15 of the Best SEO Tools for Auditing & Monitoring Your Website in 2021

There's nothing quite like a sudden Google algorithm update to leave marketers feeling equal parts confused and concerned. It seems as though search engines like Google wait for you to get all of your ducks in a row and then unleash an update that makes your efforts instantly obsolete.

Plus, there's still some secrecy behind how Google evaluates websites and determines which sites appear — and how they appear — on the search engine results page (SERPs) for different queries.

The good news is that there are a number of search engine optimization (SEO) tools out there — some free, some paid — that can help you view your website the way search engines like Google see it — this way, you can improve your ranking and relevance for your target keywords.

In this blog article, we’ll review 11 free SEO tools and 14 paid SEO tools.

(Note: Some of the free tools below also offer paid plans while some of the paid tools also offer free plans — so, we recommend you check out the pricing pages for the tools you’re most interested in to determine which plan is ideal for your needs and goals.)

11 Free SEO Tools

1. HubSpot Website Grader

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Marketers work to generate traffic and qualified leads via their company’s website. That’s why it’s important for marketers to understand exactly what they can do to improve the impact and SEO of that website.

With HubSpot’s Website Grader, simply enter the URL of your website and you’ll automatically receive a Report Card with actionable insights about your SEO efforts. From there, you can sign up for the HubSpot Academy Website Optimization course that teaches you how to improve your website's SEO, user experience (UX), and more based on the type of feedback you received on your Report Card.

With the HubSpot Website Grader, you can:

• Learn about your website’s performance in just seconds.
• Identify specific performance issues and receive clear, actionable feedback on how you can fix them.
• Receive how-to education and on-demand support on how you can improve your website.
• Gain access to a five-lesson HubSpot Academy course on Website Optimization so you can understand how to improve upon your website’s specific problem areas.
• Discover how to optimize your website for mobile.
• Learn how you can implement website security best practices.
• Personalize your website’s UX to create a delightful experience for users.

2. Google Search Central: Google Search Console

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Google Search Central (formerly known as Google Webmasters) has a number of tools meant to help you appear in the SERPs for the search terms and phrases your target audience is looking for.

If you’re a business person or marketer, Search Central guides you to use Google Search Console to help with your SEO and website analysis. Google Search Console monitors, debugs, and optimizes your website — and there's no coding knowledge necessary.

Here are some examples of website elements Google Search Console will teach you about and help you optimize.

• The keywords that currently rank on your website.
• Any crawl errors that exist on your website. 
• The mobile-friendliness of your website. 
• The number of your web pages that are in Google’s Index (if they aren't in Google's Index, you can use the tool's URL Inspection Tool to submit a page for indexing). 
• The website-related metrics that matter most to you including clicks, impressions, average click-through-rate (CTR), and average position.

3. Google Analytics

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Although Google Analytics has a paid version, the free version of the product can help you manage your website’s SEO — this is especially true if you pair Google Analytics with Google Search Console. In doing so, all of your website’s SEO data will be centrally located and compiled, and you can use queries to identify areas for improvement with the keywords and phrases that you want your website and web pages to rank for.

Other ways that you can use the free version of Google Analytics to understand and improve your SEO are:

• Remove spam traffic — or filter your referral traffic — to get rid of the traffic that has the potential of ruining SEO reports, such as fake referrers (which bring fake traffic to your website).
• Compare organic versus non-organic website traffic.
• Identify which of your web pages receive the most traffic so you’re able to understand what you can do to improve SEO on those pages.
• Use Site Content Reports to determine engagement metrics on each web page, engagement for the directories and pages on your website, page exit metrics, as well as acquisition, behavior, and conversion of landing pages.
• Review the Multi-Channel Report’s Assisted Conversions feature to identify which of your Channels — which are defined as sources of your traffic, such as paid and organic search or referral sites — led to the most sales or conversions, and the value of those sales and conversions for your business.

4. UpCity Free SEO Report Card

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The Free SEO Report Card by UpCity lets you analyze your website to determine how it stacks up against the competition.

In exchange for a bit of your contact information, SEO Report Card will serve up a report that covers the following:

• Rank Analysis: A snapshot of where your website ranks on Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Your ranking is based on your main keywords.
• Link Building: A detailed account of the number of websites that link back to your site.
• On-Site Analysis: A look at how successful you were in incorporating your main keyword throughout your site.
• Website Accessibility: Information about your site's load time and accessibility.
• Trust Metrics: An overview of your site's level of trust or authority.
• Current Indexing: An indication of how many of your site pages have been indexed.

5. Internet Marketing Ninjas

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Internet Marketing Ninjas is an SEO-focused company with a variety of free tools you can use to compare your website against the competition, optimize web pages for certain keywords, generate meta tags, and increase organic traffic to your website.

Here are some examples of the free Internet Marketing Ninja SEO tools you can take advantage of:

• Identify broken links and redirects and use the site crawl feature to generate an XML sitemap of your website.
• View images (plus their alt text and display size) and all of your page links (external, internal, etc.) on your web pages to review what’s working well and what’s broken or needs an update.
• Use the on-page optimization tool to evaluate your web page content, meta information, and internal links.
• Get a side-by-side comparison of the SEO of your web pages versus a competitor’s web pages.
• Analyze page-load time and how long each component of a web page takes to fully display.

6. Bing Webmaster

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Microsoft Bing Webmaster gives you access to a number of tools that offer insight into your your website such as reporting, diagnostic, and SEO tools. The SEO tools that you can use for free have the power to help you analyze your website, manage backlinks, and review keywords to ensure your site is well-optimized for organic search.

Here are some of the other things you can do with Bing Webmaster's SEO tools:

• Learn about your backlink profile to understand referring pages, domains, and anchor links.
• Perform keyword research to determine which keywords and phrases your audience is searching for as well as the search volumes of those keywords and phrases.
• Use the site scanning feature to crawl your website and identify technical SEO errors.
• Get SEO reports that tell you about any errors that are on your website and individual site pages.

7. Seolyzer

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Seolyzer is a free site crawling, log analysis, and SEO tool that helps you determine how search engines like Google view your website. Seolyzer pulls information that crawling bots leave in your server’s log files while browsing your site to identify and create your SEO KPIs. The tool also identifies error codes, redirects, and page speed and performance.

Additionally, Seolyzer can help you:

• Quickly identify, and continually monitor, SEO issues on your website such as poor response time, error messages, and crawl volume so you can resolve them before serious damage is done.

• Manage and analyze your unique KPIs with Seolyzer such as page performance, crawl volume, HTTP status codes, active and new pages, and desktop versus mobile responsiveness.

• Segment your web pages to determine what your most crawled pages are. 

• Compare your web pages that Google deems as the most important to the ones that you deem as the most important (e.g. revenue-focused pages).

• Measure the impact of your SEO efforts on a page-by-page basis or by the category of the page.

8. SEOquake

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SEOquake is a Google Chrome extension that automatically checks a web page’s SEO parameters quickly and for free. This includes on-page SEO audits, internal and external link review, real-time URL and domain comparison, and data file export.

Other things you can use SEOquake for are:

• Get a detailed description of how all of your links are doing — including URLs, anchor text, and other link types — with the tools Link Examiner feature.
• Adjust the SEOquake reports you receive to display only the parameters and metrics that you care about.
• Compare different domains or URLs for the SEO parameters that matter to you.
• Audit your website’s SEO to identify any SEO-related issues that would be findable by search engines.
• Export the results of your SEO analysis into an adjustable and shareable report.

9. Seoability

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Seoability is a free SEO-checker tool. With it, you can test your website’s level of compliance with today’s SEO guidelines. By simply entering your URL, your site will be analyzed and you’ll receive tips on how you can better optimize your website.

In addition to a detailed SEO audit of your website, you’ll gain access to 1,000 subpage audits, email reporting and alerts, and keyword monitoring.

Here are some more advantages of using Seoability:

• Find technical errors and other on-page SEO issues so you can resolve them quickly.
• Receive an SEO score for various website factors including meta-information, page quality, link structure, and more.
• Understand the specific SEO issues with your meta information such as meta titles/ descriptions, meta tags, and invalid or incorrect domain names or page URLs.
• Identify areas for improvement regarding your page speed and quality (related to text, duplicate content, responsive design, and alt attributes for content).
• Understand how your page and link structure can be improved by getting data about your headers, internal links, incorrect anchor text, and number of links.
• Identify specific server errors related to any redirects, HTTP headers, or CSS and Javascript files.

10. Check My Links

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Check My Links is a Google Chrome extension that you can use to ensure your links on both internal or external web pages work. For instance, if you were to search a term on Wikipedia, Check My Links would be able to tell you how many links that Wikipedia page has in total and how many of those links are broken.

This is helpful because you can make corrections to broken links immediately (or hopefully, before a page goes live). Check My Links is ideal for developers, content editors, and web designers according to its creators.

Here are some more examples of what Check My Links can do:

• Check each link on your web pages and identify all invalid and broken links.
• Auto-highlight the good links in green and the broken links in red.
• Copy all of your bad links to your clipboard in one click.

11. BROWSEO

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BROWSEO is an SEO browser that allows you to review your webpage in a stripped-down format so you can analyze it's UX and content as well as gain insight into its SEO. Once you input the URL, the output will hone in on your HTML so you're able to understand the page's structure, optimized search terms, and other SEO-related factors.

Examples of what you can do with BROWSEO are: 

• Get the number of words on the page.
• Discover your server response code.
• Determine the number of internal and external links on your page. 
• Identify the headers on your web page. 
• Get all of your meta information (e.g. title tag, meta description).

14 SEO Tools

Next, let’s look at some paid SEO tools. (Note that some of these tools have free trial periods. Some also offer entirely free plans but with restrictions in terms of flexibility and customization.)

1. Ahrefs

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Price: Seven-day trial for $7, $99/ mo for Lite, $179/ mo for Standard, $399/ mo for Advanced, $999/ mo for Agency

Ahrefs is an advanced SEO resource that examines your website property and produces keyword, link, and ranking profiles to help you make better decisions on your content.

Some of its main features are:

• Site Explorer, which shows you the performance of specific webpages on your website.
• Content Explorer, which allows you to search high-performing webpages under specific keywords and topics.
• Keywords Explorer, which generates the monthly search volume and click-through rates of specific keywords.
• Site Audit, which crawls specified verticals within your domain and reveals a number of technical issues at the page level.

When using the Keyword Explorer, Ahrefs also produces the "parent topic" of the keyword you looked up. A keyword's parent topic is a broader keyword with higher search volume than your intended keyword, but likely has the same audience and ranking potential. This gives you more a valuable SEO opportunity.

2. SEMrush

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Price: $119.95/ mo for Pro, $229.95/ mo for Guru, or $449.95/ mo for Business

SEMrush is an elaborate dashboard that reports on the performance of domains as a whole and their specific pages. SEMrush offers numerous resources, one of which is the SEO Toolkit.

Toolkit allows you to track a website’s visibility improvement over time as well as identify which keywords it's ranking for, what the page's rank is for a keyword, the keyword's monthly search volume, and more.

SEMrush also allows you to:

• Compare your page performance against your competition.
• Analyze backlinks from other websites to your site (also known as link building).
• Research appropriate keywords.
• Discover and take advantage of similar on-page SEO opportunities.
• Use the Keyword Magic Tool to identify all keywords you need to successfully build a profitable SEO or PPC campaign.
• Identify the paid keywords or ad copy used in the PPC ads of your competition.
• Use the social media publishing and analytics tools.
• Receive recommendations for how you can increase your organic traffic by optimizing your content.
• Upgrade your account at any time for greater flexibility and more features.

3. GrowthBar

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Price: Free five-day trial, $29/ mo

GrowthBar is a Chrome extension that can help you perform keyword research, competitive analysis, and track SEO rankings. With the GrowthBar, access data points about any website directly from the search engine results pages. This allows you to assess your competitors' performance and view the growth channels, keywords, backlinks, and ads that are working for them.

Here are some more key features of GrowthBar:

• Use the Top Keywords and Backlinks feature to see which paid and organic keywords are driving the most traffic for your website and get a list of the most authoritative backlinks pointing to your site.

• Get your Keyword Difficulty Score to quickly assess how hard it would be to rank for a particular keyword based on the strength of the domain authorities of the URLs ranking on page one.

• Use Word Count to view the word count of any page directly from the SERP.

• Run Facebook Ads and get a visual of what they look like from a search engine's perspective. 

• Use the Keyword Suggestions tool to get a list of related keywords you might want to rank for along with their Search volume & CPCs.

4. Woorank

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Price: Free 14-day trial, $59.00/ mo for Pro, $179.00/ mo for Premium, or contact for Enterprise quote

Woorank's in-depth site analysis helps marketers reveal opportunities for optimization and improvement. This analysis takes into account the performance of existing SEO initiatives, social media, usability, and more.

Each report is divided into eight sections to help you easily analyze your site and identify targets for optimization — here are the sections:

1. Marketing Checklist
2. SEO
3. Mobile
4. Usability
5. Technologies
6. Social
7. Local
8. Visitors

5. BuzzStream

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Price: Free 30-day trial, $24/ mo for Starter, $99/ mo for Group, $299/ mo for Professional, $999+ for Custom

Although backlinks to your website are critical to ranking well on Google, the outreach you do while link building can feel a lot like cold calling. BuzzStream makes it easy to research the appropriate people, come up with effective email messages, and track who's accepted each link request.

BuzzStream also helps you:

• Identify candidates for outreach based on their industry. 
• Identify candidates for outreach based on how engaged they are across various social networks.
• Identify candidates who will likely be receptive to your backlink request for other reasons that are unique to your business's niche. 

6. Moz Pro Tools

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Price: Free 30-day trial, $99/ mo for Standard, $149/ mo for Medium, $249/ mo for Large, $599/ mo for Premium

The Moz Pro subscription serves as an all-in-one tool for increasing your business' search ranking. Moz's collection of research tools provides subscribers with the resources they need to identify SEO opportunities, track growth, build reports, and optimize their efforts.

Moz Pro also includes: 

• A website crawler that analyzes up to 3,000 links on a given URL.
• An email report that details that crawl data for the pages your site links to.
• Insight into various "crawlability" factors, such as duplicate content and redirects, that could be influencing your SEO performance.

7. Linkody

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Price: $14.50/ mo for Webmaster, $24.90/ mo for Advanced, $49.90/ mo for Pro, 99.90/ mo for Agency, and $153.90 /mo for Agency XL

The best way to understand the performance of your off-page SEO is by having a good overview of your backlinks. Linkody allows you to discover, track, analyze, and disavow backlinks all from an easy-to-use interface.

Aside from that, the tool checks your links 24/7 and informs you of any changes so you can take immediate action in case a link is lost or broken.

Other Linkody features include: 

• The ability to “spy” on your competitors’ backlinks. Simply enter the URL of your competitor and let the tool pull all the links and metrics. The information returned will help you discover niche-relevant, high-quality backlink opportunities for your brand.
• Gain useful insights into your most important metrics when it comes to backlink tracking, such as the ‘rel’ attribute, Google indexation status, the website’s Domain Authority, Spam Score, Alexa rank, and more.
• Create white-label reports that can be shared with your team and/or clients to get a better idea of your backlink distribution and link-building progress.

8. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

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Price: Free or €99/ year

Designed specifically for the SEO-minded, this program crawls the websites you specify, examining the URLs for common SEO issues. This program simplifies and expedites an otherwise time-consuming process — especially for larger websites. (It could take hours or days to manually evaluate the same URLs.)

Other notable features are: 

• An intuitive Java program with easy-to-navigate tabs.
• Easy export to Excel for further analysis of any of your data. For instance, if you use Optify, Moz, or RavenSEO to monitor your links or rankings for specific keywords, you could simply create a .csv file from your spreadsheet, make a few adjustments for the proper formatting, and upload it to those tools.

9. Remove'em

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Price: $249 one-time payment for Life-Time plan, $99/ mo for Subscription (one website), or $899/ mo for Agency (10+ websites)

Artificial or unnatural links have the potential to seriously hurt your search ranking. Remove'em helps get rid of those links. The tool has the ability to: 

• Scan your backlink profile and turn up a list of contact information for the links and domains you'll need to reach out to for removal.
• Export that list if you wish to disavow them using Google's tool.
• Tell Google not to take these "bad" links into account when crawling your site.

10. AnswerThePublic

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Price: $99/ mo for Monthly plan, $79/ mo for Annual plan, $399/ mo for Enterprise plan

AnswerThePublic is a search listening and keyword tool that listens to autocomplete data from Google and other search engines, and then provides you with a list of phrases and questions that people are searching for around your keyword. This allows you to craft your website and content to your audience to increase traffic and conversions. 

With AnswerThePublic, you can also: 

• Receive updates when people are talking about your most relevant keywords. 
• Monitor keyword trends and understand keyword research behavior among your target audience and customers. 
• View the keywords and phrases that your audience is researching in real-time. 
• Get ideas for your website and blog content based on relevant keyword research. 

11. Keyword Hero

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Price: 14-day trial for any plan, Free for Little Hero, $9/ mo for Big Hero, $49/ mo for Giant Hero, and $149/ mo for Ultimate Hero

Keyword Hero pairs your visitor's sessions with the keywords they used to land on your page, all within your Google Analytics account. In other words, this tool gives you an understanding of the search intent of your organic traffic. 

Here are some more actions you can take with Keyword Hero: 

• Identify the organic traffic and conversions you receive from your intended keywords. 
• Optimize your site structure and web pages for your target keywords.  
• Separate your brand versus non-brand search traffic. 
• Optimize your position in the SERPs by optimizing your website for specific target keywords. 
• Identify the type of query (informational versus transactional) that your visitors used to arrive on your website. 

12. SpyFu

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Price: $39/ mo for Basic, $79/ mo for Professional, $299/ mo for Team

SpyFu is a competitor keyword research for Google Ads. In addition to keyword research, it helps with PPC competitive research, SEO competitive research, and the creation of custom lists and domains.

The tool helps you drive traffic to your Google Ads campaigns and website, monitor both paid and organic rankings on Google, Bing, and Yahoo, and obtain reliable and accurate contact information for leads. 

With SpyFu, you can also: 

• Download a competitor's PPC keywords to understand their clicks and how much they pay for keywords. 
• Track the domains bidding on your Google Ads. 
• Download a competitor's SEO keywords. 
• Review the ranking overtime of a page or website for a keyword. 
• Identify the backlinks your competitors use. 
• Discover keyword ideas and get keyword advice for your Google Ads to increase chances of conversion. 

13. Seomater

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Price: Pay as You Go (starting at $5), $19/ mo for Small Business, $49/ mo for Professional, $179/ mo for Unlimited

Seomater is an SEO auditing and website crawling tool. It assists with technical SEO analysis and SEO on-page optimization testing. Once the tool crawls your site, you'll receive an SEO report that explains your website's various SEO-related elements including internal and external links, backlinks, page quality and speed, social media, organic presence, and more. 

Your analysis will also come with tips on how you can improve each of these SEO elements. In addition, you can: 

• Use the SEO Monitoring Alerts feature so your website is automatically crawled and so you're notified immediately if something is problematic in terms of SEO.
• Get up to 13 detailed reports about your on-page and off-page SEO aspects. 
• Use the Domain Comparison tool to compare two competitor's websites to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their SEO (such as broken links, content quality, HTML tags, and more).  

14. ContentKing

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Price: $139/ mo for Basic, $219/ mo for Standard, $319/ mo for Premium, or contact a rep for an Enterprise quote

ContentKing is real-time SEO auditing and content tracking tool — it tracks your website 24/7 so any issues related to SEO don't go unnoticed for too long. The tool is cloud-based, meaning there's no installation required and your data and reports are available whenever you need them.

You can also:

• Use ContentKing's 24/7 website audits (and algorithms) to gain insight into your SEO and receive tasks that will help you improve your SEO. 
• Get alerted whenever something on your website is broken or is no longer well-optimized so you can efficiently fix the issue.  
• Track all of your content changes on your site (such as changes on individual web pages and changes in robots.txt) and search your changes history.
• Visualize data (from all of your websites) with real-time dashboards and reports. 
• Easily collaborate with your team or clients from within the tool. 

Now that you've learned about 25 free and paid SEO tools, determine which option will help you achieve your SEO goals and get started auditing, optimizing, and monitoring your website, individual web pages, and content.

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

15 of the Best SEO Tools for Auditing & Monitoring Your Website in 2021 was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

9 Valentine's Day Marketing Campaigns We Love

Love, flowers, chocolate, bla bla bla ...

Where are the marketing results?!

Okay, probably not what your Valentine's date cares about. But if you're a marketer, you might be interested in merging the most lovey-dovey of days with your marketing. But how?

Well, these companies have figured out some creative ways to leverage the warm and fuzzies (or unadulterated rage and crushing loneliness ... whatever) that Valentine's Day instills in people.

If you don't have a marketing campaign planned for the 14th, maybe some of these will inspire you to get in on some last-minute Valentine's Day action.

9 Effective Valentine's Day Marketing Campaigns

1. Crook & Marker's "OnlyCans" Website

In 2020, many online threads and message boards were discussing the controversial website "OnlyFans." This platform invites users to purchase videos or images from people or influencers with profiles on the site. 

Fast-forward to 2021, Crook & Marker is embracing the OnlyFans controversy with relatively PG marketing content.

The cheeky holiday campaign, which aims to earn donations for Muddy Paws Rescue, began with the brand launching a co-branded website called OnlyCans.dog.

When visiting the "OnlyCans" website, you instantly see videos and images of shirtless men holding cute puppies. You can also browse the profiles or each man-puppy duo.

From each profile page, you can then pick and share a pre-recorded video message or photo of them with a friend or loved one.

For every visitor who shares a video or photo message, Crook and Marker pledges to donate $1. Aside from the funny profiles, videos, photo messages from shirtless men, the site also features subtle ads for Crook and Marker products -- as seen in the GIF above. 

This is a great example of a co-marketing campaign that leverages edginess and current trends to create a campaign that catches your eye and makes you laugh. Although Crook and Marker are only subtly mentioned on the website, users know that they created it and that the campaign is for a good cause. 

While this campaign isn't specifically about marketing a brand, it's fun and unique -- which might enable shoppers to remember Crook & Marker next time they're looking for a Spiked Seltzer product.

2. Ranch Dressing's Customized Bottle

Nothing says Valentine's Day like giving someone a bottle of -- Ranch Dressing?

In 2021, while flower companies and B2C brands were highlighting the romantic gifts partners could give to each other, Hidden Valley took a funny approach to this strategy by offering audiences customized Valentine's Day-themed bottles of Ranch salad dressing.

While this seems like an odd gift to some, Hidden Valley knows that they have fans out there that just love to cover everything they eat with Ranch dressing. To those audiences, this gift is funny, personalized, and potentially useful.

"I appreciate Ranch leaning into the quirky and self-aware following for their product. It's a consumer brand not trying too hard," says Connor Cirillo, HubSpot's Conversational Marketing manager. "I can't wait to order some for my Valentine. And this totally isn't just me," Cirillo, who brought the campaign to our attention, admits. 

3. Deliveroo's "Third-Wheel Kevin"

Many people have identified as a "third-wheel," or the only single person hanging out with one or more couples. And, many of these people know how awkward or uncomfortable couple's holidays, like Valentine's Day, can be.

That's why Deliveroo's 2020 Valentine's Day ad told the story of a third-wheel named Kevin, rather than a romantic couples' narrative.

The commercial, which is filmed to look like a documentary, follows the life of Kevin -- an incredibly single man who's always surrounded by couples. As the ad goes on, it tackles the strange, awkward, and completely untrue thoughts that single people might wrongly think about themselves.

The narrator, who's seen throughout the commercial, explains, "Being a single doesn't just effect Kevin when he's at home. Many life-affirming activities are impossible alone. -- It can be tiring being this lonely. He's just a hollow shell."

As the narrator dramatically describes the slight inconveniences of being single in a comedic and light-hearted way, Kevin's seen playing boring single-person sports and posing in a two-person photo stand. As Kevin is seen doing these daily-life activities alone, the narrator and his partner are also shown playing team sports together and enjoying each other's company

After the narrator is done explaining how boring the single life is, he adds, "Deliveroo can help you give the third-wheel in your life some love."

If you're single person, the commercial is pretty hilarious because it reminds you of all the strange, over-dramatic comments less-single people make. Meanwhile, if you aren't single, you reflect on the times you were single and thought about the same awkward thoughts. 

Because audiences might relate or laugh at the sarcasm of this ad, it might be more memorable to them. Because of this, they might think of Deliveroo next time they're ordering a Valentine's Day meal for themselves or "third-wheeeling" friends.

4. Twitter's Offline Campaign

Believe it or not, one of Twitter's great Valentine's Day campaigns was actually not launched online.

In 2020, Twitter launched billboard ads around Valentine's Day that only showed users' incredibly sarcastic tweets about love and dating.

For example, in the image below, one tweet reads "Yo, I'm really awkward. Good luck to whoever is about to date me," while another reads, "My husband said we had too much cheese in the fridge, so now I need to find a new husband."

Image Source

In this funny campaign, Twitter highlights the tweets of real users that have leveraged the platform to share their thoughts around Valentine's Day. While other companies are zoned in on promoting ideal images of love and relationships, Twitter promotes relatable content from its actual users.

"The campaign not only feels authentic, but it reminds you that Twitter is a place to share your thoughts freely without judgement -- even if they aren't always pretty," says Pam Bump, HubSpot Blog Audience Growth Manager.

5. 1-800 Flowers' Cupid Commercial

In 2019, 1-800 Flowers launched a commercial where Cupid shared his grievances of how the bouquet company put him out of a job.

In the ad, which features a shirtless Cupid in his costume sitting in front of phones that are no longer ringing, Cupid yells "Ever since 1-800 Flowers, I've been out of a job!" He adds, "People no longer need Cupid to express their love. Now all they need is 1-800 Flowers." 

As Cupid continues to complain about 1-800 Flowers' quality bouquet products, the video shows screenshots of the brand's website and all the pretty flowers it has to offer.

Because you're thrown into the scene of seeing Cupid as an angry, disgruntled grown man, the ad instantly grabs your attention. Then, as Cupid complains about how his competition is one-upping him, he also highlights how 1-800 Flowers is also better than competitors that also sell romantic products because they provide quick and painless scheduled delivery. 

This ad is a great example of how a brand can playfully leverage their competition, and tell a fictional story, that highlights what makes their product different.

6. Frankie & Benny's "Lady & the Tramp" Instagram Post

In 2019, the Italian restaurant chain Frankie & Benny's referenced romantic scenes from notable films like "Lady and the Tramp."

In a cute Instagram post, two real dogs are seen on a classy date at Frankie & Benny's holding the same strand of pasta in their mouths. This mimics a class scene from Lady and the Tramp where two dogs kiss after accidentally eating the same strand of pasta.

The carousel post then highlights actual photos from iconic movies like, "When Harry Met Sally." In the post's caption, it encourages Instagram audiences to guess which movies are being referenced.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day 💝 Can you name the films that inspired our 4 romantic movie recreations? 🎬🎞 Comment below! #FrankiesFilms #ValentinesAtFrankies

A post shared by Frankie & Benny's (@frankienbennys) on Feb 14, 2019 at 12:46am PST

While the real dog's mimicking Lady and the Tramp grabbed attention, especially from the animal lovers on Instagram, this post's caption and other photos encourages audiences to interact with the brand by guessing which movies are being referenced.

This is both a fun way to boost brand awareness, and leverage the holiday to gain engagement on social media.

7. Panera's Engagement Offer

In 2018, Panera tweeted that customers who got engaged in one of their restaurants on Valentine's Day could win free wedding catering from the chain. 

The tweet included a short and simple video which announced the promotion and showed two Panera employees cheering, as if they were witnessing a proposal.

Love is in the air. This Valentine’s Day, get engaged at a Panera and we might cater your wedding, for free. #PaneraProposalSweeps https://t.co/mpL5VbjSOd pic.twitter.com/VPRzu0QLNd

— Panera Bread (@panerabread) February 9, 2018

This is a quick and sweet way to leverage the holiday and social media to gain foot traffic into a physical business. Although Panera is a giant corporation, this campaign strategy is so simple that smaller businesses could create something similar with a tweet, short video, and offer that drives foot traffic.

8. Facebook Messenger Heart Feature

Just before Valentine's Day in 2018, Facebook Messenger's Twitter announced that if you shared that you were "In a Relationship" with a friend you were messaging, celebratory hearts would rain down in your Messenger thread with that person.

It's not official until it's #FacebookOfficial. Update your relationship status on Facebook and shower bae with ❤️❤️❤️on Messenger. Also customize your chat emoji, color and more! pic.twitter.com/P6oy35fHmp

— Messenger (@messenger) February 13, 2018

Although a small business probably can't add a major feature to their product just because of a holiday, this is a good example of how you can theme something related to your product, such as your website, around a holiday temporarily. 

Another thing that's interesting about this campaign is that Facebook is using a competing social platform, Twitter, to announce this new feature. This slightly undermines Twitter, which also allows direct messaging but with less interactive features.

9. "Adults Meal" - Burger King

While Burger King's "Adults Meal" campaign is one of the oldest on this list, it's still a classic that marketers talk about today.

Burger King has always been no stranger to poking fun at its biggest competitor, McDonalds. This was no different on Valentine's Day 2017 when they offered an "Adult Meal" alternative with a similar box shape to McDonalds' kids' meal.

In the ad for the meal, Burger King explains that Kids' Meals are for kids. But, on the night of Valentine's Day, Burger King customers can buy an adult meal with an "adult toy."

This campaign is pretty cheeky. However, it's edgy mission and subtle comments about its competitor's product make it memorable and funny. 

Honorable Mention: Match.com's "Match Made in Hell" campaign.

Technically, this campaign wasn't created for Valentine's Day specifically. But, many of our marketers thought it had all the perfect elements of a great Valentine's Day campaign. Because of this, we wouldn't be surprised if it sees a lot of circulation in February.

In the commercial, directed by actor Ryan Reynolds, Satan sits in Hell using Match's app when he sees he's matched with a woman named 2020. When he meets up with her on Earth, he nervously says "Hi 2-0-2-0." She replies, "Please, call me 2020" -- pronouncing it like the year. 

As the commercial continues, 2020's character appears to be the epitome of everything that happened in 2020.

For example, which launched in December, shows Satan and 2020 causing mischief, stealing toilet paper from store shelves, having a picnic inn empty stadiums, and ultimately posing for a selfie in front of a dumpster fire.

The couple frolics to the familiar sounds of Taylor Swift's hit song, "Love Story." which also sparks a sense of rom-com nostalgia for millennials. 

On the same day of this ad's release, Match and Reynolds also shared another commercial showing the pair explaining how they met in couple's counseling.

In this video, Satan explains how he found 2020 on Match:

"I started by using the Match custom search filter. I filtered out joy, happiness, toilet paper, and reason," Satan says in the video below:

Although this didn't launch in February, it was a very clever newsjacking example that many of our marketers say they enjoyed when they were asked to share their favorite Valentine's campaigns.

While 2020 was a difficult year for many, Match and Reynolds identified a tasteful way to create content that audiences could relate to. At the same time, they still told an epic, hilarious love story with a pleasant, entertaining tone. Although they discussed a truly terrible year, they did so in a way that felt like escapism for the viewer.

Valentine's Day Campaign Takeaways

As you create and launch Valentine's Day campaigns, take note of these strategies many of the brands above used:

• Grab your audience's attention: Like with any holiday, marketers around the globe are churning out content around it. To compete with this overly saturated Valentine's Day ad landscape, you'll need to grab and keep your viewer's attention with entertaining elements or valuable information.
• Be relatable: Around this time of year, many people are inundated with high-budget Valentine's Day ads that offer them no useful information or value. Even if you want to tell a mushy romance-fueled love story with your content, make sure it still feels relatable or authentic. To do this, you can leverage tactics like telling a story your audience will relate to, or leveraging user-generated content from your followers -- like Twitter has.
• Test out different platforms: While some companies on this list took to Instagram, others embraced physical campaign strategies like special products or billboard use. 

Editor's Note: This blog post was originally published in Feb. 2013, but was updated for comprehensiveness on January 30, 2020.

9 Valentine's Day Marketing Campaigns We Love was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Lights, Camera, Action: How to Record a Webinar Worth Replaying

How often do you find yourself running late to a webinar or missing it entirely? Too often to admit? You’re not alone. On average, 260 people register for a single webinar. However, only about 60% of people actually attend the webinars they register for.

If you’re on the other side of the aisle hosting the webinars, you’ve probably felt let down when you realized nearly half your registrants found something better to do for an hour. Don’t take it personally. The people you’re targeting for a webinar are busy and might find it burdensome to carve out an hour for a live event. Think about it in terms of opportunity cost — would you rather spend an hour attending a live webinar about the future of digital advertising on social media or creating a couple of Facebook ads to go live that day? Let’s be honest, producing results will almost always come first on our list of to-do’s while learning about the future will come later.

The disparity between those who attend live and those who don’t gives marketers an opportunity to explore a more flexible approach to sharing interactive video content. In this article, I’ll show you how to turn your live webinars into evergreen video content that is worth replaying.

Why Record Webinars?

Webinars can be a dynamic addition to your content marketing toolkit. Though they take time to plan and produce, the reward is worth the work. According to ON24, conversion rates of webinars have increased 6% in 2020 compared to 2019.

For example, this webinar is a short yet insightful discussion about how to manage a remote sales team and has received over 4,000 views in six months.

You might want to consider recording your webinar for a couple of reasons. First, recorded videos can be edited. If this is your first time hosting a webinar, you’ll find it helpful to host with no audience, so you can make small tweaks.

Recorded webinars are also a practical choice for marketing because they’re accessible. If you decide to host yours during a time your audience can't attend, recording the webinar ensures they can still catch the information on their own time.

Next, let’s learn exactly how to turn that live webinar into evergreen, interactive video content.

1. Choose proper webinar recording software.

After the plans to record a webinar are set, the next step is choosing a platform. A lot of platforms offer similar features, but choose one that will let you record and export..

Some recording tools are only built for certain operating systems, so make sure yours operates on multiple different systems. Most platforms you'll find work on both Mac and Windows devices, but keep a watchful eye as you're researching.

Ultimately, choose one that will let you do everything you need. If you have to share your screen or ask for audience participation, make sure your software has those capabilities.

2. Decide where you will record.

The background of your webinar shouldn't be distracting. If you’re distracted by your surroundings, your audience will be, too. Choose a place to record your webinar that is quiet and professional.

Alternatively, if you decide your space isn't camera-ready, you don't have to show it. Turn your camera off and let the presentation be the only visual. If you go this route, though, you'll likely need an animator or designer to make sure your presentation is engaging enough to keep the viewer's interest.

3. Perform a practice version to catch mistakes.

Before you officially record, practice using the software. Familiarize yourself with how to record, export, and upload a video so you'll be comfortable when showtime comes.

Practicing the full motions of the webinar helps with presentation and flow. When you play it back, you can gauge your body language, tone of voice, and impact of the lesson. Additionally, you'll work through technical difficulties.

If you're thinking that you won't have time to fit in multiple test runs, don't worry. You won't need the full hour to practice your presentation. Instead, record the section you're most unsure about — that way, you can hone in on what needs the most work.

Alternatively, maybe your test run tells you that you need more help creating your presentation. If that's the case, head on over to this guide for making a compelling webinar.

When you're comfortable with your setting and presentation, you're ready to record the real deal.

A quick note about audio/visual delays: Virtually every webinar program will have a delay during a live recording. It’s just in the nature of how broadcast works. Don’t let this deter you from choosing a webinar recording software! Simply check the reviews to see how long of a lag you can manage compared to the other features you’re looking for.

4. Record your webinar.

The truth is, you have many alternatives for recording a webinar. If you’re a Mac user, QuickTime Player is a popular, free software. Zoom is a convenient, no-cost solution for either operating system. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to record your webinar using each program.

QuickTime Player

1. Launch QuickTIme Player on your Mac by finding it in the applications folder or by simply clicking the search icon in the top right corner of your toolbar and searching “QuickTime Player.”
   
   
2. Click File > New Movie Recording
   
   
3. Click View >  Float on Top
   
   
   You should see yourself on camera now. Resize your camera window and position it on the screen you want to record. Make sure you’re floating on top of the content so your audience can see you.
4. Click File > “New Screen Recording”
   
   
   Take some time here to play with the settings. You can record all or part of your screen by selecting “record entire screen” or “record selected portion” to get the perfect shot.
5. Click the record button when you’re ready to record your webinar. Click the square stop button when you’re done.
   
   After clicking the stop button, you’ll see your video appear on screen immediately.
6. Click File > Save
   
   
   Name your webinar and save it to your desired folder.

Your webinar recorded on QuickTime Player is now ready to be uploaded to YouTube, social media, or your website. Keep in mind, this video might be very large and could slow down your website, and some social media sites may not allow you to upload a file that large. Don’t worry, you can compress your file to make sure it's website ready.

Zoom

Zoom is another great option for quick webinars, and if you record it in under 40 minutes, you can use the free version of the app on both Mac and Windows computers. To record a webinar using Zoom, follow these instructions:

1. Launch Zoom by finding it in the applications folder.
   
   
2. Click “New Meeting”
   
   
   You’ll see your camera appear. If you don’t want to appear on camera during your webinar, click the camera icon to turn your video off.
   
   
3. Click “Share Screen”
   
   
   This enables you to display your presentation, videos, images, and any other visual aids you’ll be using throughout your webinar. You’ll notice that there are different options for screen sharing – displays and browser tabs are the main two used for webinars. Sharing your display is helpful if the presentation is on your desktop. Sharing your browser tab is helpful if you’re using a cloud presentation software like Google Slides and you only want to share that tab.
4. When your presentation, audio, and video are show-ready, click the circular “Record” button to start your webinar. (If your screen is smaller, you may see three ellipses, click those then select “record” from the drop down menu.) 
   
   

You’ll get two options to record – either to the cloud or to your computer. Recording to the cloud works well to keep large MP4 files off of your computer. Recording to your computer works if you need the MP4 at the ready to edit and upload to a website later.

Keep in mind, Zoom doesn’t have a countdown like some other webinar programs do, so make sure you’re camera-ready before clicking that button.

If you’re working from home, you might have some mishaps happening in the background. You can easily pause your recording by clicking the “Pause Recording” button. When you’re ready to start again, simply click the “resume recording” button.

Once you’re done with your webinar, click the “stop recording” button.

5. Edit your presentation for professionalism.

Small mistakes, like fumbling words or technical difficulties, are normal. If you come across them, don't feel pressure to edit them out — after all, humans slip up every day. However, glaring mistakes, like starting the recording too early, should be edited.

The great thing about recorded webinars is that you do have the option to edit. And, if you're not recording for a live audience, you have more room to tweak the final version. Look at your work before it goes up for the world to see so you and your company are represented professionally.

Download your webinar recording.

QuickTime Player

To find your QuickTime Player recording on your Mac, follow these steps:

1. 1. Immediately after ending your recording, click
   file > save
   You’ll see a dialogue box appear that looks like this:
   
   
   Rename your file to a title that makes sense. “webinar - 01.12.2020" is a good example that will be easy to find later.
2. Next, change the “Where” dropdown. This is where you’ll save the video file on your computer. The default is set to your documents folder, but you can change this by clicking the drop-down arrow:
   
   
3. Now, your folders are displayed and you can navigate to the folder that will house all of your webinars or create a new folder for them. I’ve chosen to save my webinar in the desktop folder. 
   
   

If you need to find this webinar later and you can’t remember where you’ve saved it, search your Mac for “webinar - 1.12.2020” and it’ll come right up.

 

Zoom

To find your recording, follow these steps:

If you recorded to the cloud:

1. You’ll receive an email once your recording is ready and in the cloud. Click the link to access and download your recording.

If you recorded to your computer:

The default setting of Zoom recordings on your computer are as follows:

• Windows: C:\Users\[Username]\Documents\Zoom
• Mac: /Users/[Username]/Documents/Zoom
• Linux: home/[Username]/Documents/Zoom

Now, you're ready to share your recording! You might have a plan for how you want to distribute it — especially if it's an event for your customers. But, if you need a little creative help, here are some ideas for sharing.

1. Website Landing Page

If you use your webinars for lead generation, an effective way to get traction is to have a dedicated landing page. Whether you’re using your webinar as a stand-alone lead generation piece or as part of a campaign, a landing page will collect valuable information about your webinar viewers.  Include  a brief description about what they’ll learn in the webinars, and add an enticing call-to-action to capture the data..

2. Social Media

A webinar report by GoToWebinar found that social media brought in more webinar registrations than blogs, newsletters, SMS notifications, or sales teams. Although every business is different, there are social media platforms available for nearly every type of consumer. Promotion on social networks should have a place in your go-to-market strategy for your webinar. LinkedIn is a popular social networking site for webinars because of its unique emphasis on professional content. If your audience includes B2B decision makers, this may be a great route to go. On the other hand, if you’re targeting consumers interested in online shopping, Facebook and Instagram might be the platform for your webinar. Meeting your followers where they are on the web gets your webinar in front of them when they’re ready to engage.

3. Email Marketing

Email is the number one promotion channel for webinars and will carry the bulk of signups. The secret to this platform’s high registration rate lies in how people interact with email messages in their inbox. Our audiences expect to see emails in their inboxes everyday, and they’re conditioned to receiving email reminders and confirmations after they sign up for something. With email, webinar hosts have more flexibility to increase the frequency of informational and reminder emails about their webinars without appearing spammy. This works, too. GoToWebinar tells us, “Promoting at least four weeks in advance of the live webinar results in 12% more registrations on average.”

4. Blog Posts

If your recording was about social media marketing, and you have a blog post on the subject, consider embedding a snippet of the webinar into the post. Doing this can help you snag a video featured snippet in the SERP.

For example, check out the embedded video in our post about how to create a webinar.

Here, we see the webinar added to the blog post to make it more engaging. Readers who want the full run-down can follow along with the post.

5. Paid Media

Your audience isn’t limited to the people on your email list or those who follow your business on social media. Targeted advertisements on social media and on the web (think Google and Bing) can expand your network of potential customers.

Facebook and Instagram have a unique paid ads feature that allows you to reach people who have similar interests and buying habits as your current customer base.

Paid ads that show snippets of your webinar can be a fantastic way to drive traffic to your webinar landing page. By giving the audience a taste of the content, interested prospects will click through to your site to watch more.

While paid advertising might sound expensive, it doesn’t have to be. You can get started with just a few dollars a day and pause the ads at any time. What makes this promotion method work is that your ads are only being shown to people who are likely to have an interest in your content.

7. Partnerships

Collaborating with other content creators or marketers on your webinar (or even just for the promotion of it) grows your reach potential. Seek individuals who are respected in your industry and have expertise in the topic of your webinar. 

Partnerships can be executed in a few different ways:

Content Collaboration

Having a subject matter expert appear on camera with you or offer quotes for the presentation can lend credence to your webinar. If the person you’re working with is excited to create the content with you, they’re probably happy to promote it, too.

Promotion-only Collaboration

Not all partnerships need to be content collaborations. If you know an industry expert with an audience similar to yours, they might be interested in sharing guest content – you being the guest. This may or may not be free, so set aside some funds for this in your influencer strategy budget.

Organizational Partnerships

If your company works with an industry trade group (like the American Advertising Federation or Beer Institute), partnering with them can position you as a thought leader to your audience. On the backend, your webinar content provides them with industry knowledge they can use to better serve the trade association. It’s a win-win for both organizations.

We’ve covered the benefits of recording webinars, how to record webinars, how to download them after you’ve recorded them, and how to promote them. Now, let’s talk about the recording software options you can use for your next webinar. Here are a few of our favorite webinar recording software platforms.

Choose a Webinar Recording Software

Before you can begin recording your webinar, you’ll want to choose the best webinar recording software for your marketing needs. There are a ton of software options available, but we’ve narrowed down the essential features and functions.

A sophisticated webinar recording software will do the basics like recording, exporting, and screen share. However, to turn your webinars into evergreen content, you’ll want a few more features. Reporting is a must-have for measuring KPIs. After all, if the webinars are lagging behind your goals, you’ll want to assess why and determine a solution. Another type of feature that is critical to successful live and recorded webinars is an engagement tool. Whether this comes in the form of a chat box or emoji reactions, this interactive feature helps you gauge your attendees interest and get feedback about the webinar.

1. WebinarGeek

WebinarGeek is an all-in-one webinar marketing solution if you want to broadcast individual webinars or a webinar series in real time. With on demand, automated, and hybrid webinar options, your webinars can be accessible when you need them to be. Give your audience the experience they want by pre-recording webinars and airing them live or having a recorded presentation available on your website 24/7.

Pros:

Webinar Geek offers live, on-demand, and hybrid webinar options that make for an engaging user experience. You’ll also have the ability to analyze viewing the behavior of your audience which means you’ll know which types of content and engagement tactics work and which ones are a snooze fest.

Cons:

There are so many customizable features that the initial configuration for WebinarGeek can be tedious. Plan an hour or so to modify your webinar settings ahead of your first practice round for a smooth recording process.

2. ClickMeeting

ClickMeeting is not just for webinar recording  – this program brings video conferencing and online meetings to your customers and team members. It expands the definition of webinar recording software to include product demos, online courses, and even virtual events.

Pros:

You’ll see all the features of a sophisticated webinar recording software in ClickMeeting including screen sharing, polls, and analytics. As a bonus, you can even host paid webinars directly through the platform’s PayPal integration.

Cons:

Some customers report there is no way to control the audio of participants, but if you’re using the software to record webinars without an audience and share them later, this shouldn’t be a problem.

3. Loom

Video messaging, screen share, recording, oh my! Loom helps you instantly share expressive and effective content with your team or an audience. This tool is all about collaboration and knowledge-sharing which makes it perfect for the agile group who needs to share information fast.

Pros:

Loom checks all the boxes for an adequate webinar recording system  – it supports screen recording, exporting, and hosting all in one place. And, for on-the-go presenters, Loom can be used on mobile devices that run iOS.

Cons:

When it comes to live webinars, Loom won’t be your best option. This tool is better suited for pre-recorded slideshows or screen recordings that will be embedded on your website or landing page for on-demand replay.

4. QuickTime Player

Recording and editing video is QuickTime Player’s claim to fame. The Apple feature comes pre-installed on Mac computers so there’s no additional cost, software, or set up required. You’re probably aware that QuickTime Player can be used to share and record your screen. But did you know that you can record yourself talking through the content on your screen, too? This hack is quick and takes just a few clicks.

Pros:

QuickTIme Player is free and simple to use. Recording and exporting video is what this tool does best. If you use a Mac, you can record a webinar right now and share it anywhere in just a few minutes.

Cons:

If you use a Windows computer, QuickTime Player won’t be an option for your pre-recorded webinar needs.You’ll also need to share and host this webinar on a platform you already have so your viewers can access it.

5. Zoom

By now, if you haven’t used Zoom, you at least know someone who has. This multipurpose tool is used to host small and large meetings, but it has powerful webinar recording software capabilities, too.

Pros:

With a paid account, you can host up to 100 interactive participants and 10,000 view-only attendees on a live webinar. Screen Sharing, recording, exporting, interactive feedback polls, and chat are among the features included.

Cons:

Reviews for Zoom are overwhelmingly positive, and you’ll likely have nearly all your needs met with this tool. However, you won’t be able to keep your webinars on the Zoom platform for playback later, so be sure to have a home for your recordings once you’ve exported your video file.

6. Movavi Screen Recorder

A paid tool, Movavi Screen Recorder adapts to your marketing needs whether you’re looking to record a live webinar you’ve been invited to or looking to record your own webinar to share with others. Movavi Screen Recorder works on both Mac and Windows computers.

Pros:

In Movavi Screen Recorder, you can record, edit, and save your webinar all in the same tool. Another unique capability of this software is the ability to convert videos without using an additional tool.

Cons:

Customers say the Movavi-provided tutorials and customer service could be more supportive. Having some video editing experience might help you use this tool effectively, although they say you’ll likely get the hang of it after a few days.

7. WebinarJam

WebinarJam is an all-in-one webinar platform. The name speaks for itself – webinar recording software is their jam. High definition broadcasting and up to 30 frames-per-second are just a few of the notable features in this tool. Share your screen with confidence knowing your attendees can read every word in your presentation. (Even though we know your presentations keep text to a minimum anyway.)

Pros:

On desktop, the user interface is easy-to-use and intuitive to configure. You can also stream your webinar to YouTube or Facebook thus expanding your reach to your audience on those platforms and potential new audiences.

Cons:

If you’re broadcasting your presentation to audience members on a mobile device, they may have trouble seeing it the way you intended. Customers have noted subpar user experiences for those on mobile devices.

8. Cisco Webex

Webex prides itself on seamless collaboration and hybrid work experiences. This platform integrates with apps and software like Microsoft Outlook, Google Drive, and Zendesk to help you do exceptional work.

Pros:

Webex meetings are secure. The software company keeps your data and privacy protected while you present to the world. Like Zoom, Webex has breakout rooms and virtual backgrounds to keep your presentation on brand and professional.

Cons:

Initial set up of Webex might require assistance from your IT team in order to prevent issues with starting your webinar. If you don’t have the help of IT, check out Webex’s help center for assistance before you start recording your webinar.

9. BigMarker

BigMarker is a browser-based webinar recording software that doesn’t require you to download any applications. From product demos to online courses, this tool delivers much more than beautiful webinars. It supports invitation, reminder, and thank you emails, and could serve many purposes within your marketing tech stack like demand generation.

Pros:

BigMarker is built with marketers in mind, so everything from registration to analytics is accounted for in his webinar recording software. And if you’re a HubSpot customer, you’re in luck! BigMarker integrates flawlessly with our CRM.

Cons:

Stability and video clarity on this platform can be hit or miss if your internet connection is unstable. A high-speed internet connection has helped some customers overcome this hurdle.

10. Google Meet

You might know Google Meet as a video chatting app similar to Apple’s FaceTime. However, it packs a much bigger punch. Google Meet is a powerful tool that can be a free alternative to expensive webinar recording software.

Pros:

Google Meet uses smart AI enhancements that can detect and adjust to your network’s speed so that your meetings are always clear and reliable. All webinars are encrypted to ensure your data, and your audience’s data is protected.

Cons:

Google Meet doesn’t have a robust brand customization feature, so you’re stuck with Google’s UI. However, you can use custom backgrounds which give you some control over the look and feel of your meeting.

11. WorkCast

Another cloud-based webinar recording software, WorkCast supports live webcasts, virtual events, and webinars. You can track lead generation efforts and audience engagement all in the same platform.

Pros:

You can see attendee engagement in real time which means more flexibility for you to switch up speed, cadence, or even presenters if the audience is getting distracted.

Cons:

Some customers have shared that the features are not intuitive to use, so you’ll want to practice your webinar a few times before you begin recording.

12. GoToWebinar

As an extension of the conference call system GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar supports marketing efforts by providing demand generation tools like automated email invitations, a webinar library you can use as a landing page, and integration opportunities to connect your content to existing properties within your tech stack.

Pros:

If you configure your webinar as a course, you can issue certificates of completion to your attendees directly through the platform.

Cons:

Users and external presenters must download the software onto their computers to use GoToWebinar which can negatively affect the user experience if they don’t download it ahead of time. Tackle this issue by reminding attendees and external presenters to download the software beforehand in your invitation and reminder emails.

Start Recording Your Webinar.

Webinars diversify the content you offer. Recorded ones are great for accessibility and extended value. Long after the initial recording, you can still earn leads from them.

Every day on my lunch break, I have a recorded webinar queued up and ready to go. The next time I'm scouring the internet, looking for the next winner, will I see yours among the rest of the amazing content?

Lights, Camera, Action: How to Record a Webinar Worth Replaying was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

20 Ways To Get More Views on YouTube

YouTube, launched in 2005, the second most visited website in the world. It’s available in 100+ countries, features videos in 80 different languages, and its users watch over a billion hours of content daily.

Many businesses take advantage of the large number of users and daily viewership to advertise for their business. In fact, YouTube is the second most popular channel for businesses sharing video content.

However, despite the sheer amount of hours watched every day, it can be challenging to hold up on YouTube. Creators sometimes struggle to get their channel off the ground, resorting to paying for YouTube views to generate engagement. The platform's algorithm has become better at detecting bots, and, as you can guess, fake engagement doesn’t do much in the way of meeting your business goals.

Although it will take time, it is possible to generate views (for free) and grow your channel on YouTube. In this post, we’ll go over how to get more views on YouTube and how to continue growing your channel after reaching your first 1000 views.

How To Get More Views on YouTube For Free

Getting views on YouTube takes time and effort. But, if done right, it pays off (Forbes estimates that you can make anywhere from $3-$5 per 1000 views). Below, we’ll go over a few ways to get more views on your YouTube account.

1. Be mindful of SEO and organic search results.  

YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world, only topped by Google. To get more views on YouTube, follow the same SEO tactics you use to surface your content in organic Google search queries.

Since Google owns the platform, YouTube has similar algorithms for displaying the most relevant content. The video below goes into detail, but the tips that follow highlight the best steps you can take to obtain more views.  

2. Use keyword-rich descriptions.

Your viewers initially see the first 100 characters of your video descriptions (example below), so you should aim to use keywords in snippets that provide the most relevant explanations to your viewers.

But using your keywords doesn’t mean an excuse to be dull. Get creative with your descriptions and aim to stand out. After all, the goal is to entice users to view your videos over your competitors.

Your first 100 characters should also entice users to click ‘Show more’ to learn more about what you have to say.

3. Use business-relevant tags.

YouTube’s algorithm determines 70% of what people watch on the platform. Using relevant tags for your business is key to surfacing your content in search results and obtaining more views.

Opt to use a combination of long-tail and short-tail keywords that truly relate to your video, listing the most important keywords first. Be mindful of keyword stuffing, as it is against YouTube policy and doesn’t help you generate more views.

4. Create unique, enticing titles.

Video titles are what people read first when browsing search results. So, aim to create compelling, unique video titles that clearly describe your video’s content and make people curious and interested in learning more. For SEO results, you can include your most relevant keyword in your video title.

Be mindful of clickbait, though, when creating your titles. It can be a valuable tool for getting users to click on your videos (see this article from a HubSpotter who was effectively clickbaited), but it can also backfire.

You don’t want to say your videos will be about one thing and have interested users find that you don’t touch on it at all. Ensure that your titles align with your content.

5. Use creative, relevant thumbnails.

Just as titles are the first exposure to your video content, thumbnails are the first images. Creating thumbnail previews that are exciting but relevant to your content is an excellent strategy for driving views. High-quality, engaging thumbnails can attract users in organic search results.

Your thumbnails can be screencaps from your videos or even text-based titles. Here’s an example of a thumbnail from popular YouTuber Marques Brownlee. He’s effectively created a thumbnail that depicts the content of the video: reactions to upcoming Apple product rumors.

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6. Use closed captions and transcripts. 

Subtitles and closed captions are another way to optimize your video SEO, as they highlight additional keywords and phrases for the algorithms to detect when indexing your videos.

Most importantly, closed captions and video transcripts make your YouTube account more accessible. If you solely rely on audio and visuals, you’re probably going to lose a large portion of your audience that’s unable to interact with your content in that form. When you create content that is accessible, all audiences can enjoy what you have to offer.

You should also opt for using closed captions instead of subtitles, as closed captions include dialogue and additional sound descriptions for actions like laughter or closing a door. Here are some resources that can help with understanding web accessibility and how to align your content with accessibility standards:

• Bureau of Internet Accessibility - Closed Captioning Guide
• Accessible Media Inc. YouTube Accessibility guide
• Google Accessibility Resource Database for Developers and Publishers

7. Encourage subscribers

While organic search results can be great, the algorithms won’t always surface your videos.  Encouraging viewers to subscribe to your channel is another way to ensure that people can see your videos.

This means that when you post, your videos will show up in their subscriptions tab (shown below).

In addition to encouraging subscribers, ask users to turn on post notifications to get notified when you post a video.

Notifications can be a valuable tool for generating excitement. Users may feel they want to stop what they’re doing to watch your videos so they can actively participate in conversations about your content.

8. Repurpose your existing quality content.

Content repurposing is re-using existing content and presenting it in a new format to prolong its shelf life. Repurposing could mean creating a video from a high-performing how-to blog post (the bonus here is that YouTube users love how-to videos) or posting recording sessions from a popular podcast episode.

You’re repurposing helpful content and sharing it with a new audience in a format you know they enjoy.

9. Create a unique introductory hook for your videos.

It’s a unique tip, but it’s worth considering as many popular creators use this strategy.

Mr. Beast is a famous YouTube persona with almost 52 million subscribers. Each one of his videos begins with a clip of an exciting moment that doesn’t usually play out until at least halfway through the video.

Users must keep watching to see the moment unfold. Here’s an example:

 

10. Create a playlist.

If you create content clustered around a relevant, related topic, create playlists to encourage video views. The image below shows the playlists on the HubSpot YouTube account, where videos are organized by topic.

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Playlists default to autoplay, so users can watch an entire playlist without taking action themselves.

Playlists and autoplay allow your users to view subject-relevant content that they may not have found themselves. This gives them a well-rounded experience and increases your video views.

11. Lead users to other videos in end screens.

End screens are the final 15-20 seconds of your video, sometimes called credits, used to recommend additional content on your channel as cards. Below is an example from the HubSpot YouTube account.

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Your end screens can feature cards for single videos or entire playlists, a subscribe button, links to your associated websites, or secondary channels your business has (we’ll touch on this below.) It’s important to note that end screens should recommend relevant content.

12. Enable embedding.

Almost anything can be embedded these days, including YouTube videos. If you’ve created a YouTube strategy, you’ve likely identified your target audience on the platform. They’ll probably give you the most views, but enabling embedding can help you introduce yourself to additional viewers that may not have known your content would be relevant to them.

Here’s an example of a YouTube video embedded in a blog post.

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You can embed your videos in your content, like blogs and email newsletters, but it’s also a valuable way to expose your content to new audiences.

Other people can embed your content within their own pages and share your expertise with their audiences. These views still count towards your overall view count, even if they’re not on YouTube.

13. Promote videos on other platforms.

YouTube probably isn’t your only social media profile, and you should use this to your advantage. Share new video announcements on your Instagram Stories, share links and clips on Twitter and Facebook, and share them in your blog posts and emails.

You’ll expose new audiences to your content, and, as mentioned above, views on other platforms count towards your YouTube view count.

14. Leverage current trends.

Leveraging YouTube trends is a valuable tool for obtaining more video views. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should create content that is exactly in line with a current, trending meme on YouTube, but you should pay attention to what types of videos get lots of views.

For example, Mediakix released a list in 2019 of the most popular types of videos. Among them are how-to and Q&A videos.

Suppose you’re a business hoping to utilize one of these trends. You could create a how-to video demonstrating how to use your product or service and a Q&A video where you troubleshoot consumer inquiries. You’re creating content that users want to see that provides value to them to generate more views.

15. Focus on creating relevant content.

Leveraging trends is important for generating views, but you shouldn’t abandon your topic type to get views.  

A YouTube channel filled with unrelated content can generate views but won’t be seen as a source of authority. Your content would be scattered, users might write you off, and algorithms won't know your niche. So, the two tips come together to leverage current trends to create content that aligns with your existing strategy.

Also, relevant content outweighs video quality. YouTube found that, when deciding what to watch, content relating to a user's passions is 1.6x more important than the video’s quality (like visuals and camera quality), and 3x more important than whether it features well-known actors.

This means that the most valuable content you can create isn’t expensive and high budget — it’s content that’s in line with your audience's needs. When you understand what they want, it’ll be easier to earn views.

16. Collaborate with similar accounts.

One of the exciting aspects of YouTube is its community. There are people creating all different types of content, from gaming videos to exercise classes. You’ll likely find people who make content like yours, and collaborating with them is a valuable tool for generating more views.

Collaborations usually involve creating two separate videos, one for your channel and another for the collaborators’ channel. When they’re posted, you’ll gain exposure to their audience group and them from yours.

If you’ve collaborated with a topic-relevant channel, new viewers will likely already be interested in your content and may even subscribe to your channel. It’s also a valuable way to create more content, and more content always inspires more views.

17. Post at the right time.

There is a right time to post on YouTube. The best times to post on YouTube are Thursday or Friday afternoons between 12:00 and 3:00 PM, and on Saturdays between 9:00 and 11:00 AM.

You can certainly leverage these numbers and obtain views, but it’s also essential to create a posting schedule that aligns with your existing viewership.

You can get this information from YouTube’s native analytics tool or your preferred service. If you’re a HubSpot user, you can connect your YouTube account to Marketing Hub and generate custom reports.

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Posting at the right time translates into views, because your subscribers are more likely to watch during a time that they’re free versus when they’re at work.

18. Use a multi-channel approach.

If you’re a large business, consider creating multiple YouTube channels for different purposes. For example, HubSpot has five separate YouTube channels (shown below) tailored to different audience groups.

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Multiple channels ensures that content is accessible to different viewers, and it generates more views.

This isn’t just a HubSpot thing — Interbrands says that the top 100 brands on YouTube have an average of 2.4 channels.

19. Optimize for mobile viewers.

More than 70% of YouTube watch time comes from mobile devices, so create content that these audiences can enjoy.

Optimizing for mobile viewers means creating videos that can adapt to different mobile device aspect ratios, video titles and thumbnails that don’t get distorted on smaller devices, and recommend videos in end-screen cards.

20. Remember to be patient.

As marketers, we all want virality and immediate success for the content we create. While you may sometimes get lucky, generating more YouTube views takes time and patience.

There’s not much concrete advice to give with this tip, but understand that if you’ve leveraged the tips on this list, you’ll likely gain more views to begin growing your channel.

Next, we’ll go over how to keep growing your channel after reaching your first 1000 views on YouTube.

How To Reach 1000 Views on YouTube and Keep Growing Your Channel

Although it certainly would be nice, there is no equation to help you generate your first 1000 views on YouTube. Some people gain instant success, while others struggle to reach even 100 views after making hundreds of videos. In fact, 88.4% of YouTube videos generate fewer than 1000 views.

This may be discouraging to hear, especially since you can only begin to monetize your videos on YouTube after having more than 4,000 public watch hours. Many creators, including Zac Snyder, have attempted to figure out the perfect formula.

Snyder highlighted his mathematical approach in a Medium article recommended that a good start could be to make 300 videos a year at 10 minutes a piece. However, this strategy may not work for all creators.

There are ways to generate more views sooner rather than later. First, you should use and reference the tips mentioned above when creating your videos. There are also four additional tips to consider to continue growing your YouTube channel after reaching 1000 views.

1. Increase your upload frequency.

If it’s taken you a long time to reach 1000 views, it may make you nervous to risk your viewership by doing anything differently. However, it's easier to generate more views with more videos than to generate more views from one or two standalone videos.

Pay attention to your channel analytics, understand when you generate the most views, and increase your upload frequency to match your engagement metrics.

Once you’ve developed a schedule, identify time frames in which you’ll reassess your strategy. For example, maybe you’ll aim to upload three times per week until you reach 10k views, and then you’ll analyze your metrics and switch to uploading twice a week.  

2. Keep introductions and opening credits short and to the point.

Attention spans are short, so any unnecessary content in your videos can cost you viewers. Once you’ve reached 1000 views and generated an audience, you don’t want to lose them.

Use analytics to understand their behavior and adjust accordingly. If viewers seem to stop watching after a certain amount of time, consider shortening your introductions so viewers get to the core of the content faster and feel more inclined to finish the video.

3. Optimize for ‘Suggested Video’ views.

Suggested videos show up in the sidebar of a desktop YouTube screen, as shown below in the red outline.

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The algorithm recommends videos based on tags, so choose industry-relevant tags that your competitors are also using. When they match, you have a significant chance of showing up in suggested videos for the same tags.

YouTube also doesn’t discriminate by subscriber count, so even if you don’t have as many subscribers as your competitors, it's still possible to be suggested after their videos.

4. Engage with subscribers in the ‘Community’ tab.

The Community tab is built for YouTube creators hoping to interact with their audience outside of their video comments. You can create polls, feature images, and generate hype for upcoming videos.

Post snippets to get subscribers excited about what’s to come, and they’ll likely be looking out for your video and ready to watch when it goes live.

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If you’re interested in learning more in-depth strategies for growing your channel, check out this HubSpot Academy YouTube Course featured resource. You’ll learn how to build your brand, develop an audience, and gain insight from YouTube influencers on creating a successful channel.

Create Content That Inspires Subscribers and Encourages Views

You’re creating YouTube videos because you know you can provide value to your audience.

Remember, it may be frustrating if results aren’t immediately significant. But if you optimize your videos and channel for SEO, create consistent, relevant content, and engage with your audience, you’ll not only reach 1000 views but own a channel that just keeps on growing.

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