Sprout Social

Find UK TikTok Influencers for your brand

Jasmine Williams — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 14:00:40 +0000

Looking to build buzz for your UK-based brand? There’s never been a better time to invest in influencer marketing—especially UK TikTok influencers. The platform, known for its fast-moving trends and authentic content, is often tough for brands to break into. However, working with local UK TikTok influencers provides you with plenty of opportunities to reach a wide range of people and niches.

Local influencers also share the same experiences and dialects as your audience and understand local customs, values and trends, so their endorsements are more relatable and trustworthy.

In this article, we’ll share more about how TikTok is growing in the UK, how to identify the right influencers for your campaigns and provide suggestions on real UK TikTok influencers you could work with on your next campaign.

The impact of TikTok on the UK

TikTok has grown massively over the past few years in the UK—particularly among young people. According to a 2023 report from Ofcom, the UK’s communication watchdog, more than half (53%) of youth aged three to 17 use TikTok. It’s also the most popular news source for 12 to 15-year-olds and becoming increasingly popular with older generations.

The same Ofcom report found that TikTok is a favored news source for UK adults, increasing from 1% in 2020 to 10% in 2023. However, TikTok consumers are generally more interested in lighter topics such as celebrities and music. Other choices include entertaining or funny stories, sports, fashion and beauty.

In terms of purchases on UK TikTok, personal care products reign supreme, making up two-thirds (61.3%) of consumer goods sales made via TikTok Shop in the UK. Most of these purchasers are Gen Z, likely to identify as female and spend around 41% of their total beauty spend on the platform.

So, how do you turn these insights into strategies for influencer marketing success? If you’re a brand looking to reach Gen Z or Gen Alpha consumers, you’ll likely be a hit on UK TikTok. But don’t count the app out if your brand is outside of this target market, as the app is growing rapidly in popularity among other audiences, too.

How to identify the right TikTok influencer in the UK

You want to find a UK influencer for your next campaign, but you’re not sure where to start? Here are a few tips to help you discover the right creator.

1. Review trending UK TikTok hashtags

Trending hashtags highlight topics that resonate with UK audiences, giving you insight into which influencers are leading conversations that matter locally. Just search “UK TikTok” on TikTok, set the Sort by filter to Date posted and set the Date posted filter to Last 3 months to pare down the results to the most recent trending videos.

2. Use keywords to find UK topics

Whether it’s slang, cultural references or iconic locations, targeting UK-centric keywords will narrow your search to influencers who understand and engage with UK audiences. For example, this video from creator @angelinina.pj uses specific London neighborhood hashtags to indicate location.

3. Conduct competitor research

Identify influencers your competitors are collaborating with and examine the engagement and response to their content. Competitor research will show you which influencers are popular in the UK market and resonate with your target audience.

4. Use an influencer marketing tool

Streamline your influencer campaign management with influencer marketing tools like Tagger by Sprout Social.

Use this platform to:

Find the right influencers. Filter influencers based on location, audience demographics, engagement rates and content style to discover the best UK TikTok influencers for your campaigns.
Build your strategy. Analyze industry trends, social content, posts and profile data to quickly evaluate an influencer’s reach and engagement.
Reach out to key influencers. Communicate with potential influencers about partnership opportunities from within Tagger, and keep all conversations in one place rather than digging through dozens of outreach emails.
Run and measure campaigns. Collaborate with influencers and track campaign performance, all in one place.

Macro TikTok influencers in the UK

If you’re a larger brand looking to reach a broad audience, macro-influencers are a great fit. While they’re the most expensive to work with, their large audience size will give you maximum exposure to your target audience to supercharge growth. From fashion to beauty to comedy, here are a few of the UK’s most prominent TikTok macro-influencers.

Ayamé Ponder

With over 3.2 million TikTok followers, Ayamé Ponder (@ayame) is a creator on the rise. Known for her hilarious reaction duet videos, travel vlogs and skits, she’s quickly becoming one of the UK TikTok’s most popular comedy creators. She’s also partnered with a diverse range of brands, from fashion company New Look to the Deliveroo food delivery app.

Damien Broderick

Damien Broderick (@damienbroderick) is a London-based TikTok fashion creator with 1.2 million followers. He’s known for his ‘lets get dressed’ style content, where he offers details on his dapper outfits with a deadpan tone. He also starts every video with his signature “click click clap” hand gesture. He’s worked with brands like Thomas Sabo and Just Eat.

Paul Lee Hiley

Paul Lee Hiley (@paulleehiley) is a Manchester-based hairdresser with 1.6 million TikTok followers. Paul’s known for hair styling videos, product reviews and a hilarious alter ego, Becki-Jo, a caricature of a Manchester woman. They’ve worked with brands like Skin + Me and El Dulce London.

Sabrina Bahsoon

Sabrina Bahsoon (@sabrinabahsoon) is a London-based content creator who went viral for her “Tube Girl” videos, where she confidently lip-syncs and dances to songs on the London Underground. She now has an audience of 794,500 TikTok followers and has worked with brands like MAC and Hugo Boss.

Ella Thomas

Ella Thomas (@3llathomas) is a London-based model and creator with 737,000 TikTok followers. She gained popularity after appearing on the reality TV show “Love Island UK.” She primarily posts Get Ready With Me (GRWM) makeup tutorials, vlogs and fashion styling videos. She’s worked with brands like Kylie Cosmetics and Gymshark.

UK TikTok micro-influencers for niche campaigns

If you’re a brand with a tight budget or looking to reach a very specific niche audience, consider partnering with a micro-influencer. With under 25,000 followers, these creators are more affordable and often have more engaged audiences than their macro-influencer counterparts.

Here are a few UK TikTok micro-influencers to have on your radar.

Niki

Niki (@nikibnatural) is a London-based natural hair and beauty influencer and content creator with 24,300 TikTok followers. Her content consists of hair styling videos, tutorials, and product reviews. She’s partnered with brands like Wild, a sustainable personal care brand, and You Go Natural, a hair accessories brand for textured hair.

Jana May

Jana May (@janamayinteriors) is a London-based interior designer, decorator and content creator. She posts many before-and-after design videos, design tips and interior inspiration content. With 19,900 TikTok followers, she’s partnered with brands like Nude, an app for first-time home buyers, and Learndirect, an online education company offering interior design courses.

Toby and Luna

Toby and Luna (@tobyandluna) are a pair of tabby cats from Exeter. Yes, cats. With 18,400 TikTok followers, their TikTok account consists mostly of pet trend videos documenting their playful antics. They frequently partner with pet brands like Webbox.

Sam

Sam (@samsliftlife) is a Liverpool-based fitness coach and TikTok creator. On TikTok, he documents his running journey, offers insights into his diet and workout routine and shares health and fitness tips with his 18,200 followers.

Amber Nicole

Amber Nicole (@justanotheramba) is a plus-size fashion and beauty creator from Essex. With 9,210 followers, she primarily posts product reviews, hauls and outfit of the day (OOTD) videos. She also shares some snippets of her life as a first-time mom and frequently reviews products from Made By Mitchell and Lottie London.

TikTok fashion influencers in the UK

The fashion world isn’t always known for its diversity. But on TikTok, you will find all types of creators with a variety of niches, from modest fashion to high-concept menswear. With follower counts in the tens of thousands up to a million-plus, here are a few UK TikTok fashion influencers to follow.

Aly Meghani

Aly Meghani (@yungalyy) is a London-based fashion content creator. With 1.1 million TikTok followers, he posts GRWM videos showcasing small independent brands and outfit recreations from celebrities, anime characters and rappers. As an influencer, he’s partnered with brands like ASOS and Timberland.

Aminah

Aminah (@amxnahali) is a London-based fashion and lifestyle creator with 60,500 TikTok followers. As a hijabi woman, she posts many GRWM videos featuring modest fashion, product reviews and travel content. As an influencer, she’s partnered with Reebok and Adidas.

The Wade Twins

William and Henry Wade (@thewadetwins) are twin brothers based in London. With 749,100 TikTok followers, they post a lot of POV videos, OOTDs, GRWMs and ‘who wore it best?’ content. They’ve partnered with companies like protein bar brand Barebells, online streaming service Paramount+ and clothing brand Next.

Becky

Becky (@bexx0308) is a London-based fashion creator. With 133,100 TikTok followers, she primarily posts OOTD videos featuring streetwear, tomboy and unisex clothing. She also frequently posts coordinated outfits with her girlfriend.

Reb Stephenson

Reb Stephenson (@rebstephenson) is a model, actress and fashion content creator with 76,100 TikTok followers. She’s known for her relatable trending voiceover videos, try-on hauls and OOTD videos. She’s done influencer partnerships with fashion brand Lasula and dating app Hily.

TikTok food influencers in the UK

For UK food and beverage brands, partnering with a UK TikTok food influencer is a no-brainer. From ‘hands and pans’ style recipe content to food reviews, here are a few TikTok food creators to consider for your next campaign.

Steve Devereux

Steve Devereux of Newcastle is the brain behind @foodmadesimple, a popular TikTok account that showcases easy and affordable recipes that anybody can replicate. With 1.2 million TikTok followers, he’s partnered with brands like Tilda Rice and Whitby Seafoods.

Oliver Paterson

Oliver Paterson (@elburritomonster) is a Manchester-based food content creator. He’s known for making over-the-top, high-protein dishes and inventive takes on the classic burrito—hence the handle. With 824,200 TikTok followers, he’s partnered with brands like Myprotein and Nando’s.

Yasmine

Yasmine (@thechefmine) is a London-based food creator. With 345,400 TikTok followers, she’s known for her approachable yet indulgent and aesthetically pleasing recipe videos, kitchen hacks and Ramadan series, where she shared halal recipes for every day of the holy month. As an influencer, she’s partnered with Notion and has created several videos highlighting how she uses the app to organize her recipes.

Coco’s Recipes

Coco’s Recipes (@halfacoco) is a London-based recipe videographer and photographer. They’re known for their aesthetically pleasing overhead shot recipe videos featuring colorful ingredients. With 93,400 TikTok followers, they’ve partnered with brands like Rheal Superfoods and Waterdrop Filters.

Glasgow Gannets

Glasgow Gannets (@glasgowgannets) is a Glasgow-based food TikTok account run by two flatmates, Kat and Haley. With 36,900 TikTok followers, they post a lot of restaurant reviews, hauls, taste tests and recipe videos. As influencers, they’ve partnered with Tim Horton’s UK, food review app Rate-It-Now and many local Glasgow restaurants.

Streamline your TikTok influencer marketing strategy

As TikTok grows in popularity in the UK, so does your opportunity as a brand to reach your target market on the app. And it doesn’t matter what niche or demographic you’re trying to reach—there’s likely a UK TikTok influencer out there that would be a perfect fit.

Of course, managing an entire influencer marketing campaign is easier said than done. That’s why our all-in-one influencer marketing tools make it easy for brands to find authentic creators, manage a campaign from end-to-end, and measure your success. To learn more, schedule a demo or try it out for free.

The post Find UK TikTok Influencers for your brand appeared first on Sprout Social.

Post Performance Report: Influencer marketing campaigns taking over our feeds

Aubree Smith — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 16:10:50 +0000

It’s time for another edition of the Post Performance Report (PPR), a series where we showcase social media posts and campaigns inspiring us, and explore what makes them so genius. We unpack how your brand can use these examples to spark your own scroll-stopping ideas—while maximizing your budget and doing more with less.

According to a Q3 2023 Sprout Pulse Survey, 81% of marketers agree influencer marketing is an essential part of their overall social strategy, but almost half struggle to measure the effectiveness of influencer campaigns. Since the opportunity for influencer marketing looms large, we decided to round up some of our favorite recent influencer campaigns, and demonstrate how they drive business results the C-suite cares about.

Let’s dive into our lineup of brands who excel at influencer marketing, and takeaways you can use to deliver compelling results.

Plot: The brand excelling on LinkedIn

Plot, the up and coming creative management platform, mastered influencer marketing on LinkedIn—a platform even large tech companies struggle to harness. And they’re only in the beta phase of their product launch.

The brand collaborated with trusted voices in the social media industry for the #PlotPartner program to tease their launch and encourage people to sign up for the waitlist. Like Chi Thukral, a Forbes 30 under 30 winner who works in social at HubSpot. In her recent post about the brand, she points out how she uses it day-to-day, and hits on specific pain points social marketers know all too well.

Another post from Lia Zneimer, the VP of Marketing at Teal, shares her candid feedback about how great she thinks the product is, and talks in more detail about the product itself.

The influencer buzz surrounding this new product coincided with Plot raising a $3 million investment round, which the brand will use to accelerate product development and launch the brand publicly. A moment all of LinkedIn is eagerly awaiting.

The play: Consumers are discerning. They know influencer marketing isn’t the same as word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family, and they don’t take influencers at their word. But you can still achieve genuine anticipation by allowing influencers to describe how they use your new product in their own words, and take consumers on a BTS journey.

But remember to always look for influencers and partners who actually use your product and understand how it works, especially if you’re in the tech industry.

YSL Beauty: The best date for Valentine’s Day

YSL Beauty, the luxury skincare and makeup brand, rained love on influencers this Valentine’s Day to promote the launch of their new Candy Glaze lip product. From gift giving to quality time to acts of service, YSL had every love language covered.

Leading up to the product launch, the brand sent heart-shaped Candy Glaze gloss press boxes to various beauty influencers. Every video was in the influencer’s unique style, suggesting YSL empowered them to give candid product feedback and put their own creative spin on the videos.

@phyllicia.victoria

The perfect valentine gift from @YSL Beauty candy glaze lip gloss stick set. I’m wearing shade 5 💋 🩷💕 #yslbeauty #beauty #beautyblogger #lipstick #skincare #cosmetics #lipgloss #nycblogger #ysl #valentinesday #fypシ

♬ L’amore dice ciao (From “La matriarca – The Libertine”) – Main Titles – Armando Trovajoli

@kellyydoann

happy valentine’s day & special thanks to the one & only @YSL Beauty #candyglaze #yslbeauty #candyglazelip #prunboxing

♬ เสียงต้นฉบับ – nad♡inem – 𓇼

They also hosted an influencer YSL Beauty party during New York Fashion Week attended by celebrities and influencers-turned-celebrities. The YSL event featured lipgloss engravings, lip-print readings and a performance by Jack Harlow. The event was attended by YSL influencers and spokespeople like Dominic Sessa and Noah Beck.

The beauty brand topped off their Valentine’s Day activations by sponsoring the makeup looks of internet personalities, like Amelia Dimoldenberg. Dimoldenberg’s YSL Beauty post was one of her most liked in February.

According to Sprout Social Listening data from February 4 to March 5, 2024, mentions of the new Candy Glaze lipgloss and YSL Beauty increased by 3634% from February 11 to 12, and then leveled off after Valentine’s Day. The week of Valentine’s Day, the posts resulted in over 40 million impressions and more than 554,000 engagements on X and YouTube. That week, the brand and #CandyGlazeLip boasted an impressive 100% positive sentiment.

The play: YSL Beauty’s campaign launch was an elaborate ecosystem of influencer content that made a major awareness impact. For your next launch, remember to make influencer marketing an integral part of your marketing strategy—not a peripheral tactic.

Disney: “Echoing” what their audience wants

Disney’s newest Marvel miniseries, Echo, tells the story of Maya Lopez, an antagonist-turned-protaginist who embraces her Choctaw family and community, while battling a criminal organization. Maya Lopez is a deaf, indigenous, amputee woman—identities typically underrepresented in superhero franchises.

To create hype for the series premiere, Disney strategically partnered with indigenous and deaf influencers who celebrated the series’ portrayal of the Choctaw nation and a deaf, disabled hero. This included a roundtable discussion between influencers and stars of the show.

