The Ultimate Guide to Database Marketing No matter what your service or product is, you need to get in front of potential customers in order to make the sale. Many businesses put their faith in social media. While social media platforms are an amazing way to get in front of people, they have two major drawbacks. First, you may have tens of thousands of followers on your platform of choice. However, thanks to algorithms that few (if any) humans understand, you only reach a small percentage of those followers with any given post. Second, what happens if that platform ever goes away? Don’t think for a minute that you’ll receive a neat list of contacts. If a platform ever shuts down, your audience will evaporate in seconds. Fortunately, knowing this is half the battle. Now that you understand that you don’t “own” your contacts through social media, it’s time to look at how to safeguard your audience and take ownership of and responsibility for their contact information and data. This is called Database Marketing and you’re about to learn why it’s essential to your business as well as how to utilize it properly. What is database marketing? Before our digital landscape became as vast as it is, businesses would collect names and addresses and send out direct mail pieces like postcards, brochures, flyers, etc. to potential and existing customers. While traditional direct marketing still exists and can be an asset to your business, digital options give business owners...

LinkedIn vs. Facebook: Which Is Best for Your Business? The slew of social media channels available today can paralyze even the savviest business owners. Where do you start? Which one is best? How do you avoid wasting time on channels that won't bring in a solid ROI? The struggle is real. Facebook and LinkedIn are two of the biggest social media platforms and provide a number of opportunities to reach your audience. This leaves us with this question: Which one should you focus your efforts on? We’ll cover the pros and cons of each platform below. LinkedIn vs. Facebook for Business Let's recap quickly. At its core, LinkedIn is a professional network that was initially created as a corporate recruitment platform. Now, it boasts many features similar to traditional social media sites, including status updates, blogging capabilities, and private messages. It’s also the most effective platform when it comes to delivering content and securing audience engagement. Facebook, on the other hand, was specifically designed as a place for people to share and communicate. The "sharing" element is its most prominent selling point, but there are still plenty of other features that allow businesses to effectively reach their audiences. In fact, one survey by Facebook found that 74% of American consumers use the platform to discover new products and brands. LinkedIn and Facebook both have the Groups feature that allows you to connect with other like-minded people, and they both have powerful ad setups. So with similar features, what...

The Plain-English Guide to Integrated Marketing Communications I fly Southwest Airlines almost exclusively. They offer reasonable prices, make it easy to rack up points, and always have fun and kind flight attendants. One thing I’ve noticed about Southwest is their branding is on point. Whether I’m booking a flight on their mobile application, being served my go-to in-flight ginger ale, or walking through the terminal at Midway Airport, I’m surrounded by Southwest’s consistent brand colors, messaging, and imagery. This is an example of integrated marketing at work. If you’re interested in presenting a cohesive, consistent brand experience that leaves your products or services top-of-mind — like Southwest does — this guide is for you. Read on to learn more about integrated marketing and how to create a campaign of your own. Imagine discovering a new brand on Instagram and visiting the company’s website to purchase one of their products. If their website promoted a different message or campaign than the one you found on their Instagram account, you’d have a hard time understanding the gist of the brand, right? Integrated marketing exists to eliminate these disparities and differences regardless of how or when a customer interacts with your brand. It’s similar to multi-channel marketing, except integrated marketing is what aligns the message you’re sharing on all of those channels. Speaking of channels, integrated marketing doesn’t apply to just your inbound or digital marketing channels; traditional media channels are also included. Many of the integrated marketing examples we’ll...

