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There’s something to be said for a truly remarkable experience. Whether it’s a great party, the trip of a lifetime, or a particularly hilarious comedy show, having lived through it makes us want to talk about it.

We share these experiences. We tell our friends about them, post the pictures and videos we’ve captured on social media, and — when they’re really good — try to relive them. It seems that we’re starting to prefer living those experiences over having material possessions. No wonder that 360° video is becoming so popular — it virtually creates those experiences for us, right from the comfort of our online devices. 

But 360° video — which could be described as a form of virtual reality that creates immersive visual content without additional hardware other than a screen — isn’t as easy as buying a new camera and uploading your video online. Like any other visual content, it has to be created and shared strategically. Not sure where to begin? We’ve got you covered with these five steps.

How to Create 360° Video: The Ultimate Guide

1) Have a good reason to shoot it.

“When you share a 360° video, you’re asking the viewer to take a larger role in experiencing it,” says Matthew Watkins, HubSpot’s senior video editor and animator. “The content has to support that.”

For that reason, he says, there are very few situations when creating video in 360° is actually “necessary.” But there are occasions when it’s useful — for example, if you’re trying to create an enhanced, but virtual experience of a certain setting. 

That could be why many of the most popular 360° videos pertain to travel or unique experiences — see below. Those are the types of situations that are enhanced by this particular video format.

Watkins also encourages potential 360° video creators to understand how much of an undertaking it can be. When I asked if I could borrow his GoPro to tinker around, for example, he warned me, “Getting it set up, shooting, and actually looking at the footage will run you most of the day.” So when you film a 360° video, plan it like you would any other full-day project, and consider building in extra time, depending on how much footage you film.

2) Pick your content.

When we spoke with Michael Rucker of OmniVirt, the makers of 360° video content delivery technology, he cautioned against creating something “lazy.”

“People just stick a 360° camera in the middle of the room and hit ‘record.’ That actually detracts from the viewer’s attention,” he explained. Instead, he says, he finds the best content that allows the user to look anywhere or everywhere, “but there’s something specific that grabs my attention.”

Take this video of a cooking competition, for example. We’re able to view everything and see what every chef in the kitchen is doing, but our eyes are drawn to the chef that’s currently speaking.

It’s videos like these that Rucker says give the user a “sense of autonomy” — one that provides an immersive experience, but still puts the viewer in control. He challenges brands to ask, “What are those experiences?”

But he also notes that “the sky doesn’t have to be the limit” when creating these experiences — they can still be somewhat simple in concept, and B2B marketers can also use them to their advantage. Local car dealerships are one example, and Rucker says they can create content in many of the same ways that big-name automotive brands do.

“What’s it really like to sit inside of that used Toyota?” he asks. That content simulates a test drive experience for users, without making them leave the house — much like local realtors, for example, can create immersive 360° virtual tours of property listings that the viewer can control.

In other words, the real value of this kind of content is to give the user a sense of what it’s like to use your product or service. So when you set out to create your 360° video, figure out what that experience looks like — and remember, don’t be “lazy” about it.

3) Get the right camera.

When selecting a camera, there are a few items to consider, like what you want to use the video for, and where you want to share it.

“It also comes down to budget and comfort level,” says Watkins, noting that beginners might want to start with something like a RICOH, which is a single unit and only has two sensors — the behind-the-lens technology that captures the image — producing lower-resolution results than something more advanced.

Rucker agrees. He tends to recommend cameras like the RICOH that serve as an “out-of-the-box solution” and don’t require a supplementary rig, which is essentially any additional hardware that supports the camera.

While there are times when that additional hardware can generate more robust image quality, Rucker says the additional hardware doesn’t usually come with a great ROI — “mainly because the 360° technology will only yield an experience as engaging as the story being told,” he explains. “So the more accessible and versatile the recording device, the better chance that a good story can be captured.”

