Author: Caroline Forsey

Like it or not, social media is ingrained in our everyday lives. People use it to share their happy moments and grievances, ask questions, and even find jobs while employers market themselves and connect with their buyers.

This is all fine and dandy, but what happens if someone posts about work or voices a contrasting personal opinion? This murky middle ground is why having a social media policy is so important for your business.

Well-thought-out corporate social media policies help keep a company’s presence consistent and scalable, no matter who posts or where. Yet, 45% of companies still don’t have one in place. I’m here to help fix that.

Let’s break down how to create a social media policy that is right for your team and look at some examples done well.

Table of Contents

• What is a social media policy?
• Why is having a social media policy important?
• Components of a Social Media Policy
• How to Create a Social Media Policy
• 8 Examples of Great Social Media Policies

Does more than one person manage your social media accounts? Do you expect your employees to promote your business on their personal profiles? Or would you rather they don’t discuss office culture or their day-to-day period at all?

In organizations with a large online presence or well-established public images, a social media policy helps answer these questions and set guardrails for how the company should be represented.

Think about it: Every person you hire has their own personality, tone of voice, and views. That may even be the reason you hired them. But the truth is, we live in volatile times.

There is much political and societal unrest, and things get complicated when an employee’s views or even behavior after hours contrasts with those of the organization, its values, or its buyers.

Corporate social media policies help combat and navigate these situations. They can also help ensure that personal views don’t seep into posts on your brand’s social media accounts either.

Now, I know. Some of you may be worried that enforcing strict rules in a social media policy stifles creativity or restricts freedom of speech.

But if done correctly, it shouldn’t hinder employees. In fact, it should make them feel more comfortable amplifying your social media messages since they’ll know exactly what will or won’t be beneficial. They don’t have to guess.

Why is having a social media policy important?

Good social media policies remove ambiguity. They give teams a single, documented playbook to follow and ultimately help every post about the company align with a brand’s values, tone, and goals.

Also, while no one wants their social media policy to be grounds for disciplinary action, it does give businesses somewhat of a safety net should things go awry.

I witnessed the importance of this first-hand during a presidential election at a previous employer.

We didn’t have a social media policy at the time, and my teammate posted something politically charged on their personal profile. Some third-party partners saw the post and were upset, putting the company in a difficult spot.

This likely could have been avoided if a social media policy had been established.

Benefits of a Corporate Social Media Policy

To get more granular, here are a few major benefits of creating a corporate social media policy:

• Maintain consistency of brand voice, tone, and messaging across social channels
• Prevent a public relations (PR) crisis as a result of a potentially offensive post
• Enable employees to handle legal and regulatory issues with sensitivity
• Protect the data privacy of customers and stakeholders
• Have effective responses at the ready for crises or data breaches if they do occur
• Ensure each new employee will have the tools to create a positive, consistent, and valuable brand message across social channels

So, what does a great social media policy look like?

Components of a Social Media Policy

First off, remember there isn‘t just one ’right' policy that works for every company.

Below, I’ve shared several components that, from my experience, make for great social media policies — but some may not make sense for your team, business, or industry. Pick and choose what you like to fit your culture and business objectives.

1. Purpose and Scope

• Outline the purpose of the policy and its importance in protecting both the company's reputation and employees’ rights.
• Encourage responsible, respectful communication and emphasize that employees represent the company even on personal accounts.
• Specify who the policy applies to (e.g., all employees, contractors, interns, etc.).

2. Employee Guidelines for Personal Accounts

• Specify when and how employees can discuss work-related topics on personal accounts.
• Encourage disclaimers like “views are my own” when relevant, especially if discussing industry-related topics.
• Provides guidance on sharing public information versus confidential details.

3. Guidelines for Social Media Use During Work Hours

• These days, personal smartphones and tablets are not just permitted at the workplace but are even required for some jobs. Therefore, setting guidelines for personal social media use at the office is essential.
• This could include time limits, phone-free areas or events, etc.

4. Brand Voice and Tone

• Detail the brand's tone, style, and messaging standards for official social media channels.
• Clarify how employees should align with the brand’s image if they represent the company.

5. Confidentiality and Privacy Concerns

• Emphasize the importance of protecting proprietary company information, customer data, and client details.
• Include examples of what constitutes confidential information.

6. Intellectual Property Protection

• Outline rules for using company logos, images, and other branding materials on personal accounts.
• Specify that company content should not be reproduced without permission.
• You also may want to go into rules for user-generated content or republishing content that tags or is shared on your social media platforms by your audience.

7. Official Social Media Responsibilities

• Outline which departments or individuals handle official accounts, post frequency, and escalation procedures.
• Provide a list of official accounts and expectations. (This may include what audiences can expect from your brand as well as what you expect employees to do when managing your social media accounts.)

8. Engagement Guidelines (for Responding to Public Interaction)

• Outline how to respond to comments, questions, complaints, or negative feedback.
• Provide examples of appropriate responses and escalation steps for sensitive issues. This will be extremely valuable reference and training material.

9. Security and Privacy Protocols

• List steps to protect official accounts, such as using strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and limiting access.
• Provides guidance on recognizing and handling potential security threats (e.g., phishing, hacking attempts).

10. Legal and Regulatory Compliance

• Highlight legal considerations, such as compliance with advertising standards, disclosure requirements, and industry-specific regulations (e.g., HIPAA for healthcare, GDPR for EU).

11. Consequences of Policy Violations

• Clearly state the disciplinary actions for violating the policy, from warnings to termination for serious infractions.
• Ensure this section is in line with existing company policies on disciplinary actions.

12. Resources and Training

• Provide links to resources for further reading or training on effective social media use.
• Offer contact information for team members who can answer questions or provide guidance on specific scenarios.

13. Plan for Updates

• Explain how and when the policy will be reviewed and updated to reflect social media or business strategy changes.
• Consider scheduling a regular review to keep up with evolving social media trends and regulations.

Creating a comprehensive social media policy helps empower employees to use social media effectively while minimizing risks to the company’s brand and reputation.

How to Create a Social Media Policy

Social media policies can take many different shapes and forms.

Need some putting yours together? Our free social media policy template will help you collect your thoughts into a formal document that can be downloaded as a Word document, Google doc, or PDF.

8 Examples of Great Social Media Policies

Let's explore how prominent companies created effective social media policies to inspire your own today.

1. Best Buy

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Best Buy has a social media policy in place that preemptively addresses privacy concerns that could arise using social media.

What do I like about Best Buy's social media policy?

• It looks out for both the employee and the company.
• It’s skimmable but specific about what matters (i.e., what information should never be shared)
• It’s written in direct, simple language that anyone could understand.
• It’s clear about the repercussions of breaking the policy.
• It gives you guidance on where to go for more information.

What could be better?

• It’s dated. The policy appears to be from 2010 and even calls out “tweeting” specifically. Companies should regularly update their social media policies to reflect new platforms, behaviors, and concerns.

2. Adobe

Adobe keeps it even shorter than Best Buy, including social media simply as a footnote its much longer “Code of Business.”

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What do I like about Adobe’s social media policy?

• It’s concise.
• It applies to multiple platforms.
• It links to additional resources.

What could be better?

• It’s vague. Unlike Best Buy’s policy, which was short but easy to understand, Adobe’s feels like there is much to interpret. For instance, “appropriate” can vary greatly depending on the person.
• It doesn’t mention what happens if the policy is broken.
• It’s cold and formal with its language.

3. Walmart

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Walmart is dedicated to its social media accounts and believes in social media as an avenue for customer service. Its social media policy mentions all the networks it has a presence on, zeroes in on Twitter (X), Facebook, and Instagram.

What do I like about Walmart’s social media policy?

• It’s written in direct, simple language that anyone could understand.
• It’s specific about what audiences can expect from them.
• It addresses both Walmart employees and official brand accounts.

What could be better?

• It would make sense to discuss the other platforms Walmart is active on as well: YouTube, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and Medium. There really is not explanation as to why they are not.

4. Ford Motors

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Ford focuses solely on its Facebook page in its most current social media policy version.

A PDF of “Ford Motor Company’s Digital Participation Guidelines” is also circulating online, but it is over 14 years old and includes several rebranded social media networks.

What do I like about Ford’s social media policy?

• It takes a unifying and welcoming tone.
• It’s specific about what you can expect from them and the expectations of others in its “community.
• It’s clear about its rights and use of content on its page.
• It gives you guidance on where to go for more information.

What could be better?

• It focuses just on Facebook. It should be opened up to address other platforms, as Ford is active on Instagram and X, among others.
• It doesn’t offer guidelines on how employees of Ford should conduct themselves

5. Coca-Cola

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Coca-Cola doesn’t have a social media policy in the traditional form, but rather “responsible social media principles” it promises to abide by.

This establishes a more timeless “brand” of social media for Coke rather than specific practices that may become dated quickly.

What do I like about Coke’s social media policy?

• It focuses on their impact and responsibilities to their audience.
• It establishes its values in detail with examples. For example, it explains that “platforms that accept responsibility for the content carried on their sites” partially means they must be moderated and free of hate or division.
• The principles are general enough to apply to any social platform or practice. This makes them timeless.
• It’s clear about what audiences can expect from Coke and what happens in the case of policy violations.

What could be better?

• It should include more specific guidelines for Coca-Cola employees.
• It should include intellectual property, brand, tone, and voice information.

Swaybase shares a document covering these items, but is unclear if this content is still in use.

6. The New York Times

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The New York Times (NYT) recognizes the price of its popularity — namely, that anything its employees state on their personal accounts could come across as the official opinion of The Times.

It also recognizes how essential social media is to its position as a credible house of journalism, making that very clear in its social media policy.

What do I like about NYT’s social media policy?

• It’s current. Updated in June 2024, it’s the most recently created social media policy I’ve encountered.
• It’s extremely thorough and specific. This includes but is not limited to who and what platforms fall under the policy.
• Most points are actionable.
• It uses bullet points to make it easier to digest.
• It explains NYT’s development process. The policy was created by collecting insights and quotes from actual reporters. This provides additional accountability and a sense of fairness, as the points came from employees.
• It starts with “highlights” to draw attention to the most important pieces of the policy.
• It offers guidance on troubleshooting and where to reach out for more information.

What could be better?

• This is presented in many ways, like a NYT article. This is on brand, sure, but I’d have recommended it be presented in a less verbose and easier-to-skim format.

7. Oracle

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Oracle is pretty tight-lipped about its social media practices. This is made apparent by reports in 2014 that they fired an employee for discussing their plans for X (then Twitter).

Oracle's social media participation policy documents how social media is used as a business, but its employee code of conduct and business ethics touch on how employees can engage in personal social media.

What do I like about Oracle’s social media policy?

• It makes the “dos and don’ts” of social media for employees very clear.
• Its language is simple and easy to understand.
• It links to additional resources.

What could be better?

• It could provide more detail and examples of acceptable or unacceptable content/behavior online.

8. U.S. Department of Defense Social Media Policy

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Every organization should take precautions to make sure their classified information isn’t shared recklessly on social media. But this is even more critical for government agencies like the U.S. Department of Defense.

What do I like about Oracle’s social media policy?

• It’s concise and easy to skim.
• It links to related resources and makes those easy to find.
• It uses headers, bolding, and bullets to organize the information and draw attention to the most important parts.

What could be better?

• It focuses solely on how the DOD uses social media as an organization. It doesn’t speak to how DOD employees should approach social media, which seems important for a government agency.
• The language is formal and technical. I would simplify to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding. For instance, “disseminate” could easily be “share” despite coming from the government.

A great social media policy is step one.

Ultimately, the rules and regulations you choose to include in your policy should reflect your own brand's values, messaging, and tone.

However, you can use these examples and guidelines to ensure you include statements that can help protect you against legal or regulatory disputes in the future based on an employee's social media posts.

Additionally, aim to use your social media policy as your first step toward increasing the effectiveness of your social media strategies and ensuring a positive brand image on any platform on which you post.

This week's master has worked for Lou Malnati's (pizza), Krispy Kreme (doughnuts), and now heads the marketing team at California Pizza Kitchen (back to pizza) — making her career sound like my dream delivery order after a rough Monday.

Keep reading to hear from Dawn Keller, CMO at California Pizza Kitchen, on why she likes giving consumers emotional FOMO and how to lead the charge on brand evolution.

Lesson 1: Drive emotional FOMO. 

"Craveable items that are unique and compel consumers to be irrational are the best defense against competition, consumer apathy, or inertia," says Keller. 

For Keller, this pertains to both her menu and her marketing. Her goal is to "drive emotional FOMO" for her consumers. 

Look, I'll hand it to you — discussing "craveable products" with the marketing leader for a pizza company probably doesn't sound too relatable to B2B marketers. 

But when I tell Keller that cheesy, gooey crust is more seductive than revenue attribution reporting, she pushes back: "I actually see this in B2B marketing all the time. Emotional FOMO is totally create-able in that world, too — you just need to show what's possible, and the success stories of other people."

She adds, "It's all the same humans, you know? They're just making different decisions… Like, what to eat, and what software to use for their businesses."