@ohkairyn

Diving into the dark and thrilling world of ‘Echo’ with @marvelstudios @disneyplus @hulu ! Just watched some epic clips and I’m already so excited. 😍 Maya Lopez’s journey as a deaf Choctaw superhero is groundbreaking, and the action scenes are so sick! This is the indigenous and deaf representation that’s needed right now. 🦸‍♀️💥 The series is out now on Disney+ and Hulu, let’s binge it!. Who’s joining me for Marvel’s first TV-MA rated show? #Echo #DisneyPartner 🎬🖤 #marvel #superhero #indigenous #choctaw #nativeamerican

♬ original sound – Kairyn Potts

@og.robinson

#DisneyPartner OHMYGOSH, what an amazing little round table I was so lucky to be a part of with Alaqua Cox (who plays Maya Lopez) and Sydney Freeland (the director) to talk about the new @Marvel Studios series ECHO 🤩 I’m sooooo excited to FINALLY watch it and you can too! Check out @Disney+ and/or @hulu and let me know who your favourite character is in the comments 👀 #echo #disneyplus #hulu

♬ original sound – Haley Robinson

According to data from Tagger by Sprout Social from January 1 to March 5, 2024, conversations on social media resulted in over $1 million in earned media value, with some posts garnering an engagement rate of 10%, like this post from @TheDeafFamily

Post-launch, Forbes reported the show performed better (with audiences and critics) than recent Marvel Cinematic Universe ventures with higher budgets.

The play: A series like Echo has been a long time coming for fans of Disney and the MCU. But without the input of indigenous and disabled communities, the series might not have delivered a fair or accurate portrayal of the character. Disney took care when telling Echo’s story—and that includes choosing with influencers to partner with on promotion. When finding influencers to partner with, remember representation matters.

Porsche: Luxuriously whimsical content races to the top

When you visualize auto industry influencer marketing, you might picture luxurious vehicles and idyllic adventures. You probably don’t think of fashionable grandpas or adorable gray cats. But, those are exactly the influencers German automobile manufacturer Porsche is partnering with on TikTok. A far cry from the car-centric, sleek content on their other channels like Instagram and Facebook (and their competitors’ content).

@porsche

Fit for a king. 👑 📼 @Jaadiee

♬ Originalton – Porsche

User comments—both on the influencers’ pages and their own—suggests fans of the brand are loving it. These influencer partnerships are helping Porsche create their own cultural moments and reach younger consumers.

@paquito_thecat

The cat mom aesthetic is in. Actually, it never went out of style. @Porsche

♬ Sugar Plumbin’ (NCS) – Reece Taylor

Porsche’s quirky TikTok content helps them soar past auto industry competitors on social media. So far this year, Porsche’s influencer marketing content delivered $56 million in earned media value, according to Tagger by Sprout Social data from January 1 to March 5, 2024. Porsche is driving more engagements and earned media value than the other top three auto brands on social, according to Tagger data.

The play: Highly edited, promotional content is not the best use of any brand’s influencer content efforts. Especially when all your competitors are doing it. It’s important to find influencers who can present your product in new and creative ways.

Reformation: Vote in style this election year

In a stunning move that took the internet by storm, Reformation named political icon Monica Lewinsky the face of their new campaign, “You’ve Got the Power,” in partnership with Vote.org. The campaign is meant to encourage voter awareness, while launching a new line of elevated workwear with “strong silhouettes, excellent tailoring and sustainable deadstock materials.”

@emilycarmeli

#greenscreen monica lewinsky for reformation! I havent been this happy about a brand marketing opportuntiy in a long time ❤️ #reformation #marketing #brandmarketing #fashion #fashiontiktok #monicalewinsky

♬ original sound – Emily Carmeli

The reaction to the campaign was overwhelmingly positive, with influencers, creators and internet culture commentators weighing in on its significance. TikTok user @BlakelyThonton said, “This is the most culturally relevant thing Reformation has ever done. Any brand that exists right now must create an emotional reason for being…[Lewinsky] is the perfect vessel for a message about workplace power dynamics.”

@blakelythornton

♬ Violin – Grooving Gecko

The initial post announcing the campaign received more than 39,000 likes on Instagram and almost 17,000 views on TikTok. According to Sprout Social Listening data from February 26 to March 11, 2024, the launch was so iconic, it has a 100% positive sentiment rate. Even the brand relished the success of the campaign’s launch in an Instagram Carousel, where it reposted some of the best fan reactions.

The play: The ingenuity of Reformation’s partnership with Lewinsky is how well it speaks to the specific issues their audience cares about. In an era where many brands are shying away from the political limelight, brands can still use influencer marketing to make their values known. Just be careful to work with influencers who have a high “approval rating” with your audience.

Influencer spotlight: Corporate Erin

Though not technically an influencer marketing brand deal or campaign, we are so inspired by the humor, satire and realness Corporate Erin brings to her social presence, we decided to include her in the lineup.

@lisabevolving

CorporateErin’s 1:1 w/ Reesa Teesa

♬ original sound – Lisa Beasley

Her humor is a spot-on impression of the pitfalls of corporate culture—including corporate jargon, unrealistic expectations of employees and atrocious work-life balance.

See more from Corporate Erin (aka Lisa Beasley) in Sprout’s on-demand webinar about building data-powered social strategies.

The play: The best influencer content feels genuine—conveying relatable truths and capturing the creator’s unique artistic style. Corporate Erin’s videos are a reminder of why overly prescriptive creator briefs tend to result in lackluster content, while authentic posts perform well. Influencers understand what their audience wants, and that isn’t neatly scripted, overly promotional content.

Grow your discoverability with influencer marketing

That concludes this month’s installment of the PPR. Stay tuned for next month’s edition where we’ll be digging into brands who use AI to enhance their social content. Until next time, keep these points in mind:

Post Performance Report Takeaways

Remember: Influencer marketing isn’t just a 'nice to have.' It’s essential to reaching your audience and should be a core part of your strategy.
Look for people who are familiar with your products and represent the values of your target audience when searching for influencers for your next campaign.
Think beyond closely held beliefs in your industry to breakthrough and appeal to younger audiences.

Looking for more on influencer marketing ROI? Read up on this six-point framework for cracking the influencer ROI equation.

And if you see a social post or campaign that deserves to be highlighted, tag us @sproutsocial and use #PostPerformanceReport to have your idea included in a future article.

The post Post Performance Report: Influencer marketing campaigns taking over our feeds appeared first on Sprout Social.

25 YouTube stats marketers should know in 2024 [Updated]

Jacqueline Zote — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 13:28:31 +0000

Marketing on YouTube is more than just pumping out videos and hoping for views. You need to have a solid understanding of the platform and who uses it, so you know what to create. The latest YouTube stats can give you the insights and understanding you need to successfully market on the platform.

We put together some of the most vital social media statistics for YouTube to help you understand the platform better. Let’s take a look.

YouTube data and channel statistics
YouTube usage statistics
YouTube audience and demographics statistics
YouTube advertising statistics
YouTube video and marketing statistics
YouTube influencer statistics

YouTube data and channel statistics

Before getting into general YouTube stats, let’s get personal. If you currently manage a presence on the platform, you can check your channel statistics using YouTube analytics. (Also, if you don’t have a brand account on YouTube, now’s a great time to create a channel.)

Access the YouTube analytics tool by going to studio.youtube.com or by clicking your profile icon and selecting “YouTube Studio.”

Once you’re in YouTube Studio, you can click on “Analytics” in the left hand panel to access your YouTube performance analytics. There are several reports available but if you’re just looking for a general overview of channel performance, check out the Channel Overview Report.

The Channel Overview Report will provide you with a graph measuring how your views, watch time and subscriber count are trending over time. On social media, consistency is key. If you’re updating your channel at a regular cadence, you should see gains in channel growth over time.

If you’re noticing a dip, check out these creative approaches to promoting your YouTube channel.

YouTube usage statistics

Understanding how people use YouTube will help you assess whether it’s a worthy investment. Things like how many people use the platform and how much time they spend can give you an idea of its standing among social media users.

1. YouTube has 2.49 billion monthly active users

According to the Digital 2024 Global Overview Report, YouTube’s potential ad reach totals 2.49 billion users. That’s half of the 5.04 billion social media users worldwide, making it the second most used social platform. This speaks volumes about the platform’s popularity among social media users.

2. YouTube now has 100 million paying subscribers

An increasing number of people are paying for the platform’s Music and Premium services. Based on the latest YouTube user stats, there are now 100 million paying subscribers on the platform.

3. People spend 48.7 minutes on YouTube each day

With a daily time spent of 48.7 minutes, people are spending more time watching YouTube videos in 2024. This indicates a growth in YouTube engagement, making the platform ideal for engaging your target audience.

4. Viewers watch 1 billion hours of YouTube videos per day on their TVs

On that same note, internal YouTube data shows that YouTube viewers are watching an average of 1 billion hours of content each day on their TVs. So there’s a need to focus on creating high-resolution videos suitable for TV viewing.

5. The average user spends over 28 hours on the YouTube app

Based on the Digital 2024 report, worldwide users spend an average of 28 hours and 5 minutes on the YouTube mobile app. While this data is only for Android users, it speaks volumes about the growing use of YouTube among mobile users.

YouTube audience and demographics statistics

Looking into YouTube stats on audience and demographics can help you understand who is using the platform. This gives you an idea whether the platform is ideal for reaching your target audience.

6. YouTube users skew male

Roughly 54.4% of YouTube users are men and 45.6% are women. (There’s no data on other genders available at this time.)

7. The largest age group using YouTube is between ages 25 and 34

Users aged between 25 and 34 account for 21.3% of YouTube’s user base, making them the largest age group to use the platform. The second largest age group is between ages 35 and 44. Additionally, YouTube is popular among young adults aged between 18 and 24, with this group making up 15.5% of the platform’s user base.

8. India has the largest YouTube audience, followed by the United States and Brazil

There are approximately 462 million active YouTube users in India, making it the network’s largest audience by country. The United States comes next with 239 million users while 144 million users are from Brazil.

9. The United States drives the most YouTube traffic

A high user count doesn’t necessarily translate to higher traffic. In fact, the U.S. contributes the most YouTube traffic (21.93%) compared to other countries. In comparison, India, in second position, contributes to just 8.11% of the platform’s traffic.

YouTube advertising statistics

If you’re planning to run YouTube ads, you need to gauge the platform’s advertising performance. Whether this involves looking into the ad revenue or the best ad formats, it’s essential to study a few vital YouTube advertising stats.

10. YouTube’s ad revenue crossed $30 billion in 2023

The platform’s annual ad revenue for 2023 amounted to $31 billion–up from the previous year’s $29.2 billion. This makes up 10.25% of Google’s global revenues.

11. Consumers find YouTube ads to be more relevant than linear TV advertising

YouTube ad targeting capabilities create a highly tailored experience for the end user. According to a 2022 study, 59% of respondents agree that YouTube ads are more relevant than ads on linear TV or other streaming apps.

12. Vertical video can increase conversions per dollar

Vertical video—meaning video filmed and viewed in portrait mode, rather than landscape—has exploded in popularity on the platform since the launch of YouTube Shorts. People have been watching YouTube on a variety of screen sizes for quite some time. Now, marketers have the tools they need to optimize for mobile viewing.

Tailoring YouTube ads to adhere to content consumption preferences can drive a noticeable lift in ROI. Vertical creative assets delivered 10% to 20% more conversions per dollar on YouTube Shorts when compared to landscape assets.

13. Skippable ads perform better than non-skippable ads

Consumers like having a choice, even when it comes to the ads they view. So it’s no surprise that giving viewers the option to skip an ad translates to better-performing ads.

Twenty-nine percent of marketers agree that pre-roll skippable ads are the most effective YouTube ad format. In comparison, only 7% believe that non-skippable ads are effective.

14. YouTube Shorts is quickly becoming a top video advertising platform

Advertisers are increasingly turning to video platforms for short-form video advertising. And YouTube Shorts is quickly gaining ground as one of the leading platforms for short-form video ads. In a survey of ad buyers, 43% say that their largest clients are advertising on YouTube Shorts.

So it’s time to reassess your YouTube ad campaigns to focus on short-form ads and stay ahead of the curve.

YouTube video and marketing statistics

You can learn a lot about YouTube marketing by looking at how other marketers are using the platform. Similarly, the types of videos people watch on YouTube will give you an idea of how to market on the platform. So let’s take a look at some key YouTube video stats in addition to the platform’s marketing statistics.

15. Marketers plan to increase their use of YouTube videos in marketing

Marketers are reassessing YouTube’s place in their marketing mix. About 66% of marketers intend to increase their use of YouTube videos. Additionally, 59% plan to increase their organic activities on the platform.

16. YouTube is the second most effective platform for B2C content marketing

The number of marketers using YouTube for organic content marketing increased from 55% to 67% between 2022 and 2023. This growing usage is a result of the platform’s effectiveness.

In fact, YouTube is the second most effective social platform for content marketing after LinkedIn. Eighty-six percent of content marketers consider it at least somewhat effective.

17. YouTube is the number one platform for viewing live content

Among social video viewers in the U.S., 52% use YouTube to watch live content. This makes it the most popular platform for watching live content, putting it ahead of Facebook and Instagram. So if live video is a part of your marketing strategy, YouTube Live is the perfect place to execute it.

18. YouTube Shorts averages 70 billion views per day

Speaking of the popularity of short-form videos, YouTube Shorts now gets an average of 70 billion views each day. Marketers can ride on this wave by creating more videos for YouTube Shorts to engage their audience.

19. YouTube Shorts is the top short-form video platform for discovery

With so many views each day, it comes as no surprise that YouTube Shorts is the #1 short-form video platform for discovering new products and brands. All the more reason to add YouTube Shorts to your video marketing strategy.

20. The most viewed YouTube video of all time is “Baby Shark Dance”

Parents, this one is probably more than familiar. The viral hit took off in 2016 and shot to the top of the list of most viewed YouTube videos of all time.

The video has almost 14 billion views, as of January 2024.

YouTube influencer statistics

Knowing the top influencers on YouTube helps you understand which influencers have an impact on the platform’s user base. This can then inform how you work with influencers on the platform. Additionally, it gives you an idea of the types of content that are popular on the platform. Let’s look at a few YouTube statistics on the platform’s top users.

21. T-Series – 261 million subscribers

The most popular YouTube channel is T-Series with 261 million subscribers. According to the latest YouTube channel stats, T-Series has amassed more than 249 billion views for 20,000+ videos.

22. MrBeast – 244 million subscribers

MrBeast ranks second overall with 244 million subscribers. His channel has amassed more than 44 billion views for just 780 videos.

23. CoCoMelon – Nursery Rhymes – 173 million subscribers

Coming up next is the nursery rhymes channel, CoCoMelon with 173 million subscribers. Interestingly, the channel has more views than MrBeast at over 179 billion views. With the channel having uploaded 1,000+ videos, it could be an indicator that video posting frequency impacts your YouTube views stats.

24. SET India – 169 million subscribers

Another Indian channel to make it to the list, SET India is the fourth most popular channel with 169 million subscribers. The latest numbers show that the channel has 160 billion views with 131,000+ uploads.

25. Kids Diana Show – 120 million subscribers

Kids Diana Show ranks fifth with 120 million subscribers. The channel has a total of more than 100 billion views with 1,100+ videos.

Turning these YouTube stats into action

These key YouTube statistics give you insights into the platform and its marketing landscape. Transform these insights into action by downloading our useful YouTube strategy template.

The post 25 YouTube stats marketers should know in 2024 [Updated] appeared first on Sprout Social.

