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Creating an email newsletter is one of the most effective ways to provide value to your customers, drive them to buy more products, and encourage them to keep engaging with your brand.

Overall, newsletters are a staple in any high-performing email marketing strategy.

They also have a significant ROI. On average, brands get back $36 for every $1 spent leveraging email marketing.

If you want to ensure you won’t miss any steps when making a newsletter, keep reading. We’ve pulled together a comprehensive checklist for anyone looking to send an email newsletter.

How to Start an Email Newsletter

When starting an email newsletter, you’re juggling many responsibilities at once.

You have to proofread the copy, create compelling calls-to-action, design the email to work for multiple inboxes and devices, avoid spam triggers, and brainstorm clickable subject lines.

And you have to do all the aforementioned while staying within the confines of email law (yes, there is such a thing).

And if you mess up any part of your email, there’s no undoing it once you send it to your subscribers.

If you’re sending newsletters, bookmark the following steps in your browser or print it out and hang it up next to you. You want to take advantage of these crucial steps.

Ready to get started? Here are the steps to create the best email newsletter for your business or personal goals.

Step 1: Choose an email newsletter tool.

First, choose an email newsletter tool that fits your budget, goals, and technical skills.

HubSpot offers one of the best email marketing tools you can use to send optimized, well-designed newsletters. It’s part of Marketing Hub, marketing automation software for small-to-enterprise businesses.

The email newsletter tool is easy to learn — there’s virtually no learning curve, especially if you have experience using drag-and-drop page editors on a content management system.

Even if you’ve never touched a drag-and-drop editor before, HubSpot’s email marketing tool is intuitive to learn. And you can start for free.

We highly recommend starting to build your newsletter using HubSpot’s free tool, and to illustrate, we’ll include screenshots as we progress from step to step.

HubSpot also contains many integrations and alternative email newsletter design tools like BEE Pro.

Step 2: Figure out your newsletter’s goal.

Learn the types of newsletters you can send in our free email newsletter guide.

Before you start drafting a single word, ensure you‘re fully aware of the newsletter’s goal and how it fits into your larger content strategy. (Have one in place? Skip to the next section.)

Is your newsletter supposed to drive more traffic to your blog? Help you generate leads? Get more email contacts? Send traffic to your website? Or promote new products and services?

Figure out your goal and let the rest of your decisions flow from it.

You should also note some key performance indicators for each of these goals. Remember that your KPIs should go beyond “how many people opened it.” Instead, it should closely tie to your overall business goals.

Your email‘s open rate can indicate the newsletter’s performance, but it shouldn’t be the only number you care about each month. Here are some email marketing metrics to consider.

Step 3: Choose a template and gather your content.

Once you have a goal for your newsletter, it’s time to choose a template and find content for it. I‘d recommend looking into pre-made templates if you’re unfamiliar with designing emails — it can save you a lot of heartache.

If you’re using HubSpot, you can access pre-made templates in the email tool.

Depending on how early you set your newsletter‘s goal and how often you plan on sending this newsletter, you could actively or passively find content in the time between two email sends.

Active means you’re hunting for content that‘ll solve a specific goal. Passive means you’ll randomly stumble on it when browsing for other content but realize it could fit nicely.

When I put together newsletters, I tended to do a lot of active searching, but I could‘ve saved myself a lot of time if I were passive.

Since I knew a newsletter needed to be sent each month, bookmarking links throughout the month would’ve been a great timesaver. Instead, I usually spent several hours clicking the “Back” button on my blog, hunting for content.

How you like to gather content is up to you. Still, great places to look for content are your company’s blog, social media accounts, lead-generation offers, internal newsletters, and training documents.

Featured Resource: Email Newsletter Lookbook

Need inspiration on what content to include in your newsletter? HubSpot’s Email Newsletter Lookbook highlights some of the best email newsletters across industries to help your email newsletter planning.

Step 4: Personalize your template.

A template is a great starting point, but it’s time to personalize it. Using a template will give you an idea of how your newsletter will look before writing copy.

That way, you’ll know exactly how much space you have to promote a piece of content — there are a few things more frustrating than trying to squeeze copy into too tight a space.

Your template doesn’t have to be flashy or anything. Even newsletters with minimal text and color formatting will look great. The design should make it easy for your recipients to read, scan, and click email elements. 

Pro tip: Use HubSpot’s AI Email Writer to design your newsletters. The tool can generate your copy, and you can then select a template that suits your needs.

This means it should be mobile-friendly, too. According to data from Litmus, 41.6% of people open their email on a mobile device — around 25% higher than email opens on a desktop.

In Marketing Hub, you can adjust your template by clicking on elements and editing the specifications on the left-hand panel. Check out this post for inspiration for a great email newsletter design.

Step 5: Set your email newsletter size.

Unfortunately, email newsletters don’t size themselves when you send them to subscribers.

But because everyone opens their email on their device and email service of choice, how are you supposed to know what size or resolution they should be?

Most providers will default your email newsletter size to 600px wide, with email body padding another 30px wide on all sides. And when this happens, the content inside your newsletter might not survive the adjustment.

Therefore, ensuring your newsletter design fits inside that universal 600px width is essential.

What about height? Ultimately, your email can be as high (or, rather, as long) as you want it to be without the email client distorting its design.

However, people are much less likely to click through to your website if the email goes on forever — and email clients with sensitive spam filters might also take notice.

As a general rule, try not to make your email recipients scroll for more than a second before reaching the end of it.

Step 6: Add in your body content.

Next up: filling in the template with words and pictures. This will be the meat of your email newsletter, so spend time perfecting it.

Most people keep the copy short and sweet to encourage click-throughs, though some notable newsletters take the opposite approach. This post can help you with email newsletter copy if you need it.

Be sure to add in some images if they can help support your copy.

Don‘t forget to edit your email thoroughly — maybe even send it to one of your teammates for a once-over. Remember, once you send the thing, you can’t fix those embarrassing typos like you can with web content.

Ben Berkley, managing editor for The Hustle, says it should be clear to your audience what kind of value to expect from the newsletter but ensure the content isn’t predictable.

“What works about The Hustle is that we’re built around the central expectation that readers will get the most relevant business and tech news in the quickest, most entertaining package —yet every email is packed with surprises and topics you wouldn’t find anywhere else,” he explains. “The format is always fixed, but no two emails feel repetitive editorially.”

Berkley says readers never know what they’ll get, but “they know it’ll be worth their while to read through it.”

Step 7: Add in personalization tokens and intelligent content.

The best email newsletters I get feel like they’ve been written personally for me — like a friend took the time to put together a newsletter with things only I would like. I open them, click on them, and share them every time.

If you want your digital newsletters to feel that personal, you should do three things:

• Segment your emails and choose content that only that group of people will love. Add in personalization tokens. If your marketing software supports personalization, this is a straightforward thing to implement that could significantly affect your conversion rates.

Pro Tip: Only add a few personalization tokens — you don’t want to creep out your email recipients. In Marketing Hub, you can add personalization tokens by clicking “Personalize” in the top navigation bar.

• Also, add in smart content. This is content that shows one thing to one part of your audience and one thing to another.

Pro Tip: An example would be a smart CTA — your leads would see a CTA for talking to your sales reps, and your customers would see one about getting tickets to a customer-only event.

Neither audience would want to see the other audience’s CTA, so smart content will show only the proper CTA to the right person.

Step 8: Choose your subject line and sender name.

Your audience may like different things, but having a real person‘s sender name increased opens and click-throughs. Try running an A/B test to see if it works for you, too.

Whatever you choose, make sure it’s recognizable so recipients aren‘t confused about why they’re receiving your email.

Subject lines are a little trickier. Many things can help you create a click-worthy subject line, including brevity and an immediately actionable value proposition.

That said, some great marketing emails have been sent with the subject “Not Cool, Guys.” Use the subject line best practices as a jumping-off point, then run your A/B tests to see what your audience loves.

Berkley suggests meeting your audience halfway by giving them some information without withholding it all.

“A subject line that says ‘This unlikely partnership is crazy’ gives too little; a subject line that says ‘Crocs partnered with WHO?!’ gives an idea of what you’re talking about but induces click-through to find out the rest of the story,” he says.

He explains, “Finding balance is critical — nobody likes a movie trailer that gives every plot point away, and nobody likes one that tells you nothing at all about the movie either.”

Step 9: Support your newsletter content with alt text and plain text.

At this point, you‘ll have the email ready to go. While going through the steps above, I’m guessing you forgot two crucial things (I know I forget them almost every time I make an email): the alt text and plain text.

Alt text is the text that appears when a picture isn‘t loaded. Since not all email providers load images correctly, you must ensure the alt text is there so your recipients know what they’re looking at.

If you include a CTA that’s an image, your conversion rates will suffer without alt text.

Some email clients also won‘t display HTML correctly, so you need to ensure your emails look great in plain text. Make sure the links are easy to click and that it’s clear what the email is about without the photos.

Step 10: Make sure you’re legally compliant.

Before you hit “Send,” be sure that your emails are all good from a legal perspective. What are the two most significant laws you need to worry about? CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

• CAN-SPAM requires that you have a footer in your email with your address and an easy way to unsubscribe from your emails if they don’t want to receive them anymore.
• GDPR is a similar but more comprehensive privacy law that requires (among other things) that email marketers only send newsletters to those who have manually opted in to receive them.

In other words, wherever you collect email subscribers on your website, you cannot automatically check the “opt-in” box for them if these recipients live in Europe. They must deliberately check this box themselves.

Step 11: Test different browsers and email providers.

Email providers don’t all read email code the same way — what looks fine on Gmail in Chrome might look terrible in Outlook, for example. So, you must test emails in the most popular browsers and email providers.

If you have HubSpot, you can test emails for different providers in the tool. If you don’t, create fake email accounts on various providers’ websites and test everything manually.

Step 12: Send your email.

The moment of truth! Ensuring all your email recipients have subscribed to receive this email and your email has all the branding and legal compliance it‘s worthy of, it’s time to click send. Then, wait for the data to roll in.

Step 13: Analyze and iterate.

Fast-forward a few days: The data’s in. How did your newsletter do? What do you do next?

Check how your email newsletter performed on your goals in step one. See which parts of your email got the most clicks and which factors of the newsletter contributed most to your goal.

If you have closed-loop analytics, measuring this all will be easy.

Once you have that data, you have a direction for your email newsletter. Whether your next send is in a day, a week, a month, or a quarter, you’ll have insights to make the following newsletter even better.

Start Creating Your Email Newsletter

Email newsletters are a critical part of any scalable email marketing strategy. With the steps above, you’ll be sure to create a winning email newsletter that will help you convert more leads and grow your business.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Like many of the people who currently work in the industry, digital marketing was born in the 1990s. Since then, the industry has evolved at breakneck speed, sprouting many more types of marketing.

From search engine marketing to account-based marketing, every brand can use a combination of these tactics to attract its target audience and increase revenue.

Keep reading to discover the top marketing trends in 2023 and more.

Types of Marketing

1. Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing refers to brand promotion on offline channels before the rise of the internet. Think billboards, flyers, TV ads, and radio spots.

These marketing channels still play an essential role for some brands.

In fact, a global survey of CMOs found that more than 40% of marketing budgets go to offline channels — but today, marketers are increasingly relying on digital alternatives.

2. Digital Marketing

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In contrast to traditional marketing, digital marketing leverages a wide variety of previously unavailable technologies to reach audiences in new ways.

This is the fastest-growing type of marketing, encompassing all marketing efforts that live online.

Businesses investing in digital marketing use numerous digital channels, such as search engines, social media, email, websites, and more, to connect with their current and prospective customers.

3. Outbound Marketing

Outbound marketing refers to unsolicited, outgoing promotions such as cold calling, email blasts to purchased lists, and print ads.

This marketing method is called “outbound” because it involves pushing a message out to consumers to raise awareness of your products or services — regardless of whether consumers have demonstrated interest in them.

In many industries, outbound marketing has grown less effective, as consumers today are inundated with so many marketing interruptions that they often need to pay more attention to these messages.

4. Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing, however, is focused on attracting customers rather than interrupting them.

Inbound leads are both more likely to convert and less expensive to acquire, with one recent report finding that inbound leads cost 67% less than outbound ones do.

While some inbound marketing tactics live offline, the majority fall under the umbrella of digital marketing, as consumers are empowered to do research online to help them progress through their buyer’s journeys.

Inbound is built on three pillars: Attract, engage, and delight. The initial goal is to create valuable content and experiences that resonate with your audience and attract them to your business.

The next step is to engage them through conversational tools like email marketing, chatbots, and, of course, continuously adding real value. Finally, delight them by acting as a long-term, empathetic advisor and expert.

5. Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing, or SEM, includes all strategies to ensure your business is visible on search engine results pages. With SEM, you can get your business to the top spot when a user searches for a particular keyword.

