Category Archives: B2B

One tiny little layout change netted us an almost 20% increase in on-page conversions.

They say a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a rainstorm on the other side of the Earth. Well, today’s story makes me think that maybe that’s true.

Conjurer of conversion, Rebecca Hinton, is back with another test you can try for yourself. This time it’s all about social proof and where it belongs on your page.

But before you jump straight to the how-to, I’ll also cover why you shouldn’t run off and do this without testing it first.

Butterflies and Best Practices

It’s pretty non-controversial for both B2Cs and B2Bs to add social proof to their websites in order to boost conversion, right?

You know what I’m talking about. Testimonials from happy customers. The logos of your biggest clients. Photos of your legions of fans gleefully offering up their firstborn children. (Too far?)

So why is social proof always tucked away at the bottom of the page? Or hidden on its own page like some secret Victorian wife in the attic?

“While social proof is helpful, chances are it’s not what your visitors came for. And you don’t want to push what they came for right out of their radar.”

That’s Rebecca Hinton, the CRO strategist behind this and many other incredible conversion optimization successes at HubSpot. (If you’ve been following this column, you’ll know Rebecca’s also responsible for the test that boosted paid ad CVR by 11%. And I’m certain this won’t be the last one I share. She’s that good.)

But while her point makes perfect sense, it poses a conundrum: Visitors actually need to, y’know, see all those testimonials in order for them to work.

“According to heat maps, only 50% of users scrolled far enough to see the social proof,” Rebecca explains.

But work it does! Despite the fact that only half of our visitors saw them, the social proof sliders were still the second and third most-clicked elements on these landing pages.

So pop quiz, hotshot. If you move your social proof higher on the page, it pushes your marketing content down. But if you don’t, nobody sees it. What do you do? What do you do?

Split Testing the Split

Whenever we have a dilemma, Rebecca’s answer will always be: Test it and find out.

For the control group, she kept the page as it was, with a social proof module containing both customer logos and written testimonials near the bottom of the page.

For Variant B, our CRO team separated the two. The customer logos became a small and unintrusive slider tucked right up under the hero banner, while the testimonial portion stayed near the bottom of the page.

This would hopefully strike the best of both worlds: More visitors would see some form of social proof, but the slim line of logos wouldn’t push our marketing content down too far.

But is a small line of logos really enough to make a difference?

Turns out, the answer is not only “yes,” but a 19.5% increase in software signups that says “hell yes.”

Rebecca says it with a little more tact.

“Putting a band with customer logos lends an air of legitimacy. Oh, they have customers with logos that I recognize? That builds trust.”

Now, some number of you are ready to run off and slap some logos on your site just because “HubSpot said so.” So here’s where I share the scary part of the story to convince you to test it first.

The Mysterious Variant C

Rebecca had a hunch she could do even better, so she took a bigger swing with Variant C.

In this version, the logos still moved up to the top of the page, but she swapped the customer testimonials at the bottom for data points about customer success. Think of brief stats like “After 1 year, HubSpot customers closed 55% more deals.”

“And I thought, incorrectly, that this was going to outperform the testimonials,” she explains with grace and good humor. “Because when I read them, I find them to be very compelling. You attract 114% more website traffic. You generate 129% more inbound leads. To me, that’s compelling. That’s exactly what I want. Let me sign up!”

Turns out that the opposite was true. Variant C reduced conversion by nearly 10%. Oof.

Rebecca believes that the negative result is due to the fact that testimonials are from customers, while data points come from the company itself.

“People trust people more than they trust companies,” she says. “They have that healthy skepticism, which is totally fair. And that’s why we test, right?”

And that’s why you should test it, too.

Tiny Tweak Takeaways

If you’re ready to try this out, Rebecca’s got some tips for you to consider.

1. Start with an insight.

“I always think my ideas are good because they’re mine. But my idea was to add the customer stats, and that lost,” she shrugs. “What helps is to have an insight based on data, rather than a hunch.”

In this case, the data-backed insight for the test came from checking out heat maps. When Rebecca noticed that only 50% of our visitors saw the social proof module, the test she devised was a logical next step.

So instead of simply mimicking this test, take a look at your data and see what insights might inform a brand new test.

2. Consider visitor intent.

“If we were targeting a page that had a lot of returning traffic, or was deeper in someone’s customer journey, I would not expect social proof to be as effective.”

Part of the reason that this test worked was because it was on pages that targeted brand-new visitors. If your target page is talking to returning customers, they may not care about logos or the recommendations of other customers. That audience might actually be swayed by data points instead.

The only way to know is to consider what a visitor expects to encounter on a page like that, and then test, test, test.

3. Double-check your results after implementation.

“If we get a test win, we implement, then we wait two weeks,” Rebecca explains. “Then we find the data before the test launched (because you don’t want to include test data) and we compare the before and after period.”

Don’t think of this as a second test — it doesn’t need to be that scientific. This is more about making sure there are no unintended consequences.

“We’re not looking to match up with the original test results. That’s not realistic or reasonable. There are too many external factors. All we’re looking for is to see that your results directionally line up.”

Since your newly made changes will probably affect a wider range of pages than just your test, there could be room for unforeseen problems.

“If you don’t do that before and after check, issues can fester for months.”

How to Make a Logo Slider

Since we’ve already covered how to do an A/B test, I’ll show you how to add a logo slider and just trust that you’ll do the right thing by testing it first.

Obviously, the exact directions will depend on what CMS you’re using. (If you don’t know what that means, you should probably ask your web designer before touching anything further.)

I’ll show you how to do this in Content Hub, and you can tweak your steps accordingly.

1. Navigate to Website Pages, Landing Pages, or Blog depending on what kind of page you’re working with.
2. Hover over the page name and click “Edit.”
3. In the editor, look for a button that says “+ Add” on the left sidebar.
4. Expand the Media category, and then click on the Image Slider module, and drag it to where you want it. (You did test the location, right?)
5. Back in the left sidebar, hover over an empty slide and click the “Edit” icon.

You can now upload the logos of your customers as images, and even add captions below them. Just be sure you use the same size image for each logo to keep your slider looking professional.

Don’t forget to hit “Apply changes” when you’re done, so you don’t have to upload them twice like me.

While the results might not be exactly the same for your audience, as long as you base your changes on insight-driven tests, you’re bound to find the butterfly that makes your breeze blow.

Return on ad spend (ROAS) has become the default metric for many marketing teams. It’s clean, precise, and makes CFOs happy. Spend X dollars, get Y dollars back. Simple … right?

Not quite. Here’s the issue: The more exact a marketing metric is, the easier it is to manipulate. Want a 2x ROAS? You can get it. Want a 20x ROAS? That’s possible, too. Just toggle a few levers — increase retargeting, run more discounts, reduce spend — and watch that ROAS number climb.

The real problem is that ROAS only measures how efficiently you are at capturing existing demand — not creating new demand. It’s like fishing in an ever-shrinking pond and celebrating that you’re getting better at catching the remaining fish.

In a recent Marketing Against the Grain episode, Kieran and I discussed the solution. Don’t abandon ROAS entirely, but broaden your strategy with other measurements. That’s where the buckets model comes in: a framework for balancing short-term returns and long-term growth by breaking your ad strategy into three main categories.

Table of Contents

• The Buckets Model: a Balanced Approach to Advertising
• Checklist: How to Use the Buckets Together
• The Bottom Line for Choosing Sustainable Advertising Metrics

Download Now: Advertising Planning Kit

The Buckets Model: a Balanced Approach to Advertising

To get a clear view of your online advertising’s impact, you need to diversify beyond a single metric. The buckets model provides a simple, effective way to organize your ad investments into three main categories: direct ROAS, incrementality, and brand awareness. Each bucket has a distinct role in capturing returns and building future demand, creating a more sustainable growth model.

Bucket 1. Direct ROAS (Demand Extraction)

Your first bucket is your money machine. Here, you capture existing demand, aiming to get a direct return on every ad dollar spent. For example, if you’re seeing a 3-to-1 return on ad spend, then for every dollar you invest, you’re capturing three dollars back in sales.

The goal here is to maximize returns on measurable actions, like clicks and conversions, by targeting audiences who are already aware of and interested in your brand. You should almost always saturate this bucket first because you can directly track profit and efficiency.

Bucket 2. Indirect ROAS (Demand Extraction & Demand Creation)

The second bucket focuses on incrementality — the measure of new demand generated by your ads. Incrementality models track how your marketing reaches new audiences who wouldn’t otherwise engage with your brand.

Unlike ROAS, which captures existing demand, incrementality shows you the “extra” value your campaigns generate over time, especially in channels like video or display ads where conversions aren’t immediate.

Expert tip: Your incrementality bucket should help your first bucket grow over time. As you create new demand, you expand the pool of customers that your direct response advertising can capture efficiently.

Measuring Incrementality With Conversion Lift Studies

One of the best ways to measure incrementality is with conversion lift studies. Here’s how it works.

Split your audience by region (e.g., states in the U.S.), run your campaign in certain areas, and keep it dark in others. Then, track the performance difference. If conversions go up in ad-active regions, that difference is your incremental lift — the extra growth that wouldn’t have happened without the ad spend.

Caveat: The downside to incrementality models is they need regular updating. Plan to rerun your lift studies every three to six months (or a maximum of nine months) to maintain accuracy. This may mean temporarily going dark in some areas, but it ensures you stay on track with how your ads generate new demand.

Bucket 3. Brand ROAS (Demand Creation)

The third bucket focuses purely on demand creation through brand building. Think of this as your engagement bucket, where you’re not holding yourself accountable to ROAS metrics.

Instead, you’re investing in tactics that create familiarity and trust over time — billboards, podcasts, and other broad-reach activities that help you expand your total addressable market. In this bucket, success is often measured by reach or impressions, rather than conversions.

Checklist: How to Use the Buckets Together

The key to using the buckets model effectively is to fill each bucket in sequence. Here’s your step-by-step path.

1. Start by saturating your direct ROAS bucket. Run burst tests — spending heavily on a platform to identify the maximum budget you can spend efficiently. This tells you exactly how much existing demand you can capture profitably.

2. Watch for signs that your direct ROAS bucket is full. When your ROAS approaches 1:1 (spending a dollar to make a dollar), that’s your signal to expand beyond demand capture.

3. Begin your incrementality testing. Set up conversion lift studies in specific regions while keeping others “dark.” This creates your baseline for measuring indirect impact.

4. Calculate and monitor your indirect ROAS ratio from these studies. This ratio shows how many additional conversions you’re driving indirectly. Update these measurements every three to six months to stay accurate.

6. Layer in brand awareness spending. Focus on broad-reach channels like billboards and podcasts, knowing these investments will feed back into your other buckets over time.
7. Keep cycling through all three buckets. Adjust your spend as markets evolve. And remember: As your brand awareness grows, you create more opportunities for incrementality, which generates more customers for your direct ROAS efforts to capture.
   

The Bottom Line for Choosing Sustainable Advertising Metrics

The path to sustainable growth isn’t about choosing between measurable and unmeasurable marketing — it’s about building a framework that accommodates both. By following this roadmap and filling your buckets in sequence, you’ll create a balanced strategy. This lets you capture today’s demand and create new opportunities for tomorrow.

To learn more about advertising tactics and metrics, check out the full episode of Marketing Against the Grain below:

This blog series is in partnership with Marketing Against the Grain, the video podcast. It digs deeper into ideas shared by marketing leaders Kipp Bodnar (HubSpot’s CMO) and Kieran Flanagan (SVP, Marketing at HubSpot) as they unpack growth strategies and learn from standout founders and peers.

Want to know what‘s really working in AI marketing right now? I’ve been tracking the real impact of AI across different B2C companies, and the results have blown me away.

Competera’s real-time pricing helps retailers recover an average of 6% in gross profit. Jasper AI, on the other hand, cut content creation time by 40% and boosted response rates by 3% across 10 campaigns for a Turkish bank in just three months.

This is just a tiny glimpse of what’s actually out there.

Ready to transform your B2C marketing? Keep reading for actionable tips, real-world success stories, and a curated list of AI tools that are delivering measurable results for businesses just like yours.

Table of Contents

• Why use AI for B2C marketing?
• How to Use AI for B2C Marketing: 8 Cherry-Picked Use Cases
• 8 Best AI B2C Marketing Tools
• Companies Using AI for B2C Marketing
• 6 Tips for AI B2C Marketing

Why use AI for B2C marketing?

Although it might seem contradictory at first, AI is making B2C marketing way more personal. It helps brands understand what customers want, when they want it, and the best way to reach them.

Here’s how:

• Personalized recommendations. Suggests products tailored to each customer’s past browsing and purchases, driving up engagement and sales.
• Predictive analytics. AI can read patterns to predict what customers are likely to do next — are they ready to buy or might they need a nudge?
• Chatbots and instant support. Gives customers quick, round-the-clock help, answering questions or guiding them through product choices.
• Dynamic pricing. Adjusts prices in real time based on demand and competition.
• Smart content. Crafts targeted ads, social media posts, and emails designed for each audience, boosting engagement across different platforms.

How to Use AI for B2C Marketing: 8 Cherry-Picked Use Cases

There’s almost no part of marketing today where AI can’t jump in and lend a hand, so I picked out my top eight favorite use cases.

