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When it comes to social media, I‘m quite the expert. I had to tireless scrub through social media for potential stories back when I was a journalist.

Now, I’m HubSpot‘s go-to blogger for almost anything social media-related, so I’m always keeping up with the latest online happenings.

Plus, I‘m a younger millennial who grew up alongside social media. So if you’e a marketer trying to figure out the right social media platform to increase your brand’s awareness, generate leads, and improve traffic, you’ve come to the right blog.

To help you make the best decision for your brand, I’ve compiled a list of core types of social media, examples of platforms within each category, and the pros and cons that each type might present.

By the end, you should have a clearer idea of what social media strategy will work for your business. Let’s dive in.

The list of social media platforms is growing, and well-known platforms like Facebook are constantly evolving and adding new features.

With a greater and greater need for a social presence and an overwhelming amount of platform choices, it can be hard to pick which social channels to use.

You might not want to spread yourself too thin by managing a channel on every imaginable platform, but you don’t want to miss great brand awareness opportunities.

 

Social Networking

Examples of Major Platforms

• Facebook: 3.06 billion monthly active users
• X (formerly Twitter): 528.3 million monthly active users
• LinkedIn: 1 billion active users

Social networking is possibly the most traditional form of social media, and most social media platforms fall under the social networking category. So, you’ll likely see at least one of the aforementioned platforms (*cough, cough* X) pop up again later in this post.

Platforms like Facebook, X, and LinkedIn are often called “networking” platforms because they allow user accounts to interact (network) in various ways.

Professional Uses

Facebook

Many brands and businesses are leveraging social media direct messaging (DMs) for customer service.

In fact, our 2024 Socia Media Report shows 88% of marketers are increasing or maintaining their investment in social media DMs for customer service.

Facebook Messenger is a great platform for this strategy as it allows you to respond to messages from your brand‘s Facebook followers.

Plus, as a fellow consumer, I can assure you it leaves a great impression on your customers when you’re respond promptly to their DMs.

There have been many times when I‘ve slid into a business’ DMs because I needed an update on an order, more information about a product, or troubleshooting.

And when the business responds back with helpful information, I always made a note to keep buying from them.

If you’re a small business, like a restaurant, I recommend a platform like Facebook as a great place to start your social strategy. With Facebook, you can build a business profile with links to your website and details about your menu.

I‘m especially fond of Facebook’s community feature, which you can also leverage to create a community page for customers to ask questions or rave about your products and services.

In fact, we found that businesses that leverage social media communities will see excellent results in their marketing strategy.

According to our State of Social Media Survey, 90% of marketers say building an active online community is crucial to a successful social media strategy.

I’m not surprised, considering our Consumer Trends survey found 20% of social media users joined an online community in the past three months, and 22% actively participated in one.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn emphasizes career-related networking, and, for years, I only ever used LinkedIn when searching for jobs or to help friends find opportunities. It turns out, however that LinkedIn is very beneficial for businesses.

For companies looking to offer a professional service, such as B2B or publishing companies, LinkedIn is another excellent way to grow a following.

According to our Socia Media Marketing Survey, LinkedIn is among the top six social media platforms yielding the highest ROI for marketers.

Furthermore, of the marketers who currently leverage LinkedIn in their strategy, 90% plan to maintain or increase their investment in 2024.

Brands looking to build an audience of professionals from a particular industry can create a business profile there, categorize it with an industry type, and then use posts and messaging to publish updates.

They can also use messaging and comment features to interact with their audiences or users who comment on their posts.

X (The app formerly known as Twitter)

An X account could be helpful to companies in a broad spectrum of industries, from entertainment to e-commerce. This platform similarly allows you to create a profile where you can list and link company information.

You can then use X to post about company updates, tag companies or customers in posts, repost positive customer tweets, and respond to customer questions via posts or direct messages.

Like Facebook, you can also post content like photos or videos.

One of my favorite X features I think marketers should look into is Spaces, which allows users to create live audio chatrooms and talk amongst each other.

Companies will often use Spaces to host Q&As, interview thought leaders, or keep audiences informed about the latest happenings with the brand or industry.

On all three social networks, users can easily communicate with others through simple actions like tagging, hashtagging, commenting, private messaging, reacting to posts, and re-sharing content.

Aside from social interaction, feeds on common social networking platforms are designed to show off a mix of text and visuals rather than one primary content type.

This flexibility makes it easy to begin a social strategy on social networking platforms because you can experiment with different forms of content before branching out to platforms that require more specific content types.

For those who want to dabble in video or graphics, these platforms could be a great place to test this new content.

With the growth of video marketing, many have begun to launch more advanced features like Facebook Stories and X’s live streams.

Platforms like Facebook and X have also started encouraging native video and photo uploads more heavily.

Recently, Facebook adjusted its algorithms to favor live video and image uploads. This has caused these types of native content to gain greater user engagement.

If you’re unsure where to start, check out our beginner’s guides for Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.

I’ll be honest, the beginner guide for X was published before the platform rebranded from Twitter, however much of the information still applies today.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Facebook, X, and LinkedIn are some of the most prominent forms of social media.
• Social networking sites often integrate with scheduling tools like HubSpot and Hootsuite software.
• All platforms have capabilities for photos and video.

Cons

• Those interested in posting links may have more difficulty getting engagement than uploading photos and videos.
• Some platforms, like Facebook, put individual user posts higher than business posts in newsfeeds.
• Facebook may not be the right platform for you business if you’re looking to target younger consumers like Gen Z, who are more likely to use TikTok, X, or Snapchat.

Photo Sharing

Examples of Major Platforms

• Pinterest: 450 million monthly active users
• BeReal: 21.6 million monthly active users

Photo-sharing social media platforms are exactly as they sound — they’re platforms where sharing images is the name of the game. I remember the days when Instagram was the most prominent photo-sharing platform.

But that was then and this is now, so if you‘re wondering why Instagram isn’t mentioned here — don‘t worry! I’ll have more on that when I get to the video platforms.

Professional Uses

Pinterest

One of the biggest platforms that specialize in photo sharing is Pinterest. Pinterest is a “visual discovery engine” for users looking for cooking, style, home decor, and general visual inspiration.

Personally, I‘ve been using Pinterest for over 10 years and, like most users, I interact with other accounts on the platform through tags, likes, comments, or direct messages.

In the early days, Pinterest wasn’t as synonymous with brands and companies as it is now.

It was more so about crafting virtual vision boards based around aesthetics.

However, brands, companies, and creators find it useful whey they want to take photographs, display content, and update followers about their food, goods, or products.

Pinterest is well-suited for e-commerce companies, such as those that sell home goods and businesses that would like a place to share crisp standalone product images with links.

The platform offers a photo-based feed with posts that can include a photo and a short description.

In the last few years, Pinterest has also shifted to include more video content to compete with platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok. However, the platform still remains a place for users to share their favorite photos.

Here’s little look at my Pinterest feed.

The platform also allows all users to link directly to websites or product landing pages in posts. I especially love Pinterest’s Explore page and can see a lot of opportunities for brands there.

The Explore page updates daily and operates almost like an old-school blog with how you can scroll to see the previous days’ themes as well.

The explore feed features boards curated by celebrities, creators, and brands sharing images their followers would be interested in. And, of course, there are opportunities for consumers to shop.

I clicked on the board called Pinterest Predicts: Spring 2024 Shopping Ideas, and was shown different trends expected to take over this season along with links to buy them.

Brands features on the board include Tory Burch, Nordstrom, and STAUD. Unrelated, but I‘m stil laughing at Tennis Aesthetic being the trend of the season because I don’t do sports.

Before starting on a platform like Pinterest, you’ll want to determine whether your goal is to gain brand awareness, or link-based or e-commerce traffic.

BeReal

If you haven‘t heard of BeReal, I don’t blame you. It’s a fairly new app that launched in 2020 and is pretty popular among Gen Z users.

The app’s main feature is that it allows users to share a photo of themselves and their immediate surroundings during a randomly selected two-minute window every day.

The idea of BeReal is to step away from the overly filtered and curated content users often see on other platforms. Just be real. Get it?

With the apps premise being candid and unfiltered, how can brands leverage BeReal? The best way I could think of is to use the app to build trust with your audience and only share behind-the-scenes candids.

However, that can be difficult given users are only given a random two-minute window to post.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• These kinds of platforms help with brand awareness. Approximately 80% of Pinterest users say they’ve learned about products or services on the app.
• Pinterest provides an outlet for showing off visual content or product shots.

Cons

• Upkeep on these platforms might require a photo budget or dedicated production time.
• Some platforms require you to post from a mobile app.
• BeReal is starting to wain in popularity as its user base has dropped by 18% from its peak.
• BeReal is most popular with Gen Z users and there is no opportunity for e-commerce or paid content on the app.

Video Sharing

Examples of Major Platforms

• YouTube: Over 2.6 billion monthly active users
• Instagram: 1.4 billions users worldwide
• TikTok: Over 1 billion active users

Video has been the dominant type of content marketing over the last few years and it has no sign of slowing down — especially short-form video.

53% of marketers whose companies are currently leveraging short-form video say they will increase their investments in 2024.

Adding a video platform to your social strategy could make your brand look relevant and keep you up to speed with your competitors.

Video can be helpful to a wide range of industries. While a restaurant could have a vlog with cooking tips, a technology company might focus its video strategy on product demos.

Professional Uses

There are many way businesses can leverage video sharing platforms like YouTube. YouTube offers both short-form and long-form capabilities.

Regarding short-form video uses, YouTube Shorts can be a platform your business uses to post product demos, explainer videos, and more.

If you want to get interactive, you can also host live-stream Q&As to answer consumer questions and build community.

When it comes to long-form videos, YouTube is one of the leading platforms. Compared to competing video-sharing platform like Vimeo, YouTube has an extensive audience base and better SEO capabilities.

YouTube also seems to have better opportunities for advertisers and monetization, while Vimeo offers viewers the perk of no pre-roll ads.

For a longer list of similarities and differences, check out this head-to-head piece where we compare the business capabilities of Vimeo and YouTube.

Along with YouTube and Vimeo, the more traditional social networking platforms have begun to aggressively embrace video marketing.

Instagram

Another top contender for video platforms is Instagram. You‘re probably thinking, “But isn’t Instagram a photo-sharing app like Pinterest?” Well, it used to be.

However, to compete with TikTok, Instagram has shifted away from being a photo-sharing app.

In fact, Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri clarified in 2021, “We’re no longer a photo-sharing app or a square photo-sharing app.”

While users can still post photos on Instagram, the platform mainly promotes reels and video stories. It’s also worth mentioning that Instagram video posts are more than twice as likely to generate engagement than image posts.

Like YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels is a great platform for posting short-form content like product demos and explainers. However, YouTube, as a whole, still allows long-form video while Instagram does not.

TikTok

I‘m going to revisit TikTok again later in this post because it also falls under another category of social media platforms, however, it is still a video-sharing channel.

What I love about TikTok in regards to marketing is that it’s a very diverse app with many marketing opportunities.

Yes, you can post short-form demos and explainers like on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, but TikTok has more opportunities to build community with your audience.

This because the app is a breeding ground for new viral trends any can take part in, and the app provides many ways for audiences to interact via liking, commenting, stitching, and repurposing sounds (the latter two really help the app stand out).

But we‘ll dive inter TikTok’s interactive opportunities in the next section.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Regarding YouTube, videos can be longer than on other social platforms.
• All platforms have website linking capabilities.
• Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram often offer analytics.
• YouTube has search optimization features.

Cons

• Video content, particularly long-form, might take more time and money to create.
• Vimeo and YouTube require more backend tasks like SEO.
• Instagram does not have longform video capabilities
• TikTok appeals to a younger audience known to distrust brands, so you will likely have to invest in influencer marketing to gain traction on the platform.

 

Interactive Media

• Snapchat: 229 daily active users
• TikTok: 100 million monthly active users in the U.S. alone

Apps like Snapchat and TikTok allow users to share photos and videos and have various unique interactive and highly experimental features.

These two apps include AR/VR filters, musical overlays, and interactive games. Their audience bases are also predominantly Gen-Z.

Professional Uses

Snapchat

Brands with large followings might consider publishing Snapchat Stories or videos curated by fans.

Without a high-budget or giant online following, it might be difficult for a company just starting out on social media to leverage Snapchat.

Brands and influencers on Snapchat tend to cater their content to the platforms’ younger audiences. For example, on Snapchat, you might see stories that present beauty tutorials, wellness tips, news, or trendy new products.

If you’re interested in interactive media, there are still a few viable ways you could get involved with Snapchat.

While major brands, like VICE and BuzzFeed, have become Snapchat Discover partners, the average business can still create a Snapchat business account that users can search for and friend.

This account allows you to publish temporary stories like individual accounts. However, those with a business account can also purchase ad space.

If you’ve set up an account, check out this guide to getting started on Snapchat.

TikTok

When TikTok first rose to prominence in 2020, it mainly an app-based platform catering to a Gen Z market that wanted little to do with brands.

Since then, TikTok has grown to shift its focus to some longer-form content, and brands are much more aware of how to leverage the channel.

In fact, about a quarter of marketers in our Social Media Marketing survey say TikTok yields the highest ROI compared to other social media platforms.

The key to TikTok is to invest in influencer and creator marketing. Build a partnership with a creator who aligns with your brand’s values and can introduce your products and services to their audience.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• These platforms are very creative and experimental.
• They have young audiences, which can help brands better target Gen-Z.

Cons

• Producing regular content could be expensive and time-consuming.
• Business accounts aren’t promoted up-front on the Snapchat interface. You may want to promote your channel on your website or other social channels because users must search for you with your Snapcode or username.
• Snapchat is limited to mobile and isn’t as easy to use as other platforms.
• You will most likely have to invest in influencer marketing to gain traction on TikTok, and finding a creator aligned with your business may be difficult.

Pro-Tip: You should try to correctly estimate the time and money that might go into keeping these accounts up-to-date and relevant.

If you’re unsure how short video ads can benefit your business, remember that short-form videos have the highest ROI compared to other video formats.

Blogging/Community

Examples of Major Platforms

• Tumblr
• Reddit

Tumblr and Reddit allow users to post about exciting niche topics, like memes, events, politics, and pop culture.

When users publish a post, these platforms allow others to share it or add it to the conversation with their commentary.

Professional Uses

Both blogging and community-building platforms could be helpful to those who want to encourage discussion around very niche industries or topics.

For example, on these platforms, you might see discussions about anything from alternative health to machine learning.

By blogging, you can write posts about your company’s industry topics and link them to your product or site.

While many people have a blog on their website, platforms like Tumblr might be great to use if you haven’t set this feature up — or just want to see what others in your industry are blogging about.

With a discussion site like Reddit, you could share a link or a post about a specific topic on a discussion board related to your industry and see how users respond.

You could also start your board if a topic you’re looking to encourage discussion on doesn’t have one yet.

These two platforms specifically encourage web chatter and post shares from users who care about the same topics.

Both also allow users to follow you or subscribe to your blogs or Reddit boards so your content can appear on their feeds. Here’s an example of what Reddit’s feed looks like.

Other users can up-vote or down-vote when someone publishes something on Reddit. Up-voting makes a post show up higher in Reddit feeds, while down-voting does the opposite.

On Tumblr, the feeds are organized by time. However, a post can show up higher when it is re-shared by other users. When a user shares or interacts with your Tumblr content, they give it a note.

When they reshare, they can post a comment with the post that gets added to a thread.

Here’s an example of how notes and threads can be used to encourage discussion:

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Both platforms allow you to share text posts, photos, and videos about your business, brand, or individual thoughts.
• These platforms enable you to start conversations about a topic.
• Both platforms allow linking to outside websites.

Cons

• Longer blog posts might take time to craft or write.
• Getting downvoted on Reddit or having no reaction from Tumblr users means your posts may go unseen.
• Your audience might be too niche or limited to just those on the specific platform you use.

Microblogging

• Threads: 130 million monthly active users
• X: 528.3 million monthly active users

Microblogging refers to posting short blogs that are meant for quick audience interaction. Both Threads and X fall under this category as they allow users to post blog content with very limited character counts.

Professional Uses

For years, companies have used X to post quick updates regarding their products and services or to engage with their audience in a humorous or relatable way. For example, Wendy’s will often post content like below to humrously entice their audience.

The same can be said about Threads, though the platform has only been around since July 2023.

Both platforms allow users to upload mini blogs, photos, and videos to engage audiences. So, really the possibilities are endless in terms of how to use the platform.

Pros and Cons:

Pros

• If you have a great sense of humor (like who ever runs Wendy’s social media) you have a great chance of entertaining audiences and raising brand awareness on microblogs.
• Microblogs are very versatile in terms of the kind of content you can post.

Cons

• Since rebranding from Twitter, X has been experiencing a steady decline in users.
• Threads also struggled to maintain consistent users and has yet to eclipse X, it’s direct competitor.

Private Community

• Discord: 196.2 million monthly active users

Few things are more frustrating and terrifying to me than when I post something on social media that is meant for my friends, followers, or my target audience and it “leaves the neighborhood.”

By that, I mean the post leaves its intended audience and takes on a life of its own.

Sometimes, as a marketer, you want to ensure your content is only being share amongst your audience. You also want to build community and foster trust, which will lead to longterm consumers.

Enter: Private social media community platforms like Discord.

Discord is a voice and chat platform where users join conversation servers, often through exclusive invites, and talk to other members about niche topics.

Professional Uses

Platforms like Discord are great because they allow you to speak directly with your consumers, share content that is more likely to stay with your target audience, and build community with your followers.

