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If you’ve spent any time on the internet at all, you’ve probably come in contact with an animated GIF. It’s an image file that allows you to feature animated images, which makes it seem like the image is moving. Think of them as a hybrid between a still image and a video.

Why are GIFs great additions to your marketing? They’re easy to consume, provide a new way to capture your viewers’ attention, and can have a serious emotional impact. And since content that makes us feel something encourages us to share, these tiny animations are worth experimenting with.

The best part about GIFs is that they aren’t too hard to make. If you have access to Photoshop and a few minutes to spare, you can create an animated GIF in no time.

In the following tutorial on making animated GIFs, I’m using the Creative Cloud 2015 version of Photoshop, but the steps should be similar in other versions. 

P.S. – Download these free visual content templates to help you create more engaging social media images.

How to Create an Animated GIF in Photoshop

Here’s an example of an animated GIF you might make using this tutorial:

Alright, let’s get started.

Step 1: Upload your images to Photoshop.

If you already have images created …

Gather the images you want in a separate folder. To upload them into Photoshop, click File > Scripts > Load Files Into Stack.

Then, select Browse, and choose which files you’d like to use in your GIF. Then, click OK.

Photoshop will then create a separate layer for each image you’ve selected. Once you’ve done that, skip to step two.

If you don’t already have the series of images created …

Create each frame of the animated GIF as a different Photoshop layer. To add a new layer, chose Layer > New > Layer.

Be sure to name your layers so you can keep track of them easily when you make your GIF. To name a layer, go to the Layer panel on the bottom right of your screen, double-click on the default layer name, and type in the name you want to change it to. Press Enter when you’re finished.

Once you have your layers in there and you’ve named them all, you’re ready for step two.

Pro Tip: If you want to combine layers so they appear in a single frame in your GIF, turn visibility on for the layers you want to merge (by clicking on the “eye” to the left of each layer name so only the eyes for the layers you want to merge are open). Next, press Shift + Command + Option + E (Mac) or Shift + Ctrl + Alt + E (Windows). Photoshop will create a new layer containing the merged content, which you should also rename.

Step 2: Open up the Timeline window.

To open Timeline, go to the top navigation, choose Window > Timeline. The Timeline will let you turn different layers on and off for different periods of time, thereby turning your static image into a GIF.

The Timeline window will appear at the bottom of your screen. Here’s what it looks like:

Step 3: In the Timeline window, click “Create Frame Animation.”

If it’s not automatically selected, choose it from the dropdown menu — but then be sure to actually click it, otherwise the frame animation options won’t show up.

Now, your Timeline should look something like this:

Step 4: Create a new layer for each new frame.

To do this, first select all your layers by going to the top navigation menu and choosing Select > All Layers.

Then, click the menu icon on the right of the Timeline screen.

From the dropdown menu that appears, choose Create new layer for each new frame.

Step 5: Open the same menu icon on the right, and choose “Make Frames From Layers.”

This will make each layer a frame of your GIF.

Step 6: Under each frame, select how long it should appear for before switching to the next frame.

To do this, click the time below each frame and choose how long you’d like it to appear. In our case, we chose 0.5 seconds per frame.

Step 7: At the bottom of the toolbar, select how many times you’d like it to loop.

The default will say Once, but you can loop it as many times as you want, including Forever. Click Other if you’d like to specify a custom number of repetitions. 

Step 8: Preview your GIF by pressing the play icon.

Step 9: Save and Export Your GIF

Satisfied with your GIF? Save it to use online by going to the top navigation bar and clicking File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)…

Next, choose the type of GIF file you’d like to save it as under the Preset dropdown. If you have a GIF with gradients, choose Dithered GIFs to prevent color banding. If your image employs a lot of solid colors, you may opt for no dither. 

The number next to the GIF file determines how large (and how precise) the GIF colors will be compared to the original JPEGs or PNGs. According to Adobe, a higher dithering percentage translates to the appearance of more colors and detail — but it increases the file size. 

Click Save at the bottom to save the file to your computer. Now you’re ready to upload this GIF to use in your marketing! 

Upload the GIF file into any place online that you’d put an image, and it should play seamlessly. Here’s what the final product might look like:

How to Use GIFs in Your Marketing

1) On social media.

Pinterest was the first to enable animated GIFs, followed by Twitter. And by the summer of 2015, Facebook had also jumped on the GIF bandwagon. Then, Instagram changed the game with Boomerang, which lets users film and share their own GIFs. On any of these social feeds, animated GIFs can be a great way to stand out in a crowded feed.

For example, check out how Product Hunt used a GIF to promote a forum on its website:

111 products people use every day ✨

Add your favorite 👉 https://t.co/TMub7DKLul http://pic.twitter.com/QyIaDrPmpn

— Product Hunt (@ProductHunt)
July 6, 2017

2) In your emails.

Animated GIFs display in email the same way a regular image does. So why not spruce up your emails by replacing still images with animated ones?

Not only could this help capture recipients’ attention with novelty alone, but it could also have a direct impact on your bottom line. For some brands, including an animated GIF in emails correlated with as much as a 109% increase in revenue.

Make use of GIFs by showcasing products, making event announcements, or otherwise enticing readers. Check out the GIF below from women’s clothing shop Ann Taylor LOFT: They made a present look like it’s shaking to create intrigue and get recipients to click through to “unwrap” their gift.

Source: Litmus

3) In blog posts.

Your blog post doesn’t have to be about animated GIFs or structured like a BuzzFeed-style listicle to include GIFs — although, we do love a good dose of silly listicle GIFs every once in a while.

For example, here’s a simple, animated GIF created by fellow marketer Ginny Mineo to explain the definition of a call-to-action for a blog post:

And finally, one of our oldie-but-goodie favorites: an animated GIF from a post on office kitchen recipes.

How will you use GIFs in your marketing? Share with us in the comments.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in September 2013 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

 

You did it. You finally produced and posted your first series of marketing videos. You wrote the scripts, filmed them, edited them, and uploaded them to an online platform. All that’s left to do is sit back, relax, and watch the views roll in.

Ha ha. Funny story, right?

Before I worked at HubSpot, when I created my very first series of marketing videos, I was stumped. Befuddled. Frustrated. Here I had a collection of what I thought were great examples of visual content, and yet, no one was watching them. 

Where did I go wrong?

If only I knew then what I knew now. My absence-of-views problem was one that many marketers seem to face — which is why we decided to make a list of the most common factors that keep viewers away. Read on, and bookmark them for reference when you’re formulating your next video content strategy.

Why No One is Watching Your Videos

1) They’re too long.

It seems like we’re past the point of requiring evidence that supports the dwindling human attention span, but just in case — studies say it’s about eight seconds. On top of that, roughly two-thirds of consumers prefer video under one minute, so in sum: Keep it short.

I’ll never forget what HubSpot’s CEO, Brian Halligan, said to me during a chat about content creation: “You’re asking to borrow someone’s brain.” When you ask someone to borrow anything, the considerate thing to do is to be respectful of that person’s time, and when they might need it back. Generally, we need our brains — so when you create something like video content, remember that you have your viewer’s brain on loan.

That’s not to say that your video needs to be limited to eight seconds — after all, how much could you possibly say in that amount of time? But when you create it, make sure those first few seconds are highly engaging, as that’s when you’ll need to grab the viewer’s attention to maintain it.

2) You’re going after the wrong audience.

I love puppy videos. You love puppy videos. Everyone loves puppy videos. But what the heck do they have to do with your brand?

Whenever you create visual content, that’s a question you need to ask yourself: “What the heck does this have to do with my brand?” And while there might be a way to incorporate a puppy into that, it has to be relevant to your audience.

When you set out to create a video marketing strategy, one of the most crucial things to consider is what your target audience wants to watch — current and prospective customers alike. Entertainment aside, what’s going to be helpful to them? What’s going to get their attention, make them glad that they let you borrow their brains, and answer the questions that brought them to your content in the first place?

3) You’re using the wrong channel.

When people think of “video marketing,” often, the first thing that comes to mind is YouTube. And that’s not a wrong assumption to make. After all, about a third of all Internet users — all of them — use YouTube.

But YouTube isn’t the only place where videos are consumed — and it’s not the only place where you’ll find your target audience. Consider that 45% of people, for instance, watch more than an hour of videos on either YouTube or Facebook. On top of that, Facebook is the most popular social media channel, with 79% of all U.S. online adults using it. So if you’re focusing on YouTube alone, and not creating original video content on Facebook — well, you might be missing out on a key portion of viewers.

But where you post videos also depends on who you’re trying to reach. Generation Z, for example — one of the youngest online demographics — “can’t live without YouTube,” according to AdWeek, and is over 1.4X more likely to consume content on that channel than on Facebook.

That’s why it’s helpful to figure out where the different segments of your target audience spend their time online, which can help dictate what kind of video you’re going to create and where it will be shared. The Pew Research Center’s annual Social Media Update is especially helpful for that, which breaks down who’s using what. Have a look, and figure out if, based on who you want watching your videos, you need to broaden or narrow your content distribution.

4) You’re not promoting them on other channels.

Let’s say you create original content video on Facebook. Don’t just leave it there — because that limits its viewability.

“But doesn’t that go against what you just said about using the right channel?” On the surface, maybe. But here’s the thing — repurposing that Facebook video for other channels can help to drive both engagement and traffic.

Here’s where something like Instagram can be a great resource. Now that verified accounts have the option of adding links to their Story posts — that’s the thing at the bottom that usually says, “see more” below and upwards-pointing carrot arrow — it serves as another vehicle for driving traffic to a site where you want more engagement. You can now add links to Snapchat Stories, too.

Check out how HubSpot used video on its Instagram Story to drive traffic to Facebook in the way we’re describing:

You don’t have to create an entirely new video from scratch for something like this, either. You can take the most attention-grabbing 15-second clips of your longer video, and use them to build a cohesive series of shorter videos to use as Instagram Story segments to drive traffic to where you want visitors to go, whether that’s to a full-length video, or other content.

