If you are currently running a content marketing campaign, I’m sure that you have written and published a good amount of blogs. But are they bringing in traffic? You can publish a great piece of content, but if no one ever reads it your time and energy will have been for nothing. So what can you do about it? Get that post to rank well organically!

Before I get ahead of myself, not every post will have the potential to rank well. That’s why the first step to boosting a blog to the top of page 1, is to decide which blogs have the chance to succeed.

So which blog should do you boost?

First things first, Google the target keyword in your blog post title and assess the competition around that keyword/ topic. What kind of sites are ranking first? If the top position holders are high authority sites such as New York Times, Forbes, INC.com, or (generally speaking) websites with .edu or .gov urls, chances are your blog is not going to out rank them. Brian Dean at Backlinko explains it best: “All things being equal, a page on an authoritative domain will rank higher than a page on a domain with less authority.”

With this in mind, try to choose a blog that has less competition around its target keyword. A great tip is to try ranking for a keyword that your competitor is already ranking for! Chances are, if they can rank for it so can you. For a more in depth look at how to choose keywords your competitor ranks for, check out this blog.

It’s also worth noting that you want to know where your blog is currently ranking. Bottom of page 1? Page 2? Page 3? You will want to focus on a blog that has already been indexed by Google in the first 2-3 pages. If a blog already ranks well, it’s easier to push it higher than pushing a blog that is not on Google’s radar.

How to boost a blog’s ranking

Now that you have chosen a blog that has the power to rank well, how do you boost your current ranking? To help supercharge your blog’s ranking, follow these 7 tips:

1) Increase blog ranking with optimization

As a good inbound (or otherwise) marketer, I know this is the most obvious tip when it comes to helping your blog rank organically. At the risk of sounding repetitive I will just list the basics:

• Keyword optimization – Focus on long-tail keywords, and use your keyword along with synonyms naturally throughout the blog. Do not stuff your blog with keywords!
• Title optimization – Include your keyword (as far left as possible) in the title, and keep it under 60 characters.
• Meta description optimization – Include your keyword, keep it under 160 characters and write a clear, engaging description of what your blog is about.
• URL optimization – Findings show shorter, keyword rich URLs rank higher.
• Image optimization – Don’t forget your images! Include alt text that includes keywords/ synonyms.
• Link optimization – Link internally when appropriate and use external links to back up research and help increase the authority of the article.

For more information and best practices on how to optimize a blog post click here.

2) Increase blog ranking with external links

External linking is something I touched on in Tip #1, but I would like to go into a little more depth. Although Google has somewhat denied that linking externally is a ranking signal, a study done by Reboot shows a correlation between a page’s external (outgoing) links and its search rankings. Since the study positively correlates high authority sites helping a page’s SEO, it’s important to include these links in the blog post you’re trying to boost rankings for.

3) Increase blog ranking with backlinks from authoritative sites

Keep in mind, backlinks that come from aged domains hold more power than those that come from new domains. For this reason, link outreach to authoritative sites is a great way to boost a blog post’s ranking. There are many ways in which you can get backlinks, but here are a few to keep in mind:

• Email outreach – Start an email outreach program that targets websites that relate to your blog topic and asks for a backlink.
• Social sharing outreach – Don’t have the contact information you need for an email? You can reach out to authoritative sites through social & blog commenting or messaging.
• Guest posting on authoritative industry sites – This may take some email outreach to inquire about guest posting, but is a great way to get a backlink.

4) Increase blog ranking with semantic keywords

Semantics is the study of meaning, and is how someone interprets a word. In today’s semantic search you need to have a database of keywords full of meaning that deciphers different contexts. So semantic keywords (aka LSI keywords), are keywords that relate to your main keyword.

For example imagine someone searched using the word “crash”. Do they mean an accident, a stock market drop, attend an event without an invitation, or a way to describe a sound?

As a part of Google’s algorithm, semantic search is used to allow Google to understand how to interpret a search based on the searcher’s intent. By using semantic keywords in your blog, you can help Google recognize what your content is about and if it relates to a search. These keywords may not have the highest search volume, like the keyword you chose to optimize your blog for, but they will help increase relevancy.

Example semantic keyword phrases to the search “avoid a car crash”:

5) Increase blog ranking with syndication

Content syndication is where a blog (or other piece of content) is featured on a popular website that relates to your industry. By syndicating your blog, you are able to get it out to a larger audience, one in which you may have never reached without syndication. There are many content syndication networks you can use, but it is up to you to find the best industry related websites in your field.

For example, I’m a contributor on the site business2community.com where my content reaches a greater audience than the subscribers on our agency blog. Remember, the blog you choose to syndicate should include a link that directs back to your website so not only will you get a backlink, but the traffic that goes along with it!

6) Increase blog ranking with social signals

As with most aspects of Google’s algorithm, the search giant has never come out and admitted that social signals are a ranking factor. So this one has always been debatable, however
case studies
have shown correlations with increased social signals and a jump in ranking. Not only did these case studies show higher ranking, but they also show an increase in traffic! That being said, promoting your blog on social media and getting likes, comments, retweets, plus 1’s etc. should be added to the to do list.

7) Increase blog ranking by Increasing Click Through Rate

Click through rate (CTR) is a user interaction signal that helps tell Google this blog is worth reading. So how do you help increase the organic CTR of your blog? One of the easiest changes you can make is to improve the blog title. After all, when it comes to the internet you can judge a book by it’s cover…or at least an article by it’s title. Update your title to something that will attract readers and make them want to click, while keeping it under 60 characters.

Did you notice my title “7 Amazing Tips to Help Boost a Blog’s Organic Ranking”? I’m sure some of you read it and thought “what makes these tips so amazing?” and clicked through to find out. This is the power of a great title!

Boost your blog today

There you have it, 7 amazing tips to boost your blog’s organic ranking. So what are you waiting for? Put those blog posts to use and generate more traffic today! For more SEO strategies that will help boost your inbound marketing results, download this FREE eBook “How to Use SEO to Boost Inbound Marketing Results”:

For a while now, it’s been clear that Instagram isn’t just a social network for selfies and brunch pics. In fact, Instagram sees a whopping 500 million users — a 25% increase in audience size over less than a year.

In a world where visual content remains a crucial part of any business’ marketing strategy, Instagram presents a unique opportunity to visually represent your brand, celebrate its personality, and keep it top-of-mind for all those users who scroll through their Instagram feeds every single day.

Although they’re few and far between, there are some brands out there — in every industry, and with every type of target customer — who are doing really, really well on Instagram.

Ready to get inspired? Check out this list of brands that are thriving on Instagram right now, and what about their posts sets them apart. (Here’s a list of 15 Instagram hacks and features if you’re looking to up your own Instagram game.)

17 of the Top Instagram Business Accounts

1) WeWork

WeWork provides shared office spaces in cities and countries all over the globe — so it only makes sense that they should post a lot of photos showcasing their beautiful co-working communities. They do an amazing job photographing the spaces in ways that make followers like us wish we could jump into the photos and plop down with our laptops and a coffee.

They don’t stop at posting photos of their shared workspaces, though. WeWork uses Instagram to capture and share moments from some of the largest branded events that members (and their friends) look forward to all year, like WeWork Summer Camp. Hashtags are used to label these events — like #WWCamp — and to encourage customers to share their own photos of the spaces, using WeWork’s memorable slogan: “Do what you love.”

Our favorite is the #DogsOfWeWork hashtag. Not only is it awesome because, well, dogs, but it’s also a great way for the company to promote their laid-back culture while also inviting customers to interact with their brand on social. Near the end of each year, they actually choose the best photo submissions to the #DogsOfWeWork hashtag on Instagram and Facebook and put together a calendar for the following year.

2) National Geographic

I couldn’t possibly write about the best brands on Instagram without including National Geographic, which posts photos from contributors traveling anywhere from large cities to the Arctic to small African villages. They’ve built an enormous following — over 60 million followers as of this posting — and established themselves as one of the very top Instagram brands in the world.

That’s pretty darn impressive for a brand that was founded in 1888 and largely known for its print magazines. In our opinion, this is one of the best examples of a company keeping pace with the ever-evolving world of marketing.

3) Zevia

Zevia, a natural soda brand, prides itself on being a zero-calorie drink with no artificial sweeteners. But it strives to be anything but stuffy — like other cola brands, Zevia aims to reach an audience that values fun, friendship, and wellness.

On Instagram, the brand’s personality reflects that: It’s bright, friendly, refreshing, and shows how Zevia fits into a healthy lifestyle, without losing a colorful personality. (Download our free buyer persona templates here to get to know your audience better.)

4) Paris Opera Ballet

The city of Paris is known for many lovely things — wine, cheese, and art are just a few. But that last one, art, is photographically captured on the Instagram account of the Paris Opera Ballet, or Ballet de l’Opera de Paris.

