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As a writer, I have to let readers and potential clients know my expertise, my skills, and why they should work with me or be interested in what I say. So, a professional bio is a must in my industry.

Though I’m definitely familiar with professional bios, I can admit they can be challenging. What do I include? What do readers need to know?

As daunting as writing a professional bio can be, professional bios are crucial when applying for jobs, seeking new clients, or networking. A professional bio also gives the world a brief snapshot of you and your professional ideals.

If you‘re at a loss for how to write a professional bio that packs a punch, I’ve got you covered.

I will walk you through how to write a professional bio, provide professional bio templates, and show you the best professional bio examples you can get inspiration from.

What is a professional bio?

Professional Bio Templates

How to Write a Professional Bio

Best Professional Bio Examples

How to Write a Short Bio

Purpose of Professional Bios

A bio tells an audience about who you are, what you’ve done, and what you can do. It can help potential employers, fans, or customers understand your personality and what you stand for.

Writing a bio without a clear starting point is challenging — believe me, I’ve tried. To ease the process, here are some templates I put together to get you started.

Professional Bio Templates

I‘ve found it’s best to keep your professional bio honest and to the point. Too long of a bio, and you risk losing your audience’s attention. After all, audiences will only read a web page for less than a minute before clicking elsewhere.

And honesty is key because most consumers and clients won‘t invest in someone or something if it doesn’t seem trustworthy. In fact, 67% of consumers say they must trust a brand before investing in its products or services.

So, how do you write one that will effectively market you and your brand? You use a professional bio template.

By sticking to a predetermined format, you must fill in the blanks with your most relevant career information. These bio templates will guide you on where you should place your:

• Name
• Occupation or job title
• Passions and goals
• Skill set and expertise
• Education
• Work history
• Location

Of course, while there is no one-size-fits-all template for a professional bio, these templates are a quick way to start building your long or short bio before customizing it.

But before choosing your bio template, there are some key elements to include to ensure yours is effective.

For example, say you’re looking for a job. Your professional bio should give recruiters a peek at your career accomplishments and experience.

What if you’ve recently published a book or are applying for a grant? In those situations, highlight organizations you support or include catchy anecdotes.

And if you’re a recent graduate? A well-written professional bio helps you communicate how your life experience makes you the best candidate for the roles you seek.

Bottom line: Tailoring your professional bio to your goals and who you want to reach will make it more effective.

To structure your professional bio to stay true to these objectives, try our 80+ downloadable professional bio templates — for both short- and long-form bios — to start creating a bio that hits the mark.

Download free, editable short and long professional bio templates.

What should a professional bio say?

No one wants to work with a clone — your professional bio should be as unique as you.

When writing your bio, include important professional roles and achievements. Add your passions, interests, and how you bring your values to your work. Finally, your bio should let readers know you and reflect your personality.

Here are the elements I recommend including when writing a professional bio:

Professional Roles and Achievements

It’s essential to highlight your career roles and achievements in your bio. This can include your current position, previous roles, and notable accomplishments. It will help establish your expertise and credibility and start your bio on the right note.

Passions and Interests

This might be less essential, but it will help humanize you. Remember: Bios are shared via an impersonal medium, like a screen, and can sometimes feel distant if we don’t take the proper steps.

Share your passions and interests, whether or not they relate to your work or industry. That way, you can show enthusiasm and dedication outside your professional life.

Plus, you could find common ground with readers — which is always beneficial.

Take a look at this short bio by HubSpot staff writer Erica Santiago.

 

Her bio mentions her other hobbies, interests, and experiences — whether they tie directly to HubSpot or not.

“I want readers to know I’m a real person with a story,” she explains when asked about her bio. “If I have similar hobbies and interests as them, I may have the same concerns, too. So, they’ll know I’m just as invested in these topics as they are.”

“Plus,” she adds, “I’m always happy to talk about my cats at any given moment. You never know when a fellow cat mom could be reading.”

Values and Work Approach

Your values can sometimes show your work ethic more effectively than your career path. It can also help you endear yourself to employers and colleagues who want to work with people with similar values.

So don‘t be shy: Share how you incorporate your values into your work. Whether it’s a commitment to innovation, customer satisfaction, or ethical decision-making, explain what drives you and be enthusiastic about it.

Your Personality

Remember: Your bio should always include a taste of your personality! Your sense of humor, creativity, or collaborative nature could all give readers a sense of who you are. This helps readers connect with you on a more personal level.

Remember to tailor your bio for different platforms and audiences. Also, keep it concise and impactful while highlighting the most relevant information in each context.

First-Person Bio vs. Third-Person Bio

While first-person bios are common, third-person bios can be more effective in formal situations.

Your decision to write your professional bio in the first or third person depends on your desire to leave a more personable or assertive impression.

Both approaches work, provided you tailor them to your goals and audience. What’s important is to be clear and tell your story in a way that connects with your reader.

How to Write a First-Person Bio

Writing in the first person can be a great way to connect with your audience when building a personal brand. When you write a first-person bio, use “I” or “me” to make yourself relatable and approachable.

Here’s one way I’d write a first-person bio:

“I’m a freelance writer specializing in small business content. I’ve worked with companies in a variety of industries like home care to fine leather goods.”

Speaking in the first person here connects you with a client or brand based on your experience and opinions. Put another way, writing a first-person bio is like telling your story to your audience.

Here are a few tips to make your first-person bio great:

Don’t start every sentence with “I.”

Showing instead of telling is a great approach.

Let’s say you’re a writer who wants to create a short professional bio. Instead of saying, “I love to write,” you can say, “Writer. Bad but enthusiastic dancer.”

This portrays your writing skill, shows your personality outside of writing as a dancer, and includes a little sense of humor, which is essential for a writer.

Remember, you know yourself better than anyone.

Adding a back story to your bio helps create context for the roles and successes you write about. Think of it like a case study about who you were, what you are now, and the process that got you to your current position.

Focus on valuable details.

Quick facts about you can showcase your identity and values. For example, if you’re writing a bio for LinkedIn, think about how to tie your hobby into what you do.

Let’s say Animal Crossing is your hobby. Does it align with your career aspirations? It can be a great addition to your bio if you want to pursue a video game career.

However, if your interests lie elsewhere, including a more relevant hobby is better.

How to Write a Third-Person Bio

Third-person bios sound more authoritative and objective. So, if you’re job searching in a formal industry, applying for grants, or trying to get published, you may want to stick to the third person.

For instance, when you write a third-person bio, you may start with:

“Jasmine Montgomery is a Senior Hiring Manager at L’Oreal based in New York. She recruits across several business units to connect with the brightest talent from around the globe.”

By only using your name and pronouns to speak about yourself here, you are letting your title and skill set speak for themselves.

These bios create distance between the subject of the bio (you) and the reader through a third person. This person could be anyone, but they usually speak in a tone emphasizing their expertise.

This makes third-person bios feel aloof or overly formal sometimes.

Ideally, your third-person bio should sound friendly but polished, like a message from a close colleague at work. Here are a few tips on how to write a great third-person bio.

Write from the perspective of someone you know and trust.

It can be challenging to write about yourself, so try to see yourself from the perspective of your favorite person at work or a mentor you trust. This can help you write from a position of authority without feeling self-conscious.

Show the reader why they should trust your opinion.

A professional bio often reflects a specific industry or niche. With this in mind, your text should include relevant details that professionals in your industry know. Avoid jargon whenever you can.

Remember, you’re telling a story.

If you want a third-person bio, but you’re used to writing in first-person, it may help to write it the most comfortable way for you.

Your professional bio is an essential piece of writing, so edit it carefully. Edit your writing from both points of view and see which works best for your target audience.

Here’s how to write a professional bio, step by step.

If you’re anything like me, you probably don’t think about your professional bio until you’re asked to “send one over via email.”

You have one afternoon to come up with it, so you scramble together a bio that ends up reading like this:

“Rodney Erickson is a content marketing professional at HubSpot, a CRM platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers.

Previously, Rodney worked as a marketing manager for a tech software startup. He graduated with honors from Columbia University with a dual degree in Business Administration and Creative Writing.”

To be fair, in certain contexts, your professional bio needs to be more formal, like Mr. Erickson’s up there. But there are also cases where writing a personable and conversational bio is good.

Whether you choose the formal or casual route, use the following steps to create a perfect bio.

1. Create an ‘About’ page for your website or profile.

You need an online space to keep your professional bio. Here are a few to consider (some of these you might already have in place):

• Facebook Business page.
• Industry blog byline.
• Instagram account.
• Personal website.
• LinkedIn profile.
• Industry website.
• Personal blog.

As you’ll see in the professional bio examples below, the length and tone of your bio will differ depending on the platforms you use.

Instagram, for example, allows only 150 characters of bio space, whereas you can write as much as you want on your website or Facebook Business page.

2. Begin writing your bio with your first and last name.

If your readers remember nothing else about your bio, they should remember your name. Therefore, it’s a good idea for your first and last name to be the first two words of your professional bio.

Even if your name is printed above this bio (hint: it should), this is a rare moment where it’s okay to be redundant.

For example, if I were writing my bio, I might start it like this:

Lindsay Kolowich

Lindsay Kolowich is a Senior Marketing Manager at HubSpot.

3. Mention any associated brand name you might use.

Will your professional bio represent you or a business you work for? Ensure you mention the brand you associate with in your bio. If you’re a freelancer, you may have a personal business name or pseudonym you advertise to your clients.

Here are a few examples:

• Lindsay Kolowich Marketing.
• SEO Lindsay.
• Kolowich Consulting.
• Content by Kolowich (what do you think … too cheesy?).

Maybe you founded your own company and want its name to be separate from your real name. Keep it simple like this: “Lindsay Kolowich is the founder and CEO of Kolowich Consulting.”

4. State your current position and what you do.

Whether you’re the author of a novel or a mid-level specialist, use the following few lines of your bio to describe what you do in that position. Refrain from assuming your audience knows what your job title entails.

Make your primary responsibilities known so readers can know you and understand what you offer to your industry.

5. Include at least one professional accomplishment.

Just as a business touts its client successes through case studies, your professional bio should let your audience know what you’ve achieved.

What have you done for yourself — as well as for others — that makes you a valuable player in your industry?

6. Describe your values and how they inform your career.

Why do you do what you do? What might make your contribution to the market different from your colleagues? What are the values that make your business a worthwhile investment to others?

Create a professional bio that answers these questions.

7. Briefly tell your readers who you are outside of work.

Transition from describing your values in work to defining who you are outside of work. This may include:

• Your family.
• Your hometown.
• Sports you play.
• Hobbies and interests.
• Favorite music and travel destinations.
• Side hustles you’re working on.

People like connecting with other people. The more transparent you are about who you are personally, the more likable you’ll be to people reading about you.

8. Use humor or a personal story to add flavor to your professional bio.

End your professional bio on a good or, more specifically, a funny note. By leaving your audience with something quirky or unique, you can ensure they’ll leave your website with a pleasant impression of you.

Following the steps above when writing your bio is important, but take your time with one section. People consume lots of information daily. So ensure your bio hooks ’em in the first line, and you won’t lose them.

(P.S. Want to boost your professional brand? Take one of HubSpot Academy’s free certification courses. In just one weekend, you can add a line to your resume and bio that over 60,000 marketers covet.)

Why Good Bios Are Important for a Professional

You may think, “How many people read professional bios, anyway?”

The answer: A lot. Though there’s no way to tell who is reading it, you want it catchy. Your professional bio will delight the right people coming across it on multiple platforms.

Professional bios can live on your LinkedIn profile, company website, guest posts, speaker profiles, Twitter bio, Instagram bio, and many other places.

And most importantly, it‘s the tool you can leverage most when you’re networking.

Bottom line? People will read your professional bio. Whether they remember it or it makes them care about you is a matter of how well you present yourself to your intended audience.

So, what does a top-notch professional bio look like? Let‘s review a few sample bios for professionals like you and me. Then, we’ll cover bio examples from some of the best people in the industry.

Short Sample Bios

Your bio doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are five samples to glean inspiration from.

Example 1: Friendly Sample Bio

“Hey! My name is Ryan, and I’m a marketing specialist passionate about digital advertising. I have five years of experience managing various online campaigns and improving brand visibility for clients across multiple verticals. I love analyzing consumer behavior and leveraging data-driven strategies to maximize ROI. Outside work, I enjoy traveling, taking funny photos, and exploring new hiking trails.”

Example 2: Mid-Career Sample Bio

“Jennifer Patel is a versatile graphic designer known for her creative approach and attention to detail. With a background in visual arts and eight years of experience, Jennifer has worked on diverse projects ranging from logo designs to website layouts. Her ability to understand and translate client needs into visually striking designs sets her apart. Jennifer finds inspiration in nature, music, and pop culture.”

Example 3: Sales Sample Bio

“I’m a seasoned sales executive with a track record of exceeding targets and building strong client relationships. With a background in B2B sales, I’ve built a natural ability to understand customer needs and consistently exceed quota every month. I pride myself in my communication skills and strategic approaches, which have helped me thrive in highly competitive markets such as SaaS sales. Outside work, I enjoy playing basketball and volunteering at local charities.”

Example 4: HR Sample Bio

“I am a dedicated human resources professional with a passion for fostering a positive workplace culture and facilitating employee development. With eight years of experience in talent acquisition and HR operations, I’ve played a key role in building high-performing teams. I’m known for my strong interpersonal skills and ability to create inclusive and supportive work environments. In my free time, I enjoy practicing yoga and exploring new culinary experiences.”

Example 5: Software Engineer Sample Bio

“David Chang is a senior software engineer specializing in backend development. With a strong background in computer science and six years of experience, David has successfully built scalable and efficient solutions for complex technical challenges. He is well-versed in various programming languages and frameworks like C++, Java, and Ruby on Rails. In his spare time, David enjoys reading science fiction novels and playing the guitar.”

Below, we’ve curated some of the best professional bio examples we’ve ever seen on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the various places you might describe yourself.

Check ’em out and use them as inspiration when crafting your own.

1. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Author

Bio Platform: Personal Website

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie begins her professional bio with an invitation to her roots.

In a few paragraphs, she describes when and where she was born, her family, her education, her honorary degrees, and the depth of her work, which has been translated into 30 languages and several publications.

Along with her notable writing career, Chimamanda highlights her annual creative writing workshop, which introduces readers to a well-rounded view of who she is as a professional.

From there, her bio seamlessly flows into her recent work and a glimpse into how and where she spends her personal time — the United States and Nigeria.

Finally, Chimamanda’s bio ends with a call to action to read a more detailed biography, giving the reader a choice to read the information available about her life and career.

Why I Like It

• It’s written in the third person, allowing it to show authority.
• It provides a brief but engaging account of Chimamanda’s life and experiences.
• Mentioning her honorary doctorate degrees makes readers know Chimamanda is one of the best writers in the world.

2. Chime Mmeje: SEO Content Writer

Bio Platform: LinkedIn

A bio with a hook will keep you reading. Chima Mmeje is a freelance SEO copywriter who’s “extremely good at one thing” — helping companies rank for their target keywords.

She can keep readers engaged by leading with a powerful hook that aligns with her target audience’s marketing needs.

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What comes next is a unique differentiator in Chima’s professional bio. Instead of listing accolades, Chima shares a few wins secured for clients.

This nifty section does two things: it builds the readers’ confidence in Chima’s ability to deliver results, and it’s a practical way for Chima to name-drop some clients in her professional bio.

In the body of the professional bio, Chima briefly lists the processes that can help potential clients get a bird’s-eye view of what they can expect.

The simple call to action “Drop a message is a casual invitation to learn more about Chima’s services.

Why I Like It

• There’s clarity about who Chima serves.
• The hook is bold, catchy, and compels anyone to read further.
• Including client results makes clients visualize what they can expect.

3. DJ Nexus: DJ

Bio Platform: Facebook

This New England-based DJ has single-handedly captured the Likes of over 2,000 people in and beyond Boston, MA. And even if you don‘t listen to the type of music he produces, it’s hard not to read his compelling Facebook bio.