5) The title is misleading.

You might be familiar with the term “clickbait”: the use of attention-grabbing titles that trick people into clicking on something, only to take them to content that doesn’t really have anything to do with the title. That’s a big no-no and can lead to serious penalties on SEO and certain social media sites. Facebook, for example, announced in May that it would be taking measures to remove clickbait from users’ feeds.

In other words, while it might seem tempting like giving your video a click-worthy title, if it doesn’t actually describe your content, you’ll ultimately be punished for it. And even if it doesn’t immediately get you removed from social media channels or lower your SERP ranking, it’ll tarnish your brand — once the user sees that you’re applying misleading titles to your videos, she’ll likely associate you with unauthentic content.

It also just makes sense to have your title closely match what the viewer is searching for — you’re creating the video content that’s providing a solution to the user’s query. Plus, research conducted by Backlinko found that videos with an exact keyword match in the title have a slight advantage over those that don’t.

Source: Backlinko

Finally, be sure you also keep your title short — HubSpot Content Strategist Alicia Collins recommends limiting it to 60 characters to help keep it from getting cut off in results pages.

6) You’re not optimizing it.

Giving your video an accurate, clear, and concise title is just one part of optimizing it. Here’s where YouTube becomes a major player again since it provides one of the most detailed levels of optimization of most video sharing platforms. Below, we describe some of the most important things to optimize on YouTube.

Description

This should be limited to 1,000 characters — and remember that your viewer came here to watch a video, not to read a lot of text. Plus, YouTube only displays the first two or three lines of text, which comes to about 100 characters, so front-load the description with the most important information.

Tags

Using tags doesn’t just let viewers know what your video is about — they inform YouTube, too, which uses tags “to understand the content and context of your video,” according to Backlinko. That way, YouTube can associate your video with similar videos, which can broaden your content’s reach. But approach with caution — just as with your title, don’t use misleading tags because they might get you more views — in fact, Google might penalize you for that, too.

Category

Choosing a category is another way to group your video with similar content on YouTube — but that might not be as simple as it sounds. YouTube’s Creator Academy suggests that marketers “think about what is working well for each category” you’re considering by answering questions like:

• Who are the top creators within the category? What are they known for, and what do they do well?
• Are there any patterns between the audiences of similar channels within a given category?
• Do the videos within a similar category have share qualities like production value, length, or format?

7) It doesn’t make the viewer feel anything.

After I’ve watched a video, I want to feel something — whether it’s smart, sad, amused, or generally better off, I don’t want to feel like I’ve just completely wasted my time. And while some might label the aforementioned puppy videos as “non-productive,” the fact that they likely improved my mood means that it wasn’t the worst use of a few minutes.

And remember what we said before about people being short on both time and attention? There’s nothing that will keep viewers from coming back more than leaving them feeling like they didn’t gain anything from watching your video content.

Oftentimes, emotions can influence buying decisions, especially when there’s a story involved. So when you create video content, it can help to have an impartial audience preview it before you make it public, like a friend or a colleague from a different department. Remember what the intention was behind the video — was it meant to be helpful, moving, or entertaining? Then, after your friend watches it, ask if it made her feel the way you hoped it would. If it didn’t, ask how or what the video did make her feel. If her response lacks enthusiasm, that’s a good indication that it might be time to start over.

And remember: Emotions are what make people want to share something. It’s what makes watching video more of an experience than an occurrence, and what will make the viewer want to remark on it to others. So doing what you can to make sure your viewer feels something in response to your video doesn’t just provide her with value — it makes her more likely to share it.

A word of caution, however: Don’t make video content that is deliberately offensive or meant to cause highly negative emotions just for the sake of having a reaction. Remember, one of the main purposes behind all of your content, including video, is to associate your brand with something helpful and positively remarkable — not as someone who makes people feel angry or hurt.

Have you struggled to get people to watch your videos in the past? How did you address and resolve it? Let us know in the comments.

When I was a sophomore in college, I developed a terrible addiction to Facebook. By the time finals week arrived, I couldn’t go 30 minutes without a dose of dog videos.

I was officially distracted. And after a week of all-nighters, I realized my attention span was inferior to a squirrel’s.

Checking my RescueTime dashboard confirmed that I could only concentrate on distracting videos … and not my books. I had spent 50% of the week on Facebook, which means I could’ve actually slept before each exam. Why couldn’t I focus on my studies during the most critical time of the school year?

Distractions can infest any place of work. They might seem tiny in the grand scheme of things, but when compounded together, they can ravage your productivity. In fact, entire companies lose 31 hours per week to attention-sucking activities. That’s like losing the contributions of a whole employee.

Fortunately, I’ve researched some science-backed tips for maintaining focus, interviewed HubSpot employees about their concentration habits, and fleshed out the deepest insights in this blog post. So take a look at these five productivity hacks to effectively overcome distractions and stay laser-focused at work.

How to Focus at Work: 5 Productivity Hacks

1) Plan the work day around one main project.

Do you “eat the frog” first thing in the morning? Or do you just plop it on your desk and let it fester, reminding you that the worst part of the day is still yet to come?

Prioritizing your main project ahead of lesser tasks on your to-do list is crucial for productivity. Humans possess a cognitive bias towards completing as many tasks as possible — because regardless of magnitude, finishing something always feels amazing.

This is why we tend to work on a lot of easy, short tasks first, while putting our main project on the back burner.

Crossing things off your list is addicting. But don’t give into the temptation of completing the simple tasks first. Since they’re short and quick, you can easily finish them at the end of the day. Your major tasks have much more pressing deadlines and require a lot of time and effort. So do the big tasks first to avoid scrambling through them last minute.

Jami Oetting, who manages HubSpot’s content strategy team, plans her week out so she can eat the frog every morning.

“I start the week listing off all my priorities prior to my team’s weekly stand-up meeting on Monday. This is my time to consider all the projects the team is working on, what needs to get done by the end of the week, and how I could be most effective,” she says. “Then, I map out the tasks that need more focus or larger chunks of time to accomplish. After prioritizing this list, I’ll block off time on my calendar to accomplish one ‘big’ project each morning.”

Your brain’s peak performance period starts two hours after you wake up, and lasts until lunch time. So why waste these optimal morning hours on things you could do in your sleep?

The end of the day is also the worst time for doing meaningful work. You’ve already exhausted your daily energy on an assortment of trivial tasks. So when it’s time to chip away at your main project, you’ll either drown in complacency completing it or put if off until the next day, repeating a vicious cycle of procrastination.

2) Block the obvious distractions for greater focus.

Your phone buzzes. A new like on Instagram! Did the picture get as many likes on Facebook? You click to open a new tab. The funniest Chevy ad spoof is the first post on your newsfeed. This is must-see content.

20 minutes later, you’re reading an article about Mark Zuckerberg running for president when your manager walks by your desk. Which reminds you … your blog post is due tomorrow. And all you’ve written is the meta description.

Does this sound familiar? Well, you’re not alone because it happens to everyone. It’s also the reason why it takes 23 minutes for people to refocus on their original task after an interruption. Distractions breed more distractions.

So right when you walk into the office, throw your phone in your desk drawer and keep it there all day. Lock it up if you can. And download a site blocker like Block Site or StayFocusd to restrict access from all the websites that veer you off the path of productivity.

Even email, which is supposed to streamline the day, sidetracks you. In fact, we spend 20.5 hours of our work week reading and answering emails. That’s half of our work week! So if an uptick in unread emails always seems to lure you away from your current task, don’t open your Gmail tab in the morning.

Remember, unless it’s an absolute emergency, you can respond to anyone’s email within a few hours. So designate time blocks for internal communication. This way, you can channel your undivided attention on a major project and slash the time wasted switching from one task to another.

Sophia Bernazzani, a staff writer for HubSpot’s Marketing Blog, blocks off time for both email and Slack to maintain her concentration throughout the day.

“It’s impossible to focus if I have too many incoming notifications. So I commit to only answering emails at the beginning and end of my day,” she says. “I also set myself as offline on Slack and snooze my notifications to minimize distractions when I’m working and save them for when I’m taking a break between tasks.”

3) Take short breaks.

Do you pride yourself on lunch being your only break? Do you believe allocating the rest of your attention on work is the only way to achieve optimal productivity?

Well, according to researchers at the University of Illinois, constantly working without a break actually hampers concentration over time. Taking short breaks throughout the day is what sustains your focus.

“Constant stimulation is registered by our brains as unimportant, to the point that the brain erases it from our awareness,” says Alejandro Lieras, the experiment’s leader. “And if sustained attention to a sensation makes that sensation vanish from our awareness, sustained attention to a thought should also lead to that thought’s disappearance from our mind!”

Lieras describes a psychological tendency called habituation. An example of this is putting your shirt on in the morning and noticing the feeling of smooth cloth touching your skin. But after some time, your brain acclimates to the shirt and you won’t sense its softness anymore.

The same thing happens with work. Applying nonstop tunnel vision to a project actually withers your attention to it over time.

The brain is wired to recognize and react to change. So take mental breaks to let your brain distance itself from your work. When you return, you’ll perceive your current task with a fresher lens and engage more deeply with it.

Alicia Collins, a multimedia content strategist at HubSpot, considers mental rest a pivotal part of the creative process.

“Taking short breaks throughout the day is a great way to sort out your priorities and boost your focus. Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed or stuck on a particular issue, I take some time to eat lunch away from my desk or go for a walk around the block,” she says. “These simple activities help clear my head and enable me to tackle problems from a new, creative angle.”

There are several productivity techniques that leverage short mental breaks, like the pomodoro technique, where you work for 25 minutes and then rest for 5 minutes. A study by the Draugiem Group also discovered that the employees with the highest productivity spent 52 minutes working, followed by 17 minutes of rest.

You can test each method and stick to the one that enhances your focus and productivity the most.

4) Don’t stuff yourself at lunch.