While you might not be selling garlic knots, there are plenty of B2B attributes that are insanely "craveable" — like ease of use, time savings, and productivity boosts. Use those plot points to get all your soon-to-be consumers hungering for your offerings like they crave a good mac and cheese. 

Lesson 2: Turn negative moments into a chance to show up. 

Recently, a customer ordered mac and cheese from CPK — and just got cheese. 

After she posted the vid on TikTok, CPK responded with a video in which Chef Paul jokingly walks through the steps of properly making a mac and cheese (emphasis on: Add the mac) and then announces 50% off mac and cheese for all CPK customers. (Since the customer only got 50% of her meal — get it?) 

CPK's TikTok response got 13.5 million views. Keller was shocked… and thrilled. 

"It was mind-blowing to everybody [how well it did], but we believe what really made the difference was how we showed up — in a super authentic, humble, self-deprecating way. It wasn't corporate-y or stuffy."

CPK could've chosen to ignore the customer's complaint altogether, or they could've commented on the video with a generic "I'm sorry!" customer service response. Instead, they decided to use the opportunity to reframe the narrative into something fun and lighthearted. 

And as Keller points out, "We still got to reinforce what matters to us — which is that we have quality food, and we care about our guests. Authenticity and entertainment is what gets people's attention… Not just that you're using socials as an advertising channel." 

We've heard it across the board this year from Greg Fass, Jenna Kutcher, and plenty of other Masters in Marketing, and the point holds true: Being authentic and showcasing the human behind your brand is a much better strategy than a polished ad these days. 

Lesson 3: Evolve as your consumers do. 

It hasn't always been doughnuts and pizza for Keller, who has also held marketing roles at CVS Health and Staples.

Across those roles, she believes one core responsibility has always been to be an "agent of change." 

But people don't always love change, particularly at brands that have existed for 40+ years. So I wanted to know: When Keller joined CPK, how did she balance fresh ideas without making the team feel like she was steamrolling the good-ole way of doing things? 

"I give a lot of credit to Jeff Warne [the CEO of CPK] and my colleagues, who have really incubated this idea that any brand that's been around for 40 years has to continue to evolve and do new, fresh things," Keller tells me. 

Fortunately, she also has some words of wisdom for marketing leaders who've been tasked with growth at a company that doesn't embrace change as easily.

"You have to bring people along the journey and invite ideas from anywhere. Sometimes, leaders think good ideas can only come from new people. But veterans with deep context can also be the originators of the best new thinking." 

Everybody has a role to play, and the more a change agent can encourage and incentivize fresh ideas while breaking down the walls of fear or discomfort, the more likely they are to succeed in creating an increasingly relevant brand. 

"An obsession with quality" is what I wish 12-year-old me had… but alas, I ended up with boatloads of Forever 21 T-shirts. 

As it turns out, quality really does matter. Our master today — Emily Kramer, a marketer, investor, and advisor for B2B growth-stage startups (and MKT1 newsletter creator) — told me her "obsession with quality" is the reason she's been so successful in the newsletter space. (With 48k subscribers and growing.)

Want to learn more? Keep reading to learn how the MKT1 newsletter creator "never misses", and her advice for any marketers who are the "first-ish" marketing leaders at their companies. 

Why the creator of the MKT1 newsletter "never misses".

1. Be ready to tell leaders what you'll stop, start, and continue. 

Kramer has been the "first-ish” marketer four times at companies ranging from 10 to 300 employees, so my first question was an easy one: If you're the first marketer at a company, where the heck should you start? 

Kramer told me whether you're a team of one or leading a 200-person marketing department, the answer is the same: Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. 

"First, you need to figure out where you can win. Where can you stand out? Where do you have the biggest advantage over competitors? What channels make the most sense for your business?" 

This translates to: Stop doomscrolling through TikTok for "inspiration" or convincing yourself a snazzy newsletter giveaway will save the day. Start with what matters most. 

"You've got to have a framework for how you're prioritizing — you have to put a stake in the ground about what you think is important, and why. If you don't, you'll just get barraged with requests." 

One of Kramer's go-to moves when joining a new company is to create a "start, stop, continue" plan. That way, execs can quickly see, "Oh, we already tried that," or "We’re stopping this, and here’s why."

Otherwise, your founder might just get a little too obsessed with the idea of you publishing ebooks on Amazon as the "next best marketing move." 

(Not speaking from experience or anything.) 

2. To sell marketing to execs, compare it to the product team.

"The biggest challenge in my career has been selling marketing. Early in my career, I didn't understand the delta between what I understood about marketing, and what founders or other teams knew about marketing," Kramer says. 

I feel her: As someone who comes from a family of salespeople, I spend most of my Thanksgiving dinners trying to explain that brand awareness is still a valuable outcome. 

Luckily, Kramer's landed on a metaphor that seems to work: She likes to tell founders and execs that marketing teams are like product teams… Not sales. 

A few key similarities: Both product and marketing are multidisciplinary; both have a portfolio of ideas and a roadmap of the big things they plan to do; and both require a balance of optimizing certain features/campaigns — while launching new ones — in order to help the biz grow.

Kramer also encourages marketers to make sure they know exactly what their founders think marketing is. 

"During the interview process, just ask the founder, 'Hey, when you think of what marketers do, what's top of mind?' Because what if they respond and say 'trade shows,' and you hate trade shows?" 

Her point is a simple but sound one: Make sure your vision of marketing aligns with your founder's, or get ready for a long road of pushback and a lot less creative freedom. 

3. Don't create a newsletter if you don't have anything interesting to say.

Kramer's MKT1 newsletter success hinges on one question: "Would I text this piece of content to everyone I know that's in the space?"

Kramer's obsession with quality is evident in her newsletter cadence: While many marketers like to send newsletters out on a weekly or even daily basis, Kramer prefers to send hers roughly 2X per month. She only wants to send a newsletter if it's saying something new. 

"People tell me 'I never miss' with my newsletter — I don't know if that's true," she adds with a wry grin. "I definitely miss. But that obsession with quality is there." 

And she has some wise words for anyone who wants to create their own: "If you don't have a storyline that you can talk about in a unique, engaging way — better than everyone else — you shouldn't do it. You can't just say, 'I want to start a newsletter' and then stick content into it. It doesn't work that way."

If you’d asked me early in my career to define what marketing is, I would have no doubts. “Marketing is about promoting products,” I’d say. But today, it’s one of the toughest questions to answer. 

The term is so broad and flexible that it’s hard to pin down.

Marketing is present in all stages of the business, beginning to end. Without marketing, you can’t truly understand your audience, create a product that fits their needs, or successfully bring it to market.

Marketers have the firmest finger on the pulse of your consumer persona.

In this guide, I’ll show you in practice what marketing is, its different types, the 4 P's, and how it differs from advertising.

Plus, I’ll spice things up with some expert tips. Whether you’re a pro looking for a refresher or a newbie trying to get the hang of things, I’ve got you covered.

Table of Contents

• What is marketing?
• What is the purpose of marketing?
• 3 Pillar Types of Marketing
• Why is marketing important?
• Marketing vs. Advertising: What’s the difference?
• The 4 Ps of Marketing

Modern marketing began in the 1950s when people started to use more than just print media to endorse a product. As TV — and soon, the internet — entered households, marketers could conduct entire campaigns across multiple platforms.

And as you might expect, over the last 70 years, marketers have become increasingly important in fine-tuning how a business sells a product to consumers to optimize success.

In fact, the fundamental purpose of marketing is to attract consumers to your brand through messaging. Ideally, that messaging will be helpful and educational to your target audience so you can convert consumers into leads.

Today, there are literally dozens of places to carry out a marketing campaign — where does one even start?

3 Pillar Types of Marketing

Where your marketing campaigns live depends entirely on where your customers spend their time. It's up to you to conduct market research that determines which types of marketing — and which mix of tools within each type — is best for building your brand.

We have two main categories of marketing: digital and traditional. The third one, which isn’t so popular but extremely effective, also deserves a standalone place: neuromarketing. Let’s find out what comes with each.

1. Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is the use of online channels and platforms, like social media, email, and search engines, to promote and sell products or services.

The main parts of it are:

Search Engine Optimization

Abbreviated as “SEO,” this is the process of optimizing content on a website so that it appears in search engine results.

It‘s used by marketers to attract people who perform searches that imply they’re interested in learning about a particular industry.

29% of marketers consider SEO one of the leading trends they use. And just like in other areas, AI has made significant strides here too, greatly aiding in SEO.

Actually, 54% of marketers use AI tools for automating SEO tasks such as meta tags, link descriptions, and alt text.

Also, 45% of marketers believe AI/automation tools are best for optimizing websites, 40% say they improve the user experience, and 37% value them for saving time.

Blog Marketing

Blogs are no longer exclusive to the individual writer. Brands now publish blogs to write about their industry and nurture the interest of potential customers who browse the internet for information.

Today, most marketers use AI to assist with content creation. Nearly half (46%) rely on it for writing marketing copy, and over 40% use it to create outlines.

Personally, I love using it for proofreading — a time-saver for writers.

Social Media Marketing

Businesses can use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and similar social networks to create impressions on their audience over time.

Social media is the top place where Gen Z and Millennials discover products, with 31% of people using it to find answers.

Additionally, 17% of users buy products on social media, and most sellers find it effective, with 59% seeing more sales in 2023 than in 2022.

It’s clear that investing time and energy in social media is worth it, and one of the best ways to speed things up is by, you guessed it — incorporating AI. In fact, 46% of marketers use AI to write social media posts.

Download our free step-by-step guide and create your digital strategy.

Search Engine Marketing

This type of marketing is a bit different than SEO, which is described above. Businesses can now pay a search engine to place links on pages of its index that get high exposure to their audience. (It‘s a concept called "pay-per-click." I’ll show you an example of this in the next section.

Recent data shows that spending on SEM is expected to reach $306.7 billion in 2024 as businesses recognize its potential for targeting and converting high-intent customers.

SEM can deliver a strong ROI, especially with well-targeted strategies. On average, businesses get $2 back for every $1 spent on Google Ads, showing how powerful SEM can be when done right.

Video Marketing

While there were once just commercials, marketers now put money into creating and publishing all kinds of videos that entertain and educate their core customers.

Marketers are turning to TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram to connect with younger audiences who favor social video over search engines.

Short-form video is delivering the best ROI and is expected to grow the most in 2024, with a quarter of marketers planning to invest heavily in it.

“Use social listening tools to identify key questions from prospects and customers, and then create content to answer them, or let brand advocates do it,” suggests Aja Frost, Senior Director of Global Growth at HubSpot.

P.S. If you’re interested in blending human and AI content for your social media, I recommend this podcast where Nathan Lands and Matt Wolfe dive into the latest AI video generators, like Gen 2 and Leonardo Motion, and how they’re changing the game for all of us:

2. Traditional Marketing

Compared to digital marketing, which is all online, traditional marketing focuses on offline connections with people.

Let’s break it down.

Print Marketing

As newspapers and magazines get better at understanding who subscribes to their print material, businesses continue to sponsor articles, photography, and similar content in the publications their customers are reading.

However, we must admit that print marketing is nowhere near what it used to be.

Digital marketing has totally shaken its dominance. According to Statista, global newspaper advertising spending was forecast to reach around $28.3 billion in 2022 — a major drop from its height in 2007 at $113 billion.

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Broadcast Marketing

38% of consumers discovered new products through TV ads, suggesting that broadcast marketing is still alive and way more popular than print ads.

TV spots hit the right audience during popular shows at peak times, while radio ads catch people in their daily groove, especially on the road.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing uses phone calls to reach potential or existing customers directly. It involves two main types:

1. Outbound telemarketing: Businesses initiate cold calls to promote products, services, or gather feedback from customers.

However, based on Cognism research, the average success rate for cold calling is only 4.8%. This figure is significantly lower compared to other sales methods.

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2. Inbound telemarketing: Customers call businesses in response to ads or promotions for inquiries, orders, or support.

Honestly, I don’t like telemarketing, especially cold calling. It often feels too pushy and irrelevant. However, it’s still a part of marketing, so we simply can’t ignore its existence. 🙂

3. Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing blends neuroscience with digital and traditional marketing to understand how people make choices and react to ads. It’s one of the most fascinating things I’ve been into lately, so let me show you how it works:

• Brain Scans. Track brain activity with fMRI and PET to see reactions to marketing.
• Electrical Brain Activity. Use EEG and ERP to measure real-time responses to ads.
• Body Reactions. Measure stress and emotional responses with tools like skin conductance and heart rate monitors.
• Eye Tracking. Follow where people look and for how long to gauge ad impact.
• Behavior Tracking. Analyze decision speed and choices to understand preferences.
• Neuroeconomics: Study decision-making by combining brain science, psychology, and economics.

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Neuromarketing improves various sectors by enhancing customer experiences in retail, shaping perceptions in consumer electronics, boosting patient engagement in healthcare, understanding trust in BFSI, and tailoring content in media and entertainment, according to Business Research Insights,

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Click here to get your free introductory ebook on marketing psychology.