The Who, What, Why, & How of Digital Marketing With how accessible the internet is today, would you believe me if I told you the number of people who go online every day is still increasing? It is. In fact, "constant" internet usage among adults increased by 5% in just the last three years, according to Pew Research. And although we say it a lot, the way people shop and buy really has changed along with it — meaning offline marketing isn't as effective as it used to be. Marketing has always been about connecting with your audience in the right place and at the right time. Today, that means you need to meet them where they are already spending time: on the internet. Enter digital marketing — in other words, any form of marketing that exists online. At HubSpot, we talk a lot about inbound marketing as a really effective way to attract, engage, and delight customers online. But we still get a lot of questions from people all around the world about digital marketing. So, we decided to answer them. Click the links below to jump to each question, or keep reading to see how digital marketing is carries out today. What is digital marketing? Why is digital marketing important? What is the role of digital marketing? Types of Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Examples What does a digital marketer do? Inbound Marketing vs. Digital Marketing: Which is it? ...

HubSpot Marketers' Favorite Integrated Marketing Campaigns A tv show is returning, and I am pumped. "The Umbrella Academy" is a sci-fi show based on the comic book of the same name, and it's nothing short of fantastic.  Superheroes, comedy, a talking animal, and saving the world from imploding — what more could you want? When I first learned about the season, I was scrolling Twitter and came across the video announcement. I was stoked. A little later, I decided to check Facebook, and saw promo stills for the new season — only building my excitement. A couple of weeks later, I saw the official trailer for the first time on Instagram, and again on YouTube. Up until that point, I'd come across promotional content from three different channels for the new season. This rollout has become one of my favorite integrated marketing campaigns of 2020. The Netflix team is pulling out all the stops across multiple different fronts to keep users excited about the premiere. It's working for me — I can hardly wait. And in this post, we're going to go over other integrated marketing examples that were extremely effective for them. HubSpot's Favorite Integrated Marketing Campaigns Integrated marketing is any marketing campaign that uses multiple channels in execution. For example, you might see a popular new donut flavor in a commercial, then drive past the donut shop to see posters of the donut. And if you flip through Instagram...

8 Common Integrated Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Back in the 1930's, something called the Rule of 7 developed in the movie industry. According to this golden rule, a prospect needs to “hear” an advertiser’s message at least seven times before they’ll take action – such as going to watch Gone with the Wind in 1939. At that time, advertisers of Gone with the Wind distributed their campaigns across a few core channels: namely print, billboards, and radio. But now? The channel options for marketers have skyrocketed. Marketers can engage their audience and inspire action with a huge range of channels used in tandem — both online and offline. For instance, let's say there's a mattress company that has just designed a revolutionary new waterbed. Upon the model's release, sales are less than stellar, and the business is struggling to make headway in the unforgiving, dog-eat-dog world known more commonly as the waterbed industry. The company decides it needs to make a concentrated effort to stand out and looks to its marketing department for answers. The marketers at the company decide to promote a contest — one where consumers submit videos of themselves drinking individual glasses of water in creative ways. Whoever submits the video deemed most creative wins a free waterbed and an all-expense-paid trip to Water Country — the preeminent waterpark in the greater Portsmouth, New Hampshire area. To enact this campaign, the company sends out promotional email blasts to its subscribers. Its blog writers place...

Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram? Which Platform(s) You Should Be On When you begin implementing a social media strategy for your business, one of the first questions you'll ask yourself is this one -- Should my business be on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram? Those three social media sites offer considerable opportunities to connect and engage with a network, increase brand awareness, and drive traffic to your site. But they're also incredibly different in terms of purpose. Ultimately, Facebook's purpose is to connect people with their friends and family. People use Facebook to share photos, videos, and general updates on their lives. Twitter, on the other hand, is used to share ideas, real-time information, and trending news. While people may also use Twitter to connect with friends and family, they largely use it for a bigger purpose -- to connect to the wider world as a whole, and hear what's happening (in 140 characters or less). And then, Instagram is used to share photos and videos. People mainly use this app to post their "highlight reel" and follow influencers. This is where people become a part of a social media community. Of course, this still begs the question -- where does your business fit into all this? To explore the pros and cons of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, we've created a comprehensive breakdown of the three platforms. Keep reading to figure out which platform is a better business investment for your company. Twitter vs Facebook vs Instagram...