Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Facebook ads can generate awareness, bring in leads, and convert prospects … but only you can get them approved.
In our 2020 “Not Another State of Marketing Report,” we found that more than one in three marketers listed Facebook ads as their best performer in terms of ROI. That’s a higher ratio than Google Paid Search or Instagram.  
Over 3 million businesses used Facebook’s advertising platform in 2020 and 78% of American consumers say they’ve discovered products on Facebook in the past. Whether you’re already one of them, or if you’re just getting started on Facebook advertising, understanding Facebook’s ad approval process is paramount to success.
Below, we identify the common causes for rejection, what you can do if your ad is rejected, and some best practices to follow to ensure success.

How to Get a Facebook Ad Approved
In theory, Facebook’s approval process is straightforward:

Submit an ad that adheres to Facebook’s advertising guidelines. New and edited ads will both go through the same review process.
Facebook reviews ads using a combination of bots and manual reviewers.
Your ad is either approved or denied. You’ll be notified when the decision is made, and ads that were approved will go live.

However, the review process in step two can seem like a bit of a black box. What points do Facebook’s approval team take into account while doing reviews? How long will this process take? Let’s take a closer look at the review process, and what you can do to ensure your ad makes it through.
How long does Facebook’s ad review process take?
Most ads are reviewed within 24 hours, according to Facebook’s Advertising Policy, and you’ll receive an email or notification with the results of the review. However, it’s not uncommon for ad review to take up to a few days. That’s why it’s important to plan ahead and try to follow the rules.

New ad campaigns tend to get reviewed for longer. However, if you have a long history of publishing ads successfully, you’ll see your review time shorten.
Ads are manually reviewed, so if more people are submitting ads for review, there can be a longer wait time. Expect to wait longer during holiday seasons.
If you’ve submitted an ad to go live as soon as possible, it will be published as soon as the review process is complete and the ad is approved.

Why was my Facebook ad not approved?
There are many reasons why Facebook rejects an ad, including:

Selling products not allowed on Facebook (tobacco, illegal products or services, weapons, etc …).
Making sensational claims, using click-bait, or promoting misinformation.
Ads not following Facebook’s advertising guidelines, such as branding requirements and text restrictions.
Disruptive or low quality content that negatively impacts a Facebook user’s experience.

Fortunately, you don’t need to figure out the reason for the rejection yourself. If your ad is rejected, you can review the reason for the rejection and either request another review or edit your ad to fit within Facebook’s policies. To review your ad status, or request an appeal, head to the Account Quality page in your Facebook account.  
Four Common Reasons for Rejected Facebook Ads
A number of Facebook’s advertising policies can be confusing at first glance. Let’s break down these common reasons for rejections to understand how you can get your ad approved faster.
1. There’s too much text on the image.
Facebook’s ad policy states that your image may not have text over 20% of the area. While it may be tempting to try and fit more information into your image, remember that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Images are more engaging than text-based ads and result in higher click-through rates. Even if it wasn’t a Facebook policy, we’d recommend reducing the amount of text on your ads.
2. Landing pages are not functional.
Your ad copy is not the only thing that matters when it comes to getting your ad approved. Facebook also examines the landing page to which you’re sending people. If the landing page is substantially different from what you’re advertising, you can expect your ad to be rejected.
Resist the temptation to be overly clever and pull a bait-and-switch with your ads (i.e., advertising to lose the dead weight and linking to a divorce attorney’s site). Your landing page URL should also be reflective of the copy on the page.

Image source
Finally, make sure your landing page is functional. If customers have to click through pop-ups to get to the content, or there are dead links on the page, Facebook will potentially deny your ad.
3. Ad copy is overly personal.
Wait, isn’t personalization what customers want? Yes, but only when they have expressly given the permission for their data to be used. When an unknown advertiser (a third party) uses data, it can seem creepy or overreaching.
A study published in Harvard Business Review found that when “unacceptable, third-party sharing had occurred, concerns about privacy outweighed people’s appreciation for ad personalization.” In other words, users don’t feel comfortable when advertisers seem to have access to more personal data than they have directly disclosed with them.
This is one of the reasons Facebook won’t approve ads that directly reference a user’s personal information. According to Facebook’s policies, “ads must not contain content that asserts or implies personal attributes.”
For example, ad copy stating a user’s age or sexual orientation would not be allowed. While you may want to attract single 20-somethings to your hip new bar, you wouldn’t be able to say “Hey single lady! Your 20s are the time to live it up. Visit O-Town Pub tonight!” However, you can still narrow your ad audience to females in their 20s.
Yes, you should still try to direct your advertisements to your target audience. But avoid the “creepy” factor.
4. Facebook’s brand guidelines weren’t followed.
Facebook offers a number of guidelines about how to refer to them. In general, ads should avoid suggesting they are related to Facebook, adding the Facebook logo, or making Facebook branding the main focus of the ad. Additionally;

Don’t pluralize Facebook or abbreviate it as “FB”.
Don’t use the “f” or Facebook logos in place of the word “Facebook” in ad copy.
Don’t change Facebook’s brand colors, even for animation purposes.

