Monthly Archives: December 2022

Have you ever heard people refer to themselves as “Apple people,” “Nike people,” or “Trader Joe’s” people?

This is what brand awareness can do for a brand: embed itself into consumer lifestyles and purchase habits so that they don’t have to think twice before becoming a customer — time and time again.

This guide will help you better understand brand awareness, establish it among your audience, and build campaigns that allow it to continually grow and change with your business. Let’s dive in.

Brand awareness might seem like a vague concept, and in truth, it is. For those marketers and business owners out there who like to gauge success with neat and tidy numbers, brand awareness will likely ruffle your feathers.

But just because it isn’t a metric that can be perfectly determined doesn’t mean it doesn’t carry value. Brand awareness is incredibly important for business success and overall marketing goals. Here’s why.

Why is brand awareness important?

Brand awareness fosters trust.

In a world where consumers rely on extensive research and others’ opinions before making a purchase, brand trust is everything. Once a consumer bonds to your brand, they’re more likely to make repeat purchases with little to no forethought — which then bridges the gap between trust and loyalty.

Brand awareness establishes that brand trust. When you put a proverbial face to your brand name, consumers can trust easier. Brand awareness efforts give your brand a personality and outlet to be sincere, receive feedback, and tell a story. These are all ways that we, as humans, build trust with one another. The human/brand relationship isn’t any different.

Brand awareness creates association.

When you’ve had a paper cut, I bet you’ve put on a Band-Aid. When you had a pressing question, I’m sure you’ve Googled it. When you needed to make a few copies, I’m guessing that you Xeroxed them. And when you’ve packed for a nice picnic, I’m willing to bet you grabbed a Coke to drink.

Am I correct? Most likely. But … notice how some of the words above are capitalized. These are brands, not nouns or verbs.

Speaking in brand-less terms, Band-Aid should be referred to as a bandage, Google as a search engine, and Xerox as a copier. But it’s more fun to refer to the brand itself, even if we aren’t using their specific product.

That’s what brand awareness does. It associates actions and products with particular brands, subconsciously encouraging us to replace common words with branded terms. And before you know it, simple paper cuts or picnics are doing the marketing for us.

Brand awareness builds brand equity.

Brand equity describes a brand’s value, which is determined by consumer experiences with and overall perception of the brand. Positive experiences and perception equal positive brand equity, and the same goes for negative notions.

Here are a few valuable things that come from positive brand equity:

Higher prices due to higher perceived value
A higher stock price
The ability to expand business through product or service line extensions
Greater social impact due to brand name value

How does a brand establish (and increase) brand equity? By building brand awareness and consistently promoting positive experiences with the brand. Brand awareness is the foundation of brand equity.

Once a consumer is aware of a brand, they start to recognize it without assistance, seek it out to make a purchase, begin to prefer it over other similar brands, and establish a loyalty that not only spurs on other purchases but also inspires recommendations to family and friends.

That is why brand awareness is so important. It establishes trust with your customers, creates positive associations, and builds invaluable brand equity that allows your brand to become a household name and consumer staple.

Brand awareness among your audience and the general public doesn’t happen overnight. It also doesn’t happen from a simple advertisement or marketing campaign.

Strong brand awareness is a result of multiple simultaneous efforts that extend beyond trying to get paying customers.

If you expect to raise awareness of your brand by running a few product advertisements on Facebook, you won’t get very far. Not only will the consumer be focused on the product (not the brand), but the ad will also lack impact beyond a simple sale.

Here are some ways to establish a solid brand awareness foundation and make a lasting impact with your audience:

1. Be a person, not a company.

When you get to know a new friend, what do you like to discover about them? I like to learn about hobbies, passions, likes and dislikes, and more. I also pay attention to how they speak, what they like to talk about, and what stuff gets them excited.

These are the traits your brand should determine and promote about itself. To leave an impact with your audience, you’ve got to define yourself as more than a company that sells stuff. How else would you define yourself? What words would you use if you had to introduce your brand to a new friend?

2. Socialize.

Introvert or extrovert, outgoing or quiet, all humans benefit from social contact and spending time with one another. It’s how we stay connected, learn new things, and become known by others.

The same goes for your brand. If you only attempt to connect with others when trying to make a sale or get support, you won’t be known as anything beyond a business with a singular intention (and the same goes for a person).

To raise awareness of your brand, you’ve got to be social. Post on social media about things unrelated to your product or services. Interact with your audience by asking questions, commenting on posts, or retweeting or sharing content you like. Treat your social accounts as if you were a person trying to make friends, not a business trying to make money.

Research shows that over 50% of brand reputation comes from online sociability. Being social leads to greater awareness and simply being known.

3. Tell a narrative.

Storytelling is an incredibly powerful marketing tactic, whether you’re marketing products or promoting your brand. Why? Because it gives something real for your audience to latch onto.

Crafting a narrative around your brand humanizes it and gives it depth. And weaving this said narrative into your marketing inherently markets your brand alongside your products or services.

What should your narrative be about? Anything, as long as it’s true. It can be the narrative of your founder, the tale of how your business had its first product idea, or the little-engine-that-could story of how your small business made it in this big world.

People like hearing stories about each other. Authenticity is impactful, and it can lead to a big boost in brand awareness.

4. Make sharing easy.

Whatever your industry, product offering, or marketing strategies, make it easy for your audience to share your content. This could be blog posts, sponsored content, videos, social media posts, or product pages. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it’s shareable.

Word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective way to establish trust and familiarity among customers. If someone sees that a friend or family member is recommending a product or service, they’ll take notice of that product … and brand. Is this a brand worth exploring? Do they have other great products I can rely on? What are their social accounts like, and what do they talk about?

If you make it easy to post about your stuff, consumers will raise brand awareness for you by simply clicking “Share”.

Brand awareness is about impact.

It’s about interacting with your audience in ways that don’t only ask for money, participation, or loyalty.

Imagine if you met a new person who wanted to be your friend. If they asked for any of the above, you’d probably laugh and walk away, right? Not only is that a shallow approach to friendship, but it also leaves no lasting impact on you.

The same goes for establishing and building brand awareness among your audience.

You already know how to start building your brand awareness from the ground up. Now, it’s time to put together a simple yet powerful brand awareness strategy that will keep the flywheel turning.

1. Guest blog on other niche websites.

Guest blogging is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness with minimal effort. You can take advantage of the traffic that’s already arriving at another website to get more eyes on your brand while offering helpful and relevant content.

In other words, you’re not just pushing out your product on people who aren’t ready to buy, but rather writing in your brand voice and presenting yourself as human first, company second. Another great alternative to guest blogging would be publishing sponsored content on niche websites.

2. Try co-marketing.

Co-marketing is an excellent way to build brand awareness — not only because you’d be taking advantage of another brand’s audience but because it can highlight who you are and what you offer in the marketplace.

For instance, if your company sells dog leashes and toys, you could potentially partner with a dog walking app. The campaign itself could appear in any number of ways: You could create a shared offer (“download the app and get one free leash”) or host an Instagram live together. No matter what, partnering up with another brand could help you double and even triple your reach.

3. Advertise everywhere.

I know, I know: Advertising may not build brand awareness so much as it builds product awareness, but still — it’s one of the best tools you can use to get people to find out about your brand in a low-touch, unobtrusive way.

Consider Grammarly. It feels like just a few years ago, no one knew about Grammarly. Now it’s one of those brands that you automatically think of when you consider online proofreading software. That’s because they’ve launched robust social, video, and display advertising campaigns that appear nearly everywhere.

You might consider starting with online advertising, which includes paid social media and PPC. If you’re interested in truly appearing everywhere and launching more sophisticated campaigns at a mass scale, you can launch programmatic advertising campaigns.

4. Hire a face or create a mascot for the company.

This may not be doable for smaller companies, but if you do have the budget, consider hiring an actor or spokesperson to represent the company. What do you first think of when you think of Progressive? Flo, who’s even been termed “Progressive girl” for her fun and friendly personality.

This allows you to not only humanize your brand, as mentioned in the previous section, but give a sense of the friendly and knowledgeable service customers can expect to receive.

You don’t have to use a person, either. GEICO is a great example of this. The moment you see that friendly lizard, you know it’s GEICO. Creating an animated mascot may be a cost-efficient but equally effective way to give a face to your brand.

5. Choose an image or symbol that represents you.

Nike is not even Nike anymore. It’s a check mark. The moment you see that check mark, you know it’s Nike. Or how about McDonald’s yello “M”? Or Apple’s bitten apple?

I’m not just talking about a logo, either, though it can certainly be part of your logo. But work with your branding team or a freelance graphic designer to create a symbol that you ubiquitously use in your marketing, advertising, and organic campaigns. You might also consider taking a note from Apple, McDonald’s, and Nike, and incorporating the symbol into your product packaging and design.

6. Create a short, catchy slogan.

Extending the Nike example, you think of the brand immediately when you hear “Just do it.” Creating a short motto or slogan is a cornerstone of a strong brand awareness strategy and is an easy and simple way to increase brand awareness.

It’s definitely tough — imagine condensing everything you’re about in one short sentence. It must explain how you’re different, what you offer, and why customers should choose you. Consider HubSpot’s tagline, “Helping millions grow better.” In four simple words, you understand why our product should be your choice when considering marketing automation tools.

Learn how to write an effective business slogan with this free guide.

Your brand awareness is now effectively off the ground, and people talk about you without needing to see an ad.

What about expanding your established brand awareness and building on that strong foundation? What can you do as a brand to campaign for awareness and constantly increase it?

