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When I was in grade school, Valentine’s Day was one of my favorite holidays. There were cards. There was the possibility that your crush actually liked you back. And, there was the chocolate — so much chocolate.
Little did I know that the roots of this holiday bore little-to-no resemblance to my childhood experience of it. We were never taught that Valentine’s Day actually originated with an arguably gruesome ancient festival, where there was no chocolate or exchange of cute, red-and-pink cards.

But love it or hate it, those are the types of things we associate with the holiday today. After all, there’s a reason roughly 114 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged each year — it’s what’s become expected of us.
So how the heck did we get from an ancient Roman festival to a holiday that compels many of us to spend no less than $147 on celebrating it? That story, it turns out, is thousands of years old — but we’ll try to condense it.
How Valentine’s Day Began and Evolved
Ancient Rome
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The roots of Valentine’s Day are cited by some sources to lie in the ancient Roman festival Lupercalia, largely because it took place annually on February 15 — the day after what is today the observed date of Valentine’s Day — and involved some very primitive forms of courtship and matchmaking. But it was also ancient Rome that saw the famous execution of a St. Valentine on February 14, around 278 A.D. According to legend, he wrote a letter on the night before his execution to his jailer’s daughter, whom he had befriended, and signed it, “From Your Valentine.”
Over two centuries later, Pope Gelasius ordered that Lupercalia be replaced with the February 14 observation of St. Valentine’s Day. That set the tone, some believe, for the day’s forthcoming tradition of exchanging “love messages,” perhaps in remembrance of St. Valentine’s farewell letter.
The Romans are also credited with constructing the idea of Cupid — a god of love often depicted with arrows that, as the legend goes, inflict love upon those who are hit by them. The Roman version of Cupid was adapted from Eros, a god of passion and fertility in Greek mythology. It seems that no one is quite sure when cupid became associated with Valentine’s Day, but the fact that both have origins in ancient Roman culture suggests that there may have been some very early overlap between the two.
Shakespeare (and Chaucer) in Love
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When NPR’s Arnie Seipel set out to explore the history of Valentine’s Day, he found that it first became romanticized by classic authors like William Shakespeare in the late 16th century, and Geoffrey Chaucer in the 1300s.
Chaucer
Dartmouth English professor Peter Travis cites Chaucer’s epic poem The Parliament of Fowls, which was one of the first literary references to St. Valentine’s Day, or “Seynt Valentynes day,” as Chaucer spelled it. One such mention is made, Travis explains, alongside the line, “Now welcom somer, with thy sonne sonne, That hast this wintres weders over-shake.” In other words, when we celebrate love in the coldest depths of winter — in February, for instance — it’s so heartwarming that it makes summer feel less far away.
Shakespeare
Some literary historians credit Shakespeare for the permeation of love into popular culture with his composition of “Sonnet 18” — said to be written between 1593-1601 — a.k.a., “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” It’s unclear when or how this particular work became associated with Valentine’s Day, but like Chaucer, Shakespeare compares love to the seasons.
“While summer days may fade and fall into” colder months, writes Shakespeare analyst Lee Jamieson, “his love is eternal.”
Of course, Saint Valentine’s day is alluded to outright in Hamlet — written between 1599-1601 — when the character Ophelia recites a song about a young lady’s experience with the holiday, which includes lyrics like, “Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day,” and, “To be your Valentine.”
The 17th Century and Beyond
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By the 1700s, it’s said that Valentine’s Day made its way from Europe to the United States, which aligns with the establishment of the North American colonies between 1607-1770. It became traditional, according to HISTORY.com, “for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes.” That was more common in England, however, where the Industrial Revolution began earlier and eventually included the production of “fancy valentines [that] were extremely expensive to import.”
It’s said that one American woman, Esther Howland, was so intrigued when she received her first English valentine greeting in 1847, that she became infatuated with the idea of manufacturing them in the U.S. She was an early entrepreneur, and instinctively believed that there could be an American market for these formal, English-style greetings. After procuring materials like high-quality paper and lace from her father, a stationer, she created what many credit as the earliest American Valentine’s Day greeting cards.
Today, Howland is still honored with the nickname “Mother of the American Valentine,” with many citing her work as the start of a multi-million-dollar industry. But it didn’t happen overnight — let’s take a look at how her work paved the way.
A Brief Timeline of Valentine’s Day Marketing
1714
Charles II of Sweden begins communicating with flowers, by assigning a different message to each type. This tradition allegedly assigned love and romance to the red rose, setting the stage for this flower to be exchanged during the later, commercialized era of Valentine’s Day. However, it remains unclear if a specific brand is responsible for first marketing flowers as part of Valentine’s Day gift-giving.
1822
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In England, where Valentine’s Day had by now already been celebrated with the exchange of gifts and cards for many years, the Cadbury chocolate company sells the first heart-shaped box of chocolates.
1849
In Massachusetts, Howland produces a dozen sample Valentine’s Day cards and sends them off with her brother to distribute during a sales trip for their father’s company — S.A. Howland & Sons — hoping to earn $200. Instead, he returns with 25X that amount, indicating a much higher-than-expected demand.
Here’s an example of a card Howland created around this time.

