5 Dos and Don'ts When Making a SMART Goal [Examples]

Every year I create vague New Years resolutions, but this year I decided to try something different. 

Using the SMART goal framework (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound), I reworded my 2022 goal from "read more books" to "read two books per month to hit my goal of reading 24 before the end of the year."  

The SMART framework is an effective strategy for creating more specific and attainable goals. Plus, it provides benchmarks against which you can measure your progress — if you have a larger, more daunting goal, smaller steps can help you remain motivated. 

Here, let's explore what SMART goals are, why they're important, and how to make your own.

• What are SMART Goals?
• Why Are SMART Goals Important?
• SMART Goal Examples
• How to Make a SMART Goal

Download this Template for Free

In the working world, the influence of SMART goals continues to grow. The reason why successful marketing teams always hit their numbers is that they also set SMART goals. Use the template above to follow along and create your own SMART goals.

What are SMART goals?

SMART goals are concrete targets that you aim to hit over a certain period. These goals should be carefully drafted by a manager and their direct report to set them up for success. "SMART" is an acronym that describes the most important characteristics of each goal.

The "SMART" acronym stands for "specific," "measurable," "attainable," "relevant," and "time-bound." Each SMART goal should have these five characteristics to ensure the goal can be reached and benefits the employee. Find out what each characteristic means below, and how to write a SMART goal that exemplifies them.

Why are SMART goals important?

SMART goals are important to set as they:

• Help you work with clear intentions, not broad or vague goals
• Provide a method to gauge your success by setting benchmarks to meet
• Give sensible objectives that are realistic and achievable
• Cut out unnecessary or irrelevant work that could take away from what’s important
• Set a clear beginning and end to adhere to in reaching your goals

When you make goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound, you're increasing your odds for success by verifying that the goal is achievable, identifying the metrics that define success, and creating a roadmap to reach those metrics.

If your goals are abstract, if you don't know what it will take to achieve success, or if you don't give yourself a deadline to complete steps, you may lose focus and fall short of what you want to accomplish.

Do SMART goals actually work?

In short — yes, if done correctly.

For instance, one study found 76% of participants who wrote down their goals, made a list of goal-driven actions, and provided weekly progress reports to a friend achieved their goals — which is 33% higher than those with unwritten goals. 

Additionally, I polled roughly 300 participants in the U.S. and found 52% believe SMART goals help them achieve their goals more often than if they didn't use a SMART framework. 

Setting unrealistic goals and trying to measure them without consideration of previous performance, overly short time frames, or including too many variables will lead you off course.

However, these goals work only if formulated properly and if they take into account the motive and cadence of those working on them. Additionally, your SMART goals can only succeed when the employees working towards them have the means to achieve them.

Let’s take a look at some realistic examples of SMART goals to paint a clearer picture of what they are.

1. Blog Traffic Goal

• Specific: I want to boost our blog's traffic by increasing our weekly publishing frequency from five to eight times a week. Our two bloggers will increase their workload from writing two posts a week to three posts a week, and our editor will increase her workload from writing one post a week to two posts a week.
• Measurable: Our goal is an 8% increase in traffic.
• Attainable: Our blog traffic increased by 5% last month when we increased our weekly publishing frequency from three to five times a week.
• Relevant: By increasing blog traffic, we'll boost brand awareness and generate more leads, giving sales more opportunities to close.
• Time-Bound: End of this month
• SMART Goal: At the end of this month, our blog will see an 8% lift in traffic by increasing our weekly publishing frequency from five posts per week to eight posts per week.

2. Facebook Video Views Goal

• Specific: I want to boost our average views per native video by cutting our video content mix from eight topics to our five most popular topics.
• Measurable: Our goal is a 25% increase in views.
• Attainable: When we cut down our video content mix on Facebook from 10 topics to our eight most popular topics, our average views per native video increased by 20%.
• Relevant: By increasing average views per native video on Facebook, we'll boost our social media following and brand awareness, reaching more potential customers with our video content.
• Time-Bound: In six months
• SMART Goal: In six months, we'll see a 25% increase in average video views per native video on Facebook by cutting our video content mix from eight topics to our five most popular topics.

3. Email Subscription Goal

• Specific: I want to boost the number of email blog subscribers by increasing our Facebook advertising budget on blog posts that historically acquire the most email subscribers.
• Measurable: Our goal is a 50% increase in subscribers.
• Attainable: Since we started using this tactic three months ago, our email blog subscriptions have increased by 40%.
• Relevant: By increasing the number of email blog subscribers, our blog will drive more traffic, boost brand awareness, and drive more leads to our sales team.
• Time-Bound: In three months
• SMART Goal: In three months, we'll see a 50% increase in the number of email blog subscribers by increasing our Facebook advertising budget on posts that historically acquire the most blog subscribers.

4. Webinar Sign-Up Goal

• Specific: I want to increase the number of sign-ups for our Facebook Messenger webinar by promoting it through social, email, our blog, and Facebook Messenger.
• Measurable: Our goal is a 15% increase in sign-ups.
• Attainable: Our last Facebook messenger webinar saw a 10% increase in sign-ups when we only promoted it through social, email, and our blog.
• Relevant: When our webinars generate more leads, sales have more opportunities to close.
• Time-Bound: By April 10, the day of the webinar
• SMART Goal: By April 10, the day of our webinar, we'll see a 15% increase in sign-ups by promoting it through social, email, our blog, and Facebook messenger.

5. Landing Page Performance Goal

• Specific: I want our landing pages to generate more leads by switching from a one-column form to a two-column form.
• Measurable: My goal is a 30% increase in lead generation.
• Attainable: When we A/B tested our traditional one-column form versus a two-column form on our highest-traffic landing pages, we discovered that two-column forms convert 27% better than our traditional one-column forms, at a 99% significance level.
• Relevant: If we generate more content leads, sales can close more customers.
• Time-Bound: One year from now

SMART Goal: One year from now, our landing pages will generate 30% more leads by switching their forms from one column to two columns.

6. Link-Building Strategy Goal

• Specific: I want to increase our website's organic traffic by developing a link-building strategy that gets other publishers to link to our website. This increases our ranking in search engine results, allowing us to generate more organic traffic.
• Measurable: Our goal is 40 backlinks to our company homepage.
• Attainable: According to our SEO analysis tool, there are currently 500 low-quality links directing to our homepage from elsewhere on the internet. Given the number of partnerships we currently have with other businesses, and that we generate 10 new inbound links per month without any outreach on our part, an additional 40 inbound links from a single link-building campaign is a significant but feasible target.
• Relevant: Organic traffic is our top source of new leads, and backlinks are one of the biggest ranking factors on search engines like Google. If we build links from high-quality publications, our organic ranking increases, boosting our traffic and leads as a result.
• Time-Bound: four months from now
• SMART Goal: Over the next four months, I will build 40 additional backlinks that direct to www.ourcompany.com. To do so, I will collaborate with Ellie and Andrew from our PR department to connect with publishers and develop an effective outreach strategy.