The 43 best marketing resources we recommend in 2024

Ronnie Gomez — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 13:23:01 +0000

In a field where channels, budgets and audience behaviors can change in a matter of days, being a successful marketer means your skills need to adapt just as quickly.

Fortunately, there are tons of free and inexpensive marketing resources available online to help you stay ahead. Whether you’re looking to advance your skills for a particular project or simply for professional development, the information you need is right at your fingertips. You just need to know where to look.

To help start your search, we rounded up some of the best marketing resources that have helped us make an impact. Share them with your team to help them elevate their skills, hone their expertise and set them up for career growth.

Note: The majority of these are free online marketing resources but some paid options did make the cut. To help you quickly differentiate between the two, we’ve marked all paid resources with an asterisk (*).

What are marketing resources?

Marketing resources are no longer limited to industry conferences, books or certification programs.

Today, some of the best news and practical marketing advice comes from a variety of sources like creator-driven newsletters, private communities and YouTube channels.

And as the world of marketing fragments into dozens of sub-disciplines, the breadth of available resources is equally vast. From social media marketing to creative strategy, digital marketing to analytics and AI, there are resources to help teams sharpen a range of marketing skills. Let’s get into some of our favorites:

Social media marketing resources
Digital marketing resources
Copywriting resources
Search engine optimization (SEO) resources
Design and creative resources
Email marketing resources
Reporting and analytics resources
Market research tools
AI and marketing automation resources
Marketing leadership development resources

Social media marketing is an enormous and ever-changing field. Platforms are constantly making updates, meaning best practices can shift overnight. Luckily, there are tons of free tools available so you can make the most of these changes as they happen. Use this collection of blogs, newsletters and podcasts to keep up with the industry while keeping your sanity.

1. Social Media Today

Social Media Today is an Industry Dive publication providing original analysis on what’s happening in the social media world. They offer content in a variety of formats, including articles, webinars and full-on marketing playbooks. Plus, they have a daily email newsletter that delivers the day’s top stories straight to your inbox.

2. Rachel Karten’s Link in Bio Newsletter

Rachel Karten’s Link in Bio is a must-follow for anyone looking for on-the-ground dispatches on what’s working in social media marketing today.

Karten has more than eight years of experience in social with brands like Bon Appetit and Plated, providing her with a critical point of view on network trends and updates. On top of that, she also publishes feature interviews with social media managers finding unpaved paths to success. You’ll love seeing this in your inbox each week.

What to read first: Have you considered rizzing them up with a newsletter?

3. Sprout Social’s Insights Blog

You didn’t think we’d leave ourselves out, did you? Sprout’s Insights blog is home to tactical how-to articles, interviews with fellow social media marketers, original research and more.

What to read first: 11 social media trends you need to know in 2024

4. ICYMI by Lia Haberman

Lia Haberman is a marketing executive, consultant and lecturer for UCLA Extension where she focuses on social media and influencer marketing. Her weekly newsletter, In Case You Missed It, rounds up the latest social media platform updates, brand campaigns and creator news that marketers of all levels need to know.

If just the thought of trying to keep up with every network’s algorithm changes makes your head spin, ICYMI is the antidote you need.

5. The Arboretum

Over the last couple years, The Arboretum (Arb), a virtual community powered by Sprout, has become a thriving hub for social and marketing professionals—from practitioners to C-suite executives. Having hosted over 30 exclusive events, featuring keynote speakers from leading brands and numerous peer discussions, the community provides tangible value to members across 69 countries. More than 10,000 members turn to The Arb to troubleshoot on-the-job challenges, build their personal brands and learn from other experts in the field.

Digital marketing resources

Digital marketing is an umbrella category for all of the various promotional efforts that take place on the internet or through other digital means. While that’s definitely a wide net, there are tons of publications that can help you stay up to date on trending news and advice. Here are some of our favorites.

6. HubSpot Academy’s Digital Marketing Course

No marketing resource round-up would be complete without a nod to HubSpot Academy. Their course on digital marketing gives a great primer on content creation, social, paid search and more. Plus, if you pass their certification exam, you’ll also receive a certification badge you can add to your LinkedIn profile.

7. Today in Digital Marketing Podcast

Today in Digital Marketing is a daily eight-minute breakdown of what’s happening in the world of social, search and beyond. Fans of audio content will love host Tod Maffin’s quick and simple approach to news delivery.

8. The Contentfolks Newsletter

Contentfolks is a bi-weekly Substack newsletter that uses sticky notes and IRL examples to share a wide-range of content marketing advice. Subscribing is an easy way to commit to improving your marketing skills over time.

What to read first: How to interview your customers

Copywriting resources

Strong, concise writing is a foundational skill for marketers of all stripes, especially social media marketers. These copywriting and content marketing resources will strengthen your editorial skills so you can create punchier content in 2024.

9. Grammarly

Grammarly goes way beyond your standard spell check. Their digital writing assistant will evaluate your writing on correctness, clarity, engagement and delivery so your message always comes across crystal clear.

10. VeryGoodCopy

Eddie Shleyner’s micro-articles, courses and interviews can punch up your writing in less than five minutes each. VeryGoodCopy teaches a single persuasion principle or technique at a time, so you can start your day with a fun and informative copywriting exercise that can be completed in the time it takes to finish a cup of coffee.

What to read first: The lazy writer’s way to success

11. Everybody Writes by Ann Handley*

Everybody Writes is the go-to handbook for developing your copywriting skills. Packed with insightful lessons on grammar, storytelling and crafting compelling copy, this book is an essential addition to any marketer’s bookshelf.

Bonus resource: If you want to read some of Ann’s expertise for free, we’re big fans of her newsletter, too.

Search engine optimization (SEO) resources

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential to any digital marketing strategy. With the right tools and resources in place, it can be a cost-effective way to reach potential customers at critical moments in their journey. These online marketing resources will help you brush up on SEO staples, from on-page optimizations to more technical and advanced tactics.

12. Google’s SEO Starter Guide

It’s only natural that Google, the world’s largest search engine, would have a comprehensive, easy-to-read guide to SEO. This resource is broken up into several chapters to help you level up your understanding of search, whether you’re new to the topic or a seasoned pro. It’s a must-read for anyone looking to drive more traffic to their site.

13. Backlinko’s SEO Marketing Hub

Backlinko’s exhaustive collection of SEO marketing resources will elevate your search engine optimization knowledge no matter your current skill level. Read through the hub in full or skip around to find out what you need to know. Either way, you’re guaranteed to find what you’re looking for.

What to read first: What is SEO? Search engine optimization in plain english

14. AhrefsTV

Ahrefs excels at breaking down complex SEO topics into simple, easy reads. Their YouTube channel, AhrefsTV, takes this skill and translates it into video. Ahrefs TV is home to both 101-level fundamentals and more advanced content. It’s perfect for anyone looking to brush up on their SEO skills over time.

15. Google Search Console Training

Google Search Console helps users improve their site performance on Google search through a collection of tools and reports that measure site traffic and any issues that may be deterring it. If you haven’t used it before, Google offers a video training course that explains how to use the platform.

The full library contains twenty videos, some of which cater to specific industries and professions—a must-watch for anyone looking to improve their familiarity with Search Console.

Design and creative resources

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: “social media manager” and “designer” are two separate roles. Still, if you’re in a pinch and find yourself needing to make your own creative, these tools can help you create something polished and Like-worthy.

16. Sprout’s Social Media Image Size Guide

Visual content is integral to your social media marketing strategy. Keep our always-up-to-date social media image size guide handy as a reference when optimizing content by platform.

17. Landscape by Sprout Social

Once you figure out what image sizes you need, use Landscape to create the picture-perfect crop.

With Landscape, you can upload any image you’d like to post on social media and have it resized to work for all your priority social media networks. This image resizer is a simple but powerful tool designed to help marketers, content creators and business owners stand out in an increasingly visual world.

18. Canva Design School

Anyone can make beautiful visual designs using Canva, the online graphic design platform. Their educational hub, Canva Design School, is home to a series of recorded and live workshops that can help you bring your creative vision to life.

19. Unsplash

Unsplash hosts over two million free-to-use high-resolution images. Their collection is sorted by a number of categories, including current events, nature, people and more, so you can find the perfect photo faster.

20. Free Social Media Templates Gallery

Sprout’s free template gallery is home to striking social media templates designed specifically for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Customize them with your images and text, and you’ll get a unique graphic that makes your account pop.

21. Loom*

Is your download folder filled to the brim with time-stamped screenshots? With Loom, you can take, label and share screenshots. The platform—which offers free and paid plans—is known for its screen recording capabilities, helping you add more context when sharing feedback and delivering creative briefs.

Video editing resources

More than half (65%) of consumers agree that short-form video is the most engaging type of in-feed social content. If you’re looking to build out your video editing toolkit in 2023, here are our top picks.

22. CapCut

You can create some pretty impressive video content using network tools, but if you want a better user experience and advanced features, turn to CapCut. It’s available as both a mobile and desktop app so you can create a stand-out social media video without all the squinting.

23. Adobe Premiere Pro*

Adobe Premiere Pro is a subscription-based video editing application used by brands and creators alike. Use it to create stunning videos that look custom-made for every social channel—including YouTube.

24. Teleprompter App

The Teleprompter app is the perfect tool to have in your back pocket for when your teammates are feeling a bit camera shy. Even the presence of a teleprompter is enough to make people feel more comfortable in front of a camera.. Just remind them not to use it to read their script word-for-word. It’s meant to be a helping hand, not a read-along.

25. Frame.io*

If you’ve ever sent a list of time-stamped video edits to your creative team, consider Frame.io. This tool provides a central hub that supports collaboration across the video editing process through comments and tracked changes. You can also tag specific team members in requests so everyone stays aligned on action items.

Email marketing resources

Email marketing has been around for decades, yet brands are still pushing the standards of what the channel can do. Whether through stunning interactive design or creative campaign strategy, there’s always something to learn from the ol’ inbox.

26. Really Good Emails

Really Good Emails is just that—an ever-growing curated collection of really good emails. This constant stream of marketing design and copy examples is the perfect tool for building your inspiration swipe file.

27. Litmus Blog

The Litmus blog is an indispensable resource for keeping up with best practices in email marketing. Whether you’re concerned with content, deliverability or even changing privacy laws, you’ll find a must-read article as soon as you hit their resources page.

What to read first: The State of Email Trends Report – 2024 Edition

28. Omnisend’s Email Subject Line Tester

This tool from Omnisend gives marketers a chance to analyze and improve subject lines before they press send. Find optimized recommendations based on several factors including length, word count and scannability.

Reporting and analytics resources

Reporting skills are essential to proving the value of your marketing and social strategy. Show your leadership team how your work fuels your marketing goals using these resources.

29. Skillshop

Skillshop is the destination for brushing up on all things Google, from how to manage Google Ads to understanding the ins and outs of YouTube copyright. But almost all marketers can get value from the lineup of GA4 courses. These lessons are a great way to get hands-on experience on the platform, especially since Universal Analytics was discontinued.

30. Orbit Media Studios YouTube Channel

The Orbit Media Studios YouTube channel is a great video complement to their famous blog. Their succinct videos answer a range of analytics questions for people of all experience levels.

What to watch first: Site Search Tracking in GA4: Setup, Analysis & Insights

31. Sprout’s Paid and Organic Reporting Template

Winning social strategies rely on a solid mix of paid and organic efforts. This reporting template will help you track the performance of a two-fold strategy. It’s an essential tool for tying social performance back to top-line business goals.

Market research tools

How do you pressure-test ideas on a budget? Market research, of course. In the past, market research has seemed too expensive or involved for anyone working outside of enterprise businesses. However, thanks to the wealth of social data that exists at your fingertips, you can now quickly and accurately identify actionable insights on what matters to your audience.

32. ThinkWithGoogle

Here’s a two for one. ThinkWithGoogle gathers fresh perspectives on industry trends and consumer behavior sourced from the Google marketing team as well as other leading marketers across the globe. Their research is informed by search trends and expanded upon to include actionable insights so you can apply the data in a way that makes sense for your brand.

33. Exploding Topics

If you want to find out about the next big thing before it’s a trending topic, you need to subscribe to the Exploding Topics newsletter. Every Tuesday, their team shares expert analysis on search topics that are about to take off. Plus, they also include valuable context on why a trend may be gaining popularity and what marketers can expect from it next.

34. Pinterest Trends

Pinterest Trends forecasts what’s next in fashion, food, beauty and more using data from Pinterest users across the US, UK and Canada. If you have a hunch on what’s making waves in your industry, you can also use the Trends tool to check its search volume, related trends and top Pins.

35. Answer The Public

Answer the Public’s website claims it’s a “goldmine of consumer insight” and we will gladly second that assessment. The tool gathers autocomplete data from search engines so you can find all the questions and terms people are searching around your product, brand or even a general topic.

36. Sprout Social’s Listening Tool

Social data can answer a brand’s most important questions about how to manage, expand and grow its business. Sprout’s Social Listening tool is a premium add-on that helps brands distill global social conversations into actionable insights on brand health, content opportunities, product decisions and more.

Start a Free Trial Today

AI and marketing automation resources

This year’s hot topic comes with a learning curve. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are revolutionizing how people are thinking about marketing as we speak, so the time to get up to speed on the topic is now. Here are some of our favorite recommendations.

37. MIT Sloan’s Machine Learning Explained

Shout out to the folks at MIT Sloan School of Management for gifting us all with this free, in-depth primer on machine learning. This article is a long read but it’s more than worth it. Read it for insights from MIT professors who have been working in the AI/ML field for years and for a vocab lesson on some key terms you’ll be hearing throughout 2023 and beyond.

38. ChatGPT

It’s been hard to exist anywhere online lately without hearing about ChatGPT.

Use case examples are constantly discussed on social, in the news and at events, with pros from nearly every industry discovering ways the tool could streamline their day-to-day work. If you haven’t tested out ChatGPT yet, try it today. Here’s a helpful Twitter thread on how to create a workable prompt. Once you get acquainted with the tool’s limitations, your only limit is your imagination.

Even better, test it out in Sprout. Sprout’s AI Assist suite of features integrates with OpenAI’s GPT functiality to help you write captions, respond to customers and craft sophisticated listening queries.

39. Jeff MacDonald’s AI guides

Finding the right opportunities to embed AI in your day-to-day marketing work can feel overwhelming. Jeff MacDonald, Social Strategy Director at Mekanism, is an AI enthusiast who’s here to help. He has built out a variety of how-to guides for marketers on topics including AI prompt writing, image generation and ChatGPT use cases.

Marketing leadership development resources

Remote and hybrid work has turned office communication standards on their head. Whether you currently lead a team or you simply like to be seen as a leader, these resources can help you step up in a changing work environment.

40. Fast Company*

If you want to stay up-to-date on what the future of business has in store, you need to subscribe to Fast Company. Launched by two former Harvard Business Review editors in 1995, Fast Company chronicles how our changing world impacts business and vice versa. It’s a must-read for those looking to zoom out so they can understand their brand’s place in the bigger picture.

41. Harvard Business Review*

Harvard Business Review is on a mission to improve the practice of management in a changing world. Their content ranges from perspectives on current events to general best practice advice on leadership, organizational culture and more. If you’re new to corporate life or if you’re coaching others who are, check out Ascend, HBR’s learning companion for graduating students and Millennials in the workplace.

What to read first: Want to Be a Better Leader? Stop Thinking About Work After Hours

42. CMO Today Newsletter

If your New Year’s resolution is to start thinking more strategically, this is the newsletter subscription for you. The Wall Street Journal’s CMO Today looks at the day’s top news through a marketing lens so you can learn from how other leaders approach today’s ever-changing marketing landscape.

