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I’m fortunate to work on exciting marketing campaigns for fantastic Nickelodeon and Paramount+ titles. But I never forget that customer experience and marketing go hand-in-hand — everything I plan and execute is to fulfill customer wants and needs.

I’m fortunate to work on exciting marketing campaigns for fantastic Nickelodeon and Paramount+ titles. But I never forget that customer experience and marketing go hand-in-hand — everything I plan and execute is to fulfill customer wants and needs.

After all, Fluent Support stated that 89% of companies will compete primarily on customer experience by 2025. Brands can’t just focus on creating an amazing product and marketing it well. They also need to close the loop with positive CX.

Marketing plays a critical role in defining, communicating, and managing the customer experience. In this post, I’ll walk through how customer experience and marketing intersect, who owns customer experience, and the marketing best practices for supporting an organization’s CX.

Table of Contents

• Customer Experience and Marketing
• The Significance of Customer Experience
• Why Customer Experience and Marketing Go Hand-in-Hand
• Who owns customer experience?

The Significance of Customer Experience

Delivering experiences that delight customers takes a planned, proactive, and holistic strategy that spans the customer journey and lifecycle.

Rightpoint pointed out that customer-centricity, deep customer understanding, journey mapping, cross-functional collaboration, feedback loop, and employee empowerment are the key elements of a winning CX strategy.

Customer experience does not stop after the sale — in fact, some of the most powerful opportunities to create loyalty are experiences with service and support after the sale.

HubSpot’s Flywheel model offers a modern view of how companies can evolve by putting customer experience at the center of the organization’s focus.

The “delight” stage powers the “attract” stage of the inbound methodology because customers talk to others about their experiences, and word-of-mouth recommendations are one of the most powerful ways to attract new customers. I know I personally will make a purchase if even one of my friends or family members recommends it to me.

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In HubSpot’s 2024 State of Customer Service Report, we discovered many essential insights about customer experience, some of which I’ve detailed below:

• 55% of respondents say AI-powered chatbots are effective, and they prefer such self-service channels when seeking customer service.
• 77% of service teams are using AI and getting excellent results.
• 92% of service teams say AI improves their response time, improves CSAT (86%), and is essential to meeting business and customer needs.
• Service teams who have adopted AI say it has resolved 11-30% of their support volume.
• Leaders of organizations with collaborative service and sales teams are 76% more likely to claim their customer service strategy was effective in 2023.
• Leaders of organizations with collaborative service and marketing teams are 69% more likely to claim their customer service strategy was effective in 2023.

Ultimately, what it means to provide an exceptional customer experience is continually evolving, and marketing will need to work with sales and services teams to ensure they’re always keeping CX top-of-mind.

Why Customer Experience and Marketing Go Hand-in-Hand

You may be wondering, “Is customer experience part of marketing?” I get it — I felt that way, too.

Historically, customer experience has been strictly viewed as a priority for sales and service teams. But, there is a massive impact when marketing includes customer experience as a top goal.

1. Brand Promise and Follow-Through

Marketing builds a strategy that defines compelling brand messages and promises, and customers who invest in the brand trust that the marketing is authentic.

Customer experience can actually follow through on these promises, encouraging brand transparency and improved customer loyalty.

2. Customer Journey

The customer journey begins with marketing and continues through the customer experience. These are part of the same cycle and, thus, cannot exist without the other.

For instance, I work in title marketing for Paramount+ shows and movies. A large part of my job is ensuring we effectively promote the title across key touchpoints, from social to digital to out-of-home.

However, once we build awareness and gain acquisitions, retention is still hugely important, as we want the customers who signed up for Paramount+ to stick with us. This is where customer experience can play a huge role.

3. Revenue Growth

When CX becomes fundamental to marketing, the impact on revenue is massive. I found in my research that brands integrating these two elements see faster revenue growth (5.1x) compared to competitors with poor customer interactions.

4. Customer Loyalty

Along with revenue growth, companies that incorporate marketing and customer experience also see a huge increase in customer loyalty. 75% of customers remain loyal to brands with excellent customer support.

In addition, 77% of customers are more inclined to recommend a brand to others following a positive customer experience. In my opinion, customer experience is the new marketing — this symbiosis leads to enhanced customer retention and brand reputation.

5. Hyper-Personalization

In a crowded marketplace, I easily get tired of seeing the same marketing efforts repeated. Now, marketing can utilize AI to predict customer behavior, desires, and needs more accurately, which leads to a better customer experience.

For instance, many streaming services track users’ viewing patterns to recommend genres or titles. This combines targeted marketing with improved customer experience — I spend less time scrolling when great movies are suggested upfront — for a seamless, customer-forward brand.

Who owns customer experience?

Contrary to popular belief, customer experience is not owned by a single person or department. It should always be the shared responsibility of the entire company, although each team may support it in different ways.

For instance, some companies have a Chief Customer Officer (CCO) overseeing CX. However, this isn’t as universal as it should be; thus, customer experience is often managed cross-functionally by teams like marketing, sales, and operations.

The advent of digital marketing gives marketers the tools to interact with buyers at the individual level — through channels and touchpoints at every stage of the lifecycle. In turn, customer experience becomes important for the success of digital marketing.

While the entire organization is responsible for experience delivery, marketing is often best positioned to listen to, analyze, and advocate for customer needs. By delivering reliable, fact-based insights about customer experience, marketing helps overcome the siloing of departments, which is a major detractor to a consistent CX approach.

Let‘s explore the current marketing best practices for supporting an organization’s customer experience strategy.

1. Listen to customers at scale — and share their insights.

Conversations data: Marketing that meaningfully impacts the audience requires understanding customer experience and marketing analytics and interpretation of conversational data. Data is not only used for targeting marketing campaigns but also for improving the customer experience.

Segmentation: Digital marketing automation platforms make it easy to track and act upon data. Data such as customer history, behaviors, and interests make it possible to develop segments to target customers better, and they also provide insights on how to deliver a more satisfactory experience.

KPIs: Key performance indicators such as conversion rate, churn, retention rate, and patient satisfaction scores should be identified, monitored, and tracked in a manner that is highly visible to all teams. These shared insights drive change and reinforce progress, identify areas for improvement, and support a culture in which everyone is responsible for delivering an exceptional experience.

2. Know the voice of the customer.

Direct customer feedback is foundational for understanding and improving experiences. My team at Paramount continues to use traditional research methods, such as satisfaction surveys, focus groups, and interviews. These play a pivotal role in assessing satisfaction and capturing the voice of the customer.

However, digital technologies are providing new ways to supplement this information. Tools such as social listening, live chat, and website analytics provide opportunities to keep a pulse on customer feedback in real time.

Additionally, sales and service delivery teams can capture customer feedback through observation, field reports, and complaint logs. Regardless of method, following a journey or experience map can ensure effectively capturing feedback about the holistic experience rather than siloed stages.

HubSpot offers customer journey map templates, which help organizations outline the customer journey across several phases, such as lead nurturing, customer churn, and future state. I love how interactive these templates are, providing thought-provoking questions to get marketers into customers’ brains.

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Ultimately, marketing’s role is to work across departments and stages of the lifecycle to consolidate feedback, identify themes, and use the voice of the customer to bring about change.

3. Collaborate cross-functionally to foster change.

Unfortunately, it’s common for marketing teams to take responsibility for attracting prospects and generating leads but then have little involvement after qualified leads are handed to sales, leading to a disjointed customer experience.

Instead, we can bring the results of listening at scale to collaborate on making business processes more customer-centered. When marketing develops insights about customers, this knowledge gives teams a common objective basis for working together on changes to improve the customer experience.

Simply put, we marketers can support the customer experience by creating meaningful, valuable content for the buyer journey and identifying buyer segments and personas to target.

Additionally, the insights from listening at scale can have a much broader impact when shared and used as a springboard to identify bottlenecks, solve problems, and redesign processes in customer-focused ways. I recommend that marketing teams create workshops or brainstorming sessions cross-departmentally to generate solutions and obtain buy-in for change.

Of course, it’s difficult for marketing to bring about change without executive buy-in. One way they can engage and obtain support from executive teams is to calculate the ROI of improvements to the customer experience.

Satisfaction and Net Promoter Score (likelihood to recommend) are two popular KPIs. Others include churn rate, resolution time, or conversion rates.

4. Invest in automation.

Consider both marketing and service automation software to create an ideal customer experience. Marketing automation facilitates an improved customer experience by providing clients with the right information at the right time.

For instance, automation drastically shortens follow-up time. This is critical because the average response time for customer service chat is 2 minutes, but customers expect replies within 45 seconds to feel satisfied.

Marketing automation not only improves the overall customer experience but is also critical to lead generation. Therefore, organizations can benefit from investing in automation software like HubSpot’s Marketing and Service Hubs.

Marketing Hub helps businesses attract, engage, and convert leads through marketing tools, including email marketing, social media management, analytics & reporting, and lead management, all of which enable teams to manage marketing campaigns effectively.

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Service Hub focuses on improving customer support and retention through tools like a help desk and ticketing system, knowledge base, omnichannel support, and AI-powered assistance, all of which help manage customer conversations and improve satisfaction.

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Together, they create a seamless customer journey from lead attraction to retention. Since both share a centralized HubSpot CRM, marketing and service teams can access the same customer data to inform next steps more easily.

These teams can also utilize shared insights to inform their separate goals. For example, marketers can use Service Hub insights, such as common customer pain points, to create more targeted marketing campaigns. On the other hand, service teams can use Marketing Hub data, such as buyer personas, to offer customized support.

There is no end to the insights teams can share when investing in both Marketing and Service Hubs. This symbiosis offers the perfect opportunity for marketing teams to prioritize the customer experience since the customer service information and data are readily available.

Experience the Power of Customer Experience

Ultimately, to create an exceptional customer experience, I believe companies need collaboration from all three of the organization’s departments — marketing, sales, and service.

However, the responsibility can fall on marketers to lead the way by ensuring that when collecting research for marketing efforts, they share those results with sales and service and remain open to their feedback.

Check out The Ultimate Guide to Sales and Marketing to help integrate a stronger partnership between these teams at your own company.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

As a former journalist, I spent years digging through social media feeds to write juicy stories. Now, as HubSpot’s go-to for all things social, I stay ahead of every single trend. Literally, nothing flies under my radar.

As a former journalist, I spent years digging through social media feeds to write juicy stories. Now, as HubSpot’s go-to for all things social, I stay ahead of every single trend. Literally, nothing flies under my radar.

On top of that, as a millennial who grew up online, this isn’t just what I do — it’s what I live.

So, if you’re a marketer trying to pick the right platform to grow your brand, get leads, and drive traffic, you’re in the right place.

I’ve broken it all down: social media types, top platforms, and the pros and cons of each. By the end, you’ll know exactly where to focus and what to skip. Let’s dive in.

The list of social media platforms is growing, and well-known platforms like Facebook are constantly evolving and adding new features.

With a greater and greater need for a social presence and an overwhelming amount of platform choices, it can be hard to pick which social channels to use.

You might not want to spread yourself too thin by managing a channel on every imaginable platform, but you don’t want to miss great brand awareness opportunities.

1. Social Networking

• Facebook: 3.06 billion monthly active users
• X (formerly Twitter): 611 million monthly active users
• LinkedIn: 1.15 billion active users

Social networking is possibly the most traditional form of social media, and most social media platforms fall under the social networking category. So, you’ll likely see at least one of the aforementioned platforms (*cough, cough* X) pop up again later in this post.

Platforms like Facebook, X, and LinkedIn are often called “networking” platforms because they allow user accounts to interact (network) in various ways.

Professional Uses

Facebook

Many brands and businesses are leveraging social media direct messaging (DMs) for customer service.

In fact, our 2025 State of Marketing Report shows that 20.45% of marketers are increasing or maintaining their investment in social media DMs for customer service.

Facebook Messenger is a great platform for this strategy as it allows you to respond to messages from your brand’s Facebook followers.

Plus, as a fellow consumer, I can assure you it leaves a great impression on your customers when you respond promptly to their DMs.

There have been many times when I’ve slid into a business’ DM because I needed an update on an order, more information about a product, or troubleshooting. Now, most businesses add chatbots to respond to customers inquiries:

And, when the business responds back with helpful information, I always make a note to keep buying from them.

However, using direct messages benefits not only customers but also companies. For instance, Hyundai permanently integrated Meta’s Messenger into its customer service after a successful test phase. The results showed:

• A sales rate four times higher than other channels
• A conversion rate five times higher through Messenger compared to other channels
• A 13% reduction in cost per lead using Messenger

If you’re a small business, like a restaurant, I recommend a platform like Facebook as a great place to start your social strategy. With Facebook, you can build a business profile with links to your website and details about your menu.

I’m especially fond of Facebook’s community feature, which you can also leverage to create a community page for customers to ask questions or rave about your products and services.

In fact, we found that businesses that leverage social media communities will see excellent results in their marketing strategy.

According to our survey, 90% of marketers say building an active online community is crucial to a successful social media strategy.

I’m not surprised, considering our Consumer Trends survey found that 20% of social media users joined an online community in the past three months, and 22% actively participated in one.

One of the best Facebook groups I’m in is run by Kat Sullivan, who saw a gap in how group creators engaged with members.

Kat openly shares insights from working with business owners and agencies, while members contribute by discussing entrepreneurship, dissecting online monetization, and sharing interesting marketing case studies.

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LinkedIn

LinkedIn emphasizes career-related networking, and, for years, I only ever used LinkedIn when searching for jobs or to help friends find opportunities. It turns out, however, that LinkedIn is very beneficial for businesses.

For companies looking to offer a professional service, such as B2B or publishing companies, LinkedIn is another excellent way to grow a following.

What I love about LinkedIn is how it evolved — it’s no longer just a stiff corporate platform. Brands like Semrush and Hootsuite have nailed the balance between professionalism and humor while staying true to their niche. It’s a genius way to get people to resonate with your content, love it, and keep coming back for more.

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According to our survey, LinkedIn is among the top five social media platforms yielding the highest ROI for marketers.

Furthermore, of the marketers who currently leverage LinkedIn in their strategy, 26.16% plan to increase their investment in 2025.

Brands looking to build an audience of professionals from a particular industry can create a business profile there, categorize it with an industry type, and then use posts and messaging to publish updates. They can also use messaging and comment features to interact with their audiences or users who comment on their posts.

