Agencies must remain agile and flexible, especially in their early months, to mitigate risk and enable swift allocation of budget to the most pertinent areas.

There’s a fine balance to be found during fast-growth stages, and the first year can be particularly volatile. Even after this stage, hustling in a competitive market is tough.

With fine margins and tight budgets, it’s difficult to commit to office contracts, competitive staff salary, team benefits, equipment, and the myriad of different overheads associated with operating a modern business: insurance, accounting, utilities, and more. The relentless pressure of competing and growing is ever-more profound when overheads and resourcing costs are added to the mix.

For some, the answer is to adopt remote working and flexible freelance contractors. This can alleviate the pressure, free up budget, and allow for a more creative strategy. However, it’s not necessarily a silver bullet. There are certainly challenges and obstacles associated with managing a remote agency team, not to mention the potential for hidden impact on company culture and productivity.

I’ve experienced the pros and cons first-hand with the growth of Kurve as my digital consultancy. In this article, I’ll talk about the issues that arose, and take you through ways to ensure the successful establishment of a happy, productive, and dedicated remote team.

The Challenges of a Remote Team

Managing a remote team has a variety of challenges. It’s most certainly not plain sailing, and may cause some headaches, especially at the beginning of your journey.

Let’s start by taking a look at the main challenges I’ve faced in my own experiences running a remote agency:

Resourcing

In a nutshell, it’s difficult to find the right people. However, this is as much the case with full-time on-site staff as it is with remote executives. It’s impossible to know an individual’s inner struggles, habits, or attitudes from one solitary meeting. Likewise, a string of messages and a Skype call can never be satisfactory.

Inevitably, strengths and weaknesses become evident over time. As a remote employer, it’s imperative to be comfortable with providing space to make mistakes, as any full-time employee deserves.

6 Tips for Resourcing a Remote Team:

• Do your research: Dig into the work history of the individual, ask for case studies of their previous roles, and do your due diligence checks before progressing. Here are some tips for screening potential candidates.

• Embrace referrals: A referral from a friend, peer, or colleague somewhat mitigates risk.

• Check testimonials: If hiring via sites like Upwork or PPH, thoroughly research ratings, reviews, and testimonials from recent clients.

• Exploit social media: Innovative talent will use social media in innovative ways to seek job opportunities. Twitter and LinkedIn are the first ports of call.

• Look local: A remote executive doesn’t necessarily need to be on the other side of the planet. Instead, they could be across the street. As a business owner, you can still advertise locally for team members.
• Agree on terms: Will the remote worker be full-time or part-time? Do they have other clients? What’s the time balance? Set strict expectations for levels of work, depending on what suits your business.

Overall, you want to hire doers and team players. Self-driven, motivated, and smart people who can adapt and provide value over the long-term. There’s always an element of intuition and gut-feeling about whether or not to trust a hire, which still remains key to your decisions and cannot be ignored.

Productivity

Without exception, every member of your remote team should be self-motivated and independently proactive individuals. Without these qualities, productivity will suffer to great measure, and your agency’s growth will be stunted.

6 Tips for Keeping your Remote Team Productive

• Understand personalities: Ascertain what drives your team members to achieve. Some may require more encouragement and security than others. Some team members will benefit from incentive-driven objectives, whilst others get satisfaction from other areas.

• Over-communicate: Setup clear communication procedures and regular calls, in order for your team members to stay in alignment on tasks and objectives. When you’re not sat in the same room all day, the mini-conversations that keep people on the same page are missing. Account for this gap by keeping comms regular.

• Be flexible: The very fact that you’re attempting remote working would suggest flexibility isn’t an issue. It’s proven that different people have different productivity peaks. Embracing this approach will work, so long as the individuals are self-motivated. The tools mentioned in our ultimate list (below) will help you maintain structure and cohesiveness in alignment with your flexibility.

• Set clear objectives: Individual team member objectives should contribute directly to business goals, alongside their own professional development. Communicate weekly, monthly, and yearly objectives, and ensure that team members understand the relevance of their task list in achieving these milestones.

• Monitor progress: Output is paramount. As a business leader, you have a duty to track progress against goals. Furthermore, using a tool such as Harvest (among others mentioned below) will help to understand time spent against tasks. When paired with effective project management and communication, you can track progress against expectations.

• Set processes: Read the next section for more information about processes.

Processes

Processes underpin the seamless everyday activities of a team. While you should always leave room for ad-hoc creativity, a business must also operate on an agreed set of processes. Team members should adhere to set processes in order to minimize chaos and maximize productivity, as well as visibility on tasks for the correct line of management.

From personal experience, establishing processes can be a huge challenge in the early stages of growth, especially when managing a disparate team. As team members come and go, new ideas emerge as to how we manage the delivery of our work. Ever more complex processes develop as a team grows, and new systems get entangled with legacy processes.

With some persistence, you’ll discover what processes work.

4 Tips for Developing Processes Within a Remote Team

• Automate: Where possible, automate notifications and alerts in line with team processes and workflows. As one example, I use Zapier to manage notifications for Google Drive folders; when new documents have been added, when edits have been made, etc.

• Don’t over-complicate: Be confident that natural competence and professionalism will come into play when ad-hoc communication and clarification is required. Some things cannot be automated. So long as the ad-hoc stuff works within a framework of agreed processes (and not as the rule), a bit of back-and-forth is to be expected in getting the job done. If the comms structure is optimized, you’ve nothing to worry about.

• Focus on results: Processes are only effective if they help to achieve results. It’s easy to get mixed up in a world of ideal processes and workflows, but unless they contribute to efficient delivery (and therefore results), they’re redundant. Strip out the unnecessary, and maintain the critical.

• Be adaptable: As the team grows, now dependencies will be created. Gaps will be filled, whilst new ones open up. Processes will shift to incorporate new players and alterations in approach. This, in particular, is something that I’ve had to accommodate carefully at Kurve.

Morale

For start ups, success can hang on a cliff-edge. For funded start ups targeting fast-growth, the demands on time and energy are relentless, for all team members worth their salt.  To achieve ultimate productivity, your team should be inspired, determined, and must enjoy their work and the team in which they belong.

Maintaining morale within this start up pressure-cooker is undoubtedly challenging. As we all know, growing a successful business is a roller coaster. Fast progress doesn’t come without risk, and setbacks are inevitable along the way. It’s harder to monitor the morale of people you don’t see every day, which becomes a critical problem if left unaccounted for.

5 tips for keeping remote team morale flying high:

• Support: Team members have a responsibility to be professionally competent, active, and skilled in the areas for which you’ve hired them. However, as the leader, you provide stability, advice, experience, and know how. Allowing space to figure out problems is essential, but so is a structured support network.

• Listening: Non-judgmental listening is paramount to the success of any manager or business leader. Engage open ears and a patient mind. Workplace issues are rarely confined to a physical space. Working relationships can be challenging, no matter where the team is located, and issues with company structure, expectations, and task allocation also remains pertinent when managing a remote team.

• Incentives: Performance-based incentives are proven to be effective, although too often these are confined to financials. A McKinsey & Company study from 2009 championed non-financial incentives, and other research suggested that only 13% feel the prospect of a bonus motivated harder working.

• Team-building: We’re social creatures. There’s no substitute for getting the team together. Of course, this depends on the geographic location of your remote workers. Where possible, gather together for a relaxed social outing. Share stories, and enjoy each other’s company. For geographically disparate teams, keep a casual comms channel open for sharing non-work-related content, jokes, gaffes, and everything in between.

• Rewards: Recognition for their achievements is what all humans crave. Not necessarily financial rewards or incentives. Remote managers should contribute more overt public recognition for team member successes. This acknowledgment maintains a sense of value, security, and purpose. Public recognition also helps other remote executives understand the value added by other team members, which develops mutual respect.

Communication

I keep harking back to the importance of communication. This really is the fundamental element to a successful team, whether remote or otherwise. But especially in the context of a remote team, constant and efficient communication is paramount.

However, it’s well-and-good to advocate communication, but how do you optimize it to ensure maximum productivity, high morale, and smooth processes?

5 tips for effective communication in a remote team:

• Structure: Conversations must be planned in advance, with strict agendas agreed and adhered to. Structure a recurring update call for the whole team every week (or as appropriate) in which general alignment and top-level ideas are aired.

• Tools: There’s a myriad of communication tools out there which are perfect for start ups and remote teams. At Kurve, we primarily use Slack for messaging and Skype for conference calls.

• Organization: Organize your communication tools into relevant sub-groups and team chats, depending on the structure of your organization. Operating on a need-to-know is perhaps a bit extreme, but be conscious of who actually benefits from your contribution to a particular topic or area of the business.

• Reporting: Insert a standardized time and method of reporting task completion and results. This supports morale and team productivity, and helps you identify blockers, skill gaps, and achievements as the business leader.

• Refine and minimize: Keep you methods of communication concise. Maintain one or two key channels to avoid confusion and missed messages. At Kurve, I’ve all but banned email. Only very occasionally do we converse via email, but as a rule we never rely on it.

The Advantages of a Remote Team

The adoption of remote working works in tandem with the increasing popularity of self-employment among professionals. This means that there’s more highly-skilled people out there than ever before willing to take on a remote role.

Reduction in Overhead Costs

By operating a remote team, you have fewer running costs to cover. Operational costs, such as office rent, contents insurance, utilities, and everything in between no longer come into play. Depending on the nature of your team’s contractual agreements (and whether they’re freelancers or full-time employees), your business could also avoid holiday pay and sick pay.

Flexibility

A remote team offers supreme flexibility, whether it’s in the fast growth or for the opposite (if things are getting tight). A remote team can act with more immediacy, and can be expanded without the need to wait for notice periods, office stationery, employee hardware, and ever-less-affordable desk space.

