Blog

If you’re a marketer, you cannot ignore meme culture.

No, I’m not talking about making tone-deaf corporate memes that shout “How do you do, fellow kids?”

I’m talking about real, organic viral trends. They might seem silly on the surface but– when timed right– jumping on the right meme can mean marketing magic.

Case in point: The Gen Z caviar bump. A TikTok trend that’s helping brands tap a $465 million global market.

A caviar what now?

If you’re not familiar with the caviar bump, you’ll be thankful to know it has nothing to do with snorting fish roe.

A caviar bump refers to the growing trend of licking a dollop of fish eggs off the back of your hand.

But while it may be trendy, it’s actually not new. Culinary experts say that this is the preferred method of caviar connoisseurs, because it allows you to taste only the eggs (and, of course, the back of your hand).

When you serve caviar on top of other ingredients– like toast, creme fraiche, or salmon tartare– you risk masking the flavor you’re paying so much to taste.

What is new, however, is the traffic that it’s bringing. At the time of posting, hashtags related to caviar bumps were pulling millions of views on Instagram.

The term #Caviar alone is responsible for 1.7 million posts. Not just views. Posts.

So what’s a marketer supposed to do with that information?

Show me the money.

In 2023, global caviar sales were estimated at around $465 million, according to the market research firm Fact.MR.

They project that to grow to $975 million by 2033.

And while TikTok and Gen Z can’t account for all of that, another market research study shows that caviar sales have grown 76% since only 2020.

That timing is hard to ignore.

And it’s definitely not being ignored by restaurants, luxury brands, and even… Pringles?

Wait, what?

My favorite example of a well-timed mix of marketing and meme comes from the popular snack food brand.

In July of 2023, an episode of Real Housewives of New York introduced the world to the pairing of Pringles and caviar. Clips from that episode went on to garner over 10 billion views on TikTok.

That’s Billion with a ‘B.’

Later in 2023, Pringles joined forces with The Caviar Co. to launch the “Crisps and Caviar Flight.”

The $140 tasting kit allows you to finally fulfill your dream of pairing fish roe and dehydrated potato discs.

Image Source

The result? Marketing Drive reports that the Pringles TikTok spiked to over 21.8 million views immediately after the launch.

And even now, four months later, Google Trends is still showing “pringles and caviar” enjoying 950% growth in search volume.

What’s the lesson?

If you’re not in a caviar-adjacent market, what can you learn from this?

1. Don’t ignore social media.

45% of Millennials and 39% of Gen Z preferred to learn about products through social media, according to HubSpot research.

2. Don’t ignore Gen Z.

64% of Gen Z consumers discovered new products on social media in 2023.

22% bought a product directly from a social media app.

3. Mind the memes.

Trying to predict what will go viral can be as slippery as an eel, but you should keep your eyes on what’s already trending. You never know when you’ll find your Pringles moment.

Your company’s value proposition is the core of your competitive advantage. It clearly articulates why someone would want to buy from your company instead of a competitor.

So how do you actually write a value proposition statement that’s strong enough to lift conversion rates and sales? In this article, you’ll learn the definition of a value proposition, what a value prop isn’t, examples of some of the best value props we’ve seen, and tactics to create amazing value props.

We’ll cover:

• What is a value proposition?
• Value Proposition vs Mission Statement (vs Others)
• Elements of a Value Proposition
• How to Write a Value Proposition
• How to Create a Value Proposition Canvas
• Value Proposition Templates
• Value Proposition Examples
• Value Proposition Canvas Examples
• Tactics to Develop an Effective Value Proposition
• Let’s summarize: What makes a good value prop?
• Value Proposition FAQs

Value propositions are one of the most important conversion factors. A great value proposition could be the difference between losing a sale — and closing it.

For that reason, it’s important to create one that accurately represents your products and services and makes it clear why you’re the best choice. However, writing it from scratch is hard. Download our templates below so you can follow along with the rest of the post.

Your value proposition is a unique identifier for your business. Without it, buyers won’t have a reason to purchase what you sell. They may even choose a competitor simply because that business communicates its value proposition clearly in its marketing campaigns and sales process.

That said, you might think: Isn’t my value prop interchangeable with, say, my slogan?

Nope. It’s easy to confuse your value proposition with other similar brand assets, such as your mission statement, slogan, or tagline. We break down the differences below.

Value Proposition vs Mission Statement

Your value proposition details what you offer customers and why they should choose you, while a mission statement details your objective as an organization. While the two can have points in common, a value prop is more product- and service-oriented while a mission statement is more goal-oriented.

Here are two examples for HubSpot and our CRM platform:

Value Proposition: “An easy-to-use CRM.”

Mission Statement: “To help businesses grow better.”

Value Proposition vs Slogan

A slogan is a short, catchy statement that brands use in marketing campaigns to sell a specific product. While your value proposition wouldn’t necessarily go in an ad (at least, not usually), a slogan would. The most important thing to note is that a company can have different slogans for different campaigns or products.

Here are two examples from De Beers Group:

Value Proposition: “Exquisite diamonds, world-class designs, breathtaking jewelry.”

Slogan: “A diamond is forever.”

Value Proposition vs Tagline

A tagline is a short statement that embodies a certain aspect of your brand or business. While a value proposition is more concrete, a tagline can represent a concept or idea that your business stands for. Most businesses have only one tagline that is instantly recognizable and connected to their brand.

Here’s an example from Apple:

Value Proposition: “The best experiences. Only on Apple.”

Tagline: “Think Different.”

Value Proposition vs Mission Statement vs Slogan vs Tagline

Now, let’s look at an example of a business that has all four: Nike. Remember that slogans can differ depending on the campaign.

Value Proposition: “Customizable performance or lifestyle sneakers with unique colorways and materials.”

Mission Statement: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”

Slogan: “Twice the guts. Double the glory.”

Tagline: “Just do it.”

TLDR; While your value prop should help differentiate you from the rest of the industry, keep in mind it’s not a slogan, tagline, or mission statement. Those types of copy are important accessories to your brand, but your potential customers and employees don’t choose one business over the other solely based on these elements.

Your value proposition goes deep into the problems you want to solve for buyers, and what makes your product or service the perfect solution.

 

Elements of a Value Proposition

Your value proposition will most often appear on your website. While you can include it on marketing campaigns and brochures, the most visible place is your home page and, if you’d like, your product pages.

There are three main elements of a value proposition: the headline, the subheadline, and a visual element.

Headline

The headline of your value proposition describes the benefit the customer will receive as a result of making a purchase from your business. The headline can be creative and catchy, but it should be clear and concise, first and foremost.

Subheadline or Paragraph

The subheadline or paragraph should explain in detail what your company offers, who it serves, and why. In this section, you can elaborate on the information in the headline.

Visual Element

In some cases, a video, infographic, or image may convey your value proposition better than words alone can. Enhance your message with these visual elements to capture your audience’s attention.

To better visualize these tools, here are a couple templates to follow when formatting a value proposition.

Step 1: Identify your customer’s main problem.

While this will require some upfront research, you can get a head start on this aspect of the value proposition by speaking with different members of your team. Customer service reps, marketing specialists, and salespeople can fill in the gaps about what problems your customers are looking to solve by using your product or service.

For example, let’s say your business sells tax software on a subscription basis and automated templates are included in the software package. Your ideal customer is looking for an affordable and user-friendly way to access complicated tax documents for their business. In this example, your business’s offerings could be the solution they need.

Step 2: Identify all the benefits your products offer.

This step can be as simple as listing out every product you sell and describing its primary benefit. The benefit should be concise and focused on a single customer need.

In our tax software example, you’d list each tax template, explain the benefit it provides, and why a customer would need it.

Step 3: Describe what makes these benefits valuable.

Next, add another sentence that explains why this benefit matters to the customer.

Using the same example above, the value would be that customers have affordable tax documentation at their fingertips — something that would normally cost them thousands of dollars.

Step 4: Connect this value to your buyer’s problem.

Next, pair the buyer’s problem to the elements that make your product or service valuable. Do they align? If so, you’re ready to refine your value proposition to differentiate your offerings from the competition. If they don’t align, repeat the steps above until you find a valid buyer need and a viable solution your business offers to meet that need.

There are three templates we think do an excellent job of connecting value to buyer pain points:

Step 5: Differentiate yourself as the preferred provider of this value.

Finally, polish your value proposition to make it unique. Is there a specific customer service offering your business provides that others don’t? Do you offer any additional services that other companies charge for? These elements can help differentiate your value proposition from competitors while keeping the focus on the buyer’s needs.

Step 6: Use a template to help you brainstorm.

Once you understand the first five steps, you can easily implement them into value proposition templates.

Steve Blank Method

Instead of focusing on the features themselves, Blank saw the need to emphasize the benefits derived from the features in a simple sentence. By following this formula you’ll connect the target market and their pain points to the solution:

“We help (X) do (Y) by doing (Z)”

Geoff Moore Method

Moore provides a template that’s more specific in identifying the industry categories alongside the benefits customers value. This makes a more clear value proposition formula as follows:

“For [target customer] who [needs or wants X], our [product/service] is [category of industry] that [benefits]”

Harvard Business School Method

According to HBS a value proposition is executed best when it answers the following questions:

• “What is my brand offering?”
• “What job does the customer hire my brand to do?”
• “What companies and products compete with my brand to do this job for the customer?”
• “What sets my brand apart from competitors?”

HubSpot Value Proposition Templates

HubSpot offers 15 free templates to help you brainstorm the perfect value proposition for your brand. Not only can they help you hone in on your business’s core values, but they can also give you a boost when working on your actual statement.

Some questions you will ask yourself when using the HubSpot templates include:

• “Why do you do what you do?”
• “How do you do what you do?”
• “What do you do for your customers?”

Download for Free

Now, before you write the statement itself, it’s important to create a value proposition canvas.

Taking these three elements into consideration, you’ll be able to make your own after you build a value proposition canvas.

Value Proposition Canvas

A value proposition canvas is a visual tool that helps you position your business’s product or service around your customers’ needs. The goal of the value proposition canvas is to identify how your business provides value within the market. You can use one when introducing a new offer into the market or when enhancing an existing one.

The value proposition canvas is made up of two major components: the customer profile and the value map.

Here’s how to make one:

Step 1: Create a customer profile to represent your target buyer.

The customer profile makes up the first half of the value proposition canvas. When performing this exercise, you’ll want to start with this section first so that their wants and needs can influence the overall value proposition canvas.

The customer profile consists of three areas:

Customer Jobs

What is the task your customer needs to complete or the problem they’re trying to solve with your product or service? The answer to this question sums up the “customer job” or the purpose of your product or service in the eyes of the customer.

Customer Expectations

“Expectations” are also referred to as “gains” — in other words, what your customer is hoping to gain from doing business with you. No matter what you sell, your ideal customer will have an expectation of what that product or service will do for them. In this section, you’ll use research to explain what your customers expect from you in order to purchase your product.

Customer Pain Points

As your customer completes their “customer job,” what pains do they experience? Do they take any risks while they do the customer’s job? Do they experience any negative emotions? These pain points should be considered so that you include the most helpful products and services on the value map side of the value proposition canvas.

Step 2: Create a value map for your products and services.

In this section of the value proposition canvas, three specific sectors help describe what the business offers to the customer.

Gain Creators

These are features your products or services have that make the customer happy. Think creatively about the elements of happiness your customers experience. Consider their financial and social goals as well as their psychographics.

Pain Relievers

In the section above, we discussed customer pains. This section will define exactly how your business will help them overcome those pain points.

Products & Services

While this section won’t list every single product or service your company offers, it should include the ones that will create the most gain and alleviate the most pains for your customers.

Step 3: Determine value proposition-customer fit.

Once you’ve completed the value proposition canvas exercise, the next step will be to determine how your value proposition fits within the customer profile. To do this, you’ll use a ranking process that prioritizes products and services based on how well they address the customer profile.

All together, your value proposition canvas should look like this:

Next up, let’s go over some templates you can use when you’re creating your value proposition and publishing it on your website.

Value Proposition Templates

Download for Free

We’ve crafted 15 templates to help you create an amazing value proposition for your brand — and pairing each of them with an example of how they may look for a real business.

This offer has all the tools you need to craft a value proposition that precisely communicates your brand to users and stakeholders, including:

• 10 value proposition writing templates
• 1 value proposition canvas template
• 1 mission statement brainstorm template
• 1 vision statement brainstorm template
• 1 competitive analysis template
• 1 brand hierarchy template

Click here to download these free value proposition templates for your business.

Now that we’ve reviewed the elements, visual tools, and templates — let’s look at some brand examples that effectively identify and satisfy its customer needs.

Because value propositions are typically internal information and rarely stated publicly, finding a value proposition example to model yours after can be difficult. We’ve taken the liberty of using the value proposition canvas and applying it to some successful companies that have been recognized by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI).

In these examples, you’ll see real-world instances of customer gains and pains aligned with well-known products and services offered by these companies.

1. HubSpot: “An easy-to-use CRM.”

Headline: “An easy-to-use CRM.”

Subheadline/Paragraph: “HubSpot’s CRM platform has all the tools and integrations you need for marketing, sales, content management, and customer service.”

Visual Element:

Most companies can benefit from using a CRM — even freelance businesses and small family-owned firms. The problem is that most systems are expensive, over-complicated and cobbled together, creating challenges for businesses as they grow.

HubSpot’s value proposition aims to target active CRM users who are tired of handling over-complicated systems, and beginners who are intimidated by legacy options. These users want a system that makes growth easier, not harder.

While each product in HubSpot’s CRM platform can be used individually, the true benefit comes from using each hub in tandem. Instead of having to deal with incompatible software and productivity tools, you can manage all your marketing, sales, content, and customer service needs in one place. To that end, the product’s value proposition emphasizes its ease-of-use and ability to synchronize different teams across the business.

The brand includes an image of a smiling woman to show what it would be like to use the product in your team (hint: it’s so easy, it’ll make you smile).

2. FedEx: “Manage your Home Deliveries”

Headline: “Manage Your Home Deliveries”

Subheadline/Paragraph: Sending and receiving packages is convenient and safe for individuals who want to ship ideas and innovations across the globe.

Visual Element:

Image Source

If you own a business, shipping and packaging products is likely a significant part of your operations, but it can be a time-consuming, labor-intensive, and plain inconvenient process. If you’re a consumer, you’ve likely experienced driving to a shipping office to get your package after a missed delivery. Both of these are significant pain points for FedEx’s target customers.

With FedEx, you can opt to receive notifications about your package’s delivery status, provide instructions on how to deliver packages to your home, or even request to pick up at a different location.

