So, you’re thinking about launching a podcast. Maybe you’re leading a marketing team at a growth-stage SMB, or you’re just looking for a way to punch above your weight.

The good news is that podcasts are an incredible way to expand your brand’s voice, build authority, and reach new audiences. The bad news? It’s not as easy as hitting record and waiting for the listeners and downloads to roll in.

In this blog I will provide you with a guide that is based on real strategies that have helped SMBs navigate challenges, stretch tight budgets, and hit targets they never thought possible. 

Who’s Writing This and Why Should You Listen?

My name’s Tom Hunt. I’ve spent the better part of the last decade in the podcasting trenches, launching, growing, and monetizing shows for clients and myself. I’ve seen podcasts go from zero listeners to thousands, all with the right mix of strategy, creativity, and a bit of elbow grease.

I know firsthand the struggle of running a marketing team at an SMB, where budgets are slim, but expectations are sky-high. The challenge? Using a podcast to stand out in a crowded space without throwing buckets of money at ads.

The Challenge: Small Team, Big Ambition

Let me paint you a picture. You’re running a growth-stage SMB, startup or scale-up, pulling in about $5 million in revenue. Your marketing team is lean—five people trying to manage SEO, social, lead gen, paid ads, and everything else under the sun. You’ve heard podcasts can be a game-changer for building brand authority and generating leads, but you don’t have the resources of a massive enterprise to pour into production. Growing a podcast might feel like a luxury you can’t afford. Think again. With the right approach, a podcast can become one of the most cost-effective tools to drive engagement, build authority, and generate leads—even if you’re competing with bigger players.

The Journey: Building the Podcast Brick by Brick

1. Define Your Why: Start with Purpose, Not Just Content

Before you hit record, ask yourself why you’re starting this podcast. What’s the endgame? Maybe it’s to:

• Generate leads
• Establish thought leadership
• Nurture industry relationships
• Build brand awareness

This is not a step to skip. Your ‘why’ will shape everything, from the content you create to the guests you invite and the way you promote it.

💡Action Tip: Define a clear purpose for the podcast and align it with your business goals. Whether you want to build relationships with potential clients or be seen as a go-to source in your industry, write down your purpose. Keep it visible and refer to it throughout the podcast’s development.

2. Identify and Understand Your Audience

For SMBs, clarity is super important. You don’t have the luxury of throwing money at vague ideas. Your audience needs to be clearly defined from the start. Who are you talking to? Is it mid-level marketing managers? Startup founders? Growth-stage SMBs trying to scale? Get granular. Nail down your target persona and design your content to serve their needs.

💡 Action Step: Ask yourself these questions before you even hit record:

• What problem does this podcast solve for my listeners?
• What kind of content will keep them coming back?
• Who do I need to reach in order to drive real business value?

Create listener personas. Get clear on:

• Who they are: Job titles, industry, decision-making power.
• What challenges they face: Growth hurdles, tech confusion, scaling issues.
• What they care about: Growth, innovation, cost-cutting solutions.

Treat your podcast like a product. The more you know about your audience, the better you can tailor your content to resonate with them.

3. Craft Your Unique Positioning: Stand Out or Fade Away

Starting a podcast is easy. Standing out is the hard part. If your podcast sounds like everyone else’s, it will get lost in the crowd.  You need a unique angle or format that sets you apart from the competition. This is especially true for SMBs, where resources are limited, and you need every episode to deliver value.

To be different, focus on what sets you apart. What unique perspective or insight can you bring to the conversation that no one else is covering?

Look for gaps in your market. What aren’t your competitors talking about? What conversations are missing? These gaps represent opportunities for you to position your podcast as the go-to resource.

💡Action Step: Research the top 3-5 podcasts in your niche. What topics are they covering? More importantly, what topics are they not covering? Can you bring a fresh perspective to the table?

For example, instead of a general “B2B Marketing Tips” podcast, you could focus specifically on scaling B2B SaaS startups through content marketing. The more specific, the better.

4. Equipment & Software: Good Enough is Good Enough

One of the biggest misconceptions is that you need top-tier equipment to start. Don’t fall into the perfection trap—good enough is good enough.

💡 Pro Tip: Start simple but effective:

• Microphone: Go for a solid, budget-friendly option like the Blue Yeti or ATR2100.
• Recording software: Free options like Audacity or Riverside.fm will work just fine.
• Recording space: You don’t need a professional studio. Find a quiet room, use blankets or pillows to absorb sound, and you’re good to go.

It’s better to get started with basic equipment and improve as you go than to delay the launch waiting for perfection. Your priority is content consistency, not over-polished production.

5. Content Strategy: Plan, but Stay Flexible

Successful podcasts aren’t built on one-off episodes. You need a content strategy that focuses on regular, high-quality releases that speak to your audience’s pain points and interests. This could include interviews with industry experts, deep dives into specific topics, or even case studies showcasing your own journey as an SMB.

Make sure you plan your content at least a month or two ahead. Decide on the frequency of your episodes (weekly, biweekly) and stick to it. Consistency breeds trust, and trust turns listeners into loyal followers.

💡 Action Step: Create a content calendar for the next three months, mapping out topics, guests, and potential release dates. Aim for at least 4-6 episodes before you launch so you’re not scrambling to produce content each week. Not sure where to start? Look at the questions your sales team gets asked the most or the biggest industry pain points.

And remember: It’s not about you—it’s about your audience. Each episode should provide value, not just promote your brand.

6. The Power of Guests: Content + Built-in Promotion

Guests are one of the most powerful ways to grow your podcast. Why? They bring both their expertise and their audience.

Choose guests who can provide valuable insights and align with your audience’s interests. But here’s the trick: Make sure they’re willing to promote the episode to their own networks. This is how you can tap into new audiences without spending a fortune.

💡 Action Tip: Create a guest outreach strategy. Make a list of 10-15 industry leaders, partners, or even customers you can invite. Personalize your outreach, highlighting why you think they’d be a great fit for the show. Oh, and don’t be afraid to aim high—many people will say yes just because they like being asked! Prioritize those with large, engaged followings in your niche who can help amplify your podcast’s reach.

7. The Launch: Make a Splash

The first 48 hours of your podcast’s release are critical. That’s when platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify are paying the most attention. Promote your launch everywhere—and I mean everywhere. Create a big splash to maximize visibility.

💡 Action Tip: Have a launch plan ready. Here’s what you should focus on:

• Email list: Blast your existing subscribers, encouraging them to listen, subscribe, and review.
• Social media: Create teaser content leading up to launch day—use short clips, quotes, or key takeaways from the first episodes.
• Leverage your guests: Ask your guests to share the episodes with their audience. Providing them with ready-made social posts and graphics can make this easier.

In addition to organic promotion, consider investing a small amount in paid advertising on platforms like Spotify or Castbox, which allow for affordable, highly targeted ads to podcast listeners. Social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn can also be effective if you target specific interests related to your podcast.

💡Action Step: Develop a launch strategy that includes social media posts, email campaigns, and guest-driven promotions. For extra reach, allocate a small budget ($100–$200) for targeted podcast ads.

Real-Life Win: When we launched “Confessions of a B2B Marketer,” we hit the ground running by leveraging early reviews and shares from our guests. The result? A strong initial boost in subscriptions.

8. Promotion: It Doesn’t Stop After Launch

Podcast growth doesn’t happen overnight. Consistent promotion is key to long-term success. Here are a few strategies that have proven to work:

• Repurpose content: Turn each episode into multiple formats. Write a blog post recap, create short video snippets for social, or even pull key quotes for LinkedIn.
• Leverage niche podcast directories: Platforms like Castbox, Overcast, or Podcast Addict allow you to promote your show directly to podcast listeners who are already engaged in your niche.
• SEO: Optimize your podcast titles, descriptions, and show notes with keywords. This helps people find you when they’re searching for topics related to your episodes.

9. Measure & Iterate

How do you know if your podcast is working? Simple: track the metrics that matter. Pay close attention to listener data. Use analytics from podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts to track downloads, engagement, and retention rates. Which episodes are performing best? Where are listeners dropping off?

This data will guide your future episodes, helping you create more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

💡Action Tip: Use analytics tools like Chartable or your podcast host’s dashboard to track:

• Listener growth
• Episode performance
• Engagement levels (e.g., time spent listening)

Review your podcast analytics every month. Adjust your content, format, and promotional strategy based on what the data tells you. Pay attention to what content resonates with your audience.

Key Takeaways: What You Need to Know to Start & Grow a Podcast

• Start with a clear purpose: Know why you’re podcasting and who you’re trying to reach.
• Differentiate your show: Focus on unique positioning in a crowded market.
• Keep your setup simple: Invest in basic audio equipment but prioritize consistency over perfection.
• Plan your content: Build a content calendar and keep episodes flowing regularly.
• Leverage guests for growth: Use guest interviews to tap into new audiences.
• Promote hard: The first few episodes are critical—push them across all channels.
• Iterate based on data: Regularly review and adjust your podcast based on listener insights.

The Bottom Line: Podcasts as Your Secret Weapon

Building and scaling a podcast isn’t magic—it’s hustle, strategy, and a whole lot of trial and error. But for an SMB looking to punch above its weight, podcasts can be your secret weapon. By following these steps, SMB marketing teams can turn podcasts into powerful tools for driving growth, building brand authority, and connecting with target audiences—without blowing the budget. Start small, stay consistent, and keep refining your approach based on what works.

Now, it’s time to hit that record button.

The post How to start a business podcast: A proven step-by-step guide for growing companies appeared first on CXL.

At Lyzr AI, we grew from $0 to $3M in Contracted ARR in under 8 months. In this blog, we provide insight into how we did it. We will share our playbook in a detailed, step-by-step breakdown of our most effective marketing strategies.

Whether you’re a startup founder or a marketing professional, we hope you can also use these tactics to accelerate your growth.

The journey of how we built Lyzr from an idea into a company generating $3M in ARR in less than 8 months, wasn’t a straight path, but through a lot of experimentation, fast iterations, and leveraging the right strategies, we’ve hit major milestones. 

The Journey

Lyzr started as an AI data analysis app (PowerBI+ChatGPT), but we struggled to gain traction. We had our share of setbacks—rejections from YC, AIGrant, and HF0—but instead of giving up, we pivoted. We realized that enterprises needed something different: reliable, fully private AI agents. So we pivoted, building Lyzr as an Enterprise Agent Framework, and that’s when we found our market fit.

