Category Archives: B2B

Do you remember a time where a piece of content made you a longtime fan of a particular brand or company? Maybe it was a funny YouTube video or a super informative blog post — both of which are content marketing examples.

Content marketing examples include media like newsletters, podcasts, social media posts, and videos. All of these forms of content are meant to provide useful and relevant information that delights users and attracts them to your brand.

To help you use content marketing to your company’s advantage, here are some of my favorite content marketing examples of 2022.

 

1. Spotify Wrapped Playlists

Spotify Wrapped is one of the music streaming app’s most successful content marketing campaigns. Near the end of every year, Spotify users get a fun roundup of all the music they’ve listened to that year. The roundup is broken down into genres, years, artists, and more, and is displayed with brightly colored graphics.

It then creates a personalized playlist of the user’s most listened to songs, and users have the option to share their wrapped playlists on social media — a key element that has made the campaign to trend on social media every year since its inception.

2. DuoLingo’s TiKTok

You likely know DuoLingo as the website and app that helps users learn a new language, but the company has generated buzz on TikTok for another reason — the company’s self-proclaimed “unhinged” mascot.

DuoLingo has amassed over 4.5 million followers on TikTok thanks to its consistent stream of content featuring the company’s iconic green owl mascot. Though many of the videos do not mention the company’s products and services, the account’s ability to create funny, trendy content has helped raise brand awareness on the app — something many brands struggle to do.

3. Canva’s Design School

Canva’s Design School provides value to its users by teaching them how to create engaging images with minimal design experience and without complicated software. It also does a great job of showing all the design possibilities Canva has to offer.

4. Hairstylist Theresa Van Dam’s TikTok

Theresa Van Dam is a hairstylist and owner of the Fantastic Sams Salon in Lenox, Illinois. Her TikTok account is famous for her skits that show how she deals with rude customers — all of whom she calls “Karen.”

Her content is often praised for being relatable to anyone who has ever had to deal with unruly customers.

This relatable approach to content works because while TikTok users come to the account for laughs, they are also shown videos of her excellent work as a stylist. Her TikTok now has 4.9 million followers, and Theresa has said often in her videos that she now has so many customers she often requires new ones to book her months in advance.

5. Girl With The Dog’s YouTube Channel

Girl With The Dog’s is a YouTube channel run by a professional pet groomer named Vanessa, owner of Perfect Pooches Dog Grooming in Ontario Canada.

The channel features excellent content marketing by providing entertainment for viewers while also showing off her skills as a groomer — I mean, who doesn’t like to see dramatic huskies screaming at a little blow dryer?

As a result of her content marketing efforts, Vanessa’s channel now has 1.5 million followers — and her clientele has grown to include cats and the occasional pig. She was also able to raise enough money to donate to animal sanctuaries.

6. Crunchyroll Collections

Crunchyroll is a U.S.-based company that licenses, distributes, and streams anime around the world. One of the ways Crunchyroll markets itself online is through YouTube via its Crunchyroll Collections channel. Crunchyroll Collections hosts clips and compilation videos of highly searched moments from popular anime.

This type of content marketing engages viewers, keeps the brand at the top of search results for popular anime, and shows how broad the company’s catalog is — encouraging viewers to subscribe to its streaming service. Notice there is even a button in the channel’s banner that viewers can click to start a 14-day free trial if they want more content.

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7. Chewy’s YouTube Channel

Chewy is an online retailer of pet products that has found a unique way to promote its different products. Chewy’s YouTube channel is full of advice regarding pets, training, and animal health. It also features educational videos, like “A Day in the Life of a Special Needs Cat Rescue and Sanctuary.”

In most videos, Chewy provides valuable information while tying in their products. For example, in the video “How to Introduce a Dog to a Cat,” the company lists the materials needed to introduce the two animals — showing all the different products they sell.

Furthermore, the description of the video includes a link to a post on the company’s blog that gives more information. The blog post also provides links to where pet owners can buy the materials they need off the official Chewy website. This encourages viewers to visit its website and make purchases.

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8. Amazon Prime’s The Anime Club

Anime has become more popular over the years, and many streaming services are cashing in on the trend — including Amazon Prime. But how does Amazon stand out among the stiff competition of Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu? It started by partnering with actress and content creator Cheyenne The Geek to create a web series called The Anime Club.

The Anime Club gives anime recommendations based on genre and tackles different topics often referenced in anime. All the anime Cheyenne references are available to watch on Amazon Prime, encouraging viewers to subscribe to the streaming service.

9. UN Refugee Agency’s “Forced to Flee” Podcast

The UN Refugee Agency’s Webby Award-nominated podcast helps raise awareness for refugees by telling their unique and heart wrenching stories. This form of content marketing is compelling, leaves the audience with a better understanding of a refugee crisis, and shows the importance of agency’s work.

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10. The Washington Post’s TikTok

The Washington Post’s TiKTok takes a comedic approach to history, news, and politics — appealing to its 1.4 million followers. The account also links to the Washington Post’s website.

11. Jackson Galaxy’s YouTube Channel

Jackson Galaxy is the former host of Animal Planet’s “My Cat from Hell,” a show that cat owners get along better with their unruly cats. Now, he has a website where he sells cat products and consultations.

To help promote his work and establish himself as an expert, Jackson runs a YouTube channel where he answers common questions regarding cats and cat ownership. In these videos, he provides advice, promotes his book, and showcases the products he has on his website that can help cat owners.

12. You Suck at Cooking

You Suck at Cooking started off as a funny YouTube channel that showed people help to cook simple meals. Years later, the channel is still hilarious but is also used to promote the host’s cookbook. The channel’s dry humor, random skits, and running gags help it stand out from other online self-help cooking resources.

13. Warby Parker’s Email Marketing

One of the many reason’s Warby Parker stands out from other online glasses retailers is its fun and eye-catching (no pun intended) email marketing campaigns. In the example below, Warby Parker welcomes summer vacation with its bright crystal-themed glasses eyewear. The calls to action in the email are easy to spot, the colors are bright and fun, and the company’s social media accounts are clearly presented.

14. Content Marketing Institute’s Click to Tweet

If you make it easy for people to share something interesting with their network, then they’re much more likely to do so. Embedding a “click to tweet” button that automatically shares quotes or statistics from your article is an effective way to do that.

For example, this blog post that I wrote for Content Marketing Institute is the most widely shared guest blog post I’ve ever written:

Months after publication, I still get daily Twitter notifications from people tweeting about this article. And the majority of the tweets come from the “click to tweet” option that Content Marketing Institute offers throughout the post.

If you want to start adding “click to tweet” options throughout your website content, check out this free tool.

15. Digital Olympus’s Expert Roundup

No matter what industry you’re in, there are influencers to whom people look for advice.

Digital Olympus interviewed over 40 digital marketing experts for one of their blog posts, asking each expert to provide their most effective method for acquiring traffic.

What I most like about this blog post is how Digital Olympus organizes the contributions. At the top of the page, there’s a headshot of each expert next to their name. If you want to read a particular expert’s tip, you simply have to click on their headshot and you’ll jump down to their quote.

There’s also an anchor-linked Table of Contents that allows for topic-based searches. This way, readers can jump to the specific sections that are most applicable to them.

16. Colgate’s Research Page

Creating a resource page made up of helpful links on a given topic is an effective way to create helpful content.

If your business has been producing content for a while, then chances are you have clusters of related content to support the topics around which your business wants to build authority.

For example, oral hygiene company Colgate has over 1,200 pieces of content related to their broad topic “gum disease.”

That’s a lot of content to sift through, which is why Colgate created a resource page made up of specific sections of gum disease-related content, like “What are the Stages of Gum Disease?” or “How to Cure Gingivitis.”

Each section offers:

• A paragraph of explainer text
• A bulleted list of details on the sub-topic
• Links to relevant content on their site

17. Moz’s Topic Clusters

The topic cluster framewor is a highly effective SEO strategy that demonstrates to Google that the content on your website is organized and relevant to searchers. To learn more about this framework, watch the video below.

Some brands have taken this approach to the next level by creating a multi-page masterclass or guide that links together like-themed pillar pages. A pillar page is a website page that covers a topic in-depth and links to a cluster of related content, also known as a cluster. One of my favorite examples of this is Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing.

Moz creatively puts a chapter list at the start of each page that links out to more specific content marketing-themed pages within the topic cluster.

Additionally, using an anchor-linked chapter list is an effective way to connect the cluster together — it provides value to the reader while passing authority through to each pillar page.

18. Mailshakes’ Marketing Automation

Mailshake acquired 5,321 email opt-ins for their cold email masterclass workflow in under one year — proof that, if done well, this could be an incredibly effective strategy.

19. Townsend Security’s Content Offer

One tried-and-true way to convert visitors into leads is by offering something of value in exchange for their contact information (i.e. email address). This “something” is referred to as a content offer.

Content offers include, but are not limited to:

• Guides
• Workbooks
• Templates
• Webinars

It can take a lot of time to create a valuable content offer from scratch.

One effective way to create a meaningful content offer is to repurpose and repackage pieces of content found on your website. For example, data security company Townsend Security created a pillar page for one of their topics of expertise — encryption key management.

To help convert visitors into leads, Townsend repurposed and repackaged the content on their page into a guide. This allowed people to take the content with them, as opposed to having to search for the pillar page each time they wanted to read about encryption key management.

In the first year of publishing their encryption key management pillar page, 63% of visitors gave their information in exchange for a packaged PDF of the on-page content.

20. Venngage’s Free Product

Your product should be your best marketing. An effective way to provide real value to your prospects is to create a free tool that aligns with your products and/or services.

If you can get a free user hooked on one of your free tools, then you’re giving yourself (and your sales team) the best chance at demonstrating the value of your paid tools, too.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re a writer who needs help with creating visuals for the web content you create. You might consider using Venngage, a company that helps businesses create compelling visuals. In the free version of their platform, users get access to a wide variety of templates for infographics, presentations, brochures, checklists, and so on.

In the future, when your marketing team is considering paid products for design, you’ll have Venngage top-of-mind.

And there you have it — 20 content marketing examples to help get your creative juices flowing. Consider how you can apply one (or several) of these examples to your business to strengthen your content marketing efforts.

We live in a fast-paced digital world. In the time you read this blog post, a new channel, a new tactic, or a new competitor has emerged. The best chance you have at telling your business’s story and growing a pool of engaged prospects and customers is by learning the art of content marketing — and starting to apply it to your business, today.

On any given day, most of our email inboxes are flooded with a barrage of automated email newsletters that do little else besides giving us another task to do on our commutes to work — namely, marking them all as unread without reading or unsubscribing altogether.

It may not seem like a good idea to add to all the noise. However, according to Constant Contact, the average ROI for email marketing is $42 for every $1 spent. Needless to say, email is an important component of a marketing strategy, and its success relies largely on how well you craft your email campaigns.

In this post, we’ll explore: 

• What is an email marketing campaign?
• Effective Email Marketing Campaigns
• Best Email Marketing Campaign Examples
• How to Execute an Email Marketing Campaign

Let’s get started. 

Email campaigns are an important part of inbound marketing, an ongoing process and philosophy coined by HubSpot where marketers meet buyers in whatever stage of the journey they’re in.

Inbound marketing acknowledges that not everyone is ready to buy from you at this exact moment. That’s why email is such an important channel.

Through email, you’re able to stay top-of-mind by providing communication to their personal inbox, and you can do it at scale with marketing automation software. It’s important that an email campaign’s recipients have opted in to receive this content and that each piece offers something valuable.