Here are a few campaign ideas to boost your brand awareness beyond your initial strategy.

1. Offer freemium.

Freemium is a business model that offers a basic product or product line for free, only charging for any products deemed premium or enterprise-level. It’s a popular pricing strategy for software companies, like HubSpot and Trello.

Offering a freemium option allows customers to get a taste of your brand and product before making a purchase. It’s a try-before-you-buy opportunity that can, technically, last forever (as opposed to a free trial period that some companies choose).

It’s common to offer a freemium option with the condition that the brand’s watermark will be shown on any public-facing parts of the product or service. This makes freemium a win-win situation: The consumer gets the product for free, and the brand gets free advertising when consumers use it.

Typeform is another great example of this. Typeform offers a freemium option of its survey software, but customers must include a thank-you page that features the Typeform logo and message.

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Depending on your type of business and product offer, Freemium may be the best way to raise awareness of your brand among your audience.

2. Create free content.

Nowadays, creating content is easier than ever … which is a good thing because today’s consumers turn to the internet for any and all questions, concerns, and DIY projects.

Content is a fun way to raise awareness of your brand because it’s the easiest way to show personality and share opinions and positioning on issues — two major components that personify and humanize your brand.

Content doesn’t have to be in written form, either. You can also create videos, infographics, podcasts (which we’ll cover below), and more. Sure, written content like blogs and downloadable guides are arguably the easiest, but they’re definitely not the only option.

Content doesn’t have to live on just your website, either. Guest posting and sponsored content provide opportunities to get in front of new audiences and diversify the type of content you create.

If your brand isn’t creating content, you might be missing out on some major brand awareness opportunities. Content provides an amazing way to authentically connect with your audience while getting your brand name in front of people.

3. Sponsor events.

How many festivals, concerts, fairs, and exhibitions have you attended? These types of events are typically not possible without the help of brand sponsorships. (Take a look at a t-shirt, koozie, or string backpack you likely grabbed from the event. See any brand names?)

Sponsoring events is a surefire way to get your brand in front of hundreds, thousands, or millions of people that likely fall into your target audience. From banners to flyers to water bottles, your brand name will be everywhere if you sponsor an event.

Sponsoring an event also allows you to pin your brand name on an event that matches your personality, interests, and passions, meaning consumers will then associate your brand with that event and its aesthetic and character. It can also help your company build brand awareness among highly specialized and qualified audiences. Professionals don’t attend events just for fun. They attend to learn the latest developments in the industry.

It’s more than just being a booth in a sea of booths. By being a consistent event sponsor, you’ll cement yourself in attendees’ minds as a leader in the field. The key is to be consistent in your sponsorship.

Consider Red Bull. Red Bull is an energy drink, and without any brand awareness efforts, we’d simply consider it an energy drink. But, thankfully, Red Bull took their marketing to the extreme — literally — by consistently sponsoring extreme sporting events like cliff diving and motocross. They also sponsor athletes. Now, we inherently associate Red Bull with daring and adventurous … and believe that, if we drink it, we can be the same.

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4. Give your brand a personality.

Treating your brand as a person and defining your narrative are the first steps to giving your brand a personality. The next step would be infusing this personality into your marketing efforts.

When you market your products and services with personality, you can’t help but boost your brand awareness because your brand will shine right through. Sure, your consumers will take note of the pants or pasta you’re marketing, but they’ll also experience your personality through your advertising.

This is a great strategy when mixing your traditional marketing campaigns with brand awareness campaigns. They don’t always have to be one in the same, but they definitely can be.

Consider Old Spice. (Did you just picture the man on the horse? I did.) Their advertisements for their hygiene products are overflowing with personality and humor, and they still mention their products throughout. The advertisement not only makes an impact on its viewers, but a mere mention of the “Old Spice man” also sends consumers back to YouTube to watch the commercial … and to the store to buy some deodorant. The commercial below is old, but still generates comments about the effectiveness of the campaign on YouTube to this day.

5. Produce a podcast.

More than one-third of Americans 12 and older listen to podcasts regularly. There’s no doubt podcasts play an important role in our lives … and marketing efforts.

Podcasts used to be a complicated process, only created by those with a studio and fancy microphone. Now, it’s easier than ever to create and release a podcast, and doing so can do wonders for your brand awareness efforts.

Why? Because podcasts, like written or visual content, provide a way to connect with your audience authentically. Instead of blatantly promoting your product or service (which we’ve agreed isn’t the best way to go about boosting brand awareness), podcasts give you the opportunity to educate, inform, entertain, or advise your audience and build trust by doing so.

Here are some examples of great podcasts produced by brands you know and love:

Trailblazers by Dell
The ShakeUp by HubSpot
The MarTech Podcast by HubSpot

See how these brands have chosen podcast topics that relate to their 1) overall brand message and 2) products or services? Doing this helps them relate the podcast back to their brand and continue to raise awareness, too.

Building and growing brand awareness is a never-ending process, just as maintaining a friendship or relationship never really ends.

Boosting your brand awareness through campaigns gives you a chance to dabble in marketing and advertising opportunities you’d otherwise not invest in — meaning new, powerful ways to connect with your audience.

How do you know if your brand awareness efforts are working? How do you know if you need to change direction, top the competition, or fix a crisis? Just like any other marketing metric, you measure it.

Wait … I thought you said brand awareness couldn’t be measured!

Aha! You’ve been listening. I appreciate that.

You’re right — brand awareness can’t be measured in the traditional sense. But, you can still review activities and metrics that’ll help you gauge where your brand stands in terms of popularity and consumer awareness.

Next, we’ll review few ways to gauge your brand awareness and learn where you can tweak your efforts.

6 Ways to Measure Brand Awareness

The methods for measuring brand awareness fall into two categories: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative methods use numerical data to determine growth while qualitative methods measure subjective value.

Quantitative Brand Awareness Measures

These numbers can help you paint the overall picture of your brand awareness. To measure quantitatively, check out these metrics:

1. Direct Traffic

Firstly, direct traffic is the result of people intentionally typing in your URL and visiting your website. Your direct traffic number will tell you how much your marketing is prompting people to visit your website. This is an important metric, as many consumers today discover brands through social media, advertisements, or by typing in keywords related to your brand or product. When consumers go directly to your site, it means they were aware of your brand beforehand.

2. Site Traffic Numbers

This number just reflects overall site traffic, which will tell you how much of the general internet population is checking out your content and spending time with your brand. It won’t quite tell you where people came from, but that doesn’t matter, because they’re aware of your brand enough to check it out.

3. Social Engagement

Engagement can refer to followers, likes, retweets, comments, and more. It’s a reflection of how many people are aware of your brand and socialize with it, as well as how impactful your content is. For instance, sites like Sparktoro can give you a specific score for your Twitter impact.

Qualitative Brand Awareness Measures

This step is where your brand awareness “score” gets a little murky. But these tactics can still help you gauge who and how many people are aware of your brand. To measure qualitatively, try:

1. Searching Google and Setting Up Google Alerts

Doing this gets you up to speed with how your brand is being talked about online. It will alert you to any news or mentions by third-party press. As your brand grows, its internet real estate will expand beyond your website, so keep an eye on that.

2. Social Listening

Social listening is monitoring social media management tools for organic mentions and engagement. Who’s tagging your brand, mentioning it in comments, or using your hashtag in their posts? These tools can help you discover that. And the more your audience is discussing your brand on social media, the more they’re aware of it.

3. Running Brand Awareness Surveys

This process involves getting direct feedback from your customers and audience and can be incredibly helpful with not only understanding who knows of your brand but also what they think of it. You can release surveys through SurveyMonkey or Typeform and share them on social media or directly with your customers. This guide will help you create and promote them.

These quantitative and qualitative metrics will help you understand your brand awareness among your audience and the general public. It’ll never be a perfect number, but keeping your pulse on this measure will help influence campaigns and stay connected to your audience. Regardless of how you gauge brand awareness for your company, avoid these common mistakes when measuring brand awareness.

Brand Awareness Examples

Not sure what a brand awareness campaign can look like? Let’s take a look at some top examples.

1. HubFans

HubFans is a brand awareness campaign that rewards avid and knowledgeable HubSpot users for spreading their knowledge about the CRM platform. It’s a brilliant campaign because awareness is built not by the HubSpot brand, but by HubSpot customers. That automatically makes the brand seem more approachable and human.

In the same way, you can get your customers to advocate for you by rewarding them if they share knowledge about your product. This will make it easier to build an army of brand evangelists who will effortlessly scale your brand awareness efforts.

2. Apple Events

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We all know of companies that release new gadgets and features to keep their product lines up-to-date. But none come to Apple’s level of fame, and that’s because Apple hosts an entire event dedicated to announcing its new releases.

Even though the updates to the actual products are minimal, Apple has “hyped up” the event to such a degree that you know automatically to watch for the brand’s new developments. That keeps the brand at the forefront of customers’ minds when they’re considering a new tech gadget.

3. Rare Beauty’s Mental Health 101

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Having an admirable mission at the core of your company is a great move for building brand awareness — especially if you enable your customers to share resources that can help others.

That’s what Rare Beauty did with its Mental Health 101 initiative. It built a kit that people could share on their social media sites to build awareness about the importance of mental health. By sharing the brand’s kit, users are also sharing the brand itself, which is an excellent way to build brand awareness.

4. Coca-Cola Share a Coke

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Coca-Cola doesn’t need more brand awareness, and that’s because it has built it so effectively over time that it has reached iconic status. One such example is its “Share a Coke” campaign, where you can find a Coke bottle with your name in store. Or personalize one with a phrase.