You can use Discord as virtual focus group where you can engage with your consumers directly to understand their habits, concerns, and needs.

For example, I have a Discord server I use a content creator to engage with my followers, keep up with the latest happenings in my niche, and build community.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Like I said, private community platforms like Discord are excellent for community building with your followers and likeminded individuals. You can foster community and stay tapped into your audience.

Cons:

• Discord doesn‘t have features for native advertising, and it’s only really helpful if you already have a stable audience who wants to be in community with you. So, you may have to focus on building your brand’s following before investing in Discord.

A Few Things to Consider

Before you start logging in and setting up your accounts on a bunch of platforms, be sure to consider these factors:

• How much time do you devote to strategizing around a social platform?
• Do you have resources for creating graphics or videos?
• Do your goals involve boosting brand awareness or traffic and revenue?
• Will you need an additional staff member to run this platform, or will it be easy to maintain?

Once you’re on a platform or two, be sure to stay aware of how it’s changing and what marketers are doing. Check out our Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing for a current outlook.

The constant question on every social media marketer’s mind is, “What social media trends should I watch out for?”

To learn more about what brands can expect this year and beyond, we surveyed 1,528 marketers to discover which social media trends B2B and B2C businesses are paying attention to.

In addition to reviewing the research, I caught up with a few social media marketing experts to compare the data to what they’re seeing firsthand. So let’s dive into ten of the social media trends to watch, explore, and use in 2024.

1. Brands with engaged social media communities will win in 2024.

So many clients and companies I talk to think that social media is all about sharing content. But the truth is that’s only half the battle.

Social media is all about relationships and finding new ways to build trust and loyalty with your audience. I often tell people that it’s not enough just to “spray and pray.” You actually have to show up and engage. Otherwise, posting more content just means throwing more stuff out into the air and hoping some of it sticks.

That’s why when I say that creating and sharing content is only half the battle, I mean that building community is the second half. What’s more, I’d even argue that it’s the most important half.

Expert tip: Angela Russo, founder of DreamBuilder CRM shares, “The biggest trend I‘m seeing is longer nurture and conversion cycles, which is why it’s even more important to have a plan/system to be organized and follow up with people to create real connections and build community.”

But what does it mean to build community? In a nutshell, it’s simply connecting and engaging with your audience.

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How do you know if you have an engaged community? Here are some signs that I recommend keeping an eye out for:

• Unprompted promotion of your brand. Do you have superfans who follow your every move and share your products with their friends? Some people might call these folks brand ambassadors.
• Sharing of your content. Do people share your posts or articles? Does your content go viral either inside or outside of your community?
• Communal celebration of brand milestones and successes. Do people in your circle celebrate your wins and those of everyone else?
• Relationship building rooted in an interest in your brand and/or products. Did your community grow based on people with shared interests or a love of what you do or sell? Does it continue to thrive based on those beginnings?

While not every company with a great, engaged community will exhibit all of these, and there are always other factors, any one of these is a clue that what you’re doing is working.

According to our survey, 86% of social media marketers say building an active online community is crucial to a successful social media strategy in 2024 — and it’s one of their top priorities.

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Expert tip: Haley Gray, founder of Women’s Entrepreneur Network, a community of over 75,000 entrepreneurs, says, “I’ve found that building a community allows smaller businesses to make sales to businesses and customers that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Engaged communities also massively facilitate the sales process, shortening the time to close a deal and increasing the amount per deal.”

Looking at consumer data, it’s easy to see why. Our 2024 social media survey found that 20% of social media users joined an online community in the past three months, while 22% actively participated in one.

In light of this data, where should you build your online community?

Whereas in 2023, social media marketers split evenly between Facebook and Instagram, the importance of video is changing that significantly in 2024. Facebook still ranks highest, but with YouTube right on its heels. Instagram remains important, coming in third, with TikTok ranking a distant fourth place.

That means you have choices, and I always tell people to choose a platform based on where your audience hangs out. If there are a few options, start with the one where you’re most comfortable.

Then, as you diversify and show up in more places, you can use what you’ve learned about their preferences to inform your strategy on other platforms.

What do I mean here? If your target audience prefers to consume content on YouTube, start there and then apply what you’ve learned to the next place they’re likely to hang out.

Expert tip: Tamara Smith, founder of Studio Three 49, shares that what she’s seeing reinforces that we should define success on social by engagement, rather than vanity metrics.

“Between organic user images outperforming polished graphics and users craving community, authentic connection is key. The brands that win big this year will be those who recognize social media is about true connection. Make sure your audience feels seen and knows they matter most,” Smith says.

2. Social media is the future of e-commerce.

Shopping on social media really took off over the past few years. Platforms like Instagram and now TikTok have made it easy to make in-app purchases through shopping tabs, “save later” buttons, and more.

It starts with product discovery. For consumers ages 18 through 54, social media is the preferred channel for finding new products.

As for the purchases, over one in five Gen Z, Millennial, and Gen X social media users bought a product directly in a social media app in the past three months.

Social media marketers have also noticed an uptick in social shopping, with 47% of social media marketers surveyed also reporting in-app sales.

To take it a step further, it’s not just that people will be buying more from social apps. The numbers also show that consumers are increasingly likely to buy from social apps than other places, including a brand’s websites (82%) or third-party websites like Amazon (84%).

Despite these numbers, many consumers are still wary of purchases through social media. According to one HubSpot survey, only 41% of social media users feel comfortable making purchases on social media platforms, and only 37% trust social media platforms with their card information.

The three biggest concerns social media users reported having are:

• The legitimacy of the brand (54%).
• The ability to get a refund (48%).
• The quality of the product (44%).

With platforms using payment integrations like PayPal designed to protect consumers from fraud, it’s getting easier to trust apps for shopping.

Among all the apps offering in-app purchases, Instagram is the one consumers say offers the best shopping experience. Social media marketers also believe it offers the best ROI and marketing tools. However, keep an eye on TikTok. As the TikTok Shop becomes increasingly well known, it’s likely to surge as well in popularity.

If there’s one place to start, the survey suggests that Instagram is the best call. 71% of social media marketers who sell products via social media apps report that Instagram has a high ROI, significantly more than other platforms (the next highest is Facebook, with 63% reporting a high ROI).

3. DMs will be consumers’ preferred customer service channel.

If your brand’s DMs aren’t already flooded with customer service requests, they might be this year.

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Around one in five Gen Z, Millennial, and Gen X social media users have contacted a brand through DMs for customer service in the past three months. And 88% of social media marketers predict that this will become consumers’ preferred customer service channel in 2024.

It seems like most brands have prepared for this, with 73% of social media marketers saying their company currently offers customer service via social.

Of those companies offering customer service through DMs, 72% say they have a dedicated customer service representative, 62% say it’s a primary responsibility of their job, and 44% shared that automated response tools like chatbots take on this role.

With 20% of social media marketers stating that improving customer service and retention is one of their top goals for 2024, this is your sign to develop a plan for funneling customer service requests via social through the proper channels.

4. Search engines lose steam as consumers turn to social search.

According to our survey, 87% of social media marketers think consumers will search for brands on social media more often than through search engines in 2024.

Our survey found that 22% of consumers between 25 and 34 years old already search for brands on social media platforms more often than through a search engine. This shoots up to 36% among Gen Z.

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This trend was even confirmed in 2022 by Google’s senior vice president of Knowledge & Information, Prabhakar Raghavan. He said that social platforms were eating up Google’s core products: Search and Maps.

“In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search,” said the Google exec. “They go to TikTok or Instagram.”

Raghavan explained that nowadays, young consumers are looking for more visual-rich results and steering away from search engines, which favor text.

So, the question is, how should you optimize your profiles for social search? Here are the top recommendations from social media marketers:

• Including relevant keywords and hashtags in your posts and bio.
• Making sure your username is easy to search for.
• Having a consistent username across accounts.

The bottom line: With 86% of social media marketers sharing that social search is important to their social media marketing strategy, it’s important that every business optimizes its findability on social media.

Expert tip: Debbie Moran of RecurPost says they’re actively embracing social search, focusing on advanced analytics and better content optimization features.

“Our goal is simple: help businesses be seen in social search and also understand and use the helpful insights that come with it,” Moran says.

5. Influencer marketers are ditching celebrities for micro-influencers.

Influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere — 88% of companies using influencer marketing say it’s effective. What’s more, 55% of those surveyed said, “My company will invest more in influencer marketing in 2024.”

But, here’s something I found interesting in the study: 24% of influencer marketers work with small creators or nano influencers (1K to 9,999 followers/subscribers), and 67% work with micro-influencers (10,000-99,999 followers), while just 17% work with accounts over 1 million followers.

So, what’s the biggest factor in choosing who to work with? In the earlier days of influencer marketing, follower count was the main allure. Today, it’s quite different — content quality outshines all other factors. Social media marketers who work with influencers said their top goals are:

• Increasing brand awareness.
• Reaching new audiences.
• Improving brand reputation.

Working with smaller influencers is more affordable, establishes long-term partnerships, and offers access to engaged, tight-knight audiences with whom they have a great deal of trust — in part due to the quality of their content.

So, it’s clear that influencer marketing isn’t going anywhere. 84% of those we surveyed agree that most companies will have a creator or influencer as the face of their brand in 2024. What has shifted is which influencers hold the most value.

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6. Short-form video is the highest ROI format and will see the most growth of any trend in 2024.

In 2021, we predicted TikTok would have a ripple effect on the social media landscape, and we would see the continued rise of short-form video. In 2024, that trend will continue.

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Short-form video is Gen Z and Millennials’ preferred format to learn about new products, with 57% of Gen Z and 42% of Millennials preferring to learn about products and their features through short-form video.

As for social media marketers, it’s the most popular format used by 54% of marketers surveyed. In addition, 33% of social media marketers plan to invest more in it than any other format, the highest of any format.

Not only is it popular, but it’s also effective; 83% of those who use it say it’s the most effective format they leverage.

This is likely why 42% of social media marketers who don’t use short-form yet plan on trying it for the first time in 2024, the highest of any format.

7. Funny, authentic, and interactive content will stand out in 2024.

Remember when social media was all about aesthetics? You had to have the highest production value to stand out among the competition. Well, not anymore. While marketers in our survey were split down the middle about high-quality production vs. relatable content, they agree that creating content that is authentic to the brand and brand values matters most.

68% of consumers say social media content being authentic and relatable is more important than polished, high-quality content.

Expert tip: Social media strategist Hira Osama agrees, sharing, “Everyone knows that video is trending. But from what I’ve seen, raw and unfiltered videos are now being watched more often than heavily branded productions. In fact, my clients report that unscripted reels are getting more traction than scripted reels.”

In 2023, the focus was on funny content. And while funny content still remains important, driving the highest ROI, it’s no longer the biggest focus for social media marketers.

So what social media trends are marketers looking to in 2024?

Particularly with the advent of AI, which makes it easier to crank out bulk, impersonal content, marketers are more concerned with creating content that’s relatable, interactive, and reflects your brand’s values. If that can be funny, too, then all the better.

But, even if funny doesn’t always equal relatable, don’t count it out just yet. Most social media marketers aren’t. 59% are planning to increase their investment in funny content, and 38% plan to keep their funny content creation budget about the same.

8. Instagram is the highest ROI platform and will see the most growth of any social app in 2024.

Our survey found that Instagram will see the most growth in 2024, compared to other social platforms.

Wondering why? Well, if you ask social media marketers their favorite social platform, they’ll likely say Instagram. In fact, 92% say they plan to increase or maintain their current investment in Instagram.

They rank it #1 for ROI and quality leads. And it ties with YouTube for the highest engagement levels.

Social media marketers also say Instagram has the most accurate algorithm and the most promising potential for generative AI features, which are essential for brand awareness and reach.

On top of that, 39% of those not yet using it plan to leverage Instagram for the first time this year.

9. Data will drive social media marketing budget justification.

In 2022 and 2023, many marketers faced budget cuts with the threat of a recession looming. In 2024, most marketers don’t expect reductions. On the contrary, 55% say, “I expect my social media marketing budget to increase in 2024.” Another 34% say they expect little change to their budget this year.

However, most of those surveyed indicated that they’re facing more oversight and a greater need to tie their activities to business outcomes.

34% say that it will become more important to use data to drive strategy, and another 33% share that using data to demonstrate ROI and business value of social media efforts will be a top priority in 2024.

Using data to drive decision-making has a place. Although measuring ROI and revenue attribution are challenges social marketers expect to face in 2024, they barely crack the top 10. (More marketers are concerned with creating engaging content, keeping up with algorithm updates, and finding new ideas for content.)

All that to say, the data is important — as is developing a first-party data strategy. However, as long as marketers have a method for tracking the ROI of their social media marketing activities, they’ll be able to identify which strategies are most effective, double down on them, and justify their efforts.

10. Re-sharing the same content across platforms won’t fly in 2024.

Our survey found that social media marketers manage an average of three platforms. Although the benefits of cross-posting are clear, many are starting to steer away from it.

32% believe that tailoring the tone of your content to fit the unique voice of each social media platform will become more important with another 34% placing a higher value on creating content specifically for your audience’s interests and needs.

Our survey found that only 19% of marketers are cross-posting the exact same content. Most are shifting away from a copy-paste approach and instead to a tailored one.

According to our survey, 47% are making tweaks to their content when sharing on various platforms. Meanwhile, over a third are starting from scratch each every time.

So, what types of content come with the highest ROI? Short-form videos ranked highest (according to 71% of those surveyed), with live videos (57%) and VR and AR content (56%) rounding out the top three.

Expert tip: Lori Highby of Keystone Click says, “Video is still hot, hot, hot! We’re seeing a healthy mix of short form and long form video content, while also tying in live video streams.”

She goes on to explain that the beauty of video is that it can be repurposed into many alternative types of media. “By pulling the audio from your video, you can create a podcast. By pulling the transcript, you create a blog post, email, or even an infographic,” Highby says.

What’s more, with AI becoming increasingly prevalent, repurposing content gets so much easier. And that leads me to the 11th trend.

11. AI will become an increasingly integral part of social media marketing strategies in 2024.

For anyone who has been paying attention to generative AI, it comes as no surprise that over a third of social media marketers we surveyed say that using AI tools in your social media marketing strategy will become more important.

After all, 87% of the marketers already using generative AI believe it’s effective. As the capabilities become clearer, that number is likely to grow.

So how many people is that really? A whopping 73% of marketers are already aboard the AI train, with nearly half (49%) saying that AI tools are extensively integrated into their daily workflow.

And, the types of AI run the gamut, including AI chatbots like ChatGPT, AI assistants like Microsoft Co-Pilot, Visual AI tools for images and videos like MidJourney, and audio AI tools for voice and music.

But it’s not just about writing copy, creating images, or repurposing content. Social media marketers are also using AI to brainstorm ideas and improve their concepts and content to fit the brand voice or the tone of different platforms.

Wondering about the most popular social media trends in AI? Short-form videos rank first — with 55% of social media marketers using generative AI to create them. Images, captions, and long-form video creation are close on the heels, used respectively by 48%, 41%, and 40% of those surveyed.

The bottom line on generative AI? Across the board, marketers agree that generative AI is a social media trend that’s here to stay — and will continue to make a significant impact on strategy, content creation, and efficiency.

The Constantly Changing Social Landscape

Although we think we know what to expect with social media, this list of trends is likely not exhaustive of what we’ll see in 2024. After all, world news is impossible to predict — and can make a dynamic impact on social media trends and marketing strategy.

As a social media marketer, the best thing you can do is to continue to research trends, online consumer behaviors, and your team’s social media data to determine which trends or strategies to lean into or how to navigate unprecedented online scenarios.

There’s a lot to be learned from the Super Bowl.

While athletes gather new motivation and coaches pick up a few more techniques, the Super Bowl is also an excellent place for marketers to gain tips.

How?

The ads, of course.

Between 80 and 100 ads run annually during the Super Bowl. Companies pay millions to have their commercials aired for 30 to 60 seconds.

While many companies see success from their ads, others end the game, facing some alarming results.

So, what makes a bad ad?

I’ll highlight the basics of bad advertising and walk you through ten of the worst Super Bowl ads ever. These lessons apply to all forms of marketing, too, so whether you’re a blogger or a scriptwriter, you’ll gain some takeaways.

What makes an ad flop?

Super Bowl ads are some of the year’s most widely discussed marketing materials. Some ads make a significant splash, while others are memorable for not-so-good reasons.

As a marketer and as a consumer, there are a few things that make an ad flop, including:

• Offensiveness. While some argue that “all publicity is good publicity,” offensive ads can negatively impact a company’s bottom line. A reputation can affect between 3-7.5% of revenues annually.

• Confusing messaging. Confusing ads don’t always face the public backlash that offensive ads do, but they aren’t very effective. If viewers don’t know what the ad is or who it’s advertising, it’s tough to take action.

• Irritating. Annoying ads sometimes have jingles that get stuck in our heads, but it’s not always good. In fact, irritating ads can diminish a brand’s authority.

In my experience, ensuring clear and appropriate messaging should be a priority in all marketing areas, regardless of the ad format. When companies disregard clarity and appropriateness, they become vulnerable to a flop.

The Worst Super Bowl Ads of All Time

The Super Bowl has been a powerful platform for advertisers since its launch in 1968. Even in the very first year of the event, companies paid $150,000 for one minute of ad coverage.

With 58 years of commercials, there are some memorable Super Bowl ad flops. Let’s look at some of the worst Super Bowl ads ever and what made them a flop.

