In 2022, the marketing world continued to evolve.

Not only did we get the ability to shop directly on our favorite social media apps, but we also began to hear lots of the futuristic buzz around AR/VR, the metaverse, and Web3 development.

As we move into another unique year, marketers might wonder if and how other companies in their industry are keeping up with everything going on.

To help marketers like you keep a pulse on how other brands are doing, HubSpot analyzed data from 150,000+ companies. In this post, we’ll note the three key marketing themes we discovered and how they could impact you today.

Want a full view of how the bigger business performed and what you can do to keep your company up? Read our full-year Business Data Recap on the Hustle Blog now.

About this Data: These insights are based on data aggregated from 130,000+ HubSpot customers globally between July 2021 and September 2022. Because the data is aggregated from HubSpot customers’ businesses, please keep in mind that the performance of individual businesses, including HubSpot’s, might differ based on their own markets, customer base, industry, geography, stage and/or other factors.

3 Marketing Data Themes We Saw in 2022

2022 Web Traffic Struggled to Outpace 2021

In 2021, much of the world was still reopening following the worst of the pandemic. And, although people were starting to get out of the house and disconnect from their screens more often, others were still highly connected, working mostly remote, and doing everything from shopping to entertaining themselves from home.

In 2022, as the global events we went through seem farther and farther in the past, more people than ever are trying to get out of the house, get off their computers, and continue to trade Zoom calls and texts with real, in-person connections.

In 2021, we also saw people become more honest with themselves about work. Instead of spending 10 hours a day in the office or working from home, they opted to take more time off, set work-life balance boundaries, or even take part in quiet quitting.

Lastly, we saw in our quarterly analyses, and note in the section below, that marketers sent fewer emails which also received lower email open rates overall throughout the year. For some sites, email can be the biggest traffic source following search engine and direct traffic. And, when any channel sees these impacts, it could greatly impact year-over-year performance.

With the factors above in mind, it’s not too shocking that web traffic across all industries took a hit in 2022 compared to 2021, with a 6.7% YoY dip.

The only industry that didn’t see a dip was, unsurprisingly, Leisure and Hospitality. This industry, which saw major business impact during COVID travel and country-wide shutdowns, is now showing signs of picking back up with a 6.35% YoY traffic increase.

The industries that saw the biggest dips were Trade, Transportation, and Utilities, as well as  Professional and Business Services, which both saw more than a 7% traffic tip in 2022.

Marketing Emails Struggled to Capture Subscribers

As we hinted above, email open rates took a tip in 2022. Across industries, email open rate dropped by a whopping 12.89% while email opens dropped by just under 4%.

Metric	YoY (2022 vs. 2021)	Sample size
Email sends	11.01%	167,457
Email opens	-3.32%	167,457
Email open rate	-12.89%	167,457

While there could be many possibilities for this, a few impacts that seem likely are:

• Businesses sent too many emails. In 2022, companies sent 11% more marketing emails than usual, which could have easily fatigued subscribers, caused disengagement, or even hurt email subscription size. On top of this, sales reps also might have been sending emails more frequently as sales email open rates dipped by 11.6%, hinting that those who were subscribers AND prospects could’ve definitely gotten bloated inboxes.
• Email oversaturation from all sorts of brands (which also likely amped up email sends) could have caused higher competition in subscriber inboxes than in previous years. On top of marketing emails to compete with,
• Growing subscriber lists. While this shows people are investing in your brand and content, it can open rates harder to maintain. Because open rates decreased by a much larger percentage than that of opens, this could mean marketers added more contacts to their subscription lists, but only received opens from the same or slightly fewer people.
• Inboxes are continuing to improve organization, junk, and spam filters. While this is better for the consumer, these pivots could be moving emails out of sight, although this is less likely if spam rates for your email campaign are low.
• Competition from other mobile platforms: With the growth of social media and other mobile content-driven apps, emails could be feeling less relevant to some consumers, despite still being a solid marketing tactic.

If you leverage email marketing, keep track of your subscribers and your competition, as well as how email consumption and content is changing to ensure that you’re prioritizing sends with the highest potential impact. This will ensure that your content has a fighting chance of catching your subscriber’s eye in a busy list of unread messages.

Ultimately, your subscribers, prospects, and potential customers could reward you for understanding their needs with both engagements and even purchases.

Still, Marketing Efforts Yielded Lead & Conversion Impact

Although marketers aren’t closing deals like sales reps, they still drew in business impact despite lower traffic and email open engagements.

Leads and conversions, the biggest ties marketing departments often have to a business’s bottom line actually went up year-over-year.

While web conversions saw a nearly 11% increase, inbound leads went up by 6.66%

Although web conversions would be likely to go up due to the lower ratio of web visits (noted above), the number of inbound leads rising shows that companies are still growing their prospect lists.

Unsurprisingly, Leisure and Hospitality saw the largest growth in leads at a whopping 18.3% YoY, as well as the second-highest increase in website conversions at just over 12%.

Although they saw lowering traffic in 2022, other notable lead-growth industries were:

• Education & Health Services: 10.6% lead growth and an 11% rise in conversion rate.
• Professional & Business Service: 7.7% lead growth and a 13.7% rise in conversion rate.

These industries all make sense as top performers because the businesses within them often sell expensive or high-commital offerings (whether they be B2B or B2C). A random consumer won’t just pay for something like this after reading a single landing page, so the marketing teams within these areas are likely skilled in building robust lead-nurturing strategies.

One industry that seemed to struggle in 2022 was the Construction industry, which saw decreases in all metrics we looked at across the board, including inbound leads (-3.8%), web conversions (-0.65%), and web traffic (-6.84%). While we aren’t completely sure why this is, here are two of our best guesses (which would likely be temporary):

• Due to the rising costs of inflation, materials, and construction team talent, construction projects that consumers and businesses might have invested in within the last decade have gotten more expensive or unaffordable..
• During 2020, building and/or owners took advantage of their time at home or the lack of people in public/office buildings and used that time to invest in construction, remodels or maintenance. But beginning in 2021 and continuing on in 2022, construction has seen a less motion. Ultimately, as the cost of living rises and people return back to work, these projects might not be gaining as much interest or engagement online.

What’s Next for Marketers in 2023

While we can’t predict the future, we expect lead generation and conversion plays to be more important than ever to marketers as they aim to benefit their business’s bottom in still-unprecedented times. But, because people of the internet are still as hyperconnected as ever, anything could happen with traffic or email marketing.

Ultimately, what you do with your brand’s marketing plan is up to you. And, those decisions should be made with data from your company, your targets, and your own competitive analyses.

If you’re a marketing leader, entrepreneur, or just really interested in how overall businesses compared in 2022, check out this detailed business recap o all of the 2022 metrics we dug into. Or, get more tips on planning the most innovative marketing plan from our State of Marketing Report below.

I get it, fellow marketers —sometimes, you just need the numbers.

The juggernaut known as social media only gets bigger with every new year, and because of that, demographics shift with it. And, ultimately, keeping on top of important numbers before your social media campaigns can help you with ROI in the long run. 

Here, we’ve compiled the state of social media demographics, optimized with the most important data you need to know about your audience and shaping your personas for 2023.

General Social Media Demographics

• Roughly 82% of Americans between 18 and 49 years old use at least one social media site. (Pew Research Center)
• The top way marketers find their audience on social media is by researching relevant online communities, such as Facebook Groups and subreddits. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• 84% of marketers are targeting Millennials in their social media strategy, followed by Gen X (52%), then Gen Z at 22%. Only 14% of marketers target Baby boomers. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• Most marketers say that short-form video content is the most popular content format for Gen Z. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• Social media users use an average of 7.2 social media platforms per month. (Hootsuite)

Facebook Demographics

General

• As of 2021, Facebook has over 2 billion monthly active users. (Statista)

• Facebook has almost 2 million daily active users and 2.9 monthly active users. (Meta)

• Facebook is the most effective platform for community building. (HubSpot Blog Research)

• The average adult in the U.S. spends 33 minutes on Facebook per day. (Statista)

• Facebook is the most popular social media platform for marketers. (HubSpot Blog Research)

• Facebook is the fourth most visited website in the U.S. (Semrush)

Age and Gender

Please note that audience data for individuals who do not identify within the binary are not reported.

• Globally, 56.4% of Facebook users identify as male while 43.6% identify as female. (Statista)

• Facebook is Gen X and Baby Boomers favorite social media platform. (HubSpot Blog Research)

• 91% of Baby Boomers, 88% of millennials, and 83% of Gen X have visited Facebook in the last three months. (Hubspot Blog Research)

• 31% of U.S. adults regularly get news from Facebook. (Pew Research Center)

• Only 12% of Gen Z-ers say they use Facebook more than any other platform. (HubSpot Blog Research)

Geography

• India has the most Facebook users at 329 million, with the United States in second place with 179 million users. (Statista)

Takeaways

As the most popular social media network, Facebook is definitely a platform worth investing in. Its largest user group is Gen X but it still has a wide range of users across all ages. Furthermore, Facebook is popular worldwide, making it a great social media network for brands of all industries and locations.

Instagram Demographics

General

• 500+ million users are active on the platform every day. (Instagram)
• Instagram has the highest ROI, engagement, and highest quality leads. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• The average amount of time per day spent on Instagram is 28 minutes. (Statista)

Age and Gender

Please note that audience data for individuals who do not identify within the binary are not reported.

• Males between the ages of 18 to 24 represent the largest demographic on Instagram, followed closely by males between 25 to 34 years old. (Statista)
• Most women on Instagram are between 18 and 34 years old. (Statista)
• The smallest age group on Instagram is senior males 65+. (Statista)
• In the past few months, 55% of Gen X-ers and 27% of Baby Boomers have visited Instagram. (HubSpot Blog Research)

Geography

• India and the U.S. lead the board as the countries with the largest Instagram audience sizes, similar to Facebook. (Statista)
• For two consecutive years, the most geo-tagged city in the world on Instagram has been Los Angeles, California. (Mention + Hubspot)
• The country with the most Instagram posts in 2020 was the the U.S., leading with 571K posts, followed by Brazil with over 300K posts. (Mention + HubSpot)

Takeaways

Instagram is another leading social media platform with a large user base spanning all age groups, and it offers advanced ecommerce features, making it incredibly popular among consumers and valuable to brands.

Twitter Demographics

General

• Twitter is the seventh most visited website in the U.S. (Semrush)
• There are 347,200 Tweets sent per minute on Twitter. (Statista)
• As of December 2022 Twitter’s audience is over 368 million monthly active users globally. (Statista)
• The average amount of time per day spend on Twitter is 31 minutes. (Statista)

Age and Gender

Please note that audience data for individuals who do not identify within the binary are not reported.

• Twitter’s user base heavily skews male with only 43.6% of users identifying as female. (Statista)

Geography

• The U.S. is the country with the most Twitter users, at 77 million with Japan right behind at 58.2 million. (Statista)

Takeaways

If you’re looking to build a community surrounding your brand, Twitter is a great place to start. It’s particularly popular in the U.S., so if that aligns with your target audience, consider setting up your virtual shop there.

TikTok Demographics

General

• TikTok is the best platform for building an active community for Gen Z. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• TikTok users are twice as likely as users of other social channels to recommend something they found on the platform. (TikTok)
• 36% of consumers want to learn about products through short-form videos like TikTok. (HubSpot Blog Research)

Age and Gender

Please note that audience data for individuals who do not identify within the binary are not reported.

