Category Archives: B2B

So, you’ve finally got your foot in the door at your dream company. You’ve submitted the perfect resume and made a lasting impression during the phone screen. All there’s left to do now is to win over the hiring manager in the face-to-face interview.

As a well-informed candidate, you’re doing your research on the company and preparing your answers to the most important interview questions you can think of — the most notorious of them all being: “What is your greatest weakness?”

You don’t want to respond, “I tend to work too hard,” or “I am too much of a perfectionist.” That can easily come across as scripted and insincere at best and lacking in self-awareness at worst.

Alternatively, you don’t want to respond with weaknesses that will prevent you from succeeding in the role. For instance, if you’re applying to be a project manager, you don’t want to admit that you’re, “not very good with time management.”

Fortunately, there are ways to answer this question that will help you demonstrate your value as a candidate. Here, we’ve cultivated some incredible answers to the mainstay, “What is your greatest weakness” question — and don’t worry, these answers aren’t “perfectionism”.

1. Choose a weakness that will not prevent you from succeeding in the role.

When an interviewer asks, “What is your greatest weakness?” they want to find out:

• Whether you have a healthy level of self-awareness
• Whether you can be open and honest, particularly about shortcomings
• Whether you pursue self-improvement and growth opportunities to combat these issues, as opposed to letting these weaknesses hold you back

Ultimately, you’ll want to use this question to demonstrate how you’ve used a weakness as motivation to learn a new skill or grow professionally. Everyone has weaknesses — your interviewer doesn’t expect you to be perfect.

If you’re applying for a copywriting position with little necessity for math skills, you might admit, “I struggle with numbers, and don’t have much experience with data analytics. While math is not directly tied to my role as a writer, I believe it’s important to have a rudimentary understanding of Google Analytics to ensure my work is performing well. To tackle this weakness, I’ve been taking online courses in data analytics.”

An answer like this shows the hiring manager that you recognize your areas for growth and are able to act on them without being told to do so. This kind of self-starter attitude is a plus for virtually any team.

2. Be honest and choose a real weakness.

The answer “perfectionism” won’t cut it when talking about your biggest weakness is simply because it’s not a real weakness. Perfectionism can never be attained — it’s a fear-based pattern that leads to short-term rewards like getting the job done early and exceeding expectations. However, in the long-term, trying to attain perfectionism leads to burnout, low-quality work, and missed deadlines. Burnout is one of the biggest contributors to decreased productivity, turnover, and low employee engagement — all of which cost a company money, time, and talent.

Instead, choose a real weakness. Underneath the desire to do perfect work may lie a weakness of trust. Perhaps you don’t trust that you’ll be able to make mistakes on the team, so you strive to do everything perfectly. That’s a real weakness that you can definitely overcome.

3. Provide an example of how you’ve worked to improve upon your weakness or learn a new skill to combat the issue.

Hiring managers don’t expect you to overcome your weaknesses completely overnight. Everyone has areas they must constantly work on to keep them sharp. Think of it this way — if you’ve dedicated six months to working out, you won’t be able to stop one day and maintain your progress. It’s an ongoing process that you have to work at.

By providing an example of how you’re working to improve your area of weakness, you’ll give the interviewer a glimpse into a few positive attributes about your work style:

1. You know how to identify and mitigate issues that come up.

2. You’ve found a helpful solution to a problem that you and perhaps others on the team face, which means you can be an immediate resource to the team.

4. You demonstrate self-awareness and an ability to look to others to provide you with resources necessary for growth.

More often than not, you’re going to need to look outside of yourself to overcome a weakness. Whether you look to your supervisor, the HubSpot Blog, or a mentor for help, the simple act of asking for help demonstrates self-awareness and resourcefulness — two skills that are hard to teach, but valuable to learn. Tapping into your resources shows the interviewers that you can solve problems when the answer is not yet clear. That’s a character trait that has a place on any team.

Briefly share an example of a time where you asked someone for help in an area that you’ve identified as a weakness. This gives the hiring team a clear picture of how you’ll work with the team to balance out that weakness.

5.Don’t be arrogant and don’t underestimate yourself.

The most important thing you can do when responding to the question “What is your greatest weakness?” is exhibit confidence in your answer. (If confidence is your weakness, keep reading.) Even if you’re not the most confident person, I’m going to assume you’re at least honest with yourself. If you’ve identified an area of weakness and you’re sure about it, let that assurance shine through in your answer. There’s no need to feel embarrassed about something you’re genuinely not good at as long as you’re working to get better.

Before you start expressing a genuine weakness to your interviewer, get comfortable with the types of answers that make hiring managers want to work with you. Take a look at the following examples and find a few that fit your personality and work style. Then, practice reciting them aloud so they come naturally to you.

Here are seven examples of how you might answer “What is your greatest weakness?” and why they work.

Here are seven examples of how you might answer “What is your greatest weakness”, and why they work.

1. Patience

“I don’t have much patience when working with a team — I am incredibly self-sufficient, so it’s difficult when I need to rely on others to complete my work. That’s why I’ve pursued roles that require someone to work independently. However, I’ve also worked to improve this weakness by enrolling in team-building workshops. While I typically work independently, it’s nonetheless important I learn how to trust my coworkers and ask for outside help when necessary.”

This answer works because the weakness — the inability to be patient when working with a team — doesn’t hinder your ability to perform well in the role since it’s a job that doesn’t rely on teamwork to succeed. Additionally, you display an eagerness to develop strategies to combat your weakness, which is a critical skill in the workplace.

2. Organization

“I struggle with organization. While it hasn’t ever impacted my performance, I’ve noticed my messy desk and cluttered inbox nonetheless could interfere with my efficiency. Over time, I’ve learned to set aside time to organize my physical and digital space, and I’ve seen it improve my efficiency levels throughout the week.”

Plenty of people have messy desks. This answer works because it’s a relatable and fixable weakness. You note that disorganization doesn’t interfere with your ability to do your job, which is critical, but you also acknowledge it might make you less efficient. To ensure you’re performing at 100%, you mention personal steps you’ve taken to improve your organization skills for the sake of self-improvement alone, which suggests a level of maturity and self-awareness.

3. Delegation

“I’m incredibly self-motivated, and I sometimes find it difficult to delegate responsibility when I feel I can finish the task well myself. However, when I became manager in my last role, it became critical I learn to delegate tasks. To maintain a sense of control when delegating tasks, I implemented a project management system to oversee the progress of a project. This system enabled me to improve my ability to delegate efficiently.”

This answer allows you to demonstrate an ability to pursue a new skill when a role calls for it and suggests you’re capable of flexibility, which is critical for long-term growth. Additionally, you are able to showcase a level of initiative and leadership when you mention the successful implementation of a new process that enabled you to succeed in your past role, despite your weakness.

4. Timidity

“Oftentimes, I can be timid when providing constructive feedback to coworkers or managers, out of fear of hurting someone’s feelings. However, in my last role, my coworker asked me to edit some of his pieces and provide feedback for areas of improvement. Through my experience with him, I realized feedback can be both helpful and kind when delivered the right way. Since then I’ve become better at offering feedback, and I’ve realized that my empathy can be used to my advantage to provide thoughtful, productive feedback.”

This answer works because you’ve explained how you were able to turn a weakness into a strength through real-world experience. Typically, timidity can be seen as a flaw in the workplace, particularly if a role requires someone to provide feedback to others. In this case, you’re able to demonstrate how timidity can be used as a strength, through thoughtful reflection and practice.