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Besides organic traffic, let’s not forget LinkedIn advertising options. Jaimon Hancock, Founder & Digital Strategist at Adalystic Marketing, shared how LinkedIn ads can work wonders for B2B clients:

“For a B2B client facing high competition and rising CPCs, we saw an opportunity to improve LinkedIn ad performance. To boost engagement and lower costs, we layered in LinkedIn Thought Leadership Ads, promoting content from an individual’s profile instead of the company page. This approach made the campaign feel more organic and authentic. One of our top posts featured an executive accepting an industry award, subtly boosting credibility without pushing sales.”

The results are impressive:

• 50% lower cost per conversion.
• 5x higher click-through rate (CTR).
• 75% lower CPC.
• Meaningful engagement in the comments.

X (formerly Twitter)

An X account could be helpful to companies in a broad spectrum of industries, from entertainment to e-commerce. This platform similarly allows you to create a profile where you can list and link company information.

You can then use X to post about company updates, tag companies or customers in posts, repost positive customer tweets, and respond to customer questions via posts or direct messages.

One of my favorite X features I think marketers should look into is Spaces, which allows users to create live audio chat rooms and talk amongst each other.

Companies will often use Spaces to host Q&As, interview thought leaders, or keep audiences informed about the latest happenings with the brand or industry.

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On all three social networks, users can easily communicate with others through simple actions like tagging, hashtagging, commenting, private messaging, reacting to posts, and re-sharing content.

Aside from social interaction, feeds on common social networking platforms are designed to show off a mix of text and visuals rather than one primary content type.

This flexibility makes it easy to begin a social strategy on social networking platforms because you can experiment with different forms of content before branching out to platforms that require more specific content types. For those who want to dabble in video or graphics, these platforms could be a great place to test this new content.

With the growth of video marketing, many have begun to launch more advanced features like Facebook Stories and X’s live streams. They also started encouraging native video and photo uploads more heavily.

Recently, Facebook adjusted its algorithms to favor live video and image uploads. This has caused these types of native content to gain greater user engagement.

And no, Reels aren’t just for Instagram anymore. Facebook now has its own Reels section, mixing all kinds of videos based on its algorithm. And looking at the numbers, they’re outperforming images and text content by far.

The best example is the Northwoods Folk Facebook page. She’s a nature-inspired influencer who shares practical tips and tricks. Let’s take a look at her photo content, which typically got around 20–30 likes with minimal engagement:

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And then we have reels:

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This speaks a lot about the changes happening on platforms and how Facebook has also gone in the video direction.

If you’re unsure where to start, check out our beginner’s guides for Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.

I’ll be honest, the beginner guide for X was published before the platform rebranded from Twitter; however, much of the information still applies today.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Facebook, X, and LinkedIn are some of the most prominent forms of social media.
• Social networking sites often integrate with scheduling tools like HubSpot and Hootsuite software.
• All platforms have capabilities for photos and video.

Cons

• Those interested in posting links may have more difficulty getting engagement than uploading photos and videos.
• Some platforms, like Facebook, put individual user posts higher than business posts in newsfeeds.
• Facebook may not be the right platform for your business if you’re looking to target younger consumers like Gen Z, who are more likely to use TikTok, X, or Snapchat.

2. Photo Sharing

• Pinterest: 533 million monthly active users
• BeReal: 23 million monthly active users

Photo-sharing social media platforms are exactly as they sound — they’re platforms where sharing images is the name of the game. I remember the days when Instagram was the most prominent photo-sharing platform.

But that was then, and this is now, so if you’re wondering why Instagram isn’t mentioned here — don’t worry! I’ll have more on that when I get to the video platforms.

Professional Uses

Pinterest

One of the biggest platforms that specialize in photo sharing is Pinterest. Pinterest is a “visual discovery engine” for users looking for cooking, style, home decor, and general visual inspiration.

Personally, I’ve been using Pinterest for over 10 years and, like most users, I interact with other accounts on the platform through tags, likes, comments, or direct messages.

In the early days, Pinterest wasn’t as synonymous with brands and companies as it is now. Here’s how it looked:

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It was more so about crafting virtual vision boards based on aesthetics.

However, brands, companies, and creators find it useful when they want to take photographs, display content, and update followers about their food, goods, or products.

Pinterest is well-suited for e-commerce companies, such as those that sell home goods and businesses that would like a place to share crisp standalone product images with links.

The platform offers a photo-based feed with posts that can include a photo and a short description.

In the last few years, Pinterest has also shifted to include more video content to compete with platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok. However, the platform still remains a place for users to share their favorite photos.

Here’s a little look at my Pinterest feed.

The platform also allows all users to link directly to websites or product landing pages in posts. I especially love Pinterest‘s Explore page and can see a lot of opportunities for brands there. The Explore page updates daily and operates almost like an old-school blog, with the ability to scroll to see the previous days’ themes as well.

It features boards curated by celebrities, creators, and brands sharing images their followers would be interested in. And, of course, there are opportunities for consumers to shop.

I clicked on the board called Pinterest Predicts: Dolled up 2025 and was shown different trends expected to take over this season, along with links to buy them.

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Before starting on a platform like Pinterest, you’ll want to determine whether your goal is to gain brand awareness or link-based or e-commerce traffic.

BeReal

If you haven’t heard of BeReal, I don’t blame you. It’s a fairly new app that launched in 2020 and is pretty popular among Gen Z users.

The app’s main feature is that it allows users to share a photo of themselves and their immediate surroundings during a randomly selected two-minute window every day.

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The idea of BeReal is to step away from the overly filtered and curated content users often see on other platforms. Just be real. Get it?

With the app’s premise being candid and unfiltered, how can brands leverage BeReal? The best way I could think of is to use the app to build trust with your audience and only share behind-the-scenes candids.

However, that can be difficult, given users are only given a random two-minute window to post.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• These kinds of platforms help with brand awareness. Approximately 80% of Pinterest users say they’ve learned about products or services on the app.
• Pinterest provides an outlet for showing off visual content or product shots.

Cons

• Upkeep on these platforms might require a photo budget or dedicated production time.
• Some platforms require you to post from a mobile app.
• BeReal is most popular with Gen Z users, and there is no opportunity for e-commerce or paid content on the app.

3. Video Sharing

• YouTube: Over 2.7 billion monthly active users
• Instagram: 2 billion monthly active users worldwide
• TikTok: Over 955 million monthly active users

Video has been the dominant type of content marketing over the last few years, and it has no sign of slowing down — especially short-form video.

17.13% of the marketers whose companies are currently leveraging short-form videos say they will increase their investments in 2025.

Adding a video platform to your social strategy could make your brand look relevant and keep you up to speed with your competitors. Video can be helpful to a wide range of industries. While a restaurant could have a vlog with cooking tips, a technology company might focus its video strategy on product demos.

Professional Uses

YouTube & Vimeo

YouTube offers both short-form and long-form capabilities.

Regarding short-form video uses, YouTube Shorts can be a platform your business uses to post product demos, explainer videos, and more.

If you want to get interactive, you can also host live-stream Q&As to answer consumer questions and build community.

When it comes to long-form videos, YouTube is one of the leading platforms. Compared to competing video-sharing platforms like Vimeo, YouTube has an extensive audience base and better SEO capabilities.

What’s great about YouTube’s long-form format is that you can create content series — episodes that are either standalone or built on each other.

When your audience knows a new video will drop every two days, let’s say it keeps them coming back and makes them more loyal. Just like how people eagerly wait for the next episode of their favorite TV show, it’s pretty much the same with this.

As for educational videos, my favorite is the Ahrefs series hosted by Sam Oh, covering everything from blogging to all things marketing and SEO:

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Janelle Warner, co-director and marketing advisor at Born Social, shared how YouTube played a crucial role in their campaign’s success:

“I vividly remember the day we launched the influencer component — it was like a wildfire spreading across social media. The top tech YouTuber we partnered with did an unboxing video that got over 2 million views in the first week. The comments were incredibly positive, with people tagging friends and saying they needed to get this product. It demonstrated the power of tapping into established, trusted voices in your industry.”

However, it wasn’t just YouTube that contributed to this success — it was a multi-pronged approach. A combination of influencer marketing, engaging video content, and targeted ads.

• By partnering with popular tech influencers, they reached a highly engaged audience and built credibility.
• Their video ads showcased the product’s features in an entertaining way, encouraging views and shares.
• Targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram helped them focus on their ideal audience.

Over 500,000 engagements, 100 million video views, a 20% increase in website traffic, and a 400% return on ad spend in just 3 months. What a result!

So YouTube definitely has amazing opportunities for advertisers and monetization, while Vimeo offers viewers the perk of no pre-roll ads. For a longer list of similarities and differences, check out this head-to-head piece where we compare the business capabilities of Vimeo and YouTube.

Instagram

To compete with TikTok, Instagram has shifted away from being a photo-sharing app.

While users can still post photos on Instagram, the platform mainly promotes reels and video stories. It’s also worth mentioning that Instagram video posts are more than twice as likely to generate engagement than image posts (kinda similar to what we’ve seen with Facebook above).

And when you figure out how to serve up content your audience can’t get enough of, you can get tons of views overnight (literally!).

Best proof? One and only Duolingo:

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Another example of how powerful shorts and reels can be came from Karen Etchells, Digital Marketing Strategist at Innovast Digital Marketing.

She embedded vertical videos in blog posts, then repurposed those videos as YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Facebook, and TikTok clips to reach a wider audience.

YouTube Shorts alone led to a 2x boost in site visits from video searches. They saw a huge jump in engagement and overall visibility — a 73% increase in search engine traffic.

TikTok

I’m going to revisit TikTok again later in this post because it also falls under another category of social media platforms. However, it is still a video-sharing channel.

What I love about TikTok in terms of marketing is that it’s a very diverse app with many marketing opportunities.

Yes, you can post short-form demos and explainers, like on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, but TikTok has more opportunities to build community with your audience.

This is because the app is a breeding ground for new viral trends anyone can take part in, and the app provides many ways for audiences to interact via liking, commenting, repurposing sounds, and stitching — the ability to respond to someone’s video by filming your own.

For example, check out how the Chicago Bulls mascot, Benny the Bull, responded to the NBA using Stitch:

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P.S. No offense to any teams, but this video is going down as one of the most legendary stitches ever.

Let’s dive into TikTok’s interactive opportunities.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Regarding YouTube, videos can be longer than on other social platforms.
• All platforms have website linking capabilities.
• Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram often offer analytics.
• YouTube has search optimization features.

Cons

• Video content, particularly long-form, might take more time and money to create.
• Vimeo and YouTube require more backend tasks, like SEO.
• Instagram does not have long-form video capabilities
• TikTok appeals to a younger audience known to distrust brands, so you will likely have to invest in influencer marketing to gain traction on the platform.

4. Interactive Media

• Snapchat: 850 million monthly active users
• TikTok: Over 955 million monthly active users

Apps like Snapchat and TikTok allow users to share photos and videos and have various unique interactive and highly experimental features.

These two apps include AR/VR filters, musical overlays, and interactive games. Their audience base is also predominantly Gen-Z.

Professional Uses

Snapchat

Brands with large followings might consider publishing Snapchat Stories or videos curated by fans. Without a high-budget or giant online following, it might be difficult for a company just starting out on social media to leverage Snapchat.

Brands and influencers on Snapchat tend to cater their content to the platforms’ younger audiences. For example, on Snapchat, you might see stories that present beauty tutorials, wellness tips, news, or trendy new products.

While major brands, like VICE and BuzzFeed, have become Snapchat Discover partners, the average business can still create a Snapchat business account that users can search for and friend.

This account allows you to publish temporary stories like individual accounts. However, those with a business account can also purchase ad space.

For example, Clarins boosted its sales with Snap Ads, Collection Ads, Dynamic Ads, and UGC content.

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They optimized their Snapchat strategy, driving a 114% increase in website actions and a 67% return on ad spend from new audiences. Their efforts led to a 275% rise in incremental sales and an 83% increase in Snapchat ad spend, proving the effectiveness of the whole strategy.

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If you’ve set up your Snapchat account and need further help, check out this guide to getting started on Snapchat.

TikTok

When TikTok first rose to prominence in 2020, it was mainly an app-based platform catering to a Gen Z market that wanted little to do with brands.

Since then, TikTok has grown to shift its focus to longer-form content, and brands are much more aware of how to leverage the channel.

In fact, about a quarter of marketers in our Social Media Marketing survey say TikTok yields the highest ROI compared to other social media platforms.

What’s wild about TikTok is that some videos can get millions of views, while the next one might get stuck at 200. But, speaking from experience, don’t give up because TikTok really rewards creativity and consistency.

The key to TikTok is to invest in influencer and creator marketing. Build a partnership with a creator who aligns with your brand’s values and can introduce your products and services to their audience.

We mostly come across two types of influencer collabs on TikTok:

1. Subtle, non-pushy marketing. For example, check out how Zach King promotes Mr. Nova’s ice creams without even saying a word about it.

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2. Direct influencer marketing. We see this one all the time. Influencers actively promote a product or service, often showcasing it, discussing its features, or giving a review.

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But, influencer marketing also gives room for experimentation. We often take risks, try something new, and just pray it works.

Austin Benton, Marketing Consultant at Gotham Artists, was brave enough, and it paid off. Here’s what he did:

“Instead of paying influencers for traditional sponsored posts, we sent PR packages to 20 micro-influencers (10K-50K followers) with a challenge: film an unboxing and reaction video, and if your post gets 500+ likes, we’ll send you an exclusive mystery VIP package.

This small tweak made a huge difference because it turned the campaign into a game rather than just another product promotion. Influencers were naturally more excited to post, and their followers got curious about both the product and the “mystery reward,” which drove engagement through the roof.”

312% increase in sales and a 270% boost in engagement within six weeks. Impressive results!

Austin also said that after launching the challenge, they encouraged customers to post unboxing videos for a chance to win a year’s supply of the product, which created massive FOMO and boosted UGC.

They ran retargeting ads featuring viral videos, resulting in a 5.4x return on ad spend (ROAS).

Pros and Cons

Pros

• These platforms are very creative and experimental.
• They have young audiences, which can help brands better target Gen-Z.