Our initial growth came through some creative problem-solving: we scoured Upwork for job postings related to ‘Langchain’ support. By building rapid prototypes for these clients, we generated $100K in ARR in just four months. But our real growth spurt happened when we launched Jazon, an AI SDR agent, after seeing a tweet from Jason Lemkin where he was looking for AI agents to automate research, outreach, and sponsorship sales for the SaaStr Europa event.

That single move generated 250 leads in just 10 days.

Here’s the practical playbook that powered our growth from $0 to $3M in under 8 months.

The Growth Playbook

Here are the strategies we used, step by step, with some key takeaways that can help you replicate our success.

1. Email Campaigns: Personalization at Scale

We knew email would be critical to our success. But the challenge was doing it in a way that didn’t feel like a generic, automated blast. Enter Jazon, our AI SDR agent, who made it possible to craft personalized, automated email campaigns at scale.

Step 1: Craft a winning template. Keep it brief and focus on the customer’s needs. Here’s the exact email template Jazon used:

Step 2: Set up automated follow-ups. Jazon sent 3 follow-up emails, spaced 2 days apart, and we made sure to respond quickly to any replies.

Step 3: Measure and iterate. We constantly tracked key metrics like open rates (we hit 63%) and deal win rates (we saw an 11% win rate).

We used these insights to refine our content and approach.

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💡 Lesson: Automate your follow-ups, but keep the personalization. Always be testing, optimizing, and adjusting based on real results.
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2. Affiliate Marketing: Scale Through Others

We didn’t have a huge marketing budget, so we leaned into affiliate marketing early. We made sure the program was attractive enough for affiliates to want to partake, and it became one of our top channels for growth.

Step 1: Choose the right affiliate platform. We used ReferralHero to manage everything, from signups to tracking performance.

Step 2: Create a compelling offer. Our affiliates earned $100 for each qualified lead and $400 in monthly recurring revenue for every sale made. The lifetime incentive kept them motivated.

Step 3: Manage relationships. While we were scaling, we ensured open communication with affiliates, kept them engaged, and made sure they were being fairly rewarded.

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💡 Tip: Your affiliate program should be a win-win. The more lucrative and simple it is for affiliates, the faster you’ll scale. The more top-of-funnel the reward, the more attractive for affiliates to join.
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3. SEO Content Strategy: Using AI to Dominate Search

We knew SEO could drive a lot of inbound traffic, but we didn’t just create content for the sake of ranking. We used an AI-first approach to analyze competitors, find gaps, and create content that truly added value.

Step 1: Conduct keyword research. We focused on high-volume, low-difficulty keywords in our niche.

Step 2: Competitor analysis. We analyzed the top 5 ranking blogs for our target keywords, looking at character count, keyword use, and structure. Then, we built content that outperformed on every front.

Step 3: Create AI-driven content. We didn’t stop at SEO. We focused on creating engaging content that added more value than what was already ranking. The result? A steady stream of organic traffic.

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💡 Lesson: Don’t just write for SEO—write for your audience. Use AI to streamline and scale your process, but always focus on providing value.
—

4. Paid Advertising: Test Small, Scale Big

When we started with paid ads, we didn’t go all-in right away. We began with a modest $2,000 budget and focused on optimizing every dollar spent.

Step 1: Keyword strategy. We started with 5 broad match keywords, keeping a close eye on performance. When something wasn’t working, we pivoted fast, while doubling down on what was working.

Step 2: Continuous optimization. We constantly monitored results, tweaking targeting, ad copy, and keywords to maximize ROI.

5. Experimentation and Iteration: Move Fast, Learn Faster

At Lyzr, our biggest strength was rapid experimentation. We didn’t stick to one strategy for too long. If something didn’t deliver results within 8 weeks, we cut it and moved on to the next idea.

We ran multiple strategies at once, experimenting with new tools, platforms, and approaches. The ones that worked, we scaled. The ones that didn’t, we dropped. This relentless focus on iteration is what propelled our rapid growth.

Conclusion

Remember, the key to our success was rapid experimentation and iteration. Don’t be afraid to try and fail at new tactics, but be disciplined about cutting what doesn’t work.

We hope you can use this playbook and adapt it to your unique circumstances so you, too can accelerate your company’s growth.

The post How an AI Startup grew from $0 to $3M ARR in 8 months appeared first on CXL.

With the rapid expansion of digital marketing channels, marketers have to adapt by broadening their skill sets. While having a single area of expertise was once the norm, in the modern market, the norm simply won’t cut it. As growth expectations increase and budgets shrink, brands lean toward T-shaped marketers. Why? Having a team of 30 specialist marketers on board isn’t just impractical, it’s not strategic either. 

Having a handful of marketers with deep expertise in two or three key areas could significantly increase your return on investment (ROI). Not only does it reduce costs, but having this level of versatility at the core of your marketing team is invaluable. Here why.

What is a T-Shaped marketer?

A T-shaped marketer is a marketing professional with strong, broad skills across the entire marketing discipline and deep, expert-level skills in two to three specific verticals. Think of them as Jacks of all trades, masters of some.

Picture the letter “T.” The vertical line represents their deep knowledge in a particular field, which could be anything from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to web development and analytics. The horizontal line represents their broad, cross-functional skill set, spanning across multiple marketing disciplines.

T-shaped marketers understand and handle various marketing facets, ensuring cohesive and effective strategies accros the board.  

T-shaped marketers vs specialist marketers: differences and similarities

When it comes to marketing teams, both specialists and T-shaped marketers bring valuable expertise to the table. Their roles and contributions, however, are distinct. Each offers unique strengths that can drive a team’s success in various ways.

Depth vs. breadth

Both specialists and T-shaped marketers deliver high-quality, informed contributions to their teams. But, the way they achieve this is fundamentally different. 

While specialists bring a level of precision and expertise in one area, T-shaped marketers can do the same and more. They not only specialize in numerous areas but also possess a broad understanding of marketing as a whole.

This unique blend of depth and breadth allows T-shaped marketers to see the bigger picture. While a specialist may be able to hone in on a specific part of the marketing funnel, a T-shaped market gains perspective of the entire funnel. What’s more, they create cohesions across various marketing campaigns as well as the entire marketing team.

Role flexibility

Both specialists and T-shaped marketers can contribute to the strategic direction of marketing campaigns. But, the scope and focus of their contributions differ significantly. 

Let’s say you need someone to drive your Pay-per-Click (PPC) strategy. A PPC specialist can create targeted, data-driven campaigns fine-tuned for ROI. However, their focus is usually narrow, contributing primarily to specialized projects. 

T-shaped marketers, on the other hand, can take on various roles within a marketing team. They can provide strategic insights across different functions, including the specialist function. This helps ensure all parts of a marketing campaign are aligned and working towards the same goals. They don’t just focus on the PPC campaign performance and setup but understand what messaging is needed to drive results, how to optimize the landing page to drive conversions, and how it all ties back to the greater strategy and brand narrative.

Collaboration

Specialists often work closely with other specialists, contributing to a focused aspect of a campaign. For example, in a large campaign, you might have an SEO specialist working alongside a content specialist and a PPC specialist. Each incorporates their expertise to ensure each aspect of the campaign is handled effectively. But this can sometimes lead to silos. Each specialist is usually focused on their own tasks and lacks a full understanding of the broader strategy. Because of this, they aren’t always able to integrate their tasks effectively. 

T-shaped marketers, however, bridge the gap between specialists. They understand the interconnectedness of different marketing functions, facilitating collaboration across departments. They would ensure that the SEO strategy aligns with content, that PPC campaigns are integrated with social media efforts, and that everything ties back to the overall brand strategy.

For Stefan Maritz, CXL’s Marketing Lead, brand marketing serves as the core of his strategies. By combining this with various marketing specializations, he’s driven impactful results across various industries and business models over his career.

When it comes to T-shaped marketers vs specialist marketers, both bring different strengths to the table. Specialists offer focused expertise essential for optimizing specific aspects of a campaign. T-shaped marketers provide the flexibility, breadth of knowledge, and collaborative approach needed to integrate various marketing efforts into a cohesive strategy. In a well-rounded team, both types of marketers play vital roles, ensuring campaigns are expertly executed, strategically aligned, and adaptable.

The value of a T-Shaped marketer in modern marketing teams

Adaptable

As modern marketing trends and technologies shift, seemingly overnight, having a marketer who can pivot and adapt effortlessly can’t be overstated. 

T-shaped marketers don’t just keep up with the changes—they’re ahead of the curve. Whether mastering the latest Google algorithm update or integrating new tools and approaches into existing strategies, T-shaped marketers are always ready to evolve, ensuring your team remains competitive and innovative.

Cross-functional collaboration

The modern marketing environment is complex. Campaigns often require input from content creators, data analysts, UX designers, and sales teams, making effective communication and collaboration key to their success. 

T-shaped marketers excel in this area because they speak the language of various departments. A marketer who understands the nuances of data analytics, the intricacies of creative design, and the strategic needs of sales not only streamlines workflows. They also create a more cohesive, integrated approach to marketing as a whole. 

Enhanced problem-solving

T-shaped marketers have the ability to approach complex marketing challenges from different angles. They don’t just see the trees; they see the entire forest. This holistic perspective is pivotal when facing multifaceted problems that require more than a one-dimensional solution. 

For example, if a campaign isn’t performing well, a specialist might focus solely on optimizing their particular area of expertise. Alternatively, a T-shaped marketer can take a step back and analyze the bigger picture. They might identify underlying issues that span multiple areas, such as misalignment between messaging and audience, poor user experience on the landing page, or insufficient data tracking. 

By drawing on their wide range of skills and knowledge, T-shaped marketers can diagnose problems more accurately. This allows them to develop more comprehensive solutions, ultimately driving better results for your campaigns.

Better strategic thinking 

T-shaped marketers’ broad perspective allows them to see how all the pieces of the marketing puzzle fit together, leading to more comprehensive, effective, and cohesive strategies. Instead of focusing narrowly on optimizing one aspect of a campaign, they consider the entire customer journey, from awareness to conversion and beyond. 

For instance, a specialist might focus on boosting short-term metrics like click-through rates or engagement. Conversely, a T-shaped marketer is more likely to think long-term, considering how each campaign contributes to brand building, customer loyalty, and sustained growth. Their ability to balance immediate needs with strategic foresight ensures your efforts are not just reactive but proactive and aligned with your overall goals.

