Every once in a while, I'll come across a website that really draws me in. So, I found 32 of them to show you. These sites push the boundaries of what is known to be possible on the web. Whether it's the design aesthetic, usability, interactivity, sound design, or value that the site provides, each one is a masterpiece in its respective industry, and something to be inspired by. Not surprisingly, many organizations exist to highlight these sites and the contributions they make to the web. To help surface some of the most inspirational designs, I gathered 32 award-winners that have made their way through several key awards organizations — including Awwwards, UX Awards, The Webby Awards, SiteInspire, Best Website Gallery, and FWA. Click the links below to jump to a group of website designs that crushed it in the last several years:
Below this list, I also found six more websites whose homepage designs are just plain cool and worth learning from. As you browse through the list, know that each site excels in its own way and seeks to serve a unique purpose. While one site may be an excellent example of visual design, another may be an excellent example of interactivity. This means that not all of these sites may be "conversion machines" or blueprint ideas that you can easily copy over to your site. Rather, they're great ways to gain some website design inspiration and see the cutting-edge marketing that's happening in the different corners of the web. Best Website Designs
Beautiful Award-Winning WebsitesAnd the awards go to ... Best Website Designs from 2014 – 20151. Virgin AmericaAward: Most Significant Industry Evolution, 2014 UX AwardsIn a world where airline websites are known to be riddled with major usability issues, Virgin America has one of the best websites that pushes usability, accessibility, and responsive design forward. In fact, it's been named as the first truly responsive airline website, a new precedent in the industry. 2. FeedAward: Site of the Day (6/6/2015), AwwwardsNot only is Feed an interesting concept, but it also has a stunning execution that challenges our understanding of what is possible on the web. Through a creative blend of animation and video, the site immerses the user into a very engaging experience. As an atypical site, it contains several unique usability elements as well, including a navigation that doubles as a scroll progress bar. 3. ETQAward: Site of the Day (5/19/2015), AwwwardsETQ takes a very minimalistic approach to ecommerce with their stripped-down site with big, compelling visuals of their product. Simple, flat, color-based backgrounds accompanied by strong typography help to keep the focus on exactly what the user came there to see: shoes. 4. Mikiya KobayashiAward: Site of the Day (7/4/2015), AwwwardsMikiya is a Product Designer with a minimalistic portfolio that showcases his work through strong photography and subtle animations. His full site was originally created in Japanese and then translated into English, helping demonstrate the international scalability of his design. 5. The History of Climate ChangeAward: Site of the Day (6/23/2015), AwwwardsFollow the footsteps of Luc Jacquet as Wild-Touch takes you along this visual and educational journey about the history of global climate change. A mixture of historical media and unique animations help tell the story. 6. BeagleAward: Site of the Day (4/19/2015), Best Website GalleryBeagle does an exceptional job of visually and progressively telling the story of their product in a simple and easy-to-digest way. This is a major challenge for many startups, especially when they're introducing new concepts to existing markets. People want to know, "What is your product? How does it work? Why do I care?" Beagle answers all those questions while simultaneously showing off their product and compelling the user to purchase. Plus, they're one of few sites that actually implemented "scroll hijacking" correctly. Featured by Best Website Gallery 7. Woven MagazineAward: Site of the Day (4/4/2015), Best Website GalleryWoven is an online publication that celebrates artists, craftsmen, and makers alike. To me, they represent a confirmation that publications can (and should) have beautiful, engaging sites with easy-to-read content. Free of distractions like pop-ups and obtrusive ads, this site all about the experience of the content itself. Featured by Best Website Gallery 8. JOHO's BeanAward: FWA of the Day (8/7/2015), Favorite Website AwardsThe website for JOHO's Bean has incredible imagery, interactivity, story telling, visual design, and most of all, sound engineering. These all come together to create a compelling, emotional, and engaging site that tells the story of a coffee bean's journey. 9. World of SWISSAward: Best User Interface, 2015 Webby AwardsAnother airline?! What is happening?! Yep, SWISS airlines built an incredibly immersive site that tells their story and describes what it's like to fly with them -- and they simply did too great of a job to be ignored. Strong visuals and animations introduce the user to different sections of the site that are packed with information beyond the usual sales and marketing pitch that is so common today. Best Website Designs from 201610. Rainforest GuardiansAward: Best Activism Website, 2016 Webby AwardsRainforest Guardians became one of the most immersive nonprofit websites of 2016. Seeking to build awareness around deforestation, the site allows users to "visit" the various villages, natives, and waterways that make up the Amazon Rainforest. The site puts interactivity at the center of its user experience -- a wise choice if your goal is to get people to connect with your cause and convert into volunteers. 11. Protest SportswearAward: Site of the Year (2016), AwwwardsThe Awwwards calls Protest Sportswear a "shoppable look book," and that's exactly what this site is. As a clothing outfitter, this website has reinvented the way they market their product: Rather than promoting garments of clothing, Protest Sportswear promotes "looks." This makes the company's product the most appealing part of the website itself, using a collage of styles to design a homepage that changes as often as its customer's styles do. 12. The Teacher's GuildAward: Best Association Website, 2016 Webby AwardsThe Teacher's Guild is a professional community of educators whose website publishes content that addresses today's most critical challenges in education. What makes this website award-winning is how it balances diverse content types -- programs, solutions, approaches, and collaborations -- without overwhelming its visitors. Not only are its background visuals prominently placed, but they also use white space to emphasize the written calls to action at the center, as shown in the screenshot below. 13. Inside Abbey Road
Award: Best Music Website, 2016 Webby AwardsGoogle knocked it out of the park with this highly interactive site, which allows users to step into the Abbey Road Studios. Brilliant sound design, navigation mechanics, and visuals mixed with the usual "Google flair" all help draw visitors in to this well-made web property. Best Website Designs from 201714. Simply ChocolateAward: Site of the Year (2017), AwwwardsYou'll get a craving for chocolate just looking at this website -- and in a way, that's Simply Chocolate's website working as designed. This appetizing website is that of a Denmark chocolate maker named Simply Chocolate. Its website uses a variety of colors (and creative product names) to promote each chocolate bar. And as you scroll from one product to the next, they all seem to remain consistent in brand. The three-dimensional appearance of each chocolate bar makes you feel like you can grab it off of your computer screen, while the "Add to Box" CTA to the top-left is ideally placed for users to select the products they want while browsing. 15. NOWNESSAward: Best Cultural Blog/Website, 2017 Webby AwardsNowness is perhaps the coolest crowdsourced video blog on the internet today. That was a mouthful ... what does all that mean? NOWNESS's "crowdsourced" nature is part of what makes it an award-winner. This means most of its content comes from independent creatives -- an increasingly popular way for businesses to publish content. NOWNESS is also a video blog, meaning all of its blog content is in video format. Together, these qualities help make Nowness a captivating hub for the stories that brands everywhere strive to tell. 16. Citrix: The New Mobile WorkforceAward: Site of the Day (11/23/2017), Best Website GalleryThis website -- dedicated to Red Bull's partnership with Citrix, a cloud-based software company -- is amazing. The New Mobile Workforce, a site owned by Citrix, uses panoramic photography to show visitors how Citrix is supporting Red Bull Racing's new race car. Even if you're not a car-racing enthusiast, the website's clever animations to explain a complicated automotive technology are hard to ignore. Featured by Best Website Gallery Best Website Designs from 201817. crypton.tradingAward: Site of the Day (4/3/2018), AwwwardsMeet crypton.trading, your robot accountant. Crypton.trading is a trading hub for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, using artificial intelligence to predict changes in a currency's value and identify key buying and selling opportunities. The website was rated high for its development and design, as it gradually explains more of the developer's methods the further down visitors scroll. This award-winning website makes tech-savvy visitors feel right at home the moment Crypton's greeting appears across the homepage, one letter at a time. 18. Southwest: Heart of TravelAward: Best Visual Design - Aesthetic, 2018 Webby AwardsWhen Southwest Airlines wanted to prove its customers were "more than just a dollar sign," the company created a website whose design was assembled using the shapes of their customers' flightpaths. The website, called Heart of Travel, even allows visitors to create their own artwork out of a trip they might plan on taking. In this way, Southwest's website is a product of their most loyal passengers. 19. ReductressAward: Best Humor Website, 2018 Webby AwardsIt's not that hard to make someone laugh on the internet; so much of what we read and consume online is meant to be entertaining. But it is hard to do it consistently for a large audience. Reductress is a satirical magazine whose headlines and general reading experience are top-tier in the humor department -- making the website itself a quality property. 20. OverflowAward: Site of the Day (3/20/2018), Best Website GalleryOverflow is a design tool that allows people and businesses to create story-like flow diagrams of their ideas so they're easier for others to understand. Aside from this being just a good service, the Overflow website practices what it preaches: Along with vibrant red call-to-action buttons for downloading the tool, this website promotes its product the best way it knows how -- using a flow diagram. The website delivers this flow diagram in the form of a video. And while embedded videos can look rather clunky sitting in the middle of a website's other design elements, Overflow's is perfectly placed and exactly what you'd want to see when landing on the site for the first time. Featured by Best Website Gallery 21. Frans Hals MuseumAward: Site of the Year (2018), AwwwardsIt can be tough for a museum, whose brand is predicated on a variety of incredible artwork, to bring it all together on a cohesive website. That's what makes the website of the Frans Hals Museum so impressive. Located in the Netherlands, this museum has created a website that uses a combination of digital design elements and its own exhibits. This mixture helps visitors understand what they'll see, when they can see it, and where else they can get a taste of what this museum has to offer. Speaking of the latter, the museum promotes its Instagram account directly on its homepage -- a brilliant move for a museum looking to expand its audience across its online channels. Award-Winning Designs of 201922. 1917: In the TrenchesAward: Awwwards' Best Website of the DayThis website, made to promote the film 1917, allows you to walk around the trenches and perform the same mission that the characters did in the film. You can also see their maps or access other tools. This is a great example of a site that. went above and beyond with interactivity as well as a site that leverages its own content and prewritten storyline to market its film. This website won Site of the Day by Awwwards which allows designers to vote and nominate great website's they see daily. 23. The Octopus: A design blog by IDEOAward: Business Blog/Website 2019 Webby awardIDEO, a global design company, won the Business Blog/Website 2019 Webby award for its Octopus blog, and for good reason. The blog features a sleek, black-and-white Octopus drawing as its homepage design, and uses yellow, black, and white to create a cohesive theme as you scroll. If you hover over a blog post, the title is highlighted in yellow, and if you hover over an image, the image is pulled towards you — two small features that make a big difference in terms of creating a unique and engaging user experience. 24. Nomadic TribeAward: Awwwards' Site of the Year nominationThis site, which was nominated for Awwards' Site of the Year, is one of the more engaging sites I've seen. The homepage immediately begins playing a stunning video featuring a man walking across a desert, followed by gorgeous landscape scenes and text like, "Are you lucky enough to call yourself an adventurer?". The text throughout the website is playful, with colorful pinks and oranges and yellows, and the homepage is logically designed, with CTAs placed throughout that range in commitment-level from "Read More" to "Watch Now" and, finally, "Download the App". Ultimately, the website is beautifully designed with a strong attention to detail, and tells a compelling story throughout. 25. Diana DanieliAward: Webby 2019This 2019 Webby winning site shows off imagery of art and architecture with either high contrast or heavy exposure. As a website visitor, you can click and drag your mouse to change the photos and variations. Each image shows a piece of work that highlights the artist who owns the website.