• 21.5% of TikTok’s global audience are women between the ages of 18 and 24 and 17% are male users between 18 and 24. (Statista)
• U.S. adults spend 31 minutes per day on TikTok. (Statista)
• Most TikTok users in the U.S. are 18-19, followed by 20-29. (Statista)
• 62% of Gen Z uses TikTok and spend the most time on TikTok. (HubSpot Blog Research)

Geography

• In 2021, Asia-Pacific was the fastest-growing region for TikTok usage, with a 159% increase compared to 2020. (Statista)

Takeaways

TikTok’s audience heavily skews young, with a large Gen Z population. As such, it’s a great platform for B2C brands targeting this demographic. With short-form video taking off, it’s an opportunity for brands to not only hop on a growing trend but do it on a platform that caters to their target audiences.

YouTube Demographics

General

• YouTube is the second most effective platform for building a social media community. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• YouTube is the second most visited website in the U.S. (Semrush)
• YouTube has over 2 million monthly logged-in users. (YouTube)
• There are 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube per minute. (YouTube)

Age and Gender

Please note that audience data for individuals who do not identify within the binary are not reported.

• A quarter of U.S. adults regularly get news from YouTube. (Pew Research Center)
• YouTube is almost equally as popular with Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X audiences. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• YouTube is Baby Boomers second favorite social media app. (HubSpot Blog Research)
• Gen Zers (18-24)’s second most popular way they discover new products is from YouTube ads. (HubSpot Blog Research)

Geography

• India has 467 million active YouTube users, followed by the U.S. (245 million) and Indonesia (139 million). (Data Reportal)

Takeaways

YouTube is the leading video platform, with a wide range of users from Gen Z all the way to Baby Boomers. With the launch of YouTube shorts and popularity of short-form video, brands should develop a strategy to capitalize on growing interest to generate leads. 

LinkedIn Demographics

General

• Marketers can reach 900 million users with LinkedIn ads. (Data Reportal)
• Approximately 10.7% of the global population has a LinkedIn. (Data Reportal)

Age and Gender

Please note that audience data for individuals who do not identify within the binary are not reported.

• 56% of LinkedIn users identify as male while 43.1% identify as female. (Statista)
• Roughly 60% of LinkedIn users are between 25 and 34 years of age. (DataReportal)
• 31% of LinkedIn users are between 30 and 39, 23% between 40 and 49, and 17% between 18 and 29. (Statista)
• 43.6% of LinkedIn’s global users are female and 56.4% are male. (Data Reportal)

Geography

• Over 75% of members are outside the US, followed by India and China. (LinkedIn)
• LinkedIn is used in 200 countries and regions worldwide, and the largest are North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. (LinkedIn)

Takeaways

LinkedIn’s still the number one social media platform for B2B brands. It’s full of decision-makers and young adults entering the workforce prime for social selling.

Reddit Demographics

General

• There are more than 100k active Reddit communities. (Reddit)
• Redditors created 430M+ posts in 2022. (Reddit)
• Reddit is the fifth most visited website in the U.S. (Semrush)

Age and Gender

Please note that audience data for individuals who do not identify within the binary are not reported.

• Gen Z makes up roughly 2% of Reddit users. (eMarketer)
• A majority of Reddit users are male. (Statista)

Geography

• 46% of desktop traffic to Reddit.com comes from the U.S. (SimilarWeb)

Takeaways

Reddit’s user base has grown significantly in recent years. This suggests that consumers are becoming more interested in what the network has to offer. From an audience perspective, it’s made up mostly of male Millennials, attracting most of its users from the U.S.

Snapchat Demographics

General

• 59% of U.S. users check Snapchat daily. (Pew Research Center)
• 25% of U.S. internet users use Snapchat. (Pew Research Center)
• Snapchat users spend over 30 minutes a day on the platform. (Snapchat)
• There are 364M daily active users worldwide. (Statista)
• There are 243M Snapchats shared per minute on the platform. (Statista)

Age and Gender

Please note that audience data for individuals who do not identify within the binary are not reported.

• 65% of U.S. adults between 18 and 29 years old use Snapchat. (Pew Research Center)
• About 53% of Snapchat users are female and 46% are male. (Statista)

Takeaway

One thing that’s clear with this Snapchat data is that young people love it. After Instagram introduced Stories, many thought Snapchat was on its way out. Turns out, it’s still a major player in the social media game.

Feel free to refer to this list periodically as you’re working through your editorial calendars and audits for the new year. As this time of year calls for a fresh slate, the research behind your next incredible campaign has to be fresh, as well. Happy planning!

According to our 2023 Marketing Strategy Trends Report, 42% of marketers leverage social media, and it has the highest ROI of any channel. With this in mind, sharing content on social media is a no-brainer.

Whether you’re looking for a strategy refresh or leveraging the channel for the first time, this post is your guide to the different types of social media content and the benefits it’ll bring to your business.

Different Types of Social Media Content

1. Video (short form, specifically)

Short-form video is the top trend marketers will be leveraging in 2023, and HubSpot’s 2023 Social Media Trends Report found that it is the highest ROI format for social media marketing.

With this in mind, creating short-form videos is a worthwhile investment, and some common examples are TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, and YouTube shorts. The TikTok below is a video from Topicals, a skincare company, which talks about the different uses for one of its products.

Long-form video is also popular, but it doesn’t come close to the ROI of short-form. Live video gained steam during the pandemic, allowing people to participate in events remotely. Twitch is a popular live-streaming platform where people can interact with their favorite creators in real time.

2. Audio chat and live rooms.

Audio chat is another type of social media content, and many platforms have native features like Twitter Spaces, LinkedIn Live, or Facebook Live Audio. It’s also the top content type marketers plan to leverage for the first time in 2023.

This makes sense, as audio chat rooms let brands directly communicate with audiences and develop closer relationships than seeing a billboard or watching a YouTube video. And, during a time when customers value connections with brands more than ever, audio chat rooms are a valuable tool.

Audio chat rooms are trendy among Gen Z. A Spotify study found that 80% of Gen Z enjoy audio content because it allows them to express their individuality and explore different sides of their personalities.

3. Content that represents brand values.

Content that represents brand values is anything that shares what your company stands for in addition to and outside of the products you sell, such as commitments to sustainable production practices, treatment of employees, or any causes you support.

Consumers care more than ever about what the brands they buy from stand for and the values they have. They want to know the causes that businesses support and the commitments made to bettering the world.

The image below is a Tweet from Ben & Jerry’s that expressed its commitment to environmentalism and combating climate change, which aligns with its stated core values of environmental protection.

Image Source

Brand value content helps you draw in people whose values align with yours, and marketers also say that it has the 5th biggest ROI of any trend. 44% of marketers are also already posting this type of social media content.

4. User-generated content.

User-generated content (UGC) is content your audience creates that features your business/brand that is not paid for by your business. For example, someone shares a non-sponsored TikTok about how much they like your product or posts a picture wearing your clothing and tags your business.

This type of content is great to share on social media because it helps your audiences see that people use and like your products, vouching for you in a real-life way.

UGC pays off, as customers trust reviews from friends and family more than they trust branded ads, and 79% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchase decisions, considerably more so than branded content and influencer content.

When you do use UGC, the platforms it performs best on are Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

5. Funny, trendy, and relatable content.

Funny, trendy, and relatable content on social media can be hopping on viral memes, relating them to your business, and using trending hashtags or sounds. This type of content requires awareness of what’s happening on social media, cultural moments, and current events and creating buzzy content related to that.

36% of marketers already share funny, trendy, and relatable content on social media, and 66% say that funny content is the most effective, followed by relatable, trendy content. Consumers say that funny content is the most memorable.

6. Shoppable content.

Shoppable social media content allows consumers to browse through products on your accounts, discover things they like, and even make a purchase without leaving the app. The image below is an Instagram storefront for Ink Meets Paper, where someone can browse its products, find what interests them, and make a purchase.

Image Source

This is a valuable content type as social shopping is currently on the rise, and consumers are discovering new products and buying products on social media apps more than ever before.

In fact, social media is the most popular way for Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X to discover new products, and over 1 in 5 have made an in-app purchase in the past three months. If you share shoppable content, the most effective platforms for selling in-app are Instagram and Facebook.

7. Educational content.

Educational content shares helpful information with audiences that helps them reach their goals and meet their needs. Educational content can come in infographics, videos, text-based posts, images — any of the content types we discussed in this post.

HubSpot often shares educational content through YouTube videos, where viewers can learn more about concepts of interest. The video below is a recent video that educates viewers on creating a brand style guide.

8. High-quality images

Images are a must on social media platforms, capturing attention and drawing people in. Images can be things like high-quality product photos or even a trending meme that relates to your business.

Our recent Marketing Strategy Report found that 47% of marketers leverage images as a media format and work well on all social media platforms.

9. Text-based content

We see text-based content on social media every day, like Tweets or thought-leadership posts on LinkedIn. The primary goal of text-based content is to share insight through text rather than an image or video. For example, you can pair a Tweet with an eye-catching image, but the point of the post is in the text.

Blogs are popular text-based content where people read longer posts and discover helpful information. Some popular types of blog posts are:

• How-to posts that introduce a problem, offer a solution, and discuss steps to reach a desired result.
• Lists posts that focus on a particular topic, offer several points, and provide a brief conclusion.
• What-posts that provide further information on a specific topic, with many articles surrounding comparisons of one thing to another.
• Why-posts that typically provide readers with a reason or purpose and provide details that support a focused conclusion.

10. Infographics

Infographics are a content type with the shareability and visual appeal of photos but are filled with helpful data and information. It’s an impactful form of social media content and educational content.

The image below is a post from HubSpot’s Instagram account that is an infographic that informs viewers about the most effective traits of a sales leader.

Image Source

Infographics are effective, too, with 56% of marketers that regularly use them saying it’s their most effective content type.

11. Ephemeral/disappearing content.

Ephemeral/disappearing content is content that only stays up for a certain amount of time, like Instagram Stories that disappear after 24 hours. Users only have a set period to engage with it, so they might be more eager to keep track of your profiles and keep returning to experience what you share.

Creating quizzes and polls in your Stories is a great way to leverage this type of content. People only have a certain amount of time to respond, generating excitement and immediate action and inspiring respondents to come back and see results.

Repurposing Content Is Still A Valuable Strategy

Social media marketers say they use an average of four platforms, each with its best practices and norms to follow. It can be challenging to create individual pieces of content for every single platform, so many marketers share similar content on each platform but repurpose it to fit the tone and requirements of each one.

The key to success, however, is repurposing content, not resharing. People don’t look fondly at brands that share the exact same thing on each platform. 48% of marketers already share similar content across platforms with tweaks to make it more relevant to the platform’s demands.

Want More Social Media Insights?

Learn more about the State of Social media with more of this data, videos, and exclusive industry tips on our State of Social Media Hub— which will come with a free downloadable resource.

As any marketer knows, social media is an undeniably powerful tool to reach new audiences and connect with existing customers.

However, while it’s important to meet your audience where they are, it’s equally critical to know which social media channels offer the best ROI for your business.