Effective Email Marketing Campaigns

An email marketing campaign is as effective as its ultimate goal. Here are some examples of different purposes your email campaign may set out to accomplish:

1. Traffic Generation Email Marketing Campaigns

One of the biggest benefits of email marketing? Getting click-throughs to pages on your website. Not only does this boost your referral traffic, but it also drives visitors who’ve already shown an interest in your business, making it more likely that they’ll act once they get to your site.

Overall, email is an effective promotion channel for the high-value content you create on your website. It can help you drive qualified traffic to your product pages, blog posts, and web pages, consequently boosting conversions.

2. Awareness Email Marketing Campaigns

Not everyone who opts into your email list is ready to make a purchasing decision. You can use email marketing to stay top of mind while providing the educational content that is most relevant to them.

Indeed, brand awareness email campaigns help you solve for your readers and also establish yourself as a leader in your industry. If subscribers hear more from you than they do from your competitors, they’re more likely to rely on you when they need more information on a topic — or when they need a certain product.

3. Lead Nurturing Email Marketing Campaigns

As you stay top of mind, you may also consider ways to identify the leads with the highest purchase intent and provide conversion-focused content that “nurtures” them toward a sale (or at least toward becoming sales-ready).

In these emails, you can be more up-front about wanting recipients to buy. You can include shopping-centric calls-to-action, such as “Shop now,” “Buy now,” and “Add to cart.” However, it’s essential for recipients to have shown strong purchase intent. Adding items to their cart or having a purchase history are both strong indicators.

(Tip: You can find out behavioral and purchasing data using your ecommerce tool, CRM, or CMS.)

If you target these emails to casual visitors or first-time subscribers, you may be rushing them and inadvertently discouraging them from buying from you.

4. Revenue Generation Email Marketing Campaigns

You can create email marketing campaigns for your existing customers to promote upsell and cross-sell opportunities. You can also create campaigns to capture a sales conversion from leads who are close to a purchasing decision.

One example might be creating “abandon cart” campaigns for recovering lost sales conversions; or, like in the example above, promoting a flash sale to get users to upgrade. These types of campaigns are best reserved for subscribers at the bottom of the conversion funnel. In other words, they have shown unquestionable purchase intent by either visiting a checkout page or booking a call with your sales team.

Effective email marketing campaigns need to be cleverly written to attract attention in busy inboxes, but the options are endless. Check out these 10 email marketing tips in 60 seconds:

Now that you know the most effective campaigns you can create, grab some inspiration from the masterful email marketing campaigns below.

Best Email Marketing Campaign Examples

If you’re reading this, you probably have an email address (or two, or three …). In fact, you’ve probably been sending and receiving emails for years, and you’ve definitely received some questionable deliveries in your inbox.

Whether they were unexpected, uninformative, or had a subject line tHaT wAs fOrmAtTeD liKe tHiS, we bet you didn’t hesitate to direct them towards the trash, right?

While email has managed to stand the test of time, many marketers have failed to update their strategies since its inception. So to ensure you’re sending modern emails that warrant some of your recipients’ precious time and attention, we’ve compiled a list of effective email examples to inspire your next campaign.

1. ModCloth

Marketing Campaign: Email Preferences

Great companies are always evolving, and your customers expect to experience change. What they don’t expect (because too many companies haven’t lived up to this end of the bargain) is to be told about those changes.

That said, this email from ModCloth serves as a refreshing change of pace. If you’re going to change the way you communicate with a lead or customer, give them clear, fair warning so, if they aren’t on board, they can make the necessary adjustments to keep their inbox clean.

Why It Works

It sets expectations for communication moving forward so that the buyer persona can choose what’s best for them.

2. Tory Burch

Marketing Campaign: Promotion

Did you see that? Did you see it move? Pretty cool, right? This small bit of animation helps to separate this email from Tory Burch from all of the immobile emails in their recipient’s inboxes. They also leverage exclusivity by framing the promotion as a “private” sale. Oftentimes, this type of positioning makes the recipient feel like they’re specially chosen, which encourages them to take advantage of the special opportunity they’ve been presented with.

Why It Works

Emails can get static, boring, and impersonal. This email subverts those expectations without going overboard.

3. RunKeeper

Marketing Campaign: Re-Engagement Campaign

RunKeeper makes an effort to reengage lost users with this friendly, informational email. By highlighting their app’s most recent changes and benefits, the copy works to entice recipients to give the app another chance. It also discusses benefits that the recipient may not know about since the last time they used the service.

Why It Works

Small inclusions like the “Hi friend” greeting and the “You rock” closing makes the content feel welcoming and less aggressive.

4. Litmus

Marketing Campaign: Promotion

Here’s another great example of animation being used to create a more interesting email marketing design. Unlike static text, the swipe motion used to provide recipients with a look “under the hood” of their email tool is eye-catching and encourages you to take a deeper dive into the rest of the content. Not to mention the header does an excellent job of explicitly stating what this email is about.

Why It Works

The animation is subtle, and it’s executed in a way that serves to enhance the email’s body copy. Even better, it works well with the design of the email, creating a matching but contrasting focal point before the reader dives into the rest of the copy below.

5. Loft

Marketing Campaign: Email Preferences

This email from Loft aims to demonstrate their understanding of your crazy, mixed-value inbox. In an effort to provide you with emails that you actually want to open, Loft asks that their recipients update their preferences to help them deliver a more personalized experience. This customer-focused email is super effective in making the recipient feel like their likes, dislikes, and opinions actually matter.

Why It Works

It centers the recipient’s needs with the slogan “Happy Inbox, Happy Life.” Paired with a low-friction CTA, the copy is simple and effective.

6. UncommonGoods

Marketing Campaign: Promotion

You’ve heard it a million times (and a few thousand of those times may have been from us): You should create a sense of urgency with your calls-to-action. That’s what makes a lead take action, right? Well, this email from UncommonGoods succeeds in creating a sense of urgency by focusing on the value of acting now.

Why It Works

Instead of saying, “Order your Mother’s Day gift NOW before Preferred Shipping ends!”, this email asks, “Don’t you think Mom would’ve liked a faster delivery?” Why yes, she would. Thank you for reminding me before it’s too late — I don’t want to be in the dog house because my gift arrived after Mother’s Day.

A recent HubSpot Blog survey asked 1,067 global marketing professionals working in B2B and B2C companies about the top marketing trends they leverage, the strategies they use, and the challenges they face.

In this post, we’ll discuss the insight we gathered from director+ level marketers about their companies marketing strategies and what they will look like in 2022. Read on to learn:

• Trends Marketing Leaders are Following
• Marketing Strategies Marketing Leaders Use
• Challenges Marketing Leaders Face

Trends Marketing Leaders are Following

1. The top trends marketing leaders follow are short-form video, experiential marketing, and influencer marketing.

2. The trends marketing leaders follow that have the highest ROI are influencer marketing, short-form video content, and permanent social media content.

3. The trends marketing leaders companies invest the most in are short-form video content, inbound marketing, and social responsibility.

4. Marketing leaders say they’ll increase their investments in content marketing, social media marketing, and influencer marketing.

5. Influencer marketing is the most effective trend that director+ marketers companies leverage.

Marketing Strategies Marketing Leaders Use

1. The primary marketing strategies director+ level marketers say their companies use are social media marketing, content marketing, and co-marketing.

2. The most popular media formats in director+ level marketers’ content strategies are videos, infographics, and blogs.

3. The top platforms director+ level marketers companies post video content on are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

4. 48% of director level+ marketers say their primary goal when running marketing campaigns in 2022 is increasing brand awareness, followed by increasing engagement and increasing revenue.

5. 41% of director+ level marketers companies leverage social media, making it the top leveraged channel with the highest ROI.

6. 51% of director+ level marketers say their marketing budgets will increase in 2022.

7. The top leveraged social media marketing strategies are short-form video, influencer marketing, and engaging with audiences in comment threads. Short-form video is the most effective and has the highest ROI.

8. 82% of director + level marketers use automation in their marketing role, and the strategies they leverage are chatbots, content automation, and task management.

9. YouTube is the most popular social media platform leveraged by director+ level marketers companies, followed by Instagram and Facebook.

10. 83% of director+ level marketers personally use content marketing in their roles, making it the top leveraged channel. Social media and email marketing are the second and third most used.

11. Director level + marketers day the top email marketing strategy their companies leverage is mobile-friendly emails.

12. Director+ level marketers say the marketing roles that will take top priority in 2022 are Content Marketing Manager, Content Strategist, and Creative Assistant.

Challenges Marketing Leaders Face

1. Director+ level marketers say the biggest challenges they face on social media are creating engaging content (26%), reaching target audiences (25%), and tying social activities to business outcomes (25%).

2. Director + level marketers say the biggest challenges they face with content marketing are improving SEO performance, creating content that receives high levels of online engagement, and creating content that generates leads.

3. Staying up-to-date on search engine algorithm updates and building domain authority are the top challenges director level + marketers face with SEO.

4. The five biggest challenges director + level marketers face in their roles are training their teams, measuring the ROI of marketing activities, getting sales-marketing alignment, and growing a global audience.

5. Director+ level marketers say the biggest email marketing challenges are measuring ROI, increasing engagement, and emails getting sent to spam.

6. Ensuring a good candidate experience, finding candidates with the right skillset, and attracting diverse candidates are the top challenges director+ level marketers face with hiring candidates.

Email is undoubtedly one of the most powerful opportunities for engaging with your leads and customers, and increasing sales. 

In fact, email generates $42 for every $1 spent, which is an astounding 4,200% ROI — making it an incredibly effective tool for generating revenue. 

But nowadays, our consumers are overloaded with emails and often suffer from email fatigue, leading them to delete or ignore most emails they receive. Worse still, that’s if they even receive your email in the first place.

Fortunately, the folks at TinyMCE, a rich-text editor often used to craft emails, put together this handy checklist with HubSpot to help you get past the toughest spam filters … and then engage your audiences once you’re through.

Take a look, or click here to see TinyMCE’s full, immersive page focused on bypassing email spam filters. 

Shopping habits have drastically changed over the past few years.

For instance, while most of us previously browsed retail stores on a Saturday to find great deals, we now turn to Instagram to find discounts offered by influencers.

And rather than watching TV ads to find out about new products, nowadays, most of us stumble across ads in between YouTube videos.

Here, we’ll explore the shopping trends of 2022 to ensure you’re able to meet customers where and when they’d prefer to shop. Plus, we’ll uncover the shopping differences between generations. Let’s dive in. 

The Top Shopping Trends of 2022 

1. Influencer recommendations matter more than recommendations from friends and family.

Influencer marketing has proven an incredibly effective strategy for brands over the past few years — in fact, as of 2021, almost 60% of marketers said influencer marketing was the most effective marketing trend, ahead of SEO, experiential marketing, and short-form video content.

And in 2022, 30% of consumers now report influencer recommendations are one of the most important factors in their purchasing decisions, compared to 27% for recommendations from friends or family.

In many ways, this makes sense: Influencers are traditionally considered experts in their niche. If I follow a makeup influencer, it’s safe to assume he or she knows more about makeup than most of my friends.

For e-commerce businesses, this is powerful news: It means you no longer need to rely on word-of-mouth alone. Instead, it’s wise to focus your efforts on influencer marketing, since influencers have demonstrated a level of influence over their audiences that surpasses even that of friends and family.

2. Gen Zers prefer to discover new products via social media — but they still like to make purchases in-store.

Our State of Consumer Trends Survey found Gen Zers (ages 18-24) most often discover new products on social media (71%), followed by YouTube ads (56%), ads on music streaming services (55%), and internet searches (50%).

If your e-commerce business is targeting Gen Zers, then, it’s vital you focus your efforts on social media rather than paid ads when it comes to attracting new leads to your products and educating those leads on your products.