7. Reducing Churn Rate Goal

• Specific: I want to reduce customer churn by 5% for my company because every customer loss is a reflection of our service’s quality and perception.
• Measurable: Contact 30 at-risk customers per week and provide customer support daily for five new customers during their onboarding process.
• Attainable: Our product offering has just improved and we have the means to invest more into our customer support team, and could potentially have five at-risk customers to upscale monthly.
• Relevant: We can set up a customer knowledge base to track customers’ progression in the buyer’s journey, and prevent churn by contacting them before they lose interest.
• Time-Bound: In 24 weeks

• SMART Goal: In 24 weeks, I will reduce the churn rate by 5% for my company. To do so, we will contact 30 at-risk customers per week and provide/invest in customer support to assist five new customers during onboarding daily and track their progress through a customer knowledge base.

8. Brand Affinity Goal

• Specific: I want to increase our podcast listener count as we are trying to establish ourselves as thought leaders in our market.
• Measurable: A 40% increase in listeners is our goal.
• Attainable: We can increase our current budget and level our podcaster’s cadence, to have the means to hold insightful conversations for our listeners to tune into.
• Relevant: We created a podcast and have dedicated a team to source interesting guests, sound mixing, and eye-catching thumbnails to get it started.
• Time-Bound: In four months
• SMART Goal: In four months, we'll see a 40% increase in average listener count in Apple Podcasts by providing our team the budget and cadence to make insightful podcasts with quality sound mixing and eye-catching thumbnails.

9. Podcast Listener Count Goal

• Specific: I want to boost our podcast's listener count by promoting our podcast across social channels. We will post four quotes related to new podcast episodes throughout the month on our Twitter account, and we will post six short videos of our podcast conversations with guests on our Instagram account throughout the month. 
• Measurable: Our goal is an 20% increase in podcast listeners.
• Attainable: Our podcast listener count increased by 5% last month when we published two short videos of our podcast conversation on Instagram.
• Relevant: By increasing podcast listener count, we'll boost brand awareness and generate more leads, giving sales more opportunities to close.
• Time-Bound: End of this month
• SMART Goal: At the end of this month, our podcast will see an 20% increase in listeners by increasing our social media promotions from two Instagram posts to four Twitter posts and six Instagram posts.

10. In-Person Event Attendee Goal

• Specific: I want to boost attendance at our upcoming in-person event by 50% by sending out three email reminders to our subscriber lists each week before the event. 
• Measurable: Our goal is an 50% increase in attendees.
• Attainable: Our attendee number increased by 20% last year when we sent out one email reminder to our subscriber lists.
• Relevant: By increasing attendee count, we'll increase brand loyalty by providing value to our existing customers, and generate more leads.
• Time-Bound: August 30
• SMART Goal: By the time of our event on August 30th, our attendee number will increase by 50% from where it's at now (250 attendees), by sending out three email reminders to our subscribers lists. 

Now that you’ve seen examples of SMART goals, let’s dive into how to make your own.

1. Use specific wording.

When writing SMART goals, keep in mind that they are "specific" in that there's a hard and fast destination the employee is trying to reach. "Get better at my job," isn't a SMART goal because it isn't specific. Instead, ask yourself: What are you getting better at? How much better do you want to get?

If you're a marketing professional, your job probably revolves around key performance indicators or KPIs. Therefore, you might choose a particular KPI or metric that you want to improve on — like visitors, leads, or customers. You should also identify the team members working toward this goal, the resources they have, and their plan of action.

In practice, a specific SMART goal might say, "Clifford and Braden will increase the blog's traffic from email ..." You know exactly who's involved and what you're trying to improve on.

Common SMART Goal Mistake: Vagueness

While you may need to keep some goals more open-ended, you should avoid vagueness that could confuse your team later on. For example, instead of saying, "Clifford will boost email marketing experiences," say "Clifford will boost email marketing click rates by 10%."

2. Include measurable goals.

SMART goals should be "measurable" in that you can track and quantify the goal's progress. "Increase the blog's traffic from email," by itself, isn't a SMART goal because you can't measure the increase. Instead, ask yourself: How much email marketing traffic should you strive for?

If you want to gauge your team's progress, you need to quantify your goals, like achieving an X-percentage increase in visitors, leads, or customers.

Let's build on the SMART goal we started three paragraphs above. Now, our measurable SMART goal might say, "Clifford and Braden will increase the blog's traffic from email by 25% more sessions per month ... " You know what you're increasing, and by how much.

Common SMART Goal Mistake: No KPIs

This is in the same light of avoiding vagueness. While you might need qualitative or open-ended evidence to prove your success, you should still come up with a quantifiable KPI. For example, instead of saying, "Customer service will improve customer happiness," say, "We want the average call satisfaction score from customers to be a seven out of ten or higher."

3. Aim for realistically attainable goals.

An "attainable" SMART goal considers the employee's ability to achieve it. Make sure that X-percentage increase is rooted in reality. If your blog traffic increased by 5% last month, try to increase it by 8-10% this month, rather than a lofty 25%.

It's crucial to base your goals on your own analytics, not industry benchmarks, or else you might bite off more than you can chew. So, let's add some "attainability" to the SMART goal we created earlier in this blog post: "Clifford and Braden will increase the blog's traffic from email by 8-10% more sessions per month ... " This way, you're not setting yourself up to fail.

Common SMART Goal Mistake: Unattainable Goals

Yes. You should always aim to improve. But reaching for completely unattainable goals may knock you off course and make it harder to track progress. Rather than saying, "We want to make 10,000% of what we made in 2021," consider something more attainable, like, "We want to increase sales by 150% this year," or "We have a quarterly goal to reach a 20% year-over-year sales increase."

4. Pick relevant goals that relate to your business.

SMART goals that are "relevant" relate to your company's overall business goals and account for current trends in your industry. For instance, will growing your traffic from email lead to more revenue? And, is it actually possible for you to significantly boost your blog's email traffic given your current email marketing campaigns?

If you're aware of these factors, you’re more likely to set goals that benefit your company — not just you or your department.

So, what does that do to our SMART goal? It might encourage you to adjust the metric you're using to track the goal's progress. For example, maybe your business has historically relied on organic traffic for generating leads and revenue, and research suggests you can generate more qualified leads this way.

Our SMART goal might instead say, "Clifford and Braden will increase the blog's organic traffic by 8-10% more sessions per month." This way, your traffic increase is aligned with the business's revenue stream.

Common SMART Goal Mistake: Losing Sight of the Company

When your company is doing well, it can be easy to say you want to pivot or grow in another direction. While companies can successfully do this, you don't want your team to lose sight of how the core of your business works.

Rather than saying, "We want to start a new B2B business on top of our B2C business," say something like, "We want to continue increasing B2C sales while researching the impact our products could have on the B2B space in the next year."

5. Make goals time-bound by including a timeframe and deadline information.

A "time-bound" SMART goal keeps you on schedule. Improving on a goal is great, but not if it takes too long. Attaching deadlines to your goals puts a healthy dose of pressure on your team to accomplish them. This helps you make consistent and significant progress in the long term.