Maritz has leveraged his brand, content, and product marketing specialization to “create strong, differentiated brands that resonate with target audiences.” 

“By supporting brand initiatives with valuable, strategically aligned content, I’ve consistently reduced customer acquisition costs (CAC) and boosted the performance of digital advertising campaigns. This approach ensures that each channel—whether paid media, SEO, or social—amplifies the brand’s message, resulting in higher engagement, more conversions, and long-term growth.”

The power of a T-Shaped marketer in driving business growth

Innovation and creativity

By drawing on their depth of knowledge and wide range of skills, T-shaped marketers can see connections that others might miss. This allows them to craft innovative campaigns that stand out in a crowded marketplace.

For example, when you have someone who’s a master at SEO and understands the nuances of content marketing, social media, and data analytics, you get a campaign that’s not just optimized for search engines but also resonates across various platforms, engaging audiences at every touchpoint. 

Scalability

In a time when businesses need to do more with less, having a marketer who can easily pivot between roles and verticals is essential. 

Whether it’s moving between crafting high-converting email campaigns and coordinating the latest branding project, this flexibility means businesses can scale marketing operations without the constant need to bring in new specialists for every task. 

Instead, the T-shaped marketer can adapt and evolve with the business’s needs, ensuring that marketing efforts grow in tandem with the company.

“In the past few years, I’ve focused on helping scale-ups build and operationalize their marketing teams. Often, these companies had either very small teams or none at all. My T-shaped marketing skills allowed me to bridge the gap between multiple disciplines, enabling me to launch and manage full-scale marketing operations single-handedly,” said Maritz.

Leadership potential

T-shaped marketers have unique leadership potential. They make ideal mentors for more specialized and generalist team members while guiding the overall marketing strategy. 

By sharing their insights and experiences, they create a collaborative environment. These leadership qualities drive innovation and more cohesive marketing strategies, contributing to a stronger, more united team.

In short, T-shaped marketers are more than just skilled professionals. They’re the driving force behind business growth, capable of taking a company’s marketing efforts to new heights. And for any business looking to thrive, having a T-shaped marketer on the team is not just an advantage—it’s a necessity.

Reshaping your marketing skills

Developing T-shaped skills as a marketer starts with a good, honest self-assessment. “Where do you already excel, and where could you broaden your expertise?” But, once you’ve pinpointed your strengths and gaps, it’s not enough to simply upskill and sit back. 

The marketing world changes faster than you can say “algorithm update.” So, staying curious and adaptable is non-negotiable. Whether it’s diving into a new tool or just keeping up with the latest trends, every bit of knowledge adds to your versatility. 

Ultimately, developing T-shaped skills isn’t just about becoming more marketable. It’s about becoming a marketer who can navigate any challenge with confidence and creativity.

The post Definition, Value & Power of a T-Shaped Marketer appeared first on CXL.

I’ve helped 79 startups build million-dollar marketing engines in the last four years. I’ve been a startup marketer for 20 years, and I’ve helped grow nearly 100 companies from $0 to millions of revenue. Not because I’m such a genius marketer, but because there’s a system that can take any new product, feature, or startup from $0 to $1MM+ in revenue dependably.

And I’ll share it with you in this blog.

The Challenge

Marketing an innovative new feature or product you know would do great in the market if only people would take you seriously. When you get a lead on the phone or when someone tries out an actual demo, they love what they see, but there’s a big problem: most people don’t want to see what you built.

There’s a reason for this and it’s simple: no one cares about your product. This is not a condemnation of your product, but rather a natural part of life.

People don’t want another thing to pay attention to. They want someone to solve a problem that they have. If you don’t frame what you or your team built into a solution to a problem that you’re addressing, you will find it very hard to cut through the noise and get attention.

But there’s a catch. In order to position your product as a solution to a problem, you have to solve a 3-variable equation:

I don’t know how good you are with calculus, but the “Three-Body Problem” is famously unsolvable.

But we don’t pack up and go home. We don’t need a precise answer in the world of business for the perfect possible solution of audience, problem, and offer. We just need something close enough to make money.

And that’s easier.

All we have to do is gather thousands of data points, and we can solve this with the power of statistics. “Thousands of data points” might sound scary, but there’s an easy way to quickly get those thousands of data points: paid ads on Meta.

There, you can find your audience—B2B or B2C, I would note—and see if they care about what it is that you tell them they need to fix. The way we measure this interest is via the click-through rate on the ads. 

I know what you’re thinking: CTR is a terrible metric, and only terrible marketers use it to justify why they can’t make money. Hold on a second: think of a simple ad as a simple one-question survey. What you’re asking is “do you want this?” and the overwhelming answer will be “no”.

But if someone clicks? That’s a yes. 

We’re not building the whole of your marketing process yet. We’re just measuring interest at the beginning of the buyer’s journey.

Notice I didn’t say “top of the sales funnel.” I [personally think the “sales funnel” is a terrible model, but let’s just focus on the buyer’s journey as a series of discrete steps instead of getting sidetracked.

If we’re just measuring interest at the surface level, CTR is a perfectly fine metric to start with, but the catch is that you can’t use any of the marketing tricks you know to boost CTR. 

Attractive ads get clicks because they’re attractive. You don’t want to manipulate your ad performance that way. So you have to make stupid-looking ads like this:

What we’re doing here is seeing if people who are not actively looking for your product, but who you target as interested in your product, might interrupt their latest doom scroll to check you out.

You want to see 3 things here:

1. How many people click? Is your CTR north of 1%

2. What was that cost per click? Was it less than 1.3% of your LTV?

3. How long was time on site? Was it over 30 seconds?

If you get a yes to all of these, you have an interested audience. If you don’t get a yes to them, then either your ad doesn’t get people’s interest (low CTR), your audience is maybe too expensive to acquire through paid channels (high CPC), or your landing page isn’t very compelling (low time on site).

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💡 Minimum viable sprint ads run with a $100 budget for just 48 hours. That’s it. You’ll get thousands of data points (by which I mean “impressions” which either did or did not lead to a click) per ad. You’ll get statistically relevant data for any marketing question you want answered in just 2 days.

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If you have an interested audience, you go from “Awareness” stage of that pyramid and start to figure out how to get the buyer across the attention gap and into an Acquisition mindset.

Let me explain with a story:

Growing GrowthSpace’s Addressable Market

GrowthSpace is an HR tech company that provides training to people in mid to large companies. This is a really crowded space and they faced headwinds from numerous competitors, some of whom were substantially better funded than they were. 

Key challenges for companies in the HR software space often include:

– High customer acquisition costs on platforms like LinkedIn
– Difficulty in distinguishing themselves in crowded markets
– Ineffective lead generation and conversion strategies
– Limited budget for extensive marketing campaigns

Their LinkedIn-focused strategy worked, but it was expensive, with costs per lead over $200. This limited who they could provide services to, simply because they needed to keep their pricing high enough to still thrive on a high cost per lead.

By implementing our data-driven approach and Minimum Viable Sprints (MVS) methodology, we were able to dramatically transform GrowthSpace’s marketing strategy and results:

1. Diversified Lead Generation:
We expanded beyond LinkedIn, using platforms like Meta (where we dropped CPL to $36) and finally Pinterest (where we dropped CPL to just $12). This diversification not only reduced dependency on a single, expensive channel but also opened up new audience segments.

2. Significantly Reduced Acquisition Costs:
By optimizing campaigns across multiple platforms and continuously refining targeting, we managed to bring down the cost per lead from over $200 to under $20. This 90% reduction in acquisition costs was a game-changer for GrowthSpace and helped them find a new addressable market and persuasively argue to investors that they were ready for a follow-up round of investment to tackle this new opportunity.

3. Data-Driven Decision Making:
By implementing our MVS methodology, GrowthSpace adopted a culture of continuous testing and optimization. This allowed them to make informed decisions quickly and adapt their strategy based on real-time data.

Putting this into practice (another story)

Hippoc, an innovative AI-powered ad performance prediction tool, faced challenges typical of many tech startups:

– Difficulty in gaining market trust despite groundbreaking technology
– Struggle to convert interest into actual sales
– Limited resources for extensive marketing campaigns
– Need to prove market potential to secure funding

Applying a data-driven Minimum Viable Sprints (MVS) made a huge difference, and quickly:

1. Cost-Efficient Acquisition:
Our targeted approach led to a 66% decrease in Cost-Per-Lead (CPL), making customer acquisition much more sustainable.

2. Validated Market Potential:
The improved metrics provided concrete evidence of Hippoc’s market viability, crucial for investor confidence.

3. Funding Success:
Our efforts contributed to Hippoc securing $3.5 million in funding, a testament to the effectiveness of the strategy.

How You Do It?

You’ve got to approach these challenges using what we call a Minimum Viable Sprints (MVS) methodology—which I’ve already outlined above. Here’s our general process:

1. Foundational Research and Branding
    – Conduct market and competitor analysis
    – Develop initial messaging, taglines, and branding
    – Create ideal customer profiles (ICP) and go-to-market strategies

2. Broad Targeting
    – Launch initial campaigns on Meta and use interest targeting to see what people click on
    – Gather data on engagement and performance

3. Iterative Refinement
    – Analyze data to identify promising audience segments
    – Refine targeting based on initial results

4. Focused Targeting
    – Hone in on specific niches that show high engagement
    – Optimize ad copy and creative for these segments

5. Retargeting and Conversion Optimization
    – Implement retargeting campaigns for engaged users
    – Focus on converting interested leads into customers

Throughout this process, we maintain a data-driven approach, constantly testing and iterating to improve results.

1. Cost-Efficient Acquisition:
Our targeted approach led to a 66% decrease in Cost-Per-Lead (CPL), making customer acquisition much more sustainable.

2. Validated Market Potential:
The improved metrics provided concrete evidence of Hippoc’s market viability, crucial for investor confidence.

3. Funding Success:
Our efforts contributed to Hippoc securing $3.5 million in funding, a testament to the effectiveness of the strategy.

Lessons & Results

There are a few key things to learn here.

1. Data-driven marketing is a little bit slower at each step—building one level of that pyramid at a time feels slower than launching a fully-finished marketing “funnel” at once.

a. But overall, it gives you faster, more predictable performance on a campaign before you ramp up spend too much. This is very efficient and removes a lot of stress around big launches once you finally execute them. I’ve launched $100k / month campaigns at 5pm on a Wednesday and slept just fine that night because I already knew they were going to work.