Pepsi x Kendall Jenner

This Pepsi ad, launched in 2017, featured supermodel Kendall Jenner giving a Pepsi to a police officer at a protest. After taking a sip of Pepsi, the officer smiled, and the protesters laughed and cheered in glee.

What Makes It a Blunder

This Super Bowl ad was criticized harshly for being “tone-deaf.” While the ad may have intended to bring awareness to social justice issues, viewers felt that the clip diminished activists’ struggles.

It wasn’t helped by the fact that the influencer they used had little to do with social justice and was a bit controversial herself. My experience as a marketer has taught me that you need to care about the message and the messenger.

Pepsi’s neglect of both created a guarantee that this ad would flop — and many took to Twitter to share their opinions.

Lifeminders

In 2000, Lifeminders.com paid for what is now known as the cheapest Super Bowl ad of all time. It starts with text on a yellow screen, reading, “This is the worst Super Bowl ad of all time.”

The ad goes on to describe the company, which offers personalized emails.

What Makes It a Blunder

While I think this ad was intended to be funny, it was somewhat off-putting. The ad confused audiences with unclear messaging because it didn’t provide much information about the company.

What it did say about the company also seemed in direct opposition to the ad’s style, which was exceedingly bland.

Despite the ad’s poor reception, Lifeminder said they saw 700,000 new customers in the weeks following their Super Bowl ad — so it wasn’t a total flop.

Sad Robot

The infamous GM Sad Robot ad aired in 2007. The ad begins with a robot being fired for making a mistake. Then, the robot tries to get a new job but fails. After failing a few new jobs, the robot leaps off a bridge, insinuating suicide.

Then viewers discover this is only a dream, and a message about GM’s 100,000-mile warranty appears.

What Makes It a Blunder

GM faced extreme backlash for this ad. At its surface, the ad is unsettling and disturbing, offending audiences. Super Bowl audiences vary in age; overwhelmingly, ads are lighthearted or positive.

This tone clash was jarring for viewers. As a marketer, I know the value of ensuring your tone aligns with your context.

GM’s ad was extremely poorly timed, as it was released amidst significant layoffs. The ad’s messaging spoke directly to this in an insensitive and offensive way.

5 to 9

In this 2021 Super Bowl ad for the website builder Squarespace, you can hear Dolly Parton singing a revamped version of her classic, “9 to 5.”

Instead of “9 to 5,” she’s singing “5 to 9,” highlighting side hustles that bring meaning to employees’ lives.

What Makes It a Blunder

Squarespace and Dolly Parton both received criticism for this Superbowl commercial. Many thought the ad was an offensive suggestion that individuals needed to be overworked to have value.

Additionally, the song isn’t catchy like the original, landing the ad in the irritating category.

Make Safe Happen

Nationwide’s 2015 Make Safe Happen ad featured a young child describing things they’d never do. They’d never get cooties or get married, for example.

At the end of the ad, the young child states that they wouldn’t get to do any of those things because they died in an accident. Then, it said that Nationwide cares about what matters.

What Makes It a Blunder

This ad is one of the most widely criticized ad campaigns ever. It’s a highly morbid ad, considered overly dark and unnerving. And the ad intended to sell insurance, which people found exploitative and offensive.

Overall, this ad flopped on more than a few marks.

Perfect Match

GoDaddy’s Perfect Match ad aired in 2013. It features a supermodel and a nerd, and the spokeswoman states that GoDaddy is both sexy and smart.

Then, as a representation of the fusion of those two attributes, the clip features 10 seconds of kissing — a third of the entire ad.

What Makes It a Blunder

This GoDaddy ad was criticized for making viewers extremely uncomfortable. While the intent was certainly playful, viewers felt the kiss lingered for far too long and became inappropriate for television.

Like many of the ads on this list, GoDaddy neglected to consider the context of its ad.

Ace Metrix, an ad ranking site, stated that this ad had the 2nd lowest rating for Super Bowl ads that year.

Sony Experia

Sony launched an ad for a new Android phone that contained gaming controls in 2011. The ad featured a man wandering through dark streets and ending up in a back room with surgery performed on an Android.

The Android received human thumbs and went out onto the streets, ready to game.

What Makes It a Blunder

The 2011 Sony ad made viewers extremely uncomfortable. The sight of human thumbs on the robot was visually jarring and, for some viewers, terrifying. Additionally, the messaging in the ad was fairly confusing.

While the end of the commercial clarified what was being advertised, there was little information about the product throughout the 60-second ad.

As a marketer, it’s vital to intentionally use all the space you’re given. Whether you’re writing an educational blog or a commercial script, you have to consider your goal: selling a product. Sony neglected to prioritize that goal in this ad.

MLK Dodge Ram

In 2018, Dodge Ram’s Super Bowl ad reinforced the brand’s motto, “Built to Serve.” The commercial featured powerful images of folks engaging in acts of community and service.

The ad was accompanied by an MLK sermon from precisely 50 years prior on servanthood.

What Makes It a Blunder

While some perceived the ad as powerful and inspirational, others found it a diminishing way to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Critics were outraged by the use of an MLK speech to sell trucks.

Overall, the commercial was thought by many to be an exploitative use of Martin Luther King’s words.

Temu’s 2024 Ad

If you watched the Superbowl this year, you certainly saw Temu’s advertisements, which aired not once but four times. This ad features animated visuals of people’s lives being improved by Temu, with low prices for each item Temu provides.

It’s accompanied by brand audio and concludes with Temu’s motto: Shop like a billionaire.

What Makes It a Blunder

The Temu ad didn’t offend (though there are many critics of the brand itself). Instead, the frequency of the ad annoyed viewers and resulted in a significantly negative perception.

Viewers took to social media to lament their irritation with the Temu ad that really did play four times.

The brand likely spent tens of millions on this campaign, as four 30-second ads is no cheap deal — and the frequency turned out to be an issue.

Groupon’s Tibet Ad

Finally, we’ll take a look at Groupon’s 2011 Super Bowl ad. The first half of the ad featured a narrative about the people of Tibet and how the culture is “in jeopardy.”

Then, the ad cuts to Timothy Hutton sitting in a restaurant being served Tibetan food by a Tibetan man. Finally, Timothy explains that he got this delicious meal for a deal, thanks to Groupon.

What Makes It a Blunder

Groupon’s ad faced an exceeding backlash for offensiveness. The ad was criticized for racism and diminishment of the struggles facing refugees of Tibet.

It was a poorly timed, poorly executed ad — and a major flop. The ad was pulled promptly from television after viewer response.

What We Can Learn From Ads That Flop

As we wrap up our look at some of the Super Bowl‘s biggest ad mishaps, let’s shift our focus to what we can learn and how we can innovate.

The key takeaway? Stay authentic, positive, and aligned with your audience‘s preferences. Those ads that didn’t hit the mark are perfect examples of what not to do, offering valuable insights into crafting effective marketing.

We have a golden chance to transform these missteps into major wins. Aim to create messages that resonate well — be engaging, considerate, and reflective of your audience’s interests, backed by solid data for relevance.

Remember to prioritize clarity and your brand’s integrity regardless of your company or ad format. Even with bold content, ensuring it’s received well should be a top concern.

Keep it casual yet professional, and let’s make marketing that truly stands out.

Standard job applications have a standard set of practices. You turn in a resume and cover letter, and then, if selected, you move through a few rounds of interviews and get the job.

However, not all potential job opportunities start with an application. In fact, many begin with initiative from a job seeker.

Those job seekers will send in a letter of intent rather than a cover letter. In this article, we’ll take a look at what a letter of intent is and highlight some strategies for writing the best LOI you can. We’ve even included a template to help you get started. 

Here’s what you’ll find:

• What is a letter of intent?

• Letter of Intent vs. Cover Letter

• Letter of Intent vs. Letter of Interest

• When to Use a Letter of Intent

• How to Write a Letter of Intent for a Job

• Letter of Intent Samples

• Letter of Intent Template

What is a letter of intent?

A letter of intent is a less common way of expressing interest in a company. It targets reasons you’re looking for opportunities with a specific organization.

A letter of intent does include elements of a traditional cover letter, such as relevant experience and skills, but it’s used in slightly different contexts. LOIs emphasize alignment between a job seeker and an organization.

Letter of Intent vs. Cover Letter

There are a few key differences between a cover letter and a letter of intent, including:

• Context. While a cover letter responds to a specific job listing, a letter of intent targets an organization more generally. It may or may not have a specific job opening at the time that the LOI is sent in.

• Focus. A cover letter explains why an applicant is a good fit for a specific role. An LOI, on the other hand, addresses an individual’s compatibility with an overall organization or more general role.

• Initiative. A cover letter is a reactive document responding to a job opening. A letter of intent, however, demonstrates more initiative and provides information before an organization specifically requests it.

Letter of Intent vs. Letter of Interest

Letter of intent and letter of interest are often used interchangeably. While there are a lot of similarities between the two documents, there are also a few key differences:

• Level of intent. Letters of intent have a high level of intentionality, while letters of interest are more exploratory. A letter of intent proposes action, while letters of interest are for information gathering.

• Commitment level. A letter of intent is a high-commitment way of expressing interest in a company, while a letter of interest is a lower commitment. An individual is more likely to send out multiple letters of interest. 

• Action orientation. A letter of intent always ends with a call to action, while a letter of interest is more laid-back and may not request anything specific from the recipient.

While both letters demonstrate initiative and are closely tailored to the company, they do serve slightly different purposes.

When to Use a Letter of Intent

There are lots of scenarios where a job seeker may want to send out a letter of intent. Here are a few examples: 

• You have a high level of interest in a specific company, but there’s not an open role.

• You are interested in networking with a company in a committed way.

• You want to reach out with a formal follow-up after a networking event.

• You’re applying to a highly competitive field.

• You’re aware of a potential job opportunity with an organization that hasn’t been published yet.

Additionally, students or job seekers switching industries may use letters of intent to apply to educational opportunities like internships and apprenticeships — though those may also be called cover letters. 

How to Write a Letter of Intent

There are plenty of ways to approach writing a letter of intent for a job. Here’s a step-by-step process for writing your LOI draft:

1. Provide your contact information. 

At the top of your LOI, you’ll want to provide contact information so your recipient can contact you about future opportunities. This can include your phone number, email, and address.

2. Use an appropriate greeting.

For some opportunities, a formal greeting is appropriate. In other situations, a more informal approach may be ideal. If possible, address the specific recipient. 

3. Provide an introduction. 

In the intro paragraphs, you’ll want to tap into three specifics:

• Who you are.

• Why you’re reaching out.

• How you got this company’s information.

Feel free to vary the order of this information. Your LOI intro may be formal or more playful, depending on who you are and the organization you’re submitting to.

4. Dive into your strengths and company alignment. 

An LOI is created to clearly convey why you’re a good fit for the organization. In the body paragraphs of your letter, you’ll want to explain:

• Your strengths.
• What you do.
• How those things would fit with the organization.

5. Guide the conversation into the future. 

All LOIs end with a call to action, which is one of the things that differentiates it from a letter of interest or a cover letter. Map out potential next steps so it’s easy for the reader to take action. It could include:

• A request to schedule a meeting.

• Making a specific pitch.

• Encouraging the recipient to send a follow-up email.

6. Write a thoughtful conclusion.

Conclude your LOI by reiterating your interest in the company. Make sure to thank the recipient for their time, too — there wasn’t a job opening request, so they took time out of their day to read your letter.

If you’re sending your LOI because of an internal referral, be sure to reference them within the letter. 

Letter of Intent Samples

Let’s go through a few different samples of LOIs and highlight what each does well. Refer to these samples as you draft your own letter of intent for guidance on incorporating the elements of an LOI seamlessly.

Internal Connection

In this letter of intent, Jennifer leverages an internal connection. This is a great way to earn a few extra points when explaining how you know about the business. Beyond that, Jennifer’s experiences align well with the work that the wine bar does.

What I like: This letter of intent does a great job of personalization, weaving through the internal connection perfectly in a few different spots. A referral is a powerful aid to incorporate into an LOI, and Jennifer did a great job dropping hints of her connection.

Making a Pitch

What I like: In this letter, Mark is making a pitch. He still covers the bases of a great LOI — discussing his strengths and alignment with the brand. But instead of just calling for a meeting, he makes a pitch that is specific to the organization. This provides value to the recipient and makes Mark look like a strong collaborator. 

Mark could benefit from HubSpot’s CMS Hub to manage his pitches. Lead generation and content creation are important parts of freelancing, and Mark needs to stay organized in order to do it well. Learn more about HubSpot’s CMS Hub here.

Diving Into Alignment

What I like: Jordan is in close alignment with the organization’s values and does a great job of highlighting that in her letter of intent. She’s thoughtful and well-researched, communicates her alignment clearly, and then closes with a call to action.

Letter of Intent Template

Letters of intent are standard documents, so you don’t need to worry about reinventing the wheel each time you send one. Use this template as a resource to ensure your letter includes all the important parts.

[Your name]

[Your contact information]

 

[Recipient’s Name]

[Recipient’s contact information]

 

Dear [Recipient or To Whom It May Concern],

My name is [Your Name], [title/relevant information about yourself], and I heard about your organization through [how you know the organization]. I’m reaching out to connect. I would love to chat if your team plans on expanding.

I have skills in [skills] that I believe would be a great fit for your organization. Your values of [company values] are in close alignment with my strengths, and I believe I could make a great contribution.

I believe that my [abilities/skills/interests] would benefit your company, and I’d love to talk more about any potential opportunities that arise with [name of organization]. If interested, please reach out by [phone/email] to schedule a time to meet with me.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter, and I hope to talk with you further in the future.

Best,

[Your name]

Of course, you’ll want to edit the template for tone and specifics related to yourself and the organization you’re contacting. 

Finding Success With a Great Letter of Intent

Sending a letter of intent can be vulnerable, but it’s a great way to make new connections and set yourself up for employment success.

Refer to these strategies, samples, and templates to make sure your LOI is going to be the most effective letter possible. Emphasize your alignment with the organization, and you’re sure to see success!

Here‘s a cliche among digital marketers: Search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t what it used to be.

Here‘s a true statement you don’t hear as often: Your SEO strategy shouldn’t focus on keywords.

These days, most businesses understand the basic concepts of SEO and why it’s important.

However,  when developing and executing a sound SEO strategy for your business, just creating content for the keywords your customers are searching for is both arduous and wrong.

In this post, we’ll explain an SEO strategy and how you can create your own to help you meet your content marketing goals.

Know precisely what you need? Jump to one of the following sections:

• What is an SEO Strategy?
• SEO Content Strategy
• Best SEO Examples
• SEO Process
• SEO Monthly Plan

An SEO strategy is essential because it helps you stay on track when creating content. Instead of just making what you think people are looking for, your plan will ensure you create content people search for.

For content marketing, an SEO strategy is a critical piece of the puzzle because it is how your content will be seen in the first place, especially in search engine result pages (SERPs). If your content is scattered and unorganized, search engine bots will have more difficulty indexing your site, identifying your area of authority, and ranking your site pages.

Mobile SEO Strategy

Keeping mobile SEO in mind when creating your overall strategy is crucial. Mobile optimization ensures your site and content are available and accessible to visitors on mobile devices. (That means they can have the same experience and receive the same value as desktop browsers.)

Mobile optimization is also essential because Google practices mobile-first indexing. Instead of crawling a desktop site, the algorithm will use the mobile version of your site when indexing and ranking pages for SERPs.

Aside from mobile-first indexing, mobile SEO strategy also matters to consumers. According to HubSpot Blog’s 2023 Web Traffic & Analytics Report:

“54% of consumers use their phones most often when looking up a question on a search engine.”

Over half of online shoppers pick up their phones to ask questions that may lead to purchases. Optimizing your site to reach and capture that market share makes sense when all’s said and done.

While it’s not an entirely separate process, there are distinct considerations for mobile SEO, like monitoring page speed, responsive site design, local SEO, and creating high-quality content, regardless of the device it’s viewed on.

Expert Insight

I spoke with Mersudin Forbes, a portfolio SEO director and agency advisor with 15 years of experience in SEO.

“When it comes to thinking about a mobile strategy for SEO, it is important to think about how a user is seeking to complete their desired transaction and ensuring that this matches their expectations on mobile,” says Forbes.

Forbes explains that it’s not only Google that practices a mobile-first indexing system but most search engines. So, ensuring that relevant content and functionality is surfaced on mobile remains essential.

Pro tip: “You may also want to test your website speed by throttling page speed tests to 3/4G to ensure that user experience and page responsiveness don’t decline with less bandwidth,” says Forbes.

What is a search engine optimizer (SEO)?

Search engine optimizers (SEOs) optimize websites to help them rank higher on SERPs and gain more organic traffic. A search engine optimizer is a highly specialized content strategist who helps a business discover opportunities to answer people’s questions about their respective industries.

There are three types of SEO that an SEO strategist can focus on:

• On-page SEO. This SEO focuses on the content on site pages and how to optimize it to boost the website’s ranking for specific keywords.
• Off-page SEO. This SEO focuses on links directed to the website from elsewhere. The number of backlinks a site has from reputable sources helps you build trust with search algorithms.
• Technical SEO. This SEO focuses on a website’s backend architecture, like site code. Google cares just as much about technical set-up as it does content, so this position is essential for rankings.

Bear in mind that every business has different objectives, so it’s an SEO’s job to examine their industry, determine what their audiences care about, and develop a strategy that gives them what they’re looking for.

Below, I’ll go over some steps you can take to ensure your SEO strategy sets you up for success.

 

SEO Strategy for Beginners

I’ve been an SEO for the more significant part of the past decade, and I can tell you that our industry has never seen anything like this before.

