Where Marketers Go to Grow

As a B2B texting software, one of our main goals at Text Request is maximizing value, both for ourselves and our users. That's what led us to focusing on organic traffic.

Billions of people are looking for answers or solutions to their questions or problems, and we're trying to add value. So we saw organic search as a symbiotic relationship we could tap into.

You might already know that Instagram is a growing channel that lets individuals and businesses alike expand their brand. For businesses especially, it's a way to humanize your brand, recruit future employees, showcase your product and company culture, delight customers, and generate new business.

But here's the deal: Unless you're famous, it's really hard to amass a huge following on Instagram without some hard work.

Whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, chances are, you have an opinion about forms.

On any given day, most of our email inboxes are flooded with a barrage of automated email newsletters that do little else besides giving us another task to do on our commutes to work -- namely, marking them all as unread without reading, or unsubscribing altogether.

But every now and then, we get a newsletter that's so good, not only do we read it, but we click it, share it, and recommend it to our friends.

May’s talk on #modernwaystogrowanagency came from Dave Parkinson - a 26 year veteran of Nissan and digital - from IT Manager to EMEA Head of Digital.  From managing a digital transformation to initiating the social media plan (and launching the Qashqai on the way) Dave knows the brand person’s world. So what are they really thinking at pitch time?

The importance of revenue attribution is just one of a number of factors that marketing agencies need to track in order to measure their performance.  

When a video pops up on your Facebook feed, what do you usually do first? My guess is that you take a peek at its length, ponder whether it's worth your time, and let that thought process influence whether or not you press play.

Once you do actually press play, how many times have you abandoned the video just a few seconds in and scrolled down to the next post? I know I have. I don't finish half the Facebook videos I start.

I like to think of Microsoft PowerPoint as a test of basic marketing skills. To create a passing presentation, I need to demonstrate design skills, technical literacy, and a sense of personal style.

If the presentation has a problem (like an unintended font, a broken link, or unreadable text), then I’ve probably failed the test. Even if my spoken presentation is well rehearsed, a bad visual experience can ruin it for the audience.

Sometimes, I think that we here at HubSpot are just a bunch of mad scientists.

We love to run experiments. We love to throw bold ideas at the wall to see if they stick, tinkering with different factors, and seeing how what happens can be incorporated into what we do every day. To us, it’s a very hot topic -- we’re writing about it whenever we can, and trying to lift the curtain on what, behind the scenes, we’re cooking up on our own marketing team.

The next evolution of marketing is upon us.

The sharp uptake in consumer use of messaging apps, the shift in content consumption from text to video and audio, and the finally consumer-ready advancements in artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and voice recognition all signal that marketers and consumers alike are in radically new times. Everytime consumer behavior evolves, marketers have new opportunities that were never before available.

One of the most controversial phrases in the marketing today is, "pivot to video."

It strikes fear into the hearts and minds of writers, as we worry that our skills will be replaced by the looming popularity of videos.

Luckily, our research has shown that audiences still want to read blog and news content.

Where does customer loyalty come from?

Think about those brands that you purchase from over and over, even when there are cheaper options out there. Do you usually fly on a particular airline? Do you buy your coffee from the same place every morning? Do you recommend a specific restaurant whenever out-of-towners ask for suggestions?

“Brands So Popular They Don’t Need to Advertise!” “10 Companies That Don’t Do Marketing!” You’ve seen the headlines, you’ve rolled your eyes, and you’ve probably still clicked through.

But, let’s be honest, we all know there is no such thing as a brand that doesn’t advertise.

It was halftime during one of my 7th grade football games. And we were losing 14 - 0. With our knees planted in the grass, my team was quietly huddled, drenched in sweat and defeat. We all knew the game was over.

That’s when our assistant coach bursted through our circle and shattered our pity party, delivering one of the best motivational speeches I’ve heard to this day.