2. Iterative testing is crucial for finding the most effective messaging and targeting. I am wrong 90% of the time when I create ads and ad copy, But I’m only wrong for $100. That’s not so bad.

3. Counter-intuitively, I recommend you start any marketing campaign with a paid approach. I used to run marketing for a company with an email list of 3 million people. A good subject line could earn $50k more on a weekly sales email than a bad one. How do we test that? We run MVS campaigns on Meta three days before the email went out, telling us which headlines were the most clickable.

Advice

For teams facing similar challenges:

1. Don’t rely solely on expensive platforms like LinkedIn; explore alternatives like Meta or Pinterest.

2. Invest in foundational branding and messaging, but avoid overspending on non-essential materials.

3. Use interactive workshops to define company beliefs and needs.

4. Focus on practical business characteristics when developing target personas.

5. Employ a methodical, data-driven approach to marketing efforts.

6. Be open to exploring new market segments if initial targeting proves ineffective.

The post How to reliably build a million-dollar marketing engine starting with $100. appeared first on CXL.

With iOS 18 rolling out, email marketers need to get ready for some big changes. In a recent CXL Feed video, Jessica Best, email marketing expert and CXL instructor, walked through the Apple Intelligence updates and how they are shaking up email marketing strategies. Let’s break down what you need to know and how to adjust your strategy to stay ahead.

What’s New in iOS 18?

Apple is rolling out Apple Intelligence—a feature that’s, among other things, going to change how emails get sorted, summarized, and displayed. Sound familiar? It’s similar to Gmail’s promotions tab, but with a twist. Here’s what to expect:

• Inbox Sorting: Emails will automatically be categorized into primary, shopping, and promotions tabs. While this might lower your email’s visibility, remember what happened with Gmail: users still check the promotions tab when they’re in the mood for deals.
  
• Inbox Summary: This is where things get interesting. Apple’s AI could generate a short summary of your email right in the inbox, letting users get the gist without opening the full message. Jessica sees this as “the biggest opportunity for email marketers”—if your email copy is on point, the AI-generated summary might do the hard work for you.
  
• Priority Notifications: Apple is also introducing smarter notifications, ranking some emails higher than others. It’s not clear yet how Apple will decide which emails get priority, but content quality and relevance are sure to play a role.

How to Adjust Your Email Marketing Strategy

As Jessica Best explains, copy is going to matter more than ever with iOS 18. Here’s what to do:

1. Focus on Quality Copy, Starting with the Subject Line

Your subject line and pre-header text are key. They’re already crucial for driving opens, but with iOS 18, they might influence how Apple’s AI scores and summarizes your email. Make these elements count, as they’ll help your email stand out.

Best practice: Write your subject line and pre-header like they’re pitching both the user and Apple’s AI. Clear, engaging copy here will make a difference.

2. Use Alt Text and True Text (Not Just Images)

Relying on images alone won’t cut it anymore. iOS 18’s AI may not recognize text within images, which could leave your email looking blank. And don’t forget about accessibility—alt text helps visually impaired users, and now, it might also help Apple’s AI better understand your email.

Best practice: Use a good mix of text and images, and make sure every image has descriptive alt text. This is already a best practice, but it’s even more important with these updates.

3. Test Across Devices

It’s a good habit to test how your emails display on different devices. Tools like Email on Acid and Litmus let you preview your emails in various environments, so you can see how your content looks in both dark and light mode, across screen sizes, and on different operating systems.

Best practice: Start testing your emails now on iOS devices, so you’ll be ready for the iOS 18 update. Check your designs on multiple screen sizes and configurations to ensure your emails look great everywhere.

4. Avoid All-Image Emails

Emails that are just one big image aren’t a good idea anymore—if they ever were. If Apple’s AI can’t read the text in an image, your message may not get summarized properly, and if images don’t load, your email could appear empty.

Best practice: Shift to a more balanced design that uses both text and images. Make sure your emails deliver value even if the images don’t load.

What to Watch For

As iOS 18 rolls out, stay tuned for updates. According to Jessica, tools like Email on Acid should offer previews of how Apple Intelligence will process and summarize emails. These insights will help you keep refining your strategy.

Final Thoughts

The iOS 18 update is going to bring some big changes to email marketing, but you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. If you’re already following best practices—using alt text, balancing text and images, and testing across devices—you’re in good shape. As Jessica puts it, “Start avoiding all-image emails now, and use alt text because accessibility already deems that important.”

By focusing on high-quality content, keeping an eye on new developments, and making your emails easy for both users and AI to read, you’ll be ready to succeed with iOS 18.

The post How iOS 18 Will Impact Email Marketing: What You Need to Know appeared first on CXL.

Paul Boag, an expert in user experience (UX) design and conversion rate optimization (CRO), shares how AI has revolutionized his work. He explains that AI has “made my job a lot easier,” offering tools that simplify user research and provide new ways to gather and analyze data. In this blog, we’ll explore how AI is transforming user research, the advantages it offers, and why user research is crucial for UX and CRO. We’ll also break down the step-by-step processes Paul uses to integrate AI into his workflow.

Why User Research Matters in UX and CRO

User research is key to creating effective UX designs and improving conversion rates. By understanding what users need, how they behave, and what challenges they face, businesses can make their websites and apps more user-friendly and effective.

In UX, user research helps designers build interfaces that are intuitive and enjoyable. Boag points out that “user research can be difficult and time-consuming… because it’s challenging to understand and interpret what you’re learning as a user researcher.” Despite these challenges, the insights gained are invaluable for making designs that truly meet user needs.

For CRO, user research identifies the barriers that prevent users from completing desired actions, like signing up or making a purchase. Boag uses a simple yet powerful approach: “If you decided not to sign up today, it would be helpful to know why.” This question uncovers objections and concerns that businesses can address directly, improving their chances of converting users.

Without thorough user research, UX and CRO efforts can miss the mark, leading to designs and strategies that don’t resonate with users. By making user research a priority, businesses ensure that their decisions are based on real user insights, not assumptions.

Common Challenges in User Research

Although user research is essential, it often comes with significant challenges:

1. Data Overload: Platforms like Google Analytics and Hotjar provide large amounts of data, but making sense of it all can be overwhelming. Boag notes, “Whether it’s Google Analytics, whether it’s Hotjar, wherever you’ve got a large amount of data, working through and getting understandings and insights… can be really difficult.” This can make it hard to focus on what’s most important.
   
2. Analyzing Open-Ended Surveys: Surveys with open-ended questions give valuable qualitative insights but can be intimidating to analyze manually. Boag says, “If you haven’t run a survey and have an open-ended question and you’re faced with hundreds, if not thousands of answers… that is intimidating.” Sorting through this data to find common themes is time-consuming and complex.
   
3. Handling Interview Transcripts: User interviews are rich in insights but managing the transcripts can be a challenge. Boag describes the difficulty of finding specific comments or recurring themes: “You’re then faced with transcripts of these conversations. Where did someone say that? And I’m sure I remember this, but I can’t remember where or how to find it.” Manually reviewing transcripts is a tedious process that can delay research outcomes.

AI provides solutions to these challenges by automating data analysis and simplifying the process of extracting insights from user feedback.

The Advantages of Using AI for User Research

AI enhances user research by speeding up processes, improving accuracy, and enabling deeper analysis. Here are some key benefits of using AI in user research:

1. Automated Data Analysis: AI can quickly process large datasets, whether from surveys or analytics tools, to identify patterns and trends that might be missed by human analysis. Boag mentions, “AI is an amazing tool that helps you… understand data.” This automation saves time and allows researchers to focus on drawing meaningful conclusions.
   
2. Enhanced Qualitative Analysis: AI’s natural language processing capabilities are especially useful for analyzing open-ended survey responses and interview transcripts. Boag uses ChatGPT to analyze survey responses and rank common themes, which makes it easier to see what’s most important. He notes, “It’ll take a few minutes to look through all of those answers… with Ai, it’s not a few minutes, but a few seconds.” This speed allows researchers to get valuable insights quickly.
   
3. Scalability: AI makes it possible to scale research efforts without increasing the workload. Boag emphasizes that AI tools enable researchers to “do so much more user research than you’ve ever done before,” because the tools handle much of the heavy lifting. This scalability is crucial for businesses looking to expand their research capabilities or handle large datasets.
   
4. Improved Accuracy and Consistency: AI analyzes data with a high level of accuracy and consistency, reducing the risk of human error. This objective approach ensures that the insights derived are reliable and unbiased.
   
5. Faster Iterations and Better UX: AI helps businesses respond to user feedback faster, allowing them to make improvements more quickly. Boag points out that AI allows researchers to “look at information in ways that I’ve never been able to do before as a user researcher.” This ability to rapidly interpret data leads to better user experiences and more effective design updates.

Step-by-Step Process for Using AI in Survey Analysis

Boag outlines a straightforward approach to using AI for analyzing open-ended survey responses, addressing one of the biggest hurdles in user research:

1. Download and Upload Survey Data: Boag begins by downloading the survey results as a CSV file and uploading it to ChatGPT. He explains, “You literally just drag and drop it [the CSV file] to ChatGPT.”
   
2. Prompt ChatGPT for Analysis: Once the file is uploaded, Boag uses specific prompts to guide ChatGPT. For example, he asks, “Attached is a survey asking the question, ‘If you decided not to sign up today, it would be useful to know why. Please, can you identify common themes?’” ChatGPT then sifts through the responses, identifies patterns, and ranks them by frequency.
   
3. Review and Act on Insights: The analysis quickly reveals actionable insights. For instance, ChatGPT might highlight “cost being too high” as a top reason why users don’t convert. By ranking the most common themes, Boag can prioritize which issues to address first, making it easier to focus on what will have the biggest impact on conversions.

This process, which once could take days, now takes only minutes, thanks to AI’s powerful data processing capabilities.

Using AI Tools for Interview Analysis

User interviews provide deep insights but are often underused due to the effort required to analyze them. Boag introduces Fathom, an AI tool that automates the transcription and analysis of interviews, making it a valuable addition to any researcher’s toolkit.

How to Use Fathom for Interview Analysis:

• Automated Notes and Highlights: Fathom automatically generates meeting notes and highlights key themes from the interview. Boag explains, “It’s created these meeting notes for me… covering all of the different areas of improvements or things that the user wants.”
  