43. Marketing Week

Marketing Week is home to both practical advice and feature stories on game-changing strategies and leaders. It’s a go-to resource for those seeking inspiration from brands piloting new channels and working on the cutting edge of what’s possible with martech.

Elevate your marketing skills in 2024

Think of these resources as your textbooks to help you navigate what is bound to be another great year for you and your team. You probably won’t be able to read them all in one sitting, so be sure to bookmark this page for later. That way you can refer to the list as you work through crushing your 2024 goals.

Remember to share this with your team, as well. Pair it with the social media career growth planning template to get them thinking about what’s next in their marketing journey. Happy learning!

The post The 43 best marketing resources we recommend in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

How AI insights improve decision making

Phoebe Lown — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 14:03:35 +0000

Artificial intelligence-driven analytics tools sift through massive datasets to identify patterns, trends and insights humans might overlook—allowing brands a distinct competitive edge by making strategic decision-making easier and improving customer experiences. Sprout’s 2023 State of Social Media report confirms these advantages, with 9 out of 10 business leaders acknowledging the indispensable role of AI in enhancing market competitiveness, understanding customer preferences and driving innovation. These leaders also expect their companies to increase investment in AI for marketing in the next three years.

Incorporating AI technologies into business operations optimizes performance and pushes organizations toward success and sustainability. For long-term success, companies may face challenges when implementing this technology due to a lack of understanding and organizational experience with AI.

In this article, we’ll explore what AI insights are exactly, how they work and how they’re applied practically to progress different industries.

What are AI insights?
Advantages of using AI for generating data insights
How AI insights help businesses
Understanding how AI Insights are generated

What are AI insights?

AI insights are the knowledge and understanding gained by analyzing complex datasets using AI. This process involves a combination of machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP) and AI data visualization techniques (charts, graphs, dashboards, heat maps, etc) to make the data more accessible.

The visualization helps strategists find hidden patterns, trends and correlations. Organizations use AI tools to filter big data into actionable intelligence to support better decision-making and strategies.

Advantages of using AI for generating data insights

AI analytics offers many advantages, such as seeing hidden trends in large data sets, forecasting future market behaviors, analyzing customer sentiment, making decisions faster and creating personalized experiences.

Easier decision-making

AI insights arm decision-makers with comprehensive, real-time data analysis, reducing reliance on guesswork and intuition. The AI processes and analyzes data from various sources simultaneously at a speed and scale unattainable by human effort alone. As such, the insights can give you an in-depth view of the market, customers and competitors.

Predicting future trends

AI insights provide the power to predict future trends and customer behaviors through pattern recognition in data. By analyzing historical information, AI tools can forecast outcomes, offering a clear view of customer preferences and potential market shifts. This capability enables you to adjust your strategies proactively and remain competitive. Notably, 45% of business leaders recognize predictive analytics as AI’s most valuable marketing tool, allowing for precise forecasting of future customer behavior.

Creating better customer experiences

The secret to captivating your customers is in understanding their desires, expectations and perceptions of your brand, then turning those feelings into experiences people love. For example, you can anticipate customer needs and gauge opinions through social media listening to monitor chatter around your brand or competition. This empowers you to proactively tailor your offerings and marketing communication. A study by Boston Consulting Group found that companies using AI insights for personalization saw sales gains of 6-10%, which is two to three times greater than those not using AI.

How AI insights help businesses

Let’s explore how AI insights help industries strengthen business strategies, meet market needs and boost brand loyalty.

AI insights for automotive

AI insights improve automotive manufacturers’ understanding of consumer sentiment, market trends and product feedback. Through social listening and text mining, companies can tailor their designs, features and marketing strategies to meet consumer demands, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

For example, a car manufacturer can use review and AI-driven sentiment analysis to gauge global consumer reactions to product recalls. This in-depth investigation can reveal significant regional differences in perception and enable targeted, culturally sensitive crisis management strategies.

AI insights for banking

In the banking sector, AI insights are vital for fraud detection. But they’re also commonly used in customer service and the personalization of banking solutions. By analyzing transactional data and customer feedback, banks can improve their security and offer services that truly help their customers.

As an example, let’s look at a bank that wants to improve its customer service. The bank can use AI-driven sentiment analysis to dive deep into customer feedback, collected through social media listening campaigns. This comprehensive analysis, which can be conducted in multiple languages, helps the bank identify essential improvement areas, such as mobile banking, fees and branch services. The insights can help the bank initiate targeted reforms, such as overhauling the website experience or improving branch operations to boost customer satisfaction and loyalty.

AI insights for call centers

Using AI insights in call center operations can boost efficiency and pinpoint problem areas. For example, a mobile carrier can utilize AI-driven sentiment analysis to tackle customer churn by integrating text analytics with their call center software. This approach converts call voice data into text for real-time sentiment analysis, allowing proactive identification of customers at risk of leaving. By offering timely resolutions and incentives, the carrier can reduce its churn rate, improve agent effectiveness and overall customer satisfaction.

AI insights for finance

AI insights play a role in understanding market dynamics and enhancing strategic planning in the financial industry. For instance, a hedge fund can enhance its trading strategy by employing real-time sentiment analysis and entity extraction to analyze international market sentiment. This involves processing extensive data from varied sources, including news in multiple languages relevant to its global operations. The hedge fund can integrate market sentiment directly into its trading models by developing a sophisticated dashboard to compare market sentiment with share prices, optimizing its decision-making process.

AI insights for government

Governments can use AI insights to improve public services and policies and engage with communities. For example, predictive analytics can help the government anticipate public service bottlenecks, allocate resources efficiently and minimize service downtimes. At the same time, text analytics can monitor public concerns on social media. Helping to monitor, analyze and extract insights from public sentiment. This approach can help officials identify similar complaints or praises, and find areas that require immediate attention.

AI insights for health and pharma

AI provides valuable insights that significantly improve patient care and drug development in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors by efficiently structuring complex medical data. An example could be a hospital network leveraging NLP-based text analytics to transform unstructured EMR progress notes into searchable and organized data. This approach helps the hospital extract actionable insights on medication effectiveness and patient outcomes. By applying named entity recognition, the hospital could analyze detailed information about medications, dosages and patient responses, enhancing patient care precision.

AI insights for hospitality

AI insights have the potential to revolutionize the hospitality industry, empowering businesses to cater to guests’ preferences in a more personalized way. One of the key innovations in this field is the semantic analysis of hotel reviews that offers highly tailored recommendations to travelers. While traditional five-star ratings are widely recognized, they often fail to capture the unique needs of individual guests.

By semantically analyzing text-based reviews, a hotel review aggregator could develop a “smart” search feature that allows hotels to be filtered based on specific attributes such as breakfast quality, internet speed or proximity to nightlife, aligning directly with the traveler’s preferences. This approach goes beyond generic ratings to provide customized hotel recommendations, improving the guest selection process and enabling people to have more personalized travel experiences.

AI insights for quantitative trading

AI insights are transforming quantitative trading by leveraging unique data sources, such as employee feedback, to predict company performance. For instance, a hedge fund might analyze employee sentiments on platforms like Indeed and Glassdoor, theorizing that internal sentiments predict market trends. Sophisticated sentiment analysis allows the fund to categorize employee reviews, unveiling trends in company health and potential. This approach uses unconventional data to give traders an edge, offering a novel angle on investment strategies.

AI insights for market research

AI insights revolutionized market research, enabling marketers to extract valuable competitive insights from a large consumer base quickly. Consider a new healthy snack brand, analyzing thousands of consumer surveys and open-ended responses about snack preferences and brand recognition. Through AI-driven data extraction, the brand can quickly categorize responses, pinpoint key themes and identify mentioned brands. This analysis offers the newcomer precise market positioning insights, including identifying indirect competitors like essential vegetables. With this knowledge, the company can strategically focus its marketing and product positioning efforts to maximize success in its core markets.

Understanding how AI insights are generated

As you can see, many industries use AI for sentiment analysis to provide an in-depth understanding of their customer behavior. As an example, this section will walk you through how AI processes numerical and textual data to give you better customer insights.

Step 1: Data collection

The first step involves collecting the data for analysis. This can be social media posts, customer reviews, surveys, customer care logs, NPS scores and emails. The aim is to gather a comprehensive dataset that reflects the sentiments and opinions of the target audience about your brand or product. The data can be uploaded directly through APIs or manually entered as CSV files.

For example, let’s say we wanted to understand people’s sentiments around Sprout Social across social media and review platforms.

Step 2: Data processing

Once collected, the AI tool processes the text or numerical data using AI and ML algorithms tailored to interpret and analyze the specific data type. For text, the tool uses subtasks like NLP and text analysis to understand the language, converting sentences into structured formats that machines can work with. It also understands emojis. This enables the AI tool to perform tasks like sentiment mining, language translation or text generation by finding patterns and relationships within the data. Numerical data is processed using statistical and ML models that can identify trends, classify data into categories or predict future values.

The neural networks (NNs) in these tools help them learn from the data they analyze and adjust their parameters to accommodate new information. This continuous learning mode improves the accuracy over time.

In the Sprout Social example, AI would use NLP and text analysis to decipher complex language nuances, emojis and sentiment within social media posts and reviews – transforming the open-ended feedback into structured data.

Step 3: Data analysis

The tool analyzes the processed data by picking out important parts or patterns it is trained to recognize from pre-processed, labeled datasets. For text, this could be things like the tone of a message or the main topics discussed. With numbers, it might look for trends or unusual patterns. The AI uses special algorithms to sift through this data and learn from it, improving its tasks over time by adjusting the internal rules to reduce mistakes.

For the Sprout Social case, the structured data gets analyzed to detect prevalent themes, such as sentiment tones and customer concerns. This step is important for understanding the broader sentiment landscape identifying strengths and potential areas for service enhancement based on the collective feedback.

Step 4: Visualizing the data

Data visualization is the last step that involves the tool transforming the data into intuitive graphs and charts, making it easier to digest and understand. Visualization helps you identify trends and outliers in the data, offering a granular view that can influence decision-making. For Sprout Social, this could mean a graph that tracks sentiment trends or compares service perceptions across different demographics. These visualizations provide a clear, at-a-glance understanding of how the brand is perceived, enabling Sprout Social to make informed decisions on service improvements or marketing strategies.

The future of AI adoption

Despite AI’s capacity to sift through and make sense of big datasets and produce actionable insights, only 20% of strategists harness AI-related tools, such as ML or NLP, within their strategies. This highlights a wealth of untapped potential, where AI’s capabilities can improve business strategies, giving adopters the opportunity to innovate and create great customer experiences.

To incorporate AI insights into your own marketing strategy, social media data is an excellent starting point. As one of the world’s biggest readily available datasets, using tactics like social media listening will provide you with real-time insights into your customers and market.

Next, learn how marketers are leveraging AI in marketing to generate content, automate operations and create powerful campaigns.

The post How AI insights improve decision making appeared first on Sprout Social.

24 Facebook statistics marketers should know in 2024

Chloe West — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 12:51:23 +0000

Know whether your target audience is still on Facebook? Or if you should keep investing in Facebook ads? Staying on top of the latest Facebook statistics will give you the insights you need to update your Facebook marketing strategy.

Even after all this time, Facebook continues to be the most popular social media platform with the largest user base across all platforms. Understanding statistics around its usage, demographics, marketing uses and more can help inform your marketing strategy.

So without further ado, let’s dig in.

Top 3 Facebook stats every marketer should know
Facebook usage statistics
Facebook user statistics
Facebook audience and demographics statistics
Facebook advertising and marketing statistics
Facebook engagement statistics
Facebook video statistics
Facebook feature stats (Reels, Stories, Messenger)
Facebook consumer behavior statistics

Top 3 Facebook stats every marketer should know

Facebook is the third most visited website following Google and YouTube, respectively. This puts it ahead of other leading platforms like Twitter and Instagram.
The platform boasts 3.065 billion active users on a monthly basis. This makes it the most used social media platform worldwide.
In 2023, Facebook’s total ad revenue amounted to $135 billion, up from $116 billion the previous year.

Facebook usage statistics

Over the years, Facebook has become almost synonymous with social media. It continues to be the biggest social media platform and is widely popular on a global scale. Here are some of the key Facebook usage statistics to understand its popularity and inform your Facebook marketing strategy:

1. Facebook hit 3 billion monthly active users in 2023

By Q4 of 2023, monthly active users on the platform had grown to 3.065 billion after reaching the 3 billion user milestone in Q2 of 2023. Although adoption has slowed down, monthly usage is still seeing an upward trend. If your marketing efforts are also feeling stagnant, download our Facebook marketing template to reinvigorate your strategy.

2. Americans spend about 30.9 minutes on the platform daily

On average, American users spend about 30.9 minutes on Facebook daily. This puts it ahead of other leading platforms such as X, Instagram and even TikTok. These numbers suggest that the platform is still seeing a high level of engagement from its user base.

Facebook user statistics

Facebook may have billions of users, but how are these people using the platform? Let’s look at a few vital Facebook user statistics to find out:

3. Over two-third of all monthly users are active daily

Out of the 3.065 billion monthly active users, 2.1 billion people use the platform daily. That’s 68.6% of users who spend at least some amount of time daily on the platform.

In other words, there are billions of people your brand could potentially reach every single day. The key is to get ahead of the Facebook algorithm so you can get more organic visibility.

4. Facebook is the most popular site for people to get their news

Out of U.S. adults who regularly look to social media for their news, 30% of them head to Facebook. This is ahead of YouTube (26%), Instagram (16%), TikTok (14%) and X (12%).

5. Messaging friends and family is still the top activity on Facebook

Over 72% of users say they use Facebook to message friends and family. This suggests that the platform’s “social” factor is still alive and kicking. Other popular activities on the platform are posting/sharing photos and videos (63.5%) and keeping up to date with news and events (58.7%).

A significant number of users (54.3%) follow and research brands and products on Facebook. So although it’s mostly for social, your brand can still use the platform to build authentic connections.

6. 59% of Facebook users have reached out to a brand on the platform

Social media is also commonly used for customer support requests. One survey found that 59% of Facebook users have reached out to a brand on the platform. Forty-six percent of those messages have been specifically in regards to customer care issues.

Even though Facebook is a social network, it can still be a great outlet for providing customer support and improving experiences with your brand. In fact, 76% of consumers notice and appreciate when companies prioritize customer support, regardless of network.

Facebook audience and demographics statistics

Wondering if you’re reaching the right audience on Facebook? What if your target demographic isn’t even on the platform? Here are a few Facebook stats highlighting the platform’s audience and demographics:

7. Users ages 25-34 years represent Facebook’s largest audience

Despite the platform’s reputation as a seemingly “older” network, 24.4% of Facebook users in the United States are between the ages of 25 and 34. Moreover, the platform sees higher usage among people below the age of 44.

8. Usage among teens has dropped sharply

That said, the platform’s popularity among teens has seen a significant drop. Only 33% of teens were using Facebook as of 2023. This is a sharp decline compared to the 71% who were using the platform between 2014 and 2015.

9. Facebook has more male-identifying users than female

Facebook currently limits its reporting to male and female. And based on the data, the platform has a higher percentage of male users (56.3%) than female users (43.7%).

10. India has the largest Facebook audience size

While Facebook sees significant usage across various countries, India has the greatest number of users. Latest reports show that there are 314.6 million Facebook users in India. The United States comes next, with 175 million users.

Facebook advertising and marketing statistics

Is Facebook marketing still worth it? And are you getting the most out of your Facebook advertising strategy? Check out these Facebook ads statistics to understand advertising impact on the platform.