But for the sake of perspective, Watkins recommends looking at the quality of two different videos — first, this one, shot with RICOH THETA S:

And this one, shot with a GoPro Omni™ — which uses six different sensors (which are actually comprised of six synced GoPro Hero 4s):

But in addition to maximum resolution — 5376 x 2688 for the RICOH, versus 7940 x 3970 for the Omni™ — there’s a major difference in price point. The higher-quality option comes with a hefty price tag, at $4,999.99 for the Omni™, as opposed to $269.95 – $349.50 for different THETA models.

Remember how we said you should have a good reason for creating 360° video in the first place? Make sure you also evaluate how much you want to spend on a higher resolution.

Meanwhile, different sites like YouTube and Facebook have their own recommendations for the best cameras to use — reviewing those lists might be helpful if you plan to share on a specific platform.

4) Stitch the footage to create a single video.

Once you record your video footage, the adventures with hardware aren’t quite over yet. You’ll need a lot of power, due to the higher resolution of most 360° video files, which tends to require a higher RAM.

The complexity of stitching depends on how many different scenes you want to include in the final video. And that depends on what you’re filming — some content, like elephants in the wild, only require setting up the camera in one place and letting it run continuously.

Compare that to the GoPro Omni™ example from above, which stitched together several scenes and was likely a bit more complicated to edit.

As for editing software, many camera manufacturers also have their own proprietary software, “so typically, you’re buying a workflow when you buy a camera,” says Watkins. Otherwise, here are some recommendations:

1. Rucker suggests Adobe Premiere Pro — $239.88 per year | Monthly payment plans available | Available for Mac or Windows | View supported file formats
2. Kolor Autopano Video — $319.89 | $640.84 for Pro | Available for Mac or Windows | Works with mp4, mov, and pano input file formats
3. VideoStitch Studio — $295 | Available for Mac or Windows | Works with mov, mkv, avi, mp4, wmv, mpg, mpeg, mp2, m4v, 3gp, ogv, ogg

5) Select where the video will be published.

Social Media

More social media outlets are supporting 360° video — like Facebook, YouTube, and Google’s Cardboard technology — making them a top choice for where this content is shared. These platforms make it fairly easy for marketers to publish their 360° videos, but choosing where to share it still requires some strategy.

First, it’s important to know where your target audience spends its time online — that way, you’ll be sharing the content on the networks most likely to be viewed by your personas. And in addition to social media, find out what kind of device your audience is using, since “the most fun way to view these 360° videos is on a phone or tablet,” according to Watkins.

Rucker adds that you might want to have this usage data in mind before you create the content. “Make it right for the platform,” he echoes.

Device

That advice is corroborated by data collected by VRLab Partner Fernando Tarnogol, who explored the average length of time spent watching individual 360° videos, according to device and operating system. Over half of the viewers were using mobile, confirming Watkins’ hypothesis that the experience is better consumed there. On top of that, 48% of them were using Android devices — which could be explained by the fact that, according to Watkins, 360° video isn’t supported on Apple mobile outside of the app where it’s hosted.

In order to view it on iOS devices, he explains, “You must use the YouTube app on an iPhone, or the Facebook app, if it’s uploaded there.”

That could be why so many marketers are unsure of how 360° video can be used outside of social media, Rucker says, which is when OmniVirt’s technology becomes helpful — it allows 360° video to be distributed across the web. Have a look:

Source: OmniVirt

As with all content strategy, data is your friend. Pay attention to where and how your audience is consuming 360° video, and create the experience for them while they’re already there.

The Big Picture

When it comes to creating and distributing 360° video, there are three basic pillars:

1. Don’t be lazy.
2. Create content that allows users to experience your product or service.
3. Be strategic about where you share it. Make sure it’s reaching the right audience, in a place where it can be optimally consumed.

But don’t be too strict when it comes to that second pillar. You can do more than just create the experience of a test drive or an apartment tour — in the case of the latter, for example, 360° video can also be used to help potential renters or buyers explore the neighborhood. While the content should be relevant, it doesn’t have to be linear. If you’re not having any fun creating it, your audience probably won’t have much fun consuming it.

So while the sky doesn’t have to be the limit, it most certainly can be. With the right amount of strategy and selective technology, you’ll be on your way to creating 360° videos that are attention-grabbing, sharable, and — with enough practice — remarkable.