This is a brilliant brand awareness move that capitalizes on customers’ love of personalization, and with it, Coca-Cola ensures it remains an unshakable American classic. This example shows how far personalization will get you in your brand awareness campaign, so try to personalize whenever possible. If your product isn’t disposable, consider giving customers the option to add their name.

5. Beauty Bakerie Matte Lip Whip

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If your product does something incredible — such as staying put even under a stream of water — consider filming one or more videos about it. That’s what Beauty Bakerie did with its now-famous Matte Lip Whip products.

I remember when my Instagram feed used to be filled with videos of people putting Matte Lip Whip swatches under water and washing them with soap. It was so incredible that I couldn’t help but look at the brand. Behold, I was now aware of Beauty Bakerie, and have been following them ever since.

Show off something about your product that might just shock your audience into learning more about you. It’s guaranteed to work like it did for Beauty Bakerie.

Track brand awareness like a pro.

Brand awareness is a powerful (albeit vague) concept that can have a major impact on your marketing efforts, consumer perception, and revenue.

Follow these techniques for establishing and building awareness for your brand, and you’ll find yourself with a loyal audience that recognizes your brand among competitors, chooses your products time and time again, and recommends their friends and family do the same.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Putting together a compelling case study is one of the most powerful strategies for showcasing your product and attracting future customers. But it’s not easy to create case studies that your audience can’t wait to read.

In this post, we’ll go over the definition of a case study and the best examples to inspire you.

A case study proves how your product has helped other companies by demonstrating real-life results. Not only that, but marketing case studies with solutions typically contain quotes from the customer. This means that they’re not just ads where you praise your own product. Rather, other companies are praising your company — and there’s no stronger marketing material than a verbal recommendation or testimonial. A great case study is also filled with research and stats to back up points made about a project’s results.

There are myriad ways to use case studies in your marketing strategy. From featuring them on your website to including them in a sales presentation, a case study is a strong, persuasive tool that shows customers why they should work with you — straight from another customer. Writing one from scratch is hard, though, which is why we’ve created a collection of case study templates for you to get started.

Fill out the form below to access the free case study templates.

There’s no better way to generate more leads than by writing case studies. But without case study examples to draw inspiration from, it can be difficult to write impactful studies that convince visitors to submit a form.

Marketing Case Study Examples

To help you create an attractive and high-converting case study, we’ve put together a list of some of our favorites. This list includes famous case studies in marketing, technology, and business.

These studies can show you how to frame your company offers in a way that is both meaningful and useful to your audience. So, take a look, and let these examples inspire your next brilliant case study design.

These marketing case studies with solutions show the value proposition of each product. They also show how each company benefited in both the short and long term using quantitative data. In other words, you don’t get just nice statements, like “This company helped us a lot.” You see actual change within the firm through numbers and figures.

You can put your learnings into action with HubSpot’s Free Case Study Templates. Available as custom designs and text-based documents, you can upload these templates to your CMS or send them to prospects as you see fit.

Download These Free Case Study Templates

1. “How Handled Scaled from Zero to 121 Locations with the Help of HubSpot,” by HubSpot

What’s interesting about this case study is the way it leads with the customer. That reflects a major HubSpot cornerstone, which is to always solve for the customer first. The copy leads with a brief description of why the CEO of Handled founded the company and why he thought Handled could benefit from adopting a CRM. The case study also opens up with one key data point about Handled’s success using HubSpot, namely that it grew to 121 locations.

Notice that this case study uses mixed media. Yes, there is a short video, but it’s elaborated upon in the other text on the page. So while your case studies can use one or the other, don’t be afraid to combine written copy with visuals to emphasize the project’s success.

Key Learnings from the HubSpot Case Study Example

Give the case study a personal touch by focusing on the CEO rather than the company itself.
Use multimedia to engage website visitors as they read the case study.

2. “The Whole Package,” by IDEO

Here’s a design company that knows how to lead with simplicity in its case studies. As soon as the visitor arrives at the page, they’re greeted with a big, bold photo and the title of the case study — which just so happens to summarize how IDEO helped its client. It summarizes the case study in three snippets: The challenge, the impact, and the outcome.

Immediately, IDEO communicates its impact — the company partnered with H&M to remove plastic from its packaging — but it doesn’t stop there. As the user scrolls down, the challenge, impact, and progress are elaborated upon with comprehensive (but not overwhelming) copy that outlines what that process looked like, replete with quotes and intriguing visuals.

Key Learnings from the IDEO Case Study Example

Split up the takeaways of your case studies into bite-sized sections.
Always use visuals and images to enrich the case study experience, especially if it’s a comprehensive case study.

3. “Rozum Robotics intensifies its PR game with Awario,” by Awario

In this case study, Awario greets the user with a summary straight away — so if you’re feeling up to reading the entire case study, you can scan the snapshot and understand how the company serves its customers. The case study then includes jump links to several sections, such as “Company Profile,” “Rozum Robotics’ Pains,” “Challenge,” “Solution,” and “Results and Improvements.”

The sparse copy and prominent headings show that you don’t need a lot of elaborate information to show the value of your products and services. Like the other case study examples on this list, it includes visuals and quotes to demonstrate the effectiveness of the company’s efforts. The case study ends with a bulleted list that shows the results.

Key Learnings from the Awario Robotics Case Study Example

Create a table of contents to make your case study easier to navigate.
Include a bulleted list of the results you achieved for your client.

4. “Chevrolet DTU,” by Carol H. Williams

If you’ve worked with a company that’s well-known, use only the name in the title — like Carol H. Williams, one of the nation’s top advertising agencies, does here. The “DTU,” stands for “Discover the Unexpected.” It generates interest because you want to find out what the initials mean.

They keep your interest in this case study by using a mixture of headings, images, and videos to describe the challenges, objectives, and solutions of the project. The case study closes with a summary of the key achievements that Chevrolet’s DTU Journalism Fellows reached during the project.

Key Learnings from the Carol H. Williams Case Study Example

If you’ve worked with a big brand before, consider only using the name in the title — just enough to pique interest.
Use a mixture of headings and subheadings to guide users through the case study.

5. “How Fractl Earned Links from 931 Unique Domains for Porch.com in a Single Year,” by Fractl

Fractl uses both text and graphic design in their Porch.com case study to immerse the viewer in a more interesting user experience. For instance, as you scroll, you’ll see the results are illustrated in an infographic-design form as well as the text itself.

Further down the page, they use icons like a heart and a circle to illustrate their pitch angles, and graphs to showcase their results. Rather than writing which publications have mentioned Porch.com during Fractl’s campaign, they incorporated the media outlets’ icons for further visual diversity.

Key Learnings from the Fractl Case Study Example

Let pictures speak for you by incorporating graphs, logos, and icons all throughout the case study.
Start the case study by right away stating the key results, like Fractl does, instead of putting the results all the way at the bottom.

6. “The Met,” by Fantasy

What’s the best way to showcase the responsiveness and user interface of a website? Probably by diving right into it with a series of simple showcases— which is exactly what Fantasy does on their case study page for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They keep the page simple and clean, inviting you to review their redesign of the Met’s website feature-by-feature.

Each section is simple, showing a single piece of the new website’s interface so that users aren’t overwhelmed with information and can focus on what matters most.

If you’re more interested in text, you can read the objective for each feature. Fantasy understands that, as a potential customer, this is all you need to know. Scrolling further, you’re greeted with a simple “Contact Us” CTA.

Key Learnings from the Fantasy Case Study Example

You don’t have to write a ton of text to create a great case study. Focus on the solution you delivered itself.
Include a CTA at the bottom inviting visitors to contact you.

7. “Rovio: How Rovio Grew Into a Gaming Superpower,” by App Annie

If your client had a lot of positive things to say about you, take a note from App Annie’s Rovio case study and open up with a quote from your client. The case study also closes with a quote, so that the case study doesn’t seem like a promotion written by your marketing team but a story that’s taken straight from your client’s mouth. It includes a photo of a Rovio employee, too.

Another thing this example does well? It immediately includes a link to the product that Rovio used (namely, App Annie Intelligence) at the top of the case study. The case study closes with a call-to-action button prompting users to book a demo.

Key Learnings from the App Annie Case Study Example

Feature quotes from your client at the beginning and end of the case study.
Include a mention of the product right at the beginning and prompt users to learn more about the product.

8. “Embracing first-party data: 3 success stories from HubSpot,” by Think with Google

Google takes a different approach to text-focused case studies by choosing three different companies to highlight.

The case study is clean and easily scannable. It has sections for each company, with quotes and headers that clarify the way these three distinct stories connect. The simple format also uses colors and text that align with the Google brand.

Another differentiator is the focus on data. This case study is less than a thousand words, but it’s packed with useful data points. Data-driven insights quickly and clearly show how the value of leveraging first-party data while prioritizing consumer privacy.

Key Learnings from the Think with Google Case Study Example

A case study doesn’t need to be long or complex to be powerful.
Clear data points are a quick and effective way to prove value.

9. “In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study,” by Switch

Switch is an international marketing agency based in Malta that knocks it out of the park with this case study. Its biggest challenge is effectively communicating what it did for its client without ever revealing the client’s name. It also effectively keeps non-marketers in the loop by including a glossary of terms on page 4.

The PDF case study reads like a compelling research article, including titles like “In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study,” “Scenario,” and “Approach,” so that readers get a high-level overview of what the client needed and why they approached Switch. It also includes a different page for each strategy. For instance, if you’d only be interested in hiring Switch for optimizing your Facebook ads, you can skip to page 10 to see how they did it.