Additionally, when asked which content formats Gen Zers prefer for learning about a product and its features on social media, roughly 50% said they’d like to learn about a product through a story post. This is followed by short-form video (42%), and then a feed post (42%).

However, 73% of people (and 55% of Gen Zers in particular) say they’d still prefer to purchase a product in-store. This is an important call-out: While you’ll want to focus on social media for your lead generation efforts, it’s still vital to have a strong, effective in-store shopping option for those who would like to make the final sale in person.

3. When it comes to millennials and Gen X, retail stores and searching the internet are two popular options for discovering new products.

Similar to Gen Zers, the most popular method among millennial buyers for discovering new products is social media (51%).

However, in a close second for millennials is searching the internet (50%) — which means, if you’re targeting a millennial demographic, you might want to consider leveraging paid ads and a strong SEO strategy for getting your products in front of your target audience.

And if your target audience is Gen X (35-54 year olds), retail stores are the most popular option for discovering new products, so you’ll want to invest time and resources in partnerships with brick-and-mortar retailers to ensure your products are at plenty of physical locations.

Plus, similar to millennials, 39% of Gen X buyers also search the internet for new products, so SEO is another good option here.

4. Millennials and Gen Xers prefer to discover new products on social media through ads or sponsored content — while Gen Zers prefer discovering new products on social media through short-form videos.

Depending on your target demographic, you’ll want to vary the type of content you create for social media when it comes to attracting new audiences to your products.

For instance, if you’re aiming to attract Gen Zers, you’ll want to consider short-form video like TikTok or Instagram Reels, since 41% report short-form video as their preferred medium for discovering new products.

If you’re instead looking to reach millennials or Gen Xers, you’ll want to think about leveraging ads or sponsored content, since 44% mark that option as their favorite.

5. Mobile phones are the most popular device for online shopping.

When shopping online, roughly 75% of consumers prefer using their mobile devices, compared to 15% that prefer desktop and 6% that prefer tablet.

This means as an e-commerce business it’s critical your website is mobile-optimized, and you have mobile-responsive product pages.

If I’m scrolling a company’s products and I find it’s too difficult or cumbersome on my phone, I typically ditch the website – and don’t return. So it’s vital you ensure you’re following mobile best practices (including large text, lots of white space, responsive templates, and mobile-friendly calls-to-action).

6. Price matters most to when it comes to making a purchasing decision — but other factors might surprise you.

Across the board, price is a major factor when it comes to purchasing decisions. 78% of Gen Z, 74% of millennials, 74% of Gen X, and 73% of Boomers report price as one of the most important factors when it comes to deciding whether or not they’re going to buy a product.

The quality of a product is important, as well, with 65% of Gen Z, 78% of millennials, 82% of Gen X, and 72% of Boomers marking it as another top factor when it comes to purchasing decisions.

But beyond having a reasonably-priced and high-quality product, there are a few other distinguishing factors you’ll want to keep in mind when marketing your brand.

For instance, 57% of Gen Zers will consider purchasing a product if a percentage of the proceeds from the purchase will be donated to charity. And 55% of millennials prefer buying a product that has strong reviews. 62% of Gen Xers appreciate whether a brand has an active community around it, and 55% of Boomers look for a product’s features and functionality when considering a purchase.

The Shopping Trends to Expect in 2023

As we move into 2023, here are a few trends you’ll continue to see: 

• Mobile usage for shopping will continue to dominate the e-commerce industry. In 2018, it encompassed 63.5% of total e-commerce sales, and in 2020, that number jumped to 70.4% (Source). As mentioned above, we found roughly 75% of consumers preferring their mobile devices in 2022, which suggests mobile sales will continue to dominate the e-commerce landscape. 
• TikTok and other short-form video platforms will become increasingly popular for advertisers. As TikTok continues to make changes to its advertising offerings (such as its new Branded Mission feature), we’ll see more advertisers join TikTok in 2023 — we’ll also see additional advertisers test out other platforms, such as Instagram Stories, since short-form video is becoming the most popular video length. 
• The Influencer industry will continue to grow and remain one of the most popular avenues for brands looking to connect with their audiences. Influencer marketing has grown rapidly over the past few years — from $1.7 billion in 2016 to $9.7 billion in 2020, and $13.8 billion in 2021. Nowadays, Gen Zers and millennials aren’t looking to celebrities for inspiration when it comes to purchasing products or services, and they’re not turning to friends, either — they’re looking to these influencers. 
• We’ll see a rise in people who use the metaverse or buy virtual currency. HubSpot Blog Research found over half of those who have ever used the metaverse or bought virtual currency/items have done so within the past three months — including 56% who’ve visited the metaverse, 56% who’ve bought cryptocurrency, and 75% who’ve bought NFTs for the first time. 

When creating an effective e-commerce strategy, it’s vital you take the time to understand how shoppers want to shop today — and into the future. Shopping behaviors change over time. The more your business can meet the evolving needs of your consumers, the more likely you are to continue to succeed well into the future.

With new marketing channels and trends constantly popping up, it can be difficult to know where your target audience actually is.

Not only do you need to know where they spend their time, but also how they like to shop –- and that largely depends on their age group.

To help you determine where to meet audiences where they are, we surveyed thousands of US consumers of all generations across to learn about their shopping habits, media consumption, and the latest trends they’re following.

While you’ll find even more data in our State of Consumer Trends Report, we wanted to give our readers a deep dive into each generations and the unique themes that make them different. 

So let’s take a look at where and how each generation likes to shop — and what really impacts their purchasing decisions.

We’ll get started with a quick breakdown of the shopping habits of each generation and call out the biggest differences and similarities between them, then dive deeper into each age group.

For those in a rush, we’ve put a quick generation-by-generation overview below with links to the deep dive of each age group. To jump to a broader side-by-side look at how all generations handle each stage of product discovery and purchases differently. click here to jump to our comparison section.

Shopping Habits Overview

Gen Z Overview (ages 18-24)

• Social media, YouTube ads, and internet search are the top ways Gen Z discover new products
• Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are the top social media apps among Gen Z
• 33% of Gen Z have bought a product based on an influencer’s recommendation in the past three months, and 28% have bought through an in-app shop
• 1 in 2 Gen Zers want companies to take a stance on social issues, specifically racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, gender inequality, and climate change. When companies advocate for these issues, it has a strong impact on Gen Z purchase decisions
• Ads on streaming services beat cable TV for reaching Gen Z. Retail discovery is still relevant, but less frequent than digital channels

Jump to our Gen Z deep dive >>

Millennials Overview (ages 25-35)

• Social media, internet search, and YouTube ads are also the top ways Millennials discover new products
• Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are the top social media apps among Millennials
• 28% of Millennials have bought a product through an in-app shop in the past three months and 26% have bought based on an influencer’s recommendation
• 41% of Millennials want companies to take a stance on social issues, specifically racial justice, income inequality, climate change, affordable healthcare, and LGBTQ+ rights. When companies advocate for these issues, it has a strong impact on Millennial purchase decisions
• Ads on cable TV beat streaming services for reaching Millennials by a small margin. Retail discovery is still relevant but less frequent than digital channels

Jump to our Millennial deep dive >>

Gen X Overview (ages 35-54)

• Gen X prefers to discover new products through search, television ads, and in retail stores
• Gen X discovers new products on social media more frequently than any other channel, even though it isn’t preferred
• 90% of Gen X use social media – Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are their favorite apps
• 18% of Gen X have bought a product through an in-app shop in the past three months. The same number bought based on an influencer’s recommendation in that period
• 35% of Gen Xers say companies should take a stance on social issues, specifically climate change, affordable healthcare, racial justice, and income inequality. 38% say companies shouldn’t engage with social issues, and 26% aren’t sure

Jump to our Gen X deep dive >>

Boomer Overview (ages 55+)

• TV ads, internet search, and retail stores are the top ways Boomers discover new products
• Social media falls flat for boomers –  just 17% have discovered a product on it in the past three months, and only 4% have purchased a product on a social app in that time
• About half of boomers say companies should not take a stance on social issues. When it comes to influencing their purchase decisions, social issues simply have no impact on a majority of Boomers.

Jump to our Baby Boomer deep dive >>

A Generational Comparison of Today’s Shopping Trends [Side-by-Side Data]

Where Do Consumers Discover Products?

Social media, internet search, and Youtube ads are key for reaching Gen Z and Millennials, while TV, search, and retail are favored by Gen X and Boomers.

As far as social media, Boomers, Millennials, and Gen X all use Facebook more than any other app.

Meanwhile, Gen Z is all about YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Not only is Gen Z communicating with friends and being entertained, but they’re also discovering (and buying) products on social more than any other generation.

What Drives Consumers to Buy Products?

When it comes to making purchase decisions, all generations are highly influenced by price, quality, and product reviews. Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X also value brands that have active communities around them and a social media presence. Additionally, whether a percentage of the proceeds from their purchase will be donated to charity is highly important to Gen Z.

Where Do Consumers Like to Buy Products?

All generations favor buying products in-person at a store over any other channel, but this preference decreases significantly with age. Buying through online retailers like Amazon and directly from a company’s website is also popular. Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X are most interested in buying through social media and from a company’s mobile app.

If you’re ready for more of the insights you need to reach your target audience, let’s take a deep dive into the shopping habits of today’s consumers, as well as how each generation compares, based on data from our 2022 Consumer Trends Survey of over 1,000 consumers in the U.S.

Shopping Trends by Generation (A Detailed, Data-Driven Breakdown)

Gen Z Shopping Habits 2022 (ages 18-24)

So where is Gen Z discovering new products? Let’s start with the digital elephant in the room – social media.

Social Media Drives Gen Z Product Discovery

57% of Gen Z has discovered new products on social media in the past three months, and 71% of them say it’s where they discover products most often. 

Social media is also the #1 way Gen Z prefers to discover new products, according to 38% of those age 18-24. 

All of this really isn’t surprising considering 93% of Gen Z use social media, for an average of 4 hours and 20 minutes per day. 

 

You may also be wondering which platforms they’re using, so let’s take a glance:

 

YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are the top three platforms by usage in the past three months. Over half of Gen Z have used Snapchat and Facebook in the past three months, and 48% have used Twitter.

When it comes to the social media apps Gen Z uses most, TikTok, IG, and YouTube come out on top again, but in a different order.

 

TikTok is used most, likely due to its focus on short-form videos and powerful algorithm, making it hard to put down.

But TikTok and Instagram are only the most used social media apps among Gen Z women, while men spend much more time on YouTube.

Lastly, we asked Gen Z which social media app is their favorite. 

While TikTok is used most, Instagram is the favorite social media app among Gen Z as a whole. 

But there are so many ways to interact with Gen Z on social media that it’s more important than ever to use a format that captures their attention and makes your brand stand out. 

We asked how Gen Z social media users prefer to discover new products, and here’s what we found:

Our research from earlier this year shows that short-form video and influencer marketing are the top marketing trends of 2022, so the fact that Gen Z is fully embracing these channels to discover products isn’t surprising.

41% of Gen Z say they prefer to discover new products on social media through short-form videos, and 1 in 4 prefer to find out about products from influencers.

On top of that, 33% of Gen Z have made a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation in the past three months, the highest of any age group. 

The signs to invest in these channels couldn’t be clearer. Did I mention that they also have the highest ROI of any marketing trend? Another powerful trend we identified in our Social Media Trends 2022 research is selling directly on social media. 

Considering 28% of Gen Z has bought a product on social media directly on the app in the past three months and 29% prefer to discover new products through social media shops, there’s never been a better time to get started.

Our recent Instagram Marketing Report explains why the app presents such an incredible opportunity for social selling, and we even published a data-backed guide on the top tools and strategies for selling on Instagram.