 

When you work inside a business, it can feel like all anyone talks about is growth. Revenue growth! Customer acquisition! Leads goals! Increase our traffic! The list goes on.

While the idea of “growth” — and all of the hacks, tips, and tricks that go along with the term — can often feel a bit buzzy and overwhelming, real growth actually is actually the result of well-established processes and an internal emphasis on experimentation and testing.

Brian Balfour, former VP of Product at HubSpot and a thought leader in the world of growth marketing, is an expert when it comes to building a process for experiments that enable growth overtime. While he emphasizes that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for growing your business, he does have some pro tips when it comes to actually building a process for growth experiments. And that’s what will ultimately move the needle for your company.

We’ll take you through the steps of a building a sustainable process for growth experiments based on Balfour’s tips. Once you establish an experimentation process that works for your team, that buzzy growth term might seem attainable after all.

And once you get there, our new 2017 Marketing Experiments Calendar can help you build a backlog of ideas, design and prioritize your experiments, and record your results all in one place.

How to Build a Process for Growth Experiments

To grow, you have find ways to experiment. The problem with that is finding time to do that in the right way, especially when you also have multiple other tasks and ideas. That’s why building a sustainable process for recording your ideas and implementing them as experiments is essential. By figuring out these steps, you’ll enable your team to effectively write down ideas, prioritize experiments, and put them into practice.

But where do you begin?

1) Start with the scientific method.

Ah, yes. We’re back to Week 1 of any science class you’ve ever taken. As it turns out, you really do use some of that elementary school information in real life.

Source: Science Buddies

When it comes to building a process for experimentation, it comes down to following the scientific method. Create a way to brainstorm ideas, construct hypotheses from them, implement them, and prioritize your ending analysis and conclusions.

When experimenting for the sake of growth, building this process for your team isn’t a one-and-done deal. Instead, according to Balfour, a good process has to be:

1. “Scalable

2. Predictable

3. Repeatable”

In other words, it’s not enough to just say that the scientific method is your process. Instead, use the scientific method as template to structure your internal process. 

2) Always have a goal in mind.

Once you have your process down, the next step is to set goals, which might sound simple in theory. But the goals of any given experiment can’t just be “growth” — because growth along isn’t measurable. Instead, every experiment you run should have an actionable and testable outcome, which means you have to start small.

Let’s break it down with an example:

• What’s the overall goal? Revenue growth.
• How are you going to drive more revenue? By acquiring more leads.
• How will you do that? Increase the conversion rate of my lowest-converting lead generation campaign.
• What is your campaign-specific goal? Increase conversions on one landing page by >5% and find statistically significant results.
• How will you implement an experiment to meet that goal? A/B test the title of the lead generation offer.

You can see from th example that while increasing your revenue is an admirable high-level goal, it’s not actually actionable unless you break it down into actionable experiments. And tying a metric to your experiment — in this case, increasing conversions by greater than 5% on one landing page — is what makes it actionable.

If you have trouble setting actionable goals for your experiments, start with that high-level goal and work your way down an incremental path, until you have something that you can tie to a metric.

3) Encourage and enable brainstorming and hypothesis.

Building a culture of experimentation within your team requires the encouragement and motivation to always be brainstorming. That’s why building a mechanism for tracking and recording those brainstorms is essential for any good growth experiment process.

Whether it’s an Excel sheet, Google Doc, Trello board, internal wiki page, or any other tool your team typically uses for internal documentation, make sure there’s room for any and all brainstorming.

Still, it’s not enough to just throw raw ideas into a document somewhere. Instead, you have to require your team to take those brainstorm ideas and turn them into actual hypotheses based on research.

Here’s an example of what this looks like in practice:

• Idea from brainstorm doc: Use a pop-up modal instead of a in-line CTA to increase conversions on our blog posts.
• Research: Our in-line CTAs are only converting at a rate below 1%. If we use a slide-in or pop-up CTA, we could make the CTA more visible to boost conversions.
• Hypothesis: By using pop-up modal CTAs, we will increase our conversions from a blog post to a landing page by >2%, with statistically significant results.