1. Customer Segmentation & Targeting

AI sifts through all your customer data — from basic demographics to shopping habits and online behavior — to group similar customers together.

It goes way beyond just sorting people by age or location, looking at how customers actually behave and what they care about.

Example: Sephora

Sephora’s Beauty Insider program uses AI to analyze behavior from their massive 34-million-member base, looking at everything from what people buy to how they shop in stores.

In fact, they attribute 80% of transactions to program members, who were grouped with AI.

They are focusing on how customers engage with various products and price points. For instance, their AI can spot customers who splurge on skincare but hunt for makeup deals or track which samples actually lead to purchases.

What I find particularly clever is their tiered approach with Insider (free), VIB (spending $350+ annually), and Rouge ($1,000+).

Members earn points for purchases, with rewards to redeem. VIBs get exclusive events, while Rouges enjoy additional perks like free shipping and early access to sales.

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This kind of structure is perfect for delivering personalized experiences based on how much people spend and what they like.

2. Predictive Analytics

Machine learning algorithms can predict future customer actions based on historical data patterns.

The AI analyzes past purchase behaviors, browsing habits, and engagement metrics to forecast buying intentions, enabling brands to engage customers proactively before they make a purchase decision.

Example: Amazon

Amazon leverages AI for predictive analytics to optimize inventory placement and improve delivery efficiency.

Historical purchasing data, customer behavior, and other external factors help AI algorithms predict demand for specific products in different regions. This lets Amazon figure out the best places to store inventory so that popular items are closer to where customers are likely to order them.

For example, if spring hits and everyone suddenly wants gardening tools, Amazon’s AI can spot that trend early on. They’ll move those tools to fulfillment centers in areas where they know they’ll sell fast.

This way, they can offer quicker shipping options like same-day or next-day delivery, which keeps customers happy.

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In March, 60% of Amazon Prime orders in major U.S. metros were delivered the same day or the next day, and they’re banking on AI to further boost that number.

3. Content Personalization

Content personalization is about customizing marketing messages and experiences for each customer based on their likes and actions.

It gathers data from website visits, purchase history, and social media to create customer profiles. Then, businesses group customers by demographics and interests for targeted marketing.

With AI and machine learning, brands analyze this data to guess what products or content customers will enjoy, letting them update their offerings in real time.

Example: Siterice HR

Siterice HR is a Croatian platform that connects families with caregivers, cleaners, babysitters, and pet sitters.

Here’s how they use AI content personalization to improve user experience:

• User profiles. Families create profiles outlining their specific needs, preferences, and any special requirements (like allergies, pets, or preferred caregiving styles). This information helps Siterice HR tailor its services.
• Personalized matches. The platform uses AI to analyze family profiles and match them with suitable caregivers or sitters based on factors like location, availability, skills, and user ratings. For example, if a family prefers a sitter who has experience with infants, the system prioritizes those candidates.

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Example: Netflix

Netflix personalizes content by analyzing your viewing history, ratings, and what similar users enjoy to recommend shows, movies, and games that match your tastes. It factors in details like genres, actors, and categories, as well as when, where, and how you watch, to make recommendations tailored to your habits.

When you sign up for Netflix, they ask you to select a few favorites to help kickstart their suggestions. As you use the service, every interaction updates the system, with recent views impacting recommendations more than older ones.

On your homepage, Netflix organizes and ranks titles to showcase what you’re most likely to enjoy, continually updating its system with your feedback to keep recommendations fresh and relevant.

4. Chatbot Customer Service

AI-powered chatbots provide round-the-clock support, handle common questions, and help with purchase decisions.

And no, they don’t have to sound like robots. Today’s chatbots use natural language processing to pick up on context and tone, making conversations feel smoother and more real.

Example: Lemonade

Lemonade is a digital insurance company offering policies for renters, homeowners, and pet owners. Their chatbot, Maya, is a virtual guide that makes navigating the insurance process easy.

Maya uses a welcoming avatar and clear, conversational style to help customers explore coverage options, complete forms, and receive personalized recommendations.

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AI-driven support eliminates the need for brokers and reduces wait times.

Today, Maya manages about 25% of the company’s customer inquiries. It lowers operational costs while providing quick, accessible service.

Since the launch, Maya has processed over 1.2 million policy transactions, showing its significant role in Lemonade’s customer experience and growth.

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5. Automated Email Marketing

AI optimizes email campaigns by personalizing content, subject lines, and send times for each recipient. It also analyzes open rates, click-through rates, and conversion data to continuously improve performance.

Example: Airbnb

Airbnb’s AI personalizes emails based on a guest’s interests and past bookings, and models identify patterns that help predict what might interest a user.

For example, if someone usually books mountain cabins in winter, their next email will feature ski lodges or cozy winter rentals. This keeps emails relevant and helpful.

The AI also adjusts content in real time based on location and booking trends. If someone prefers city stays, the AI includes last-minute urban deals nearby. It’s automated, so each email stays targeted without manual effort.

One of the standout aspects of Airbnb’s messages is their personalized backup plans, as mentioned in one of Jimmy Daly’s pieces for Vero. Airbnb understands that not everyone will book immediately, so they offer other options based on your interests. This keeps you engaged and gives you more choices.

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6. Visual Search & Recognition

AI-powered visual search lets you find products by uploading images instead of typing text descriptions. It can spot objects, recognize faces, and improve image searches.

You’ll see this tech often popping up in e-commerce, security, and social media, making it easier and more fun to find what you’re looking for.

Example: Pinterest

Pinterest uses AI to improve visual search through its feature called Pinterest Lens. It allows users to search for ideas by simply pointing their camera at an object.

For example, if I’m out and about and see a pair of shoes that catch my eye, I can point my camera at them, and Lens will show me similar styles or outfit ideas.

It looks at patterns, colors, and objects, which means I get results that really match my style.

Pro tip: Motivate customers to share images of their purchases on social media, tagging your brand. This can create a visual database that can be used for visual searches by other customers looking for similar styles.

7. Pricing Optimization

Another power of AI algorithms is the ability to analyze market conditions, competitor pricing, demand patterns, and customer behavior to set optimal prices in real time.

This is particularly useful for promotional pricing and discount optimization.

Example: Kosmo

Kosmo, an Eastern European health and beauty retailer with over 100 stores, partnered with Competera to improve pricing strategies. In a nine-week test, they used demand-driven pricing for toothpaste while sticking to traditional methods for toilet paper.

Results showed an 8.1% revenue increase, 1% profit margin savings, and a 15.9% boost in sales items, along with a 9.8% rise in gross profit. This collab improved Kosmo’s pricing flexibility and reduced reliance on competitors.

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8. Voice Commerce Integration

And here we come to one of the coolest aspects of AI. If someone had told me a few years ago that we’d have AI voices sounding totally human, I wouldn’t have believed it. But here we are.

AI-powered voice recognition systems let you shop using smart speakers and voice assistants, without even lifting a finger.

Have we become so lazy that even typing and clicking feels like too much work? I’ll save that topic for another time, but I have to admit, this is pretty fun.

Example: Walmart

Walmart’s voice assistant lets you shop easily through Siri. By linking your Walmart account with Siri Shortcuts, you can quickly add items to your cart, schedule deliveries, and reorder with just your voice.

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For Google Assistant users, Walmart’s voice shopping is still available on Android devices, but integration with other Google devices ended in June 2023.

To use it, say, “Hey Google, talk to Walmart,” or give specific commands to add items to your cart. This setup makes shopping hands-free and convenient on compatible devices.

Now, let’s explore the best AI marketing tools to help you bring these use cases to life.

8 Best AI B2C Marketing Tools

1. Breeze

Breeze is HubSpot’s AI-powered suite designed to streamline marketing, sales, and customer service.

It brings together tools like Breeze Copilot for personalized assistance, Breeze Agents for automated workflows, and Breeze Intelligence for enriched, actionable insights — all within a unified platform.

It helps teams boost productivity and improve customer engagement without technical expertise.

Key features:

• Breeze Copilot: AI assistant that taps into CRM data to help prepare for meetings, research companies, and generate content ideas across HubSpot.
• Breeze Agents: Automates key workflows with AI-powered specialists for content creation (blogs, case studies), social media, sales prospecting, and customer support — boosting productivity across teams.
• Breeze Intelligence: Enhances CRM with enriched data from over 200 million profiles, identifies buyer intent on your site, and uses autofill for smoother form conversions.
• Platform-wide tools: Embedded in HubSpot’s Content, Marketing, Sales, and Service Hubs, making content creation, sales insights, and customer engagement faster and easier.

Pricing: You can start using Breeze Copilot and select Breeze features for free in HubSpot. Breeze Agents and advanced AI features are available in HubSpot’s premium editions.

👍 What I like: Breeze boasts a variety of pre-made prompts for different use cases to jump-start a task’s execution.

For example, I wanted to write a LinkedIn article and picked this template:

I just had to fill in the red fields:

Here’s the result:

As always with AI, it’s not flawless, but it’s a solid foundation. Add in some juicy tips, your unique perspective, and a bit of data — and you’re ready to publish.

2. Jasper

Jasper is another AI tool marketers adore for a reason. Whether you need marketing copy, product descriptions, blog posts, or even an image, just choose it, pick a tone of voice, and watch Jasper work its magic. It simplifies the whole process from idea to execution.

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What I love most is the variety and the endless capabilities beyond just text.

Key features:

• Company knowledge & brand consistency: Centralizes your brand voice, knowledge base, and style guide.
• Templates: Over 50 customizable templates (for blog, social media, email, and more) help overcome writer’s block, making content creation efficient in 30+ languages.
• Document editor: A user-friendly editor allows for free-form writing and structured templates (Boss Mode).
• SEO capabilities: Integrates with Surfer SEO aids in optimizing content for search visibility. A real gem!
• AI image generator: Create high-resolution, royalty-free images using DALL-E 2 based on your prompts.

Pricing:

• Creator: $39/month/seat — includes AI tools for content creation, including 1 user seat, 1 Brand Voice, and access to Jasper Chat and SEO mode.
• Pro: $59/month/seat — includes advanced features for multiple brands and collaboration, including 1 seat (add up to 5), 3 Brand Voices, and AI Image generation.
• Business: Custom pricing — includes personalized features with added security and support, including unlimited usage and advanced admin controls.

👍 What I like: Jasper has a bunch of great templates for different needs, from social media posts to long-form content. But what really impresses me right now is its image generator.

I know it’s already popular in other software like ChatGPT, but I can’t get over how amazing Jasper’s AI image results are. When I checked out Mat Philie’s video on the Elegant Themes YouTube channel, I was totally blown away.

With the prompt asking about creating a superhero in the street, he got these results:

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Impressive.

3. Albert AI

AI tools like Albert AI test different ads elements — like colors and fonts — to find what works best for each audience. Ideal for removing personal biases that can affect creative choices.

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For example, one e-commerce company saw an 800% increase in ROAS after using Albert. By constantly optimizing ads and suggesting when to refresh them, Albert helps marketers create more effective and cost-efficient campaigns.

Key features:

• Comprehensive marketing support: Covers all stages of advertising, including planning, building, optimizing, and reporting.
• Planning assistance: Helps with ad variations, keyword group management, and strategic planning.
• Ad creation tools: Provides features for creating effective ads while optimizing targeting, scheduling, bidding, and budgeting.
• A/B testing: Enables testing of different ad creatives and features to enhance campaign performance continuously.
• Advanced analytics: Tracks various metrics to optimize ad strategies, including site performance, budget allocation, real-time attribution, historical performance data, touchpoint effectiveness, and consumer behavior insights.

Pricing: Custom.

👍 What I like: Based on user feedback, Albert’s biggest strength lies in its effortless integration into a marketer’s existing tools. It smartly allocates budgets based on market changes, always pushing toward your business goals while strictly adhering to the rules you set.

4. Lyro AI Chatbot

Lyro AI Chatbot changes how online retailers connect with customers by providing instant support and shopping assistance around the clock.

It uses your support content to give human-like answers, ensuring that customers get relevant and accurate responses every time.

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Key features:

• Multiplatform & multilingual: Engages customers across various channels and speaks many languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, and Portuguese.
• Reduced repetitive questions: Allow Lyro to handle up to 70% of customer questions instantly. It responds in under 6 seconds on average.
• Lyro tasks: Automate tasks like checking order statuses and creating tickets.
• Analytics and insights: Access real-time data on Lyro’s performance to understand customer interactions and optimize the chatbot’s effectiveness.

Pricing: To use Lyro AI Chatbot, you must first create a Tidio account. Tidio offers various subscription packages tailored to different business needs.

After choosing your plan, you can select how many conversations you want each month for Lyro.

• Starter: €29/month — includes 100 conversations, basic analytics, live visitor list, operating hours, live chat support, and 50 Lyro AI conversations.
• Growth: €59/month — includes up to 2,000 conversations, advanced analytics, Tidio power features, and 50 Lyro AI conversations with no branding.
• Plus: €749/month — includes a custom quota of conversations, a dedicated Success Manager, custom branding, and up to 5,000 Lyro AI conversations.
• Premium: €2,999/month — includes unlimited conversations, a guaranteed 50% Lyro AI resolution rate, priority service, and up to 10,000 Lyro AI conversations.