YouTube Ads Trump Social Media For Reaching Gen Z Men

46% of Gen Z has found new products through YouTube Ads in the past three months, and 56% say it’s where they discover products most often. 

On top of that, 34% of Gen Zers say YouTube ads are their preferred way to discover new products.

Overall, YouTube Ads follow social media as the 2nd best way to reach Gen Z. If you can’t leverage both, here’s an insight to help you decide which to use:

Gen Z women prefer to discover new products on social media, while discovering products through YouTube Ads is strongly preferred by young men. 

SEO Still Matters For Gen Z

42% of Gen Z has found new products by searching the web in the past few months, and 50% say it’s where they find products most often. 

26% of Gen Z say searching the internet is their preferred way of discovering new products, but how exactly is Gen Z searching online? A whopping 74% of Gen Z use their mobile phones most often when shopping online, while just 15% use a computer.

 

Additionally, 72% of Gen Z use their phones most often when looking up a question on a search engine.

This means you should be optimizing your website to be mobile-first to offer the best experience to your users. To learn more about the top SEO strategies, check out our Web Traffic & Analytics Report.

Retail Discovery is Less Frequent, But Still Relevant For Gen Z

While 36% of Gen Z has discovered new products in retail stores in the past three months, when we asked where they discover new products most often, it came in at #8. 

So Gen Z is still visiting retail stores, but they’re discovering products through online sources much more often.

Does that mean hope is lost for retail? Not quite. 19% of Gen Z still say it’s their preferred way to discover new products, behind social media, YouTube ads, and searching the web.

Ads on Streaming Services Beat Cable TV for Gen Z

23% of Gen Z has discovered new products on film/TV show streaming services in the past three months, and 33% of them say they discover new products through streaming most often.

19% of Gen Z have also discovered new products on music streaming services like Spotify, with 55% of them saying that music streaming is where they discover new products most often.

Does that mean cable TV ads are lost on Gen Z? Considering less than 1 in 5 have discovered a new product through their television in the past three months, it isn’t the best channel to reach those age 18-24 (though still very relevant for older age groups).

1 in 2 Gen Zers Say Companies Should Take a Stance On Social Issues

Gen Z is known to be vocal about the causes they believe in, but does that tenacity for the environment and social justice translate to their purchase decisions? Let’s take a look.

We asked whether companies should take a stance on social issues, and 50% of Gen Z say they should, the highest of any generation. 

We then asked those who want companies to take a stance on social issues which issues are most important to them. Racial justice was by far the top issue for Gen Z (69%), followed by LGBTQ+ rights (50%), gender inequality (46%), and climate change (42%).

 

The burning question is whether these sentiments translate to purchase decisions, and we found that they have a significant influence on Gen Z, dwindling slowly with each generation. 

• 60% of Gen Z have chosen a product based on it being owned by a small business in the past three months
• 50% of Gen Z have chosen a product based on the brand’s commitment to diversity/inclusion in the past three months
• 49% of Gen Z have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a person of color in the past three months.
• 43% of Gen Z have chosen a product based on the brand being woman-owned in the past three months.
• 30% of Gen Z have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a member of the LGBTQ community in the past three months.

Not only that, but brands taking a stance on these issues also makes a significant portion of Gen Zs more likely to purchase. We asked all the Gen Zs in our survey how the following attributes impact their purchase decisions, if at all, using a 5-point scale from much less likely to much more likely. Here’s what they said: 

Below are just a few of the factors that impact Gen Z purchase decisions, aside from the product itself:

• Corporate Trust: 84% of Gen Z say they’re more likely to buy from a company that treats its employees well, while 83% say they’re more likely to buy from a company that they can trust with their data
• Economic and/or Environmental Impact: 60% of Gen Z say they’re more likely to buy from a brand actively trying to reduce its environmental impact, while 46% are more likely to purchase products from small businesses.
• High DI&B Standards: 53% of Gen Z say they’re more likely to purchase based on a brand’s commitment to diversity/inclusion, while 51% say a brand advocating for racial justice makes them more likely to become a customer. Additionally, 39% of Gen Z say they’re more likely to buy products from brands owned by a person of color.
• Gender and LGBTQ+ Advocacy: 42% of Gen Z say brands that advocate for gender equality are more likely to get their purchases, while 37% of Gen Z are more likely to buy from brands that advocate for LGTBTQ+ rights.

While Gen Z is strongly influenced by Environmental, Social, and Governance (or ESG) initiatives, there are other factors in their purchase decisions that are even more important – let’s take a look.

What Drives Gen Z Purchase Decisions?

The top factors in Gen Z’s purchase decisions are unsurprising, with price, quality, and look/feel taking the lead. 

But when we ask Gen Z to choose the three most important factors in their purchase decision, we find some interesting insights. Take a look at the top 8 most important factors when Gen Z is forced to choose just three of those they consider:

While price and quality still lead, we see that donations to charity, an active community, recommendations from influencers, and how brands treat their employees rise to the top. 

Granted, these are nowhere near the top factors in this group’s purchase decisions, but for those who consider them, they are critical.

One other thing to note is that recommendations from influencers drive Gen Z purchase decisions even more than recommendations from their friends and family (55% vs. 24%, respectively) – yet another reason to leverage influencer marketing.

How Does Gen Z Prefer to Purchase Products?

When it comes to making purchases, 55% of Gen Zers still prefer to buy things in-store (the lowest of any generation), but online channels are close behind. 

One in two Gen Zers prefer to make purchases through online retailers like Amazon, while 37% like to go directly to a company’s website.

23% of Gen Z prefers to buy through social media apps, while 22% favor going through a company’s mobile app.

How Does Gen Z Like To Pay?

47% of Gen Z has purchased a subscription for a physical product in the past three months, the highest of any generation. 

But when we asked which payment model they prefer, Gen Z still largely favors buying a product for full price as needed.

And that wraps it up for Gen Z! Now we can talk about their slightly older, yet noticeably different counterparts, Millennials.

Millennial Shopping Habits 2022 (ages 25-34)

Social Media Drives Millennial Product Discovery

50% of Millennials have discovered new products on social media in the past three months, and 59% of them say it’s where they discover new products most often. 

Social media is also the primary way Millennials prefer to discover new products, according to 33% of those 25-34.

Similar to Gen Z, 90% of Millennials use social media, for an average of 4 hours per day, slightly lower than that of Gen Z.

As far as the platforms they use, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram are the top platforms by usage in the past three months. Over half of Millennials have used TikTok in the past three months, and 44% have used Snapchat.

When it comes to the social media apps Millennials use most, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram lead the way.

But just like with Gen Z, the app used most differs sharply by gender. Millennial women use Facebook the most, followed by Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Meanwhile, Millennial men use YouTube the most, followed by Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok fourth.

 

We also asked Millennials which social media platform is their favorite.

When it comes to Millennials’ favorite social media app, Facebook stays at #1, but Instagram pulls ahead of YouTube.

Now that you know which platforms Millennials prefer to find new products on, here are the formats they want to see on social media, among those who use it.

Millennials favor feed posts, ads, and social media marketplaces when looking to discover new products.

They also turn to influencers and social media shops to discover and buy things:

Since Millennials tend to favor Facebook and Instagram, building a presence on these platforms is key. Setting up an online shop on both platforms and leveraging influencer marketing are among the highest ROI strategies you can use to get your products seen and bought.

Millennials Discover Products Through Search Slightly Less Than On Social

Discovering new products through searching the internet comes second to finding them on social media, but just by a hair.

For starters, search and social are tied at 50% for the top channel Millennials have discovered new products on in the past three months. And 58% of Millennials say they discover new products most often by searching the internet, just 1% behind social media.

When we asked what Millennials’ preferred channel for discovering new products is, 32% said searching the internet, also lagging behind social media by 1%.

So search is a leading channel for product discovery for Millennials, but how are they searching? 74% use their mobile phones most often, compared to just 16% who use a computer, highlighting the importance of optimizing your site to be mobile-first.

When it comes to online shopping, 68% of Millennials use their phones most often, while 22% use a computer.

YouTube Ads Is the Third-Best Way To Reach Millennials, Especially Men

44% of Millennials have found new products on YouTube in the past three months and 54% say they discover new products on YouTube the most.

On top of that, 23% of Millennials say YouTube is their preferred channel for discovering new products.

Overall, YouTube ads are the #3 best way to reach Millennials, but just like for Gen Z, when it comes to targeting Millennial men, YouTube rises to the top.

Retail Discovery is Less Frequent, But Still Relevant For Millennials

While 43% of Millennials have discovered new products in retail stores in the past three months, when we asked where they discover new products most often, retail comes in at number six.

Like Gen Z, Millennials are still going to retail stores, but they’re finding products online more often. 22% of them say they prefer finding new products in retail stores, behind social media, searching the internet, YouTube Ads, and word of mouth.

Cable TV is Slightly Better for Reaching Millennials than Streaming Services

36% of Millennials have discovered new products through TV/film streaming services in the past three months, and 34% of them say that’s where they discover new products most often. Additionally, 13% of Millennials say video streaming is how they prefer to discover new products.

 

When it comes to cable TV, 34% of millennials have discovered new products through their television in the past three months, and 47% of them say that’s where they discover new products most often, comfortably ahead of streaming services. Additionally, 18% of Millennials say cable TV is where they prefer to discover new products, beating video streaming services by 5%.

Advertising on music streaming services is also a great way to reach Millennials – 21% of them have discovered new products through music streaming services in the past three months. Of that group, 29% say that’s where they discover new products most often. Overall, 11% of Millennials say music streaming is how they prefer to discover new products.

ESG Matters To Millennials

41% of Millennials say companies should take a stance on social issues, down from 50% for Gen Z.

We also asked Millennials who want to see companies engaging in advocacy which social issues they want to see companies that a stance on most.

Among Millennials who want companies to advocate for social issues, 60% want to see brands take a stance on racial justice, followed by income inequality (52%), climate change (39%), affordable healthcare (37%), and LGBTQ+ rights (36%).

While racial justice is top of mind for both Gen Z and Millennials, Millennials put less of a priority on other identity-based issues like gender and sexual orientation. Instead, they prefer to see companies tackle issues like income inequality, climate change, and affordable healthcare. 

This might be because Millennials are older and more likely to be part of the workforce than Gen Z, making them more conscious of wealth inequality and the cost of healthcare.

While a sizable group of Millennials wants to see companies taking a stand, do these sentiments actually affect their purchase decisions? Just like with Gen Z, the answer is yes.

• 59% of Millennials have chosen a product based on it being made by a small business in the past three months
• 49% of Millennials have chosen a product based on the brand’s commitment to diversity/inclusion in the past three months
• 47% of Millennials have chosen a product based on the brand being woman-owned in the past three months
• 42% of Millennials have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a person of color in the past three months
• 27% of Millennials have chosen a product based on it being owned by a member of the LGBTQ+ community in the past three months

On a 5-point scale from much less likely to much more likely, we asked all Millennials in our survey how the following attributes impact their purchase decisions, if at all. Here’s what we found:

• Corporate Trust: 82% of Millennials are more likely to buy from a company that treats its employees well, and the same amount are more likely to buy from a company that they can trust with their data.
• Economic and/or Environmental Impact: 51% of Millennials are more likely to buy a product made by a small business, while 48% are more likely to buy from a company that actively tries to reduce its environmental impact
• High DI&B Standards: 47% of Millennials are more likely to purchase from a brand committed to diversity/inclusion, while 43% say a brand advocating for racial justice makes them more likely to become a customer. Additionally, 42% of Millennials say they’re more likely to buy products from brands owned by a person of color.
• Gender and LGBTQ+ Advocacy: 46% of Millennials say brands that advocate for gender equality are more likely to get their purchases, while 36% of Millennials are more likely to buy from brands that advocate for LGTBTQ+ rights.