The search landscape is no longer the same in 2024. With the advent of search AI and AI-generated content, we must implement new approaches to keep our sites ahead of unprecedented competitive challenges.

The good news is that the basics of SEO remain the same. Focus on the user first, always. Focus on helping them, always, and not just gaming the algorithm. Your goal isn’t just to rank highly — it’s to get the right content in front of the right people.

I will walk you through a basic SEO strategy I would use to start a site in 2024 for the first time. Later, below, I’ll cover a more sophisticated SEO content strategy that has generated millions of organic traffic visits for the HubSpot blog.

Let’s get started.

1. Search for your company’s head term on Google.

If I were trying to start an SEO strategy in 2024, my first step would be to look for my company’s head term on Google.

“Head term” refers to the general word or phrase you’d use to describe your product, service, or even the topic you’d like to write about. If I were trying to launch HubSpot for the first time, I would look up “marketing software,” our product’s head term.

And if I were trying to start a blog about publishing, I’d look up “publishing blog.”

Head terms are usually high-volume, meaning many people search for the terms every month. That makes them more challenging to rank for.

What we’re trying to do with this step is not find keywords but rather build our awareness of the search landscape. Take note of everything you see, including the terms suggested after you type in your head term.

We don’t need to use any fancy tools yet, though you’re welcome to use them if you’re familiar with SEO tools. With Semrush, for instance, you can look at the exact number of searches a term receives and an estimation of how difficult it’d be to rank on the first page.

But I’d caution against using tools just yet. Looking directly at the SERPs as you create an SEO strategy is crucial because Google comes up with new SERP features daily.

I’m not just talking about AI-generated results. Featured snippets, local packs, image packs, knowledge packs, and “People Also Ask” boxes can be valuable sources of information that can help you optimize your website later.

2. Look at Google’s suggested searches and filters.

After looking up your head term, the most critical step is to look at Google’s generated filters, highlighted below.

Don’t look at the standard filters, such as “Images, “Shopping,” “Maps,” and so on. You’re looking for the unique filters Google generated for your head term.

These filters are invaluable for answering several questions:

• What are people looking for that’s related to your head term?
• What would they find most useful?
• Does your service or product match what people are looking for?
• Can you offer a product page or article that people would find helpful?

If I were building a product page for Marketing Hub, I would be able to answer these questions favorably. Marketing Hub is free, small businesses can use it, and it’s useful for digital marketing.

That means I could probably address a person’s goal when they’re looking for this term. This is good strategic information to have. I wouldn’t execute it just yet because I haven’t considered how difficult it is to rank for this term.

Remember: Head terms are more difficult to rank for, so you’ll want to aim for longer keywords (also called “long-tail keywords”) in your SEO strategy. You can begin getting ideas on long-tail terms by clicking on the filters below your head term.

Now, for my publishing blog, I see that I could focus on the publishing industry or self-publishing, as seen by the filters below.

That’s good news — but later down below, I see that Google has included a “What to read” search feature.

That tells me that a blog could be a good fit for this term but that people are also looking for books on publishing. I would then revise my initial head term or revise my blog strategy to slant toward thought leadership.

3. Examine the SERPs.

Once you’ve found a good head term and perused the filters, take a look at the SERPs. I’d recommend going several filters deep so you can get an approximation of a long-tail keyword.

We’re looking for several pieces of information here:

• How many people are trying to rank for this term?
• What kinds of publishers and companies are ranking? Well-known publishers like the New York Times or Nerdwallet, or niche publishers and companies?
• What is located “above the fold” (the area in the upper part of the page before the user scrolls)?
• What SERP features is Google including?
• What kinds of pages and articles are ranking?

For “marketing software for small business,” a relatively long-tail keyword, I saw that Google delivered 850M+ results.

Yikes. That’s a lot of competition.

But the truth is Google has excellent crawlers. It will find just about any website related to a term and rank it to answer a searcher’s query. Don’t be discouraged by large search results.

You should pay close attention to what’s happening in the results themselves. For instance, “marketing software for small business” has multiple SERP features:

• Sponsored ads.
• “From sources across the web” product panels.
• A “People also ask” box.

Yikes again. All of these conspire to give us fewer chances for ranking for this keyword because the SERP features push us down, and we’re already competing against publishers like G2.

Even if we managed to rank on the first page, our click-through rates would probably be lower because this is such a competitive term. Click-through rate refers to the number of people who see your search result compared to the number of people who actually click on it.

I would do one of the two things below:

• Search for an even longer long-tail keyword to try to rank for.
• Continue examining the SERPs for opportunities related to the same search intent, like related searches and FAQs.

Search intent refers to what the user wants to do when they input a keyword in Google.

If I search “how to bake kale chips,” then I intend to not only bake kale chips but also stay “healthy.” As smart as it is, Google would deliver both recipes and related questions about kale chips’ “health value.”

The SERP features for “marketing software for small business” are all supposed to serve a single intent: A searcher who wants to market their small business using software.

Therefore, every SERP feature you see is an additional opportunity to serve content to the same searcher.

The “People also ask” box is a gold mine for finding related questions that the same user probably has, giving us an opportunity to answer those questions.

With SEO, what matters most is not just that your page ranks — but that the right user finds you and ends up becoming a customer (or signing up for your newsletter, subscribing to your YouTube channel, etc).

If I were creating an SEO strategy for Marketing Hub in today’s search landscape, the “People also ask” box is probably where I’d start for keyword and content ideas, and not the head term itself.

The questions, after all, serve the same user and are much less competitive.

You could also use a tool such as Answer the Public to find questions and related terms.

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Of course, don’t forget a classic: Looking at suggested searches at the bottom of the SERPs. These will give you alternative terms you could try to rank for and additional long-tails and hints about your top competition.

4. Analyze your competition.

When you find a keyword you’re happy with, it’s time to start looking at your competition.

I would say that with SEO, it’s less about what we do and more about what they do than beating them. The thing is, though, that how we beat competitors has changed. It’s no longer about who has the longest blog post or the most backlinks (although these are still important).

The Google search algorithm has gotten more complicated than ever. It’s important to take into account a wide variety of factors like website age, authority, user experience, and even website structure.

Looking at these elements can help you decide what you should put on your website and learn what Google is currently favoring.

When trying to rank for the term “publishing blog,” I found three top competitors: Selfpublishing.com, thatpublishingblog.wordpress.com, and janefriedman.com.

I would look at several things when trying to beat these competitors.

• What kind of content do they publish?
• What kinds of categories do they address?
• What’s the publishers’ or owners’ personal and professional history? Jane Friedman, for instance, is a known industry veteran.

The first question, in particular, is essential for mapping out my SEO content strategy.

For instance, selfpublishing.com has the following categories:

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If you’d asked me years ago how I would approach beating this publisher, I would say that I would copy all of their categories and add three more just for kicks.

But Google is no longer the same. It values authority and expertise. It wants to know that you know what you’re talking about and that you’re not just gaming the system.

Therefore, based on my personal expertise, which is in children’s fiction, I’d probably choose two to three categories where I feel I could create a wealth of content: Writing, Children’s Fiction, and Publishing.

If I were trying to rank for “marketing software for small business,” I would ask:

• What kinds of articles or pages are ranking?
• Because this is such a competitive term, what kind of authority or history do I need to rank?
• Could I create something similar?

Look at your competitors’ pages, and keep their qualitative attributes, such as their history in the industry, in mind. But don’t be discouraged by long-time industry players.

When I was an SEO at a transportation startup, we were competing against transportation companies that had been in the industry for 30+ years.

But with a strong content SEO and backlink-building strategy, we managed to get one of our transportation partners to the top of the SERPs.

Once you’ve scanned your competitors, it’s time to dive into a simple three-pronged strategy:

Authority, content, and backlinks.

5. Generate online authority.

If content is queen and backlinking is king, authority is the kingdom.

Authority, in fact, is everything.

These days, SEO isn’t just about writing SEO-optimized content and hoping the algorithm will discover you.

Once upon a time, you used to be able to include the keyword in the title, headings, and text and rank well.

Now, there are a wide variety of content quality factors that Google takes into account, such as:

• Expertise.
• Experience.
• Authority.
• Trustworthiness.

Collectively, these are called E-E-A-T, and they’re part of Google’s Search Quality Rater guidelines. Google wants to know that you’re qualified to deliver information to searchers. And if you’re selling a product, it wants to know that you’re legitimate.

Let’s go back to the publishing blog example. Jane Friedman, who ranks #3 for the term “publishing blog,” is a well-documented industry veteran. Her site ranks for 30K+ keywords, and she has more than two hundred thousand backlinks.

Her blog post, “How to Find a Literary Agent,” ranks #1 for the highly competitive head term “literary agent,” above top publishers such as Reedsy and even Wikipedia.

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Why?

Because Friedman has plenty of E-E-A-T — she’s an expert with experience, and therefore, she’s authoritative and trustworthy.

There are several ways to build your authority when creating an SEO strategy for a new site or company:

• Include your credentials across several sources on the web: LinkedIn, Facebook, your personal website, etc.
• Interview experts and include their insights in your pages and blog posts.
• Hire freelance writers who specialize in your niche, and use their name, content, and insights on your website.
• Publish guest blog posts in authoritative blogs and websites to slowly build a digital footprint.

The Google algorithm is smart. It can cross-reference hundreds of thousands of sources to determine whether you’re an authority in the field.

To make it a bit easier for the algorithm, you should also make your authority clear, as Jane Friedman does below in her biography.

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If I were launching Marketing Hub for the first time, I would:

• Cite my nearly decades-long digital marketing experience on the “About” page.
• Publish guest blog posts on marketing blogs and websites.
• Start another media outlet, such as a podcast or blog, to publish my marketing opinions and insights.
• Publish an ebook with my marketing expertise.
• Hire software developers who’ve created proven products before — and publicize that Marketing Hub was made by the developers who made X.

As you foster authority, you should concurrently create content on your website, which I cover next.

6. Create search engine optimized content.

This step is probably what you thought of when I first started talking about an SEO strategy. And for good reason. According to the web analysts and SEO experts surveyed for HubSpot Blog’s 2023 Web Traffic & Analytics Report:

“Optimizing your on-page content around target keywords is the most effective strategy for ranking highly in SERPs.”

Remember all that research we did at the beginning? It finally comes into play because it’s time to create content that’s optimized for those long-tail keywords.

I recommend using a tool to help you find potential keywords, such as Ahrefs or Semrush.

Here’s a guide on keyword research to help you out.

I follow one simple rule when creating content I want to rank: Write for humans first, search engines second.

I like to think of it this way. I’m writing an article or page to help a person. But also to hold the algorithm’s hand a little bit. Google is smart, but not so smart to rank your page unless you give it a few hints.

Therefore, I like to stick to the basics.

1. Include the Keyword in the Page Title, H1, Text, Meta Description, and URL.

I generally include the keyword a few times on and off your page to give Google a hand.

As an example, our product marketing team optimized Marketing Hub’s page to a T.

What we like: They include the keyword in the page title (which is the text that appears in search results, pictured above), the H1, and the very first line of text at the top of the page.

And, it works: We rank #3 for the highly competitive term “marketing software.”

You’ll also want to include your keyword in the meta description and the URL.

2. Be helpful.

Be helpful with your content. Ask yourself: When a person lands on this page, what would they be looking for?

You can answer this question by examining the SERPs and your competition. You can also think through your reader’s thought process and their search intent.

For Marketing Hub, we included commonly asked questions, even those related to one of our competitors.

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And Jane Friedman includes information on what to expect from a good literary agent.

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What we like: Notice that this content is not necessarily beautifully formatted, nor does it target a specific keyword. It’s supposed to help the reader first and foremost — and by helping the reader, you help yourself.

After all, Google only wants to rank content that genuinely helps someone do or learn something.

3. Include alt text and compress images.

Image alt text still remains one of the most underrated ways to optimize your page.

Not only does it improve web accessibility, but it gives you a chance to rank in Google’s image pack and image results. That ultimately means more traffic to your website.

And if you don’t believe me: Here’s a traffic snapshot from HubSpot’s image pack rankings (look under the column titled “Traffic”).

Just from our position for “resignation letter example,” we’ve received more than 6K organic visits.

Not surprisingly, the image that ranks has the alt text “gracious resignation letter sample.”

In addition to describing what the image contains, you should include your keyword in the alt text to give you a better chance of ranking.

Lastly, don’t forget to compress your images so that your page loads more quickly.

4. Build Internal Links

After creating content, internal linking is paramount.

It creates a network for Google to follow. Remember, the Google algorithm is smart, but it still needs a hand here and there. How will it know certain pages are topically related unless you tell it?

So, by internally linking from one page to another, you’re giving the algorithm a pattern to follow.

At the HubSpot blog, we call this the pillar-cluster model, which helped us overcome a year-long traffic plateau.

By internally linking, you’re telling the algorithm that a number of your pages are interrelated. You’re also signaling that you cover specific topics at length and that you’re, therefore, an authoritative resource.

And authority is everything.

Expert Insight

I reached out to Nedim Mehic, who has 10 years of experience in SEO. He’s also the founder of Beki AI, an internal linking software.

“As an internal linking software founder, I might be biased, but I can confidently say that in 2024, internal linking remains a pillar of effective SEO strategies,” says Mehic.

Mehic explains that by strategically interlinking pages, we accomplish two major goals: “We guide users in navigating the site with ease and assist search engines in effectively understanding and organizing our content.”

Aside from achieving those two goals, internal linking can garner significant results in other areas. “I’ve seen so many websites find success after improving their internal linking strategy that they neglected for years,” says Mehic.

When I asked what “success” looks like in this context, Mehic cited a user in the beta test phase for Beki AI. The user reported an 800% click increase after adding relevant internal links to a page that was struggling with traffic.

7. Build backlinks.

Content is still queen — but she has to be accompanied by her king: Backlinks.

You could have the most beautiful, SEO-optimized website, but Google won’t rank it unless you receive “votes” from other sites.

We’ll cover backlinks again for your SEO content strategy below. However, I can’t underemphasize how important they are, so I’m going to repeat it again.

Backlinks are the most quantitative way to build authority in your industry. The more backlinks you have, the more authoritative you seem to the Google algorithm.

Why? Because a site wouldn’t link to you unless you were a legitimate, trustworthy source of information.

Here’s a selection of my favorite backlink strategies:

• Publish guest blog posts on other publishers’ websites and link back to your site.
• Write helpful content that other sites will want to link to.
• Publish original research that other publishers will want to link to.
• Partner with companies on co-marketing campaigns.
• Join industry membership organizations with public profiles.
• Sponsor events and conferences.

Here’s an example of some original research by Design Bundles that generated backlinks.

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What we like: The research isn’t just compelling but highly tailored to the company’s niche. That means it likely generated relevant backlinks, and thus relevant viewers, to the website. The research methodology is also sound. Plus, we love that Design Bundles repurposed the research and press coverage across its social channels. Here’s how The Calvert Journal featured the research.

Next up, I’m going to dive a little more deeply into the SEO content strategy that’s driven millions of visits to the HubSpot blog.

1. Make a list of topics.

To get your SEO content strategy off the ground, make a list of topics you’d like your content to address.

To start, compile a list of about 10 words and terms associated with your product or service. Use an SEO tool (Google’s Keyword Tool, SE Ranking, Ahrefs, SEMRush, or GrowthBar, just to name a few) to research these words, identify their search volume, and come up with variations that make sense for your business.

By doing this, you are associating these topics with popular head terms (or short-tail keywords, if you’d prefer), but you’re not dedicating individual blog posts to these keywords. Let’s go over an example of this process using the image below.

Let’s say a swimming pool business is trying to rank for “fiberglass pools,” which receives 110,000 monthly searches. This short-tail keyword can represent the overarching topic for creating their content, but the business will also need to identify a series of related keywords to include in their content. For example, they could opt to use the “fiberglass pool prices” or “fiberglass pool cost” to achieve additional rankings for the overall keyword of fiberglass pools.

Using search volume and competition as your measurement, you can create a list of 10-15 short-tail keywords that are relevant to your business and are being searched for by your target audiences. Then, rank this list based on monthly search volume.

Each of the keywords that you’ve identified are called pillars, and they serve as the primary support for a larger cluster of long-tail keywords, which we’ll discuss below.

2. Make a list of long-tail keywords based on these topics.

During this step, you’ll begin optimizing your pages for specific keywords. For each pillar you’ve identified, use your keyword tool to identify five to 10 long-tail keywords that dig deeper into the original topic keyword.

For example, we regularly create content about SEO, but it’s difficult to rank well on Google for such a popular topic with this acronym alone. We also risk competing with our own content by creating multiple pages that are all targeting the exact same keyword — and potentially the same SERPs.

Therefore, we also create content on conducting keyword research, optimizing images for search engines, creating an SEO strategy (which you’re reading right now), and other subtopics within the SEO umbrella.

This helps businesses attract people who have varying interests and concerns, and ultimately creates more entry points for people interested in what you have to offer.

Use your long-tail keywords to create blog posts or web pages that explain the specific topics within the pillars you’ve selected. Together, all of your long-tail keywords create a cluster around a pillar topic. Search engine algorithms depend on the relationships between clusters to connect users with the information they’re looking for.

Here’s a short video on this concept:

[Video: Topic Clusters: The Next Evolution of Content Strategy]

Think of it this way: The more specific your content, the more specific the needs of your audience can be, and the more likely you‘ll convert this traffic into leads. This is how Google finds value in the websites it crawls — the pages that dig into the inner workings of a general topic are seen as the best answer to a person’s query and will rank higher.

