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Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conference that brings together more than 300,000 professionals in the film, TV, music, education, and tech industries.

In 2024 alone, featured speakers include include Jane Fonda, Dwyane Wade, Alex Cooper, and Daisy Ridley.

All of which is to say: It‘s a massive event centered around various creative verticals. So who better to speak on creativity than SXSW’s Co-President, Hugh Forrest?

As Forrest puts it, “Our north star has always been creativity. I’ve been with the event for over 30 years, and the event has changed a lot over that time period … But what hasn’t changed is our focus on creativity.”

Let‘s dive into some of Hugh’s top tips for injecting creativity into any event planning process. Interested in hearing the full interview? Check it out on the Hustle Daily show.

How to Inject Creativity Into Your Next High-Attendance Event

1. Allow creatives to learn from other creatives.

One of the biggest benefits of large-scale events is the opportunity to network with professionals outside of your vertical.

As a marketer, I‘m not always interested in learning from other marketers. Sometimes, I’ve found the most inspiration in conversations with script-writers, educators, or social media creators.

Hugh Forrest believes wholeheartedly in the power of interdisciplinary networking.

He says, “In particular, we’ve seen how different kinds of creative people can learn from each other. If you’re a musician, you can learn a lot from connecting with other musicians … But you can learn even more from connecting with an innovator in the food space, or an athlete, or someone who’s doing a tech startup.”

If your event is overly-siloed, it will be difficult to foster the type of collaboration and creativity that your attendees crave. Instead, consider how you might merge seemingly-opposite groups of professionals to interact and learn from each other.

2. Stay focused on your community and what matters to them.

Forrest says that SXSW has always mirrored the creativity in Austin, Texas.

When SXSW first began in 1987, they entirely focused on music — and then, in 1994 when Austin became a burgeoning film scene, SXSW adapted and added film and multimedia.

More recently, when the University of Texas added a medical school, SXSW introduced health and medical technology into their content lineup.

As Austin expands and shifts its interests, so does SXSW. Ultimately, Forrest has discovered one critical component of long-term success in the event industry: Stay on-top of what matters to your audience, and find ways to pivot when appropriate.

Click here to listen to the full podcast episode here.

As he puts it, “I mean, if we’re relevant, if we’re compelling, if we’re improving, so much of that is because we are very in touch with our community or the various communities we serve—whether that’s bands and filmmakers for the film and TV festival, or entrepreneurs, innovators, and creators. The event has thrived for 35 years because of this focus on massive creativity in all its many forms.”

He adds, “If Austin continues to push into AI and becomes this world center for AI innovation, we’ll push a lot more into AI at South by Southwest. If Austin becomes the sneaker capital of the world, then we’ll see a lot more sneaker stuff in Austin.”

Similarly, when you consider testing out new content at your next event, keep your community at the forefront.

AI is a trending topic right now, but are you sure your community cares about it? Or are they more interested in learning how to expand their TikTok following? Leaning into the content that applies to your community will be key to creating a fulfilling and high-attended event.

3. AI is increasingly important … but don’t under-appreciate the face-to-face component that lets creativity shine.

“One of the themes that we always rediscover at SXSW is on the one hand, we’re an event about technology and celebrate new ways for people to connect,” Forrest says.

He adds, “But on the other hand, the most important technology is face-to-face interaction. And that hasn’t changed. Bringing people with diverse ideas together in a city that has always cultivated and celebrated creativity — in a time of year when you have the manifestation of rebirth and creativity (i.e. springtime) — has turned out to be a very strong formula for good things to happen.”

AI is all the rage right now. But the most compelling reason people purchase tickets to conferences and events is the in-person offering. With 65% of workers preferring a completely remote setup, face-to-face interactions are rare.

When given the chance, people want to jump on the opportunity to connect in-person.

So, while it can be tempting (and cost-effective) to create an entirely virtual event, you might want to consider offering attendees the opportunity to engage in real life — even if that just means an optional meet-and-greet after the main event.

As Forrest puts it, “Creativity is what makes us human. And in 2024, as we see more and more machines taking over, we really need to lean into our humanity.”

Creating a productive workplace for yourself is tough enough, but doing it for the entire team? That’s a whole different ball game.

As a marketing team leader for many years, I learned firsthand the importance — and the challenges — of building a productive workplace.

But wherever I worked, my goal was the same: to inspire my team and help them break through barriers to achieve their best. I led the way, guiding each member from beginner to expert. I turned juniors into specialists and even team leads.

Being a team leader taught me that creating a productive workplace isn‘t about rules and plans — it’s about people. How do they feel? What motivates them? Do they feel heard?

In this piece, I’ll share my personal insights blended with tips from ten amazing industry experts to help you build a highly productive workplace.

Table of Contents

• What is Workplace Productivity?
• How to Increase Productivity in the Workplace
• How to Build Productive Teams
• Tips for Managing a Productive Workplace

What is Workplace Productivity?

Workplace productivity is the contribution each team makes to the company’s success. You can measure it in different ways — like how much work gets done in an hour, how much money each employee brings in, or how often projects are finished on time.

But there’s more to productivity than just, well, producing. The “how” we produce also matters, and it’s a big part of equipping ourselves and our workplaces to become more efficient.

We need to treat productivity more holistically, or as Dan Shipper said in his TED talk, “We think productivity is about software, notebooks and to-do list frameworks, calendars, schedules, and inboxes. And it is all of those things, but it’s also about our brains and our bodies.”

So what should a productive workplace look like? Here are four things it should prioritize.

1. Healthy Work-Life Balance

When your team feels like they’re constantly in work mode, with no room to breathe or pursue other interests, productivity suffers.

Working more doesn’t mean more work gets done — especially not quality work. People need a good balance between work and free time. They need to recharge and feel supported in managing their personal lives alongside their work.

And that’s not just my opinion. A 2022 study on the interactive influence of work-life benefits backs this up. It found that perks like flexible work hours and childcare support lead to happier teams, a better work atmosphere, and everyone being more productive.

2. Good Communication and Collaboration

Being a team leader is about more than being an authority figure. Sure, you have more responsibilities — approvals, guiding the team — but you’re not the sole idea generator or decision-maker.

According to a 2023 research study, most employees said they felt left out of decisions. Needless to say, this shouldn’t be the case, since communication and collaboration are essential to true productivity.

During my time as the head of outbound content marketing at Serpstat, I led my team by keeping communication open, and I genuinely welcomed every strategic or creative suggestion. I found it valuable when someone offered a different perspective, even if it contradicted my own.

After all, being a leader didn’t mean I had all the right answers — it meant I needed to empower my team by showing I valued collaborative ideas, conflict resolution, and smooth teamwork.

3. Clear Goals and Objectives

A 2022 Forrester study found that only 39% of participants fully understood their company’s goals. On the other hand, 78% of them completely understood their personal/individual goals.

That poses the question: Is it really necessary for team members to know company-level goals?

No.

Is it beneficial?

Yes.

If they understand how their individual goals fit into the company’s goals, they’ll feel more productive and motivated to hit the target.

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When all employees understand a company’s core motives, goals, and mission, they show amazing results. As the bestseller book “Start with WHY” suggests, sharing your company’s mission with employees, and helping them feel invested in it, must be in every successful company’s DNA.

Mission alignment also helps with motivation. Mateusz Calik, CEO at Delante, shared an interesting story on how he recognized the power of goal setting:

“I’ve always hated and felt so tired and undermined in jobs where there was no clear end to a task … What helped me was a system of work my second-ever boss exposed me to. Set deadlines, set projects, and set purposes. It is the true antidote to procrastination.”

How to Increase Productivity in the Workplace

Take breaks to keep at peak performance.

Breaks are not wasting time. Breaks are for recharging batteries and then getting back to do more and better.

A recent study showed that breaks and self-care are crucial for better productivity and overall health. Workers need at least an hour of rest for every eight hours they work. It’s best if the breaks actually break up the working hours, but of course, it depends on the job — just don’t stick to your monitor during a break. Getting away from your screen and your workstation is the goal here.

Pro tip: I use the Pomodoro technique for quality work — 25 minutes of effective work and then 5 minutes of rest. And those 5 minutes mean real rest: a short walk, stretching, drinking water, and breathing fresh air.

While it seems like it would be easier to take more frequent breaks while working remotely, that’s not always the case. Deb Mukherjee, head of marketing at Numeral, emphasized that “we overwork ourselves during remote.” The truth is, while at home, many of us fail to take necessary breaks. Mukherjee suggests that in this work environment, breaks are more crucial than ever.

Mukherjee also believes in seizing quick, spontaneous breaks during the day to share non-work-related tidbits with colleagues, giving our brains a short breather.

“We have a #fun voice channel where folks come on throughout the day and talk about random stuff like their dog’s recent antics,” Mukherjee says.

Get rid of distractions to get more done in less time.

When there’s too much noise or constant interruptions, no one can concentrate.

Set up quiet zones where you can focus without distractions. You can also try using noise-canceling headphones to block out any background chatter. When at the office, I use AirPods and search for “music for concentration” on YouTube Music.

But the best solution here? Get rid of the phone and notifications. Unless it‘s for work calls or messages, tuck it away somewhere so it doesn’t tempt you to scroll through social media endlessly.

Stop multitasking to decrease work-related stress.

Multitasking = getting less done.

Multitasking is jumping from one task to another before it’s done. For example, you might work on a letter, then switch to LinkedIn, then attend a meeting, and then return to the letter. Instead of finishing tasks quickly, multitasking means each task gets less of your attention. And trust me, you’ll goof over something.

A recent study found that multitasking negatively affects work and home life. Despite many believing it’s essential, it actually leads to increased stress, reduced concentration, and poorer results.

While this kind of task-switching makes us feel more productive, it actually slows us down in the long run. As HubSpot Co-Founder Darmesh Shah famously said, “Don’t kid yourself that you can multitask — you can’t. Task switching is cognitively expensive.”

Set SMART goals to keep tasks organized.

Preceden research reveals that visualizing your goals can boost productivity by 18%.

So, instead of just tackling tasks randomly, set SMART goals to avoid burnout and be more productive. SMART is a great framework for breaking down a goal into smaller, more manageable steps to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

SMART goals are:

• Specific. Make sure the goals you set are specific. The more detailed, the better.
• Measurable. Make sure your goals are measurable so that you can see progress and adjust accordingly.
• Attainable. Goals should be attainable; if they’re not, rewrite them.
• Relevant. Goals should align with you or a company’s values and long-term vision in order to make a real impact on change and performance.
• Time-Bound. Set a deadline.

To put this into practice, I like writing my goals in a notebook every Friday evening or Monday morning, so I know what goals I want to achieve next week. Then, I put them on my Monday board and make sure to track and mark my progress regularly.

 

How to Build Productive Teams

Provide ongoing training in different fields.

From day one, ensure that every team member receives proper onboarding training and ongoing education. These sessions are great for improving skills, communication, and teamwork.

For example, for your content team, offer regular workshops on content creation or SEO updates. Use free and paid resources. Navigate to a free HubSpot Academy for digital marketing and project management courses designed by experts in their fields.

Also, get your senior team members to lead workshops with juniors to significantly strengthen team bonds and share knowledge.

Pro tip: Training doesn’t always have to be work-related. Connor Butterworth, founder of Rug Slinger, shared that his company regularly organizes workshops for personal development. This approach resulted in continuous month-over-month growth.

Support your team in every possible way because their internal well-being directly affects their performance.

Encourage collaboration and lead by example.

Collaboration makes people feel like they’re part of a team. When colleagues work together, they build trust and friendship. This makes the workplace a healthy place to be, projects get finished faster, and the results are often better.

Marcus Clarke, founder of Searchant, states that the best way to foster collaboration is through sessions, meetings, and one-on-one chats.

Once he prioritized this, Clarke says, “I noticed my team felt more comfortable in sharing and expressing their minds and concerns. This led to increased problem-solving, creativity, and productivity in general.”

Also, if you’re a team leader or manager, try to be a role model. Show your team how collaboration works by actively participating and sharing ideas yourself.

As a team leader, I used to often say, “Hey Matt, how does this work? Can you help me with XYZ?” Sure, I could probably Google it, but I wanted to show the team it’s normal to ask for advice and help.

Make your meetings more productive.

Don’t hold meetings just for the sake of holding them — especially weekly planning and retrospective meetings.

Start by setting clear objectives and agendas beforehand. Encourage everyone to contribute their ideas and opinions.

However, leave five minutes for a casual conversation to check on your team’s mood and set a relaxed but professional atmosphere.

Watch this short TedX tutorial on bad versus good meetings.

 

Focus on results, not clock-watching.

When results are the main focus, everyone’s motivated to work smarter, not just harder. For that reason, I don’t like time-trackers for remote jobs.

I used to be a full-time employee for a company that made us use a tracker even when working at the office. As a result, employees felt stressed and as if they were not trusted to do their best work. Needless to say, this works against productivity.

Instead, as a manager, stick to what counts — your team’s performance and results.

Olivier Bretton, the founder of Niceboard, has great perspective on this.

“The most crucial thing that has helped me create a productive workplace for my team at Niceboard is a fully remote setup,” Bretton notes.

According to Bretton, remote work has helped create a more flexible and focused work environment for his team. “It also encourages productivity since employees are not evaluated on time spent ‘at work’ but rather on their actual performance outputs,” he says.

Pro tip: Present time-tracking to your team as a temporary means for troubleshooting, optimizing workflows, and amplifying productivity. Encourage your team to use this as a tool to understand workload versus capacity, find bottlenecks, and improve personal time management.

Tips for Managing a Productive Workplace

Avoid Micromanaging

Don’t micromanage your team.

A 2024 study from the Leadership & Organization Development Journal showed that micromanagement is one of the most common workplace issues, particularly in hybrid/remote work environments. It comes with many negative effects, like anxiety, demotivation, and reduced productivity. I’d also add that micromanaging discourages task ownership.

Of course, you can‘t give your team freedom without first training and guiding them. But once that’s happened, let them take the stage and shine. It’s not always going to be easy, but we need to accept mistakes and failures as a part of the growth process.

We can also take a cue from Alexandra Ilie, project marketing manager at Touchpoint. Ilie says she learned that giving her team freedom was just a start.

“When things started to go sideways, instead of diving back into micromanaging, we set clearer expectations, provided more resources, and really amped up the support. We made sure everyone knew what was expected and had what they needed to meet those expectations,” Ilie says.

Use Productivity and Automation Tools

Teamwork without tools like Trello, Asana, Monday.com, Zapier, Airtable, etc., would be chaotic. They help with managing tasks, sharing files, coordinating schedules, and collaborating in real time.

According to a recent HubSpot study, 75% of +1350 business professionals agree that automation tools help their organization collaborate more effectively.

Kellie Davis, director of content marketing at Impact.com, says, “We keep all project communication in Asana …That way, everyone can see what’s happening, avoiding messages getting lost in Slack or email.” When communication and collaboration are effective, “everyone is happier and feels more control over their work.”

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Pro tip: When offering productivity apps, be sure that each team member receives training on how to use the apps effectively. I find it helpful to create a Loom video where I explain everything step by step. This way, team members can watch at their own pace and leave comments at specific points if they have questions or need clarification.

Ask for Feedback

It’s not just the manager who should give feedback. Your team should also give input on projects, assess team dynamics, and flag any behavior that doesn’t align with your company culture.

Team members can also give feedback on the manager’s leadership style. For example, I often checked in with my team to see how they felt about my leadership and if there were any changes they wanted me to make.

We also rolled out anonymous surveys to highlight both strengths and areas for improvement. This acted like a “health check” for each team, and served a great purpose.

Celebrate Successes

A 2023 Great Place to Work study found that 37% of employees would do better work when they receive personal recognition. So, when your employees do something great, give them a shout-out.

Cheer for both big and small wins. For instance, in your Slack group, give a shout out to a team member who nails a project, crafts a great pitch, or shares an awesome social media post. And when the win deserves more than just praise, think about starting a bonus program or giving out gift cards. You can also reward your team with an extra day off. Trust me — this will be a big hit.

In the words of Vartika Kashyap, chief marketing officer at ProofHub, “You don’t have to wait for major milestones to acknowledge individual or team achievements.”

At ProofHub, Kashyap holds a small team lunch to celebrate successful campaigns. “This shows my genuine appreciation towards them. Plus, it boosts their morale and encourages them to continue their dedicated effort,” Kashyap says.

Positive Environment = Productivity Blossom

We have rolled through a lot of methods, tools, and advice for creating a productive work environment. But if I had to sum it all up in a single piece of wisdom, it would be this: Keep it simple.

People thrive in a work environment that’s straightforward and easy to work in. No micromanaging, no overwhelming tasks. Create a positive, helpful, and supportive vibe. Communicate, share ideas, and encourage your team to speak up about what’s bothering them. When everyone feels like part of the crew, teamwork becomes dreamwork.

Since launching in 2018, TikTok has racked up millions of downloads globally. It can also be a bit of a mystery since TikTok doesn’t always disclose key app metrics.

As someone who’s gotten sucked into the app, hearted hundreds of posts, and even made a few videos, I’m fairly certain that this platform will stick around for quite some time.

To help you make informed decisions about your strategy, we’ll cover key TikTok statistics and facts to know.

