Author: Franz Malten Buemann

With thousands of Instagram marketing tools to choose from, how do you know which ones you need?
The key to building an Instagram marketing tech stack is to ensure that you have tools that perform these core functions: research, creation, execution, measurement, and optimization.

This list gathers Instagram tools with this principle in mind. Each recommendation has been assigned a “best for” category to help you easily identify what core function it performs. Let’s get started.
Table of Contents

The Best Instagram Marketing Tools
The Best Free Instagram Marketing Tools

Inside HubSpot’s Social Media Management Software
HubSpot’s social media management software is a powerful all-in-one tool. With HubSpot, you can run social media campaigns, measure performance, and optimize your strategy from one central platform.
While this platform provides tons of features that cover all aspects of running a successful Instagram marketing campaign, here are three core functionalities that make this tool a social media powerhouse.
1. Social Monitoring
Hubspot’s social media management software allows you to create “streams.” These are dedicated pages for monitoring conversations on a specific social media platform.
Streams can be set up to track and trigger alerts for brand mentions, relevant keywords, and even your competitors.
For example, a competitor stream can be set up to track the performance of a competitor’s Instagram content and campaigns. This means that within your dashboard you will have a dedicated “stream” that tracks your competitors’ top posts.
You can use this dashboard to analyze what’s working for your competitors based on engagement. To provide even more insight, Hubspot will flag posts that a competitor has likely paid to spread beyond their organic social following as “Likely Boosted.”
2. Content Sharing
Hubspot’s social software allows you to publish content directly from your dashboard in three ways: immediately, at a set time, or on a default schedule that you can customize down to the minute.
Alternatively, you can use Hubspot’s “publish like a human feature” which can automatically vary the times your posts.
Let’s say you don’t want to go into your dashboard at all, Hubspot also offers a “social Chrome extension.” With this feature, you can schedule and publish social content right from your browser.
3. Attribution
Hubspot allows you to tag your social content as marketing assets and associate them with relevant marketing campaigns. This means that you can then directly attribute social posts to user actions on your website. Measuring the impact of your Instagram campaigns on lead generation becomes easy.
For example, a dashboard called the “New Contacts Report” shows you the number of new contacts created in HubSpot as a result of social-media-driven web sessions.
Best for: Content and campaign management
Pricing: Included in the professional plan of the Marketing Hub, which starts at $45/month.
What Users Say
“HubSpot makes all aspects of my job easier. The tools and systems they have constructed are easy to use, implement, and utilize. … I can swiftly schedule posts to go out at any time of day and the data they collect is immensely helpful in analyzing the performance of our campaigns,” Laura D on G2.
“I’m not particularly tech-savvy, but I find their layout processes easy and there are lots of handy guides for when I get stuck. It’s a time saver … and their analytics pages make reporting data extremely easy,” Marielle J. on G2.

The Best Instagram Marketing Tools
1. Later

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Later is a “visual-first” social media management platform and link in bio tool.
Later’s core Instagram marketing offering is an Instagram planning app called the “Instagram scheduler.” Some features of this tool include:

A drag-and-drop visual planner that allows you to edit posts inside the tool. You can also plan your content calendar, schedule posts based on when your followers are most engaged, and preview your Instagram feed before sharing.
An analytics dashboard that gives you access to data such as profile growth, engagement metrics, “Instagram Story-specific” analytics, and even attributable website visits.
A hashtag tool that allows you to find, save, and organize hashtags. This tool also gives you insight into a hashtag’s performance such as reach and engagement.

Later also offers a Shopify integration which allows you to directly attribute Instagram posts to sales.

Best for: Content management.
Pricing: Starts at $18/month. Later also offers a free plan, but this plan is very restrictive.
What Users Say
“It can be difficult to find a social media management tool that works well with Instagram (especially with Instagram Stories), so Later really shines in that aspect. … A tool like Later helps us be more efficient, as we can schedule out a week or month’s worth of posts and then just let it do its thing!” Stephanie H. on G2.
2. Smartly

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Smartly is a social media advertising platform that helps you automate and optimize your ad campaigns. This platform offers three core features.
Creative Assets
This feature allows users to leverage automation to scale the creation of visual ad assets.
Users can access a design studio within the platform and build creative material from scratch or based on dynamic templates. Customizations can then be automated by pulling data from external sources.
Media Management
This feature allows users to launch and manage campaigns from a single dashboard. Campaign management also leverages automation through workflows, predictive algorithms, and triggers.
Campaign Performance
Smartly’s campaign intelligence feature allows users to track performance based on pre-defined KPIs. Aside from this, users can also enable “performance-related” alerts which notify them once certain predefined instances occur. For example, conversions below a set threshold.
Best for: Social media advertising.
Pricing: Available upon inquiry.
What Users Say
“The reporting is superb and the creative features are amazing. Also, the ability to connect Google Analytics to your campaign reporting for last-click performance is a huge quality of life improvement for anyone working in performance marketing,” Burton M. for G2.
3. Awario

