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I’ve tested 100s of psychological tactics on my email subscribers. In this blog, I reveal the five tactics that actually work.

You’ll learn about the email tactic that got one marketer a job at the White House.

You’ll learn how I doubled my 5 star reviews with one email, and why one strange email from Barack Obama broke all records for donations.

5 Psychological Tactics to Write Better Emails

Imagine writing an email that’s so effective it lands you a job at the White House.

Well, that’s what happened to Maya Shankar, a PhD cognitive neuroscientist. In 2014, the Department of Veterans Affairs asked her to help increase signups in their veteran benefit scheme.

Maya had a plan. She was well aware of a cognitive bias that affects us all—the endowment effect. This bias suggests that people value items higher if they own them. So, she changed the subject line in the Veterans’ enrollment email.

Previously it read:

• Veterans, you’re eligible for the benefit program. Sign up today.

She tweaked one word, changing it to:

• Veterans, you’ve earned the benefits program. Sign up today.

This tiny tweak had a big impact. The amount of veterans enrolling in the program went up by 9%. And Maya landed a job working at the White House

Inspired by these psychological tweaks to emails, I started to run my own tests.

Alongside my podcast Nudge, I’ve run 100s of email tests on my 1,000s of newsletter subscribers.

Here are the five best tactics I’ve uncovered.

1. Show readers what they’re missing.

Nobel prize winning behavioral scientists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky uncovered a principle called loss aversion.

Loss aversion means that losses feel more painful than equivalent gains. In real-world terms, losing $10 feels worse than how gaining $10 feels good. And I wondered if this simple nudge could help increase the number of my podcast listeners.

For my test, I tweaked the subject line of the email announcing an episode. The control read:

“Listen to this one”

In the loss aversion variant it read:

“Don’t miss this one”

It is very subtle loss aversion. Rather than asking someone to listen, I’m saying they shouldn’t miss out. And it worked. It increased the open rate by 13.3% and the click rate by 12.5%. Plus, it was a small change that cost me nothing at all.

2. People follow the crowd.

In general, humans like to follow the masses. When picking a dish, we’ll often opt for the most popular. When choosing a movie to watch, we tend to pick the box office hit. It’s a well-known psychological bias called social proof.

I’ve always wondered if it works for emails. So, I set up an A/B experiment with two subject lines. Both promoted my show, but one contained social proof.

The control read: New Nudge: Why Brands Should Flaunt Their Flaws

The social proof variant read: New Nudge: Why Brands Should Flaunt Their Flaws (100,000 Downloads)

I hoped that by highlighting the episode’s high number of downloads, I’d encourage more people to listen. Fortunately, it worked.

The open rate went from 22% to 28% for the social proof version, and the click rate, (the number of people actually listening to the episode), doubled.

3. Praise loyal subscribers.

The consistency principle suggests that people are likely to stick to behaviours they’ve previously taken. A retired taxi driver won’t swap his car for a bike. A hairdresser won’t change to a cheap shampoo. We like to stay consistent with our past behaviors.

I decided to test this in an email.

For my test, I attempted to encourage my subscribers to leave a review for my podcast. I sent emails to 400 subscribers who had been following the show for a year.

The control read: “Could you leave a review for Nudge?”

The consistency variant read: “You’ve been following Nudge for 12 months, could you leave a review?”

My hypothesis was simple. If I remind people that they’ve consistently supported the show they’ll be more likely to leave a review.

It worked.

The open rate on the consistency version of the email was 7% higher.

But more importantly, the click rate, (the number of people who actually left a review), was almost 2x higher for the consistency version. Merely telling people they’d been a fan for a while doubled my reviews.

4. Showcase scarcity.

We prefer scarce resources. Taylor Swift gigs sell out in seconds not just because she’s popular, but because her tickets are hard to come by.

Swifties aren’t the first to experience this. Back in 1975, three researchers proved how powerful scarcity is. For the study, the researchers occupied a cafe. On alternating weeks they’d make one small change in the cafe.

On some weeks they’d ensure the cookie jar was full.

On other weeks they’d ensure the cookie jar only contained two cookies (never more or less).

In other words, sometimes the cookies looked abundantly available. Sometimes they looked like they were almost out.

This changed behaviour. Customers who saw the two cookie jar bought 43% more cookies than those who saw the full jar.

It sounds too good to be true, so I tested it for myself.

I sent an email to 260 subscribers offering free access to my Science of Marketing course for one day only.

In the control, the subject line read: “Free access to the Science of Marketing course”

For the scarcity variant it read: “Only Today: Get free access to the Science of Marketing Course | Only one enrol per person.”

130 people received the first email, 130 received the second. And the result was almost as good as the cookie finding. The scarcity version had a 15.1% higher open rate.

5. Spark curiosity.

All of the email tips I’ve shared have only been tested on my relatively small audience. So, I thought I’d end with a tip that was tested on the masses.

Back in 2012, Barack Obama and his campaign team sent hundreds of emails to raise funds for his campaign.

Of the $690 million he raised, most came from direct email appeals. But there was one email, according to ABC news, that was far more effective than the rest. And it was an odd one.

The email that drew in the most cash, had a strange subject line. It simply said “Hey.”

The actual email asked the reader to donate, sharing all the expected reasons, but the subject line was different.

It sparked curiosity, it got people wondering, is Obama saying Hey just to me?

Readers were curious and couldn’t help but open the email. According to ABC it was “the most effective pitch of all.”

Because more people opened, it raised more money than any other email. The bias Obama used here is the curiosity gap. We’re more likely to act on something when our curiosity is piqued.

Loss aversion, social proof, consistency, scarcity and curiosity—all these nudges have helped me improve my emails. And I reckon they’ll work for you.

It’s not guaranteed of course. Many might fail. But running some simple a/b tests for your emails is cost free, so why not try it out?

This blog is part of Phill Agnew’s Marketing Cheat Sheet series where he reveals the scientifically proven tips to help you improve your marketing. To learn more, listen to his podcast Nudge, a proud member of the Hubspot Podcast Network.

It’s estimated that a shocking 60% (or less) of work time is spent productively, according to Atlassian. Time is our scarcest resource, yet we spend so much of it doing things that are unproductive — usually without meaning to.

Emails, meetings, endless notifications… We’re indeed being pulled in more directions than ever before, but it’s not just technology holding us back from making the most of our time. In many cases, we are the ones responsible for our own lack of productivity.

As a freelance remote worker, I’ve had to tango with my self-sabotaging productivity quirks more than most. I used to blame my workload and environment; it wasn’t until I was completely in control of those factors that I was left with the realization that I was the problem all along.

Like you, I’m more successful and happy when I’m productive. We’re all on the hunt for the magic bullet solution; this has led to the endless production of AI productivity tools and life-hack lists. How can we produce more while doing less?

We look over at the person who seems to get it all done while still managing to have a life, and we ask ourselves: What does she know that I don’t? Is there a secret to high productivity?

With some work, many of the barriers to productivity are solvable. However, to truly enhance productivity, you need to first understand it. Here’s what science says.

Table of Contents

• The Science of Productivity
• 9 Science-Proven Ways to Get More Done in a Day
• Data-Backed Productivity Tools

The Science of Productivity

“Productivity is the art and science of reshaping yourself and the world around you in a way that makes the world work better,” shares author and organization expert Frank Buck, Ed.D.

“While the literature on productivity is massive, it all points back to that one definition. Psychological research dating back to at least 1966 (J.B. Rotter) suggests that those who feel they can control their surroundings act upon those beliefs, persist longer, and achieve greater results,” Buck concludes.

Society has long been aware of a shared desire to improve productivity, yet the modern world has moved us further away from that dream.

Technology provides constant, endless distractions — and we feed into this by being subconsciously addicted to information.

Scientists have discovered that the dopamine neurons in our brains treat information as a reward.

While this makes sense evolutionarily — having access to relevant information like the location of food sources means we make better decisions and are more likely to survive — it also means we’re naturally attracted to distractions outside our primary objectives.

Insert: our phones. Smartphones are a distraction disaster. Here’s how to overcome the hurdles that technology presents.

9 Science-Proven Ways to Get More Done in a Day

A quick Google search will show you that most productivity lists recommend artificial intelligence software (AI). I’ll share some of the top AI productivity tools in a minute, but I encourage you to take AI tools with a warning.

An unproductive person throwing AI apps at their workload is like applying wax to a car before washing the dirt off. All of the AI capabilities in the world won’t boost productivity if you still undermine your own success. Start with these tips instead.

1. Use a to-do list.

Create a task list for yourself that includes ALL of your to-do’s, no matter how small. Each item on your list should be independently achievable. Break big tasks into small, individual steps.

The benefits are three-fold:

• Know what needs to be done. Task creation is a step in the decision-making process, and it’s more time-consuming than it looks on the surface.
• Remove the risk of forgetting. Relying on a mental to-do list creates unnecessary strain and stress, and trying to ad-lib your workload will result in missed tasks and poor time management.
• Create a workload that you can achieve. Writing unachievable task lists creates the feeling that you’re perpetually behind, and the inability to estimate your work output will eventually create a genuine problem. Technology writer Steven K. Roberts nicknamed this “The Roberts Law of Fractal To-Do List Complexity: Each item on a list is merely the title of another list.”

Why It Works

Imagine if you wanted to make a loaf of bread. You would never choose to guess and stumble your way through the process: “What comes next? Milk? I wonder how much I should use?”

No one would choose that path, yet many people approach their workload with this ad-lib mentality. A to-do list is like a recipe for your work, and it’s extremely effective when used properly.

Harvard Business Review says there are endless upsides to using to-do lists, with the only potential downside being that they don’t go far enough to push us to follow through.

“If every time we added an item to our to-do lists we also came up with a plan to specify what actions we need to take and when those actions need to be taken, that would help minimize the odds of our to-do lists becoming graveyards of unfinished items,” researcher E. J. Masicampo shared with Harvard Business Review.

Testing It Out

I’m no stranger to to-do lists. I fell in love when I was in college. I’m confident my to-do lists are the only reason I graduated, held down a job, wrote a book, or have ever done anything else productive in my life.

However, the Harvard Business Review interview made me realize that I wasn’t leveraging the full potential of to-do lists by not adding a timeframe to my intentions.

Normally, I create a to-do list for the week but don’t assign those tasks to a specific day. For the upcoming week, I tried assigning each task to a day of the week. I didn’t adhere to this perfectly, but this did eliminate the decision-making part of my morning, where I thought about what I felt like working on.

2. Just get started.

While it’s human nature to postpone tasks that feel intimidating, it’s incredibly counterproductive. Simply starting a task is a surefire way to kickstart your productivity.

For some, this might mean diving right in, even if you’re not sure where to begin. HubSpot UX Editor Beth Dunn told me that when she gets writer’s block, she just opens Google Docs and starts typing away, even if the words don’t mean anything.

For others, it might mean splitting big projects into smaller ones. HubSpot Co-Founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah said he likes to “deconstruct” the large problem at hand into smaller, bite-sized chunks.

Each of the individual, smaller things seem surmountable on their own, and it calms him to know that if he conquers all of those small things, he’s essentially conquered the big thing.

Why It Works

According to a study by award-winning psychology researcher, Dr. John Bargh, before we embark on big projects, our brains attempt to simulate real, productive work by focusing on small, mindless tasks to pass the time.

Consequently, this prevents us from getting real work done. Now it makes sense why my college dorm room was never cleaner than during finals week!

Once you get over that hump of starting, there’s good news: We feel naturally compelled to finish a task once we’ve already started, thanks to the Zeigarnik Effect.

According to Social Psychology and Human Nature, the Zeigarnik effect is “the tendency to experience intrusive thoughts about an objective that was once pursued and left incomplete.”

Testing It Out

I tested this theory out by making a strict plan for my Monday morning workload. In advance, I decided:

• What I would work on.
• Where I’d work from.
• Exactly what time I’d begin working.
• Which music I would listen to.

This amount of structure was foreign so I felt some natural resistance to it, but it did keep me from falling into the trap of busy work at moments in the day. When I woke up and thought about my day, I had immediate clarity.

3. Work with others.

Make yourself a part of a group, and you’ll be impacted by the focus and good habits of those around you. This can be done in person at the office or in a coworking space, or you can virtually co-work 24/7 through platforms like Study Together.

Why It Works

When you see others modeling good habits, there’s subconscious pressure to conform. You’re less likely to bust out your phone and browse social media posts when everyone in your direct vicinity is doing their work.

It’s a grown-up version of peer pressure, which Brett Laursen, Ph.D. said is really defined as influence. When interviewed on the American Psychological Association’s podcast Speaking of Psychology, Dr. Laursen said that “peer pressure follows people across their whole life course” and can be positive.

Testing It Out

As a remote freelance writer, I haven’t experienced coworkers in seven years. I’m accustomed to working alone, but I still eagerly tested out the virtual coworking space Study Together.

While this group was designed for students, I still carry a backpack and love a library work session as much as anyone, so I entered the virtual coworking session on a Saturday morning along with 213 others in my study room (pictured below: me about to enter my study room).

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When I joined, there were an astounding 17,801 members active across all rooms. I was surprised to feel a sense of belonging as a result of the group size. We all worked silently alongside each other, and I really enjoyed the effect this had.

However, I think it’s much more powerful in person.

It’s important to note that coworking can also work against your productivity. The psychology of peer influence works both ways, so if you’re surrounded by unfocused individuals, you may feel yourself being negatively impacted.

4. Work in sprints.

We all know that an eight-hour workday isn’t meant to be swallowed in one bite; it needs to be broken up, but how? Improve productivity by breaking your day into predetermined work sessions with planned breaks.

Why It Works

Have you ever heard of the “basic rest-activity cycle” humans experience when we sleep? Physiologist Nathaniel Kleitman, the pioneering sleep researcher who co-discovered REM sleep, is also well known for observing that humans alternate progressively between light and deep sleep in 90-minute periods.

According to a Harvard Business Review article by Tony Schwartz, Kleitman found that we operate by that same 90-minute rhythm during the day by moving progressively through periods of higher and lower alertness.

After working at high intensity for more than 90 minutes, writes Schwartz, we begin relying on stress hormones for energy. The result: Our prefrontal cortex starts to shut down, and we start losing our ability to think clearly and reflectively.

“We move from parasympathetic to a sympathetic arousal — a physiological state more commonly known as ‘fight or flight,’” Schwartz says.

So instead of artificially overriding periods of low alertness with caffeine, sugary foods, and stress hormones, you can better manage your time at work by respecting the human need for rhythmic pulses of rest and renewal.

Testing It Out

I’m a seasoned sprint worker, so I didn’t need to test this technique. However, I was surprised to learn that this has yielded results across diverse fields.

A man named Anders Ericsson conducted a study of elite musicians and found they don’t necessarily practice more — they just practice more deliberately. “

They focus their energy in packets,” says Gregory Ciotti in an explanation of Ericsson’s study.

This means “periods of intense work followed by breaks, instead of diluting work time over the whole day. They don’t rely on willpower — they rely on habit and disciplined scheduling.”

Ericsson’s study of elite violinists found they tend to follow 90-minute periods of hard work with 15- to 20-minute breaks.

Rest periods get a bad rap in today’s working world, but it turns out they are integral to high productivity over long periods.

5. Don’t eliminate old habits; change them.

For some of us, it’s bad habits like checking email every few minutes or opening up social media that cost us (and others) precious productivity time.

Sometimes, these habits become so automatic that we don’t even realize we’re doing them. Identify the habit that disrupts your productivity the most and replace it with something else.

Why It Works

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Charles Duhigg spent years researching the power habits have over us. He found that rather than trying to eliminate an old habit, people find more success in changing that habit by replacing it with a new, less destructive one.

Why? Because every time you have an urge and you do something about it, the reward you get from it creates a neurological pathway in your brain.

When you repeat that action and experience the same reward again, that neurological pathway gets a little bit thicker; and the next time, even thicker. The thicker that pathway gets, the easier it is for impulses to travel down it.

So when you try to extinguish a habit completely, you’re actually trying to use willpower to destroy a neural pathway. It’s possible, but it’s ineffective.

So if you’re having trouble eliminating a habit that’s keeping you from being productive, here’s what Duhigg suggests you do:

1. Diagnose the “cue” or the urge that sets off the habit.
2. Diagnose the reward you get from doing that habit.
3. Replace your habit with an activity that’s both triggered by the old cue and delivers the old reward or a version of it.