The account captures candid images of the ballet’s dancers during performances, rehearsals, and backstage, giving viewers an artful glimpse at what goes into the ballet’s productions. It also makes use of something called banners on Instagram, when larger photos can be divided into multiple pictures to create a tiled banner of smaller photos. (There are several apps available to pull that off, but to start, check out Tile Pic). 

The way this account highlights performance venues is noteworthy, too. The lower-right photo below provides a look at the theatre when it’s completely empty, conveying a calm-before-the-storm feel that can generate excitement for productions.

5) King Arthur Flour

Here’s another brand that’s been around for the ages — King Arthur Flour was founded in 1790 — and uses Instagram to showcase their brand personality that is able to adapt to a changing marketing landscape, while maintaining its authenticity. It sets a gold standard for home and professional bakers alike, which is communicated through these photos of ingredients, chefs, and finished products.

King Arthur Flour uses a number of techniques throughout these photos, but one thing the brand aces is seasonality — its photos reflect the goodies that people enjoy throughout different times of year, like cider season (a.k.a., “fall”), summer produce, and the winter holidays. Take a look at some of the examples below to see what I mean. You’ll find more candid action shots of recipes being executed, stand-alone King Arthur Flour products, and other images that reflect the company’s culinary, New England roots.

6) Organic Authority

This wellness-themed digital magazine might have one of the most visually delectable presences on Instagram — and that makes sense, since Organic Authority’s motto is to “live deliciously.” The photos reflect the publication’s written content on food, beauty, home, and garden, with bright and clean-looking images that echo a mission to help readers live more sustainably and naturally.

Organic Authority makes good use of quotes on Instagram, too — instead of badgering viewers into pursuing a certain lifestyle, the images and text captures both serve to be inspirational and encouraging of a happy, healthy approach to things. It also uses the hashtag #BeOrganic to encourage users to interact with the brand, sharing content from fans who use it to tag their own photos.

7) Lorna Jane

If your brand were a person, how would you describe its personality? Australian activewear company Lorna Jane has done an awesome job answering this important branding question with its Instagram content. Spend just a few seconds scrolling through these photos, and you’ll quickly be able to name the target Lorna Jane buyer: a young, sporty, twenty- or thirty-something woman who values looking good while maintaining an active lifestyle.

The images posted by Lorna Jane, which often show the brand’s clothing and accessories, as well as images of women who embody its target buyer persona, are colorful, playful, and inspirational, which is a perfect representation of the brand’s essence — in other words, its heart, soul, and spirit.

8) No Your City

The folks at No Your City produce a documentary series that captures the fascinating stories of people all over the world, but mostly in New York. The brand’s Instagram account, though, is less about these stories and more about showcasing gorgeous images from the city itself.

What we love about these photos is how closely they follow the best practices for taking great photos with your phone. Each one of No Your City’s photos seems to follow at least one of these recommendations, whether it’s focusing on a single subject, embracing negative space, playing with reflections, or finding interesting perspectives. The photos are consistently stunning, and as a result, the brand has built a solid following.

9) ASOS

Britain-based retail company ASOS doesn’t just post great photos of its clothing and models to their Instagram account — though it does that really well. But things start to get interesting when ASOS puts its stylists to work, giving them each an account associated with the brand.

These ASOS-affiliated stylists, like @asos_debbie, function as brand lifestyle ambassadors. “They’re almost like fashion bloggers,” says HubSpot Marketing Manager Elissa Hudson. “Each has their own persona, has a huge Instagram following, and publishes content to their individual Instagram accounts that’s very similar to the type of content fashion bloggers post. Some of them actually are fashion bloggers, actually, which I imagine is a huge factor in why they were hired in the first place. Can you say ready-made audience?”

The folks who run ASOS’ main account post a combination images of the brand’s clothing and accessories, stylists (like the third image below, featuring “@asos_debbie looking as flawless as ever”), and stuff that target buyer personas would like — such as the ridiculously indulgent milkshake below, which garnered above-average engagement. (Also — more dogs.)

10) Coca-Cola Argentina

Coca-Cola has an impressive social media presence across all platforms — turns out, this company knows a thing or two about branding.

That really boils down to understanding its target audience, which tends to be young people who value fun, friendship, and sports. And the brand’s personality directly reflects that: It’s happy, playful, friendly, refreshing, and all about sharing good times.

Knowing this, take a look at how Coca-Cola Argentina uses Instagram to celebrate that personality and target audience. 

Notice that the top two photos also incorporate Coca-Cola’s signature red. Since 80% of consumers say that color boosts their recognition of a brand, using that consistency helps to keep the brand recognizable to someone quickly scrolling through an Instagram feed.

11) Califia Farms

Califia Farms natural beverage products have some of the most attractive packaging we’ve come across. In fact, it’s so iconic that it won top honors in the global packaging design category from Beverage World Magazine.

Instagram is a perfect platform to showcase that cool, curvy bottle, and the folks at Califia don’t shy away from doing just that –most of the brand’s posts feature the beverage’s containers in some way, whether they’re the main subject of the photo, or more of an accessory in the context of the active, healthy lifestyle Califia’s buyer personas love.

Something Califia does really well on Instagram is create fun, playful videos and GIFs. Check out this one, which they used to teach viewers how to used steamed non-dairy milk for coffee cocktails:

And this one, which is just plain fun to watch:

12) Shore Projects

Shore Projects, a British watch brand, has a unique relationship with Instagram because it’s been active on the platform from the very beginning.

“For the first six months of launching the business, the only platform that we actually focused on using was Instagram,” says Neil Waller, the company’s co-founder.

The first chunk of text on the company’s homepage reads, “Shore Projects is a watch brand inspired by the beauty and fun of the British seaside.” Clearly, the brand has a strong connection with some very specific imagery, which meant it already had a great foundation for image-based branding on Instagram. Many of their photos are taken on the beaches and coasts of the U.K., and those that aren’t maintain the look and feel of the British seaside with faded colors and a lot of grey and green hues. (Read this blog post to learn more about creating color schemes for your brand’s Instagram content.)

13) New York Air Book

This Instagram account is run by a New Jersey-based photographer named George Steinmetz. While Steinmetz’s general photography covers all sorts of subjects outside of New York City from the air (like “Brazil Dunes,” “Florida Sea Level,” and “Tree People”), he created an Instagram account specifically to post his aerial photographs of New York.

We love that he picked a niche subject and dedicated an entire account to it where he publishes stunning photographs on a consistent basis. While his followers know what type of content to expect from him, he somehow comes up with cool, surprising subjects that make for posts that people love to engage with through Likes and comments.

14) Staples

The folks at Staples do a lot of things right when it comes to Instagram content, but there are two that particularly grab our attention — engaging with followers by asking questions and including calls-to-action in captions, and staying true to the brand’s playful-yet-practical personality.

When it comes to engaging Staples’ followers, it’s all about asking questions in the photo captions. For example, check out the second photo below featuring a series of emojis — its caption reads, “That’s pretty much our day. How about yours? Tell us in emojis.” Scroll through the comments on that photo, and you’ll see followers had a lot of fun responses. The caption paired with the first photo below — the one with the cupcakes — asks users to tag someone who they want to thank.

Staples does a great job staying true to brand by posting fun photos such as the “2016” shot written in office supplies and using the #OfficeHack hashtag to engage their following.

The folks at Staples also use Instagram to post cute videos and GIFs, like the one below that promotes its Office by Martha Stewart line:

15) Headspace

Headspace’s Instagram content boasts bold colors and a lot of negative space. But instead of using boldness to evoke playfulness, the folks at Headspace — who are in the business of guided meditation — post a lot of images featuring tips, tricks, and reminders for practicing mindfulness and meditation.

For example, the second photo in the examples below challenges followers to turn their phones off for 10 minutes. Since Instagram is primarily a mobile app, the post serves as a timely, friendly reminder of how much time we spend staring at our phones.

16) Saturday Night Live

While some of the best Instagram accounts are all about super high photo quality, there are some cases when the subject matter of the photos says a lot more.

Such is the case for the famous sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. The show’s Instagram followers aren’t expecting these folks to post meticulously edited, perfectly framed photos — in fact, doing so would feel a little off-brand from its kind of informal, off-the-cuff personality.

Instead, Saturday Night Live uses Instagram to give fans a virtual “backstage pass” with the hashtag #SNLbackstage — and people love it.

Saturday Night Live‘s Instagram account also includes short videos of the actors doing silly things offstage, or choice clips of live shows or promos:

17) HomeGoods

For some, there is the phenomenon known as “food porn.” And for others, there’s “decor porn.” Enthusiasts of the latter, take note: HomeGoods is on Instagram.

What we love about the HomeGoods Instagram feed is its ability to combine both decorating tips with the idea that interior design can be personal. So while the brand conveys home decor trends through these photos, it does so in a way that shows viewers how products from HomeGoods can be used in a variety of ways. Take a look at the top two photos — the mirrors in each one are visually similar, but are used for two contrasting design schemes. It makes the HomeGoods product offering multi-purpose.

