My Blog My Blog

7 Tips for Hosting a Virtual Brainstorm, According to HubSpot Marketing Managers

Remote Working
September 29, 2020/by
7 Tips for Hosting a Virtual Brainstorm, According to HubSpot Marketing Managers At HubSpot, we love brainstorms Getting your team together in one room to come up with ideas not only allows you to identify creative content or strategies that you might not have thought of, but it also can improve feelings of psychological safety as people who might not be high-level managers are invited and encouraged to offer their input. Brainstorming is one of the most productive team-building activities we use at HubSpot. But, recently, when we had to leave our physical offices and embrace remote work, many managers wondered how they’d recreate the same in-person communication, productivity, and sense of psychological safety virtually. Luckily, many of our managers were able to adapt quickly, leading a number of successful virtual brainstorms in 2020. To help managers build solid idea-generation techniques -- even from home -- here are a few steps HubSpot employees on the blog, acquisition team, and DI&B team take when coordinating remote brainstorms. How to Run a Virtual Brainstorm 1. Give your team a headstart. If your teammates already know the goal of the brainstorm, the prompts they'll be given, and their idea generation instructions, they'll come ready and eager to immediately make suggestions. Before the brainstorm, consider sending a detailed email or a creative brief about what you'd like to achieve during the session. "I’ve found that giving members of your brainstorm a chance to prepare in advance results in higher quality ideas presented...
Read Full Story

How to Make an Instagram Post Template for Your Business or Brand

Instagram Marketing
September 29, 2020/by
How to Make an Instagram Post Template for Your Business or Brand Instagram is an undeniably powerful marketing tool, but with over 25 million businesses on the platform today, it's critical you take the time to create well-designed and thoughtful Instagram posts to stand out. You'll need to apply a strategic design plan to your business's Instagram to attract a loyal following and find success on the app, long-term. However, creating a clean and cohesive Instagram feed takes design skills you might feel you lack. Plus, Instagram's algorithm favors brands that post at least once a day — that time commitment could be adding to your stress. If that's the case, you're in luck — there are ways you can create pre-made Instagram post templates, so you've got a stash ready-to-go. Plus, by ensuring you use the same templates for different posts, you'll have an easier time creating a cohesive and aesthetically-pleasing feed. 1. Use Instagram Post Templates Let's face it — you don't always have the time, resources, or personnel to design noteworthy Instagram posts. That's why we recommend using Instagram Post Templates for Business which you can build from and customize. Here are some options to create and save Instagram post templates, so you can have stunning posts on-hand whenever you're ready to publish. Featured Resource: 16 Free Instagram Post Templates for Business Need templates to get started? Download HubSpot's free Instagram post templates for both traditional posts and stories, which you can tailor as...
Read Full Story

5 Myths About Video Marketing, Debunked

Video Marketing
September 29, 2020/by
5 Myths About Video Marketing, Debunked By now, you've probably heard video marketing is a powerful tool for generating leads and capturing new customers. So why aren't you using it yet? For many small to medium businesses, the reluctance to adopt video comes from a fear of the unknown. Video marketing feels expensive, cumbersome, and difficult to track. And these would be valid reasons … if any of them were still true in 2020. Video technology has come a long way in the past few years. We've gone from "put it on YouTube and hope the millennials find it" to video enablement platforms which empower small businesses to create, share, and analyze videos without the agencies, actors, or expense. In fact, 88%of video marketers reported that video gives them a positive ROI — a 5%increase on last years figure, and a world away from the lowly 33% who felt that way in 2015. If you haven't seen what video can do for your company, it's time to stop putting it off. In this post, let's review the top video marketing myths. 5 Video Marketing Myths, Debunked 1. Video is too expensive. Sure, HBO's Westworld may have beaten The Game of Thrones' record with a price tag of $10 million per episode, but you don't have to play their game. In fact, stay as far away from it as possible. Video doesn't have to be expensive. Today's buyers and consumers actually appreciate authenticity over production value. According...
Read Full Story

31 Instagram Hacks, Tips, & Features Everyone Should Know About

Instagram Marketing
September 25, 2020/by
31 Instagram Hacks, Tips, & Features Everyone Should Know About Instagram has become the favorite social network of many — and, as a result of its popularity, its become a major platform for marketing opportunities. For instance, consider the fact that 80% of Instagram users have made a purchase based on something they discovered on the platform. Additionally, folks don't just use Instagram casually, as 60% of the site's active users visit Instagram daily. But for those who have never used the platform before, or those who just want to take their usage to the next level, Instagram has some lesser-known tricks, settings, hacks, search options, and comment features you should know about. That's why we set out to find them and list them all in one place. Whether you're a recruiter looking to showcase your company's culture, a marketer in the ecommerce industry, or an individual who's just looking to use Instagram in the best ways possible, there are tips and features here for you. And for a quick overview of these hacks, check out this rundown from HubSpot ‎Content Marketing Strategist Megan Conley. 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 158.1 on iOS and on 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...
Read Full Story