• Easy Navigation and Search: With Fathom, users can jump directly to specific parts of the conversation, saving time otherwise spent manually searching through transcripts. Boag says, “I can jump through to any of these [questions] and see what response I got to those questions,” showing how the tool’s features make data more accessible.
  
• Ask Specific Questions: Users can also ask Fathom specific questions about the interview content, like “What were the main pain points experienced by this user?” The AI pulls insights directly from the transcript, giving researchers the ability to focus on strategic analysis rather than manual data extraction.

These capabilities make Fathom a powerful tool for anyone looking to get the most out of their user interviews, turning raw data into actionable insights quickly and efficiently.

The Future of User Research with AI

AI is not just a tool for speeding up user research; it is changing the entire approach to how researchers work. By automating routine tasks, scaling efforts, and providing deeper insights, AI allows researchers to focus on strategy and creative problem-solving.

Boag’s experience shows that embracing AI in user research leads to more effective and efficient outcomes. As he concludes, “Go and try these tools, because you’ll find that you can do so much more user research than you’ve ever done before, because it’s so much quicker and you’ll get better results too.” For UX and CRO professionals, using AI is no longer optional—it’s becoming essential for staying competitive and delivering the best user experiences.

The post How To Use AI to Increase Efficiency in Your User Research appeared first on CXL.

As AI tools become increasingly popular, there’s no denying their speed and affordability. Many businesses, writers, and marketers rely on AI to churn out content efficiently. However, AI-generated copy often lacks depth and uniqueness, resulting in generic output. Think about how many blog posts you’ve seen that begin with “In today’s fast-paced digital landscape…”

While AI is great at making copy clear and concise, it often struggles with the final two key principles of effective copywriting: credibility and compelling persuasion. This blog will explore a process that helps you write with AI while enhancing it with “voice of customer” (VoC) data to create more compelling content and drive higher conversions.

The Four Pillars of Persuasive Copywriting

When writing persuasive copy, there are four essential steps:

1. Clear – The message must be easy to understand.
2. Concise – It should get to the point quickly.
3. Credible – The copy should feel trustworthy and real.
4. Compelling – It must create a strong emotional response that motivates the reader to take action.

AI writing tools excel in clarity and conciseness. They can organize thoughts, structure sentences, and deliver a sharp, easy-to-read piece of copy. But, they often fall short when it comes to credibility and emotional engagement. Why? Because all AI tools draw from the same pool of content and data available online, making it challenging to craft something truly unique, creative, or moving.

Eden sums it up well: “One of the things that AI can do is keep things short, simple, and to the point. But if the copy doesn’t include unique insights, you just end up with something that feels generic and lacks any real credibility.”

The Key to Better Copy: Voice of Customer (VoC)

Voice of Customer (VoC) is the game-changer when writing with AI. It’s all about using the exact language that customers use when describing their needs, desires, and pain points. This makes the copy feel authentic, relatable, and compelling—qualities that AI struggles to replicate without direction.

Here’s why VoC is so powerful:

• Real: It sounds like something a person would say to a friend in a casual conversation.
• Unique: It’s not copy-pasted from some standard marketing script. It’s fresh and makes immediate sense.
• Highly detailed: VoC paints a vivid picture, helping readers easily grasp what you’re saying.

“If you’re not bringing in the voice of customer, your copy will feel detached,” Eden explains. “It won’t have the same resonance as a real conversation between two people. VoC injects that relatability and realness that AI alone can’t achieve.”

If your copy ticks all three of these VoC boxes, you’re on the right track. Even a two-out-of-three can significantly boost your message’s effectiveness.

Using AI to Kickstart Your Copy, and VoC to Enhance It

So, how do you take the output from that you wrote with AI and elevate it with VoC data? Let’s walk through a simple, actionable process you can start using today.

Step 1: Write with AI

Begin by prompting your AI tool to write basic copy. A simple prompt might be, “Write a headline for a landing page selling a luxury work bag to professional women.” The AI will generate something like, “The Perfect Bag for Every Professional Woman,” or “Stylish and Functional: Elevate Your Work with Our Luxury Bag.”

Clear? Yes. Concise? Absolutely. But credible or compelling? Not quite.

This is where most people stop, but you can go further.

Step 2: Find Your VoC

To level up the AI-generated copy, you need to incorporate real language that resonates with your audience. This is where VoC comes in. You can gather VoC data from customer reviews, testimonials, Reddit threads, social media comments, or even customer interviews.

For instance, when researching luxury work bags, one Reddit user mentioned how they loved a bag because “the strap is pillowy and doesn’t dig into my shoulder.” This small detail—”pillowy strap”—can completely change the tone of your copy.

As Eden highlights: “VoC is everywhere. Go to product reviews, Reddit threads, Facebook groups, or surveys. People are constantly giving you the words you need to use. You’re just refining them.”

Step 3: Combine AI Output with VoC Data

Now, take the AI-written copy and integrate the VoC data. Instead of the generic headline “Stylish and Functional: Elevate Your Work with Our Luxury Bag,” you can craft something more vivid and relatable: “A Luxury Work Bag That’s Gentle on Your Shoulders, Built for Your Busy Day.”

Immediately, you can see the difference. The second headline is still clear and concise, but now it’s also credible and compelling. It speaks directly to a pain point (heavy bags that hurt) and offers a specific solution (pillowy straps), which customers can easily visualize.

“Once you start using customer language, you’ll see your engagement metrics shift. It’s about making your copy feel like it’s coming from a real person who understands the buyer,” says Eden.

Step 4: Fine-Tune for Impact

If you want to push it further, take the improved headline and refine it even more. Swap out words, play with sentence structure, or test multiple variations. Keep the key VoC insights intact, but experiment with how you present them.

For example, “Luxury Work Bags Designed with You in Mind—Pillowy Straps for All-Day Comfort” could resonate even more with an audience that prioritizes comfort in addition to style.

Why This Process Works

By combining AI’s strengths in structure and efficiency with VoC’s ability to humanize your copy, you’re setting yourself up for better results. You’re moving from generic claims to specific, relatable, and engaging messaging. Plus, the process is quick and scalable: AI does the heavy lifting of producing raw content, and VoC provides the finesse and authenticity to make that content truly persuasive.

Eden captures this well: “You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. AI can save you time, but it’s the human touch—through VoC—that gets you across the finish line.”

In Conclusion

AI writing tools are a powerful resource, but they alone are not enough to produce high-converting copy. By understanding the four principles of effective copywriting—clear, concise, credible, and compelling—and adding VoC data, you can write content that resonates on a deeper level with your audience.

The next time you write something with AI, don’t just settle for what it gives you. Leverage the voice of your customer to elevate the message and truly stand out from the crowd.

The post How to write better than AI: Take your copywriting to the next level appeared first on CXL.

Tycho Luijten, Founder of B2B Growth Agency, Dapper, unpacks how they effectively used a demand generation strategy to grow the scale-up’s pipeline of qualified leads by over 300% (from 50 per month to 170) in as little as six months.

Introduction

B2B marketing is hard:

– Marketing and sales cycles are long
– Propositions are complex and rarely glamorous
– Measuring what works is hard
– Audiences are often super niche

But that’s precisely what I love about B2B marketing. I like the need for strategic thinking and long-term vision. That’s why I started an agency five years ago that primarily focuses on helping B2B scale-ups grow.

This case is about a FinTech, OPP, that our agency helped triple their qualified leads in a little less than six months.

A Fintech scale-up with a scaling challenge

In May 2023, the new CMO of Online Payment Platform (OPP), Reza, reached out to me via LinkedIn. He was looking for an agency to improve OPP’s marketing efforts.

Online Payment Platform is a Dutch FinTech scale-up that offers payment solutions specifically designed for marketplaces. Their solution makes buying and selling on marketplaces simpler, faster, and more secure. 

When I met Reza, OPP already had a strong client base in The Netherlands. They served some of the country’s largest marketplaces. OPP clearly had momentum. 

However, OPP wanted to expand beyond The Netherlands into Germany, France, the UK, and Belgium, with plans to eventually reach the rest of Europe.

This was easier said than done, given the fierce competition in the market. OPP was up against much larger competitors with much deeper pockets. The challenge was to stand out with marketing budgets that were tiny in comparison to the giants they were going up against.

“We have a billboard.”

I asked the team at OPP about their current marketing efforts. The Founder mentioned that he had purchased a large billboard on top of the old apartment building where he used to live (see picture below).

He admitted that the billboard might not be the most effective way to reach their ideal customers.

Beyond the billboard, their marketing and sales approach was quite traditional. Most of their clients came through old-school sales tactics and the Founder’s personal network.

However, the new CMO, Reza, had a strong vision for demand generation that aligned perfectly with our agency’s approach to B2B marketing.

Let’s simplify B2B Marketing

My approach to B2B marketing is straightforward. I might even oversimplify it, but I prefer to avoid complex funnels that don’t reflect what happens in the real world. I believe in the school of thought that B2B marketing can be divided into two main categories:

1. Demand Capture

When a prospect is actively looking for your solution, your goal is to capture that demand as effectively as possible. How can you do this? Some key strategies include:

– SEA and SEO for high-intent keywords
– A well-optimized website designed for conversion
– A strong presence on comparison websites
– Direct outreach
– Etc.

The challenge is that most of your prospects (about 97% of them) aren’t actively searching for your solution right at this very moment. Plus, most of your competitors are also focusing efforts on capturing the existing demand in the market, so this is always a very competitive space, regardless of your industry.

2. Demand Generation

Demand Generation, on the other hand, is about reaching prospects who aren’t currently searching for your solution but might be in the future – whether that’s in a month or a year from now.

The goal is to stay visible to these potential future customers so that when they do need your solution, they’ll think of you first. Demand Generation is about building mental availability and getting on the shortlist of your future customers when they need what you are selling.

This is commonly referred to as “becoming famous in your niche.” When your niche thinks of your category, you want them to think of you!

The formula for Demand Generation in its most basic form is simple:

1. Create content that demonstrates how you solve your prospect’s problem.

2. Consistently and frequently share that content with your ideal customers.

This could include:

– Short-form content on LinkedIn
– Podcasts
– A newsletter
– And more…

Making OPP famous in their niche

Reza and I agreed that the primary focus of our marketing should be on Demand Generation. We knew we couldn’t outspend the big competitors on Google Ads, but we could outcompete them by giving OPP a face.