26.George Nakashima WoodworkersAward: Webby 2019This woodworking website emphasizes nature and care for the woodworking trade. It's essentially a slide show of beautiful forestry and farming images. As a new image comes on to the screen, a new quote related to wood or trees also comes up. This is incredibly relaxing to the visitor and shows that the woodworkers recognize the beauty of trees and the environment. This website also won a Webbie in 2019. Other Cool Website Designs27. MinimumsMinimums takes a very bold approach to the way that they display their content, leveraging a grid-based website design, big typography, and full-width, high-quality images. Their site serves as a really nice example for how to properly execute a grid structure while still maintaining a nice visual hierarchy in the design. 28. MovieMarkMovieMark is a growth marketing agency and HubSpot Partner, whose website is covered head to toe in the service it offers: digital storytelling. Located in Colombia, the agency makes video a core focus of its brand, so it's only fitting that MovieMark's website follows this theme. And oh, how visually pleasing the videos on its website are ... 29. Guillaume TomasiAs a Photographer in Montreal, Guillaume Tomasi has built a portfolio that's truly fit to house his unique and awe-inspiring photography. His surreal photo style is juxtaposed by his simple, flat, empty, and minimalistic portfolio design that places all of the focus on the work itself. His unique series navigation coupled with art-gallery-inspired work introductions and perfect scrolling interactions yield an experience reminiscent of that of a real gallery. 30. The DistrictThis branding agency takes its imagery seriously, and it should -- it handles all channels of media for their clients. The District's website, alone, is a journey through some of the most beautiful artwork and photography you've ever seen. These provocative tiles change rapidly as you explore the website, and the wackier they seem, the more interested you become in learning about their past work. 31. Tej ChauhanTej Chauhan has turned impressionist artwork into a business model with this intriguing website. Each image on this product developer's homepage slides out to cover the previous image, offering little context around the object you now see in front of you. But isn't that lack of context exactly what makes you want to learn more? The tagline, "Souvenirs of The Near Future," suggests these objects are a part of their product line -- and an opportunity for you to get these innovative objects into your life. 32. Amanda Martocchio ArchitectureAn architecture firm might not specialize in web development, but its website should still demonstrate its commitment to visually pleasing design. Amanda Martocchio took that to heart with this gorgeous website. It's no secret that Amanda Martocchio Architecture loves its work -- each picture on the homepage of its website is an enchanting shot of the houses the company designs. The website labels every house you scroll through with the type of design that was intended, along with numerous angles to each building. Website Design IdeasNow that you've seen a number of beautifully designed and award-winning platforms, keep these potential ideas in mind as you create your own.
Want more website design examples? Check out these amazing product pages you'll want to copy immediately. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-website-designs-list
0 Comments
Guess what? Global marketing is no longer reserved for brands with deep pockets, nor is it a huge hassle for already over-burdened marketing managers. In fact, a global presence is possible for any business with a creative strategy and an understanding of world markets. What Is Good Global Marketing?Global marketing is the act of focusing a product on the needs of potential buyers in other countries. Like most types of marketing, though, a global marketing strategy comes down to one thing: audience. Knowing who needs your product, in what form to deliver it to them, and how to do it in a way that strengthens the brand are core ingredients of awesome global marketing. Typically, a global marketing strategy requires a business to do new market research, identify countries where the business's product might be successful, and then localize the brand to reflect the needs of those communities. However, localization is not always necessary. Some brands adopt a global standardization strategy instead. In contrast to localization, where there's a more differentiated marketing approach to each market, global standardization provides significant cost benefits as a result of less messaging and fewer campaigns. However, the key is in knowing when a global standardization strategy will be effective. Because it banks on a universal appeal despite cultural or locational differences, you'll need to research whether customers use or think about your products differently depending on their market. If there's no difference between the usage and understanding from country to country, a global standardization approach is practical. Choosing localization or global standardization is one aspect of creating a great global marketing strategy. To give you an idea of what a great global marketing strategy looks like, we've compiled a list of brands that totally "get it." From adapting their social strategies to translate across multiple languages to adjusting their menus to appeal to the cravings of a diverse group of people, these brands are taking positive steps toward creating a solid presence across the globe. So, if you're looking for inspiration on how to craft a successful international marketing strategy and expand your business' reach, check out these examples from these successful companies. Global Marketing Strategies
1. Red BullAustrian company Red Bull does such a great job with global marketing that many Americans assume it’s a local brand. How? One of its most successful tactics is to host extreme sports events all over the world. From the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix to the Red Bull Air Race in the United Kingdom to the Red Bull Soapbox Race in Jordan, the brand's powerful event marketing strategy takes them here, there, and everywhere. Aside from events, Red Bull's packaging also plays a part in its global appeal. "Red Bull really looks like a product from a global economy. It doesn't look like a traditional American soft drink -- it's not in a 12-ounce can, it's not sold in a bottle, and it doesn't have script lettering like Pepsi or Coke. It looks European. That matters," explains Harvard Business School professor Nancy F. Koehn in a 2001 article. Though it's since diversified its product selection since that article was published, the fact remains that Red Bull's consistent packaging has helped this brand go global. 2. AirbnbAirbnb, a community marketplace for people to list and book accommodations around the world, was founded in 2008 out of San Francisco, California. Since then, Airbnb has grown to 1,500,000+ listings in 34,000+ cities worldwide. A large contributor to the company's explosive global success? Social media. In January 2015, Airbnb launched a social media campaign around the hashtag #OneLessStranger. The company referred to the campaign as a "global, social experiment," in which Airbnb asked the community to perform random acts of hospitality for strangers, and then take a video or photo with the person and share it using the hashtag. Just three weeks after the launch of the campaign, over 3,000,000 people worldwide engaged, created content, or were talking about the campaign. 3. Dunkin DonutsIn case you missed it, National Donut Day was last June. And while we were getting our hands dirty with a Boston creme (or two) here in the states, Dunkin Donuts China was serving up a fresh batch of dry pork and seaweed donuts. With over 3,200 stores in 36 countries outside of the U.S., Dunkin Donuts has evolved its menu to satisfy the sweet tooth of its global customers. From Korea's Grapefruit Coolata to Lebanon's Mango Chocolate Donut to Russia's Dunclairs, it's clear that Dunkin Donuts isn't afraid to celebrate cultural differences in an effort to strengthen its international presence. 4. Domino'sSimilar to Dunkin Donuts, Domino's has prioritized menu innovation as a means of increasing international interest and awareness. “The joy of pizza is that bread, sauce, and cheese works fundamentally everywhere, except maybe China, where dairy wasn’t a big part of their diet until lately,” explains Domino’s CEO J. Patrick Doyle. “And it’s easy to just change toppings market to market. In Asia, it’s seafood and fish. It’s curry in India. But half the toppings are standard offerings around the world.” By making a conscious effort to gain a better understanding of the preferences of the markets it's trying to break into, Domino's can deliver pies diverse enough to gain international attention. 5. RezdySome companies may not be trying to attract global markets directly, but if their clients are, they better know how. Rezdy is an Australian-based reservation software designed to make online booking smoother for tourists and agents alike. Though Rezdy's clients are Australian-based, the company needs to cater to its clients' international visitors. Click on the screenshot to check out this fun video on Rezdy's homepage: The first feature the video spotlights is "Internationalisation." The video walks us through how easy the service is for users, but is sure to emphasize the language and currency customization tool upfront. Even if your company is marketing to other regional companies, consider their global customers as if they were your own. 6. World Wildlife FoundationWWF took its Earth Hour initiative -- a voluntary worldwide event where participants turn off their lights for an hour to show how easy it can be to battle climate change -- and brought it to Norway's mobile audience. Scandinavian countries like Norway experience extreme daylight hours in different seasons, making the country a prime candidate for WWF's Blackout campaign. Using digital agency Mobiento, the nonprofit placed the Blackout Banner across Norway's top media sites to promote Earth Hour. With one tap of the banner, the screen went black. Finger swiping the black screen slowly revealed the Earth Hour countdown. The banner attracted roughly 1,000,000 impressions and the campaign received three MMA Global Mobile Marketing Awards back in 2012. Have a cool idea? Don't be afraid to try it out on one international market -- just make sure it's the appropriate audience. (Also, don't be afraid of the dark.) 7. Pearse TrustWith offices in Dublin, London, Vancouver, Atlanta, and Wellington, Pearse Trust has grown to be an international authority on corporate and trust structures. But it takes more than offices all over the map to reach an international audience. That's why Pearse Trust keeps content flowing on its Facebook page that engages its various markets. In this screenshot below, you can see Pearse Trust posts lots of content featuring international affairs relating to the company's practice. It also levels out external articles with Pearse Trust content, featuring news from places like Germany, Ireland (where it has a Dublin office), and the U.K. (where it has a London office). This is a great example of focusing on common interests shared among your company's various markets while also making the content relatable to customers by region. 8. NikeNike has been able to evolve its global presence through the careful selection of international sponsorships such as its previous long-standing relationship with Manchester United. Although sponsorship spending can be fairly unpredictable -- demand costs tend to surge due to triggers like championships and tournaments -- these partnerships have certainly helped the brand capture the attention of a global audience. Nike's NikeID co-creation platform serves as another strategy that the company is using to appeal to international markets. By putting the power of design into the hands of the consumer, Nike is able to deliver customized products that align with different cultural preferences and styles. 9. McDonald'sWe all know McDonald's is a successful global brand, so unlike its menu, I'll keep it light. While keeping its overarching branding consistent, McDonald's practices "glocal" marketing efforts. No, that's not a typo. McDonald's brings a local flavor, literally, to different countries with region-specific menu items. In 2003, McDonald's introduced the McArabia, a flatbread sandwich, to its restaurants in the Middle East. McDonald's has also introduced macaroons to its French menu: And added McSpaghetti to its menu in the Philippines: This "glocal" approach has helped put McDonald's at #9 on Interbrand's Best Global Brands 2014.10. Innocent DrinksInnocent Drinks is the leading smoothie company in the U.K., but that's not the only place you'll find its products. In fact, Innocent products are now available in 15 countries across Europe. And despite its widespread reach, the company's "chatty branding" remains consistent across the board. For instance, the website is very bubbly, with contact information that reads "call the banana phone" or "visit the fruit towers." While global expansion and rapid growth can sometimes distract a company from consistent branding, Innocent Drinks has managed to remain true to itself. By ensuring that the brand's voice is interpreted the same way around the world, Innocent is able to create a more recognizable brand. 