For instance, consider his tagline, under “About” — “Quiet during the day. QUITE LOUD at night!” DJ Nexus tells you when he works awesomely. I got goosebumps just imagining a dance club where he might play music.

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DJ Nexus’s bio brilliance doesn’t stop there.

DJ Nexus links his Facebook account to his personal website, where he has the space to tell the whole story of his background. Here’s a preview:

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In this story, DJ Nexus describes how he got his name, including information about a company he founded before going to college.

This is a terrific lesson for professional bios: Customers want to learn about you. Consider how you might also lead your visitors off your Facebook page and onto your website to learn more about who you are.

Why I Like It

• The eight compelling words in the bio pack a punch and grab attention.
• The bio shows that DJ Nexus is great at his craft.

4. Lena Axelsson: Marriage & Family Therapist

Bio Platform: Industry Website

No matter where it lives, your professional bio does not differ from any other persuasive copy. One common mistake people make is thinking of it as its own beast, separate from other writing pieces.

If you think about it that way, you’d likely write a painfully uninteresting bio.

When you sit to write your professional bio, don’t watch that cursor blinking on the screen. Instead, think about how you would introduce a blog post. You don’t dive right into the meat of the thing, do you? No. You start with an introduction.

The best bios are often concise (around 200–300 words), so you don’t have a lot of room to play around.

But a single sentence that sets the stage for your reader and provides a context for your accomplishments could make the rest of your bio more persuasive.

Take Lena Axelsson‘s bio, for instance. She’s a marriage and family therapist — a job where empathy and compassion are a big part of the job description.

That’s why she opens her bio with a great introductory sentence: “When human beings experience trauma or severe life stressors, it is not uncommon for their lives to unravel.”

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Then, she goes into why she’s passionate about her job, how she helps her clients, and how she caters her approach to each patient. The necessary educational information is left for the end after the reader has been hooked.

Your bio doesn‘t have to be super serious, nor does it have to start with a joke. This bio shows how you can capture your reader’s attention by being empathetic and how that empathy shapes a valuable professional.

Why We Like It

• It summarizes Lena’s background as a therapist, including her approach to therapy.
• The tone of the bio is professional and informative rather than overly personal or casual.
• The bio focuses on Lena’s audience. This lets readers know that Lena wants to help.

5. Mark Levy: Branding Firm Founder

Bio Platform: Personal Website

Mark Levy is a small business owner. While the professional bio on his website takes a traditional approach, it still speaks to Mark’s audience.

What I love about his bio is the way he‘s set it up: On his business’ “About” page, he‘s listed two biographies, which he’s labeled “Mark Levy’s Biography #1” and “Mark Levy’s Biography #2.”

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Click here to see the full version.

The first biography is a “short version,” which includes a combination of bullet points listing his credentials and a few brief paragraphs.

The second is the “long version,” which is even more interesting than the first. Why? It reads like a story — a compelling one, at that. In fact, it gets hilarious in some parts.

The second sentence of the bio reads: “He was frightened of public school, loved playing baseball and football, ran home to watch ape films on the 4:30 Movie, listened to The Jam and The Buzzcocks, and read magic trick books.”

Here’s another excerpt from the middle:

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Of course, the fantastic copywriting isn’t surprising, given that Mark wrote several books. But the conversational tone and entertaining copy let his quirky personality (and great writing skills) shine.

Why I Like It

• Mark’s funny and approachable personality shows all over his bio.
• Mark writes his bio in the third person, which positions him as an expert.
• It uses storytelling to humanize Mark and pull the reader into Mark’s world.

6. Audra Simpson: Political Anthropologist

Bio Platform: Personal Website

With a classic take on the professional bio, Audra Simpson crafts an overview of her career in just a couple of paragraphs.

She emphasizes the “why” behind her work in the first half of her bio before transitioning to the way she carries out that work in practice.

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The second half of her bio combines her body of work and the awards she’s won. This subtle timeline gives readers a picture of her experience in political anthropology without listing her resume in detail.

Why I Like It

• Audra’s bio shows how experts can succinctly discuss their years of experience in a few words.
• It proves Audra is an expert political anthropologist.
• It shows Audra’s interests, giving readers a sense of what she likes as a professional.

7. Marie Mikhail: Professional Recruiter

Bio Platform: LinkedIn

Marie Mikhail checks nearly every box that makes an excellent bio.

A professional recruiter, she expresses her “passion for recruiting” in the first sentence, while using that sentence to hook her profile visitors into a brief story of her background.

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But there are a lot of recruiters out there, and Marie knows that.

So, to differentiate herself, she closes the first paragraph of her bio by explaining that she likes “getting people excited about the things [she’s] excited about.”

It’s a well-put value proposition that sets her apart from the rest of the HR industry.

Marie concludes her bio with a smooth mix of professional skills, like her Spanish fluency, and personal interests, such as podcasting and Star Wars (she mentions the latter with just the right amount of humor).

Why I Like It

• Straight off the bat, Marie uses a story to share her experiences of how she began as a recruiter.
• It provides a subtle pitch for readers to check out her podcast.
• The bio exudes Maries approachable, fun, and playful personality.

8. Wonbo Woo: Executive Producer

Bio Platform: Personal Website

Wonbo Woo is the executive producer of WIRED’s video content and has several impressive credits to his name. What does this mean for his professional bio? He has to prioritize.

With this in mind, Wonbo opens his bio with the most eye-catching details first (if the image below is hard to read, click it to see the full copy).

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Not only does Wonbo’s bio start strong, but he also takes readers on a suspenseful journey through some of his most harrowing assignments — where he was when news broke and how he responded. You can see this quality below.

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The accomplished journalist concludes his gripping bio as strong as it began. He mentions his experience with the states and countries he‘s visited in his career. Overall, it’s a fantastically concise bio for as much detail as it holds.

Why We Like It

• The first sentence of the bio leads with authority and instantly gets the reader’s attention.
• The bio dives into the many exceptional projects Wonbo Woo has executed.
• Wonbo Woo uses lots of specificity to pass points across, like WIRED’s YouTube channel nearly quadrupled subscribers (+375%) and views (+391%), publishing over 100 videos annually with over a million views each.

9. Chris Burkard: Freelance Photographer

Bio Platform: LinkedIn

When writing your bio, you don‘t want to boast while showcasing your accomplishments. Chris Burkard’s LinkedIn bio does this well.

Written in third-person, his bio tells a fluid story, starting with his ultimate mission — “capture stories that inspire humans to consider their relationship with nature” — before diving into more tangible accolades (giving a TED Talk, publishing books, etc.).

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Best of all, rather than using his bio as an opportunity to brag, he instead ties his talents into how he hopes to help others, writing, “Through social media, Chris strives to share his vision … and inspire [his followers] to explore for themselves.”

I wouldn‘t necessarily be inclined to follow Chris if his bio had simply read, “I post beautiful images.” But images that inspire me to travel? Now that’s something I can get behind.

Last, he ends on a humble, sweet note: “He is happiest with his wife Breanne raising their two sons.” So inject personal information into your bio — it makes you seem approachable.

Why I Like It

• It highlights Chris’s achievement without bragging.
• The last sentence portrays Chris as a responsible man who loves his family.
• The well-written bio speaks to nature lovers who like the outdoors, surfing, and more. This gives them reasons to follow Chris.

10. Lisa Quine: Creative Consultant

Bio Platform: Portfolio Website

Creative professionals who specialize in visual art may find it challenging to balance the writing of their bio and displaying of their portfolio. Not Lisa Quine. Lisa has an exceptional balance of her professional bio and creative work.

Throughout her bio, you’ll notice the number of murals she’s completed and a brief timeline of her career. This helps her paint the picture of who she is as a professional.

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Why I Like It

• Lisa’s bio checks the box on nearly all of our recommendations for a great bio. She begins with her full name, her location, and what she does best.
• Lisa gets creative by mentioning the brands she’s worked with and highlighting some of her favorite projects.
• Written in the third person, this bio invites the reader behind a metaphorical door to meet Lisa as a professional, traveler, learner, wife, and mother.

11. Nancy Twine: Hair Care Founder

Bio Platform: Company Website

As Founder and CEO of Briogeo — a popular natural hair care line that’s received rave reviews in publications such as Allure and InStyle — there are undoubtedly plenty of accolades Twine could boast about.

But she starts her bio from a humbler place, stating: “Nancy Twine is no newcomer to the beauty-sphere — in fact, she made her first foray into the world of natural product formulation at the ripe age of five.”

The rest of her bio similarly focuses on Twine’s strengths as someone who’s able to take hair care “back to basics.”

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Similarly, you might use your personal bio as an opportunity to highlight your bigger purpose or vision. As Twine shows, sometimes it’s best to keep it simple and let your message resonate with the right audience.

Why I Like It

• The bio explains why Twine started her company and what ultimately drives her.
• It uses the founder’s story to connect with its audience.
• Using a video further shows the face behind the brand and helps Twine connect with her audience.

12. Trinity Mouzon: Wellness Brand Founder

Bio Platform: Personal Website

From the first sentence, I gravitated toward Mouzon‘s bio: “I’m obsessed with leveling the playing field.”

Mouzon effectively grips the reader’s attention with this introduction and then dives into some of her impressive accomplishments — including a brand now sold at Urban Outfitters and Target.

The language used throughout Mouzon’s bio is authentic, real, and honest.

For instance, in the second paragraph, she admits:

“While building a brand may have looked effortless from the outside, starting a business at age 23 with no resources or funding quickly forced me to realize that early-stage entrepreneurship was anything but transparent.”

Why We Like It

• It tells a story and quickly transitions into how Trinity built her brand.
• This bio highlights Trinity’s impressive background, including how she can help her readers start and scale their businesses.
• Focusing on the reader lets Trinity show that a good bio can convert new readers into leads and customers.

13. Alberto “Beto“ Perez: Co-Founder of Zumba Fitness

Bio Platform: LinkedIn

As an avid Zumba fan, I was excited to include this one. Perez styles his LinkedIn bio as a short story, starting with his background as a hard-working teen who held three jobs by age 14.

His bio tells the fun and fascinating origin story of Zumba, in which Perez, an aerobics teacher in Florida at the time, forgot his music for class and used a Latin music cassette tape instead … “And it was an instant hit!”

His bio continues:

“Shortly after he was connected to Alberto Periman and Alberto Aghion, and Zumba was officially created … What started as a dream now has 15 million people in more than 200,000 locations in 186 countries who take Zumba classes every week.”

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Learn how to write your professional bio with more free tips, templates, and inspiring examples.

Why I Like It

• Perez tells the story of his business, rather than list out his accomplishments.
• The bio positions Perez as both relatable and inspirational.

14. Ann Handley: Writer and Marketer

Bio Platform: Personal Website

If you‘re a marketer, you’ve likely heard of Ann Handley. Her list of credentials is lengthy, and if she wanted to, she could go on and on about her accomplishments.

But when people list their accomplishments in their bios, they risk sounding slightly egotistical.

Sure, you might impress a handful of people with all those laurels, but many people who read your bio will end up feeling either intimidated or annoyed. Think about it: Is that how you want most readers to feel when they read your bio?

To minimize the egoism that comes with talking about yourself, think about how you can list out your accomplishments without sounding like you‘re bragging. Ann does this really well, choosing a tone in her bio that’s more approachable.

Best of all, Ann focuses on her readers’ challenges and motivations, rather than her own.

For instance, she writes, “Ann Handley writes and speaks about how businesses can escape marketing mediocrity to achieve tangible results. >And she will inspire you to do work you’re proud of.“

Follow the link, and you‘ll see the page dedicated to a fuller bio, which she’s divided into two parts: a “short version” (literally a bulleted list of key facts) and a “long version,” which includes traditional paragraphs.

There’s something in there for everyone.

Why I Like It

• The last section of the bio shows Ann’s warm personality — “Ann lives in Boston, where she is Mom to creatures two- and four-legged.”
• Written in the third person, this bio has lots of proof (like followers), which shows Ann is a terrific marketing leader.

How to Write a Short Bio

If you’re posting a bio on a social media account or sending a quick blurb to a client, you want to keep it short and sweet while showcasing your accomplishments.

To get started, use these best practices for writing your short professional bio:

1. Introduce yourself.

Your introduction is your first impression, so always begin by telling people who you are. You may start with a greeting like, “Hello, my name is” or “Hi! Let me first introduce myself …” when sending your bio as a message.

If you’re writing a bio for an online platform, stating your name at the beginning works as well.

Leading with your name — even as a question — is important for recognition and building relationships.

2. State what you do.

Give people an idea of what you do daily and where you work. Your job title is how the people put you into context and consider whether your profession relates to their industry.

So detail your most relevant work in your short bios, like CEO, professor, and author.

Take a cue from Angela Duckworth, who specifies what she does in her LinkedIn bio:

Even if you’re a freelancer with a broad focus, you can keep it general while specifying the type of contract work you do.

If your specialty is writing, your title could be “Freelance Writer,” or if it’s Help Desk or Information Technology, you may use “Freelance IT Specialist.”

3. Add key skills or areas of expertise.

If you send a bio to a client or potential employer, highlight your most valuable skills. For instance, if your expertise is in social media marketing and content creation, like Ivanka Dekoning, list these skills.

Here, Dekoning showcases her experience so potential connections immediately see if they have what they’re looking for — and you can show this too.

4. Include a personal mission statement.

What do you hope to achieve through your work? Why do you do what you do? Answering these questions can help give your bio’s mission statement some direction.

For instance, Farmer Bea has a goal of helping to raise awareness about all things bees.

So give an honest answer about your goals or mission so you can add color to your professional purpose.

5. Celebrate your wins.

Your short bio can be a proud showcase of your accomplishments, so add one to two successes you’ve achieved through your skills or mission.

For instance, if you got recognition from industry leaders like Art Critic Jerry Saltz, you can list your wins like his:

So whether they’re awards you won, publications you featured in, or companies you worked with, be sure to spotlight any major achievements.

6. Provide your contact information.

People who visit your profile or receive your message already know your social media account. But to take business off the app, include your email address, website, or any other professional profiles where they can reach you.

Political Commentator and Sports Correspondent, Angela Rye, shows a great example of this in her short professional bio on Instagram:

After listing her name, job titles, and contact information, Rye includes a Linktree to their website where you can read a longer version of the professional bio:

This lets Raye detail her values more in-depth and how she shows them through her work. So before diving into your long professional bio, begin with a short bio to tease who you are, what you care about, and what you can do for others.

7. Show them your personality.

Don’t be afraid to add a bit of charisma to your short professional bio. “Professional” doesn’t have to mean plain. You can best portray your personality through:

• A joke. “Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once. At least that’s what I learned when I created…”
• Mention a hobby. “I’ll be honest: for me, tennis is life — Go Nadal!”
• A fun fact. “Every year, I watch 100 new films! I’m a cinephile and love every movie genre.”
• A few emojis related to your interests. “🎶🤖🎾🎬🎭”

Whichever way you choose to get personal, give people a glimpse into who you are as an individual.

When writing a short bio, it can be tempting to pack in as much relevant information about yourself as possible — but this isn’t the most effective approach.

Instead, focus on including the details that you and your audience care about most and leave out the fluff.

Let’s dive into a few examples of short professional bios.

1. Tristen Taylor: Marketing Manager

Bio Platform: Blog Byline

Tristen Taylor is a Marketing Manager here at HubSpot. She’s written content for HubSpot’s Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service blogs; her blog author bio is one of my favorites.

What I love most about Tristen’s bio is that it’s a great example of how to deliver information about yourself that is relevant to your work while also sharing fun details that audiences will find relatable.

Her bio reads:

“Building from her experience with GoCo.io and Southwest Airlines, Tristen’s work has been recognized by Marketing Brew and BLACK@INBOUND. She lives in Washington, DC, attending anime conventions and painting in her free time.”

It works because, at HubSpot, our blog authors prefer to make themselves friendly and approachable — while letting their content and experience speak for themselves.

It helps that authors’ social media accounts are located right below our names and above our pictures. This lets folks click the LinkedIn button and go to the author’s LinkedIn page.

(You can read this blog post to learn how to create social media buttons and add them to your website.)