I have a love-hate relationship with the food coma. By noon everyday, I’m so starved that I gobble up the most filling meal I can find. It tastes incredible. And after devouring my plate, I love placing my hands on my bloated belly, admiring the fact that I’m full and satisfied.

When it’s time to get back to work, though, you’ll find me slumped in my chair. My brain feels like it’s in a fog. So I just sit there and barely even attempt the easy tasks on my to-do list.

Eating rich meals fulfills your hunger, but it also dulls your mental acuity. Your digestive system expends so much energy digesting all the fat and carbs that it chokes the circulation of oxygen to your brain. This devastates your ability to focus.

One way to resist a daily indulgence is to snack on light, healthy foods throughout the morning. This stabilizes your blood sugar and combats growling-stomach hunger. You’ll notice you’ll eat less and select healthier options for lunch, allowing you to stay sharp for the rest of the day.

Karla Cook, a HubSpot Marketing Blog editor, usually eats a salad with whole grains and vegan protein for lunch, and avoids anything processed. Her motivation? To be productive in the afternoon, she needs to feel good.

“When you eat bad things, you feel bad. It’s pretty much instant retribution,” she says. “Eating a solid, healthy lunch is a super simple way to set the course of your afternoon.”

5) Limit Auditory Distractions.

Background noise in the office — like colleague chatter or the clacking of a keyboard — can shatter concentration. According to several studies, ambient noise causes stress, which triggers a release of cortisol into your body.

Cortisol is designed to ease that initial stress, so your body can return to homeostasis. But too much cortisol disrupts your prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain that regulates your ability to plan, reason, and remember things.

These subtle, but potent noises will fracture your focus, so invest in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones or find a quiet space to work.

Aja Frost, a staff writer for HubSpot’s Sales Blog, likes to explore every nook and crannie of HubSpot’s Cambridge office to find her own quiet spaces.

“I look for places that are slightly tucked away, like a booth or a small table. These places are always really quiet — and free from distraction,” she says. “When I’m ready for a more social atmosphere, I’ll go back to my desk or an area of the office that gets more people randomly walking by.”

How do you maintain your focus? Teach us your productivity hacks in the comments below!

Oh, hi there. Have you heard the news about video? It’s becoming really important for marketers to use. Imperative, even. Perhaps mandatory.

“Sure,” you must be thinking. “And in other news, the sky is blue.”

Okay, we get it. You know how important video is. That much is clear. In fact, 94% of marketers plan to add either YouTube or Facebook video to their content distribution efforts in the next 12 months. And that’s great — but we have a question. What makes a video viral?

According to Dictionary.com, to go viral means to become “very popular by circulating quickly from person to person, especially through the internet.” And when executed well, that virality can last for a while — in fact, I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite ways to reminisce about my childhood is to ask my peers, “Remember that old jingle that went like … ?”

So not only have we hand-picked our favorite viral marketing videos below — we’ve also explained what we believe makes them so effective. And given the aforementioned ability of viral videos to maintain evergreen popularity, you’ll notice that not all of them are terribly recent. So, let’s get right to it, shall we?

6 Viral Video Marketing Examples

1) Dallas Zoo & Bob Hagh: Breakdancing Gorilla

The Video

We start off with a bit of an unusual example. It all started when Dallas Zoo Primate Supervisor Ashley Orr captured this video of Zola, a footloose and fancy-free gorilla splashing around and dancing in a kiddie pool. Check it out:

But as if that wasn’t already fun enough to watch, Star-Telegram Video Producer Bob Hagh noticed that the gorilla’s “choreography” bore a striking resemblance to a routine from the movie Flashdance, which was performed to the song “Maniac.” Seeing an opportunity for a quick laugh, Hagh dubbed the dancing gorilla video with the same track.

I added some music to this. http://pic.twitter.com/UwjhTKpaeu

— Bob Hagh (@BobHagh)
June 22, 2017

Within less than a week, the video was picked up by the likes of CNN, Maxim, and ABC, to name a few — just have a look at the search results for “dancing gorilla maniac.”

Why It Works

How many times have you watched a video and thought, “This reminds me of … “? That’s precisely what Hagh did here — took a video that was already cute, and added something simple to make it even more shareable.

After Hagh’s “enhanced” version of the gorilla video went viral, I resolved to start observing those fleeting moments when I think to myself, “Wouldn’t it be funny if … ?” And while there’s no guarantee that acting on those thoughts would have viral results — and we wouldn’t recommend investing a ton of time in something that isn’t likely to pay off — Hagh’s experience makes us say, “You never know.”

So start paying attention to what you normally think of as silly ideas, and if there’s a low-effort opportunity to act on them, do so — but don’t just do it once, and pay attention each time, analyzing any metrics that you’re able to pull around performance. See who responds to each experiment and how, and it could inform your video marketing strategy.

2) Dollar Shave Club: “Our Blades Are F***ing Great”

The Video

The video below is over five years old, and yet, out of all of Dollar Shave Club’s YouTube videos — of which there are more than 50 — it remains the brand’s most popular, with over 24 million views.

Why It Works

There’s something to be said for putting a face to a brand — in this case, it’s Dollar Shave Club’s founder, Michael Dubin. Employees can have up to 10X as many followers on social media as the companies they work for, and content shared by them receives as much as 8X the engagement. In other words, viewers like it when the people behind a brand advocate for it.

That’s exactly what this video does — and following its success, Dubin hasn’t disappeared into the shadows, and to this day, continues to personally appear in the vast majority of Dollar Shave Club’s videos.

We get it. Founders and executives are busy. Where the heck are they supposed to find the time to appear in all of these marketing videos? To us, the answer is: They make the time. By publicly making that investment in their respective brands’ content, an executive sends the message that she still believes in her brand, and that she hasn’t let its success change her character. It’s a unique form of thought leadership, but if Dollar Shave Club’s growth and popularity is any indication — it works.

3) IBM: “A Boy And His Atom: The World’s Smallest Movie”

The Video

Here’s another video that you can file under: “Oldie, but goodie.” Sure, this marketing video falls within the B2B sector to advertise IBM’s data storage services — but similar to the very B2C brand Dollar Shave Club, the example below remains its most popular video on YouTube, with over six million views.

“Even nanophysicists need to have a little fun,” the video’s description reads, explaining that, to make the video, “IBM researchers used a scanning tunneling microscope to move thousands of carbon monoxide molecules … all in pursuit of making a movie so small it can be seen only when you magnify it 100 million times.” Today, it holds the Guinness World Records™ title for the World’s Smallest Stop-Motion Film.

Why It Works

Re-read the first part of the video’s description. “Even nanophysicists need to have a little fun.” Replace that job title with any other, and depending on your industry, it could apply to your work, as well. All marketers deserve to have a little fun. The question is, “How?”

It presents another opportunity to start paying closer attention to those “Wouldn’t it be cool if … ?” thoughts, and thinking about how you can actually act upon them to create remarkable content. That’s especially important in B2B marketing, where creatively communicating your product or service in an engaging way is a reported challenge.

So, we’ll say it again: Write down your ideas for cool things to do, and present them at your next marketing conversation with a plan for implementing them.

P.S. Want to see how this film was made? Check out that bonus footage here.

4) TrueMoveH: “Giving”

The Video

TrueMoveH, a mobile communication provider in Thailand, triggered leaky eyeballs everywhere when it published this video in 2013. To date, it has over 20 million views and continues to be the brand’s most popular YouTube video.

We’re not crying. You’re crying.

Why It Works

Let’s think about some of the ads that have given us “all the feels,” as the kids would say, like Budweiser’s 2014 “Puppy Love” Super Bowl ad which, in January 2016, Inc. called “the All-Time Most Popular Super Bowl Ad.” They’re popular, and people continue to talk about them long after they’ve aired. That’s because they invoke empathy — and that can highly influence buying decisions, especially when there’s a story involved.

This video tells a story. It follows the tale of a man who was unequivocally generous throughout his life and, in the end, repaid when it mattered most. The best part: Not once throughout the story is the brand mentioned. In fact, it isn’t until the end that TrueMoveH’s general business category — communication — arises.

Start with your industry. Then, think of a story you want to tell — any story at all, as long as it invokes empathy. Then, figure out how that story ties back to what your brand does, and use it to create video content.

5) Tripp and Tyler & Zoom: “A Conference Call in Real Life”

The Video

Then, there’s the flip side of empathy — the kind that takes some of life’s biggest annoyances and applies humor to them. That’s exactly what podcast hosts Tripp and Tyler did in the video below, to illustrate what a conference call would look like if it played out in real life.

Why It Works

This example is an interesting case of co-marketing. Tripp and Tyler made the video in partnership with Zoom, a video conferencing provider — but Zoom isn’t mentioned until the end, when the story being told in the video is largely over. It’s as if the video says, “Ha ha, don’t you hate it when that happens? Here’s a company that can provide a solution,” and then quietly exits.

What are some of the biggest annoyances your customers or personas have to deal with? Do they align with the problems that your product or service is designed to solve? If the answer is “no,” then, well … you have some work to do.

But if the answer is “yes,” find the humor in those problems. They say that “art imitates life,” so don’t be afraid to act it out, and use these common frustrations to create engaging content.

6) Poo~Pourri: “Imagine Where You Can GO”

The Video

Poo~Pourri, the maker of a unique bathroom spray, is known for its vast array of viral videos. And while we’re a bit too bashful to share its most popular one on here, here’s another one — which has earned over 13 million views — that’ll give you a general idea of what the brand is all about.

Why It Works

Let’s face it: Generally, what goes on in the bathroom stays in the bathroom. It’s a taboo topic — but it’s one that everyone experiences, and one that Poo~Pourri approaches and communicates with bravado.

This brand’s products were created to solve a problem that people typically don’t like to discuss publicly, but still needs to be resolved. So Poo~Pourri created video content that says, “Hey, we’ll address and talk about it, so you don’t have to.”

What are some of the discomforts/uncomfortable topics around the problem that your product seeks to resolve? Start a conversation about them — the one that your customer wants to have, but is too embarrassed to do so.