Our goal was clear: every marketplace should have OPP top of mind.

Here’s how we set up Demand Generation for OPP:

1. We defined the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

Their ideal customer was straightforward: marketplaces of all sizes. For larger companies, we targeted product owners who were in charge of payments. For smaller companies, we focused on Founders or CEOs.

2. We defined what we wanted to become famous for

We decided to create content that showcased OPP’s expertise in payments for marketplaces and their deep understanding of their challenges and needs.

The content needed to be high quality, educational, and, most importantly, valuable to their ICP.

Additionally, we wanted to humanize the brand by showing the faces behind the company, unlike the faceless big competitors. We decided to hero the Founder and other key players in the content. The so-called ‘Subject Matter Experts’.

3. We defined content formats and systems 

We chose video content as our primary format. We often see that video content is the most effective format to build recognition and trust. In this case especially, because we featured real people from OPP.

We started organizing video shoots with the Subject Matter Experts on a regular basis. We know that for Demand Generation to be effective, we needed to be visible constantly and consistently.

Content would be the fuel driving our approach. So, instead of just planning one video shoot, we created a system for ongoing content production and refinement.

4. We defined the content distribution

The next step was to get the content in front of the eyes of their prospects. All video content was shared organically on the personal LinkedIn profiles of those featured in the videos.

For paid advertising, LinkedIn was our most effective channel. We uploaded the hitlist from the sales teams to secure visibility on their ideal clients’ timelines. We ran ads on the company’s LinkedIn account, and we ran thought-leader ads from the personal accounts of those featured in the videos.

– – –

For those unfamiliar with thought-leader ads, this is a type of advert where you use a personal profile to advertise from. People are more receptive to ads from individuals than from companies, making this approach very effective.

– – –

In addition to LinkedIn, we also retargeted website visitors on YouTube with the same video content to ensure OPP stayed top of mind when prospects were considering their options.

The distribution goal was simple: we wanted to be in front of the ICP as often as possible.

300% qualified lead growth in 6 months

The first results were soft signals, and hard to quantify in numbers. The sales reps featured in the content started getting positive responses from the prospects on their videos.

This might sound like it doesn’t mean a lot, but usually, when we see companies invest in Demand Generation as an approach, the first positive signal is that their prospects actually like and refer to their content. 

Not too long after, the sales department noticed a slight increase in inbound calls from prospects. The prospects on the phone would tell them that they saw OPP on LinkedIn. 

The significant impact on qualified pipeline came faster than we anticipated. We began working with OPP in August and launched our first campaigns in September. Just four months later, the number of qualified leads per month had more than tripled. At the same time, the quality was also noticeably better. The ideal customer came knocking on the door.

Attributing the growth

In closing, it’s important to mention that not necessarily all of this growth can be attributed to demand generation initiatives alone. At the same time that we launched the campaigns, they also went live with a new brand identity and website.

As mentioned at the beginning: B2B marketing is complex. Unfortunately, it almost  never happens that a prospect clicks on a single LinkedIn advert and buys your solution directly from the landing page – we are not selling sneakers here.

The average B2B prospect hits about a 100 touchpoints across numerous channels before even considering buying from you.  

Therefore it doesn’t make much sense to judge the performance of a single ad, campaign or even one whole channel in isolation. We look at the marketing machine from a helicopter perspective: Is everything we’re doing leading to a positive ROI and business growth?

In this case of OPP, it was very clear, that everything together, were doing a very good job.

Maybe B2B marketing isn’t so hard after all?

The post B2B Demand Generation Strategy: Become famous in your niche and watch your pipeline grow appeared first on CXL.

In this post, I am going to share a story of a growth case that I personally had the privilege of being part of. This is by no stretch a famous company or well-known industry, but it’s important to also spotlight cases like these, as not every success story comes in the form of a big, famous brand.

The challenges and tactics we used to overcome them are much more relatable than a unicorn’s success.

Setting the stage

Back in 2019, after a few years serving as a brand and content strategist at some big-name agencies in Cape Town, I decided that agency life was not for me, and I wanted to explore the other side of the table to see if I don’t like it a little more.

I had no plan or specific industry or brand I wanted to work for. I just wanted the opportunity to play around with internal budgets, drive strategy, make an impact and most of all learn what it’s like to lead my own marketing team. 

I landed a job at a Canadian Immigration Consultancy facing some interesting growth challenges. 

In this post, I will unpack those challenges and tell you how we leveraged high-quality content, a brand refresh, and repositioning to break through and double the revenue to 7 figures in 2 years.

The company, service, and challenge

The company:

A Canadian Immigration Consultancy with multiple websites targeting different regions and audiences.

The service:

Immigration and visa services by government-certified Immigration Lawyers (called RCICs).

These services ranged from affordable survey-based system-generated evaluations, to human-generated profile-based evaluations, all the way through to full service application and immigration guidance, with a price tag spanning well into the thousands of Dollars for bigger families moving over.

The Setup:

When I started there in 2019, they were pushing around 2 million website visits per year on the main site and doing a solid 6-figure revenue. By the end of 2021, we managed to double that and set the stage for rapid, sustained growth.

The Challenge:

There was a unique set of challenges. Driving traffic was not one of them. Converting that traffic into leads and sales was the hard part. Why? The industry is notorious for scams.

I’m not here to explain how the Canadian Immigration system works, but it’s good to know there’s over a 100 different visa options available and the government actively invites immigrants into the country to help grow the economy. So much so that they have government certified representatives that can advise and help people navigate the landscape and help them with their applications.

You will be astonished to know how many people want to move to Canada. It’s a serious business.

Just to put this into perspective, here is a screenshot I still have from our Google Analytics account back then. (Not even sure why I saved out the date range like this, but what is important, is to note is the growth over this period.)

The growth story?

How did we manage to overcome the conversion issues? Here’s a hint, it was not by any fancy conversion optimization techniques, or excessive a/b testing. Sure, we did that as well, but, we had bigger problems to solve.

We focused on building trust among our audience:

1) High-quality, informative, educational content.

2) Go to war against scammers pretending to be us.

3) Double down on exceptional customer service.

4) Showcase customer immigration stories.

5) Reposition from “Canadian Visa Company” to “Canadian lifestyle and immigration knowledge center”

1) High-quality, informative, educational content.

My job was everything that touched brand and content. When I started, there was a designer who worked two days a week and two blog writers slaving away at braindead SEO content. The rest of the strategy relied on paid media and email marketing, spamming the living shit out of anyone and everyone who dares to pick up a cookie we can target. “Move to Canada Today” read the headlines of the ads that pointed to a cold, washed-out, industry-standard website full of cringe stock images of from the first-page search results of “lawyer” on Shutterstock.

Tapping into dreams of a better life abroad, people clicked the ads and search results. It got millions of people on the website, but that’s where most of them just dropped off. 

We went back to the drawing board. What content do people want and need when they might be interested in moving to Canada. How do we help them with one of the biggest, most expensive life decisions one could make. Instead of telling them it’s easy, let’s put in the work, dumb it down and really answer the questions they have. 

Within a few months we quadrupled our content team and 10x our output. Strong writers and designers capable of flushing all our channels with high-quality content. We went after the questions people ask on Google and changed our tone on our ads to build pipeline instead of just trying to tap into dreams. “Want to learn more about moving to Canada?“, “Canada is in serious need of medical nurses, find out if you qualify“. 

We linked the ads to highly relevant blogs and videos clearly explaining the opportunity as well as the visa options linked to it.

It wasn’t long before the quality of our leads and engagements got better. But, that wasn’t enough. Converting to sales was still blocked by one big problem. Uncertainty if it’s a scam.

2 and 3) Fight the scams and double down on trust-building customer service.

The content wasn’t enough to convince everyone that we are a legitimate service. At some point the scams were so bad that we tracked down a fake copy of our site on a weekly basis. We declared war, and started hunting down these websites and scammers, reporting them, and getting them taken down. All while managing reviews about our brand that was never even about us, but someone pretending to be us or one of our RCICs.

This was an operational nightmare, but we set up a task force and managed to get our reviews in a positive place. Sometimes even going as far as pay someone the money they lost in a scam to go remove or update their review.

We went up from below a 1-star average to a stable 4+ across all domains. We also launched a review site to help those interested in moving over make informed decisions. Calling out scams and dodgy websites publicly. This site ended up getting more traffic than our main site and ultimately drove a bunch of referral traffic to our domain. Becoming our highest-converting traffic source, at 17%.

4) Showcase customer stories.

This doesn’t need a lot of attention; you all know the power of authentic customer reviews. But Trustpilot reviews were not enough. We needed more power here. We started giving discounts or paying customers who would provide us with videos telling their stories about how we helped them and their loved ones make the move to Canada. We started showcasing these on the website and social media. We could immediately start seeing conversion rates go up. 

5) Finally – Reposition from “Canadian Visa Company” to “Canadian lifestyle and immigration knowledge center”.

Where things really got exciting was when we decided to put a cherry on top of all the positive signs we were seeing. We launched a fully revamped brand identity. A fresh new look, updated website, and a positioning grounded in our new approach to informative, trustworthy, and educational content. We needed to stand out from the rest of the industry and make our website and content harder to copy while being the trusted source of information to our audience.

Learnings and conclusion.

In two years we managed to take this company from fighting against scammers to thriving as one of the top, most trusted brands in the industry.

This was where I personally discovered the true power of high quality, informative content as growth lever to get ahead of competition and stand out in a challenging industry. 

Invest time into understanding what your customer need, what they are looking for and what content will build trust to solidify your position as the best in the industry, and watch all your numbers go up.

The post How content marketing doubled the revenue of an Immigration Consultancy in 2 years. appeared first on CXL.

There are over 2 billion active monthly Instagram users, and 70% of consumers turn to their Instagram feed when considering their next purchase. 

Amassing a large following on Instagram can help you at every stage of the marketing funnel—from bolstering brand awareness to driving conversions.   

In this post, we’ll walk you through how to use Instagram to reach more people and encourage them to become engaged followers.

13 principles to effectively grow your Instagram following 

The principles you are relying on to get more traffic, conversions, and sales on your website are the same ones you should use for your Instagram accounts. 