Why I Like It

• It’s short and simple.
• It succinctly explains her expertise and work experience.
• It includes her interests and hobbies, such as attending anime conventions and painting.

2. Lianna Patch: Copywriter

Bio Platform: Blog Byline

Lianna Patch is a rockstar copywriter who has written for popular publications like Copy Hackers. What’s striking about Lianna’s bio is that it sums up everything you want in a copywriter.

I mean, see the first sentence of her bio — “Lianna’s greatest dream is to make your customers pause, smile, and click (in that order).”

The second sentence shows how she executes the first. It reads, “She does this through irresistible emails and shockingly effective landing pages.” And finally, the last sentence is a call to action for interested people to reach her.

Why We Like It

• It’s punchy and welcoming.
• It shows the outcome companies can get by working with her.
• It has a call-to-action (CTA).

3. Precious Oboidhe: Content Strategist and Writer

Bio Platform: Blog Byline

I don’t check out an author’s byline unless the post is interesting. My guess is you do the same. And most times, you do this because you may be interested in working with the writer.

This is where a short bio that speaks to your needs comes in. An example? An example? Precious’ bio that shows off his skills as a freelance content strategist and writer.

Why I Like It

• It states that Precious is for hire, causing interested prospects to contact him.
• It includes his website, where prospects can learn more about him.
• People can connect with Precious on social media to learn more about his work.

4. Rebecca Bollwitt: Writer

Bio platform: Instagram

Instagram is a notoriously difficult platform on which to write a good bio. Similar to Twitter, you don’t have room for a professional bio that includes everything about you.

And because Instagram is primarily a mobile app, many viewers read about you passively on their mobile devices.

Instagram’s limited bio space requires you to highlight just your most important qualities. Blogging icon Rebecca Bollwitt does just this in her own Instagram bio excellently.

Rebecca’s brand name is Miss604, and she cleverly uses emojis in her Instagram bio to tell visitors what makes her a valuable content creator. See the screenshot below:

Starting with a laptop emoji, Miss604 says she’s been a Vancouver blogger since 2004. I haven’t even looked at her pictures yet, and her bio introduction has already sucked me in.

The rest of her bio follows suit, breaking up the text with an appropriate emoji and a perfect collection of nouns to tell me who she is as a person.

She even links out to her husband’s Instagram account after the heart emoji (an adorable addition) and assures her followers that all of her pictures are authentically hers.

Take a lesson from Miss604 and show your personal side. Branding yourself as a professional shouldn’t involve discarding many things that make you human. Often, your most personal attributes make for the best professional bio content.

Why I Like It

• Using emojis gives off Rebecca as a friendly person.
• Rebecca highlights her most important qualities in a few words.

5. Megan Gilmore: Cookbook Author

Bio Platform: Instagram

Megan Gilmore is a best-selling cookbook author. She often posts healthy recipes on her Instagram page and inspires her followers to learn not to sacrifice taste for the sake of health.

Image Source

You can glean most of this information immediately from her Instagram bio, which is short and to the point: “Gluten-free recipes and meal plans.”

Gilmore further includes a CTA link within her Instagram bio that leads followers to free, ready-to-use recipes. You might think, “Why would she do that since it discourages people from buying her book?”

But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

By giving her followers the chance to try out her recipes, she’s slowly turning leads into customers. After I tried a few of her Instagram recipes and loved them, I bought her book, knowing I’d like more of what she offered.

Why I Like It

• The bio is short and direct.
• The CTA link includes an invitation for people to join her newsletter. Meaning, she can build her email list.

6. Bea Dixon: Feminine Care Founder

Bio Platform: Instagram

Bea Dixon, Founder and CEO of The Honey Pot Company, efficiently uses the space on her Instagram profile to highlight who she is as a well-rounded human — not just a businesswoman.

For instance, while she highlights her girl boss attitude with a tiara emoji, she equally calls attention to her fashion interests (Free People), her pets, Boss and Sadie, and her love for ramen noodles.

Consider how you might also highlight your interests, hobbies, or passions outside of the 9-to-5. If people are reading your bio, they’re interested in getting to know the full you.

Why We Like It

• It shows who Bea is outside work.
• It includes a CTA that lets people check out everything Bea offers.

7. Tammy Hembrow: Instagram Influencer

Bio Platform: Instagram

Tammy Hembrow is a founder, fitness model, Instagram Influencer, and entrepreneur. These are a lot to fit into one Instagram profile. And this is where a summary of what you do and where people can find you take center stage.

Tammy shows in her bio that she’s a founder; she links to her app, mentions her YouTube channel, which has almost two million subscribers, and has a link for people to learn more about her and what she does.

If you wear many hats like Tammy, be sure to mention your biggest traffic driver in your Instagram profile and include a link to all you do.

Why I Like It

• It shows Tammy’s core channel besides Instagram — YouTube.
• It includes a CTA that lets people learn more about what Tammy does.
• It links out to other pages owned by Tammy.

8. Dr. Cody: Chiropractor

Bio Platform: Instagram

Dr. Cody is a Sydney-based chiropractor. Like Tammy, Dr. Cody brilliantly uses the limited space on his Instagram profile to convey vital info to his audience.

At first glance, including location in his bio may look like a waste of limited space. But here’s the thing: Dr. Cody’s job has to be done in person as a chiropractor. By including his location, he immediately calls out those he serves.

Adding his TikTok account with almost three million followers is another excellent move.

Why I Like It

• No one gets three million followers by doing a poor job. By including 2.9M+ TikTok followers in his bio, Dr. Cody instantly proves his expertise to his audience.
• Including his TikTok handle is a subtle pitch for people to follow his account on TikTok.
• The CTA link is great for those who want to learn more about Dr. Cody’s offers.

9. Larry Kim: Founder

Bio Platform: Twitter

Forget about words for a moment. Looking at Larry’s bio, you immediately know what he prioritizes above all else — his family.

When you get into the bio, you see that besides the companies Larry founded and publications he writes for, he re-emphasizes his love for family by mentioning his kids.

This could endear people to him. And don’t forget the inclusion of “Christian” — this instantly shows what he stands for.

Why I Like It

• It shows what Larry takes seriously besides work — his family and his faith.
• The popular publications give people a reason to follow Larry.

10. Dharmesh Shah: Founder and CTO

Bio Platform: Twitter

Dharmesh Shah is the co-founder and CTO of HubSpot. Dharmesh’s bio is exciting because it has social proof, gives people a reason to follow him, and shows what people can expect.

His bio shows social proof by mentioning he’s the founder of a popular software company. This gives people a “why” to follow him. Plus, by mentioning the favorite topics he talks about, he instantly qualifies those he wants as followers.

Why We Like It

• It shows what followers can expect.
• Dharmesh’s warm smile is welcoming, and his personal mission is inviting.
• It calls attention to Dharmesh’s business — HubSpot.

11. Lily Ugbaja: Content Strategist

Bio Platform: Twitter

Look no further than Lily’s if you want inspiration for a Twitter bio packed with social proof.

Lily is a content strategist and writer for popular companies like HubSpot, WordPress, and more. When you read Lily’s bio, the second sentence grabs your attention immediately because it shows the result you can get by working with her.

That aside, she includes brands she’s worked with, including a popular content marketing agency known for doing excellent work. This gives Lily the instant credibility she needs to attract prospects who want to win with content.

Why I Like It

• It has catchy social proof elements.
• It contains a CTA encouraging people to subscribe to her newsletter.

12. Ian Anderson Gray: Marketer

Bio Platform: Twitter

Details matter, especially when there’s a cap on the number of words you can use to express yourself.

For instance, the funny and impactful bio of Ian Anderson on his Twitter page reads:

“Dad & Husband. Confident Live® Marketing Podcast 🎧 & Show 🎥 Helping you level up your impact, authority & profits through the power of Confident Live Video.”

What more do you need to know?

Ian doesn’t take his bio too seriously but uses every character to highlight everything about him.

He includes his skills as a marketer and podcast host, who he is outside work as a dad, and what he can help you do. His smiles also give the bio a sense of humor and realness.

Consider how you might showcase your uniqueness in just a few words, particularly for a social media account that already restricts word count.

Why I Like It

• It highlights everything about Ian in a few words.
• It includes a CTA to check out Ian’s podcast.
• It shows Ian’s fun personality, an important trait for podcast hosts.

13. Van Jones: Political Commentator, Author, and Lawyer

Bio Platform: Twitter

Someone known for various talents and skills may find it difficult to capture who they are in a professional bio. The feat is nearly impossible when limited to just over 100 characters on Twitter.

But Van Jones effortlessly explains who he is and why it matters to everyone who visits his Twitter profile.

Image Source

He starts his professional bio with a token of personalization and prioritization of his values. By mentioning that he is a dad first, we recognize what’s important to him in his long list of successes.

As I’ve shown in other bios, sharing who we are outside of work makes us more personable and should find its way into your bio, if possible.

What’s great about Van’s Twitter bio is his ability to link valuable offerings to his readers. He invites us to check out his latest book and has his website magiclabsmedia.com linked at the top.

Why I Like It

• It includes a CTA.
• It shows Van’s personality and what he cares about.
• It shows one of Van’s accomplishments as a 3X NYT bestseller.

Create Your Own Professional Bio

While I can admit professional bios can be challenging, I‘ve learned they’re crucial to career growth.

I encourage you to take stock of your accomplishments, career path, and hobbies, and use the strategies and examples above to craft a bio that reflects your best professional self.

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

It’s that time of the year…

We asked a few badass colleagues and expert Trendsters what they think will be huge in 2024. Here’s what they said:

1. Niche Sports 

Sara Friedman, Senior Writer of The Hustle

Pickleball has grown into a national craze, with courts and other related businesses popping up everywhere. In 2024, more niche sports will follow.

Source: Google Trends, six-month rolling average

Games like badminton, racquetball, croquet, and spikeball will see increased popularity through activity bars, facilities, and clubs. These sports will be used to fill vacant shopping malls and offices that are too difficult to flip into residential space.

Badminton, where players use racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net, might be the next big hit among Gen Z and Millennials, per Pinterest.

2. The Menopause Market

Arlene Battishill, E-commerce maverick, Shark Tank trailblazer

The market is finally recognizing women ages 50 and older as a huge demographic with a lot of disposable income.

One way this trend will manifest is through the continued growth of the ~$17B menopause market. Globally, menopause causes $150B in lost productivity. It’s a big pain point for half the population, and a huge opportunity for businesses.

There’s already been an influx of products created for perimenopause and menopause care, with celebrities and influencers in the mix. But the market is still ripe for disruption.

 

3. Leaner Tech Startups

Dan Layfield, Subscription business expert, ex-Uber, ex-Codecademy

This year, many tech companies course-corrected their overhiring with massive layoffs. In 2024, the size of tech startups will continue to shrink, and we’ll see even leaner operations make bigger profits.

Source: Layoffs.fyi

With the help of better tools, newer codebases and AI, companies will need fewer engineers to build and ship meaningful products efficiently. This trend will show most clearly in the consumer app space – think fitness, health, nutrition and productivity.

 

4. Cryptocurrency

Cahill Camden, Fractional CMO with two 8-figure exits, web3 and AI expert

As the bad boys in crypto get cleared out of the way, there’s now space for cryptocurrency – especially Bitcoin – to receive mainstream adoption in 2024.

Major asset managers like BlackRock and Fidelity already proposed to launch spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF), which will make bitcoin more accessible to the average investor.

A spot ETF allows people to directly invest in Bitcoin, rather than Bitcoin futures contracts. It’s simpler, more affordable, and could potentially boost the legitimacy of Bitcoin in regulators’ eyes.

 

5. Expertise-driven SEO

Caroline Forsey, Principal Marketing Manager at HubSpot

In 2024, entrepreneurs will need to lean heavily into their own expertise when they create content for search engines.

This year Google introduced new EEAT guidelines to evaluate the quality of search results. One of the “E’s”, Experience, will drive a lot of content decisions in 2024, particularly as more users turn to AI to get their questions answered (rather than Google).

Content creators will now focus their SEO and creation strategies on expert, human-first content. They will need to ask themselves: What first-hand experience can we draw from to make this content unique and unreplicable by AI?  

 

6. AI Video Tools

Justin Kelsey, Founder of SwitchFrame, serial entrepreneur

OpenAI now lets you prompt ChatGPT with voice and pictures, and other developers are following suit. So I see AI becoming more ubiquitous in multimedia production, with video AI leading the pack.

Every day a new video AI startup pops up, and you can easily find 5+ such tools within a minute of search. With consumers’ growing preference for short-form videos, we’ll see even more advanced AI capabilities for video editing in 2024.

These new tools will not only make your video look beautiful and master your audio professionally, but will also be able to chop a full video into snackable bits that fit different platforms, like Instagram Reels and TikTok.

 

7. Anything with A Human Touch

Ben Berkley, Editor of The Hustle

As AI continually heats up, so too will that AI-can’t-do-everything backlash. Amidst all the change, people will find comfort in anything that feels innately *human*.

This holiday season, and in 2024, we’re going to see a rise in:

• Paper goods, as people send each other hand-written cards and letters
• Art and dance classes, book clubs, and watch parties;
• Hand-crafted, Etsy-style gifts that scream “this was created by another human” rather than some bot.

This backlash will also play out in arenas like travel, as people will crave intimate connection and conversation with family, old friends, and truly anything non-GPT. They’ll hit “book” on affordable, shared experiences.

Over 60% of Amazon sales are made by independent sellers, with most running small to medium-sized businesses. AI for Amazon sellers has the potential to help smaller sellers close the distance between themselves and more prominent brands even more.

But here’s the catch: You must know how to use AI effectively.

For this guide, I share my first-hand experiences as a content manager for a large e-commerce marketplace. I also share insights from Amazon sellers who use AI in multiple business areas.

AI and the Amazon Marketplace

How AI Has Helped Amazon Sellers

Building an AI strategy for Amazon

AI Tools for Amazon Sellers

AI for Amazon Sellers: Levelling the Playing Field

AI and the Amazon Marketplace

In 2021, I was a content manager for a large e-commerce marketplace with over three million customers.

Open AI had yet to open up the floodgates with ChatGPT back then. But let me tell you, AI was already top of mind on the content front. Only a few years later, the potential for AI in e-commerce seems endless.

As we speak, Amazon sellers generate optimized product listings at scale and automate mundane tasks. That’s not to mention use cases like customer service, product research, price optimization, marketing, and inventory management.

Simply put, AI has the potential to help you in all areas of the Amazon Marketplace.

How AI Has Helped Amazon Sellers

I spoke with six Amazon Sellers who are currently using AI in several areas of their business. Here’s what they had to say about how the tech is helping their business succeed.

Better Visibility in Search

“As an Amazon seller, AI has been a game-changer for me,” says Adam Hawke, head of acquisitions at Myrtle Beach Home Buyers.

“[AI] tools help me track market trends, optimize product listings, and adjust pricing strategies dynamically,” Hawke explains. As a result, Hawke’s products have experienced increased visibility in search.

The Takeaway

Market trends show you what people want so you can stock in-demand products. If you stock them already, you can prioritize adding resources to existing products to meet the demand faster.

Market trend data also indicates which of your listings to optimize first and how to optimize them.

When you optimize in-demand products for search, you’ll usually experience better search visibility and product rankings on Amazon.

That makes it easier for the right customers to find the products they need from your store rather than your competitor’s.

Product Text Optimization

“As an experienced Amazon seller, I have found AI to be an invaluable tool for streamlining and optimizing my business,” says Rahul Paragi, founder of AIWritingHacks.com.

According to Paragi, AI is a game-changer for enhancing Amazon product listings. More specifically, AI services can generate optimized titles, bullets, and descriptions in seconds using machine learning.

Paragi says this saves time and “enables me to convert page views into sales at a higher rate.”

The Takeaway

Optimizing the written word for search and conversions is my wheelhouse. Do I use AI to do this? Not when it comes to the actual writing part, because I LOVE to write.

But what about Amazon sellers with many moving parts to their business? I can see the appeal of using AI writing assistants — so no judgment from me.