Here, we’ll explore which channels provided marketers with the highest ROI in 2023. Plus, hear from experts at Talkwalker, Socialinsider, Casted, Brandfolder, LiveChat, Sprout Social, MarketingLabs, Rakuten Advertising, and HubSpot to learn how to leverage those channels to increase engagement and drive sales.

Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

What is social media ROI?

Which social media channels have the best ROI?

Which social media tactics or strategies have the best ROI?

What is social media ROI?

ROI stands for return on investment. When applied in the context of social media, it’s the return on investment from your social media activities and expenses.

One of the most popular ways to measure social media ROI is through paid advertising. That said, how you calculate ROI depends on the specific goals of your social media marketing and the metrics you use to measure it.

For instance, if your goal is to build brand awareness, you might prioritize metrics that demonstrate reach or engagement — such as new followers, impressions, audience growth rate, social shares, and more. 

Check out this helpful guide to learn more about calculating social media ROI.

Which social media channels have the best ROI?

According to HubSpot’s 2023 Social Media Trends Report, Instagram is the social media channel that provides marketers with the highest ROI. Facebook, another Meta-owned platform, trails closely behind.

Marketers also cite Instagram as the most effective channel for engagement. It’s no surprise that more than half of marketers (52%) plan to increase their investment in the platform in 2023.

By comparison, other social channels in the list — including Twitter, Snapchat, and BeReal — all ranked much lower, with less than 10% citing each platform as the best channel for ROI.

Let’s dive into each of these platforms to uncover why the top 3 social media sites perform better than others when it comes to ROI — and how you can leverage them.

1. Instagram

Recently surpassing two billion monthly active users, Instagram lands the top spot for ROI. Let’s explore why.

Instagram offers marketers the ability to increase reach and boost sales from non-organic content, such as Instagram Ads and branded content. However, it also shines when it comes to generating ROI from organic content.

As Instagram continues to expand its e-commerce capabilities, it’s become an effective tool for generating business. In fact, 90% of users follow at least one business on Instagram, and 50% of users are more interested in a brand after seeing ads for it on Instagram.

Instagram is also top-dog in the influencer marketing space. Last year, it was the most popular platform for influencer marketing in the U.S. – and more marketers are planning to leverage Instagram for their campaigns in 2023.

2. Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social media platform worldwide right now, drawing more than 2.89 billion monthly active users. In short, Facebook has an undeniably impressive reach. It also offers advertising opportunities to more than 200 million businesses, making it one of the most popular advertising platforms.

With Facebook, marketers can advertise on a user’s News Feed, via Messenger or video, and more. Marketers can also leverage Facebook Lead Ads to encourage Facebook users to fill out a lead generation form without leaving the social platform.

One of the major benefits of Facebook’s advertising tools is its segmentation abilities. You can target your ads towards certain audiences depending on interests, demographics, behaviors, or even connection to your business — like whether they’ve attended one of your events, or have friends who’ve liked your Business Page.

Nicole Ondracek, HubSpot’s Paid Advertising Marketing Manager, agrees that Facebook is an incredibly viable channel.

“At HubSpot, Facebook is a valuable channel for us in driving return on ad spend. A main reason why is that we can provide our content to a relevant audience using Facebook’s audience targeting features. For instance, Facebook’s lookalike audiences allow us to go after people who look like our current customers,” she told me.

“Facebook’s algorithm is great at finding similar audiences who are likely to convert, which is why we see a positive return on investment going after these types of audiences.”

Take a look at HubSpot’s How to Run Facebook Ads: A Step-by-Step Guide to Advertising on Facebook to learn how to set up your own Facebook ads.

3. YouTube

YouTube receives a staggering 34 billion monthly visits and commands an audience of 2+ billion people. Based on these stats alone, there’s a good chance your audience is on YouTube.

Unsurprisingly, 47% of marketers plan to increase their investment in YouTube in 2023. It’s also no coincidence that more than half of marketers (54%) say long-form content is effective on social media – and YouTube is the undisputed hub for this type of content.

Another notable advantage of YouTube is its popularity across demographics. For instance, in the last three months, 83% of Millennials have visited YouTube, followed by 81% of Gen Z, and 79% of Gen X. For Baby Boomers, YouTube is their second favorite social media app.

4. LinkedIn

Despite only roughly 10% of marketers rating LinkedIn as their top channel for ROI, LinkedIn is an incredibly effective channel for lead generation and nurturing. Over 750 million professionals use LinkedIn for networking, career advancement, and more.

The platform offers a variety of tools designed to increase your business’ ROI, including Sponsored Content, Sponsored Messaging, Text or Video ads, and more.

To succeed on the platform, you’ll want to create valuable content that resonates with your LinkedIn audience. Conduct research to determine which types of content perform best on LinkedIn — and which content will perform best with your target audience — to ensure you’re hitting the mark here.

Additionally, try running experiments when you start using LinkedIn’s advertising tools. For instance, Cellular IoT Connectivity company Aeris set up an ad plan and tracker to determine which targeting combinations worked best for the brand, which failed, and which generated the highest-quality leads. As noted in this post, “It took rounds of testing and optimization to get to [the brand’s] 25% submission rates.”

Now that we’ve explored a few of 2023’s most popular social channels, let’s explore the strategies and best practices you can implement to increase your ROI across platforms, according to experts.

Which social media tactics or strategies have the best ROI? 

1. Conducting extensive research to understand your audience.

First and foremost, it’s vital you understand your audience before creating any social media campaign. If you don’t do your research, you risk spending time, money, and resources on the wrong channels — and missing out on more profitable connections elsewhere.

As Dan Seavers, Content Marketing Manager at Talkwalker, told me, “No matter the social media channel, the best way to increase your ROI is by improving your consumer intelligence. Get to know your customers better than your family, and understand what they’re saying about your products, and where they’re discussing them.”

“That way, when you launch a campaign, you’ll be hyper-relevant. Not a jarring ad that interrupts a customer’s life, but a well-timed, well-targeted experience that people will engage with instantly.”

2. Creating more video content — and testing out vertical videos.

People love videos – and yet, it seems most brands rely on images when advertising their products or services, and that’s a mistake.

Adina Jipa, co-founder of Socialinsider, told me, “The most underused social media post is video content, which boosts engagement across all social media platforms.”

“Facebook wants to become a video-first platform and favors pages with video content, but for most brands, it is [primarily] a photo-sharing platform.”

Jipa adds, “A recent study about Facebook video strategy shows that only roughly 15% of the content [on Facebook] is video, while photos represent 38.58%.”

To stand out and increase ROI, consider how you might incorporate video into your social media efforts.

Additionally, consider testing out different types of video formats across your channels. For instance, Facebook offers brands the opportunity to create vertical video ads for the mobile-friendly user.

As Jipa points out, “you can use vertical videos on ads to get more clicks. According to this poll, almost 69% of marketers say video ads outperform image and plain text ads on Facebook. 81% of Facebook users only access the platform via mobile devices, so using the vertical video format allows you to get more visibility and increase the chances of getting more clicks. Facebook videos ads can increase the CTR by 2-3X.”

3. Re-using content across channels.

Most social teams create content in silos. Perhaps they tell one message via an Instagram post, and then create entirely different materials for a YouTube video or Tweet.

This undoubtedly requires a lot of time, effort, and resources — which can become frustrating when you don’t see the ROI you need from these channels.

“Far too often, content is created for one-and-done campaigns or promotions,” Casted’s CEO and Co-founder Lindsay Tjepkema says. “This means marketers are working harder and harder to constantly produce more and more, yet ROI and ROE (return on effort) results are disappointing — and social is no exception.”

She continues, “To change this, we must stop creating content for content’s sake and start focusing instead on creating content that educates, entertains, and delights and can be broken down and amplified across all other channels — like social — not just once, but many times over. When you focus on creating engaging content that can be used in multiple ways across channels, you’ll see improved ROI and ROE (return on effort) across your campaigns — including your social activation.”

To repurpose your content across channels, perhaps you post snippets of a full YouTube video on Facebook or Instagram. Alternatively, maybe you take text from a blog post and re-post on your channels to add value from your existing content, repurpose user-generated content across channels.

There are countless ways to refresh and re-use content to appeal to new audiences in unique ways without exhausting your social team.

4. Setting clear goals and devising a social strategy that works for your brand.

It’s difficult to achieve results on social without taking the time to set clear goals for your team, and ensuring you’ve all discussed an appropriate strategy to get you there.

As Brandfolder’s Senior Digital Marketing Manager Amanda Turcotte told me, “In order to achieve a return on your social media investment, you must have clear goals set before any tactical planning takes place. Various social media tactics can be applied differently to each of the platforms, meaning they’ll produce different outcomes. So your goals need to be determined up front to ensure they’re aligned with your social strategy.”

Once you’ve determined your social goals, you’ll want to create a consistent posting strategy so your audience knows when, and how often, they can expect content from your brand. To make this easier, try using a social posting tool like HubSpot’s Social Inbox Tool or Later.

Turcotte told me, “In order to move your team from strategy to action and keep everyone on the same page, it’s crucial to develop a regular posting plan that documents your approach across each channel, located where all team members have access. “

Agnieszka Jaśkiewicz, Head of Social Media & Community at LiveChat, agrees that creating a strategy and using tools to support your team’s goals is critical for finding success on social channels.

As she puts it, “The greatest area of ‘untapped potential’ for most brands comes in the form of streamlining creative workflows to support the volume needed for quality social activity. Digital workspaces that allow creatives and marketers to collaborate from a central location to stage, revise, and produce content limits back-and-forth communication and unnecessary steps in production.”

Additionally, Jaśkiewicz says, “Digital templates for creative assets — set to the specifications of the organization’s core social media platforms — can also add agility to social media managers’ ability to publish, allowing teams to be more timely and quickly act on new opportunities.”

5. Allow your users to purchase your products or services on social media platforms.  

Over the past few years we’ve seen rise to a new trend: social commerce.

In essence, social commerce is the ability to purchase from a brand within a social platform without leaving the site. Examples include shoppable ads and chatbot checkout.

Rachael Samuels, Senior Manager of Social Media at Sprout Social, told me she sees social commerce as a great opportunity to increase ROI on social channels.

Samuels says, “Social media has quickly become a primary communication channel for brands and consumers alike. As a result, marketers must seek new ways to engage with audiences while keeping other goals, such as lead generation, top of mind.”

“One way we’re seeing this unfold is through offerings like social commerce, which not only provide more seamless buying experiences for customers, but equip marketers with the ability to show direct attribution and ROI as a result of their efforts.”

Samuels adds, “To maintain this momentum, marketers should ensure their tech stack enables them to integrate their CRM and social management tools so they can easily surface social insights with their broader sales and support teams.” 

6. Use UTM tags for tracking. 

One reason you might not be seeing the ROI you’re hoping for? Perhaps you’re just not tracking properly.

As Matt Janaway, CEO of MarketingLabs, told me: “Tracking is now more important than ever thanks to the complications of iOS privacy improvements, so to really yield the best ROI, you have to make sure you are using UTM tags on all links. This way, you can correctly track the performance of your campaigns in Analytics.”

Janaway adds, “This should give you the data you need to make decisions that can drive more engagement and ROI.”

7. Encouraging your employees to become brand ambassadors.

One area of major untapped potential? Your employees.