Shipping packages with FedEx is just as easy as receiving them. All you have to do is create a shipping label on FedEx’s website, choose which shipping service you’d like to use, and then drop your package off. Even if there isn’t a FedEx office nearby, you can still drop off at national retailers like Walgreens, Dollar General, OfficeMax, and Walmart.

FedEx’s value proposition makes it clear that it will make managing your deliveries much, much easier — whether you’re a business or a consumer.

3. LG SIGNATURE: “State-of-the-art Living Experience”

Headline: “State-of-the-art Living Experience”

Subheadline/Paragraph: LG SIGNATURE delivers an innovative product design that creates an exceptional living experience for people who want to achieve a state-of-the-art living experience.

Visual Element:

Image Source

The right home appliances can make your at-home experience easy and hassle-free — or it can quickly create headaches with low power efficiency and outdated features. In its value proposition, LG SIGNATURE targets customers who are willing to spend just a little more on the right appliance in exchange for a comfortable, hassle-free, and luxurious experience.

LG SIGNATURE isn’t your typical appliance brand. It doesn’t want to sell you a bunch of products you don’t need with unnecessary features you won’t use. Instead, it’s dedicated to crafting premium products that are functional, user-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing.

Even the imagery helps you imagine what your life would be like after purchasing an LG SIGNATURE appliance. Instead of having to replace obsolete appliances every few years, you can enjoy innovative, long lasting products.

4. Subaru: “The most adventurous, most reliable, safest, best Subaru Outback ever.”

Headline: “The most adventurous, most reliable, safest, best Subaru Outback ever.”

Subheadline/Paragraph: The 2022 Subaru Outback takes drivers to the most adventurous places in style with the most advanced safety technology.

Visual Element:

Image Source

Subaru knows that its target audience uses its Outback SUVs for outdoor adventures. Rather than designing a vehicle solely for utility, Subaru made the 2022 Outback attractive and spacious enough for everyday use as well as reliable and sturdy enough for all terrain and weather conditions.

So in its value proposition, it makes it clear that the Outback will help its drivers go off the road safely and in style. If I were a potential Subaru customer, I’d know exactly what I’m getting from the headline alone. That’s why it’s so important to think about your wording, because it’s likely the first thing potential buyers will see.

5. Samsung: “Get Ready to Unfold Your World”

Headline: “Get Ready to Unfold Your World”

Subheadline/Paragraph: This is everything you’d want in a premium, durable, 5G smartphone. Then we made it unfold — revealing a massive screen so you can watch, work and play like never before.

Visual Element:

Image Source

In its value proposition, Samsung effectively targets its most tech-savvy segment by front-lining its most innovative design to date: a foldable phone that can double as a mini-tablet. Even more, it solves a common pain point for some customers: owning both a tablet and a mobile device can feel unnecessary, so why not get the best of both worlds?

The Galaxy Z Fold4 attracts customers by promising a lightweight, durable smartphone with an ultra powerful processor.

Some of its premium features include hands-free video capabilities, a large screen that’s perfect for multitasking, and an advanced camera that’s perfect for taking pictures at night. The phone is also crafted with high quality materials that help protect it from water damage, scrapes, and scratches. Plus, its unique design will appeal to anyone who appreciates cutting-edge technology.

6. Imperfect Foods: “Groceries that help you fight food waste”

Headline: “Groceries that help you fight food waste”

Subheadline: “Sustainably sourced, affordable, and conveniently delivered to your door.”

Visual Element:

Image Source

Whether you’re shopping for an entire family or just yourself, grocery shopping can be a major pain.

Planning out all your meals for the week can be overwhelming and time-consuming, especially if you’re trying to ensure no food goes to waste. Even if you do successfully create the perfect shopping list, finding the time to go to the store can also be a challenge.

In its value proposition, Imperfect Foods offers a sustainable alternative to traditional grocery shopping. Unlike other delivery services, Imperfect Foods’ grocery selections solely consists of food that would have otherwise been discarded due to minor cosmetic and physical imperfections.

Imperfect Foods’ website design further communicates its commitment to reducing food waste with its badge counting how many pounds of food it has saved.

The company also appeals to customers’ sustainability concerns by delivering to neighborhoods in one trip to reduce CO2 emissions and only using recycled packaging.

7. Hulu – “All The TV You Love”

Headline: “All The TV You Love”

Subheadline: “What full seasons of exclusively streaming series, current-season episodes, hit movies, Hulu Originals, kids shows, and more.”

Visual Element:

Image Source

In July 2022, streaming services outperformed cable and broadcast TV for the first time ever. However, as streaming becomes more and more popular, customers are at risk of getting fatigued by the overwhelming amount of on-demand content to choose from.

Hulu’s value proposition aims to target TV consumers who are tired of having to pay for multiple streaming services in order to have access to all the content they want to watch. Each Hulu subscriber gets access to a vast catalog of exclusive series, popular movies, original content, and more.

One of the ways Hulu makes good on its promise of providing “all the TV you love” is by offering subscription bundles with ESPN+ and Disney+, which can save consumers money if they were to subscribe to each service separately. Hulu also has premium network add-ons that give users access to even more content without having to leave the platform.

Samsung’s value proposition for its foldable mobile device is smart, well-targeted, and visually stunning.

You’ve seen some brilliant value proposition examples, now let’s review some examples of value proposition canvases.

1. HubSpot Value Proposition Canvas

Customer Profile

• Customer Jobs: HubSpot customers need to effectively enable their sales teams to do their best work while avoiding complicated workflows.
• Gains: Customers want to increase their sales rep productivity levels and boost sales.
• Pains: There are plenty of CRM options, but they’re often over complicated and create silos.

Value Map

• Gain Creators: The HubSpot CRM platform offers streamlined contact management software and productivity tools that will help sales teams do their best work.
• Pain Relievers: The user-friendly interface and unified platform offers ease-of-use and high visibility across systems.
• Products & Services: The HubSpot CRM platform includes Sales Hub, an enterprise-level sales software that’s simple yet powerful enough to cater to the needs of businesses small and large.

2. FedEx Value Proposition Canvas

Customer Profile

• Customer Jobs: FedEx customers want to share ideas and innovations with other individuals by shipping goods around the world.
• Gains: Customers want a hassle-free way to return online orders and are looking for a safe and secure way to receive their packages.
• Pains: Returning a package at a FedEx shipping center can be inconvenient, and managing home deliveries can be a hassle.

Value Map

• Gain Creators: Customers can drop off their FedEx packages at places they shop most like Walgreens or Dollar General, and have peace of mind knowing where their package is at all times.
• Pain Relievers: Thousands of FedEx drop-off locations across the country, receive notifications when a package is en route and inform the driver where to leave the package.
• Products & Services: FedEx Drop Box locations make returning packages convenient, and the FedEx Delivery Manager reroutes or reschedules deliveries to work with the customer’s schedule.

3. LG Value Proposition Canvas

Customer Profile

• Customer Jobs: LG customers want simple, yet innovative technology that helps them achieve a state-of-the-art living experience.
• Gains: Customers have an intuitive and responsive experience with each appliance they interact with inside their homes.
• Pains: There are too many unnecessary buttons and features on appliances that get in the way of a simple living experience.

Value Map

• Gain Creators: Customers can use technology to enhance their home experience without needing to read a manual.
• Pain Relievers: LG offers a simple design that focuses on the user and their lifestyle.
• Products & Services: LG SIGNATURE delivers an innovative product design that creates an exceptional living experience.

4. Subaru Value Proposition Canvas

Customer Profile

• Customer Jobs: Subaru customers want to explore the world’s most adventurous places in a reliable and safe vehicle.
• Gains: Customers want to explore the land in a stylish and spacious SUV and look for advanced technological elements in their vehicles that enhance performance and safety.
• Pains: The safest vehicles are not the most visually appealing, and some SUVs aren’t equipped for all-weather or all-terrain environments.

Value Map

• Gain Creators: Subarus have a stylish exterior and interior with ample ground clearance that protects the vehicle against damage from the environment and advanced technology to reduce crashes and make long road trips safer.
• Pain Relievers: Subarus have a rugged blacked-out trim for style and protection, 9.5-inch ground clearance for better stability and performance, and driver-assist technology that helps drivers see better, prevent crashes, manage cruise control, and brake automatically in emergency situations.
• Products & Services: The 2022 Subaru Outback with standard eyesight assist technology, automatic pre-collision braking, adaptive cruise control, and lane-centering.

5. Samsung Value Proposition Canvas

Customer Profile

• Customer Jobs: Samsung customers are tech-savvy and follow the latest trends, driven by efficiency and aspirational lifestyles.
• Gains: Customers want an all-in-one way to enjoy media, work productively, and have a fun experience all in the palm of their hands.
• Pains: Common smartphones have size limitations that strain entertainment viewing, gameplay, and work capabilities.

Value Map

• Gain Creators: Samsung offers a unique and expansive design with capabilities beyond that of an average smartphone, offering the most advanced technology to help customers perform tasks to fulfill work and play.
• Pain Relievers: Samsung provides a smartphone that displays content in tablet-like viewing and displays up to three apps simultaneously.
• Products & Services: The Galaxy Z Fold3 5G folding 6.2-inch smartphone with dynamic AMOLED 2X screens, ultra-thin glass with S Penfold edition, and super-strong lightweight armor aluminum frame.

6. Imperfect Foods Value Proposition Canvas

Customer Profile

• Customer Jobs: Imperfect Foods customers want a simple and sustainable option for buying fresh produce.
• Gains: Customers prefer to have their groceries delivered rather than going to the store each week.
• Pains: Produce can go to waste easily, and grocery delivery is expensive.

Value Map

• Gain Creators: Imperfect Foods sources and delivers food that would have otherwise been wasted because of minor imperfections.
• Pain Relievers: Waste is minimized by delivering area groceries in one trip and recycling packing.
• Products & Services: Imperfect Foods curated food selection includes produce, pantry staples, dairy products, snacks, plant-based foods, meat, and wellness products.

7. Hulu Value Proposition Canvas

Customer Profile

• Customer Jobs: Hulu customers are overwhelmed by the amount of video streaming options and want a platform that has all of their favorite shows and movies in one place.
• Gains: Customers primarily watch movies and TV shows via streaming services.
• Pains: There is an abundance of streaming platforms, and customers can easily get overwhelmed with the amount of TV and movie options.

Value Map

• Gain Creators: Hulu’s streaming library features full seasons of exclusive series, popular movies, original content, and more.
• Pain Relievers: The different subscription plans and premium network add-ons allow customers to curate their streaming experience to their tastes and can help minimize the amount of services they subscribe to.
• Products & Services: All subscription plans include access to Hulu’s streaming library, new episodes the day after they air, and ability to stream on different devices.

1. Conduct research to determine the value proposition of your competitors.

Because your value proposition is the differentiating factor between your business and the competition, it’s important to research the propositions of your closest competitors. You can use the value proposition canvas in this post to determine how each company meets the needs of your buyer persona.

Be honest here — it’s tempting to focus on the areas in which your competition doesn’t excel, but you’ll have a better idea of where your product or service fits within the market if you key in on your competitors’ strengths.

2. Explain the value of your products and services.

You’re probably familiar with outlining the features and benefits of your product and service offerings. This tactic takes that concept a step further. By matching the benefits of your offerings to specific values that your customers have, you’ll be able to align what your business provides with what your customers need.

3. Describe the benefits your ideal customer will experience when they choose your product or service over the competition.

When crafting this part of your value proposition, include details about how your product or service will benefit the customer and use examples where you can. Videos, photos, and live demonstrations are all effective ways to illustrate your value proposition because they show the customer exactly what they can expect from your business.

4. Develop a unique value proposition for each buyer persona you serve.

Ideally, you’ll be focusing your marketing efforts on a specific target audience. You’ll also find that this audience will have different needs based on their buying behaviors. Buyer personas can help you segment your larger audience into groups of customers with similar desires, goals, pain points, and buying behaviors. As a result, you’ll need a unique value proposition for each persona. Different products and services you offer may solve certain customer pain points better than others, so developing a value proposition for each persona will better serve each one.

5. Test your value proposition with your audience using various marketing channels.

Each of these tactics will likely be developed internally by your team which means you’ll want to validate your work with your target audience. Your value proposition will be communicated through various marketing channels like your website, social media accounts, video, audio, and in person. Test your proposition with members of your audience (both existing customers and non-customers) using each of these channels. Tools like UserTesting can help you streamline this feedback process so that you can implement changes quickly to finalize your value proposition.

We know the makings of a value proposition, so how can you make it a good one? Here’s the last three tips we have for you.

What makes a good value proposition?

1. Clear Language

Your value proposition should aim to address a primary customer need. This limited focus helps keep your value proposition clear and easy to understand. With just one main idea to comprehend, your audience will be able to quickly decide whether or not your product or service will be the best solution for them.

2. Specific Outcomes

Next, you’ll want to communicate the specific outcomes your customer can expect to receive from your product or service. Will they save time? Demonstrate how. Will their workflow become more manageable? Show a before and after workflow diagram. The specific outcomes will be critical components of your value proposition as they’ll exemplify exactly how your customers will use your solution to solve their problems.

3. Points of Differentiation

Not only are your potential customers evaluating your business’s offerings based on their own needs, but they’re also comparing what you offer against competitors. As a result, your value proposition will need to include detailed points of differentiation. These key points will help customers understand exactly what sets your company apart.

Value Proposition Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of a value proposition? To effectively communicate the unique value and benefits that a product or service offers to its target customers to differentiate it from the competition and attract or retain customers.

What if the value proposition fails? If the value proposition fails, it can result in difficulties attracting and retaining customers, losing market share to competitors, and ultimately impacting the product’s or service’s success and sustainability.

Can you change your value proposition? Yes, a company can change its value proposition by identifying and addressing customer pain points or needs, modifying its product or service offerings, and effectively communicating the new value to its target audience.

Compose a Remarkable Value Proposition

The factors that influence a potential customer to become a loyal customer are limited. Whether your industry has a lot of opportunities to differentiate (like retail) or virtually no unique identifiers (like dairy), you’ll find that a value proposition will help you understand your ideal customer and position your business as the best solution for their needs. Use the tactics, tips, framework, and examples in this post to craft your unique value proposition.

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

Excel can do more than just simple math. That’s thanks to its bevy of built-in functions and min-formulas that simplify the creation of more complex formulas.

In my decade-long experience with Excel, I’ve found that one of the more useful functions is the COUNTIF function.

You can use COUNTIF to count the number of cells that contain a specific value or range of values. It’s easier to use COUNTIF than to manually count yourself.

