Inbound Marketing Feed

Social Platforms Explore Age Verification Options to Comply With Teen Access Regulations

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 04:49:17 +0300

Could we be entering a new stage of biometric tracking?

Meta Announces Oakley-Branded AI Glasses Aimed at Athletes

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 03:58:56 +0300

Meta's latest AI glasses come in a different style, and include a few technical tweaks.

YouTube Announces Expanded Access to Generative AI Creative Tools

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 03:27:59 +0300

YouTube's shared a range of data notes to celebrate its 20 birthday.

The HubSpot Blog’s AI Trends for Marketers Report [key findings from 1,000+ marketing pros]

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

With 66% of marketers globally using artificial intelligence in their roles, it's no longer a matter of if you should use AI but how. How are other marketers (and your competition) using AI? How can you use AI ethically?

To understand AI in marketing in 2025, we surveyed over 1,000 marketing and advertising professionals worldwide.

Our findings will help us decipher AI trends, find the current most common use cases for AI, and learn how to navigate the technology as new laws and guardrails address its usage.

Table of Contents

Key Findings: The Current State of AI
Now that AI is the norm, are there regulations on the use of AI in marketing?
General Attitudes Towards AI
How Marketers Are Using AI at Work
The Future of AI for Marketers

Key Findings: The Current State of AI

1. AI is no longer an experiment — it's integral to marketing workflows.

When AI first began gaining traction, we often encouraged marketers to experiment with AI and see if/how they can adopt it into their workflow.

Well, the days of just experimentation are over, and while the robots aren't taking our jobs, they are now embedded in our workflows.

Here are the facts:

91% of marketing leaders say employees/teams at their organization use AI to assist them in their jobs.
82% of marketers say either they or their company invested in automation tools for employees to leverage in their roles.
66% report that their organization builds internal AI tools specifically for marketing teams.

As you can see from these stats, marketers have fully embraced AI as an assistive tool. So, if you're still not embracing AI within your organization, best believe your competition likely is.

2. Though AI has become commonplace in marketing, barriers still keep more marketers from adopting new AI tools.

While AI has become crucial and normalized in marketing, many marketers are still hesitant to integrate new AI tools into their workflows. Here are the Top 3 concerns I've pulled from our survey:

Data Privacy — The majority of marketers in our survey (42%) say data privacy concerns have prevented their team from adopting new AI tools in the past year.
Training and Time Investment — 39% of marketers said investing in time and training on new AI tools created a barrier against adopting them.
Too Many Similar Tools — 35% of marketers say there are too many AI tools that all do the same thing but don't connect to one another, creating more complications when adopting new ones into their workflow.

3. AI is not taking our jobs.

While I understand marketers worry about their job security in the age of AI, our latest data shows that 65% of marketers champion using AI as an assistive tool while encouraging others not to become overly reliant on it. Why? Because AI is evolving, but it isn’t perfect.

AI-related challenges, like inconsistencies and bias, still exist today.

We haven’t lost the power of the human touch.

Right now, most industry professionals are using AI to support job functions, not replace them entirely. So, you can go ahead and exhale.

Now that AI is the norm, are there regulations on the use of AI in marketing?

In the United States? No. Currently, no comprehensive federal legislation or regulations address the use or development of AI in the U.S.; however, other countries and regions have restrictions and stipulations.

For example, the European Union passed the AI Act, which enforces strict rules on AI transparency, bias, and high-risk applications, such as algorithms. In China, companies must register AI models with the government.

For multinational companies, these regulations mean that AI marketing practices that work in the U.S. could be banned in other regions, thus locking them out of major global markets.

So, if you‘re a strictly U.S.-based company, you don’t have much to worry about, right? Not exactly. While there aren't any set AI laws to adhere to, many consumers are divided in their feelings toward how companies use AI.

For instance, Coca-Cola faced harsh backlash from consumers who called the company's AI Christmas 2024 ad a “creepy dystopian nightmare.”

Audiences were turned off by the ad's choppy appearance and criticized the ethics (or lack thereof) of using AI instead of working solely with artists and animators.

Consumers also worry about how personal data is used in AI training and the chances of a data breach that jeopardizes their privacy.

So, how can marketers address these concerns? The key is to be transparent. Let your consumers know if and how AI is being used in your marketing strategy, whether it's in content creation, data gathering, or communication.

For example, many media outlets include a note at the start or end of their blog posts clarifying that the post was created entirely or with the help of AI.

General Attitudes Towards AI

The Marketer’s Perspective

I mentioned earlier that most marketing pros believe in AI's benefits but don’t want to rely on it 100%.

They believe AI supports two core personal areas: time and productivity.

We found that 79% of marketers agree that AI and automation tools can help them spend less time on manual tasks, and 73% agree that they can spend more time on the most important parts of their role.

66% of marketers say AI and automation tools can help them spend more time on the creative aspects of their jobs.

You know what that means? Less busy work and more time for big thinking. I’d consider that a win.

And if you want to see for yourself how AI can boost productivity and save time, experiment with tools like Breeze Copilot, which uses generative AI and CRM data to elevate work and execute tasks quickly.

The Organizational Perspective

At the organizational level, 50% of marketing leaders say their organization at least somewhat supports marketers using AI in their roles, 30% say their organization does not encourage the use of AI, and the remaining 20% say their company has no specific policy regarding AI.

Meanwhile, 75% of leaders whose organizations have invested in AI say that the investment has yielded a positive ROI. Only 4% say the investment returned a negative ROI and roughly 20% report neither a positive nor a negative ROI.

In addition to productivity, marketing leaders believe AI has had the most impact on making employees more effective at their jobs and helping them make data-driven decisions.

How Marketers Are Using AI at Work

As I said at the beginning, most marketing professionals in our survey report using AI in their current role. Let’s see what they’re using and where they’re seeing the most ROI.

Most Popular AI Tools for Marketers

Image and design generators like DALL-E and Synthesia are the top choice for 40% of marketers. Chatbot tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Copilot are second, with 39% of marketers using them.

Finally, in third place are SmartAI video or audio editing AI tools, such as ones with automatic editing features or AI light, noise, voice, and/or color correction.

ROI of AI-Powered Marketing Channels

As a blogger, it surprised me that email was the #1 channel that marketers are using AI to create for. But as a blogger, I’m also probably biased.

The majority (50.77%) use AI for email marketing and other newsletter platforms. This percentage is just a hair above the 50% who use AI text-based social media.

In third place, 47% of marketers use AI to create blog posts, articles, and other long-form content.

For all of these channels, they’re seeing a worthwhile ROI:

Email: 63% are seeing at least a somewhat positive ROI.
Social Media: 67% are seeing at least a somewhat positive ROI.
Blog/Long-Form: 68% are seeing at least a somewhat positive ROI.

Generative AI and Marketing

Content Creation

The most common task that marketers are using generative AI for is text-based content creation (52%), such as blogs, eBooks, and marketing email copy. For marketers who use GenAI to create content, here’s what they’re doing with it:

53% are using it for content quality assurance, such as spellcheck, accessibility review, or writing recommendations.
50% are writing copy for marketing content like blogs and emails.
48% creating images for marketing content with AI art tools.

However, AI isn’t the full answer to content creation. Only 4% of marketers are using AI to write entire pieces of content for them. The vast majority are using it for inspiration or to give them an outline and a few paragraphs to build on.

And 46% are only somewhat confident that they would know if the information GenAI produces is inaccurate.

Additional GenAI Use Cases

48% of marketers use generative AI to conduct various research, such as market research, finding datasets, and summarizing articles.

Automating direct brand messaging or conversational marketing. (DMs, conversational emails, SMS)

GenAI is also useful for branded communication, with 41% of marketers using it to automate direct brand messaging and conversational marketing.

For all of these use cases, the majority of marketing professionals say AI is very effective, and they’re saving an average of one to two hours in their work day as a result.

The Future of AI for Marketers

We don’t have a crystal ball, but we do have the top AI predictions from over a thousand marketing professionals.

Here’s what marketers are saying about the future of AI:

65% of marketing leaders say their team plans to increase their investment in AI and automation tools over the course of 2025.
65% of marketing directors believe that most software they use will have AI or automation capabilities built in by 2030.
67% of marketers agree that by 2030, most people will use a generative AI tool like ChatGPT to assist them in their jobs.
67% of marketers believe that AI will significantly impact how they (and other marketers) do their jobs in 2025.

As the AI landscape changes, we’ll keep tabs on how it evolves and how it’s being used in the workplace.

Keep an eye out for more insights that will allow you to use AI to unleash your human potential — and leave the busy work to the robots.

AI can boost conversions from your web page — HubSpot’s CMO shows you how [tutorial]

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

Look, we‘ve all been there — you know your website could be converting better, but figuring out exactly what to fix feels like solving a Rubik’s cube blindfolded. You‘re running A/B tests, analyzing heat maps, and guessing at what’s actually going to move the needle.

Well, AI just unlocked the process and can become your team’s new superpower. LLMs with browsing capabilities, like OpenAI’s Operator, can analyze your website performance and give you actionable insights to optimize your online presence. It’s fast, easy, and will completely transform your marketing efforts.

This killer technique lets you gather data, test user experiences, and increase conversion rates. All of that means more revenue faster. Here’s how it works, all in a fraction of the time.

My Three-Step Guide to Website Analysis

If you’re a marketer or business owner, you’re always looking for ways to get better conversion rates from your website. Normally, that means you have to:

Comb through data.
Do user research.
Hold focus groups.

The problem? That all takes time. Long processes mean lost revenue while you scramble to understand what the data shows. That’s where AI comes in. With an AI agent working in the background to analyze your website, you can get actionable results in just a few minutes.

While you can use Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen 2.5, I’ll be working through this process with OpenAI’s Operator. This agent is only available in ChatGPT Pro, which costs $200 a month. In my experience, this pricetag pays returns and comes with access to advanced models, including the o1-pro reasoning model, which I use below.

Now, let’s get started.

1. Have AI write the prompt for you.

When working with AI, the right prompt is a game-changer. Instead of wasting time toying with wording, I have AI write my prompt for me. Here’s the prompt I recommend sending to ChatGPT o1-pro:

Can you write me a prompt for Operator to browse this page? [Add your URL.] I would like Operator to browse this page deeply, provide feedback, and share opportunities to improve the conversion rate of this page. I need this to work with all data and provide feedback as that professional.

The result is an in-depth persona for my AI agent. That includes the task I want it to do, what parts of the page it should analyze, like visual elements and trust signals. The prompt also describes that I want a detailed report with actionable suggestions as the output.

The model takes time to think, providing better responses than faster, more transactional models. That’s a huge strength.

o1-pro generated a prompt way better than I could write myself. Investing in a foundational prompt can save you time down the line. So, when I need a high-quality prompt that I can reuse, I use o1-pro to get the job done. That’s perfect when it comes to testing website pages. I can easily make tweaks for different portions of my site.

2. Paste the prompt into Operator to analyze.

Next, I feed my prompt to Operator and wait while it analyzes my webpage.

Operator has its own browser that you can jump into and control alongside the AI. So if you need to log into your site or test personalized views, you can take over and do that work together with your agent. Plus, when Operator finishes analyzing your page, there's a share button that gives you the entire video recording of the session.

When I tested this on our CRM landing page, I only had to wait 38 seconds. That‘s it. In less than a minute, I got a detailed analysis that included clear strengths and specific areas for improvement. Operator called out that our CTAs weren’t clear enough and our messaging hierarchy was confusing.

This is the kind of speed and clarity that completely changes how you approach conversion optimization. Now, I can get clear, actionable feedback in seconds.

3. Ask how to implement the feedback.

After Operator runs the analysis, I take the output and bring it back to ChatGPT. There, I can copy and paste the feedback Operator gave me back into o1-pro with the following prompt:

I got the following from Operator. Can you please read through and give me detailed options for its suggestions?

Here's where it gets really good. The model thought for 4 minutes and came back with actual next steps, not just high-level observations.

Take the CTA issue Operator identified. o1-pro gave me the exact skills I'd need to fix the problems, like coding languages and copywriting chops. ChatGPT recommended I change the text to “Get a free CRM — no credit card required” and then explained exactly why this would work. The new copy reduces friction and hesitation by addressing a big objection upfront.

Then, o1-pro gave me multiple implementation options. I could create a button with inline copy or a button with a sub-label. Below that, there’s HTML and CSS code I could copy and paste directly onto my site.

I went from “I think our CTA could be better” to having production-ready code in under 5 minutes. That's the kind of speed that transforms how you do marketing.

Pro Tips That Can Help You Level Up Your Website

If you really want to get the most out of your AI website analysis, these pointers will take your results to the next level.

Be patient.

Keep in mind that o1-pro, like other advanced reasoning models, works slowly. It may take a few minutes to finish analyzing your webpages and provide feedback. But it’s much faster than any human, and produces much higher quality results than you’d get from faster AI models.

Once you have your prompt, you can speed up the process by reusing the same prompt for each page you want to analyze. You can even analyze multiple pages at once in different tabs.

Learn from the AI prompt.

When you ask ChatGPT to write your prompt for you, don’t just copy and paste it. Read through the output. Pay attention to how it’s worded and what type of data it asks for. You’ll get a better understanding of how to write your own prompts in the future, and you’ll know exactly what kind of feedback you can expect to receive.

Include your raw data.

If you want to get better, more detailed feedback on how to optimize your website, include your site’s raw performance data alongside the page URL. This will enable the tool to analyze not just the qualitative browsing experience, but also your page’s specific performance history. You can then get even more accurate advice on improving that performance.

Analyze Your Site Like a $10K Consultant

Above, I focused on analyzing a product page. But remember, this process scales. You can modify your base prompt to unlock all types of insights. That includes:

Strengths and weaknesses on your own website. Get feedback on how your pages are performing and how you can improve them.
Other websites you think are doing a great job. Get an analysis of why those sites perform well and how you can implement those strategies.
A YouTube channel or video page. Get feedback on video transcripts and descriptions, as well as the overall browsing experience.
Software pages. Get an analysis of the actual downloading, installation, and setup experience.

To learn more about using AI to enhance your web pages and drive more conversions, check out the full episode of Marketing Against the Grain below:

The state of inclusive marketing in 2025 [new data + expert insight]

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

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

The Unstereotype Alliance studied 300+ global brands and found that those who create inclusive advertisements brought in 5% higher short-term sales and 16% higher long-term sales, as well as a 62% higher likelihood of a brand being a customer's first choice.

The study results tell me that inclusive marketing resonates with consumers. It shows them that marketers understand their needs, how to meet them and care about their experiences. It's also clearly good for business.

Despite this, inclusive marketing isn't a commonplace practice. So, for this piece, I surveyed 100+ marketing and advertising professionals about whether they practice inclusive marketing and how they implement it and got tips from inclusivity experts on how businesses can create an effective inclusive marketing strategy.

Table of Contents

State of Inclusive Marketing in 2025
Goals, Benefits, & Impact of Inclusive Marketing
How Companies Are Practicing Inclusive Marketing
Challenges and Barriers of Inclusive Marketing
Inclusive Marketing Best Practices [Expert Tips]
The Future of Inclusive Marketing

What inspired me to conduct this research?

Inclusive marketing recognizes consumers' different identities (like race or disability status) and lived experiences and serves and represents those differences in marketing content.

I think it's important because of the goal of marketing: attract an audience to what you offer and convince them to make a purchase. You want people of different backgrounds to come across your content and say, "This brand sees me for who I am, and I understand how it will meet my specific needs." If people can't find that connection, they'll move to a brand that does.

Consumers themselves say this: diversity and inclusion (or lack of it) influence their purchasing decisions.

Demand is clearly there, but as I mentioned above, not all brands are making space for inclusivity in their marketing strategies, and I wanted to know why. I was also curious how those investing in it are practicing it to get a sense of where there might be space for improvement.

So, I surveyed marketers, asked them exactly that, and compiled the results into this inclusive marketing report.

My colleague Jeanie Thompson, associate marketing manager, had conversations with two inclusive marketing experts, Danisha Lomax, executive VP of client inclusivity & impact at Digitas, and Nandi Howard, associate marketing manager (brand equity) at Ulta Beauty, to get their takes on the survey results and advice on how brands can implement inclusive marketing meaningfully and intentionally.

State of Inclusive Marketing in 2025

I’ll start by exploring the current state of inclusive marketing, including how businesses practice it and find success.

63% of marketers told me their primary place of employment invests in inclusive marketing. 37% say there isn’t investment or they’re unsure if there is.

I was curious about the extent to which inclusivity is embedded into the strategies of those who use it, and a majority said that there are “some” inclusive elements. Just 42% say inclusivity is central to their marketing and communications.

To dive deeper into current inclusive marketing trends, I recommend reading this piece by Sonia Thompson, an inclusive marketing expert, strategist, and consultant.

How do marketers feel about inclusive marketing?

Regardless of company stance, marketers as individuals overwhelmingly find inclusive marketing to be essential:

8 in 10 agree that it’s important for diverse communities to be visible in advertisements,
More than two-thirds think more positively of and are more likely to purchase from companies that include underrepresented groups in their marketing.

For every marketer who thinks current diversity efforts are adequate, ten believe the advertising/marketing industry can still do more to support diverse and underrepresented communities.

I think this belief among marketers is important: even if there isn’t full buy-in where they work, there are still people in the room who can speak up about its importance.

Goals, Benefits, & Impact of Inclusive Marketing

Marketers whose companies invest in inclusive marketing say their top goal is appealing to a broader audience/expanding their audience. They also want to create content that existing audience groups resonate with, which makes sense: you want your audience satisfied, and they’re more likely to be satisfied by relatable content.

When it comes to who benefits from inclusive marketing, respondents say that everyone, not just companies that practice it or consumers within underrepresented groups, benefits. Only 6% think that inclusive marketing only benefits the select group of people it’s for.

I asked respondents to give examples of how their companies have benefited from inclusive marketing, and picked some of the most common themes:

Increased customer loyalty because consumers build connections with brands that value them: “We have seen higher retention in new customer base and an increase in positive feedback from sales reps that deal directly with consumers.
Increased revenue because inclusive marketing speaks to a broader audience segment: “[Inclusive marketing] allows us to get more sales from everyone because more people feel like our brand reaches them too.”
Consumers nowadays value inclusivity more than ever, so brands that do it authentically benefit from “enhanced image and reputation.”
Consumers are more likely to interact with content and brands they connect with, which brings “increased customer involvement.”

Are marketers finding success with inclusive marketing?

Despite high investments, most respondents describe their inclusive marketing efforts as somewhat successful (61%).

As I mentioned above, my teammate Jeanie Thompson spoke to two inclusive marketing experts (Danisha Lomax and Nandi Howard) to get their thoughts on the data.

She asked Lomax what might distinguish brands that succeed with inclusive marketing from those that don’t. She theorizes that it’s because they’re using the same metrics to grade inclusive vs. non-inclusive efforts, when the measurement process should be different: “What makes a campaign successful is hearing back from the community; hearing them say, ‘Yes, you did this right,’... or ‘I love the way you told a super intersectional story that more people need to see,’ so I think those things — the intangibles — are and should be part of the success.”

This makes sense to me: she’s not saying that KPIs like CTR and sales don’t matter, just that other factors might give a more comprehensive picture of how your inclusive campaigns make your diverse audience groups feel.

“Brands will always want to see moving products and sales — that’s what we are trained to do. So, I think we need to start thinking about the kind of intangibles around doing inclusive marketing and how that future-proofs a brand to be remembered, to be in the psyche of people,” Lomax adds.

Does inclusive marketing impact business success?

I’m not surprised that most respondents say inclusive marketing only has a medium impact on overall business success.

I dive deeper into strategy later on, but most companies invest in inclusivity in a piecemeal fashion (like one-time cultural awareness campaigns), which are less likely to draw in the numbers that regular campaigns get. Basically, fewer inclusive marketing campaigns, less impact on business success.

Howard says the brands that get a positive business impact are consistent: “It’s the brands that show they’re inclusive year-round versus during a key DE&I movement. When you see brands that weave inclusivity into the DNA of everything they do, it will always show up more authentically.”

How Companies Are Practicing Inclusive Marketing

Now we know that companies are investing in inclusive marketing, but how exactly is it implemented?

Primarily visually, through inclusive images that portray multicultural representation. This is followed by accessible web design (like alt text for images), inclusive language, and awareness month campaigns (like Black History Month).

Incorporating inclusivity in a fragmented fashion (using inclusive imagery vs. an overall inclusive strategy) and focusing on calendar-based events tells me that businesses primarily hit surface-level representation over an always-on strategy.

The implementation pattern is what Lomax calls a “checkbox approach” to inclusivity: “Image diversity is great, but I often see that it’s used in a bit of a checkbox way so people won’t get called out. But what is the storytelling that surrounds the imagery? I think that’s where brands need to be looking…How can I tell a story that includes [diverse groups] but also includes me as a brand solving a problem that they have a need for.”

I think the disconnect is that businesses might not know how inclusivity fits into general marketing campaigns. Here’s what I mean: it’s easy to understand what is involved in a Pride Month campaign. The imagery and messaging to use are pretty clear. However, if you’re used to marketing for cultural moments like that, I can see why it would be hard to figure out how your typical approach to inclusive marketing applies to every campaign you run.

Language inclusivity being less common tells me that messaging might not always align with the visuals marketers create. Take KFC, for example. In 2023, it ran a campaign that played off of its “Finger lickin’ good” slogan (pictured below).

Source

“Sorry utensils, it’s finger lickin’ good” is a perfectly mundane copywriting, but the campaign drew near immediate backlash online because of the imagery. Billboards featured Black people eating KFC, but in a way that (likely unintentionally, but intent still matters) played into a racist stereotype that dates back to the early 1900s about Black people loving fried chicken.

The stereotype was often featured in caricatured advertisements (one is pictured below) and minstrel shows, where White actors would paint their faces Black and exaggeratedly eat fried chicken to push the idea that Black people were uncivilized.

Source

In KFC’s case, imagery didn’t align with messaging, which was simply that KFC is so good that people can’t help but lick their fingers after it’s gone, not a reinforcement of the stereotype.

Challenges and Barriers of Inclusive Marketing

Marketers whose primary place of employment doesn’t practice inclusive marketing are unsure what’s stopping them from implementing it. A limited budget is the #2 reason for not investing, followed by a lack of knowledge/expertise about implementing it.

Regarding budget constraints, Howard says there’s another side to that coin: inclusive marketing brings in money. She says, “DE&I will always drive dollars…the more diverse your marketing is to different demographics, the higher the chance you’re going to bring in more money.” Why? You’re appealing to multiple demographics.

Challenges at Companies That Invest

Marketers working at companies that invest in inclusive marketing say budget limitations are the number one challenge. 33% struggle to ensure content appears in brand-safe environments, and 28% worry about resistance and blowback from customers and the general public.

Lomax says that she’s dealt with budget constraints, but it shouldn’t be a bookend to practicing inclusive marketing or not: “Budget pulls and cuts happen all the time in our industry…While you may have to pull budget back to ensure that you’re meeting your sales goals numbers, it doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to pull budget back from those particular campaigns and communities. I would challenge brands to think about other long-term ways to preserve those marketing dollars.”

An example that comes to mind for preserving marketing dollars is a simple change of focus with influencer marketing. If your budget is lacking but you already invest in influencers, update your strategy to ensure you team up with influencers from various communities. They’ll share content with their followers (who likely share the same interests and experiences), exposing them to your brand and vouching for your offer as something that serves people like them.

If you’re worried about blowback or resistance, Lomax also has some thoughts (and a CTA): “I think [fear of backlash] is a bit of a cop-out. I think what people are saying these days, directly to brands, is that they want to know where [brands] sit in the inclusive space. I think if people are asking for that, then it is on the brand to show and tell.”

“There are so many experts…so many communities who are saying ‘This is what we want in order to spend our dollars with you,’ and so I think that if brands are letting fear get in the way…that is a little lazy,” she adds.

Inclusive Marketing Best Practices [Expert Tips]

So far, we’ve learned that brands recognize the importance of inclusivity in marketing. Still, it’s adopted in fragmented ways with more visual representation instead of full-on inclusivity in every aspect of marketing.

Marketers, even those whose primary place of employment doesn’t practice inclusive marketing, agree that businesses can do more to support diverse/underrepresented communities in their marketing and advertising.

That said, how can companies do that? Let’s dive into what Howard and Lomax recommend.

1. Leverage insights into your community.

“I think people sometimes give themselves more credit in knowing [a] certain community and don’t realize how often they’re leaning on biases or stereotypes when trying to market to diverse demographics,” says Howard.

Social media image sizes (2025 update) for every platform

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

When clients first started asking me to handle their social media, I figured the image part would be easy. Create one clean graphic, upload it across platforms, and the tools would adjust everything automatically.

Boy, was I wrong.

Between cropped headers, stretched thumbnails, and text that disappeared on mobile, it didn’t take long to realize that each platform plays by its own rules — and they change often. I spent way too much time backtracking, resizing, and apologizing for things that looked off once they went live.

Now, I keep a running list of up-to-date social media image sizes and build templates for the most common social media asset sizes my clients need. It helps me move faster, avoid guesswork, and keep everything looking professional from feed to ad to story.

This guide pulls all of that together—current specs, practical tips, ad dimensions, and tools I use to make the process smoother. I’ve worked with dozens of brands on organic and paid social strategy, and image sizing is one of the first things I coach teams to get right.

Table of Contents

Why You Should Care About Social Media Image Sizes
Social Media Image Sizes At-a-Glance
Social Media Image Sizes by Platform
Image Sizes for Paid Social Ads
Tools and Templates for Social Media Assets
Tips for Better Image Optimization
Why Image Sizing Is Worth the Effort
FAQs

Why You Should Care About Social Media Image Sizes

I used to treat image sizing like an afterthought. If the content were strong, the image would carry it, right? But after managing dozens of campaigns and cleaning up more than a few formatting issues, I’ve learned it plays a much bigger role in performance than I expected.

Here’s what I pay attention to now.

Engagement depends on visual quality.

I’ve tested posts with the exact same copy and design, but different image sizes, and the difference in click-through rate was impossible to ignore. One version looked sharp and well-fitted; the other was awkwardly cropped and lost a chunk of the message.

That drop in performance was hard to ignore—and I’m not the only one who’s noticed.

According to HubSpot’s 2025 Global Social Media Trends report, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube are the top platforms for both engagement and lead quality, and every one of them is powered by visuals. If your images are misaligned, off-brand, or low-res, you’re missing opportunities before your audience even reads the caption.

Ads get rejected or underperform.

One of the first paid campaigns I ran through Meta was rejected for something I didn’t catch: an image that didn’t meet their minimum width requirement. No warning, no adjustment — just silence. I didn’t even realize it hadn’t run until I checked the analytics a few days later.

LinkedIn can be just as strict. I’ve seen image ads quietly throttle their reach because the size wasn’t quite right, or the aspect ratio threw off the preview. If you’ve ever watched a high-performing campaign stall for no apparent reason, image formatting is one of the first things to check.

Your brand looks inconsistent.

Cropped-off logos. Misaligned visuals. Graphics that look perfectly fine on desktop but fall apart on mobile. I’ve been there and so have your customers.

Those inconsistencies add up. They make your brand feel disjointed, even if the message is right. After I started using platform-specific dimensions, our visuals finally felt consistent on every screen. No missing margins. No off-brand templates. Just clean, reliable content that felt intentional across every channel.

And that matters, because visuals are often the first impression your audience gets.

Learn more about what grabs people’s attention on social media with our guide on the most effective types of content on social media.

Social Media Image Sizes At-a-Glance

Social Media Image Sizes by Platform

I used to try to get away with a one-size-fits-all approach. I’d design once, resize for two or three channels, and call it a day. That never worked out the way I hoped.

Every platform handles visuals differently — some crop aggressively, some downscale uploads, and others prioritize entirely different aspect ratios. Now I work from a detailed spec sheet and build everything with those dimensions in mind.

Here’s the breakdown I keep bookmarked.

Facebook Image Sizes

Profile: 320 x 320 px
Cover: 851 x 315 px
Feed post: 1080 x 1350 px
Stories: 1080 x 1920 px
Ad formats:

Feed: 1080 x 1080 px
Link ad: 1200 x 628 px
Story ad: 1440 x 2560 px

Link preview: 1200 x 630 px

I’ve seen the most issues here with cover photos — what looks good on desktop can get oddly cropped on mobile. When in doubt, center your focal point and keep important details away from the edges.

For more tips on optimizing your Facebook visuals, check out our guide to Facebook marketing or explore HubSpot's Facebook ad best practices.

Instagram Image Sizes

Profile: 320 x 320 px
Square post: 1080 x 1080 px
Portrait: 1080 x 1350 px
Landscape: 1080 x 566 px
Stories and Reels: 1080 x 1920 px
Grid thumbnail: 161 x 161 px
Reels cover: 420 x 654 px
Ad formats: same dimensions as organic posts

For Instagram, I focus on the vertical format since most of the feed is optimized for visuals that are 4:5 or taller. Square still works, but portrait images tend to perform better in terms of reach and engagement.

If Instagram is a major channel for your team, HubSpot’s free Instagram template can help you build a cohesive grid and maintain consistent brand visuals.

Twitter (X) Image Sizes

Profile: 400 x 400 px
Header: 1500 x 500 px
Feed post:

Landscape: 1600 x 900 px
Portrait: 1080 x 1350 px

Link preview: 1200 x 630 px
Ad formats:

Single image: 1200 x 628 px
Square: 800 x 800 px
Carousel: 800 x 418 px

I’ve had good luck with landscapes on X, but I’ve recently started testing more portrait crops. The mobile preview space has shifted, and portrait images get more screen real estate when done correctly.

TikTok Image Sizes

Profile: 200 x 200 px
Feed, Stories, Carousel: 1080 x 1920 px
Ad options:

Vertical (min): 540 x 960 px
Carousel: 1200 x 628 px (landscape)

Most visuals here are full screen, so I treat TikTok like a vertical-first platform. Even the ads need to match that format to avoid awkward black bars.

LinkedIn Image Sizes

Profile: 400 x 400 px
Cover images:

Personal: 1584 x 396 px
Company: 1128 x 191 px

Feed post: 1200 x 627 px
Life tab:

Hero: 1128 x 376 px
Gallery: 900 x 600 px

Ad specs:

Carousel: 1080 x 1080 px
Sponsored content: 1200 x 627 px

For LinkedIn, brand polish matters. I double-check everything — especially on company pages — because even slight misalignment stands out in a professional feed.

To go deeper on optimizing LinkedIn for lead gen or brand building, I recommend HubSpot’s LinkedIn publishing tips and post creation workflows.

Pinterest Image Sizes

Profile: 165 x 165 px
Cover: 800 x 450 px
Standard pin: 1000 x 1500 px (2:3 aspect ratio)
Carousel or ad: 1000 x 1000 or 1000 x 1500 px
Story pins: 1080 x 1920 px

Pinterest leans heavily into vertical. If I stick to 2:3 for pins, I avoid any awkward auto-cropping, especially in the mobile feed.

Pinterest can drive a surprising amount of referral traffic if images are done right. This HubSpot overview on image best practices helped shape how I think about vertical visuals across platforms, not just on Pinterest.

YouTube Image Sizes

Profile: 800 x 800 px
Banner: 2560 x 1440 px

Safe zone: center content within 1546 x 423 px

Thumbnail: 1280 x 720 px
Podcast thumbnail: 1280 x 1280 px

YouTube’s banner size can be tricky. What looks good on a desktop might get cropped on a TV or mobile device. I test previews on all devices before finalizing.

Threads Image Sizes

Profile: 320 x 320 px
Feed post: 1440 x 1920 px
Link preview: 1200 x 600 px
Carousel: up to 20 images

Threads content is often cross-posted from Instagram, so I use the same image dimensions and safe zone rules. Portrait orientation tends to display best.

Snapchat Image Sizes

Profile: 320 x 320 px
Geofilter: 1080 x 1920 px
Ads: 1080 x 1920 px
Banner: 375 x 278 px

With Snapchat, everything is built for the phone screen. I keep designs simple, vertical, and clutter-free near the top and bottom edges.

Google Business Profile Image Sizes

Logo: 720 x 720 px
Profile: between 250 and 750 x 750 px
Cover: 1024 x 576 px
Video: 1280 x 720 px (max 30 seconds, 75 MB file size)

These visuals appear across Maps, Search, and business listings, so I treat them like front-door signage — clean, high-resolution, and brand-aligned.

Bluesky Image Sizes

Profile: 400 x 400 px
Banner: 1500 x 500 px
Feed image: 1200 x 627 px
Post image: 1080 x 1080 or 627 x 1200 px

The platform allows some flexibility, but sticking with standard aspect ratios (1:1 or 4:5) keeps things crisp across different screens.

Tumblr Image Sizes

Profile: 128 x 128 px
Banner: 3000 x 1055 px
Post image: 500 x 750 px
Ads: 1280 x 1920 px

Tumblr still favors vertical imagery and posts that are graphic-forward. I’ve seen stronger results when visuals are kept light on text and optimized for mobile scrolling. It’s worth testing vertical formats here—even legacy platforms have loyal communities.

Image Sizes for Paid Social Ads

Ad specs can be slightly different from organic posts, even when they appear similar in the feed. I’ve learned to double-check image dimensions before launching any campaign. It helps avoid rejections, scaling issues, and blurry visuals that eat into performance.

Here’s what I keep on hand when building creative for paid social.

Facebook and Instagram (Meta)

Common ad formats:

Feed: 1080 x 1080 px (1:1)
Link ads: 1200 x 628 px (1.91:1)
Stories and Reels: 1080 x 1920 px (9:16)
Carousel: 1080 x 1080 px (1:1)

Specs to keep in mind:

Max file size: 30 MB
Accepted formats: JPG or PNG
Safe zone for stories: Avoid placing key content in the top 250 px and bottom 340 px
Facebook recommends leaving 14% padding on top and 20% on the bottom for Stories/Reels

Twitter (X)

Common ad formats:

Single image: 1200 x 628 px (1.91:1)
Square: 800 x 800 px (1:1)
Carousel: 800 x 418 px (1.91:1) or 800 x 800 px (1:1)

Specs to keep in mind:

Max file size: 5 MB (images) or 15 MB (GIFs on desktop)
Accepted formats: JPG, PNG, GIF
Recommended to avoid placing text too close to the edges—cropping can vary across mobile and web

Common ad formats:

Sponsored content: 1200 x 627 px (1.91:1)
Carousel ads: 1080 x 1080 px (1:1)
Vertical ads (mobile): 720 x 900 px (4:5)

Specs to keep in mind:

Max file size: 5 MB
Accepted formats: JPG, PNG, non-animated GIF
Minimum width: 200 px
LinkedIn crops images differently on mobile vs. desktop, so center key visuals and copy

TikTok

Common ad formats:

Full-screen in-feed video: 1080 x 1920 px (9:16)
Carousel: 1200 x 628 px (landscape), 640 x 640 px (square)

Specs to keep in mind:

Min image size: 540 x 960 px
Max file size: 500 KB (images), 500 MB (video)
Format: JPG, PNG for images
Safe zones: Leave ~150 px padding at the top and bottom to avoid UI overlays

Common ad formats:

Standard Pin: 1000 x 1500 px (2:3)
Carousel: 1000 x 1000 px or 1000 x 1500 px
Shopping ad: Same specs as standard pins

Specs to keep in mind:

Max file size: 20 MB
Accepted formats: JPG, PNG
Avoid placing text near the top 270 px or bottom 790 px—those areas often get cropped in-feed
Pins taller than 2:3 may be downranked in the algorithm

YouTube

Common ad formats:

Thumbnail: 1280 x 720 px (16:9)
Companion banner (desktop-only): 300 x 60 px
In-video overlay: 480 x 70 px

Specs to keep in mind:

Max file size: 2 MB (thumbnails)
Format: JPG, PNG, GIF
YouTube recommends keeping thumbnails under 2 MB with minimal text
Keep subject centered—cropping can vary by screen size and device

Here’s a quick guide from HubSpot on image requirements for social posts.

Tools and Templates for Social Media Assets

I’ve used everything from Photoshop to Paint in a pinch, but over time, I’ve built a go-to stack of tools that simplify sizing, designing, and reformatting social media graphics. These are the tools I return to again and again, especially when I need to resize or reformat social media asset sizes quickly and consistently.

Canva

If I’m building something from scratch or need a quick resize, Canva is the first place I go. Their templates are already optimized by platform, and the drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to maintain brand consistency. I especially like the ability to create custom folders for each client or campaign.

Built-in templates for feed posts, stories, ads, banners, and more
Resize tool for reformatting one design across platforms
Free and Pro versions available

Pixlr

When I need to clean up an image or crop something quickly, I use Pixlr. It’s a lightweight browser-based tool with just enough photo editing features to get the job done, without feeling overwhelming.

Good for fast edits, crops, or overlays
Supports layering, transparency, and filters
Free to use, with advanced features behind a paywall

Adobe Express

Adobe Express is great when I need more design flexibility without jumping into Photoshop. It’s fast, web-based, and comes with a growing collection of pre-sized templates for all major platforms.

Ideal for branded campaigns or content that needs polish
Easy-to-use animation and video features
Supports JPG, PNG, and transparent backgrounds

Adobe Express also makes it easy to format videos for different platforms, which is becoming more important as social feeds lean more heavily into short-form video. If you're keeping an eye on where video is headed this year, HubSpot’s Social Media Video Trends report offers a helpful look at what’s performing and why.

Hubspot Social Media Templates

For consistent branding across platforms, I rely on HubSpot’s free social media image templates. These are especially useful when I’m onboarding a new brand or reworking a content calendar, and they’ve saved me hours when resizing social media assets across channels.

Includes editable templates for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest
Sized to match current platform requirements
Compatible with Canva and other design tools

If you‘re using HubSpot’s Marketing Hub, you can also manage and publish directly through the Social Inbox tool, which helps keep content and image assets organized in one place.

Tips for Better Image Optimization

Sizing your images correctly is a great start, but fully optimizing them requires a few extra steps. These are the tactics I now use as a default when prepping social media visuals.

Mobile-first design: Most engagement happens on phones. I always test how visuals look in mobile previews and adjust spacing, font sizes, and placement accordingly.

Pro tip: I test every image in preview mode across desktop and mobile before publishing. It takes 30 seconds, and it’s caught more issues than I can count.

Safe zones matter: For stories, reels, and ads, I leave room at the top and bottom — usually around 250 to 340 pixels — to ensure that buttons, logos, or UI overlays don’t cover up anything important.
Use JPG for photos, PNG for logos: I stick to JPGs for photos because they are lighter and load faster. For logos, icons, or any design element with

Zappi’s CMO shares her secrets for building AI agents that nail brand voice, manage compliance, and more

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

“I tried using AI for our marketing content, but it just doesn't sound like us.”

I hear this constantly from marketing leaders who've experimented with AI tools only to get results that feel generic or off-brand.

The problem? Most are approaching AI wrong, treating sophisticated technology like a vending machine. Insert prompt. Receive output. Hope for the best. Exceptional marketers take a different approach, viewing AI as a team member who needs proper training, clear examples, and ongoing feedback.

