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Everything Marketers Need to Know About Instagram Reels

Instagram Marketing
September 22, 2020/by
Everything Marketers Need to Know About Instagram Reels Throughout the past two years, two of the most popular apps used by Gen Z and younger millennials were Instagram and TikTok. While Instagram steadily pulled in more than 1 billion active users since its 2016 debut, TikTok made news when it surpassed 1 billion global downloads within 18 months of its launch. Both networks have solid benefits and entertainment factors.. While Instagram's visual layout allows users to see images, videos, Stories, and live streams from their favorite accounts, TikTok provides an endless feed of short, entertaining video clips. But, late this summer, as countries including the U.S. considered banning TikTok due to privacy concerns, Instagram launched a handful of new audio and video editing features that are quite similar to what users would find on TikTok. This new set of mobile features, which can be accessed in the Stories section of the Instagram app, has been dubbed Instagram Reels. Aside from allowing users to record videos with sound or audio overlays, the Reels camera and editor also includes the following features: More editing tools: These include augmented reality effects, transitions, and the ability to speed up or slow down videos. Audio attribution: If a user uploads native audio, other users can overlay the sound in their videos while the app credits the original user's account for it. Stitchable takes: This enables users to share a video with just one long take or a combination of quicker takes....
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The Ultimate Guide to Designing for the User Experience

User Experience
September 22, 2020/by
The Ultimate Guide to Designing for the User Experience Think about a website or app you love. What do you love about it? The ease of gathering relevant information? How you can buy something in one click (and have it delivered tomorrow)? Or how quickly it answers your questions? Now think about the people who created that website. What was their goal? They were trying to create a site that had the features you love about it — a site that is easy to use, effectively delivers the information you need, and allows you to make smart decisions tailored to your challenges or concerns. UX, or user experience, focuses on the end user’s overall experience, including their perceptions, emotions, and responses to a company’s product, system, or service. UX is defined by criteria including: ease of use, accessibility, and convenience. The concept of UX is most often talked about in terms of tech, such as smartphones, computers, software, and websites. This is why UX is not only a fairly new field, but also a variable one — it changes quickly due to technology advancements, new types of interactions, and user preferences. It’s no secret that customers today want quick and simple ways to meet their needs and solve their pain points. That’s why UX matters so much. Whether or not you’re in tech, the company you own or work for most likely has a website. Well, customers could write you off in a matter of seconds if they don’t find...
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5 Brand Partnership Fails [+Co-Marketing Mistakes to Avoid]

Co-Marketing
September 21, 2020/by
5 Brand Partnership Fails When you were in school, did you ever work on a group project? If so, you probably remember that some went well, and others weren't as synergistic. The same thing is true with brand partnerships. Sometimes co-marketing works because each brand pulls in a new audience and the two are able to learn from one another. However, this isn't the case with all partnerships. Below, let's review some brand partnerships that have failed and discuss co-marketing mistakes to avoid. 5 Brand Partnership Fails 1. Kendall Jenner and Pepsi A few years ago, a major brand partnership that failed was between Kendall Jenner and Pepsi. Pepsi featured Jenner in a commercial where she offers a soda to a policeman at a protest. Here's the commercial: The reason this partnership failed was because audiences thought the two brands were making light of serious social and civil rights issues. Essentially, this commercial was perceived as being done in poor taste and didn't showcase social consciousness. 2. Target and Neiman Marcus In 2013, Target and Neiman Marcus partnered on a new clothing line. However, Target's customers search for cost-efficient, mass trend clothing options, while Neiman Marcus is a luxury brand that offers expensive, edgy clothes. Unfortunately, this collection didn't take Target's target audience into account. The clothing line ended up being too expensive and edgy for Target's audience. Usually, if a high-end brand is partnering with Target, the prices would...
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The Power of Data Visualization Plus Examples of Good and Bad Visuals

Data Visualization
September 20, 2020/by
The Power of Data Visualization Plus Examples of Good and Bad Visuals It's no secret that data can be very powerful — when you can actually understand what it's telling you, that is. It's not easy to get clear takeaways by looking at a slew of numbers and stats. You need to have the data presented in a logical, easy-to-understand way so you can apply your learnings in an effective way. The human brain processes visual information better than it processes text — so using charts, graphs, and design elements, data visualization can help you explain trends and stats much more easily. But, not all data visualization is created equal. (Just check out "Why Most People’s Charts and Graphs Look Like Crap” to see what I mean.) In this article, we'll offer you applicable ways to ensure your data visualization is effective, and provide examples for inspiration along the way. What is data visualization? Data visualization allows you to organize data in a way that's both compelling and easy to digest. It's about representing data in a visual context, such as a chart or a map, to help anyone viewing it better understand the significance of that data. How does data visualization work? Whereas data shared via text can be confusing (not to mention bland), data represented in a visual format can help people extract meaning from that information more quickly and easily. Data visualization allows you to expose patterns, trends, and correlations that may...
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How to Do Market Research: A Guide and Template