How to Use the COUNTIF Function in Excel

The COUNTIF function in Excel counts the number of cells in a range that meet the given criteria. It doesn’t total the cells; it simply counts them. I’ve found it useful for counting cells that contain a specific value or range of values.

For example, let’s say you have a spreadsheet that contains customer contact information, including street addresses and ZIP codes. You can easily use the COUNTIF function to count how many customers live in a given ZIP code — and you don’t even have to sort the addresses by ZIP code to do it.

Let’s work through the process step-by-step.

1. =COUNTIF()

Begin by entering the following into the cell where you want to place the answer:

=COUNTIF()

For this example, we’ll use a grocery list that I’ve written. The different items I want to buy are sorted by type, like vegetables and fruit.

2. Define a range of cells.

For the COUNTIF function to work, you have to enter two arguments between the parentheses — the range of cells you’re looking at and the criteria you want to match.

Place your cursor within the parentheses and either manually enter the range of cells (e.g., D1:D20) or use your mouse to highlight the range of cells in your spreadsheet.

Assuming your ZIP code values are in column D from row 1 to row 20, the function should now look like this:

=COUNTIF(A2:A35)

3. Add a comma.

Next, type a comma after the range, like this:

=COUNTIF(A2:A35,)

4. Define your search criteria.

You now need to enter the criteria or value that you want to count after the comma, surrounded by quotation marks.

In our example, let’s say you’re looking to see how many vegetables are on your list. In this instance, the criteria you’re counting is Vegetable, and your function should now look like this:

=COUNTIF(A2:A35, “Vegetable“)

Note that your criteria can be a number (“10”), text (“Los Angeles”), or another cell (C3). However, if you reference another cell, you don’t surround it with quotation marks. Criteria are not case-sensitive, so you could enter “Red,” “red,” or “RED” and get the same results.

5. Activate the function.

Press Enter, and the function activates, returning the number of cells that match your argument.

Tips for Using the COUNTIF Function

Many users, myself included, have discovered that you can use the COUNTIF function in many different ways besides counting specific values. Here are three tips I recommend for extending the use of the COUNTIF function.

Use wildcard characters for partial matches.

You don’t have to reference a specific value or criteria. If you only know part of the value you want to count, you can use the * wildcard character to match any value in that part of the value.

For example, let’s say you have a list of addresses. If you want to match all ZIP codes that start with the numbers 46 (such as 46032, 46033, and 46450), you would enter 46 followed by the * wildcard, like this:

=COUNTIF(D1:D20,“46*“)

You can use the wildcard character at either the beginning or the end of the value string. For example, to count all cells that end with the letters “polis,” enter the following:

=COUNTIF(D1:D20,“*polis“)

This will count cells that contain the cities of Indianapolis and Minneapolis.

Count values that are greater than or less than a number.

If you’re working with numbers, you may want to count cells with values greater than or less than a given value. You do this by using the mathematical greater than (>) and less than (<) signs.

To count all cells that have a value greater than a given number, such as 10, enter this:

=COUNTIF(D1:D20,“>10“)

To count cells that are greater than or equal to a number, enter this:

=COUNTIF(D!:D20“>=10“)

To count all cells that have a value less than a given number, enter this:

=COUNTIF(D1:D20“<10“)

To count cells that have a value less than or equal to a given number, enter this:

=COUNTIF(D1:D20“<=10“)

You can even count cells with a value not equal to a specific number. For example, to count cells that are not equal to the number 10, enter this:

=COUNTIF(D1:D20“<>10“)

In all these instances, remember that the criteria, including the less than, greater than, and equal signs, must be enclosed within quotation marks.

Count one value OR another.

The COUNTIF function can also be used to count multiple criteria—that is, cells that contain one value or another.

For example, you might want to count customers who live in either Los Angeles or San Diego. You do this by using two COUNTIF functions with a + between them, like this:

=COUNTIF(D1:D20,“Los Angeles“)+COUNTIF(D1:D20,“San Diego“)

To add even more values, enter another + and COUNTIF function.

If you want to get even more out of Excel, check out our article on how to use Excel like a pro. You’ll find 29 powerful tips, tricks, and shortcuts that will make Excel even easier to use.

Getting Started

If you’re looking to count the number of items that match specific criteria, the COUNTIF function is the way to go. You could just sort on that column and manually count the entries, but using COUNTIF is a whole lot easier.

Now, try it out and save yourself some time.

I’m fortunate to live in a city that has a thriving restaurant scene (it’s most known for its barbecue and Tex-Mex, if that gives you any hint). And while I don’t consider myself a food connoisseur by any means, I was a food journalist in a past life, so I continue to stay on top of the latest stories and trends surrounding the restaurant industry.

To do this, I follow a lot of restaurants on social media. I also subscribe to their newsletters, attend their special events, enter their giveaways, and sign up for their rewards programs.

And because my marketing brain never shuts off, I can’t help but be curious about these restaurant marketing strategies. How well do they work? Which channels do these restaurants perform best on? How do established restaurants maintain interest after the grand opening buzz wears down?

To figure out the answers to these questions, I’m digging deep into restaurant marketing ideas, strategies, and real-life campaigns.

Restaurant Marketing Strategies That Work

I wanted to get more insight into the world of restaurant marketing, so I spoke with Rachel Ayotte, the founder and CEO of Bread and Butter, a communications agency that works with hospitality clients.

Why do restaurants of all sizes need a marketing strategy? What does an effective campaign look like these days?

“In New York City alone, there are over 25,000 restaurants, which would take the average person 22 years to try,” shares Ayotte.

She adds, “With a huge inventory of options and a relatively short time to succeed, people must know your restaurant not only exists but is also someplace they want to go.”

This is why having a restaurant marketing strategy is essential.

If you want to stand out online and bring more people into your restaurant, here are examples of successful restaurant marketing strategies and campaigns to take inspiration from.

Customer-First Content

An essential restaurant marketing strategy is to focus on your customers. This applies not only to the way you market your restaurant but also to the menu items and products you create.

One creative example of this is Chipotle’s limited edition Napkin Holder, which is inspired by its customers.

Image Source

Here’s the backstory: It’s common for Chipotle customers to grab a stack of napkins to store in their cars on their way out of the restaurant.

Instead of reprimanding its customers for stocking up on napkins, Chipotle created an opportunity for increased brand loyalty by creating a branded car napkin holder.

Image Source

As a bonus, the campaign launched around the holidays, making it a perfect gifting opportunity. Each napkin holder also came with a gift card for a free entree to encourage customers to visit a restaurant to “restock” their napkin supply.

Chipotle’s limited edition Napkin Holder was not only an excellent customer-inspired product, but the campaign was also a perfect example of social listening in action.

By paying attention to their customers’ behaviors and what they’re sharing online about the restaurant, Chipotle was able to create a viral moment out of it.

Chipotle’s goal on social is to “meet [their] fans where they are,” according to Candice Beck, the restaurant’s director of social, influencers, and Web3, and this campaign completely aligns with that strategy.

To employ this strategy, get to know your customers on a deep level. Immerse yourself in the platforms they spend their time on, whether that’s Instagram or TikTok, and make note of their interests, behaviors, and goals.

Nostalgic Marketing

To this day, I can’t hear the words “baby back ribs” and not think of Chili’s. That’s because I, like many millennials, grew up hearing the iconic “I want my baby back ribs” jingle on TV and the radio.

Chili’s has tapped into its Y2K past and created several nostalgic marketing campaigns this year to target its now-adult millennial audience.

The campaigns include a commercial that brought back the restaurant’s famous jingle, now sung by Boyz II Men (another pop culture fixture of the 90s and 2000s).

Using nostalgia in marketing has been a popular strategy in recent years as many businesses’ target audiences are growing up. If you’re an established restaurant, don’t be afraid to rehash the past.

This could mean bringing back an old menu item, selling merchandise with retro branding, or even sharing flashbacks from throughout your restaurant’s history.

Nostalgic marketing works not only because it taps into people’s memories and emotions but also because it serves as a reminder of how long you’ve been around.

Social-Driven Content

In my experience, restaurants that prioritize social media in their marketing strategy tend to generate a lot of online buzz.

An example of a restaurant that creates social-driven content is Austin-based El Arroyo. Even though El Arroyo is a Mexican restaurant, you won’t find any pictures of food on its Instagram.

With almost 700K followers, the restaurant is instead known for its real-life marquee sign that displays cheeky jokes and thoughts, often submitted by fans.

The account shares a picture of its sign with a new message every day on Instagram.

Image Source

El Arroyo has built a large following around its daily sign, giving its audience something to look forward to seeing — and sharing — every day.

The restaurant also uses its sign to tie in current events or make major announcements. For example, when the hit Netflix show, Queer Eye, was filming in Austin, El Arroyo partnered with the cast to generate buzz.

Image Source

If you want to use social media to drive traffic to your restaurant, create something shareable. This could be a mural or a sign that people want to take pictures of or a unique menu item that would stand out in the feed.

Signature Brand

When I think of a restaurant with a signature, distinct, and memorable brand, the first place that comes to mind is Taquero Mucho.

Image Source

The Austin-based restaurant is known for using the color pink in everything — from its decor to its margaritas — even the tortillas are pink.

Image Source

Pink is splashed across its brand imagery, making it unmissable online and in social media feeds. The color pink often evokes a feeling of playfulness, optimism, and femininity, which are all words I’d use to describe Taquero Mucho.

Creating a strong brand is a great way to make your restaurant memorable, as a signature brand essentially markets your restaurant for you.

Brand Partnerships

“One of our favorite and most effective marketing ideas for restaurants to maximize awareness is a partnership with a like-minded brand to tap into their audience,” shares Ayotte.

Ayotte says this is a low-lift way to draw on what you already have — a great restaurant and a great menu. You can “leverage that through another brand that shares a similar ethos and has access to customers the restaurant might not,” she notes

An example of a successful partnership Ayotte’s team developed and executed was between the dessert brand, Lady M Confections, Netflix, and Pearl Studio in advance of the release of the highly anticipated musical Over the Moon.

Image Source

To celebrate the release, Lady M created a mooncake lantern. Once the partnership was ready to be announced, Ayotte’s team reached out to media and influencers to share the news, as well as samples of the mooncake lanterns.

“The partnership was a resounding success,” Ayotte recalls. “It [resulted] in a huge bump in sales for Lady M [and generated] over 1.7 million impressions and 19,804 total social engagements.”

10 Restaurant Marketing Ideas for 2024

Based on the strategies above, along with more insight from Rachel Ayotte and my personal encounters with restaurant marketing that works, here are ten restaurant marketing ideas and best practices to try this year and beyond.

1. Build a simple yet effective website.

Whether I’m searching for a restaurant near me on Google or I’ve discovered a new place through Instagram, my next step is always to check out the restaurant’s website. Having a website for your restaurant is a necessity.

“Even if a restaurant has the best service and best food in the world, guests need a way to find out information and connect in some way,” states Ayotte. “In our experience designing websites for restaurants, we emphasize the need for regularly updated, user-friendly formats that make it easy for guests to see the menu, hours, location, and how to make a reservation.”

Image Source

What we like: The good news is you don’t need to have website development skills to build an effective website. “Restaurants don’t need a hugely complex website to be successful,” says Ayotte. “A website can be relatively simple if designed well.”

2. Manage and update your Google Business Profile.

In addition to their website, another thing I immediately take a look at when searching for restaurants is their Google Business Profile.

Your Google Business Profile is the profile that pops up on the right side of the screen when someone searches for your business. This snapshot of your business creates a first impression to searchers who want to see what type of food to expect and what the atmosphere is like.

It also displays information they’re most likely looking for right away, such as hours, location, and reviews.

It’s important to keep your profile updated so customers have the most accurate and up-to-date information. Restaurants that actively maintain this information get 89% more calls, website visits, and direction requests, and 79% more reviews, according to data from Mobile.io.

Here’s an example of a Google Business Profile for a local pizza restaurant here in Austin called Via 313:

Image Source

The profile includes the restaurant’s essential information such as location, hours, and phone number. But it also includes things that can help diners make their decision, like the menu, service options, reviews, and plenty of photos.

Pro tip: You can add your own photos to your profile if you don’t want it to solely feature images from customer reviews.

3. Track online reviews.

“People love to broadcast negative experiences and reviews,” Ayotte states. “This can haunt a restaurant for years.”

While you can’t control what people write in their reviews, you can choose how you respond. Take the time to read and respond to both positive and negative reviews.

Here’s another example from Via 313, the pizza shop I mentioned above. The restaurant takes the time to thoughtfully respond to every customer review on Google, even acknowledging their feedback when customers share it.

Best for: Tracking your restaurant’s online reviews isn’t only so you can stay on top of negative reviews. You can also use customer feedback to improve your restaurant service, get inspiration for new dishes, or collect positive reviews as social proof on your website and social media posts.

4. Share UGC (user-generated content).

For me, seeing posts created by other accounts and customers helps convince me to try a restaurant. This is called user-generated content, or UGC.

UGC establishes social proof, which is the concept that customers are influenced by other customers’ experiences, behavior, and recommendations.

For example, the Reel below was created by a food influencer sharing their experience at the New Orleans-based restaurant Willa Jean (which, by the way, I can confirm is a great brunch spot in the city!).

The restaurant shared the video on its own page to amplify the influencer’s positive recommendation.

Image Source

What we like: Not only does UGC provide social proof for your restaurant, but it also gives you plenty of content to share, so you never run out of things to post.

5. Join a reservation platform.

If you want to get customers in the door, you have to make it easy for them to come. This often means meeting them where they are, which, in the case of upscale dining, is on the reservation platforms.

Reservation platforms like Resy or Tock are great channels for restaurants to increase their discoverability and get in front of new customers.

On the customer side, these platforms are convenient. Booking platforms often curate restaurants for customers, organizing them into categories such as “Top Rated” or “Best Brunches” so people can navigate their options better.

Resy, for instance, even has a category called “Book Tonight” that displays openings for last-minute reservations.

Image Source

Pro tip: If you offer reservations or group dining, make it easy for your customers to book a table by adding a reservation page or plugin on your website.

6. Engage customers directly with email marketing.

In 2023, I had one of my most memorable dining experiences at Bar Marilou in New Orleans. From the library-inspired interior design to the mouth-watering bites and flavorful drinks, the experience has stuck with me for nearly a year.

So, of course, anytime I see the name “Bar Marilou” pop up in my inbox, I immediately open the email just to be reminded of my magical experience.

Image Source

This is the power of email marketing. When done right, emails can be used to increase customer loyalty and serve as a reminder of your story, your menu, or your events. Email is a way to reach your customers directly, whereas social media posts can get lost in a sea of content.