👍 What I like: Instead of just spitting out the same old responses, Lyro generates answers based on the context of each interaction. I asked for use cases for small businesses and certain examples — and received pretty solid answers.

5. Competera

Competera is an AI-powered pricing platform that transforms retail pricing strategies. It lets businesses make informed pricing decisions, optimize profits, and increase customer trust.

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Key features:

• Demand-based pricing: Uses AI to analyze customer behavior and willingness to pay for real-time pricing optimization.
• Unified multichannel platform: Integrates online and offline channels, plus various data sources.
• Customer-centric pricing: Focuses on buying behavior to boost AOV and CLV.
• Granular SKU-Level pricing: Offers targeted pricing strategies at the SKU level for better precision.
• Real-time competitive data: Provides accurate market data to protect margins and maintain price perception.

👍 What I like: Competera’s product relationship management feature is on point. It lets you establish both linear and hierarchical links between products.

You can easily keep track of repriced items, run pricing campaigns, and synchronize adjustments across related products. This level of control allows you to improve your pricing strategy effortlessly.

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6. Brand24

Brand24 is an AI social listening tool that provides real-time updates on online mentions across social media, blogs, and news.

It helps businesses track performance, understand customer insights, and connect with their audience.

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Key features:

• Comprehensive monitoring: Track mentions from over 25 million online sources, including social media, news articles, blogs, forums, and podcasts.
• Advanced sentiment analysis: Automatically categorize mentions as positive, negative, or neutral to gauge public perception of your brand.
• Market research: Gather insights on market trends and customer behavior to inform business decisions.
• Customer insights: Access honest feedback from online conversations to better understand what customers like or dislike about your brand.
• Hashtag tracking: Measure the reach and engagement of your hashtag campaigns, and track metrics for various hashtags.

Pricing:

• Individual: $149 — 3 keywords, 2,000 mentions/month, 1 user, 12-hour updates, and basic AI features.
• Team: $199 — 7 keywords, 10,000 mentions/month, unlimited users, hourly updates, and basic AI features.
• Pro (Most Popular): $299 — 12 keywords, 40,000 mentions/month, unlimited users, real-time updates, and advanced AI features.
• Enterprise: $499 — 25 keywords, 100,000 mentions/month, unlimited users, real-time updates, and advanced AI features.

👍 What I like: I had the opportunity to work with Brand24 when I was the social media manager for a company that sold macramé dolls, and honestly, it was a fantastic experience.

We had a unique hashtag for our products, and Brand24 made it incredibly easy to track all the conversations and mentions around it.

The platform’s user-friendly interface allowed me to see real-time feedback, and I loved how I could catch untagged mentions that might have slipped through the cracks. It really helped us engage with our audience and understand how our brand was perceived.

7. Influencity

Influencity helps brands and agencies manage their influencer relationships, run effective campaigns, and improve communication.

Find the right influencers, track their performance, and see real results. Whether you’re in beauty, tech, gaming, or DIY, Influencity connects you with the creators your audience loves.

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Key features:

• Influencer discovery: Pinpoint ideal influencers based on authentic metrics, ensuring you find creators that truly align with your brand.
• Real-time metrics: Access fast, unbiased statistics without relying on influencers for data, allowing you to make informed decisions quickly.
• Influencer relationship management (IRM): Organize and manage all your influencers in one place, optimizing collaboration and tracking negotiations.
• Comprehensive reporting: Analyze campaign performance with detailed insights to connect marketing efforts to business growth and sales.
• Customizable influencer database: Create a tailored database to meet your unique needs, moving away from static spreadsheets.

Pricing:

• Basic: $198/month — Essential search engine and influencer management features, allowing for 5,000 monthly results and management of 100 stored influencers.
• Professional: $398/month — Advanced campaign management and reporting tools, offering 10,000 monthly results and support for 600 stored influencers.
• Business: $998/month — Comprehensive solution with extensive features, providing 25,000 monthly results and management of 2,000 stored influencers.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing — Tailored tools and features to meet the unique needs of your growing business, with customizable results and influencer management capabilities.

👍 What I like: I haven‘t had a chance to test the tool yet, but based on user feedback and the tutorials I’ve watched, I’m eager to try it out. One feature that “bought me” is a side-by-side comparison tool.

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It lets you analyze different influencers and their posts in one snapshot, comparing key metrics like engagement rates, reach, impressions, click-through rates, and conversions.

For example, if one influencer has a high engagement rate but lower conversions, you can look into how their content style differs from another influencer who drives more sales.

This comparison can guide your future partnerships and content strategies, so you can wisely invest in influencers for your brand.

8. Optimove

Optimove helps businesses achieve measurable growth by facilitating the planning, orchestration, measurement, and optimization of numerous personalized CRM marketing campaigns.

Focused on creating customer-centric journeys, the platform equips marketers with the tools necessary to engage across different channels and improve overall campaign performance.

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Key features:

• Real-time customer data platform (CDP): Ingests and processes customer data into a unified view, making it accessible to non-technical users and providing insights for deeper customer understanding.
• Multichannel decisioning: Orchestrates impactful multi-channel communications, allowing marketers to combine custom messaging strategies with a real-time decision engine.
• OptiGenie AI: Integrates AI for advanced personalization, offering insights, personalized messaging, and self-optimizing campaigns to enhance customer journeys.
• Native marketing channels: Supports various channels, including email, mobile push notifications, in-app messaging, web push notifications, and pop-ups, along with digital advertising platform integrations.

Pricing: Custom.

👍 What I like: People rave about Optimove’s real-time content recommendation engine. It delivers personalized recommendations on websites, apps, and marketing channels without the hassle of guesswork.

From the moment a visitor lands on your site, you can offer tailored content based on their behavior and intent. Plus, the ability to control what customers see with smart configuration rules makes it easy to align recommendations with your business goals — driving engagement and conversions.

However, some users do express concerns about the platform’s reliance on “uplift” metrics for reporting, indicating a desire for easier access to raw campaign data.

Still, many agree that the automation and personalization features significantly outweigh this drawback.

Companies Using AI for B2C Marketing

Now, with real examples from different companies, I want to show you all the ways you can use AI in marketing and make it work for you.

Second Spectrum cuts hosting costs by 90% using AWS.

Second Spectrum is a great example of how to use AI in the B2C space, particularly in sports broadcasting.

By migrating to Amazon Web Services (AWS), specifically Amazon EKS and AWS Load Balancer Controller, Second Spectrum achieved impressive results.

The fewer arrows in the second example show how much smoother it works now:

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They reduced their Kubernetes hosting costs by 90%, freeing up resources to develop innovative features that fans love. This shift also improved application response times by 5 milliseconds per request and cut errors by up to 75%, minimizing human mistakes.

With this new AWS setup, Second Spectrum can easily scale its operations, allowing it to support larger audiences during peak events.

Bayer’s predictive model boosts CTR by 85%.

Bayer’s consumer health marketing team has created a forecasting model to predict cold and flu trends.

The goal? To connect consumers with the right products at the right time.

Launched in Australia before the cold and flu season, this initiative combines Google Trends and external data to anticipate seasonal spikes in interest.

The model identified a 50% increase in flu cases, enabling Bayer to refine its marketing strategy with real-time insights and automation.

As a result, they achieved an impressive 85% boost in click-through rates and a 33% reduction in cost per click.

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Bayer plans to enhance and expand this model to other regions and product categories, like allergies, while focusing on a data-driven mindset.

Goosehead Insurance boosts website traffic by 87% with Jasper AI.

Goosehead Insurance needed to increase its marketing output without losing quality in a competitive market. To address this, the agency turned to Jasper.

Thanks to it, the marketing team published 44 new articles in one quarter, five each week. This efficiency allowed them to create social media content and engage in performance analysis. And the best part — to meet their marketing goals without feeling overwhelmed.

The results were impressive:

• Email campaigns saw a 22% increase in CTR.
• Tailored content led to a 20% revenue jump between Q3 and Q4.
• A complete website overhaul with Jasper resulted in an 87% rise in visibility for franchise pages.

“Jasper enables me to create at a pace that ensures I can attend to the variety of my responsibilities and still achieve our goals. I have time to analyze performance, rather than spending it all on the creation itself,” says Leslyn Felder, a marketing associate at Goosehead.

6 Tips for AI B2C Marketing

Yes, AI is amazing and can indeed ramp up B2C marketing, but you have to be careful when choosing and implementing AI tools. If you’re not cautious enough, AI could end up doing more harm than good.

1. Be careful about data privacy.

Protect user data by obtaining explicit consent and staying compliant with regulations. Always ensure that you have explicit consent from users to collect and process their data. Stay informed about laws like GDPR and CCPA, which dictate how personal data should be handled.

2. Watch out for over-personalization.

Balance personalization to avoid making customers feel uncomfortable or “too targeted.” While personalization can boost engagement, overly targeted messages can feel invasive.

Maintain a balance to avoid alienating customers, and be cautious about how much data you collect for personalization — more isn’t always better.

Focus on information like names, email addresses, and preferences relevant to your products or services.

3. Monitor algorithm bias.

AI systems can unintentionally perpetuate biases present in training data. Regularly review your AI outputs to ensure fair and unbiased messaging, and aim for inclusivity in your marketing strategies to avoid excluding any demographic.

If an AI chatbot is trained predominantly on data from one demographic, it might struggle to understand or respond appropriately to customers from different backgrounds or regions.

For example, slang or regional dialects might confuse the bot, resulting in a poor customer experience.

4. Don’t neglect customer experience.

While AI boosts efficiency, make sure a “human touch” is always available for customer interactions, especially in sensitive situations.

The chatbot can give shipping status updates, but if a customer needs to change their shipping address because they recently moved, they might feel stuck if the bot can’t help.

In this case, having the option to connect with a human representative right away is a must and will reduce customers’ frustration.

5. Pay attention to content quality.

AI-generated content lacks depth and authenticity, no matter which tool you use. It’s inevitable for you to have a strong copywriter or editor in your team who will turn a basic AI outline into a worth-sharing piece of content.

6. Evaluate cost vs. ROI

AI tools can be pricey, so you need to see if they’re really worth it.

Keep an eye on how well these tools align with your business goals, too. If a chatbot is speeding up response times but not improving customer satisfaction or sales, it might be time to rethink that investment.

Two years ago, I paid for Jasper to spit out simple articles about customer experience. It inherited my tone of voice, but the content quality was disastrous. I couldn’t keep it for the article’s writing.

That said, the tool is fantastic for SMM and quick, punchy copywriting.

AI in B2C: Better Marketing, Happier Customers

From visual to voice search, predictive analysis, automated emails, and nearly perfect content, I’ve discovered so many ways AI can significantly contribute to B2C marketing.

Probably the best thing is that it not only streamlines your workflows but also makes customers happier and more satisfied.

Every personalized message makes them feel closer to you. Every quick reply builds their trust. They wait less and get more. They feel more special, selected, like they matter more.

And once they feel that way, it means your marketing efforts are paying off and that you’re doing a good job.

Welcome to Creator Columns, where we bring expert HubSpot Creator voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.

No matter what fills your schedule every week (work, parenting, school, or everything in between), here’s a truth we all feel: our time is valuable. The way we build a business for long-term success is by caring about how we spend our time.

This is a continuous refinement process for me, as I hunt for ways to better invest my time and still generate meaningful results. I didn’t want to spend 80% of my time on an app only for it to deliver 20% or less of a return for me.

When I became a parent and my time basically evaporated, this became even more important to me. Every hour away from my kids needed to be an hour that I was confident was well spent.

So, when I saw the power of Pinterest on my business (with very little effort required from me), I was stunned. For years, I had miscategorized Pinterest as an app merely for seeking inspiration for my next bathroom remodel or reminding myself why I don’t need to get bangs every fall. Maybe you’ve done the same?

I’ve watched Pinterest grow in its efficacy and popularity over the years, and I think there are many business owners and creatives of all levels miscategorizing it just like I used to.

It’s not just for inspiration. It’s not just an ‘internet mood board.’ And it’s definitely not just for bloggers.

Let me walk you through how to utilize Pinterest to not only bring in fresh traffic to your business but also sell products on the platform in just an hour a week.

Selling Products on Pinterest in Four Steps

1. Leverage Pinterest as a search engine, not just social media.

When I first started getting curious about Pinterest, it wasn’t because I’d initiated research on it myself. My first virtual assistant, Caitlyn, asked me how I was using it, to which I rambled on about how I ‘map out my dream life’ there. She replied with, “No, how do you use it for business?” Oops. I wasn’t.

I handed over my login credentials and wished her luck. When she first started publishing dedicated pins to my content, I watched the numbers start to go from basically 0 to getting over a million views a month.

I began to redefine Pinterest as no longer a mood board or even a social media platform, but a search engine. Pinterest has over 522 million monthly active users, and 97% of top searches on Pinterest are unbranded, meaning users are actively searching for new ideas and products.

So when you drop keyword-driven pins, you have a much higher success rate of your content and offers to find the right customers.