According to HubSpot’s 2023 State of Consumer Trends report, online search is the number one way today’s buyers discover new products — so it’s critical to make sure your business comes up on search platforms like Google or Bing.

There are two types of SEM: search engine optimization (SEO) for organic search results and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising for sponsored search engine results.

To get started with SEO, familiarize yourself with search engine ranking factors and common keywords relevant to your industry and products. Then, get proactive about producing content for search engines to index that use these terms.

Conversely, PPC involves bidding on keywords to get your ads placed through platforms like Google Ads. Consider investing in ad management tools that help you create and manage your PPC campaigns.

6. Content Marketing

As one of the best ways to attract your target audiences, content marketing is a critical component of an effective digital inbound marketing strategy.

That is probably why nearly nine in ten marketing professionals who have already invested in content marketing plan to maintain or increase that investment in 2023.

This form of marketing involves creating, publishing, and distributing content to your target audience through free and gated channels, such as social media platforms, blogs, videos, ebooks, and webinars.

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The goal of content marketing is to help your audience along their buyer’s journey while adding value and providing a supportive, delightful experience.

To do so, first, identify common questions and concerns your buyers are likely to have before they are ready to purchase.

Then, create an editorial calendar to track when you will create and share content related to those topics. A content management system (CMS) can also help you stay organized and keep your content and publication schedule on track.

7. Social Media Marketing

With platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, brands can promote their businesses and engage with their audiences on a more personal basis.

Social media is an increasingly effective strategy to reach buyers of all ages, with 24% of Boomers and 46% of Gen X consumers surveyed in 2023 reporting that they discovered a new product on social media in the past three months.

However, with social media, two factors are crucial to success: relevance and consistency.

First, relevance: No one logs on to social media looking for something to purchase. As such, it’s essential to balance promotion with entertainment.

Compelling images and captions that encourage your audience to like, share, and comment will bring your brand that much closer to gaining a customer.

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Now, onto consistency: A consistent posting cadence will keep your followers returning. How can they get invested in your brand if they rarely see it on their timeline?

To make publishing content across platforms accessible, several social media tools automate the process.

8. Video Marketing

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According to a recent study, 87% of marketers say incorporating video into their marketing strategy has had a positive ROI.

Whether on your website, YouTube channel, email newsletters, and/or social media, video can boost brand awareness, generate conversions, and close deals.

Some video marketing apps even allow you to analyze, nurture, and score leads based on their activity.

9. Voice Marketing

Voice marketing refers both to optimizing your website for voice search by incorporating the right keywords and to initiatives that leverage smart speakers like Amazon Alexa and Google Home to add value to your audience and answer questions about their topics of interest.

Consider opportunities to get inventive by developing a Google Home action or an Alexa skill. For instance, Uber created an Alexa skill that allowed users to request a ride with a simple voice request.

Similarly, TED developed a feature that allowed Alexa users to search for and play TED talks based on topic, tone, or speaker.

These tools may be relatively new, but they’re increasingly popular among marketers.

HubSpot’s 2023 marketing trends survey found that 40% of marketing leaders who currently leverage some form of voice marketing plan to increase that investment in the next year.

10. Email Marketing

Email marketing connects brands to leads, prospects, and customers via email. Email campaigns can increase brand awareness, generate traffic to other channels, promote products or services, or nurture leads toward a purchase.

Moreover, one 2022 study found that returns on email marketing could be as high as $36 for every dollar invested.

Email can be a potent tool — but it’s essential to use it responsibly and within legal restrictions. Regulations like the GDPR and the CAN-SPAM Act require brands to comply with responsible commercial email practices, which boil down to three principles:

• Only email people expecting to hear from you (i.e., people who have opted in).
• Make it easy for subscribers to opt out.
• When you make contact, be transparent about who you are and why you’re emailing.

With these guardrails in mind, the first thing you’ll need to do is strategize how to build your email list or the database of contacts to whom you can send emails.

Standard methods include lead capture forms on your website or lead generation partnerships.

Then, you’ll need email marketing software and a CRM to send, track, and monitor the effectiveness of your emails.

To push your email strategy to the next level and maximize productivity, you may also want to look into email automation software that sends emails based on triggering criteria.

To learn more about the ins and outs of email marketing, take the free email marketing course from HubSpot Academy.

11. Conversational Marketing

Conversational marketing refers to any form of 1:1 conversation with your audience.

This is arguably one of the most natural ways to connect with customers, and research shows that conversations can be an effective way to remove friction from the buying process.

It’s essential to meet customers how, when, and where they want. As a result, these dialogues can happen across multiple channels.

This is more than just live chat: It extends to phone calls, texts, Facebook Messenger, email, Slack, and many other media.

When you‘re getting started, you’ll first identify the channels on which your audience is most active.

This may sound relatively straightforward, but things can get tricky when managing multiple channels while avoiding slow response times, internal miscommunication, or productivity loss.

That’s why it can be helpful to use conversational marketing tools, such as a unified inbox, to streamline your efforts.

12. Buzz Marketing

Buzz marketing is a viral marketing strategy that leverages refreshingly creative content, interactive events, and community influencers to generate word-of-mouth marketing and anticipation for a product or service a brand is about to launch.

This marketing approach is grounded in research-backed psychological effects such as FOMO (fear of missing out) and the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (also known as the frequency illusion, where after encountering a new product, consumers start to feel like they’re seeing it everywhere).

Buzz marketing works best when you reach out to influencers early and put a plan in place to generate buzz surrounding your brand.

In addition, to track the effectiveness of your efforts, invest in social listening software that will help you keep a pulse on how your audience responds.

13. Influencer Marketing

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By partnering with influencers in your space, influencer marketing enables your brand to tap into an existing community of highly engaged social media followers.

Influencers are considered experts in their niches and have built loyalty and trust with an audience you want to reach.

These programs are a substantial part of a modern marketing strategy:

Today, 88% of marketers have a dedicated influencer marketing budget, and one in four social media users report buying a product based on an influencer’s recommendation in 2023.

To get started with influencer marketing, you must first build your influencer marketing strategy and define what type of influencer you‘d like to work with.

Then, you’ll want to create criteria for your influencer to ensure they align with your strategy and budget.

Factors to consider include their niche, the size of their audience, and their current metrics. From there, you can find influencers and reach out to them by:

• Manually reaching out on social media.
• Using an influencer marketing platform.
• Hiring an agency to do the research and outreach for you.

14. Acquisition Marketing

The goal of any marketing strategy is to attract and retain customers—however, different types of marketing focus on other, specific stages of the buyer’s journey.

Acquisition marketing focuses on the “attract” and “convert” phases, in which you’re aiming to turn strangers into sales-qualified leads.

What differentiates acquisition from other marketing types is that it extends beyond the marketing team, often involving collaboration with customer service and success teams.

Why? Because satisfied customers are your biggest promoters.

Acquisition marketing can involve several tactics to create a lead generation engine for your organization.

These tactics can include offering freemium products, launching education hubs, tightening the copywriting on your website, conversion rate optimization, and lead optimization.

It may include a lead optimization and nurturing strategy to facilitate the hand-off between marketing and sales.

15. Contextual Marketing

Contextual marketing refers to efforts that target online users with different ads on websites and social media networks based on their unique online browsing behavior.

More than 40% of respondents in a recent study said that they’re more likely to buy from brands that tailor ads specifically to them, suggesting that this kind of context-specific approach can have a significant impact on your conversion rates.

So, what does it take to put this into practice?

A CRM combined with powerful marketing tools such as intelligent CTAs can make a website seem more like a “choose your own adventure” story, empowering users to find the information they need and take action quickly and effectively.

Of course, contextual marketing takes strategy and careful planning. To start on the right foot, look at HubSpot’s free contextual marketing course.

16. Personalized Marketing

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Personalized marketing aims to create a customized marketing experience for every user across your brand.

This can be as simple as adding a user’s name in the subject line of an email or sending product recommendations based on past purchases.

For example, software products like Versium Reach make it easy for marketers to target their B2B or B2C customers with robust, personalized audience insights.

To be sure, it’s easy for this kind of marketing to come across as creepy accidentally.

However, studies suggest that consumers are surprisingly comfortable with personalized experiences, mainly when they boost convenience and enable a more enjoyable purchasing journey.

For example, one recent report found that 7 in 10 consumers are okay with personalization as long as marketers only use data that consumers have knowingly and directly shared with them.

17. Brand Marketing

Brand marketing encompasses everything you do to shape your brand’s public perception and forge an emotional connection with your target audience. This includes storytelling, creativity, humor, and inspiration.

The goal is to be thought-provoking and generate productive conversations so your brand is remembered and associated with positive sentiment.

Don’t underestimate the power of a compelling story: Research from Harvard psychologist Jerome Bruner has shown that facts are 22 times more likely to be remembered if shared as part of a story.

To begin brand marketing, you must deeply understand your buyer persona and what resonates with them. You must also consider your position in the market and what differentiates you from your competitors.

This can help shape your values and what you stand for, giving you crucial fodder for your storytelling campaigns.

18. Stealth Marketing

Stealth marketing occurs when brands promote their products or services to consumers who don’t realize they’re being marketed to.

For instance, if you’re watching a television show and a branded product is integrated into the shot, you might have just been on the receiving end of a stealth marketing campaign.

As long as you and any influencers you work with stay within the bounds of any relevant ad disclosure regulations — and avoid unethical or misleading campaigns — stealth marketing can be an effective way to advertise your products.

But for this marketing style to work, brands have to find opportunities that align with their brand identity and values.

19. Guerrilla Marketing

Guerrilla marketing spreads brand awareness by placing bold, clever brand activations in high-traffic physical locations.

Examples of guerilla marketing include altering outdoor urban environments, promoting during a live event (without permission from sponsors or organizers), public stunts, and treasure hunts.

This can be a cost-effective way to garner widespread attention.

However, unconventional guerilla tactics can also backfire if the audience needs to understand them, comes across as insensitive, or is interrupted by weather conditions, law enforcement, or other factors beyond the brand’s control.

If you’re looking for inspiration, look at this list of effective guerilla marketing examples, from Bounty’s human-sized popsicles and coffee cups littering the streets of New York to Deadpool’s Tinder profile.

20. Native Marketing

Native marketing is when brands customize their ads and other content to blend in as seamlessly as possible with the feel, look, and function of the platform on which they’ll be published.

This is important whenever brands collaborate with publishers to create and distribute sponsored content to their audience.

By leveraging their editorial expertise while ensuring that ads are designed not to disrupt the user experience, brands can increase conversion rates and drive brand awareness.

Indeed, native ads are a huge component of many companies’ marketing strategies, with native display ad spending in the U.S. expected to reach nearly $100 billion in 2023.

There are lots of creative ways to approach native marketing. For instance, a recipe blogger could feature a sponsored guest post from a wine collector titled “The Best Wine-Infused Desserts for the Holiday Season.”

This would fit perfectly alongside the blog’s standard recipe posts, serving as a subtle yet effective promotion for the wine brand.

To benefit from native marketing, you must contact media publications or go through a native advertising network that helps find and facilitate ad placement.

21. Affiliate Marketing

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When a business rewards another brand — an affiliate or affiliate partner — with a commission for each purchase a customer makes through the affiliate‘s promotion tactics, that’s affiliate marketing.

This approach is trendy among influencers, but it can also be used by brands to promote other companies’ products or services that align with their own. 83% of marketers use some form of affiliate marketing to raise brand recognition.

If you already have marketing assets performing well, such as a website that consistently generates leads or an engaged social media network, affiliate marketing is a great way to leverage those assets further.

Choose a product or brand that closely aligns with what you sell (but does not compete with you) and promote it to your audience.

Affiliate marketing is also a cost-effective way to spread awareness of your brand and an excellent revenue-generating alternative to influencer marketing.

And the best part is, when launching an affiliate program, every business can design its own rules to meet its unique needs.

22. Partner Marketing

Partner marketing, also known as co-marketing, is a marketing collaboration in which two or more brands partner up on a marketing campaign and share the results.

It’s a great lead-generation tool that allows brands to tap into an audience they may still need to reach.

The idea of marketing partnerships has been introduced previously.

Still, this approach has gained popularity recently: In 2022, marketers allocated 40% of their marketing budgets to partnership activities, and 72% planned to increase their partnership investment further.

For partnerships to work, brands must have complementary products or services and similar user personas. Most importantly, they must also align on their shared goals and embrace a mindset of cooperation and teamwork.

23. Product Marketing

Product marketing isn’t just taking product pictures or running launch campaigns. It’s about driving demand for a product and its adoption through consistent positioning, messaging, and market research.

Product marketers sit at the intersection of product, sales, marketing, and customer success teams.

It’s a critical role for any company, which may be why more than one in three marketing leaders surveyed in 2023 plan to increase recruitment efforts for product marketing managers.