Bar Marilou only sends out emails once a month (sometimes less) to share upcoming events or updates. This cadence is enough for me since I don’t even live in the same city and can’t easily drop in whenever I want.

However, if you have enough data on your customers, you could send more personalized emails depending on their locations, demographic, and dining history with you. For instance, if you know your customers’ birthdays, you can send them rewards to redeem on their special days.

Best for: If you want to communicate important information or share upcoming events with your customers, email marketing can be a more direct channel than social media.

7. Create shareable moments.

Shareable content is key to succeeding on social media. When you create content that attracts and resonates with people, they’re more likely to share it and help you increase your restaurant’s online reach.

There are a few ways to create moments or content that people want to share. One way is to make your dishes Instagram-worthy so customers are compelled to take pictures and share them.

Here’s another example from the pink restaurant, Taquero Mucho, I mentioned earlier. The restaurant creates a fun new drink every month and shares it on Instagram. This one aligned with the Barbie movie that premiered last summer.

Image Source

Another way is to design your restaurant in a way that’s share-worthy by creating an Instagrammable spot inside or outside of your space, like a mural.

8. Start a loyalty or rewards program.

Everyone loves free stuff. A rewards program can be a fun way to encourage customers to become frequent visitors to earn free food and drinks.

McDonald’s offers a great example of how to execute a rewards program. To encourage people to use its app, McDonald’s offers customers free large fries when they make a purchase.

The more orders you make in the app, the more points you get and can use towards future orders.

Image Source

But you don’t need to have a fancy app or be a large restaurant chain like McDonald’s to start a loyalty program.

My local coffee shop, Sorrento’s Coffee, offers a rewards program that’s set up through its POS system, Square.

Every time you buy a drink, you get points. 140 points get you one free drink. (Which reminds me — looks like I have a free coffee or two waiting for me!).

Best for: Loyalty programs are meant to reward frequent customers. In my experience, the rewards programs I’ve been most likely to participate in are places that I already frequent.

These programs work great with coffee shops or lunch spots in a busy office area — anywhere where you’re likely to see the same customers on a regular basis.

9. Create branded merchandise.

Creating physical products or branded merchandise is a great way to let your customers do your marketing for you.

Like the Chipotle campaign I shared above, branded merchandise is a great marketing idea for restaurants with a loyal customer base. The key to creating branded merchandise is to create a product that not only reflects your brand but is also something your customers would enjoy.

For example, El Arroyo, the restaurant with the famous marquee sign, also offers a full line of merchandise that’s synonymous with its sign. The cheeky nature of the sign lends itself well to other gift-type items like doormats, coasters, and playing cards, like the products below.

Image Source

What we like: Branded merchandise is a great way to encourage customers to promote your brand for you and increase word-of-mouth.

10. Partner with similar brands.

As Ayotte mentioned earlier when talking about restaurant marketing strategies, brand partnerships are an effective way to amplify your brand by getting it in front of new audiences.

To get the most out of your brand partnership, partner with a brand that has a different yet like-minded audience. It doesn’t even need to be another restaurant or food brand. The goal is to be introduced to a new audience that would benefit from or enjoy your product.

For instance, if you’re a small local restaurant that just opened on your town’s main street, you could partner with other small businesses on the block for an in-person event or a social media giveaway.

Pro tip: Brand partnerships should be mutually beneficial. Consider what the other party will receive in return for partnering with you when you make your pitch.

What I Learned About Restaurant Marketing

The biggest thing I’ve learned from digging into different restaurant campaigns and strategies is that there’s a ton of room to be creative with restaurant marketing.

There’s no right or wrong way. Restaurants can incorporate trends in their social posts or stick to publishing high-quality images of their dishes. They can try to get in front of new audiences by partnering with similar brands, or they can build loyalty with current customers through email marketing.

The essential thing your restaurant needs to succeed is a website with the following key information:

• Menu
• Hours
• Location
• Phone number
• Email
• Reservations (if applicable)

The best restaurant marketing strategy is to understand your brand and your customers. From there, you can experiment with different online and in-person channels to execute your vision and bring more people into your restaurant for years to come.

When we introduced INTENTIVE, our intention (yes, pun intended) was to change how B2B marketing gets done. 

In this blog, we’ll share some of the exciting results and new developments taking place within the INTENTIVE platform, and how it’s making waves by providing real-time insights into active intent within B2B accounts.

Unmatched Performance of INTENTIVE

INTENTIVE vs. BuiltWith in Google Ads

In this channel test, our marketing team ran an experiment with targeted ads using two different sets of data: 

• The first packed with insights and information gleaned from INTENTIVE
• The other from BuiltWith, a third-party web-scraping tool

The results? 

INTENTIVE’s data didn’t just perform well; it outperformed the competition significantly.

Here are the highlights:

• Accounts Reached: 9.1% increase in the number of targeted accounts reached by our ads.

• Accounts Engaged: Engagement skyrocketed, with a 72.7% increase in accounts that interacted meaningfully with our content.

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Our CTR jumped by an impressive 66.7%.

Regardless of title, anyone within a marketing organization should be able to look at these results and ask themselves if they’d like to improve their advertising metrics like this.

The answer should be a resounding yes.

INTENTVE’s Universal Export Pays Off

The ability to export INTENTIVE’s insights was a recent addition to the platform. Initially a manual process for the NetLine team at launch, INTENTIVE now allows any user to export Explorer data at the global level, along with filtering.

This new feature paid immediate dividends to a leading enterprise data infrastructure organization at the end of 2023. 

By leveraging INTENTIVE’s insights, they quickly identified a lucrative opportunity and secured a six-figure agreement within weeks of discovering the prospect’s intent signals. A remarkable success for everyone! 

Exciting New Integrations

We’re not stopping there. INTENTIVE now boasts new integrations and functionalities to maximize intent. 

Users can seamlessly export their data to major platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot, or any platform of their choice.

• Salesforce Integration: This includes custom reports for immediate visibility into intent-showing accounts, empowering sales reps and managers to identify and prioritize new opportunities.
• HubSpot Integration: Users will have access to raw data fields from INTENTIVE, offering unparalleled flexibility in CRM workflows, campaigns, and outreach strategies.

Enhanced AI and NLP Capabilities

To top it off, we’ve enhanced INTENTIVE with advanced AI and NLP capabilities. This improvement ensures even more accurate ingestion of buyer behavior and its correlation with our comprehensive topic taxonomy.

David Fortino, NetLine’s Chief Strategy Officer, points out that the accuracy of INTENTIVE’s data in pinpointing the “who” in the buyer’s journey is unmatched. 

“This precision is not just theoretical,” he said, “it’s proven in practical applications, redefining the way B2B marketing and sales teams utilize buyer intent data.”

The enhancements of the platform through AI and NLP allow INTENTIVE to better fulfill its promises to users and bring the highest quality intent insights across their organizations.

The Future of INTENTIVE

As Google removes third-party cookies from Chrome, the need for buyer-level intent data has never been more apparent. 

Pushing beyond what B2B marketing has been is critical to success in the cookieless future. 

The INTENTIVE platform is primed to support marketers and sellers, alike, as we enter this new world. 

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to innovate.

Few apps cycle through trends as quickly as TikTok. I spend endless hours scrolling through the app, and it feels like every other day, a new trending sound, topic, song, or challenge is going viral.

It can be hard to keep up, and I say this as a content creator and marketer whose job is to stay in tune with the latest happenings on social media.

Fortunately, I and a few other creators are savvy enough to see what TikTok trends are coming to the forefront in 2024.

So, if you‘re curious about what trends to look out for and what it could take to go viral on the app this year, you’ve come to the right blog. Here are some TikTok predictions for 2024, according to content creators.

TikTok Predictions for 2024

1. Authenticity

It‘s well known that TikTok is one of the most popular apps among Gen Z. In fact, 63% of Gen Z social media users report using TikTok in the last 4 weeks, according to Statista.

It’s also no secret that Gen Z consumers crave authenticity and relatability in their media.

Don’t believe me? A recent survey shows that 82% of Gen Z consumers would trust brands more if they used authentic images of real customers in their advertisements.

Content creator and data analyst Sundas Khalid says Gen Z’s preference for authentic content will fuel the content that gets the most attention on TikTok.

“I expect storytelling, authenticity, and spontaneity to be the key themes in 2024,” she explains.

Khalid says, “Relatability was a big theme in 2023, and people found value in finding people they could relate to — but I think it was overextended to the point where it lost authenticity.”

She predicts relatability will still be valuable to TikTok audiences in 2024, but not if the creator or brand seems too keen on coming off as relatable to audiences.

“People would still want to relate but only if it’s authentic and doesn’t seem like ‘trying too hard,’” Khalid explains. “Being unique without being relatable will be more accepted and encouraged on the platform.”

Some of TikTok’s biggest stars grew their platforms by showcasing their real, authentic personalities. Perhaps the most compelling example is Keith Lee, one of my favorite TikTok content creators.

Lee rose to fame by doing food reviews of local, independent, and family-owned restaurants in his hometown of Las Vegas.

His unique on-camera presence, honest reviews, and acts of kindness helped him stand out. It also grew his TikTok following to 15 million and earned collaborations with celebrities like Kevin Hart and brands like Chipotle.

Recently, Lee went to several cities across the country to review restaurants, and, on some occasions, there were mishaps in filming and unexpected turns of events.

Instead of shying away from these issues or pretending they didn’t happen, he would share honest stories about what happened behind closed doors and why some restaurants received poor ratings.

His authenticity helped legitimize his reviews and build trust with his audience. Authenticity can do the same for your brand on TikTok.

And if you need extra help building trust with consumers on the app, consider partnering with influencers — especially micro-influencers.

Micro-influencers with 10,000 to 100,000 followers build deep relationships and communities with their viewers. They often yield more success for marketers than if they were to work with celebrities or macro-influencers.

Of the marketers who worked with influencers and creators in 2023, 64% worked with micro-influencers, making them the most popular choice for influencer marketers.

 

2. Educational Content

For years, Google was my go-to when I needed information on almost any topic.

While I still rely heavily on the classic search engine, I’m starting to use TikTok to gain insight on everything from pop culture updates to breaking news to how-to tutorials.

And I’m not the only one. A recent study found that 40% of consumers use TikTok for informative content. So, it makes sense that creators like Jon Youshaei predict education content will shine on the platform in 2024.

“Creating educational content will become even more important to going viral on TikTok in 2024 because of the platform’s rise as a search engine,“ he says. ”For years, TikTok has been where the For You Page is dominated by trends, pop culture, and memes.”

However, Youshaei says the tide is shifting as more people turn to TikTok to search for tutorials, recipes, and specific questions.

“There will be a rise in creators who can create content that provides answers, which is much easier to monetize and create a sustainable business around,” he explains.

For example, TikTok content creator Mndiaye97 has over 16 million followers and is known for posting humorous but educational videos on animal behavior and wildlife.

In addition to amassing millions of followers, Mndiaye97 content has also snagged him collaborations with BBC Earth and PBS. On average, his videos gain at least 1 million views and more than 100,000 likes. Some videos have as many as 20 million views.

Professional chef Cassie Yeung has over 3 million followers on the app and is known for showing her followers how to cook simple yet delicious dishes at home.

Her videos receive anywhere between 1 million to 10 million views or more on the platform.

Both creators provide helpful or interesting information in a friendly and casual way.

Mndiaye97 sprinkles every video with hyperbolic jokes and memes, and Yeung ends every video with “First bite, bestie,” followed by a genuine reaction to her meals.

So, in 2024, consider posting educational videos, but you don’t have to take the approach of a monotone lecturer. Have fun and give helpful information to your followers in a unique way to your brand.

3. More AI-Generated Content

“I think in 2024, you’re going to see more content created by AI. I think it’s going to get to a point where every other content you see on the app is AI-generated in some way,” says content creator Chris Dillon.

And I don‘t think that’s a far-fetched prediction. Nowadays, I often come across videos on TikTok that are entirely AI-generated or heavily rely on AI.

For example, one of the most popular styles of short-form videos is “Which Room/House/Place Would You Choose?”

These videos will feature AI-generated photos of aesthetically pleasing bedrooms, landscapes, and homes and ask users which they would choose to live or relax in—many of them wrack up millions of views and tons of engagement.

The Spongebob R&B covers popping up on the app is an equally popular but slightly more unhinged trend.

In these videos, creators use AI to manipulate the voices of cast members in Spongebob Squarepants to make the characters sing popular R&B songs by artists like Jasmine Sullivan or Keisha Cole.

Note: While the Spongebob trend is popular, it has raised many questions surrounding the ethics of using actors‘ voices to say or do things they usually wouldn’t.

Though I wouldn’t look to the Spongebob covers for inspiration in your next TikTok campaign (remember: ethics), I can attest that AI can be an excellent tool for generating short-form videos efficiently and quickly.

Just look at the video I made below, using only AI tools.

“Eventually, AI-generated content will feel stale and become oversaturated on the platform — to the point that authenticity will become even more important,” Dillon warns.

With that in mind, I suggest using AI as more of an assistive tool and being wary of becoming overly reliant on it to generate content meant to connect with your audience.

A page that strikes the right balance would be Jeremy the Manager on TikTok. The TikTok account follows a cat named Jeremy who lives (and “works”) at Citipups, a pet store in New York.

Employees at the business use a British voice to give the cat the personality of a cranky manager who intimidates his coworkers. The voice is AI-generated, but the employees create the dialogue and skits.

The voice is put over actual footage of Jeremy the cat hanging out around the store. In this example, AI is used for humor and doesn’t take away from the personality and authenticity of the content.

4. Recommendations

Of course, I’m both a content creator and a chronic TikTok scroller, so I figure I should put in my own two cents. I predict videos giving recommendations will see a massive boom in 2024.

Remember what Youshaei said about consumers using TikTok as a search engine?

That includes searching for recommendations. For instance, one of my favorite communities on TikTok is #booktok.

On the #booktok hashtag, creators recommend classic upcoming books for fans of horror, comedy, romance, and more.

So, in 2024, consider creating content recommending useful products and services to your consumers or collaborate with an influencer so they can recommend your brand to their audience.

And trust me, there are definitely consumers who will buy a product or service after seeing a recommendation on Tiktok. According to the platform, 50% of TikTok users have bought something after seeing it on TikTok LIVE.

Furthermore, 78% of TikTok users have purchased a product after seeing it featured in TikTok creator content.

Finally, let’s not forget that TikTok is especially popular among Gen Z consumers, and 33% of that demographic purchased a product from an influencer-founded brand in the past year.