That said, I use AI tools to help research product text. Regarding e-commerce, I use AI to help me with keyword research. I also use it to help me find voice of customer (VOC) data.

The keywords help me optimize text by using people‘s words and phrases to find the specific product I’m selling. Meanwhile, the VOC data (typically sourced from existing customer reviews) helps the listing resonate with prospective customers.

Product Image Optimization

“When people run a search on Amazon, they get thousands of results,” says Freddy Linares, director of Neurometrics. “Users pay attention first to the images, but sellers don’t.”

That means Amazon sellers may choose “good but random images.” Instead, Linares recommends using AI to help pick images more likely to sell.

AI image tools use “computer vision to help sellers pick the image with the highest engagement,” explains Linares. Some tools also show “the best visual attention among the [image] alternatives.”

The Takeaway

Product images matter a lot in e-commerce. So much so that it doesn‘t matter how well your product listings rank on Amazon search if your photos aren’t optimized.

That’s because choosing the wrong image or not uploading images can stop customers from buying from you.

Etsy data evidences this point. The marketplace found that 90% of Etsy shoppers rated the quality of product images as the most crucial factor when deciding to buy.

Long story short? Invest time and effort into optimizing product text and images. Your goal should be to get increased attention on the marketplace, then clicks, and ideally, conversions.

Reduced Stockouts

“As an Amazon seller, I’ve integrated AI to optimize my product listings and forecast inventory needs,” says Gil Clark Jr., owner of G.H. Clark Contractors, Inc.

Clark also uses AI-driven tools to analyze customer reviews, refine product descriptions, and predict sales trends.

Like Hawke, Clark has experienced improved search rankings (i.e., better search visibility). Clark also reports reduced stockouts when using AI tools to predict and monitor customer demand.

The Takeaway

You can run your Amazon shop like a well-oiled machine when you always have the needed stock. When they go to purchase, a customer finds the product they want and doesn’t meet any roadblocks (like the product being out of stock).

That means you will guarantee the sale rather than see the customer bouncing to another Amazon seller.

Improved Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

“I use AI extensively as an Amazon seller to enhance multiple facets of my business,” says Ben Seelen, marketing manager for Rugby Bricks. Like Hawke and Clark, Seelen uses AI for price optimization and inventory management.

Ben also uses AI for Amazon in customer service and product research. “I use chatbots to handle basic customer queries, which saves time and enhances user experience,” Seelen explains.

On the product research front, Seelen uses AI tools for keyword research and product trend analysis. After using AI, Seelen has seen improved customer satisfaction rates and loyalty overall.

The Takeaway

Integrating AI into customer service areas can reduce response times, improve aftercare, and create a better purchasing experience.

Then, using AI in product research is a way to find actionable insights about what products customers want and how they’re searching for them.

You can then fill the demand and use search terms that make it easier for customers to find and purchase the products they need.

Product and Competitor Research

“We use AI for product and competitor research for clients selling on Amazon,” says Nat Miletic, owner and CEO of Clio Websites.

AI-powered research tools help Miletic and their team conduct “in-depth analysis of Amazon products.” They can then see insights like “the most searched products, fastest-growing and high-potential products.”

Miletic also looks for overall product competition in their client’s respective niches.

“We use this data to identify and compare the client’s strongest products and ones that need more boost to meet customer demands,” Miletic continues.

Aside from this, Miletic uses AI to extract “product reviews from similar products.” This gives them insights on how to sell products more successfully.

The Takeaway

AI can gather and organize large volumes of data much faster than humans. This makes it a game changer for product and competitor research.

Once you have the data, you can segment it, find key trends, and create a plan to improve your product offering.

But that’s not all. Remember that VOC thing I talked about earlier? Like Nat, you can use AI to extract product reviews and use them as your VOC data.

Competitive Pricing

“I use AI-powered repricing software to ensure my prices remain competitive,” says Rahul Paragi.

“The algorithm adjusts prices based on competitors’ pricing, sales, inventory data, marketplace trends, and custom profit goals,” explains Paragi.

Paragi advises other Amazon sellers, “Don’t be afraid to hand optimization and efficiency tasks off to AI. It’s made my business far more profitable than I could have imagined.”

Gil Clark Jr. mirrors Paragi’s point about using AI to price competitively on Amazon. Repricing tools are “a game-changer, automatically adjusting prices to stay competitive while maximizing profits,” says Clark.

The Takeaway

9 out of 10 shoppers price check on Amazon. Sure, they could be comparing online product prices with in-store prices. But they could also compare your pricing with your Amazon competitor’s to source the best deal.

Savvy Amazon sellers know they must stay competitive in their prices without eroding profit margins. That’s probably why using AI for dynamic pricing was an everyday use case for most, if not all, of the sellers I interviewed for this guide.

Increased Sales

Our interviewees reported increased sales directly from using AI across different areas of their Amazon business.

Pricing strategy, specifically, was a popular area with all Amazon experts, with Seelen citing increased sales due to optimal pricing. This “ensures I stay competitive without eroding profit margins,” says Seelen.

Aside from pricing strategy, Seelen leverages “AI algorithms to better target my PPC ads on Amazon, increasing ROI significantly.”

The Takeaway

Using AI to track and predict market trends and optimize product listings for increased visibility can increase sales. That’s because market trends show you what products are in demand and what your competitors charge.

Then, optimizing the listings for in-demand products helps customers find what they need in search through your store.

Optimal pricing is another area that has helped all our Amazon interviewees experience more sales. Using AI tools within your Amazon marketing and advertising strategy may also increase ROI on ads, which can increase product sales.

Building an AI Strategy for Amazon

Let‘s put what we’ve learned into practice by building an AI product strategy for Amazon. For this exercise, I‘ve chosen the skincare niche, and the specific product I’m strategizing for is a Vitamin C moisturizer. Here‘s where I’d go from there.

1. Competitor Research

I’d start by using AI to gather similar product listings from competitors. When the data is in, I will analyze it, first looking for high-level trends (i.e., what performs well and why.)

I‘d also be looking to find gaps (i.e., what other sellers are doing that I’m not.) But more importantly, I’d be looking for opportunities—aka, what aren’t other sellers doing that I can do? And what can I do better?

I‘d then look for specifics about the top-ranking competitor products via Amazon search. I’d narrow down the top five best-performing product listings.

Then, I’d go beyond AI data analysis and look at them with my own eyes for insights that AI might miss. Doing this also helps me get a general feel for the niche/product landscape.

2. Gathering VOC Data

I’d then use an AI tool to gather the best and worst customer reviews from the top five products. This matters because I want to see what pain points the product solves, what the results are, and where other products fail.

But more specifically, I want to see how customers describe all of this in their own words. I’d also note any key phrases or terms customers use, so I recycle them in my product description.

3. Keyword Research

Now I know what competitors are doing and what customers are saying, it’s time to start keyword research. Some people begin with keyword research, but I prefer to know what real people are saying and doing first.

In my experience, this approach helps you discover some hidden gems your competitors might overlook. It also improves your ability to build resonance with customers.

To start, I‘d use an AI tool to conduct keyword research. That’ll help me optimize my Amazon listing for search. I’d look for a keyword that matches customer search intent, has decent volume, and has low competition.

Let‘s use “vitamin C day cream” as the target term for this exercise. It’s not as specific as “vitamin C moisturizer.” Still, the search intent is similar, and the competition for the keyword is lower.

There are also fewer sponsored results for “vitamin C day cream” vs. “vitamin C moisturizer.” That means less competition for the top search results.

4. Amazon Listing Optimization

As I mentioned, I don’t use AI writing tools because I genuinely love writing. That said, I see the utility of using AI writing tools at scale if you know what you‘re doing. So, for educational purposes, I’ve hopped aboard the AI writing train.

Product Title

At this stage, I‘d use an AI writing tool to help me generate a product listing draft and different title ideas. For the Amazon product title, I’d want to prioritize a mix of my chosen keyword, “vitamin C day cream,” for search visibility.

Plus, I want something that speaks to my customers‘ pain points and desires to increase conversions. And if I had any, I’d also share social proof about my product.

All of that could equate to something like:

“Vitamin C Day Cream & Moisturizer With Hyaluronic Acid & Vitamin E: Get Hydrated, Brighter, Plumper Skin in 4-8 Weeks With This Five-Star Rated Customer Product.”

I’d also aim to keep to around 200 characters as a general rule of thumb. Plus, I’d want the title to be on-brand and not say anything factually inaccurate or misleading.

So, I wouldn‘t add that information if the product hadn’t been rated five stars or customers had yet to experience specific results in a given time frame.

Product Description

I’d include the product description’s target keyword, VOC data, and customer pain points. To see how I‘d do this, head to “Anyword” in the “AI tools for Amazon Sellers” section.

I’d also add a bulleted list of Amazon Product features to give a brief overview of what the product does and how it benefits the customer.

Product Image

Here, I’d use AI to help optimize and test product images. Ideally, I’d have authentic product images, actual before and after photos, and user-generated examples of real customers using the products.

In that case, I’d use an AI tool to help me analyze which ones are likely to perform the best.

If I didn‘t have images, I’d be looking to use an AI tool to help me generate them in line with Amazon’s image specifications.

I may also look at a hybrid approach using real photos alongside an AI mock-up generator to show people using the products in different settings.

5. Making Listing Live and Testing

I wouldn’t be looking for perfection; I’d be looking for good enough. It seems counterintuitive, right? But the sooner I get the listing live, the sooner I can see actual data. That will show me what‘s working and what isn’t.

Ideally, I‘d enlist AI tools to feed me data insights and suggestions. I’d also be looking for a tool to provide different ways to A/B test listings or something that can help me brainstorm solutions.

6. Multi-Channel Marketing Approach

In my experience with e-commerce, winning the sales game takes multiple marketing channels.

Knowing what I know, there‘s no way I’d rely on optimizing my Amazon listing and leaving it at that. I’d look at ways to drive external traffic to my product listing. I’d think of Amazon SEO first (I‘m an organic girl at heart).

But I’d also consider PPC, depending on resources.

Aside from SEO, I‘d have social on my list because you can use the platforms for free in most cases. I’m not the only one thinking that way.

The State of the Amazon Seller report found over 40% of Amazon sellers market on social media. That figure has been rising 15% year on year.

That said, I’d want an AI tool that caters to a multi-channel approach. I’d also like something that feeds me suggestions for social channels based on accurate customer data and SEO suggestions based on keyword research.

7. Admin

In this instance, admin means customer service, pricing, inventory management, and any other task I can reasonably outsource to AI. I‘d also use AI for basic customer service on the back end.

Based on urgency, I’d look at ChatBots to answer frequently asked questions and route tickets to human reps.

Then, I‘d want a tool that automatically reprices my listing within a minimum and maximum range so that they stay competitive. I’d also look for something that forecasts inventory needs to avoid running out of stock.

AI Tools for Amazon Sellers

Now it’s time to take six AI tools for Amazon sellers out for a test drive. Keep reading to learn what the tools do, the price, expert insights, and my experience using each.

RepricerExpress

“One fantastic AI tool recommendation for fellow Amazon sellers is RepricerExpress,” says Hawke. Using the tool to automate price adjustments has saved Adam time and boosted Amazon sales.

Ben Seelen also uses RepricerExpress to adjust real-time prices based on market trends. “This ensures I stay competitive without eroding profit margins,” says Ben.

Price: You can try the product for free for 14 days. Paid plans range from $85 to $1,249 per month.

What we like: RepricerExpress is one of the most comprehensive tools for Amazon repricing. Its real-time insights are ideal for staying competitive and maintaining sales.

You can also set price boundaries — i.e., your minimum (floor) and maximum (ceiling) prices per product — to avoid racing your competitors to the bottom.

Using the Tool

I found registering for a Repricer account easy as they only required a few bits of information. Repricer walks you through the setup process. But if you struggle, different help options are available on the setup screen.

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I love that you have the option to create minimum and maximum prices straight away. You also start in “Safe Mode” from the get-go, so Repricer will only change live prices once you turn “Safe Mode” off.

After completing the setup, you can access competitor information, which is helpful. I also liked how flexible the tool was. You can try various pricing strategies, including pre-made repricing templates.

Helium 10

Like RepricerExpress, Helium 10 was highly recommended by multiple Amazon sellers I interviewed.

Seelen recommends Helium 10 for keyword research and product trend analysis. Miletic uses the tool to get actionable insights like the most searched, fastest-growing, and high-potential products.

You can also use the tool to explore product competition in your specific niche and write and optimize your listings.

Price: You can start a free trial account. Paid plans range from $29 to $229 per month.

What we like: Helium 10’s analytics are impressive. You can track your sales, broader market trends, and keyword rankings. They also offer marketing tools so Amazon sellers can run AI-powered PPC campaigns on autopilot.

That means you can drive traffic from search engines like Google to your Amazon product listings.

Using the Tool

When you first sign up, Helium directs you to a quiz with different options like “Seller,” “Brand,” and “Agency.” It is interactive, and the tool can give you the best dashboard setup based on the data.

I loved how each step of the setup process had an accompanying video. It highlighted the amount of resources available for Helium users straight away.

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At first glance at the demo dashboard, having everything available (i.e., revenue, profit, orders, refunds, and product rankings) on one screen/dashboard will help overall productivity.

The fact that the tool records your history will make monitoring changes and comparing results easier.

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Overall, Helium 10 is easy to use. I also see the capabilities of the research tools giving sellers a competitive edge when launching new products.

Pixmap

Pixmap was Linares’ tool of choice for AI-optimized Amazon product images. Pixmap is a mobile app available via the Apple App Store and Google Play.

The app helps you test a picture before you use it so you can understand how people see the image before uploading it to Amazon.

Price: You can get three free tests, and then you need to purchase credits.

What we like: Getting fresh eyes on any marketing campaign before it goes to market is essential. That way, you can test the effectiveness and avoid embarrassment before it goes live.

The same applies to your Amazon product images. But it’s not always realistic in practice and can be costly.

That‘s what’s excellent about Pixmap. The tool uses machine learning to give you an idea of how people will react to your images. And it only takes the tool seven seconds to process a photo and share its findings.

Using the Tool

First, I love that this app is for mobile, and it was straightforward to download from the Apple App Store. I found it easy to upload images, and the results came in fast.

Pixmap also makes it quick to understand how the app works by including three starter pictures to browse. That gave me a quick entry point into understanding the different features like “Heatmap,” “Opacity,” and “Focus.”

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SellerApp

Adam recommends SellerApp as his top pick for “valuable insights and keyword optimization suggestions.” Like Helium 10, SellerApp comes with extensive tools for product research.

You can use the tool to find high-potential products with low competition. It‘s ideal if you’re looking to extend your product offering.

Price: You can start a free trial account. Paid plans range from $39 to $49 per month.

What we like: On the free trial, you can do five product and five keyword searches daily. If you’re a smaller Amazon seller, that could be enough to get you started. When it comes to affordability, SellerApp beats other tools.

The tool is also helpful for budget allocation. It helps sellers find products with high conversion so you can optimize them and allocate a budget to bid on Amazon search phrases strategically.

Using the Tool

Like with Helium 10, SellerApp asked me to answer a few questions before getting started. SellerApp also made it clear from the outset that the tool’s goal was to help me scale and provide insights for growth.

Establishing that direct link to what matters to Amazon sellers early on is great for buying into the product.

When it comes to the dashboard, it’s straightforward to navigate. I also see the range of tools being beneficial for Amazon sellers.

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I tested out the keyword research tool and can see why Adam uses this tool for the task. The results are clear to understand, and the range of related keyword suggestions is good.

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Jungle Scout

Jungle Scout is an excellent tool for in-depth product research. You can also access general market trends and specific seasonal shopping (think Halloween and Black Friday) insights.

This tool would be great for beginner sellers looking to find a high-demand product to sell.

Price: Paid plans range from $29 to $84 per month.

What we like: The “Opportunity Finder” helps sellers find low-competition keywords for in-demand products. Then, the tool has other features to take these keyword insights and help you create a product strategy using AI insights.

You also have the option to save ideas so you can monitor and return to them later.

Using the Tool

There wasn‘t a free sign-up for Jungle Scout, so I checked out some YouTube demos and reviews to get an idea of the tool’s capabilities.