See the full flow chart here.

Testing It Out

When my brain buffers and I want a quick dopamine hit, I reach for my phone without thinking. Instead of trying to quit this behavior, I replaced checking my phone with checking my laptop background.

Using Canva, I created a collage of images that cause feelings of gratitude, happiness, and anticipation. Instead of reaching for my phone, I now press “windows+M” (to minimize all tabs) and get a dopamine hit that makes me feel grateful, centered, and excited about the plans I have ahead.

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Not only do I waste less time on my phone, but I’ve also replaced my normal social media scroll with something that leaves me feeling better.

6. Create productive rituals.

Speaking of building better habits, Schwartz says the best way to get things done “is to make them more automatic so they require less energy.”

As President and CEO of The Energy Project, he advises his clients to develop rituals: highly specific behaviors done at precise times that, over time, become so automatic that they require no conscious will or discipline.

For example, Schwartz makes a habit of immediately writing down new tasks he needs to accomplish and new ideas that occur to him. That way, he never has to walk around preoccupied with the burden of remembering something.

David Allen, productivity consultant and author of the best-selling book Getting Things Done, would agree: “People don’t capture stuff that has their attention. And it keeps rolling around in the organizational psyche as well as the personal psyche, draining energy and creating incredible psychic residue.”

According to Allen, when people say they’ll do something but don’t write it down, it goes into a black hole.

“That would be fine if it were just one thing, but it’s hundreds of things … Your head is for having ideas, not holding them,” Allen says. “Just dumping everything out of your head and externalizing it is a huge step, and it can have a significant effect.”

Why It Works

We mentally pick up pieces of information all day and let them slosh around our subconscious minds. Emails, tasks that you realize need to be completed — they accumulate like picking up groceries at the store until your arms are overflowing and you start to drop things.

Without rituals that dictate when you answer that email, which order to tackle your to-do list, and every other micro-decision in your day, you’re repeatedly half-handling tasks all day long.

Another version of Schwartz’s philosophy is what Harvard Business Review’s Gretchen Gavett calls OHIO: Only Handle It Once.

For example, when you go through your email, decide immediately what to do with each one — immediately respond to the ones that need answering, and delete the unimportant ones on the spot. Never read an email and think, “I’ll circle back to this later.”

Rituals are theorized to be the secret to productivity and happiness itself. “In an age of choice, rituals are the key to happiness,” The Guardian’s Tomiwa Owolade writes.

Testing It Out

For a week, I applied the OHIO technique to my inbox management system. I was guilty of checking emails around the clock just to feel updated, but I never replied to them right away. Without realizing it, I was handling every email multiple times.

This goes directly against the OHIO principle, so for a week, I only checked my email at the beginning and end of my workday, and I handled every email immediately.

My inbox anxiety essentially disappeared, and I replied to everything in a more timely manner. After a week of testing this, I removed my email accounts (both work and personal) from my phone altogether to make this a part of my routine.

7. Leverage peak productivity hours.

Everyone’s willpower is limited and generally stronger at the beginning of the day when they haven’t expended any energy yet.

You can leverage these peak productivity hours by scheduling your most important or most difficult tasks for the beginning of the day when you have the greatest willpower to avoid distractions.

Why It Works

Studies have concluded that willpower is a finite resource. Acts of self-control, like trying to remember to respond to an email or ignoring distractions, leave us with decreasing willpower throughout the day.

According to Lia Steakley of Stanford Medicine’s Scopeblog, “as with physical exercise, using your self-control muscles may be tiring, but over time the workout increases your strength and stamina. So, what starts out difficult becomes easier over time. New behaviors become habits, temptations become less overwhelming, and willpower challenges can even become fun.”

As you build habits like responding to emails right away and writing down all your to-do’s, you’ll eliminate the fear of forgetting — and therefore, the burden of remembering.

The result: more energy, more willpower, and better productivity.

Testing It Out

At the end of my workday, I reviewed my to-do list for the following day. I identified tomorrow’s most important task and decided to complete it first.

I usually like to work through my to-do list based on my mood, so it was hard to force myself to work on a specific task. In complete honesty, I didn’t succeed on my first attempt, but I tried again.

Even though I didn’t achieve 100% success, prioritizing my workload still made me feel less stressed and more in control of my day.

8. Time-blocking technique.

Time blocking is the process of determining exactly when you’ll work on a specific task and scheduling those tasks as if you’re scheduling a meeting.

These tasks are added to your Google Calendar, and you will show up at the predetermined time and do the planned work.

Why It Works

Most of us wouldn’t skip a meeting just because we didn’t feel like going, but we treat our own work tasks like this all the time.

When we say to ourselves, “I’ll work on X first thing tomorrow,” and then we fail to follow through, our confidence and ability to execute our intentions dwindles. Time blocking builds the muscle that restores this ability to follow through.

Cal Newport, author of the acclaimed book Deep Work, advocates for detailed time blocking of your entire work day. “A 40-hour time-blocked work week, I estimate, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week pursued without structure,” says Cal Newport.

Time blocking is perhaps the most impactful way to improve time management. Follow-through is improved, as is the quality of your focused work.

Testing It Out

A task I’ve been procrastinating on is updating my financial Google Sheets (fun, I know.) For weeks, I’ve been thinking, “Just do it. You’ll thank yourself when tax time comes around.” However, I still haven’t made any concrete progress on this task.

I time blocked three hours on my Google Calendar for next week to handle this. Even though I haven’t completed the task yet, having put it on my calendar makes me feel less anxious because I know it will be handled by the end of the allotted time.

9. Task batching.

Identify repetitive tasks in your workload and condense these to-do’s into a single task.

Here’s a task batching example: If you want to publish a post on LinkedIn every day, you can wake up every morning, come up with a posting idea, write it, and hit “publish.”

Or, you can batch this task once a week: For two hours every Monday morning, you can come up with seven post ideas, write them all, and schedule them to publish for the rest of the week.

Not only do you sidestep writer’s block every day, but the repetition naturally speeds up the rate at which you create this content.

Why It Works

Task batching will help you complete your tasks in a more efficient way while reducing multitasking.

The human brain isn’t wired to multitask; it can reduce your productivity by up to 40%. The inverse of multitasking is monotasking: focusing on a single task, removing distractions, and completing the task at hand.

As a side effect, this task management technique also helps you improve the efficiency of your work. Inefficiencies in your workflow aren’t always easy to spot when you work on a task periodically.

When you force yourself to repeat a process several times in a row, you naturally find time-consuming steps that can be condensed or handled by AI productivity apps.

Testing It Out

Like most entrepreneurs, content creation is a part of marketing my business.

It’s something I tend to postpone because it’s not a part of my client deliverables. Pinterest is one of my business’s most important channels, and I used to schedule pins week by week.

Using the task batching technique, I planned two months of content creation at once. I created all of the pin images, wrote the descriptions, and scheduled them.

It was a lengthy process, but it was a relief to know that this to-do was off my plate for the foreseeable future.

While batching this task, I discovered just how much time I was wasting when completing it week by week. I’ve adjusted my process permanently.

Data-Backed Productivity Tools

With the psychology understood and our personal habits examined, it’s time to look at the tools and AI apps that can help take our productivity even further.

Pomodoro Timer

Remember physiologist Nathaniel Kleitman, who said that we work better in cycles? Make cycles a part of your routine with a Pomodoro timer.

The Pomodoro Technique is a method developed by Francesco Cirillo, which breaks blocks of time down into chunks of work and breaks.

You can use any time configuration, but a popular one is 25 minutes of work with a 5-minute break, then taking a 15-minute break every four work cycles.

Don’t use your phone timer as a timer; instead, install a browser extension like the Pomodoro® Assistant Google Chrome extension. It’s free and displays how much time is left in your time block on your screen, removing the temptation to check your phone.

Here’s what pops up on your computer when you’ve earned a break. Each red dot represents a completed work session:

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What I like: I never feel guilty or wonder if I’ve “earned” a break when using my Pomorodo timer; I rely on data instead of emotions, and it takes all of the guesswork out of structuring my day.

AI Productivity Tools

In 2009, Apple invented the catchy phrase “there’s an app for that.” Now, there’s an AI tool for that, too. Here are some popular tasks and the AI productivity tools that assist with them:

• Try AI transcription apps like Fathom.
• Automate repetitive tasks with tools like Bardeen.
• Analyze data with tools like Tableau.
• Handle project management with tools like ClickUp.
• Draft emails with tools like HubSpot AI.

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Best for: Speeding up refined processes, doing mundane tasks, or automating repetitive tasks.

Task Management Software

Task tracking is an important tool in your productivity arsenal, and there’s a task management app for every style and preference.

Here are some of my favorite task management apps, which all have free versions with premium upgrades available (except for HubSpot Tasks, which is free):

• Notion
• Trello
• ClickUp
• Basecamp
• Asana
• HubSpot Tasks

These project management tools also incorporate AI. We compare them in our AI project management tools analysis.

Task management is never more important than when you’re working on collaborative projects. All of these apps work for individuals as well as teams.

What I like: I love seeing project updates at a glance and the flexibility to capture all ideas via endless media, attachments, and notes.

News Feed Eradicator

Anyone who works in social media management or content creation knows what a double-edged sword social media is for productivity.

If being on social media is a part of your job, you can make it less of a productivity black hole with the free News Feed Eradicator Google Chrome extension.

This tool blocks out the news feed of social media websites, while still allowing you to answer messages, converse in groups, reply to comments, etc.

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Best for: People who need social media as a part of their day-to-day work but want to limit how time-consuming it is.

BlockSite

Is there a specific website that sabotages your productivity?

Make it inaccessible using the app BlockSite. BlockSite is a free tool that’s available on Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, the App Store, and more.

The free version allows you to block three websites, and you can upgrade to add more.

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What I like: This fosters a level of self-awareness and reflection that’s healthy and productive.

Do your distractions require a firmer hand? The “GO ‘FREAKING’ WORK” (expletive removed) Google Chrome extension does the same thing but offers a verbal insult every time you open up a blocked website.

Getting Started

Which of these techniques will change your life?

I can say with utter confidence that OHIO (only handle it once) has already changed my life; I’ve found myself fitting it into conversation and recommending it to everyone. There was a similar “love at first sight” effect when I discovered to-do lists and the Pomodoro technique years ago.

Whether you’re pursuing academic success, need help focusing on specific tasks, or just want to get your valuable time back, these tips will help you regain some control over how you spend your time.

Who knows what potential is hiding underneath all of your unproductive habits.

That extra time may just move mountains, alter your career, or completely change your life. Better start today!

In this guide, I will show how you can use content marketing to attract, educate, engage, and delight your target audience.

We’ve applied what you’ll learn for over a decade, causing us to attract millions of monthly visitors to HubSpot.com.

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Besides our website content, our practical content marketing approach helps us get millions of YouTube views.

So, if you want to learn how content marketing can

• Improve brand awareness,
• Establish your company as an industry leader,
• Increase conversions,
• Get you more revenue,

— then this is the guide for you.

Whether you’re devising or refreshing your strategy, this guide will help you reassess your process and come up with new ways to create and share content with your audience.

Here‘s what we’ll cover:

What is content marketing?

The definition of content marketing is simple.

Content marketing is the publishing of written and visual material online with the purpose of attracting more leads to your business.

These materials can include blog posts, ebooks, infographics, videos, web pages, and more.

However, content marketing is not the publishing of a thin piece of content that offers little value. The focus is on making valuable materials your audience can discover themselves while they browse.

Today, outbound marketing strategies (marketing tactics that interrupt your audience) aren’t as effective at resonating with and converting audiences. This is where inbound, the opposite of outbound, shines.

A common way of using inbound is by creating a narrative for your content — or telling a story. In doing so, your content will feel more authentic, engaging, and tailored to your audience.

So, what defines content marketing anyway?

Why is content marketing important?

2024 HubSpot research shows that 29% of companies use content marketing.

Let’s explore some reasons companies do this.

1. Modern consumers prefer informational content over intrusive Ads.

Years back, the Content Marketing Institute found that 70% of consumers prefer to learn about a product or service via an article rather than an ad.

This is still true today because 44% of buyers consume three to five pieces of content before engaging with a vendor.

These stats suggest consumers like me would actively avoid unsolicited marketing messages, such as cold calling and paid ads.

For instance, I didn’t mind buying a YouTube Premium subscription to block interruptive ads.

And I’m not alone.

One study revealed 290 million people use ad blockers on their desktops.

2. Less costly but more effective lead generation method.

Demand Metric established that content marketing generates over three times more leads than outbound marketing and costs 62% less on average.

Anecdotal evidence proves this is still correct.

A popular entrepreneur, Alex Hormozi, recently revealed that he and his wife, Leila, spend about $70,000 monthly to produce 160 content pieces.

This content saves the Hormozis over $2 million that they’d have spent on paid ads to get leads.

Besides the Hormozis, 67% of B2B marketers say content marketing was an effective lead generation strategy in 2023.

3. Builds Brand Awareness

Content marketing expands your reach and increases your chances of being discovered by a new audience.

The result? You increase your brand recognition and recall.

To maximize this benefit, publish and distribute your content consistently.

4. Builds Trust and Establishes Brand Authority

Consistent sharing of educational content positions you as an expert advisor.

It shows your audience that you value them and are interested in their success.

This grows brand trust, keeps you top of mind, and makes your audience more likely to choose you when ready to make a purchase decision.

Content Marketing Statistics

In September 2023, HubSpot surveyed 1,400+ B2B and B2C marketers across 14 countries and 23 industries. Here is some of what they said:

• 30% of marketers will start using short-form videos in 2024.
• 56% of marketers using TikTok will increase their investment next year, the highest on any platform.
• 45% of marketers use AI for ideas and inspiration, 31% create outlines, 18% to draft their content, and 6% use AI to write content.
• 14% of marketers say creating content that generates leads is one of their top challenges.
• 87% of social sellers say social selling is effective, and 59% say they made more sales on social media in 2023 than 2022.
• 24% of marketers with effective strategies in 2023 list increasing revenue and sales as their top goal for 2024.
• 16% of marketers plan to try experiential marketing (engaging audiences in real life.
• with pop-ups and events) and influencer marketing for the first time.

To get more insights, download the 2024 State of Marketing Report.

Now let’s look at types of content marketing.

Types of Content Marketing

There are many types of content marketing you can incorporate into your strategy. Here are some of the most common.

1. Online Content Marketing

Online content marketing refers to any material you publish online, but more specifically, it refers to your web pages.

A strong online content marketing strategy will help you rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). The outcome? You get in front of the right people at the right time.

HubSpot’s homepage is one example. This page immediately engages visitors with specific content about our products.

2. Social Media Content Marketing

With over 4.5 billion global social media users, it’s easy to understand why many businesses invest in social media marketing.

There are many platforms to work with, including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, X, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. Each platform offers several ways to create and share content, such as photos, live videos, pre-recorded videos, and stories.

Featured Resource: Social Media Content Calendar

3. Infographic Content Marketing

Infographics display content, information, and data in an easy-to-understand graphic format. With a mix of simple wording, short statements, and clear images, infographics are a great way to communicate your content effectively. They work well if you’re trying to simplify an educational or complex topic so all audience members can understand it.

Featured Resource: 15 Free Infographic Templates

4. Blog Content Marketing

Blogs are a powerful type of inbound content that allows you to be creative in your choice of topic and writing.

With a blog, you can promote your related content with links, add social share buttons, and incorporate product information.

Featured Resource: Start a Successful Blog

5. Podcast Content Marketing

Experts predict that over 71 million people will listen to podcasts in 2025.

That’s 10 million more than the current listeners across the Spotify and Apple Podcast platforms. For this reason, many businesses and media outlets create and share their own podcasts.

Podcasts allow for a lot of creativity, as they can be about any topic of choice.

Plus, you decide on other factors related to the podcast. These factors include the cadence of episodes, podcast guests, where you advertise the podcast, and each episode’s length.

Featured Resource: How to Start a Podcast

6. Video Content Marketing

According to Wyzowl research, 91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool.

Video marketing can help build a strong bond with your audience, boost conversions, and improve ROI. You may choose to share your video content on social media platforms, landing pages, or on a co-marketer’s website.