As Casted’s Tjepkema tells me, “Employee activation is a huge and mostly untapped resource for brands. As consumers, we’re far more driven to engage with user-generated content, yet so many brands spend too much time and money trying to only push content from their own brand instead of enabling their employees (and partners, brand fans, etc.) to amplify their content.”

“Rally your employees around the content you’re creating and encourage them to share it with captions that show their unique and personal perspectives. This is a great way to help each member of your team build their personal brand, while also amplifying your content to audiences in a more authentic way.”

LiveChat’s Jaśkiewicz agrees with this notion, saying, “[You should] give employee advocacy a bigger seat at the table in your social media strategy, especially when it comes to LinkedIn. It takes some time and effort to provide people with the knowledge and imply the ‘brand ambassadors’ mindset in the organization — however, employee engagement is a cost-effective way to increase your reach organically.”

HubSpot, for instance, created #HubSpotEmployeeTakeover on its HubSpot Life Instagram account. The campaign helps show audiences the faces behind the brand, and creates a sense of community and authenticity that you wouldn’t find with branded content alone.

8. Leverage Meta’s Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns.

It’s no secret that Meta’s suite of platforms — namely Instagram and Facebook — packs a huge ROI punch. Yomi Arokoyo, VP of Performance Solutions at Rakuten Advertising, attributes this to Meta’s powerful algorithm.

He tells me, “Each social platform has improved its algorithm over time to be more intuitive and automated, but none more than Meta. With Meta’s new tool Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns, brands can find new customers in places they never even thought to look.”

Launched globally in 2022, Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns largely rely on AI and automation to find the right audience for your ads (as opposed to manual targeting). On top of that, it even adjusts ad formats to understand which format performs best.

To take advantage of this new tech, Arokoyo recommends employing as much creative differentiation as possible. For instance, add old creatives into the mix, or cut up longer videos into smaller, more digestible clips. This gives the algorithm more data to determine which campaigns are effective.

Back to You

Increasing ROI across your social channels won’t happen overnight — but by applying these strategies and remaining dedicated to iterating on your strategy as you collect audience insights over time, you’ll surely begin to see stronger results from your social efforts.

Happy posting!

Fun is not something typically associated with writing a cover letter. However, with a few tweaks, writing one doesn’t have to be a burden.

The cover letter examples below demonstrate that it is possible to have a little fun with your job search — and maybe even make yourself a better candidate in the process.

It may be true that only 35% of recruiters admit that cover letters do not materially influence the hiring process for them, but that doesn’t mean yours has to contribute to that statistic. In fact, it might be that cover letters are deemed insignificant because so few of them stand out. Here’s an opportunity for you to exercise your creativity at the earliest stage of the recruitment process.

Personalization, after all, goes beyond replacing the title and company name in each letter you send to recruiters.

What’s on a cover letter?

Before you can get started writing your cover letter, there are a few components you must have.

Greeting: A simple, but pleasant greeting to address the recruiter or hiring manager.

Opener: Write a catchy introduction that explains why you’re interested in the role.

Summary of Skills/Qualifications: This is the heart of your cover letter. It outlines your relevant experience and why you’d be a great fit for the role. You can highlight special skills, experiences, professional achievements, or education to help make your case.

Closing: In this paragraph, provide a call-to-action by expressing interest in an interview. Provide your contact information and sign-off.

What does a cover letter look like?

In addition to showing off your skills and qualifications, cover letters give you the opportunity to present a clear, concise, and compelling writing sample that shows off your personality and ability to convey ideas. Check out our fillable examples below to see how you should organize the content of your cover letter.

Customizable Cover Letter Examples

In a hurry for a cover letter example you can download and customize? Check out the ones below from HubSpot’s cover letter template kit.

1. Standard Cover Letter Example

Download a Customizable Copy of This Cover Letter Example

This standard cover letter hits all the right notes: It includes a space to give a brief summary of your experience, as well as a space to delve in-depth into the specific responsibilities at your current role. You also have the chance to describe the challenges you’ve mastered at previous roles, showing that you’re capable of facing any problem that comes your way.

Why We Love It

We love this cover letter because it allows you to describe the high points of your career while still being professional, personalized, and succinct.

2. Data-Driven Cover Letter Sample

Download a Customizable Copy of This Cover Letter Example

Numbers are worth a million words — or that’s how the saying should probably go (if only we could include pictures in cover letters). Citing data and statistics about your achievements at your current company is an assured way to capture a hiring manager’s attention. Most hiring managers don’t read the entire letter, so a bulleted summary of your achievements can be a powerful way to increase the effectiveness and scannability of your message.

Why We Love It

We love this cover letter because it’s adaptable to any role. Even if you don’t work in a data-centric role, you can include any enumerable achievement. If you’re in a creative industry, for instance, you can include the number of creative assets you designed for your current company.

3. Entry-Level Cover Letter Example

Download a Customizable Copy of This Cover Letter Example

Applying to your first job can be stress-inducing, to say the least. You can increase your chances of getting that first interview by including a cover letter that explains how your education can help you succeed in the role you applied for.

Look no further than this example from HubSpot. While other cover letter samples give experienced professionals the opportunity to share their experience at length, this one gives you the chance to describe your personal and professional attributes. You can then convey how you can leverage your knowledge to help your target company reach their goals.

Why We Love It

We love this cover letter because it’s easy and simple to use for a student who has little experience in their target industry — including those who haven’t yet completed an internship.

Looking for more? Download the entire kit below.

Best Cover Letter Examples

What does a good cover letter look like in practice, and how can you make yours stand out? We found six examples from job seekers who decided to do things a bit differently.

Note: Some of these cover letters contain real company names and NSFW language that we’ve covered up.

1. The Cover Letter That Explains ‘Why,’ Not Just ‘How’

We’ve already covered the importance of addressing how you’ll best execute a certain role in your cover letter. But there’s another question you might want to answer: Why the heck do you want to work here?

The Muse, a career guidance site, says that it’s often best to lead with the why — especially if it makes a good story. We advise against blathering on and on, but a brief tale that illuminates your desire to work for that particular employer can really make you stand out.

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Here’s another instance of the power of personalization. The author of this cover letter clearly has a passion for this prospective employer — the Chicago Cubs — and if she’s lying about it, well, that probably would eventually be revealed in an interview.

Make sure your story is nonfiction and relatable according to each job. While we love a good tale of childhood baseball games, an introduction like this one probably wouldn’t be fitting in a cover letter for, say, a software company. But a story of how the hours you spent playing with DOS games as a kid led to your passion for coding? Sure, we’d find that fitting.

If you’re really passionate about a particular job opening, think about where that deep interest is rooted. Then, tell your hiring manager about it in a few sentences.

Why This Is A Great Cover Letter

This example demonstrates how effective personalization can be. The writer is passionate about the employer, drawing from her own childhood experience to communicate her enthusiasm.

2. The ‘We’re Meant for Each Other’ Cover Letter

This cover letter example is a special one because it was submitted to us here at HubSpot. What does the letter do well? It makes a connection with us before we’ve even met the letter’s author.

“Content Marketing Certified” indicates the applicant has taken the content marketing certification course in our HubSpot Academy (you can take the same course here). Our “records” indicate he/she did indeed give an interview with us before — and was a HubSpot customer.

The cover letter sang references to a relationship we didn’t even know we had with the candidate.

The letter ends with a charming pitch for why, despite him/her not getting hired previously, our interests complement each other this time around.

(Yes, the applicant was hired).

Why This Is A Great Cover Letter

This cover letter example does an excellent job of building rapport with the employer. Despite not getting hired for previous roles they applied for at HubSpot, the writer conveys exactly why they are right for this role.

3. The Cover Letter with H.E.A.R.T.

HubSpot has a lot of H.E.A.R.T. — Humble, Empathetic, Adaptable, Remarkable, Transparent. Our Culture Code is the foundation of the company’s culture, the driving force behind our mission to help millions grow better, and serves as the scaffolding for our hiring practices. Recruiters at HubSpot look for applicants that demonstrate how they embody the Culture Code and job description, paying extra attention to cover letters that are super custom to HubSpot.

In another HubSpot submission, a HubSpot applicant writes about how she found out about HubSpot, why she likes the company, and how her professional experience aligns with H.E.A.R.T.

 

Why This Is A Great Cover Letter

HubSpot’s recruiting team was impressed with her dedication to the company and how she went beyond what was asked for by linking her portfolio in her closing paragraph.

Featured Resource: 5 Free Cover Letter Templates

Download our collection of 5 professional cover letter templates to help you summarize your professional journey and land your dream job – whether it’s at your first or fifth company.

Short Cover Letter Examples

4. The Short-and-Sweet Cover Letter

In 2009, David Silverman penned an article for Harvard Business Review titled, “The Best Cover Letter I Ever Received.” That letter contained three complete sentences, as follows:

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One might argue that this particular letter is less than outstanding. It’s brief, to say the least, and the author doesn’t go into a ton of detail about what makes him or her qualified for the job in question. But that’s what Silverman likes about it — the fact that the applicant only included the pieces of information that would matter the most to the recipient.

“The writer of this letter took the time to think through what would be relevant to me,” writes Silverman. “Instead of scattering lots of facts in hopes that one was relevant, the candidate offered up an opinion as to which experiences I should focus on.”

When you apply for a job, start by determining two things:

• Who might oversee the role — that’s often included in the description, under “reports to.” Address your letter to that individual.
• Figure out what problems this role is meant to solve for that person. Then, concisely phrase in your cover letter how and why your experience can and will resolve those problems.

Why This Is A Great Cover Letter

The key to this standout cover letter is research — by looking into who you’ll be reporting to and learning more about that person’s leadership style, you’ll be better prepared to tailor your cover letter to focus on how you provide solutions for them.

5. The Short Story

Basha Coleman began her cover letter with a short story. The goal of this short story is two-fold:

• Detail the experience she already has with the organization.
• Stand out to the hiring team.

You’ll notice that her short story follows a typical narrative arc: It has a conflict/obstacle, a turning point, and a positive outcome, all created with a goal to emphasize a theme or point. In this case, Coleman is emphasizing her existing affinity with the brand and her triumphs within the program so that she can continue on her career path.

Why This Is A Great Cover Letter

Like the second example in our list, this cover letter does an excellent job of conveying the applicant’s existing affinity for the brand. If you are applying to a company you love, don’t be shy about showing it and explaining why.

6. The Bare Bones Cover Letter

In today’s job market, cover letters aren’t always necessary. Even though many recruiters won’t ask for or even read them, cover letters can still be effective and convey personality to a reader. Writing a strong cover letter can help you better convey your interest in the position and company.

This template from The Balance Careers puts together the essential components of a short cover letter: excitement about the position, your qualifications, and a call-to-action for the recruiter to follow up with you. Combining these central aspects in a well-written, compelling narrative will go a long way in convincing readers to hire you.

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Why This Is A Great Cover Letter

This letter is organized and concise. The inclusion of bullet points to highlight key skills and help the recruiter skim the document is a nice touch.

7. The Breezy Follow-Up

In this cover letter, Amanda Edens is following the instructions the hiring manager gave by forwarding an email with resume and writing samples attached.

Edens knows that the body of the email is prime real estate to get the hiring manager’s attention, but she also doesn’t want to overwhelm the recipient with too much information since a cover letter was not requested. This short cover letter is the result. You’ll notice that she uses casual and breezy language to convey personality and enthusiasm, and she keeps her paragraphs succinct.