11. Unger and KowittThe phrase "glocal" can be defined as "Think Globally, Act Locally." But what happens when you switch the two around. Whoa, fasten your seat belts -- literally. Unger and Kowitt is a traffic ticket law firm based in Fort Lauderdale defending drivers in the state of Florida. Not very global, right? Well, Unger and Kowitt understands that America is a melting pot and that Florida is bursting at the seams with different cultures and languages. Though a domestic service, the firm's website is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Creole. With these options, Unger and Kowitt can cater to Florida's nearly 3.5 million Floridians who speak Spanish, Portuguese, or Creole. Don't miss out on expanding your client base -- sometimes you don't have to look far to attract international business. 12. Coca-ColaCoca-Cola is a great example of a brand using international marketing efforts. Though a large corporation, Coca-Cola focuses on small community programs and invests a lot of time and money in small-scale charity efforts. For example, in Egypt, Coca-Cola has built 650 clean water installations in the rural village of Beni Suef and sponsors Ramadan meals for children across the Middle East. In India, the brand sponsors the Support My School initiative to improve facilities at local schools. Not to mention, the brand sticks with selling an emotion that can't get lost in translation: happiness. Now, tell me this doesn't look like fun: 13. SpotifyAs of 2018, Spotify was newly considered one of the best global companies in the world, according to Interbrand. We've all heard of Spotify (no pun intended), but how did it suddenly, and so quickly, expand from Sweden into other countries? Spotify's business model is focused on helping you find something new. It's one thing to select a genre of music to listen to -- it's another thing to select a "mood" to listen to. The screenshot above is part of Spotify's "Browse" page, where you can listen not just to "country" and "hip-hop," but also music that caters to your "workout" or "sleep" preferences. By changing how they describe their content, Spotify gets users to listen to music that goes beyond their favorite genres, and instead satisfies habits and lifestyles that people share all over the world. This allows international artists to access listeners from other countries simply because their product is being categorized a different way. Spotify now has offices in 17 countries around the world. If you have global aspirations for your business, you need to find out what customers in different communities have in common -- and how to localize your product for these different markets. Your first step? Take inspiration from one of the businesses above. Editor's note: This post was originally published in January 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/global-marketing-and-international-business If you've been a marketing professional for years now, learning about the four P's of marketing might seem like a throwback to you. However, for those of us who work in the industry but didn't study marketing in college, it's entirely possible you haven't heard of the marketing mix. Below, let's learn about the four P's of marketing and how they're still relevant in today's marketing landscape. The four P's are meant to help marketers consider everything about a product or service when they're deciding how to market something for their business. Framing your marketing around the four P's will help you learn what the competition is doing and what customers want from you. You can use the four P's to answer questions about the product, price, place, and promotion of your product or service. For example, you can ask yourself:
Thinking about your marketing in terms of the four P's will help you strategize how to reach your customers. Featured Resource: Marketing Mix TemplatesNeed a way to visualize your marketing mix to share it with your employees or investors? Use these four marketing mix templates to organize your initiatives and activities by the right section. Click here to download them now. Let's dive into the details below. 1. ProductWhen you think about your product, consider exactly what you're selling. Is it a specific product? Or is it a service? Your product can be a physical product, an online app, or a service such as house cleaning. Really, anything that you're selling is the product. Then, think of your brand messaging, the services you offer, and even packaging. When you define your product, think about what problem your product solves for your customers. Consider how your product is different from competing products. What features are unique to your product? It's important to know your product intimately so you can market it. 2. PriceWhen it comes to price, you have to consider how much you're going to charge customers for your products or services. Of course, you need to make a profit. But you also need to think about what competitors are charging for the same product or service and how much customers are willing to pay. Additionally, you can think about what discounts or offers you can use in your marketing. When you decide on a price, you want to think about perception. Do you want to be known as a cost-effective option in your industry? Or perhaps you're a luxury brand and the price is slightly higher than competition on the market. Either way, the language you use to market your product will be greatly impacted by the price of your product. 3. PlaceWhen it comes to place, this might mean the physical location of your company, but it could also be defined as anywhere you sell your product, which might be online. The place is where you market and distribute your product. Remember, that not every place makes sense for every product. For example, if your target market is seniors, then it won't make sense to market on TikTok. It's important to choose the right places to market your product and meet your customers where they're at. Think about possible distribution channels, what outlets you could sell your product, whether you're B2B or B2C, etc. At this point, you'll need to think about how to market your product on all the various channels that make sense for your company. 4. PromotionPromotion is the bread and butter of marketing. This is when you'll think about how to publicize and advertise your product. Additionally, you'll discuss brand messaging, brand awareness, and how to generate leads and revenue. When it comes to promotion, keeping communication in mind is of the utmost importance. What messages will resonate with your target market? How can you best promote your product to them? Think about where, when, and how you'll promote your brand. To develop a marketing mix, you'll need to think about how you can uniquely position your brand amongst the competition. The most important part of thinking about the four P's of marketing is to understand the customer, the competition, and your company. You'll evaluate your product and how to promote it. Even though marketing has changed since the four P's were developed, the foundational elements of the industry haven't. You can apply the concepts of the marketing mix to any type of marketing. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/4-ps-of-marketing By September of 2019, nearly 60% of Australia's population was on YouTube. With internet and social media usage increasing in Australia, the percentage above is likely to grow. Like people in many other countries, Australians embrace video when it comes to learning new things, entertaining themselves, or even researching new products. Now, with growing access to the web, mobile data, and all sorts of online video platforms, video is more readily at Australian fingertips than ever before. At this point, if you're a marketer for an Australian company or an international brand looking to gain awareness in the region, video content or video ads could be solid tactics for you. But, if you've never made a commercial or marketing video for your brand before, you might ask yourself, "Where do I even start?" One of the best ways to learn how to effectively sell your brand or product through video could be watching commercials from your region's most successful brands. By looking at some of the most iconic Australian commercials, you can learn about storytelling styles and other video marketing tactics that nurture national or global audiences from the TV or computer screen to stores. And, even if you don't have the same video budget as a big brand, you can still use their content to consider similar, but more scaleable video strategies. To help Australian or international marketers in their quest to create compelling video marketing content, here are five great Australian commercials that you can use for inspiration. 5 Iconic Australian Commercials Marketers Can Learn From"Big Ad" - Carlton Draught (2006)Carlton Draught's biggest commercial, produced by Young & Rubicam -- formerly George Patterson & Partners, places the viewer in the middle of a blockbuster movie war scene with the mountainous Australian landscape in the background. As Big Ad begins, one large group of men in red robes walks swiftly towards an incoming group of men in yellow robes. As they get closer to each other with a quickening pace, they sing the words, "It's a big ad. Very big ad. It's a big ad we're in," to the tune of Carl Orff's epic work, "O Fortuna." As the ad and song reach their climax, the men run towards each other at full speed as they loudly sing, "It's a big ad! For Carlton Draught! It's just so freaking huge! It's a big ad. Expensive ad. This ad better sell us some bloody beer!" As the thousands of men run closer to each other, viewers see that they're not actually rushing into a huge battle. Instead, from a sky view, viewers can see that the men wearing red are shaping the image of a man drinking beer, while the men in yellow are shaping the beer glass and the beverage going into the man's stomach. The ad ends with close-up shots of the robes men in the group holding out Carlton Draught beer. The Carlton Draught commercial so memorable because it hilariously and tastefully mocks the ridiculously high-budget commercials, as well as the advertising world, while still spreading huge awareness for Carlton Draught. When reflecting on Big Ad and the ad industry, a post from O'Reilly notes the epic TV commercial style has "been a central feature of advertising for decades. Its defining characteristics are a dramatic setting, a huge cast, significant dollops of post-production, and a rather po-faced disposition. All of which makes it ripe for satire." The spot was also part of a broader spoof campaign that mocked the grandeur and masculinity in beer industry advertising. Two other ads within the campaign, titled "Made From Beer," told stories of how science, technology, and horses were involved in the brewing process as well as how all men needed a canoe to seem masculine. Big Ad, which might be the most memorable commercial in the George Patterson campaign, went on to win a Gold Lion and was nominated for the Grand Prix at the 2006 Cannes Lions Festival. "Not Happy, Jan!" - Yellow Pages Australia (2000)Before the internet, brands around the world relied on the Yellow Pages, a book filled with local business ads and phone numbers of individuals with landlines in the immediate area. And, even though some regions don't rely on the Yellow Pages to find all the local contact information we need any more, we can still get an idea of just how important it was to local businesses from the ad below. In the commercial, a frustrated boss played by comedian Deborah Kennedy flips through the Yellow Pages and calls a scared employee named Jan into her office. Kennedy's character asks Jan why their company's ad isn't featured in it. Jan panics, runs out of the office, and down the street realizing she forgot to order the Yellow Pages ad. Kennedy tries to remain calm, counting to ten until she runs to the window bursting with anger. She stares out the window at Jan running away and yells, "Not happy, Jan!" The ad, produced by Clemenger BBDO, wasn't just funny and entertaining to viewers. It also became iconic in Australian culture. Shortly after airing, the phrase, "Not happy, Jan" became heavily used in vernacular when Australians wanted to jokingly show disappointment related to someone's incompetence. In a Daily Telegraph interview, Kennedy explained that the phrase "Not