Final Thoughts 

So there you have it: four trends creators predict will take over TikTok in 2024. Going into 2024, make sure your TikTok videos are authentic, but not relatable to the point of being cringy and overdone.

Consider creating content that is valuable and helpful, such as educational videos or product and service recommendations. And finally, be open to using AI as an assistive tool, but don’t let it strip your content of personality. 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be scrolling TikTok again for the next hour or so. 

Welcome to HubSpot’s Expert Edge Series, where we interview top execs at major brands to explore their perspectives on the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the industry.

Puppies and the park.

Beach days and ice cream.

Some things just obviously go together — but what if I put sales and marketing together in that list? Would you still think they worked better as a pair?

More than likely, you haven’t quite considered your sales and marketing to be the “peanut butter and jelly” of your company. But sales and marketing alignment is more critical than you think.

As LinkedIn’s Global Product Marketing Leader Taina Palombo-Price puts it, “The work that marketing does sets up the sales organization to do the part of the job that is theirs. You can’t do one without the other.”

Here, let’s explore tips from Palombo-Price to cultivate stronger sales and marketing alignment for your organization in 2024.

But first – Why does sales and marketing alignment matter, anyway?

Simply put, sales and marketing alignment matters because, while it might seem like they are two separate organizations focusing on separate goals, both teams fall under one go-to-market motion for your business.

“You’re still one team, even if you’re under two leaders, because you’re marching towards the same goal — or you should be,” Taina Palombo-Price told me.

Nowadays, buyers expect a cohesive, seamless buyer experience — which is an impossible feat if your sales and marketing teams aren’t aligned.

Plus, having strong sales and marketing alignment is critical for your business’ bottom line. In fact, sales professionals who say they are aligned with their marketing team are 106% more likely to say they are performing better than their sales goals this year.

But cultivating sales and marketing alignment — or creating a stronger, more cohesive process in 2024 — can be difficult to achieve. Let’s jump into some tips from Palombo-Price now.

How to Create Strong Sales and Marketing Alignment, According to LinkedIn’s Global Product Marketing Leader

1. Create goals that your sales and marketing teams can share.

Oftentimes, marketing teams are goaled on top-of-the-funnel metrics like traffic, leads, or brand awareness. But their job typically ends once they’ve created a net-new contact or lead for sales.

Sales, on the other hand, is goaled on closing deals and driving revenue.

This separation of goals, Palombo-Price told me, is oftentimes one of the biggest barriers to successful alignment between teams.

“If KPIs are separated instead of unified, that means people are working to satisfy the goals against which they get their paychecks. But the places I’ve seen sales and marketing alignment work most effectively is when those goals are tied together and teams are looking at revenue metrics across both sales and marketing together,” She says.

Palombo-Price adds, “And then you start to think about it as a funnel that’s actually connected, versus a set of disparate tasks that drive one set of KPIs.”

To facilitate stronger alignment, it’s vital as a business leader that you take the time to align both organizations under one common metric, like revenue. Each organization can set various KPIs under that one metric, but by laddering each KPI up to one unified goal, both teams can begin speaking the same language when it comes to alignment and performance.

2. Ask your marketing and sales team to create a buyer persona together.

Your marketers have a firm pulse on the consumer — they‘ve conducted extensive research, they’ve engaged with prospects via social media and email, and they’ve held focus groups.

But, more than likely, your marketers haven’t spoken directly to these prospects. They might not fully understand your prospects biggest pain points, or the challenges they face that your product or service currently can’t solve. These insights can only be obtained from your sales team.

Ultimately, to get a full picture of your consumer, it’s critical that each team help craft the buyer persona. For instance, perhaps you have your marketing team create an initial buyer persona through research and brainstorming sessions — but then you gather input from salespeople to modify and refine that persona.

Getting initial input from salespeople, as well as asking for final approval on a buyer persona, is critical to ensure each team is working together with the same consumer in mind.

3. Ensure marketers know which types of leads sales reps need in any given quarter.

I‘ll admit – as a marketer, I’d never considered that sales reps could be looking for different types of leads in any given quarter based on their current pipeline.

But it makes sense.

As Palombo-Price explains, “Sales teams don’t always need the same kind of targeted precision in the conversations they want to have. If their pipeline is full, they’re having a lot of high-level conversations and they have a limited need to close big deals in the year. They want to talk to only the buyer who’s deeply in-market — who’s ready to buy something. And so their threshold is very different than it could be in a moment where you’re trying to expand and grow.”

She continues, “It’s all about the right types of leads at the right time, and at the right velocity.”

Which leads me to my next point, and a solution to this challenge – regular check-ins between sales and marketing.

4. Set-up regular check-ins between BDRs/SDRs and marketing teams.

One of the most critical roles when it comes to sales and marketing alignment is the BDR (business development rep) or SDR (sales development rep).

BDRs/SDRs focus solely on prospecting and qualifying leads, and pushing them further down the sales funnel — Which is why they’re a vital part of sales and marketing alignment.

Palombo-Price told me she encourages bi-weekly or monthly check-ins between BDRs/SDRs and whoever on the marketing side handles lead generation.

As she puts it, “It’s important to get into a room and look at, ‘What’s marketing driving? How does it move through the stages of the funnel? How does it do against lead scoring and the ideal person sales wants to be talking to?’”

She encourages both sales and marketing teams to sit together and consistently monitor how their lead scoring strategy is faring in terms of qualified leads for sales, and how they might continue to refine it.

5. Use those check-ins as a chance to educate both sides.

Once you‘ve organized bi-weekly or monthly check-ins between sales and marketing, you’ll want to ensure both sides are open-minded and eager to learn from the other. If each team plans on blaming the other when leads are unqualified or don’t turn into closed deals, these meetings will quickly deteriorate.

As Palombo-Price puts it, “Instead of just being like, ‘these leads are all garbage’, come to the table and say, ‘Hey, we had 15 conversations this week, and six of them were totally off the mark.’ And then look at it together.”

She continues, “Because if you don’t educate both ways, marketing can’t target better. And sales is assuming that the ideal customer profile (ICP) that they’ve been chasing is always going to be correct. But we know buying groups change.”

Ultimately, there has to be a joint evaluation in which both teams are willing to investigate the aspects of the process that are successful – and the aspects that aren’t.

6. Leave functions at the door.

When I asked Palombo-Price the number one tip she’d give any business leader when it comes to sales and marketing alignment, her advice was simple: Leave functions at the door.

She says, “It’s a funnel. It’s not actually two teams — it’s one team in a business that’s trying to sell a product or service. And those lines of demarcation, I think, are actually what start to make it really challenging to view how early day brand work impacts close rates for salespeople.”

She continues, “The intent is to try to help draw out some of those through lines so that the impact of the work can be seen on both sides. That’s our solution. There’s ways you can do it by looking at spreadsheets together in a way that drives that alignment earlier so that those concepts start to stick before you’re thinking about how you would leverage those functionalities.”

7. Keep track of every interaction your customer has with your company.

Nowadays, this is one of the most critical strategies you need to implement. It eliminates friction for the customer, and it also helps your sales reps close more deals.

For instance, consider how you‘d feel if you spoke with a sales rep for the first time, and he already knew where you worked, how long you’d been there, which email newsletters you‘d subscribed to, and which company networking events you’d attended. You‘d likely be more impressed than if you spoke to a sales rep who’d never heard of you before, right?

It’s vital you find a way to keep track of each interaction your customer has with your company — a CRM is incredibly useful for this. You might also want to check out HubSpot’s CRM integration with LinkedIn, which enables LinkedIn Sales Navigator to match LinkedIn’s Lead and Account data with the Contacts and Companies objects in HubSpot. (This integration is currently in beta, but you can sign up to receive updates on its launch date.)

Ultimately, understanding the full start-to-finish buyer’s journey — and which aspects should be owned by marketing, and which by sales — and creating a culture that encourages transparent and clear communication between sales and marketing will be vital for your organization’s success in 2024 and beyond.

I‘m pretty sure I’ve said this in a few blog posts already, so if you‘ve heard this from me before, I apologize, but it’s true: In addition to being a blogger, I‘m in charge of curating and sending out HubSpot’s Marketing Blog newsletter.

So, I know a thing or two about email marketing.

Done correctly, email marketing can be as powerful as any other marketing tactic today. But notice the key phrase: done correctly.

Fortunately, you‘ve get this handy dandy guide you’re reading that will set you up for success in your email marketing strategy.

Without further ado, let’s review the best ways to leverage email marketing. I’ll also cover benefits and statistics that show the importance of email, just in case you need extra convincing. Let’s dig in.

What is email marketing?

Getting Started with Email Marketing

How to Send Marketing Emails

Email Regulations You Should Know

Email Marketing Tips

The goal is building customer relationships, promoting products or services, increasing brand awareness, and ultimately driving sales.

In my experience, email marketing allows me to reach my target audience directly with personalized and relevant content. It’s also cost-effective, easy to track, and provides valuable data for analyzing campaign success.

Marketers have been using email as a channel for almost as long as they’ve been using the internet. The first marketing email was sent in 1978, resulting in $13 million in sales.

Email has been one of the most highly used marketing channels ever since.

This is because email is a flexible yet cost-effective way to reach many people relatively quickly. I can also personalize my message to target specific audiences and generate leads.

Email marketing can take many different forms. These campaigns can include a single email announcing new content, an ongoing newsletter delivered regularly, or contacting customers about product updates.

Email isn’t as shiny as newer channels, like messaging and social. However, email is an effective way to build an audience that gets results.

“One of my favorite parts about email marketing is its intimacy,” says Rob Litterst, head of strategy and operations for HubSpot’s Newsletter Network.

“Access to someone‘s inbox is sacred, and for a person to welcome you in, there’s already a certain level of trust that you just can’t achieve with other platforms,” he says.

Master the fundamentals of email marketing with a free online course.

When to Use Email Marketing

Email marketing remains a powerful tactic to:

• Build relationships. Build connections through personalized engagement.
• Boost brand awareness. Keep your company and your services top-of-mind for the moment when your prospects are ready to engage.
• Promote your content. Use email to share relevant blog content or valuable assets with your prospects.
• Generate leads. Entice subscribers to provide their personal information in exchange for an asset that they’d find valuable.
• Market your products. Promote your products and services.
• Nurture leads. Delight your customers with content that can help them succeed in their goals.

Email Marketing Benefits

• 87% of marketers say that email marketing is critical to business success.
• Email is the third most popular owned media platform B2B marketers used to distribute content in the past 12 months.
• There are over 4.3 billion email users worldwide, so if you’re looking for a way to reach your customers, email is the perfect place to find them.
• The number of global email users is set to grow to 4.48 billion users by 2024.
• As of 2022, email generates $36 for every dollar spent.
• 51% of marketers say email marketing is the most effective marketing channel, according to our Marketing Trends survey.
• 53% of marketers are continuing to invest in email marketing in 2023.
• 33% are increasing their investment in email marketing in 2023.
• 33% of marketers send weekly emails, and 26% send emails multiple times monthly.

Beyond just the statistics, perhaps the best reason to use email marketing is that you own the channel. Outside of compliance regulations, no external entity can impact how, when, or why you reach out to your subscribers.

Time and time again, email proves to be an unsung hero in marketing.

While it’s the third most-used marketing channel (beat by social media and websites), a whopping 95% of email marketers call it practical,” says Pamela Bump, head of content growth at HubSpot.

“For HubSpot — and our blog team — we’ve deeply leveraged email and even catered blog posts to our very subscribers,” she says. “Over the years, this has driven high ROI, millions of page views, countless conversions, and even customers.”

Still have doubts? Consider this:

Email marketing has an impressive ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. Furthermore, email marketing revenue is expected to reach $12.88 billion in 2024, according to Statista.

In addition to boosting revenue, marketing emails can also boost traffic to your website. I know this from personal experience. As I mentioned earlier, I run the marketing blog email newsletter. One of my responsibilities is to monitor the traffic our blog content generates.

So, I personally noticed that blog posts bring in significantly more traffic when they’re included in our email marketing newsletter.

Email Marketing Stats by Industry

Email marketing rules change based on your industry and who you’re marketing to. Below are some email marketing trends for B2B, B2C, e-commerce, and real estate companies that can inform your email marketing strategy.

Email Marketing Stats for B2B

• Email is the third-highest owned-media platform B2B marketers used to distribute content in the last 12 months.
• 44% of B2B marketers say email marketing is the most effective marketing channel.
• B2B marketers say email engagement is the fourth most insightful metric when evaluating performance over the past year, more than social media, search rankings, and lead quality.

Email Marketing Stats for B2C

• 50% of B2C marketers say growing their email list is one of the biggest challenges in their role.
• 37% of B2C marketers send daily marketing emails to their subscribers.

Email Marketing Stats for Ecommerce

• 57.2% of marketers say the e-commerce brands they manage have 1,000 to 10,000 contacts on their email lists.
• 85.7% of e-commerce marketers say the primary business objective of their email strategy is increasing brand awareness.
• Roughly 72% of e-commerce marketers say the biggest challenge they face with email is low open rates.

Getting Started with Email Marketing

I know it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the vast possibilities of email marketing, so let’s break down a few key steps to get you started building a solid email campaign that will delight your customers.

You can think of these steps as creating a successful email marketing strategy.

1. Create an Email Marketing Strategy

You can learn how to build an effective email strategy and send emails that people actually want to read. It just takes a plan (one that can be broken down into a few key steps).

Think of the following five steps as an outline for your email strategy. We’ll dive deeper into some of these in a moment.

2. Define your audience.

Effective emails, whether a campaign or a one-off, start with understanding your audience.

Like everything else in marketing, start with your buyer persona, understand what pain points they’re dealing with, and tailor your email campaign to your audience’s needs.

3. Establish your goals.

Usually, before I think up campaign goals, I gather some context.

I always want to know the average email stats for my industry and use them as benchmarks for my goals. This should be your process as well.

As you can see, these benchmarks vary greatly. Using this guide will help you create realistic goals for your team.

4. Build your email list.

You need people to email, right? An email list (we’ll cover how to build your email list in the next section) is a group of users who have permitted you to send them relevant content.

To build that list, you need several ways for prospects to opt-in to receive your emails which we’ll cover in another section in just a moment.

Don’t be discouraged if you only have a few people on your list. It can take some time to build. In the meantime, treat every subscriber and lead like gold, and you’ll start seeing your email list grow organically.

5. Choose an email campaign type.

Email campaigns vary, and trying to decide between them can be overwhelming. Do you send a weekly newsletter? Should you send out new product announcements? Which blog posts are worth sharing?

The answer is subjective.

I like to start by learning about the types of email campaigns, then I decide which is best for my audience.