Which are your favorite business-run Instagram accounts? Share with us in the comments.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2016 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

It used to be easy for marketers to write off Snapchat with its ephemeral social messaging and wacky selfie filters as a silly mobile app. 

But the tool has quickly become the social media darling of the marketing world, leading advertisers to rethink their decision to overlook the platform — in large part because of its rapid growth. According to Bloomberg, the app has more than 60 million daily active users in the U.S. and Canada, and people watch more than 10 billion videos per day. 

These numbers are appealing to marketers, but Snapchat’s focus on video, the various shortcuts, and its lack of a traditional “feed” makes getting started intimidating. What’s the difference between a Story and a snap? How do you interact with followers? And how do you measure results? 

To demystify Snapchat and how building a presence on the app could benefit your brand, we created an online guide — The Marketer’s Guide to Using Snapchat for Business.

Check it out here to learn:

• How to build a following 
• The best types of content to post
• The little-known tricks that’ll make you a master at sending snaps

Download your copy of The Marketer’s Guide to Using Snapchat for Business

 

The superheroes in Marvel Comics’ Avengers series often join forces, commonly in some sort of shiny form-fitting clothing, to defend the weak and powerless. Whether it was Thor’s bulging biceps, Ironman’s impressive armour or the Hulk’s super strength – at some point or another, I’m sure that something about this bunch has probably caught your attention.

Typically, the road to beating the baddies is generally an uphill one. Even superheroes need to hone their super powers, overcome a few hurdles, plot their defence and ultimately work together to save the world.

While your social media strategy may not call for the same techniques required to defeat a super villain, marketers can learn a thing or two from the Avengers. Here are a few ways that social media marketers can embrace their inner superhero and build their own social media army.

Training your team

It takes a lot of hard work to be the best. Ensuring that your staff understand the value of digital/inbound marketing and social media is all about training. If they don’t understand what social media and inbound marketing can do for the business, chances are that they won’t do it very effectively.

Conducting workshops and teaching your team about the importance of this content is a social media management essential. Part of this training should focus on teaching staff about your business model, all the ins and outs of the product, your content strategy and how best to engage with customers.

Working together

While each of the Avengers is a superhero in their own right, the real magic happens when they come together. Harnessing the power of collaboration is all about encouraging your staff to work together to complete tasks themselves, rather than outsourcing work to others.

Content is a great way to do so. Before paying other writers to author blogs, why not motivate your staff to try their hand at writing content. Not only will this add to their digital/inbound knowledge, but it also allows them to put all of the knowledge they gained during their training to good use.

The best offense is a good defense

Defending the free world is a prerequisite on any superhero’s day planner. As a marketer, your aim should be to defend yourself against employee fatigue. By creating a solid content plan, an organised social media planning calendar, spreading the responsibilities for creating content and posting that content, you will eliminate irregularity and ensure consistency across all social accounts.

And why is consistency so important? Not only does it give your business a distinct identity, it also differentiates your business from your competitors, ensures your message stands out in customer’s minds and increases customer loyalty.

Changing your strategy

It’s generally around the middle of the movie that the good guys hit a stumbling block. At this point they usually do a little soul searching and realise that defeating their foes may require them to rethink their game plan.

Where the marketers of old were focused on hard selling, they now need to be thinking about hard content. From blogs and emails to white papers and eBooks, providing useful content is one of the best ways to target customers at any stage of their buying journey.

The key with this content is to provide customers with a compelling enough value proposition so that they are willing to give you their contact information. The idea behind premium content is to market the information as “exclusive” and to convince them that the content has a higher value.

Social media provides a great platform to promote this content and to focus your strategy on getting visitors back to your own website to begin their journey with your business. Get this strategy right and you will have a solid lead generation system that’s future proof.

Making the most of tech

Speaking of content, and sharing this content, technology provides marketers with a great opportunity to promote their content to the masses. Would Thor have the same oomph without his hammer? And what would Iron Man really be able to achieve without his armour? Sure, they’d all still be superheroes but their gadgets make their jobs a whole bunch easier. Marketers should think about social media in the same way.

Using marketing software can enable you to post content on behalf of your whole team. This helps to avoid a big issue for marketers and sales teams alike. Internal email asking everyone to help and share can often be hard to make stick and often only 5% support without more follow ups and aggressive KPIs.

All of this costs time, leads and sales.  Software can help you remove this and if you’ve got a team of 40 for example sharing instantly straight from your marketing department, you’ve just built a social media army and a force to be reckoned with.

At the end of the day, it’s through the efforts of a great team that success is achieved. Whether you’re a social media marketer or a superhero, the principles are the same – if your team know what they need to do, if your attack is well organised and if you’re using the resources you have at your disposal, it’s only a matter of time before you overcome your adversaries.  

Are you keen to build a social army and take your social media management to superhero heights, download our Ultimate Guide to Social Media.

Over the last four years I’ve helped thousands of businesses create marketing guilds so they could generate more leads and customers, share marketing costs, and ultimately dominate their target markets.

You might ask, what the heck is a marketing guild?

Unlike an industrial guild where businesses creating similar products or services work together, a marketing guild is a group of businesses that sell different products to the same people.

Typically a marketing guild is formed by one or two marketers who invite marketers at other businesses with similar customers to join them. For example a mortgage broker, a custom home builder, and a real estate agent could work together to create a marketing guild focused on homeowners in their region.

Some businesses may belong to more than one marketing guild. This is common if you sell to distinctly different customer segments, for example an HVAC company that offers both commercial and residential service.

You probably already have a few marketing partners for your business. Maybe you wrote a guest blog post or allowed someone to write for your blog. You might have a partners page on your website, or you might feature a friendly company in your monthly email newsletter.

Whether you have existing partners or not, building a marketing guild for your industry will make everything you do in marketing exponentially more powerful.

Power Up With a Guild

A marketing guild lets you land better marketing partners, reach more of your target market, focus more tightly on your best prospects, create more effective campaigns, get more done, and have a little fun at the same time.

Unfortunately, your business isn’t the perfect marketing partner to every other business who sells to your target market.

For instance, mortgage brokers get most of their leads from real estate agents. Real estate agents don’t get most of their leads from mortgage brokers.

Imagine being a mortgage broker trying to convince a popular real estate agent to become your marketing partner. What’s in it for them?

But when the mortgage broker first creates a marketing guild comprised of her mortgage business plus a local home inspector, a surveyor, a divorce attorney, a closing attorney, an appraiser, a personal financial planner, a residential insurance agent, and a custom home builder that same real estate agent can’t wait to join the group.

Flex Your Reach

Every marketer struggles to reach all the best prospects in her market. At a minimum, it’s not cost effective. At worst it’s just not possible.

But every successful marketer is able to build relationships with her own little slice of a target market. In a marketing guild, each business makes their little slice available to their partners in exchange for access to the total pie.

Focus on Your Best Prospects

Every time a person interacts with a business, part of a story is told.

• People who visit a mortgage broker’s website probably own a house, or soon will.
• People reading online about rafting trips near Asheville, North Carolina are probably about to book a vacation there.
• People who visit a wedding planner’s website are probably about to get married.

A marketing guild lets you test assumptions like these by introducing your company to prospects who have recently interacted with other businesses in the group.

Follow the Leader

Someone selling to your target customer has already figured out the perfect way to find them, talk to them, and inspire them to take action.

Ask your partners what they’ve learned and share your areas of success. Several heads is always better than one.

Fast-forward to the Finish

I’ve found there’s nothing better than a little peer pressure to get busy partners to deliver their commitments on time. In the fast-paced world of digital marketing it’s easy to overcommit and the natural instinct for partners is to take care of themselves first when they’re behind schedule.

Ever had to nudge a partner to publish a guest blog post you delivered last month?

With a marketing guild, herd mentality keeps people on track. A few partners will hit their deadlines to the group, motivating those playing catch-up to make their contributions too.

Momentum is your friend.

Wait, Did He Say Fun?

Marketing is supposed to be fun, after all. Isn’t it? And nothing’s more fun than interacting with other marketers who face challenges like yours every day.

Digital marketing doesn’t always have to be done online. If you’ve built a local marketing guild among businesses in your community, consider ways to get the group together in real life.

Or, if your group is geographically diverse, set up a Google Group for open communication, or get on a Hangout and get everyone acquainted.

Consider engaging your partners in creative ways, like letting them submit subject lines for an email marketing test. Offer a silly prize to the person whose subject line gets the best open rate.

Marketing Guilds in Action

Marketing guilds work best when members agree upon a calendar of shared promotions in advance. In the next section I’ll talk more about how those agreements can be made.

That said, common activities among marketing guild members include guest blogging, shared social media promotions, writing and promoting group articles, and advertising to pooled remarketing audiences using a tool like BoostSuite.