Why is marketing important?

I could write a book on this because marketing is important for so many reasons. But here are the top six, according to the experts I’ve talked to.

1. Marketing builds brand loyalty and customer relationships.

“Focusing solely on short-term sales shouldn’t come at the expense of long-term customer relationships,” highlights Rosario Maccarrone, director and head of student services at OPIT.

Instead, focus on a strong marketing strategy that supports ongoing growth and builds brand loyalty. Rosario points out:

"One of the successful campaigns I led at OPIT involved the revision and promotion of our course offerings. Having noted a decline in subscribing to our advanced tech courses, we launched a campaign focused on showcasing real-life applications and success stories of past students."

He continues, "This drove immediate course registrations (short-term goal) while also building a strong alumni-student network, fostering huge potential for long-term engagement and brand loyalty."

Free Download: How Best In Class Companies Build Customer Loyalty

Marta Romaniak, VP of global branding at Avenga, agrees with Rosario, explaining that the commitment should not end once the service is delivered:

“We continue providing insights that could benefit them, which helps build long-term trust. On the same note, if a customer purchases a short-term service or solution, we send them personalized recommendations regarding services they might need in the future. So, a short-term cooperation turns into a long-term relationship.”

2. Marketing guides smart pricing decisions.

Marketing reveals what customers want and how much they’ll pay. It helps you get a read on customer behavior, keep tabs on competitors, and spot trends so you can set prices that attract customers.

“We once re-priced our master's degree in Data Science based on market feedback and competitor benchmarking. We reduced the cost by 15%, which resulted in a 25% increase in enrollment for the subsequent batch,” shares Greta Maiocchi, head of marketing & admissions at OPIT.

Debbie Moran, marketing manager at RecurPost, also shared one successful story from her company:

“One of the most impactful examples of re-pricing was with our ‘Enterprise Plan.’ Initially, it was priced too high for the features offered, leading to slow adoption. After restructuring based on user feedback, we saw a 50% increase in enterprise sign-ups within three months.”

3. Marketing builds brand recognition.

Marketing helps companies connect with new audiences and enter new markets. Through targeted advertising, social media campaigns, and partnerships, it can attract potential customers who might not have heard of the business before.

Ally Moisse from Pearl Lemon Group illustrates this through a recent multi-channel campaign — emails, cold calling, cold email outreach, and marketing activity on X:

“We engaged in industry conversations and shared insights, which helped us connect with leads in a more organic, non-intrusive way.”

The best thing about marketing is that it's not strictly tied to just one channel and opens up the possibility to spread the word about a business far and wide. Moise backs this up:

“The success of our campaign came from how these channels worked together. Each approach reinforced the other, creating a consistent presence that resulted in higher engagement and better conversions overall.”

4. Marketing helps you understand customer behavior.

Marketing often reveals why your customers might hesitate to buy. What concerns or objections do people have? Worries about price or fit? Through surveys, feedback, and watching their behavior, you can learn a lot.

By identifying these issues, you can improve products and make changes that help turn hesitations into sales.

Here’s what Elisa Montanari, head of organic growth at Wrike has to say about it:

“If customers are holding back because they can’t afford your products, that’s a whole different issue than them not seeing the value in your product. Dig deep into your marketing data to understand why people are hesitating — if it’s an issue with perceived value, you can change that with the right messaging.”

5. Marketing sells the experience and JTBDs.

We use marketing to sell, but marketing isn’t about selling products or services.

It’s about selling experiences and emotions. It helps shape how customers perceive and interact with a brand. Through storytelling, visuals, and messaging, marketing creates an emotional connection that encourages repeat business and builds a strong brand identity.

Moreover, smart marketing gives potential customers a feel for the jobs to be done (JTBDs). With that, consumers will find themselves easily signing up for your services or products.

When I promoted my freelance writing services on LinkedIn, I didn’t post something like “Look at my articles, work with me.” Nobody cares about it.

Instead, my posts were tailored to the JTBDs of content marketers, my target persona. For example, I shared how one of my articles went viral and ended up in dozens of high-quality links. Or my approach to editing or spicing up content with expert tips, and so on.

This type of marketing is all about sales and improving my personal brand, but the influence is indirect. I just show my potential clients that I’ll take a great deal of burden off their shoulders by providing content that ranks and is picked up by their target persona.

6. Marketing gives a competitive edge.

Marketing helps businesses shine in a super-crowded marketplace. But this won’t happen with one good ad going viral. Sure, people will notice your brand at that moment, but a lasting impression won’t happen.

I chatted about this with the amazing Marta Romaniak, who says, “Business owners sometimes mix up advertising with marketing.” She emphasizes that advertising is just a piece of the bigger marketing puzzle.

A solid marketing strategy is what really sets your brand apart from the competition.

But getting a competitive edge through marketing doesn’t happen overnight. You can’t expect instant results from a single campaign.

It’s about consistently pushing your message, connecting with your audience, and adjusting your strategy as you go. Real, lasting success comes from sticking with it and putting in the work over time.

Let’s now dive a bit deeper into marketing and advertising differences.

Marketing vs. Advertising: What’s the Difference?

If marketing is a wheel, advertising is one spoke of that wheel.

Marketing entails product development, market research, product distribution, sales strategy, public relations, and customer support.

Marketing is necessary in all stages of a business's selling journey, and it can use numerous platforms, social media channels, and teams within the organization to identify its audience, communicate with it, amplify its voice, and build brand loyalty over time.

On the other hand, advertising is just one component of marketing. It‘s a strategic effort, usually paid for, to spread awareness of a product or service as a part of the more holistic goals outlined above.

Put simply, it’s not the only method used by marketers to sell a product.

"If you just want to create ads when you hire a marketing specialist or set goals for your marketing team, that‘s fine, you are making their job easier. But don’t be surprised when the results turn out to be not what you expected," insists Romaniak.

"Advertisements are good for short-term solutions as part of your marketing strategy. Marketing, though, is a key to the long-term success of your brand."

Here‘s an example (keep reading — there’s a quiz at the end of it):

Let‘s say a business is rolling out a brand-new product and wants to create a campaign promoting that product to its customer base.

This company’s channels of choice are Facebook, Instagram, Google, and its company website. It uses all of these spaces to support its various campaigns every quarter and generate leads through those campaigns.

To broadcast its new product launch, it publishes a downloadable product guide to its website, posts a video to Instagram demonstrating its new product, and invests in a series of sponsored search results on Google directing traffic to a new product page on its website.

Now, which of the above decisions was marketing, and which was advertising?

The advertising took place on Instagram and Google. Instagram generally isn‘t an advertising channel, but when used for branding, you can develop a base of followers that’s primed for a gentle product announcement every now and again.

Google was definitely used for advertising in this example; the company paid for space on Google — a program known as pay-per-click (PPC) — on which to drive traffic to a specific page focused on its product. A classic online ad.

Where did the marketing take place? This was a bit of a trick question, as the marketing was the entire process.

By aligning Instagram, Google, and its own website around a customer-focused initiative, the company ran a three-part marketing campaign that identified its audience, created a message for that audience, and delivered it across the industry to maximize its impact.

It’s important to know that this type of marketing campaign requires proper coordination and monitoring of multiple channels. You need to adapt your approach to each specific channel yet get them to yield the same results: to generate revenue.

This is where a unified marketing software solution can come in handy. It includes the tools necessary to monitor and manage campaigns across multiple channels — from websites to emails and online advertisements.

The 4 Ps of Marketing

In the 1960s, E Jerome McCarthy came up with the 4 Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

Essentially, these 4 Ps explain how marketing interacts with each stage of the business.

Download Now: Free Marketing Mix Templates

Product

Let‘s say you come up with an idea for a product you want your business to sell. What’s next? You probably won't be successful if you just start selling it.

Instead, you need your marketing team to do market research, interpret marketing analytics data into actionable insights, and answer some critical questions: Who's your target audience? Is there a market fit for this product?

What messaging will increase product sales, and on which platforms? How should your product developers modify the product to increase likelihood of success? What do focus groups think of the product, and what questions or hesitations do they have?

Marketers use the answers to these questions to help businesses understand the demand for the product and increase product quality by mentioning concerns stemming from focus groups or survey participants.

Price

Your marketing team will check out competitors‘ product prices, or use focus groups and surveys, to estimate how much your ideal customer is willing to pay.

Price it too high, and you’ll lose out on a solid customer base. If you price it too low, you might lose more money than you gain. Fortunately, marketers can use industry research and consumer analysis to gauge a good price range.

Place

It‘s critical that your marketing department uses their understanding and analysis of your business’s consumers to offer suggestions for how and where to sell your product.

Perhaps they believe an ecommerce site works better than a retail location, or vice versa. Or, maybe they can offer insights into which locations would be most viable to sell your product, either nationally and internationally.

Promotion

This P is likely the one you expected from the get-go: promotion entails any online or print advertisement, event, or discount your marketing team creates to increase awareness and interest in your product and, ultimately, lead to more sales.

During this stage, you'll likely see methods like public relations campaigns, advertisements, or social media promotions.

Hopefully, our definition and the four Ps help you understand marketing‘s purpose and how to define it. Marketing intersects with all areas of a business, so it’s important you understand how to use marketing to increase your business's efficiency and success.

Marketing is your eyes and ears.

While we can sum up the definition of marketing in one sentence, it will always feel incomplete. That’s because marketing is a mix of everything and the core of every business.

Without marketing, you don’t exist. No one will see you. No one will hear you. No one will recognize you. Without marketing, you won’t understand your audience's needs. You won’t create the products or services they are looking for.

That’s why you need a smart marketing strategy that targets where your audience is, what they need, and shapes everything around that.

If they’re on LinkedIn, spend most of your time and effort there. If they’re on TikTok, make videos. Entertain them. Educate them. Give them what they want, and chances are, they’ll give you what you want in return.

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

I can’t remember the last time I discovered a new brand by shopping in person … I know, it’s mind-boggling.

While I do enjoy a Saturday shopping spree with friends, nothing beats the convenience of browsing a company’s website for the same (and many more!) items.

I also never make a purchase without first reading reviews — and 91% of U.S. online shoppers surveyed in 2023 agree, saying they always or regularly read reviews — which are much easier to find on a company’s website.

While in-store shopping is still the overall most popular form of shopping (64% of surveyed consumers prefer shopping in-store), shopping through an online retailer like Amazon (50%) and a company’s website (30%) are the second and third most preferred methods of shopping.

Having an updated, user-friendly website is a key aspect of any business if you want to continue to attract sales.

Whether you’re starting a new business venture, developing a personal brand, or updating an outdated website, there’s no need to build web pages from scratch, which can be complicated and expensive.

I’ve shared some tips below on how to make a website using a website builder or CMS.

Table of Contents

• How to Build a Website
• The Easiest Way to Make a Website
• How to Build a Website With a Website Builder
• How to Build a Website With a CMS
• How to Build a Website With HubSpot
• How to Make a Website: 6 FAQs
• Build Your Website: 36 Tips

The Easiest Way to Make a Website

Use the following comprehensive, step-by-step guide to create a website without the need for a coder, web designer, or big budget.

In general, carry out these steps before launching the site. But first, choose a platform.

Start building your website by choosing a platform.

The first thing you’ll need to decide is whether you want to create a website using a website builder or a CMS.

Let’s take a look at the definitions of each below.

Both website builders and CMS platforms provide the out-of-the-box features, pre-designed templates, and extensions required to create a custom site without coding but offer different experiences for creating and managing a website.

Website Builders vs. Content Management Systems

Here are some examples of website builders and CMS platforms you could use.

How to Build a Website With a Website Builder

A website builder is the easiest way to make a website if you’re a beginner.

I myself have used free website builders such as Wix and WordPress.com in college when writing for campus blogs and magazines, and I felt the interfaces were always straightforward for newcomers to learn.

Follow the below steps to create a site using a website builder.

1. Choose a website builder.

First up, choose a website builder that fits your needs and budget. Consider the following:

• Cost: Your budget will be, by far, the most important factor when choosing a website builder. Most require a paid subscription to include premium features such as domain names and increased storage.
• Features: Website builders typically offer different features depending on their target market. Shopify, for example, is specifically designed for ecommerce websites, while WordPress.com is primarily known for blogging.
• Extensions: Check out the extensions and add-ons library for each website builder you’re considering. If they don’t offer something required for your site, skip that builder.
• Themes and Templates: Some website builders provide more themes and templates, while others have less variety but more well-designed choices. Check out the template library to see how the site may look when completed.
• Ease-of-use: All website builders are designed to be easy to use, but some are more intuitive than others.
• Support: Is the website builder’s support team known for its responsiveness? Research beforehand to ensure a premium subscription will also provide premium support.

No matter what, always start with a free trial. I enjoy using free plans or trials to create a generic “test” website. This may not end up being your official business web page, but it’s a great way to test out some of the website builder’s features before committing.

I recommend checking out HubSpot's Website Builder for free.