Four Best Practices for Facebook Ads
Creating an ad that will perform well goes a long way to creating an ad that will get approved. Facebook wants its users to have a positive experience when interacting with ads.
If users can discover new products and services through Facebook ads, they’ll continue to engage with the platform. Following these best practices for Facebook Ads will ensure a positive experience for your visitors, along with a strong conversion rate.
1. Think visually.
Facebook ads compete for your audience’s attention alongside all the other posts on Facebook: pictures of your friends’ kids, amazing pictures of nature, and tons of pet pictures. How is your ad going to catch the attention of your target customer? It has to be visually appealing.
Check out the below video from Chive, which sells plant pots. The big green plant catches your eye right away, while the motion keeps your attention. This is a great, simple but visually striking advertisement.

2. Have a clear call to action.
What do you want your audience to do next? Should they like your Facebook Page? Download a free template? Sign up for a newsletter? Having a direct call to action will promote more engagement. Tell your customers what to do next, then make it very easy for them to follow through.
According to AdRoll, adding a call-to-action button boosts click-through rate by 2.85 times. The advertisement below is taking advantage of Facebook’s call-to-action buttons by inviting users to sign up for a free virtual event.

3. Keep it relevant.
With Facebook Pixels and extensive ad targeting options available, there is no reason to promote irrelevant content or offers. The best offers are hyper-targeted to your ideal customer, based on their past site activity and their likes. For example, this advertisement for plant propagation decor is very relevant to me, because I’ve purchased from online plant nurseries before.

4. Provide value.
Why should a customer click through to your landing page? Do you have information they need? A product that is going to solve their problems? Or are you offering a deal? Know what value you provide customers, and make it clear in your advertisement.
The below example from an online grocery store offers delicious food, with a 10% discount on the first purchase. That’s worth signing up for.

Get Started with Facebook Ads
Understanding their policies will get your Facebook Ads approved faster and more reliably. Follow the tips above for better results when advertising on Facebook.

A lot of companies have employee referral programs.
The concept is simple: If you refer someone who ends up getting hired, you earn a reward (typically a cash bonus). It’s a win-win – HR gets qualified candidates while employees feel motivated to assist in the search process.
The caveat we often see is that if the employee leaves the company within a certain window, the reward is null and void. Why give out a commission if the company won’t see a return on their investment? This is the same principle behind performance marketing.

Let’s dive into how performance marketing works, its benefits, and the tools you can use to implement it in your strategy.
With a traditional ad campaign approach, there’s no guarantee you will get a return on your investment. Once your ad launches, you can only monitor its performance and make adjustments.
The better and quicker you are at identifying areas for improvement, the better your chances of maximizing your return on ad spend (ROAS). But even seasoned media buyers can have unsuccessful campaigns if there’s misalignment between the campaign and the target audience.
Performance marketing places the power back into advertisers’ hands. Because you’ll only be paying when your goals are met, you accomplish three things:

Your campaign is less risky
There’s a guaranteed return on investment (ROI)
You have better control over your ad spend

Is affiliate marketing the same as performance marketing?
Short answer: yes and no.
Think of affiliate marketing as a subset of performance marketing. The terms are often used interchangeably. However, performance marketing has grown to cover more than just affiliates over the years.
It also comprises campaigns that use pay-per-click (PPC) models, such as paid search.
How Performance Marketing Works
There are three key players needed to execute a performance marketing strategy:

A publisher or an affiliate partner
A conversion goal
A commission rate

You, as the advertiser, will seek out an affiliate partner, which can be an influencer or publisher.
You must then outline your conversion goals. Let’s say your marketing objective for the quarter is to gain 10,000 leads. You can instruct your partner to direct traffic to your landing page and they will only earn a commission once a user has filled out the form.
Your next question might be, “How do advertisers know which users come from which affiliate?” Advertisers typically give each partner a specific link or code to track who is responsible for that conversion goal.
For instance, if I was an influencer and I partnered with Brandon Blackwood, I would share a 10% discount code “MARTINA10” with my followers to use at checkout when purchasing an item from the brand. Every time someone used my code to purchase, I would get a percentage of the sale.
Today, performance marketing is most popular with influencers, as studies show consumers trust influencers more than brands.
Before influencers, there were online publishers, and they are still big players in performance marketing. If you search “Top Performance Marketing Tools” on Google and land on a listicle, there’s a chance one of these tools may be an affiliate link.
How can you know for sure? Well, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) now requires affiliate partners to disclose their partnerships to consumers. On Instagram, you’ll see the “paid partnership” tag, like this:

On websites and YouTube video descriptions, you’ll see affiliate disclosures, like this:
How To Create a Performance Marketing Strategy
1. Define your goals.
With any digital marketing campaign, establishing your objectives is key.
What do you want to accomplish? It may be general brand awareness, sales for your new product line, more leads, or something else.
Let’s go back to the world where I’m an influencer. Let’s say Brandon Blackwood just came out with a new product. Their marketing goal is to raise awareness of the new product and drive traffic to its product page to generate sales. In this case, their key metrics would be website clicks and unique sales.
Once you define your goals, you can develop your ad strategy and determine which metrics to track.
2. Identify your partners.
Now that you know what you want to achieve, start looking at online publishers and social media influencers whose audiences align with your own.
Identifying the right partners will require extensive research but it’s arguably the most important step.
Imagine working with a partner whose audience has no interest in your brand or product. Although they may interact at some level, they likely won’t convert.
And while you may not lose money, given that they would need to perform a particular action, it would be a waste of your time and resources.
After identifying who you want to work with, reach out to them to see if they would be interested in a partnership. During this step in the process, you’ll discuss your marketing goals, target audience, and commission rates. While some brands have standard rates, others may negotiate.
3. Generate and assign IDs.
You have solidified your partnerships. Now it’s time to get your links and codes ready to share with your affiliate(s).
The only way to correctly attribute an action to a particular partner is by assigning a custom ID, code, or UTM parameter.
It’s important to note that while you may do this manually at first, you’ll likely need to rely on a program to automate this process as you scale your business.
Top Performance Marketing Software
There are two main types of performance marketing software: those that focus on connecting advertisers with affiliate partners or publishers and those that monitor performance. Let’s go through some top tools in each category.
Performance Marketing Partnership Tools
1. PartnerStack

If you’re a SaaS company looking to develop a robust partner program, consider PartnerStack.

The platform, ranked in G2’s 2021 top 50 “Products for Sales,” helps brands recruit, onboard, and manage partners.
PartnerStack’s key features include custom forms and email flows to:

Facilitate onboarding.
Set up reward structures that are tailored to each partner.
Develop an automated payment process.

The company offers custom pricing based on the needs and requirements of each business.
2. Partnerize

Want a simple and easy-to-use dashboard to manage your partners? Check out Partnerize.

Their dashboard gives you high-level data that allow you to gather information quickly and make decisions. Beyond that, Partnerize also customizes its features based on the industry, ensuring that every brand will have what they need to succeed in their performance marketing campaigns.
For pricing information, contact Partnerize.
3. TapJoy

TapJoy is designed for brands targeting mobile app users.

The software serves as an intermediary between advertisers and top mobile gaming publishers. Brands can track key conversion goals, like video completion and in-app purchases, and only pay money on the actions that meet their goals.
To learn about TapJoy’s pricing structure, you must contact the company.
Performance Marketing Tracking Tools
1. LeadDyno

One of the biggest struggles of working with affiliates is creating and tracking links and codes for each partner. This is where LeadDyno comes in.

LeadDyno gives brands the tools needed to grow a successful affiliate program. Standout features include:

Automated links and codes for each partner
Option to upload social media-ready content for affiliates to share
A customizable affiliate portal

Pricing starts at $49/month and goes up to $79/month, for access to unlimited affiliates, extensive customer support options, and more. LeadDyno also offers custom pricing for businesses with over 7,500 unique monthly website visitors.
2. AnyTrack.io

With AnyTrack, attribution reporting is easier. You can consolidate data from multiple sources (like Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel) into one platform. From there, you can identify which strategies are working, and which ones require adjustments.

You can start using AnyTrack for free. Premium versions of the software are available, with pricing ranging from $50/month to $300/month.
3. Impact

The Impact tool streamlines the partnership process from initial contact to payout.

Anyone from an ambassador to a sponsor can be added to a brand’s “Partnership Cloud,” with tailored features for each type of partner.
Beyond the Cloud, Impact’s main features include:

Partner search and discovery
Fraud detection
Partner management optimization

Get in touch with Impact to learn more about pricing.
Top Performance Marketing Verticals
Wondering which industries use performance marketing the most? According to a 2018 study by the Performance Marketing Association, advertisers in the retail sector spent the most in performance marketing – accounting for 50% of total spend. The financial sector followed with 35%, then a steep drop off to the travel industry with a 7% spend.
In terms of revenue, the sector with the highest revenue was retail at 73%, followed by travel with 14%. Industries like automotive, healthcare, and telecoms only accounted for 1% of the total performance marketing revenue in 2018.
However, despite having the big spend and highest revenue percentages, the retail industry didn’t offer the best ROAS. According to the report, the travel industry offered the best return with an 18:1 ratio, followed by the entertainment sector with a 15:1 ratio.
Any industry can have success with performance marketing. It’s all about collaborating with the right partners and setting up a robust program to reach your marketing goals.

Today’s buyer’s journey includes a number of interactions across various touchpoints and channels. There’s rarely a conversion of sale that occurs based off a single interaction.
Rather, conversions and sales often stem from a mix of interactions via a variety of sources such as blog articles, social media posts, webinars, in-person events, conversations with reps, content on your website, email marketing campaigns, and more. All of these touchpoints play a role in getting your customers to convert.

Attribution allows you to give credit for conversions to those marketing touchpoints and channels throughout the buyer’s journey. Multi-touch attribution takes this a step further.
Multi-Touch Attribution
In this blog post, we’ll cover the definition of multi-touch attribution, what makes it unique from other types of attribution, and multi-touch attribution models. Let’s get started.
What is multi-touch attribution?
Multi-touch attribution, which may also be referred to as fractional attribution, is how you determine the value of each touchpoint throughout the customer journey that results in a conversion.
In other words, it’s when credit for a conversion is given to every touchpoint that a customer experienced throughout the buyer’s journey.
Why is multi-touch attribution important?
The reason multi-touch attribution is so important is that it allows you to pinpoint all of the channels that contribute to a conversion and which of those channels have the most impact on a conversion. It gives you a clear picture of how your channels and touchpoints influence every conversion.
This is valuable information that you can use to enhance those touchpoints for future prospects to improve the customer experience and buyer’s journey. It shows you exactly how different touchpoints and channels work together to influence deals on an individual level.
You can also use this information to better understand what matters most to your target audience throughout the buyer’s journey and which aspects of the customer experience are most influential when they’re making a decision.
You may have heard about other types of attribution before, such as first-touch and last-touch. Let’s talk about what makes multi-touch attribution unique next.
Multi-Touch Attribution vs. First-Touch Attribution vs. Last-Touch Attribution
Multi-touch attribution is unique from first-touch and last-touch attribution because it doesn’t attribute a conversion to the first or last marketing touchpoint a customer has prior to converting.
For example, say a HubSpot customer read a blog post, attended INBOUND, interacted with a social media post, and then became a customer.
First-touch attribution would conclude that the blog post that the customer read gets the credit for their conversion whereas last-touch attribution would give the credit to the social media post they interacted with. Meanwhile, multi-touch attribution would consider all of these touchpoints and assign credit to each of them.
Meaning, multi-touch attribution is unique because it takes all touchpoints into consideration and then assigns credit to each of those touchpoints based on the amount of influence it had a customer’s decision to convert. First and last-touch attribution — which may also be referred to as single-touch attribution — do not. These methods feel slightly outdated when compared to multi-touch attribution because they don’t account for the many touchpoints and channels that exist for prospects and customers to engage with.

Multi-Touch Attribution Models
There are a number of attribution models that you can use to determine which touchpoints are the most important in the buyer’s journey — and different multi-touch attribution models weigh the multiple touchpoints in different ways.
Here are four of the most common multi-touch attribution models to help you get started.
1. Linear Attribution
A linear attribution model, also known as an even-weighting attribution model, gives equal credit for a conversion to every touchpoint in the buyer’s journey. This can be considered the “standard” when it comes to multi-touch attribution models.
Who should use linear attribution?
Linear attribution is great if your prospects are often in the consideration phase of the buyer’s journey for an extended period of time because it shows you the impact that all of your content and messaging has during that extended phase.
It’s also ideal if you want to know the ways that your touchpoints work together to influence a deal or if you’re new to multi-touch attribution and don’t have a baseline understanding of how your touchpoints tend to do among your audience.
2. Time Decay Attribution
A time-decay attribution model is when you organize your touchpoints based on their percent influence on a conversion so that the least-influential touchpoint (with the lowest percentage) is first and the most-influential touchpoint (with the greatest percentage) is last.
Who should use time decay attribution?
Time decay attribution is ideal if you’re measuring the success of short-term touchpoints like campaigns.
3. U-Shaped Attribution
A U-shaped attribution model, also known as a bathtub model, gives the first and last touchpoints in the buyer’s journey a higher percentage of credit than the touchpoints in the middle.
Who should use u-shaped attribution?
U-shaped attribution is ideal if your team wants to focus on the impact of the first and last of your multiple touchpoints. There’s less emphasis on touchpoints that support the middle stages of the buyer’s journey.
4. W-Shaped Attribution
W-shaped multi-touch attribution gives credit to the first and last touchpoints in the buyer’s journey as well as gives value to the touchpoints that occur in the middle of the buyer’s journey. Then, all remaining touchpoints are assigned equal credit.
Who should use w-shaped attribution?
W-shaped attribution is helpful if you want to understand which touchpoints actually convert leads but also identify the touchpoints that encourage customers to engage and continue to move through the buyer’s journey.
In addition to the four multi-touch attribution models above, you can also create customize your multi-touch attribution model using attribution software.
Multi-touch attribution software — like Wicked Reports — has the power to make the process of identifying which of your marketing touchpoints are succeeding or failing among your prospects simple.

Source
In fact, Wicked Reports gives you a complete view of how customers interact with your brand and tracks incoming clicks against your CRM and sales data so you can identify the most important clicks in relation to your team’s unique marketing goals.
Pro Tip: Seamlessly integrate Wicked Reports with your HubSpot CRM platform.
Use Multi-Touch Attribution
Multi-touch attribution is a powerful process that marketers can use to identify the various factors that influenced a purchase decision for a customer. It also helps marketers understand which of those factors were the most influential in their decision.
This information can be used to improve the buyer’s journey and the marketing content and communications shared throughout it as well as provide an understanding of what matters most to your business’ unique prospects when making a buying decision.

In 2020, I looked up more recipes than I ever have. Mostly Italian if you’re wondering.
I also spent a lot of time watching videos on YouTube, letting the autoplay feature take me down a rabbit hole of videos covering all kinds of topics.

Most consumers were doing the same thing.
So, what should marketers expect on YouTube in 2021? Read on and find out.
Consumers want videos that reflect their daily life.
If 2020 showed marketers anything, it was the necessity for agility and authenticity.
Every marketer had to shift their priorities and deliver marketing collateral that reflected the time we were all living through.
YouTube data from July 2019 to July 2020 shows a 215% increase in daily uploads for content with “self-care” in the title. From the viewer’s side, TV screen watch time went up over 180% for videos relating to well-being, such as fitness, meditation, and yoga.
Now, in 2021, consumers are still seeking out content that reflects their current state of mind.
This isn’t to say that your brand should start a “30 Days of Yoga” series. It’s to highlight how closely tied current events are to the type of content we consume. If you stay in tune with how your audience is feeling and the type of content they’re seeking out, you can embed it into your YouTube strategy.
“Viewers really want content that not only educates them but also engages them. Our new style is putting big stock in the authenticity and personality of its presenters,” said Jamal Meneide, associate video producer/editor and on-screen talent for HubSpot’s YouTube Channel.
Brands must now pay attention to the social climate and general consumer feelings, and incorporate these elements into the content.
Not sure how to keep your finger on the pulse? Jump to this section to learn how to research YouTube trends.
Short-form video is growing in popularity.
In September 2020, YouTube launched “Shorts” in India, a new short-form video platform on YouTube. It’s now making Shorts available in the US, as of March 2021.
Similar to other short-form platforms, videos on Shorts are formatted vertically to be viewed on a phone. Although it’s still in beta, users can create 15-second clips, edit them with several tools and add music from YouTube’s music library.
According to a Search Engine Journal article, Shorts already gained steam, gaining over 3.5 billion daily views. But why would YouTube, a platform known for long-form content invest in this strategy? Meneide has a theory.
“YouTube is trying to compete with TikTok, which is evident in their play to introduce ‘Shorts.’ For a time, it felt like there was a pendulum swing toward really long, unedited content,” said Meneide.
“While this is still prevalent,” he adds, “it seems like we’ve swung back the other way with short to mid-length content really killing it. Viewers want easily consumable, entertaining content that won’t be as demanding on their time.”
This is an opportunity for brands to experiment with short-form content on YouTube and see what audiences are responding to.
One strategy is using Shorts to create teasers for your upcoming videos or create condensed, shareable versions of your long-form videos.
But long-form videos aren’t going anywhere.
Even with the push toward shorter videos, consumers still enjoy the traditional long-form approach.
In June 2020, YouTube reported that 46% of survey respondents said they were more likely to watch videos over 20 minutes long than they were six months ago.
Some YouTubers creators credit long-form video content for their engagement rates, and they’ve got data on their side.
A 2019 Pixability study found that branded videos over 10 minutes long had higher engagement than shorter videos.
But length won’t be enough to keep your audience’s attention.
“Driving music and animation also play a big part in building engagement. Whenever you see animation as a viewer, you know it’s either reinforcing a key concept or adding to a joke,” said Meneide.
“In either case, you’ve been delighted by that extra visual we decided to throw in. With music, we can shift the tone and mood of a video – from driving hip hop beats, to chill jazz.”
He adds that music creates a sonic bed for the viewer to situate themselves on, inviting the audience to lean in as you speed things up or sit back and relax as you slow things down.
“These kinds of stylistic and production choices are ones that many large channels on YouTube have decided to make,” Meneide said. “While content with a more ‘homemade’ feeling still crushes it, there is also an audience who wants to see well-produced, highly engaging content.”
Marketers will start leveraging audio ads.