Cons

• Producing regular content could be expensive and time-consuming.
• Business accounts aren’t promoted up-front on the Snapchat interface. You may want to promote your channel on your website or other social channels because users must search for you with your Snapcode or username.
• Snapchat is limited to mobile and isn’t as easy to use as other platforms.
• You will most likely have to invest in influencer marketing to gain traction on TikTok, and finding a creator aligned with your business may be difficult.

Pro tip: You should try to correctly estimate the time and money that might go into keeping these accounts up-to-date and relevant.

If you’re unsure how short video ads can benefit your business, remember that short-form videos have the highest ROI compared to other video formats.

5. Blogging/Community

• Tumblr
• Reddit

Tumblr and Reddit allow users to post about exciting niche topics, like memes, events, politics, and pop culture.

When users publish a post, these platforms allow others to share it or add it to the conversation with their commentary.

Professional Uses

Both blogging and community-building platforms could be helpful to those who want to encourage discussion around very niche industries or topics.

For example, on these platforms, you might see discussions about anything from alternative health to machine learning.

Source

By blogging, you can write posts about your company’s industry topics and link them to your product or site.

While many people have a blog on their website, platforms like Tumblr might be great to use if you haven’t set this feature up — or just want to see what others in your industry are blogging about.

With a discussion site like Reddit, you could share a link or a post about a specific topic on a discussion board related to your industry and see how users respond. You could also start your board if a topic you’re looking to encourage discussion on doesn’t have one yet.

These two platforms specifically encourage web chatter and post shares from users who care about the same topics.

Both also allow users to follow you or subscribe to your blogs or Reddit boards so your content can appear on their feeds. Here’s an example of what Reddit’s feed looks like.

Other users can up-vote or down-vote when someone publishes something on Reddit. Up-voting makes a post show up higher in Reddit feeds, while down-voting does the opposite.

On Tumblr, the feeds are organized by time. However, a post can show up higher when it is re-shared by other users. When a user shares or interacts with your Tumblr content, they give it a note.

When they reshare, they can post a comment with the post that gets added to a thread.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Both platforms allow you to share text posts, photos, and videos about your business, brand, or individual thoughts.
• These platforms enable you to start conversations about a topic.
• Both platforms allow linking to outside websites.

Cons

• Longer blog posts might take time to craft or write.
• Getting downvoted on Reddit or having no reaction from Tumblr users means your posts may go unseen.
• Your audience might be too niche or limited to just those on the specific platform you use.

6. Microblogging

• Threads: 130 million monthly active users
• X (formerly Twitter): Over 320 million monthly active users

Microblogging refers to posting short blogs that are meant for quick audience interaction. Both Threads and X fall under this category as they allow users to post blog content with very limited character counts.

Professional Uses

For years, companies have used X to post quick updates regarding their products and services or to engage with their audience in a humorous or relatable way. For example, Wendy’s will often post content like below to humorously entice their audience.

The same can be said about Threads, though the platform has only been around since July 2023.

Source

Both platforms allow users to upload mini blogs, photos, and videos to engage audiences. So, really the possibilities are endless in terms of how to use the platform.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• If you have a great sense of humor (like whoever runs Wendy’s social media), you have a great chance of entertaining audiences and raising brand awareness on microblogs.
• Microblogs are very versatile in terms of the kind of content you can post.

Cons

• Since rebranding from Twitter, X has been experiencing a steady decline in users.
• Threads also struggled to maintain consistent users and has yet to eclipse X, its direct competitor.

7. Private Community

• Discord: 200 million monthly active users
• Slack: 79 million active monthly users

One of the best ways to build a loyal customer base is through platforms like Discord and Slack. They give you a direct line to your audience — share exclusive content, start conversations, build trust, and turn followers into a tight-knit community.

Professional Uses

Discord

You can use Discord as a virtual focus group where you can engage with your consumers directly to understand their habits, concerns, and needs.

B2B brands and SaaS companies can benefit from Discord if they play it right.

For instance, Midjourney used the platform’s engaged community to fuel growth. Their app, which lets users create AI-generated images, has turned into a hub for creativity and collaboration.

Source

The numbers speak for themselves:

• 1 million users in just three months after private testing
• Thousands of new users daily at its peak
• Installed on 7 million servers
• The server hit a cap of 1 million users.

I also have a Discord server, and I use a content creator to engage with my followers, keep up with the latest happenings in my niche, and build community.

Few things are more frustrating and terrifying to me than when I post something on social media that is meant for my friends, followers, or my target audience, and it “leaves the neighborhood.” By that, I mean the post leaves its intended audience and takes on a life of its own.

Discord is a voice and chat platform where users join conversation servers, often through exclusive invites, and talk to other members about niche topics.

Slack

Slack has gone from just a basic team communication channel to a powerhouse for all sorts of fields, like SEO, marketing, and more. There are many free groups like BigSEO, but you usually need to sign up or request access (which is actually great since it helps keep spam out).

There are also some paid channels. For example, the DO link building community by Digital Olympus offers both free and paid options to connect SaaS editors and SEO experts with exclusive access, collaboration opportunities, and even mentorship.

Source

So, some channels are definitely worth paying for. Of course, it’s necessary to do a little research, see user experiences, and understand what benefits you can gain before deciding to give a paid channel a chance.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Like I said, private community platforms are excellent for community building with your followers and like-minded individuals. You can foster community and stay tapped into your audience.

Cons

• Discord doesn’t have features for native advertising, and it’s only really helpful if you already have a stable audience who wants to be in the community with you. So, you may have to focus on building your brand’s following before investing in Discord.
• Slack has a message limitation — it allows you to search the last 10,000 messages only. So, if you‘re trying to search for something older than that, you won’t be able to find it.

From TikTok to LinkedIn: Where should you be?!

Every platform has its benefits, but definitely not equally for everyone.

That’s why before you start building a community anywhere, figure out where your audience actually is.

For B2C, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook will always be a solid bet. On the other hand, for B2B, LinkedIn, X, and communities like Slack or Discord might work.

Of course, there are no hard and fast rules. A SaaS company can absolutely share quick tutorials on TikTok or Instagram. The trick is knowing who you’re targeting and giving them the content “they’re hungry for.”

And yes, as the internet evolves and so do the types of content people prefer, I’m glad you’re still reading this. It means that despite the flood of video content, some people still love a good, old text post.

Keep up with trends, but stay true to yourself. That’s the recipe for success.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Imagine a weighted balance scale: on one side is brand visibility; the other, lead generation. Your job as a content marketer is to use gated and ungated content to successfully balance both goals.

Imagine a weighted balance scale: on one side is brand visibility; the other, lead generation. Your job as a content marketer is to use gated and ungated content to successfully balance both goals.

With gated content, users arrive at your website and see a CTA or pop-up that offers them access to content in exchange for their information. This could be their email address in exchange for a content offer — and a way of generating leads for your business.

Ungated content requires no exchange of information, and it has more SEO value — giving you brand visibility.

Here, we’ll explore what gated content is and dive into best practices and examples.

Table of Contents

• What is gated content?
• Best Practices for Gated Content
• Gated Content Examples
• Gated vs. Ungated Content

It’s important to note that gated content for inbound marketing is free and not hidden behind a paywall. Users need to submit their information — not their credit card number — to access the content.

Now, you might be wondering, “Why would I hide my content from my audience?”

Typically, the goal of gated content is to generate leads. Gated content isn‘t used for brand awareness or visibility campaigns because the nature of hidden content doesn’t allow for high traffic.

Below, let’s discuss the pros and cons of gated versus ungated content.

Gated content is usually protected by a paywall, which allows the publisher to require users to sign up or pay for access.

Pros and Cons of Gated Content

Gated content generates leads you can nurture into prospects, whereas ungated content is meant to increase traffic and improve audience trust.

Both types of content are valuable to your content marketing strategy, as long as you’re finding the right balance for your business goals.

After reading this list, you might be wondering, “How do I know if I should gate my content?”

Well, it all depends on your priorities — brand visibility or lead generation.

Additionally, consider the type of content. Longer-form content like an ebook is well-suited to gated content, while most shorter-form content like blog posts are better off ungated.

Once you‘ve decided to create gated content, you’re probably curious about how to get started. Let’s review some best practices below.

1. Create content for each stage in the buyer’s journey.

When a prospect goes through the buyer‘s journey, they’ll go through three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.

Here’s a quick rundown of each stage:

During each stage, your audience needs content that meets them where they are.

For instance, visitors in the awareness stage are probably interested in reading an ebook. On the other hand, a visitor in the decision stage might prefer a product demo or webinar.

That‘s why it’s important to design content offers for each stage of the buyer’s journey. If your gated content aligns with their stage in the journey, your audience is more likely to convert.

2. Complete a competitive analysis.

Once you‘ve brainstormed some content ideas for each stage of the buyer’s journey, it’s time to conduct a competitive analysis.

In a competitive analysis, you’ll research the types of content your competitors offer. activities.

Pay attention to what content is gated versus ungated — this will give you an idea of what types of content are valuable enough to place behind a gate.

3. Provide incentive.

As an inbound marketer, you know that providing value is of the utmost importance.

Your content offer shouldn’t be a quick blog post. Instead, your gated content should provide actionable, valuable content.

Just as importantly, your gated content should be relevant to your audience.

When your content provides true value, it gives your audience an incentive to fill out that form and give you their contact information.

4. Build a strong landing page.

When a user clicks on a CTA for a content offer, they’re usually led to a landing page. So, one of the best practices for gated content is to build a strong landing page (we’ve got 41 examples if you need some inspo).

For example, HubSpot’s State of Marketing report landing page contains a strong headline, compelling copy, and a sneak preview of some of the key findings.

Once you decide to download, the form is simple and fast.

Source

The technical steps for gating your content will vary depending on your CMS. But chances are, your landing page will include a form where visitors can input their contact details in exchange for your content offer. It’s important that your form is straightforward, easy to use, and user-friendly.

HubSpot offers a free online form builder that enables you to create and customize forms with a drag-and-drop form maker.

5. Segment your audience.

Once your audience has downloaded your gated content and you receive their email address, it’s time to segment your email lists.

This will help you develop targeted and effective email marketing campaigns.

Additionally, segmenting your audience means you can send nurturing emails to move those leads to prospects.

6. Measure the analytics.

When you’ve decided to gate a certain piece of content, you can track conversions and measure your analytics.

As with any marketing strategy, measuring your success is extremely important. This data will help you understand your audience better and improve your content strategy.

Now that you know some best practices for creating gated content, let’s look at types of content and examples of what this will look like in action.

Gated Content Examples

There’s lots of ways you can build gated content landing pages — here’s five of the most common types of content that businesses gate.

1. White Papers, Case Studies, and Other Reports

White papers, case studies, and other reports are great examples of gated content because they can provide targeted value to your audience.

A white paper is an authoritative, in-depth report on a specific topic; case studies look at a specific use case; and other reports might not fall into either category but still use a text-heavy, longer-form format. (Think: HubSpot’s State of Marketing report.)

All three of these content types can position your brand as an industry expert. And when you‘re a trusted expert, people want to know what you have to say — which means you’ll get more downloads and conversions.

Usually, offers are long-form content that are interesting and valuable to your audience, like this one from IMO Health about high-quality medical data and research.

Pro tip: Give your audience a taste of the content. The above example includes a few key learnings that prove its value and entice its audience to fill out the form.

StrataBeat’s 2025 B2B SEO Performance Report is a good example of a gated report. The landing page clearly states what the product is, and the description — “Unlock superior SEO performance with insights from an analysis of 300 B2B SaaS websites” — emphasizes high-quality data and even includes the size of the study.

There’s also a graphic of the report, which suggests a beautifully designed, thoughtfully produced content offer. The CTA, “Get the report and boost your SEO results,” promises that providing your information will be worth your while, and you can see all six information fields you need to fill out.

2. Ebooks

An ebook is another popular type of gated content. Unlike a white paper, an ebook is usually a shorter guide on a specific topic.

Ebooks can also establish your brand authority and build trust with your audience. They are usually used in the awareness and consideration stages of the buyer’s journey.

IMO Health also has multiple gated ebooks that require your contact information before you can hit that “download” button.

This one, entitled AI in healthcare: 6 solutions driving efficiency and innovation, includes a few bullet points of what you’ll learn, ensuring that it finds the right audience.

Pro tip: Tell your readers how long the ebook is so they know what they’re getting into. IMO Health, above, includes the read time just below the title.

3. Templates

One of my favorite forms of gated content is the template. Providing a template is a tactical, actionable piece of content.

The perceived value of a template is much higher than that of an ebook and a white paper, which means your audience is more likely to input their contact information to receive it.

Templates are a great gated content offer for folks in the consideration and decision stage of the buyer’s journey.

SlidesGo, which publishes free templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides, gates much of its premium content:

Pro tip: You can still preview all of the slides in the template, so users know exactly what they’re getting when they hand over their email address.

4. Webinars

With a webinar, you‘ll educate your audience to learn more about a topic. You’ll develop trust, build relationships, and, hopefully, inspire.

For prospects in the decision stage of the buyer’s journey, webinars make an excellent gated content offer.

Again, webinars have a high perceived value, which makes your audience more likely to fill out that form.

5. Quizzes

If you’re a person who wears makeup and you’ve been on Instagram or TikTok in the past couple years, you’ve probably been targeted by Il Makiage, a cosmetics company with a particularly large range of foundation shades.

After enticing you with before-and-after pics of models (whose perfect skin somehow looks even more perfect after Il Makiage foundation), the makeup company promises that its “PowerMatch algorithm” will find a shade that perfectly matches your skin tone—no in-store swatching required.

After you’ve devoted several minutes of your time — which is a lot in a world where 30-second videos rule — Il Makiage asks for your contact info before revealing your foundation color.

Pro tip: Putting the ask after the quiz means that the user has already invested their time and is more likely to fork over their email. (And I can tell you from personal experience that it’s really hard to walk away from the promise of perfect skin.)

Gated vs. Ungated Content

With gated content, it’s important to provide your audience with interesting and relevant offers. Ultimately, gated content should be targeted and help you generate leads. Remember that scale from the beginning: You’ll want to find a balance between brand visibility and lead gen, so gate wisely — and with your audience’s needs in mind.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

A Microsoft study found that people spend 15% of the workday checking email— that’s about six hours a week squinting at their inboxes. While many want that number to be lower, the truth is that email is still a valuable communication tool.

A Microsoft study found that people spend 15% of the workday checking email— that’s about six hours a week squinting at their inboxes. While many want that number to be lower, the truth is that email is still a valuable communication tool.