A Wider Net

You’re not limited to the locality of a resident talent pool. Some areas struggle to attract the most driven and intelligent people, which can cause resourcing issues in the vicinity. By operating a remote team, your business can be based where it is most likely to succeed, without the need to consider the industry talent pool in the locality.

The Drawbacks

Without a doubt, company culture is much harder to nurture in a disparate team. Naturally, the removal of that everyday human contact will impact the development of a close-knit and socially active group.

If you’re a B2B organization, established clients may respect a more traditional “grounded” setup, and opt for that when making purchase decisions. To battle this perception, your PR and marketing should reinforce strengths and opportunities, and comprehensively outline the reasons why remote working is not detrimental.

Furthermore, it’ll potentially take much longer to establish a core set of processes, and a seamless transition of dependencies. I’ve also noticed that it can take longer for an individual to express an innovative idea, due to the additional communication steps required (as opposed to chatting near the proverbial water cooler).

However, by identifying these problems as you proceed, they’re quickly addressed and solved. Some areas may need overcompensation, but that’s the nature of the game.

Remote Work is Built on Trust

It goes without saying that remote working is built on trust. By implementing draconian tracking systems (like the desk sensors at The Daily Telegraph) to monitor staff movements every hour, you undermine that mutual trust and remove many of the benefits that remote staff enjoy most.

For example, so long as objectives are met on-time and pre-scheduled comms / appointments aren’t missed or delayed due to unsolicited absence, I don’t really mind whether one of my team hits the gym at 3pm to avoid the post-work crowd, and returns later to wrap up the remainder of their day. Morale remains high, and my team is fit and productive. My clients benefit, my team benefits, and I benefit.

But it takes careful planning, preparation, and patience to manage a remote team every day. Whilst not exclusively beneficial to remote teams, some of the things I’ve implemented are:

• A culture of support: If [Executive X] can’t complete a task, [Executive Y] can take over with ease. This builds team relationships and encourages constant education.

• Minimize pointless comms: No meetings for the sake of meetings. Always an agenda and a list of actionable items thereafter.

• Transparency: Through the company and through projects. A collective understanding of budget, business direction, client concerns, and more. An open and honest approach.

• Mutual respect and trust: I don’t operate a dictatorship. There’s no clear hierarchy, just a group of committed people that work together in a team to do great work.

For modern forward-thinking businesses, remote and flexible working offers a superb opportunity to sustain fast-growth, minimize risk, and reduce overheads. If tackled correctly, and conducted by a bright and communicative team, this approach could provide the edge over your competitors.

Regardless, it’s not a walk in the park to implement remote working. There are very real trade-offs to be made when comparing the traditional team structure to the remote model.

There are multiple challenges to overcome with resourcing, productivity, processes, and communication. That said, I hope this article has given you a solid foundation from which to start, and an awareness of the obstacles and rewards that await should you adopt the remote setup.

Introducing “Posts as a Podcast”: Explore something new on your daily commute, at the gym, or from the comfort of your desk. We’re turning our favorite posts into bite-sized podcasts for your listening pleasure. So grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and let us tell you a story.

Once upon a time, in a land that some of us are so lucky to remember, people had to leave the house to buy music. We would count down the days until a new album dropped, and sometimes, we would even line up outside of the record store to make sure we could get our hands on a copy — because, believe it or not, there was a time when albums actually sold out.

Yes — I’m speaking of the era when music wasn’t a downloadable, streaming product.

And it really wasn’t that long ago, either. I remember the days before CDs became a commodity, before I even started buying my own cassettes, when the walls of my childhood home were lined with shelves just crammed with vinyl records. I had a box of my very own 45s. I couldn’t dream of a day when, to get the latest music or even learn about new artists, I wouldn’t have to go out or even turn on the TV. That information would be presented on a computer.

But music consumption has a far, far greater history than the days of classic record stores and 45s. It has prehistoric roots that somehow led to an era in which we enjoy multiple online and mobile options for listening to, well, pretty much whatever we want. So, how did we get here? It’s a fascinating tale — with a remarkably fast plot progression.

From Napster to YouTube Music: The History of Internet Radio

Live Performance

Source: Brygos Painter Français, via Wikimedia Commons

Historians believe ancient humans created flute-like instruments as part of hunting rituals and primitive cultural gatherings. It’s estimated that this earliest form dates back about 35,000 years.

From there, live music progressed through ancient Greece, where it was an essential part of different celebrations and life events, like weddings, religious ceremonies, and funerals. It’s said that the Greeks of this era were responsible for inventing many of the fundamental elements we use to compose music today, like octaves, as well as terms like “scale” and “diatonic.” Much of that was built upon in ancient Rome, where the Greek fondness of attending and spectating at live events in amphitheater-like settings was shared.

People began recording music by hand — that is, what we today think of as sheet music. Before the sound itself could be captured mechanically, written instructions existed on how to reproduce pieces of music that were previously played. Some estimate that this practice dates back to the Babylonian era, between 1250-1200 B.C.

But many scholars say that our modern traditions of live music truly began in the European middle ages, when churches served as venues for what could be deemed live performance. Sacred melodies like Gregorian chants and the growing presence of pipe organs in houses of worship paved the way for classical composers like Johann Sebastian Bach, whose earliest work was often written and performed in churches.

Eventually, there was a desire or idea to consume music outside of a venue, and to be able to hear it without someone else performing it in front of an audience. That’s where an inventor — who you might have heard of — comes in: Thomas Edison.

Records

The Phonograph

Source: Levin C. Handy, via Wikimedia Commons

Surprisingly, Edison didn’t set out to create the phonograph as a way of consuming music. Rather, its 1877 invention was more of an expansion upon his earlier work on the telegraph (invented by Samuel Morse) and the telephone (invented by Alexander Graham Bell and Antonio Meucci). He thought that a spoken message — like a verbal version of a telegraph, but recorded — could be captured and reproduced. As it turns out, it worked, which he found out after testing a rhyme on the earliest prototype.

But when Edison published “The Phonograph and Its Future” in an 1878 issue of the North American Review, he hypothesized, “The phonograph will undoubtedly be liberally devoted to music. A song sung on the phonograph is reproduced with marvelous accuracy and power.”

He was right. Within a year, “pre-recorded cylinders” — what we know as records — were being sold, and as they became more popular, their manufacturing was improving for multiple plays until they were finally made in vinyl — though that format wasn’t available until after World War II.

But not long after these were available for sale — around the 1890s — phonograph parlors were established, were patrons could pay a nickel to listen to a recording. It was a precursor to both the record store and the juke box, and could be called a milestone in the evolution of music consumption.

The Record Store

Source: Spillers

Spillers, a record store in Cardiff, U.K., claims to be “the oldest record shop in the world.” It was founded in 1894, within the era of phonograph parlors, for the “sale of phonographs, wax phonograph cylinders and shellac phonograph discs.” The store still exists, but has since relocated. The oldest U.S. record store, Pennsylvania-based Bernie George’s Song Shop, was established in 1932, and also continues to thrive — it even now boasts two locations.

Some speculate that musical recordings came second to a song’s sheet music. In Vinylmint’s written history of the industry, it’s said that “the music business was dominated not by major record labels, but by song publishers and big vaudeville and theater concerns.” People wanted to reproduce the music to play it themselves, it seems, and listening to a recording of it was almost a consolation prize. But as the record technology improved — and the stores selling them grew in number — they became more popular.

Vinylmint also claims that the contemporary practice of signing artists to labels began in 1904, when an opera singer named Enrico Caruso signed with Victor — today known as RCA, a subsidiary of Sony. The roots of Victor are fuzzy at best, but according to The Fabulous Phonograph, it was founded in 1903 as the Victor Talking Machine Company. But Caruso’s signing was a precursor to the Copyright Act of 1909 that required record sale royalties to be paid to the writers and publishers of songs, but not to the people who performed them. Perhaps it had something to do with the $5 million in sales that Caruso earned for Victor.

But 1909 didn’t see the end of copyright and royalty issues — future digital distributors of music would find themselves in sticky situations because of them, once they came to fruition. It also wouldn’t see the end of financial implications for record producers — thanks, in large part, to the onset of music being played on the radio.

Broadcast Radio

Although radio technology had existed long before, the alleged first commercial American radio station, KDKA, didn’t begin broadcasting until 1920. Within the next six years, five million U.S. families were said to own broadcast radios. Keep in mind that the years prior to KDKA — between 1914-1921 — saw a 2X growth in overall record sales. But by the time music comprised much of what was played on broadcast radio (roughly 66%), record sales were beginning to see a massive decline, especially in 1929. It’s worth noting, however, that the record sales decline might have had something to do with the Great Depression beginning that same year.

Source: Stan J. Liebowitz

Eventually, the recording and broadcast industry found a way to work together — otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to listen to music on the radio today. But this history shows that the distribution of music can be tricky, with major implications for both the listener and the businesses behind it.

Music Consumption Formats

Vinyl and Cassettes

Source: Malcolm Tyrrell, via Wikimedia Commons

So, who here remembers the cassette tape? I do. Anyone else remember holding a microphone from a tape recorder to the radio, in order to have your very own copy of the songs broadcasted? Ah, memories.

But before there was the cassette, there was the vinyl record, which was actually the result of limited manufacturing supplies during World War II. Because “shellac supplies were extremely limited,” explains the Record Collectors Guild, and vinyl was generally cheaper and more widely-available, “records were pressed in vinyl instead … for distribution to U.S. troops.”

In the 1960s, the listening medium continued to evolve, with more options being offered, like the Philips compact cassette. It was one of the earliest formats of portable music listening — but the real game-changer may have been the eight-track tape, invented in 1964 by Bill Lear. Soon, tapes could be played in cars — and in 1979, Sony debuted the first major portable cassette player: The Walkman.