While ESG strongly matters to Millennials, let’s see how these issues stack up against other factors in their purchase decisions.

What Drives Millennial Purchase Decisions?

Just as they do for all generations, price and quality are the top factors when it comes to Millennial purchase decisions.

Now let’s see which of these are most important to Millennials by forcing them to choose just three of the factors they consider.

Unsurprisingly, price, quality, reviews, and features remain in the lead. But a brand’s social media presence, whether a brand has an active community around it, whether the brand donates to charity, and recommendations from influencers rise. 

While these aren’t even in the top 8 factors in Millennials’ purchase decisions, among those who consider them, they are highly important.

How Do Millennials Prefer to Purchase Products?

65% of Millennials prefer to buy products in-store, while 55% favor going through online retailers like Amazon. About 1 in 3 like to purchase directly from a company’s website.

When it comes to mobile apps, 21% of Millennials prefer purchasing through social media, and 1 in 5 like to go through a company’s mobile app.

How Do Millennials Like To Pay?

44% of Millennials have purchased a subscription for a physical product in the past three months, slightly below Gen Z, but comfortably higher than Gen X and far ahead of Boomers.

But when it comes to the payment model they prefer, 51% of Millennials say they favor buying products at full price when they need them.

On the other hand, Millennials are the most likely of any generation to prefer purchasing a product in payment installments (28%) and on a subscription basis (21%).

Now that we’ve covered Millennial purchase habits, let’s take a look at how Gen X likes to shop, which differs significantly from what we’ve seen so far from the younger age groups. 

Gen X Shopping Habits 2022 (ages 35-54)

Gen X Prefers to Discover Products Through Online Search, With Other Channels Close Behind

One in three Gen X’s say they prefer to discover new products by searching the internet, and 58% say that search is how they discover new products most often – tying with social media as the channel they discover new products on most frequently. 

Additionally, 40% of Gen X have discovered new products through online search in the past three months, placing it among the top discovery channels.

So we know Gen X is all about searching online, but which devices are they using most when shopping on the web?

Two thirds of Gen Xers say they use their mobile phones most for online shopping, while 21% are on a computer and 9% use a table most frequently. This is similar to what we saw with Gen Z and Millennials.

But unlike those younger age groups, where social media is the clear favorite channel for product discovery, Gen X likes to find items through a much wider range of channels, so let’s take a look at the others that have a meaningful impact on those age 35-54.

Television Ads Are Highly Relevant For Gen X

41% of Gen X have discovered new products through TV ads in the past three months, and 55% of them say that TV ads are where they discover products most often, slightly behind social media and searching the web. 

Additionally, 30% of Gen X say they prefer to discover new products through TV ads, tying with retail stores for the second most popular channel.

Retail Has the Widest Reach For Gen X, But Digital Channels Are Seen Much More Frequently

Retail is the top channel Gen X has discovered new products in the past three months. But while 43% of Gen X found a new product in a brick and mortar store in that period, when it comes to the channels Gen X discovers new products on most often, retail is behind digital mediums like social media, internet search, TV ads, YouTube ads, and streaming ads.

Does that mean that retail is being forgotten by Gen X? Not exactly, because 30% of Gen X still prefer to discover new products in retail stores, tied at #2 with TV ads.

But it does signal that Gen X is shopping online more often than they visit retail stores, even if they prefer the latter. While this could be about convenience, a symptom of the pandemic, or a reflection of our increasingly digital world, it is important to reach Gen X virtually while keeping in mind their affinity for a real-life shopping experience.

Gen X Discovers Products On Social Most Often, Though It Isn’t Preferred

While Gen Z and Millennials discover products most often on social – and prefer it that way – Gen X is a bit more conflicted.

Social media is the number one channel Gen X discovers new products on the most, according to 58% of those 35-54. But at the same time, just 1 in 4 Gen Xers say they prefer to discover new products on social media, coming in at #5 on the list of their favored channels. 

This can be explained by the fact that 90% of Gen X use social media. While 14% spend under an hour on it every day, the rest average 3 hours and 25 minutes of daily use. So Gen X is using a lot of social media and seeing ads on it more than anywhere else, but it isn’t the way they prefer to discover products. 

Regardless, 42% of Gen X have discovered a product on social media in the past three months. On top of that, 18% of Gen X have bought a product directly in a social media app in that same period. So let’s take a look at which social media apps Gen X is using.

So Gen X is definitely on Facebook and YouTube, while a little over half are on Instagram, and 38% visited TikTok and Twitter in the past three months. Now let’s take a look at which social media platforms Gen X uses most:

 

Facebook and YouTube stay in the lead, a trend that continues when we look at Gen X’s favorite social media apps.

Now that we know which platforms are most popular among Gen X, here’s a look at how the age group prefers do discover new products on social media, among those who use it.

While the current trend for advertising to Gen Z and Millennials is “make content, not ads,” Gen X isn’t bothered by being advertised to more directly, preferring to see ads on social media. But since the trend is to make ads as enjoyable and un-intrusive as possible, you should still try to make your Gen X ad campaigns feel authentic, fun, and relatable, making for a better experience regardless of generation. 

Coming in second, 39% of Gen X also favor discovering new products through social media marketplaces where purchases happen outside of the app. This reinforces the previous insight we uncovered about Gen X preferring real-life shopping experiences, even if they’re discovering products on social media. 

Still, 35% of Gen X prefer to discover new products through in-app shops, the highest of any generation, but keep in mind this is only among social media users. 

In the past three months, 18% of Gen X social media users have bought a product directly on a social media app, and the same amount made a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation.

The impact of influencers is another major point of difference between Gen X and younger generations – just 14% of Gen X prefer discovering new products through influencers, compared to 25% and 28% for Gen Z and Millennials, respectively. But all three of these generations still look to influencers more than Boomers.

1 in 3 Gen Xers Say Companies Should Take a Stance On Social Issues

35% of those in Gen X say companies should take a stance on social issues, while 38% say they shouldn’t, and 26% aren’t sure.

We also asked those who want to see companies take a stance which social issues are most important for businesses to champion, here’s what they said:

Unlike Gen Z and Millennials, for whom racial justice topped the list by a large margin, Gen X is spread more evenly among their top issues. While Gen X wants to see companies take a stance on climate change more than any other issue, affordable healthcare, racial justice, and income inequality are all equally important to them.

Now let’s take a look at whether these ideals actually impact Gen X’s purchase decisions. Among all Gen Xers in our survey:

• 42% of Gen X have chosen a product based on it being made by a small business in the past three months
• 36% of Gen X have chosen a product based on it the brand’s commitment to diversity/inclusion in the past three months
• 28% of Gen X have chosen a product based on the brand being woman-owned in the past three months
• 28% of Gen X have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a person of color in the past three months
• 21% of Gen X have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a member of the LGBTQ+ community in the past three months

While these numbers are lower than what we’re seeing with Gen Z and Millennials, social factors are present factors in Gen X’s purchase decisions. We also asked all Gen Xers in our survey how the following attributes impact their purchase decisions if at all, using a 5-point scale from much less likely to much more likely.

• Corporate Trust: 82% of Gen X are more likely to buy from a company that they can trust with their data, while 81% are more likely to purchase from brands that treat their employees well.
• Economic and/or Environmental Impact: 43% of Gen X are more likely to buy a product made by a small business, and the same amount are more likely to buy from a business that actively tries to reduce its environmental impact
• Moderate DI&B Standards: 36% of Gen X are more likely to purchase from a brand committed to diversity/inclusion, and 36% say a brand advocating for racial justice makes them more likely to become a customer. Additionally, 32% of Gen X say they’re more likely to buy products from brands owned by a person of color.
• Gender and LGBTQ+ Advocacy: 36% of Gen X say brands that advocate for gender equality are more likely to get their purchases, while 31% of them are more likely to buy from brands that advocate for LGTBTQ+ rights.

We know that social issues are part of Gen X’s purchase decisions, but which other factors do they consider, and which are most important? Let’s take a look.

What Drives Gen X’s Purchase Decisions?

Unsurprisingly, price and quality are the top factors when it comes to Gen X purchase decisions.

But let’s take a look at which factors Gen X find most important when forced to choose just three of those they consider in their purchase decisions.

Whether a brand has an active community around it, a brand’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, and whether a brand donates a portion of its profits to charity all rise to the top. While these are nowhere near the top factors in Gen X’s purchase decisions, for those who consider them, they are highly important.

How Does Gen X Prefer to Purchase Products?

73% of Gen Xers prefer to purchase products in-store. 53% favor online retailers like Amazon, while about 1 in 4 like to go directly through a company’s website, and just 13% prefer to purchase products through social media apps.

How Does Gen X Like to Pay?

63% of Gen Xers prefer to purchase a product for full price as needed, while 27% favor payment installments, and just 10% like to use a subscription plan.

But at the same time, 37% of Gen X has purchased a subscription plan for a physical product in the past three months. 

Now that you know all about Gen X purchase habits in 2022, let’s end with a deep dive into the shopping habits of Baby Boomers.

Baby Boomer Shopping Habits in 2022 (ages 55+)

Cable TV Drives Boomer Product Discovery

Boomers’ shopping habits stand out the most of any generation. While Gen X shares some similarities with Gen Z and Millennials in terms of frequently shopping on social media, Boomers are discovering products in their own way – through cable TV ads. 

Over half of Boomers have discovered new products through television advertisements in the past three months, and 62% of them say their TV set is where they discover products most often. On top of that, 45% of Boomers say they prefer to discover new products through TV, the highest of any channel and far above any other generation.

Leveraging Online Search Is Second-Best For Reaching Boomers

Boomers fall back in line with younger generations when it comes to searching the internet, with 45% of them having discovered a new product through online search in the past three months.

59% of those who discover new products through online search say it’s the channel they find things on most often, coming in 2nd after TV ads. It is also the 2nd most preferred channel for product discovery among Boomers, with 40% of them saying they like to find items through online search more than anywhere else. 

So which devices are Boomers using most often when shopping online? 

Unlike all other generations, over half of Boomers use their computers most often for online shopping, while 1 in 4 use their phones more frequently.

Boomers Prefer Retail Shopping More Than Any Other Generation

44% of Boomers have discovered new products in retail stores in the past three months, and 38% of them say that’s where they find new items most often. Additionally, 37% of Boomers prefer discovering new products in online stores over any other channel.

Social Media Falls Flat For Boomer Product Discovery

When we ask Boomers about their preferred way to discover new products, just 10% say through social media, and it ranks behind all the channels we just mentioned, as well as word of mouth and direct mail (snail mail). 

On top of that, just 17% of Boomers have discovered a product on social media in the past three months, and only 4% have purchased a product on a social app.

Regardless, two in three Boomers use social media. While about a third of them spend less than an hour on social media a day, the other 65% are spending over an hour on it daily.

But which apps are they using?

91% of Boomers who use social media are on Facebook, higher than any other generation. Over half use YouTube, and about one quarter are on Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. 63% of Boomers who use Facebook also say it’s the app they use the most, with YouTube coming in second at 21%.

We see the same picture when looking at the social media apps Boomers consider their favorite, with 58% of them choosing Facebook, followed by YouTube at 20%.

So you know where to find Boomers on social media, but what kind of content do they want to see when discovering new products?

Similar to Gen X, Boomers are perfectly content with being advertised to more directly, though the current trend of “making content, not ads” popular with Gen Z and Millennials is sure to improve their experience. 