When I opt into an email list, it’s because I anticipate something of value in return: expert insights, a story or case study, a free trial, or an event invitation. Brands have a small window of opportunity to show their value in your inbox. If they can’t, they’ll land in the no man’s land of unsubscribe. If they can, they gain a seat at the table.

So, how can brands follow the latter path? I dove deep into my own inbox, spoke to email marketing experts, and explored top brands to bring you best practices for B2B email marketing success— with 10 examples of brands leading the way.

Table of Contents

• What is B2B email marketing?
• What makes a great B2B marketing email?
• B2B Email Marketing Tips from the Experts
• 10 B2B Email Marketing Examples to Learn From

What is B2B email marketing?

B2B (business-to-business) email marketing is the practice of using email campaigns to promote products, services, or messaging to other businesses instead of individual consumers. B2B email marketing is typically partially or fully automated through an email marketing platform like HubSpot, with varying levels of sophistication and personalization.

B2B marketers use email marketing for several purposes: to reach and nurture leads, onboard new clients, build brand loyalty, share product tips and updates, and cross-sell and upsell. All in all, B2B email marketing is a valuable channel because it allows brands to initiate a conversation where professionals spend the most time— their inbox.

What makes a great B2B marketing email?

No matter which type of B2B email you’re creating— newsletters, welcome emails, drip campaigns, or sales prospecting emails— any marketing email worth its salt should have these three components.

1. Personalization

94% of marketers say personalization increases sales, and 96% say it leads to repeat business. But personalizing emails takes more than adding their first name to the salutation.

Use segmenting and signal-based intent to send dynamic, personalized emails that can move a lead through the funnel. For example, reference a recent event a prospect attended or content they downloaded to continue the conversation. You can also personalize emails with dynamic content, for example, swapping out a case study relevant to that client’s industry.

2. Sharp Copy

Good B2B emails should be brief, relevant, and packed with value. The primary way that you showcase your value is with your words, aka copy.

“Well-crafted copy that resonates with the audience’s needs and interests is vital. It should be concise, clear, and focused on providing value rather than just promoting products,” says B2B email marketing specialist and copywriter Joe Cunningham.

First, craft an intriguing subject line and pre-header to pique a reader’s attention. Then, don’t waste your reader’s time with fluff— you need to earn every open and click with great writing.

“Show busy potential clients or busy contacts that this is, in fact, worth reading, why it‘s worth someone’s time, and how it’s going to fix a problem for them,” advises Cunningham. Telling stories and sharing the voice of the customer can also connect you to the audience.

3. A Strong Call-to-Action

No marketing email is complete without a clear call-to-action (CTA). Even a newsletter or thank you email should have a call-to-action! Many businesses make the mistake of leaving one out or putting too many in, confusing readers about what to do next.

Button text like “Read the blog” isn’t strong enough to convince someone to click. Write CTA copy that speaks to the value you offer, like “Learn how to save three hours a week” or “Book your free consult today”.

B2B Email Marketing Tips from the Experts

I’ve managed email marketing at a startup, a financial services company, and a university. I also interviewed two email marketing specialists about their secrets to email marketing success, and here are the best practices we all agreed on.

1. Keep it short.

More is not better when you have a specific goal for your content. “People are not going to read through a bunch of content,” says Destiny Loyd, Sr. Lifecycle & Email Marketing Manager for Apptio. “So as an email marketing manager, getting to the point is very important. You need to be able to get to the point within the first one to two paragraphs and give the call of action very early on to keep reader engagement.”

Keep the number of clicks as low as possible when asking someone to complete an action, and question whether you need readers to click away at all or whether you can share the key information in the email.

2. Segment your emails.

I’ve already stated how important it is to personalize your emails, and I’ll say it again. Segmentation, where you separate your email lists by audience, industry, or lead stage, lets you send only highly relevant, personalized content to each group.

So instead of having one big mailing list where you send company updates, segment your emails by audience: prospects, leads, current customers, suppliers, partners, and so on.

“List management is the boring part. It isn’t sexy, it’s not fun, and it can be time-consuming,” says Cunningham. “Segmentation requires a lot of strategic thinking with the data you’re collecting and the data in your CRM, but it’s a huge opportunity to send more relevant and effective emails.”

3. Stop blasting your contacts.

There’s no right number to how often you should email B2B leads or partners— it depends on lots of factors. But we all know that many companies take email too far. When you send too many emails, you risk driving your audience away.

“Over-communicating can lead to disengagement,” warns Loyd.

Audit your emails by looking at analytics regularly. If your engagement or unsubscribes are below email marketing benchmarks, consider cutting down or consolidating the emails you send. You can also use standard suppression rules to streamline emails: for example, add a suppression list for registered attendees so you don’t keep asking people who have already registered to attend your event.

4. Centralize your email management.

I once worked at a university that audited how many emails students received from all the different university departments, and the results were eye-opening, to say the least. One key way to right-size your email sends is to coordinate your email marketing strategy across departments. Marketing, sales, customer success, and corporate communications may all send separate email journeys, inundating readers.

“I have been at places where anybody can request an email, and it makes it hard for others — or even me as the email marketing manager — to keep up with what’s being sent out,” shares Loyd.

“Establish a point of contact and a regular meeting to talk about what’s coming out of each department via email this month. Centralizing email requests is important because it will help you strategize, be more targeted, and help the company avoid over-emailing their database.”

5. It’s not about you.

“I think one of the biggest mistakes companies make is making emails too much about them — their news, their products — rather than focusing on what their audience actually needs or wants,” advises Cunningham. Instead of talking all about yourself, focus on the problems you are solving and the value you provide.

One simple way to do this is by using the second-person “you” to address readers and their pain points directly rather than using disconnected corporate speak. Consider how these subject lines hit differently:

• [Company] launches
  with innovative payroll solutions
• Sick of payroll errors? Alleviate payroll headaches with automated workflows.

6. Keep your brand and tone consistent across emails.

Your emails’ voice, tone, and branding should match across campaigns and any landing pages or content assets where you send them.

“If you send an email that‘s very straight to the point and simple to read and understand, then you drive them to a website that is not simple and easy, you’ll to lose them immediately because there’s a disconnect,” says Loyd. “Brand consistency plays a huge role in driving people down the journey and giving them a sense of familiarity and continuity.”

As a best practice, create a brand and voice guide for anyone creating emails to follow. Then, write on-brand email templates that your sales team or anyone else sending emails can adapt and share for individual emails.

7. Test different hooks, angles, and visuals.

Words and design matter in email marketing. As you write subject lines and body copy, make a practice of A/B testing different copy and visuals to gather evidence on what works best.

While marketers have some audience data and personas, creating great marketing content still requires a certain level of guesswork. You might be surprised by what resonates best, so stay curious and test often.

8. Use automation for smarter outreach.

Email marketing is, by nature, mass communication. To make it personalized, relevant, and timely at scale, look to automation. Setting automated campaigns means that once you set it up, you can send email marketing campaigns in your sleep. Here are three ways to approach automated email marketing.

Journeys

Journeys are an automated sequence of emails sent on a pre-set schedule. These are good for onboarding or nurturing campaigns to help them reach a long-term goal like retention or a purchase. The downside of traditional journeys is that once they start, you can’t adjust or personalize the content.

“Ensure that you’re documenting the logic behind the journeys and all the criteria, triggers, exit criteria, and all of those things that go into that journey,” recommends Loyd.

Behavior-Based Drip Campaigns

Drip campaigns are individual emails or sequences triggered based on behaviors, also known as signals. Examples of signals could include downloading content, attending an event, completing a sales call, or logging into a platform.

Basing your emails on behavior ensures that you’re reaching prospects with the right message at the exact right time.

For example, if it’s a week into a prospect’s free trial period and they still haven’t logged into their account, it’s pointless to ask them to sign up since they haven’t tried the software yet. Instead, you can focus on educational content reminding them about the trial. After a signal like them logging into the account three times, you can switch to conversion campaigns.

AI-Powered Email Marketing Campaigns

Finally, you can power up drip and nurture campaigns with the power of AI. Instead of relying on broad segmentation, where leads are grouped based on shared characteristics, AI can analyze multiple data points to understand each individual’s behavior and intent— and recommend content and campaigns based on the data.

For example, HubSpot’s team revamped their email marketing using first-party marketing data, enriched company data, and thousands of intent signals. They aimed to have AI determine each prospect’s goal and create the perfect messaging and piece of content to send to help them reach that goal. As a result of this hyper-personalization at scale, they saw a 30% boost in open rates, a 50% boost in click-throughs, and an 82% lift in conversions.

10 B2B Email Marketing Examples to Learn From

Great emails can be hard to find, so I’ve done the hard work for you. Each example from a B2B brand below showcases stellar copywriting, design, and relevance to their audience. I’ve given a teardown for why each email hits the mark and how you can emulate it.

1. Newsletter: The Hustle by HubSpot

I love a good newsletter that can bring me up-to-date on the week’s news and stories without disappearing into a doomscrolling cycle. One of my go-to emails for this is The Hustle.

With over two million subscribers, The Hustle brings together the week’s most interesting headlines, original business features, and video and podcast content into daily and weekly emails. I love discovering timely articles I didn’t know I needed, like an article on the business of Halloween theme parks.

What I like: While sprinkled with free resources from owner HubSpot, the purpose of The Hustle isn’t to sell. It’s to build an audience and share expertise from across marketing, sales, small business, and tech. The spot-on mix of original multimedia content and current events commentary keeps me coming back, week after week.

2. Newsletter: Coda

The Docket is the monthly newsletter for Coda, an all-in-one collaborative document editor and collaborative workspace. The newsletter combines product tips, updates, and useful content for knowledge workers. Coda’s in the process of being acquired by Grammarly (another brand with a killer email game!), so I’m looking forward to seeing how the brand and email content evolves.

What I like: Coda’s colorful design stands out among a sea of white-background content. The copy is always playful, with a few good workplace puns to keep learning light. I like the “Small things considered” section with visual, bite-sized product highlights (and an NPR-inspired title!).

3. Lenny’s Newsletter

When I asked my community what their favorite B2B emails are, a few people said they’re far more interested in following solo creators than brands right now. I tend to agree: people-led email content is booming right now. In tech circles, there’s one solo creator whose name comes up again and again: Lenny’s Newsletter.

Who is Lenny, you ask? Well, he’s just a guy— a guy who’s built an entire business around an email newsletter. Lenny Rachitsky, a seasoned product manager, launched a newsletter in 2020 sharing product thought leadership and interviews and it’s become the go-to product publication. His readership just topped one million email subscribers, including 18,000 paid accounts, a paid Slack community, podcast, and consulting.

What I like: Lenny’s Newsletter shares those rare senior-level insights from those in the trenches of building innovative products. He also shares his unique perspective and voice from inside the industry. The newsletter feels like a community, with frequent guest contributions and reader spotlights. It’s great inspiration for brands for how to put people at the center of your email marketing efforts.

4. Drip Campaign: Adobe

Adobe is one of my favorite brands, and that carries over to their email marketing. I never feel inundated by Adobe emails— there’s no fluff— and their content is always brief, visually crisp, and clear.

What I like: It’s no surprise that Adobe emails have excellent design, but I’m always delighted at the sharp copywriting with headlines like, “Docs on loc,” “Turn to-dos into ta-das,” and “Make taxes less taxing”. I also love the simplicity of having just one CTA. There’s no question or confusion about what the next step is.

5. Drip Email: Figma

As a design company, it’s no surprise that Figma creates delightful emails. As a Figma user, I like that the company keeps its emails few and far between but packed with value.

What I like: Figma keeps its value proposition clear throughout the email content. It never simply tells you about a cool new feature; it tells you how it makes your life better or easier. The visual branding, clear designs, and fun illustrations are consistent throughout different emails and stay true to the playful, helpful voice of the brand.

6. Nurture Campaign: Circle

Circle is an online community platform that helps creators and brands engage their communities. When you join their email list, you’ll receive professional and relevant emails with original industry reports, event invitations, and inside tips like “How our top 10% of creators really build thriving communities”.

What I like: Circle’s emails bring consistent branding visuals and relevant content for community builders. I like that many of their emails come from a specific person on their team (like “Alexis at Circle”) so it isn’t just a faceless brand email. I also love how they use the voice of the customer. The nurture email above, for example, has just a short blurb and CTA, while three-quarters of the content features the voice of the customer through testimonial quotes.

7. Nurture Email: Beyond Meat

Why should SaaS companies have all the fun? Alternative protein producer Beyond Beef shows how brands in industries like food and agriculture can show up in a big way in emails.

What I like: Beyond Beef brings its bold, passionate, and sometimes irreverent brand voice to its email marketing. It uses appealing visuals and CTAs to stand out to its busy audience of restaurants and caterers.

8. Onboarding Emails: Perplexity

Perplexity calls itself the “world’s first answer engine,” and AI-powered, streamlined search alternative. Since Perplexity is a new category of tech, its onboarding sequence is crucially important to educate users on what they can do with the app before the free trial winds down. Nailing your onboarding emails helps you engage users and avoid churn.

What I like: Perplexity’s onboarding sequence contains seven emails (it’s in the subject line: 4/7, etc.) which walk the user through the best use cases of the app. They contain bright hero images and concrete product examples with images and prompts.

9. Offer Email: Squarespace

One of the common mistakes brands make is to cram too much into a sales email. Take at look at this offer email from Squarespace: by keeping it short and focusing on just one offer, incentive, and CTA, they raise the chance that the reader will convert.

This likely isn’t the first email Squarespace would send to a prospect. The reader has likely already received a drop campaign or completed a free trial and needs and incentive to buy.

What I like: Squarespace uses the power of urgency and scarcity to tempt a reader to buy a subscription. The email gives a percentage discount and an expiration date for the offer. Even the CTA copy (“Save now”) speaks to the tangible value of the offer.

10. Product Email: Notion

The organization tool Notion can do a thousand different things, and that level of overwhelm could turn users off. To combat that, Notion’s email marketing and product updates help users understand the best use cases for them.

What I like: Notion uses product GIFs to show its product in action and give examples of how someone could use the product. Its email designs are always simple and clear, in line with the brand.

Lessons in Email Marketing: How to Improve Your Email Game

When done right, B2B email marketing is still a powerful engine for engaging leads, nurturing relationships, and driving business growth. The best B2B marketing emails aren’t just delivering information; they’re creating value and helping clients solve problems.