For example, which would you prefer: increasing organic traffic by 5% every month, leading to a 30-35% increase in half a year? Or trying to increase traffic by 15% with no deadline and achieving that goal in the same timeframe? If you picked the former, you're right.

So, what does our SMART goal look like once we bound it to a timeframe? "Over the next three months, Clifford and Braden will work to increase the blog's organic traffic by 8-10%, reaching a total of 50,000 organic sessions by the end of August.”

Common SMART Goal Mistake: No Time Frame

Having no timeframe or a really broad span of time noted in your goal will cause the effort to get reprioritized or make it hard for you to see if your team is on track. Rather than saying. "This year, we want to launch a major campaign," say, "In quarter one, we will focus on campaign production in order to launch the campaign in quarter two."

Make Your SMART Goals SMART-er

Now that you know what a SMART goal is, why it's important, and the framework to create one, it's time to put that information into practice. Whether you're setting goals for a personal achievement or as part of hitting important marketing milestones, it's good to start with what you want to achieve and then reverse-engineer it into a concrete SMART goal.

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

5 Dos and Don'ts When Making a SMART Goal [Examples] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

What Video Marketers Should Know in 2022, According to Wyzowl Research

It's well established that video has been one of the breakout trends in the marketing world for the past decade.

But what’s happening in video marketing right now? And how does its growth and success stand up to the twists and turns of a global pandemic? 

At Wyzowl, we've released an annual State of Video Marketing survey every year since 2015, charting usage, spend, channels, and opinions among video marketers and consumers. 

We recently released our eighth State of Video Marketing report and, in light of the chaos of recent years, it's perhaps our most fascinating set of findings yet.

Our research suggests:

• Video remains a key priority for marketers with usage and spend both, overall, increasing in 2021, and plans to increase again in the next 12 months.
• The pandemic continues to impact video marketing plans — but the disruption appears to be reduced compared to last year, as people adjust to a ‘new normal.’
• People are watching more video online than ever before – in fact the amount of online video they watch has almost doubled since 2018.
• Marketers feel more positive about the return on investment offered by video than ever, as it continues to strongly influence traffic, leads, sales, and audience understanding.
• Consumers continue to use video as an integral part of their journey with brands, and are excited to see even more video content in the year ahead.

About the Survey

Wyzowl's State of Video Marketing Survey is an annual report, now in its eighth iteration. Every year, we ask a range of questions — many of them the same from year-to-year — to evaluate how the video marketing landscape is changing and growing.

This time around, our survey was taken by a sample of 582 unique respondents (only around 7% of whom were Wyzowl customers) consisting of professional marketers and consumers.

The key findings …

86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, holding steady from last year.

This is the high point in a general story of video usage growing which can be traced back to 2016 (the first time we asked this particular question in this way).

Also, 92% of marketers who use video say that it's an important part of their marketing strategy.

Perhaps most strikingly, 87% of video marketers reported that video gives them a positive ROI — a world away from the lowly 33% who felt that way in 2015. This could well be attributed to greater understanding of how to use video, as well as how to track and quantify its impact. 

Most marketers feel that video is a great investment for lead generation. 86% of video marketers say video has been effective for generating leads, up another 2% from 2021 and up 5% since 2019.

81% of marketers feel that video has a direct, positive impact on sales. 

94% of marketers agree that videos have helped increase user understanding of their product or service.

On measuring success, most marketers (62%) consider video engagement the top metric. Views or plays were a close second (61%). 

While only 27% of video marketers consider sales as a measurement of success, 81% report that video marketing has improved their company’s bottom line — meaning that videos will have a positive impact even if the focus remains on other metrics.

Pandemic Impact

Unfortunately, 2021 was not the end of the pandemic – and it looks like COVID is likely to continue to make its impact felt in 2022.

So what impact is this having on the world of video marketing?

Well, 64% of marketers say the pandemic has affected their video marketing plans for 2021 and 2022. Out of these people, three-quarters said the pandemic made it more likely they would create video, and the other quarter said it made it less likely. 

But, the good news is, the pandemic’s impact on video marketing budget seems to be diminishing. 

In last year’s survey we asked marketers whether they expected their 2021 video marketing budget to be affected, and 63% said they thought it would be.

This year’s number – still high, at 50% - represents a considerable fall.

Looking Ahead

All the signs suggest that usage and spend are on course to continue their growth in 2022.

More than 99% of current video marketers told us they'll continue using video in 2021, and two-thirds plan to increase or maintain their spend.

What's more, from the people who told us they don't currently use video, 79% told us they expect to start in 2022. (This is 10% higher than last year's figure of 69% and 20% higher than the year before that.)

The net result of this is that we can all expect to see more noise and competition for audience attention in the coming 12 months. 

Of course, while oversaturation is a challenge, it isn't an insurmountable one. It simply raises the bar in terms of content quality. Your videos will need to be well-planned, and very well-executed.

The Big Opportunities for Video Marketing in 2022

You'd be forgiven for looking at these numbers and feeling that video might be on the verge of reaching saturation point. Most of the percentage data around usage, spend, and consumer opinion are in the 80s and 90s — where they've held, consistently, for a number of years.

But the good news is that there still seems to be underutilized opportunities for marketers to explore video.

It’s notable that audiences continue to watch more video. Our data suggests the amount of online video watched per week, per person, has almost doubled since 2018.

And what about where they watch it? Unsurprisingly, YouTube is the most widely-used platform among video marketers — used by 88%, with a considerable gap to the next widely-used.

But some of the lesser-used video tactics also seem to reap real results for video marketers.

This year we asked people to tell us the purposes of the videos they’d created. 

Explainer videos have seen tremendous success. As well as being the most common ‘goal’ of a marketing video, an overwhelming majority of people (96%) report watching explainer videos to learn more about a product, with 88% being swayed to make a purchase. 

The product doesn’t have to be physical, either. 78% of people say they’ve been convinced to purchase an app or piece of software because of a video.

To Sum Up

The rise of video as a marketing tool seems inexorable.

Nearly nine out of ten people report wanting to see more videos from brands in 2021, making video an excellent tool for lead generation and brand awareness. 

In many ways, with people spending more time at home – working remotely – the demand (and consumption) of video has accelerated.

Video looks set to continue its ten-year overnight success story into the coming decade. These stats paint a picture of a media type that's almost universally popular among both marketers and their audiences, helping achieve a number of incredibly important goals.

You can check out the full report — with plenty more data points — and get a downloadable version by visiting Wyzowl's State of Video Marketing 2022 page.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in January 2018 and has been updated to reflect the latest data.

What Video Marketers Should Know in 2022, According to Wyzowl Research was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Customers’ Top HubSpot Integrations to Streamline Your Business in 2022

The HubSpot team is excited to share that the HubSpot App Marketplace has officially crossed the 1,000 apps milestone. We’re proud of this milestone because it reflects the combined commitment of HubSpot and our partners to deliver integrated solutions to help you grow better.