After watching this Jungle Scouts video, I see real potential for its Product Database, especially for sellers who don’t know what to sell. The database seems comprehensive but manageable enough that it stays user-friendly.

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Anyword

Anyword is an AI copywriting assistant. It is aimed at marketing professionals rather than Amazon sellers. But it does cater to Amazon product listings specifically.

The tool wasn’t recommended by any of the Amazon sellers I interviewed.

However, I wanted to try a tool specifically for writing because that’s my area of expertise.

Price: You can start a seven-day free trial. Paid plans range from $39 to $249 monthly with custom Enterprise pricing.

What we like: The tool isn’t trying to be a Jack of All Trades. The makers have chosen a specialism and have honed in on that area. Aside from creating listings from scratch, you can analyze and optimize existing text, which is a bonus.

Plus, having the option to train the AI on your brand voice may save a lot of headaches down the road.

Using the Tool

The sign-up process was easy. I had to give the usual details (i.e., email) and answer a few relevant questions. Then, I was on my way to getting started with the tool.

Even though Anyword only deals with one area (writing), it has many features within that area.

So, honestly, the dashboard seemed overwhelming at first.

I wanted to write a product description for this exercise, so I took an educated guess and headed to “Data-Driven Editor.” I found “Product Listings” and chose “Amazon Product Listing.”

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I dove straight in with a prompt. I constructed the prompt to include the product keyword “vitamin C night cream” and VOC phrases I’d picked up from existing customer reviews.

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The tool gives three different product listings, which works well. There aren’t too many listing variations to be overwhelming. But there are enough for you to make an informed choice.

You could also mix and match, taking bits from each listing if you wanted.

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The text was better than I thought it would be. Although, I personally wouldn’t use raw AI-generated text, and I’d recommend that if you do, you at least edit it to differentiate your brand.

It‘s also helpful that Anyword scores how well the listing may do based on existing text. I recommend caution here, though.

At the end of the day, you don’t know how well something will do until you release it into the wild and see actual customer data.

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Two more features caught my eye during the test. You can start with a broad audience. Then, once you generate the text, Anyword will automatically suggest new target audiences for you.

I’m assuming you can then use the audience data to hone the text further or choose a more specific one next time you need a listing for a similar product.

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You can also upload your existing target audiences through various integrations, including HubSpot, Google Ads, and Meta Ads.

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AI for Amazon Sellers: Transform How You Do Business

From optimizing product listings to competitive pricing and customer service, AI can transform how Amazon sellers do business. If you‘re new to this tech, AI’s potential might seem overwhelming.

But, knowing how to use AI as an Amazon seller and which tools to use will help you build a more competitive strategy. Even starting with one area, like product repricing, can save time and help you compete effectively with larger competitors.

In the 1990s, SEO success relied on keywords. In 2023, new SEO challenges have emerged.

While keywords still matter, other considerations such as page authority, loading speed, and regularly-updated content all play a role in maximizing SEO impact.

Here’s a look at eight SEO challenges brands are facing in 2023.

Top 8 SEO Challenges in 2023

1. Staying ahead of algorithm changes.

HubSpot surveyed 400+ web traffic analysts to identify top SEO challenges. The leading challenge — experienced by 50% of marketers — is staying on top of search engine algorithm changes.

This isn’t surprising — in 2020 alone, Google ran more than 500,000 experiments that led to 4,000+ changes to search. For many marketers, staying current with these changes is like hitting a moving target.

So how can you succeed when Google keeps moving the goal post? The key is to respond to these changes strategically.

First, remember that there’s no need to overhaul your entire SEO strategy in response to a minor change. Instead, your time is better spent staying on top of industry news. If a big algorithm change is on the horizon, the SEO industry will talk about it.

If a significant algorithm change does happen, wait for the dust to settle before making any moves. Why? In some cases, Google reverts to a previous version if an update doesn’t go to plan.

If you’ve spent time and effort rebuilding your SEO plan from the ground up, you’ll have to spend more time and money undoing the change.

2. Not ranking higher in search results.

Unlike paid search, SEO takes time to show results — and it’s usually a result of smaller efforts.

There are some “solutions” to fix a low ranking, such as pivoting to technical SEO and content marketing. SEO experts have also identified some factors that play into your ranking, like the E-E-A-T framework. E-E-A-T in SEO stands for “experience,” “expertise,” “authoritativeness,” and “trustworthiness.”

However, even more important is developing a long-term strategy that focuses on a handful of initiatives at a time. Remember, SEO is a long-term game. The work you put in today will pay off down the road.

Consider a recent Google search update that may be prioritizing “AI-generated crap” over human-written text. While this type of update can temporarily depress search engine rankings, changes from Google in response to search results and user feedback will prompt further changes.

3. Focusing too much on keywords.

Keywords matter, but they’re not enough to get your site on page one of Google search. Consider a company that provides mobile car detailing services.

If they spend time and money ranking for terms such as “mobile car detailing,” “car detailing at my home,” and “car cleaning service near me,” they’ll see an initial boost in search rankings.

But this lift will be short-lived if Google crawls their site and discovers that it’s full of outdated, irrelevant content.

The result? Moving up the search ladder requires a mutli-metric focus.

According to recent HubSpot survey data, just 17% of SEO professionals said that SERP rankings for targeted keywords were their top priority.

Leading the pack were sales, leads, and conversion rates (31%), total monthly visitors (30%), and click-through rates (28%).

4. Writing compelling titles and meta descriptions.

According to 400+ web traffic analysts, one of the most effective strategies for improving search ranking is writing compelling titles and meta descriptions. But writing catchy titles is easier said than done.

According to one recent study that analyzed 5 million headlines, emotional titles — either positive or negative — had a higher click-through rate (CTR) than neutral titles. In fact, both positive and negative titles improved CTR by approximately 7%. Additionally, web pages with meta descriptions get almost 6% more clicks than those without.

A word of caution here — while emotionally-charged titles can drive clicks, you run the risk of sounding like clickbait. For example, the same study found that “power words” — or words specifically designed to draw attention — can negatively impact CTR. Power words include terms like crazy, insane, and amazing. Use them sparingly, if at all.

5. Missing the mark on mobile.

Your SEO strategy should absolutely include mobile optimization.

Why? As you might expect, mobile devices account for a large chunk of web traffic — 58% to be exact — making it essential to approach your website with a mobile-first mindset.

In addition, Google now practices mobile-first indexing. This means Google uses the mobile version of your web pages when indexing and ranking pages.

The trend is clear — optimizing for mobile is key for traffic growth, SEO, and great user experience. It’s no surprise that almost 25% of companies invest in mobile as a top SEO tactic.

You don’t need to be a developer or have a large budget to optimize your website for mobile. Check out this helpful guide to learn how small tweaks can improve the mobile experience.

6. Leveraging video in search results.

If you Google “How to tie a knot,” the top search result is a video:

You can see this in action with a simple search of your own. Google a question, and see what comes up.

The first 3-4 results? Videos. It makes sense: Data shows that 75% of people watch short-form videos on their mobile devices, and are 52% more likely to share videos than any other content.

Google plans to surface videos by crawling and indexing them like any other type of content. So how can marketers leverage their video content for search? Here are a few strategies:

• Add video chapters. Chapters section your video by topic, providing a layer of context for viewers. It also makes it easy for Google to understand the content in your video and use different clips in search results.

• Optimize your title, tags, and description. Like web pages, videos also have titles, descriptions, and tags. Optimize these using SEO best practices.

Also, embedding videos into your website and blog posts doesn’t hurt — and can actually improve your bounce rates.

7. Incorporating generative AI.

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT have made market waves since their debut in late 2022.

While worries about the full-blown takeover of SERPs by AI-driven content are unfounded, there’s no doubt that artificial intelligence plays a role in the future of search.

Consider that 74% of web analysts now say that content made with AI assistance performs better, and 65% say it ranks higher on SERPs.

The near future may also see generative AI directly integrated with search functions — 68% of professionals say their blog would see more traffic as a result.

What does this mean in practice? That companies need to find a balance between human and AI content. Posts and articles that are entirely generated by AI may provide an immediate search boost, but don’t have the authority to stand the test of time.

Human-created pieces, meanwhile, may not make best use of emerging trends. By using AI to generate topics or provide basic article structures which are then handled by humans, businesses can get the best of both worlds.

8. Optimizing for voice.

50% of the U.S. population now uses voice search daily. It makes sense — with tools such as Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Apple HomeKit continually adding new functions and features, voice search isn’t just a way to find information.

Users can add payment methods and purchase items directly from their smart devices. The caveat? Finding what they’re looking for on the first try.

To help navigate the increasing importance of voice, companies need to optimize their content for natural-language queries.

For example, website content should be well-structured, easy to read, and contain high-value keywords. This is because voice searches typically start with a scan of webpages — if smart devices can’t easily parse the information available, they’ll move onto the next result.

By making the site voice-friendly, brands are better positioned to capture this growing search market.

Solving for SEO

In 2023, there’s no single, simple solution for SEO.

That’s because great search engine optimization isn’t just about keywords. Instead, it’s a combination of factors that help create a consistent experience for users, from initial search to first impressions to eventual action.

The result? Solving for SEO is an ongoing effort. In 2023, top priorities include incorporating new search algorithms, effectively incorporating video, and leveraging the power of generative AI.

New years will bring new challenges, but with a solid SEO foundation businesses are better-equipped to navigate the evolving nature of search.

This year, global social media users swelled to a record-breaking 4.9 billion. Statistics like these suggest that social media stocks may be a great investment opportunity — but what are the best social media stocks to invest in?

Social media is big business. One recent report valued the industry at a whopping $231 billion.

It’s also an incredibly complex market, with countless platforms, technologies, and companies all doing their best to stay competitive in this rapidly evolving space.

This article explores how to invest in social media stocks, what social media can tell us about the broader economy, and which are the top social media stocks to watch in 2023.

What are social media stocks?
Should you invest in social media stocks?
What Social Media Stocks Tell Us About the Economy
Social Media Stocks to Watch

What are social media stocks?

Of course, to craft an effective social media investment strategy, it’s important first to understand what a social media stock is.

The social media landscape is constantly evolving, but at a high level, social media refers to any digital technology that enables users to share ideas through virtual networks and communities, whether via text, images, videos, or some combination.

Some of the most widely-used platforms today include TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) — but new platforms emerge constantly, always looking to compete with incumbents and capture new market share.

Because of its massive user base, social media is a major component of many companies’ marketing strategies.

Many firms create their own social media presence on top platforms to promote their brand and engage with existing and prospective customers through comments, reposts, and more.

Clearly, social media is a critical part of the broader tech ecosystem and global economy. As such, it’s hardly a surprise that social media stocks are now crucial to many investment strategies.

Specifically, many investors may look to social media stocks to buy shares in some of the most cutting-edge, rapidly growing companies.

Should you invest in social media stocks?

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to investing (and never any return guarantee), many experts have suggested that social media stocks can be a solid option for today’s investors.

For example, stock market expert Josh Dylan argues that investing in social media stocks is an “attractive proposition” for two reasons.

“Firstly,” he notes, “social media usage continues to climb, creating a vast and growing market for these platforms.”

Secondly, he continues, “the digital advertising market, a key revenue stream for social media companies, is also on a growth trajectory as businesses increasingly shift marketing dollars from traditional channels to online ones.”

To be sure, social media stocks aren’t without risk.

Dylan points out that the social media sector is “subject to changing user preferences, significant regulatory scrutiny, and intense competition among platforms.”

He says, “As with any investment, potential investors should conduct thorough research and consider the risk factors unique to this dynamic and highly visible sector.”

It’s always important to be aware of the risks associated with any form of investment.

However, according to a recent research report from Market Research Future, the global social media industry is expected to continue to experience “healthy growth” over the next decade.

So, it’s worth considering investing in social media stocks as part of a diversified investment portfolio.

What Social Media Stocks Tell Us About the Economy

In a recent report from the Carnegie Institute, market experts Claudia Biancotti and Paolo Ciocca suggest that social media has become increasingly intertwined with the broader global economy.

As they explain, “Discourse on social media increasingly affects personal financial decisions…the influence of social media on financial markets is here to stay, as younger generations start saving and investing.”

In other words, as social media continues to grow, it’s likely to have more and more influence on the broader stock market.

Especially since the social media industry is particularly relevant to younger generations, this market will likely have an increasingly large effect on the global economy as younger demographics grow and gain buying power.

Indeed, studies have shown that growth in social media may correlate with broader economic growth across sectors and geographies.

One recently published study found that increased social media penetration corresponded to a boost in economic growth across 177 countries worldwide.

Conversely, analysts have reported that when one social media stock falls, it can have substantial ripple effects on other firms’ stock prices.

For example, when shares of the popular image-sharing platform Snapchat dropped substantially in 2022, Piper Sandler analyst Tom Champion suggested that the drop was reflective of broader trends, arguing that “at this point, our sense is this is more macro and industry-driven versus Snap specific.”

Clearly, social media stocks can tell us a lot about the state of the broader economy. In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, more than 80% of Americans aged 18-49 use at least one social media site.

These platforms have become a massive part of the global economy, so it’s only natural that social media stocks have become closely connected to more significant economic trends.

Social Media Stocks to Watch

In light of the importance of social media stocks in the broader investment landscape, which are the top stocks to watch in 2023?

Below, we’ve listed some of the top social media stocks based on past performance, current metrics, and projected short- and long-term growth.

Alphabet, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

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What They Do

Alphabet, Inc. is Google’s parent company, which operates several social media platforms such as Google Meet, Blogger, and YouTube.

Alphabet also ran Facebook competitor Google+, but this platform was shut down in 2019. Today, YouTube alone boasts more than two billion active users and more than half of global internet users access the site at least once a month.

Why They’re Worth Watching

Google has long been one of the major players driving growth in the tech sector. Today, analysts are particularly optimistic about Alphabet’s prospects for a few key reasons:

First, Google’s ad revenue has remained strong in recent months despite fluctuations and market disruptions.

In addition, while Google’s investment in AI may be somewhat overshadowed by Microsoft-owned OpenAI’s recent successes with ChatGPT, analysts have largely argued that Alphabet remains well-positioned to leverage new AI technology.

Finally, Stifel analyst Mark Kelley has argued that YouTube’s core product and YouTubeTV likely represent substantial opportunities, contributing to his “buy” rating for Alphabet in March of this year.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

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What They Do

Meta is behind the leading social media apps Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. This family of apps represents a huge global revenue base, with a market share of more than 16% in Q2 2023.

Beyond its well-known platforms for sharing posts and sending direct messages, Meta has made substantial inroads into cutting-edge technologies such as Virtual Reality and wearable devices.

Why They’re Worth Watching

In its most recent annual investor letter, investment management firm Davis Advisers expressed confidence that while Meta has hit some stumbling blocks,

David Advisers says its “growing user base, as well as the continued growth in the amount of time users are spending on these platforms, is a far more important indicator of Meta’s relevance and value.”

In particular, Davis Advisers pointed to Meta’s ad revenue per user being up more than 30% since 2019, as well as its three billion active users (which represents one of the largest user bases of any company in history), as indications of its enduring success.

Match Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MTCH)

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What They Do

Match Group focuses on a specific niche within the social media space: online dating. Best known for its popular apps Hinge, OkCupid, and Tinder, Match has grown steadily (and produced double-digit revenue growth) for years.

In addition, unlike most other social media firms, Match derives most of its revenue from user subscriptions rather than ads.

This makes it an excellent option to consider if you’re looking to diversify your investments across different social media business models.

Why They’re Worth Watching

In 2023, Match expects to achieve year-over-year growth of up to 10% overall and direct revenue from its market leader, Tinder. In addition, Hinge is projected to generate $400 million in direct revenue in 2023.

The company also made headlines for its $1.725 billion acquisition of Korean social and video platform Hyperconnect, indicating its appetite for growth and expansion into new markets.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

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What They Do

While Microsoft might not be the first company that comes to mind when you think about social media, Microsoft Corporation is, in fact, a major player in this space.

LinkedIn, Microsoft Teams, and Skype all fall under its purview.