I also set up different lists for different types of emails, so customers and prospects can sign up for only the emails that are relevant to them.

6. Make a schedule.

Decide how often you plan to contact your list and inform your audience upfront.

This way, they’ll know exactly what to expect ahead of time. Forgetting this can lead to high unsubscribe lists and even get you in their spam.

In addition, once you set a schedule, be consistent. It will build trust and ensure you stay top of mind for your audience.

7. Measure your results.

This should come as no surprise. As marketers, we measure everything. Being meticulous about every key metric will help you make small changes to your emails, yielding large results.

We’re going to touch on the exact KPIs to monitor in a bit (or you can jump ahead).

Now that you understand the steps to creating an email marketing strategy, we‘ll look at what’s involved in building your email list.

8. Choose an email marketing platform.

An email marketing provider (ESP) is an excellent resource if you’re looking for any support while fine-tuning your email marketing efforts.

For example, HubSpot’s Email Marketing tool allows me to efficiently create, personalize, and optimize marketing emails that feel and look professional without designers or IT.

There are a variety of features to help me create the best email marketing campaigns and support all of my email marketing goals.

Additionally, I can analyze the success of my email marketing so I can share the data that matters most to my business with my team. The best part? HubSpot’s Email Marketing service is available for free.

Start using HubSpot’s Email Marketing Service for free. 

Here are examples of features services like HubSpot offer to consider when choosing an email service provider:

• CRM platform with segmentation capabilities
• Good standing with Internet Service Providers
• A positive reputation as an email service provider (ESP)
• Easy-to-build forms, landing pages, and CTAs
• Automation
• Simple ways to comply with email regulations
• Ability to split test your emails
• Built-in analytics
• Downloadable reports

9. Build Your Email List

Now to my favorite part: filling the email list with eager prospects excited to hear from you.

There are many creative ways to build your email list (and, no, purchasing emails ain’t one).

Tactically speaking, list building comes down to two key elements that work cohesively to grow your subscriber numbers: lead magnets and opt-in forms.

Featured Resources

• The Email Newsletter Lookbook
• How to Create Email Newsletters That Don’t Suck

Here’s how I build and grow my email list.

10. Use lead magnets.

Your lead magnet is exactly as it sounds: It attracts prospects to your email list, usually as a free offer.

The offer can take many formats, should be valuable to your prospects, and is given away for free in exchange for an email address.

There’s just one problem: People have become hyper-protective of their personal information. You can’t expect to receive an email address without exchanging it for something valuable.

Think about a lead magnet that is relevant, useful, and makes your prospects’ lives easier.

Here are a few types of lead magnets you could create:

• Ebooks.
• Whitepapers.
• Infographics.
• Reports or studies.
• Checklists.
• Templates.
• Webinars or courses.
• Tools.

If you’re short on resources, you can even repurpose existing content to create lead magnets.

11. Create an enticing opt-in form.

Your opt-in form is how you get a prospect’s information to add them to your list. It’s the gate between your future leads and the incredible asset you created with them in mind.

Here are some tips for creating an enticing opt-in form:

Create an attractive design and attention-grabbing header.

Your form should be branded, stand out from the page, and entice people to sign up. You want to excite readers with the offer.

Make the copy relevant to the offer.

While your goal is to get people to enter their information, it isn’t to deceive them. Any information on your form should be a truthful representation of the offer.

Keep the form simple.

This could be one of your first interactions with your prospect. Don’t scare them away with a long long-form several fields.

Ask for only the most essential information: first name and email is a good place to start.

Set your opt-in form for double confirmation.

It may seem counterproductive to ask your subscribers to opt into your emails twice, but some research on open rates suggests that customers may prefer a confirmed opt-in (COI) email more than a welcome email.

Ensure that the flow works.

Take yourself through the user experience before you go live. Double-check that the form works as intended, the thank you page is live, and your offer is delivered as promised.

This is one of your first impressions of your new lead — make it a professional and positive one.

Next, let’s take a moment to cover some universally accepted email marketing best practices regarding how to send marketing emails.

If all goes well, you’ll have built a robust list of subscribers and leads waiting to hear from you. But you can’t start emailing just yet unless you want to end up in a spam folder, or worse, a blocked list.

Here are a few important things to remember before you start emailing your list.

1. Implement email segmentation.

Once you’ve added people to your list, you must break them down into different segments.

That way, instead of having a monolithic email list of everybody, you’ll have easier-to-manage subcategories that pertain to your subscribers’ unique characteristics, interests, and preferences.

Our subscribers are humans, after all, and we should do our best to treat them as such. That means not sending generic email blasts.

Why should you segment your email list?

Each person who signs up to receive your emails is at a different level of readiness to convert into a customer (which is the ultimate goal of all this).

If you send a discount coupon for your product to subscribers that don’t even know how to diagnose their problem, you’ll probably lose them. That’s because you’re skipping the part where you build trust and develop the relationship.

Every email you send should treat your subscribers like humans you want to connect with, as opposed to a herd of leads you’re trying to corral into a one-size-fits-all box.

The more you segment your list, the more trust you build with your leads, and the easier it’ll be to convert them later.

How to Segment Email Lists

The first step in segmentation is creating separate lead magnets and opt-in forms for each part of the buyer’s journey. That way, your contacts are automatically divided into separate lists.

Beyond that, email marketing platforms allow you to segment your email list by contact data and behavior to help you send the right emails to the right people.

Here are some ways you could break up your list:

• Geographical location.
• Lifecycle stage.
• Awareness, consideration, and decision stage.
• Industry.
• Previous engagement with your brand.
• Language.
• Job Title.

In reality, you can segment your list any way that you want. Just make sure to be as exclusive as possible when sending emails to each subgroup.

2. A/B test your marketing emails.

Not all email lists are created equal. Some audiences prefer personalization, and others will think it’s spammy. Some audiences will like bright, eye-catching CTA buttons. Others will prefer a more subtle call-to-action.

You’ll never know what type of people make up your email list until you test the variables. That’s where A/B testing comes in handy.

“If you‘re considering making any structural or content alterations to your email marketing, A/B testing is an excellent way to determine if the changes will be successful or worthwhile before they’re implemented on a larger scale,” says Madison Zoey Vettorino, marketing manager and SEO content writer for HubSpot’s Website Blog.

Surprisingly, not many brands leverage it. A 2021 Litmus study found that 44% of marketers rarely A/B or multivariate test their emails. Only 19% do it often or always.

A/B testing, or split testing, is a way to see what type of email performs best with your audience by analyzing the results of email A against email B. This can be especially helpful when working with templates.

“Since emails often have the same template, A/B testing is smart because you can usually control variables outside of the test and get a solid signal on what performs better,” HubSpot’s Litterst says.

Here’s the step-by-step process for A/B testing your emails:

• Select one variable to test at a time, e.g., subject line, CTA, images.
• Create two versions of the email: one with and one without the variable.
• Allow your emails to be sent out simultaneously for a period of time.
• Analyze your results and keep only the version that performed better.
• Test a new variable and repeat the process.

Most email service providers will have A/B testing built into their software, which will make it easy for you to compare email results without much manual work.

When conducting an A/B test, consider these tips:

Test one element at a time.

“For example, try the same email with a different subject line. Or the same email and same subject line with a different CTA,” says Curtis del Principe, a user acquisition program lead and content strategist at HubSpot.

“It might be tempting to make several changes at once, but that makes it harder to pinpoint the true cause of your wins or losses,” he says.

Don’t try to “eyeball” an A/B test.

A/B test should be run with intention. Making quick changes and approaching results unscientifically can lead to incorrect conclusions.

“You might be tempted to run an informal A/B test by making a change and then casually paying attention to the responses that you get. This unscientific method can easily be skewed by factors outside your control (like seasonality or deliverability),” says del Principe. “It also leaves out a ton of valuable data, like open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, or sharing/forwarding rate.”

Instead, use an email marketing tool, like Marketing Hub or BuzzStream, to help you get a broader and more accurate understanding of your email performance.

Featured Resource

• The Complete Guide to A/B Testing

3. Analyze your email marketing performance.

Once you’ve got your first few campaigns, it’s time to see how they’re performing.

By diving into your email marketing analytics, you‘ll be able to make better decisions that will help your business’s bottom line, resonate with your subscribers, readers, and customers, and justify your work to the rest of your company.

Here are the best ways to analyze the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.

4. Set email marketing KPIs.

There are four key metrics to pay attention to when evaluating the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign.

• Deliverability measures the rate at which emails reach your intended subscribers’ inboxes.
• Open rate is the percentage of people that open your email once it reaches their inbox.
• Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the percentage of people that click on your CTAs.
• Unsubscribes measures the number of people who opt out of your email list once they receive your email.

5. Adjust email components to improve results.

Many factors impact your KPIs, and it will take some experimentation and guesswork to figure out which tweaks to your emails will yield the biggest significance.

If you aren’t getting the desired numbers, try playing with these variables to improve your email results.

Deliverability

• Ensure that you’re following best practices regarding spam filters.
• Remove inactive people from your email list to keep only engaged subscribers.
• Check which emails have bounced and remove those email addresses from your list.

Open Rate

• Play with the language in your subject line to entice people to click on your email.
• Adjust the time and day that you send your email to see what works best.

Clickthrough Rate (CTR)

• Evaluate your offer to ensure that it provides value to your segmented list.
• Rewrite your copy to make sure that it’s clear what you want the reader to do.
• Try different CTAs, e.g., graphic versus Inline copy, bold versus subtle.

Unsubscribes

• First, consider if this is a blessing in disguise, as uninterested parties are removing themselves from your list.
• Regularly send an email to inactive subscribers on your list asking if they still want to be a part of it
• Evaluate whether the email you sent is aligned with your brand.
• Ensure you haven’t performed a bait-and-switch by promising one thing and delivering another.
• Make sure your emails are providing value to your audience before trying to upsell.

6. Use an email marketing report template.

Once you’ve got some campaigns under your belt, it’s time to look at how they performed. Your data does no good if you can’t report it in an organized fashion.

An email marketing report is a spreadsheet where you can record your results in one place to help you make inferences from your KPIs and take action to improve them.

Here’s how you should organize your report.

Metrics

• Total number of emails sent
• Number of emails delivered
• Deliverability Rate
• Bounce Rate
• Open Rate
• Clickthrough Rate (CTR)
• Click-to-open Rate (CTOR)
• Unsubscribe Rate

Data

• Subject line
• Length of the email body
• Offer
• CTA (inline or graphic)
• List segment(s)

Questions To Ask:

• Was your deliverability rate high in comparison to previous periods?
• How did your CTR compare to your open rate?
• Were your unsubscribe numbers consistent with other emails?
• Did a certain subject line perform better than others?
• Does the length of the email make a difference in CTR?
• Could another style of CTA perform better?
• Was the offer appropriate for the list segment?

Email Regulations You Should Know

Email regulations are important to follow as they regulate and protect consumers’ desires to know how and why their information is being used.

If there’s anything we care about, it’s complying with what our customers—or potential customers—want.

There are a few key ones that you should understand:

1. CAN-SPAM Compliance

Technically, CAN-SPAM is an acronym for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (because sometimes the two go together).

In practice, it’s a way to protect your subscribers’ right to only receive emails that they’ve requested.

The law was passed in 2003 and applies to any commercial emails used for business purposes.

Here are the ways to ensure that your emails are CAN-SPAM compliant:

• Include your company name and address in every email.
• Place visible unsubscribe links within your emails.
• Use real email addresses in the “From” and “Reply to” fields.
• Write subject lines that indicate the contents of the email.

Please note: This is not to be confused with legal advice. See the FTC’s site for more specific legal information regarding CAN-SPAM laws.

2. GDPR Compliance

While some may view these newly implemented email regulations as burdensome and unnecessary, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) moves us closer to building long-lasting, trusting customer relationships.

GDPR is about giving your customers the right to choose. They choose your emails. They decide to hear from you. They choose your products. And that is exactly what inbound marketing is about.

It is important to note that GDPR only applies to businesses operating in the European Union and businesses that market to EU citizens.

Noncompliance will result in significant fees that aren’t worth the risk, so make sure to read the GDPR guidelines entirely.

Here’s an overview of how you can comply with GDPR laws:

• Use precise language when requesting consent to store personal information.
• Only collect contact data that is necessary for and relevant to your business.
• Store contact data securely and only use it for the agreed-upon purpose.
• Retain data for justifiable business purposes only.
• Delete contact data on request.
• Make it easy for contacts to unsubscribe from your list or update their preferences.
• Comply promptly with a contact’s request for access to their data.
• Keep company records to prove GDPR compliance.

These regulations will be taken seriously (as they should), so it’s a good idea to create a GDPR strategy for your business before sending emails.

3. Avoid Spam Filters

You spend time creating the perfect email and adhering to regulations, so the last thing you want is to end up in a spam folder.

You’ll want to avoid the spam folder because:

• It hurts your deliverability rates across the board.
• Your contacts will likely miss all of your emails.
• You won’t be able to measure your email marketing effectiveness accurately.
• Your analytics will be skewed.

You can avoid being deduced to spam with the following.

Get whitelisted.

A whitelist is a list of approved senders that can reach the subscriber’s inbox. The easiest way to accomplish this is to have your new subscriber add your email address to their address book.

Include directions on how to do this in your welcome email.

Mind your copy.

Avoid using all caps and multiple exclamation points, as well as spam trigger words, like “opt-in,” “click below,” and “order,” that are easily detected and marked down by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Use a reliable email service provider.

Your email service provider’s reputation affects your deliverability, so stick to established, well-known companies.

Implement a double opt-in.

Once someone opts in to your email list, send an email asking them to confirm. This ensures that your new subscriber is genuinely interested in your emails and will likely be more engaged.

(Check out more ways you can avoid the spam filter.)

And last but certainly not least, you need to consistently measure the success of your email marketing efforts. There are a number of options you can choose from when it comes to your business’s email marketing analytics.

Email Marketing Tips

While you probably don’t think twice about the formatting or subject line of an email you send to a friend, email marketing requires a lot more consideration.

Everything from the time you send your email to the devices on which your email could be opened matters.

Your goal with every email is to generate more leads, which makes crafting a marketing email a more involved process than other emails you’ve written.

Let’s touch on the components of a successful marketing email:

Copy: The copy in the body of your email should be consistent with your voice and stick to only one topic.

Images: Choose images that are optimized for all devices, eye-catching, and relevant.

CTA: Your call-to-action should lead to a relevant offer and stand out from the rest of the email.

Timing: Based on a study that observed response rates of 20 million emails, Tuesday at 11 AM ET is the best day and time to send your email.