Now, let’s look at two examples of marketing guilds in action.

The Regional Homeowners Marketing Guild

A regional homeowners marketing guild is comprised of businesses who sell products or services to homeowners in a specific area.

The group consists of one business from each of the following industries:

• Mortgage brokers
• Real estate agents
• Home inspectors
• Surveyors
• Divorce attorneys
• Closing attorneys
• Appraisers
• Personal financial planners
• Residential insurance agents
• Custom home builders

Although home improvement vendors like plumbers, lawn maintenance, appliance repair, and window washers exist too, this group is focused on higher dollar service providers who work more closely around home purchases.

A separate group focused on home improvement and repair vendors who target homeowners could be formed among those service providers too.

The Regional Growing Companies Marketing Guild

A regional growing companies marketing guild organizes businesses who sell products or services to growing businesses in a specific area.

The group consists of one business from each of the following industries:

• Corporate benefits and insurance
• Commercial real estate brokers
• Recruiters/staffing companies
• Accountants
• Attorneys
• Software development firms
• Branding/PR firms
• Financial advisors
• Executive coaching services
• Leadership development seminar providers
• Fractional CFO services
• Venture capital firms
• Community banks

Growing companies need different things than stagnating companies. The industries represented here focus on services most often consumed by businesses on the rise.

5 Steps to Creating A Marketing Guild for Your Industry

Creating the marketing guild you need to grow your business isn’t actually that tough, but in most cases you’ll need to create the group yourself.

Creating a marketing guild takes a bit of brainstorming, a few contacts from your Rolodex, and just a smidge of cat herding (that part comes last).

The first four steps can be done in less than an hour, on paper or digitally. You don’t need to involve your future partners until the last step “assemble the group.”

From experience I’ve also learned that after you confirm the first three members, the rest of the group drops in place pretty quickly.

Follow these five steps to create your marketing guild.

1) Start With Your Target Customer

This one’s usually the easiest.

Answer this question. To whom do you typically sell your products and services? If you’ve already developed marketing personas for your business, start there.

Give your target customers a name. Like ‘homeowners’ or ‘growing companies’ from the examples I shared above.

2) Name Your Marketing Guild

Will your marketing guild focus on customers in a specific region? If so, start the group name with the name of that region. This makes it clear to prospective partners that you’re thinking locally where there best customers are too.

Now, after the region name (if applicable) add your target customer’s name from the previous step.

Region Name + Target Customer

Tri-State + Homeowners

You’ll end up with something like the Tri-State Homeowners Marketing Guild, or the Research Triangle Growing Companies Marketing Guild.

Why’s the name so important? It’s all about the partners you’ll add next.

A clear name focuses the group on a well known target customer and a specific region (if applicable) so your partners will instantly know this is the group for them.

3) Brainstorm a List of Partner Industries

This is probably the most important step of the entire process. Building the correct industry list means your partners can provide you the prospective customers you need, and every business you’re recruiting will benefit from the group as well.

Shoot for at least 10 industries in your list.

What usually happens is you’ll forget one or two now, then your first invitees will suggest them later. Then you’ll find an industry or two where it’s hard to convince good businesses to join. In result, you’ll still end up with around 10 total businesses when you’re done.

To build your list, think again about your target customer. Ask yourself these questions.

• What else do they buy?
• What could they buy that indicates they will soon need your products or services?
• What else do they need soon after they buy from you?

Next, think about your business. In the last six months,

• Have you referred a sales lead to any other business?
• Has a business referred a sales lead to you?

Finally, consider your existing relationships.

• Do you have existing sales or marketing partners?
• Do you have guest blogging relationships?
• Do you have people who frequently promote your content in social media?

Resist the urge to include trade groups in your list. Your best marketing partners will be from other industries that commonly have customers in your target market. You’re not likely to find great marketing partners among businesses too similar to yours, and they can be difficult to work. For this exercise, avoid them entirely.

Review your industry list and make sure each one has prospective customers for your business. Then double check that each other industry has at least two industries who have prospective customers for them too.

4) Select One Business in Each Industry

Go through your industry list and recommend one business to represent each industry in your marketing guild.

If you have multiple businesses you’re considering for any industry, filter your choices down to just one by looking for the following properties of a great marketing guild partner:

1. You already have strong rapport with them.
2. They have the required access and control to be a good partner.
   1. They control their website.
   2. They control their email newsletter.
   3. They control their social media accounts.
   4. They can make marketing and advertising decisions on their own.
3. Their customers are in the same location as your customers.
4. They can credibly invite other partners to the group.

If you’re a local business, watch out for franchisees and branch offices of larger companies. These types of businesses may not be able to support your local marketing activities, especially if their marketing decisions are made at the national or international level.

Avoid the tendency to partner with global businesses if you only sell in one of their regions. It’s unlikely you’ll be a good partner to them and most of their customer relationships will be outside your region.

If you can’t come up with a business for every industry in your list, that’s fine. Leave those spots open. In the next step you can appeal to your early members to help fill in the blanks.

It’s actually a great way to engage the first members of your group. The whole thing feels more like their idea if they’re extended the privilege of recommending one or two businesses themselves.

5) Assemble the Group

Now, let’s put your brilliant plan into action.

You have a clearly defined target customer, and a region if necessary. They’re both proudly represented in your marketing guild name. You have a list of industries and most of them have a business matched to them.

It’s time to assemble your marketing guild.

Email the two or three businesses you think are most likely to join the group. Get their confirmation before emailing the rest.

In each email remind prospective partners who you are, what your business does, and who you sell to. Tell your partners why you’re creating a marketing guild and share the list of industries you plan to include.

Mention one or two other businesses who have already confirmed their spots in the marketing guild and don’t forget to tell the prospective partner that you’ve recommended their business to fill the single spot available in the group for their industry.

I always recommend closing the email with an invitation to the first meeting of the group. If you’re inviting partners outside your area, I recommend you meet online. Make sure to include call-in details and a proposed date and time in your invitation.

Your New Marketing Guild in Action

Congratulations, you’re now the proud founder of your very own marketing guild. Try an agenda like this when your group first gets together:

• Introduce the marketing guild and explain its purpose
• Each marketer explains their business and their role
• Each marketer shares one idea for how they might help other businesses in the group
• Brainstorm a list of shared marketing activities the group can conduct together
• Commit to just one or two marketing activities for the upcoming quarter
• Pick a group leader who will schedule the next meeting and remind everyone of project deadlines as they approach

Like any group, setting expectations upfront is key. Try not to overcommit in all the excitement. Set a few goals for the first quarter, get buy-in from the members, and see how it goes.

If done correctly, your marketing guild will become a key part of your overall marketing strategy. Considering the minimal effort required, it’s an extremely effective way to generate more leads and customers, share marketing costs, and ultimately dominate your target market.

Want to start partnering with like-minded business to build your own marketing guild? Subscribe to the BoostSuite blog and learn more about the free BoostSuite advertising platform.

In my family, memory is an asset.

It’s not that we’re senile. It’s just that our minds move too quickly. We’re so busy jumping ahead to whatever’s next that we forget what we were doing in the first place.

So if we want to remember anything, we have to write it down. We are a to-do list family.

To-do lists have quite the history. They date back at least to the 1700s, as you’ll see below, and have been the subject of glee, contention, and productivity advice alike ever since. And while they’ve evolved significantly over the years, they still stand to serve a pretty similar purpose: To plan what we need to do.

What did that look like, once upon a time? And what does it look like for us today? As it turns out, the answer to the latter is different for everyone, and we’ve identified some of the ways people make to-do lists work for them.

The Earliest To-Do Lists

In his 1791, Benjamin Franklin recorded what was one of the earliest-known forms of a to-do list. But his intention behind the list wasn’t exactly to get stuff done — instead, he used it as a way of making sure he contributed something positive each day. He started his list with the question, “What good shall I do this day?”

Source: Daily Dot

I won’t lie — Franklin’s to-do list doesn’t look entirely far off from mine. Granted, I don’t usually include the words “diversion” and “contrive” to describe what I need to do on a given day, but our respective lists achieve the same thing. I also schedule time in the morning to eat, and often use the lunch hour for my own version of “overlooking accounts.” You and I aren’t so different, Franklin.

What’s really changed are the different options available to us for creating and organizing to-do lists. Though not nearly as ancient as Franklin’s style, many of us can remember owning a paper day planner — those actually date back to 1924, with the debut of the Wanamaker Diary.

Source: Boston Globe

But the age of the digital to-do list really started when computer operating systems were including calendar programs in their ensuite software packages, like primitive versions of Outlook Calendar. Those were followed by a 1992 version of a smartphone called Simon — which included scheduling features — and then came calendar-ready PDAs, or personal digital assistants. The first generation of online calendars came along in the early 2000s, which eventually evolved into programs like Google Calendar that could be synced with their smartphone counterparts.