11. Facebook ads see an average click-through rate (CTR) of 2.50%

According to a WordStream study, Facebook ads get an average CTR of 2.50% across all industries for lead gen ads. That said, click-throughs vary for industries, with arts & entertainment, physicians & surgeons, real estate and sports & recreation sectors seeing a CTR of at least 3% and the travel industry hitting a CTR of over 6%.

Facebook traffic ads and campaigns see a lower CTR, with the average rate being 1.51% across all industries. Arts & entertainment, real estate, restaurants & food and travel all see a CTR above 2%.

12. Advertising for traffic campaigns on Facebook costs $0.83 per click

The same study found that the average cost per click (CPC) is $0.83 across all industries for traffic ads and $1.92 for lead gen ads. However, you can expect to pay much more in certain industries or campaign ads. For example, lead gen ads have a CPC of over $5 for attorneys and nearly $4 for dentists and physicians.

13. The average conversion rate is 8.25% across industries

Facebook sees a fairly high conversion rate for ads on the platform. On average, you can expect a conversion rate of about 8.25% for your Facebook ad. However, the specifics may vary depending on your industry. Arts & entertainment, dental services, industrial & commercial and real estate sectors see a significantly higher conversion rate.

14. Facebook generates the highest ROI

Needless to say, with such high conversion rates and low CPC, marketing on Facebook yields high returns. In fact, Facebook generates the highest return on investment among all other social media platforms, tied only with Instagram at 29%.

Facebook engagement statistics

With organic visibility on Facebook on the decline, it’s only natural to see a drop in engagement levels as well. But does this put Facebook at a disadvantage over other social media platforms? Here’s a quick look at some vital stats to understand where Facebook engagement:

15. The median engagement rate on Facebook is 0.063%

According to a RivalIQ study, brands see a median Facebook engagement rate of 0.063% across all industries. This puts Facebook as one of the less engaging social media platforms, beating only X/Twitter’s 0.029% engagement rate.

16. Photo posts and status posts have the highest engagement

The power of visuals is still evident on Facebook, with photo posts getting the highest engagement at 0.10%. Video posts come next with an average engagement rate of 0.08%. Status posts perform fairly well with an average engagement rate of 0.06%. Link posts, on the other hand, are the worst for driving engagement. They see an average engagement rate of only 0.03%.

17. Frequent posting doesn’t result in higher engagement

Contrary to popular belief, posting frequently doesn’t necessarily result in higher engagement. As the RivalIQ study points out, influencers and higher education industry see the greatest engagement compared to their posting frequency.

Influencers and higher education pages publish fewer than 10 posts per week. Meanwhile, media companies publish over 60 posts a week and only see an average engagement rate of 0.04%.

Rather than post frequency, post publishing should be a factor in your strategy. Know the best time to post on Facebook so you stand a better chance of driving engagement.

Facebook video statistics

As video marketing continues to gain popularity, it’s important to be aware of how video performs on Facebook. Here are some key Facebook video statistics to inform your strategy:

18. 50% of the time users spend on Facebook is spent watching videos

According to Facebook’s own data, about half the time spent on Facebook (and Instagram) is watching video content. This means your audience likely watches video content on the app, and creating more video can help you reach more people. We’re created a quick guide on creating a successful social media video strategy, if you need a refresher.

19. Vertical video with audio sees a 35% higher click-through rate

Facebook Reels have been popular on the app since they were created and integrated into the app from Instagram. Facebook discovered that vertical video (Reels) with audio see a 35% higher CTR than other types of video content on the platform.

Facebook feature stats (Reels, Stories, Messenger)

So, what sort of content should you post? What features are growing and what’s stagnant? Let’s review some Facebook stats that break down some of the platform’s key features, like Facebook Stories, Reels and Messenger:

20. More than 500 million people use Stories every day

According to internal Facebook data, half a billion people use Facebook Stories each day and more than 1 billion Stories shared every day across the Meta apps. This speaks to the popularity of the platform’s feature, making it a useful tool for brands to engage their audience.

21. Facebook Messenger has nearly 1 billion users

Meanwhile, there are nearly 1 billion people using Facebook Messenger. That’s almost a billion people you could potentially reach through ads on Messenger.

22. Reels hit 200 billion views per day across Facebook apps

The popularity of Reels isn’t dying out anytime soon. In fact, Reels see about 200 billion views on a daily basis across the Facebook family of apps.

With algorithms further pushing this format, Reels could help you gain visibility and engagement. In short, brands can’t afford to put this short-form video format on the back burner.

Facebook consumer behavior statistics

Finally, are people even shopping on Facebook? Here are some stats on how consumers are behaving on the platform:

23. Facebook has the highest number of social commerce buyers

According to eMarketer, US adults were more likely to make a purchase directly on Facebook in Q1 2023. However, when compared to Gen Z buyers, it’s in fourth place behind TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

24. Facebook commerce is expected to hit 64.6 million shoppers in 2024

As the most popular social media platform for commerce, there are tens of millions of shoppers on the platform. The same eMarketer study as above showcases that Facebook commerce is expected to continue to grow, reaching 64.6 million shoppers by the end of 2024.

How do these Facebook stats inform your social media strategy?

These key Facebook statistics should give you some idea of where the platform currently stands in the social media landscape. As such, you can use these to guide your strategy and understand what to prioritize. To advance your strategy even further, take advantage of different Facebook marketing tools.

The post 24 Facebook statistics marketers should know in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Enterprise social media: The tools your organization should use in 2024

Ronnie Gomez — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 14:00:26 +0000

If your marketing tech stack is a puzzle, then picture your enterprise social media tool as the final piece that pulls it all together.

Once it locks into place, you’re left with a more complete picture of consumer needs.

When searching for your company’s missing piece, an informed decision is the best decision. Kicking off your selection process with a dedicated research phase can pave the way for better process and performance outcomes.

The tool that takes your team’s efforts to the next level is out there. Keep reading to find out what you need to know when choosing an enterprise social media management software.

Social media for enterprise: Why it’s taking center stage
How to choose the right enterprise social media management software
The enterprise social media management tools your business needs

Social media has fundamentally altered the brand-consumer relationship. Industry trailblazers—who have championed a new era of brand relevance—have made consumers more receptive than ever to seeing businesses in their feed. Audiences aren’t just passively consuming branded content, they’re looking for it.

According to The 2023 Sprout Social Index™ Report, 68% of consumers follow brands on social media to stay informed about new products or services. Nearly half (48%) follow for access to exclusive deals or promotions. Social has taken the mall experience online, where brands of all sizes go head-to-head for market share.

On social, the best strategy wins. The brands that maximize their use of social data to engage audiences are positioned to foster life-long fans—and generate meaningful revenue.

In a way, this gives smaller businesses a slight advantage, as smaller teams often have more streamlined approval workflows and less internal bureaucracy. If enterprise brands want to capitalize on the full impact of social media, they need to strive for maximum operational efficiency.

Succeeding in the most dynamic channel in marketing calls for more than just creative thinking and a strategic mindset. You need a tech stack designed to dramatically reduce time-to-insights, so you can focus on interpreting trends, developing predictions and making more informed, data-driven decisions.

Enterprise software purchases are a team sport. Throughout the buying process, you’ll likely have to work with several stakeholders across your business, from IT to legal and beyond.

You can ensure that all stakeholder concerns are addressed during the vendor selection process with just a few hours of prep work. Here’s what you need to know to set your company up for social success:

1. Know your goals

Why does your business need a new enterprise social media management software?

This may sound like an easy question, but asking it is a major step toward ensuring everyone is on the same page. For example, your social team may have different marketing priorities than those operating on the customer service side. Defining your goals creates clarity, which leads to more informed decisions.

Schedule a kickoff meeting with all your stakeholders to decide on top priorities. Remember to keep longevity in mind so you won’t have to repeat this process at the end of your contract terms.

2. Know your governance and compliance policies

When you think of all the bells and whistles you want out of your next social media management solution, governance features probably aren’t at the top of your list. While they may not be particularly flashy, enterprise social media security tools are incredibly important when it comes to eliminating risk.

Work with your IT team to outline the social media governance concerns and requirements you’ll need to discuss with potential vendors. Preparing and sharing a compliance-focused scoresheet before signing up for demos can save both parties time and effort.

Pro tip: Outlining these concerns in a social media RFP helps vendors remove themselves from your process if they can’t meet your security needs.

3. Know your priority integrations

Social data can revolutionize how your business seeks and acts on consumer insights. But if it lives on software that’s isolated from your tech stack, you won’t be getting the full picture.

Identify which social media management integrations matter most when creating wow-worthy customer experiences online. Rank them by importance and mark which are non-negotiable. As you move through vendor evaluations, this will help you identify which software will be most able to meet your needs.

By now, you should have all the information you need to choose a tool that complements both your existing processes and tech stack. It’s finally time to create your vendor shortlist.

Enterprise social media management
Enterprise social network
Influencer marketing
Customer experience
Lead generation
CRM
Business intelligence
Workflow and digital asset management
Reputation management
Social commerce

Sprout Social offers a full suite of enterprise-grade tools that unlock significant business impact through social. We work with a roster of partners to ensure your social media processes are integrated into everything from internal communications to customer retention and enterprise reporting. With Sprout, you can mitigate risk, capitalize on opportunities and amplify your brand in a fan-favorite platform.

Our G2 rankings speak for themselves. In 2024, Sprout was named #1 Best Software Product by G2’s Best Software Awards—a recognition informed by authentic reviews by real users. On top of that, Sprout has maintained its status as a G2 Enterprise leader every quarter since 2018.

We could provide you with a whole laundry list of reasons to consider Sprout when selecting a new enterprise social media management tool. In the interest of time, we’ll stick to the top three reasons enterprise organizations choose Sprout for org-wide strategic alignment:

We invest in research and development: Through strategic acquisitions and investments in cutting-edge AI analytics, we’re enhancing our customers’ ability to drive deeper insights from social media and expand their brand presence. Our AI Assist features are designed through proprietary machine learning and deep automation capabilities with OpenAI’s GPT model, empowering teams to work smarter and achieve greater impact.
We bring alignment to marketing and customer service teams: Social Customer Care by Sprout Social and Sprout’s partnership with Salesforce Service Cloud set teams up to provide faster, more efficient support. We streamline the handling of incoming messages across networks, integrations, geographies and languages so your service agents can provide better service in less time.
We speed up time-to-insights: Sprout’s analytics tools provide users with an extensive analysis of their brand’s social media presence in seconds. Reports are easy to build and easy to understand, so teams can focus on using that social data and industry insights to design more effective campaigns.

Enterprise organizations can schedule a demo to discuss their needs and goals with a member of Team Sprout. From there, we’ll take you on a live product tour so you can learn more about how to get the most out of the platform.

Schedule a demo

What is it? Slack is a team collaboration tool that is basically the professional equivalent of AOL Instant Messenger. Companies use this enterprise social network to promote internal communication through direct messaging and group channels.

How does it work with Sprout Social? Sprout’s pre-built integration with Slack helps social teams keep up with approval processes and task flows in real time.

Once a Slack Workspace is connected to a Sprout instance, users can choose which Sprout notifications they’d like to receive via Slack. This is a game changer for time-sensitive engagement opportunities and lengthy approval workflows.

Influencer marketing: Tagger

What is it? Tagger by Sprout Social is the leading influencer marketing and social intelligence platform, revolutionizing how brands and agencies harness data and analytics to drive influencer marketing strategies.

How does it work with Sprout Social? Successful influencer marketing strategies can’t exist while siloed off from a greater social media marketing strategy. Sprout Social and Tagger connect the dots between your influencer and brand social strategies, maximizing workflow efficiency from onboarding to project assignment to execution.

Customer experience: Salesforce Service Cloud

What is Salesforce Service Cloud? Service Cloud is the world’s most popular and highly rated customer service software solution.

How does Salesforce Service Cloud work with Sprout Social? Sprout’s preferred partnership with Salesforce drives a true 360 degree understanding of your customers. The integration pulls together conversations across Sprout and Salesforce Service Cloud so agents have complete context to effectively add the right level of personalization to customer inquiries.

According to the 2023 Sprout Social Index™, 76% of consumers notice and appreciate when companies prioritize customer support. Connecting Sprout and Salesforce Service Cloud allows teams to respond to customers faster, with better solutions that meet their unique needs—a recipe for long-term loyalty and retention.

Lead generation: Adobe Marketo Engage

What is it? Adobe Marketo Engage is a lead management platform that helps marketers nurture prospects and target qualified lead-to-revenue opportunities.

How does it work with Sprout Social? Sprout’s integration with Marketo Engage helps social teams send warm leads over to sales quickly and with all the necessary context needed to get the conversation started on the right foot.

Users can create and edit leads within the Sprout platform, creating a richer lead profile that accounts for a prospect’s full experience with your brand.

CRM: Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365

What is it? Customer relationship management (CRM) tools are like digital rolodexes that house all of a business’ prospect, lead and customer data.

Sprout integrates with two enterprise CRM tools: Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

How does Salesforce work with Sprout Social? Sprout’s integration with Salesforce allows users to edit leads, cases and contacts through the Sprout platform. This easy-to-use, pre-built integration supports alignment between marketing, sales and support teams so everyone can take advantage of critical social insights.

How does Microsoft Dynamics 365 work with Sprout Social? Our enterprise social media management solution integrates with Dynamics 365 to assist with lead generation and support case management.

Business Intelligence: Tableau

What is it? Tableau is a visual analytics platform for creating actionable and easy-to-understand data visualizations. The platform processes data from integrated sources, delivering predictions and recommendations using Einstein AI.

How does Tableau work with Sprout Social? Sprout Social’s Tableau Business Intelligence (BI) Connector layers rich social data on insights across marketing channels, creating a truly omnichannel view of the customer experience.

This centralized source of audience insights empowers enterprise brands with the resources necessary to identify opportunities to meaningfully influence the customer journey.

Workflow and digital asset management: Dropbox, Feedly and Canva

What is it? Creating a single piece of content can require several video clips, graphics and reference materials. Workflow and digital asset management tools centralize these files in a single location for easy storage and sharing.

Sprout Social integrates with three workflow and digital asset management tools:

Dropbox: a cloud-based file hosting service that helps teams share files and folders easily.
Feedly: a news aggregator that allows users to organize and research stories by topic.
Canva: an online graphic design tool that can be used to create social media graphics, videos and presentation decks.

How does Dropbox work with Sprout Social? Sprout’s integration with Dropbox streamlines content creation by allowing users to access Dropbox files from directly within the Compose tool.

How does Feedly work with Sprout Social? News aggregators can level up enterprise social media management by creating a direct stream of content inspiration in a centralized location.

Users who connect their Feedly account to Sprout Social can access their personal RSS feeds from the Feeds tab. This content can be used as third-party social shares or for extra doses of inspiration.

How does Canva work with Sprout Social? If your team relies on Canva to punch up your visuals, Sprout’s Canva integration lets you import design files from your Canva folders for beautiful, on-brand social creative, every time.

Reputation management: Glassdoor, Tripadvisor, Yelp and Google My Business

What is it? Social proof is a psychological phenomenon in digital marketing that has both risks and rewards. While seeking feedback can open your company up to critique, positive feedback is too powerful to miss out on.

Enterprise businesses face a unique challenge when it comes to reputation management. The larger your company, the more customer touch points. More customer touch points leave more opportunities for feedback.

Using social media reputation management tools like Glassdoor, Tripadvisor, Yelp and Google My Business can help enterprise businesses be proactive with reviews, even at high volumes.

How does Sprout work with Glassdoor, Tripadvisor, Yelp and Google My Business? The Reviews tab in Sprout Social centralizes feedback from all four sites.

Enterprise businesses can create multiple filtered views to triage and respond to reviews across channels. You can also report on reviews by volume and star rating from the Reports tab.