3. Build pages for each topic.

When it comes to websites and ranking in search engines, trying to get one page to rank for a handful of keywords can be next to impossible. But here’s where the rubber meets the road.

Use the pillar topics you came up with to create a page or post that gives a high-level overview of the topic using the long-tail keywords you came up with for each cluster in step two. These pillar pages can essentially be a table of contents, where you’re giving a description of the main topic and briefing readers on subtopics you’ll elaborate on in other posts.

Ultimately, the number of topics for which you create pillar pages should coincide with your business needs, like the number of products and offerings you have. This will make it much easier for your prospects and customers to find you in search engines no matter what keywords they use.

4. Set up a blog.

Blogging can be an incredible way to rank for keywords and engage your website’s users. After all, every blog post is a new web page and an additional opportunity to rank in SERPs. It’s no wonder, then, that marketers cite blogging as the top media format they aim to use for the first time in 2024. (HubSpot’s Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2024)

Long story short? If your business does not already have a blog, consider creating one. As you write each blog post and expand on your clusters, you should do three things:

1. Don‘t include your long-tail keyword more than three or four times throughout the page, as Google doesn’t consider exact keyword matches as often as it used to. In fact, too many instances of your keyword can be a red flag to search engines that you’re keyword stuffing to gain rankings, and they’ll penalize you for this.
2. Second, always link out to the pillar page you created for your topics. You can do this in the form of tags in your content management system (CMS) or as basic anchor text in the body of the article.
3. Once you publish each blog post, link to it within the parent pillar page that supports the subtopic. By connecting both the pillar and the cluster in this way, you‘re telling Google that there’s a relationship between the long-tail keyword and the overarching topic you’re trying to rank for.

5. Create a consistent blogging schedule.

Your blog should be a trove of information for your prospective customers. That means not every blog post or web page you create needs to belong to a topic cluster. There’s also value in writing about tangential topics your customers care about. Doing so will help you build authority with Google algorithms.

But it’ll take time to build that authority, so make it a point to blog at least once a week. Remember, you’re blogging primarily for your audience, not search engines, so study your target market and write about things that they’re interested in.

It may also be helpful to create a content strategy to stay consistent with your blogging schedule and focused on your goals.

Expert Insight

I spoke with Zoe Ashbridge, Senior SEO Strategist at forank. Ashbridge has nearly a decade of experience in digital marketing and SEO.

“Your blog will likely become your biggest traffic generator, providing you’re doing it properly,” says Ashbridge.

“Weekly blogging can feel like a lot, but if you’re starting out, content production is truly what you need. You want to become the most trusted resource within your niche so your users are served and Google prioritizes your site in SERPs,” Ashbridge explains.

Pro tip: A simple Google sheet helps manage blog production.

“At minimum, use a Google sheet to keep a record of the blogs you‘re posting, their keywords, the date published, the cluster they belong to, and the live URL. Refer back to this sheet when you’re monitoring performance or for internal linking,” she says.

6. Create a link-building plan.

The topic cluster model is your way forward in SEO, but it‘s not the only way to get your website content to rank higher once it’s been created.

While our first five steps were dedicated to on-page SEO, link-building is the primary objective of off-page SEO. Link-building is the process of attracting inbound links (also called backlinks) to your website from other sources on the internet. As a general rule, sites with more authority that link back to your content have a more significant impact on your rankings.

Dedicate some time to brainstorming all the various ways you can attract inbound links. Maybe you’ll start by sharing links with local businesses in exchange for links to their own sites, or you’ll write a few blog posts and share them on different social media platforms. You can also approach other blogs for guest blogging opportunities through which you can link back to your website.

7. Compress media files before uploading them to your site.

This is a small but important step in the SEO process, especially for mobile optimization.

As your blog or website grows, you‘ll undoubtedly have more images, videos, and related media to support your content. These visual assets help retain your visitors’ attention, but it’s easy to forget that these files can be very large. Since page speed is a crucial ranking factor, it’s important to monitor the size of the media files you upload to your site.

The bigger the file size, the more difficult it is for an internet browser to render your website. It’s also harder for mobile browsers to load these images, as the bandwidth on their devices is significantly smaller. So, the smaller the file size, the faster your website will load. But how do you compress images and still retain quality?

It’s worth considering the use of a compression tool to reduce file sizes before uploading images, videos, and gifs. Sites like TinyPNG compress images in bulk, while Google’s Squoosh can shrink image files to microscopic sizes. However, you choose to compress your media, keeping files in the kilobytes (KB) range is a good rule of thumb.

8. Stay up-to-date on SEO news and best practices.

Just like marketing, the search engine landscape is ever-evolving. Staying on top of current trends and best practices is an important strategy, and there are multiple online resources that can help you do so. Here are a few resources to check out:

• Moz.
• SEOBook.
• Search Engine Roundtable.
• Search Engine Land.
• Diggity Marketing.
• This blog!

9. Measure and track your content’s success.

SEO can take a lot of time and effort, and because of this, you’ll want to know if your strategy works. It’s important to track your metrics to understand the success of your overall process and identify possible areas for improvement.

Not sure where to start when it comes to metrics? According to 2023 HubSpot data, sales, leads, and conversions are the most important metrics tracked by web analysts. Next up are total monthly visitors, click-through rate, search traffic, and bounce rate.

You can monitor organic traffic using your preferred web analytics tool or create your own dashboard using Excel or Google Sheets. Also, tracking indexed pages, conversions, ROI, and your rankings on SERPs can help you recognize your success as well as identify areas of opportunity.

Creating an SEO Report

An SEO report is an overview of the SEO efforts you’ve enacted over a specific period of time. It essentially shows how successful you’ve been, as well as any areas that need improvement. Having a consolidated report also helps you present the data to relevant stakeholders to display why your SEO activities are important and how they drive growth for your business.

Your SEO report can contain metrics like organic traffic results, the SEO health of your website, inbound link generation, and also address any areas where growth has declined that need to be addressed for future improvement.

The image below is an example of an SEO report from Ahrefs, which has given an overview of the link-building progress of the SEO efforts.

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What we like: We love that the report is broken down across one, seven, and 30 days, so it’s clear to see the traction of link-building campaigns over a given period. You can then identify what’s working and what isn’t across these intervals.

In order to fuel your SEO report, you’ll actually need to have completed some SEO activities, and below, I’ll give some high-quality examples of successful SEO.

Best SEO Examples

As mentioned above, there are a variety of different things you can do for your business to enact your SEO strategy. Below, I go over some examples of what this looks like in practice that you can use as inspiration for your own processes.

There are a variety of different things you can include in your SEO strategy. Consider the following.

1. Writing Compelling Meta Descriptions

A meta description is the snippet of text below a title and link in search results. The description, well, describes the content of the page to the person conducting the queries so they know what to expect. The image below is the result of a search query for market research.

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What we like: This is a high-quality meta description because it lets Google know exactly what the page contains, helping your content surface in the correct search results and helping audiences understand exactly what they’re about to click on.

2. Getting Content Backlinks and Inbound Links

A backlink, also called an inbound link, is when another website links back to your website or blog content. It’s usually placed as a hyperlink on a string of text that relates to your content, and when clicked, they’re taken to your site.

Backlinks are an effective SEO tool because they show search engines that your content is authoritative and relevant, helping you rank higher in SERPs. The image below is an example of a blog post from the Content Marketing Institute that has a backlink to the HubSpot Blog post that you’re reading right now.

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Pro tip: You can use different paid tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to find your existing content backlinks. But to find this one, I made use of Ubersuggest’s free backlink checker.

3. Optimizing Your Site Pages for Page Speed.

Page speed is how quickly the content on your website loads when someone visits a specific page on your website. Google began taking page speed into account for SERP rankings in 2018, making it a critical area of focus when you enact your strategy.

Pro tip: Try the “Compress media files before uploading them to your site” step I outlined above in your SEO strategy. This is a critical step in optimizing your site for page speed.

4. Local SEO

Local SEO is improving search engine visibility for your business’s location. An effective local SEO strategy will surface your content in search queries from customers in your local area, letting them know your business is there to meet their needs.

The image below is a SERP result example for “best restaurants Brooklyn,” showing local SEO in action.

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What we like: The three businesses that appear in results have an optimized Google My Business profile that contains information that helps it surface in results for Brooklyn-area restaurants. Having up-to-date information here doesn’t just help the restaurant’s wider SEO efforts. It also helps potential customers find the information they need.

Expert Insight

I contacted Christopher Levy, senior manager of SEO at Marketing Six, for comment. Christopher has ten years of SEO experience and specializes in local.

“While most SEOs have had to compensate for traffic erosion due to Google’s increasing use of rich features and paid ads on search engine result pages (or SERPs), local SEOs must compete with two of the most visually appealing and authoritative features that dominate local,” says Levy.

Christopher explains that local service ads (or LSAs) are one of these features. This ad format is exclusive to local businesses in fields such as plumbing, law, dentistry, preschools, childcare, and massage, to name a few.

The other is the local pack or Google Maps — this SERP feature takes up nearly the entire browser menu on mobile search. Google Maps often meets the searcher’s needs by providing geographic proximity, reviews, and an easy click-to-call feature.

“A business’s presence on Google Maps is managed via Google Business Profiles (or GBPs)… Administering a client’s GBP is an important skill set that a local SEO must learn,” Chris emphasizes. This skill set 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,” he offers.

Pro tip: “Soliciting and responding to reviews is another important role in managing a GBP that draws on skills needed for outreach. It would be best if you worked with your local clients on a strategy for soliciting reviews from their customers,” he says.

SEO Process

Once you’ve created your SEO strategy, you should also build a process to continue optimizing for new keywords and evolving search intent. Here are a few steps you can take.

1. Historically optimize your content.

Devote some time each month to updating old blog posts with new and up-to-date information to continue ranking in SERPs. You can also use this time to add any SEO best practices that weren’t initially addressed, like missing image alt text.

2. Look out for changing keywords and new search intent.

After a few months, track how your blog posts are ranking and which keywords they’re ranking for. This can help you adjust subheadings and copy to leverage new search intent that your audience may be interested in.

3. Add more editorial value to your old content.

Sometimes, you’ll find that a post is completely out of date. In this scenario, you should go beyond the average historical SEO update and give it a full refresh. You can do this by updating out-of-date information and statistics, incorporating new sections for added depth, and adding quotes or original data to give the post more referral traffic.

4. Create a monthly content plan.

To keep up with your SEO strategy, it can be helpful to create and refine a monthly content plan. You can place it into a spreadsheet, and your teams can track it accordingly. The list below is an example of a monthly content plan that takes the above steps into account.

With a monthly SEO plan like the one above, plus a tracking document like a search insights report, you can build out and execute an efficient SEO strategy. You can also identify and leverage low-hanging-fruit topics to discuss related to your industry.

Create A Strategy That Supports Your Business Goals

Ranking in search pages can be difficult. While it may seem enticing to create content that is centered around high-traffic keywords, that strategy may not help you meet your business goals.

Instead, opt to create an SEO strategy that helps you address your individual business needs, like increasing customer acquisition, for greater marketing success.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in April 2019 but was updated in January 2024 for consistency and freshness.

A few months ago, my inbox was filled with emails from a health specialist. I didn’t remember signing up for random diet plans, so why was I getting constant emails?

I was ready to fire off a complaint, but I checked my inbox first. There it was, an opt-in email I’d actually subscribed to. The specialist hadn’t been consistent with their communication, so it completely slipped my mind.

This is exactly why opt-in emails are crucial. They save you from annoyed subscribers and maintain a clean, respectful email marketing strategy. Opt-in emails ensure that people remember to give you permission to send them content. Without them, you risk becoming just another forgotten sender—or worse, marked as spam.

So, how do you word them in a way that encourages people to sign up while not appearing pushy at the same time? In this article, I’ll share my favorite email opt-in wording examples, why they work, and how you can make your own. 

Table of Contents

• The Best Opt-In Messages in Emails
• Email Opt-In Language (+ Template)

The Best Opt-In Messages in Emails

What makes an opt-in message stand out in inbox clutter? In this section, I’ll highlight 20 email opt-in wording examples and explain what makes them unique to bring you closer to creating your own.

1. Pitch

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Pitch’s opt-in email is refreshingly straightforward, saying, “We’re all set to send you the latest and greatest reads, Tips, and resources to bring you along the road to presentation enlightenment.”

Their respectful nudge for my explicit permission is great, too. It emphasizes collaboration, saying, “We can’t do this without your explicit permission,” which makes me feel in control. The CTA also feels like an invite to a journey and makes me curious about where it leads.

Pro tip: Be specific about the end goal of your opt-in journey to create a sense of excitement and belonging among subscribers.

2. Deviant Art 

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Deviant opt-in email invites you to a huge, exciting club. Their headline, “Get started on your devious journey,” is fun and sparks curiosity. The email also uses the fear of missing out (FOMO) by mentioning “the world’s largest art community — 61 million creatives and over 370 million deviations” to encourage me to confirm. 

Deviant Art also makes it easy to sign by emphasizing how it will “take a second to confirm your email” to show you’re one click away from joining an exclusive club.

Pro tip: Reduce friction with a simple confirmation process and emphasize how easy it is to join your list. 

3. Icon Utopia

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Icon Utopia’s opt-in email is personal and easy to understand. Using the author’s headshot in the email adds a personal touch and builds a connection with subscribers with trust. The copy, “Thanks! You’re almost there! Please confirm your subscription,” is clear and concise and guides me through the next step without confusion. 

The CTA also works as a positive affirmation. It makes me an active participant in the process and reinforces the subscriber’s choice to engage with Icon Utopia. 

Pro tip: Create a CTA that clearly reflects what subscribers are signing up for and makes them feel confident about their decision to opt in.

4. Polaroid

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Polaroid promises creatives that “a more inspiring inbox awaits…” to build excitement and anticipation. To move forward, they add a prominent “Complete your subscription” button. It’s easy for me to know exactly what I need to do next with the direct call to action.

Polaroid also includes a link to read more about their privacy policy in their newsletter. Lastly, the email ends with a “See you soon! Polaroid” to create a friendly sign-off that keeps the conversation going.

Pro tip: Make subscribers feel welcome and valued by ending your opt-in email on a personal note.

5. Hero Cosmetics

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Hero Cosmetics takes a very direct and enticing approach in its opt-in wording. The email promises “early access to exclusive presales, insider announcements, and more” and focuses on the tangible benefits of subscribing.

This strategy is smart — it cuts through the noise and directly addresses the “what’s in it for me?” question that most subscribers have. Highlighting exclusive perks like early access and insider information makes the offer irresistible and taps into the desire to be part of a select group.

Pro tip: Offer a clear value proposition and a sense of exclusivity in your opt-in messaging to make it more compelling.

6. Withings

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Withings’ opt-in email gets me excited for a healthier future with their products. The copy says, “The next step on your path to better health,” which sounds like I’m about to start something great. 

The email also talks about using cool tech to help me understand my health better. Their smart gadgets are like an invitation to learn more about your body. They finish by saying, “Subscribe now and be the first to know when the light turns green,” to make me feel like I’m getting an exclusive heads-up on something special. 

Pro tip: Use anticipation and exclusivity in your opt-in emails to engage your audience. Mention how your tech, tools, or information improves their life or solves a problem

7. Gartner

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Gartner’s email is very straightforward, with no fuss at all. The instructions are clear and hassle-free: Please verify your email address. The opt-in also reassures recipients about their privacy, which I appreciate. “Gartner takes your privacy seriously” makes the recipients feel secure and respected.

Pro tip: Emphasize that your audience’s consent and data protection are priorities to counter any hesitation they might have about sharing their info. 

8. Famous Footwear

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Famous Footwear followed a community-building approach in its opt-in email. Phrases like “Welcome to our family!” and “This is gonna be fun” add a sense of inclusivity to the email. This approach works well because it taps into our innate desire for connection and belonging and builds an emotional connection.

The brand also builds anticipation with “Things are about to get really, really good” and lists the benefits (trend tips, style inspiration, and sale alerts) I’ll get. This way, I know I have much to look forward to.

Pro tip: Create a sense of community or belonging and highlight the experiential benefits of joining your list, not just the practical ones.

9. Wealthsimple

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Wealthsimple, an online investment management service, has a very straightforward opt-in email. The email makes it clear why they’re sending it (to prove I’m not a bot) and what I need to do (confirm my email). 

“You’re almost done” also emphasizes that the process is probably easy and hassle-free, showing that Wealthsimple values a non-nonsense approach. The email also offers support options in case I need clarity regarding anything.

Pro tip: Provide a channel for support in your opt-in emails and communicate that help is available if your subscribers have any questions or need assistance.

10. SEO Notebook

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SEO Notebook is a newsletter that provides SEO tips and tricks. The author, Steve Toth, takes a direct and personal approach with a personalized greeting and sign-off that creates a friendly tone. It makes me feel valued from the start and creates a human-to-human connection.

Where the email really stands out is through its value proposition: access to pages from Steve’s exclusive SEO Notebook. This offer taps into the desire for insider knowledge and shows what subscribers can expect if they just press the green button. 

Pro tip: Personalize your opt-in emails to make your subscribers feel valued.

11. Return Path

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Return Path’s opt-in email shows they’re tracking subscriber activity by acknowledging that it’s been a while since I engaged with their emails. It’s a smart way to personalize interactions.

The email also shows respect for my time in two ways: it states its goal to provide interesting and relevant content and gives subscribers the option to adjust their preferences. If I want to opt out entirely, I have that option too.

Pro tip: Provide a preference center link in your opt-in emails to allow subscribers to tailor their experience.