The PDF is fourteen pages long but features big fonts and plenty of white space, so viewers can easily skim it in only a few minutes.

Key Learnings from the Switch Case Study Example

If you want to go into specialized information, include a glossary of terms so that non-specialists can easily understand.
Close with a CTA page in your case study PDF and include contact information for prospective clients.

10. “Gila River,” by OH Partners

Let pictures speak for you, like OH Partners did in this case study. While you’ll quickly come across a heading and some text when you land on this case study page, you’ll get the bulk of the case study through examples of actual work OH Partners did for its client. You will see OH Partners’ work in a billboard, magazine, and video. This communicates to website visitors that if they work with OH Partners, their business will be visible everywhere.

And like the other case studies here, it closes with a summary of what the firm achieved for its client in an eye-catching way.

Key Learnings from the OH Partners Case Study Example

Let the visuals speak by including examples of the actual work you did for your client — which is especially useful for branding and marketing agencies.
Always close out with your achievements and how they impacted your client.

11. “Facing a Hater,” by Digitas

Digitas’ case study page for Sprite’s #ILOVEYOUHATER campaign keeps it brief while communicating the key facts of Digitas’ work for the popular soda brand. The page opens with an impactful image of a hundred people facing a single man. It turns out, that man is the biggest “bully” in Argentina, and the people facing him are those whom he’s bullied before.

Scrolling down, it’s obvious that Digitas kept Sprite at the forefront of their strategy, but more than that, they used real people as their focal point. They leveraged the Twitter API to pull data from Tweets that people had actually tweeted to find the identity of the biggest “hater” in the country. That turned out to be @AguanteElCofler, a Twitter user who has since been suspended.

Key Learnings from the Digitas Case Study Example

If a video was part of your work for your client, be sure to include the most impactful screenshot as the heading.
Don’t be afraid to provide details on how you helped your client achieve their goals, including the tools you leveraged.

12. “Better Experiences for All,” by HermanMiller

HermanMiller sells sleek, utilitarian furniture with no frills and extreme functionality, and that ethos extends to its case study page for a hospital in Dubai.

What first attracted me to this case study was the beautiful video at the top and the clean user experience. User experience matters a lot in a case study. It determines whether users will keep reading or leave. Another notable aspect of this case study is that the video includes closed-captioning for greater accessibility, and users have the option of expanding the CC and searching through the text.

HermanMiller’s case study also offers an impressive amount of information packed in just a few short paragraphs for those wanting to understand the nuances of their strategy. It closes out with a quote from their client and, most importantly, the list of furniture products that the hospital purchased from the brand.

Key Learnings from the HermanMiller Case Study Example

Close out with a list of products that users can buy after reading the case study.
Include accessibility features such as closed captioning and night mode to make your case study more user-friendly.

13. “Capital One on AWS,” by Amazon

Do you work continuously with your clients? Consider structuring your case study page like Amazon did in this stellar case study example. Instead of just featuring one article about Capital One and how it benefited from using AWS, Amazon features a series of articles that you can then access if you’re interested in reading more. It goes all the way back to 2016, all with different stories that feature Capital One’s achievements using AWS.

This may look unattainable for a small firm, but you don’t have to go to extreme measures and do it for every single one of your clients. You could choose the one you most wish to focus on and establish a contact both on your side and your client’s for coming up with the content. Check in every year and write a new piece. These don’t have to be long, either — five hundred to eight hundred words will do.

Key Learnings from the Amazon AWS Case Study Example

Write a new article each year featuring one of your clients, then include links to those articles in one big case study page.
Consider including external articles as well that emphasize your client’s success in their industry.

14. “HackReactor teaches the world to code #withAsana,” by Asana

While Asana’s case study design looks text-heavy, there’s a good reason. It reads like a creative story, told entirely from the customer’s perspective.

For instance, Asana knows you won’t trust its word alone on why this product is useful. So, they let Tony Phillips, HackReactor CEO, tell you instead: “We take in a lot of information. Our brains are awful at storage but very good at thinking; you really start to want some third party to store your information so you can do something with it.”

Asana features frequent quotes from Phillips to break up the wall of text and humanize the case study. It reads like an in-depth interview and captivates the reader through creative storytelling. Even more, Asana includes in-depth detail about how HackReactor uses Asana. This includes how they build templates and workflows:

“There’s a huge differentiator between Asana and other tools, and that’s the very easy API access. Even if Asana isn’t the perfect fit for a workflow, someone like me— a relatively mediocre software engineer—can add functionality via the API to build a custom solution that helps a team get more done.”

Key Learnings from the Asana Example

Include quotes from your client throughout the case study.
Provide extensive detail on how your client worked with you or used your product.

15. “Rips Sewed, Brand Love Reaped,” by Amp Agency

Amp Agency’s Patagonia marketing strategy aimed to appeal to a new audience through guerrilla marketing efforts and a coast-to-coast road trip. Their case study page effectively conveys a voyager theme, complete with real photos of Patagonia customers from across the U.S., and a map of the expedition. I liked Amp Agency’s storytelling approach best. It captures viewers’ attention from start to finish simply because it’s an intriguing and unique approach to marketing.

Key Learnings from the Amp Agency Example

Open up with a summary that communicates who your client is and why they reached out to you.
Like in the other case study examples, you’ll want to close out with a quantitative list of your achievements.

16. “NetApp,” by Evisort

Evisort opens up its NetApp case study with an at-a-glance overview of the client. It’s imperative to always focus on the client in your case study — not on your amazing product and equally amazing team. By opening up with a snapshot of the client’s company, Evisort places the focus on the client.

This case study example checks all the boxes for a great case study that’s informative, thorough, and compelling. It includes quotes from the client and details about the challenges NetApp faced during the COVID pandemic. It closes out with a quote from the client and with a link to download the case study in PDF format, which is incredibly important if you want your case study to be accessible in a wider variety of formats.

Key Learnings from the Evisort Example

Place the focus immediately on your client by including a snapshot of their company.
Mention challenging eras, such as a pandemic or recession, to show how your company can help your client succeed even during difficult times.

17. “Copernicus Land Monitoring – CLC+ Core,” by Cloudflight

Including highly specialized information in your case study is an effective way to show prospects that you’re not just trying to get their business. You’re deep within their industry, too, and willing to learn everything you need to learn to create a solution that works specifically for them.

Cloudflight does a splendid job at that in its Copernicus Land Monitoring case study. While the information may be difficult to read at first glance, it will capture the interest of prospects who are in the environmental industry. It thus shows Cloudflight’s value as a partner much more effectively than a general case study would.

The page is comprehensive and ends with a compelling call-to-action — “Looking for a solution that automates, and enhances your Big Data system? Are you struggling with large datasets and accessibility? We would be happy to advise and support you!” The clean, whitespace-heavy page is an effective example of using a case study to capture future leads.

Key Learnings from the Cloudflight Case Study Example

Don’t be afraid to get technical in your explanation of what you did for your client.
Include a snapshot of the sales representative prospects should contact, especially if you have different sales reps for different industries, like Cloudflight does.

18. “Valvoline Increases Coupon Send Rate by 76% with Textel’s MMS Picture Texting,” by Textel

If you’re targeting large enterprises with a long purchasing cycle, you’ll want to include a wealth of information in an easily transferable format. That’s what Textel does here in its PDF case study for Valvoline. It greets the user with an eye-catching headline that shows the value of using Textel. Valvoline saw a significant return on investment from using the platform.

Another smart decision in this case study is highlighting the client’s quote by putting it in green font and doing the same thing for the client’s results because it helps the reader quickly connect the two pieces of information. If you’re in a hurry, you can also take a look at the “At a Glance” column to get the key facts of the case study, starting with information about Valvoline.

Key Learnings from the Textel Case Study Example

Include your client’s ROI right in the title of the case study.
Add an “At a Glance” column to your case study PDF to make it easy to get insights without needing to read all the text.

19. “Hunt Club and Happeo — a tech-enabled love story,” by Happeo

In this blog-post-like case study, Happeo opens with a quote from the client, then dives into a compelling heading: “Technology at the forefront of Hunt Club’s strategy.” Say you’re investigating Happeo as a solution and consider your firm to be technology-driven. This approach would spark your curiosity about why the client chose to work with Happeo. It also effectively communicates the software’s value proposition without sounding like it’s coming from an in-house marketing team.

Every paragraph is a quote written from the customer’s perspective. Later down the page, the case study also dives into “the features that changed the game for Hunt Club,” giving Happeo a chance to highlight some of the platform’s most salient features.

Key Learnings from the Happeo Case Study Example

Consider writing the entirety of the case study from the perspective of the customer.
Include a list of the features that convinced your client to go with you.

20. “Red Sox Season Campaign,” by CTP Boston

What’s great about CTP’s case study page for their Red Sox Season Campaign is their combination of video, images, and text. A video automatically begins playing when you visit the page, and as you scroll, you’ll see more embedded videos of Red Sox players, a compilation of print ads, and social media images you can click to enlarge.

At the bottom, it says “Find out how we can do something similar for your brand.” The page is clean, cohesive, and aesthetically pleasing. It invites viewers to appreciate the well-roundedness of CTP’s campaign for Boston’s beloved baseball team.

Key Learnings from the CTP Case Study Example

Include a video in the heading of the case study.
Close with a call-to-action that makes leads want to turn into prospects.