Turns out, pins aren’t just links to pretty visuals floating around the internet. People are opening Pinterest with open-ended questions, and curiosities that they don’t quite know how to word. They’re throwing keywords and phrases into the search bar and looking for guidance rather than specific answers.

Pinterest users have fewer expectations of what they will find in their results than when they go to Google with questions. They’re open to solutions, and that means they’re even more open to you.

As Caitlyn and I saw the numbers grow and the proof that Pinterest was driving consistent traffic to my site every day, we optimized our strategy, learned to batch-create and schedule pins, and watched as our new endeavor became a 1-hour-per-week strategy that did the heavy lifting for us.

As the average entrepreneur spends about eight hours per week on social media marketing (that used to include me), one hour on Pinterest generating better results was my cup of tea.

2. Create click-worthy, branded pins.

Did you know that as a user, you can upload pins to Pinterest and point them to where you want them to go? That being said, you don’t just want to be a pinner, you want to become a contributor to Pinterest — creating your own pins and sharing them on the platform.

To start building an effective, 1-hour-per-week Pinterest strategy, you must start with creating click-worthy pins. Captivating the attention of your new audience means you need to stand out in a sea of visuals.

Pins with visually compelling designs are 60% more likely to be seen, saved, and clicked on, but you don’t need to be a professional photographer or graphic designer to create effective pins.

Studies show that pins with eye-catching visuals can boost saves by up to 50% and increase click-through rates by around 30%. This is especially true when brands create images that speak to their audience and use on-brand visuals consistently.

Rather than pressuring yourself to make every single pin unique, save time by relying on easy design templates. Canva is a lifesaver when it comes to an easy way to look pro without the platforms or experience. Load up your favorite photos (even high-quality, freshly made stock images work) and create 10-15 pin templates you can use every time you’re ready to load up new pins.

Not only do templates help us save time, but they make sure that every pin we share is fully on brand. Win-win.

I teach and show how you can take one piece of content and turn it into ten unique pins in under ten minutes in my free masterclass: 3 Ways to 20x Your Traffic Using Pinterest!

Take your weekly Pinterest hour to edit your pin templates, download them from Canva or wherever you like to design, and then upload them to Pinterest. Feel free to push yourself and let your creativity fly here, because this is your testing ground.

You can try new ideas, titles, verbiage, or designs without feeling like you’re spamming your audience or misleading them with visuals that aren’t your ‘usual’ vibe. Upload as many pins as you want, especially if the inspiration strikes, and see what hooks people the most. There’s no risk and all learning.

This simple technique allows me to create less and promote my creations more. I can take one episode of The Goal Digger Podcast and turn that into ten pins in just a few minutes, giving my content a much better chance of being found, seen, and enjoyed. It allows me to create knowing that my content has the ability to live on long after I publish it.

If you want to learn how I specifically take one piece of content, paid offer, or freebie and transform it into 10 different pins in just 10 minutes with my brand-centric pin templates, I am teaching my exact process in a free, virtual masterclass.

Spend an hour with me one time and then one hour a week after that growing your traffic with an easy, replicable template process. This is a great way to not overthink it.

3. Optimize for lead generation and sales.

Pinterest is the #1 organic traffic driver for us in my business, but I am not Pinterest obsessed solely because it drives traffic. I am obsessed because of what happens after that traffic lands on my website.

Because of how niche and tailored my pin audience is, they’re also coming to my site looking for my solutions, whether it’s for my free or paid offers. Pinterest isn’t a one-shot traffic generator.

Instead, the new customers landing on my pages are being invited to join my email list and stay in touch, giving me the opportunity to turn that traffic into treasure.

This effect is seen across so many industries. Around 80% of Pinterest users discover new brands or products on the platform, making it a key tool for businesses to generate new leads and grow their email lists.

Pinterest users are 2.2x more likely to click and make a purchase after interacting with products and offers they discover on Pinterest compared to other social platforms.

Driving sales through pins is a primary reason so many businesses are starting to show up on the website rather than keep their focus solely on social media.

The difference is evident in how Pinterest and social media websites function.

Apps like Instagram want to keep users ON their app, which challenges business owners to feel like they have to convince their audience to leave the app. I mean, how tired are you of typing some variation of “tap the link in my bio for more” just so you can get people out of the sea of tiny squares and into your sales funnel?

Pinterest is encouraging users to find their solution and actually leave the website altogether. They want to get people to your website, which means you have a better chance of converting and capturing new customers.

While we absolutely love the traffic we can get from Pinterest, traffic alone doesn’t always turn into treasure. We want people to not only save our pins but to go a step further and visit a page that we own (whether our website or shop!).

Using specific calls to actions and offering free value or solutions helps people want to go off of the app to get more information.

Once they click on our pin to visit the page, we want to ensure we have a plan to capture that traffic when they land on our site. For us, the main way we are able to monetize traffic coming from Pinterest is through growing our email list where we can serve our subscribers and then eventually invite them into a paid offer.

While shops with physical products can find success linking directly to their products for the people exploring the platform, as a digital company, we’re looking at ways to capture the traffic and lead them to a product aligned with the pin they clicked on originally.

4. Consistency is Key: Batch and schedule content.

Just like your elementary school teacher taught you, “Practice makes perfect,” except I’ll do a quick edit for Pinterest: Consistency makes connection.

The more you create a habit in your workflow to test and try new pins and adjustments to your strategy, the more opportunities you’ll create for the right customers to find any and all of your work.

Research shows that consistent pinning on Pinterest is essential for boosting your reach and engagement. By pinning regularly — aim for a few pins each day — you keep your content visible and perform better than if you were to post in large batches infrequently.

Active accounts that pin consistently attract more impressions and interaction because they have fresh visibility in others’ feeds. This strategy aligns perfectly with how Pinterest rewards regular engagement, making it a key component of any successful Pinterest approach.

I mentioned that we love to use Tailwind to schedule our pins, and it’s there that we save a ton of time thanks to automation.

I want my pins to flood my potential customers’ search results, which requires a lot of pins with varying keywords and eye-catching visuals. That means we’re aiming for a high daily posting rate (around 10-20 pins per day), which drives that higher engagement rate.

But don’t let that number scare you — even if you upload just one fresh pin per day, you can 20x the traffic you’re getting to your website!

I teach you how in my free masterclass, 20x Your Traffic in 1 Hour a Week with Pinterest Without Spending a Dime on Ads. I’ll show you how to take any of your offers, services, videos, social posts, or blog posts, and create click-worthy pins … even if you’re a total beginner.

Even if you’ve never even pinned a single thing on Pinterest before.

Pinterest Lets Your Hard Work Actually Work

The results we see from Pinterest might also sound like the results of many years of hard work, but I will say our results started almost immediately. When my employee Caitlyn integrated Pinterest into our workflow, I noticed some of my old blog posts started to take off. I watched as new students jumped into my programs when I wasn’t actively selling them.

I could see the numbers on my podcast, The Goal Digger Podcast, shift on the days when we would launch new pins. In fact, I know for sure that I still get book sales several years later thanks to the pins on Pinterest that pop up in just the right search results.

Pinterest’s unique and hyper-powered ability to connect your work to the right audience is unmatched. It takes less time, effort, and energy than social media and it’s far more effective and straightforward than a social media algorithm.

Finding new customers can finally have a method, rather than just feeling like a shot in the dark. Your valuable offers and impactful content no longer have a shelf-life of just a few hours or, at best, a day. Pinterest offers you weeks, months, and even years as it delivers your relevant solutions to the eyes that are seeking them.

So, Pinterest gives your work the chance to truly work for you and your business. With the help of a few good pins and 1 hour a week, what you’re already creating can help your business grow, saving you time and stress in the process.

You don’t need to do more, work harder, post more, and churn out flashy new content every few hours. Despite what the rest of the internet would have you believe, you don’t need to be a content-creation machine. You merely need to give what you do create the chance to shine.

Since May 2024, Google’s AI Overviews (aka SGE) have reshaped the SEO world as we know it.

While content quality has always mattered, the stakes are now higher than ever as content must be not only informative and unique, but also easily digestible by Google’s AI.

This shift leaves a big question: What happens to your traffic if some of your content becomes redundant?

Check out insights from HubSpot’s SEO experts on which content to prioritize and what to avoid in the post-SGE landscape.

Which Types of Content to Lean into Ahead of Google’s SGE

1. Lean into personality-driven, thought-provoking content.

AI has a lot going for it. But, due to the nature of it being a robot, it inherently lacks one thing: a perspective.

Which is why you’ll want to ensure you start leaning into personality-driven thought leadership content that offers personal lessons, examples, and novel concepts that drive conversations forward.

In a survey we ran of 300+ U.S. web strategists and SEOs, we discovered that 37% think review and comparison content will thrive, while 27% see opinion pieces and thought leadership content as strong performers in this new landscape.

As Aja Frost, HubSpot’s Director of SEO Global Growth, puts it, “As a result of the AI evolution, there is an exponential increase in the amount of AI-written, low-value content. And, in response to that, Google is prioritizing first-person, credible, personality-driven content.”

This makes sense. Google needs its AI models to continue to improve based on new information on the web. And new information – including new perspectives and ideas — can only come from real people.

For instance, consider what happens when I ask Breeze Copilot, “How do I build emotional resilience as an entrepreneur?”

Copilot’s answer includes plenty of tangible steps toward building resilience. But it lacks the nuance and complexity of real life.

Which is why it’s more helpful for me to turn to this post: “Bounce Back: Five Founders on Building Emotional Resilience.”

In the post, one founder, Michael Plisco, says, “As founders, we often find ourselves so deeply attached to our business and its mission that it becomes difficult to distinguish ourselves from what we are building. In failure, you have to take a step back and realize that the failure of the business, regardless of the situation, does not equate to a failure of self.”

Plisco then recommends getting back in touch with the things that make you happy, from spending time with friends and family to activities you haven’t had the time for since launching your business.

Consider that advice compared to Copilot’s advice to “Embrace failures as learning opportunities, allowing you to adapt and grow from challenges.”

See the difference?

Ultimately, there are plenty of topics that deserve a quick, straightforward, cut-and-dry answer. I turn to Copilot all the time for topics like “Make me a workout plan,” “What is the top social media platform right now?” and “Please give me five questions I should ask in an interview about product development and AI.”

AI can‘t move the conversation forward into new territory with fresh, novel ideas. And it can’t fully relay the subtleties and nuances that many complex topics require. That’s where your content can truly shine.

2. First-person narratives will become increasingly crucial.

AI can round up a long list of tools and provide a comprehensive analysis of each, but it can’t describe its own unique experience testing the tools out.

Which is where first-hand perspectives will become critical.

As former HubSpot Marketing Manager and SEO Strategist Bianca (Binks) Anderson told me, “Productive Perspectives is a term we’re going to embrace at HubSpot to guide our writers ahead of Google’s SGE. For us, it means fully immersing ourselves in the topic and sharing our personal journey through first-person narratives.”

She continues, “We aim to showcase our hands-on experience by demonstrating the products, software, and tools we discuss, truly walking the walk.”

📍 It’s vital you take a look at your existing strategy and consider where you can incorporate first-hand expertise. Rather than writing “The Top 10 Marketing Automation Tools,” perhaps you use a first-hand angle like, “I Tried These 5 Marketing Automation Tools: Here’s My Favorite.”

Along with helping you rank in a post-SGE world, incorporating first-person expertise also helps you build brand trust. Your readers want to know you have real-life experience on the topics about which you’re writing.

Anderson adds, “We also believe in taking a clear and confident stance on a topic, supported by first-hand research and data.”

She continues, “We believe that forming and articulating insightful opinions is a hallmark of genuine expertise. With Productive Perspectives, we strive to provide valuable content that resonates with our readers.”

Here’s some interesting data on this matter: about 30% of SEOs think that content sharing personal stories and experiences is going to be hit the hardest by generative AI and LLM search engine integrations.

I can’t decide if this opinion is based on the belief that such stories will feel less authentic and personal or that LLM search engine integrations won’t be able to summarize these stories in AI Overviews well enough.

It seems both could be factors.

As generative AI relies more on general patterns instead of genuine human experiences, people worry that personal narratives will lose their impact, and most importantly — the “soul.”

3. You must incorporate E-E-A-T signals into your content.

Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Rating Guidelines rate E-E-A-T — which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness — as critical factors for ensuring your content ranks on Google, and E-E-A-T became increasingly important after Google’s SGE was released.

Which is why Rory Hope, HubSpot’s Head of EN Growth, advises all content creators to lean into these factors when creating content.

As he puts it, “When creating a piece of content, you’ll benefit from writing it through the real world experience of the author, whilst referencing the author or your company’s credentials to improve perceived expertise by search engines and users.”

He continues, “To improve authority, backlinks will remain important, so try to include primary research data or quotes when possible to make your content linkable and sharable. Depending on the content type, you should also add social proof or reviews onto the page, as this will help build trustworthiness.”

Hope recommends marketers read Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines to build a deeper understanding of E-E-A-T, which will help improve your visibility.

On the flip side, three experts from different niches and companies like Backlinko, Wistia, Rainbow Plant Life, and Angi adhere to slightly another approach — information gain. They advise writing SEO-optimized articles and adding only 10 to 40% of unique information.

Experts bake this up to the performance of their content and fear that “overloading your content with new information might make Google doubt its relevance to the query.”

My take? You should incorporate first-hand experience anyway, but that isn’t equal to information gain. Go through HubSpot blog posts, and you’ll see that our writers pour intensive research and external expertise into every post to make it unique and practical.

Yet all content incorporates keywords here and there — no SEO obsession.

4. Lean into long-tail queries.

For a while now, marketers have heard the power of long-tail queries for ranking higher in the SERPs.

As a refresh: Head terms like “blogging” are generally searched for frequently, and are harder to rank for compared to long-tail phrases. So when considering your SEO strategy, you’ll want to make a list of long-tail phrases that could help you capture more traffic.

“How to write a blog post: a beginner’s guide,” for instance, is likely easier to rank for than “blogging.”

45% of SEOs believe “how-to” guides and other educational content will perform best as generative AI and LLMs become more integrated with search engines.

And speaking about how-to guides, you’ll often see AI overviews using ordered lists for step-by-step instructions, according to the Surfer survey.

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Senior Technical SEO Specialist Sylvain Charbit believes such types of queries will become increasingly important in a post-SGE world.

“Prioritizing long-tail queries will become even more important as AI answers from Google are usually better in this case,” he said. “Optimizing images and content around these more in-depth questions could lead to more visibility in the AI-generated responses.

Long story short: People are now writing long phrases to get short, straightforward, “ASAP” responses.

And when I say short, I mean that AI overviews are usually around 157 words long. That gives you only about 984 characters to answer a question directly or make the content interesting enough to get people to click and find out more.

It’s tough, but it really sharpens your focus and keeps you from wandering off-topic. You know exactly where you need to go and what to give your users.

And how will all this impact search engines?

Well, 55% of SEOs from our survey believe that since the rollout of AI overviews and other LLM search features, people are using search engines to find answers more often.

Meanwhile, 37% think usage has stayed about the same, and only 9% feel it has decreased.

I’m kind of torn between thinking that people are searching for answers more frequently and believing that usage has remained roughly the same. But I’d bet that it definitely won’t go down.

Moreover, we must take in traffic generated by AI chatbots — from ChatGPT and Gemini to Claude and Copilot. In October, I saw an influx of posts sharing that they had started getting more traffic from chatbots.

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Don’t Fear Change — Just Adapt Your Strategy

To rank high, you have to be ready for even more changes ahead. Google isn’t slowing down, and AI is advancing way faster than expected. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. We just need to prepare ourselves and stay open to change. (Good news: AI won’t take our jobs.)

Your SEO and content strategy teams are ready to test, iterate, and experiment to find out which new content strategies work best for your business.

Take a look at The SEO Evolution: Expert Insights into the Future Landscape of Search if you’re interested in learning more about how SEO will change in 2025 and beyond.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2023 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Long before ChatGPT, I worked with clients who used AI and machine learning to speed up data analysis at scale. Their enthusiasm about AI’s ability to improve everything from business operations to AI marketing funnels piqued my interest.

So when ChatGPT took over the news cycle, after my initial skepticism, I haven’t looked back.

While it’s always important to take AI with a grain of salt, it provides companies of all sizes opportunities to personalize marketing, deepen customer intimacy, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing programs.

More importantly, it lowers the barrier to entry for sophisticated marketing efforts, improving the way we can interact with and build on customer relationships. So let’s get into how you can incorporate AI into your marketing funnel.

Table of Contents

• AI and the Marketing Funnel
• Understanding The Buyer Journey
• How to Build a Marketing Funnel With AI
• Tips for Making the Most of AI in Your Marketing Funnel and MarTech Operations

AI and the Marketing Funnel

Before you and I have any conversation about how AI can improve the marketing funnel, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about what marketing funnels are and how they work.

Why?

I strongly feel that before you can automate something, you need a solid understanding of how it works so you know the expected outcomes.

Without that foundation, you can’t know if AI recommendations are any good, you can’t identify what’s working and what’s not, and it’s tough to find a solution that works.

So, at a high level, let’s agree that the entire purpose of a marketing funnel — or flywheel — is to map out each stage of the buyer journey and then improve the way customers move through it.

From there, we can look at the different ways that AI can improve aspects of the marketing funnel — including the buyer journey (and far beyond it).

Understanding The Buyer Journey

Here’s a quick recap of what the buyer journey typically looks like, the types of tasks that are associated with it, and the opportunities for AI marketing funnel optimization.

Awareness Stage

During this phase, prospective buyers are aware of a problem but may not yet know the solution and search for information to understand their pain points.

Marketing Tasks & Challenges

Marketers working through awareness stage tactics spend time:

• Identifying target audiences and key messages.
• Understanding buyer pain points.
• Creating and optimizing content that speaks to problems and solutions.

So, where are the challenges? Some of the struggles I see other marketers face — and have struggled with myself — include:

• Analyzing whether or not we’re reaching the right audience.
• Ensuring content speaks to different segments and pain points.
• Generating leads — the holy grail!

AI Marketing Funnel Opportunities

I’ve seen AI make a significant difference when it comes to prospecting and lead scoring. I’m working with a client to develop some new programs, and we’ve found the “Likely to Engage” score in ZoomInfo helpful for identifying the best possible targets for initial contact.

Some of the other ways I’ve seen AI help in the awareness stage include:

• Segmenting audiences. This makes it easier to target specific groups based on shared interests, demographics, or problems.
• Personalizing content. AI can identify existing content, push it to the right audience at the right time, and identify opportunities to tailor it for those audiences based on data analysis.
• Ad targeting. Ads can be targeted based on the likelihood of engagement and lookalike audiences.
• Using predictive analytics. This helps determine which content, channels, and formats are most likely to pay off.

Pro tip: Use AI to identify where customers are and deliver the right message at the right time.

Adam Tishman, co-founder of Helix Sleep, says, “AI allows us to know which customers are in which marketing funnel stage by using historical data to categorize them based on their behavior.” He shares that this has led to a 32% increase in engagement.

Consideration Stage

At this stage, buyers are solution-aware. They know solutions to their problem exist and are actively evaluating their options but may not be familiar with your specific product or service yet.

Marketing Tasks & Challenges

If you’re a marketer tackling buyers in the consideration stage, you’re probably focused on:

• Developing and distributing content that helps buyers evaluate options, such as product comparisons, case studies, and expert guides.
• Tracking engagement across channels to gauge interest levels.
• Nurturing leads with personalized email campaigns or retargeting ads.

Common obstacles that can make this stage challenging include:

• Determining which leads are genuinely interested versus those who are just browsing.
• Providing the right information at the right time without overwhelming leads.
• Balancing personalization with scale, especially with a large volume of leads.

AI Marketing Funnel Opportunities

AI offers several advantages for optimizing the consideration stage, such as:

• Lead scoring. This can help you prioritize high-potential prospects.
• Content recommendations. AI can identify which content is most engaging and suggest the next best content to keep them moving through the funnel.
• Automated email nurturing. AI can segment leads and deliver content based on specific triggers without requiring constant manual input.
• Behavior analysis. Assesses buyer intent and helps you adjust messaging based on real time interest levels.

Pro tip: Don’t rely completely on AI — the personal touch still matters.

Roland Jakob of Blazekin.Media shares, “AI spots patterns and predicts actions, but it’s on us to craft messaging that resonates personally. In my early experiences with AI, I relied on it too much for customer interactions.

It’s tempting to automate everything, but I quickly realized that complicated conversations and decisions need a human touch.”

Decision Stage

By the decision stage, buyers understand their problem, know the potential solutions, and are evaluating providers. They’re comparing products, seeking validation through demos or testimonials, and are ready to make a final decision.

Marketing Tasks & Challenges

If you’re working on initiatives to help buyers make a final decision, you may have already handed the lead over to the sales team, who focuses on:

• Offering product demos, trials, or consultations to build confidence.
• Personalizing discounts or promotions to help close deals.
• Addressing buyer objections and providing quick answers to final questions.

While marketing supports the decision stage with content, the biggest problems your company faces at this stage are usually sales-related:

• Closing high-intent leads effectively without seeming overly aggressive.
• Personalizing the buying experience while ensuring consistency.
• Following up at appropriate intervals.

AI Marketing Funnel Opportunities

Because so much of the challenge here relies on timing and further building the relationship, some of the ways AI can help you streamline the decision-making process include:

• Predictive conversions. Identify which leads are most likely to convert, allowing for more effective prioritization of high-potential customers.
• Personalized offers. Identify interested prospects based on previous behaviors to increase the likelihood of conversion.
• Automated follow-ups. Ensure high-intent leads get the right message at the right time.
• Chatbot support. Handle common buyer questions and objections in real-time, supporting purchase decisions.

Pro tip: Use AI to fine-tune timing and personalization to improve conversions.

John Pennypacker, vice president of sales and marketing at Deep Cognition, explains how AI has transformed his team’s approach to conversions. “We use AI-powered lead scoring to prioritize high-potential leads and AI content optimization tools to fine-tune messaging,” he says.

By combining predictive insights with tailored offers, his team increased content engagement by 35% in just two months.

Onboarding, Engagement, and Retention

While not technically part of the buyer journey, onboarding your customers and keeping them engaged is an important part of marketing operations. People are more likely to stick around if they use and like your product.

What’s more, getting new customers costs significantly more than retaining existing ones, meaning customer experience is one of the most important places to invest marketing dollars.

In fact, B2B marketers devote more energy to deepening relationships with existing companies than nurturing new leads and serious opportunities.

Marketing Tasks & Challenges

As a marketer who often works with CX teams to improve retention and customer satisfaction, I’ve found that this stage often involves:

• Following up with customers to ensure satisfaction and offer support.
• Creating opportunities for upsells, cross-sells, and loyalty rewards.
• Gathering feedback through surveys or reviews to improve the customer experience.

Some of the primary challenges include:

• Keeping the engagement momentum building.
• Identifying the right moments to suggest upsells or cross-sells.
• Recognizing and addressing signs people aren’t engaged early.

AI Marketing Funnel Opportunities

In my opinion, while AI has tremendous potential during the buyer stages, some of its most important impact relates to post-purchase nurturing and retention. Some of the ways it can help include:

• Automated personalized follow-ups. These will be based on purchase history, engagement, and likely behaviors.
• Behavior monitoring. Doing so will help detect opportunities for upselling or cross-selling based on previous purchases and browsing patterns.
• Churn prediction. Identify customers showing signs of disengagement or dissatisfaction and trigger actions to keep them engaged.
• Personalized product and resource recommendations. These will Improve customer experience and increase lifetime value.

Pro tip: Use AI to help customers feel valued and understood.

Consultant Nora Sudduth points out, “AI shines when used to segment audiences and deliver personalized experiences that allow the relationship to deepen.”

How to Build a Marketing Funnel With AI

With those insights in mind and a deeper understanding of the challenges marketers face at each stage of the marketing funnel, I want you to know that there’s no one right way to build or optimize your marketing funnel with AI.

I know that you’ve probably already got some marketing funnel components in place — most people aren’t starting at zero. And restarting from the ground up is a nuclear option that I rarely recommend unless your systems are fundamentally broken.

With that in mind, I’m sharing a toolkit below. You can pick and choose any of these elements to enhance what you’re already using.

Step 1: Map and analyze your current funnel.

Why is this Step 1? The best place to start is by gaining a solid understanding of what you have now, what’s working, and where you have the biggest opportunities — or the low-hanging fruit.

By mapping out your funnel and every touchpoint, you can identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities to optimize. AI speeds this up, giving you something to react to so you can adapt and adjust as you go.

If you use HubSpot, Breeze is an incredible tool to help you gain insights into your entire funnel — including all aspects of the customer journey. Google Analytics and Search Console are other fantastic tools that can help identify which pages perform well and where you have opportunities to optimize.

Depending on which email marketing program you use, you can also get detailed reporting on open and conversion rates.

Pro tip: Map your customer journey with AI.

Arthur Favier, founder and CEO of Oppizi, shares, “You’ve got all these stages — Awareness, Consideration, Decision, Retention — and each one has its own set of challenges. AI steps in to spot where people are dropping off and why. Maybe your potential customers love the content you’re putting out, but they’re getting lost right before making a decision.”

Step 2: Identify, define, and segment your audience.

What I really love about using AI for this stage is that it can confirm your gut feeling about your audience. Once you define who your top clients or customers are, you can use AI tools like Breeze and Copy.ai to get insights into your target market segments, trends, purchase behavior, and content preferences.

I also love using generative AI like ChatGPT or Claude to analyze customer conversations and reviews to get deeper insights into how they talk about their problems.

Pro tip: Use AI to get precise audience segmentation and targeting.

Dominick Tomanelli, co-founder and CEO of Promobile Marketing, says, “One of the first things I do is look at how AI can help us segment our audience.”

Tomanelli notes these aren’t just generic groups, like “males 25-35” here. AI can break it down into the smallest details, like “males 25-35 who’ve shown interest in sustainable products and have visited our site more than three times in the last month.”

“This kind of precision lets us serve content that’s hyper-relevant, and that’s how we keep people engaged,” Tomanelli says.

Step 3: Identify and tailor your message.