4) Figure out a way to prioritize what comes first.

Once you’ve enabled brainstorming and hypothesis-writing on your team, you’ll might find that you have more ideas than you know what to do with. That’s not a bad thing — remember that growth occurs because of many moving pieces. The more things you have to test, the more you’ll be able to grow over time.

That said, with hundreds of ideas being thrown around, you’ll have to figure out a way to actually prioritize which experiments you put resources into first, and why. While there are many ways to do that, at HubSpot, we often use the PIE method – “Priority, Importance, Ease.”

We execute this method by compiling all of our ideas into one document and then rate, on a scale of 1-10, each project in the categories of Priority, Importance, and Ease. Then, we take the totals for each category, and divide those numbers by three. That gives us a PIE score to rank each individual project, and we can better determine which experiments or projects to work on first.

No matter what process you use to prioritize experiments, always remember to focus on the ideas that you think will have the biggest impact. That can help you prove the value of your experiments to your team and company, and drive that culture of experimentation forward.

5) Take time to design and implement effective experiments.

Now comes the fun, but most challenging part — implementing your experiments.

Whether you’re performing an A/B test on a landing page, analyzing creative content on your social media ads, or looking at the full conversion path of your lead generation offers, take the time to fully think through the details of your experiment. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Test one thing at a time. The more variables you have in one experiment, the less meaningful your results will be. If you test one landing page design against a completely different landing page without any experiments in between, your results won’t tell you much about what actually worked in that experiment. Instead, if you test one variable at a time — like the title, imagery, colors, fonts, and module placement — you’ll be able to learn from each experiment which variable is actually causing a difference in results.

Source: HubSpot Academy

• Set up a way to measure your results before the experiment begins. Many of your experiments will require a tool to help you actually perform it. Whether you’re using a content management system or designing an experiment by hand, understand how you’re going to measure and assign meaning to your results before you get started.

• Set a time frame. How long will you let your experiment run before you call the results — one day? Two weeks? Until the results become statistically significant? Setting a time frame will not only help make your experiments more accurate and consistent, but also, will help you track results without letting the experiment fall to the wayside. Once you’ve set a time frame, set a reminder for yourself to analyze the results on the day the experiment is complete.

• Learn from experience. Use the findings of your experiments to come up with new ideas for future ones. Your experiments don’t have to be a one-time engagement. Good growth is built on a culture of constant experimentation.

6) Always analyze your experiments.

When the timer goes off and your experiment is complete, it’s critical that you actually analyze and record the results and use them in practice. But it’s not as simple as learning if your hypothesis was correct or not. Instead, the analysis needs to answer the following questions:

1. Was my hypothesis correct or incorrect?
2. Are the results of my test statistically significant?
3. What do my results mean?
4. What could/should I have done differently in this experiment?
5. How can I use these results going forward?
6. What should my next experiment be to build on this finding?

Building a culture of experimentation isn’t just about getting a “pass” or “fail” answer on an experiment. Instead, true analysis happens when you think about what the results say about your efforts, and how you can use what you learned to move forward with new experiments.

7) Share and systematize your learnings.

Before you repeat this process in your next experiment, it’s critical to share the results of your experiment with your colleagues. Sharing information internally is a great way to both encourage transparency and generate feedback — which can help you build upon a history of experimentation.

At HubSpot, we use an internal wiki where we post experiment results, in addition to all kinds of internal information for employees. It’s a great way to keep everyone in the loop on what’s going on, as well as get feedback from colleagues who might be interested in your findings.

You can also keep a running document of your experiments, so that the findings are easily accessible in one place. For example, you could create a document where you track all of your A/B tests from your landing pages or all of your tests on CTAs.

Build on What Others Have Done Before You

Now you know how to build a growth process that will be scalable, predictable, and repeatable. But if you’re like me, you probably want a document to use as a starting point,  and build from there.

Luckily, we’ve created a Growth Marketing Experiment Template based on this process that you can use and customize for your own internal process. Want your own free copy? Download these free Growth Marketing Experiments Templates now.

