27 Truly Inspiring Company Vision and Mission Statement Examples

Think about the brands you purchase from over and over. Why do you choose the ones you do, even when cheaper options exist?

Do you usually fly with a particular airline? Do you buy your coffee from the same place every morning? Do you recommend a specific restaurant whenever out-of-towners ask for suggestions?

Well, there's a good reason for it.

The reason we stay loyal to brands is because of their values. The best brands combine physical, emotional, and logical elements into one exceptional customer (and employee) experience that you value as much as they do.

When your brand creates a genuine connection with customers and employees, they'll stay loyal to your company. This helps you increase your overall profitability while building a solid foundation of brand promoters.

Achieving this type of connection is no easy task. The companies that succeed at this stay true to their core values and create a brand that employees and customers are proud to associate with.

That's where company mission and vision statements come into play. This article will explain what makes them different and provide you with examples of vision and mission statements from growing companies.

If you’re in a bit of a time crunch, use this table of contents to find precisely what you’re looking for:

As a company grows, its objectives and goals may be reached, and in turn, they'll change. Therefore, mission statements should be revised as needed to reflect the business's new culture as previous goals are met.

Both mission and vision statements are often combined into one comprehensive "mission statement" to define the organization's reason for existing and its outlook for internal and external audiences — like employees, partners, board members, consumers, and shareholders.

The difference between mission and vision statements lies in the purpose they serve.

A mission statement is a literal quote stating what a brand or company is setting out to do. This lets the public know the product and service it provides, who it makes it for, and why it’s doing it. A vision statement is a brand looking toward the future and saying what it hopes to achieve through its mission statement. This is more conceptual, as it’s a glimpse into what the brand can become in the eyes of the consumer and the value it will bring in longevity.

In summary, the main differences between a mission and vision statement are:

• Mission statements describe the current purpose a company serves. The company's function, target audience, and key offerings are elements that are often mentioned in a mission statement.
• Vision statements are a look into a company’s future or what its overarching vision is. The same elements from the mission statement can be included in a vision statement, but they'll be described in the future tense.

Now that we know what they are, let’s dive into some useful examples of each across different industries.

Free Guide: 100 Mission Statement Templates & Examples

Need more examples to build your mission statement? Download our free overview of mission statements – complete with 100 templates and examples to help you develop a stand-out mission statement.

1. Life Is Good: To spread the power of optimism.

The Life is Good brand is about more than spreading optimism — although, with uplifting T-shirt slogans like "Seas The Day" and "Forecast: Mostly Sunny," it's hard not to crack a smile.

There are tons of T-shirt companies in the world, but Life is Good's mission sets itself apart with a mission statement that goes beyond fun clothing: to spread the power of optimism.

This mission is perhaps a little unexpected if you're not familiar with the company's public charity: How will a T-shirt company help spread optimism? Life is Good answers that question below the fold, where the mission is explained in more detail using a video and with links to the company’s community and the Life is Good Kids Foundation page. We really like how lofty yet specific this mission statement is — it's a hard-to-balance combination.

2. sweetgreen: To inspire healthier communities by connecting people to real food.

Notice that sweetgreen's mission is positioned to align with your values — not just written as something the brand believes. We love the inclusive language used in its statement.

The language lets us know the company is all about connecting its growing network of farmers growing healthy, local ingredients with us — the customer — because we're the ones who want more locally grown, healthy food options.

The mission to connect people is what makes this statement so strong. And, that promise has gone beyond sweetgreen's website and walls of its food shops: The team has made strides in the communities where it's opened stores as well. Primarily, it provides education to young kids on healthy eating, fitness, sustainability, and where food comes from.

3. Patagonia: We’re in business to save our home planet.

Patagonia's mission statement spotlights the company’s commitment to help the environment and save the earth. The people behind the brand believe that among the most direct ways to limit ecological impacts is with goods that last for generations or can be recycled so the materials in them remain in use.

In the name of this cause, the company donates time, services, and at least 1% of its sales to hundreds of environmental groups worldwide.

If your company has a similar focus on growing your business and giving back, think about talking about both the benefit you bring to customers and the value you want to bring to a greater cause in your mission statement.

4. American Express: Become essential to our customers by providing differentiated products and services to help them achieve their aspirations.

Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.

— Simon Sinek (@simonsinek)

The tweet above is from Simon Sinek, and it's one that we repeat here at HubSpot all the time. American Express sets itself apart from other credit card companies in its list of values, with an ode to excellent customer service, which is something it’s famous for.

We especially love the emphasis on teamwork and supporting employees so that the people inside the organization can be in the best position to support their customers.

5. Warby Parker: To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.

This "objective" statement from Warby Parker uses words that reflect a young and daring personality: "rebellious," "revolutionary," "socially-conscious." In one sentence, the brand takes us back to the root of why it was founded while also revealing its vision for a better future.

The longer-form version of the mission reads: "We believe that buying glasses should be easy and fun. It should leave you happy and good-looking, with money in your pocket," which further shows how Warby Parker doesn't hold back on letting its unique personality shine through. Here, the mission statement's success all comes down to spot-on word choice.

6. InvisionApp: Question Assumptions. Think Deeply. Iterate as a Lifestyle. Details, Details. Design is Everywhere. Integrity.

These days, it can seem like every B2B company page looks the same — but InvisionApp has one of the cooler company pages I've seen. Scroll down to "Our Core Values," and hover over any of the icons, and you'll find a short-but-sweet piece of the overall company mission under each one.

We love the way the statements are laid out under each icon. Each description is brief, authentic, and business babble-free — which makes the folks at InvisionApp seem trustworthy and genuine.

7. Honest Tea: To create and promote great-tasting, healthy, organic beverages.

Honest Tea's mission statement begins with a simple punch line connoting its tea is real, pure, and therefore not full of artificial chemicals. The brand is speaking to an audience that's tired of finding ingredients in its tea that can't be pronounced and has been searching for a tea that's exactly what it says it is.

Not only does Honest Tea have a punny name, but it also centers its mission around the name. For some time, the company even published a Mission Report each year in an effort to be "transparent about our business practices and live up to our mission to seek to create and promote great-tasting, healthier, organic beverages."

8. IKEA: To create a better everyday life for the many people.

The folks at IKEA dream big. The vision-based mission statement could have been one of beautiful, affordable furniture, but instead, it's to make everyday life better for its customers. It's a partnership: IKEA finds deals all over the world and buys in bulk, then we choose the furniture and pick it up at a self-service warehouse.

"Our business idea supports this vision ... so [that] as many people as possible will be able to afford them," the brand states.

Using words like "as many people as possible" makes a huge company like IKEA much more accessible and appealing to customers.

9. Nordstrom: To give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible.

When it comes to customer commitment, not many companies are as hyper-focused as Nordstrom is. Although clothing selection, quality, and value all have a place in the company's mission statement, it’s crystal clear that it’s all about the customer: "Nordstrom works relentlessly to give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible."

If you've ever shopped at a Nordstrom, you'll know the brand will uphold the high standard for customer service mentioned in its mission statement, as associates are always roaming the sales floors, asking customers whether they've been helped, and doing everything they can to make the shopping experience a memorable one.

10. Cradles to Crayons: Provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school, and at play.

Cradles to Crayons divided its mission and model into three sections that read like a game plan: The Need, The Mission, and The Model. The "rule of three" is a powerful rhetorical device called a tricolon that's usually used in speechwriting to help make an idea more memorable. A tricolon is a series of three parallel elements of roughly the same length — think "I came; I saw; I conquered."

11. Universal Health Services, Inc.: To provide superior quality healthcare services that: PATIENTS recommend to family and friends, PHYSICIANS prefer for their patients, PURCHASERS select for their clients, EMPLOYEES are proud of, and INVESTORS seek for long-term returns.

A company thrives when it pleases its customers, its employees, its partners, and its investors — and Universal Health Services endeavors to do just that, according to its mission statement. As a health care service, it specifically strives to please its patients, physicians, purchasers, employees, and investors. We love the emphasis on each facet of the organization by capitalizing the font and making it red for easy skimming.