We know there’s an increasing number of software choices out there for your growing company. And that trend is only going to continue: A recent IDC white paper commissioned by HubSpot predicted that the cloud computing industry will only continue to grow over the next three years.

Blissfully estimates that all SaaS categories will continue to experience growth, with IT, security, compliance, and HR being the top-growing categories. That means your company may adopt even more apps to get jobs done, and you’ll have a bigger need for integrations that unite your data and power cohesive customer experiences across your tech stack.

That’s why our app ecosystem is such an important part of HubSpot’s platform for scaling companies. The App Marketplace, now home to 1,000+ integrations that span a variety of use cases (marketing, sales, service, and more), makes it easy for you to find and connect the integrations you need as you grow your business.

On average, our customers install seven apps, and more than a quarter of customers install more than 10. Our goal is to let you bring your entire business tech stack together around the HubSpot platform, to deliver a remarkable, end-to-end, integrated customer experience.

Looking ahead, we are doubling down on our investment in our ecosystem–to bring more offerings to our customers as they make HubSpot their single source of truth for customer data and engagement activity across their SaaS tools. We’ll continue to increase the quantity and quality of apps in our ecosystem, as well as serve an increasingly global audience by offering more App Marketplace listings in multiple languages later this year.

To give you a sampling of the range of apps in our ecosystem, here are a few top ones across several interesting categories.

Top 30 HubSpot Integrations from G2 Industry Leaders

As the HubSpot App Marketplace has grown, we’ve seen an increasing number of industry-leading providers build HubSpot integrations for their customers to leverage. Here are the top apps, certified by HubSpot, built by G2 leaders, and highly rated by customers:

• Zapier: quick and easy workflow automation

• Dialpad: connect your business phone system and automate activity

• WooCommerce by MakeWebBetter: syncs users, orders, and products data

• Aircall: advanced inbound and outbound calling

• Calendly: scheduling platform to increase your sales velocity

• Typeform: interactive forms, surveys & quizzes

• Integromat: connect to any API to automate workflows

• PandaDoc: create, track, and eSign sales proposals & contracts

• CloudTalk: cloud phone system to increase sales and customer support team efficiency

• Jotform: build custom forms and collect leads

• Databox: KPI and analytics dashboards

• Qwilr: create beautiful and interactive proposals and quotes

• Zendesk: sync tickets and contacts

• CallRail: call tracking and analytics software to sync call and text message activity

• Automate.io: sync contact data and automate workflows

• Skyvia: integrate with major cloud apps and databases with no coding

• Proposify: create, send, sign, and track sales documents

• Intercom: capture leads from your website with automation and live chat

• Unbounce: build landing pages & optimize campaigns

• GetAccept: sales engagement platform & e-signature solution

• SurveyMonkey: run surveys and take action on responses

• Leadfeeder: manage leads and create new tasks, deals, and companies

• Vidyard: add video into your inbound marketing programs

• Unito Two-Way Sync: sync deals and tasks with popular work management tools

• Wistia: segment, nurture, and score leads based on video view activity

• Grow.com: measure your company’s health and get full-funnel visibility

• ChurnZero: customer success platform to help you fight churn

• Rybbon Digital Rewards: automate sending digital rewards and incentives

• Front: collaborative communication platform for real-time updates and context

• Teamwork: sync projects and tasks to keep your inbound marketing and sales activities organized

Top New HubSpot Integrations

We launched a variety of extensibility products in 2021 to enable new app functionality and new app categories in our marketplace. These new apps have helped customers integrate their SaaS tools with HubSpot in whole new ways.

Top 8 Data Sync Apps

Early last year, HubSpot launched Operations Hub, which includes Data Sync. Data sync integrations pack the punch of custom-built connectors — bidirectional and multi-object sync, custom field mappings, and more — in an easy, code-free package. There are now 100 Data Sync apps in the App Marketplace. Here are the most installed Data Sync apps:

• Google Contacts: sync contacts in real-time and stop using messy CSV files to handle your imports and exports
• Outlook Contacts: sync personal Outlook contacts without manual data entry and imports
• Mailchimp: sync a Mailchimp audience in real-time
• Stripe: sync contacts and add a filter for any Stripe field like account balance or currency
• Pipedrive: sync Pipedrive contacts
• Sendinblue: set up a one- or two-way sync with Sendinblue
• Xero: sync Xero contacts
• Airtable: sync Airtable rows that represent contacts or companies

Top 8 Media Bridge Apps

In 2021, we launched a dozen media bridge apps to help you embed media, like videos and podcasts, directly into HubSpot’s drag-and-drop content editors then leverage the engagement data in HubSpot’s CRM and reporting. Below are the 8 media bridge apps most installed by HubSpot customers:

• Wistia: segment, nurture, and score leads based on video view activity

• Vidyard: add video into your inbound marketing programs

• Hippo Video for Sales: easily record, share, and track videos for sales outreach

• TwentyThree: drag and drop videos directly into your landing pages

• SproutVideo: capture valuable leads with marketing videos and sync video content

• Cincopa: pass captured leads & video viewing data into HubSpot

• Idomoo: engage customers 1:1 at scale with personalized videos

• Moovly: create personal videos and embed them in HubSpot emails and landing pages

Top 8 Workflow Integrations

We launched 50+ workflow integrations in 2021 that integrate directly with HubSpot workflows that make automating your business processes that much easier. Here are the most installed workflow integrations for you to try out in your next HubSpot workflow:

• Kixie: automate the busy work reps are responsible for after and between phone calls

• WP Fusion: automatically import new WordPress users

• Insycle: clean HubSpot data using schedules and workflows integration

• WhatHub: trigger workflow automations based on the content of WhatsApp messages

• Salesmsg: trigger workflows when someone calls or texts you

• Sakari: add SMS to any contact, ticket, or deal-based workflow

• JustCall: create SMS Workflows and trigger texts

• GoToWebinar: set workflow triggers based on webinar registration and attendance

Top 8 Marketing Event Apps

In the past few months, we’ve expanded the number of marketing event apps that integrate with HubSpot’s marketing event object. These apps help you easily sync your marketing event data with HubSpot in order to build attribution reports and gain insight into the ROI of your events. Here are apps HubSpot customers have installed the most to help run their marketing events:

• eWebinar: automated webinar solution that combines pre-recorded video with real-time interactions and live chat

• GoToWebinar: webinar platform for virtual conferences and events

• Eventbrite: event management and ticketing platform

• Zoom: video meeting and webinar solution

• Hopin: event technology platform that offers a virtual venue with multiple interactive areas

• Airmeet: events platform that provides a virtual venue for engaging experiences

• Accelevents: event management platform for virtual, in-person, or hybrid events

• On24: virtual event platform and webinar software provider

We’re excited to continue the growth of our app ecosystem in 2022 and beyond and look forward to continuing our partnerships with top developers and partners to build solutions that help you grow better. To learn more about these apps or discover additional ones, visit the App Marketplace.