5. Candidness

“My blunt, straightforward nature has allowed me to succeed over the years as a team manager, because I’m able to get things done efficiently, and people often appreciate my honesty. However, I’ve recognized my bluntness doesn’t always serve my employees well when I’m delivering feedback. To combat this, I’ve worked to develop empathy and deeper relationships with those I manage. Additionally, I took an online leadership management course, and worked with the professor to develop my ability to deliver feedback.”

Oftentimes, facets of our personalities can help us in certain areas of our work, while hindering us in others. That’s natural. However, you must demonstrate an ability to recognize when your personality interferes with the functions of your role, and how you can solve for that.

In this example, you first explain how your blunt nature allows you to be successful in certain situations. Then, you mention that you understand your bluntness can be seen as a lack of empathy and provide examples of how you’ve attempted to solve this issue. Ultimately, your awareness of how you might be perceived by others shows a level of emotional intelligence, which is a critical asset for a team leader.

6. Public Speaking

“Public speaking makes me nervous. While I don’t need to do much public speaking in my role as a web designer, I still feel that it’s an important skill — especially when I want to offer my opinion during a meeting. To combat this, I spoke with my manager and she recommended I speak at each team meeting for a few minutes about our project timeline, deadlines, and goals when developing a website for a client. This practice has enabled me to relax and see public speaking as an opportunity to help my team members do their jobs effectively.”

In this example, you mention a skill that isn’t applicable to the role, but one which you nonetheless have been working to improve. This shows your desire to meet more business needs than necessary in your current role, which is admirable. Additionally, it’s impressive if you can show you’re willing to reach out to your manager with areas in which you want to improve, instead of waiting for your manager to suggest those areas of improvement to you — it demonstrates a level of ambition and professional maturity.

7. Data Analysis

“I’m not great at analyzing data or numbers. However, I recognize this flaw can prevent me from understanding how my content is performing online. In my last role, I set up monthly meetings with the SEO manager to discuss analytics and how our posts were performing. Additionally, I received my Google Analytics certificate, and I make it a point to analyze data related to our blog regularly. I’ve become much more comfortable with data through these efforts.”

In this example, you’re able to show your desire to go above and beyond a job description and actively seek out skills that could be helpful to the success of your company as a whole. This type of company-first mentality shows the interviewer you’re dedicated to making yourself a valuable asset, and try your best to understand the needs of the whole department, rather than just your role.

There’s Strength In Every Weakness

Regardless of whether you’re bad with numbers or you tend not to speak up in group settings, there’s a strength behind every weakness. The strength is in how you work to overcome it. Leaning on your teammates who excel in those areas is a great way to show that you’ll work well on the team and that you know how to use your resources to solve problems. Taking professional development courses shows that you’re willing to work toward improvement. No matter which of these answers you share with the hiring team, they’ll be more than happy to help you grow and exceed the expectations of the role.

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

I’ve become a morning walking companion to people I may never meet.

How is this possible? They take me along in their earbuds as they stream my podcast, Build a Better Agency

It’s a wonderful sign of things to come for marketers willing to venture into the podcasting universe.

Once a fringe platform, podcasts are now surprisingly mainstream. According to Nielsen, six out of 10 people understand what they are, and 112 million Americans — 40 percent of the nation’s population — have listened to at least one. Though podcast listeners lean male, it isn’t by much: 56 percent are men, while 44 percent are women.

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Marketing professionals must not only be aware of these statistics, but they must also leverage them in their own campaigns. When 67 million men and women are monthly podcast consumers, it’s a niche that deserves serious contemplation. Add to that fact the amazing statistic that 63 percent of podcast listeners made a purchase based on something the host recommended, and you have yourself a veritable gold mine.

Of course, you have to crawl, then walk, then break into a steady trot to glean the benefits.

A no-nonsense primer from a podcast experimenter.

In my case, I’d written blog posts, conducted webinars, and published articles in places like Forbes and Fast Company for some time. These content producers worked, but I felt a different portal would help connect with more agencies and leaders in an accessible, easy to find, on-demand format.

As a longtime podcast listener myself, I recognized that the podcasting platform was the next logical step for me — especially if I wanted to reach a narrow audience of mid-sized agency owners and leaders as an authority in my field for more than 23 years. And as a long-time professional, I hired Predictive ROI, an Agency Management Institute agency, to produce the podcast so I wouldn’t make as many rookie technical mistakes.

Still, opening yourself up to podcasting is a little like breaking the lid on Pandora’s box. Until you do it, you have no idea what to expect. Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t head off issues before you go live.

Expect a certain amount of learning as you go, but be ready to explore the technology before fully launching your podcast. You wouldn’t open a bakery with your very first pie, so don’t hit “publish” until you get the lay of the land and make a plan. (Being a podcast guest prior to launching your own is a smart idea, too.)

Podcasting in the beginner’s circle.

Even if you’ve never been in front of a mic before, you can map out the first phase of a solid podcast schedule. From there, you’ll be able to branch out.

1. Create a checklist to keep yourself on task.

I asked myself tons of questions repeatedly before committing to podcasting. They included everything from the niche audience I wanted to reach to whether being the host of a podcast was a short-term fad or a long-term interest. I also considered what podcast style I preferred to offer the public, including a show prep and publishing schedule.

Obviously, your checklist will be individualized, but be sure it includes a section on technical elements. Setting up audio, iTunes, accounts, and interviews can be tricky if you haven’t done your homework.

2. Set up your basic show format.

Every interviewer prefers to run his or her podcast in a particular way. Many podcasters ask guests the same questions, but as a listener, I find that gets stale in a hurry. Sure, it’s less prep work, but it makes the host look lazy. I preferred interviewing subject matter experts but wanted to occasionally keep the door open to produce a solocast. My compromise was a 4–1 ratio of interviews to solocasts.

I was reasonably confident that I could have a few questions on hand and then launch into a conversation on the fly from there. A big risk? Maybe. But I believed I could pull off a 45-minute to 60-minute conversation without a safety net.

3. Leverage the heck out of your network.

The first 10 episodes set the tone for any podcast launch, so make sure you line up high-profile, interesting, engaging guests who won’t be turned off if you have very few — or no — listeners. My friends came through in a big way for me, offering me rock stars from day one. Not only did they help publicize the podcast, but they also generously allowed me to ride on their social media coattails.

4. Track your downloads.

Rob Walch was one of my recent podcast guests who offered an important consideration for any podcasters: You have to stay on top of your downloads. Rob’s suggestion is to hit at least 500 downloads an episode to feel sure you’ve broken the cycle of only having people in your inner circle tune in.

What’s a reasonable download number for your, quote, “success”? Only you can determine this, but it helps to keep a steady eye on the numbers. Starting to see a downward trend in listenership? Go back to square one and ask those tough questions again so you can pivot before your podcast loses traction.

5. Produce great content consistently.

Does everyone have a bad episode once in a while? Sure. And if you’ve planned in advance and have great content in the bag, you can simply not release it in lieu of a better one. Before you release your podcasts publicly, try to have several on hand. That way, you get the relief of a buffer zone.

Don’t try to start too quickly. You can always ramp up your delivery later. With my travel schedule that sees me on no fewer than 200 planes a year, I decided to get 10 episodes in before I proved to myself I could sustain the effort. August and September 2015 were a flurry of set-up and recordings, and we opened our podcast doors — virtually — in October 2015. Since then, we’ve published a new episode weekly without fail.

6. Prepare to become a podcast promoter.

Your target personas won’t find your podcast without a little help, so promote it like your life depends on it. I utilized our company’s email list, my personal social channels, and myriad other platforms. In addition, I requested that each guest promote his or her episode.

We were fortunate to get on iTunes New and Noteworthy, landing us in the top five of several of its subject-specific lists during our first month.

7. Learn how to monetize your podcast.

Finally, it’s important to figure out how to earn an income based on your podcasting. One way is to promote your book, workshop, or online course, creating thought leadership at the same time.

If you have a narrow audience lacking depth or width and you just can’t sell advertisements or sponsorships, you can still make numbers work in your favor.

Sound like hard work? It is, but it’s totally worth it if you strategize. Two years after unveiling my first episode, we have 110 five-star reviews, and episodes are downloaded in more than 125 countries. I’m pleased to say we’ve also earned a presenting sponsorship from HubSpot. Podcasting hasn’t just been a feeder for the business, but a phenomenal marketing opportunity as well.

Have you thought about taking the podcasting plunge? The water’s a bit choppy at first, but there’s plenty of room for another swimmer!

Every day, there’s a new article on Facebook Ads. Case in point, this one right here.

Given how powerful the advertising platform is, there are tons of recommendations out there aiming to steer you in the right direction for your next campaign.

However, not all recommendations are worth implementing.

Let’s revisit some of the most common Facebook Ads assumptions out there and get to the truth. It won’t be as dramatic as an episode of The Maury Show, but it will do.

Myth 1. Facebook Ads don’t work for B2B brands.

Truth: Facebook is a great platform for B2B advertising.

When it comes to advertising to businesses, the first place people think of is LinkedIn, a network known for fostering professional relationships. Facebook has always been seen as a strictly direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising platform.

Facebook wasn’t designed to be a business networking app, said Rex Gelb, paid ads director at HubSpot, and thus, wasn’t a top consideration for B2B lead generation. He argues it should be.

“To some extent, people are always open to business-related content, even if they’re just mindlessly scrolling through their Facebook and Instagram feeds after a long day at the office,” said Gelb. “If you work in B2B, don’t hesitate to give Facebook a try – you might be surprised by the results.”

Based on HubSpot’s 2020 Not Another Marketing Report, brands see the most return on investment (ROI) on Facebook compared to other social media platforms.

SaaS companies like Honeybook say Facebook is their largest acquisition channel, according to the social network. And they’re not the only B2B company that relies on Facebook Ads to generate leads.

“We find it to be successful for B2B companies like ourselves to promote content and signups,” said Nicole Ondracek, paid ads marketing manager at HubSpot.

If you want to ensure you reach the right audience, Facebook Ads’ lookalike audience feature allows you to target users based on their job title, industry, and employer – similar to LinkedIn.

Myth 2. You need a lot of money to get started.

Truth: You only need $1 a day to compete with the big brands.

While some advertising channels require a decent budget to compete, brands can reach Facebook users for as little as $1 a day.

“There’s no big upfront commitment required and no large minimums,” said Gelb. “You’re free to take things as slowly as you’d like and only scale when it makes sense to do so.”

He adds that while one dollar will limit the ad inventory you have access to, you’ll be on an even playing field with everyone else.

Ondracek echoes this sentiment.

“While it’s nice to have a large budget to bring in enough conversions and learnings to optimize your campaigns,” she said, “sometimes all you need is a small daily budget to start bringing in leads and customers.”

On Facebook Ads, a little can go a long way.

Myth 3. You should create small, targeted audiences.

Truth: Build your target audience but leave some wiggle room.

Facebook Ads’ targeting capabilities are impressive. You combine that with the idea that the more targeted your campaign, the better the results, and you run the risk of getting too narrow.

“It’s all about testing,” said Ondracek. “In some cases where we’ve tested large audiences (20M+), we’ve seen better success than narrowed audiences [and] going after a specific list of contacts.”

Creating exclusions during your audience creation process makes sense most of the time. For instance, excluding users located outside of a specific region. However, when your targeting gets too narrow, you can miss out on opportunities to reach audiences who would convert on your ad.

“Within your target audience, don’t restrict Facebook too much by layering on dozens of filters such as age, device, placement, and gender,” said Gelb. “Facebook’s ad serving algorithm was designed to find the most qualified audience at the cheapest cost.”

“If you give Facebook the freedom to go find those people,” he adds, “in many cases, you’ll end up with more scale and at a cheaper cost.”

Essentially, let the algorithm do its job. Define the key characteristics of your target audience and leave some room for your ad to reach those you may not have considered.

Myth 4. You should retarget all of your website visitors.

Truth: Not everyone should be retargeted.

The Facebook pixel allows you to track user behavior on your website and retarget those same users on Facebook to guide them down the funnel. However, not every person who visits your website should be retargeted on Facebook Ads.

You should still segment which website visitors to focus on, as not everyone who visits your site is ready for retargeting.

For instance, let’s say someone visits your “About Us” page. There are many reasons for this: They could be interested in your products, but they could also be looking for a new role. With that in mind, retargeting users based on any action taken on your website may not be valuable or cost-effective.

Instead, focus on visitors who exhibit high-intent behaviors and will be more likely to convert. For instance, visitors who add products to their shopping carts, visit your pricing page or read your testimonials.

Being selective will not only help you manage your budget better (especially if you have a small one) but it can also help you yield better results.

Ondracek highlights that sometimes, you should re-evaluate if retargeting is even the right strategy.

“When retargeting works, it’s great,” she said, “but we’ve found, in some cases, that retargeting site visitors is actually more expensive than prospecting.”

It’s all about finding what works for your brand. Just because Facebook is known for retargeting, doesn’t mean that’s the strategy that will work for your company every time.

Myth 5. Boosting a post will yield the same results as a campaign.

Truth: Boosting may not always align with your goals.

When you boost a post on Facebook, it’s a quick and easy way to expand your reach and gain some quick exposure. However, boosting a post won’t necessarily convert users in the same way a campaign would.

Why? Well, if your post isn’t already designed to drive a particular action and you boost it, you may gain more impressions but no conversions.

Depending on your goals, you may yield better results for less by creating an ad campaign. With the manual bidding feature, you can monitor how much you spend. You can also optimize your campaign based on your conversion goal.

So, while boosting a post may seem like the best solution for a brand with limited Facebook Ads experience and a small budget, it may be quite the opposite.

If you are going to use that strategy, be sure to consider the following:

• Does this post have a clear call-to-action (CTA)?
• Will boosting this post help you reach your goal?
• Could this work better as part of a larger campaign?

Answering these questions will help you determine when to boost and when to go in another direction.

The biggest takeaway here is that there aren’t hard-and-fast rules when it comes to Facebook Ads. Some strategies may work for some brands and not for others. The only surefire way to figure out what works is by experimenting with various strategies.

Ever wonder what’s fact or fiction when it comes to Facebook Ads? In this article, we debunk some myths about the social network’s advertising platform.

As the world continues to move in a remote-first direction, it’s important to consider how to make your company’s in-person events remote-friendly.

Even if you don’t always do remote events, the remote option is great for anytime your team is spread around the world.

But, a virtual offsite meeting? Sounds oxymoronic. How can you have an offsite, that doesn’t feel like work, virtually?

In this post, we’ll take a deep dive into how these brands thought about virtual offsites in a creative way. And didn’t just ask everyone to be on Zoom for 8 hours.

1. Loom VR Virtual Offsite

At the end of 2020, Loom decided to host a virtual offsite. What made this different than attending an 8-hour Zoom meeting?

Well, first, the company sent VR headsets to their team to allow employees to feel like they were leaving their homes for a large company meeting they used to travel for.

We just announced our @loom offsite being done in VR and us shipping everyone an Oculus headset. The smiles. 🙂

— Vinay Hiremath (@vhmth)
December 10, 2020

According to Loom, “with virtual reality, we were able to send everyone an Oculus Quest 2 headset to bring the virtual world to them. Plus, we were able to limit Zoom content to only two hours per day to keep the content engaging.”

Once they got started with virtual reality, they had to find virtual reality apps to host their events. But they also included their employees in the planning process. The company sent a Google Form to employees to share any ideas for activities and sessions they could do during the virtual offsite.

Loom worked with a partner to create a virtual reality island where team members could go for watercooler conversations, ice breakers, and happy hour.

Interestingly, the virtual reality component was not mandatory. Any events that were VR exclusives were optional. And the VR island they created was also accessible via desktop, so everyone could participate.

It’s important to remember that when you’re creating a virtual offsite experience, you want everyone to be able to show up. Hopefully, the tools you use will be available on several devices or you can make those events not mandatory if it takes a special device.

The team also created unstructured time during their day so that people working from home could still do their normal work and activities.

2. First Round Review Interactive Virtual Offsite

Another company thinking about virtual offsites creatively is First Round Review.

First Round Review held a virtual offsite and had activities including group meals, cooking competitions, self-reflection exercises, group presentations, unconference events, and more.

The company knew that they wanted to use all different kinds of formats for their activities so that they could keep people’s attention.

Before they planned the event, they wrote down their objectives, breaking them into task- and team-focused outcomes. Then, they came up with ideas to achieve those outcomes.

Again, First Round Review knew they didn’t want to spend all day on Zoom. A few things they did to make their virtual offsite interactive and successful were:

• Send an interactive surprise: The team sent everyone a kit that they were instructed not to open beforehand. The kit included candy, a chalkboard to write on, coffee, and a kombucha starter kit. This was a fun way to kick off the virtual offsite.
• Get in costume: The team was all sent special hats and everyone showed up to the meeting wearing their merch.
• Cooking challenge: Groups were split into breakout rooms so each group could cook together live. Then, everyone presented their meals together and people voted on creativity and presentation.
• Unstructured time: This is huge. Don’t make people spend all day on the computer. Include unstructured time and breaks.
• Playtime: Include team bonding events such as trivia or virtual escape rooms. First Round Review even hired a magician to join them for a group dinner.
• Show gratitude: First Round Review spent an entire meeting having everyone write out gratitude for every team member and then emailed everyone their list of comments from their coworkers. For each teammate, they had everyone spend one minute answering by writing a line or two in response to the following questions: What’s something you admire about this individual? What’s something this person did recently that you appreciate? Why are you grateful to count this person as a teammate? Answers are anonymous. After they’re all in, the meeting owner will round up the lines for each individual and share them in a private email.

One of the biggest takeaways from this virtual offsite is that you can have several formats, different sessions, interactive and engaging content, and still get work done in strategy sessions.

3. Wikimedia Product Team Virtual Offsite

The Wikimedia Foundation Product team also had productive virtual strategy sessions and meaningful team bonding in a remote environment across various time zones.

To achieve this, a lot of planning went into it. The team first decided what story they wanted to tell during their offsite. To ensure this was discussed throughout the virtual offsite, they revisited their product roadmap to understand where the team had been and where they’re going. On the first day, they held a retrospective to accomplish this.

Ultimately, the creative way that the company thought about this offsite was in the agenda and planning.

If there was a presentation or low energy session, they wanted to make sure it was followed up by a high engagement interactive session.

Additionally, the timing was important. They decided that instead of having 8-hour Zoom meetings, they’d have four hours of virtual sessions a day, broken into 2-hour blocks with a break in between of about 1.5-2 hours.

The offsite included low energy sessions including a Q&A with the Chief Product Officer, where they prepared questions ahead of time and used a thirty-minute window to go through their questions. But followed up those sessions with interactive activities.

One session even had team members create a homepage for newcomers based on previous features built by the product team. This had the team actively working in the tool so they could see what features stand out.

They also had a session with a specialist that was a step-by-step process of the Wikipedia editing process so employees understand the user experience.

Other fun sessions included friendly games online.

When planning a virtual offsite, it’s important to consider the timing and energy levels of the event. Spending all day on a video conferencing tool isn’t going to be effective for most people.

Hosting a virtual offsite doesn’t need to be an overly complicated process. And it doesn’t need to be a boring, 8-hour long Zoom meeting. You can host interactive sessions, presentations, and truly engage with your employees.

Search engine optimization (SEO) may seem like a straightforward concept.

You pick keywords related to your business, create content with those keywords, and you’re set to watch your site grow — a simple three-step process, right? Nope.

While those are fundamental elements of SEO, it can actually be quite challenging to create a strategy that helps you drive traffic and enough of it to meet your overall business goals.

It can be difficult to get your feet off the ground. Thankfully, there are various tools specifically designed to help you with SEO, build domain authority, and achieve high ROI. In this post, we’ll hear inspiring stories from HubSpot clients that have used our SEO tools to achieve business success.

5 SEO Success Stories To Inspire Your 2021 Strategy

1. Ironpaper

Ironpaper is a digital marketing agency that helps their B2B clients grow. They worked with one of their clients, Goddard, to achieve significant success using HubSpot’s SEO tools.

Jonathan Franchell, CEO and Founder of Ironpaper, says, “While Goddard fills a real need for their customers by designing medical devices, historically they’ve struggled to find quality leads that could use their services. Instead, their website attracted a lot of spam and unqualified contacts.” Ironpaper began making critical SEO updates with HubSpot tools on Goddard’s site, focusing on internal linking, content strategy with business-relevant keywords, and technical SEO issues like broken links and meta tags.

Over an eight-month campaign, Ironpaper helped Goddard gain 2,361 Google positions across various keywords relevant to their offerings. Franchell says, “Because we created targeted content centered on strategic keywords, Goddard’s Google rankings increased even throughout a dip in traffic.”

The company also now ranks in the top 100 for 50 strategically targeted terms and can use HubSpot’s insights reports and dashboards to monitor their progress to ensure that their future marketing efforts are hyper-targeted for the audience they’ve worked hard to develop.

2. Apptega

Apptega is a cybersecurity and compliance platform. As they grew their business, they knew they would need an optimized website that generated leads. They also recognized that their existing WordPress site wouldn’t be enough for them to reach their goals.

Joelle Palmer, Apptega’s Digital Marketing Manager, says, “We had built a Frankenstein monster in WordPress. Our dev team would constantly have to drop what they were doing and fix our website.” Apptega then decided to migrate its existing site into CMS Hub.

Apptega saw almost immediate success with HubSpot’s SEO tools: “We saw one of our core pages move from a number100+ ranking on Google to position number three in two weeks. SEO usually takes three to six months to work…that was truly amazing for us as a company to experience.”

Some of the tools Apptega used within Marketing Hub to achieve their growth are the on-page SEO recommendations that direct users to pages that need attention and additional ways to optimize content.

3. Beacon Digital Marketing

Beacon Digital Marketing specializes in driving results for FinTech, SaaS, and B2B businesses.

As HubSpot Platinum Partners, they understand how to use and implement HubSpot tools to drive growth and success. While they typically assist other businesses, they took an internal look in August 2020 and decided to implement an SEO overhaul of a post on their blog that they believed could perform better than it already was.

They focused on a few critical areas for improvement: updating metadata, optimizing for a featured snippet, and re-targeting original keywords. The HubSpot content mapping tool helped them create a strategic pillar-cluster plan, and the on-page SEO recommendations provided them with helpful tips. After implementing their new strategy, they noticed an almost immediate 50% increase in page views: July 2020 showed 991 organic search traffic views, and August 2020 had 1,552.

Their optimization allowed them to draw more traffic to an existing blog post, and they have also seen an increase in organic traffic to additional pages on their website. This goes to show that a well-rounded SEO strategy can impact all areas of your business, as an increase in traffic leads to curious customers eager to learn more about what you have to offer.

4. Take Note

Take Note is a UK-based business that provides a range of audio and video transcription services, captions, and on-site note-taking. When demand for their business grew, they struggled with balancing disconnected tools to support their needs and obtain consistent growth. Thomas Carter, Director of Marketing at Take Note, said, “I think for us, SEO is the way to grow within such a competitive market.”

The business officially signed on to HubSpot in 2018 and has since increased its website traffic by 22%. At the same time, their customer base and revenue have grown by 16-22%. They’ve also seen an increase in leads. Carter adds, “Long term, we want to continue to focus on ensuring the quality of our services remains exceptionally high while using technology such as HubSpot to automate and optimize behind the scenes.”

5. Revenue River

Revenue River is a digital sales and marketing agency that helps companies scale and become competitive in their industry. One of their clients, Kofinas Fertility Group, saw their site traffic significantly impacted by COVID-19. Eric Pratt, the Managing Partner at Revenue River, says, “The site saw declines from mid-February all the way through May.”

The business got to work and conducted competitive analysis and keyword research to identify areas of opportunity for growth. They decided that the best course of action was to create pillar content and supporting content clusters, which would help them establish their domain as a source of authority in their industry.

Since implementing the new strategy in November of 2020, the site has nearly doubled its organic traffic. Between March and June of 2020, they saw 86K impressions, and January-March 2021 saw 1.1M.

Pratt says this success “Came about because of a combination of SEO strategy planning for research, topic clustering, and on-site/page optimization features to enrich the SEO appeal of the content we’re producing and publishing through HubSpot.”

Improving Your SEO Doesn’t Have To Be A Challenge.

The success stories we’ve highlighted in this post show that SEO doesn’t have to be a challenge, especially with the help of a high-powered SEO tool. Learn from these clients and create a strategy that works for your business.

 

New social media sites continue to emerge, new features are added, and algorithms are always being updated, making it tough to keep up with social media best practices.

However, social media is here to stay. According to Instagram, there are more than one billion active users every month and more than 500 million active Stories every day. Even more, 90% of accounts follow a business on Instagram, making this platform a prime choice for all types of businesses.

Instagram Stories are a popular trend that isn’t going away. Pamela Bump, Audience Growth Writer at HubSpot, says, “Instagram Stories serves as an outlet for brands to creatively show their products, services, or happy customers in action. Branded Instagram Stories also enable audiences to learn more about topics related to your brand’s industry. Helpful and valuable content might also allow prospective buyers to trust your brand more.”

With this knowledge, you want your marketing team ready to develop a strategy for your Instagram Stories. To create this strategy, your team should decide what kind of images or videos they want to post.

How do you plan on taking those images? With phones or professional cameras?

Below, you’ll learn the Instagram Story dimensions and why they’re important to your Instagram marketing strategy.

If you shoot an Instagram Story video using your phone, the dimensions will likely be 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels, so you don’t have to resize it. If you’re using another camera or a custom setup, however, you’ll have to use a video editing app to make sure your video has the correct dimensions.

While this may seem like a lot of work, it’s exceedingly important for user experience and for ensuring maximum engagement on your Story.

Why are Instagram Story dimensions important?

Instagram has provided these dimensions and sizes to make sure that your Story is uploaded with as much quality as possible. These dimensions are also ideal for most mobile devices, guaranteeing that your video, image, or gif shows up properly across different operating systems and screen resolutions.

Using Instagram Story dimensions also:

• Helps your brand look more professional
• Ensures that the content looks high-quality
• Prevents unnecessary pixelation

If you don’t adhere to these dimensions, your images or videos will be cut off, and the content that you wanted to share won’t show up as intended. That’s why it’s best to pre-size your images and videos using an Instagram photo editing app.

Speaking of, let’s go over the ideal Instagram Story image size. Spoiler alert: it’s the same as the Instagram Story video dimensions, which makes it easy to remember.

Whether you upload a video, image, or a mixture of both to your Story, it’s critical to keep your content in a “safe zone” where it won’t be cut off or hidden.

The Instagram Story Size Safe Zone

The “safe zone” refers to the area in your Instagram Story where the content isn’t obstructed or at risk of getting cut off.

Instagram will automatically show blue lines if you try to move content out of the safe zone, especially if you’re adding stickers or GIFs. When I tried to move the timestamp to the edge of the screen, Instagram didn’t let me go toward the edge or let me cover my profile picture up top.

Instagram will also provide guides when you’re placing elements on your Story, allowing you to center them perfectly.

On personal Instagram Stories, it’s common to post videos using the front camera of your cell phone. The frame can be tilted, and your face can be cut off; this is all good and well.

On an Instagram business account, however, you’ll want to make sure that all videos are shot professionally and that the item that you want to promote takes center stage on the screen. Most importantly, if you’re planning to add polls or stickers, leave enough space in the frame so you can place this content without obstructing something else.

Below, we’ll go over some additional tips for sizing your Instagram Story.

Instagram Story Size Tips

1. Ensure your content is high-quality before you upload.

Instagram will compress images during the upload process, so an already grainy or pixelated image will only get worse once it gets to the platform.

Check that your images are at least 72 ppi resolution before you add them to Instagram.

2. Upload the right size, shape, and aspect ratio.

Instagram is strict about adhering to its dimensions to ensure quality photos and videos. When you upload a vertical image or video from your phone, you most likely won’t have to think about these dimensions because Instagram will automatically format them.

However, if you have horizontal photos that don’t fit the dimensions, Instagram will crop your photos, zoom in on content, or zoom out (making your image look small and placing it on a background). This typically results in lower-quality images and videos. So, make sure you stick to the 9:16 aspect ratio.

3. Use photo editing apps.

Photo editing apps can help you control the quality of your Stories and ensure you’re always using the right dimensions. To edit your photos for Instagram, you can use the following tools:

Canva

This is the perfect option for creating images for your Instagram Stories. To get started, Canva has templates that are designed with the Instagram dimensions in mind. Canva offers free and paid plans.

Lumen5

This software makes it easy to produce videos for Instagram Stories. Once you get started creating a video, you can choose the right dimensions on the platform. Lumen5 offers both free and paid plans.

Easil

Easil has templates for Instagram Stories to help you create engaging content. They have templates for single images, and multi-card Stories as well. Easil offers free and paid versions.

Adobe Spark

Adobe Spark makes it easy to create images and video graphics for Instagram Stories. You can build your own Stories with their typography and imagery options. Adobe Spark has free and paid plans available.

Embed Social

Embed Social is a different kind of tool for Instagram Stories — with Embed Stories, you can make your Stories Shoppable by adding CTAs and creating embeddable code that you can add to your website. Embed Social offers free and paid plans.

With these tools, you can input the specifications, upload images and videos, and complete the editing process. These work well if you have higher-quality images taken with a professional camera or want to add graphics or text to your images or videos.

4. Upload vertical content.

While Instagram posts are more flexible in orientation and dimensions, Instagram Stories work best in a vertical format. Make sure your photos and videos are vertical before posting. If the content doesn’t lend itself to a vertical orientation, consider publishing it as a normal post instead.

5. Stay under 30 MB in file size.

Be mindful of your file size; Instagram will only accept up to 30 megabytes. This should give you plenty of wiggle room to upload high-quality photos and videos.

If the quality doesn’t look right, it’s time to troubleshoot.

How do I fix the quality of my Instagram Stories?

There might be instances in which your Stories don’t upload with the quality that you’d like. Let’s go over a few questions you might have about quality, plus some troubleshooting tips.

Why are my Instagram Stories blurry? Why does the picture quality change on my Instagram Story?

Your Instagram Story could be blurry for two reasons:

1. Instagram compressed the video or image to a degree that makes it look blurry.
2. The dimensions or aspect ratio is off.

To fix this, you’ll want to double-check the quality of the image or video you uploaded. What’s its file size? Is it at least 72 ppi? If the file size is too small or the ppi is too low, then Instagram’s compression process worsened it further. Consider creating a higher-quality version so that, when Instagram compresses it, it doesn’t look as pixelated.

Next, double-check the dimensions. To ensure the highest quality possible, try to use the full 1080 x 1920 size.

If those two check out and your Story is still blurry, follow the following tips to isolate the problem.

1. Check if the quality is better on other devices.

If your internet connection is poor, Instagram Stories will appear lower quality than they would on a faster connection.

Instagram does this to save resources for user experience as you interact with other areas of the site. Consider asking someone you know if the quality is low on their end as well. They — and your audience — may be viewing your Stories with no issues.

2. Turn off Data Saver.

Data Saver is a feature that prevents videos from loading in advance, which helps reduce your data usage.

If your connection is fine but you’re still having issues with quality, this feature may be lowering the quality of your feed on your end.

3. Test photos from different cameras.

As a last resort, test whether there’s a difference in quality between your phone’s integrated camera versus the Instagram camera. The photos you take with your phone’s camera versus the in-app camera (or vice versa) may weather Instagram’s compression settings better.

Instagram Story Sizes are Essential for an Instagram Strategy

All marketers should use Instagram Stories. While posting regularly on your feed is a great tactic, adding Stories into your strategy will result in a better ROI from your time and resources spent on the platform. Instagram Stories can improve your discoverability, increase brand reputation and awareness, and help you and your business grow better.

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

Hulu gave us “The Handmaid’s Tale,” then gave us “Little Fires Everywhere.” So, personally, I don’t need another reason to love the streaming platform. But if I had a small business, I would have just gotten one.

In July 2020, Hulu announced Hulu Ad Manager, a self-service advertising platform designed for smaller advertisers with limited budgets.

Previously, Hulu ads were only accessible to top brands with the finances to fund large campaigns. Now, small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs) can reach the platform’s 92 million ad-supported viewers without dishing out thousands of dollars.

So, how exactly does the Ad Manager work? We’ll cover that and more below.

How to Use Hulu’s Ad Service

Currently, Hulu’s self-service solution is in the beta phase.

To access the platform as a beta user, you must first submit an RSVP form with information on your business.

If accepted, setting up your ad is easy. Here are the steps.

1. Select the dates within which you want to run your ad campaign.

2. Build your audience.

On Hulu Ad Manager, you can target users by age, interest, gender, location, and of course show genre. When it comes to location, you can narrow it down by state, city, ZIP code, or a designated marketing area (DMA).

However, you cannot select which shows you want your ads to run on, only the genre. If you’re not sure what will align best with your brand, look through the current show selections to get an idea of what to expect.

3. Set your budget.

To run an ad on Hulu, you must have a minimum budget of $500 per campaign, which is considerably less than the usual cost of ads on streaming platforms. For comparison, Amazon’s self-service platform for video ads typically requires a minimum ad spend of $35,000.

4. Upload your video ad.

There are a few requirements your ad must meet to be approved:

• Be between 15 to 30 seconds long
• Formatted in MP4 or MOV
• Be in HD and have stereo sound
• Fit the tech specs outlined by Hulu
• Comply with Hulu’s advertising policies.

The approval process usually takes up to three business days.

5. Make a payment.

Currently, Hulu doesn’t accept business bank accounts or debit cards for payments. You must use a credit card. If you choose to pause or cancel your campaign, you will only pay for the delivered impressions.

6. Track your ad performance.

Once your ad is live, you can start tracking its performance in the Hulu Ad Manager.

Note that you will not be able to find out what times your ad aired and during which shows. However, you can expect to find standard metrics, such as impressions and clicks.

Hulu Advertising Options

In addition to Hulu’s most recent self-service option, the streaming service also offers two other advertising options:

• Premium Programmatic – This is ideal for brands who want to leverage lookalike audiences, audience CRM matching, and behavioral segmenting in their campaign.
• Action With Broad Appeal – With this option, you can integrate your brand with Hulu’s, create branded content collections, and deliver ads in innovative formats.

Each option caters to your brand’s specific goals and can be designed to fit your budget.

For instance, you can run brand lift studies, which are ads designed to measure consumer perception of your brand after a campaign.

Jillian Hope, senior marketing manager of brand advertising at HubSpot, explains that they can help brand advertisers understand the impact Hulu campaign exposure has on key brand KPIs.

Pros and Cons of Hulu Ads

Pro: Hulu has extensive targeting capabilities.

With any one of the three advertising options available on Hulu, you can use Hulu’s targeting features to reach your ideal viewers.

“[You have] the ability to define target audiences using Hulu’s first-party audience data or leverage lookalike audiences using your own first-party data,” said Hope.

The extent of the targeting parameters will depend on which option you are using. For instance, if you are using programmatic buying, you can use lookalike audiences to match the exact users you’re looking for with Hulu’s viewers.

However, on the current beta version of the self-service solution, you can only target users by demographic and show genre.

Despite this, Hope adds that targeting on a platform like Hulu is much more advanced than it would be with traditional, linear TV.

Pro: Innovative ad formats allow you to experiment.

On Hulu, you’re only limited to video commercials if you’re using the self-service option. The platform offers over 15 ad products to reach viewers.

“There are multiple ad formats available and lots of innovation happening,” said Hope. “For example, [there’s the] new QR code integration that is more desirable to direct response advertisers.”

It’s just a matter of figuring out which ad product best aligns with your goals.

For instance, there’s the cover story brand placement, which allows you to seamlessly integrate your branding on Hulu’s homepage.

Image Source

Then, there’s the ad selector, which puts the power back in the consumers hands by letting them select which ad they want to see.

Image Source

These are just a few of the ad formats you can pick from, each one creating a different experience for the user. To see all the ad formats available on Hulu, visit Hulu’s ad product page.

Con: You can only accomplish so much with a limited budget.

One of the downsides of Hulu ads is that certain campaigns will require a bigger budget than you may have available.

“Some of the more premium ad placements, as well as brand lift studies, require budget minimums in order to reach statistical significance,” said Hope. “So, they are less attainable to smaller advertisers.”

In this case, Hulu may not be the best platform on which to run these types of campaigns. You may want to opt for another ad platform, like Facebook Ads, where you can reach more users who still fall within your target audience for less money.

How Hulu Ad Examples Can Inform Your Next Campaign

If you’re not ready to pull the trigger on a Hulu campaign, get inspiration in the meantime.