What is it? Social commerce—the buying and selling of goods and services within a social media platform—is creating brand new revenue opportunities for enterprise organizations.

To sell directly on social media, marketers typically must link their ecommerce platform to their enterprise social media management tool. Sprout integrates with two ecommerce platforms: Shopify and WooCommerce.

How does Sprout work with Shopify and WooCommerce? Marketers can set up their social commerce shops by integrating their preferred ecommerce platform with Sprout Social.

Once the platforms are connected, you can curate your shop by selecting which listings you’d like to promote on social. Listings can also be promoted in scheduled content using custom product links, turning social into your new storefront.

Enterprise social media management is your tech stack’s missing piece

Social data can do more than just connect the dots between strategy and ROI. When it’s used in collaboration with other enterprise tools, it can provide the insights needed to drive proactive decisions.

To put it simply: When you invest in social data, you invest in future-proofing your business for the road ahead.

Use Sprout Social to create clear links between your social strategy and business impact. Learn more about our enterprise-level social media management software today.

The post Enterprise social media: The tools your organization should use in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

The complete guide to social media campaigns [+ 4 examples for 2024]

Aubree Smith — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 06:00:49 +0000

Creating a social media campaign is an intricate process that requires deeply understanding your audience, brand, products and competitors. From start to finish, it’s imperative to stay focused on your brand’s goals and your audience’s needs.

And the campaign doesn’t end when your team hits “publish.” Tracking, monitoring, listening and analyzing campaign results is crucial to refining your social media marketing strategy and proving the far-reaching impacts your team has on company goals.

In this guide, we’re sharing the essential steps to running a social media campaign plan, four (and a few bonus) of our favorite recent campaigns and 20 tips for building your own unforgettable campaign.

Skip ahead with these links:

Before you dive in, download our social media campaign brief template to start your campaign efforts strong.

Download the template

What is a social media campaign?

A social media campaign is a coordinated set of marketing actions across one or many social channels. The tactics share a common purpose and are designed to reach your company’s goals.

They’re usually part of an omnichannel strategy. Components of a social media campaign include:

Organic posts
Paid promotions
Contests and giveaways
Branded hashtags
User-generated content
Creator and influencer partnerships
Accurate reporting

How to plan the best social media campaigns

Before you can get creative with your campaign, you need to do your research. And this starts by putting an ear to the digital ground and listening—to both your audience and competitors alike.

To design the strongest campaigns possible, start by listening to what your audience is saying on social. Using an AI-powered social listening tool like Sprout to analyze conversations across all social networks enables you to do three crucial things to build your campaign:

1. Understand your target audience

When you don’t begin by listening to your audiences and build campaigns around what they actually care about, you might end up pushing out content that just isn’t quite right.

Social listening enables you to analyze your target audiences’ conversations about your brand, product, competitors and existing campaigns. And that makes it possible to extract the topics that matter to your target audience and develop campaigns and messaging that resonate.

2. Do a competitive analysis to set yourself apart

A competitive analysis can also help you understand where you fall among your competitors—where they fall short and where you outpace them. Knowing your competitive position can help you set goals for your campaign. For example, using social listening during a competitive analysis can help you understand metrics like share of voice. You can understand how you stand out from the competition and how you need to tailor your campaign to improve your SOV.

3. Analyze campaign performance

AI-powered social listening tools enable you to go beyond measuring performance metrics to actually understand how audiences feel about your campaigns.

Understanding how past campaigns were received is helpful when crafting new ones. But it can also be helpful in the moment if you need to adjust a campaign that isn’t getting the right reception.

How to run a successful social media campaign

To run your high impact social media campaign from start to finish, use this three-step process.

1. Brainstorm social campaign themes

Generate social media campaign ideas by asking your team (and teams outside of social) these questions:

What are your target audience’s challenges?
How does your brand help overcome them?
What do we want to accomplish with a social media campaign?

During the ideation stage of your social media campaign, it’s imperative to consult with teams from other business functions to ensure you have a complete understanding of your customers, your products and your competitive landscape. The insights you glean from other teams can inform and bolster a campaign to make it even more audience-driven. In fact, The 2023 Sprout Social Index™ revealed that 65% of marketers agree other departments inform their social efforts.

2. Build out your creative and content

Once you ground yourself in the “why” behind your campaign, it’s time to build out the content. Here are some sources of creative inspiration that will help make your next social campaign truly memorable.

Partner with influencers and creators

Influencers and creators are already masters of creating content that resonates. They’ve built their followings based on engaging content they share on social. With their expertise, they can produce unique content for your brand that strikes a chord with their community.

Most importantly, influencers bring a key element to your campaign: authenticity. Which, according to the 2023 Index, is the number one thing consumers don’t see enough of from brands on social.

Align with the customer journey

Not every piece of content you produce needs to align with all members of your target audience across the sales funnel. Instead, shift your focus to create content specific to where your campaign audience is in their buying journey.

For example, in the awareness stage, your goal is to increase the number of people who know about your brand, services and offerings. The content you produce within this stage needs to be eye-catching, but doesn’t necessarily have to speak directly to what your brand has to offer. The focus here is to grab your audience’s attention. “Edutainment” content—social posts that entertain and educate—is perfect for this journey stage. Think infographics and how-to videos.

Share user-generated content

About 41% of consumers want to see customers and followers on brands’ social content, according to The 2024 Content Benchmarks Report.

By reposting user-generated content (UGC), you fulfill your audience’s expectations while saving your team time and creative resources. And your brand advocates are delighted to be featured by your brand and have a chance to grow their following. So, tapping into UGC is a win-win-win.

Post content formats your audience wants to engage with

Short-form video has been king for a while, and that remains true. The 2024 Content Benchmarks Report found that short-form video was the content format consumers want brands to focus on, followed by static images and influencer content.

But remember that your audience’s preferences might differ slightly from the general population, so it’s important to factor in your most successful content types and themes using your organization’s own benchmark or historical data.

Size up the competition

If you’re running out of content ideas to fuel your social campaigns, turn to your competitors for inspiration. Your brand and your competitors may be targeting similar ideal customer personas, so zero-in on where their social efforts are winning share of voice. What are they doing that works? Where are they missing the mark?

Be careful not to mimic your competitors’ content, but instead use their social strategies as a catalyst for your creative ideas.

3. Choose your metrics and measure success

Choosing the right social media metrics to track and analyze is vital to properly gauge the success of your social media campaigns, and how well your campaign translates to reaching business goals. With the tremendous amount of social data now available, be sure to choose metrics that align with your objectives. For a complete deep-dive, check out this video that walks you through the 17 most important social media metrics.

When it comes to tracking campaigns, engagement metrics—such as the number of unique people who have clicked, liked, commented on or shared your posts—typically provide the most compelling data to determine your campaign’s overall effectiveness.

Once you determine the metrics that matter most to your campaign, start measuring your success and reporting on your social media analytics. Measuring performance throughout your campaign enables you to make adjustments to your social media strategy and content using real-time audience insights.

4. Use technology to manage your campaign from start to finish

To keep your campaign organized—from ideation to content creation to making sense of your metrics—use a social media management platform like Sprout. With Sprout’s Campaign Planner features, create everything you need to run a successful campaign in one place, including briefs, creative assets and analytics reports.

Start your free Sprout trial

Some of the best social media campaigns have joined the ranks of the greatest creative efforts in advertising history.

To help you get inspired, here are some attention-grabbing creative social media campaign examples to get your creative gears turning.

1. LEGO’s Botanicals Challenge

LEGO never fails to create fun content. And recently, they leaned into their slogan “adults welcome” with a social campaign built to bring attention to new additions in their Botanicals Collection—a range of flower-building sets.

LEGO chose the perfect time to promote these new flowery sets—in the lead-up to Valentine’s Day. Their social campaign consisted of a few pieces (no pun intended). On TikTok, they featured a weekly LEGO Botanicals Challenge where florist creators were challenged to make creative displays using Botanicals sets.

@lego

Bryce is bringing the outside in this week on the LEGO Botanicals Challenge. Watch the whole thing: @FLOWER BOY #flowertok #flowersareforever #legobotanical #lego

♬ original sound – LEGO

On Instagram, they posted beautiful Valentine’s-themed displays and LEGO Botanicals being built by a former contestant on The Bachelor.

And their campaign was taken offline with “Le Florist”—a LEGO store that was transformed into a florist shop populated with LEGO flowers and bouquets.

@lego

What do you call a florist who builds LEGO flowers? Le Florist 🤌 #LEGO #LEGOFlowers #LEGOBotanicals

♬ original sound – LEGO

The takeaway: We don’t all have hire-a-former-Bachelor-star budgets. But the takeaway from LEGO’s campaign is less about the flashiness and more about the creativity. Their team gave LEGO Botanicals practical, fun applications that were all about connections, celebration and the Valentine’s Day holiday.

Think about how you can involve customers and creators in a fun way, like the Botanicals Challenge—and how you can connect your campaign to people on an emotional level.

2. McDonald’s “W” flip and Grimace’s social media takeover

We just couldn’t choose between these two campaigns. Most recently, you may have noticed that McDonald’s has been flipping the classic golden arches into a less-classic golden “W.”

McDonald’s has been temporarily calling itself “WcDonald’s” in honor of how the massive chain is often portrayed in many manga, TV show, graphic novels and video games. On the digital front, they’ve changed their social channels to reflect this new approach.

And their social content is filled with manga-inspired art and WcDonald’s shorts inspired by the medium.

It’s no question that McDonald’s knows how to have fun on social. And that was also apparent when their character took over posting on their social accounts to promote the Grimace Shake, giving the character a unique voice.

The Takeaway: The WcDonald’s campaign shows that McDonald’s is tapped into how their brand is referenced in media and culture. This is where social listening can help you do the same—use it to understand how people are referencing your brand and if there are any trends you can join in on.

And the Grimace takeover is a great example of how your brand can have some fun on social. Do you have any characters you can hand the mic to? And if not, what creator or even employee takeovers make sense to lean into?

3. #ShotOniPhone and #YourShotPhotographer

These two campaigns aren’t new, but they’re impactful and have staying power.

You’ve no doubt seen Apple’s #ShotOniPhone before—you may have even used it: to date, there are 29.6 million posts using the hashtag on Instagram alone.

And that content and hashtag have been repurposed into countless billboards, commercials and ads for the brand, taking social offline.

Similarly, #YourShotPhotographer by National Geographic is a hashtag that unites Nat Geo’s photo community. They’ve also turned to Instagram to create a space for their Nat Geo Your Shot community, and amassed a following of 6.6 million.

The takeaway: Both of these campaigns are ongoing, and are a stellar example of how you can source UGC and inspiration directly from your community—celebrating your diverse and loyal audience in the process. Your community can fuel campaign concepts and content and bring your brand to life in a new way.

For your next campaign, think about how you can create a hashtag to gather UGC, drum up excitement and even create community amongst your audience.

4. Adidas “Originals” campaign

We love when a brand gets cinematic. The brand’s 2023 “Originals” campaign celebrates the sports celebrities and everyday people alike who embody the brand.

As a core part of this campaign, Adidas created several short films shared across their social channels, based on three of their iconic shoes: Gazelle, Superstar and Samba, which each film is named after.

They shared these films on their YouTube channel and leveraged Instagram to show previews of each film in Reels, connecting their content with the hashtags #WeGaveTheWorldAnOriginal and #AdidasOriginals.

The takeaway: We’re not saying you need to create high-production films or hire celebrities for your next campaign. But we are saying that you should tap into the storytelling angle behind your brand and product. Adidas did this beautifully, highlighting and honoring their audience, history and product in this campaign.

More social media campaign examples by network

Like these examples, many of the most successful social media campaigns span multiple networks simultaneously—with most translating to channels outside of social. But if you’re looking to create a network-specific campaign or tailor your campaign to different network specifications, here are some helpful resources.

How to create KPIs and benchmarks for a social media campaign

Two of the most important parts of a social media campaign are setting the appropriate social media goals and measuring performance. This is crucial if you want to create stronger campaigns in the future, quantify ROI and business results and report to stakeholders.

Here are a few tips that will help you set KPIs and benchmarks for your social media marketing campaigns.

Identify the “why” behind your campaign

Knowing the key outcomes that matter most to you will help identify and inform your KPIs. If your goal is awareness, then impressions, reach, share of voice and video views will be key for you.

If your goal is to drive sales and website traffic, then leads, clicks, trials, downloads, conversions and website traffic will be key. And many of these are easy to track in Google Analytics by using UTMs.

If your goal is a better brand perception, tracking sentiment will be crucial.

Pro tip: There are three engagement metrics that are universal among the major social networks:

Clicks: Users are only going to click on content that interests them. If you experience high clickthrough rates, your content is intriguing enough for users to want to see more, meaning that your content is effective.
Likes: If your content resonates with an audience and is receiving a high number of likes, it will naturally gain popularity (and hopefully collect more clicks).
Shares: Clicks and likes are good indicators of audience interest. However, when users like your content enough to share it, you’ve achieved the holy grail of relevancy and will increase your visibility.

See how you stack up against competitors

Once you know the “why,” the next step is to put a number to your goals. And one of the most helpful ways to do this is by benchmarking against your industry, competitors and yourself.

First, see how your brand stacks up against the competition—what’s your share of voice? And how is your content performing compared to theirs? Using a tool like Sprout’s competitive analysis listening tool or competitive analysis reports does this automatically, so you don’t have to do all the math yourself.

You can also measure campaign performance against industry benchmarks, like those found in Sprout’s 2024 Content Benchmarks Report. And don’t forget to benchmark against yourself, as well. Where is your share of voice and brand sentiment now? And what are your current performance metrics like? Pair where you’re at with your campaign’s purpose to understand what goals you need to achieve, and where you want to see that impact.

Set SMART goals

SMART goals are a framework to use when setting goals for your campaign, and social media channels overall. They are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-sensitive.

Ensure the goals you set for your campaign follow this framework to ease the process of setting goals, and to better track success.

Report on success

Don’t keep your campaign results to yourself—share them with your team and relevant stakeholders outside of it, from senior leaders to customer care teams.

Reporting on your campaign will help you refine how you set goals in the future, and refine future campaigns. It will also give you the chance to celebrate and communicate the success and learnings of your current campaign.

From different channels to influencer content and paid vs. organic posts, there’s a lot to measure across campaigns. A tool like Sprout enables you to report on your campaign across channels, posts and types of content in one place with a robust suite of analytics and reporting tools.

As you prepare to run your social media campaigns, keep these 20 factors in mind.

1. Talk to customers

Gather insights to learn what customers think about your products and industry at large. Then you can create tailored social media campaign strategies that address specific challenges.

How to do this: Partner with your sales and success teams to learn about your customers. Whether you join a call, send out a survey or consult with your internal team, stress how customer intel will help you create better campaigns (and more sales).

2. Learn from people outside your business function

Some of the best creative ideas you’ll find for social media campaigns come from outside the marketing department. Remember to consult internal teams like sales, R&D, product development and HR when crafting your campaigns.

How to do this: Regularly convene with teams outside of social media to boost your strategy and further your impact. Consider hosting a “social media council” for key stakeholders to bring ideas to the table.

3. Give it a sustained effort

Being able to pivot quickly according to data findings is important. But abandoning a campaign messaging angle or visual approach within the first week or month doesn’t give your content enough time to saturate the market.

By pivoting too quickly, you risk diluting your brand story and recognition with too many different messages. This confuses your audience and ultimately gives your competitors an advantage.

How to do this: We recommend making campaigns at least three months long, and breaking your campaign plan into multiple phases. At the end of each, formally evaluate the data and come up with actionable steps to modify your plan if needed.