Gone are the days when social media publishing and engagement could be tacked onto the daily responsibilities of an intern -- as were many of the first roles in social media.

Today's growth-minded organizations need a team of people ideating, creating, publishing, and promoting content on social media to drive meaningful returns on investment -- and this requires time, effort, and creativity.

Movie producers and inbound marketers aren't that different when it comes to creating and editing video content.

We're both telling a story, and whether that story is about a protagonist or a product, we're both trying to captive our audiences and make them believe in the story we tell.

What happens at the end of the story is a little different, though.

Mayo on a sandwich. Hot sauce on a taco. Hot fudge on a sundae. All things that --- when used correctly --- make the thing they complement way better.

But If you use too much of any of them, or use them in the wrong context (hot sauce on a sundae? No thanks.), or simply use them wrong (gobs of mayo, instead of a thin layer), you’ve ruined a perfectly tasty snack.

Blink. Blink. Blink. It's the dreaded cursor-on-a-blank-screen experience that all writers -- amateur or professional, aspiring or experienced -- know and dread. And of all times for it to occur, it seems to plague us the most when trying to write an introduction.

I mean, you already have a blog post you want to write. Can't you just dive in and write it? Why all the pomp and circumstance with this dag-blasted introduction?

For anyone who's watched the TV show "The Office" as religiously as I have, the classic "stapler in Jell-O" trick surely sounds familiar. It's pretty much what the name describes: Simply make a batch of Jell-O, but make sure your colleague's stapler is hidden inside the mold. As I said -- classic. But what other, less conventional pranks are out there to add some kicks to an otherwise average day at the office?

Be honest: Do you spend a lot of time during your work day chatting with colleagues on messaging apps, like Slack?

It's okay -- so do we. And while some of our messages are GIFs and emojis (okay, the majority of our messages), we also get into lots of lively Slack discussions (okay, debates) about news stories and product announcements in the marketing technology space.

Here's where you can meet all our speakers at today's event and find details on each of their sessions.  

With speakers from HubSpot, Canva, LinkedIn and more, we're covering everything from how marketing and sales has changed, to in-depth workshops on improving your SEO strategy, and talks on how to turn your web traffic into leads and customers. 

Enjoy!

--

Here at HubSpot, we take culture pretty seriously. After all, we have an entire code dedicated to it, and it doesn’t just apply to our internal environment -- it also shows up when we’re recruiting new people to join our team. We have an inbound recruiting mission of attracting top talent through a world-class candidate experience.

That’s why, one January night that started like any other -- watching Netflix in my pajamas and eating chicken tikka masala from my favorite Indian takeout joint

Email marketing might be entering a mid-life crisis.

According to Entrepreneur, 2017 marks its 40th birthday, with 1978 cited as the year when the first marketing email was delivered. The sender, the story goes, was Gary Thuerk, an employee of Digital Equipment Corporation -- an infamous legend, of sorts, who's referred to by some as the "father of spam."

As agencies continue to adopt principles of Growth-Driven Design, their client service-offerings must shift to reflect the new needs of this approach.

Continuous improvement cycles -- the structured, on-going validation process within Growth-Driven Design -- is one of the primary advantages for clients and agencies over a traditional web design and development offering.

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

Why are GIFs great additions to your marketing? They're easy to consume, provide a new way to capture your viewers' attention, and can have a serious emotional impact.

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

Ha ha. Funny story, right?

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

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

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

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

Okay, we get it. You know how important video is. That much is clear. 

Here's today's full agenda, with details on sessions, speakers and (of course) coffee breaks! 

With speakers from HubSpot, Canva, LinkedIn and more, we're covering everything from how marketing and sales has changed, to in-depth workshops on improving your SEO strategy, and talks on how to turn your web traffic into leads and customers. 

Enjoy!

--

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s talk about a trend, shall we?

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

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

Two weeks ago, when I sat down to write my first blog post at HubSpot, I was determined to make it shine. Perfection was the only option.

So I filtered each word through dozens of thesaurus searches, selecting only the most dazzling ones for my article. 

June is typically a time when people start booking vacations and travel, but in the world of social media, the work on innovation never stops.

In fact, just last Friday, June 30th was #SocialMediaDay.

So in honor of Social Media Day, we've rounded up the latest launches and announcements from different social media apps over the last month.

In an industry fixated on rapid growth, any slowdown in user acquisition or monetization sounds alarms. And Twitter, whether it likes it or not, has been sounding a lot of them lately.

After a few years of stagnant monthly active user growth and disappointing the market, Twitter has been on an upswing thus far in 2017 -- beating investor projections by generating more money and adding more new users than initially anticipated.

Feel intimidated by the notion of creating an explainer video? There’s no need to be -- they just represent another excellent way to get your content out to your target audience.

Besides the really big brands that we are all familiar with, a lot of lesser-known companies and even small startups are using them.

“How long did you take to revise this?” “A couple of sec, I mean minutes … ”

“Did you use any editing tools?” “Yes ... the red and green squiggly lines in Word.”

“Please tell me spell check is somehow broken. ” “ … I haven’t used that since 2008 … ”

Let’s just come out with it: Email is becoming less effective for marketers. It might not be dead yet, but it’s not exactly the shiny new channel it used to be. Just think about your own inbox -- how many marketing emails are you subscribed to that you delete without opening? We thought so.

As marketers find more innovative ways to attract audiences, video has become a meaningful part of the strategic conversation.

Video is long past the status of an "up-and-coming" marketing tactic. It's here, and it's an increasingly powerful way to communicate your brand story, explain your value proposition, and build relationships with your customers and prospects. 

Here at HubSpot, we obsess over our product -- how it’s built, where it’s headed, and how we talk about it. Every update, from minor feature tweaks to major product launches, are pored over by a team. Developers and product managers handle the creation and vision of individual products. Product marketers own the story of the product, with the goal of creating the narrative that defines the product.

Not long after I first started at HubSpot, I was welcomed with a fresh pair of orange, noise-canceling headphones. At the time, I had no clue that these headphones would carry me through many long work days and some of the deepest, darkest levels of writer's block.

Over two years later, they are truly the gift that keeps on giving.

As technology continues to lower the cost of content production, today’s end user is asked to digest more stories than ever before -- in conversation, in written text, at the movies, in advertisements, and even through web design. With so much to absorb, it’s essential for digital marketers to differentiate their content and deliver an incredible experience.

Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook as a simple “hot-or-not” site to get back at classmates. Nike founder Phil Knight called the now ubiquitious shoe company his “crazy idea." Instagram began with a single photo filter to make turn its users into less-crappy photographers.

You probably couldn’t have predicted their success at the time, but today, all of these ideas have turned into global titans worth billions of dollars.

It's finally, finally summer.

To celebrate the sun emerging (and the temperature in our offices dropping to subarctic extremes), I attempted to find some summery ads to feature in this month's roundup. Instead, I ended up with a weird chatbot, a novelty phone, and several ways to kill bugs. 

Houston, we have a turnover problem.

As the years pass, there seem to be a growing number of studies on employers struggling to retain their people -- and the high costs associated with the resulting turnover. What’s at the bottom of it? Is it workplace culture? Is it missed salary expectations? Or can it all be lumped under the crucial umbrella of communication?

I don't know about you, but I barely print anything anymore.

Seriously, think about it -- when's the last time you had to type Command + P and print out a document? Between e-tickets, virtual payment options, and online signature tools, I think the last thing I printed out was the lease for my apartment.

I know I'm literally ten years late to this, but I just started watching Mad Men on Netflix. And guys -- newsflash -- it's a really good show. 

The old school ad strategies, the fun outfits, the drama -- I love it all. Except Don Draper's management style. That, in my humble opinion, could use a little work.