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Awario is a social listening tool that helps users monitor conversations around specific keywords in real time. In Awario, you can track growth, reach, and sentiment around chosen keywords.
Additionally, users can dive deeper into this data to uncover the sentiments around a keyword, locations where conversations around the keywords are happening most, and so much more. Then, you can generate this insight into PDF or HTML reports.
These features make Awario a great tool for:

Ensuring you’re aware of relevant trends and conversations.
Tracking the conversations and sentiments surrounding your brand.

Best for: Brand monitoring.
Pricing: Starts at $24/month.
What Users Say
“I enjoy the visuals the most about Awario… I loved seeing where our followers, influencers, and users are, all over the world!” Katy F. for G2.
“Awario compliments our working day and does not consume it. It allows us to keep our fingers on the pulse and not feel overwhelmed that we may have missed an important opportunity,” Martha H. for G2.

4. Gleam

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Gleam offers two tools helpful for Instagram marketers:

Competitions. This tool allows you to run online giveaways, contests, and sweepstakes. Some of the features include competition templates, landing pages, and a referral link generator.

Rewards. With this feature, you can reward participants for completing an action or a set of actions, such as downloading a piece of content or following a social media profile.

Both of these tools can be used to grow your Instagram account.
Best for: Contests, sweepstakes, and giveaways.
Pricing: Starts at $10 per month for individual apps and $97 per month for the full package.
What Users Say
“I have yet to find a better solution for giveaways. It is an easy-to-use, inexpensive platform that gets the job done,” Carissa F. for G2.
5. ShortStack

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ShortStack is another platform that allows you to run social media contests — from comment-to-enter events and user-generated content contests.
ShortStack assists with every step of the contest process. You can create entry forms to also lead data, create a refer-a-friend feature for virality, and automatically pull data from social media profiles to select winners.
Best for: Contests and giveaways.
Pricing: Starts at $99 per month.
What Users Say
“After 6 years of using custom-built tools that were expensive and needed a lot of maintenance we decided to switch to Shortstack. So easy to use, affordable, and we’ve have never had any issues,” Melanie H. on G2.
6. Prequel

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Prequel is a mobile image editor that provides presets, edits, and templates. Some core features of the platform include:

Over 800 filters including 3D photo effects, AR objects, and presets.
Retouching.
Artificial intelligence which allows you to turn your selfies into comic book characters.
Templates that come with pre-populated intros, outros, and background music.

Best for: Photo and video editing.
Pricing: $4.99/week. Prequel also offers a free plan, but this plan blocks off access to many editing features.

7. Lightroom

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Adobe Lightroom is a powerful image editing software available on both mobile and desktop.
This platform was designed to be able to handle a professional photographer’s workflow. So, if what you’re looking for is advanced photo editing capabilities, this may be the best option for you.
This is also a great tool for image management because it allows you to organize your images into albums and catalogs. You can also rate, flag, and color-label your images for further organization.

Best for: Photo editing.
Pricing: $9.99 per month.
What Users Say
“The software is easy to use and handle and even a beginner can use it to get cutting-edge results,” Parth C. on G2.
8. Iconosquare

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Iconosquare is a social media management platform that offers three key features — publishing, analytics, and monitoring.
The analytics solution uses graphs to display performance metrics and engagement insights. Users can also access additional features such as community analytics, profile analysis, and comparative analysis based on industry benchmarks.
Best for: Social media management.
Pricing: Starts at $49 per month.
What Users Say
“I first started using Iconosquare some time back in 2016. … I’m able to see the benchmark for my market and also compare what my competitors are doing. This gives me fantastic data points to make strategic decisions for my social media,” Lyndel J. on G2.
9. Keyhole

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Keyhole is a platform that automates the process of social media reporting. This tool aims to help marketers replace spreadsheets with thoughtfully designed, shareable PDFs.
Keyhole’s core features include:

Influencer tracking and analytics. This feature helps users identify influencers around certain keywords, brands, and topics. You can also track the ROI generated from individual influencers during campaigns.

Profile and competitive analysis. This feature provides insights into how a brand is performing compared to competitors.