Whether you’re just getting started or optimizing an existing strategy, I hope these B2B email marketing examples inspired you to craft better emails. Subscribe to a few of these brands’ email lists, and keep a swipe file of inspiring content to improve your own.

Look for an email marketing service and AI-powered tools to help you reach your goals. With personalization, sharp copywriting, and a clear call to action, you’ll engage your prospects and earn a seat at the table.

Engagement on social media is like mingling at a party.

There could be tons of people in the room (read: following you), the music could be great, and the vibe could be just right, but if no one’s conversing, the party’s dead — and no one wants to throw a lousy party.

Engagement on social media is like mingling at a party.

There could be tons of people in the room (read: following you), the music could be great, and the vibe could be just right, but if no one’s conversing, the party’s dead — and no one wants to throw a lousy party.

By prioritizing social media engagement, businesses can avoid this fate and accomplish their marketing goals. Likes and comments may seem like vanity metrics, but they are catalysts for the greater traffic, conversions, and sales brands need to grow.

Pulling from the latest data from our 2025 Social Media Trends report, let’s unpack everything you need to know about social media engagement and how to harness it for your business.

Table of Contents

• What is social media engagement?
• Why is social media engagement important?
• How to Increase Social Media Engagement
  

What is social media engagement?

Social media engagement is when social media shifts from passive to active, from laying around on the couch to up and running around the neighborhood. It’s any interaction a user has with an account, creator, or piece of content on a social media platform, including likes, comments, direct messages, shares, clicks, and tags.

Why is social media engagement important?

These days, anyone can post on social media or get a high follower count. Heck, posting can be automated, and followers can be bought. Neither of these are worth bragging about, but high engagement? That’s something you can be proud of.

In a marketing context, engagement is the first step toward actually accomplishing your goals with social media. Want to drive website traffic? You need to get someone to click. Want to build awareness? That’s where sharing comes in.

It all starts with engaging, but there are also several other benefits.

Influences Algorithm

Achieving organic social media marketing success isn’t impossible, but it is much harder than a decade ago. Regardless of platform, what your audience sees is determined by an algorithm.

Our survey found keeping up with features and algorithm updates is one of the top 5 challenges marketers face with social media, but industry experts agree engagement is one of the most consistent criteria.

Check out Meta’s content ranking criteria, for instance.

Social media algorithms see engagement as a vote of confidence. The more people engage, the better the content and the more it should be shared.

Increases Brand Awareness and Discoverability

The better you do with social media algorithms, the more likely your content will appear in explore/discovery feeds and be seen by new people. New people mean new potential audience members and, more importantly, customers.

Marketers named building brand awareness their top goal with social media in 2025, so this can’t be ignored.

Fosters Trust and Sense of Community

Algorithm aside, engagement is what makes social media social. It’s how you form a personal connection with your audience and build trust.

And it’s not just about you engaging with your customers. Customers interacting with each other is also important. TikTok, Instagram, or otherwise, comment sections can get pretty wild as your audience interacts among themselves, but even this chaos creates a sense of community.

It brings people together under a common interest or conversation, making them feel part of something larger.

85% of marketers say building an active community in this way is important to their overall social media strategy this year. It can help increase brand sentiment and loyalty, attract followers, and incentivize user-generated content, among other things.

How to Increase Social Media Engagement

Now that you know why social media engagement matters, how can you boost it for your brand? Here are six tips you can follow.

1. Cater to the platform culture.

YouTube stole Stories from Instagram, and Instagram stole short-form vertical videos from TikTok. But even though social media platforms seem to be copying each other, no two are exactly alike.

To leave the biggest mark and earn the highest social media engagement, publish content that feels natural and specific to that platform.

This means not just using the features and mediums popular there but delivering the value or messages your audience wants and expects to get there.

Sure, both Instagram and LinkedIn host videos, but the same content won’t necessarily resonate. This is likely why Duolingo focuses its LinkedIn content on hiring and recruiting talent, while its Instagram content is catered to attracting and appealing to users.

 

Know the culture of the platform you’re posting to, cater to it, and you’ll be well-poised to maximize your social media engagement.

Want tips for specific platforms?

• Facebook Engagement: Everything You Need to Know [+ Research]
• How to Increase Your Instagram Engagement Rate
• How to Get More Followers on Instagram: 17 Ways to Your First (or Next) 1000

Pro tip: In our recent social trends survey, marketers named Instagram the top platform for overall engagement. If your audience is hanging out there, it’s a great place to start.

Source

2. Post consistently.

I’m a firm believer in quality over quantity, but I’ve found social media engagement really requires a balance.

You see, social media content has a short shelf-life — basically microscopic on platforms like X (formerly Twitter). No matter how good your content is, it can get buried quickly, so you need to consistently post high-quality, relevant content to stay in front of your audience and engage them.

The easiest way to do this is to commit to a posting schedule. Having a set time on your calendar to post gives you a deadline to abide by and gives your audience a specific time to anticipate hearing from you.

Pro tip: Use a social media management tool to help maintain consistency.

Get Started with HubSpot’s Social Media Tool

Also, experiment with different times to see what works for your audience and persona. Your target persona can drastically impact your posting timing and frequency, especially if they are in a different time zone.

3. Ask questions.

What’s the easiest way to get a response out of someone? Ask a question.

Questions are like conversational calls to action — they tell your audience what you want them to do next, and sometimes that’s all the convincing they need.

Ask for open-ended opinions in the comments (like Meta below) or prompt people to “vote” by taking different actions on your posts. For instance, they could hit “like” if the answer to your question is no or comment with their favorite emoji if the answer is yes.

Both of these are easy but effective ways to foster engagement.

Shopify does a great job in this Instagram post, asking their followers to share what motivates them in the comment section.

Pro tip: Several platforms have dedicated features you can take advantage of to ask your audience questions. Think polls on LinkedIn (like this one from Slack) and Facebook or the “Polls” sticker in Instagram Stories.

Source

These features elicit engagement from your audience and add variety to the mediums in your social media feed.

4. Host a giveaway or contest.

People love freebies — well, at least I know I do. They incentivize engagement, making people that much more willing to participate. Think of them like party favors — not expected but very much appreciated.

With this in mind, a popular engagement strategy on social media is hosting a contest or giveaway. You can require audiences to engage (e.g., like, comment, share) to enter to win, and if you ask them to tag friends, you’ll also build brand awareness.

Korean skincare brand Laniege regularly uses this tactic on its Instagram, generating thousands of likes.

5. Use humor.

In a recent study by HubSpot research, marketers reported that humorous content delivers more ROI than any other type, and who’s really surprised?

“Humor is serious business in social media marketing,” explains Samantha Meller, Head of Social at HubSpot Media. “When done right, genuinely funny social media content can make your brand feel more ‘human.’ This can make your followers, audience, and customers feel more connected to it.”

Funny content is also the content people want to “like” and share with their friends. So, look for ways to incorporate it naturally into your social media strategy.

Taco Bell has been a master of this for years, and it only continues with its TikTok content.

6. Collaborate with relevant brands and influencers.

Our survey found that 77% of marketers say influencer marketing delivers better ROI than other channels. That’s huge, especially with 44% noting engagement as their most important campaign metric.

With this in mind, explore the influencers, creators, or even other businesses your buyers follow. If relevant to your brand or offering, consider collaborating with them to get in front of new potential followers. This helps with discoverability, reach, and social proof.

Pro tip: Go niche. Nearly 45% of marketers reported seeing the most success with micro-influencers, followed by macro and nano-influencers. Mega-influencers (those with over a million followers) came in last.

While mega influencers may have a larger audience, their engagement is typically low. Some reported benefits of smaller influencers included more trust with their followers, access to tight-knit communities, and affordability.

Learn more about your options for influencer marketing.

Engage to Elevate Your Social Media

Social media engagement isn’t just a numbers game — it’s the heartbeat of your brand’s online presence — or the life of the party, if you will.

The more you engage, the more visibility, trust, and community you build. By understanding platform culture, posting consistently, asking the right questions, and tapping strategies like giveaways, humor, and collaboration, you can create a dynamic social presence that drives real results.

At the end of the day, social media is meant to be social. Treat it like a conversation over cocktails, and you’ll turn passive followers into active participants, loyal customers, and even brand advocates.

Conversion copywriters — the people who write landing page copy that converts readers and delivers sales — are wonderful human beings. Their writing pulls in readers, generates conversions, and ultimately produces buckets of cash.

Conversion copywriters — the people who write landing page copy that converts readers and delivers sales — are wonderful human beings. Their writing pulls in readers, generates conversions, and ultimately produces buckets of cash.

Wouldn’t you like to have that gift?

There’s good news here: It’s only partly gift. The rest is just technique — technique that you can learn and master. You — yes, you! — can unleash the same wizard-like conversion copy powers, as long as you understand the techniques at play.

8 Tips for Writing Great Landing Page Copy

You see, conversion is very much a science of the mind — how your prospect‘s mind processes information, makes decisions, and decides to convert. In this post, I’ll describe eight writing techniques that are proven to work.

After putting your time and resources into generating traffic, here’s how you can turn traffic into revenue by creating copy like a conversion pro.

Here are the landing page copy best practices we’ll cover:

1. Spend time writing a killer headline.

This isn’t the best news you’re going to read all day, but someone needs to say it: People don’t meticulously read your landing page copy. They scan, they skim, and they allow their eyes to flitter across the page, but they don’t (usually) read every word.

So, what’s a copywriter to do? Go find a job where someone appreciates our hard work?

No. We adapt to the customer and produce copy that will compel them to convert despite their skimming habits. Here’s what customers do pay attention to:

• The headline.
• The subheading (usually).
• Pictures.
• CTA buttons.

After that, customers may or may not read the following:

• Major section headings.
• Bullet points.
• Short paragraphs.
• Image captions.

That should give you an idea of what to focus on as you write your conversion copy.

The most important piece of content is the 10 or 15 words in the headline. Nail that, and you’ll have come a long way.

To help convert the non-readers, you should:

1. Make your headline big, strong, and clear.
2. Use a compelling subheading that pushes your product’s benefits.
3. Show large pictures that demonstrate the benefits of your products and explain your message.
4. Use strong copy in your CTA.
5. Break your copy up into major sections, led by a headline in large type.
6. Use bullet points to discuss the benefits of your product. Short bullet points. Not long ones.
7. Use short paragraphs rather than long blocks of text. Any paragraph over five lines long can be hard to digest.
8. Use captions on your images.

Stuck? HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant can help you generate copy, and it’s free to use.

2. Use customer testimonials.

One of the most powerful conversion copywriting techniques isn’t about writing at all; it’s about letting happy customers write your copy for you.

Testimonials produce conversions like nothing else can. It’s impossible to write copy as good as your customer. Why? Because good copy isn’t just style and substance — the source matters, too.

Testimonials are compelling because they show the customer what they will experience if they use your product or service.

Zapier’s landing page is a great use case for these customer testimonials. A key to its successful, high-converting landing pages is that it places testimonials front and center, featuring a picture of the customer alongside a quote. It also uses the customer’s full job title and company along with a company logo, which really bolster the testimonial’s credibility.

Remember, your best conversion writers are your customers, so let them speak for themselves. Social proof is a powerful addition to your copywriting and marketing strategy.

3. Emphasize the benefits — not the product/service.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in online marketing is that customers don’t really care about your products or services.

In other words, they don‘t care about the “solution” you’re trying to sell to them. A group of Harvard researchers conducted a study of 1,400 B2B customers in a variety of fields and concluded that we’d reached “the end of solution sales.”

That study was from 2012, but its findings have been supported more recently — McKinsey & Company’s 2024 study confirms yet again that B2B customers are acting more and more like individual consumers, completing a significant part of the buyer’s journey before ever interacting with a sales rep.

Traditionally, sales was predicated on the “solution-selling method.” Aja Frost, HubSpot’s senior director of global growth, says that solution selling “rests on a pretty simple premise: Prospects want to be solved for, and salespeople are uniquely equipped to be the ones who solve for them.”

That approach has declined in popularity for one very simple reason: Customers already know what solution they’re looking for. They are capable of learning virtually anything thanks to the internet and search engines.

In fact, not only do customers know the solution, they also know the features they are looking for, the requirements the product must meet, and even benchmark pricing.

If you are only pitching your solution, you’re not giving your customers what they need and want. You need to pitch benefits.

It’s okay to mention your solution, because that signals to the customer that they’re in the right place — but don’t push that solution. Instead, push the benefits.

Let’s look at an example from Unbounce, which successfully emphasizes the benefits of its product on this landing page: “more conversions,” “instant optimization,” and “banish writers’ block.”

GetACopywriter.com leads with benefits on its landing page, pictured below. Its ideal customer is looking for copywriters, so it simply pitches the benefits of using its service to find one — like human (not AI) writers and SEO optimization.

Benefits trump solutions every time. If you want to take your landing page copywriting to the next level and increase conversion rates, put customer benefits at the forefront of your marketing efforts.

4. Keep your writing simple.

The best conversion copy you’re going to read will come in the next two words: Be simple.

You may be as good of a writer as Stephen King or Joan Didion, but that doesn’t matter so much because literary prowess is useless in conversion copy. Your most powerful writing skill is simplicity. Simplicity sells.

Take Optimizely, for example. It produces brilliant landing pages for its clients, but take a look at its own landing page:

Is that it? Yes, yes it is. And it’s very effective. Why? Because it’s so incredibly simple.

Let’s visit another landing page service — Get Response. Its landing page has a little more to it, but not much:

Simplicity again. Did whoever wrote those landing pages sit around for hours brainstorming, testing, tweaking, standing in front of a whiteboard with a fistful of colored markers, thumbing through a thesaurus, taking long walks in nature, and meditating on the meaning of life in order to produce such brilliant simplicity?

Nope. They just wrote the simplest, clearest statements they could.

But simplicity doesn’t mean replacing creativity with meaningless buzzwords. ConversionXL created a list of words that marketers should do their best to avoid:

• “On-demand marketing software”
• “Integrated solutions”
• “Flexible platform”
• “World leader”
• “Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”
• “Changing the way X is done”
• “Paradigm shifting”
• “Exceeding customer expectations”

Those clichés don’t work anymore — you need to keep it simple. (And if you need inspo on how to do it right, we’ve got 31 great marketing tagline examples.)