By using Sprout’s analytics tools, you can efficiently provide regular reporting updates to your team.

4. Bring in the music (and trending sounds)

Music (and trending sounds) can be a source of inspiration for your social media campaign. In some cases, you can even build campaigns around the perfect song. For others, content made with trending sounds makes for a timely complement to an ongoing campaign.

How to do this: Use resources like the TikTok Creative Center to stay in the know and browse sounds currently trending in your country.

5. Think beyond social

Like many of our favorite social media campaign examples demonstrated, the most effective campaigns have an omnichannel component. Where else would your audience want to interact with your content or your product?

How to do this: Consult with teams in charge of event planning, advertising and product design during your campaign brainstorm to make a business-wide impact.

6. Inspire on social, close in store

Even if your audience is made up of digital natives, there are no replacements for the in-person experience.

How to do this: Whether you have a brick-and-mortar location, pop-up shop or you’re sponsoring a booth at a conference, make an aspect of your campaign face-to-face wherever possible.

7. Maximize opportunities to create content

Thinking back to the LEGO example above, use real-life experiences as a chance to fuel your campaign content pipeline.

How to do this: Capture content of people interacting with your products, team members and spaces. You could even create a meet the team series, if it fits the goals of your campaign.

8. Make conversions a focus

Stay zeroed-in on your conversion strategy to fill the gaps between building brand awareness and driving purchasing decisions. Design campaigns built to have a tangible impact on your bottom line by optimizing your content and distribution strategy for conversion.

How to do this: Fortify your campaign content with strong call to action phrases and measure conversions. Adding UTMs to links makes measuring clicks, conversions and website traffic in Google Analytics easier. And monitor your performance metrics—especially for paid content.

9. Use AI and automation

Hear us out—we’re not saying you should design your entire campaign using AI copy unchecked (see: the Glasgow Willy Wonka experience). But AI and automation can make your workflows and ideation processes more efficient. Use these tools to speed up your campaigns from start to finish.

How to do this: Before your campaign launches, use AI-powered social listening to better understand your audience. During, use AI to help you generate customer care responses to your campaign content faster, and to measure ongoing sentiment. And after, measure your campaign’s success and how people felt about it with social listening and analytics automation.

Investing in a tool that does it all ensures you get the most bang for your buck. Check out Sprout’s suite of AI and automation capabilities.

10. Experiment with ephemeral content

Think beyond your primary feed when designing your campaigns. Today, almost every platform has their own version of ephemeral content. Use these capabilities to infuse your campaign with personality and less-polished, more personalized content.

How to do this: For inspiration, check out our complete guide to Instagram Stories.

11. Identify the influencers and creators to partner with

This is your sign to partner with influencers and creators as part of your campaign. They lend an authentic voice to your content and expand your reach into their relevant audiences.

When looking for influencers and creators to star in your campaigns, keep three things in mind: reach, resonance and relevance. The people you feature should understand each one.

@sproutsocial

How to become a content creator with tips from @J A Y D E. ✨ creator creatorrevolution creatoreconomy socialmediamarketing socialmediamanager socialmediatips

♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim

How to do this: According to a Q3 Sprout Social Pulse Survey, over half of marketers use dedicated influencer marketing platforms to help offset the challenge of finding influencers for their campaigns.

Read more about how you can find and vet creators for your next campaign. And remember, influencers and creators aren’t always external. Internal influencers and employee brand advocacy efforts can supercharge your campaign.

An influencer management platform like Tagger can make finding influencers and managing your partnerships easier—learn more about Tagger here.

12. Make customer care a priority

This may seem like putting the cart before the horse. But if you don’t have a robust customer care and engagement strategy during your campaign, you may be missing out on connection opportunities and the chance to convert an audience member into a customer.

According to the Index, 76% of consumers notice and appreciate when companies prioritize customer support. Ensure you prioritize this as you launch your campaign.

How to do this: If you work with a customer support team alongside your social team, get them up to speed on the campaign—especially if it may result in an influx of messages.

13. Look to innovators

If you’re struggling to design high-impact campaigns, take a marketer you know and admire out to lunch, or approach them on social and ask for a quick chat. Come prepared with a set of questions and be as specific as possible. We recommend choosing the marketer(s) behind a particular campaign you were impressed by, and digging deep to find out what you can learn for your brand.

And research how top brands and marketing executives (including yours) operate. Stay alert to top campaigns (like the ones shared earlier in this article) and read interviews with CMO’s from best-in-class brands.

How to do this: We have some social media experts on our staff who are always happy to talk about how Sprout’s full suite of social media tools can help you leverage data to come up with new campaign ideas. And subscribe to blogs and newsletters that feature interviews and advice from leading execs.

14. Partner up

Can you think of any brands that would make good partners during your next social media campaign? These should be brands that:

Overlap with your brand’s target audience
Don’t overlap with your product offerings

How to do this: Build out a co-marketing strategy to expand your awareness with your target audience.

15. Plan for retention and acquisition

Retention and acquisition should be two different tracks in your social media marketing campaigns.

On one hand, you’re trying to keep and engage with the customers you already have. On the other hand, you want to acquire more customers.

Some content might appeal to both customers and prospective customers, but you should also create unique content to target each of these segments.

How to do this: In your content calendar, make sure you have posts and mini-campaigns devoted to each of these categories. Use a tool like Sprout’s internal tagging feature to group and categorize your social media posts based on retention and acquisition objectives. That way you can strike the right balance, while keeping an eye on performance.

16. Understand the digital customer journey

As a social media marketer, you need to understand the unique digital customer journey your followers are taking through the marketing funnel. Make sure you know how people interact with your content at every stage in the journey and across all your social channels.

How to do this: Create a customer journey map to guide your campaign’s content creation.

17. Better understand cultural norms on social

Take time to learn about the unique culture of social media. By being immersed in the culture, you will create campaigns that are better attuned to audience expectations and norms.

How to do this: Subscribe to industry newsletters and blogs, spend time on different social media platforms and learn to speak their language (and your audience’s) fluently.

18. Use SEO to inform content themes

The words and terms you want your brand to rank for on Google can overlap with what you want to be associated with on social. Connect with your SEO team to find out which search terms your brand is focused on and weave them into your social media campaign strategies.

How to do this: Read our guide to YouTube SEO strategy to learn how to use SEO best practices in your content development.

19. Stay on brand

Maintain a consistent brand voice across channels, and stay true to who you are. Even if the internet is talking about the Oscars or the latest TikTok challenge, you should only jump on those trending conversations if they make sense for your brand and are relevant to your campaign.

How to do this: Define your brand’s core values, and keep them in mind whenever you create social content.

20. Take care of yourself

Social media burnout is real. It can be easy to get caught up in campaign prep, but working yourself too hard will lead to creative blocks.

How to do this: Take a break. Move around your space. Take a walk around the block. Try a yoga class. Do whatever it takes to reinvigorate your brain so you can create your most successful campaign yet.

Design an industry-leading social media campaign

Running outstanding social media campaigns requires incorporating insights from across your organization and applying them to build compelling, attention-grabbing content.

With this guide, you will be prepared to conduct meaningful research, design creative content and report on metrics that demonstrate impact—the essential steps for building a successful campaign.

For an extra leg up, we designed a social media campaign brief template to help you stay organized, launch on time, keep your brand on budget and align with stakeholders.

The post The complete guide to social media campaigns [+ 4 examples for 2024] appeared first on Sprout Social.

24 Top YouTube influencers to check out in 2024

Brent Barnhart — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 16:31:43 +0000

YouTube influencers are on a different level when it comes to business impact.

The term “influencer” might be synonymous with Instagram and TikTok these days. Thing is, YouTube creators predate both and are the blueprint for what an “influencer” is today.

And YouTubers have consistently built full-blown brands, media careers and product lines.

These aren’t just one-off success stories, either. From beauty and fitness to gaming and beyond, YouTube creators drive billions of views from any audience you can imagine.

And this speaks to the power of YouTube influencer marketing and sponsored content for brands.

This post digs into the top YouTube influencers of all shapes and sizes and why they’re notable.

Table of contents:

Who are YouTube influencers?
Top YouTube influencers overall
Top YouTube fitness influencers
Top YouTube makeup and beauty influencers

Who are YouTube influencers?

YouTube Influencers are creators with substantial followings and engaged communities. These creators’ personal brands are recognizable among their audiences and businesses.

While there’s no one-size-definition of what a YouTube influencer is, our criteria for this list includes:

A sizable audience (100,000s or millions of subscribers)
Videos that regularly earn 1+ million views
Content that’s brand and collab-friendly

Brands primarily partner with YouTube influencers through sponsored videos and brand ambassadorships. Beyond paid partnerships, many creators will serve as affiliates for brands.

Consider that many YouTube influencers’ level of engagement dwarfs that of traditional ad channels. The platform’s largest creators drive millions of views in a matter of days.

These viewers are engaging with long-form content (hint: not 15-second ad spots). With so much content on YouTube, brands are spoiled for choice when it comes to finding the right influencers.

Top YouTube influencers overall

Below is our breakdown of some of the top YouTube influencers overall.

Bear in mind that subscriber count isn’t everything! While many of these channels represent some of the biggest YouTube influencers, we also share a few up-and-coming creators as well.

If you’re interested in learning more about how you can seamlessly find and manage influencer relationships, all the way from onboarding and project assignment through to execution, request a demo of Tagger by Sprout Social today.

Tagger by Sprout Social

Revolutionize your influencer marketing with data-powered social intelligence.

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1. MrBeast

With over 240 million subscribers, MrBeast is officially the biggest individual YouTube influencer.

His elaborate stunts and philanthropic videos are among the platform’s most viral content. The channel has inspired platform-wide trends including over-the-top thumbnails and “challenge”-style videos.

Inspiring so many copycat channels, MrBeast’s ability to establish trends and drive millions of views in minutes is what makes him the top YouTube influencer by a wide margin.

2. Lily Singh

Lilly Singh is a shining example of how to go from being a YouTube influencer to launching a legit media career and personal brand. With over 1,000 videos and 13 years on the platform, Singh highlights how far both YouTube and creators have come.

Over the years, her content evolved from cultural comedy skits to vlogs featuring Zendaya and The Rock. While Singh doesn’t publish as much long-form content these days, she posts plenty of YouTube shorts of her behind-the-scenes life as a celeb.

3. Marques Brownlee

Marques Brownlee is the mastermind behind MKBHD, breaking down cutting edge tech with super in-depth reviews. Brownlee’s 18+ million subscribers speak for themselves, as does the fact that his new review of the Apple Vision Pro has already amassed 26+ million views in a month.

His channel is the go-to place for the YouTube community to learn about the latest gadgets, phones, tech accessories, gaming consoles and more. What makes Brownlee notable is his welcoming presentation, making his content accessible to casual viewers and tech junkies alike.

4. Dude Perfect

Five YouTube influencers, one channel.

Despite being simply presented as five guys making videos, Dude Perfect is the blueprint for a successful comedy channel on YouTube. Their sketches and outlandish “trick shot” videos consistently go viral across social media, not to mention YouTube itself.

Getting hundreds of millions of views for flipping water bottles and making ping pong trick shots might seem impossible. That said, the personality of the Dude Perfect team is what really hooks viewers from the start.

5. Emma Chamberlain

Emma Chamberlain proves the power of day-in-the-life style content. Amassing 14+ million subscribers for her vlogs and lifestyle videos, Chamberlain presents her “real” self to viewers whether she’s filming her daily fits or exploring a new county.

Like all of the YouTube influencers on our list, her channel is a reminder that building an audience boils down to creating a legit emotional connection with your audience. Needless to say, Chamberlain has nailed it there.

6. Markiplier

Markiplier is a pioneer as a YouTube influencer in the gaming space. His channel blew up in the wake of horror game jump-scares and reaction videos taking off over a decade ago. 5,500+ videos later, Markiplier continues to create similar content with the occasional vlog or charity announcement in-between.

7. KallMerkis

KallMerkis’ channel is a perfect storm of what tends to trend across YouTube. That includes reaction videos, reviewing weird products and outlandish thumbnails. Her consistency and content variety has netted her nearly 11 million subscribers to date with no signs of slowing down.

8. Jacksepticeye

Jacksepticeye is another example of a gaming YouTube influencer who got in early on reaction content and playthroughs. While many of his earliest and most popular videos also featured original animations, Jack has also branched out into meme reviews, reaction videos and everything in-between.

9. Morgan Drinks Coffee

Morgan Drinks Coffee’s Morgan Eckroth is a barista champion turned YouTube influencer who regularly publishes super creative branded content. Unsurprisingly, most of her content is coffee-themed. This includes long-form educational videos, recipes and product reviews.

Given that Morgan is also popular on TikTok (6.3 million followers), she makes a point to regularly crosspost her videos to YouTube Shorts where they likewise earn impressive engagement.

10. JaidenAnimation

JaidenAnimations is unique as the only animated YouTube influencer on our list. Many of her recent videos focus on video games and nerd culture along with her personal experiences. Combining humorous “storytimes” with stunning cartoons, her distinct style has earned her 12.4 million subscribers to date.

11. Davie 504

David504’s content is equal parts bizarre and mind-blowing. Combining memes with creative bass guitar solos and challenges, Davie’s channel is one of the biggest independent music YouTube influencers with an impressive 13+ million subscribers.

12. Adam Neely

Another music YouTube influencer, Adam Neely has one of the oldest channels of anyone on this list (with his first video published way back in 2006). Since then, Neely has consistently published deep-dives into music theory alongside live performances and vlogs detailing his life as a gigging musician.

13. SB Mowing

SB Mowings’ before-and-after mowing videos are also a perfect example of “oddly satisfying” content that tends to go viral on YouTube. Transforming untenable lawns into something with curb appeal definitely falls under that category as millions of viewers regularly tune in to see it happen.

Even more impressive is how the channel boasts its fair share of sponsored content. SB Mowing is a shining example of just how successful niche YouTube influencers can be.

Top YouTube fitness influencers

While there’s no shortage of them, here are a few notable YouTube fitness influencers to watch.

14. Yoga With Adriene

Yoga with Adriene is YouTube’s one-stop-shop for all things yoga. Her calm presentation and the fact that she has tutorials for all skill levels have only helped her viewership grow since. From bite-sized routines and full-blown classes to in-depth yoga pose tutorials, Adrienne has covered all of the above in detail in 700+ videos and counting.

15. Jeff Nippard

Jeff Nippard is different from many of the biggest YouTube influencers in the fitness space because of his background in chemistry. His recommendations go beyond anecdotal fitness advice with a focus on science and peer-reviewed data. Nippard’s videos combine practical muscle-building and diet recs with serious educational value that doesn’t skimp on the details.

16. Athlean X

Like Nippard, Athlean X’s Jeff Cavaliere takes pride in his “no BS” and science-backed approach to fitness advice. Serving as a celebrity trainer with decades of experience, Athlean X goes to great lengths to dispel common YouTube fitness myths. Much of the channel is dedicated to addressing weightlifting trends with the potential to cause injury.

17. Blogilates

Another example of how creators turn content into careers and products, Blogilates is an “OG” fitness YouTuber who also has a thriving activewear brand to her name. Her channel primarily consists of bodyweight exercise tutorials and ~15 minute workout routines for busy viewers.

18. Carla Rowena

Carla Rowena’s channel is a notable mix of both fitness and lifestyle content. Beyond traditional workout routines, she also uses her channel as a place to document her journey as a parent. She’s recently published a series of postpartum workout videos which highlights how creators can seamlessly reach multiple audiences at the same time.