Keyhole also offers follower insight and data-backed optimization suggestions.
Best for: Social media reporting.
Pricing: Available upon request.
What Users Say
“The dashboard encapsulates a detailed overview of your entire campaign and mentions all details and KPIs that you need. The metrics given on Keyhole are unmatched and help us in setting KPIs and measuring results accordingly,” Fatima M. on G2.
10. Mention

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Mention is a web and social media monitoring tool. Its “listen” feature allows users to leverage insights from millions of social media conversations to analyze trends. You can also monitor audience sentiments towards topics and the brand itself.
In addition, Mention offers features to help users stay updated without having to constantly visit the platform. For example, daily recaps and “spike emails” are sent out when there is an unusual level of interest in an important keyword.
Best for: Social media monitoring.
Pricing: Starts at $29/month. Mention also offers a free plan which allows users to create 1 alert.
What Users Say
“My company’s marketing department uses Mention regularly since it is pretty good at finding places where our brand is referenced and discussed on various social networks and everywhere else on the internet. Everything is made simpler by its user interface because it is so simple to grasp and utilize,” Yurii T. on G2.

The Best Free Instagram Marketing Tools
11. Buffer

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Buffer is a social media management platform that allows users to plan campaigns, schedule content, respond to comments, and access analytics. However, most of these features are restricted on Buffer’s free plan, which is why it is categorized as a “scheduling tool.”
This plan allows you to connect up to 3 social media platforms and schedule a maximum of 10 posts at a time.
Although this isn’t an especially large number, it should be enough to schedule content for a few days or even a week at a time depending on how often you post.
Best for: Content Scheduling.
What Users Say
“Buffer is SIMPLE. It’s user-friendly and easy to understand. I love being able to show my boss the quick layout to approve posts. The updates to design in the app that I’ve seen through the years have only made it better, and I plan to use it for a long time in the future,” Jen L. on G2.
12. SparkToro

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SparkToro is an audience intelligence platform that takes a different approach from typical audience research tools.
SparkToro allows you to enter a keyword into the search box based on the following queries.

My audience frequently talks about “insert keyword.”
My audience uses this word in their profile “insert keyword.”
My audience follows the social account “insert keyword.”
My audience uses the hashtag “insert keyword.”
My audience visits the website “insert keyword.”

The tool then generates insights on that audience such as demographics, who they watch, who they listen to, etc.
This kind of insight can help you identify areas of interest to inform your content strategy. This platform also helps you discover which influencers you might want to collaborate with to expand your reach.

Best for: Audience intelligence.
What Users Say
“SparkToro takes a time-consuming and onerous audience interest and engagement research process and turns it into an easy and quick process, allowing me to go deeper with my user persona development,” Erika H. on G2.
13. Analisa

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Analisa is an AI-powered Instagram and TikTok analytics platform. Here, you can use reporting to glean Instagram performance and follower insights.
Here’s what you get with the free plan:

Unlimited searches.
Access to profile analytics.
Engagement stats for posts.

Although this is limited, Analisa should provide some insight into your profile and audience, as well as the strategy, content, and performance of other profiles on the platform.
Best for: Social analytics.
What Users Say
“Good for competitor analysis! The depth of the data for each IG account is pretty nice. It is much easier to understand what specific IG accounts are doing to obtain the results they are getting,” Jagten S. on G2.
14. Woobox

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Woobox is a campaign management platform that allows users to host and run contests and giveaways.
For Instagram giveaways specifically, this platform allows you to run contests using hashtags and comments as entry methods. You can also accept Instagram videos and photos as submission types.
Best for: Giveaways.
What Users Say
“I have primarily used Woobox for social media campaigns for my organization and it has cut down on my and my staff’s time and simplified these processes for us,” Erika H. on G2.
“Woobox makes it really easy to include adequate legal terms. Easy user interface. Works seamlessly across all social media outlets,” Jessica B. on G2.
15. Canva

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Canva makes graphic design easy. For Instagram specifically, Canva has several templates (and tutorials) to help you build stories and create posts.
Even the free version gives you access to a wide variety of design features including templates, texts, and backgrounds.
Best for: Graphic design.
What Users Say
“The one thing I like about Canva the most is the user-friendly and intuitive interface it has. It is very easy to navigate through and it also provides a lot of features under the free tier, while the premium feature has one of the best features like automatic background remover, and image high resolution. … It also supports great integrations to social media platforms, you can upload a design you made in Canva to any social media platform without breaking any sweat,” Surbhi G. on G2.
16. Mojo

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Mojo is a social video app that helps you create animated visuals. For Instagram users specifically, this is a great tool for creating reels and stories.
The Mojo app allows you to pick from a selection of hundreds of templates with unique animations and transitions. It also gives you the option to edit elements of these templates, such as timing and colors.
Additionally, Mojo gives users access to a library of royalty-free music that can be inserted into their content.
Best for: Content creation.

17. LinkTree

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Linktree is a link-in-bio tool that allows users to share landing pages from their social media bio.
This tool is especially important for Instagram, as the platform doesn’t allow users to add links anywhere other than their bio. Bios themselves only allow for one link.
Linktree provides a way around this restriction by making your profile bio link a landing page link. There you can promote any projects, websites, or products.
Best for: External linking
What Users Say
“We have many programs going on simultaneously, and it was impossible to keep up with changing the Instagram bio to match the program features we were posting. Linktree has made it so easy to update the links within our unique Linktree link so that every program has a live link,” Shannon P. on G2.
18. Display Purposes

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The way this website works is pretty straightforward. You type into the search bar and it generates related hashtags. Display Purposes also assigns relevance and popularity scores to each hashtag.
You can also toggle between manual and auto tag selection when exporting the results of your search.
Best for: Hashtag research.
19. Instagram Professional Dashboard

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The Instagram professional dashboard is a completely free-to-use toolkit available for all professional and business Instagram users.
“Account Insights” is this free tool’s most powerful feature. Here you can track three metrics: followers, engagement, and reach.
For example, users can learn who makes up their follower base, how much their audience is engaging with their content, and how much exposure each piece of content gets across the platform.
Although the professional dashboard is completely free it holds a wealth of information that can inform or transform your Instagram marketing strategy.
Best for: Performance tracking and analytics.
Building Your Instagram Marketing Toolkit
Whether you’re a solopreneur, small business owner, or corporation — there’s at least one tool on this list that will upgrade your business’ marketing.
Plus, you can start a free trial which makes experimenting virtually risk-free.
So, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you. Start building your toolkit and optimizing your Instagram marketing strategy.

As marketers, we know first-hand the importance of using effective software.
Powerful tools enable marketing teams to increase the quality and timeliness of their marketing efforts. Consider, for instance, how project management software can help you coordinate cross-functionally and ensure all team members have visibility into the tasks required to get a campaign off the ground.
Leveraging the right tools also enables you to determine whether your marketing efforts are working. A CRM that integrates with a project management tool can empower each team member to become a better, more data-driven marketer.
Best of all, the right integrations help to ensure your organization isn’t duplicating work and wasting time. In challenging economic times, it’s never been more critical for business leaders to avoid costly duplication efforts. In 2022, one out of every five businesses reported they pivoted from their established plan due to the potential recession. Supportive, integrated tools can ensure your team is remaining efficient even when you need to shift course.
Effective tools matter greatly for your business’ bottom line. And as businesses approach the new world of hybrid or remote-first working, it’s never been more essential for your teams to use powerful technology to remain connected, in-sync, and effective.
Today, we’re announcing an exciting new partnership between HubSpot and ClickUp, a cloud-based collaborative work platform. Let’s explore why this partnership is valuable, and how I believe it can help our customers scale their businesses more efficiently.
Already a HubSpot Customer? Click here to integrate ClickUp and use both tools to deliver customer value faster, streamline operations, and be more productive.
Why HubSpot is Partnering with ClickUp
HubSpot’s mission is simple: To help businesses grow.
And there are a few major deterrents to all businesses’ success, including inefficient processes, lack of internal communication, and a slow and messy onboarding process for new customers.
These challenges have only grown in recent years as the workforce has become increasingly distributed.
Which is why we’re partnering with ClickUp. To solve for that.
To explore the value of the HubSpot and ClickUp integration, I’ll start with an example. Let’s imagine your sales rep has just closed a major deal. The closed deal automatically triggered a new project in ClickUp, your workplace productivity and collaboration software.
Your sales rep immediately assigns items to the right account managers to begin onboarding the customer. Less downtime means less unhappy customers.
Your account management team is then able to look at your customer directory to see whose working with which customers, and how the project is progressing. This helps them ensure nothing has fallen behind for your customers.
With the extra time saved, your sales team is able to sell more and manage more customers better. Your entire company is able to scale more quickly.
Simply put: This tight integration enables your team to go from closed-won deals to account management and project kick-off in one seamless workflow, saving you time by allowing for better productivity.
And, with data passed seamlessly between ClickUp and HubSpot, your sales teams and account management teams will stay strongly aligned.
But the integration helps more than just your sales team. ClickUp is a platform made up of 12 product lines that integrate various productivity tools — including project management, dashboards, calendars, documents, chat, time keeping, resource planning, and custom embedded views.
This means that, while your account managers and sales reps are using ClickUp to onboard and support new customers, your marketing team is leveraging ClickUp’s project management tools to create more effective marketing campaigns and drive higher-qualified leads down the pipeline to sales.
Meanwhile, your accounting team is using ClickUp for more accurate and efficient budgeting. And your Support team is able to organize tickets in one centralized location and work together to manage each task and simplify complex requests with subtasks.
HubSpot has long been a company that prides itself on its commitment to helping businesses grow better. Which is why we believe our customers will find immense value in this integration — because ClickUp is on a bold path to reimagine productivity software and help companies of all sizes work better together. Now imagine the power of combining the two.
How One Business Has Leveraged the Power of HubSpot and ClickUp
ZenPilot, a consulting business that aims to help agencies streamline their operations, currently leverages both ClickUp and HubSpot.
Andrew Dymski, ZenPilot’s co-founder, told me, “ClickUp and HubSpot joining forces is a game changer! We were early adopters on both platforms — HubSpot in 2013 and ClickUp in 2017. Both companies have succeeded where few others have by changing the way people think about their work.”
Dymski adds, “This integration and partnership is like cake and ice cream … good on their own, but so much better together. Thousands of companies will be able to benefit from this new connection.”
One more thing …
We believe so wholeheartedly in ClickUp’s mission that HubSpot has decided to invest in ClickUp. ClickUp is on a mission to create more powerful, yet simple, tools to better align teams. ClickUp is on a mission to create more powerful, yet simple, tools to better align teams, saving people time by making the world more productive.
I have no doubt our customers will find immense value in ClickUp. Replacing disparate systems and mismatched tools in favor of one seamless, integrated workplace experience is critical for scaling businesses. For that reason, HubSpot has chosen to invest in ClickUp.
If you’re already a ClickUp customer, I have some good news — as a ClickUp customer you’re eligible for 20% off select HubSpot plans.
Whether you use ClickUp and HubSpot or something else, it’s never been more important to have supportive technology. Integrated productivity tools can help you streamline your processes even with a widely distributed workforce; they can help connect you with the right customers, no matter where they are; and they can foster new levels of connection and collaboration as we progress into the future of work.
And leveraging supportive tools means your customers are happier. Which is what really matters, anyway.

