Category: Marketing Automation

Big Idea or Enduring Question: How do you send survey invitations using flows?  Objectives: After reading this blog, you’ll be able to:  Understand the salesforce survey data model Use flow to send survey invitations to a contact  Associate survey invitations to Survey Invitations and Response related list  and much more Business
The post Send Salesforce Survey Without Code appeared first on Automation Champion.

Question: I’ve noticed some Instagram posts no longer have the number of likes visible anymore. I’ve been considering hiding my likes too, but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea from a marketing perspective. Would doing so impact the way advertisers or customers view me and my business? Anyone who has ever posted a photo or Reel on Instagram before probably knows the thrill of watching the likes trickle in. Receiving likes from friends, family members, or customers can be a dopamine-filled experience – a validation that whatever you posted onto your grid is satisfactory and appealing to your audience. On the flip side, when certain posts don’t receive as many likes, Instagram users can feel the opposite – like their content isn’t good enough. Low likes on Instagram have also been linked to a rise in anxiety and depression in users, especially teens. In an attempt to combat the problem, Instagram released the ability for all users to hide likes on posts in 2021. The move has divided the internet, with some users appreciating this new approach and others finding it unnecessary. But for certain small businesses owners – many of whom depend on Instagram, deciding whether to hide their likes might be an especially conflicting process. There really is no clear-cut answer, but here are some things to factor in if you’re considering a life free of Instagram likes.Creativity can flourish without likesIn 2019, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said the whole purpose of hiding Instagram likes was to create a more positive online environment. “The idea is to try and depressurize Instagram, make it less of a competition, give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love, things that inspire them,” he said. Mosseri seems to be on to something as it turns out for many, taking likes out of the equation does allow for greater self-expression.More originalityIn 2019, when Instagram had first announced they were toying with the idea of no likes, influencer Casey Barker told Esquire that the change might allow him to take more risks as a content creator. “I think I’ll care less about getting the quality right every time and it’ll probably be a more natural feed than a perfect-looking feed … It can be a lot more raw, a lot more myself, rather than thinking: ‘Will people like this?” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Casey Barker (@caaseybarker) According to Dar Meishi, a cognitive neuroscientist, it’s normal for individuals to want to be liked on social media. “We’re hardwired to find social interactions rewarding,” he told PBS. Amassing likes and comments on Instagram gives our brains a dopamine boost, which, consequently, has us all craving more and more likes. Oftentimes, people get so consumed by this need for validation that they’ll only post photos or videos they believe will please their audiences, essentially stripping away any originality. Cam B, a 20-year-old, told the Huff Post he knows people who’ve deleted Instagram posts solely because they didn’t get enough likes. Long gone are the days when Instagram was a platform for candid and authentic snapshots. A 2020 study found that only 29 percent of users would post an unedited photo of themselves on social media. A Guardian article entitled, “Facetune conquers Instagram,” uncovers how prevalent photoshop has become amongst ordinary users. But, with likes out of the mix, there’s a chance this pressure to be perceived as perfect will diminish. Sarah Roberts, a 22-year-old, was one of the first to experience an Instagram without likes when the feature was first rolled out for testing in Canada back in 2019 and said it changed her relationship with the platform for the better. “Personally, I love not seeing the like count,” she told HuffPost. “I’ve also been more personal with the things I actually like versus what everyone else is liking. This feels like more of what Instagram should be rather than an advertisement of ourselves on our page.”The change can be beneficial for small businesses, too. While it may feel safe to post what you already know does well with customers, not tracking the number of likes could allow brands to experiment with different types of content without worrying that followers will automatically judge a post for getting a fewer number of likes.Highlight quality, not quantity When Instagram first rolled out testing for hiding likes, users were met with this announcement on the top of their feeds. It reads, “We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your post gets.” Our eyes often gravitate towards the likes on a post immediately, emphasizing the metrics of the content rather than the substance behind it. This can be seen across all social media platforms: Instagram likes, Reddit downvotes, and YouTube’s dislike button can all act as a kind of groupthink. The more likes a photo gets must mean it’s good while a video receiving tons of dislikes could give off the impression that it’s bad (partly why YouTube made dislikes private). Without this data, users will have to focus on the quality of an Instagram post instead of assigning a quantitative, predetermined value to it. Whoever is running Instagram product. Give them a raise. #instagramlikes #Insta pic.twitter.com/7OgWpGHmUx— vikas gosain (@vikgosain) May 2, 2019 In 2021, photographer Brandon Woelfel tweeted about the change in his content that stemmed from using the feature. “Hiding likes on Instagram has me actually posting photos I like… a concept.” Today,  most of Brandon’s pictures have the likes visible, but there are a few where he’s chosen to continue to hide likes, including this photo of a woman in a red dress. There’s a noticeable distinction between the posts that have likes and the ones that don’t. The actual shot – the vibrant colors, the model’s nimble pose, the shadowing in the image – becomes the start of the show rather than a bolded number. An instagram post by photographer Brandon WoelfelA social media platform without likes can allow users and content creators alike to concentrate on the artistic element behind each post, rather than the arbitrary digits attached to it.The potential downsides of hiding your likesWhile doing away with likes can be beneficial for some, there are certain aspects, particularly from a business perspective, that could be negatively affected if an influencer or small business owner decides to privatize this data.Partnerships and brand deals can be impactedWhen Instagram first announced changing the way likes are displayed, most people immediately questioned how this move would impact content creators and brands who rely on Instagram as both a marketing tool and source of revenue. Oftentimes, large companies decide who they want to collaborate with based on the number of likes a business or influencer receives. And while there are other factors they consider too – follower count, click-through rate, story views, etc. – likes per post are one of the biggest contributors to sponsorship deals. An early study done by HypeAudtior found that accounts that hid their likes and had between 5,000 to 20,0000 followers, experienced up to a 15 percent drop in likes. Fewer likes, publicized or not, could lead to fewer opportunities to work with advertisers and land sponsorships. Despite telling Esquire that he envisioned a life without likes as a positive change, Casey also said he was hesitant about the move for this very reason. “I just feel like when brands are looking at my page at the minute, the more likes I have in general, the more I think they’ll want to work with me,” he said. Looking at his account today – three years since the interview – his likes are still visible. But even though likes won’t be observable by the public, the data will still be measured from the backend and can be sent to agencies who are interested in these numbers. According to Ben Jeffries, co-owner of a London-based marketing agency, if more and more people choose to disengage from their likes, however, this could cause a shift in the world of Instagram marketing, “ … what’s really important about it is that it will actively encourage advertisers to stop looking at metrics such as likes as the main important metrics within a campaign,” he said. This shift could favor smaller businesses that may have a hard time securing brand deals over larger and more popular accounts, essentially leveling the playing field for everyone.Lack of transparencyIn the last few years, transparency between businesses and audiences has been a buzzword –  but for good reason. Even founders and CEOs have taken to their personal Twitter accounts to openly share their journey, something most followers appreciate seeing. Along with wanting more clarity, audiences are demanding to know that brands actually stand behind the initiatives they preach. Glossier –  a makeup company that markets itself as being diverse and inclusive – was called out for the alleged discrimination and racism taking place in some of their retail stores by former staff members who formed a collective known as “outta the gloss.” In a statement, CEO Emily Weiss said the company would email former employees to “invite dialogue with anyone who has additional feedback and ideas to help move us towards our shared vision.” Though this wasn’t enough to assuage everyone, having an open conversation between staff was a step in the right direction for the brand to be more transparent with its own employees and slowly win back the trust of its customers. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Outta The Gloss (@outtathegloss) One way to easily lose the confidence of customers is by withholding information and data. When platforms like Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter provided the option to limit replies and comments, the move was commended for giving users more agency over their content. But, when big retailers enabled these features, many customers felt like they were being silenced. This tweet from user Isabél calls out brands who limited comments on their posts during the summer of 2020 when the Black Lives Matter movement was at the forefront of online conversation. “Keep watch of the companies that are disabling comments on posts right now, especially when asked about their plans to implement real change, anti-racism & inclusivity within their workplace. They’re silencing important conversations and valid criticism. #BlackLivesMatter” Keep watch of the companies that are disabling comments on posts right now, especially when asked about their plans to implement real change, anti-racism & inclusivity within their workplace. They’re silencing important conversations and valid criticism. #BlackLivesMatter— Isabél ❀ (@imtheartistt) June 7, 2020 Just like disabling comments feel suspicious to some, there is a chance privatizing likes could provoke uneasiness in customers. Followers might automatically assume that hiding likes mean there’s something wrong with the content. But one way to be cognizant of your followers’ feelings is to directly ask them their thoughts on hiding likes. You could take to Instagram Stories or make a poll on Twitter and have an open conversation to assure your community your business values transparency.Hiding likes is still such a new concept for many, and there currently isn’t enough data to judge whether doing so is the right move for brands. However, it does seem like most people – businesses and content creators alike – have chosen to keep their likes visible for now. With that being said, it might take some time for others to feel comfortable ridding themselves of Instagram likes. But if you’re considering hiding your likes, think about what matters most to you. Keeping your likes visible can lead to more transparency, but there’s also a chance it’s hindering your creativity. Doing a trial run could be helpful in this situation. Turn off likes for a one to two-week period and take notes on whether you observe a change in your engagement and creativity. Are you more open to posting new content? Did you notice a decrease in likes and/or sales? Has your relationship with your followers changed? Once you figure out the answers to these questions, you’ll have a better idea if making the switch to an Instagram without likes is the right move for you and your business. Have you decided to hide your likes or will you keep likes visible? Let us know on Twitter or Instagram!

