Category: Marketing Automation

Did you know that 90% of searchers haven’t made their mind up about a brand before starting their search?
This is one of the main reasons that online advertising is so competitive. That ever-increasing competition is just one of the challenges that brands face when they do online advertising (and we’ll dive into this more below).
Yet, advertising is a vital component of any business’s marketing strategy. So, you might be wondering, “What are some other advertising challenges and how can we overcome them?”
In this post, let’s review the advertising challenges experts think brands could face in the next year and discuss how to overcome them.

1. Reaching the right targeted audience.
The adage goes that advertising (and marketing in general) is about reaching the right audience, with the right message, at the right time. But reaching the right audience is getting harder and becoming a challenge for advertisers.
Valentina Turchetti, the co-founder, managing director, and head of content at YourDigitalWeb, says, “Even if brands use retargeting and advanced audience funnel creation, they have to pay attention to Apple’s tracking changes where users can choose not to see advertising. Since users using Apple devices can decide to say ‘no’ to advertising, business results can be lower compared to those of previous months or last years.”
How to overcome this challenge: While this could impact results on certain advertising campaigns, it’s important to remember that the industry will shift to adapt to this challenge. In fact, it could mean that brands will rely on more native advertising options, and/or focus on advertising to loyal customers. These are just a couple of ideas, but as it becomes harder to reach the right audience, advertising strategies will need to shift. Additionally, you can use products and services like Terminus, LeadsBridge, and AdRoll to integrate your advertising with your CRM and find more customers.
2. Allocating enough budget.
Another challenge that advertisers will face in the future is allocating enough budget. Budget is usually a challenge in the marketing and advertising world of small to midsize companies, but this challenge will begin to impact larger companies as well.
Turchetti adds, “Advertising is not just an option anymore: brands have to allocate a budget for it. Depending on which channel the target uses, brands have to run campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Google Ads, and so on. The organic reach will be lower in the following months. Don’t forget that Facebook&Company are companies – I mean – they do business and monetize especially with ads, so their goals will be pushing brands to do ads. More and more.”
How to overcome this challenge: Turchetti’s conclusion makes more and more sense as social media organic reach gets lower and SEO results become more volatile. The best way to combat this is to show the data to your leadership and executive team who makes budgeting decisions and increase your overall advertising budget. 
3. Scalability.
Of course, another advertising challenge that brands face is scalability. You’ll need to run online campaigns that can grow with your company.
Turchetti says, “It’s not just about creating a performing campaign. The issue is to make your campaigns scalable to grow the business efficiently. I think that landing pages are and will be the key for conversions. Let’s suppose brands create perfect high-converting campaigns with a targeted audience, they run A/B tests, they understand which CTA suits best for every campaign: that’s not enough.”
How to overcome this challenge: So, what do you do? “Brands have to work hard on creating, testing and running powerful landing pages, differently addressed to different groups of targets and marketing channels,” Turchetti advises.
4. Competition.
As we discussed above, online advertising is competitive. That competition makes it challenging for brands to reach the right audience in the right way.
Lewis Goldstein, the president of Blue Wind Marketing, says, “As more brands enter the online advertising space, the competition will become fiercer and fiercer.”
How to overcome this challenge: Goldstein recommends getting to know your audience on a deeper level. He says, “This will force advertisers to take a deeper dive into customer motivations by getting to know how they think (logic) and feel (emotion).” The better you know your target audience, the easier it will be to create effective advertising campaigns.
5. Relying on one marketing channel.
Online advertising doesn’t exactly feel like an option at this point. However, a huge challenge in the advertising industry is to rely on one marketing channel.
Goldstein comments, “With the recent outage that Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp experienced, it’s never been more clear that relying on one marketing channel – even if you’ve mastered it – is an unwise move. Keep in mind you’re playing in their sandbox and have to play by their rules.”
How to overcome this challenge: The best way to overcome this challenge is to strategically consider what channels you advertise on. Goldstein says, “This is why it’s smart to diversify the channels you use so you’ll be prepared for all seasons.”
6. Downplaying the power of emotions.
In recent years, we’ve seen a wave of nostalgic and emotional content playing a large role in the advertising industry. While you might think this is just a trend that’s going away, think again.
“Appealing to customers by using solely logic and forgetting the essential role emotion plays leaves a lot of money on the table. Ultimately people buy products and services because they feel like it’s the right thing to do,” Goldstein reminds us. “Emotion has been scientifically proven to drive decision-making behavior. Bottom line, when properly executed, this leads to more and more conversions, sales, and revenue.”
How to overcome this challenge: To overcome this challenge, rely on the science that proves that emotions drive purchasing decisions. Use this data to inform your advertising campaigns so you can connect with your audience in the most effective way.
The world of advertising is always changing, and new challenges crop up as technology evolves. But, it’s important to think about these challenges, review ways to overcome them, and be adaptable with your advertising strategies.

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An ongoing priority for B2B marketers is the successful value exchange between them and their intended audiences. B2B brands provide value to their audiences via research and content with lead generation forms and email signup promos. In return, B2B brands nudge form completers toward conversions and improve the way their audience perceives them. The value…
The post Apple’s New Hide My Email Feature: What it is and How it’s Changing Email Marketing appeared first on Benchmark Email.

Last Updated on November 15, 2021 by Rakesh Gupta Click a button and it’s done – automation is a simple solution to very timely, and often complicated processes. This is especially true for accounting. But more than that, it’s a testament to how applying automation can inherently strengthen the function
The post Why Is Accounting Automation Now A Business Requirement appeared first on Automation Champion.

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

Social Media Marketing Statistics 2021

As of October 2021, 4.55 billion people are active on social media. (Kepios)
In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll of 1,000+ global marketing professionals, 79% of marketers report buying paid advertising on social media. (HubSpot)
According the same poll, 85% of marketers rank short-form videos as the most effective type of social media content in 2021 (HubSpot)

64% of marketers plan to invest more in short-form video in 2022. (HubSpot)
82% of marketers repurpose content across various social media channels. (HubSpot)
83% of marketers believe the quality of social media posts is more important than the quantity. (HubSpot)

54% of social browsers use social media to research products. (GlobalWebIndex)
Each person spends an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social networks and messaging. (GlobalWebIndex)
1.3 million new users joined social media every day in 2020. (Hootsuite)
Millennials are logged on to social media for an average of two hours and 38 minutes daily, while Gen Z logs on for two hours and 55 minutes. (World Economic Forum)

Facebook Statistics

In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll, 79% of marketers report buying paid advertising on Facebook. (HubSpot)
According to the same poll, more than 50% of marketers plan on increasing their investments in Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok in 2022. (HubSpot)

Facebook usage among teens is dropping gradually. While 71% of teens claimed to use the platform in 2015, the number has now dropped to 67%. (GlobalWebIndex)
69% of U.S. adults use Facebook and 76% have visited the platform in the last month. (Pew Research Center, GlobalWebIndex)
Facebook had 1.93 billion daily active users in Q3 2021. (Statista)
98.3% of Facebook users access the platform on mobile devices. (Statista)
Video ads perform better than other ad formats on Facebook. (DataBox)
Facebook ads are used by 70% of marketers, and there were 10 million active advertisers on the platform in Q3 2021. (Social Media Examiner , Statista)
16% of all Facebook profiles are fake or duplicates. (Statista)
The best time to post on Facebook is Wednesday at 11 AM and 1-2 PM. Sundays show the least amount of traffic. ( Sprout Social)
Facebook Stories have 500 million daily viewers. (TechCrunch)
Political content is the most viewed genre of Facebook Stories. (Statista)
Video promotions are equally as important as photo promotions. (Social Bakers)
81% of businesses prefer video marketing on Facebook. (Buffer)

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

Twitter reached 211 million daily active users in Q3 2021. (Statista)
Twitter’s 2020 Q3 revenue was $936 million. (Twitter)
In a HubSpot Blog poll of 1,000+ global marketers, 79% of marketers plan to continue investing in Twitter Spaces in 2022. (HubSpot)
In 2019, 22% of U.S. adults used Twitter, down from 24% in 2018. (Statista)
Link clicks account for 92% of all user interaction with tweets. (HubSpot)
The best times to post on Twitter are Wednesday and Friday at 9 AM, and Saturday has the least engagement. ( Sprout Social)
Tweets with hashtags get 100% more engagement. (Twitter)
Socially responsible ads on twitter perform 12% better than standard ads. (Magna)
93% of Twitter community members are open to brands getting involved in conversation, such as providing help and support. (Twitter)

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

Instagram Statistics

In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll, 58% of marketers plan to leverage Instagram Reels in 2022. (HubSpot)
In late 2019, Instagram Stories had 500 million monthly active users. (Statista)
67% of Gen Z and 57% of Millennials use the platform, in comparison to only 38% of Gen X. (GlobalWebIndex)
64% of Instagram users are under the age of 34. (Statista)

98% of marketers say Instagram is the most influential platform for influencer marketing, which is 44% higher than Facebook. ( Sprout Social)
Videos get 21.2% more interactions compared to images and 18.6% more interactions compared to carousels. (Sprout Social)
90% of people on Instagram follow a business. (Instagram)
83% of people use Instagram to discover new products and services and 87% said they took specific action, like making a purchase, after seeing product information. (Facebook for Business)
In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll of 1,000+ global marketers, 73% of marketers prefer Instagram for influencer marketing. (HubSpot)

The best times to post on Instagram are Wednesday at 11 AM, and Friday between 10-11 AM. Sunday is the worst day for engagement. (Sprout Social)
eMarketer estimated that Instagram added 26.9 million users between 2016 and 2020 — almost double the incremental users expected for Twitter, and far more than any other social platform tracked. (eMarketer)
As of July 2021, 51% of Instagram users were female and 48% were male. (Statista)
For more Instagram stats,
click here.
LinkedIn Statistics

LinkedIn has more than 800 million active users in 200 countries and regions worldwide. (LinkedIn)
As of Q2 2021, 60% of LinkedIn users were between 25 and 34 years old. (Statista)
In Q1 of 2021, LinkedIn revenue is up 16% in YoY growth. (LinkedIn)
LinkedIn made more than 8.1 billion in revenue in 2020, a 20% increase from 2019. (Business of Apps)
Marketing Solutions is LinkedIn’s fastest-growing segment. It grew 44 percent year-over-year in Q1 of 2019. (LinkedIn)
In 2020, LinkedIn was voted the most trusted network. (Business Insider)
LinkedIn is the top paid and organic social channel for B2B businesses. (Content Marketing Institute)
82% of B2B markers report finding the greatest success on LinkedIn. (LinkedIn Marketing Solutions )
Over 46% of all social media traffic to company websites comes from LinkedIn. (LinkedIn)
The best times to post on LinkedIn are 8-10 AM and 12 PM on Wednesdays, and 9 AM and 1-2 PM on Thursdays. Sunday is the worst day for engagement. (Sprout Social)

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

YouTube is the second-largest search engine globally. (Alexa)
YouTube is the second most popular channel for businesses sharing video content. (Buffer)
The number of YouTube users is projected to reach 2.8 million by 2025. (Statista)
In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll of 1,000+ global marketers, 44% of marketers plan to leverage YouTube for the first time in 2022. (HubSpot)

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

TikTok Stats

As of January 2021, TikTok has 689 million global active users. (DataReportal)
In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll of 1,000+ global marketers, 61% of marketers plan to increase their investment in TikTok marketing in 2022. (HubSpot)
Douyin, TikTok’s original standalone app in China, had 300 million users at the time Musical.ly merged with TikTok. (The Verge)

TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2020. (Apptopia)
In 2020, there were over 106,000 TikTok influencers worldwide, up from 35,000 in 2019. (Statista)
By February 2019, TikTok hit 1 billion downloads, beating Instagram and Facebook in app stores. (Business Insider)
A majority of U.S. TikTok users are between the ages of 10 and 19. (Statista)
41% of global TikTok users are between the ages of 16 and 24. (GlobalWebIndex)
58.8% of U.S. TikTok users are female. (Statista)
TikTok’s average engagement rate is high at all follower levels. (Influencer Marketing Hub)
In 2019, U.S. TikTok users spent more time on the app than any other social media site, with an average session duration of 10.85 minutes. (Statista)

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

In 2020, Reddit had 52 million daily active users, up 44% YoY. (Reddit)
As of Q3 2021, the Reddit mobile app was counting more than 13 million daily active users worldwide on iOS. (Statista)
The site receives more than 50 billion+ monthly screen views. (Reddit)
While Reddit was reportedly sold for $20 million , the company’s valuation grew to 1.8 billion after 2017 funding rounds. (CNBC)
Most Reddit users in the U.S. are male, but 15% of U.S. adults say they use the platform. (Statista)
Only 8% of female U.S. adults say they used Reddit in 2019. (Statista)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The marketing world moves at the speed of light.
And, in 2021, we saw just how quickly the marketing industry can evolve.
In the last year, marketers embraced digital transformation more than ever as they adapted to constantly changing virtual and hybrid business landscapes during COVID-19 pandemic.
Then, as countries cautiously reopened — and more consumers left the house — some businesses saw slumps in the virtual engagement and online traffic they’d recently relied on. 
As a marketer at any experience level, keeping up with these changes isn’t always easy. But, to succeed in the fast-paced marketing world — and maintain a sense of relevance with your audience — it’s vital to stay ahead of them.
Marketing trends allow you to:

Keep up with the way consumers shop and research your products and services (and those of your competitors’)
Stay up to date with changes in consumer behavior and priorities
Ensure you’re ahead of the curve in terms of knowing who your target audience is and what they need from your business
Listen and respond to changes in the market to help you save money
Stay relevant in your target marketplace and among your competitors (now and in the long run)

To help businesses build cutting-edge and competitive marketing strategies in 2022, the HubSpot Blog surveyed more than 1000 global marketing professionals from both B2B and B2C brands — while also talking to a handful of industry experts — to create this bookmarkable guide of marketing trends to watch in the next year.
Below are some of the key strategies, trends, and tactics brands will invest in or expand on in 2022.

1. Influencer marketing will evolve from trend to common marketing tactic.
When we asked global marketing professionals which trends they planned to invest in for 2022, 34% said influencer marketing, putting it at the top of the list — above other trends like mobile web design and short-form video marketing. 
While 57% of marketing professionals that currently leverage influencer marketing say it’s effective, 46% of them plan to increase their investments in 2022. Additionally,11% say it’s the top ROI-generating trend they’ve tested.
How and why has influencer marketing gone from an intriguing trend to a commonly-used marketing tactic? Well, influencers are often masters of the platforms they use and the field or topic they talk about. They already have an audience that is engaged, interested in their content, and influenced by the information they provide.
When marketers collaborate with influencers and industry thought leaders in their industry, they can expand brand awareness and gain fans from the influencer’s own audience. 
Can’t afford to hire a celebrity influencer with millions of followers? That’s okay. In fact, more than 56% of marketers who invest in influencer marketing work with micro influceners.
Micro-influencers are social media promoters with a smaller following (typically, thousands to tens of thousands of followers). Although they have fewer followers, their posts often pack more punch due to their higher level of engagement.
These influencers have found a niche in their industry, too — which is why they’ve started to play a bigger role in converting leads, connecting with audiences, and boosting brand awareness.
Because micro-influencers are still considered “everyday” people (unlike hard-to-reach celebrities), their audiences are actually more likely to trust their opinions and recommendations.
For example, Rosie, who’s known as The Londoner, is a popular travel and lifestyle influencer with over 330k loyal followers who interact and engage with her posts. The below image of a post on profile shows that with almost 36,000 likes, Rosie is garnering almost 11% engagement.

Source
Although it’s tempting to only look at just follower count when determining if an influencer is right for your brand, remember that true influence lives in engagement rates (clicks, subscribes, and purchases).
Featured Resources

How to Become an Influencer in Your Industry
The 6-Step Process to Maximize Your Influencer Outreach

Want to learn more about other social media trends we discovered in our survey, click here to jump to the section below.  
2. Video marketers will keep content short.
In our survey, we learned that short-form content is the second most effective trend marketers are currently leveraging. 
More than 31% of global marketers currently invest in short-form video content, 46% of them consider the strategy effective when it comes to performance and engagement. And, in 2022, 89% of global marketers plan to continue investing in it or increase their investment. 

Download image
While long-form videos can offer depth and large amounts of information about a product, brand, or services to audiences, both B2C and B2B marketers have learned that getting to the point with short-form videos can actually be much more effective. 
Not only does it take less bandwidth to create a short-form video, but this type of format aligns well with the fast-paced attention spans of online audiences in a variety of demographics. This is likely why platforms like TikTok, Reels, and — in previous years — Snapchat have gained quick growth and marketing interest. 
Still not convinced that short-form videos can be effective in your marketing strategy? Check out this great example of a TikTok video from Canva that informs viewers of just how easy it is to make professional-looking graphics with the website. 

@canva_ph
Tara, design with us!✨ ##CanvaPH
♬ 아무노래 – ZICO

Jump to our Content Marketing Trends section to see more trends.
Featured Resources

The Ultimate Video Marketing Starter Pack
YouTube for Business: A 30-Day Roadmap for Channel Growth
How to Use Video in Every Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

3. Mobile optimization will be even more important. 
It’s no surprise that consumers are spending more and more time on mobile devices. In fact, more than half of annual online website traffic comes from mobile devices, including tablets.  
And, as millennials and Gen Z audiences continue to grow buying power, mobile-optimized digital experiences will be even more vital to consider as a business owner who markets to these fast-paced, highly connected generations. 
Above are just some of the reasons why:

33% of global marketers invest in mobile web design,
84% of marketers that focus on mobile web design are planning to continue to invest the same amount or more in 2022
64% of SEO marketers call mobile optimization an effective investment

And, mobile experiences aren’t just important on brand websites, they’re also important in other key marketing strategies. For example, 56% of marketers who work with email are focused on delivering mobile email experiences to subscribers. 
Featured Resource

The Marketer’s Guide to Mobile

4. Permanent social media posts could overtake ephemeral content.
While ephemeral content — which often stays published for 24-hours before disappearing (unless it’s saved or archived) — isn’t going away any time soon, brands have seen that permanent social media content — such as standard posts, videos, and live events that show up on a platform’s feed and can be viewed again days later — might be more effective within their marketing campaigns. 
Our survey results show that 44% of global marketers plan to increase their investment in permanent social media content, while 8% say it generates the most ROI compared to other marketing strategies they leverage. Meanwhile, 25% of respondents called ephemeral content the “least effective” trend they invested in. 
Lastly, 37% of marketers said they plan to decrease their investment in ephemeral content. 

Download image
If you’re focused on the bottom line and generating solid ROI, ephemeral might not be the best strategy to lean into. However, we don’t encourage fully writing it off because it still can provide other brand awareness benefits and interesting content experiences for your audience.
While ephemeral content, like Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and LinkedIn Stories, promotes a sense of urgency and enables brands to get more creative, but permanent content can be searched and discovered by audiences who might not have seen or engaged with it on the day it was published. 
Ultimately, brands should weigh the pros and cons of which format is best for their brand or campaign. 
Kelly Hendrickson, a social media marketing manager at HubSpot, says: “Ephemeral content versus permanent content is often dictated by the social platform, as well as by the audience’s behavior on the platform.”
Take Instagram, for example:
“[Instagram] Stories are soaring in popularity, and the user behavior on Stories leans toward playful, low-fi, quick content with heavy use of features within the UX (gifs, boomerangs, polls, etc). Their fleeting design isn’t the only differentiating factor. Instagram Stories can be heavily edited, too, with filters, GIFs, colored text, and more. Because of these fun additions, brands have added a brand new strategy for producing and publishing ephemeral content that varies from their other social media content.”
Meanwhile, permanent content has its own pros and cons, 
“Instagram can organically serve up a wall post across a wide span of time, so there’s less of an opportunity for brands to be timely (who wants to see New Year’s post when they’ve already given up on their resolutions?!). Since Instagram users are more active on weekdays, during the standard workday, it seems users are looking for a break,” Hendrickson explains. 
“It’s critical to use your brand voice and point of view to find how you can serve your audience during that break. Should your presence be inspirational, beautiful, informative, playful, or trendy? They all have a place on Instagram’s permanent wall, it just needs to match your brand’s message,” says Hendrickson.
By combining ephemeral and permanent social media content on platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, you allow your business to showcase more of your brand’s personality and flair.
Hendrickson says, “The combo of a running clock and a lively audience is a huge opportunity for brands to lean into quick, in-the-moment content that showcases the more light-hearted elements of their brand. Succinctness and clarity are key in content.”
While we recommend playing with a mix of ephemeral and permanent social media content in your strategy, this data shows that it will be important for brands to continue to weigh the pros and cons of each format to determine which is right for them. 
Jump to this post’s social media section to learn more about the latest trends.
5. Companies will prioritize social responsibility.
Although 31% of marketers say social responsibility is ineffective when it comes to campaign engagement or performance, 45% still plan to invest in it throughout the next year.
Why? Because with the current state of things, social responsibility, ethics, and transparency matter to the modern consumer.
The interest in buying products from socially responsible brands really took during the many global events of 2020 and 2021. 
As the COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on the world, it highlighted the pains employees had to endure in the workplace and in politics. Employees became more vocal about their frustrations, inequality, and workplace treatment.
Additionally, early research from organizations like McKinsey predicted that customers would more heavily support brands that demonstrated their care for all customers, employees, and shared causes. 
With all of this in mind, companies have begun to pivot social media strategies to focus more on inclusive initiatives, promotions, and offerings, while highlighting causes or missions they support. Although this might not sell products immediately, showing a sense of social responsibility is still both thoughtful and effective.
Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Innovation, Hal Gregersen, shares his perspective on the subject:
“If there can be a perfect storm of opportunity for strengthening D&I [diversity and inclusion] in organizations, I believe it is happening now. I saw public and private conversations about diversity, equity, and fairness reach new heights during 2020, which will likely cause barriers to change or fade. With the pandemic, traditional ways of doing business and of working were upended, and now, barriers to the idea of change are dissolving.”
Companies that are trying to change with the times should become more transparent about their efforts to make the workplace and physical businesses more equal and their plans to expand their diversity and inclusion initiatives.
6. Experiential marketing could make a comeback.
Experiential marketing campaigns enable audiences to step into an immersive experience that is often in a physical place or via an AR/VR platform. 
One example of an experiential campaign you might have seen in the past was M&M’s Flavor Room pop-up.

Image Source
The experience included orb-shaped “rooms,” which were each complete with decor and fragrances unique to a certain candy flavor. The pop-up, which was based in NYC back in 2018, also included snack and drink lounges with M&M-themed cocktails — which, I’m willing to bet, we’re great opportunities for M&M to appear on different attendees’ social pages. 
Although immersive experiences like these were fun, effective, and highly shareable on social media, they ran into barriers in 2020 and 2021 as businesses, public venues, and entire countries were forced to shut down public operations in the global pandemic.
And, because producing a branded AR/VR experience is a high-budget bet that can also rely on audiences to have tools like AR/VR headsets or the latest smartphone technology to access the content — fewer small brands have invested in digital experiential marketing.
That’s why it’s not shocking that only 29% of those we polled were investing in experiential marketing in 2021, while just only 14% invested in AR/VR. 
But, now, as public areas begin to reopen, and digitally immersive platforms continue to get more accessible to larger audiences, the global marketing professionals we surveyed are putting the possibility of experiential marketing back on the table again for 2022. 
According to our research, 58% of marketers who currently leverage experiential marketing call it an effective strategy, while 48% of this group plans to increase experiential investments in 2022. Additionally, 9% of marketers plan to invest in experiential marketing for the first time. 
7. More businesses will use SEO to concur search traffic.
As marketers, we must ensure that our websites and content are as discoverable as possible — especially on Google — which can provide both long-term and short-term traffic returns. And, while SEO is not new, it’s strategies are becoming even more engrained within modern day marketing strategies. 
While SEO was the sixth marketing trends those surveyed were leveraging, with 28% of marketers saying they currently used it. Of those marketers 49% of marketers call it effective while 84% continue to invest the same amount or more into the tactic in 2022. 
As the interest and need for SEO strategies grows, so do all search optimization opportunities. As Google algorithms have evolved, SEO has because about much more than churning out basic posts that answer simple search queries. Now, brands are investing in SEO experts who can help them with everything from search insights reports, to multimedia optimization. 
Want more data on how brands are investing in SEO, jump to this post’s SEO trends section. 
8. Virtual events will continue, but some brands will invest less.
In 2022, we expect to see more hybrid marketing strategies that still allow audiences to embrace virtual events and conferences, as well as physical opportunities. When polling global marketing professionals, the data we received lined up with this prediction. 
In 2021, 51% of marketers were investing in virtual events. However, 17% of these marketers plan to decrease their investments in 2022.
Despite losing some shrinking virtual event budgets, marketers won’t be leaving the virtual event space any time soon. In fact, a whopping 80% of marketers plan to invest the same budget or more into virtual events in 2022.
9. More consumers will hear branded audio content.
In the summer of 2021, marketers were perplexed by Clubhouse — an invitation-only audio chatroom app that quickly gained millions of users without publishing any visual content. And, as Clubhouse took our field by storm, platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook unsurprising rushed to start investing in, testing, and/or launching similar features. 
Meanwhile, throughout the year, a number of big brands — like HubSpot — expanded their podcast content and networks to meet even more listeners. 
Now, as audio content becomes much more common in the online world, marketers might be wondering if this format could benefit their brand. 
According to our research, 53% of professionals who’s companies leverage content marketing find “podcasts or otther types of audio content” effective when it comes to engagement and brand awareness. However, only 1% of marketers that leverage audio content say it yields ROI. Still, 80% plan to invest the same amount or more budget into audio content and podcasts in 2022. 
When it came to investments in audio chatrooms, like Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces, we saw a similar theme. Although only 16% of marketers say they’ve invested in this trend, 34% of those marketers find it effective. While, again, around 1% of marketers that use audio chatrooms say it yields ROI, 84% of them plan to continue investing the same amount or more in 2022. 
Although audio platforms might not have great monetizing features or conversion paths, this data hints that they still provide the engagement and brand awareness companies need to see from them for a continued investment. 
10. Inbound marketing will remain a best practice for growing brands.
While inbound marketing has been around for years, 27% of marketers say they will leverage it for the first time in 2022. while 11% of marketers say it will be their biggest investment in the next year. 
In a time of digital transformation, embracing inbound marketing is an incredibly smart move. 
Throughout the last two years, the world’s dealt with unprecedented change, and outbound marketing tactics have become even less effective in reaching prospects and leads.
The shift from in-person to hybrid work from home (WFH) business practices have made inbound marketing come to the forefront of effective tactics. For example, there’s been a significant rise in virtual events due to COVID-19 forcing marketers to get creative to catch the attention of customers.
John Hazard, the founder and content strategist at digital marketing agency Lighthouse Creative Group, sees this as a place of opportunity to generate interest despite their typical formulaic production. “Screen fatigue is a big issue for brands.”
Hazard adds, “As virtual events have exploded as a replacement for in-person engagement, every business has tried to roll out events, webinars, and virtual conferences. But most are just PowerPoint presentations or an executive talking with their kitchen in the background. That’s not interesting … So, the race is on in 2021 for polish and production value — graphics, directors, professional hosts, equipment, and no kitchen backdrops.”
Inbound marketing can be a valuable asset to create brand awareness and build trust digitally through refocusing strategy to drive customers to seek out your content.
The process of inbound marketing requires you to product quality, valuable content tailored towards your target audience and buyer personas and their needs.
Why Brands Are Adopting the Flywheel
The marketing funnel is old news. Today, the flywheel — and a subsequent focus on service — have replaced the one-way direction of the funnel and lives at the center of many inbound marketing strategies.
In the world of the marketing funnel, customers were an afterthought. Once they became a paying customer, businesses considered them obsolete — until, of course, it was time re-sign that contract.
The flywheel, on the other hand, places the customer in the center. Since word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most powerful marketing tactics, it’s wise to not only serve your customers but also equip them to become advocates for and promoters of your brand. The flywheel illustrates this process: excellent service as its own marketing strategy.
By keeping the flywheel at the center of your marketing efforts, you’ll delight and empower your customers. It’s worthwhile to place a heavy emphasis on customer service and train your team to handle requests and issues.
This will lead to customers who can market for you — they can promote and advocate for your business via their networks both online and in-person.
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11. Consumers will step into virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences.
In 2021, 35% of marketers were leveraging AR or VR in their strategies. Of those marketers, 42% plan to increase their investment in 2022.
And, of the marketers who didn’t leverage AR or VR in 2021, 9% will experiment with it for the first time in 2022. 
Virtual reality is viewing a computer-generated, lifelike scenario. Augmented reality is viewing the real world augmented with visual, haptic, olfactory or visual additions. VR and AR offer different experiences, but both are making waves in the marketing world today.
They’re affecting your lives, too. Ever watched a 360° video on Facebook? That’s VR. What about IKEA’s IKEA PLACE app which helps you visualize virtual furniture in your very real room? That’s AR.

VR and AR are used to supplement and improve customer experiences online and at events. Generally speaking, this is a trend marketers have been slower to adopt due to pricey equipment and bulky headsets. But, as VR glasses and AR apps become more accessible, businesses can expect to add this technology to their marketing strategy.
12. ABM will align more sales and marketing teams. 
In 2021, 62% of marketers leveraged account-based marketing, or ABM, to win over customers. And, in 2022, 33% of marketers who haven’t used it plan to invest in it for the first time. 
While ABM isn’t new, it is quickly gaining more and more steam and awareness from startups and larger companies alike. For those who are just learning about it now, ABM is a smarketing (or sales and marketing) technique where marketers leverage information about prospects and customers provided by sales teams in order to cater campaigns to them. 
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13. More brands will test out native ads. 
In 2021, 24% of global marketers the HubSpot Blog surveyed currently invest in native advertising. Moving into 2022, 23% of those who haven’t leveraged it plan to for the first time in 2022. 
Why the growing interest in this strategy? It works. Of the marketers who use native ads, more than 36% say it’s effective, while nearly 5% say it’s their top ROI-generating tactic. 
When your brand pays to feature content on a third-party website, you’re investing in native advertising. Unlike traditional advertising, which is designed to interrupt and stand out, native advertising is designed to blend in and promote your brand to a new audience who might otherwise never learn about you.
Because native ads don’t “feel” like traditional ads, consumers are more likely to consume them — in fact, consumers view native ads over 50% more than banner ads. Examples of native advertising can be found on social media, through search engine results, content recommendation platforms (those links to various other content you can click at the bottom of the page to read more on or related to the topic), or in campaigns.
For example, Instagram is a popular social media network that routinely partners with brands for native advertising. By taking advantage of the Instagram Story or Shop features, brands are able to share posts that look similar to the average user’s followers posting style, while subtly advertising a product.
Image Source
To incorporate native advertising in your marketing efforts, look for publications relevant to your brand. Remember to sound natural and avoid coming off as pushy or blatantly promotional.
Now that you’ve read up on the highlights of our Marketing Strategy research, keep scrolling to see a breakdown of trends by category 

Content Marketing Trends
At least 47% of buyers view three to five pieces of content prior to engaging with a sales rep, and the majority of them expect brands to create content to gain their interest. That’s why brands all around the world have only grown their investments in content marketing.
In fact, in 2022, the top three roles marketing leaders will prioritize hiring are content creators, content marketing managers, and content strategists. 

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But what content strategies are brands investing in? Below are just a few trends you’ll want to follow in 2022. 
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14. Video will remain the top marketing content format.
In HubSpot’s 2021 Not Another State of Marketing Report, video marketing was the most effective marketing format. And, this year, in our own survey, that hasn’t changed at all.
When looking at the most effective content strategies, video marketing appears at the top before blogging or even email marketing. 

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Our survey found that 59% of survey participants use video in their content marketing strategy, while 76% of marketers that leverage video call it their most effective content format. Not to mention, one in four marketers who use video (or 27%) say it’s the content type that yields the biggest ROI. 
“Video creates a deeper connection with your potential customer base and it is easy for brands to repurpose video content into podcasts and text-based content,” Neil Patel CMO and Co-Founder of NP Digital, says. “But on the flip side if you create text or audio content first, it is harder to turn it into video. So in 2022 look for brands to create more video content. It will be done in the form or just straight video, short clips like reels and even live streaming.”
In the past, video creation and marketing strategies were limited due to costly resources and production. Today, it’s much more accessible. With a lower-cost barrier, video has become less intimidating to incorporate into your marketing efforts.
“2022 will be the year of video. Why? Because organizations have finally gotten more comfortable with it and realize it’s a way to engage their audience, communicate offerings, and provide infotainment,” says Aytekin Tank, Founder & CEO of JotForm.
“Our company, Jotform, has been ramping up our video efforts on YouTube. We have over 16,000 subscribers and have seen a huge increase in site traffic and signups from investing in video on this platform,” Tank explains. “Like many other B2B and B2C companies, we’re going full force with video and expect to ramp it up even further in 2022.”
You don’t have to hire a production team or marketing agency; all you need is a smartphone, such as an iPhone, and affordable editing software. Don’t believe us? This post highlights how our own video marketers created video content from home at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
15. Blogging isn’t going anywhere.
Blogging has been a commonly used marketing strategy since brands started building their own websites. But, the age of tthis tactic shouldn’t be a sign that it’s out-of-date. In fact, blogging has been used for so long simply because it works. 
While 48% of companies with a content marketing strategy blog, 56% of marketers who leverage blogging say it’s effective and 10% say it’s the content type that generates the biggest ROI. 
This data from marketers isn’t too shocking. When polling consumer audiences recently,  our research suggested that most consumers read blogs multiple times per week and have purchased something from a brand after reading the company’s blog. 
Aside from providing consumer engagement and potentially conversion, blogs also provide a major key benefit to your website or online pages: search discoverability.
Ultimately, sites with robust blogs have more search potential and can implement SEO strategies much easier than sites that don’t.
Think about it this way. If a prospective client wants to hire a virtual accountant, and your firm’s site has a blog post that highlights tax tips or strategies your accountants use, this person might find your post or website via Google search, read your post and explore your website, and then decide that they want to contact you for a consultation or accounting assistance. 
If you haven’t considered a blog by this point, but are intrigued by this data, check out these resources to help you build out your own strategy: 
16. Case studies will continue to drive leads and brand credibility.
Longer-form case studies offer prospects an incredibly deep and exclusive look into how people or brands benefit from a product, service, or strategy. While some businesses place them publicly on their web pages to persuade a potential buyer as quickly as possible. others might gate them as free PDFs that require a lead conversion to be downloaded.
Although many marketers, such as those in B2C industries, don’t leverage case studies, those that do find them effective. In our survey, 64% of marketers who launch case studies found them effective and 15% said they brought the biggest ROI of the content formats they leveraged.
Additionally, case study usage in content marketing is only growing: 37% of marketers we polled plan to use case studies in their marketing strategy for the first time in 2022.
17. Marketers will embrace data with infographics.
If a picture paints a thousand words, infographics could paint at least double.
Infographics not only have the shareability and visual appeal of a nice photo — but they’re also packed with helpful data and informative information. This makes them incredibly engaging to web visitors and social media audiences alike.
According to our research, 38% of marketers plan to leverage infographics for the first time in 2022, while 45% of marketers are already using them. 

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Of the marketers who regularly use infographics in their content strategy, 56% say they are their most effective content type. 
Ultimately, credible data can help marketers, bloggers, and content creators tell compelling and persuasive stories. Why else do you think we surveyed hundreds of marketing professionals to create this content?
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Social Media Marketing Trends In the U.S. alone,
79% of people have some type of social media account — and globally, there are over 3.7 billion social media users.
This is why social media marketing is a popular channel that’s become a part of almost every business’s greater marketing strategy. Social media marketing allows you to authentically connect with your audience on a personal level, humanizing your brand.
18. Live content will be a leading social media format. 
Of the social media marketers we polled in our Marketing Strategy survey, 68% said that audio chat rooms (such as Clubhouse rooms and Twitter Spaces) were the msot effective social media content, while 59% said they same for live video. 
And, while 9% of those respondents say that live video content drives the biggest ROI of all the social media content types they use, 96% of those investing in live audio content plan to spend the same amount or more on it throughout 2022. 
Today, consumers are increasingly looking for relatable and authentic content — especially from brands. Live video streams and audio chat rooms enable brand audiences to connect even more with these audiences while also discussing their brand, products, expertise or mission. On top of being able to see experts in a more uncensored and authentic environment, live audio or video streams also often have interactive features, such as comments, engagements or hand-raise opportunities that allow audiences to interact directly with those hosting a stream. 
19. TikTok will continue to gain brand interest.
Brands have been trying to untap the true power of TikTok ever since it first began to go viral three years ago. Now, with well-over 1 billion global users, TikTok has positioned itself as an app for a wide variety of audiences and marketers. It’s also begun to launch a number of new advertising and marketing features for businesses of all different sizes. 
That’s why it isn’t shocking that a whopping 67% of marketers plan to increase their investment in TikTok in 2022. Meanwhile, 10% of marketers who use social media say TikTok will be the platform they invest the most in throughout the next year. 
20. Most marketers will focus on just three to five social media platforms.
Every business has its own sweet spot when it comes to the number of social media platforms they should use. While only 11% of social media marketers we polled use one to two platforms, and only 7% use seven or more, 64% currently leverage three to five.
Managing three to five platforms is realistic. This range allows brands of all sizes to expand their reach to different audiences while also giving social media marketers a realistic list of platforms to master without stretrching their bandwidth during the work week. 
Here are a few questions that can help you determine how many platforms you should really be on:

How many social media marketers are on your team?
Which social media platforms have audiences that best align with your targets?
How much time will it take to master a strategy on each of the platforms you’re targeting?
Are there any platforms that won’t benefit your overall marketing strategy right now?
Are there any platforms you can easily repurpose engaging content between? (such as TikTok and YouTube Shorts)

By asking yourself some of the questions above, you can determine how much time your social team and brand will need to build an effective and engaging strategy on each platform, and prioritize which platforms you should really focus on. 
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Search Engine Optimization Marketing Trends
61% of marketers say improving search engine optimization (SEO) to grow their organic presence online is their top inbound marketing priority.
Are you one of these marketers? If so, have you figured out how exactly you plan to improve your SEO and organic presence? When you optimize for specific types of consumer behavior, you’ll help your business become more discoverable online.
21. Keyword optimization will be a key priority.
By far, one of the HubSpot Blog’s most vital tactics is our Search Insights Report. This report highlights all the keywords we would like to leverage and all the blog posts we’ll need to create or update to rank for those keywords on Google. 
But, we’re no longer one of the only blogs using a SIR anymore. In fact, 47% of marketing professionals who leverage SEO say their companies use search insights reports in their strategy.
If you don’t have a huge content team, a large amount of extra time, or an SEO expert to create a large-scale search insights report, don’t worry. Although nearly half of SEO marketers we surveyed use search insights reports, 55% said they were at least trying to optimize their content with search-driven keywords. And, this strategy isn’t too expensive or time-consuming.
For example, you can use tools like Ahrefs or SEMRush to do some quick SEO keyword research related to your business, products, or upcoming content to learn where you can boost your content with keyword-optimized titles, subheads, body text, or descriptions. 
22. Web teams won’t forget about video and image SEO.
SEO doesn’t just involve changing the text on a page. It can also involve choosing and optimizing the right videos or images for a page to help it rank in Google images or search engine video carousels. 
While optimizing images could involve compressing files to increase page speed and adding keyword optimized alt text to an image, video optimization strategies could involve embedding an video with a similar topic or keyword into a blog post. 
Currently, 53% of marketers who leverage SEO have a strategy for optimizing videos and images. Of those marketers, 49% say image and video optimization is their most effective SEO tactic. 
23. Link-building will help brands grow authority — and search rankings. 
When sites with solid rankings begin to link to yours, Google’s crawlers note that your site might be credible and also have solid authority in your space. This can then tricker your Google ranking to go up. This, ultimately, is the goal of link-building — or getting other sites to link to yours. 
Although writing highly shareable content, reaching out to share it with other websites, or ensuring that your post gets links can be time-consuming and challenging, research shows that this time and effort pays off. Of the 48% of SEO marketers that use backlinking and link building, 63% say its their brand’s most effective SEO tactic, 
24. Historical optimization will help old web pages get new traffic.
Instead of coming up with new ideas, marketers are going to be taking what’s worked in the past and optimizing it for the present.
In SEO, keeping your content up to date and full of rich, engaging content will outweigh older work that is lacking in keyword relevancy with old statistics and links. Not only that, but taking existing content and repurposing it for a new podcast, webinar, or blog post can be an efficient way to keep it relevant in search engines.
While one in four SEO marketers leverage historical optimization in their strategy, 29% say of those marketers say it’s an effective SEO strategy. 
25. Voice search tactics will stay on the SEO radar.
Although just 12% of marketers the HubSpot Blog surveyed are currently leveraging voice search tactics in their strategy, 34% of them say voice search is the most effective trend they used in 2021 and 41% plan to increase their investments in 2022. 
And, although voice search might seem like an emerging technology, these increased investments were bound to happen.
By now, you’ve probably used one of the many virtual assistants out there, like Siri, Alexa, or Google’s virtual assistant.
Not only do these digital assistants answer short, informational queries such as “Who is the actor in Mission: Impossible?” or “What’s the weather in Boston today?”, but they’ve also started to process more local, conversational, and customized searches. These may sound like, “Where’s a nearby coffee shop I can work from today?”, “How late is it open?”, and “Do they serve iced coffee?”
Because of this emerging behavior, businesses need to respond and change the way they frame information. Instead of catering to Google’s manual search algorithm, optimize your content by framing it around questions.
When you implement voice search tactics this way, you’ll empower your users to get the answers they want and need. They can ask a question in that conversational tone we mentioned above and, in return, they’ll get a high-quality and accurate response. They can multitask while asking questions and receiving answers, as well as get those answers they’re looking for more quickly.
Aja Frost, Head of English SEO at HubSpot, says: “Businesses should look at a topic and say, ‘What questions could users ask about this?’ Then, they should plan sub-topics accordingly and look for opportunities to insert questions as headers. This will allow voice assistants to easily grab questions and recognize content as solutions.”
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Frost also encourages businesses to look for featured snippet opportunities, which are the information previews Google provides when users search for definitions or questions. Voice assistants typically pull responses directly from these boxes.
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AI and Automation Marketing Trends
A whopping 70% of marketing professionals currently use automation. Meanwhile, 33% of marketers who don’t use automation plan to implement it in 2022. Below are just a few ways they plan to start or continue leveraging automation in the next year. 
26. Brands will invest even more in automation and AI.
Artificial intelligence refers to a subset of computer science that teaches machines to do things that would require intelligence if done by a human. Think of tasks like learning, seeing, talking, socializing, reasoning, or problem-solving. When completed by computers, they’re considered AI.
AI has completely infiltrated our daily lives and tasks. When Spotify recommends a song, Facebook recognizes and tags a person, or you text a friend using Siri, you’re tapping into AI. As we utilize AI more and more (especially as consumers), marketers and businesses will need to respond.
The point of AI isn’t to replace humans or the need for a human touch. It’s to improve and expand our ability to connect with our audience and help them solve their problems quicker and more thoroughly. AI is also incredibly helpful when collecting and analyzing data and making data-driven decisions.
Here are a few ways we see companies embracing AI today: 

Chatbots and virtual assistants: Bots provide quick, easy solutions to problems of all levels of complexity. No longer is the need for live chat or a literal one-to-one digital conversation. Scroll down for a more detailed explanation of chatbot trends. 

Content creation and curation: While you shouldn’t expect a bot to write award-winning marketing content just yet, you can use them to streamline writing short pieces of content, like tweets, basic web articles, or automated emails. 

Predictive Lead scoring: Automated lead scoring tools allows marketers and sales teams to focus more time on selling and making deals, and less determining which leads are actually the strongest prospects.

Predictive marketing: Wondering if an audience will engage with your campaign, ad, or content? Predictive marketing leverages historical analytics, such as audience behavior data, to help brands estimate which tactics will provide the best engagement. 

27. Chatbots will continue to streamline conversational marketing. 
Did you know that more than half of consumers expect a response within 10 minutes to any marketing, sales, or customer service inquiry? How can this be humanly possible?
It’s not … for humans, anyway. This is probably why 40% of marketers who use automation leverage chatbots.
Bots are powered by a computer program that automates certain tasks, typically by chatting with a user through a conversational interface. Bots are made possible by artificial intelligence which helps it understand complex requests, personalize responses, and improve interactions over time.
Bots provide the perception and dedication of a 1:1 service experience while working with hundreds of customers — something that no customer service representative or team would ever be able to do.
To the consumers who hate repeating themselves to multiple sales or service representatives (33%, to be exact), listen up — chatbots are and will continue making your lives much easier. If used correctly, they manage conversations at scale and aggregate data from multiple sources of data, from calendars to knowledge bases to blog posts and videos.

Jon Dick, SVP of Marketing at HubSpot, says: “It’s on you to make things as easy as possible.
“Do your buyers want to use live chat? You should give it to them. They’ve had the same problem three times in the last month? You should already know, and have a plan to fix it,” Dick concludes.
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Privacy Marketing Trends
28. Brands will need to give customers more control over their data.
In the marketing world, data is highly valuable — and not just valuable to you, as a marketer or business owner. Whether it’s an email address, credit card information, or smartphone location, consumers also view their data as precious and privileged — and it’s your responsibility to take care of it.
Whether a software company, bank, government agency, or lemonade stand, every business operates using data. It’s the lifeblood of all things marketing, sales, service, and more.
But, when precious information is misused or siphoned into the wrong hands, it leads to a strong distrust in businesses and potentially exploited consumers
That’s why the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was enacted.
GDPR is an effort by the EU to give greater control to consumers over their data. Under the GDPR, organizations must ensure that their data is collected legally and safely and that those who collect and manage said data will protect it and respect consumers’ rights.
Following the GDPR guidelines might seem like a burden, but being fined for non-compliance will feel much heavier; fines range from 10 million euros to 4% of a company’s annual global revenue.
And — GDPR isn’t the only entity enforcing privacy mandates in 2022. In fact, companies like Google and Apple are now taking stands for user data as well. 
In 2021, an Apple IOS launch enabled IPhone and IPad users to determine which apps could track their third-party data, which is often used for hyper-targeted ads.
in 2022, Apple will finish rolling out another IOS update with additional email privacy protections features for Apple Mail users. Meanwhile, Google will be discontinuing the use of third-party cookies on Chrome, while encouraging advertisers to leverage its Privacy Sandbox instead.
Ultimately, brands and governing bodies are increasingly aiming to give users more choice when it comes to releasing their data. And, while it is great for the consumer, businesses who leverage personal data to run campaigns will need to create alternative strategies and pivot plans incase they lose access to crucial datapoint. 
Use Marketing Trends to Grow Better
You’re up to speed … for now. And, as long as you’re keeping a thumb on the pulse of marketing trends — and always remain open to change — your business won’t fall behind.
But, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of keeping up with all these insights, don’t worry. The HubSpot Blog will be publishing regular Marketing Strategy research pieces with data from hundreds of marketing professionals in the coming months and will continue to update this post as new trends and data-driven blog posts emerge. 
Keep an eye on this page for our latest 2022 trend updates, and check out the latest content we’ve published so far in our Marketing Strategy Research series. 
Want even more data and tips from marketing experts? Reflect on 2021’s key strategies with the State of Marketing Report below. 
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2019  and iwas updated in November 2021 with updated HubSpot Blog trends data.

Everyone wants a personalized and custom experience online, so it’s no wonder that social commerce has taken over the online shopping world.
Channels like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and WhatsApp already have thousands of businesses marketing on their platforms, and many have adopted shopping and payment functions that allow people to buy a product or service directly on the platforms.
While social commerce is relatively new, it falls under the larger umbrella of eCommerce sales, which are expected to reach $4.2 trillion this year. As a result, the revenue potential is high, and it’s attracting the attention of marketers across a variety of industries.
Whether you’re looking for information to boost your social media shop or shape your online strategy, read on to discover social commerce stats that will help you understand the current market and learn best practices for attracting buyers and growing your business.
Social Commerce Stats for 2021

General Social Commerce Stats
Social Commerce Stats by Demographic
Social Commerce Purchasing Stats
Social Commerce Stats by Platform
Social Commerce Stats for Business

General Social Commerce Stats

35.9% of internet users in the US will make at least one social commerce purchase in 2021. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
US social commerce sales will surpass $36 billion in 2021, with more than 35% growth. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
Chinese retail social commerce sales will reach $351.65 billion in 2021. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
In 2021, US social commerce sales will increase from 35.8% to $36.62 billion. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
In China, more than 424 million people ages 14 years and up will make at least one social commerce purchase in 2021. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
There were almost 80 million social buyers in the US in 2020, a 30% increase from 2019. (Statista, 2021)
Social commerce attracted investment from US companies at the start of the pandemic, in addition to online and mobile commerce. (Statista, 2021)
8 in 10 ten US businesses anticipate selling on social media within the next three years. (Statista, 2021)
The number of US social commerce buyers grew to 80.1 million in 2020 and is anticipated to increase to 96.1 million in 2022. (eMarketer, 2021)
30% of eCommerce companies are already selling on social media, and 12% plan on selling through social media platforms in 2021. (Statista, 2021)

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Social Commerce Stats by Demographic

In the US, nearly 36% of internet users are social buyers, which is approximately 90.2 million people. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
In a June 2021 survey, 35% of people said social media ads influenced their purchasing decisions. The number jumped to 75% for Gen Z respondents. (Statista, 2021)
70% of internet users in the US who regularly watched live streams led by influencers said they were likely to buy products recommended by the influencers. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
Over 55% of social media users in the US aged 18 to 24 made at least one purchase through social channels, followed by users aged 25-34 years old. (Statista, 2021)
54% of Gen Z shoppers and 58% of Millennials agree that social platforms are better than online searches for finding out about new products. (Statista, 2021)
The US had about 79 million social buyers in 2020, and this number is estimated to grow to 108 million by 2025. (Statista, 2021)
$81.05 was the average value of online orders referred through social media during Q2 of 2021. (Statista, 2021)
Apparel and accessories are the largest categories for social commerce. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
11% of social media users immediately make an online purchase after discovering a product, while 44% make a purchase later on. (Statista, 2021)
Most social media platform purchases in 2020 were in the video game and accessories category, followed by toys and hobbies and jewelry and watches. (Coupon Follow, 2021)
People that use social media to access educational and inspirational content, like livestreams and stories, are eager to buy on social platforms. (GWI, 2020)
27% of global internet users rely on social media to find products to purchase. (GWI, 2020)
13% of social networkers say a “buy” button is one of the top purchase drivers. (GWI, 2020)
Over 22% of internet users in the US were expected to make at least one purchase through Facebook in 2021. Nearly 13% were expected to shop on Instagram and over 5% were estimated to shop on Pinterest. (Statista, 2021)
By Q1 of 2021, there were one million active Facebook Shops with over 250 million active participants every month. (AdWeek, 2021)
With 56.1 million buyers, Facebook ranks as the top social commerce platform in the US. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
People who use Pinterest on a weekly basis are 7x more likely to say it’s the most influential platform in their purchase journey when compared to other social media platforms. (Pinterest, 2021)
85% of Pinterest shoppers have more in their basket than shoppers on other platforms. They also spend twice as much per month. (Pinterest, 2021)
Around 40% of Pinterest users log onto the site to research brands and products. (GWI, 2020)
In Q3 of 2021, YouTube made its ads more shoppable by allowing video action campaigns on connected TVs. (Google, 2021)
51% of consumers in the US and UK use YouTube to research or find products to buy. (GWI, 2020)
Nearly 21% of tablet visits to eCommerce websites resulted from social media platform referrals in Q2 of 2020. (Statista, 2021)
Facebook and Instagram are most used to learn about, discover, and buy fashion apparel products in the US. Over half of users said the content they see in their feeds results in a purchase. (Retail Dive, 2021)
Over 36% of B2B decision-makers use Instagram to find out information on new products or services. (Hootsuite, 2020)
70% of shopping enthusiasts look to Instagram to discover new products. (Facebook, 2019)
Every month, over 130 million users engage with Instagram shopping posts. (Instagram, 2019)
One retail brand using Instagram Shopping, Jane, reported 80% of total social sales came from the platform between July 2020 and February 2021. (Instagram, 2021)
78% of US social network users discover new products through Facebook. Instagram and Pinterest come in second, both at 59%. (Net Solutions, 2021)
Social commerce sales are predicted to value $605 billion by 2027. (Statista, 2021)
Social commerce revenues are estimated to exceed $3.4 billion in 2028. (Statista, 2021)
In the US, over 5% of total eCommerce retail sales will be from social commerce by 2025. (Statista, 2021)
In a 2021 survey, 86% of marketers and agency professionals in the US reported they were enabling shopping functions in their influencer marketing campaigns. The most common function is linking to the brand’s own website. (Statista, 2021)
Advertisers anticipate spending $56 billion to promote their products on social networks in 2022. (Statista, 2021)
93% of US executives said their businesses are moving eCommerce efforts to social media. (Statista, 2021)
By 2023, 71% of small businesses plan to sell on social media platforms. (Statista, 2021)

Social Commerce Purchasing Stats

$81.05 was the average value of online orders referred through social media during Q2 of 2021. (Statista, 2021)
Apparel and accessories are the largest categories for social commerce. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
11% of social media users immediately make an online purchase after discovering a product, while 44% make a purchase later on. (Statista, 2021)
Most social media platform purchases in 2020 were in the video game and accessories category, followed by toys and hobbies and jewelry and watches. (Coupon Follow, 2021)Image Source

People that use social media to access educational and inspirational content, like livestreams and stories, are eager to buy on social platforms. (GWI, 2020)
27% of global internet users rely on social media to find products to purchase. (GWI, 2020)
13% of social networkers say a “buy” button is one of the top purchase drivers. (GWI, 2020)

Image Source

Social Commerce Stats by Platform

Over 22% of internet users in the US were expected to make at least one purchase through Facebook in 2021. Nearly 13% were expected to shop on Instagram and over 5% were estimated to shop on Pinterest. (Statista, 2021)
By Q1 of 2021, there were one million active Facebook Shops with over 250 million active participants every month. (AdWeek, 2021)
With 56.1 million buyers, Facebook ranks as the top social commerce platform in the US. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
People who use Pinterest on a weekly basis are 7x more likely to say it’s the most influential platform in their purchase journey when compared to other social media platforms. (Pinterest, 2021)
85% of Pinterest shoppers have more in their basket than shoppers on other platforms. They also spend twice as much per month. (Pinterest, 2021)
Around 40% of Pinterest users log onto the site to research brands and products. (GWI, 2020)
In Q3 of 2021, YouTube made its ads more shoppable by allowing video action campaigns on connected TVs. (Google, 2021)
51% of consumers in the US and UK use YouTube to research or find products to buy. (GWI, 2020)
Nearly 21% of tablet visits to eCommerce websites resulted from social media platform referrals in Q2 of 2020. (Statista, 2021)
Facebook and Instagram are most used to learn about, discover, and buy fashion apparel products in the US. Over half of users said the content they see in their feeds results in a purchase. (Retail Dive, 2021)
Over 36% of B2B decision-makers use Instagram to find out information on new products or services. (Hootsuite, 2020)
70% of shopping enthusiasts look to Instagram to discover new products. (Facebook, 2019)
Every month, over 130 million users engage with Instagram shopping posts. (Instagram, 2019)
One retail brand using Instagram Shopping, Jane, reported 80% of total social sales came from the platform between July 2020 and February 2021. (Instagram, 2021)
78% of US social network users discover new products through Facebook. Instagram and Pinterest come in second, both at 59%. (Net Solutions, 2021)

Image Source

Social Commerce Stats for Business

Social commerce sales are predicted to value $605 billion by 2027. (Statista, 2021)
Social commerce revenues are estimated to exceed $3.4 billion in 2028. (Statista, 2021)
In the US, over 5% of total eCommerce retail sales will be from social commerce by 2025. (Statista, 2021)
In a 2021 survey, 86% of marketers and agency professionals in the US reported they were enabling shopping functions in their influencer marketing campaigns. The most common function is linking to the brand’s own website. (Statista, 2021)
Advertisers anticipate spending $56 billion to promote their products on social networks in 2022. (Statista, 2021)
93% of US executives said their businesses are moving eCommerce efforts to social media. (Statista, 2021)
By 2023, 71% of small businesses plan to sell on social media platforms. (Statista, 2021)

According to a 2019 Sprout Social Index survey, 40% of marketers believe private community groups are becoming more important. And 23% of consumers agree with them.
LinkedIn and Facebook have long implemented private groups within their platforms while Instagram and Twitter haven’t yet offered that feature.

That was until Sept. 2021 when Twitter announced that it was testing its own subcommunity platform called Twitter Communities.
Let’s take a look at how it works and how it can help brands connect with their target audience.

This experiment is Twitter’s latest attempt to help connect users. While hashtags, Twitter Lists, the “Moments” and “Topics” features can help surface conversations you’re interested in, it can be difficult to identify (and consistently engage with) users who share your interests.
Twitter Communities is meant to close that gap and provide one place for users to meet with users with whom they share personal and professional interests.
There are three types of users in Twitter Communities:

Admins who own the Community and manage its members.

Moderators who ensure the Community is safe, facilitate conversation, and connect like-minded people.

Members who have been invited into the Community and now can engage with other members.

Image Source
As a member, say you Tweet something to your Community. Anyone on Twitter can read, quote Tweet, and report it. However, only fellow members can interact with the Tweet, i.e.: Reply.
A Community can be based on any interest (as long as it follows Twitter’s terms of service), anything from career and finance to pets and astrology.
Currently, the platform is only available on IOS devices and on the web, with Android users having read-only access. However, Twitter does have plans to expand to Android devices soon.
Why You Should Use Twitter Communities
Similar to LinkedIn Groups and Facebook Groups, Twitter Communities is another way for brands to reach their audiences.
Because users will be connected by shared interests, brands can narrow down the Communities that align with their target audience and use it to connect with them.
We know that community building is key in building trust with users on social media, particularly with those who are near the top of the funnel. As such, using a platform like Twitter Communities helps brands connect with users and get a better sense of what resonates with them.
Finding Twitter Communities
As it currently stands, you can only access Twitter communities if you are invited or if you are approved to be an admin to start your own.
In that case, the Communities tab will show up on your Twitter app or on the sidebar of the web app. As a non-member, you can view the Community page and timeline if it has been shared with you but you cannot interact with the Tweets or request to join.
Because it’s in beta testing, Twitter has set up a request form where users can ask to become an admin or moderator. To qualify, your account must:

Be public.
Be at least six months old.
Have a verified phone number or email address.
Have two-factor authentication turned on.
Not have a history of violating Twitter’s terms of service.

Once you are approved, you must continue to meet these eligibility requirements to maintain your privileges.
With the HubSpot Marketing Hub, you can integrate your Twitter account, which allows you to schedule and publish Tweets and track your key metrics right from the platform.
How Marketers Can Leverage Twitter Communities
Twitter Communities is another tool marketers can use to connect with their target audience and build a community around their brand.
Brands should avoid using Twitter Communities as a way to promote products and/or services to specific groups of users.
A good rule of thumb to follow with any social network is to focus on engagement, not promotion. While promoting your products and/or services is a natural part of building your brand awareness, it shouldn’t be your sole content strategy.
Instead, focus on connecting with your users by posting content they care about. With Twitter Communities, it’s even easier to accomplish this, as you can tailor your content to specific sub-audiences within your broader followers.
It’s also an opportunity to learn more about your users and see which topics they discuss, what their pain points are, what challenges they face, and what resonates with them.

According to a 2019 Sprout Social Index survey, 40% of marketers believe private community groups are becoming more important. And 23% of consumers agree with them.
LinkedIn and Facebook have long implemented private groups within their platforms while Instagram and Twitter haven’t yet offered that feature.

That was until Sept. 2021 when Twitter announced that it was testing its own subcommunity platform called Twitter Communities.
Let’s take a look at how it works and how it can help brands connect with their target audience.

This experiment is Twitter’s latest attempt to help connect users. While hashtags, Twitter Lists, the “Moments” and “Topics” features can help surface conversations you’re interested in, it can be difficult to identify (and consistently engage with) users who share your interests.
Twitter Communities is meant to close that gap and provide one place for users to meet with users with whom they share personal and professional interests.
There are three types of users in Twitter Communities:

Admins who own the Community and manage its members.

Moderators who ensure the Community is safe, facilitate conversation, and connect like-minded people.

Members who have been invited into the Community and now can engage with other members.

Image Source
As a member, say you Tweet something to your Community. Anyone on Twitter can read, quote Tweet, and report it. However, only fellow members can interact with the Tweet, i.e.: Reply.
A Community can be based on any interest (as long as it follows Twitter’s terms of service), anything from career and finance to pets and astrology.
Currently, the platform is only available on IOS devices and on the web, with Android users having read-only access. However, Twitter does have plans to expand to Android devices soon.
Why You Should Use Twitter Communities
Similar to LinkedIn Groups and Facebook Groups, Twitter Communities is another way for brands to reach their audiences.
Because users will be connected by shared interests, brands can narrow down the Communities that align with their target audience and use it to connect with them.
We know that community building is key in building trust with users on social media, particularly with those who are near the top of the funnel. As such, using a platform like Twitter Communities helps brands connect with users and get a better sense of what resonates with them.
Finding Twitter Communities
As it currently stands, you can only access Twitter communities if you are invited or if you are approved to be an admin to start your own.
In that case, the Communities tab will show up on your Twitter app or on the sidebar of the web app. As a non-member, you can view the Community page and timeline if it has been shared with you but you cannot interact with the Tweets or request to join.
Because it’s in beta testing, Twitter has set up a request form where users can ask to become an admin or moderator. To qualify, your account must:

Be public.
Be at least six months old.
Have a verified phone number or email address.
Have two-factor authentication turned on.
Not have a history of violating Twitter’s terms of service.

Once you are approved, you must continue to meet these eligibility requirements to maintain your privileges.
With the HubSpot Marketing Hub, you can integrate your Twitter account, which allows you to schedule and publish Tweets and track your key metrics right from the platform.
How Marketers Can Leverage Twitter Communities
Twitter Communities is another tool marketers can use to connect with their target audience and build a community around their brand.
Brands should avoid using Twitter Communities as a way to promote products and/or services to specific groups of users.
A good rule of thumb to follow with any social network is to focus on engagement, not promotion. While promoting your products and/or services is a natural part of building your brand awareness, it shouldn’t be your sole content strategy.
Instead, focus on connecting with your users by posting content they care about. With Twitter Communities, it’s even easier to accomplish this, as you can tailor your content to specific sub-audiences within your broader followers.
It’s also an opportunity to learn more about your users and see which topics they discuss, what their pain points are, what challenges they face, and what resonates with them.