happy, Jan," was "like swearing at your kids without swearing. It just took on a life of its own … it was everywhere." Although people in some areas barely use the Yellow Pages, this ad's storyline still feels timeless and entertaining. Why? Because it cleverly uses humor and relatability to show a need for its product. Odds are many people have dealt with a bad boss, forgetting to do something important at work, or a need to use the Yellow Pages to learn more about a local business. Similarly, many entrepreneurs and marketers in the 1980s through the early 2000s considered or purchased ads in the Yellow Pages. This ad tells a story that most of its viewers could relate to. "I Can See the Pub from Here" - XXXX (1988)Before it was rebranded as XXXX, Castlemaine XXXX's early beer commercials often showed rural Australian residents, farmers, and construction workers getting into humorous, but dangerous, situations just to get ahold of XXXX beer. After a wild scene, a narrator would read the edgy tagline, "Australians Wouldn't Give a Castlemaine XXXX for Anything Else." Since the tagline was a play on a commonly used phrase curse word, the ads insinuated that Australians wouldn't care so much about any other beer or thing. Below is one memorable 1986 ad where two cowboys are riding through the Australian landscape when one's horse gets spooked by a snake and tosses him off a cliff. The cowboy's friend jumps off his horse and clumsily falls down the cliff trying to find his friend who's loudly calling out to him. After the friend continues to fall dramatically down the cliff to reach the other cowboy, he gains his footing and yells, "I'm coming, Snowie!" He then falls down a hill, faceplanting into a tree. At that point, the cowboy who fell off the cliff first yells "Up here!" as the other cowboy looks up confused. In a funny turn of events, the cowboy who first fell off the cliff is shown nearly unscathed, pleasantly holding on to a tree. He looks at his disheveled friend who's just fallen hundreds of feet down a cliff to save him, smiles, points, and says, "I can see the pub from here." The camera then points to a middle-of-nowhere pub as Castlemaine's iconic tagline appears: This campaign, conceived by the agency Saatchi & Saatchi, is effective because it tells an exhilarating story that pulls viewers in, makes them laugh, and ultimately ties back to the main product: beer. This is a great example of how marketers can use creativity to produce a fairly simple add that gains memorability and awareness all around the country. "Louie the Fly" - Mortein (1962)For years, Australians have followed Louie the Fly, an insect who constantly gets killed off in Mortein bug spray commercials. But, decades before the fly was modernized as a full-color cartoon, he was just a basic, hand-drawn animation in the classic black and white ad that introduced him below. In the commercial, Louie the Fly introduces himself with a fun jingle. He sings, "Louie the Fly, I'm Louie the fly. Straight from rubbish, tip to you. Spreading disease with the greatest of ease. Straight from rubbish, tip to you." As the fly sings, he also digs through garbage and dances around a messy house. In the climax of the ad, he sings, "I'm bad and mean and mighty unclean. Afraid of no one, except for the man with the can of Mortein." Then, he turns around to see a can of Mortein spraying him. He looks scared, fades off-screen, and then dies as another singer enters the jingle with, "Poor dead Louie. A victim of Mortein." After the jingle, Mortein's products are shown as the spokesperson explains that its ingredients safely and effectively kill pests in the home. While this ad's animation and jingle might feel pretty basic today, it was innovative for its time -- and incredibly risky due to large production expenses. To bring Louie the Fly to life, Mortein's agency, McCann-Erickson, needed help from musicians, sound engineers, animators, and voice actors. Luckily, audiences enjoyed Louie the Fly -- enabling him to be a notable fictional character in advertising. Even in recent years, Mortein has created ads that continue to show him getting killed off by bug spray products. They even dedicated a page of their website to him in the early 2000s. Most recently, Louie the Fly's jingle was inducted in the National Film And Sound Archive of Australia's Sounds of Australia registry, "Mortein ads still feature the unmistakable tune of the original jingle. And while everyone’s favourite gangster fly shows no sign of disappearing ..., the fact that the jingle is now part of Sounds of Australia means it will live on at the NFSA for future generations to enjoy," states a post on NFSA's site. While Mortein's ad required a high-budget decades ago, marketers with smaller budgets can still take a note from them today. The commercial above is a great example of how a creative storyline or simple jingle can highlight the value and need for a product. "Happy Little Vegemites" - Vegemite (1956)Although Vegemite was invented and sold in Australia as early as 1922, it didn't get its first commercial until the 1950s, after it had already become a common Australian ingredient eaten by residents and members of the Australian military during World War II. While many of the commercials on this list use humor to draw audiences, Vegemite's iconic 1956 ad, produced by Wunderman Thompson (formerly J Walter Thompson), thrived on circus entertainment. In the commercial, children dressed like animals, clowns, and "little Vegemites" sing, dance, and do light circus stunts to Vegemite's original jingle. Behind them sits a large jar of Vegemite. Vegemite's jingle explained how commonly Vegemite was used as a meal spread and the health benefits it could provide to children. Here's just one excerpt. "We all enjoy our Vegemite for breakfast, lunch, and tea. Our mummies say we're growing stronger every single week. … We all adore our Vegemite. It puts a rose in every cheek." As the children finish singing the jingle, a girl sings, "It puts a rose in every cheek." The camera cuts from a close up of her in costume to a close up of her at the dining table eating a meal covered with Vegemite. Then, a narrator explains that Vegemite is a great source of vitamin B12, adding, "Be sure you put Vegemite next to the pepper and salt whenever you set the table!" Today, Australian marketers still look back at this commercial for how iconic it was. While middle-aged Australians might know parts of the song by heart, others have adopted the term, "Happy little Vegemites" as an ironic way to describe a group of people who are satisfied with something. Although Vegemite's ad was made nearly 70 years ago, it's still timeless and effective. First, it pulls a viewer into the action by showing them a fun circus-like song and dance. Then, it educates viewers on the health and taste benefits of the product. Finally, it ends with a clip of a happy girl enjoying Vegemite with her meal, which might have been relatable to the many Australians who had already eaten or heard of Vegemite by this point. Creating Memorable ContentWhether you're a marketer in Australia or any other country, you can learn a thing or two from all of the iconic Australian ads above. Even if you don't have an agency or a huge video budget to produce content, here are a few tips you can scalably follow:
Want to see more effective examples of Australian advertising campaigns and marketing tactics? Check out this post which highlights some of Australia's recent award-winning campaigns. To learn more about video marketing, you can also download the free resource below. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/australian-commercials With over 1 billion active users, Instagram is undoubtedly one of the most far-reaching social media networks you can use for marketing purposes. Instagram has proven a viable advertising option for businesses today, and shows no signs of slowing down -- in fact Instagram ad revenues will exceeded $20 billion in ad revenue in 2019, an exponential increase from 1.86 billion in just three years. If you're not already using Instagram for your business, you're missing out on a ton of opportunity to grow brand awareness and reach a wide audience. Fortunately, adopting an Instagram strategy can be relatively easy with enough time and effort. However, if you've never used the app, you might be daunted by the first question likely to cross your mind -- How can I post my first image? If you're ready to post an image to Instagram, we've got you covered. Here, we've cultivated a quick-and-easy guide to posting on Instagram, to ensure you can begin attracting the attention of your audience with Instagram marketing. How to Post to InstagramPosting to Instagram consistently can help businesses find resonance with their audience and grow better, but doing it right is just as important. Here's how to post to your Instagram account step-by-step.1. Tap the + icon at the bottom of your screen.See that plus sign [+] in the image above? That's your starting point. See that post from our culture account? That's your end point. Click that plus sign and you'll be ready for the next step, below. 2. Choose a photo or video from your library -- or shoot one in the app.Instagram will show you the photos already saved to your phone. Choose one of those to post. Alternatively, you can click "Photo" or "Video" in the bottom to take a photo or video within the Instagram app itself, if you don't already have an image you want to use. Once you choose an image, click "Next" in the top right. 3. Crop the image.You aren't limited to just a square image on Instagram. You can actually share horizontal or vertical images as well. To get more of your image seen, pinch the screen of the photo you've selected on the Library screen. However, while Instagram does allow vertical and horizontal options, the images still need to fit into some specific dimensions. So, you might still need to crop a tiny bit of your photo to get it to fit. 4. Try a carousel post.Do you have multiple photos and want to highlight them all? Instagram allows you to do this with its carousel feature. As you go to tap a photo or video, first tap the icon just above your photos to the right that looks like stacked squares. Once you tap this, you'll see a number on the corner of every image or video you tap. This number notes where the content will show up in the carousel. 5. Pick a filter.Instagram offers 24 filters -- scroll to the right to peruse your options, and click on one to preview how it will look on your photo. (Take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Instagram Filters to learn more). 6. Edit your photo.You can also click "Edit" at the bottom right to adjust contrast, brightness, etc. When you're ready, click "Next" in the top right. 7. Type your caption.Get creative and write a nice, interesting caption to go with your photo. Since text can help optimize your post in Instagram's search, writing something can only benefit you. 8. Use hashtags for post optimization.With Instagram's search feature, users can search by hashtags. So, you should make sure to write relevant hashtags in your caption. If someone does a search of a hashtag you placed in your caption, they might find your post as well as others that included the same one. 9. Tag friends.Want your friend or their followers to see a photo that you posted of the two of you? Tag them! On the post page, you can click "Tag People" to tag other Instagram accounts in your post. Alternatively, you can include their handle (or their username beginning with an @ symbol) in your caption. 10. Add your location.If you're on a fun vacation or at a neat event and you don't feel like including that information in your caption, you can mark where you are in another way. On the post page, tap "Add Location" to put a location on your image (which makes it easier for people to find your post). When you post an image or video with a location, it will show up between your name and the block of content on the feed. 11. Play with emojis.Emojis are fun and can make your caption more eye catching. If you know of a few relevant emojis that could fit with your post, stick them in the caption area. For example, if you're posting a vacation photo, you could include a beach umbrella or a plane to show you flew somewhere. Be sure not to go overboard and post emojis just for the sake of posting them. If you post a bowling emoji along with a photo of a beach, that obviously won't make sense to people. Similarly, if you post 20 emojis that loosely relate to a post, you might just annoy your followers or come off as desperate. 12. Share the post on other social media platformsFinally, if you want to share your content on your other, connected social media sites (like Facebook or Twitter), simply slide the bar from the left to the right. When you're ready to post, click "Share" in the top right. Instagram Saved DraftsIf you're not ready to post right away, you can also save it to your Instagram Saved Drafts. Simply go back to the filtering and editing step, tap the back arrow in the top left, and select "Save Draft." 