Why This Is A Great Cover Letter

Not only does Amanda provide links to relevant writing samples that are live on the web, but she also closes with a strong final paragraph that:

• Summarizes the expertise she has relevant to the posting
• Emphasizes that she doesn’t want to simply get a job but rather help the organization accomplish their goals
• The reader gets everything they need in an organized and thoughtful manner.

8. The Administrative Assistant Cover Letter

In this cover letter the candidate, Brenda, plays up her prior music industry experience to build a connection with Epic Music Group. If you have specific industry experience for the role you are applying for, be sure to highlight that.

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It’s clear that she’s passionate about not only the music industry, but Epic as a whole. She’s done so much research on the company that she knows what software programs they use, and happens to be proficient in it to help convey value to the hiring manager.

This example further illustrates the importance of research. Make sure you understand the culture of the company to which you’re applying before you send a completely unfiltered cover letter — if you don’t, there’s a good chance it’ll completely miss the mark.

Why This Is A Great Cover Letter

In just three short paragraphs, the applicant uses their company research to drive home why they are the perfect fit for the role — emphasizing industry experience as well as software knowledge specific to the company. All of this communicates that she’d be able to start with very few hiccups getting up to speed.

9. The Internship Cover Letter

Maybe you’re just getting started in your career and looking to land the right internship to gain experience in your field. In this case, you’ll need to highlight more of your educational background and transferable skills since you won’t have as much professional experience to highlight.

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The cover letter above is a great example of how to emphasize your skills and accomplishments when applying to internships or entry-level positions. A few things the applicant does well:

• Highlights relevant extracurriculars and affinity networks. In this case, the applicant is applying to a business analyst position, so mentioning their involvement in a FinTech group makes sense.
• Previous internships in relevant fields: Our applicant points out that they’ve previously interned as a Business Analyst at another firm. Pointing out that they’ve done the role previously will help make their case for fit.
• Highlight other useful skills: This applicant is fluent in both English and German. If an international company or an organization needs bi-lingual support, knowing multiple languages is an asset.

Why This Is A Great Cover Letter

This cover letter example illustrates how you can leverage your education and background to get the gig even when you don’t have much working experience. Highlighting previous internships or experience in related fields can go a long way in convincing hiring managers you’re the perfect candidate for the role.

Creative Cover Letter Examples

10. The Brutally Honest Cover Letter

Then, there are the occasions when your future boss might appreciate honesty — in its purest form. Livestream CEO Jesse Hertzberg, by his own admission, is one of those people, which might be why he called this example “the best cover letter” (which he received while he was with Squarespace):

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As Hertzberg says in the blog post elaborating on this excerpt — it’s not appropriate for every job or company. But if you happen to be sure that the corporate culture of this prospective employer gets a kick out of a complete lack of filter, then there’s a chance that the hiring manager might appreciate your candor.

“Remember that I’m reading these all day long,” Hertzberg writes. “You need to quickly convince me I should keep reading. You need to stand out.”

Why This Is A Great Cover Letter

The applicant did their research on the company’s culture and executed this cover letter flawlessly. It’s funny and shows off the applicant’s personality all while demonstrating why they are a good fit for the role.

11. The Pivot Cover Letter

Making a career switch? Your cover letter can be an excellent opportunity for you to explain the reasoning behind your career change and how your transferable skills qualify you for the role.

In this cover letter example, the applicant is pivoting to a career in UX. Not only does she make the case for why she should be hired, she shows the recruiter by using a simple, but effective design scheme that shows off her skills. It’s clean but effective.

Since the role she is applying for is more visual, it’s important to both show and tell why you’re a good fit.

Why This Is A Great Cover Letter

This cover letter strikes the perfect balance between creativity and simplicity in design while putting the applicant’s career change into context. The copy is clean, with a creative font choice that isn’t distracting from the content, but still demonstrates the applicant’s knack for design.

12. The Graphic Design Cover Letter

When applying for more creative roles, the design of your cover letter can say just as much as the words on the page. Take the graphic designer letter example below.

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It’s got so much going for it:

• Pop of color
• Clean layout
• Interesting fonts

In addition to the style elements, this example also doesn’t skimp on the key skills recruiters are looking for. Using metrics, the applicant demonstrates their value and why they would be a great fit.

Why This Is A Great Cover Letter

This cover letter thoroughly conveys the applicant’s skills and qualifications using a variety of visual elements and by emphasizing their greatest achievements.

Take Cover

We’d like to add another stage to the job search: experimentation.

In today’s competitive landscape, it’s so easy to feel defeated, less-than-good-enough, or like giving up your job search. But don’t let the process become so monotonous. Have fun discovering the qualitative data we’ve discussed here — then, have even more by getting creative with your cover letter composition.

We certainly can’t guarantee that every prospective employer will respond positively — or at all — to even the most unique, compelling cover letter. But the one that’s right for you will. That’s why it’s important not to copy these examples. That defeats the purpose of personalization.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

As your business grows, you need a roadmap to help navigate the obstacles, challenges, opportunities, and projects that come your way. Enter: the SWOT analysis.

This framework can help you develop a plan to determine your priorities, maximize opportunities, and minimize roadblocks as you scale your organization. Below, let’s go over exactly what a SWOT analysis is, a few SWOT analysis examples, and how to conduct one for your business.

What is a SWOT analysis?
Importance of a SWOT Analysis
How to Write a Good SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis Examples
How to Act on a SWOT Analysis

While it may seem simple on the surface, a SWOT analysis allows you to make unbiased evaluations on:

• Your business or brand.
• Market positioning.
• A new project or initiative.
• A specific campaign or channel.

Practically anything that requires strategic planning, internal or external, can have the SWOT framework applied to it, helping you avoid unnecessary errors down the road from lack of insight.

Importance of a SWOT Analysis

You’ve noticed by now that SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The framework seems simple enough that you’d be tempted to forgo using it at all, relying instead on your intuition to take these things into account.

But you shouldn’t. Doing a SWOT analysis is important. Here’s why.

SWOT gives you the chance to worry and to dream.

Adding the SWOT analysis is an important step in your strategic process. You’re giving yourself the space to dream, evaluate, and worry before taking action. Your insights then turn into assets as you create the roadmap for your initiative.

SWOT forces you to define your variables.

Instead of diving head first into planning and execution, you’re taking inventory of all your assets and roadblocks. These can help you create a more specific and effective roadmap.

SWOT allows you to account for mitigating factors.

As you identify weaknesses and threats, you’re better able to account for them in your roadmap, improving your chances of success.

SWOT helps you keep a written record.

As your organization grows and changes, you’ll be able to strike things off your old SWOTs and make additions. You can look back at where you came from and look ahead at what’s to come.

Here, we’ll tackle how to best do a SWOT analysis, provide you with a SWOT analysis template, and conduct SWOT analyses on major brands including Apple and Starbucks. When you’re done reading, you’ll have all the inspiration and tactical advice you need to tackle a SWOT analysis for your business.

How do you write a good SWOT analysis?

There are several steps you’ll want to take when evaluating your business and conducting a strategic SWOT analysis.

1. Download HubSpot’s SWOT Analysis Template.

There’s no need to start from scratch for your analysis. Instead, start by downloading a free, editable template from HubSpot. Feel free to use the model yourself, or create your own as it suits your needs.

Download a free, editable SWOT analysis template.

2. Arrange each section into a table with four quadrants.

Whether you use the template above or create your own, a table format can help you visualize your SWOT analysis. This can be done by arranging each of the four sections into separate quadrants.

3. Identify your objective.

Before you start writing things down, you’ll need to figure out what you’re evaluating with your SWOT analysis.

Be specific about what you want to analyze. Otherwise, your SWOT analysis may end up being too broad, and you’ll get analysis paralysis as you are making your evaluations.

If you’re creating a new social media program, you’ll want to conduct an analysis to inform your content creation strategy. If you’re launching a new product, you’ll want to understand its potential positioning in the space. If you’re considering a brand redesign, you’ll want to consider existing and future brand conceptions.

All of these are examples of good reasons to conduct a SWOT analysis. By identifying your objective, you’ll be able to tailor your evaluation to get more actionable insights.

4. Identify your strengths.

“Strengths” refers to what you are currently doing well. Think about the factors that are going in your favor as well as the things you offer that your competitors just can’t beat.

For example, let’s say you want to use a SWOT analysis to evaluate your new social media strategy.

If you’re looking at a new social media program, perhaps you want to evaluate how your brand is perceived by the public. Is it easily recognizable and well-known? Even if it’s not popular with a widespread group, is it well-received by a specific audience?

Next, think about your process: Is it effective or innovative? Is there good communication between marketing and sales?

Finally, evaluate your social media message, and in particular, how it differs from the rest of the industry. I’m willing to bet you can make a lengthy list of some major strengths of your social media strategy over your competitors, so try to dive into your strengths from there.

5. Identify your weaknesses.

In contrast to your strengths, what are the roadblocks hindering you from reaching your goals? What do your competitors offer that continues to be a thorn in your side?

This section isn’t about dwelling on negative aspects. Rather, it’s critical to foresee any potential obstacles that could mitigate your success.

When identifying weaknesses, consider what areas of your business are the least profitable, where you lack certain resources, or what costs you the most time and money. Take input from employees in different departments, as they’ll likely see weaknesses you hadn’t considered.

If you’re examining a new social media strategy, you might start by asking yourself these questions: First, if I were a consumer, what would prevent me from buying this product, or engaging with this business? What would make me click away from the screen?

Second, what do I foresee as the biggest hindrance to my employees’ productivity, or their ability to get the job done efficiently? What derails their social media efforts?

6. Consider your opportunities.

This is your chance to dream big. What are some opportunities for your social media strategy you hope, but don’t necessarily expect, to reach?

For instance, maybe you’re hoping your Facebook ads will attract a new, larger demographic. Maybe you’re hoping your YouTube video gets 10,000 views and increases sales by 10%.

Whatever the case, it’s important to include potential opportunities in your SWOT analysis. Ask yourself these questions:

• What technologies do I want my business to use to make it more effective?
• What new target audience do I want to reach?
• How can the business stand out more in the current industry?
• Is there something our customers complain about that we could fix?

The opportunities category goes hand-in-hand with the weaknesses category. Once you’ve made a list of weaknesses, it should be easy to create a list of potential opportunities that could arise if you eliminate your weaknesses.

7. Contemplate your threats.

It’s likely, especially if you’re prone to worry, you already have a good list of threats in your head.

If not, gather your employees and brainstorm. Start with these questions:

• What obstacles might prevent us from reaching our goals?
• What’s going on in the industry, or with our competitors, that might mitigate our success?
• Is there new technology out there that could conflict with our product?

Writing down your threats helps you evaluate them objectively.

For instance, maybe you list your threats in terms of least and most likely to occur and divide and conquer each. If one of your biggest threats is your competitor’s popular Instagram account, you could work with your marketing department to create content that showcases your product’s unique features.

SWOT Analysis Examples

The template above helps get you started on your own SWOT analysis.

But, if you’re anything like me, it’s not enough to see a template. To fully understand a concept, you need to see how it plays out in the real world.

These SWOT examples are not exhaustive. However, they are a great starting point to inspire you as you do your own SWOT analysis.

Apple’s SWOT analysis

Here’s how we’d conduct a SWOT analysis on Apple.