These product-focused marketers work with various organizational functions, supporting sales enablement and aligned marketing strategies.

24. Account-Based Marketing

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a hyper-focused marketing strategy where teams treat an individual prospect or customer as their market.

These marketing teams create content, host events, and launch campaigns dedicated to the specific people associated with that single account rather than targeting an entire industry or territory.

This strategy allows brands to design personalized campaigns for their ideal clients and dedicate their time and resources to prospects exhibiting high-intent behaviors.

A recent study found that two in three brands and 70% of marketers leverage ABM in their marketing efforts. Here’s how you can join them:

1. Start by identifying key accounts.
2. Next, create messaging based on issues that matter to them most.
3. Finally, learn how to put that messaging into action with HubSpot’s introductory ABM lesson.

To streamline your efforts, you can also determine whether ABM software might be a good fit for your team.

25. Customer Marketing

In contrast to acquisition marketing, where the focus is on acquiring new customers, customer marketing is focused on retaining existing customers.

The goal is to turn your customers into long-term brand advocates by delighting them with your product or service and providing excellent customer service.

The cost of customer acquisition is much higher than the cost to retain or upsell existing customers, so brands stand to gain a lot from investing in this type of marketing.

But to reap these benefits, customer marketing teams must constantly work to improve the customer experience.

That means doing everything you can to ensure your customers are left with a great impression after you’ve provided them with your product or service.

Simple ways to do this include eliminating friction in the customer service process, providing self-service resources like online knowledge bases, and using customer service software to manage and automate interactions.

26. Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Whose opinion do you trust more: Your friend‘s or a brand’s? The answer is obvious.

That’s why word-of-mouth marketing is so powerful. According to a recent Nielsen survey, 92% of consumers put more stock in recommendations from friends and family than in any form of advertising.

Of course, you can’t force it to happen — but you can position your brand in a way that makes it more likely. For example, the following strategies can help make it easy for satisfied customers to spread the word about your brand:

• Creating shareable, viral-worthy content.
• Offering referral and loyalty programs.
• Requesting reviews after providing a product or service.

27. Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing is a type of customer marketing that focuses on cultivating more profound, more meaningful relationships with customers to foster long-term brand loyalty.

These efforts aren’t focused on short-term wins or sales transactions. Instead, they’re about creating true brand evangelists who promote your brand across their networks.

The key to doing this effectively is to focus on delighting the customers who you know are already satisfied with your brand.

Start using customer feedback software to run a Net Promoter Score (NPS) campaign to help you identify those customers.

Then, develop ways to transform those happy customers into raving fans. From there, you can request that they leave a testimonial, participate in a case study, or help you achieve your goals another way.

28. User-Generated Marketing

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User-generated marketing is when businesses leverage their audiences to participate in creating marketing materials.

There are many creative ways to encourage users to generate this content. You could run a social media hashtag challenge asking your followers to develop a jingle.

Or invite users to share pictures or videos of themselves using your product and launch a raffle giveaway to incentivize people further to participate.

Why do brands use this approach? More than two in three marketers agree that social contests, campaigns, and other user-generated content boost engagement and conversion rates.

Plus, it’s cost-effective, builds stronger connections with your audience, and increases brand awareness.

29. Campus Marketing

Some brands target college students, and who better to market to them than their peers?

Campus marketing refers to promoting products or services to students on campus, often in collaboration with student brand ambassadors who help bring awareness to the business.

This strategy is particularly effective because U.S. undergrads spend nearly 70% of their waking hours on campus.

As such, it’s not uncommon to find campus marketers promoting products at event booths, hosting their events, or handing out giveaways on the quad.

30. Proximity Marketing

Proximity marketing is a local, highly-targeted marketing strategy that leverages users’ location to show them relevant product or service promotions.

For instance, if you’re walking by an ice cream shop, you may receive a notification informing you of a special discount for a flavor at that shop. There are a few ways marketers can implement proximity marketing campaigns:

• Bluetooth beacons.
• Wi-Fi.
• QR codes.
• NFC.
• Geofencing.

As these technologies advance, the proximity marketing industry will grow to nearly $300 billion by 2030.

And it’s more than location-specific notifications: Brands can also use these tools to organize treasure hunts, retarget users who don’t make a purchase, or simply learn more about their users’ behavior.

31. Event Marketing

You‘ve got an event coming up to launch a new product. Now, how do you get your target audience to show up? That’s where event marketing comes into play.

In a survey of more than a thousand global marketing leaders, more than half listed in-person or virtual events as one of the most effective marketing channels.

An event — a workshop, seminar, trade show, conference, or pop-up shop — helps brands connect directly with their target audience and build lasting relationships.

But making the most of these (often expensive) investments requires brands to plan a comprehensive promotion strategy, develop creative assets that drive anticipation, and determine the best channels to spread awareness.

32. Experiential Marketing

Experiential marketing goes beyond traditional event marketing to encompass in-person and virtual events, experiences, and interactions that forge lasting emotional connections between a brand and its target audience.

These initiatives take event marketing a step further, with the goal of crafting a truly magical experience for attendees.

Experiential marketing provides participants with something they can take with them after the event is over — other than just information, of course.

Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that 83% of marketers plan to continue or increase their experiential marketing investments.

At HubSpot, we do our best to make our INBOUND conference an immersive experience that extends beyond breakout sessions to include networking opportunities, parties and happy hours, food truck lunches, and other unique events.

Instead of a conference, INBOUND becomes a celebration.

33. Interactive Marketing

Interactive marketing is a trigger-based marketing strategy that creates a dialogue between a brand and its audience.

Based on certain predefined trigger events, the brand automatically adapts its approach, making it possible to respond to users’ behavior in real-time.

For instance, let‘s say you’re searching for a memoir on a bookstore’s website, but you log off without making a purchase. The next time you log on, you may see recommendations for more memoirs from other authors.

This strategy adjusts to meet consumers where they’re at, boosting conversion rates and enabling a superior customer experience.

34. Global Marketing

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Global marketing refers to the process of scaling your marketing efforts beyond your home base to appeal to new audiences around the world.

This is no small task: Effective global marketing requires lots of market research to determine where a product or service may best resonate and how best to market it in that region.

Take, for instance, a food company based in Germany.

If the team decides to expand to the United States, it may be necessary to make changes in menu items, packaging, pricing, and advertising that will be a better fit for an American audience.

As the world grows ever more interconnected, many businesses will find themselves facing similar challenges.

In fact, a recent survey found that growing a global audience was one of the top two issues today’s marketing leaders struggle with.

To address this, marketers will need to adopt a global mindset and invest in a comprehensive global marketing strategy.

35. Multicultural Marketing

Of course, geographical expansion isn’t the only time a brand will encounter new audiences.

To target people of different ethnicities and cultures within a brand’s overarching audience, developing and executing a multicultural marketing strategy is a must — and as populations grow more diverse, the need for a multicultural approach will only become more urgent.

This involves in-depth research to understand the needs and values of these diverse communities, as well as careful work to figure out the right messaging to resonate with those groups.

36. Informative Marketing

A lot of marketing tactics focus on emotions, but sometimes, it makes more sense to focus your messaging on facts and figures. This sort of approach is known as informative marketing.

As researchers from Indeed explain: 

“Consumers value informative marketing campaigns that allow them to understand the value of promoted material. Rather than abstract visuals, demonstrating product features can show audiences how a product might be beneficial for them to have.”

That means highlighting the benefits of your product‘s features, how they solve your customers’ problems, and how they compare to those of your competitors.

37. Persuasive Marketing

Unlike informative marketing, persuasive marketing intentionally taps into users’ emotions. These campaigns aim to make their audience feel something, to associate those emotions with a brand, and to trigger desired actions.

There are countless techniques that marketers can use to persuade consumers to purchase a product or service.

For example, the scarcity principle refers to the psychological phenomenon that people are more likely to buy a product if they think it’s unlikely to be available for much longer.

Similarly, studies have shown that prices ending in “.99” are perceived to be significantly lower than those that are just one cent higher, making consumers more likely to buy despite the negligible actual difference in price.

Of course, as with any marketing effort, these strategies only work if you understand your buyer persona and know what will resonate with your target audience.

38. Cause Marketing

With cause marketing, brands tie themselves to social issues while promoting their goods. For instance, a company may advertise that a purchase from their brand will result in a donation to a certain charity.

Cause marketing can also go beyond a single campaign. Some brands’ entire identity aligns with a particular issue. For instance, luxury jewelry brand Civil donates 20% of its profits to underrepresented founders and entrepreneurs.

Whether it’s temporary or long-term, there are three questions you should consider before starting with cause marketing:

1. What causes does my brand care most about?
2. How can we leverage our position to support those causes?
3. How can we tell our prospects and customers about our efforts and encourage them to get involved?

39. Controversial Marketing

Controversial marketing uses shocking, controversial topics to drive attention to a campaign. Importantly, this isn’t about polarizing audiences.

Effective controversial marketing aims to grab people’s attention and spark discussions but doesn’t drive consumers away.

There are pros and cons to this approach. On one hand, controversial stunts have the potential to go viral and generate buzz around your brand.

However, there‘s a risk that you’ll turn off potential customers and negatively impact your brand’s image.

Indeed, there have been many examples of failed controversial marketing plays — from Burger King’s moldy whopper ad to McDonald’s infamous “dead dad” commercial — so be sure to tread carefully when going this route.

40. Field Marketing

Field marketing, also known as field selling, is a form of traditional marketing that involves going out into a community to promote your products or services directly to your target audience.

You can do this by distributing product samples, offering product demos, or leafleting.

Despite the rising popularity of digital marketing strategies, marketing leaders agree that there’s still an important place for these in-person marketing efforts.

More than half of recently surveyed marketers listed physical events and tradeshows, as well as customer communities and groups, among the top most effective marketing channels.

41. Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing leverages neuroscience to gain insight into consumers’ decisions and predict their behaviors.

For example, P&G conducted a study in which researchers used an eye-tracking tool to measure user engagement levels when viewing different kinds of mobile ads.

This empowered its marketing team to identify the messages that were most emotionally resonant with their target audience and optimize their ad campaigns accordingly.

Neuromarketing studies like these can involve tracking eye movements, analyzing brain scans, and measuring various physiological functions in response to marketing stimuli, all of which can be used to inform data-driven marketing decisions.

The Best Type of Marketing

There’s no right or wrong way to do marketing — as long as it connects with your desired audience and provides a return on investment.

Most companies use a combination of the strategies outlined above to generate leads and acquire customers.

Ultimately, you’ll want to choose what makes the most sense for your business based on your unique product, audience, and resources.

 

When I think of influencers, I think of smiling content creators posting unique, relatable content promoting a service or product and how their work helps humanize brands and tap into audiences.

So, how could artificial intelligence change influencer marketing if the goal is to humanize a brand or organization to boost awareness and profits? It turns out, like all things marketing, AI has the potential to alter influencer marketing significantly.

I spoke to creators Ramon Berrios and Blaine Bolus, who are hosts of the podcast DTC Pod (DTC meaning Direct-to-Consumer) and co-founders of the AI audio conversion tool Castmagic. Through them, we will learn how AI could change influencer marketing and what it can mean for influencers and influencer marketers.

How AI is Changing Influencer Marketing Right Now

I‘m already seeing AI’s impact on the influencer marketing landscape. For example, I was intrigued (and a little weirded out) when Meta introduced new AI chatbot characters based on real-life celebrities and influencers like Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, Naomi Osaka, and MrBeast.

One of Meta’s characters introduces herself as Billie, even though she clearly looks and sounds exactly like model and influencer Kendell Jenner.

But celebrities and influencers being immortalized as AI chatbots isn‘t the only impact on influencer marketing we’re seeing, Berrios.

“I think the biggest change I’ve seen is that the creator operation now boils down to one person,” he says. “Previously, a creator would need an agency to be present on multiple channels and handle all operations.”

Ramon explains that AI tools remove obstacles that typically hinder or discourage creators, such as paying to outsource work to a team or managing multiple platforms simultaneously.

Berrios and Bolus understand these struggles first-hand.

“Our podcast, DTC Pod, was born out of us paying an agency $1,000 to do our entire marketing and postproduction,” Berrios recalls. “Now, it’s done by ourselves with our own platform, so I think we’re going to see the operational costs [of being a creator or influencer] go down.”

Bolus shares that sentiment and points to creators like Gary Vaynerchuk, often backed by a team, as an example.

“To pull off his content machine, he has filmers, editors, copywriters, etc.,” Bolus says. “He’s probably spending upwards of half a million to $1 million a year just on producing content.”

Bolus explains that while AI tools may not be able to help influencers and creators deliver content of the same quality as a $1 million production, it can still help creators craft high-quality, multipurpose content on a shoestring budget.