12. JetBlue: To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground.

JetBlue's committed to its founding mission through lovable marketing, charitable partnerships, and influential programs — and we love the approachable language used to describe these endeavors. For example, the brand writes how it "set out in 2000 to bring humanity back to the skies."

For those of us who want to learn more about any of its specific efforts, JetBlue's provided details on the Soar With Reading program, its partnership with KaBOOM!, the JetBlue Foundation, environmental and social reporting, and so on. It breaks down all these initiatives really well with big headers, bullet points, pictures, and links to other web pages visitors can click to learn more. JetBlue also encourages visitors to volunteer or donate their TrueBlue points.

13. Workday: To put people at the center of enterprise software.

Workday, a human resources (HR) task automation service, doesn't use its mission statement to highlight the features of its product or how it intends to help HR professionals improve in such-and-such a way.

Instead, the business takes a stance on the state of enterprise software in general: There's a lot of great tech out there. But at Workday, it revolves around the people. We love how confident yet kind this mission statement is. It observes the state of its industry — which Workday believes lacks a human touch — and builds company values around it.

14. Prezi: To reinvent how people share knowledge, tell stories, and inspire their audiences to act.

If you know Prezi, you know how engaging it can make your next business presentation look. According to its mission statement, the company's clever slide animations and three-dimensional experience aren't just superficial product features. With every decision Prezi makes, it's all about the story you tell and the audience that story affects.

15. Tesla: To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy.

A car company's punny use of the word "accelerate" is just one reason this mission statement sticks out. However, Tesla makes this list because of how its mission statement describes the industry.

It may be a car company, but Tesla's primary interest isn't just automobiles — it's promoting sustainable energy. And, sustainable energy still has a "long road" ahead of it (pun intended) — hence the world's "transition" into this market.

Ultimately, a mission statement that can admit to the industry's immaturity is exactly what gets customers to root for it — and Tesla does that nicely.

16. Invisible Children: To end violence and exploitation facing our world's most isolated and vulnerable communities.

Invisible Children is a non-profit that raises awareness around the violence affecting communities across Central Africa, and the company takes quite a confident tone in its mission.

The most valuable quality of this mission statement is that it has an end goal. Many companies' visions and missions are intentionally left open-ended so that the business might always be needed by the community. Invisible Children, on the other hand, wants to "end" the violence facing African families. It's an admirable mission that all businesses — not just nonprofits — can learn from when motivating customers.

17. TED: Spread ideas.

We've all seen TED Talks online before. Well, the company happens to have one of the most concise mission statements out there.

TED, which stands for "Technology Education and Design," has a two-word mission statement that shines through in every Talk you've seen the company publish on the internet. That mission statement: "Spread ideas." Sometimes, the best way to get an audience to remember you is to zoom out as far as your business's vision can go. What do you really care about? TED has recorded some of the most famous presentations globally, but in the grand scheme of things, all it wants is to spread ideas around to its viewers.

Now that we’ve gone over successful mission statements, what does a good vision statement look like? Check out some of the following company vision statements — and get inspired to write one for your brand.

1. Alzheimer's Association: A world without Alzheimer's disease.

The Alzheimer’s Association conducts global research and provides quality care and support to people with dementia. This vision statement looks into the future where people won’t have to battle this currently incurable disease. With the work that it's doing in the present, both employees and consumers can see how the organization achieves its vision by helping those in need.

2. Teach for America: One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

Teach for America creates a network of leaders to provide equal education opportunities to children in need. This organization’s day-to-day work includes helping marginalized students receive the proper education they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Its vision statement is what it hopes to see through its efforts — a nation where no child is left behind.

3. Creative Commons: Realizing the full potential of the internet — universal access to research and education, full participation in culture — to drive a new era of development, growth, and productivity.

This nonprofit’s vision statement is broad. It helps overcome legal obstacles to share knowledge and creativity around the world. By working closely with major institutions, its vision is an innovative internet that isn’t barred by paywalls.

4. Microsoft (at its founding): A computer on every desk and in every home.

Microsoft is one of the most well-known technology companies in the world. It makes gadgets for work, play, and creative purposes on a worldwide scale, and its vision statement reflects that. Through its product offering and pricing, it can provide technology to anyone who needs it.

5. Australia Department of Health: Better health and wellbeing for all Australians, now and for future generations.

This government department has a clear vision for its country. Through health policies, programs, and regulations, it has the means to improve the healthcare of Australian citizens.

6. LinkedIn: Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.

LinkedIn is a professional networking service that gives people the opportunity to seek employment. Its vision statement intends to provide employees of every level a chance to get the job they need.

7. Disney: To entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds, and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.

Disney’s vision statement goes beyond providing ordinary entertainment. It intends to tell stories and drive creativity that inspires future generations through its work. This is an exceptional vision statement because it goes beyond giving consumers programs to watch, but ones that excite and change the way people see them and the world around them.

8. Facebook: Connect with friends and the world around you on Facebook.

Facebook is a major social media platform with a concise vision statement. It provides a platform to stay in touch with loved ones and potentially connect to people around the world.

9. Southwest: To be the world's most loved, most efficient, and most profitable airline.

Southwest Airlines is an international airline that strives to serve its flyers with a smile. Its vision statement is unique because it sees itself not just excelling in profit but outstanding customer service, too. Its vision is possible through its strategy and can lead its employees to be at the level they work toward.

10. Dunkin': To be always the desired place for great coffee beverages and delicious complementary doughnuts & bakery products to enjoy with family and friends.

Notice the interesting use of the word "complementary" in this vision statement. No, the chain isn't envisioning giving out freebies in the future. Its vision goes beyond remaining a large coffee chain. Rather, the brand wants to be the consummate leader in the coffee and donut industry. It wants to become a place known for fun, food, and recreation.

Inspire Through Brand Values

Brand values play a much more significant role in customer loyalty than you think. Showing that your business understands its audience — and can appeal to them on an emotional level — could be the decision point for a customer’s next purchase. We hope you found some insight in this post that can help you brainstorm your inspiring vision and mission statements for your business.

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

27 Truly Inspiring Company Vision and Mission Statement Examples was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

6 Analytical Skills Marketers Need and How to Improve Them

If you've ever tried to solve a Rubix Cube, you've put your analytical skills to the test. Making the colors match up requires problem-solving, logical reasoning, and pattern recognition.

While the majority of marketers will never make it to the next speedcubing competition, the skills you learn with puzzles like this are essential to a successful marketing career.

In today's workforce, nearly one in four workers have a job in which analytical skills are considered the most important factor. Companies want to hire for these skills because it shows a candidate's ability to think logically and use data to inform decision-making. In fact, Indeed found the most in-demand skills for employers — and several analytical skills top the list.

That's why it's important to know how analytical skills apply to your career and what you can do to develop these skills over time.

As a marketer, being able to understand problems and provide solutions is essential to a long, successful career. It means you can take a critical lens to the details of a problem to fully understand it. This helps you notice trends, understand the steps needed to take action, and offer novel solutions. But that doesn't mean you have to throw creativity out the door. Using analytical skills to problem solve can look like a structured, methodical approach or a more creative one.

We'll explore the various types of analytical skills later on, but first, let's look at how analytical skills differ from critical thinking skills.

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Analytical Skills vs. Critical Thinking

A person who uses logic to find patterns, brainstorm, analyze data, and make decisions based on that information has analytical skills. One of the skills required to do that is critical thinking.

In other words, critical thinking is just one of many skills you need to be an analytical thinker.

You probably use critical thinking more often than you imagine, like when you:

• Question whether a piece of information is a fact or an opinion.
• Break problems down to understand the reasoning behind them.
• Draw conclusions from data, rather than a gut feeling.
• Make intentional, rational, and goal-oriented decisions.

Marketers who have strong critical thinking skills make reasonable, logical judgments and think through every decision. They provide facts and logical arguments to back their choices, which leads to smart decisions and improves company success.

While each role has its own analytical skill requirements, there are several that will benefit any marketer throughout their career.

Example of Analytical Skills

If you're looking for a marketing role that leans towards analytics, such as a market research analyst position, it's best to develop analytical skills specific to that position and your desired industry. Analytical skills are soft skills, so you'll also want to develop hard role-specific technical skills.

For an analyst, that means mastering technical skills like Google Analytics and statistical software, while also having analytical skills such as creating data collection methods and presenting findings to senior leadership.

But across the board, all marketers can benefit from developing these in-demand analytical skills.

1. Critical Thinking

Any position across all levels of a company can benefit from critical thinking skills. It's the ability to question an idea or examine why a problem exists. This can lead you to tackle issues others thought impossible and understand whether resolving a problem is worth the time, money, and effort. Critical thinking can take many forms in marketing, such as:

• Decision-making
• Content and brand auditing
• Prioritization
• Troubleshooting
• Case analysis
• Correlation
• Data interpretation
• Judgment
• Market research analysis

2. Data Analysis

Neil Hoyne, Chief Measurement Strategist at Google, once said, "The companies that are going to win are the ones who are using data, not guessing."

Interpreting data is more than collecting and reading information — it's making sense of what's before you by connecting patterns and recognizing trends. Strong data analysis skills allow you to pull insights from a large volume of data, which you can share with key decision-makers. This skill can show up in marketing role requirements in a few common ways.

• ROI analysis
• SWOT analysis
• Data visualization
• Pattern recognition
• Process analysis
• Industry and market research
• Presentation skills
• Measuring customer satisfaction
• Marketing analytics
• Customer segmentation strategies
• Predictive analysis

3. Creative Thinking

I once had a manager who was known for saying, "The first answer isn't the answer." She knew the role creativity played in problem-solving and pushed our team to view a possible solution from all angles. Marketers with this analytical skill work to find out-of-the-box solutions and patterns that others brush past. And if you need any more convincing, 'creativity' ranks on Indeed’s top 20 list of most in-demand skills for today's workforce. At work, creative skills involve:

• Brainstorming
• Collaboration
• Adaptability
• Budgeting
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Strategic planning
• Organizational restructuring
• Predictive modeling
• Campaign development
• Branding

4. Communication

Employers consistently rank communication as a must-have skill — and for good reason. Being able to explain your idea for a project or give feedback is essential as a marketing professional.

Communicating clearly helps you keep everyone on the same page when rolling out a campaign or diffuse a problem with a deadline when it (inevitably) arises. Strong communication skills needed in marketing include:

• Written and verbal communication
• Body language
• Interpersonal skills
• Active listening
• Conducting presentations
• Reporting
• Confidence and clarity of expression
• Sharing feedback
• Responsiveness
• Delegating responsibilities
• Respect and empathy

5. Problem-solving

Deciding how to respond to a harsh customer comment on social media. Distributing an advertising budget. Prioritizing which roles to hire for as a growing team.

All of these situations require analytical problem-solving skills, and all will pop up through a marketing career. Here are the problem-solving skills every marketer can benefit from developing:

• Research
• Data collection
• Prioritization
• Checking for accuracy
• Risk-taking
• Attention to detail
• Dependability
• Team-building
• Logic and reasoning
• Organization
• Crisis management

6. Collaboration

Good collaboration skills can improve your working relationships, help you accomplish tasks on time, and reach your short- and long-term goals.

And nearly every marketing team has to collaborate with sales, product, business development, and creative teams to get anything done, knowing how to create synergy with your colleagues will make work smoother and more enjoyable.

The most common collaboration skills for marketers today are:

• Persuasion
• Adaptability
• Time management
• Responsiveness
• Negotiation
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Emotional intelligence
• Open-mindedness
• Process improvement
• Adapting to change
• Networking

How to Improve Analytical Skills

Developing analytical skills takes time and effort. Unlike technical skills that have a structured approach to follow, analytical skills are more difficult to define and develop. There's a process to learn how to use Google Analytics for SEO, but the steps to become an effective communicator are more fuzzy and undefined.

Fortunately, analytical skills can be honed. Here how you can go about boosting your skills and contributing to your company's productivity and success.

Take courses, certifications, or on the job training.

Infinite resources exist both in-person and online that can help you improve your analytical skills. Universities and online companies like Coursera offer online schooling, HubSpot Academy offers free certification courses, and many companies provide stipends for continuing education.

Start by identifying which skills you want to improve and do research to find the resources that are right for your skill set and budget.

Find a mentor.

You likely know someone who is an excellent negotiator or always crafts the perfect email. Noticing how these people approach a situation and problem solve can help you hone your skills. Take notes, save examples, and apply their process to your work.

To take it a step further, ask them to chat over coffee or a phone call to discuss how they developed their skill. They can likely point you in the right direction or provide guidance on what you need to do to excel at the skill.

Try practice problems.

Role-playing is incredibly effective when working to improve analytical skills. Instead of simply reading a case study about an innovative digital media campaign, find a tool to help you develop your brainstorming skills.

Depending on the skill, you can find a practice book or an online resource to walk you through various mental models and scenarios. Work on an idea, and then present it to a trusted colleague or mentor to get feedback.

Play games to improve your analytical skills.

Spending hours on your phone playing Sudoku has more benefits than the personal satisfaction of beating your top score. Games that test your mental agility and memorization can improve your ability to think logically and challenge norms. While game trends are constantly changing, there are several classics that have withstood the test of time.

1. Sudoku
2. Jigsaw puzzles
3. Board games (i.e. Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, Splendor, Pictionary, and Bananagrams)
4. Computer or mobile games (i.e. Lumosity, Elevate, and Peak)
5. Chess
6. Crossword puzzles

Analytical Skills for Your Resume

Once you gain or improve your analytical skills, make sure to update your resume to reflect those strengths. Your resume should include a list of 10 to 20 skills, with a mix of both hard and soft skills. Note at least five to 10 analytical skills so potential employers know you have the knowledge to get your job done.

When choosing which skills to highlight, look to the job requirements section. A role may involve managing the company's social media accounts, but this typically includes collaborating with multiple teams to get the content and analytics you need to do that successfully. Showcasing a blend of technical and analytical skills is what makes you a competitive candidate.

As your career develops, you'll likely need to keep your analytical skills sharp. Be proactive by practicing and paying attention to people who have the skills you want to acquire, and you'll be on your way to solving complex problems with ease.

6 Analytical Skills Marketers Need and How to Improve Them was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Write a Creative Brief in 11 Simple Steps [Examples + Template]

The first step in any successful project is drawing up a game plan with a clear objective. It's one of the reasons marketers love creative briefs.

A creative brief acts as a roadmap that takes a project from ideation to completion. It ensures the scope, timeline, key stakeholders, and purpose of the project are communicated clearly. The creative brief is the single source of truth for everyone working on a project. If questions come up or tasks become unclear, the creative brief will steer things in the right direction.

If you’re just starting out in a creative role, taking on your first gig as a designer or consultant, or you simply want to get better at writing creative briefs, this article has everything you need to know to write the most effective creative briefs.

Whether you’re a consultant pitching a creative brief to a client, or a project manager presenting a brief to your team, start by speaking with the project stakeholders. These discussions will help you understand the company's mission, project goals, and challenges your team faces. Then, you’ll have enough information to write a compelling brief that focuses on what’s really important to your company or client.

The idea of a creative brief sounds simple, but it can be hard to wrap a lot of important details into just a few pages. Therefore, a creative brief is typically made of eight sections that can fit on one to two pages.

Creative briefs are pretty standard documents within just about every marketing, advertising, or design team. But the format of every company's creative brief might vary slightly to suit the needs of the project or client. Below is a simple outline that will be the foundation of your creative brief. It includes the most important steps in the creative process and information that'll be relevant to stakeholders involved in the project.

Once you’re fully informed and ready to write, use the following steps to draft yours. To make it even easier, I've included a fill-in-the-blank template in the last step.

Follow Along with HubSpot's Free Creative Brief Templates

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1. Decide on a name for the project.

The first step in developing a creative brief is deciding on a project name. This might sound simple, but it's one of the most critical components of a creative brief. If you're building a campaign around a brand new product or service, the campaign name will be the first time many members of your team will be introduced to it. Referring to the campaign (and therefore product or service) by the correct name prevents the game of telephone from happening. Without a specific and clear campaign name, people will make up their own terminology which can alter the intent of the campaign.

To create a project or campaign name for your creative brief, keep it creative and brief. A few words or a short sentence should work just fine. If you're launching a product, identify what the call to action will be for the target audience, then center the name around that. Here are a few examples of fictional campaign names:

• The Search for Adventure Campaign- A scavenger hunt-themed amusement park.
• The Don't Forget Your Memories Campaign - A photo frame company.
• The "What's hotter than Pepperco hot sauce?" Campaign - A hot sauce brand.

2. Write about the brand and summarize the project’s background.

Another simple, yet essential section is the company background. If you work in an agency setting, this is non-negotiable as your team is likely handling several client campaigns at once. However, if you're developing a creative brief for an in-house project, you'll still want to include this part. New hires on your team, freelancers, and vendors will appreciate the background that your internal team is already privy to.

The company background shouldn't be a general history of the company or a copied and pasted paragraph from the about page. Instead, tailor this to the project at hand. Set the scene with one or two sentences that sum up the brand’s mission. Follow this with a few sentences that give background on the brand and what led to the development of the project.

While some creatives have put this information all together in a quick paragraph, others separate it with headers like “Brand Statement” and “Background.”

Here are some questions to consider when writing a company background for your creative brief:

• Has the company launched a campaign like this before?
• Why is the company choosing to launch this campaign right now?
• What's happening in the market and how will this campaign respond to it?

3. Highlight the project objective.

Here is where the creative brief gets more specific. The project objective should briefly explain the purpose of the project, the timeline, and the audience it'll target. This can be done in a sentence or two, but you can get creative and stylize it in sections.

This part of the creative brief will be helpful in emphasizing why the project needs to happen. The goal aspects will help you and your team align on the project’s expectations. If the company or client hasn’t identified any major challenges, you can focus this section on goals and objectives. Explain what a successful project looks like and how it will benefit the company.

Pro Tip: Writing a project objective is very similar to writing a goal, so take a look at this blog post for more detail on goal and objective writing.

Here’s an example of a sample creative brief for PayPal that offers separate sections for “The Problem” and “The Goal”:

4. Describe the target audience.

Next, it's time to define the target audience for the project. This is the segment of your market that will directly benefit from the product or service being launched. You can take audience segmentation a step further by identifying a primary and secondary audience. Doing so will give your team more freedom to explore creative ideas that might resonate with one group more than the other.

When crafting the target audience section, be sure to include the following:

• Demographics - Simple demographic information gives your team insight into exactly who the audience is. This includes data points like age, income, education, ethnicity, and occupation.
• Behaviors - Buying behaviors, trends, and other customer history make up the target audience behaviors. These provide important context to the creative brief because they explain where the customer is in their buyer journey.
• Psychographics - This is how the audience thinks and feels about your brand and the product or service you sell, in general.
• Geographics - Digital, physical, and hybrid campaigns will benefit from having geographics stated explicitly in the creative brief so that media buyers can price ad slots in each market.

Pro Tip: Your creative brief shouldn't be too long, and this section can take up quite a bit of space. To make this section more digestible, consider using buyer personas.

Here’s how the sample brief for PayPal noted above thoughtfully explains a new product’s target audience:

5. Interpret the competitive landscape.

Knowing what your competitors are doing is advantageous for the whole team. You can use competitive data to come up with ideas that haven’t been tried yet, learn from their failed projects, or build a project that improves on a strategy they’ve used in the past.

Include a quick list of competitors with similar product or service offerings. Briefly list a few things your company has in common with them, how your brand has differentiated itself already, and a few areas where this project can help you get ahead.

6. Prepare the key message.

The key message can be the most difficult part of the creative brief to develop because just about every stakeholder will have a different opinion of what it should be. To get buy-in faster, try this simple trick. Ask yourself "We're launching this project, so what?" The so what? is your key message. It explains why your target audience should stop what they're doing and pay attention to your campaign.

The key message includes the pain point, what the audience's experience might be like without the pain point, and the benefit they'll receive as a result of your company's solution. This framework places the customer in the spotlight of the campaign. Instead of telling them what this product or service could do for them, it positions them as the main character in the journey from problem to solution.

7. Choose the key consumer benefit.

If you're launching a new product, there are likely several features and benefits that the target audience will experience when they decide to purchase it. However, it's very difficult to structure a campaign around several different features. That's why marketers and creatives use something called a key consumer benefit (KCB) in the creative brief to keep everyone aligned on the primary benefit being communicated. To choose the right KCB, you'll want to get input from the project stakeholders and rely on consumer data to guide the decision.

Pro Tip: Your KCB won't always be the fanciest feature of your product. The benefit that solves the biggest problem for your audience is a great choice for the KCB.

8. Select an attitude.

The tone and voice of your campaign create the overall attitude and that should be consistent throughout every creative element that's being developed. Identifying a few adjectives that describe the attitude of the campaign can help copywriters draft copy that sends the correct message within the right context. Graphic designers can use colors and techniques to portray the tone and voice as well.

In this section of the brief, you should also note the appropriate voice for your audience. While some audiences, like those in the business world, prefer more formal language, others might engage more with a casual, relatable tone. To substantiate your decision to choose a particular brand voice and tone, you could write something like, “Our brand voice is a casual and carefree tone because it speaks to younger Gen-Z audiences.”

Pro tip: Use a thesaurus to find specific words that evoke nuanced emotions and attitudes for a hyper-targeted campaign.

9. Determine the best call to action.

Finally, your audience needs something to do once they see your campaign. The good thing about CTAs is that they don't have to be physical actions. A CTA could have a goal to change thoughts and perceptions about your brand which doesn't require the audience to do anything at all.

Your creative brief might include several different CTAs, especially if you have a primary and secondary target audience. But it's a good idea to have one primary CTA that drives the project objective we talked about earlier.

10. Draft the distribution plan.

When the project is done, you’ll need to make sure your audience actually sees it. List a few channels or platforms on which you plan to announce the launch, as well as any promotional content you plan to create.

When drafting this section, think about your target audience. Don’t waste time on a promotional strategy that they won’t see. For example, if you’re promoting a project to Gen-Z, you’ll want to invest in social media rather than billboards or newspaper ads.

11. Share the creative brief with stakeholders.

Once you’ve drafted a creative brief, share it with the team you’ll be working with. You’ll also want to circulate it around the company via Slack, email, or presentations. If you’re a consultant working outside of a client’s company, encourage your clients to share the brief internally.

As you or your clients spread awareness, you should be open to answering questions or taking feedback from colleagues in case they have any great ideas. This strategy will improve team alignment, increase support of the project, and ensure that all of your colleagues are on the same page.

Creative Brief Template

Having trouble with the flow and organization of your brief? Here’s a simple template that could help. Copy and paste it into a document and fill in the blanks. You can also add to it or adjust it as needed for your project.

Download More Creative Brief Templates

[Inset company or client logo at the top along with the project name.]

COMPANY BACKGROUND:

For ___ years, ______ [Brand Name] has been serving customers in the ____________ [group/job field/geographical area] with ____________________ [product or service].

[Brand Name] has made achievements including __________,__________, and ___________. We have also launched marketing campaigns that have touched on ____________,________, and ____________. With the launch of _________ [project name] they hope to ___________.

PROJECT OBJECTIVE:

With this project, the company aims to solve problems related to ____________________, while also expanding on ___________ and improving on _____________.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Our target audience is ____ [gender], in the age range of _ and _, and live areas like ____, _____, and ______. They enjoy _____, dislike ______, and might work in fields like _____, _____, and _____. They want more of ________ and their daily pain points include ________.

Their favorite products might include _______ and ______. They learn about these products through channels including ________, _________, and _______.

COMPETITORS:

Our three biggest competitors [are/will be] ________, ________, and _______. These competitors offer _____, ______, and ______. We are ahead of them in _____ and ______, but we are behind when it comes to product offerings like __________ and _________.

KEY MESSAGE:

The target audience is experiencing __________ [pain point], but with our newest project ___________, they'll get to experience _________ [new experience without the pain point]. That's what makes ______ [solution] an unrivaled solution within the market.