Strengths

First off, strengths. While Apple has many strengths, let’s identify the top three:

• Brand recognition.
• Innovative products.
• Ease of use.

Apple’s brand is undeniably strong, and its business is considered the most valuable in the world. Since it’s easily recognized, Apple can produce new products and almost ensure a certain degree of success by virtue of the brand name itself.

Apple’s highly innovative products are often at the forefront of the industry. One thing that sets Apple apart from the competition is its product inter-connectivity.

For instance, an Apple user can easily sync their iPhone and iPad together. They can access all of their photos, contacts, apps, and more no matter which device they are using.

Lastly, customers enjoy how easy it is to use Apple’s products. With a sleek and simple design, each product is developed so that most people can quickly learn how to use them.

Weaknesses

Next, let’s look at three of Apple’s weaknesses.

• High prices
• Closed ecosystem
• Lack of experimentation

While the high prices don’t deter Apple’s middle- and upper-class customer base, they do hinder Apple’s ability to reach a lower-class demographic.

Apple also suffers from its own exclusivity. Apple controls all its services and products in-house, and while many customers become loyal brand advocates for this reason, it means all burdens fall on Apple employees.

Ultimately, Apple’s tight control over who distributes its products limits its market reach.

Lastly, Apple is held to a high standard when it comes to creating and distributing products. Apple’s brand carries a high level of prestige. That level of recognition inhibits Apple from taking risks and experimenting freely with new products that could fail.

Opportunities

Now, let’s take a look at opportunities for Apple.

It’s easy to recognize opportunities for improvement, once you consider Apple’s weaknesses. Here’s a list of three we came up with:

• Expand distribution options.
• Create new product lines.
• Technological advancement.

One of Apple’s biggest weaknesses is its distribution network, which, in the name of exclusivity, remains relatively small. If Apple expanded its network and enabled third-party businesses to sell its products, it could reach more people globally, while alleviating some of the stress currently put on in-house employees.

There are also plenty of opportunities for Apple to create new products. Apple could consider creating more affordable products to reach a larger demographic, or spreading out into new industries — Apple self-driving cars, perhaps?

Finally, Apple could continue advancing its products’ technology. Apple can take existing products and refine them, ensuring each product offers as many unique features as possible.

Threats

Finally, let’s look at threats to Apple.

Believe it or not, they do exist.

Here are three of Apple’s biggest threats:

• Tough competition.
• Lawsuits.
• International issues.

Apple isn’t the only innovative tech company out there, and it continues to face tough competition from Samsung, Google, and other major forces. In fact, Samsung sold more smartphones than Apple did in Q1 of 2022, shipping 17 million more units than Apple and holding 24% of the market share.

Many of Apple’s weaknesses hinder Apple’s ability to compete with the tech corporations that have more freedom to experiment, or that don’t operate in a closed ecosystem.

A second threat to Apple is lawsuits. Apple has faced plenty of lawsuits, particularly between Apple and Samsung. These lawsuits interfere with Apple’s reputable image and could steer some customers to purchase elsewhere.

Finally, Apple needs to improve its reach internationally. The company isn’t number one in China and doesn’t have a very positive relationship with the Chinese government. In India, which has one of the largest consumer markets in the world, Apple’s market share is low, and the company has trouble bringing stores to India’s market.

If Apple can’t compete globally the way Samsung or Google can, it risks falling behind in the industry.

Starbucks SWOT Analysis

Now that we’ve explored the nuances involved with a SWOT analysis, let’s fill out a SWOT template using Starbucks as an example.

Here’s how we’d fill out a SWOT template if we were Starbucks:

Download this Template for Free

Restaurant Small Business SWOT Analysis

Some small business marketers may have difficulty relating to the SWOTs of big brands like Apple and Starbucks. Here’s an example of how a dine-in Thai restaurant might visualize each element.

Small restaurants can lean into their culinary expertise and service skills to find opportunities for growth and brand awareness. A SWOT analysis can also help identify weaknesses that can be improved, such as menu variation and pricing.

While a restaurant might not be as worried about high-level lawsuits, a small business might be more concerned about competitors or disruptors that might enter the playing field.

Local Boutique SWOT Analysis

In another small business example, let’s take a look at a SWOT analysis for a local boutique.

 

This shop might be well known in its neighborhood, but it also might take time to build an online presence or get its products in an online store.

Because of this, some of its strengths and opportunities might relate to physical factors while weaknesses and threats might relate to online situations.

How to Act on a SWOT Analysis

After conducting a SWOT analysis, you may be asking yourself: What’s next?

Putting together a SWOT analysis is only one step. Executing the findings identified by the analysis is just as important — if not more.

Put your insights into action using the following steps.

Take advantage of your strengths.

Use your strengths to pursue opportunities from your analysis.

For example, if we look at the local boutique example above, the strength of having affordable prices can be a value proposition. You can emphasize your affordable prices on social media or launch an online store.

Address your weaknesses.

Back to the boutique example, one of its weaknesses is having a poor social media presence. To mitigate this, the boutique could hire a social media consultant to improve its strategy. They may even tap into the expertise of a social-savvy employee.

Make note of the threats.

Threats are often external factors that can’t be controlled, so it’s best to monitor the threats outlined in your SWOT analysis to be aware of their impacts on your business.

When to Use a SWOT Analysis

While the examples above focus on business strategy in general, you can also use a SWOT analysis to evaluate and predict how a singular product will play out in the market.

Ultimately, a SWOT analysis can measure and tackle both big and small challenges, from deciding whether or not to launch a new product to refining your social media strategy.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate love in all its forms, be it romantic love, platonic love, familial love — or your love for marketing. Okay, that last one might be a little out of place, but you get the point.

This year, we’re showing love to our favorite creative Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns from brands across various industries.

If you’re in need of some inspiration for your next Valentine’s Day campaign, you’ll love the following examples.

20 Effective Valentine’s Day Marketing Campaigns

1. Toblerone – The Love Insurance

2. Cadbury 5 Star – Valentine’s Day Alibi

3. Gucci – Love Story Zine

4. Pandora – Real Couples Explain What Valentine’s Day Means to Them

5. Etsy – Show Love to Small Businesses

6. Stella Artois – Valentine’s Day

7. Dunkin – Valentine’s Day Trivia Promo Code

8. Hotels.com – Anti-Valentine’s Day

9. Cadbury Silk – How Far Will You Go to Make Them Blush?

10. Tyson – Chicken Nugget Bouquet Contest

11. Lancôme – Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar

12. El Paso Zoo – Valentine’s Day ‘Quit Bugging Me’ Event

13. Gü Desserts – Love-themed Packaging

14. Ranch Dressing – Customized Bottle

15. Pandora – Little Acts of Love Ad

16. 1-800-Flowers – Galentine’s Day

17. Target – Valentine’s Day Haul Instagram Post

18. MeUndies – Match Me Valentine’s Day

19. Winc – Be Wine Instagram Post

20. OpenTable – Millennial Experiences

Honorable Mention: Match.com’s “Match Made in Hell” campaign.

Valentine’s Day Campaign Takeaways

20 Effective Valentine’s Day Marketing Campaigns

Here are 20 Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns that stole our hearts.

1. Toblerone – The Love Insurance

To address the fear and uncertainty that can come witha new romance, Toblerlone’s 2023 Valentine’s Day marketing campaign offers consumers a little reassurance in the form of “love insurance.”

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To get their “love insurance,” couples can visit Toblerone.co.uk to buy the brand’s special edition Valentine’s Day chocolate bar, which comes with its own insurance. If the relationship ends, the couple can register the purchase with @TobleroneUK on Instagram and they’ll receive a voucher to redeem online. This way, neither the Toblerone nor their relationship feels like a waste.

2. Cadbury 5 Star – Valentine’s Day Alibi

Those without a Valentine often find themselves struggling to dodge the dreaded question “What are you doing for Valentine’s Day?” Fortunately, Cadbury 5 Star’s 2022 Valentine’s Day campaign tooksome of the pressure off.

The Indian chocolate brand took over an island off the coast of Karnataka and renamed it “My cousin’s wedding.” So, consumers without a Valentine couldsay “I’m not in town, I’m going to my cousin’s wedding” when asked about Valentine’s Day plans.

For a chance to access the island, consumers could scan the special Cadbury 5 Valentine’s Day packs, which tookthem to a website to mine coins and gain an opportunity to bid for the island.

3. Gucci – Love Story Zine

For Valentine’s Day 2022, Gucci released a limited-edition zine that consisted of visually stunning photos telling the love story ofa fairy and giant. Each photo in the zine showcased items from the fashion house’s Valentine’s Day collection.

The marketing campaign intrigued customers, offered an exclusive item (a physical copy of the zine), and it showed the beauty of the brand’s clothes and accessories.

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4. Pandora – Real Couples Explain What Valentine’s Day Means to Them

In 2021, Pandora asked real-life couples and friends to share the little (and not-so-little) things they’ve done to express their love. Some acts of love were tiny, such as a peck on the cheek or a hug; others were huge steps in the relationship, such as moving in together or adopting a dog.

The YouTube video included a link to the company’s website and a message that the company can help viewers show their loved ones how much they’re appreciated with Pandora charms and gifts.

5. Etsy – Show Love to Small Businesses

To show love and support to its community of sellers, e-commerce platform Etsy offered a ready-made graphic sellers could use to promote their Valentine’s Day products on social media. Sellers could also combine the graphic with the hashtag #MakeItMeaningful to draw attention to their Etsy store.

The pre-made graphic grabbed audience attention and fostered a sense of community among Etsy sellers.

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6. Stella Artois – Valentine’s Day

In 2020, beer brand Stella Artois created a 15 second YouTube that shows the growth of a couple throughout the years and the role the brand’s beer played in their love.

The video is simple, heartfelt, and captures the spirit of Valentine’s Day. It was a huge hit and garnered almost 3 million views on YouTube.

7. Dunkin – Valentine’s Day Trivia Promo Code

For Valentine’s Day, Dunkin invited its followers to play a trivia game via Instagram Stories for a chance to unlock a secret promo code. The ad campaign delighted consumers with a fun game testing their knowledge of Dunkin and it rewarded customers with a chance to save on their favorite items.

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8. Hotels.com – Anti-Valentine’s Day

Hotels.com’s Valentine’s Day marketing campaign took a clever approach to the holiday by urging users to visit its V-Day Dumpster Stay web page and write about an ex they believe should vacation in a dumpster.

All stories were entered into a competition for participants to win a $300 Hotels.com gift card.

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9. Cadbury Silk – How Far Will You Go to Make Them Blush?

In 2022, Cadbury Silk placed QR codes on its Cadbury Silk Heart Blush chocolate pack which led consumers to its website where buyers can write a secret message to a loved one. Said loved on could then see the secret message by scanning any Cadbury ad.

10. Tyson – Chicken Nugget Bouquet Contest

A bouquet of flowers is the quintessential Valentine’s Day present, but food brand Tyson decided to put a fresh spin on a classic gift. In 2021, the company challenged consumers to create their own chicken nugget bouquet for Valentine’s Day.

The contest winner would win a package of Tyson Nuggets of Lovelimited edition heart-shaped chicken nuggets only available through the contest. To enter, participants had to create their best nugget bouquet and post a picture of the bouquet on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtags #NuggetBouquetContest and #TysonNuggetsofLove.