And guess what? It doesn’t have to pertain to bodily functions. It can also be about bigger grievances, like wanting to quit your job. That’s the approach that HubSpot has taken with its Summer Startup Competition, for which we created the video below. The opening line? An unabashed declaration of, “Quit your job.”

So, there you have it. From tear-jerking to hilarious, these viral videos illustrate the endless possibilities of how your brand can create similar content — the kind that could keep people talking about it far down the road.

What are your favorite viral video marketing examples? Let us know in the comments.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in September 2010 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Registration & Keynotes

Marketing & Sales has Changed

7:30 am – 8:30 am – Registration, Coffee & Breakfast

Sign in and grab some coffee and light breakfast! Meet some of your fellow marketers and salespeople before we get started.

8:45am – 9:15 am – “Marketing & Sales Has Changed” by James Gilbert, HubSpot

We’ll cover how to adapt your marketing and sales strategy to become more inbound, and ultimately more aligned with your future customers’ needs.

Session Type: Keynote

Room: Grand Ballroom

 9:15 am – 9:45 am – A Look to the Future: Speed, Convenience and the Rise of AI in Marketing & Sales by Matthew Barby, HubSpot 

This talk will explore the impact that changes in consumer behaviour and technology have on the way that marketers should be thinking about their future strategies. 

Session Type: Keynote

Room: Grand Ballroom

9:45 am – 10:15 am – Coffee Break 

Refuel with some coffee and tea, network with your neighbours and meet the HubSpot team. We’re here to answer any questions you might have. 

Breakout Session: Attracting Visitors

Top of the Funnel

10:25 am – 10:55 am – How to Create, Optimise and Measure Content to Drive More Traffic by Elissa Hudson, HubSpot

We’ll walk you through how content can make a difference to your business’s bottom line, and what type of content you should be creating (and for who). 

Room: Grand Ballroom, Breakout 1

10:25 am – 10:55 am – How I Became a Global Influencer in My Industry on a $10 Budget – by Jeff Bullas, jeffbullas.com 

In this session, Jeff Bullas gives actionable tips and advice on how to become a ‘thought leader’ or influencer in your target market, based on his own learnings.

Room: Grand Ballroom, Breakout 2

10:25 am – 10:55 am – Choosing Topics Over Keywords and Launching a New Content Strategy by Marilia Salvia-Teixeira and Kaitlin Stoddard, HubSpot

This session will focus on how you need to leave your keyword obsession behind and make a fundamental shift towards focusing on core topics for content creation and SEO.

Room: Maritime Ballroom, Breakout 3 

Breakout Session: Converting Leads

Middle of the Funnel

11:05 am – 11:35 am – How to Turn Your Web Traffic Into Leads & Customers by James Gilbert, HubSpot

This session covers key tactics to increase your conversion rates using lead nurturing and automation in an effective, impactful way.  

Room: Grand Ballroom, Breakout 1 

11:05 am – 11:35 am – How Canva Grew 25x in the Last 2 Years – by Andre Pinantoan, Canva 

Room: Grand Ballroom, Breakout 2

Canva’s Head of Growth, Andre Pinantoan, talks through the meteoric rise of Canva and how they grew 25x in just an astonishingly short two-year period.

11:05 am – 11:35 am –  Pairing Content with Context to Drive Conversions by Brent Claremont and Varun Bhandarkar, HubSpot

Room: Maritime Ballroom, Breakout 3

HubSpot’s Brent and Varun look at the importance of applying context when using content to drive conversions.

Breakout Session: Closing and Delighting Customers

Bottom of the Funnel

11:45 am – 12:15 pm – How to Build an Effective Sales Funnel by Kat Warboys, HubSpot

We’ll cover how you can get your leads to a stage where they actually want to speak to sales. Yep… you heard us right. 

Room: Grand Ballroom, Breakout 1 

11:45 am – 12:15 pm – Empowerment, not alignment: Why marketing should focus on empowering sales teams, rather than aligning by Ben Eatwell, LinkedIn

Room: Grand Ballroom, Breakout 2

In this session, Ben Eatwell of LinkedIn discusses the need for marketing to focus on empowering sales, rather than aligning.

11:45 am – 12:15 pm – Customer Spotlight with Gayle Brimble and Kim Horner, Australian Institute of Fitness 

Session Type: Customer Fireside Chat

Room: Maritime Ballroom, Breakout 3 

HubSpot’s Katrina Too interviews HubSpot Gayle Brimble and Kim Horner from the Australian Institute of Fitness.

Future of Marketing Panel and Closing Remarks

12:15 pm – 1:00 pm – Networking Lunch 

Take a break, grab some lunch, and get to know your fellow marketers and salespeople! 

1:00 pm – 1:30 pm – Future of Marketing Panel with HubSpot, Canva and LinkedIn

Canva’s Andre Pinantoan, LinkedIn’s Ben Eatwell and HubSpot Global Head of Growth and SEO Matt Barby discuss what the future of marketing looks like.

Session Type: Thought Leader Panel 

Room: Grand Ballroom 

1:30 pm – 1:45 pm – Closing Remarks and Event Close

We’ll round-up everything you’ve learned and provide a few extra tips for building an inbound strategy. Then, it’s your chance to meet everyone else in the room!

Room: Grand Ballroom

In a truly beautiful letter to his daughter Yolande, Sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois extolled the virtues of being uncomfortable.

Yolande was headed to a new school halfway around the world from the neighborhood and people she knew. It was years before women had the right to vote, and decades before the Civil Rights Movement.

Du Bois knew she would have more than a few fish-out-of-water moments. Instead of trying to shield her from them, he asked her to revel in them:  

Don’t shrink from new experiences and custom. Take the cold bath bravely. Enter into the spirit of your big bed-room. Enjoy what is and not pine for what is not. Read some good, heavy, serious books just for discipline: Take yourself in hand and master yourself. Make yourself do unpleasant things, so as to gain the upper hand of your soul. Above all remember: your father loves you and believes in you and expects you to be a wonderful woman.”

I am no W.E.B. Du Bois. I have neither his fortitude nor his stunning way with words. What I do have, however, is a small history of uncomfortable experiences that have made me stronger, and an endless sea of animated GIFs through which to illustrate those experiences.

Here are a handful of uncomfortable situations in which you should take De Bois’ advice and “Take the cold bath bravely.” You’ll be better off as a result.

(And remember: Investing in your career and developing new skills can often feel daunting — especially when you have a day job. If you’re looking for something you can work towards at your own pace, check out this on-demand marketing course.)

15 Uncomfortable Things That Will Make You More Successful

Brace yourself. It’s about to get awkward.

1) Learning to Take a Compliment

Source: Reaction GIFs

Tell me if this sounds familiar: You work exceedingly hard. You’ve honed your skills. You know when you’ve done great work and take a quiet pride in it. And yet, the moment someone verbalizes it in the form of a compliment you can’t seem to string two words together. Instead, you revert into one of the following: 

• The babbling-response.
• The self-deprecating response. 
• The total and complete blackout. 

That nonsense has to stop. Here’s how to take a compliment:

1. Realize that someone is paying you a compliment.
2. Let them finish.
3. Seriously, let them finish. 
4. Take a breath.
5. Smile and say “Thank you. That’s really good to hear.” 
6. Move on in the conversation. Don’t over-explain. Don’t undercut yourself. Just thank them sincerely and move on with a question about how their work is going. 

Why is this so hard? According to a study by Acknowledgment Works, nearly 70% of people associate embarrassment or discomfort with the process of being recognized. Sometimes, this response is caused by the dissonance we feel when someone contradicts our own self-doubt.

But that doesn’t explain why people who are genuinely proud of themselves still balk at hearing that same praise from others. For those people, it often comes down to a learned-response. In other words, you are awkward when you receive compliments because I am awkward when I receive compliments — or, if not me, then your mom; your co-workers; your icons. We’re all making each other squirm. 

One way to turn that discomfort on its head is to realize that the compliment has more to do with the person giving it than with you. “When someone is complimenting you, they are sharing how your actions or behaviors impacted them,” explains Business Psychologist Mark Goulston. “They are not asking if you agree.”  So don’t rob them of that moment. 

2) Public Speaking

Source: Giphy

You knew this one was coming, right? Fear of public speaking is so common it has its own phobia name: Glossophobia.  

Now, I don’t think I need to go into the reasons behind this particular juggernaut of discomfort. We’ve all been there. Having that many eyes and ears on you is stressful. It makes you feel as though any mistake or imperfection will be amplified a thousand times. I’m also certain you realize how compelling a good public speaker can be, and how much it can advance your ability to lead and inspire.

So all that leaves is the classic glossophobia question:  How do you get over it? The answer is a mix of substantial and superficial changes.

Know the essential points.

Do not attempt to memorize your speeches. Instead, memorize your key points and your pivot lines. Pivot lines are the sentences that will move you from one key point to another. They act as navigational guides for your audience and a momentary comfort zone for you. Use these pivot lines to reset, take a breath, and move to your next key point. 

Understand that everyone wants you to succeed.

You are not going into battle. You are not facing a firing squad. These people you are talking to are all decent, interested folks. Many of whom also suffer from glossophobia. So know they are friendly, and talk to them like it.

Fake it.

For this last point, I turn to Harvard Associate Professor Amy Cuddy. She is a brilliant researcher and a  self-proclaimed introvert who noticed something fascinatingly simple about skilled public speakers: They all looked comfortable, and they all appeared to be in command — even if that appearance was all a big ruse.

So she studied what happens to people’s mindset when they stood up straight, casually used the space around them, and otherwise “power-posed.” Turns out the physical act of power-posing can send biological triggers to your brain to reduce cortisol levels and increase testosterone, calming you down and empowering you simultaneously.

(Here’s a blog post on science-backed tips for better public speaking if you want to learn more.)

3) Working With Data

Source: Reddit

If you don’t take to math easily, then delving into data can be intimidating. But learning to use data to find opportunities and underscore your points is a game-changer in your career.

