How Marketers Can Still Thrive in a Recession When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Right? In a recent Glimpse survey I ran for the HubSpot Blog, 78% of marketers said they were already facing one of the biggest lemons of 2023 -- recession. What's more, almost half were already seeing negative impacts. On top of that, one in three think a recession will have an even bigger impact on marketing than COVID-19. While we can't predict the future, our data hints that brands that focus on the right opportunities can still grow. But, what exactly are those opportunities? Read on to find out. Tips for Marketing Growth a Recession 1. Use data to connect with customers. Feel like you might not be in touch with your customers anymore? You’re not alone. Our research shows that over half of marketers don’t know crucial information about their target audience. And this is just one of three signs your company is facing a Crisis of Disconnection. This disconnect isn't at all shocking. Our lives have all changed drastically over the past three years.  As the recession progresses, customer relationships with brands will continue shifting -- and it's up to companies to keep up. The first step is gathering holistic, real-time data on consumer attitudes, preferences, and behaviors. Ideally, you get data, known as first-party data, directly from your customer. This is especially important as data privacy regulations are becoming more strict and things like third-party cookies are on the way...

31 Influencer Marketing Stats to Know in 2023 Influencer marketing harnesses the power of word-of-mouth — and scales it via social media. As a result, it's become a leading marketing strategy in 2023. Here, we've rounded up 31 stats to give you a better picture of the influencer landscape, its effectiveness, and the platforms that get the most traction in this space. Let's dive in. Table of Contents The Influencer Marketing Landscape Influencer Marketing Effectiveness Micro Influencer Stats Influencer Marketing on Instagram Influencer Marketing on TikTok Influencer Marketing on YouTube Influencer Marketing on Facebook Influencer Marketing Budgets What is influencer marketing? With influencer marketing, brands employ online influencers to promote their products or services. This makes influencers the middleman between brands and their audience. While a recommendation from a friend or family member is valuable, it's only a one-to-one interaction. But with influencers, this interaction could happen with hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people. Plus, influencers work hard to gain their audience's trust, making their recommendations more persuasive than other forms of advertising. For all the reasons above, influencer marketing has become one of the fastest-growing marketing strategies today. So, if you're looking to tap into new audiences online, working with influencers can be a powerful way to do just that. Types of Influencers...

5 Marketing Trends That Might Not Survive in 2023 Few marketing trends last forever. In reality, they come and go at rapid speed — and marketers must adapt. Because marketing is always evolving, your marketing playbook should, too. But if your strategy looks the same as years prior, it's time to do some housekeeping. Here, we'll cover five marketing trends that are losing steam and how marketers can respond. 1. Celebrity endorsements on social media. Have you ever seen a sponsored post from a celebrity on social media and thought, "Do they really use that?" For example, Beyond Meat's collaboration with media personality Kim Kardashian became a viral moment in 2022, but for all the wrong reasons. After releasing a promotional video of Kardashian sampling its vegan products, viewers were quick to accuse Kardashian of "fake chewing," leading many to question the authenticity of her endorsement. The problem is not that Kim K is clearly not a fan of Beyond Meat and is only doing it for the check.It's that all of her fans can see through it in the comments. pic.twitter.com/chwq9xK0Uh— Cody Wittick (@Cody_Wittick) August 26, 2022 While celebrities offer more exposure, consumers need to trust the celebrity and believe the endorsement is authentic. But building that trust is getting harder. Research shows that trust in celebrity endorsements is decreasing. Only 44% of Gen Z-ers trust endorsements from a celebrity or athlete. This...