“We’re seeing more of the kind of creator who crafts pillar content and can repurpose it into a podcast or blog and incorporates it into their social strategy,” he said. “And that content lives kind of everywhere.”

How AI Could Change Influencer Marketing in the Future

More Influencers and Lower Costs

Remember what Berrios said about AI removing barriers hindering creators and influencers? By removing those barriers, AI will likely usher in a new wave of content creators who will bring new kinds of projects to the forefront.

“Think about the people making Midjourney content and how that takes a completely different framework of content creation than your typical person who likes to be in front of a camera,” he says. “So, I think it will bring a whole new wave.”

And with more influencers and creators expanding the influencer market, Berrios says costs associated with leveraging influencer marketing could decrease.

“At the end of the day, influencer marketing is a marketplace of demand — the brands and the companies paying for distribution,” Berrios says, “and the supply being the influencers themselves. I think we will see the field level even more, and we might see CPMs and costs go down across the board.

More Options for Upcoming Creators and Influencers

New AI technology and AI-fueled strategies will also lead to more options for upcoming influencers. Again, when we think of influencers, we typically think about a person on camera promoting a brand, product, or service.

Their face and public persona are often crucial to their success and recognition with their audience.

However, what if you want to be an influencer but want your face and identity to remain a mystery, like one of my favorite content creators, Corpse Husband? (Don‘t let the scary name fool you; he’s known to be a sweetheart.)

While content creators who aren‘t focused on influencing can sometimes get away with being faceless, influencers don’t have that same luxury. However, Bolus says AI could change that.

“There are going to be more options … so if you’re the type of influencer who doesn’t want to put your face in front of everything, you can create a faceless YouTube channel and use AI in the background to generate your ideas,” he explains. “At the end of the day, you’re sitting in the creative director’s seat. If you don’t want your face in front of the camera, you can drive your creative influencer lead strategy.”

Globalized Creators and Audiences

Meta recently released an AI model that can understand, translate, and transcribe almost 100 languages. TikTok uses AI-generated captions and translation, and YouTube is testing an AI-powered dub tool to translate videos.

In other words, influencers will be able to create content that can be seen (and understood) worldwide.

“AI is allowing creators to translate their content into other languages and tap into new markets,” Berrios says. “It’s going to be really interesting to see how it plays out in terms of expanding creators’ incomes and earnings potential.”

AI Tools for Influencers

So, I and the co-founders of Castmagic just unloaded a lot of information onto you about the AI-powered future of influencer marketing.

You’re probably wondering what you can do right now to get ahead of the curve and be a part of that future.

Something you should do right now is start testing out different tools and try to integrate them into your workflow. Below are some AI tools influencer marketers should check out.

1. Castmagic

Bolus describes Castmagic as a digital workspace allowing users to repurpose audio or media content and repurpose it into different AI-generated, text-based content assets. We actually used Castmagic to record our interview.

“We’re having a conversation, and if you want to turn that into a different content asset — like a blog post or an article — or be able to extract all that value, traditionally, you have to get a transcript,” he says. “You have to go through the transcript, find the quotes, stitch together context, come up with a thesis for what you’re writing, and draft a whole piece of unique content.”

Bolus says the point of Castmagic is to use AI as a tool to transcribe content and use all of the user’s media sources as context to write and draft whatever type of content assets the user wants.

And I was pretty surprised at how quickly its co-founders were able to send the full audio of our interview, complete with time stamps and captions explaining who was speaking at different times.

2. HubSpot

Okay, I can admit I might be a little biased — but hear me out. HubSpot offers a variety of AI tools that can streamline your work, whether you‘re an influencer or an influencer marketer.

Are you struggling to come up with a caption for your Instagram Reel? Our AI Social Caption Generator can quickly create social media copy to boost your content’s performance.

Need copy for your website or blog? Our AI Content Writer can help you ideate and craft copy that will help boost leads.

Other tools include our AI Email Writer, Meta Description Generator, AI Blog Writer, and more.

3. InVideo

I recently used InVideo when I created a TikTok using solely AI tools. InVideo is a platform that generates videos for various channels, including social media.

The platform contains various tools, such as AI text to video, which I used to convert my script into the TikTok video below:

The platform is excellent if you’re an influencer looking to make short-form video content with or without a host on screen. To learn more about how I used InVideo, click here.

4. ChatGPT

I tried crafting a blog post using ChatGPT. Though it has its challenges, this generative AI tool is definitely helpful for influencers creating social media captions, blog outlines, or emails.

If you‘re unfamiliar with ChatGPT, it’s an AI-powered chatbot that can answer questions and generate written copy. While using the platform, I learned the best way to get the most out of its features is to be as detailed as possible in my queries.

AI isn‘t going anywhere any time soon, and it’s poised to make influencer marketing more accessible and profitable for both brands and creators.

Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.

It’s no secret that Native entrepreneurs face an uphill battle when starting up their businesses. Indigenous businesses have hurdles at nearly every step of the process, whether it’s a lack of access to credit, trouble getting technical assistance or training, or a cultural barrier between investor expectations and business owner goals.

Yet some business owners persist anyway, climbing over whatever obstacles are ahead to succeed in their respective fields.

Native entrepreneurs have moved into a multitude of industries with profitable, impactful businesses amid surges in federal and tribal support, and Indigenous people are seeing themselves represented in more swathes of the business world. In this post, I’ll introduce you to three native entrepreneurs you need to know about.

Three Native Entrepreneurs in Different Sectors

1. Amber Buker, Totem

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma tribal member Amber Buker knew she needed a bank specifically focused on Native American needs and experiences when she discovered an “invisible gap” in traditional banking while trying to buy a house.

Buker ran into rejections from major banking institutions, primarily because none of them were aware of, or at least did not implement, the available federal support for Native American home loans. “It was a broken process where I really felt invisible,” she said. “My tribe had a down payment program, but my bank refused to help me use it.”

That represented Buker’s wider experience with banks, even as she began working in the industry through a friend’s business. Realities for Native Americans meant that even basic security policies, such as refusing to mail debit cards to PO boxes, inhibited people’s ability to use traditional banks and, by extension, access the wider economy (not everyone on a reservation has a personal mailbox – meaning some Natives wouldn’t be able to get a debit card at all).

Because of that, Native Americans have become per-capita the most unbanked demographic in the United States, Buker said, with 16 percent completely disconnected from the banking system, per a report by Bankrate.com.

However, under Buker’s guidance, financial technology and banking company Totem plans to change that.

By building a bank that understands the lived experiences of Native users, Totem will boost Natives’ engagement with a system that has often failed them. To date, the company has introduced spend accounts that are not only accessible online but also designed to withstand connectivity fluctuations and weak signals, which often pose challenges for rural Native tribal members residing in remote reservation lands.

“We wanted to have a safe, free account that benefits could be deposited into, and we also prioritize features that uphold Native values,” Buker said. “Sending money from Totem account to Totem account is free and instant. For example, there’s a lot of times where auntie needs 20 bucks, so being able to share funds is super important.”

Totem also provides information and resources on what kinds of support exist for Native homebuyers, healthcare users, and even utility assistance – and that’s just the start. For their next step, Totem wants to help tribal governments deliver benefits and payments directly to citizens, foregoing the current intermediaries like paper checks and pre-paid cards. Through Totem, more tribal members will get to keep more of their benefit dollars.

“A prepaid card doesn’t give you regulation protections, or has FDIC insurance, or an easily obtained replacement. All these things are what make banks so valuable in the first place,” Buker said. “We want to tackle the root of the problem, which is access to good, safe banking products.”

2. Justin Quis Quis, Sacred Bev

Justin Quis Quis spent a long time as a member of leadership for the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians near San Bernadino, California. When his time helping to lead his tribe came to a close, he knew he wanted to keep going and push into new frontiers.

In this instance, it was functional beverages – think energy drinks or herbal teas. Quis Quis looked out at an exploding functional beverage market and saw room for a Native presence. He identified where he could leverage Native traditional thinking into a product while calling attention to the fact that Indigenous people were still a part of modern life.

“I‘ve been exposed to Indian Country from coast to coast, so I’ve seen a lot of areas where tribal communities needed a spotlight, and people needed to know not only the struggles but also the successes,” Quis Quis said. “I noticed there wasn’t enough exposure to that.”

Quis Quis secured some financial investors and partners and started up Sacred Bev, headquartered in San Diego. The company’s first three flavors —Immunity, Wellness, and Tranquility —launched earlier this year and have proven popular, growing from an initial run of 7,200 cans to a second run of 17,200 cans. The drinks sell everywhere, from convenience and grocery stores to tribal casinos, Quis Quis said, and the company doesn’t plan to slow down any time soon.

The positive reception has encouraged Quis Quis to take the next steps towards scaling up, working with a cannery in Los Angeles to begin growing his operation while expanding out with a distributor.

“We’re stoked,” he stated. “We really felt like we had a good thing on our hands, and we’ve gotten some very positive reviews. We‘ve secured 14 individual accounts, some tribal, some off-reservation, and we’ve secured a distributor that’s sent hundreds of cases to mini-marts and grocery stores. We were authenticated through the IAC. The drinks have been very popular.”

The drinks have been popular enough to warrant considering who ends up leading Sacred Bev down the line, and Quis Quis has ideas on that, too. Many of Quis Quis’ partners and investors are other tribes or associates from his time in San Manuel leadership. Moreover, he has begun reaching out to other tribes in hopes of sourcing as many ingredients for the drinks – which utilize natural flavors like prickly pears, blackberries, and pomegranates – from Native sources as possible.

The goal is to make sure Sacred Bev, if acquired, remains under Native leadership, Quis Quis said.

“A big part of our deal is that no matter what happens with this company down the road that we want it to be tribally owned and operated at the end of the day,” he affirmed. “I want to be able to get some of these herbs and others from Native communities for sure. I haven‘t been able to find somebody through my sources, but I’m hoping someone will come to us with a big prickly pear farm or tons of ginger and peppermint. I‘m sure there is, but I haven’t been able to find that. That would be the best for us.”

3. Joe Valandra, Tribal Ready

Rosebud Sioux Tribe member Joe Valandra sees a lot of opportunities in Indian Country amid a historic surge in support for tribal broadband. Through federal opportunities like the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program or the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (both under the National Telecommunications and Information Administration,) tribes have found themselves managing gargantuan new projects with potentially colossal impacts on their communities.

In the wake of those opportunities, consultancies and contractors have sprung up to help send dollars where they need to go. Valandra wants to leverage his history in Indian Country as a contractor, gaming operator, and, well, as a Native American to make sure tribes are getting the best work they can for their money.

To that end, Valandra formed the consultancy Tribal Ready in January 2023. The first six months of the company’s existence have been “a whirlwind,” he shared. Tribal Ready has partnered with technology platform Ready.net to help tribes figure out everything from which kind of networks best suit their needs to negotiating feasibility and environmental impact studies ahead of build-outs.

“Indian Country is still gathering together all of this funding that’s needed to build out tribal networks. We’re helping tribes do feasibility studies or write grants, and then we’re going to help write requests for proposals and make sure deliverables line up with the RFPs we helped write,” Valandra said. “We have kind of an evolving business model. We’re a Native-owned company that’s partnering with tribes, so that we can look out for them.”

It’s no surprise Valandra’s services are in demand, given a renewed national interest in tribal connectivity in the wake of COVID-19. Longstanding challenges facing tribal members in rural locations worsened when telehealth, distance learning, and remote work became the norm. The situation garnered an unprecedented amount of support from the federal government – support that now needs to end up in the right hands to make the biggest difference, Valandra said.

Sometimes, that means helping tribes set up a new provider service on their reservation and take that over. Sometimes, it means managing the provider for the tribe in question or buying a nearby provider to expand its existing services into a new area focusing on supporting Native citizens, Valandra said.

However the final arrangements look, tribes should have as much control of their connectivity infrastructure and service as possible, he added.

“Over the last 50 years, the federal government has provided an awful lot of funding to improve rural connectivity, but very little of that was actually seen in Indian Country,” Valandra said. “For tribes to control the infrastructure that supports and delivers broadband service to their members is absolutely vital, without question.”

As a marketer, I can attest to the importance and power of TikTok. The social media platform has over 1 billion monthly active users and is the most downloaded app globally.

Furthermore, the video-based social app is top-rated among Gen-Z and millennials.

While TikTok’s usage among marketers has increased by 15% YoY, some marketers are still figuring out how to generate leads on the platform.

Fortunately, I have much experience using TikTok as a social media fanatic and marketer. Here’s everything you need to know about lead generation on TikTok. But first — why use TikTok for lead generation at all?

 

Why use TikTok for lead generation?

There are a few good reasons TikTok can be a great platform to generate new leads:

1. It allows for mobile-first campaigns.

TikTok prioritizes short-form videos, though users can upload and view videos for 10 minutes.