Step 2 and Step 3 go hand-in-hand. Once you know your audience and how they think about their problems, you can start tailoring your messaging to speak directly to their needs.

Where Breeze and Copy.ai can help you ensure that you’re tailoring your message to their needs, other AI content tools like Jasper and ChatGPT can suggest message themes, helping to craft content that resonates with different audience segments.

Step 4: Catalog your content and identify opportunities for repurposing.

The best way to personalize content isn’t creating an entire library of new information — it starts with making the most out of the content you’re already creating.

While you can use generative AI here, in my opinion, Breeze offers a better solution because it’s designed to work with your audience insights to help you deliver consistent, targeted experiences.

Wondering what this looks like?

AI-driven content analysis can reveal that a popular blog post might perform well as a lead magnet or that a webinar could be repurposed as short-form videos or infographics for social media. Or, it might find that it performs well as a series of emails dripped out.

Step 5: Automate lead nurturing.

AI-driven lead nurturing takes carefully designed paths and puts them on steroids, delivering content based on each lead’s activity and engagement level.

AI-enabled tools like HubSpot’s Marketing Hub, Adobe Marketo, or ActiveCampaign can trigger follow-ups and content offers automatically.

AI tools can monitor engagement signals and send relevant follow-ups when leads are most likely to take action, increasing conversion chances.

Pro tip: Timing is everything.

Rafikuzzaman Khan, co-founder and COO of Microters, says, “I’ve been personally using AI to create funnels, and AI tools allow me to analyze data in real-time and develop customer personas almost instantly. We’ve seen conversion rates increase by up to 40% when we use AI to design funnels that speak directly to the customer’s needs.”

Step 6: Analyze and optimize.

Anyone who thinks marketing doesn’t change has their head in the sand — that’s a flag I’ll happily wave. The market is always changing, customer expectations are evolving, and technology is continually maturing and leaping.

That means that you can’t set and forget any of your marketing efforts and expect consistent performance. What worked five years ago isn’t working today — and what’s working today won’t cut it 3-5 years from now.

So what do you do? Continually analyze performance using any of the tools I’ve named here and use the resulting insights to find opportunities to fine-tune targeting, messaging, and content based on performance metrics.

Pro tip: Use GA4 purchase probability to identify customers likely to buy.

Victor Karpenko, founder and CEO of SEOProfy, says, “GA4 has some amazing AI features for predictive analysis. You can set up a few filters to get insights that’ll boost your repeat purchases and optimize your marketing spend. Try creating segments based on purchase probability and predicted revenue.”

Tips for Making the Most of AI in Your Marketing Funnel and MarTech Operations

AI is an incredible tool to have in your arsenal — but it’s just that — a tool that can make you a more effective marketer (or marketing department). Here’s some top advice on how to use AI in your marketing funnel based on expert advice.

Identify which tools you already have.

If you’re using a MarTech tool, there’s a good chance it now has some AI capabilities. And while I know how tempting it is to chase shiny objects because they’re so exciting, every new tool you add to your tech stack adds complexity to your operations and processes — and another line item to your budget.

To stave off tech bloat, before you add new tools into the mix, evaluate the AI capabilities you already have access to. And when you do need new tools, look first for tools that have native integrations with your existing platforms — or that can easily integrate through Zapier or open API.

Pro tip: Choose the right tools for the job.

Khan says, “The biggest mistake most brands make is implementing too many AI tools at once, which leads to disorganization and inefficiency.”

Personalize at every stage of the funnel.

I’ve seen so many people beat the personalization drum. However, until AI, very few companies did it well due to the sheer volume of content needed. AI is the great equalizer — AI-powered personalization increases engagement and builds stronger customer relationships.

Pro tip: Tailor content based on real-time engagement.

Villam Karasti of Pardott says doing so has led to a 25% increase in response rates.

“I use Breeze Copilot to analyze engagement data and trigger personalized workflows. When leads reach specific engagement thresholds, they’re automatically entered into tailored sequences. The platform’s lead scoring and buyer intent features help me focus on high-potential leads while automating repetitive tasks like follow-ups and email sequences,” Karasti says.

Get really good at writing prompts.

As generative AI grows increasingly sophisticated, you don’t need to engineer prompts quite the way you did when it was first introduced. However, it’s still important to understand how to best interact with platforms like ChatGPT.

One of the best courses I’ve taken to date was AI for Copywriters by The Copywriter Club — I learned so much about how generative AI works and some of its capabilities.

Pro tip: Use bite-sized prompts.

Lori Highby of Keystone Click notes that asking for an entire marketing plan produces results, but they’re not well-thought-out.

“For example, rather than asking AI to create an entire marketing funnel, start by asking AI to gather data on your target audience, their pain points, and their typical customer journey. This will help you determine the next steps related to creating content that resonates with that audience while nurturing and guiding them through their preferred customer journey,” Highby says.

Automate repetitive tasks.

If you’ve spent any amount of time diving into AI and marketing funnel optimization, then you already know that one of its best features is its ability to automate repetitive tasks. So if there’s something you do that takes a ton of time, there’s likely a way AI can streamline that part of your MarTech operations.

Looking for an example? I recently shared how I created an AI-enabled ticketing system for client projects, which streamlined the project planning and assignment process. It also included setting up documents in Google Drive in specific folders, which I found to be one of the most cumbersome aspects of the process.

Pro tip: The best part of AI doesn’t have to be the complicated stuff — it can be about simplifying the simple stuff.

Sudduth shares, “One of the best use cases for AI is doing the heavy lifting on simple, repetitive, otherwise time-consuming tasks. AI-driven automation workflows can send specific follow-up emails after a certain trigger, schedule out social media posts, push an email cadence to nurture a segment of your email list, and so much more.”

Know where AI stops and your brain starts.

I’ve seen a lot of fear out there that AI is out to get our jobs.

And like with any modernization project, some jobs will be automated, while even more will be created because AI is only a tool.

You and I have two things it never will — humanity and creativity, and that’s what’s needed to manage your marketing funnel.

Pro tip: Treat AI as an assistant, not a replacement.

Abraham Ernesto, co-founder of GiantFocal, shares, “No one can deny that AI is an incredible assistant in the marketing space. However, I don‘t think AI can replace the ‘creative mind’ that plans the entire marketing funnel, or at least no AI in the market today can. The strategic decisions that drive the funnel’s overall plan still rely on human creativity and intuition.”

AI is the future of marketing funnels.

Despite the fact that there’s no one best way to use AI in marketing funnels, there are a few areas to steer clear of. Strangely enough, they lie in the extremes: not using AI at all and using AI for everything.

The best practices lie in the middle, where we balance AI with human insight. Small adjustments are the best place to start — they allow you to get a sense of AI’s capabilities without overwhelming your processes or team.

At the end of the day, one thing is abundantly clear — anyone not willing to test and iterate with AI is going to be left behind. So here’s to the future of marketing, where AI is more than just a tool — it’s the key to creating more dynamic, responsive, and impactful marketing funnels.

As an ‘external’ marketer, I have to say that I hadn’t given much thought to internal marketing until I started writing this article.

My first thought was … that’s not my job. But the more I dug into the subject, I realized that’s not entirely true.

Anytime I share a new content series or blog campaign across our internal channels and encourage my colleagues to help promote it, that’s internal marketing.

When I lead onboarding sessions for new hires or recognize my teammates for their great work as part of our performance review process, that counts too.

*quietly adds internal marketing to resume*

Here’s everything else I learned about internal marketing — the benefits, the strategies that experts recommend, and a few more examples of what it looks like in practice.

Table of Contents

• What is internal marketing?
• Who is responsible for internal marketing?
• Why is internal marketing important?
• Benefits of Internal Marketing
• Internal Marketing Strategies
• Internal Marketing Examples

A happy workforce is the key to a successful internal marketing strategy, so employee experience is a big factor here.

Every connection point that an employee has with the company — from onboarding to the exit interview — should be represented accordingly.

Internal Marketing vs Internal Communication

When I was a baby marketer, I couldn’t really understand the difference between marketing and communication because the two terms were often used interchangeably in the field.

Here’s how I used to simplify it:

• Marketing is brand promotion.
• Communication is information sharing.

Internal communication and internal marketing go hand in hand, but the two aren’t an exact match.

Going back to our definition of internal marketing above, it focuses on the act of promoting a brand to its employees to encourage them to buy into the company’s values and products.

For example, an internal marketing play could be giving employees free access to the company’s products for personal use. That’s in and of itself isn’t technically internal communication.

The purpose of internal communication is to keep everyone informed of company updates and aligned with core objectives.

If HR sends a company memo announcing a new process update, that’s an example of internal communication that doesn’t really fall under internal marketing.

These are very rigid examples, but the reality is that these two processes work together and often blend into each other.

Internal Marketing vs External Marketing

The main difference between internal and external marketing is the audience.

Internal marketing is focused on employees, while external marketing is for prospects and customers outside of your organization.

But the concept of promoting your brand and encouraging buy-in to your products and services is true in both cases.

Why is internal marketing important?

Internal marketing is important because it directly supports employee engagement.

And data shows that high engagement leads to:

• An 18% boost in employee productivity.
• Up to 43% less turnover. Nice.

When employees feel connected to their work, they tend to work harder. All that extra effort leads to increases in customer satisfaction and loyalty, sales, and ultimately, profitability.

Remember how I said internal marketing isn’t my job?

Well, technically, it isn’t. However, I do participate in (and promote) internal marketing efforts as an employee.

*keeps internal marketing on resume*

Benefits of Internal Marketing

I mentioned employee engagement as a huge plus for investing in internal marketing. I talked to the experts and compiled a few more reasons to consider below.

You’re building a team that (actually) cares.

Holly Andrews, managing director at KIS Finance, says the best internal marketing strategies help employees feel invested in the bigger picture.

“An effective internal marketing strategy does more than align people with company goals. It builds a team that genuinely cares,” says Andrews.

“I remember when a new hire once said, ‘I actually feel like I‘m part of something here.’ That’s the goal — making sure everyone feels like they‘re not clocking in but connecting with the brand’s story.”

You’re cultivating a sense of community at work.

Mike Szczesny, owner and vice president of EDCO Awards & Specialties, shared how internal marketing allows him to connect with his employees — and why that’s worth it.

“An internal marketing strategy that celebrates wins, shares behind-the-scenes stories, and highlights the impact of our work helps cultivate a crucial sense of belonging,” says Szczesny.

“The benefits are numerous — higher employee satisfaction and retention, a stronger employer brand that attracts top talent, and a workforce that’s truly invested in our success as a company.”

He continues, “At the end of the day, our people are our greatest asset, and an internal marketing strategy that makes them feel valued and part of something bigger pays dividends.”

You’re creating greater brand alignment.

For Remy Smidt, brand strategist at Fazer, one of the biggest benefits of internal marketing is alignment from top to bottom.

“If you walked into NASA during the ’60s and asked what they were up to and why they were there, everyone would say, ‘to put a man on the moon,’” says Smidt.

The bottom line is that everyone knows what the business is working toward, is engaged and excited about the mission, and understands their part in making it happen. That’s the result of good internal marketing.

Internal Marketing Strategies

I also talked to the experts to tease out a few internal marketing strategies that they use at their own companies. Here are five of my favorites.

1. Personalize the onboarding process.

Each new hire has a different learning style and set of responsibilities, so make sure your onboarding process reflects that.

As Hnatiuk notes, promoting your mission and culture code during onboarding is also a great way to get employee buy-in from the start.

As an incoming marketer at HubSpot, I completed a general get-to-know-the-company onboarding track and a team-specific blog and marketing onboarding track. The format was a mix of videos, live sessions, and independent research.

It was comprehensive, engaging, and just what I needed to feel invested as a new employee.

2. Use storytelling to engage employees.

Employees want to understand their role in your brand’s story as you progress through each chapter together.

Sounds corny, I know. But I’ve left jobs in the past because I didn’t feel like I was actually contributing to the end goal.

I couldn’t understand why the work I was doing was worth it (and nobody was telling me why, either), so I disengaged.

Building your brand’s story into your internal marketing strategy and reminding employees what you’re working toward builds transparency and trust.

Speaking of …

3. Create transparent communication channels.

Here’s where internal communication meets internal marketing.

Keeping your employees well-informed is a special yet indirect form of promotion that inspires your employees to become your biggest ambassadors.

Your internal marketing strategy should clearly outline your communication channels and outreach process to allow you to easily share timely and relevant updates with your teams.

And don’t forget that communication is a two-way street. Be sure to create ways for employees to reach out about problems and issues or with feedback and suggestions.

As Glaser said, transparency builds trust. And the first step is effective communication.

4. Integrate values into daily actions.

I love this one.

Sharing your company values during onboarding is great, but it shouldn’t be the only touch point. As Stelle says, all of your internal marketing messages and materials should reinforce your mission, beliefs, and North Star.

Employees can easily advocate for your brand if they know what they’re advocating for and why.

5. Send regular employee surveys.

I’m a big fan of asking people what they want instead of trying to guess. I’m willing to bet big money that the companies who give their employees pizza parties instead of tangible benefits aren’t asking the right questions.