Customers’ Top HubSpot Integrations to Streamline Your Business in 2022 was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Which Social Media Metrics Are Marketers Tracking? [New Research]

We get it: Social media metrics are important. Getting data and ROI is really important. However, if you spend too much time trying to figure out which metrics are important for your business, you won't have any time to analyze and act upon them.

That's why we've made a list of the social media metrics that are essential to track, so you don't miss out on important numbers that can help you later. These metrics will give you insight into customers, how to track ROI, improve your brand presence online, and walk away with happier customers.

Social Media Metrics are imperative to social strategy. They give you an inside look at how your channels are performing and how you are perceived by your target audience. They can also give provide you with ways to improve upon your strategy.

1. Audience growth rate

To measure your audience growth rate, begin by selecting a reporting period. Then, calculate your new followers over that specific period. After that, you'd need to divide your new followers by your total followers.

So let's say your brand's Twitter account has 6,000 followers in September, at the end of Q3. For Q4, you want to measure your audience growth rate from October 1st to December 31st. If by December 31st, you have 8,657 followers, then your audience growth rate for Q4 is 69%.

2. Social Media Impressions

Let’s say you decided to run a paid ad campaign across your company’s key social media platforms. Do you know how many people came across your ad? Social media impressions measure how many users were exposed to your content, and it’s a metric worth tracking.

Understanding your social media impressions is important because this data can provide valuable insight into how far your ad spend can go and can help inform future paid ad spend so you can maximize your budget.

However, even if paid ads aren’t a part of your strategy, you may still want to look into how many impressions your social media content is gathering over time. This data can tell you how different types of content are resonating with your audience across platforms.

It’s also worth noting that each social media platform measures impressions differently. For example, on Twitter, each user that sees a tweet is considered an impression. On Facebook, each time a paid ad is seen on screen, it is considered an impression. Instagram counts an impression each time a user views a piece of content (such as a static post, story, Reel, or IGTV). On TikTok, there is not an "impressions" measurement defined in the app’s analytics section, however, for your own data you could consider each video view an impression.

3. Social Media Conversion Rate

Your conversion rate is made up of the number of visitors to your website that take your desired action. This might mean that they downloaded your eBook, signed up for your newsletter, or clicked "Play" on your podcast. Conversion rates show how relevant your content is to your audience.

If you want to calculate the conversion rate, start by making sure your call-to-action link is trackable. You can do this by using a free, online URL shortener like Bitly. Next, analyze your campaign to identify the number of clicks and conversions your page has gained.

After that, divide your conversions by total clicks and multiply it by conversion rate. If your webpage has about 750 clicks and 200 conversions, then your conversion rate is 26.6%. Keep in mind that conversion rate numbers are not mutually exclusive, and can be low even if traffic is high.

4. Social share of voice

How many people are talking about your brand on social channels? Let's find out.

Your social share of voice measures this data and shows how visible your brand is on social media. Finding these numbers could tell you whether you need to update your social strategy or not.

To calculate your social share of voice, measure your mentions across your social networks. Hint: Your social media analytics tools can be helpful when calculating this number. Next, add your mentions in tandem with the mentions of competitors, which can be tracked using an online social media tool like Sprout Social. This gives you the total industry number of mentions. Here is an example of what metrics of engagement would look like:

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After you divide your brand mentions by the total industry number, multiply this number by 100 to get the social share of voice percentage.

Let's put this in perspective. Over a week, your brand has been mentioned directly and indirectly 100 times. Three competitors have 500 mentions, plus yours equals 600. Taking 100 divided by 600 and multiplying that number by 100 means your Social Share of Voice is 16.67%.

5. Social Media Engagement Rate

According to Kelly Hendrickson, Senior Manager of Social Media at HubSpot, engagement is a crucial metric for understanding social media performance.

She says, "No matter the scale of your business or social audience, quality engagement is what I always focus on. Where best-in-class social media marketing is a delicate balance behind providing your audience value while meeting business needs, your engagement rate is an indicator if you’re tipping the scales in the wrong direction. Audience first."

Social media engagement is the total number of likes, comments, shares, and general interactions a piece of content or social media account receives relative to the size of the audience. Having a large following isn’t useful if the audience isn’t regularly interacting with the content they follow.

To measure the overall engagement rate of a social media account, you can use the following formula:

Engagement Rate = Number of Engagements / Number of Followers x 100

Here’s how each major social media platform measures engagement:

• Instagram: Likes, Shares, Saves, Comments, Direct Messages
• Facebook: Click-throughs, Comments, Reactions, Shares
• TikTok: Likes, Comments, Shares
• Twitter: Likes, Comments, Retweets
• Pinterest: Pins, Likes, Comments
• LinkedIn: Reactions, Comments, Shares, Click-throughs
• YouTube: Likes and Dislikes, Comments, Shares

6. Keywords

Tracking keywords can grow your social share of voice and audience growth rate. Keywords are certain words that search engines identify and target based on what audiences are searching for. A marketer in the tech industry might see the keywords, "Media Marketing," and "Tech Channels."

By tracking keywords, you can optimize your content to rank higher on search engines and grow your audience. You can track keywords by using social media analytics software, like Google Analytics or SEMrush.

7. Customer response rate

Customers love to engage with brands via social media.

In fact, in a survey done by Sprout Social, 74% of respondents engage with brands they follow on social media. Whether they’re asking your customer service team questions or leaving your business reviews, make sure you're answering as many mentions as possible on social media. To track how you’re doing here, check your customer response rate.

To calculate your customer response rate, divide the number of responses you give to your followers/customers by the number of people who engaged with your brand and multiply this by 100.

For example, if you measured a week of engagement, and the number of customers who engaged with your brand was 50, and you responded to half of them, your customer response rate would be 50%.

8. ROI data

This is the big metric, the one you want to see from day one. Depending on your company and industry, ROIs can differ greatly. For social media, you probably want to know if the time and money you've spent on social media is turning into customers, sales, or brand awareness.

According to a group of 1,000 marketers surveyed by the HubSpot Blog, the following social media platforms generated the biggest ROI for paid advertising campaigns:

• Facebook (26%)
• Instagram (19%)
• YouTube (18%)
• Twitter (13%)
• TikTok (11%)

In that same survey, marketers said the following metrics were their primary markers of measuring social media ROI in 2022:

• Traffic to Their Website (35%)
• Impressions/Views (31%)
• Clicks (31%)
• Sales (30%)
• Likes/Comments (28%)

Since ROI looks different from one business to the next and calculations are based on your business goals, not every formula will look the same. But, use this formula to figure out a basic ROI. Let's say you made $1500 in revenue from social media ads or eCommerce and your investment was $500. Your ROI is revenue subtracted from investment (1500 minus 500), which makes your profit $1,000 and your ROI 200%.

9. Channel reports

Keeping track of social media data is important so that you know where and how to focus your strategy. For instance, if one of your accounts just isn't hitting their numbers, a report would let you know and allow you to proactively step in and troubleshoot.

If you need an update about say, channel performance, and follower counts, consider conducting a social media audit or using a social media analytics tool that conducts an audit for you.