13. Edit the post.Typos happen to everyone! If you just posted something and notice a glaring spelling error, don't panic. Simply tap the three dots that appear on the right across from your name, then tap "Edit." Now that you know how to post to Instagram, you can begin creating content for the platform and connecting with your audience. If you're a business or brand, you'll want a solid strategy for earning engagement and awareness. Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-post-on-instagram Collecting high-quality leads is a challenging task that marketers face. Even once you've created a fantastic, high-converting landing page, you're not done. The good news is that there are a number of plugins available that you can add to your WordPress website to help with lead generation. Before we dive into 18 of the best plugins available, let's cover the characteristics of a powerful and useful lead generation WordPress plugin. Learn how to build a WordPress website using Elementor with this free course. What to Look For in a Lead Generation Plugin for Your WordPress WebsiteHere are some tips to help you pick the best lead generation plugin(s) for your website: 1. There are positioning options.Your lead capture form's positioning and location on your website play a role in conversion rate. Make sure your chosen tool offers the positioning options you want. Ask yourself: "Do I want to use a popup? A two-step opt-in? An in-content form?" 2. You can add integrations.Many lead generation plugins exist to help you capture leads and get those leads into your CRM or list management tool. Whether it's your CRM, Sales Hub, or management tool your team uses, make sure your plugin can integrate. 3. There are customizable fields.Effective lead capture forms are all about balancing the number of fields on a form and the form's conversion rates. Usually, a shorter form means a higher conversion rate. But at the same time, it can also mean less qualified leads. For each tool, you want the flexibility to collect as much info as you need to qualify a lead. Some tools will only let you collect a name and email, while others let you add and customize as many fields as you want — so keep an eye out for this option while browsing plugins. There are a number of lead generation plugins for WordPress available — here are 18 of our favorites. 1. HubSpot WordPress PluginWith HubSpot's WordPress plugin, you get lead generation support that helps you capture leads via multiple avenues on your website. Here are some examples:
No matter which avenue your leads come in from, they're all stored in your free HubSpot CRM which makes tagging and segmention simple. The plugin can help with tasks outside of lead generation as well including email marketing, CRM and contact management, marketing automation, and reporting and analytics. You have the ability to integrate HubSpot with over 500 other tools to further enhance capabilities and functionality. Lastly, HubSpot's WordPress plugin is simple to install and applies to all plans and products. Price: Free 2. Gravity FormsGravity Forms is a general WordPress form plugin that you can use to create all kinds of lead capture forms. The plugin gives you a drag-and-drop form builder as well as 30+ custom field types to collect the information you want from leads. There are also some neat extensions to enhance your lead collection. For example, the Partial Entries add-on lets you collect information even if someone doesn't fill out the entire form. By default, Gravity Forms stores all form submissions in your WordPress dashboard — you can also integrate your forms with a variety of email marketing services, CRMs, and help desks. And if that's not enough, the Zapier and Webhooks integrations can help you connect to pretty much anywhere else, too. Additionally, if you're already using HubSpot's WordPress plugin, HubSpot will automatically grab Gravity Forms submissions and put them into your CRM for easy management. Price: Starts at $59 3. HustleHustle is a WordPress marketing plugin featuring customizable popups, slide-ins, embeds, and social sharing bars. All include a wide array of display options, including:
Embeds are your in-content ads or opt-ins — they can be displayed before or after your post content, or both. You can also use shortcodes or widgets to display the embeds in more specific locations. What makes Hustle stand out is the fact that every feature and integration is included in the free version. You get all 18+ integrations, including Zapier. If you're using our HubSpot WordPress plugin, Hustle will automatically grab your submissions and send them into your CRM. Alternatively, you can enable Hustle's native HubSpot integration. The only limitation of the free version is the amount of popups, slide-ins, embeds, and social share bars you can create in each installation. It’s limited to 3 of each, but that should be plenty for the average user. Price: Free to start, premium version costs $49 per month 4. BloomBloom is a popular email opt-in plugin from Elegant Themes. It helps you capture email leads using a variety of form types, including:
You get some unique options for triggering your lead capture forms like displaying a form after a person leaves a comment on your site. The only downside is that you're limited in how much control you have over your forms. For example, you can only customize the existing templates — you can't make your own. And you're limited in the amount of information you can collect from visitors. If you're okay with those limitations, this tool could be a good one for your team. Plus, you get a nice dashboard where you can view analytics and track lead growth as well as the option to run A/B tests. Price: $89 5. WPFormsWPForms is a popular WordPress form plugin that you can use to create … well, pretty much any type of form. Using its drag-and-drop builder and a variety of form fields, you can create customized lead capture forms to collect as much or as little information as you want from your leads. Once you have your form, you have a few different ways to work with leads that you collect. WPForms stores all your leads in its own entry manager, which you can access from your WordPress dashboard. Alternatively, you can sync your forms up with:
Additionally, if you're using HubSpot, you can also automatically pull your WPForms submissions into your HubSpot CRM for tagging and segmentation. Price: Starts free, paid plans range from $39.50 to $199.50 6. Thrive LeadsThrive Leads is a popular WordPress lead generation plugin that helps collect email addresses with several different opt-in types, including:
For all the various form types, you can use the included templates and drag-and-drop builder to customize things to make them your own. One area where Thrive Leads goes further than a lot of other solutions is its SmartLinks feature, which lets you display different forms to people depending on where they're coming from. With this feature, you can ensure you're sending different forms to your email list than what appears on your homepage. Price: $67 for one license, $97 for five licenses 7. Elementor ProElementor Pro is a popular WordPress page builder plugin that can help you build both lead capture pages and lead capture forms. Elementor gives you a visual, drag-and-drop builder interface that you can use to create posts or pages on your site — including standalone landing pages. With Elementor Pro, you also implement a Popup Builder that lets you use the same interface to design and display popups anywhere on your site. To actually capture leads, you can use Elementor Pro's Form widget, which lets you build custom forms with as many fields as needed. You can then connect those forms to Zapier to send data to your favorite CRM for tagging and segmentation. Price: $49 8. OptinMonsterOptinMonster helps you create a variety of different lead capture forms using 75+ pre-built templates and drag-and-drop form builder. With it, you can create:
One of the areas where OptinMonster really excels is with its targeting and triggering rules. Using detailed rulesets and AND/OR conditions, you can control exactly where and when your lead capture forms appear. Another helpful feature is its OnSite Retargeting feature, which lets you display different offers to visitors who have already submitted a lead capture form. OptinMonster isn't technically a WordPress plugin (it's a SaaS), but it's easy to integrate the OptinMonster service into your WordPress site via its dedicated plugin at WordPress.org. Price: Starts at $108 per year 9. BoxZillaBoxZilla, formerly known as Scroll Triggered Popups, is a useful lead capture plugin that helps you create simple forms that display as either popups or slide-ins on your site. As the previous name of the plugin suggests, one way you can trigger these forms is as a user scrolls down your page. However, BoxZilla supports other triggers, too, like time on site or exit intent. Price: Starts free, premium version starts at $48 10. Holler BoxHoller Box is a simple lead capture plugin that targets itself towards WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads stores, but can really be used for all kinds of WordPress sites. Holler Box lets you create seven different types of lead capture forms, including popups and slide-ins. However, the most unique option here is Holler Box's faux live chat widget. This widget looks like a live chat box, but is really just a vehicle to capture leads. Your visitor enters their message and email address. Then, you can either receive an email notification email yourself, or connect that information to popular email marketing services or your own custom HTML form. Price: Starts free, premium version starts at $99 11. CallPageCallPage is a simple lead capture plugin that helps you collect telephone numbers from potential leads. To collect phone numbers, it displays a widget that lets visitors enter their phone numbers to receive a call back either right away, or at some point in the future. If you want, you can also collect additional information about your leads, like names or email addresses. By integrating with Google Analytics, you can also use CallPage to view call histories and analyze the call performance for each traffic source at your site. Price: Starts free, paid plans start at $159 per month 12. Optin FormsOptin Forms is a free lead capture plugin that helps you create simple email opt-in forms on your site and connect those forms to:
You can choose from five different templates and customize all the text and colors to make them match your site and branding. From there, you can either automatically add your lead capture form to all your blog posts, or use a shortcode to choose exactly where and when to include your forms. Price: Free 13. Ninja FormsNinja Forms is another WordPress form plugin that follows in the vein of WPForms or Gravity Forms by letting you use drag-and-drop to build your own custom forms and then hook that data up to various email marketing services, CRMs, or even Zapier or Webhooks. You can also automatically pull in form submissions to your HubSpot CRM as well. Among other things, you can use Ninja Forms for:
14. OnePress Opt-In PandaOnePress Opt-In Panda helps you capture leads by locking parts of your content behind a lead capture form. In order to "unlock" the content, your visitors will need to enter their email addresses. Or, with the premium version of the plugin, you can also add custom fields to collect additional information about your leads. The plugin works by wrapping your restricted content in a short code, which means that you can restrict as much (or as little) of your content as you want. With the paid version of the plugin, you also get other helpful features like a lead management dashboard and analytics. Price: Starts free, premium version costs $26 15. Lead ChampionLead Champion detects the leads who leave your website whether or not they complete and submit one of your contact forms. The plugin assigns site visitors a score (that you establish) based on their behavior while on your website — this allows you to evaluate prospects, the effectiveness of your campaigns, and more. The plugin helps you easily create forms that complement your branding and website with the configuration panel. It also integrates with other tools — such as Mailchimp, Zapier, and CRMs — to enhance its capabilities. Price: Multiple plans available; must contact for price and must have a Lead Champion Booster License 16. Popups, Welcome Bar, Optins and Lead Generation PluginThis plugin allows you to design and share branded, eye-catching optins, forms, and calls-to-action on your website to attract your leads. There's never a need to hire a developer with the plugin, as it's simple to set up and use. You can quickly create unique popups with different themes and positions on your site to target leads that way, too.