Conducting Market Research
September 20, 2020/by
How to Do Market Research: A Guide and Template Today, consumers have a lot of power — they can research your product or service and make purchase decisions entirely on their own. And rather than talking to one of your sales reps, they're more likely to ask for referrals from members of their networks or read online reviews.  With this in mind, have you adapted your marketing strategy to complement the way today's consumers research, shop, and buy? In order to do just that — and to meet your potential buyers were they are — you must have a deep understanding of who your buyers are, your specific market, and what influences the purchase decisions and behavior of your target audience members.  Enter: Market Research.  Whether you're new to market research, this guide will provide you with a blueprint for conducting a thorough study of your market, target audience, competition, and more. What is market research? Market research is the process of gathering information about your business's buyers personas, target audience, and customers to determine how viable and successful your product or service would be, and/or is, among these people. What does market research tell you?  Market research provides insight into a wide variety of things that impact your bottom line including (but not limited to): Where your target audience and current customers conduct their product/ service research Which of your competitors your target audience looks to for information, more options, or to make a purchase...
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How to Create Social Media Buttons for All the Top Social Networks

Images
September 19, 2020/by
How to Create Social Media Buttons for All the Top Social Networks Social media is an extremely valuable tool for promoting your marketing content. Additionally, embedding your social profiles on your website or blog posts can help increase traffic to your social networks, and ultimately create brand consistency across platforms.  But with so many social networks providing their own individual sharing and follow buttons, it's often difficult to know which social media button to use for what purpose. To address this, we've put together a comprehensive guide to help you understand the differences between the share and follow buttons for six of the biggest social networks — Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest — as well as how to implement them on your website, blog, and other content. Jump to instructions for: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube | Pinterest | Instagram The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Creating Social Media Sharing Buttons Differentiating between social media sharing buttons and social media follow buttons lets you identify which type of button you should be using for what purpose. It's the first step in understanding the nuances of all the various social media buttons available to you. Let's clear that up right now. Social Media Follow Buttons These buttons serve to promote your business' presence on various social networks and help you generate fans/followers for those particular accounts. By placing these buttons on your business' website, you can help to create visibility for your social media accounts and...
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A Behind-the-Scenes Look into HubSpot’s Newest Content Marketing Strategy (Part 1 of 3)

Content Marketing
September 18, 2020/by
A Behind-the-Scenes Look into HubSpot's Newest Content Marketing Strategy (Part 1 of 3) This post is a part of Made @ HubSpot, an internal thought leadership series through which we extract lessons from experiments conducted by our very own HubSpotters. How do customers discover new products nowadays? Despite there being many ways of becoming aware of a product, there is a simple route to considering it for purchase. If you’re like me, you do it every time you’re looking to buy or try something new: You turn to your friends (and in many cases, Google) and ask, “What are the best X products?” If you’re using Google, your query looks something like this: “Best form builder” “Best fitness tracker” “Best business scanner app” “Best restaurants in Dublin” “Best bars in Boston” Although sometimes, you drop the qualifier (the “best” of) and simply search for a broad transactional category: “Marketing automation software” “Hotels in Tallinn” “Language learning apps” Sometimes, these exploratory keywords exist in relation to an existing solution: “Canva alternatives” “Mailchimp competitors” “Ahrefs vs SEMRush” Image Source As marketers, we know search queries like these are important for two main reasons. The customer journey — the one we write about at HubSpot quite a bit — includes a Consideration stage, where customers attempt to educate themselves about the available solutions on the market, and perhaps the pros and cons of each. We have some good ol’ quantitative...
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What is a Web Crawler? (In 50 Words or Less)

Technical SEO
September 18, 2020/by
What is a Web Crawler? (In 50 Words or Less) I don't know about you, but I wouldn't describe myself as a "technical" person. In fact, the technical aspects of marketing are usually the hardest ones for me to conquer. For example, when it comes to technical SEO, it can be difficult to understand how the process works. But it's important to gain as much knowledge as we can to do our jobs more effectively. To that end, let's learn what web crawlers are and how they work. You might be wondering, "Who runs these web crawlers?" Well, usually web crawlers are operated by search engines with their own algorithms. The algorithm will tell the web crawler how to find relevant information in response to a search query. A web crawler will search and categorize all web pages on the Internet that it can find and is told to index. This means that you can tell a web crawler not to crawl your web page if you don't want it to be found on search engines. To do this, you'd upload a robots.txt file. Essentially, a robots.txt file will tell a search engine how to crawl and index the pages on your site. So, how does a web crawler do its job? Below, let's review how web crawlers work. This means that a search engine's web crawler most likely won't crawl the entire Internet. Rather, it will decide the importance of each web page based on factors including...
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How and Why You Should Run a Customer Panel for Your Marketing Team

Marketing and Sales Alignment
September 18, 2020/by
How and Why You Should Run a Customer Panel for Your Marketing Team As a marketer, we typically ask ourselves the following question at least a dozen times a day: "Would our prospects and customers like this?" Ideally, you'll use a mix of qualitative and quantitative data to arrive at the answer to that question. But one great place to know what your customers like (and love … and hate … ) is directly from the customers themselves. At HubSpot's department-wide marketing team meetings, for instance, we often host customer panels. There's good reason for this. As Senior Product Marketing Manager, Katriona Heaslip, notes, "A good marketing strategy should always incorporate the voice of the customer — you could have the best product in the world but you won't see any growth unless you're positioning it in a way that appeals to the customer." Additionally, Amanda Whyte, HubSpot's Director of Voice of the Customer, says, "Customer panels are such an important way for feedback to be heard, especially for teams that are non-customer facing in their day-to-day job responsibilities." Whyte adds, "Hearing from a customer what their experience has been, in their own words, creates empathy among decision-makers in a way they couldn't get from looking at data alone. It drives more customer-centric content and communications." A customer panel is an exceptional opportunity to learn more about your customers' points of friction and success stories. And, along with using that material to inform your future marketing strategy,...
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