12. Republic

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Republic’s opt-in breaks down all the benefits I’ll get from their platform. The opening line (welcome to Republic!) adds to the community they’re trying to build. This step is clearly highlighted with a “Verify your email” button, simplifying the process.

The email also includes a direct link in case of any technical glitches so I can still complete the process without any hiccups. It prioritizes user experience, which is always great.

Pro tip: Include a direct link for email verification alongside the button — it ensures I can proceed even if they encounter issues with the button.

13. Aisle

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Aisle’s opt-in email is interesting. The tagline “We’re reinventing the period aisle – join our list to stay in the loop” piques my curiosity and makes me wonder what they’re doing differently. The CTA button “Yes, I want to subscribe” also affirms my choice and makes it clear.

The fine print at the bottom is great, too. If I have any questions, they made it easy by saying I could just reply to the email or contact them at [email protected]. It felt good knowing they were open to questions. This email made the whole process clear and made me feel like they value my choice and my time.

Pro tip: Be clear about what subscribers can do if they don’t want to receive this email.

14. Beyond the Envelope

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Source: Really Good Emails

Beyond the Envelope’s opt-in email got straight to the point with an important update about the GDPR regulations coming into effect. It clearly explained that to keep getting emails, I’d need to confirm my subscription by a certain date. 

They also offered options to customize the content I’m interested in, like publications, products, apparel, and news. This flexibility allows me to control what I see in my inbox, which I really appreciate. To confirm my preferences, all I had to do was click a button, make my selections, and confirm. It’s an easy step to stay connected with the content I’m interested in.

Pro tip: Letting subscribers choose what information they receive respects their inbox and personalizes their experience.

15. The Sunday Dispatches (Paul Jarvis’s newsletter)

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The Sunday Dispatches email starts with clear instructions: “Please confirm your subscription to The Sunday Dispatches.” This email displays a clear button that outlines the steps to what to do next.

What really adds a cherry on top is the testimonial: “He is honest, thoughtful, and doesn’t hold back.” It gives a preview of the quality and authenticity I can expect from the newsletter.

The email wraps up with a casual, almost playful line: “Oh my goodness, you are so close! If you click that big grey button above, you’ll be signed up for my list.” It’s the final gentle push to make the decision easier.

Pro tip: Add a testimonial to your opt-in email to show subscribers the value of signing up.

16. Houses Of

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The greeting, “Thanks for dropping by!” immediately acknowledges and appreciates subscriber interest and sets a positive tone for the rest of the email. Knowing exactly what I was signing up for (“fresh photos and locations via the Houses Of newsletter”) helps me decide to subscribe because I understand the value proposition.

I also noticed the “Manage subscribe preferences” and “Unsubscribe” links, which reassures me I have control over their subscription settings. 

Knowing I could easily adjust my preferences or opt out if I changed my mind built trust. It showed me that the brand prioritizes my comfort and consent over merely increasing their email list numbers.

Pro tip: Clearly communicate the benefits of the subscription to make it easy for people to see the value they’re getting.

17. Recess

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With a simple “hi friend,” Recess’ opt-in email instantly feels personal and laid-back. They thanked me for trusting them with my email and promised to make it worth my while. Occasionally, sending deals or content worth reading makes me feel like they respect my time.

The sign-off “talk soon, the people of Recess” keeps the tone casual and approachable. “Yes, I want to subscribe” is a straightforward CTA that encourages action.

Pro tip: The consistent use of lowercase throughout the email adds to the brand’s casual style and gives the message a more personal feel.

18. CyanVariable360 Studios

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CyanVariable360 Studios’ simple opening eliminates any confusion. The explicit mention that I won’t receive the newsletter unless I confirm sets clear expectations.

This email includes an “Invite via Twitter” and “Invite via Facebook” option, which encourages me to share the newsletter with their friends. Making sharing easy expands the brand’s reach and builds a community around its content.

Finally, they recommend I add their email address to my address book so I don’t miss out. The fact that they thought about my experience from the beginning is evident from this practical tip.

Pro tip: Encourage new subscribers to share your newsletter on social media to increase your reach and create a community around your brand.

19. Notionway

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Notionway’s opt-in email is also one of those that just get straight to the point. It’s clear that all I need to do is click a button to access the newsletter. It’s also personalized in a way by including the email address to provide maximum clarity.

The email also includes a fine print to show Notionway cares about my privacy and choice and adds a layer of security to the subscription process.

Pro tip: Include a clear and direct confirmation button to simplify the process.

20. Zapier

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Zapier sends this email to existing subscribers as a check-in if they still want to be subscribed. It’s a great way to gauge how active and engaged your audience is. Plus, it’s also a respectful reminder and reinforces the value Zapier places on subscriber satisfaction and consent. 

The email also answers what happens if I don’t confirm. The language (“No hard feelings — we’ll still be friends. :)” also builds a positive relationship. Overall, it’s a win-win, like they’ve mentioned: I receive content they find relevant and valuable, and Zapier maintains a clean list. 

Pro tip: Reengage inactive subscribers based on open rates with a friendly check-in email to remind your audience they have control over the content they receive.

Email Opt-in Language (+Template) 

We’ve discussed 20 email opt-in wording examples and what makes them unique. Now, I’ve chosen some of the most relevant elements—like a placeholder for personalization, value proposition, fine print about privacy, and link to the preference center) to create an email opt-in wording template that you can copy and customize right now. Here it is:

Subject: Welcome to [Brand Name]! Please Confirm Your Subscription

Hi [First Name],

We’re thrilled you’re here! Before we get started, we just need to make sure we have your permission to send you [brief value proposition, e.g., weekly insights, exclusive deals, etc.] straight to your inbox.

Please click the button below to confirm your subscription. By doing so, you’re not just signing up for emails; you’re starting on a journey with us towards [reiterate value proposition briefly].

[Confirm Subscription Button]

Can’t click the button? No problem! You can also confirm by clicking this link: [Direct Link for Email Verification]

We take your privacy seriously. Your information is safe with us, and we promise to only send you content that is relevant and valuable. You can read more about our privacy policy here.

Customize your experience

Want to tailor what you receive from us? Visit your Preference Center here to select the types of emails you’re interested in.

Think a friend would love our content as much as you do? Share our newsletter with them through X/Facebook!

If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to reply to this email or contact us at [Contact Email]. We’re here to help!

Not You? If you didn’t sign up for this list or you’re unsure why you’re receiving this email, feel free to ignore it. You won’t be subscribed if you don’t click the confirmation link.

Cheers,

The [Brand Name] Team

Having Your Audience Opt In

Healthy subscriber lists have a lot of benefits. They segment your customers better, increase open rates, and decrease marketing costs – just to name a few. When your content matches the interests and needs of your audience, it becomes a no-brainer for them to press the subscribe button.

But when you aren’t sure what works? Use A/B testing to experiment with different phrases, CTAs, and layouts. This way, you’re constantly testing and refining your strategy to meet changing preferences and improve communication with your target audience.

Whenever I receive an email, my eyes immediately scroll to the bulk of the email. And why not? The branding, the copy, and sometimes the promise of juicy discounts draw us like moths to a flame.

But — it’s also super important not to gloss over the email header. There are two types of headers: technical and design-based. The design-based header is usually a part of the email content, while the technical part tells you the sender’s and recipient’s email addresses, the path the email has taken, and various identifiers and timestamps.

Definitely not as glamorous as the content, the technical email header is your first line of defense against scams and phishing attempts. At the same time, it’s also important for brands to configure headers for deliverability and trust.

In this article, I’ll share my favorite email headers, why they work, and how you can make your own.

The Best Email Headers

The email header is just one part of email design. But picking out the perfect email header can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack — especially if you’re not quite sure what you’re looking for or what makes one stand out. It’s tough to nail down the right mix of elements that make your email pop and ensure your recipients don’t click the “Mark as spam” button. 

In this section, I’ve rounded up nine of my favorite design-based email headers with their technical counterparts that serve as great benchmarks for your own designs.

1. Evernote

Note-taking app Evernote’s approach to their newsletter header is as no-fuss as it gets, and yet, it speaks volumes. It features a sleek megaphone set against its recognizable brand colors. The design is straightforward, without any unnecessary clutter. 

When you glance at the technical header, you’ll notice it clearly states the email is coming from Evernote’s communications team and that it has standard encryption to add a layer of trust and transparency. It’s a prime example of how minimalism can pack a punch.

What I like: What makes the design really interesting is how the icons emerging from the megaphone represent play, stop, and check actions, similar to tasks you might manage within Evernote itself. It subtly reinforces the app’s core functionality and how insights from the newsletter might help you perform those actions. 

2. Mango

Mango’s email header design is a beautiful example of minimalism in black and white. It straightforwardly mentions an enticing offer — free shipping for orders over $75 and free returns, and also announces its latest collection with the catchy tagline “New Now | THE LATEST FASHION UPDATES.” 

With the subject line “The New Now: The sartorial combo,” the technical header complements this blend of utility and allure.

What I like: Even in their email headers, Mango conveys its brand’s essence — sophisticated, modern, and customer-focused. This consistency reinforces their identity to me and builds a reliable and stylish image in my mind. It shows that even in the smallest details, staying true to your brand matters.

3. Readwise

This colorful gradient background catches my attention, yet doesn’t overshadow the text in Readwise’s newsletter. The header text (“A new newsletter from the folks at Readwise containing the most highlighted content, exclusive ebooks, curated RSS feeds, and more”) is great, too, and outlines what subscribers like me can look forward to. The newsletter’s name, Wisereads, is a clever twist on the brand’s name that also makes sense.

Apart from this, the technical header details, such as the subject line “Wisereads Vol. 23 – Noah Kagan’s Million Dollar Weekend, Dan Wang’s 2023 letter, and more” offer detail about the content of the email. Plus, bounce-back addresses and encryption reinforce the email’s security.

What I like: The one-liner summary in the header is brilliant. It strikes the perfect balance between providing enough detail to intrigue and inform without overwhelming me. This approach respects my time and attention and invites me to explore the newsletter with just the right amount of teaser. 

4. The University of Warwick

Who doesn’t love a wave of nostalgia? I really liked this email from my alma mater, The University of Warwick. The header featured a screenshot from a video message by Professor Stuart Croft, which made the email feel quite welcoming and personal. 

The technical header also clearly displayed the subject: “Season’s Greetings from Warwick” and the sender’s address, “[email protected]” to show that this message was specially tailored for graduates like me.

What I like: The header’s emotional connection and familiarity were great. This one-liner summary in the header, paired with a familiar face, turned a simple seasonal greeting into a warm, personal message for me. 

The email reminds me of my cherished time at Warwick and reinforces the bond between the university and its alumni. A personal touch and direct engagement are what make it stand out.

5. Proofpoint

Proofpoint sent me a really cool email promoting its new report, “The Human Factor 2023: Analyzing the cyber attack chain.” The header also includes an eye-catching preview of the report.

The clear call-to-action (CTA) button in red, saying “Download Now,” provides direct access to the report with just a click. The technical header provides enough detail to pique my interest and perfectly balances the delivery of information with intrigue.

What I like: The header sparks my curiosity. A sneak peek of the report and a direct invitation to learn more draws me into the topic. This strategy of creating anticipation and providing immediate value makes Proofpoint’s email stand out. 

6. Tarte

An email I received from Tarte featured a simple header with clickable categories that led straight to their website. It was clear and to the point: The brand wanted me to explore more of what they had to offer. 

What’s great about this approach was how effortlessly it allowed me to dive deeper into their products. With just a click on tabs like “Lipsticks” or “Eye Shadows,” I was browsing its latest collections in no time. 

What I like: The email felt like Tarte was extending a personal invitation to me to discover all the beauty treasures they have in store. This kind of direct, user-friendly link in an email is a small detail, but it makes a world of difference in how we experience and interact with a brand.

7. Search Engine Journal

Search Engine Journal (SEJ) recently sent an email promoting its collaboration with HubSpot on The State of Marketing 2024. 

Here’s why this header works so well: It contains a visual preview of the report and includes a direct CTA to “Get Your Report.” The header also features both brands’ logos. All the elements work really well together and, despite a lot going on, don’t detract from each other.

What I like: Even though the email is from SEJ, the header still complements both brands. It features both logos and brand colors. It drives home the fact that the report is a collaboration, which enhances the content asset’s credibility. 

The header is a great example of how to feature brand partnerships in your email.

8. Glassdoor

This header is from a Glassdoor email that highlights interesting discussions from the platform’s Bowls (conversation spaces that allow users like me to discuss different topics). I love the visual — it’s friendly and simply shows different people discussing something amusing in an office space. It’s a great representation of the way people have conversations on the Bowls and how it’s no different from real-life interactions.

The technical header is like any other except for the subject line, which actually offers a preview of the kind of discussions I might be interested in as a Glassdoor user. The choice of discussion is most likely based on my history on the app. This little tidbit makes the email personalized and shows this email is unique for me.

What I like: The header has a very calm and warm feeling. As a result of the light blue background and cheerful visual, Glassdoor Bowls evokes exactly the kind of impression it wants people to have of the company.

9. Meltwater

Media, social, and consumer intelligence app Meltwater’s email header is brilliant. The email is about how the chance to get an event’s early-bird prices is ending soon, and Meltwater pulls out all the stops to drive the urgency. The “Time is running out!” creates anticipation and is the main focus of the email.

While Meltwater does mention the event’s details at the top left, the focus is clearly on the urgency. It’s a great way to drive action from recipients and increases the chance of conversion.

What I like: Of course, the moving clock in the header GIF. It’s dynamic, different, and catches the eye right away. It also literally shows how time is running out, which adds to the urgency factor and makes the email more engaging.

Creating Email Headers that Work

Email headers require a balance of design and technical aspects. Compromise one, and the header won’t get your audience to take action.

Find the right mix of design elements for your audience (and different segments). You might get better results with bold, attention-grabbing headers, while others prefer something more subtle. At the same time, technical requirements like using proper code, optimizing for different screen sizes, and including text versions also matter for headers to pass through spam filters.

So what do you do? Test-and-learn. Try different styles, fonts, colors, and layouts to see which perform best with your audience. And most importantly, keep track of these results and pivot to continuously improve your email design and header strategy.

I was scrolling through the “For You” page on TikTok when something caught my eye — a TikTok from the clothing brand Foxblood showcasing a black, flowy mesh cloak.

I’d actually been searching for a cloak and while this piece of clothing did not fit the bill completely, I’d still wear it.

Intrigued, I clicked on the shop link, which took me to the product description within the app.

TikTok made it easy for me to check out the product and add it to my cart. I also instantly saw suggestions for more products from the shop and a chat option where I could ask the company questions. While I didn’t make the purchase, TikTok put this brand (and this cloak) on my radar.

Why Should Retailers and Entrepreneurs Care?

With 1 billion users, TikTok provides you with bountiful opportunities to get your products in front of your target audience. According to HubSpot’s Social Media Marketing Report, social media marketers already on TikTok planned to double down on their investment in 2023 — more than marketers on any other platform. “53% of them will increase their investment in marketing on TikTok in 2023 and another 36% will keep investing the same amount.”

TikTok Shop is fairly new, having launched in Sept. 2023, but it holds great potential for brands. Below we’ll dive into:

• What is TikTok Shop? (+Key Features)
• How to Start a TikTok Shop
• How to Market Your TikTok Shop

What is TikTok Shop

TikTok Shop is an e-commerce feature within the TikTok platform that allows sellers to display and sell products. TikTok Shop offers in-feed video and live shopping, product showcase, an affiliate program, and advertising.

TikTop Shop Features

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1. In-Feed Video and LIVE Shopping: Customers can shop for tagged products directly from videos and LIVE feeds in your For You feed.

2. Product Showcase: With this feature, you can create personalized product collections on your profile to make it easier for customers to find and buy what they’re looking for with organized product tiles and helpful reviews.

3. Shop Tab: This tab of the app allows customers to search and discover promotions, get recommendations, and manage their orders, all in one convenient place. Once your shop is created, customers might find your showcased products here as well as products from other businesses TikTok’s algorithms might direct to them.

4. TikTok’s Affiliate Program: Want to leverage creators or influencers, but don’t know where to start? Brands can leverage TikTok Affiliate plans to connect with and monetize TikTok creator videos or live streams that mention their product or brand. Depending on the plan, creators usually get some level of commission for marketing a product, service or TikTok Shop (that can also be linked directly within their content.)

5. Shop Ads: Sellers can promote their TikTok Shops with the new TikTok Shop Ads, providing more opportunities for customers to discover and make purchases directly on TikTok.

6. Fulfilled by TikTok: Merchants can now focus on your products while TikTok takes care of logistics. TikTok Shop stores, picks, packs, and ships sellers’ products to your customers, providing a seamless shopping experience.

7. Secure Checkout: Feel confident during the checkout process with TikTok’s trusted third-party payment platforms. Transactions are quick, smooth, and secure, and all US user data is stored and managed by USDS in the US for added protection.

How to Start a TikTok Shop

Setting up a TikTok Shop involves several steps. To set up your shop on TikTok, you’ll need to meet the requirement of having at least 1,000 followers. If you do, go to the TikTok Seller Center.

Create and Verify Your Shop

1. Create a Shop in TikTok Seller Center

Go to the TikTok Seller Center for your specific country/region. Sign up with a TikTok account or phone number and email. Once you’re done with that, set up your shop’s warehouse/pickup address and return address.

2. Verify your documents.

Click on Verify Documents in the TikTok Seller Center. Upload the required documents based on your business type: corporation or individually-owned business. Here, you will enter your shop name.

3. Bind your bank account.

Click on “link bank account” in the TikTok Seller Center. Enter the required details to bind your bank account to your shop.

Adding Products to Your Shop

4. Access the TikTok Seller Center.

Once you’ve set up your shop on TikTok, it’s time to add your products to start selling. Follow these steps:

Login to your TikTok Seller Center account using your credentials.

5. Navigate to Product Management.

In the Seller Center dashboard, find the “Product Management” section or tab.

6. Click on Add Products.

Look for the option to add products and click on it. This will open up the product creation page.

7. Fill in your product’s details.

Enter all the necessary information for your product, including the product name, description, price, SKU (if applicable), and any other relevant details. You can also add product images to showcase your merchandise.

8. Add Product Variants (if applicable)

If your product comes in different variants such as size or color, you can create and include these options along with their corresponding price and inventory details.

9. Set Up Shipping and Inventory

Specify the shipping options and rates for your products. Additionally, manage the inventory for each product to ensure accurate availability information is displayed to customers.

10. Add Product Tags to make items easy to find.

To improve discoverability, add relevant tags or keywords that describe your product. This will help customers find your products when they search for related terms.

11. Save and publish your products.

Once you have entered all the necessary information, review and confirm that everything is accurate. Click the “Save” or “Publish” button to make your product live on TikTok Shop.

12. Repeat for Additional Products

If you have more products to add, you can repeat the above steps for each item. Remember to regularly update your product listings with any changes or new additions to keep your shop fresh and engaging for customers.

How to Market Your TikTok Shop

1. Define your target audience.

Defining your target audience is a crucial step in effectively marketing your TikTok Shop. Take the time to research and understand your ideal customers. Consider factors such as demographics (age, gender, location), interests, behaviors, and purchasing power. This will help you create targeted campaigns and tailor your marketing messages to resonate with your audience.

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You can use tools like HubSpot’s free Make My Persona to construct buyer personas that will help you define who you’re  marketing to.

2. Create engaging content that highlights products.

On TikTok, content is royalty. Create visually appealing and engaging videos that showcase your products in a creative and entertaining way. Experiment with different formats, trends, and challenges to grab attention and keep your audience hooked. Use catchy captions and compelling visuals to make your content stand out.

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Pro Tip: By leveraging HubSpot’s AI tools, you can generate copy that converts.

3. Utilize influencer marketing

Unsure of HOW to create great content or get recommendations for your products? Consider leaning into influencers.

Influencer marketing can be a powerful strategy for promoting your TikTok Shop. Identify influencers within your niche who have a strong following and engagement rates. Collaborate with them to create sponsored content that showcases your products.

The influencer’s endorsement can help you reach a wider audience and build trust among potential customers.

4. Leverage TikTok Shop Ads for better reach.

Tap into the power of TikTok Shop Ads to expand your reach and drive traffic to your shop.

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You can also use TikTok’s advanced targeting options to ensure your ads are shown to the right audience. Monitor and optimize your ad campaigns based on key metrics such as impressions, clicks, and conversions to maximize your ROI.

5. Engage with the TikTok community.

Engaging with the TikTok community is essential for building brand awareness and connecting with potential customers.

Participate in trending challenges, respond to comments, and collaborate with users by duetting or stitching their videos. This interaction can help you build brand loyalty and generate organic reach.

6. Run promotions and contests.

Running promotions and contests is an effective way to drive traffic and generate excitement around your TikTok Shop. Offer exclusive discounts, limited-time offers, or hold contests where users can win prizes by engaging with your content. This will encourage engagement, increase visibility, and incentivize users to make a purchase.

7. Learn about product performance with analytics and insights

Utilize TikTok’s built-in analytics tools to gain insights into your shop’s performance. Monitor key metrics such as views, likes, shares, and conversions to understand which content resonates with your audience. Use this data to refine your marketing strategies and create more targeted and effective campaigns.

By following these steps and consistently refining your marketing efforts on TikTok, you can successfully promote your TikTok Shop, reach your target audience, and drive meaningful engagement and sales.

Get Started With TikTok Shop

Whether you’re a small business looking to grow or a well-established brand seeking to give your audience more options to engage with your products, you need to be on TikTok Shop.

Social media management will be integral to keep things organized. Get started with HubSpot’s Social Media Management Software.

As the resident social media and content creation expert for the HubSpot blog, I know a thing or two about social media marketing. And one of those things is that the social media marketing landscape is constantly evolving.

Fortunately, I can lend my expertise — and that of the 1,460 marketing professionals HubSpot recently surveyed — to help you stay informed on the latest happenings in social media marketing.

Yes, we asked 1,400+ global social media marketers about their biggest trends, goals, challenges, and strategies going into 2024. And we’re passing out knowledge to you.

Not much time on your hands? Click the section you’d like to jump to here:

• Social Media Trends
• Top Social Media Platforms
• Top Social Media Marketing Goals
• The Top Social Media Challenges
• Top Social Media Marketing Metrics
• The Best Times to Post on Social Media
• Social Media Marketer Predictions

1. Social media e-commerce will continue to grow.

I can’t scroll for more than five seconds on almost any social media app without seeing a chance to purchase something online.

Whether it’s TikTok Shop, Instagram Shopping, or sponsored content from influencers — opportunities to make purchases directly from social media are almost endless and will only grow in 2024.

Our survey shows that a quarter of marketers are currently leveraging the strategy of selling products directly via social media apps, and 50% of marketers plan to increase their investment in social selling in 2024.

Over the last few years, social media apps have evolved into e-commerce platforms that connect users with products they can buy without leaving the app.

While some, like Instagram, are further along in this transformation, many apps are working hard to implement new features and tools that enable social shopping.

TikTok, for example, launched TikTok Shop in the U.S. in 2023, and while 33% of TikTok users say they have not shopped on the platform, 30% have used it, according to Statista.

Furthermore, consumers are discovering new products on social media more than anywhere else. In fact, about 1 in 3 consumers use social media to discover new items and brands, according to Porch Group Media.

And I’m definitely a part of that 1 in 3. A few months ago, I discovered a brand called Midnight Hour on Instagram that sells goth-inspired clothing and accessories. After perusing its Instagram, I bought two blouses and a skirt directly from its Instagram storefront.

Our own research shows I’m not the only millennial influenced by social media shopping.

In our previous social media marketing survey, we found social media especially takes the lead for product discovery among Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X, beating out internet searches.

Social media is also the channel consumers 18-54 most prefer to discover new products on.

And social selling is yielding results for marketers. The majority of marketing professionals in our survey (16%) say social media shopping tools resulted in the biggest ROI in 2023.

So, it makes sense that 87% of marketers plan to maintain or increase their investment in such tools in 2024.

2. Consumers slide into brands’ DMs for customer service.

Since social media is all about shopping, it makes sense that customer service is moving into the DMs.

In 2023, we found that around one in five Gen Z, Millennial, and Gen X social media users had contacted a brand through DMs for customer service, and 76% of social media marketers reported their company already offers customer service on social.

Fast forward to 2024, and 87% of marketers say they will maintain or increase their investment in using social media DMs for customer service.

With so many consumers sliding into business’ DMs for customer support, customer service professionals could become overwhelmed. This will likely prompt many businesses to turn to AI to lighten their load.

Almost a quarter of marketers in our most recent survey (24%) say AI tools like chatbots would help customer service professionals respond to tickets and inquiries.

So, naturally, 88% of marketers plan to boost or maintain their investment in AI, including tools such as chatbots.

3. AI-generated Social Media Posts

The use of AI isn’t going to stop at just customer service in 2024 — marketers will leverage AI to help them create engaging social media content, according to our survey.

51% of marketers say generative AI is most helpful in creating social media posts, and 58% say that’s what they use generative AI for. And just a few scrolls online prove their statements.

I was shocked and pretty impressed with how big of a role AI played in huge marketing campaigns like Nicki Minaj‘s rollout for her most recent album, Pink Friday 2.

Fans gathered from all over the internet to use generative AI to create Gag City, a fictional utopia made in the rapper’s honor to show fans excitement about the project.

Pretty soon, Nicki Minaj began using her own AI-generated images to promote singles and events for the album.

And Nicki Minaj isn‘t the only one. If you go on apps like TikTok, you’ll see tons of users using AI to generate viral content. Some users narrate their videos with AI-generated voices or use AI images to ask questions.

TikTok is placing itself at the forefront of the trend by making tools like its Creative Assistant available to users.

So in 2024, consider leveraging AI for social media posts — because your competition likely will. Just make sure to do so ethically and responsibly.

4. Brands continue to swap out celebrities for micro-influencers.

Influencers are becoming the new celebrity endorsements in 2024 as brands and businesses continue to tap into social media personalities to promote their products and services.

Our survey shows that almost a quarter (23%) of marketers currently leverage influencer marketing, and 87% of those marketers plan to maintain or boost their influencer marketing investments.

If you‘re a marketer or an influencer, you may think influencers with massive following are who brands are flocking to for promotions. However, our survey shows that isn’t the case.

64% of marketers have worked with micro-influencers (10,000 to 999,999 followers) in the last year, and 47% say they yielded the most success with micro-influencers—making them the most popular influencers among marketers.

Our survey shows macro-influencers with 100,000 to 999,999 followers are the second most popular.

44% of marketers say they’ve worked with macro-influencers in the last year. Even nano-influencers (less than 10,000 followers) are leveraged by 22% of marketers.

Only 17% of celebrity or mega-influencers with more than 1 million followers have been leveraged by marketers in the last year.

Compared to celebrities, working with small influencers is less expensive, makes it easier to establish long-term partnerships, and offers access to tight-knit, engaged, and loyal communities.

Regardless of how big or small the influencer is, influencer marketing is a highly effective marketing channel that drives consumer purchase decisions.

Our most recent consumer trends survey shows that 31% of social media users prefer to discover new products on social media through an influencer they follow over any other social format or channel.

This shoots up to 43% for Gen Z – making influencer marketing their preferred product discovery channel.

On top of that, 21% of social media users 18-54 have made a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation in the past 3 months. This also rises to 32% among Gen Z.

5. Content remains king in 2024.

Of course, with influencer marketing continuing to rise, it makes sense content marketing would continue to be a popular go-to for marketers. After all, all influencers are content creators, though not all creators are influencers.

But that’s a distinction for another blog post.

Anyway, almost a third of marketers in our survey (29%) are leveraging content marketing, and a whopping 90% plan to maintain or boost their investment in the strategy in 2024.

However, content marketing comes with its hurdles. Most marketers in our survey say the biggest challenges they face in content marketing are creating highly engaging content and coming up with fresh ideas.

To combat that, some marketers will likely turn to AI to generate ideas, outlines, or copy. 46% said AI would help their business on that front. However, that doesn’t mean the robots are taking over.

For many marketers, boosting their investments in content marketing means hiring people for specific roles.

According to our survey, three roles expected to be a top priority to recruit in 2024 are content creator, content strategist, and content marketing manager.

1. Brands will flock to Instagram for ROI and audience growth.

Instagram is leveraged by 55% of brands in our survey, coming in just behind Facebook at 57%.

The good news for Instagram marketers is the platform ties with Facebook in the top spot for ROI, with 29% of marketers listing both as yielding the highest ROI in the past year.

Furthermore, 43% plan to increase their investment in the platform in 2024, while another 46% will keep it the same.

If I were a betting person, I’d gamble that Instagram will likely continue seeing growth from marketers due to the growing trend of social media shopping.

The app placed itself at the forefront of the trend by enabling brands to set up Instagram storefronts and shops within the app.

Before moving on to trend #7, let’s take a look at a few more social media platforms and see how they stack up against each other.

2. Facebook will keep growing, but TikTok’s closing in.

Facebook might be the platform used by most social media marketers at 37%, but TikTok is slowly creeping up as 24% of marketers say the latter app yields the most ROI.

Facebook will also see significant growth in 2024, with 23% of social media marketers planning to invest more in it than any other platform, and 43% plan to increase their investment in Facebook, while 41% will continue investing the same amount.

3. More marketers are looking to TikTok.

44% of marketers say their companies leverage TikTok, placing it third behind Instagram and Facebook. This number also goes up from 36% last year.

Furthermore, almost a quarter of marketers (24%) say the platform yields the highest ROI, placing it right behind YouTube (26%).

TikTok‘s growing appeal to marketers concerns the platform’s relationship with Gen Z, the most prominent generation on the app.

Not only does Gen Z flock to the app, they also make purchases from the platform (remember what I said about e-commerce?).

According to TikTok, 1 in 3 of its Gen Z users are interested in buying from TikTok Live, and 74% of Gen Z weekly TikTok users would seek more information about an advertised product after seeing the ad on TikTok.

4. YouTube Comes in 3rd for Usage & ROI, but Will Continue Growing in 2024

As short-form videos continue to dominate (more on that later), marketers shouldn’t count YouTube out. More than a quarter of the marketers in our survey say the platform yields the highest ROI.

Moreover, 88% of marketers say they will increase or maintain their investment in the platform in 2024.

Top Content Type Social Media Marketers Are Leaning Into in 2024

Short-form Video Continues Its Takeover

Short-form video has the highest ROI compared to other marketing trends, according to our survey.

Short-form video will see the most growth in 2024 by far, with 67% of social media marketers planning to invest more in it than any other format.

53% of those using it also plan to increase their investment in 2024, while 38% will keep investing the same amount.

Social Media Challenges

1. Creating engaging content.

One of the top challenges social media marketers face each year involves creating engaging content. So, it’s no surprise that 18% of those we polled said it was their top hurdle.

And it makes sense. In social media, content drives engagement, traffic, and conversions that boost your business. However, social media, its trends, and what people want to see on each platform change daily. It’s pretty tough to keep up.

2. Gaining and Keeping Followers.

18% of marketers also said gaining and keeping followers is another top social media marketing challenge they‘re facing. That’s not surprising, considering how much content consumers are flooded with on a daily basis.

So much content can make it hard for brands to stand out above the noise.

3. Turning engagements into leads.

Like all marketers, social media pros are always asking themselves, “How can my work benefit the bigger business?” And, one measurable way to justify business impact is by driving leads or conversions.

Yet, that‘s still pretty hard. After all, most social media scrollers don’t just want to leave their feed to become a lead or a customer and come right back.

To win them over, you‘ll have to create content that energizes them beyond the point of simply commenting or clicking a reaction emoji.

That’s why we absolutely aren’t shocked that 18% of social media marketers list lead generation as one of their top challenges.

Top Social Media Marketing Goals

It’s all about the money in 2024. According to our survey, the top goal for most marketers (23%) is increasing revenue and sales. Other goals include:

• Improving the customer experience (19%))
• Increasing brand awareness and reaching new audiences (19%)
• Increasing engagement (18%)
• Improving sales/marketing alignment (16%)
• Integrating AI with their marketing strategy

The Top Social Media Marketing Metrics

How are social media marketers tracking success? Let’s see what metrics they’re looking at when posting organic and paid content.

• 41% of marketers say sales is the most important metric to track
• 32% say web traffic
• 29% say social engagement

• 27% say lead generation
• 23% say on-site engagement

The Best Times to Post on Social Media

As a social media marketer, you likely want to be posting at the best times for peak engagement.

So, while we had our social media survey participants, we got their thoughts on the best times to post across social media platforms in the U.S. specifically.

• Facebook: 9 AM to 12 AM
• YouTube: 3 PM to 6 PM
• Instagram: 12 PM to 6 PM
• TikTok: 3 PM to 9 PM
• X: 9 AM to 3 PM
• LinkedIn: 9 AM to 3 PM

For tips on what other times to post or what to post during the times above, check out this social scheduling guide.

Social Media Predictions for 2024

Based on our findings (and being the Marketing Blog‘s social media expert), I predict more and more consumers will make purchases directly from their favorite brands’ social media platforms, like Instagram and TikTok.

I also predict it will continue to be the norm for consumers to message brands via social media with concerns and inquiries.

None of these predictions may seem surprising, but I do have one that could shock you. While I predict short-form videos will continue to dominate marketing, I do see more creators opting to make longer videos. Why?

Because TikTok is rolling out programs meant to prioritize videos longer than 60 seconds. While I don’t see a resurgence in hours-long video essays, 2-3 minute videos could start springing up on the platform as creators seek revenue from TikTok’s Creativity Program.

What’s Next for Social Media Marketing?

Ultimately, it’s up to you and your company to determine and plan your future success strategies! But our data and insights are always here to help.

To start building, refining, or researching more opportunities for your social media strategy:

• Take our free social media certification course.
• Visit our State of Social Media Hub page where you’ll find more data, videos, and exclusive expert insights.
• Download the free report below for a saveable PDF with key data and insights.

Creating social media strategies can be overwhelming, especially when you’re just launching your brand or just building your online presence for the first time. So many channels, features, tools, and products available – but so little time to fit them all into your marketing strategy.

If you don’t have a full-time team of social media experts at your disposal, it’s even harder. But the fact is that your online success depends on having a sensible and straightforward strategy that fits your resources and goals.

I spoke with three top-tier social media experts, and dug into recent HubSpot research (including our 2024 State of Social Media Report), to show you how to develop a social media strategy that drives traffic and ROI to your brand.

Your social media strategy is your master plan for how you create, post, and engage with your social media content.

It encompasses your social content guidelines, posting cadence, social media marketing campaigns, target audience, and engagement strategy that promote your business and brand.

Many companies use social media to connect with customers, provide support, advertise new products and features, and promote special offers.

Why You Need a Social Media Strategy

According to our most recent The State of Social Media, social media marketers’ top challenges include creating engaging content, generating leads, and reaching target audiences. While these are some of the trickiest challenges, they’re also the items you’ll want to think about most when making an effective plan.