Here are a few tips for keeping your landing page copy simple:

• Use a simple sentence structure.
• Keep sentences short. Only one idea per sentence.
• Use short words. Short words are easy to understand and skim.
• Don’t get fancy with your wording — don’t use a $5 word when a 50¢ one will do.
• Be clear and succinct. Use the most basic words to describe what you’re trying to say.

If you can be simple, you can write great conversion copy.

5. Write like a human.

There’s another technique that will help you crush your competition: Sound like a human being.

At some point, a bunch of copywriters decided it would be great to produce copy that sounded strained and robotic. Who’s writing this stuff? And who’s reading this stuff? I don’t know, but I do know that no one is converting on it.

Now that AI is a common step in marketing workflows, including writing content, the human touch is more important than ever. That doesn’t mean you have to avoid AI, it just means you need to edit it and make sure it sounds human.

People prefer to connect with other people, not with robots. That’s why your copy needs to sound like a human wrote it. Here are some specific things you can do to make your writing more personal:

• Write the way you speak.
• Use normal words, like the ones you’d use if you were talking to a 10-year-old. For example, why use “convivial” if you can use “friendly?”
• Use short sentences.
• Break grammar rules if the writing still sounds good and natural.
• Be funny.
• Use first person.
• Use contractions. “You’ll be amazed” sounds far more natural than “You will be amazed.”
• Use expressions you’d use in a normal conversation. “Seriously.” “I’m thinking…,” “Wait a second.” “It was crazy.” “Wow.” “It was pretty awesome.” “It’s like…”

Ramit Sethi, a personal finance advisor, entrepreneur, and author of the blog I Will Teach You To Be Rich, has sky-high conversion rates and a powerful personal style. His blogs read like a personal email to a best friend. He doesn’t even mind tossing in a word or two that he would use if he was hanging with his buddies.

Check out this excerpt from one of his blog posts about whether you earn enough money:

Sethi is conversational but still authoritative. Try to get yourself away from the idea that you’re writing “copy,” and think of it more as a conversation. If you do that, you’ll write better. You’ll sound like a human. Your conversion rates will go up.

6. Use numbers and get specific.

The more specific you are, the more believable and persuasive you will be. Which one of these claims is more persuasive to you?

• “Your conversion rates will explode!”
• “In the last 90 days, customer conversions have increased by an average of 78.2%.”

The second one is far more specific, and therefore more believable. Anyone can make blanket claims about awesomeness, but not everyone can cite statistics and detailed metrics.

Let’s take a look at an example. Check out this landing page from Calendly, which combines customer testimonials and specific numbers that promote Calendly’s benefits:

How effective would it be if Calendly claimed to have “millions of appointments scheduled?” It’s certainly much less compelling than something as specific as “a 160% increase in customers reached” or “a 20% decrease in scheduling errors.” Attaching each of those numbers to a particular client makes this even more specific.

The number makes a big difference. Customers want specific information about benefits other customers are seeing, and they want specific examples of what they will experience. Specificity is a powerful tool.

7. Ask for readers to take action.

The final killer technique of a conversion pro is the call-to-action. If you don‘t ask for conversions, you won’t get them. That’s why I suggest that you start with the end goal in mind — and the whole point of your landing page is that conversion. All of your copy should be building up to that conversion. Don’t be shy!

Similarly, writing CTA button copy is just as important, if not more so, than the rest of the copy on your page. Remember how I mentioned that CTA buttons are copy that people actually read? It matters. Simple changes in wording can create huge conversion increases — just remember to conduct A/B tests.

For more ideas on CTA copy that drives clicks, check out these 14 real-life examples of great CTA copy.

8. A/B test your copy.

Source

A good conversion copywriter isn’t just writing — you’ve got to be testing, too. How else will you know what kind of writing converts higher or lower for your audience?

There are all kinds of A/B tests you can do on a landing page — images, placement, flow, layout, etc. Rebecca Hinton, a CRO strategist at HubSpot, ran an A/B test in 2024 that tested a tiny layout tweak — and it led to 20% more conversions on one of our landing pages.

Usually, however, the biggest gains come from changes in the copy. If you want to gain higher and higher conversion rates, you’ll need to test your copy along with the other elements of your landing pages.

Don’t expect to hit a home run on your first at-bat. You will succeed by carefully, methodically, and intentionally testing every variation. Here are some of the things you can test:

• Headline variations
• Subheading variations
• CTA copy
• Lists of benefits

Test small things, too. Changing a single word in the headline could make a huge impact on your conversion rates. You won’t know unless you test it out. (Don’t know how to run an A/B test? We’ve got tips.) 

In 2024, HubSpot tested different copy on CTA buttons for some of our free downloads. We tested three variants against a control, and found that “Download for Free” got more clicks than “Download Now” or “Download the Free Template.”

You can use HubSpot’s free landing page builder to test page variations against each other.

Get Started With Writing Landing Page Copy

All in all, boosting conversion rates starts with killer copy. A whole lot depends on the words that you type with your keyboard. Thankfully, it’s not some insurmountable task — anyone can learn how to do it. With the right copywriting techniques firmly in place, you can achieve higher conversion rates.

What techniques do you use to write your conversion copy?

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

It’s rare that a B2B marketer is funny on LinkedIn. 

It’s rare that a B2B marketer is funny on LinkedIn. 

And not “posted a meme about ChatGPT taking over my job” funny. 

I mean genuinely, “I would watch this content in my free time” kind of humor. 

And she’s got 20K followers (and some viral videos with 4M+ views) to prove it.

Today’s expert tells us to stop obsessing over high-performing content, and why your buyer persona is bingeing Selling Sunset, too.

Heike Young

Head of content, social, & integrated marketing, Microsoft

• Job: She leads the Microsoft teams that shape their storytelling and ensures their content strategies resonate with target audiences.
• Claim to fame: Multimedia content is Heike’s superpower. She grew her LinkedIn following from 2K to 20K in one year by posting funny videos. She also launched Salesforce’s first branded podcast, and her team managed Salesforce’s YouTube account with 800K+ subscribers.

• Fun fact: Heike used to run her own business throwing princess birthday parties and story hours for kids.

Lesson 1: Your goal shouldn’t be high-performing content. Period. 

When Young walked into a conference room during her first day at Microsoft (this may have been virtual, but for the sake of the story let’s picture the Mad Men office), she told her team that her goal isn’t to create high-performing content. 

Her goal is to change minds.

Every time her team creates a piece of content, she asks herself: “What can we create that’s actually going to change the hearts and minds of our audience? And that’s a heady task.”

Here’s an example that hits home for us: At HubSpot, we’ve hit millions of views each year on one post alone — “The Top Movie Quotes of All Time.” 

(Yep. About as far from a product conversion as you can get.) 

But this year we took another look at that post and said, “Does it matter that it attracts millions of views if it has nothing to do with… well, HubSpot?” 

So we (finally) retired the post. (I suggested a Viking funeral, but we settled on a 301 redirect.)

This is Young’s motto and driving motivation behind all of her work. She says, “We hope it performs well, but really our goal is to create influence and to change how people think and act — and for our brand to grow when they do.”

There’s a bonus to this lesson: Creating content that changes minds means writing, recording, and posting content that is provocative and unique. And that’s the only type of content that will cut through the noise, anyway. 

As Young puts it: “Bold POVs are pretty much the only content left that resonates.”

Lesson 2: Your B2B buyer is the same person who’s bingeing Selling Sunset.

A couple of years ago, Young took comedy classes in LA at Upright Citizens Brigade, which touts past students like Amy Poehler, Kate McKinnon, and Nick Kroll. 

And she’s now bringing that comedy to her LinkedIn videos, some of which have amassed millions of views. 

Why? 

Because her B2B audience is still made up of people. And people like to laugh. 

“There’s this idea that is really important to me, which is content that moves with the culture. The same person who approves the PO for your SaaS company also binges Selling Sunset or does Twitch live streams at night.”

She adds, “In B2B, we’ve gotten into this habit of acting like people are so different. You know, they come to work and put on their work outfit and suddenly their standards for content or entertainment are different.”

Her remark reminded me of Severance: There is the buttoned-up, professional B2B audience, and then there are the people we get dinner with and watch movies with and call our friends.  

This artificial separation doesn’t just make our marketing feel stiff — it makes it ineffective.

Young says, “I personally want to create content that is informed by the culture at large and moves at that speed versus content that feels like it was sealed in a time capsule from 2001.”

Lesson 3: Employee-generated content matters now more than ever. 

Young is going all-in on personality-led content in 2025. 

Why? Because, as she told me, personality-led content can be the core differentiator for your brand: “Anybody can answer a bunch of questions. Nobody can clone your people.” 

(Take that, AI!) 

In her current role, she’s really focused on employee-generated content, and empowering her team to create content on behalf of Microsoft. 

And she’s walking the walk, too. Which is why, about a year ago, she started posting her own videos on LinkedIn. 

She told me, as a leader, she’d been missing the opportunity to create content. To her, it was important to get some skin in the game. “And I also really wanted to bet on myself.”

Sure, it can be hella awkward to post that first awkwardly edited iPhone video of yourself and getting seven likes on it.

But you never know where it could lead.

Coming full-circle to our first lesson, Young adds: “It’s important to change people’s minds around deeper topics, to have deeper conversations, and just to resonate more deeply. Surface-level, basic, one-on-one style answering questions — that’s not really the path forward.”

Lingering Questions

This Week’s Question

As a marketing thought leader, how do you see AI influencing strategic thinking and the creative process in brand building? — Lise Lozelle, senior director of communications and engagement, Best Buddies International

This Week’s Answer

Young: AI is effective as a thought partner. Ask it to poke holes in your strategy and play devil’s advocate. Also ask it to find additional research and data points you haven’t considered. Those workflows can make your original ideas even stronger.

All of that being said, I believe human creativity is more critical than ever, and I love seeing human fingerprints on the content I personally consume. For instance, I’ve recently been swooning over all the tiny creative details in Severance.

I believe some AI-related changes in marketing will happen faster than we expect, and others will happen more slowly. Only time will tell what falls into which category. So I’m leaning into AI where it’s useful for me, and not forcing it where it doesn’t seem helpful.

Next Week’s Question

Young asks: What’s a piece of marketing advice you would have given earlier in your career, but you would no longer give, due to how marketing has changed?

There are several customer personas to consider when creating content. There’s Customer A, who doesn’t even know who you are or what you offer. Then there’s Customer B, who is trying to decide between you and one of your competitors. And finally, there’s Customer C who is ready to buy but needs one final push to make the purchase.

There are several customer personas to consider when creating content. There’s Customer A, who doesn’t even know who you are or what you offer. Then there’s Customer B, who is trying to decide between you and one of your competitors. And finally, there’s Customer C who is ready to buy but needs one final push to make the purchase.

All that to say, each of these customers is at a different stage of the buyer’s journey.

As a marketer, you need to craft a strategy that supports the different stages of your buyer’s journey. You’ll need material for every step of the content marketing funnel. Below, I’ll share strategies that work and examples of successful funnel content, according to fellow marketers.

Table of Contents

• What is the content marketing funnel?
• Levels of the Content Marketing Funnel
• Understanding the Buyer’s Journey in Marketing
• Why Creating Content for the Buyer’s Journey Is Important
• Creating Content for Each Stage of the Buyer’s Journey
• Content Ideas for Each Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

What is the content marketing funnel?

The content marketing funnel maps the buyer’s journey through stages, from initial awareness, to consideration, to the final purchase decision.

Understanding this division and where your buyers are at in their journey helps you create targeted content that addresses prospects’ needs and nurtures leads through each stage of the decision-making process.

Aligning content with each stage of the buyer’s journey — typically top, middle, and bottom — helps you provide value, build trust, and guide customers toward choosing your product.

Levels of the Content Marketing Funnel

The content marketing funnel is divided into three stages: top, middle, and bottom. Like a funnel, the stages start wide and get narrower as buyers move through them and become more ready to make a decision or purchase.

In this section, I’ll explain what each of these levels involve and the kind of content you can create at each stage.

Top of the Funnel (ToFu)

At the top of the funnel, your focus should be on creating brand awareness. Top-of-funnel content should introduce your brand and make your audience aware of the problem you’re trying to solve.

The goal of ToFu content is to educate, inform, and engage.

ToFu content includes:

• Blog posts addressing target customers’ common struggles
• Infographics showcasing industry statistics
• LinkedIn posts sharing quick strategy tips or solutions
• Short videos explaining industry trends

Middle of the Funnel (MoFu)

The middle of the funnel is the consideration stage.

After potential buyers are familiar with your brand, they enter the research phase. This is when they start comparing your brand to competitor brands, learning more about the solution, and seeking tangible results.

The goal of MoFu content is to build trust and provide information prospects need to evaluate their options.

MoFu content includes:

• In-depth guides with tips
• Case studies highlighting customers’ success with your product
• Detailed social media posts exploring specific challenges
• Comparison charts showing how your product differs from competitors

Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu)

At the bottom of the funnel, your target persona is the decision-maker. They’re ready to make a purchasing decision, but they need one final push to decide.

The goal of BoFu content is to convert prospects into customers by offering the last piece of information or reassurance they need to make a purchasing decision.

BoFu content includes:

• Free audits, trials, or strategy consultations
• Testimonials from satisfied customers
• Live demos
• Discounts or coupons

Understanding the Buyer’s Journey in Marketing

Throughout my years as a content strategist for B2B SaaS companies, I‘ve personally discovered the buyer’s journey is rarely a straight path.

With the exception of impulse software purchases (which are rare in B2B), most decision-makers begin in an “unaware stage.” They typically fit the demographics of an ideal client or buyer persona, but they‘re unaware of the SaaS solution or don’t yet realize they need it.

A triggering event often changes their situation or highlights a pain point that needs solving. This is what kicks off their buyer’s journey.

Let me share an example I’ve used with clients: Imagine a growing startup realizes its project management is becoming chaotic. These companies rarely decide to purchase a SaaS project management tool immediately.

Instead, they often turn to the internet to learn more and make decisions as they progress through the following stages. My job is to assist them in that decision-making process through strategic content.

Awareness Stage

In the awareness stage, B2B buyers are experiencing a problem or pain point, and their goal is to alleviate it. They’re typically looking for informational resources to more clearly understand, frame, and give a name to their problem.