I‘ve seen this pattern in my work at Zappi and throughout my career in machine learning. Having worked with translation engines at HubSpot long before ChatGPT existed, I’ve developed a methodology for training AI agents that transforms them from generic content generators into true extensions of your team.

My Experience with AI Marketing Agents

For those new to this space, AI agents aren‘t just fancy chatbots. They’re specialized helpers that can work proactively on their own or as part of a team, unlike regular AI tools that just wait for instructions.

At Zappi, an AI-powered consumer insights platform, I've watched successful teams create specialized agents for specific tasks. These agents are more reliable than all-purpose AI assistants. Our customers use these specialized agents for concept development across different pieces of the product innovation process.

For example, one agent analyzes consumer feedback while another develops packaging concepts. A third focuses on in-store displays, while another handles ingredients and packaging content. Finally, a compliance agent reviews everything for policy alignment. These agents consult with each other through defined workflows, creating results dramatically better than using a single general-purpose AI.

Training allows teams to build these focused agents that can level up their workflows. Through my work at Zappi and my own experiences training AI agents for various marketing functions, I've developed a methodology that works consistently. Below, I’ll share my approach.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Training Your Marketing Agents

1. Be super clear on goals with specific examples.

The first and most crucial step is defining goals with specific context. Before I train any agent, I get painfully specific about what I want it to do. That means going beyond “help me with marketing content” and defining things like:

What the end goal is of the piece of content I’m developing.
What stage of the funnel I’m targeting.
Who the reader is.
What action I want them to take.
What’s worked well in the past.
What tone or format I want to use.
What to avoid based on previous failures.

It sounds obvious, but this is where many people go wrong. If your strategy is fuzzy, your agent’s output will be too. And yes, it’s tedious. But the more clarity you feed into your training process, the better your results will be.

Time-Saving Hack: If you‘re struggling to define goals, ask a generalist AI to help develop your plan. Sometimes marketers lack full context themselves. If you don’t understand it, how will your agent? Ask those upstream questions to set your agent up for success.

2. Iterate on output and give clear feedback.

When an agent produces content that really works, I explicitly tell it, “This nails it. Use this template going forward.” I save these successful outputs as templates and training inputs for future, more specialized work.

For instance, if a LinkedIn tip sheet converts exceptionally well, you might tell your agent: “This piece of content was successful. Create a template based on what you think made it work.”

Equally important is “negative training.” When content underperforms, add examples of what to avoid. For instance, if a LinkedIn post with a specific format consistently fails to engage the audience, I show the agent an example and say, “Avoid this format. Don't do this again.” This anti-training is just as valuable as positive examples.

Over time, as you collect more examples of successes and failures, your agent starts to recognize those patterns and improve output.

3. Turn agent into agents.

Many marketers try to build one super-agent that does everything. In my experience, this approach rarely works.

Instead, I build specialist agents with clear, limited roles. It's like hiring specialists versus generalists for your team. I might have individual agents that focus solely on tasks like:

Writing compelling hooks for LinkedIn posts.
Recommending the best type of content asset (carousel, tip sheet, quote card, video).
Building the actual content based on these recommendations.
Checking everything for brand voice and compliance alignment.

You wouldn’t expect your marketer to also be your compliance specialist, right? That's how I approach agent development, too. Each agent should have its own “job description” with specialized training.

Yes, this requires more setup initially. But, it's the key to scaling without becoming the manual go-between for every task. Breaking down the workflow into specialized steps allows each agent to focus on what it does best: creating more efficient and higher-quality output.

4. Get fancy with agent-to-agent interactions.

Once those agents are up and running, connecting them is where things get interesting. This is where agent-to-agent collaboration transforms your workflow from siloed tasks to a true system.

For example, I might write a post using a template that's performing well, then hand it to my “hook agent” to create an attention-grabbing opener, and finally pass it to my “asset recommendation agent” to suggest the best supporting visual content.

You can even create a “project management agent” that oversees all these interactions, ensuring agents aren't overlapping in scope and identifying potential conflicts. Consider this as your AI team manager asking questions like: “Are there areas where we might see scope creep?” or “Could these agents be in conflict with each other?” These management agents can review your briefings to other agents and predict where overlap or confusion could happen.

Our team at Zappi has also developed a “facilitator agent,” a specialized meta-agent whose job is to oversee multi-agent interactions, keep the various agents in check, determine and understand roles, responsibilities, and implement decision trees when the input of different agents conflicts with each other.

This multi-agent approach enables hyper-personalization as you identify patterns across channels and audiences. You'll recognize that specific approaches work well on Instagram but fall flat on LinkedIn or that specific content formats resonate with one persona but not others. That’s when you can start spotting patterns, optimizing across platforms, and adapting as your audience evolves.

Retraining is Essential, Not Optional

One of the biggest myths I encounter is that AI agent training is one-and-done. In reality, it’s an ongoing process — more like onboarding and coaching than set and forget.

I retrain my agents constantly, especially with personal content projects. When something performs exceptionally well, I feed it back into the system and ask the agent to analyze what made it successful.

Sometimes, I even use AI to analyze its own best-performing outputs. That surprises people. Most assume the learning happens automatically, but it doesn’t. Just like with people, the more specific your feedback, the faster and smarter the agent becomes.

Time-Saving Hack: Most agents can absorb information well from PDFs. When you copy-paste content, you get ads, menus, and formatting that confuse the agent. Instead, print web pages to PDF — agents can better identify what‘s important. I’ve done this with LinkedIn newsletters when adding content to Claude. It's a small trick that saves significant time and creates resources you can reuse for future training.

Training Agents on Brand Voice and Tone

Here‘s a particular challenge many marketers face: How do you train an AI agent on your brand’s unique voice when most companies don't properly document that voice in the first place?

One hack I use is having an AI tool derive a brand style guide from existing content. Even before AI tools could do this for me, I manually analyzed transcripts to identify specific words and phrases unique to a company or brand.

If you don't have established content writers, try interviewing people around your company, especially founders and customer-facing employees. Those early conversations with customers often contain the DNA of your brand communication style.

Record these conversations, get a transcript, and feed that into an AI tool. Then, you've got the beginnings of brand style guidelines. When creating these guidelines, provide numerous examples showing what to do and avoid. For instance:

Show them specific phrases: “Say this instead of that.”
Define boundaries clearly: “Here are words we never use.”
Provide contrasting examples: “This is well-written copy that aligns with our brand versus this poorly-written example.”

These agents operate exceptionally well with clear rules. The more specific examples and guidelines you provide, the better and faster they'll learn to recognize patterns and apply them consistently.

Your next steps depend on your situation. Large companies should refine existing documentation for AI consumption. If you have nothing documented (which is surprisingly common), create guidelines that can scale. For outdated guidelines, use this opportunity to refresh.

At Zappi, our customers upload their brand style guides and examples of approved content, often including context about their brand's values, history, and evolution. This documentation helps train AI agents to stay authentic to the brand across everything from product innovation to campaign development.

Building Compliance Into Your Agent Framework

For regulated industries, compliance isn‘t optional — it’s essential. I've found that creating dedicated compliance agents is far more effective than trying to build compliance into general marketing agents. Treat compliance as a specialized function by:

Providing before-and-after examples of compliant content, especially with track changes and explanations.
Documenting boilerplate language that regularly replaces non-compliant text.
Interviewing your legal team about the most common changes they make.

Many companies we work with are in regulated spaces like alcohol and consumer packaged goods. When brands do co-marketing (like when a soft drink brand partners with an alcohol brand), they often have very different compliance guidelines. Having separate compliance agents for each brand ensures that content meets both sets of requirements.

In compliance-heavy industries, even a single hallucinated claim can carry real risk. That’s why dedicated compliance agents and human review aren’t optional.

When Humans Need to Get Involved

Despite all the capabilities AI agents offer, human involvement remains critical in three key areas.

1. Data Preparation and Hygiene

The majority of human effort goes into preparing and maintaining quality data. Your agents will only be as effective as the data they're using.

2. Process Design and Intervention Points

Humans must design how agents interact and identify necessary touchpoints. For example, when content goes off-brand after a compliance check, someone needs to make the call on priorities.

3. High-Risk and High-Visibility Content

Human review is essential for high-risk content (where errors could be costly) or high-visibility campaign assets. The level of risk and visibility determines where human touchpoints are needed.

Beyond these areas, strategy, judgment, and true creativity should remain primarily human-driven. The best approach is co-creation between humans and agents, not replacement.

Agents Don't Replace Marketers, They Scale Them

Training agents takes time. It’s iterative and sometimes tedious, but when done right, the effort is worthwhile.

You get amplification, not replacement.
You get speed without sacrificing strategy.
You get scale with brand integrity intact.

And if you're a marketer with limited time and growing complexity, that’s a pretty good trade.

I’ve seen firsthand how well-trained agents can extend the reach and impact of marketers, without compromising brand or creativity.

The future of marketing isn’t a battle between humans and AI. It’s a partnership. One that expands our creative potential while freeing us to focus on what matters most. And this is just the beginning.

How to run a marketing campaign on a tight budget [expert tips & free tools]

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

Limited marketing budgets make marketers think creatively to get the most out of every cent. And those who see room for business growth rather than constraint create outstanding low-budget advertising campaigns.

Surprisingly, many budget-friendly marketing ideas deliver a better return on investment than those that cost top dollar.

The proof follows.

I spoke to global experts and searched the web from top to bottom to give you a list of 20+ low-budget advertising examples and tips on how to replicate them.

Low-Budget Marketing Campaign Ideas

Understand your customer through and through to create highly-converting ads.

I know, it may sound quite obvious, but pinpointing your customers’ deepest desires or fears isn’t an easy feat. That was the case for the marketing agency Modeva.

They were tasked with optimizing existing Facebook Ads for Cashback Visa. The ads looked slick but produced almost nothing. After listening to the partners’ pain points, Modeva discovered the sticking point: Danish shop owners hated paying upfront for marketing.

Then, Modeva rebuilt the pitch around one blunt promise: “250,000 buying Danes — pay only if it works (no cure, no pay).”

“No studio shoot, just a 15-second phone video of a café owner explaining how Cashback filled empty tables, plus a static quote card. We tightened targeting to people who run a Business Page or list ‘owner/partner’ in their profile,” shares Victor André Enselmann, founder of Modeva.

“Two ad sets — video for reach, static for in-platform lead forms — ran on DKK 200/day (≈ $3,500 total over 4 weeks). We never touched the landing page,” continues Enselmann.

He also shared creatives to show how simple videos with the right messages can yield big results.

Speaking of the numbers, the campaign brought about:

A dropped cost-per-lead (CPL) to one-sixth of the previous amount.
~200 qualified leads per month, many converting into long-term partnerships.

Enselmann concludes, “Don’t guess what matters to your audience. Go talk to them! And afterward, show, don’t tell.”

Pitch to global and local media outlets.

Getting press coverage for product releases and campaign launches is a good way to generate buzz at no cost. However, nailing this marketing channel will take a few press releases that will never be published.

But don’t feel discouraged! Here are five proven steps I personally use to get my articles published:

Think of a newsworthy story. It can be unique research, an op-ed, or a story with an element of prominence.
Go through media outlets and look for a pattern of published press releases. Try replicating them, but don’t copy.
Find relevant journalists who cover your topic. Use Prowly or BuzzStream to find their verified contacts.
Get straight to the point and offer a unique angle. Explain in your email Who, What, When, Where, and Why? and buff it up with a unique perspective. Make your story compelling and avoid just sharing plain technical news.
Engage with journalists on X or LinkedIn. Get yourself on their radar so they develop an interest in you and recognize you amidst hundreds of pitches.

Here’s an example of a simple pitch that got covered:

Source

The story was published in dozens of reputable sources, including The New York Times and CNBC.

Source

Use email marketing for consistently high ROI.

I think it’s noteworthy that 43% of B2B SaaS marketers cite email as delivering the highest ROI. The same study reported that 53% of small business owners in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia used email marketing as the most frequent strategy for finding new and retaining repeat customers.

With such a great track record, I highly recommend you implement email marketing to reach audiences if you’re on a tight budget.

But be mindful of your newsletters, product embeds, and audience segments receiving a given offer. Well-segmented emails drive 30% more opens and 50% more click-throughs than unsegmented ones.

Learn your audience preferences and behaviors and craft emails with tailored content and product offers.

I recently received a highly targeted email where marketers identified my lower back problems, perhaps by analyzing my browsing behavior on their website. The offer included a great discount and a video teaser of the program.

It took them probably five newsletters until I finally made a purchase. But what I think is great about email marketing is that you can send the same message to hundreds of prospective customers with a common behavioral pattern and zero dollars spent on advertising.

Learn how to generate buzz on social media.

Social media marketing has grown into an unstoppable selling machine for retail, ecommerce, non-profits, and even app advertising. Most marketers agree (69%) that more shopping will happen directly on social media than on brand websites or third-party marketplaces, according to our 2025 Social Media Trends Report.

Speaking of purchases, the same study discovered that 25% of consumers have bought products directly from social media in the past three months.

There are a few surefire ways to attract new customers through social media:

Launch an advertising campaign.
Collaborate with influencers.
Create viral videos.
Post regularly on social media.

But to make any of it work, you have to create content that taps into your audience’s pain points.

For example, Luvly, an app for face yoga, has an amazing social media marketing plan where they create daily short videos of their training that deal with a specific problem (see below). Luvly posts them in Stories and Reels. This way, they nurture followers and attract new ones.

Leverage user-generated content.

Encourage your customers to create and share content related to your brand. User-generated content (UGC) not only promotes your brand but also builds trust and credibility.

Take a look at Kustceramics’ UGC example. Students share their ceramic art on their profiles, and the school picks them up and boosts them in their Stories. If you’re somewhat in love with DIY, you’ll definitely ask your friend about the class.

Tory Bullock, YouTube marketing manager at HubSpot, says, “As brands look for new ways to extend their reach in a rapidly growing digital space, UGC is becoming a more viable and cost-effective marketing strategy than ever… People trust people.”

Run contests, social media challenges, or ask for testimonials and reviews to encourage user-generated content creation. I like his approach because it is not only cost-effective but also helps in building a strong community around your brand.

Use AI-powered, affordable marketing tools to optimize campaign work.

Get started with HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant

Software comes in handy when you’re running campaigns on a tight budget. Tools like HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant can help you generate content for campaigns ranging from emails to landing pages under one roof.

For example, I took on the role of owner at a sustainable travel bag store and created different forms of ads to celebrate Earth Month.

I started by drafting a newsletter.

Campaign Assistant prompted me to summarize the campaign, list key factors people should know about, decide on a call-to-action, and choose a writing style. In seconds, I got ready-to-use copy and customizable email modules.

The whole process took me about 10-15 minutes, including figuring out the tool. Honestly, I was quite impressed with the quality of the copy, which needed just a few minor edits. I next went to generate Google Ads and Facebook Ads copy suggestions, and received amazing results in one click.

Check it out for yourself.

Another budget-friendly marketing tool is HubSpot’s AI Content Writer, which helps you generate any copy in a pinch. While Campaign Assistant is designed specifically for campaigns, AI Content Writer casts a wider net. I recommend playing around with both tools.

AI software is not the only tool at your disposal. You can also leverage HubSpot’s Branding Kit, which contains free templates.

Get comfortable with hosting online events.

In-person events are often costly. Virtual events, on the other hand, are a smart and cost-effective way to get people to interact with your brand on a personal level.

“The dirty little secret of in-person events is you’re all competing for the biggest number — but the bigger the number, the worse the experience for the attendees,” said Bob Bejan, Microsoft’s VP of global events, in a past interview with HubSpot.

“The power and effectiveness of virtual events is just so convincing from a data perspective that it’s hard to imagine they’re ever going away,” Bejan explained. “Virtual events in every dimension are so much more effective than in-person events.”

So, what should you host to make a virtual event your lead generation machine?

I strongly recommend trying webinars (B2B) and live streams (B2C). The latter often happens on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, or Amazon Live.

Surveyed marketers confirmed high conversion rates between 9% and 30% after customers had attended live streams. In comparison, the usual conversion rates for ecommerce sites are 2-3%.

Create viral videos and share them across social media.

Did you know that 37% of TikTok users in the United States made purchases either through links on the app or directly on TikTok?

Since B2C purchases are widely made through social media or largely influenced by it in the user journey, you’ve got to get comfortable with shooting 30-second videos for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Reels, etc.

I’ve been there, too.

I was skeptical about this tactic, but a few years ago, I was deeply into power yoga and even got certified as a trainer. I wanted to test it as my side gig for soul, and I enrolled in a TikTok Viral course to learn how to get free traffic.

To my surprise, I went viral with my second video filmed during the course. And I got 10 paid training sessions right after that.

What’s more, I didn’t have a fancy camera or settings. I used my iPhone 14 and my living room with no additional light. Authenticity worked out for me.

Note: Virality doesn’t come by chance. You’ve got to follow a set of rules to make your video viral — from the scenario to different posting times and an initial engagement boost.

I’m dropping a good read on TikTok viral videos here so you can replicate the strategy.

Take your local business onto Google Maps.

Every time I need a new hairdresser, a restaurant, a flower shop, or any other imaginable service, I open Google Maps.

It’s so convenient to find new businesses there because they all have photos, reviews, phone numbers, and hours, in addition to the location.

Moreover, 97% of people search online to find nearby stores, with 28% of those local searches ending in a purchase.

So, Google My Business (or Google Business Profile) is your bare minimum for low-budget marketing campaigns for local businesses.

How to get started?

My colleague Aja Frost wrote an extensive guide on how to market on GMB that I definitely recommend reading.

Collaborate with micro-influencers to give your products a boost.

According to our research, 21% of social media users have made a social media purchase influenced by influencer content in the past three months.

This, in my opinion, is the tactic you can’t miss out on. It works with both B2C and B2B at a relatively low cost.

Let’s go through a case study.

My friend and a senior paid ads marketing specialist, Andrii Kolmykov from Quarks Tech, launched a series of barter-based collaborations with micro-influencers for his client, a personal climate products store.

The goal was to amplify both paid and organic traffic performance.

He shares, “We ran a campaign on Instagram, selecting creators with smaller (10k–50k followers) but highly engaged and loyal audiences. By offering free products in exchange for authentic content, we were able to drive a noticeable lift in conversions from paid campaigns and to improve organic visibility. The strategy also led to a significant boost in branded search traffic during seasonal peaks — without any additional media spend.”

On the screenshot below, you can see a high lift in purchases during the month the campaign was active.

For influencer campaigns, you can also use discounts, free subscriptions, or other giveaways.

Launch an employee advocacy campaign.

Employees’ networks are, on average, 10 times larger than a company’s follower base. Content shared by employees receives 2x the click-through rate compared to the same content shared by the company, explained a LinkedIn study.

Translation: It’s a goldmine of opportunities to reach new audiences for free if you work in B2B.

In fact, Lemlist made everyone on its team post on social media to attract new customers. It worked magic with branded traffic and sales grew x10+, as the founder, Guillaume Moubeche, shared in his book The $150M Secret.

To make this tactic work for your company, read through LinkedIn’s ebook: “How to Maximize Reach and Engagement by Empowering Employees to Share Content.”

Go offline with your advertising.

While it may sound expensive, it’s not when done right. It’s as simple as brainstorming local businesses you can partner with and special offers to encourage people to stop by your business.

For example, say I’m a local sourdough bakery and my goal is to increase foot traffic during slower weeken

Deep research in content marketing: Using ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity for strategy

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

Since late 2024, major players in the chatbot game have been rolling out a deep research feature designed to provide what they call “expert-level analysis.”

With a focus on multi-step research tasks and more source transparency, this new capability promises to deliver data-rich reports with applications in a variety of industries.

Let’s explore what this means for content marketers.

Table of Contents

What is deep research?
What is deep research useful for?
Is deep research free?
Who are the major players?
Using Deep Research for Content Strategy
What’s next?

What is deep research?

Deep research is a new AI tool designed to solve complex problems and behave similarly to a research analyst. It tracks down and analyzes large amounts of text and visuals. Then, it synthesizes the most relevant information into a comprehensive report.

One of the most useful improvements comes through better source transparency and citations.

Since LLMs can produce hallucinations (nonexistent or nonsensical items) and around 60% of queries generate inaccurate answers, the work of human editors and fact-checkers has always been crucial.

But it’s harder to fact-check something if the source isn’t obvious or if it’s quoted as coming from a fabricated link, so more transparency is likely to quicken the editing process.

What is deep research useful for?

Generating reports with clear citations from various sources is bound to help users in a wide range of research-heavy roles. Folks in finance, science, tech, consulting, and, of course, marketing, can benefit from using this iteration of AI as a research assistant.

But this tool is also positioned as an aid for entrepreneurs who want quick access to competitor or product research. The same goes for everyday people looking to make purchases that usually involve hefty investigative work (e.g., cars, household appliances, trips, and so on).

Results aren’t instant like with a regular search. They’ll take a few minutes to pop up, but the extra detail is worth the wait.

Is deep research free?

With ChatGPT, deep research is only available with paid plans (Plus at $20/mo and Pro at $200/mo).

With Gemini and Perplexity, deep research is free. There are usage limits, though, and paying subscribers gain access to expanded use.

Who are the major players?

Several AI search engines have been adding deep research tools, while others have been research-focused from the beginning (like Elicit and Kompas AI). But today, I’ll be looking at the big three:

OpenAI’s ChatGPT (with over 122 million monthly users)
Google’s Gemini (with 275 million monthly users)
Perplexity (with 12.7 million monthly users but centered on analysis over conversation from the outset)

ChatGPT: Best for deep, iterative exploration and niche analysis

Source

ChatGPT made deep research available for Pro users on February 5th, 2025, and for Plus users on February 25th. It touts the ability to interpret the information it finds and react to it in a way that guides the search process.

OpenAI defines the target audience as “people who do intense knowledge work” and promises extra effectiveness when it comes to finding “niche, non-intuitive information.”

Users can add context to queries by attaching files, including spreadsheets. Updates are currently in the works for adding data visualizations to results.

In addition to use cases in areas like business, UX design, and shopping, ChatGPT’s deep research also has an application called “Needle in a Haystack.” It’s made for ambiguous queries without crucial keywords, so you could be tracking down half-remembered scenes in obscure TV shows you saw as a kid in just a few minutes.

Ideal users: Researchers, strategists, and content marketers who need to chase down nuanced insights or follow ambiguous leads

Gemini: Best for quick overviews and Google ecosystem integration

Source

Google’s Gemini added deep research on December 11th, 2024. The stated goal was to create a tool that’s “even better at all stages of research,” so it turns prompts into research plans, sorts for up-to-date information, and then puts out custom search reports.

A key differentiator is that it has an Audio Overview feature, so you can take said reports and listen to them as short podcasts on subjects of your choosing. This is handy for immersing yourself in a topic while getting on with mundane tasks that don’t occupy your brain.

Just like ChatGPT, Gemini confirms the research plan with you before putting it into action. After that, it determines which sub-tasks can be completed at the same time and which need a sequence, while the “thinking panel” makes this process more transparent for the user.

Before generating the final report, it goes through “multiple passes of self-critique” to eliminate inconsistencies and provide more clarity.

Ideal users: Agency creatives, SEO professionals, and Google Workspace power users

Perplexity: Best for free, fast, accurate research with expert vibes

Perplexity launched its deep research feature on February 14, 2025. It was designed to more closely mirror the way a human researcher would approach complex tasks. The feature reads documents and decides what to do next based on what it learns about a specific subject.

It’s geared toward people who need fast expert-level analysis on complex topics (e.g., finance, health, news, and beyond), but also toward those who want a “personal consultant” that’s akin to a concierge. For example, check out the travel planning feature:

Source

In addition to enhanced source transparency, you can see how there’s more insight into the reasoning behind each choice. And there’s clearly a more thoughtful vibe.

The first example’s “start in London, continue to Paris” approach is something a user likely doesn’t need a travel planner for, while the second aims beyond overcrowded capitals. An itinerary that includes Slovenia, Montenegro, and the Amalfi Coast sounds like a real winner.

Ideal users: Budget-conscious marketers, researchers in niche domains, and anyone needing credible, well-sourced reports

Using Deep Research for Content Strategy

Practical Applications: ChatGPT

People who took ChatGPT’s deep research out for a spin brought “questions too big for a quick search” and discovered an extra time-saving perk: “resisting the urge to fall into unrelated Wikipedia rabbit holes.”

Another significant one seems to be this tool’s improved ability to distinguish between how relevant sources are and to unearth factual gems that would take a human several hours to reach.

This is largely thanks to its agentic nature:

If Gemini follows an omnidirectional process (aka searches far and wide to produce a summary), ChatGPT “performs an iterative cycle of finding, assessing, and refining the data.”
If it encounters a surprising bit of information, it can follow that thread to produce a more nuanced final analysis.”

AI pros recommend using the tool’s follow-up questions to refine a search and following the most interesting hyperlinked data points to the original source. You can (and should) blacklist and whitelist specific sources for the next run; as usual, running multiple iterations produces the most accurate results.

Use Case for Content Marketers

As a content marketer working on a strategy, ChatGPT’s deep research can bring out emerging industry trends and generate more data-rich reports (compared to Gemini’s broader understanding of a topic).

Source

It can also:

Analyze your existing content strategy
Scan the content of your competitors
Lean into social listening

You can get some pretty granular detail this way. You might want to consider messaging and positioning from various competitors, but also look at keyword usage or CTA structure.

Ultimately, this is a quicker way to identify those much-coveted content gaps that can illuminate the next steps and best use of resources for your brand. Asking the chatbot to compare websites can be very helpful.

Practical Applications: Gemini

Google’s deep research tool scans a wide range of citations and documents. Once again, it’s helpful to review the multi-step research plan it presents after you’ve entered the prompt and tweak it to your preferences. Its ability to generate insights is vastly superior compared to earlier versions of Gemini, and all the more so compared to a regular Google search.

Source

When you’re looking for a quick snapshot of a specific brand’s digital ecosystem, Gemini is a good bet. Here’s why:

If you’re already using other Google tools, the integration is seamless. For example, one click turns a report into a Google Doc, so you can share and edit quickly.
Its connection with Google Search also means you can conduct deep SEO analysis that mirrors the results pages a user would see while doing a classic search.

Use Case for Content Marketers

I took Gemini’s deep research out for a spin and asked it to create a content strategy for a furniture museum. Here’s the research plan it came up with:

While I wasn’t super impressed by what it qualified as a fresh content idea, I liked that it included regional specialties among brand pillars and that it set out to put museum pieces in a cultural context — all in a way that’s relevant to everyday people.

With “Show thinking” turned on, this is what I got: A description of each task and a roundup of websites being investigated.

By the end of the five-minute process, Gemini had identified leading museums and common themes in the way they define their missions. Then, it generated the final report.

I chuckled at how it started with the classic clunker “In today’s digital age” and at the fact that the Mission section explained what a mission is rather than suggesting one or giving some examples. But things got more specific. The proposals for potential USPs made sense, as did the lists of prominent museums, brand pillars, content formats, and distribution channels.

There was also a collection of successful content initiatives, including a fun Metropolitan Museum of Art campaign that invited visitors to “twin” with specific artworks.

Practical Applications: Perplexity

Perplexity scores better on accuracy tests, and its longstanding focus on research is felt. It already included cited sources, but the answers used to be concise. The deep research feature brings custom reports with more detail. Generating them can take as little as three minutes.

More insights:

It uses a set of searches and keeps refining them based on what it finds, similar to how competitors operate.
It offers a good balance between casting a wide net and factual accuracy.
It’s more user-friendly, thanks to fewer geographical restrictions and a mission to make AI tools available for free.

Perplexity is a smaller player compared to Gemini and ChatGPT, so you’ll find fewer tutorials and prompt ideas online. But it’s so easy to use, you’ll barely need them.

Use Case for Content Marketers

I typed in the same prompt as above. I asked for a content strategy for a furniture museum, complete with brand pillars and some fresh content ideas. The process did indeed take three minutes, and I got a glimpse of the logic behind the search, plus some of the sources.

The generated report started with citations:

The brand pillars were confidently outlined and covered sustainability, education, plus interactivity. The report also included a crafty audience persona analysis that included everyone from professionals and hobbyists to casual visitors. Content types were listed comprehensively, with an expected focus on digital storytelling but also room for physical interaction and good old printed materials.

Perplexity also discussed content ideas and their effective execution in more detail. A material library, a narrative podcast series, and a digital furniture workshop were all included in the mix.

I particularly enjoyed the addition of museum-specific KPIs:

What’s next?

All in all, deep research promises to make detailed analysis via AI easier than it used to be. You have more clarity on citations and better access to insightful nuggets that might have been missed by previous iterations of the same tools. Fact-checking is quicker, so more time can be spent getting familiar with sources that bring real value to complex projects.

As for which one to choose, the classic advice stands: Take them out for a spin and figure out which is the best fit for content marketing in your niche.

If you value a conversational style, ChatGPT has always had that as a focus, and it stays true for deep research. If you’re an agency creative who has to dive into the quirks of a new industry for each client, Gemini’s Audio Overview could be a great tool. And if you’re working with a small budget in a research-heavy area, going for Perplexity might be the answer.

Good luck and happy researching!

Are blogs dead? I asked 10 marketing experts

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

Every few years, a new channel takes center stage — short-form video, podcasting, or AI-generated content — and people start asking the same question: “Are blogs dead?”

It's a fair question. After all, platforms evolve and audience habits shift. But the idea that blogs are irrelevant today? That’s a myth I was eager to investigate.

To get a clear answer, I turned to marketers across SEO, content, and digital strategy to find out whether blogging is still worth the investment. Here's what they said.

Table of Contents

Are blogs dead?
Blogs vs. Other Marketing Channels
Why Blogs Are Still Impactful
Why Marketing Isn't Dead

Are blogs dead?

According to marketers, not even close.

Blogs aren’t just alive — they’re evolving. According to HubSpot’s 2025 State of Blogging report, half of marketers say they saw better ROI from blogging in 2024 than the year before. And nearly half plan to invest even more in 2025.

Source

But the way we blog is changing fast. Over 90% of marketers now use AI tools somewhere in their workflow, and Google’s AI Overviews are already reshaping how — and if — blog content gets discovered.

The bar is higher than it’s ever been, but the payoff is still there for those willing to meet it.

Source

That said, “Are blogs dead?” is a question that refuses to go away. Every time a new platform gets hot — whether it’s TikTok, a podcast, or the latest AI trend — someone sounds the alarm for blogging. It makes sense. Audiences shift, attention spans shrink, and video continues to dominate. So yeah, I get where the question comes from.

And just to level with you: Search interest in the word “blog” has steadily declined over the past five years. According to Google Trends, the term “blog” has seen a consistent drop in popularity.

Source

And when compared side by side with “video,” the difference is stark. Video content has dominated attention spans while blogs have quietly carried on in the background. So yes — asking whether blogs are dead is a fair question.

Source

But the truth is, blogs are still very much alive — and in the right hands, they’re making a real impact.

According to HubSpot's latest State of Blogging report, 65% of marketers work for companies that maintain blogs, and most publish content multiple times a week. Even more telling, 93% of marketers say blogging is important — or very important — to their strategy.

Source

And when it comes to budget? Nearly three-quarters of marketers put more than 10% of their marketing spend into blogs. That kind of investment speaks volumes.

The global picture backs it up, too. According to Tech Business News, there are now over 600 million blogs worldwide, contributing to more than 7 million posts published every day. That’s a lot of words — and a lot of opportunity.

That scale isn’t just impressive — it’s effective. If you want more proof, Ross Simmonds, a B2B marketing expert and the founder of the content marketing agency Foundation, has spoken about how blogging has helped his clients triple traffic and close deals faster — and based on what I’ve seen, that tracks.

“At Foundation, blogging with intent has helped us generate millions of dollars in the pipeline for both us and our clients,” says Simmonds. "It‘s also armed us with the ability to elevate our brand’s position in the market and, most importantly, truly help others in our industry learn and unlock new opportunities.”

Neil Patel, who is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading digital marketers and whose blog consistently ranks among the most influential in the industry, puts it simply:

"Owning a website and ranking on Google is one of the best long-term marketing strategies. Starting a blog is the easiest marketing strategy in 2025."

Still, blogging today isn’t what it was five or ten years ago. Lisa Dahmani, former director of global content at HubSpot and current CMO at UX Design Institute, says it's not enough to just have a blog nowadays.

“You need to consistently create content that is more valuable than your competition's content. You need to be an SEO expert to get your articles ranking on page one of Google, and you need a distribution strategy to promote your content across all the channels your audience likes to consume content on,” says Dahmani.

“It's a lot more complex to win at blogging now, but if you can master it, it's worth the investment.”

That point really stuck with me, because it's something I hear echoed by other experts, too.

Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko, summed it up well. (He’s been called an “SEO genius” by Entrepreneur and a “brilliant entrepreneur” by Inc. Magazine. Forbes even listed Backlinko as a top blog to follow.)

"All in all, today, SEO is less about optimizing your site to help Google and more about being the best result that deserves to be #1," says Dean.

That mindset applies to blogging, too. Hitting publish and hoping for the best doesn’t cut it anymore. To get real results, you need to invest in quality, distribution, and long-term strategy.

And in a landscape where AI-generated content is everywhere, being the “best result” means creating something original, helpful, and worth trusting. That’s what search engines, and readers, are rewarding.

So sure — it takes more work to stand out. But if you’re willing to put in the effort, the payoff is definitely still there, and worth it.

And that brings us to the next big question: Even if blogs aren’t dead, how do they stack up against everything else out there?

Blogs vs. Other Marketing Channels

Now that other content marketing channels — namely, video and podcasting — have surpassed blogs, will blogs soon become redundant?

Well, it all depends on the user personas you're targeting. But even as other platforms grow, blogs still offer many advantages.

“Podcasting is not without its own set of limitations. There are plenty of discoverability and audience growth challenges. At this point, blogs have a pretty well-dusted playbook for scaling. That's not true for podcasts,” says Matthew Brown, senior lead producer of YouTube & Podcast at HubSpot.

“A company can use its likely limited resources to invest in a blog that will basically give consistent, easily measurable, and reliable performance. Blogs also have a direct line to the company's bottom dollar, podcasts do not.”

Nelson Chacon Guzman, a marketing fellow at HubSpot, highlights that there's no reason to choose between two platforms if your team has the bandwidth to tackle both.

If it aligns with your user personas, you can engage your audience from several angles.

“Creating a blog constructed of articles around the benefits of your product will be helpful. Having a video showcasing its use or how to install it would be beneficial for your audience,” says Chacon Guzman.

He continues, " Home Depot has done a fantastic job of doing this. While they inform and educate their customers on their products, they also add a quick ‘how-to’ for the more knowledgeable person who just needs a short answer explained in a video."

As for social media, Annabelle Nyst, former senior content manager at HubSpot and current principal social content manager at G-P, says it's hard to compare it to blogs as each platform serves different purposes.

“Social content doesn't always have the shelf life or the discoverability of blog posts,” says Nyst. “It's more about consistently meeting your audience where they are, in the right moments, engaging with them one-on-one, and establishing trust via community building.”

She adds that social media can be a great way to amplify your blog posts. And vice versa, blog posts can serve as inspiration for social content.

If using both, Nyst recommends pulling the most compelling points from your blog posts, creating social-first content, and using it to drive traffic back to your blog.

With all that said, blogs don't come without their disadvantages. AJ Beltis, a principal content marketing manager at HubSpot, mentions the high drop-off rates often seen in blog posts.

“Blogs lack the interactivity that many crave due to its nature as written content,” says Beltis. “This challenges blog writers to hook their readers in a few short sentences without having the benefit of special effects or audio engineers available to their video and podcast creating counterparts.”

What it often comes down to is your brand goals and which channels will help you meet them. Podcasts, for example, are better for branding while blogs serve better for top-of-the-funnel engagement.

“Blog posts are an acquisition juggernaut. There's a clear path that any seasoned marketer can follow. Podcasts, however, best serve as a brand opportunity,” says Brown.

“You wouldn't measure a series of blog posts on their brand uplift ability, just like you wouldn't measure a podcast show's lead generation. That is unless you like gray hairs and a serious lack of sleep.”

At the end of the day, the best marketing channel is the one that supports your goals, and I believe blogs still have plenty of runway left.

Why Blogs Are Still Impactful

From an investment perspective, blogs may be a better long-term investment for lead generation.

“I could spend $200K to hire a full-time writer, SEO expert, and conversion rate optimization (CRO) specialist to work on my blog. By combining those skill sets, I'm going to be able to create a blog that drives organic traffic to my website and converts it into leads for my business all year long,” says Dahmani.

She continues, “Or, I could put the same $200K into an advertising campaign and maybe get a couple of thousand leads over the course of the ad campaign. But once the campaign ends, so does my lead flow.”

Dahmani adds that the majority of HubSpot's blog-generated leads come from older blog posts. This means that blogging can be a great lead source long after posts are published. Aja Frost, senior director of global growth at HubSpot, echoes this sentiment.

“Organic traffic is more important than ever. Unlike paid traffic, which stops coming in the second your budget runs out, organic traffic is mostly self-sustaining after you've put in the time and effort to create a blog post,” she says.

She adds that most content management systems (CMS) have SEO tools integrated into their platforms, which makes it easier to optimize your posts.

Blogging can also be valuable in shaping a brand's product positioning.

“Blogs are still one of the best channels we have to create narratives around our product,” says HubSpot Product Marketing Manager Alex Girard. “They offer us the opportunity to address trends we see in the market, how those trends impact the reader, and how our product might be able to help them meet that trend successfully. They're also great for telling customer success stories.”

He adds that when using your blog to market your product, the content doesn't have to be promotional. When you establish yourself as a thought leader and gain the trust of your audience, they will organically look into your products and services.

With that said, it's going to take more than good content to have a successful blog.

“Growth without a goal isn't going to help your business – if 10,000 people are reading your blog, but none of them fit your persona, that's not going to do anything for your company,” says HubSpot's Director of Content Marketing Karla Hesterberg.

“Focus on something attainable, like generating new contacts, and make sure every post you're putting out has that goal in mind.”

She adds that one of the biggest mistakes brands make is creating content only for people at the decision-making stage.

With so many stages between reading a blog and making a purchase, marketers should have posts geared at users in every stage with corresponding offers.

Learn more about that through HubSpot's business blogging course.

From an SEO perspective, brands may also struggle with generating traffic because they're thinking blog first, link building second.

“What I often notice is that marketers see 'blogging' and 'link building' as two different disciplines. First, they write the blog posts, then they think about how to earn backlinks to them,” says Irina Nica, former senior product marketing manager at HubSpot and current senior product marketing manager at SurveyMonkey.

“Instead, they should include linkable assets into their regular content calendar, alongside other types of articles that are maybe designed for generating organic or social media traffic.”

Despite the many benefits we‘ve gone over, blogging isn’t always the best strategy for every brand. Why? Well, what if your ideal user persona doesn't read blogs? What if they prefer emails instead?

“Some brands have great email communication and workflows where they provide people with downloadable offers where they don't have to go somewhere else to get the information, it's just in their inbox straight away,” says Sandra Mpouma, head of digital marketing at Centura (Formerly RationalFX) and Xendpay.