Featured Resource: The Ultimate Video Marketing Starter Pack

7. Paid Ad Content Marketing

Paid ads can help you reach a broad audience and allow you to position yourself in all the places you want to be seen — paid ads are especially beneficial when paired with inbound marketing.

There are many places you can share paid ads, including on social media, landing pages, banners, and sponsored content.

Featured Resource: The Ultimate Google Ads PPC Kit

Content Marketing and SEO

When creating content for your blog, making it helpful is a start.

However, “helpful content” is not enough to guarantee online visibility. A 2023 report by Ahrefs shows that 96.55% of content gets no organic search traffic from Google.

To join the winning 3.45%, you may need to invest in SEO. SEO is the optimizing of a website to make it visible in the results of search engines like Google and Bing.

Implementing SEO is beneficial for your content because 85.19% of all blog traffic comes from organic search. Our State of Marketing also shows SEO (16%) and content marketing (14%) are the two top channels that drive the biggest ROI.

To attract traffic from organic search, I recommend you learn how to create an SEO strategy. That said, below are some high-level tips for bolstering your content marketing efforts using SEO.

• Start a blog. Having a blog on your website increases your indexed pages, which improves your chances of ranking on Google.

• Conduct keyword research. Identify terms or phrases your target audience is likely to use when searching for information.

• Create high-quality content. Google prioritizes content that provides value to users. Such content must also satisfy a user’s search intent. My recommendation? Aim to create content that wins you a heap of praise from readers. Then, strategically incorporate related keywords and do on-page SEO to improve your ranking chances.

• Build backlinks. Backlinks refer to links from other websites that point to your site. They’re historically considered a major Google ranking factor. Google recently claimed it’s deemphasizing backlinks as a ranking factor. However, a recent Backlinko study reveals that pages with lots of backlinks (still) rank above pages with fewer backlinks.

Content Marketing and Social Media

Beyond SEO, social media is another channel brands use to distribute their content. Data from our 2024 State of Marketing Report shows:

• Social media shopping tools (e.g., Instagram Shops) drive 16% ROI.
• 14% of marketers want to sell directly on social media.
• Facebook (29%), Instagram (29%), YouTube (26%), and TikTok (24%) have the strongest ROI.

Like blogging, social media is easy to set up. Unfortunately, many brands go about it the wrong way.

Here are a few tips to help you nail your social media marketing game.

Don’t use social media for overt product promotion only.

Smart marketers use social media to interact with their audience. They also use it to build an online community around their brand.

Whatever your goal is, remember to stick to the basics of content marketing. Prioritize helpful educational content over intrusive promotional content.

Focus on a few high-impact channels.

From text-based platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook to video-based platforms like YouTube and TikTok, there are over a dozen social media platforms in the market.

And it’s tempting to focus on all of them. But this approach will prove ineffective unless you have a huge budget and team.

Alternatively, research the social media platforms that your target audience uses frequently. Then, focus on about three of them.

Infuse humor and personality.

Audiences crave funny content.

According to our State of Consumer Trends Report, it’s the number one type of content they want the most from the brands they patronize.

It’s difficult to inject humor into long-form articles while maintaining professionalism. However, it’s easier to achieve this on social media. Here’s an example from our social media team:

Next, let’s talk about how content marketing works and look at some content marketing examples.

How does content marketing work?

Content marketers attract an audience with compelling stories and by sharing valuable information. They also use content channels to build community.

So, content marketing for business isn’t just a technique or strategy but a unique form of communication. With that in mind, people have different needs at different stages in the buying process.

To make sure your content meets a need at every stage, you’ll want to think about your conversion funnel.

Top of the Funnel (TOFU)

The top of the funnel is to build awareness with your content.

At this stage, your target audience might know they have a problem, but they aren’t sure how to solve it. As such, you can focus on broad pain points and common questions.

TOFU content should pull potential customers in to help them better understand a specific problem. This gives you a relevant opportunity to introduce them to your solution.

Common challenges for TOFU content include competition, balancing educational and promotional content, and tracking ROI.

To address these issues, create a content strategy that grabs the attention of a specific audience. Your strategy will also help you create a plan that aligns content topics and formats with business goals.

Then, create a list of KPIs to track your content performance.

Useful content types at the top of the funnel include:

• Blog posts.
• Social media posts.
• Short-form video.
• Podcasts.
• Infographics.
• Checklists.
• Ebooks.
• Webinars.
• Video ads.

Middle of the Funnel (MOFU)

Once a prospect passes to the middle of the funnel, they’re considering your product. They may have visited your site more than once, or they’re engaging with your social media accounts. They might have signed up for your email newsletter.

MOFU content should build a relationship with that person. At this point, they understand their problem and are comparing possible solutions.

So, your content should educate them on the specifics of your solution and show how it meets their unique needs.

This is also an important moment to build trust. A prospect might not be ready to buy, so pay attention to changes in user behavior.

It can be tempting to make assumptions or go for a quick conversion, but that can damage the relationship. Instead, offer in-depth information and value to nurture your lead.

Great middle-of-funnel content types include:

• Email newsletters.
• Product demos.
• Landing pages.
• White papers.
• Case studies.
• Longer-form videos.
• Blog posts.
• Interactive content.
• Webinars.

You may have heard that social media is just top-of-funnel content.

However, more users are making purchases on social media, and it’s also a popular channel for customer service and support.

So, be sure to create MOFU social posts and let prospects know you’re ready to help them on this channel.

Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU)

Bottom-of-funnel content helps your prospect decide and, ideally, convert.

This stage focuses on conversion. BOFU content should make it easy to test a product, understand pricing, and make a purchase.

Content that converts should drive action and create a sense of urgency. Prepare to respond to common objections and other blockers that can impact sales with your content.

Personalization can add to the impact of your content at this stage. Creating powerful CTAs is also important.

Bottom-of-funnel content types include:

• Personalized emails.
• User-generated content, like customer testimonials.
• Case studies.
• Pricing pages.
• Competitor comparison blog posts.
• Video demos.
• White papers.
• Remarketing campaigns.

Check out this post for more on how to align your content with the buyer journey.

Now, let’s cover your content marketing strategy.

Implementing your strategy makes your content marketing efforts impactful. The result? You reach your target audience, convert leads, and generate sales.

Let’s dive into the steps you’ll want to work through in order to develop an effective content strategy.

1. Find your target audience.

Creating content for a broad audience sounds like a good idea. But it’s hard to stand out with content that appeals to everyone.

Instead, focus on a niche of people with specific interests and needs. This can help you build a community with your content. To get started, look at your buyer personas.

Then, answer the following questions about your target audience to help you narrow down the right content for them:

• What do they need from you?
• What challenges are they looking to overcome?
• Why do they need your product or service?
• How can you help them succeed?
• Where do they spend their time?

2. Set SMART goals.

The next part of your content marketing strategy is to set SMART goals. These should be specific to your business — they’ll likely complement your broader marketing strategy and company goals.

Here are some SMART goal examples and SMART goal templates to help you get started.

3. Determine your KPIs.

Next, set key performance indicators (KPIs) for your SMART goals. KPIs are quantifiable data points you can use to measure your actual performance against your goal.

SMART GOAL	RELATED KPI
Brand awareness	Site traffic, social media followers, subscription sign-ups, mentions (by customers and partners)
Revenue	Daily sales, site traffic
Conversions	Conversion rate, shopping cart abandonment rate, associated shipping rate trends, competitive price trends
Brand loyalty	Returning customers, promoters, product reviews, referrals
Customer engagement	Likes, shares, follows, mentions, backlinks
Rapport and trust	Returning customers, promoters, followers, mentions
Strategic partners	New partnerships, mentions, backlinks

4. Decide on the type of content and content formats.

Next, you want to choose the type of content you’ll create and your top content formats.

Types of content are the broad categories of content you plan to produce. Content formats are the specific presentation methods within a content type.

For example, blog posts are a content type. But, a blog can include content formats like listicles, how-tos, thought leadership, product reviews, and more.

To get started, run a content audit to see what kind of content is already resonating with your customers.

You may also want to do some competitive analysis and look at industry trends. This research can help you figure out what content strategy will work best for your business.

Then, look back at the various content we reviewed earlier and your target audience research to decide on content types and formats.

5. Choose your content channels.

Once you’ve decided on the type of content you’ll market with, it’s time to choose your specific content channels.

Where will you share your content? Where will it live and be shared from?

For some of the content types, the channel you need to work with will be obvious. For example, if you’re creating Facebook content, your channel will be the social platform itself.

6. Set a budget.

Now, set your budget. Think about the type of content you’re creating and which channels you’re marketing that content on.

Then, ask yourself the following questions to figure out your budget:

• Do you need to purchase any software or technology to create the content? Think about tools like Adobe Photoshop, a subscription to Canva, or a camera to take high-quality photos and videos.
• Do you need to hire any content marketers or designers (such as artists, writers, editors, designers)?
• Do you need to pay for ad space?
• Do you need access to specific tools or resources to enhance or measure your specific type of content?

Make note of how your responses impact your budget — whether that’s an increase or decrease in what you may have already estimated.

7. Create a content publishing schedule.

To ensure you’re consistently producing content and sharing it with your prospects and customers, use a social media calendar or an editorial content calendar.

This will help your team stay on top of all the content your team is creating as well as allow you to schedule it ahead of time.

Use a free editorial calendar to schedule and optimize your marketing content and help boost conversions.

8. Create and distribute the content.

Create and distribute your content so your audience members can consume it — and possibly convert.

This step is about more than creating high-quality content. Keep learning to make your content useful and engaging. Practice writing headlines, make the most of the latest content trends, and build skills in the media that your audience favors.

Next, optimize your content so it’s easy for your audience to find. SEO is a useful skill for searchability. And, every social media platform is unique, so check out tips to succeed on channels like Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.

Finally, promote your content on email, social media, and more. Connect with influencers, build co-marketing partnerships, and post ads to get more eyes on your best content.

9. Analyze and measure results.

Lastly, analyze and measure your results. Figure out what’s not working and make adjustments to enhance your content marketing efforts and reach your audience.

Look at your SMART goals and KPIs to track the success of your content marketing strategy. Did you achieve your goals and KPIs? Were you close to reaching them, or were you off in your estimations?

Here are some tools to help you with your content marketing strategy analytics and results:

• HubSpot Marketing Analytics Software.
• HubSpot Social Media Management Software.
• Mention.
• SharedCount.
• Sprout Social.
• Google Analytics.

Now, let’s look at some content marketing examples.

Content Marketing Examples

The following examples will give you a better understanding of how you can incorporate content into your marketing strategy.

1. Example of Instagram Content Marketing

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Glossier’s Instagram account is on-brand and complements the rest of its marketing content. Even if the page didn’t say “Glossier” anywhere on the profile, customers would likely still know the profile belongs to this brand.

The Instagram page shares the Glossier product line, displays different products, and shows how to use each product. The profile feels and looks uniquely Glossier and depicts members of their wide customer base.

2. Example of Infographic Content Marketing

HubSpot created this infographic to show how people can get more blog subscribers. The infographic is on-brand, well-organized, and easy to read. It clearly shares information about the topic in a digestible manner.

3. Example of Blog Content Marketing

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Expedia has a blog that shares travel-related information. The brand publishes hotel recommendations, great places to visit, and travel activities to explore around the globe.

Expedia regularly publishes its blog content to keep readers interested and engaged. It includes a wide range of topics related to any type of trip you could imagine.

The blog is on-brand, and all articles relate to the travel technology company’s goal and mission of boosting brand awareness and gaining customers.

They do this by linking to their services and writing about customers who have already had positive experiences with the company.

Pro tip: You can create on-brand blog posts with the help of HubSpot’s Free AI Content Writer.

4. Example of Podcast Content Marketing

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Harvard Business Review (HBR) has a weekly podcast called HBR IdeaCast, which features industry leaders in both business and management. You can either subscribe to receive their hundreds of podcasts or pick those you want to listen to.

The podcast is on-brand and complements the rest of HBR’s published content.

It also serves as a great way for HBR to connect with their target audience, enhance brand awareness, and gain more followers through a medium that differs from their typical work (e.g., podcast versus HBR article).

5. Example of Video Content Marketing

Much of Dollar Shave Club’s video content has gone viral. Their marketing efforts are on-brand, humorous, and entertaining.

By establishing a name for itself via online video content, Dollar Shave Club has experienced impressive growth and brand recognition.

6. Example of Paid Ad Content Marketing

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Revolve — a clothing and accessories company — uses paid and sponsored ads on social media (like this one on Facebook) to reach their target audience while they browse their news feeds.

The content ads feature some of their products and details about their free shipping and return policy to drive target audience members to their site (and, hopefully, convert them into paying customers).

HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant can help you craft a marketing campaign for your preferred platform. Powered by AI, you can tell the software about your campaign and choose a tone of voice that aligns with your brand.

With just a few clicks, you’ll receive compelling copy that highlights your unique selling points and includes the desired CTA.

7. Example of X Content Marketing

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HubSpot uses X (formerly Twitter) to market software as well as create a community among customers, target audience members, and industry leaders and experts.

HubSpot shares product information, relevant tips, industry knowledge, and original research on X. HubSpot also interacts with users and makes sure anyone in need of customer support knows exactly where to go for help.

8. Example of TikTok Content Marketing

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Chipotle is an active brand on TikTok — the company uses the platform to reach and engage its customers and target audience members.

Besides reacting to others’ Chipotle-related TikTok content, the brand posts TikToks of their menu items, recipes, people enjoying their food, their restaurants, and more. They have over 2.3 million followers and over 53 million likes.

9. Example of Viral Content Marketing

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This viral content marketing example was one that came from a TikTok video. Nathan Apodaca’s original TikTok video included him sipping Ocean Spray cranberry juice while skateboarding and listening to “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac.

Because of the viral video, TikTok used part of Apodaca’s video in their ads, and Ocean Spray used Apodaca in their ads.

As a result, Ocean Spray saw a bump in sales and brand awareness, Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” was number one on iTunes, and there were thousands of videos posted by other TikTok users who bought the cranberry juice and recreated Apodaca’s original video.

Traits of Effective Content Marketing

With so many companies creating and publishing content online, it’s essential to go beyond the bare minimum.

A secret?

HubSpot strives to meet the following criteria to make sure our content meets our readers’ needs. The result? Millions of visits to our blog posts and web pages per month.

You can achieve similar results for your company if your content:

1. Provides value beyond your product offerings.

Content marketing isn’t just about sharing your products to get readers to become customers.

It’s important to offer value that empowers your customers to execute tasks more efficiently, such as making their businesses more profitable or shortening their morning routine.

Whatever the case may be, strive to create content that gives a solution for your customers’ most urgent needs.

Your product may be a solution, but if you’re not explicitly writing a product page, you should only incorporate product mentions if they make sense.

In the blog post below, hair care brand Curlsmith helps readers understand how to reach the right balance between high-protein and high-moisture products.

It doesn’t mention its products until the very end; instead, it educates the reader first.

2. Targets readers’ specific buying journey stage.

Providing value and answering customers’ needs is only a part of the story. In each piece of content, you should also target your customers’ specific buyer’s journey stage.

There are three stages of the buyer’s journey: awareness, consideration, and decision. In the awareness stage, buyers are still researching their issues.

In the consideration stage, they’re researching solutions. In the decision stage, they’re about to pick a provider.

If you’re writing a “What is [X]?” post, then the person who’s reading that article is likely not ready to decide about their provider. They are still in the awareness stage, completing research so that they can find out who offers a solution.

Conversely, if you’re writing a product page, the reader who visits that page has already researched potential products and found you as a possible provider.

That means you should pitch your product at every turn, reiterating your value proposition and differentiating yourself from the competition.

For example, Perfame isn’t shy about highlighting its products’ most valuable features. It claims it makes handcrafted and affordable perfumes that have a higher concentration of oils.

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3. Demonstrates a consistent brand voice and image.

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No matter if you’re creating a blog post, web page, or ebook, your visitors should be able to tell who you are immediately upon consuming your content.

Your brand shouldn’t sound as if ten different people are writing for you, even if that may be the case.

That’s why it’s critical to create both a writing style guide and a brand style guide. Both documents will confirm that:

• Your brand visuals look the same across all platforms and devices.
• Your brand tone and voice sound the same across all written communications.

Once you create both, share them with your content writers and your freelance or in-house designers.

