the median engagement rate across all industries is 0.064%, in a 2022 report.

The highest engagement levels are reported in the sporting industry (0.27%) and by influencers (0.23).

Because of this, it’s safe to assume that an engagement rate of around 1% is a good engagement rate.

If you’ve already run the numbers and found that your engagement rate is significantly lower than average, don’t fret. There’s room for improvement — but maintain a healthy perspective.

Assess how your engagement rate has changed over time and begin devising strategies to raise your score.

Start this process by calculating your engagement rate, outlined in the next section.

How To Calculate Your Engagement Rate On Instagram

There is debate among marketers on the best way to calculate your Instagram engagement rate, as different industries define success in different ways.

Your preferred method depends on your goals as a brand or influencer.

Calculating Instagram Engagement Rate for Brands

Calculating the Instagram engagement Rate for Influencers

Since sponsors often recruit influencers on Instagram based on their likes and follower count, their engagement rates incorporate these two factors.

Since this metric doesn’t require any personal data, it’s possible to compare your engagement rates to competitors.

No matter your engagement rate, there are always steps to be taken to raise your score.

1. Maintain consistent branding.

Maintaining consistency with your content is extremely important, and there are a variety of actions you can take to do so.

Firstly, your username should be similar or the same to your other social media usernames. For example, if your Twitter handle is @greenbookworm, your Instagram handle should be the same if it’s available (or something very similar).

You should also make sure that your content is visually consistent as well, and you should have a format that you use for all of your posts. Take a look at Nike’s Instagram, for example.

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Whenever they post content that includes typography, they use the same backgrounds and font. When they post photos, they’re high quality and use the same filter.

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There’s data to back this up — WebDam found that 60% of the best-performing brands on Instagram used the same filter every time they post.

2. Understand your audience.

You can’t begin creating content without knowing your intended audience. Developing Instagram personas is a helpful tool for increasing your engagement rate.

If you know who your followers are, creating content that they want makes them more likely to engage with you. Take the time to monitor your audience statistics, and update your personas accordingly.

You can use Instagram insights to get a demographic understanding of your followers. If you have an Instagram business account, navigate to the audience tab from the Insights menu.

From here, you can see the top locations your users are in, your users’ age ranges, and their gender. All this information will give you an understanding of your users.
If you’re a HubSpot user, you can utilize the Social Reports data to find these same insights.

Regardless of your target audience, your content needs to be accessible. Utilizing Instagram’s accessibility tools is crucial, and you can use it to add image alt text, subtitles, and captions to your content.

3. Post regularly.

Once you know your target audience, post content they’ll enjoy and do it regularly.

The number of times you post depends on your marketing strategy, but the average brand posts four to six times a week on social media, according to a 2021 HubSpot Blog survey.

Again, this metric is an average and it may not work for everyone.

Posting too much content can overwhelm your users, and they won’t hesitate to unfollow if their feed is clogged.

It’s also important to know the best times to post for your followers. Instagram insights will also tell you the best days and hours to post.

4. Create better captions.

Unless you’re @world_record_egg, who posted a photo of an egg with no caption that has generated over 12 million likes, you need to focus on your captions.

Use the brand voice you’ve developed to sound consistent and keep your intended audience in mind. You can create short captions that are serious or light-hearted.

You can also create longer captions that tell stories and take your users on a journey. Take the Instagram account @humansofny as an example. They regularly feature the personal stories of people around the world.

Hand-in-hand with writing better captions is using quality hashtags — Instagram was built on them, after all. It’s still the algorithm’s primary method of filtering through content. If you’re unfamiliar with hashtags, here’s a summary.

Captions can hold up to 30 hashtags per post, but there must be a balance.

Hashtag dumping, which is similar to keyword stuffing, may make the algorithm think you’re spamming for engagement, and you can be shadowbanned. The goal is to figure out what works for you and stick to it.

Your hashtags should be a mix of popular and specific, long-tailed keywords. For example, if you’re running an Instagram for your hotel, you’ll want to use common hashtags like #hotel and #travel.

However, those are also very broad, as a search for the #hotel tag has 31 million posts. Be more specific and targeted towards your needs, and maybe say #hotel, #travel, and #hotel + your hotel name + the name of the city you’re in. So, for example, #hotellisamiami.

You can discover the best hashtags to use by doing keyword research and categorizing those that work best for you and your brand. You may also want to consider coming up with a brand-specific hashtag that users can recognize as yours.

5. Engage with your followers.

After you post, engage with your followers. While Instagram has the ‘Turn off comments’ feature, opt to keep them on.

Reply to comments that your followers make. Maybe they’re asking questions or proclaiming their excitement for your product. Paula’s Choice, a beauty brand, is an excellent example of this.

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They regularly host Instagram Q&A’s, where users ask questions and they answer them on their Instagram stories.

They’re taking actions that they know will entice their audience into interacting with their Instagram content, which factors into engagement rates.

Engaging with your followers also entails sharing their content on your site, known as user-generated content (UGC). Surfing through your brand-specific hashtags can help you find users that are posting about you. You can screenshot their content to share on your story, and even post on your feed.

Your followers will be excited that you interact with them, as engagement may signify a personal relationship with your brand. Here’s an example of Paula’s Choice posting UGC.

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6. Engage with similar accounts.

There wouldn’t be a point to using Instagram if you’re not following and interacting with other accounts.

Using the platform to engage with accounts similar to yours is extremely important. If you’re a brand, this can mean partnering with influencers in the same industry.

If you share products with them, they’ll post content wearing your brands. If they tag you, their followers will see your account, and many may follow you — all of these metrics factor into your engagement rate.

Emma Chamberlain is a popular YouTuber, holding almost 10.4 million Instagram followers at only 19 years old. She regularly posts sponsored content, and her sponsors post her. She entices her followers to interact with those brands, and vice versa.

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7. Create mixed content.

When the app was first launched, all you could do was post photos. Now, there are five types of content posts supported on Instagram: photos, videos, Instagram TV (IGTV), Instagram Reels, and Instagram Stories.

It’s no longer enough to just post photos; you need to do all of it.

Videos

Zenith Media estimated that the average person would spend 84 minutes a day watching videos in 2020. That’s a significant amount of time spent watching videos, so use it to your advantage.

There are five video options within Instagram: Reels, IGTV, Story videos, Instagram Live, and video posts. You’ll need to decide which method is best for you, but a well-rounded Instagram strategy will include all. If people are watching content on your page, they’re spending more time on your site, factoring into your impressions rate.

If you’re a sports brand, post enticing videos of recognized athletes using your equipment to practice their sport.

Stories

Instagram Stories are essentially the same as Snapchat stories. HubSpot’s Instagram engagement report found 22% of users watched branded content Stories from a company, business, or brand more than once a week, and 36% liked, commented, or shared branded Stores.

You can take advantage of these numbers and use this feature to draw attention to your new posts by sharing them on your Story or simply posting Story exclusive content.

This feature can also be used to engage with your audience. Post quizzes and questions and make them shareable for other users. Stories can also be used to get feedback from customers, asking them to submit experiences with your products and services.

Circling back to influencer sponsorships, having them go live on your account via Instagram Live is a great strategy. Instagram Live’s can also be saved to your account, so new users can watch them even if they occurred three months before.

8. Use calls-to-action (CTAs).

A CTA is an image, line of text, hashtag, or swipe-up link that is meant to entice your audience to take action — hence the call to action.

The specific action you’re asking users to take should be decided based on your brand, service, or influencers’ needs. This may mean notifying them of a sale by including a swipe up link in your Instagram story, asking them to tag a friend in the comment section, or sharing links to partner-posted content.

While links to other sites don’t directly impact your Instagram engagement rate, they still require users to spend more time on your profile, and you can convert them into leads on other platforms. Here’s an example of National Geographic advertising a new product on their story using a swipe-up CTA.

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9. Track your statistics.

Why would you bother taking action to improve your engagement rate if you’re not taking the time to understand if it’s working? Tracking your progress is extremely important, and it should be something you focus on.

Trial and error is expected, and it should be used to inform your current and future strategies. Use your preferred CRM to find your most effective posts or pieces of content, and use the strategy employed in those for your next content posts.

After you’ve calculated your engagement rate for the first time, you should devise a timeline in which you’ll recalculate it again. Maybe you’ll set a goal of raising your score by .10% in a year, so you may plan to re-calculate the numbers every three months.

This can also help you understand what isn’t working — if your numbers haven’t budged, something needs to change.

All in all, Instagram engagement rate is a measure of how your audience interacts with your content. Your rate is an indication of your Instagram profiles’ social authority, relevancy, and audience interest.

If your content is good and your followers are engaging, your engagement rate will demonstrate that. When you spend time working on your engagement rate, you collect valuable data to inform your entire Instagram marketing strategy.

You should see your engagement rate as a benchmark for customer loyalty and satisfaction.

If your users like you, it’ll show.

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

Local search is powerful for small businesses: 46% of all Google searches are looking for local information. If your business isn’t optimized for local search, you could miss out on potential customers ready to shop in your area. In short, local SEO is critical if you want your business to stay relevant.

To help you optimize your business for local SEO, we’ve created a comprehensive guide covering local SEO tips and tools.

By the end of the guide, you’ll have a firm understanding on how to optimize your business to reach potential consumers who use local search to choose which products or services they’re going to buy.

Search engines rely on signals such as local content, social profile pages, links, and citations to provide the most relevant local results to the user to gather information for local search.

With local SEO, businesses can use this to position their products and services to local prospects and customers searching for them.

1. Optimize for Google My Business.

Google My Business has become the creme de la creme of local search. Since Google supports, verifies, and shares its own content generously, Google My Business is an ideal tool to help your business meet Google’s needs.

To ensure you’re optimized for Google My Business, you’ll want to:

1. Create and verify a Google My Business page.
2. Use Google Posts within your account.
3. Encourage your customers to share reviews online.
4. Respond authentically to reviews, specifying location. For example, “We appreciate your feedback on [product/service] in [city, state]. We value your input and look forward to working with you again. Thank you from the [full company name] team.”

If Google can verify your business as authentic, the search engine could potentially reward your business with a coveted sidebar space in Google’s local search.

Don’t just do this for the SEO, either. By having reviews and keeping your contact information and operating hours up-to-date, you’re improving the experience for potential customers to find you. Finding current data is essential to consumers, now more than ever, due to 2020’s disruption in consumer shopping behavior and business operation.

2. Engage on social media and add posts to Google My Business.

Google considers content shared on social media more important now than ever before.

Now that you’ve carved out a beautiful Google My Business page, share it on social media, further aligning social and search.

3. Ensure your name, address, and phone number are consistent online.

You’ve got to make it easy for people and search engines to find you, and to do this you have to set up your NAP.

What does NAP mean in local SEO?

The acronym, NAP, stands for the name, address, and phone number (with area code) of a business. Your NAP should be considered crawlable HTML text on your site for Google to display it better according to location-based search results.

Pro Tip: Avoid the common mistake of only including the NAP within an image — images can’t be crawled from search engines like HTML text.

The most common location for the NAP is in the footer or header of the site. Additionally, you should include your NAP on a “Contact Us” page, too.

4. Optimize online directories and citations.

For United States companies, these four map data aggregators provide many map data for Apple, Yelp, Bing, Google, Trip Advisor, and more:

• Express Update
• Neustar Localeze
• Foursquare
• Factual

Consistency is key: verify that your citations are consistent and complete across these four data aggregators.

Discrepancies like misspellings, abbreviations, lack of suite number, or wrong phone number can be problematic.

If Google can’t determine which information about your business is correct, it may not show your business at all in search results.

Pro Tip: Remove any duplicate listings you find in online directories. And while you’re at it, get a Chamber of Commerce membership in your community to gain an external inbound link specific to your area.

5. Perform a local SEO audit.

Once you have the fundamentals down, it may be tempting to put your foot on the brake. However, SEO is an ongoing and intuitive process. Instead of stopping there or simply making changes and seeing what sticks, it helps to perform a comprehensive audit to see where your website stands and what you need to work on to achieve your goals. A local SEO audit may include the following:

• Google My Business Audit – How does your Google My Business appear in the SERPs? Is the information accurate?
• Google Search Console Audit – Is your site crawlable? Does it have any errors that would hinder indexing?
• On-Page SEO Audit – Does your site accommodate all the on-page SEO elements that help ranking?
• Citation Audit – Are all of your citations correct in the top business directories?
• Competitor Analysis – How does your site match up with your competition’s? Are there any gaps that you need to close? How do you match up in terms of inbound links, content, design, and positioning?
• Website Audit – How well is your website performing?

6. Improve your internal linking structure.

Although external links pointing to your site are ideal (which I’ll discuss soon), adjusting your internal linking structure will also boost your SEO rankings.

Why does internal linking matter? It does the following:

• Supports website navigation
• Assists with information architecture and website hierarchy
• Distributes page authority and ranking power among pages

If you want to improve your internal linking structure but aren’t sure where to start, check out Kissmetrics’ The Seven Commandments of Internal Linking for Top-Notch SEO.

7. Optimize URL, title tags, headers, meta description, and content.

When it comes to content, every new blog post is a new indexed page for your site, a new page on which to target a geographic search phrase, and a new opportunity to get found in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Every time you write a piece of content, you need to optimize the content for search engines by using high-volume keywords in the URL, title, header, meta description, and body. If you’re having trouble coming up with geo-targeted content, consider highlighting customer success stories and case studies.

Pro Tip: The more specifications you add to these assets (especially for each location of your business), the better you’ll be able to optimize “near me” local searches.

8. Add location pages to your website.

If you have more than one brick-and-mortar location, create location pages. Location pages provide readers with your name, address, phone number, store hours, unique store descriptions, parking/transit information, promotions, and testimonials from happy customers.

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It’s also important you avoid duplicating content across multiple location pages. For single-location businesses, create a locally descriptive About Us page. You can even get bonus points if you add a Google Map to your website on your respective location page(s).

9. Create local content.

Google continues to get smarter, which means content creators can now write more for users and less to appease search engines. And while writing about general topics will attract a vast crowd, sometimes it’s more important to hone your focus and write about local or industry news to attract a local audience.

Be the local authority for your industry by promoting local industry gatherings, news, employees, and other educational content on your blog. Think of top-of-the-funnel content that goes beyond what your business sells.

For example, if you’re a local security company and trying to attract businesses new to the area, create a helpful resource to get these businesses well-acquainted with your city. A map of local service providers or a calendar of city-wide events could both provide value for your persona and contain highly relevant on-page local signals.

10. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly.

Local and mobile search go hand in hand (61% of all Google searches are performed on mobile).

Some of the most common ways people will use your site in a mobile environment are to look up reviews, find directions to your location, and search for contact information. In fact, “near me” searches on mobile have increased 250% since 2017.

Make it easy for your prospects and customers by making your site mobile-friendly.

11. Get inbound links with relevance and authority.

Inbound links are compelling opportunities to boost your local SEO — every inbound link tells Google you’re a legitimate company, and inbound links can also raise your domain authority. Here are a few ways to get inbound links:

• Sponsorships or Partnerships
• Guest Blog Posting
• Scholarships

Start with your network, including the Chamber of Commerce, business improvement districts, licensing bureaus, trade associations, resellers, vendors, manufacturers, and other affiliates.

Consider sponsoring a webinar or meet-up, hosting a community event, promoting something local you love, and building relationships with prominent people and influencers. Additionally, learn to feel comfortable reaching out to partners to see if they can feature you on their partner directory.

Also, being a guest blogger can help attract links. Positively talk to or about other people in your industry, and act as a resource provider for the community. If you’re an active participant in community conversations, the buzz around you grows in the form of inbound links, social media growth, and media coverage.

12. Participate in your local community.

The more you participate in the local community, the more digital PR you’ll receive. Partnering with a nonprofit on a campaign, having a volunteer day in your organization, sponsoring an event (even an online one!), or appearing in the local media as an authority in your industry are all ways to earn press, brand awareness, and inbound links.

For example, given that .edu links are the bee’s knees for domain authority, why not earn some links by featuring a scholarship in your geographic region? It should be relevant to your industry, send the right signals to your domain (given the backlinks from schools) and make you feel good, too! Moz built a solid guide on the steps to success for effective scholarship outreach.

Local SEO Tools

Now that we’ve covered how to optimize your business for local SEO, let’s explore some practical tools you can leverage to improve your ranking in the areas where it matters most.

1. Whitespark Local Citation Finder

Pricing: Small Business Plan; $25/month, Specialist Plan; $50/month, Agency Plan; $100/month, Enterprise Plan; $200/month

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A local citation is any online mention of a local business’s name, address, and phone number.

Citations matter because they help surface local businesses in online search, and when local businesses actively manage its sources to ensure data accuracy, it promotes trust in these online listings.

Whitespark knows this realm well — really well. Whitespark offers local listing management, recommends where to list your business, examines your competition, and robustly builds and monitors your citation growth for better local search rankings.

2. Screaming Frog

Pricing: Free Basic Version, Paid Version; $209/year

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This desktop program crawls websites’ links, images, CSS, script, and apps from an SEO perspective. Curious if you have any 404’s? Or wondering about missing meta descriptions or H1s? Screaming Frog will analyze up to 500 URLs for free and unlimited URL analysis in its paid version.

3. Moz Local

Pricing: Lite Plan; $14/month, Preferred Plan; $20/month, Elite Plan; $33/month

Less expensive than most of its counterparts, Moz Local will ensure your business listing has been verified on Google and Facebook and distribute your listing across the search ecosystem.

Additionally, Moz Local will collaborate with data aggregators to help push listings, ensuring your business gains visibility.

4. Arel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hrefs

Pricing: Lite Plan; $99/month, Standard Plan; $199/month, Advanced Plan; $399/month, Enterprise Plan; $999/month

Arel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hrefs helps with backlink checking, which is essential as these links (directed toward your website) indicate website authority.

Arel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hrefs also offers competitor analysis, keyword research, and insight into other websites’ anchor text when backlinking to your site.

5. Buzzstream

Pricing: Starter Plan; $24/month, Growth Plan; $124/month, Professional Plan; $299/month, Custom Plan; $999/month

BuzzStream facilitates earning local backlinks, which helps you identify and build relationships with local influencers by researching influencers, tracking conversations, and providing reporting insights into your outreach campaigns, team performance, and link placements.

6. BrightLocal

Pricing: Single Business Plan; $29/month, Multi Business Plan; $49/month, SEO Pro Plan; $79/month

BrightLocal is a comprehensive SEO tool suite built explicitly for local business marketing needs.

The tool can help you generate and monitor reviews on local sites, understand your local search performance, and analyze nearby competitors.

BrightLocal also offers client access and white-labeled reporting — making it a solid fit for agencies and brands alike.

Improve Your Business Visibility with Local SEO

Local SEO is an integral part of any SEO strategy for local businesses. Local SEO will help your audience find you when they search online if you have a storefront or service area. We hope you find this article helpful in your journey to gain brand recognition and authority on the net.

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

Duplicate data is the bane of spreadsheet solutions, especially at scale. Given the volume and variety of data now entered by teams, it’s possible that duplicate data in tools like Google Sheets may be relevant and necessary, or it could be a frustrating distraction from the primary purpose of spreadsheet efforts.

The potential problem raises a good question: How do you highlight duplicates in Google Sheets?

We’ve got you covered with a step-by-step look at how to highlight duplicates in Google Sheets, complete with images to make sure you’re on the right track when it comes to de-duplicating your data.

Highlighting Duplicate Data in Google Sheets

Google Sheets is a free, cloud-based alternative to proprietary spreadsheet programs and — no surprise, since it’s Google we’re dealing with — offers a host of great features to help streamline data entry, formatting, and calculations.

Google Sheets has all the familiar functions: File, Edit, View, Format, Data, Tools, etc. and makes it easy to quickly enter your data, add formulas for calculations, and discover key relationships. What Sheets doesn’t have, however, is an easy way to find and highlight duplicates.

While other spreadsheet tools, such as Excel, have built-in conditional formatting tools that can pinpoint duplicate data in your sheet, Google’s solution requires a little more manual effort.

Step-by-Step: How to Highlight Duplicates in Google Sheets (With Pictures)

So how do you automatically highlight duplicates in Google Sheets? While there’s no built-in tool for this purpose, you can leverage some built-in functions to highlight duplicate data.

Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Open your spreadsheet.

Step 2: Highlight the data you want to check.

Step 3: Under “Format”, select “Conditional Formatting.”

Step 4: Select “Custom formula is.”

Step 5: Enter the custom duplicate checking formula.

Step 6: Click “Done” to see the results.

Step 1: Open your spreadsheet.

First, head to Google Sheets and open the spreadsheet you want to check for duplicate data.

Step 2: Highlight the data you want to check.

Next, left-click and drag your cursor over the data you want to check to highlight it.

Step 3: Under “Format”, select “Conditional Formatting.”

Now, head to “Format” in the top menu row and select “Conditional Formatting”. You may get a notification that says “cell is not empty” — if so, click on it, and you should see this:

Step 4: Select “Custom formula is.”

Next, we need to create a custom formula. Under “Format cells if”, select the drop-down menu and scroll down to “Custom formula is”.

Step 5: Enter the custom duplicate checking formula.

To search for duplicate data, we need to enter the custom duplicate checking formula, which for our column of data looks like this:

=COUNTIF(A:A,A1)>1

This formula searches for any text string that appears more than once in our selected data set, and by default will highlight it in green. If you prefer a different color, click on the small paint pot icon in the formatting style bar and select the color you prefer.

Step 6: Click “Done” to see the results.

And voilà — we’ve highlighted the duplicate data in Google Sheets.

How to Highlight Duplicates in Multiple Rows and Columns

If you’ve got a larger data set to check, it’s also possible to highlight data duplicates in multiple columns or rows.

This starts the same way as the duplicate checking process above — the only difference is that you change the data range to include all the cells you want to compare.

In practice, this means entering an expanded data range in the Conditional format rules menu and the custom format box. Let’s use the example above as a starting point, but instead of just searching column A for duplicates, we’re going to search across three columns: A, B, and C, and also across rows 1-10.

When we enter our conditional format rules, Apply to Range becomes A1:C10 and our custom formula becomes:

=COUNTIF($A$2:G,Indirect(Address(Row(),Column(),)))>1

This will highlight all duplicates across all three columns and all 10 rows, making it easy to spot data doppelgangers:

Dealing With Duplicates in Duplicates in Google Sheets

Can you highlight duplicates in Google Sheets? Absolutely. While the process takes more effort than some other spreadsheet solutions, it’s easy to replicate once you’ve done it once or twice, and once you’re comfortable with the process you can scale up to find duplicates across rows, columns, and even much larger data sets.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of having a quality website for nonprofit organizations. All of an organization’s outreach, marketing, and ads need to drive an audience to take action like donating, finding out about services, or signing up for information.

An effective website allows these actions to happen quickly and seamlessly, making the path to conversion for any of these actions feel effortless.

On the other hand, subpar websites actually distract audiences from the goals you want them to accomplish, confusing visitors with navigation that obscures the most relevant information or overloading them with too many calls-to-action.

As digital marketing experts, we have a basic process we use as a guide when we start new nonprofit website projects, ensuring that the end product is clear, easy-to-use, and ultimately, effective.

Let’s dive in.

The 6 Phases of a Successful Nonprofit Website Project

1. Discovery

During the discovery phase, your project team will define its goals and understand existing strengths, opportunities for growth, and audiences.

Identify Your Goals

The first step in building a better website is recognizing that you need one, and determining goals for redesign efforts. Sometimes you can look at data to determine if your current site is meeting your expectations.

Understand Audiences

Tools such as Google Analytics can help you determine which actions or content are getting more or less traction with audiences to optimize accordingly. Implementing audience surveys can also provide insight into what parts of your website may be resonating better or worse with your key groups.

Evaluate Content

Sometimes the issue may have to do with the visual presentation of your brand elements –– your site may just need a general facelift or improved accessibility. Marketing agencies can help audit and review your current site in more detail to provide you with specific recommendations to guide and prioritize your goals for your new website.

Site Audit

In a full site redesign, research may be required as a first step to inform strategy and design. This might involve doing an in-depth audit of all of the existing content for your current site, as well as research and documentation about any other technical platforms (like CRM systems or fundraising platforms at your organization). This also might entail doing deeper research into your audience groups and mapping their specific needs at various stages of their journey interacting with your organization.

SEO Audit

An SEO audit is an important step to capture insights for your site rebuild, ensuring audiences can easily find it via search. An SEO audit involves taking an in-depth analysis of all the factors that affect a website’s visibility in search engines. Doing this audit gives complete insights into the website, overall traffic, and individual pages in regards to site health and overall domain authority.

Here are just a few things to consider during an SEO audit:

• Does your site support a breadcrumb structure?
• Does your navigation make sense?
• Is it easy for users to find important and relevant content on your site?
• Does the content reach the right audience and target important keywords?
• Is there correct metadata throughout the site? Title tags?
• Are there server errors on your site?

While these may seem like simple and mundane tasks, they are crucial steps in ensuring your site and brand increase organic visibility. Overall, completing this task can help assure that you are reaching your traffic goals and can make any changes necessary in the website redesign.

2. Strategy

Once your discovery is complete, you can move to your strategy phase. Here, you and your team will dive into planning how all of your content, including copy, images, videos, and any other assets, will be presented across the new website.

Content Strategy

Once you have a handle on who your audiences are, and how you’d like them to engage with your information, you can dive into your content strategy — or the way you’ll organize and develop content for visitors to engage with on your site. This might include revising your site map (otherwise known as a list of pages in a hierarchical order for your website), and navigation so content that’s relevant to a particular audience is grouped together, and in a way that will make it easy for them to find the right piece of content at the right point of their journey.

During your content strategy exploration, considering all stages of an audience’s user journey is critical. How are people new to your site engaging, and how can you make life easier for return visitors?

As a nonprofit, you’ll want to share different pieces of your story with new versus existing supporters — for instance, with new visitors, you can share background on your nonprofit, and with existing supporters, you can show them the impact and results of your nonprofit so they can see how their contributions matter.

Information Architecture

Once the overall content strategy is in place, you can start to solidify the role, or story, each individual page will play. Bringing the most important messages to the top, and allowing for less urgent pieces to cascade down the page, builds your loose information architecture that will help UXers and designers bring your story to life.

3. UX and Design

As you move into your user experience (UX) and design phase, you’ll bring all of your discovery and strategy to life with visuals. By keeping your audiences top of mind during this phase, you’ll be able to meet their needs in the most effective way possible.

User experience (UX) design comes next, often in the form of prototypes or wireframes, to provide visual structure for each page. Sometimes these wireframes also include notional copy, which are brief bits of text to indicate things like ‘Headline about our giving program goes here.’ This can be helpful to guide later copywriting efforts for site content.

Things get more interesting and fun as the new website’s visual and creative direction gets established. Designers can recommend a new visual approach to your brand elements, colors, fonts, and other style elements. When approved, this visual approach gets applied to page designs and layouts to arrive at finalized page designs.

4. Implementation

In your implementation phase, you’ll notice that the development processes vary a bit depending on the platform. As you and your team work through implementing your work, you’ll make some decisions that’ll impact how easy your site will be to maintain (through no/low-code platforms versus code-driven products).

Designs, requirements, specifications, and copy come together with development efforts to bring a new website to life. Today, organizations have a lot of great options to consider: No-code platforms such as Squarespace or Wix can make many parts of the development process so simple that developers aren’t needed and maintenance costs are greatly reduced, at the cost of some flexibility about what types of technical integrations they can work well with and how much customization can occur. 

Some solutions such as Hubspot’s CMS are tailored for HubSpot’s CRM tools and offer an out-of-the-box solution for organizations that want a powerful but easy-to-use interface. HubSpot offers more than two dozen themes for nonprofits to choose from, making customization and a sleek design and user experience available within minutes.

More development-intensive platforms like WordPress come with higher investment needed in the building process and long-term maintenance costs for things like plugins and hosting, but offer endless opportunities to realize a custom website vision.

5. Quality Assurance Testing

Once final content is entered or migrated into your new site, and an approach to blog posts and SEO considerations have been addressed, quality assurance (QA) testing can happen.

QA testing can check that the site presents well across all devices, meets accessibility standards, is optimized for speed, and is functioning according to requirements.

6. Accessibility

Creating a website that’s not only functional and well-organized but also accessible to all is becoming the standard. As nonprofit organizations, it’s even more important to be catering to all audiences, especially those you may be serving.

Remember that accessibility means accommodating for all disabilities, not just ones that are readily apparent. Over 13% of the U.S. population has a visual impairment. Making the mindful shift to ensuring your site is accessible consists of small changes, like using proper colors, H1/H2 tagging for screen readers, and providing alt text on all images and graphics. Checking these boxes goes a long way in helping everyone have a positive experience on your site.

Once your QA testing is complete, including your accessibility checks, you can make changes and find solutions, and then the site is ready for final approval to release.

Regardless of your platform, there are a few details (that are often forgotten) to always keep in mind.

Here are a few examples of great no-code and low-code nonprofit websites.

No-Code Nonprofit Website Examples

1. 50 States, 50 Grants

 It Gets Better: 50 States. 50 Grants. 5000 voices campaign was built using webflow. Although built on a template, the website still has great movement and engagement, and portrays a more custom website.

Issue Area: LGBTQIA+

Website Platform: Webflow

Website: https://www.50states50grants.com/ 

2. RiseUP Marketing Fellowship

RiseUP Marketing Fellowship is a purpose-driven marketing fellowship that works to increase diversity, access, and tangible social impact across the marketing and advertising industries.

Issue Area: Employment

Website Platform: Squarespace

Website: https://www.riseupfellows.com/

Code-driven Nonprofit Website Examples

1. OPS

OPS inspires, empowers, and connects a global community using high-impact films and visual storytelling to expose the most critical issues facing our planet.

Issue Area: Environment

Website Platform: WordPress

Website: https://www.opsociety.org/

2. Outward Bound USA

Outward Bound USA is the leading provider of outdoor education programs that allows young people to explore their personal potential, since 1962.

Issue Area: Education

Website Platform: WordPress

Website: https://www.outwardbound.org/

3. The Gerson Mission

The Gerson Institute’s mission is anchored in the education of food as medicine, reducing toxic exposure and creating a healthier world where Gerson Therapy is not just a viable option, but a pillar of treating chronic illness.

Issue Area: Health

Website Platform: WordPress

Website: https://gerson.org/

Common Nonprofit Website Pitfalls

1. Tracking and Conversions

All too often, organizations forget to transfer and/or set up their tracking on a new website. At the very least, make sure your Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics are published when the website is released.

Chances are with most website rebuilds, elements and forms on the website have shifted. Buttons may have changed colors or placements and new pages may have been added. Any custom event or conversion tracking on your existing website will need to be recreated for the next website so that you don’t lose out on any of your tracking.

There’s nothing worse than realizing a pixel isn’t firing correctly mid-campaign. Make sure you take the time to QA your site, test forms and buttons, and run reports the second the website is live.

2. SEO

Every company needs a strong marketing strategy, even nonprofits! However, most nonprofits don’t know or haven’t considered investing in search engine optimization (SEO) even though it can have one of the highest returns on investment.

How do you expect your supporters, volunteers, and advocates to find you if you don’t invest in your SEO and content strategy? Roughly, 53% of individuals say they always do research before they buy something to ensure they are making the best possible choice. This is no different for nonprofits.

Strong SEO is more vital for nonprofits than ever with the accelerated digital transformation due to COVID and the overall political climate within the United States. Many Americans are looking for ways to support organizations of specific social issues — highlighting the greater need for strong SEO.

3. Accessibility

According to the World Health Organization, one billion people — approximately 15% of the world’s population — live with some form of disability. And, roughly 75% of Americans with disabilities report using the internet on a daily basis.

It’s important to keep in mind accessibility in web design is best when planned ahead, but can be remedied in meaningful ways at any stage in a website’s lifecycle.

As mentioned above, there are small changes that can go a long way in helping everyone engage with your website, but a few of the most critical are as follows:

• Ensure the colors of your text/backgrounds are friendly for those experiencing visual disabilities, including color blindness
• When available, draft specific copy for alt texts on images and graphics to verbally describe what someone else would see
• This also helps with folks who use screen readers, having a voice to describe what they’re seeing adds context and color to their experience online
• Using the tab key to navigate your site to see how folks who are unable to mouse around will engage with your content can illuminate any areas where more work may need to be done.
• And lastly, checking for discrepancies between a mobile and desktop experience can be a great last pass to ensure you’re up to par with accessibility needs

Ultimately, a website redesign isn’t easy, but it’s a smart and lucrative business decision when it comes to helping your nonprofit reach new audiences and increase impact. A strong website is critical for any brand, but particularly vital for nonprofits that are goaled on reaching and inspiring interested audiences.

Many years ago, I waited hours in line after a concert to get a coveted Selena Gomez autograph.

After she signed my poster, I hung it up in my bedroom, where it felt like my most prized possession. Because, although plenty of other people had Selena’s autograph — no one had this specific one.

It was one-of-a-kind. And worth every penny I paid to attend the meet-and-greet.

And, although it may not seem like it at first, web3 technology — and how it will ultimately impact consumers — is actually very similar to my experience at the Selena Gomez concert.

Here, I spoke with three web3 experts to learn more about how web3 will impact the future of consumer trends.

But first … what is web3, anyway?

What is Web3?

If you’re unsure what web3 is, you’re not alone. HubSpot’s Blog Research recently found 51% of consumers don’t understand the concept of web3.

Before writing this post, I didn’t either.

We cover what web3 is in-depth in this post, but for a brief recap: web3, or the third-generation of the internet, is a vision of a more decentralized web that places the power in the hands of users instead of large tech companies like Google, Apple, and Netflix.

Web3 is built on blockchains using existing infrastructure with the goal of making the internet more accessible, private, and secure for users.

Anna Seacat, VP of Marketing and web3 Community at Proxy and Co-Founder of Glypta.org, says a major benefit of web3 is ownership over data.

As Seacat puts it, “Today, when we create content or submit personal data online, we’re handing over ownership to companies who can change, delete, or sell it. With web3, we own our data. You can mint content through a decentralized app, but that app can never change or remove it, because it’s yours forever, unless you decide to sell it.”

Essentially, it’s an evolution of the internet that will be supported by blockchain and hosted on servers owned by individuals and many organizations rather than a handful of corporations. This gives users the ability to vote over the web’s rules and regulations, rather than putting all power into the hands of those who own the servers (think: Democracy versus Monarchy).

At least, that’s the idea — although it’s still in early days of development, so it’s unknown whether reality will live up to these ideals.

But how does web3 relate, specifically, to consumers and e-commerce brands? Let’s explore that next.

How does web3 relate to consumers?

Web3 Will Provide a Foundation for Decentralized Finance

So … How does web3 relate to consumers? Well, in many ways, web3 is opening up new opportunities for how people will ultimately spend and sell.

In essence, web3 could become a strong foundation for a secure, protected digital economy.

For instance, one critical component of web3 is decentralized finance.

Decentralized finance, which uses the same blockchain technology used by cryptocurrencies, has a similar goal as web3 itself: Give people the power to control their own money through a digital wallet, rather than relying on major financial institutions and banks. (Similar to how web3 aims to give people the power to control their data, rather than relying on major tech corporations.)

Many brands already accept digital currencies from consumers. Microsoft, for instance, allows consumers to purchase products from the Windows Store with bitcoin; AT&T accepts cryptocurrency for bill payments; and even retailers like Overstock.com accepts bitcoin on its online site.

So decentralized finance could be the next leap towards encouraging more digital transactions by providing incentives for consumers to store their finances digitally.

Cryptocurrency, bitcoin, and a decentralized financial system are three components that could flourish on web3. But all three exist in much the same way the dollar does: as a fungible token. In other words, you can trade one dollar of bitcoin for another identical dollar of bitcoin. They are interchangeable.  

But there’s another major element of web3 that many brands are seeing value in, and it’s likely something you’ve already heard something about: NFTs.

More Consumers Will Begin Purchasing NFTs 

NFTs — or non-fungible tokens — are part of the Ethereum blockchain, and have exploded in growth over the past few years. In fact, investment bank Jefferies forecasts that NFTs will reach more than $35 billion in market value in 2022, and over $80 billion by 2025.

Many of us have seen the wild west of NFTs first-hand. A few examples come to mind, including a Tweet that sold for $2 million, a meme that sold for $590,000, and a bundle of monkey drawings that sold for over $24 million.  

But what does ‘buying’ any of these digital assets actually mean? Essentially, it means you purchase the digital certificate which verifies you’re the sole owner of the original. Consider it synonymous with owning the original Mona Lisa, versus purchasing a copy.

NFTs aren’t limited to digital artwork, however. NFTs can be a digital asset from any industry, including gaming, fashion, and even music.

The potential ramifications of NFTs are enormous. As consumers shift towards NFTs, major corporations like Google or Meta could see a decline in how many consumers use their shopping tools.

As Seacat puts it, “If NFTs are any indication of how marketing, shopping, and selling online will change, we’re in for true disruption. For instance, Google is not used for NFT shopping. Instead, consumers rely on gated apps and decentralized marketplaces — neither of which show up in traditional search engine results.”

Web3 Will Lead to More Trust Between Buyers and Sellers, and Reduced Prices

As previously mentioned, web3 will offer more security and control over personal data — which will directly impact a consumer’s sense of trust when making purchasing decisions. 

Jeremy Merrell Williams, CEO at Vyudu Inc and web3 and Blockchain Analyst, says web3 will greatly impact how consumer shop in the future. 

“For instance,” Williams says, “with blockchain technology, shoppers can directly connect with producers and retailers without having to go through intermediaries. This could lead to more trust between buyers and sellers, as well as lower prices due to reduced fees.”

He adds, “Web3-based marketplaces could also make it easier for consumers to find the best deals on products and services.”

Ultimately, with web3, you don’t need to put your trust — and data — into the hands of a third-party corporation. Given that 76% of consumers feel they don’t know what companies are doing with their data, this could ultimately lead to a renewed sense of trust between consumers and brands.

Some Consumers Will be Wary of Web3 Because of The Volatility of Crypto

Before we dive into how brands can leverage web3, let’s take a look at some consumer concerns when it comes to web3.

One major concern? The purchasing process is too confusing.

Seacat says, “Web3 doesn’t currently support the average consumer’s purchasing process. You have to take big gambles and go into what’s called a ‘rabbit hole’ to get education and onboarding.”

For this reason alone, Seacat and a team of women started a nonprofit, Glypta.org, to make web3 safer for women, especially those who are just getting started in the space. Seacat adds, “We shouldn’t have to risk thousands of dollars in a rabbit hole to be a part of web3.”

Additionally, digital currencies like cryptocurrencies have proven to be volatile, which dissuades many from investing in the first place. And since you can’t use U.S. dollars on web3, those who don’t feel confident purchasing cryptocurrencies are excluded from purchasing on web3.

Finally, there are some steep fees on web3, particularly when buying NFTs.

As Holly Shannon, producer of Culture Factor, a high-ranking NFT and emerging technologies podcast, told me, “The fees incurred when buying an NFT on the blockchain are high. They are referred to as ‘gas fees’. The use of crypto and the gas fees relative to a purchase are a major drawback at this time.”

Shannon adds, “The exercise to get a wallet that is unique to this framework is also cumbersome and full of friction. There are hot, warm, and cold wallets. There are secret codes and layers of authentication.”

Ultimately, we’re a long ways away from making web3 feel mainstream for consumers. But it’s still useful to consider: When consumers do begin joining web3, how can brands meet them there?

How Brands Can Leverage Web3

Brands Can Leverage NFTs to Build Direct-to-Consumer Relationships

In recent years, major brands have begun seeing the value in NFTs. Nike, for instance, has begun selling branded sneakers on Roblox, a virtual world, for fans’ avatars to wear as they play sports virtually. Those virtual sneakers, which won’t exist in real life, are an example of NFTs.

Meanwhile, in the fashion industry, Dolce & Gabbana set a record of nearly $6 million for a nine-piece collection of digital NFTs, including a “Glass Suit” that the auction winner’s avatar can wear in a metaverse.

Shannon says: “I believe the ability to prove ownership makes for a great opportunity. Let’s say you purchase a Hermés bag. By using an NFT that establishes the purchase on a blockchain, it creates a permanent record of that sale.”

Shannon adds, “Think of that NFT as a ticket or token that represents an asset — or your Hermés handbag. It authenticates your purchase as the original. Which, as an aside, makes a good case for reducing counterfeit sales. Additionally, it gives the brand an opportunity to have a direct relationship with the consumer.”

Ultimately, Shannon believes the power of NFTs for brands lies in this concept: Direct-to-consumer.

For instance, Shannon notes, Hermés could use NFTs to delight their customers with unlockable experiences.

Shannon posits, “Hermés could invite consumers to a fashion show, or send them a gift using NFTs. Alternatively, maybe a sports team uses NFTs to give fans a chance to meet their favorite players, or send SWAG directly to them. This merely scratches the surface of experiential marketing, but hopefully you can see the magic, too.”

Which leads me to my next, and hopefully last, Matrix-sounding buzzword: Metaverse.

Brands Can Engage with Consumers in the Metaverse

The metaverse is essentially a 3-D virtual reality (check out this post with a full run-down of the metaverse if you need a refresher), and it’s where many consumers will purchase and wear the digital items we’ve listed so far.

I’m willing to bet you’re thinking NFTs and the metaverse seem a little far-fetched for most consumers. (I’m not in the financial position to purchase a $2 million Tweet myself, anyway.)

But HubSpot’s Blog Research found it does, in fact, impact many consumers today. A few quick stats:

• Over half of those who have ever bought virtual currency/items have done so within the past three months. (Including 75% who bought cryptocurrency; 62% who bought virtual items like Fortnite skin; and 60% who bought NFTs.)
• 30% say more brands should have virtual stores in the metaverse.
• 34% of cryptocurrency owners have used crypto to make a purchase (other than using it to buy other crypto).
• 27% say they would be more likely to use a platform if they received virtual currency for using it.

As it turns out, consumers are interested in purchasing virtual products and services; and they’re interested in using virtual currencies to do so.

In many ways, this makes sense: Much of what we do nowadays exists online. We meet our partners online using dating apps; we make new friends via social communities like Facebook; and some of us even work entirely online, leveraging remote tools like Zoom to communicate with colleagues.

Web3 is an iteration that could, ideally, meet more consumers needs when it comes to data privacy, convenience, socialization, and entertainment.

And if your consumers are on web3, why wouldn’t you want to meet them there?

Video marketing is becoming more and more integral to a brand’s success. If you’re a marketer trying to craft the best video marketing strategy for your brand, it helps to know the top video marketing tactics brands are investing their time and money in.

Fortunately, the HubSpot Blog recently surveyed over 500 marketers across the globe about their video marketing tactics, what seems to be working, and which tactics are worth reconsidering.

Most Used Video Marketing Tactics

Here is a breakdown of the kinds of videos and platforms marketers are continuing to leverage and why:

Short-Form Video

In our survey, we found short-form video leads in usage with it being leveraged by 58% of marketers. Short-form videos also lead on ROI, engagement, and lead generation. Nearly half (46%) of marketers will plan to use short-form videos for the first time in 2022 and 36% will invest in short-form videos more than any other format.

These numbers aren’t surprising when you consider short-form videos are more likely to go viral, according to 47% of video marketers.

Long-Form Video

Long-form videos come in second when it comes to usage with 37% of marketers leveraging the format. This format also places second in terms of ROI, lead generation, and engagement. According to our survey, 36% of marketers plan to leverage long-form videos for the first time in 2022, and 18% will invest in the format more than any other kind of video.

The optimal length of a long-form video is between three to six minutes, according to 36% of marketers. Even platforms like TikTok are starting to embrace long-form videos, in fact, the app is now allowing 10-minute videos. This could be because long-form videos still receive significant engagement.

In our survey, we found 38% of long-form marketing videos have an average watch percentage between 41% and 60%. We also found 25% of long-form videos have an average watch time between 61% and 80%. Finally, 22% have an average watch time between 21% and 40%.

Video Marketing on Social Media

Social media is the top channel used to share marketing video, with it being used by 76% of marketers in our survey. It also has the biggest ROI by far, according to 67% of marketers who use it. Our survey revealed 66% of marketers also say it’s the most effective for generating leads. We also found 63% of marketers will use social media for the first time in 2022, and 61% will invest more in sharing videos on social media than any other channel.

Regarding specific social media platforms, Instagram is the top platform for ROI, lead generation, and engagement. According to our survey, 42% of marketers who don’t use Instagram for sharing videos will do so for the first time in 2022, and 24% will invest more into sharing videos on the platform than any other.

Facebook is also a common tool for marketers with 60% of those in our survey sharing videos on the platform. However, Facebook also comes in fourth place for ROI, engagement, and lead generation. We found 35% of marketers will invest in videos on Facebook for the first time in 2022.

Coming in second place in terms of engagement is TikTok, however, only 35% marketers share videos on the platform and 20% plan on doing so for the first time in 2022.

Video Marketing on YouTube

YouTube has the highest usage among marketers with 70% leveraging the platform. It will also see the most investment from video marketers in 2022. Over half the marketers who do not use YouTube will do so for the first time in 2022, according to our survey.

No matter which tactic you choose to leverage for your brand, it’s important to remember the most important factors when creating effective video content, according the marketers we surveyed are:

• Adequately promoting your video
• Capturing viewers’ attention in the first few seconds
• Keeping your videos short/concise

Least Used Video Marketing Tactics

Here are the platforms, formats, and concepts that seem to be losing steam among marketers.

Reddit, Tumblr, Twitch, Snapchat, and Pinterest

While social media plays a vital role in video marketing, not every platform ensures success. Marketers told us Reddit, Tumblr, Twitch, Snapchat, and Pinterest have not provided favorable ROI or engagement when it comes to marketing videos, therefore these platforms will likely see the least investment from video marketers in 2022.

Nostalgic Content and UGC

Despite the resurgence of TV shows, films, and music trends rooted in nostalgia, marketers say nostalgic content consistently underperforms in terms of engagement, ROI, and lead generation.

We found similar findings when we asked marketers about user-generated content (UGC). Our survey found just 19% of video marketers will leverage nostalgic content in 2022 for the first time and only 3% will use UGC.

Screen-Capture video

Screen-capture videos have the lowest ROI when compared to other video styles like live action and animation. They are also much less effective in generating leads and engagement, according to our survey. With that said, 52% of video marketers plan on leveraging screen-capture video for the first time in 2022, and 21% plan to invest in this video style more than any other.

Video content is continuing to gain importance as more and more platforms prioritize video sharing. Now that you know what investments are working for marketers—and which aren’t—you can begin brainstorming the best video marketing campaign that will ensure success for your brand.

Webinars, video campaigns, and social media posts are relatively new channels for marketers to reach their customers. But, your contemporary communication methods shouldn’t distract you from one of the oldest, yet most effective, strategies — email marketing. In fact, email ROI is an impressive $36 for every $1 spent. 

If you’re still hesitant, keep reading — we’ve cultivated a list of email marketing statistics for HubSpot to demonstrate just how powerful email can be. Here, you’ll find: 

• Email Marketing Stat Highlights for 2022
• General Email Marketing Statistics
• B2B Email Marketing Statistics
• Mobile Marketing Statistics
• B2C Email Marketing Statistics
• Email Marketing Demographics for 2022

General Email Marketing Statistics and Best Practices

• Email marketing is used by 1 in 2 media planners. It will continue to grow this year with 22% planning to leverage it for the first time.(HubSpot Blog Research, 2021)
• Email marketing revenue is estimated to reach almost 11 billion by the end of 2023. (Statista, 2021)

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• There are 4 billion daily email users. This number is expected to climb to 4.6 billion by 2025. (Statista, 2021)
• More than 306 billion emails are sent and received each day. (Statista, 2021)
• 64% of small businesses use email marketing to reach customers. (Campaign Monitor, 2021)
• 37% of brands are increasing their email budget, and just 1.3% are making cuts. (Litmus, 2021)
• The most effective strategies for email marketing campaigns are subscriber segmentation (78%), message personalization (72%), and email automation campaigns (71%). (HubSpot Blog Research, 2021)
• 33% of marketers send weekly emails and 26% send emails multiple times per month. (Databox, 2022)

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• 63% of businesses reduce the frequency of emails send to subscribers based on their levels of engagement.  (Databox, 2022)
• 41.5% of brands say that email marketing is very critical to business success, compared to 78% in 2020. (Litmus, 2021)
• 77% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months. (Not Another State of Marketing, 2021)
• Globally, Fridays see the highest email open rates (nearly 19%), compared to the lowest open rates (17%) on Saturdays. (Campaign Monitor, 2021)
• 43% of marketers are changing how they measure email performance because of Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, and 24% aren’t making any changes for now. (Litmus, 2021)
• The most significant way that email marketers adapted to recent data privacy changes was by prioritizing different KPIs. (HubSpot Blog Research, 2021)
• The most effective email subject lines engage curiosity, include promotional offers, and are personalized to each recipient’s interests. (HubSpot Blog Research, 2021)

• QA, A/B, and spam testing your emails leads to higher ROI. Enjoy up to a 28% higher return when you put testing to work for your email program. (Litmus, 2022)

B2B Email Marketing Statistics

• 81% of B2B marketers say their most used form of content marketing is email newsletters. (Content Marketing Institute, 2020)

• 64% of B2B marketers say their email marketing strategy was effective for meeting business goals in 2021. (HubSpot Blog Research, 2021)

• 15.8% of all emails go missing or have been caught by popular spam filters. (Email Tool Tester, 2022)
• B2B marketers say that new product and feature announcement marketing emails have the highest click-through rate. (HubSpot Blog Research, 2021)
• Automation is primarily used in email marketing to send triggered emails, for drip or nurture campaigns, and segmentation. (Litmus, 2021)

Mobile Marketing Statistics

• A majority of email views come from mobile devices (41%), followed by desktop (39%). (HubSpot Blog Research, 2021)

• Nearly 55% of global website traffic is generated from mobile devices, excluding tablets. (Statista, 2022)
• 46% of smartphone users prefer to receive communications from businesses via email. (Statista, 2021)
• Apple iPhone’s native email app has the highest market share, followed by Gmail. (Litmus Labs, 2022)
• Nearly 1 in 5 email campaigns is not optimized for mobile devices. (SuperOffice, 2020)
• Launching a mobile-responsive email design can increase unique mobile clicks by 15%. (MailChimp, 2021)
• 56% of marketers leverage mobile-friendly emails in their email marketing strategy. (HubSpot Blog Research, 2021)

B2C Email Marketing Statistics

• 87% of B2C marketers leverage automation as part of their email marketing strategy. (HubSpot Blog Research, 2021)

• 50% of people buy from marketing emails at least once per month. (Salecycle, 2022)

• Your audience will reward you with higher open and click rates if you don’t send more than five newsletters a week. (GetResponse, 2020)
• 60% of retail, e-commerce, and consumer goods and services companies are personalizing emails based on past purchases, versus 38% in 2019. (Litmus, 2020)
• More than 8 out of 10 people will open a welcome email, generating 4x as many opens and 10x as many clicks as other email types. (GetResponse, 2020)
• The single message autoresponder email had an astonishing 98% open rate and a 37% click-through rate. (GetResponse, 2020)
• Nearly 22% of all email campaigns are opened within the first hour of sending. (GetResponse, 2020)
• 15.8% of all emails go missing or have been caught by popular spam filters.  (Email Tool Tester, 2022)
• 59% of respondents say that marketing emails have influenced their purchases. (Salecycle, 2022)
• 64% of B2C marketers consider accessibility when creating their emails. (Pathwire, 2021)

Email Marketing Demographics 2021

• 99% of email users check their inbox every day, with some checking 20 times a day. Of those people, 58% of consumers check their email first thing in the morning. (OptinMonster, 2020) 84.3% of consumers say they check their emails at least once a day. (Pathwire, 2021)

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• 35% of survey respondents in the U.S. have two email addresses and 28% have over four.  (Statista, 2021)
• Consumers spend an average of 10 seconds reading brand emails. (Statista, 2021)

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• 40% of consumers say they have at least 50 unread emails in their inbox. (HubSpot, 2020)
• Email is the leading way consumers in the U.S. discover coupons from brands.  (Statista, 2021)
• Recognizing a sender is the most important factor in deciding to open an email, followed by actually having the time to read an email.  (Pathwire, 2021)
• The average bounce rate across all industries is 9.96%. 
  (Constant Contact, 2022)
• 59% of Millennials primarily use their smartphone to check email, while 67% of Generation Z scans their inbox on mobile. (Bluecore, 2021)
• 74% of Baby Boomers think email is the most personal channel to receive communications from brands, followed by 72% of Gen X, 64% of Millennials, and 60% of Gen Z. (Bluecore, 2021)
• The most significant steps marketers take to champion accessibility when creating their emails is writing short, descriptive subject lines, making links and buttons easy to see, and keeping paragraphs short and simple. (Pathwire, 2021)

Apply Your Email Knowledge

Many of the data points will help you make the case for investing more time and money into your email marketing strategy. While you can refer back to this post at any time, you can also start applying them to your next campaign.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in March 2019, but was updated for comprehensiveness and freshness.

Every company needs a strong marketing strategy — even nonprofits.

However, most nonprofits haven’t considered investing in search engine optimization (SEO), even though it can have one of the highest returns on investment.

SEO, specifically for nonprofits, is the process of optimizing your website to increase organic visibility when people search for topics like education, fundraising opportunities, volunteer opportunities, or other aspects that promote your mission.

Let’s dive into what SEO is, how it works, and SEO best practices for nonprofits.

What is SEO?

SEO, which stands for search engine optimization, is the process of driving users to your site from search engines organically. This means you aren’t paying for ads, using social media, or placing sponsored content to attract new users.

The goal of SEO is to help your site rank as high as possible for target keywords and phrases relevant to your website and mission.

For example, if your nonprofit is geared towards wildlife conservation, you would want to rank high organically for terms related to wildlife conservation. The higher your website or pages rank in the search engine result pages (SERPs), the more likely users will see it and click on it. Studies have shown that the higher you rank, the higher the average click-through-rate (CTR) is.

If you’d like a full rundown on SEO, take a look at The Ultimate Guide to SEO in 2022.

How does SEO work?

There are hundreds of factors that Google and other search engines take into account when ranking your site or content. These factors come from the three different pillars of SEO which are the following:

• Technical optimization
• On-page optimization
• Off-page optimization

Search engines are powered by people when they have a query and search for answers. Search engines use algorithms that decide what content and websites best fit the answer for the query. There are three steps that search engines take when assessing a site: crawling the site, indexing the site, and lastly, ranking the site.

Crawling, also known as the discovery stage, occurs first, then search engines decide if the pages should be indexed or shared on the search engine result pages and available for users to see and find. Lastly, the algorithm ranks the content in the search results, which is how users find your website or web page.

SEO for Nonprofits

So why should nonprofits invest in SEO? Well, SEO is just as important for nonprofits as it is for other companies. It is an affordable and effective long-term marketing strategy.

Investments you make in SEO today may take a while to pay-off, but they will continue to do so for years to come. SEO can take awhile to see the results due several factors, such as keyword difficulty, competition, domain age, and to trust of search engines and users. In general, it can take four to six months to see some movement in rankings and site health.

Increasing organic visibility of your nonprofit also increases the visibility of the mission you stand for while growing your brand awareness. Using SEO will help your pages move up in search engine rankings, creating a higher click-through-rate, more impressions, and overall, more traffic.

How to Measure SEO Success

Depending on your goals and what you want to accomplish, there may be multiple aspects you’d like to measure and evaluate for success, such as:

• Keywords
• Organic traffic
• Market share compared to competitors
• Conversions
• Backlinks
• Page rankings

Some goals for your nonprofit might include having more priority keywords move into the top 10 positions, increasing organic traffic on specific pages, or increasing organic conversions.

SEO Best Practices for Nonprofits

If you’re confused or intimidated by the idea of becoming discoverable online and creating a successful SEO strategy, we’ve got you covered.

Here are the five best SEO practices to focus on for your nonprofit this year.

1. Keyword research should create your content strategy.

It’s important to know what your prospective and ideal customers are searching for and what their journey is. Search engine rankings are determined by algorithms that use quite a few factors to decide how well a webpage answers a query.

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as throwing keywords into your content, so here are a few things to consider.

Search Intent

A query or keyword can have multiple meanings depending on the person or where they are in the user journey. They might be looking for more information, directions, or to make a purchase or donation, and each of those actions would need a different query. It’s important to make sure that the right keyword goes with the right piece of content.

Relevant Keywords

If you’re a nonprofit that works with homeless communities, a long-tail keyword you might want to focus on could be “how to help homeless communities”. Knowing this, you can create content and resources that will drive users to your site. You should avoid keywords that don’t truly represent your brand or what you offer.

Long-tail keywords are keywords or phrases that are more specific, and usually longer than common keywords. An example of a long-tail keyword might be “light blue beach hat” and a short-tail keyword would be “hat” or “beach hat”. Shorter-tailed keywords are usually harder to rank for, but have more traffic. Longer-tailed keywords have less traffic but a higher conversion rate, which is ideal for most nonprofits.

Additional thoughts:

• It can often be easier to target long-tail keywords (a phrase vs. a one-word term), which drive more qualified traffic
• There are different keywords targeting users at each part of the sales funnel
• Keyword research takes time and evolves as well

Google offers a great free keyword research tool that can also be used for SEO. If you’re looking for a more SEO specific platform, MOZ and SEMRush are two great platforms that both offer nonprofit pricing.

2. Create high-quality content.

Content will always be one of the most important ranking factors. Not only is it essential to have SEO-optimized content, but the quality is important, as well. Google wants to ensure that you’re publishing content that follows their E-A-T standards.

The concept of E-A-T, which stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, is considered an SEO best practice when creating content. These factors help Google avoid sharing and feeding inaccurate or misleading information. You can follow these factors from Google by:

• Updating old content to make sure it’s relevant
• Ensuring the content is accurate
• Allowing experts or other writers to create content for you

Along with E-A-T, make sure that your content follows the best on-page practices. This includes focusing on a primary keyword, adding metadata, using proper headings, adding alternative text (ALT text) to your image, and using internal linking, to name a few.

3. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly.

A majority of users across all industries use their phones instead of desktop computers as of 2022.

Additionally, Google crawls sites using a Google phone bot to make sure your site is mobile-friendly. This means your site is able to shrink down and fit on any screen while still allowing users to access your content as easily as on a desktop.

Mobile-friendliness is a ranking signal in both Google and Bing’s algorithms when a user is searching on a mobile device. If your website is mobile-friendly, it generally will outrank non-mobile-friendly sites.

There are several tools available to test you website’s mobile-friendliness:

• Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
• Page speed insights
• MobiReady

Google’s results via Page Speed Insights

4. Link-building is crucial to create brand awareness.

Nonprofits can struggle with getting donations due to lack of overall brand awareness and organic visibility. Link-building relies on creating authoritative content that other sites will want to link share with and link back to. A great example of this is allowing your annual reports to be sharable for others to see.

One strategy to consider would be to reach out to partners or sponsors and see if they will link back to you on their site and in their content. This is especially important for pages you want to drive traffic to.

5. Local SEO is very relative for most nonprofits.

Local SEO is very beneficial for nonprofits because it can help bring people to a fundraising event or even attract volunteers. For example, if you search “food drive near me” on Google, local listings will pop up. This is because they have focused on a local SEO strategy by utilizing their Google Business Profile.

Google Business Profile allows you to gather reviews, add images and videos, and ensure that your information is up to date for users. You can also add FAQs with answers for users to see as well. All of this helps organizations land on the top of Google listings for this query.

Nonprofit SEO Case Study

Finally, let’s explore how two nonprofits — diaTribe and CreakyJoints — excelled using SEO.

First, diaTribe, a diabetes organization that aims at providing education and resources for those living with diabetes, leveraged an SEO strategy to reach new audiences during the pandemic.

The nonprofit focused on keywords that had low competition, and we helped the organization capitalize on highly-relevant topics based on keyword research data.

As a result, the organization hit all their website traffic and subscriber goals — helping grow their email list by 28% and their website traffic 15% year-over-year.

Next, Media Cause started working with CreakyJoints, a leading support, education, advocacy, and research organization for people living with arthritis and rheumatic disease, in August 2018 to increase organic search traffic.

 By monitoring and resolving SEO-related issues, optimizing existing pages for Google search crawlers, and providing content recommendations based on keyword research, we helped CreakyJoints quadruple their monthly search traffic after just five months.

Today, CreakyJoints’ content is reaching 4x the number of people it used to. That means more people living with arthritis and chronic pain are learning how to navigate their patient journey better, including learning about the long-term effects of their medications, safe and effective ways to manage their symptoms, and how to lead healthy and empowered lives thanks to CreakyJoints.

Investing in an SEO strategy and working on it over time will pay off immensely for your nonprofit in the long run, and it’s cost-effective. While it may take up to six months, you’ll see an increase in your organic and qualified traffic that will help increase visibility for your mission and create better engagement.

By implementing the tips above or working with an agency that is dedicated to promoting your mission, you’ll convert users and help drive them to you.

IoT is everywhere nowadays – from the smart devices in our homes to the QR codes we see in commercials nowadays.

However, there is still so much untouched terrain with IoT marketing. Here are six IoT marketing examples to inspire you to investigate all the ways you can leverage this technology in your strategy.

How does IoT work in marketing?

The Internet of Things is the connection of everyday products like cars, alarm clocks, and lights to computing devices via the internet. It allows them to exchange data with each other, providing marketers with more context about their customers’ product usage.

This, in turn, enables marketers to deliver more relevant messages and leads to greater customer engagement.

For example, if you run out of milk or it spoils, a refrigerator connected to the internet could recognize your need and display a message on its screen or on your phone about the best milk deals in town. You could even order a carton through one of those devices if the refrigerator company partnered with a grocery store.

Since IoT technology connects the internet with objects that are ubiquitous in our daily lives, marketers in almost every industry will be able to engage consumers throughout every phase of the customer journey.

Internet of Things Marketing Examples

1. Coinbase’s Superbowl Ad

Every year, brands spend millions of dollars for a 15- to 60-second ad slot during the Superbowl.

When Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, shared its commercial during the 2022 Superbowl, some viewers were confused while others were mesmerized.

Their one-minute ad featured a QR code bouncing around a black screen, reminescent of the “DVD” logo on older TVs – with eerie background music.

When viewers used placed their smartphone’s camera to the QR code, they were directed to the platform’s websites where they were offered $15 for signing up and downloading the app.

QR codes are considered gateways to IoT devices, and allow brands to find creative but affordable ways to market their products and services.

The commercial was so successful that the website crashed.

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2. Heineken’s The Closer

In June 2022, beer company Heineken launched a campaign inspired by employees working from home following the pandemic and struggling to disconnect from work.

The company announced that on June 8, they would hold a giveaway sending consumers a Bluetooth-connected bottle opener that would shut down work apps when used.

Using IoT technology, the “Closer” would use an accelerometer to detect the opening of the bottle, communicate with the user’s device via Bluetooth, and shut down selected work apps.

In a press release, the brand’s global head of brand, Bram Westenbrink, shared that this device was created to address work-life imbalance.

“With the once-rigid boundaries between work and personal time rapidly deteriorating following the COVID-19 pandemic, we want to spark a much-needed conversation about the importance of resisting the societal pressures to be in a constant state of busy work and encourage workers around the world to reprioritize social and leisure time with the people who matter most.”

The giveaway only lasted one day and the second half of this campaign involved an online “Calendar Closer,” in which users schedule a meeting with up to three friends to receive $5 to spend on beer and an entry in another giveaway.

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This multi-layered campaign shows just how creative brands can get in IoT marketing.

3. Walgreens’ IoT Ad Displays

In 2019, Walgreens started testing digital cooler doors that would target store goers with ads and partnered with brands like MillerCoors and Nestlé that were willing to test their products.

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Here’s how it worked: Sensors and cameras located inside of the coolers would pair with face-detection technology to determine what to promote to shoppers, based on age, gender, weather, and more.

For instance, a young adult could be shown sodas while an older person could be shown beer. For beer company MillerCoors, this test seemed promising.

In a statement, a senior marketing manager at MillerCoors said that one of the biggest barriers they face is that shoppers don’t know they can purchase beers in drugstores. Having targeted ads like this could dramatically increase sales and provide more insight into consumer behavior.

This marketing strategy offered a unique opportunity to market to consumers right at the point of purchase, which is unheard of in an offline environment.

4. Diageo

In 2015, Diageo, a leader in the beverage alcohol industry and in IoT marketing, announced the launch of a smart bottle.

Here’s how it works: With every purchase of a Johnnie Walker Blue Label bottle, users would receive personalized messages to consumers who read the printed sensor tags using their smartphones.

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The brand said the goal was to enhance the consumer experience and make it easy to send targeted and timely marketing messages.

This is a fantastic example of how to elevate the relationship with a consumer after they’ve made the purchase. Often, brands focus their resources so much on gaining customers that they don’t consider post-purchase marketing strategies.

5. Allen Solly

It’s not unusual for brands to ask customers to tweet something, but the request is not often met with much excitement or vigor unless the customer feels he’s receiving something in return.

Using IoT, connecting social media hashtags and product giveaways might be easier than ever – and a lot more fun.

Allen Solly, a clothing brand, created an interactive shirt billboard in Bangalore, India.

As users tweeted #RainingSolly, the computer linked to the billboard would choose a solenoid (the coil wound behind a shirt) to push a shirt off the billboard for a random consumer to win.

Allen Solly found a unique way to encourage consumers to share their brand on social media, while enabling people to engage as a community in person, as well.

6. Nivea

Print advertisements and IoT technology probably feel like two different ends of the marketing spectrum – the past, and the future. But they might not be.

Nivea Sun Kids created a campaign that combines both, by offering bracelet strips in a Brazil magazine print advertisement that parents could peel off and put on their children’s wrists.

The bracelets had built-in locators, which, when paired with Nivea’s mobile app, allowed parents to set a maximum distance their children could wander. If the child wandered beyond the maximum distance, the app notified the parent. The radar also showed if the child was moving closer or further away.

Nivea’s creative campaign likely encouraged word-of-mouth advertising between parents in Brazil, and it also showcased the brand as being thoughtful and innovative.

We’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to IoT marketing. While some tactics require more resources than others, there are a lot of affordable and creative methods brands can use to incorporate IoT into their marketing strategy.

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