Study Finds Most Marketers Don’t Know Their Audience: Here’s Why and How to Fix It   When it comes to marketing, almost nothing is more important than knowing your target audience. But what if I told you over half of marketers are missing critical information on their consumers? In our annual survey of over 1,200 marketers, we found that just 42% know the basic demographic information of their target audience, like their name, gender, and location. And, the data gap doesn't stop there: Less than half of marketers know their audience’s interests and hobbies, shopping habits, the products they are interested in buying, their purchase history, and where they consume content. Only 31% know the online communities their target audience is a part of and even less know the challenges they are facing. Just one-fourth of marketers know the social causes their target audience cares about - a huge missed opportunity when it comes to expressing your brand’s values, especially when marketing to Gen Z and Millennials. So why are marketers having such a hard time getting these data points? Let’s take a look at the biggest challenges marketers face in getting the data they need and discuss some solutions to the disconnection marketers are seeing with their audience. The Biggest Challenges Marketers Face in Understanding Their Target Audience A whopping 82% of marketers say having high-quality data on their target audience is important to succeeding in their role – but more than half...

It's Not Just a Marketing Phrase: 3 Ways to Deliver on Being a "Purpose-Driven Brand" We’ve entered the era of purpose. 70% of employees believe it’s important to work for a business with a clear sense of purpose.  And, 54% of consumers have reduced or stopped purchasing from organisations they think missed the mark on environmental or social issues. Additional, countless data points in our most recent State of Consumer Trends Report highlight how having a solid purpose or mission will win over today's audiences and enable you to stand out against competitors. The last two and a half years have brought into focus what it means to be a purpose-driven company. The global pandemic disrupted supply chains and highlighted rising inequalities. The ongoing threat of climate change shifted market dynamics and investor expectations, leaving businesses realising they must act. Not to mention, the Great Resignation/Reflection proved that employees are increasingly seeking value and purpose at work. There’s no question that driving value for stakeholders, society, and the planet is imperative. Today and in the future, we’ll see more companies start to weave purpose into their business. But, purpose is more than a buzzword. For winning companies, purpose declares a company’s core reason for existence and its unique impact on the world. Done right, companies connect people’s individual purpose with the organizations. But, building that doesn’t come easy. That’s why leaders iterate and evolve on a company’s purpose as they grow. At HubSpot, our purpose of building a company that future generations would be...

How the Potential Recession is Already Impacting Hiring Plans in Marketing Early this year, conversations surrounding an upcoming recession started making headlines. Then, we saw mass layoffs and hiring freezes happening, particularly in the tech world. According to our 2023 Marketing Strategy Report, 48% of global marketers say the potential for an economic downturn or recession has affected their company’s hiring plans in 2022. The report also suggests that this impact will continue into 2023. In this article, we’ll cover: How the Recession Has Impacted Hiring So Far How the Recession Will Impact Hiring in 2023 Which Roles Remain Popular & Which Ones Have Lower Demand Which Companies and Industries Are Most Impacted How The Recession Has Impacted Hiring So Far Based on our report, we know that nearly half of marketers globally say the current economy has impacted their hiring plans for the year. The question is how. The report suggests that marketers already struggle with hiring top talent, with 47% of respondents saying it’s one of their biggest challenges. More specifically, respondents say the biggest roadblocks are finding candidates with the right skill set and meeting salary expectations. The recession has only exacerbated an existing issue. Here are some standout figures: 35% of respondents say they had to slow down or pause hiring efforts. 27% of respondents say their company had to fire or lay off employees. 26% of respondents say their company had to...

How SKIMMS, Liquid Death, and Other Brands Made Age-Old Products Feel New, Exciting, and Different Let’s face it — there’s always another brand out there that makes a product similar to yours. Chances are that there are quite a few brands that make products or services similar to yours. It’s also likely that new brands and businesses will pop up in the future with similar products. With this in mind, how do new brands compete in such saturated and competitive markets, so much so that they become market leaders in their niche? In this post, we’ll discuss how three brands, SKIMS, Liquid Death, and Dollar Shave Club, introduced old but new products to market and achieved significant success. Revitalizing Old Products: How Skims, Liquid Death, and Dollar Shave Club Achieved Their Success Making “old” products come alive in new and exciting ways revolves around audiences, their needs, and how you can make what you offer them more exciting than their available options. Doing this falls on new, unique branding that speaks to their desires and a product that positions you above your competition. Let’s discuss three brands that excelled at this. 1. SKIMS Made Shapewear Exciting SKIMS, founded by Kim Kardashian, is a shapewear brand. Shapewear had been around for centuries when SKIMS launched in 2019, yet it was able to make a significant splash and repeatedly sell out of a product that many of its customers likely already had on their shelves. Image Source This success happened because SKIMS...

Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader: How 500+ Marketing Executives Plan to Get Ahead in 2023 In many ways, marketing leadership has never been harder. Over the past year alone, you've needed to navigate economic turmoil; a workplace shift to more globally distributed teams; and new trends that felt like they arose overnight (TikTok, anyone?).   Which is why 76% of marketing leaders say marketing has seen more change in the past three years than the last 50.  Change isn't always bad, but it is always challenging. And, as we prepare for the year ahead, many marketing leaders are wondering: What should I prepare for? Where should I focus my efforts? And what are my biggest blind spots?  To help you create a powerful and agile strategy for 2023, we've surveyed 500+ marketing executives on the biggest challenges, opportunities, and trends ahead of us. Plus, we've interviewed some of the biggest experts across the industry — ranging from CMOs and VPs at LinkedIn, Uber, Microsoft, Dropbox, SEMRush, and more — to uncover best practices for becoming a better, more effective leader.  If you're not a marketing leader, but interested in becoming one, you're in luck. We also have plenty of content and best practices on getting ahead in your career — including how to get executive stakeholder buy-in, and how to get promoted on both an individual contributor and manager-level.  Let's dive in.  Executive Leadership Survey Results   1. The biggest challenges marketing leaders' expect to...

How to Get Buy-In from Some of the Top Marketing Leaders: 3 Execs Discuss What KPIs Matter to Them Whether you're creating a new content campaign, launching a YouTube series, or revising your social strategy, you're going to be asked the same question by leadership before getting their support: "How will this impact our company's bottom line?" That can be a difficult question to answer — which is why it's critical you know your key performance indicators (KPIs) to: a) measure the success of your program, and b) receive executive buy-in — which is typically a prerequisite for getting the budget and resources you need to successfully launch any new paid marketing program. There are so many different KPIs any marketer might use to measure success, including sales, web traffic, follower growth, conversion rate, or brand awareness. But which ones matter most to leadership? In other words: Which ones should you focus on if you're seeking executive approval? Here, we spoke with executives at LinkedIn, G2, and HubSpot to uncover which KPIs matter most to them in 2023.  Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader: Data from 500+ Marketing Executives on How to Get Ahead in 2023 What KPIs Matter Most to Execs in 2023 1. Reach and leads. If you work backwards from your company's primary goal — of increasing revenue — then it makes sense that reaching new audiences and converting those audiences into qualified leads for sales would be two of the top KPIs that matter...

The Top 10 Marketing Challenges Expected Globally in 2023 Every marketer faces different challenges. And, ever since 2020, the ways we've had to pivot, adjust campaigns, and address challenges has been unlike anything many of us have had to do before. And, even if you've somehow navigated the past three years without any surprising or tough marketing challenges, there's likely at least one task, tactic, or strategy you've always wanted to improve upon.  Today, marketing is so fast-paced that it can be difficult to identify which areas you'll want to develop to facilitate stronger growth in 2022 and beyond. For that reason, it's important to pause for a moment and reflect on the biggest challenges marketers feel they're facing this year. Below, let's review the current global marketing issues impacting the industry, according to data from HubSpot's 2023 Marketing Industry Trends Report and marketing experts. 1. Generating Traffic and Leads While this was the second biggest marketing challenge in 2022, it's the top challenge marketers will focus on in 2023, with 19% of survey respondents saying it will be their biggest hurdle. As you might expect, generating traffic and leads is always top of mind with marketers. And, even if teams are doing well with these metrics, they'll always want to improve them.  Why It's a Challenge John Lee, Head of Evangelism at Microsoft Advertising, believes that generating leads will be a particularly big challenge for marketers. He told me, "Getting quality traffic isn't a challenge...