Compact Disc

At first glance, 20-30 years might seem like a long timespan. But in the context of technological developments, it’s actually fairly short — and also roughly how long it took for cassettes to cease being the dominant music consumption format. That was due to the introduction of the compact disc, a.k.a., the CD. A major turning point took place in 1981, when ABBA’s The Visitors was the first pop album pressed to CD. By the following decade, economies of scale led to CDs being the primary music consumption format, with similar portable playing options — like in-car players and the Discman — emerging.

Vinyl never went extinct — it’s still a prized possession for many collectors, DJs (since it provides a “direct manipulation of the medium”), and a cultural population called hipsters that’s known for its love of vintage items. Plus, audiophiles have long claimed that the quality of sound from vinyl is simply superior to other formats, especially as record-pressing technology continues to improve.

Record Store Alternatives

Around the era of CD rule, something interesting happened — businesses began offering alternatives to buying music from a record store, or even having to leave the house to obtain it. One of the first developments in that direction was the invention of the now-defunct 1-800-Music-Now, an order-music-by-phone hotline, in 1995. But it didn’t last long, and two years later, it ceased operations. That sequence of events was mentioned in the 1997 Economist article “Tremble, Everyone,” which warned of the internet cannibalizing nearly every industry — music included — by introducing online buying options.

Today, that’s almost eerie to read — perhaps because a world without the option to digitally procure music is difficult for many of us to remember. And four years later, the iPod was born, which may have permanently revolutionized the consumption of music.

The (Permanently) Digital Era

Source: Pixabay

It Started With File Formats

Before the invention of the iPod, there was the late 1980s creation of the MP3 — “a means of compressing a sound sequence into a very small file, to enable digital storage and transmission.” And although it’s far from the only audio file format available today, its introduction prompted a larger conversation about the digital transfer and consumption of music.

That was seen as an opportunity by Shawn Fanning, John Fanning, and Sean Parker — the people who invented Napster: “a simple, free peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing service,” and perhaps the first of its kind to have a household name, which rose to multi-million usership by 2001, the same year the iPod was unveiled. Dann Albright of MakeUseOf hypothesizes that its alignment with the market penetration of MP3 players could be a major factor contributing to Napster’s rise to fame. Plus, it was free. Apple didn’t unveil the iTunes Store until 2003, and even then, each song cost $0.99. Sure, it came with a price tag — but it was legal.

Napster’s practices weren’t. It came under very public fire by the music industry, and despite its effort to promote the brand with a free concert series, it could be argued that the brand never truly recovered. It underwent many changes, but is today alive and somewhat well.

And Then, Radio Came Back

Despite its own instability, Napster set the tone for continued opportunities in the realm of streaming music. The iTunes Store continued to expand its music library, and also began offering paid movie and TV show downloads. But developers and entrepreneurs alike began creating solutions to the problem presented to many by iTunes — the ability to discover new and listen to music digitally, without having to download song files or pay-per-track. Thus, internet radio was born.

Many point to Pandora — a free, personalized online radio app — as the true pioneer in this space, but it came to fruition around the same time (the early 2000s) as a few others offering similar services, like Last.fm. But these apps didn’t just provide a simple service. They were starting to get smart about algorithms — hence the personalization element. By indicating that you liked a particular song or artist, these new services had developed the algorithmic technology to figure out what else you might like, and stream it automatically.

Plus, they were able to monetize — fast. It wasn’t long before Pandora was airing ads between songs, and eventually offered a paid, ad-free option for listeners.

But a lot of progress was being made in the space, and in a short period of time. The 2007 release of the iPhone was even more of a game-changer, with these formerly desktop-only apps offering a mobile option. That made it rival iTunes even more — consumers weren’t beholden to Apple for music download or streaming options. That effect was exacerbated by the premiere of Spotify the following year, which now outranks Pandora. Like the latter, Spotify offers both a free and premium (read: ad-free) version.

More Music, More Money

There’s been some discord among artists as to how profitable Spotify is for them. Some, like major artists, get a significant payout, while others aren’t so sure of their gains. But if for no one else, this digital (r)evolution seems to have been profitable at least for the likes of Spotify, which is even stirring talks of an IPO and valuation in the billions. That’s partially because the revenue isn’t just coming from ads and membership fees anymore. It’s built partnerships with multiple corporations and brands ranging from the New York Times to Starbucks. It’s even co-marketed with the TV show “Mind of a Chef” for a special promotion.

And It’s Only Getting Bigger

Today, streaming music options are hardly limited to Pandora and Spotify. Apple Music entered the landscape in 2015 with its own (paid) radio and subscription options, and YouTube was quick to follow suit with its YouTube Music App (Apple | Android) in 2016. Plus, let’s not forget the often understated Amazon Prime Music.

It’s hard to believe this journey began in a prehistoric era with a flute made of bones. But my, what progress the past few thousand years have shown. Even when I asked my colleagues if they remembered having to beg their parents to drive them to a record store back in the day, it seemed like a celebration of nostalgia. “My first album was ‘Tommy’ by The Who,” said our Art Director. “Mine was the Space Jam soundtrack,” remembered our Senior Video Editor & Animator. And mine? There were too many trips that I begged for to count — though I do recall once disrupting a family vacation with my insistence on finding the latest KoRn album.

My point being, while this mind-blowingly rapid advance of digital music might seem borderline scary, it does bring us that much closer to something by which we’re all influenced: Music. And maybe, with a growing number of ways to experience audio in our day-to-day lives will come a growing number of memories made possible by a particularly great song — old or new.

In any case — we’re listening.

What’s the most remarkable part of the digital music evolution to you? Let us know in the comments.

Confession: I am a bonafide productivity junkie. It seems like there isn’t a hack I haven’t tried — from calendar tricks, to new break-taking structures, to time management experiments, I love trying every get-more-done-in-a-day tip I come across.

Among them are different app recommendations, especially the ones designed to make teamwork more efficient. In fact, 74% of teams say custom apps like these boost their productivity. But which apps are the best?

There are two apps of this kind that are making headlines at the moment: Slack — which, in the interest of transparency, we use here at HubSpot — and Microsoft Teams, which is due to launch this quarter. And many people, it seems, have been curious as to what makes each one different. That’s why TechWyse examined the features of both, and compiled them into this side-by-side comparative infographic.

So, where does this each app stand? Feast your eyes, and decide which one might be best for you.

Has a celebrity ever convinced you to buy something?

It’s okay if the answer is yes — we’ve all been there. In fact, just recently, a famous dog helped convince me to purchase a GoPro camera. For a creature who can’t speak, he’s a pretty effective marketer.

Loki the Wolfdog’s Instagram post is a successful example of influencer marketing, which involves developing relationships with influential personalities to promote your brand to the influencer’s audience. Loki the Wolfdog has over 1 million Instagram followers GoPro may not have otherwise been able to reach with posts on its own profile.

A newer concept known as micro-influencer marketing recently joined the social media scene. It’s the same concept as influencer marketing, but on a smaller scale: Brands partner with individuals with smaller followings on social media to promote products with authentic, visual posts instead of sponsored ads.

In this blog post, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about micro-influencers, including what brands are using them successfully and how you can connect with these individuals to promote your brand.

What Is a Micro-Influencer?

Micro-influencers are social media users unlike typical celebrities, experts, or public figures. They’re individuals who work or specialize in a particular vertical and frequently share social media content about their interests. Unlike traditional “influencers,” micro-influencers have a more modest number of followers — typically in the thousands or tens of thousands — but they boast hyper-engaged audiences.

For example, a yoga influencer might boast millions of followers and operate several yoga studios. A yoga micro-influencer might have only a few thousand followers and post instructional videos on Instagram for their fans to try at home, but their average post receives a healthy amount of engagement relative to the size of their follower base.

The Value of Micro-Influencers

Using micro-influencers may seem counterintuitive. Why would you seek out someone with a smaller following to promote your brand?

There are several reasons to believe micro-influencers might get better results for your brand. 

Micro-influencers have better engagement rates.

Markerly studied Instagram engagement and found a surprising trend: As an influencer’s number of followers increases, their number of likes and comments from followers decreases.

In its analysis, Markerly determined the following:

• Instagram users with fewer than 1,000 followers generated likes 8% of the time
• Users with 1,000-10,000 followers earned likes at a 4% rate
• Users with 10,000-100,000 followers achieved a 2.4% like rate
• Users with 1-10 million followers earned likes only 1.7% of the time.

Check out Markerly’s graphical breakdown of how likes and comments decline as followers increase:

Source: Markerly

Markerly recommends brands pursue micro-influencers with Instagram followings in the 1,000-10,000 range. With micro-influencers, brands can achieve higher engagement rates among a large enough audience. In a recent study, Experticity learned micro-influencers have 22.2X more conversations than the typical Instagram users — largely because they’re passionate and knowledgeable about their particular interest area.

Micro-influencers have more targeted audiences.

Markerly also notes that micro-influencers have more targeted follower bases than influencers with follower numbers in the hundreds of thousands and millions.

Think about it: If a clothing brand partnered with a celebrity with millions of followers on Instagram, the celebrity could reach their huge pool, but a large portion of them might not be interested in fashion. Instead, if the clothing brand connected with 100 fashion bloggers with 1,000 followers apiece, it would be able to connect to a smaller but far more targeted and engaged audience.

Markerly CEO and co-founder Sarah Ware told Digiday that partnering with the Kardashian and Jenner sisters to promote a weight-loss tea on Instagram led to a significant number of conversions. However, Ware also noted that working with 30-40 micro-influencers achieved a higher conversion rate than when the celebrities were promoting the tea. In fact, 82% of customers surveyed by Experticity said they would be very likely to follow a recommendation from a micro-influencer.

Micro-influencers are more affordable.

Micro-influencers are typically more affordable than celebrities or profiles with millions of followers. Celebrities sometimes charge up to $75,00 for a single Instagram post promoting a product. In contrast, 97% of micro-influencers on Instagram charge less than $500 for a promotion post. Granted, brands usually work with more than one micro-influencer to maximize reach, but even 100 micro-influencers would cost less than a single celebrity on Instagram at these rates.

For micro-influencers with smaller followings, brands may even be able to compensate them in the form of free products. According to Digiday, La Croix Sparkling Water (more on them below) sent a micro-influencer vouchers for free products instead.

Micro-influencers are more authentic.

Micro-influencers are real people, so their Instagram content is real, too. Instagram users with a few thousand followers likely post their own content, reply to comments, and behave more authentically than a brand or a celebrity with a social media manager might. If a micro-influencer engages with a promotional post on Instagram, their followers might be more inclined to click to learn more about the brand they’re posting about.

It’s also worth noting that Instagram recently changed its algorithm to mirror Facebook’s. Now, posts from profiles users follow and interact with are shown first in Instagram feeds, and authentic, quality content is prioritized over promoted content from big brands. This might make micro-influencer content more visible than content from celebrities if the algorithm determines users might be more interested in it.

One note: If you were wondering why we’re only mentioning Instagram in this blog post, it’s because micro-influencers as a marketing strategy has taken off primarily on that platform. Because Instagram is so visual, it’s easy for micro-influencers to post photos of products and brand experiences instead of writing a promotional tweet or Facebook post. That’s not to say that micro-influencer marketing can’t be done on other social media platforms, but Instagram’s Explore tab helps users find and interact with micro-influencer content easily.

You’ll see what we mean when we dive into different micro-influencer strategies brands are using successfully below.

4 Brands Using Micro-Influencers Successfully

1) La Croix Sparkling Water

La Croix Sparkling Water started tapping into micro-influencers to promote its brand in a competitive marketplace. It relies primarily on social media marketing to get discovered, especially by millennials.

La Croix identifies micro-influencers on Instagram and asks them to share product awareness posts on Instagram. It finds micro-influencers by searching branded hashtags, such as #LiveLaCroix, and when users tag the brand on Instagram. It specifically targets profiles with lower follower counts to maintain a feeling of authentic “realness” that appeals to millennial Instagram users. Then, La Croix reaches out to them with product vouchers or other offers to post pictures with the sparkling water.

If you check out La Croix’s Instagram page, you’ll see it features a lot of content posted by micro-influencers, such as this photo below:

 

Lending a hydrating, helping hand. ☺️(📸:@charleyraee)

A photo posted by LaCroix Sparkling Water (@lacroixwater) on Feb 4, 2017 at 1:49pm PST

By tapping into smaller, more targeted networks of micro-influencers, La Croix cultivates a social media presence that’s authentic and fun, and ensures its product is in front of the eyes of similar users. If you have a physical product that looks great on camera (like an eye-popping can of La Croix), try engaging with micro-influencers by sending free product for Instagram promotions.

2) Kimpton Hotels

Boutique hotel chain Kimpton uses Instagram takeovers to connect with micro-influencers. These consist of micro-influencers creating original content for the brand’s Instagram and posting the content as themselves. Takeovers connect new audiences with the brand and help generate new followers, more engagement, and eventually, new potential guests at Kimpton Hotels.

Curalate Marketing Director Brendan Lowry wrote about taking over some of Kimpton’s Instagram accounts and posting photos of his own, like this one:

 

I couldn’t leave town without seeing this view. Thanks for following along during my takeover, y’all. Hopefully you enjoyed the photos — I had a blast taking them. Until next time… 👋👋👋. — This is Part 11 of an Instagram takeover by photographer @BrendanLowry. — #IGBoston #Kimpton #KimptonHotels #KimptonLove #IGersBoston #VisitBoston #VacationBoston #BostonPublicLibrary

A photo posted by kimptoninbos (@kimptoninbos) on May 22, 2016 at 4:30pm PDT

The caption links easily to his personal Instagram, which links back to the Kimpton account, helping his more than 27,000 followers find and interact with the hotel’s content.

Try an Instagram takeover by a micro-influencer to provide behind-the-scenes or unique looks at a brand or product. It’s more creative to feature photos taken by different people, and it directs Instagram traffic between the brand’s and the photographer’s accounts for mutually beneficial results — namely, more engagement and more followers.

3) Stitch Fix

Personal shopping website Stitch Fix invites micro-influencers to contribute content that the brand then promotes on Instagram.

In the post below, Stitch Fix’s Instagram bio linked to a post featuring a Q&A with a fashion blogger micro-influencer about how she dresses for her body type:

 

“I want every woman to know that being fashionable is as much about confidence as it is about style.” Read more about how @sassyredlipstick embraces her shape at the link in bio. #MyBodyMyStyle

A photo posted by Stitch Fix (@stitchfix) on Feb 6, 2017 at 7:30am PST

The micro-influencer also shared the image, mentioned Stitch Fix, and shared the blog post link on her personal Instagram profile.

This micro-influencer strategy works because it drives traffic to a brand’s blog and Instagram profile. Try reaching out to micro-influencers and offer to publish their content and cross-promote it on social media to generate engagement from their followers and readers.

4) Hawaiian Department of Tourism

Hawaii’s Department of Tourism tapped into the power of micro-influencers for its #LetHawaiiHappen Instagram campaign. It partnered with Instagram users who are travel bloggers or Hawaiian natives to share content promoting events and destinations so visitors and Hawaiians would be interested in traveling to check them out.

Hawaii’s Department of Tourism connected with photographer Rick Poon to showcase his visit to Hawaii and attract his audience to come visit.

 

We can’t resist following @rick_poon and his travel and food adventures on Oahu and Kauai this week! Double tap if you’re craving some guava chiffon pancakes and kalua pork benedict right now. #LetHawaiiHappen

A photo posted by Hawaii (@gohawaii) on Sep 12, 2015 at 8:22pm PDT

After the campaign, 65% of people who saw the posts said they wanted to visit Hawaii (talk about effective). If you want to attract new followers and Instagram engagement, try reaching out to micro-influencers to promote an event or a location that their followers might want to check out.

Think Small

Are you on board with micro-influencers? Before you answer, consider the following.

There are a few downsides to this strategy. Notably, micro-influence works well on Instagram with visual products, such as a bright can of sparkling water or an eye-catching outfit. This might not be the best strategy for promoting complicated software or other technology. But remember, you can be creative. As long as you can find a micro-influencer to share an Instagram post that’s compelling, you might be able to generate much more engagement.

Additionally, it’s a lot of work to work with several micro-influencers. Brands have to reach out to them on Instagram and manage several different relationships. However, we think the payoff is worth it for authentic and engaging Instagram posts.

Keep an eye on Instagram users tagging your brand or using a branded hashtag — they might just be your next biggest promoter. And if you want to learn more about influencer marketing or Instagram content promotion, read our guides on these topics next.

Have you ever tried influencer or micro-influencer marketing? Share with us in the comments below.

Before you jump into a website redesign project, start with a little inspiration.

Here at HubSpot, we’ve created several resources that can assist you during the website design or redesign process (like this Excel workbook, and this SEO guide). But we also recognize that even if you’re seriously considering a website redesign, you might not be ready to get into the nitty gritty of the process right away.

Maybe you’ve identified some issues with your site’s current design, but are still contemplating how you should correct those issues.

Or maybe your intern has finally convinced you that your company’s 2005-era website looks a bit outdated, but now you’re at a loss as to what direction you should take the site stylistically.

Or, you know, maybe you’re not considering a website redesign, but want to kill some time looking at a bunch of beautiful homepages. That’s okay too!

Whatever the case, this is the resource for you: How to Design a Website: 5 Brilliant Homepage Designs to Get You Started. In this free lookbook, you can explore homepage designs from businesses all over the world in several different industries, including: 

• Agency & Studio
• Entertainment
• Food & Drink
• Nonprofit
• Software & Tech
• Ecommerce & Retail

Here are a few examples:

 

So go on, download this free ebook and get inspired.

Of course, we couldn’t collect every brilliant homepage design out there, so if you have other examples you’d like to share, let us know in the comments section below! 

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2015 and has been updated for freshness and comprehensiveness.

Feature image credit: Fieldwork

“Imagine a world where everything moves at super-fast speed. Where answers come in seconds, rather than in minutes, where solving several problems at the same time isn’t fantasy, but a daily reality.

Imagine being able to use your brain to do more in an hour than most people do in a day, every single day.”

That’s how Peter Shankman — entrepreneur, author, and founder of HARO — describes the world of ADD and ADHD on his Faster Than Normal website, podcast, and blog.

I think that the way Peter describes ADD as “fast brain” is perfectly suited to the world of marketing, i.e. having multiple clients; multiple marketing platforms; an array of immediate challenges and decisions; a mass of data and a cohort comprised of other fast thinkers. I thought those in creative professions might appreciate hearing Shankman’s take on ADHD and our digital universe.

I bet there is a very good chance that you, as an online marketer, recognize yourself as a “fast brain.” 

Peter Shankman Discusses ADHD & Marketing

What is ADD/ADHD and how did you decide to dig deep into this subject?

Shankman: I was gifted with ADHD as a condition since birth but I never looked at it as condition … I looked at it as a condition as a kid when I didn’t know what it was. When I was growing up, it was called, “Sit down…you’re disrupting the class” disease.

It wasn’t until my late 20’s that I realized that this faster brain of mine actually had the ability to be used for good. I decided to start my first company at 26 because I was bored working for other people.

I never thought of the downside. I just thought, “Let’s see what happens. If doesn’t work, I’ll do something else.” That mentality of, “Hey, let’s try it.” has been really a cornerstone of the majority of my success of late and all my life really. What I found is that other people with ADHD tend to have that same quality.

About two years ago, I did a webinar talking about my ADHD superpower to help some friends who were in a similar situation. I gave it for free and I thought like 100 people maybe would show up and I had over 8,000 people on the webinar. I realized, “Hey, I’m not alone here. There’s something here.”

So how should a marketer with ADHD use its power in their work?

Shankman: The beauty of creativity is that creativity and ADHD are incredibly tightly related. The best creativity, the best campaigns, the best anything come from people who are able to channel their excess energy into their brains the right away.

I guarantee that agency people who come up with the big ideas probably have ADHD.

However, for advertising work, it’s perfect as long as the agency has the right combination of ADHD and non-ADHD people. If you have all ADHD people, yes you’ll have the greatest ideas in the world, but you’ll never be able to implement. If you have a combination of ADHD or faster brains and non-faster brains you know, the faster brains coming up with the great ideas and the non-faster brains (deeper thinkers) being able to implement. That’s a recipe for complete success.

You’ve said that 40% of the population might have some level of ADHD. How should a marketer approach this market, especially since they now have so many digital devices that add to their world of distraction?

Shankman: The key that the marketer needs to understand is that you have to understand your audience. If you reach out to an ADHD audience in the exact way that they’d like to be reached out to, it’s like their ADHD disappears. For instance, if you’re sending me a 14-paragraph email to try to introduce yourself, I’m not going to read it. If you could send me two lines and it tells me what I need to know, chances are I’m going to want more information. As soon as I want more information, that changes the entire discussion because then I’m actively listening.

It’s never been truer than with this sort of 2.7-second attention deficit squirrel mentality that we’re all in, a marketer needs to understand how her audience and their brain works.

The world of inbound marketing is deep into analytics. How should an inbound marketer use analytics to help them reach the ADHD market?

Shankman: Men lie. Women lie. Children lie. Pets and data are the two things that don’t lie. Listening to your audience and learning from them 24/7 is key. If I could A/B test how I walk to the bus stop, I would. As those of us with ADHD are listening, chances are, we’re already three steps ahead of where we were when you first found us. It’s up to you, the advertiser, to keep up. It’s up to you to know where we’re going, what we want, and what we’ll need when we get there. Do that, and you’ll capture more attention than you’ll know what to do with.

Adapting Marketing Strategies for Distraction

I am sure that many of you digital marketers were perpetually distracted students like me. I was the type of student that was bored and whose grades never matched his potential. After all, I really didn’t want to have to take biology to fulfill my college science prerequisites.

Fortunately, I managed to find my way to art college and eventually to a long career in advertising and digital marketing — the perfect industry for fast brains.

Shankman thinks that 40% of the population has some degree of ADHD. If this is so (and I agree), then we should consider how to bake this important consumer insight into our marketing strategies.

Of course, this isn’t groundbreaking news. We are well aware of the effect of device distraction and content marketing overload. However, I seldom see marketing communications professionals sit their clients down and tell them that they really only have nano-seconds to deliver a sales proposition. I am talking about the critical importance of having an ‘unignorable’ sales proposition — not just an ad tech solution.

You’ve spent months perfecting the script, storyboarding, finding the right talent, shooting, and editing. The end result? A blockbuster brand or product video.

With all that time invested, you can’t stop at just embedding the video on a homepage or sharing it on social media and hoping someone watches.

While great content is bound to be found, it’s also important to be proactive about gaining the attention of and educating prospects and those unfamiliar with your brand. Running a series of YouTube ads is one way to make sure more of your target audience finds the video content you’ve produced. And with new formats and tracking capabilities, you can also use this information to report on its ROI.

The thing is, advertising on YouTube is very different from running a PPC or paid social campaign. There are specific creative constraints and a ton of options for this platform, and you need a base knowledge before you even scope out your next video project to make the most of the paid possibilities.

What’s New With YouTube Advertising

In January 2017, Google announced it would make changes to AdWords to allow advertisers to reach more viewers on YouTube — especially across mobile devices, where 50% of YouTube views take place. Among the changes it rolled out, possibly the biggest announcement was that advertisers will soon be able to target viewers based on their Google search history, in addition to their viewing behaviors YouTube was already targeting.

Marketers can now target ads at people who recently searched for a certain product or service to target the video ads they’ll be served on the platform. If the content of a video ad is closely related to a search the viewer has been researching, they might be more likely to watch the entire ad or click through the ad to the website.

Keywords are relatively less expensive to target on YouTube than in traditional Google Search: Views cost an average of $0.06 per click on YouTube, compared to the average Google Search cost per click, which is estimated to be between $1-2. When YouTube targeting includes search history, it may be a more cost-effective way to target your audience with a more engaging form of content — video.

The 2 Types of YouTube Video Ads

TrueView ads are the standard video ad type on YouTube. Advertisers only pay for TrueView ads when viewers watch or interact with their ad (for example, by clicking on a call-to-action), and videos can be easily customized to share a variety of content.

Advertisers only pay when a user watches the ad for at least 30 seconds or until the end of the video or if the viewer takes an action, such as clicking on a call-to-action. YouTube requires that skippable TrueView ads be 12-60 seconds in length and that non-skippable TrueView ads be 15-30 seconds in length.

There are two types of TrueView ads:

In-Display Ads

In-display YouTube ads show up on the YouTube homepage, search results pages, and as related videos on YouTube video watch pages.

These ads appeared after performing a YouTube search:

This display ad appears as a related video on the right-hand video sidebar:

Once a user clicks on the ad, the destination video page features a spot on the right-hand column where a companion banner display ad will appear.

In-Stream Ads

TrueView in-stream ads play before someone watches the video they’ve selected on YouTube. Viewers sometimes have the option to skip the ad after watching it for five seconds. You can also make them play anywhere in the Google Display Network (GDN) — or sites that purchased Google video ad space.

In-stream ads let marketers customize video ads with different CTAs and overlay text, as highlighted in the skippable in-stream ad example below from Grammarly.

Here’s what another skippable in-stream ad from Wix looks like. In this example, there’s another CTA from Wix on top of the right-hand video menu display:

Some in-stream ads are non-skippable and can play before, mid-roll, or after the main video. Here’s an example of a non-skippable video ad before the main content on YouTube:

There are also non-skippable, mid-roll video ads, which appear midway through a YouTube video that’s 10 minutes or longer in length.

Source: PC Daily Tips

With TrueView, advertisers can gain a ton of information about the performance of their ads for optimization and testing purposes. AdWords provides data about completed views, partial views, if the video drives channel subscriptions, clickthrough rates on CTAs, views sourced from a user sharing the content, and views on the brand’s other content that can be attributed to a person initially viewing a video ad. These actions help advertisers better understand the full value of their video ad spend and where to allocate budget to increase results.

How to Set Up & Launch a YouTube Video Advertising Campaign

Once you’ve created a marketing video you want to advertise on YouTube, it’s time to create your video ad campaign. (If you haven’t made a video yet, here’s how to get started with Animoto or Wistia, along with a few great examples.) Then, upload your video to YouTube.

Now, you’re ready to set up your advertising campaign. First, go to your Google AdWords account to set up your campaign.

Campaign Type

Tap the drop-down menu on the right-hand side of the red “+ Campaign” button on your Google AdWords homepage and select “video.”

Campaign Name

Enter a name for your campaign, and make sure Video has been chosen from the Type drop-down menu.

Video Ad Format

Select “In-stream or video discovery ads” to ensure your video ad will be in TrueView format (in the style of the examples outlined above).

Budget

Set your budget per day. You can also select a delivery method — either the standard delivery, which shows ads evenly during the day, or accelerated delivery, which drives views as quickly as possible. The latter would be useful if you want to capitalize on a trend or news item relevant to your brand’s video.

Networks

Decide where you want your ad to appear.

• YouTube Search: Your video ad will appear in results for searches and will appear on the YouTube home page, channel pages, and video pages.
• YouTube Videos: This runs TrueView ads that can appear in-display ads or in-stream ads. With this option, you can choose for your video ad to appear before or around videos shown across the Google Display Network.

You should create separate campaigns for YouTube Search and YouTube Video as this will help you to better track performance metrics. These ads are served to people performing very different activities and require a different amount of commitment from the viewer, so it’s best to monitor performance separately.

Locations

Define the location of users whom you want the ad to be shown to. You can also exclude certain locations.

Language, Device & Mobile Bidding

AdWords will let you specify the operating system, device, and carrier for more advanced targeting. This is especially useful for mobile app ads, and there’s an option to increase or decrease your bid based on if the video ad is shown to someone on a mobile device.

Advanced Settings

With the advanced settings section, you can set begin and end dates for your campaign, create a custom schedule for when your video ad should be shown, and limit the daily impressions and views for users. This all helps you to get the most return for your ad spend.

Creating the Video Ad Creative

Name your ad group, and then insert the YouTube link for the video you would like to run the ad for. You will then choose whether you want this to run as an in-stream ad or an in-display ad.

For in-display, you’ll need to include a title and short description, which is entered on two separate lines. Note: Titles are limited to 25 characters, and the description lines are limited to 35 characters each.

In-stream ads provide you with the option to overlap a display URL on top of the video. You should use a vanity URL that directs to another final URL to make it more memorable. You can include advanced URL tracking options. In addition, a companion banner made from images from your video will appear on the right side of the video ad.

Bidding

You’ll then determine the max price you will pay for each view, which you can adjust to increase the number of projected views your video may receive.

Targeting

Finally, you can further define the audience you would like the video to be shown — options include gender, age, and parental status. You can also target individuals by their interests, such as beauty mavens, cooking enthusiasts, horror movie fans, etc. Try running multiple campaigns to target different groups of users to discover who is most engaged, rather than including everyone you want to target in one campaign.

Advanced Targeting

You can also target individuals by keywords, topics, or websites where you would like your video ad to appear. Keyword targeting with in-display ads can be a powerful tool for finding individuals who are looking for a visual answer to a question. Be sure to do your research, and try testing out different groups of keywords to see which leads to more views, clicks, or conversions.

Additionally, you can use AdWords video ads to remarket to people who have been in contact with your brand already. This can help you to re-engage those who are already familiar with your brand.

Linking Your Account

You should link your AdWords account to the YouTube channel where the video is hosted if you haven’t already. You can also click “finish” to begin running your video ad campaign.

10 Tips for Optimizing Your AdWords for Video Ads

Launching a video ad campaign is a great step, but there are some things you should set up prior to starting to pay for views to make the most of your budget and to see the highest return for your client.

1) Define your metrics and goals.

When analyzing the results, there are four main categories of metrics you can track for each video. These are located under the “column” drop-down in your campaigns interface.

Views

Under the “views” category, you can better understand what percentage of the ad people viewed and understand how the ad drove earned views or views on your brand’s other videos.

Audience

This category can be used to track likes and shares for each video ad.

Branding

The view rate should signal if the creative and message are interesting or entertaining enough for people to watch the ad. By increasing your view-through rate (VTR), you will lower your cost per view.

Conversions

Conversions will help you better understand if your ad is driving leads and returning a high ROI for your brand.

Depending on the goals for the brand, you should determine a few goals based on these metrics and formalize a plan for optimizing creative and trying different targeting criteria to improve results. Your goals should also determine the type of content you will feature in the ad — some metrics are better for branding goals and others will drive leads and conversions.

2) Track low performing placements.

If you’re running in-display ads that will appear across the Google Display Network, you can review where the ad has appeared in by navigating to Video Targeting > Placements > Where ads were shown > Display network from your Google AdWords Campaigns dashboard. Review this list to see if any particular sites are contributing to poor performance for your desired metrics. Exclude these sites from your ad campaign moving forward to increase your average CPV.

3) Use a custom thumbnail image.

Design or use a high-quality still image from the video to entice a viewer to click on your video. Remember, this image needs to be legible by users on different devices, including mobile. If your image contains a person, make sure he or she is looking into the camera. If you are featuring a product, make sure the background isn’t distracting. 

4) Drive people to buy with cards.

A YouTube card is teased with a small “i” symbol, which the viewer can click to expand. You can time this appearance so only users engaged with the video and content will see the notification.

With cards, you can feature a product related to or featured in the video to drive product purchases. You can also use cards to drive fundraising donations, traffic to a URL, or traffic to other videos as shown in the example below from Refinery29. Each format will allow you to customize the card with text, images, and other options.

5) Create calls-to-actions.

When promoting a video on YouTube, you can include call-to-action overlays that link to a URL. You could link to a landing page, product page, information page, career page … whatever you’d like. You could also send people to a favorable report or interview featuring the brand.

Adobe highlights one of its live videos using a call-to-action overlay:

6) Create a YouTube end slate.

Create an end screen to drive subscribers to your channel, promote your social networks, or increase interest in your brand. If someone has watched a video until the end, it’s a good sign they enjoy your content and might be interested in subscribing to your channel for future updates. The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon‘s end slate uses this screen to drive subscribers and social media fans while also highlighting other interesting topics its host has featured. Once you build the image, you will be able to annotate the end screen in YouTube’s video editor.

7) Use negative remarketing.

If you are running a campaign for a longer period of time and want to only attract new users to a brand, consider creating a list of people who your ad will not be shown to. When viewing your AdWords Campaign screen, select “Shared library” on the lower left sidebar. Then select “Video remarketing” and “+ Remarketing List”. You can stretch your campaign budget and target only unique users by selecting to not show your video ad to someone who has previously viewed the specific video, who has visited your YouTube channel, or shared, liked, or commented on any of your videos on your channel.

8) Use close captioning to cater to viewer’s needs and wants.

This tip applies to all YouTube videos — but it’s a general best practice that’s not followed by many brands. Include a quality video transcription you’ve generated and approved. Only user-uploaded transcriptions are indexed by Google because YouTube’s automatic captioning can be less than reliable. Depending on your target audience, you may also want to include transcriptions in various other languages. You can also offer users the option to download or visit a site page with the full transcription in your video description.

9) Qualify viewers.

Sometimes, your ad will be seen by people who have no interest in your product. Encourage them to skip the ad if the content isn’t relevant so you don’t have to pay for the view and they don’t waste their time watching irrelevant advertising.

10) Consider making your ad longer.

When it comes to TrueView ads, if the ad is under 30 seconds, you pay only if a viewer watches until the end. If the ad is longer than 30 seconds, you pay if the viewer watches it for at least 30 seconds. In both cases, you pay if the viewer interacts with your ad before it’s over. Consider this when you are coming up with ideas for content for the ad. You may want to put messaging at a certain point so uninterested viewers can skip the ad, or you might provide special offers towards the end of the video.

The Future of Video is Bright

We’ve told you before: Video content is a must-have part of your content strategy. This is even truer now that YouTube lets marketers target users based on their search histories. YouTube advertising is more targeted than ever, and it’s less competitive real estate than the world of Google Search because video content is newer to the content scene and less popular than blog posts.

Stay tuned for more from us about how to make great video ads for YouTube and social media, and where we think YouTube is headed next.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2015 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

According to Forbes, 80-90% of consumers research purchases online before buying. 

Whether you’re in the process of launching a new business or already have one, having an strong online presence for your brand is extremely important.

Small business owners looking for a way to track ROI and brand awareness need digital marketing. Not only is digital marketing a must-have for promoting your products or services, but optimizing your online assets is also critical to your business’ overall success.

Trellis reports that over 90% of people searching online will not go past the first page of results on Google. To ensure that your website shows up in search ahead of your competitors, It’s important for your company to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research. For local businesses, it’s equally as important to have essential and updated information readily available for potential clients. 

If you’re a small business owner with little experience in online marketing, this might all sound like a foreign language to you. Have no fear — we’ll go through what all these words mean, and why you should care about them! 

In this post, we’ll help you build and optimize your marketing strategy using inbound marketing, setting you up to attract new clients and ultimately grow your business. Organic traffic (someone finding you on their own through internet search) is the most cost-efficient way to acquire new business.

We are going to answer the following questions and provide marketing tips about promoting your small business:

• How can I make a website? How can I make a website without a developer?
• Why isn’t my website appearing in Google?
• Why is my competitor above me in Google?
• What is blogging?
• Why does blogging matter?
• Why do I need social media accounts?
• How do I get more traffic to my website?

The Core Elements of Small Business Marketing

If you haven’t officially started your business, check out this comprehensive guide to starting a business. It outlines everything you need to become an officially established small business, including tax and licensing information, and all the other resources you’ll need to get up and running.

If you’ve already officially launched your small business, here are the most important things you’ll need to begin leveraging inbound marketing and acquiring new customers from organic search:

• Website
• Blog
• Brand 
• Email tool
• Conversion tool
• Social media accounts

Website

Having a professional-looking website is one of the most important assets you will create for your small business. This is where you will show who you are, what you offer, where you are, and how a potential customer can get in touch with you.

If you’ve never made a website before and aren’t entirely comfortable with the technical elements, there are a variety of free tools and services to help you get started. When you create your website, make sure you implement Google Analytics or HubSpot Marketing Free (both of which are free products) so you can easily track who’s looking at your site.

Do-It-Yourself Tools

If you’re a fairly tech-savvy small business owner, you’ll probably want to build your own website. If you choose to do this, you can use a CMS (content management system) to do so.

Most CMSs offer pre-made templates for your site that you can get for free or purchase, then customize to your brand (we’ll get to branding later.) There are a handful of inexpensive and even free options for various skill levels — from beginner all the way to advanced.

Once you’ve created your website, most CMS platforms offer plugins to help you optimize your content for search (look for SEO plugins). This will help you rank better in Google — which we’ll discuss more in depth in a bit.

Freelancers and Agencies

If you aren’t on the technical side and want a website built for your small business, you can use a freelancer or a marketing agency that specializes in web design. This is a great option for businesses that already have a website but need it to be updated and revamped for SEO (search engine optimization) to help improve your Google ranking.

To find a freelancer or marketing consultant in your area, you can use Upwork (filtering by design/creative) or Freelancer. To find a marketing agency, try looking through HubSpot’s Agency Partner directory. All HubSpot Partners are SEO experts and will help you rank in search engines and be found online.

Speaking of SEO and Google rank, what’s that all about? 

Google Ranking and SEO

If you already have a business, have you ever searched for yourself or your product/service online? If so, did you think, “Why isn’t my website showing up on Google?” If so, you probably thought, “How do I rank on Google?” or “How can I improve my Google ranking?”

There are a lot of factors that play into why a certain site or page appears in the top spots on the Google (or other search engine) search engine results page (SERP). Backlinko reports some of Google’s top factors, which include having relevant keywords (and their placement on your site), the length of your content, having high-quality content, how fast your page loads, how often you post content, and more.

When it all boils down, Google essnetially tries to find the best piece of content to present to the person searching. For example, if I’m searching for the best salon in Newport, Rhode Island, it wouldn’t be helpful for me to find a webpage of a salon that has closed down and is located in Newport, Kentucky. It would, however, be helpful for me to find a salon in my area with great Yelp reviews, an easy-to-navigate website, and contact information readily available. Google always wants to surface the most relevant, highest-quality piece of content.

To rank higher on Google, you can leverage the power of SEO, or search engine optimization. To start learning everything there is to know about this powerhouse marketing tactic, check out The Ultimate Guide to SEO in 2017.