This article assumes you: 

• Already deeply know your audience and have conducted research to understand what types of posts will resonate with them; 
• Have a solid brand messaging strategy in play so you can emulate relevant, customer-centric content on social; 
• Have clearly defined goals tied to measurable metrics (e.g., how many follows you want to gain in a month or quarter); 
• Post consistently (or have curated a plan to) with a detailed content calendar.

We also do not recommend buying followers (if you do, reconsider). This tactic is a surefire way to sabotage your Instagram growth in the long term. Spending $10-$25 to acquire 1,000 followers sounds good, but the benefits stop at perceived value. Here’s why: 

• Your Instagram account could get banned: Instagram looks down on fake accounts, bots, and any account that relies on them. At the minimum, you can expect that Instagram will suspend all of your bot and fake followers over time. If the percentage of real to fake followers is too skewed, they’ll likely penalize or ban your account as well. 

• Your Instagram performance metrics will suffer: Fake followers and bots don’t like, comment, or view your posts after your initial purchase. This means that your post and story engagement ratios will decrease dramatically. When your engagement drops, you’ll lose organic reach on all of your posts.
     
• You’ll lose credibility: It is easy to tell if an account is buying followers. A tool like HypeAuditor lets you see the percentage of real to fake followers. You could also figure it out for yourself by looking for telltale signs, like low engagement rates on posts for the account size or segmenting followers with incomplete profiles or who only engage on posts in short bursts. 

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• You could be a victim of identity theft: Most of the businesses that sell Instagram followers or engagement are fly-by-night operations. They set up shop, make a lot of money, and then shut down before they get caught. These businesses will have access to your Instagram account and credit card details. Best case scenario, you buy your followers, and nothing happens. Worst case scenario, they steal your identity.  

1. Humanize your brand

It is tempting to hide behind your logo and share overly-polished corporate highlights. The brands that have the most success do the opposite. They find ways to build authenticity and cultivate connection by sharing their brand’s story consistently. 

Take U.K. fintech brand Tide. They consistently post stories that take you behind the scenes at their London HQ:

Each story gives you a sneak peek at their fun-loving, all-inclusive culture:

These stories show Tide’s employees engaging in commonplace, relatable activities—feeding treats to dogs and dressing up for Halloween. They also take a stance on important societal issues, such as mental health awareness:

These pictures speak a thousand words. The culture they foster is entrepreneurial and community-driven—traits reflected in their startup and small business target audience. 

They also prioritize the “work hard, play hard” mantra, a mindset shared by many entrepreneurs hustling to bring a new idea to market and scale. But they also recognize the need to prioritize mental health in order to avoid burnout, among other side effects, which 52% of employees report experiencing. 

You don’t have to scroll far to note that their overall messaging is skewed toward side hustles and small business owners: 

By showcasing their employees engaged in non-work activities, they open the door to building deeper connections with their target audience and demographic. We’re intrinsically wired to connect with one another, and understanding the importance of these social bonds is an excellent way to drive engagement and loyalty. 

Here are a few takeaways that you can learn from successful Instagram accounts like Tide: 

• Remember to be “social”: Respond to comments and direct messages from followers in a timely manner. You’ll build relationships faster and gain a better understanding of what posts resonate.

• Share behind-the-scenes takes: As noted with Tide, showing the human side of your team makes your brand more relatable, which is a key part of captivating your audience while also sharing what makes you unique and different.
  
• Share your story across different mediums: Leverage all of Instagram’s post formats to share your story (Instagram photos, Stories, Instagram Reels, Live Video, and IGTV). When it makes sense, adopt new features early on as the Instagram algorithm has been known to prioritize that content in people’s feeds.

2. Use your Instagram bio as a landing page

First impressions last, and on Instagram, your bio is usually the first point of reference for potential followers. To turn your bio into an effective landing page, it requires four characteristics. It needs to be:

• Concise: Make sure that your description is short and to the point, describing what you do and/or sell;
• Compelling: A strong call-to-action (CTA) helps capture IG users’ attention and convert them into loyal followers or at least make them curious about your content;
• Searchable: Use keywords that your ideal followers or customers search for. You could even amplify this by including a keyword in your handle or username, but be sure to keep this consistent across other social platforms;
• Recognizable: Use a clear profile pic, icon, or logo. (It’s a visual app after all, so make sure your followers can recognize your brand at a glance.)

Remember, you’re limited to 150 characters, so make sure you make the most of this prime real estate. 

Use line breaks to create a list format, separating various services or products you offer from your company tagline or branded hashtags. An easy way to do this is to edit your profile on your desktop.

BigCommerce showcases an exemplary bio landing page format. It uses keywords like “commerce,” “enterprise ecommerce,” and “shopping and retail” in its bio. It also uses the list format and its tagline “Enterprise ecommerce, simplified” tells you exactly what services it provides in just 3 words.

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The logo and branding remain consistent across platforms like X and Facebook, making them easily recognizable.

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When it comes to links, Instagram allows users to add up to five URLs. So, whether you want to link to your website, eCommerce store, podcast, latest articles, or other social platforms, you can do this in three easy steps:

• Step 1: Choose “Edit profile”; 
• Step 2: Select “Add link”; 
• Step 3: Click “Add external link.”

Although you can add multiple links in your bio, make sure that your first link is your primary CTA as it will likely get the most traffic. In other words, if you want to direct the most traffic to your website, make that your first link. 

In BigCommerce’s case, they’ve opted for Sproutsocial’s link-in-bio tool (Sproutlink)to highlight their latest articles with a CTA linking to their website.

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If you need to add more than five links, use a link-in-bio tool like Buffer’s Start Page. This allows you to maximize your reach by linking to an external multi-URL landing page, essentially combining multiple links in one.

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3. Create a narrative (not just a Story)

It’s no secret that our attention spans are dwindling. Consumers are looking for bite-sized chunks of content they can easily digest, making short-form videos, like IG Stories or Reels, the most palatable format for most viewers. According to Socialinsider, Reels has the highest overall performance rate, including the highest impression rate of any other post format on the platform. Meanwhile, Stories has a monthly completion rate of 87% (Flick).

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This makes short-form content the ideal way to reach and engage with a larger audience and grow your following.

Creating visually appealing short-form content is great but to really connect with your audience and make an impact, you have to understand what type of content they’re looking for. People want to feel heard and understood. To achieve this, you need to appeal to their emotions and give them a narrative.

Whether you aim to inspire or entertain, your content should trigger an emotive response.

Here are some useful tips:

• Vertical video format is a must;
• A strong hook two seconds in helps prevent skips, which hurts your ranking;
• Closed captions are gold, as a lot of people watch without sound;
• Be original—generic simply won’t cut if you want to move the needle.

IG also provides useful insights on Reels and Stories, which you can use to analyze what works and what doesn’t.

4. Keep your brand messaging consistent 

No matter what you post, or when, it needs to be easily recognizable and consistent. Whatever makes your brand stand out and differentiate, use that on Instagram, too. 

A consistent brand messaging strategy:

• Focuses on what sets you apart; 
• Does not try to appeal to everybody;
• Speaks directly to your audience (in their voice and to their intent). 

The more consistent you are with your messaging and brand, the more it will resonate with your followers (and attract new ones). Consistency also promotes habit-building. Partial habits take 25 days to build, and full habits take 50-60 days: 

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For example, if you post about a similar theme (like mental health awareness) at the same time on the same day each week, your audience will come to expect that. Building habitual anticipation is a great way to boost awareness and engagement, as it’s easy for followers to develop a habit of checking in, especially if it’s on a topic they care about.

SaaS company BigCommerce does this well.  Before every holiday, they highlight unique brands on their platform selling gift ideas:

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Here are their posts for Father’s Day and Mother’s Day, respectively:

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This consistency makes it easy for their audience to anticipate and appreciate gift idea posts. 

And in turn, engage with their platform on highly competitive ecommerce shopping days.

5. Curate content for each stage of the marketing funnel 

Besides consistent, high-quality brand messaging, you need a wide array of Instagram content to speak to every customer touchpoint. Use your customer journey map to inform your strategy. 

One B2B brand that does this well is social media scheduling platform Later. In this meme, they share educational content that helps social media managers do their job better: 

It’s relatable, prescriptive, and not overly salesy. Because it’s general in nature, it appeals to existing customers looking to improve their content creation strategy, as well as top-of-funnel prospects curious about how Later can help them improve. 

In another example, they highlight a platform-specific feature that appeals to bottom-of-funnel consideration prospects, as well as existing customers looking to level up their game:

By releasing product updates on Instagram, you expand your cross-selling and up-selling opportunities to potential customers on the edge of making a purchase as well as existing customers eager to take advantage of your latest offerings.

6. Repost/refresh high-performing content (the right way)

Once you’ve put out content and determined which posts have been successful you can not only use this to determine a winning formula but you can actually repost content as is. This not only saves you time and effort in creating new content but Instagram’s algorithm will actually prioritize it because it’s evident there’s already an audience for it. There are some hacks to implementing this technique effectively, though:

• Watermarks can negatively affect your ranking. Snapinsta is a useful tool that allows you to download your own content without watermarks;

• Refresh existing content by changing the hook of your post i.e., change the first three seconds; 
• It’s recommended to wait at least a week before reposting;
• It’s important to change the hashtags and description to avoid it being flagged as spam;
• Encourage users to comment on a post using a hashtag. This helps people find your post and drives engagement. It’s a win-win!

Top Tip: People want to feel heard and appreciated so it’s not enough to post and push engagement and not respond. Manychat is a useful automation tool that streamlines responding to posts, Stories, Reels, and DMs. This helps to create a targeted contact list and, ultimately, drives lead generation and increases sales by up to 60%.

7. Encourage shares rather than likes

Instagram loves engagement; in fact, it’s an important ranking factor. But meaningful engagement goes beyond simply clicking on a heart.To effectively engage users, focus on encouraging comments, follows, and shares, particularly DM shares, rather than saves and likes. Why? Well, let’s hear what Instagram CEO, Adam Mosseri, had to say in an interview with Buffer on June 10, 2024. (Skip to 9:50 for the good stuff, “How posts gain more reach”)

According to Mosseri, people seldom like and share content-they either do one or the other. When sharing content directly with friends or family, it’s more targeted as people know what resonates with them. So, it’s more likely that they will either explore more content on your feed or reshare the content with others, expanding your reach. 