“You don't necessarily need a blog as long as you're offering something in exchange. I think the blog has always been: offer something for free in exchange for that user interaction.”

So, in that case, blogs wouldn't exactly be dead, more so irrelevant.

Why Marketing Isn't Dead

If you‘ve made it this far and you’re still wondering whether marketing itself is dead — let's clear that up, too. Despite what some headlines suggest, marketing isn’t going anywhere.

In fact, it's more influential than ever. And that applies to both traditional strategies and digital initiatives.

The global content marketing industry is experiencing massive growth. Just a few years ago, global content marketing industry revenue was estimated at roughly $63 billion U.S. dollars. Currently, it’s projected to increase to over $107 billion by 2026, according to Statista.

“There's a reason why Nike and McDonald's continue to invest millions every month in marketing even though they're already household names. There's a reason why the top musicians and artists still do promotion prior to their latest album release,” says Simmonds.

“Marketing isn't to be seen as just an expense. It's an investment. And if you make an investment that is rooted in a strategic plan — that investment should return dividends for years (maybe decades) to come.”

So no, marketing isn’t dead. It‘s just evolving. And for brands willing to meet the moment with quality content, smart distribution, and a clear value prop — it’s still one of the most powerful growth levers you have.

Blogging Is Far From Dead

Here’s the bottom line: Not every marketing tactic works for every brand, but blogs aren’t going anywhere.

They’re still one of the most effective ways to build trust, drive traffic, and capture leads over time. They’ve evolved, yes. They’re harder to win with, sure. But they’re far from dead.

So for now, blogs, you can step off the chopping block.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in January 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

41 Instagram features, hacks, & tips everyone should know about [new data]

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

I’ve been in content marketing for about eight years, and I’ll tell you this golden nugget of truth for free: You can’t cheat your way to success in this game. And that’s especially true regarding marketing on a highly visual platform like Instagram.

In my experience, it takes dedication, consistency, and hard work to build a reputable Instagram account. However, I’m all for Instagram hacks that make account-building easier, especially since HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report revealed that 29% of marketers believe Instagram will see increased investment in 2025. (See where other Meta channels stack up in comparison.)

So, whether you’re posting for business or pleasure, countless lesser-known features, settings, search options, and Instagram tips (as well as tricks and hacks) that can help take your Instagram game to the next leve l. And I’ve compiled them all here.

Let’s go!

Table of Contents:

41 Instagram Hacks, Tips, and Features
Instagram Design Features [+ Tips]
Instagram Optimization Features [+ Tips]
Instagram Reels Features
Instagram Stories Features
Instagram User Preferences Features [+ Tips]
How to Get Verified on Instagram

41 Instagram Hacks, Tips, and Features

Instagram Account Features

Note: Before getting started, make sure you’re operating on the latest version of Instagram. At the time of publishing this guide, the latest version is 379.0.0 on iOS and Android.

Please also note that although this article might demonstrate each tip below using an iPhone or Android device, all items on this list are available for both operating systems and can be enjoyed using the same step-by-step instructions.

1. Add and manage multiple accounts from the same device.

As a freelance social media manager working on multiple client accounts, I found this hack an absolute blessing. Managing multiple accounts from the same device made my job more effective, efficient, and, honestly, way easier.

For example, if a scheduled post hit a technical glitch and didn’t go live, I can toggle between accounts and manually post the content (without an arduous log-in process).

I can also complete engagement tasks (i.e., commenting on X amount of relevant posts) for multiple client accounts in one session. I don’t know about you, but I find it much easier to do the same task repeatedly if I’m already in the zone.

But even for personal use, it’s a game changer. Separate account for your dog? Don’t be embarrassed; stand by your puppy profile. Whether it’s a pet or a business account, you can add and manage it alongside your personal account.

Here’s how:

Either hold down on your profile photo icon at the bottom right of the screen or tap on your bolded handle name in your profile.
Here, you will see the current Instagram and Meta accounts listed. Tap Add Instagram account, and you can either log into an existing account or create a new one.

You can also come to this window to toggle between profiles.

2. See all the posts you’ve liked.

Ever wanted to see all the posts you’ve liked in one place? Go to your profile, click the three lines on the top right (Android and iOS), tap Your Activity, and click Likes below Interactions.

Unlike any posts, simply go to the post and deselect the heart icon below it. Don’t worry — the user won’t be notified that you’ve unliked their post.

Pro tip: Looking for a super specific post but you’re not sure how to find it? Above all of your Likes, there’s a small row where you’re able to sort any posts by Author (aka User), Content Type (Posts, Reels, and Threads), Date (Past Week, Past Month, Past Year, or a Custom Date Range), and Newest to Oldest.

3. Hide, delete, or disable comments and likes on your posts.

X may have a more “anything goes” culture of commentary, but my Instagram profile is my domain, and it’s much easier to control who says what on my content. This is especially important for those who manage a business account.

To Filter Comments by Keyword:

Navigate to Settings and Activity by clicking the three lines at the top right of your profile.
Scroll down and click Hidden Words under How others can interact with you.
You can toggle Hide comments to filter general offensive words or click Manage custom words and phrases to add custom filters.

To Hide Comments:

Tap Hide directly under the comment. This will hide it from view, but the original commenter won’t know the comment was hidden.

To Delete Comments:

Hold down on a comment to open up options.
Click Delete to delete the comment. You can also Restrict or Block the individual from commenting again.

To Disable Comments Entirely:

To clarify, you can't turn off comments across your entire profile. However, you can disable them for individual posts:

To do so, start posting an image.
When you reach the page, tap Advanced Settings at the bottom to add a caption, tags, and location.
This will open a screen where you can easily switch on an option labeled Turn Off Commenting.

4. Clear your Instagram search history.

To clear your Instagram search history (on Android and iOS), go to your profile, tap Settings, then Your activity. Tap Recent searches under How you use Instagram and click Clear all.

5. Add another Instagram account to your bio.

Maybe your company has more than one Instagram account for different aspects of your brand. For instance, HubSpot has a verified HubSpot account, a HubSpot Life account, a HubSpot Academy account, and a HubSpot Partners account.

To draw awareness back to its main company page, HubSpot links to the @HubSpot account in its other account bios, like in @HubSpotLife’s account:

Fortunately, you can include another Instagram account in your Instagram bio. To do so, type the “@” sign into your bio and select the account you'd like to tag. Then, click Done.

6. Communicate with your audience using Instagram Broadcast channels.

According to our 2025 State of Marketing Report, the number one trend being explored in 2025 is creating content that reflects your brand’s values (21%).

A great way to try out this trend is through Broadcast Channels, a messaging tool for creators to engage directly with a large group of followers.

Creators can share updates and behind-the-scenes content as text, video, voice notes, and images. Also, just a heads up: followers can’t send messages but can enjoy the content, react to content, and vote in polls.

Check out Doechii’s Broadcast Channel below, where various approved fan accounts send updates and other important news about her music:

Instagram Design Features [+ Tips]

1. Add special fonts to your bio.

Here’s an Instagram bio hack that can make your profile stand out. You can already add emojis to the bio beneath your profile photo, but the keyboard limits your creativity there.

Using a couple of basic third-party websites, you can copy over some more special fonts not often found in the Instagram community. Here’s how:

To Add a Special Font to Your Bio via Mobile:

Add a new font to your Instagram bio via your mobile device using a website like LingoJam.
Open the site on your phone, type your desired bio text in the left-hand text box, and see the same bio text in different typefaces appear on the right.

Carry your chosen font over to your Instagram bio by tapping it and selecting Copy.
Then, open your Instagram app, navigate to your profile, select Edit Profile, tap the Bio section, and paste your chosen font into the empty field.

To Add a Special Font to Your Bio on Desktop:

If you’re editing your Instagram profile on your laptop or desktop, Font Space has a library of fonts you can download and copy into your bio in seconds.

Find a font you like and select Download beneath the font’s sample image, as shown below.

Downloading this font will open a folder on your desktop where you can pull a “.ttf” file that carries the various versions of this font. The file will look something like the screenshot below.

Once the font is copied to the computer’s clipboard, open an internet browser and log onto www.Instagram.com.

Select Edit Profile and paste the downloaded font into the bio field.
Edit the sample text that came with the font to write a new bio as you see fit.

2. Add special characters to your bio.

Beyond customizing your bio with a special font, you can add atypical characters that distinguish you or your brand.

These include §, †, or even ™ — symbols you wouldn‘t find on a smartphone’s keyboard, which is helpful if an Instagram name features a trademarked product name.

To Add Special Characters From Mobile:

Install a free mobile app like Character Pad on your mobile device. This app catalogs nearly every character and symbol you might need but won't find in the 26-letter English alphabet.
Open the app and find a character to add to your Instagram bio.
Simply double-tap the picture of a symbol to paste it into a text box, as shown below.
Then, copy this character to your phone’s clipboard. (For example purposes, I double-tapped the half-moon icon.)

Once the symbol is copied to the clipboard, open Instagram, navigate to your bio, and tap Edit Profile.

Hold down your finger on the field of your bio you want to insert your special character until Paste appears as an option, as shown below.
Tap Paste and then Done.

To Add Special Characters From a PC:

You can insert special characters and symbols through Instagram’s web client on a desktop or laptop. In my opinion, the easiest way to do this is through Microsoft Word’s Advanced Symbol insertion icon and the pop-up menu.

Source

Select the desired symbol or character and copy it to your computer's clipboard.
Then, navigate to Instagram.com and follow the steps above to paste the character into a particular part of your bio.

Note: You might be tempted to simply Google search for the special character you want, but not all special characters from the internet are “clean” when pasted into Instagram. Some might become corrupted or not show up correctly.

3. Use Instagram as a photo editor (without posting anything).

This is one of my favorite Instagram hacks. I don’t always want to share content on Instagram, but I might want to share visual content on a different social platform like LinkedIn.

In my humble opinion, no other social platform matches the photo editing capabilities of Instagram, and I’m an absolute sucker for the filters. So, I use this hack to add a filter and/or crop an image before sharing it to LinkedIn.

I haven’t done a formal A/B test, but my LinkedIn photos with an Instagram filter perform better than those without. Of course, that could be due to the specific type of content I share and my audience. Your results may differ.

To use Instagram as a photo editor without posting anything, publish a picture while your phone is in Airplane mode.

First, go to Settings on Instagram, scroll down to Archiving, and download under Your app and media.
Make sure Save Original Photo is toggled on.

Next, follow the steps to post a photo to Instagram. Upload the photo, edit it, and press Share.
An error message will appear saying the upload failed, but you’ll find the edited image in your phone’s photo gallery.

4. Insert line breaks into your bio and captions.

When you write a caption on Instagram, you’ll see that the keyboard doesn’t allow you to press Enter or Return. The same is true for your bio. So, how do all those people put line breaks in there?

Press the 123 key in the bottom left corner of the keyboard, and the Return key will appear on the bottom right.

Instead of joining the self-congratulatory parade, I decided to call it out. I built the Viral Post Generator, a tool that automatically creates eye-roll-worthy posts, making the formula painfully apparent to everyone. In a delightful twist of irony, this tool mocking viral content went viral itself.

In this post, I'll share how that happened and what I learned about product-market fit, distribution, and modern virality along the way.

The Birth of the Viral Post Generator

About two-and-a-half years ago, I decided I wanted to go viral on LinkedIn. That was my goal: to write a post that would take off. Naturally, I started wondering what truly makes a LinkedIn post go viral in the first place.

So, I did what any curious marketer would do. I scraped over 200,000 posts and filtered them based on engagement metrics to identify distinct patterns among the most successful ones. I specifically checked if keywords were causing them to go viral. After analyzing all that data, it was pretty obvious what was happening.

These viral posts all followed the same formula. The LinkedIn user shared some personal story with lots of dramatic highs and lows, giving vague advice about “hanging in there” or “believing in yourself.”

This insight led me to create the Viral Post Generator, a parody tool that generates cringeworthy LinkedIn posts based on minimal input. The concept was simple:

Tell the generator what you did today.
Add any “inspirational” advice.
Choose a cringe level (low to high).
Get a perfectly crafted viral post that mimics the exact patterns of successful LinkedIn content.

Source

The technical approach was straightforward, especially by today's standards. This was before ChatGPT rolled out to the public. Using the most viral posts of all time as inspiration, I created about 50-100 templates to serve as the foundation.

For the interactive element, an AWS library provided natural language processing to analyze user inputs, match them with the right template, and even adjust the text slightly to fit the sentence structure. The entire project came together on the no-code platform Adalo, proving that deep technical skills aren't necessary to create something that truly resonates with people.

How a Parody Tool Actually Went Viral

Having built a tool that parodied viral content, my next challenge was getting people to use it. The initial launch fell completely flat. After sharing the Viral Post Generator across X, LinkedIn, and Reddit, all I heard was crickets. Nobody seemed interested.

This initial failure taught me a crucial lesson: Having a good product isn't enough. Distribution strategy makes all the difference.

Pivoting tactics, I began tagging social media profiles that regularly criticized LinkedIn's culture of self-promotion. By positioning the tool as being “inspired by them” (despite never having interacted with these accounts before), these larger accounts began sharing my product, giving me instant access to their established audiences.

Source

On Reddit, my posts initially faced deletion for promotional violations. By reframing the conversation to involve the community, telling them I created the tool for them, and inviting them to share their best creations, these restrictions transformed into opportunities for engagement.

People who feel like they helped spark an idea are much more likely to support it. By giving people credit, I gave them a reason to share what I’d built. It was one of the most effective ways I found to reach audiences I would’ve never accessed as a newcomer.

When Acquisition Comes Knocking

As the Viral Post Generator started to take off, I got a message from the founder of Taplio, a platform that helps users grow their LinkedIn presence. He saw the tool’s potential as a brand awareness play and wanted to acquire it.

Source

At first, I wasn’t sure. There was something incredibly satisfying about building something that had my name on it. But as traffic started to slow and the reality of sustaining momentum kicked in, the offer started to look more appealing. I was tired. Keeping the tool alive meant constantly promoting it — posting, replying, and finding new ways to keep people interested.

Behind the scenes, the technical pressure was even more intense. Sleepless nights became the norm as I constantly worried about the site crashing while thousands of visitors were actively using it. As a solo creator with no support team, the stress of being “internet famous” had quickly lost its charm.

After weighing these factors, I quoted what I considered a high acquisition price. The Taplio founder immediately declined, not even offering a counteroffer. Instead, we agreed to a 24-hour test: I would include an ad for Taplio in my generator to measure its brand awareness value before determining a fair price.

The Last-Minute Viral Push

As the 24-hour window started, I noticed our numbers dropping. I needed one last shot at making this work. I thought, “Where haven't I tried posting yet?” I remembered there's a subreddit called r/InternetIsBeautiful where people share cool new tools they find online.

I posted there, and it blew up immediately. Someone saw my post on Reddit and shared it on X. That post went crazy viral. Within a few hours, it hit 22 million people and nearly 180,000 likes. It was completely unexpected.

The chain reaction intensified as Reddit's official accounts began sharing the tool. Instagram pages with millions of followers picked it up, and thousands of users started posting about it across social platforms. In a single day, the generator reached 1.4 million users who created and shared their parody posts.

Source

Then came the technical nightmare. Too many simultaneous visitors crashed not just my tool but the entire hosting platform. An Adalo staff member later confirmed their system went down specifically because of the traffic surge to my generator. After several tense hours, everything came back online, and the flood of users continued unabated.

By the time our 24-hour test concluded, the Taplio founder didn't even attempt to negotiate. He simply agreed to my original asking price — a clear indication I could have asked for more. But at that point, I was ready to close the chapter. What had begun as a weekend side project had transformed into an acquisition success story in just seven breathless days.

The Unbundling of Word-of-Mouth

Beyond the acquisition, this experience revealed something profound about how content spreads in today's digital landscape. Our conventional understanding of virality, one person telling two people who each tell two more, has become outdated.

what I call “word-of-Slack” and “word-of-WhatsApp.” True virality now occurs in private messaging platforms and closed communities, not on public social media feeds.

Modern word-of-mouth has fragmented into what I call “word-of-Slack” and “word-of-WhatsApp.” True virality now occurs in private messaging platforms and closed communities, not on public social media feeds. This insight fundamentally changed my approach to designing shareable experiences.

When I built the generator, I didn‘t bother with those social sharing buttons that nobody clicks anyway. Instead, I just wrote, "Take a screenshot and share it." Simple as that. I made it so users couldn’t copy the text directly. They had to take screenshots.

This was one of the best decisions I made. When people took screenshots, they grabbed my yellow background and watermark, too. They could share them anywhere they wanted, in their group chats, Slack channels, or DMs. My branding went along for the ride. This simple approach worked way better than fancy sharing widgets ever could have.

Source

Post-launch analytics confirmed that private channels drove the majority of new users. By designing for these intimate sharing contexts rather than public platforms, the tool achieved exponentially greater reach than conventional social media strategies could have delivered.

The Amazon Approach to Product Development

Amazon has a brilliant framework for developing new products and features. Their teams start with the press release in mind, literally typing up what they imagine the TechCrunch or Business Insider headline might be before writing a single line of code.

This “working backward” approach forces creators to focus on what makes a product newsworthy. Instead of trying to figure out what features to develop and how to build them, Amazon teams start from the end: The headline that will announce the product. Only after they've clearly envisioned this announcement do they work backward to develop it.

For the Viral Post Generator, I applied this exact approach. Before development, I envisioned how tech publications might cover a tool that parodied LinkedIn's self-promotion culture. This mental exercise clarified what to build and why people would care enough to share it.

The coverage that eventually came from Business Insider, The Guardian, and BuzzFeed followed patterns remarkably similar to what I had imagined — not by coincidence, but because I deliberately created something designed to provoke a specific conversation.

By starting with the headline you hope to earn, you create a North Star that guides every development decision toward a product worthy of that coverage.

Tapping Into Shared Experience

Despite all the technical aspects behind my generator's success, the real magic came from tapping into something deeply human. I connected with a daily frustration that LinkedIn professionals experienced but rarely discussed openly.

What I created wasn‘t just a parody tool. It was permission to laugh at something we all found ridiculous, yet continued to participate in. I’ll never forget watching people's reactions when they used it: “Yes! Someone finally said it!” That moment of recognition created a connection far more potent than any technical feature could have.

This emotional element explains why my project spread so quickly. People who feel understood don‘t just use your product. They champion it. I learned something huge from all this: Great marketing isn’t about solving problems or adding features. It's about making people feel seen.

In a world where everyone‘s fighting for attention, sometimes the best strategy isn’t being the loudest or most cutting-edge. It‘s being the one who puts words to what everyone’s been thinking all along.

Discrepancies experienced by Black content creators [new data + expert insights]

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

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

This piece is in collaboration with HubSpot Podcast Network’s Amplifying Voices campaign partnership with The Gathering Spot.

Black content creators, let's take a walk down memory lane together.

I remember it as if it were yesterday. (I bet you do, too.) It was 2020, and Charli D’Amelio shared a video on TikTok doing the notorious Renegade dance. The video blew up and, to this day, it remains her claim to accelerated internet fame. Since then, Charli’s amassed 150M followers on the app, has had various brand deals with household names — her family even got an unscripted reality docuseries called “The D’Amelio Show.”

After Charli went viral for her performances of the Renegade dance, thousands of TikTok users followed her lead, danced, and attributed its popularity solely to D’Amelio. But she didn’t create it — Jalaiah Harmon, a young Black girl from Atlanta — did. Thus, Harmon’s erasure from her dance is attributed to racial bias as she’s Black and D’Amelio is White. It’s a classic case of creation without credit — and a reminder that, as a Black content creator, going viral doesn’t always mean being seen.

Harmon’s experience is just one of thousands, as many Black content creators face inequalities, from receiving credit for trends to late payments to algorithm biases.

In this post, I’ll delve deeper into some of these inequalities, share expert advice on overcoming these roadblocks from Natasha Pierre, Host of the Shine Online Podcast, and Ross Simmonds, Founder and CEO of Foundation Marketing and host of Create Like The Greats Podcast, and provide some suggestions for how you can navigate and challenge the disparities baked into the creator economy.

Table of Contents:

Discrepancies Experienced By Black Content Creators — Key Stats [New Data]
Discrepancies Experienced By Black Content Creators (+ Expert Thoughts)
How can Black content creators rise above discrepancies? ( + Expert Advice)

Discrepancies Experienced By Black Content Creators — Key Stats [New Data]

As content creation through short-form social media platforms (primarily Instagram and TikTok) has become more prevalent over the past few years, Black (and Brown) creators haven’t just propelled this space forward — in a lot of ways, they’ve built it and continue to redefine it.

However, despite making massive contributions to both the social media and content creation spaces, like setting viral trends on TikTok or innovating storytelling approaches through YouTube, Black content creators seem to receive the short end of the stick when it comes to things like compensation, brand partnerships, and overall visibility across platforms; this oversight doesn’t go unnoticed. (I’ll share more on this, along with some expert insight, later on.)

If you’re interested in getting a closer look at how Black and Brown creators are disproportionally impacted by the algorithms, biases, and structures of the creator economy, take a look at some recent data from Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2025 Influencer Marketing Report:

58% of influencers say they’ve been discriminated against as an influencer on any social platform.

77% of Black influencers fall into the nano and micro-influencer tiers, with compensation from brands averaging $27,000 annually, compared to 59% of white influencers.

Only 23% of Black influencers, compared to 41% of white influencers, make it into the macro-influencer tier.

Nearly 22% of influencers claim discrimination based on their physical features.

Discrepancies Experienced By Black Content Creators (+ Expert Thoughts)

As I’ve previously mentioned, Black creators have sustained the content creation community and social media landscape with their labor and visions, but are often met with unfair, unjust, and inequitable treatment, whether it be through a lack of acknowledgment of their creativity or being excluded from significant monetization opportunities.

In short, Black content creators aren’t just being undervalued; there are more serious attempts at quiet erasure looming about, and it’s time folks start calling a spade a spade.

However, as the world of influencing and content creation has grown, I will say that there has been a surge of folks — some Black, others not — speaking out and advocating for better treatment of creators of color, Black ones specifically.

All of this said, I’ve listed the three most common disparities experienced by Black content creators, supported by real experiences and recent data. Have a look:

1. Pay Disparities

Black influencers are paid 35% less than White influencers. Most of the time, that means creators aren’t getting paid what they’re worth, and sometimes they’re being paid late. There’s also a lack of pay transparency, so Black creators don’t know what others are getting paid if they’re being shorted and what to negotiate for.

92% of influencers responding to MSL’s Time to Face the Influencer Pay Gap research study said that pay transparency could be the single most crucial factor in eliminating the racial pay gap in the creator economy.

2. Constant Invalidation (from Brands and So-Called Fans)

When Golloria George, one of social media’s resident Black girls in beauty, received Youthforia’s Date Night Foundation and shade-tested it against her own deep complexion for an ongoing content creation series she has on TikTok, the mass response was, to say the least, uncalled for and incredibly disheartening.

After Golloria was sent a PR package of Youthforia’s products, including the brand’s “updated” Date Night Foundation in deeper, dark skin-friendly tones, she took to her series “The Darkest Shade” to truly test the brand’s shade awareness and inclusivity.

However, after applying what appeared to be entirely jet black facepaint (although Youthforia falsely advertised its Date Night Foundation as a diverse product) and proclaiming that Youthforia had more work to do in its shade development labs, the social media sphere took to her comments and their own platforms to discredit her experience — one that could have been completely avoided if Youthforia had done the proper work to design a product that was inclusive of darker skintones to begin with.

After sharing this post, Youthforia received backlash, and its products were even removed from retailers IRL and online. While Golloria was scrutinized, bullied, and dismissed, had she not stood firm in her commitment to shade inclusivity in the beauty industry, Youthforia could have continued to profit from Black women and other women with more expansive expectations for its foundation range.

The lesson here? Even when you’re seen as a Black content creator, brands still fail to recognize the impact of your content, especially if it's rooted in diversity and visibility of marginalized groups. If you ever find yourself in a situation similar to Golloria’s, follow her playbook: Know your worth, choose peace over payment.

3. Algorithm Biases

Although algorithm biases are unconfirmed, Black creators report feeling the effects anyway. Many say their content doesn’t perform as well as other creators’, even if it is the same quality. The creator below even made light of this reality, but simultaneously, also highlighted how demoralizing it is for Black folks trying to build a platform on social media:

More notably, Black creators have noticed their content performs worse when discussing racial equality (or related topics). Check out a testament from Pariss Chandler, Founder and CEO of Black Tech Pipeline, about why this is likely happening across algorithms globally:

In a February 2025 report titled “Recommending Hate: How TikTok’s Search Engine Algorithms Reproduce Societal Bias,” The Institute for Strategic Dialogue revealed that across almost two-thirds of the videos (197) in their analysis pool, “TikTok’s search engine and recommender algorithm perpetuated harmful stereotypes.”

The study further emphasized, “this content systematically associated presumed members of marginalised groups with derogatory and violent search prompts.”

Unfortunately, algorithms probably won’t stop being biased. However, Black content creators won’t stop creating either. If it’s any consolation, here’s an empowering truth to believe as you push through the noise: Black creators and talent have always built culture — algorithms are just trying to keep up.

How can Black content creators rise above discrepancies? (+ Expert Advice)

Black creators are often left to determine and experiment with how to gain visibility in the creator economy. Additionally, tons of essential resources for success are selfishly gatekept, making it even harder for them to permeate the creator economy.

If you’re here, reading this article, you likely have many questions about how to grow your platform and receive equitable treatment as a Black (or Brown) creator. Lucky for you, I asked Ross and Natasha what they suggest you do, especially if you want to:

Land meaningful brand partnerships without compromising your values.
Create content that sparks impact, not just engagement.
Get paid fairly and consistently for the content you create.

Check out their advice and words of wisdom below:

1. Build community with other Black creators.

A great way for Black creators to build themselves up is — you likely guessed it — to find and build community with other Black creators.

Here’s why: You’ll get to know other people with the same experiences, and you can use your different backgrounds to help each other out. These days, you can make this happen in a variety of ways. Here’s what I suggest to start nurturing intentional, empowering connections as a Black content creator:

Build through brand trips/experiences (‘cause loyal followers love to see a good link-up between their favorite creators!)
Build by using a personable social media engagement strategy (i.e., commenting on the posts of creator mutuals, collaborating with them across content, etc.)
Build by joining online communities, groups, or digital creator collectives that center Black and Brown voices (i.e., Black Women Photographers and Black Girls Who Write, for example)

Ross also adds, “The internet is an amazing place to find other people who are creators, and you can create some amazing relationships with people in a similar world as you.” He adds, “There are a lot more people who are Black who are creating things online, so it’s easier to find someone to look up to.”

2. Show up for people in your community.

Natasha says that the simple act of showing up for people in your same groups can truly, sincerely make all the difference. “We just need to be taking up space and building our own networks and continuing to show up for our communities and advocate for your own communities as well,” she emphasizes.

When you build community connections, you can bring people up with you. Ross, similarly to Natasha, says he enjoys creating a path for others: “I want to be able to create content that helps other creators create great content and helps people see the opportunities and the potential to open doors.”

Natasha also says that if she’s asked to participate in a campaign or speaker lineup, she makes the extra effort to find out who else is involved (and if the organizers need her to recommend other creators in the category).

While these opportunities are meaningful and validating, she warns that the excitement of being invited or considered can make it easy to forget about the impact of creators’ voices and how they can support others’ careers. So if you can help someone else get into “the room where it happens,” do it.

Plus, you can’t forget a very important bonus: Having a network of creators who support, uplift, and share each other’s content can expose people to new audiences eager to follow people and consume new content. Despite what folks may argue, sometimes the biggest platform you’ll build is the one you make together.

3. Learn from others and their experiences.

Meeting your first creator milestone can feel like a long, multi-faceted, drawn-out process, but learning from other awesome influencers of color can shorten the learning curve and expand your creative toolkit.

Consume content from all different creators and learn ways to apply their strategies to your own. You’ll get exposed to so many new ideas and inputs, and what you learn can help you come up with new, unique stories nobody has told yet.

Ross says, “I always try to say that everyone can learn from every creator, even if they have a thousand followers. I get inspired by a random mommy blogger; I get inspired by a random psychologist; I’ll get inspired by a therapist on Instagram who puts up posts that are inspiring; I follow business folks … everyone.”

4. Focus on what you can control, let go of what you can’t.

Say it with me now: Sometimes, Black creators have to focus on what they can control to make progress with what’s outside their control. For instance, while you may want to partner with larger brands, it might not be possible at the stage you’re at in your creator career.

For example, Natasha notes that small brands struggle to find opportunities just as small creators do. “There are so many small brands that are doing such great things. Of course, smaller brands are going to have less budget, but when there are opportunities to partner with those smaller brands, I think that’s a way to show how things can be done differently,” she explains. By partnering with a smaller brand, you’re building your influence and community in a more attainable way.

Focusing on what you can control also means recognizing when an opportunity doesn’t align with your standards and abilities. Ross advises, “You have to focus on your circle of control … I can control the fact that I’ll probably decline if I don’t think something isn’t fair … otherwise it becomes a very draining industry and a mental tax that I don’t believe is oftentimes worth paying.”

5. Don’t be afraid, ask for what you’re worth.

For Black folks, asking for what we know we’re worth can seem scary because of the potential for rejection. I know this all too well, but here’s one piece of empowering advice that I can offer: You only know the possibilities you’re unlocking if you ask.

Ross says, “I’ve found that you will be pleasantly surprised if you do ask for what you deserve…they’re either going to say yes or no.” If they say no, they probably aren’t a brand you want to be associated with anyways. “Walk away and be okay with that,” he adds.

Your community networks can also be helpful, especially as you can ask around and see what other people are getting paid for opportunities. Ross has no shame in his game; he shares that he’s even asked before, noting, “If I know someone who’s engaged in these organizations or is also working for them, I’m not afraid to send a DM and ask people what they got paid before I give a quote, and I get clarity on what I should be offering.”

Black Content Creators: Take Up Space, On Your Own Terms

The discrepancies that Black creators in the creator economy face can seem like a never-ending, discouraging battle, but it’s not impossible to overcome.

The more people who have honest conversations about these issues and hold brands and platforms accountable, the more pressure there is actually to shift the system. Change doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen when creators, communities, and allies commit to pushing forward together.

So, to my Black content creators: keep asking the hard questions, making stellar content, showing up with excellence, and don’t be afraid to take up space. Because if the system wasn’t built for you, that just means it’s time to build something better.

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

36 landing page examples + conversion secrets from HubSpot strategists

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

Pretty landing page examples are nice to look at, but let’s be real: You want yours to convert well — which is exactly what these landing page examples do.

I’ve gathered 36 of the best landing page examples on the internet, including ones from HubSpot’s talented Channel Monetization and Conversion Rate Optimization teams.

And of course, I picked their brains for their secrets to creating high-performing landing pages. Prepare to be inspired.

Table of Contents

What is the purpose of a landing page?
What is a good landing page conversion rate?
Lead Magnet Landing Page Examples
Great Examples of Landing Page Design

Want more specific examples? Browse by landing page type:

Simple Landing Pages
Product Landing Pages
Webinar Landing Pages
Course Landing Pages
B2B Landing Pages
Membership Landing Pages
Newsletter Landing Pages

A landing page might engage a customer by offering a lead magnet, something free (e.g., ebook, webinar, or checklist) that relates to the product or the company's industry.

When a prospect fills out the form and receives valuable content, they might be even more likely to trust your brand and become a customer.

Quick tip: Want an easy way to add a form to your landing page? HubSpot’s free form builder tool can help you fill your CRM with leads from your website.

I’ll share an example of when a landing page can be especially effective.

If a business wants to sell an AI product that helps salespeople, it might create a landing page that offers audiences a free video on how to use AI in the sales industry. Interested audiences might offer their contact information in exchange for valuable information.

If they enjoy the video they've received, they might be more likely to respond to or purchase a product from a company rep who calls them.

Another quick tip: How about an AI product that helps with landing pages? HubSpot's Campaign Assistant turns your key value props into effective landing page copy in just a few clicks.

Plus, the Landing Page Creator GPT can craft copy for you in minutes and even create a page in HubSpot's CMS with the click of a button.

In another scenario, a publishing company that targets an audience of chief executives might create a landing page that invites audiences to sign up for a webinar hosted by an executive at a major company.

After giving their email address on the signup form presented on the landing page, the leads get an email with the webinar dates and login information, as well as instructions on how to sign up for the publication's newsletter or subscription.

If the webinar pleases the user, they might sign up for the newsletter or a subscription to keep up with similar content.

Although their purpose is simple, successful landing pages require some detailed planning and creative testing.

Even after launching your landing page, you’ll want to pay attention to conversion rates to see how well it’s doing.

What is a good landing page conversion rate?

According to WordStream, the average landing page conversion rate is 2.35% across industries, with the top 25th percentile of landing pages hitting 5.31% or higher.

You can see the full WordStream conversion rate analysis here.

To calculate your conversion rate, divide the number of conversions a webpage generated by the number of visitors the page received and multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

If your conversion rate isn’t close to the average just yet, don’t worry. Nailing those percentages can be challenging at first, especially if you have a lot of regular page visitors.

Luckily, there are several simple conversion rate optimization strategies that can help you boost your current rate quickly.

Regardless of what your business is selling or the conversion action you hope to instigate, it's helpful to get inspired by seeing what other great landing pages look like.

Check out the landing page examples below.

Lead Magnet Landing Page Examples

I consulted HubSpot’s Channel Monetization and CRO teams to find some of their highest-performing lead magnet landing pages — and I asked them for their top tips. Read on for more.

1. HubSpot’s Social Media Trends Report (SaaS: Marketing)

Source

As soon as this landing page loads, I’m met with a clear headline highlighting exactly what I‘m getting: “Social Media Trends Report + Expert Panel.” There’s also the “2025” to signal that this is fresh, not outdated.

Beneath that, the five “Go to Section” buttons allow me to jump to the section I‘m most interested in — perfect for busy readers. I love the quote call-outs featuring the major thought leaders featured in the report. It immediately builds trust, as I know I get to hear from HubSpot’s Global Head of Brand Marketing if I download it.

This landing page also builds visual appeal with statistics, fantastic for skimming and getting the hardest-hitting highlights, like 25% of shoppers having purchased directly via social media.

How to Implement This Yourself

One of the first questions that came to mind when I saw this landing page was this: How do you create compelling landing page copy without giving so much away that visitors don’t actually download the full report?

“The secret is actually in the content creation process more so than even the landing page,” says Drue Stinnett, HubSpot Media's senior premium content strategist.

“We are very diligent with these original research reports to make sure that they have this unique perspective from what it's like to run social media at HubSpot, like how the brand team is thinking about this, and having really concrete examples from other brands who are doing social really well.”

In other words, while the landing page shows the what (trends), the how (unique insights from top brands) can only be found inside the report — a strong way to entice downloads.

2. HubSpot’s 40+ AI Tools Guide (SaaS: Marketing)

Source

This beautiful landing page is short and sweet, with a clickable image slideshow that gives you a sneak peek of the actual guide.

It has hit an above-industry-average conversion rate, so I asked the HubSpot content marketing manager who worked on this page, Ariel Gonzalez, for its secret to success.

"This landing page succeeds because it immediately addresses a specific pain point and clearly shows what readers will get in return for their information,” she tells me.

“My best tip: Strike the perfect balance between teasing your offer‘s value and giving too much away. Every line of copy should showcase what’s inside—whether it's toolkits, workflows, or how-to guides.

“Use relevant and appealing images that tease your offer, keep formatting scannable, and always answer the reader‘s question: ’Is this worth my contact information?‘ Make them feel confident they’re getting genuine value, not just another generic resource."

How to Implement This Yourself

I wanted to give you a deeper dive into how to boost conversions on your landing pages. So I turned to Ben Young, senior marketing manager of conversion rate optimization at HubSpot. His team designed the template that this landing page was built with.

“One of the keys to creating landing pages that convert is to match the content of the page to the user intent,” Young says.

To match content to the user’s intent, you need to get familiar with the marketing funnel stage your user is in (the lower down the funnel, the more likely they’ll convert):

Top of funnel (Awareness)
Middle of funnel (Consideration)
Bottom of funnel (Decision)

HubSpot’s offer landing pages are built for visitors who are typically coming from a blog post like this one. They read the blog post, see the related content offer CTA, click through, and arrive on the landing page.

At that point, they’ve moved down to the middle of the funnel. They’ve already taken a step toward the content by clicking the CTA.

“They are already interested and have shown intent to move forward,” explains Young. “They have context about what we are offering, and they have engaged. What we have to do next is remove points of friction.”

That’s where these high-converting offer landing pages come in. Young’s team has designed them to be free of distractions. They feature:

Clear CTAs
Action-oriented language
Tangible value
Social proof

“We have to do everything we can to reinforce the expectations we have set, make it easy for them to reach the finish line, and avoid introducing anything that will distract,” he says.

3. HubSpot’s Financial Planning Templates (SaaS: Marketing)

Source

This financial planning templates landing page immediately tells the benefits (“organize, analyze, and plan your personal and business finances with ease.”)

It then shows you exactly what you’re getting, with an image of the spreadsheets.

“Abstract images, although more attractive and creative, haven't helped us much,” says Young. “We tend to use images of the product itself. The impression I get is that users want to clearly see what they are going to get rather than nice imagery.”

How to Implement This Yourself

You’ll notice that the landing page design isn’t overly ornate. Simple designs can convert just as well (if not better) than more complex ones. And don’t neglect the copywriting.

“Copy actually matters a lot, not just design,” says Cyan Zhong, a HubSpot senior premium content strategist who writes copy for our entrepreneurial content.

“Since I‘ve been doing these landing pages, I’ve definitely started to pay more attention to how we describe the offer upfront because above the fold is more important,” says Zhong. “Sometimes people don't even scroll down. So I try to be as conversational as possible and basically be as direct as possible.”

She recommends avoiding jargon, and instead, using straightforward language that shows what the visitor will get. Her team has found that including numbers and words that convey value is extremely effective.

“If we want to try and squeeze out a little more CVR lift,” adds Young, “I've found it helps to orient the copy to focus on the benefits first and the features second.”

I know not everyone is fortunate enough to have Cyan on their team, so if you don’t have dedicated writing support, we’ve got you covered. HubSpot created this free custom GPT that generates landing page copy for you.

And if you need help creating the entire landing page (including copy), check out HubSpot’s AI Landing Page Creator.

Pro tip: Stinnett’s best piece of advice for high-performing landing pages? Trust your data.

“It is the bane of being a marketer,” she says, “but we will test things or try new image styles or something, and I think it looks amazing — it hits our conversion rate in a negative way.”

That’s why it’s so crucial to run landing page split tests.

“Your creative instinct is amazing when you're planning these tests and trying new ideas,” Stinnett tells me. But when your big idea doesn’t perform as well as expected? “You just have to let go of your pride and respond to what your clicks and conversions are telling you.”

Great Examples of Landing Page Design

4. Airbnb (Travel and Leisure)

This Airbnb landing page is a one-stop shop for visitors curious about where to book a holiday rental. It features several options like beachfronts, cabins, and amazing views.

Once a user clicks, they can easily view the potential home, read testimonials, and view the pricing. What’s even better is a user’s ability to select a date to book on the same page and convert on the spot if the info is convincing.

How to Implement This Yourself

AirBnB's design style is clean and platform agnostic, which makes for a pleasant site for users on iOS and Android. Follow conventions on important elements like navigation, system iconography, contextual actions, and interactions for a similar experience.

5. Wix (SaaS: Web Development)

Wix has turned its landing page builder into a creative playground with a captivating digital illustration that follows you down the page. It’s not overwhelming or distracting — it’s carefully balanced with white space and clear text.

Wix’s use of design to emphasize certain touchpoints on the page. For instance, the mountain's peak in the illustration points to the main CTA, encouraging visitors to get started.

How to Implement This Yourself

Explore your brand's color palette and story. Make it reflect your mission and identity in an eye-catching way that differentiates yours from competitors. And if you need a guide, create a custom color palette for your brand here.

6. ExpressVPN (Digital Privacy and Security)

What do I love most about this landing page? It's not what it has, but what it doesn't — a navigation bar! By removing the navigation bar, ExpressVPN shines a spotlight on the primary CTA.

Why do we take an anti-navigation stance for landing pages? They distract visitors and lead them away from the intended action. Removing navigation links from landing pages can increase conversion rates.

How to Implement This Yourself

The choice to use a serif typeface speaks to ExpressVPN's established trust and authority. Differentiate your brand from the trend of straight lines and rigid, sharp edges and try to find fluidity and warmth in your style.

7. Row House (Fitness)

Besides its sleek design, this landing page gets bonus points for the header that gives prospects a free first class.

I also like the copy, which speaks to both new and experienced fitness pros. What’s better is including access to a fitness community that can help keep customers accountable for their fitness goals.

How to Implement This Yourself

Row House focused its website design to be minimal and get people to sign up. When you design your own landing page, ditch a fussy design and focus on how you can turn prospects into customers quicker.

8. Codecademy (SaaS: Education)

I like this page because it's simple in both copy and design.

The form on the page is simple and requires only an email address and password. Or, you can use your LinkedIn, Facebook, GitHub, or Google Plus login, shortening the conversion path even further.

The landing page also offers real-life success stories, testimonials, and other forms of social proof for visitors who need more information before creating an account. This helps make the potentially intimidating world of coding more approachable for beginners.

How to Implement This Yourself

Keep your landing page design centered on value. Let your webpage be more of a way to showcase your satisfied customers.

9. Sunbasket (Ecommerce: Food and Nutrition)

Sunbasket’s landing page ticks all the boxes by communicating its audience’s challenge in simple terms. People like me want an easy and convenient process in making meals.

I want the best quality food that’s organic. And I want my

What you're doing wrong in your marketing emails [according to an email expert]

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 00:10:23 +0300

One of the hardest parts of our three-lesson format is deciding what NOT to include, and a lot of really useful advice is gathering dust in my Google Drive.

This week, I’ve got three lessons I just couldn’t waste from the most-shared interview in the history of Masters in Marketing. Email marketing expert Jay Schwedelson is back, and this time he’s coming in hot with what you’re (probably) doing wrong with your email marketing.

And, in all honesty, I’ve committed some of these sins with this very newsletter. (Oopsie!)

Jay Schwedelson

Founder, SubjectLine.com; Host, Try This, Not That! For Marketers Only!

Fun fact: Jay takes inspiration from his grandpa, who told him, "Stupider people than you have been able to do it."
Claim to fame: Created one of the top 1% ranked websites in the world.

Lesson 1: Get the dang thing opened.

To kick things off, I asked Schwedelson what common email advice gives him the twitchy eye.

"There's always so much focus on what's inside the email. What does the copy say? Is it compliant? Is it on brand?” He playfully grumbles. “But on average, less than 50% of people are going to open your email.”

In fact, 50% is dreamy. The average marketing email open rate across industries is closer to 42%. (Ours is a lil higher, but that’s because our readers are so smart and cool and good-looking.)

“So the first focus should really be: How do we get the email opened?"

Which isn’t to say you slack off on the content of your emails. If we suddenly pivoted to stories about dryer lint, our open rate would probably crash, right?

Just make sure the elements with the biggest impact on open rate — details like your subject line, preheader, and send time — aren’t just afterthoughts.

“If you focus on getting the email opened with as much energy and intensity as you do on what's in the email, it will radically change the outcome of your marketing performance.”

Lesson 2: Throw out your banned words list.

“One of the biggest myths is that what you write in your subject line is the reason you’re landing in the junk folder. This is information from the year of the flood.”

He’s caught me on this one. When we ran a recent giveaway, I told the team we absolutely could not use the words “prize,” “winner,” or “you’ve won” in our subject lines.

Like me, you probably also fear the word “free” and using exclamation marks. All caps? Neverrrrrr.

“That is not going to get you filtered. It used to, 10 years ago, but technology changed. So I want to liberate everybody. Write whatever you want to write to get the email opened.”

So, what does put you on the naughty or nice list?

“It’s all about engagement. The more you get people to click and interact with your emails, the greater the likelihood is that you will stay in the inbox. That's what the receiving email infrastructures want to see: Hey, this recipient likes interacting with these emails.

"And the irony is that the very tactics that people avoid — the word ‘free,’ an exclamation mark, an emoji — those exact tactics are gonna cause you to get more engagement and stay in the inbox."

Lesson 3: Don’t worry about what “everyone else” is doing.

I asked Schwedelson about a LinkedIn post of his that made me chuckle. It’s a screenshot of every brand using the same shamrock emoji on St. Patrick’s Day.

Image Source

"The funny thing about marketers is that, sometimes, we're too close to it,” he smiles. “So, it’s Mother's Day, you know there's going to be a lot of heart emojis in the subject line, right?”

Until we notice the trend. “And then marketers will be like, well, I'm not gonna do that 'cause everybody's doing it."

So I asked him how to be on the right side of history. Do we follow the trend or do we reject it?

He reminds me of something we shared in his first set of lessons: Test everything. Especially the things you don’t like.

If that shamrock emoji gives you a 20% lift in your open rate… do you care if 30 other brands used one, too?

"So just because you, as a marketer, think everybody's doing it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it."

What I hear is: Game on with the

These AI workflows can 10X your marketing productivity [+ video]

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 14:00:04 +0300

Time is money in marketing, so why not use AI workflows to boost productivity? I spoke with some of my colleagues at HubSpot, and they say they've found workflows that maximize their productivity, save time, and act as the perfect automated assistant.

If you‘re looking for workflows that make your work life easier, you’ve come to the right blog.

But before we get into their experiences, let's dive into the benefits of AI workflow automation.

Benefits of Productive AI Workflow Automations

A huge benefit of AI workflow automation is that it can act as an assistant to whom you delegate tasks. My colleagues at the Marketing Against the Grain podcast would agree.

“The thing I've learned about AI is that it works best when you treat it like a collaborator and not just a tool,” says the podcast‘s host, Kipp Bodnar. "It’s there to help you get going. It sparks ideas, making starting just about anything 100 times easier."

And it's because AI can sift through and analyze data much faster and more efficiently than humans, which brings me to my next point: AI workflows can save you hours doing repetitive tasks. Our 2025 State of AI in Marketing report found that AI can save 1-3 hours of work on tasks like:

Media content creation
Text-based content creation, such as blogs and ebooks
Research
Brainstorming

So, what AI workflows can you adopt into your strategy? Let's dive in.

Productive AI Workflows Used by HubSpotters

1. Project Assistant

You've probably heard of Build-A-Bear, but have you heard of Build-Your-Assistant? Okay, that joke was a little cheesy, but the point is, you can build your own AI project assistant that can help you work smarter and not harder.

“A project AI assistant is basically just how you use ChatGPT, Claude, and Google for work,” he says. “It's basically creating, in ChatGPT, a specific project for an outcome you're trying to achieve within a business.”

For example, let's say your goal is to grow demand for your business by 50% year over year, or you want to boost monthly active users for your app or website.

The goals may sound straightforward, but they require the work of teams, individual contributors, direct reports, documents, and more.

“For each of those outcomes and projects, I create a ChatGPT project,” Keiren explains. Not a fan of ChatGPT? That's fine. You can also make a Clause project or a Gemini gem.

Kieren says there are three parts of your AI project assistant: context, templates, and instructions.

Context

The context would be unstructured and structured data, such as meeting transcripts, strategic documents, emails, project correspondence, and deep research.

“All of this information that we have had forever becomes way more valuable and usable because of AI,” says Kipp‘s co-host, Kieren Flanagan. "One of the ways you should think about your use of AI is, ’Am I getting the maximum amount out of the structured and unstructured data I have' before moving on to other use cases."

Templates

Kieren says templates are materials you can give the AI to use, so that when you request a task, it can perform the task in the format you want.

For example, he wanted to craft a memo, and he could upload a memo template and request the AI to create a memo using the template provided.

You could also upload templates for:

Weekly blockers

Bi-weekly momentum drivers
Monthly status updates

Instructions

Your instructions are how you want the AI system to work. What your instructions are or how they look is up to you and your project needs, but for reference, these are the instructions Kieren gives to his ChatGPT AI project manager:

"1. Be clear, concise, and insightful: Keep responses to the point, but ensure you provide enough context to support your conclusions. Prioritize clarity, but don’t sacrifice depth where nuance matters.

2. Ground recommendations in evidence: When referencing internal documentation, cite the exact document name or source clearly (e.g., “2024 Q3 GTM Strategy Doc”). If relevant, include specific excerpts or page numbers.

3. Actively surface blind spots: Don’t just respond to the prompt — proactively identify risks, missed opportunities, or potential second-order effects I may not be considering.

4. Challenge my thinking respectfully: If my assumptions or logic appear flawed, offer a better alternative. Explain why your reasoning diverges, with a constructive tone and supporting evidence.

5. Bring in external perspective where valuable: Use real-world case studies, industry benchmarks, or competitive insights to strengthen recommendations or broaden strategic thinking.

6. Think long-term and systemically: When possible, connect individual tasks or problems to larger strategic goals, org-wide implications, or patterns across projects.

7. Prioritize actionability: End with clear next steps, questions to consider, or options to move forward — especially when the path isn’t obvious."

2. Meeting Assistant

An AI workflow can also be a meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and pulls data from your virtual meetings. This workflow is a favorite of my colleague Jeanie Thompson. She especially loves fireflies.ai assistant.

“I've been loving fireflies.ai for meeting notetaking, especially if I have to miss a meeting,” she says. “I also love it for other tasks, like starting a draft for an interview-heavy blog post.”

Justina says fireflies.ai has also helped her review key meeting conversation topics or a summary of an interview she conducted for her blog posts.

“I'm able to review a summary of our conversation without having to watch my entire recording back manually,” she explains.

3. Monthly Work Planning

Mapping out a month‘s load of work can be tedious and tricky, which is why HubSpot’s lead marketing writer, Laura Browning, uses AI to plan her workload. Before AI, Laura spent a lot of time preparing her monthly workload.

“It helps me to see visually what I'm working with, plus with overlapping assignments and competing deadlines, I need to make sure I leave enough time for research and talking to subject-matter experts,” she says. “Using Claude to do the bulk of this has saved me easily a day's work — plus it's so much less overwhelming than trying to map out everything myself.”

Laura tells Claude.ai how to set priorities based on meeting dates and the length of tasks. Claude uses that information to produce an hourly schedule for Laura's entire month.

“It doesn't matter if I follow it down to the hour (I never do!) — it still helps me stay on track,” she says.

4. Trend Spotting

A trend-spotting workflow is the most interesting of all the AI workflows in this list. I would have never thought to create such a workflow if Basha Coleman, HubSpot‘s Principal Content Strategy and Operations Program Manager, hadn’t herself.

Basha says she used two tools to create the workflow, Pipedream and Windsurf. Pipedream is an application builder that helps users integrate various tools and platforms, and Windsurf leverages AI to make coding more accessible for those who don't consider themselves to be super tech-savvy.

“Pipedream brings in all the tools you'd use, so it would bring Ahrefs,” she explains. “Then I'd tell Windsurf to build something, and it would create it.”

In Basha‘s case, she created a workflow that identifies and reports on trends daily. The workflow builds a spreadsheet every day at 9:15 am and pins a new tab of the day’s SEO trends to the spreadsheet.

“And I can just look at it and say, 'Yeah, we're going to talk about that this week,' and create a brief, and that's it,” she says.

These are just a few workflows you can implement in your daily life. I strongly recommend experimenting with other AI tools to determine what best suits your needs.

Turn customers into community members — how community transformed the Gymshark experience

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 14:00:04 +0300

My transformation from serving customers to nurturing a community didn't happen overnight. It started with a crisis. Gymshark’s infamous Black Friday 2015 catastrophe happened during my first week: Our website crashed on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Orders failed. Customer support lit up. Social media exploded. We were trending — but not for the reasons anyone hoped. I braced for digital war. To top it off, the BBC showed up bright and early the next morning to document the chaos. Cameras, questions, and crew — all while the team was still recovering from a sleepless night.

And yet, something wild happened: Our customers didn’t leave. They leaned in. Gymshark audience remained strong, showing their loyalty to the brand and even feeling compassion toward us during the situation. Why? They felt like they were part of a community.

Gymshark offered customers a sense of belonging. The guest and the business were going on a fitness journey together. Below, I’ll discuss how community can transform your business trajectory. Then, I’ll share tips on building community from my time at Gymshark.

What is community, and why does it matter?

A community isn't just a group that happens to use the same product or service — it’s a living ecosystem where people feel a genuine sense of belonging. It's where transactions transform into relationships, and casual buyers become passionate advocates.

In today's hyper-competitive business landscape, community matters more than any marketing tactic or sales strategy because it creates the one thing money can’t buy: genuine emotional connection. Community is a competitive advantage that can't be copied.

How I Discovered the Power of Community

The importance of community stretched beyond my first week at Gymshark. The second challenge arose later when I attempted to polish up the brand. I wanted to emulate bigger companies like Nike, Adidas, and Puma. The attempt backfired.

The audience gradually became less engaged. Aspirational was cool, but they wanted to stay connected to the brand. This didn't just impact engagement. Sales were gradually tailing off too.

I started listening more to our audience, analyzing feedback from our comment section, studying competitor influencers, and monitoring what resonated in their posts. The pattern confirmed what our brand was built on from the beginning: Our audience wasn't looking for flashy ads or poetic language — they wanted to feel like true participants in our brand.

Frustrated by our messaging approach, I reached out to early customers and simply asked, “What's missing?"

Their feedback reinforced our founding vision. The product itself was good, but our communication didn’t highlight the community aspect enough. They were looking for more than just a transaction. They craved that sense of belonging we'd always intended to create. They wanted to share experiences with others using our products — exactly what the brand was meant to foster from day one.

This revelation didn't change our brand’s purpose but rather reminded us to return to our roots. We needed to better communicate what we'd always been about: building a community, not just selling a product.

The insights I gained from listening to our community helped me grow Gymshark’s social presence from 1.5 million followers to 20 million between 2015 and 2022. That journey contributed to the brand achieving a staggering £1.4 billion valuation ($1.8 billion U.S.).

Tips for Running Community — Insights From My Time at Gymshark

Standing for Something: Giving People a Flag to Rally Around

The Gymshark mission focused on taking a stand against toxic fitness culture while showing the power of consistency. Whether you're a footballer, basketball player, or boxer, the core principles of dedication, proper nutrition, and recovery remain the same, while the sport-specific skills and movements make up that differential 20%.

This perspective helped unite our community across different fitness disciplines. Rather than separating athletes by their sport, we highlighted the universal elements that connect all training journeys.

This approach made our messaging more inclusive and relatable, allowing people from various athletic backgrounds to feel part of the same community. People who believed in fitness became our community.

Tactical Approach

At Gymshark, we weren't just selling fitness apparel. We were championing a certain belief system about fitness, community, and self-improvement. We focused relentlessly on what the brand stood for beyond products.

Great communities aren't just about what you sell. They’re about what you and your customers believe in together. Lululemon isn't just selling yoga leggings — they’re championing mindful living. Liquid Death isn't just selling water; they’re celebrating a certain rebellious attitude.

These companies aren't just selling things. They’re offering people a way to show the world who they are.

Action you can take today: Define your "3%,” or the core belief that might alienate 97% of people but will deeply resonate with your true community. What's the thing you stand for that others might not? Write it down in one sentence.

Talking With, Not At: Turning Buyers into Collaborators

Instead of just delivering finished products, we started involving our community in the creation process. We launched Gymshark Insiders, where customers could share ideas, challenges, and feedback. We also engaged directly through comment sections, Instagram story polls, and in-person events.

At first, I worried nobody would participate. But soon, it became the most valuable resource for our product development. People weren't just buying from us; they were co-creating with us.

This is based on the simple insight that listening to your customers and delivering communications in ways they prefer is incredibly powerful. It ensures you never stray from what truly matters to your audience.

Tactical Approach

Traditional companies talk AT you. Community-first companies talk WITH you. Today‘s most successful businesses don’t just have customers. They have collaborators. They respond to comments, showcase customer creations, and seek opinions before making decisions.

Consider Glossier's approach to product development: They asked their community, “What do you wish existed?” Then, they created it. Glossier transformed makeup selling into a conversation about what beauty products should be.

When developing our next feature at Gymshark, we didn't guess what people needed — we asked. Through polls, roundtable discussions, and prototype sharing, we created not just a better product but a community with genuine ownership in our shared creation.

Nothing beats a “YOU ASKED, WE LISTENED” announcement. Trust me.

Action you can take today: Ask your audience what they want. Create a simple poll, host an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session, or invite user-generated content. Find at least one way this week to make your people feel heard and involved in your process.

Partnering Up: Finding the Right Creators

Once we knew we wanted to build community, my team stopped chasing celebrity fitness models and started working with everyday athletes. That means we found people who hadn’t “made it” yet but who already had deep engagement, and more importantly, deep connection. We looked for creators with long-form attention — YouTubers who held their community’s time and trust.

More than metrics, we looked at meaning. Could this person shift perspective? Could they move hearts — not just products?

Tactical Approach

Once we found them, we invested. We asked for their opinions on products and let them meet each other. We created a connection behind the brand because we weren’t interested in transactional relationships. We wanted partnerships.

I’ll never forget the first time a creator told me, “It feels like I’m part of the company.” That was the goal. When you make your collaborators feel like insiders, they become your loudest advocates.

Action you can take today: Make a list of influencers with genuinely engaged audiences that align with your niche. From there, you can design custom ways to work with them.

Making People Feel Special: Creating the Velvet Rope Effect

One of the most powerful shifts came when Gymshark created tiered access to different parts of our community. Everyone received value, but our most engaged members got special perks – early access to new products, direct access to our team, and invitations to events and our HQ.

This wasn't about artificial scarcity. Our goal was to reward commitment and create spaces where deeper connections could form. The FOMO was real, and many onlookers yearned to get the same treatment, which created a commitment flywheel that drove engagement and mentions of the brand.

Tactical Approach

We all want to feel like we're part of something exclusive. It’s why VIP areas exist and why “limited edition” items fly off the shelves.

Nike's SNKRS app turns new shoe releases into events people get excited about. Sephora’s Beauty Insider program makes you feel like you've got backstage access. Even small brands are creating private groups, early access, and member-only experiences that make people feel they’re in on a secret.

Action you can take today: Build one element of exclusivity into your brand. Whether it's early access to content, special perks for your most engaged followers, or a private community space, create something that makes people feel like they’re part of an inner circle.

Disrupting IRL with URL and Vice Versa

The pandemic had forced everything online, but as restrictions lifted, Gymshark took a risk and organized a small in-person retreat for our most active community members. Despite having built relationships entirely through screens, the chemistry when people met face-to-face was electric.

That single weekend generated more ideas, collaborations, and word-of-mouth growth than months of online interaction. It reinforced what I'd suspected: Digital communities are powerful, but they’re even stronger when complemented with real-world experiences.

When referencing Gymshark, it's important to talk about how we used IRL to disrupt URL (what I’ll call the digital space) and vice versa. The strongest, most influential communities are not just online. They exist in a mixed reality world where you leverage the strengths of one sector to amplify the other.

If you create an in-person experience that can only be felt by the people physically present, you've missed an opportunity. Equally, if you only rely on digital interaction, you might achieve reach, but it remains passive. You don’t actually know how committed your audience is or how deep the connection truly runs.

Tactical Approach

Real connections don't just happen through screens. The strongest communities find ways to mix online interaction with real-world experiences.

Think about Peloton. You might be biking alone in your bedroom, but the leaderboards, live instructors, and friendly competitions make you feel like you're part of something bigger.

Gymshark went even further by hosting workout events where their online followers could meet face-to-face and turn digital friendships into real ones. These events were instrumental in their growth from 1.5 million to 20 million followers.

What I discovered is that even small in-person gatherings create what I call “temperature check moments” — defining experiences that strengthen bonds in ways purely digital connections cannot.

Putting Customers in the Spotlight

Perhaps the most transformative change was shifting the spotlight away from our company and toward the amazing things our community members were accomplishing.

Instead of case studies that highlighted our product, we created stories that celebrated the journeys of our members. Our content strategy flipped from “look at us” to “look at them.” The more we made our community the heroes of our story, the more they championed our brand to others.

Tactical Approach

Companies like Airbnb, Notion, and Figma don't just show off their features — they showcase what amazing things their users have created. The more a company celebrates its users, the more those users become passionate supporters.

When I implemented this strategy with clients, I found that user-generated content consistently outperformed company-created content by three to five times in terms of engagement. People trust peer stories far more than brand claims.

The results spoke for themselves: Our customer acquisition costs plummeted because word-of-mouth became our primary growth channel. Our retention rates soared. People weren't just buying products. They were part of something they didn’t want to leave.

Action you can take today: Shift the spotlight. Feature at least one customer story this week, celebrate a user achievement, or highlight something amazing your community has created. Make your people — not your products — the heroes of your narrative.

Be a Community Builder

By the time I left Gymshark, 95% of our content was community-led. But the biggest growth you couldn’t measure in metrics. It was in the message that said, “This brand made me believe in myself again.” It was in the tattoos. The gym murals. The proposals in branded hoodies.

We didn’t just build an audience. We built identity. And when you build that right, you don’t just scale a brand. You shift culture.

You don’t have to chase relevance. You become it.

OpenAI secretly launched a sales agent — here are the details

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:00:06 +0300

In February, OpenAI gave a two-minute demonstration at a private event in Tokyo. The demo didn’t stay quiet for long. It set off a firestorm in the sales industry.

The short demo, which isn’t available yet, was for an AI sales agent. This AI agent can perform autonomous tasks to help sales teams qualify, enrich, and follow up with leads. You can watch the full leaked demo here, but I’ll break down all the information you need — and what it means for everyone doing knowledge work — below.

OpenAI’s Entry Into Vertical Agents

First of all, OpenAI has mostly focused on consumer products to this point. They created their foundational model, which companies can build on with an API. This is really the first example of OpenAI building a vertical agent. They've built an agent that helps knowledge workers do their work, with use cases specific to certain verticals.

How It Will Work

According to the demo, here’s how OpenAI’s virtual sales agent will work:

A customer fills out a Contact Sales form.
That request comes into the OpenAI task pane as a lead.
The sales agent calls up multiple tools to analyze the lead and take action. For example:

OpenAI’s Deep Research tool analyzes the lead to fill in enriching information like role, sector, company size, etc.
It calls up calendar availability to check time slots available to set a meeting.
It drafts an email to schedule the meeting and sends calendar requests to both the sales rep and the potential customer.

These steps are fully automated, with no human intervention required.

What Makes It Different From Other AI Sales Tools

There are a lot of AI sales tools already on the market, including HubSpot’s own Breeze. So, what makes OpenAI’s sales agent different?

Deep Research Capabilities

At HubSpot, we know the power of enriched data to inform and enable sales conversations. When a lead comes in through OpenAI, the AI agent will call up deep research with live web results and reasoning capabilities to enrich that data. This is research a sales associate might do on their own, like industry, revenue, title, and so on. Deep research can be phenomenally powerful when it’s done in seconds.

Since it connects to various tools, the OpenAI sales agent can also pattern match against customers in your CRM to assess whether it’s a good fit compared to current customers. So, it may offer lead scoring and automated actions tailored to how good a fit the lead is.

Fits Within Your Existing Tech Stack and Workflows

The best value proposition of autonomous agents in the workforce is when they work within your workflow and tasks. Your tasks will be the starting point for the agent. If you have a good tech stack and workflows you like, you don’t have to change them.

Instead, these workflows will be streamlined and automated based on what the customer and buyers are doing across your customer journey. What do I mean by that? Well, someone filling out the form is the trigger, and that trigger starts an AI agent doing its work. That agent is part of the workflow, it’s not separate or tangential to it.

Essentially, OpenAI will be the orchestration layer, and that orchestration layer will be able to call up and work within different tools. That includes research, software, and communication.

Multi-Language Capabilities

Another differentiator is that OpenAI’s tool can work intelligently within different languages and global contexts. In the example the company shared, the lead was entered in Japanese. So, without being told, the tool wrote the contact back in Japanese.

That‘s huge, isn’t it? The way companies have to expand internationally now is that they have to wait until they have local capabilities or language capabilities for each country. With agents, you don’t need full departments. The agent knows a prospect can enter a form within a certain IP location and can adjust its language to match that language or location.

What are the limitations?

With this quick demo, we don’t yet know which features will be included when the full version launches. But here are a few features that HubSpot’s customers have found useful that OpenAI might be missing:

Sales prospecting features like customizing approaches for different personas and re-engaging lapsed leads.
Buyer intent analysis, assessing which companies are ready to buy based on website clicks and other actions.
Conversation intelligence to coach your sales team with call feedback and insights.

How the OpenAI Sales Agent Will Impact the B2B Sales Industry

If you were following the initial leaked demo, you probably saw some initial hysteria that OpenAI was trying to kill the human part of sales. So let’s be clear, that isn’t what this tool does. There won’t be an OpenAI sales bot sending you cold emails.

This system is designed around inbound leads, or people who have filled out a form and want to be contacted. Now we know how this usually works. Someone submits this form, it goes into a system, and then a team of people reviews the leads to reach out and figure out how best to respond. This can take hours or days.

So, what could it look like if you had agents working for you inside your workforce right now? What if instead of spending hours researching leads and scheduling meetings, you simply had good-fit leads appearing on your calendar?

The real value of this first wave of autonomous agents is in the time they give back to sales teams. You might have 50 micro-agents doing 50 different tasks within your workflows, and it’s going to make your life better. All of the mundane, boring things you probably don't want to do, these agents will be able to do for you.

So these AI tools are good for sales teams, and they’re also good for customers. Coming back to the human-to-human connection, intent matters. Automating lead qualification and scheduling can improve the overall experience and clear the junk out of the way for the human connection. For the most part, humans won’t care if something is AI if they have a goal and AI helps them reach it.

To sum it all up, the OpenAI Sales Agent has incredible potential to help companies work within their existing workflows and tech stacks to reach prospects faster and better. This is just one glimpse behind the curtain showing how OpenAI may be dipping its toes into vertical agents. And, I can’t wait to see what comes next.

To learn more about boosting productivity by building AI assistants, check out the full episode of Marketing Against the Grain:

How I applied the 95-5 rule to build Gong’s brand from the ground up

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

When I stepped into my role as head of content at Gong, I didn't come with a decade of marketing experience. I came with a sales background and a whole lot of time spent chasing leads. That experience turned out to be my unfair advantage.

Here‘s what I knew from the trenches: Most people aren’t ready to buy when you reach out. Most of them don‘t care about your product, at least, not yet. They’re not waking up hoping for another cold email or wondering if they should check out one more demo page. They're busy doing their jobs.

That mental model led me to a question that changed everything. What if we could earn attention before someone was in-market? What if, instead of trying to “capture demand,” we could create it?

That's what we set out to do at Gong. And, we did it by flipping the typical SaaS playbook on its head.

What is the 95-5 rule?

The 95-5 Rule, popularized by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, came out a few years later and instantly validated everything we’d been doing.

Here’s what it says: At any given time, only 5% of your total addressable market is actively buying. The other 95% isn’t.

Yet, most marketing teams invest heavily in bottom-funnel, high-intent tactics targeting just that 5%. This approach is shortsighted and easily exhausted.

When I joined Gong, we took a completely different path. For the first year, we were top-of-funnel focused. So, my team had one hard rule: No talking about our product. None. Zero. We wouldn't write about Gong, push features, or create comparison posts. We would leave that to product marketing.

Instead, our mission was to produce the most engaging sales content on the planet. We focused entirely on our audience and their problems, positioning ourselves as peers rather than vendors.

If you’re only marketing to buyers when they’re ready to buy, you’re too late. The real opportunity is to win mindshare with the 95% who aren’t ready yet.

What Gong Did to Make the Most of the 95-5 Rule

So, how do you actually implement this strategy? Here are some practical approaches we used at Gong that are still relevant and effective today.

We got obsessed with knowing our audience.

We made a conscious decision to understand our audience better than anyone else in our category. Not just who they were on paper — job titles, company size, vertical — but how they thought, what they struggled with, and what kept them up at night.

At Gong, our audience was sales reps and sales leaders. And no surprise, their primary focus was hitting quota. So, we started with that goal and worked backward. We mapped the entire journey to that goal, identifying all the barriers along the way:

Creating pipeline
Writing effective cold emails
Making successful cold calls
Running discovery calls
Managing demos

Then, we turned that sales process into a content roadmap. We didn’t talk about Gong. We talked about the everyday friction points and pains of being in sales.

We focused on the problem, not the product.

This is where most SaaS companies get stuck. They default to writing about their product. That’s what they know. Because it’s easier to say, “Here’s what we do,” than to say, “Here’s what you’re struggling with — and here’s what might help.”

But our belief was simple: No one cares about your product until they believe you understand their problem.

That meant going deep on the “before” state — the messy, frustrating, day-to-day challenges that reps face. And from there, offering useful, actionable guidance that made people feel seen and supported.

We asked ourselves:

What are they doing today that’s no longer working?
What have they accepted as “just the way it is”?
What assumptions can we challenge with a better way?

For example, most reps accept that a 1% cold email reply rate is normal. So, they send more emails. That’s the “old way.”

We reframed it. What if you could improve your reply rate and actually send fewer emails? That story is instantly more compelling.

Even small details matter. Using insider language signals that you truly understand the audience — it‘s "pipeline," not "pipelines," and "end of quarter," not "end of the quarter." These subtle differences make your content feel like it’s coming from a peer rather than a marketer.

They seem like small things, but they signal insider knowledge. They tell your audience, “We’re one of you.”

Tips for Shifting from Lead Gen to Audience Nurturing

Making the shift from lead gen to audience nurturing is a considerable mindset shift. You have to let go of short-term dopamine hits like MQLs and attribution charts, and start thinking like a media company. Then, ask, “How do we earn attention today to win trust tomorrow?”

Here are five things we did at Gong to build future demand and grow a brand that scaled.

1. Create high-value content that solves real problems.

If you want people to pay attention before they’re ready to buy, you have to help them. You need useful content that solves real, frustrating problems.

We mapped the buyer’s journey and zoomed in on all the micro-pain points along the way. Each one became a chance to create something helpful:

How to write a better cold email.
How to run a discovery call that doesn’t feel like an interrogation.
How to handle pricing questions without fumbling the deal.

These weren’t feature pages in disguise. They were standalone, high-signal resources, and we often didn’t even mention our product.

Why? Because we weren’t trying to sell. We were trying to earn trust.

To do this well, you need subject matter expertise, either your own or from someone in your organization.

What’s really hard about this part of the job?
What do people get wrong about it?
What’s the advice you wish you’d gotten a year ago?

Use that as your starting point. And make your content feel like it came from a practitioner, not a product marketer.

2. Use storytelling to create emotional resonance.

One of our flagship content series was Gong Labs — our original data-backed research about different aspects of the sales process. But rather than just presenting information, we focused on making it emotionally resonant.

Source

This is something I see a lot of B2B companies fail at because they want to sound like the smartest in the room. A lot of the content comes across as too information, too dry, and it’s not engaging or memorable.

So instead, we took a page from Hollywood and used a screenwriting technique called “in medias res,” which drops the reader directly into the middle of a story. Instead of starting with “Here's what the data says,” we'd begin with a relatable, high-tension scenario.

You‘re five minutes into a discovery call. Your buyer’s on mute. You‘re scrambling through slides wondering if anyone’s even listening...

Then we'd pose the question, “Should you even be using slides at all?”

This approach hooks readers immediately and creates an emotional connection before delivering the data. It makes your content memorable in a way that purely informational content can't match.

3. Show up consistently across multiple channels.

This one comes from my (short-lived) teaching career: People learn differently. Some prefer reading. Some prefer listening. Some need to see it.

Marketing is no different.

That’s why we showed up across formats:

LinkedIn posts and blog articles for readers
Podcasts for audio-first folks
Webinars and short videos for visual learners

This approach had two benefits:

We reached more people by diversifying formats.
Our biggest fans (we called them raving fans) consumed content across multiple channels, deepening their connection with our brand.

Not only did this help us build a loyal audience, but it also made sure that we didn’t have any weak spots in our content based on when and where you engage with us.

4. Measure success like a brand, not just a funnel.

Measuring brand impact can be challenging, but that doesn‘t mean you shouldn’t try. Instead of obsessing over last-touch attribution, we tracked:

Audience growth: LinkedIn followers, podcast downloads, newsletter subscribers
Direct web traffic: People typing our URL directly (a clear sign of brand recall)
Inbound opportunities: Deals that came to us without us chasing them

This approach requires documenting your strategy clearly: who you‘re helping, what problems you’re solving, where you‘re showing up, and how you’re measuring progress.

5. Get buy-in to play the long game.

When stakeholders push back with questions like, “Is LinkedIn too saturated?” or, “Does anyone still read email?” I flip it around: “When you're looking for new ideas or products, where do you go?”

The answer is almost always their network, LinkedIn, newsletters, and podcasts — exactly where your buyers are already spending time.

If you’re going to get buy-in, you need a documented strategy. You need to clearly define:

Who you’re helping
What problems you’re solving and your impact on strategic priorities
Where you’re showing up
How you’re measuring progress

That becomes your armor when the “What’s the ROI?” questions roll in.

Create Gravity, Not Just Leads

Most marketers are fighting for scraps: The 5% of people already in the market. But if you play the long game and invest in the 95%, you can build something better: a brand that earns attention before there’s ever a sales conversation.

At Gong, this approach helped us grow our LinkedIn from 12,000 to over 220,000 followers. Our podcast crossed 100,000 downloads in the first 18 months. Webinar registrations jumped from 500 to over 2,500. And we saw email open rates hit 28%, with consistent inbound pipeline that aided and accelerated our sales outbound efforts.

But the qualitative shift was even more significant:

Sales reps telling us they used our content in onboarding
Leaders mentioning that our material was constantly shared in their Slack channels
Buyers showing up to demos already believing we could help them

That’s the magic of mindshare. It turns your marketing from an interruption into a pull. From a transaction into a relationship. From “Who are you again?” to “We’ve been following you for a while.”

And when urgency strikes or when someone’s boss says, “We need a new sales tool,” or “Let’s rethink our strategy,” you’re the first name they remember.

That’s not luck. That’s brand.

So if you’re tired of chasing leads, maybe it’s time to flip the script. Build content that helps. Show up consistently. Speak to the 95%.

How one co-founder runs a zero-employee marketing agency with AI tools

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

Running a marketing agency used to mean juggling a small army of freelancers, risking missed deadlines, and spending more time managing people than creating content and building strategies.

That’s how Barbara Jovanovic of Startup Cookie used to operate.

She’s now built a streamlined operation that generates six figures annually with a tech stack that costs less than one grand a year. There’s no team behind her — just Jovanovic, her AI tools, and a process that turns one hour-long conversation into weeks of high-quality content.

Here's exactly how she did it — and how you can replicate her success, whether you’re an aspiring solopreneur or just want ideas on streamlining your workflows with AI.

Table of Contents

6 Tips for Running a Marketing Agency with AI Tools
How to Maximize Your Resources with AI
8 Top Startup AI Tools for Content Creation

6 Tips for Running a Marketing Agency with AI Tools

1. Never start with a blank page — context is everything.

“We never start with just prompting AI by itself to do anything, even the simplest social media post. We always have something to start with,” says Jovanovic.

In her view, the biggest mistake people make when they use AI for content creation is asking it to write about a topic from scratch.

Jovanovic’s secret weapon? She starts with human interactions.

That might mean feeding the AI transcripts from webinar transcripts or podcast recordings. Her co-founder, Sam Claassen, does hour-long interviews with founders, and those transcripts also get fed to the AI.

In a world where authenticity is paramount in your marketing strategies, giving AI something human to work with can set you up for success.

2. Talk to your AI, don't type.

I hate talking to AI because I tend to ramble — but Jovanovic says that could actually work to my advantage.

She rarely types prompts into ChatGPT, instead using an AI-powered voice-to-text tool called Super Whisper. Speaking naturally adds context and nuance that short, typed prompts miss. And Jovanovic says that the results are “infinitely better.”

When you're talking, you naturally provide more background, explain your thinking — or in my case, over explain — and give the AI the rich context it needs to produce high-quality results.

3. Use projects to scale your personal brand voice.

ChatGPT‘s Projects feature isn’t just a neat organization tool — it's also Jovanovic’s scaling secret. For each client, she creates projects loaded with:

Writing style samples from their favorite authors
Company information and product details
Brand voice guidelines
Examples of approved content

This means every piece of content has the right tone and context, without having to re-explain the brand with every single prompt.

I tested this myself by asking ChatGPT to write a blog post about marketing campaign strategies using cat puns. Here’s an excerpt:

Then I created an abbreviated version of a custom GPT for an imaginary company owned by my cat, Teddy Crumpets. I used this very article as an example of approved content, gave it some information about this fictional company, and encouraged it to use cat-related puns and wordplay.

Because I only gave it one approved piece of content, it borrowed pretty heavily from it, but it’s still far better than the generic example — it’s more specific, has a better voice, and even the cat puns are better.

It also picked up on the fact that HubSpot style is to put spaces around em-dashes; in the generic example above, there are no spaces around them.

4. Be mean to your AI (it can handle it).

You may have heard exhortations to be polite to AI by always using “please” and “thank you.”

Jovanovic’s advice doesn’t necessarily contradict that, but she cautions against being too polite. Her prompts include “DON’T BE CRINGE” and “DON’T BE CLICHÉ” — and yes, she puts them in all caps — and she gives the AI a running list of banned words (like “ensure,” a word I could also stand to ban from my writing, if we’re being honest).

This bluntness and specificity separates the wheat from the chaff. If you’ve ever used AI for content creation, you may have been frustrated at the amount of generic corporatespeak it spat out.

“Be more specific” is some of the best writing advice I give human writers, and it stands to reason that it would also improve AI writing.

5. Extract first, create second.

Jovanovic’s workflow is methodical: First, she asks AI to extract all insightful topics from a conversation; say, a founder interview.

Then she reviews that list critically — would she actually read this content? Only after identifying insights that make her want to click does she move to creation mode.