Top YouTube makeup and beauty influencers

19. Michelle Phan

While Michelle Phan’s channel initially popped off thanks to her copycat celebrity makeup tutorials, the channel primarily focuses on product reviews and routine breakdowns. Not to mention founding EM Cosmetics along the way.

Her videos are seriously in-depth and border on ASMR with a soft and calm presentation. Phan sometimes publishes lifestyle videos and personal vlogs for the sake of variety.

20. Jackie Aina

Jackie Aina’s self-proclaimed goal is to change “the standard of beauty” and she delivers with her routine videos, vlogs and self-care videos. While Aina initially built her brand on beauty reviews, self-care has become the primary focus of the channel with makeup playing a supporting role.

Some of her more recent videos are sponsored by brands like CashApp, highlighting how YouTube beauty influencers are creating content powered by paid partnerships.

21. Taylor Wynn

Taylor Wynn has been posting beauty tutorials and reviews for over a decade. She continues to consistently post routine videos and recommendations alongside long-form vlogs. With many of her videos clocking at over 30+ minutes, she’s yet another example of a beauty vlogger who dives deep into her favorite finds at Ulta, Sephora and beyond.

22. NikkieTutorials

NikkieTutorials’ content is much more in-your-face than other beauty YouTubers but that’s 100% on-brand. Her 14.5m subscribers don’t lie!

Quick edits, memes and a great sense of humor help Nikkie’s content stand out from the crowd. Testing viral hacks and bizarre routines provides serious entertainment value while also showing off her skill as a makeup artist.

While Nikkie doesn’t post as many long-form videos these days, she’s still actively publishing bite-sized makeup applications and reaction videos.

23. Huda Beauty

Like many YouTube beauty influencers, Huda Beauty went from creating makeup tutorials to building her own cosmetics empire. Huda’s 4 million YouTube subs and ever-growing brand highlight her impact as both a beauty influencer and entrepreneur.

24. Christen Dominique

With 4+ million subscribers, Christen Dominique has mastered the art of creating long-form beauty videos. Most of her videos are ~20 minutes long with the occasional unedited videos that can last for over an hour.

Routines, hacks and GRWM videos are cornerstones of her content which gets seriously in-depth. The fact that Dominique continues to publish multiple videos per month is impressive for a creator of her size. Bonus points for keeping up that sort of volume and high production value.

Ready to start working with YouTube influencers?

The list above provides a taste of what YouTube has to offer in terms of creative talent. The amount of talented influencers on YouTube across industries and genres is staggering.

And this is great news for both creators and the brands that want to partner with them.

Especially as YouTubers continue to find super creative ways to feature brands in their content. Still, simply finding the right influencers is one of the toughest parts of getting started.

If you haven’t already, check out Sprout Social’s suite of influencer marketing features to see how the platform can help you reach your target audience with creators faster.

The post 24 Top YouTube influencers to check out in 2024 appeared first on Sprout Social.

Executing a successful demand generation strategy [with examples]

Kimberlee Meier — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 16:00:05 +0000

When marketing a product or service to your audience, it all comes down to solving a problem.

If your product is a good fit to solve this problem, the battle is already halfway over. However, there are thousands of other products out there also trying to grab your audience’s attention and prove just the same.

A solid demand generation strategy helps your brand stand out from the crowd. This proactive marketing approach educates and engages your audience throughout their journey. It convinces them that your solution will solve their problems.

In this guide, we will show you how to create a demand generation strategy and example strategies that can help you engage the right people at the right time.

Table of contents:

What is demand generation?
What is a demand generation strategy?
Elements of a successful demand generation strategy
3 demand generation strategy examples
Demand generation vs. lead generation vs. inbound marketing
Demand generation and data

What is demand generation?

Demand generation is a marketing strategy that uses education, content and brand storytelling to attract customers. It talks about a problem your target audience faces in their work or life and positions your product as the answer.

While demand generation is all about building engagement and trust, it’s not just an early-funnel marketing strategy. Demand generation can apply to touchpoints throughout the entire sales and conversion cycle. The goal is to build and nurture crucial customer relationships over the long term.

The bottom line is demand generation differs from other types of marketing because it is proactive. It shows potential customers that you understand their challenges—and you have a product to fix them.

What is demand generation strategy?

A demand generation strategy builds awareness or need for a product through customer education. It uses tactics like social media marketing to target an audience throughout their customer journey.

A successful demand generation strategy aims to identify and attract qualified leads (a.k.a. the people who are interested/need your product) into your marketing funnel. From there, you can build trust and ultimately—turn them into paying customers.

Elements of a successful demand generation strategy

A successful demand generation strategy has several moving parts, which vary depending on what content resonates with your target audience and the specific platforms they use.

Here are five elements your demand generation strategy should include.

1. Buyer persona development

If you try to sell to everyone—you end up selling to no one.

A core part of a demand generation strategy is to develop buyer personas, or ideal customer profiles (ICPs), to help target the right people. ICPs are fictitious personas, but they build a description of a person who needs your product based on age, job, industry and budget.

These personas paint a clear picture of:

What problems/pain points your audience wants to solve
Any solutions they are already weighing up (i.e. your competitors)
What motivates this particular persona to buy a product
What stage of the buying journey they are at

Check out this B2B buyer persona from Semrush.

It covers a (fictitious) customer’s pain points, buying influences and industry knowledge. It also shows the potential value they will get from the product. This can guide what to target in your next marketing campaign to help connect with potential customers who fit this buyer persona.

This strategy is easier with the right tools. Sprout’s Social Listening solutions add more context to your market research. For example, use the demographics report to track your target audience‘s age, gender and even what tech they are using to search for products.

This information enables you to craft more detailed content to match their persona.

2. Multi-channel approach

Multi-channel marketing is a must-have addition to your demand generation strategy. This strategy covers marketing channels like email, social media platforms and content distribution. It also works best when you show up in the places where your audience (actually) hangs out, and data can point you in the right direction.

Say you want to generate demand through your brand’s social media channels. With Sprout, run a Profile Performance Report to uncover what channels currently get the most traction and engagement.

Also get insight into your most engaged followers such as age, interests, professional title or industry. This will make it easier to create content that connects with their specific pain points.

3. Content quality and relevance

The secret sauce to generate demand is to focus on what your audience really needs help with. Talking in your audience’s language and addressing their pain points is more impactful than a strategy that targets generic needs.

Where you create and distribute content also matters. In 2023, 60% of B2B content marketers surveyed said social media was the most effective channel for driving revenue. At Sprout, we use a multi-channel social media approach to generate demand and brand awareness:

Sprout’s YouTube channel has a library full of videos relevant to our target audience. Viewers can educate themselves about social media marketing by learning new tactics. They can also view annual predictions and learn new marketing hacks. Thanks to these tips, our audience starts to view Sprout as a trusted industry expert.
We regularly post content to TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Our presence on these platforms is crucial for brand awareness and telling our story to our core audience.
We also created the Social Creatures podcast to amplify the stories of our favorite social media accounts. Each episode digs into the success of leading social media marketers and uncovers the tactics they use to grow their accounts.

This targeted content taps into our audience’s problems to generate demand. It’s this connection that helps us build trust.

4. Lead scoring and qualification

Every lead that drops into your marketing funnel is different. Using a lead scoring strategy narrows down which ones are most likely to become paying customers.

Maximizing your resources at this early stage means your team can spend more time nurturing high-quality leads and reducing dead ends.

So, how do you build a foolproof lead scoring strategy?

Start by digging into your attribution data. Figure out which marketing efforts lead to conversions throughout your funnel.

Then, ask your sales and marketing teams to decide what a “good” quality lead looks like in terms of buying signals. Use their suggestions to create a lead scoring model. Weigh actions, like registering for a webinar, against real conversions in your marketing and sales funnels.

Here’s an example.

When a lead reaches a certain score, it signals to your marketing or sales team that it’s worth pursuing.

5. Data-driven decision making

Data-driven marketing helps tailor your demand generation strategy to fit your target audience. For example, a marketing team running a new social media campaign can dig into the performance data throughout the campaign to see what’s working best.

By analyzing this data, the marketing team can make timely optimizations and improve outcomes. This is also a smart way to increase return on ad spend (ROAS) instead of waiting to study it postmortem.

Sprout Social enables you to track engagement, sentiment and impressions to show you what resonates with your audience. It also weighs each demand generation campaign against your competitors. This helps you see what content your target audience is engaging with to help you stay competitive and make better decisions.

3 demand generation strategy examples

Demand generation is cemented in building trust with a target audience. It aims to educate prospects and promote your product as the best way to address a need. This proactive marketing approach is what makes demand generation so impactful.

Here are three strategies to use for demand generation:

1. Account-based marketing (ABM)

ABM is a demand generation strategy used to build relationships with high-value prospects. An ABM Leadership Alliance survey covering over 300 B2B marketers showed 93% used an ABM strategy to bring customers into their funnel.

For ABM to be effective, look at your data and build out a list of potential target accounts. If their attributes match one of your existing buyer personas—add them to your target list.

This is how DocuSign used an ABM-focused campaign to target 450 enterprise prospects. It targeted six internal buyer personas using unique advertisements and landing pages to speak specifically to that audience.

The strategy was effective because:

Each ad contained personalized messages for target accounts based on their stage in their buying process.
DocuSign knew every ICP had different problems to solve. It created personalized content, case studies and testimonials to tap into their pain points.

DocuSign then used personalized ads to drive each key account to a customized landing page.

Just three months after launching the campaign, DocuSign improved engagement by 59%. Page views also increased by 300%, and 18% of the target account list had at least one secured opportunity.

2. Target each stage of your content funnel differently

The best way to demonstrate the value of a solution is through content. Eighty-one percent of buyers surveyed in Demand Gen Report’s latest B2B Buyer Survey said content had a significant impact on their buying decisions.

For content to influence a potential customer, it must meet them where they are at in their buying journey. Let’s break down what a typical journey looks like:

Top of Funnel (TOFU): This is the awareness stage of the funnel. A potential customer is learning about what your brand does and broadly what problems your product solves.
Middle of Funnel (MOFU): This is the consideration stage. The potential customer knows what their problem is, and they are looking for a product to solve it. They’re aware of your product, but you need to earn their trust first.
Bottom of Funnel (BOFU): This is the decision stage. It’s your chance to win the potential customer over and convince them your product will be a good fit.

At each stage, the content a potential customer consumes must reflect where they are in the funnel and their awareness of you.

Let’s walk through a (very simple) example of how you can do this.

Imagine a potential customer who is just starting to research your marketing tools. They probably don’t want to read about why your brand is the best platform on the market. But, a guide on a topic like “how to use automation tools” can teach them how a product like yours can improve their marketing efforts.

Now, let’s look at how this works in more detail.

A TOFU piece of content in the marketing funnel will target general marketing topics to educate our audience. For example, we have detailed guides on how to build a social media marketing strategy or improve social media engagement. We wrote these posts to help our target audience become better social media marketers—nothing more.

Once they know who you are, they move to the middle of the marketing funnel. At this point, you may use more product-oriented guides to convince them that your marketing tool is a good investment. Then, if they make it further down the funnel, BOFU content is used. This content is for potential customers who know they need a solution but are weighing up their options.

At this stage, you’re looking to convince them to engage with you, or raise their hand to learn more about what you specifically offer.

Building out a successful content machine takes a lot of work. But, your strategy will get a lot more traction if each content piece targets your audience with what they need, where they need it and when.

3. Use social media for your B2B demand generation strategy

Our 2023 State of Social Media report found seven in 10 leaders agree that social media is underutilized within their organization. Ninety-seven percent of business leaders we talked to believe the use of social data to understand market trends will increase in the coming years.

Like the other strategies on our list, each social media platform requires a different approach. LinkedIn is the perfect place to write longer thought-leadership content. On the other hand, X (formerly known as Twitter) is great for engaging with other business influencers and customers.

One thing is for sure—B2B buyers don’t just hang out on LinkedIn. According to The Sprout Social Index, 68% of customers follow a brand on social to stay informed about new products or services. While 51% of consumers also said responding is the most memorable action a brand takes on social media.

Even brands built on the backs of traditional channels like SEO know the power social media can bring to demand generation.

Ahrefs Chief Marketing Officer, Tim Soulo, uses his social channels to chat with thousands of fellow marketers. He starts LinkedIn conversations around trends like AI to keep followers engaged.

This thought leadership approach to social media shows the power of the platforms to increase brand awareness. It’s also a great reminder that platforms like LinkedIn can build an incredible amount of trust with your target audience.

Demand generation vs. lead generation vs. inbound marketing

Demand generation differs from lead generation in a few ways. Lead generation applies when your audience is actively seeking out different services or products to address a need. The main goal of a lead generation campaign therefore is to obtain a prospect’s information so you can nurture the relationship through the marketing funnel, ultimately selling them your product or service. This differs from demand generation, as its main goal is to increase brand awareness.

Inbound marketing is when your audience seeks out information for a problem that they are trying to solve and organically comes across your brand as a potential solution. If you are regularly creating content, then your lead generation most likely comes through this source. Inbound marketing is less disruptive than outbound strategies, and therefore often results in higher-quality prospects.

Inbound marketing and lead generation complement each other. When you create content that aims to solve a common problem, your brand attracts inbound leads. This is because your audience is already aware of the problem and is actively seeking out solutions. In contrast, demand generation is about you trying to reach audiences that don’t yet know your product or service has benefits to offer them.

Demand generation and data

Demand generation relies on your ability to understand consumer needs. And data is a vital tool for figuring that out. For example, use data to measure if your marketing content and efforts resonate with your audience, or understand how to best reach your audience. Continuous testing, analysis and data collection are crucial for your demand generation efforts to succeed.

There are several key parts of demand generation can you can track.

Metrics throughout the funnel

Marketing qualified leads (MQLs): This metric represents someone who has taken a step like filling in a contact form or signing up for a free trial. These actions signal people are interested in your product. It’s important to track MQLs so you know what stage of the marketing funnel visitors are turning into potential customers.
Attribution: This tracks which touchpoints a visitor has hit to become a customer. It will track their engagement with your website or other channels, what pages they visit or if they fill out a form. Attribution tracks how someone turns from a visitor into a paying customer.
Engagement: Track what level of engagement each post is getting on your social channels. Engagement metrics like shares, comments, likes and impressions show what content resonates best with your target audience.

Account-based marketing metrics

Total addressable market (TAM): This calculates the total revenue opportunity available for a product or service within your market.
Conversions: This metric tracks how many accounts your ABM strategy successfully converted. Take the number of accounts your team was targeting and divide it by those who turned into paying customers.

Predictive data

Customer lifetime value (CLV): A prediction based on historical data of the total amount a customer will likely spend during their relationship with your brand. A high CLV is a good indication the customer has a solid product-market fit and loyalty to your brand.
Churn probability: This metric calculates the probability that a customer/user will stop using your product or service. Predicting churn probability can fuel a proactive approach and give your brand a chance to re-engage customers before they leave.

Using the right tool can give you an accurate picture of your demand generation strategy’s performance in real-time. Tools like Sprout Social gather customer insights to determine what they think about you and your competitors, their interests and pain points, what kind of content they appreciate most, which social channels you should connect with them on and more.

Use demand generation to turn strangers into customers

A demand generation strategy hinges on understanding your audience, their problems and how your solution can help. While it begins at your customer’s first touchpoint, social media now plays a huge part in any demand generation strategy. If marketers can engage their target audience on social and build trust early, more leads will flow into their marketing funnel.

Keep the strategy simple: show up on your customer’s preferred social channels, target your audience with engaging content and most importantly—pitch your product as a problem solver.

For a more in-depth look at how to set up a social media funnel that complements your demand generation strategy, check out our post on building a successful social media marketing funnel.

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