You never know for sure which social media tactics are going to deliver for you.
Even the task of defining “effective” is a challenge. Your definition of success may differ from, well, anyone’s. Social media evolves at the speed of screen flicker. There simply are no steadfast rules.
At HubSpot, our marketers are outstanding teachers.
Not to toot our own horn, but they have a ton of tips, tricks, and hacks that can be used to help other marketers meet and exceed their goals. So in an effort to spread this knowledge, we've decided to start a weekly video tutorial series called #HubSpotHowTo.
Not all publishers are sophisticated media giants with a dedicated focus on maximizing readership anywhere and everywhere. Subsequently, most publishers lack a well-conceived mobile strategy, let alone a mobile-friendly or mobile responsive website.
If you’ve ever signed up for a gym membership, then you’re already well aware of the power of sunk cost effect. Basically, every time you sigh and grumble your way to the gym to power up the elliptical, you’re falling prey to this phenomenon that says we’re reluctant to pull out of something that we’ve already put a lot of time, money, or effort into.
Have you ever poured your heart and soul into a blog post only to see it completely tank?
It doesn't generate leads and barely sees any views, while that silly GIFs article that took you half the time and energy goes viral. Doesn't that drive you crazy?
To gain a better understanding of their audience's interests -- and ensure that their content is actually resonating -- smart marketers are turning to the performance numbers of existing content to inform their strategy.
At some point in your life, you've probably been on a team.
Whether it was a baseball team when you were growing up, a team of volunteers working to clean up a local community, or a marketing team working to support your sales department -- it's likely that you've experienced the feeling of strength in numbers. After all, everyone always says that the sum of a team is greater than any individual, right?
97% of marketers believe in the power of content marketing, according to our recent study of content marketing trends in Europe. With 71% of European marketers creating more content this year than in 2014, it's clear that content as a strategy to reach audiences remains powerful and continues to grow.
However, with marketers increasing their publishing volume, it's likely that your target audience is starting to feel bombarded with content.
What do Taylor Swift and Hillary Clinton have in common?
They've both been on the cover of Vogue. They both made TIME's "100 Most Influential People" list. Oh, and they're both taking pages from the same marketing playbook.
Over the past several months, Hillary Clinton's team has been taking note of Taylor Swift's marketing tactics for her own presidential campaign promotions.
Once upon a time, I had no idea what to write on my blog. Coming up with blog article titles was slow and painful.
That was 10 years ago.
Now, thousands of articles later, coming up with topics is easy. Not only do I publish articles on my two blogs, but I also publish hundreds of guest posts for dozens of publications.
I'd bet that most people reading this probably drink it everyday. And while some people are very particular about how they like their coffee -- others don't care as long as it's caffeinated.
But there's one particular brand of coffee that has caught the eye taste buds of Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom, legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk, and Silicon Valley's top investors such as Chris Sacca: Blue Bottle Coffee.
For the most part, publishers no longer question the merit of dedicating time and effort to social media. Time and time again Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social platforms have proven their worth for everything for content distribution, audience engagement, and more.
Here's the thing. Typos happen. No matter how vigilant you are, no matter how many times you run spell check, no matter how many times you proofread, one of those suckers will slip through.
Maybe that's why whenever I catch a typo in someone else's content, I'm suddenly a little bit happier. Some call that schadenfreude; others call it being a jerk. Either way, I know I'm not alone in this sentiment.
If you’ve ever looked at your website and thought, “maybe it’s time for an upgrade,” chances are that time has passed and you’re overdue. With search engines constantly rolling out new algorithms and new design trends taking shape every day, it’s understandable that managers are getting overwhelmed just trying to keep their heads above water. Website re-designs are long, labor-intensive processes that require input from many different departments to make sure everything is moving on track.
Especially in the industrial space, where resources are limited and staff members are already being pulled in a hundred different directions, adding a website re-design to the mix is an intimidating prospect, to say the least. But, if you keep a checklist of deliverables and work toward each individual component as a separate project, it will make the whole process easier.
Oh, Amazon. If they do anything well at all, it’s staying in the headlines. Prime Day was touted as “bigger than Black Friday,” and all the world watched to see if Amazon was telling the truth. Some were excited to score huge deals, while others were ready to watch Amazon fail. The outcome? Let’s take a look.
As a Yale Entrepreneurial Institute Venture Mentor, I have the privilege of working with some of the world’s most creative and inspiring future business leaders.
Currently, I'm mentoring a startup called Tuckerman & Co -- a mission-driven clothing brand hell-bent on creating environmentally sustainable clothing to address the abundance of unnecessary waste in the textiles industry.
This post originally appeared on HubSpot's Sales blog. To read more content like this, subscribe to Sales.
It can be a lot of pressure knowing that a team is looking to you to lead the way. When the burden of leadership starts to feel heavy, leaders can sometimes backslide into bad habits instead of consciously living the attitudes they'd like employees to emulate. But it doesn't have to be this way.
Mark your calendars: October 21, 2015 is "Back to the Future Day."
Why? The date of Marty McFly and Doc Brown's visit to the future in the second movie in the Back to the Future trilogy has finally caught up with us. And now we get to compare what the writers and producers thought would be true in 2015 with what actually came true.
There are a few different avenues for sharing information on LinkedIn, but which one is the best method? And what if you're not ready to invest in paid advertising? There has to be another option, right?
The good news is that there is another option. In fact, there are a couple of ways that marketers can leverage LinkedIn's platform for content distribution without having to pay for it.