“You have to be present and think critically. Does this sound interesting? If not, let's move on to the next one,” she says.

6. Automate your market intelligence.

Instead of doomscrolling X or LinkedIn for industry news, Jovnanovic set up ChatGPT tasks that deliver morning briefings on fintech and healthtech developments.

These briefings keep her informed without the mental health cost of social media addiction.

That’s great advice in general, whether you’re running a zero-employee marketing agency or just trying to avoid bed rotting.

How to Maximize Your Resources with AI

A $100K+ Startup Team

The list of contractors Jovanovic would need to hire isn't insignificant for a small startup:

5 content writers
SEO copywriter
Video editor
Audio editor
Marketing designer
Data analyst
Project manager (herself)

Total annual cost: Over $100,000, plus time spent on administrative tasks like managing contracts and coordinating deliverables.

The Sub-$1K AI Stack She Uses

Her entire operation now runs on:

ChatGPT (free, $20, and $200/month options) and Claude (free, $17, and $100/month options) for content creation
Granola for meeting transcripts and chat (free and $18/month options)
Riverside for video recording (free, $15, and $24/month options)
Midjourney for design (plan options range from $10 to $120/month)
Descript for video editing ($16, $24, or $50/month)
Super Whisper for voice-to-text (free and $8.49/month options)
OpenAI API access (varies, using a token-based system)

Total annual cost: Less than $1,000.

The Efficiency Multiplier

The real win isn‘t just cost — it’s speed and iteration. Before AI, testing a new content channel meant a two-month lag between idea and execution. Now Jovanovic can go from inspiration to published content in hours, not weeks.

"You get that energy, you get an idea, and you‘re like, ‘Oh my God, let’s see how that performs.’ And then when you actually delegate, it's two months after that you're actually testing it."

8 Top Startup AI Tools for Content Creation

1. ChatGPT Projects

The foundation of Jovanovic’s scaling strategy. Create separate projects for each client or content type, load them with context documents, and maintain consistent brand voice across all outputs.

2. Super Whisper (voice-to-text)

Jovanovic’s secret for better prompts. Speaking naturally to AI provides richer context than typing, leading to significantly better results.

3. Granola (meeting intelligence)

Records and transcribes meetings, then lets you chat with the transcript. Perfect for extracting insights from client calls or founder interviews without manual note-taking.

4. Claude (AI writing assistant)

Jovanovic cross-references her ChatGPT outputs with Claude for quality control and to get different perspectives on the same content.

5. Riverside (video recording)

High-quality video recording for those crucial founder interviews that become the source material for weeks of content.

6. Midjourney (visual design)

Handles all graphic design needs without hiring designers or learning complex software.

7. Descript (video/audio editing)

Simplifies video and audio editing with AI-powered features, making it accessible for non-technical users.

8. OpenAI API (advanced integration)

For custom workflows and integration with other tools — like the data visualization tool one of Jovanovic’s clients built that lets non-technical users query datasets conversationally.

The Bottom Line

If you’re thinking about starting your own low-cost marketing agency, weigh the need for human contractors against AI’s current capabilities. (And of course, you always want to double-check any AI’s work to prevent errors and hallucinations.)

Or if you’re just new to AI and want to know how it can help streamline your marketing workflows, take a page from Jovanovic’s book — I know that a lot more of my AI prompts are going to include “DON’T BE CRINGE.”

Generative engine optimization: What we know so far

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 14:00:00 +0300

SEO is changing. We’re entering a new era of search — the AI age — and with it comes generative engine optimization (GEO), the practice of optimizing content for AI-driven engines such as ChatGPT or Perplexity.

If we want our content to reach the right people, we need to adapt. There’s no need to throw out the SEO principles you’ve spent decades learning. Much of GEO is an extension of these techniques — and it’s not as scary as it sounds.

Let’s take a look at what we know about GEO so far.

Table of Contents

What is generative engine optimization?
GEO vs. SEO
Why is GEO important?
How does generative engine optimization work?
How to Do Generative Engine Optimization
Tips for Navigating the Generative SEO Landscape
Generative Engine Optimization FAQ

The good news for SEO is that generative engines pull information directly from web content (as well as other sources) to deliver responses to user queries. They use large language models (LLMs) to make sense of the information scraped and provide coherent, relevant answers.

ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, and Google AI Search are all examples of generative engines.

Generative engines work by:

Interpreting a user’s query.
Leveraging personal data it may have on the user, such as preferences or conversation history.
Searching to find relevant answers to the query
Synthesizing information from these documents into a straightforward response

If you’re new to generative search, start by using it yourself. Try HubSpot’s guide to using ChatGPT for work, which has over 100 prompts.

GEO vs. SEO

GEO and SEO are similar in many ways, as both find relevant, credible content to answer user inquiries. But they also have three key differences. Let’s explore the similarities and differences below.

GEO and SEO Similarities

These four similarities should bring optimism to SEOs because they suggest the good work done so far is transferable.

Designed to help users and provide helpful information.

Whether you’re searching on Google, Bing, ChatGPT, Perplexity, or something else entirely, what’s essential is that you can access the information you need in the easiest and shortest time possible.

One reason Google is so successful is that it has mastered a complex (and ever-changing) algorithm that sorts through content and delivers the best possible result to the person searching. Results meet search intent, and users get what they want.

Why this matters for GEO: If you’re dedicated to providing the best possible content, you have a good chance of gaining visibility in generative AI search engines. These tools need to source the best content to keep users returning.

High-quality content is your gateway to visibility.

High-quality content, in terms of landing pages, informational pages, well-thought-out service pages, etc., gets you visibility in generative search engines. As mentioned above, generative engines, like traditional search engines, pull information directly from web content.

Why this matters for GEO: If you’re achieving page one ranks in SEO, you’re likely producing high-quality content. This content will likely perform well in generative search engines, too.

This leads perfectly to my next point: E-E-A-T signals matter for SEO and GEO.

E-E-A-T signals are important in SEO and GEO.

To demonstrate how E-E-A-T is important for GEO and SEO, let me lead with an example.

If you search “CRM” in Google, you’ll see that HubSpot’s is ranked page one, rank three in the U.S.

I searched ChatGPT to see if HubSpot is recommended as a CRM. It is. HubSpot is the top recommendation in ChatGPT.

Why this matters for GEO: Ranking at the top of Google for any keyword doesn’t come easy. You need to meet a multitude of ranking factors and build E-E-A-T across your site.

Keywords and search terms still matter.

Although people search differently in traditional search engines versus generative search engines, there are similarities; users are inputting keywords and search terms.

While the input into generative search engines uses more natural language and conversation, there are still words and phrases that contextualize the search.

Why this matters for GEO: Understanding how and what people search, and then meeting search intent is still crucial.

GEO and SEO Differences

Now we understand some of the similarities, let’s look at how GEO differs from SEO.

Focus

GEO focuses on making content discoverable to AI, while SEO is about improving SERP rank.

While SEO is generally related to Google and Bing, there are lots of generative engines, so it’ll be interesting to see if different engines use different qualities to determine their sources.

Why this matters for GEO: There are nuances in how GEO and SEO work, and while focusing on GEO is becoming increasingly important, it’s not worth dropping your SEO efforts (yet, and maybe not ever). At the moment, people still use Google for the vast majority of searches. According to Edd Dawson, Google has five billion users versus ChatGPTs 200 million users.

Emphasis

The primary techniques for SEO emphasize things like backlinks and keywords, while GEO techniques emphasize structure.

An AI bot’s job is easier when it can pull clear, concise snippets that are easily synthesized, so it makes sense why structure would be an emphasis.

Chris Long, VP of marketing at Go Fish Digital, has done some testing on visibility in GEO, and his testing suggested that generative search engines do pull clear snippets. Long found success using bullet points.

In a LinkedIn post, he said, “In the past 6 months, we‘ve been doing a lot of testing around optimizing our brand for generative engine optimization. We’ve noticed how AI-driven search tends to pull in content that's extremely structured via bulleted lists, structured headings, and general listicle-style articles.”

Why this matters for GEO: If you’re dedicated to more visibility in generative AI search engines, it could be worth exploring page structure and seeing if it makes a difference.

Top tip: If you want to benchmark your current visibility in generative search engines, you could use HubSpot’s AI Search Grader. It shows you:

Your brand's visibility and presence in AI.
Strengths and weaknesses.
Share of voice.
And more.

The video below demonstrates how it works.

Use the grader to see where you are now and if anything changes once you GEO your pages.

Output

The key difference is the output of the engines.

GEO optimizes content for AI engines, which produce a summary as the output.

SEO, on the other hand, optimizes content for traditional search engines, which produce a ranked list of sources as the output.

How is GEO impacting SEO?

SEO experts worldwide have cited generative AI as the number one disruptor to SEO. So it’s worth understanding what experts suspect the impact will be.

I spoke with SEO expert Nick Baird to hear his thoughts on GEO and how it impacts SEO and marketing.

“Local SEO remains largely unaffected. When searching for a plumber or a dentist, they still need results tied to maps, reviews, and real-world proximity,” he said.

Secondly, Baird says informational searches have taken a noticeable hit and clicks have reduced.

“Click-through rates are down in places where AI can summarize quickly. For websites that rely on traffic from listicles or how-to content, traffic is definitely thinner.

“However, people still click through when they want depth or to verify that a source actually said what the AI is reporting. So while the volume of clicks may be down, it‘s still important to have quality content on one’s website.”

I agree with everything Baird has said here, though I will add that generative search engines also include map views featuring local businesses. The screenshot below shows what it looks like.

In my experience, many websites' top-funnel (ToFu) clicks have significantly dropped, but the focus should always be more on bottom-funnel clicks anyway.

You can still cover those ToFu topics where it makes sense, and you might find it helps your GEO. Just make sure it has a purpose other than clicks.

Why is GEO important?

In another HubSpot article about the future of SEO, experts shared their opinions and predictions about the future of AI and SEO.

One opinion that stands out to me is from Nate Tower, who stated (and supported with data) that conversions, by percentage, from LLMs are higher. Tower believes that people chat with AI and see the software more as a friend, which is one reason why conversions from GEO are higher.

Important note: While conversions are higher by percentage, we’re still dealing with small data sets. In terms of quantity, conversions are lower.

That said, it could be an indicator of what’s to come. If people respond well to GEO, you want your business to be visible.

Ultimately, people are using generative search to find answers to their questions and meet their needs. All indicators show that GEO isn’t going anywhere, so keeping up and earning visibility in GEO makes sense. Just remember to manage GEO with SEO.

How does generative engine optimization work?

Learning to use GEO is simpler than it sounds and, in many ways, is overlapped with best SEO practices. AI tools respond well to clear, well-structured information that it can easily synthesize.

This means you should:

Ensure your content is easy to read and understand.
Incorporate credible sources, quotes, and statistics to enhance the content’s richness and authority.
Structure your writing to align with the patterns used by generative engines.

When I’m writing an article, I focus on clear headings, concise paragraphs, lists, and well-sourced information. The same is true for best practices when it comes to SEO — so don’t worry about reinventing the wheel.

Other ways to improve GEO are using AI-friendly structured data, focusing on user intent, using easy-to-read/conversational language, and using unique words to make the content stand out.

These best practices aren’t all that different from SEO best practices. And, as with SEO, there’s no indication that AI-created content is ranking poorly.

If your content is high quality, you shouldn’t experience any sort of penalty for leveraging AI content tools, like the ones offered by HubSpot.

Source

How to Do Generative Engine Optimization

GEO is still very new, but we have some early learnings about what’s helping brands secure visibility in AI search.

I’m an SEO consultant working with brands. I’ve been tracking my clients’ visibility in AI search using Kyle Rushton McGregor’s AI report and data from G4.

As you can see from one client’s report, pictured below, AI visibility is growing. All of my clients have graphs that look similar to the one below: Visibility rises most sharply in Q4 2024 and continues.

A lot of my GEO success uses transferable SEO elements.

Here are the details.

Manage your brand narrative.

As we’ve established, generative engines pull information directly from web content. Whatever you or others are saying about your brand is what generative search can share. The content has to exist for generative search to display it.

If it’s possible, find an angle for your product or service.

Think:

What do you do?
What problems do you solve?
Who do you solve problems for?

Remember, people searching in generative AI search engines are searching differently; they’re using more conversational language and getting very nuanced and long-tail.

Take a look at the example below. In generative search engines, products are recommended with links to product pages and a short rationale for why they’re suitable for the searcher's query.

In the image above, all the products listed in generative search have specific messaging about the query. In my experience, generative search relays the messages found commonly across the internet on a range of sources.

Top tip: I’ve mentioned this already, but do use HubSpot’s AI Search Grader to understand how your brand is perceived now and then monitor it as you improve your GEO.

Think about keywords and search terms.

For me, keyword research is still part of the GEO process. I like to know which keywords bring up AI overviews. If you know the features Google is displaying, then you can make an extra effort to secure visibility in them.

Take a look at the screenshot below. My client ranks several times in the AI overviews.

Here’s a breakdown of how keywords influenced this achievement:

We researched keywords related to the topic.
Like SEO, we led with one focus keyword (the one pictured).
We developed a keyword cluster including related keywords and questions.
An article was briefed using SEO best practices.
We wrote an in-depth piece (more on this next).

Write great content.

Writing great content involves many components, many of which crossover heavily with SEO.

This is great news because if you’re already writing great content and seeing the results in the form of page one rankings in Google, in my experience, you’re likely getting visibility in generative search, too.

Here are some ways to write great content:

Write content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authority, and trust (E-E-A-T). Don’t be afraid to tell stories that showcase your experience in content.
Cover topics in full. Generally, detailed articles perform better. Worry less about word count and keywords and more about topical coverage and detail. It’s tempting to create new pages for every topic, but some are better covered together. Learn about keyword intent to do this well.
Think about NLP keywords. Generative search engines use natural language processing to summarize information and provide responses to prompts. Use natural, conversational language and incorporate NLP-related terms naturally to improve discoverability.
Have experts write, or at least review, your content. You will have industry experts within your business, so make sure to include them in the writing process. Ask them for quotes, have them write content, and fetch new insights to make your article stand out.
Answer real user questions, and don’t be afraid to think for yourself. You can use tools like AlsoAsked or Google’s People Also Ask to determine the questions your readers are asking. But you can’t beat your own research and sense of knowing your potential buyers.
Be visual within your content with infographics, graphs, videos, and more. The more mediums a reader can digest your content, the better (within reason!). Skimmable content helps engage readers online.

Top tip: If you want to do the above, hire great writers; they do it naturally.

Structure your content for humans (and bots!)

Digital content changes how people read. Instead of settling down to read 2,000-wo

Creating a B2B buyer journey map in 8 steps

Fri, 30 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

When I started working with B2B companies, I quickly realized that understanding how your customers make purchasing decisions is just as important as knowing your product inside and out. This is where a B2B buyer journey map becomes an invaluable asset.

A well-crafted buyer journey map provides valuable insight into your potential customers‘ decision-making process. It helps you identify opportunities to nurture leads and ultimately drive more product sign-ups. This post offers an 8-step approach that consistently delivers results. But before then, let’s run through the basics.

Table of Contents

What is a B2B buyer journey map?
Benefits of B2B Buyer Journey Mapping
How to Create a B2B Buyer's Journey Map
Putting Your Journey Map to Work
Tool to Support Your Mapping Process

What is a B2B buyer journey map?

A B2B buyer journey map is a visual representation of potential customers' path from the moment they recognize a problem to the point where they choose your solution. Unlike B2C journeys, B2B buying processes typically involve multiple stakeholders, longer decision timelines, and more complex considerations.

Your map should capture each touchpoint where prospects interact with your business, from initial awareness through consideration, decision-making, onboarding, and beyond. This holistic view ensures you're not missing critical opportunities to influence the buying decision.

Benefits of B2B Buyer Journey Mapping

Creating a comprehensive buyer journey map delivers several significant advantages that directly impact your bottom line:

1. Improved Marketing and Sales Alignment

One of the most potent benefits I‘ve seen firsthand is how journey mapping breaks down silos between marketing and sales teams. Both departments can create seamless handoffs and consistent messaging when they share a unified understanding of the buyer’s process.

2. Ability to Identify and Address Pain Points

Journey mapping reveals friction points where prospects might abandon their buying process. You can proactively address these obstacles before they cost you potential customers by identifying them early.

3. Optimized Resource Allocation

Understanding which touchpoints most influence purchasing decisions allows you to allocate your budget and team resources more effectively. I've helped customers redirect significant portions of their marketing spend based on journey map insights, resulting in dramatically improved conversion rates.

4. Personalized Buying Experience

With a detailed map, you can tailor content and interactions to match prospects' journey stages. This level of personalization significantly increases engagement and conversion rates.

5. Accelerated Sales Cycle

By understanding exactly what information and reassurance buyers need at each stage, you can proactively address concerns and move prospects through the pipeline more efficiently.

How to Create a B2B Buyer's Journey Map

A beginner may approach the buyer's journey with three basic objectives: taking a customer from awareness to consideration and finally to the decision stage.

If you want your journey mapping to improve, you have to be more thorough. Let's explore an 8-step process for creating a buyer journey map that drives product signups.

1. Define your buyer personas.

Every effective journey map begins with clearly defined buyer personas. These detailed profiles represent the different decision-makers and influencers involved in the purchasing process.

For B2B, this typically includes:

Primary decision-makers (often C-suite executives)
Technical evaluators
End users
Financial gatekeepers

For each persona, document:

Demographics and professional background
Job responsibilities and KPIs
Pain points and challenges
Goals and objectives
Information sources they trust
Decision-making criteria

Understanding these personas is essential because they behave differently across the traditional buyer's journey stages — what motivates someone in the Awareness Stage differs significantly from what they need during the Decision Stage.

2. Identify all potential touchpoints.

Next, catalog every possible interaction point between your prospects and your business. This includes both digital and offline touchpoints:

Industry events and conferences
Website visits (specific pages)
Content downloads
Social media engagement
Email communications
Sales calls and presentations
Product demos
Customer testimonials and case studies
Third-party review sites

Be detailed here — I've seen companies discover critical touchpoints they completely overlooked. Remember that touchpoints in the Awareness Stage (like blog content and social media) serve different purposes than those in the Consideration Stage (product demos, case studies) or Decision Stage (pricing pages, sales conversations).

3. Map core journey stages.

While every business has unique nuances, most B2B buyer journeys follow these core stages:

Awareness: The prospect recognizes a problem or opportunity.
Research: They begin investigating potential solutions.
Consideration: They evaluate specific vendors and products.
Decision: They select a solution and negotiate terms.
Onboarding: They implement the solution.
Usage: They use the product regularly.
Expansion: They consider additional features or products.
Advocacy: They become promoters of your solution.

These stages provide granular detail and can benefit your team in more ways than one. We spoke with Aurelia Heitz, a user research and strategy expert from Centigrade, about her perspective on the ways thorough mapping can benefit the customer and your business operations: “There's the journey that someone takes through your product. And then there's the journey that someone takes in their own real life outside of your product.”

You want to have a roadmap for reaching your customers, analyzing how you can better serve them outside of their primary objective, or positioning them for business growth in the future. In B2B, you‘re not just trying to get a business to buy; you’re working to build their success and make advocates who are impressed with your product.

For a deeper exploration, check out our comprehensive guide to understanding the buyer's journey.

4. Conduct customer research.

Heitz goes on to say, “You understand their context and how they would integrate your product and like what they need. And so oftentimes that you know, helps you think of features that you didn't even think of.”

You need data directly from customers to validate your assumptions, so a thorough analysis of your customers can not only improve your service offering but also change how you innovate for them based on information or trends you discover.

Practical research methods include:

Customer interviews (both successful conversions and lost opportunities)
Sales team interviews
Support team feedback
Website analytics
CRM data analysis
Heat mapping and session recordings
Customer surveys

This research will help you understand not just what prospects do at each stage, but why they do it — crucial insight for mapping how the traditional Awareness, Consideration, and Decision stages play out in your specific market.

5. Document customer goals, questions, and pain points.

For each stage of the journey, document:

What the customer is trying to accomplish
Questions they need answered
Concerns or obstacles they face
Emotions they're experiencing
Information they require to move forward

This level of detail helps you create highly targeted content and interactions that directly address buyer needs.

6. Analyze current performance and gaps.

Now, assess how well your current marketing and sales efforts align with the journey you've mapped:

Which stages have strong support?
Where are prospects getting stuck or dropping off?
What content or touchpoints are missing?
Are there inconsistencies in messaging across channels?
Does your CRM capture the right data points to track progress?

7. Design optimized touchpoints.

Based on your analysis, develop specific strategies to improve the buyer experience at each stage:

Create new content to address unanswered questions
Redesign website pages to better guide users
Implement new lead-nurturing sequences
Train sales teams on addressing stage-specific concerns
Develop tools that help buyers evaluate your solution

For each touchpoint, clearly define:

The content or interaction
The channel or platform
The responsible team
The desired outcome
Metrics to measure success

Our customer journey map guide provides excellent frameworks for organizing these elements.

8. Implement, measure, and refine.

The final step is implementing your optimized journey, measuring results, and continuously refining your approach:

Start with high-impact, easy-to-implement changes
Establish clear KPIs for each journey stage
Create dashboards to monitor progress
Schedule regular reviews to assess performance
Gather ongoing customer feedback
Test new approaches for underperforming stages

Pro tip: Make your journey map a living document. Incorporate quarterly reviews with your team to update your map based on new data and market changes. This prevents the common pitfall of creating a beautiful map that sits unused in a digital drawer.

Putting Your Journey Map to Work

The actual value of a buyer journey map comes from how you use it to drive action. I recommend creating specialized versions for different teams:

For Marketing: Focus on content needs and channel strategy
For Sales: Emphasize common objections and decision criteria
For Product: Highlight feature priorities and friction points
For Customer Success: Spotlight onboarding challenges and expansion opportunities

You'll maximize adoption and impact by giving each team a perspective tailored to their needs.

Tool to Support Your Mapping Process

While you can create a journey map using simple tools like PowerPoint mind maps, or sticky notes on a wall (never underestimate good ol' pen and paper), dedicated software can enhance collaboration and keep your map updated.

For teams serious about journey mapping, I recommend checking out our comprehensive customer journey map template, which provides a structured framework that you can customize to your specific needs.

Final Thoughts

Creating a B2B buyer journey map requires investment, but I believe the clarity and alignment it brings to your organization are worth it.

The companies that get the most value from journey mapping treat it as an ongoing practice rather than a one-time project. I always consider B2B buyer journey maps as a living document, or one that's never truly “finished.” As your market evolves, your products advance, and buyer behaviors change, I encourage you to revisit and refine your understanding of how customers make purchasing decisions.

KPI dashboards & how to use them in your marketing

Fri, 30 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

I’ll never forget the first time someone asked me for a marketing performance update. I had six messy spreadsheets open, no clear narrative, and no KPI dashboard to tie it all together.

I had the numbers, technically … but not the clarity. I wasn’t even sure which metrics mattered most. That’s when I started building my first KPI dashboard, and everything changed.

Since then, I’ve used KPI dashboards to track everything from campaign performance to quarterly revenue targets, and I’ve learned what works (and what really doesn’t).

In this post, I’ll walk you through how to build a KPI dashboard (including my favorite free template), the benefits I’ve seen firsthand, and the tools I recommend if you’re just getting started.

Table of Contents

What is a KPI dashboard?
How to Create a KPI Dashboard
5 Best KPI Dashboard Software to Use
KPI Dashboard Examples
KPI Dashboard Excel Templates

Every department from sales to operations needs a dashboard, and dashboards are especially helpful for marketing. Between about a dozen online channels to consider (plus offline marketing efforts), numerous elements go into creating and sustaining a healthy marketing ecosystem.

I’ve personally used KPI dashboards to track everything from lead quality to campaign ROI — and the biggest win is peace of mind. No more scrambling to find data in five different tools. And when you’re in the thick of a launch or juggling competing priorities, that kind of clarity is everything.

That said, I’ve learned the hard way that more data doesn’t always mean better decisions. I’ve built dashboards with way too many charts, and ended up ignoring them. So the ones that actually work? They’re focused, intentional, and built to show what matters most.

Benefits of a KPI Dashboard

I didn’t fully appreciate how useful KPI dashboards could be until I stopped relying on scattered reports and random spreadsheets. Since then, here’s what I’ve found makes them genuinely helpful:

Instant clarity. I can see what matters without bouncing between tools or chasing last-minute numbers.
Smarter decisions, faster. With everything in one place, I can spot what’s working, flag what’s not, and pivot quickly — without overthinking it.
Real-time insights. The best dashboards update live, which means I’m not relying on outdated info when it’s time to act.
Alignment across the team. When everyone’s referencing the same dashboard, we make decisions faster and with fewer miscommunications.

At the end of the day, a good dashboard isn’t just about showing data — it’s about making the right next move clearer. That’s what makes it such a powerful tool.

So what does it take to build one that actually works? Let’s get into it.

What should a KPI Dashboard include?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from building too many dashboards the hard way, it’s this: The simpler it is, the more useful it becomes. A good dashboard doesn’t try to track everything under the sun — just the stuff that really matters.

I usually aim for five to nine metrics, max. Any more than that, and it starts to feel cluttered. Ask yourself: If this number took a nosedive tomorrow, would it seriously mess with your goals? If yes, it probably belongs on the dashboard.

Let’s say you’re putting together a B2B marketing KPI dashboard. Some of the most helpful metrics I’ve tracked include:

Cost per acquisition (CPA).
Conversion rate.
Website traffic by channel.
Customer lifetime value (CLV).
Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs).

Like I mentioned earlier, I used to track everything just because I could. But things really started to click when I cut back and focused only on the KPIs tied directly to business impact. My dashboards finally started to work for me, not against me.

I’d be embarrassed to show you my first-ever dashboard. It had a lot going on — and not in a good way. After a lot of trial and error (and a few dashboards I’d rather forget), I finally landed on a simple formula that actually works.

Here’s how to build a KPI dashboard that’s clean, focused, and actually useful.

1. Know your audience.

If your dashboard tries to speak to everyone, it’ll end up connecting with no one. I used to create one-size-fits-all reports and send them to execs, managers, and specialists, hoping they'd all find what they needed. But no one really did. The execs wanted a top-line summary. The team leads needed tactical data. Instead of helping, the dashboard just created more questions.

Now, I start with one question of my own: Who’s this dashboard actually for? I think about what decisions that person needs to make, what context they already have, and how much time they’ll spend looking at it.

A CMO might want a monthly snapshot with visual summaries and a handful of high-impact numbers. A marketing manager? They might need channel-level breakdowns and real-time pacing data.

When I tailor the layout and data to match what one specific person needs, the dashboard becomes way more useful — and way more used.

2. Keep it simple.

There’s a reason I keep repeating this … Keeping it simple really is the secret. The more metrics you add, the harder it gets to focus. I’ve built dashboards that looked impressive — so many charts! So much color! — but no one (including me) actually used them.

Now I stick to the handful of KPIs that tell the story clearly. The kind of numbers you can glance at and immediately know what’s going well and what needs attention. That’s the difference between a dashboard that’s useful and one that just looks good in a meeting.

3. Gut-check your metrics.

Remember my trick from earlier — asking yourself if a metric taking a nosedive would seriously mess with your goals? We're doing a deeper version of that here.

Every KPI on your dashboard should have a job. Before I add anything, I ask: Would this number trigger a decision or a conversation if it changed significantly? If not, it’s out.

But beyond that, I also think about what kind of decision it might drive. Would this metric help me catch a red flag? Justify more budget? Spot a trend worth exploring? When you push yourself to answer those questions, you start building a dashboard with real utility — not just one that checks a box.

The benefit? You end up with a dashboard that doesn’t just sit in a tab, it actually gets used. Not just by you, but by everyone it was built for.

4. Sketch it first.

Before I jump into any tool, I take a step back and sketch out the layout — either on a whiteboard, a napkin, or a quick outline in a doc. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Just enough to map out what I want to see and in what order.

I think of it like wireframing a website: It helps me prioritize the most important data and avoid clutter. What should someone see first? What metrics need to sit side-by-side? Do I want trend lines, percentages, or raw numbers?

The type of dashboard you’re building should also influence how you visualize the data. If you’re analyzing trends, I usually go with line or column charts since they make it easy to spot patterns over time. For composition data (like what percent of traffic comes from each channel), stacked charts or maps can tell the story much better.

Sketching it first makes the whole thing feel more intentional, and it saves me from endlessly rearranging tiles once I’m in the dashboard tool.

5. Use a template (seriously!).

If you’re building your first dashboard (or even your fifth) don’t start from scratch. It’s not worth the headache. I’ve wasted so much time trying to build “perfectly customized” dashboards from a blank canvas, only to end up stuck in layout limbo or second-guessing every design choice.

Templates give you a head start. They provide structure, offer design cues, and keep you from overcomplicating things. Think of them like scaffolding — you can always tweak and adapt later, but they help you get something functional up fast.

HubSpot’s free KPI dashboard template is one I keep coming back to. It’s clean, easy to customize, and works for all kinds of use cases — whether I’m tracking campaign performance, quarterly goals, or team KPIs. It helps me go from “I don’t know where to start” to “this is actually working” way faster than starting from zero.

The bottom line? Use a template. Save yourself the stress. Spend your brainpower on interpreting the data, not wrestling with boxes and grids.

5 Best KPI Dashboard Software to Use

There are a ton of marketing KPI dashboard tools out there, and I’ve tried more than a few. Some are perfect for big-picture visibility, others are better for daily performance tracking. What matters most is choosing one that fits your workflow — not the flashiest one on the market.

Here are five options I’ve either used myself or seen work really well for marketing teams. I’ll walk you through what each one does best, and where it might fall short depending on your needs.

1. Hubspot

Best for: All-in-one marketing visibility

Source

If you're already using HubSpot’s CRM or marketing tools, this one’s a no-brainer. The free KPI dashboard functionality is built right in, which means you can quickly pull reports from campaigns, landing pages, email, and deals — all without needing a separate platform or integration.

As an avid Hubspot user myself, I’ve used HubSpot dashboards to track everything from MQLs to email performance, and the ease of setup still surprises me. It’s drag-and-drop, highly customizable, and actually looks good right out of the gate (which is more than I can say for some other tools).

What I like: It’s seamless for HubSpot users — no extra work, no confusing data syncs. If you live inside HubSpot already, the dashboard feature feels like a natural extension of your day-to-day. Like an iPhone and AirPods, it just works.

2. Google Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio)

Best for: Free, Google-friendly reporting

Source

If you’re working with Google Analytics, Google Ads, or Sheets, Looker Studio is kind of a hidden gem. It’s completely free, relatively easy to learn, and super handy for building clean dashboards fast.

I’ve used Looker Studio when I needed to get a dashboard live yesterday and didn’t have time (or budget) for a fancier tool. It’s not the most powerful platform out there, but for marketing performance, top-line reporting, or pulling data from multiple Google sources, it gets the job done.

What I like: It’s free, flexible, and plays really well with Google tools, perfect when you need something fast and functional without jumping through hoops.

3. Tableau

Best for: Deep analysis and advanced data visualization

Source

Tableau is one of those tools that can do pretty much anything — but it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s powerful, flexible, and built for serious data storytelling. If you’ve got complex data sets or need to build interactive dashboards with layered filters, Tableau can handle it.

I’ve used Tableau in both marketing and ops contexts, and once you get the hang of it, it’s incredibly satisfying to work with. When I worked at a company that used Tableau across the org, I had access to a dedicated data team that helped me organize, structure, and visualize the data in ways I wouldn’t have come up with on my own.

That said, it does come with a learning curve, and it’s probably overkill if all you need is a quick performance check-in.

What I like: When I need to slice and dice data in a more custom way or build dashboards for exec-level presentations, Tableau gives me the control I’m looking for. It takes more effort, but the results are often worth it.

4. Microsoft Power BI

Best for: Data-driven teams in the Microsoft ecosystem

Source

If your company lives in Excel, Teams, or Azure, Power BI might feel like second nature. It’s Microsoft’s answer to enterprise BI — robust, secure, and packed with features that help teams analyze, share, and collaborate around data.

I’ve seen Power BI work best in orgs where reporting isn’t just a marketing task, but something more cross-functional. Sales, ops, and finance teams all rely on the same dashboards, and Power BI makes it easy to pull from multiple sources and build one cohesive view. The integrations with Excel are especially helpful if you're already wrangling spreadsheets.

What I like: It’s a great fit for organizations that already run on Microsoft. Once it’s set up, it becomes a powerful, collaborative tool that supports decision-making across teams.

5. Databox

Best for: Small teams tracking multiple goals

Source

Databox is one of my favorite options for lightweight, real-time dashboards. It’s built with simplicity in mind — easy to use, easy to connect, and surprisingly flexible for something that doesn’t require coding knowledge.

I’ve used Databox to keep tabs on marketing KPIs like lead volume, conversion rates, and channel performance without having to build anything from scratch. It has dozens of plug-and-play templates, and the mobile app is actually helpful — perfect for quick check-ins or on-the-go reviews.

What I like: It’s fast to set up, visual by default, and great for teams that want visibility without having to babysit a dashboard tool. It won’t do everything, but for daily performance tracking? It nails the basics.

There’s no one-size-fits-all KPI dashboard, and that’s kind of the point. A dashboard should be built around the specific goals, channels, and workflows it’s meant to support. Whether you’re reporting on campaign performance or trying to give leadership a top-line view, the best dashboards are the ones that serve their purpose without overcomplicating things.

Here are a few examples I’ve seen (or built) that work really well in a marketing context.

1. Marketing Campaign Performance Dashboard

Source

As a marketer, this is the dashboard I check most often, especially when I’m running campaigns across multiple channels. It’s where I track key performance indicators like:

Cost per lead (CPL).
Return on ad spend (ROAS).
Conversion rate.
Click-through rate (CTR).
Spend vs. budget pacing.

I like to structure it by channel (Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, etc.) too, so I can see which platforms are pulling their weight. I’ll also include visuals like bar charts to compare performance across campaigns, and line graphs to spot trends over time.

What I like: This dashboard helps me make quick decisions mid-campaign, like when to shift budget from one channel to another or pause underperforming creatives. It’s my go-to for real-time marketing visibility.

2. Lead Generation Dashboard

Source

This one’s all about tracking how well your marketing efforts are turning into qualified leads. I’ve used it most when we were laser-focused on top-of-funnel growth, whether through paid campaigns, SEO, or lead magnets.

Here’s what I usually include:

Leads by source (organic, paid, referral, etc.).
MQL volume.
Conversion rates from landing pages.
Cost per acquisition (CPA).
Form submission completion rate.

I like to keep this dashboard simple and visual, with a clear split between lead sources and performance over time. Bonus points if you include trend lines that flag lead drop-offs early — it helps you fix issues before they tank your pipeline.

What I like: This kind of dashboard gives me a clean, high-level look at how effectively we’re growing our audience and feeding the funnel. It’s also a helpful way to show stakeholders where leads are really coming from (and what’s underperforming).

3. Email &a

Why you shouldn't buy Instagram followers (& what experts say to do instead)

Fri, 30 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

You might know your Instagram content is good, but imagine how much better it will seem if it looks like 10,000 people agree.

Whether you’re trying to become a social media celebrity or simply looking to spread brand awareness on Instagram, it can be tempting to take shortcuts wherever you can in order to expand your audience, including 'buying' Instagram followers.

Here, I’m covering all the questions you have about buying Instagram followers. I’ve also explored the pros and cons, so you can decide for yourself if it’s a good move for your brand.

Table of Contents

Can you buy Instagram followers?

How to Buy Instagram Followers

Why You Shouldn't Buy Instagram Followers

Risks of Fake Followers

Alternatives to Buying Instagram Followers

Buying Instagram followers FAQs

1,000 followers seems like a good deal for the price of a small Starbucks latte. But of course, if it really was that cheap and easy, everyone would be doing it.

So what’s the catch? Is buying Instagram followers legal and safe for your business? Is it a worthwhile investment? And how much do these fake followers cost anyway?

How much do Instagram followers cost?

The price you pay for Instagram followers can range from a few dollars to thousands, depending on how many you buy and how often you buy them.

I’ve seen a few websites offer different types of followers to purchase (like active profiles vs. bots), and the price differs for each.

Remember that buying followers violates Instagram’s Community Guidelines, so the price you pay could be more than monetary.

Buying followers could cost you your Instagram account, at worst, and at a minimum, decrease in engagement and reach.

How to Buy Instagram Followers

The vast majority of purchasable followers are either bots or inactive accounts. Here's how it works:

The Fake Follower Vendors

Instagram has cracked down on accounts that violate its terms of service, but it’s still relatively easy to buy Instagram followers nowadays.

You simply conduct a search, choose a vendor whose price range you like, and wait for it to deliver the bots—sorry, I mean followers—to your account.

I won’t link to any here because I don’t think you should buy Instagram followers, but if your final decision is to buy them, then a simple Google search will get you what you need.

But what happens once you’ve paid for your followers?

Sellers roll out your followers over time to not alert Instagram that something fishy is going on (which is a red flag).

Assuming the vendor is legitimate (as legitimate as can be for this type of service) you’ll wait anywhere from a few minutes to a few days for your followers to trickle in. Some sellers let you pick a delivery schedule for your followers to arrive.

Once you have your brand new automated followers, I wouldn’t expect much. Engagement is not guaranteed (or even likely), and you’re mostly paying for a number despite having purchased them.

Instagram Bots

Instagram bots are everywhere, and some companies have automated the process of creating bots so well that they can sell them as followers. Bots might even assume the identity of a real person, using stolen images and names.

Some services might offer organic dummy accounts, running on automation to share and like content. Some might even produce content.

But, because they’re not really people, the follow-to-follower ratio will not look organic, and the engagement they produce will have little impact.

Without real followers who engage, your posts are essentially hidden from everyone except your inauthentic audience.

Plus, your bot followers won’t discuss your brand with their friends or family because they don’t exist in real life (no offense, bots).

Inactive Accounts

Some companies sell followers in the form of genuine accounts managed by real people. Typically, their only goal is to get followed in return, so while they might engage initially, they’ll ultimately become dormant once they get a follow-back or simply go inactive.

After all, if their account was created for the sole purpose of fulfilling sponsorship requests, the real person behind the account has little reason to dwell on the newsfeed, interact with content, or purchase the goods and services being advertised.

You’re left with inflated follower counts but none of the value that true organic followers will bring.

Demographic Accounts

In addition to buying followers directly, you can also pay services to strategically follow other accounts on your behalf based on your preferences (location, hashtag usage, account type, and gender).

Ideally, those followed accounts will then follow you back.

With this option, your followers are more likely to be real people, but engagement is still unlikely. Since you can't even guarantee these accounts will follow you back, it’s a risky investment.

Most accounts won’t follow you back, and even if they do, they probably aren’t going to be long-term, loyal, or active followers.

Here’s how I can put it simply: any engagement you get from buying followers will taper off over time.

Purchased Instagram followers also provide no long-term value to your profile's content or your Instagram marketing strategy.

You might get views, likes, and comments early on, but attention does nothing in terms of helping you understand and report on your Instagram performance.

Engagement is also a key factor in how Instagram’s algorithm displays posts to users. Without likes or comments, real people probably won’t see your posts in their feed, especially not on Explore Pages.