Having the ability to visualize data helps you unlock invaluable insights for better decision-making in your business and gives you a serious advantage when it comes to getting competitive opportunities.
While many tools can help you visualize data, none compare to Google Data Studio, which is entirely free and accessible to all (even if you don’t have any data of your own!). Like most Google tools, Data Studio can be hard to master, but it’s well worth it. Once you’ve gotten comfortable with its features, you can use it to create stunning and informative reports for your clients, coworkers, or leadership team.
This guide will walk you through the most useful Data Studio tools. We’ll start with the basics before moving into the intermediate features. Finally, we’ll go over the advanced options.

1. Log into Data Studio
To log in to Data Studio, you’ll need a Google account — I recommend using the same one as your Analytics, Search Console, and/or Google Ads account.
You’ll land on the Data Studio overview page. Click the “Home” tab to view your dashboard.
2. Explore the Data Studio Dashboard
If you’ve used Google Docs, Sheets, or Drive before, this dashboard should look pretty familiar.
Reports
Here’s where you can access all of your reports (equivalent to a workbook in Tableau or Excel).
Notice that you can filter by who owns the report:

Data Sources
Data sources list all the connections you’ve created between Data Studio and your original data sources.
Data Studio currently supports 500+ data sources. Below are the most popular sources:
If you’re using Google Analytics and/or Search Console (which I highly recommend), you’ll need to individually connect each view and property, respectively.
So if you have three GA views for three different subdomains, you’ll need to set up three separate data sources.
Explorer
Explorer is an experimental tool that lets you experiment or tweak a chart without modifying your report itself.
For instance, let’s say you’ve created a table in Data Studio that shows the top landing pages by conversion rate. While looking at this table, you think, “Huh, I wonder what I’d find if I added average page load time.”
You don’t want to edit the chart in the report, so you export it into Labs — where you can tweak it to your heart’s content. If you decide the new chart is valuable, it’s easy to export it back into the report. (Jump to the section where I explain how.)
Report Gallery
The report gallery is a collection of templates and examples you can use depending on your business needs.

For instance, if you run an ecommerce store, the ecommerce revenue template would be very useful.
Connect to Data
And here’s where you add data sources. (You can also add sources within a report itself.) Let’s add our first source.
How to Connect Data Sources to Google Data Studio
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to connect data sources to Google Data Studio.
1. Start with Analytics or Search Console.

In this example, I’ll connect Analytics — however, the process is nearly identical for other sources.
If you want to follow along exactly with what I’m doing, connect the Google Analytics Demo Account for the Google Merchandise Store.
You’ll be prompted to authorize the connection. Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to select an account, property, and view.

You’ll be presented with something like the view below: a list of every field in your Analytics account (both the standard ones and the ones you’ve added).

Does this feel overwhelming? Yep, same here.
We could do a lot in this step — add new fields, duplicate existing ones, turn them off, change field values, etc. But, of course, we could also do all those things in the report itself, and it’s much easier there. So let’s do that.
2. Click “Create Report” in the upper right.
Data Studio will ask if you want to add a new data source to the report; yes, you do.
Here’s what you’ll see. It’s pretty spartan, but not for long!
3. Click “Add a chart” in the toolbar.
It’s time to add your very first chart. The good news is that data Studio makes it easy to compare chart types with some handy illustrations.

4. Choose the first option under “Time series.”
For the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll start with a “Time series” chart. This chart type shows change over time. Once it appears on your report, the right-hand pane will change. Here’s what you should see:

By default, the dimension is “Date”; you can change this to any of the time-based dimensions, including “Year,” “Hour,” etc.
I will stick with “Date” because the Demo Account doesn’t have a lot of historical data.
Data Studio will automatically select a metric (i.e., what’s displayed on the Y-axis) for you. Feel free to change this; for instance, it defaulted to “Pageviews” for me, but I’d rather see “Revenue per user.”

5. Add another metric.
First, make sure you’ve selected the chart, so you see the pane on the right:

You have two options for adding a metric (or dimension).
You can click the blue plus-sign icon — which will bring up a search box so you can find the field you want — or you can drag a field from the right into the metric section.
To delete a metric, simply hover over it with your mouse and click the white “x” that appears.
6. To add a table, choose the third option under “Add a chart.”

My chart defaults to Medium (for dimension) and Pageviews (for metric), so I change it to Product and Unique Purchases.
And I think this table’s formatting could use some work.
Change the “Rows per page” from 100 to 20 (much easier to read) and check the box for adding a Summary row.

7. Finally, click “Style” to go to the style tab.
Scroll down and select “Add border shadow.” This is one of my favorite ways to make a data visualization pop off the page.

8. To see the finished product, click “View” in the top corner.
This transitions you from Editor to Viewer mode.
Voila!

9. Click “Edit” to finish up and name the report.
Double-click the title (right now, it’s “Untitled Report”) to change it.

And with that, the first report is officially done. Click that familiar icon above the Chart Editor and add some email addresses to share your report.
Okay, don’t share the report just yet because I’m about to reveal the secrets that’ll help you seriously upgrade it.
Google Data Studio Tutorial

Use templates.
Publish your report.
Connect to 150+ sources.
Create your own report theme.
Embed external content.
Send scheduled reports.
Download reports.
Embed reports.
Add a date range.
Add filter controls.
Create interactive chart filters.
Add data control.
Add a dimension breakdown.
Use Data Studio Explorer (Labs).
Create report-level filters.
Create blended fields.
Blend your data source with itself.
Create a basic calculated field.
Creating an advanced calculated field.
Create a calculated blended field.

Beginner Google Data Studio Tips

1. Use templates.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. If you’re not sure where to start with Data Studio, I recommend browsing through their templates for inspiration.

Pay attention to the report’s creator. Many templates were built by the Data Studio team; you can find them all in the “Marketing Templates” section. But there are also 45+ user submissions located in the “Community” section. A few of my favorite templates:

GA Behavior Overview: This dashboard pulls out the most relevant information from the Behavior section of Google Analytics
Paid Channels Mix Report: Use this template to understand how your ads are performing on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, search, and more.
Website Technical Performance Indicators: Get a quick overview of how your site is performing in real-time, including JavaScript and 404 errors and page load times.

There are also a bunch of fun, non-marketing templates in the gallery (found in the “Featured” section), like F1: How Important Is the First Race? and Star Wars: Data from a galaxy far, far away. Definitely take a look if you’re curious to see the full potential of GSD unleashed.

2. Publish your report.
Want to show off your superior analytics and data visualization skills to the world? Submit your report to this gallery using this Google form.
Read over the full instructions at this link, but here’s what I’d keep in mind:

Don’t share sensitive information. I recommend creating a report with publicly accessible data, so there’s absolutely no chance you get in trouble for sharing data you don’t own. (Pro tip: recreate one of your existing company reports with dummy data from one of Google’s sample data sets!)
Make it awesome. The public reports are impressive, so don’t hold back with design, features, and so on.
Add context. Provide on-page explanations of what you’re measuring or monitoring with captions, instructions, maybe even a video of you walking through the report.

3. Connect to 150+ data sources.
As I mentioned, you can bring data from Google-owned sources into Data Studio, including Search Console, Google Ads, YouTube, and Campaign Manager.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are also more than 120 partner connectors — essentially, third-party bridges between Data Studio and platforms like Adobe Analytics, AdRoll, Asana, Amazon Ads, and AdStage (and that’s just the As).
Check out all the options here.

4. Create your own report theme.
Whether your report is meant for internal stakeholders, like the leadership team, or external ones, like clients, it’ll be more effective if it looks good.
To adjust the report’s style and formatting, click the Layout and theme option in the toolbar.
Any changes here will apply across the report—meaning you only need to pick fonts, colors, etc., once versus every time, you add a new module to the report.

Data Studio comes with two built-in themes: simple and simple dark. But it’s easy to create your own — and the results are way more impressive.

Click on “Customize.”
Use your brand style guide to choose primary and secondary colors, fonts, and text color. You might need to get creative here; HubSpot uses Avenir Next, which Data Studio doesn’t offer, so I went with its cousin Raleway.
If you’re creating a report for a client and don’t know their hex codes, Seer Interactive’s Michelle Noonan has an excellent tip: use a free color picker tool to identify what they’re using on their website.
You can also create a custom chart palette in this tab and edit the border and background settings.

5. Embed external content.
Just like you can bring your report to the wider world, you can also bring the wider world to your report.
You can insert Google Docs, Google Sheets, YouTube videos, and even live webpages with the URL embed feature. Embedded content is interactive, so it’s far more powerful than a screenshot.
Click “URL embed.” in the navigation bar to add content.

From there, simply paste the URL. Next, you may need to resize the box that appears to fit your content’s entire length and width.
The options here are pretty endless. One of my favorite ways to use this feature is to embed a Google Form gauging how helpful the report was for my audience:

If a section of the report needs extra context (or my viewers aren’t that technical), I’ll add a short video explaining what they’re looking at and how to interpret the results.
To personalize a report for a client, I’ll add the URL of their website, blog, and/or whatever pages they hired me to create or improve.
And for the HubSpot blogging team, I’ll add the latest version of the Search Insights Report so they can compare our progress to the results.

6. Send scheduled reports.
If you have a group of stakeholders that need to see your report regularly, consider using Data Studio’s “scheduled report” feature.
Click on the drop-down menu beside the “Share” button and select “Schedule email delivery.”

First, enter your recipients’ email addresses, then choose a schedule, whether daily, every Monday, or every month.
This is particularly handy when working with customers, since you may not want to give them access to the live report.

7. Download the report as a PDF.
Alternatively, you can download your report as a PDF. This is helpful for one-off situations, like if your boss asks for a status report or your client wants to know how an ad has performed so far this month.
To download the file, click “download” on the drop-down menu.
Data Studio gives the option of downloading your current page or the entire report. You can even add a link back to the report so your audience can dig in deeper if they’d like and add password protection to ensure your data stays safe.

8. Embed reports.
You can even display your report on your company website or personal portfolio—which can be a great way to highlight the results you’ve gotten for a client or project.
Click the brackets icon in the upper navigation bar.

This box will pop up:

Adjust the width and the height as needed, and you’re good to go.

Intermediate Google Data Studio Tips

9. Add a date range.
Give your viewers more freedom by letting them select which dates they’d like to see information for.
For example, my reports always default to the last 30 days, but if one of HubSpot’s blog editors wants to see how their property performed in the previous calendar month, the date range controls let them adjust the report.
They can choose from predefined options, like “yesterday,” “last seven days,” “year to date,” etc., or pick a custom period.
To enable this, first navigate to the page you want to give users date control. Next, click on the drop-down menu by “Add a control.” Next, click “Date range” from the toolbar.

A box will appear on your report. Drag it into the position you want — I recommend somewhere in the upper right or left corner, so your audience sees it first — and adjust the size if necessary.
Clicking this module will bring up a panel to the left of your report called Date Range Properties. Set the default date range to “Auto date range,” if it isn’t already.

If your viewers select a date range using the date range widget, every report on the page will automatically update to that period.
There are two ways to override this:

Set a time period within a specific chart. That time period will always supersede the date range control.
Group the charts you want to be affected by the date range control with the module. Select the chart(s) and the box, then choose Arrange > Group.

Now, only the chart(s) in this group will update when someone adjusts the date range.
Make sure this setting is clear to your viewers — otherwise, they’ll probably assume all the charts they’re looking at on their current page are using the same time period.

10. Add filter controls.
Give your audience even more flexibility with filter controls. Like the date range control, a filter applies its settings to every report on the page. So if, for example, someone filtered out everything besides organic traffic, all the reports on that page would show data for organic traffic specifically.
Add a filter control by clicking this icon in the toolbar.

The filter will appear on the report page. Resize it and drag it into the position you want. While it’s selected, you should see a panel on the left-hand side:

In the data tab, pick which dimension you want viewers to filter. These dimensions come from your data source — in this example, I’ve chosen Traffic Type.
The metric part is optional. If it’s checked, viewers will see the values for each dimension sub-category in the filter. (This will make more sense once you see the screenshot below.) They can sort by these values, but they can’t filter by a metric.
You can add an additional filter to your filter control. For example, if you’ve added a filter for Source / Medium, you may want to exclude the “Baidu /organic” filter, so your viewers don’t see that as an option.
Customize your filter control’s formatting and appearance in the style tab. You have a few options: list/check all that apply filters, like this one:

Or “search all” filters, which allow your viewers to search by numeric and text terms using operators like >=, and <, or “equals,” “contains,” etc., respectively.
This can be a hassle for the people reading the report—plus, they need to be somewhat comfortable with search operators. So, unless your filter dimensions have 10,000 values (unlikely), stick with the list filter.

11. Create interactive chart filters.
Want to make it even easier for your audience to filter the charts in your report? Create responsive chart filters.
This sounds fancy, but it simply means selecting a dimension in a chart will filter all the charts on that page for that dimension.
For instance, if you click on “organic” in this chart, the other charts on the page will update to show data for organic traffic only — just like you’d applied a traditional filter control.

You can also create chart controls for time, line, and area charts. For example, if a user highlights say, January through March on a time chart, the other charts on the page will show data for January through March as well — just like date range control.
And also, just like filter controls, you can group chart controls.
To enable chart control, select the appropriate chart. In the right-hand panel, scroll to the bottom and check the box labeled “Apply filter.”
Add a caption next to charts that support interactive filtering, so your viewers know it’s an option:

12. Add a data control.
Data controls may just be one of the coolest Data Studio features, full-stop. Place one of these bad boys on your report, and you’ll give viewers the ability to choose the source of the data being piped into your charts.
This is a game-changer for anyone managing a complex property or working with multiple stakeholders.
For instance, imagine you’re the admin of HubSpot’s Google Analytics account. You create a Data Studio report monitoring key website performance indicators, like average page speed, number of non-200 response codes, number of redirect chains, and so on.
You share this report with the blogging team, who has access to the Google Analytics view for blog.hubspot.com. (Need a refresher on how views and permissions work? Check out our ultimate guide to Google Analytics.)
You also share the report with the Academy team, who has access to the GA view for academy.hubspot.com, and the Leads Optimization team, who has access to offers.hubspot.com.
To see this report populated with the relevant data, these teams simply need to select their view from the “data source” drop-down, and voila — all the charts will update automatically.
Pretty nifty, right?

Not only does this save you from rebuilding the same report for different groups, but it also means you don’t need to worry about accidentally sharing sensitive or confidential information. Each viewer can only select data sources they’ve been granted access to.
You can include multiple data controls in a single report.
Add the data control widget to your report by clicking this icon:
Then choose which primary source you’d like viewers to pull from:

13. Add a dimension breakdown.
Instead of telling you what a dimension breakdown is, it’s easier to show you how it works.
Suppose we want to see users by source. To find out, we create a simple bar chart.

This is interesting — yet there’s some context missing. For example, is all of that organic traffic coming from Google? (Since this is U.S. data, probably, but imagine creating the same chart for China or Japan, where Baidu and Yahoo have a far greater presence.)
What about referral traffic? Clearly, we’re getting a significant number of users from referral links; is a single source driving most of them, or is it distributed fairly equally across a wide variety of sources?
We could create separate bar charts for each source — first filtering by medium and then making the dimension “Source” and the metric “Users.”
Or we could click a single button and have Data Studio do it for us.
Under Breakdown Dimension, click “Add dimension.”

Add “Source.”
Here’s what you should see:

Pretty sure my former Data Analytics professor would cry if he saw this. But don’t worry, we’re not done yet.
Jump over to the “Style” tab and check the box “Stacked bars” to turn your regular bar chart into a stacked bar chart (you should see the chart type update accordingly).
Data Studio will automatically make your bar charts “100% stacking,” meaning that every bar will go to the top of the chart. However, this style is misleading — for example, here, it suggests every medium drove the same number of users.
Uncheck this box.
Now check it out:

14. Use Data Studio Explorer (Labs).
To bring any chart into Explorer, mouse over the space next to its top-right corner. You’ll see three vertically-stacked dots appear; click them.

Select “Explore (Labs).”
You’ll see something like this:

You can toggle between different visualizations; add and remove dimensions and metrics; change the date range, and apply segments.
Note: Unlike every other Google tool out there, Explorer does not automatically save your work.
To preserve your chart, click the “Save” button on the top nav bar (to the left of your profile icon). Once you do that, your Explorer “report” will be saved in the Explorer section of your dashboard. In addition, every change you make will be saved by default.
Speaking of that dashboard, if you prefer, you can also start with Explorer (rather than a Data Studio report). Go to your Data Studio dashboard and select “Explorer (Labs)” in the left-hand menu.

Add a new data source by clicking the blue button in the lower right corner.
At first, Explorer confused me. It feels very similar to the core Data Studio — what was the point of having both?
However, after spending some time in Explorer, I’ve come to appreciate its unique value.

Unlike Data Studio, any modifications you make to a chart in Explorer are temporary. That means it’s a great place to dig into your data and try out different ways of visualizing it without making any permanent changes. Then, once you’re happy with your chart, simply export it back into Data Studio.
To do this, click the small sharing icon in the top navigation bar.

Then choose whether to add your Explorer work into a new or existing Data Studio report.

Advanced Google Data Studio Tips

15. Create report-level filters.
By default, a filter applies to every chart on that page. But what if the viewer goes to the next page? The filter won’t go with them.
This is confusing for non-technical folks and inconvenient for data-savvy ones. To bring a filter up from page-level to report-level, simply right-click on it and select “Make report-level.”

16. Create blended fields.
Data Studio is powerful because you can bring in 400+ sources of data into a single report. But, thanks to a new feature, blended sources, it just got even mightier.
Heads up: this will get a little technical. Stay with me, and I promise it’ll be worth it.
If you’re familiar with JOIN clauses in SQL, you’ll understand data blending right away. No idea what SQL is? Not a problem.
The best way to think about blending data is with a Venn Diagram. You have two data sets. Each data set has unique information — e.g., such as the data living in the green and blue areas.

But they have (at least) one data point in common: the information in the blue-green overlap section.
This shared data point is known as a key. If your data sets do not have a key, they’re not blendable.
For example, suppose you want to compare how users behave on your website versus your app. The key is the user ID, a custom dimension you’ve created in Google Analytics that your app analytics software also uses. (Note: The key doesn’t need to have the same name in both data sources; it just needs to have identical values.)
You blend your website behavior report from GA with your app usage report. This gives you all the records from the first report along with any matching ones from the second; in other words, if a user has visited the site and used the app, they’ll be included.
However, if they only used the app but didn’t visit the site, they will not be included in the new blended data.
This is known as a LEFT OUTER JOIN. (To learn more, check out this W3Schools primer.) Why do you care? Because the order of your data sources matters.
Put your primary data source first — e.g., the one where you want all the values, regardless of whether there’s a match in your second source.
Now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way, let’s set up a blended field.
First, add a chart to your report.

Click on “Blend Data.”
This panel will pop up:

Select your first data source on the left. Remember, this is the primary data source. Then add your second data source. Data Studio lets you add up to five data sources in a chart, but let’s stick to two for now.
Now pick your join key(s). If the field exists in both sources, it will turn green. If it doesn’t exist, you’ll see this:

Remember that the key acts as a filter for the second data source. So in this example, only records that match the landing page from the GA view for hubspot.com will be pulled from Google Search Console.
Choosing multiple keys will further limit the number of records pulled from the second data source.
Once you’ve picked your join key(s), the rest of the process should feel familiar.
Pick the dimensions and metrics you want to see for your first data source. Then do the same for your second.
You can also limit the results by adding a filter or date range (or for GA sources, segments). Filters, date ranges, and segments applied to the left-most data source will carry over to the other data sources.
Once you’ve finished customizing the report, click “Save.” Congrats: you just created your first blended data chart!
If you find it easier to create two separate charts and then combine them, Data Studio offers a great shortcut.
Just select both charts, right-click, and choose “Blend data.”
Unfortunately, Data Studio can get confused pretty quickly, so I’d still make an effort to learn how to blend data using the right-hand pane.

17. Blend your data source with itself.
Try this workaround if you’re bumping into limitations with your data source connectors: blend a data source with itself.
To give you an idea, the GA data connector only lets you add one “active user” metric to a chart, so there’s no way to see 1 Day Active Users, 7 Day Active Users, and 28 Day Active Users on the same chart… unless you blend your Google Analytics data source with itself.
Follow the same instructions as above, but instead of picking a new source for your second data source, just select the first one again.
And since all of the fields are identical, you can pick whichever join key you’d like.

This option is also perfect when comparing trends across two-plus subdomains or segments.
For instance, I wanted to look at organic users for the HubSpot Blog (blog.hubspot.com) and primary site (www.hubspot.com) at the same time.
This helps me figure out if we’re growing search traffic across the board. It’s also helpful when traffic decreases — have rankings dropped site-wide, or just for the blog (or the site)?
However, you can’t add two separate “user” metrics to a chart at once… unless, of course, you’re blending data.
Create a new blended data source (following the same process as above) to set this up.
Add your first view to the left-most column, your second view to the following column, and so on.
Note: Make sure you’re choosing views with mutually exclusive data. In other words, I wouldn’t want to use “blog.hubspot.com” as my first source and “blog.hubspot.com/marketing” as my second source because all the data for the blog.hubspot.com/marketing view is included in the blog.hubspot.com one.
Because of that overlap, we wouldn’t be able to spot trends clearly.
Use “Date” as the join key.

I added the organic traffic segment to both sources, but you can choose whichever segment you’re interested in (paid traffic, social traffic, etc.) Or leave it off entirely! Tons of possibilities here.
In fact, here are some additional ideas for blending a source with itself:

Compare two-plus custom segments
Compare two-plus landing pages
Compare two-plus goal completions

18. Create a basic calculated field.
When your existing data doesn’t give you enough information, it’s time to create a calculated field.
Calculated fields take your data and, as their name suggests, makes calculations.
It’s probably easiest to explain with an example.
Let’s say you want to look at the average number of transactions per user. You can create a calculated field that takes the metric “Transactions” and divides it by the metric “Users.”
Once this field has been created, it’ll be updated automatically — so you can change the chart’s time range, dimensions, etc., and the average transactions per user data will update accordingly.
There are two ways to create a calculated field.
Create a data-source calculated field
This option makes the field available in any report that uses that data source.
It’ll also be available as a filter control or in new calculated fields (like calculated field inception).
Obviously, this is a good option if you plan on using this custom metric more than once. The only caveat — you must have edit rights to the original data source. You also can’t use a data source calculated field with blended data.
To create a data-source calculated field, add a chart to your Data Studio dashboard, then choose the data source you want to derive your new field from.
Click “Add a new field” in the lower left-hand corner.

(You can also do this by clicking the pencil next to the data source and then selecting “Add a field” in the upper right corner of your field menu.)

Use the left menu to search for the metrics you need; click one to add it to the formula.
If the formula has an error, a notification will appear in red underneath the editor explaining where you went wrong.
If your formula works, you’ll get a green checkmark.

Click “Save” to add your new field to the data source.
And don’t forget to name yours — which I forgot to do. 🙂
Now you can add this calculated field to any chart just like a regular field.
Create a chart-level calculated field
For this option, you’ll only be able to use the field for that specific report.
This option is a little easier because all the limitations of the other type are reversed.
While you can’t use a chart-level calculated field in another chart, filter control, or additional calculated field, you don’t need edit rights to the original data.
You can also use a chart-specific calculated field for data blending, which we’ll cover in the next step.
To create a chart-level calculated field, simply click “Add a field” underneath the existing dimension(s) and metric(s) you’ve selected.
When you choose to add a new field, this pane will pop up:

From here, enter the formula for your new field — simply typing in the name of your desired metric will trigger a menu of options — and click “Apply.”
Your new field will be added to the chart.
Loves Data’s Benjamin Mangold has an excellent round-up of sample calculated metrics, including:

Average goal completions per user
Non-bounce rate
Pageviews per transaction
Value per session

You can check it out for inspiration.
If you want a little practice before you start going to town on your own data, Google offers a handy sample exercise.

19. Create an advanced calculated field.
Okay, so there’s a lot you can do with simple algebraic calculated fields. But there’s even more you can do once you introduce functions and RegEx.
Don’t be scared off! We’ll walk through these step-by-step.
If you’re comfortable with Google Sheets and/or Excel functions, you already know how to use functions in Data Studio.
For instance, let’s say that you majored in English, and it’s always bothered you that “Source” in Google Analytics is lower-case.
You can use the UPPER function to transform Source into all upper-case.
Simply click “Add dimension” > “Create new field.”
Then enter the UPPER formula:

As Google Sheets expert Ben Collins points out, this trick will also standardize any custom naming; for example, if some people on your team used “chat” for a campaign, and others used “Chat,” the UPPER function will aggregate both together.
Perhaps you want to create a new field for city and country.
Just click “Add dimension” (since city and state are categorical, not quantitative, variables) > “Create field.”
Then use the CONCATENATE function to smush together the City and Country fields.

Check out the complete list of functions Data Studio supports.
One of the niftiest is CASE. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s essentially an IF/THEN statement. This function lets you create custom groupings.
For example, let’s say you’re looking at the table we created in the last step:

Here, Data Studio is treating Facebook mobile traffic (m.facebook.com) and desktop traffic (Facebook) as two different sources. There’s also l.facebook.com — desktop traffic coming via a link shim, which Facebook implemented in 2008 to protect users from potential spam. What if you want to combine all Facebook traffic into a single source?
A CASE formula solves this issue neatly. Here’s the formula:
CASE
WHEN condition THEN result
WHEN condition THEN result
ELSE result
END
You can have one condition (like the example below) or several. The ELSE argument is optional, so feel free to leave it out if you don’t need it.
Here’s the formula we’ll use to group Facebook traffic:
CASE
WHEN REGEXP_MATCH(Source,”^(l.facebook.com|m.facebook.com|facebook.com)$”) THEN “Facebook”
END
This formula tells Data Studio, “If the source matches l.facebook.com, m.facebook.com, or facebook.com, call it ‘Facebook.’”
To add a CASE formula, you must be able to edit the data source.
Click the pencil icon next to your source to bring up the data field editor.
Then click “Add a new field” in the upper right corner.
Enter your formula.

If the formula works, you’ll see a green checkmark. Give your new field a name and click “Save.” Now you can add this field to any chart or data viz that uses this data source.
You might be thinking, “Okay, great, but was that formula written in Klingon? How do I come up with my own?”
Don’t know RegEx? No problem! This blog post has five formulas to get you started.

20. Create a calculated blended field.
This is the pinnacle of Data Studio mastery, requiring all the skills you’ve already learned and a hefty dose of luck — just kidding, it’s super easy.
Create a blended data source per usual.
In this example, I blended together the GA views for www.hubspot.com and blog.hubspot.com.
Then click “Add metric” > “Add new field” as you would to create a normal calculated field.
Enter your formula.
I wanted to see “Total Users” (i.e., users from www.hubspot.com plus users from blog.hubspot.com), which is a simple calculation:

Note: It can get a bit hairy here if you’re using two different fields with the same name, as I’m doing here. Sometimes Data Studio is smart enough to recognize the difference, and sometimes it’s not.
If you run into issues, I recommend editing the name of one or both fields in the original data source(s), which you can do at any time by clicking the pencil next to the blended data source.
Then click the pencil next to the field name you want to change.
This pane will appear; edit the title accordingly.
Then click “Save” and go back to your calculated field to update the formula:
Done! I can now see both in my report.
Google Data Studio is the Best Way to Visualize Your Data
Now that you know Data Studio inside and out, you’re well-prepared to create stunning interactive reports for your coworkers, clients, and executives. Use the tips I shared above to make the most of it and successfully show the ROI of your marketing efforts.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Turning prospects into loyal customers is a multi-step process requiring the combined efforts of cross-functional teams. Thankfully, there are different types of technologies available to make the task more organized and easy — like customer relationship management software (CRM) and marketing automation.
But it’s not just about how much easier it makes your job. When the two software work together, it can become a more streamlined process that can potentially convert more prospects into qualified leads quicker and more effectively.
And more businesses are seeing the value in integrating the two. In fact, 52% of marketers prioritize implementing marketing automation platforms that can integrate into other solutions to enhance their marketing efforts.
In this post, we’ll review what marketing automation and CRM software do, and why they need each other to better help your business.

CRM and Marketing Automation
Before we dive into why marketing automation and CRM should be integrated, we need to understand their specific functions.
What is marketing automation software?
Marketing automation software helps marketers promote and streamline content without manual application. This includes automating the distribution of content and reporting analytics derived from how prospects interact with it. It pulls data from when leads visit your website, open an email, fill out a form, or read a blog, and makes the data easily accessible for the business to build its strategy.
Ultimately, the goal is to streamline the process of taking a lead, nurturing them, and moving them to a sales-qualified lead. Essentially, it’s all about lead generation and personalization.
Some of the best marketing automation software include HubSpot, MailChimp, and Marketo.
What is customer relationship management software?
On the other hand, customer relationship management (CRM) is software for sales and service teams to manage their pipeline and lead qualification processes. It historically tracks customer data, including dates and notes of phone conversations, past purchase records, and email interactions as they proceed through the buyer’s journey.
Essentially, with this software, your salesperson can see the full picture of who a prospect is, their history with your company, and their journey to becoming a customer.
Best CRM for Marketing Automation
HubSpot is one of the best choices for CRM marketing automation tools because the HubSpot Marketing Hub includes the foundational CRM functionalities, so you have both software in one.
And for seamless CRM integration, users can manage both their sales and marketing strategies in the HubSpot Marketing Hub and advanced Sales Hub together for more sophisticated features in marketing automation and CRM.
If you’re interested in using HubSpot for your marketing automation needs, but need some guidance on assessing your marketing automation strategy, use our Simple Guide to Smart Automation.

Download for Free
Now that we’ve discussed what each software does and how they can help your team, we can address the big question, “Why do these need to work together?”
CRM and Marketing Automation: Why You Need Both
When marketing automation and CRM software work together, they provide a seamless journey for your customers as they go from visitor to customer. Integrating the two software will give your sales reps the full picture of a prospect’s interaction with your company. Your sales rep will know the marketing history of their prospects.
Let’s go through a tangible example of how the two software can work together.
Example of Marketing Automation and CRM Integration
To start, let’s say a marketer attracts a lead through a blog post, much like this one.
Perhaps they found the content insightful and decided to download a lead magnet and fill out a form. Once that happens, the marketing team starts nurturing the lead through an email marketing campaign.
These actions evolve this reader into a marketing-qualified lead (MQL). After a while of engaging with more content, when the lead requests a demo of the product, they then turn into a sales-qualified lead (SQL). Once this happens, the sales rep who’s responsible for the demo goes to the marketing automation and CRM software to gather information on their interactions with the company.
Sales can then look through what offers the prospect has downloaded, what blogs they’ve read, who they are, and what company they work for and use it in their strategy for the demo call. So now they’re prepared to answer the right questions and personalize the sales call to better connect with the qualified lead and nurture them into a sale.
So we’ve taken the prospect all the way through the funnel, and now they’ve made the purchase. Keep reading to see how CRM and marketing automation contributes to that success.
Benefits of Integrating Your CRM with Marketing Automation
Building off of the progression of the example, the integration of CRM and marketing automation software has the ability to:
Offer Better Visibility to Marketing and Sales Teams
This allows both teams to know where they are in the process and what their next actions should be in the future.
Shorten the Sales Process
Without marketing automation used in conjunction with CRM, it potentially takes a much longer time to source leads. Both software makes the process of taking prospects through the sales funnel with
Provide Consistent Messaging
The marketing and sales professionals that affect the customer’s experience can be aligned when engaging in client-facing communication. It’s not as much of a challenge to provide consistent messaging when you have all the contextual information available in cross-functional software.
Unify Your Data Management
With the software already working together, salespersons don’t have to go out of their way to request customer profile information and instead were readily able to prepare to sell based on unified data management.
Enhance Pipeline Management
Both teams in the process have a process that involves observing and tracking the step-by-step progression of a lead.
Minimize Human Error
If you might have an outdated system or process in place for lead tracking, it’s probably a manual process that comes with human error and prospects slipping through the cracks. You can’t scale a system like that.
Your marketing automation and CRM should be connected so your sales team has the right tools to close a deal.
Combine Your CRM and Marketing Automation Efforts
Integrating these systems should help you understand the gaps and friction points in your marketing and sales process. It can help you discover why leads aren’t moving from MQL to SQL or why prospects aren’t closing. CRM and marketing automation can make your marketing team, sales team, and customers happier by streamlining the marketing and sales process.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published March 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Structured data is the code on your website that explains and organizes the content on the page. The image below is an example of structured data.

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Structured data relates to SEO and marketing because it helps search engines understand your content and website. When your website content is optimized using structured data, you’ll gain more visibility for your site pages in SERPs.

Given its impact on SEO, you’ll want to ensure your website’s structured data is optimized. Below we’ll recommend some high-quality structured data testing tools, and explain how to fix errors you find in your testing process.
Structured Data Testing Tool Preview
1. Rich Results Test
Google’s Rich Results Test tool analyzes the structured data on your desktop and mobile site pages to ensure it supports rich results. It specifically tests for Google SERPs special features, so it’s crucial to use if you’re optimizing your website for Google search results.

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To use it, simply paste a URL or code snippet and click test and the results will call out any errors and explain how to fix them.
2. JSON-LD Playground
JSON-LD Playground tests your structured data syntax against JSON standards to ensure it is correct. To use it, simply enter your structured data markup code and you’ll get a detailed report.

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The tool also shares example code structures for specific categories, like recipes or people, that you can use to model your structured data.
3. Schema.org
Schema.org checks the syntax of your structured data to ensure it meets standard schema markup requirements. While Google’s Rich Results Test focuses more on Google SERP features, this tool checks for all possible schema markups like, for example, the correct structure for a restaurant’s website.

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To use it, paste your code snippet or URL, and click Run Test. Your results will call out any errors and let you know how to fix them.
4. Bing Markup Validator
Bing’s Markup Validator analyzes your site’s structured data for markup errors and gives suggestions on how to improve. If you’re optimizing your site for Bing SERPs, this is the site to use. Hovering over any of the issues brings up a dialogue box that explains how to solve the problem.

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5. SEO Site Checkup
SEO Site Checkup’s Structured Data Test analyzes whether your structured data meets HTML Microdata specifications. To use the tool, simply paste the URL of the page you’re checking and run the test.

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Results call out the total number of errors, their suggested level of priority for fixing them, and links to guides that help you fix the issues.
6. Email Markup Tester
Google’s Email Markup Tester analyzes your email’s HTML to verify if it meets standard specifications. To use it, simply paste your code into the text box and click validate. If there are any errors, the tool will call them out for you to fix.

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7. RDF Translator
RDF Translator validates different types of structured data formats to ensure your site is set up correctly. To check your code, simply paste your site URL or code snippet and click submit.

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8. Search Console Structured Data Report
Search Console Structured Data Report gives you an overview of your structured data that includes the total number of valid elements, valid elements with warnings, and errors. If you click on the report rows that contain errors, the tool tells you exactly what the error is so you can tackle the issue.

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Structured Data Generator
9. Markle’s Schema Markup Generator
Merkle’s Schema Markup Generator helps you generate accurate structured data for your website and website pages. You can create schema markups for articles, events, FAQ pages, etc., that are correctly formatted, ensuring your website is fit to appear in SERPs.

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Simply select the schema you need, input your information, and copy and paste the code on your site.
10. Structured Data Markup Helper
The Structured Data Markup Helper helps you create structured data that meets Google’s standards. You simply paste your URL to your website or your email HTML, select the type of data you’re inputting (i.e, a job posting) and click Start Tagging.

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The tool then gives you your structured data using the correct tags that will surface your content in SERPs.
How to Fix Errors Found With a Testing Tool
If you get errors when testing your structured data, fixing them is crucial to ensuring your site shows up in SERPs. Many structured testing tools give suggestions on how to remove the errors in your structured data, and below we’ll go over some critical steps to remember.
1. Fill in missing fields.
Some of the most common errors you may see are missing fields. This usually means that you have an element in your structured data that doesn’t have a corresponding field that explains what the data is. For example, if you’re missing a publish date in the structured data for a news article, you may see:
Missing:date published
You can simply fix this error by entering the publish date.
2. Prioritize those with the most errors.
After testing your structured data, your tool may call attention to the data types that contain the most errors. You’ll want to fix these first, as errors in these may be contributing to subsequent errors that will resolve themselves once these are fixed.
3. Fix manual actions.
Manual actions are when a human reviewer determines that pages on your site aren’t compliant with Google’s webmaster guidelines. For example, a page on your site uses the standard review markup but doesn’t include any reviews. You’ll want to address these errors immediately because manual actions can significantly impact your site rankings.
Structured Data Helps Your Site SEO
You should consider testing and validating your website’s structured data as a critical component of your SEO process, as it has a significant impact on your site appearing in search results. Leverage the structured data testing tools in this list to ensure your structured data meets standards.

I automated tiktok scraping and can scraped unlimited data from tiktok based on server size and costs. But I’m not sure who needs or wants it other then for very specific purpose. Any advice? submitted by /u/butlerbernie [link] [comments]

Big Idea or Enduring Question: How do you notify the opportunity owner when a customer submits a survey (post-sales) response?  Objectives: After reading this blog, you’ll be able to:  Understand SurveyQuestionScore, SurveyInvittaion objects  Use flow to notify the opportunity owner when a post-sales survey response is received  Find out if a
The post Notify Opportunity Owner when a Survey Response is Received appeared first on Automation Champion.

submitted by /u/AumentIO [link] [comments]

Expression, passion, style, persuasion, authenticity.
These five elements encompass a customer success story — a transformation from a regular case study to an enticing piece of content that encourages a reader to explore what your company has to offer.

When people think about writing a case study, they might feel a daunting rise of tediousness, or perhaps writer’s block. In this article, we’ll dive into each step you need to take to create an engaging customer success story and convert leads.
Why should you tell a customer success story?
Case studies are more than proving your company’s achievements. Through eloquence and thoughtfulness, you can demonstrate your product or service’s power by telling a real story.
Think about it: Real customers use your product. Real employees deliver successful projects. Real customers, real professionals, real people.
What does that look like? Well, it’s educating a prospect through a thoughtful perspective, and answering the following questions:

How did the client feel at the beginning versus the end?
What struggles did the project manager face?
How did they feel when they overcame them?

These questions will help you pull the key sections of your story and craft together a compelling piece of content.
Turning a Case Study into a Customer Story
1. Find the right client.
To get started, ask your project management or sales team about their latest projects and which one stood out.
You’re looking for a client with a uniquely knotty problem, one that your company was able to solve. The more complex the project, the more you can show off your company’s skills.
If most of the projects seem standard, pick the client that was the most hands-on and the most responsive. The more involved the client, the more likely they are to give you more information in their interview.
Send an Enticing Email
Before you begin, get permission from the client and inquire about their interest in participating in a case study. You can incentivize them through social media publication, tagging their company on all social platforms, and including a link to their website at the end of the case study.
Here’s an example from Trujay that you can use to write an enticing email to your client:
Hi [Name],
My name is [Your Name], I’m a [Job Title/Position] here at [Company Name]. I’m so pleased to hear your experience with us was worth it! We’re glad we could make all the needs of your project happen and hope you continue to enjoy the results.
Since your project was such a success, I wondered if you would be interested in participating in a case study. We like to inquire about this opportunity to only a few select customers because we find some projects have a compelling story. Yours happens to be a particularly special project, and we’d love to promote your brand by showcasing the results.
All you would have to do is answer six questions about your experience of working with us. You may answer them directly in response to this email, or we can have a phone or video call. Whatever way you’d prefer! Most of our clients like to copy and paste the questions in response and simply fill in the answers.
If you would like to interview over [Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, Other], let me know a good time and date that works for you. The call shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes.
I’ve attached a few examples of previous success stories to get a feel for the final product. We also conduct a social media campaign so you and your company can get as much exposure as possible.
We thank you for using our services and wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors! Should you ever need our services again, know that [Company Name’s] got your back. We hope you find interest in participating and look forward to hearing from you.
Warmest,
[Email Signature]
Once you have permission, let your project management or services team know that a case study is underway.
2. Create interview questions for both project manager and client.
You’ll want to create two sets of questions — one for the project manager, and one for the client. These questions will give way to both sides of the story, enlightening you on the experience from both ends.
Client Questions: The Background
The formatting of the client interview questions is essential. You want to get as much detail as you can without overwhelming the client with loaded questions.
Client interview questions are straightforward and relate to a customer’s company, goals, passions, and plans. You want to find out how your company solved a significant problem through the clients’ perspective. What did the project management team accomplish, in their eyes?
First, get four pieces of standard information:

Here’s an example of how you’ll use this information in your introductory piece and throughout the success story:
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Once you introduce the interviewee and their company clearly and thoughtfully, the client interview questions will shape the rest of your story.
Client Questions: The Real Story
First, you want the client to describe what their previous experience was. What didn’t they like about it? What did it do to cause friction in their business process? And most importantly, how was their previous experience not serving their company’s needs?
Next, you want to get the facts. What was the name of their previous service provider, and what made them switch? How did they find your company? Was it a referral, a Google search, or something else?
By knowing how the client found your company, you’ll know which of your marketing efforts are working and which need improvement. For example, if the client found your company through a keyword search, that means your SEO strategy is working. Alternatively, if the client found your company by referral, that means your reputation is credible by word-of-mouth.
Below are six questions you can ask your clients:

What company and/or product were you previously using, and what were the issues?
What special requirements did you have that the previous company lacked in delivering?
Which solution did you switch to, and what made you choose it?
How did you find the new company/solution?
What was your experience throughout the project? (Orientation, beginning stages, experience with your account manager, understanding the tech if applicable, etc.)
How were you satisfied with the results, and what was your favorite part? (Could be anything from communication to a more technical logic.)

Project Manager Questions
The project manager questions should inform you of the entire technical and onboarding process. These questions aim to prove technical savviness and expertise, showing the reader that your product or service works excellently.
Below are four interview questions you could ask the project manager or technician in charge of the account:

What were the challenges the client was facing? Is there a main one in particular? Be as detailed as possible over what problems the client had, including but not limited to their project experience, current issues, and dislikes.
What were the biggest challenges of this project, and what did you find most challenging in solving the problem? Were there complications you have or have not seen before? Be descriptive.
What did you recommend, and how did you know to suggest that plan? Was there anything peculiar about their use case, or was it pretty standard? How do you know what actions to take for a specific project, precisely the one in question?
What was the execution plan, and how did you use it to satisfy the client’s needs?

Make sure you’re interviewing the team leader of the project and other colleagues who worked on it. You’ll want to do this to make sure you get the whole story and the perspectives of everyone involved. The more information you have, the easier it will be to write the story.
When interviewing the project management team, analyze their responses in a marketable way. What about their answers gives appeal, and where is the sweet spot for authenticity?
Every project is unique, even if there is a standard method in place. It’s the client’s problem that makes the project unique, and how the services team solved that very problem to the fullest extent.
Below is an example from Trujay of how you can integrate the project manager’s responses into a well-written overview of the problem and its challenges:

3. Tell the story using a standard outline.
The responses to your interview questions don’t necessarily need to be in a particular order. You can either start with the project manager or client questions.
Let’s say you get the client’s responses first. What are you looking for, exactly?
You’re looking for the message behind their words. Some call it reading between the lines. I call it the sweet spot of authenticity. What about their responses jumps out at you? Here is an excellent place to know your buyer personas and identify what kind of client they are.
After reviewing both sets of interview responses, try telling the story to yourself from beginning to end using the questions below. In your own words, speak the story out loud. Doing so will turn fact into fiction and organize your written outline.

Place Quotes in Your Outline
Quotes from the client are paramount. Words that come directly from the source are vital to proving your company can achieve results and make customers feel cared for. The more quotes you have, the better you can showcase your customer’s achievements.
Quotes of high-quality give prospects significant confidence in choosing your services — almost as much as referrals.
Ask for Video Testimonials
If and when possible, getting video testimonials from your client can make your story go above and beyond. If the video content editing is just right, you can move your readers in a heartfelt way. That might sound odd, so take a look at the video below. It could very well be the beacon of your success story and the element that sets it apart, like this example from HubSpot, below:
Testimonials of this kind of caliber make your success story real. Additionally, consider placing quotes in various and relevant areas of your success story — you can have a quote for each one of the aspects that make up a standard, outlined case study.
4. Use concise, clear language to tell a story.
You don’t need to use fancy jargon to create a compelling customer success story — in fact, it’s preferred that you don’t. You’ll want to make it so the reader can clearly understand how your company helped solve a client’s problem, which doesn’t require superfluous language.
Here’s an excerpt that’s written clearly, and without jargon:
James felt that [company 1] had way more “bells and whistles,” which can be extremely healthy for some companies. In James’s case, however, he was only using a fraction of the features. Sometimes, too much of anything is never a good thing. Just because a system has more features doesn’t mean it will serve a specific company to its highest degree. Sometimes, less is more, and for James, “it was time to change.”
We recommend using case study templates to help turn your customer story into a coherent, well-organized publication.

Download for Free
5. Design your story for visual appeal.
Ultimately, visuals are powerful opportunities to support and strengthen your story.
If you want to persuade prospects that your company is the right choice for them, you’ll want to have a well-written story, but you’ll also want to create visually-appealing materials to help support the story.
Design applications like Canva are great for combining text with imagery. Create beautiful and eye-catching case study e-book covers, or create designs to highlight quotes throughout the piece. Alternatively, consider using images related to the client and company — with permission, you might even consider using clients’ LinkedIn photos to put a face to the text.
Here are some examples of customer success stories with a design for visual appeal:
1. CoSchedule: UMass Memorial Health Care

2. Lightico: A1 Comms

3. Hourly.io: Izzy’s Brooklyn Bagels

What do they all have in common? When you get to these landing pages, key details are immediately prominent: The issue the company was facing and/or the results they generated.
This is a great way to hook in the reader and get them interested to read on.
By showing the results, you highlight the benefits of using your brand. By emphasizing the problems, you can help prospects identify issues and understand why you’re the solution.
Both strategies can generate positive results, it’s just a matter of figuring out which method converts best with your audience.
How to Leverage Customer Success Story on Social Media
1. Figure out which case studies will translate well.
The “right client” will vary from brand to brand.
Samuel Mironko, associate marketing manager on the HubSpot brand marketing team, says that this is what they look for: brand recognition, buzziness, and relationship.
The bigger the brand, the more buzz it can create to share its story. This doesn’t mean that you should only highlight stories from recognizable brands. However, it could be a way to prioritize them.
The second is buzziness – how much interest will this story generate? Is the brand in a booming industry? This is another plus for you.

Lastly, and perhaps the most important according to Mironko, is your relationship with the customer. Building a customer story requires a lot of collaboration between the two companies. If your relationship with the client isn’t solid, you may face several obstacles as you attempt to deliver the product.
“You get a better story knowing more about the customer. You know what questions to ask, how to guide the story, and more details,” said Natalie Gullatt, marketing manager on the HubSpot customer marketing team. “The customer tends to trust you more if you have a relationship with them so it makes the process better for both parties.”
To narrow down a list of options, you will likely need to work with customer advocacy and/or customer success teams at your company to connect you with the clients.
They can also offer some insight into the problems that the company faces and the issues they were able to solve with your product/service.
2. Write a script.
Once you narrow down your list, it’s time to write the script for your social media campaigns.
While you follow the same format as the case study, you have to adjust it for social media – taking only the key details that will help you tell a story in an engaging but concise way.

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Hellopeter.com (@hellopeter_za)

Mironko says that this format works well for customer success stories because it tells a story. You leave knowing the problems the company faced before, how they attempted to solve the issue, their new experience, and how that has addressed their main pain points.
3. Get feedback from the client.
Once you have a draft, you’ll need to send it to the client for approval.
They may provide feedback on anything from the visual design to the way they’re portrayed.

We are delighted to launch our customer success story series with @GaryWidger, Head of Change at @mercuryeng – about how Mercury leveraged #nocode/#lowcode technology to connect their people through shared knowledge.Read more here: https://t.co/BDvRjRxVgd#innovation #tech pic.twitter.com/9qe7dmEART — Kianda (@KiandaBPM)
March 30, 2021

Because this is a collaborative process, it’s essential that both parties are satisfied with the end result.
“Make sure to have the customers approve the drafts before publishing – that’s so important,” says Gullatt. “Customers may have to ask their marketing teams, legal teams before they say certain things publicly so you don’t want to burn bridges.”
This is why having a good relationship with the customer is key – this will make addressing issues with the content so much easier.
Gullatt adds that flexibility is key. 
“Be flexible even when it’s inconvenient because customers doing stories is a favor to you and your organization,” she says. “Making it easy for them and being patient goes a long way.”
4. Post and measure success.
Once the content is finally ready and published on social media, you’ll want to track its success.
How are people responding? Are they engaging with the content? Did it help you generate more leads?
Establishing KPIs before publishing on social media allows you to gauge your success accurately. From there, you can review the data to assess improvements for future success story campaigns.
Case studies work to showcase a company’s function to the fullest degree. They represent the facts of what happened, who was involved, and what the outcome was.
The main goal of a case study is to earn prospective customers’ trust and motivate them to choose you over your competitors.
Turning a case study into a customer success story is done through a meticulous and investigative process.
Now that you have everything you need to get started, design a visually appealing piece of content that gives the reader more than just words, but sparks their imagination of what it would be like to work with your company. They’ll want to reap the benefits of your services — and may even become the star of your next customer success story.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in Oct. 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

When TikTok went viral in 2019, pulling in millions of global users nearly overnight, almost every major social media channel quickly pivoted attention to short-form videos.
While Instagram – which notably innovated on Snapchat Stories – launched Instagram Reels, YouTube – known for its longer-form videos – launched YouTube Shorts.
Now, TikTok seems to be taking on its biggest social media rivals yet again by exploring two familiar — but still surprising — features: TikTok Stories and 10-minute video capabilities.

If you love the short-form, in-feed, and non-ephemeral nature of TikTok’s platform, you might be surprised that they’re now launching features that other platforms are famous for – rather than continuing to make their own unique offerings.
You also might wonder, “Will these features make TikTok a more applicable channel for my brand?” Or, “Will TikTok’s Stories and long-form content go unnoticed and eventually be discontinued – just like Twitter Fleets?”
To help marketers try to determine if these features will make a difference in their TikTok or social media strategy, I’ll highlight how they work, why TikTok’s launching them, and if they pose any opportunities for brands.
We’ll discuss TikTok Stories first. But, if you’re just interested in long-form video instead, click here to jump down to that section of this post.

TikTok has expanded its Stories feature pilot after initially testing the feature in a few select countries like Brazil in Q1. While TikTok has not yet published a press release about Stories or pilot results, U.S. users began to see a notification announcing the feature on apps throughout the past month.

As many marketers already know, this pilot comes after most major social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even LinkedIn have launched or explored their own version of this feature.
What’s the Story with Stories?: A Quick History
At the HubSpot Blog, the evolution of Stories features across social media platforms has taught us one thing: When one platform develops a viral feature, other major platforms will follow suit with an incredibly similar option.
Stories began on Snapchat, the first well-known ephemeral app where users could create a series of videos or pictures on their profile – or a Snapchat Story – that would only show up for 24 hours. Users could also send “Snaps” or a series of disappearing Snaps to other users who could only see them when they opened their message.
Soon after Snapchat attracted millions of users with ephemeral content, Instagram launched Stories as a key part of its platform. Then, soon after that Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Twitter launched Story or Story-like features. While Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram still host Stories today, Twitter has disbanded its version – called “Fleets” and Snapchat has steadily lost interest from consumers and brands.
How to Publish a TikTok Story
If you are in the U.S. or another country where the feature is now available, creating a story is very similar to creating standard TikTok content.
1. Open TikTok’s Post tool.
First, you go to your profile and press the turquoise plus (+) on your profile picture, or go to your feed and press the Post button. You can also find a post button in the center of TikTok’s bottom navigation.

2. Make your content.
Create a video, or upload or take a picture. Then add any background music, text, or effects as you would with any TikTok video.

3. Determine if your content is a Story or TikTok.
When you’re done recording or selecting a photo, you’ll see two options: Post to Story and Next. Tapping Post to Story will automatically send it to your Story and For You feeds of other users.

One thing worth noting is that if you post a photo to your story, you’ll want to select a piece of music to go with it. Otherwise, TikTok will choose music automatically. In my case, this image was posted to my first test Story with an auto-selected Bruno Mars song.
If you tap “Next,” and don’t post the content to your Story, you’ll be sent to the last page you usually see before posting a permanent TikTok, which allows you to add a description to TikToks while also adding privacy and sharing preferences.
Because Stories are ephemeral, it seems that TikTok doesn’t allow you to add a description, hashtags, or privacy settings when you publish, which is important to keep in mind if your brand requires extra settings on your content.
Viewing a Story
There are three ways to view Stories. All are a bit tricky and sometimes rely on happenstance.
1. Sit back and swipe into new Stories.
Stories from people you follow or accounts you might be interested in will show up in the For You page feed of the TikTok app along with standard TikTok videos. While they might not have a hefty description, you can still follow the account that posted it or “Like” the content like a regular TikTok video. However, some features, like video replies, will be disabled because this content is meant to be ephemeral and will disappear after 24 hours.
2. Find Stories through “For You Page” navigation.
Open up TikTok and go to your For You page (a.k.a. your main feed). As you swipe through, pay attention to the engagement and sharing navigation buttons on the right of each video. When you see a profile picture with a turquoise ring around it, tap it to see the account’s story.

3. Find Stories on TikTok Profiles
Go to a profile of a TikToker you enjoy and look at their profile picture. If the ring appears around that profile picture, you can tap it and be sent to their story.

Should You Leverage Stories?
The jury is still out on whether Stories will become a hit on TikTok. From a simple swipe through my feed, it was pretty hard to find people who were actively using them already. However, this feature is still very new and could grow in use as more people become aware of it.
Additionally, when accounts do use Stories, it essentially feels like a temporarily published TikTok video. It’s also not clear yet if posting a series of videos to your Story will be as effective as posting permanent TikTok videos with a “Part 2” link in the comments.
For example, the screenshot below shows a TikToker linking a follow-up video in the comment thread of another TikTok video where she demonstrates how to use a STEMPLAYER to isolate the vocals in Adele’s music.

Because of the engagement of Stories compared to linking permanent TikTok content together, some TikTok users might be more interested in growing their following and evergreen views with more permanent content.
Aside from lower usage, one thing that could also hold TikTok Stories back is the features barriers to discoverability on the platform. However, while it might not be as easy to find Stories right now because it is still in the pilot phase, this could change if the app fully embraces them with a Stories page or search features as Instagram has.
At this point, Stories shouldn’t be the reason your brand decides to go on TikTok. You’ll ultimately want to look at its entire assortment of features, audience, and consumer behavior to determine if your brand is a good fit.
However, if you already have a TikTok following and have time for light experimentation, posting a light-lift, on-brand test story likely won’t hurt your following. It’s possible that unconfirmed TikTok algorithms might even give you a boost.  
Multiple high-performing TikTokers I follow say they expect to see TikTok Stories get a discoverability lift in various TikTok feeds as the algorithm might favor or push content that leverages new features. While TikTok hasn’t spoken about this at length or publicly, here’s some example of advice from a user with over 350,000 followers.

@sociallykels TikTok stories 😲
#tiktokstory
#tiktokstories
#igstories
#tiktoktips
#socialmediatips
#contentcreator
♬ original sound – Kelsie | Content Creator

If you do experiment with TikTok Stories, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Cater your Stories to TikTok’s audience and platform: Stories should be fast-paced, value-packed, or interesting in another way to the TikTok audience.
Stories will need promotion: It can be incredibly easy to miss Stories because there is not a designated location for them on the app. Users primarily know a Story is available when a profile image is outlined on the right navigation of a TikTok video. If you have a story you want people to see, consider making a TikTok that goes over the topic and encourages people to watch that story.
Determine if views or followers are most important: One way many accounts gain followers is when users click the plus sign on the profile icon that appears in video navigation. But, when you publish a story or launch a live event, tapping the profile picture just leads to this content. This is important to keep in mind if you want to gain followers quickly.

Long-Form Video on TikTok
In 2022, TikTok enabled all users the ability to add videos that were up to 10-minutes long. The company began exploring long-video features in the summer of 2021 by allowing just a select group of users to use them first. In its initial announcement of the long-video pilot, TikTok explained that the move aimed to give creators more tools and flexibility.
“Creative expression brings people together. It’s how we connect with our communities. It’s how we entertain, educate, inform, and inspire each other. This is also why we’ve focused on providing our community with a range of tools to help unleash their creativity – longer videos are now one more tool people can use to captivate the community with their creative expression,” read the statement.
Since then, the feature eventually rolled out to all users – who can now create videos that are up to 10 minutes long. And, to many of us, this continued rollout is still a bit surprising.
When TikTok began to go viral as a host for 1-minute videos, it seemed like an answer to Vine, a once viral and notably discontinued short-form video app. Even as viewership grow, TikTok still kept videos short by only eventually allowing a max of three-minute videos. Not only has TikTok strayed away from long-form in the past, but the platform’s virality led many brands and social media channels to recognize how consumers were shifting to short-form video consumption.
While a post from TikTok explains that videos over one minute long have driven more than 5 billion global views, the platform still seems driven by short-form content, aside from occasional live streams that appear in the For You feed.
Why is engagement so important? While TikTok might give an unconfirmed initial boost to creators who use its new features, the company has shared that its algorithm is partially driven by engagement. Content with lower engagement will be deprioritized in its feed. Thus, if someone posts a video that feels too slow to start, boring, or too long, they could swipe to the next video in the feed before it ends, avoid liking or commenting on it, and might not follow the account holder. As a result, the content could be deprioritized.
While this shouldn’t necessarily discourage you, it shows that you should still be strategic about what you’re posting on TikTok’s fast-paced platform and how long it really needs to be to grab attention and engagement.
Should You Post Long TikToks?
While slightly longer TikTok videos or even TikTok Live could be a great way to engage your TikTok while also potentially getting an algorithmic boost from the app, keep in mind that much of TikTok’s audience tends to prefer things short and sweet.
If you do want to test out a longer video, you can simply go to create a TikTok and film or upload content that’s up to 10-minutes long.
Ultimately, you’ll receive solid engagement and memorability on fast-paced apps like TikTok if your videos quickly and concisely pull viewers into the action and give them all the key information they need. If you do go beyond three minutes, your content will need to be incredibly interesting. Otherwise, the second a user loses interest, they’ll move on to the next video with just a quick swipe of their finger.
TikTok Pivots: Desperation or Competitive Maturity?
When TikTok first went viral, it was the go-to app for short-form videos. But now, as it matures at the top of app store and website charts, it’s starting to become a go-to platform for all things video.
And, while TikTok expanding to Stories and long-form videos might seem like a surprising play, the brand isn’t necessarily wrong to test these popular social media features.
Ultimately, once virality has been reached, platforms need to expand to have sustainable growth. Why? Because older competitors will likely copy or innovate on the unique features of smaller or newer platforms.
In 2019 and 2020, TikTok was in that situation. Although the app was viral and getting huge attention from brands, competitors like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter quickly began testing short-form video features. Yet, TikTok’s successfully kept growing and competing with these channels because of its continuous pivots, pilots, and evolutions. Essentially, TikTok is doing exactly what its competitors have done to capitalize on its features.
While TikTok was once that cool, edgy app that some had ever seen anything like before, it’s maturing into a channel that millions of people use daily. Sometimes, remaining relevant as you grow means you must release and test both never-before-seen and competitive features.
Is TikTok Right For You?
While some brands aren’t the best fit for TikTok and others still need to learn more about the platform to leverage it, this platform isn’t going away any time soon and it’s constantly growing and changing. Even if long-form content and Stories don’t become a hit on the app, the platform might still be relevant for your brand one day and is worth keeping on your radar.
It’s ultimately up to you to decide whether these features will intrigue your TikTok audience or if TikTok is even right for you. For more help on that front, download the free resource below.