LinkedIn has over 930 million members in more than 200 countries worldwide, while Skype and Teams account for more than 40% of the global market share for video call platforms.

In addition, Microsoft also owns Yammer and Flipgrid, which offer enterprise social networking and educational video-sharing services, respectively.

Why They’re Worth Watching

According to analysts from Morgan Stanley, Microsoft has “favorable fundamentals” and is “increasingly well positioned” in 2023.

Moreover, the most recent CIO survey revealed “several forward-looking indicators that indicate Microsoft’s strong relative position,” which suggests that Microsoft may continue to be a strong player in the global social media market.

Tencent Holdings Limited (OTC:TCEHY)

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What They Do

Any top social media companies analysis would be incomplete without mentioning Chinese tech giant Tencent.

Tencent is the parent company of well-known apps like QQ, Weibo, and WeChat, and its consumer businesses extend beyond instant messaging and social networking to various online gaming, video streaming, music sharing, and other services.

While its market penetration remains limited outside Asia, it was the world’s tenth most valuable company by market value in February 2022, and it was the first Asian technology company to cross the $500 billion valuation mark.

Why They’re Worth Watching

Especially if you’re looking to broaden your portfolio beyond U.S.-based companies, Tencent is one of the best social media stocks to consider.

Indeed, as global investment bank, brokerage, and advisory firm Loop Capital explained in a recent research note, Tencent’s “core gaming and payments engines show promising signs for valuation, as well as a positive outlook for advertising revenue growth.”

The research note argues that this stock is expected to continue performing well thanks to positive macroeconomic trends and expected revenue growth across Tencent’s core segments.

What You Need to Know

Importantly, this article is for informational purposes only. It is not intended as personal financial advice, and risks are always associated with any investment or financial decision.

However, if you want to learn more about the best social media stocks to invest in, the data-driven, expert-approved tips outlined above may be a helpful starting point.

From Alphabet’s YouTube to Meta’s Facebook to Tencent’s WeChat and countless others, the social media industry is booming around the world.

As such, social media stocks can tell us a lot about the broader state of the economy, and they can represent a substantial investment opportunity for anyone looking to buy shares in a high-growth, rapidly evolving industry.

Increased open rates, click-throughs, and sales: If you want these results, running an email marketing audit can help you get there. That’s why I’ve teamed up with six email marketing experts to help you create an audit of your own.

Together, we cover:

What is an email marketing audit?

The Benefits of Email Marketing Audits

The Anatomy of an Email Marketing Audit

How to Conduct an Email Marketing Audit

Tips for Conducting an Email Marketing Audit

What is an email marketing audit?

An email marketing audit means checking in with your email strategy, campaigns, and overall account health. Like a general marketing audit, the main goal is to see what‘s working and what isn’t.

But you can also find any untapped opportunities for improvement.

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That said, only some audits will cover every element that‘s involved with email marketing in its entirety. You might run an audit to check technical issues like deliverability, workflow automation, and accessibility, for example.

You may also audit a specific campaign’s performance to see whether it’s meeting its goals.

The Benefits of Email Marketing Audits

I interviewed six email marketing experts to find out how an audit has helped them and their lists. Here’s what they had to say about why email marketing audits matter.

Better Open Rates, Click-Through Rates, and Sales

“I was tasked to improve the open rates (OPR) and click-thru rates (CTR) of the emails my client was sending to their target audience,” says Gabriel Gan, head of editorial for In Real Life Malaysia.

The email list Fan worked with had around 250,000 active users.

“Using email audit best practices, my team and I were able to pinpoint areas of improvement and increase our client’s OPR and CTR from 10-15% to 27-35%,” Gan continues.

Aside from OPR and CTR, sales improved, too. Gan recalls “an increase of 7% in sales during Black Friday, compared to the previous year (100% to 107%).”

Finding What Resonates With Your Audience

“An email audit is like a health check. It’s an opportunity to see what’s working and what isn’t,” says Senior Content Strategist Lia Parisyan. One area an audit can help you understand more clearly is what resonates with your audience.

“At one company, we wanted to test if questions in the subject line converted better than statements,” explains Parisyan. “We tested out this observation and found some segments preferred numbers and questions in subject lines while others were swayed less by numbers and more by ‘how to’ statements in subject lines.”

Gan cites a similar experience regarding audience resonance: “When I first started doing email marketing, the emails they [the company] were sending out had a distinctly ‘direct sell’ approach in the copy.”

Gan explains that traditionally, this approach is the best way to get prospects. But “it wasn’t great at scaling to an international, cross-generational audience (20s to 40s) with a wide range of tastes and needs,” Gan says.

An audit helped Gan and the team discover this and create more resonance.

Improved Engagement and Deliverability

“Email audits have been invaluable for our logistic company’s email marketing,” says Onur Kutlubay, CEO at YouParcel. Kutlubay explains how audits looking at “email lists, content quality, segmentation, and delivery practices” have helped YouParcel evaluate its email marketing campaigns.

Kutlubay cites “a 20% increase in open rates and a 15% rise in click-through rates” after refining email targeting and content based on the audit findings.

Parisyan also highlights that “an email audit can help you identify and resolve deliverability issues.” Long story short?

Fixing these issues makes sure your messages get to the right inboxes, which can improve deliverability and engagement overall.

Seeing the Big Picture and Refocusing Goals

“It’s so easy to lose track of [what’s working and what’s not] when you’re focused on the small details of everyday work — and let’s be honest, email marketing requires a lot of attention to detail,” says Anna Czechowska, email marketing specialist at Uscreen.

According to Czechowska, an email audit shows you the flaws of your campaigns and areas where you can improve while highlighting the wins.

“You may be surprised looking at what worked and what didn’t,” says Czechowska. Still, having the data from your audit will help you to “see the big picture and refocus on the right goals.”

Improving Email List Health

“Email audits are key to understanding the health of our client’s accounts,” says Yair Barojas, marketing strategist at Mindgruve.

Barojas explains that email audits help them to “determine the structures, methodology, and implementation that are currently in place.”

From there, they can find any areas of opportunity to improve the overall account and list health.

Barojas mentions “segmentation, list development, data mapping improvements, tracking implementations, and automation, to connectivity between systems” as areas they check to find these opportunities.

Prioritizing and Nurturing Relationships

“Email audits have been a huge help for Travel-Lingual,” says James Smith, founder of Travel-Lingual. “They’re like a check-up on your email list, ensuring you’re sending out your top-notch content to those who care about it.”

Smith also emphasizes the importance of focusing on quality rather than quantity and that removing inactive members helps them do this. “Email audits have helped us cut down on all the junk and focus on the people who enjoy our travel content,” closes Smith.

The Anatomy of an Email Marketing Audit

The specific parts of your email marketing audit all depend on your end goal. That said, you may find yourself addressing all or some of the following areas:

Performance Metrics

For any audit, it makes sense to get a summary of where you‘re at right now. That gives you a benchmark to see whether your follow-up actions based on the audit do or don’t work.

Reporting on email performance metrics like open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and ROI will give you a basic comparison. You can then compare how your email campaigns perform before and after the audit.

List Health Analysis

You evaluate the quality and cleanliness of your email subscriber list. Reports usually include list size, quality, segmentation, and any issues related to bounce rates and unsubscribes.

Content and Design Review

You analyze the email copy and design for quality, relevance, engagement, and consistency with the brand. You’ll also want to double-check that emails are mobile-friendly, accessible, and responsive.

If you lack design experience or technical chops, HubSpot’s Drag and Drop Email Builder can help you create visually appealing emails.

Deliverability and Compliance Assessment

You‘ll typically review email deliverability issues/challenges, spam complaints, and sender reputation as a minimum. You’ll also want to audit compliance with email marketing laws and regulations.

Automation and Workflow Evaluation

You‘ll want to analyze any automated email workflows in line with your segmentation strategy. If automation isn’t in place, you can report on actions to take to improve efficiency with automation.

You can also find opportunities to streamline the existing workflow.

Whether you audit one or all of these areas, you‘ll need to create recommendations and an action plan. You can then optimize what’s working in your email marketing strategy and fix what isn’t.

[Video: How to Master Email Marketing (2023)]

How to Conduct an Email Marketing Audit

I asked experts Parisyan, Barojas, Czechowska, and Gan how they run email marketing audits. Together, we crafted this nine-step process for running an email marketing audit.

You can apply these steps to an entire email audit or a specific element you focus on.

I’ve also factored in tips about running audits in-house or as an external resource.

1. Define your scope and set goals.

“The most important thing is defining scope. What is the purpose of the email audit? Is it compliance? Security? Improving conversions?’ Parisyan says.

“It can be more than one thing, but the more precise you are with your scope, the less likely you will lose focus or draw the audit out,” says Parisyan.

At this stage, Parisyan recommends choosing the most impactful email area to audit. “You can do smaller audits. Choose one variable. Improve, test, and tackle the next variable instead of boiling the ocean,” Parisyan explains.

From my experience with content audits, I suggest making sure that your email marketing goals and objectives complement the broader business strategy.

That way, you’re focusing your activity on areas that help to achieve the more general company goals.

I suggest requesting everything you need to get the job done sooner rather than later, too. If you get things like permissions and documentation early, you can avoid delays caused by chasing these down.

That stands if you‘re in-house, but it’s vital if you‘re an external resource because you’ll have fewer contact points with decision-makers.

Expert Tip

“If we can not access the client’s email system, we interview key stakeholders to understand how it works and where they need improvement and help,” says Barojas.

Barojas, who works agency-side, also recommends getting examples of “emails and any workflow paperwork” at this stage.

2. Build your audit team.

“Next, who’s going to be on your audit team? If you’re solving for security, Do you need to involve legal? Cybersecurity?” says Parisyan.

After you’ve finalized your team, Parisyan recommends assigning roles and responsibilities and using project management tools.

Expert Tip:

PM tools can help you plan the email marketing audit timeline, assign tasks, and oversee progress from start to finish. Either way, project management tools are a great way to avoid having multiple spreadsheets everywhere.

And as anyone in marketing knows, spreadsheets can get messy fast.

3. Choose your audit tools.

“There are lots of [tool] options. You may already be using one,” says Parisyan. “However, I wouldn‘t recommend switching tools during an audit if you haven’t vetted them. I would consider that a separate activity.”

Parisyan also explains that third-party solutions are often neglected during audits. So, document these, as they may affect security and compliance.

To stay aligned with your core objective, Parisyan also recommends identifying “the tools you’re using, how, and to what purpose.”

Expert Tip

If you still need to get a tool in place, consider looking for one with an email marketing audit template or checklist built in.

You could also look for a tool that helps you track your audit process, although you can use a project management tool for that, too.

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For context, I don’t think everything in content marketing needs a template. Content templates are how writing gets stale and predictable, for example. However, templates are necessary when it comes to processes.

Having an in-house framework or agency SOP to follow will save you time and help you improve with each audit iteration. It also gives you a visual guide to follow as you work through the nitty-gritty of your email marketing audit.

4. Data collection and legal review.

“You’ll want to make sure everything you’re gathering complies with privacy regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA (in healthcare),” warns Parisyan.

While it‘s easy to overlook this step, it’s critical to make sure you’re in line with email marketing laws in specific locations and industries.

Expert Tip

Aside from GDPR (Europe), CAN-SPAM (United States) is another law you may need to comply with, depending on your list. If you‘re within the U.S., you should also comply with state-by-state policies.

Virginia’s Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) is an example of one of these.

5. List the areas you want to audit.

At this stage, you want to list the areas most relevant to your goal and then audit those. If you’re doing a full audit, Barojas recommends covering the following areas:

• Account structure.
• Audiences.
• Campaigns and content.
• System connectivity.
• Testing and optimizations.
• Tracking.

You could also focus on a smaller area, like increasing your conversion rate for a specific email campaign. The conversion action could be clicking the call to action button. The relevant audit areas could be content and design.

In that case, you’d want to audit the subject lines, design elements, copy, and calls to action at a minimum.

Expert Tip

Gan mentions auditing email content as it relates to the broader customer journey, which is: “Open email inbox > open email > scroll down to the bottom of the page > click the CTA button,” says Gan.

Gan maps out the more specific customer journey and touchpoints like this: “(begin customer journey) Email subject line > preview text > email header image > headline > introductory text > product image > product description > cta button (end customer journey).”

Gan explains that at each stage of this journey, the customer could click away, get distracted, or lose interest. So, to increase conversions, you should aim to “retain attention all the way till they click the CTA button.”

6. Assess impact using email marketing metrics.

Now you know your goals and which areas you’d like to audit, you need to assess them using relevant email performance metrics. This will give you a benchmark so you a) know how to move forward and b) have pre and post-audit comparison data.

Some common email metrics include click-through rate, open rate, bounce rate, and list growth rate. But let‘s stick with our example goal of having more list members click the call to action button on an email campaign.

The metric in that instance is conversion rate. Here’s how you can measure it.

“To calculate the conversion rate, I divide the number of people who completed the desired action by the number of emails delivered and multiply the answer by 100,” says staff writer for HubSpot’s marketing blog Erica Santiago.

So the formula would look like this:

Expert Tip

“To measure the conversion rate of your emails, you’ll need to integrate your email platform and web analytics,” says Santiago. “You can do this by creating unique tracking URLs for your email links that identify the source of the click as coming from a specific email campaign.”

7. A/B testing and optimization.

“When doing your audit, the first step is identifying the areas which you must look into. The second step is to test,” Gan says. Gan recommends following two main rules for your A/B testing:

1. Set email A as the incumbent. Set email B as the contender.
2. Only change one variable at a time.

“For example, in email B, when testing open rates, only tweak the subject line and not the preview,” says Gan.

That’s because “If you have more than one variable that has been changed from the old email, it’s almost impossible to determine which new addition you made has contributed to the improvement in OPR/CTR.”

Expert Tip

Aside from A/B testing campaigns, you can dive into the email campaigns yourself.

“I test emails on different devices and in different email clients. I try to really get into subscribers’ shoes, e.g., by joining our email sequence,” says Czechowska.

She explains that this helps to get a first-hand perspective of the “actual experience for our email audience.”

8. Create an action plan and get approval.

Now, you need to put all of your email marketing audit findings into a clear and logical action plan. In my experience of running audits, I recommend outlining an action plan in sprints.

If you don’t do this, the data can be visually overwhelming, which makes it hard to know where to start.

I’d also say to frontload the actions that will have the most impact on your goals. That will increase stakeholder and team buy-in.

Once you have a clear plan of action, you may need to present it to stakeholders, decision-makers, and/or senior team members to get approval.

Expert Tip

“To get stakeholders to take action on your recommendations, format your analysis for your audience,” says Parisyan.

For example, executives are busy.

So, “A short slide deck with critical stats and findings may work best. Or you can call a meeting to discuss your findings and recommendations if that’s what stakeholders prefer.”

In short, Parisyan recommends knowing your audience so that your recommendations get implemented. That’s because doing the audit is not enough. Convincing stakeholders to take action “demands equal focus and championing.”

9. Implement an action plan and analyze the results.

When decision-makers have approved your action plan, it’s time to implement the findings from your email marketing audit. You can then analyze the results of your audit recommendations.

You should consider revisiting Gan’s A/B testing advice and rules here — only changing one variable at once and continuing to test and improve in iterations.

But implementation and analysis don’t mean the work is over. You also want to create a system for ongoing monitoring and reporting to track progress and make adjustments.

Expert Tip

“Once changes are signed off, march forward, monitor what’s happening, and keep documenting,” says Parisyan. “Having a record will enable you to conduct more vigorous audits in the future and avoid testing the same hypothesis again.”

Tips for Conducting an Email Marketing Audit

Want to run a successful email marketing audit? Here’s what the email marketing experts I interviewed suggest.

Break it down into manageable chunks.

“The number of things to review may be overwhelming at first, but breaking it down into smaller steps will help,” says Czechowska.

Czechowska suggests first defining your goals to help you break things down. “You may want to focus on some areas more than others — e.g., deliverability or list segmentation strategy,” she explains.

Within that, there could be “a specific problem that requires your attention, such as high bounce rate or low engagement.”