Your content marketing publications will be much more cohesive and consistent, which will keep readers coming back to you as a resource and make you look more polished and professional.

4. It’s timely and engaging.

Do your customers typically plan their financials at the start of the year?

If you’re a finance startup, you might publish a blog post in January about budgeting quarter-over-quarter to prevent clerical errors and avoid overspending.

At the end of the post, you might include a prompt to check out your software or lead users to a template they can download after providing their email.

This is one example of content marketing that is timely and engaging. If you know your customers’ behavioral and spending patterns throughout the year, it’s critical to capitalize on that.

Publish blog posts and offers that capture them at the right time and answer their immediate needs. You’ll be ahead of the companies that publish similar content later on — and oftentimes, being first is all you need to win a customer over.

Now that we’ve seen the top traits of effective content marketing, let’s dive into the best resources you can use to learn more about it.

There are thousands of tools today that qualify as excellent content marketing resources. For the sake of this article, we’re going to keep things simple by providing a handful of our favorite options.

1. HubSpot Academy offers free education on how to become an effective content marketer.
2. HubSpot’s Free Content Creation Resources gives you access to resources that will propel your content marketing strategy toward success.
3. Content Marketing Institute has some of the best content marketing online education, print, and events available today.
4. Blog articles on content marketing, trends, strategies, and tips by industry experts (like HubSpot).
5. Podcasts about content marketing, such as This Old Marketing, or business trends, such as HBR IdeaCast, can inspire your content marketing strategy.
6. Google Trends allows you to search for trends across broad topics like content marketing or for niche topics within content marketing.
7. Ebooks and case studies have insights about content marketing or content marketing strategies, like this one by Mention.
8. You can track the latest content marketing statistics on a reputable database source like Statista.
9. Easy to use visual content and design software, such as Canva.
10. Free or paid social media management tools, such as HubSpot, Buffer, or Sprout Social, to help you create and share your social content.
11. Free or paid content and project management tools, like Trello or Asana, can help you plan and organize your content marketing strategy.
12. Free or paid marketing software connects your content marketing team, plan, strategy, and results to your greater marketing plan (and even your CRM).
13. Free or paid email marketing software, like HubSpot or Mailchimp, handles all aspects of your email campaigns and content.
14. Your network on platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn lets you connect with those in your industry to discuss relevant trends, answer each other’s questions, and provide or ask for feedback.

And speaking of tapping into your networks on sites like Twitter and LinkedIn, here’s some inspiration from a few of the greatest content marketers to follow on both platforms today.

3 Content Marketers to Follow on LinkedIn

1. Luvvie Ajayi Jones

Luvvie Ajayi Jones is a best-selling author, digital strategist, podcast host, and speaker. She’s known for combining humor with her experiences and background in marketing, communications, and new media.

Her LinkedIn content inspires people on topics like work culture, authenticity, leadership, content, marketing strategy, and more.

2. Zontee Hou

Zontee Hou is a digital marketer, strategist, speaker, and consultant.

She works with scaling companies to help them establish effective marketing strategies that work for their unique goals and audiences.

On her LinkedIn profile, Hou shares her expertise in content marketing, social media marketing, marketing analytics, and digital marketing.

3. A. Lee Judge

Lee Judge is a co-founder and digital marketing strategist at Content Monsta.

He’s also a podcast and video producer, speaker, and rev ops practitioner.

On his LinkedIn profile, he covers a wide range of topics related to lead generation, social media marketing, how to apply marketing analytics and data, digital experiences, multi-channel marketing, the importance of sales and marketing alignment, and more.

3 Content Marketers to Follow on X

4. Ann Handley

Ann Handley, Head of Content at MarketingProfs, is a bestselling author and speaker. She offers education and training around marketing that businesses can learn from and apply.

She offers in-person and virtual training for companies on content marketing, storytelling, lead generation, and branding — topics she also discusses and shares content about on her X page.

5. Neil Patel

Neil Patel is a bestselling author, marketing expert, speaker, and website and SEO consultant. He’s a thought leader and industry expert in content and digital marketing.

His X page includes information about his training and services, industry trends, marketing strategy tips and resources, and questions/conversational topics meant to engage followers and other industry experts.

6. Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is a marketing strategist, author, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcast host, and the chief evangelist of Canva.

On his X account, Kawasaki asks followers thought-provoking business questions and provides links to and information about new podcast episodes, industry trends, marketing strategy tips, and insights based on his experiences.

Engage Your Target Audience With Content Marketing

With effective content marketing, you can reach your target audience and increase conversions.

There are several ways to market with content to boost revenue, grow your brand awareness and recognition, and build relationships with your prospects and customers.

And don’t forget to extract more value from every piece of content you create.

To get started, decide which type of content works best for your business and audience and develop a content marketing strategy to begin boosting your bottom line today.

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

Having a pulse on the state of content consumption and demand is not just an advantage—it’s a necessity.

Fresh off of our recognition at the 2023 KIller Content Awards, we’re thrilled to announce the latest edition of our award-winning annual report.

Introducing NetLine’s 2024 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report

For years, NetLine has taken the line that we let the data speak for itself.

This year, however, (likely spurred by Chrome’s sunsetting of third-party cookies) we wanted to make sure the quality of our first-party data was front and center.

Further emphasizing this was David Fortino, NetLine’s Chief Strategy Officer, as he called attention to it in this year’s introduction to the 2024 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report. 

“Before you read on, there is a key distinction to callout that sets this report apart from other industry studies: This report is not a summary of survey findings.

When we say we have insights into what B2B professionals actually want and need, we mean it.”

An Analysis of 6.2 Million First-Party Content Registrations

Indeed, this report—our eighth—is the totality of more than 6.2 million first-party content registrations.

The 2024 report dives deep into the behaviors of B2B professionals, backed by an unprecedented analysis of the consumption of more than 45,000 individual content assets from the past year.

Let’s begin with one of the more “controversial” subjects in modern marketing and NetLine’s bread and butter: Gated content.

Marketers May Hate Gates, But Users Are Unbothered

Contrary to the narrative surrounding it, our findings reveal demand for gated B2B content increased 14.3% YOY—a clear sign that high-quality, gated content remains a critical tool in the marketer’s arsenal for capturing first-party intent signals.

Since 2019, demand has risen by 77%, a figure that stands in direct defiance of what many marketers believe: That users don’t consume gated content.

In 2021, the wise Andy Crestodina tweeted, “Don’t hate the gate.”

He had good reason to say it, too—users told him they didn’t hate gates.

Don’t hate the gate.

Do you have a problem with gated content?
Do you assume your visitors don’t like them?

Actually marketers are more squeamish about gated content than visitors!

This is a preview. Full report goes live next week… pic.twitter.com/GoYes0RBV1

— Andy Crestodina (@crestodina) March 17, 2021

As third-party cookies become deprecated, we need to have a plan of action around how to best keep in touch with our prospects and buyers.

Gating middle- and bottom-of-funnel content is a great way to alert you and your team of which individuals and accounts may be progressing toward a purchase decision.

Does this mean you should gate EVERYTHING?

Of course not.

As Robert Rose wrote on the subject in September 2023, “You can’t create content to both move a buyer in their journey AND create an audience member of your content.”

Said differently, you need it all: Gated and Ungated content.

35% of B2B Buyers Intend to Make Investments Within Next 12 Months

WIth the introduction of INTENTIVE in June, we at NetLine suddenly had access to an entirely new group of buyer intent signals.

By leveraging our extensive buyer-level intent insights, we’ve identified that, despite economic uncertainties, the propensity for B2B purchases remains strong.

An impressive 35.2% of B2B buyers anticipate making purchase decisions within the next 12 months, marking a 5.3% YOY increase.

There’s even more good news. 9.4% of respondents stated their plans to invest within the next three months, a 6.8% YOY increase from 2022.

Our research continues to validate the connection between content engagement and investment readiness, solidifying the idea that increased content consumption correlates with approaching purchase decisions.

We articulated this further on page 35 of the report in our Content Format Intent Matrix.

Ultimately, the takeaway is clear: A significant portion of the B2B market is ready to engage, provided that marketers and sellers can effectively interpret and act on the right signals.

Be vigilant in listening to your intent data and be ready to act when your prospects are in position to move ahead.

The Consumption Gap Widens…Again

First “coined” in NetLine’s inaugural 2017 report, The Consumption Gap is the measure of two distinct actions; between when a user requests an asset and when they download it.

This year’s report shows the Consumption Gap now at 31.2 hours.

Last year’s report revealed a big surprise: The Consumption Gap shrank in 2022.

This was short-lived, however.

For years, as registration volume grew, we’ve seen the Consumption Gap widen. Unless something drastic changes in the future, 2022 will likely be an anomaly – destined to be the data point we look back on and wonder what caused such a deviance.

This insight into the delay between content request and consumption offers a crucial reminder of the need for patience and precision in follow-up engagement strategies.

Remember: Unless your contact has explicitly requested that you get in touch with them, it’s best to wait at least two days before asking about whether or not they’ve enjoyed the content.

Otherwise, chances are they haven’t even opened it.

Interest in AI Content Soars

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Shortly after last year’s report was released, I had a conversation with Ann Handley. She quickly asked why there wasn’t anything that touched on AI.

I told her the truth: NetLine didn’t have much to report on at the time.

This certainly changed in 2023, demand for AI-related content exploded by more than 5.5x from 2022.

If current patterns hold true, we expect demand to double in 2024.

eBook Dominance Continues

eBooks have once again emerged as the most sought-after content format among B2B professionals, accounting for 39.5% of all content demand.

This preference highlights the ongoing need for in-depth, accessible, and comprehensive resources that support decision-making processes across industries.

The format’s ability to initiate and sustain engagement marks eBooks as a cornerstone in B2B content strategy, marrying the art of capturing interest with the science of fostering meaningful progress toward purchase decisions.

The popularity of eBooks has had a ripple effect on other formats. Book Summaries, Cheat Sheets, and Tips and Tricks Guides have all seen greater interest in recent years.

This gets back to the idea of what we shared about the C-Suite and how everyone, regardless of seniority, craves simple, straightforward content. Intent signals aside, the formats designed to deliver the most information in the most concise manner wins.

Preparing for a Successful 2024

We all know how important B2B content is. If you didn’t, you certainly wouldn’t be reading this sentence.

Cliches aside, what our 2024 report does drive home is how important B2B content is in the present and future state of digital marketing.

Thanks to AI and innovative buyer-level insights, the door is open to exciting new ways of connecting with buyers, further identifying the content to create, and smartly assisting in its production.

As we chart our course through 2024 and beyond, the insights from this year’s report arm us with the knowledge to navigate the complexities of B2B marketing with confidence and creativity.

We invite you to dive into the full report to discover the nuances and narratives shaping B2B content consumption today.

And as always, we’re excited to see how you leverage these insights to forge deeper connections, drive meaningful engagements, and achieve unparalleled growth in the B2B space.

NetLine’s 2024 Content Consumption Report is now available for download.

Garbage in, garbage out. While that’s certainly true of coding, that now applies to marketers who want to make the most of AI. I’ve written dozens of iterations of the same prompt, refining my query until I could strike the right balance.

When used right, AI saves me time on routine tasks and sparks my thinking. I can then focus on sprucing up the bot’s output or funnel my energies to the more creative, engaging parts of my job.

However, the right prompts are essential to make the most of AI’s capabilities.

In this article, I’ll share examples of AI prompts marketers that marketers can use to make the job easier. We’ll also share essential data on how marketers are using AI today.

What we’ll cover:

• How do AI prompts work?
• AI Prompts in Marketing Today
• Marketing AI Prompt Examples

How do AI prompts work?

All AI tools share a commonality: “great prompt = great output.”

A great AI prompt is specific, straightforward, filled with relevant information, and uses complete sentences. If your AI prompts deviate from the above qualities, the odds of getting unusable responses increase.

AI Prompts in Marketing Today

Our recent State of AI survey shows that hundreds of marketers benefit from artificial intelligence solutions. We surveyed 1,350 U.S. business professionals.

Marketers from our survey found that AI helped their teams automate manual tasks, save time, create personalized content, and better understand customer needs. That all relies on writing prompts that are specific and clear.

We asked marketers for their most effective when writing prompts for general AI. Of respondents, 53% suggested offering relevant context or background information. That includes specifying the target audience, describing the themes to cover, and providing additional notes.

Other best practices included using follow-up prompts to expand on previous outputs (43%) and providing specific prompts (45%). Another 55% recommended experimenting with different prompts to see what works best for your specific use case.

When using generative AI to write copy, the majority of marketers (51%) needed to write three prompts in order to achieve the desired result. When writing messages, 63% of respondents said they only needed to make minor edits to the text.

So, the prompts you use make all the difference. To learn more about how marketers leverage AI, download the State of AI report.

Marketers use AI for more than one purpose. They can use it to brainstorm entire processes or series if done correctly. So, as you find inspiration for your AI prompts, ‌try them out in HubSpot’s Content Assistant.

Join the waitlist for HubSpot’s Content Assistant today

This content assistant tool natively integrates with the HubSpot products you know and love, allowing you to toggle between manual and AI content creation to generate copy for blogs, emails, and more.

Now, let’s explore the different prompts you can use for your marketing strategy.

Marketing AI Prompt Examples

Examples of AI Prompts for Marketers

Educational Prompts

These prompts are useful for writing drafts of top-of-the-funnel content about popular topics. Here are some examples:

1. What is [topic]? Write a blog post of [number] words introducing the reader to [topic].

2. Briefly explain the stages of the [topic].

3. List the key elements of effective [topic].

4. What is the difference between [topic 1] and [topic 2]?

5. Outline how [topic] trends have influenced [another topic].

Informative Prompts

Informative prompts let you generate content that offers valuable insights to readers on a topic. Here are a few examples:

6. Create content for our help page that explains how [popular software feature] works.

7. Explain what [your company] can learn from [competitor] optimization of its user experience.

8. What are some popular myths about [topic]? Write a strong essay under 1,000 words that dispels all myths.

Listicle Prompts

These prompts help you outline ideas and create drafts for a list blog post or social media post. See some examples below.

9. List [number] must-have tools for beginner [topic] enthusiasts.

10. List [number] blog post titles on the benefit of an effective [topic].

11. List the major themes in our recent customer review below: [review].

12. List [number] common misconceptions about [topic] and debunk them.

13. List [number] frequently asked customer questions about our [topic]. Provide answers under 100 words to each question.

 

Technical Prompts

AI tools help write drafts of technical materials. Below are some technical AI prompts.

14. Write a [user manual] for [product feature] that guides users through its use.

15. Attached is the raw data of a survey we conducted. Our company’s name is [name]. We surveyed [user groups]. Analyze the survey data and outline the key findings.

16. Create a business proposal for a new content management system in a hypothetical company. Address costs, timelines, and expected benefits.

Art AI Prompts

Creating great art with AI is both a science and an art. Before creating an art prompt, you need to set up an account with tools like Midjourney. Here’s how an AI expert, Ruben Hassid, recommends you do this:

1. Open Midjourney and Discord accounts.

• Google Midjourney.
• Click Join Beta.
• Create a Discord account.
• Subscribe to any of their plans.

2. Use Midjourney.

• Invite Midjourney to your channel.
• Start a prompt with “/imagine.”
• Use descriptive words and techniques.
• Select the best variation out of 4.
• Upscale it or create variations of it.

3. Upscale the image or create variations.

U = Upscale = Make an image bigger.

V = Variation = 4 new images based on that one.

U1 = Upscale the top left image.

U2 = Upscale the top right image.

U3 = Upscale the bottom left image.

U4 = Upscale the bottom right image.

V1 = Create 4 variations from the top left image.

V2 = Create 4 variations from the top right image.

V3 = Create 4 variations from the bottom left image.

V4 = Create 4 variations from the bottom right image.

Examples of AI art prompts

17. An image for a [content type] showing a researcher engrossed in their work.

18. An image of a bold [color] lady for a web page. Lady should wear a jacket, look forward, smile, have dark hair, fold her hands, and stand in a library setting.

19. An image of nine professionals in a Zoom call setting. Blur the images a bit. Place the image of a [color] man in front of the image. The man should have a bold, bright smile and should be in a suit.

20. Image of cartoon researching with their computer. A ghost caricature behind the cartoon shows the researcher is a ghostwriter.