Mosseri recommends looking at “sends per reach” and the percentage of reach that is “connected and unconnected” when determining what content works for your brand. In other words, what percentage comes from your followers versus what IG suggested to users? 

When it comes to maximizing shares, short-form content is better than longer video formats for two reasons. One, expecting friends or family to watch a 15-minute video can be a big ask, especially in our busy lives. And, two, viewers can consume a lot more content if you share 15-second videos than 15-minute videos. This means that short-form content is not only more likely to be shared but there’s a better chance that they will be consumed from start to finish.

When it comes to your feed, Mosseri said Instagram gives preference to content from accounts users follow and content your friends and family like. So, shares may not necessarily have weight there.

8. Leverage influencers to expand reach

The influencer marketing industry is estimated to be worth more than 24 billion dollars by the end of 2024. Partnering with the right influencers can help boost awareness and lead to more sales. 

One DTC brand that does influencer marketing well is meng’s grooming company Beardbrand. At any given time, they partner with several micro-influencers in the men’s beauty and fashion niche: 

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In the Reel above, they partnered with a men’s fashion blogger who shares how he recreates a specific beard style. This partnership makes sense since it is aligned with Beardbrand’s products, and helps Beardbrand tap into a like-minded audience that was previously beyond their reach. 

To run successful influencer marketing campaigns on Instagram:

• Don’t obsess over follower counts: Unless you have a nearly unlimited marketing budget, it pays to focus on niche micro-influencers (i.e. influencers that have anywhere from a few thousand to a million Instagram followers). It is tempting to work with an influencer with 25 million followers, but it will cost a lot more, and often the influencer has lost direct touch and access with their fans.
  
• Find influencers that resonate with your audience and align with your brand’s values: Before you reach out, do your homework. Look at their post history, follower list, engagement ratio, and any other brands they’ve highlighted on their account. For example, if your brand is big on sustainability, you don’t want to partner with an influencer who is promoting muscle cars and pick-up trucks.
  
• Be aware of influencer fraud: This is a growing problem. Some influencers will inflate their stats by buying followers or creating fake brand deals on their accounts.
  
• Start small: When working with a new influencer, start with a small project and measure their results. Then, keep testing results over time to maximize reach and conversions. 

We take a deep dive into these best practices and more in CXL’s influencer marketing course. 

9. Lean into whitelist advertising

Gaining traction, especially as a newer brand on IG can be challenging. Organic growth takes time and IG users often scroll past paid advertising. A newer technique that’s proven effective in gaining followers is whitelist advertising or influencer whitelisting. This technique involves advertising through influencers’ social media accounts or handles. 

Seeing as people are more likely to trust people than brands, this is an excellent way to target a warm audience. Whitelist advertising automatically gives you access to an audience that has already built a level of trust with the influencer. So, rather than having to try to win over or convert a new or “cold” audience, influencer ads come across as more authentic and yield better results than traditional ads.

According to entrepreneur Gretta van Riel, you could see “an uplift of around 1 ROAS” using this method. Here are some of van Riel’s tips for using this method effectively:

• Choosing the right influencer: look at the 3 R’s -: reach, relevancy, and relationship;
• Different content styles that convert.

10. Embrace social proof 

Social proof is invaluable. It boosts authenticity, builds trust, helps prove your value, and drives decision-making. 

Here are some ways to use social proof to your advantage on Instagram:

User-generated content

UGC works well because it shows real customers using your product or service. This helps potential customers see if a product is for them. 

This can range from product reviews and photos or videos of a customer using your product to more elaborate displays. 

House of Wise, a luxury CBD brand, does this well through its Instagram Stories. To ensure these reviews are easy to find, they’ve added them to their Instagram Highlights: 

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By amplifying customer content, House of Wise not only encourages reviewers to keep sharing feedback but also increases the reach for both accounts (a win-win). 

Importantly, the customer is advocating on their behalf without an incentive, which adds authenticity to the review:

Organize a giveaway 

If your offering has product-market fit and is highly demonstrative, UGC is often a natural side effect. However, sometimes you may need to incentivize customers to share. 

That’s where giveaways and contests can work well. Cabot Cheese teamed up with a winery to give away a wine and cheese box to two winners in exchange for participating in this Instagram giveaway: 

They kept the barrier to entry low without sacrificing virality. Contestants simply had to follow both brands and tag a friend in the comments to enter. This gave them more views and likes and incentivized more people to hit the follow button (it’s hard to pass up a chance to keep an eye out for a wine and cheese giveaway on your feed). 

Most people didn’t just tag a friend but they also left a comment that was either funny or explained what they would do if they won the giveaway:  

Positioned well, contests beget engagement. Once you set the ball in motion, your community will likely take hold and run with it. 

Repurposed reviews and feedback 

To double down on social proof, repurpose your testimonials and case studies into Instagram posts and videos.

Pipedrive does this well. Here, they share a video clip from one of their customer success stories: 

When you show real-life customers using your product, it makes it easier for prospects in that niche to see themselves using it too. 

A similar company that follows Pipedrive can watch this and easily envision how their product might benefit their business. They’ll be more likely to start a free trial or become a paying customer as a result. 

Display social proof in your bio 

A simple way to amplify social proof is to add it to your Instagram profile bio. You can incorporate it in your bio description, your clickable link in your bio, and even create your own branded hashtags (in your bio and posts).  

This is the first thing new people see when they follow your account. It is also the only clickable link that you can display on Instagram. If sales are your primary KPI, displaying social proof is a surefire way to help convert potential followers into followers and ultimately customers. 

11. Use relevant hashtags (and avoid trivial ones) 

Instagram hashtags have a very high search and headline presence, so including them in all of your posts is a must. They can help more people discover your content on Instagram. 

But don’t go overboard. Instagram’s algorithm will see right through your hashtag-stuffing attempt to get more eyeballs on your content and limit your organic reach. Not to mention, repeat offenders may get shadowbanned and have their content restricted without their knowledge.

It is best to use hashtags sparingly (e.g. no matter than 15 hashtags per post). This post from adventure meal company Mountain House is a great example of how to use hashtags well:

It shows a real customer cooking and eating one of their products on a hiking trip and they use a mix of popular and branded hashtags that are relevant to the post. Mountain House coined the hashtag #savortheadventure, which means anybody who searches for that hashtag will likely see their posts. 

To ensure their post maximizes reach, they also use popular hashtags related to their content, like #yellowcurry and #easymeals. Both of these hashtags are popular but not so much so that it’s impossible to secure a coveted top spot.  

In this example, Mountain House shares a post related to “National Chili Dog Day” and uses hashtags that are not only popular but relevant: 

Incorporating these hashtags— #chilidog #chilidogday #getoutside #camping #campingfood #campinghacks #mhhacks feels like a natural extension of the post content instead of hashtag stuffing.  

Here are some best practices: 

• Include your hashtags in the first comment, not in the actual Instagram caption: This can save valuable space for longer captions. It also has a modest impact on performance and overall reach.
  
• Add a mix of branded and popular hashtags: Focus on hashtags that are popular but not so popular that it will be impossible to secure a coveted top spot. 
  
• Don’t forget about hashtags with emojis: This can be particularly beneficial for niche accounts. For example, if you are a travel blogger, you might use these two specific hashtags: #travel✈️ and #travel.  

Competitor analysis is also important. Look for posts that have the same style or niche as you and identify their top and worst-performing posts. Note the hashtags they used (e.g. branded, non-branded, and number per post) and analyze patterns. Test on your audience to see what sticks, and optimize as needed.  

Also, search hashtags on Instagram to get a better idea of which ones are popular. 

Resist the urge to stuff your post with hashtags, like #cats, #dogs, or #memes that have 100 million-plus posts. Your content will wind up getting buried on the Explore page often in a matter of minutes.

12. Add compelling CTAs

Your call to action (CTA) is probably as important as your actual content, if not more important. Having compelling, engaging content is useless if it’s not directing your audience where you want them to go. Whether you want a follow, like, or share, ensure that your CTA is relevant to the content you’re putting out. Without it, your audience may just keep scrolling. 

“Putting a question in your caption always creates interest and forces people to read and hopefully respond.” – Bianca Cheah, founder and MD of Sporteluxe (Founder)

Another useful tip is to add a hashtag keyword to your CTA and ask your audience to comment using the hashtag and share it. This not only boosts engagement but expands your reach.

13. Track your performance and optimize accordingly 

Monitor and analyze your Instagram metrics on a weekly (ideal) or monthly basis. This allows you to spot patterns and trends and course correct if performance is trending down. 

Here are the metrics that you should track, what they mean, and how you can use those insights to optimize your Instagram marketing strategy, post great content, and grow an engaged audience.

• Follower Count: Total number of followers;
  
• Net New Followers: Total number of new followers added in a given time period;
  
• Post Engagement Ratio: You can calculate this by adding up the total number of likes and comments on a post, dividing that number by the total number of followers, and multiplying by 100;
  
• Bio Link Clicks: The number of people clicking on the link in your bio; 
  
• Post Likes: The number of likes on all of your posts;
  
• Post Comments: The number of comments on all of your posts;
  
• Story Views: The number of views on your Instagram story;
  
• Story Comments: The number of DMs from real people on your Instagram story; 
  
• Story Link Clicks: If you have a swipe up link in your story, the number of people who clicked on the link; 
  
• Referral Traffic: The percentage of traffic that came to your website from Instagram;
  
• Conversions: This will depend on your desired goal, but this is typically either sales, email subscribers, or leads that can be attributed to Instagram.  

By keeping track of your Instagram analytics, you can find out what types of content work best for you and ensure that you’re getting the maximum number of new Instagram followers.

Say you run an Instagram account for an online sneaker brand. Here are some ways you can apply the metrics you are tracking to your Instagram strategy: 

• A/B test different messaging and creative versions in your Instagram story. Track which version gets the most Story Views, Story Comments, and Story Link Clicks. Choose the winner and follow that template for future posts.
  
• Test Instagram photo post captions to track Post Likes and Post Comments. Note the format, hashtags, type of content, time of post, and so on to see which factors influence higher engagement.
  
• Change up your Instagram bio every now and again with relevant links. Track Link in Bio clicks and referral traffic to see which types of links drive the most engagement. Naturally, this will vary depending on your goals. If your primary goal is conversion, product-related links may perform better. If it’s qualified leads, social proof may come out on top.

The post 13 Tips To Get More Followers on Instagram (Without Buying Them) appeared first on CXL.