Already know what stats you’re looking for? Jump there with this table of contents:

• TikTok Stats for Marketers
• Userbase, Downloads, and Growth
• Demographics
• User Behavior
• Viral Trends and Influencers on TikTok
• Business, Revenue, and Competition
• Where to Find TikTok Stats

57 TikTok Stats to Know in 2024

TikTok Stats for Marketers

Before we jump into overall TikTok stats, let’s review some key figures and best practices for marketers to know when using the app.

• TikTok usage among social media marketers has increased 15% year over year. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• 27% of marketers surveyed plan to use TikTok for the first time in 2024. Ahead of TikTok is Facebook (40%), YouTube (45%), and Instagram (39%). (HubSpot Blog Research)
• Marketers say that TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook have the biggest potential to grow in 2024, and 60% of marketers will increase their investment in these apps. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• The best times to post on the app are 6-9 p.m., 3-6 p.m., and 12-3 p.m., and the best day is Friday. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• According to a study, one in ten Gen-Zers is more likely to rely on TikTok than Google. (Adobe)
• TikTok has the third-best engagement rate, according to marketers. Of marketers surveyed, 13% said that TikTok has the highest engagement rate. Ahead of TikTok is Facebook (22%), YouTube (23%), and Instagram (23%). (HubSpot Blog Research)
• TikTok video downloads were as high as 2,733,100 in quarter three of 2023. (Statista)
• TikTok says that a few U.S.-based employees can “heat” videos, which means they can intervene to increase their viewership. (Forbes, eMarketer)
• TikTok’s CPM is half the cost of Instagram, a third of the cost of Twitter, and 62% less than Snapchat. (eMarketer)

Userbase, Downloads, and Growth

Within TikTok’s first year, it reportedly reached 500 million monthly active users. While once considered a fluke, TikTok’s growth has only skyrocketed since then.

• In September 2021, TikTok celebrated reaching 1 billion monthly active users. (TikTok)
• Douyin, TikTok’s original standalone app in China, had 300 million users when Musical.ly merged with TikTok. (The Verge)
• In 2022, TikTok was the most downloaded app globally (850 million downloads), followed by Instagram and WhatsApp. (Statista)
• In 2024, TikTok was the third most downloaded app with 128 million downloads, after Temu (132 million downloads), and interestingly, Capcut, TikTok’s video editing app. (Business of Apps)

Demographics

Here’s a breakdown of TikTok’s major demographics. Please note that audience data for individuals who do not identify within the binary are not reported.

• TikTok’s largest age group is between the ages of 18 and 24. (Statista)
• 54.1% of global TikTok users are female, and 45.9% are male. (Data Reportal)
• 70% of U.S. TikTok users identify as sports fans. (TikTok)
• 92% of Gen Z users aged between 16 and 25 years use YouTube. Instagram and TikTok follow, with 85% and 78% of U.S. Gen Z users. (Statista)
• Among social media marketers who build social media communities, 28% say that TikTok is the most effective platform for building an active community on social media. (HubSpot Blog Research).
• The United States, Indonesia, and Brazil have the largest audiences on TikTok as of January 2024. (Statista)
• TikTok is now available in more than 200 countries. (Oberlo)

User Behavior

TikTok is a fast-paced app. The second you log in, you see a video at the top of a feed that’s algorithmically curated around your interests.

From my own experience, TikTok can easily cause you to spend more time than expected watching an endless stream of often comedic videos. Since these videos can be anywhere from 6 seconds to 10 minutes, the app is ideal for people seeking quick entertainment or longer-form content.

Because of TikTok’s quick pace and entertainment factor, the stats below aren’t that surprising:

• The average user spends 95 minutes per day on the app, according to DataProt. (DataProt)
• TikTok was downloaded 767 million times worldwide in 2023. (The Guardian)
• TikTok is more popular than Facebook for Gen Z in every country, with the Czech Republic being the only exception. (Klarna)
• 90% of TikTok users think sound is vital for the TikTok user experience. (Shoplus)
• After seeing an ad on TikTok, viewers trust the brand 41% more and are 31% more likely to be loyal to the brand. (TikTok)
• Users are 1.8x more likely to agree that TikTok introduces them to new topics they didn’t even know they liked. (TikTok)
• A quarter of U.S. adults under 30 regularly get news on TikTok. (Pew Research Center)
• 40% of users say that their For You Page (FYP) is either extremely or very interesting to them. (Pew Research Center)
• 52% of U.S. adults on TikTok have never posted a video on the platform. (Pew Research Center)

The Impact of TikTok

• Ads on TikTok viewed for less than six seconds still produce a stronger impact compared to ads viewed for 20 seconds or more. (TikTok)
• 71% of TikTok users who take action off the platform say that TikTok shows them exactly what they are looking for. (Market Cast)
• 67% of female shoppers rely on creator recommendations before making a purchase. (TikTok)
• 57% of brands now leverage short-form videos (TikTok, IG Reels, etc.) as part of their social media strategy. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• TikTok users are 1.8x more likely to convince their family and friends to buy the item they purchased previously (versus non-TikTok users). (TikTok)
• 44% of Gen X TikTok users say the platform helps them discover new things. (TikTok)
• TikTok users are 1.4x more likely to buy a new tech product in the next six months (versus non-TikTok users). (TikTok)

Shopping on TikTok

• 37% of TikTok users in the United States made purchases either through links on the app or directly on the platform. (Statista)
• TikTok users are 1.4x more likely to order more food or grocery deliveries during festive seasons (versus non-TikTok users). (TikTok)
• TikTok users are 1.3x more likely than other platform users to purchase a product to lift their spirits. (TikTok)
• Millennial TikTok users are 2.9x more likely than other platform users to make a tutorial about a product after buying it. (TikTok)
• 50% of TikTok users have bought something after watching TikTok LIVE. (The Drum)

Ready to learn how to harness the power of TikTok shop for your business? Here’s how to get started. 

Viral Trends and Influencers on TikTok

TikTok has opened doors for influencers, comedians, meme creators, and even some brands. Here are a few interesting tidbits about viral trends and influencers on the app:

• The most followed creator on TikTok is Khaby Lame, with 161.4 million followers. Following close behind is Charlie D’Amelio, with 152 million. (Wikipedia)
• 67% of marketers who work with influencers/creators work with micro-influencers (10,000-99,999 followers/subscribers). Only 17% work with mega influencers (over 1 million followers/subscribers). (HubSpot Blog Research)
• 47% of marketers value the quality of an influencer’s content when deciding who to work with. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• 90% of marketers will maintain or increase investment in influencer marketing in 2024. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• The United States has a large pool of influencers, with 10M individuals considered as such. (Influencity)
• In the U.S., the number of female influencers reaches 4.7M. Male influencers, on the other hand, make up only 2.8M influencers. Lastly, neutral-gender influencers follow with 2.5M. (Influencity)
• Warner Music Group teamed up with six TikTok influencers and received over 1.5M likes, an average engagement rate of 17%, and 13.4K user-generated videos. (The Influencer Marketing Factory)

Here‘s a compilation of TikTok’s #CowboyChallenge where people wearing normal clothing cut to themselves in cowboy costumes to the song “Old Town Road.”

[Video: https://youtu.be/LxwpKKK3P4s]

Business, Revenue, and Competition

The launch of TikTok not only put its parent company, ByteDance, on the map, but it also resulted in competition from apps like Facebook, which launched a very similar app called Lasso shortly after TikTok went viral. While TikTok and ByteDance are less transparent about revenue and other major details, here’s what we know:

• TikTok is the top global app for consumer spending. (data.ai)
• TikTok has a 4.7-star rating in the Apple App Store and 4.3 in the Google Play Store. (Apple App Store, Google Play Store)
• Bytedance, TikTok’s parent company, is valued at $268 billion, making it the world’s most valuable startup. (China Money Network)
• In the first three quarters of 2023, TikTok registered a revenue of about $9.4 billion. (What’s The Big Data)
• TikTok generated an estimated $14.3 billion in revenue during 2023, a 52% increase year-on-year. (Business of Apps)
• TikTok was on track to amass around $20 billion in global gross merchandise value last year. (TechCrunch)

The Mysteries of TikTok

Although TikTok is a top social platform and is ramping up its options for advertisers, it’s still rather new. When a company or startup is new, it’s not uncommon for leadership to hide early numbers, even when a brand is successful. In fact, we’ve seen this with other major companies like Snapchat and Netflix.

Despite the launch of TikTok For Business in mid-2020, there’s still a lot more to learn as TikTok’s global teams and ByteDance continue to remain hush-hush about major metrics. In the coming years, as TikTok continues to draw in more advertisers, it wouldn’t be surprising if we started to see more transparent information about the app and its user base.

Where to Find TikTok Stats

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about TikTok, you can read up on its short history and early success in this post, or click here to find a how-to guide for using the app. In addition, you can discover important TikTok facts app on various websites:

• TikTok’s Blog
• HubSpot Blog
• Statista
• Business of Apps
• Global Web Index
• Pew Research Center
• eMarketer

Want to see what other businesses are doing on TikTok? Check out this roundup of brands on TikTok.

TikTok is an essential part of marketers’ strategy. These stats show how wide-reaching the platform is and the power of crafting the right message. Start experimenting with TikTok today, find the right strategy for you, and grow.

Is it better to have a business or personal TikTok account? If you’re a brand or influencer making the leap to TikTok, you want to set up your account for success.

Like many, I believe that creators and influencers are business owners, which adds to the confusion about which to use. Both TikTok account types are free, so which is best?

I’ll answer all these questions and more with my definitive guide to TikTok Business vs. Personal.

TikTok for Business vs. Your Personal TikTok

What is a TikTok Business Account?

Advantages of a TikTok Business Account

Disadvantages of a TikTok Business Account

What is a TikTok Personal [aka Creator] Account?

Advantages of a TikTok Personal Account

Disadvantages of a TikTok Personal Account

TikTok for Business vs. Your Personal TikTok

First, let’s start with what makes TikTok great for engagement and the similarities between business and personal TikTok accounts.

There’s a corner for every kind of content on TikTok, whether that’s ParentTok, FashionTok, PrankTok, or BookTok. I come to TikTok to laugh, learn, and discover, making it a plentiful space for creators and brands alike.

All TikTok users can engage followers through short-form video posts, stories, and going LIVE. Both business and personal accounts allow you to get verified, promote posts, and use the Branded Content Toggle.

That’s about where the similarities end.

TikTok business is designed for brands to launch campaigns and engage with audiences at scale, while TikTok personal is created with individual users and creators in mind.

Here is a breakdown of the feature differences between business and personal accounts, plus a deep dive into the benefits and limitations of each one:

Features	TikTok Business	TikTok Personal
Account privacy	Public only	Public and private
Music/Sounds available	Commercial sounds only	Full library
Analytics	Advanced (including reach and audience demographics)	Basic only
Ads Manager	✅	❌
Business Center	✅	❌
Action buttons (e.g., “Sign up”)	✅	❌
Messaging capabilities	Unlimited	Friends only
Email button in profile	✅	❌
Business creative hub	✅	❌
Lead generation	✅	❌
Auto-messaging	✅	❌
Post scheduler	✅	❌
Integration with third-party platforms	✅	❌
TikTok Shop	✅	✅ (affiliate only)
Creator Next (Creator Fund, Live gifts and diamonds, Tips)	❌	✅
Creator Marketplace	❌	✅
Creativity Program Beta	❌	✅
Series	❌	✅

What is a TikTok Business Account?

A TikTok business account enables brands to share content, build and engage an audience, and sell online. TikTok business accounts come with additional tools for team access and collaboration, like Business Center and Ads Manager.

Advantages of a TikTok Business Account

What makes this mode great? TikTok designed business accounts for teams wanting to reach audiences and run campaigns on TikTok strategically. Here’s what you can do with a business account.

1. Personalize your profile.

A business account lets you add much more detail to your profile, including a website, industry, support email, and custom action buttons like “Sign up.”

Melissa Laurie, Founder of social media agency Oysterly, claims this is one of the features she loves the most for her business.

2. Run ad campaigns.

While personal accounts can promote posts, there’s no way to run strategic campaigns in that mode.

With a business account, you have access to TikTok Ad Manager, a command center for running video campaigns and analyzing your campaign performance.

You can draw inspiration from Business Creative Hub to create timely, engaging content.

3. Engage customers.

Business accounts let you run your business and communicate with customers in ways you are used to engaging as a brand on Facebook and Instagram.

For one, you have unlimited abilities to message any user on TikTok, which isn’t available in personal mode.

You can collect leads in videos and other content, making it a valuable sales tool and easier to organize for follow-up. You can also set up auto-messaging for when you aren’t online.

4. Collaborate across teams.

If you have more than one person planning or posting content, you likely need a business account. TikTok Business Center lets you manage team and agency access and collaborate with creators.

Here’s a very important distinction: TikTok business is also the only account type you can integrate with third-party social media management apps.

So, if you’re used to using Hootsuite, Buffer, HubSpot, or any other app to schedule and manage your content, you can’t do it on a personal account. As a former corporate social media manager, this would be a dealbreaker for me.

5. Sell online.

Did you know 70% of TikTok users discover new brands and products on TikTok, and three-quarters of users are likely to buy something while using the app?

Shoppable commerce is already huge in Asia and will be the next big thing in the rest of the world. With a business account, you can set up your own TikTok Shop for users to buy without ever leaving the app.

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Kate Ross, hair and beauty specialist for beauty brand Irresistible Me, notes that a business account is best for brands.

“It’s packed with features for businesses like putting your website link right on your profile, using TikTok’s ad tools, and choosing music you’re allowed to use without worrying about copyright issues,” Ross says. You also get amazing tools for understanding who’s watching and interacting with your content.”

Disadvantages of a TikTok Business Account

While TikTok business accounts are beneficial for brands, they have a few glaring cons. Let’s get them out in the open.

1. Limited Sound and Music Options

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What would TikTok videos be without the music?

Since TikTok considers business accounts to be using music for commercial use, a major downside is that you can’t use trending songs in your content.

Instead, you have to use royalty-free (aka stock) songs from their Commercial Music Library. You also can’t use stitch or duet options for music.

While they’ve worked to improve the music available in the library, it just isn’t the same as being able to hop on any music trend that comes your way. On the upside, though, you don’t have to worry about any copyright infringement.

2. No Ability to Monetize Content

While you can make money from the products and services you sell through TikTok engagement, there’s no way to monetize the content itself from a business account.

That means that you can’t participate in programs like Creator Fund, LIVE gifts and Diamonds, or Tips. You need a personal account to make money on TikTok.

What is a TikTok Personal [aka Creator] Account?

That brings us to a TikTok personal account, previously known as a creator account. A creator account is an account for individual users and creators.

If you are an individual user wanting to use TikTok for simply personal use, this is where you should be. Personal accounts also offer many tools and ways for you to monetize your content as a creator.

Advantages of a TikTok Personal Account

TikTok personal accounts are the top choice for musicians, artists, and influencers. Here’s why.

1. Use trending music.

With a creator account, you have access to TikTok’s full library of music and sounds, letting you jump on the latest music video trends.

2. Keep your profile private.

If you want to use TikTok for individual use and only post content for friends or select groups, you need a personal account. Business accounts don’t have a private mode — for privacy, personal is best.

2. Make money on TikTok.

As a creator, the absolute best benefit of a personal account is the ability to make money from your content. Many creators have successfully built a business this way.

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Here’s how it works: Creators make videos that they hope will go viral. When videos do well, creators earn money in a few ways:

1. Earn Tips of up to $100 from fans.
2. Receive LIVE gifts and diamonds directly from fans, which can be converted to cash rewards.
3. Participate in the Creator Fund or Creativity Program Beta, which pay you out of a general fund based on the performance of your content (don’t miss our breakdown between the two).
4. Set up Series, a service where users pay a subscription for premium content.

3. Collaborate with brands.

As a creator, you connect with brands and run influencer campaigns with brands through the Creator Marketplace. When you share products you love, you can also earn affiliate compensation from attributed sales on TikTok Shop.

Disadvantages of a TikTok Personal Account

While TikTok personal offers great incentives, there are a few frustrating limitations.

1. Limited Analytics

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With a personal account, your analytics are more basic than a business account. You can view key video metrics like post views, profile views, comments, and more.

There is also follower analytics showing you your viewers’ average age, gender, and geography.

While these metrics are available in-app, you can’t download them or run your own analytics through a social media management platform from a personal account.

2. Limited Commerce Abilities

As a creator, your ability to sell directly and drive viewers to websites outside of TikTok is severely limited. You can’t include a link in your profile until you have over 1,000 followers, for instance.

You also can’t set up custom call-to-action buttons in your videos.

As a creator, you can use TikTok Shop to promote shoppable videos and earn as an affiliate, but you can’t set up a shop for your own merchandise, for example, without a business account.

So, what’s best?

Is it better to have a business or personal TikTok account? I’ve got a definitive answer for you.

First, you need to decide your goal on TikTok: making money within the platform or building an audience for a business outside of it.

If your goal is to monetize content, a personal account is the absolute best choice. Artists and individual content creators benefit from TikTok’s tools to help them build a personal brand and content business.

Plus, you can’t beat the authenticity that comes with a personal account over a faceless brand.

“If you’re an influencer on TikTok, stick with a creator (now called personal) account,” advises Ross. “It lets you use all the trendy songs and sounds, plus you can interact with other videos through duets or stitches.”

Beyond that, Ross notes that you get to see how well your videos are doing with analytics. You can push certain videos more with promotions and even earn money through the TikTok Creator Fund.