This makes the platform an excellent channel for mobile-first campaigns because short-form videos are expected to represent 80% of all mobile data traffic in North America.

The platform allows users to scroll through videos for hours on end from their phones and subscribe to their favorite TikTok accounts.

Additionally, from an operations standpoint, the mobile format is relevant. You can run a business right from your phone, so investing in a mobile-based application like TikTok can fit right into your mobile-first campaigns.

2. It’s great for brands targeting a younger market.

According to YPulse, over 75% of Gen Zers use TikTok, and nearly two-thirds use it daily. Furthermore, thanks to the app, many Gen Zers are curious about products or make buying decisions.

For instance, a study shows after viewing a Dynamic Showcase Ad on TikTok ( a type of video ad on the platform), 74% of Gen Z weekly TikTok users would seek more information on the advertised product.

Even better, 46% of Gen Z TikTok users have bought a product because they saw it on TikTok in the past year.

This information is essential for business owners trying to reach a younger audience. After all, Gen Z will be the market with the most purchasing power in the future.

According to Bloomberg, the younger generation already has $360 billion in buying power, compared to $143 billion just four years ago.

3. It enables your brand to produce authentic content.

Authenticity matters, especially to Gen Z. In a recent study, 92% of Gen Zers indicated that being authentic and genuine to oneself is extremely or very important.

Keeping things genuine is key to getting buyers to believe your business does more than just get consumers to buy products.

Doing this can be difficult, but focusing on storytelling is a great place to start. Focusing on narrative shows your business goes beyond money and emphasizes the human element of things.

In a nutshell? Authentic brands attract quality leads. And with TikTok paving the way for original brand building — especially with content creators with immense influencing power — this platform is the place to be.

Tools and Resources

Below are some tools and resources available to boost leads via TikTok.

Internal TikTok analytics

TikTok’s built-in analytics tools allow creators and marketers to observe critical metrics such as profile views, likes, comments, unique visitors, engagement, and reach.

I also use it to track video playtime, average watch time, and viewer demographics. Other metrics that can be tracked are:

• Statistics on your latest live video, viewing ranking, and replays
• Follower counts, such as total followers, lost followers, and net followers
• Trending videos of the week

HubSpot’s TikTok Integration

You can now automatically sync the leads you‘ve gained via TikTok with your HubSpot CRM in real time.

Just ensure you have a HubSpot account, at least one instant form on TikTok’s Ad Manager, and admin access to the ad account you will use for the integration.

Follow these steps to get started:

1. Go to the Tools section in your TikTok Ads Manager account and click Leads in the dropdown menu. Click the Connect CRM button at the top of the page.
2. Find HubSpot and click Directly Connect.
3. Select Apply to get permission to manage leads from your TikTok account. From there, click Sign in to HubSpot, connect your HubSpot CRM, then select Next.
4. Choose the form you want to sync leads from.
5. Map the fields from your TikTok Instant Form to your HubSpot properties and click Submit.
6. Click Confirm, and you’re all set!

If you want to ensure your integration is set up properly, select the Send Test Data button.

Next, let’s explore five ways to generate leads on TikTok:

1. Build an eye-catching and trustworthy profile.

Your TikTok profile should prove your brand‘s legitimacy and help you stand out from the sea of accounts. So, use your brand’s unique logo as your TikTok profile photo.

If you don’t have a logo, create one or use a relevant, aesthetically pleasing image or video.

Yes, you can use video as your TikTok’s profile image.

You‘ll also need to create a short and compelling bio that tells viewers what your company is about. When writing my TikTok bios, I think of it as the world’s shortage and punchiest elevator pitch.

Feel free to add a little humor as well. For example, language learning Duolingo’s bio reads:

“Free language education for the world. Just an owl tryna vibe.”

The bio captures Duolingo‘s mission and the humorous and playful energy of the account’s videos.

Links are also crucial to your profile because they direct traffic to your website, products, and services. So, be sure to include a relevant link to your bio.

Finally, it helps to be verified on TikTok. A TikTok verification badge confirms that your account is the official account for your brand and not a fan account, scam, or parody.

To learn about the verification process, click here.

2. Create valuable, engaging, and entertaining content that calls for action.

Before creating TikTok videos, think about your organization’s buyer persona. Who is your target audience? What kind of content do they find valuable? How can you showcase value to your target consumers on TikTok?

Let these questions inform your videos‘ tone, style, and content. You must also consider where your audience is in their buyers’ journey.

Are you looking to attract leads who are just learning about your business or leads who are ready to make a purchasing decision?

Furthermore, you should create content that calls for your audience to act, such as:

• “Read my blog for more information!”
• “Click the link in our bio for more deals!”
• “Sign up for our newsletter to learn more.”

TikTok also allows creators to include product links in their videos, so take advantage of that feature to generate leads directly from your videos.

Another element I’ve found helpful is the use of relevant hashtags. TikTok allows users to type in hashtags during uploading and tells you how many views a hashtag has.

When uploading content, look at which relevant tags have the most views and incorporate them into the caption of your video. You should also keep an eye on trending topics and challenges to find ways to incorporate them into your content.

3. Leverage TikTok Ads.

Of course, the most beneficial strategy you could implement is leveraging TikTok Ads — especially TikTok Lead Generation Ads. I mean, it’s in the name.

TikTok Lead Generation Ads is a type of advertising the platform offers specifically to cultivate leads and collect lead information for your website.

These ads come with a CTA button.

Once users click on the button, they can access an instant form that provides more information about your business and provides you with the contact details of said users and their interest in your product or service.

The ads can also redirect users to your website and their information directly.

Lead Generation Ads aren’t the only ad types TikTok offers. The platform has several others marketers can choose from to build leads and recognition. To learn more about these ads type and which are worth investing in, click here.

4. Collaborate with influencers.

Influencers will help your brand connect with your audience in an authentic and relatable way. Even better influencers on the platform have an engagement rate of 15.86%, triple that of the average user.

Connect with influencers whose image and content align with those of your brand.

You can incorporate influencer marketing into your lead generation strategy by having an influencer post content using your product or service and offering a discount code to the creator’s followers.

5. Track your results.

Monitor your videos to see what kind of content gets the most engagement or leads so you can take stock of the most effective methods for your brand.

Investing in TikTok ads also allows you to track your ad’s metrics and performance.

TikTok is more than just an app for funny, short-form videos. If leveraged properly, it can be an excellent platform for lead generation. Just make sure to follow the strategies above to maximize your success. 

X (formerly Twitter), with its 237.8 million daily active users, is a platform with a ton of potential for companies to increase awareness and build their brand personality. In recent years, big names like Netflix, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell have become X famous for their witty commentary and personable interactions with their followers.

But how can companies build their reputation as original, relatable, and dependable while still maintaining their unique voice? Social media has transformed the relationship between individuals and organizations — which is why the community management role is now so vital.

But what exactly is a community manager, anyway? Here, we’re going to explore what a community manager is and — if you’re applying or starting out in the role — how to be a great one.

Table of Contents

• What is a Community Manager?
• How to Become a Community Manager
• Community Manager Job Description
• Community Manager Job Responsibilities
• How to Be a Great Community Manager
• Community Manager Job Outlook
• Community Manager Org Chart

If you ask Krystal Wu, HubSpot’s Social Media Community Manager (@hellokrystalwu), the most critical part of the community manager role, she’ll say it’s simply “having one.”

The community manager position builds brand personality and consumer trust, which can ultimately lead to increased awareness and company performance — making it a critical component of your marketing strategy.

How to Become a Community Manager

Community managers come from a variety of backgrounds — anything from recruiting to journalism to engineering — because being successful in the role relies more on a set of skills than a degree.

First, it’s important for community managers to be knowledgeable about and across the business. Community managers should be able to rely on their experience with their organization to confidently address their audience or tap into internal resources to appropriately handle any issues that may arise.

Beyond a working understanding of the business, managers need to build productive, professional relationships both internally and externally in order to be more authentic and reliable brand ambassadors.

Community Manager Job Description

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What does it take to be a community manager? Here are some of the essential soft and hard skills you need:

1. Background in a support-related field such as customer success.
2. Strong soft skills such as communication both online and in-person.
3. Solid understanding of the organization, including product knowledge.
4. Ability to build and implement community-focused content strategies.
5. An understanding of PR-related activities.
6. Social media savvy to drive interest and engagement.
7. Event management and promotion skills, both online and in person.

In order to advocate for and preserve an organization’s brand, community managers must have incredibly strong soft skills. Above all, empathy, good listening skills, and adaptability are crucial to promoting favorable impressions of an organization.

Beyond interpersonal skills, the best community managers are actively researching trends and hot topics — by engaging with the latest industry developments, community managers are better able to connect with relevant audiences and provide them with the most updated resources and best practices.

Krystal Wu emphasized adaptability as an important characteristic for success in the role — since the position is still developing and community managers are often carving out their own job descriptions, being flexible in order to adjust to new trends and expectations will serve you in the long run.

Ultimately, great community managers understand that theirs is a customer service-based role. Actively listen to customers, address concerns, demonstrate an authentic social presence, and maintain productive partnerships with consumers. In short, be a good human being for your audience on behalf of your brand.

What does a community manager do?

Build and maintain a community.

Community managers are responsible for building and maintaining a brand’s community — both online and offline — and public perception.

The job requires engaging audiences on a variety of outlets, including online forums, social media platforms, Slack, in-person groups, and more, to reach all audiences where they are.

Since different digital spaces have unique cultures and best practices, community managers must be the consistent tone and voice of the brand.

As Krystal Wu points out, “When I speak, I am on the line for HubSpot. I’m not Krystal, I’m HubSpot.”

As a community manager, all your messaging, content, and crisis management across networks should be prompt, consistent with your brand, and empathetic to create a loyal and delighted community.

Manage public relations.

PR is another basic tenet of managing and extending a brand’s audience as community managers are engaging with all kinds of press — both positive and negative — generated about their companies.

How managers navigate legal issues or negative press can separate good community managers from great ones.

Missteps in this role can do real damage to a brand, so connecting with your organization’s legal, PR, or related teams can help mitigate problems and make sure that responses are coming out appropriately.

Create strategies.

Additionally, great community managers are constantly thinking about how they might experiment with new strategies.

For instance, Krystal Wu has learned that a tactic or test won’t run the first time, but you shouldn’t be discouraged — progress takes time. Community managers should think about the long term — the more you invest in an improved strategy, new direction, or the position itself, the more you’ll get out of it.

An easily forgotten resource is an external network of other community managers! Finding others in similar positions can be very helpful in crowdsourcing informed solutions or leaning on experienced others who’ve handled similar situations in the past.

Cultivate brand presence.

Building on the usefulness of a PR skill set, community managers must be vigilant of their organization’s brand presence and assess the potential consequences of their corporate communications.

Brand presence includes consistency of voice across platforms to keep the company on track in terms of target audience awareness and engagement.

Consumers should be able to recognize brand voice across pillars — whether they’re seeing a post on Instagram or a question on Quora.

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Track engagement.

Beyond direct interaction between the brand and its audience, community managers also record and report the engagement they see on at least a monthly basis.

Other teams that create content operate mostly on the backend, so it’s good to hear from the community manager who sees the response from consumers. They can help track whether followers are confused or what kinds of changes they are seeing within digital communities.

Krystal Wu says that she has developed an intuition about the psychology of HubSpot’s audience and can therefore evolve and tweak her outreach strategy in order to most effectively engage with target audiences.

Furthermore, community managers keep in mind their ideal audience, shaping content and communications to target the right audience rather than simply building a larger one.

Offer resilience.

When I asked Krystal if there were any challenges she faced that she hadn’t expected, she said she hadn’t anticipated the “emotional rollercoaster I deal with every day.”

The experience of engaging with a digital community can be volatile — one day might be full of positive and rewarding discussions, while the next might be hounded by complaints and disgruntled users.

It’s important that community managers maintain and control emotions in order to handle the various issues that arise.

Delight the community.

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Lastly, great community managers delight their community.

Krystal Wu makes sure to give positive encouragement to her audience through gift cards, little presents, or what she calls “delight boxes,” which are filled with a bunch of fun HubSpot swag items.

Even when things go wrong, great community managers address problems, resolve them, and send gifts to those involved.

By building positive relationships with the members of your community — whether they have a positive impression of your brand or a negative one — you’re building a reputable and trustworthy brand perception.

How to Be a Great Community Manager

Like any job that requires frequent, and sometimes intense, communication with customers and community members, being a great community manager requires passion and dedication.

By understanding the skills you need and nurturing that skill set over time, you can become a great community manager who understands exactly how to manage your brand’s presence online.

Set yourself goals and objectives.

First, it’s important to set out some clear goals and objectives.

Regardless of how far along in a career you are, good community managers know how to combine the empathy and compassion needed for the job while remaining organized and objective.