The trick to mastering data is to learn it in context. Start by getting to know the core metrics that reflect your work. Play with spreadsheets at the close of a month. Learn to recognize trends. Alter the data to see how moving one metric would influence the others. The more time you spend with the data the more natural interpreting it will become.  Once you’ve done that, you can dig into the tougher stuff. Here are a couple of resources to get you started:

• How to Use Excel: Essential Training for Data-Driven Marketing: A downloadable resource that includes videos, instructions for how to do specific things in Excel, and advice for using Excel to build reports.
• 14 Simple Excel Shortcuts, Tip & Tricks: A blog post with step-by-step instructions for creating pivot tables, filters, conditional formatting, VLOOKUPs, and more. Harry Potter references and GIFs included.
• 10 Excel Tips and Tricks Every Marketer Should Know: A blog post teaching you how to create a histogram and what exactly regression analysis entails. It’s a good time for all. 
• Data Smart: A book by Data Scientist John Foreman, who is a wizard at taking the complex and putting into approachable and even entertaining terms. While this book isn’t exactly an easy read, I can assure you it’s worth every minute invested.

4) Waking Up Early

Source: ReactionGIFs

It’s exhausting, this modern life. While it may seem like you should squeeze as many extra minutes of sleep out of the morning as possible, the opposite is usually true. Your energy, focus and mental capacity are at their highest during the morning hours and proceed to wane throughout the rest of the day.

Take advantage of that time before breakfast when the chaos of the day has yet to set in. For most people, waking up early is a learned practice. 

First, make sure you’re cognizant enough to make the decision. Putting your alarm clock right next to your pillow is bound to result in you hitting snooze from a dazed state. You can’t be expected to make smart choices while you’re still dreaming. In addition, waking up early needs to become a pleasant experience. So if the thought of going straight from your warm bed to a shower or treadmill seems abrupt, then don’t do it. Instead, move from your bed to the cozy corner chair in your living room and read for a bit with a mug of coffee. What you do early on doesn’t matter, what matters is that you use the time in productive ways. (Read this blog post for more tips on becoming a morning person.)

5) Taking Critical Feedback

Source: ReactionGIFs

This one stings sometimes, but it’s important. Learning to hear criticism without turning your back to it can be one of the most fortifying achievements of your career.

Think of critical feedback as a cheat sheet. In giving you direct feedback, your manager or colleague is giving you a shortcut  — your own personal konami code — to becoming better at your job.

Sometimes, even with the best intentions, taking feedback well can be a struggle. Your impulse will be to protect yourself; to get defensive, or stop listening. So, be conscious of it. Much like accepting a compliment, take a breath when you realize critical feedback is coming your way. Listen to it all without interruption. Write down what you can. Then, ask questions to make sure you’re interpreting it right. 

6) Giving Critical Feedback

Source: Giphy

The only thing worse than taking critical feedback is giving it. I’ve written about this before: Whether you’re a manager or a friend, feedback is an opportunity to help someone get better. Don’t waste it. Good coaches give feedback directly and with respect. Don’t try to soften the blow or talk around the feedback. Doing so may make you feel better but it will only serve to confuse them.

If you’re struggling to be direct, try one clear line followed by detail. For example, “John, what you’re doing isn’t working. Let’s talk through why…”

In addition, feedback is always most constructive if accompanied by recent concrete examples. Telling someone they have a bad attitude isn’t helpful — it’s far better to point to a precise moment in which that bad attitude showed up, and then explain how moments like that can become detrimental in aggregate. Ultimately, knowing how to improve is as important as knowing what to improve. The person receiving the feedback should leave the conversation feeling empowered to change, not broken down. (Here are some more tips on how to give negative feedback without sounding like a jerk.)

7) Fighting through Conflict

 Source: ReactionGIFs

You know what’s more uncomfortable than fighting through a conflict with someone? Settling for an uninspired compromise, and then gossiping about that person over drinks with your coworkers. That’s WAY more comfortable than conflict. (Not to mention, way less productive.)

There are two ways conflict negotiations get botched: Either one side gives in too easily, or both sides are too inflexible to make resolution possible. The cleanest way through conflict is to try to discover what’s motivating the other person. Comment trolls aside, it’s pretty rare for someone to be argumentative for no good reason. Discovering the reason will help you find a better route to solving the conflict. That’s why your best asset in settling conflict is a collection of genuine questions and a patient ear to hear the answers.

8) Exercising

Source: Giphy

I keep waiting for the study that says that exercise isn’t all its cracked up to be. It’s fair to say that study isn’t coming. Not only is exercise good for your physical health, the ties between exercise and mental capacity are becoming undeniable. (Thanks, science.)

If you like working out, skip right ahead.  If you don’t, here are the only things I’ve found to work. 

Find your reason.

Maybe you want to lose weight. Maybe it helps you think more clearly. Maybe you have three kids, a constantly buzzing phone, and a dog all demanding your attention and exercise is your only chance to be alone. The reasons don’t matter.  Just find the one that feels authentic for you and use it. 

Make the time.

Treat exercise like you treat showering. It’s just something you do; a non-negotiable daily ritual. (Psst … here are 10 little ways to sneak in exercise at work.)

Get over it.

I used to hear about “runners’ highs,” a sort of delusion that sets in after you’ve done it enough that actually makes you believe jogging is fun. That may be the case for some people. It never happened for me, and wanting to like running made it easy to give up when I ultimately didn’t. Du Bois’ advice is worth hearing again here: “Make yourself do unpleasant things, so as to gain the upper hand of your soul.”

Find your genre.

The softer alternative to the above point is to find the exercise format that you hate least. If a crowded gym makes you want to run for the hills, then work out at home or outside on your own. If you find jogging boring, join a class or sports league. Work at it — it’s worth it.

9) Unplugging

Source: Giphy

I love the internet. And smartphones? They’re like personal escape hatches that you carry with you all the time. But maybe “all the time” is not such a good idea.

According to a TIME poll of more than 5,000 people, 84% of respondents said that they could not go a single day without their cell phones, and 20% said they check them once or more every 20 minutes.

It’s not the frequency of usage that’s the problem; it’s what that level of usage does to our focus. Using our smartphones at night can make it a lot harder to sleep. When we use our smartphones nonstop it can be harder to think clearly.

So, here’s an experiment. For two weeks, set aside some screen free time blocks in your day. During that time fight the urge to open your laptop, watch TV, or glance at your phone. Sustain it for 60 minutes or more and see if you’ve gained better focus at the conclusion of the experiment. Then, go find some cat videos on YouTube to celebrate.

10) Networking and Making Small Talk

Source: Giphy

Everyone has a small-talk formula. Some people start with the weather (nice, mild winter we’re having, eh?), while others ask how things are going with you at work. But here’s the trick to mastering small talk: Get fascinated by it and the person wielding it. It’s a little like being dealt a hand of cards, you can use what you have to get to bigger and more interesting plays.  

If someone asks you how work is, don’t say “fine” — or worse, “busy.” Tell them it’s good and follow up with, “You know, there’s one project in particular that you may find interesting.” If you’re doing the asking, take any opportunity to dive deeper. Use each question as a spring board to the next one. Eventually, you’ll hit on something substantial. 

11) Admitting a Mistake

Source: ReactionGIFs

You know that moment right after you realize you’ve accidentally made a mistake? You know, that moment when the dread plummets into your stomach in one sweeping motion? Uncomfortable doesn’t even begin to describe it.

However, even that can be turned around. The most effective way to replace that sinking feeling in your gut is to assess the situation and take action. Ask yourself:

Is it immediately reversible?

On my last blog post, I had a glaring typo. This was not some extra spacing after a period, this was a blatant blemish smack in the middle of my post. And I missed it. Thankfully Claire Autruong caught it and let me know via Twitter so I could edit the post before it was too late. Claire is my favorite person of the week. (Incidentally, she is also a full-stack freelance marketer — inbound certified and nice as can be — if you’re looking.)

Who should know?

Whom does your mistake affect? Who is in the position who can help you solve it? Quickly scan the list of people that need to know about your mistake and contact them explaining what happened and what you’re doing about it.

What’s your plan?

If the mistake isn’t immediately reversible, you’ll need a plan of action. A good plan is the best antidote to mistake-induced discomfort. Shift from panic to determination as soon as possible, and that discomfort will subside.

12) Getting in Over Your Head

Source: ReactionGIFs

Of all the uncomfortable moments, getting in over your head is probably the one most worth pursuing. Sure, it’s a little scary , and there’s always the chance of failure, but nothing stretches you more or makes you more creative than having no idea what you’re doing.

So how do you put yourself in an over-your-head style situation? Raise your hand. When there’s a project no one wants, step up. When there’s a problem that has existed for years, have at it. Then break it down. Take big challenges and tackle them piece by piece. It may not always be fun, but you will almost always be better for the effort. 

13) Disagreeing With Your Boss

Source: Giphy

There’s a reason my boss is my boss. He’s really freaking smart. He’s exceptionally good at what he does. So in the times I find myself disagreeing with him there are usually a few moments of internal back and forth before I’m ready to say so aloud. But I do so because I’ve learned that staying quiet is more damaging than polite.

It took me becoming a manager myself to realize how constructive disagreement can be. A perspective that is never tested grows shallow. Sometimes a dissenting opinion will make you reconsider. Sometimes it will make your stance stronger. Either way, the exercise of hearing different angles advances your thinking and improves your outcomes.

So spit it out. “I disagree on that point.” If that feels too direct consider framing it as a question. “What about a different approach?” Most importantly, don’t save up for a major disagreement. Practice coming at issues from different angles now. The more you present constructive counterpoints the easier it will become, and you’ll be more likely to speak up when it matters most.

14) Promoting Yourself

Source: Giphy

Periodically we survey our team to get a sense for how each employee is feeling about the company and their own career development. One theme that sometimes comes back is how to get ahead without being self-promotional. Usually the comment goes something like this: “It seems like the company always recognizes the same people. I do good work, but it seems like no one notices.”