Send employee feedback surveys often and ask specific questions about your internal marketing activities. What do they like? What do they want to see more of? What isn’t resonating with them?

Then, use these insights to refine and improve your strategy.

Internal Marketing Examples

OK, onto the fun part. I’m giving you a peek behind the curtain at some of my favorite internal marketing plays as a HubSpotter.

The Culture Code

This one’s probably a given, but HubSpot’s Culture Code is SO good. It started out as an internal document and, in the true spirit of transparency, has been publicly available for years.

Our culture code has also been known to attract new employees, which feels like both an internal and external marketing win.

Product Learning Hours

Each month, our Product Marketing team hosts a “Product Learning Hour” which is a training session for the entire marketing team on the customers, products, and use cases for HubSpot’s customer platform.

From product demos to continued learning, these sessions ensure everyone is aligned on our messaging. This helps us do our jobs better as ‘external’ marketers.

Side note: I also co-led a learning and development program specifically for the HubSpot Blog team. We focused our curriculum on topics our peers were invested in the most, like technical SEO, networking, and time management.

Here’s one of the activities we did:

Just another example of internal marketing in action (and attempt #3 of me making the case to include internal marketing on my resume).

Peer Recognition Programs

I 🧡 my peers, so I’m always looking for opportunities to sing their praises.

At HubSpot, we have several options to provide peer feedback including the more formal submit-through-the-portal feedback loop that filters into performance reviews.

But one of my favorites is our weekly ‘Friday Props’ roundup on Slack.

Every Friday, folks across our media org have the option to tag someone they’re grateful for that week and share a word or two about what makes them special.

Here’s one someone left for me a while back:

“I’m giving my peer praise to Alana Chinn, one of the hardest-working and most versatile people on this team. If you’re on the Blog Team, you know how much of a force she is.”

BRB, crying.

Let Your Company Culture Sell Itself

Good internal marketing starts with an investment in your employees.

When you build a strategy that inspires brand advocacy at every level, you’ll be able to put some of the hard selling on autopilot while you focus on delighting your employees, prospects, and customers.

And then you, too, can add internal marketing to your resume.

As a seasoned content marketer, I can assure you that content marketing has vast benefits for any business. It is one of the most effective methods of growing audience engagement, developing brand presence, and driving sales.

If you‘re curious about content marketing and a little skeptical of its rewards, you’ve come to the right blog.

I’ll explain its importance and the kind of perks it can provide your business.

According to our 2024 State of Marketing Report, 50% of marketers set their sights on increasing their investment in content marketing this year.

Consistent, high-quality, and engaging content impacts audience decision-making more than any other technique.

Consistency in brand messaging is one of the many factors determining your business’s growth and success. Big brands know how to portray their brand consistently and at every customer touchpoint.

The same reasoning applies to content marketing—your content must have a unique and identifiable voice, style, and pitch across all distribution channels.

Content consistency establishes your credibility, builds trust, and strengthens your reputation.

We know the content you create has to be consistent. However, why is content marketing so beneficial? Here are the top benefits of content marketing.

Why Content Marketing Works

Content marketing works because humans are highly visual creatures.

I know you probably weren‘t expecting to get into science today, but I promise it connects to marketing. More than 50% of the human brain’s cortex is dedicated to visual processing.

Furthermore, research shows that 90% of the information humans notice and send to their brains is visual. Therefore, content marketing, such as videos, graphics, visual ads, and blog posts full of graphs and charts, will surely resonate with your target audience.

Moreover, we are firmly rooted in the social media age, where content is king and more and more consumers are discovering new brands and products via social media. Our recent social media study found that 40% of Gen Z, 40% of Gen X, and 43% of Millennials have discovered new products via social media in the last three months.

You can boost brand and product awareness by creating sharable, engaging content that thrives on social media.

Benefits of Content Marketing

1. Your audience will stick around longer.

Great content is an important asset.

It can create positive experiences for your potential customers and compel them to come back for more. It‘s your ticket to capturing your audience’s attention and continually reinforcing a positive brand impression.

For example, one of my favorite social media accounts to follow is Duolingo on TikTok. The language-teaching app is known for its unique, funny, and entertaining presence on the platform.

Duolingo always provides entertainment value, so I keep it at the top of my mind whenever I get the itch to learn a new language. Whether I break my streak because learning a new language is hard is a different story.

2. You’ll have better traction on social media.

Since I brought up social media, it‘s important to remember that it’s one thing to increase your social media followers across channels, but it’s quite another to create trendy content.

If you‘re one of those businesses that doesn’t see much traction despite having a huge following, it’s time to use content marketing to your advantage. Quality content can help your business gain traction on social media.

Track the performance of your content campaigns using HubSpot’s analytics software.

3. Your audience will trust you.

I’ve found that creating content helps businesses build relationships with their audience. Engaging content can answer customer questions and interact with customers.

When a business creates value without taking anything in return, its audience will likely trust its advice and recommendations.

Ultimately, when your content shows up at the right place and at the right time with the right audience, it‘ll improve your brand’s reputation.

The more quality content customers see, the more likely they are to associate with your company positively.

For example, I am obsessed with Fenty Beauty‘s social media content marketing strategy and how the brand places trust and audience interactions at the center of its content strategy.

Fenty’s Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube channels all focus heavily on providing tutorials and educational content about makeup, skincare, and their products.

The tutorials show viewers how the products work on different skin types and how to mix and match products to achieve different looks. Moreover, the brand is constantly responding to consumer comments on its platform.

These tutorials and genuine interactions build trust with its audience.

4. You’ll generate more and better leads.

I’ve found that Content marketing can also generate leads. When your audience views your content, they’re more likely to purchase from you in the future.

Additionally, calls-to-action (CTA) placed directly in your content can generate new leads for your sales team.

So, how can content generate leads?

According to Lindsay Kolowich, former team manager of the HubSpot Academy Acquisition Content Team, “Content is a great way to guide users to a landing page.

Typically, you create content to provide visitors with useful, free information. You can include CTAs anywhere in your content — inline, bottom-of-post, hero, or even side panel.

The more delighted visitors are with your content, the more likely they will click your call-to-action and move onto your landing page.”

For example, I’m helping a dance studio in my neighborhood by running its TikTok and posting dance content to drum up interest in the studio and attract new students.

I post videos of instructors doing gravity-defying stunts and explaining complex moves.

Each video ends with a call-to-action to sign up for classes via the studio’s web store.

The TikTok account still has a small following since it‘s new, but I’ve already seen new students register for the classes I’ve promoted. Many have told the instructors they learned about the classes via TikTok.

5. Original content can improve conversions.

A couple of examples I will bring up later will dive a bit deeper into this, but believe me when I say the content you post influences conversions.

It helps your audience connect with you and gives them the information needed to make educated purchases.

Even more, if you’re using blog content to bring in traffic, consider using original graphics rather than stock photos, as marketers report the former as least effective in helping them meet their goals.

Additionally, your content should always include a CTA and guide your readers on what they should do next.

6. Your business will become more visible thanks to SEO.

The more consistent, high-quality content you produce, the better it’ll be for your SEO efforts.

For example, I discovered the pole dance studio that sparked my dance journey via a blog post.

Again, I’ll dive much deeper into this example later, but to keep a long story short, the information I found on that blog helped me trust that studio, see it as an authority on dance, and convince me to register for classes.

Your content should help your business become visible online and build trust and authority with your audience.

7. Great content can position your company as an authority in your industry.

As I‘ve hinted, creating quality content will also help build your authority online. If your business is established as a credible place to get information, you’re more likely to rank higher in search engines.

Plus, your customers are more inclined to trust you if they view you as an industry expert. Your content should demonstrate your expertise in your field and provide valuable answers to your audience’s questions.

8. Quality content can build brand awareness.

Sure, anything can build brand awareness, but I’ve found that content marketing does it uniquely.

Our HubSpot marketing experts have written about something called the Surround Sound strategy.

In a nutshell, this content strategy does more than just rank your blog article on page one. It makes your content (and, therefore, your brand) appear everywhere your potential customers are looking for your product.

To execute this strategy, write about topics your customers are interested in so they begin to associate your great content with your brand.

9. You’ll cultivate loyal brand fans.

Taking brand awareness a step further, everyone who raved about your content and associated all those great feelings with your brand is likely to become a brand advocate before ever purchasing your product.

Wait, what?

I promise it’s true; brand fans can be just as loyal and influence their friends and family’s buying decisions as potential consumers see that a business provides value to its current audience. One of the more successful ways companies can do this is through content marketing.

For example, while I may not be in the market for children‘s meal plans because I don’t have children yet, I am obsessed with the Kids Eat In Color blog and Instagram content. I recommend it to my friends and family who have children with picky eating habits. See how well that can work?

10. You’ll save money on your marketing strategy.

Since HubSpot first assessed the cost of content marketing ten years ago, the practice has remained the most cost-effective marketing strategy available.

Upfront costs for content appear steep, and that’s a fair point.

Estimates for blog content range from $150 a post to $3,000 for a freelance writer, but you could hire a full-time staff writer to create content for you regularly.

In the long term, when compared to paid advertisements, video marketing, and traditional marketing, content wins the battle with Frank from finance every time.

11. You‘ll meet your audience at different stages of the buyer’s journey.

What I love most about content marketing is its ability to connect with consumers at any stage of their buyer’s journey. Remember, there are three stages:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Decision

I‘ll share my own consumer story as an example.

Years ago, I wanted to start a fitness journey but had difficulty maintaining a consistent gym routine. So, I took to Google to figure out why I couldn’t be consistent in the gym. At this point, I was aware of my buyer’s journey.

I know there‘s an issue (I can’t stick to my gym routine), and I want a solution. During this stage, I stumbled upon a blog by a local pole and aerial fitness studio that had a post called “5 reasons you’re not sticking to your fitness routine.”

I read the studio‘s post and learned that I likely didn’t stick to my routine because I found it boring and didn’t derive any joy from committing. So, I should look into alternative, more interesting exercises.

Now, I‘m in the consideration stage. I know why I can’t stick to the gym; it’s boring, and I must consider alternative exercises. So, I started researching alternative forms of fitness and what those types of exercises entail.

At some point, I stumbled upon the studio’s Instagram and found videos detailing their different alternative exercise classes, from pole dancing to aerial silks.

Even better, there were videos tailored to beginners, such as “What to wear to your first pole dance class” or “Debunking myths about aerial hoops.”

Finally, I decided pole dancing would be my best choice, which led to the decision stage. I’m compiling a list of pole dance studios near me to consider.

The initial studio I stumbled upon has been with me this entire journey, so naturally, I decided to enroll in its classes.

By utilizing content marketing, your business can be like my favorite pole studio and meet potential consumers at any stage of their journey.

12. Educate and empower your audience to make better buying decisions.

I‘ll be honest: The customer isn’t always right.

Sometimes, potential customers may make the wrong decision regarding a requested service or product or not understand a business’ method or protocol.

These misunderstandings can often cause friction between a business and its customers. Fortunately, content marketing helps level the playing field.

For example, one of my favorite creators on TikTok is Theresa Va Dam.

She‘s a hairstylist and salon owner who makes videos educating potential clients about hair health, salon dos and don’ts, and typical issues that can arise when styling hair.

The videos aim to promote her business, educate and empower potential clients to make the right decisions when booking hair appointments, trust her process, and ask the right questions about their service.

All this makes for a smoother interaction and a higher chance of the client returning.

Content creation is crucial in today‘s marketing landscape. I simply don’t believe a marketing strategy is complete or effective without incorporating engaging, shareable, and unique content.

Creating a content marketing strategy is one of your marketing team‘s most important steps. So, audit your current content (or start creating if you haven’t already) and determine what works for your business. And don’t be afraid to try something new.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

I love using videos for marketing — and today’s apps make producing video content easier than ever. Better yet, there’s a place for all types of video — highly-produced, live-streamed, and long- or short-form.

Whatever video production tips or techniques you use, your efforts can pay off in a big way. A whopping 88% of marketers share a positive ROI with video — a number that’s practically unheard of with just about any other medium.

I’m sharing some of the most effective video production tips below to help you dive into the world of video marketing.

Table of Contents

• Understanding the Different Types of Marketing Videos
• 16 Video Production Tips for Your Next Marketing Video

Understanding the Different Types of Marketing Videos

Before I go any further, I want to address the elephant in the room.

Video consumption has changed drastically over the last several years, as have consumer expectations of production quality and video format.

You can check out the latest stats on video marketing here.

Short-form videos have become increasingly popular with the rise of TikTok, Reels on Facebook and Instagram, and YouTube Shorts. These tend to be low on the production scale and create a more real-life effect.

Best of all? They can be edited quickly and easily with AI-enabled tools like Clip Creator.

That said, not all short-form videos are minimally edited. Commercials, B2B videos, and other types of short-form content (under 5 minutes) are often highly produced.

Long-form videos tend to go into more detail, sharing in-depth information, and these can be highly produced or minimally edited as well. What’s more, these longer videos can be cropped into short-form content that people are more likely to watch.

Live stream videos can be either short- or long-form, and depending on the platform, they can take a variety of different formats: stream-of-consciousness, ask-me-anything, or highly organized.

Live streams are my favorite because they help you get to know the person or people behind the brand and get a real sense of who they are and what they stand for.