Responsiveness: 55% of emails are opened on mobile. Your email should, therefore, be optimized for this as well as all other devices.

Personalization: Write every email like you’re sending it to a friend. Be personable and address your reader in a familiar tone.

Subject Line: Use clear, actionable, enticing language that is personalized and aligned with the body of the email.

Featured Resource

• 100 Email Subject Lines We Actually Clicked

Pro tip: Leverage AI for email marketing. By using tools like our AI Email Writer, you can generate copy that suits your goals, saving time along the way.

Personalize your email marketing.

“Personalization isn’t just about adding a contact’s name to the subject line anymore but is all about creating personalized experiences that demonstrate you understand them and have insider knowledge about how they can use your products to succeed,” Aleia Walker, growth marketing manager at HubSpot.

Now that you know who you’re emailing and what’s important to them, sending emails with personalized touches will be much easier.

Sure, you’re speaking to 100+ people at one time, but your leads don’t need to know it.

Personalized emails have higher open rates. In addition, 83% of customers are willing to share their data to create a more personalized experience.

You’ve gathered all this unique data. Your email marketing software allows for personalization tokens. You have no excuse for sending generic emails that don’t make your leads feel special.

“It’s more impactful to base email personalization on two or three factors instead of just what a contact is engaging with on your side,” Walker says.

Walker suggests, “Consider personalizing emails based on what you know about your contact, such as their location, industry, employee size, etc., alongside how they engage with your content.”

Here are a few ways to personalize your emails:

• Add a first name field in your subject line and/or greeting.
• Include region-specific information when appropriate.
• Send content that is relevant to your lead’s lifecycle stage.
• Only send emails that pertain to the last engagement a lead has had with your brand.
• Write about relevant and/or personal events, like region-specific holidays or birthdays.
• End your emails with a personal signature from a human (not your company).
• Use a relevant call-to-action to an offer that the reader will find useful.

4. Use email marketing templates.

Email marketing templates — like these ones from HubSpot — are another great resource to help you with your email marketing.

Unless you’re a designer and developer, on top of being a skilled marketer, templates will save you a ton of time — they take the design, coding, and UX-definition work out of crafting your emails.

Just one caveat: when making your selection, choose email templates that are proven to be effective.

The highest-quality templates come from the most reputable ESPs that have tested them against thousands of alternatives. So, stick with the professionals.

If you’re struggling with the above tips, HubSpot offers e-mail marketing tools to help personalize your marketing emails, optimize your emails with A/B testing, and create aesthetically pleasing emails using templates.

Furthermore, HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant uses AI technology to generate copy for marketing emails.

Beginning Email Marketing

While there are many rules to sending a marketing email, the most important is this: Treat the reader on the other end like you’re writing to a friend.

Trust me, you can achieve all of your email marketing goals if you keep this golden rule top of mind in every autoresponder, lead magnet, and subject line.

And remember, the more you help your subscribers, the more they will want to hear from you and look forward to opening emails that you send.

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

Ah, quarter one. It’s a time when many of us reflect on the last year, make new bets, and refresh our playbooks. If the fourth quarter is about finishing strong, then the first quarter is about starting smart.

It’s an exciting time but also a bit overwhelming. You have new goals to reach and new strategies to execute. You also need to create enough room to pivot at a moment’s notice.

But have no fear – here, I’ve rounded up seven data-backed strategies for nailing Q1, as well as Q1 marketing tips from HubSpot experts. Let’s dive in.

1. Interested in influencer marketing? Start with micro-influencers.

Half of marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing investment in 2024. If you’ve always wanted to work with influencers — but the price tag seems out of reach — I have some good news.

Among marketers who leverage influencer marketing, nearly half (47%) found the most success with micro-influencers. These are influencers who have anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 followers. While these creators don’t have millions of followers, they hold influence with a smaller, more engaged community.

In fact, when asked about the biggest benefits of working with micro-influencers, 42% of marketers say micro-influencers are less expensive, followed by 39% who say micro-influencers give access to more niche communities.

Want to learn more about working with micro-influencers? Check out this helpful guide.

2. Approach social media as an ecommerce platform.

Websites like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay have been the top dogs in the ecommerce space for decades. But now we’re seeing social media platforms — like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook — evolve into shopping destinations, creating new opportunities for marketers.

50% of marketers plan to increase their investment in social commerce in 2024, and 14% plan to leverage it for the first time this year.

On the consumer side, 67% have already bought through social media platforms. What’s more, consumers ages 18-54 prefer to discover new products on social media. Personally, I’ve purchased far too many products on TikTok than I care to mention, so it’s nice to know I’m not alone. 

What makes social media such an effective ecommerce channel is that it gives marketers access to a pretty wide net of people. This enables them to tap into audiences who are already engaged, which is ideal for brand building and product discovery.

On top of that, running influencer campaigns on social media is becoming much more streamlined; influencers drive awareness to products, and users can purchase them without ever leaving the app.

But, most importantly, platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer powerful analytics, enabling marketers to reach their audiences for maximum impact.

3. Double down on short-form video content.

Short-form video continues its reign on social media, with 53% of marketers planning to increase their investment in 2024. It’s also the trend marketers are investing in the most this year, outpacing influencer marketing, podcasting, and live-streaming.

But wait, there’s more: short-form video generated the most ROI from any media format for marketers last year, closely followed by images. It’s clear that audiences love visual content, and platforms like TikTok and Instagram can help you amplify it.

Short-form video isn’t necessarily new (remember Vine, anyone?). But it’s quickly proven itself as an effective marketing format. It’s relatively low-cost — if at all — with quick turnaround times. This allows marketers to jump on trends and showcase their brand’s personality. It also fits within the fast-paced social media landscape where attention spans are short.

4. Up-level your customer service with a multi-channel strategy.

For 1 in 4 marketers, providing customer service through social media became more important in 2023, and I predict this trend will carry into this year. 

In fact, 50% of marketers plan to continue the same investment in social media as a customer service tool in 2024, whereas 33% plan to increase their investment.

If this trend tells us anything, it’s that elevating your customer service to a new level requires adopting a multi-channel strategy. While the more traditional channels (e.g., phone and email) are far from over, you want to take advantage of other opportunities to connect with your customers, like social media direct messages, live chats, and more.

Not only does a multi-channel strategy offer more convenience to customers, but it also allows them to engage and interact with your brand in the way they prefer.

5. Leverage AI for productivity.

AI: it was seen as a threat to marketers at first, but now the conversation is changing. Oddly enough, artificial intelligence has given most people, marketers or not, a greater appreciation for human creativity and inventiveness. 

AI can’t replicate that (at least convincingly), but it can assist us in the process. This is why 75% of marketers either somewhat or strongly agree that AI helps them focus on the more creative aspects of their job.

One way AI is supercharging productivity is by taking the more monotonous and tedious work off marketers’ plates. 78% of marketers agree that AI helps them spend less time on manual tasks like data entry and scheduling meetings. AI also supports 40% of marketers with data reporting and 39% for research. 

If you haven’t leveraged AI yet, it may be time to explore ways to add it to your workflow. Check out this article if you need help figuring out where to start.

6. As AI streamlines the content creation process, have safeguards to maintain quality.

If you read #5, I explained how AI can be helpful to marketers wanting to boost their productivity — but now I need to add a big caveat.

While AI is helpful to marketers, it’s far from infallible. AI writing tools like ChatGPT, for example, are trained on limited data, so they may generate outdated or inaccurate content. And, obviously, the last thing you want to do is publish outdated or inaccurate content.

Luckily, most marketers are aware of these shortcomings. 67% of marketers agree that AI sometimes offers incorrect information. However, only 27% of marketers are “very confident” they would know if the information AI produced was inaccurate.

The solution isn’t to stop using AI altogether, but to have guardrails in place to maintain the quality of your content, reports, and so on. Always have a human editor to review your materials and double-check for any inaccuracies with quotes and statistics. For more tips, visit this article.

7. Social responsibility isn’t going out of style.

For a quarter (25%) of marketers, creating content that reflects their brand values was the biggest change in the marketing industry from 2022 to 2023. 

Fast forward to today, and 45% of marketers plan to increase their investment in this type of content this year. 

Brands recognize that value-driven content isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s becoming essential for modern consumers. We often see enhanced brand loyalty and better business outcomes when consumers feel aligned with a brand and its values. 

However, a key element in this strategy is authenticity. Today’s consumers are highly discerning and can spot when a brand is disingenuous. Ultimately, value-driven content is about building a genuine and sustainable connection with the audience, which requires a thoughtful approach.

Q1 Marketing Tips from HubSpot Experts

Embrace an elastic approach.

A big part of formulating a strong marketing strategy is understanding that it might change. This is why Drue Stinnett, Content Marketing Manager at HubSpot, recommends an elastic approach.

She told me, “Be adaptable and ready to pivot throughout the year. By embracing an elastic approach to your marketing efforts, you can quickly respond to market shifts, consumer feedback, and emerging opportunities.” 

The ability to make quick pivots also gives you a more competitive edge. As Stinnett points out, “Adaptability also allows your strategies to remain effective within a fast-paced business landscape.”

Reflect on last year’s performance.

Marketers should be forward-thinking — of course – but this often entails looking back. 

As Carly Williams, Head of Monetization at HubSpot, told me, “Before you dive right in, take a moment to reflect on last year’s performance and let go of strategies that didn’t show a return. This exercise will help you free up resources to support fresh ideas and success in the year ahead.”

In doing so, you can strike the right balance — innovating and trying new things where needed, but also recognizing and executing strategies that work well.

Go back to basics.

“To succeed in 2024, marketers will find themselves in exploration mode,” Basha Coleman, Senior Program Manager at HubSpot, told me.

And if there’s one area you should continuously explore, it’s your target audience.

“Getting curious about your audience—what they like, and what they’re doing with the content that they like, and where they’re engaging with it, is going to be an evergreen strategy that marketers will find themselves coming back to throughout Q1 and the rest of 2024,” she adds.

Knowing your target audience is something that never goes out of style. But if your content isn’t sparking engagement — or you’ve noticed shifts in your audience’s behavior and preferences — it’s a good indication to revisit your audience and refresh your strategies accordingly.

Back to You

As we wrap up, remember that Q1 is about starting smart and staying flexible. 2024 already presents plenty of opportunity, so long as you stay creative, focused, and adaptable.

On the hunt for the best WordPress survey plugin? Whether you’re looking to improve the user experience on your website, increase your customer satisfaction, or simply learn more about your visitors, embedding a survey on your website is the fastest way to get the feedback you need.

To help you find the best WordPress survey plugin, I went hands-on with as many options as possible. Then, I curated my picks for the 15 best options based on that. Here are all of the plugins installed on my site, so you can be confident that I tested them all.

Let’s dig in!

1. HubSpot WordPress Plugin

Why I like it: HubSpot is a great option if you want to use your surveys for customer service/feedback, marketing, and/or sales purposes, as it includes a built-in CRM and lots more advanced features.

HubSpot’s plugin for WordPress is a free and easy way to add forms, live chat, CRM, and more to your WordPress site.

Using the drag-and-drop form builder allows you to collect contact information or qualitative feedback from your site’s visitors. Then, you can easily sync that data to HubSpot’s free CRM to track any feedback you receive in an organized manner.

For even more powerful surveying tools, HubSpot’s customer feedback software allows you to send net promoter scores (NPS), customer effort scores (CES), customer satisfaction surveys (CSAT), and more. These tools can help you understand your customers while tracking and improving their experience over time.

Overall, I think that HubSpot is a good option for situations where you want to really understand your individual customers on a deeper level, thanks in large part to the integration with the CRM.

Pricing: HubSpot’s WordPress plugin is free to use and includes live chat, forms, CRM, email marketing, and analytics within your WordPress site.

2. Quiz and Survey Master (QSM)

Why I like it: Quiz and Survey Master is one of the most versatile free WordPress survey plugins, which I think makes it a great option if you’re on a tight budget.

While I think Quiz and Survey Master’s interface lags a little behind some other survey plugins in terms of ease of use, this plugin offers a ton of survey-specific functionality — a lot of which you get for free.

First off, I think that it has one of the most versatile collections of survey question types. You can ask basic questions like multiple choice or radio buttons, as well as more unique questions like matching pairs, polar choices, radio grids, checkbox grids, and more. You can also ask free-form survey questions with short-form text or paragraph boxes.

You can even accept image answers from users, which is something most other plugins don’t offer.

You also get tons of other useful features, such as the ability to add a contact form as part of your survey, customize the results page, analyze results, and more.

Additionally, you can purchase paid add-ons to unlock even more features, like email integrations, conditional logic, and analytics reports. The data you get from your survey and quiz results isn’t especially detailed or helpful, however, unless you purchase the add-ons.

Pricing: There’s a free version at WordPress.org that is fine for simple surveys. To access more features, you can purchase individual add-ons or a bundle of add-ons starting at $129.

3. WPForms

Why I like it: WPForms is a versatile form builder with an easy-to-use interface. Plus, it has a dedicated Surveys and Polls add-on to help you implement and analyze surveys.

WPForms is one of the most popular form builders for WordPress, with over 5,000,000+ active installations. You can use the 300+ pre-built templates and the easy drag-and-drop builder to create any type of form in no time — surveys included.

WPForms also has a dedicated Surveys and Polls add-on that lets you use survey field types (e.g., Likert scales and Net Promoter Score fields) and adds features to help you analyze survey responses.

Additional features specific to surveys include smart conditional logic to filter and personalize your questions and real-time polling functionality. Plus, you can get interactive survey reports with beautiful graphs and charts.

You have the option to show survey results on your WordPress website page with a shortcode or to redirect users to a results page at the end of the survey.

However, if you want the dedicated Surveys and Polls add-on, I think that WPForms can be a bit expensive when compared to other WordPress survey plugins.

Pricing: You can start using WPForms for free, which might be okay for simple surveys where you don‘t need advanced analysis. However, to access the Surveys and Polls add-on, you’ll need at least the Pro license, which costs $399 (discounted to $199.50 for the first year).

4. Gravity Forms

Why I like it: Gravity Forms is a flexible all-purpose form builder, but it still includes a dedicated Survey Add-On to help you implement popular survey questions (like Likert scales) and analyze results. It also integrates with tons of other tools, which lets you use survey results in interesting ways.

Gravity Forms is a well-known premium form builder. While you can still create a survey with just the core form builder, the Gravity Forms Survey, Polls, and Quiz add-ons make it easier to manage your users’ responses, along with adding some survey-specific form field types.

You can build powerful surveys with their drag-and-drop form builder. Plus, you can use conditional logic to create branching surveys that change based on previous responses or set limits on the number of responses. You can choose to display the survey results publicly and close the survey after a certain date or number of responses.