Examples of AI Prompts for Lead Generation

Lead generation is attracting prospects to your business and increasing their interest in becoming customers.

AI can empower marketers to attract more potential customers based on buyer persona characteristics if specified in the AI prompt. The following examples showcase how to get those customized results.

21. Generate ideas for a new product launch in [month] that incorporate the theme of [season] and [tone].

22. Brainstorm content ideas for a blog post about [topic] in [number] of words or fewer that is search engine optimized in formatting using H2s and H3s accordingly.

23. Suggest high-volume keyword clusters for [topic] to optimize search engine rankings.

24. Identify popular trends in the industry of [product or service] that an audience of [target audience] will be interested in this [upcoming season].

25. Generate ideas for an upcoming marketing campaign about [new product] with a marketing mix comprising [product] [price] [place] [promotion channels].

26. Suggest [number] ways to improve website traffic during [holiday season].

27. Identify potential target audiences in [location] that would be interested in buying [product] to solve [pain point].

28. Suggest new strategies for lead generation in [market] and [industry].

29. Generate ideas for creating a viral social media campaign using recent [social media platform] trending audios or popular memes from [month] [year].

30. Identify new channels for advertising [product] aside from [current platforms already in use].

Examples of AI Prompts for Social Media Posts

Did you know that AI can recognize different social media platforms? Marketers benefit from using AI prompts for their preferred channels instead of basing strategy on generalizations.

Here are some excellent examples to follow for social media drafts.

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31. Write a tweet promoting a new product suited for a target audience in [industry] and [location].

32. Generate a post for Instagram featuring a customer testimonial about [product] in under [number] words.

33. Write a Facebook post introducing a new product feature and rephrase its current description to sound more exciting and effective: [insert current product description text].

34. Create a LinkedIn post promoting a new job opening in [number] words or less with a strong call-to-action at the end.

35. Draft a Pinterest post featuring a new product line and provide tips on improving product photography for [type of aesthetic].

36. Write a YouTube video description for a new product review that links to [insert links] for viewers to go to the product landing page for more information.

37. Draft a TikTok video script showcasing a product demonstration for 2 minutes at maximum.

38. Create a Snapchat story promoting a limited-time offer and describe the type of stickers or filters that can improve it.

39. Write a blog post title to promote a new social media campaign in [number] characters or less.

40. Draft an email subject line to promote a new blog post that feels personal, enticing, and not spammy.

Examples of AI Prompts for Podcast or Video Content

Developing ideas for podcasts or videos on your own can be exhausting. Thankfully, AI can provide ideas for them and even walk you through the script and development process if you specify it in your prompt.

See the different prompts that can help you create multimedia content.

41. Draft a podcast episode about the latest [industry] trends and innovations that contains [number] minutes of dialogue.

42. Produce [number] of topics for a video series featuring interviews with thought leaders in [industry].

43. Develop a podcast episode discussing the benefits of [products or services] divided into four chapters.

44. Create a video series that showcases customer success stories.

45. Produce a podcast episode on the history and evolution of [brand or industry].

46. Develop a video series on best practices for using [products or services] in [number] of different ways.

47. Create a podcast episode that features an expert roundtable discussion on [industry topics].

48. Produce ideas for a video series featuring a behind-the-scenes look at your company’s operations.

49. Develop a podcast episode that offers tips and advice on succeeding in [industry] as an entrepreneur.

50. Create a video series highlighting the impact of [products or services] on the lives of customers or clients in [demographic].

Examples of AI Prompts for Content Promotion

Marketers looking for more effective ways to promote their products or services can use AI for best practices. Explore the different channels, tips, and methods this technology can yield using solid AI prompts.

51. Suggest the best time and day of the week to publish a blog post about [topic].

52. Write a press release announcing a new product launch geared toward [target audience] that sounds confident, exciting, and interesting.

53. Generate ideas for outreach emails to promote a new product, including [number] of attention-grabbing subject lines and [number] of clear calls-to-action.

54. Write a guest post for a popular industry blog discussing the impact of [product] on [marketing strategy].

55. Suggest the [number] best hashtags for a social media campaign on [social media platform] to reach [target audience].

56. Draft a script for a 60-second podcast ad [for service/product] that has a friendly tone and witty humor fit for [target audience characteristics].

57. Create a landing page for a new product promotion divided into [number] sections about different benefits based on this description: [insert new product description].

58. Write a script for a TV commercial involving [number] actors in [setting] that promotes [product/service].

59. Draft a product description for an ecommerce site that is [number] sentences long and enticing to [target audience].

60. Generate ideas for cross-promotion with other businesses in the [market], specifically with brands such as [brand names].

Examples of AI Prompts for Repurposing Content

AI can allow marketers to reuse and refresh outdated content to make something new or more useful in the current year — a process we call historical optimization.

When making AI prompts for content repurposing, be creative and see how you can transform your old work into something new.

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61. Repurpose a blog post into a video script using this article: [insert old blog post].

62. Turn a webinar into a podcast episode using this pre-existing transcript: [insert old webinar transcript].

63. Repurpose an ebook into a series of [number] blog posts using this pre-existing text: [insert old ebook content].

64. Generate ideas for updating an outdated infographic on [topic] for [year].

65. Rewrite a blog post into a series of [number] social media post series for [social media platform].

66. Turn an old product page into a landing page for a new product using this pre-existing copy: [insert old product page content].

67. Generate ideas for repurposing a white paper into a video series about [topic] using this pre-existing text: [insert old whitepaper content].

68. Rewrite an old email campaign into a new one with updated messaging suited for [season] [year].

69. Turn a research report into a series of social media posts using this information: [facts from the research report].

70. Generate ideas for repurposing an old product demo into a webinar.

Use Thorough AI Prompts for Thorough Results

AI is becoming incredibly useful for marketers in more ways than one. When you leverage this technology, make sure you’re using specific and concise prompts to yield the results your team seeks.

Experiment with different AI tools and AI prompts to find the best results for your needs.

It’s often challenging to navigate the information overload you experience, thanks to the never-ending updates from social media, news, and emails.

Subscribing to the right email newsletter ensures you get the information you need in your inbox. Like a hot knife through butter, the best email newsletters help you cut through the clutter to ensure you don’t miss out on anything important.

This blog post provides tips and tricks for creating a newsletter that delivers value to subscribers. I also include examples of exemplary newsletters and explain what makes them work.

The curation serves to level up the journalistic quality of your content, which results in two things:

• Increases the value you provide.
• Improves your authority and credibility in your audience’s eyes.

While newsletters and email marketing can be effective, many newsletters flop. 

These newsletters become an uninteresting mush of content people automatically ignore, archive, delete, or straight up unsubscribe from. And this isn’t great for you, your metrics, or your company’s success.

So, if you’re considering creating an email newsletter, keep reading. In this post, we’ll cover:

• Email Newsletter Ideas
• Email Newsletter Design
• 21 Top Email Newsletter Examples

Email Newsletter Ideas

Email newsletters can include a weekly round-up of blog posts, case studies regarding your product or service, upcoming company events and webinars, or even a behind-the-scenes look at your company.

Of course, you don’t want to create a newsletter just to create one — instead, you should thoroughly research what your audience might prefer and what your company is well-suited to offer.

You’re in luck if you’re looking for inspiration for a general email newsletter. Here’s a list of some of our favorite ideas for email newsletters:

• Round-up of popular or recent blog posts or videos.
• New job openings at your company.
• New case studies or product launches.
• Membership/customer deals and promotions.
• New best practices or tips.
• Industry news.
• Quotes.
• Recent survey results related to your industry.
• Internal employee news, including anniversaries, promotions, and birthdays.
• Listicles (e.g., “10 Best Vacation Spots of 2020” if you work for a travel publication).
• A team spotlight with pictures and bios.
• Photos or stories customers have shared.
• Behind the scenes at your company or interviews with company executives.
• Monthly business recap.
• New training opportunities.
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and Answers.
• Upcoming webinars or recordings of past webinars.

Let’s now explore some newsletter designs to inspire the aesthetic of your newsletter.

Featured Guide: Email Newsletter Design Examples Lookbook

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This free guide teaches you how to build an email newsletter from scratch and includes dozens of examples from real businesses.

Email Newsletter Design

While you can get creative with the structure of your email newsletter, the general anatomy typically includes:

• Your logo or masthead.
• A featured image and other eye-catching visuals.
• Top stories.
• Additional content and promotions following.
• An email footer with social links and subscription information.

From a design standpoint, your company’s newsletter should truly reflect your brand.

For instance, if your website features a minimalist design and clean, plain black-and-white text, you want to avoid creating a super colorful newsletter, which might confuse new subscribers.

However, there are a few best practices you can employ to ensure your design is up to par regardless of your audience’s preferences:

• Clean, crisp images (no blurry images).
• Text (use same text throughout), company logo, and icons.
• Try filters, memes, or videos.
• Make the call-to-action (CTA) clear and obvious — and just have one (e.g., “Click here to shop” or “Click here to read”).
• Create a hierarchy with a CTA early on.
• Mobile-responsive.
• Test the length of your newsletter to ensure it’s not too short or too long for your audience.

Of course, the design of your newsletter will depend on your brand, as well as the message.

For instance, if your newsletter primarily focuses on visuals of new products, you should create a colorful, attention-grabbing newsletter. Alternatively, if it’s a round-up of recent blog posts, you could try a more minimalist look to mimic the appearance of a letter.

You should A/B test whichever design(s) you choose to ensure they resonate with your audience.

If you’re unfamiliar with designing emails, I recommend looking into pre-made templates. If you’re a HubSpot customer, the email tool will have a bunch of pre-made templates.

However, if you still need to figure out your newsletter design, there’s nothing better than looking at examples for further inspiration.

Take a look at the following newsletters that were outstanding, and consider using some of their design elements as inspiration for your own.

21 Top Email Newsletter Examples

Each newsletter on this list works for different reasons. Some have exceptional design, some have exceptional copy, and some have exceptional CTAs, but all are exceptional at satisfying their subscribers’ needs.

1. The Hustle

The Hustle is a daily newsletter that promises “business and tech in 5 minutes or less.”

While there are many business and tech newsletters out there, what makes The Hustle remarkable is its tone, which is at the intersection of information and humor.

Take two recent headlines as an example:

• “The con man who sold the Eiffel Tower — twice.”
• “Why you almost never see the clock at the mall.”

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What I like: Despite targeting the business and tech audience, The Hustle often uses informal language such as “dude” or “damn” in its newsletter. I love this informal tone! I feel connected to the news and the writers. Plus, puns and witty humor in the headings and content make this email newsletter the favorite of startups and entrepreneurs.

The Hustle also allows subscribers to customize the content they receive to fit their interests.

Most of The Hustle’s readers hope to scale their startups or are looking for a business idea. The witty tone blended with knowledgeable insights makes it one of this competitive niche’s most influential and most-read email newsletters.

Further, the newsletter is structured with the best stories at the top. And the best part: The stories start with captivating titles.

The formula of great content + unique tone + personalization works well for The Hustle’s audience as they’ve grown to more than 2.5 million subscribers.

The Hustle stands out from others in its style and unique content. It doesn’t target only startups and entrepreneurs but has also grabbed massive eyeballs from company execs, growth managers, salespeople, and marketers.

Best for: That said, it isn’t just limited to the tech niche. SaaS businesses can also imitate this type of email newsletter to address industry problems, potential solutions, and benefits to reach out to the masses.

2. Atlas Obscura

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Atlas Obscura’s newsletter provides more than travel recommendations—it also delivers compelling stories about the world to your inbox.

Atlas Obscura is a perfect email newsletter guide for frequent travelers who want to explore off-beat locations around the globe.

What I like: I love a scary story, weird fun fact, or creepypasta. With stories like “Spotting Squid in the Tides of Oahu” and “Dreaming of Spaghetti and the Sea,” the Atlas Obscura newsletter is a portal for exploration.

They do an excellent job of writing attention-grabbing headlines and finding unexpected, delightful details — library apartments, haunted coffee, and 19th-century skulls are just a few examples.

Their unique value proposition lies in the quirky subject and the short but captivating headlines like “Deadly Shortcuts” and “World’s Oldest Edible Ham.”

What’s most appealing about this newsletter is the style and story plots. I know I’m in for a treat, and I never get bored exploring these mysterious travel tales.

Combining interesting stories, captivating photos, and incredible destinations, the Atlas Obscura newsletter reels me in.

Along with the exciting content it covers, Atlas Obscura is unique in its flexibility in choosing newsletter types. The site offers six different types of newsletters, including weekly, daily, or twice-weekly.

It’s a win-win situation for both the readers and the newsletter provider.

Best for: Atlas Obscura is a great inspiration for businesses with large audiences and a wide variety of topics to cover. Notice how they have categorized the topics based on locations, archives, and even podcasts.

Businesses covering such large topics can segment their audiences by allowing them to navigate the resources they want to read.

3. Buffer

Buffer does a great job at keeping the newsletter concise, making it easy for readers to get the knowledge they need with a skim.

They understand that readers want to catch up on the fast-paced and ever-changing social media landscape, so they break down the newsletter into easily navigable sections and short phrases.

What I like: The newsletter is packed with information without feeling overwhelming due to its simple and organized structure.

One thing worth noticing is its simple yet powerful design. At the core, it has a white background with basic fonts that are spaced and include bullets.

Furthermore, Buffer’s newly revamped email newsletter has a short yet powerful intro that covers an index of what’s included in this email.

Another noteworthy thing is their “zero-click content.” Instead of summarizing various topics with a “Read More” CTA, the email shares a single cover story with a large description and a CTA that says “Dive Deeper.” It’s a great way to interest your readers in a single topic instead of distracting them with multiple blog posts.

What’s most effective is their social media manager’s advice at the end that most businesses will love to turn their attention to.

Buffer’s newsletter is a perfect example of how to gain more subscribers using a simple design but powerful content and structure.

Best for: SaaS businesses that want to bring their visitors to their blogs can look up to Buffer’s newsletter strategy. Moreover, the latest trends and industry insights can interest the readers in further reading.

4. The Washington Post The 7

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The news is overwhelming, and trying to scroll through Twitter to catch up on what’s happening can lead to distractions. The Washington Post understands this and created “The 7” to break down the seven most important stories of the day.

The idea of the two supposed “dead media” — news and email — coming together to deliver something valuable makes this newsletter worth reading.

What I like: Like everyone else, I’m busy. I don’t always have the time to pursue the Washington Post’s home page (let alone a physical newspaper). With this newsletter, I get exactly seven stories sent to my inbox every weekday morning. And it takes merely three minutes to cover this 400-word newsletter.

The listicle format makes the newsletter skimmable. Under each story, they include bulleted points like “why this matters,” “why now,” and “the numbers” to get the point across succinctly. Complex news is made digestible.

I love The 7’s short yet informative and detailed articles. What sets this newsletter apart from others is its end goal, which is to get more readers to consume the content from the newsletter instead of jumping on the site.

Lastly, the heavy heading texts followed by thin fonts and a clear CTA make this newsletter sober yet effective.

Best for: Newsletters focused on delivering succinct content to their readers should follow this example. Whether news, blog posts, or stories, making your content easily digestible is vital for a successful newsletter.

5. Why We Buy

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Why We Buy is a biweekly (twice a week) newsletter in which “Customer Whisperer” Katelyn Bourgoin shares tips that help marketers understand buyer psychology. 

The newsletter comes across as fun and engaging, with real-life examples and scenarios from brands most people are familiar with. 

What I like: Each newsletter edition is bite-sized. I finished reading it in less than four minutes. In those few minutes, readers learn one core thing about their customers that’d help improve their marketing efforts.

Best for: Marketers and business owners who want to sell more by truly understanding the science behind what makes people buy things.

6. The New York Times Cooking

A picture is worth a thousand words, says the adage. This couldn’t be truer for newsletters — if your content lends itself to imagery, use it to your advantage, like The New York Times Cooking newsletter. 

The New York Times may be known for delivering news, but it also has a robust cooking section packed with creative, multicultural recipes that are beautifully photographed.

Highlighting new recipes from different chefs, The New York Times Cooking newsletter is always fresh. They expertly include a variety of recipes so readers get value out of finding something new to try.