In other words, it’s been a long time since we needed a pen nearby to take note of something — as long as we have a mobile device nearby, we can text reminders to ourselves, enter events into its calendar program, or use a voice search feature to set a reminder.

But I find it so interesting that something that now seems like antiquated technology — the PDA/personal digital assistant — is now become more applicable than ever again. We’re seeing more and more programs that were originally intended to be voice search platforms evolve into virtual personal assistants. So we’ll definitely touch on those, and how they come into play in the modern age of the to-do list.

How to Make the Most of Your To-Do List: 7 Styles to Try

1) The Classic Handwritten List

Around here, we joke about what an old-fashioned gal I can be. I go to bed early, have a collection of film noir, and reminisce for cartoons of the early 90s. I also keep a handwritten to-do list, which — with all of the bells and whistles available to us these days — is almost archaic.

I have a weird system for using my handwritten to-do list, too: I use it in tandem with Google Calendar, which we’ll get to later, and I use it as a shield from distractions.

When I’m working, I might get a random thought of something that I want to look up on the internet, or a personal message I want to send, or an errand I need to run. More often than I’d like, I respond to those thoughts in one of two ways: 1) Dropping what I’m doing to address it, or 2) saying, “I’ll deal with it later,” and forgetting about it.

But having a notebook beside me while I’m working gives me a place to store these things, without completely interrupting my work to deal with them. Some of them are more important than others, but this way, I have a place to “put away” any distractions. (You’ll notice I use cartoonish exclamation point to indicate “fun” tasks.) And with the rapidly-dwindling attention span of humans, any hack to stay focused is welcome, especially in a deadline-driven line of work.

2) Bullet Journals

It seems like Bullet Journaling is the to-do list du jour. Everyone is talking about it, and yet, so few people seem to understand it.

Even when I surveyed my colleagues who have been giving it a shot, the reviews were mixed — most were falling behind on using it, and the others weren’t sure if it was actually benefiting them. One of them, my fellow marketing blogger Sophia Bernazzani, was kind enough to share a picture of hers:

A Bullet Journal, Bernazzani explained to me, works for her, “because it easily lets me see my big-picture priorities and daily to-dos all in one place.”

According to a semi-official Bullet Journal website, the strategy is best described as a “customizable and forgiving organization system” that works as an all-in-one “to-do list, sketchbook, notebook, and diary.” Here’s what I was able to deduce from the remainder of the website content:

• It’s a list of tasks, events, and miscellaneous notes.
• Lists can be daily, monthly, or yearly.
• Symbols are used to indicate the category and importance of each item.

What sets it apart from other to-do lists is its purpose to keep people from going nuts over the stuff they didn’t get done. It matches some research performed by a productivity app called iDoneThis, which found that 41% of to-do items are never completed. With the Bullet Journal system, nothing is ever crossed off — it’s just labeled with a new symbol that indicates it needs to be migrated to a future date.

The other differentiator is Bullet Journal’s advice to take daily logs one day at a time, instead of listing those items too far in advance. It also recommends not making these lists too long, which also aligns with research — studies have indicated that the more items on our to do lists, the less we’re likely to get done.

3) The 3-Step To-Do List

Earlier this year, my colleague, Christine Ianni, spoke with Pultizer-winning author and journalist Charles Duhigg about how the most productive people manage their time. He revealed a three-step process that breaks down larger, more difficult steps into micro-steps.

It looks something like this. Start with a blank sheet, and then:

1. Think of your stretch goal for the day.
2. Write your goal at the top of your page.
3. Break your goal down into actionable/measurable steps.

Basically, this method decreases the intimidation factor of big projects. When larger goals each have their own to-do list, they’re re-organized into the smaller steps that lead to it being fully complete.

Curious to learn more about how that works? Check out our interview Duhigg on HubSpot’s The Growth Show.

4) Online Calendars

Here’s where my to-do listing is a bit more hip than an old-fashioned, handwritten inventory of distractions. I’ve written before about my tendency to schedule my day down to the very last detail — my online calendars are great for that.

Notice that I pluralized it — “calendars.” That’s because I have multiple online schedules, for both work and personal items. But thanks to cloud technology and the ability of calendars to merge together in one place — like iCal or my phone’s calendar software — I can have all of this information on a single platform.

Like a few of my colleagues, I later found out, I use my online calendars in tandem with another to-do list format. Instead of just listing what I need to do, the calendar breaks down how much time I have to complete things throughout my day, from walking the dog to getting my writing done in the morning.

It also helps me remember to take breaks throughout the day. I’m not always so good at actually taking them, but since the most productive people remember to take 17-minute breaks for every 52 minutes of work they put in, I at least include it as an action item for myself. And by aligning them with my handwritten to-do list — where I write down reminders to look into otherwise distracting things — it helps to ensure that those 52 minutes of work aren’t severely interrupted.

What’s also cool about Google is its “Goals” feature, which lets you schedule out longer-term items — like learning a new language, for example — and dictating how much time you want to dedicate to them each day, month, or year. And, Goals keeps you accountable. If another commitment is scheduled during the time originally set aside to work on that longer-term item, Google will automatically reschedule the latter for you. So no excuses — it’s time to learn Japanese! Or, you know, whatever it is that you want to take up.

5) Virtual Personal Assistants

Last week saw the launch of Google Allo, a “smart messaging app” that also comes equipped with Google Assistant — a virtual concierge, if you will. It’s preemptive to the rumored October 4th launch of Google Home, which sources say is likely to use similar technology.

So why does that matter? Well, Google Home is another addition to the growing list of stand-alone virtual assistants that don’t require the use of a mobile device. And among their many capabilities, these in-home virtual assistants should be able to help set reminders.

Google Home will play in the same leagues as Amazon’s Echo, which uses its own voice search technology, Alexa, to assist with these requests and queries. I’ll let Alec Baldwin — who, by the way, you can come see at INBOUND 2016 — help explain:

Google and Amazon aren’t alone in this technology — let’s not forget Siri, one of the original voice search platforms that was programmed to create to-do lists and set reminders.

Digital personal assistants tend to accomplish different things than the other types we’ve covered thus far. For me, at least, Siri is a great tool for creating or adding things to a to-do list when I’m on-the-go, or don’t have time to go through the process of adding a new event to my calendar.

We anticipate that this method of virtual to-do listing might continue to gain popularity — after all, look at how many major names are entering the space.

6) The “I Did” List

My colleague, Mike Renahan, is rumored around here to know a thing or two about productivity — you can check out some of his articles here. Naturally, I asked him how he organizes his to-do list.

His answer? He doesn’t, really. Instead, he uses what he calls an “I Did” list.

“You write down all the goals you accomplished in a given day,” he explains, “and those dictate what goals you set for yourself tomorrow.”

Here’s an example of what that looks like for him:

As you can see, Renahan keeps this running list in a note in his phone so that he can update it whenever, wherever. “I update this list every day when I’m on the train,” he told me. “It helps me reflect on how productive I was in a given day. And from there, I can start planning realistic goals for the following day.”

Renahan’s approach works to resolve the emphasis on the incomplete by focusing on the good things we did on a given day. And instead just adding more and more things to an existing list, his theory says to use the good things to dictate what you’ll do tomorrow.

7) Task Management Apps

Finally, we reach the inevitable “there’s an app for that” method of organizing to-do lists.

Make no mistake — these apps are different than digital personal assistants. Rather than dictating reminders and scheduling items to a separate platform, many of these apps allow you to be in full control of your tasks.

There are tons of task management apps out there — Wunderlist and the aforementioned iDoneThis are two of the more recognizable names.

But among my colleagues, like the Section Editor of the Hubspot Sales Blog, Leslie Ye, it seems like Todoist is the most popular.

She’s written about it before, and says that being able to triage the items on her to-do list according to their priority is major benefit. Plus, unlike a lot of other task management apps, Todoist has managed to gamify these tasks — the more you successfully complete, the more “karma points” you can earn.

“And accumulating karma points,” Ye explains, “is a fun way to gamify something that is usually a source of stress.”

Feeling organized?

At a time when we seem to be busier than ever — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as that’s been said to improve our cognition — staying organized can become a challenge. But that’s only if you don’t have the right tools and, as we’ve illustrated, there are plenty of those to be found.

As we noted before, not every method is perfect for everyone, and whichever one makes you most productive might not look conventional. These methods can be combined and used in tandem with each other — like I do with handwritten lists and online calendars — or maybe there’s just a singular method that works best for you.

And maybe there’s a really cool, unknown to-do list organization method out there that we need to know about. Got one? Let us know in the comments.

Buying an email list may seem like a good idea when your database seems light and you have an email campaign to run. We get it, no one’s going to apply to your school if they’ve never heard of it. But didn’t you listen to your mother? What did she tell you about short cuts? (Ignore this if your Mom was totally OK with taking short cuts.)

Buying (it’s actually “renting”) an email list is a short cut, which means it’s the fastest route to a host of marketing problems. Bad delivery, open, and conversion rates on your campaign may be the least of your worries.

The entire premise of inbound marketing is that you succeed by attracting the right prospects to you and build a relationship based on your credibility. So your bought list gets your name in front of some new people. Applying to school isn’t an impulse purchase. You still need to start from a place of trust. If you start the process with a purchased list of email addresses, you undermine the entire foundation of your marketing efforts.

The more effective alternative to buying an email list is enticing prospects to freely choose to joining your email list because they’ve had a taste of your content and affirmatively decided they want to hear more from you.

For more information on how to build lists from scratch, check out out ebook From Stranger to Student >>

Look at the contrast. You can send a thoughtful marketing email to a bunch of people who have given you permission to connect and expressed a willingness to hear what you have to say. Or, you can invest your marketing resources and efforts in sending emails to people who may have never heard of you and never given any indication they’re specifically interested in your school.

Which list do you think will convert better?

Bought lists suck because they usually have inaccurate, old information. These lists have been rented umpteen times, so you know the people on it have already been spammed to death. But the results of using these types of lists are more detrimental to your school than one poorly performing email campaign.

You Just Turned Off a Whole Group of People

When you get a prospect’s permission to market to them, you’re continuing a relationship. Whereas when you send random people – and your school is random to them at this point – this marketing email is their first impression of your school. And it’s probably not a very good impression no matter how “perfect” your subject line, how great your messages are or how well laid out its design is. Some people on a purchased list may have been, at some point, interested in learning more about your school. They may have found you during their own self-initiated research phase.

Now when they deepen their own research efforts and they’re ready to see your school, they’ll remember you as that intruder who showed up uninvited in their inboxes. That may smack of either desperation or aggressiveness to them. Not good. And that’s lost trust and credibility you can’t get back easily.

Using Purchased Lists Undermines the Deliverability of ALL Your Emails

When we get unsolicited emails, we typically mark them as spam. You do too. Everyone does that. When lots of people start marking your emails as spam, you start getting a bad reputation with your email service provider (ESP). ESPs are deeply invested in making sure that the emails sent through their systems don’t get dinged as spam, as they’re being watched too.

An ESP with a high volume of spam email sent through its servers can have all the email going through it blocked by the internet service providers. That cramps their business. So before it gets to that point, the ESP will block the bad actor in its midst that’s putting their operations at risk — you.

That means that none of your email, regardless of who the intended recipients are, will get through. All your email marketing efforts will be shut down. No alumni drive emails. No campaigns to schedule on-campus tours with people who’ve downloaded an application. No follow-up campaigns with candidates who visited your campus. 

That’s why most ESPs (the reputable ones, anyway) make it a violation of their terms of service for you to use a purchased list or send spam. Another reason to avoid buying email lists.

You Lose Out on Good Intel

Email personalization is a huge driver of lead nurturing and conversion success. People respond to emails that are directly relevant to them. They want to get emails that are relevant to their preferences and concerns. You only send personalized email when your organization has accurate intel about the people in your database. 

We’re not just talking about a lack of information or inaccurate information you’ll find on a purchased list. That’s part of it. Sending an email to someone about your medical code billing program when they’re interested in nursing doesn’t present your institution as reliable or terribly capable. 

That’s all true. But your real loss comes due to lack of attention and smart intel gathering on the list you already have. Getting a prospect into your database is only the first step. When you design your forms, and use progressive profiling, you’re collecting the information you want. You can start asking prospects for their expected application timeframe, academic major, or extracurricular interests. Any information you can use to deliver personalized content that can have the greatest impact.

You send emails and make other offers of content or reasons to connect. Everything your contacts do, or don’t do, tells you more about them so you can send more on-target offers down the line. Someone in your database starts reading a lot of blog posts about students with children. Identifying this behavior lets you trigger off an email series that includes video testimonials from current students with children and links to pages on your website that explain your flexible, online learning opportunities.

These are the insightful intelligence data bits that fuel your marketing strategies for segmenting and personalizing your future offers to them.

Beware the False Economies 

A false economy is where you act to cut down on costs, only to discover in the end that action cost you a bundle instead. The direct cost of buying an email list may seem low. It’s certainly less expensive than the direct investment of time and effort to build a strong opt-in list.

But the costs you risk — undermining your school’s reputation by getting tagged as a spammer, losing the ability to send any emails, and letting competitor institutions cut in on the opt-in names you’re not attracting and leveraging — make buying email lists an exceedingly expensive tactic you can avoid. Bottom line: Build your list. Don’t rent one. 

 

Content marketing is constantly evolving, which is what we here on the HubSpot blogging team love about our jobs. It keeps things interesting. And while it’s easy to get caught up in experimenting with innovative content, it’s important that we pay close attention to how our readers are changing, too.

According to HubSpot Research, 2016 marks the start of a new phase of technological development, where new innovations and consumer preferences will usher in a new way of how marketers will do business.

Our research team surveyed over 1,000 internet users worldwide to learn about their preferences and behaviors when it comes to their content consumption habits. In this article, we’re diving deeper into two specific trends to discuss how marketers can prepare their content strategies to meet the needs of their readers.

What content types do readers want to see more of in the future?

HubSpot Research found that internet users’ behaviors are changing to reflect a growing interest in visual content. They’re also shifting where they’re reading content, choosing social media platforms over of more traditional blog and long-form outlets:

It’s important to note that these survey results don’t mean that content creators should abandon mediums such as blogging or podcasting, as these content outlets will continue to provide value over time. Instead, what the above chart suggests is that marketers should develop a more diversified strategy to meet the growing demand for alternative content types such as video and social media content.

How are readers consuming content?

For content creators, it’s important to know what kind of content readers want, and also how they want to read it. HubSpot found that different types of content are more likely to retain readers’ close attention than others. Generally speaking, longer written content is more likely to be skimmed, and content with more visual elements, such as videos and images, are more likely to be thoroughly consumed:

Now that we’ve reviewed the types of content readers want and how they want to consume them, let’s take a look at some effective examples of below.

10 Pieces of Content Your Audience Actually Wants to See

Click on the categories below to check out examples of the types of content your audience is looking for:

1. Videos
2. Social Media
3. News Articles
4. Research Content
5. Online Classes/Educational Games

Videos

Video is and will continue to be a huge part of content marketing: According to Cisco, 80% of web traffic will be video by 2019. That’s a lot. And this same sentiment is reflected in the latest report from HubSpot Research, where 45% of survey respondents admitted to watching 1+ hours of video on Facebook and YouTube each week.

To further illustrate this point, let’s consider that users watch 8 billion videos on Facebook and 10 billion videos on Snapchat per day. Today, social media platforms are becoming more about content sharing and discovery, so an integrated video and social media strategy will be necessary for brands seeking to compete. (Learn more about creating video for social media in our free ebook.)

1) Tasty on BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed’s Tasty videos are a great example of the type of video content people want to consume. According to their Facebook Page, they can be best described as “snack-sized videos and recipes you’ll want to try.” It’s as simple as that.

Each video covers one recipe in an engaging, fast-motion format — making them tailor-made for Facebook scanners.

Why this work so well:

• They’re short and sweet. Mini Matters reports that YouTube viewers favor short videos, approximately 42 seconds in length.
• They don’t require sound to understand what’s going on. According to Digiday, 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound.
• They teach how-to skills. Google reports that searches for “how to” video content have increased 70% year-over-year.

Views: 1.1 million

2) Vox Media

Vox’s video content varies between news, explainers, entertainment, and how-to videos (check out their full YouTube channel here), and their videos are highly shareable and easy to consume.

Why this work so well:

• The video are around two minutes in length. According to research from Wistia, this length is optimal to ensure viewers watch all the way through to the end.
• They feature captions and animations so viewers can understand the gist of the video without having to turn on the volume.
• They cover breaking news, which 64% of Twitter users surveyed said they want to see more of.

Views: 2.7 million

Social Media

The global social media audience is vast: Facebook has 1.7 billion daily active users (DAUs), Instagram has 500 million, Twitter has 313 million, and Snapchat has 150 million. Users are consuming more content than ever on social media networks, and content creators will have to shift their publication strategy to meet their audience where they’re gathering information.

3) Intel

 

#TBT Ready for lift-off: all systems were a go for an amazing Drone 100 night at Sydney Opera House. #IntelAtVivid http://pic.twitter.com/z3gLXkZbuC

— Intel (@intel)
September 8, 2016

Here’s another example of the power of video marketing in the context of social media posts — the second most popular content form users are looking for. Intel creates products in the information technology and cloud computing space, but their tweets touch on how technology interacts with the rest of the world.

