Category: Marketing Automation

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As an advertiser and marketer, it’s important to understand the impact of your campaigns and content on your target audience.
It’s also important to know how much money you need to invest to ensure those campaigns and content are actually seen by your audience.
You may have heard of CPM before — it’s a formula and metric that tells you exactly that.

In this article, we’ll review what CPM is, how to calculate it, and tips on how you can get the best CPM.
CPM Meaning
CPM in marketing is cost per thousand, also known as cost per thousand impressions or cost per mile. It’s a formula that calculates the total ad spend per 1,000 impressions on a web page.
How does CPM work?
CPM is often used in advertising, marketing campaigns, social media, and digital marketing. It tells you the total ad spend for every 1,000 impressions. An impression in CPM is how many views/ engagements an ad receives — it’s when an ad is successfully displayed to a visitor or audience member on a web page.
Impressions are small units of measure in marketing which is why they’re calculated by the 1,000 — this gives advertisers and marketers a better idea of the impact their work is having on audience members.
CPM is an effective top-of-funnel strategy because it helps advertisers garner a lot of attention from a large audience on one piece of content, all on a pre-determined budget.
As a result, you’ll increase brand awareness and recognition as well as develop an understanding of which ads and content types are most successful among your audience so you can improve upon

CPM Advertising
Advertisers often use CPM. They select an ad publisher to work with based on where they want their ads published and the specific audience they want to get those ads in front of. Then, advertisers pay the ad publisher, often $1-$10+, for every 1,000 ads that are displayed to viewers.
This method of advertising allows advertisers to stick to a set budget while ensuring their target audience is seeing their ads and campaigns on a large scale. Especially when used on mobile — CPM ads are an effective way for advertisers to determine the impact of their in-app ads.
How to Calculate CPM
To calculate CPM, you need to use the following formula which states CPM is equal to the total amount spent/ total ad spend divided by total impressions multiplied by 1,000.
CPM Formula

How to Get the Best CPM
There are a number of tips and techniques you can apply to help you get the best CPM possible — here are some examples.
1. Choose an ad network.
There are several networks and publishers available for your CPM ads. Here are five popular options:

Google AdSense: Video ads, mobile ads, display ads, text, in-feed ads, in-article ads, matched content ads, games ads

Criteo: Digital ads, contextual ads, mobile app ads, dynamic ads, video ads, self-service ads

BuySellAds: Native ads, sponsored content, podcast ads, display ads

Media.net: Contextual ads, display ads, native ads,

SmartyAds: Rewarded videos, native ads, banners

2. Pick an ad tool.
You’ll also want to identify a CPM and ad tool to help you plan, run, monitor, and analyze your campaigns.
CPM Software
CPM software is typically ad software — meaning it can help create, publish, and report on your ads.
For instance, you might choose to use HubSpot Ads Software to support your CPM strategy.

HubSpot is unique because it enables CRM-powered marketing — meaning, you can use the data from your CRM to create personalized and targeted ad campaigns and report on the ads that are turning prospects into customers.
With HubSpot Ads Software, you can also…

Segment audiences.
Personalize ads.
Report on leads and ROI generated by every Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google ad.
Understand attribution of revenue from specific ad campaigns and platforms.
Log lead information into your CRM automatically.
Create journey-based advertising campaigns for Facebook audiences.

How to Apply CPM Software to CPM Ads:
Here are some specific examples of how you could apply a tool like HubSpot Ads Software to your CPM strategy and ads.

Refer to your contact data to effectively target your audience.
Apply the results of past campaigns to create ads that you know will resonate with your audience.
Use the knowledge you’ve gathered from your CPM campaigns about what works best among your audience to create and share more specific campaigns through HubSpot (since CPM campaigns are broad — more on this below).
Review your CPM results alongside your attribution of revenue from your other ads and campaigns in HubSpot to determine overall ad spend versus your budget.
Input contact data gathered from CPM ads in HubSpot so all contact and customer data across the entire business are organized in a single platform.

3. Use CPM in broad ad and marketing campaigns.
CPM campaigns are best for broad marketing ads and campaigns. That’s because their main function is raising brand awareness and recognition. They offer the insight and data businesses need to then get more specific with follow-up ads and who they’re targeting with those ads.
4. Highlight your point of difference.
Since your CPM ads are bound to be broad, be sure to highlight your product’s point of difference.
For instance, if you’re running a CPM ad on a training sneaker, ensure your ad makes the training shoe’s unique feature(s) (e.g. it’s ideal for all CrossFit athletes for X reason).
5. Think about ad format and placement.
When it comes to your CPM ads, it’s critical you consider ad format and placement.
Perform research on your buyer personas and target audience as well as competitive intelligence— this will provide an understanding of what will work best among your audience as well as what’s working well for your competitors.
This research will also help you decide which ad publisher you’ll use to share your CPM ads based on the audience you can target via that publisher as well as the format in which you can publish your ads (e.g. display ads, mobile ads, etc.). 
6. Consistently analyze your results.
Similar to all strategies in business, you need to analyze your results. Be sure to track the success of your CPM ads and campaigns — report on what’s working and what isn’t hitting the mark.
You can do this by calculating your CPM regularly (while ads are live and once campaigns end), sharing that information with team members, and iterating as needed. Most ad software also has reporting capabilities that can help you track, record, store, and share CPM results.
You can also log this information in your marketing software and/or your CRM so all things related to your marketing work and your customers are stored in a single platform.
Start Calculating CPM
CPM is a valuable metric for marketers and advertisers — it gives you an accurate understanding of your impressions.
As a result, you’ll gain insight into your level of brand awareness, which of your content and campaigns are being viewed the most, and what’s working well among your audience.