Ultimately, well-thought-out social media strategies equip you to set goals and guardrails, track performance, and tweak your benchmarks over time.

“One of the biggest challenges I think social media marketers face is saturation and competition. There is so much content on social media that sometimes it makes it challenging to stand out from the crowd. Having a robust strategy that understands the target audience includes strong copy and unique content can help to cut through the noise,” says Ellie Nash, social community executive at Kurago.

Without a starting point, you can‘t measure what’s working and how to shift your activity to hit your goals.

A social media strategy also helps you set expectations for broader team involvement and get everyone aligned on what they should and shouldn’t do on your social networks.

1. Define your target audience.

If you haven’t already identified and documented your buyer personas, start by defining the key demographics of the audience you’re trying to reach — such as age, gender, occupation, income, hobbies, and interests.

To meet your audience where they are with marketing that won’t annoy them, you first need to learn out what they want and why. 

Social Media Motivations

Are social media users visiting these apps to learn, explore, shop, or just have a good time?

In our most recent State of Consumer Trends Survey this summer, we asked over 500 general consumers to pick the three most common reasons they use social media. 

While 65% actually use it socially to keep up with friends, 53% just want to be entertained while 50% want to learn new things. Unfortunately, 28% say they prefer to go on social media to learn about new products or brands. 

The good news? Later in the survey, when we asked consumers how they prefer to research and learn about brands and products, a whopping 41% said they like to do this on social media channels (a slight increase from a similar survey we ran six months prior).

While Gen X and Boomers skew lower on this average, Gen Z and Millennial generations are using social for brand research more often – which is not surprising due to their hyper-connectedness to the web.

As you might be able to tell from our data above, your target audience plays a role in how successful the right strategy will be. And, better catering to them helps you create focused advertising that addresses your ideal consumer’s specific needs.

For instance, the below-sponsored post by Monday.com, a project management platform, highlights the platform’s flexibility and workflow customization feature.

The post targets business owners and project managers who may feel limited by other project management software.

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Consider your ideal consumer’s challenges and what problems they’re solving daily. Focus on no more than four types of people representing most of your buyers. Don’t get hung up on the exceptions or outliers, or you’ll never get started.

Once you start creating content for your audience, focus on engaging your audience at every level.

Pay close attention to any questions or comments your audience posts, and be quick to address them, as that engagement could make or break a conversion or purchase.

Consumers like feeling like they’re part of a community when they’re on your social media pages. More than 1 in 5 social media users joined or participated in an online community in the last year.

Speaking of communities, creating social media groups is a smart move to attract, keep, and engage the audience, with 90% of marketers agreeing.

Here’s why:

• Groups help people get involved.
• Followers can learn from each other.
• Your brand becomes a connector — something like a helpful friend.
• Communities feel more friendlier to chat compared to pages. 

In 2020, HubSpot made a small Facebook Group called Marketer to Marketer with 4.9k followers. It’s not as big as our Facebook page, but conversions prove its worth it.

Pro tip: To reach the right audience, use social listening tools. These tools check social media for keywords, assess if the talk is positive or negative, and give you reports. This helps in creating a buyer persona for better targeting.

2. Incorporate ecommerce.

As more and more people use social media to discover new products, they’re also finding convenience in shopping for those products directly in the social app they found them in.

While one-fourth of social media marketers are already seeing more effectiveness in social shopping tools than they are with ecommerce site strategies, 80% of social media marketers believe consumers will eventually buy products directly within social apps more often than on brand websites or through third-party resellers. 

What’s more, 25% of users between the ages of 18 and 44 had already bought a product on social media by summer of 2023. We wouldn’t be shocked if this number increased in 2024.

Lastly, if we look at how this trend is fairing across the globe, several other countries have already made social media shopping a norm.

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For example, check out this comparison of data from the UK, China, and the US:

• In the UK, social shopping saw a rise from 2021 to 2023, with 4.1% of the population engaging in this trend. Anticipated data suggests a further increase in 2024 and a growth of approximately 2% in 2025.
• In 2022, around 84% of Chinese consumers have shopped on social media platforms. Despite some COVID-19 challenges, it reached 850 million users in 2021, making the market worth more than 2.5 trillion.
• In 2023, the US made $68.91 million from social commerce, which is 5.9% of all online sales. This is a sharp increase from $39.51 million in 2021.

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Translation? If you sell products, social media should be a key part of your ecommerce strategy in 2024. It doesn’t matter where you are. Social selling is a big deal — so it’s time to take it seriously.

Most platforms offer built-in e-commerce features like shoppable posts, and 47% of social media marketers are already taking advantage of selling products directly within social media apps.

The most popular social selling tools for marketers are:

• Instagram Shops and Instagram Live Shopping — high ROI.
• Facebook Shops — average ROI.

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(Psst: Need help building a Facebook page for your business? We have you covered.)

If you need inspiration for incorporating e-commerce into your social strategy, take a cue from Sephora.

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Whenever the beauty brand shares an image of a product, it uses a product tag that links to its shoppable page above.

This makes it easy for its followers to instantly buy something they see on the page without ever having to leave the app.

One critical element of successfully selling on social media is establishing brand trust so users feel comfortable purchasing your products directly on the app.

While Sephora has built an established brand reputation over time, you can build trust in other ways, even if you’re building your social media strategy from scratch.

Focus on sharing customer reviews and testimonials, user-generated content (UGC), and product data to build social proof.

Pro tip: Go with image, video, and carousel ads for brand awareness to emphasize store visits, ad impressions, and engagement. For increased sales, select product, collection, or shopping ads to drive direct purchases and product page visits.

I spoke with three top-tier social media experts, and dug into recent HubSpot research (including our 2024 State of Social Media Report), to show you how to develop a social media strategy that drives traffic and ROI to your brand.

3. Optimize your social channels for search.

Social search is on the rise.

As more people turn to social with their queries instead of search engines, 89% of social media marketers agree that social search is important to their overall social media strategies in 2023.

Nearly 24% of consumers aged 18-54 use social media first to search for brands.

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For marketers, this insight means that your social channels must be optimized for search. Prioritize social SEO if you want your social channels to show up in the results when your audience searches for your brand.

Similar to optimizing for search engines like Google, there are a few ways you can optimize your social presence. Here’s how social media marketers did it throughout the last year.

• Include relevant keywords and hashtags in your posts and bio.
• Make sure your username is easy to search for.
• Keep your username consistent across accounts.

When adding alt-text, do not use this as an opportunity to stuff keywords, says Annie-Mai Hodge, director and founder of Girl Power Marketing.

“This feature describes the image on a page for the visually impaired, so it’s important you describe the image accurately. In doing that, you’re providing extra context for the social platform too, which can, in turn, get your content more visibility in search results,” says Hodge. 

Over 30% of U.S. desktop searches on Google feature video carousels and video results, according to Semrush Sensor. 

For instance, I searched for “best gaming laptops in 2024,” and the second result was a YouTube video. So, being active on YouTube to promote your brand is worth considering.

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Pro tip: You don’t need to film an hour-long video. Even short videos, aka YouTube Shorts, can help you rank higher in SERP. You can use UGC videos and testimonials for that purpose.

4. Focus on a few key social channels.

Most small businesses or social teams don’t have the bandwidth to establish and sustain a quality social media presence on every single channel.

It’s also overwhelming to learn the rules of engagement on multiple networks simultaneously.

Focus on the channels that will bring in the highest ROI. For most brands, this will be Instagram.

Instagram has proven to be the best source of ROI, engagement, and quality leads. Additionally, 23% of marketers believe Instagram offers brands the most potential to grow their audiences in 2023.

Adding an Instagram feed to your website is also a smart move to keep your site looking fresh and even to nudge people towards buying, as social media content can increase conversions by up to 29%.

With a tool like Flockler, even if you’re not a tech expert, you can make your site more lively and exciting with your latest Instagram posts. See their easy guide on how to embed an Instagram feed on a website.

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Brands need to be careful about which platforms they now show up on.

“The platform can say a lot about the brand itself. With more and more consumers being more in tune with how they spend their money and whether corporations’ ideals align with theirs, this is becoming more of a consideration for brands in the long run,” says Tameka Bazile, social media strategy manager at TIME.

If you want to create a strong social media strategy from scratch, start small. Research key networks to learn where your target audience is spending time.

For instance, if your ideal consumers are business professionals, it may be beneficial to post on LinkedIn rather than Instagram.

Bazile says brands should also consider the following when it comes to expanding their presence across multiple platforms:

• Means. “Does their social team consist of enough members and get enough budget to successfully manage multiple accounts?” Bazile asks. 
• Consumer Access. “Are their ideal consumers found on the platforms they are seeking to expand to?” she says. 

I recently read insightful expert perspectives on this LinkedIn article about picking the right social media platform.

Amidst all the chatter, Roel Timmermans‘ comment caught my attention: 

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Or as Annie-Mai Hodge says, “You don’t need to be on every single social media platform, full stop — for most businesses, it’s a waste of time and resources to be on platforms where your audience isn’t active.”

When creating your strategy, Hodge says, “You would’ve looked at where your audience is, what your competitors are doing, and what you’re aiming to achieve with social media — all of this will help inform you as to what social media channels you should be focusing on.”

Pro tip: Check where your competitors are most active and what kind of content they post. You’ll see what works or doesn’t and how engaged their audience is. Don’t copy them — just use that info to make smart decisions for your strategy.

5. Repurpose your content.

Why stress over creating different content for each platform? 

Keep it simple: repurpose and use the same awesome content in different places – within reason of course.

According to our research, most marketers repurpose content in some way, shape, or form, while 19% consider it one of their key strategies. Meanwhile 40% plan to invest more in content repurposing in 2024.

This makes sense. By repurposing content, you can leanly and easily:

• Get your message to more people on different platforms.
• Save time by using what you already have instead of starting from scratch.
• Stay visible on search engines by updating and reusing content.
• Cater to your audience’s preferences with different formats.
• Make your content last longer by updating timeless pieces.
• Improve your strategy by checking how your content performs on different channels.

We at HubSpot love repurposing content—from simple LinkedIn posts like this…

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…to hilarious TikTok video:

However, one word to the wise is to not lean on it for every single campaign. Although most marketers do it, only 7% told us it yields them substantial ROI compared to content that’s more catered to platforms. 

So, if you’re low on time or bandwidth, experimenting a new platform that’s similar to one you already use, or can make light tweaks to optimize content for different channels – feel free. Just make sure you’re giving your audience what they’re looking for and not over-spamming them with content they’ve seen several times already.

Pro tip: Looking for a creative content idea that feels more personal than repurposed? Make catchy quote pictures from customer thoughts, share email insights on X or LinkedIn, and whip up quick videos from podcasts — people love that kind of stuff.

6. Make a plan for customer service.

When putting together your social media strategy, consider how you’ll use your channels for customer service.

Social media is so ingrained in our day-to-day lives that it’s no surprise that people turn to these platforms for everything from brand discovery to customer service.

According to our State of Social Media and Consumer Trends research, 1 in 5 social media users contact a brand through social DMs for customer service each quarter.

43% of marketers use customer service reps, 41% rely on platform managers, and 13% employ automated tools like chatbots.

Whether you create a separate account dedicated to customer service or have an auto-reply set up when people DM you on Instagram, have a plan for how you’ll handle customer support through social media.

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It’s a good idea to add working hours in the Support page’s bio so people know when to expect help. Consider what Twitch did in its X profile:

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Now, let’s talk a little bit about the importance of good customer service on social media. According Khoros research:

• 42% felt disappointed, 43% were unhappy, and 41% reported anger with poor customer care.
• 67% shared bad experiences, and 65% switched to a different brand.
• 43% are more likely to buy from a brand after a good customer service experience.
• 83% feel more loyal to brands that resolve their complaints.
• 73% of brands expect more inbound channels, and 53% anticipate more outbound channels in the next one to two years.
• Pro tip: Apart from clearly stating working hours, let customers know the expected response time and inform them about quicker alternative resources if available.

7. Develop a recipe card to guide you.

Social media isn’t an exact science. It doesn’t work the same for every business or industry.

To see results for your business, create a recipe card. A recipe card is a posting and engagement schedule that keeps your team on track and helps you post content consistently.

HubSpot has a list of social media tools and templates that you can use to plan your content and create a posting schedule and content calendar.

One of the best ways to manage an SM content calendar is the method Bazile shared with me.

Here’s how she categorizes it:

• Evergreen engagement content.
• Evergreen promotional content.
• Specific campaign content.
• Recurring communications content.

“Breaking down content into these buckets allows social teams to maintain regular presences online while also separating content data into easily trackable pieces,” she says.

Develop a reasonable recipe card and well-organized calendar. Stick to it and get your team to follow. Set goals for your posting and engagement frequency, and hold yourself accountable for following your recipe.

Pro tip: Choose platforms that allow easy editing and content management within your team. This ensures smooth collaboration and calendar updates.

8. Talk WITH, not AT, your followers.

In our latest Consumer Trends research, 41% of consumers pointed to relatability as the most memorable aspect of posts from brands or companies on social or the web. 

Friendly brands win more followers (and hearts). So, skip the self-promotion overload. Instead, get into conversations and respond to comments authentically.

People love it when you chat with them, not just throw information their way. It makes them feel special, creating a genuine affection for your brand.

You don’t have to sound super professional. Casual talk works even better on social media. Just take a cue from McDonald’s:

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I personally can’t get enough of BMW and its fantastic relationship with fans and followers. They always try to respond to every comment on social media:

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And here’s something interesting to remember — very few people, less than one percent, interact with the brands’ posts. 

Here are the platform breakdowns:

• Facebook: 0.09%.
• Instagram: 1.22%.
• X: 0.045%.

So, once you get a comment, find the right way to interact and show that you care.

Don’t just ghost and ignore. These comments boost your post higher in algorithms and make it more visible. 

Pro tip: Never delete negative comments unless they’re super offensive or totally inappropriate. Instead, use them as an opportunity for constructive engagement and improvement.

9. Measure your results.

“Without goals, a product roadmap, or even a full brand strategy, social media managers will struggle to know what to prioritize in the social space, what metrics to measure to convey progress, and what sort of content or social presence is ideal for the brand,” Bazile says. 

There are countless things to track on your social media channels. Start by looking at how much traffic your social accounts drive to your website or blog.

Social media platforms offer tools to help businesses track analytics.

For example, you can use Facebook’s Page Insights, Instagram’s Account Insights, and LinkedIn’s Visitor Analytics to see what people are responding to and look for trends related to topics or keywords that generate the most interest.

Once you get an idea of your average traffic and post-performance, set goals for key metrics and keep a scorecard to measure your progress.

Be sure to choose metrics that are easy to gather because if it’s too time-consuming to track, you won’t be motivated to do it.

Examples of simple metrics include the total number of interactions, traffic to your website, and sales or revenue that can be attributed to social.

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“One of the most valuable indicators, in my opinion, is impressions,” Nash says, “Impressions measure the number of times a piece of content is displayed on users’ screens and help to evaluate the effectiveness of your content strategy in terms of exposure and brand awareness.”

Pro tip: Don’t only focus on platform numbers. Track the social sentiment as well. See if people express positive or negative feelings about you in online conversations. It takes a bit of manual work, but it’s worth it. Check regularly for better insights.

10. Adjust your tactics as needed.

Social media won’t start working overnight.

Establishing a following, stabilizing your brand, and seeing the results of your efforts take time. So, experiment to find the right combination of channels, content, and messaging that works for your audience.

We can pick up some cool tricks from Victoria’s Secret in this regard.

They’ve shifted from using only professional photos and videos to incorporating more casual content. Now, VS’s Insta feed also includes UGC and interviews with random people on the street and in their stores.

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Victoria’s Secret proves that even as a high-end brand, you don’t lose anything by including everyday people. 

Actually, you gain. 

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More followers, more engagement, more exposure.

Keep track of changes in your post views, audience demographics, and post interactions, and make changes as needed.

Over time, you’ll be able to adjust your recipe card, content, and personas based on the information you’re gathering, which will help you fine-tune your strategy and generate more consistent results.

Trying new stuff might seem a bit daring, but sometimes, it’s just necessary to “survive.”

For instance, try to use funny content whenever possible.

In our 2023 survey of over a thousand global social media marketers, 66% said funny content works best, followed by relatable (63%) and trendy (59%) content. While 45% talk only about their brand values, the key is to use humor for the most impact. 

Don’t believe that humor can pay the bills? One-third, or 34% of Consumer Trends respondents also told us funny content is most memorable to them. 

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I asked Hodge to tell me about a time when changing tactics improved social media results. She recalls that at the start of 2023, Girl Power Marketing stopped growing on social media and started losing engagement. 

“It wasn’t until I sat down and reassessed my strategy that I was missing something, and that was humanization,” Hodge recounts. “Why should people trust my thoughts, opinions, and guidance if they have no clue who was behind GPM or the mission behind it?”

Hodge shares that she started showing up more intentionally. She created content that showed more of herself, her personality, and GPM’s mission. 

“And a year later, GPM has grown to a community of 180k+ people – all because I switched up my tactics that no longer worked,” says Hodge.

Pro tip: Tailor your content to match seasonal trends and holidays. This helps keep your brand messaging timely and relatable. And most importantly — people love it.

Keeping Up With Social Media Strategies

While these tips will help you optimize your strategy for ROI in the present day, it’s important to get your footing and keep up with the big shifts that are inevitable as new tools, channels, and trends arise.

To keep up with low stress, keep following research like our State of Social Media Report and check out our blog and resources for the coverage of social trends and tactics you actually need to keep on your radar.

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