But, for businesses with ad budgets and teams, where TikTok is just one part of a multichannel marketing strategy, you need a business account.

“A business account is the way to go if you’re a TikTok brand,” explains Diana Zheng, head of marketing at Stallion Express. “A business account allows you to take advantage of TikTok’s full marketing capabilities.”

Zheng notes that you’ll get access to powerful analytics enabling you to tailor your content strategy and track your performance.

“Plus, with features such as TikTok Ads Manager, you can target ads and promote your brand in a way that drives engagement and conversions,” Zheng says.

Fortunately, it’s easy to switch back and forth between TikTok business and personal modes, so you aren’t locked into your decision forever.

If you make a mistake or scale your business to the point where you need to switch from personal to business — you can switch with a single tap.

Our most recent State of Marketing Report tells us that marketers are pretty confident when deciding where to invest their budget in 2024.

We’re looking at 57% who feel somewhat confident, and 26% who are very confident their budget plans will maximize ROI for their business.

I want you to feel confident in your spending plans, too, so I created this guide to help you compare how your budget matches up against competitors.

Table of Contents

• Why You Need a Marketing Budget
• Inside a Typical Marketing Budget
• Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue
• Marketing Budgets by Industry
• 7 Expert Tips for Making the Most Out of Your Marketing Budget

Why You Need a Marketing Budget

Today’s marketing landscape is complicated. Budget cuts have become common and underperforming marketers quickly fall under the axe.

And data from our State of Marketing Report supports this — nearly 60% of marketers say the way they spend their budget is being scrutinized either somewhat more or much more now than in the past.

Creating a comprehensive marketing budget is your silver bullet for avoiding these outcomes and having cash to execute your marketing strategy.

Developing a marketing budget also helps you:

• Prioritize projects to invest in.
• Allocate funds for software purchases.
• Compare your year-over-year progress.
• Allocate funds for projects in advance.
• Justify the importance of specific projects.
• Calculate the ROI from your marketing projects.
• Show the value of proposed marketing projects to your higher-ups.
• Show positive ROI, which can help you get a better budget in the future.
• Allocate funds for freelancers and full-time hires who’ll execute your strategy.

Inside a Typical Marketing Budget

According to Deloitte, marketing comprised roughly 13.6% of a company’s total budget in 2023. That’s up 3.9% from the two previous years.

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Many marketers expect their annual budgets to increase in 2024.

Based on our survey of 1,400+ marketers, 41% of respondents reported that their budget would increase. However, the majority of marketers (47%) expect their budgets to stay about the same.

Prioritization of marketing channels is also shifting. Businesses are seeing the biggest ROI from social media shopping tools, like TikTok Shop and Instagram Shops, and investing accordingly.

This doesn’t surprise me considering the growing popularity of influencers on social. Brands are meeting consumers right where they are and on their favorite channels. Plus, if you ask me, being able to buy products without ever leaving the app is top-tier customer experience.

Here are the top five ROI-driving channels based on our survey:

• Social media shopping tools (e.g., TikTok Shop)
• Web/blog/SEO
• Paid social media content
• Email marketing
• Content marketing

Further, video will be a bigger investment in many marketers’ budgets. We found that 71% of marketers plan to leverage either short-form or long-form video as part of their content strategy.

As a marketer myself, I see the power of video in helping brands tell their story. I’d expect this investment to continue to increase over the next few years.

Meanwhile, on TikTok, 56% also plan on increasing their TikTok investment in 2024 — the highest increase of any social media app. Another 33% plan to maintain their current TikTok budget.

Influencer marketing is another lead-generation tactic worthy of investment, and this trend will continue in 2024.

In fact, 87% of marketers plan to increase or maintain their investment in influencer marketing.

TikTok is hot right now, and it’s moving up the ranks with 45% user share in 2024.

Plus, influencers are a great way for brands to connect with and relate to their audiences.

I’d be surprised if marketers weren’t boosting these investments this year.

Marketing Budget as a Percentage of Revenue

The amount of revenue businesses allocate to marketing has grown over the last few years, with the average at 9.1% of overall company revenue in 2023 compared to just 6.4% in 2021.

Decisions related to marketing budget allocation remain largely industry specific.

As a general rule of thumb, B2B companies should spend between 2-5% of their revenue on marketing, and B2C companies sit a little higher at 5-10%.

Marketing Budgets by Industry

Based on The CMO Survey, here’s the average percentage of revenue industries are spending on marketing.

INDUSTRY	MARKETING BUDGET (% OF COMPANY REVENUE)
Banking/finance/insurance	9.49%
Communications/media	14.27%
Consumer packaged goods	25.19%
Consumer services	11.74%
Education	11.50%
Energy	3.83%
Healthcare	6.80%
Manufacturing	3.75%
Mining/construction	6.50%
Pharma/biotech	12.83%
Professional services	7.08%
Real estate	10.61%
Retail wholesale	14.52%
Service consulting	21%
Tech software/platform	11.8%
Transportation	1.52%

As a marketer, it’s important you use these percentages as benchmarks, especially for industries allocating low marketing budgets.

If your industry is reluctant to spend on marketing initiatives, that’s an opportunity for your team to shine.

Once you convince the higher-ups about what you need to execute your top strategies, you’ll easily outshine others in your industry and make your company a reference for how other teams should do marketing.

7 Expert Tips for Making the Most Out of Your Marketing Budget

1. Understand your customer journey.

A customer journey is not as straightforward as Googling a term, jumping on an email list, and then converting. The journey is full of twists and turns.

Figuring out how your customers go from product awareness to purchase varies among industries. What works for B2B brands may not work for B2C, or for small businesses.

This is why David Hoos, B2B performance marketing manager at The Outloud Group, says you should take time to understand your customer journey before spending a dime of your marketing budget. If you invest in this research first, you’ll uncover:

• What channels to spend your budget on.
• What platforms to reach your target audience.
• What messages will resonate with them.
• What creative will entertain and educate them.
• What solution will convert them.

Understanding your customer journey is key to unlocking the highest ROI efforts. And reporting tools like HubSpot’s Customer Journey Analytics can help you paint a clearer picture.

Done right, this guarantees the best use of your marketing budget.

2. Hire a marketing agency where needed.

It may be difficult to oversee multiple marketing projects without help — even when you have an in-house marketing team.

Besides the time required to hire, train, and onboard a team, you’ll pay salaries and offer some benefits. All this might be a stretch if your budget can’t cater to a huge team or if you don’t have the time to supervise them. This is where marketing agencies come in.

While agencies aren’t cheap, they eliminate some of these challenges and they can function as an extended arm of your team.

Partnering with marketing agencies also gives you access to a team of specialists who may help you hit your goals faster and won’t waste your marketing budget.

3. Get an in-house marketing team.

Relying on an agency to run all of your projects isn’t the wisest use of your marketing budget. Marla Malkin, vice president of marketing and strategic partnerships at Attivo ERP, agrees.

4. Invest in content repurposing and updating.

Charlie Southwell, marketing director and SEO specialist at Let’s Talk Talent, notes that creating unique and valuable content is expensive. For this reason, Charlie’s team tries to repurpose everything they create.

Their first step is to produce evergreen content that’ll remain valuable for at least two years. After creating these assets, the team repurposes and promotes them in multiple content formats.

If you have published some evergreen assets a while back, consider updating them. Besides providing current info for your audience, a content update may make your pieces move up the SERPs.

The best part about content repurposing and updating is the leeway to re-promote your assets multiple times a year. In Charlie’s words, “Not doing this is a missed opportunity that prevents content from getting enough mileage and maximizing value from your marketing budget.”

5. De-prioritize underperforming channels.

Understanding the channels that drive the most revenue for your business is critical to marketing budget optimization.

Businesses should constantly assess their campaigns to uncover those that underperform, As says Sidharth Kumar, director of product marketing at Exoprise Systems. Doing so will help optimize spending in the right direction and phase out campaigns that don’t generate any ROI.

If you have data suggesting some underperforming channels might still work, use those channels for experimentation and apply the 70-20-10 rule when budgeting for them.

Here, 70% of your marketing budget goes to proven strategies, 20% goes to new strategies, and 10% goes to experimental strategies, which could highlight opportunities for future growth.

6. Constantly re-evaluate your marketing strategy.

A marketing strategy that’s done right will have objectives and key results, which follow the SMART framework. This is important for budget optimization, as SMART goals and metrics help you track progress and identify channels and campaigns that work.

“Constantly reviewing and re-evaluating your marketing strategy helps you know when to stay the course or pivot,” says Thomas Simon, marketing manager at Monitask. “It also lets you use effective tactics and not blindly follow a particular plan without the data or results to back your decision.”

But how often should you do a review?

Corey Haines, co-founder of SwipeWell, recommends marketers do a biweekly or monthly review of budget allocation. “Regular reviews help you cut unnecessary spending, reallocate to high-performing campaigns, and decide when to increase or decrease variable costs like ad spend,” Corey says.

7. Don’t underestimate the power of automation.

According to our survey, 74% of marketers currently use AI/automation tools in their role, and 59% of those marketers plan to continue using them in 2024.

Chang Chen, Head of GTM at Bardeen.ai, is seeing significant efficiency boosts from integrating AI and automation.

“AI now aids with SEO, user research, and even the crafting of highly personalized emails. This allows our team to focus on strategic and creative aspects of their work, freeing them from routine tasks and enabling them to apply their creativity towards business expansion,” says Chen.

“It also shortens the time to market and quickens the feedback cycle, fostering growth. An experiment that used to take 1-2 months to launch can now be ready in a few weeks.”

Here’s how Chen ties this investment back to budget planning.

“We have incorporated this improved efficiency directly into our marketing budget. This not only optimizes the use of our current resources but also allows room for innovation,” says Chen.

“We have allocated a portion of our budget specifically for experimentation, allowing us to continue exploring the capabilities of new technologies and automation possibilities.”

Manage Your Marketing Budget the Right Way

Ultimately, being a successful marketer isn‘t just about thinking strategically. It’s also about adhering to a strict budget, achieving new levels of growth, and choosing the most cost-effective options for your company.

Now that you know the typical percentage of a marketing budget by percentage and revenue the next step is to learn how to manage your marketing budget effectively.

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

When I used to work at a marketing agency, I would read expert industry blogs, such as HubSpot, Marketing Brew, and Backlinko (to name a few).

One of my main questions every day was, “How do these brands do it? How do they constantly come up with brilliant blog ideas?”

Today, I’m pulling the curtain back for you here at HubSpot.

How the HubSpot Blog Comes Up With Ideas

Before we get started, it’s important to know that when the HubSpot team comes up with blog ideas, several teams are involved including SEO, Blog, and Monetization.

Because of this, we divide our brainstorming process into two parts: non-organic and trend-responsive research and SEO topic research.

We then combine these efforts in our Insights Report on a monthly basis (which you can download a copy of below).

Featured Resource: Search Insights Report Template

Let’s dive into both those processes below.

How the HubSpot Blog Generates Trend-Responsive Blog Post Ideas

“Blog topics that relate to trends, research, or thought leadership yield bursts in non-organic traffic that can help you gain visitors while you’re waiting for SEO-driven posts to rank,” says Pam Bump, the HubSpot Blog’s Audience Growth Manager.

“Because they often include data, quotes, or other exclusive information, these posts can also earn backlinks, which indirectly boost your search authority.”

She continues, “On top of the potential referral benefits, non-organic content also enables your blog content to be more trend-responsive. By giving your insights on the latest news, trends, and research in your industry, you position your blog as a source for thought leadership.”

“Rather than being a blog people just find when doing Google searches, you increase the chances of audiences following you, subscribing to you, or visiting your website to look for the latest industry information,” Bump adds.

However, while non-organic content provides many solid growth opportunities, finding trendy or research-driven post topics for a specific audience isn’t always straightforward.

In fact, it often requires hours of brainstorming.

She says, “While our SEO team uses specialized tools to identify blog posts that will pull in organic traffic, I leverage a number of trend research tactics to identify post ideas that will pull in non-organic traffic from sources like email, social media, and referrals.”

Below is one brainstorming process we’ve used here at HubSpot.

1. Start by focusing on your blog categories.

Before you get started, it’s important to have some sort of road map in mind.

Choose the most important clusters, or blog categories, that you want to focus on for the quarter and develop ideas around them.

Immediately, just knowing the clusters you want to focus on could spark a few ideas for thought-leadership or data-driven research posts.

Each month, our team chooses a handful of clusters for each blog property. For us, that’s marketing, sales, service, and website. Usually the clusters relate to things like business goals or industry trends.

Additionally, we include other categories besides those clusters, such as Audience Growth, Lead Acquisition, and User Acquisition to help us brainstorm topics that are related to our lead generation goals.

2. Review the content you’ve already written to inspire new topics.

Now that you‘ve done a quick brainstorm of some new ideas, let’s see what‘s already been written in each cluster that you’re focusing on.

To do this, search your site for the cluster. We do site searches at HubSpot, by typing in “site:blog.hubspot.com/service customer experience” in Google, for example.

With this formatting, you can change the link and change the keyword to be whatever you’re looking for. Then, Google will find posts on that keyword on that site specifically.

When you‘re coming up with blog ideas, searching the site to see if the topic has been covered is very important. The reason you’ll want to do this is that you can find high-performing posts that give you inspiration for new angles or you can find posts that you want to update with more quotes, data, or new research.

This will also help you avoid keyword cannibalization.

Caroline Forsey, Principal Marketing Manager and lead of our thought leadership blog program, says. “Think of different angles for popular topics you‘ve already covered. For instance, let’s say you have plenty of content regarding LinkedIn — but you have none from a thought leader in the space.

Perhaps you could conduct an interview with a LinkedIn employee for a thought leadership angle, like ‘Top X Tips from a LinkedIn Marketer’.”

Forsey adds, “I also like to think of some topic angles that feel like they would hit on a reader‘s biggest pain point. If you want to write about TikTok, one of the biggest challenges in the space is generating leads — so something like ’How These TK Brands Generated Leads on TikTok‘ or ’Best Practices for Lead Generation on TikTok’ is a strong contender.”

“You could also consider more case-study-esque content, like ‘This Brand Generated 5,000 Leads on One Viral TikTok Video: Here’s How’,” Forsey continues.

“When brainstorming, I like to think of a major stressor for marketers first and work backwards from there.”

3. See what the competition is doing.

While you never want to copy your competitors, it‘s important to see what topics they’re writing about. This will help you fill in gaps that your competitors are missing and perhaps improve on blog topics they’re discussing.

This also lets you know what‘s going on in your industry. What’s the latest news and should you be writing about it?

“Some of our highest performing blog topics have come from competitive research, or looking at newly published data or studies from credible magazines, websites, or publications we love to follow,” says Bump.

“While we don’t try to repeat exactly what competitors or other publications are doing, we do ask ourselves, ‘How can we cover this trend better, give stronger insights on it, or otherwise put our own spin on it.’”

Forsey adds, “I love seeing what’s being written about, and then thinking of an alternative angle. For example, if publications are constantly writing about how AI could take our jobs, I like to spin my own angle on the highest-paying jobs resulting from AI.

Lean into topics other publications are writing about, but take an opposing or unique twist when possible.”

Additionally, you can browse social media for this reason as well. Social media can let you know the pain points of your audience and check-in with what’s going on with your target audience.

Staying up on industry news is one of the best ways to brainstorm blog ideas.

Forsey adds, “When new features become available for a social media platform or tool, there’s often plenty of opportunities to explore new angles there, as well.

Like when LinkedIn released its own version of Stories, that was an opportunity to brainstorm a topic like ‘X Best LinkedIn Stories We‘ve Seen’, or ‘LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook Stories: Which is Best?'”

4. Have a checklist of blog topic idea criteria.

Once you’ve created some blog ideas, you should check and make sure each blog post topic is aligned with your overall blog criteria.

If you don‘t have blog criteria yet, maybe it’s time to set some standards around what each blog topic should cover.

For example, with the checklist of criteria Bump’s created, all our blog post ideas need to provide value to our blog audience.

They should also either align with a cluster or lead-gen goal, include non-organic elements such as data or original quotes, be either trend-responsive or evergreen, and have some keyword opportunities.

5. Stay organized.

You should track your blog ideas in an organized fashion. At HubSpot, we use an idea generation spreadsheet where writers and editors can brainstorm ideas for quarterly clusters, or just write down ongoing ideas.

Ultimately, this process helps keep us organized when it comes to generating consistent blog post ideas.

Jay Fuchs, Sales Blog Editor at HubSpot, describes his process.

He says, “I try to find topics that reconcile engaging subject matter with practicality when coming up with research or trend-based blog topics.

That means finding buzzy, intriguing subject matter that lends itself to an article with a compelling title, interesting supporting materials, and — perhaps most importantly — actionable advice.”

Fuchs explains, “That could mean a piece about something like avoiding common pricing mistakes or sales strategies that will become prominent in the near future.

One way or another, you need to pick topics that hook and help — ones that command your reader‘s attention and let you make the most of it with insight that they’ll be able to apply, going forward.”

Now that you know the HubSpot process when it comes to generating non-organic blog ideas, let’s dive into the SEO side.

Brainstorming SEO-Optimized Ideas

While Bump and the blog writers brainstorm non-organic ideas, our SEO team is hard at work creating blog topics that have an organic goal in mind. This is their process:

1. Look at your company’s products, goals, and customer base.

To start, HubSpot’s SEO team will review our products, goals, and customer base.