See how other brands – notably your competitors – are using the platform to reach their target audience. This means looking at their creative, reviewing case studies, and monitoring consumer sentiment via social media.

This competitive intelligence can help you devise a strategy during the ideation phase of your campaign.

Given that the Hulu Ad Manager is still in beta, the platform will likely include more features once it fully launches. In the meantime, SMBs can reach TV viewers for a fraction of what it used to cost.

Pinterest is an undeniably powerful opportunity to reach and convert new audiences.

If you don’t believe me, consider this: The platform has over 250 million users. And roughly 90% of those Pinterest users say they look at content on the network to make purchasing decisions.

However, excelling on Pinterest versus using Pinterest as a strong distribution channel are two different things.

If you’re starting to see an uptick in followers on your Pinterest account, you might want to consider how you can turn those followers into real leads and customers for your business.

Here, let’s explore some creative strategies for turning the followers you get on Pinterest into traffic for your website and social channels.

1. Create boards using relevant keywords.

A board — or an organized compilation of related pins, for easier discoverability — is a necessary component for a good user experience on Pinterest.

For instance, CoSchedule, which has almost 17,000 followers on Pinterest, has organized their pins into boards titled “Content Marketing”, “Social Media Marketing”, “Marketing Inspiration”, and more:

New followers can easily find the pins they’re looking for using these broader categories, which is why it makes sense to use popular keywords when creating your boards, as CoSchedule did.

Additionally, these keyword-optimized boards can help make your Pinterest content more discoverable on search engines when someone searches for related keywords — particularly on Google Image searches, since Pinterest is primarily a visual channel:

As shown above, two images from Pinterest arise on Google’s Images search page for the search term, “Best marketing statistics”. By creating boards with searchable keywords, you’re more likely to reach users both on, and off, Pinterest.

2. Leverage Rich pins to ensure your Pinterest content is up-to-date.

Simply put, Rich pins can sync with your website to ensure your content is up-to-date on Pinterest when you make any changes to those pages on your site.  

There are a few reasons you might use Rich pins. If you post your products on Pinterest, Product Rich Pins can ensure availability and pricing are updated automatically as those factors change on your ecommerce site.

If you post recipes, alternatively, then Recipe Rich pins can add extra information to the recipes you pin to your site — including serving size, diet preference, and ratings — for increased discoverability.

Finally, Article Rich Pins will add headlines, titles, description, and author byline information of the article or blog post to your Pinterest site when you pin an article.

These small details go a long way towards ensuring your Pinterest content is always fresh as users find it. Particularly if you’re aiming to drive sales for products from Pinterest, it’s important to use Product Rich Pins so people aren’t frustrated when they find pricing or other information is different between Pinterest and your product pages.

3. Pin consistently, and often.

You can’t expect much traffic from Pinterest if you don’t regularly pin content on the platform. Pinterest, like any social network, requires dedicated, long-term work to see results.

You wouldn’t expect to write one blog post for your website and see a major, steady flow of traffic as a result — and the same goes for Pinterest.

Additionally, as your followers grow, you want to provide high-quality, interesting content to increase brand loyalty and keep those followers active on your page. By regularly pinning, you’re increasing your odds of converting those followers into fans of your brand — which will ultimately drive them off Pinterest, and onto your website or social pages.

4. Optimize your pins — and boards — for search.

At its core, Pinterest is essentially its own visual search engine. And, similar to other search engines, keyword-optimized content performs best on the network.

Additionally, keyword optimizing your Pinterest profile increases your chances to rank organically on other search engines, and drive traffic from search engines like Google to your Pinterest site.

To optimize your Pinterest page, consider inserting brand-related keywords into your bio and profile, pin descriptions, board titles, board descriptions, and even the image alt-text of content you post on Pinterest.

This can help your images appear on Google’s Image search results, as well as improve your chances of ranking on Pinterest for your intended keywords.

5. Create pin-worthy images, and use those images to link out to original content on your website or social pages.

One of the easiest ways to drive traffic back to your website is by creating unique, original content specifically for Pinterest, and then using that pin to link back to your website or blog post.

For instance, consider the infographic below, which I found when searching “best social media platforms” on Pinterest:

It’s a good idea to create unique, standalone value with your images for Pinterest. In this case, I can find my answer to “best social media platforms” by looking at the infographic itself without ever leaving Pinterest — which makes for a better user experience.

However, if I’ve found unique value in the content, I might want to click the brand’s website to learn more about their business or see additional content. When I click on the digichef URL, I’m taken to the original page for the infographic, on the business’ website:

You might try a similar approach with your own Pinterest strategy. Consider how you can create unique, standalone content that will perform well on Pinterest. Alternatively, perhaps you can post infographics or other visual assets you’ve already created for your brand on Pinterest, with a link back to your site.

6. Follow similar brands for content inspiration, as well as opportunities to re-pin images that align with your brand.

With Pinterest, each pin you save doesn’t have to be original branded content. Instead, one easy opportunity to increase engagement is to re-pin images that align with your brand to share with your own followers.

Additionally, following other brands can increase traffic to your own Pinterest profile and, ultimately, your website. When you follow someone on Pinterest, Pinterest sends a notification letting them know they have a new follower. Some of those people may then follow you back in return, which is a good way to grow your audience.

Following similar brands can also help you identify popular or trending content on other profiles, as well as gaps in your own Pinterest content strategy.

If you work at a home decor ecommerce store, for instance, you might find that many competitors are posting ‘Easter Home Decor’ images:

This might inspire your team to create your own version of Easter home decor content, as well as other seasonal pins and boards.

Finally, consider partnering with certain brands that have complementary products or services to your own. For example, Benefit Cosmetics partnered with Shutterfly to create the page, “Wedding Looks: benefit cosmetics x Wedding Paper Divas“:

The page is filled with pins related to both makeup and stationary for the big day. For expanding your reach and increasing value for your followers, you might try partnering with other popular brands on Pinterest. 

Ultimately, creating a successful Pinterest strategy takes work and dedication, but if you find Pinterest is a popular social platform with your target audience, it’s likely worth the time and effort it takes to grow your following, increase brand awareness, and ultimately drive sales.  

This post is a part of Made @ HubSpot, an internal thought leadership series through which we extract lessons from experiments conducted by our very own HubSpotters.

There are 72,000 new podcast episodes each day — which means there are five new podcasts made every six seconds.

And, as of March 2020, there are a reported 1.9 million total podcasts, and 47 million total episodes. Depending on when you read this article, these numbers could be drastically different.

Which is all to say: The podcast industry is rapidly growing.

In a world of fast-growing competition, how do we — as podcast marketers — compete for listeners’ attention, while also expanding reach and growing our audiences?

I wish that I could tell you that I have it all figured out. However, not having it figured out is what ultimately led to a 271% increase in downloads for season six of HubSpot’s podcast, Skill Up.

Here, I’ll share my lessons for how I achieved that growth.

Lesson 1: There are a lot of podcast listening platforms.

When you think of podcast platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts are probably top of mind, right?

Well, there are many, many more listening platforms beyond those three.

I downloaded every podcast platform available through the App Store on my iPhone. This included Podcast Addict, Overcast, Castro, PlayerFM, Pandora, Pocket Casts, and about ten others.

I then cross-referenced the players I downloaded with the audience application report from Megaphone. If there was a small or nonexistent audience on a platform, I highlighted it.

The first recommendation I can make is to look at where people are listening to your podcasts using the reporting provided by your podcast host. Are the majority of your downloads coming from Apple or Spotify? If your answer is yes, then that’s good news. You have untapped audiences on other platforms, including PlayerFM and Podcast Addict.