21. “Acoustic,” by Genuine

Sometimes, simple is key. Genuine’s case study for Acoustic is straightforward and minimal, with just a few short paragraphs, including “Reimagining the B2B website experience,” “Speaking to marketers 1:1,” and “Inventing Together.” After the core of the case study, we then see a quote from Acoustic’s CMO and the results Genuine achieved for the company.

The simplicity of the page allows the reader to focus on both the visual aspects and the copy. The page displays Genuine’s brand personality while offering the viewer all the necessary information they need.

Key Learnings from the CTP Case Study Example

You don’t need to write a lot to create a great case study. Keep it simple.
Always include quantifiable data to illustrate the results you achieved for your client.

22. “Using Apptio Targetprocess Automated Rules in Wargaming,” by Apptio

Apptio’s case study for Wargaming summarizes three key pieces of information right at the beginning: The goals, the obstacles, and the results.

Readers then have the opportunity to continue reading — or they can walk away right then with the information they need. This case study also excels in keeping the human interest factor by formatting the information like an interview.

The piece is well-organized and uses compelling headers to keep the reader engaged. Despite its length, Apptio’s case study is appealing enough to keep the viewer’s attention. Every Apptio case study ends with a “recommendation for other companies” section, where the client can give advice for other companies that are looking for a similar solution but aren’t sure how to get started.

Key Learnings from the Apptio Case Study Example

Put your client in an advisory role by giving them the opportunity to give recommendations to other companies that are reading the case study.
Include the takeaways from the case study right at the beginning so prospects quickly get what they need.

23. “Airbnb + Zendesk: building a powerful solution together,” by Zendesk

Zendesk’s Airbnb case study reads like a blog post, and focuses equally on Zendesk and Airbnb, highlighting a true partnership between the companies. To captivate readers, it begins like this: “Halfway around the globe is a place to stay with your name on it. At least for a weekend.”

The piece focuses on telling a good story and provides photographs of beautiful Airbnb locations. In a case study meant to highlight Zendesk’s helpfulness, nothing could be more authentic than their decision to focus on Airbnb’s service in such great detail.

Key Learnings from the Zendesk Case Study Example

Include images of your client’s offerings — not necessarily of the service or product you provided. Notice how Zendesk doesn’t include screenshots of its product.
Include a call-to-action right at the beginning of the case study. Zendesk gives you two options: to find a solution or start a trial.

24. “Biobot Customer Success Story: Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida,” by Biobot

Like some of the other top examples in this list, Biobot opens its case study with a quote from its client, which captures the value proposition of working with Biobot. It mentions the COVID pandemic and goes into detail about the challenges the client faced during this time.

This case study is structured more like a news article than a traditional case study. This format can work in more formal industries where decision-makers need to see in-depth information about the case. Be sure to test different methods and measure engagement.

Key Learnings from the Biobot Case Study Example

Mention environmental, public health, or economic emergencies and how you helped your client get past such difficult times.
Feel free to write the case study like a normal blog post, but be sure to test different methods to find the one that best works for you.

25. “Discovering Cost Savings With Efficient Decision Making,” by Gartner

You don’t always need a ton of text or a video to convey your message — sometimes, you just need a few paragraphs and bullet points. Gartner does a fantastic job of quickly providing the fundamental statistics a potential customer would need to know, without boggling down their readers with dense paragraphs. The case study closes with a shaded box that summarizes the impact that Gartner had on its client. It includes a quote and a call-to-action to “Learn More.”

Key Learnings from the Gartner Case Study Example

Feel free to keep the case study short.
Include a call-to-action at the bottom that takes the reader to a page that most relates to them.

26. “Bringing an Operator to the Game,” by Redapt

This case study example by Redapt is another great demonstration of the power of summarizing your case study’s takeaways right at the start of the study. Redapt includes three easy-to-scan columns: “The problem,” “the solution,” and “the outcome.” But its most notable feature is a section titled “Moment of clarity,” which shows why this particular project was difficult or challenging.

The section is shaded in green, making it impossible to miss. Redapt does the same thing for each case study. In the same way, you should highlight the “turning point” for both you and your client when you were working toward a solution.

Key Learnings from the Redapt Case Study Example

Highlight the turning point for both you and your client during the solution-seeking process.
Use the same structure (including the same headings) for your case studies to make them easy to scan and read.

27. “Virtual Call Center Sees 300% Boost In Contact Rate,” by Convoso

Convoso’s PDF case study for Digital Market Media immediately mentions the results that the client achieved and takes advantage of white space. On the second page, the case study presents more influential results. It’s colorful and engaging and closes with a spread that prompts readers to request a demo.

Key Learnings from the Convoso Case Study Example

List the results of your work right at the beginning of the case study.
Use color to differentiate your case study from others. Convoso’s example is one of the most colorful ones on this list.

28. “Ensuring quality of service during a pandemic,” by Ericsson

Ericsson’s case study page for Orange Spain is an excellent example of using diverse written and visual media — such as videos, graphs, and quotes — to showcase the success a client experienced. Throughout the case study, Ericsson provides links to product and service pages users might find relevant as they’re reading the study.

For instance, under the heading “Preloaded with the power of automation,” Ericsson mentions its Ericsson Operations Engine product, then links to that product page. It closes the case study with a link to another product page.

Key Learnings from the Ericsson Case Study Example

Link to product pages throughout the case study so that readers can learn more about the solution you offer.
Use multimedia to engage users as they read the case study.

Start creating your case study.

Now that you’ve got a great list of examples of case studies, think about a topic you’d like to write about that highlights your company or work you did with a customer.

A customer’s success story is the most persuasive marketing material you could ever create. With a strong portfolio of case studies, you can ensure prospects know why they should give you their business.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Big data for small business may sound like an oxymoron, but big data is just as necessary for small businesses as it is for large corporations. By leveraging big data for your small business, you can discover meaningful insights that put you a step ahead of the competition.

Big data drives revenue because it delivers deep insights into customer behavior. Then, you use those insights to deliver value based on their needs. 

Big data can help you make smarter, faster decisions. Read on to learn more about how to leverage it within your small business.

Big data comes in a few types:

Structured. Structured data is housed within a traditional database like a spreadsheet or SQL database. An example of structured data is a spreadsheet or log of all your customers’ page visits and dates of recent purchases.

Unstructured. Unstructured data is found within non-traditional databases such as email, social media posts, texts, and videos. An example is all the tweets on Twitter that mention your brand name. Unstructured data is by far the most abundant type of big data.

Semi-structured. Semi-structured data is not formatted in a traditional relational database format. Instead, it’s organized to an extent with a certain schema that makes it easier to analyze than unstructured data. An example of semi-structured data is HTML code. 

To quote the famous computer programmer, Daniel Keys Moran: “You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data.”

Big data isn’t perfect, but it’s one of the most powerful weapons in any marketer’s arsenal. Leverage big data in your small business, and you can move more customers through your sales and marketing funnels. It’s as simple as that.

Here are some eye-watering facts about big data:

Big data could add more than4.4 million jobs to the American economy over the next two years.

Humans generate 2.5 quintillion data bytes every 24 hours.

Google processes more than 40,000 search queries every single second. That’s 3.5 billion searches a day, or 1.2 trillion a year.

The Benefits of Big Data For Small Businesses

It’s important to note that big data on its own won’t do much for your organization. However, the right technology systematically extracts large data sets from various sources so you can find patterns, trends, and correlations in this data.

The best analytics tools provide you with deeper insights into your business operations and replace many of the manual methods associated with data analysis.

Read on for some of the main benefits of using big data in your small business.

1. Cuts Costs

Big data can have a significant impact on cost-cutting in your organization by identifying expensive processes and redundant workflows.

With the latest data, you can find areas of your business to scale up or down. This can have long-term financial benefits.

2. Improve Customer Service

Big data drives better customer service. With real-time insights into your customer base, you can discover how consumers think and behave. After you have this information, you can make changes to your business as a result.

Personalized customer service derived from big data analytics will help you engage with customers on a deeper level and provide customized service that drives sales.

“Big data is poised to help marketers reach and engage customers and prospects in ways that businesses are only now starting to understand,” says business journalist Allen Bernard, writing for CIO.com. “Enterprises that don’t embrace analytics may soon see embattled customers voting with their wallets.”

Customer service is more important than ever, and more small businesses are using big data to retain consumers. Why? Just a 5% increase in customer retention generates more than 25% of profit increases.

3. Identify (and Solve) Problems

With big data, you can finally answer all those nagging questions: wWhy do customers abandon their carts? When are customers likely to make a purchase?
Data analytics tools can give valuable insights into customer behavior as they move through your funnels.

Although data analysis isn’t an exact science, it provides you with the tools you need to solve a wide range of complex problems.

As well as tracking customers, you can solve issues associated with suppliers, investors, and other clients. With real-time reports, you get a 360-degree overview of your business, and you can make smarter decisions going forward.

4. Increase Revenue

Big data increases revenue in various ways. Analytics provide you with in-depth intelligence into the customer lifecycle, and you can identify new ways to encourage sales.

Good data might give you the confidence you need to launch a new product or diversify your business, and this could prove lucrative.

On average, companies that incorporate big data into their business generate a profit increase of 8%. Do the same, and it could be the best investment you make in your small business this year.

“Most people used to think that big data was only for big business. But, as time goes on, it is clear that this technology is for everyone,” says Entrepreneur.

5. Team Management

Big data also makes it easier to manage the team in your small business. You can identify employees that provide you with the most value, for example, or employees who require additional resources or training.

This is because analytics systems generate insights that help you increase productivity and keep employees happy.