Below I’ll go over a few more reasons why I wouldn’t recommend buying Instagram followers.

Why You Shouldn't Buy Instagram Followers

1. You wont know if your content sucks.

I know this sounds harsh, but it’s true: the worst thing about buying followers is that you won’t know if your content sucks.

Likes from fake followers don’t mean someone likes your content, and comments might not even be related to what you’ve posted.

If a majority of your followers are bought, there’s a pretty good chance that the content you continue to share won’t meet the needs of or be interesting to your real human followers because fake accounts overshadow their engagement.

You might actually turn your real followers away if they get tired of seeing posts that aren’t relatable.

With real followers, you can build an effective Instagram strategy that actually helps you meet your goals. You share content, see how followers interact with it and adjust to better meet their needs. The feedback you get from real people on Instagram is what helps you succeed on the app.

2. Fake followers don't help to build real influence or sales.

Purchased followers are usually bots or inactive accounts, so you’re not reaching people who are interested in your brand, products, or content.

For businesses, they won’t buy from you; for aspiring influencers, you can’t actually influence or inspire fake accounts. This means your follower count looks bigger, but you gain no value such as sales, genuine referrals, or meaningful interactions from them.

3. You might get spam or inappropriate bot comments.

Many fake followers or bots may post irrelevant, inappropriate, or even embarrassing comments on your posts (sometimes in languages you don’t understand or containing spam and ads). This could make your page look unprofessional or off-putting to legitimate followers and brands considering working with you.

And I've seen comments like these get even more pesky. Not only are they annoying to scroll through, but sometimes bot comments can aim to redirect users to another profile looking to make money off you or anyone looking for exposure. For example, take a look at this screenshot from a gaming IG page:

Source

Which, if you ask me, that doesn't quite align with what you're aiming for when growing your audience.

Risks of Fake Followers

1. Fake followers could hurt your credibility.

A high follower count might convince users to follow you organically, but it’s not guaranteed.

I tend to follow accounts if I like their content, not based on their number of followers. I wouldn’t be convinced to follow an account if I hated its posts but saw it had 1M followers. I’d decide it wasn’t for me and move along.

Think of it this way: would you keep following an account if you saw that most of its “loyal audience” was made up of inactive accounts or bots? I’m guessing not.

One of the biggest benefits to Instagram is being able to build trust, community, and relationships with your audience.

If people realize you have fake followers, you can damage that trust. You might lose real followers and risk people wondering if they should be skeptical of anything related to your brand/business overall.

2. Your engagement rate can suffer.

Fake followers are typically inactive or automated accounts, meaning they don't engage with content (liking, commenting, sharing). This drastically reduces the engagement rate (a key metric for Instagram's algorithm and for brands looking to collaborate). Low engagement is a red flag for Instagram, which may result in the platform limiting the reach of posts.

And on a personal level, I'd rather spend money on improving my content to meet my target audience than spend money so my content can reach an artificial crowd.

3. Your account can face suspension or ban.

If you’re buying followers, you’re violating Instagram’s community guidelines, which read: “Help us stay spam-free by not artificially collecting likes, followers, or shares, posting repetitive comments or content, or repeatedly contacting people for commercial purposes without their consent…”

If you violate Community Guidelines, Instagram has the right to take action against your account, which can be anything from actually losing your account to getting suspended.

While it doesn’t really take that long to buy Instagram followers, the time, energy, and money you’d spend on buying them is much better spent focusing on creating an Instagram marketing strategy that helps you interact and build genuine relationships with a real audience.

If your content is good, your loyal followers will engage with you, no bribes necessary.

Alternatives to Buying Instagram Followers

Looking for an alternative to buying Instagram Followers? Look no further than, well, creating an Instagram marketing strategy, and using good Instagram marketing practices.

By doing both, you can better reach the nearly 2 billion monthly active users and build an authentic audience that gives authentic engagement.

Here are some alternatives I suggest.

1. Make your account public.

First, make your account public so that users can see your profile and content. This way, you can grow your audience organically when your content pops up on users' explore pages, attracting and delighting your target viewership.

You can easily make your account public by unchecking the Private Account Box in your Privacy and Security settings.

2. Engage with other Instagram users.

Results from the Instagram Engagement Survey I ran found that, overall, marketers say the most effective strategy for growing your following. Interacting with your audience is also the most popular Instagram marketing strategy.

Source

Whether you like, comment, save, or share their posts, every interaction counts for you and them.

Instagram’s algorithm favors engagement, which means the more you interact (and the more people interact with you), the more likely it will be that your content appears on more news feeds.

That means more visibility and growth for your page.

It also pays off: marketers told me that interacting with your audience brings in the second-highest ROI of all strategies.

Source

Engagement in Action

GoSimplified does a great job of responding to comments on its posts. This example shows that the comments don't have to be detailed or long, but a simple acknowledgment goes a long way for engagement.

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Pro tip: Before you go overboard, remember that Instagram does have a limit to this “rule.” There have been cases where the social media platform blocked users from engaging with content if they liked and commented on more than a few hundred posts in an hour.

3. Give users a reason to follow you by publishing quality content.

You really won’t gain followers unless you’re sharing high-quality content.

When it comes to the type of content to post, results from that same survey show that Instagram marketers most often share content that showcases a brand's products/services, funny content, and relatable/authentic content.

The top three remain the same regarding ROI (which includes engagement).

Whatever type of content you choose to share, you can do it in the form of images, GIFs, Reels, videos, Boomerangs, quizzes on your story, how-tos, user-generated content (UGC), and so much more.

Source

Depending on your brand personality, it can help to be funny or witty in your content, especially since consumers say funny content is the most memorable type of content brands can post on social media.

Whatever kind of content you share, aim to build trust and excitement among your followers by using high-quality photos, writing catchy captions, posting consistently, and keeping up a unique style to differentiate yourself from other accounts.

Overall, being aware of how your brand is perceived and the trends on Instagram will help you choose content to post and interact with your Instagram community.

Quality Content in Action

HeytonyTV became an overnight viral sensation during the pandemic when he released skits where he plays the role of a school administrator.

In a short period of time, he amassed hundreds of thousands of followers who couldn't get enough of his creativity and wholesome, nostalgic humor.

Image editing used to mean opening Photoshop, wading through complex tools, and spending hours on tedious fixes. I've been there. It was frustrating and a massive bottleneck.

Today, AI is changing everything. With Google Gemini's new flash model, all you have to do is upload an image and describe what you want changed, all in text. Then, Google AI Studio handles the rest, editing your image. The best part? This tool is completely free.

This is a game-changer for marketers who need quality visuals at scale. The speed at which we can now iterate is mind-blowing, and I'm obsessed with how it can democratize creative work across teams. Here’s how.

Setting Up Google AI Studio

If you don‘t love graphic design or using editing tools, working with images feels like a time sink. I’ve been there. Trying to remember Photoshop shortcuts while deadlines loom is stressful.

But, Google Gemini 2.0‘s new flash model is bimodal, meaning you can upload images and text. The AI’s ability to understand both formats lets you edit any image just by typing. This is a massive productivity win for marketers who need to iterate quickly.

Here's how it works: First, head over to Google AI Studio. When you land, you'll get a pop-up asking if you have an API key or if you want to use Google Gemini. Choose Gemini.

Next, select the new Gemini 2.0 Flash preview from the menu on the right and make sure the output is set to “images and text.”

Now, you’re ready to go. Simply upload the image you want to edit and type your instructions into the prompter.

Google AI Studio allows me to add items to images in seconds. In the past, I would have had to find a tennis ball and Photoshop it into the image above. Now, I can make changes with just one prompt.

I love how this streamlines my creative workflow. I can adjust an image's contrast, lighting, and saturation without browsing through menus.

The speed at which marketers can now go from idea to execution is incredible. What used to take 10 minutes now takes seconds, giving teams more time to focus on strategy and growth rather than getting stuck in technical details.

Use Cases for AI Image Editing

Image Editing

Whether you‘re selling a product or service, your team probably has photos on file. These may be shot by your creative team, snapped during an event, or taken by you for a social campaign. I also know marketers need to make the most of what they have, meaning you’re probably repurposing these photos over and over again.

AI image editing can help you transform these pictures quickly. That means you'll never run out of creative, and you can make adjustments fast. Here are my favorite ways AI can aid in the process:

Edit product images. You can take a single product photo and change the color, show a customer interacting with it, or make mockups of it in different environments.

Create eye-grabbing video thumbnails. Instead of painstakingly editing each video thumbnail, you can quickly change the image, adding eye-catching details and text.

Transfer image styles. If you have an edited photo you really like, you can take a new image and instantly edit it to match that first image’s style. This makes it easy to keep all of your images on-brand.

Visual Storytelling

In addition to basic image editing, you can use this new bimodal technology to generate an entire visual story.

To test this feature, I started with a simple prompt: “Generate a story of a white baby goat going on an adventure in a farm in a 16-bit videogame style. For each scene, generate an image.” The result was a custom picture book that took minutes!

I was blown away by the results. The images looked like a real video game I could play on a handheld console. Plus, the AI created a simple, coherent story for my fictional goat to romp through.

You can use the same storytelling features to level up your presentations. Simply input your script and have Gemini generate the slides. You’ll still want to tweak them before presenting, but the outline will save you hours before the big meeting.

I also recommend storytelling for video teams. You can use this feature to help you storyboard your shoots, mapping out scenes before the camera rolls. That added AI boost can keep your team organized, so you’re studio time stays efficient.

Limitations Marketers Should Know

Google AI Studio makes photo editing easy and can save your team time. However, as with any new product, this tool has its limitations.

When testing this tool, I asked AI to update one of the YouTube thumbnails for my podcast, Marketing Against the Grain. Every episode needs a thumbnail that has the same style but looks somewhat visually distinct. The text should be different, my outfit can shift, and we may even change what logos are placed and where.

I uploaded an old show thumbnail to Google AI Studio as a starting point. When I asked it to make simple edits, like changing the color of my shirt, the tool made the process easy.

I even found that Google AI Studio could change the text in the image, something other systems struggle with.

However, when I asked the AI to work on multiple instructions at once, it got confused. Sometimes, it would only complete one of my requests. Othertimes, it would change too many elements of the image, moving further away from what I wanted.

Keep in mind, this technology is still in its early days, so you’ll want to keep your requests simple and clear. Give instructions one step at a time, and don’t be afraid to start over if your results stray too far from your vision.

More Than Just a Pretty Picture

Whether you’re updating a website or posting on social, images are essential for grabbing attention. And, we’re entering an era where anyone can create professional-quality visuals in seconds, not hours. Marketers everywhere can build engaging content without sacrificing quality or authenticity.

Google AI Studio is a great place to experiment. The learning curve is minimal, and the productivity gains can power teams of any size. This isn't just about making prettier pictures. It’s about freeing up your creative team to focus on strategy and ideas rather than technical execution.

To learn more about Google’s AI image editing, check out the full episode of Marketing Against the Grain below:

How marketers are navigating a possible recession (and advice about what you should do during it) [new data]

Thu, 29 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

Right now, some people will absolutely, 100% say that we’re in, without a doubt, a recession. Others will say that we’re absolutely, positively not in a recession. I think those people should argue with a brick wall. Regardless of where you might personally stand, there’s a lot of ambiguity about what’s actually going on; I’m here to clear it up.

When a recession happens, typically, marketers are the first to see budget cuts, so it’s no surprise that folks (perhaps yourself included) are starting to raise eyebrows at the brands and companies that they work for about what’s to come, whether or not their roles will be impacted, and how priorities might genuinely, quickly shift.

To help you (and other marketers) recognize that these sentiments aren’t felt in isolation, the HubSpot Blog surveyed 150 marketing and advertising professionals to find out exactly how (i.e., through staffing investments, budget reductions, etc.) you’ll be impacted by a recession, how consumer behavior is changing because of financial uncertainties, and finally, in turn, what marketing strategies folks are leaning on to make marketing thrive — even despite constraints.

I’ll also offer tips and resources (with lots of perspective) to help you navigate this transitional time.

Let’s get to it.

Table of Contents:

Three Marketing Impacts Caused by Recession Concerns

Resources and Advice for Marketing During a Recession

Three Marketing Impacts Caused by Recession Concerns

1. Consumers are spending less and, predictably, exercising more caution/discretion.

Though not surprising, the biggest impact marketers are seeing is that consumers are cutting costs back due to — and you probably guessed this already — a genuine fear of what’s to come.

According to HubSpot’s 2025 survey about marketing during a recession, 42% of marketers expressed negative sentiments about consumers’ shopping habits, overall acknowledging that many customers don’t have a whole lot of disposable income at the moment. One respondent noted that this can even be seen at stages of the buyer’s journey, saying, “It’s taking longer for them [customers] to commit.”

While this number and information aren’t entirely comprehensive, they’re telling of how most customers are thinking about their spending. Additionally, both align well with data found from multiple consumer pulse surveys over the last six months, like this Consumer Confidence Survey from Conference Board.

From inflation to geopolitical uncertainty to lingering COVID-19 concerns, consumers simply have zero idea about what to expect from the future; truth be told, I don’t think we can fault them for feeling this way either. “Spending has decreased for non-essential items greatly. Sales overall are down markedly,” said another survey respondent.

Additionally, a majority (32%) of marketers expect the recession to last more than a year, while only 23% of marketers expect it to last 4 to 6 months. Whether the recession itself will be longer or shorter, one thing is undoubtedly clear: marketers know it’s here to stay.

While I don’t have a crystal ball, am not giving legal or financial expert advice (‘cause I’m not a lawyer or an ecomonist), and can’t possibly know what a full-blown recession will feel or look like at this point, it’s important to remember that recessions, unfortunately, are often unavoidable.

And if you don’t believe me, the International Monetary Fund even acknowledges this reality, noting the occurrence of 122 completed recessions in 21 advanced economies over the 1960 — 2007 period. So, if it’s any consolation, recessions happening back to back isn’t new. And neither is surviving them.

While you and I can’t prevent a recession, here’s my insight: continue leveraging credible sources, data, and experts beyond just a few publications when determining when, if, and how a modern-day one would impact your business or role. Don’t fall victim to fear-mongering headlines or gossip traveling through a grapevine about potential layoffs. It’ll only drive you crazy — trust me.

2. Marketers understand that budget reductions are part of the (recession) process.

With every recession comes, inevitably, a shift in priorities. HubSpot’s 2025 Marketing During a Recession Survey revealed that nearly half (41%) of marketers and advertising folks expressed negative sentiments about economic conditions impacting their marketing activities.

Survey respondents noted that because of the ongoing recession, they’ve recognized a reduction in fiscal spending for marketing efforts in a variety of ways; some more apparent than others.

“We’re cutting back on spending for branded messaging,” one respondent admitted. Another respondent echoed, “[I’ve noticed] a reduced ability to spend and reduced staff to produce content.”

Now, I know what you’re thinking: it seems as if brands, companies, and organizations are slashing marketing budgets because they don’t value marketing in a recession. But, honestly, I think there’s more to the story; I have a few guesses as to why they’re pivoting right now, take a look below:

They’re cutting corners wherever possible to save dollars for other high-priority initiatives, like large-scale campaigns or ad spend.

They’re playing it safe and focusing on/investing in channels with more measurable ROI (like video and social).

They’re reallocating resources to meet immediate business pressures like staffing, supply chain, or operational costs.

Like I’ve already mentioned, there’s really no knowing the exact reasoning behind budget reductions in the marketing department, but just know that it’s likely not one singular answer for all teams, brands, or organizations.

3. Marketers are planning to lean on low-cost marketing efforts as the recession continues.

Lastly, HubSpot’s survey results highlighted that marketers are looking for ways to make a whole lot happen with very little when it comes to marketing efforts this year.

In fact, when asked about what marketing tactics they plan to focus on, invest in, prioritize, or lean into if the economy remains uncertain, nearly a quarter (23%) of respondents mentioned social media marketing in particular, amplifying a clear desire to utilize the power of algorithms and organic content to increas brand awareness, sales, and audience engagement.

One survey respondent amplified that “free and low-cost marketing” will be the star of the show throughout the recession. And given the fact that, as mentioned by HubSpot's 2025 State of Marketing Report, 92% of marketers plan to maintain or increase their investments in brand awareness in 2025, I don’t think that’s a half-bad idea.

Buzzy, trend-focused social media campaigns are indeed all the rage right now.

Resources and Advice for Marketing During a Recession

I won’t tell you about what to expect out of a recession wave without offering a lifeboat. Ultimately, you will prep for and adapt to recession in a way that works for you, but if you haven’t got an inkling of a plan yet and you need some expert-backed advice on what to do during this weird time, I’ve got you covered.

Below are a few productive suggestions for what you can do besides (and adjacent to) stressing about your job, job-hunting, or doom-scrolling on TikTok (‘cause same):

1. Use your free time to level up your resume with certifications and other educational opportunities.

Here’s a list of some education-specific resources you can look into:

Extern. This platform is strictly for my undergraduate and early-career marketers. While Extern isn’t free, it does offer access to its extern opportunities through flexible, sliding-scale subscription membership (starting at $10/a month). Plus, if you’re a young, emerging marketer (like me) and you haven’t secured a full-time role or internship opportunity, Extern is a great place to start networking with other early-career marketers, building your real-world experience, and strengthening your resume.

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ilovecreatives. If you’re a marketing professional of any experience level who’s looking for a fresh take on any marketing niche, whether it be copywriting or content creation, I highly recommend researching and potentially taking an ilovecreatives course. While these courses are on the pricer side and an absolute investment, in my opinion, what you spend is incredibly worth the lifetime access to valuable information that you’ll get in exchange.

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Teachable. Want to learn more about something from someone who looks like you, has worked in the same roles as you, or shares your lived experience? I highly recommend tapping into Teachable’s library of courses for some relatable, real-world teaching on topics that are broad, niche, and somewhere in-between. Teachable is a pay-to-play platform but if you’ve got the income and time to spare, I say go for it and invest in yourself as the recession unfolds.

Pro tip: If you’re not interested in learning through Teachable, try earning through it. Teach a course, masterclass, or even sell downloadable content through the platform to make some extra coin.

2. Get to your freelancing bag!

Alright. I know you’ve likely already heard this advice, but you haven’t heard my spin on the whole “just do freelancing” thing. If you’ve written it off before, allow me to be the person who changes your mind. That said, if you’re:

A multi-hyphenate marketer

A marketer who’s concerned about how to make extra income during a recession

A marketer looking for ways to expand their skillset and offerings outside of their workplace

I have one piece of advice for you as you explore ways to recession-proof your marketing career: monetize what you’re good at, and do it quickly. This could be a variety of things, but based on what I’ve seen from the marketing industry recently, I’d prioritize looking into doing freelance and/or contract work that leans into the following:

Short-form video content creation. HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report revealed that short-form video (at 23%) will be one of the leading content formats with the highest ROI in 2025. On platforms like Instagram and TikTok specifically, it’s tricky to understand their respective algorithms, but once you do, you’re often able to monetize your video content very quickly. If you haven’t thought about trying out short-form content creation, I recommend challenging yourself to post consistently for one week on the platform of your choice and see what becomes of it. You might surprise yourself.

Video editing. If you’re not an on-camera baddie, try being an off-camera one. As investments into video content become more popularized, I can promise this prediction: contract/freelance video editors will be more sought after. These days, brands, influencers, and big-name companies are always looking to build a repository of people who are down for the job. If you can’t take my word for it, take c, Senior Video Producer at Impact Media.

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Writing. Recently, writers of all genres and subjects have been taking to Substack, an entirely free literary platform and social networking app specifically dedicated to folks looking to share written content about niche interests, experiences, and identities. While individuals are totally monetizing their content on Substack, Beehiv’s another great option, too, especially if you’re looking to build a monetizable newsletter.

3. Strengthen your personal brand, use a multi-channel platform strategy to do it.

These days, building your personal brand solely on one online platform is, well, to put it bluntly, out. Leveraging a multi-channel content strategy for building your personal brand is 100% the way to go, especially if you’re looking to make waves in various places gradually, all at the same time.

On LinkedIn, I’ve noticed a wave of individuals hyping up how they’re growing their audiences and personal brand across platforms, not solely on one platform. I think that hopping on this bandwagon is a great opportunity to expand your reach and experiment freely.

I understand that posting on LinkedIn (or any form of social media) can be super daunting. Regardless of what people say to encourage you, there are tons of eyes on you, so it can feel vulnerable to post into “the ether” of social platforms.

However, the great thing about today’s social media landscape is that it’s vast. If LinkedIn (or Instagram … or TikTok … or X) feels too vulnerable to start with, try connecting with an audience on an app that is entirely unknown to you and your content.

Recently, folks have echoed that Threads, Bluesky, and Substack have been great platforms for people looking to connect, build a platform/following, and experiment with personal branding. Still not convinced? Here are some folks who’ve already sung praises about what pivoting away from the platforms we know and love has done for them (or other brands/businesses):

Hi, I’m Alana, your friendly neighborhood blog editor. I spent most of my early marketing career in the public health field. We focused on one main writing principle: using plain language.

For years, I turned complex health information into digestible content. I translated complicated vaccination schedules and lengthy health insurance policies into simple guidance for consumers.

I still use plain language principles to write clear content. But I’ve also picked up some new tricks along the way. Here are all of the strategies I use to communicate clearly and create value as a marketer.

Table of Contents

Why Writing With Clarity Matters

How to Improve Clarity in Writing: The Basics for Marketers

3 Expert Methods for Writing Clear Marketing Content

Why Writing With Clarity Matters

Before we get into the how, let’s start with the why.

Why does this matter for marketers?

My experience in health marketing taught me that clear content respects your reader’s mental energy. It matters because it influences their capacity to focus, think clearly, and stay motivated to take action.

Without clear writing, even the most brilliant messages fall flat. Science shows that factors as simple as sentence structure impact comprehension and recall as we read.

That’s why clarity is critical. If you don't communicate effectively, your audience won’t know (or remember) what you want them to do.

Here’s how you can put this thinking into practice.

How to Improve Clarity in Writing: The Basics for Marketers

I’ve included six fundamental tips below to help you improve clarity in your marketing content.

But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the ultimate clear writing hack: starting from an outline or template. Clarity starts with structure, and that’s exactly what templates (like the ones below) provide.

Save them for later when you’re ready to start writing. In the meantime, let’s get into the basics of writing clear content.

1. Know who you’re talking to and what you want to say.

The cardinal rule of marketing is this: Know your audience.

It’s easier to communicate clearly when you understand what they need, what they want to know, and how to reach them.

Let your audience guide your writing process. Before you put pen to paper (rather, fingers to keyboard), answer these questions:

Who is reading this? In my case, this article is targeted toward marketing professionals who specialize in content development.

What is my main message? Writing with clarity matters in marketing, and there are steps you can take to simplify your marketing content.

What’s the specific outcome I want to achieve? I want to give my readers actionable, experience-based strategies for writing clear content.

How will I get them there? I’ll introduce why writing with clarity is important, start with some basic tips, provide expert-level strategies from my marketing colleagues, and wrap up with key takeaways for marketers.

The clearest content is content with intention. Writing with clarity forces you to think about what you’re writing — and who you’re writing it for — before you start spilling words onto the page.

2. Define unfamiliar words (and don’t assume knowledge).

Another simple technique for making your marketing content clear is to explain your terms. Depending on the context, even familiar words and phrases can confuse readers.

At the beginning of this article, I defined writing with clarity. Sure, it may seem straightforward to me. But all it took was twelve extra words to make sure we’re aligned as you continue reading.

Explain key terms early on, so your message is easier to follow.

3. Use a consistent style and voice.

Sometimes, it’s good to be predictable. That’s a big reason why people come back to your brand — they know what to expect.

Take Duolingo as an example. Chances are you’ve noticed Duo the owl on just about every platform where Duolingo does business. He’s featured in all of their marketing content, and he has a very distinct voice and tone.

Take a page out of Duolingo’s book. Give consumers the same experience no matter where they find you. This will help you establish a clear and recognizable brand identity.

4. Use short words, sentences, and paragraphs.

Remember when science told us we have a shorter attention span than a goldfish?

That was about ten years ago, and it still holds true.

The reality is that most of your audience isn’t reading every word you write. Instead, people tend to skip entire words, sentences, and even sections.

One thing that I try to do in my writing is make my content scannable. This includes:

Simplifying my word choice (e.g., try use instead of utilize)

Targeting 10-15 words per sentence.

Focusing each sentence on one main idea.

Using single-sentence paragraphs to create natural pause points.

Limiting paragraphs to two to three sentences max.

Reread this section to see what I mean.

5. Emphasize your biggest takeaways.

As readers, we love to skim.

So make sure you highlight your most important points so they don’t get buried.

You can use bold to bring attention to crucial concepts or important statistics.

Bullets are also a great way to:

Summarize your main ideas.

Break down specific steps or recommendations.

Improve overall readability.

Clear writing makes it easy for people to pick up what you’re putting down (understand what you’re trying to say).

Here’s an example of emphasis in action from another blog post I wrote:

6. Take advantage of free writing tools.

There are tons of writing tools on the market to help you write with clarity. You can even ask your AI BFF to help your content read more clearly. (Talking to you, Claudie.)

However, I have to say, these two are my favorites right now: Hemingway Editor and Grammarly.

Hemingway Editor is so good. You can copy and paste your content directly into the tool. It highlights lengthy, complex sentences and common errors. Hemingway also flags unnecessary jargon and weak phrases in your writing.

The web-based version is free. You also have the option to download the desktop app for a one-time fee of $19.99 or upgrade to Editor Plus for more features.

Grammarly is also a fabulous proofreading tool. In fact, I’m actively using the Grammarly browser extension as I write this article. It provides content suggestions, word choice improvements, and grammar checks in real time.

Grammarly has both a free version and a paid version with advanced features.

OK — now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to switch to expert mode.

3 Expert Methods for Writing Clear Marketing Content

Expert mode, activated.

I reached out to three seasoned content strategists (and dear, dear colleagues) for even more clear writing techniques. Here’s how they approach writing with clarity.

1. Follow through on your argument and deliver on your promises.

Marja Vitti, marketing manager at HubSpot, says: “After I have my content written, I read it through and try to follow the flow of my logic. Here's an example of some questions I ask myself:

Does my content deliver what I promised in my introduction? (If not, that's a red flag.)

Does the flow of my argument make sense? (This is crucial.)

Does each paragraph make a specific point? (If not, rework and remove anything extraneous that doesn't serve the argument.)”

I love this framework.

In the intro of this post, I promised to share “strategies I use to communicate clearly and create value as a marketer.”

I also outlined the flow of my logic earlier in this post: “I’ll introduce why writing with clarity is important, start with some basic tips, provide expert-level strategies from my marketing colleagues, and wrap up with key takeaways for marketers.”

I hope you’ll agree that I delivered.

2. Spend time building context before getting into the weeds.

Amanda Sellers, manager of EN blog strategy at HubSpot, says: “Use a framework so your audience imprints on the right things.”

She continues, “A what > why > how structure can help build context before you get into the weeds of the topic. Spending time defining the problem will give your audience the words to get additional context later, regardless of whether they understood the ‘how.’”

This is the exact structure I used here:

I started with the what: “Writing with clarity means making your content easy to read and understand.”

I emphasized the why: “Clear content respects your reader’s mental energy. It matters because it influences their capacity to focus, think clearly, and stay motivated to take action.”

Then, I outlined the how: “How to Improve Clarity in Writing: The Basics for Marketers” and “3 Expert Methods for Writing Clear Marketing Content”

Works like a charm, I’d say.

3. Ask yourself: Does this actually sound good when I read it out loud?

Curt del Principe, senior marketing manager at HubSpot, says: “Read your work out loud. If you can‘t get through it without stumbling, it’s probably not clear enough.”

Those are wise words if I’ve ever heard them. Plus, it’s the perfect piece of advice to wrap up this tip roundup.

This article was brought to you by ten read-alouds and countless edits for flow. Talking through your piece and making refinements are the final bosses of clarity.

The Clearest Voice Wins

Clear writing isn‘t just good practice — it’s a competitive advantage.

In today’s content-saturated world, brands that communicate clearly win. They retain more customers, build stronger relationships, and drive better results.

Writing with clarity takes practice. Even after years of professional writing, I still catch myself falling into jargon traps or building overly complex sentences.

The difference? Now I have systems in place to catch (and fix) these issues before they reach my audience.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

How AI assistants can make you 10x more productive: A step-by-step guide

Wed, 28 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

Let‘s be honest: AI assistants aren’t just for executives anymore. They're the secret weapon that can make you 10x more productive than everyone else in your company.

I‘ve been testing AI assistants obsessively over the past few months. I’ve found that, with the right setup, they can transform how you work. During that process, I developed two game-changing AI assistants, with one focused on strategic project work and another on handling executive assistant tasks.

Below, I'll break down my prompts and then compare the major players — Google Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT — so you can pick the perfect AI assistant for your specific needs. Let’s dive in.

Everything starts with your folders.

Let‘s start with something nobody talks about but is absolutely critical: your folder structure. It’s not flashy. However, this mundane step will save you time when setting up AI assistants.

In my role at HubSpot, I manage three pods. For each pod, I only have two folders. One folder has my strategy docs, like road maps and memos. The other contains all my meeting transcripts — every Zoom call, every brainstorming session, and every check-in. To automate this, I use Zaps. So, every time a meeting ends, it just zaps the transcript into the right folder.

This sorting system isn't just about tidying up and staying organized. I’m actually building the foundation for my AI assistants to thrive. My strategy folder will train my project assistant. My meeting transcripts will become my executive assistant.

The foundation of your AI’s knowledge is all that structured and unstructured data. So, if you get your folders right, everything else will follow.

Building an AI Executive Assistant

Now, let’s take that information and create our first AI assistant. This GPT will help me prep for meetings and summarize calls so I can stay organized. Below, I’ll build my assistant using Google Gemini.

Gemini has both a chat function and “gems,” or Google’s equivalent to custom GPTs. For this process, I’ll start with a new gem that will become the executive assistant for my Scaled Selling pod.

Next, I’ll add my prompt to the instructions section. I want this GPT to analyze my meetings so I know the action items I need to complete after my calls. Here’s what I wrote:

You are my Executive Assistant for an initiative called Scaled Selling. I want you to:

Analyze meeting transcripts.

Identify key decisions and action items.

Track deadlines and ownership.

Flag high-priority items.

I also give it the exact output format I want. For meeting analysis, that includes:

A meeting summary (2-3 sentences).

Key decisions.

Action items (with owner and deadline).

High-priority flags.

Suggested follow-ups.

With my prompts in place, I can upload additional knowledge to train my GPT. That’s where my folder structure comes in. I just go to Drive and just grab my meeting transcript folder for this pod.

Once my assistant has access to all of my transcripts, my AI executive assistant is ready to go. When I have a new meeting, I upload the new transcript. Then, my GPT gives me a meeting summary, complete with action items and deadlines.

Building an AI Project Assistant

Next, I’ll build a project assistant from the information in my strategic docs folder.

Just like I did for the executive assistant, I click on “edit,” give it a name, and include the prompts in the instructions. However, I need more robust instructions because this GPT will handle higher-level strategy work. So, my prompt is a lot longer.

I want my assistant to perform a few functions. First, I want to upload a new document related to my project. When my assistant gets this information, I want it to review the information in the document, summarizing key points, noting stakeholder responsibilities, and tracking how resources are allocated.

From there, I want to build a menu of services that I can choose from. All I would need to do is punch in a number, and my GPT should give me the required output. My key services include:

A status analysis, which tells me how far along we are in the project.

Risk assessments that help me plan for potential blockers.

Tactic generation, which highlights different components of my project and recommends how I can make each a success.

Strategic recommendations, so I can prioritize and improve my approach to the project.

Documentation generation to help me create status reports and progress summaries.

I’ll include my prompt below. However, I recommend that you adapt these instructions so they match your needs.

The Prompt

You are an AI project assistant with expertise in project management, risk analysis, and organizational dynamics. After analyzing the provided project documentation, you will present a menu of available services and execute the chosen service immediately.

Initial Documentation Review

Analyze all provided project documentation, including but not limited to:

Project charter and objectives

Strategic planning documents

Team structure and responsibilities

Timeline and milestone tracking

Budget and resource allocation

Risk assessments

Technical specifications

Stakeholder communication logs

Available Services Menu

1. Project Status Analysis

Comprehensive review of the current project state

Progress assessment against objectives

Identification of critical bottlenecks

Analysis of milestone achievement rates

Resource utilization review

2. Risk Assessment

Identification of current and potential risks

Impact and probability analysis

Detailed mitigation recommendations

Early warning indicators

Contingency planning suggestions

3. Tactic Generation

Identification of key components to make the project successful

Deep analysis and thoughtfulness of tactics to make that component a success

Step-by-step guide on how to implement tactics

Include key obstacles to overcome to make the tactic a success

4. Strategic Recommendations

High-impact action items

Priority initiatives identification

Specific improvement strategies

Success metrics definition

Implementation approaches

5. Documentation Generation

Status report creation

Action item tracking

Decision log maintenance

Progress summaries

Now, I just need to upload my Strategic Docs folder from Google Drive into the knowledge section of my gem. Once that’s done, the project assistant will analyze my documents and create outputs based on the prompts above.

Using My New Project Assistant

Now, it’s time to put my project assistant to the test. First, I’ll ask it to give me a summary of my project status. Then, my GPT will provide key accomplishments and give an overall picture.

From there, I can ask for strategic recommendations or a one-page summary for my executive team. My assistant will give me strategic recommendations that I hadn’t thought about, or find key accomplishments based on presentations we’ve done.

Instead of spending hours manually sorting through meeting notes and tracking action items, my assistant handles all of that automatically. It analyzes entire folders of documents in seconds, spots patterns across conversations that would take me days to find, and generates perfectly formatted reports using my exact templates.

The real game-changer isn‘t just the time saved on administrative tasks — it’s that the AI can proactively identify risks, surface blind spots, and connect the dots between disconnected teams. This isn‘t just incremental improvement; it’s productivity that puts you leagues ahead of your competition.

Comparing Google Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT

Now that I’ve shown you the steps in Gemini, I want to walk you through the same process in Claude and ChatGPT, so you can see the strengths of each.

In ChatGPT, I’ve created custom GPTs trained on the same data as my gems. Importing meeting transcripts and strategic docs into the platform is just as manual as Gemini. I need to click the add attachment icon in the “Message GPT Builder” box. Nothing can be automatically imported.

I like how ChatGPT creates a clickable menu with my prompts. After I upload a document, I can tell the assistant what to do with a click. However, I found the executive assistant function comparable between Gemini and ChatGPT.

What really stands out is the project assistant. I can add multiple strategic documents and run an analysis. I was surprised at how well the GPT gave recommendations. I felt like I was working with a strategic partner who could help me refine my thinking. Gemini could do similarly in-depth outputs, but I had to prod it with more follow-up questions.

I also tested Claude to see how its AI assistants perform. I found this system more difficult to work with. For one, the context window is very small compared to Gemini and ChatGPT.

I could still add prompts and connect folders. However, with Claude, you have to add files one by one, which feels less intuitive. Claude also has input formatting limitations. For example, I can’t import PowerPoint slides. This isn’t an issue with the other two platforms.

Still, the recommendations it gives from the project assistant are great. In fact, I found the quality of the writing to be better than Gemini's. Building the assistant just requires more wrangling in this interface.

In the end, ChatGPT wins for its project assistant output and intuitive interface. But, I still use Gemini every day because it’s connected to the Google suite of products that I use daily.

Boosting Productivity with AI Assistants

The main takeaway here isn’t the output, but the process of how I got there: structuring documents into two folders, building two AI assistants for each project, and creating a menu of options that’ll deliver my desired output. For me, integrating these into my daily work has made a huge impact.

I recommend using your favorite platform to build your AI assistants. From there, you can leverage other AI tools as companions to improve your results. Sometimes, I take output from Gemini, put it into Claude, and ask it to rewrite it for another audience, like my executive team. Take the time to experiment, mixing and matching your AI tools until you have a flow that works.

To learn more about boosting productivity by building AI assistants, check out the full episode of Marketing Against the Grain:

Video is vital to ecommerce marketing — here’s what marketers need to know

Wed, 28 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

Video in ecommerce isn’t optional anymore — it’s the bare minimum. I don’t want to read novel-length product descriptions. I want to see it, feel it, trust it. And your customers want the same.

A good video does what ten blocks of text can’t. It shows off your product and convinces people to buy fast.

How can you make it work to your advantage? I’ll take you through everything you need to know about why video is important in ecommerce marketing and how you can start implementing it today.

Table of Contents

What is ecommerce video marketing?

Video Marketing in Social Commerce

5 Benefits of Ecommerce Video Marketing

Amazon Video Marketing: An Overview

Live Stream Product Marketing: An Overview

4 Tips for High-ROI Ecommerce Videos

What is ecommerce video marketing?

Ecommerce video marketing is the use of videos to promote products, boost online sales, and engage customers on ecommerce platforms and social media.

I think videos for ecommerce are super important because consumers can’t touch, see, or experience the products online like they can in physical stores. Videos help products come alive so consumers have a better idea of what to expect before buying.

For example, Thrive Causemetics is a beauty brand with high-quality, cruelty-free makeup that uses ecommerce video marketing to share tutorials and behind-the-scenes clips of their products in action on Instagram, building a more personal connection with their community.

Some common types of ecommerce videos include:

Explainer videos

Shoppable videos

Product demos

How-to videos

Unboxing videos

Product comparison videos

User-made videos and testimonials

Live selling videos

Video Marketing in Social Commerce

The following numbers are staggering.

According to HubSpot’s State of Consumer Trends, 33% of respondents have discovered products on social media in the past three months. Moreover, 1 in 4 of them prefer finding products through social platforms. Meaning, video marketing for ecommerce drives 25% of leads.

So, what type of content is working best on social media right now?

Short-form videos.

In 2025, this is the content driving the highest ROI, according to our 2025 State of Marketing Report. And live-streamed videos take third place.

TikTok and Instagram have evolved from platforms for dancing and sharing stylish photos to transforming the way people shop.

In 2024, TikTok Shop hit $9 billion in sales, showing the power of video content for ecommerce. Over 58% of GMV came directly from videos. This year, the trend has the potential to grow.

Meanwhile, Meta’s also betting big on social commerce with Facebook and Instagram, expecting to pull in around $94 million in combined revenue.

These highlights just urge you to take action and start filming, but let’s look at more business-oriented benefits.

5 Benefits of Ecommerce Video Marketing

I’ll walk you through real-world examples of ecommerce video marketing in different niches so you know what benefits you can expect.

1. Boosts Conversion Rates

Ecommerce sites using video increase conversions by 34%. Product demo and unboxing videos, in particular, give consumers greater confidence and intent to buy.

Take NovaNude, a bold women’s swimwear brand that leaned into influencer and UGC content by adding shoppable videos to their homepage.

The real-life product clips help shoppers connect with the brand, and they reported a bump in conversion rates.

Source

Pro tip: If you’re just getting started with video marketing, download the Ultimate Video Marketing Guide.

2. Increases Average Order Value

Videos make it easier for customers to see how products work together, encouraging them to buy more, which boosts the average order value.