Gravity Forms also offers a number of integrations to help you connect to other tools that you might be using, such as your email marketing service. In fact, I think that Gravity Forms’s flexibility and large integration list are some of its standout features in comparison to other WordPress survey plugins.

However, Gravity Forms doesn‘t offer a free version, so it’s not a good option if you’re looking for a free WordPress survey plugin.

Pricing: Gravity Forms only comes in a premium version. While its plans start at $59, you’ll need the $259 Elite license to access the survey add-on. This license gives you access to every single Gravity Forms add-on and supports unlimited sites.

5. Survey Maker

Why I like it: Survey Maker has a strong free version for people on a budget, and it also offers lots of question types to help you collect survey responses in an optimal way. It also has a very easy-to-use interface, which shares a lot of similarities with Google Forms.

Survey Maker is a dedicated WordPress survey plugin from the same team behind the popular Quiz Maker and Poll Maker plugins, which collectively cover pretty much every way of collecting information from your site’s visitors.

I think that it’s strong when it comes to the different ways that you can collect information, with support for 20+ different question types, including closed-ended and open-ended questions. For example, you can have free-form text fields, rating scales, drop-downs, checkboxes, and lots more. You can also use logic branching to take your surveys in different directions depending on how people answer earlier questions.

The backend interface feels a lot like Google Forms, which I think can make it easy to use if you’re already familiar with the Google Forms interface. I really mean that — it almost feels like they cloned Google Forms and put it inside your WordPress dashboard.

In addition to embedding surveys in a page, you can also display surveys in a popup, which I think is an advantage over some other survey plugins.

Once you collect some responses, Survey Maker includes data analysis tools to help you analyze results, including charts for survey answers. You can also send the survey results to participants, including showing different results pages and sending different emails depending on how a person filled out the survey.

Pricing: Survey Maker has a functional free version at WordPress.org. Paid plans start at just $39.

6. Formidable Forms

Why I like it: Formidable Forms is a flexible WordPress form builder plugin with dedicated survey functionality, along with tons of pre-made templates and the ability to display form/survey data on the front end of your site.

Formidable Forms is a form builder plugin with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. While the plugin allows you to create surveys, that’s not the only feature. This plugin gives you the power to create everything from calculators and directories to contact forms and registration pages.

With regard to its surveying features, there’s a lot of value packed inside this plugin. Its survey templates are quite useful — bringing together many of the common use cases you’d want to run a survey around. Some examples include employee satisfaction, net promoter score, and cancellation surveys.

Additionally, Formidable Forms’s survey tool has features such as smart question branching and multi-page progression, giving you added control.

I think that one area where Formidable Forms really excels is in displaying survey results (and other form data) on the front end of your site. So, if you want to share survey data publicly, that could make it an especially good option.

However, I think that one downside is the price, as it uses the same pricing as WPForms and is one of the more expensive plugins on this list (if you need the dedicated survey add-on). You might be okay with the free version for very simple surveys, though, which would eliminate this issue.

Pricing: There‘s a free version of Formidable Forms at WordPress.org that can work for basic surveys. However, to access the dedicated surveys and polls functionality, you’ll need at least the Business license (which includes an integration with HubSpot forms). This license costs $399 (discounted to $199.50 for the first year).

7. Forminator

Why I like it: Forminator is one of the most generous survey plugins in terms of functionality that’s available in the free version, which makes it a great option for creating WordPress surveys on a budget.

Forminator is a free and expandable form builder for WordPress. Like many of the items on this list, you’re able to do a lot from within one plugin. With Forminator, you can add forms, surveys, polls, quizzes, calculations, and payments to your WordPress site. This gives you a lot of functionality to connect with and convert your visitors.

You can use a simple builder to create forms and surveys. These elements include common fields such as name, email, phone number, text, radio boxes, and more. Another benefit of using Forminator is that you’re able to connect your account to a variety of third-party integrations.

These include connections with leading apps such as HubSpot, Google Sheets, Zapier, Slack, and Trello.

Overall, I think that Forminator is one of the most generous free survey plugins when it comes to the functionality that‘s available to you. However, I think that its form creation experience isn’t quite as nice as plugins like Gravity Forms and WPForms because it doesn’t include a visual builder like those plugins.

It‘s still easy to use because you can still drag and drop form fields — I just don’t think it quite matches up. But at the same time, those other plugins cost a lot more than Forminator to access the same functionality.

Pricing: Forminator has a free version at WordPress.org that‘s quite capable. You can also access more functionality via Forminator Pro, which is available on the WPMU DEV membership. This membership starts at $90 per year and gives you access to all of the developer’s plugins.

8. SurveyMonkey

Why I like it: SurveyMonkey offers very advanced tools for analyzing survey results. If you’re okay with integrating a third-party service into your WordPress site and you need advanced analysis, that could make it a great option for your site.

SurveyMonkey is one of the world’s leading survey tools. While it’s not technically a WordPress plugin, you can easily embed surveys into your WordPress site by adding the SurveyMonkey embed code to the Custom HTML block in the WordPress editor.

You’ll be able to set up simple or advanced surveys through the SurveyMonkey website. You can choose from a variety of open-ended or closed-ended question types, even including some advanced options like a click map (survey respondents can click on an image to provide feedback).

You can adjust the look and feel of your surveys with custom fonts, colors, and imagery to reflect your brand. You can also customize whether respondents see a thank you page, if the survey stops showing up after a certain date and time, and more.

As I mentioned above, I think that SurveyMonkey really stands out when it comes to analyzing your survey results, as you get lots of different visualization options, as well as tools to monitor trends so that you can see changes over time.

Pricing: SurveyMonkey has a limited, forever-free plan that might work for short surveys. For example, the free plan limits you to a maximum of ten questions per survey. Paid plans start at $35 per month for unlimited surveys and questions, along with up to 1,000 survey responses per month.

9. Opinion Stage

Why I like it: Opinion Stage has some of the most advanced survey functionality of any tool on this list, which can make it a great option for complex surveys (as long as you’re okay with using a SaaS tool instead of a 100% self-hosted solution).

Opinion Stage lets you create interactive surveys to boost your engagement rates and get more qualified leads. This tool is used by large corporations including BBC, Uber, and TripAdvisor.

Its intuitive interface makes it easy to use. You can manage all of your polls and quizzes in a single dashboard and track your results thanks to detailed analytic reports, which track impressions, the number of votes, click-through rates, social sharing, and more.

Opinion Stage’s built-in templates help you customize your surveys and polls to fit your brand. You can even add images and videos to your surveys to make them more engaging.

Additionally, when you upgrade to a paid plan, you can integrate forms into your surveys to capture leads’ contact information — plus, you have the option to incorporate ads, opening up an additional revenue stream for your business.

However, I think it‘s important to understand that Opinion Stage is a standalone SaaS tool that you can connect to WordPress via its integration plugin. This means that you’ll need to create and manage your surveys from the Opinion Stage website instead of your WordPress dashboard.

Pricing: The basic tool is free for up to 25 survey responses per month. To remove the Opinion Stage branding, unlock additional features, and increase the response limit, premium plans start at $25 per month when you pay annually.

10. Typeform

Why I like it: Typeform offers a unique conversational interface that creates an engaging survey experience for your visitors. If you like this conversational approach, it could be the best WordPress survey plugin for your needs.

Typeform is a contact form builder that also lets you create surveys and quizzes in a unique conversational interface.

Choose from an epic selection of survey, questionnaire, and quiz templates that you can customize to your needs. Your surveys can include a number of different question types, including ratings, multiple choice, or closed and open-ended questions.

Your “typeforms” present your questions one at a time to keep users engaged and can include images, GIFs, or videos. This tool includes Calculator, a PRO feature for you to add calculations, scores, or prices to your questions. You can assign different values to each answer to a question and then perform calculations based on those values.

To embed Typeform in WordPress, you can use the official Typeform WordPress plugin or just add the Typeform embed code directly to a Custom HTML block.

However, like Opinion Stage, I think it’s important to understand that Typeform is a SaaS tool rather than a totally native WordPress plugin.

If you want this type of “conversational” form interface in a 100% native WordPress plugin, some of the WordPress form plugins from above also offer conversational interfaces. This includes Gravity Forms, WPForms, and Formidable Forms.

Pricing: Typeform has a basic free plan that lets you create a single survey with Typeform branding. Paid plans start at $25 per month for unlimited surveys and up to 100 survey responses per month.

11. TotalPoll

Why I like it: TotalPoll has a user-friendly interface and includes some unique survey question types, such as letting you add images, videos, and audio files to your survey options. The backend interface also gives you lots of control over how your surveys function.

TotalPoll is a freemium plugin that you can use for both simple polls and more complex surveys.

I think it has one of the better backend user experiences of the plugins on this list. Beyond a simple interface to add questions, you also get separate areas to add custom fields to collect users’ personal information, control the design of your surveys, and integrate with other tools.

For example, when setting up the design of your survey, you can choose a template and then customize it using a visual preview, which I think makes it easy to control how your surveys will look.

As I mentioned above, TotalPoll also offers flexible question types. Beyond adding text questions, you can also add images, videos, audio files, or even custom HTML.

Once you receive some survey responses, you have tools to analyze aggregate data as well as view individual entries.

Pricing: TotalPoll has a basic free version at WordPress.org. If you want access to all of the features, TotalPoll Pro costs $79, which includes six months of support and lifetime updates for a single site.

12. Modal Survey

Why I like it: It offers all the core features most people need and includes lifetime updates at no extra cost, which makes it an excellent long-term value if you plan to rely on your survey tool for multiple years of usage.

Modal Survey is another popular option for building surveys, polls, and quizzes on WordPress. I think it‘s one of the stronger options when it comes to visualizing your survey results, so it could be a good choice that’s important to you.

In addition to seeing basic data, you can also view lots of charts and graphs, including five different types of pie charts, as well as some unique visualization options like polar charts and radar charts.

Beyond surveys, it also includes lots of features to create custom quizzes, which I think can make it a good option for people who want to create both surveys and quizzes.

You can ask users to answer questions and then recommend products based on their results — which is particularly helpful if you own an e-commerce website.

Additionally, you can equip your quizzes with countdown timers (one for your overall quiz or one for each question) and subscribe respondents to your email list, thanks to the many email marketing service integrations available.

Pricing: You can purchase a license on CodeCanyon for $44. That price includes lifetime updates for a single site, as well as six months of support.

13. Google Forms

Why I like it: Google Forms is an excellent option for people on a tight budget because it lets you have unlimited survey forms, questions, and responses for free. If you need the absolute cheapest tool for high-volume surveys, I don’t think you can beat Google Forms.

While not an actual survey plugin by itself, Google Forms is a very popular free survey tool that is still worth mentioning. You can easily embed Google Forms on your WordPress website, either via a third-party plugin or by adding the embed code to a Custom HTML block in the WordPress editor.

Google Forms is very straightforward and easy to use. You can ask multiple types of questions, including open-ended and closed-ended question formats.

You can set up restrictions for who to accept responses from, when to close the survey, and whether or not you would like to collect email addresses. You also get some style options to help you match the survey interface to your WordPress site’s branding.

Once you have some survey responses, Google Forms also includes tools to help you analyze them. You can also quickly swap between aggregate and individual responses.

Again, I think that one of the standout details in Google Forms is that it lets you have unlimited forms, questions, and responses for free. However, your survey forms will include Google Forms branding by default, so I don‘t think it’s a good option if you want a 100% white-labeled WordPress survey plugin.

With that being said, there are WordPress plugins like FormFacade that can help you customize the Google Forms styling, which I think can be a good option to consider if you want your surveys to more closely match your WordPress website’s branding.

Pricing: Google Forms is totally free for unlimited usage.

14. WP-Polls

Why I like it: WP-Polls can be a great option for running simple one-question polls. However, you’ll want to pick a different plugin if you want to create more in-depth surveys.

WP-Polls is a popular option for free basic polling functionalities. Your polls are easily customizable via templates and custom CSS.

However, I don‘t think it’s the best option for non-technical users, as you might struggle to style your poll results without at least a basic understanding of CSS. I did find some basic styling options in the plugin’s settings, but most users will probably want to go beyond those.

Outside of that, though, WP-Polls is pretty flexible. You can schedule your polls and even set expiration dates on them. Your users are automatically shown the results after voting.

You can keep a log of who voted on your polls, allowing you to manually keep track of duplicates.

I think that it’s also important to highlight another limitation with WP-Polls — you can only use radio buttons and checkboxes to collect answers, and you can only include a single question in each poll (though you’re free to create unlimited polls).

This can make it a good option if you just want to create simple polls, but I would recommend choosing a different plugin if you want to create more detailed surveys.

Pricing: WP-Polls is 100% free and available at WordPress.org. The developer does accept donations, but that’s 100% optional.

15. YOP Poll

Why I like it: YOP Poll offers an easy way to implement short polls with a more modern interface than the WP-Polls plugin above. It also has a premium version that supports multiple questions, which lets you set up longer surveys if needed.

I think that the free YOP Poll plugin can be another good option for users who want to create simple one-question polls rather than more in-depth surveys. If you’re willing to upgrade to the premium version, you can also add multiple questions to a single poll, which can be helpful if you want to create longer surveys.

YOP Poll lets you create polls that you can manage right from your WordPress dashboard. You’ll get access to customizable templates and can schedule polls, set limits on votes, and restrict access to certain users based on their usernames or IP addresses.

I also like that you’re able to use images and videos in your poll questions, which I think opens up some unique use cases (such as surveying users about which design they prefer).

Compared to the WP-Polls plugin above, YOP Poll’s default styling looks a little more modern, and you also get some options to customize the styling without needing to use custom CSS. The premium version also adds 30+ pre-made designs that you can use.

The main drawback of this plugin is that it doesn’t allow for open-ended questions, except for an “other” fillable field. This tool is, therefore, ideal for predefined options.

Pricing: YOP Poll has a functional free version at WordPress.org. There’s also an affordable premium version starting at $27 for use on a single site.

Final Thoughts on WordPress Survey Plugins

That wraps up my curated list of the best WordPress survey plugins. Choosing the right plugin for your site will depend on your budget, the type of surveys that you want to create, and whether you’re okay with integrating a SaaS tool into your site or you want a 100% native WordPress plugin.

If you want a free tool, Survey Maker and Quiz and Survey Master are both good options for general surveys, while HubSpot works well if you like the idea of having a built-in CRM. If you’re willing to pay, using a full-powered form builder like Gravity Forms gives you a lot of flexibility for setting up your surveys.