Other prizes included $5,000 and a year’s supply of Tyson chicken nuggets.

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11. Lancôme – Valentine’s Day Advent Calendar

Every year, cosmetics company Lancôme releases a Valentine’s Day advent calendar filled with products for consumers to try and discover. From lotion to mascara to perfume — the advent calendar contains a wide variety of products. The idea is excellent because it introduces consumers to new products that they may want to buy more of going forward.

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12. El Paso Zoo – Valentine’s Day ‘Quit Bugging Me’ Event

Every year, the El Paso Zoo holds a Valentine’s Day event where scorned lovers can name a cockroach after an ex. The cockroach would then be fed to a zoo animal. The event is so popular it’s been referenced on Saturday Night Live.

 

13. Gü Desserts – Love-themed Packaging

In 2020, British brand Gü Desserts released a series of love-themed packaging called “Love Notes” for selected desserts. The packaging was adorned with a love song title adapted to the brand.

For example, the brand’s salted caramel cheesecakes came with packaging that read “I’m in love with the shape of Gü.”

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14. Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing – Customized Bottle

Nothing says Valentine’s Day like giving someone a bottle of — Ranch Dressing?

In 2021, while flower companies and B2C brands were highlighting the romantic gifts partners could give to each other, Hidden Valley took a funny approach to this strategy by offering audiences customized Valentine’s Day-themed bottles of Ranch salad dressing.

While this seems like an odd gift to some, Hidden Valley knows it has fans out there that just love to cover everything they eat with Ranch dressing. To those audiences, this gift is funny, personalized, and potentially useful.

15. Pandora – Little Acts of Love

In 2022, Pandora revisited its successful”Little Acts of Love” campaign with an ad placement featuring more couples doing small acts of love for each other.

The ad shows couples displaying acts of kindness towards one another that would be appreciated any day of the year. This ad reminds us all that thoughtful gestures can go a long way.

16. 1-800-Flowers – Galentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day isn’t just for significant others, and 1-800-Flowers wants friendships to be celebrated as well.

This ad depicts two friends talking about how they established their friendship, reminding the viewer that platonic love also deserves to be celebrated. The two friends in the ad ask each other thoughtful questions about their friendship and how much they mean to each other.

It’s an emotional ad that will inspire you to call your best friend, and maybe send them some flowers.

17. Target – Valentine’s Day Haul Instagram Post

Many people have experienced walking into Target without a list, relying on Target to tell them what they need. This user-generated post on Target’s Instagram account captures the spirit of what we all love about Target — how easy it is to load up on fun items (though our bank accounts may not share the love).

In the video, the original poster fills their cart with festive Valentine’s Day merchandise at their local Target. Though it isn’t a traditionally produced ad, it’s a relatable post for Target shoppers who may have been inspired to visit their local store and pick up some of the items they saw featured in the post to celebrate.

18. MeUndies – Match Me Valentine’s Day

This relatable MeUndies ad from 2021 captures the spirit of communicating via Zoom that many people have become familiar with since early 2020.

In the ad, couples talk about some of their pre-pandemic plans including travel and weddings. Though many of those events didn’t go as planned, the couples talked about ways they’ve grown closer despite the challenges and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic all while wearing matching merch from MeUndies.

19. Winc – Be Wine Instagram Post

Wine is a popular Valentine’s Day gift that is up there with roses and chocolate. Wine subscription company Winc typically devotes real estate on itssocial channels for Valentine’s Day-themed posts in the weeks leading up to the holiday.

In 2021, the Winc Instagram account had a series of posts consisting of unique and user-generated content related to Valentine’s Day. The “Be Wine?” post was among the most popular. We loved the punny caption and heart-themed visuals.

20. OpenTable – Millennial Experiences

If you’ve ever marketed to millennials, you may know that millennials value experiential gifts. Or, as OpenTable says in this 2020 ad, dates.

In 2020 OpenTable released 14 ads as part of a two-week countdown to Valentine’s Day, encouraging customers to make reservations early to avoid the holiday rush.

Each of the ads targeted a different audience that could benefit from using OpenTable to make Valentine’s Day reservations, with a clear call-to-action and messaging that appeals to the ideal viewer.

Honorable Mention: Match.com’s “Match Made in Hell” campaign.

Technically, this campaign wasn’t created for Valentine’s Day specifically. But, many of our marketers thought it had all the perfect elements of a great Valentine’s Day campaign.

In the commercial, directed by actor Ryan Reynolds, Satan sits in Hell using Match’s app when he sees he’s matched with a woman named 2020. When he meets up with her on Earth, he nervously says “Hi 2-0-2-0.” She replies, “Please, call me 2020” — pronouncing it like the year.

As the commercial continues, 2020’s character appears to be the epitome of everything that happened in 2020.

For example, the ad shows Satan and 2020 causing mischief, stealing toilet paper from store shelves, having a picnic in empty stadiums, and ultimately posing for a selfie in front of a dumpster fire.

The couple frolics to the familiar sounds of Taylor Swift’s hit song, “Love Story,” which also sparks a sense of rom-com nostalgia for millennials.

On the same day of this ad’s December release, Match and Reynolds also shared another commercial showing the pair explaining how they met in couple’s counseling.

In this video, Satan explains how he found 2020 on Match:

“I started by using the Match custom search filter. I filtered out joy, happiness, toilet paper, and reason,” Satan says in the video below:

Although this didn’t launch in February, it was a very clever newsjacking example that many of our marketers say they enjoyed when they were asked to share their favorite Valentine’s campaigns.

While 2020 was a difficult year for many, Match and Reynolds identified a tasteful way to create content that audiences could relate to. At the same time, they still told an epic, hilarious love story with a pleasant, entertaining tone. Although they discussed a truly terrible year, they did so in a way that felt like escapism for the viewer.

Valentine’s Day Campaign Takeaways

As you create and launch Valentine’s Day campaigns, take note of these strategies many of the brands above used:

• Grab your audience’s attention:Like with any holiday, marketers around the globe are churning out content around it. To compete with this overly saturated Valentine’s Day ad landscape, you’ll need to grab and keep your viewer’s attention with entertaining elements or valuable information.
• Be relatable: Around this time of year, many people are inundated with high-budget Valentine’s Day ads that offer them no useful information or value. Even if you want to tell a mushy romance-fueled love story with your content, make sure it still feels relatable or authentic. To do this, you can leverage tactics like telling a story your audience will relate to, or leveraging user-generated content from your followers — like Twitter has.
• Test out different platforms: While some companies on this list took to Instagram, others embraced physical campaign strategies like special products or billboard use.

Now that you have some ideas for your next Valentine’s Day marketing campaign, you’re ready to find new ways to make consumers fall in love with your brand.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in Feb. 2013, but was updated for comprehensiveness.

The ultimate goal of social media marketing is to generate revenue, and a crucial step to generating revenue via social media is creating engagement. If your followers don’t engage with your posts, they won’t engage with your business. And a sure way to boost engagement is by fostering a tight-knit social media community.

Social media communities are incubators for brand awareness, loyalty, and trust. They’re also a dime a dozen, so marketers must refine their approach to building and leveraging them correctly.

Let’s explore more about social media communities, their benefits and challenges, and where brands will invest their resources in 2023.

Are brands investing in social media communities?

Social Media Community Benefits

How are social media communities formed?

Social Media Community Examples

Building a Social Media Community

Challenges of Building a Social Media Community

Final Thoughts

 

Are brands investing in social media communities?

The Hubspot Blog surveyed 1,283 social media marketers around the globe to determine which trends they leverage, the channels they use, and their plans for 2023. Here’s what we found:

Social Media Community Trends

• 90% of social media marketers say building an active online community is critical to success in 2023.
• At the time of the survey, 1 in 5 social media users joined or participated in an online community in the past 3 months.
• Instagram and Facebook are the most effective platforms for community building.
• 88% of marketers say most brands will have an active social media community around their brand in 2023.

Facebook

• Facebook is used by most (67%) social media marketers but takes second place behind Instagram for engagement and ROI.
• Facebook will see significant growth in 2023, with 23% of social media marketers investing more in Facebook than any other platform, 43% increasing their investment, and 41% continuing to invest in Facebook.
• Social media marketers see Facebook in third place behind both Instagram and TikTok regarding the platform with the highest potential to grow in 2023.

Instagram

• Influencer marketers see the highest ROI through Instagram.
• Instagram is used by 65% of social media marketers, coming just behind Facebook at 67%.
• 29% of social media marketers plan to invest the most in Instagram over any other platform, and 52% plan to increase their investment in the platform in 2023 — while another 39% will keep it the same.

YouTube

• 55% of social media marketers use YouTube, making it the third most popular platform among social media marketers.
• 14% of social media marketers plan to invest more into YouTube than any other platform, and 15% plan to try it for the first time in 2023.

TikTok

• TikTok, alongside Instagram, is considered a platform with the highest potential to grow in 2023.
• While just 36% of social media marketers use TikTok, marketers think TikTok is a better bet for brands to grow their audience than other platforms.
• In 2023, 53% of social media marketers will increase their investment in marketing on TikTok in 2023, and another 36% will keep investing the same amount.

Social Media Community Benefits

As I mentioned, having a large social media following is not enough; you also need an engaged community. Here are a few reasons:

1. They are vehicles for personal recommendations.

In a sense, every social media community member is a micro-influencer, sharing real experiences and opinions that can influence other members. This is worth mentioning since nearly nine out of ten consumers read reviews before buying a product.

Customers who love your brand want to talk about it. They want to share reviews and pass on advice, and communities give them a place to do that.

But what about bad reviews? As an active participant in your community, you have an excellent opportunity to resolve any issues or complaints. And since members are already invested in your brand, they’re more apt to find solutions with you.

2. They can cut costs.

Active, self-sufficient communities can become hubs for customers to ask and answer questions, which alleviates pressure on customer support teams. They can also reduce support costs — one study found it was 72% cheaper to answer a question via a community than to submit a ticket to a support team.

Communities can also reduce your ad spending. In 2022 ad spending in the US was predicted to cross the $200 billion mark. Brands with active communities can spend less on social media advertising because they can reach customers in an owned space for free.

3. They create active participation with your brand.

We’ve all heard the statistic — it’s cheaper (arguably easier) to retain customers than convert new ones. This is why brand advocacy and retention are critical to any marketing strategy.

Brands can strengthen relationships with community members by encouraging active participation — with polls, surveys, contests, and user-generated content, to name a few. In essence, what was once a transactional relationship is now an active conversation. And every active engagement brings customers closer to your brand.

4. They offer insight into your consumers.

The most productive communities are strategically designed to spark conversations. You can take full advantage of these conversations by tracking common complaints, ideas for improvement, and unique ways they use your products to solve problems.

Remember to let your community know when you make a change based on member feedback. People love to know you’re listening and taking their suggestions seriously.

How are social media communities formed?

Social media communities are formed over shared interests, hobbies, goals, and topics that encourage participation and build connections. A company can build a social media community that centers around an interest that is relevant to its brand.

With that said, let’s explore a few examples of social media communities.

Social Media Community Examples

1. First Coast News Weather Watchers

Florida TV news station First Coast News started a social media community via Facebook called First Coast News Weather Watchers. The community is hosted on Facebook Groups and centers around viewers’ shared interest in local weather and meteorology.