Boomers also favor buying through social media marketplaces where purchases happen outside of the app, showcasing their preference for real-life shopping experiences.

Unsurprisingly, Boomers are the least interested of any generation in discovering new products through in-app shops or through influencers, with 13% saying they prefer to find products this way 

Almost Half of Boomers Say Companies Shouldn’t Take a Stance on Social Issues

Boomers are often considered the polar opposite of Gen Z, and in the case of whether companies should take a stance on social issues, the two groups are completely at odds. While 1 in 2 Gen Zers think companies should engage in advocacy, about half of Boomers say they shouldn’t.

Still, one in four Boomers want to see companies taking a stance on social issues, so let’s take a look at which ones they want to see businesses speak on the most.

The social issues Boomers want to see companies advocating for most are climate change, affordable healthcare, racial justice, and income inequality. This is right in line with the issues we saw were important to Gen X, though climate change is significantly more important to Boomers than any other generation.

Keep in mind the above is only among Boomers who want to see companies take a stance on social issues, which is just 25% of them. For the rest, social issues are either irrelevant or simply aren’t something they want to hear about when interacting with brands.

• 20% of Boomers have chosen a product based on it being made by a small business in the past three months
• 10% of Boomers have chosen a product based on the brand’s commitment to diversity/inclusion in the past three months
• 6% of Boomers have chosen a product based on the brand being woman-owned in the past three months
• 5% of Boomers have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a person of color in the past three months
• 5% of Boomers have chosen a product based on the brand being owned by a member of the LGBTQ+ community in the past three months

While one in five Boomers have chosen a product based on the brand being a small business in the past three months, identity-based issues are clearly not resonating with Boomers. 

But is that due to Boomers being averse to companies taking a stance on social issues, or is it because they simply don’t consider them in their purchase decisions?

To find out, we asked all Boomers in our survey how the following attributes impact their purchase decisions, if at all, using a 5-point scale from much less likely to much more likely.

When looking at issues related to identity, from the middle to the right side of the graph above, Boomers are overwhelmingly likely to say they have no impact on their purchase decision. A small percentage of Boomers say they are more likely to purchase when it comes to identity-related issues, while an even smaller group say they’re less likely to buy. 

So it’s much less about whether they’re for or against a certain social cause – these issues are simply just not part of their purchase decisions, with a few exceptions.

It turns out Boomers are overwhelmingly more likely to buy from companies they trust with their data and those that treat their employees well. Boomers are also more likely to buy from companies that donate a portion of their profits, try to reduce their environmental impact, and are small businesses, though many also say these actions have no impact on their purchase decisions. 

Since Boomers generally aren’t impacted by ESG initiatives, let’s dive into the factors they do consider in their purchase decisions and find out which are most important.

What Drives Boomers’ Purchase Decisions?

Price and quality are the most considered factors in Boomers’ purchase decisions, far above any other generation.

But which are the most important? Let’s take a look at what Boomers prioritize when forced to choose just three of the factors they consider when making purchases:

Here we see a similar picture as before, with the addition of the way a brand treats its employees and whether a product is a necessity or a luxury. While the latter is part of 29% of Boomers’ purchase decisions, just 6% of them take how a brand treats its employees into consideration, though it is highly important for those who do.

How Do Boomers Prefer to Purchase Products?

81% of boomers prefer to purchase products in-store. 53% favor online retailers like Amazon, and another 36% like to shop directly from a company’s website. Boomers also prefer using a company’s mobile app over ordering by phone or through social media.

How Do Boomers Like to Pay?

Boomers overwhelmingly prefer buying products at full price whenever they need them, according to 86% of those over age 55. 10% of Boomers prefer paying in installments, and just 4% favor a subscription model.

Still, 13% of Boomers have purchased a subscription plan for a physical product in the past three months:

Meeting Your Targets Where They Are

Now you have all the data you need to find and engage your target audience! 

While this guide has what you need to know right now, consumer shopping habits change rapidly – that’s why we’ll be running this same survey every few months and reporting back on any trends you need to be aware of. 

For an overall look at how general audiences are shopping, you can also check out this post on overall shopping trends from the same survey we note above.

And for even more data on the key consumer trends that could impact your marketing strategy in the next six months, check out our upcoming State of Consumer Trends Report and downloadable PDF.  

In the meantime, check out our most recent research report below.

As a marketer, you know you have to spend money to make money. This is particularly true when you’re trying to generate leads and acquire new customers. However, if there are ways to cut the cost of lead generation and customer acquisition without undercutting either metric.

To help refine your marketing strategy to lower the costs of acquiring leads and customers, here are some helpful CPL and CAC benchmarks from a recent HubSpot survey of hundreds of marketers.

Most Effective Strategies for Lowering CAC

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is how much a company has to spend to get a new customer. In our survey we found that CAC varies a lot between companies and industries — that said, almost half (48.9%) of the marketers we surveyed said CAC has increased in the past year. Another 48.9% reported their CAC has stayed about the same, and only 2.2% said CAC has decreased.

When we asked marketers what they found to be the most effective strategies in lowering CAC, the majority (67.6%) reported improving customer retention among the most effective. Other strategies reported to be effective are:

• Implementing a customer referral/affiliate program (62.5%)
• Optimizing sales funnel (57.6%)
• Conducting market research to better understand the target audience (55.8%)
• Using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management Software) to streamline their sales cycle (53.8%)

Marketing Channels with the Highest and Lowest CAC

Being mindful of the channels you’re using and how much those channels cost is another way to lower the cost of acquiring customers.

Marketing Channels with the Lowest CAC

In our survey, 59.8% of marketers listed social media as one of the channels with the lowest customer acquisition costs. 55.8% said the same about email marketing, 41.4% listed experiential marketing, and 40.8% said websites and blogs.

Marketing Channels with the Highest CAC

When asked what are the marketing channels with the highest CAC, 47.4% of marketers mentioned paid social, which is the practice of showing sponsored advertising content on third-party social media platforms. 46.2% said physical events and trade shows are the most expensive, 42.1% said physical ads, and 42.9% said print advertising.

Most Effective Strategies for Lowering CPL

Cost-per-lead (CPL) is how much money it takes to generate a new lead. Unlike with CAC, the majority of marketers we surveyed (56.2%) reported CPL has stayed about the same in the past year — only 37.7% said CPL has increased.

However, almost 70% of marketers still said their company is working to reduce CPL.

60% of marketers told us optimizing their website to convert leads into customers is among the most effective strategies for lowering CPL — that generally means taking strides like adapting websites for mobile devices or reducing page load times

Other effective strategies listed by marketers are:

• Analyzing advertisement campaign performance data (55.9%)
• A/B testing (52%)
• Leveraging organic search traffic by investing in SEO (52.8%)
• Conducting market research to better understand target audience (51%)

Marketing Channels with the Highest and Lowest Quality of Leads

Not every lead is a good lead — they don’t all have the need or desire to buy a product or service from your company. To ensure you’re reaching your target audience, here is a breakdown of channels marketers said attract the highest and lowest quality of leads.

Marketing channels resulting in highest quality of leads

In our survey, 44.7% of marketers mentioned social media as being a channel attracting the highest quality of leads. This could have to do with social media apps relying on targeted algorithms that point users in the direction of the content they like to consume.

41.1% of marketers also Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a source for high quality leads, along with content marketing (37.1%), influencer marketing (37.1%), and virtual events, webinars, and conferences (38.1%)

Marketing Channels Resulting in the Lowest Quality of Leads

Our survey found 38.3% of marketers reported direct mail resulted in the lowest quality of leads. 37.8% also reported the same for email marketing, and 35% answered with experiential marketing.

Marketing Channels with Lowest and Highest CPL

Similar to CAC, another way to lower the cost of generating leads is to look to channels with the lowest costs.

Marketing Channels with the Lowest CPL

45.6% of marketers reported in our survey that email marketing boasts particularly low CPL. About 40% said the same about websites and blogs and 42.6% said the same about social media. Percentages overlap because respondents were allowed to choose up to three answers.

Marketing channels with highest cost per lead

Half the marketers we surveyed mentioned influencer marketing as having the highest cost per lead — a trend that stems from the fact that influencers with large followings tend to have high rates.

44% of marketers reported print advertising to have the highest cost, and 42.5% of marketers said physical ads. Virtual events, webinars, and conferences were said to have the highest costs by 40.5% of marketers.

Now that you know which strategies and channels are the most effective for lowering CAC and CPL, you can confidently refine your marketing strategy to attract new customers and leads while also saving money.

I won’t lecture you on the importance of incorporating virtual reality (VR) into your marketing strategy.

What I will do, however, is share a few fun facts about VR and show you nine examples of this technology used for marketing a product or a brand.

• Consumer and enterprise VR market revenue is expected to reach $6.71 billion by the end of 2022, and $12.9 billion by 2024. 
• Augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality market size worldwide is expected to jump by more than 220 billion dollars between 2021 and 2028.
• By the end of 2022, it is estimated that virtual reality hardware and software sales will generate more than $6.4 billion dollars in revenue.
• By the end of 2020, the number of VR headsets sold is predicted to reach 82 million — a 1,507% increase from 2017 predicted totals.

VR is growing in its adoption, and it’s worth considering adding it to your marketing channels in the coming year.

What Is VR?

VR, short for virtual reality, is software that immerses users in a three-dimensional, virtual interactive environment — usually by headset with special lenses — to simulate a real-life experience. Many VR experiences take place in 360 degrees. 

While movies, for example, allow audiences to experience the film as if they are a character in the scene, businesses use VR to demonstrate and promote their products to potential customers. In fact, many industries have found a use of VR to transport people to places they might otherwise have to travel to or simply imagine. 

Before we dive into some examples of businesses that have used VR for marketing, it’s worth noting that virtual reality has a few key differences from another term you might’ve heard before in the same sphere: augmented reality. The video below runs through the key differences. 

 

 

Seeking inspiration for your own VR marketing campaign? Look no further. Below are nine of our favorite VR marketing campaigns and how they served the company’s marketing strategy.

1. Gucci Town

High-end fashion house Gucci recently launched Gucci Town, a virtual world within the Roblox metaverse. Players can explore the town, learn about the house’s history, and connect with other people in the game. 

 

The interactive elements of Gucci Town are the mini-games, the browsable art exhibitions, and the Gucci store where people can purchase clothes for their Roblox avatars. When users wear the clothing they’ve purchased, they can spark conversations with others that are curious about the unique items and, as a result, are inspired to visit and discover what the town has to offer. 

2. Sephora Try-on Kiosk

Beauty retailer Sephora has kiosks where visitors can virtually test makeup products on their face to ensure they’re satisfied with how it looks before making a purchase. These kiosks are a high-value marketing tool, providing a unique hybrid experience to help customers get the most out of their in-store visit. 

While Sephora does allow physical testing of its products, not everyone might want to do so, so the kiosks are an additional option. It’s also beneficial for customer satisfaction, as people can see exactly what the products look like ahead of time to ensure they spend money on one that works best for them and their needs.

3. Wendy’s and VMLY&R: Keeping Fortnite Fresh

Wendy’s created an engaging VR marketing experience within Fortnite’s virtual world, leveraging native gameplay related to its business: beef. Fortnite players would transport beef to freezers at nearby restaurants and earn coins when they were successful. 

To make it a more brand-relevant experience, Wendy’s tasked its marketing agency, VMLY&R, to create an avatar that resembled its mascot, Wendy. The firm then streamed on Twitch, where viewers could watch the new Wendy’s avatar break into restaurants and destroy freezers: 

 

During the stream, mentions of Wendy’s on social media went up by 119%, and it was viewed for a total of 1.52 million minutes by a quarter of a million viewers. Viewers also began smashing freezers within their games, tweeting about the stream, and commenting in the feed’s comment thread. 

Like a commercial or native ad, the campaign’s goal was to remind audiences that Wendy’s makes an effort to serve the freshest beef to its customers, which is why it was so relevant that users received coins the faster they were able to transport beef to the freezers. 

4. A Tribal Past: Bear River, a Nation: What Can Eeling Teach Us? 

In partnership with Oculus, Jessica Cantrell created a 360° film project where tribal members shared their stories and reconnected young people with their community’s past. 

 

It was a form of community storytelling that leveraged an emerging VR tool to market the story and to help members of a historically marginalized community learn more about their culture. 

5. Lowe’s: Holoroom How-To

Anyone who’s gone through the angst of being a first-time buyer knows the unfathomable power of paperwork and finances to undermine the fun of designing or decorating a new home.

That’s why Lowe’s decided to step in and help out homeowners — or recreational DIY enthusiasts — with a virtual skills-training clinic that uses HTC Vive headsets to guide participants through a visual, educational experience on the how-to of home improvement.

 

Now, customers can embark on their do-it-yourself renovation dreams without needing to pay for a professional and with the education, they need to succeed on their own. 

6. Boursin: The Sensorium

Cheese brand Boursin created a VR experience to take users on a multi-sensory journey through a refrigerator to shed light on its products’ flavor profiles, food pairings, and recipe ideas.

The goal? To raise awareness among U.K. consumers of Boursin’s distinct taste and product selection.

 

While the VR installment was part of a live experiential marketing campaign, the rest of us can get a taste — pun intended — of the virtual experience via this YouTube video.

7. Adidas: Delicatessen

Adidas partnered with Somewhere Else, an emerging tech marketing agency, to follow the mountain-climbing journey of two extreme athletes sponsored by TERREX (a division of Adidas).

And what good is mountain climbing to an audience if you can’t give them a 360-degree view of the journey?

Viewers could follow the climbers, Ben Rueck and Delaney Miller, literally rock for rock and climb along with them. You heard that right — using a VR headset and holding two sensory remote controls in each hand, viewers could scale the mountain of Delicatessen right alongside Rueck and Miller.

According to Somewhere Else, this VR campaign served to “find an unforgettable way to market TERREX, [Adidas’s] line of outdoor apparel & accessories.” What the company also did, however, was introduce viewers to an activity they might have never tried otherwise and instill an interest in the experience.

Check out the campaign’s trailer below.

8. Toms: Virtual Giving Trip

Toms, a popular shoe company, is well known for donating one pair of shoes to a child in need every time a customer buys a pair. This charitable developer found a new way to inspire its customers to give — wearing a VR headset.

Blake Mycoskie, the founder and Chief Shoe Giver of Toms, narrates Tom’s Virtual Giving Trip with one of his colleagues.

As they describe the story of Toms’ founding, their VR experience takes viewers on a trip through Peru, where Blake and the shoe-giving team visit a school of children who are about to receive the shoes they need for the first time.

What Toms’ VR campaign does so well is something cause-driven organizations worldwide struggle to do: Show donors exactly where their money is going. Even without a VR headset, the video below gives you an intimate experience to put Toms on your list for your next shoe purchase.

9. DP World: Caucedo Facilities Tour

DP World is a global trade company that helps businesses transport goods worldwide. As the company opens new terminals, however, they need a way to show their customers what DP World’s property has to offer.

DP World’s Caucedo facility in the Dominican Republic is just one of several DP World properties using VR to promote its large and often mysterious ships and land masses as they suddenly appear in a community.

Trade logistics is not an exciting industry for everyone, but that’s exactly why a 360-degree tour of DP World’s terminal is so valuable here. Show people just how efficient, safe, and crucial these properties are to certain businesses — without making them put on a hardhat and walk through the port itself — and you can gain massive community support.

Navigating VR in Marketing

As you read this, you might be thinking, “Why should a small-business marketer like myself be learning about high-priced VR campaigns?” 

Well, although VR might be too costly for many. marketing budgets, it’s getting more and more abundant in society, As it grows, we’re seeing a handful of brands leverage it for product promotion and virtual storytelling. And, while you might not be able to create a VR-based campaign, you can gather some great takeaways related to marketing innovation, content marketing, or visual storytelling which can give you other ideas of how to better interact with your digital audience.

Want to see how other emerging technologies will impact your marketing? Check out A Practical Approach to Emerging Tech for SMBs: AI, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, IoT, and AR/VR.

Imagine you’re scrolling through Instagram and see an ad for a product you might be interested in.

While your first thought might be that ad targeting is getting too advanced, you still want to find out more about the product and the company that makes it. So where do you look next?

Are you going straight to their Instagram page, visiting their website, searching for online reviews, or watching a YouTube unboxing video?

These are the questions we asked 1,000 consumers in our 2022 State of Consumer Trends Survey to find out how people behave after discovering a product they might want.

Of course, this will vary drastically by generation, so we’ll include some insights split by age group as we go. You can also check out our full report on consumer shopping habits by generation for more age-specific info.

How Do Consumers Want to Learn About Products in 2022?

Consumers are learning about products and their features through a wide variety of channels. Among the most popular are searching the web, going to retail stores, TV ads, word of mouth, and online reviews.

While social media, YouTube ads, unboxing videos, and streaming services are less popular when we look at all generations combined, splitting this up by age group paints a very different picture.

Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X set themselves apart from Boomers through their preference for learning about products through social media and YouTube ads. Gen Z also favors unboxing videos more than any other generation.

Meanwhile, Gen X and Boomers show a clear preference for learning about products through TV ads and in retail stores. Boomers also favor word of mouth more than any other generation.

But there are also some similarities — learning about products by searching the internet and through online reviews is popular among all generations.

So let’s dive deeper into each of the most popular channels consumers are using to learn about products.

SEO is Key for Product Discovery

36% of consumers prefer to learn about products by searching the internet, highlighting the importance of optimizing your website for SEO.

Searching the internet is the number one way to learn about products among all age groups, except for Gen Z, who prefer to use social media by just 1 percentage point. While online search is extremely popular among all age groups, it progressively gets more favor with each older generation.

Since we know consumers are searching the web to better understand products and their features, it’s also key to get a sense of which devices they are using to create the best user experience.

Not only are mobile phones the device of choice for over 50% of consumers when searching up a question online, but they are also the most used device when they shop online.

Especially when it comes to younger generations, the use of mobile devices for search dwarfs searching on a computer, meaning you should optimize your website to be mobile-first.

Retail Is Still Relevant, Especially for Older Generations

Coming in second place, 27% of consumers say they prefer to learn about products in retail stores. Unsurprisingly, the in-person approach is most popular among older age groups, though it isn’t completely lost on Gen Z and is still favored by almost one in five Millennials.

TV Ads Are Key for Boomers and Gen X

One in four consumers say TV ads are their preferred way of learning more about a product and its features. TV ads rank in the top three most preferred channels to learn about products for Gen X and Baby Boomers, but lose favor with Gen Z and Millennials who strongly prefer other digital channels like social media.

Word of Mouth Is Relevant, But Gen Z Looks to Influencers Instead

23% of consumers say they prefer to learn about products through word of mouth. Interestingly, word of mouth ranks in the top 5 channels for learning about products for every generation except Gen Z. Our Consumer Shopping Report 2022 even found that Gen Z places more importance on recommendations from influencers than their friends and family.

Online Reviews Are Sought By All Generations

One in five consumers say they prefer to learn about products through online reviews, regardless of generation. Of course, whether they go to YouTube, Amazon reviews, or a dedicated blog to get those insights will depend on their age.

Social Media Is Key For Gen Z and Millennials

Overall, just 17% of consumers say social media is their preferred channel for learning about products and their features. However, social media comes in at #1 for Gen Z, second for Millennials, and fourth for Gen X.

Next, let’s take a look at how consumers want to learn about products on social media.

Feed posts, ads, and stories are the top three formats for learning about products on social media. 36% of consumers want to learn about products through short-form videos like TikToks or Reels, and another 27% prefer to go through influencers, which is especially popular among younger generations.

You might also be wondering what kind of content consumers want to see from brands on social media.

Almost half of consumers say funny content is the most memorable, followed by content they can relate to. Making content that showcases your product or service is also highly memorable to 36% of consumers.

YouTube Ads are Key For Gen Z and Millennials

Overall, just 13% of consumers say they prefer learning about a product and its features through YouTube ads, but the video platform ranks among the top channels for Gen Z and Millennials.

Unboxing Videos are a Gen Z Thing

While just 9% of consumers prefer to learn about a product and its features through unboxing videos, they are uniquely popular with Gen Z.

Making Sense of Consumer Data

Want to learn more about the latest trends and shopping habits consumers are navigating, and how your brand can leverage them to better meet your targets in 2022?

Check out our consumer shopping report as well as our State of Consumer Trends Report, coming in late July.

In the meantime, see how marketers are navigating 2022 with our State of Marketing Trends Report below.

When you’re not following a plan on social media, it’s easy to forget to post regularly.

Additionally, creating image and video-based content meant to drive revenue for your business can seem far from your bottom line.

However, 90% of people on Instagram follow at least one business nowadays. To compete with other companies in your industry, you must have a solid Instagram strategy, especially if your intended audience uses the app.

Fortunately, once you have an ideal plan for your Instagram content, you can create content more intentionally and ultimately drive more results for your team and organization.

In this post, we’ll cover everything from determining what kind of content you want to post to picking a content theme. Then, we’ll get into the details of planning individual posts.

HubSpot, AdobeSpark, and Iconosquare teamed up to create a 30-day planning guide for business Instagram planning.

We’ve also thrown in 30 templates to help you get started. Click here to get the planning guide.

Your Instagram’s Visual Theme

Once you’ve decided on the type of content you want to post, you’ll want to select a visual theme for your posts.

Aesthetic consistency will help you in several ways:

• When an Instagram user finds your business’ account, the images will appear coordinated and well-thought-out.
• Your followers will begin to sense patterns in your content and pause when they see your post as they scroll because they recognize that pattern.
• When you’ve pre-selected a go-to font and color scheme, it takes away some of the pressure of planning because there are fewer decisions to make for each new post.

If you use Adobe Spark, you can download our free Adobe Spark Instagram templates to create a new post with a template rather than starting from scratch. You’ll also get access to the previously-mentioned calendar of content ideas.

To establish visual consistency across your posts, pay attention to the colors in your photos, the filters you use, the fonts you use in your images, and, if you’d like, the pattern of content types you’re posting.

• Colors – Keep your brand colors top of mind when creating Instagram posts. Pick a few colors that complement your primary brand color and ensure that the most prominent color appears in your posts.
• Filters – When using filters, do so lightly, as over-editing can dilute the quality of your photos. If you decide to use filters, use the same one or two across all posts.
• Fonts – Select one font to use whenever you want to overlay text on photos or videos and use one of your brand colors for the font. Since Instagram is a friendly platform, aim to use an easy-to-read, sans-serif font and keep it the same across all posts.
• Content Pattern – To create a visual pattern for your overall feed, ensure that every third post has a specific background color. Since Instagram has three columns in the grid view, you’ll end up with a column that shows you thoughtfully planned your posts. You might consider using a white background with the same font style and color to share an industry tip for every third post.

Once you’ve decided on the content type and visual theme you’ll use on your brand’s Instagram account, it’s time to start planning posts.