Objectives for a community manager could relate to comment response times, brand sentiment levels, or engagement rates, among other things.

In combination with customer marketing, community management also contributes towards revenue goals.

As Laurie Aquilante Faiola, vice president of marketing and community-led growth at HubSpot, points out: “If you think about your customers or that initial purchase as the end of your marketing and sales funnel, you’re leaving a whole bunch of opportunity on the table.”

Having objectives helps to prioritize your workload and strategic initiatives, and provides the ability to demonstrate the value of your role when you achieve them.

Work on your listening skills.

Data is important, but the human element of community management cannot be underestimated. Rather than generating run-of-the-mill responses to comments, try listening carefully to what your community members are saying.

This applies to positive, neutral, and negative comments. Positive sentiment should be matched with the same energy.

Help your community members get excited about their contributions and actively engage with the thoughts or opinions they’re sharing.

Meanwhile, negative comments should be met with empathy and compassion, and your responses should show that you truly understand and care about solving challenges for your community.

Foster inclusivity.

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There’s a lot that managers can do to ensure the community remains a safe and inclusive space for everyone.

All community members or contributors should be made aware that there are communication and behavior guidelines in place, including consequences for breaching these guidelines.

Whether it’s deleting comments or removing members from the space, it’s essential that these guidelines are enforced so that community members can feel safe and see that the brand is committed to their values.

Be quick off the mark.

Although community should be primarily driven by members rather than a brand, community managers should be a visible and frequent presence in discussions.

This includes timely responses to posts, comments, and reviews. With larger communities, it can be tricky to keep up. But, community managers should always strive for the fastest response times possible.

Provide value to foster discussions.

Content marketing is a huge aspect of community management. It gives you the opportunity to provide truly valuable resources to the community and can often be the spark that lights up a lively discussion.

“Consistent content creation is a cornerstone of community growth,” says Lucy Alexander, senior marketing manager at HubSpot. “To keep your community members returning regularly, they need to see new things each time they return.”

From interesting articles and industry news to scheduling events or webinars, community managers who build content marketing into their strategy can increase engagement levels and improve brand sentiment.

Community Manager Job Outlook

Brands are increasingly recognizing the importance of effective community management, whether it’s across social media channels or dedicated platforms and support hubs.

Community managers bring a human touch to a brand’s online presence — one that is appreciated by both consumers and organizations alike.

In fact, 83% of consumers on Facebook prefer brand personality. And, according to Sprout Social, 21% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that are accessible via social media.

From the organizational side, the support for community management roles is similarly robust. According to a report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of social and community managers is expected to grow by 12% between 2021 and 2031.

While the rapid advancement of AI tools is likely to bring a level of increased automation to community management, anyone on this career track should rest easy.

As a role that requires a diverse skill set (including an emphasis on soft skills), it’s likely to be a role that evolves alongside AI rather than one that will be completely replaced.

Community Manager Salary

• Average entry-level community manager salary: $41,748
• Average early-career community manager salary: $48,673
• Average mid-level community manager salary: $51,428
• Average manager-level salary: $60,413
• Average late-career community manager salary: $72,000

Community Manager Org Chart

Community management can sit within and across different functions and teams.

It all depends on the unique internal set-up of an organization. In general, however, community management sits within a dedicated community function or within the social media team.

Here’s an example of where community management commonly sits in a social media org chart:

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Beyond the org chart, the roles and responsibilities of a community manager can vary based on the team they sit in and their level of seniority within that team.

Associate-Level Community Manager

An associate-level community manager is an entry-level or junior position.

In this role, your responsibilities might include day-to-day tasks like responding to comments and requests, scheduling posts, and moderating community activity.

Team members with a junior-level customer service background can often move into this kind of role.

Mid-Level Community Manager

A mid-level community manager may take on all the tasks of an associate but with added responsibilities.

Common tasks at this level would also include creating or curating content, engaging in some strategy development, and analyzing and reporting on community metrics.

A mixture of hard and soft skills becomes more important at this level, as the manager will need copywriting, design, communication, and analytical skills.

Team Lead Community Manager

Next up in the org chart is typically the team lead level.

Overseeing mid-level and associate community managers, the community team lead is typically responsible for coordinating initiatives and strategies, setting and operationalizing community objectives, and guiding and supporting junior team members.

On top of other community-based skills, team members at this level also require leadership skills, project management knowledge, and strategic development capabilities.

Senior Management Level

At the senior management level within community management, responsibilities shift to a broader perspective.

Team members at this level need to understand organizational objectives and ensure the community strategy and tactics are fully aligned with these goals.

They’ll work closely on strategy development, budget management, and reporting on the team’s overall success and performance to the rest of the organization.

A robust knowledge of growth management, strategy, budget management, and stakeholder management is needed here.

Delight Your Community

Whether you’re just starting out in community management or looking to move up to the next level, take some time to analyze what you need to do to take your resume to the next level.

From hard skills like content creation and data analytics to crucial soft skills like communication, there is always something to learn in a role as diverse and exciting as community management.

And don’t forget to keep the end goal of your role in mind: to delight your community.

Nostalgia marketing is the advertising equivalent of comfort food.

In a time where most marketing focuses heavily on the future, nostalgic commercials and ads transport us back to a simpler place where our current problems don’t matter.

Instead of anticipating the next great thing, nostalgia marketing urges us to focus on what we already know works.

To inspire your campaigns, we selected 22 examples of nostalgia marketing that play on the bittersweet pangs of days gone by.

The Power of Nostalgia Marketing

“When you play on nostalgia, you’re bringing people back to a simpler time, and the familiar comfort that comes with a shared experience with your peers,” says Jones Krahl, Deloitte Digital’s co-head of creative brand and advertising, along with Milton Correa.

“While playing into nostalgia isn’t new, putting your own spin on nostalgia has become increasingly popular,” Correa adds.

We know at a gut level that nostalgia gives our lives a feeling of meaning and continuity, but you may be surprised to learn it can also make us looser with our wallets.

A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that nostalgic feelings made participants more willing to spend money on consumer goods and services — making nostalgia marketing a major win.

22 Examples of Nostalgic Ads

We rounded up some nostalgic commercials that induce a fondness for a bygone time by calling upon pop-culture elements of the good old days.

Incorporating famous characters and scenes from the past in modern advertisements is a tried-and-true way to generate positive feelings in your target audience, making them more likely to open their wallets.

1. Nintendo

Many children of the ‘80s and ’90s remember playing Nintendo-based video games with their siblings. And many people also recall the sad feelings related to growing apart or drifting away from a relative.

This commercial highlights both memories by telling the story of two Nintendo-loving brothers who grow apart, argue as teenagers, and then happily reunite as adults to play the new Nintendo Switch together.

This nostalgic commercial not only reminds people of what it was like to grow up with siblings, but it also reminds you of the great fun you had playing video games as a child.

Then, because the brothers connect and chat virtually as they play Switch games at the end, it shows how Nintendo’s technology has evolved to connect old friends and relatives worldwide.

2. Australia Tourism Board

Instead of promoting a traditional ad showing Australia’s most beautiful destinations, Australia disguised a tourism ad as a star-studded trailer for a fictional reboot of the ’80s film Crocodile Dundee.

As those who watched the original Dundee series get excited by clips from the film, starring Chris Hemsworth and Jason Sudeikis, it‘s revealed that Hemsworth tricked Sudeikis into a tourism ad. Despite the trickery, Hemsworth and Sudeikis agree that their trip to Australia was still the best vacation they’d ever taken.

This was a clever way to embrace the television and movie reboot trend of 2018 and 2019 while still highlighting the best Australia has to offer for tourism. Because it features famous actors in the present day, it’s also hilarious for both people who followed the Dundee films or the main characters in the fake reboot.

3. Spotify

In 2016, music-streaming service Spotify unveiled a new spokesperson — er, spokes-dragon — in a 30-second ad produced by Wieden + Kennedy New York.

Falkor and his boy companion Atreyu (now a heavily bearded 44-year-old man) are both characters from the beloved 1984 fantasy film The NeverEnding Story.

W+K even got the original actors to reprise their roles (Noah Hathaway as Atreyu and Alan Oppenheimer as the voice of Falkor).

The pair appear just as the film left them over 20 years ago: gliding through the clouds while the movie‘s dramatic theme song plays in the background. “I can’t believe people still listen to this song!” Atreyu exclaims. His dragon agrees; they share a laugh, and the two speed off into a grainy, ’80s-quality CG sky.

4. Freia

The tagline of Freia, a Norwegian chocolate company, is “Et lite stykke Norge” (A little piece of Norway). This spot for the company produced by SMFB Oslo fully encapsulates the sentiment in a simple, joyful way.

The plot follows a Norwegian expat in New York navigating a hectic life as a fashion stylist. When he returns home to his apartment one evening, he finds a half-eaten bar of Freia chocolate in his otherwise empty fridge.

After just one bite, he’s inspired to hop on a plane back to Norway to visit his father and soak up the majestic landscape of his homeland. The ad ends with the stylist discovering a modest hair salon for sale in what is presumably his hometown.

The message is clear: A taste of Freia chocolate is inherently connected to Norway, no matter where in the world you may be.

5. Adobe

Bob Ross, the beloved ’80s painting guru who passed away in 1995, experienced an unexpected resurgence in popularity in 2016 after Netflix added his classic TV show, The Joy of Painting, to its streaming lineup.

After his Netflix debut, Ross became a trending topic on Instagram, and Adobe took notice. They decided to pay homage to the late painter in a series of tutorial videos promoting their new Adobe Photoshop Sketch for the iPad Pro.

Authenticity was central to this nostalgic campaign. Adobe and agency Lekker Media collaborated with Bob Ross Inc. to make sure every detail was accurate, even going as far to make sure it properly displayed the clothing Ross wore on his show.

Children‘s book illustrator Chad Cameron, who plays Ross in the series, perfectly channels the artist’s relaxed, unpretentious demeanor.

“Bob’s wish was to inspire as many people as possible to be creative and to share it with others,” Joan Kowalski, media director at Bob Ross Inc., told Adweek. “Adobe’s ‘Joy of Sketching’ series reminds us that a company as big as Adobe shares in that hope.”

6. Oikos

Although it originally aired from 1987-1995, Full House has become a nostalgic childhood symbol for multiple generations thanks to syndication.

But before Netflix revived the show with a 2016 reboot, Dannon reunited a few of the show‘s stars in an ad for Oikos, the company’s line of Greek yogurts.

John Stamos is joined by his former cast members Bob Saget and Dave Coulier in this Y&R Vinizius-produced spot. The trio doesn’t explicitly reprise their Full House roles, but the dynamic is undeniably reminiscent of their days on the sitcom.

7. Adidas

In 1973, Billie Jean King won a tennis match against male player Bobby Riggs, coined “The Battle of the Sexes.” The historic tennis game was the first time a woman tennis player was matched against a male.

In and before the late 1950s, men were seen as superior athletes. Before the tennis match with King, who was only 25, even Riggs said he could beat a woman at the age of 55.

King’s tennis match win proved Riggs wrong. It also proved that men and women could compete equally on the tennis field and in other sports.

On a bigger scale, it further empowered women, who were often stereotyped as wives, homemakers, or secretaries at the time. With King’s win, it became harder to ignore that gender stereotypes were false and that women could win and even lead amongst men.

King wore an iconic pair of blue Adidas tennis shoes during the match. Years later, to celebrate the 45th anniversary of King‘s win, Adidas launched a limited edition line of BJK shoes with the tennis legend’s face and initials on each pair.

To announce the shoe line, Adidas launched a series of simple commercials showing Billie Jean King spray-painting piles of shoes blue. Here’s an example of one of the ads:

To further promote the line, Adidas also had booths at the U.S. Open tennis match where fans could bring any brand of shoes and have an artist paint them blue with Adidas’ unique BJK logo.

According to Adidas, the overall campaign led to a 20% boost in tennis shoe sales. And, now that the campaign is over, people are auctioning off these limited edition shoes on eBay for upwards of $1,000.

8. Tesco

Nothing screams nostalgia like old home movies. In this extended holiday ad from British grocery chain Tesco, we watch a family grow and age over the years through the lens of their Christmas home videos. Set to a poignant theme, the ad is intended to stir up fond holiday memories for viewers.

“We wanted to show what a real Christmas is all about — not a perfect, airbrushed one — but the ones we recognize from our own lives,” David Wood, former marketing director at Tesco, told Adweek. The ad was produced by Wieden + Kennedy, London.

9. Microsoft

Although Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is no more, this 2013 spot for the web browser earned viral recognition and a Webby Award nomination.

“You might not remember us,” the ad‘s narrator begins, “but we met in the ’90s.” The commercial highlights all things ’90s — fanny packs, Tamagotchi, bowl haircuts — even the Oregon Trail PC game makes an appearance.