Post-Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, interest in other social networking sites has spiked significantly. Some names may be familiar to you while others are completely new, but a quick search on Google Trends reveals that old or new, people are looking for the next, best microblogging platform.SourceTumblr’s one of those familiar names and a popular choice — actor Ryan Reynolds made a public move to Tumblr. But that’s not what we’re here for today. Instead, we’re introducing you to Mastodon, which many may not yet be familiar with, but is quickly rising in popularity.SourceMastodon, founded in 2016 by Eugen Rochko, is a microblogging platform that looks similar to Twitter on the surface but is more complex under the hood. In this article, we’ll walk you through what you need to know about Mastodon and how to set up an account.What is Mastodon?Mastodon is a collection of free, decentralized, and loosely organized group of servers. You may also see it referred to as the “Fediverse,” short for “federated universe.”Mastodon is an open-source platform, meaning anyone can set up a server and run a community if they wish to, similar to a forum or discussion board. The platform is self-described as a “federated network which operates in a similar way to email.”Similar to Twitter, it offers microblogging capabilities, but while you can easily pinpoint some similarities to Twitter’s web and mobile applications, they’re not quite the same. A better (but still incomplete) analogy is Mastodon is what you get if you were to combine Twitter and Tumblr.Instead of tweeting, you post, and if you share someone else’s post, you’ve reblogged or boosted it. There are hashtags and lists, and you have up to 5,000 words to express yourself – as well as the ability to add GIFs, videos, and images.Example of a post on MastodonYour Mastodon handle includes your full identity, plus the server name. If you sign up for Mastodon via the most popular server – Mastodon.social – your address will be @[your username]@mastodon.social. But no matter which server you sign up with, you can communicate with users from any other server, just like how Gmail users email Hotmail users and vice versa.If you want a checkmark alongside your name to prove that you are who you say you are, you don’t have to pay anyone; instead, you add a link to a website that’s under your control and that serves as verification. On Mastodon, you can also edit your posts (a much-requested Twitter feature) whenever you’d like and at no cost. And to tackle misinformation concerns, you will get a notification when a post you boosted/reblogged has been edited.The biggest benefit of Mastodon is probably its extensive content moderation. Each server can decide its moderation policy and which servers it will communicate with.”Mastodon” cannot suspend anyone. You were likely removed from a certain server by its owner or moderation team. Mastodon servers are run by users, not by a corporation like twitter is.Each host can set their own rules. You should familiarize yourself with them before joining.— Mastodon (@joinmastodon) November 10, 2022

📼Check out this helpful, short video for added clarity on how Mastodon works.How to set up a Mastodon accountWhile Mastodon is quite similar to email, it’s not as simple to set up. you have to find a server on your own (I’m on the C.IM server) to set up an account. Here’s a simple breakdown of how to get started with an account on Mastodon (from experience as a non-technical person).Step 1: Join a serverYou need to find the address of a server running the Mastodon software (called an Instance) that is accepting new sign-ups to join.Check out https://instances.social for potential servers to join or where your current Twitter followers are hanging out on Mastodon with Debirdify (for security reasons, remember to revoke permissions when you’re done).Users who can be discovered have usually added their Mastodon handle to their bio or profile on Twitter — you can also do this once your account has been set up.My Twitter community that also has a Mastodon accountYou can also use Fedifinder, which extracts the Mastodon handles of Twitter accounts you follow as well as those you’ve added to a list; you can import that list on Mastodon to follow all those accounts at once.Alternatively, try going to the Mastodon activity page and looking at the list under the Instances heading. The entries at the top of the list are the most popular but may also take the most time to join.If you’re worried about whether or not you’ll like a server, you can always move your account to a different server later.Step 2: Sign up to your chosen Mastodon serverOnce you identify an instance you would like to join that’s also accepting new members, fill in the form. You can reuse your Twitter ID or any ID you choose. I picked my name because I didn’t catch the Twitter train in time the first go-round. Here’s the sign up page for the C.IM instance on the web.Server sign-up page for C.IM serverClick Sign Up and wait for the confirmation email. That could take anywhere from a few minutes (like mine) or several hours. With the surge in sign-ups, some people report never receiving the email to activate their accounts.Once you have access, remember which instance you used. You’ll need to enter that server’s address when you sign in using a different browser or another mobile app. You can’t use those credentials to sign in on a different instance.You can create different profiles on different servers or choose to transfer your data from one server to another.Step 3: Set up your profileMake it easy for people to find you by filling out all available details. Once you’ve confirmed your account, use the Edit Profile button to add some details about who you are.My profileFill in your bio and add a picture (or an “avatar” as it’s called in Mastodon) so that people will be able to identify you.Finally, add your Mastodon handle to your Twitter bio. That will make it easier for people who know you from Twitter to find you in the new place.Step 4: Start following people and engaging with the communityStart following people and engaging with the community. If you have Mastodon IDs for people you know are active, type that name in the search box to find their account and follow them.🖊️You might need the full ID with username and server, like @tamilore@c.im to find someone.Step 5: Introduce yourself.Mastodon has very “first day of school” energy as everyone learns their way around the platform.Give some background about who you are and your interests, then pin the post to the top of your profile. This helps people who find you online figure out if you’re an appropriate follow for them.Step 6: Find your friends.You can use tools like Debirdify and Fedifinder to look for people who have shared their Mastodon handle on Twitter.You can also check the hashtag #TwitterMigration and filter using “People you Follow” or look for lists made by people migrating to Mastodon.What to consider before ditching Twitter entirelyIt might be tempting to migrate to Mastodon and cut ties completely with Twitter, but you need to consider several factors – here are some of them.Mastodon hasn’t yet cracked the smooth sign-up flow of platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Adjusting to the technicality, user interface, lingo, and rules takes a while – not all your Twitter followers may want to jump on the bandwagon.Content moderation is taken very seriously in Mastodon servers — some even require content warnings for political content.Mastodon may not replace Twitter, but at least it has better leadership.Meet Eugen, CEO of Mastodon Social: pic.twitter.com/jerOT0asPg— Alex Vranas (@breakdecks) November 5, 2022

Mastodon is still growing: The platform is still hiring, and some users report long wait times before they receive confirmation emails and can set up their accounts. This means that even if your audience is willing to jump through the hurdles it takes to set up an account, they may not have access for a while.Over 1 million people have joined Mastodon since October 27. Between that and those who returned to their old accounts, the number of active users has risen to over 1.6 million today, which, for context, is over 3 times what it was just about two weeks ago!— Mastodon (@joinmastodon) November 12, 2022

Messages aren’t encrypted, and server admins can see them, so it’s best not to use them for any important or sensitive business. You also need to be careful about sharing private vs. public messages, as it’s easy to get the two mixed up on Mastodon.Before you make the jump, take the time to consider your audience, your content and whether you want to weather the Twitter storm or bow out while you’re ahead.Think of Mastodon as an interesting new channel to exploreWhile Mastodon is gaining popularity at lightning speed (it’s almost always the first option on any list of “twitter alternatives”), we don’t think Twitter’s going anywhere just yet, and most social media professionals agree.However, it’s worth getting to know how Mastodon works as an app separate from Twitter. Don’t treat it like Twitter, but as its own new, exciting space. While we don’t currently have scheduling for Mastodon within Buffer, you can use the platform’s native scheduler. And if you’re wondering if/when we’ll add Mastodon to our current roster of features, keep an eye on our product roadmap and join our community for updates.

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Hi all I’m currently writing an outbound cold email campaign for a client in cyber-security: I straight up don’t have experience – my boss is sending them out through Klenty. The offer: UK based software firm that delivers security solutions to businesses He’s said that the email marketing so far has hit a stagnant spot, and that he’d like fresh new ideas on the table. What I’ve currently written: Split A( benefit focused sequence) That part seems so be okay with higher ups. However, its basically what they’ve done already.. However, after proposing a loss aversion angle for split B to use against the control(split A), higher ups seem to think that this angle is too obviously salesy.. I am really struggling to find an effective angle to use for Split B.. Does anyone out there have experience writing for cyber-security? submitted by /u/Internal_Ad8442 [link] [comments]

This time each year, nature – as well as marketing – slows down as we head into colder seasons.
As we enter Q4, marketing departments are preparing for a slowdown in business that comes as people tune out towards the end of the year.
But, while seasonal change is expected and inevitable, this year’s economic shifts might cause some marketers to worry that this year could bring a flurry of poor numbers.
As you see dips or bumps in early Q4, you might wonder, “Is my marketing department experiencing seasonality or an impact of outside events, or are our numbers solely based on the work we’ve been doing?”
To help you gather evidence that proves or disproves the possibility of outside impacts in Q4, here’s a look at how businesses across industries entered the first month of it in October.
About this Data: These insights are based on data aggregated from 158,000+ HubSpot customers globally between July 2021 and October 2022. Because the data is aggregated from HubSpot customers’ businesses, please keep in mind that the performance of individual businesses, including HubSpot’s, might differ based on their markets, customer base, industry, geography, stage, and/or other factors.

How Marketing Metrics Are Shifting (or Staying the Same) in Early Q4
To learn how metrics were shifting, we looked at data from sample sizes of 120,000+ businesses.
Overall, we’re seeing that most inbound marketing metrics are down year-over-year. Luckily, the good news is that one major, hard-to-win metric, website conversion rate, is trending upward.

 

When looking month-over-month, numbers seem to be flatter with a mixed bag of small increases and decreases, which could hint that we’re heading into a seasonal time of slow growth, or starting to see some sluggishness due to the economic climate.

 

Below, I’ll break down each key marketing metric and walk through what we’ve seen across industries in Q4 so far.
Q4 Web Traffic So Far
Month-over-month, we see that fall and winter seasonality hasn’t harmed websites quite yet with most industries seeing flat, low-change in traffic. Only Technology, Information and Media (up 2% MoM) as well as Trade, Transportation and Utilities (up nearly 3%) saw any real change.
While seasonality might not be impacting the industries below, year-over-year data shows significant dips in traffic across industries (a theme we’ve seen throughout the last few months). Professional and Business Services (down 10%) saw the most significant annual loss, while Leisure and Hospitality saw the reverse with a nearly 7% YoY increase.

Industry
MoM
YoY
Sample size

All
1.30%
-10.80%
145,150

Construction
-1.21%
-5.39%
1,405

Education and Health Services
-0.42%
-3.74%
3,659

Financial Activities
1.32%
-11.12%
4,084

Leisure and Hospitality
-1.31%
6.99%
1,114

Manufacturing
-0.19%
-6.43%
4,463

Professional and Business Services
-0.55%
-9.65%
12,999

Technology, Information and Media
2.32%
-4.62%
14,934

Trade, Transportation and Utilities
2.92%
-5.58%
3,480

Why is this happening? Are we continuing to see solid annual traffic drops? We can’t be certain, but a few things that could be causing impacts are:

More and more, audiences spend time discovering and even shopping for products on social media directly – no longer relying on standalone company sites.
In 2021, many regions were still at least partially quarantined due to COVID-19. While the pandemic continues, most of the world’s lightened precautions, enabling economies to re-open and allowing more people to go out and spend less time surfing the web.
Search engines get more and more competitive daily as hundreds of sites aim to rank for the same keywords as their competitors. More competition directly impacts search traffic and, today, search result pages are more saturated than ever..

Website Conversions Grow Despite Traffic Dips
While traffic seems to be a tad sluggish in October, we’re seeing significant YoY gains (+10.95%) overall with Technology, Information and Media leading the pack (+22.1%) and only Trade, Transportation and Utilities, and Construction seeing decreases.
Across the board, we’re seeing a very slight MoM decrease overall, except for Technology, Information and Media which saw a large increase and Trade which saw the greatest decrease (aligning with slow tech business growth reports we’ve seen all over the news.)