In November 2020, YouTube introduced audio ads, a new way for brands to reach consumers.
It was a surprising announcement, given that the platform is known for video content. However, according to a Think With Google article, over two billion people go to YouTube for music.
The article also reported a 100% increase in watch time for live music performance between July 2019 and July 2020. This sets the stage for marketers to include YouTube as an ad platform for their audio content.

How To Research YouTube Trends
We’ve covered a few YouTube trends for 2021, but marketers need to know how to identify trends as they come.
“On the HubSpot YouTube team, we’re always looking at trends, which we corroborate with monthly search volume and keyword research to help define our content strategy,” Meneide said. “We want to serve our audience content that they’re looking for when they’re looking for it, and being sensitive to when a topic bubbles up is key to the process.”
Your first resource is Google Trends, a free online resource that is updated with real-time data on the popularity of certain topics and search terms on YouTube.
You can also rely on tools like VidIQ and TubeBuddy to determine which ideas are worth pursuing. A good rule of thumb, according to Meneide is asking what big “how” or “why” questions you can answer for your viewers.
Then, you have keyword research – this tells you what consumers are searching for and if it’s worth your time and resources.
For instance, let’s say your brand wants to cover the latest tech apps in your next video. You go to Google Keyword Planner and find out that it has a monthly search volume of about 100. This may indicate that while there is some interest, it’s not high enough to warrant a whole video.
It’s also important to look at the news and see what topics are trending. However, know the difference between something that’s just in the news cycle and a trend worth incorporating into your YouTube strategy.
One way to decipher between the two is asking, “How far does this reach, and will it matter in a few weeks or months?”
“Hopping onto news can be just as explosive for growth or your marketing strategy as trends, but makes it a bit harder when you’re always relying on the latest, ‘hottest’ news piece to inform your content strategy,” Meneide said. “By focusing on longtail trends, you can ride out a wave of sustained interest in a topic, rather than capturing what could potentially be a fleeting interest.”
As we navigate through this year, more trends will likely pop up and might inform your YouTube strategy. What’s most important is being flexible and knowing when something is worth exploring further.

A few years ago, I got hired as a content marketer at a small web design company.
At the time, I thought one skill — and one skill only — would serve me well enough to succeed: the ability to write.
I was a proud English graduate who had no idea how to make it successfully as a content marketer.
Fortunately, I’ve picked up some critical skills over the years that’ve enabled me to grow as a content marketer. Most of those skills have nothing to do with writing.
Whether you’ve been a content marketer for years or you’re looking to get hired for your first content marketing role, you’re in luck. Here, let’s explore the skills you’ll need to hone to excel as a content marketer in 2021 and beyond.

Content Marketing Skills
1. Copywriting
More likely than not, the vast majority of your role as a content marketer requires you to create content that converts leads and drives sales. To do this successfully, you need to be a good copywriter.
However, it’s important to note — copywriting for marketing purposes requires different skills than it might if you were writing for non-business purposes.
For one, copywriting for a business requires a consistent commitment to writing in a brand’s unique voice.
This can get particularly difficult if you’re a freelance content marketer who creates content for different businesses and industries. However, it’s critical you develop the ability to write in different styles depending on the needs of a business.
For a sales blog, for instance, you might need to write short, concise, straightforward sentences, since salespeople are often strapped for time and need answers immediately.
Marketers, on the other hand, have a bit more time to appreciate writing for writing’s sake, so you can take the time to use more creative, long-form sentences.
Additionally, how you write a video script for an insurance company varies significantly from how you write social copy for an e-commerce business.
Developing a brand voice — and knowing how to alter your writing style depending on business needs and audience persona — is a critical skill in content marketing.
2. Editing Skills
Along similar lines as copywriting, it’s vital you become a proficient editor if you want to succeed as a content marketer.
Good, clear writing can be powerful enough to persuade hesitant prospects to buy. And, on the flip side, messy, error-prone writing could cause new visitors and prospects to abandon your site entirely.
In short, the ability to edit is the difference between mediocre writing and compelling, engaging, high-converting content.
No pressure, right?
Learning how to create content quickly is a critical skill of any content marketer, particularly if you’re responsible for creating content across a variety of channels for your business. Editing, then, is a mandatory step for cleaning up that copy and making it sound as professional and polished as possible.
3. SEO Skills
This skill was a tricky one for me to master, but it is vital for ensuring my content ranks online and reaches the right audience when they need it most.
As a content marketer, your role isn’t just to create high-quality content. It’s also to create content that converts readers, listeners, or watchers into customers.
And to do this, you need a basic understanding of SEO.
For instance, if you’re a content marketer who’s in charge of your company’s YouTube page, you’ll want to know how to conduct keyword research to discern what people are looking for on YouTube, and then write compelling, SEO-optimized titles and video descriptions to attract viewers to those videos.
Alternatively, as a blogger, you’ll need to know how to create SEO-optimized content — including using appropriate alt-text in your images, using relevant keywords in your section titles, and thoughtfully incorporating keywords throughout your content (rather than keyword-stuffing).
Ultimately, SEO ensures the content you work hard to create is served to the right audiences, at the right time. Without an SEO foundation, then, it will be difficult to succeed as a content marketer.
4. A Talent for Interviewing
As a content marketer, you’re often tasked with creating content around unfamiliar or complex topics.
It can feel daunting to do the research necessary to create an informative, helpful piece of content on a topic for which you’re a novice at best. This is where interviewing can help you level up as a content marketer.
For instance, when I needed to write about Google’s rel=nofollow announcement last year, I knew I’d have a hard time determining why it mattered to our audience if I didn’t speak to an SEO strategist. Which is why I interviewed my colleague, Victor Pan, to add expert advice and help my audience understand the topic on a deeper level.
5. Time Management & Organization Skills
One of the most important skills any content marketer can foster is the skill to stay organized even under tight deadlines.
Being a content marketer means publishing content on a consistent, effective basis to ensure you’re reaching and converting audiences into leads for your sales team every month. As such, being organized and adhering to a content calendar that aligns with your company’s goals is a critical aspect of your role.
Additionally, writing can get tiring, so time management is important for avoiding burnout. For instance, if you’re required to write four blog posts per week, it will be helpful if you can block off time in your calendar for “Writing Time” during your peak productivity hours. Writing those four blog posts the night before the posts are due won’t set you up for success as a content marketer.
Consider using project management software to ensure your content remains organized even as your team scales. 
6. Data & Analytics Skills
If you don’t have the skills necessary to analyze how your content is performing, then it will be difficult — if not impossible — to iterate on your strategy over time and achieve new levels of growth.
A content marketer’s role includes the ability to analyze industry trends, keep up-to-date on your audience’s preferences and behavior, and use all that information to make strategic decisions and expand your brand’s reach.
When I first started creating content for HubSpot’s Blog, I was vehemently opposed to data. I enjoyed the creativity of content creation, and data felt like the exact opposite of all that.
However, over time I realized it didn’t matter how creative or unique my content was if no one read it.
This is where data came into play. It helped me iterate on the types of content I was writing, choose new topics to tackle that I knew my audience liked best, and stay ahead of industry trends to ensure my content aligned with conversions happening with marketers across the globe.
Ultimately, data is vital for ensuring you have a strong, effective content strategy. 
These are just a few skills you’ll need to master as you level up as a content marketer. Ultimately, the ability to remain flexible and figure out the needs of your own company’s unique goals is critical to succeeding as a content marketer for the long-haul. 

In an ideal world, marketers would have limitless budgets to invest in experimental initiatives and new programs. After all, the customer acquisition and retention landscape are evolving faster than ever. The challenge, however, is that marketing budgets are often limited around what’s proven to work — which tends to look different from company to company.
That’s why it’s so important to have access to industry data. By knowing where we stand against our peers and competitors, we’re better positioned to uncover areas of opportunity. And, given that overall marketing spend is expected to grow by 14% in 2021, you definitely want to know what your competitors are doing.
In this post, we’ll discuss data-backed areas that marketers are focusing their investments in 2021.

What Marketing Leaders Are Investing in This Year
Growth Marketing
The HubSpot Executive Marketing Leadership Survey posed the following question to respondents: “What areas of your marketing do you wish your team invested more in 2021?” Most respondents said they wanted to spend more time on growth marketing.
In brief, growth marketing describes the experiments and resulting processes that businesses used to build and retain a customer base over time. This can involve running A/B tests to ensure that all of your marketing efforts directly result from data that clearly explains your best practices in terms of converting and retaining customers. It’s closely related to conversion rate optimization, where you’re updating your content to increase acquisition.
Growth marketing can also involve using design elements and unique content to connect your brand with your audience to help you stay adaptive, consistent, and recognizable to your target market.
Featured Resource: A Data-Driven Approach To Growth Marketing
Reacting At Speed
63% of marketing leaders say that the coronavirus pandemic has impacted their teams’ productivity and responsiveness, and 11% say that responding to global environments is a barrier to productivity.
Because of this, marketers report that they will be investing more time in 2021 in being able to adapt and react at speed. Not only to changes within their industry but also to global challenges, which has proven to be more critical during the current pandemic.
Marketers say that the main issues to reacting at speed are developing unique, creative content at a fast pace and adapting quickly to trends.
They say they’ll combat this issue by taking stock of their current content and coming up with an action plan for future adaptations, interviewing their audience about their struggles, restructuring teams, and simply being ready to making changes when issues arise, even at a moment’s notice.
Investing in Marketing Technology
60% of marketers indicated that they are set to increase their marketing technology spending in the next 12 months. Investments in marketing technology are directly related to the above marketing trends of reacting at speed and growth marketing, as it will help marketers retain and delight their audiences and react at speed when necessary.
As a refresher, marketing technology, often referred to as martech, is a term used to describe the software and technology used to attract and retain customers. As of 2020, there are 8,000 different martech tools to choose from, ranging from data analytics platforms to CRMs, to internal team collaboration tools.
Regardless of the tools they use, a martech tech stack helps marketers streamline their processes and take a systematic approach to their day-to-day activities. And, as remote work becomes more commonplace, access to these technologies makes it easy for teams to work together, regardless of physical location.
Featured Resource: How to Stay Current on Emerging Tech
Continued Investment in Diversity Marketing
Early 2020 brought many businesses to a reckoning, as increased attention to social justice issues was at the forefront of conversations during the first few months of the year.
Consumers care now more than ever about the stances businesses take on public issues, demanding change and awareness from brands on diversity, equity, and inclusion. One of the ways they want to see this represented in businesses is diversity marketing.
It’s an effective practice for marketers to commit to, especially considering that people are more likely to consider a product after seeing an ad they think is diverse or inclusive, and 64% actually take action after seeing an ad they believed to be diverse and inclusive.
Thus, marketers will make a continued and improved effort to focus on diversity marketing in 2021 and be representative of the communities they serve that drive their revenue and keep their businesses afloat.
However, in the same vein, it’s even more critical that businesses are genuine about the diversity measures they take. Consumers can see through the fluff, and a recent survey found that 59% of consumers think that companies need to follow up on their statements on diversity with concrete action, or they risk being seen as exploitative and opportunist. Read this post to see examples of businesses that have exemplified the practice of inclusive marketing.
Personalization
Personalization is the way you interact with your audience and customers in a way that feels individualized, as you use data and buyer personas to create content that tailors to their likes and interests.
While 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences, marketers like the practice; 96% of them say it helps advance customer relationships. Given this, Think With Google names personalization as an area of focus for marketers in 2021.
How can marketers prepare? By leveraging the other trends on this list — investment in marketing technology that helps you with personalization, like powerful data analytics platforms to learn about customer preferences and email marketing services that help you personalize the messages you share with customers. In addition, a focus on and commitment to diversity marketing also ensures that your audiences are interacting with material that they can relate to and is relevant to their interests.
Join other market leaders in leveraging these trends.
Although not an exhaustive list, marketers are focusing on and investing in the trends mentioned above for 2021. Understand how each one will affect your business, and join other marketers in these investments.
To learn more about the state of marketing in 2021, read this post to hear directly from marketing experts about trends they expect to see throughout the year.