It's no secret that infographics serve as an interesting way to serve up information in a visually appealing way. But for those of us that lack design skills, the creation process can seem a little intimidating.
Where do you start? What data should be represented? Which colors work best? How should it be formatted?
One of the most important assets for any publisher is their email list. It goes without saying that growing that list in a meaningful and relevant way can be powerful step toward monetizing audiences and selling digital products like subscriptions or event tickets.
There are a few payment options that come to mind immediately when you consider the various possibilities for your ecommerce site. The first, of course, is the credit or debit card. Next is almost invariably PayPal. If you include these options on your ecommerce website, then you’re probably in good shape. Most consumers who are comfy enough to shop online will be happy enough with these choices.
I've written my share of blog posts about content marketing. I've also written a few ultimate guides in my time. But I've never combined the two -- maybe because the prospect of trying to produce an in-depth version of the thing I do for a living seems too daunting. I mean, where do I start? And more importantly ... where do I stop?
Considering a rebrand? You’re probably aware that it will be no easy feat. On top of the soul searching, repositioning, creative, legal headaches and everything else that’s involved, you’re going to have Google to reckon with.
So much of the work we do in marketing is based on building brand recognition and online visibility – and when not done properly, transitioning to a new name and domain can put that all at risk.
I've got a pretty big thing for phone calls. (I bet your sales reps do too.)
Why? Often times, it takes a lot of interest to get someone on the phone. In fact, inbound phone calls are 10-15X more likely to convert than website leads, according to Conversion Scientist.
The trouble is that many marketers don’t know where to start when it comes to driving more inbound phone calls to their business.
There are many things you can do in eight minutes or less. You can tidy up your to-do list. You can chip away at your mountain of emails. You can delete unnecessary meetings from your calendar. You can even get a real workout done (seriously).
You know what else you can do in eight minutes or less? Get a bunch great tips on how to better market your website and blog.
The marketing industry has always been obsessed with the quality vs. quantity debate.
Should you create more content of a lower quality or less content of a higher quality?
In an ideal world, the answer would always be less content of a higher quality. You’d spend lots of time research and writing every post, then when you published it, the whole internet would notice. Thanks to this unrivaled quality, every post would generate massive amounts of traffic and leads.
Great entrepreneurs tend to gravitate toward the hard challenges.
That's exactly Jeff Raider did when he started Harry's, a company that sells razors, blades, and shaving gel right from their website.
Not only is shaving an industry that's over 100 years old and rarely sees big innovation, but Jeff was also up against some big incumbents with deep pockets and intellectual property rights that could easily stifle innovation.
Best Buy owes Amazon a lot of gratitude right about now. Because of the hype surrounding Prime Day, most blogs and news outlets were too busy writing about tepid deals from Amazon to notice the red-hot deal Best Buy accidentally offered. Yes, the world was too busy complaining about granny panties on sale at 6:00 am to notice that Best Buy was selling $200 gift cards for only $15.
The dreaded “unsubscribe” metric. Taming this number is vital for maintaining a healthy contact list to use for promoting your own products or those of potential advertisers. Unfortunately, often times the more emails you send out, the more this number goes up.
Do you remember the last time you went to a mobile site and had an -- ahem -- unmoving experience? (Pun intended.) Maybe the site wasn't responsive. Or perhaps it was really difficult to find what you were looking for. Or, maybe it just loaded really slowly.
Whatever it was, you may have left to go to another site as a result. Google knows that unhappy website visitors will go elsewhere, thereby increasing bounce rates and decreasing the chances a site will rank on mobile searches.
Back in 2007, we launched a tool called Website Grader. Since then, it's evaluated 4 million websites, helping many businesses identify website optimization opportunities.
But a lot has changed since 2007. Websites have changed significantly in terms of design, functionality, and purpose. So, to continue to be helpful, Website Grader needed to change, too.
We’ve all been there. It’s 5 p.m. on a Friday. You desperately want to start your weekend … but you have that incredibly important project you still need to finish up. You think back on the week: What could you have done differently to get your work done and leave at a decent hour of the day?
When you’re building a website, it’s tempting to get distracted by all the bells and whistles of the design process and forget all about creating compelling content. But having awesome content on your website is crucial to making inbound marketing work for your business.
So how do you balance your remarkable content creation with your web design needs? Why, with your 'About Us' page, of course! For a remarkable about page, all you need to do is figure out your company's unique identity, and then share it with the world.
While many marketers are drawn to the visual nature of SlideShare (it is a popular platform for sharing visual content, after all), it's important to remember that SlideShare marketing is both an art and a science.
The art side of the equation, no doubt, is obvious: Creating a SlideShare presentation requires that you craft a compelling story, and then bring that story to life through the careful selection and arrangement of typefaces, colors, illustrations, photographs, and other elements.
Marketing your ecommerce site is only one way to increase your revenue. There are other things you can do on a daily basis that just might convince buyers to order more products. You won’t even need to increase any of your prices to increase the order value. As an added bonus, these tactics will delight your customers and boost the chances they’ll be back to buy more in the future.
Are you pro-semi-colon? Does the word "irregardless" make you cringe? Do you silently (or not-so-silently) correct your friends' and family's grammar mistakes on a regular basis?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, chances are you're a grammar nerd. It's cool -- a lot of us are, too. Actually, it turns out there are quite a few of you out there.
Did you know that the use of video content for B2B marketers jumped from 8% to 58% in 2014 alone? More than that, the number of videos brands publish on Facebook has increased by 3.6x year over year.
But does all this video really help marketers succeed?