For instance, BarkBox, a popular U.S. pet subscription service, used video ads to highlight its best-selling dog beds on Amazon and saw a massive 595% jump in sales and a 400% return on ad spend.

Ultimately, their products ranked higher in Amazon’s search results, drove more customers, and increased their average order value.

3. Enhances Customer Trust

Our research proves that every generation from Gen Z to X likes and trusts video more than anything else on social media.

Does that mean that every video delivers results? Of course not.

It comes down to the message and the quality. Low resolution, glitches on the screen, or bad visibility are huge turn-offs.

Actually, 87% of consumers say video quality impacts their trust in a brand, showing that well-produced videos significantly enhance brand credibility and customer confidence.

Source

4. Higher Engagement Rates

Videos generate 1,200% more shares than text and images, resulting in better engagement and reach.

Moreover, half the time people spend on Instagram goes to watching Reels, says Zuckerberg. It shows just how much attention videos get compared to photos.

On average, how-to videos under one minute get an 82% watch rate.

Even videos that last between 1 and 30 minutes still hold over 50% of viewers’ attention. This makes them a great way to boost engagement with product tutorials, helping potential customers understand how a product works before purchasing.

For example, check out this NutriBullet video where the influencer makes a milkshake:

It’s short, punchy, and grabs your attention. You see the power, the speed. It looks cool and effortless. Kinda makes you want to buy one and blend something yourself, right?

And the results speak for themselves — over 80k views and pretty solid engagement:

5. Improves SERP Rankings

That extra time on-site people spend while watching videos sends a strong signal to search engines that your content’s worth sticking around for.

I think that’s actually quite fascinating because Google has been saying that behavioral signals like dwell time don’t directly boost rankings. On the other hand, SEOs and SEO studies report the opposite.

Take Backlinko’s 11.8 million Google search results report. After analyzing this sheer number, they discovered that the average time on site for a Google first page result is 2.5 minutes. Moreover, “increasing time on site by 3 seconds correlates to ranking a single position higher in the search results.”

Source

What’s next?

Read on for detailed tutorials on the trickiest parts of ecommerce video marketing.

Amazon Video Marketing: An Overview

Amazon video marketing refers to the use of video content like product demos, sponsored brand videos, live shopping streams, and influencer collaborations within Amazon’s ecosystem.

The main goal?

Engage shoppers, showcase products, and drive sales. This includes video ads placed in search results, on product detail pages, within Amazon Live streams, and across Amazon’s expanding streaming platforms.

Amazon pointed out two important facts on this matter:

Adding videos to your listings can boost sales by up to 9.7%.

Shoppers who watch videos are 3.6 times more likely to buy than those who don’t.

If I’m shopping for a standing desk with adjustable height, I’d 100% go for one that has a video showing how long it takes to set up and how it actually looks in a room.

Source

How to Create an Amazon Video Marketing Strategy

I’ve gone through tons of LinkedIn posts, expert guides, and video tutorials to pull out the most practical, reliable tips out there.

So in this guide, I’ll show you how to build a strong Amazon video marketing strategy — step by step, from the ground up.

1. Understand your video placement options on Amazon.

Videos can appear in multiple places on Amazon, and each has different advantages. The placement and type of video you choose will depend on your business goals.

Product detail page videos. These live in the “Related video shorts” section. These are informational product videos that show how your product looks and functions. They are good for people in the consideration stage who are looking for a specific product and comparing offerings.

Amazon storefront videos. Found on your brand’s store page, this placement is great for top-of-funnel videos to introduce people to products you offer they might not have been aware of.

Amazon Live. Real-time shoppable livestreams, these are ideal for demonstrating your product and for selling to customers ready to buy on the spot.

Amazon posts with video (beta). Organic-style placements with video. Capture customers’ attention once they have entered a search query.

OTT (Over-the-top) video ads. On Fire TV, IMDb TV, etc., for bigger-budget brands.

Amazon sponsored brands video ads (SBV). These appear in search results, but they are paid ads, not organic videos. Choose this option for extra promotion.

Source

2. Define your business goal.

As always, you must decide what you want the video to achieve before making it. Do you want to:

Drive clicks and conversions?

Educate customers to grow trust?

Boost product reviews?

The goal will guide the type and tone of your video content, plus your placement choice.

3. Know your audience inside out.

In addition to other audience research tools, I highly recommend using Amazon Analytics (Brand Analytics, Search Term Report, etc.) to understand:

Who your buyers are.

What keywords they search.

What problems they’re trying to solve.

Then, craft videos that match their pain points and stage in the funnel.

Pro tip: Amazon’s search term reports in bulk sheets show what shoppers searched when your ad appeared, helping you quickly spot winning or weak keywords. They’re built into the file and make it easier to update targeting with all the key IDs in one place.

Source

4. Align video format with your goals.

Once you know your business goal and audience, it’s time to choose the format. In my research, I found these are the strongest performing formats for Amazon:

Explainer or Demo Videos. Show how the product works.

Comparison Videos. Show your product vs competitors.

Testimonial Videos. Real users sharing results.

How-to Videos. Especially useful for tools, gadgets, or food.

Quick 30-45s Ads. Optimized for SBV (autoplay muted in search).

Unboxing Videos. Great for premium or complex products.

I suggest selecting multiple formats and experimenting to see what works best for your product and audience.

5. Follow Amazon’s video guidelines.

Amazon Video ads let you run autoplay (muted) videos across Amazon’s sites, apps, and Fire tablets.

Your video shows up in spots like the homepage and product pages, and it starts playing when it’s at least halfway visible.

Source

When it comes to video ads, there are specific rules and basics you need to know:

Go with 1920x1080, under 500 MB, max 3 mins (but 15 sec is ideal).

No clickable buttons inside the video — Amazon handles the CTAs.

You’ll need a brand logo, short headline (up to 50 characters), and a CTA like “Shop now.”

Fire tablet ads can have custom backgrounds and poster images, but they need to follow Amazon’s layout rules.

6. Optimize videos for search and conversion.

To gain the most visibility, I recommend optimizing your videos with the following these best practices:

Include high-ranking keywords in your video headline/title.

Use clear CTAs like “Learn more,” “Buy now,” etc.

Highlight key features and unique benefits in the first 5-10 seconds.

Add text overlays to boost clarity since videos autoplay muted.

7. Launch and test.

Now it’s time to see how your videos perform! I’ve found these tests and metrics help optimize performance:

Use A/B testing to compare different videos (e.g., different scenarios or colors).

Track performance via Amazon Ads Console: CTR, CVR, ROAS.

Pause underperformers and double down on winners.

8. Reuse and repurpose.

Spot a winning video that strongly delivers ROI?

Here’s what I suggest you do next to make more out of these videos:

Upload winning videos to product pages.

Add them to your Amazon storefront.

Cut shorter clips for Amazon Posts or social media.

Use for Amazon Live streams or influencer campaigns.

Source

9. Monitor and iterate.

A video strategy for Amazon is not a one-and-done thing. Keep tabs on:

Engagement metrics (views, watch time, clicks).

Conversion rate lift from pages with video vs without.

Review customer questions — turn them into new video topics.

Then tweak and iterate your strategy for future videos to keep improving their performance and ROI.

Now, your task is to take a pen and map out your strategy

What makes a good website? Here are 16 things I look at [new data]

Wed, 28 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

Your website strategy should help drive business and marketing objectives. For your website to work, you need to keep up with what makes a good website today.

Website trends and customer expectations change rapidly. It feels like yesterday when I worked in a leading website design agency. Back then, we encouraged clients to build a mobile-friendly website because it was the new thing. Before I knew it, we were building mobile-first websites as standard, then web apps. These days, mobile responsiveness is no longer a USP; it’s an expectation.

I wanted this article to cover every component of what makes a good website. To do this, I needed more than just my knowledge, so I spoke to website experts, including talented and certified UX designers, website developers, website administrators (because a good website has to be easy for your team to use, too), and marketers who rely on websites for marketing success.

I suggest reading this article and using each item as a checklist. If the recommendation works for you, you can add it to your next website brief. However, you don’t need to wait until you need a new website to implement some of these recommendations. For each recommendation, I’ve made a point to suggest whether or not this is something you can do now or if it’s better as part of a wider website project (read: a rebuild).

I’m jumping straight into the qualities of a good website, but before I do, I want to share an analogy from Ste Bell because I think it helps explain why a good website matters. Bell is the founder at Technically Creative; fair to say, he knows a thing or two when it comes to the qualities of a good website.

Bell uses the analogy of a shop to describe a website. He says, “Imagine you go into a shop, but just before you go in, you’re told that you need to wait before you come in. You might be a little bit disgruntled, or you might even leave and go elsewhere. That’s what it’s like for your users if your site takes ages to load.”

Bell continues, “Now, you’ve gone into the shop, and it’s a bit of a mess; the decor’s pretty dirty and needs painting. You’re going to assume the quality isn’t the best. You’ll be reluctant to spend a lot of money in that shop. This is the same as your website. If your aesthetic is stuck in the past you’re letting competitors get a head start in winning all the potential buyers.”

Now, onto the components of a great website so your visitors will stay engaged on your site and convert.

1. Clarity

I asked many experts for insights into what makes a good website, and I was inundated with recommendations for improving clarity.

Ste Bell said that “Clarity” was the most crucial component for a successful website. What do you do and who do you do it for?

Bell says, “A clear website means users instantly know what you offer, how it helps them, and what the next steps they should take. Done properly, this will drive user engagement and lead to tangible business results.”

Bell warns, “Many businesses miss the mark on clarity, yet it's really not that complex.”

Bell has the key steps to bringing clarity to your website. He says, “The first step to this is nailing your sections and headings. Users skim, and 99% of people landing on your website aren't going to read all of your copy.

“You need them to understand:

What problem you're solving.

Who are you solving it for? (Is it for them?)

What is your solution (bonus for ‘when’ and ‘how’).”

On his own site, and within the hero, Bell demonstrates these three items. See the image below for clarity in action.

Source

Bell says, “You don‘t get a second chance at a first impression so it’s crucial to nail this in your hero section, so that visitors are going to want to scroll to find out more.”

Easy to add to an existing website? Yes! You should be able to alter your website’s messaging within minutes on your site. Any CMS, or drag-and-drop website builder should give you functionality to make these changes.

2. Copywriting With a Consumer Focus

The second component of a good website is consumer focus. While this point overlaps with the clarity point above, I wanted consumer focus to have its section because I think it’s incredibly important, and so does Tasmin Lofthouse, a freelance conversion copywriter and founder of Fika Digital

Lofthouse warns, “Too many brands focus on themselves when it comes to their website messaging.”

Instead, Lofthouse says brands should “Put themselves in their target audience‘s shoes and be able to see their product or service from their customer’s perspective.

“It's not enough to just sell people based on features and benefits. Consumers should visit your website and instantly get a sense of how your product/service will add value to their lives. They care about what it can specifically do for them.”

In marketing, we talk about the four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion, but I’d argue that the four Cs of marketing are a better perspective when it comes to copywriting. The four Cs include: customer, cost, convenience, and communication.

Lofthouse says you should do “in-depth customer research and pivot your website messaging to centre your customer‘s emotions, motivations, and needs. That way, you can make sure your website messaging speaks directly to the heart of your consumers without them ever feeling like they’re being sold to.”

Easy to add to an existing website? This is easy to add to your existing website as long as you know how to communicate what you do. If you don’t, then a branding exercise could be a helpful project.

3. Pages That Match Search Intent

If SEO is driving traffic to your website, you need to think about the experience the visitor gets when they click on your page. It’s essential that the page delivers the information the user is asking for.

Ben Poulton, founder of Intellar, considers what makes a good website from an SEO perspective.

Poulton says, “There is a lot of overlap with design, UX, content, and technical best practices. High-performing websites have clear hierarchies when it comes to navigation and content consumption.

“If users are searching for a product, it‘s likely they want to buy, but it’s also likely they have many other intents to fulfil.

How do they use [the product]?

What are the reviews saying?

Shipping times

Supplementary product

Benefits

Comparisons

“A good landing page will capture all of the above.”

I’ve worked in SEO for over a decade and strongly agree with Poulton. SEO drives a lot of new traffic to a website, and if someone hasn’t heard of you before, they need extra trust builders to lead them to conversion.

It is essential to think about the components of an individual page and how these components contribute to an action being taken. Sticking with product pages, all components of the page should help drive that final conversion, a sale.

Holland & Barrett do this really well. Below is a screenshot from their site. On the product page, they’ve made conversion very easy but have also included a lot of supporting content such as delivery and returns, sustainability, reviews, and more.

Poulton has a tip for finding out what to include on your page. He says, “[Combine] existing customer feedback (if you have it), search intent (what do they expect to get, think format and medium too), and piggybacking off other data across your marketing channels.”

Easy to add to an existing website? For smaller sites, it will be easy to make edits on a page-by-page basis, but larger sites, especially ecommerce, may need to consider a full redesign and rebuild before getting search intent fully implemented across the site.

P.S. Need to rebuild your website? Worry not! HubSpot has a complete guide on how to build a website from scratch.

4. Social Proof

Andrew Ganesh is a digital marketing consultant at neshworks. He says that users (especially new users) visiting a site need to know they can trust a business.

I strongly agree that social proof is a critical part of what makes a good website.

Ganesh says, “Visitors look for trust signals that help them determine if the business is legitimate and credible.”

Examples provided by Ganesh include:

Social proof from 3rd party platforms like Google Reviews or Trust Pilot.

Authentic 5-star reviews from people with real names using the product.

Video testimonials and text testimonials that use real names and people, not actors.

Industry badges, accolades and awards, and media mentions (As seen in...).

Ganesh says, “Visitors are expecting to see these trust signals within seconds [and]

are expecting to see positive experiences.

“Visitors decide within seconds whether they leave or stay on the website. If a website doesn‘t show social proof above the fold, near CTA buttons, and throughout the page, they’ll assume it's not a credible business.”

The Holland & Barrett screenshot above shows examples of social proof in the form of reviews and sustainability claims.

Source

Easy to add to an existing website? You should be able to update your website to include social proof. The challenge comes in getting the content. For example, it can be a challenge to get user-generated content, such as videos from happy buyers, but don’t let this stop you! Start collecting social proof now.

5. Customer Testimonials

Customer testimonials are mentioned above as part of social proof, but I wanted them to have their own section in this article because they are absolutely critical.

Potential customers need to trust you before choosing to work with you. Fortunately, customer testimonial pages can help you effectively build that trust with prospects.

Use your website to build your credibility by sharing your expertise and successful track record with clients and customers. When you do get testimonials, ask your clients for permission to use their real names. Real endorsements from recognizable businesses and organizations mean a lot more than an anonymous testimonial or a quote from a fictional persona.

Case study pages should have a consistent, concise format and template to explain what problem a customer had, how your company solved it, and what process you used to get to a resolution.

Source

Top tip: Create a branded page on your website using a URL like yourdomain.com/reviews/ so that you can catch branded search in Google. Too many brands give these “review” clicks to third-party websites like TrustPilot, G2, or even Facebook.

Easy to add to an existing website? You should be able to add some testimonials easily! The new page from the top tip might require a little more work, such as a design and build, but you should be able to create the page now, rather than waiting for a bigger website project.

6. Optimized UX

Optimized UX feels like a no-brainer for this article. Obvious but not always simple to implement.

Gediminas Skirmontas is the senior web UX designer at Omnisend. Skirmontas believes that how well a website matches business goals is what matters.

It’s critical that a website has a UX optimized to drive business goals, such as conversions.

Skirmontas says, “The whole design and functionality should easily guide users through their journey. A good example is Tapcart.”

Source

Skirmontas breaks down why the Tapcart website works. He says, “It has everything:

A sleek, luxurious design.

Interactive elements.

Intention.

“Everything from the consistent button styles to inline form validation and Shopify one-click setup is built to reduce friction and help users move forward fast.”

Creating an intentional website design that helps users convert all comes down to the digital UX design.

Easy to add to an existing website? Generally not. You could work page-by-page, but ideally, UX would be tackled as a site-wide consideration so every step of the buyer journey is optimized for success.

7. Contact Information

Including contact information seems simple, but a lot of companies miss this. And it's undeniably important.

Where possible, you want to include your:

Phone number.

Email address.

Physical address.

Or other contact mediums where you want people to reach you for sales inquiries.

Preferably, this information will be in an easy-to-find location, like the header of the page.

Also, consider including a clickable “Email us!” CTA that either opens an email client or links to your contact form. And, speaking of forms, you might want to embed “Contact Us” forms throughout your site. Visitors don't need to go on a scavenger hunt to find out how to get in touch with you.

Nirmal Gyanwali is the founder and CMO at WP Creative. He believes strongly that being able to contact someone is crucial in good websites. Gyanwali uses Airbnb to illustrate his point.

He says, “Clear contact information shows visitors they are dealing with a legitimate business.

Take Airbnb's website as an example. Every listing includes host details, guest reviews, and safety measures. Their secure booking process and money-back guarantee help visitors feel comfortable making a reservation.

“These small trust signals make a huge difference in converting hesitant visitors into customers. When a website feels credible, people are more likely to stay, explore, and do business with you.”

Easy to add to an existing website? Yes! Add your contact information to your footer and create a page on your site. Add the contact page to your header.

8. About Us Page

Sharing your story and highlighting core values is critical for your brand's long-term success. Like the contact page, a good about page builds trust.

Simply put, people care about who they do business with, so tell people who you are and why your work matters. That said, keep it brief. Customers don't have time to read a research paper.

For About Us page inspiration, take a look a these About Us and About Me Pages.

Easy to add to an existing website? This should be very easy! You need to add a new page, and About pages are generally not overly designed so a good drag and drop builder or simple page template should be all you need.

9. Blog

All digital, social, and other online marketing requires quality content. A blog is one of the most effective opportunities you have to create and distribute high-quality content related to your products or services.

As an SEO, I’m a huge advocate for blogging. Though, you don’t need to cover everything to write an excellent blog. You want to think about keywords and topics related to your buyer's needs.

I like to track blog performance by monitoring the number of people who buy after reading a blog. See the segment overlap report below from G4: Just over 9% of total sales came from people who viewed a blog and purchased within one month.

Ilya Telegin, head of content at Improvado, agrees with content‘s role in creating a good website. He says, “High-quality content means clear, useful, and engaging information that answers the audience’s questions. It builds trust, keeps people on your site longer, and helps with SEO so more people can find you through search engines.

“If our website only had product descriptions but no valuable blog posts, case studies, or guides, potential customers wouldn‘t see us as experts in the field. But by offering in-depth articles … we educate visitors and make them more likely to trust and buy from us. Good content isn’t just about words, it's about helping users solve problems.”

To maximize SEO, your blog should be listed under your domain (something like www.yourcompany/blog) instead of off-site through a third-party service.

Ultimately, a blog

Multi-agent AI systems — how this AI tech stack can power your marketing org

Tue, 27 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

It feels like not that long ago, companies were just starting to talk about AI in their operations. You had highly specific use cases or industry needs, but the sweeping proclamations of “artificial intelligence will upend business as we know it” are only now feeling especially urgent.

I blinked, and everything was ChatGPT. Blink again, and it’s “agentic AI.” And right as I started experimenting with AI agents, the question became, “How do AI agents work together in shared systems?”

The multi-agent AI system is yet another “next step” on the road to AI adoption. But, I think it’s a logical one. A single AI agent can help your marketing team, but a group of them can really get things going.

Let’s talk about where the tech is now and how you can bring AI agents into your organization.

Table of Contents

What are multi-agent systems?

How do multi-agent systems work?

Multi-Agent Systems vs. Single AI Agents

Benefits of Multi-Agent Systems

Challenges of Multi-Agent Systems

How to Implement Multi-Agent Systems

Multi-Agent Systems in the Real World

What are multi-agent systems?

A multi-agent system (MAS) is a network of AI agents that operate on their own and collaborate to solve complex challenges. Each agent in a MAS manages a specific task or area but communicates with other agents to decide on actions and adapt as needed.

How do multi-agent systems work?

Multi-agent systems operate by assigning specialized tasks to agents that interact within a shared environment. You see this structure on your human marketing team now:

A campaign strategist who researches the target audience and positioning.

A copywriter who crafts content to reach those audiences.

A visual designer who catches people’s attention with images and video.

Some teams have one person playing multiple roles (or, sometimes, all the roles). But, on a larger team, each person operates autonomously to do their work, but communicates within the shared framework of team goals and desired outcomes.

A multi-agent system runs similarly. Each agent manages its tasks but can negotiate, delegate, and learn from one another. Plus, these agents can adapt dynamically to changes in the ecosystem without human input.

To help contextualize a MAS, I talked with David LeVine, Chief Strategy and Finance Officer for Lucid Services Group. LeVine walked me through an explanation of how a system of AI agents can work together for marketers:

Agent 1: Intake & Planning

This agent would “listen” to a marketer describe the campaign they want to create. The human provides target audiences, channels, goals, and creative ideas using natural language. This agent processes the information and prepares it for the MAS.

Agent 2: Ideation & Development

This agent takes the campaign data and develops multiple campaign strategies and creative direction. Along with what the human marketer provided, the agent can autonomously query other data sources and past campaign content to help craft strong strategic angles.

Agent 3: Testing & Refinement

This agent can run simulated tests or develop A/B setups to evaluate campaign assets’ performance potential. It can pull information from CRM data, online surveys, or other analytics tools to pre-test campaign content before a human hits go.

Agent 4: Execution & Monitoring

This agent launches the campaign (with human oversight as desired). It watches for performance and how the campaign lands in the marketplace, adjusting messaging, spend, and targeting across segments and channels.

Continuous Human Oversight

AI agents can accomplish a lot on their own — and, ideally, that’s the goal. But, LeVine noted the value humans have in the development and deployment processes. “All of these stages would need human validation, especially early on,” he said. With human support, these MAS can align and optimize a campaign’s impact while reducing risks to your brand.

Multi-Agent Systems vs. Single AI Agents

Before I dive deeper into multi-agent systems, I should note the differences between types of agentic AI now being sold to companies.

Single AI Agents: Output

When I’ve previously discussed agentic AI for marketing and social media, I shared single AI agents. These agents can work autonomously alongside your teams, usually to support a very specific function or task.

The name of that game is “output.” You could give those agents access to a data trove and broad functional authority, but the result is almost always an output. Generate a blog post, summarize a data report, draft an ad — you get something at the end of the agentic process.

On marketing teams today, I think these agents operate as particularly well-educated interns. You wouldn’t leave them entirely on their own (yet), but you can trust they’ll do a fine job. That’s especially the case with where these agents plug in best now:

Frontline customer support

Content creation

Campaign optimization

Data analysis

Multi-Agent Systems: Coordination

If a single AI agent is an intern, MAS is the group of interns graduating into full-time roles. A MAS still produces something — there are results from their operation. But the core difference is how these systems create that outcome.

MAS are designed for coordination. Each agent plays a role in achieving a directed outcome, and they communicate with each other to reach that goal. Done well, MAS should feel less like using a tool and more like managing a team.

AI agents are still finding their footing within most organizations — AI adoption is happening, albeit carefully. Multi-agent systems stretch a team’s technical capabilities even further than single agents do. Still, I’ve found some technical-forward marketers using MAS as a campaign manager or operating in a support capacity.

Benefits of Multi-Agent Systems

With power and opportunity available to your team, a multi-agent system can bring impressive benefits. Let’s cover a few of the most crucial.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

When I’ve assembled teams in the past, I've sought experts in particular fields. That could be a marketing team with various skills like copywriting, long-form writing, and visual design. The best teams are typically greater than the sum of their parts: McKinsey research shows cross-functional teams can achieve up to a 30% increase in efficiency.

A multi-agent system brings similar benefits. An agent might focus on strategy, content, or testing. While each agent operates in its prescribed function, it provides valuable data for its fellow agents in service of the team goal. That collaboration across functions removes information silos that plague human teams while speeding up problem-solving.

Learning and Adjusting On-the-Go

Within a MAS, agents can share knowledge and imitate effective behaviors, meaning they can learn and adjust over time. LeVine noted this feature is one that companies can miss out on if they’re not paying attention.

“I think the most underestimated or unknown basic capability or goal of MAS solutions is that the individual agents can collaborate and learn from each other based on experiences or observation. A human does not necessarily need to intervene before action is taken by the MAS,” he said.

That ability to learn and adjust mid-operation gives these systems remarkable flexibility to help marketers do their jobs well.

“The learning and imitation and sharing of knowledge across agents can help marketing professionals understand changes in customer preference or demand and optimize ROI around marketing efforts. As always, data quality and accessibility are critical to deliver insight that will be of benefit and on point,” LeVine said.

Continuous Optimization

A single AI agent can run or monitor one aspect of a campaign, but it’s not exactly “set it and forget it,” especially when you need to change or improve your campaign. And, as a campaign gets complex and you want to change some part based on results elsewhere? Good luck tracking all of that.

With a MAS, agents can handle campaign tweaks for you. With close collaboration and data-sharing between agents, your system can adjust ad bids, copy, or targeting in real time. The MAS can orchestrate agentic operations to maximize your campaign’s return.

Challenges of Multi-Agent Systems

No new technology comes without its caveats. A multi-agent system is certainly a new technology. But, most challenges with a MAS relate to how your team engineers the system and adopts it operationally.

Data Quality and Accessibility

Data quality issues are the bane of AI implementation. And as you automate more workflows using AI, you need clean data that your tools can quickly access and process.

“Data that is not appropriately governed and stewarded will eventually cause an inability for the task(s) to be completed in a manner that is brand beneficial and may be very harmful to the relationship,” said LeVine. “Data that is not accessible will cause the task(s) to fail, which is also problematic.”

Clean data is the foundation for a successful multi-agent system. Review your data sources and look to remove duplicate data, standardize formats, and ensure consistency across sources.

Complexity and Error Propagation

If you ever took a comp-sci class, you encountered “GIGO” — otherwise known as “garbage in, garbage out.” When you give a system bad input to start, you’ll get bad output; the system has no way of discerning what’s good from what’s garbage.

Even as agentic AI gets smarter, it’s still a machine. And, as you network multiple agents in service of a common goal, any slight error gets magnified quickly. When that happens, increasing complexity makes it tougher for you and your team to pinpoint where things went wrong and change system parameters to compensate.

As LeVine noted, clean and organized data makes an enormous difference in managing GIGO’s potential negative consequences. You’ll also want human monitoring of the system overall and each agent’s performance. Those early days and weeks are vital to limiting the effects of complexity — keep a pulse on your agents and step in quickly when required.

Organizational Inertia

I’ve talked before about lagging employee adoption being the AI killer. That’s not just front-line employees, either. If leadership can’t or won’t get on board with AI implementation, any advanced initiative beyond a “light experiment” dies on the vine.

“Decision makers may not want to give up control to AI agents, and their support will be critical to adoption throughout the business,” warns LeVine.

He also encourages you to get as many employees bought into the idea as possible by removing the fear. “To the people in the organization, this is all new stuff. New is scary,” said LeVine. “Find an OCM [organizational change management] framework you like and use it to make sure people are AI literate and more at ease.”

How to Implement Multi-Agent Systems

As multi-agent systems become bigger players in company operations, you’ll want to explore implementation sooner rather than later. What does that look like?

In some cases, that’s prepacked MAS. But, current solutions mainly target large enterprise use cases. For instance, Accenture’s AI Refinery and Salesforce’s Agentforce make it easy for non-technical teams to build and run MAS in-platform. That said, you’ll pay a premium for the privilege.

If you don’t have enterprise funding, you still have options. In fact, many marketing leaders have implemented MAS on their own. Through my research and various conversations with these leaders, I also learned that three really is a magic number. Most experts and examples I’ve found rely on three agents operating in concert within their multi-agent systems.

That’s certainly not a set-in-stone rule; you can use two, four, or more agents. But recall that each agent adds layers of complexity — increasing the surface area for risks, breakage, and consequences of bad data. So, for your initial MAS attempts, start with three agents.

With that goal in mind, let’s chat about where you start.

1. Define your goal and agents.

While agentic AI can do a lot of work on its own, you still want an overarching goal or purpose for your MAS. For our example, let’s build a multi-agent system focused on helping launch and monitor a marketing campaign.

With that goal in mind, we can create our agent list:

A strategy agent that analyzes past data, audience segments, and business goals to create campaign ideas.

A content agent that drafts copy for emails and social media posts, and generates visuals.

A performance agent that monitors our key metrics and flags low-performing elements.

2. Choose your AI tools.

With goals established, you can select the best AI tool stack for your needs. I find that the more specific the agent, the better the results. For instance, HubSpot’s Breeze AI agents include:

The Content Agent for tailored blogs, landing pages, and other longer-form content creation.

The Social Media Agent for streamlined social content planning and AI-powered production help.

The Prospecting Agent for researching target audiences and building personalized outreach campaigns.

Other AI agents can provide tailored functions that fit neatly into your MAS plans. Remember: the agents themselves are only part of the answer; you need to build strong connections between them and feed them with high-quality data.

3. Create a shared workspace.

I truly cannot stress enough how important good data is to this entire process. If your data hygiene is messy, you’ll end up with confused, nonfunctional AI agents — the kind that’ll disappoint your teams and halt wider organizational adoption.

You don’t need perfection to start, but focus on centralizing key information and indexing appropriately. Tools like Notion, Airtable, or Google Sheets can serve as excellent data repositories to help agents access data and log progress.

4. Connect your AI agents.

When you’re ready for your AI agents to communicate with each other, use a connecting tool like Zapier or Make.com to set up automated workflow triggers. I like these tools because they keep the process simple; whatever keeps me from having to mess with a bunch of APIs works for me.

You can also set up scheduled prompts or automations within each tool (like ChatGPT) to regularly run crucial tasks like a weekly performance check on your MAS.

5. Integrate humans intentionally.

The best MAS don’t shut out humans — they integrate regular check-ins and the human touch to create smarter, more efficient systems. Team members should review outputs regularly, validate key campaign directions (ideally before you hit Publish), and adjust prompts or rules based on your results.

In this way, a multi-agent system operates as a team within your team. Treat your AI team with good data and clear direction, and you can unlock greater results.

Multi-Agent Systems in the Real World

“Multi-agent systems” sound like they belong exclusively to the Fortune 500, but they’re not just for massive enterprises. Nimble and creative marketing teams can build MAS to suit their needs without breaking the bank.

If I were assembling a multi-agent system from scratch, I’d follow examples like these.

RED27Creative: Content Intelligence Network

Kiel Tredrea, President & CMO of RED27Creative, saw what many marketing leaders witness in their operations: disconnection. Specifically, he saw content creation, personalization, and performance analysis basically battling one another instead of working in concert for his clients.

Tredrea’s systems, the “Content Intelligence Network,” deploys three specialized AI agents:

A content strategist agent that analyzes industry trends and competitive positioning.

A personalization agent that segments website visitors and tailors messaging.

A performance optimization agent that continuously refines campaigns based on real-time engagement metrics.

Each agent can access shared data but is free to make autonomous decisions within its specialty. How did this play out in real life? Tredrea walked me through a use case with a B2B software client:

“The content strategist agent identified untapped SEO opportunities around ‘fractional marketing’ solutions. It fed these insights to the personalization agent, which dynamically adjusted website messaging for visitors from specific industries,” said Tredrea. “Simultaneously, the performance agent detected higher conversion rates when technical specifications were presented earlier in the customer journey and automatically triggered content redistribution."

This process led to a 37% increase in qualified leads and a 22% higher conversion rate from website visitor to sales call while spending 30% less on ads.

I think the Content Intelligence Network shows the power of agents informing each other’s activities. It’s one thing to say agents use shared data and learn from one another; it’s another to see it happen and generate meaningful results. There are no information silos here — insights flow between agents.

Multi-touch Marketing: PPC Intelligence Network

Milton Brown, owner of Multi Touch Marketing, shared he’s implemented MAS across several PPC and digital marketing campaigns. He pointed me to a project with a higher education client where he

4 shopping trends to expect in uncertain financial times [data + how marketers can adapt]

Tue, 27 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

If you've watched the news recently, the possibility of a recession has captured everyone’s attention.

Most reputable sources say it's too soon to say whether or not a recession will happen, but, regardless, savvy businesses are thinking ahead and considering how their potential customers might react.

To give insight into how consumer behaviors are or could be shifting, I surveyed more than 200 U.S. consumers to ask them if their spending behaviors have already changed amidst the possibility of a recession, and how they would change if we were to enter one.

Table of Contents

What is a recession?

Are we in a recession?

How Consumer Spending Habits Could Be Changing Today [2025 Data]

How Spending Could Change in a Recession

How an Upcoming Recession Could Differ from 2008

Recessions can be induced by global economic shocks, changes in consumer confidence, and other large-scale economic changes.

But this year, in particular, there are a select few factors that have spurred concern about a potential recession, including tariffs and federal job cuts.

For more on the cause of recessions and why some are concerned about them happening in the near future, check out this helpful post from our partners at The Hustle.

Are we in a recession?

I’m not an economist, so I looked to trained professionals for this answer.

JP Morgan Chase placed 2025 recession expectations at 60%, and in early March of 2025, the former Treasury Secretary said there is close to a 50/50 chance of a recession in 2025. While the stock market dropped in April (The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the month with a 3.2% loss), the market returned a few weeks ago.

This being said, we (and by we I mean financial experts, not me, a HubSpot Blog writer) can’t declare a recession until there are two consecutive quarters of negative growth, and that hasn’t happened.

How Consumer Spending Habits Could be Changing Today [Data]

1. How has the news of a potential US recession impacted your spending habits?

In winter 2023, we asked consumers how the news of a potential US recession would impact their spending habits. The most significant reaction was to purchase less (30%) and spend money more conservatively than they did in previous months (28%).

I asked this same question in May of 2025, and there was a small change: consumers are reacting to a potential recession by spending more conscientiously than in previous months (28%), rather than slowing purchases overall (22%).

I interpret this as consumers being less panicked and more pragmatic about potential downturns because of what they learned about handling their financial situations from the economic effects of COVID-19 and post-pandemic inflation.

The number of respondents who say that the news of a potential recession hasn’t impacted their spending dropped from 13% in 2023 to 9% in 2025.

My Takeaways for Marketers

Rising costs of goods (see those egg prices recently?) and services often cause consumers to become more cautious in “frivolous” spending. I recommend focusing on strategies to help your business continue to draw in revenue while customers tighten their wallets. Discounts, sales, and deals are a great place to start, but the most impactful marketing play is highlighting your value proposition in all content you release.

Consumers are making strategic adjustments, so make sure all of your messaging and content make your value proposition and benefits explicitly clear so thoughtful spenders know exactly what they’ll get from going through with a sale.

How Spending Could Change In a Recession

Consumer spending behavior is often contingent on outside factors, and news of immense economic change is certainly one of those factors.

Below, I’ll go over what consumers told me about how they’d respond to financial uncertainty.

2. If a recession is declared, how will your home budget change in the first three months of this new financial era?

59% of consumers I polled this May (2025) say that, if a recession is declared, their home budgets will decrease.

As of April 2025, inflation hit 2.3%, but wages aren’t moving to match these changes. Naturally, the public is already looking for ways to avoid breaking the bank by reducing their budgets.

My Takeaways for Marketers

Lowered budgets mean consumers are going to be more thoughtful about how they spend their money.

This is important to keep in mind if financial uncertainty continues, but it’s not something to panic about or change your entire marketing strategy over. Instead, focus on championing the value your offer will bring to consumers. Hammer in on the benefits they’ll get and prove that they will genuinely be getting value for their money if they decide to spend it with you. Testimonials and user-generated content can go a long way in terms of supporting the benefits of what you’re selling.

3. During uncertain financial times, what did you spend the most money on?

I also asked consumers to reflect on their purchasing behaviors in previous uncertain economic times (like past recessions or the COVID-19 pandemic), and they reported spending the most money on necessities, most commonly essential groceries and food (58%).

That’s followed by fixed expenses like rent, mortgage, housing bills (like utilities), essential personal care and hygiene products, and medication and healthcare.

Since consumers also told me that they plan to maintain the same spending habits as they did in past recessions, you can learn from what they previously spent money on to recession-proof your strategies.

The biggest difference between how consumers spent most of their money in 2023 and 2025 is that clothing, shoes, and other essentials were the top 3 spending categories, higher than medication and healthcare. What this shows me is a shift to self-preservation. By reducing or eliminating spending on leisure or entertainment, people can ensure that families are taken care of before taking risks on “non-essential” purchases.

My Takeaways for Marketers

Consumers essentially don’t want to feel like they’re “wasting” money during a time when every dollar counts. Since they’re more conscientious about their spending, the best way for marketers in all industries to beat the skepticism is to lock in on proving the value customers will get from your product or service. If they know they’ll get genuine value, they’re more likely to spend money.

How an Upcoming Recession Could Differ from 2008

There are key differences between the potential recession in 2025, what happened during and after the pandemic, and the Great Recession of 2008, mainly the factors that will have caused it and its potential duration.

The recession in 2008 was due to debt-related excess built up in housing infrastructure, which took the economy nearly a decade to absorb. COVID-related fiscal and monetary stimulus contributed to inflation and drove speculation in financial assets.

According to Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody’s Analytics, 2025 would be largely tariff-induced, as well as federal job cuts, DOGE changes, declining consumer confidence, and slowed spending.

There’s no way to predict how long it would last before it even happens, but Political Economist and Brown University Professor Mark Blyth says, “This is a once-in-a-generation shift in how we run the global economy.”

Whatever happens, the economy has already shifted in the past few months, and survey respondents told me that they have already started to spend money more conscientiously. And, if we enter a recession, they’ll have the same spending habits as they did during other uncertain financial times, which tells me that it’s important for businesses to be prepared for potential consumer shifts.

Key Takeaways for Businesses in 2025

As a marketer, I’m not an expert in financial markets or a source for investment, HR, or legal advice. The data above can help you understand consumer spending behavior during recessions, but it’s important to keep in mind that results are just a brief look into the eyes of consumers.

If there’s one thing I do know, though, it’s marketing. The survey results I discussed above tell me that marketers should be aware of how efforts might need to pivot with changing consumer needs or trends. Here are a few takeaways I suggest keeping in mind to adapt our marketing strategies for financial instability:

Value-first marketing: As consumers and businesses tighten their budgets, making sales, retaining customers, and persuading people to buy non-essential products will be more difficult. I recommend focusing heavily on the value you’ll be able to provide, rather than your product or service being flashy, trendy, or cool. Consumers are more likely to spend money during these periods if they know it won’t be a “waste.”

Partner with influencers and creators: Influencers and creators have loyal followings that relate to them and trust what they offer. If you already have an influencer budget, partner with people who have strong relationships with their communities and can demonstrate that they get value from what you offer.

Champion testimonials, reviews, and UGC: Relatability will be a significant selling point during a recession, as people want to see proof that the money they spend will help them. Testimonials, reviews, and user-generated content show interested shoppers that people like them, who share their same pain points and needs, are getting value from what you offer.

Create education-focused content: Consumers who do purchase from you want to make sure they get the most value, and education-focused marketing content will help them do exactly that.

Revisit your customer journey maps: Revisiting your customer journey maps will help you add additional touchpoints for nurturing if consumers have longer consideration phases during a recession or general economic instability.

Cost-effective marketing: You might want to explore more cost-effective strategies for marketing, like reducing excess ad spend and focusing on organic social, SEO, or email marketing instead.

Remember, financial uncertainties — and even recessions — are common. And while it might become more challenging to win customers in the coming months, business and consumers will still keep moving (and making purchases) even as we wait for the cycle to run its course.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The best video marketing channels to grow your brand this year

Tue, 27 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

Video is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s now an absolute must and should be at the forefront of any marketing strategy. With almost half of Gen Z and millennials watching short-form video to discover new products, video is essential to increasing visibility and getting brand recognition.

But now the question is, where is the best place to post videos?

I’m here to help. Here’s a list of the best vlog promotion channels for your short-form, long-form, and live videos based on ROI, engagement, and lead generation.

Table of Contents

What are vlog promotion channels?

Best Channels for Short-Form Video

Best Channel for Long-Form Video

Best Channels for Live Video

With TikTok’s future uncertain, platforms like LinkedIn, X, and even Substack are taking this opportunity to woo TikTok’s audience (or “liberate them,” if you ask Substack’s CEO) and introduce features like dedicated video feeds, algorithm changes that prioritize videos, and new video advertising avenues for marketers.

And marketers, too, continue to see the value of video content. According to our 2024 State of Video Marketing Report, 37% of marketers found video to be very effective in helping them achieve their business goals.

Our 2025 State of Marketing Report also shows that in 2025, marketers will continue to invest more in video — particularly short-form video as it delivers the highest ROI (21.02%).

The data from consumers shows that investing more in video is a wise choice.

According to a Wyzowl survey, 78% say that they would rather watch a short video to learn more about a product than read articles or manuals, and a whopping 91% of consumers say that video quality impacts their trust in a brand.

To help you get started on creating high-quality videos, HubSpot has created a nifty AI-powered Clip Creator tool to help you create and edit videos. With a few clicks, you can create watermark-free videos for your social media channels. And for people who are already used to a certain workflow, we got you, too. We have a list of the top AI video editing tools that can help you with your next video.

Now, let’s get on to the best vlog promotion channels.

Best Channels for Short-Form Video

TikTok

Since launching in 2016, TikTok has upended social media, so much so that many platforms (including Instagram and LinkedIn) have been heavily investing in hosting and elevating vertical videos to capture more of TikTok’s audience.

It’s no surprise that many social media networks want to become more like TikTok, as TikTok users spend almost 44 hours on average per month on the app, according to Statista.

This is significantly more time than all the other apps on the list. Trailing behind in second place was the YouTube app, where users spent almost 25 hours a month on average, just a little over half of TikTokers time.

TikTok has grown beyond being *the platform* for viral dances (although there is still plenty of that), and has become a viable marketing option for those willing to get creative — and these stats prove it.

Pro tip: To learn more about TikTok marketing, I recommend checking out our free marketer’s guide to TikTok.

Source

Instagram

Instagram is the top platform for sharing videos, topping the charts in ROI, engagement, and lead generation over competitors like TikTok and YouTube. A Sprout Social survey also found that 61% of social media users turn to Instagram to find new products.

It offers a great deal of options, too, as marketers can play with multiple content formats on top of videos (think carousels, Lives, and Stories) while capturing the attention of an already engaged audience.

Source

LinkedIn

Marketers, don’t sleep on LinkedIn. In 2025, Wyzowl reported that for the first time, LinkedIn was the most widely used platform by marketers, after accidentally leaving out YouTube, the channel that usually claims the top spot, in their survey.

Caveats aside, LinkedIn is quickly becoming an emerging platform to post marketing vlogs, especially B2B marketing. They’ve introduced a new algorithm that prioritizes video over text or images, and rebranded their Wire Program to BrandLink which allows advertisers to pair up with content creators and publishers and place pre-roll ads before a trusted creator’s video.

Best Channel for Long-Form Video

YouTube

Hands-down, YouTube is the best channel for long-form videos. There’s no other platform like it.

YouTube has kept a competitive edge against other vlog promotion channels like TikTok and Instagram. Not only are people watching YouTube on their phones, but it has also captured a substantial share of people’s watch time on television, sometimes surpassing legacy networks like FOX, Disney, and NBC.

With its media dominance and reach, it’s no wonder that YouTube has emerged as a powerful marketing tool. In fact, almost 30% of marketers plan to increase their investment in YouTube in 2025, according to HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing and Trends report.

Participants also ranked YouTube as the third-best platform for ROI. While many marketers find success on YouTube for different reasons, its large user base (2.6 billion active users, to be exact) and advanced ad targeting certainly help.

If you're looking for the best place to host your long-form videos — like product demos, Q&As, behind-the-scenes content, and more – YouTube is the home for it all.

Pro tip: If you’re just getting started with YouTube as a vlog promotion channel, check out our complete guide on creating, promoting, and optimizing your video content.

TikTok

While TikTok is best known for bite-sized videos, creators can actually upload videos up to 60 minutes long. Over the years, the maximum video length has been slowly, well, ticking up. When it was first launched, TikTok started with a 15-second limit. Then, they upped it to 60 seconds, and then three minutes. You get the picture.

Data trends show that longer videos deliver more views and higher engagement.

An interesting study by Buffer shows that videos between one and 10 minutes in length get the highest number of views, have the highest reach, and the longest watch time on TikTok compared to videos under a minute. Creators with more followers also tend to have longer videos, according to Statista.

While people don’t generally think of videos under five minutes long as long-form, the data seems to show that audiences on TikTok — as well as the channel’s algorithm — seem to favor longer content.

Best Channels for Live Video

YouTube Live

With its massive user base, reach, and diverse audience, YouTube Live is an appealing option for your livestreaming needs. Data from Statista says that it was the most used live streaming channel in the United States in 2023.

Features like Super Chats, Super Stickers and membership gifting enable greater engagement with your audience and monetization avenues.

YouTube also provides powerful analytics on live videos. Check real-time analytics like concurrent viewers, likes, and chat rates, as well as post-stream stats like the number of new subscribers, total watch time, and more.

Instagram Live

With Instagram Live, you can stream from anywhere and invite guests to join your stream. There's plenty of opportunity for engagement: viewers can send emojis, write comments, and send donation badges.

Additionally, when you go live on Instagram, your followers receive a notification to tune in so your stream won't get lost in the crowd, which is more likely to happen on YouTube or Twitch.

Facebook Live

Like YouTube, Facebook boasts a massive audience spanning multiple age groups, although millennials take up the largest share.

Facebook Live is an excellent option if you‘re already active on the platform and have a healthy following. But if you’re still growing an audience, fear not — you can go live from a personal profile, page, or even a group.

With Facebook Live, you can edit previously recorded streams, chat with users using the live chat feature, and schedule your streams in advance. However, keep in mind that Facebook limits your stream length, and your monetization options aren't as robust as other platforms.

Want more? Check out this article on tips for Facebook Live.

But what about Twitch?

It feels odd to exclude Twitch from a conversation about live streaming, since it is the most popular streaming-specific platform in the world. That said, marketers report low engagement and ROI on the platform, and the content is heavily geared towards gamers and e-sports.

In 2024, non-gaming content constituted only 15% of Twitch streams, but there are some non-gaming marketers who have found success using Twitch. Billboard reported that in 2025, music marketers have found success promoting artists by partnering with established Twitch streamers, clipping moments from streams, and putting the shorts on places like TikTok or Instagram.

Back to You

It can be difficult to figure out how to approach video marketing. It takes time, money, and energy to create videos — making it imperative to find the best home for your content.

If you need some inspiration, first check out what’s already out there and see what you like. After you’ve done some research, think about your target audience and define some goals, such as lead generation, engagement, or brand awareness. Once you nail those down, it's easier to pick the platform to achieve them.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in July 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Online advertising: All you need to know

Mon, 26 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

Millions of businesses worldwide invest billions in paid ads each year to put themselves in front of as many people as possible. And they're doing it because online advertising, when done right, delivers outstanding results.

On the other hand, if you're not careful, it can feel like flushing your $$ down the digital drain.

To help you out, we've put together this comprehensive online advertising guide for business.

Table of Contents

What is online advertising?

How Online Advertising Works

Benefits of Online Advertising

Types of Online Advertising

What is online advertising?

Online advertising is promoting your brand, product, or service through various digital channels. It’s an umbrella term that covers social media, display ads, paid and organic search, and native advertising. And it should definitely be part of your marketing strategy.

How Online Advertising Works

Whether you‘re on the lookout for the best Indian restaurant in your neighborhood or looking for a specific SaaS tool, you’re likely going to turn to a search engine to find what you need.

The same goes for your audience.

With search engines like Google, Perplexity, and many others being a core part of daily routines, running paid ads can catch your audience’s attention on these platforms.

And let's not overlook how much time people spend on social media — an average of two hours and 23 minutes each day, according to Statista (though some of us — cough — may be pushing those averages ever higher). In most cases, social media advertising should be part of your overall marketing plan.

There are plenty of ways to advertise your business strategically. First think about who you're trying to reach.

Ask yourself questions like:

What target demographic am I advertising to?

How can I place my product or service offering in front of my target?

The answer is to see where your target demographic spends the most time online. Research their most frequented social media channels and the keywords they look up the most.

If you want to run pay-per-click (PPC) ads on social media, it's important to note that most social media platforms offer business pages the ability to pay a fee to promote posts/ads within the interface.

Or, if you are looking to advertise on a search engine for targeted keywords, Google Ads or Sixads can guide you through the process of payment and execution.

To learn more about boosting social media posts, read How to Boost a Post on Social Media [Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter].

If you’re curious about SEO versus PPC, try our article on when to optimize and when to pay for traffic.

Benefits of Online Advertising

There are three key ways that digital advertising can help you improve the performance of your organic marketing efforts.

With digital ads, organic performance can benefit from:

An increase in brand awareness by displaying your content to individuals within and outside of your networks.

A better understanding of your audiences by leveraging the targeting and analytics of the ads platforms.

The creation of higher-performing content by understanding what ad content helps you achieve your business goals and what doesn't.

The goal of any advertising strategy should be to get a positive return on your investment, which comes down to whether you‘re getting more revenue out of the ad campaign than the cost you’re putting in.

To get help on quickly creating high-quality marketing campaigns, try HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant — it can help you generate copy for landing pages, ads, and emails, so you can spend more time on strategy.

Types of Online Advertising

Let's dive right into the different types of online advertising.

Social Media Advertising

Every month, there are over 3 billion active users on Facebook, 2 billion on Instagram, and 586 million on X worldwide.

Because of the sheer number of active users on these platforms, advertising spending invested in social media channels is at an all-time high. The global digital advertising spend is projected to exceed $344 billion by 2027.

When HubSpot asked marketers which social media platforms were best for engagement, we found that Instagram and Facebook take the top slots — but YouTube wasn’t too far behind.

Advertising on social media comes with many advantages. You can:

Reach very specific target audiences with the help of targeting features and different audiences across all of the social media platforms.

Leverage a variety of ad formats to advertise in a way that aligns with your business goals.

Invest in the specific advertising efforts that drive leads and sales for your business.

Let‘s look at eight popular social media networks, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok. We’ll cover the audiences and ad types available on each one.

In HubSpot original research from 2025, we asked marketers which social media platforms their companies used. YouTube and Instagram were by far the most popular, with Facebook, X, TikTok, and LinkedIn also making the list.

That doesn’t mean you should only focus on one or more of the top six. Depending on your business and your target audience, you may find other platforms just as — or even more — useful.

For instance, digital marketer Jenna Kutcher is a big proponent of Pinterest, which she told HubSpot was the number one organic traffic driver for her business and her most lucrative channel: “The average entrepreneur is spending 20 hours a week on marketing and eight hours on social media,” Kutcher said.

“By comparison, Pinterest takes me under an hour a week, and gives my content a longer shelf life. The average lifespan of a post on Instagram is 24 hours at best. The average lifespan of one pin on Pinterest is four months.”

To learn more about paid social media marketing, read Paid Social Media: Worth the investment?

1. Facebook

According to HubSpot’s 2025 Social Media Trends report, nearly 60% of marketers say their companies are leveraging Facebook.

One of the most powerful features of advertising on Facebook is audience targeting. The targeting capabilities on Facebook are unmatched by any other social media network. Facebook‘s advanced targeting can target your ads to the most relevant audience — and even tap into new audiences you’d otherwise never reach with organic content alone.

Personally, my favorite way to advertise on Facebook is with lead ads because they give you the best of both worlds: sharing visual content and generating leads simultaneously. Facebook lead ads allow you to capture lead information without directing people out of the Facebook platform.

With lead ads, you provide a helpful piece of content that encourages viewers to sign up for a newsletter, receive a price estimate, or request additional business information. In return, when the viewer fills out the form, the business receives a new lead.

Here’s an example that Facebook provides in its lead ads overview:

Source

Facebook suggests using three or fewer questions, like in this example, which it says results in a 26% lower cost per lead than ads that ask more than three questions.

2. Instagram

You can also advertise on Instagram through the Facebook Ads Manager. Instagram has over 2 billion monthly users globally, the vast majority of whom are between the ages of 18 and 34.

There are three ways that you can advertise on Instagram:

Create and promote posts, Stories, and Reels directly from your Instagram professional account.

Create ads from your Facebook Page and promote them on both Facebook and Instagram.

Create ad campaigns in the Facebook Ads Manager to access full targeting capabilities.

I recommend taking the third option and creating custom campaigns for your audience on Instagram.

Ads that appear while scrolling your feed are called in-feed ads. The ads that you see in the “Explore” section while exploring your interests and discovering new content creators are explore ads.

In this example provided by Meta, you can see that the explore ad is a 1x1 tile with a “Sponsored” label:

Source

Ads in Instagram Explore are a great opportunity to put your brand in front of people looking for new creators or content.

To learn more, read The Pros and Cons of Instagram Marketing.

3. LinkedIn

LinkedIn has over 900 million monthly active users worldwide.

Users on the platform are largely working professionals, which makes LinkedIn a great place for B2B (business-to-business) advertising.

The advantage of advertising on LinkedIn is its unique targeting capabilities. On LinkedIn, you'll have access to unique targeting criteria that are unavailable on other platforms.

Maybe you only want to advertise to potential customers at the director level who work in customer service within the recruiting industry. LinkedIn's targeting capabilities make that possible.

Plus, with the option to include lead gen forms in your LinkedIn ads, LinkedIn can be a lead generation machine. This will allow you to reach a very specific audience and drive leads without directing them outside of the LinkedIn platform.

In this PDF on best practices, LinkedIn provides the example below of JP Morgan using LinkedIn’s conversation ads:

Source

4. X (formerly Twitter)

Digital advertising is less common on X because organic reach is still a significant driver of a brand's performance on X.

This is very unique to X — but even so, ads can still deliver strong results depending on your goals. X has over 586 million monthly users globally.

If you’re curious about advertising on X, read our post, How to Market on X: Tips and Data from a Marketer.

5. Pinterest

Some say that Pinterest is the only platform where users actually want to see ads from brands they love because Pinterest is all about visuals.

Pinterest has 537 million users who are highly engaged and predominantly female.

Here's how to advertise on Pinterest in four steps:

Pick a pin. Promote your best pins so they appear in the most relevant places.

Decide who sees it. Set up targeting so the right people see your ads.

Pay for results. Choose to pay for engagement or visits to your site.

Track what's working. Once your campaign starts, see how it's doing and make adjustments as necessary.

Among Pinterest’s case studies is this success story from Kroger:

Source

Pinterest says in the case study, “Kroger's efforts paid off in a big way. Premiere Spotlight in search achieved a remarkable 11.6% lift in awareness.1 They also saw a 5.4-point lift in brand association, positioning Kroger as a trusted partner in meal planning.”

6. YouTube

Ads on YouTube appear before and during other YouTube videos or as a stand-alone promoted video that's displayed after performing a search.

Since you can target demographic information and interests, you can serve your videos to specific, relevant audiences already watching videos from similar brands or on related topics.

Learn more about YouTube advertising with our article YouTube Ads for Beginners: How to Launch & Optimize a YouTube Video Advertising Campaign.

7. Snapchat

Snapchat offers a few ad types, including story ads, and augmented reality (AR) lenses — pretty similar to the advertising options on Instagram.

What makes Snapchat unique is the augmented reality lenses. AR lenses are sponsored by a business to create interactive moments that users can use and share with their friends.

For more, read our article Should You Advertise on Snapchat?

8. TikTok

Promoting TikTok videos allows brands to build awareness with a young target audience. Most posts you'll see on TikTok aim to get laughs.

From a brand perspective, you'll want to create funny videos that align with other content on the platform and take advantage of fast-moving trends — think dance challenges and memes. This type of content is the most effective.

HubSpotter Caroline Forsey talked to TikTok’s global head of product partnerships, and they have the scoop on how to use TikTok for lead gen.

Paid Search Advertising

People searching online are looking for something specific and will click on the first result they believe will be the most helpful to them.

You might be thinking: “I already appear in organic results on search engines. Why should I pay to advertise too?”

Well, there are three key reasons:

Google estimates that for every $1 a company spends on Google Ads, it gets $8 in profit. (You can read about Google’s methodology starting on page 56 of this PDF report.)

Advertising on search engines protects you from the competition who may be advertising on your branded terms.

Search ads appear first in the search engine results pages (SERPs) above the organic results.

Paid search advertising allows advertisers to capture the attention of their audience in a more targeted way than with organic search alone.

Search ads allow you to anticipate the wants, needs, and desires of your potential customers and serve ads to them that are highly contextual.

Over time, the analytics of your search ads can help you analyze and improve those ads to reach even more people.

But how does Google know how to deliver the right ad to the right person? That's where keywords come into play.

Keywords

Keyword research is

10 holiday marketing campaign examples + marketing tips

Mon, 26 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

I know I’m in the minority, but the second September hits, I want to break out the Christmas tree, play “Jingle Bells,” and cover everything in baubles and tinsel. But one of the more accepted signs that the festive season is officially upon us is when holiday marketing campaigns start jingling, ringing and ho-ho-ho-ing into our homes, streets, and devices. After all, is it even Christmastime if I’m not hearing sleigh bells every five minutes?

It’s never too early to start making a list and planning this year’s holiday marketing campaign (unless you’re reading this in December, in which case, you can get a head start on next year’s ads). So, in this post, I’ve rounded up ten of the best holiday marketing campaigns from the past couple of years to inspire your plans.

And when you’re ready to deck your own marketing plans, check out HubSpot’s guide to creating seasonal marketing campaigns. I also love Campaign Assistant, a free AI-powered tool that helps you create copy for your next ad, landing page, or marketing email.

1. Etsy: Where’s Waldo/Wally

Etsy tugs on all the strings with this ad. It’s cozy, gives me hits of nostalgia, and somehow captures a bit of that anxiety that I felt looking for Waldo in the books. Hearing his inner monologue made me feel like I’m finally getting to know the silly guy that I’ve been looking for all these years, and he’s more soft-spoken than I thought!

Waldo, or Wally, as he is known in certain countries, with his trademark red-striped sweater and beanie, weaves in and out through throngs of people who are staring, whispering, and rejoicing that they have found him. At the end, he reunites with his partner, Wenda, in a coffee shop and says what is perhaps my favorite tagline in recent years: “Sometimes, it takes someone who really knows you to make you feel seen.” I mean, come on. It’s just perfection.

What I like: I like how watching this ad made me feel as much joy as finally finding Waldo in the books. It’s also a bit of marketing genius on behalf of Etsy; they’re using this commercial to remind us how it feels when you get a gift from someone who just gets you. And hmm, maybe Etsy is a good place to find those kinds of gifts?

2. Chewy: Coal, the holiday surprise

This may be the only time that I’m sad about not getting Coal for the holidays. The ad starts out simple enough. We see two girls opening their presents on Christmas. They’re confused that all they’re getting is coal… coal-themed presents, that is.

Then, their mom carries in a black puppy, a rescue, as Chewy points out in the video description, aptly named Coal. Just seeing Coal’s little puppy eyes made me as excited as the girls in the video.

What I like: I like that on top of this ad being so cute, Chewy is responding to both the ad’s fans — and detractors — in the comment section on YouTube. Chewy’s engagement really shows that they care about their customers.

3. Chick-fil-A: Legends of Evergreen Hills

Chick-fil-A has been slowly building its own cinematic universe, all taking place in a magical wonderland called Evergreen Hills. In 2019, they introduced Sam, a little girl who just wanted to build a snowman with her family. The heartwarming two-minute ad titled The Time Shop encouraged viewers to give the gift of time. Since then, Sam, her family, and her friends return over the holidays with a new story that expands on the world of Evergreen Hills.

In 2024, Sam is back, now a bit more grown-up. This time her new adventure unfolds in five, 22-minute episodes available in the newly launched Chick-fil-A Play app.

The app, which marks Chick-fil-A’s expansion into entertainment, contains exclusive animated series, podcasts, and games. As part of the app’s launch, Chick-fil-A released the first episode on social media as well as clips and stills to promote the show and the app.

So not only is this series part of a holiday marketing campaign that promotes Chick-fil-A the restaurant, but it also is a part of a years-long marketing storyline taking place in multiple platforms and ultimately culminating with the launch of the app.

What I like: I have to give them props for their commitment in building this cinematic universe and for seamlessly weaving this story thread through multiple platforms.

4. Kroger: Share your food, share your heart

This ad packs a lot of story in a minute. Set to America’s song Lonely People, it tells the story of a boy who notices that his seemingly grouchy elderly neighbor is pretty lonely during the holidays. He then gets the idea to sneak some food from his family’s holiday meal, and leaves a small plate of snacks and festive treats at her doorstep.

Seeing his kindness, his family then offers to share their whole meal with the neighbor who invites them inside her home. The tagline “Share food. Share love,” then appears as we see the family chatting with their neighbor.

What I like: If this doesn’t make you want to stop scrolling and step outside to talk to some humans, I don’t know what will.

5. Disney: The Boy and the Octopus

Hot take: This short is way more magical than any movie Disney has put out in recent years. Directed by Taika Waititi, this story is centered on a little boy who, after swimming in the ocean, comes home with a spunky and stubborn octopus stuck to his head.

They become fast friends, and the boy introduces the octopus to the world on dry land, all while a gentle, acoustic version of The Little Mermaid’s Part of Your World plays in the background. The octopus is captivated by what dry land has to offer.

One night, after watching a Christmas classic on TV, the octopus wishes to hitch a ride with Santa and see more of the world, so the two hatch a plan for the octopus to meet Santa.

This short subtly weaves beloved Disney properties throughout the story, from a Buzz Lightyear action figure to a Star Wars lightsaber to the Mickey beanie that the boy uses to conceal the octopus as they sightsee around town.

What I like: I think this short just hits all the spots. It’s fun, it’s endearing, and just serves up the magic that Disney is known for.

6. Hershey’s Kisses

I have to put in a plug for this classic. First debuting in 1989, this simple ad stars red and green Hershey’s Kisses doubling as bells and playing the carol, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, while being conducted by a silver Kiss.

While there have been some small changes throughout the years, this ad remains largely the same year after year, and is much beloved by merrymakers all around the country. Even the grinches at r/CommercialsIHate subreddit like this ad.

What I like: I like that this ad has staying power. It hasn’t lost its charm at all and has become an American holiday tradition.

7. Outback: Koala on the Walla

Speaking of traditions, I love Outback Steakhouse’s vaguely threatening alternative to Elf on the Shelf: Koala on the Walla. The jingle about this cute marsupial-a says, “He knows all of your secrets. Every rule that you’ve defied.” This koala is always watching, and denies you steak if you’ve been bad.

I’m personally rooting for Koala on the Walla to finally kick out those mischievous Elves that seem to adorn every shelf.

What I like: Despite his threatening nature, Koala on the Walla is just too cute, and I definitely wouldn’t mind having him around the house, despite the risk that his beady eyes might be spying on me from inside the washing machine.

8. GAP: Holiday ‘24

This ad isn’t flashy, but its simplicity is what makes it so effective. For this campaign, GAP assembled a diverse choir of talented musicians and social media stars, their beautiful voices blending together as they sing Janet Jackson’s Together Again a cappella.

It’s a great reminder that sometimes you don’t need fancy animation or an elaborate storyline. A simple ad can resonate just as well.

What I like: I like how they brought together different voices and styles and how beautifully the song was arranged to make each singer shine.

9. LEGO: Herding home for the holidays

Lego has not made a holiday movie this time around, but if they did, they think that it would be the G.O.A.T. That is, it would have literal (Lego) goats.

While some brands have made beautiful cinematic masterpieces for their holiday marketing campaigns, including some on this list, Lego has made a trailer for a movie that doesn’t actually exist. Called Herding for the Holidays, the fake movie tells the story of a city go-getter who heads back to the farm to become a goat-getter, and it’s got strong Hallmark Christmas movie vibes. Lego, it’s not too late to make this happen!

What I like: Tons and tons of goats and lego. What’s not to love?

10. Coca-Cola: Secret Santa

A list about the best holiday marketing campaigns wouldn’t be complete without talking about the AI-generated ad that Coca-Cola released in 2024. While I wouldn’t say that this ad is tops when it comes to technicality or frankly, aesthetics, it was one of the best at eliciting engagement, albeit mostly negative.

The ad was inspired by a 1995 ad that used real trucks and real people. This newest ad was a collaboration between three AI studios and used four AI models, according to Forbes. And yet, the result is a series of clips that teeter ever so closely on the cliff over the uncanny valley.

The backlash to the ads was swift. Article after article talked about the pushback the company faced after the ad was released. Critics called the ad “soulless.”

What I like: I like that it’s a real-time test of the old saying, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” After all, when was the last time the news cycle was taken by a Coca-Cola ad? While all the negative publicity probably won’t make a real dent on the sales of Coke, I’m looking forward to seeing if they’re going to hire a human Santa for the next holiday campaign.

What I don’t like: You could argue that AI is just a step above using CGI, but the technology really isn’t there yet. Zoom in, and you can see that the trunks look so wonky, some of the wheels weren’t even spinning. Even the Coca-Cola logo itself is off in some places. I think it’s unfortunate that the three companies and the four AI models couldn’t perfect the logo in every shot.

Go Forth and Be Merry

As these examples show, there are many ways to incorporate holiday cheer into your marketing campaigns. Holiday ads no longer fit into one mold, but as cheesy as it sounds, what the most effective ones have in common is heart.

Think about what makes the holidays so special to you, and tell that story. I’m pretty basic, so what usually gets me are ads that show a hint of ‘90s nostalgia or a sumptuous family spread. You know I’m taking notes from Kroger’s ad, and making beef wellington this year.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in December 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The most effective types of content on social media in 2025 [new data]

Mon, 26 May 2025 14:00:00 +0300

It’s 2025, and the highest-ROI marketing channel is still good ol’ social media. I’ve created social media content for just about everyone: government offices, nonprofits, small businesses, solopreneurs, and more.

Sharing content on social media is a no-brainer for brands. But orienting yourself on the basics of social media, types of content, trends, etc. is a heavy lift.

Whether you’re looking for a strategy refresh or trying out a new channel for the first time, this is your guide to the different types of social media content, what works best, and how it can empower your business. I’ll dive into the data and trends so you can clearly see where to invest in 2025.

Different Types of Social Media Content

We used to talk about content formats in conjunction with social media platforms: photos equal Instagram, videos equal YouTube, text equals Twitter. Now, most social media platforms are a mosaic of content types. Here are the most popular formats today.

1. Short-Form Video

As a consumer, who hasn’t felt the gravitational pull of short-form videos? They’re fun to watch, (too) easy to binge, and relatively fast for businesses to create. These quick, stimulating videos are the most engaging social media content there is.

According to our 2025 Marketing Trends Report, short-form videos are more important than ever for businesses:

21% of social media marketers said that short-form video content has the highest ROI.

Short-form video content is the #1 priority among social media marketers.

17% said that they plan to increase their investment in short-form video in 2025.

Short-form videos can be published on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and X (previously Twitter). Take a look at our latest Social Media Video Trends Report to see where these platforms stack up against each other.

The TikTok video below is a great example from Brooki Bakehouse, sharing a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like running a bakery. This content format is highly relatable and markets the business without the video content feeling like marketing. It’s also a low-budget way to create short-form videos.

Great for: Brand awareness, lead generation, and showcasing customer success.

2. Long-Form Video

Video content is now so diverse that it’s been split into several different social media content categories. Despite having lower ROI than short-form videos, long-form video content is still relevant and in demand on social media. A few quick differences from short-form video content:

Longer = more costly to produce.

Consumers expect higher production quality.

Content needs to be highly engaging, as the average viewer lacks the attention span to finish long-form content.

I only watch longer video content when I’m emotionally invested in a brand’s voice, mission, or product. Short-form videos are great top-of-funnel content, while long-form content nurtures existing leads.

Below is a long-form video example from the coffee accessory company AeroPress. This company knows that its target audience is interested in the lifestyle that accompanies its product, and they create videos that cater to that lifestyle:

Great for: Relationship building, customer retention, and customer education.

3. Live Video

Don’t forget live video! This format has the third-highest ROI of all social media content types, but is one of the least-used content types according to surveyed marketers. This digital marketing medium packs a punch, and brands that ignore it are missing out on an incredible connection opportunity.

Live video gained popularity during the pandemic, allowing remote participation in events. Twitch and other popular live-streaming platforms let people interact with their favorite creators in real time. I like seeing brands use live video because it can’t be faked: There’s no AI or repurposed content. It feels like a genuine investment in engaging with viewers.

You can choose a virtual-only live video, or live stream an in-life event to offer physical audience members and virtual viewers the same real-time experience. Here’s an example of a live-streamed event from Sephora:

Great for: Customer engagement, solution education, and building trust/credibility.

4. Images

When asked about the type of content that they use most, marketers reported that images were used almost as frequently as short-form video. Images are convenient because they can be shared on all social media channels. The image umbrella primarily includes photography, not designed graphics (that’s the next point).

Some easy image post ideas include:

Product announcements.

Before and after photos.

Product photography.

Behind-the-scenes.

Office life.

Here’s an example of a simple image post from The Woobles showcasing new products:

Source

Great for: Product awareness, storytelling, and staying top of mind.

5. Infographics/Carousels

Infographics are a content type with the share-ability and visual appeal of photos but are filled with helpful data and information. It’s an impactful form of social media content and educational content. Infographics are effective, too, with 51% of marketers who regularly use them saying they yield high ROI.

I’m also lumping carousels in here with infographics — I think carousels are even more valuable in 2025 than raw infographics. I say this based on both user behavior and preferential treatment in the algorithm. Did you know that if your Instagram followers see the first page of your carousel but didn’t engage, Instagram will show it again, but swiped to a different slide to catch the viewer’s attention?

Carousels have become extremely popular on certain social media platforms (like Instagram, LinkedIn, and even TikTok). Both infographics and carousels serve the same purpose: Use this content format to educate and share industry news. Here’s an example from apparel brand Gnara that educates viewers on the history of women’s pants:

Great for: Industry authority, shareability, and customer education.

6. Text Posts

We see text-based content on social media every day, from X “threads” to Meta’s Threads app to thought leadership posts on LinkedIn. The primary goal is to share insight through words — you can pair it with an eye-catching image, but the focal point is the writing itself.

Blogs are popular text-based content where people read longer posts and discover helpful information. But a common mistake is sharing blog links directly on social media. Social platform algorithms don’t favor linking out; they want viewers to stay!

Marketers reported that their blog or website is the #2 area seeing an increased investment this year, and sharing snippets as text-only posts on social media is a great way to repurpose. Break a blog post down into snackable takeaways that are more suitable for social users’ habits.

Here’s an example of a highly engaging text post from copywriter Jasmin Alić on LinkedIn:

Source

Great for: Engagement, problem awareness, and product awareness.

7. User-Generated Content (UGC)

User-generated content (UGC) is content your audience creates that features your business/brand that is not paid for by your business. For example, someone shares a non-sponsored Instagram Reel about how much they like your product or posts a picture wearing your clothing and tags your business.

UGC is seeing an increase in investment in 2025. Marketers reported that it was their third-highest focus area, behind short-form video and images.

UGC pays off, as customers trust reviews from friends and family more than they trust branded ads. Nearly 80% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchase decisions, considerably more so than branded content and influencer content.

This type of content is powerful because it helps your audiences see that people use and like your products, vouching for you in a real-life way. Why toot your own horn if you can get someone else to do it, right? It naturally funnels in new social media followers.

Here’s an example of user-generated content posted by India @ourwanderlust_life featuring the Stasher Bag. Stasher Bag commented on this post, which is a free way to boost user-generated content in the algorithm and get more exposure.

I already own several Stasher Bag products, and seeing people using their product reminds me of its value. UGC brings in new leads while reinforcing the buying decision of past customers.

Great for: Lead generation, brand awareness, and conversions.

8. Audio Chat and Live Rooms

Remember when Clubhouse was all everyone could talk about?! That frenzy has passed, but audio chats and live rooms are here to stay. Many platforms have native audio features, like X Spaces, LinkedIn Live, and Facebook Live Audio.

Audio content is particularly trendy among Gen Z, the biggest social media demographic. A 2024 Spotify study found that Gen Z enjoys audio content because it creates a feeling of genuine connection (more so than other online content).

Audio chat rooms let brands directly communicate with audiences and develop closer relationships than seeing a billboard or watching a YouTube video. And, during a time when customers value connections with brands more than ever, audio chat rooms are a valuable tool.

This type of content isn’t my style as a consumer, but this shows the value of a diverse content strategy: The same content won’t speak to every consumer. Having multiple social media accounts and sharing different types of content will help you create a wide funnel. Here’s an example from a chat hosted by The SAS Collective on X:

Source

Great for: Conversions, industry authority, and community building.

9. Forums and Private Groups

There’s more to a social media strategy than just gaining followers and making sales. Some brands are facilitating a genuine community around their product. One of the most effective ways to do this is through forums and private groups.

When asked about the biggest benefits of building social media communities, marketers cited increased brand sentiment/loyalty as the top benefit.

I’m a part of several company groups. As a consumer, I’m much more likely to remember and recommend a product when I’m a part of a tangible group with other customers. It makes me feel like the brand cares about my success with their product, not just the sale.

Here’s an example from the pressure cooker company Instant Pot®. This group keeps its audience engaged by creating a place to share recipes, troubleshoot together, and celebrate wins:

Source

Great for: Referrals, audience engagement, and social proof.

10. Content That Represents Brand Values

Almost half of marketers say that content reflecting brand values is part of their existing social media strategy. This type of content is anything that highlights what your company stands for, such as commitments to sustainable production practices, fair treatment of employees, social justice, and more.

Consumers care more than ever about what the brands they buy from stand for and the values they have. They want to know the causes that businesses support and the commitments made to bettering the world.

If you need an example of doing brand value content right, look no further than Patagonia. It’s not just about loyalty: Marketers also say that it has the 5th biggest ROI of any trend. Marketers also report that creating content that reflects brand values is a top priority in 2025.

Great for: Building trust and credibility.

11. Shoppable Content

Shoppable social media content allows consumers to browse through products on your accounts, discover things they like, and even make a purchase without leaving the app.

The image below is an Instagram shop for Ink Meets Paper, where someone can browse its products, find what interests them, and make a purchase. This is a valuable content type as social shopping is currently on the rise, and consumers are discovering new products and buying products on social media apps more than ever before.

In fact, social media is the most popular way for Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X to discover new products — over one in five have made an in-app purchase in the past three months. No wonder 87% of marketers said they would increase their investment in social selling enablement tools in 2025.

Source

Great for: Conversions and product awareness.

12. Ephemeral/Disappearing Content

Ephemeral/disappearing content is content that only stays up for a certain amount of time, like Instagram Stories that disappear after 24 hours. Leveraging people’s FOMO (fear of missing out) is one of the oldest tricks in the marketing playbook. The feeling is amplified even more on social media.

Users only have a set period to engage with disappearing content, so they might be more eager to keep track of your profiles and keep returning to experience it.

Creating quizzes and polls in your Stories is a great way to leverage this type of content. People only have a certain amount of time to respond, generating excitement and immediate action and inspiring respondents to come back and see results.

See the Instagram story example below from Harvard Business Review, or browse more ideas from LEGO, NASA, Outback Steakhouse, and more.

Source

Great for: Customer engagement, lead nurturing, and education.

13. Educational Content

This is less of a content format and more of a content type. Educational content shares helpful information with audiences that helps them

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 21:49:37 +0200

Designer Tables | Shop Modern Interior Online

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Designer Tables | Shop Modern Interior Online

Are you a blogger who would love to blog full time, monetize your blog, and make money online? This post will share the 7 different businesses I launched as a blogger and what I recommend for you! Click through to read the full post. #bloggingtips #blogti

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Are you a blogger who would love to blog full time, monetize your blog, and make money online? This post will share the 7 different businesses I launched as a blogger and what I recommend for you! Click through to read the full post. #bloggingtips #blogtips

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Wed, 03 Jun 2020 16:41:21 +0300

pic.twitter.com/b2BUFdiVLd

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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 06:03:24 +0300

#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/4ppvEkcbNG

Yes, back soon https://twitter.com/lbizash/status/1267648862430380034 …

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 05:48:48 +0300

Yes, back soon https://twitter.com/lbizash/status/1267648862430380034 …

The virus of “hate” makes corona seem like a fucking knee scrap ... Almost every person that sees this is a loving human, love has to become louder and confront hate when we see it. Let’s invent a screen test for hate, then we will get healthy

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 19:01:44 +0300

The virus of “hate” makes corona seem like a fucking knee scrap ... Almost every person that sees this is a loving human, love has to become louder and confront hate when we see it. Let’s invent a screen test for hate, then we will get healthy

Don’t cancel - communicate ... this was in response to this post https://www.instagram.com/p/CA5d8tmAWbl/?igshid=1iezknzikspci …pic.twitter.com/SpgSowzdAO

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 18:59:25 +0300

Don’t cancel - communicate ... this was in response to this post https://www.instagram.com/p/CA5d8tmAWbl/?igshid=1iezknzikspci … pic.twitter.com/SpgSowzdAO

Changing your mind is an ultimate strength

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 06:23:26 +0300

Changing your mind is an ultimate strength

Somethings are simple ... hate in all forms has no place, we’ve let it breathe, it’s time to stoppic.twitter.com/ej7sx1Uoeb

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 03:37:38 +0300

Somethings are simple ... hate in all forms has no place, we’ve let it breathe, it’s time to stop pic.twitter.com/ej7sx1Uoeb

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA3aexfg-ed/?igshid=kt80ihoojx3b …pic.twitter.com/5hywADgRlG

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 00:15:35 +0300

https://www.instagram.com/p/CA3aexfg-ed/?igshid=kt80ihoojx3b … pic.twitter.com/5hywADgRlG

Silence is hates oxygen

Sun, 31 May 2020 03:25:25 +0300

Silence is hates oxygen

Please help #suffocateRacismpic.twitter.com/tWDUD9Xhk5

Sun, 31 May 2020 03:00:23 +0300

Please help #suffocateRacism pic.twitter.com/tWDUD9Xhk5