Column Five Media, the creative agency behind the ad, set out to create a nostalgia-driven viral ad that would reintroduce Internet Explorer to ’90s kids.

“The idea of a brand like Internet Explorer being forward-thinking enough to make such a story-focused, Gen Y-centered commercial was pretty newsworthy,” the agency wrote in a behind-the-scenes blog post.

“Focusing that story on ’90s nostalgia, which we knew was popular with Gen Y and not yet fully realized in video form, is what made [the ad] shareworthy.”

10. Chili’s

Chili’s ads are usually characterized by close-up shots of glistening hamburgers, sizzling bacon, and french fries still glowing with fryer oil.

So this 2016 ad produced by Boston-based agency Hill Holliday was a departure from the casual dining chain’s typical go-to formula.

The commercial depicts Chili‘s origin story through a series of retro vignettes. We see the laid-back founders playing ring toss, lounging on the hood of their car, and, of course, flipping classic Chili’s burgers in their first restaurant.

The ad taps into traditional Americana — a form of nostalgia for small-town American life, middle-class values, and neighborhood restaurants.

11. Apple

Apple regularly features celebrities in their advertising, but they made a throwback casting decision for this iPhone 6s nostalgic commercial.

Everyone’s favorite sweet-toothed Muppet, Cookie Monster, might have switched to a more balanced diet, but he appears whipping up a batch of his favorite chocolate chip cookies in this ad.

TBWA/Media Arts Lab is the agency behind the ad, and they even released a series of “bloopers” featuring the beloved childhood character.

12. Target

The nostalgic force is strong in this Target video promoting Star Wars: The Force Awakens merchandise.

As part of a more extensive campaign to encourage fans to share their Star Wars memories online, Deutsch LA produced this two-minute compilation of Star Wars fans’ home videos.

In the nostalgic commercial, young fans dressed as little Princess Leias, Luke Skywalkers, and Han Solos brandish lightsabers and give their best Chewbacca impressions, all while the classic Star Wars theme plays in the background.

The result is an endearing campaign that will resonate with longtime fans and new converts alike.

13. Bacardi

For its 150th anniversary in 2012, Bacardi released a series of print and television ads showcasing the brand’s party-starting heritage.

The trip down memory lane was intended to give the company a shot of authenticity, reminding consumers that Bacardi has stood the test of time.

The goal, according to Leo Premutico, co-founder of WPP agency Johannes Leonardo, the agency behind the ad, was “to depict a moment in time that lives in history” and offer “an eye to what’s next, an exciting future.”

14. McDonald’s

When McDonald’s removed antibiotics and artificial preservatives from their chicken in 2016, they wanted an ad campaign that informed consumers about these changes and tapped into nostalgia surrounding their famous nuggets.

“There’s an undeniable level of nostalgia tied to the McDonald’s brand and its food,” Britt Nolan, Leo Burnett USA’s Chief Creative Officer, told Adweek.

“We set out to capture that relationship in a sincere, simple way that today’s parents can relate to and feel good about sharing with their own kids.”

15. Uber Eats

To support local restaurants and build hype around their product, Uber Eats turned to beloved local access show hosts and rockers Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar for their Super Bowl 2021 spot.

The dynamic duo from the 1992 classic Wayne’s World appealed to nostalgic millennial audiences while also nodding to the present with a Tik-Tok-dancing Cardi B cameo. While the Cardi B cameo is self-awarely shameless, it illustrates a valuable strategy of leveraging nostalgia while acknowledging modernity.

Limited Re-Releases of Nostalgic Products

Some products are so classic that the mere mention drums a swell of warm, fuzzy nostalgic bliss. Think Tamagotchi and Beanie Babies for 90s kids or Cabbage Patch Dolls from the 80s.

Companies lucky enough to score a hit product back in the day have capitalized on it in the present by offering limited re-releases of those beloved past items.

Here are a few examples of limited re-releases of nostalgic products.

16. Crystal Pepsi

Pepsi released Crystal Pepsi in 1992. Despite a less-than-stellar reception and resulting discontinuation in 1994, Pepsi’s quirky, clear soda remains a warm and comforting memory for many who yearn for simpler times.

Pepsi ran a limited rerelease of the drink in 2022 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its failed yet nostalgic beverage.

However, Crystal Pepsi was never available for purchase. Nostalgia fans entered a social media competition and used branded hashtags to show off their favorite 90s photos, with winners receiving 20 bottles of the storied soda.

In addition, Pepsi recently unveiled its first rebrand since 2008, complete with a new logo and visual identity that pays homage to vintage Pepsi branding of the 70s and 80s.

17. Motorola Razr

In the early 2000s, before smartphones, one of Motorola’s most popular cell phones was a tiny, flat flip phone called the Razr. Despite its number-based keyboard and a small screen, people loved it for its design and simplicity.

In 2019, Motorola gained buzz when it re-introduced a new and improved Razr featuring a folding touchscreen.

In the commercial announcement, you see an old-school Razr lifting off a table and flying through the air as its old layers peel off to reveal a new design. The phone then opens to reveal the Android-like touch screen.

Partnering with Nostalgic Brands

Your brand may not have been around back in the day — and that’s okay! However, that doesn’t mean you can’t draw on nostalgia in your marketing efforts.

Partnering with a classic brand is a win-win scenario that draws nostalgia fans toward a new product and reinvigorates awareness of the older brand.

Here are a few examples of modern companies partnering with nostalgic brands to supercharge their marketing efforts.

18. Hotels.com x Lisa Frank

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Hotels.com partnered with Lisa Frank and Barsala to offer a pop-up flat that fulfills the nostalgic fantasies of ‘90s kids who loved their rainbow-clad notebooks and unicorn pencil pouches.

“We wanted to design a room that celebrates all things ’90s, and nothing screams childhood nostalgia more than these iconic designs,” shared Adam Jay, President of Hotels.com.

The room was exclusively bookable on Hotels.com for a short time in 2019 and proved to be a successful example of nostalgia marketing, especially as it appeals to millennial audiences.

The hyper-stimulating and nostalgic design generated lots of press and even more Instagram hype from happy guests basking in the warmth of childhood wonder.

19. JNCOs x Goldfish

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Jalapeno poppers were big in the ‘90s, and so were ultra-wide-leg jeans. So, it was only natural for Goldfish to partner with JNCO for a limited edition pair of nostalgia-inducing jeans to promote their new jalapeno popper-flavored snack.

Brand partnerships are a great way to market new products and reach wider audiences. If your partnership can evoke sentimental emotions in a specific audience, that’s a recipe for success.

20. AirBnb x Blockbuster

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Few 90s memories are as sacred as wandering into Blockbuster on a Friday evening and being greeted with a labyrinth of movie titles and games to choose from — perhaps even some candy at journey’s end.

Sadly, only a single Blockbuster remains in Bend, OR. However, AirBnb partnered with the lone video rental store to offer a 90s-themed experience to Blockbuster lovers looking to relive their nostalgic memories in the form of an overnight stay.

The sentimental stay was only available for three nights in September 2020, with proceeds going to charity. With limited availability and a strong nostalgic hook, this partnership garnered significant buzz for both brands.

Nostalgia in Design

Nostalgia in advertising can be more subtle than partnering with classic brands or featuring nostalgic pop-culture icons in advertisements.

Some brands invoke fond memories within consumers through the design of products that nod to the style and aesthetics of a time when things were just a bit simpler.

21. Levi’s

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Baggy jeans are back, and Levi’s is driving the resurgence of the 90s clothing aesthetic in their design. Their Instagram page is replete with vintage tinted filters and models who look like they stepped off the set of Dawson’s Creek.

They even offer a special line of 90s edition 501 jeans that call upon nostalgia in name and design, with their loose-fitting, mid-rise vibe that provides a blast from the past for lovers of all things 90s.

Levi’s leans into the storied history of their brand in their advertising and product design, which elicit positive feelings of the past in their customers. If you can make your customers feel good, they’ll surely want to buy.

22. Heinz’s Ketchup

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There’s comfort in consistency, and few brands recognize that more than Heinz.

The image above shows an original Heinz Ketchup bottle from 1890, which doesn’t look all that different from the current Heinz designs.

If you have an iconic logo, it might be your best bet to stick with it. Classic designs offer feelings of safety and trust in consumers, resulting in brand loyalty and sales.

Of course, we can’t all be stewards of iconic brands. However, leaning into nostalgia through the design of your products is a powerful way to garner positive feelings toward your brand.

How to Nail Nostalgia

The key to nailing nostalgia is understanding what motivates your audiences, how they were raised, and where their deepest interests lie.

To do this, research or develop buyer personas that grew up in certain generations to learn what makes them think.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in September 2016, but was updated for comprehensiveness and freshness in February 2020.

Conversion copywriters — the people who write landing page copy that converts readers and delivers sales — are wonderful human beings. Their writing pulls in readers, generates conversions, and ultimately produces buckets of cash.

Wouldn’t you like to have that skill?

There’s good news here: It’s only partly skill. The rest is just technique — technique that you can learn and master. You — yes, you! — can unleash the same wizard-like conversion copy powers, as long as you understand the techniques that are at play.

You see, conversion is very much a science of the mind — how your prospect’s mind processes information, makes decisions, and decides to convert. In this post, I’ll describe eight writing techniques that are proven to work. After putting your time and resources into generating traffic, here’s how you can turn traffic into revenue by creating copy like a conversion pro.

Here are the tips we’ll cover:

1. Use customer testimonials
2. Emphasize the benefits, not the product/service
3. Spend time writing a killer headline
4. Keep your writing simple
5. Write like a human
6. Use numbers and get specific
7. Ask for readers to take action
8. A/B test your copy

8 Tips for Writing Great Landing Page Copy

1) Use customer testimonials.

One of the most powerful conversion copy techniques is not about writing at all; it’s about letting happy customers write your copy for you.

Testimonials produce conversions like nothing else can. It’s impossible to write copy as good as your customer. Why? Because good copy depends on the source, not just the style and substance. Testimonials are compelling because they show the customer what she will experience if she uses your product or service.

HighriseHQ’s landing pages are great use cases of these customer testimonials. A key to their successful, high-converting landing pages is that they place testimonials front and center, featuring a picture of the customer alongside a quote.

Now, take a look at one of Zoosk’s landing pages, where most of the copy is testimonials:

Most landing pages that do well have testimonials somewhere on the page, but ConversionXL uses a testimonial as their headline:

Remember, your best conversion writers are your customers. Let them speak for themselves — social proof is a powerful addition to your copywriting and marketing strategy.

2) Emphasize the benefits, not the product/service.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in online marketing is that customers don’t really care about your products or services — in other words, they don’t care about the “solution” you’re trying to sell to them. A group of Harvard researchers conducted a study of 1,400 B2B customers in a variety of different fields, and concluded we’ve reached “the end of solution sales.”

Traditionally, sales was predicated on the “solution-selling method.” According to this method, “salespeople are trained to align a solution with an acknowledged customer need and demonstrate why it is better than the competition’s.”

That approach isn’t working anymore for one very simple reason: Customers already know the solution they’re looking for. They are capable of learning virtually anything thanks to the internet and search engines. In fact, not only do customers know the solution, they also know the features they are looking for, the requirements the product must meet, and a benchmark pricing.

If you are pitching only your solution, you’re not giving your customers what they need and want. You need to pitch benefits. It’s okay to mention your solution, because that’s a signal to the customer that he or she is in the right place — but don’t push that solution. Instead, push the benefits.

Let’s look at an example from Unbounce, who successfully emphasizes the benefits of their product on this landing page: “Without IT”; “build a high-converting landing page now”; “we’ve doubled and tripled conversion rates.”

GetACopywriter.com leads with benefits in their landing page, pictured below. Their ideal customers are looking for copywriters, so they simply pitch the benefits of getting a copywriter through their service.

Jaybird, a company selling high-end Bluetooth headsets, uses a landing page that exclusively talks about benefits. There is very little on here about solutions. What sets the Bluebuds apart from everyone else is the benefits.

Benefits trump solutions every time. If you want to take your copywriting to the next level and increase conversion rates, put customer benefits at the forefront of your marketing efforts.

3) Spend time writing a killer headline.

HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant can help you generate copy

This isn’t the best news you’re going to read all day, but someone needs to say it. People don’t meticulously read your landing page copy. They scan, they skim, and they allow their eyes to flitter across the page, but they don’t (usually) read every word.

So, what’s a copywriter to do? Go find a job where someone actually appreciates our hard work?

No. We adapt to the customer and produce copy that will compel them to convert in spite of their skimming habits. Here’s what customers do pay attention to:

• The headline.
• The subheadline (usually).
• The pictures.
• CTA buttons.

After that, customers may or may not read the following:

• Major section headings.
• Bullet points.
• Short paragraphs.
• Image captions.