Why does video type matter for video production?

When you know what type of video you’re going to create, it’s easier to identify which video production tips are most effective — and helpful — for your needs.

With that in mind, before you start planning your marketing video shoot, I recommend taking some time to identify the type of video you’re creating, where you’re going to publish it, and what your audience expects.

16 Video Production Tips for Your Next Marketing Video

Most smartphones and web cameras today make video production more accessible than ever — and 91% of businesses use video in their marketing.

This means that there’s room for all types of video content. And while big budgets still have a place in video marketing, it’s no longer a barrier to entry.

However, whether you’re going to a pro, handling your shoot in-house, or DIYing it, take note of these video production tips and identify which are most relevant to your needs. I’ve broken them out into tips and techniques for pre-production, production, and editing.

Video Pre-Production Tips

Be well-prepared and organized for your video shoots. If you show up to your shoot — wherever it is — unorganized and decide to “wing it,” your final product will look unprofessional and sloppy.

This is true even of live-streamed ask-me-anything videos. While you can often test ideas and play around, it’s best to — at a minimum — have a list of talking points so you don’t end up rambling.

By taking even a short time to prepare yourself, it’s easier to focus your efforts on directing your actors (or yourself) rather than figuring out last-minute logistics.

Time is of the essence, so don’t waste hours trying to figure out which angle you want or what line needs to be delivered next. Know exactly what you want before the day you film by following the steps below.

1. Be original.

The concept for your video project should be original and creative. Don’t take the easy route and copy someone else’s idea.

Instead, conduct persona and keyword research, find out which types of video content are popular and successful in your industry, and double-check to make sure another brand hasn’t covered the exact same angle already.

2. Plan it out.

While a plan is ideal for any type of video, it’s an absolute must for highly-produced brand videos. Write a script, draw out a storyboard, and create a shot list before you start filming.

Plan your B-roll shots, so you have extra footage when it comes time for editing (more on that below). If you think writing a video script is the same as writing a blog post — think again. Check out our advice here.

But, if you find yourself stressed out with the idea of creating a script, AI is making it easier than ever. I’ve used ChatGPT often to create video scripts for Facebook ads, podcast episodes, and, yes, even my live-streamed videos.

3. Be selective when choosing video subjects.

Bringing others into your video?

If you’re bringing in talent, set high standards when casting actors for your projects. Pick someone who can deliver dialogue naturally, who can memorize lines, and who isn’t stiff in front of the camera. If possible, plan time for a few run-throughs to work out any mispronunciations or giggles.

If you’re inviting people on your team or other colleagues, make sure they understand your goals and know what you expect from them. That might mean sharing talking points, sample questions, or a script to help them prepare.

Then again, if you’re shooting a video with clients or customer success stories, spend plenty of time in advance prepping them so you can get the most out of your time with them.

4. Carefully consider the set.

The post-pandemic years have dramatically changed people’s expectations of what’s professional and what constitutes a believable set.

That was even changing pre-pandemic — remember the BBC anchor whose daughter sauntered in during an interview circa 2017?

That only became more commonplace in recent years — and with TikTok, any location can now be your stage.

That said, regardless of what type of video you’re shooting (unless it’s satire), don’t try to fool your audience by “set dressing” your office to simulate another location. Choose your location and own it.

Want to show up in different places? Make sure you do that. Shoot your video projects in locations other than your office — in front of textured and interesting backdrops, but ones that also aren’t too busy.

Video Production Tips

You can always touch up your footage when you edit afterward, but remember that editing takes time.

If you can make everything look as close to perfect as possible during filming, you’ll save yourself a lot of valuable time in post-production.

If you shoot a scene and it doesn’t come out great, learn from what went wrong the first time and shoot it again. Below lays out how to do it.

5. Be cognizant of sound quality.

Don’t come off as an amateur with poor sound recording quality. Use lapel or lavaliere microphones — both of which are hands-free — when shooting sit-down interviews, or use microphone and boom setups for bigger shots.

Using your webcam? Some have built-in noise-canceling features, but I’ve found that external podcast microphones like the Blue Yeti (my personal favorite) capture the best possible sound quality.

If you’re filming a video with a smartphone, you can purchase microphones that fit into the phone’s headphone input to quickly and easily improve sound quality.

6. Set up lights.

You don’t want your footage to be under or over-exposed, so set up lights and eliminate any unwanted shadows. I’ve found ring lights to be fantastic options — just be mindful of the reflection in your glasses.

In a perfect world, a three-point lighting setup is best to illuminate video subjects from a variety of angles. Check out this video for a DIY guide to lighting:

7. Use a tripod.

Use a tripod to keep your video stable — and not wobbly, as it most certainly will be if you hold it yourself. Get a standing tripod or a tabletop tripod for tighter shots to keep your video looking professional.

8. Focus.

Make sure the camera is in focus — and then lock the exposure so it stays in focus.

Most smartphones and modern webcams do this automatically, but it’s worth your time to make sure your video quality is up to snuff. Be mindful of keeping shots white balanced to keep lighting neutral and even, too.

9. Obey the rule of thirds.

The rule of thirds involves splitting up your shot into thirds, horizontally and vertically, and framing your subject off-center. It creates movement and life in your shot the way a straight-on, centered shot won’t.

Here’s an example — try to film individuals in one of the side panels of the divided frame, like so:

Video Editing Tips

Make sure your content is remarkable and tailored to your target audience. Edit your video so that it gets to the point and doesn’t drag on.

Remember, you don‘t have long to capture (and hold) your viewer’s attention, so make sure that the beginning of your video is engaging, informative, and relevant to the viewer and that she’ll clearly understand the message.

What does that look like in action?

For example, if you’re using a platform like YouTube, you’ll want an eye-catching intro screen that draws your audience in.

Relying on the video content? Choose an interesting hook to kick things off, and then dive into your video content.

10. Align the flow of the video with the emotional response you want to evoke in viewers.

The tone, structure, and pacing of your video have a major influence on its effectiveness and the emotional impact on your audience.

Tell a compelling story — build tension and drama by arranging shots according to your storyboard and script.

However, I’d caution you to remember that, like all marketing, your video content isn’t about you or what’s interesting to you. It’s about what’s interesting, thought-provoking, or engaging for your audience.

Focus on their needs and expectations first.

11. Leverage B-roll.

Cover up your cuts with B-roll footage that complements the narration. You can find B-roll and other stock footage on sites like Vizeedy if you didn‘t film it yourself.

It’s best to keep your shots all in the same setting to maintain the video’s consistency. I recommend taking the extra time to go back and film more B-roll if you need it.

12. Use background soundtracks.

Light background music can cover any ambient sound and provide tone and emotion to your video that words and images otherwise can‘t.

You can find royalty-free stock soundtracks that you’re allowed to use on sites like AudioMicro — make sure you’re not using songs that are licensed, or else it could result in your video getting taken down.

13. Optimize video text.

Keep the style of your text and titles simple, classy, and sharp.

Choose a clear and bold font, keep words on your video screen to a minimum, and use text animations to keep the viewer engaged with new additions to the video they watch.

14. Remember to use transcripts and captions.

Where captions are helpful during the video, transcripts are highly beneficial for long-form videos like workshops and lectures. They’re closely related and should be considered for a number of reasons:

1. Accessibility. If your audience has an audio impairment, including transcripts and captions helps them experience your content. It can also help people who speak a different language consume or translate your message.
2. Convenience. If you’re trying to get people to slow their scroll on social media, whether at work or in situations where they don’t want the volume on, including captions makes it easier for them to understand you.
3. SEO. Including transcripts and captions can improve your SEO performance.

Scripted videos are easy — your transcript is baked into the video production process.

Don’t have a scripted video? The good news is that with AI, most cloud-based video production services automatically transcribe your content.

If not, it’s quite easy to plug your marketing video into an online tool and produce a transcript. Even if it’s not perfect, it gives you something to edit.

Pro tip: Particularly for videos with lower production value, I love using transcripts as editing tools. I’ve tested CapCut, Loom, and HubSpot’s Clip Creator, which make video editing a breeze with AI.

Editing videos is now as easy as highlighting the transcript you want to crop out and clicking delete. Obviously, this isn’t the best solution for high-production-value videos, but it’s great for the more casual videos that are popular.

15. Don’t stress about going viral.

Sure, viral means more eyes on your video. However, just because a video goes viral doesn’t necessarily translate into huge sales. Focus on creating content that resonates with your audience first.

16. Optimize your video for the platform.

Be mindful of where your video will exist while you’re editing.

Is it for your website, YouTube, or Facebook?

Each platform has different specifications — for example, on Facebook, where 85% of viewers watch videos without the volume turned on, you‘ll want to use captions, so people can follow along without the sound.

YouTube videos don’t count views until someone watches for 30 seconds or more, so make sure the first 30 seconds are as interesting and eye-catching as possible.

Ready on the set?

Now that you’ve got all these video production techniques at your disposal, it’s time to put them to use.

Whether you’re creating high-production content or a more casual short-form or live stream video, a little preparation goes a long way when it comes to creating effective marketing videos.

Now it’s your chance to dive in!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2011 and has been updated and for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

“Just GPT it” is all the rage right now.

(Okay, okay. It hasn’t caught on just yet. But my Uber driver said it, and I hope it sticks.) 

But our marketing leader this week isn’t sweating it. She doesn’t think SEO is going anywhere.

“I remember when people were saying up to 50% of queries were going to be handled by voice assistants. The SEO industry was in a tizzy over it,” she told me with a laugh. 

“And the only thing I ask my Alexa for is the weather. So I wouldn’t write [Google] off.”

She’s also HubSpot’s senior director of global growth, so I’ll take her word over my Uber driver’s . 

Lesson 1: Go non-monogamous with Google. 

The HubSpot Blog team has been running on Google fumes for years, and we’ve racked up millions of views in organic traffic based on high-intent searches. It’s also how we attracted many of our current customers.

Aja Frost, who started on the Blog team in 2017 (back when “SEO strategy” was based on our own personal whims that day), knows Google’s value better than anyone. 

But she tells me it’s time for a new playbook. 

“The encroachment of AI search has required us to lean into other channels like YouTube, micro-apps, and areas we see as more defensible against AI. And it’s pushed us to figure out new ways to be ultra-helpful to our reader,” she says.

Frost’s tip for any marketing leader? Spread the love. Test out Substack, team up with creators, or invest in your own micro-apps.

Google is still a viable channel. It’s just not the only one. 

Lesson 2: The days of reverse-engineering algorithms are over — and that’s a good thing.

I asked Frost — in the same tone of voice you’d use to avoid scaring the neighborhood cat — if she’s concerned about the future of SEO in the midst of AI search. (I asked timidly because, you know… SEO is still her job.) 

But she adamantly shook her head. “I think it’s one of the most exciting developments over the last two years. For so long, we have all just oriented toward Google, and reverse-engineering the Google algorithm has, in many ways, stifled innovation in content marketing and SEO.”

She adds, “If there is a more competitive landscape, then the relationship between SEO or content strategist and search engine could change pretty dramatically. It could be a much more collaborative, mutually beneficial relationship.”

Frost sees the future of SEO as a shift from obsessing over algorithms to building real partnerships with search engines. 

Is there a world where Google takes input from little old me, a content creator? We’ll see. 

Lesson 3: Stop writing off marketing channels as “dead.” 

One of Frost’s pet peeves is knee-jerk reactions to industry hype. 

“What bugs me is when people say any channel is dead, and this applies to search, too,” she says. 

“I definitely don’t think search is dead. I don’t think podcasts are dead. I don’t think any channels are dead. I think you can make any channel work really well for you.”

I’m seriously hoping MySpace is “no longer with us”, but I concede her point. 

She adds, “That doesn’t mean we should all go out and invest in channels that aren’t working for us — but it does mean don’t write something off if your intuition says it could work.”

Lesson 4: Focus on expertise. 

Questions like “How do I do XYZ?” get funneled straight to ChatGPT these days. So if your SEO strategy revolves around basic definitions or info keywords, brace yourself for a traffic drop.

But when it comes to complex or opinion-based topics, readers still want the human touch.

Case in point: my recent obsession with LED red light therapy. 

Those at-home LED masks cost about a bajillion dollars, so I wanted to know: Will I look like a newborn baby if I purchase the mask, or will I be shining a bright red light in my face for 10 minutes while the company’s CEO laughs all the way to the bank?

I didn’t turn to GPT for my skin aging concerns; I turned to Google, and asked, “What do dermatologists say about LED red light therapy?”

This isn’t supposed to be an infomercial for red light therapy (although any brands looking to give one away, hit me up ✋), but the point holds: People still turn to websites for answers to more complex, nuanced questions. Not AI. 

Frost is all-in on adding expertise (the extra “E” in Google’s new E-E-A-T rankings) to your posts. 

As she puts it, “You’re talking to me because I have a ton of experience in SEO. This content wouldn’t pack the same punch if you were chatting with someone who just joined the SEO team. In general, the more expertise the better.”

She has some additional advice, as well: “Make sure you really outline that expertise in the post itself with relevant information and examples. Highlight to Google — and more importantly, the reader — that you know what you’re talking about.”