Industry
MoM
YoY
Sample size

All
-1.76%
10.95%
124,836

Construction
-5.36%
-5.36%
1,166

Education and Health Services
2.26%
19.35%
3,316

Financial Activities
-4.59%
7.47%
3,542

Leisure and Hospitality
5.00%
9.70%
939

Manufacturing
-6.27%
12.95%
3,905

Professional and Business Services
0.31%
15.41%
11,451

Technology, Information and Media
17.27%
22.10%
13,504

Trade, Transportation and Utilities
-8.41%
-4.39%
2,984

Inbound Leads Stay Fairly Flat… Except in a Few Key Industries
In October, Inbound Leads were a mixed bag. However, the evidence of both positive and negative seasonality patterns become more obvious when looking at this metric.
Month-over-month, inbound leads remained flat with an overall 0.65% decrease. Manufacturing (-6.48%), as well as Transportation and Utilities (-5.6%), saw the biggest dips. Meanwhile, Construction (-8.75%) and Trade, Transportation and Utilities (9.82%) saw significant YoY losses.
Where did inbound leads grow? Technology, Information and Media saw a sizable MoM and YoY increase of 5.22% each. Additionally, inbound leads overall saw a small annual increase with Education and Health Services (16.76%) and Leisure and Hospitality (17.15%) seeing the greatest gains. These boosts contributed to year-over-year growth of 1.63% for overall industries.

Industry
MoM
YoY
Sample size

All
-0.65%
1.63%
132,820

Construction
-4.48%
-8.75%
1,345

Education and Health Services
1.70%
16.76%
3,636

Financial Activities
-2.80%
-1.97%
3,876

Leisure and Hospitality
2.74%
17.15%
1,031

Manufacturing
-6.48%
4.31%
4,287

Professional and Business Services
0.15%
8.02%
12,648

Technology, Information and Media
5.22%
5.22%
14,592

Trade, Transportation and Utilities
-5.61%
-9.82%
3,251

What can we make of this data?
While we can expect year-over-year conversion rate growth with web traffic going down annually, some of the substantial losses and gains are due to more than just web traffic. A few potential impacts could be:

Products or services sold within manufacturing, trade, transportation, and utilities can be quite expensive or impacted by inflation. As people tighten their budgets with conflicting economic news, high-priced industries could be seeing some sluggish lead generation as people might only be focusing on just the products or services they need.
Seasonality is likely beginning to take effect as people begin to focus more on experiences driven by education, media, and holiday travel, while putting other industries on the back burner.
As we keep seeing news of career changes, recession-based company shifts, and the continuing pandemic, people might be more fixated on Education and Health Services industries than in previous quarters, leading to nearly-17% annual lead growth.

Are Marketing Emails Struggling to Be Seen?
In our previous reports, we noted that while marketers have been sending fewer emails – likely to meet the needs of today’s subscribers with heavily cluttered inboxes – they’re still seeing opens and open rates dip.
It’s tricky to guess what the problem could be, but as the HubSpot Blog’s former email manager, one suspicion I have is that email inboxes are far too saturated and competitive these days.

Metric
MoM
YoY
Sample size

Email sends
1.42%
-1.97%
141,791

Email opens
-1.14%
-15.85%
141,791

Email open rate
-2.19%
-13.71%
141,769

Ultimately, if your email isn’t seen in an inbox no one will open it. And, if you’re sending emails with great content, but non-competitive, non-eye-catching subject lines, your readers might not click into them.
Odds are, your subscriber subscribes to many other emails related to your industry. And, because of this, they compare you to competitors sending similar content with similar goals each day. This is why it’s so important for your brand’s emails to seem as interesting, unique, and eye-catching as possible – without looking too desperate.
To learn more about how to boost your open rate and opens, check out this helpful post.
Further Reading
When it comes to key marketing metrics, keeping a pulse on how the business world and your industry are doing can help you determine when and how to get ahead of competition.
For even more helpful data, check out our previous reports, plus a few additional research studies, as you plan your strategies for Q4 and beyond.

The Top Traffic, Conversion & Lead Trends in Q3: Data & Takeaways from 120,000 Businesses
Your Guide to Summer Web Traffic, Conversion & Lead Performance Across Industries
A Crisis of Disconnection: 3 Business Trends Stifling Business Growth in 2022

Lastly, be sure to check out our free, downloadable 2022 State of Marketing Report below – with data and tips from experts across the global marketing industry.