3 Types of Blog Posts That Earn the Most Backlinks, According to HubSpot’s Link-Building Expert

Link Building
September 24, 2020/by
3 Types of Blog Posts That Earn the Most Backlinks, According to HubSpot's Link-Building Expert As the HubSpot Blog's Audience Growth Manager, one of my duties involves developing highly shareable blog posts that pull in non-organic traffic from sources like email, social media, and other websites. Through building non-organic traffic tactics for my team, I've learned that referral traffic -- which comes from other sites backlinking to our content -- can majorly benefit the overall blog site. It goes without saying that having another site highlight your content is great for brand awareness. But, additionally, backlinks can also increase your search engine authority. When high-authority sites link to your content, search engine algorithms take this into account when ranking your content on result pages. This means that the more backlinks you get from credible websites, the higher your search rankings could get. However, although referral traffic can be vital for your blog’s success, it's also the hardest to earn. Here's why: When a HubSpot Blog post gets a backlink, this typically means that a person has found our content, valued it, and shared the post's URL on their own website. Then, when others find and click this shared URL, it results in referral traffic. In short, a person working for a website or online publication has to find our content and determine that it's valuable, credible, or engaging enough to share with their site’s audiences. Because getting referrals can be challenging and complex, I've worked closely with Irina...
Read Full Story

8 Resources to Use to Ensure You’re Using Inclusive Language

Marketing Automation
September 24, 2020/by
8 Resources to Use to Ensure You're Using Inclusive Language We've talked about it before, but diversity, inclusion, and belonging shouldn't be about filling a quota. Instead, the goal should be to foster a true sense of belonging among your team, which is likely filled with people from all backgrounds. One way to do this is by using inclusive language. Whether it's intentional or not, we all carry implicit biases in our everyday language. However, it's important to make a conscious effort to avoid this. This isn't just the right thing to do. It also makes good business sense. In fact, over 70% of students said they prefer a company that is diverse, inclusive and makes them feel included regardless of race, geographic location, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, and appearance. Additionally, creating a sense of belonging can lead to greater retention rates and even result in higher customer satisfaction. So, how can you use more inclusive language? Below, we'll review the top tools that can automate this process for you and resources that can help you use more inclusive language. 1. Better Allies During an allyship meeting at HubSpot, we discussed tools that help people use more inclusive language. A colleague brought up a Slackbot, Better Allies. This Slackbot can help you shift your language to be more inclusive. The tool was inspired by the book Better Allies by Karen Catlin. This book can help you spot situations where you can create more inclusive culture....
Read Full Story

20 Stats That Make the Case for Co-Marketing in 2020

Co-Marketing
September 24, 2020/by
20 Stats That Make the Case for Co-Marketing in 2020 As a billionaire inventor and CEO, the fictional Tony Stark, also known as Marvel's Iron Man, worked his way to the top of the corporate ladder while repeatedly saving the world on the side. Despite Stark's impressive achievements, his career success and robotic super-suit weren't what made him a legend. In fact, Stark’s best Marvel Comics storylines began when he joined The Avengers to save the entire universe. Although Stark was fully capable of saving Earth alone in his super-suit, he knew teaming up with other superheroes would allow him to save multiple planets. Marketers can learn a lot from Tony Stark. While our brands might be capable of reaching basic targets all on their own, pooling marketing resources, combining skill sets, and jointly creating campaigns with other non-competing companies could help us reach much broader audiences. This tactic is known as co-marketing. Although co-marketing can be incredibly beneficial to you and your partner's brands, it will still take time, planning, and coordination when it comes to finding a co-marketing partner and launching mutually beneficial campaigns. Like any good marketer considering a new tactic, you’ll want to know that co-marketing can be effective before devoting resources to it. And yes, you'll likely want to research more than just the superhero analogy I've made above. To help you make the case for co-marketing, here’s a list of 20 statistics that prove why you should consider this strategy in 2020. ...
Read Full Story

What are Mini Apps & Why Marketers Should Care

Mobile Marketing
September 23, 2020/by
What are Mini Apps & Why Marketers Should Care With apps continuing to grow as a vital staple of everyday life, marketers continue to ask, "Do I need to have an app for my business?" Luckily, unless your small business' product is an app -- or you have a skilled staff of developers, you probably don't need to spend tons of time and money building one just yet. Brainstorming, developing, launching, and promoting an app is a lot of work for a small company. In that same amount of time, you can launch a mobile-optimized website or mobile email strategy that could earn you solid awareness and ROI. But, if you're a marketer at a digital startup, agency, or tech firm that thinks an app might be helpful for business, a more affordable development option could be on the horizon. In 2020, some tech companies are starting to invest in "mini-apps." And, as these programs expand, there might be room for companies to test the waters with a more compact app experience. Mini-apps became a commodity on large-scale Chinese social media platforms as recently as 2017. During this year, WeChat's founding company, Tencent, announced the launch of WeChat Mini Programs. After showing success on apps like WeChat, miniature app-like experiences recently caught the attention of Western tech firms like Apple and Snapchat. These companies have begun to build out and launch similar programs to WeChat. But what exactly do these apps look like, and how do they benefit the...
Read Full Story

The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing in 2020

Content Marketing
September 23, 2020/by
The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing in 2020 Your customers, leads, and audience members want valuable content from your business. And that content needs to reach audience members in a way that feels natural and organic versus being disruptive. By honing in on effective content marketing, you can do just that — and as a result, increase conversions, improve brand awareness, boost revenue, establish yourself as an industry leader, and more. In this guide, we'll give you a birds-eye-view of content marketing, types of content marketing, content marketing examples, and how to get a strategy going. Content Marketing Today, outbound marketing strategies (or anything that interrupts your audience members) aren’t as effective at resonating with and converting audience members as they once were. Today, your content needs to reach your audience in a way that feels natural (a.k.a. inbound). A common way of doing this is by creating a narrative for your content — or telling a story. In doing so, your content will feel more authentic, engaging, and tailored to your audience. So, what defines content marketing anyway? Why is content marketing important? Content marketing can also help your business with the following: Educate your leads and prospects about the products and services you offer Boost conversions Build relationships between your customers and business that result in increased loyalty Show your audience how your products and services solve their challenges...
Read Full Story