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A Beginner’s Guide to Web Analytics

Web Analytics
March 27, 2021/by
A Beginner’s Guide to Web Analytics Views, new visitors, returning visitors — they sound similar but these metrics are not the same. If you don’t know the difference, you could be misinterpreting your website data and making some ill-informed decisions.   We’re going to cover everything you need to know about web analytics so you can truly understand what's what, interpret your website analytics correctly, and make well-informed, data-backed decisions for your website and business. In this post, we’ll cover the following. You can click on any of the jump links to skip to that section: what web analytics is and why it's important web analytics examples web analytics best practices web analytics tools web analytics api There is tons of data you can collect to understand how people interact with your website and identify opportunities for improvement. You can track overall traffic, bounce rate, traffic sources, new and returning visitors, time spent on site, and much more. The amount of data can be overwhelming at first. That’s why it’s important to identify a few key metrics, particularly as you’re getting started. For example, you might start by focusing on bounce rate on a few key pages on your site. If visitors are quickly bouncing from your homepage, then that indicates they’re not finding the information they’re looking for quickly or easily enough. From there, you can identify possible next steps, like redesigning your website navigation. Let’s take a closer...
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What Is Market Share & How Do You Calculate It?

Conducting Market Research
March 26, 2021/by
What Is Market Share & How Do You Calculate It? Growing up, I used to play "grocery store" with my sister. We'd go into our pantry, take out all the food, and set up a grocery store in our living room. I would typically "buy" goldfish. You might be thinking, "What does this have to do with market share?" Well, let's say that I bought 10 bags of goldfish from various "companies" that my sister, mom, and dad owned. If three of those bags were my sister's goldfish, that would mean that she had a 30% market share of my goldfish. Put simply, that is market share. But how does that impact marketers? As marketers, it's important to understand market share so you know how your company ranks against competitors and can develop new marketing strategies to reach more potential customers. In this post, we’ll outline what market share is, how to calculate it, give real life examples, and explain how you can increase yours. What is market share? Market share is the percentage of an industry's sales that a particular company owns. Essentially, it is the share of total industry revenue that your business has generated from selling your products and services. Businesses with larger market shares are industry leaders and competition for smaller companies. You can think of it like this: if consumers buy 100 t-shirts and 70 of them are from company A, 25 from company B, and 5 are from company C, Company...
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Do Blog Posts Actually Lead to Purchases [New Data]

Business Blogging
March 26, 2021/by
Do Blog Posts Actually Lead to Purchases In our 2021 Executive Marketing Leadership Survey, 20% of marketing leaders described company blogs as one of their "most important channels" for hitting goals. The enduring importance placed on blogging isn't shocking. Not only can blogs boost your SEO, overall site traffic, and online presence, but they can also help prospects learn more about your industry, brand, product, or service. But, starting and running an effective, traffic-generating blog requires a lot of time and energy. And, if you're a marketing manager on a tight budget, you might only be interested in tactics that directly benefit your bottom line. As you determine how you'll invest your time, effort, and money in 2021, you might ask yourself, "Will my blog posts actually lead to purchases?" To help marketers answer the question above, we surveyed nearly 300 consumers using Lucid software to learn if reading company blog posts had ever led them to make purchases from that brand. Do Blog Posts Lead to Purchases? While the growth of other content strategies, like video marketing, might have you thinking that consumers will only buy products after seeing them on other platforms, you might be surprised by how consumers responded to our survey question. When we asked, "Have you ever purchased something from a company after reading a blog post from them?", a whopping 56% said, "Yes." Data Source While blogs are no longer the most commonly used type of marketing content, data like...
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Hreflang Tags: The SEO Attribute for Content in Multiple Languages

On-page SEO
March 26, 2021/by
Hreflang Tags: The SEO Attribute for Content in Multiple Languages Have you ever visited a webpage that was in a different language, and your browser asked you if you wanted to change it to your first language? It's a life-saver, right? Now think about whether you've provided the functionality so your own webpages are ready for a global audience. If you haven't properly tagged or re-directed your content to be optimized in different languages, it may not be gaining the traffic it could be. The name for this attribute is called language tagging, and it's an SEO tag you can use to make sure search engines know what language your content is in. Language Tags There are two different types of language tags: HTML tags and hreflang tags. While both HTML and hreflang tags are intended to optimize content in multiple languages, they have a couple of differences. Simply put, language (or lang) tag attributes on an HTML tag tells your browser the language of the current document or webpage, while the hreflang tag attribute tells your browser the language of the webpage that's being linked -- for instance, a lang tag on HubSpot.com tells your browser the language of HubSpot.com, but a hreflang tag attribute tells a search engine the language of HubSpot.com when a user searches for HubSpot. If a user searches for HubSpot.com from Germany, a hreflang tag is responsible for changing the link available in the search engines. However, when someone lands on HubSpot.com...
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How to Generate Leads on LinkedIn, According to LinkedIn’s VP of Marketing