For example, this tweet shares a video from Drone 100, an event Intel hosted in Sydney, Australia where users launched Intel drones for a crowdsourced light show. (Learn more about how to use Twitter for business here.)

Why this work so well:

• The tweet uses video, which drives engagement: 82% of Twitter users watch video content, and Twitter videos drive more retweets, likes, and replies than video on third-party players.
• The tweet uses relevant hashtags sparingly. Locowise found that numerous hashtags don’t contribute to greater Twitter engagement, but that the occasional relevant hashtag, such as #TBT or a branded campaign hashtag, can help new users find your content.

Retweets: 190, Likes: 492

4) FedEx

FedEx features stunning photos of their trucks, planes, and envelopes around the world, and what’s more, the vast majority of their posts are photos taken by other Instagram users. Rather than posting boring photos from a mail sorting facility, FedEx featured this gorgeous shot of a branded plane with a full moon in the background.

Why this works so well:

• Their Instagram features user-generated content (UGC), which humanizes brands and promotes greater brand engagement.
• Their posts feature hashtags, which help users find new Instagram accounts to follow. According to research from TrackMaven, Instagram posts with four to five hashtags saw an increase in interactions.

Likes: 1,337

News Articles

Four in ten Americans get their news online, and 55% of HubSpot Research respondents find new content by searching on publications’ websites directly. That said, online newspapers and magazines should continue regular, if not daily, publication to keep up with reader demand.

5) ESPN

According to our research, more readers want news articles, but that doesn’t mean they want to read them thoroughly. As 37% of those surveyed indicated they would be more likely to skim-read news articles, this article from ESPN does a great job of balancing the desires of skim-readers and content devourers alike.

Why it works so well:

• This longer article features an accompanying video for those who don’t have the time to read the full text.
• It includes bullets and images to maintain reader attention and to break up larger paragraphs of text.

Facebook Shares: 1.9K

6) Mashable

Here’s a shorter news article from Mashable, the blog-turned-news outlet that covers anything and everything related to the technology in our lives. This article does a great job of balancing the needs of both skim-readers and close-readers with its comprehensive overview without overwhelming readers.

Why it works so well:

• The article incorporates tweets and external content from Elon Musk’s master plan to make the article more diverse and visually interesting.
• The article uses visuals, which are more memorable than text alone according to the picture superiority effect.
• It has a clear headline that tells the story of the article if readers don’t make it to the end, which Copyblogger tells us only 20% will.

Social Media Shares: 2.2K

Research Content

Based on our survey, readers are looking for original research that can be consumed thoroughly, but also easily understood. Research publications should look to other trends in content marketing, such as the increased interest in visual elements, to guide their research strategy.

7) Chartbeat

Here’s a short and sweet research article from the folks over at Chartbeat. If you’re producing research content at your organization, there are a few strategies you can test to get more readers looking at your work.

Why it works so well:

• It uses effective data visualization. According to Brain Rules, relevant images accompanied by reading or hearing information helps us remember 65% of the information days later — when we read text alone, we only remember 10%.
• It uses color, which is an important factor when it comes to creating visual elements: Color improves content readership, recall, and attention span by roughly 80%.
• Text is broken up with quickly digestible images, like the clearly captioned graphs above. This is important because research shows that readers might only read 20% of an article’s text, while scanning the rest.
• The content is actionable. Readers want to come away knowing how to apply the results of findings to their own strategies.

8) Nielsen

Here’s another cool graphical breakdown of research from Nielsen, which researches consumer and media behaviors around the world. They conducted detailed research about global eating habits and how they’ve evolved according to demographic and socioeconomic changes around the world, but the published results aren’t lengthy. It’s easy to scan this research and quickly glean the results without poring over a huge paper.

Why it works so well:

• The headline inspires curiosity in the reader and takes advantage of a phenomenon known as the curiosity gap, which makes readers more likely to click and learn new information.
• The research article uses information-carrying images, such as graphs, infographics, and charts, which readers typically pay more attention to than the rest of the text on the page.

Online Classes/Educational Games

9) CodeAcademy

CodeAcademy’s online coding classes are easy, portable, and, most importantly, free. Anyone can sign up for these interactive lessons and see the website, game, or program they’re building as they complete each module so they can see their finished product.

Why they work so well:

• The classes meet a demand: CodeAcademy teaches Java, SQL, and Python, which are among the most popular coding skills in terms of their demand in the workplace.
• The classes have clear course objectives and are easy to use, which, according to an Eduventures survey, were students’ top priorities when pursuing online classes. CodeAcademy’s bare bones platform is split so that students can always see an overview on the left-hand side of what they’re studying and how it will help them long-term.

Users: 24 million

10) HubSpot Academy Certifications

HubSpot Academy Certifications are free online training courses centered around the development of marketing and sales skills. The Inbound Marketing Certification course, for example, provides folks with an opportunity to invest in their career by staying up-to-date on the latest marketing best practices.

Why they work so well:

• The classes are self-paced. This approach represents a growing trend in the e-learning space, as it allows student the flexbility they need to work around their schedules.
• The classes meet a demand. The HubSpot Academy Certifications cover critical areas such as inbound marketing, sales, and email marketing — some of the most in-demand skills in the marketing and advertising industries.

Users: 50K

Common Themes for Marketers

That was a lot of information. Let’s review some common themes and takeaways that you can apply to your content strategy after finishing this article:

1. Keep video content short and sweet. Ideally, it won’t require sound to be played.
2. Video content should answer a question or meet a demand that lots of people are looking for.
3. Humor (when appropriate) makes for memorable content.
4. Images and videos are key to more engaging social media posts.
5. Social proof helps beef up claims behind your content.
6. Experiment with user-generated content for greater social media engagement.
7. Use clear, grabbing headlines to draw the attention of readers.
8. Use images, bullets, and formatting to break up text in longer articles for skim-reading.
9. Make content actionable so readers can come away knowing what to do next.
10. Use graphs and infographics to display numerical data when possible.

Now that you know how to create different types of content that 2016 readers are looking for, check out the rest of our content marketing research, and learn key tips and tricks for writing great content today.

What’s your favorite type of content? Are you more likely to skim-read some types of content more than others? Share with us in the comments below.

Think your email skills are strong? Think again. As it turns out, we all overestimate our ability communicate effectively over email.

In a study published in the Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, email writers thought readers would correctly identify the tone of their emails about 78% of the time. In reality? Only 56% of emails were interpreted accurately.

That means when you send an email off to a client, there’s a pretty good chance they won’t fully grasp your intended meaning.

So how can you proof your emails to avoid problematic misunderstandings with your clients? Start by cutting the fat. The following commonly used phrases are unnecessary, cliché, and easy to misinterpret. Eliminate them from your email repertoire to take your client communications to the next level.

10 Common Phrases to Stop Using in Client Emails

1) “Sorry to bother you”

You might say this when you want to sound polite and considerate of your client’s busy schedule, but opening an email with an apology immediately undermines your credibility.

It’s in your client’s best interest to cooperate with the agency or freelancer they hired, so there’s no need to apologize for sending them a legitimate business email that helps advance their project.

Instead of apologizing, get straight to the point: Why are you really contacting your client, and what do you need from them? They’ll appreciate your candor.

2) “Let’s touch base”

This phrase has the not-so-honorable distinction of being one of the most overused corporate phrases ever, and unless you’re literally talking about landing a helicopter, there’s no need to use it in your client emails.

The biggest issue with asking a client to “touch base” is that it’s too vague. It’s a filler phrase that doesn’t explain to your client what you want to discuss, leaving them completely in the dark.

Swap it out for something actionable that lets the client know what their next steps should be, e.g., “Let’s meet on Friday to discuss the latest website edits.”

3) “To be honest with you … “

This one is tricky. It’s commonly used to add emphasis to a candid remark or soften the blow of a blunt comment (“To be honest with you, that red marquee banner is aggressive”), but it could have the exact opposite effect, leaving your client wondering, “Wait … were you not being honest with me before?”

This seemingly innocuous phrase can make it seem like you’ve been hiding your true opinions this whole time, which obviously isn’t great for building trust. The client hired you for your expertise, so they expect you to share your true opinions openly and honestly, not just in select situations.

Cut this phrase from your emails and instead focus on telling it like it is — without any crutch phrases.

4) “You should … “

When you’re on the 4,267th revision of a project, and your client is insistent that pink Comic Sans font is the way to go, it can be challenging to refrain from typing back, “You should really just use X font instead.”

Yes, your client did hire you to give them advice, but they didn’t hire you to make all their decisions for them. While starting a sentence with “you should” might sound fine in person, it could easily be misinterpreted as pushy or dismissive over email. 

Use “I recommend … ” instead — it will make sure your remarks are read as friendly advice. Offer your client alternatives, not ultimatums. 