Which brings me to my next recommendation …

Lesson 2: Paid ad placements on podcast platforms pay off.

After I had a list of podcast platforms that would allow me to expand the reach of my podcast, I opened each platform and took note of their ad placements. I looked for anything that said “Sponsored” or something along those lines. If I liked the ad placement, I included it in my list.

Next, I focused on gathering data on ad cost, estimated CPM, and estimated downloads for the placements I was interested in. This is relatively easy, since many of the platforms share both the ad placements available and estimated campaign results on their websites.

If they don’t have the information available on their website, you can email the podcast platforms’ advertising team, who will provide you with that information.

After gathering this data, I assessed the best ads forSkill Up. Fortunately, before I joined HubSpot, my manager had already run ads on podcast listening platforms — which meant I had data to reference to make more informed decisions.

If you haven’t run ads on a listening platform previously, I have good news for you: Ad placements range from $165 to $3,000, so even if you don’t have a large budget, you can likely still experiment with these types of ads.

Lesson 3: Episode-specific promotions are incredibly effective.

Within my marketing plan for the launch of season six, I focused on promotions that announced the upcoming season.

The season was comprised of five episodes that were released over the span of three weeks, so it made sense to drive awareness towards the new episodes. The podcast ad copy read something along the lines of, “A new season ofSkill Up is here!”

Towards the end of the season, however, it didn’t make sense to announce the season anymore. Instead, I created episode-specific promotions.

In comparison to the show promotions, the episode highlights resonated better with audiences and increased our conversions through distribution channels, such as email.

Here’s an example:

HubSpot’s Skill Up podcast presents … “How a Sales Manager at LinkedIn Builds a Buyer-first Selling Strategy”

What’s the best selling strategy in 2021? Kwesi Graves, Sales Manager at LinkedIn, champions the “buyer-first selling” methodology, which prioritizes quality over quantity, emphasizes the importance of the buyer’s context, and encourages his team of reps to spend more time researching than reaching out. If you’re a manager, sales leader, or rep looking to transform how you sell in 2021, this is a great place to start! Listen now:

Episode-specific advertisements also performed much better than season advertisements. Unfortunately, however, most podcast listening platforms don’t allow episode-specific advertisements.

There is one that does: PlayerFM. Our episode-specific ads on PlayerFM outperformed all our other ad campaigns. Hopefully, more podcast platforms will eventually offer the same.

While I wouldn’t say these initiatives are revolutionary, they were incredibly effective for us. Our team is on an exciting journey where experimentation and innovation are key to success.

For any podcast marketers in the industry — This is just the beginning.

A 2019 Edelman study found that three out of four consumers avoid ads. In fact, 47% said they have changed their media habits to see fewer ads while others use ad blockers to prevent them altogether.

The reasons why vary.

Personally, I hate repetitive ads. For about a month straight, every time I would watch a YouTube video, I would see the same ad and it got more irritating every time. Mostly because I wasn’t interested in the brand or its services. But the incessant nature of the ad led to me develop a negative association with the company.

So, how can brands deliver ads that audiences want to see? To know that, let’s first look at what they definitely don’t like.

The Most Annoying Advertisement Types

We surveyed 302 people using Lucid to ask them about what ads they’re most annoyed by.

When we asked the random survey pool, “What’s the most annoying type of digital ad?”, a whopping 58% of respondents said pop-up ads that negatively impact the user experience.

Data Source

While advertising can be unavoidable for brands based on their goals, there are ways to produce ads that don’t annoy your audience. Below, we dive into the two most annoying ads types and explain how marketers and advertisers can navigate.

Pop-Up Ads.

When you think about it, this result isn’t too shocking. We’ve all gone through it. You land on a website and before you can even scroll, you’re hit with a big pop-up ad that takes up the whole screen. You close it, then get hit with another pop-up on the bottom of your screen, making it harder to navigate the site.

At this stage, many viewers just drop off.

This is an issue that affects both publishers and advertisers. The more visitors a publisher has, the higher the rate they will charge for their ad inventory. However, if a site is known to have incessant pop-up ads (looking right at you, recipe websites), visitors may be reluctant to visit that site again. This can lead to lower traffic and eventually less ad revenue.

This is equally impactful to advertisers who want users to convert on their ads. You know how they say journalists should never become the story? Well, ads should never be noticed for their placement instead of their content.

Let’s say your ads are displayed in ways that hinder the user experience. At worst, consumers will start to build a negative perception of your brand and at best, they’ll simply be too distracted by the placement or timing of the ad to care about the content. Either way, it’s a lose-lose situation.

Pre- or Mid-Roll Video Ads

When it comes to video ads, things get tricky.

Our study found that the second most annoying ad type is the one that plays before or during a video or show. In addition, a 2019 study by RevJet found that 100% of consumers will skip the ad whenever possible.

The solution here isn’t to stop producing video ads altogether. It’s to leverage the short time you have to capture your audience’s attention and encourage them to engage with your video.

This could be by addressing their pain points or using emotional appeal. Determining what works best for your audience will require a lot of experimentation. It may take time to figure out the right formula but once you do, you can create videos with confidence that your audience will be entertained.

Now that we know what annoys consumers, let’s talk about what consumers actually want to see.

What Consumers Want in Ads

Plan your ad with user experience in mind.

When deciding on your ad format, placement, and timing, it’s important to consider the user experience.

Take pop-up ads, they are inherently disruptive. In this case, you may want to display them once your user has exhibited a high-engagement behavior on the site. This can be spending X amount of minutes on a page or visiting other pages on the website.

With this tactic, your user may be less likely to dismiss your ad as they are already highly engaged with the page.

Find the right balance in ad frequency.

The RevJet study found that over 72% of consumers dislike brands with repetitive messaging in their ads.

While ad frequency can help you reach your goals, there is a point where it no longer yields positive results.

A 2020 Facebook IQ study found that for brand lift campaigns, more impressions do lead to better ad recall and action intent. However, after a certain number of impressions, the benefits plateau.

In 2019, Snapchat found that the sweet spot was one to two ads per week. However, this number can vary greatly depending on several factors.

The key takeaway is that more doesn’t always equal better when it comes to users.

Don’t get too invasive.

Yes, consumers like personalized ads. But there’s a difference between personal and creepy, and that’s the balance every brand has to strike.

We surveyed 300 people and asked them about which ads feel the most invasive. The top answer was ads based on their recent online searches.

Data Source

The RevJet survey echoed these results, with 60% of consumers stating they do not find retargeting ads helpful.

What consumers may prefer are contextual and demographical ads, according to a 2020 Innovid Study. For instance, seeing an ad for a blender as you’re looking up recipes or seeing an ad for a store located in your area.

There’s no hard-and-fast rule for determining what’s helpful or too invasive. Experiment and see what works for your brand, then use that data to inform your future ad strategy.

Keep it short and concise.

When it comes to video ads, most consumers are not willing to watch them to completion.

A key finding in the RevJet study was that users are willing to abandon their videos if it means sitting through a long ad.

Twenty-eight percent of consumers between the ages of 18 to 44 will drop off if the ad exceeds 10 seconds. That rate rises incrementally as video length increases.

That said, keep your ads short and to the point. If you do opt for a longer ad, have a strong opening that will encourage your audience to keep watching.

It’s important to note that these tips provide insights into consumer perception and can help steer you in the right direction. However, it’s only by experimenting that you will determine which strategies yield the best results to achieve your marketing goals.