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Users ask questions about local weather within the community, share photos and videos of weather phenomena, and speak to First Coast News meteorologists. First Coast News will often take photos and videos shared in the group and feature them in live broadcasts.

2. Mad Rabbit

Mad Rabbit is a tattoo skin relief care brand that started a thriving social media community on Instagram that is focused on the subculture of tattoos. Followers of the company’s page share and receive information regarding tattoo aftercare and artistic creativity. Mad Rabbit’s Instagram page also frequently collaborates with tattoo influencers who help the brand further engage with users.

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3. Official Crunchyroll Discord

Anime licensing and streaming company Crunchyroll started its own social media community on Discord. The community is a space for anime fans to discuss their favorite shows and anime-related content.

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Building a Social Media Community

You’re probably familiar with the adage, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” The same is true of social media communities.

Here are a few tips for building a thriving community:

1. Remember that communication = community.

If you want to build a thriving community, you can’t expect your customers to always start the conversation. You must do the heavy legwork to post content, ask questions, respond to comments, and keep communication lines open.

While you don’t need to be the center of the conversation, your members should know you’re there.

2. Focus on the audience first and brand second.

Social media communities are valuable tools for self-promotion — but if that’s all you’re using them for, you’ll eventually drive customers away.

Effective communities provide value. They educate, entertain, and solve problems for the audience. In other words, if you want to build a real sense of community, you need to provide value with the content you create or share.

Check out how Glow Recipe, a skincare brand, provides value by offering tips for healthy skin while subtly promoting their products:

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3. Feature user-generated content.

A great way to boost engagement within a community is to encourage user-generated content. This is any content — like text, videos, or reviews — that your members create, which you can then share across your social communities.

Peloton does an excellent job featuring user-generated content by highlighting customer stories and fitness milestones. Not only does this give the audience a voice, but it also encourages members to share their stories and testimonials — effectively fueling word-of-mouth marketing.

4. Make your community findable.

Building a community is almost impossible if people aren’t aware it exists. Here are a few ways to spread the word:

• Embed social icons on your website

• Invite family, friends, and colleagues to follow and share your community

• Use hashtags to expose your content to new audiences

• Cross-promote your community on different channels

• Run exclusive giveaways or discounts for community members

5. Don’t let your community collect dust.

Consistency is an important ingredient in successful social media communities. If you let your accounts collect dust, members will abandon ship. Creating a content calendar and publishing schedule is a good idea when planning ahead. And if your brand is juggling various platforms, check out HubSpot’s social media management tools.

Challenges of Building a Social Media Community

Running a social media community is similar to hosting a party — you’re in charge of the entertainment, creating a pleasant atmosphere, and keeping conversations friendly. That’s a lot of responsibility. Luckily, you’re also in control of the guest list.

When it comes to managing your members, start by establishing clear rules and guidelines for your community. This deters any troublemakers from joining and helps prevent future conflict.

For example, Facebook offers a variety of customizable rules that users have to accept before joining a Facebook Group. This is one way to pre-moderate a group without doing any work. Check out the rules below:

The next step is to follow through. When you see members veering from community guidelines, take appropriate action — whether that’s sending a private message to a user or removing them altogether. This alerts other members that you care about the culture in your group.

To help with this process, you may want to designate someone on your team to moderator your community. Or, hire a community manager or online moderation partner such as Hive Moderation or SupportNinja.

Another challenge is measuring the ROI from your community. In other words, are your community-building efforts paying off? For instance, you may have high engagement levels in your community, but your conversion rate is stuck at 0%.

Before doing anything else, ask yourself — how do I want my community to contribute to my businesses? Is it customer engagement? Retention? Product adoption?

Next, you’ll want to identify a few metrics to measure your goals. They should be community-specific and directly related to community activities, such as click-through, sign-up, or engagement rates.

You can take this one step further by tracking the same KPIs for both community members and non-members and then comparing the performance between the two. For instance, you may discover a 30% higher product adoption among community members than non-members.

Final Thoughts

By building a social media community, you can turn transactional relationships into meaningful ones and offer a place for customers to share, collaborate, learn, and provide feedback. But building one is no easy feat, so determine your goals, develop a strategy, and get ready to start the conversation.

 

Between carefully curated photos, expertly targeted ads, and decisive adoption of Instagram stories, no other B2C industry has thrived on Instagram, much like the beauty and apparel industry.

Some of the best clothing brands on Instagram are masters of consumer engagement, and businesses from any industry could learn something from these inspirational feeds. In this post, we’ve compiled a list of 30 clothing brands — both big and small — crushing the game. For a deeper dive into how to build a presence on Instagram, check out our complete guide to Instagram marketing.

30 of the Best Clothing Brands to Follow on Instagram

1. Telfar @telfar

Telfar is a luxury brand well known for its bags and clothing. Like many brands on the list, it uses Instagram to share information about its products paired with high-quality product photos, videos, and user-generated content.

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2. J.Crew @jcrew

J.Crew has mastered the art of follower engagement on Instagram. Its vibrant feed inspires followers, whether via daily updated Stories, in-feed product announcements, or style inspo.

3. Anthropologie @anthropologie

With colorful images of its bright and patterned styles, Anthropologie’s feed is a visual smorgasbord of inspiration.

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4. Girlfriend Collective @girlfriend

Girlfriend Collective experienced explosive social media growth after advertising a free leggings promotion. Its feed engages customers with stunning product photography of its minimal styles and funny memes related to its products.

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5. BRKLN Bloke @brklynbloke

Brkln Bloke is a Brooklyn-based streetwear brand that has mastered the art of sharing its products in the wild, helping followers get styling inspiration for their purchases.

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6.Nike @nike

The behemoth athletic brand has enthusiastically embraced video content and regularly shares clips with its impressive 263 Million followers. Its feed features a motivational mix of professional athletes and everyday people, which directly aligns with its brand mission that Nike is for everyone.

7. Paloma Wool @palomawool

>In the image below, Paloma Wool shares a carousel of photos showing audiences different ways to wear one of its products, the Berlin multi-position belt. This gives wearers and audiences inspiration for how to use the product and can also inspire a new purchase if someone sees a style they like.

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8. Kate Spade @katespadeny

Despite being a well-established label, Kate Spade’s Instagram has a distinct personal touch that sets it apart from similar brands. Its profile features outfit pictures, snaps from around New York, and behind-the-scenes shots of the design process at the Kate Spade Studio.

9. Hermoza @the_hermoza

Hermoza leverages one of Instagram’s impactful native features — shoppable posts and a storefront. Each post has a “View Shop” CTA, and clicking on it leads audiences to an Instagram storefront where they can discover more products or even make a purchase without leaving the app.

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10. House of Sunny @houseofsunny

House of Sunny’s approach to Instagram is worth replicating as it ensures followers always have a source for inspiration for using its products. It specifically calls attention to styling opportunities with a permanent Story Highlight called “As Seen On,” where people can click through a series of UGC to discover unique ways to style its clothing.

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11. Eileen Fisher @eileenfisherny

Eileen Fisher emphasizes its quality materials and environmentally friendly production processes on Instagram, and landing on its profile brings you to three pinned posts displaying the lifecycle of the products it uses and how it champions sustainability.

12. Sandy Liang @sandyliang

Sandy Liang is well known for creating unique versions of everyday staples. On Instagram, the brand shares lookbooks for its clothing and accessories, giving followers inspiration for what and how to wear its products. The image below is a lookbook giving inspo on what to wear when visiting a friend.

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13. Asos @asos

British online fashion retailer ASOS updates its feed regularly with colorful and bold product features. It stands out from the crowd with a video-first Instagram strategy, only rarely sharing still photos, allowing followers to interact and engage with content.

14. Aerie @aerie

Scrolling through Aerie’s Instagram feed is like taking a tropical beach getaway. The lingerie and bathing suit brand has been applauded for its commitment to unretouched photos in its print ads, and it continues this effort on its Instagram, creating a cohesive brand image.

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15. Ziran @theziran

Ziran merges ancient Chinese techniques, luxury fashion, and sustainable practices to create its clothing brand. On its Instagram, behind-the-scenes content about how the brand came to be, gives people a glimpse into the people and processes that bring their favorite brand to life.

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16. Aime Leon Dore @aimeleondore

Aime Leon Dore shares product announcements in videos that align with the product’s intended use. For example, the video below announces an upcoming collaboration with Woolrich, a brand well-known for its durability. The video features models in activities that might cause wear and tear to everyday products, but not those from the Aime Leon Dore x Woolrich collab.

17. Lisa Says Gah @lisasaysgah

It often uses Instagram for restock announcements so its followers know when their favorite products are available for purchase again. Doing this also helps drive more followers to the platform, as people will see Instagram as a way to get the most up-to-date information on their favorite brand.

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18. Tach @tach_clothing

>Tach uses Instagram to share exciting behind-the-scenes content. The image below is a sneak peek into its line sheets, which are usually only used as a sales tool to present products to buyers. Audiences are let in on its behind-the-scenes activity, which can be exciting.

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>19. Fossil @fossil

If you like photos of neatly organized items, then Fossil’s Instagram is for you. The accessories brand curates an impressive feed of food, fashion, and celebrities like James Phelps, generating audience excitement if they recognize their favorite actor.

20. Everlane @everlane

Everlane’s account has no shortage of beautiful product imagery, but it also features photos of customers wearing its clothes, inspiring travel photography, and tips on food and art destinations worldwide, giving audiences a well-rounded experience on its profile.

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>21. Bode @bode

>Bode is well known for its quilted jackets and one-of-a-kind clothing items. On Instagram, it shares videos explaining the background and inspiration for its collections, giving followers insight into the brand, its values, and what it stands for.

22. Teva @teva

Teva’s Instagram feed is proof that it’s possible to give your brand a modern update without losing the spirit of what made you successful in the first place. Its feed includes user-generated content of its shoes out in the wild and sleek product photos highlighting new styles.

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23. Zara @zara

Zara has made a name for itself by emulating the marketing of luxury brands, and its Instagram feed is no exception. Its account looks like a high-fashion magazine, with professional editorial shots of its varied clothing styles.

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24. Fjällräven @fjallravenofficial

The Instagram feed for Swedish outdoor apparel brand Fjällräven is less about its products and more about the adventurous spirit that has defined the company for almost 60 years.

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25. Madewell @madewell

Apparel brand Madewell is known for its relaxed, classic styles, and its Instagram clearly reflects this aesthetic. With bright sunny images of its latest products and collaborations, its feed is a fashion lover’s delight.

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26. The Row @therow

Another account that focuses less on its products and more on visual inspiration, The Row features vintage photos of art, architecture, and fashion — only occasionally sharing images and actual products — where they share a brand aesthetic that is bigger than just what it sells.

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27. Santos by Monica @santosbymonica

Santos by Monica’s Instagram grid is eye-catching as every post uses the same color scheme and creates a pleasing browsing experience, building a cohesive brand identity and helping people develop brand recognizability for its specific color schemes and hues.

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28. Carhartt WIP @carharttwip

Carhartt Work In Progress announces sales on its Instagram profile, a valuable way to ensure your different audiences are aware of your brand promotions. For example, if your Instagram followers aren’t subscribed to your mailing list, they won’t receive your newsletter announcing the sale, but they’ll see it in their feed.