5) “No problem”

Customer service experts and business writers agree: “No problem” can be a big problem. This ostensibly polite phrase is usually a knee-jerk reaction to “Thank you,” but it can subtly communicate to your client that whenever you do something for them, it actually is a problem. “No problem” sounds like you’re forgiving your client for an offense, rather than accepting their thanks.

Are we overthinking this? Maybe. Should you still cut it from your emails? Definitely. It’s easy enough to replace with a “You’re welcome,” or “Sure thing,” rather than risk the miscommunication.

6) “I’ll try … “

In a world ruled by deadlines and calendar invites, “I’ll try” sounds wishy-washy. If you respond to a client’s request with “I’ll try to get that done by Wednesday,” or “I’ll try to redo the color scheme,” you aren’t exactly instilling confidence in your ability to get the work done. Even worse, it can make the client see you as disengaged or not fully committed to their project.

When communicating over email without the aid of body language and tone, it’s important to convey information in precise, detailed terms. Even if you’re legitimately unsure about when you’ll be able to get something done, provide the client with a real deadline — just push it out far enough to give yourself adequate time. Be clear about your timeline and priorities with the client. 

7) “The problem is … “

Issues will inevitably arise on client projects. It’s how you frame them that really matters.

Instead of framing a problem as well, a problem, try to explain it is a specific challenge with a known solution. The additional information will help assure the client that you know exactly what’s wrong, and more importantly, how to fix it.

“The problem is your website navigation is broken,” sounds alarming and vague, but “We’re working on fixing some coding issues with your website navigation” sounds like you have a handle on what’s happening.  

8) “I completely understand how you feel”

Before you write this in an email, stop and think: Have you ever been in this exact situation before? No? Then don’t write this phrase. It will only frustrate an already-frustrated client.

“I understand how you feel” might seem like a thoughtful, well-intentioned thing to write to a client experiencing project roadblocks, but it can come across as distanced and condescending in an email.

There’s almost always a better, more specific way to level with a client when things aren’t going as planned. Try: “I can definitely see how this is frustrating for you, and I want to make sure we’re addressing it ASAP.” Action-oriented language will console a client more than vague apologies.

9) “As I mentioned before … “

Even though it might seem like you’re always explaining the same things over and over again to your clients, it’s important to avoid this morale-killing phrase. The average person receives 122 emails per day, so you’ll have to forgive them if they occasionally skim through or miss some of your communications.

Instead of drawing attention to the fact that you’re repeating yourself (as satisfying as that might seem) try to be considerate of the fact that — like you — your client is busy, and sometimes details slip through the cracks. If a client is consistently missing the point, it’s probably time for a face-to-face meeting or a call. Not everything can be solved over email.

10) “Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you”

This phrase can be an unexpected coup de grâce for your inbox, inviting a bombardment of requests and tweaks from your client — some of which might even fall out of the project’s scope.

Asking if you can help your client with anything else seems like a perfectly harmless way to close an email, but it can actually signal that you’re willing to accommodate each and every request that arises. Instead of opening the door for any and all new requests, be precise: “Let me know if you have specific questions about the new website navigation.”

What phrases do you avoid using in client emails? Let us know in the comments. 

By now, you may have heard of a musical called Hamilton.

In you haven’t, here’s a rundown: Since its Broadway debut in August 2015, people can’t get enough of it. They’re paying upwards of $500 for crappy seats, and close to $3,000 for good ones. It won a Pulitzer, a Grammy and 11 Tony Awards. Its composer and original star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, is now a celebrity.

In other words: People are listening to this stuff.

Seeing the way Hamilton captivated such massive audiences — in less than a year — fascinates me. How the heck did this thing blow up?

(Psst. If you’re eager for some Hamilton action, Leslie Odom Jr. — a star from the original cast — is performing at INBOUND this year.)

Watching the progress and near-instant success of Hamilton is really a lesson in why people listen — not just to a hit musical, but to a person, a podcast, or anything, really. A lot can be learned by looking into those reasons, especially for marketers. To what and whom do people listen? Why? And how can we get them to listen to us? 

To answer those questions, we did some research on the listening process, our motivations for listening, and more.

The Listening Process

To listen, according to Merriam-Webster, is “to hear what someone has said and understand that it is serious, important, or true.”

Listening helps us to satisfy different physiological goals. We listen to alter our moods, stay alert, and figure stuff out. In humans, that’s been the case for pretty much as long as we’ve been in existence.

The listening process starts when we receive auditory stimuli. Then, our brains have to interpret that stimulus. That’s enhanced by other senses — like sight — which help us better interpret what we’re hearing.

Then, once we receive and interpret auditory signals, we follow a series of steps that consist of recalling, evaluating, and responding to the information we consume: 

Source: Matthew Edward Dyson

It’s that third step in the entire process — recalling — that might be the most important one for marketers. Numerous studies have discovered how listening triggers a widespread network of activity throughout the entire brain. That activity is what so strongly links auditory stimuli to memory.

That’s particularly true of music: Research has revealed a partial restoration of memory in Alzheimer’s patients upon hearing their favorite music. In other words, we know that listening heavily correlates with memory, which helps explain the mjor success of something like Hamilton — it’s a musical theatre production, which really epitomizes the intersection of auditory and visual stimuli.

Source: Carina Zimmerman

When people talk it up, they’re actually sharing a story about their memories of seeing it. And no matter what happens to our attention spans, we still seem to love a good story.

That comes back around to what we do as marketers, really. We share the stories of and about our brands in a way that will get people to — you guessed it — listen.

The Art of Getting People to Listen

Earlier this year, my colleague, Lindsay Kolowich, put together a post on how to make a speech memorable. The infographic touched on a few guidelines that can be applied to, well, pretty much anything that you want someone to listen to:

• Start strong
• Make it informative and interesting
• Think of your audience

Aha! Your audience — remember them? Knowing your audience is going to help you create the content they want to listen to, but that also requires an understanding of their motivations for listening. 

And in a modern context, our motivation to listen runs a bit deeper, especially when it’s something we don’t have to hear. We’re not listening in survival mode as much as we did in infancy or ancient times — we now have the luxury of electing to listen to most things.

So let’s explore some generally understood, non-survival motivations for listening these days. I’ll use our old friend Hamilton to put those things in context — it shows how people’s reasons for listening have been successfully put into practice.

4 Motivations for Listening (and How to Tap Into Them)

1) They’re familiar with the person or the work.

Hamilton’s earliest audiences may have tuned in because they knew about Miranda’s previous work. Perhaps they were fans of In the Heights, or had seen one of his smaller performances. Either way, it got them to come back and listen to him again.

Some people think of that as the mere-exposure effect: A psychological principle that states we prefer the things that are familiar to us.

Key takeaway: When you’re trying to figure out how to get someone to listen to you, start by tapping the folks who already know you — the ones whose attention you already have. At HubSpot, we call those folks evangelists: The people who advocate for your brand. If you want to expand your reach, it’s important to know who your evangelists are, and how to keep them motivated (which you can learn more about here).

2) They share values with what or whom they’re listening to.

Even if someone wasn’t familiar with Miranda’s work, if they had the basic context of Hamilton — a hip-hop musical about a historical figure — that might have been enough to get them to listen. Maybe that person just likes hip-hop. Or musicals. Or history.

When you isolate the different components of what you’re trying to market, that gives you more options to pique people’s interests. I’ll use myself as an example — while I’m the type of person for whom The History Channel quickly cures insomnia, I will jump at the chance to listen to some great rap music. Therefore: A rap about history? Okay, I’ll bite.

Key takeaway: Break your message or story down into different elements that people might actually want to listen to. That can help to draw in a diversified audience, by pitching these different pieces to the people who like them the most. 

3) Someone told them to.

I have to wonder how many people bought tickets to see Hamilton, or even first listened to its soundtrack, because so many people recommended it. We call that social proof: the theory that people will adopt the beliefs or actions of a group of people they like or trust.

In his book Contagious, Author Jonah Berger found that the content receiving the most word-of-mouth contained six essential qualities: Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, and Stories.  

See that? “Stories.” “Emotion.” “Social.” Those are the qualities that get people to keep listening, and get the people who they share it with to listen, too.

Key takeaway: Give your current audience the right incentive to listen and share. illustrate your message through an emotional story. Teach people something they’ll want to pass on to their coworkers or friends. In short: Position your message in a way that makes it hard not to end up telling someone else about it. 

4) They think that what they’re listening to will be good.

And while you can’t please everyone, you can do your best to make sure that you’re giving them something of quality. Remember — make it informative and interesting, but also make it true to yourself and your brand.

After all, that worked for Lin-Manuel Miranda. He took the things that fascinated him — musical composition, hip hop, and the life of Alexander Hamilton — and turned it into a phenomenon that actually got and held people’s attention.

Key takeaway: Find out what matters to you, and use what we’ve covered here today to make it matter to others.  

Amazing things happen when people listen. Now, you have the tools to get them there.

What are your best tips for catching the attention of an audience? Share them with us in the comments below.