The honest response to these comments is: You’re right.

Growing companies are chaotic. They churn with activity: breakthroughs and setbacks, new projects and discoveries. Keeping up with it all isn’t practical, so managers rely on signals, and tasteful self-promotion is a valuable signal. 

Self-promotion is sometimes misused to serve the ego, but there’s a way to pull it off that also also serves the company.

We are taught not to be overly self-promotional. We are encouraged to value the achievement rather than the accolades. That message is almost right. It focuses on what matters most but fails to recognize that talking about an achievement can fuel its fire. Promoting an achievement can galvanize others to bring their ideas to it and ensure future efforts learn from it. And yes, it can get you noticed.

The trick here is being judicial. Not everything you do deserves broader attention. But some things do. In those cases, talking about them doesn’t make you an attention junkie it makes you a good communicator. If the personal attention makes you uncomfortable, focus your advocacy on the work itself. Draw attention to the discovery, milestone or lessons uncovered by your effort. The company will be better for it and you will too.

15) Admitting You Don’t Understand Something

Source: Giphy

I was a good six months into my job as a product marketer for a software company before I finally owned up to not knowing what an API was. I mean I knew what an API was. I’d Googled it, obviously. API stands “application programming interface” and constitutes a set of “subroutine definitions, protocols, and tools for building application software.” Thanks Wikipedia. (I’ll hit you up on that next fundraising round), but for all my internet research, I didn’t really understand what an API did.

Then it came time for me to explain that my company, HubSpot, was opening up more of the helpful little buggers to the public and I did not know where to begin. So, I went to my product manager and did what any ego-protecting protagonist would do, I tried to fake it.

“How would you describe this  —  in layman’s terms — to the average reader?” I asked.

Smooth. Always blame the reader.

“Well, developers are pretty accustomed to APIs so don’t worry about needing to educate them on it.”

Not smooth.

I folded.

“Ok, then, how would you explain it to me? I mean, will you explain it to me? I don’t get it. “

And thus began my relationship with APIs. I still don’t understand all the details of how they work, but I’m much smarter for having gotten over myself and asked the question.

Don’t fake it until you make it. Get over yourself and ask the question.

I’ll stop there …

… but this is really just the beginning. Who knew there were so many uncomfortable things in the world? (Michael Cera. Michael Cera probably knew.)

From negotiating salary to reading “some good, heavy, serious books” as Du Bois suggests, this list could go on and on. Hopefully it will, in the comments below.

What uncomfortable moment have you conquered as a professional? Which are you still working on that you’d add to this list? Share with us in the comments. 

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

 

Few things in human history have been as influential as the written word.  

Writing has toppled empires, built global corporations, and inspired millions, if not billions of people. For decades, writers have played a chief role in marketing. David Ogilvy once wrote, “advertising is a business of words.”

But will it always be?

After all, the rise of digital has led to big changes in marketing since the days when Ogilvy & company were chain smoking and tossing back martinis between writing 2,000-word print ads.

Some say there’s a new sheriff in town. And he’s bringing a lighting rig, boom microphone, and green screen.

Video Killed the … Writing Star?

It’s no exaggeration to say that video is taking over modern marketing. Just take a look at these numbers:

• Global venture firm KPCB estimates that by the end of this year, video will account for nearly three-fourths of all online traffic.
• Brightcove says that videos are shared 1200% more than hyperlinks and text combined.
• Facebook’s European VP, Nicola Mendelsohn, predicted that the network would be 100% video in just five years.

These trends are great for videographers and others who make a living from the medium, but where do they leave writers?

Apparently, very worried.

In late 2015, a Gartner report predicting that 20% of all business content would be machine-generated by 2018 led to a string of articles proclaiming the death of writing jobs. High profile advocates of writing rushed to the medium’s defense soon after, but it didn’t curb the worry: HubSpot’s recent State of Inbound 2017 report indicated that many marketers who earn a living from writing and editing are afraid their careers will “diminish more and more with [the rise of] video.”

So is it true? Will videos wipe out all the jobs and businesses based on the written word?

Not likely. But it will change them.

The reports of writing’s death are greatly exaggerated.

Language is the foundation for human communication and has been for tens of thousands of years. Deep-rooted, biological tendencies don’t change just because everyone now carries a powerful video camera in their pocket.

Or as Mendelsohn bluntly puts it, “You’ll have to write for the video.”

Indeed. Like the framing of a sturdy house, every video needs to be built with quality words in scripts and storyboards. The rush to adapt to video content means there are still many people who don’t know how to write for videos – a great opportunity for skilled writers that do (more on this in a minute).

Plus, reading really isn’t going anywhere. A Quartz study showed that executives still value in-depth, high-quality articles. In fact, they’re almost twice as likely to share a long article than any other piece of online content.

Whether it’s on a screen or a newspaper, people will likely always want to read a compelling piece of written content. But that doesn’t mean writers can kick back, pour up a martini, and coast on the skills they have today.

How Writers Can Adapt to the Rise of Video

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just stand there.”

This adage by the famous cowboy Will Rogers applies to lots of fields, especially one presented as many ways as writing. Visual content may be all the rage, but there is still a need for people who can put words together. The key to a successful future is staying on the right track by moving your skills forward.

Here’s what you should be focusing on if you’re a writer, editor, or business that provides these services to clients:

Learn new and complementary writing skills.

As I mentioned – writing comes in many forms. A veteran journalist used to writing long columns might sneer at the idea of saying something in 140 characters or less, but someone who can write a good tweet commands attention in the digital world.

In many instances, skills from traditional writing styles carry over to new marketing. Those attention-grabbing headlines print journalists create for newspaper articles are distant cousins to the first line of today’s Facebook ads.

And remember, images, audio, and video content all require good writing to put them in context. Instagram captions, podcast scripts, landing page copy, training video highlights – the list of places written content is required has actually grown in the age of visual consumption. Even learning how to write one or two of these types of content can open up new career paths and opportunities.

But you also shouldn’t be afraid to dig into worlds you’re unfamiliar with.  If you offer blogging services, why not learn a few facets of technical SEO? Even if you’re not a graphic artist, tools like Canva and PicMonkey make it easy to design basic visual content.

I know it’s warm and cozy in there, but you can’t stay in your comfort zone forever.

Improve your existing skills.

Stephen King wrote in his seminal 2000 book On Writing that a competent writer could become a good one with “lots of hard work, dedication, and timely help.” Now that there’s zero barrier to entry and companies can find writing talent in a few clicks, being a “competent writer” is the floor. It’s hard for writers to stand out these days; creating interesting, quality content is the only way.

To continue King’s analogy, you need to work on leveling up from “competent” to “good.”

I’m consistently shocked by people who call themselves professionals, then submit content with errors that a high school teacher wouldn’t accept, let alone a business building their brand. The rise of global freelancers and the decline of user attention spans has made written content more competitive than ever.

And like any competition, the path to success is constantly working to get better.    

Luckily, there are easy ways to improve. I love Eddie Shleyner’s idea of simplifying Wikipedia paragraphs to be more concise. You can also try freewriting, an activity that not only trains you to write on cue and identifies your habits, but can kick-start the day’s productivity.

Simple exercises like these are easy to find online – but you have to actually do them.

Network with others.

Too many writers cling to the romantic image of being alone at a desk, hunched over a keyboard, deep in thought. Of course you need time to focus, but the best writers and editors work with others.

If you’re looking for a job, knowing people can get your foot in the door at your dream company – and once you’re in, being a good teammate will help you stay. If you’re a freelancer or entrepreneur, talking to other writers, editors, and businesses based around the written word is a great way to hone your skills.

Networking with other types of companies will help broaden your opportunities. Instead of fearing that the new video company down the street is going to put you out of business, knock on their door and see how you can team up on client accounts.

Just remember the cardinal rule of networking: give before you ask.

If you’re shy in-person or geographically isolated, the internet gives us a plethora of ways to communicate. Brian Balfour’s guide to networking email is jam-packed with tactical ways to connect with people. You can use these strategies to meet potential clients, mentors, and influencers who can all push your career forward.   

Be yourself.

There’s tons of advice out there on emulating what’s already working. Copying ideas is a valuable tactic, encouraged by history’s most successful creatives, from T.S. Eliot to Steve Jobs.

But in the words of Jim Morrison, “Where’s your will to be weird?”

In a world becoming more and more saturated with writers touting the same abilities, how can you hope to stand out? One way: Bring your own personal experiences, attitudes, and beliefs to the table. They are the only thing no one can copy. As usual, Gary Vaynerchuk nails this idea in a recent Instagram clip where he boils it down into “planting your f****ing flag” instead of trying to “go to where the world is.”

You don’t have to be completely transparent, but if you have strong views or opinions based on your experiences, using them in your writing can separate you from the ever-expanding crowd. Draw from sources like your previous jobs, personal interests, and cultural heritage to find unexpected inspiration.

And don’t be afraid to go against the grain with a contrarian opinion. In January of 2014, as content marketing was growing in popularity, Mark Schaefer wrote a blog post about why it wasn’t sustainable, introducing the idea of content shock. It spawned thousands of views, responses from some of the biggest names in the industry, and helped elevate Schaefer’s status as an authority in digital marketing.    

Video has permanently altered the marketing landscape. But as a writer – or any other skilled worker – if you’re willing to put in the effort, push the boundaries of your comfort zone, and continuously learn new professional skills, go ahead and pour yourself that martini. You’re going to be fine.

Video content can be a valuable asset in your inbound marketing content mix. In fact, by the end of this year, video content is expected to represent nearly three-quarters of all internet traffic.

But getting people to sit through your videos can be challenging, considering that the longer your video is, viewers will consistently drop off and stop watching, in most cases.

Your video is being judged on its content, presentation, production quality, style, and the valuable information it provides. What does this tell us? Your content must be truly remarkable to maintain your audience’s attention. 