Price: Free, or upgrade to one of two paid plans for more features 17. ForminatorWith Forminator, you can use the drag-and-drop builder to add and customize the layout of forms on your WordPress website. The plugin allows you to easily collect any information you want to ask your leads for, as well as make your forms interactive to boost engagement and generate more conversions. With Forminator, you can customize forms with as many fields as you want. You can also create interactive polls, quizzes (that are shareable on social), make calculations and take orders, accept payment, and more. The plugin integrates with a number of tools and over 1,000 apps — Forminator is compatible with integrations across multiple categories including email, CRM (including HubSpot), storage, and project managers. Price: Free 18. Optinly
Optinly is a WordPress lead generation tool that helps you grow your email list with ease. What makes this plugin stand out is its goal-based approach to campaign creation. You choose your marketing goal, a relevant popup template, and then set your campaign live. With the tool, you can create quite a variety of popups such as:
The tool comes with several methods to trigger a popup such as exit intent, time-delay, page-based, and device-based. You can also display popups to the same visitor after a specific number of days using the re-targeting options menu. With Optinly, you can make nearly any customization with a user-friendly WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. And with animation options such as fade-in, zoom, and flip-in, you can make your popups catch a visitor’s attention quickly. You can easily integrate Optinly with email marketing platforms like HubSpot, MailChimp, Constant Contact Contact, and AWeber. Price: Free to start, growth plan costs $25 per month. Build Your Lead Generation Plugin ToolboxWhen it comes to the best WordPress lead generation plugins, you have a ton of options available — only you know which ones will best fit into your lead generation efforts. The important thing to remember here is that you don't have to pick just one — you can combine multiple plugins into one cohesive lead generation strategy. Learn how to build a WordPress website using Elementor with this free course. Editor's note: This post was originally published in June 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/wordpress-lead-generation In 1898, Elias St. Elmo Lewis, an eventual inductee of the Advertising Hall of Fame, anonymously wrote a column about three advertising principles he found useful throughout his career in a printing magazine called The Inland Printer, one of the most influential American magazines of the 19th century. In his column, he states that a successful advertisement should always follow a specific formula.
In other words, copy is only good if it attracts attention, generates interest, and creates conviction, in that order. Over a century later, Lewis’ principles still ring true. They’re expressed as an acronym, AIDA, and widely used in the advertising industry. In the digital age, brands have even based their entire marketing strategy on the AIDA model. Before we cover how you can apply the AIDA model to your own content marketing strategy, let’s go over what it is and why it works. The AIDA ModelThe AIDA model describes the four stages a consumer goes through before making a purchasing decision. The stages are Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA). During these four stages, your content will ideally attract attention to your brand, generate interest in your product or service, stimulate a desire for it, and spur action to try or buy it. Brands use the AIDA model to determine the way they should craft and distribute marketing messages to their target audience at each stage of the buyer’s journey. The AIDA model is considered a hierarchy of effects model, which means consumers must move through each stage of the model to complete the desired action. Just like a typical marketing funnel, each stage has fewer consumers than the previous one. How to Apply the AIDA Model to Your MarketingBy creating campaigns and structuring your website with the AIDA model in mind, you can get more control over your prospects' paths to a purchasing decision. In theory, as they progress through each stage of the model, consumers who learn about your brand will develop certain feelings or emotions about your product or service, which is what ultimately compels them to act. Here's what you can do to implement AIDA: Attract AttentionIf your content can grab their attention and deeply engage them, your target audience will start to become curious about what your company actually does. In this stage, the consumer is asking, "What is it?" In order to get to this stage, you must first get your content in front of them. This comes with increased brand awareness and effective messaging. ExampleEffective content marketing is one method of attracting visitors to your website. If you create content that solves their problems and focuses on their passions, you'll be able to draw them in and provide a solution. When executed effectively, your target audience should be able to discover your content through Google, social media, and other channels. Generate InterestOnce your target audience is interested in your product or service, they’ll want to learn more about your brand, the benefits of your solution, and your potential fit with them. In this stage, the goal is to get them to think, "I like it." In order to get to this stage, your content must be persuasive and engaging. While the first stage of AIDA is capturing their attention, this stage is about holding it. You can do this with a hook. ExampleLet's say your content marketing was effective in drawing them to the website to learn about a pain, problem, or need they have. You might then "hook" them with engaging storytelling that demonstrates the why behind your solution. Stories resonate with humans, and it's a simple way to convey information in a way that stimulates empathy and curiosity. To generate enough excitement in your prospects to compel them to act, you need to make sure their affinity for your brand hits a certain threshold. The more aligned you are with their needs and values, the more likely you are to achieve success. Stimulate DesirePeople do business with those they know, like, and trust. The first two stages of the AIDA model establish the know and the like. The goal of this stage is to change "I like it" to "I want it." And that's done by cementing in the final piece of the puzzle: Trust. To do this, keep serving them content. Make sure they subscribe to your blog, follow you on social media, and download your offers. The more prospects interact with your brand, the more they’ll trust you, boosting the chances they’ll eventually buy your product or service. ExampleThe prospects you’re most likely to close are the consumers who envision a future with you -- they already enjoy consuming your content and think your product or service will be even better. For this reason, you must institute a gap between where they are and where they could be with your solution. At the same time, you must establish social proof with case studies and testimonials. "Before and After" style content is a great example of how to stimulate desire while gaining trust. Spur Into ActionAfter you generate enough desire for your product or service, give your prospects the chance to act on it. After all, what’s the point of creating content and building deep relationships with prospects if there isn’t a clear next step? The goal is to get them to decide, "I'm getting it." No matter what the "next step" is, you should compel them to respond with low-friction but high-incentive calls to action. ExampleWhether they're far away or close to a purchasing decision, the next step that you present should be "high-value." In other words, it must help them in some way. If they understand what the outcome of your offer is and find it valuable to them, they'll be more likely to act (since they aren't simply committing to a sales call or sales content). Consider exactly how you can provide that value while motivating them to engage with you. The CTA for this "next step" or offer should be prominent, clear, and uncomplicated. Perhaps it's a button or banner that spells out what action they must take and what they get if they do. By eliminating friction in the process, you increase your likelihood of success. The AIDA model is a sturdy framework for guiding your audience through the buyer’s journey and spurring them to act. And if you apply it to your content marketing, you’ll be leveraging a proven formula that can consistently engage, persuade, and convert an audience into customers. However, it starts with knowing your customer journey. Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/aida-model I once heard a new business owner define their target market as … wait for it … “everyone”. *cringe* While it’s nice to believe that everyone would be interested in purchasing your product or service, it’s not wise to define your target market as such. Not only does this definition (or lack thereof) create way more work for you; it also does a disservice to your actual target market — by over-widening your scope, you fail to inform and educate your audience about how your product or service can improve their lives. This is where segmentation, targeting, and positioning come into play. We developed this guide to help you understand how and why you should invest time into better understanding your audience and targeting your marketing. Let’s dive in. At its core, STP helps you to better target your marketing messages and better serve your customer base. The model can also reveal niche markets, uncover new customer or market opportunities, and, ultimately, make your marketing efforts more efficient and cost-effective. STP allows you to take a large, anonymous audience and define how your different products (or different components of the same product) relate to specific consumer segments within that larger audience — thus understanding how to position your product(s) and messaging to grab the attention of each segment. Let’s unpack each part of the segmentation-targeting-positioning model. 1. SegmentationSegmentation refers to the process of dividing your audience into smaller groups based on certain characteristics. This process allows you to group your individual audience members into similar groups so you can better communicate your products, features, and benefits that may be most relevant to them. You can segment your audience based on one or more of these criteria:
Segmentation may sound a little familiar to another process we often discuss here on the HubSpot blog — creating buyer personas. The two are very similar as they help you drill down the most important factors in your target audience. But where buyer personas help you create a handful customer profiles that represent your broader audience, segmentation allows you to split your audience into countless segments, each of which you can uniquely target. For example, let’s say Paws & Tails is a Chicago pet-sitting company that offers pet-sitting, dog walking, and boarding services. Given the vast number of pet owners in the city, they need to segment their audience into smaller groups to better understand how to position their services. Based on their research and current customer base, they split their audience into three main segments:
2. TargetingWith your audience segments in hand, it’s time to move on to the targeting phase. First, however, you must decide which segments are worth targeting with your marketing. To decipher this, ask yourself some questions about each segment:
Choosing what segments to target is a strategic decision. Thankfully, certain strategic planning models like the PESTLE analysis can help you better understand the viability of each segment. It takes a lot of work to successfully target a segment of your audience. Whether you’ve identified two segments or ten, don’t feel the need to target more than one segment at once. Plus — targeting one at a time will help you better position your marketing for each specific segment much better. Following our example from before, Paws & Tails conducts research to better understand its Chicago audience. Paws & Tails finds that Segment A makes up 60% of its market size, Segment B makes up 30%, and Segment C makes up 10%. Moreover, Segment A has a higher average income and is willing to pay more for pet-sitting and walking services. Because of this, they choose to focus on Segment A. 3. PositioningAt this point, you should understand the demographics, psychographics, motivations, and pain points of the segment(s) you’ve chosen to target, which can provide a place to start when it comes to positioning your product or service. First, take a step back and examine your product or service through the perspective of your chosen segment. If you were in their shoes, why would you choose your product over a competitor’s? What features or benefits are most relevant to you, based on the motivations and pain points you’ve identified? This information is important to defining your brand positioning and understanding how it stacks up next to your competitors. One way to understand where you, well, stand is by building a positioning map, which is “the visual plotting of specific brands against axes, where each axis represents an attribute that is known to drive brand selection.” The segment you choose to target should dictate what two attributes you plot on your positioning map. For example, let’s say Paws & Tails decides Segment A selects pet-sitting brands based on two attributes: service area and reliability. Here’s what a brand positioning map (with fictitious brands) may look like. By understanding 1) what the target segment deems most important for brand selection and 2) where its competitors succeed (and fall short), Paws & Tails is able to identify an open market opportunity and position its marketing to best fit the needs and goals of its audience. What is segmentation, targeting, and positioning in marketing?The STP model is a priceless addition to any marketing strategy, regardless of your industry, product, or audience. It prioritizes efficient and effective marketing and ensures you’re delivering only the most relevant, targeted messaging across the board. It also plays an important role in developing other strategies, such as your buyer personas, customer lifecycle stages, and core brand proposition. By leading with a consumer-centric approach like STP, you can be sure that every inch of your marketing is relevant to your audience — thus, increasing the likelihood that they convert, purchase, and become lifelong customers. Examples of Great Market Segmentation and PositioningBrands are segmenting, targeting, and positioning their audiences and marketing constantly, oftentimes without us (consumers) even noticing. Ever seen a brand or product and thought “Huh, that’s perfect for me” or “Wow, right place at the right time”? Yeah … you’ve been subject to the STP model. Let’s review a few examples of great marketing segmentation and positioning. 1. Panera BreadWith countless fast casual restaurants on the map, it’s hard to decide where to eat when you’re in the mood for a quick meal, But, for some reason, Panera Bread always comes to mind (at least for me). Panera has successfully cornered the “health-conscious” and “climate-conscious” segment of the fast casual dining industry. Is Panera’s food so different from other fast casual options? Not entirely. But by branding themselves with the perspective that “we believe that good food, food you can feel good about, can bring out the best in all of us”, Panera remains top-of-mind as a place to get high-quality food, fast. 2. AllBirdsLike dining opinions, there are so many shoe brands on the market. But AllBirds didn’t let that stop it from carving out a new niche in a busy space full of comfortable, active shoe options. How did AllBirds position itself to set itself apart from the competition? By elevating it’s eco-consciousness and placing that front and center in its marketing. According to the AllBirds website, the brand “crafts with planet-friendly natural materials, like merino wool and eucalyptus trees, because they're our best chance for a sustainable future.” At first glance, AllBirds shoes don’t look too terribly different from other running or walking shoes. However, its audience segment that cares about sustainability and earth-conscious products knows the difference. 3. BillieNo longer can businesses simply segment their audiences by “men” and women” — the individuals within each broad gender group vary too much, and razor brand Billie took note of this. In an effort to extinguish the “pink tax,” Billie markets cost-friendly razors and associated products. Moreover, they work to normalize body hair and other forgotten or shamed parts of women’s bodies. Through this positioning, Billie is able to set their products apart from competitors and create a strong, positive community around their brand. 4. HingeThe world of online dating is a busy, strange place. From Tinder to FarmersOnly.com, there seems to be a place for everyone to meet, well, anyone. Hinge came on the scene only a handful of years ago, yet it has skyrocketed to the top of the list of the most popular and reliable dating app. Time and time again, I’ve heard that Hinge is a favorite because it works — meaning it helps people meet people and make real relationships. You wouldn’t think a dating app would position themselves to eventually be unnecessary, but that’s exactly what Hinge has done. In fact, it’s mission statement is “we built an app that’s designed to be deleted.” By putting the needs and desires of its audience front and center, Hinge has created a more trustworthy, in-demand online dating experience and set itself apart from its competitors. The segmentation-targeting-positioning model is designed to help you better target your marketing messages and better serve your customer base. It’s a win-win for you and your customers! [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/segmentation-targeting-positioning When I sit down to write an article, I have a pretty standard routine. I outline the story in our Content Optimization System (COS), copy and paste it into a Google doc, find a good photo to accompany it, do research, write, proofread, and carry it back over to our COS. It’s a weird series of steps that doesn’t necessarily work for everyone, but it does for me. They’re my very own personal blogging habits. Those habits aren’t just limited to my writing process. I have morning, evening, and weekend routines, as if my entire life has become a series of established patterns. Knowing what those habits are, I learned during step four of the above, is a veritable goldmine for marketers. I figured that out from a 2012 New York Times article called, “How Companies Learn Your Secrets.” Penned by Charles Duhigg, it was written largely as a follow-up to what became a public incident: An angry father marched into a Minnesota Target store, demanded to know why his teenage daughter received coupons for baby products, only to later find out that she was, in fact, pregnant. The retailer, it turned out, was able to predict her pregnancy and subsequently personalize the promotions she received, thanks in large part to a ton of (completely legal) data collection and analysis. Creepy — or great marketing? Today, we're still asking ourselves that question. But, ultimately, it seems that there can be a good balance between knowing your customer way too well and solid marketing. In fact, in 2018, Harvard Business Review revealed that although people want to keep their information secure online, they still value personalized and meaningful marketing experience. But how does personalized marketing work, and how have other brands put it into practice without coming off as creepy? Here are eight great examples of brands that nailed it in a way that came off as fun rather than intrusive. 9 Personalized Marketing Examples1. ShutterflyShutterfly is a website and app that allows you to create canvases, photobooks, calendars, and even items with your own photos laminated on to them. While Shutterfly has gotten creative with personalized emails and subject lines, one unique thing it did recently was personalize item offerings on its app. If you download the Shutterfly smartphone app, create an account, and give Shutterfly permission to access your photos, it will automatically identify photos with faces in them and place them on items that you can purchase from the app — like these mugs, for example. The TakeawayIf you sell products that are personalized to begin with, it can be helpful to show your customer what they could look like before they buy them as well as photos or words related to their life that would look great on the product. However, when you do this, be very careful that you get explicit permission to go through someone's information to pull this data. When it came to Shutterfly, Pamela had already given the app permission to access her photos and connected the account to her Facebook account where she approved a number of other related permissions. If you don't get proper permissions and pull appropriate personalization data, you could come off as untrustworthy or downright creepy. 2. Snapchat's BitmojiIn 2016. Snapchat launched an app called Bitmoji which allows users to design cartoonish avatars of themselves that can be featured as their Snapchat profile picture and or on the Snap Map, if permitted. Since then, Snapchat has also launched an autogenerated daily Story in its Discover feed, called "Bitmoji Stories." When you click into a Bitmoji Story, you can see a series of comic-book-like images that tell a story about your own Bitmoji avatar. If you've recently spoken to a friend with a Bitmoji attached to the app, you can also see your friends pop up in your daily Story. Below is an example of a Bitmoji Story where Pamela Bump's Bitmoji shows her cousin's Bitmoji a new app: The TakeawayBecause Bitmoji Stories appear in Discover, with all the other branded content and advertisements on Snapchat, the app company has found a great way to bring people to this particular area of the app — even if they aren't interested in seeing branded content. While audiences are on this Discover page, they might find a brand or content that catches their attention and further interact with feed. This is a great example of how an app creatively used personalization to bring traffic from one area of its app to another. 3. TargetTo continue the above tale, we thought it might be helpful to share more information on how, exactly, the retailer pulled off the aforementioned personal prediction. As Duhigg explains in his article — which goes into much greater detail than I will here — every Target customer is assigned a Guest ID number after the very first interaction with the brand. That ID is used to store the customer’s demographic information, ranging from ethnicity to job history, and to track buying behavior. And by doing the latter, specifically with those who had baby registries with the store, Target’s marketing analysts were able to form a “pregnancy prediction” score, which allowed them to determine which purchasing patterns indicated a customer was in the early expectant stages. It was a game-changer. “Once consumers’ shopping habits are ingrained,” Duhigg writes, “it’s incredibly difficult to change them.” That is, until, a major life event takes place, like finding out that a baby is one the way. That’s when routines are forced to change. Suddenly, there’s a deadline, and people start to buy products that they never previously considered, like “cocoa-butter lotion” and “a purse large enough to double as a diaper bag,” the article says. Those are the behaviors that trigger Target’s pregnancy prediction score, prompting the customer to receive special deals on baby-related items. The TakeawayWhile this level of personalized marketing is admittedly fascinating, it could backfire. Duhigg summarized it well in his article:
That’s not to say that marketers should completely do away with personalization, as it’s effective when done correctly — personalized emails, for example, have a 6.2% higher open rate than those that aren’t. But in an era with growing concern over privacy and security, tread lightly. Let your customers know that you understand them, without being intrusive. Curious to learn how to do that with your HubSpot Marketing and Sales software? Read more about how personalization tokens work here. 4. VidyardLast week, my colleague, HubSpot Academy Sales Professor Kyle Jepsen, forwarded me an email with the comment, “Taking personalization to a whole new level.” The video below followed: SourceHe wasn’t kidding. This particular brand could have just superimposed each recipient’s name onto the whiteboard in this video and kept the same script for each one. But it didn’t stop there — Cole, the gentleman speaking in the video, not only addressed Kyle by his first name, but also referred to his specific colleagues and the conversations he had with them. The TakeawayConsidering that the average online reader loses interest after about 15 seconds, personalizing your mixed media content is an interesting and often effective approach. “I mean, clearly he made the video just for me,” Jepson said. “It’s an interesting case study.” And while this sort of personalization is memorable, it’s also extremely time-consuming. So if you set out to create it, be absolutely sure you’re targeting the right people. There’s nothing worse than taking the time to produce something highly customized, only to find out you’ve sent it to someone who doesn’t have the decision-making power you need. 5. Coca ColaSourceBack in 2011, Coca Cola launched its famous "Share a Coke" campaign in Australia, bringing it to the U.S. in 2014. It was an effort to reach millennials, in which each bottle contained one of the most popular first names assigned to that generation. Eventually, bottles contained semi-personal labels beyond first names, like “better half.” Today, according to Ad Age, over 800 first names are used. According to that same source, Coke will soon be adding surnames to bottles, like Garcia and Thompson. “Last names give us an opportunity to invite more people into the campaign," Evan Holod, Coca-Cola’s brand director told Ad Age. "It's just a great way to up the reach." In addition to that effort, according CNBC, Coca-Cola Great Britain will soon be including the names of famous vacation destinations on bottles, like Hawaii and Miami. The goal of that initiative is “to remind people of the refreshment and great taste that only an ice-cold Coke can bring on a hot summer day,” read the official statement. Plus, those bottles will come with the chance to win a trip to those locales. The TakeawayPutting first names on Coke bottles was a successful move. In the U.S., it resulted in increased sales volume for the first time in roughly four years. Plus, it provides a cheap thrill — I know that I internally squeal with excitement when I actually find a bottle that says “Amanda.” The last name move, however, could be a bit different. While there is the option to customize your own bottle labels at ShareaCoke.com — which allows you to write whatever you want, like a customized event hashtag or something like “congratulations” — it could be deemed as exclusionary to those with unique or hyphenated last names. For example, while my feelings aren’t hurt knowing that I won’t find a bottle labeled with “Zantal-Wiener,” I’m not about to pay $5 for a customized one, either. So when you set out to personalize a product, make sure it’s appropriately customized to reach the right segment of your audience, but isn’t restrictive, either. 