While most website builders come with a free subscription tier, they typically won’t offer a free domain name or the advanced features needed to produce a strong, consumer-facing website. I recommend opting for a paid subscription once you have decided which platform you prefer.

2. Sign up for a subscription plan that meets your budget and needs.

A free plan is a good way to build your business while navigating a new platform. But as you grow, I suggest upgrading to a subscription, as free plans typically don’t include enough features to scale and maintain a professional website.

Before upgrading, look at the features included in each tier to choose the best subscription.

Consider the following questions before choosing a subscription plan:

• How much storage will you need?
• Do you want ads to be removed from your site?
• Will you be setting up an online store?
• Will you want a professional email with your domain name?
• Will you want to customize the site using CSS and HTML?
• How much support do you expect you’ll need?

Most website builders have a pricing page that lays out the differences between plans in an easy-to-scan list. Consider starting with the simplest subscription and upgrading if and when you require more features and functionalities.

3. Choose a short and catchy domain name.

Some of the best website builders offer a free subdomain for your site, but upgrading to a paid subscription will get you a custom domain.

A custom domain name is one of the easiest ways to appear more professional and legitimate as a company. Imagine if, as a freelance writer, I was trying to share my portfolio website with potential employers. Which domain sounds more professional: swethaamaresan.weebly.com or swethaamaresan.com?

The good news is that after you upgrade, your premium website builder subscription will include a domain name for free, at least for the first year. You’ll be able to choose it as you’re setting up the site, or do it later.

It can be difficult to come up with website name ideas, so consider short, descriptive, and unique options. Use website name generators like 10Web AI Business Name Generator to yield ideas, or check if original domain ideas are available by using a service such as GoDaddy.

4. Pick a premade website template.

During the setup process, the website builder will take you to a template library, where you can choose a premade layout to set up your site. Most website builders will suggest a different template depending on the type of business or brand you run. For instance, you can choose a template that’s specifically made for:

• Freelancers
• Bloggers
• Local businesses
• Creatives
• Resume websites

Every template should have essential features such as a built-in responsive setting and drag-and-drop page editor. The website builder should also allow demo data import, so you only have to replace the images and text and not tinker with anything else during the setup process.

5. Customize the template.

The issue with a template is that someone may have already used the same one. My advice is to use a premade template to save some time, but customize it to your liking.

On most platforms, you can change the color palette, replace images, insert social media icons, add personalized forms and menus, and change the size, colors, and fonts of buttons.

For beautiful templates that are easy to customize, check out some of the best free Content Hub themes.

6. Add pages to the site.

Next, it’s time to add pages to your site. You’ll need to create, at a minimum:

• A home page.
• An about page.
• A contact us page.
• A services page, if you’re offering any.
• A product page, if you’re selling any.
• A blog page, if you have in-house or freelance writers.

You’ll also want to create specific service pages. For instance, if I were selling “Digital Marketing Services,” I would create pages titled “Social Media Marketing Packages” and “Search Engine Marketing Services” under the digital marketing services umbrella.

Titles show up in search results, so it’s important to put the topic of each page, or target keywords, into the title of each page and subpage to optimize for search.

7. Write optimized content.

The arguably most important step (and my personal favorite!) is writing optimized content to put on all of the pages you’ve created. Get content inspiration from competitors or use an AI tool like Jasper.ai or HubSpot’s AI Content Writer to help you come up with ideas, create an outline, or optimize existing content.

Aim for at least 600 words per page to provide quality content to visitors. Write the text in an editor such as Google Docs and use a grammar checker like Grammarly to ensure the copy is error-free.

Lastly, compress images before uploading with a tool such as Toolur or TinyJPG. These steps will ensure your content helps you rank on Google and other search engines.

8. Fill in general settings.

Before pushing your site live, fill in the general settings. This is the same list you would run through if you were setting up your site on a CMS platform.

Here’s what you’ll want to adjust:

• Page titles
• Headings
• Meta descriptions
• Image alt-text
• Structured markup
• Page URLs (or slugs)
• Internal linking
• Mobile responsiveness
• Site speed

Include a site title and tagline in the “Settings” of the website builder. Check out the URLs — are those optimized for search? Any website builder should make it easy to optimize these elements on every post and page.

With HubSpot, for example, I can add image alt-text, meta descriptions, headings, and custom URLs right in the CMS.

9. Install extensions and apps.

Last but not least, install add-ons from the website builder’s library of extensions and add-ons to increase your website’s functionality. For instance, in the HubSpot App Marketplace, I can filter for, browse, and add a number of different CMS apps and integrations.

Once all the pages, content, and plugins are in place, it’s time to push your site live. After that, simply watch your organic traffic grow.

And remember: If a website builder doesn’t work for you, you’ll always be able to switch over to a CMS. Speaking of CMS, let's review the steps involved in creating a website with a CMS.

How to Build a Website With a CMS

Creating a website with a CMS is a little different than setting up a site with a website builder — mainly because you’ll have to buy a domain name and web hosting on your own. But the process is just as simple, and the powerful customization options make the extra steps worth it.

Here’s some advice from HubSpot’s Content Hub Senior Product Marketing Manager, Alex Girard, “When building a website, you want to make sure your content helps your customers achieve their goal with your business.”

For example:

• If you sell professional services, can customers learn more about the services you offer and easily get in touch with your team if they have specific questions?
• If you’re an ecommerce business, how easy is it for your customers to purchase something right off your website?

“Interview your customers about their experience on your website, and don’t be afraid to run experiments on your copy or on other elements of your website,” Girard says. “Constantly iterating on the experience you provide your customers will help you perfect your website over time."

Below, I cover making a website using a CMS from start to finish.

1. Choose a CMS.

The best CMS system will align with your business’s needs and goals.

Let’s talk about some of the features you’d get from using HubSpot Content Hub to give you an idea of some of the benefits of using content management software.

Example of CMS Software: HubSpot CMS

Price: Free to get started, then $25 per month

HubSpot Content Hub is a web content management system that's built on HubSpot’s all-in-one CRM Platform. As a result, your team will have the tools necessary to offer a delightful and modern digital experience.

Pro tip: Get HubSpot Content Hub, the content platform for marketers, developers, and IT teams that's built on your all-in-one CRM platform.

Below, I broke down some of the most popular website builders to choose from, including Content Hub.

It’s worth noting that while WordPress.org, Joomla, and Drupal are free, you’ll have to pay for domain names, SSL certificates, hosting, and premium themes and templates, adding to your set-up costs. You might also need the help of a developer if you opt for Joomla and Drupal.

It’s helpful to narrow down the many CMS options by considering the following questions:

• Do you need custom code capabilities?
• Do you need the CMS to support multiple languages?
• Would you prefer a proprietary CMS to help share the responsibility of protecting and maintaining your site, or would you prefer an open-source CMS?
• Do you have a preference on templates and add-ons?

2. Select a hosting plan.

Web hosting is a service that enables individuals or businesses to run a website on the internet. The service provider, known as a web host, will store your website files on a secure server that it keeps up and running, then deliver and display that web content to visitors who type your URL in their browser.

Website builders include hosting in their packages, but many content management systems don’t work this way. However, HubSpot’s CMS software offers website hosting for free and doesn’t charge extra for usage.

With other CMS software, you'll have to find your own hosting provider. There are hundreds of web hosts on the market offering different types of hosting, including shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated hosting.

Let’s briefly look at the differences below:

• Shared hosting. In shared hosting, your website shares the same server and resources with other websites. It’s the most popular type of hosting, particularly among new site owners, because it's the cheapest option.
• VPS hosting. If you go for a Virtual Private Server hosting solution, your site will sit on the same server as other websites; however, it will isolate server resources for your site specifically. That means your site will be able to handle higher volumes of regular traffic. It’s a pricier alternative to shared hosting.
• Dedicated server. With a dedicated server, your site will sit on a server whose resources and space are reserved for your site only. If you'd rather not share a server with any other website, you can upgrade to dedicated server hosting.

Once you've decided what hosting you need, pick a provider. DreamHost, HostGator, and Bluehost are among the most popular third-party providers and offer free domain registration for the first year.

After this step, you can essentially follow the same steps listed for using a website builder.

1. Ideate a domain name, check for its availability, purchase it, and connect it to your hosting account.
2. Consider your website’s theme either by using premade templates within the CMS or building your own.
3. If using a template, personalize it to better align with your brand identity.
4. Add pages to cover all necessary sections.
5. Draft content to fill up the pages.
6. Fill in general settings to optimize for search.
7. Install any desired extensions and add-ons.

How to Build a Website With HubSpot

Now, I will walk you through how to make a website with Content Hub. If you’re already using HubSpot’s CRM platform, it makes sense to develop a website within HubSpot to integrate all your sales and marketing needs in one place.

Content Hub offers a variety of plugins and extensions, themed templates, and sophisticated tools for SEO analysis.

Using Content Hub is easy and intuitive. Don’t forget to get a domain name and hosting before starting to build your site.

Here’s how.

1. Create a homepage.

Within your HubSpot portal, click Marketing on the dashboard at the top of your screen. Navigate down to Website, then click Website Pages.

After that, click the orange Create button and choose Website Page from the drop-down.

2. Select a theme.

Now, you’ll be taken to this Choose a theme page. Scroll through your options, search page templates, or check out the Marketplace. When you’ve found a template you like, select it.

3. Edit the modules.

This is your web page. Scroll over text boxes, images, or other modules to edit them. In the below picture, I scrolled over the “Practice Yoga” Banner Text, and when I click it, it allows me to edit that text.

Alternatively, click the Contents tool on the left side of the screen and edit from there. For instance, I selected one Rich Text option, which directed me to the “Vinyasa” paragraph on the page.

Then, add text, images, sections, forms, and more in the expanded view.

4. Create other pages on your website.

When you’re happy with your homepage, return to the dashboard and click Marketing in the top bar, and then Website Pages again.

Here, you’ll click the orange Create button and name your page, just like your homepage. Then, you’ll be taken through a similar process of choosing a template and adding content.

If you want a more in-depth tutorial, check out a quick tour of building web pages.

5. Incorporate social media accounts.

I highly recommend connecting your social media accounts to your website. Since one in four people prefer searching for brands by using social media, it’s helpful if your websites and social media accounts backlink to each other.

To do this, go to Marketing > Social on your dashboard. Monitor all social media accounts and publish X posts, Facebook statuses and comments, Instagram posts, and other content straight from your HubSpot dashboard.

6. View analytics.

To view your site analytics, go to Reports > Analytics Tools. You’ll need to install the tracking code, which is easy to do within the HubSpot platform by clicking the orange Install the tracking code button.

If you’re still unsure, check out how to install the HubSpot tracking code.

7. Add a blog to your site.

If you want to write blog posts, which I highly recommend as a way to provide direct value to consumers while optimizing for search, go to Marketing > Website > Blog on your dashboard to create, publish, and monitor your website’s blog posts.

8. Install add-ons.

Lastly, it’s time to install an app from the HubSpot App Marketplace to extend the functionality of your website. Here’s how:

• In your HubSpot account, click the Marketplace icon in the main navigation bar.
• Under Manage, select Connected apps.
• Click Visit App Marketplace.
• Use the filters in the left sidebar to browse for an app.

• Click on an app to see more information.
• On the right, you can review the details of the app. Under Requirements, check whether or not the app is compatible with your HubSpot subscription, and see if there are any app-side subscription requirements.

• When you're ready, click the Install app button in the top right corner of the screen.

Once you’ve completed these steps, click Publish and your site will be ready for use!

This is a broad and general overview to get you started building a website with Content Hub. However, there are plenty of more in-depth features and tools I suggest exploring with a HubSpot specialist or by checking out HubSpot’s Help Center.

Once you’ve double and triple-checked your work and feel prepared for the website launch, check out our website launch checklist for a final, detailed list of steps to run through before actually publishing.

How to Make a Website: 6 FAQs

1. How much does it cost to build a website?

The cost of building a small business website can range from $500 to $2,500, but the price can be higher if you’re working with a developer.

You should also take into account recurring costs such as hosting, domain name registration, website migration, and SSL certification.

2. How hard is it to build a website?

Creating a website isn’t hard if you use a website builder that packages everything for you. In general, you won’t need to touch a single line of code.

3. How do I create a website for free?

You can create a website for free by signing up for a free subscription on a website builder platform such as HubSpot, Wix, or Weebly.

However, you will have a branded subdomain from the provider (e.g., yourname.weebly.com), branding on the website, and limitations in design, features, and functionalities. Therefore, I recommend upgrading to a paid subscription once you get started and are ready to scale.

4. How do I build a website from scratch?

You can build a website from scratch using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and sometimes PHP. Combine these files and upload them to your web host’s file manager. (You’ll still need to purchase a hosting service and register a domain.)

5. How much does it cost to hire someone to build a website?

Freelance web designers have an average rate of $25/hour. On average, a simple website can cost a couple thousand dollars, a corporate website with multiple pages can cost $3,000-5,000, and a premium, custom website design will cost $10,000 at minimum.