That should give you an idea of what to focus on as you write your conversion copy. The most important piece of content is the ten or fifteen words in the headline. Focus on and nail that, and you’ll have come a long way. To help convert the “non-readers,” you should:

1. Make your headline big, strong, and clear.
2. Use a compelling subheadline that pushes your product’s benefits.
3. Show large pictures that demonstrate the benefits of your products and explain your message.
4. Use strong copy in your CTA.
5. Break your copy up into major sections, led by a headline with large type.
6. Use bullet points to discuss benefits of your product. Short bullet points. Not long ones.
7. Use short paragraphs, rather than long blocks of text. Any paragraph over five lines long can be hard to digest.
8. Use captions on your images.

4) Keep your writing simple.

The best conversion copy you’re going to read will come in the next two words: Be simple.

You may be as good of a writer as Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, but that doesn’t matter so much because literary prowess is useless in conversion copy. Your most powerful writing skill is simplicity. Simplicity sells.

Take Optimizely, for example. They produce some of the most brilliant landing pages ever created for their clients, but take a look at their own landing page:

Is that it? Yes, yes it is. And it’s very effective. Why? Because it’s so incredibly simple. Let’s visit another landing page service — Get Response. Here is their landing page:

Simplicity again. Did whoever wrote those landing pages sit around for hours brainstorming, testing, tweaking, standing in front of a white board with a fistful of colored markers, thumbing through a thesaurus, taking long walks in nature, and meditating on the meaning of life in order to produce such brilliant simplicity?

Nope. They just wrote the simplest, most clear statements they could.

But simplicity doesn’t mean replacing creativity with meaningless buzzwords. ConversionXL created a list of words that marketers should do their best to avoid — these are phrases that you don’t want to use:

• “On-demand marketing software”
• “Integrated solutions”
• “Flexible platform”
• “World leader”
• “Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”
• “Changing the way X is done”
• “Paradigm shifting”
• “Exceeding customer expectations”

(Click here for even more cliché marketing taglines you should avoid.) Those clichés don’t work anymore — you need to keep it simple. Here are a few tips for keeping your landing page copy simple:

• Use a simple sentence structure.
• Keep sentences short.
• Use short words. Short words are easy to understand and skim.
• Don’t get fancy with your wording.
• Be clear and succinct. Use the most basic words to describe what you’re trying to say.

If you can be simple, you can write great conversion copy.

5) Write like a human.

There’s another technique that will help you crush your competition: Sound like a human being.

At some point, a bunch of copywriters decided it would be great to produce copy that sounded strained and robotic. Who’s writing this stuff? And who’s reading this stuff? I don’t know, but I do know that no one is converting on it.

People prefer to connect with other people, not with robots. That’s why your copy needs to sound like a human wrote it. Here are some specific things you can do to make your writing more personal:

• Write the way you speak.
• Use normal words, like the ones you’d use if you were talking to a ten-year old. For example, why use “convivial” if you can use “friendly?”
• Use short sentences.
• Break grammar rules if the writing still sounds good and natural.
• Be funny.
• Use first person.
• Use expressions you’d use in a normal conversation. “Seriously.” “I’m thinking…,” “Wait a second.” “It was crazy.” “Wow.” “It was pretty awesome.” “It’s like…”

Ramit Sethi, a personal finance advisor, entrepreneur, and author of the famous blog “I Will Teach You To Be Rich,” has with sky-high conversion rates and a powerful personal style. His blogs read like a personal email to a best friend. He doesn’t even mind tossing in a word or two that he would use if he was hanging with his buddies. Check out this excerpt from one of his blog posts:

Try to get yourself away from the idea that you’re writing “copy,” and think of it more as a conversation. If you do that, you’ll write better. You’ll sound like a human. Your conversion rates will go up.

6) Use numbers and get specific.

The more specific you are, the more believable and persuasive you will be. Which one of these claims is more persuasive to you?

• “Your conversion rates will explode!”
• “In the last ninety days, customer conversions have increased by an average of 78.2%.”

The second one is far more specific, and therefore more believable. Anyone can make blanket claims about awesomeness, but not everyone can cite statistics and detailed metrics.

Let’s take a look at an example. Check out this landing page example from TeamGantt. They use a specific number to promote the benefits of their product:

How effective would it be if they claimed to have “millions of tasks scheduled?” The number makes a big difference. Customers want to have specific information about benefits customers are seeing, and they want specific examples of what they will experience. Specificity is a powerful tool.

7) Ask for readers to take action.

The final killer technique of a conversion pro is the call-to-action. If you don’t ask for conversions, you won’t get them. That’s why I suggest that you start with the end goal in ind — and the whole point of your landing page is that conversion. All of your copy should be building up to that conversion. Don’t be shy!

Similarly, writing CTA button copy is just as important, if not more so, than the rest of the copy on your page. Remember, how I mentioned that CTA buttons are one of the copy that people actually read? It matters. Simple changes in wording can create huge conversion increases, like in this example:

For more ideas on CTA copy that drives clicks, check out these 14 real-life examples of great CTA copy.

8) A/B test your copy.

Get started with HubSpot’s free landing page builder

A good conversion copy writer isn’t just writing — you’ve got to be testing, too. How else will you know what kind of writing converts higher or lower for your audience?

There are all kinds of A/B tests you can do on a landing page — images, placement, flow, layout, etc. Usually, however, the biggest gains come from changes in the copy. If you want to gain higher and higher conversion rates, you’ll need to be testing your copy along with the other elements of your landing pages.

Don’t expect to hit a homerun on your first at-bat. You will succeed by carefully, methodically, and intentionally testing every variation. Here are some of the things you can test:

• Headline variations
• Subheadline variations
• CTA copy
• Lists of benefits

Test small things, too, A single word change in the headline could make a huge impact in your conversion rates. You won’t know unless you test it out. (Don’t know how to run an A/B test? Click here to learn.)

You can use HubSpot’s free landing page builder to test page variations against each other. 

Get Started With Writing Landing Page Copy

All in all, boosting conversion rates starts with killer copy. A whole lot depends on the words that you type with your keyboard. Thankfully, it’s not some insurmountable task — anyone can learn how to do it. With the right copywriting techniques firmly in place, you can achieve higher conversion rates.

What techniques do you use to write your conversion copy?

 

Throughout the holiday season, we at Google have annually watched shoppers move between 4 distinct mindsets, or what we call the ‘4Ds:’ deliberate, deal-seeking, determined, and devoted.

What are these four Ds?

• Starting in July, consumers are deliberate, thoughtfully planning their holiday purchases and wishlists.
• From October to November, they’re deal-seeking, hunting for deals and prioritizing quality and value.
• By December, they become determined to complete their shopping ahead of the holidays and are using all days and resources to get it done.
• And finally, by January, consumers become devoted as they continue to shop past peak season.

Check out this quick short where we highlight these trends:

What Do the 4Ds Mean for Your Brand?

With December fast approaching, we’ll start to see the determined shopping mindset emerge followed by devoted buyers in January.

Leveraging these three strategies has helped us, and will also help you, align with these busy shoppers:

1. Keep momentum in December and beyond
2. Connect with customers across touchpoints
3. Build long-term brand loyalty

Keeping Momentum in December — and Beyond

The opportunity for retailers doesn’t end with Cyber 5, the peak deal period from Black Friday through Cyber Monday.

According to a Mastercard analysis we ran with BCG from October 2022 through January, 46% of U.S. consumer holiday spending occurred between Cyber Monday and Christmas Eve in 2022. These shoppers also spent over $47 billion in retail in the two weeks after December 25th. 

So what’s driving consumer demand in December and January? We partnered with Ipsos on a few surveys between October 2022 and January 2023 to find out:

In December, shoppers are more motivated than ever to finish holiday shopping. Last year, the average US shopper still had 50% of their shopping left to do after “Cyber 5.” Gen Z-ers had even more left to complete than other generations. [4] 

By January, consumers can now shop for their own enjoyment and less-so out of gift obligations. According to our data, 50% of consumers enjoy shopping shortly after Christmas.

Connecting with Customers Across Touchpoints

In-store shopping climbed to record heights last year, topping $1 trillion for the first time ever.

A key driver behind these high rates of brick-and-mortar shopping is shoppers’ use of digital resources before going to a physical shop. These digital offerings are helpful to in both deciding on and fulfilling them. 

One company that saw this was cosmetics chain, Ulta Beauty, who spoke with Google about their holiday performance:

We also see consumers increasingly tapping into multiple digital channels over the course of the season.

An online study we ran with Ipsos from October 2022 through January 2023 revealed more than half of shoppers used five or more channels, like video and social media, to shop over a two-day period in 2022. That proportion of shoppers increased in December.

And we actually see shoppers use even more digital resources to make purchases after the height of the holiday season, with the average number of digital resources used increasing post-holiday. From our research, we see that this includes Google properties, like Search, Maps, Youtube, whose already high usage throughout the season increases significantly post-Christmas.

Not only are shoppers continuing to shop, but they’re shopping across more digital properties. This means brands that use omnichannel experiences to connect with customers across touchpoints can stand out from the crowd.

Build Long-Term Brand Loyalty.

In a Google-commissioned study we ran this October, we learned there’s an even larger opportunity to build long-term brand loyalty, especially as almost half (47%) of shoppers say the time after Christmas enables them to shop for brands they love. 

Consider promoting loyalty or rewards programs, which are top of mind for shoppers during this period.

In January 2023, we observed a noteworthy 50% surge in search interest regarding loyalty programs, which includes searches like ‘reward program’ and ‘loyalty points’, compared to December 2022.[11]

In data we gathered between September 2022 and January 2023, we also saw the search volume for gift-related queries, like ‘gifts’ and ‘presents,’ remained high in January 2023 — a 45% and 15% increase compared to the early holiday months of September 2022 and October 2022, respectively.

What’s Next?

Now that you’ve learned about these key holiday trends, start getting ahead of the Black-Friday buzz by preparing and finalizing your holiday campaigns — if you haven’t already. 

For more content or helpful tips, check out our Holiday Shopping Trends Report from Think With Google, or keep exploring the HubSpot Marketing Blog.

The social media boom of the last decade is over. It’s not that people are no longer using social media — they are. They’re just using it less, and engaging differently.

In 2022, the average daily time spent on social media declined globally leading to a drop in organic reach for brands and creators.

Per GWI, 54% of people use social media to connect with friends and family, and 27% of people use social media to keep up with news. What they aren’t necessarily hopping on social media to do is be sold to. However, social media platforms need users to spend as much time on their apps as possible and to continue buying from advertisers in order to remain profitable.

In other words, social media users want to socialize and social media platforms want to sell, leading to a misalignment between a product and its customer base.

Here are some key insights we’re seeing with the current state of social media.

Users Prefer to Share with ‘Close Friends’

There is one social media feature that satisfies users’ desire to connect — Instagram’s Close Friends. On Close Friends, users feel free to share private stories in a controlled, non-judgmental space. Individuals can control who sees their content, and it’s the one corner of the app where there are no ads or selling.

Instagram has taken note and is expanding the Close Friends feature, including an option to only share in-feed posts with Close Friends. If this feature takes off, it could make posting to the public feed obsolete for the average user.

Sales Fatigue Is on the Rise

While advertising and sponsored content are nothing new on social media, users are feeling sold to more than ever, especially on TikTok. In September 2023, the platform rolled out its in-app shopping platform called TikTok Shop. Since its launch, TikTok Shop has been met with mixed reviews.

While the app’s commission-based structure can be helpful for creators who recommend viral products, TikTok users have expressed that the platform’s focus on sales makes it feel more like a space for infomercials than a place where people go to learn or be entertained.

As evidenced by the lack of enthusiasm around Instagram’s failed in-app shopping platform, consumers in the U.S. don’t trust social media platforms enough to shop from them. Continuing to push in-app sales could cause friction between TikTok and its U.S. user base.

The Possibility of Going Ad-Free

Privacy laws have made paid social media advertising more expensive and complex than before. As if that weren’t challenging enough for brands, both TikTok and Meta are testing ad-free subscriptions to eliminate ads for some users altogether. Snapchat rolled out a similar offering last year called Snap+ which now has 5 million users and is expected to generate $240 million by the end of the year.

While these subscriptions may be lucrative for the platforms if users decide to buy (the key word being “if”), it could make reaching potential customers more challenging for brands that rely on paid ads.

What does this mean for marketers?

All hope is not lost for conducting business on social media, but it does mean brands may need to use social media differently. As mentioned above, the average social media user hops online to either connect or learn and brands that position their social platforms as a space for community and education could satisfy these needs.

With that in mind, businesses on social media may benefit from focusing less on engagement and the hard sell, and more on generating conversation among potential customers and getting potential buyers to engage offline through in-person communities and experiential marketing.

As new social media trends and best practices continue to emerge, we’ll report on the latest findings.