LinkedIn Marketing
March 25, 2021/by
How to Generate Leads on LinkedIn, According to LinkedIn's VP of Marketing As a marketer, you're undoubtedly aware of some of the major social media sites you can use for lead generation. I'm willing to bet you've already heard about the importance of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter — and if you use all three as part of your lead generation strategy, you might think you're all set.  However, if you're not using LinkedIn you could be missing out on a major opportunity to grow both brand recognition and revenue, especially if you’re a B2B business. In fact, studies have shown that LinkedIn is the top paid and organic social channel for B2B businesses, and 82% of B2B marketers report finding the greatest success on the platform.  These statistics make sense, especially if we consider platform-specific demographics. The average Instagram user scrolls through their feed, like photos of their friends, watches their favorite celebrity’s Story, and occasionally uses the platform to find and purchase products.  Alternatively, the average LinkedIn user is on the site specifically for professionally-geared content. They're already seeking out information to help grow their businesses, so you should meet them where they are. Of course, it's easier said than done. Without a clear strategy in mind, the task of lead generation on LinkedIn can feel challenging. Justin Shriber, Vice President of Marketing at LinkedIn, was interviewed as part of HubSpot's campaign, "Advertising, a Look Behind the Screens.” Take a look at the full interview series here, or...
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The Plain-English Guide to Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated Marketing
March 25, 2021/by
The Plain-English Guide to Integrated Marketing Communications I fly Southwest Airlines almost exclusively. They offer reasonable prices, make it easy to rack up points, and always have fun and kind flight attendants. One thing I’ve noticed about Southwest is their branding is on point. Whether I’m booking a flight on their mobile application, being served my go-to in-flight ginger ale, or walking through the terminal at Midway Airport, I’m surrounded by Southwest’s consistent brand colors, messaging, and imagery. This is an example of integrated marketing at work. If you’re interested in presenting a cohesive, consistent brand experience that leaves your products or services top-of-mind — like Southwest does — this guide is for you. Read on to learn more about integrated marketing and how to create a campaign of your own. Imagine discovering a new brand on Instagram and visiting the company’s website to purchase one of their products. If their website promoted a different message or campaign than the one you found on their Instagram account, you’d have a hard time understanding the gist of the brand, right? Integrated marketing exists to eliminate these disparities and differences regardless of how or when a customer interacts with your brand. It’s similar to multi-channel marketing, except integrated marketing is what aligns the message you’re sharing on all of those channels. Speaking of channels, integrated marketing doesn’t apply to just your inbound or digital marketing channels; traditional media channels are also included. Many of the integrated marketing examples we’ll...
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How Much Should Your Marketing Team Budget for 2021? [By Industry]

Free Marketing Software, marketing budget
March 24, 2021/by
How Much Should Your Marketing Team Budget for 2021? When I was hired for my first marketing role, I got really excited to pitch new, exciting ideas to my team. And I thought — as long as I had data to support the potential success of a project — that my team would be thrilled to hear these ideas. Which they were. But they were also cautious, and one of their biggest concerns was, "Okay, this sounds great … but how much is it going to cost?" Ultimately, being a successful marketer isn't just about thinking strategically. It's also about adhering to a strict budget, and achieving new levels of growth while simultaneously choosing the most cost-effective option for your business. Here, we'll explore typical marketing budgets, as well as marketing budgets by industry, so you can determine how your budget matches up against competitors. Plus, we'll explore how much of your yearly revenue you should re-invest in marketing materials to see stronger long-term growth. What's a typical marketing budget percentage? As of February 2021, Deloitte's annual CMO Survey reports that marketing budgets are now roughly 11.7% of total company-wide budget — a slight decrease from the 12.6% marketers saw in June 2020, but still a record high that most marketers haven't seen over the last four years. (It's important to note, we saw record-high marketing budgets over the course of the pandemic as companies relocated some budget towards digital marketing strategies, rather than more offline tactics.) Gartner's 2020...
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How Primary Colors Help HubSpot Build a CRM That Customers Love

Product Development
March 23, 2021/by
How Primary Colors Help HubSpot Build a CRM That Customers Love At HubSpot, customer experience comes first. Always. Whether our marketing team is selecting a time at which to send an email or our web team team is choosing the size and location of a button on our homepage, the question we always go back to is: “Will this be a good experience for our customers?” As HubSpot's Chief Product Officer, this customer-first principle is my guiding light when it comes to product development. And it's the reason why we don't buy technology when we want to deliver a new product to our customers. We build it. This build-first approach is becoming increasingly rare in our industry. Traditional SaaS companies tend to acquire other companies when they want to significantly expand their product offerings or quickly increase their customer base. This can sometimes lead to a quick uptick in revenue — after all, when a company buys another, it acquires all of its customers — but it's often a very negative experience for the customer. When two completely different systems are cobbled together after an acquisition, the burden of making them work together is foisted onto the customer. Each company probably took a completely different approach to product development, resulting in different underlying technology, different processes, and different user interfaces. Reconciling these differences without causing friction for customers is an almost impossible task. And when SaaS companies apply this approach over time, the friction accrues, technical debt goes through the roof,...
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31 LinkedIn Stats That Marketers Need to Know in 2021

LinkedIn Marketing
March 23, 2021/by
31 LinkedIn Stats That Marketers Need to Know in 2021 With more than 740 million active users in 2020, LinkedIn's expanded from a networking site for professionals to one of the top social media platforms. By now, most of us have used LinkedIn to market our brands, post industry thought leadership, or look for our dream jobs. As LinkedIn's continued to evolve by adding new features, like LinkedIn Stories, it's steadily grown its user base. While the LinkedIn audience still skews towards career-minded professionals, the industries, interests, and demographics represented on the platform have become much broader since its launch. Aside from LinkedIn's user growth, it's also continued to expand on advertising opportunities, which has helped make it one of the most important channels for B2B marketing. Today, it's becoming quite clear that LinkedIn isn't just for people in executive corporate roles. With millions of company pages and individual members, there's a discussion, post, or professional network for almost anyone on this channel. But, despite LinkedIn's growth and advertising opportunities, many marketers or brands still worry that the platform is still too formal or corporate for their audiences. The truth is -- LinkedIn could very well be one of your most underrated marketing channels. If LinkedIn's growth has caught your attention and you want to determine if its audiences and ad offerings are right for you, it's important to do some research before devoting more time and resources to this network. To get you started on your LinkedIn research, here are some need-to-know stats...
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