“The value that big data brings to managing employees is in identifying and analyzing the relationship between engagement and retention,” says employee engagement website Hppy. “How and why people are engaging with what they do, how does that translate into the business metrics, and what you can improve to retain them.”

Combined with a great team culture that inspires engagement, the tech stack you use can make all the difference when it comes to managing your team. 

With an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS), you can connect your cloud-based apps for enriched data and the broadest range of insights.

How Small Businesses can Leverage Big Data

Remember: Big data is only one slice of the pie. You need to analyze that data and use the findings to make informed business decisions that move the needle and delight your customers.

So, how can your small business leverage big data for the best results? Here are some examples.

1. Improve your pricing decisions.

You can use big data to make informed decisions on the price of your products and services. If the price of your product is too high, customers will look elsewhere for a better deal, and you’ll get fewer sales.

Using big data, you could compile the prices of a huge amount of items and their prices from competitors. After, you can analyze that data to arrive at an ideal price that is both competitive and lucrative.

Pro tip: Using big data to inform pricing choices can be helpful for most businesses. However, we think the opportunity is greatest for small businesses that sell physical products and have many competitors who sell similar products. 

2. Personalize the experience. 

While streaming platforms are large enterprises, their use of big data acts as a helpful case study. These companies compile data on when their customers watch, how long they watch, what types of content they view, and whether or not they paused. 

Any type of data you can think of related gets collected, analyzed, and used to serve up a highly personalized customer experience.

What we like: Streaming companies have mastered the personalized customer experience. Customers highly value frictionless and positive interactions with businesses. Big data can help your small business personalize communications with customers and delight them.

3. Stay agile.

The advantage small businesses have over the big guys is their ability to be nimble, fail quickly, and iterate on ideas with ease. This applies to big data as well. 

A small business has the opportunity to adopt a data-driven strategy quickly, or even from the very beginning. Consider taking a big data approach within your organization and embracing learning from any growing pains. You can always right the ship later.

4. Use your CRM intelligently.

You probably already use a CRM to manage your customer information, but you’re not necessarily getting the best results from the data inside it.

Before diving into other analytics tools, fully explore the data you already have in your CRM. Here are some valuable questions to ask as you do so.

What do we know about the people we serve?

How can we leverage this data to deliver the most value?

How can we use this data to provide a more personalized experience?

What automation and new processes can we power with this data?

5. Explore other analytics solutions.

A CRM can only tell you so much about your prospects and customers. With big data analytics solutions, however, you can analyze all the data inside your CRM (and other programs in your tech stack) and find patterns in all this data.

G2 Crowd shortlists some of the best big data solutions on the market, including Azure Databricks and Splunk.

However, if you want a more accessible data strategy, start with the apps you already have, look into your platform, and enrich what you know about your contacts.

Remember: Big data software needs to be user-friendly and flexible enough for everyone on your team who manages data. It also needs to be tailored to your budget and requirements. As a small business, you likely won’t benefit from a data program designed for the world’s biggest multinationals.

6. Integrate your data.

Any data solution is only as good as the data it uses. Out-of-date and inconsistent information won’t provide you with any useful insights. You need to make sure your data is synced and integrated.

By deploying an integration solution, you can keep your contact database consistent between apps. You can sync contacts in real time and streamline contact management.

7. Create insightful reporting.

Once you have interesting data at your fingertips, you need a way to visualize it. With clear reporting, you can easily make deductions and share your insights with other team members and stakeholders.

Act on Your Data

Once you have useful data in your business, what can you do with it? The short answer: automation, personalization, and customization.

Here are some of the most impactful ways to take advantage of big data as a small business:

Personalize your emails.

Segment your email lists.

Use SEO research to influence your content strategy.

Send the most relevant content to a prospect based on their preferences.

Trigger internal workflows based on customer actions to provide the best service.

Create A/B tests for emails and automatically send the best content.

Automatically organize contacts into the most relevant groups and lists in your CRM.

Big data can benefit your business in various ways, from increased sales to better team management. However, you need to leverage all this data properly to grow your small business to its full potential.

Regardless of the big data processes and tools you choose, it’s important to keep your contact database up to date. Otherwise, you’ll be limited in the results you can get from your customer data.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

You might think that you have mastered the art of SEO already, but international SEO is a completely different ball game. You’ll need to master this skill if you plan to turn your business from a domestic powerhouse to a global player.

Level up, and avoid potential pitfalls, with this guide to international SEO. You’ll learn what makes international SEO different, best practices, and what steps you can take to create an effective plan.

Table of Contents

What is international SEO?
What is an international SEO Strategy?
Questions to Ask About International SEO
Factors That Affect International SEO
How to Develop an International SEO Strategy
Tools for International SEO
International SEO Best Practices
International SEO Checklist

International SEO, allows search engines in other countries to quickly find your site. You can also signal the languages you’re using to target international audiences or native speakers.

How does international SEO work?

Google and other search engines are programmed to tailor results to the user’s language and geographic location.

With international SEO, you can communicate to search engines that your site caters to visitors in a certain country or to those looking for your products or services in a particular language.

Language targeting, rel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hreflang tags, certain URL structures, and other localization signals all play a role in international SEO.

What’s the difference between International SEO and Local SEO?

The biggest difference between local and international SEO is scale. While local SEO is focused on keywords and target audiences within a narrow geographic area, international SEO targets audiences across diverse geographic regions.

There are four primary differentiators between local SEO and international SEO:

Cost. Owing to their scale and scope, international SEO efforts come with significant costs.
Content. To ensure international reach, you’ll need to create significantly more content than you would for a local SEO strategy.
Capture. International SEO expands the target market you’re trying to capture, which necessitates in-depth research to ensure your brand aligns with customer expectations.
Competition. Competition for keywords and customers is much greater for international SEO efforts. Instead of simply competing with other businesses in the same local sphere of influence, you could be up against multinational corporations.

Why is international SEO important?

If you expand a global market or would like to in the future, you’ll need to understand international SEO. This process will increase the exposure of your product or service in worldwide markets. The more people who see your offerings, the more people are likely to buy.

To put it another way, you can expand your consumer base, which will, in the end, lead to an increase in conversions.

International SEO can also create an advantage over your competitors. If you see that your competitors aren’t optimizing their content for a different country or language, you can create content specifically for that region.

International SEO also leads to a boost in brand recognition. With an improved global user experience, you’re more likely to be seen as a global player in your market. Because of this, visitors will keep coming back to your site, which will ultimately boost sales.

What is an international SEO Strategy?

An international SEO strategy combines the policies, processes, and practices your brand uses to optimize search content for other countries.

An international SEO strategy for websites focuses on creating content applicable to local markets and developing a website structure that makes it easy for search engines to find and serve the right web pages to the right users at the right time.

Consider a company that sells window shades in the United States and is making a move into Canada. First, you’ll want to ensure Canadian customers are sent to the right pages on your website — pages that contain information about Canadian locations, Canadian shipping times, and costs in CAD.

You’ll need a website structure that includes both U.S. and Canadian pages and leverages enough metadata that search requests from users will direct them to the right page for their current location.

Does my business need an international SEO strategy?

It depends.

If you have no plans to expand beyond local markets, such as your current city or state, international SEO probably isn’t worth the time and resources required. In fact, international SEO can backfire if your business is entirely local.

Customers who land on international pages won’t be happy when they discover you serve a very small geographic area.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to expand beyond country borders, it’s worth spending on international SEO. Given the sheer number of companies competing on the global stage and the increased challenge of ranking highly for relevant keywords, a comprehensive strategy is critical.

Not sure how to get your international SEO efforts off the ground? We’ll explore questions that can shape your strategy below.

1. Where are you headed?

Depending on the part of the world you’re targeting, your international SEO approach will change.

For example, if you’re headed to China, Baidu is the most popular search engine. Each search engine has its own approach to SEO, meaning it’s worth doing your research to find out what matters most for rankings.

2. Should you target language or country?

This is a common international SEO question: Are you better served to target a specific language or a country? The answer depends on your goals.

Language optimization may be the answer if you’re looking to appeal to a broad audience regardless of where they live. If you’re looking to grow brand awareness in a specific part of the world, opt for country-based SEO.

3. What localization factors matter most?

Localization is the process of optimizing your website and content to reflect the local language and culture. Two of the most important factors here are accuracy and common use.

First, it’s critical to make sure that translations of any keywords or slogans are accurate. Direct translations can open your brand and services to misinterpretations, such as the always-classic “Come alive with Pepsi” slogan translated as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead” in Chinese markets.

Common use is the other concern. The words and phrases used to describe your business may not be the same in different languages, even if the literal translation of words gives that impression. Find out what words locals use to describe your products and services and use those instead.

4. How can you build local links?

Building local links back to your site also helps with international SEO. Here, it’s a good idea to write articles for local blogs, get sponsored mentions on websites that offer advice or useful information, connect with local social media influencers, and sponsor local events.

5. Does social media matter?

While Google has expressly stated that social media doesn’t factor into international SEO rankings, you can increase brand awareness and local influencer connections with a strong social media presence.

6. Are current keywords good enough?

While your current keywords may help you rank in the top 5 locally, the sheer number of companies competing for these keywords in global markets means you need to take a look at who’s using these keywords, where they rank, and whether other similar keywords might drive better results.

7. Do you have the right tools and talent?

Finally, consider if this is something you can take on yourself or if you’re better off hiring an experienced international SEO company.

Factors That Affect International SEO

Multiple factors affect international SEO, including the following.