Below are our tips to instantly improve the production quality of your video marketing content to give it a nice little boost.

14 Video Production Tips for Your Next Marketing Video

Video Pre-Production Tips

Be well-prepared and organized for your video shoots. If you show up to your shoot unorganized and decide to “wing it,” your final product will look unprofessional and sloppy. On the other hand, if you’re prepared, you’ll be able to focus your efforts on directing your actors rather than figuring out last-minute logistics.

Time is of the essence, so don’t waste hours trying to figure out which angle you want or what line needs to be delivered next. Know exactly what you want before the day you film by following the steps below.

1. Be original.

The concept for your video project should be original and creative. Don’t take the easy route and copy someone else’s idea. Instead, conduct persona and keyword research, find out which types of video content are popular and successful in your industry, and double-check to make sure another brand hasn’t covered the exact same angle already.

2. Plan it out.

Write a script, draw out a storyboard, and create a shot list before you start filming. Plan your b-roll shots so you have extra footage when it comes time for editing (more on that below). If you think writing a video script is the same as writing a blog post — think again. Here are Column Five’s best tips.

3. Be selective when choosing video subjects.

Set high standards when casting actors for your projects. Pick someone who can deliver dialogue naturally, who can memorize lines, and who isn’t stiff in front of the camera. If possible, plan time for a few run-throughs to work out any mispronunciations or giggles.

4. Carefully consider the set.

Don’t try to fool your audience by “set dressing” your office to simulate another location. Your audience is paying close attention to every detail of your video. Shoot your video projects in locations other than your office — in front of textured and interesting backdrops, but ones that also aren’t too busy.

Video Production Tips

You can always touch up your footage when you edit afterward, but remember that editing takes time. If you can make everything look as close to perfect as possible during filming, you’ll save yourself a lot of valuable time in post-production. If you shoot a scene and it doesn’t come out great, learn from what went wrong the first time, and shoot it again. Here’s how to do it:

5. Be cognizant of sound quality.

Don’t come off as an amateur with poor sound recording quality. Use lapel or lavaliere microphones — both of which are hands-free — when shooting sit-down interviews, or use microphone and boom setups for bigger shots. If you’re filming a video with a smartphone, you can purchase microphones that fit into the phone’s headphone input to quickly and easily improve sound quality.

6. Set up lights.

You don’t want your footage to be under or over-exposed, so set up lights and eliminate any unwanted shadows. We recommend a three-point lighting setup to illuminate video subjects from a variety of angles — here’s Wistia’s guide to setting one up.

7. Use a tripod.

Use a tripod to keep your video stable — and not wobbly, as it most certainly will be if you hold it yourself. Get a standing tripod or a tabletop tripod for tighter shots to keep your video looking professional.

8. Focus.

Make sure the camera is in focus — and then lock the exposure so it stays in focus. Be mindful of keeping shots white balanced to keep lighting neutral and even, too.

9. Obey the rule of thirds.

The rule of thirds involves splitting up your shot into thirds, horizontally and vertically, and framing your subject off-center. It creates movement and life in your shot the way a straight-on, centered shot wouldn’t.

Here’s an example — try to film individuals in one of the side panels of the divided frame, like so:

Video Editing Tips

Make sure your content is remarkable and tailored to your target audience. Edit your video so that it gets to the point, and doesn’t drag on. Remember, you don’t have long to capture (and hold) your viewer’s attention, so make sure that the beginning of your video is engaging, informative, and relevant to the viewer, and that she’ll clearly understand the message.

10. Align the flow of the video with the emotional response you want to evoke in viewers.

The tone, structure, and pacing of your video have a major influence on its effectiveness and the emotional impact on your audience. Tell a story that would be compelling to you — build tension and drama by arranging shots according to your storyboard and script.

11. Leverage b-roll.

Cover up your cuts with b-roll footage that complements the narration. You can find b-roll and other stock footage on sites like Vizeedy if you didn’t film it yourself, but it’s best to keep your shots all in the same setting to maintain the video’s consistency. Take the extra time to go back and film more b-roll if you need it.

12. Use background soundtracks.

Light background music can cover any ambient sound and provide tone and emotion to your video that words and images otherwise can’t. You can find royalty-free stock soundtracks that you’re allowed to use on sites like AudioMicro — make sure you’re not using songs that are licensed, or else it could result in your video getting taken down.

13. Optimize video text.

Keep the style of your text and titles simple, classy, and sharp. Choose a clear and bold font, keep words on your video screen to a minimum, and use text animations to keep the viewer engaged with new additions to the video they watch.

14. Optimize your video for the platform.

Be mindful of where your video will exist while you’re editing. Is it for your website, YouTube, or Facebook? Each platform has different specifications — for example, on Facebook, where 85% of viewers watch videos without the volume turned on, you’ll want to use captions, so people can follow along without the sound. YouTube videos don’t count views until someone watches for 30 seconds or more, so make sure the first 30 seconds are as interesting and eye-catching as possible.

If you’re looking for more ideas for how to get started filming, it’s as easy as pulling an iPhone out of your pocket. Learn how to do it in the video below:

Are you leveraging video as a part of your content mix? What other tips can you share to improve overall video production quality?

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2011 and has been updated and for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Let’s talk about a trend, shall we?

Think about the number of times in the last week when you’ve read something on Facebook. Now, compare that to the number of times you’ve watched something on Facebook. Those numbers are probably pretty staggered toward video, right? And if so, you’re not alone — right now, there’s a big demand for more video content all around.

But that demand — like the fact that marketers who use it grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users — gave us an idea. What if we used video to help our sales reps and process? After all, given the aforementioned content consumption preferences, it seemed like people might not want to read tons of sales emails — but they might be interested in watching a video from a rep.

We’re always on the lookout to help our sales reps book more meetings. We call that the prospect:connect rate, which summarizes the efforts of reps to get responses (connect) when they reach out to leads to propose booking a meeting (prospect). So, our objective was to improve sales connect rate, and create more sales opportunities. And since videos are a highly popular content format, we wanted to see if adding that to our traditional outreach mix could help.

So, how did we test that theory, and what were the results? Let’s dive right in.

How We Increased Sales Opportunities 4X With Video

The Hypotheses

1. Video doesn’t hinder overall activity levels. Sure, recording and sharing visual content like this might seem more time-consuming than sending an email, or making a quick phone call. Could reps send tailored, personalized videos to their prospects and still hit activity benchmarks?
2. Video will be more engaging than emails or phone calls. Are people more likely to answer an email with video — and actually play the video — than they are a regular email, or a voicemail?
3. Videos will be more efficient at creating opportunities than emails or phone calls. By adding video to the traditional call and email cadence, more prospects would book meetings, thus improving our connect rate.

Key Method and Technology

First, we wanted to determine how we could help reps take what they were already doing via email — being consultative, being helpful, and providing actionable tips — and present it in a more visual approach. Ultimately, that came in the form of short video inbound marketing assessments (IMA), in which reps talk through a prospect’s areas of opportunity in their marketing and problems that can be addressed. It’s what our salespeople go through with each and every prospect during an initial call. By including this video, we aimed to spark the propsect’s interest by giving them a taste of what they would get if they booked a meeting.

We used a simple Chrome browser extension tool that would allow our reps to record their tabs, screens, faces, and voices with one click. It also allowed them to seamlessly insert those videos into emails to prospects with a single click — and track any action recipients were taking with those emails.

Here’s an example of what that might look like, courtesy of HubSpot Principal Inbound Marketing Specialist Katie Carlin:

The Framework

Beyond figuring out the technology, we needed some parameters around our experiment. We ran the test for 45 days, enrolling five of our corporate business development representatives (BDRs), and training them with expectations of how we saw them best using this approach. They had one overarching goal: Meetings booked. How well could the BDRs get prospects not just to respond, but to actually book time with them?

How We Measured It — and the Results We Got

Hypothesis 1: Video doesn’t hinder overall activity levels.

How we measured it

To test this hypothesis, we tracked the composition of each BDR’s activity over the span of the experiment.

The results

As depicted by the chart below, the two BDRs who most actively used video had the most productive months overall, across different activity types. The reps who didn’t use video were also successful, but by no means was video a hindrance to productivity.

The takeaway: Sales reps can use video and still be productive. 

Hypothesis 2: Video will be more engaging than emails or phone calls.

How we measured it

To test this hypothesis, we looked at the overall volume of activity. How many videos did the five reps send over the course of the experiment, compared to the number of emails they sent overall during the same time period?

We also measured the level of engagement with those emails — the clickthrough rate (CTR) of emails with video, compared to emails alone.

The results

Have a look at the two charts below. The number “1” indicates a 100% CTR. For the sake of transparency, it’s important to note that the second BDR from the right only sent two videos, which skewed the video CTR rate to look especially high.

But if you look across the board at all the reps — who, as the first chart indicates, sent a ton of email — you’ll see that the CTR of the videos was far higher than that of standard templated emails.

The takeaway: Video messages are more engaging than email or phone calls.

Hypothesis 3: Videos will be more efficient at creating opportunities than emails or phone calls.

How we measured it

To test this hypothesis, we measured the conversion rates of:

1. Calls or emails alone to meetings booked.
2. Emails with videos to meetings booked.

The results

When we looked at the reps’ overall activity — including email — compared to their meetings booked, we saw about a 1.5% conversion. In other words, for every 100 emails, voicemails, or calls that they made, they would book about one meeting.

However, when we looked at video alone, we saw that the ratio of videos sent to meetings booked was 6%. That’s 4X higher than all other activity combined.

The takeaway: Over the course of running this experiment, roughly 4% of our activity was comprised of video, which might look low. But 14% of the opportunities created that month came from video — which are pretty promising results.

Moving Forward

Overall, the results were encouraging, with the hypotheses largely proving to be true. Given the limited timeframe of the experiment, we’ll continue to see how the incorporation of video into our reps’ outreach efforts performs long-term — but in the meantime, we established a few takeaways, lessons learned, and best practices that we hope add as much value to your own efforts.