What I like: I love a good recipe. But with so many sites out there and so many types of cuisine, making a choice can sometimes feel like a burden. The New York Times Cooking offers a curated option that always keeps me inspired. 

When I open the newsletter, I’m welcomed with a mouth-watering image that will entice you to scroll down further. Plus, the clean and uncluttered design makes reading more skimmable.

The lengthy blog text is engaging, personal, and conversational for the readers. However, the newsletter is shorter than other similar magazine newsletters. This email newsletter wins in its yummy visuals and enriching content.

Best for: This newsletter styling is perfect for businesses that engage with their readers using more visuals than text. For instance, a graphic design or fashion company may want to display more visuals and appealing elements than text.

7. Quartz Daily Brief

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What I like: The newsletter is straightforward, like a brief, without being dry, and it uses visuals like charts to help pique the reader’s interest.

Sections for need-to-know news, what to watch for, top reads, and surprising discoveries keep things organized. The breadth of material means I can choose from various topics to investigate further.

Though the newsletter has limited visuals, I never find it dry or boring. What differentiates it from similar newsletters is the lack of index or heavy-font headlines.

Yet that doesn’t turn away the reader. The same-sized but bold text points out that the stories are addressed to the readers individually. Quartz Daily uses a formal yet provocative tone that allures readers upon first reading.

Further, I’m tempted to read each section because of the engaging insights and enriching content. Lastly, there are not many links that could distract me from scrolling further.

Best for: Here’s another excellent example of a newsletter heavily focused on sharing written content, such as news, blog posts, or stories. Keep the focus on the content while making it easy for readers to navigate and consume.

8. Moz Top 10

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Moz Top 10 is a semi-monthly roundup of top pieces of content about marketing. Essential to any marketer, Moz Top 10 links to key marketing content with actionable insights. The content is not just their own; they also link to external sources.

Moz Top 10 is perfect for busy marketers who would choose to discard the daily digests from their inboxes. Moz sends a newsletter every two weeks with ten new stories to share.

What I like: From a design point of view, the newsletter resembles Moz’s styling and brand image. To take things to the next level, Moz uses the first person to make the content more friendly. Finally, their end goal is not just to send visitors to Moz’s blog but to add value for the readers.

The newsletter provides digital marketing and SEO content examples, including how brands can take stands on issues and backlink index comparisons. These examples allow me to learn from the real world, something I love as a marketer. 

Best for: Personal and insightful newsletters like this can be replicated by digital marketing agencies that don’t merely aim to push traffic to their website. Consider sending targeted news regularly with more time in between. This allows readers to find the value in your content without being overwhelmed.

9. Vox Today Explained

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Today Explained is a daily email meant to quickly get its readers up to speed with the most compelling stories from the day. The content ranges from the day’s top news to fun stories from all over the web.

What I like: I’m always amazed by this newsletter’s content curation. Instead of hopping on to different sources, I can collectively read news from a single source. They do a great job balancing their content with external sources, and the stories they choose are always really high quality.

The newsletter usually contains a detailed main story followed by other stories I can read outside of the email. To add authenticity, a senior editor typically writes the newsletter stories.

Finally, the white background blends well with yellow CTAs to add a captivating flare.

Best for: This text-rich email newsletter style is perfect for businesses with multiple categories and insightful stories to share with readers.

10. TheSkimm

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If you want to stay up on what’s happening in the world and have some delightful writing delivered to your inbox first thing in the morning, look no further than TheSkimm.

It’s a daily roundup of what’s happened in the news in short, punchy paragraphs.

The best part? You don’t have to click out of the email to read the news if you don’t want to — although they do link to their sources if you want to read further.

What I like: As evident from their logo, TheSkimm puts more focus on women than men. That’s why this newsletter has more women subscribers between the ages of 22 and 34 than any other group. This newsletter shows me the power of knowing my audience and inspires my writing. 

What follows next is the curated content that’s skimmable and divided into nice bits and pieces. Finally, the newsletter uses fewer links and no screaming CTAs to direct their readers to the blog.

For your own email marketing, TheSkimm is the place to go if you’re looking for writing inspiration or for emails without much visual content.

Best for: Businesses can learn the art of being engaging without any visuals or hard selling from this email newsletter. Businesses with a narrow niche but a large pool of content can leverage the styling and tonality of this email newsletter type.

11. Below the Fold

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Below the Fold is a weekly newsletter from Acciyo that surfaces essential and interesting stories that simply aren’t making headlines due to the crowded, never-ending news cycle we all experience daily.

Acciyo’s editorial team handpicks great news stories that they believe deserve “front-page love” but are being beaten out by an “infinite scroll of breaking headlines” — stories that range from how investors are profiting from emergency room bills to how one Mexican company turned prickly pear into sustainable fuel.

What I like: The editors at Below the Fold “unfold” the news stories in the form of conversational storytelling. The newsletter establishes a relationship with readers using a friendly tone.

The long, crispy headlines set the initial stage for me to dive in further. Their editorial team collects information from various reputable sources to build the final content.

They understand the importance of using bold words and sentences. I can easily see what matters most based on text alone. 

Best for: The copy of Below the Fold offers a great example of how to share substantial content compellingly through storytelling. If you want to draw your readers in through stories, take a deeper look at this newsletter.

12. The Ringer

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Remember Grantland, the sports and pop culture blog owned by ESPN, which sports journalist Bill Simmons started? In October 2015, ESPN announced it would be ending the publication of Grantland.

Shortly thereafter, Simmons formed Bill Simmon Media Group and recruited a bunch of former Grantland staffers to launch a brand new newsletter called The Ringer in March 2016.

Although The Ringer was written and run by many former Grantland employees, it is a different project from Grantland’s.

Where Grantland focused on sports and pop culture, The Ringer branches out into other areas like tech and politics. Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, is among the contributors.

I like their focus on experimentation: “We want to have fun, take chances, analyze, theorize, obsess, and try not to take ourselves too seriously,” said Editor-in-Chief Sean Fennessey.

Another differentiator? The Ringer’s website was developed in partnership with the publishing platform Medium — which means the newsletter reflects a clean, minimal design.

What I like: The Ringer is a unique newsletter for tech, sports, and pop culture. I love this newsletter’s diverse content, which includes discussion forums and top stories from sports professionals.

The short snippets of text with external links provide value to the readers.

This type of email is great for engaging the audience in a discussion thread. Further, the “share and subscribe” button provides more value to the audience.

The editorial team at The Ringer uses a formal and informative tone to engage with its sports-buff audience.

Best for: This type of newsletter works well for businesses with audiences interested in long discussion threads apart from spending some time on informative blogs and articles.

13. The Marginalian

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The Marginalian (previously Brain Pickings) is one of the most interesting newsletters out there. In fact, its founder and writer, Maria Popova, calls it an “interestingness digest.” It records the week’s most interesting articles and pieces focused on art, literature, and philosophy.

Every Sunday morning, subscribers get the past week’s most unmissable articles about creativity, psychology, art, science, design, and philosophy — a wide variety of topics that appeal to a wide audience. At its core, it explores what it means to live a good life.

The Marginalian extends audiences’ marginal thinking with thought-provoking subjects. This long-text newsletter covers diverse topics with clear visuals.

What I like: For me, this newsletter’s conversational yet formal tone sets it apart. While using casual phrasing, the editorial team at The Marginalian uses advanced vocabulary (so you might need a dictionary by your side).

From the design point of view, the newsletter closely resembles the website. Both the website and newsletter provide similar experiences in terms of font, color, and spacing.

The white background perfectly complements the yellow CTAs and red heading texts.

Best for: If you want to offer a seamless reading experience with a clear CTA at the end, The Marginalian is an excellent example of how to do this. Lead your audiences to the end with a few hyperlinks, finally offering them the click.

14. The New Yorker Recommends

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The New Yorker Recommends is a weekly newsletter highlighting what their staff reads, watches, and listens to. It is packed with curated recommendations for books, movies, TV shows, and music.

The core strength of this newsletter lies in its content. Every week, the editors at The New York Recommends pick a topic from its archives and craft it into a story.

Having staffers select their own recommendations gives this newsletter a personalized, hand-curated feel that helps readers connect with the content.

What we like: I’m a big New Yorker fan. That goes beyond their iconic tote bags and extends to their newsletter. I love the deep dive into an initial long-form story followed by a few recommendations at the second fold of the newsletter.

The New Yorker personalizes the tone and builds a relationship with its audience. Thereafter, editors share the most popular recommendations, such as events and the best books to read.

Just like National Geographic, The New Yorker Recommends has multiple newsletter options to choose from. Apart from the daily and weekly newsletters, they offer satirical or humor-rich email newsletters.

Best for: This type of newsletter example is perfect for businesses that have a large audience, even if it’s a broad niche. For instance, a blog focused on the reviews and recommendations for SaaS products can personalize the content and create multiple newsletters around different subjects.

15.Polygon Patch Notes

Polygon Patch Notes shares the staff’s picks for new movies, TV shows, video games, comics, manga, and tabletop RPGs. The newsletter also links to a free new game and highlights top stories on Polygon, ranging from reviews to guides.

The mix of curated staff picks and top stories in a simple format makes this an easy-to-digest newsletter.

Polygon Patch Notes also employs a personable tone, making the read relatable and fun rather than overly businesslike and bland.

What I like: There are a lot of things to love in this short newsletter. First, the starting sentence is concise yet engaging. Second, they share top stories in a second person, conversational tone. The hyperlinks in the newsletter are natural and align well with the content.

Further, the blend of the brand’s color palette with the light fonts makes it perfect to read for the eyes. Finally, I love the reviews and recommendations around a single show, game, or topic.

Best for: This design is great for newsletters focused on a niche topic, aiming to catch readers’ attention and direct them to your blog.

16. Marketing BrewNews+ Audio

Marketing Brew sends daily emails covering social media, marketing, tech, brand strategy, etc.

What I like: As a marketer, I love to start my morning with a cup of coffee and this newsletter. The newsletter is handy to marketers and content creators as it covers the latest news happening in the industry. Since the newsletter is sent out daily, readers are always up-to-date with the latest. 

Although their stories are loaded, the Marketing Brew newsletter still makes room for stories they’re jealous of — adding extra value for readers. 

The newsletter also contains a job board for marketing job opportunities. 

Best for: Marketers, influencers, and content creators who want to keep up with happenings within their industry.

17. Cut The Fluff

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Cut The Fluff is a weekly newsletter that centers around helping creators and writers go from confused to confident self-editors.

In this newsletter, Erica Schneider shares stories from her personal and professional life that break down editing one’s writing into actionable processes.

What I like: As the name suggests, each newsletter edition wastes no time getting to the point. Each concept is explained plainly, followed by specific steps readers can take to make their writing stand out.

The newsletter also contains extra resources, like Canva templates and Loom recordings, that help me do my best work.

Best for: If you want to build authority around a single topic and be the go-to person for said topic.

18.The Strategist

From New York Magazine, The Strategist curates deals, shopping advice, and discounts.

The newsletter does a great job of including relevant shopping information and paying attention to the trends. The Strategist also includes various products and services to shop for, casting a wide net.

What I like: The newsletter starts with different sections covering the best deals and discounts, followed by top stories worldwide. The Strategist is a perfect example of an effective email structure with a simplistic design. The writing style is personal (second person) and blended with relevant visuals.

Though the Strategist covers various discounts and deals, it doesn’t fluff the newsletter merely with the deals. Instead, they share stories about various social issues and topics related to what’s happening around the globe.

Best for: The newsletter works well for ecommerce sites, deals, and discount retailers that release weekly offers for their audiences. Plus, the insightful news and stories offer relevant, valuable content to subscribers.

 

19. The Curiosity Chronicle

Over 700,000 people receive The Curiosity Chronicle in their inbox every week. The newsletter discusses frameworks, tools, and the mindset needed to build a wealth and healthy life.

What I like: The Curiosity Chronicle usually contains a summary at the start of the email. This top-level summary helps me know what to expect before I commit my time. It also helps that an estimated read time is included at the start of each letter. 

If I don’t have the time to read, I can listen to the audio version of the newsletter on my commute or as I clean my house. 

And if you want to catch up on previous newsletter editions, you can easily find them on the website linked in the email.

Best for: Marketers, businesses, and content creators who have much to say but don’t want to waste too much of their audience’s time. You can provide alternative means for readers to catch up or enjoy your newsletter on their tight schedules.

20. Workable

One of the best business newsletters is from Workable. One thing distinguishing Workable from other brands is that they use the same colors across social media, website, and email designs.

What I like: I love this newsletter’s personable tone.I get emails from a personal email address. Plus, they also get to see the sender of the newsletter with an image at the bottom.

The tone of the copy is actionable and direct. In the first fold of the email, they address a problem, while the second fold of the email provides a potential solution with some recent trends and numbers.

The most effective element of this newsletter is its logo and vibrant images that tune well with the headings. The text in the newsletter is more conversational and approachable.

Finally, the CTAs in trademark green with concise text send out a loud and clear message without being pushy.

Best for: This newsletter is a great inspiration for businesses that want to send more readers to their blogs naturally. If they have a problem–solution email in mind, Workable is their best bet to learn from.

21. Contentment

The last (but not least) on the list is WorkWeek’s Contentment newsletter, written by Tracey Wallace.

The newsletter focuses on content marketing wisdom and contains helpful tips and tricks to help content marketers across various industries improve their work.

What I like: The newsletter’s curated content contains research-backed recommendations from top marketers that help readers cultivate the necessary content marketing skills.

I also get to develop myself and my marketing career with their advice on building the soft skills needed to thrive in a fast-paced work environment.

Best for: Beginner to intermediate marketers who want to level up.

Creating an Email Newsletter Your Subscribers Love

Even though newsletters are one of the most common types of emails to send, they are actually some of the hardest to do right.

We hope these examples give you some quality inspiration so you can create newsletters your subscribers love to get in their inboxes.

 

Welcome to Creator Columns, where we bring expert HubSpot Creator voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.

Mistakes are part of the journey for every digital course creator, and trust me, I’ve made my fair share of them as I’ve built my business. But for every one of these missteps, there’s been a valuable lesson.

My name is Amy, and I help entrepreneurs grow their businesses with digital courses. So I’d love to walk you through some of the lesser-known mistakes I’ve made, so you can avoid them entirely. Sound good?

The 7 Biggest Mistakes I’ve Made as a Digital Course Creator

1. Launching without hands-on experience

While your digital course topic may evolve with your business, it’s important to have hands-on experience in whatever it is you’re teaching.

Want to teach a course about real estate investing? Fantastic, but make sure you have experience as a real estate investor. Want to teach hair stylists how to successfully open their own salons? Do it. But you should have opened your own salon first.

I launched my first digital course without any prior experience in the niche I was teaching about. In my hurry to establish myself as an expert, I overlooked the importance of having hands-on experience. Can you guess how this turned out? Yep, my first course was a total flop.

Beyond the obvious, here are a few reasons why you should get some hands-on experience in your niche before launching a course:

• Credibility: To build trust with your future students, you need to show them that you’re the real deal. Having actual experience in the subject matter is the first step to gaining their confidence.
• Effective Teaching: When you have demonstrated experience, your teaching becomes more powerful. You can relate to the challenges your students might face and provide practical, real-world solutions for them.
• Problem Solving: As an experienced practitioner, you’ve likely encountered and conquered the hurdles in your field. This experience allows you to anticipate the common issues your students might encounter and equip them with solutions — kind of like what I’m doing in this blog post.
• Confidence: When you’ve been through it and come out the other side successfully, it boosts your confidence as a teacher. Confidence helps you present information with clarity and assertiveness, inspiring your students to trust your guidance.
• Building a Reputation: Over time, your reputation as an expert in your field grows, opening up new opportunities like speaking engagements, collaborations, and consulting. It can also pave the way for a dedicated and loyal audience.

You don’t need to be the leading expert in your field, you only need what I like to call a 10% edge. However, you should have hands-on experience to draw from before you build a digital course.

2. Letting Imposter Syndrome Rule

Even when I had relevant knowledge, I struggled with imposter syndrome. I doubted my ability to teach, and I questioned what others might think. Ultimately, this slowed down my progress.

Here are a few tips you can use to overcome imposter syndrome:

• Embrace your wins: Remind yourself of your accomplishments and successes, no matter how small they may seem.
• Focus on progress, not perfection: Perfection isn’t attainable. Strive for continuous improvement, instead.
• Practice self-compassion: Be kind to yourself, recognizing that everyone has moments of doubt.
• Keep a “brag file”: Document praise and positive feedback to counter imposter feelings.