10. Cost-per-click (CPC)

This is an important metric if you're investing in social media. Cost-per-click (CPC) is what you pay per click on a sponsored social media post, like a banner ad. CPC is helpful when determining if your investment is worth continuing.

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Here is the CPC Formula from The Online Advertising Guide. To view this as an example, say you want to calculate the CPC of your latest round of ads. Divide the total money spent on your ads by the total number of times the ad was clicked on.

11. Net promoter score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS®) measures customers that are loyal to your brand. It's the answer you're looking for when asking customers how likely they are to recommend your business to a friend. Tracking NPS is easier than it seems.

There are three categories that go into tracking NPS. When you ask customers to rate your business 1-10, scorers that answer 9-10 are "Promoters." "Passives" score 7-8, and "Detractors" are 0-6.

Identifying your NPS is as simple as subtracting "Detractors" from "Promoters" and dividing that by the number of total respondents. Then, multiply that number by 100. So, if you have 50 "Promoters" and 10 "Detractors" from a survey with 70 respondents, your NPS would be 57%.

12. Influencer Campaign Metrics

If your company leverages influencer marketing, you’ll want to measure the effectiveness of your influencer marketing efforts to inform future campaign strategies.

According to the same HubSpot Blog study, the marketers said the most important metrics for measuring the effectiveness of an influencer campaign are:

• Revenue/Sales (40%)
• Brand Awareness (37%)
• Impressions/Views (33%)
• Brand mentions/Hashtag Use (33%)
• Clicks (32%)

As you define the objectives of your influencer marketing campaigns, keep these metrics in mind.

13. Traffic to Brand’s Website

Depending on the nature of your business and the social media platforms your company focuses on, increasing traffic to your website could be a top priority. 41% of marketers surveyed by the HubSpot Blog said traffic to their website is a high-priority metric. If your company relies on web traffic as part of its business strategy, you’ll want to consider measuring how many of your page views are coming directly from social media.

Key platforms for this focus include Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. You can use a web traffic tool such as Google Analytics to measure how much of your traffic is coming from organic social media.

14. Audience Insights

Earlier we discussed the importance of understanding your audience growth rate. But how much do you know about the audience you already have? Understanding your followers can help you hone in on finding the right target audience, empowering you to share content that resonates with them resulting in higher engagement and increased ROI.

Key audience demographics to consider include:

• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Education Level
• Job Title
• Marital Status
• Number of People in Household

These demographics can be found on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Tracking metrics can sometimes be easy. Sometimes, businesses realize that it's worth the investment to invest in social media tracking tools to help them run more smoothly.

To learn more about which social media metrics are most important for your own business, check out our video on how to set social media goals:

Next, we're going to get into some tools that can help you track these metrics.

1. Keyhole

Price: $179/month
Why it's great: Social listening metrics

Keyhole allows you to see impressions, engagements, reach, and posts that either your accounts or hashtags are getting in a graph format. Keyhole also tracks the demographics of your customers and breaks down their engagement.

When you use Keyhole, all of your accounts are displayed on your dashboard, as pictured below.

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The software shows you what type of content catches the eye of your consumers and provides suggestions on how to improve social presence.

2. Meltwater

Price: By contact
Why it's great: Timely reporting from dashboard

Meltwater's program tracks your accounts in real-time, which is accessible from the dashboard of its users. You can also get metrics on your brand's impact on the web. Meltwater lets you see your insights and user-generated content in one place, like the photo below.

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This photo shows where a brand is trending around the world, which themes are trending the most, and SEO results in a couple of different graphs. Meltwater combs the internet for mentions of your brand and even suggests influencers to connect with.

3. NetBase

Price: $300-$1,000/month
Why it's great: Global insights + tracking

NetBase provides analytics on conversations happening with your brand from around the world. They provide real-time analytics and give you insights that'll help you track ROI. Like in this photo below, NetBase provides you with data about how your campaigns carry weight with customers.

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With Netbase, you can track the performance of a campaign and specific elements about certain campaigns that make them stand out. This metric analysis from GoDaddy shows their impact and engagement with customers, as well as the audience they've reached.

4. quintly

Price: $300/mo
Why it's great: See competitor performance

When using quintly, you can not only track your social media performance but gain insight into the performance of your competitors. This will help you see what you can do to improve your campaigns and what your competitors are doing that works. This photo is an example of the insights the software provides.

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Quintly is also great for agencies with multiple clients. They can use it to manage the accounts of their clients and track their social media pages. Quintly also has reporting and benchmark data to measure campaigns.

Which Social Media Metrics Are Marketers Tracking? [New Research] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Come Up With a Brand Name [+Where 3 of Our Favorites Came From]

Coming up with a brand name is one of the most important steps in starting a business. A well-thought-out name can propel your company forward, and the wrong name can become a marketing nightmare. Where would Amazon be today if it stuck with its original name, Cadabra?

Oftentimes, founders think they know what makes a good brand name. But choosing a vague reference or visionary ideal (like Cadabra) for a name can confuse customers.

Naming a brand isn't as simple as creating a made-up word or picking a name that looks great on paper.

Fortunately, setting up a brand naming process can ensure your name is relevant, memorable, and meaningful. It helps you select a name that catches people's attention and is easy to remember, which makes marketing, sales, and brand awareness that much simpler.

To help your business become a household name, we'll explore how to come up with a brand name, cover brand naming guidelines, outline a brand naming process, and share examples of how popular companies decided on their brand names.

What Makes a Good Brand Name

A good brand name is a blend of creativity and strategy. It highlights your company's mission, vision, and values while showing off personality and creativity.

Josh Reeves, the CEO of Gusto, put it best when describing how his team came up with the company's name. "Choosing your name…will power everything else forward – the visual design, the way you message it to the team, the way you talk about it with customers. So if you’re going to sink your time and energy into anything, it should be this."

Strong brand names tend to fall under one (or more) of these categories:

• Descriptive: Brand names that tell potential buyers exactly what you do or make. Examples: Dude Wipes, The Weather Channel, Booking.com, and PayPal.
• Evocative: These names use metaphor and suggestion to express a company's creativity, hint at its values, and tell a brand story. Examples: Nike, Amazon, Virgin, Uber, and Patagonia.
• Blends: Names that combine two words to make a new word are popular today, and they can be considered descriptive and evocative. Examples: Photoshop, WhatsApp, Headspace, Airtable, and YouTube.
• Invented: Made-up names are a good way to differentiate your company and show your unique brand identity. But you'll have to do more work to tell the story of your company and educate customers on your offering. Examples: Google, Pixar, Garmin, Slack, and Zoom.
• Acryonymic: Good brand names are short and memorable, so it may make sense to use an acronym if you want a long name. Keep in mind that meaning is often removed with an acronym, so it's not the best option for storytelling. Examples: VRBO, BMW, IKEA, UPS, and IBM.

Brand Naming Guidelines

Boundaries are necessary when picking a company name. Without a structure or limits, you can end up with wacky names that have nothing to do with your brand. These brand name guidelines can help you stay on track throughout the process so you wind up with a name that fits your business.