• Reps and managers need to be “bought in.” The two out of five reps who saw the most success with video prospecting were also the ones who were the most enthusiastic to use it, and the ones whose managers were the most encouraging. Like the art of writing a great sales email or leaving a memorable voicemail, it’s not something that can be mastered overnight.

• Reps need a clear playbook from the start. Simply handing sales reps a new tool and saying, “Use video to book meetings” isn’t enough. They need clear parameters on:

• Who to look for when deciding who will receive these targeted messages
• What a good video looks like
• How to be consultative
• How to leave the door open, so that prospects can actually book a meeting with them

• Be willing to forego quantity for quality. Simply put, reps can’t send as many high-quality, personalized videos as they can send high-quality, personalized emails. That said, balance the mix of your outreach so that you don’t lose out on overall activity.

Have you ever done a similar prospecting project? Comment below with your best experiments and hacks to increase sales opportunities (and hey, we might even feature your experiment on our blog).

For many things in life, it seems like there’s a weather analogy. A happy disposition is often described as “sunny.” Something foreboding could be said to “cast a cloud” on someone. And, according to MozCast, indications of a big change in Google’s algorithm can be described as “hot and stormy.”

That’s not bad news for marketers. Tools like MozCast can help you do your job better and help you decipher why you might see a sudden change in your search rankings or other SEO-related shifts. The tricky part, it seems, is keeping up with all things Google: the algorithm, the new features, and what people are searching for the most.

That’s why we’ve put together this list of the major highlights in each of those categories for the month of June. Read on for the full recap below. 

June News About Google

Algorithm Updates

There’s a funny thing about Google’s algorithm updates: “They’re often very minor tweaks,” says Matt Barby, HubSpot’s global head of growth and SEO.

“Major updates,” he continues, “are rare, but have the most meaningful impact on marketers.”

In May, rumors emerged that Google was working to add more features along the lines of featured snippets, like including job listings directly on the search results page. Word of that feature came to fruition when Moz Associate Dan Shure tweeted images of his reported results in late April:

WOW look out job listing sites, Google appears to be positioning to eat up that real estate also (cc @dr_pete) http://pic.twitter.com/g56KxnJCA7

— Dan Shure (@dan_shure)
April 28, 2017

… and later went on to make this video about what he found:

Those rumors were confirmed at Google I/O 2017, and on June 20, Google for Jobs officially launched. As per the image below, it correlated with a spike in the MozCast temperature on the same day:

Source: MozCast

“Starting today in English on desktop and mobile, when you search for ‘jobs near me,’ ‘teaching jobs,’ or similar job-seeking queries, you’ll see in-depth results that allow you to explore jobs from across the web,” wrote Google Product Manager Nick Zakrasek in the official announcement. “For many jobs, you’ll also see reviews and ratings of the employer from trusted sites, right alongside the job description, and if you’re signed in, for some jobs you’ll even see how long it would take to commute to the job from home.”

Zakrasek goes on to describe the feature as a work-in-progress, adding that more filters and details will be added to listings as Google continues to tinker with the algorithm to produce better job results.

This isn’t Google’s first foray into the world of hiring — Google Hire, the company’s new platform for helping employers manage recruiting processes, was unveiled last spring.

New Ad-Blocking Measures

On June 1, Google announced it would further crack down on websites that feature intrusive ads like these. And while that might sound great for many, some content creators who rely on ad revenue were concerned.

But as it turned out, Google’s intent wasn’t to do away with ads completely — rather, it appeared to be for webmasters to move away from digital ads that interrupt a user’s content consumption, without losing critical ad revenue in the process. It was largely the result of Google’s partnership with the Coalition for Better Ads, which recently developed Better Ads Standards — and it appears that those standards serve as the foundation for Google’s new ad recommendations to content creators. Once publishers modify their ads to meet the new standards, they can then use Google’s Ad Experience Report to test if they’re in violation of the new standards.

This announcement comes on the heels of May’s reveal of Unique Reach: “a new measurement tool that captures the number of times the same person has seen an ad,” according to TechCrunch, measuring “how many people are shown display and video ads and captures unique users in addition to average impressions per unique user.”

At this point, it’s not entirely clear what the penalty will be for those in violation. The official announcement makes no mention of search ranking implications, though given the search engine’s history within this realm, we wouldn’t be surprised if websites in violation perform as well in search results. In the meantime, we recommend checking out Google’s criteria for what constitutes a “bad ad” on its DoubleClick blog.

No More Inbox Scanning (for Ads)

According to Google, there are over three million organizations using G Suite, its collection of email, video communication, and cloud storage apps (among others). And while G Suite users have never been privy to email scanning for ad personalization, now, neither will free Gmail users anymore.

The announcement came on June 23, when it was revealed that users of Google’s free email service would now be able to disable ads personalization in their settings, which means that their emails will no longer be scanned for data to tailor ads displayed for the user. The same will remain for G Suite users, as well.

“G Suite customers and free consumer Gmail users can remain confident that Google will keep privacy and security paramount as we continue to innovate,” writes Google Cloud SVP Diane Greene. “As ever, users can control the information they share with Google at myaccount.google.com.”

Here’s more, from TechCrunch:

Businesses Can Now Publish Specialized Content Through “Google My Business” Posts

You may have noticed that local business listings recently made their way into your search results when you enter a query like, say, “pizza.”

And for a select few — like celebrities or sports teams, for example — those business search results could also include what TechCrunch describes as “social network-style updates about their activities right to Google’s search result pages.”

But now, that feature is open to all those using Google My Business in the form of Posts: a way to create and share business-specific content — like events, products, and services — that can appear directly in search results.

Check out the example below from Junzi Kitchen:

Other New(ish) Features You May Have Missed

1) Event search results

Funny how, in an age where there are more entertainment options than ever, many of us still catch ourselves muttering, “I’m bored.” But now, for those occasions when — gasp — Netflix doesn’t quite do the trick, Google has made it easy to find out what’s going on in real life.

On the Google app and mobile web only, search queries like “events near me” now yield a specialized results page with a calendar of all local happenings. Here’s what happened when I tried it on Chrome for mobile:

Within that special category of results, I can tap on any of them to buy tickets directly from my phone.

The feature is still working out some kinks — a search for “rap concerts in Boston,” for example, didn’t yield a featured-snippet-like result similar to the one above. However, a search for “jazz concerts in Boston” did:

2) Mobile image search filters

Gone are the days of conducting a Google image search and having to scroll all the way over to “search tools” to narrow your results — on mobile, at least. Now, when you want to find an animated image, Google makes it easy for you, by displaying a “GIF” filter directly below the search bar.

Limiting your results to animated images isn’t the only filter available. As the above image indicates, you can also filter results according to color, timeliness, and more specific categories; for example, a certain brand of cookies, instead of just “chocolate chip cookies.”

Personally, I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the color filter — until I applied the turquoise (my favorite color) option to a search for “home decor”:

First of all, I’ll take one of everything. Second, not only does the search yield images of exactly what I was hoping to find — turquoise home decor — but it also displayed shopping results: an ad feature Google rolled out in May 2016. And in a more recent, but relevant news tidbit, Google has been piloting Shopping ads on its Display Network, as reported by SEL in May.

3) “Not secure” warnings

Although this feature hasn’t launched yet, Google announced at the end of April that, beginning this October, the Chrome browser will display a “not secure” warning on HTTP pages — those that haven’t transitioned to the more secure HTTPS — in three situations:

1. The page has password or credit card fields.
2. A user enters data on an HTTP page.
3. A user enters data on an HTTP page visited in Incognito mode.

To elaborate, the “S” in “HTTPS” stands for “SSL,” which stands for Secure Sockets Layer — the technology that encrypts your connection to a website, so that hackers can’t intercept any of your data. And in January, Chrome began labeling HTTP sites as non-secure. This latest development will only take that a step further. Here’s what the non-secure label looked like after the January update:

Source: Chromium Blog

Not sure how to enable HTTPS? Check out Google’s guide here.

4) Hotel review categories

You can file this one under, “That didn’t happen when we tried it.” Alas, for a select few, Google is testing out a new categorization system for its hotel reviews. Google rolled out some pretty detailed hotel search filters and criteria options in July 2016, and now, it seems to be testing some new ways for users to filter reviews.

Sergey Alakov detailed the possible changes on his blog earlier this month, which would allow users to narrow reviews according to the type of traveler, like couples, solo travelers, or families with children. If that feature sounds familiar, you might recognize it from TripAdvisor, which allows travelers to limit reviews only to a certain score, traveler type, and travel period. Now, Google might add that to its portfolio of capabilities.

Check out Alakov’s video summary of the features:

5) Acquisition of Owlchemy Labs

Google isn’t exactly a stranger to virtual or augmented reality. When it introduced Cardboard, it was a financially prudent way for almost anyone with a mobile phone to virtually experience Google Maps and other adventures. YouTube is host to myriad 360° videos. It makes sense that Google would only want to strengthen its foothold in the VR space — its acquisition of Owlchemy Labs is just one sign of that.

Owlchemy is an award-winning studio and producer of VR experiences from every point in the spectrum — games and job simulations to name a couple. And given the earlier news about Google’s job listings within direct search results, we can’t help but wonder what, exactly, the search giant is up to in the realm of recruiting.

Until we find out for sure, here’s Google’s official statement on the matter:

Together, we’ll be working to create engaging, immersive games and developing new interaction models across many different platforms to continue bringing the best VR experiences to life. There is so much more to build and learn, so stay tuned!”

Until Next Month

We’ll be keeping an eye on all things Google and picking out top news items, algorithm updates, and trends that can aid your marketing. Enjoy your July — we’ll see you next month.

What were your favorite Google news stories and search trends in June? Let us know in the comments.

My questions for you: Do you recommend I start this conversation today, or first thing next week? Would you be able to give it a little boost so we can get as much chatter as possible? And do you have any suggestions for ideal length? I have a draft sitting around 250 words.