Many people let their lack of marketing or technology experience hold them back from course creation. Trust me, you don’t need to be a digital whiz to be successful.

Heck, you don’t even need to have your course topic idea perfected before you get started! That’s what resources like Digital Course Academy (DCA) are for. DCA provides a complete roadmap for validating, creating, launching, and selling your digital course.

3. Creating a Course I Wasn’t Passionate About

Talk about a waste of time and resources. I once created a course on a topic I’d lost interest in, and I never ended up launching it.

Before you get into course creation mode, it’s essential to find your “sweet spot.” This is where your course aligns with your passion, your audience’s needs, and your expertise. In other words, you’ve got to discover what ‘your thing’ is. This ensures you remain motivated and can deliver on your topic with enthusiasm.

4. Spending Too Much Time Outside of Your ‘Zone of Genius’

Your Zone of Genius is where you deliver the most value. It’s typically a combination of:

• Your Passion: What you’re deeply passionate about and genuinely love doing.
• Your Skills: Where you excel and have honed your expertise through learning and doing.
• Your Impact: Where your talents and passion intersect with what your audience needs.

As an entrepreneur, you’re spinning a lot of plates. It’s easy to spend time on things outside your Zone of Genius. For example, I spent years editing course videos when I could have delegated the task and spent more time on higher-value tasks.

Don’t fall into this trap. As your business grows, outsourcing tasks that aren’t the highest use of your time frees you up to focus on more critical aspects of your business.

5. Thinking My First Course Was The End-All-Be-All

I definitely made this digital course mistake in the beginning. It was like my course had to be the masterpiece of every course ever created. I threw everything I knew and the kitchen sink into it because I wanted to prove how knowledgeable I was.

Here’s the truth: Your first course doesn’t need to be everything.

Your courses can evolve and improve over time. Don’t aim for perfection. Focus on delivering value, and enhance your course with each iteration.

Remember: All you need to do is create one digital course to be profitable. The key is to improve your course with each relaunch.

6. I Played It Too Small

Have you ever heard the phrase “Go big or go home?” That should definitely apply to your digital course launch.

If you’re playing small by just sending a few emails, doing a mini-launch, or skipping social media or webinars because you’re ‘not ready,’ you’re only delaying your success.

In my early days, I played it safe with my course launches. I only sent a few emails, and I refused to show up on video because I wasn’t comfortable.

Video is a powerful tool for connecting with your audience, and it’s a critical aspect of growing your business and selling your course. Don’t do what I did and wait too long to put yourself out there.

Start small, practice, and gradually increase your presence. When you’re ready to launch, you’ll be comfortable playing in the big leagues.

7. Not Nurturing My Audience Enough

Speaking of launches, your email list is one of your most valuable assets, and neglecting it can severely hurt your launch results. Consistently engage with your subscribers, offer valuable content, and build a relationship with them over time.

By the way, if you think your email list is too small to launch your digital course, think again. One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that you don’t need a huge email list to have a successful launch. I’ve had clients with only 120 email list subscribers earn thousands of dollars in just a few days.

If you’ve engaged with your email list, the response will be much better when you actually launch your course.

In fact, having a highly intentional onboarding process — or getting your audience excited about your topic ahead of time — is essential for a successful launch. I found this out the hard way after having a few Masterclasses with dismal attendance rates.

Don’t make the same mistake I did. Engage your registrants before your course launch to get them excited.

You’re Ready to Build A Successful Digital Course

Alright, you’ve learned the bad and the ugly. It’s time for you to implement the good and build a highly successful digital course.

Remember, it’s a journey filled with valuable lessons, so keep learning as you keep growing. Now, go out there and create a profitable and enjoyable business that exceeds your wildest expectations.

If you want guidance from someone who’s gone before you, come join me in Digital Course Academy.

Advertising is an ever-changing beast — with those on ad and marketing teams working hard to stay ahead of trends.

In 2023, we saw the emergence of AI in all forms of content, the rise of personalization, augmented realities (including the metaverse), and the explosion of short-form video.

As a seasoned content marketer working in tech, I’ve noticed that advertising trends in 2024 seem to respond to the trends we saw in 2023.

For example, if my ad team was firmly against using artificial intelligence last year, I’d need to catch up with everyone who initially embraced it.

You might even be using AI without knowing it, with Google using AI in paid search to create relevant ads.

In 2024, advertisers will need to stay on top of trends, or their ad money won’t go as far. In this article, I’ll discuss upcoming advertising trends and how you can leverage these stats to increase engagement, value, and sales.

Digital Advertising Trends in 2024

Social Media Advertising Trends in 2024

Other Emerging Advertising Trends in 2024

Understanding Ad Trends in 2024

Digital Advertising Trends in 2024

While ad spending is predicted to spike in 2024, teams will likely be more responsible for how ads perform as companies tighten their budgets in anticipation of a recession.

Knowing and using the latest trends to your advantage can help you get more value out of the money you spend on advertising this year.

1. Artificial Intelligence

“40% of Companies have hired dedicated AI experts to support their marketing teams.” (HubSpot State of Marketing)

Artificial intelligence has existed, to some degree, for the last 70 years. Yet, it’s only in the last couple of years that it’s become a mainstream idea in the advertising space.

Many business leaders believe we underestimate AI’s impact on companies, with 65% reporting that AI will rival the Industrial Revolution in its impact on productivity.

What does this mean for you?

In 2024, AI will be one of the best ways businesses can scale their growth and increase the quality of their advertisements.

If you want to leverage AI more than you currently do, consider hiring an AI expert or consultant to help you integrate AI into your work processes and advertising efforts.

I may not have an AI expert on staff, but I definitely experiment with these new tools to see where they work best. I’m not alone. HubSpot Program Manager Kaitlin Milliken also takes the time to test AI solutions like ChatGPT.

“AI may not be the best at coming up with creative concepts or writing the copy itself, but I use AI to eliminate manual tasks and supplement my skills,” Milliken says. “I had to work with large sets of images for a project. I used ChatGPT to create a Python script that managed the files for me. That’s saved me hours.”

If you don’t have the budget to hire an AI expert right now, there’s no reason why you can’t start consulting AI programs like Gemini or ChatGPT during every stage of the advertising process.

I like to use AI during brainstorming, ideation, content writing, planning, and more. Check out this blog on AI in Digital Marketing for more information.

2. Integrating Email Marketing With Other Channels

“While 87% report email is critical to their success, only 24% of email marketing programs are integrated into other marketing channels.” (Litmus)

It’s no secret that email marketing has one of the best ROIs of any digital marketing channel. Unfortunately, most marketing teams aren’t integrating email marketing programs into other marketing channels, limiting email’s impact.

How can you integrate email into your other marketing channels?

The first step to successfully integrating email programs into other channels is segmenting your lists (of emails) by audience type and making sure advertisements and content fit their needs.

For example, in my email lists, I will segment by industry, size of their business, products purchased in the past, and areas of interest. If you don’t know the answers to these questions, adjust your forms to require these questions.

Once you’ve segmented, you will then want to optimize your email delivery and automate your distribution. If you’re running an advertisement that’s costing you a fortune in PPC, be sure those on your email lists know about it first.

For more ideas on integrating email campaigns, check out this blog here.

3. Social Media Advertising

“Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have the strongest ROI — and these align with where marketers are investing in 2024.” (HubSpot State of Marketing)

I’ve found that where I choose to display my ads is just as important as the actual ads. If you’re not currently investing in one of these platforms, there’s a good chance you’re missing out on potential leads.

In fact, 27% of marketers who don’t use YouTube plan to start in the year ahead.

There’s also the looming possibility of the U.S. government banning TikTok, which could, in turn, skyrocket the cost of advertising on remaining platforms and oversaturate those markets if you aren’t ahead of the curve.

How can you get a strong ROI from social media platforms?

In 2024, a deep understanding of social media buying is vital for getting a good ad ROI. Careful planning and organization will ensure you’re investing in the right platforms. Check out this free media buying template to get started.

Be sure to monitor your ads’ performance to identify which platform provides the best bang for your buck. If a certain platform is lagging, consider investing in organic content marketing on that website instead of paid ads.

Social Media Advertising Trends in 2024

Creating a video-centric social media strategy might be the most crucial trend you will follow in 2024.

While certain social media platforms have always favored video (Youtube, TikTok, etc.), platforms that haven’t always done so now do favor video (Instagram, Facebook, X). Here are some social media ad trends you need to know.

4. Consistently Post on X

“66% of marketers will keep their brand on Twitter/X.” (HubSpot)

Despite Twitter’s rebranding to X and extensive layoffs last year by owner Elon Musk, the majority of marketers intend to keep their brand on X.

This is likely due to how simple the app is to use for quick updates, PR, and conversion, even with minimal time and money.

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How should you use X in 2024?

Consistent posting is one of the most important strategies when using the app. X also has an ad share revenue program for those who meet the requirements. In my experience, an active account on X can boost brand awareness while not costing you a lot of time.

While X certainly shouldn’t be your business’ only social media, nor its main focus, it’s great for the quick tweet here and there.

Remember, X is all about what’s going on right now, so don’t spend too much time on evergreen content; rather, share the latest news. Check out this blog to discover more ways to use X in 2024.

5. Sponsored Videos on Instagram

“82% post video content on Instagram, and the content formats they use most are video-based.” (HubSpot)

There are two different types of video ads that marketers can use on Instagram: traditional advertisements, which can be static images or videos, and sponsored video content.

Sponsored video content is when your brand pays an influencer with either product, money, or both to talk about your brand. Most social media platforms require influencers to use hashtags that identify the video as a paid advertisement so viewers will know that the influencer was compensated to say what they’re saying.

Why Sponsored Video Content Works on Instagram

Many have speculated that Instagram changed its algorithm to favor video content as a response to the growing popularity of TikTok.

With the introduction of the “Instagram Reels” feature, brands have begun publishing short-form video content on the app.

2024 is likely to bring a lot of competition to the Instagram Reels scene, particularly if a TikTok ban does occur. So get started on posting on Instagram today with these helpful tips.

6. Influencer Marketing

“30% of brands already work with influencers/creators, and 42% plan to begin this year.” (HubSpot Instagram Marketing Report)

Influencer content is predicted to have a high ROI in 2024, so it makes sense that more brands plan to work closely with creators. There are many ways to work with influencers.

While most influencer-involved content has to be labeled as an advertisement, you move into the gray area of advertising by sending influencers Public Relationship (PR) boxes.

PR boxes are a way for influencers to try new products and give their honest review. However, there’s no guarantee that they will review your PR box, so be sure to do your homework and pay careful attention to personalization.

Check out this blog on influencer marketing in 2024 for more ideas.

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Influencer Content Example: How a Tarte trip to Bora Bora took over TikTok

Tarte, as a brand, has worked closely with influencers since 2015, with budgets for the trip getting larger over the years. The 2024 Tarte trip included flying around 30 influencers and their plus ones to a retreat in Bora Bora.

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CEO and founder of Tarte, Maureen Kelly, explains their strategy, stating, “The idea from the beginning was to invite innovative creators from all over the world to join us in an intimate setting where they can relax, and I can connect with them 1:1. This time together builds deeper relationships and strengthens the story behind the brand.”

Because so many famous TikTok influencers were on the Tarte trip, everyone’s “for you” feed was flooded with Tarte-sponsored content.

While the Tarte trip must have cost a pretty penny, in my opinion, they likely made this back tenfold with the brand and product awareness they got.

Other Emerging Advertising Trends in 2024

Other ad trends in 2024 include marketers’ preferred audiences, experiential marketing, and the importance of personalization. Keep reading to learn about other emerging trends in advertising.

7. Experiential Marketing

“16% of marketers plan to try experiential marketing (engaging audiences in real life with pop-ups and events) for the first time.” (HubSpot)

Experiential marketing is the actual experience your audience has at events, trade shows, or during campaigns.

The 2020 pandemic canceled most in-person events or forced marketers to make them virtual events, putting experiential marketing in the back seat.

However, now that restrictions have been lifted, experiential marketing is having a hay day, with 77% of marketers using it as a key part of their plan.

How can you use experiential marketing in 2024?

If you’re planning on attending any shows this year, make sure your booth is both eye-catching and memorable. If you’re marketing a new product this year, think outside the box and really consider your user experience.

Some past experiential campaigns have included branded filters on social media, fun pop-up shops, interactive content, giveaways, and more. You might also consider how virtual reality can improve your marketing.

8. Personalization

“73% of marketers say personalization is important, but only 35% believe their customers get a very personalized experience from their brand.” (HubSpot State of Marketing)

Personalization is an important aspect of marketing in 2024 because most industries are supersaturated with similar products, and it’s getting harder to stand out.

While creating a personalized experience can be time-consuming, there are now several tools that can assist in the process.

For example, I was once contacted by a marketer from Reachdesk (a company that specializes in personal gifting), and the marketer sent me a watercolor set because my profile described my love of painting.

This attention to detail and personalization got my attention and my interest in their product. If you’re new to personalization and want to consult an expert, consider trying Hubspot’s Technical Consulting.

Check out this blog to explore more brands that take personalization seriously.

What does personalization look like in 2024?

In 2024, personalization looks like full names in email subject lines, abandoned shopping cart emails/texts with discount codes, product recommendations based on search history, chatbots to customize web experiences, and more.

To ensure your customers are getting the best-personalized experience, consider sending out surveys that ask customers how easily they can navigate your website and what features they’d like to see added.

9. Targeting Generational Audiences

“74% of marketers want to reach Millenials, 67% want to reach Gen X, and only 27% are interested in Baby Boomer audiences.” (HubSpot State of Marketing)

Generations that grew up using the internet are increasingly the target of marketers. Seen as “digital natives,” millennials and Gen X are often key decision-makers with purchasing power at organizations.

In my opinion, this trend is likely due to marketing largely taking place online versus traditional advertising means, which had more in-person meetings and physical advertisements.

How can you reach digital natives in 2024?

The best way to reach each generation is to understand what kind of advertising works for them. Millennials primarily engage with social media, apps, and brands that care about social issues.

Gen X prefers to discover products through search, TV ads, and specific social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram). These trends make social media an important investment for companies hoping to reach digital natives.

Only 4% of boomers have purchased a product through social media, while TV ads, internet searches, and retail stores work better for their generation. Check out this blog on how each generation shops for more ideas.

Understanding Ad Trends in 2024

Staying on top of trends is an important part of any marketer or advertiser’s job description. I’ve found it super helpful to subscribe to or follow the HubSpot Blog so I get the latest stats on which trends are working and which ones to avoid.

Some aspects of marketing will never change, such as solving customer problems and “making sure that the customer is representative of a large market” so you can “have a pretty good formula,” as Melanie Perkins advises.

As you solve customer problems and try the latest trends this next year, be sure to be consistent in your efforts, track your results, and stay open to new ideas.

Let me tell you the most challenging part of my job. Often, I will delete TikTok and Instagram from my phone because I can’t help but waste time endlessly scrolling through these apps, watching dozens of short-form videos in one sitting.

Then, like clockwork, I redownload these apps because I must write about them for work. Thus, the cycle of endless scrolling continues.

Sure, I could blame the nature of the job, but my endless scrolling stems from the fact that I love short-form videos.

And I’m not the only one. 73% of consumers prefer to watch short-form videos to learn about a product or service, and 56% of marketers reported that short-form video was the top trend they planned to invest in in 2024.

So, why are short-form videos so popular? Turns out there are a few reasons, one of which involved a bit of psychology. Let’s get into it!

What are short-form videos?

Why are short-form videos so popular?

What are short-form videos?

Short-form videos are videos that are less than 60 seconds in duration. However, some marketers and content creators agree that short-form videos can be up to 3 minutes. But, if you want my opinion, I would stick to the 60-second rule.

I take this stance because attention spans are getting shorter, but we’ll get into that later.

Anyway, short-form videos deliver information in a digestible, bite-size format so viewers can quickly watch and bookmark the content if they’re on the go or watch it multiple times.

Why are short-form videos so popular?

There are a few reasons short-form videos are more popular than ever among consumers and marketers, and I‘ll visit those in a bit. For now, I want to get into the psychology of it all—that’s why we’re here, right? Walk with me.

Consumer Attention Spans are Shrinking

Science tells us that one of the crucial reasons we love short-form videos is that our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.

Dr. Gloria Mark, a psychologist, recently wrote a book called Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness, and Productivity, and she says her research indicates people’s attention spans have been shrinking over the last 20 years.

Dr. Mark shared her findings on Speaking of Psychology, an American Psychological Association podcast.

Her findings came from a decades-long experiment she participated in, which was first conducted by shadowing participants and tracking their activities via stopwatches.

“We would record the start time and the stop time,” she said.

She explains, “So you’re on a screen where you’re working in a Word doc. As soon as you get to that screen, we click start time. As soon as they turned away and checked the email, we clicked stop time for the Word document and start time for the email.”

Over time, logging techniques became more sophisticated as technology advanced, and it only made the pattern of shrinking attention spans clearer.

“So back in 2004, we found the average attention span on any screen to be two and a half minutes on average,” Dr. Mark recalls during the interview. “Throughout the years, it became shorter. So around 2012, we found it to be 75 seconds.”

Dr. Mark says the number continued to dip as the years went on.

“And then in the last five, six years, we found it to average about 47 seconds—and others have replicated this result within a few seconds. So it seems to be quite robust,” she says.

And this trend of dwindling attention spans is affecting how we consume content. And I’m not just talking about social media videos — even television and film shots are getting more brief, according to Dr. Mark.

“They started out much longer. They now average about four seconds a shot length,” she says. “If you watch MTV music videos, they’re much shorter. They’re only a couple of seconds. So we’ve become accustomed to seeing very fast shot lengths when we look at TV and film.”

Dr. Mark explains during the interview that it‘s a chicken vs. egg situation — she’s unsure which came first or what’s influencing the other.

However, the fact remains that we‘re becoming more accustomed to shorter bursts of content, and it’s bleeding into the kind of content we consume and what’s being created.

Studies found that most consumers will only watch an entire video if it’s less than 60 seconds long. Then you have apps like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels that push short-form videos to users in an infinite scroll format.

Furthermore, our 2024 Marketing Trends Report found that almost a third of marketing professionals say their company will leverage short-form video content in 2024, and 53% said they’ll boost their investment in the content type this year.

This makes sense since most marketers in our survey say short-form video content yielded them the highest ROI last year.

In case you’re curious, here are a couple more reasons why many of us love short-form videos.

1. They are cost-effective and easier to create than long-form videos.

With long-form videos, marketers and creators must work extra hard to keep their audience engaged. That means strengthening the content with dynamic shots, mood-setting music, and a long but compelling script.

All that takes more time, effort, and (most importantly) money.

Short-form videos are more to the point and often require fewer frills to be effective.

For example, language learning platform Duo Lingo’s TikTok account has over 10.8 million followers and is one of the most well-known accounts on the app due to its short, funny, and slightly unhinged videos.

Its most popular video has 57.7 million views and is super simple in terms of execution.

It shows a plushy of the Duo Lingo owl getting tossed down the stairs at the company’s office, sitting outside on a rainy day, and getting soaked in a shower.

The caption of the video is “When you ignore my notifications.”

The video was clearly shot on someone’s smartphone without fancy angles or lighting. The music is from a viral song already available via its sound archives. So simple, so cheap, yet so effective.

2. They can provide valuable information in a short amount of time.

According to a recent Adobe Survey, 2 in 5 Americans use TikTok as a search engine, and nearly 1 in 10 Gen Zers are more likely to rely on TikTok than Google as a search engine.

I even find myself taking to TikTok to look up recipes or figure out how to style a denim maxi-skirt (the trick is to experiment with different layers and silhouettes).

Between work, family, hobbies, and rest — time is precious, and short-form videos allow us to absorb the information we need in under a minute. Who doesn’t love that?

3. You can watch them almost anytime, anywhere.

Bored on the train downtown? Scroll through TikTok. Need to kill some time in between classes or appointments? Pull up YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels on your phone.

Want to use your 5-minute break between meetings to figure out why everyone is talking about the latest JLo documentary? Let’s circle back to TikTok.

Short-form videos are easy to watch almost anywhere and anytime from our smartphones.

Not only is this convenient for consumers, but it also helps marketers because it means we can repurpose our content on various platforms knowing someone will see it from somewhere.

There are different reasons to love short-form videos.

Some reasons are a little more concerning than others (seriously, why are our attention spans so short?), but no matter the reason, the fact remains the same —short forms aren’t going away anytime soon.

Google Ads is the world’s largest PPC advertising platform. If used effectively, you can generate significant profit for companies. But wrapping your head around it can be hard.

Google Ads requires a lot of testing and experimentation. Or, at least, it did until now. Google Ads has recently launched a conversational experience for advertisers, which lets users create their ads by using text prompts.

However, Google Ads Intelligence, as it’s broadly known, offers way more than just being an interactive campaign builder.

In this post, I explain what Google Ads Intelligence is, the key features it includes, and Google Ads AI best practices.

Table of Contents

• What is Google Ads Intelligence?
• When did Google roll out AI for ads?
• AI Features in Google Ads
• Best Practices When Using Google Ads Intelligence

What is Google Ads Intelligence?

Google Ads Intelligence is an umbrella term for a set of AI-powered tools Google launched to help advertisers create effective campaigns. Their motto is to help businesses reach the right people with the right creative at the right cost.

While, in recent years, it already included some intelligent features like Smart Bidding, it will now be helpful at a whole new level.

Advertisers will be able to use a conversational interface, which will guide them through the entire ad design creation process, from suggesting headlines to selecting the right keywords, writing copy, and creating imagery.

Just like in the case of ChatGPT, advertisers can use text prompts to communicate to Google Ads AI what content and visuals they’d like to feature in their ad — or set of ads.

The conversational bot will keep generating text and images until the person or team launching the ad is happy with the result.

Google assures creators that they’ll always use unique images. This avoids situations where two completely different businesses have the same creatives. The conversational AI experience is available for Google’s Performance Max users.

When did Google roll out AI for ads?

Performance Max was the first-ever AI-powered campaign solution from Google.

It premiered in its experimental form in 2021 and was rolled out for a number of Alphabet, Inc. platforms — not only Google ads inventory but also Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, and Search.

In a blog post from late 2023, Google said that the reason why they decided to launch it was to let their advertisers stay on top of changing market conditions.

They realized that businesses, both small and large, would need access to smart engines, i.e., ones that would allow them to quickly adapt to new consumer trends.

What we see today in Google Ads Intelligence is the result of user feedback that the company collected over the years. It gave birth to features like search themes, asset group reporting, and campaign-level brand exclusions.

The newly added features were introduced at the Google Marketing Live event in May 2023. As mentioned earlier, these will first be available to U.S. customers who use Performance Max.

Google hopes that the upgrades they’ve made to Google Ads Intelligence will help marketers create assets that perform well, contributing to business growth.

AI Features in Google Ads

Broad Match

Broad match helps advertisers automatically extend their ads’ reach by having it shown to people who searched not only for the exact term but also used synonyms and contextually connected keywords.

As in the example below, someone who taps in “carb-free foods” could see an ad launched for the term “low-carb diet plan,” as it fits the searcher’s overall intent.

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Marketers who use this feature can shorten the time needed to research additional keywords and manually verify their intent.

They can also use the suggested phrase lists to understand what phrases their ideal customers tap into Google to find products and services like theirs.

Broad match can be particularly powerful if used in sync with smart bidding, which I discuss next.

Smart Bidding

Google uses automated bidding strategies to help advertisers optimize conversions on their PPC campaigns.

Every single auction gets a precise bid, which either drives more conversions or lowers the cost. It uses machine learning to analyze data from all previous campaigns to achieve the best results.

So, even if you’re starting a new campaign and don’t have any data available, it will use findings from the previous campaigns to improve the performance of your new ads.

Here is what you expect, thanks to smart bidding:

• Improving your chances of meeting your business goals by selecting the right bidding strategies, whether it’s increasing sales or leads or boosting your profit margins.
• Real-time bid optimization. You can set more specific bids for each auction that will be tailored to the user’s search context.
• Query-level performance modeling. Some keywords lack data, but because Smart bidding relies on search queries’ performance, it can still accurately bid on keywords that have no or little performance history.
• More contextual signals. Many factors can influence a person to either click or not click on an ad, for example, a device, location, or time of day.
  • On top of these, Smart bidding also takes into account language, operating system, browser, etc. It analyzes data to figure out which factor combination has the biggest impact on conversion. It uses the results to boost ad performance in real time.
• Continuous learning. Google’s algorithms learn constantly. Smart bidding reviews your ads performance data alongside market trends, competitive landscape, seasonality, etc., to refine the bidding strategy and maintain good campaign effectiveness.

Ad Strength

As part of building out the Google Ads Intelligence experience, Google has also introduced a feature called Responsive Search Ads (RSA).

Marketers can provide up to 15 headlines and four descriptions for a single ad and have a machine learning engine analyze its strength value and mark these variations as “Incomplete,” “Poor,” “Average,” “Good,” or “Excellent.”

This way, advertisers can decide which version to go with to boost the campaign’s performance.

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Conversational Experience in Google Ads

It’s a tool that uses a chat to speed up the process of search campaign creation by supporting your expertise with Google AI.

It’s called ‘conversational experience’ for a reason — since it’s able to understand human language, you can communicate with it freely, just like you would with a real person.

To get started, you need to enter your landing page’s URL, and it will automatically generate a short description of your business, which you can then edit to your liking.

It will also provide you with headlines, suggest images and site links, and generate the right keywords.

All you have to do is accept or reject the suggestions. Here are a few tips that will help you get the best results:

• Use natural language in your prompts.
• Keep them short and clear.
• Make sure that your campaigns follow Google Ads’ policies.
• If you’re unhappy with the result, try to modify your prompt.

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Automatically Created Visual Assets

There’s a lot of hype around conversational AI’s capability to turn text into visuals. Google Ads’ text-to-image ability is no different.

If you provide a text prompt in the context of your ad, it can generate fitting visuals. In the image below, you can see some suggestions from Google’s image library:

What if you feel that the images are a bit too generic for your taste?

You can ask Google to make edits — for example, tweak the background or even select a single element from the image to create a new one.

Here’s an example of how a group stock photo can be turned into a summer or Christmas photo of an individual:

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Optimized Targeting

Perhaps the most impactful AI feature in boosting ROI, optimized targeting lets marketers enter a whole other level of detail in selecting audiences.

Instead of relying only on the audiences you’ve already established, this Google Ads Intelligence feature also dives into its data to suggest new lead segments.

How does it work?

Google makes suggestions based on what you already know about the traits of high-conversion lead segments and uses its own data from Google Ads to point you to new ones.

The ability to merge your own information with broader market insights from Google shows just how powerful AI can be in boosting your return on ad spend.

Best Practices When Using Google Ads Intelligence

1. Focus on understanding your target audience’s interests.

Before you start running your ad campaign, you need to gain a good understanding of your target audience’s interests — and that’s exactly what Google Ads Intelligence lets you do.

You can get insights into the types of content and keywords that resonate most with your ideal customers. By analyzing this data and optimizing your ad campaigns accordingly, you can create messaging that truly speaks to their needs and motivations.

This is the approach that Dmitriy Bobriakov, marketing manager at RealEstateU, follows. Bobriakov once worked with an online retailer selling home goods and furniture.

Using Google Ads Intelligence, he discovered their target demographic was very interested in interior design trends and DIY projects.

“Based on this, I recommended refocusing their ad messaging to highlight the stylish, contemporary furniture designs they offered. I also suggested targeting keywords related to interior design themes, like ‘bohemian decor’ and ‘modern farmhouse,’” he says.

What was the result? A 21% decrease in cost-per-click and a 34% increase in conversion rate.

Bobriakov adds that “the key was taking the time to really understand the audience and what motivated them, instead of making assumptions. Google Ads Intelligence provided the insights to make our ads more compelling and effective.”

2. Use negative keywords to limit wasteful impressions.

To maximize your ad spend and get the best results from your campaigns, you need to know which keywords to target and which to ignore.

And the latter is as important as the former. It will help you eliminate searches and, therefore, people who aren’t looking for what you’re selling.

For example, let’s assume you’re running a campaign for a local bakery from Austin that specializes in custom cakes.

While selecting keywords, you might want to go with custom wedding cakes, birthday wedding cakes, bespoke wedding cakes near me, etc.

Exclude keywords like free, how to, cheap, etc., as these are usually associated with people who want to make cakes themselves and have a limited budget.

Joanne Highland, content writer and yoga teacher at Mind is the Master, says that she uses negative keywords to limit wasteful impressions. It allowed her to decrease unnecessary click-through rates by 15%.

3. Use historical data to train the AI bidding system better.

Some of Google Ads’ Intelligence features are already gaining ground, even among advertisers who prefer to manage campaigns manually.

“One such tool is the AI-powered automated bidding, in particular, the Maximize Conversion Value,” says Eliza Fillo, senior digital ads coordinator at Online Optimism.

She says that they were able to use significant amounts of historical data on conversion actions. This allowed the company to train the AI bidding system to better evaluate which users they want to bid higher for, boosting efficiency.

“I would recommend using Google Ads’ AI bidding system if you have historical data and there are multiple actions you’d like a user to take. But, since some of those actions are more valuable than others, when starting off, I recommend monitoring the bidding closely so you can intervene as needed,” Fillo says.

4. Generate high-intent keywords to boost ad relevance and improve budget allocation.

High-conversion phrases are the holy grail in marketing, which is why Google Ads Intelligence’s ability to suggest keywords with a high-purchase-intent holds such huge potential.

Many companies, including Najeeb Ur Rehman’s Digital Auxilius, are now experimenting with Google’s AI within the Keyword Planner feature.

“This ensures that individuals seeking our products or services see our ads, increasing CTR and conversions. Incorporating these high-performing keywords into our ad content improved the ad’s relevance, engagement, and conversion rates,” he said.

Mike Bullen, director at Eurisko, agrees, underlining that “having Google AI’s broad match functionality recommend a tighter number of keywords, based on our seed list, is critical with regards to identifying new trends and keyword opportunities, without losing too much of our budget to irrelevant search terms.”

5. Analyze your Google Ads Intelligence reports regularly.

According to Sai Blackbyrn, CEO of Coach Foundation, it’s key to continuously review insights from Google Ads Intelligence reports and make data-driven optimization decisions.

He says that “the Intelligence reports provide insights into how your ads are performing and opportunities to improve results. For example, the ‘Opportunities’ report showed me that by increasing my CPC bid for one of my top converting keywords by 30%, I could gain an estimated 15% more conversions at a reasonable cost.”

Blackburn adds that he tested the change and ended up gaining closer to 20% more conversions for that specific keyword.

6. Limit your headline and description variations in RSA to avoid the paradox of choice.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, Google Ads Intelligence lets you provide up to 15 headlines and four ad descriptions so you can see performance predictions.

While it might be tempting to use up these up to its limit, Eurisko’s Mike Bullen advises against this.

“We use Google Ads for several clients and have been pushing leads into HubSpot to help close the loop on customer conversions and customer value. We’re very hands-on as an agency, and we balance the Google Automations with our own best practice procedures,” he says.

When asked about how many ad copy variations should be used, Bullen responds: “We test the Google AI against a responsive ad group with only three headlines and two descriptions to see which ad generates the best engagement and conversions.”

These variations can present two or three different directions, so it’s easier to test them out and spot which ones have a higher chance of converting.

This is a very smart way of using the AI feature most effectively. If you were to create 15 or even 10 versions, the differences could be so subtle that you’d face the dilemma of which copy to run.

Using Google Ads Intelligence to Win Over More Clients

Google Ads Intelligence is making the work of advertisers much easier and more effective. It’s particularly a game-changer for those who aren’t performance marketing pros.

Thanks to its data analytics capabilities and access to global data, it’s able to point to people who are responsive to your campaigns, as well as expand to new audiences that have a high probability of converting.

This significantly enhances your profit generation potential, helping you allocate your budget more efficiently in the long run.

What’s great about Google Ads Intelligence is that, since it uses Natural Language Processing, it’s able to understand human speech.

This means you can communicate with it like you would with a real person and treat it as your personal assistant.

Ultimately, all the decisions regarding the ads are still yours.