What is SEO? Well, first off, it’s simpler than you might be thinking. HubSpot explains it as “techniques that help your website rank higher in organic search results, making your website more visible to people who are looking for your brand, product, or service via search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.” In other words, it’s the basic concept of structuring your website and blog posts to be in the best shape for appearing first on search engines. 

SEO strategy usually consists of a few things. These include buyer persona research, keyword research, and on-page SEO research. These three areas can help you learn how your target market is searching online, and position your business to get discovered by the right people.

By learning more about your target customer through buyer persona, you can better figure out what types of things they may be searching for so you can include those terms on your website.

Keyword research is an extension of buyer persona research. You can use the personas you’ve created to search for the best keywords for your brand, then use a tool like KW Finder to find related keywords for your target audience.

Finally, you can do some on-page SEO research and optimization. This is where you put those keywords in the correct places on your website like in the meta-description, page titles, and H1 tags. 

Blogging

As we learned in the SEO section above, content and blogging are extremely important when it comes to ranking. The more often your desired keywords appear in your high-quality and helpful content, the more likely you are to appear in search results. A great way to become an authority on your topic, product, or service is to blog. For HubSpot, most of our traffic comes from our blog and content marketing campaigns.

To start a blog, you can use an inexpensive or free website tool to make a free blog and use one of their templates. Even if you only publish once a week, it will improve your website’s visibility online and help educate your potential customers on why they should trust your company.

If you’re planning to write your posts yourself, check out this beginner’s guide to writing. If you need some help and want to hire someone to write for you, try Upwork for a freelance blogger, or use a marketing agency like I mentioned above. Make sure you’re writing with SEO in mind — use this SEO checklist for bloggers, or a WordPress plugin like Yoast.

Once you start writing blog posts for your small business, you can add a call-to-action on your posts for visitors to subscribe to your blog and receive emails This is a great way to start collecting leads and offering potential customers a way to get information if they aren’t ready to buy anything from you yet. 

Brand

Having aconsistent brand identity to promote your business will make you look more professional and help you attract new customers. According to a study from Facebook, 77% of people are loyal to brands.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, has described a company’s branding as “what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” In other words, your brand is the feelings and emotions people have when hearing your company name. It’s is a combination of your brand name, logo, aesthetic, and the design of all your assets.

To start getting the creative juices flowing, consider your color scheme and peruse palettes with Adobe Kuler or Coolors. You can create your own or look through pre-made or customized color palettes. 

To create a logo, I’d recommend checking out Upwork and Freelancer, or reaching out to a marketing agency. There are free and less expensive options for designing your own logo online, although using a freelancer or agency can give you a higher quality product and connect you with a designer who can change and update your brand assets as your company grows.

Email Tools

Email marketing is a critical part of your marketing toolkit. MarketingSherpa reports that 72% of adults prefer communication via email. Email marketing is an easy, free, and scalable way to communicate with both new and existing customers.

Once you have an email marketing tool in place (many are inexpensive or even free), experiment with emailing out newsletters (with your sleek new blog posts), and other promotions to your database. We know small business owners don’t have tons of free time to devote to digital marketing, so consider using marketing automation to make this process even easier for yourself.

To get started planning your email marketing strategy, check out this guide and template from HubSpot.

Conversion Tool

We’ve been talking a lot about the assets you need to grow your business, but haven’t really covered how these will help drive revenue yet. One simple way to start generating leads or customers from your website is to implement a conversion tool.

A simple, free option is HubSpot Marketing Free. By using this tool to add a pop-up widget to your website, you can start collecting email addresses of potential customers. From there, you can send out promotions and offers and convert them into paying customers. You can also implement any of these 24 conversion tools to help you optimize your website and use it to drive leads. 

Social Media Accounts

Social media might seem like it’s just a fun platform for people to socialize and connect, but it’s actually a powerful business tool. Social media can help you increase traffic, improve your search engine rankings, and engage with potential customers. 

Social Media for Local Businesses

If your business is foused on a local area, the most important accounts for you are Facebook, Yelp, and Google’s business feature. Having high Yelp reviews improves your authority online and helps your search ranking. You can claim your business on Yelp for free, customize your profile and add pictures, and start asking for reviews.

The same thing goes for registering your Google business page. You can register your business with Google (for free) and add pictures. (If you’ve ever searched for your business in Google Maps and been disappointed not to see it, it’s because you haven’t claimed it yet!)

On Facebook, you can create a Facebook business page so that people can find your location and hours. 

For any business, having up-to-date social media accounts will help you be found and engage with prospects. Create a Twitter account for your business, Facebook page for business, learn how to use Instagram for business, create a Pinterest page for your business (if relevant), and use them as a way to discover new clients. You can also try your hand at using Snapchat for business if you’ve already mastered the basics. 

Small Businesses Need a Strong Digital Presence to be Found

Well, there you have it. You probably have a long road ahead to build your online presence, but any steps you can make will have a huge impact on your business. Some things like blogging definitely take a few months to start kicking in and sending you traffic, but social media accounts and posts can have immediate effects.

Congratulations on starting or updating your small business! Let us know in the comments if any of these strategies helped you.

You can’t go anywhere these days without hearing about the elusive, purportedly mystical powers of influencer marketing.

But is this buzzword-laden tactic actually worth your time and energy?

According to a recent study comprised of marketers from a variety of industries, 94% said influencer marketing was an effective campaign strategy. That’s great news for marketers — right? 

Not so fast. Even though a majority of marketers believe influencer marketing is a viable tactic, it’s still incredibly challenging to report accurately on influencer campaign ROI. In fact, 78% of marketers say that determining the success of influencer marketing campaigns will be a top challenge in 2017.

So even though the tangible benefits of influencer marketing — follower engagement, driving traffic, and creating more authentic content — seem clear cut, there’s still a lot of progress to be made in making this form of campaign measurable for agencies and marketers. 

What is Influencer Marketing?

Let’s back up for a minute. What exactly is influencer marketing, and how does it differ from the traditional celebrity spokesperson advertising model? 

While there is some overlap between celebrity endorsements and influencer marketing campaigns, influencer campaigns are designed to tap into an existing community of engaged followers. Influencers are specialists in their particular niches, and have established a high level of trust and two-way communication with their follower bases.

Their fans trust that their endorsement of a product or brand comes from a well-researched, more holistic place, rather than something as simple as a signed contract. And while there is often a formal agreement in place between brands and influencers, influencers tend to be more selective about their affiliations, choosing to partner with brands that reflect their unique personal brands and won’t alienate their followers. 

Celebrity product endorsements are less about engagement and more about attaching a person’s fame and name recognition to a particular brand. For brands, celebrity-driven campaigns are much more about grabbing the attention of a wide audience than tapping into a very specific niche. 

10 Influencer Marketing Examples

To give you an idea of how brands — both big and small — are leveraging the power of influencers in their marketing efforts, we’ve put together a list of ten influencer-driven campaigns. Check them out below, and decide for yourself: Is influencer marketing worth the hype?

1) Old Navy

The affordable clothing chain tapped social media influencer Meghan Rienks to appear in a series of promotional posts on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. In the videos, Rienks shows fans how to style outfits for different occasions (e.g., a holiday party, and big date night) using pieces from Old Navy. 

Rienks, known for her comedy sketches and lifestyle content, has a formidable following on social media, with over 1.3 million Instagram followers and 2 million subscribers on her YouTube channel. 

 

2) Naked Juice

This bottled smoothie brand is edging its way into the beauty, fashion, and health scene on Instagram with help from key influencers in the space. Lifestyle bloggers like Kate La Vie (below) share sponsored posts featuring snapshots of their daily outfits and beauty essentials — including a strategically placed Naked Juice in the mix. 

 

3) Glossier

This Manhattan-based beauty startup (which was recently named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2017) owes much of their seemingly overnight cult status to their ever-expanding network of super fans and micro-influencers.

Instead of paying a few big names to promote their minimal skincare and cosmetics, the brand relies on “regular women” to spread the word.

“What’s very motivating to us is this idea of every single woman being an influencer,” Glossier CEO Emily Weiss told Quartz. Glossier recently introduced a referral program to enable their more influential followers to offer product discounts and other incentives to their unique networks.

 

4) Sperry

Towards the end of 2016, the boat shoe brand began working with over 100 micro-influencers on Instagram to create engaging content for their followers. Sperry identified fans of the brand on Instagram who were already sharing high-quality photos of their products, and started inviting these users to develop visual content for their official Instagram account.

 

5) My Tales of Whisky

Diageo, the parent company of Scottish whiskey brands Lagavulin and Oban, was awarded a Shorty Award for Best Influencer Marketing Campaign for this yule log video starring Parks and Recreation’s Nick Offerman.

The 44-minute minute video shows Offerman sitting by a crackling fireplace, staring broodingly into the camera, and occasionally savoring a sip of his drink. Thanks to the simple seasonal premise and Offerman’s unique brand, the video was a viral hit. 

 

6) GAP

GAP’s successful Styld.by campaign featured a number of influential social media personalities showing how they incorporate GAP clothing into their personal wardrobes. Users viewing the influencers’ posts on social media were given options to “Shop this Look” conveniently in the caption of photos.

Thanks to the involvement of multiple influencers from different niches, GAP’s campaign had enormous reach.

 

7) Stride Gum

If anyone has figured out how to gain a loyal following on Snapchat, it’s hip-hop artist and producer DJ Khaled. Once a minor figure in the music world, Khlaed has enjoyed an unprecedented level of success on the ephermeral photo-sharing app, with each of his snaps garnering over 3 million views on average. 

“DJ Khaled has completely cracked the platform,” said Emmanuel Seuge, senior vice president for content at Coca-Cola, one of Snapchat’s major advertisers. “He’s the king of Snapchat.”

His “King of Snapchat” status means Khaled is in high-demand for influencer campaigns with brands. He regularly takes part in “Snapchat takeovers,” where a brand hands over the reigns of their corporate Snapchat to Khaled for a brief period of largely unflitered antics. 

Working with W+K London, Stride Gum launched a Snapchat takeover campaign with Khaled last year to promote their “Mad Intense Gum.” The brand called the takeover “an unpredictable, fun day for all his followers.”

Image credit: W+K London

 

8) Estée Lauder

When the 71 year-old cosmetics company wanted to target and connect with a more youthful audience for their latest spin-off brand, The Estée Edit, they turned to the second-youngest member of the Kardashian clan, Kendall Jenner.

Jenner, who commands an impressive 75.1 million followers on Instagram, collaborated with the beauty brand to develop an “edited” collection of 82 essential makeup and skincare products. She promoted the brand on her personal Instagram, and appears in posts on the official Estée Edit Instagram account sharing makeup tips using her favorite products from the line.

 

9) Hallmark

To promote their holiday 2016 collection of keepsake ornaments, Hallmark partnered with a number of family-friendly Instagram influencers to share personal, tender moments from their families’ holiday season.

Using the hashtag #KeepsakeIt, the influencers offered their followers candid glimpses into their family holiday traditions, along with a link for users to purchase one of their own keepsake ornaments. 

 

10) Loeffler Randall

High-end accessory and footwear brand Loeffler Randall has become a favorite among artists, bloggers, and fashion insiders, thanks in big part to the company’s commitment to involving social media influencers in their marketing campaigns. 

The brand’s “LR Ambassadors” include a diverse group of writers, painters, florists and other creative businesswomen “leading dynamic lives.” In the brand’s own words, their LR Ambassadors are “cool girls doing cool things.”

In addition to profiling their LR Ambassadors on the company blog, Loeffler Randall shares pictures of their ambassadors wearing LR shoes and accessories on Instagram, using the hashtag #LRambassador. 

What are your favorite influencer marketer campaigns?

We’ve been together for a while now, Marketing Blog readers. I’ve shared stories with you about business school, my surprise revelation that I’m an introvert, and other personal tidbits here and there. Here’s one that I hope won’t lower your opinion of me: I have a bit of a potty mouth.

My first instinct is to apologize for it. But then, I came across new research that shows a strong correlation between cursing and authenticity in character. If only I had known that when I was a rebellious teen and could have retorted, as my colleague Kierran Petersen suggested, “I’m being authentic, Mom!” But it’s true — the study showed a positive connection between profanity and honesty — on both a micro (individual) and macro (society) level.

I’ve seen real-life examples of this phenomenon. Gary Vaynerchuk — (in)famous for his profuse utterance of the “F” word in content and public appearances — has experienced tremendous success as a marketer. And Doug Kessler, creative director of the agency Velocity Partners, has given numerous presentations on the power of swearing in your marketing. 

So how can this whole thing be executed without risking a loss of respect? And why are we so drawn to it, anyway? We had a look at some example and research, and drew some, er, freakin’ conclusions.

Note: This post was written with civility and respect in mind. Its intention is to explore the use and potential ROI of profanity in marketing, and is not meant to offend or suggest that this practice is mandatory.

A Bit About Cursing

The History

Like any other word in a given language, curse words have their own history and etymology. My personal favorite, the “F” word, can be traced back to the 16th century and Germanic origin, most likely stemming from the Swedish word focka and Dutch fokkelen, the translation for both of which even I’m too bashful to share. But I will say this much — if you’re really curious about the etymology of your favorite curse words, chances are, the most literal meaning is at its root.

The Psychology

Source: NANOZINE

In 1999, researchers at Cornell University’s Weill Medical College were able to trace much of the psychology of cursing to the amygdala — a “mass of gray matter” in the brain that’s responsible for us experiencing emotions. When we hear profanity, the researchers realized, that part of the brain activates with the same response that we have to “linguistic threat.” In other words, we psychologically process profanity the same way we would verbal aggression.

But there’s a reason why profanity doesn’t exactly scare us. Because the amygdala also controls memory, the researchers also deduce two things:

1. Your memory skills are improved when you hear swear words.
2. Repeated exposure to profanity mitigates any fearful response to it.

But psychology professor Timothy Jay says that the activation of the amygdala stems from the fact that, simply put, there are settings where we deem profanity to be “taboo” — such as a house of worship, or instances of marketing like nationally-aired commercials. And these “taboo words,” he writes, “persist because they can intensify emotional communication to a degree that non-taboo words cannot.”

Aha! So maybe that’s the fundamental reason why we like marketers who curse — because it reaches us on a more emotional level than “non-taboo” communication and content might. So what does that look like in marketing, anyway? That’s where the groundwork laid by others comes in.

The Pillars of Cursing in Marketing

To learn more about why cursing can be such an asset in marketing, I turned to the aforementioned Kessler, who’s established himself as something of an expert on the topic. He’s written about it for Velocity’s B2B blog, where he really breaks down why it’s so effective. In sum, he says, the practice of cursing in marketing is:

• Suprising
• Confident
• Empathetic
• Funny
• Passionate

This aligns with the psychology of cursing that we explored earlier, which is also why he cautions marketers against infesting their content — in whatever format — with profanity just for the element of surprise, because it’ll eventually lose its impact with repetition. And, he adds, if it’s just not in your character or belief system to curse, then don’t.

But if it’s the type of thing that comes naturally to you, there are ways to navigate each of the above-listed factors to create marketing that does provide a dose of surprise — which can require some confidence — in order to resonate with a “like-minded” persona, make her laugh, and communicate the enthusiasm you have for your product. Are you starting to get the picture on why this type of language, when used correctly, can actually be a good thing?

Just in case it requires a bit more detail, let’s break it down a little more.

Why We Love Marketers Who Curse

1) Cursing implies integrity.

Source: Giphy

Each year, the Center for Public Integrity conducts the State Integrity Investigation: “A comprehensive assessment of state government accountability and transparency … based on existing laws and analysis of how well they are implemented.”

Researchers examined each state’s score next to how often their respective residents swear (based on data from a Facebook study), and found that some states where people reported cursing the most — like Connecticut — actually scored higher on the integrity scale. Compare that to Idaho, where the profanity rating was the lowest, but the state received a “D-” integrity grade.

In marketing, this phenomenon translates to a message that your brand isn’t trying to hide anything. That language might not be for everyone, but by using it, you’re telling the public, “It’s okay if we’re not right for you, but this is who we are.”

2) It makes a brand relatable.

Source: Giphy

According to Jay, up to 3.4% of the words we speak each day are profane. It might not seem like a lot, but Kessler wants us to observe something else — according to the same research, only 1% of those words are first-person pronouns, like “we,” “us,” or “ours.” In other words, we utter swear words more than we talk about ourselves.

Generally, we like to use naughty language.

That’s why cursing can help make a brand relatable — with these numbers, heck, that makes them just like us. After all, 66% of employees say they would curse at work if their bosses did, implying that many of us are less inclined to use such language in certain environments because we don’t want to be alone in our actions. So when someone in a position of authority — like a supervisor or advertiser — emulates our own behavior, it makes them more relatable, and even more trustworthy.

3) You might actually appear more intelligent — or at least clever.

We potty-mouthed people sometimes earn ourselves a poor reputation with our language — it can even make people think that we’re not smart enough to come up with more civil discourse. In reality, the opposite is true, as discovered by researchers at Marist College and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. In fact, a high use of profanity correlates with overall verbal fluency, and as the study’s authors put it, “Verbal fluency is the hallmark of intellectual acumen; the more words one knows and uses, the greater one’s verbal prowess or intelligence.”

In other words, a lot of smart people — and marketers — curse. Verbal fluency is also a sign of strong wit and cleverness, which is how great content is often created. Just have a look at this ad for a smart car manufacturer. You’d have no idea that’s what the commercial is promoting until the end, but it’s cleverly intriguing, with its early use of profanity making the viewer want to see how it ends.

4) You’re injecting humor into someone’s routine.

Source: Giphy

Did that commercial make you laugh? Good. It’s supposed to. Plus, as we said, its use of profanity might have motivated you to watch it through the end — otherwise, how were you supposed to know what all of those adorable children were cursing about?

That’s because, according to Jay, “Forms of humor cannot be understood without examining the context in which speakers produce them.” The commercial was funny because it had context. And when profanity is used in marketing, it has to have context in order to provide humor. But it’s okay to withhold that context until the content’s conclusion to keep people watching, as long as you get to the point in a timely fashion.

Plus, when you inject something funny into someone’s day-to-day routine, you’re actually giving them a sense of inclusion. Classic research indicates that “humor creates and maintains a sense of community for participating members,” so by letting viewers in on a joke, you’re expanding your relatability as a brand — which, as we covered earlier, profanity can also accomplish.

But Has It Been Successfully Executed?

Maybe you’re skeptical about the types of brands that have made this work. Automotive brands are one thing, especially in a somewhat contemporary category like smart cars. But what about more old-school, family-oriented brands? Believe it or not, profanity can work for marketing in that sector, too, as Kessler showed with an unexpected example: Kmart.

In the ad below, Kmart leverages a colloquial curse-riddled phrase in the U.S., and uses it to promote its online shopping features.

This instance is one that Kessler calls a cursing alternative, when marketers are hesitant to use curse words for fear of appearing vulgar, or looking unaligned with the brand. That can be remedied with the use of “cheats” like homonyms or asterisks — read: F*ck, or “ship” instead of, well, you know.

But it goes to show that cursing isn’t one-size-fits-all. It can be customized according to each marketer’s tastes or clientele, and still be effective. So go ahead — get inspired by these tips and examples. With the right kind of strategic execution, your brand can join the ranks of successful, foul-mouthed marketers.

Are you a marketer who curses, and have you seen success from it? Let us know in the comments.