Content Marketing Funnel Example

A common search query a prospect might begin with is: “How to improve team productivity?” At this stage, they‘re not yet thinking about specific SaaS solutions; it’s much too early for that.

Instead, they‘re looking to contextualize their problem first. As a B2B SaaS content strategist, I’ve discovered that showing up in search engine results, even in these early stages, is crucial to establishing authority and gaining the trust of buyers starting the journey.

Consideration Stage

Moving to the consideration stage, I‘ve observed that B2B buyers have usually clearly defined and named their problem.

They’re now committed to researching and understanding all available approaches and methods to solving their defined problem or opportunity. In other words, I’ve seen how they start considering potential SaaS solutions.

Content Marketing Funnel Example

From my work, I know that a typical search inquiry a prospect would make at this stage might be: “Project management software vs. traditional methods?” In the consideration stage, the prospect isn’t yet ready to buy, but they are deciding on the potential solution for them.

My strategy here is to consider indirect competitors and educate prospects on the pros and cons of various SaaS options.

Decision Stage

Once they’ve progressed to the decision stage, B2B buyers have typically decided on their solution strategy, method, or approach.

Their goal now is to compile a list of available SaaS vendors, make a short list, and ultimately make a final purchase decision.

Content Marketing Funnel Example

Prospects at this stage make search inquiries like: “Asana vs. Trello vs. Jira.” At this point, they‘re ready to invest in a solution.

They’ll likely go with a SaaS provider they like, know, and trust so long as that provider can meet their specific business needs.

Why Creating Content for the Buyer’s Journey Is Important

As in all marketing disciplines, it’s essential to understand your audience: how they think, the answers they seek, and the path they tend to take to find a solution.

From that research, you can begin crafting a documented content strategy that maps your content to the various stages of the buyer’s journey.

When you don‘t completely understand your audience, it creates a disconnect between your business and your potential customers.

I asked Colleen Barry, head of marketing at Ketch, about the importance of the content marketing funnel and she made an excellent point about getting your content strategy right.

“Content isn’t just about attracting clicks, it’s about guiding potential customers through a decision-making process,” she says. “If your content doesn’t match their stage in the journey, you’ll either overwhelm them with too much information too soon or leave them hanging without enough details to make a decision.”

In Barry’s words, ToFu content sparks curiosity, MoFu content builds confidence, and BoFu content helps prospects justify their purchase. She adds, “A strong content strategy ensures buyers get what they need at the right time, reducing drop-offs and improving conversion rates.”

Creating the right content at the right time can, however, be a challenge.

Building a content strategy starts with identifying the types of content you’ll need to reach your audience according to their progression through the buyer’s journey. It’s also essential to use content marketing software to keep prospects organized no matter where they are in the funnel.

Below, I’ll guide you through the types of content you can create for each stage of the content marketing funnel.

Creating Content for Each Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

Once you have an idea of your buyer persona and how prospects move closer to purchase, you can begin creating content for your buyer at different stages and tailor that content per channel.

Doing so can help you map your content to the relevant stages of the buyer’s journey to make a marketing funnel.

Your journey may look very different depending on your industry, business model, product, pricing, and audience.

Some B2C customers, for example, spend very little time in the middle of the buyer’s journey compared to B2B customers, who require far more nurturing, engagement, and relationship development before a purchase is made.

A $50 pair of sneakers, for instance, requires a lot less hand-holding when it comes to making purchase decisions than a $10,000 business software investment.

H3 (New) Content Marketing Funnel Template

Because audiences can vary widely based on industry and intent, buyer persona research is of the utmost importance. Using a content marketing funnel template can help you map out the existing content types you have and which content would be beneficial to add.

By understanding prospects’ unique process for awareness and evaluation, you can create a truly effective content marketing funnel and strategy packed with custom content that best supports their journey toward making a purchase.

Now, we’ll explore each stage of the buyers journey in greater detail.

Content Ideas for Each Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

Let’s take it from the top and start from the beginning of the buyer’s journey.

ToFu: Awareness

At the awareness stage, a buyer is looking for top-level educational content to help direct them to a solution, like blog posts, social content, and ebooks.

Their value as a lead is low because there’s no guarantee that they’ll buy from you. But those who find your content helpful and interesting may journey on to the middle of the funnel.

The ideal channels for the awareness stage may include:

• Blogging
• Search Engine Marketing
• Social Media Marketing

Let’s run through the different content formats best suited for these channels.

1. Blog Post

A blog post is an ideal piece of content to target people in the awareness stage.

By addressing a pain, problem, or topic your target audience wants to discover and then posting helpful information about it on your website, you’re creating a brand asset that’s crawlable by Google and discoverable by search engine users.

You can also promote your blog content across other channels, giving you more content to share and increasing your potential reach.

Natallia Slimani, content manager at time tracking software, Traqq shared with me that blog content in the awareness stage should do exactly that: bring awareness to the problem.

“People may need your product but don’t always realize it,” she says. “For example, people might search for productivity tips or remote work advice before they even know they need a time tracker.”

One successful ToFu content Traqq created was a blog post on how to calculate time differences in Excel. It’s an educational topic that offers practical advice for their target audience. “This question might be part of a larger time management issue, so we subtly introduce our time tracker as a potential solution,” explains Slimani. “However, the article is still about helping, not selling.”

Pro tip: When I’m having trouble ideating topics that align with my audience’s pain points, HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator can come in handy — just type in a few details about your audience or content, and the platform will generate catchy titles relevant to your input.

Featured Resource: 6 Free Blog Post Templates

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2. Social Media Post

According to Backlinko, 86.1% of all eligible audiences aged 18+ are active on social media. This makes it a great channel for the awareness stage. You can use social media to promote your other content, and you can also create content specifically for the channel.

Since I target B2B SaaS companies, my social channel of choice is LinkedIn.

In the above example, I’ve shared a carousel on my top tools on LinkedIn. These formats are popular on LinkedIn, as the content is created to be snackable with short-form takeaways.

3. Whitepaper

A whitepaper is an organization’s report or guide on a particular topic.

Whitepapers typically discuss an industry trend or topic, sharing key statistics, original findings, or case studies. They are especially useful as downloadable offers when readers want to go more in-depth on a specific subject they’re reading about.

I‘ve found it’s crucial to provide original data or information your audience can‘t find elsewhere, which helps audiences understand the report’s value and compels them to download it.

Every year, HubSpot publishes a report on the state of marketing to provide helpful guidance based on thought leadership to marketers, sales professionals, and business owners. Inside, readers find statistics from a broad survey and industry experts’ opinions on what the data means and where the industry is going.

Pro tip: Depending on how broad or in-depth your whitepaper goes, you can also use it further down the funnel as MoFu content.

4. Checklist

For complicated tasks with many moving parts, your audience may simply want a blueprint that spells out what they’re supposed to do to achieve their end goal.

This onboarding checklist from business consulting firm Nextant is a perfect example of this. Nextant offers a free downloadable checklist using its proven onboarding framework. What I like best about this checklist is how it includes data-driven results that can be achieved by using this template.

5. How-To Video

My experience has taught me that sometimes, the best way to solve a pain or problem is to learn a new skill.

While a purchase may be required along the way, your audience often needs to become more informed about the problem and potential solutions first. That‘s where I’ve seen instructional video content really shine.

HubSpot Marketing’s YouTube channel offers hundreds of free video tutorials dedicated to teaching viewers digital marketing tips and strategies in easy-to-understand language and visuals.

6. Kit or Tool

I‘ve learned that informational content for a broad audience isn’t always sufficient for buyer personas to make a decision.

In some cases, they require more utility or personalization. That‘s why I’ve found kits and tools to be excellent content pieces for guiding readers along their path to purchase.

Nerdwallet creates content around several financial topics, budgeting being one of them. It can be challenging to create a budget, though, so they developed a calculator that allows users to provide their own numbers to receive customized recommendations.

7. Ebook or Tip Sheet

Similar to whitepapers, I’ve had success using ebooks and tip sheets as downloadable content. I typically make tip sheets shorter and actionable, but ebooks can be more comprehensive to provide as much value as possible for readers.

Catalina Grigoriev, content marketer at Planable, a social media scheduling tool, shared with me a successful guide her team created for their content marketing funnel. The guide was about social media approval workflows — a major pain point for marketing teams.

“This content worked effectively because it addressed a specific challenge while subtly positioning Planable as the solution,” says Grigorie. “It naturally led readers to explore our platform further, resulting in increased engagement and conversions.”

Featured Resource: 36 Free Ebook Templates

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8. Educational Webinar

A webinar is a web seminar where information is provided through video.

A webinar can be prerecorded or streamed live, which opens up many possibilities for disseminating information to an audience that wants both visual and auditory content.

At HubSpot, we create webinars as a key part of our content marketing strategy and often run a valuable topic multiple times to get more mileage out of the content.

MoFu: Consideration

Moving on from the awareness stage content, let’s delve into the next stage of the buyer’s journey.

When someone moves into the consideration stage, it means you’ve captured their attention. They know they have a problem that has to be solved, and now they’re trying to discover the best solution. The need for a future purchase commitment creeps up as they’re evaluating their options.

This stage is typically a point of extended engagement where you’re nurturing a lead, building a relationship, and establishing trust between the audience and your brand.

The ideal channels for your consideration stage may include:

• Website or Blogging
• Search Engine Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Social Media

Let’s go through the best content formats for this part of the buyer’s journey.

1. Product Comparison Guides

In the consideration stage, the buyer persona is still considering solutions to their pain or problem and have probably narrowed it down to a few options. For this reason, product comparisons are a great way to help them decide.

Depending on how detailed your comparison page is, and how much research your prospect has already done, a product comparison page may successfully convert the prospect into a buyer.

Kevin Dam, CEO and founder of Aemorph shared with me that one of his team’s most effective content marketing funnel pieces was a detailed comparison page.

“We didn’t just list features, we also answered common complaints, added case studies, and made the call to action strong,” says Dam. “The page did better than its competitors and had a 30% higher sales rate than a normal product page.”

2. Case Study

I’ve successfully used case studies in both the consideration and decision stages. From my experience, a well-crafted case study is effective because it convinces the reader that our solution works by showcasing real results for actual customers.

When I create case studies for my B2B SaaS clients, I make sure to appeal to both emotions and logic. I tell a compelling story about the client’s challenges while providing detailed, quantitative data on how our solution solved their problems.

HubSpot Partner Agency Blueleadz tells a story about their client and their problems while providing a detailed account of how they solved them.

Featured Resource: 3 Free Case Study Templates

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3. Free Sample

A free sample is another example of content or an offer that overlaps between the buyer’s journey stages.

For example, VistaPrint offers a free business sample kit that includes examples of its business cards, door hangers, brochures, and more print materials small businesses may need.

VistaPrint knows its business is tactile, and digital content alone is not enough to close a deal. Once their prospective customer holds the sample in their hands, it’s easier to make the final purchase.

BoFu: Decision

Now that you’ve provided content to help customers list out or sample their options, it’s time to move them into the decision stage.

As prospects near the end of the buyer’s journey, they’re evaluating providers down to specific or specialized offerings.

Marketers, in turn, want to go above and beyond their expectations and provide an easy and frictionless customer experience that can win them over their competitors.

Handling objections, remove hesitation, position ahead of comp

In my experience, the most effective channels for decision-stage content include:

• Website
• Email Marketing
• Live Chat and Chatbots for Service

Here are the content formats I’ve found most effective in helping prospects get closer to purchase.

1. Free Trial or Live Demo

Free trials are a great way for B2B SaaS companies to let customers experience the power of their tools firsthand.

Once they see how new tools impact productivity and efficiency, they’re much more likely to become paying customers.

Buffer does this well. Though they have a free plan with limitations, they know that offering a free trial upfront is the key to getting clients into their larger tiers. Their pricing page sets the prospect’s expectations and points them to the free trial.

It’s also a good idea to consider how the content you create earlier in the funnel can lead people to free trials or demos.

Dirk Alshuth, CMO at cloud management platform emma, shared with me that one of his team’s most effective BoFu content pieces is an in-depth ROI calculator that helps drive demo requests.

“Potential customers often hesitated due to pricing concerns, so we built a tool that showed exactly how much time and money they could save,” says Alshuth. “This worked because it tackled a major purchasing objection with real, personalized data. It increased demo requests by 35% because prospects could clearly see the value of our product before even speaking to sales.”

2. Consultation Offer

A consultation is another example of providing just a little bit of service in exchange for the opportunity to close the sale.

The best consultation reduces the anxiety of entering into a sales conversation by promising something concrete they can walk away with (a strategy or actionable advice) in exchange for their time.

In my B2B SaaS strategies, I often include consultation offers. I’ve found they work best when the prospect walks away with concrete, actionable advice.

To increase conversions, I always make scheduling as frictionless as possible and use automated booking systems like Calendly.

3. Coupon

A coupon appeals to a fear of missing out (FOMO) mindset.

By reducing the price by a certain amount, a coupon is handing a price objection while convincing the prospect that they’re leaving money on the table if they don’t use the coupon. This inertia is enough to win the prospect’s business.

Pet brand Finn does this well by gamifying its coupons.

By spinning the wheel, the website visitors have the chance to get a coupon before checking out the products. They’ll likely evaluate the products that are a good deal with the coupon they won.

While traditional coupons aren‘t as common in B2B SaaS, I’ve seen successful uses of limited-time offers or special pricing for early adopters. This creates a sense of urgency and can be the final push a prospect needs to make a decision.

Mapping Content Across All Stages of the Buying Cycle

In my years of experience as a content strategist, I’ve learned that every business has a unique buyer’s journey — one that demands a tailored approach for optimal results. I can’t simply replicate a strategy from one client to another.

And that starts by getting to know your audience and understanding their needs, pain points, and decision-making process. Once you have that understanding, you develop a strategy that maps custom content — whether it’s educational blog posts or product demos — to each phase of their journey.

When a content strategy truly matches a buyer’s journey, it improves customer relationships while boosting conversions and loyalty.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

These days, video is absolutely essential to get people to discover your business and their next must-have product.

These days, video is absolutely essential to get people to discover your business and their next must-have product.

I’ve found some of my favorite businesses and products from videos that I saw scrolling on Instagram or Tiktok. #Tiktokmademebuyit is no joke.

According to Wyzowl, 89% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, and 73% of marketers believe that videos between 30 seconds to 2 minutes — the sweet spot for Tiktoks, Shorts, and Reels — are the most effective in reaching audiences.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro at stopping folks mid-scroll, or you’re just getting started (seriously, just start posting!), I’ve gathered 16 social media video examples across four of the most popular platforms that are sure to give you some ideas. Many of these don’t need a fancy camera or a huge production budget.

And when you‘re ready to create your own, check out HubSpot’s free AI-powered video maker, Clip Creator, which can convert text into scroll-stopping videos.

Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

• Instagram Reels Examples
• TikTok Video Examples
• YouTube Shorts Video Examples
• Facebook Reels Video Examples

4 Instagram Reels Examples

1. Sunrise Ceramics

Instagram is a great place for artists to show their work. Riley O’Neil is the potter behind Sunrise Ceramics. In his reels, he talks through his process of making the pieces that end up in his shop.

There’s something therapeutic about watching artists create their work. It’s inspiring and motivating to see how much love and care people pour into their creations.

What I like: You can see how he masterfully shapes the mounds of clay into beautiful pieces of pottery, and it’s so satisfying watching the clay get taller and taller, and then seeing the colorful clay show through.

2. Patagonia

Patagonia is known for valuing environmental sustainability. In this reel, they explain why they will no longer use materials with PFAS, a class of molecules that’s used in making materials water repellant.

As a consumer, I appreciate it when companies share what they value and how those values guide their business. To do this, you could show where you source your raw materials, show a factory tour, or introduce your partners.

What I like: They managed to explain a complicated topic (PFAS) and their reasons why they’re no longer using it quickly.

3. Mixed

Mixed is a Brooklyn-based clothing company founded by Japanese-Iranian-American designer Nasrin. This video is a behind-the-scenes look at the shoot for their Spring 2025 collection. The vibe is light, fun, and casual, which says a lot about the brand.

Not only does this reel give a preview of the upcoming collection, but seeing the models have fun in the clothes also sends the message that the clothes are comfortable and easy to wear.

What I like: I absolutely love behind-the-scenes footage, especially when people are enjoying what they do.

4. Brevite

Brevite is a company that makes colorful camera bags. In this reel, one of the founders talks about a problem that he kept running into while doing product research — that all camera straps were black. He then asks their followers to suggest the colors that they want to see.

At the time of writing, this reel got over 80K views and over 300 comments from people not only suggesting colors, but also sharing why they love a simple black strap.

My takeaway from this social media video example is that if you’re stuck in a rut, don’t be afraid to reach out to your customers on social media and ask them what they would like to see.

What I like: I like how they paced this video. They hooked me with “the problem,” and then roped me in to suggest a solution. As a customer, I’m always happy to chime in.

4 TikTok Video Examples

1. Golloria

Golloria George is a well-respected beauty influencer who tackles inclusivity (or the lack thereof) in the makeup industry by testing products to see if they’re suitable for women with dark skin tones like her.

In this video, she’s promoting a blush product that she co-created with Rhode, a makeup brand founded by Hailey Beiber.

Some history: In September 2024, Golloria reviewed Rhode’s newly launched blush line, Pocket Blush. She found that the blushes she tested left an ashy cast on her skin.

In a surprising twist, Beiber took this as an opportunity to improve Pocket Blush shades and invited Golloria to help them develop shades that work better for black people and make the product more inclusive.

Brands, take note. Don’t be afraid to engage with bad reviews.

What I like: Instead of ignoring Golloria’s review, they embraced the criticism, took accountability and created a partnership. As a result, they created a more inclusive product line and expanded their customer base. I call that a win.

2. Duolingo

Love it or hate it, the saga of Duo’s death and apparent resurrection gripped the internet. I remember being in shock when I heard that Duolingo was killing off its mascot, Duo. At the time of writing, his “death” via cybertruck had over 2 million likes and tens of thousands of comments.

You don’t have to kill your mascot, though, to get engagement. But as DuoLingo did, you can create a story and tell it in a handful of posts.

What I like: Even though they literally killed off their mascot, the comment section was largely positive. Many people shared sympathies and bragged about their streaks. Even brands chimed in. Some of my favorites: Hyatt said, “Duo was just on vacation. We have the receipts,” while Tide Rescue said, “Guess you don’t need help cleaning up!”

3. Viz Media

Viz Media is a company that publishes manga and licenses and distributes Japanese films and anime. They have a weekly series that provides a brief roundup of the latest chapters of the manga they just released. It‘s been a hit among fans who may read multiple Viz Media titles and have a hard time remembering what’s out and what’s next.

What I like: For me, this is a great example of a brand knowing its audience and providing a service that their fans will enjoy.

4. Scrub Daddy

Some of Scrub Daddy’s most popular TikTok videos feature a narrator explaining new products in a straightforward, candid way with a sprinkle of wry humor. This video debuting its spring lineup of sponges is a great example.

If you made it this far, you may be starting to see that a lot of these businesses have a distinct voice on social media. I’ve been there. But don’t worry if you don’t find it right away. If you’re just starting out, don’t be afraid to experiment and try out different styles to see what works for you and your brand.

What I like: The video has no frills, just the sponges and a narrator. I also enjoy that they acknowledge goofs with the narrator saying that the video is not centered.

4 YouTube Shorts Video Examples

1. DJI

I love this one because it’s show AND tell: Not only does DJI show you what you can achieve using their cameras and drones, but they also show you how you can do it, too.

YouTube is my go-to platform whenever I need a quick tutorial. These behind-the-scenes looks can be a way for your customers to learn new techniques that they might want to incorporate into their workflow or routine.

What I like: This video shows both the process and the end result in one sleek video. Personally, it grinds my gears if I have to go find another reel just to see the finished product.

2. Beardbrand

Beardbrand is a men’s grooming company that sells beard and hair care. A lot of their shorts show their talented barbers giving men a makeover using Beardbrand products. The men’s genuine reactions after the barbers work their scissors are so heartwarming.

What I like: When trying to promote products on Shorts, consider bringing in experts to walk viewers through the best way to use your products and have them share some tips and hacks. I think this video is a perfect example of how effective this strategy can be.

3. OG Slimes

OG Slimes is a company that sells colorful slimes in a variety of textures and scents. Their videos are the perfect example of “show and don’t tell.” This video rates the “scoopability” of their latest releases. Watching the scoop run through the slimes and hearing the slimes pucker is just so satisfying.

What I like: I love that the products speak for themselves. The videos engage the senses and make you feel like you’re playing with the product. If your product lends itself to ASMR sensibilities, lean into that. OG Slimes’ videos get tens of thousands of views, with some getting millions of views.

4. Woobles

This is touching. Woobles is a company that sells crochet kits. Emelia, their social media “woobler,” started crocheting Milly the Million Follower snake in April 2024, adding bands as they gained more followers. The series started on TikTok before switching over to YouTube. They finally reached their millionth YouTube subscriber in 2025, and with Emelia adding a gold tongue to match their Gold Play Button.

These videos got a lot of engagement from subscribers. Fans cheered her on in the comments and answered questions when Emelia asked them. Subscribers even moved with them when they switched platforms. People were invested in the snake’s progress, and in turn, helped Woobles reach their goal of getting a million subscribers. The lesson here is to engage with your community. Don’t just post and ghost.

What I like: I’m not the biggest fan of snakes, but I have to admit Milly was really cute. I cheered when she finally got her tongue after over a year of being made.

4 Facebook Reels Video Examples

1. Good Grounds Coffee Company

If you’re a small business, Facebook is a great place to engage locals in the community. In this reel, Good Grounds Coffee Company, an all organic coffee shop in Almont, Michigan, shows people what they’re supporting when they go to their coffee shop. Their other reels show ingredients like their live sourdough starter and of course, their coffee beans.

I think this video is a great example of how to leverage your strengths as a small business. So, consider letting your customers get to know you a little bit. Tell your story and share what you and your business are all about. It’s a great way to build goodwill and community.

Watch the full video here.

What I like: I like that they have crafted a cozy aesthetic for their reels. It’s the perfect vibe for a family-owned coffee shop.

2. Netflix

This video manages to capture so much in only a few seconds. You can see the shock, awe, and joy on their faces watching “THAT MOMENT” from Cobra Kai.

The element of surprise, when used sparingly and at the right moment, can work in drumming up excitement for your business. I personally love being let in on a little secret. Suggesting a plot twist, showing off a secret feature, or using the product in some quirky way can make your content stand out.

Watch the full video here.

What I like: It definitely sparked my curiosity. It made me want to find out what “THAT MOMENT” was.

3. I Teach Tiny Humans

On its surface, this video presents helpful tips for parents looking for activities for their young kids. It’s not until you look at the caption that you discover that it’s promoting Inspired Minds, an app that gives parents ideas for age-appropriate activities and helps track feedings, sleep, and milestones. By the time people hit “more,” they’re hooked, curious, and ready to engage with the app.

Watch the full video here.

What I like: I love that they packed so many activities in one short shoot while showing a sample of what parents could see if they download the app.

4. Red Bull

A list about inspiring social videos isn’t complete without Red Bull’s death-defying content. Its famous slogan, “Red Bull gives you wings!” is taken to new heights in this video (pun intended).

What I love about Red Bull’s content is that we all get a glimpse into what it’s like performing unbelievable physical feats without ever leaving the couch.

While not everyone has the capacity nor the budget to film stunts like these, people like to see challenges and triumph. Perhaps, there are ways to set up fun challenges around your product on a smaller scale.

Watch the full video here.

What I like: To be honest, there isn’t much in this video that can be replicated (unless you have a skydiver on retainer), but that’s what makes it fun.

And that’s it. Many of these social media video examples show that you don‘t need a super high-end budget or even a marketing team to spotlight your brand’s products and services. In many cases, all you need is your phone.

I hope that you’ve come away with some ideas to try on your next social video. And if you’re just starting out, use any of these videos as a jumping-off point, and start creating.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

“Inclusive marketing is all about brands acknowledging the many ways that people are different,” says this marketing master.

“Inclusive marketing is all about brands acknowledging the many ways that people are different,” says this marketing master.

Her voice drops to a conspiratorial tone.

“And this is the very important part: Choosing which identities you’re going to serve.”

Also important (to this Marvel fan, anyway): What does inclusive marketing have to do with the … MCU?

Meet the Master

Name: Sonia Thompson, Founder, Inclusion & Marketing

Job: Thompson consults with brands that want to use inclusive marketing to grow their business

Lesson 1: Toss out your checklist.

I can barely make myself breakfast without a checklist, but Thompson’s got me convinced to throw them out when it comes to inclusive marketing.

As a marketer, you have to choose which identities your product or service is serving, “and that’s where a lot of people are nervous,” Thompson says. “Sometimes people take a checkbox approach — like, ‘let’s get everybody in there.’” But inclusive marketing doesn’t mean “marketing to everybody.”

She gives an example of a recent commercial with a woman in a wheelchair. “You can’t see her face, and there’s no speaking role — she’s just there.”

Your reaction might be, “There’s someone with disabilities in the commercial. It’s inclusive!” But Thompson says that wheelchair users weren’t this brand’s target audience, and she cautions: “All representation isn’t created equal.”

If you’re checking identity boxes instead of thoughtfully choosing your audience(s) and thinking about their overall user experience, you’re not being inclusive at all.

Lesson 2: Be your own MCU.

And that, oddly enough, brings us to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“Think about your marketing in the context of customer experience,” Thompson says, “and the ways in which people engage and interact with your brand.” They’re going to do it on a macro level — like the MCU’s 17-year reign over pop culture — and a micro level — say, Black Panther.

“I had seen zero Marvel movies before Black Panther,” says Thompson. But “I felt like it was designed for me and my community.” So she moved on to Infinity War (Note: I’d’ve recommended Thor: Ragnarok, personally). “Black Panther has a role in it, but as part of a cast — a whole ensemble.”

When she audits her clients’ overall user experiences, Thompson encounters a lot of promotional materials, and many times, brands have designed something for specific identities. But it’s separate from their general marketing materials, and that’s a problem.

Your Black Panther should fit comfortably within your multiverse — that is, the specific identities you serve should be an integral part of your marketing ensemble. And they should show up across your full marketing mix — your Instagram feed, your website, your commercials. Wakanda forever.

Lesson 3: Bring the main character energy.

A few years ago, Thompson conducted a survey on representation in marketing. She asked people what types of representation were most important to them and how they wanted to see themselves represented.

“We don’t want to feel like we’re in the back,” was the overwhelming sentiment, “or just placed there to say that we’ve been included.” (There’s that checklist again.) “We want a storyline. We want to be the main character.”

That’s not the only way that brands relegate identities to the supporting cast.

“Let’s say, for instance, that you want to reach Spanish speakers,” says Thompson. Say you’ve translated your website, “but the [Spanish translation] is buried in the footer somewhere.” Sure, you’ve done the work, but you’re also telling that segment of your audience that they’re less important.

Thompson suggests finding a way to get an external evaluation of your inclusive marketing strategies. “If you don’t have people on your team who have those identities or lived experience or areas of expertise,” she says, “Co-create or bring in partners to evaluate and to assess different areas for you.” That way you can bring the main character energy.

Lingering Questions

This Week’s Question

What’s a piece of marketing advice you would have given earlier in your career, but you would no longer give, due to how marketing has changed? —Heike Young, Head of content, social, & integrated marketing, Microsoft

This Week’s Answer

Thompson: Early in my career, I would have advised marketers to spend time focusing on a unique brand and really investing in what you could do to deliver a remarkable customer experience.

It‘s not that remarkable experiences and strong brands aren’t needed, but I find spending too much time there — especially up front — prevents brands from showing up consistently. Today’s world and consumer move fast — and quite frankly, consumers will be the ones that guide you on what makes a remarkable experience.

So, it’s more important now to show up and let your voice, point of view, and what you stand for be known. Refine your experience over time, based on feedback from your customers and the community you build. That community and the trust they need to have with you is hard to build if you don’t show up consistently. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking everything has to be perfect and super polished before it gets out into the world.

This isn’t a case for delivering poor quality, but rather a case for brands and marketers to do a better job of being active shapers and participants of culture as it is happening. Be relevant and remarkable to consumers in a way that is most valued and relevant to them. Your marketing and impact will be much more effective as a result.

Next Week’s Question

Thompson asks: How have you seen inclusion shape the way marketing has been done over the last five years, and how do you feel it will shape (if at all) the next five years of marketing?