Amanda Kopen, an SEO Strategist at HubSpot, says, “When coming up with blog post ideas, first you need to look at your company’s products, goals, and customer base.

At HubSpot, we brainstorm blog posts as they relate to our different products (marketing, sales, service, etc.). Then, we narrow it down to topics where we have expertise but are potential pain points for our customers (social media marketing),” Kopen adds.

During this phase, our SEO team is reviewing our personas, prioritizing blog clusters (decided by SEO and monetization teams), and brainstorming what would be helpful to our audience.

Additionally, the SEO team will identify large topics, underperforming topics, and old but high-performing topics.

2. Conduct keyword research and run a content gap analysis.

After the initial brainstorm, it’s time to do your keyword research and content gap analysis.

Kopen explains, “Once we have a potential pain point in mind, we use SEO best practices — like conducting keyword research and running content gap analyses — to see exactly what people want to learn about (how often should I post on LinkedIn), and we start writing from there.”

During this part of the process, our SEO team will gather domains with similar audiences and conduct a content gap analysis (find out what these sites are ranking for that HubSpot isn’t).

We‘ll also look at related searches on Google to see what people are searching for. Then, we’ll identify opportunities where we can update old blog posts or recycle the URL (so we don’t lose the SEO juice, but have updated content for that topic).

3. See if there are any linking opportunities.

Finally, the SEO team will also communicate with HubSpot’s product and academy teams to see if there are linking opportunities such as any courses or products of ours we should be linking to.

Creating Traffic-Generating Ideas

And that’s how the HubSpot blog comes up with high-performing blog post ideas consistently.

By taking the time to do solid research and idea brainstorming, you can come up with blog topics that drive thousands of readers in, like me, while boosting traffic, authority, and credibility.

Every marketing team is challenged to do more with less — especially nonprofit organizations. Often, resources are tight, and teams are small. Sound like your organization?

We want to help. That’s why we created this nonprofit marketing guide. Your organization might not operate for profit, but it can still get value from the traffic, funds, and awareness marketing brings in.

Bookmark this guide for later and use the chapter links below to jump around to sections of interest.

 

 

Inbound Marketing for Nonprofits

Your nonprofit organization likely takes up all of your time, and building a marketing plan might seem like an added responsibility that’s just not worth it.

We’re here to convince you otherwise. Inbound marketing is all about creating valuable experiences that positively impact people and your business.

Inbound marketing for nonprofits can help you attract new supporters for your cause, connect to valuable donors, engage your constituents, and inspire your community.

Boost your organization’s awareness and compel action. See firsthand how HubSpot can transform your nonprofit organization.

Here’s how else nonprofit marketing can help.

Nonprofit marketing raises awareness.

Your nonprofit organization is a brand. Therefore you need to raise awareness just like any other business or company. Marketing raises awareness, and brand awareness spreads the word about your organization and your overall cause.

Nonprofit marketing raises funds.

Nonprofit marketing and nonprofit fundraising go hand-in-hand. The more people know about your organization, the more potential funding you can bring in.

Nonprofit marketing drives donor memberships and recurring donations.

Many nonprofit organizations offer donation memberships and monthly giving programs, like this one from charity: Water. These programs are valuable because your organization doesn’t have to fundraise so actively and often. Also, they can actually help you raise more money — the average monthly online donation is $52 ($624 per year) compared to the average one-time gift of $128.

Marketing your nonprofit gets your cause in front of fresh eyes and informs your donors about how they can consistently contribute.

Nonprofit marketing recruits volunteers.

Nonprofit marketing isn’t just for funding. It also drives manpower (and woman-power!) to your organization. Regardless of industry or size, all nonprofits benefit from volunteers, and marketing your organization can help bring in new hands.

Moreover, volunteers are twice as likely to donate as non-volunteers.

Nonprofit marketing promotes your services.

Awareness, funding, and volunteers are integral to your nonprofit, but what about the purpose of your organization? What about the people, animals, or cause you’re helping? Marketing can help with that, too.

The more people who know about your nonprofit organization, the more people you can help.

These are just a handful of reasons you should invest in your nonprofit’s marketing strategy (particularly inbound marketing). Now, let’s discuss how to build a nonprofit marketing plan so you can start bringing in new funds, volunteers, and constituents.

Nonprofit Marketing Plan Template

Download your free nonprofit marketing plan template.

Hubspot’s nonprofit marketing plan template can help you organize your nonprofit’s budget, team structure, and channels of choice to create your marketing strategy.

The nonprofit marketing plan template includes sections for developing your nonprofit’s summary, business initiatives, target market, marketing strategy, budget, marketing channels, and marketing technology.

Our nonprofit marketing plan template can help you:

• Complete a SWOT analysis for your organization.
• Develop a marketing strategy.
• Determine the industries and personas of your target donors.

Crafting a nonprofit marketing plan might not be too different from a for-profit marketing plan, but debatably, it’s more important. Increasing awareness and constituent engagement without exhausting your hardworking team requires approaching your marketing systematically.

That’s where a nonprofit marketing plan comes into play. Putting systems in place to produce and distribute your marketing content allows you to focus on operating and scaling your nonprofit.

Here’s how to create a successful nonprofit marketing plan.

1. Define your marketing goals.

Your nonprofit marketing plan exists to transform your organization’s mission and big-picture objectives into strategic, actionable goals.

For example, let’s say one of your objectives was to protect the welfare of animals in your community (like one of my favorite local rescues, ALIVE Rescue). I’d ask you to brainstorm three to five marketing ideas to advance that objective.

Some ways you could use marketing to advance that objective include:

• Creating and publishing content that educates your community on the state of animal welfare.
• Posting on social media about your organization and the animals you have for adoption.
• Sending a weekly email newsletter sharing your content, adoptable animals, and volunteer needs.
• Hosting a quarterly event with educational resources, foster training, and adoption opportunities.

Next, I’d ask you to turn these ideas into SMART goals. Let’s use idea number one as an example:

acronym	goal
Specific	Educate the community on the state of animal welfare by producing one blog post per week.
Measurable	Increase traffic by 15%.
Attainable	Our blog traffic increased by 10% last year when we upped our publishing frequency to twice a month. A 15% boost in traffic with a 100% increase in production seems attainable.
Relevant	An increase in blog traffic will boost awareness of our organization, educate the community, and alert more people of our adoption opportunities — thus, saving more animals and bringing in more funding.
Timely	We will start producing one post per week and the start of next month.

SMART Goal: By the start of next month, our blog will see a 15% boost in traffic by increasing our content production from two posts per month to one post per week. This increase will boost awareness of our organization, educate the community, and alert more people of our adoption opportunities — thus, saving more animals and bringing in more funding.

See how I turned the organizational mission into a marketing objective and a SMART goal? SMART goals are especially important when it comes time to analyze and measure your marketing performance (which we will talk about later), so be sure to finish this step before moving forward in your nonprofit marketing plan.

2. Understand your audiences.

Nonprofit marketing is different from other types of marketing because your organization is likely targeting multiple groups: constituents, customers, volunteers, and donors.

It’s imperative to define and understand each of these audiences (a.k.a. buyer personas) because your marketing will differ based on who you’re talking to. (We’ll get into key messaging next.)

For example, following our animal shelter example from above, an email targeting donors will have different messaging than an email calling for volunteers.

One easy way to organize your different audiences is using a CRM to segment the different groups. By separating contacts with tags and lists, you can easily send marketing messages to the appropriate groups.

3. Craft Your Key Messages

Key messages encompass the information you want your audiences to hear, remember, and share about your nonprofit organization. Crafting these before you employ your marketing is important for a few reasons:

• Key messages keep your organization aligned. No matter who’s doing the marketing, you can be confident the same thing is being said and promoted.
• Key messages simplify your marketing. With these created ahead of time, you already know what you will say in your marketing messaging.
• Key messages help organize your different audiences (as discussed above). As a nonprofit organization, you’re likely talking to donors, volunteers, constituents, and your community — more personas than a typical for-profit business. Developing key messages for each audience informs your team and your marketing to make sure you’re targeting the right groups.

Continuing with our animal shelter example, here’s a look at how you can craft a key message for different audiences.

Key message: We protect the welfare of animals in our community through education, adoption and fostering, and animal advocacy.

• For adoption customers/constituents: By adopting or fostering, or by alerting us of animals in need, you can help us protect the welfare of animals in our community.
• For volunteers: We protect the welfare of animals through round-the-clock animal care and advocacy.
• For donors: You can help us protect the welfare of animals by donating to support animal care, advocacy, and adoption promotion.

All of these key messages have the same purpose and undertone, but they vary slightly depending on your audience. Together with your nonprofit organization’s mission, vision, and goals, these messages will help effectively communicate and market your organization’s needs and purpose.

4. Choose, plan, and create your marketing strategies.

Many marketers jump right to this step — creating and publishing various marketing tactics. Marketing encompasses much more than an advertisement, blog post, or event. To execute successfully, you must complete all the steps before this.

Now that you’ve established your goals (what you want), your key messages (what you’re going to say), and your audience (who you’re going to say it to), you can determine your marketing tactics (how you’re going to say it).

Marketing tactics refer to channels like email marketing, social media, events, and more. We’ve dedicated an entire section to these marketing strategies. Read about them in detail below.

Regardless of which tactic you choose, be sure to conduct thorough planning before and as you execute it. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you prepare:

• What will you do with this marketing tactic?
• When will these marketing activities take place?
• Why is this tactic important?
• Who will be responsible for these activities?
• How much do we plan to spend?
• How does this tie to our organization’s marketing goals?

Tactical planning is an integral part of your overall nonprofit marketing plan. How you approach your marketing strategies and how they impact your organization is just as important as how you execute them.

Before you hit the ground running on any of these strategies, be sure your team has a solid game plan and a full understanding of it.

Featured Resource: Free Marketing Plan Template

Download for Free

5. Analyze your marketing performance.

Your marketing probably won’t perform perfectly from the get-go. That’s OK. Routine reporting and analysis help you figure out what’s working and what you need to change.

As you choose and establish your marketing channels, pay attention to their measurable performance indicators. Here’s a list of examples from our list of marketing strategies below:

Marketing Strategy	Performance Indicator
Email marketing	Email opens
Event marketing	Ticket sales
Video marketing	Video views
Social media	Shares and comments
Website	Page views
Public speaking	Referrals
Content marketing	Subscriptions

Remember the goals you defined in step one? Measuring your marketing performance is essential to stay aligned with those goals.

You can track these performance indicators using tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot, and the analytics tools built into Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.

If you know what you want to measure before you start marketing your nonprofit, you’ll know exactly what to look for — and how to determine success and impact — when your marketing is in play.

You’ve created your nonprofit marketing plan. Now, let’s talk about executing that plan with actionable marketing strategies.

Many of these nonprofit marketing strategies will overlap, like sharing your blog content on social media or releasing an event invite over email. These methods can and should be used in tandem, but we recommend introducing each strategy slowly, so your team doesn’t overwhelm itself.

In fact, we recognize that your nonprofit is likely operating with a small (but agile) marketing team. For this reason, throughout these sections, we’ll recommend tips for doing more with less. Ultimately, though, don’t hesitate to outsource your nonprofit marketing where needed.

Nonprofit Email Marketing

You might be using email sporadically to call for volunteers or confirm an online donation, but that’s not enough. Email marketing for nonprofits is a highly effective marketing resource. Why? It’s personal and powerful.

Here are a few ways to leverage email marketing to reach all of your audiences:

• Send a weekly newsletter with your newest content, updates about your organization, industry data, and volunteer needs.
• Send monthly emails with donation needs and opportunities.
• Set up an email sequence for new subscribers, thanking them for joining and educating them on your organization.
• Set up an email sequence for new donors, thanking them for their contribution and sharing how else they can support your organization.

Also, don’t forget to put information on your website about how to subscribe to your email list. Nonprofit organization, Acumen, does a great job of this by putting subscription opportunities on its homepage and in its main menu.

👉🏼Nonprofit marketing tip: Automate as much as possible. Email marketing automation (like HubSpot) saves precious time and energy for your team and can be the key to growing your email list, donations, and memberships. You can also automate an email sequence triggered by website visitor behavior indicating a high level of interest, such as downloading educational content.

Nonprofit Event Marketing

Event marketing is one of the most effective (and enjoyable) ways to grow awareness of your organization, connect with your community, raise funds, and garner support for your cause.

PAWS, which stands for Pets Are Worth Saving, is another local animal rescue I’m a fan of. They hold a PAWS 5K race every summer to raise awareness and funding for the organization.

This type of event is impactful for multiple reasons:

1. It inspires competition and physical activity. Runners raise money for the organization and participate in the run.
2. It brings people in the community together to celebrate the organization and bring awareness to the PAWS cause.
3. It provides PAWS a channel to promote their services and adoptable pets.
4. It’s fun to attend and be a part of! Many people go to the event to support runners, play with dogs, and simply be a part of the fun, all while supporting and sharing PAWS.

From fundraisers to auctions to competitions, you can organize many different kinds of events to market your nonprofit organization.

Nonprofit Video Marketing

Whether they’re consuming content for work, school, or fun, people prefer video content. As a nonprofit organization, video marketing is a surefire way to garner interest and support from all of your audiences.

Here are a few reasons video can help you market your nonprofit:

1. Video is visual. We process visual content 60,000 times faster than written content. We also remember more content longer.
2. Video is personal. It inspires empathy and emotions, which can’t be said about other types of marketing.
3. Video is educational. Many organizations need to educate their communities on their causes in order to garner attention and funding. Video can help you do that.
4. Video is shareable. 92% of consumers on mobile will share videos with others. Consumers love sharing videos, especially those that inspire and resonate with them.
5. Video is interesting. 60% of people report that video is a media they consume thoroughly. Keep your visitors, followers, and supporters engaged and interested using video.

The Girl Effect, a nonprofit that works to empower girls worldwide, is a great example of video marketing. The organization’s homepage is a video that captures visitors’ attention right away. Moreover, when you click “See more,” the site opens an informative video telling you all about The Girl Effect.

Nonprofit Social Media Marketing

Social media is a highly popular marketing strategy among nonprofits. Not only is it free, but it also provides an avenue for organizations to show their brand personalities and engage with their followers and supporters.

Here are some ways to use social media for your nonprofit marketing, as inspired by a HubSpot study of 9,000 nonprofits:

• Share news about your organization and cause
• Boost brand awareness and recognition
• Fundraise
• Recruit volunteers and employees
• Recognize donors, employees, and volunteers

Don’t forget to use the key messaging you crafted in your nonprofit marketing plan to keep your social media posts consistent and targeted. Also, make the most of each platform to promote your organization, such as the Donate button on Facebook.

HubSpot customer, FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is a nonprofit organization that works to advance STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education among children.

FIRST makes use of social media in many different ways, such as using Facebook to post videos, news, fundraisers, and reviews, as well as making use of the Donate button. The organization has amassed almost 100,000 followers.

👉🏼Nonprofit marketing tip: Curate content from volunteers, customers, supporters, event attendees, and donors. Implementing a user-generated content (UGC) campaign lessens your workload and acts as strong social proof. To enact your UGC campaign, put out a call for constituent stories, images, and videos. Create a hashtag that people can use to alert you of new UGC.

Also, let curation tools work for you. Use Google Alerts and social monitoring tools to alert you when your organization, hashtags, or relevant topics or keywords are mentioned. This provides opportunities to source UGC, get inspiration for new topic ideas, and participate in relevant conversations.

Nonprofit Website

Every nonprofit organization should have a website, which can be created on a CMS such as Content Hub or WordPress. A website serves as a digital home base for your organization and includes critical information — what you stand for and how visitors can participate and help.

Your website also houses important assets like your blog, social media streams, event information, videos, and the rest of your marketing strategies. Lastly, your website serves as a way to intrigue, inspire, and engage your audiences.

Nonprofit organization (and HubSpot customer), American Nursing Association (ANA), is an example of an organization with an outstanding nonprofit website. The site clarifies the ANA mission, shares news and educational content, and informs visitors how to get involved through memberships, events, certifications, or donations.

Nonprofit Public Speaking

People buy into other people, not products. The same can be said about nonprofit organizations. If consumers believe in the people behind your organization, they’re likely to buy into your cause and donate money or time.

Public speaking is one of the best ways for consumers to get to know your leadership team, not to mention spread the word about your cause and organization. Whether you speak at a local event of 100 people or a multi-day conference with thousands, the impact is the same: telling a powerful story to real people who may not yet know about your cause.

Scott Harrison, the founder of charity: water, spoke at INBOUND. While he shared information about the conception and organization of the nonprofit, he mostly talked about the people that his organization helps and how the audience can support the mission. Harrison not only moved an audience of thousands but also effectively marketed the charity: water purpose and brand.

 

Nonprofit Content Marketing

Content marketing and blogging are valuable marketing assets for any nonprofit organization. Here’s why:

• Content educates your audiences about your mission, cause, and industry news and trends.
• Content (and SEO) bring in new visitors, subscribers, donors, and leads.
• Content is shareable and serves as free PR among your audiences.
• Content can be repurposed and made into different types of media, saving your marketing team precious time and energy.

Creating a nonprofit marketing blog isn’t always easy. Teams are short-staffed, budgets are low, and time is precious. Thankfully, there are many ways around those blogging challenges, such as sourcing story ideas from volunteers, donors, and customers and implementing an editorial calendar so you can plan ahead.