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1850
The first print advertisement for Howland’s cards appears in the Worcester Spy.
1866
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Conversation candies are developed, when Daniel Chase — brother of New England Confectionery Company (NECCO) founder Oliver Chase — uses vegetable dye to print words onto confections.
1870
Howland incorporates her booming card business as the New England Valentine Company, operating out of her home via an assembly line that was largely comprised of her friends.
1879
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The New England Valentine Company moves operations from Howland’s home to a Main Street factory in Worcester, Massachusetts. That same year, the company publishes the Valentine Verse Book, which contained 131 “verses” that people could cut out and paste inside of cards that came without a greeting — or those with a greeting that the buyer didn’t like.
1880 – 1881
Howland sells the New England Valentine Company to the George C. Whitney Company.
1888
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Whitney has acquired at least 10 competitors, including Berlin and Jones, which had become New York City’s “largest manufacturer of Valentines.” Ten years later, the company moves to large-scale headquarters on Worcester’s Union Street.
1894
The Hershey Chocolate Company is founded, bringing what was previously “a European luxury product” to the U.S.
1902
Conversation candies become heart-shaped.
1906
American Greetings is founded, eventually becoming one of Whitney’s chief competitors.
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1907
The Hershey Chocolate Company introduces its Hershey Kisses candy product. Interestingly enough, the product was allegedly named Kisses because whenever a piece of chocolate was dropped on the conveyer belt at the Hershey factory, it sounded like a kiss.

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1910
That January, a massive fire destroys much of Whitney’s headquarters. However, most of the Valentine’s Day products had already been shipped for the season, having little impact on that particular holiday.
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That same year, Hallmark is founded. Meanwhile, 1910 also saw the creation of Florists’ Telegraph Delivery — today known as FTD — which pioneered the remote ordering and delivery of flowers, providing a way to send them to far-away loved ones.
1913
Hallmark produces its first Valentine’s Day card.
1948
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The De Beers diamond company launches its “A Diamond is Forever” campaign, sending the message that gifting high-end jewelry can be used as an expression of love.
1985
In the ’80s companies like Hallmark began launching more Valentine’s Day related commercials. In 1985, one commercial, which dubs Hallmark as “The Valentine’s Store” shows off all of the cards and heart-shaped products you can buy for your loved one in their locations.

1986
As if Kisses weren’t romantic enough based on their name, Hershey’s enforced them as a Valentine’s Day staple with one slight design tweak. The company began packaging Kisses candies in pink and red foil specifically for Valentine’s Day.
2004
As marketers continued to embrace new media, we saw an influx of high-quality and insanely high-budgeted commercials mark the holiday from the ’80s until now. One of the most iconic and beautifully shot commercials was a mini-romance drama, called “Le Film,” promoting Chanel No. 5 perfume.
In the ad, a man falls in love and runs away with a starlet, played by Nicole Kidman. In the end, she returns back to her life of fame. As she walks down the red carpet, he notes all the things he’ll remember about her, including the smell of her Chanel No. 5 perfume.

2005
Valentine’s Day begins to go digital. On February 14, 2005, YouTube — which originated as an online dating site — makes its debut. Co-founder Steve Chen still credits its invention as the brainchild of “three guys on Valentine’s Day that had nothing to do.”
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2013
Ride sharing company Uber rolls out “Romance On Demand,” allowing users to send flowers on Valentine’s Day via the app. This initiative would continue to progress, with on-demand skywriting becoming available the following year.
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2016

Well aren’t you accurate today, @netflix #HappyValentinesDay pic.twitter.com/pUK05gQ8Rs — Tiffany Bukowski (@TheTiffy)
February 14, 2016

NetBase, a social media analytics platform, releases a Valentine’s Day Sentiment Analysis, measuring how people engage with and discuss the holiday on social media. In total, it measured nine million mentions of Valentine’s Day, with the vast majority of them mentioning a specific brand — Netflix. The top hashtag was #happyvalentinesday.
2017
In the earlier years of the Google Doodle, Google used Valentine’s Day to spread awareness of a rare species. In 2017, a series of Google Doodles shown in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day highlighted the stories of pangolins, the only mammal species with scales, as they give each other Valentine’s Day gifts or serenade their mates. Here’s one example:

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While, at this point, Google didn’t need to market themselves with Doodles, this shows an early example of a brand that used its platform to creatively market another cause on the holiday.
2018 to Present Day
In recent years, Valentine’s Day marketing campaigns have gone completely digital, with a particularly strong presence on social media. With these new opportunities, smaller companies that don’t have Hallmark’s budget can easily spread awareness of their own brands during the holiday. Here’s one example of an Instagram post which highlighted a fine Italian restaurant ahead of Valentine’s Day:

While these real dog’s mimicking Lady and the Tramp grabbed attention, especially from the animal lovers on Instagram, this post’s caption encourages audiences to interact with the brand.
What Marketers Can Learn from Valentine’s Day Marketing
Like so many other holidays, Valentine’s Day has experienced a transition into pop culture that has shaped the way it’s perceived, discussed, and celebrated. Sure, it’s often accused of being nothing more than a money-making marketing holiday. But next time you hear someone label Valentine’s Day as a “Hallmark holiday,” you’ll have a wealth of historical information to respond with.
From our hearts to yours, Happy Valentine’s Day. We’ll be keeping an eye on its continued evolution. 
Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in February 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness and freshness.

Social media is everywhere. For many people, social media is used daily for entertainment, socialization, and even news consumption — myself included.
Additionally, over the last two decades, it has become one of the primary marketing channels. 
With over 53% of the world’s population on social media, it’s critical that your business has an effective social media strategy that helps you reach your intended audience. 
But, whether you’re pitching a social media campaign to your boss or deciding which social media platform your business should put paid advertising behind, it’s vital you use data to support your efforts. 
Here, we’ve compiled a list of essential social media stats to ensure you know where to focus your marketing efforts in 2021 to get the highest ROI .

Social Media Marketing Statistics 2021

As of Q1 2020, 420 billion people are active on social media.  (Statista) 
In 2019, 90.4% of Millennials, 77.5% of Generation X, and 48.2% of Baby Boomers were active social media users. (eMarketer)
54% of social browsers use social media to research products. (GlobalWebIndex)
Each person spends an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social networks and messaging. (GlobalWebIndex)
1.3 million new users joined social media every day in 2020. (Hootsuite)
Millennials are logged on to social media for an average of  two hours and 38 minutes daily, while Gen Z logs on for  two hours and 55 minutes . (World Economic Forum)

Facebook Statistics

Facebook usage among teens is dropping gradually.  While 71% of teens claimed to use the platform in 2015, the number has now dropped to 67%. (GlobalWebIndex)
69% of U.S. adults use Facebook and 76% have visited the platform in the last month. (Pew Research Center, GlobalWebIndex)
Facebook had 1.84 billion daily active users in December 2020. (PR Newswire)
98.3% of Facebook users access the platform on mobile devices. (Statista)
Videos drive the most ad clicks on Facebook. (DataBox) 
Facebook ads are used by 70% of marketers, and there were 9 million active advertisers on the platform in Q2 2020. ( Social Media Examiner , Statista) 
16% of all Facebook profiles are fake or duplicates. (Statista)
The best time to post on Facebook is Wednesday at 11 AM and 1-2 PM. Sundays show the least amount of traffic. ( Sprout Social )
Facebook Stories have 500 million daily viewers. (TechCrunch)
Political content is the most viewed genre of Facebook Stories. (Statista)
Video promotions are equally as important as photo promotions. (Social Bakers)
81% of businesses prefer video marketing on Facebook. (Buffer)

For more stats related to Facebook, Facebook Stories, and Facebook Ads, check out this detailed list.

Twitter Statistics

Twitter had more than 330 million monthly active users in Q1 of 2019. (Twitter)
The platform reached almost 200 million monetizable daily active users in Q3 of 2020, up 29% YoY. (Twitter)
Twitter’s 2020 Q3 revenue was $936 million. (Twitter)
In 2019, 22% of U.S. adults used Twitter, down from 24% in 2018. (Statista)
Link clicks account for 92% of all user interaction with tweets. (HubSpot)
The best times to post on Twitter are Wednesday and Friday at 9 AM, and Saturday has the least engagement. ( Sprout Social)
Tweets with hashtags get 100% more engagement. (Twitter)
Socially responsible ads on twitter perform 12% better than standard ads. (Magna)
93% of Twitter community members are open to brands getting involved in conversation, such as providing help and support. (Twitter)

For more on Twitter, check out Twitter Marketing in 2020: The Ultimate Guide. 

Instagram Statistics

In late 2019, Instagram Stories had 500 million monthly active users. (Statista)
67% of Gen Z and 57% of Millennials use the platform, in comparison to only 38% of Gen X. (GlobalWebIndex)
64% of Instagram users are under the age of 34. (Statista)

98% of marketers say Instagram is the most influential platform for influencer marketing, which is 44% higher than Facebook. ( Sprout Social)
Videos get 21.2% more interactions compared to images and 18.6% more interactions compared to carousels. (Sprout Social)
90% of people on Instagram follow a business. (Instagram)
83% of people use Instagram to discover new products and services and 87% said they took specific action, like making a purchase, after seeing product information. (Facebook for Business)
The best times to post on Instagram are Wednesday at 11 AM, and Friday between 10-11 AM. Sunday is the worst day for engagement. (Sprout Social)
eMarketer estimated that Instagram added 26.9 million users between 2016 and 2020 — almost double the incremental users expected for Twitter, and far more than any other social platform tracked. (eMarketer)

In 2019, an estimated 20% of Facebook’s total revenue came from Instagram. (The Motley Fool)
For more Instagram stats,
click here.

LinkedIn Statistics

LinkedIn has more than 722 million active users in 200 countries and regions worldwide. (LinkedIn) 
In Q4 of 2020, LinkedIn sessions increased 27% YoY, expected to reach 31% in Q1 2021. (Business of Apps)
In Q1 of 2021, LinkedIn revenue is up 16% in YoY growth. (LinkedIn)
LinkedIn made more than 8.1 billion in revenue in 2020, a 20% increase from 2019. (Business of Apps)
Marketing Solutions is LinkedIn’s fastest-growing segment. It grew 44 percent year-over-year in Q1 of 2019. (LinkedIn)
In 2020, LinkedIn was voted the most trusted network. (Business Insider)
“>LinkedIn is the top paid and organic social channel for B2B businesses. (Content Marketing Institute)
82% of B2B markers report finding the greatest success on LinkedIn. (LinkedIn Marketing Solutions )
Over 46% of all social media traffic to company websites comes from LinkedIn. (LinkedIn)
The best times to post on LinkedIn are 8-10 AM and 12 PM on Wednesdays, and 9 AM and 1-2 PM on Thursdays. Sunday is the worst day for engagement. (Sprout Social)

Want to learn how to up your marketing game on LinkedIn? This post walks you through the ins and outs of using LinkedIn for business. 

YouTube Statistics

YouTube is the second-largest search engine globally. (Alexa)
YouTube is the second most popular channel for businesses sharing video content. (Buffer)
54% of all people want marketers to put out more video content, and this is an excellent place to begin. (Hubspot)
Q3 of 2020 showed that U.S. men and women use the platform at equal levels. (Satista)
On mobile devices alone, YouTube reaches more adults aged 18 to 24 than any TV network. (YouTube)
18-to-34-year-olds use YouTube to view video content on TV, 7.9% more often than basic cable, and 14.5% more often than premium cable. (Variety)
YouTube accounts for more than 25% of total worldwide mobile traffic. (Sandvine)
85% of U.S. teens were active on YouTube in 2019. (Statista)

TikTok Stats

As of January 2021, TikTok has 689 million global active users. (DataReportal)
Douyin, TikTok’s original standalone app in China, had 300 million users at the time Musical.ly merged with TikTok. (The Verge)

TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2020. (Apptopia)
By February 2019, TikTok hit 1 billion downloads, beating Instagram and Facebook in app stores. (Business Insider)
A majority of U.S. TikTok users are between the ages of 10 and 19. (Statista)
41% of global TikTok users are between the ages of 16 and 24. (GlobalWebIndex)
58.8% of U.S. TikTok users are female. (Statista)
TikTok’s average engagement rate is high at all follower levels. (Influencer Marketing Hub)
In 2019, U.S. TikTok users spent more time on the app than any other social media site, with an average session duration of 10.85 minutes. (Statista)

For more on TikTok, check out this blog post on its growth and popularity.
Reddit Stats

In 2020, Reddit had 52 million daily active users, up 44% YoY. (Reddit)
The site receives more than 50 billion+ monthly screen views. (Reddit)
While Reddit was reportedly sold for $20 million , the company’s valuation grew to 1.8 billion after 2017 funding rounds. (CNBC)
Most Reddit users in the U.S. are male, but 15% of U.S. adults say they use the platform. (Statista)
Only 8% of female U.S. adults say they used Reddit in 2019. (Statista)

Want to determine if Reddit is right for you? Read this blog post for 27 more Reddit stats.
Social Media Consulting Services 
Many businesses hire external social media consulting agencies to manage their voice and reputation online. Alternatively, some businesses create roles in-house for a social media consultant — this is someone who is responsible for increasing brand awareness , responding to customer service complaints across social media platforms, and engaging with your audience online. 
Whether you’re considering hiring an external social media consulting service or creating a role in-house, take a look at these trends that demonstrate the importance of social media consulting: 

Answering a complaint on social media can increase customer advocacy by 25%. (Convince & Convert)
79% of consumers expect brands to respond within a day of reaching out over social media, but average brand response rates across all industries is lower than 25%. (Sprout Social)
73% of marketers believe that their efforts through social media marketing have been “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business. (Buffer)
54% of social browsers use social media to research products. (GlobalWebIndex)
54% of Gen Z and 49% of Millenials say social media is their preferred channel for ad influence. (Pitney Bowes)
79% of people say that user-generated content on social media significantly impacts their purchasing decisions. (Stackla)

Social Media Consulting Proposal 
All these stats have given you the data you need to work with — now it’s time to put your knowledge to use and create your own social media consulting proposal.
If you’re a social media consultant and you’re pitching a branding, marketing, or advertising campaign to a client, it’s critical you’re able to show how you’ll help your client grow their business.
Here are six steps you’ll need to take to ensure your social media consulting proposal or business plan is effective: 

Set clear goals. Figure out exactly where your company or client wants to go as far as their business and social media numbers. The clearer and more detailed the vision, the better. Follow SMART Goal guidelines to ensure that you’re on the right track.

Understand your customers. Know who your target demographics are, because these are the people you’re trying to reach and engage. Gather your own social media statistics and use existing data your company or client might already have to figure out who’s interacting with the business and who might be good future prospects to reach. After you’ve done your research, you can create useful character personas to help you better understand and categorize customers.

Understand your competition. Those “similar-but-different” companies are going to be out there. And, as with most aspects of the business world, the better you know them, the better you can know how to have a leg up on them. You can conduct this research at the same time you’re researching your customers, because chances are they’re interacting with competitors as well. Once you’ve gathered the data on your competitors, one of the most effective ways to use it is to figure out where there might be voids in their services that your business can fill.

Be familiar with any existing social media presence. If you’re hired to run a company’s social media accounts, it’s critical you know about any previous social media postings, accounts, and experiments. By understanding what your client has already tried, you’re better equipped to take them where they need to go in the future.

Don’t forget to pull your data. Before your new implemented strategies go underway, it’s important to collect a baseline of how it was before, so that you have something to measure against in the future. For example, if you take inventory of how many views you’re getting on Instagram Stories before the new strategy is in effect, you can see if the new ideas are improving these numbers or not. It’s important to keep a close eye on what is affecting your growth (positively or negatively) so that you know when you’re on the right track or when you need to try something new so your business can keep growing.

Develop your strategy based on your findings. Define what your content will be, what platforms it will be distributed on, and how it will vary between platforms. Figure out smaller details at this stage too, like your client’s tone and voice on social media (either what it currently is or what it should be), along with design and style elements. Always be sure you’re staying true to your company or client’s brand by consulting with existing materials like mission statements, guides, or brand books.

Finally, take a look at HubSpot’s free Marketing proposal template (useful for both PDF & Word) to get you started creating a comprehensive social media consulting proposal. 
Let Data Drive Your Social Media Strategy
Social media marketing statistics can show you the state of the business world today, where it might be going, and how you can ensure your business is continuously meeting customers where they want to be met. Use these statistics to your advantage to help you understand what you need to do to effectively use social media for your business today.
Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in August 2019, but was updated for comprehensiveness and freshness in February 2021. 

Hi Marketers, We’re trying to find the right marketing automation software or software stack with good integration but after several months of research, we’re yet to find a system that will do everything we need. Most systems are really good at their “thing” but only do 70% of what we need. We sell travel insurance so we have 3 main phases: Nurturing (transactional) User responds to an ad -> hits a relevant landing page -> gets a quote -> is emailed a quote specific to them -> added to a remarketing list (FB, Adwords, Youtube etc) -> added to a quote follow up sequence (email, SMS, scheduled call). Sale (transactional) User buys a policy -> added to a date triggered email sequence for delivery of the product (sale confirmation, reminders, event warnings, friend referrals) Rebuy (campaign) Regular campaign sequences triggered by sales, important dates, world events, etc. The features we need: – Journey builder – with decisions based on page visits, email opens/clicks (both transactional and campaign) – Campaign builder that supports complex sequences – Email builder (Marketing and Transactional) with split test and dynamic text – Transactional email system that supports complex sequences and multiple transactions for the same customer – Able to connect sequences with Google, FB, SMS & other remarketing – Landing page builder / pop ups – SMS / WhatsApp – Tracking of repeat site visitors with ability to launch a sequence based on this – Split testing emails and landing pages in a sequence – Attribution reporting We have our own custom CRM and have devs that can do any integration work required. I hoping someone out there has solved this and can suggest a tool or stack of tools that has worked well to solve the above. Any suggestions greatly appreciated! Cheers, Dean
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If you’re considering whether a shared IP or dedicated IP environment is better for your business, this quick guide will help you decide. We explain the differences between the two and how your IP reputation can impact your sender reputation and email deliverability.

