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20 Content Marketing Examples That Stand Out in 2022

Content Marketing
July 27, 2022/by
20 Content Marketing Examples That Stand Out in 2022 Do you remember a time where a piece of content made you a longtime fan of a particular brand or company? Maybe it was a funny YouTube video or a super informative blog post — both of which are content marketing examples. Content marketing examples include media like newsletters, podcasts, social media posts, and videos. All of these forms of content are meant to provide useful and relevant information that delights users and attracts them to your brand. To help you use content marketing to your company's advantage, here are some of my favorite content marketing examples of 2022.   1. Spotify Wrapped Playlists Spotify Wrapped is one of the music streaming app's most successful content marketing campaigns. Near the end of every year, Spotify users get a fun roundup of all the music they've listened to that year. The roundup is broken down into genres, years, artists, and more, and is displayed with brightly colored graphics. It then creates a personalized playlist of the user's most listened to songs, and users have the option to share their wrapped playlists on social media — a key element that has made the campaign to trend on social media every year since its inception. Image Source   2. DuoLingo's TiKTok You likely know DuoLingo as the website and app that helps users learn a new language, but...
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23 Stats We Gained from Surveying Marketing Leaders [New Data]

Leadership
July 26, 2022/by
23 Stats We Gained from Surveying Marketing Leaders A recent HubSpot Blog survey asked 1,067 global marketing professionals working in B2B and B2C companies about the top marketing trends they leverage, the strategies they use, and the challenges they face. In this post, we’ll discuss the insight we gathered from director+ level marketers about their companies marketing strategies and what they will look like in 2022. Read on to learn: Trends Marketing Leaders are Following Marketing Strategies Marketing Leaders Use Challenges Marketing Leaders Face Trends Marketing Leaders are Following 1. The top trends marketing leaders follow are short-form video, experiential marketing, and influencer marketing. 2. The trends marketing leaders follow that have the highest ROI are influencer marketing, short-form video content, and permanent social media content. 3. The trends marketing leaders companies invest the most in are short-form video content, inbound marketing, and social responsibility. 4. Marketing leaders say they’ll increase their investments in content marketing, social media marketing, and influencer marketing. 5. Influencer marketing is the most effective trend that director+ marketers companies leverage. Marketing Strategies Marketing Leaders Use 1. The primary marketing strategies director+ level marketers say their companies use are social media marketing, content marketing, and co-marketing. 2. The most popular media formats in director+ level marketers’ content strategies are videos, infographics, and blogs. 3. The top platforms director+ level marketers companies post video content on are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. 4. 48% of director level+ marketers...
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The Top Shopping Trends of 2022 & Beyond [State of Consumer Trends Data]

Marketing Trends
July 26, 2022/by
The Top Shopping Trends of 2022 & Beyond Shopping habits have drastically changed over the past few years. For instance, while most of us previously browsed retail stores on a Saturday to find great deals, we now turn to Instagram to find discounts offered by influencers. And rather than watching TV ads to find out about new products, nowadays, most of us stumble across ads in between YouTube videos. Here, we'll explore the shopping trends of 2022 to ensure you're able to meet customers where and when they'd prefer to shop. Plus, we'll uncover the shopping differences between generations. Let's dive in.  The Top Shopping Trends of 2022  1. Influencer recommendations matter more than recommendations from friends and family. Influencer marketing has proven an incredibly effective strategy for brands over the past few years — in fact, as of 2021, almost 60% of marketers said influencer marketing was the most effective marketing trend, ahead of SEO, experiential marketing, and short-form video content. And in 2022, 30% of consumers now report influencer recommendations are one of the most important factors in their purchasing decisions, compared to 27% for recommendations from friends or family. In many ways, this makes sense: Influencers are traditionally considered experts in their niche. If I follow a makeup influencer, it's safe to assume he or she knows more about makeup than most of my friends. For e-commerce businesses, this is powerful news: It means you no longer need to rely on word-of-mouth alone. Instead,...
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2022 CPL and CAC Benchmarks [HubSpot Research]

Marketing Strategy
July 23, 2022/by
2022 CPL and CAC Benchmarks As a marketer, you know you have to spend money to make money. This is particularly true when you're trying to generate leads and acquire new customers. However, if there are ways to cut the cost of lead generation and customer acquisition without undercutting either metric. To help refine your marketing strategy to lower the costs of acquiring leads and customers, here are some helpful CPL and CAC benchmarks from a recent HubSpot survey of hundreds of marketers. Most Effective Strategies for Lowering CAC Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is how much a company has to spend to get a new customer. In our survey we found that CAC varies a lot between companies and industries — that said, almost half (48.9%) of the marketers we surveyed said CAC has increased in the past year. Another 48.9% reported their CAC has stayed about the same, and only 2.2% said CAC has decreased. When we asked marketers what they found to be the most effective strategies in lowering CAC, the majority (67.6%) reported improving customer retention among the most effective. Other strategies reported to be effective are: Implementing a customer referral/affiliate program (62.5%) Optimizing sales funnel (57.6%) Conducting market research to better understand the target audience (55.8%) Using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management Software) to streamline their sales cycle (53.8%) Marketing Channels with the Highest and Lowest CAC...
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How Each Generation Shops in 2022 [New Data from Our State of Consumer Trends Report]

Marketing Trends
July 23, 2022/by
How Each Generation Shops in 2022 With new marketing channels and trends constantly popping up, it can be difficult to know where your target audience actually is. Not only do you need to know where they spend their time, but also how they like to shop –- and that largely depends on their age group. To help you determine where to meet audiences where they are, we surveyed thousands of US consumers of all generations across to learn about their shopping habits, media consumption, and the latest trends they're following. While you'll find even more data in our State of Consumer Trends Report, we wanted to give our readers a deep dive into each generations and the unique themes that make them different.  So let's take a look at where and how each generation likes to shop -- and what really impacts their purchasing decisions. We'll get started with a quick breakdown of the shopping habits of each generation and call out the biggest differences and similarities between them, then dive deeper into each age group. For those in a rush, we've put a quick generation-by-generation overview below with links to the deep dive of each age group. To jump to a broader side-by-side look at how all generations handle each stage of product discovery and purchases differently. click here to jump to our comparison section. Shopping Habits Overview Gen Z Overview (ages 18-24) Social media, YouTube ads, and internet search are the top ways Gen...
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How to Write a SMART Goal [+ Free SMART Goal Template]

Goal Setting
July 22, 2022/by
How to Write a SMART Goal Work can feel like a never-ending grind when you're not chasing a clear goal. A SMART goal template can help you clarify your motivations, set a clear direction for you and your team members, and ensure you're able to celebrate the wins when they come along. But what exactly is a SMART goal, and how does it differ from a regular goal? To help you write SMART goals, we've created a free template with all the tools you need to get started. What is a SMART goal? The letters of SMART stand for: Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Time-Bound The SMART acronym is a framework that will enable you to write goals that drive greater impact. Write goals with each of these aspects in mind, and you'll be able to quantify how far you've come and how far you have left to go against your goal. When you reach the milestone you articulated in your SMART goal, you'll be able to celebrate knowing that you achieved something tangible and impactful. To make setting a SMART goal simple, we've created a free, downloadable SMART goal setting template. I'll walk through the template below as we discuss each aspect of a SMART goal. I'd suggest downloading the template yourself to follow along with this blog post. However, before anything else, let's dive into the importance of each aspect of the SMART acronym. What does each aspect...
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How to Plan Your Instagram Posts [+22 Free Instagram Planning Templates]

Instagram Marketing
July 22, 2022/by
How to Plan Your Instagram Posts When you're not following a plan on social media, it's easy to forget to post regularly. Additionally, creating image and video-based content meant to drive revenue for your business can seem far from your bottom line. However, 90% of people on Instagram follow at least one business nowadays. To compete with other companies in your industry, you must have a solid Instagram strategy, especially if your intended audience uses the app. Fortunately, once you have an ideal plan for your Instagram content, you can create content more intentionally and ultimately drive more results for your team and organization. In this post, we'll cover everything from determining what kind of content you want to post to picking a content theme. Then, we'll get into the details of planning individual posts. HubSpot, AdobeSpark, and Iconosquare teamed up to create a 30-day planning guide for business Instagram planning. We've also thrown in 30 templates to help you get started. Click here to get the planning guide. Your Instagram's Visual Theme Once you've decided on the type of content you want to post, you'll want to select a visual theme for your posts. Aesthetic consistency will help you in several ways: When an Instagram user finds your business' account, the images will appear coordinated and well-thought-out. Your followers will begin to sense patterns in your content and pause when they see your post as they scroll because they recognize that pattern. When...
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The Top Channels Consumers Use to Learn About Products [New Data]

Marketing Trends
July 22, 2022/by
The Top Channels Consumers Use to Learn About Products Imagine you’re scrolling through Instagram and see an ad for a product you might be interested in. While your first thought might be that ad targeting is getting too advanced, you still want to find out more about the product and the company that makes it. So where do you look next? Are you going straight to their Instagram page, visiting their website, searching for online reviews, or watching a YouTube unboxing video? These are the questions we asked 1,000 consumers in our 2022 State of Consumer Trends Survey to find out how people behave after discovering a product they might want. Of course, this will vary drastically by generation, so we’ll include some insights split by age group as we go. You can also check out our full report on consumer shopping habits by generation for more age-specific info. How Do Consumers Want to Learn About Products in 2022? Consumers are learning about products and their features through a wide variety of channels. Among the most popular are searching the web, going to retail stores, TV ads, word of mouth, and online reviews. While social media, YouTube ads, unboxing videos, and streaming services are less popular when we look at all generations combined, splitting this up by age group paints a very different picture. Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X set themselves apart from Boomers through their preference for learning about products through social media and YouTube ads....
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12 Expert-Vetted Sample Business Plans to Help You Write Your Own

Business Tools
July 20, 2022/by
12 Expert-Vetted Sample Business Plans to Help You Write Your Own Ask any successful sports coach how they win so many games, and they’ll tell you they have a unique plan for every single game. The same logic applies to business. If you want to build a thriving company that can pull ahead of the competition, you need to prepare for battle before breaking into a market. Business plans guide you along the rocky journey of growing a company. Referencing one will keep you on the path toward success. And if your business plan is compelling enough, it can also convince investors to give you funding. What does a business plan look like? And how do you write one that is viable and convincing? Let's review the business plan format and sample business plans you can use to inspire your own. Business Plan Format Before you start your business plan, you might be wondering, "Where do I start? How should I format this?" Typically, a business plan is a document that will detail how a company will achieve its goals. Most business plans include the following sections: 1. Executive Summary The executive summary is arguably the most important section of the entire business plan. Essentially, it's the overview or introduction, written in a way to grab readers' attention and guide them through the rest of the business plan (which may be dozens or hundreds of pages long). Most executive summaries include: Mission statement Company history and...
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