Create a spreadsheet with the following columns (or download our free, pre-made spreadsheet along with planning templates for all of your other social media channels, too):

• Date of publication
• Time of publication
• Image caption
• Image file name or a link (if it has been uploaded to the web)
• The link that you’ll add to your bio when the post goes live (or add to a Linktree-type multiple links tool)
• Campaign/Goal: What is the goal for this post? Are you trying to amass more followers? Drive sign-ups for your product, a free trial, a consultation, or another next step toward becoming a customer? A well-articulated goal will help you ensure that each post exists for a purpose. You won’t be creating a dead-end for your followers but rather an opportunity for continued engagement with your account, brand, or product.

When you’re done, it should look like this:

Download This Template

Pro Tip: Duplicate the spreadsheet tab for Instagram Stories, as well, to leverage Instagram’s other avenue for engaging with your followers. Stories are best used for interactive content like polls and quizzes, sharing photos or videos from live events, and more casual, friendly updates.

Once you have your spreadsheet ready to go, decide on your frequency. We recommend ramping up to posting around three times per week.

1. Define Your Content Posting Schedule

Post at least once a week to establish a reliable posting pattern for your followers. You’ll risk losing followers if people feel that they’re not consistently seeing interesting or helpful content from your account.

To establish that consistent pattern, set dates and times for posting first. For example, if you decide to post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, fill in the date and time column with the next month’s Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Then, add a recurring event to your calendar for post planning for the following two to four weeks. Set a recurring 10-minute calendar invitation at your selected posting times to reference your spreadsheet and quickly post what you’ve planned if you’re not using an automated scheduling tool. With the planning sheet handy, you’ll be able to copy and paste captions and links and locate the images for your posts easily.

When slotting specific posts into your spreadsheet, begin in whichever column you’d like. For example, you could start by evenly splitting the rows into separate campaigns and filling in the caption or image link for each post later.

2. Add Visuals

If you already have a repository of photos that you can post, you might start pasting the links into the Image File Name/Link column and fill in the other columns afterward.

You’ll also want to start creating more visual content for future posts. For example, consider repurposing event images that your company has taken, soliciting photos of your employees or customers using your product, or simply creating visually-appealing text graphics like this one on a tool like Canva or Photoshop.

Upload each photo to a centralized folder and use a standardized naming convention so that it’s easy to find the file you’re looking for. If you’re not using a post-scheduling tool, you’ll likely have to post directly from your phone.

To easily access photos with their file names from your phone, you can upload photos to a Google Photos album on your computer and then use the Google Photos app to download the content before posting directly.

3. Write Engaging Captions

Finally, decide on your caption for each post. The ideal caption style depends on your audience and the type of content you’re sharing. For example, aesthetics-focused content may perform best with a quirky, short, and clever caption. In contrast, education-focused content may be most likely shared and liked if the caption includes a couple of concise, straightforward tips.

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4. Choose Hashtags

Make sure to include three to five thoughtfully planned hashtags in your caption or in a comment on your post to ensure it gets in front of new audiences. You’ll want to include a mix of branded hashtags (e.g., #HubSpotAcademy or #OnlineLearning) and trending hashtags so that more people see your post.

You can research the hashtags you might want to use by typing them into Instagram (head to the ‘Search’ tab and then tap ‘Tags’) to see how much volume they get. Prioritize the higher-volume ones.

Types of Content to Post on Instagram

Regardless of which kind of content you decide to post, it should always be content that attracts your ideal audience. Think beyond your product, service, or office. What does your ideal customer actually care about, and what motivates them to follow a business account on Instagram?

Bite-Sized Education Instagram Content

If you know your audience is interested in consuming bite-sized education on social media, you might use Instagram to share industry tips and tricks.

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Videos or well-organized captions can be useful vehicles for providing your audience with well-researched information for their benefit rather than the benefit of your business.

Showcasing Products Instagram Content

If your product or service lends itself to being photographed, consider sharing photos or videos of real customers using it. You can lighten your content creation load by relying on user-generated content. Have your customers send in photos of your product in action.

Here’s an example of how Beats by Dre uses Instagram to showcase customers using their products:

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Still, there’s no need to make these product or service posts promotional. Instead, the value for your Instagram following would come from drawing personal connections with real stories about how others have successfully used your product.

Inspiring Imagery Instagram Content

However, if your audience isn’t consuming education on Instagram and your product or service isn’t easily photographed, you can take a more aesthetically-focused route, posting images and videos that people would simply love to consume. These may not drive a significant number of conversions, but a visual-first Instagram can amass a large number of followers.

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The key to the aesthetically-pleasing route is to check in frequently to ensure your posts are driving actual value (perhaps in the form of brand awareness or community among your followers) for your business.

Experiment With Content

If you’re unsure of the type of content you want to post or the kind that will succeed for your brand, pick the one you believe your audience will be most interested in seeing. That can include product-agnostic education, product-centric content, usage-focused content, or aesthetically pleasing content. Try it consistently for a month.

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Then, try another type for the following month and compare engagement rates. How many people are liking and commenting on your content? How many followers did you gain each month? What other business outcomes, if any, were impacted by your Instagram posts?

In addition to deciding the general topics you’ll post on Instagram, you’ll want to experiment and determine which content formats you’ll post. For example, if you take an educational approach, experiment with videos versus text-focused images and various lengths of captions.

Alternatively, if your educational content lives on your blog, knowledge base, or in another library, consider using Instagram posts to point people to those resources rather than squeezing too much information into one Instagram.

For example, HubSpot Academy’s Instagram often promotes in-depth courses that HubSpot Academy produces rather than trying to dive into the details in the caption, image, or video itself. The account keeps followers interested by sharing short clips and tips from the courses, too:

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Additionally, we’ve put together this downloadable calendar of creative content ideas if you’re not sure what type of content to try first.

Instagram Planning Apps

Who has time to come up with every post at a moment’s notice? It takes time to create compelling content, and that timing won’t always line up with your content calendar. Using planning apps to schedule Instagram content in advance makes the most efficient use of time and sparks creativity. It can also allow you and your marketing team to become more informed marketers.

1. Preview

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Preview allows users to design, edit, and analyze their Instagram business page. With Preview, you can create a calendar to schedule photos, videos, albums, and stories for your business’ Instagram page. Preview lets you plan reels and IGTVs and access a suite of editing and analytical tools, including hashtag testing, engagement rates, and interactive charts. Preview also allows your entire social media team to plan your Instagram page together without sharing your Instagram password.

Pricing: Free Plan, free for 1 user; Pro Plan, $6.67/month for 1 user; Premium Plan, $12.50/month for an unlimited number of users.

2. Later

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Later’s Instagram scheduler can be used on your desktop or mobile devices. The scheduling tool offers a calendar with drag-and-drop functionality, hashtag tools, personalized scheduling insights, analytics, a stock photo library, and many more features to help you make the most of your business’ Instagram presence.

Pricing: Starter Plan, $15/month for 1 user; Growth Plan, $40/month for 3 users with an additional $5/month for each additional user; Advanced Plan, $80/month for 6 users with an additional $5/month for each additional user. Later offers a 14-day free trial of all of its plans.

3. Sked Social

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Sked Social makes it easy to edit your photos, queue posts, create a linked landing page for your business’ bio, and quickly add hashtags and mentions to your posts using templates. Sked Social also features a robust content calendar pre-filled with holidays from around the world, so you can plan content that celebrates and commemorates the special days that matter to your audience.

With Sked Social’s Essentials and Professional plans, you can collaborate with your team to manage your business’ Instagram marketing, no matter how many team members you have.

Pricing: Fundamentals Plan, $25/month for 1 user; Essentials Plan, $75/month for an unlimited number of users; Advanced Plan, $135/month for an unlimited number of users. Sked Social offers a 7-day free trial of all of its plans.

4. Planoly

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Planoly’s Instagram post planner and Reels planner allow users to plan, design, and schedule their business’ Instagram posts and Reels.

Planoly lets users analyze post metrics and add to their content with stock photos and photos from Canva. Users can also create a linked landing page and respond to Instagram comments from within Planoly.

Planoly’s scheduling tools include a content calendar that sends users reminder emails and push notifications when it is time to post content.

Pricing: Starter Plan, $11.25/month for 1 user; Growth Plan, $19.50/month for 3 users; Professional Plan, $36.50/month for 6 users. Planoly offers a 7-day free trial of all of its plans.

The right kinds of content planners ensure that your business’ Instagram posts are well thought out and draw consumers to your product or services. The following tools provide visual support as well as ideas that can transform content from dull to engaging:

1. HopperHQ

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HopperHQ claims to be the number one Instagram tool. It goes beyond crafting posts, giving users the ability to access analytics that help determine the best time to post.

HopperHQ’s Instagram planning tools include a drag-and-drop content calendar, automated posting features, an Instagram grid planner, and a team manager that allows you to collaborate with your business’ social media team and customize each member’s posting permissions.

Pricing: $19/month. HopperHQ offers a 14-day free trial.

2. Brandwatch

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Brandwatch is a platform devoted to creating strategies to help you plan your next Instagram campaign with progressive insights. Brandwatch helps you monitor your business’ brand and benchmark it against your competitors.

With Brandwatch, you can monitor social media trends, convert your Instagram posts to ads, and create workflows that repurpose assets to help your business save time and money.

Pricing: Brandwatch offers a $108/month plan for small businesses of 1 – 2 users. Larger teams can access Brandwatch’s full suite of products by booking a demo.

3. Content Scheduler in Adobe Express

Adobe Express’ Content Scheduler, previously known as ContentCal, allows Instagram users to plan and schedule content. With features such as snippets, pinboards, and a web clipper, Adobe Express’ Content Scheduler makes planning for Instagram campaigns more organized.

Adobe Express’ Content Scheduler offers free downloadable tools and templates, including content calendars, an engagement rate calculator, and a marketing plan template that help you plan and execute your business’ Instagram strategy.

Pricing: Free plan with limited features; Premium Plan, $9.99/month with a 30-day free trial.

Tools for Making the Most of Your Instagram

To stay organized, we recommend using two types of tools — a post-scheduling tool and a tool that allows you to link to several different places from your Instagram bio.

By using a post-scheduling tool, you’ll be able to plan out as far in advance as you’d like, ensuring you have a steady stream of content ready to be posted even when other projects pop up in your day-to-day work. Posting consistently is important for follower retention and will give you more opportunities to experiment and figure out which posts get the most engagement.

Scheduling your posts allows you to visualize which types of posts you have coming out and swap posts if needed. You can see the weeks you’ve planned enough content and those during which there are still empty slots.

You can also use a spreadsheet like this one (download for free here):

Download the Calendar

Examples of post-scheduling tools include HubSpot Social Tools, Later, Buffer, and Hopper.

Expanding Bio

An Instagram bio can either entice a potential customer, make them laugh, or make them keep scrolling past a page. Unfortunately, writing an eye-catching bio with an enticing call-to-action that tells visitors everything they need to know about your business can be tough because of Instagram’s limiting structure for bios.

Since Instagram only allows you to place one hyperlink in your bio at the top of your profile, we recommend investing a few dollars per month in a tool that creates one landing page that links out to several other pages.

Then, in individual posts, you can reference clickable links available at the link in your bio, which provides a much more user-friendly experience than having your followers copy a URL manually into their browser, toggling between apps. MilkShake is a tool that allows you to create a mini-website with links and videos that users can access through a link in your business’ Instagram bio.

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Examples of post-scheduling tools include Linktree, Lnk.Bio, and Link In Profile.

Enhance Your Instagram Experience

By taking a thoughtful approach to planning your Instagram content, you can ensure that your posts deliver value to your followers, convert those followers into leads or product users, and expand the reach of your brand’s messaging to new audiences.

Using tools such as schedulers and links to help carry out your Instagram journey can improve your business’ social media presence and extend its reach. It takes time to determine what resonates with your audience, so be patient as you experiment and evaluate your strategy.

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