6. AmazonAmazon’s personalization efforts aren’t exactly new. Since at least 2013, its product curation and recommendation algorithm has made for headlines and case studies. And yet, every time I visit my Amazon homepage, I can’t help but scroll down and get a kick out of its recommendations for me. Have a look: SourceThose who know me are aware of my borderline obsession with hip hop, which is also the motivation for a lot of my online shopping behavior. Clearly, Amazon has taken notice. And as I continued scrolling down, the fitting personalization went on. There was a header reading “For a night in” with recommendations on what to stream on Amazon Prime — an activity that comprised the majority of my weekend. Its recommendations for dog and kitchen products were on point, as well. After all, those are the categories where I make the most purchases. It’s not just me. When I asked my colleagues what their Amazon homepages looked like, they were equally pleased. Sophia Bernazzani, a fellow Marketing Blog staff writer (and self-proclaimed “cat mother of three”), had a plethora of personalized cat food recommendations, while Managing Editor Emma Brudner’s suggested Prime streaming titles came with the header, “Bingeable TV." “Amazon,” Brudner remarked, “You know me so well.” The TakeawayHere’s a personalization example where we don’t have a ton of complaints. As Brudner said, Amazon seems to know us pretty well, though I do question why, as per the image above, its algorithm thought I might like to buy a pair of leg warmers. The nice thing about personalization of this nature, when it’s executed correctly, is that it often can lead to unplanned purchasing decisions. For example, the purpose of my most recent visit to Amazon was to check out its personalization features for this article. But then, I discovered that Rapper’s Delight: The Hip Hop Cookbook was in my recommended books. Did I buy something I don’t need? Sure. But I also was left delighted by the fact that it was brought to my attention with very little effort. If you’re in the business of personalizing curated items or recommendations for your customers, remember: The best part about it, for the user, is the resulting discovery of new things that we like — whether it’s a book, a tool, or an article. 7. SpotifyIn 2015, Adam Pasick penned a story for Quartz explaining the “magic” behind Spotify’s “Discover Weekly”: A curated playlist of tracks that it thinks a given user will like. It’s carried out, like many other personalization and recommendation platforms, largely with the help of an algorithm that determines a user’s “taste profile,” based on listening behavior and the most popular playlists among the entire Spotify audience. The technology behind it is from Echo Nest, a “music intelligence company” that was acquired, according to Pasick, by Spotify in 2014. Here’s a great diagram from the article that visually represents the process: SourceAs much as I use Spotify — which is close to daily — I’ve never actually bothered listening to my Discover Weekly playlist. So after a colleague brought it to my attention, I decided to take it for a spin. The results were hit-or-miss. There were a few new songs that I was thrilled to discover and plan to listen to again. But for the most part, my experience was similar to Pasick’s, who described many of the songs on his personalized playlist as “meh.” But those behind Discover Weekly acknowledge that personalization isn’t a perfect science. They also have suggestions for how to make it better, like adding the Discover Weekly songs you like to your library, or skipping the ones you don’t — “If users fast-forward within the first 30 seconds of a song,” Spotify Product Director Matthew Ogle and Engineering Manager Edward Newett told Pasick, “the Discover Weekly algorithm interprets that as a ‘thumbs-down’ for that particular song and artist.” The TakeawayMost personalization initiatives aren’t going to be perfect. Even with a great algorithm, they are, at best, very educated guesses as to what’s going to be applicable to your customers. For that reason, it might be best to take a conservative approach to your recommendations, especially in the earliest stages of any personalization efforts you make. This is an area where small-batch testing can be helpful. When you want to try out a personalization project or algorithm, identify your most active users, and invite them to pilot out the technology. Listen carefully to their feedback — good and bad — and see what you can do to make it better. 8. Iberia AirlinesDuring the 2016 holiday season, Iberia Airlines customers received emails posing the question: If you could visit any vacation destination, what would it be, and who would you go with? To answer, customers were redirected to a microsite where they would fill in responses, as well as the email address of the person they wanted to travel with. Not long after that, the friend would receive an email with a holiday greeting about the dream vacation — only, in order to view the card, that person had to click a link to view it in his or her browser. It was that last step, Skift writer Brian Sumers explained, where "Iberia ... put its advertising budget to work, using cookies [with the user's permission] so the traveler’s friend would see banners across the web, suggesting the perfect Christmas gift." That gift, of course, was the dream vacation. Let's say, for example, I sent one of these cards to a friend. She might subsequently see several ads while browsing that said things like, "It’s never too late to fulfill Amanda’s dream. Do it with a trip to Mykonos.” The TakeawayThe idea is certainly a cute one — and around here, we're suckers for a good holiday marketing campaign. But one of the most important items to highlight here is Iberia's use of cookies, and the fact that the brand wasn't sneaky about it. As per the video above, a clear request was made to the user to allow cookies, and that's essential. Even the best-customized marketing becomes less personal, and definitely less desirable if it's carried out without the user's agreement. 9. TwiddySourceHaving enough data is essential for marketing personalization — but knowing what to look at and how to use it is just as important. That's what made a tremendous difference for Twiddy, a vacation rental company based in the Outer Banks. "Unless we had a good way of looking at the data," Marketing Director Ross Twiddy told Inc., "how could we make good decisions?" One of the major pieces of information that Twiddy began to more closely examine was how rental volume and demand shifted from week-to-week. Noticing those trends allowed the company to start making "pricing recommendations" to homeowners, according to Inc., "on the basis of market conditions, seasonal trends, and the size and location of a home." The week after Independence Day was one that stood out to the team in particular, in that rentals showed a precipitous drop during that period. Because Twiddy observed that trend (among others), it allowed the owners of its managed properties to start experimenting with pricing for that particular week as early as January. Not only did it benefit the customer — setting more realistic prices for lower-demand periods actually increased the bookings made for them — but it was just one way that Twiddy was delighting its customers with helpful, actionable information. It paid off, too. Since the brand began to use this data to help homeowners with decisions like pricing, its portfolio increased over 10%. The TakeawayThere's a famous saying that goes, "Help me help you." Data, in general, can be a tremendous asset to brands. And it doesn't have to be about your customers' behavior — it can be about the habits of their customers, like the vacationers that rented from Twiddy's homeowner clients. As long as it's something that can be shared ethically — like objective buying or seasonal trends — share the data and insights with your customers that's going to help make them more successful. That's the type of thing that makes a brand remarkable, and can help benefit your business, too. Get PersonalOne of the fundamental purposes of any personalization effort is to let your customers know that you’re paying attention to them. But striking a balance between, “We think you might find this helpful” and “we’re watching you” isn’t a simple process, so be sure to do some careful research, planning, and testing before you jump into any large-scale customization initiatives. Remember that while you might be a marketer, you’re also a consumer. When it comes to experiments like these, put yourself into the shoes of the customer and ask, “Is this delightful? Or is it just creepy?” If it leans toward the latter, find out what’s giving it that vibe, and try something different. Editor's Note: This post was originally published in December 2013 and has was updated for comprehensiveness in November 2019. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-personalization-examples When Larry Drebes, CEO of Janrain, set out to study online consumer experiences earlier this summer, he knew that relevant content would be at the forefront of consumer minds. We've seen for years that emails which are personalized to the recipient do better than their generic counterparts. But perhaps what he could not have anticipated was just how much consumers have come to expect personalization at every stage in their buying process. In truth, nearly three-fourths of respondents in the national poll expressed frustration at content that does not recognize them and adapt to their interests. “These results [indicate] that consumers have reached the tipping point when it comes to being shown content that isn’t relevant to them,” Drebes explained. “Consumers have been pretty consistent and clear in their feedback, the way to avoid alienating them is to give them what they want -- personalized, relevant content using their data in a responsible and transparent way.” To put it plainly, consumers don't just like personalized marketing experiences. They expect them. Here are 24 stats to prove why you need to embrace personalized marketing in 2020. Benefits and Challenges of Personalized Marketing
Consumer Preferences of Personalized Marketing
Data Privacy Preferences
Anonymous vs. Permission-Based PersonalizationThere are varying opinions in marketing about the appropriate time in the customer lifecycle to use personalization. While some argue that personalization should only take place after the end-viewer has consciously provided information to the company, other companies use anonymous data, like the location attached to a viewer's IP address, in order to target viewers by location. In developing your personalization strategy, you'll need to decide what the right approach is for your company and customers.
Navigating Marketing PersonalizationWe have entered into an exciting time for marketers and buyers alike. The ability to create unique experiences for each prospective customer will undoubtedly lead to buying experiences that are more relevant, useful, and enjoyable. As we navigate this new space and develop strategies, it will be important to keep an open discussion going about what's working and what's not in the world of personalization. This data is helping to frame the early stages of that conversation. Hopefully, the coming year will result in more results and good case studies of companies using personalization to create a more "human" marketing experience. Editor's Note: This post was originally published in September of 2013, but was updated in May 11 for comprehensiveness and freshness. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/data-personalize-marketing-li |
Joseph Ashley
Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such as clam juice. Archives
February 2021
Categories |