Customer Reviews

Customer reviews on your website or on local review sites can positively or negatively impact your SEO efforts. Better reviews mean a better connection with your primary keyword, in turn boosting your visibility.

Mobile Responsiveness

The responsiveness of your website on mobile also matters to overall search rankings. As a result, it’s worth finding a content delivery network (CDN) capable of providing a top-tier website experience regardless of where users are.

Google My Business Account

Your Google My Business Account can help boost your SEO efforts — so long as you ensure to update where your company is operating. This is a starting point for Google to seek out geographic and language metadata on your site.

Link Building

The more links heading back to your site from international sources, the better. As mentioned above, it’s a good idea to write for local blogs or connect with influencers to point links back to your website.

How to Develop an International SEO Strategy

Ready to develop your international SEO strategy? Start here.

1. Decide where and who you’ll target.

First, pick your target market and target audience. For example, you might decide to target the larger market of Brazil, then hone in on a subset of that market that has the means and motive to buy your product.

The more focused your decisions are around “where” and “who,” the better your results.

2. Determine whether you’ll hire an international SEO agency.

Do you want to do the heavy lifting of international SEO yourself or outsource this effort? There are advantages to both.

You know your brand better than anyone else, but SEO experts are skilled at understanding local preferences and creating a strategy to match.

3. Conduct international keyword research.

Using relevant keywords is a critical component of search engine optimization. It’s not enough to just translate your keywords if you’re working on international SEO. In most circumstances, you’ll need to transcreate them.

On a case-by-case basis, handle your keywords. It will be more challenging to convert certain keywords than others. Some global businesses, such as health or IT, commonly use English terminology, even if it isn’t the country’s official language. Therefore, translating these keywords would be meaningless.

If you’re a law company trying to grow, you should be aware of the important keyword distinction between, say, trial lawyers in the United States and barristers in the United Kingdom.

Find out exactly what people in your target market are typing into search engines and modify your keywords accordingly. For instance, the United States and the United Kingdom celebrate Mother’s Day on different days. This implies shoppers in both nations will be looking for Mother’s Day gifts at different times of the year.

When you’ve finished translating or researching your keywords, you should see how often they’re searched for.

To choose which keywords to use in your international SEO plan, you may use a tool like Google’s Keyword Planner to research the number of times they are searched for each month in each target area.

4. Choose the right international domain structure.

The domain structure of your website makes it easier (or harder) for visitors and search engines to find your content. Different options include the following.

ccTLD

Country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) are two-letter domains assigned to specific countries. For example, .us is for the United States, .ca is for Canada, and .uk is for the United Kingdom. To improve international SEO, you may choose to create a unique ccTLD site for each country where your products or services are available.

Example: mybusiness.ca, mybusiness.uk

gTLD

A generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD), meanwhile, refers to domain extensions with three or more characters. These TLDs are maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Common examples include .com, .gov, and .org.

Using a gTLD means that search engines won’t restrict results based on region, but it may reduce total traffic since many users prefer sites that include their country code TLD.

Example: mybusiness.com

ccTLD or gTLD with subdomains

You can also create subdomains for your site that combine aspects of both ccTLDs and gTLDs.

Example: ca.mybusiness.com

This offers the benefit of a country code and the advantages of a gTLD.

ccTLD or gTLD with subdirectories

Subdirectories, meanwhile, change the location of the country code:

Example: mybusiness.com/ca/

5. Optimize content for the region and language.

Finally, ensure all your content is optimized for your target region and its local language. This includes double-checking all TLDs, translations, and content assets to ensure they align with local expectations.

Oh, and don’t forget the rel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hreflang tag. This HTML attribute specifies the geographic area and language of a webpage. It’s used to differentiate similar web pages aimed at different audiences so that search engines don’t count them as duplicate content, and it looks like this:

<link rel=”alternate” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hreflang=”x” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank” href=”https://example.com/alternate-page” />

Tools for International SEO

The right tools can also help you maximize the impact of international SEO by providing actionable data around traffic, click-throughs, and time spent on your site. Some of the most popular tools include the following.

HubSpot

HubSpot’s SEO software allows you to create an international content strategy, gives you live tips to improve your on-page SEO, and lets you organize your website in a way that’s easy for both search engines and users to understand.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console lets you see what queries are driving traffic to your site, determine your position on Google Search, and analyze global site impressions.

Arel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hrefs

Arel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hrefs is an all-in-one SEO toolset that lets you optimize your site, analyze your competitors’ rankings, and find the best keywords for your brand.

Moz

Moz offers site audits to determine potential issues, tracks keyword rankings across more than 170 search engines, analyzes backlink profiles to evaluate performance, and offers keyword research tools to find out how you stack up against the competition.

Semrush

Semrush lets you identify high-value local and national keywords, analyze the backlink profile of any domain, and track your site’s SERP positions daily.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an interconnected suite of tools that helps you analyze the impact of your website content worldwide.

International SEO Best Practices

No matter what approach you take to international SEO — language-focused or country-based, outsourced or in-house — the same best practices apply. Let’s take a look at a few below.

1. Define your market approach.

The methods used for SEO in one country may not be appropriate for use in another. Your company and its target customers should inform your strategy.

If you sell the same products in multiple countries, but to people who speak different languages, you should use a language-based segmentation strategy. This means ensuring all of your website’s content is translated into all the languages important to your company.

Your business will need to take a country-by-country strategy if its products and services vary across international markets or if it uses a distinct brand name in each country’s local language. You need individual country-specific websites optimized for their respective international markets.

2. Do your market research.

You should identify the potential buyer persona for your product or service and learn about their priorities before implementing an international SEO strategy.

To do this, you may conduct keyword research and investigate the channels through which these demographics frequently discover new products. Following that, you’ll better understand which audiences to target and how.

3. Do competitor research.

Analyze your potential competitors to see how they are doing with search engine optimization, content marketing, and paid advertising.

You can use international SEO to discover unexpected opportunities if your competitors aren’t yet optimizing their content for particular markets or languages.

4. Answer questions in the region’s native language and in the right context.

If there’s one thing to get right for international SEO, it’s ensuring you speak the same language as your customers. This means doing your research to ensure you’re always answering questions in their native language and in the appropriate context.

5. Think about how your strategy will affect the user experience overall.

International SEO isn’t just about keywords and content. It’s also about making sure the entire user experience is seamlessly aligned across your site.

That includes filling out forms in many languages, viewing prices in local currency, and accessing multimedia assets that include native speakers.

6. Pick the audiences that you’re most interested in targeting first.

You don’t have to optimize your content for every country and language at once when it comes to worldwide search engine optimization. There may be more than one phase to the rollout.

To learn how to execute international SEO, focus on reaching only one additional audience at a time. You and your team may learn about international SEO and acquire momentum for future projects by doing so.

7. Translate existing content carefully.

While translation tools provide a literal conversion of words and phrases, they’re often not used that way by locals. Customers will quickly recognize that something isn’t quite right.

Instead of translation, you’re really looking for “transcreation.” You want to recreate the same content but use the culture and language of your target market as a guide.

8. Optimize your website’s language options (or website pages).

You must use the correct language for each page, regardless of whether you have chosen country-specific subdomains or a single domain with many subfolders.

This will send a strong message to Google and other search engines about the location-specific relevance of your material, increasing the likelihood that your pages will be ranked highly by those services.

It will also improve the experience for local users, which increases the likelihood that they will make a purchase or revisit your site.

Adding subfolders with specific pages in each language of your target countries is an alternative if having country-specific domains is either impractical or not strategically necessary for your business.

9. Avoid automatically redirecting users based on their IP address.

It might seem like the perfect solution. However, automatically redirecting visitors or search engines based on IP addresses can annoy users. It can be confusing for search engines too, meaning visitors may never find certain content.

Instead, let visitors and search engines know about an alternative version of a page. Show a banner at the top or bottom with a message and a link to the suggested page.

10. Topics should be adapted to local cultures.

Your country-specific pages should only contain content that is pertinent to the local audience. It’s possible, for instance, that Australians won’t find your coverage of American fashion or politics particularly interesting.

If this is the case, you should make an effort to produce content that is particular to and helpful for the demographic of people who will visit the specific country site.

It’s advisable to seek some input from a native speaker of the target language before you start writing or designing anything for an international market.

11. Develop a link-building strategy, for each market.

Keep in mind that, similar to local SEO, the value of a link varies based on its point of origin. Google will see that your content is relevant to German users if you have a high number of inbound links from .de domains.

Consequently, it might adjust your page’s ranking in the relevant regional search engine results pages (SERPs).

Spending time developing a solid link-building strategy for each page is time well spent, as local links will have the greatest influence on search results.

12. Take into account other SEO signals.

A website can also signal to search engines that it is intended for a certain nation by using techniques such as:

Having a site hosted on a local IP address.
Local content linking.
Improving search engine rankings on country-specific platforms like Russia’s Yandex and China’s Baidu.

In addition to the best practices described earlier, it is important to consider these signals to determine whether or not they are relevant to international SEO strategy.

International SEO Checklist

Ready to get started on building your international SEO strategy? We’ve created a checklist to ensure you don’t miss any step of the process.

Determine what international content you offer and for which markets/languages.
Make a keyword plan with appropriate terms for certain markets or languages.
Create an international SEO-friendly URL structure.
Build a sitemap.
Choose a language and a country to target.
Allow visitors to change the language of the website.
For language targeting, use rel=”noopener” target=”_blank” Hreflang tags.
Convert prices to local currencies.
Make sure that the wording of each image’s alt text is appropriate.
Fix any bad redirects you discover.
Fix mistakes, broken links, and crawling problems.
For each market, develop a link-building strategy.
Keep abreast of local and worldwide search trends.
Make sure each topic you intend to discuss has good SEO potential.
To keep your content current, employ native content developers and industry specialists.

SEO: Improving Your International Impact

The right SEO strategy sets your brand apart from the crowd. While this is important in home markets, it’s even more critical if you decide to go international because it will ensure your website is optimized to support high-value content and keywords across countries.

By considering local customs, language, and context, you can boost consumer engagement and maximize your international impact.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in Dec. 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Traditionally, the marketing field emphasized creative thinking over technical skills. But to build a successful career as a marketer today, you need more than a knack for pitching ideas and coming up with clever copy.

That’s where technical skills come in. These skills are earned from experiences or education (think, data analysis, project management, and computer programming).

Now more than ever, employers are emphasizing skills over pedigree. LinkedIn data from the past year shows a 20% increase in managers who don’t have a traditional four-year degree. This trend highlights the push toward skills-based hiring, which prioritizes a person’s capabilities over their credentials.

Hiring for skill rather than a degree is a good step forward for all, and it’s wise to leverage your strengths when going after a new role or promotion. That’s why you want to make sure you have the right technical skills for your career path to stay competitive and advance in your career.

Let’s walk through all you need to know about technical skills and which ones you should look to develop as a marketer.

What are technical skills?

Often known as hard skills, technical skills are easily defined and measured competencies you gain through training or education. They allow you to complete a job-specific task and often vary from one industry to another.

While technical skills are typically required for engineers, business analysts, mathematicians, and scientists, more industries than ever need employees with technical knowledge. In fact, Gartner found that 58% of the workforce needs new skills to successfully do their jobs. This is largely due to the digital transformation and massive increase in data, which requires people who can use technology to interpret data and take action to drive a company forward.

Before scrambling into a data analysis course, it’s important to realize that there are dozens of technical skills that don’t require you to become part marketer, part computer scientist. Let’s take a look at the different types of skills so you know which are right for you.

Types of Technical Skills

With rapidly advancing technology, nearly every role requires some sort of technical skill. Here are several types you may come across in the marketing world.

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While the skills associated with creativity, negotiation, stress management, communication, and public speaking are usually considered “soft skills,” categories like technology and analytical thinking involve technical skills.

Similar to technical skills, soft skills are learned through experience or education. These skills are harder to measure, but you’ll need them to communicate with your team, negotiate a project deadline, come up with creative ideas, and prioritize your workload.

For example, a project manager may have a positive attitude and excellent time management skills (both soft skills), but understanding the ins and outs of the company’s CMS system (a technical skill) is crucial for timely deliverables and successful projects.

Here’s an overview of the types of technical skills needed for different marketing roles.

Digital Media and Design

Graphic design software (Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere)

Content management systems (CMS)
Image and file management
Content curation

Project Management

Project management software (such as Asana, Trello, or ClickUp)
Budget planning
Risk management
Project planning
Content management systems (CMS)
Task management

Marketing and Content Creation

Data analysis
Campaign management
Budgeting
Content management systems (CMS)
Interviewing
Vendor management
Pitching
Copywriting
Editing
Researching and reporting
SEO/SEM
Digital ad management
Social media marketing
Content strategy

Technical Skills in the Workplace

Now that you know what type of technical skills apply to your field, how do you know which to develop? To understand which skills are most important for the future, LinkedIn performed a study to find the most in-demand skills—several of which apply to marketers.

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Technical skills like analytical reasoning, affiliate marketing, and business analysis are essential to succeeding as a marketer. But you’ll need more than those to build a thriving career. To understand the skills you need in the workplace, start by looking at job descriptions for positions you want now — and in the future.

Hiring managers often create a list of “required” and “recommended” skills they want candidates to have. Required skills are often the technical skills you need to perform the job well after you’re hired, while recommended skills are capabilities the company is willing to help you develop through training.

Once you’ve scoured job descriptions and created a list of technical skills employers look for, it’s also smart to talk with your manager about the skills you need to advance your career. They should be able to point you in the right direction for your individual development.

If you work for a supportive company, your manager may offer resources to help you work toward those skills. This could include stipends for books, courses, certifications, or schooling. Or it could mean putting you on projects that give you hands-on experience, like managing the budget for a social campaign or designing the visuals for the weekly email newsletter.

Technical skills in marketing vary by role, so it’s important to do your research and consider your career path before asking your manager for help. If they don’t know which direction you want to go, they won’t be able to provide the specific skills you’ll need to get there.

Look at the examples below to highlight the skills you already have and learn more about which ones you may need.

Examples of Technical Skills in the Workplace

Digital Media and Design

Graphic and web design (Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere)

UX/UI research and design

Database management

Animation

Interactive media management

Usability testing

Photography

Content management systems (Notion, Asana, Monday, Trello, WordPress, Squarespace, Wix)

HTML, CSS, Java, or other coding languages
Data visualization
Video and audio production
Typography
Wireframing
Prototyping
Color theory
User modeling

Project Management

Microsoft Office
Google Suite
Content management systems (CMS)
Project management software
Budget planning
Risk management
Project planning
Task management

Marketing

Campaign management
Managing budgets
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Content management systems (CMS)
Vendor management
Social media management
Ad targeting
Content strategy
Brand positioning and strategy
Paid media management
A/B testing
Digital strategy
Email marketing
Web analytics
Automation software
Conversion rate optimization
Omnichannel strategy
Event planning
Product management

Content Creation

Copywriting
Technical writing
Editing
Pitching
Researching and reporting
UX copywriting
SEO/SEM knowledge
Content strategy and management
Social media
Email marketing

Analytics

Data analysis
Demographics reporting
Digital media testing
Google Analytics
Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint
MATLAB
Python
SQL and NoSQL
Identifying key performance indicators
Setting metrics benchmarks
Linear algebra and calculus
Data visualization
Data cleaning
Working with APIs
Tagging

Technical Skills to Put on a Resume

After scanning the above lists, you may have more technical skills than you realized. So which should make it on your resume?

You want to highlight the skills you already have, or can easily develop, that are most relevant to the position. Aim for a list of 10-20 skills with a mix of both soft and technical skills. Pay attention to the skills listed in the “required” section of a job description because listing those on your resume will make you a more competitive candidate.

If you have a unique technical skill for your field that an employer is looking for (say, you’re a Social Media Manager and an Adobe InDesign whiz), bump it to the top of your skill list to make your resume stand out.

Keep in mind, certain skills are more in-demand than others. Here are the top 20 skills you should consider adding to your resume (if you have them), according to Indeed.

Cloud computing
Artificial intelligence
Sales leadership
Analysis
Translation
Mobile app development
People management
Video production
Audio production
UX design
SEO/SEM marketing
Blockchain
Industrial design
Creativity
Collaboration
Adaptability
Time management
Persuasion
Digital journalism
Animation

Of course, you don’t want to oversell your capabilities. Make sure you actually have every skill listed on your resume. If a future employer catches you in a lie, that will be the end of your opportunity for landing the job — and it could tarnish your reputation for future roles as well.

Importance of Technical Skills

Marketing, especially digital marketing, revolves around data. The global marketing data market is projected to grow to $52.3 billion in 2021, with nearly 62% of senior industry experts using a data-sharing solution to support their teams’ marketing and advertising efforts.

Marketers use data to connect with audiences, create innovative campaigns, convert people to customers, and keep buyers coming back. But leveraging data requires certain skills.

Having the sought-after technical skills lets you excel at your job and makes you a more competitive candidate for future roles. The more skills you have, the more opportunities you have to take on senior-level positions and earn a higher salary.

Consider the difference between the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics national wage estimates for Marketing Specialists versus Marketing Managers. Marketing Managers, who have considerably more experience and technical skills, make an estimated $80,500 more per year than Marketing Specialists.

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The correlation between income and technical skills is also consistent with other industries. In 2021, the largest average salary premium in the North American technology industry was estimated to be nearly $24,969 for IT automation expertise, followed by AI and machine learning with $14,175, and fintech with $13,799.

Needless to say, learning technical skills is one way to boost your income. But it’s not all you need for long-term career success.

Soft Skills vs. Technical Skills

Creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence are common soft skills, which are just as important as technical skills for landing a job and growing your career.

Whether you’re a social media specialist or a digital media analyst, you’ll need certain soft skills to complement your technical knowledge and get the job done. Each marketing role has its own requirements, so do the same research that you did for the technical skills. If you get stuck, consider if you have any of the following in-demand soft skills.

Ability to meet deadlines
Decision making
Handling criticism
Attention to detail
Critical thinking
Teamwork
Time management
Multitasking
Organizational skills
Prioritizing
Problem-solving
Working independently
Working remotely
Collaboration
Persuasion
Adaptability
Emotional intelligence

Technical Skills Over Time

Mastering the technical skills you need as a marketer is never done. Technology evolves, algorithms change, and new social media platforms pop up often.

To stay on top of your game, you have to keep your technical skills sharp. Use them as frequently as possible, and pick up new skills when needed. I’ve witnessed many situations where a junior marketing hire teaches a seasoned pro a thing or two about developing a social media strategy or how to reach a certain audience.

Honing your technical skills is a life-long process. So never assume you’re safe to kick back and do well at your job without learning anything new. And when you do pick up a new skill or enhance a skill that you have, add it to your resume and LinkedIn profile.

Because for any role, employers want candidates who have the skills they need to do their job effectively and drive company growth.