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How do you fine tune automation to SaaS funnel? i.e. Activation, Monetization, Upsell and Churn prevention? Is it a configuration of different decision trees or automation workflows to each of these goals or do you have an easy way to do this?
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After a particularly dizzying murder trial, Shawn Askinosie thought he was fine.
He kept practicing law as a homicide defense attorney for five years after that moment, all the while wondering why he was dealing with panic attacks, mental fogs, and even the symptoms of a heart attack after nearly 15 years of loving his career.
Eventually, something broke within him: he loved being a lawyer but simply couldn’t do it anymore.
Listlessly trying to find his place in the world, he stumbled upon making chocolate. Now, 15 years later, Askinosie Chocolate makes some of the highest quality chocolate in the world. On the journey, he also found a renewed sense of purpose in life that helped him come back from the brink.
Featuring insights from Buffer’s Small Business, Big Lessons podcast episode one, and the accompanying unpublished interview, Shawn explained how chocolate saved his life – and how he’s using his chocolate business to help others thrive as well.
Shawn AskinosieFrom defense lawyer to chocolate maker
The trial started out fairly routine: he was representing a woman accused of murder.
Right before the trial was supposed to go to the jury for a verdict, the judge pulled him and the prosecutor into his chambers.
The judge said he was revoking the jury’s mandate. Instead of a jury verdict on jail time versus the death sentence, the judge would sentence the woman to probation. Shawn wanted to keep fighting – he wanted his client off completely, not accepting probation – but the woman told Shawn he’d done enough, and she accepted the probation deal.
For five years after that trial, Shawn tried to forget about it and move on, but he couldn’t. He even started getting physical symptoms.
“I started having these little mini panic attacks in the courtroom,” said Shawn. I didn’t even know what a panic attack was then, I never even heard of such a thing… my doctor thought it might be a heart attack.”
While thankfully it wasn’t a heart attack, Shawn’s doctor was deeply concerned for his mental wellbeing and told him to see a psychologist. He ended up starting antidepressants, trying to keep himself afloat so he could continue the career he increasingly no longer loved.
“I loved what I did so much and then I didn’t – that really kind of threw me off,” said Shawn.
Eventually, he just couldn’t continue law anymore and resigned.
He spent a lot of time figuring out what would come next and fell onto food. He cooked a lot of barbecue for his friends. Then he tried baking. He enjoyed it, but nothing sparked a true passion.
Then a thought came to him: what about chocolate?
He learned the basics of chocolate making from some blogs and immediately felt drawn to the process. Realizing the sparks of passion, he took a trip to Ecuador to meet cocoa farmers and learn about the entire production chain from bean to finished product.
On that trip, Shawn realized his new passion would be to make the best chocolate in the world.
Shawn Askinosie and Lawren Askinosie inspecting cocoa beans with their farmer partners in Mababu, Tanzania (2019)Honoring family, supporting farmers, and building community
Shawn set out to turn his passion for chocolate into a company so he could sustain himself and his family. But unlike his law career, which was driven by excitement for the game and the mountains of cash he could make, Shawn approached chocolate making as an homage to his grandparents.
“My grandparents were farmers and an inspiration to me, just very kind people who lived a simple life… and I wanted to honor them,” said Shawn.
Keeping his grandparents in mind, he thought about what he wanted the business to do beyond delivering economic profit.
He landed on three keys: caring for the farmers he worked with, providing great jobs for his future employees, and providing care and resources to the communities he worked with.

In his mind, profit gave him the ability to focus on these other, bigger things. It’s a belief he thinks all companies should adopt as they think about corporate social responsibility (CSR).
“Even though it’s messy, we need to diffuse the CSR efforts throughout all aspects of the company,” said Shawn. “… [It should] not just be the elite within the company that have the chance to roll up their sleeves and really serve others.”
With his three keys in mind, Shawn built up Askinosie Chocolate. He now has a profit share agreement with farmers in his supply chain, he sets revenue growth goals with an explicit amount set for increasing employee wages and benefits, and launched a nonprofit called Chocolate University to teach citizenship, entrepreneurship, and civic-mindedness through teaching kids the business of chocolate.
Shawn Askinosie inspecting cocoa beans with farmer partners in Mababu, Tanzania (2019)Building a company driven by service
Through his decade-plus-long journey so far, Shawn has thought about growth a lot. But it’s far from his top priority.
“Everybody tells us that we need to grow, grow, grow,” said Shawn. “Why?”
Shawn knows that people asking about growth always come with good intentions: your friends and family want you to be rich while your local Chamber of Commerce wants you to provide employment. But he also wants to push back against this notion and ask how companies can stay small while still delivering impact.
“Scaling is a strategy that is not without sacrifice,” he said.
One quote Shawn regularly turns to when there’s pressure to grow for growth’s sake is that “more is not enough.” And he wants entrepreneurs to focus on “enough,” not just “more.”
“We have lived this life of massive consumerism, of over-consumption, and the younger generations are pushing against this … because it’s a truth that they want to live by,” said Shawn.
Rebelling against mass consumerism is part of a larger movement that Shawn calls “corporatocracy,” when a few massive corporations control most of the economic means of production.
Underneath the corporatocracy, though, is the future Shawn sees: responsibility for the social good.
“There are a lot of really small companies that [you] don’t even know, never even heard the phrase ‘social entrepreneurship’, but they have rolled up their sleeves and they’re doing good works on their street, in their neighborhood.”
For new entrepreneurs trying to fight against the corporatocracy, Shawn has a simple rule: ask yourself how much is enough, don’t just ask for more. While “enough” will change throughout your life, it’s critical to figure out what is enough for you right now, then center your actions to that end.
This, said Shawn, will help create “companies of the future that are not completely driven by profit but are driven by this notion of service to their brothers and sisters in need.”
Building a business, rebuilding a life
There’s an adage that you should always start how you mean to go on. But the problem Shawn sees is not starting out with good intentions; most entrepreneurs do that. Instead, it’s keeping those intentions at the forefront when growth comes calling.
You can – and should – still aim for profit. The key is to balance profit with staying true to your purpose and your “enough.”
For Shawn, this balance of profit with “enough” turned out to be his savior. Instead of wondering why things don’t feel good even though he’s “successful,” Askinosie Chocolate has meaning behind every action and every dollar of profit, which helped rebuild Shawn’s mental health and give him a renewed sense of purpose in the world.
“I am confessing that my company is less valuable than it might have otherwise been,” said Shawn. “And I am okay with that. Why? Because it would be out of balance for me to end the company in a way that is inconsistent with the way I started it.”

Listen to Shawn’s episode and interviews with other small business owners on Buffer’s latest podcast, Small Business, Big Lessons and come

Content mapping allows you to deliver highly targeted, personalized content at every stage of the buyer’s journey, pushing leads and prospects toward a purchase decision. In this post, we’ll go over what a content map is and how you can start content mapping for your brand.
Let’s get started.

Why are content maps important?
Creating a content map is important because it personalizes your audience’s experience with your brand. They’re not receiving a one-messaging-fits-all offer or email. Instead, they get content that speaks to them at the right moment.
The idea of a content map may seem new, but it’s not. Marketers hear it all the time: The content you create needs to be personalized. It needs to be aligned with the wants and needs of your customers (and prospective customers). It needs to resonate with them. It needs to feel like it was created just for them.
On its surface, this sounds like great advice. Personalization, giving people content that they’re actually interested in … it makes perfect sense. But coming up with the actual topics that make for a highly targeted content strategy isn’t that easy.
To help you brainstorm and map out content ideas for targeting specific segments of your audience, we’ve created a new free template resource: Content Mapping Template: Using Buyer Personas & Lifecycle Stages to Create Targeted Content.

Download Your Free Template Now
I’ll talk more about how you can use this template in a bit. But first, let’s take a look at how this whole “content mapping” business works.
And when you have this concept down, you’ll want to check out HubSpot Academy’s free content marketing training resource page to learn how to map a content strategy for your business.
Content mapping supports the customer journey and creates a more cohesive, personalized customer experience.
When it comes to content, one size rarely fits all. To ensure that your company’s content is effective at generating and nurturing leads, you need to deliver the right content, to the right people, at the right time. Content mapping is the process of doing just that.
With content mapping, the goal is to target content according to:

A buyer persona, e.g. The characteristics of the person who will be consuming the content.
The buyer’s lifecycle stage, e.g. how close that person is to making a purchase.

Let’s go over these two qualities right now.
Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers. They help you understand your customers (and prospective customers) better, and make it easier for you to tailor content to the specific needs, behaviors, and concerns of different groups.
The strongest buyer personas are based on market research as well as on insights you gather from your actual customer base (through surveys, interviews, etc.). Depending on your business, you could have as few as one or two personas, or dozens. If you’re just getting started with personas, don’t go crazy! You can always develop more personas later if needed.
Lifecycle Stages
The buyer persona you target with your content is just one half of the content mapping equation. In addition to knowing who someone is, you need to know where they are in the buying cycle (i.e. how close they are to making a purchase). This location in the buying cycle is known as a lifecycle stage.
For the purposes of our Content Mapping Template, we’re divvying up the buying cycle into three lifecycle stages: Awareness, Consideration, & Decision.

Awareness: In the awareness stage, a person has realized and expressed symptoms of a potential problem or opportunity.

Consideration: In the consideration stage, a person has clearly defined and given a name to their problem or opportunity.

Decision: In the decision stage, a person has defined their solution strategy, method, or approach.

By combining buyer personas with lifecycle stages, you can really hone in on specific segments of your audience and tailor content to resonate with each of those segments.
As you get more acquainted with content mapping, you’ll want to consider website content mapping as well.
Website Content Mapping
Website content mapping is the process of planning the pages, blog posts, and offers you’ll publish on your site and identifying which buyer personas those pages and posts will serve. Website content mapping also identifies which pages and posts address different lifecycle stages.
Website content mapping is a key element of website personalization. In essence, you’ll create different pages, posts, and offers to address different buyers at different points in the buyer’s journey.
But before you can write all of that content, the content map comes first. Luckily, you don’t have to create one from scratch.
With the right content mapping template, you can get create a content map that resonates with your audience.
Content Mapping Template

Download Your Free Template Now
To help you create a content map for your own team, we’ve created a downloadable content mapping template. The template includes an introduction to content mapping, a crash course on buyer personas and lifecycle stages, a content mapping template (plus examples), and bonus buyer persona templates.
With the template, you’ll:

Learn how to understand buyer personas and lifecycle stages.
Identify problems and opportunities that your audience needs help with.
Brainstorm highly targeted content ideas that incorporate personas and lifecycle stages.

This template is available in both Google Docs and Microsoft Word.
Whether you want to download our content mapping template or create your own, let’s dive into the structure of a content mapping template.
HubSpot Content Mapping Template: How to Use
In our content mapping template, we created a simple grid system. The buyer persona (and a key problem or opportunity that persona is struggling with) is at the start of the grid. As you move from left to right, you’re effectively moving down the funnel.

Here’s how to fill out each of the sections in the template.
Awareness Stage Content
Your awareness stage content should target the top of the funnel (TOFU). People in this segment are just becoming aware that they have a problem. At this stage, don’t try to beat them over the head with product-focused content. Instead, think of how your content can help people become more informed about the problem in general, and you’ll (hopefully) find that they continue moving down your funnel as they search for solutions.
Consideration Stage Content
Your consideration stage content, in comparison, can more explicitly mention how your product or service could potentially solve a problem. Keep in mind, however, that at this point in the buying cycle, people are still evaluating their options. So while case studies and demo videos are fine, save your more sales-focused content (estimates, free trials, etc.) for the next stage.
Decision Stage Content
At the decision stage of the game, you can really lean into marketing your products or services. If someone has reached this stage, they’ve already identified a problem and a solution, and are now getting ready to pull the proverbial trigger. You can begin to send more “salesy” emails and offers that push the buyer toward a purchase decision.
Unsure of what this all can look like when put together? Let’s take a look at an example below.
Content Mapping Example

You now know what content mapping is, and you have the template you need to get started. What type of tools can you use to start content mapping?
Content Mapping Tools
Content mapping may seem like a difficult task that requires highly specialized software. It’s not true — it requires simple business tools you may already be using in your day-to-day.
We’ll start with the most basic tools you need to start content mapping, such as word processors and visualization tools. Then we’ll move into the tools that will get you the data that you need to address different buyers, such as a CRM.
1. Google Docs

First up in your content mapping tech stack is your preferred word processor. This is where you’ll outline your content map and write out the actual content once it’s time to create it. We highly recommend Google Docs because it makes it easier to share work across your team, and you never have to worry about backing up your content map.
Pricing: Free
2. Lucidchart

If you’re more of a visual person, then a flowchart tool is a must. Also, if you’d prefer to create an actual content map — with lines and diagrams — then you need a more sophisticated tool than Microsoft Paint (and Microsoft Paint is great, but it may not be what you need). Lucidchart’s flowchart maker is a top-of-the-line tool that also allows you to connect different apps and services. Like Google Docs, it allows you to work collaboratively.
Pricing: Free; $7.95/month (Individual); $9/month (Team); Custom (Enterprise)
3. HubSpot

HubSpot’s CRM is the one tool you need to compile all of your data from current and prospective customers. You’ll have access to names, emails, prior engagements, and website visits all in one intuitive place. HubSpot will allow you to discern different lifecycle stages and pinpoint commonalities between customers who are ready to purchase — and customers who are not. As such, you’ll be able to make data-driven decisions as you create your content map.
Pricing: Free
4. Marketing Hub

Once you have access to the customer data that you need, it’s time to write the content and distribute it. For that, you need a marketing automation tool. Marking Hub comes bundled with everything you need to create a personalized experience for your leads and prospects, such as email marketing tools. It’ll help you execute your content map once it’s ready for deployment.
Pricing: $0/month (Free); $45/month (Starter); $800/month (Professional); $3,200/month (Enterprise)
5. CMS Hub

A content management system is probably the most important tool for your content mapping efforts. A CMS will allow you to publish personalized content that targets different site visitors at — you guessed it — different stages of the buyer’s journey.
CMS Hub is fully integrated with HubSpot’s CRM platform and Marketing Hub, allowing you to create a seamless experience for your customers as they receive the content you’ve designed for them. It will help you execute your content map flawlessly. Even more importantly, with CMS Hub, you can continue testing and re-testing your content for better results.
Pricing: $23/month (Starter); $360/month (Professional); $1,200/month (Enterprise)
Not quite convinced that content mapping is worth it? Let’s hear from some marketers who are actually doing this stuff …
Content Mapping Tips From the Pros
1. Educate your audience.
“We all have to create compelling content to attract our ideal clients, build an active and engaged audience, and get daily sales. Spend time building your audience by educating them and engaging with them. No one has built a business by posting the same image or type of image everyday on socials and not having convoys with their audience. It is not just about showing up, but doing so with intention so you can attract your ideal clients who will buy from you.”
– Adanna Austin (Business Coach and Consultant, Marketing Dynamics Business Solutions)
2. Give your prospects the information they need before they ask for it.
“With content mapping, you can give your prospects the information they are asking for before they even ask for it. Buyer personas and lifecycle stages allow you to be one step ahead of the game by mapping out what your prospect’s next steps are and delivering them the content from numerous different avenues.
We create buyer personas as part of our onboarding process and everything we do from content offer to daily tweets is centered around that document. We also always ask ourselves, ‘Would business owner Bob open this email, click this tweet, or download this offer?’”
– Laura Hogan (Founder, Digital Atlas Marketing)
3. Provide different conversion paths for different personas.
“When mapping out content for your site’s visitors, it’s important to remember that when it comes to purchasing decisions (BOFU conversions, especially for B2B and high-priced items), there are some personas out there who would rather speak to someone on their terms rather than fill out a form for a consultation. Understanding how they are most comfortable when it comes to making decisions can help you understand what points of conversion will be the most relevant and successful for that persona.
Optimizing your site pages (landing and thank you pages, as well), TOFU & MOFU offers, and workflows with direct contact information (phone #, email, etc.) is a great way to ensure that visitors, prospects and leads who may shy away from form submissions still have readily available, alternate means of converting.”
– Marc Herschberger (Director of Operations, Revenue River Marketing)
4. Create specific content that appeals to specific personas.
“Mapping out buyer personas and lifecycle stages is extremely important when creating content. In terms of buyer personas, it’s easy to see that a Marketing Director will have different questions, information needs, and interests compared to a CEO. Both of these personas may be searching for your product or service, but they’ll be looking for different topics. By creating content that appeals to each audience, you can be more effective in attracting that specific audience.
By the same token, each persona of yours may be in a different stage of the buying process, so it’s important to think through and create content that appeals to someone looking for basic, high-level information such as an ebook, as well as specific information like a pricing guide or case study.
One tip I’d suggest for anyone with pretty different personas would be to dedicate an entire section of your site to each audience. That way, when you pull in your audience, all the content is directed toward them.
We actually took this concept and went a step further by creating unique brands for each one of our vertical markets. Each brand has its own section of the website, its own blog content, and its own premium content (downloadable offers). It’s really helped us attract and convert visitors at a higher rate because all the content is more relevant to that persona.”
– Spencer Powell (Chief Executive Officer, Builder Funnel)
4. Pull content topics from your sales process.
“By taking the buyer and buying stage into account when creating content, you can be sure that you’re designing content to help move them through the buying process.
In addition to mapping content to the buyer profile and buying stage, we regularly pull topics from the sales process. Then we offer the content in later sales calls. This helps us not only evaluate the relevancy of the content but also the interest of the buyer. We encourage clients to do the same.”
– Diona Kidd (Managing Partner, Knowmad)
Content Mapping is Key to Your Company’s Growth
Delivering the right content at the right time can do wonders for your company’s growth. By meeting prospects’ needs based on their persona and lifecycle stage, you’re delighting them at every turn, boosting your chances of winning a loyal customer and turning them into a brand evangelist.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2014 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

How many times have you seen a killer marketing strategy and thought to yourself, “Wow, I wish I would’ve thought of that!”
(Glossier, I’m looking at you.)
We’ve all been there. The truth is, when you’re just starting out, it can be tough to know whether your strategy is as comprehensive and powerful as it can be.

To help ease some of that uncertainty, we’ve created this guide that’ll show you step-by-step how to create a marketing strategy that leaves no stone unturned.
Let’s dive into the critical components of a complete marketing strategy in 2021, followed by some examples for further inspiration.
The Importance of Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy Steps
A robust marketing strategy will reach your target audience – this includes those who have never heard of your brand all the way to those who have purchased from you before.
Without a defined strategy, you’ll essentially be throwing things to the wall to see what sticks. And it’s costing you cost, time, and resources.
A marketing strategy will:

Align your team to specific goals.
Help you tie your efforts to business objectives.
Allow you to identify and test what resonates with your target audience.

There are seven key steps to crafting a successful marketing strategy: Build your marketing plan, create your buyer personas, identify your goals, select the tools, review your existing resources, audit and plan media campaign, and lastly, execute your strategy.
Let’s get into the details of each step in the next section. Or you can jump to the section you’re most interested in.

7 Steps of a Marketing Strategy

Build a marketing plan.

Create buyer personas.

Identify goals.

Select the appropriate tools.

Review your media.

Audit and plan media campaigns.

Bring it to fruition.

Examples of Succesful Marketing Strategies
What to Do After Following Your Marketing Process Steps

1. Build a marketing plan.

Wait, I have to make a plan for my strategy? What’s the difference?
Your marketing strategy provides an overview of the reasons why your marketing team will need certain resources, take certain actions, and set certain goals over the year. Your marketing plan is the specific actions you’ll take to achieve that strategy.
Not sure where to start? This free marketing plan template can help.

Image Source
The right template can help you build a marketing plan that identifies your budget for the year, the initiatives your marketing organization needs to tackle, and the marketing channels you’ll use to implement those initiatives.

Plus, it’ll tie everything back to a business summary, to keep you aligned with overarching company goals.
2. Create buyer personas.
If you can’t define who your audience is in one sentence, now’s your chance to do it. A buyer persona is an example of your ideal customer.
For example, a store like Macy’s could define a buyer persona as Budgeting Belinda, a stylish working-class woman in her 30’s living in a suburb, looking to fill her closet with designer deals at low prices.
With this description, Macy’s Marketing department can picture Budgeting Belinda and work with a clear definition in mind.
Buyer personas have critical demographic and psychographic information, including age, job title, income, location, interests, and challenges. Notice how Belinda has all of those attributes in her description.
You don’t have to create your buyer persona with a pen and paper. In fact, HubSpot offers a free template you can use to make your own (and it’s really fun).
Buyer personas should be at the core of building your strategy.

You can also use a platform like Versium, which helps you identify, understand and reach your target audience through data and artificial intelligence.
3. Identify your goals.
Your marketing strategy goals should reflect your business goals.
For example, if one of your business goals is to have 300 people attend your annual conference in three months, your goal as a marketer should be along the lines of boosting online registration by 10% at the end of the month to stay on track.
Other marketing goals might be to increase brand awareness or generate high-quality leads. You might also want to grow or maintain thought leadership in your industry or increase customer value.

Whatever your goals, identify what they are and how your marketing organization can work to achieve them over the next year.
4. Select the appropriate tools.
Once you have your goals identified, make sure you have the right tools to measure the success of those goals.
Online software like social media schedulers gives you analytics to help you keep track of what your audience likes and doesn’t. Alternatively, you might consider Google Analytics to measure blog and web page performance.
Additionally, make your goals SMART – to do so, take a look at How to Write a SMART Goal [+ Free SMART Goal Template].
Here are a few tools that can help you track and measure the success of your marketing goals:
HubSpot Marketing Hub
The Marketing Hub allows you to consolidate all of your marketing tools into one centralized platform.

Too often, you’ll find a tool that’s powerful but not very easy to use. With this tool, you can attract users with blogs, SEO, and live chat tools. You can then convert and nurture those leads through marketing automation, the landing page builder, and lead tracking features.
With custom reporting and built-in analytics, you can analyze your data and plan out your next move. Plus, HubSpot Marketing Hub integrates with over 500 tools.
Pricing: Free; Starter, $45/month; Professional, $800/month; Enterprise, $3,200/month.
Trello

Trello keeps your marketing team on track and openly communicating about the projects they’re working on. Create boards for individual campaigns, editorial calendars, or quarterly goals.
Built-in workflows and automation capabilities keep communication streamlined, and simplicity keeps your marketing team focused on the work that matters.
Pricing: Free; Business Class, $9.99/user/month; Enterprise, $17.50/user/month for 100 users.
Monday.com
Everything on Monday.com starts with a board or visually driven table. Create and customize workflows for your team and keep groups, items, sub-items, and updates synced in real-time.
You can also transform data pulled from timeline and Gantt views to track your projects on Monday.com and ensure deadlines have been met. Plus, with more than 40 integrations — from SurveyMonkey to Mailchimp and, of course, HubSpot — you can visualize your data and ensure your whole company is collaborating.
Pricing: Basic, $8/month/seat; Standard, $10/month/seat; Pro, $16/month/seat; Enterprise, contact for pricing.
SEMrush
SEO continues to be a huge factor in the successful ranking of your website.
SEMrush allows you to run a technical SEO audit, track daily rankings, analyze your competitor’s SEO strategy, research millions of keywords, and even source ideas for earning more organic traffic.
But the benefits don’t stop at SEO. Use SEMRush for PPC, building and measuring an effective social media strategy, content planning, and even market research.
Pricing: Pro, $99.95/month; Guru, $199.95/month; Business, $399.95/month.
Buzzsumo

BuzzSumo allows you to analyze data to enhance and lead your marketing strategy, all while exploring high-performing content in your industry.
Use the platform to identify influencers who may help your brand reach, monitor comments, and find trends to make the most of every turn.
As your needs evolve, you can also leverage their crisis management and video marketing tools.
Pricing: Pro, $99/month; Plus, $179/month; Large, $299/month; Enterprise, $499+/month.
Crazy Egg
Need to optimize your website this year? Consider getting started with Crazy Egg. You’ll be able to identify “attention hotspots” on your product pages, track ad campaign traffic on your site, and understand if shoppers are clicking where you want them to.
You can even make sure your “Buy Now” buttons are in the best place.
Crazy Egg also offers recordings, A/B testing, and more to help ensure your website is offering the best user experience.

Pricing: Basic, $24/month; Standard, $49/month; Plus, $99/month; Pro, $249/month; Custom options available upon request.
5. Review your media.
Decide what you already have in your arsenal that can help you create your strategy. To streamline this process, think of your assets in three categories – paid, owned, and earned media.

Paid media means any channel you spend money on to attract your target audience. This includes offline channels like television, direct mail, and billboard to online channels like social media, search engines, and websites.

Owned Media refers to any of the media your marketing team has to create: pictures, videos, podcasts, ebooks, infographics, etc.

Earned media is another way to say user-generated content. Shares on social media, tweets about your business, and photos posted on Instagram mentioning your brand are all examples of earned media.

Gather your materials in each media type and consolidate them in one location to have a clear vision of what you have and how you can integrate them to maximize your strategy.
For example, if you already have a blog that’s rolling out weekly content in your niche (owned media), you might consider promoting your blog posts on Twitter (paid media), which customers might then reTweet (earned media). Ultimately, that will help you create a better, more well-rounded marketing strategy.

If you have resources that don’t fit into your goals, nix them. This is a great time to clean house and identify gaps in your materials.
6. Audit and plan media campaigns.
Cleaning house segues straight into this step. Now, you must decide which content is going to help you.
Focus on your owned media and marketing goals. For instance, will updating the CTAs at the end of your blog posts help you increase RSVPs to your event?
Next, look at your buyer personas. Let’s say you work for a video editing software company. If one of your persona’s challenges is adding clean sound effects to their videos but you don’t have any content that reflects that, make a 15-second demo video for Instagram to show how great your product is at solving that challenge.
Finally, create a content creation plan. The plan should include topic clusters, goals, format, and channel for each piece of content. Be sure to include which challenge it’s solving for your buyer persona.

For ideas on content creation or a more in-depth look at how to create a content plan, check out our post, The Ultimate Guide to Content Creation.
7. Bring it to fruition.
At this point, your market research and planning should help you visualize how your strategy will be executed – and by which teams.
The final step is to bring that all together and assign actions to your plans.
Create a document that maps out the steps you need to take to execute your campaign. In other words, define your strategy.
Think long-term when creating this document. A standard strategy document is 12 months. This structured timeline should be the home base for your strategic marketing efforts.
To paint an example, let’s go back to the video software company.
Maybe in January, you will launch a software update that improves the exportation process for users. In April, you want to publish an ebook that explains editing terms to your buyer personas, and in September, you plan to launch an integration with other software.
Remember, your digital strategy is unique to your business, so the document should be as well. As long as the strategy includes the pertinent details outlined in previous sections, you’ll be set.

Now that we’ve explored the critical steps of a complete marketing strategy, let’s look at some “Why didn’t I think of that?” strategies to inspire your own.
Examples of Successful Marketing Strategies
1. Regal Movies

Digital strategy: Owned media
Regal Movies took the Halloween spirit to a new level, even renaming its Twitter account to reflect the spirit of the season. This “Monster Madness” poll is a fun, interactive way to get followers invested in Regal’s content:

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Regal’s tweet is an example of owned media because the company was in full control of the answers followers gave (and, apparently, American Werewolf didn’t stand a chance).
Regal effectively kept true to their brand by using only classic movies in their poll while still putting a modern spin on it.
This is also a good example of how retweets don’t necessarily equal success. While four retweets aren’t that big of a deal, check out the votes: 461. That means there were over 400 interactions with a single tweet.
2. Pipsnacks

Digital strategy: User-generated content, earned media
User-generated content is one of the best ways to gain traction in your strategy.
It demonstrates your appreciation for loyal customers and also incentivizes other users’ to promote your products for the chance at a similar shout-out.
Plus, sometimes the content your brand loyalists create is really, really good.

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In this case, the consumer is praising the brand’s product. Doesn’t get better than a fantastic review like that.
3. Small Girls PR

Digital strategy: Event marketing
Wait, is that Keke Palmer?

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Small Girls PR is a boutique PR company based in New York, and one of the company’s talents is throwing amazing events for their clients, like Olay. This event recap carousel on Instagram is an effective event marketing example, as it boosts awareness for your brand and offers social proof by featuring a public figure.
4. Superside

Digital strategy: Paid media
Design agency Superside launched an Instagram ad to promote a lead magnet: Their digital ad design guide. While the brand may have created the guide specifically for paid promotions, it’s also possible that they repurposed a high-performing blog post into a downloadable ebook.

In this case, all they had to do was repackage their current content, build an ad around it with creative assets, and run it.
In previous sections, we discussed the power of leveraging multiple forms of media in your marketing strategy. This is a great example of it.

5. Target

Digital strategy: Paid media, Twitter cards
If you’ve got the budget for paid media, take full advantage of it.
Paid media is when you pay social channels, like Twitter, to promote your content on their site. By doing this, your content reaches new audiences you might not be able to reach organically:

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This inclusive ad from Target about fall shopping uses Twitter cards to promote the brand and make shopping easy with the click of a button.

More social channels are offering ways for shoppers to purchase in-app or close to it, driving sales and boosting exposure for brands.
What to Expect After Following Your Marketing Process Steps
Ultimately, creating a complete marketing strategy isn’t something that can happen overnight. It takes time, hard work, and dedication to ensure you’re reaching your ideal audience, whenever and wherever they want to be reached.
Stick with it (and use some of the resources we’ve included in this post), and over time, research and customer feedback will help you refine your strategy to ensure you’re spending most of your time on the marketing channels your audience cares most about.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2019. It has been updated for freshness and accuracy.

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If you’ve been on Instagram for a few years now, you’ve likely watched the evolution of influencer marketing unfold.
And one tell-tale sign of influencer marketing? The swipe-up feature.
I can remember countless hours of scrolling through stories and hearing my favorite influencers encouraging me to “Swipe up, swipe up!” (My bank account remembers, too …)
But — as of August 30th — the option to swipe up is no longer available. Instead, Instagram has replaced it with a new link sticker, which effectively operates the same way: It enables users to link to external websites.
Here, we’ll explore why Instagram got rid of the swipe up, and how HubSpot (and other brands) have leveraged the sticker tool, instead.

Why Instagram is Getting Rid of the Swipe Up
Back in June 2021, Vishal Shah, Instagram’s former Head of Product, told the Verge they were testing an alternative to Instagram’s popular swipe up feature — which, as a reminder, enables influencers to direct viewers to external links.
As Shah told the Verge, stickers fit more cohesively into the existing Instagram infrastructure. He said, “[This test] brings links into the same kind of overall system, which from a simplicity of system perspective, also makes a lot of sense.”
Then, in August, Instagram made an announcement that stickers would replace the swipe up feature. In a statement, an Instagram spokesperson said stickers would “streamline the stories creation experience” and offer more “creative control”.
What does that mean, exactly? Well, unlike the swipe up feature, which looked the same for everyone, link stickers can be customized depending on color, text, size, and placement within the story.
Plus — perhaps best of all — viewers can still engage with the story by reacting or replying to it, which the swipe up feature had previously inhibited people from doing.
Here’s an example of what I mean. On the left phone, shown below, you’ll see an older HubSpot stories post with a “See More” CTA at the bottom — what was known as the swipe up feature.
On the right side, you’ll see a newer HubSpot stories post with a “Visit Link” CTA, which pops up when you click on the link:

It’s important to note — similar to the swipe up feature, the new link sticker will only be available for verified accounts or accounts with more than 10,000 followers. (At least for now.)
Adding links as a sticker makes sense for Instagram’s creative direction, seeing as most of its other features are already available in sticker form (including polls, questions, and location stickers).
To investigate how social media teams are using the new link sticker, I spoke with HubSpot’s social team. Let’s dive into their advice, next.
How HubSpot Social Media Teams Are Preparing
I spoke with Kelsi Yamada, a Marketing Manager of Social Media Campaigns at HubSpot, to learn how the team had prepared for the swap to link stickers.

Yamada told me, “The biggest piece of advice I have is to plan for the sticker to take up space. The swipe up feature allowed you to include a link without having it be a part of the creative, but [the link sticker] actually needs some real estate on the screen.”

When adding a sticker, think about how it can match the aesthetic of the post. If your stories all follow the same visual theme, consider designing your sticker to match that theme.
Yamada adds, “I also think there’s a character limit on the link sticker, so be prepared to make custom vanity links, or make it very clear where the link is going — for instance, for a product announcement, we were going to use bit.ly, but since it showed up on the sticker as a bit.ly link, we decided to just use hubspot.com/new so it seemed more authentic.”
Next, let’s dive into a few additional best practices brands can follow as they incorporate the link sticker into their stories.
How Brands Can Navigate
Similar to the swipe up feature, the link sticker enables brands to promote new product pages, upcoming events, or the company’s homepage.
But these links should be used sparingly. If every story you publish includes a link to take followers elsewhere, your followers will grow tired of clicking.
Additionally, you want your link to be as relevant to the content as possible. If you’re posting about an upcoming product announcement, don’t link to your homepage — take followers directly to the product landing page.
Here are a few other actions you can encourage followers to take with the link sticker:

Drive traffic to your other social media accounts. For instance, you might post a short clip of a branded YouTube video, and include the link to the full video.

Drive traffic to your blog by posting content related to the blog post, with a link to the full article.

Create promotional deals directly through Instagram. Encourage followers to click on a story link to earn 10% off, win a giveaway, etc. This can help you increase engagement on Instagram and drive sales, as well.

Here are a few clever examples of how brands are using the new link sticker.
1. ASHYA 
ASHYA, a bag and luggage brand based in New York City, created a recent story post that highlighted the company’s new fall bag.
The design of the post is minimalist to draw attention to the new product — and, to ensure it doesn’t distract users, ASHYA’s link sticker (which links directly to the product page) is grey and white and blends into the background nicely.

2. Lil’ Libros®

Lil’ Libros®, a bookstore that sells adorable bilingual picture books for children, created a story post to highlight an upcoming book signing. The post uses a mix of tan, black, and white colors — and the link sticker, designed in a colorful blue, fits the post’s theme perfectly.
Additionally, Lil’ Libros® drew attention to the sticker by adding text with a “Click link” arrow that points users directly to the sticker. Consider how you might similarly design your post around the sticker to show followers exactly what you’re asking them to do.

3. Neatly Nested

Boston-based home decor shop Neatly Nested has a clean, sophisticated theme across their Instagram posts. In the post shown below, the team uses neutrals and browns to highlight their new fall collection. The sticker at the bottom is the same color as the background, and is placed below the photo to ensure nothing detracts from it.

And there you have it! You’re well on your way to using the link sticker like a pro. Keep in mind — just like with anything related to social media, you’ll want to do what’s best for your audience above all else.
As you test out the link sticker, keep track of which types of links drive the most traffic. Over time, you can iterate on your strategy to delight more of your audience. Happy linking!