Easy to pronounce and spell.

Even famous brands run into issues with mispronunciation. But you don't want stakeholders, potential customers, or employees scouring the internet to understand your company's name. Keep it simple to say and spell, so it doesn't distract people from your products or services.

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Memorable

I don't know about you, but I never run to the store for "facial tissues." Brands like Kleenex, Chapstick, and Band-Aid are such noteworthy names, people use them as generic terms. So when you come up with a brand name, choose one that sticks in people's minds to help raise your awareness above competitors.

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Meaningful

Brand names that hint at company stories make it easier for customers to connect your values to the brand. Think of the investing platform, Robinhood. The fictional story is about a bandit who steals from the rich to give to the poor, which aligns with the company's ethos of "Investing for Everyone."

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Strong Visual Identity

Words have power, but it takes about 10 seconds of looking at a logo for someone to form an impression about your brand. Beyond the other elements, your brand name must look great on paper and online. Experiment with text logos and graphics to see if the name is too long or difficult to design around.

How to Name a Brand

Now that you have name inspiration and guidelines to follow, it's time to explore the details of how to name a brand. This approach is most effective when paired with your brand positioning strategy, so take time to do that work before jumping into the naming process.

1. Outline your brand goals and identity.

Defining your identity and goals solidifies what sets you apart from the competition and how you plan to position your company. You can pull this information from your positioning statement. If you don't have one yet, ask yourself the following questions:

• Why does your company exist? This is your vision.
• What does your company do? This is your mission.
• How do you do what you do? This refers to your values. Fun fact, 89% of shoppers are loyal to brands that share their values.
• What brand identity do you want to create? This is your brand personality.
• What do you want to accomplish with the brand name? Maybe you want customers to immediately understand your offering, or maybe you want to highlight your innovative spirit.

Once you answer these questions, it's time to look outward.

2. Consider your customers and competitors.

No brand succeeds in a silo, so it's essential to pick a name that resonates with your audience and within your industry. That's because people often identify themselves with the brands they buy. This is good news for companies, as customers with an emotional relationship with a brand have a 306% higher lifetime value.

When coming up with a brand name, consider customer reviews and surveys. This feedback can show how people perceive your brand, which is helpful when brainstorming names. If customers talk about how fun it is to work with your team and use your product, it wouldn't make sense to adopt a serious brand name or persona.

Another crucial consideration is your industry. What are the naming norms? What are your competitors doing? Based on your brand positioning, you have to decide whether to follow the industry formula or choose an unconventional name that makes your brand stand out.

3. Brainstorm and discovery.

Yes, it's time to break out the whiteboard. But before you jump in, put together a team for ideas and approvals. You need to define who is involved in the decision-making process. If you're a solopreneur, you can ask a few trusted peers or colleagues to take part.

Fill up your board with whatever ideas come to mind, and if you get stuck, think about:

• The adjectives that describe your service, product, or brand
• How customers feel about your brand, or how you want them to feel
• Words that you want to associate with your business

As you ideate, reflect on what you think makes a good brand name and consider any major concerns you have about naming. Feeling stuck? Try Shopify's business name generator tool.

4. Refine your ideas.

You probably have a long list of brand names — and that's a good thing. It's easier to chop than to create. Start culling down your list by considering the following factors for each name:

• Does it fit your brand personality?
• Does it have emotional resonance?
• Does it have meaning or connect to your company story?
• How does it look on paper and on a screen?
• Are there any trademarks for it?
• Are the domain name and social media handles available?
• Does it stand out from the competition?
• Is it short, memorable, and easy to spell and pronounce?

Create a shortlist of 10-15 names for the next step. If you have less than this, that's okay — just aim for three to five options.

5. Get feedback.

There's nothing like asking your team, customers, stakeholders, or peers for feedback. You'll quickly learn if a name contender is difficult to pronounce or rubs people the wrong way. If possible, ask a diverse group of people for their opinions individually so you don't run into groupthink issues.

Once you've collected feedback, it's wise to see how the final options translate across languages. Consider where your company will operate and where you hope to expand. Wix learned this lesson the hard way, but the humor-oriented brand handled it well.

Before making a final decision, take a look at how a few popular companies came up with their brand names.

How Three Companies Came Up With Brand Names

From spelling errors to company-wide brainstorms, there are plenty of stories that highlight the creativity and complexity of the brand naming process. Check out how these three brands decided on a name.

Gusto

Originally named ZenPayroll, Gusto rebranded three years after its launch. The company had thousands of customers and a team that questioned if a new name was essential. Josh Reeves, CEO, and co-founder said the original name was chosen out of convenience. But the founders knew it was temporary.

To expand beyond payroll service into health insurance, ZenPayroll needed a new name and logo. The team wanted to combine their values at the time — peace of mind, calm, warm, trusting, and vibrant — with their vision for the future. "We wanted to capture our emphasis on the people doing the work," said Reeves.

The result? Gusto, which means enjoyment or vigor in doing something; zest. Here's the evolution of Gusto, from the original brand to today's identity.

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Warby Parker

"Coming up with the name 'Warby Parker' was one of the hardest things we did as a founding team," said Neil Blumenthal, the company's co-founder, and co-CEO. As the story goes, the team came up with over 2,000 ideas over the course of six months before choosing the final brand name.

Their inspiration? A Jack Kerouac exhibition at the New York Public Library that contained a journal with two interesting characters: Warby Pepper and Zagg Parker. The founders had all been inspired by Kerouac and the beat generation ethos of taking the road less traveled. Soon after, the rebellious Warby Parker brand was born.

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HubSpot

As fellow graduate students, HubSpot co-founders Brian and Dharmesh noticed that consumers had gotten really good at ignoring interruptive ads and bids for their attention. They started HubSpot on the idea of "inbound," the notion that people would rather be helped than harassed by marketers and salespeople.

According to the book, "Marketing Lesson from the Grateful Dead" by Brian Halligan and David Meerman Scott, the name HubSpot sprung from the vision to create a hub-based ecosystem that united software, education, and community to help businesses grow better. That idea, "combined with the double-entendre for Boston (nicknamed The Hub [of the Universe])...made it a good choice."

What's Next?

With a powerful brand name, you're ready to design the visuals that bring it to life. Learn how to make a unique brand identity that draws in customers, successfully launch a product, and create a brand that keeps people coming back.

How to Come Up With a Brand Name [+Where 3 of Our Favorites Came From] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

The Best Social Media Channels for Marketing in 2022, According to Company & Consumer Data

Every day there’s something new on social media.

Recently, Twitter introduced Twitter Blue, a premium subscription-based version of its platform.

TikTok took the social media world by storm back in 2020 and still remains the most downloaded app of 2021, according to Social Media Today. Instagram is regularly adding new features to its platform, recently testing a new affiliate tool for influencers.

The question is, how are these changes impacting how consumers behave online? Are users moving away from Facebook?

Let’s see what the data says and what it means for brands.

We surveyed 301 people in the United States and asked, "Which social media platform do you spend the most time on each week?" The response was kind of surprising.