KEY CONSUMER BENEFIT:

________ [feature] is the best way for our target audience to experience _____ [benefit].

ATTITUDE:

[Include three to five adjectives that describe the tone and voice of the project.]

CALL TO ACTION:

When the target audience sees our campaign, they will [feel/think/do] _________.

DISTRIBUTION:

We will promote the launch on platforms and channels that our demographic regularly engages with. These will include ________, ________, and _______.

We will also release content including _______, _______, and ________ to gain attention from our audience and inform them of the project.

Below are a few messages we will use:

• _________________________________________________.
• _________________________________________________.
• _________________________________________________.

Types of Creative Briefs [+ Examples]

Creative briefs serve several purposes in the communications field. Marketers, designers, and advertisers use them differently. Depending on your role, your team, and the project you're working on, one might be more effective than the other. Below are some of the most common types of creative briefs used across industries today plus examples of what they might look like.

Marketing Creative Briefs

A marketing creative brief is most commonly used to bring campaigns to market. This type of creative brief can be used for both new and existing campaigns. Broad business goals and strategies to accomplish them are usually included in this type of creative brief. It's also not uncommon to see revenue goals and a budget included in a marketing creative brief.

Simple Marketing Creative Brief Example

Product Design Creative Briefs

Product design creative briefs outline the go-to-market strategy for a new product or feature launch. Product marketers are responsible for developing this type of brief. Developed in conjunction with the product manager, the product design creative brief will describe the features and benefits of the product and how the audience will benefit from them. Unique features of this type of creative brief include product documentation and product descriptions.

Product Design Creative Brief Example

Advertising Agency Creative Briefs

Advertising agencies develop creative briefs often for the various clients they serve. These briefs are concise and include the client's brand guidelines as well as the specific project guidelines. A budget may also be included in the brief so that all teams can make wise decisions about the tactics they recommend for the client. An account manager or supervisor develops the creative brief and shares it with client stakeholders before the agency begins working on the project.

Advertising Agency Creative Brief Example

Streamline Projects with a Creative Brief

Scope creep happens to the best of us. Projects get bigger, stakeholders are added, and the objective of the project seems to morph as time goes on. Streamline your next product launch or marketing and advertising campaign with a creative brief. As a result, you'll find that your team is more aligned with the project's goals. We've even provided free creative brief templates to get you started — download them below.

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

How to Write a Creative Brief in 11 Simple Steps [Examples + Template] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

The Best Integrated Marketing Campaigns, According to HubSpot Marketers

Integrated marketing is any marketing campaign that uses multiple channels in execution. For example, you might see a popular new donut flavor in a commercial, then drive past the donut shop to see posters of the donut. And if you flip through Instagram once you get to your destination, you might see a GIF on your feed, displaying the donut.

This style of marketing is great for boosting leads and brand awareness. Using multiple sources to deliver the same campaign diversifies the audience that interacts with its content. In this post, let's look at some recent integrated marketing campaigns that delivered a great experience for customers and leads alike.

Best Integrated Marketing Campaigns

1. Hyundai Elantra

Channels: Spotify, Website

A great example of an integrated marketing campaign comes from the 2021 Hyundai Elantra award-winning campaign.

To increase brand awareness among the younger, millennial demographic, Hyundai partnered with Spotify and musicians in LA, Miami, and NYC to give customers an insider's guide of the city.

The city guides were made available to audiences everywhere through Spotify podcasts, where drivers could follow along from place to place by listening to the podcast.

These guides were audio, video, and even a microsite that housed itineraries and stop descriptions.

As an associate marketing manager at HubSpot, I think this is a great campaign that utilizes the right channels for the audience that Hyundai is trying to reach.

2. "Fatima," the movie

Channels: Facebook Premiere, other social media channels

In 2020, McKinney and Picturehouse teamed up to launch a new film, Fatima, the historical drama of the Virgin Mary’s appearances to three children in Fátima, Portugal, over a hundred years ago.

The companies developed social content to inspire, connect and elevate the film’s key themes. It was a social campaign that included more than 200 pieces of content reaching 14 million people.

But one month before the movie's release, the world and Fatima were put on pause due to COVID-19. To keep people interested and engagement up for another four months, the companies created “Together In Spirit,” a virtual pilgrimage transporting people to the Shrine at Fátima. The campaign videos got more than 27 million views.

At a time when everyone was isolated, the goal of the broadcast was to provide a message of hope, and in the process, it became the best-performing Facebook Premiere event in motion picture history.

3. Hulu's HAHA Awards

Channels: Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Website

One of my favorite integrated marketing campaigns to come along is the launch of Hulu's HAHA Awards. HAHA is a clever acronym, standing for "Hilarious Animated Hulu Awards," which I love.

Initially, I saw the commercial during a regular ad break while watching — of course — Hulu:

Because there's no awards show for animated content, the team at Hulu decided to change that — and get fans involved. Fans can vote for the awards on Twitter and Hulu's website.

I appreciate that anyone with a Twitter account can participate in voting, regardless of if they are Hulu customers. Some of the categories are popular TV shows, like Archer and Bob Burgers, so the masses can vote. Additionally, people without a Twitter or Hulu account can vote, just by visiting the website.

The tactic of using YouTube to introduce the campaign, as well as alternate methods of voting, makes this campaign a chance for Hulu to delight customers and earn more quality leads from social media.

4. Victoria Monet's "Audience"

Channels: Instagram, Facebook, Billboards

For the single, "Experience," R&B singers Victoria Monet and Khalid collaborated with Spotify for a release campaign. The campaign included online and in-person marketing tactics and is the favorite campaign of HubSpot staff writer Jay Fuchs.

In Canada, there was a billboard put up in Toronto, promoting the song's Spotify release. In response, Monet posted a picture on Instagram to share with her fans and promote the single:

The use of online and in-person marketing methods makes this integrated campaign one that can be seen from anywhere. From the billboard in Canada to international Facebook and Instagram fans, the release of "Experience" was anticipated globally. In fact, in one month, the single became Monet's most popular song on the streaming service.

5. Gillette, "The Best Men Can Be"

Channels: Website, YouTube

"In 2019, Gillette launched its campaign, 'The Best Men Can Be'. The campaign included an inspiring video, a landing page that celebrates male advocates and leaders in the community, and a hashtag, #thebestmencanbe, to encourage user participation across social channels," says HubSpot Marketing Manager, Caroline Forsey.

Image Source

"The campaign, created in response to the #metoo movement, urged men to hold themselves to a higher standard," says Forsey. In the corresponding ad for the movement, viewers are shown hypothetical real-life instances of men stepping in to be themselves, and making positive change in their community. To heighten awareness of the movement, the landing page highlights real accounts of men upholding the hashtag Gillette created.

"While the campaign received some backlash from both stakeholders and consumers, I think it was worth the price because it redefined the shaving brand as a relevant, values-oriented brand. For me personally, I shared the ad with all my male friends and family members, and it sparked a discussion — which, really, is what marketing is all about," Forsey commented.

Gillette's tactic of getting their customers involved proved to be successful in the moment and long-term. Discussions, like the one Forsey had with men in her life, were happening nationwide. In fact, my university class had one about the campaign. This integrated campaign, boosted by real accounts, was proven to be not only successful but valuable.

6. REI, #RecreateResponsibly

Channels: Website, Instagram

Outdoor activity is at the core of REI's products. REI sells camping essentials, such as tents, clothes, and insulated containers. In 2020, REI partnered with several groups in Washington state that aim to preserve wildlife and nature, making it the favorite campaign of HubSpot marketing manager, Clint Fontanella.

Outdoor Alliance, The Outdoor Industry Association, and national parks came together for the #RecreateResponsibly campaign. The point of which was to educate the public about how to stay safe when venturing outdoors, with the main content player being graphics similar to the one below:

Image Source

This graphic was shared on social media to spread awareness of tips to responsibly venture outdoors to avoid health concerns. #RecreateResponsibly's hashtag asks followers to share the tips in real-life situations, shared by REI's Instagram.

With the hashtag and partnerships, the campaign is also boosted by related blog posts on REI's website. Posts like this one offer ways to stay safe while traveling.

The hashtag has been used by The National Park Service, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and Los Angeles National Forest, and brings awareness to large audiences. The partnerships and REI's content share an educational message and an interactive component — making this campaign diverse and engaging.

7. Melt Cosmetics, "She's in Parties"

Channels: Website, Instagram, Facebook

"She's in Parties" is the name of an eyeshadow palette from Melt Cosmetics. Says staff writer Rebecca Riserbato, "The purple palette sparked a hashtag of the same name on Instagram. On the landing page for the collection, there's a section dedicated to Instagram posts with the hashtag."

The campaign inspired a purple theme, which took over the company's Facebook and Instagram accounts. Along with this social media content, influencers who were sent the palette began to upload their reviews on YouTube.

For this launch, a variety of social tactics were used. A matching social campaign, user-generated hashtag, YouTube recommendations, and a revolving landing page were all contributions to where the campaign was distributed. When you know where your audience spends their time, like the team at Melt, you can reach them with a diverse, omnichannel strategy.

8. Brew Dr. Kombucha, "Love Wins"

Channels: Website, Instagram

"In May 2020, Brew Dr. Kombucha released its signature kombucha with limited-edition colorful, rainbow-wrapping for Pride Month," Forsey recalls. "The wrapping has the lifeline number to The Trevor Project printed directly on it — the company partnered with The Trevor Project and supports the organization through proceeds of its limited-edition kombucha."

Image Source

"Along with the limited-edition wrapping, the company created a dedicated landing page for #LoveWins, and supported Pride Month with the #LoveWins hashtag across its social channels."

Forsey continues, "Ultimately, I chose this campaign as one of my favorite integrated campaigns of 2020 because I was inspired to see this brand uplift and inspire communities while giving proceeds back to an incredibly worthy cause."

The brand chose a social movement that was important to them, Pride, and celebrated it with this integrated campaign. This tactic brings awareness to a social cause, a respected organization, and enhances a celebration.

9. The New York Times, "The Truth Is Hard"

Channels: Commercial, Facebook, Billboard

In early 2018, the newspaper The New York Times was struggling. With dwindling subscriptions and dwindling trust in the news from the general public, the team behind the famous publication had to figure out how to build widespread trust.

That's where "The Truth Is Hard" came in — it was a campaign designed to offer transparency. "I think the best advertising not only gets you to pause and pay attention at the moment but also encourages the viewer to take action and learn more after the fact," says Alicia Collins, senior brand manager.

"The New York Times' 'The Truth Is Hard' campaign does that. It tells a clear and impactful story, and demonstrates the value and importance of journalism right away."

Following a tribute to journalism at the 2018 Oscars, the campaign began. The Times aired a minimalist film to display the clarity of newsprint, and challenged viewers to think about what truth means to them.

Refugee crises, sickness, and wars — the second phase dove deep into conveying what journalists endure in order to deliver the most accurate coverage. And, with a paid media campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, all of this content was broadcast for the world to see.

Image Source

This campaign earned the Times their highest number of new subscriptions since the paywall started, increasing signups by 100%. The multiple channels used by the news source to restore their image to the public worked and made this integrated campaign a win.

Get Started With Integrated Marketing Campaigns

Integrated marketing campaigns can help increase brand awareness, generate leads, and delight your customers. The best integrated marketing campaigns have an omnichannel approach, encourage audience engagement, and hopefully improve your brand reputation.

And the only way to truly create an integrated marketing campaign is to have a marketing plan template to help you identify the right channels, budget, and strategy for your campaign.

The Best Integrated Marketing Campaigns, According to HubSpot Marketers was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

What is Data as a Service (DaaS)?

"The Cloud."

It's a concept that has grown wildly within the past 20-40 years as technology evolves. But if you're like me, you might not know what it really means.

The cloud refers to how and where data is stored and where it isn't. It allows software and services to run on the internet, instead of only locally on one device, because the data is stored remotely across a variety of different servers.

With this technology, companies have begun storing data online and modernizing their infrastructure, data management, storage, and analytics.

While data management, analytics, and integration can sound like intimidating topics (especially to those of us that aren't mathematically inclined), it's so important for analyzing, strategizing, and increasing reliability in data for your marketing efforts.

In this post, let's review what data as a service (DaaS) means and look at some DaaS companies to understand it better.

DaaS companies focus on helping customers use their data in the most strategic, efficient way. Additionally, they help customers store their data and have impeccable search functions to make creating data reports easier.

As we continue to get more data and insights into what works and doesn't, data-driven decision-making is becoming more and more popular among businesses.

DaaS is similar to software as a service (SaaS), which are companies that offer software online and via the cloud, instead of needing to download or install a program. There's also IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service).

Any "as a service" company is using the cloud to manage business resources. And while SaaS is a popular term that many people know, not as many people are familiar with DaaS. This is partially because data continues to get more advanced, with more storage capabilities and better analytics as the cloud evolves.

DaaS companies usually are priced based on the amount of data storage that a business wants to purchase. Data is measured using the megabyte model.

When businesses have an excess of data and aren't sure how to maintain it, DaaS is a popular solution. By using DaaS software, companies can immediately store and manage their data and will have greater flexibility when it comes to scaling up.

By now, you might be wondering, "What are the benefits of using a DaaS platform?"

Well, one of the main advantages of using a DaaS platform instead of storing data physically on-site is automated maintenance. The DaaS provider will automatically manage data and keep the tools and services up-to-date.

Additionally, DaaS is more cost-effective and will lead to more agile decision-making and faster innovation. This is because data will be the center of the business and used for strategic decision-making and data management.

With a data-driven culture, an organization will be able to innovate and grow at high rates because its ideas and initiatives are informed by trustworthy data.

For example, a company can use a cloud-based DaaS solution to manage compliance and scaling requirements, making it easier to adjust operations to fluctuating demands.

So, what does this look like in action? And what are some examples of a DaaS company? Let's dive in below.

Data as a Service (DaaS) Companies

1. Snowflake

Snowflake is a DaaS company that provides data warehousing, data lake, data sharing, and data exchange capabilities. This was one of the first modern DaaS companies to provide data as a service products. With this platform, your company can store and analyze both structured and semi-structured data for business insights.

2. SAP Hana

SAP Hana is a high-performance in-memory database that provides advanced analytics on multimodel data, on-premise, and in the cloud. With this platform, you can build data solutions with modern architectures and gain business-ready insights in real-time.

3. Oracle DaaS

Oracle DaaS is a subscription-based marketing intelligence platform that leverages Oracle's acquisitions of Datalogix and BlueKai. Oracle DaaS for Marketing provides anonymous multi-channel data for marketers, and Oracle DaaS for Social provides social and enterprise data.

As technology continues to evolve, managing, storing, and analyzing data will become increasingly important. And while it might seem confusing, DaaS companies can help simplify this process and make it easier to understand.

What is Data as a Service (DaaS)? was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

2021 YouTube Ad Specs

Did you know that over 500 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every minute, and the platform has more than 2 billion users?

I don't know if it's just me, but I didn't know YouTube had that much content published every day.

Since many businesses use YouTube as a marketing tool for their campaigns, it's important to stay up to date on the ad specifications.

In this post, we'll give a quick overview of the ad formats and ad requirements for YouTube.

YouTube Ad Specs

YouTube Display Ad Specs

Display ads appear to the top right of a video, right above the video suggestions.

Specs:

• 300 x 250 px for the larger view
• 300 x 60 px for the smaller view
• Recommended video dimensions are: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p),1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
• Aspect ratio is 16:9
• Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, .MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.

YouTube Pre-Roll, Mid-Roll, and In-Stream Ad Specs

As I'm sure you've seen, most YouTube videos have ads either at the beginning of the video (these can be skippable or non-skippable) or in the middle of the video. These are called pre-roll and mid-roll ads (previously called in-stream ads).

While there are several YouTube ad types, the specs for these ads are the same. In fact, the specs are the same as non-ad videos since they all play through the standard YouTube player (the only difference is video length).

Specs:

• Recommended dimensions: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p),1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p).
• Minimum dimension is 426 x 240.
• Max dimension is 3840 x 2160.
• Aspect ratio is 16:9.
• Max file size is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
• Accepted video formats include: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Skippable video length max is 6 minutes (skippable after 5 seconds).
• Non-skippable video length max is 15 or 20 seconds (30 seconds in some regions).
• Mid-roll video length minimum is 30 seconds.

YouTube Vertical Video Ad Specs

YouTube has optimized the mobile viewing experience so that video ads that are vertical can show up on full screen across different devices (whether landscape or vertical).

Specs:

• Landscape: 16:9
• Either a vertical 9:16 or square 1:1, or both.

YouTube Ad Banner Size

A banner ad campaign is one that stretches across the top of a YouTube page.

Specs:

• 16:9 aspect ratio
• Keep within recommended YouTube banner size of 2560 x 1440 px

YouTube ads can be very influential for your audience. However, to have the most impact, your ads should be the right size and the best quality by following these ad specifications.

2021 YouTube Ad Specs was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Make Instagram Story Highlights [+Engage Your Audience]

Did you know that ⅓ of the most viewed Instagram Stories are from businesses? Customers want to see what businesses are posting about on "Stories," however, as you probably know, those are only viewable for 24 hours.

But what if your audience wants to save those Stories and come back to them later (whether for a link or to reference something)? This is why Instagram added the "Highlights" feature several years ago.

With this tool, brands can save Stories so that customers can look at them whenever they want, indefinitely.

In this post, we'll walk you through how to make an Instagram Story Highlight, and then dive into expert tips on how to use the feature to engage your audience.

1. Tap on the plus sign from your profile.

The first step in creating an Instagram Highlight is to tap on the plus sign in the top right corner of the screen when you're on your profile.

2. Select Story Highlight

Then, you'll want to select "Story Highlight."

3. Choose the Story you want to add.

At this point, it's time to choose what Stories you want to save to your highlight. You can choose one or several. Then, hit "Next."

4. Pick a cover photo and add a name for your highlight.

Lastly, you'll choose a cover photo and then add a name for your highlight. Then, click "Add." To add more Stories over time, you can tap and hold the highlight and then select "Edit Highlight."

As time goes on and you want to reorder or archive your Instagram Story highlights, you can select "Edit Highlight" and then choose the Story you want to delete. Then, you can click on "Edit Highlight," go to your Instagram Story archives and select the post again. This will now add that post again, making it at the front of your highlights thread.

Once you've gone through these steps, your Instagram Story highlight will be visible on your profile. But, you might be wondering what picture you should use for your highlight cover/icon. Let's dive in below.

Instagram Story Highlights Cover

The last step of adding a highlight is selecting a name and image/icon. Visually, the best thing to do is create icons that are matching. For example, the HubSpot Academy Instagram account uses similar icons for its highlights.

As you can see, the icons follow a certain format, are visually appealing, and match the theme of the rest of the feed.

Before you create your highlights in the app, it's important to choose the name and design the icons that you want.

As you're designing the icons, you'll use square dimensions. It's actually very similar in size to the profile picture size. Make sure your icons have an aspect ratio of 1:1 and use dimensions like 2000 x 2000 pixels.

Now that you know how to make an Instagram Story highlight, you might be wondering what the best practices are. Let's review some of the best ways you can use this feature to engage with your audience.

1. Promote your products.

With Instagram highlights, you can promote your best-selling products. Perhaps you design an icon to look like your product, and then name it your product name. In that highlight, you can show reviews for specific products, photos, features, benefits, and more.

Jenni Kim, a marketing manager at HubSpot, says, "Brainstorm your highlights into the topics most relevant to what your audience is looking for to give an overview of what your social brand offers! The highlights act as a compilation or mini archive for your past stories, so it's a perfect way to showcase your past content in a way that's useful to your audience as they learn more about your brand."

This is a great way to engage your audience on Instagram and increase the chances that your followers will purchase from you.

2. Add blog posts.

The best way to engage with your audience through highlights is to post engaging content that your followers want to come back to.

For instance, you can add blog post links and save the most recent and relevant content on the highlight. This will help give your audience an easy place to access your top blog posts, even if they're reading the posts after you've already promoted them on social media.

3. Show interviews.

Another great way to engage with your audience through highlights is to post interviews with your employees, leadership, or customers. Or, if you post interview content on your blogs, you can film those interviews and save them to your interviews highlight. This will showcase your series and help you educate your audience.

Interview content is typically very engaging because it's interesting while being informative. It gives a behind-the-scenes look at how others do what they do.

4. Reveal behind-the-scenes footage.

Speaking of behind the scenes, one of the best types of content to post on highlights is BTS footage. Whether you're an individual brand or a company, showing the behind-the-scenes footage is a fun way for customers to see how you do what you do. You can showcase behind-the-scenes footage of product production or of a photoshoot ad campaign.

This type of footage is engaging and helps your audience connect with your brand. By saving this footage on your highlights, you'll extend the engagement and hopefully develop interested and long-term viewers who keep coming back for more.

5. Include events.

When it comes to promoting events, saving information on your Instagram highlights is a great way to make sure customers and followers have all the information they need at their fingertips.

This helps engage the people who are attending your event (because they'll want to come back to this highlight for information) and promote the event to those who haven't heard of it (if people are looking at your profile, they'll see that you're having an event).

6. Save links.

Of course one of the top ways to get followers to purchase products from you on social media is to add links to your social media pages. If you're an influencer or company, you can save these most asked-for links to a highlight. This makes it easy for users to find a product from you and purchase it.

7. Showcase your culture.

Instagram highlights can be used to showcase fun, exciting video footage that reveals what your company culture is like. Perhaps you have someone on your culture team take videos of morale-boosting events.

Or maybe you start a takeover series like HubSpot has on our HubSpot Life Instagram account. With this highlight, we engage our audience every day with a different employee takeover. This employee will basically post a "day in the life" on Stories that day and you can save those to your highlights for whenever people are researching what your company culture is like.

8. Answer FAQs.

When users have questions, they go to social media. A great way to engage those customers is to have a FAQ highlight where you discuss any/all the top questions that users ask.

9. Incorporate reviews and testimonials.

We all know that people purchase products that have great reviews and testimonials. In fact, it's one of the top elements that impact purchasing decisions. That's why it's a good idea to engage those users who are researching your product by looking at social media with a "Reviews and Testimonials" highlight.

10. Give tips/tricks.

Educating your audience is one of the best ways to provide value on social media. Save your tips and tricks to a highlight to continue educating and engaging with your audience on Instagram.

11. Display sales and discounts.

How do you get the word out about current sales and discounts? One way to do this is through Instagram story highlights. You can save all this information on a highlight so that customers know they can always check this highlight before making a purchase. Again, this keeps users coming back to your profile and engaging with your content.

12. Show case studies.

Depending on your product, people might want to see case studies or use cases for your product. When potential customers go online and look at your social media, that highlight will get them to click and see how other people are using your product or service.

Instagram Story Highlights are a great way to keep important information easily accessible for your audience on your social media. With this feature, you can use your Stories (one of the most popular Instagram features) as a part of your long-term social media strategy.

How to Make Instagram Story Highlights [+Engage Your Audience] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Organic Marketing vs. Paid Marketing: Everything You Need to Know

Have you ever heard of the law of attraction? It sounds 'woo-woo' but stay with me here. It's a philosophy that means we can attract into our lives whatever we're focusing on. More simply put, positive thoughts will naturally bring positivity your way.

Organic marketing works similarly. The goal is to naturally attract your audience to your brand or business. But how do you do that?

In this post, we'll go over what organic marketing is and how it's different from paid forms of marketing.

The main goal of organic marketing is to increase brand awareness and build a connection with your audience, whether through educational or entertaining content. Of course, as a business, you'll need multiple ways to attract leads and convert users. Organic marketing is just one way to do that (paid marketing is another, which we'll dive into below).

With organic marketing, you can attract visitors to your site, who will hopefully convert to paid customers eventually. The goal is to keep your business top of mind when it comes time for a consumer to make purchasing decisions.

Additionally, organic marketing impacts your paid marketing efforts because if someone organically comes across your website, you can retarget them later with paid ads (on social media, search engines, etc.).

Ultimately, the goal of organic marketing is to drive traffic to your site. While you'll use social media channels, the best place to spend your time with organic marketing is SEO. In fact, SEO drives 1000%+ more traffic than organic social media.

To measure the effectiveness of your organic marketing efforts, you'll look at which content is driving the most traffic to your site, leads generated from those campaigns, and which channels drive the highest amount of high converting traffic to your site.

Organic Marketing Examples

Before we dive into the differences between organic and paid marketing, let's look at some examples of organic marketing:

• Unpaid social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Tik Tok, etc.
• Blog posts (this very post you're reading is an organic marketing effort)
• Guest posts
• User-generated content
• Email newsletters
• SEO
• Online PR and link generation
• YouTube

Now, let's learn a little bit more about inorganic, or paid marketing.

Inorganic marketing strategies include paid search ads, paid social media ads, sponsored posts, display ads, video ads on YouTube, etc. With paid media, you can micro-target your ideal audience and reach people who might never have heard of your business otherwise.

While organic marketing is more like word-of-mouth marketing, paid marketing is similar to sales-focused marketing. The goals for the two are very different. One is to attract audiences and increase brand awareness and the other is to convert audiences on a specific campaign.

You'll measure the success of paid marketing through return on ad spend (ROAS), driving impressions, achieving high conversion rates, etc.

Now that we know more about the differences between organic and inorganic/paid marketing, let's dive into how to build an organic marketing strategy.

1. Analyze your current traffic habits.

To build an organic marketing strategy, you should analyze your audience's current traffic habits on your site and then compare them to your ideal audience.

First, it's important to know where you get the most organic traffic currently. Is it from your YouTube channel, blog posts, or email newsletters?

Then, think about how your ideal audience usually discovers a business like yours. Do they rely on industry publications, social media, or review sites?

It's important to understand what type of organic traffic that your target audience is consuming so that you can create that content. Additionally, you need to understand what organic traffic is already working for your business so you can continue creating that content.

Organic marketing only works when you truly understand your audience and what they want to see.

2. Create content.

Once you know which channels you want to focus on and where your target audience spends their time online, then it's time to start creating content. However, before you can just create content, you need to brainstorm the types of content assets you want to create and build a list of several ideas.

For instance, if you want to focus on blogging, do your keyword research and competitor analysis, and then build a list of keywords you can create posts around. Then, you can start creating content.

However, if you want to focus on creating case studies or research, you'll have to do first-hand research, and then decide how you'll publish your findings.

Before you can create content, you'll need to know which platforms and channels you want to focus on.

3. Optimize your content.

If you were to ask what makes organic content work, the answer would be SEO. You'll want to optimize all your content so that it will show up on search engines and social media platforms. For example, the strategies might be similar, but you'll optimize your blog content, video descriptions on YouTube, and social media posts.

To optimize this content, usually, the strategies involve incorporating keywords into your content, having a great design, and using metadata to let search engines know what your content is about.

4. Evaluate and improve.

Lastly, the key to any organic marketing strategy is to evaluate and iterate. You can use tools, like HubSpot's SEO marketing software to plan your SEO strategy, optimize your content, and measure real return on investment.

This type of software will help you measure and keep track of your KPIs so you can see what's working and what isn't.

Organic marketing is all about bringing people to you, instead of reaching out to people via paid methods. With organic marketing, you'll create several types of content to keep people engaged and interested in your brand. When it comes time to make a purchasing decision, they'll think of you first.

Organic Marketing vs. Paid Marketing: Everything You Need to Know was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Can and Should You Advertise Your Brand on Discord?

Emerging platforms provide a unique opportunity for marketers. While it’s important to try new things in your marketing, is it worth trying new things if the platform is still so new that you don’t know if you’ll find success? For example, the once dismissed TikTok is now a social media channel with immense value for all different kinds of businesses.

Discord is now an emerging platform posing the same questions as TikTok once did. Many marketers are unsure how it works and whether it makes sense to leverage the tool as an experimental strategy.

If you’re curious, this post will explain what Discord is, whether it makes sense to join the platform, and how to market your brand or business if you do.

What is Discord?

Discord is a voice and chat platform where users join conversation servers, sometimes through exclusive invites, and talk to other members about niche topics. Initially launched in 2015 for gamers, it has since grown to house a diverse group of users, from influencers to content creators to businesses using the platform as an alternative to Slack and Microsoft Teams.

Considering that it has experienced considerable growth and now caters to various groups, it makes sense that marketers may be curious about joining the platform and seeing if it can help them meet their marketing needs.

Can you advertise on Discord?

Yes, and no.

There are no native advertising tools that you can find on other social media platforms like Facebook or TikTok, but you can still advertise your business organically through community engagement; “Brands can authentically engage with consumers on Discord by leveraging what is already appealing about Discord to consumers — forming relationships around common interests and having discussions in real-time,” said Jesse Nicely, VP and group strategy director at Cashmere Agency, to Marketing Dive.

Which brands should use Discord?

Most businesses can benefit from using Discord, but the benefits are significant for those looking to create an always-on, engaged community of like-minded people that are interested in what your business has to offer. 

Kenny Layton, Discord’s Head of Talent Partnerships, said to EDM.com, “We like to call ourselves the 24-hour diner of the internet, where communities can just come and hang out with each other at any time they want.” While it is possible to create a community on other social channels, most people follow a wide variety of accounts, creators, brands, etc., but your Discord community is focused solely on your business.

Brands that are interested in learning more about their audience should also consider using Discord; “A lot of the time with artists they’re always having to guess what the fans want or are thinking...there’s no better way to know what your fans want than to have them tell you. That can inform...marketing and advertising spend. That data is valuable,” says Brian Barnett to EDM.com.

However, as mentioned above, it is an emerging platform. There are no specific tools for advertising your channel, but, again, it can help you create relationships with your audience, which is a driving factor of customer loyalty.

If you’re interested in leveraging the platform, let’s discuss the different ways you can promote your brand on Discord.

How to Promote Your Brand on Discord

Build your own community.

The best way to promote your brand on Discord is to build a business-specific community server, along with different related channels for conversation. You can then invite users to join, have them find you organically through browsing the platform, or promote it on your other social channels and in marketing materials.

Marques Brownlee, a technology YouTuber, has a Discord community channel called the MKBHD. His community centers around discussions of his content, like podcasts and new videos, but he also created additional channels to promote different topics of conversation, as shown in the image below.

Music streaming service Spotify also has a Discord community that features the channel #listeningparty (shown in the image below). Active users can share links to playlists they’re currently listening to, and voice chat about the music.  

Within your community, you can further promote your brand by sharing links to your external social profiles, as beauty brand Starface has done for their Twitter account in the image below.

In addition to advertising your business, you can also use Discord as a tool for customer service by creating specific channels to house answers to frequently asked questions, or where users can ask questions and get answers from you or other active community members.

When you create a community, you can also set rules to ensure that everyone is respected and welcomed and designate moderators to patrol the channel to ensure rules get followed.

Join communities and servers relevant to your business offerings.

Another way to promote your business on Discord is to join other channels or servers relevant to your business and engage in conversations. Most channels are moderated, but you’ll likely be allowed to share links to your content, like high-quality blog posts that help you to draw in new users.

Can and Should You Advertise Your Brand on Discord?

Nicely said, "Discord's fast-paced nature makes it fertile ground for emergent culture and trends, and allows brands the opportunity to constantly engage with consumers on interesting topics."

While the platform doesn’t have the built-in advertising features on other channels, it can be extremely useful for marketers looking to build a community of like-minded users who enjoy your business and want to engage in conversation. However, as noted before, Discord is still an emerging platform for marketing, so it can be challenging to get your foot in the door or see immediate success.

If you take the time to create a unique Discord community with different channels for conversation, engage with users in your community, and you provide them with high-quality content that they enjoy, you’ll likely find yourself with an active channel that teaches you more about your audience.

Can and Should You Advertise Your Brand on Discord? was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns