Category: Marketing Automation

As with the rest of the Buffer team, our Advocacy team was thrilled when we first experimented with a four-day work week in May 2020. Unique to this team, though, was a bit of wariness around the success of a four-day work week for a customer-facing team.
As a company, Buffer has always had a high bar for customer support. We aim to provide fast, personal, and informed customer support responses 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We also assign one Advocate to every ticket so that each customer gets a sense of continuity with us. The thing about Advocacy is that even if we are working one less day per week, the incoming ticket volume remains mostly unchanged.
So how do we aim to set the bar high when we’re working four-day work weeks?
We’ve tried several different setups and are quite happy with where we’ve landed. Here’s exactly the system we currently use to make a four-day work week work for our Customer Advocacy team, along with a transparent look at our team goals and metrics from the last year of working a four-day work week.
How Advocacy is set up for a 4-day work week

Over the years, the Advocacy team has done a few different rounds of summer Fridays, where our teammates took half-days on Fridays for a month in the summer. We learned quite a lot from those, so we already had a framework for what the challenges and opportunities would be as we entered into the four-day work week.
In general, a shorter work week is a great opportunity for the Advocacy team to learn and grow in several areas:

Communication: With a four-day work week, we have to have excellent communication with a key focus on asynchronous communication.

Knowledge management: We already put a lot of effort into how we share knowledge and document our processes, and this is another chance to improve how we do so.

Experimenting with time management: It’s a chance to explore how we can work more efficiently each day, and how we can better manage our energy.

Setting individual goals: This was a great opportunity to rethink individual goals and give the team clear objectives to work towards.

Where we started with the four-day work week

When the whole Buffer team first started working four-day work weeks, we gave each team at Buffer the freedom to choose the day of the week to take off. The whole company mostly fell into two camps: Wednesdays or Fridays.
We already knew that choosing a consistent day each week wouldn’t work for us on the Advocacy team because we need to be available seven days a week for our customers. Any day that we have no Advocates working, ticket volume builds up, and customers don’t get responses. There’s also a chance we miss a bug or issue with the Buffer product that comes through the inbox.
From the get-go, we knew we would need a variety of days off for different team members. Initially, we rotated days off, so teammates were off on a different day every week, but there were always some teammates online. We did this for the first month, and it wasn’t a popular option. First, there was far too much admin work involved to set up this schedule; second, it was tricky for Advocates to plan anything when the day they were offline was continually rotating.

The system that works for our team

The schedule we have now is the schedule we landed on in July 2020, three months into us adopting the four-day work week. We asked team members for their preferences for a day off, and we try to follow that as much as possible. Most folks opted to have Friday off, some prefer Monday off, and a smaller group takes off Wednesdays. Now, it’s consistent every week, so we know exactly who will be online each day of the week.

Timezone
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday 

Number of teammates working

13

16

15

15

8
1
2

An important part of this system for us was building it to optimize for most folks on the team to be able to take three days off in a row.  This work structure — four days on, three days off — can be really replenishing, and we wanted that for our team members.  
Also, it can get tricky to have an ongoing conversation with a customer if you’re off one random day in the middle of the week. We built the schedule with that in mind, though we have a few team members who find value in taking Wednesdays off and we support that. For the majority of the team, though, it’s Monday or Friday off.

How we manage weekends

As you can see in the above chart, we have customer support coverage on the weekends as well. That’s something we’ve done since the early days of Buffer, and we hire a few people specifically for weekend shifts. By default, they work one of the weekend days and not both, so they have one weekend day off. The exception is that one teammate prefers to work Friday to Monday and have Tuesday to Thursday off.
For those taking weekend shifts, we still optimize for having three days off in a row to maintain the benefits of that added rest and maintaining flows for communicating with customers.
Goals and metrics and the 4-day work week

In general, we set goals and measure our incoming volume across seven days instead of the four that each teammate is working. The challenge for us is making sure that, collectively, we are as productive across those seven days with this new schedule. Honestly, we struggled in the first six months with this; we did the best that we could, but we didn’t have clear goals and we weren’t able to have clear expectations for increased productivity.
This year, we’ve been much more clear with our goals, specifically around ticket-number targets to hit within four days. That clarity means that teammates can hit our response time goals and continue to work a four-day work week. As with other teams at Buffer, Advocates also have the option to work a partial or full fifth day of the week if they feel they haven’t been able to achieve what they set out to do in a given week. We call that fifth day an “overflow day.”

A look at our goals and how they’ve evolved

Our two main goals for the Advocacy team have always been our response time to customers and individual ticket goals (how many tickets an Advocate gets through in a day). These goals were based on what we thought were realistic targets for the team and for the level of each individual.
In Q1 of 2020 (before we were working a four-day work week), our goal was to respond to customer emails within six hours. We also had individual ticket goals that were based on daily volume. When we moved to four-day work weeks in Q2 of 2020, we implemented new targets for tickets per day, but we didn’t tie these to the customer experience we wanted to provide or set these based on achieving the same output in four days instead of five.
We ended up evolving our business hours for offering customer support. At the beginning of our 4-day work week experiment, our business hours were Mondays at 3 am ET through Fridays at 8 pm ET — i.e. 24 hours a day during the work week. To create more consistent expectations for our customers, we changed our hours to be 6 am to 8 pm ET each day, Monday through Friday.
Now in 2021, we’ve set ambitious company and team-level OKRs (objectives and key results) around customer response times and overall service experience. It’s important to us that we don’t sacrifice customer experience for efficiency. We’ve aimed for a two-hour first response time, and subsequent replies sent within seven hours (for email tickets).

A few results so far in Q1 2021:

Our customer satisfaction score went from 92.3% in Q4 2020 to 94% this quarter.
We hit our goal of a two-hour first response time, with a median of 1.6 hours during business hours.
Our team sent 71% of second responses within seven hours (our goal was 90%).

We have also standardized our team targets for ticket replies sent per week (148-170 tickets) and ticket quality we expect from each individual. These goals ensure a level of output we need to achieve our objectives while being able to take that fifth day off.

Parting thoughts

We are proud that we’ve been able to improve our customer response times and experience in 2021 while working a four-day work week. Even with that, we know there is still room to evolve what a four-day work week looks like for our team.
The reduction of hours available across a global team means we’re at times a bit short of hands when we’re impacted by external factors such as third-party downtime or issues with APIs. Whilst we might be able to get the same amount of tickets done in four days as five, there is always going to be value in being available on specific days and times within the world of customer support.
As a team, we’re continuing to discuss how we can embrace a bit more flexibility around coverage in our strategy for the future.
Do you work on a customer support team that has four-day work weeks? Or do you have more questions about how we approach a four-day work week? Drop us a tweet! You may just hear from one of our Customer Advocates.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Do I really want to spend my entire life DM’ing strangers, pretending to be interested, asking them awkward & intrusive questions… Following trends, tactics & strategies that are Limiting my Reach, limiting my value, and limiting my Impact (and overall happiness)? I’ve used direct message to create clients. No doubt it “works”. (I believe it is an incredibly powerful tool when done well…) But what I started to feel was that the whole market trend towards a “strategy first approach” limited who I wanted to BE…as a person & as a business owner. Here’s my story… (Full video in Heart Method) My State of Mind (early 2021): I wasn’t creating DM convos out of excitement to connect with someone. Rather, I was going into my business like it was a “job”. What was once an exciting thing: meeting someone new, connecting with them, booking a call… Now felt like a tedious chore. So I made the scary decision (early 2021) to find a more aligned way to build my brand & my business. I was going to focus on alignment, authenticity and attraction over numbers, tactics and processes. I guess it was time for me to grow up out of the DMs. There were many factors influencing my decision… I won’t be able to go into all of them (if you join me in you FB group I might be able to go deeper) Here’s what I based my decision on: Let’s look at what’s happening in today’s Coaching/Consulting Space: The market is more saturated than ever. More and more coaches are targeting the same group of people with the same message, strategy, and approach. ​
Lack of Differentiation. Everyone using the same scripts {DM, start a convo, book a sales call} is the primary strategy being taught…Buyers are well aware of this, which makes this a less and less likely strategy to succeed in the long run.
What impact this has on the Coaching Market: ​
Puts down downward pressure on all market participants. Coaches suffer because they have to send more messages, come up with better systems, scripts etc. because their strategy is the same as the other 100… Focus moves away from the ‘main thing’ to the strategy & system… This dilutes the Message & Brand (and fun) Increased Operational costs: because so much effort is being put into optimizing tactics & strategy the focus moves away from value creation towards strategy and competition. this dilutes profits, client results, delivery and Quality suffers. Good coaches get mixed in with the OK ones and as a result whoever does the most outreach wins… Not the one with the best product, skillset or transformation. Lots of Coaches, few options. With everyone teaching the same strategies it dilutes the market, making only the “biggest players” richer. Without creating options for the buyer, the buyer will naturally gravitate to the most established strategy provider instead of taking a risk with a new entrant.
(DMs can be a great place to start. But staying there too long creates market distorting forces…Which is bad for everyone. Essentially it becomes a race to the bottom and a copy-cat crowd….because no one is willing to innovate) What this means for you: As a coach who has a market-proven offer you must innovate and come up with a truly unique message & product (that attracts a new, excited & enthusiastic crowd). Must think outside the traditional niche mentality and shift focus back to your Vision. Must look outside the industry walls for inspiration & insight vs. staying in the prison walls of a stagnating industry/culture. Identify who is truly innovating vs. who is parroting & copy-catting. (Upward vs. Sideways Innovation) The old way of directly DMing someone works, but it is slowly going to become obsolete, very very competitive and very unscalable. Vision-based marketing: A platform independent, strategy agnostic approach to creating clients seamlessly… Resulting in: Lower operational costs, decreased organizational complexity, lower marketing cost, higher client satisfaction… And an overall better experience (for everyone) How? The simplest solution to this ever-growing problem is to focus on The Attraction Element: Your Unique Identity. Ask Yourself: ​
What do people come to me to solve? (Why?) What is the most valuable problem I have solved for my clients? (Look beyond industry norms and define it in your unique way) What topcis/ideas/subjects have resonated with my audience? (Again, think beyond the wall of industry norms) What underrepresented skill have I overlooked (that my clients highly value) ? What inspires me that seems irrelevant to my business? (Again, think beyond the norms of your niche)
By focusing on these aspects you are identifying the Unique Identity of your business…The thing that makes your business YOURS. BTW, Most businesses rarely take the time to identify this… they spend enormous effort on marketing, outreach, sales teams, and grunt work…dissecting their business into operations, process and parts…unable to see the whole (picture). By simplifying the process of business to one Unique Element (your Identity) you eliminate costly startup errors while massively increasing your efficiency all across the board. Our Unique focus at Sotapanna is Building & Scaling Amazing Offers by starting work with IDENTITY as the platform… Your personal identity, your business identity, your social identity, and your spiritual identity…. We help you to identify, re-evaluate & refine your offer using your Unique Identity… and create it faster so that everything across your business becomes easier.
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Covid had a big impact on sending emails in 2020 and as businesses adjust to consumer changes post-vaccine rollout in 2021, it’s important to take a moment and assess your email marketing strategy. 
While we understand the need and urgency for marketers to communicate with their audience, it’s also important to be mindful of the impact these emails have not only on your sender reputation, but also the experience of the person receiving them. 
As your trusted email service provider, the deliverability of your emails and protecting your (and our) sender reputation is top priority for us! We’ve listed some key factors to consider before sending your next email.
Permission to send emails is not evergreen
Permission to send emails can expire quickly as people forget where and how they signed up to your email list. This is especially true if you haven’t been in regular email contact with your subscribers in the last 12 months. People who shopped, dined, interacted with you 1-5 years ago are unlikely to remember who you are, how you collected their email address, and will wonder why they’re suddenly receiving your emails.
Sending emails to an unengaged list with many inactive addresses will cause engagement and delivery issues like low open rates, high bounce and unsubscribe rates, and potentially high spam complaint rates. These metrics are used by mailbox providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft, B2B domains) to determine your sender reputation and how to treat your emails. 
A good sender reputation means your emails will be delivered to the inbox and a poor sender reputation will result in your emails being blocked or filtered as spam. 
Audit and segment your database by subscriber activity
Before you send your next campaign we highly recommend auditing your database and segmenting your list based on user activity and engagement. This helps you to determine:

Your most engaged subscribers who have opened an email or clicked a link in the last 12 months
Your most recent subscribers who have opted in for your emails in the last 12 months
Contacts with online activity in the last 12 months, such as online purchases, website visits, account activity, active paid subscriptions
Your most inactive and unengaged subscribers who do not meet the above criteria for the last 12 months

If you’ve been in regular contact with your list over the last 12 months you can continue sending emails as usual to your engaged subscribers, and you may consider sending a re-engagement email to your inactive or unengaged users. However, if you haven’t regularly emailed your list—sending at least 1 or 2 emails every 6 months—then you will need to carefully ramp-up sending emails to your full list. 
Any subscriber who has shown no activity or engagement in over 12 months should be removed from your list, as sending to these “ghost” contacts will only harm your sender reputation. You also risk emailing spam traps and landing on an anti-spam blocklist.
Ramping-up emails to your full list
Your sender reputation is tied to your sending domain — which is everything after the “@” in your From email address. Depending on when you last emailed your full list and the size of your list, you may need to slowly train mailbox providers that your emails are legitimate and your subscribers want to receive them.
To re-build your domain reputation, send an email to a smaller segment of your list and monitor how your subscribers respond in the next 24 hours. If you see good delivery and engagement metrics, like open rates above 10%, bounce rates under 4% and spam complaints around 0.02%, you can then double the volume for your next campaign and again review the results after 24 hours. 
It is crucial to review your results after every campaign to assess the impact the increase in email volume has on your overall results, and take steps to address any underlying engagement issues before ramping-up to your full list. 
Review your results after every campaign
Your subscribers are the best source of information on how well your emails are performing. Review your campaign reports after each campaign to see how active and engaged your audience is, and also to track any negative signals like a drop in open rate or a spike in bounces of spam complaints.
These metrics highlight any engagement and delivery issues which in turn directly impact your sender reputation and the success of your future campaigns. Campaign Monitor users can also use the Insights section in your account to easily track user engagement over time.

Campaign Monitor Insights
Email delivery and engagement issues are often a symptom of how emails are collected and managed, and reviewing both can highlight the underlying cause of these issues. Are your lists permission based where people have directly opted in for your emails? Is your online form secure from spambot attacks with a reCAPTCHA? Have you set up DKIM authentication for your sending domain? Are you re-engaging your less engaged contacts and removing dormant “ghost” contacts? 
Following these recommended deliverability practices is the best way to maximize user engagement and minimize deliverability issues. 
Wrap up
Your subscribers’ inboxes, similar to your own mailbox, may be inundated with emails right now from brands they were once connected with. Now is the time to think like a subscriber, and send relevant, wanted content to engage your audience and make your emails stand out from the crowd. 
By focusing on your most active and engaged audience, you’re building and maintaining your domain’s sender reputation, and helping your emails successfully land in the inbox. 
Remember to keep your emails personal, helpful, concise, and relevant to show respect for your subscriber’s inbox, build brand loyalty and a lasting engaging relationship. 
 
The post Demystifying Deliverability: How to Relaunch Your Email Marketing Post-Shutdown appeared first on Campaign Monitor.

Asking for a raise or promotion can be scary, especially when your company is going through shifts related to world events.
In early 2021, Fishbowl conducted a survey that shed some light on the gender wage gap, which continued if not grew in 2020.
The survey of nearly 17,000 professionals revealed that 63% of respondents have avoided asking for a raise following “changes related to the pandemic.”
When splitting the whopping number of respondents by gender, 42.4% of them were women, while just 31.79% were men.

Image Source
When diving into the industries that saw the least raise or promotion requests, marketing was at the top of the list. About 54.5% of marketing professionals did not ask for a raise or promotion in the last year due to the pandemic.
While some might be shocked by this data, many aren’t. After all, marketing departments have been known to get the least budget, smaller headcounts, and less overall investments.
Meanwhile, women have been seen to negotiate less and apply for lower-level roles than men with the same experience. In a recent LinkedIn post, Femme Pallette CEO Lucy Nuemanova shed more light on why women generally don’t negotiate as often as men.
“Many women avoid having these conversations because they don’t want to be perceived as ungrateful, or greedy, or needy by management, and therefore many times women tend to wait to be rewarded,” Nuemanova explained.
If you’re a woman in the marketing world — or any industry for that matter, this data and insight from other female professionals might have you wondering, “When is it appropriate to ask for a raise or promotion?”
Below, I’ve listed a few times people commonly ask for or consider asking for a raise or promotion.

When You Should Ask for a Raise or Promotion
1. When the scope of your role grows or shifts.
In the early days of holding a role, your work might closely mirror the tasks listed on the job posting you applied to. But, as you gain credibility and visibility at your company, you might also gain more responsibilities that greatly expand on your original day-to-day role.
“Many people are wearing more hats now and having to learn new skills. All of these are valid grounds for asking for a raise and should form the basis of your argument when you make your pitch,” career advisor Gaurav Sharma said in a recent interview.
For example, while being asked to report on your marketing projects might be a natural progression of your role and not worthy of asking for a raise, taking on direct reports when your original role didn’t involve management, or being asked to run a new, time-consuming marketing initiative for your company could signify a significant shift in your duties and work-life that merits a change in title or compensation.
2. When you spend a lot more time at work than anticipated.
As you gain more responsibilities or expectations, you might find yourself working longer hours or getting asked to do more time-consuming things — like regular business trips. If this was not part of your initial role or was not explained to you when you accepted a role that involved these requirements, it might be worth considering a raise or promotion request.
3. When you complete a pricey course or degree that will benefit your company.
Usually, a course or certification costs time and money. But, sometimes, employers cover the cost knowing that your growing skills will benefit them in the long term. If your company doesn’t compensate for education in any way, but you get an additional degree that boosts your ability to work, you should consider asking for a raise.
However, if you expect to receive a raise after finishing a degree or taking a course Abby Kohu, an author and HR professional, says you should do so ahead of receiving the degree or certificate
“Ideally, you should ask about the raise before you get the degree to set the expectations,” said Kohut said in an interview with Bryant & Stratton College. “The best time to hold the conversation is during the normal performance review cycle. Begin the conversation by discussing your work performance and accomplishments on the job. Then, explain how the degree has given you the additional information that will help you produce even more.”
4. When you consistently hit all of your goals.
At some point in your role, you might find that everything comes naturally to you. You rarely run into challenges or feedback and aren’t exactly sure how to level up further with the work you’re already doing well. Because of this, you might start feeling bored or too complacent in your role.
When you’re regularly crushing your goals or receiving great performance reviews, it’s a good sign you’re ready to take on new challenges or more responsibilities with a raise or promotion attached.
5. If you haven’t received a wage increase in a while.
While you might not want to ask for a raise within the first few months, or even the first year, of your role, it’s important to track the time you’ve been working with no increase in wages. Even if you haven’t dramatically changed the scope of your role, you still could justify requesting a raise if you have a solid history of good performance but haven’t received a wage boost yet.
Even if you think your company will know to automatically give you a raise or promotion eventually, it’s worth inquiring about if you haven’t had a wage increase recently or ever.
In a recent LinkedIn post, career coach and entrepreneur Jasmine Escalara wrote, “If you aren’t telling your boss, supervisor, or anyone what you want, what makes you think they will give it to you?”
“If you are looking for a step-up, promotion, or pay raise, then you have to SPEAK-UP, or else it will never happen,” Escalera advised.
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6. When the cost of living increases.
While many companies will give annual raises or offer salaries that build in the estimated cost of living increases, keep how much it costs to live in your area in mind if your employer does not use this strategy. If you’re working full-time, you always want to make sure your company is paying you enough to afford decent rent prices, food, utilities, and other necessities.
Is There a Best Time to Ask for a Raise?
If you identify with one or more of the items on the list above, it might be time to start thinking about a promotion or raise. But, while you should discuss the raise you deserve with your manager eventually, there are certain times that could increase your chances of actually getting a pay increase.
Many companies manage their budgets, headcount, and raise-related budgets at specific times of the year. So, some career sites, like Indeed, suggest:

Just before a new year when companies are planning their budget and headcount.
During the summer when some companies do bi-annual planning.
After your company releases good quarterly or monthly earnings, traffic, or goal accomplishments.
Just after a positive performance review or another major accomplishment.

Inversely, there also are poor times to ask for a raise, such as after a bad earnings report, iffy performance review, or another time where your manager or boss might not be in the best mood. As you plan to have this conversation with management, take note of times where they’ll be more empathetic and responsive to your request rather than frustrated or annoyed by it.
If you’re very unclear of when to ask for a raise or promotion at your company specifically, career consultant Todd Henry suggests paying attention to your office’s financial or promotion “rhythms” and making your request during times of the year when you hear about the most promotions.
If you’re excelling in your role and feel you need a raise or promotion in the next year to stay at your company, you shouldn’t let the pandemic permanently hold you back from having a transparent, but friendly discussion with your boss about the career or salary growth you’d like to achieve soon.
Having the Wage Discussion
it’s important to remember that managers expect to have a salary conversation with employees eventually. In fact, many companies separately budget annual funds just for raises and promotions. So, asking to meet with your boss about your salary or future shouldn’t come as a major shock to them, especially if you’re doing well in your role.
Additionally, if you have a good manager, they’ll likely respond to career growth conversations in a respectful, thoughtful, and transparent way by explaining why you can or can’t get a wage increase and what you’ll need to do to get there.
“No matter how well-timed your ask is and how deserving you are, there are any number of reasons your manager might reject your request for a raise — and some of them might have nothing to do with you or your performance,” writes Henry.
“The best response to being turned down is: “What will it take for me to earn a pay raise?” Henry explains. “Know what the expectations are, so that the next time you ask, you are backed by data that aligns with your manager’s threshold for a raise.”
Ultimately, when you start the wage conversation with your manager, they’ll learn you’re looking for upward motion, understand your professional growth needs, and will know what they need to do to retain you as a talented employee. Similarly, if your company can’t give you a promotion or raise right when you ask, you’ll know why, what you need to do to get to the next level, and if your company will be the right place for attaining long-term career goals.
Want to get more tips for success in your marketing role? Download the resource below.

Did you know that YouTube currently has 2 billion active users a month and is projected to grow to almost 3 billion active users by 2025?
It’s one of the fastest-growing and most popular social networks today. Plus, it helps people grow their businesses.

In fact, the number of channels earning six figures per year on YouTube grew more than 40% y/y, the number of channels earning five figures per year on YouTube grew more than 50% y/y, and the number of channels with more than one million subscribers grew by more than 65% y/y.
Now, all that being said, you might be wondering, “How do I grow my YouTube channel so I can drive more traffic to my website and revenue to my business?”
To help marketers and business owners answer this question, we asked 300 consumers why they most commonly subscribe to YouTube channels.
After looking into the data, we’ll dive into our findings to help you better design effective strategies toward connecting with your audience on YouTube.
Let’s get started.

Why Do Consumers Subscribe to YouTube Channels
30% of respondents said they most commonly subscribe to YouTube channels because the channel publishes how-tos or educational content about their career or industry.
21% of respondents subscribe to channels because the channel publishes how-tos or educational content about their hobbies.
And 17% of respondents said they subscribe to YouTube channels because they post funny or entertaining videos.
To review the rest of the answers, see the graphic below:

Data Source
So, now that we know why people are subscribing to YouTube channels, let’s dive into how you can use this information to grow your channel.

1. Create educational content about your audience’s career.
As the survey said, the main reason that consumers subscribe to YouTube channels is that they post educational content about their careers.
Think about it. The reason people go online is to find an answer to a question they want (or to be entertained, but we’ll get to that later).
So, a great way to grow your channel is to publish the topics that your audience wants to see. For example, at HubSpot, we publish educational videos on YouTube about marketing, sales, service, and general business content.
All these videos help our audience learn and develop in their careers. Of course, we’d like people to use our software to do that, but you’ll get value out of the video whether you’re a HubSpot customer or not.
2. Publish educational content about your audience’s hobbies.
Now, let’s say that your business isn’t exactly geared toward your audience’s career. What do you post then?
Well, according to the survey, you can post content about your audience’s hobbies. Let’s say that you’re a landscaping company. On your website, you could post content about gardening and really target people who garden as a hobby. Then, there’s a clear conversion path to using your services.
However, while you’d like people to convert and become customers, your videos should give value away for free and educate your audience. The more they see you as an expert in the industry and the go-to people, the more likely they will be to convert later on.
3. Create interesting, dynamic, interactive videos.
The third most popular reason that people subscribed to YouTube channels was because the videos were entertaining or funny.
If you’re a creator who wants to post fun, interesting, entertaining videos, you can grow your YouTube channel by thinking about an audience who enjoys watching certain entertainment.
For example, let’s say you have a creator channel and you mostly post lifestyle videos. To make those interesting and entertaining, you need to know what your audience likes and dislikes. That brings me to the next strategy.
4. Know your audience.
The best way to grow your YouTube channel is to know what your audience likes and wants to see. Do they want to see educational content about their career? Or perhaps they’re just looking to unwind and watch people clean houses because it’s satisfying and entertaining.
Regardless, think about the reasons from our survey that will resonate with your audience the most, and then lean into those ideas.
5. Reformat well-performing content.
A great way to focus on growing your YouTube channel is to reformat content that has already performed well for you. That might mean turning your most popular blog post into a video.
You’ll need to rework the information and film a video about that topic, but you’re already starting out ahead. You know that your audience likes that content and wants to see it.
Think about your best-performing content from any content marketing channel and reformat it to video.
6. Optimize your content.
Now, of course, we can’t get through a content marketing discussion without talking about SEO. But, how do you optimize your YouTube videos?
To do this, you’ll want to include your target keywords in your titles and descriptions. Then, make sure you mention those keywords in your video.
The YouTube algorithm will use those context clues to understand what your video is about. And then if you get engagement, it will rank higher in the search results.
You might be wondering, “How do I grow my YouTube channel fast? And how long will it take to grow my YouTube channel?”
According to data, it takes an average of 22 months for a channel to reach 1,000 subscribers. Yet, if you don’t optimize your videos and have less than 1,000 subscribers, then you’ll get less than 10% of the total views on YouTube. That’s why it’s so important to grow your channel and subscriber list.
7. Find untapped keywords.
Another strategy you might use to grow your YouTube channel quickly is to find untapped keywords. You can look at related searches of a topic on YouTube or Google, and then look at those related searches in a keyword tool.
Which keywords get a lot of searches, but have low competition? Those are the keywords you’ll want to target.
8. Optimize for watch time.
Just like with any search engine, YouTube wants people on YouTube. So one of the main factors the site considers for ranking is watch time.
Whenever you post videos, it’s important to analyze how long people are watching your videos. According to research from Backlinko, longer videos tend to outrank short videos. And it makes sense. The longer your videos, the longer your watch time can be.
But, how can you make sure people get past the first few seconds of your video? A great way to do this is to cut extraneous content from your intro. In the first few seconds, a viewer should know what they’ll learn and what they’ll get out of watching your video.
If you’ve properly targeted your audience with the right content, that means they’ll end up watching your long videos because you’ve captured their attention.
Growing your audience on YouTube is a great way to attract audiences to your company. And having more than 1,000 subscribers is imperative for ranking higher in search results. So, that means you need to post content that your audience wants to see and is optimized so it shows up in the search results.

Do you say G-IF or J-IF? We haven’t made up our minds either – but what we know for sure about GIFs is that they’re a fun, interesting, and effective tool to make your emails engaging. If you’ve been on the fence about including GIFs in your brand emails, here are some numbers about them…
The post A Step-By-Step Guide for Adding Gifs in Your Emails appeared first on Benchmark Email.

An honest suggestion after 5 years of working on these 2. At least if you’re a SaaS platform don’t separate them. Most of the time goes in “troubleshooting” the data sync issues and I believe our time is more worth in doing creative work than keeping a check if data is flowing as expected. I’m seriously considering moving to Hubspot or Freshworks where CRM and Marketing Automation are together
submitted by /u/MadMaxReddy [link] [comments]

Any decent/ thorough online resources for Custom Objects in Marketo? I don’t have a dev background and am totally new to automation and Marketo. I haven’t had much luck using any of the Adobe resources that are available online. YouTube videos I found didn’t really explain the fundamentals either.
submitted by /u/dueduedue_itnow [link] [comments]

Admit it: Launching a new website is stressful — even for the most seasoned digital marketers.
Websites are complex. There are so many things that are easily overlooked, like a broken link or a misspelled word.
And of course, a handful of things could go very, very wrong. Like what if you forget to test an important data capture form and then lose out on generating a bunch of new leads? Or worse, what if you forget to properly set up site redirects, and those valuable search engine visitors get a page not found message?
Instead of worrying about the what ifs, wouldn’t it be much easier to have a comprehensive website checklist to run down before every site launch? One that you could use for enterprise websites, microsites, landing pages, and everything in between?
Fortunately, we’ve created just that. Keep reading to learn everything you need to do before, during, and after launching a website. 

What You Should Do Before Beginning Your Site Design
Whether this is your first website that is being built from scratch or you are doing a website redesign, there are a few steps that you should take before hiring a web designer or diving in yourself.
1. Analyze your previous website (if applicable).
In order to make good decisions, you must first understand where you’ve been. That starts with your existing website if you have one. Ask yourself: 

What is the purpose of a new design or overhaul?
What haven’t hasn’t been accomplished with this existing site?
How will a new design serve the new organization?

The answers to these questions can help you identify your gaps, which can then inform goal setting for the new site.
2. Crawl your old site (if applicable) and document its structure. 
You can get an idea of your site’s existing structure, pages, and assets by using a crawling tool such as Screaming Frog. This is a necessary step in creating your website development plan because you’ll have a more concrete view of what pages existed before, what redirects are in place, and what the meta data currently looks like.
3. Obtain benchmark data from your previous website (if applicable), and confirm testing procedures.
Not only will you want to compare how your new site performs compared to the old, but you’ll also want to continue identifying gaps that will provide data-driven insights to aid your new strategy.
Additionally, you’ll want to confirm testing procedures. Soon, you’ll begin testing your website to make sure all the different components are working, everything flows, and there’s a system for tracking bugs and enhancements.
Use a form (like Google Forms) instead of asking people to email their thoughts so the feedback-gathering process is more streamlined. Then, put one person in charge of choosing which bugs to prioritize, and filtering all the creative feedback you receive through the form.
4. Identify your goals for the new design, how you’ll achieve them, and how you’ll measure success.
Once the gaps are fully fleshed out, you can begin crafting your goals for the design. You may come to conclusions such as: 

The current site is unwieldy, and we need ease of use. 
The current site no longer looks trendy, so we need a visual refresh. 
The current site doesn’t perform, so we need a more SEO-friendly structure with a better UX. 

Whatever your goals, you’ll want to understand exactly how a new site will help you achieve them so that you can craft its implementation accordingly.
5. List out action items, roles, and responsibilities.
Make a project management checklist for the website. What content needs to be written? What calls-to-action need to be created? 
Make a master list of the things you need for your website and deadlines for when they should be completed. 
Then, assign each action item to an individual or team. It usually takes a lot of people to launch a website: You have marketers writing the content; designers choosing images and laying out the overall look and feel; a technical team doing all the back-end development. To ensure everyone’s on the same page and there’s no role confusion, you’ll want to lay out a comprehensive plan for what each team or person is responsible for.
One great way to do this is by using the DARCI model, which stands for Decision Maker(s), Accountable, Responsible, Consulted, Informed. It’s a powerful tool that’ll help everyone understand which individual is responsible for completing which action items, which individual(s) or group(s) need to be consulted before any final decisions are made, and who needs to be consulted once a final decision has been made or an action has been taken. 
6. Prepare for worst-case scenarios.
Poll everyone involved in your website launch on their concerns about what could go wrong, and then devise a few backup plans for what to do when — not if — some of these things go wrong.
7. Choose a Solid CMS.
If you’ve never launched a site before, the long list below might intimidate you. However, it actually shouldn’t take too long to run through most of the aspects on this list — especially if you built your website with a solid CMS. 
A CMS, or content management system, often allows you to design a website from a pre-created template, optimize your content for SEO, and edit content after it’s published. If you’ve already built your website, you might have already gained experience with using a CMS. 
But, if you’re still building a website, one way to make going through this checklist less time consuming is by building your pages on a CMS that already does a lot of the work for you.
For example, HubSpot’s CMS that allows you to create and edit content including landing pages and blog posts. It’s features also allow you to organize your content, schedule it, track analytics, and optimize it for SEO. 
Alternatively, you can also test out CMS platforms like WordPress, Wix, or even Drupal.
8. Develop a consistent brand.
Decide on a consistent brand message and tone, one that you’re committed to presenting consistently across. This will make you look more legitimate, credible, and memorable.

Understand your value proposition.
Choose a mission statement, vision statement, and tagline that represents that value as well as your brand identity. 
Choose colors and fonts that convey that identity well. 
Decide on the type of imagery that you’ll use to further convey your messaging.

9. Create your technical SEO strategy.
Take some time to ensure that your website has been given a solid foundation for SEO success. From site architecture and content hierarchy to metadata and XML sitemaps, do not leave any stone unturned.

Perform keyword research and decide what you want to rank for. 
Create a content strategy that satisfies those keywords. 
Understand how your existing pages (if applicable) can be adjusted and which pages will need to be created new. 
Figure out which pages are no longer necessary.
Map out where unnecessary pages can be redirected to (using a 301 redirect).

10. Strategize your conversion paths.
Once you have an understanding of the primary pages that will exist on your site, you’ll need to figure out exactly what actions you want users to take and how you’ll capture their information. This includes thinking through: 

What premium top-of-the-funnel offers are needed
What bottom-of-the-funnel action will be presented on main pages
What forms need to be created
What landing pages and thank you pages need to be created
How conversions will be tracked
What actions will happen after a website visitor converts (email responder, etc.)

11. Set up analytics software.

Choose which analytics platforms you will be using on the new site.
Decide if any previous Analytics tracking scripts will be used or if new accounts/scripts are needed. 
Set up new accounts (if applicable).

12. Set a launch date.
Once you have an idea of what needs to get done before the launch, pick a launch date. Give yourself at least a month. Most agencies plan for two-to-three months of research, design, and development.
What to Check Once You’ve Built Your Site
Once you’ve chosen a CMS and built a site that you’re ready to launch, here’s a list of 80 things to check before, during, and after going live. Feel free to copy, edit, and make your own based on the software you’re using to launch and host your website.
Don’t have time to check all 80? Here’s a list of the most important highlights from each section:

Website Launch Checklist

Make sure text is accurate and error free.
Replace all placeholder images with final images and designs. 
Ensure copy aligns with the new brand.
Check that all styling preferences have been implemented.
Ensure your design is aesthetically pleasing.
Ensure that rights to images, fonts, and other content have been properly licensed or cited.
Test the site for User Experience (UX).
Check that the conversion paths have been implemented properly.
Create your site backup strategy. 
Store passwords and credentials in a secure place. 
Audit the technical SEO implementation for errors.
Test the site for user experience again. 
Test your conversion path’s functionality.
Check that integrations with third-party tools are running smoothly.
Make a copy of the final website for backup purposes. 
Ensure that backups are running properly. 
Make sure your site is secure.
Comply with all applicable laws.
Crawl the site to ensure no errors happened on launch.
Check the technical SEO components for errors. 
Optimize your metadata.
Set up analytics.
Build anticipation with teasers before the site is live. 
Create a social media strategy for the announcement. 
Identify exciting ways to promote engagement for the new site. 
Send an email to your existing database. 
Continue to promote the launch for a month.

We’ve grouped items based on pre-launch and post-launch, making sure to touch on page content, design, functionality, SEO, branding, analytics, security, and compliance. Keep on reading to make sure you don’t forget a thing before your next launch.
Website Pre-Launch Checklist
Before you launch, it’s important to review all of the content on your website with a fine-tooth comb. Of course, that means page content, but don’t forget about your premium content, too. From data-driven content and downloadable documents to rich media such as videos and images, you want to make sure everything is in place, working properly, and looking beautiful.
It’s important to note — you’ll want to set up a staging site to prepare your new website before going live. Staging sites are exact copies of your website on a private server that are used to prepare and proof content and code changes before they go live. The staging site is a place to edit and play around with updates in an environment that’s almost identical to the one that will be live. This is so you don’t have to worry about crashing your site or screwing something up when you make a change.Later, you’ll sync content and templates between the staging environment and your live website via your content management system (CMS). If you’re a HubSpot customer with the website platform, you’ll find there’s a staging environment built right into the software. It allows you to generate a preview URL of the entire site, so you can click around and test things in context.
1. Make sure text is accurate and error-free.

Site content has been proofread for spelling and grammar.
Company contact details are accurate throughout the website.
Generic content, such as lorem ipsum, has been properly removed and replaced.
All premium content, such as case studies, ebooks, and whitepapers, have been proofread. Spelling and grammar are correct.
Copyright date (perhaps in the footer) includes the current year.

2. Replace all placeholder images with final images and designs. 
On occasion, a website designer may use a placeholder image if they didn’t have the correct asset at the time of the page’s creation. It’s up to you to make sure each page is picture-perfect.
3. Ensure copy aligns with the new brand.

The text has been copy-edited to ensure consistent brand voice and style. 
All company tag lines and mission statements are up-to-date.

4. Check that all styling preferences have been implemented.

Paragraphs, headers, lists, and other formatting are correct.
Brand colors have been implemented correctly, including link and button colors.

5. Ensure your design is aesthetically pleasing.

Scripts are optimized across web pages.
Images are optimized across web pages.
CSS is optimized across web pages.

6. Ensure that rights to images, fonts, and other content have been properly licensed or cited.
Even if you outsourced the design to a web designer/developer, the responsibility falls on you to ensure there are no copyright licensing issues. Otherwise, you could end up with a hefty infringement settlement on your hands.
7. Test the site for User Experience (UX).

Website pages are compatible across browsers.
Website pages are compatible across devices.
Images, videos, and audio files are in the correct places, formatted and working on all devices.
All premium content, such as case studies, ebooks, and whitepapers, are stored in their proper libraries/databases and work properly.
Internal links across web pages are working properly. 
Social media share icons are associated with the correct accounts.
Company logo is linked to the homepage.

8. Check that the conversion paths have been implemented properly.

All necessary forms are present. 
Landing pages and thank you pages have been implemented. 
The correct buttons and calls-to-action (CTAs) are present in the proper locations. 
Everything is linked together appropriately.

9. Create your site backup strategy. 
You can prevent loss of data and protect against malware and other damages by properly setting up site security and regular backups. Check that:

Backup schedule has been created. 
Backup location has been identified. 
A plan for implementation is set to be put in motion after launch.

10. Store passwords and credentials in a secure place. 
Many individuals have likely been involved in the website launch up until this point, so ensure that passwords are reset when the time comes and proper password etiquette is followed.
11. Audit the technical SEO implementation for errors. 

Pages have unique page titles. 
Pages have unique meta descriptions. 
Each page has a specific purpose, and pages meant to rank organically are optimized around a single keyword or set of keywords.

12. Conduct a stress test.
In a typical website redesign, it may not be 100% necessary to do a stress test because the traffic spike may not overrun your server’s capacity. But a stress test (also called a load test) is a must for any company that plans for a large influx of visitors during specific times — such as the holidays or after a major press event. It’ll help you figure out how much simultaneous traffic your website can handle by simulating up to tens of thousands of simultaneous virtual users from different locations around the world.
While stress tests simulate virtual users, the test won’t be totally replicating a real-life scenario — so you’ll want to find a test that brings you as close to reality as possible. Ask a developer which load tests they recommend. Here at HubSpot, many of our developers use JMeter by Apache, but this is a pretty technical tool that’s not ideal for someone who’s new to the concept.
Be sure to notify your host or provider that you want to perform a stress test before you actually do one. Otherwise, your test might look like a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on your provider. Many providers (including HubSpot) consider an unauthorized load test a violation of terms of service.
User experience is a key aspect of how they view your company, so testing your website before it goes live will bring more confidence that visitors will not be immediately displeased with your offerings.
Website Post-Launch Checklist
Let’s say you’ve done it. The button has been pushed, the domain is pointing to the new site, and you’re about ready to tell the world…
But wait just one second because you still have things to check for now that your site is officially live.
13. Test the site for user experience again. 
Just in case there was an issue with the implementation, you’ll want to ensure the experience is consistent with what you reviewed before it went live.

Ensure your design is rendering as you expected it to across browsers. 
Ensure your design is rendering as you expected it to across devices. 
Ensure CSS/HTML is properly validated. 
CSS styling is rendering properly.
Favicon is in place and rendering properly. 
Internal links across web pages are working properly.
External links across web pages are working properly, and open in a new tab.
Social media share icons are working properly.
Feeds are working properly (RSS, news, social media).
Company logo is linked to the homepage.
404 Redirect pages are in place (page-not-found.aspx).

14. Test your conversion path’s functionality.
Take some time to test and validate all of the different features on your website. Lead generation forms, CRM integration, and any other technology should work flawlessly across your website.

Forms are submitting data properly.
Thank you message or page displays after form is submitted.
Form data is being emailed to a recipient and/or stored in a company database.
Auto-responders are working properly (if applicable).

15. Check that integrations with third-party tools are running smoothly.
Integrations such as your CRM, e-commerce software, and/or marketing platform link to your site and help you run your business. If there is a potential issue that can cause data loss, you don’t want to find out way after the fact. 
16. Make a copy of the final website for backup purposes. 
Now that everything is in place and finalized, you want to have a pristine copy of it should you experience data corruption or loss. 
17. Ensure that backups are running properly. 
Now is the time to check the implementation of your backup strategy. Check that ongoing copies of the website are being created and stored on a regular basis.
18. Make sure your site is secure.

24/7 monitoring scripts are installed.
There’s a plan in place for updating plugins (if applicable). 
Ensure that all applicable parties are aware of your organization’s password etiquette policies.
Purchase an SSL certificate if need-be. An SSL certificate takes up to two weeks to purchase and set up, so ensure you have it prior to launch. (An SSL certificate will ensure your website is encrypted so hackers can’t intercept any of your data. Not only will this put your website visitors at ease, but it’ll also boost your website’s SEO since SSL is now part of Google’s search ranking algorithm.)

19. Comply with all applicable laws.
Make sure your website complies with any applicable laws and regulations. Internet law can be sticky, and each industry has its own set of rules to follow. So it’s best to consult with your legal counsel to make sure you aren’t missing anything — this post is not legal guidance. Here are a few you might need to know about:

Web pages offer accessibility for users with disabilities (WAI-ARIA).
Web pages announce if the website uses cookies (required in some countries).
Website is compliant with usage rights for purchased or borrowed code, images, and fonts.
Terms and privacy policies are visible to website visitors.
Website is PCI compliant (if you’re storing and processing credit cards).

20. Crawl the site to ensure no errors happened on launch. 
Compare the crawl to the previous crawl and see if you find any inconsistencies that were not intentional. You’ll also want to ensure that all pages have the proper search engine indexing settings.
Additionally, you’ll want to check for formatting consistency. Sometimes, font codes get dropped into a page accidentally, so you’ll want to scour your site for any of these weird formatting errors. Make sure all your formatting is consistent and there are no weird blips in your copy.
21. Check the technical SEO components for errors.

Page titles, meta descriptions, and URLs are all present and match the original technical SEO strategy.
Load time for site pages is optimized.
A dynamic XML sitemap has been created.
The XML sitemap has been submitted to search engines.
Page URLs consistently reflect site information architecture.
301 redirects are in place for all old URLs (redirecting old to new pages).
rel=”nofollow” tags are in place on applicable links and pages.
Images on the website are properly compressed (which helps with load time). 

22. Optimize your metadata.

Metadata is properly in place for any content in an RSS feed.
Metadata is properly in place for any social media sharing content.
Spelling and grammar are correct in all metadata.
Alt tags have been added to every image.

23. Set up analytics.
Make sure your website is set up to capture web data and analytics. This valuable information will allow you to continually improve your website going forward, so you don’t want to forget this stuff.

Your website analytics codes and tracking scripts have been inserted on website.
Relevant IP addresses have been excluded from analytics tracking.
Funnels and goals have been properly created in your analytics software (if applicable).
Google Webmaster and Google Analytics accounts have been properly synced.
Google Ads accounts have been properly synced (if applicable).

24. Start a post-launch enhancement list.
The website you launch should be functional, well-designed, and well-positioned. But it probably won’t be everything you hoped and dreamed on the first go — and you certainly don’t want to spend months of effort designing a site that people may not react well to. What if your client doesn’t like it? What if conversion rates plummet? That could add up to lost money and effort.
Instead, it’s best to publish a solid website, and then test and build on top of it — a website creation approach known as growth-driven design. Create a document that lists out all the things you can’t get done for the launch itself but want to add in the future, and add features and elements to it as you discover more about how users interact with the site. This you can do by using one of these user testing tools. 
How Do You Announce a New Website Launch?
This (hopefully) wasn’t a vanity project; you did all of this work so far for the benefit of your website visitors, prospects, and existing customers. Your next step is to tell the world about your new site design. Here’s how:
25. Build anticipation with teasers before the site is live. 
A launch of a new product, a launch of a new movie, and — yes — a new site launch all require marketing before the actual release. Think of the last movie you watched in the theater. Did you see the trailer before you decided to buy those movie tickets and popcorn?
Teasers for your website launch can only help to build anticipation and get users wondering what the new experience will be like. This can build buzz and interest once you finally break the news.
26. Create a social media strategy for the announcement. 
Decide what channels you want to promote the news on, how you will make the announcement, and how long the promotion will last.
As you craft your messaging, remember to focus on new features and how they benefit your audience. 
27. Identify exciting ways to promote engagement for the new site. 
For users who aren’t as involved in your brand, a new site launch might not seem like a big deal. Your goal, then, is to make it one. Provide an exclusive offer for the first users who visit the site. Or, create a contest that promotes engaging with the site’s new features. Whatever you choose, make sure you make it fun and interesting.
28. Send an email to your existing database. 
You may want to give existing leads and customers a head’s up about the new design, especially if it will cause any confusion when they next visit. You can break the news as a matter of courtesy but also sneak in ways to underscore the value you’re providing.
You can also alert all stakeholders of the redesign and ask them to spread the word of the new website. 
29. Continue to promote the launch for a month. 
Just because you post about your new website once on social media does not mean that your audience will drop everything to visit the site in droves. Make your launch a big deal, and keep the new functionality top of mind so that your audience is prompted multiple times to check it out.
(Once your website is launched, remember to resubmit your XML sitemap to all major search engines once you’re done, too.)
Resources for Launching Your First Website
Launching a new website can be a tedious task, but you can alleviate some of the stress by using this comprehensive website launch checklist.
If you’re just getting started on your first website, here are a few tools that can help you streamline your process

CMS: As mentioned above, a CMS can help you design your website, optimize and publish content, and track your analytics once it’s launched. If you’re looking to test out a few CMS options, start by checking out our 14-day free CMS trial.

Blogging Guides: If you’re interested in using your website to publish a blog that could help you boost brand awareness, it can be helpful to start brainstorming topics. Here’s a great guide to how to be a better blogger with tips from our team.

Landing Page Templates: A landing page is a great way to highlight a product or resource that your brand is offering. It’s important to know what elements lead to a landing page that will convert. Here’s a guide with examples. Additionally, when using a CMS like HubSpot’s, you can create landing pages from pre-designed templates.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in August 2014, but was updated for comprehensiveness and freshness in June 2021.

If you’ve read the news or surfed through social media recently, you’ve probably heard about the new social media audio app called Clubhouse.
In the last few months, Clubhouse, which allows users to drop in on audio calls as listeners or speakers, has received a $100 million valuation and grown to more than 10 million active users. Now, tech giants like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn are unsurprisingly building similar features to get in on the chat-streaming action.
If you’re feeling deja vu following the competition around Snapchat Stories, and TikTok’s musical overlay features, you’re not alone.
When a new social media app goes viral, you can almost guarantee that at least one of the social tech giants will test a similar, competitive feature. And, each time this happens, marketers wonder, “Which of these social media channels should I use in my strategy? And, is this trend even worth investing in?”
The good news? Strong competition around a social media trend, like chat streaming, signals that it’s not going away anytime soon and might be worth investing in. So, the only thing you’ll need to figure out is where to experiment with the trend.
Below, I’ll give you a breakdown of Clubhouse’s four biggest potential competitors, as well as some marketing takeaways to help you determine which platform is right for your brand.
Need to brush up on your Clubhouse knowledge before diving in? Check out this post for a recap of what Clubhouse is and why competitors are trying to get in on the action.

What We Know About Twitter Spaces
Twitter Spaces was softly rolled out to a small group of beta testers in late December and fully launched in May of 2021. The feature, which closely resembles Clubhouse Rooms, allows users with over 600 followers to host a space — or audio chatroom that anyone on Twitter or just a few pre-selected followers can be invited to.
The Spaces experiment was announced late last year following the success of audio apps like Clubhouse. At that time, Twitter Product Lead, Kayvon Beykpour told TechCrunch, “We think that audio is definitely having a resurgence right now across many digital spaces. … It’ll be fascinating to see how other platforms explore the area as well, but we think it’s a critical one for us, too.”
How Twitter Spaces Works
Although Twitter Spaces is still evolving and will roll out more features in the coming months, those who have access to the full feature already can create a Space by holding the post button of their Twitter app and choosing the new Spaces icon, or by tapping their Fleets icon and choosing to create a Space instead of a Fleet.
At the moment, when a Space is launched, it’s public and can be seen in your followers’ Fleets bar, as shown below. In the near future, Twitter says it plans to enable scheduling and room ticket capabilities that allow people to preschedule chats or sell tickets to a private space.

At the moment, those who launch a Space can invite up to 10 hand-picked speakers. From there, they can adjust who speaks based on who raises their hand and which speakers need to leave early. At the moment, it does not seem like there’s a cap on the number of people who can tune in and potentially request to speak. In the future, Twitter plans to expand the feature and allow co-hosting privileges which will allow two users to host and run a space.
When entering the Space, the UX is similar to Clubhouse in that you can see who’s speaking and who created the Space before seeing a list of other listeners. You’ll also see a down arrow at the top that allows you to minimize, but continue listening to the chat, as well as a “Leave,” request to speak, share, and heart icon — allowing you to signal that you enjoy the discussion.  
Like Clubhouse, users will be muted as they enter the room and will need to get speaking privileges from the Space moderator if they’d like to say something.

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Takeaways for Marketers
Spaces is still evolving with new users gaining access each day. However, this feature could be a good fit for brands that are looking for a broad audience and completely public platform.
While Twitter’s audience exceeds 330 million monthly active users, its app is also available to all smartphone users. Meanwhile, Clubhouse is still invite-only and can’t be accessed by Android users despite its fast growth.
For Twitter and brands aiming to build a community of followers on the platform, Spaces could also be a natural transition. At this point, people are already using Twitter to respond to text-based threads and tweets related to their interests, industry, beliefs, and passions. Now, they can vocally share their thoughts in Spaces without worrying about character limits. This could further engage Twitter’s community-centered audience while also helping brands take community marketing to the next level.
What we Know About Instagram Live Rooms
Shortly after Facebook’s CEO and Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg spoke in a Clubhouse room, the social media company was reportedly experimenting with a similar audio feature. While we’re still not certain if and when Facebook will launch a competing feature yet, its company, Instagram, is expanding its Live feature to add chat rooms.
What makes Instagram Live Rooms significantly different from Clubhouse or Spaces is that it streams full video chats rather than audio discussions.
Before March, Instagram Live allowed two Instagram users (one broadcaster and one guest) to stream their video call for public audiences or followers. For viewers, this experience was like watching two people video call without being able to participate. Now, Instagram has upped the guest capacity of these rooms from one to three. Here’s what the format looks like today:

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A March 1 announcement from Instagram explained, “In the past year, special moments have happened on Live, including informational talks about science and COVID-19 guidelines, interviews with celebrities and record-breaking rap battles. Creators of all kinds — from fitness instructors to musicians, beauty bloggers, chefs and activists, all relied on Live to create moments and bring people together to reach their communities in creative ways. We can’t wait to see what more creativity comes from this highly-requested update.”
“We hope that doubling up on Live will open up more creative opportunities — start a talk show, host a jam session or co-create with other artists, host more engaging Q&As or tutorials with your following, or just hang out with more of your friends,” the Instagram statement added.
How to Instagram Live Rooms Will Work
At the moment, the Live Rooms feature is still rolling out, but it will soon be available to global Instagram users.
When Live Rooms is fully implemented, any user can tap their Stories icon, swipe left to the Live setting, choose a title or foundation to promote in their stream. Then, they can tap the “Rooms” icon and pick guests to be in their broadcast. Viewers will also be able to request to join rooms that are already in progress, as shown below:

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Takeaways for Marketers
While Live Rooms could be an interesting prospect for brands that already have a following there, they do seem to have some limitations. For example, while Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse allow more than five guests — aside from the moderator, Live Rooms only allows three additional guests. This might make it harder to take questions or comments from audience members who’d like to add to the conversation.
Another factor that could be a pro or con depending on the brand considering it is the visual nature of Live Rooms. Because speakers must appear on camera, some brands will have more opportunities to show products or visuals. Meanwhile, other brands looking for a more open dialogue will need to find only speakers comfortable with appearing on video.
One solid feature that could make Instagram Live Rooms more competitive for brands is Instagram Shopping. In 2020, Instagram added new shopping features that allow brands to share links to products in live streams that can be purchased directly on Instagram. According to Instagram’s announcement, these features will be available in Live Rooms so brands could begin to monetize their live chats.
Facebook and LinkedIn’s Clubhouse Rivals
At this point, Facebook’s Clubhouse alternative is still in the very early stages of development while LinkedIn’s was confirmed in late March. At this point, there aren’t many details on what LinkedIn or Facebook’s final audio platforms could look like when they launch. However, reports hint that they’ll both have a very similar audio-only user experience to Clubhouse.
For example, here’s a look at the audio chat UX LinkedIn is testing, as reported by TechCrunch:

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Suzi Owens, a LinkedIn spokesperson, confirmed that LinkedIn is testing a new audio feature with the UX shown above.
“We’re doing some early tests to create a unique audio experience connected to your professional identity,” Owens said. “And, we’re looking at how we can bring audio to other parts of LinkedIn such as events and groups, to give our members even more ways to connect to their community.”
When it comes to Facebook, not much has been publicly announced about its feature. However, TechCrunch reports that the feature could be part of the Facebook Messenger app. Here’s a very early mockup of the feature, which was recently leaked on Twitter:

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While Facebook confirms that the mockup above was part of its “exploratory” process, the tech company told TechCrunch that the image doesn’t accurately depict the finalized version of the feature.
Takeaways for Marketers
At this point, marketers should keep these options on their radar and be ready to consider these alternatives if they do launch. While Clubhouse users that love to network and discuss their industry might transition well to LinkedIn’s version, Facebook’s pure size could mean that their in-app audio chat experiences could get more listeners than you’d find on Clubhouse.
Which Audio Social Media Platform Should Marketers Use
Like we saw with Stories and short-form music video features, every social media platform wants to take advantage of audio social media trends. Because each version is pretty similar to all the others, you might be wondering which channel you should invest in.
At the moment, the jury is still out on which platform will be the most successful for the longest, especially since Twitter and Instagram’s features aren’t fully launched yet. However, when all the social media competitors implement their new features, you’ll want to consider a few factors to determine which is right for you, such as:

Potential reach: While Twitter and Instagram have the biggest audiences by far, Clubhouse is quickly growing. If this app were to launch an Android version soon, it could potentially burst in growth due to its current buzz and popularity.

Your following: Do you already have a large following on one platform that has a chat streaming feature? If so, you might want to start there before investing time into another app where you have no audience.

Media formats: Clubhouse and Twitter’s chat streams are designed to be audio-only, while Instagram Live Rooms will show video. If you prefer staying off-camera, you might want to avoid one of the apps that requires your camera.

Miscellaneous features: While Clubhouse enables users to make clubs — or groups of users with similar interests, Instagram enables brands to place Instagram Shopping CTAs in their Live streams. While you’re exploring each platform, take note of the smaller features that differentiate them in case one of these tools could help your brand.

Want to learn more about the latest social media trends and expert insights? Download HubSpot’s 2021 Social Media Trends Report for free below.