Remember, it’s not a solo job.

“Even if you’re at a small company, involve others. Beyond building collaboration and tapping into other people’s skills, involving others helps you catch things you might miss,” says Parisyan.

“If you have photos in your emails or graphics, maybe consult your designer. See if they have any recommendations,” Parisyan continues.

You can also connect your sales and customer service teams to “see how the language tone and length of your content compares with their messaging.”

Marketing Strategist Yair Barojas agrees.

“Lean on additional team members who may have experience with other areas you need to encounter during the audit, such as developers or analytics,” says Barojas.

Try an expectation test for your messaging.

“This is not as common, but you can try an expectation test,” says Parisyan. The test involves showing someone an email headline and asking them what they think the email will be about.

To eliminate confirmation bias, Parisyan suggests that you don’t show participants the email copy. You can then learn how people really feel about the headline without them knowing what the email copy is about.

Parisyan also recommends interviewing customers “in ‘the green'” and to “think about integrating them into a beta testing campaign” as another way to test and tailor your messaging.

Account for differences in strategies and campaigns.

“Each company handles documentation and email strategy differently, so don’t shy away from reaching out to the client with questions,” says Barojas. He also explains that every audit is unique, too.

So, “being flexible is as important as being timely.”

Czechowska also references campaign differences.

“Don’t measure every email against the same standards,” says Czechowska. “Think about what you consider a success for each of your campaigns — it’ll be different for your weekly newsletter, and e.g., an abandoned cart sequence.”

Use quantitative data and qualitative feedback.

“For an effective email audit, my tip is to consider quantitative data (open and click-through rates) and qualitative feedback (customer responses),” says CEO Onur Kutlubay.

Through this “holistic approach,” Kutlubay’s company has been able to tailor emails “for better engagement, leading to increased ROI and more satisfied customers.”

Kutlubay reports an increase in open rates and click-through rates, specifically. But that’s not all.

“This combination of qualitative and quantitative improvements generated a 25% growth in email-driven revenue, demonstrating that investing in email audits can lead to substantial gains,” says Kutlubay.

Remove inactive subscribers.

Founder James Smith recommends taking a data-driven approach to your strategy, including looking for “any inactive members” of your email list.

“First, get rid of the inactive people on your list. Then, tailor your content to what your audience likes,” says Smith.

Doing that will help you focus on delivering quality content to the people who are the most engaged so you can nurture those relationships.

Kutlubay also focuses on list health during email audits. In terms of the impact, Kutlubay’s bounce rate was reduced by 10% after a “careful list cleanup.”

A/B test often.

“There’s a perception that once you set up your email list and create a template for your emails, you can ‘set it and forget it,'” says Head of Editorial Gabriel Gan.

“But now, with the power of A/B testing, with just a few rounds of testing your headlines, visuals, copy, offer, call to action, etc., you can find out what your audience loves, do more of it, and improve your conversion rates twofold or threefold,” Gan says.

Gan recommends testing often, noting down your findings, and improving on each email iteration until you find out what works and what doesn’t.

Find outside-of-the-box solutions.

“The conventional method is to send your email at the busiest times of the day (when people are most likely to check their emails),” says Gan. “But if that’s what everybody else is doing, your email will likely get lost in the shuffle, so you have to think in terms of your customer’s mindsets as well.”

Gan explains that for retail products, “evening time just before dinner or just before bedtime is likely the right time.” But for productivity hacks or daily news, “updates are likely better early in the day before work.”

You can apply this non-conventional thinking in your audit recommendations.

Email Marketing Audit: Do More of What Works

Running an email marketing audit can provide invaluable insights into your campaigns and email accounts in general.

You’ll have everything necessary to create a clear action plan aligning your email marketing activity with broader business goals.

Whether analyzing a specific area like list health or running a full audit, following a tested framework cuts out the guesswork. Start doing more of what‘s working and less of what isn’t with our expert-led email marketing audit process.

Adoption of any new technology can take time, and this is especially true when the technology is complex. The rapid explosion of artificial intelligence tools has already changed how most marketing teams operate — but there are still some factors that are holding marketers back from fully embracing AI.

In our 2023 State of AI Report, we dove deep to understand how marketers are already using AI, and what barriers are causing hesitation for marketers who have been reticent to adopt this advanced technology.

We’ll review statistics and predictions for the future of AI in the marketing sector.

AI Use Today: By the Numbers

Across all industries, the AI revolution is set to continue expanding and growing, with experts predicting that nearly 100% of all organizations will use AI to some degree by the year 2025 — less than two years away.

Meanwhile, the market impact of AI software is, according to some predictions, on track to reach between $13 and $150 trillion by the same year.

That’s a staggering figure that reveals just how pervasive AI technology will soon become. With far-reaching impacts across every industry, one of the key sectors affected by AI is the field of marketing.

According to our recent survey data, 68% of leaders in the marketing field predict that their business will experience astounding levels of growth once AI and automation tools are completely integrated into their operations.

Over half of marketing leaders (62% of those surveyed), confirm that their company has already invested in AI.

The majority of these cases involve AI tools for marketing employees to use, with 72% of these company leaders reporting that AI makes their employees more efficient and productive, and 71% of these marketing leaders reporting positive returns on their investment in AI tools and technology.

How Marketers are Already Using AI

Since the majority of marketing agencies already rely on AI and automation to varying degrees, let’s investigate the top ways marketers today use artificial intelligence tools and technology.

Content Creation

Of the marketing companies surveyed, 48% report using AI for content creation. This makes content creation one of the most popular AI use cases right now.

Over half of marketers use AI to generate new written content, making small edits by hand before publishing it.

This can include blog articles and website content, but also social media copy, landing page CTAs, or even product descriptions.

Marketers who use AI tools to craft new content can save an average of three hours per piece of content—three hours that can instead be applied to researching, outreach, strategy planning, and creative brainstorming.

AI content creation tools like HubSpot’s content assistant, ChatSpot, or OpenAI’s ChatGPT can respond to prompts, almost instantaneously generating new images and/or written content to answer the marketer’s specific needs, honing results to create the right tone and messaging.

Data Analysis and Reporting

From assessing competitors in the same industry to identifying and analyzing niche target audiences, AI tools provide invaluable data analysis support for marketers, 45% of whom use AI tools for data analysis and reporting.

Since AI has the capacity to process monumental amounts of data extremely quickly, it can identify patterns of customer behavior and analyze trends across the marketplace.

Conducting Research

Research can take time, and results are not always easy to acquire. This might be why 45% of marketing professionals utilize AI for research purposes.

AI can sort through the irrelevant results to provide answers to very specific inquiries, thus saving immense amounts of time.

AI tools can also sort responses into categories, emphasizing results that provide the most insight on different facets of a complex issue. This ability can amplify the research process, providing much more in-depth coverage for employees. But AI-powered research extends beyond simply market research.

In addition to utilizing market research capabilities from AI, 32% of marketing employees use AI to learn and develop skills. In fact, AI may be revolutionizing the field of education, prompting students of all ages to engage in a more personalized and responsive form of skills acquisition.

AI can provide customized feedback and help employees track their learning journeys with progress charts and analyses, providing concrete interactive examples to help employees learn skills better and faster.

Why Some Marketers Haven’t Invested in AI Yet

A recent Gartner study showed that 63% of leaders in marketing had either already invested in AI or were planning to do so within the next 24 months. So that leaves just 37% of marketers who have not yet invested in AI.

With so many powerful capabilities for improving communications and increasing efficiency, why have these marketers chosen not to adopt AI tools yet?

According to the same study, the main causes for hesitancy have to do with uncertainty about the accuracy of the results that AI tools provide, potential intrinsic biases exhibited by AI software, and relying too heavily on AI technology.

Even our own survey supports this position, with a whopping 76% of respondents saying that we should use AI/automation in marketing, but not to a point where we’re dependent on it.

Although skepticism is always warranted during the early stages of a new product or service, it’s worth taking a closer look at each of these three reasons why marketers haven’t adopted AI.

1. They fear faulty results and inaccurate information.

The main cause for concern that marketers identify when it comes to AI is that they fear AI tools may come up with inaccurate information.

his concern about accuracy is reasonably well-founded- our data shows that nearly 50% of marketers who already use generative AI tools report having received results from AI tools that have contained information the marketers knew to be inaccurate.

Our further research has shown that only 27% of marketers who are already using AI feel extremely confident that they would be able to identify faulty results produced by AI tools.

Since AI technologies are still evolving, there is a reasonable chance that some of the results AI tools produce will be variable, and developers are working to tighten these outcomes.

2. They worry about the inherent bias of AI tools.

Some of the most attention-grabbing news headlines surrounding early results from the public release of AI tools highlighted the troubling biases these AI tools displayed.

Machine learning or AI bias comes about as a result of the biases that its developers may have, whether they are conscious of them or not.

Since AI developers and engineers are programming the algorithms that power AI tools, they are essentially teaching AI machines what to look for and how to identify different types of data.

When that developer has a bias they are not aware of, the AI may become infused with that slant, assumption, or even prejudice.

A study by the United States Department of Commerce, for example, revealed that facial recognition tools in AI frequently misidentify people of color, which can lead to wrongful arrests and further consequences. And new AI tools, like automated headshot generators, are still riddled with bias.

3. Marketers are concerned about becoming AI-dependent.

Some marketing professionals cite concerns over becoming too reliant on AI and automation tools.

The fear is that the more we come to rely on AI skills for content creation, strategy planning, research, and more, the less capable we will become at completing those tasks ourselves.

Luckily, AI does not fully substitute for the creativity and capability of a human employee. Instead, AI offers tools and abilities to help make routine tasks and content creation more efficient and productive.

Like the ultimate administrative and research assistant, it frees up time for marketers to focus on honing their irreplaceable skills.

Getting Started with AI

If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon, or are still unsure how your content can benefit from these innovations, try these approaches to using generative AI:

• Turn to AI for keyword suggestions and demographics analysis, honing the profiles of your target audiences for marketing campaigns.
• Use AI to create or repurpose content, with tools such as HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant and Paragraph Rewriter.
• Allow AI to help identify competitors in the field and provide actionable insights on how to surpass them.
• Let AI find content gaps and faults in your existing content.

These are some simple (and helpful) ways to incorporate AI into your workflow if you’re interested but hesitant to take the plunge.

Every year has built-in opportunities to boost sales, increase brand recognition, and bolster customer relationships. Seasonal marketing is the key to aligning your outreach with special times of the year, like holidays and events, to capitalize on increased consumer enthusiasm.

A well-executed seasonal marketing campaign will increase sales and strengthen the emotional connection between your brand and your audience, which is a recipe for dedicated, lifelong customers.

Pulling off a standout seasonal marketing campaign requires hard work, creativity, and a little know-how — but don’t fret, I’m here to help. Read on to learn all about seasonal marketing, check out our step-by-step campaign guide, and get inspired with top-tier seasonal marketing examples.

Table of Contents

• What is seasonal marketing?
• How to Plan a Seasonal Marketing Campaign (in 5 Steps)
• Seasonal Marketing Examples

The holidays are associated with strong emotions such as joy, love, and hope. Businesses can create a more meaningful and memorable connection with their customers by marketing products and services that appeal to these emotions.

Seasonal marketing isn’t just about holidays, though. Special events like the Super Bowl and seasonal opportunities like Back-to-School shopping and Black Friday are further examples of chances to flex the seasonal marketing muscle.

Seasonal marketing aims to drive sales and foster an emotional connection with your target audience. Read on for a step-by-step guide to jumpstart your next seasonal campaign.

Here’s are five key steps for planning your own seasonal marketing campaign.

1. Choose a seasonal opportunity.

Choosing the seasonal opportunity to capitalize on is the first step to a successful campaign.

Major seasonal events like Black Friday are always a safe bet to campaign around. However, you should research your target audience to find seasonal opportunities that resonate with your customers and their values.

Audit existing seasonal campaigns.

Once you have decided on a seasonal event to utilize for a campaign, it’s time to do some homework on similar, successful campaigns — Ahrefs and BuzzSumo are great places to begin your research.

Consider how each piece approached content format, distribution, messaging, and emotion when evaluating previous campaigns.

When validating a campaign, ask yourself the following questions:

• How has this piece used multiple content types and distribution platforms?
• Is the messaging clear, and if so, what is it?
• What emotion does this campaign evoke in the user?

Gather insights via external outreach.

Consider gathering outside opinions from journalists and digital publications in your space.

Seek out platforms that have covered campaigns you admire and ask for feedback on what makes a seasonal campaign compelling from their point of view.

2. Plan for marketing-friendly holidays.

Lucky for us marketers, every year comes packed with advantageous marketing opportunities in the form of holidays.

But what is it about holidays that makes them so great for marketing campaigns?

It’s the built-in positive sentiment.

Holidays are generally positive times that beget warm feelings like joy, nostalgia, and gratitude.

Marketing is all about evoking positive emotions in your audience and aligning your campaigns with marketing-friendly holidays allows you to ride the wave of seasonal good vibes and make customers feel good about buying your product.

According to a 2022 HubSpot survey of 247 marketers, Black Friday and Winter/End-of-Year Holidays were the most popular seasonal marketing events for future campaign planning.

51.4% and 52.6% of respondents indicated plans to build marketing strategies around those holidays.

While Black Friday and Winter holidays evoke different feelings, the marketing strategy of riding those times’ excitement and positive sentiment remains the same.

Of course, there are many other holidays to consider, and choosing the right one depends on your brand values and goals.

3. Establish a schedule.

With seasonal campaigns, timing is of the essence.

Your planning should begin well before your selected seasonal event, and you must create a schedule to execute each campaign step.

Generally, your content should be prepared, built, planned, and ready for press releases at least two months before the big event.

Consider using a marketing calendar to streamline your processes and get your team on the same page.

When creating a schedule for your campaign, don’t forget about your audience. When is the best time to contact them? When will they be most willing to share the content or engage with the campaign?

5. Organize your assets.

Your seasonal marketing campaign should touch all major platforms, including social media, email, blogs, and out-of-home advertisements (if that’s your thing).

A wide-reaching campaign requires meticulously organized assets. You should brief your creative team on the assets needed for each channel and the necessary resolutions and dimensions.

Pro Tip: A practical, up-to-date campaign plan document is essential during this process. It will enable you to better organize the timing and frequency of content releases and keep your messaging consistent by serving as a home for all your campaign assets and communications.

Check out these content marketing planning templates to get started.

5. Report and remain agile.

Remaining agile means prioritizing speed, collaboration, flexibility, and testing.

Reporting and reviewing your campaign’s performance as you go is necessary for maintaining the ability to adjust the campaign as it unfolds.

Where is the majority of traffic coming from? Which pages have the best bounce rate? Which ones are converting the best? These are some examples of metrics that can inform your strategy moving forward.

Don’t be afraid to make alterations to the original plans. If the changes you will make will ultimately improve the campaign’s success, why wouldn’t you make them?

Check out the video below for helpful information on running seasonal marketing campaigns. The video discusses promoting digital products like online courses, but the advice is broadly applicable.

Seasonal Marketing Examples

Back-to-School Shopping

Company: Walmart

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As much as we wish it weren’t the case, summer comes to an end every year. With summer’s end comes back-to-school shopping season, which can bring about excitement or dread, depending on who you are.

Still, the back-to-school season presents a tangible seasonal marketing opportunity, and Walmart seized it.

What makes it great: Walmart cleverly combines the urgency of back-to-school shopping with an exciting deal. Walmart offered customers last year’s prices on this year’s school supplies, which is an exciting way to frame their low prices, especially for inflation-conscious consumers.

Pro Tip: Don’t be afraid to get a jump start on things. Walmart announced their 2023 back-to-school campaign on July 6th (too soon if you’re a student, but just right if you’re a marketer), and planning occurred many months beforehand.

Back-to-school spending is expected to reach record highs of $41.5 billion, up from $36.9 billion last year and the previous high of $37.1 billion in 2021. So, don’t miss out on the opportunity to ride that wave if your products fit the bill.

Winter Holidays

Company: Starbucks

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Starbucks’ holiday cups are almost as ubiquitous as the winter holidays themselves.