What are the Best Email Marketing Software out there for your business? Getting the appropriate Marketing Software product is as straightforward as comparing the features and terms offered by these six software that I personally use and recommend. (HERE) I suggest that you take some time to review their unique features and determine which one is the better alternative for your organization. What’s more remember to take into account your company’s or industry’s special circumstances, for example, a multilingual app for a global company or a mobile platform to help you work in the field. I collected The 6 Most Useful Blog posts about them: Read more here. I also wrote a blog about the Top 3 Best Email Marketing Tools– Check It Out HERE And about the Top 2 Best Landing Page Software Comparison– Read It HERE And The Nr.1 Shopping Cart Software That I Personally Use– Take a look HERE Try Them FREE
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YouTube, launched in 2005, the second most visited website in the world. It’s available in 100+ countries, features videos in 80 different languages, and its users watch over a billion hours of content daily.
Many businesses take advantage of the large number of users and daily viewership to advertise for their business. In fact, YouTube is the second most popular channel for businesses sharing video content.
However, despite the sheer amount of hours watched every day, it can be challenging to hold up on YouTube. Creators sometimes struggle to get their channel off the ground, resorting to paying for YouTube views to generate engagement. The platform’s algorithm has become better at detecting bots, and, as you can guess, fake engagement doesn’t do much in the way of meeting your business goals.
Although it will take time, it is possible to generate views (for free) and grow your channel on YouTube. In this post, we’ll go over how to get more views on YouTube and how to continue growing your channel after reaching your first 1000 views.

How To Get More Views on YouTube For Free
Getting views on YouTube takes time and effort. But, if done right, it pays off (Forbes estimates that you can make anywhere from $3-$5 per 1000 views). Below, we’ll go over a few ways to get more views on your YouTube account.
1. Be mindful of SEO and organic search results.  
YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world, only topped by Google. To get more views on YouTube, follow the same SEO tactics you use to surface your content in organic Google search queries.
Since Google owns the platform, YouTube has similar algorithms for displaying the most relevant content. The video below goes into detail, but the tips that follow highlight the best steps you can take to obtain more views.  

2. Use keyword-rich descriptions.
Your viewers initially see the first 100 characters of your video descriptions (example below), so you should aim to use keywords in snippets that provide the most relevant explanations to your viewers.

But using your keywords doesn’t mean an excuse to be dull. Get creative with your descriptions and aim to stand out. After all, the goal is to entice users to view your videos over your competitors.
Your first 100 characters should also entice users to click ‘Show more’ to learn more about what you have to say.
3. Use business-relevant tags.
YouTube’s algorithm determines 70% of what people watch on the platform. Using relevant tags for your business is key to surfacing your content in search results and obtaining more views.
Opt to use a combination of long-tail and short-tail keywords that truly relate to your video, listing the most important keywords first. Be mindful of keyword stuffing, as it is against YouTube policy and doesn’t help you generate more views.
4. Create unique, enticing titles.
Video titles are what people read first when browsing search results. So, aim to create compelling, unique video titles that clearly describe your video’s content and make people curious and interested in learning more. For SEO results, you can include your most relevant keyword in your video title.
Be mindful of clickbait, though, when creating your titles. It can be a valuable tool for getting users to click on your videos (see this article from a HubSpotter who was effectively clickbaited), but it can also backfire.
You don’t want to say your videos will be about one thing and have interested users find that you don’t touch on it at all. Ensure that your titles align with your content.
5. Use creative, relevant thumbnails.
Just as titles are the first exposure to your video content, thumbnails are the first images. Creating thumbnail previews that are exciting but relevant to your content is an excellent strategy for driving views. High-quality, engaging thumbnails can attract users in organic search results.
Your thumbnails can be screencaps from your videos or even text-based titles. Here’s an example of a thumbnail from popular YouTuber Marques Brownlee. He’s effectively created a thumbnail that depicts the content of the video: reactions to upcoming Apple product rumors.

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6. Use closed captions and transcripts. 
Subtitles and closed captions are another way to optimize your video SEO, as they highlight additional keywords and phrases for the algorithms to detect when indexing your videos.
Most importantly, closed captions and video transcripts make your YouTube account more accessible. If you solely rely on audio and visuals, you’re probably going to lose a large portion of your audience that’s unable to interact with your content in that form. When you create content that is accessible, all audiences can enjoy what you have to offer.
You should also opt for using closed captions instead of subtitles, as closed captions include dialogue and additional sound descriptions for actions like laughter or closing a door. Here are some resources that can help with understanding web accessibility and how to align your content with accessibility standards:

Bureau of Internet Accessibility – Closed Captioning Guide
Accessible Media Inc. YouTube Accessibility guide
Google Accessibility Resource Database for Developers and Publishers

7. Encourage subscribers
While organic search results can be great, the algorithms won’t always surface your videos.  Encouraging viewers to subscribe to your channel is another way to ensure that people can see your videos.
This means that when you post, your videos will show up in their subscriptions tab (shown below).

In addition to encouraging subscribers, ask users to turn on post notifications to get notified when you post a video.
Notifications can be a valuable tool for generating excitement. Users may feel they want to stop what they’re doing to watch your videos so they can actively participate in conversations about your content.
8. Repurpose your existing quality content.
Content repurposing is re-using existing content and presenting it in a new format to prolong its shelf life. Repurposing could mean creating a video from a high-performing how-to blog post (the bonus here is that YouTube users love how-to videos) or posting recording sessions from a popular podcast episode.
You’re repurposing helpful content and sharing it with a new audience in a format you know they enjoy.
9. Create a unique introductory hook for your videos.
It’s a unique tip, but it’s worth considering as many popular creators use this strategy.
Mr. Beast is a famous YouTube persona with almost 52 million subscribers. Each one of his videos begins with a clip of an exciting moment that doesn’t usually play out until at least halfway through the video.
Users must keep watching to see the moment unfold. Here’s an example:

 
10. Create a playlist.
If you create content clustered around a relevant, related topic, create playlists to encourage video views. The image below shows the playlists on the HubSpot YouTube account, where videos are organized by topic.

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Playlists default to autoplay, so users can watch an entire playlist without taking action themselves.
Playlists and autoplay allow your users to view subject-relevant content that they may not have found themselves. This gives them a well-rounded experience and increases your video views.
11. Lead users to other videos in end screens.
End screens are the final 15-20 seconds of your video, sometimes called credits, used to recommend additional content on your channel as cards. Below is an example from the HubSpot YouTube account.

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Your end screens can feature cards for single videos or entire playlists, a subscribe button, links to your associated websites, or secondary channels your business has (we’ll touch on this below.) It’s important to note that end screens should recommend relevant content.
12. Enable embedding.
Almost anything can be embedded these days, including YouTube videos. If you’ve created a YouTube strategy, you’ve likely identified your target audience on the platform. They’ll probably give you the most views, but enabling embedding can help you introduce yourself to additional viewers that may not have known your content would be relevant to them.
Here’s an example of a YouTube video embedded in a blog post.

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You can embed your videos in your content, like blogs and email newsletters, but it’s also a valuable way to expose your content to new audiences.
Other people can embed your content within their own pages and share your expertise with their audiences. These views still count towards your overall view count, even if they’re not on YouTube.
13. Promote videos on other platforms.
YouTube probably isn’t your only social media profile, and you should use this to your advantage. Share new video announcements on your Instagram Stories, share links and clips on Twitter and Facebook, and share them in your blog posts and emails.
You’ll expose new audiences to your content, and, as mentioned above, views on other platforms count towards your YouTube view count.
14. Leverage current trends.
Leveraging YouTube trends is a valuable tool for obtaining more video views. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should create content that is exactly in line with a current, trending meme on YouTube, but you should pay attention to what types of videos get lots of views.
For example, Mediakix released a list in 2019 of the most popular types of videos. Among them are how-to and Q&A videos.
Suppose you’re a business hoping to utilize one of these trends. You could create a how-to video demonstrating how to use your product or service and a Q&A video where you troubleshoot consumer inquiries. You’re creating content that users want to see that provides value to them to generate more views.
15. Focus on creating relevant content.
Leveraging trends is important for generating views, but you shouldn’t abandon your topic type to get views.  
A YouTube channel filled with unrelated content can generate views but won’t be seen as a source of authority. Your content would be scattered, users might write you off, and algorithms won’t know your niche. So, the two tips come together to leverage current trends to create content that aligns with your existing strategy.
Also, relevant content outweighs video quality. YouTube found that, when deciding what to watch, content relating to a user’s passions is 1.6x more important than the video’s quality (like visuals and camera quality), and 3x more important than whether it features well-known actors.
This means that the most valuable content you can create isn’t expensive and high budget — it’s content that’s in line with your audience’s needs. When you understand what they want, it’ll be easier to earn views.
16. Collaborate with similar accounts.
One of the exciting aspects of YouTube is its community. There are people creating all different types of content, from gaming videos to exercise classes. You’ll likely find people who make content like yours, and collaborating with them is a valuable tool for generating more views.
Collaborations usually involve creating two separate videos, one for your channel and another for the collaborators’ channel. When they’re posted, you’ll gain exposure to their audience group and them from yours.
If you’ve collaborated with a topic-relevant channel, new viewers will likely already be interested in your content and may even subscribe to your channel. It’s also a valuable way to create more content, and more content always inspires more views.
17. Post at the right time.
There is a right time to post on YouTube. The best times to post on YouTube are Thursday or Friday afternoons between 12:00 and 3:00 PM, and on Saturdays between 9:00 and 11:00 AM.
You can certainly leverage these numbers and obtain views, but it’s also essential to create a posting schedule that aligns with your existing viewership.
You can get this information from YouTube’s native analytics tool or your preferred service. If you’re a HubSpot user, you can connect your YouTube account to Marketing Hub and generate custom reports.

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Posting at the right time translates into views, because your subscribers are more likely to watch during a time that they’re free versus when they’re at work.
18. Use a multi-channel approach.
If you’re a large business, consider creating multiple YouTube channels for different purposes. For example, HubSpot has five separate YouTube channels (shown below) tailored to different audience groups.
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Multiple channels ensures that content is accessible to different viewers, and it generates more views.
This isn’t just a HubSpot thing — Interbrands says that the top 100 brands on YouTube have an average of 2.4 channels.
19. Optimize for mobile viewers.
More than 70% of YouTube watch time comes from mobile devices, so create content that these audiences can enjoy.
Optimizing for mobile viewers means creating videos that can adapt to different mobile device aspect ratios, video titles and thumbnails that don’t get distorted on smaller devices, and recommend videos in end-screen cards.
20. Remember to be patient.
As marketers, we all want virality and immediate success for the content we create. While you may sometimes get lucky, generating more YouTube views takes time and patience.
There’s not much concrete advice to give with this tip, but understand that if you’ve leveraged the tips on this list, you’ll likely gain more views to begin growing your channel.
Next, we’ll go over how to keep growing your channel after reaching your first 1000 views on YouTube.
How To Reach 1000 Views on YouTube and Keep Growing Your Channel
Although it certainly would be nice, there is no equation to help you generate your first 1000 views on YouTube. Some people gain instant success, while others struggle to reach even 100 views after making hundreds of videos. In fact, 88.4% of YouTube videos generate fewer than 1000 views.
This may be discouraging to hear, especially since you can only begin to monetize your videos on YouTube after having more than 4,000 public watch hours. Many creators, including Zac Snyder, have attempted to figure out the perfect formula.
Snyder highlighted his mathematical approach in a Medium article recommended that a good start could be to make 300 videos a year at 10 minutes a piece. However, this strategy may not work for all creators.
There are ways to generate more views sooner rather than later. First, you should use and reference the tips mentioned above when creating your videos. There are also four additional tips to consider to continue growing your YouTube channel after reaching 1000 views.
1. Increase your upload frequency.
If it’s taken you a long time to reach 1000 views, it may make you nervous to risk your viewership by doing anything differently. However, it’s easier to generate more views with more videos than to generate more views from one or two standalone videos.
Pay attention to your channel analytics, understand when you generate the most views, and increase your upload frequency to match your engagement metrics.
Once you’ve developed a schedule, identify time frames in which you’ll reassess your strategy. For example, maybe you’ll aim to upload three times per week until you reach 10k views, and then you’ll analyze your metrics and switch to uploading twice a week.  
2. Keep introductions and opening credits short and to the point.
Attention spans are short, so any unnecessary content in your videos can cost you viewers. Once you’ve reached 1000 views and generated an audience, you don’t want to lose them.
Use analytics to understand their behavior and adjust accordingly. If viewers seem to stop watching after a certain amount of time, consider shortening your introductions so viewers get to the core of the content faster and feel more inclined to finish the video.
3. Optimize for ‘Suggested Video’ views.
Suggested videos show up in the sidebar of a desktop YouTube screen, as shown below in the red outline.

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The algorithm recommends videos based on tags, so choose industry-relevant tags that your competitors are also using. When they match, you have a significant chance of showing up in suggested videos for the same tags.
YouTube also doesn’t discriminate by subscriber count, so even if you don’t have as many subscribers as your competitors, it’s still possible to be suggested after their videos.
4. Engage with subscribers in the ‘Community’ tab.
The Community tab is built for YouTube creators hoping to interact with their audience outside of their video comments. You can create polls, feature images, and generate hype for upcoming videos.
Post snippets to get subscribers excited about what’s to come, and they’ll likely be looking out for your video and ready to watch when it goes live.
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If you’re interested in learning more in-depth strategies for growing your channel, check out this HubSpot Academy YouTube Course featured resource. You’ll learn how to build your brand, develop an audience, and gain insight from YouTube influencers on creating a successful channel.
Create Content That Inspires Subscribers and Encourages Views
You’re creating YouTube videos because you know you can provide value to your audience.
Remember, it may be frustrating if results aren’t immediately significant. But if you optimize your videos and channel for SEO, create consistent, relevant content, and engage with your audience, you’ll not only reach 1000 views but own a channel that just keeps on growing.