One of my very favorite nonprofit organizations is called Blurt Foundation. This UK-based organization exists to increase awareness and understanding of depression and support those who struggle with it. There are many misconceptions and misunderstandings about depression, so Blurt Foundation uses its blog content and other content resources to educate constituents and supporters. It also incorporates these content assets into its emails, social media posts, and online store.

👉🏼Nonprofit marketing tip: Save time and resources by repurposing your content. It’s an appreciating asset you can reuse and re-promote repeatedly. Repurposing content to create new marketing assets costs far less than creating entirely new content.

Outline all the ways you could repurpose the content you produce. For example, you could create the following list for your blog content:

• Short versions of posts for use in emails or newsletters with links back to full posts.
• Groups of related posts for report
• Two to three visuals images to share on social
• Infographics with post information
• Reaction pieces to the original post

Since you’re not going to promote and distribute each piece of repurposed content immediately, your content pipeline is never empty.

Check out HubSpot’s free nonprofit content today.

Nonprofit Digital Marketing

You can market your nonprofit using search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). SEO is the process of optimizing your nonprofit’s content to get traffic from organic search results. On the other hand, SEM is the process of getting traffic and visibility from both organic and paid search.

Nonprofits can use keywords in their blogs, videos, podcasts, and other digital content to improve their search engine rankings.

Image Source

The American Red Cross uses many forms of digital content in its marketing, including YouTube videos. The organization uses keywords to help search engines rank the content for SEO and help their audience find their content through organic search. For example, the above video uses the keywords “red cross” and “disaster” in its description to rank in search engine results.

Nonprofits can leverage search engine marketing to increase their contributions through search engine ads.

Google’s Ad Grants program gives nonprofits grants of up to $10,000 per month to advertise their organizations. Many nonprofits — including DonorsChoose.org, We Care Animal Rescue, and SOS Children’s Villages — use Google Ad Grants to attract donations, drive awareness, and recruit volunteers.

Strengthen Your Marketing, Promote Your Cause

Raise your hand if your organization has to constantly do more with less. 👋🏼

If that sounds like your organization, we recommend you use this guide to build a nonprofit marketing plan ASAP. Your organization might not operate for profit, but it can still gain value from the traffic, funds, and awareness that systematic marketing brings in.

These activities and strategies will help promote your organization and take a valuable load off your team’s and volunteers’ backs, freeing them to dedicate more time to your cause and constituents.

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

 

YouTube growth strategies continue to be a hot topic among marketers. In fact, most marketers plan to increase their YouTube budgets this year and say the platform has the highest growth potential in 2024.

Anytime you’re talking about YouTube growth (and I talk about growth a lot as the founder of Thompson Media Group), Jimmy Donaldson’s Mr. Beast channel is high on the list.

It’s easy to understand why. Today, the Mr. Beast YouTube channel has 240 million subscribers, the second most of any channel on the platform. There are many reasons why this channel is so popular, but the strategy I recommend most to my clients centers on expanding their view of who their ideal customer is.

YouTube’s Power Players Use This Growth Strategy

What’s the million-dollar strategy for growing your audience and your customer base? The answer is surprisingly straightforward: inclusion marketing. Yep, that’s it. I’ve built an entire consulting business around helping brands grow with inclusion in marketing and belonging, and I can spot a great strategy from a mile away.

For example, Mr. Beast employs inclusion marketing by offering his content in multiple languages. Reed Duchscher, his talent manager, explains that this is one of the primary forces driving his rapid growth.

The strategy here is simple: get your content and products in front of more people who have the problem your brand solves. More qualified eyeballs mean more people consuming your content and buying your products.

Globalization as a growth lever is nothing new. That’s why you’ll see McDonald’s, Netflix, and Nike developing localized content around the globe.

Remember, a different language doesn’t mean we don’t have the same problem — or can’t benefit from the same solution.

As an inclusive marketing strategist and consultant, I tell my clients it’s never been easier or more cost-effective to grow your brand by including a broader diversity of consumers. I spend a ton of time talking about practical ways to use inclusive marketing as a growth lever on my podcast, Inclusion & Marketing.

This episode goes deep on how to grow your brand through globalization, including localizing your content.

And it’s not just Mr. Beast who’s embracing this strategy.

Cocomelon, Kids Diana Show, and Like Nastya have all snagged coveted spots in the top 10 most subscribed YouTube channels. How? Each of them makes their content available in multiple languages — and has earned millions of fans as a result.

Think this is just for kid cartoons and hype engines? Think again. Even business-focused brands such as GaryVee, VidIQ, and IKEA are embracing inclusion marketing.

How You Can Reach a Global Audience

These creators aren’t creating dozens of assets at a time. They’re creating one video and localizing it into other languages using dubbing and voiceover.

Once the dubbed content is made, there are two approaches creators use to get localized content to their audiences.

1. Language-Specific Channels

Cocomelon, Kids Diana Show, and Like Nastya all have multiple YouTube channels, each dedicated to specific languages.

Kids Diana Show has 119 million subscribers on the English language version of the channel. She’s added more than 72 million additional subscribers, with language channels hosting the same, but localized, content.

Like Nastya has 113 million subscribers on her English language channel. Her brand has more than 82 million additional subscribers on other language channels.

Business channels have seen success here as well. VidIQ has 1.78 million subscribers on their English language channel. And they’ve added an additional 351,000 subscribers on the Spanish language channel alone.

2. One Channel, Multiple Languages

The outlier here is Mr. Beast, who previously hosted several different channels dedicated to various languages. In 2022, that changed.

Around this time, YouTube began working with top creators like Mr. Beast to test out multi-language audio. This new feature allows creators to manage one channel by uploading different audio, thumbnails, and descriptions to their accounts.

When a user comes across the video, it’s automatically shown to them in their local language. This allows creators to deliver a seamless customer experience for their audience while also being more efficient content managers.

YouTube noted that creators who tested this multi-language audio feature saw 15% of their watch time come from views in the video’s non-primary language.

While this feature isn’t yet available to all accounts, YouTube plans a phased rollout of the functionality to more creators.

How To Use Localization In Your Brand

Of course, it’s important to consider the customer experience you’re delivering to your audience.

Over the years, I’ve interviewed dozens of consumers with identities from underrepresented and underserved communities. A common frustration they share is feeling like brands fall short by delivering substandard experiences to them.

One Spanish-speaking consumer told me that when brands don’t make their content available in Spanish, he feels like they send the message that “people who speak Spanish aren’t important.”

When it comes to engaging new consumer groups, I always coach my clients to be intentional about delivering experiences that make consumers feel seen, cared for, and like they are important rather than an afterthought. As a result of taking this approach, more of the people you want to serve will feel like they belong with you.

The end goal of this strategy is to create video content that’s accessible to people who speak other languages. But there are lots of ways to get there.

Here’s a quick video where I walk through a few of those options and provide examples and considerations for each one. I even drop some reactions and feedback from a Spanish-speaking consumer.

1. Use human-dubbed content.

Many of today’s top YouTube channels, including Mr. Beast, use a company called Unilingo to dub videos using professional translators and voiceover talent.

If you’ve ever watched a movie with audio in another language, you’ll notice that great care is taken to ensure the voiceover looks and sounds like the original. Tone match and synchronicity deliver a better experience to the end user.

Think of this as a moment to delight your audience by working with a human voice-over artist skilled in matching the original speaker’s energy, emotion, and intonation.

2. Use AI-dubbed content.

Ok, ok. I know I just told you to use human-dubbed content. But I realize that sometimes it’s just not possible.

If you haven’t noticed, the market is flooded with AI tools right now. That means you’ve got options for dubbing using artificial intelligence. Simply upload your video, select a voiceover you like, and in just a few minutes, you have a dubbed video.

If you use this option, it’s important to have the translated version verified by certified translators before publishing.

Although AI-powered translations are often good, there are nuances associated with localizing content. You’ll also want to maintain your brand voice and tone — something that can be difficult to capture with a language learning model.

The AI will translate your content verbatim when what you’re really after is transcreation. In a transcreation, you choose the words and phrases that capture the full intention and essence of what you’re saying.

In the podcast episode below, I go deep into translation, transcreation, and the proactive choices you must make when localizing content. For instance, should your brand be using gender neutral language (gendered language is very common in languages like Spanish and French), and if so, how should you approach nuances here? These decisions will have a big impact on how people perceive your brand.

3. Add multi-language subtitles to your video.

Subtitles are another way to make your YouTube videos more accessible. You can upload multiple subtitle files in other languages directly in your YouTube content studio.

YouTube also gives you the option to upload localized thumbnails, titles, and video descriptions to deliver a consistent experience in the end user’s local language.

When a user arrives on your video, they’ll hear your original audio while reading the subtitles in their preferred language.

The same rules apply when ensuring you have a high-quality subtitle translation that human translators either transcreated or verified.

Break Through the Noise with Inclusive Video Content

Think beyond your existing audience to grow your YouTube channel and your business.

Start where you can, and make improvements over time as you learn more about what your new global audience needs most from you.

Once you get into the groove of expanding content reach using inclusion, you’ll develop new relationships with new audiences that will allow them to reach new levels of success. And, at the end of the day, that’s your goal, right?

When done right, SEO is why you can usually find exactly what you’re looking for from Google and other search engines. Yep, even if you turn to Google search for a step-by-step guide to fixing your unfortunately timed flat tire.

Harsh truth time: When it comes to business, at least in my experience, you face a digital uphill battle without having some presence on Google.

It’s no wonder then, that SEO is one of the main areas marketers are investing in this year. In fact, HubSpot data finds that 32% of marketers plan to leverage websites, blogs, and SEO as part of their overall marketing strategy in 2024.

(For context, that was only beaten by email marketing at 33%.)

In this guide, you’ll learn what SEO is, discover a strategy to build your online presence — Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — and what you must do to position your site in search engine results.

Even if you’re an SEO whiz kid and have the basics down, it’s worth sticking around. “But why?” I hear you ask.

Well, aside from sharing my knowledge based on seven years of hands-on experience in SEO, I’ve also hand-selected some of the most incredible specialists to share their number one SEO best practices with you.

Keep on reading to understand SEO or jump ahead to the section that interests you most.

What is SEO?

How does SEO work?

What’s the importance of SEO?

How does Google know how to rank a page?

What is SEO strategy?

Three Core Components of a Strong SEO Strategy

Local SEO

Should you outsource SEO or keep it in-house?

9 SEO Best Practices From Selected Industry Specialists

SEO Resources and Training

When asked to explain what SEO is, I often choose to call it a strategy to make sure that when someone Googles your product or service category, they find your website.

But this simplifies the discipline a bit.

In reality, there are a ton of ways to improve the SEO of your site pages. Search engines look for elements, including title tags, keywords, image tags, internal link structure, and inbound links (also known as backlinks). Search engines also look at site structure and design, visitor behavior, and other external, off-site factors to determine how highly ranked your site should be in their SERPs.

With all of these factors taken into account, SEO primarily drives two things — rankings and visibility.

But before diving deeper, I want to note that many resources make SEO seem complex: they might even scare you away. I promise this guide isn’t like that. I’ll break SEO down into its most basic parts and show you how to use all of its elements to create a successful SEO strategy of your own.

Rankings

This is what search engines use to determine where to place a particular web page in the SERP. Rankings start at position number zero through the final number of search engine results for the query, and a web page can rank for one position at a time. As time passes, a web page’s ranking might change due to age, competition in the SERP, or algorithm changes by the search engine itself.

Visibility

This term describes how prominent a particular domain is in the search engine results. Lower search visibility occurs when a domain isn’t visible for many relevant search queries, whereas with higher search visibility, the opposite is true.

Both are responsible for delivering the main SEO objectives – relevant traffic and domain authority.

What’s the importance of SEO?

There’s one more important reason why you should invest in and use SEO: The strategy virtually helps you position your brand throughout the entire buying journey.

In turn, SEO can make sure that your marketing strategies match the new buying behavior.

Because, as Google admitted, customer behavior has changed for good.

As of January 2024, Google holds 81.95% of the worldwide search engine market share.

What’s more, customers typically prefer going through the majority of the buying process on their own.

For example, 86% of consumers say search engines are the best way to get information. And, across all generations, people overwhelmingly use search engines to get answers online.

Finally, DemandGen’s 2022 B2B Buyer’s Survey found that 67% of B2B buyers start the buying process with a broad web search.

But how do they use search engines during the process?

Early in the process, they use Google to find information about their problem. Some also inquire about potential solutions.

Then, they evaluate available alternatives based on reviews or social media hype before inquiring with a company directly. But this happens after they’ve exhausted all information sources.

And so, the only chance for customers to notice and consider you is by showing up in their search results.

Featured Resource

• The Complete SEO Starter Pack

How does Google know how to rank a page?

Search engines have a single goal only. They aim to provide users with the most relevant answers or information.

Every time you use them, their algorithms choose pages that are the most relevant to your query. And then rank them, displaying the most authoritative or popular ones first.

To deliver the right information to users, search engines analyze five main factors:

• The meaning behind someone’s query, which is their most likely intent for starting a search, and how that intent matches the most helpful content.
• Relevancy between the search query and the content on a page, and search engines assess it by various factors like topic or keywords.
• Quality of content, which uses the E-E-A-T (we’ll discuss this further below) model to surface content that seems the most helpful based on signals like experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
• The usability of a site, which considers page speed, mobile friendliness, and other factors related to how easy it is to discover content on a site.
• Context, which relies on a searcher’s past behavior and settings like location.

And to analyze all this information they use complex equations called search algorithms.

Search engines keep their algorithms secret. However, over time, SEOs have identified some of the factors they consider when ranking a page. We refer to them as ranking factors, and they are the focus of an SEO strategy.

When determining relevance and authority, following the E-E-A-T framework can help tremendously. E-E-A-T in SEO stands for “expertise,” “experience,” “authoritativeness,“ and ”trustworthiness.” Here’s what each one means:

• Expertise. You’re a subject matter expert.
• Experience. You have personal experience with the content you write about.
• Authoritativeness. Others see you as a source of authority, like other sites linking to your site and vouching for your credibility.
• Trustworthiness. Your website and its content are credible and current.

Professionals who responded to our Web Traffic & Analytics Report ranked trustworthiness and expertise as the most important ranking factors for showing up in SERPs, followed by experience and authoritativeness.

As AI becomes a bigger part of the search mix, expertise and experience will become increasingly important for content writers looking to stand out from AI-generated content. Why? Because algorithms don’t have a) the expertise to develop unique opinions or b) the level of personality that a human expert has.

And although these are not direct ranking factors, they can improve your SEO content, which can impact direct ranking factors. In fact, 65% of SEOs say that Google’s 2023 algorithm update (which included the updated E-E-A-T framework) had a positive impact.

As you’ll shortly see, adding more content, optimizing image filenames, or improving internal links can affect your rankings and search visibility. And that’s because each of those actions improves a ranking factor.

Three Core Components of a Strong SEO Strategy

To optimize a site, you need to improve ranking factors in three areas — technical website setup, content, and links. So, let’s go through them in turn.

1. Technical Setup

For your website to rank, three things must happen:

First, a search engine needs to find your pages on the web.

Then, it must scan them to understand their topics and identify their keywords.

And finally, it needs to add them to its index — a database of all the content it has found on the web. This way, its algorithm can consider displaying your website for relevant queries.

Seems simple, doesn’t it? Nothing to see here… After all, since you can visit your site without any problem, so should Google, right?

Well, there’s a catch. A web page looks different for you and the search engine. You see it as a collection of graphics, colors, text with its formatting, and links.

To a search engine, it’s nothing but text.

As a result, any elements it can’t render this way remain invisible to the search engine. And so, despite your website looking fine from your perspective, Google might find its content inaccessible.

Let me show you an example. Here’s how a typical search engine sees one of our articles. (It’s this one, by the way, if you want to compare it with the original.)

Notice some things about it:

• The page is just text. Although we carefully designed it, the only elements a search engine sees are text and links.
• As a result, it cannot see an image on the page (note the element marked with an arrow.) It only recognizes its name. If that image contained an important keyword we’d want the page to rank for, it would be invisible to the search engine.

That’s where technical setup, also called on-site optimization, comes in. It makes sure that your website and pages allow Google to scan and index them without any problems. The most important factors affecting it include:

Website navigation and links

Search engines crawl sites just like you would. They follow links. Search engine crawlers land on a page and use links to find other content to analyze. But as you’ve seen above, they cannot see images. So, set the navigation and links as text-only.

Simple URL structure

Search engines don’t like reading lengthy strings of words with complex structure. So, if possible, keep your URLs short. Set them up to include as little beyond the main keyword (for which you want to optimize the page) as possible.

Page speed

Search engines use the load time — the time it takes for a user to be able to read the page — as an indicator of quality. Many website elements can affect it. Image size, for example. Use Google’s Page Speed Insights Tool for suggestions on how to improve your pages.

[Video: https://youtu.be/OlbJKOWEPEM]

Dead links or broken redirects

A dead link sends a visitor to a nonexistent page. A broken redirect points to a resource that might no longer be there. Both provide a poor user experience and also prevent search engines from indexing your content.

Sitemap and Robots.txt files

A sitemap is a simple file that lists all URLs on your site. Search engines use it to identify what pages to crawl and index. A robots.txt file, on the other hand, tells search engines what content not to index (for example, specific policy pages you don’t want to appear in search.) Create both to speed up the crawling and indexing of your content.

Duplicate content

Pages containing identical or quite similar content can confuse search engines. They often find it nearly impossible to display any of those pages at all. If search engines do find them, your website could be penalized. But it really depends on the extent of duplication and the context surrounding it.

Expert Insights

There are nuances to explore regarding duplicate content (and the myths surrounding it), but Olivian Stoica, Senior SEO Specialist at Wave Live Wallpapers, is here to help.

“In theory, it‘s straightforward by definition, but in practice, it depends on context. Google does not penalize duplicate content but rather has difficulty in determining the best page to rank. For most people, failing to rank because of duplicate content seems like a penalty, but it’s not,” says Stoica.

Stoica notes that there’s a nuance in duplicate content and how much the page content matches another on the same domain.

“In my experience with an SEO agency, we focused on leveraging near duplicate issues where several pages shared similarities by 70-80%. There was a lot of boilerplate content shared on hundreds of pages. We had to come up with more unique content for each page that included several page elements like visuals and text,” Stoica says.

So is boilerplate content bad? According to Stoica, that depends on how much boilerplate content you’re using on your page. “If it’s over 50-60% of the entire page content, it could damage your growth strategy,” Stoica says.

Stoica explains that he’s never seen a manual action or algorithm penalty applied for having duplicate content. But at the same time, he’s never experienced duplicate content at scale.

Final thoughts: “I think we focus on reducing and eradicating duplicate content not because it’s harmful as it might have been several years ago, or because other SEO experts would have us believe it, but because it helps optimize crawl budget,” Stoica notes.

This is essential on large websites with hundreds of thousands of pages, Stoica notes. “It’s like in life. People hate it when you repeat the same thing. So, why do it on your website?” says Stoica.

2. Content

Every time you use a search engine, you’re looking for content — information on a particular issue or problem, for example.

True, this content might come in different formats. It could be text, like a blog post or a web page. But it could also be a video, product recommendation, and even a business listing.

It’s all content.

And for SEO, it’s what helps gain greater search visibility.

Here are two reasons why:

• First, content is what customers want when searching. Regardless of what they’re looking for, content provides it to them. Providing it’s high-quality, genuinely helpful for the end user, and doesn’t violate Google’s spam policies, the more you publish, the higher your chance of greater search visibility.
• Also, search engines use content to determine how to rank a page. It’s the idea of relevance between a page and a person’s search query that we talked about earlier.

While crawling a page, they determine its topic. Analyzing elements like page length or its structure helps them assess its quality. Based on this information, search algorithms can match a person’s query with pages they consider the most relevant to it.

The process of optimizing content begins with keyword research.

Keyword Research

SEO is not about getting any visitors to the site. You want to attract people who need what you sell and can become leads, and later, customers.

However, that’s possible only if you rank for the keywords those people would use when searching. Otherwise, there’s no chance they’d ever find you. And that’s even if your website appeared at the top of the search results.

That’s why SEO work starts with discovering what phrases potential buyers enter into search engines.

The process typically involves identifying terms and topics relevant to your business. Then, you can convert them into initial keywords. And finally, you can conduct extensive research to uncover related terms your audience would use.

We’ve published a thorough guide to keyword research for beginners. It lays out the keyword research process in detail. Use it to identify search terms you should be targeting.

With a list of keywords at hand, the next step is to optimize your content. SEOs refer to this process as on-page optimization.

On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization, also called on-page SEO, ensures that search engines a.) understand a page’s topic and keywords and b.) can match it to relevant searches.

Note, I said “page,” not content. That’s because, although the bulk of on-page SEO work focuses on the words you use, it extends to optimizing some elements in the code.

You may have heard about some of them — meta-tags like title or description are the two most popular ones. But there are more. So, here’s a list of the most crucial on-page optimization actions to take.

Note: Since blog content prevails on most websites when speaking of those factors, I’ll focus on blog SEO — optimizing blog posts for relevant keywords. However, all this advice is equally valid for other page types, too.

Featured Resource

• Guide to On-Page SEO Strategy

a) Keyword Optimization

According to web analysts and SEO experts, optimizing your on-page content around target keywords is the most effective SEO strategy for ranking highly on SERPs.

For keyword optimization, you’ll need to ensure that Google understands what keywords you want this page to rank. To achieve that, make sure you include at least the main keyword in the following:

• Post’s title. Ideally, place it as close to the start of the title as possible. Google is known to put more value on words at the start of the headline.
• URL. Your page’s web address should also include the keyword.Ideally, it would include nothing else. Also, you should remove any stop words.
• H1 Tag. In most content management systems, this tag displays the page’s title by default. However, make sure that your platform doesn’t use a different setting.
• The first 100 words (or the first paragraph) of content. Finding the keyword at the start of your blog post will reassure Google that this is, in fact, the page’s topic.
• Meta-title and meta-description tags. Search engines use these two code elements to display their listings. They display the meta-title as the search listing’s title while the meta-description provides content for the little blurb below it. However, above that, they use both to further understand the page’s topic.
• Image file names and ALT tags. Remember how search engines see graphics on a page? They can only see their file names. So, make sure that at least one of the images contains the keyword in the file name.

The alt tag, on the other hand, is the text browsers will display instead of an image for visually impaired visitors or if the image doesn’t load. However, since ALT tag resides in the image code, search engines use it as a relevancy signal as well.

That said, there’s a delicate balance to be had with ALT tag optimization. And, your main priority should always be to use this element to make your content more accessible for end users rather than more optimized for search.

Also, add semantic keywords — variations or synonyms of your keyword. Google and other search engines use them (and the added context they provide) to better determine a page’s relevancy.

Let me illustrate this with a quick example. Let’s pretend that your main keyword is “Apple.” But do you mean the fruit or the tech giant behind the iPhone?

Now, imagine what happens when Google finds terms like sugar, orchard, or cider in the copy. The choice of what queries to rank it for would immediately become obvious, right?

That’s what semantic keywords do. Add them to make sure your page doesn’t start appearing for irrelevant searches.

Pro tip: If you want to get to grips with how Google categorizes and understands text (and why semantic keywords are so important), try Google’s Natural Language API. It’s free and will give you a first-hand idea of how a few different words can completely change the categorization of your text.

Image Source

In the above example, I’m writing a quick introduction for an e-commerce product category dedicated to cat-themed designs.

Because the text is so heavily focused on why cats are great (I mean they are, of course) rather than placing the theme of ‘cat’ within the context of the actual product (cat-themed designs), Google interprets this as being more about pets than designs. That might work for a pet shop, but it’s not ideal for a design marketplace.

Image Source

In the second example, I’ve targeted my primary audience (crafters) first and placed the theme of cats in the right context from the get-go. (The ‘right’ context is to use these cat-themed designs to produce home crafts.) As you can see Google has registered words like “crafters,” “designs,” and “Cricut,” more than others. And those words are driving the broader intent of the text.

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As a result, Google is now classifying the text in the “Hobbies & Leisure/Crafts/Other categories” rather than so heavily in “Pets & Animals/Pets/Cats.” And that’s all because of the specificity of both the word choices and the context.

b) Non-Keyword-Related On-Page Optimization Factors

On-page SEO is not just about sprinkling keywords across the page. The factors below help confirm a page’s credibility and authority, too:

• External links. Linking out to other, relevant pages on the topic helps Google determine its topic further. Plus, it provides a good user experience. How? By positioning your content as a valuable resource.
• Internal links. Those links help you boost rankings in two ways. First, they allow search engines to find and crawl other pages on the site. And second, they show semantic relations between various pages, helping to determine relevance to the search query. As a general rule of thumb, you should include at least 2-4 relevant internal links per blog post.
• Content length. This is not always the case, but long content typically ranks better. That’s because, if done well*, a longer blog post will always contain more exhaustive information on the topic, thus keeping a reader on your site longer. That’s called dwell time, and it’s considered by some to be an important ranking factor for search engines.
• Multimedia. Although not a requirement, multimedia elements like videos, diagrams, and audio players can signal a page’s quality. It keeps readers on a page for longer, just like longer content does. And in turn, it signals that they find the content valuable and worth pursuing.

*Note: I’ve been in marketing and SEO for about seven years. But I’m a writer and editor at heart (and by trade), so here’s my heartfelt addendum regarding content length.

Please don’t write long content just for the sake of it.

That’s how you waste your reader’s time and inevitably decrease the value of your content rather than add to it.

When writing or editing, ask yourself, “Does this [section/paragraph/sentence/word/idea] genuinely add value to the piece?” and if it doesn’t, cut it.

The real aim should always be to cover the topic thoroughly without adding filler. Filler is boring to read, and it doesn’t move the piece forward.

3. Links

From what you’ve read in this guide so far, you know that no page will rank without two factors — relevance and authority.

In their quest to provide users with the most accurate answers, Google and other search engines prioritize pages they consider the most relevant but also popular to their queries.

The first two areas — technical setup and content — focused on increasing relevance (though I admit, some of their elements can also help highlight the authority.)

Links, however, are responsible for popularity.

But before we talk more about how they work, here’s what SEOs mean when talking about links.

What is a backlink?

Links, also called backlinks, are references to your content on other websites. Every time another website mentions and points its readers to your content, you gain a backlink to your site.

For example, this article in Entrepreneur mentions our Not Another State of Marketing Report page. It also links to it, allowing their readers to see other stats than the one quoted.

Google uses the quantity and quality of links like this as a signal of a website’s authority. Its logic is that web admins would reference a popular and high-quality website more often than a mediocre one.

But note that I mentioned link quality as well. That’s because not all links are the same. Some — low-quality ones — can impact your rankings negatively.

Links Quality Factors

Low-quality or suspicious links — for example, ones that Google would consider as built deliberately to make it consider a site more authoritative — might reduce your rankings.

That’s why, when building links, SEOs don’t focus on any old links. They aim to generate the highest quality references possible.

Naturally, just like with the search algorithm, we don’t know what factors determine a link’s quality, specifically. However, over time, SEOs discovered some of them:

• The popularity of a linking site. Any link from a domain that search engines consider an authority will naturally have high quality. In other words, links from websites with good-quality links pointing to them will yield better results.
• Topic relevance. Links from domains on a topic similar to yours will carry more authority than those from random websites.
• Trust in a domain. Just like with popularity, search engines also assess a website’s trust. Links from more trustworthy sites will always impact rankings better.

Link Building

In SEO, we refer to the process of acquiring new backlinks as link building. And as many practitioners admit, it can be a challenging activity.

Link building, if you want to do it well, requires creativity, strategic thinking, and patience. To generate quality links, you need to develop a link-building strategy. And that’s no small feat.

Remember, your links must pass various quality criteria. Plus, it can’t be obvious to search engines that you’ve built them deliberately.

Expert Insights

Ranko Media Founder and CEO Nick Rubright has been working on link building for his projects and clients for a decade. He also speaks to website eowners every day looking for backlinging opportunities.

“A common theme I notice among website owners who are less experienced in the world of SEO and link building is that they often want to buy the backlinks, thinking search engines won’t notice, or even not realizing it’s against their spam policies,” Rubright says.

Rubright reminds us that in his experience, paying for backlinks either produces short-term results (so it works until Google finds out) or no results at all (if Google already knows the sellers you’re working with).

So, how does Google know if you’re paying for links? Well, they look for the sellers.

Rubright adds, “See, if someone tries to sell me a backlink, I can just tell Google that they’re selling right here.”

Image Source

“Eventually, the website you paid for a link on gets caught because someone like me just reports websites that sell backlinks every time they run across that in their outreach. When this happens, and Google knows the outbound links are paid for,” Rubright explains.

Google won’t count the outbound links from the domain as votes anymore, which means these backlinks produce zero ranking value.

“This seems to be true even if the websites that are selling backlinks have Google rankings themselves,” Rubright says.

Yes, this approach (paying for, rather than earning links) might seem like the more cost-effective alternative at first. But Rubright reminds us, “If you’re saving money buying links, and those links don’t do anything for your website, you’re getting zero ROI on your link-building investment.”

Link-building strategies to help you earn links:

• Editorial, organic links. These backlinks come from websites that reference your content on their own.
• Outreach. In this strategy, you contact other websites for links. This can happen in many ways. You could create an amazing piece of content and email them to tell them about it. In turn, if they find it valuable, they’ll reference it. You can also suggest where they could link to it.
• Guest posting. Guest posts are blog articles that you publish on third-party websites. In turn, those companies often allow you to include one or two links to your site in the content and author bio.
• Profile links. Many websites offer an opportunity to create a link. Online profiles are a good example. Often, when setting up such a profile, you can also list your website there as well. Not all such links carry strong authority, but some might. And given the ease of creating them, they’re worth pursuing.
• Competitive analysis. Finally, many SEOs regularly analyze their competitors’ backlinks to identify those they could recreate for their sites, too.

Now, if you’re still here with me, you’ve just discovered what’s responsible for your site’s success in search.

The next step is figuring out whether your efforts are working.

How to Monitor & Track SEO Results

Technical setup, content, and links are critical to getting a website into the search results. Monitoring your efforts helps improve your strategy further.

Measuring SEO success means tracking data about traffic, engagement, and links. And though most companies develop their own sets of SEO KPIs (key performance indicators), here are the most common ones:

• Organic traffic growth
• Keyword rankings (split into branded and non-branded terms)
• Conversions from organic traffic
• Average time on page and the bounce rate
• Top landing pages attracting organic traffic
• Number of indexed pages
• Links growth (including new and lost links)

Local SEO

Up until now, we focused on getting a site rank in search results in general. If you run a local business, however, Google also lets you position it in front of potential customers in your area, specifically. But for that, you use local SEO.

And it’s well worth it.

46% of Google searches are for local businesses. They look for vendor suggestions and even specific business addresses.

81% of consumers use Google to research local businesses, and they look for things like online reviews.

But hold on, is local SEO different from what we’ve been discussing all along?

Yes and no.

Search engines follow similar principles for both local and global rankings. However, given that they position a site for specific, location-based results, they need to analyze some other ranking factors, too.

Even local search results look different:

• They appear only for searches with a local intent (for example, “restaurant near me” or when a person clearly defined the location.)
• They contain results specific to a relevant location.
• They concentrate on delivering specific information to users that they don’t need to go anywhere else to find.
• They target smartphone users primarily as local searches occur more often on mobile devices.

For example, a localpack, the most prominent element of local results, includes almost all the information a person would need to choose a business. Here are local results Google displays for the phrase “best restaurant in Boston.”

Source

Note that these results contain no links to any content. Instead, they include a list of restaurants in the area, a map to show their locations, and additional information about each:

• Business name.
• Description.
• Image.
• Opening hours.
• Star Reviews.
• Address.

Often, they also include a company’s phone number or website address.

All this information combined helps customers choose which business to engage with. But, it also allows Google to determine how to rank it.

Local Search Ranking Factors

When analyzing local websites, Google looks at the proximity to a searcher’s location. With the rise of local searches containing the phrase “near me,” it’s only fair that Google will try to present the closest businesses first.

Keywords are essential for local SEO, too. However, one additional element of on-page optimization is a company’s name, address, and phone number on a page. In local SEO, we refer to it as the NAP.

Again, it makes sense, as the search engine needs a way to assess the company’s location.

Google assesses authority in local searches, not just by links. Reviews and citations (references of a business’s address or a phone number online) highlight its authority, too.

Finally, the information a business includes in a Google Business Profile — the search engine’s platform for managing local business listings — plays a massive part in its rankings.

The above is just the tip of the iceberg. But they are the ones to get right first if you want your business to rank well in local search.

What is black hat SEO?

The final aspect of SEO I want to highlight is something I also hope you’ll never be tempted to use on anything other than a test site.

For context, some SEO specialists experiment with black hat SEO for their own test websites. Through testing, these SEOs can demonstrate proof of concept and learn how to safeguard their client’s websites based on their experimentations.

But I repeat: Do not use these tactics for your clients or employers because they are not your sites to experiment with.

That said, although it might have its lure and can be used on test sites, black hat SEO typically ends in a penalty from search listings.

Black hat practices aim at manipulating search engine algorithms using strategies against search engine guidelines. The most common black hat techniques include keyword stuffing, cloaking (hiding keywords in code so that users don’t see them, but search engines do), and buying links.

So, why would someone use black hat SEO? Well, ranking a site following Google’s guidelines takes time. In some cases, depending on the budget, a website’s existing authority, and more, it can take a long time.

Black hat strategies let you cut down the complexity of link building, for example. Keyword stuffing helps users to rank one page for many keywords without having to create more content.

But as I said, getting caught often results in a site being completely wiped out from search listings.

The reason I mention it here is because I want you to realize that there are no shortcuts in SEO. And also, be aware and very suspicious of anyone suggesting strategies that might seem too good to be true…

We need only look at Google’s recent 2024 update, which, combined with its previous efforts, aimed to “collectively reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%” as an example.

The 40% in question refers to a large number of websites (many of which received manual actions) that published unhelpful AI-generated content, which Google ultimately viewed as spam.

Any SEO worth their salt would’ve told you to avoid abusing AI-generated content to such a degree. Yes, even when Google announced (and I paraphrase) that it was ok with AI content within reason.

But a lot of the ‘get rich quick with AI’ types sold people some serious SEO strategy snake oil that turned out to be a big serving of scaled content abuse.

Doing SEO Yourself

Be honest with yourself — are you interested in learning SEO? Do you have time to learn the basics? Do you have the resources to bring in help if you redesign your website and accidentally deindex several pages?

If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” then you might not want to take on the responsibility of SEO yourself.

SEO is a long-term play, and just like a muscle, you have to work at it consistently to see results. That can take a substantial amount of commitment. If you have any doubts, try the next best thing — delegating the work.

That said, learning about the process and becoming an SEO specialist makes you well-equipped to create content because you’ll know exactly what matters most. And there is a wide variety of SEO tools out there that will help you throughout the process.

For example, HubSpot’s SEO Marketing Software includes tools that help you optimize your content and execute your SEO strategy. You’ll get a list of issues to fix ranked based on importance and detailed insight into why those issues matter to prepare you for the future.

Get started with HubSpot’s SEO Marketing Software

Nowadays, 50% of writers also use AI SEO tools to boost content performance, and 65% of web analysts say it helps their pages rank higher in SERPs. Bloggers also say AI tools are highly effective at helping them align their web content with search intent (which hits on two of the four factors used to rank pages.)

Delegate SEO to a Team Member

If you’re not quite sure about taking on SEO yourself, consider delegating the work to a team member. If you have a person interested in growth marketing, development, or even web design, this would be a valuable skill to help grow their career.

Funnily enough, that’s actually how I got started in SEO. I was an office admin for work, but in my spare time, I was building my own website and learning about blogging. As my ‘home’ journey progressed, I realized my employer didn’t cover SEO or blogging nearly as well as they could.

I approached the CEO with a business case on why we should invest time (my time) and resources (me) in these areas. It suited the business objectives and my career goals (I got to do something creative), so it got the green light.

The next thing I knew, I was working through a Google Digital Garage Course on SEO, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Aside from assigning tasks in-house, you could hire a full-time search engine optimization specialist if you have the budget.

The person in this role can report to the marketing team, development team, or even design team. Because SEO touches nearly every function of a business while maintaining a unique set of skill requirements, this position won’t be subject to frequent changes if departments need to be restructured later on. The person you delegate to this job will contribute cross-functionally more often than not.

Expert Insights

“In my experience, text documentation with visuals and video tutorials help a lot. I’m a documentation addict from my past experience as a technical documentation writer. For me, having everything documented is keen, not only for delegating SEO tasks to a peer, but for yourself too,” says Stoica of Wave Live Wallpapers

Stoica provides an example of what this looks like in practice. Stoica delegated keyword research to teammates. They then meet weekly to discuss their progress and bottlenecks.

“After some time, they proposed new ways to conduct their research that proved they understood the assignment and how SEO works in that area,” Stoica says.

Final thoughts: “All in all, my approach to delegating some elements of SEO is by using documentations, video presentations, 1-on-1 discussions, and setting up internal processes for verifications and feedback,” says Stoica.

Outsource SEO to an Agency

You don’t have the interest in SEO, your team’s at full capacity, and you can’t spare the budget to fill a full-time SEO role. Now what? The best bang for your buck is to outsource SEO to a reputable consultant. Why?

First, a well-respected SEO consultant is highly skilled in bringing organic traffic, leads, and conversions to businesses. They do this day in and day out, so they won’t need the ramp-up time that you or a member of your team would need in order to learn the basics.

Second, a consultant can be less expensive than hiring someone full-time for the role because they don’t require insurance benefits, payroll taxes, etc. But how much exactly would you be looking at for outsourcing your SEO?

SEO can cost between $100 and $500 per month if you do it yourself with a keyword research tool. It can cost between $75 and $150 per hour for a consultant and up to $10,000 per month if you hire a full-service marketing agency. Small businesses generally spend less on SEO than big brands, so be sure to take that into account.

Incurring SEO costs can mean one of two things: the investment in your organic search strategy, or how much you pay for paid search engine marketing (SEM) services like Google Ads. If you’re paying for a tool, consultant, or marketing agency to help you optimize your web content, your bill can vary wildly with the depth of the services you’re receiving.

 

9 SEO Best Practices From Selected Industry Specialists

I reached out to eight specialists to get the inside scoop on their SEO best practices. Each specialist focused on a single area (i.e., Tech SEO) or way of working (i.e., working with an agency) within SEO.

Everyone was incredibly generous with their insights. So, for this section, I wanted to a) give everyone space to speak about their specialist areas within SEO and b) get out of their darn way so they could shine.

I sincerely hope this is as exciting for you to read as it was for me to put together.

1. Tech SEO (Make your site 55% faster for users.)

I spoke with Liam Fallen, SEO Consultant and Founder of the MostlyMarketing Slack Community and LiamFallen.com. Fallen has ten years of experience in SEO and has worked with companies like monday.com, Riverside.fm, and LeoVegas, focusing specifically on tech SEO.

Fallen shares his favorite tip for making a site faster for users by removing unused code. But first, he tells us why it matters.

“Removing unused code can improve performance, especially if you‘re loading 5 MB and your users only need two MB for it to function. It can be tricky to remove, as you’ll need to test that it doesn’t break anything. But if done properly, you can see a noticeable difference in load times,” Fallen says.

To get started, Fallen walks you through the complete step-by-step process below:

<iframe src=“https://www.linkedin.com/embed/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:7038794324968407040” height=“646” width=“504” frameborder=“0” allowfullscreen=“” title=“Embedded post”></iframe>

Source

Best for: Fallen’s site speed tip is easy to do, making it beginner-friendly. That said, even more advanced SEOs shouldn’t sleep on this tech SEO best practice.

2. SEO Content (Focus on quality and search intent.)

“There are a few very important things when it comes to creating great SEO content. I’ll focus on two,” says Ben Goodey, Founder at Spicy Margarita Content and SEO podcast and case studies community, How the F*ck.

1. Content Quality

“People often look at the state of other content on Google and think, ‘Oh, great, mine doesn’t have to be interesting, unique, or spicy in any way.’ But lowering your bar for quality when it comes to SEO is a big no in my book,” says Goodey.

Low-quality only guarantees you fit into the crowded market of bland content and don’t stand out to a reader, Goodey notes.

Goodey reminds us that “The best content, whether distributed via search or not, is filled with value, your brand, personality, your experience, and opinions. Your challenge is to be informative AND unique.”

2. Meeting Search Intent

“Search intent is the reason behind the user’s search term, and if your content doesn’t match that reason, it’s very unlikely it will rank highly in Google. To give an example, imagine someone searching ‘best CRM software,’” says Goodey.

Goodey explains that their intent is likely to research CRM software provider options and make a reasoned choice. Your content should help them do this, probably by reviewing and listing several options.

Goodey adds, “If you instead wrote an article titled ‘Why a Best CRM Software Doesn’t Exist,’ you’re unlikely to rank well because while it’s an interesting angle, it doesn’t give the reader what they want.”

Pro tip: For an example like the one above, Goodey recommends covering those unique takes within your article rather than making them the entire angle of your piece.

3. Keyword Research (Target leads and revenue — not just traffic.)

Samantha North, content strategy consultant and founder of Content Foundations and samanthanorth.com, shares her top four keyword research best practices with us below.

1. Leads and Revenue vs. Traffic

“Depending on your business model, leads/revenue matter more than mere traffic. The difference is all in the keyword. You should target commercial intent keywords to increase your leads or sales (even though they may have lower search volume),” explains North.

North recommends doing this early on in your content strategy. Doing so gives this business-critical content time to rank before you start targeting high-volume informational keywords.

North adds, “Traffic for traffic’s sake can be a misleading metric that won’t necessarily help your business’s bottom line.”

2. Reverse Engineer Your Top Competitors

According to North, you can get a strong head start on your keyword research simply by reverse engineering a few of your top competitors. To do this, you can use a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs.

Here’s how: “Once you‘ve got all their keywords, filter by the top 10 search positions, then use additional filters (such as ’how to,‘ or ’best’) to narrow down promising keywords that you can use to create problem-solving guides or competitor comparison articles,” North says.

3. Match Search Intent

Like Goodey, North reminds us that it’s vital to nail the correct search intent. Goodey points out, “If your content doesn’t match that reason [the intent behind the search], it’s very unlikely it will rank highly in Google.”

To match search intent, North says, “Always check the top 10 SERPs to understand the necessary angle for your target keyword. It might not be what you expect.”

4. Zero Volume Keywords

“Keyword research tools don’t usually give accurate search volume estimates, so don’t be afraid to target ‘zero volume keywords.’ ”If they’re highly relevant to your target audience. You should always prioritize content that serves your audience first,” says North.

4. Link Building (Don’t buy links. Earn them.)

Ranko Media’s Nick Rubright, spoke to us earlier about the hazards of buying backlinks. (Two hazards are short-term results that don’t last, meaning little to no return on investment.)

Instead, Rubright recommends earning links from websites your customers are reading. “This has been how I’ve approached link building for any website I’ve been able to sustainably grow,” says Rubright.

Rubright shares three best practices for link-building outreach — so you can earn links without paying for them.

1. Improve your prospecting

“Lots of people who are newer to SEO perceive link building as something where you somehow scrape contact data from the internet, build a huge list of sites and contact info, and send spammy outreach emails asking for a link,” says Rubright.

“The problem with this is that poorly targeted prospecting will result in low or no responses because the link or guest post topics you‘re pitching to the blogger or journalist doesn’t make sense for their audience,” Rubright says.

Aside from that, it can also permanently damage your domain’s email deliverability if your emails are getting marked as spam, which can lead to a lower success rate over time.

According to Rubright, a better approach is hand-picking your prospects to make sure that what you’re pitching adds value to their page or website.

Pro tip: “You can still use email templates, but make sure that it makes sense for your prospect to get the email you’re sending,” Rubright says.

2. Consider your pitch

“There are tons of ways to improve your email pitch, but a problem many link-building pitches have is that they don’t consider the blogger or journalist’s audience. They’ll blast out email templates with generic guest posting ideas in hopes of a response, playing the numbers game,” says Rubright.

Instead, Rubright advises that you customize your outreach email to the prospect you’re emailing.

Pro tip: “This doesn‘t mean you can’t use templates, but maybe write a custom opening line commenting on a recent article you read, or spend time detailing why you‘re pitching your link in a way that’s specific to their site. Specificity is the biggest factor in a pitch that improves response rates,” Rubright says.

3. Consider your story

“The reality of link building is that when going white hat, it’s a lot like PR. If you’re running a guest posting campaign, for example, you need to pitch ideas that are going to resonate with the blogger or journalist on the other end of the email,” says Rubright.

Rubright explains that if you‘re running a digital PR campaign, journalists and bloggers need to like the story. They also need to think it’s compelling to their audience if they’re going to publish it and credit you with a backlink.

Pro tip: “In situations where you‘re just pitching a link, I’ve found that explaining the ‘why’ behind your content asset is helpful in fulfilling this story element,” Rubright says.

Email Template Example for Link-Building Outreach

Here’s an email template Rubright uses when asking for a link to a content asset:

Hi [name]!

Just read your article about [topic]. [Comment.]

I’m emailing you today because I just finished writing a blog post about [topic] to help [audience] with [problem].

Here’s a link: [URL]

If you like it, do you think it would be worth mentioning in the section where you talked about [topic]?

Cheers,

Nick

5. Local SEO (Understand your target geographic area.)

I spoke with Christopher Levy, director of growth at Marketing Six, about local SEO best practices. Levy has ten years of SEO experience and specializes in local.

He shares his insights from the perspective of an agency or freelancer working with a client. But, you can easily apply these best practices to in-house SEO roles or work.

Administering a Google Business Profile (GBP)

“Administering a client’s GBP is an important skill set that a local SEO must learn. This includes optimizing the listing to be up-to-date and accurate, with relevant and compelling visuals. You can also share content, updates, and offers on a GBP,” says Levy.

Levy adds, “Soliciting and responding to reviews is another important role in managing a GBP that draws on skills needed for outreach.”

Pro tip: Levy recommends working with your local clients on a strategy for soliciting customer reviews and appropriate responses to reviews and comments left on GBPs.

Keyword Research for Local SEO

“When performing keyword research for local SEO, it’s important to understand that most tools used by SEO report data like keyword difficulty and monthly search volume (or MSV) based on nationwide data, or worse – data from the geographic midpoint,” says Levy.

Levy explains that‘s why it’s so important to use a keyword research tool that allows you to specify the geographic area you’re targeting.

“When you update these settings, you will likely see much different data, opening additional keyword strategies due to a lack of competitiveness within that geographic market,” Levy says.

According to Levy, client perceptions, particularly where the business owner is your point of contact, are crucial. That means you must make sure you can see local search results similar to what they see.

Pro tip: If your client is in a different market than where you are located, Levy recommends working with an SEO tool that can generate SERPs in the client’s market. You can also use a Virtual Private Network (or VPN) to make it appear to Google that you are in the target market.

6. Monitoring and Tracking SEO Results (Take a holistic approach.)

For the next two sections, I spoke with Zoe Ashbridge, the senior SEO strategist and co-founder at forank. (Bonus, she also writes for HubSpot!) She has nearly a decade of experience in digital marketing and SEO.

“It’s true that tracking SEO success can be difficult. Unlike PPC, you can’t point to a conversion and know exactly which search term drove it. However, there is a lot you can track,” says Ashbridge.

Ashbridge adds that what you track ultimately depends on your sales funnel. Still, the common metrics she tracks for SEO success include:

• Clicks and Impressions; Separate Brand and Non-Brand Clicks. “This is very important. While SEO can do a lot with brand search, its primary role is bringing new users to the site through top and middle funnel content,” Ashbridge says.
• Performance of Pages Built for SEO That Don’t Pull In a Lot of Brand Search. You can do this by tracking “Revenue or conversions direct from pages created at SEO’s request” using G4’s landing page report.
• Track Sales or Conversions From Users Who Also Viewed Content. To do this, Ashbridge uses G4’s segment overlap.
• Organic Revenue Sitewide. This is especially critical for E-commerce.

If you’re a service-based business, Ashbridge highly recommends that you also track your leads internally.

“The goal is to credit SEO for its sales assists; if SEO brings traffic to the site, your retargeting campaign and email marketing might convert them. You can identify content that’s part of the buyer journey with the segment overlap,” says Ashbridge.

Final thoughts: “Tracking SEO’s efforts does require some awareness of marketing and how it works holistically. Although tracking SEO’s efforts is an imperfect system, it’s better than the alternative: blind faith!” Ashbridge says.

7. Working With an SEO Agency (Look out for legitimacy in the data.)

“Your SEO agency must be tuned in to your business and marketing objectives. Think about the initial engagement between you and your potential agency as an opportunity for the agency to hear your needs,” says Ashbridge.

“Active listening and responses from the agency are an indicator that they’re offering tailored SEO strategy and solutions rather than out-the-box tactics,” Ashbridge says.

Ashbridge reminds us that a tailored solution brings longevity to your marketing and will support the marketing landscape rather than just SEO. That means a good agency will use SEO’s efforts to bolster other marketing efforts.

Ashbridge adds, “For example, keyword research and conversion data will be shared between SEO and PPC, and what content users are looking for will be delivered before they search it via emails. An awareness of how SEO fits into the wider marketing landscape is a sign of marketing sophistication.”

A Word on Agency Case Studies

Your agency will undoubtedly demonstrate marketing success through case studies. But Ashbridge warns us to pay close attention to “legitimacy in the data.”

“Ideally, you‘ll see (at least) screenshots from tools like Google Search Console or G4, as opposed to data only from reports created in Google Sheets. While there’s nothing wrong with the latter, unlike Google’s owned tools, they can be manipulated,” Ashbridge says.

Pro tip: Ashbridge recommends getting references, too, in addition to case studies. “An SEO with a proven track record won’t have any issue connecting you to a solid reference to vouch for their work,” Ashbridge says.

8. Doing SEO Yourself As a Business Owner (Find out if it’s the right call.)

I spoke with Olga Zhukova, a freelance SEO specialist at Olga Zhukova.com. Zhukova has experience consulting small business owners who either want to do SEO themselves or have already started doing it.

When To Do SEO Yourself

“So from my experience, when they [business owners] have a small website, it’s totally possible to do SEO optimization themselves. Most likely, that would be on-page,” Zhukova says.

In that case, Zhukova recommends the following best practices:

1. Take time and patience to learn about SEO and what to expect from your efforts.
2. Optimize on-page elements step by step (at the same time, find free/inexpensive tools to use).
3. Connect at least Google Search Console and understand basic reports.

When To Address an SEO Specialist

Zhukova adds: “As for when to address a specialist, there are several options when a consultation would be of use:

• To check the optimization performed.

• To ask for a further strategy to follow.

• To figure out why the website is not getting any traffic – it might be a technical issue.”

I asked Zhukova her thoughts about when it‘s best to avoid a DIY approach entirely or bring in a specialist to help with some of the ’doing’ rather than in a consultancy capacity.

When To Avoid a DIY SEO Approach Entirely

“You know, I’ve actually been thinking recently about when is the best time to hire a professional to do SEO? The bigger the site, the more ‘maintenance’ it might require,” says Zhukova.

“So if the owner doesn’t have enough time to work properly on content strategy and optimizing new pages, but there’s a budget to invest in professional services, it’s a green light to hire a specialist.”

If that’s the case, Zhukova would point out the following use cases:

1. Before launching a website. A specialist can help you plan out the structure and do basic SEO optimization. This would be great, especially when launching medium to large online stores. The reason is that it will give them a strong start.
2. The owner does all on-page SEO (using plugins and apps or their own knowledge). However, there are a growing number of indexation issues in the GSC and very low traffic despite all the efforts—that’d be a good time for a professional audit.
3. Website migrations/redesign. Zhukova warns that if a business owner migrates or redesigns their website structure without using SEO recommendations, it can lead to a significant loss in traffic.

9. Delegating SEO to a Team Member (Understand the Person You’re Training)

Last but by no means least, I spoke with Emma Russell, the founder of Oxford Comma Digital. Russell has a decade of experience helping start-ups and household name brands capitalize on and increase demand.

For context, I’ve worked with Russell personally. I was an in-house (and first-time) content manager, and Russell was the director of our SEO agency partner. Russell helped me swim rather than sink as I got to grips with SEO and team delegation. Further, I always admired the way she approached the agency-client working relationship.

Anyway, I‘ve gushed enough. Now let’s hand it over to Russell, who shares her best practices about delegating SEO to a team member…

How Not to Delegate

“Delegation is important — we all know that. It helps you do more SEO work that moves the needle, and it’s important to let the younger generation of SEOs learn by doing work that challenges them,” says Russell.

“In fact, it’s so important that it forms the basis of many consulting agencies revenue model: bring on a client, give that client to a recent grad, who’s really good at figuring things out, let them spend hour upon hour figuring out how to do the task and make money on all that unpaid overtime they put in… wait, hang on… that doesn’t sound so good…”

Russell adds, “Alas, that’s what delegation has looked like for years but is, thankfully, becoming ‘old school.’ At least in the SEO industry, good delegation looks decidedly different now.”

But what does “SEO delegation done right” look like?

Understand the person you’re delegating to.

Russell reiterates that this doesn’t just mean their skill levels in each area but also understanding them as people.

“Those grads I mentioned earlier probably thrive by being thrown in the deep end, but not everyone is like that. Some people have confidence issues, or imposter syndrome, or are dealing with things that are making challenges at work that much harder,” says Russell.

Russell recommends that step one is to figure out and understand how people like to learn. “Our objective is to let this person thrive, and this doesn’t look the same for everyone,” Russell says.

Brief this person properly.

“’Properly’” will depend on their skill level and their learning style. If you use a project management tool like Asana, Teamwork, or Hubspot, this can be made easier. But some people you’re delegating to will need to talk it through and ask questions,” says Russell.

Russell knows that taking the time to do this can be challenging, especially if you, yourself are extremely busy. Still, “it’s worth remembering that you’re delegating for a reason, and taking the time to get the brief stage right is completely worth it.”

Delegate to an in-house team (when you’re agency side).

“It’s worth noting that this delegation doesn’t always take place with people in the same company as yours. If you’re agency side, you’re often delegating to people within an in-house team who may have limited knowledge of SEO,” says Russell.

For this reason and many others, Russell explains that it’s worth putting serious effort into your communication skills and practicing conveying topics in a simple, non-reductionist way. Russell adds, “This will span from your documentation to your meeting communications.”

Allocate enough time.

To allow all of the above to happen, Russell advises that managers give people enough time for delegation and managing tasks properly.

Russell adds, “If you have a team member who delegates tasks to others and coaches them, they might not be a manager yet, but they need to have time to get this right. If you’re expecting them to be 100% on client work or projects, give it up. It’s not going to happen, and you’re overworking this person.”

SEO Resources and Training

This guide is just a starting point for discovering SEO. But there’s much more to learn.

Here are online training resources to try next if you or someone on your team wants to take on this skill:

• The HubSpot SEO Academy.
• Google Analytics Course.
• SEO That Works course.

You can also pick SEO knowledge from industry experts and their blogs. Here are some worth reading:

• SEMrush.
• MOZ.
• Yoast.
• BrightLocal (local SEO advice).
• Search Engine Journal.
• Search Engine Watch.
• Search Engine Land.
• SEO Chatter.
• Bruce Clay Inc.
• WordLift Blog.

Over to You

Without actively positioning its content in search results, no business can survive long.

By increasing your search visibility, you can attract more visitors and, in turn, conversions and sales. And that’s well worth the time spent becoming an expert in SEO.

I‘ve been running HubSpot’s Marketing Daily emails for about as long as I’ve been with the company (a slight nudge for you to subscribe), so I know a thing or two about getting your marketing emails to the right inbox.

I also know a lot about avoiding spam trigger words and filters. Though avoiding trigger words isn‘t enough to evade the robust systems of spam filters, it’s good to know them to keep your marketing emails in good standing with email providers like Google Mail.

To ensure your marketing emails reach your target audience, here‘s a list of spam trigger words and habits to steer clear of in your messages. But first, let’s get into the details of spam trigger words.

What are spam trigger words?

How to Avoid the Spam Folder

Spamming Examples

Spam List: Words to Avoid When Possible

Some spam trigger words are easier to avoid in marketing emails than others. For example, you don’t have to refer to your email recipients as “dear” in your marketing emails (in fact, you shouldn’t).

However, avoiding specific calls to action like “Act now!” or “Discount” could be difficult, primarily if you sell products and services.

Fortunately, spam trigger words aren’t as relevant as they used to be now that inbox service providers (ISPs) have more sophisticated methods of determining if an email is spam.

That said, I strongly urge you to be aware of words and phrases to avoid (or use sparingly) to ensure your emails reach your target recipients and avoid spam folders.

How to Avoid the Spam Folder

Here are some tips to help you protect your brand’s reputation and ensure your emails reach the inbox.

1. Send targeted content to those who have asked to receive it.

In my experience, sending marketing emails to contacts who have consented will result in positively engaged mail.

It’s also essential to send mail that contacts are expecting to receive.

For example, I only send Marketing Blog Daily emails to contacts subscribed to receive them. I do not send them to our weekly email subscribers. Contacts requesting a weekly newsletter may engage negatively if they’re emailed daily.

This may include leaving it unopened or taking more drastic measures like unsubscribing or marking it as spam.

In addition to obtaining consent and being thoughtful with outreach, I also suggest protecting a strong reputation by not sending materials to those who have stopped engaging with your emails.

It’s normal for lists to depreciate and for contacts to become unengaged. It’s important to start thoughtfully suppressing unengaged contacts before they start dragging down engagement rates and impacting reputation.

This strategy is often accompanied by a sunset policy, a plan for managing contacts that have stopped engaging.

Pro-Tip: Always include a visible unsubscribe link in your emails. This will help avoid spam triggers and will help ensure your recipients are choosing to still remain subscribed.

2. Use the same name for every email.

I always include the same sender name for every HubSpot Marketing email I send: HubSpot Blog, Marketing. Spammers will often change their sender name between emails to confuse recipients.

So, ensure your sender name is consistent and authentic so you don‘t get lumped in with the fakers. Be authentic by using your company name, brand name, or person’s name.

3. Be mindful of your email’s content.

Include your business’ physical address so spam filters can confirm your authenticity. Also, keep a balanced ratio of images and texts, and avoid using just one large image or too many in your marketing emails.

For example, my HubSpot Marketing emails consist of 3 medium-sized featured images split up by headings and short body paragraphs.

4. Authenticate your brand’s marketing emails.

DMARC, SPF, and DKIM are means of authentication, and all are considered best practices.

Adding authentication to your brand’s sends won’t reverse negative reputation impact or ensure that mail is delivered to a primary inbox. Still, it can improve the trust recipients’ mail servers have in your mail.

You should also take steps to protect your brand’s sending reputation by regularly monitoring the following metrics:

Open Rate

Low opens indicate a need for unengaged contact suppression or that your sending reputation has been negatively impacted.

Click-through Rate

Low click-through rates can mean an opportunity for better segmentation or clearer CTAs.

Hard Bounce Rate

A high hard bounce can indicate that a list is outdated, although reading the bounce message will be the best way to diagnose bounce issues.

Unsubscribe Rate

A high unsubscribe rate can also mean that a list is stale or that contacts are being sent something they didn’t subscribe to.

Spam Compliant Rate

A high spam complaint rate is always a reason for pause, as that’s a strong indicator that contacts weren’t expecting mail from your brand.

Spam complaints are taken seriously by inbox service providers (ISP) and can negatively impact your brand’s sending reputation quickly.

5. Avoid the abnormal.

ISPs are looking for senders to remain as “normal” as possible from send to send — of course, “normal” is a relative term.

In general, sending to the same audiences (with the necessary segmentation) and avoiding large volume spikes can help your brand avoid the abnormal.

Knowing what you’re linking to can also help avoid the spam folder.

Just like how your brand’s reputation can dictate whether or not your mail is delivered to a primary inbox (not spam, junk, or other filtered inboxes), websites you link to carry their reputation.

Sharing a link to an external website with a poor reputation can make your mail more likely to bounce or get filtered out.

For this very reason, I only link to other HubSpot content in my marketing emails.

Speaking of abnormalities, avoid making unrealistic promises or claims (more on that later).

6. Comply with local email regulations.

Whether it’s GDPR, CAN-SPAM, CCPA, CASL, or one of the many other local regulations, complying with these local requirements will be vital to a successful mail strategy.

You must comply with the regulations and your email-sending platform’s requirements (ESP). This protects you as a sender (violating local regulations can have ramifications) and allows you to treat your contacts the way they expect to be treated based on their location.

Spamming Examples

Here are two examples of spam emails I‘ve found in my inbox. Notice how the first one is vague and only mentions a “proposal” and a “client.” This is obvious spam, and you probably think, “I’d never send a marketing email that looks like!”

I trust you wouldn‘t, but the vague messaging is one of many reasons it’s in the spam folder. There‘s no mention of the business’ name, physical address, or purpose.

There also isn’t an unsubscribe button.

Notice the second example below. This one mentions that I have a podcast, which is true. But it doesn‘t say it by name, and it’s making unrealistic promises to get my content to rank on YouTube in just 5 minutes. Unrealistic claims are red flags for spam filters.

Furthermore, instead of including an unsubscribe link, the email urges recipients to respond to unsubscribe. When it comes to spam emails, engaging at all is risky. So, the best thing to do is not reply, especially if there isn’t a simple link to unsubscribe.

Spam List: Words to Avoid When Possible

As I said, some words and phrases are easier to avoid than others. At the very least, you’ll want to ensure you use some of these only if you absolutely need to and as little as possible.

Commerce

• As seen on
• Buy
• Buy direct
• Buying judgments
• Clearance
• Order
• Order status
• Orders shipped by shopper

Personal

• Dig up dirt on friends
• Meet singles
• Score with babes
• XXX
• Near you

Employment

• Additional income
• Be your own boss
• Compete for your business
• Double your
• Earn $
• Earn extra cash
• Earn per week
• Expect to earn
• Extra income
• Home-based
• Home employment
• Home-based business
• Income from home
• Make $
• Make money
• Money making
• Online biz opportunity
• Online degree
• Opportunity
• Potential earnings
• University diplomas
• While you sleep
• Work at home
• Work from home

 

Financial – General

• $$$
• Affordable
• Bargain
• Beneficiary
• Best price
• Big bucks
• Cash
• Cash bonus
• Cashcashcash
• Cents on the dollar
• Cheap
• Check
• Claims
• Collect
• Compare rates
• Cost
• Credit
• Credit bureaus
• Discount
• Earn
• Easy terms
• F r e e
• Fast cash
• For just $XXX
• Hidden assets
• hidden charges
• Income
• Incredible deal
• Insurance
• Investment
• Loans
• Lowest price
• Million dollars
• Money
• Money back
• Mortgage
• Mortgage rates
• No cost
• No fees
• One hundred percent free
• Only $
• Pennies a day
• Price
• Profits
• Pure profit
• Quote
• Refinance
• Save $
• Save big money
• Save up to
• Serious cash
• Subject to credit
• They keep your money — no refund!
• Unsecured credit
• Unsecured debt
• US dollars
• Why pay more?

Financial – Business

• Accept credit cards
• Cards accepted
• Check or money order
• Credit card offers
• Explode your business
• Full refund
• Investment decision
• No credit check
• No hidden Costs
• No investment
• Requires initial investment
• Sent in compliance
• Stock alert
• Stock disclaimer statement
• Stock pick

Financial – Personal

• Avoid bankruptcy
• Calling creditors
• Collect child support
• Consolidate debt and credit
• Consolidate your debt
• Eliminate bad credit
• Eliminate debt
• Financially independent
• Get out of debt
• Get paid
• Lower interest rate
• Lower monthly payment
• Lower your mortgage rate
• Lowest insurance rates
• Pre-approved
• Refinance home
• Social security number
• Your income

General

• Acceptance
• Accordingly
• Avoid
• Chance
• Dormant
• Freedom
• Here
• Hidden
• Home
• Leave
• Lifetime
• Lose
• Maintained
• Medium
• Miracle
• Never
• Passwords
• Problem
• Remove
• Reverses
• Sample
• Satisfaction
• Solution
• Stop
• Success
• Teen
• Wife

Greetings

• Dear [email/friend/somebody]
• Friend
• Hello

Marketing

• Ad
• Auto email removal
• Bulk email
• Click
• Click below
• Click here
• Click to remove
• Direct email
• Direct marketing
• Email harvest
• Email marketing
• Form
• Increase sales
• Increase traffic
• Increase your sales
• Increase visibility
• Internet market
• Internet marketing
• Marketing
• Marketing solutions
• Mass email
• Member
• Month trial offer
• More Internet Traffic
• Multi-level marketing
• Not spam
• One time mailing
• Online marketing
• Open
• Opt-in
• Performance
• Removal instructions
• Sale
• Sales
• Search engine listings
• Search engines
• Subscribe
• The following form
• This isn’t junk
• This isn’t spam
• Undisclosed recipient
• Unsubscribe
• Visit our website
• We hate spam
• Web traffic
• Will not believe your eyes

Medical

• Cures baldness
• Diagnostic
• Fast Viagra delivery
• Human growth hormone
• Life insurance
• Lose weight
• Lose weight spam
• Medicine
• No medical exams
• Online pharmacy
• Removes wrinkles
• Reverses aging
• Stop snoring
• Valium
• Viagra
• Vicodin
• Weight loss
• Xanax

Numbers

• #1
• 100% free
• 100% satisfied
• 4U
• 50% off
• Billion
• Billion dollars
• Join millions
• Join millions of Americans
• Million
• One hundred percent guaranteed
• Thousands

Offers

• Being a member
• Billing address
• Call
• Cannot be combined with any other offer
• Confidentially on all orders
• Deal
• Financial freedom
• Gift certificate
• Giving away
• Guarantee
• Have you been turned down?
• If only it were that easy
• Important information regarding
• In accordance with laws
• Long-distance phone offer
• Mail in order form
• Message contains
• Name brand
• Nigerian
• No age restrictions
• No catch
• No claim forms
• No disappointment
• No experience
• No gimmick
• No inventory
• No middleman
• No obligation
• No purchase necessary
• No questions asked
• No selling
• No strings attached
• No-obligation
• Not intended
• Obligation
• Offshore
• Offer
• Per day
• Per week
• Priority mail
• Prize
• Prizes
• Produced and sent out
• Reserves the right
• Shopping spree
• Stuff on sale
• Terms and conditions
• The best rates
• They’re just giving it away
• Trial
• Unlimited
• Unsolicited
• Vacation
• Vacation offers
• Warranty
• We honor all
• Weekend getaway
• What are you waiting for?
• Who really wins?
• Win
• Winner
• Winning
• Won
• You are a winner!
• You have been selected
• You’re a Winner!

Calls-to-Action

• Cancel at any time
• Compare
• Copy accurately
• Get
• Give it away
• Print form signature
• Print out and fax
• See for yourself
• Sign up free today

 

Free

• Free
• Free access
• Free cell phone
• Free consultation
• Free DVD
• Free gift
• Free grant money
• Free hosting
• Free installation
• Free Instant
• Free investment
• Free leads
• Free membership
• Free money
• Free offer
• Free preview
• Free priority mail
• Free quote
• Free sample
• Free trial
• Free website

Descriptions/Adjectives

• All natural
• All new
• Amazing
• Certified
• Congratulations
• Drastically reduced
• Fantastic deal
• For free
• Guaranteed
• It’s effective
• Outstanding values
• Promise you
• Real thing
• Risk free
• Satisfaction guaranteed

Sense of Urgency

• Access
• Act now!
• Apply now
• Apply online
• Call free
• Call now
• Can’t live without
• Do it today
• Don’t delete
• Don’t hesitate
• For instant access
• For Only
• For you
• Get it now
• Get started now
• Great offer
• Info you requested
• Information you requested
• Instant
• Limited time
• New customers only
• Now
• Now only
• Offer expires
• Once in lifetime
• One time
• Only
• Order now
• Order today
• Please read
• Special promotion
• Supplies are limited
• Take action now
• Time limited
• Urgent
• While supplies last

Nouns

• Addresses on CD
• Beverage
• Bonus
• Brand new pager
• Cable converter
• Casino
• Celebrity
• Copy DVDs
• Laser printer
• Legal
• Luxury car
• New domain extensions
• Phone
• Rolex
• Stainless steel

Building Your Brand’s Reputation

While, unfortunately, simply avoiding a list of words won’t keep you out of the spam folder, you can still take steps to protect your brand’s reputation and work towards solid deliverability. Good luck!