What does your experimentation process look like? Let us know in the comments.

Here’s the good news: marketing and ad agencies are getting serious about hiring new talent.

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, advertising, promotions, and marketing manager employment is expected to rise 9% by 2024 — which is faster than the average for all occupations. 

The not-so-good news? The competition is fierce.

If you want to stand out in a crowded applicant pool, you need to make sure your resume is free from filler phrases, clichés, and things that make you sound unprofessional or unprepared. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of 10 vague, overused, and downright boring phrases you should cut from your resume.

Are you guilty of using any of these on your resume?

10 Phrases You Should Cut from Your Resume

1) “I was responsible for …”

The things you were responsible for at your last job don’t actually say anything about your performance. For example, I was once “responsible” for watering a plant, but that plant is now dead.

Instead of presenting your experience like a checklist of completed tasks, focus on your accomplishments. What did you do at your last job that made a big impact? What did you particularly excel at? Agencies want to see what you achieved, not just what your day-to-day looked like.

2) “I have experience in … “

Saying you “have experience” doing something is passive and vague, and can almost always be replaced by a more active word. Instead of saying you “have experience” working with a particular strategy, dig into the specifics of what you’ve accomplished, e.g.: “I A/B tested email nurturing campaigns to develop a workflow that converted prospects at 35%.”

See? That sounds much better than, “I have experience with email nurturing campaigns.”

3) “I assisted with … “

Saying you assisted with something doesn’t explain how exactly you contributed. Instead of saying you “assisted” with a project, get specific, and don’t be afraid to own your accomplishments.

Even if you only worked on a small section of a successful project, explain how your contributions fit into the final product, e.g.: “Optimized landing pages as part of a global nurturing campaign.”

4) “I’m proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.”

This phrase usually gets tacked onto the end of resumes in the “skills” section, but you’re probably better off cutting it out entirely. 

Unless you’re applying for a job that specifically asks for advanced experience with Microsoft Office, there’s really no need to mention this. These days, it’s pretty much a given that you have some level of proficiency with Microsoft Office. Including it as one of your skills not only comes across as outdated, it can also make it seem like you don’t have any more relevant skills worth mentioning. 

5) “I ran social media.”

“Social media” often gets thrown around on resumes without specifics — which can make you sound like you don’t really know what you’re talking about.

Social media isn’t a skill or a discipline, it’s a tool that can be leveraged to accomplish business goals. Saying you “ran social media” or “worked in social media” is like saying you ran PowerPoint. What did you do with social media? How did you use it to accomplish a real business goal? 

6) “I have strong communication / writing skills.”

Do you remember in middle school writing class when the teacher introduced the concept of show, don’t tell? That still applies today. 

Show hiring managers you have strong writing and communication skills by creating a stellar resume and cover letter — and triple check for spelling and grammar. Mistakes happen to the best of us, but they’re easy to weed out of an important job application.

7) “I’m a motivated self-starter.”

If you’re an adult who can’t get yourself motivated to be productive and work hard, then you probably shouldn’t be applying for a demanding marketing job. Leave out this overused phrase, and instead highlight a time you went above and beyond on a project. 

8) “I’m goal-oriented / results-oriented.”

Here’s a fact: nobody hates accomplishing goals. If you want to prove you’re particularly driven, give concrete examples of goals you’ve met — or better yet, goals you’ve beaten. 

9) “I’m a marketing ninja / rock star.”

Giving yourself a quirky title might seem like a cute, creative way to stand out in a sea of “digital marketing managers,” but it can come across as more than a little obnoxious.

Even if the hiring manager doesn’t personally mind the unconventional headline, it doesn’t actually explain what you do. Don’t take the risk: Describe yourself in a straightforward, professional way. 

10) “Disruptive / ground-breaking”

Marketers tend to love big, bold adjectives, but hyperbolic copy doesn’t belong on your resume. Cut the clichéd descriptions and keep things direct and sincere. 

What phrases do you think people should stop using in their resumes? Let us know in the comments.