6. How long does it take to build a website?

It depends on how complex it is. Building your own website can take a matter of weeks, whereas hiring a website developer can result in a five- to six-month project.

Build Your Website: 36 Tips

Ready to put your new skills to the test? Take a look at some tips you can use to guide the creation of your site.

1. Choose a one-page design if you want to launch your site more quickly.
2. Include a high-contrast button on the top right of your navigation bar telling visitors to contact you.
3. Use Lorem Ipsum text to preview what the written content will look like as you adjust the layout. That way, you don’t have to write all the content upfront.
4. Buy an SSL certificate if your CMS doesn’t include one already.
5. Make good use of white space to keep the site as simple and easy-to-read as possible.
6. Set your domain and hosting subscriptions on auto-renew to avoid service interruption.
7. Create Terms of Use and Privacy Policy documents if your site gathers user data.
8. Double-check that your website is responsive by accessing it from your mobile device. Most CMS systems and website builders will automatically make your site responsive, but you always want to double-check.
9. Resize your browser window to test what the elements look like at different browser sizes.
10. Access your site from different browsers (Safari, Chrome, Opera, Microsoft Edge) to see how the elements render depending on the browser.
11. Access your site from various devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and monitors, to ensure a consistent appearance.
12. Learn basic HTML and CSS so you can more easily customize your site later.
13. Stick to five navigation bar items at most.
14. Ensure your navigation bar shows up on all pages.
15. Create sub-menus for your navigation items to effectively group your subtopics.
16. Create an XML sitemap for search engine crawlers to find and index your site.
17. Submit your website to Google Search Console once you’ve launched it. That way, Google can crawl it much more quickly.
18. Use an analytics tool such as Google Analytics to see who’s accessing your site and from where.
19. Link internally from page to page so search engines understand how the pages are related.
20. Use keyword-rich anchor text when linking to internal pages.
21. Link to other strong sites in your niche to signal relevancy to Google.
22. Add your business or personal brand to social media sites and backlink to your website.
23. Research other sites in your niche and get content ideas from them.
24. Receive a website rating based on factors such as page performance, security, SEO, and mobile experience by using the HubSpot Website Grader tool.
25. Compress all images to under 250KB. The smaller, the better.
26. Publish and maintain a blog — Of course, I’m serious about that. Try to post at least once a month.
27. Aim for a minimum of 600 words per page and blog post.
28. Use a grammar-checker such as Grammarly to ensure all copy is error-free.
29. Avoid duplicate and boilerplate content — even one paragraph can be enough to hurt the credibility of your page.
30. Recheck your site architecture to make sure your page hierarchy makes sense.
31. Create a backup of your site whenever you make major changes.
32. Seek guest posting opportunities and backlink to your site in your author bio.
33. Join industry organizations and backlink to your site from your member profile.
34. Avoid duplicating pages to use the same layout. If you do, double-check that your slug doesn’t read .com/original-page-copy. This happens more often than you think. If it happens, change your slug. Here’s how to change your slug in WordPress, if you’re using that CMS.
35. Keep your page URLs short and user-friendly. If the title of a blog post is “50 Ways to Conquer Your Fear of Heights and Fly Worry-Free,” don’t have a URL that reads example.com/20XX-03-25/blog/50-ways-to-conquer-your-fear-of-heights-and-fly-worry-free. Consider instead example.com/conquer-fear-of-heights, or whatever is the best target keyword.
36. Add breadcrumbs to your website to clarify your site structure. Here’s how to add breadcrumbs in WordPress.

Build a website to incite growth.

Building a website is a must-do for anyone who wants to be online. Not only does it help your business appear more professional and established, but it’s also one of the main ways consumers can discover your brand.

I primarily use brand websites to discover and purchase products, but I didn’t realize how challenging and costly it can be to develop and maintain a website from scratch.

It’s amazing that we have access to intuitive website builders and CMS products that establish a more efficient and effective website creation process.

This step-by-step guide will help you create a truly special website that accurately represents the brand you care so much about.

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

Our master this week once led 40,000 people in one massive virtual dance party for Oprah. (Oprah!)

As someone whose dance moves resemble a malfunctioning robot, I'll admit that the concept sounded incredibly awkward to me. But watching the vids made me realize Agrawal is onto something: People are desperate for connection.

Radha Agrawal is a community architect, public speaker, and entrepreneur, and she helps businesses (like Meta, Nike, and Campbell’s) create stronger communities within their workplaces. She's also the founder of DAYBREAKER, a morning dance party in 33 cities around the world. 

Let's jump into her three tips for cultivating a community of your own. 

How to Master the Art of Building a Thriving Community

1. You need a community architect. (And no, not the intern.)

Before you scoff at a big ol‘ fluff post on "community" and "friendship," let’s take a good hard look at some numbers:

• In 2023, only one-third of employees were engaged in their work
• Disengaged employees account for $1.9 trillion in lost productivity
• 92% of execs say that high engagement = happier customers

Or, consider a personal example: I met my best friend, Kristen, in-office a few years ago. She‘s now a bridesmaid in my wedding, and I told Radha I’d turn down a job elsewhere even if I was offered $20K more because I'd much rather continue my weekly tradition of working gossiping in the coffee garden at HQ with Kristen.

Community has the power to keep employees happy, engaged, and willing to go above-and-beyond to keep the cash a-flowing for your business.

To cultivate a community, you have to prioritize it.

“You need to hire a community architect — and I don't mean tasking the newbie intern with the job,” Agrawal told me. “Your chief community officer should be brought in with the same level of seriousness as a chief marketing officer or chief executive officer.”

Once you‘ve got your CCO, you’ll want that person to sit down with the head of each department to understand the needs behind each role.

“In a disaggregated work-at-home environment, it's hard to build a sense of camaraderie and loyalty inside a company without first understanding who the humans are behind each department. You'll need to know the miniature ecosystems inside the company, and bring them all into one cohesive value alignment,” Agrawal says.

2. Work is not just for churnin’ and burnin’.

Agrawal acknowledges that loneliness exists at every level — whether you're a CEO, middle manager, or the new intern.

And Agrawal wholeheartedly believes work can be a solution to that loneliness. In fact, she met her own husband in an office.

“It's important to remember that workspaces aren't just spaces for churning and burning. They're spaces to socialize, and it's where you actually achieve and receive your social connections the most.”

Agrawal believes it‘s a leader’s responsibility to figure out how each person on her team wants to socialize.

For instance, she's interested in the newbies on her own team: “I, as a founder of my company, want to understand and learn what the youngest team members on my team want. What do they need? How do they socialize? How can I support them in their camaraderie? That level of curiosity is so important inside of a team.”

My own socializing preferences? Two words: Margarita night.

3. Off-sites, off-sites, off-sites.

In the midst of the pandemic, I remember all too well the awkward attempts at connection.

Zoom happy hours. Remote scavenger hunts. Virtual trivia.

The effort was nice, but it wasn't nearly as powerful as the one company off-site HubSpot hosted last March (which resulted in a team-outing to a karaoke bar, where we brought the house down with a moving rendition of Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On).

Agrawal emphasizes the importance of doing company off-sites as a chance to keep employees motivated and engaged. She also encourages more consistent in-person events if possible.

“The important part is to give it a name and give it a cadence. There's a sense of belonging you're creating when you consider energy and intentionality and space.”

Agrawal provided me with a few examples: Maybe your company hosts a monthly poker night, or creates a roller-skating team who roller-skate in silly costumes once per quarter.

If having everyone in-person isn't an option, can you encourage mini meet-ups in various cities? And if not, how can you make virtual connections easier to make?

The easiest solution is to ask your employees: What would make them feel more excited to turn up to work each morning?

“Too often we think of community building just as butts-in-seats, but not as actually humans, with thinking, feeling souls.”

Remember, those thinking, feeling souls can account for almost $2 trillion in lost productivity — treat them like humans, and you could be shocked by how it sways the bottom-line.

April Sunshine Hawkins is a StoryBrand workshop facilitator, keynote speaker, and co-host of the Marketing Made Simple podcast (which has 2M downloads). 

She helps businesses streamline their messaging, and loves teaching business leaders to leverage the StoryBrand framework to simplify what they're trying to say. 

Keep reading to learn her three tips when it comes to storytelling, selling what you love, and making the customer the hero. 

1. Lead with what you love.

If this sounds a little too similar to the preachings of Liz Gilbert in Eat Pray Love, bear with me; it connects to marketing.

Don’t "do what brings you the most money"... Just do something for the joy of it. Plain and simple. 

"You need to be selling the products that bring you the most joy. Why are you pushing something you hate doing? Don't do that," Hawkins tells me. 

"I know so many people, especially in the SMB space, who are in a rut because they've backed themselves into selling something they don't actually like selling," she says. 

That doesn’t mean you need to stop offering those products entirely, especially if they’re keeping the lights on. 

But when you care about what you’re selling, Hawkins says, your customers can feel it. Lean into the stories or values that matter most to you, and you'll find yourself connecting more deeply with your audience.

Now how do I make a career out of reading rom-coms and drinking frozen margs? 

2. Your customer is the hero. Not you. 

Hawkins sees too many marketers position their brand as the heroes, and she says it's one of the biggest mistakes marketers can make.

"Everybody wakes up the hero of their own story. Your customers, the people you're trying to draw in… The story needs to be about them."

In other words, you’re not Batman — you’re Alfred.

Take a recent example: Hawkins was working with a jewelry brand that creates products in Malawi and pays their workers 3-5X the minimum wage. Naturally, they wanted to shout that from the rooftops. Who wouldn't?

But Hawkins stepped in and pointed out that the brand isn't supposed to be the hero. The customer is. 

"We rewrote the campaign to ask, 'How can these pieces help people celebrate a milestone — like a promotion, an anniversary, a birthday?" 

Suddenly, the jewelry wasn’t just jewelry; it became a badge of a customer's big (and small) life moments.

Have you ever landed on a website and read the first few sentences and thought, Wow, is this person in my head? That's the end-game: For your customers to feel like you get them. 

"When we can position our products to align with what our customers are feeling, it creates that 'ding, ding, ding' moment — 'That's me! This is for me!'" Hawkins says. "That's what we're looking for." 

3. Marketing is just storytelling. 

April Sunshine Hawkins is, as it turns out, exactly what you'd expect — bright, warm, and exceptionally joyful. 

She also loves a good story, which is why she works for a company (StoryBrand) that helps businesses sharpen their messaging through a provided framework. 

"It's just nice to have a framework to go to, so when you're like, 'Oh no, there's a blinking cursor again. What am I supposed to say?' You have a framework to work off of," she tells me. 

Here's the nugget of wisdom: As marketers, we don't always have to reinvent the wheel. If marketing is really just storytelling, then it's vital to treat your messaging the same way you'd write a novel — with a hero, a surmountable challenge, and a triumphant ending. 

More companies than ever are using Instagram for business — over 200 million businesses, to be exact. 

Instagram has proven to be a worthwhile investment for marketing purposes. We surveyed 650+ global marketers in Jan. 2024, and they were more likely to rate Instagram as having high ROI than any other platform, and it’s the platform that will get the most investment from them in 2024. 

If you’ve only ever used Instagram for personal use, it might seem daunting to start using it for business purposes. Here, we’re going to explore how you can be using Instagram for business to promote your business on Instagram. 

Table of Contents

• How to Use Instagram for Business
• What is a business profile?
• How to Create a Business Profile on Instagram
• How to Switch to Your Business Profile
• Top Instagram Promotion Tactics of 2024 [Data]

How to Use Instagram for Business

Let's delve into the six strategies you'll need to employ to get the most out of Instagram.

1. Add value with your content.

First and foremost, Instagram is a visual platform. To attract an audience, it's critical you spend time delivering high-quality, thoughtful content.

To succeed on Instagram, it's essential you create valuable content that attracts an audience and encourages them to engage with your business. Consider how you can delight your customers while staying true to your brand.

For instance, Hot Pockets sells microwaveable pocket sandwiches. Admittedly, I wasn't much of a fan of Hot Pockets — until I began following their business's Instagram account.

There are only so many times you can post a picture of a sandwich. Hot Pockets goes in a different direction. Instead, it appeals to its audience through humor, often posting relevant memes or funny quotes.

For instance, in response to @ShallowDivers' claim that Hot Pockets aren't sandwiches, Hot Pockets responded with this:

Ultimately, it might take trial and error to find the content that works best for your business.

While Hot Pockets relies on humor, other brands like The North Face use impressive adventure images to appeal to its demographic.

The point is, brands need to add value to Instagram's community rather than using the platform for advertisements alone. This is critical for your long-term success.

Looking for a few more tips on how to use Instagram to positively impact your business? Check out these Instagram hacks in the video below.

Put these tips to work, and update your marketing mantra from "content is king" to "valuable content is king."

2. Maintain a consistent theme.

Imagine each Instagram post as an individual page of your website.

While each post should be good on its own, ideally, you'll need to create a cohesive theme to maintain an audience's loyalty. In fact, using a consistent voice and aesthetic across your Instagram page is the #3 strategy Instagram marketers are leveraging this year. 

It's important to note, I mean "theme" in the broad sense, as it relates to everything from hashtags and captions to pictures and videos. You'll need to create a consistent tone of voice and a unified feed aesthetic.

Ultimately, the more specific and consistent you are with your posts, the more likely you are to attract your most authentic audience.

You might think it's better to appeal to more people through various themes, but ultimately, staking your claim in a specific niche will help you create stronger, more genuine connections.

For instance, consider MVMT. Its feed is undoubtedly consistent, with similar filters and color palette, and an emphasis on darker, edgier images:

Its consistency is equally obvious in its captions, with phrases like "Create a life you can't wait to wake up to," and "Unexplored paths lead to undiscovered stories." In every post, you'll see the same hashtag: #jointhemvmt.

Undoubtedly, its followers both expect and prefer this type of content, or they wouldn't have followed in the first place. To continue delighting customers, it's essential MVMT keeps true to its theme.

3. Engage with your audience.

Engaging with your audience helps your followers feel valued and, as a result, more connected to your business.

There are plenty of ways to engage with your audience. You might reply to comments on your posts, participate in comment threads, run contests or giveaways, use Instagram Stories polls feature, or give shout-outs to followers on your Stories, particularly if they post something relevant to your brand.

Halo Top Creamery does a fantastic job of engaging with its audience.

It frequently posts cute ice cream pictures with the caption "Ice cream is better with friends. Tag a friend you'd like to eat this with."

A simple "tag a friend" caption is an effective strategy for growing your audience since your followers will then tag friends who might not know about you yet.

Additionally, Halo Top often does contests and giveaways, like this one:

By tagging winners in its posts, Halo Top incentivizes other followers to engage with the brand in the future. Additionally, Halo Top's giveaways demonstrate genuine commitment to connecting with its audience.

4. Consider influencer marketing.

As a consumer, you've likely seen the recent influx of influencer marketers on Instagram — and for good reason.

Social media marketers we surveyed in 2024 said that Instagram offers the second-highest ROI of all platforms when working with influencers/creators. 

By leveraging the power of an influencer, who is already authentically connected with her audience and seen as a trusted source of information, you're able to spread brand awareness and drive sales.

Micro-influencing in particular is a strong opportunity for brand endorsement.

You could use your budget and resources to invest in traditional advertising, but it's often easier to create a more targeted, effective marketing campaign through influencer marketing.

Ultimately, influencers have already cultivated an engaged, loyal following — by identifying the right influencers for your niche, you're much more likely to find followers who will truly enjoy and support your products or services.

5. Build an ad campaign.

There are two reasons you might use Instagram ads: to spread brand awareness or to increase sales.

It's critical you focus on one goal when creating an effective ad campaign. An Instagram ad aiming to sell a product will look vastly different from one intending to attract followers.

For instance, consider this Greenchef ad that showed up on my Instagram feed.

With various images of delicious food and an enticing "$40 OFF" discount, it's likely a high-converting ad. It's very clear what Greenchef's goal is: to get people to buy their product.

YouTube, on the other hand, invested in Instagram ads for an entirely different reason.

Its advertisements, featuring well-known singers like Camila Cabello, entice followers to simply follow YouTube Music's Instagram channel (and, ideally, YouTube's music channel itself).

To implement an effective campaign, it's essential you decide what you're hoping to achieve before you begin creating it.

Once you've chosen a goal, you'll want to create the ad creative. Similar to what we discussed in strategy one, you'll need to create high-value visual content if you want your ad to be successful. Take a look at other ads on Instagram and consider how you might emulate them.

Additionally, A/B test multiple variations of the same ad (changing the copy, image, or targeted audience for each version), to figure out what works best for your business.

When you're ready to create your ad, you'll need to use Facebook Ads Manager. Among other things, Ads Manager lets you narrow in on your target audience (including location, age, and various interests of your ideal demographic), choose your ad objective, and analyze ad performance.

6. Utilize shoppable posts.

If you’re using Instagram for business, then, Shoppable Posts is one feature you’ll want to know well.

It allows you to create posts and tag your products and/services to create a seamless shopping experience directly on the platform. It creates less friction for your followers, increasing the odds of turning them into customers.

Before you begin executing these strategies, you’ll need one thing: an Instagram Business Profile.

A business profile legitimizes your Instagram account and enables you to add critical information like your company's business hours, location, and phone number.

Pros and Cons of an Instagram Business Profile

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” you might be thinking. “I don’t know how I feel about committing to all that.”

Here are some helpful pros and cons so you can determine if a business profile is right for you before jumping in:

Pros

• Access to metrics on how your posts and stories perform.
• Ability to track how your followers engage with your content.
• Access to features necessary to run ad campaigns.
• Gain feature for adding URLs to Stories so you can send warm traffic to your site.

Cons

• Being labeled as a business.
• May experience less organic reach and visibility.
• Must also have a Facebook account to access ad features.

For most brands, the benefits of a business profile outweigh the cons due to the additional features and analytics. However, it’s important to consider your goals before taking action.

How to Create a Business Instagram Profile

In order to create a business profile on Instagram, you must first create a personal Instagram account and then switch it to a business profile.

If you already have an Instagram account, skip to the next section for instructions on making the switch.

If you don’t already have an Instagram account, there are two ways to get one:

• From the computer
• From a mobile device (IOS and Android)

For detailed steps, check out our comprehensive article on how to create a business account on Instagram.

How to Switch to Your Business Profile

When you have an Instagram set up, follow these easy steps when you’re ready to make the switch:

1. Go to your profile on the mobile app and select the hamburger menu (three stacked horizontal bars) in the top right corner.

2. Scroll down to “Your insights and tools” and tap “Account type and tools.”

3. Under “Account type,” select “Switch to a professional account.”

4. Click “Continue” in the pop-up menu.

5. Select the best category descriptor for your account, like blogger or digital creator, then click “Done.”

You can also toggle the “Display on profile” button so the category you choose is visible to your profile visitors. The button is pictured below. 

And here’s what the button looks like on a profile:

6. Next, choose whether you’re a creator or a business. 

The descriptions under each type let you know what’s most applicable to you based on the category you chose. Once selected, click “Next.”

If you do not have a Facebook Business Page, you will need to create one before completing this step. If your Facebook page is already linked, move on to the next step.

7. Follow the prompts to continue setting up your account and customizing your profile. 

8. Select Done.

You’re now ready to begin implementing your social media strategy on Instagram.

From here, you’ll want to determine the audience you want to target, the aesthetic and tone you want to convey, and the content you want to create.

Top Instagram Promotion Tactics of 2024 [Data]

Here, we’ll review some of the top Instagram promotion tactics gleaned from our 2024 Instagram Engagement Report report.

Audience Interaction

Marketers' primary goal on Instagram in 2024 is increasing engagement, so it makes sense that the most popular Instagram marketing strategy is interacting with audiences. 

Interacting with your audience offers so much more than just engagement. It helps build a sense of community with your followers and allows you to get to know them better.

Content Engagement

Audience interaction takes the #1 spot for the most popular strategy, but survey respondents say they plan to invest the most money in creating content that encourages engagement on the platform. 

What’s more is that 44% of marketers say that creating content that encourages engagement offers the highest ROI. 

Engagement on social media signals that your content is resonating with your audience. Whether it’s an in-feed post, a Story, or a live stream, engagement can be a great indicator of your page’s health.

Wondering how to make your content more engaging? Try creating content that champions your products/services. Our research shows that this type of content performs the best on the platform. 

You can also try the funny route. It offers the second-highest performance, which adds up because funny content tends to be relatable and usually gets someone to stop scrolling and pay attention. 

The format also influences engagement, with most marketers posting images more than anything else. Seventy percent of marketers surveyed post Images on the platform saying it has the highest ROI of all content formats. 

Videos are another effective tool, and the data shows that sharing video content brings in the most reach/impressions of all other formats.

Product Advertising

As Instagram shopping continues to grow, it’s no surprise that marketers' #2 goal for 2024 is advertising their products/services. 

Our research shows that running advertisement campaigns is among the top five Instagram strategies, getting the most investment in 2024. And, as mentioned above, sharing content that showcases products/services offers the highest ROI of any content type 

Instagram shopping tools are still evolving, but 71% of social media marketers who sell products in the Instagram app say the features have high ROI. Most survey respondents also say that 25-50% of clicks on shoppable and linked posts lead to purchases. 

Over to You

Whatever your goal is, whether it's increasing brand awareness or generating more revenue, using Instagram for business gets you one step closer to achieving it. While not all of Instagram's tools will offer a high ROI, they are all worth trying to see what works best for your audience. 

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in May 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Happy fall, MiM-ers! Grab your pumpkin-spiced latte, settle in with Noah Kahan's Stick Season, and get ready to hear from a paid marketer who’s all-in on influencers, storytelling, and AI-targeted ads.

(I'm sorry I can’t offer up a more recent fall-inspired album. To be fair, I'm still obsessed with my "Summer 2019" mix.)

Keep reading to learn why Zapier's head of paid ads thinks the golden age of paid ads is over. 

1. Fully embrace the influencer buzz. 

James de Feu says the golden age of paid advertising is over. And he's okay with it. 

He's also the manager of paid ads at Zapier. 

(I'm currently imagining Mad Men's Don Draper rolling over in his TV grave.)

De Feu is so confident about influencer marketing that he negotiated to bring it under his paid ads team. He succeeded because, moving forward, "we see that as our brand motion." 

In fact, when I asked how he'd spend a hypothetical $1k, de Feu tells me he'd put a hefty 40% into influencers. 

But don't delete your Google Ads account just yet. De Feu says he'd still give 50% of that hypothetical budget to paid ads. (The other 10% would go to SEO, if you got stuck trying to add this up to 100.) 

As he acknowledges, "Paid ads will always be on, and we'll still spend a ton of money there. But paid ads live and die in that spending month. It's not getting us the reach it once did."

That's why de Feu isn’t putting all his eggs in one basket. Paid is still a good egg (err-basket?), but he's excited to seek out influencers who thrive on the same platforms where Zapier's customers hang out. 

"I smirked when you mentioned influencers, because that's the name of the game — even for those of us in the B2B space,” he tells me. “It's no longer just about glossy teenage products anymore."

2. Storytelling is the bread and butter of marketing.

"In the world of paid ads, we get fixated on one single, siloed experience, and we just keep trying to optimize it until it's perfect," de Feu says. "But one thing we've learned is that storytelling is huge." 

"Storytelling is huge" is exactly the same pitch I gave my parents when I was trying to convince them that majoring in creative writing was a sound financial decision — but de Feu isn't wrong. If there's one truth that remains consistent in the world of marketing, it's that humans have always, and will always, love a good story.  

"Stretching something out, building a story, creating use cases, highlighting testimonials — I let go of that over the past couple of years, and I'm just grateful now that we've reset ourselves. Storytelling has always been, and will continue to be, our superpower as marketers." 

So if you're unsure of where to start in the world of paid ads, try this: Talk to your customers, learn their pain points, and then communicate your solutions through a good ole-fashioned tale. 

3. Get used to cha-cha-changes. 

David Bowie preached it: You've got to keep up with all the changes happening in the advertising industry or risk throwing precious cash down the drain. (Those are the lyrics, right?)

For de Feu, that means doing tons of tests to learn how to use AI to personalize Zapier's ads — not just in creating assets, but in audience targeting, too. 

"You have to be really on top of all these recent changes or you'll end up wasting money," he says. 

An example could be an athletic brand that uses AI to target yoga apparel ads to their vinyasa-loving consumers while ensuring their golf apparel is sent to every guy on Wall Street. 

In other words: The future of ads will look a lot more like high-intent, targeted content, and less like the generic, all-purpose ads we've come to know and hate. 

You might know your Instagram content is good, but imagine how much better it will seem if it looks like 10,000 people agree.

Whether you’re trying to become a social media celebrity or simply looking to spread brand awareness on Instagram, it can be tempting to take shortcuts wherever you can in order to expand your audience, including 'buying' Instagram followers.

If you asked whether technology could replace marketing a few decades ago, most would look at you like you hit your head on concrete. Now, it’s no more a question but an issue that’s sparking industry-wide debate.

And we owe this specifically to the generative AI surge — which has more implications for the creative sector than many others.

But the question is, will AI replace marketers or make us better? And what about SEO? Will Googling be replaced with AI chatbots — and what does all that mean for content creation?

To answer these questions, I spoke with Samyutha Reddy, Jasper’s former Head of Enterprise Marketing, to explore her perspectives on what the future holds for AI in marketing and organic search.

Table of Contents

• How do marketers use AI?
• Why AI Won’t Replace Marketing
• AI is a Tool For Marketers, Not a Replacement
• But what about the search engines?
• So, will marketing be replaced by AI?

How do marketers use AI?

First, let’s consider how generative AI is even used in marketing.

Marketers surveyed in our 2024 State of AI in Marketing revealed the major tasks they use AI for. Top on that list are content creation, research, brainstorming, learning, and data analysis.

These tools are offering marketers the ability to generate content more quickly, analyze vast amounts of data with greater accuracy, and even come up with creative ideas through AI-powered brainstorming sessions. All leading to significantly positive ROI for their efforts.

Still, 48% of marketers in our survey are concerned about AI replacing their jobs in the next few years while a whopping 69% believes it’s a possibility that AI completely replaces human beings in the workplace one day.

But here’s why Reddy and I think that may not happen.

Why AI Won’t Replace Marketing

1. AI augments the human experience (but it doesn’t replace the human within that experience).

Generative AI can research any topic online and create original content, formatted as a blog post, email, ad, or more, based on the query — and in record time. In the future, rather than needing a team of five or ten content creators, will you just need one — someone to fact-check the AI's content?

Fortunately, Reddy isn't worried. In fact, even though her team used generative AI on a daily basis, she was still actively hiring and growing her team.

As she puts it, “AI augments the human experience, but it doesn't replace the human within that experience. We value writers in our society because they're able to give us a thought-provoking human perspective on the world.

It isn't just about summarizing facts that are out there. It's about humans sharing opinions on very real topics that help build your perspective on how you feel about something. So an AI [tool] could really never replace that human perspective.”

2. AI still has biases.

Because generative AI is still early in its development, it is prone to potential biases and inaccuracies it cannot discern in the information it gathers. These biases can lead to skewed outputs that may not align with reality, making it essential to maintain human oversight in the process.

Reddy highlights this issue, stating, “AI has biases deeply embedded within its models that people are working on. AI has the tendency to hallucinate and start talking about random things when you're asking it for outputs, so it would be really tough to just completely remove a human from the process.”

This tendency of AI to “hallucinate” or produce irrelevant and sometimes nonsensical content underscores the importance of human intervention to ensure accuracy and relevance.

AI is a Tool For Marketers, Not a Replacement

Instead of viewing this technology as a threat, Reddy suggests marketers do this instead:

“I think the angle you take matters on this whole generative AI front. If you’re a writer, content creator, or a marketer, you’ll want to ask yourself:

‘Am I going to be someone that embraces technology and figures out how to upskill myself and actually become the cream of the crop in terms of talent? Or am I going to be someone who pushes technology away, refuses to believe it's happening, and clings onto an old way of life?’”

Although AI will not take your job, you must not underestimate its impact on your role as a marketer. Here’s how Reddy suggests you stay on top of this innovation.

1. Marketers will need to reskill.

As aspects of content creation become more automated, Reddy acknowledges that AI will force content creators to reskill. She told me, “I think it'll force content creators to re-skill. And I don't think that's a bad thing. I think that's what every big shift in technology has done for humans.”

She adds, “I've never met a content creator who has said, ‘Wait. I really want to spend more time doing all the rote tasks of reading everything I need to know on the internet about a given topic.’ AI will give marketers more time to be creative, form an opinion, and incorporate more data sources into their perspectives.”

Rather than thinking of AI as a content creator replacement, it‘s better to think of AI as a marketer’s efficient side-kick.

Image Source

Consider this: A marketer decides she wants to write a topic about SWOT analysis.

Rather than spending her morning chugging coffee and reading up on what SWOT analysis means, effective SWOT analysis examples, and how SWOT analyses can help businesses grow, she can simply plug the query into an AI chatbot.

Once she’s confirmed the sources the chatbot used to pull that information are accurate, she can quickly skim through the AI's response and learn everything she needs to begin writing about the topic. She can even use the AI’s response as a first draft, and strengthen it with her own unique tone and perspective.

From there, she can leverage the AI’s proofreading skills to edit her final copy.

Additionally, if the marketer has written a piece of content that she'd like to turn into an entire campaign, she can use AI to re-format her blog post into corresponding ad copy, which she can then hand over to her sales and paid ad teams.

As Reddy puts it, “I can effectively hand over to sales an entire drip campaign, an entire outbound sequence, complete with landing pages, with the ads that people will click and see.

And it really allows me to take control back on what it means to execute a campaign. It enables me to truly be a project manager and a strategist, versus someone who is waiting on other people to deliver their end of the bargain.”

57% of our surveyed marketers also confess to feeling pressured to learn new skills so AI won’t make them irrelevant — so this checks out.

2. Marketers will need to become experts in select AI platforms.

Freelancing platform Upwork recently added a new category, ‘Generative AI’, as a specialty within their marketplace.

This means business leaders can now hire freelance content creators who have expertise with a specific AI platform — and Reddy isn’t surprised.

She continues, “Similar to how a marketer can level-up by becoming HubSpot or Salesforce certified, I think we’ll soon see marketers who demonstrate their value by saying, ‘Hey, I’m skilled in using generative AI platforms.’”

Reddy sees marketers at the forefront of a tool that will ultimately upend all roles within a business, and she believes there's great privilege in being the first to adopt it.

As she puts it, “I think there’s a certain power here that marketers can reclaim, and instead of being the victims in this story of ‘generative AI is coming for marketing’, I think we really reposition it as saying, ‘generative AI has landed in the most innovative portion of the enterprise: marketing.’”

She continues, “And we are now the stewards of this technology and how it'’l be used within the enterprise, and we get to pilot it and see how it can supercharge our work.

And the folks who lean into being the stewards of this powerful technology will reap its benefits. I consider myself and our industry extremely lucky to be in this position.”

But what about the search engines?

Away from getting quick answers to common queries, marketers use search engines to complete tasks like SEO optimization to improve website rankings, conduct keyword research to target relevant search terms and analyze competitors to improve their strategy.

Now, with research being the second most-popular use case for marketers using AI, it stands to reason that they'll be leveraging traditional search engines less often.

And as more people move to AI search engines, tools like HubSpot’s AI Search Grader are helping marketers optimize their search performance.

It's a free app that quickly analyzes your brand based on what your prospects and customers are seeing across AI search engines, then gives you actionable recommendations on how to improve.

But what does this mean for traditional search engines? Would we no longer need, or use, them?

Reddy begs to differ, particularly since the information supplied on search engines is what powers generative AI results. She however sees it drastically changing.

As she puts it, “Search can help battle AI’s inaccuracies. For instance, Jasper has a function where you can toggle on Google search results.

So if I say, ‘Jasper, help me write a paragraph about XYZ,’ it’ll write the paragraph, and at the bottom it’ll put in the Google search results it used while it helped me create that output.

So I have factual links which I can cite, and fact-check to ensure they're the most reliable piece of content on a given topic.”

She continues, “I don't see search going away. I do see a future where I don’t necessarily want to type things into a search bar, and instead, I want to use chat functionality. That, I think, is imminent.

And I think we're already seeing that with the virality of ChatGPT. In just a couple of days, it’s become the fastest-growing consumer app.”

So, will marketing be replaced by AI?

In short, our marketing jobs and search engines are safe — for now.Ultimately, my conversation with Reddy felt positive and uplifting. As marketers, we don’t need to fear AI; We need to embrace it as technology that will help us do our jobs better.

And, personally, I‘m all for any tool that minimizes the amount of time I spend doing rote tasks, so I can get back to what really matters: creating content with the intention to move, inspire, or challenge readers’ to think differently.

Think HubSpot isn’t getting in on the generative AI action? Think again. Learn about our brand-new ChatSpot and Content Assistant tools and how you can access them.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2023 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Her answer? “[Generative AI] is here, and we need to steer it in the right direction to reach its potential. I hope that we as creators and marketers and business leaders will take the reins of this technology and bend the arc of its use towards something positive.”

This series explores some of the strongest opportunities for AI in the marketing world today and in the near future, backed by HubSpot original research from our State of AI Survey, and expert perspectives from major brands including Jasper, ZoomInfo, and Mention.com.

Top Generative AI Marketing Findings for 2024 [New Data]

1. 85% of marketers believe generative AI will transform content creation in 2024.

It's clear that AI is poised to revolutionize the marketing industry. But how is a different story.

So we asked marketers: In which aspects of your role do you already leverage AI?

For starters, a staggering 81% of marketers leveraging generative AI report it enhances their roles.

Here's how generative AI helps marketers with their roles:

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As a blogger, one of the primary use cases for AI that I‘ve heard about has been blog creation. However, it’s not the only use case — or even necessarily the most effective one.

So far, 56% of marketers who use generative AI for content creation say it performs better than content created without it.

Creating AI tools themselves is also an incredibly effective lead-generation strategy.

As Amilah Ali, Mention’s Content Marketing Manager, told me, “Creating free AI tools has helped our brand with both brand awareness and lead generation, as individuals who use these tools are more likely to remember the Mention brand, and may also become potential customers in the future.”

If you don't have the time or resources to create your own branded AI tools, there are plenty that can help you deliver more value in your work.

For instance, Mention, a social media listening and monitoring tool, used OpenAI's GPT-3 capabilities to create an Instagram Caption Generator and Instagram Hashtag Generator. They've also created AI tools that help users generate social media bios across popular platforms like Instagram, X, and TikTok.

Helpful Content

• AI in Content Creation: How Creators and Marketers are Using It [Data]
• How to Fit AI Into Your Content Marketing Strategy [+ Its Biggest Pitfalls], According to Jasper's Head of Enterprise Marketing
• AI Images in Marketing: What to Consider Before Leveraging Them

2. 77% of marketers report that generative AI helps create more personalized content.

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As a writer, I was hesitant to believe that a robot could do my job better than I could.

And, in truth, it can't do my job alone. But it can greatly supercharge my own productivity and even upscale my content.

In fact, 77% of marketers believe generative AI marketing is effective at making their content more personalized, 96% say personalization increases buyer repeat purchases, and 94% believe it boosts sales.

(215% more marketers will likely consider their marketing strategy effective if it offers a personalized experience.)

This makes sense: Generative AI is a powerful tool for generating strong ideas, brainstorming more unique angles for your content, and researching topics more in-depth than you otherwise could.

As Samyutha Reddy, Jasper's Head of Enterprise Marketing, told me recently, “AI augments the human experience, but it doesn't replace the human within that experience. We value writers in our society because they're able to give us a thought-provoking human perspective on the world.”

She adds, “It isn't just about summarizing facts that are out there. It's about humans sharing opinions on very real topics that help build your perspective on how you feel about something. So an AI could really never replace that human perspective.”

Helpful Content

• Your Guide to the Best AI SEO Tools in 2024 [Free and Paid]
• Why AI Isn’t Replacing Our Jobs — Or Search Engines — According to Jasper’s Head of Enterprise Marketing

3. Generative AI saves marketers 3 hours on a single piece of content and 2.5 hours per day.

One of the most important benefits of generative AI marketing is how much time it can save for your team.

On average, marketers told us they save three hours per piece of content and two and a half hours per day.

Wow. Let that sink in.

For a writer who needs to complete four posts a week, that translates to over 12 hours — more than a full workday! — that you can now spend up-leveling your career, seeking out more interesting angles for your topics, or focusing on other aspects of your role.

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As HubSpot's CMO Kipp Bodnar puts it, “[AI] gives you the time to obsess over your customers again.”

He goes on to provide a few examples: “It gives your sales team time to genuinely connect with customers and work with them to identify how your products can solve for their unique needs.

It gives your support team the ability to focus on complex customer challenges rather than being bogged down by tickets that could be answered by a chatbot.”

He adds, “It also gives your leaders the insights they need to make more high-impact, powerful decisions that align with what matters most to your customers.”

Helpful Content

• How AI Will Revolutionize the Future of Business, According to HubSpot's CMO
• 10 Affordable AI Tools for Businesses (+ How to Implement Affordable AI)

4. Marketers who don't use AI are worried about over-reliance.

While generative AI marketing offers many benefits, some companies still don‘t plan to use it just yet. Let’s dig into the top reasons why.

The number one: 43% of marketers who don‘t use AI are worried they’ll become overly reliant on AI tools.

HubSpot's Senior Director of Content, Brad Wolverton, understands that marketers might feel an initial temptation to rely heavily on AI — but he believes that most marketers will quickly determine that AI alone doesn't enable them to produce the type of high-quality content they need to stand out.

As Wolverton puts it, “The more reliant marketers become on AI to produce content, the less differentiated that content will feel, which will put a premium on higher-quality research and writing.”

He adds, “AI-generated sites will further erode the trust people have in what they hear and view online, creating opportunities for the companies willing to double down on creative talent.”

Other concerns? 60% of marketers using generative AI are concerned about potential harm to their brand's reputation due to issues like bias, plagiarism, or misalignment with brand values.

Fortunately, these concerns don‘t mean you need to forgo leveraging AI entirely — they’re just valid reasons for practicing smart, responsible behaviors when you begin implementing AI at your company.

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A few tips:

• Be transparent with your audiences when you’re using AI. Let them know, “This blog post was written with the help of ChatGPT.” Whenever possible, being honest with your customers helps foster a sense of trust and could also provide helpful context for areas your customers could use AI. What I like: This transparency builds trust.
• Don’t consider AI as a human replacement. AI is meant to replace menial, tedious tasks like data collection, reporting, and research — but it shouldn’t steer the ship. As a writer, for instance, you still want to check the facts behind each article generated by AI. You should also edit the output to match your own tone, voice, and perspective. Best for: Content quality control.
• Start small. AI can feel daunting and overwhelming, so identify a few tasks on your team that could potentially benefit from AI and test out a few tools specifically designed to help you complete those tasks before thinking bigger. Pro tip: Start with lower-risk pilots.

It's equally helpful to look at how other businesses use AI and take inspiration from them.

Helpful Content

• How Far Are We from AI Singularity? What It Means & Implications
• How Marketers Can Use AI Assistants [+12 Best Tools]

5. 55% of businesses predict that by 2024, most people will turn to chatbots over search engines for answers.

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You're probably thinking — Okay, okay, I get it. AI is great. But what types of tools specifically should I be using in my role as a marketer?

For starters, the clear winner here is AI-powered chatbots. In our survey, 72% of marketers agreed that AI and automation tools like chatbots help them personalize the experience customers get with their company.

Beyond that, chatbots, including ChatGPT, Bing AI, and Google Bard, are rated the most effective for creating marketing content.

Prefer to make your own? Check out HubSpot’s Free Chatbot Builder, which enables you to create chatbot sequences without any coding and personalize chat replies with contact data pulled from HubSpot’s CRM.

Besides chatbots, marketers said other commonly used AI tools include visual AI tools (57%) and text generation tools (56%).

Unsure which tools are right for you? Take a look at 21 of the Best AI Chatbots for 2024.

One other quick note: If you plan to leverage chatbots to create content, transparency will be key.

As Litmus' Content Marketing Manager Kimberly Huang puts it, "Rule of thumb: transparency is key. Dentsu found that over 70% of survey respondents want brands to disclose when they use AI across products, services, experiences, and content."

She adds, “It may feel counterintuitive to do this, but being transparent with your audience ultimately leads to building trust. Especially as we move toward a more AI-integrated world, brands should lean into being open and honest with how they’re using AI.”

So — how can you do that?

Pringle suggests, “It’s as simple as adding in a line of copy that lets your audience know you used AI. For example, in a recent issue of our newsletter, Litmus Weekly, we used generative AI to help create content ideas. We ended the email by sharing ‘this email was written using Jasper.’”

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Convinced generative AI is going to supercharge your own role? Keep reading to learn how to properly harness AI as your new superpower.

Helpful Content

• 4 Types of Artificial Intelligence & What Marketers Are Using Most (Research)
• AI Chatbots: Our Top 21 Picks for 2024
• What Marketers Need to Know About ChatGPT, Google‘s Bard, and Microsoft’s Bing Chatbot
• 190 ChatGPT Prompts Marketers Should Use
• Making the Most of ChatGPT [+10 Examples]

How Marketers Can Harness AI as Their Superpower

1. Become an AI prompt and AI editing superstar.

As you begin dipping your toes into the waters of generative AI, you'll want to ensure you read up on best practices when prompting AI.

A few tips:

• Be clear, concise, and specific in your prompts.
• Request structured data, such as tables or lists, which helps the AI provide a more accurate response. Best for: High-quality AI output.
• Test out different types of prompts, such as open-ended questions.
• Test out different prompt lengths. Sometimes, shorter is better. Other times, more details are needed.
• Be careful when prompting to ensure you're being safe with internal customer data. Pro tip: Have data protection policies.
• Use actionable words in your prompts, like “Write,” “Summarize,” or “Translate.”
• Be specific on how you want the AI tool to present its output to your prompt.

Take a look at the following examples of weak versus strong prompts:

Why is the first one weak? Well, imagine if you told a junior associate at your marketing firm the same thing.

I‘d imagine she’d look up at you and say, “Okay… But how long should the social media post be? Do you want me to use emojis? Which social platform are you going to post this on? And is there anything important from the introduction that you definitely want me to include?”

Treat your AI chatbot the same way you'd treat a junior associate. Provide specific, actionable prompting to get the most out of the tool.

And, if you‘re curious, here’s ChatSpot's response:

Impressive, huh?

Similar to prompting, you'll want to become adept at scoping out prompt responses and editing for consistency across your content, tone of voice, and always double-checking that the information is accurate.

As Ben Salzman, SVP, GTM Strategy & ZI Labs at ZoomInfo, which launched a GTM Playbook with AI tips for sales teams, puts it:

“In our sales AI prompts, we include a specific person that the communication would come from, along with details about the prospect who will receive the outreach, including title and company. We also add tone guidance and constraints around how the outreach should sound, and of course, the scenario of the play.”

He adds, “We found that the more information we gave, the more time we saved when it came to editing and iteration.”

Ultimately, AI won't replace humans — but the humans who know how to properly leverage AI will replace the humans who don't.

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2. Learn how to use AI to scale marketing campaigns.

It's vital you take a multi-channel approach when creating content to attract prospects and engage with leads.

But that can be exhausting and time-intensive — which is where AI becomes your most beloved confidant.

As a marketer, you need to learn how to leverage AI to get more bang for your buck from one single piece of content.

For instance, let's say you start with a blog post. You might use an AI-powered chatbot to create social media and email copy to distribute that content.

Additionally, you might convert the blog post into a video script so you can create an AI-powered YouTube video that revolves around the same topic. What I like: Content repurposing at scale.

You might even ask AI to help you turn that blog post into sales enablement materials.

AI can ultimately help you amplify your messaging across channels and distribution engines without requiring hours of coordination with other teams to create brand-new copy for various channels. Best for: Efficiency gains.

And that's a huge win.

3. Prepare to re-evaluate your SEO strategy.

As more marketers — and consumers — begin leveraging chatbots to ask questions and seek out information rather than search engines, it stands to reason that the search landscape will change drastically.

To ensure your website is in the best position possible, it's vital you re-evaluate your long-term SEO strategy.

Aja Frost, HubSpot’s Director of English Growth, told me, “SEOs have been fighting declining click-through rates from Google since the introduction of the first search features.

With the addition of AI-powered chat on the SERPs, it’s very possible Position 1 will become the only result that gets traffic. Bard shifts positions 2-10 below the fold. Depending on the length of the Bard-generated answer, even the first position might be!”

She advises, “In the short term, SEOs should evaluate which terms their websites are ranking for that are most likely to see Bard on the SERPs (likely ‘how’ and ‘why’ queries) and what percentage of their traffic that puts at risk.

The answers will help them develop a longer-term plan — investing in ranking for lower-risk queries, finding unique ways to enrich their content that AI can’t replicate, and more.”

4. Become an explorer.

AI is still relatively new, and it can be scary to test out how you might leverage AI in your role. It might even be tempting to say, “I'll just keep doing it the old way. Why fix what isn't broken?”

But it's equally risky to avoid AI, which will continue to change the way other marketers create, engage, and sell. You could be left behind if you don't learn to leverage it for your own gain.

As HubSpot's Bodnar puts it, "AI is going to commoditize and disrupt so many businesses that the way to prevent that is to be very bold and move forward to embrace AI as quickly as possible."

Fortunately, this can become a fun aspect of your role. Start testing out new AI tools (a list of those can be found below).

Find out which tools are most effective for your team and share them widely across the organization. Become an explorer who is willing to slow down your current processes to test, iterate, and learn.

Trust me — in the long run, it's worth it.

The Top AI Tools to Consider Leveraging Right Now

Here's a quick and handy list of various AI tools suited for different needs.

Getting Started

Ultimately, the power of AI begins and ends with your own imagination: How generative AI fits into your marketing strategy and other business applications will depend on the creativity and vision of those leveraging these powerful tools.

In what ways can you imagine AI supercharging your work, now and in the future?

You open your computer on a Monday morning, and you have a few Slack messages about a campaign you're launching on Tuesday.

After you‘ve answered those, you check your inbox and see you’ve been tagged in some slides for that same campaign.

Once you're done responding, you hop on a Zoom call to chat with stakeholders about last-minute tasks that need to be completed for launch. A few of the stakeholders would like you to email a follow-up from the meeting, so you do.

But others would rather you tag them in the appropriate Google docs, so you do that, too.

Suddenly it‘s 1pm, and you’ve done nothing substantial on your to-do list to get this project launched. Your entire day has been hopping in and out of various messaging apps, slide decks, and Zoom calls, just trying to get everyone aligned.

Sound familiar?

I spoke with Jake Cerf, Head of Corporate Marketing at Asana, to untangle the biggest challenges most teams face when it comes to productivity in 2024 – and how you can solve them.

What Teams Get Wrong When It Comes to Productivity

Jake empathizes with the chaos that can ensue when you don't focus on creating efficient processes for team-wide productivity.

“It can get chaotic,” he told me, adding, “Before I joined Asana, I reflected back on how I spent my time coordinating with folks — and it was a mess. We would be on email, Slack, and Google docs, and slides. And you never really knew who was doing what, and when, and it was too easy to lose sight of the objective we were all after.”

Which sounds painfully relatable. Fortunately, he has some tried-and-true tips for cleaning up your team's processes and creating more scalable options to improve cross-functional collaboration.

1. Each team leader needs to know how their work ladders up to corporate objectives — and they need to make it clear in their workflows.

People always want to know how their work connects to broader strategic initiatives. They want to feel seen, valued, and know they are making an impact. So much of a leader's job is about making sure people are working on the right priorities, and aligning to goals that move the needle.

That’s what makes a product like Asana so crucial. Jake has an easy time ensuring he isn‘t micro-managing his team on specific tasks, and that’s because in Asana he can see how each sub-task his team is responsible for ladders up to the company's key objectives for 2024.

Additionally, to solve for conflicting cross-department goals, it can be helpful to use one centralized productivity tool that highlights the top-down priorities for the company.

“As a leader, so much of our job is making sure people are working on the right things, helping unblock team members and enabling them to have a North star. It's good for productivity because when folks feel like they're working on things that matter, they do better work,” Jake says.

He adds, “You don't have to be as in-the-weeds on the details. You can tell team members the what and the why, and they can figure the rest out. But being clear about big picture objectives unlocks productivity up, down, and across the organization.”

If you‘re dealing with productivity issues, start by ensuring each leader is aligned on the major company objectives for 2024 – and then task them with demonstrating how all of their team’s projects ladder up to that ultimate goal. If a task doesn‘t fit, it’s time to consider re-focusing on the activities that do.

2. Assign your AI a "role" to uplevel your team's productivity.

There's been plenty of conversation surrounding AI over the past two years, but people are still skeptical about the improvements it can make to their daily lives.

In fact, 62% of marketers globally believe people should use some AI in their roles. For Jake, AI has proven much more useful as a teammate rather than just a tool.

"My life changed drastically when I stopped prompting AI with generic requests like, 'Please write this blog post‘, and instead honed in on who I wanted AI to be: ’Please write this blog post as if you're a tech writer at a large-scale SaaS company.'"

Jake highly recommends assigning AI a “role” when leveraging AI for productivity.

“When teams are working on an important initiative, and you give each AI bot its own specific role, the output is much greater. Let's say you're writing a blog post — you can assign AI to be the editor, the fact-checker, or the content strategist.”

“Or,” He adds, “if you use tools like Asana, you’ll have access to AI that is one of the world's greatest project managers. It can help you unblock issues and triage requests and make sure people are working on the right things.”

Ideally, the productivity tools you leverage already have AI capabilities built-in. If not, look into which plug-ins or external tools you might use to increase efficiency.

3. Leverage AI to minimize busywork.

The antithesis of productivity is busywork.

If your team is bogged down by menial tasks, they likely don‘t have the energy or time to focus on the big picture objectives that account for most of your team’s impact.

That's a major roadblock – and one that can be solved with AI.

Jake offers the example of repurposing content as one opportunity for increased productivity. He says, “With AI, you can take a keynote presentation and ask AI to draft a blog post on the keynote. Or, you can take your keynote script and ask AI to design the presentation itself.”

He continues, “Finding new avenues to increase the longevity and impact of your content is one of the best ways to use AI.”

Additionally, Jake encourages marketers to leverage AI for content creation, as well as more creative outputs like manager reviews, sending feedback to teammates, riffing on ideas, role playing scenarios, and more.

4. Have one centralized workspace for teams to work cross-functionally.

Finally, none of this is possible without creating a strong foundation for efficient, scalable cross-functional collaboration.

Remember those slide decks and Google docs and Slack messages and emails I mentioned earlier? Why not try to put more of your work in one centralized place?

“Productivity comes down to visibility,” Jake says. “Your team needs to be rowing in the same direction. Having a tool like Asana has been super helpful for our team productivity — you need a place where you can set your goals and then track all of the team's work and hold people accountable.”

“Plus,” he adds, “It's crucial you use the same centralized workspace when you're setting strategy so that you have alignment around the tasks and initiatives that will help you achieve your goals.”

In other words – jumping between 30 different messaging and content creation apps and tools isn‘t conducive to long-term productivity. As a leader, it’s your job to figure out how to centralize as much as you can in one place – and then use AI to supercharge it all.

To learn more about how HubSpot and Asana are helping marketers drive productivity, take a look at the HubSpot and Asana integration available today.