Every year, as the colder months approach, Starbucks releases a festive holiday cup to kick off the season. Starbucks has been taking advantage of this seasonal marketing opportunity since 1995, and brand loyalty increases as the tradition cements yearly.

What makes it great: Starbucks gives customers something fun to look forward to every holiday season with fresh, festive design. They have piggybacked off the warm and inviting feelings of the holiday season so consistently and effectively that their seasonal marketing campaign has become a mainstay of the holidays.

Pro Tip: Consistency is key. If you can devise a seasonal marketing campaign that you can execute every year (while still keeping things fresh), your customers will look forward to it and open their wallets accordingly.

Summer Fun

Company: Target

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Target appeals to summer fun in their #TargetDrop seasonal marketing campaign.

Tik-Tok creator Hungry-Fam surprises his family with a pool party featuring Target’s summertime products like ice pops, swimsuits, and pool toys, all peddled from a rolling ice cream-themed mystery box.

Target’s campaign evokes the seasonal excitement of summer from a wholesome, family-friendly angle.

What We Like: Target takes advantage of a growing influencer marketing industry (up to $21.1B from $16.4B in 2022) and carves out a broad seasonal niche that doesn’t rely on a specific holiday.

Pro Tip: Don’t be afraid to think big picture when crafting a seasonal campaign. It doesn’t always need to be a specific holiday you highlight in advertising. A broader seasonal campaign can resonate with a more significant number of people.

Spring Cleaning

Company: OXO

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As winter fades into spring, a feeling of freshness washes over us, and the urge to tidy our spaces resurfaces.

OXO supports that sentiment with helpful content to motivate peoples’ Spring Cleaning journeys. OXO’s contribution to this list shows how to approach seasonality from a content marketing perspective meant to delight and inform.

What We Like: OXO’s Spring Cleaning content perfectly matches seasonal opportunity and brand values.

Pro Tip: Formatting your written content as a list (when appropriate) makes it easier for readers to skim, increasing page views.

Halloween

 

Company: Reese’s

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Reese’s set out to cement their position as a top-tier Halloween candy with their Candy Converter vending machine.

Reese’s seasonal marketing pop-up installation was a vending machine that let people exchange unwanted Halloween candy (like store-brand lollipops and Almond Joys) for their coveted peanut butter cups.

What Makes It Great: Reese’s Candy Converter was a creative, attention-grabbing stunt that bolstered positive brand sentiment with seasonal excitement. Running a seasonal marketing campaign around Halloween was a no-brainer for a candy brand, and the exciting pop-up stunt garnered significant press.

Pro Tip: Physical pop-up installations can be a great way to get eyes on your brand and garner press. However, pulling off can be difficult and costly and requires a high degree of creativity.

‘Tis the Season for Marketing

Use the power of seasonal marketing to your advantage. With the right recipe of relevancy, creativity, and timing, you can capitalize on big events — and ultimately, boost sales.

Intent data is a collection of behavioral data points that help identify prospects at the account- or buyer-level with a high propensity to convert based on their level of interest in a product or service.

Buyer-level intent data, specifically, is sourced from dozens of intent signals that are gathered from multiple touch points throughout the customer journey, from the content prospects consume to the conferences they attend.

This data enables sales teams to focus marketing spend on prospects who are actively ready to buy.

To properly leverage intent data and efficiently drive more business, here’s what you need to know.

How to leverage intent data in 8 steps

Gone are the days when banner ads on a popular review website could funnel hundreds of leads to your business. On the contrary, today’s buyers are so inundated with paid advertisements and email blasts that they’ve turned a blind eye. 

Today, it takes a real-time, insider view into what prospects are truly interested in to properly drive leads. Fortunately, intent data has become a mainstay among business analytics to do just that. 

Follow these eight steps to gather, analyze, and apply buyer intent data that accelerates your sales cycle.  

1. Identify data sources

As with most business analytics that power a marketing campaign or sales pipeline, intent data can stem from multiple sources, including first-party, second-party, and third-party intent data. 

• First-party intent data refers to information directly gathered from potential buyers, such as the data users input into subscription sign-up forms and questionnaires. First-party data like behavior and interest data can also be derived from a customer relationship management (CRM) system.
• Second-party intent data refers to first-party data that’s been sold by the entity that collected it. Second-party data typically consists of various first-party actions taken through the original entity, such as inputted user email addresses and phone numbers gleaned through business partnerships.
• Third-party intent data refers to data points that have been collected from various outside sources and stitched together by a separate entity, such as a data broker or marketplace. Third-party data is reflective of previous activity, search queries, and content consumption across multiple sources.

Potential data sources for buyer intent signals may include but are not limited to:

• Filling out a sign-up form 
• Webinars, workshops, and masterclasses 
• Educational blog posts and buying guides
• Vendor product, features, and pricing pages
• Popular review websites, such as G2 or Capterra 
• Engagement with paid advertisements
• Attending industry- or product-specific conferences or events

2. Collect data

As you can see, intent data is gathered from numerous sources, some of which an organization may own and others of which an organization can pay to access. The majority of intent data is defined through cookies, IP addresses, and other means of identifying web users with unique credentials.

On their own, the various data sets that form buyer intent data can make little sense—after all, what does it matter if one employee in a company of hundreds performed a bit of casual research? 

However, when you collect these data points across an entire company, the purpose of buyer-level intent data quickly becomes more clear. When multiple employees in one company are all conducting similar queries, there’s a greater chance the organization is actively willing to make a purchase.

So, it’s vital to not only identify the various sources of intent data but also implement the necessary processes to collect and analyze it. Methods to gather user behavioral and interest data include: 

• Website analytics tools like Hotjar, Crazy Egg, Google Analytics, and Matomo
• Social listening tools like Mention, BuzzSumo, Sprout Social, and Hootsuite 
• Customer relationship management (CRM) systems like HubSpot, Salesforce, ActiveCampaign, and monday.com
• Buyer-level intent platforms, like NetLine’s INTENTIVE

3. Analyze and segment data

Of course, insights alone cannot power an effective sales pipeline or marketing campaign. Once you’ve gathered an assortment of buyer-level intent data, it’s time to analyze and segment those metrics into something more actionable. 

It’s wise to begin with your ideal customer profile (ICP). As the name might suggest, an ICP goes beyond basic demographics to thoroughly define the attributes of accounts that are anticipated to become valuable customers. For instance, most B2B ICPs include firmographic attributes, like the size, geographic area, and industry of an organization.

This data is used to segment prospects into meaningful categories. More importantly, it also enables sales and marketing teams to identify prospects who are most likely to convert in-market rather than through marketing campaigns and cold outreach, which simplifies the current sales pipeline.

Techniques to transform intent data into actionable insights range often include: 

• Defining your ICP’s particular goals, challenges, and pain points 
• Identifying roadblocks in the customer journey based on bounce rates during user sessions 
• Learning the types of content that drive conversions

From here, you can further segment your prospects based on their stage in the sales funnel. Leads in the early stages of their customer journey will land at the top of the funnel, whereas those who are both problem and solution-aware can be fast-tracked to the bottom of the funnel. 

4. Personalize your marketing efforts based on data intent

Having numerous prospects in your sales funnel doesn’t mean that they’re all at the same stage of their customer journey. This is why both the sales funnel and the customer journey are broken into multiple stages—they require targeted messaging at each point. 

Fortunately, intent data allows for personalized marketing efforts that are adapted to each stage.

For instance, when leads reach the bottom of the funnel, intent data can highlight more specific needs that encourage them to convert. This data can be used for personalized sales outreach, such as product demos that have been tailored to a prospect’s specific pain point or challenge. 

5. Split-test your messaging

Now that you’ve personalized your marketing efforts, you can fine-tune your sales approach by split-testing your messaging. Split-testing, also referred to as A/B testing, is the process of comparing two versions of a marketing message to determine which performs better. 

Split-testing is an integral component of any sales and marketing campaign, but it’s especially beneficial for teams leveraging intent data to enhance conversions. It stacks the original message (known as the control) against a variant with one difference to gauge the change in performance. 

One way to employ split-testing with your intent data is to test different headlines on landing pages, like “Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses” versus “Accounting Software to Scale Small Businesses,” based on the consumption behaviors from prospects who’ve registered for Webinars comparing software solutions.

6. Retargeting

Buyer intent data and behavioral retargeting go hand-in-hand. Behavioral retargeting utilizes the previous online activity of a prospect who has interacted with your marketing efforts, but has not yet converted, to inform hyper-specific marketing messages that ultimately encourage a conversion.

You can retarget based on first-party data that you already have (like their email address and name) as well as third-party data (like retargeting pixels). 

With robust intent data, specifically buyer-level intent data, sales and marketing teams can construct personalized marketing messages for users who have expressed interest in a particular product or service. Data points like user budget, previously considered contenders, and investment timeline can enable smarter product positioning.   

7. Measure your results from data intent campaigns

Intent data reveals the topics your prospects are searching for, the touchpoints they access to learn more about your brand, and how inclined they are to purchase from you. With so much data to analyze and assess, it’s vital to measure the results of your data intent campaigns. 

To understand how intent data moves the needle for your sales and marketing efforts, establish benchmarks for your current performance. By establishing benchmarks now, you can easily identify how— and when— your data intent campaigns improve performance and drive more business. 

First, implement benchmarks for the leads captured and nurtured without intent data. Then, begin documenting the results of your data intent campaign. You should be able to compare the performance of your sales cycle throughout the campaign duration through metrics like: 

• Prospects to marketing qualified leads (MQLs)— How many prospects turn into MQLs? 
• MQLs to sales qualified leads (SQLs)— How quickly do nurtured leads convert into SQLs?

8. Iterate

In the simplest sense, iteration means repeating the data intent campaign process to generate a sequence of outcomes. 

So, while your initial benchmarks are crucial to gauge general performance, they’re not the end-all, be-all of campaign metrics. On the contrary, you’ll want to compare the first iteration of prospects to MQLs or MQLs to SALs with the second iteration to properly determine your progress over time.

Why you need to prioritize leveraging intent data

Intent data is an actionable indicator of interest. Intent not only describes how willing a prospect may be to convert but also the specific touchpoints they have along their customer journey that can help to guarantee a conversion. 

Leveraging intent data enables you to reach the right customer at the right time with the right message. Here are five specific benefits:

Identify problem-specific solutions

Numerous aspects of buyer intent data, such as common search queries and other behavioral patterns, indicate a specific problem that requires a solution. 

This data helps sales and marketing teams craft need-specific messages that cater to prospects’ and customers’ needs. Plus, this intent data can be applied to retention efforts to better cater to specific consumer pain points. 

Accelerate qualified prospects in your sales pipeline 

In the simplest sense, intent data helps sales and marketing teams to identify the lowest-hanging fruit in terms of qualified leads. 

Leads who demonstrate clear interest in a brand, product, or service, based on online activity can be segmented for bottom-of-funnel targeting, like through dedicated product demos. Intent data helps to build a pipeline of qualified leads faster with the assurance they’re a good fit.

Streamline the sales process 

A major benefit of accelerating your pipeline of qualified leads is streamlining your overall sales process. 

While top-of-funnel campaigns are integral to brand awareness and introducing your products and services to a new audience, leaner and more targeted middle and bottom-of-funnel campaigns dedicate your team’s attention to good-fit prospects that save both time and resources.

Create more relevant content

Buyer intent data like the frequency of site visits and types of content consumed reveal what’s most important to your audience. By prioritizing this information, you can create more relevant content that positions your brand ahead of competitors. 

Take comparison pages, for example. Intent data can identify the competitors that prospects also consider, so you can utilize competitive take-out messaging to highlight your brand’s key differentiators—such as more robust features, accessible price points, and user experience. 

Improve the timing of marketing messages

Beyond content relevance, intent data can also help marketing and sales teams improve the timing of marketing messages. 

As mentioned, just because prospects are in your sales funnel, doesn’t mean that they’re all at the same stage of their customer journey. Intent data provides insights into where prospects are in the customer journey to offer a free trial, demo, or other incentive at the right time. 

Remember: As a general rule of thumb, NetLine research has shown that unless a user has explicitly requested to hear from you, it’s best to give your prospects 48 hours before reaching out so they can actually consume the content they’ve requested. Nothing worse than spoiling a strong intent signal because you were overeager. 

10 tips to leverage intent data the right way

As you sift through the numerous behavioral data points, consider these tips to leverage intent data correctly. 

1. Set clear objectives

Because the types of data you can collect through intent data campaigns are so robust, it’s crucial to set clear objectives for your marketing and sales initiatives. It’s often helpful to return to the classic SMART goals here—goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. 

For instance, you might want to improve the number of SQLs generated from MQLs by 10% in 4 months.

2. Identify relevant intent signals

Intent signals are the indicators that identify the prospects who are actively researching your brand—they do not pertain to the people who simply land on your website. 

Remember that intent signals should refer to users who demonstrate interest in your product or service. Traffic to generic blog posts, such as, “Top Accounting Tips,” should not be considered a relevant sign of purchase intent. 

3. Segment your audience and create tailored messages

You’ll find numerous types of prospects in the sales funnel. Some have just begun researching a newfound problem and stumbled on a helpful piece of content you published. Others have been knee-deep in the consideration phase for weeks, researching potential solutions. Segment your audience based on their current stage in the sales funnel to create hyper-tailored messages. 

4. Create content personalization strategies

Aside from a prospect’s stage in the sales funnel, intent data can reveal several other data points that can be used to create content personalization strategies.

• Have a few prospects who are actively comparing your brand to another? Create competitor comparison pages. 
• Have another group that’s unsure of the size of the solution they need? Create an informative webinar as a lead magnet.

5. Leverage automation

Being that intent data is spread across first, second, and third-party sources, it’s smart to leverage automation to streamline the process. 

Take retargeting, for instance. The ability to sync your retargeting campaigns with your CRM tool via automation helps automatically populate buyer profiles with the latest online behavior in real time. 

6. Comply with GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation, most commonly referred to as the GDPR, is a European Union (EU) law that governs how organizations can use, process, and store personal data, including personally identifiable information (PII) like email addresses. To comply with GDPR, you must:

• Have a readily accessible privacy policy on your website
• Verify the ages of all users who opt-in to data processing
• Be transparent about how data is collected and processed
• Evaluate the sensitivity of data through a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) and a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA
• Create a comprehensive record of how you will maintain compliance

A handy set of compliance checklists can be found in 4 Checklists Your Brand Needs to Understand Data Compliance.

7. Comply with HIPAA

HIPAA, short for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is another regulatory compliance standard that involves consumer PII as well as patient health information (PHI). 

In the US, HIPAA implemented a set of standards to protect sensitive PII and PHI, including: 

• Create privacy and security policies for your organization
• Designate a Privacy Compliance Officer to oversee policy creation 
• Implement an information access management system
• Obtain “satisfactory assurances” from business associates who handle consumer data
• Conduct risk assessments and adopt audit logs 

8. Respect people’s privacy

While it might sound like an advantage to track prospects across the internet, most people aren’t too fond of the idea of a business monitoring their online behavior—especially for marketing purposes. As you experiment with intent data, remember to remain mindful of consumer privacy. 

NetLine’s INTENTIVE, for example, never discloses PII and never will. INTENTIVE’s delivers buyer-level intent insights from B2B buyers without sharing any of their personal details.

9. Track your results

Remember the benchmarks you established above? Those metrics will be useless without another batch of data to compare them to—and you’ll never be able to gauge headway on your objectives without results. So, it’s critical to track the results of your intent data campaigns over time. 

10. Iterate based on what you discover

Like any marketing or sales initiative, your intent data campaigns will require improvements over time. The more you gather important metrics and other key performance indicators (KPIs), the more you can identify methods to refine and enhance your intent data campaigns to drive business.

How NetLine can help you to understand and leverage intent data

NetLine INTENTIVE is the first and only B2B buyer-level intent platform designed to provide real-time first-party data insights that you can use to accelerate sales conversations. 

Get real-time data, insights, and notifications about your buyers that you can use to fuel your sales and marketing campaigns. Schedule a demo today.