Despite YouTube’s steady growth over the past year and the rise of TikTok and Clubhouse, Facebook remains the top social media platform. YouTube follows, with the gap between the platform and Facebook much smaller in larger surveys.

So, what does this information really mean?

Well, in a broad sense, it means you should consider having a presence on these platforms. However, don’t delete your Instagram account just yet – better yet, don’t delete it at all.

I’ll explain why later.

Which Social Media Platforms Marketers Are Prioritizing

In 2022, Facebook is the number one social media platform marketers are focusing on, according to HubSpot Blog Research.

When asked which social media platform they plan to invest the most in for 2022, 25% answered Facebook, 20% said YouTube, 16% said Twitter, and 15% said Instagram.

Facebook seems to generate the highest quality leads for marketers, according to the data, which explains why marketers are leveraging this platform the most.

TikTok is another popular platform that 52% of marketers surveyed plan to increase their investment in. There are two reasons for this: The first is that short-form video is growing and increasingly becoming the number one content format. In fact, it’s the format 26% of marketers are leveraging the most in 2022.

In addition, 46% of marketers surveyed said that TikTok offered the highest ROI among other platforms like Twitter and YouTube.

When it comes to emerging platforms and/or features, marketers are keeping an eye on YouTube Shorts. According to 2021 HubSpot Blog Research, 83% of marketers plan to increase their investment in the short-form video feature, a TikTok competitor.

Facebook Live Audio and Twitter Spaces are also top features marketers plan to increase their investment in for 2022.

This focus on audio and short-form video platforms reflects 2021 HubSpot Blog Research that revealed that marketers are investing most in short-form videos and live audio chat rooms in 2022.

According to the data, most marketers (over 60%) say short-form videos are the most effective format and offer the highest ROI, followed by live videos and live streaming. As for audio, 44% of marketers plan to leverage it for the first time in 2022.

The key takeaway is that audio and short-form video platforms will play a much bigger role in marketers’ strategies in 2022 than they have in the past.

Which Social Media Platforms Are Losing Steam

When Clubhouse first launched in 2020, it gained steam very quickly with its unique live audio concept. Its invitation-only model also helped build excitement around the platform.

Today, the platform is open to the public and seems to have lost its edge, as other (and bigger) social platforms launch their own version of live audio.

HubSpot Blog Research conducted in 2021 found that 15% of marketers plan to decrease their investment in the app for 2022.

Snapchat is another platform that marketers are divesting from. Our research found that when it comes to influencer marketing this year, 20% of marketers are planning to decrease their investment in Snapchat.

It also revealed that Snapchat offers one of the lowest ROIs, behind Pinterest and Twitch.

So, does this mean you should stop marketing on Clubhouse and Snapchat? Not if your audience lives there and your brand sees an average to high return from it.

Take this data as a guide to keep you informed on industry trends and insights, not a strict playbook. So, if your data suggests that these platforms are worth investing in, continue to do so.

Should brands limit their efforts to the most popular platforms?

There’s no single, clear-cut answer to this... but typically, no.

While most consumers may spend most of their time on Facebook and YouTube, that doesn’t mean you should dedicate all your efforts entirely to those platforms.

Why? That may not be where your audience lives.

Generality is the enemy of marketing. Imagine running a social media ad that targets everyone. Or having a target audience comprising all of Gen Z.

This sort of one-size-fits-all isn’t conducive to your brand’s growth. In fact, it is likely keeping you from making progress, as you waste time and resources on broad strategies that may not work for your specific market.

It’s like going to a party and only getting an address for the neighborhood. Sure, you could drive around and knock on every door until you find the right one, but by that point, you might be tired, hungry, and out of gas.

When you zero in on a specific audience and strategy, you can gain more valuable insights and get a higher return on investment.

Data, just like the one above, should be used as a general guide to understanding consumer behavior. However, it shouldn’t dictate your entire strategy. Your own consumer data and user persona(s) should.

For instance, let’s say you’ve discovered through market research that your audience enjoys consuming information mostly through blogs and podcasts. That’s a good indicator of where you should focus your efforts. In a few years, that data may change, in which case, your team should be flexible and move to where your audience is going.

Here’s what you should consider when determining where to direct your efforts:

• Where your audience lives
• The type of content you’ll be creating
• The channel that converts the best

There are a few ways to figure out where your audience "hangs out" online. First, you can check the demographics by platform – this will give you a general idea of the audience.

For instance, TikTok mostly caters to a younger audience between 10 to 29 years old while most Instagram users are between 18 to 34 years old.

You can also reach out to your target audience directly through polls and survey to find out where they spend their time. In addition, look to your competitors.

See where they’re focusing their efforts and if they are successful, that may be a good indication of where you should be. Like when you’re not sure you went to the right place but see someone you know parking and you can let out a sigh of relief.

Next is the type of content you’ll be creating.

Say your audience enjoys video content the most (think webinars, lives, video tutorials). In this case, your audience would be well suited for YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, all of which have video editing and publishing features. You can then repurpose your content for each platform.

Another factor to consider is how each channel is contributing to your goals. This is where the importance of data comes in.

You may be posting every day on TikTok and find that the rare times you post on Facebook, you get much higher engagement and conversion rates. While there could be several reasons for this, you may want to redirect your attention to Facebook as it is providing the best return on investment.

Next, we’ll cover what software can help you keep track of your social media data.

Top Social Media Analytics Software

1. HubSpot

With HubSpot’s social media management software, you can track your social strategy from beginning to end.

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With a user-friendly dashboard, you can see exactly how your published posts are performing, which channels are bringing traffic to your website and generating leads, and more.

You can also filter your reports by campaign, account, and date range so you can narrow down the exact information you’re looking for.

In addition, HubSpot’s social media software allows you to:

• Schedule posts.
• See how your competitors measure up.
• Track and monitor conversations surrounding your brand on every platform.
• Export and analyze relevant reports.

The social media tool is available within HubSpot’s all-in-one CRM platform for mid- to large-size businesses.

2. HootSuite

HootSuite empowers your team to make decisions quickly with real-time data on your social strategy.

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The social media software takes some of the guesswork out so that you can focus on the most important insights. With customizable dashboards, you can also get a quick overview of your key metrics and identify what’s driving traffic and sales.

Ranging from $49/month to custom pricing for enterprise-level businesses, you can find a plan that meets your needs and is scalable.

3. Sprout Social

If you have multiple social channels running at full speed and you’re overwhelmed with the data, Sprout Social can help.

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The platform helps you manage your data and create ready-to-go reports to share with stakeholders.

In addition, you can use competitive intelligence to benchmark your performance and make informed decisions that will promote your brand’s growth.

Sprout Social’s pricing is based on a subscription model and ranges from $99 to $249 a month.

Now that you know where consumers spend their time online, the real work begins. Experiment with various strategies to see what resonates best with your audience, always using data and your user personas to inform your decisions.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in July 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The Best Social Media Channels for Marketing in 2022, According to Company & Consumer Data was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns