4 Signs You've Found an Informed Candidate

In the search for top talent, every recruiter prefers an informed candidate. Why? Informed candidates make the hiring process easier by asking smarter questions, doing the necessary research on the company, and tailoring their expectations to the role they're applying for.

So how can these job-seeking unicorns be spotted? Here are a number of indicators that will show you that you have an informed candidate in your application pipeline -- for more, download the Ultimate Screening Checklist.

1. They Came as a Referral

Every year, employee referrals top the list as a source of new talent for employers -- in 2016, 30 percent of all hires were a result of employee referrals, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

This is no accident: employee referrals are one of the most reliable sources for informed candidates. One reason for this is that your employees share your goal in wanting to recommend a good candidate -- it makes them look good, brings in their friend or acquaintance to the company and sometimes even gives them a bonus for a successful referral.

In addition, referred candidates are often better informed because they have a friend who can fill them in on the ins and outs of the company, both before the interview and during the onboarding process. Referred candidates also save hiring time in the long run: multiple studies have shown that referred candidates have a higher retention rate -- a 2015 study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics showed that in high-tech jobs, referred candidates are 26 percent less likely to quit.

2. Their Resume Is Tailored to the Job Description

In today’s digitized job application process, candidates can send out a flurry of job applications with just a few clicks of a button. High-quality candidates, however, will spend time tailoring their resume to fit the company and the specific job description. One place to look for this is in the candidate’s statement or objective section.

Statements that are bland and can apply to any job show a lack of thoughtfulness, while a statement that clearly is aligned with the goals of the company and the role that is being asked for is a clear sign you have an informed candidate on your hands. In addition, the presence of relevant industry keywords shows that they are familiar with the industry and know how to use the terminology.

3. They Understand the Role

Having an understanding of the role that they’ve applied to saves time for both the candidate and the employer. The applicant’s resume and cover letter, as well as the questions they ask during the interview, are the best places to see that they have thought about how their experience qualifies them for each specific aspect of the role. At the same time, it is your duty as an employer to follow best practices for writing a job description, and make the duties and expectations for the role as clear as possible.

4. They Ask Intelligent Questions

Before coming in for an interview, any competent candidate should have done their research on the company -- if they have, it will likely show in the questions they ask you. Asking informed questions shows that they have both invested time in bulking up their knowledge of the company and getting to know the company on a deeper level. Bonus points if they bring up recent company news or product developments!

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Unriddled: The Tech News You Need, Explained

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Wednesday.

Allow us to introduce "Unriddled" -- the HubSpot Marketing Blog's mid-week digest of the tech news you need to know.

This week, we've got stories from Google, Amazon, Instagram, and more. So when the volume of stories of these has you asking, "Hold up. What just happened?" we're here to break it down.

It's tech news: explained.

Unriddled: The Tech News You Need

1. Finally: An iMessage Extension for the Google iOS App

Google announced this week that the iOS Google app will now support an iMessage extension: the horizontal list of icons that allows users to integrate app functionalities with messages sent from iOS devices.

The integration, which is currently only available in the U.S., allows users to share locations, general search results, GIF images, videos, and local business listings in messages -- even to those who don't use iOS devices.

In addition to those capabilities, the new integration with iOS also allows users to drag-and-drop text, images, and links between the Google app and others, like iMessage or Notes.

For example, according to the official announcement, to share something like an article you're reading on the Google app, all you have to do is tap and hold the link to drag it into iMessage -- though our team had trouble getting that function to work properly.

It's a move among what some might describe as a contentious relationship between Google and Apple, with the two often appearing to one-up each other with product releases and announcements. The integration is a welcome feature for iOS users, and for those who are watching the competition between Google and Amazon play out in a less-than-user friendly way -- more on that in a bit.

2. Google Has Sold Zagat

Google's 2011 purchase of Zagat, the legacy restaurant review guide, was one of the search engine giant's first forays into the realm of local businesses and the ratings of them.

Yesterday, it was announced that Google would be selling Zagat to The Infatuation, an online restaurant review site that, in a sense of irony, has claimed that it will bring back the print editions of Zagat guides -- which were discontinued last year.

It's a move that practically indicates that Google has grown out of a need for a separately-branded restaurant review system, as its own version seems to have taken shape on Google Maps and Google for Business listings.

When users tap on a restaurant listing on Google Maps, for example, they can read reviews left by other Google users, and see third-party reviews and list rankings that were pulled into the business listing.

Google originally purchased Zagat for $151 million. The purchase price for The Infatuation has not been disclosed.

3. Instagram Could Soon Be Unveiling Its Own Portrait Mode

For those who did not care to spend upwards of $800 for a mobile device with built-in "portrait mode," take heart: Instagram may soon be unveiling its own feature with the same capabilities.

As first reported by TechCrunch, Instagram could be launching an in-app Portrait Mode imminently -- which means that even if you didn't opt for the phone that's equipped with Portrait Mode for selfies, Instagram can provide similar technology for you.

But it's not exactly new. According to these reports, the setting has actually existed within Instagram's code for some time, and was discovered when a member of the TechCrunch team was picking apart the app's APK (which stands for Android Application Package: essentially an .exe file, but for Android devices).

Source: TechCrunch

What's not clear is how users can execute this feature now, before (and if) it's officially released. But it's a nod to a trend on behalf of many social media networks that emphasize a native content experience -- one that allows users to capture, share, and engage with content without leaving that particular channel.

This move could be headed in that direction -- allowing users to capture portrait-quality photos and selfies within Instagram, and without having to re-upload them to the app after taking them on their respective device cameras.

4.Reddit Admits It Was Used to Spread Election-Related Propaganda

In a public letter penned by CEO Steve Huffman, Reddit admitted to learning that Russian propaganda was shared by "thousands" of users on its network during the 2016 U.S. presidential election -- most of them unknowingly.

While Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google have continued to face scrutiny for the weaponization of their own networks to spread misinformation, Huffman wrote that Reddit's involvement wasn't so much about ads. Rather, it was about (largely American) users sharing this type of content -- "content from accounts we suspect are of Russian origin or content linking directly to known propaganda domains" -- without realizing where it originated. That's also the case when Reddit users share content of the same nature that was originally posted on Twitter -- the kind of issue that Huffman described as "indirect propaganda ... the most complex."

Using the example of Twitter account @TEN_GOP, which is now known to be of Russian origin, he explained that tweets from that account "were amplified by thousands of Reddit users."

Huffman concluded the letter by noting that Reddit would be "cooperating with congressional inquiries," though the nature of those inquiries is not immediately clear.

As of writing this post, Reddit has not been publicly asked to testify before any congressional committees, or submit any materials and evidence.

The full text of Huffman's letter follows.

In response to recent reports about the integrity of Reddit, I’d like to share our thinking. from r/announcements

5. Amazon Isn't Going to Sell Nest Products Anymore

Last week, when Amazon announced its acquisition of Ring -- which manufactures things like connected doorbells and in-home cameras -- many felt a storm coming. Amazon would be entering the smart home realm, and other players in the market would likely experience a ripple effect.

Among them would be Google, the parent company of Nest: a smart home company that produces, among other things, connected doorbells, in-home cameras, thermostats, outdoor cameras, and smoke detectors. Not long after the Ring acquisition was announced, Amazon claimed it would no longer carry or sell Nest products.

It's a power play by Amazon that has been described as "dumb" and "anti-consumer," and has some wondering if it violates antitrust laws, though that seems unlikely to most an anti-regulation administration.

But attempts to edge out competition is not exactly a new move for Amazon, as it continues to foray (often by way of acquisition) into a growing number of new sectors, like grocery, healthcare, and now smart home. But it's not the first, either, as Google has previously taken similar actions, like disallowing YouTube videos from playing on certain Amazon devices.

It should be interesting to see how this plays out search-wise, given Google's origins as a search engine. Currently, Google includes listings from Amazon in its shopping results on the SERP -- but considering recent events, it won't come as a particularly big surprise if that changes.

Other News You May Have Missed

What You Missed Last Month in Google. Being that it's a shorter month, February seems to have flown by. A lot happened in the world of tech, much of the news coming from Google. We’ve put together another list of the major highlights. Read More »

You Can Apply for Jobs on Facebook Now. Facebook announced a new feature that will allow Facebook business Pages to post jobs and manage applications on its platform. In more than 40 countries, administrators will be able to create job listings directly from their Pages, where they'll appear throughout Facebook like any other post or ad would: the Page itself, followers' News Feeds, and Marketplace -- as well as Facebook's new "Jobs" dashboard. Read More »

Facebook Ended Its Explore Feed Experiment. Back in October, Facebook introduced a new initiative to put Page content in a separate feed from content within a user's personal network. It was one of the first efforts from Facebook to shift its emphasis from advertisers to users -- and it would live under what the social media channel called the Explore Feed. Facebook ended that initiative -- which Head of News Feed, Adam Mosseri, called "a trial response to consistent feedback" in the official announcement. Read More »

A Disaster Waiting to Happen? Businesses Could Send You Ads on Messenger. In November 2017, Facebook began internally testing Messenger Broadcast: a service for businesses that allows them to send marketing content to users, without building a bot. Last week, the social media platform announced that Messenger Broadcast would be available for testing to select Page administrators in the U.S., Mexico, and Thailand. Read More »

If You Think Twitter Is Unhealthy, You Can Now Apply to Study It. In a series of tweets, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the social network would be enlisting the help of outside experts to determine the relative health of Twitter. This likely comes as a result of users who increasingly engage in negative, often hateful conversation on the platform. Read More »

That’s all for today. Until next week, feel free to weigh in on Twitter to ask me your tech news questions, or to let me know what kind of news you'd like us to cover.

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How to Create Facebook Videos That Foster Meaningful Engagement

Worried that Facebook’s latest news feed changes will impact your video reach? Looking for tips to create videos that generate meaningful comments? In this article, you’ll discover how to create Facebook videos that generate the mindful interactions your posts need to stay visible in the news feed. How News Feed Changes Affect Video Visibility For [...]

This post How to Create Facebook Videos That Foster Meaningful Engagement first appeared on .
- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

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5 Tips for Giving Constructive Feedback to a Writer

“I’m not comfortable putting my name on this.”

I received this comment once from a colleague at a previous employer, responding to an article I wrote for him under his byline. But when I dug in, I found that his issue with the piece were a few small errors that were easy to fix. Sweeping remarks like “I don’t like it” were common at that job, and they often arrived with little direction by the author for how to revise.

This criticism was so disheartening, there came a point where I’d actively avoid writing for certain people because of how they expressed their feedback.

The reason my colleague’s comment struck a nerve with me isn’t because I’m a delicate flower who can’t take being told my work is insufficient. It’s because it wasn’t constructive. Feedback to a writer needs to -- among other things -- highlight the first draft’s specific flaws, its strengths (however few there might be) and the goals of the assignment. Otherwise, the writer has no incentive or means to improve.

This was a guidepost for me when I worked as a content editor, and being on the other side of the writer-editor relationship showed me just how valuable good feedback can be to a writer’s motivation and final product. The problem is, even if your intentions are good, feedback can still come across as aggressive or confusing to a writer if it’s not delivered, packaged, or expressed correctly.

Whether you’re reviewing the work of a ghostwriter, freelance writer, or even a direct coworker, here are five tips I’ve picked up as both a writer and editor on giving constructive feedback to the people who create content for you.

1. Comment on the Good Qualities First

I can attest to how tempting it is to end a business relationship with those who only mention what you did wrong. Harvard Business School found a similar trend: In a study of 300 U.S.-based employees, a person was 44% more likely to disassociate from a colleague who gave them feedback that was more negative than the recipient’s self-evaluation.

So, how do you call out the bad parts of someone’s work without sounding like a jerk? Start with the good parts. Introducing feedback on a piece of content with what it does well accomplishes three things for the writer:

1. It fuels their motivation to approach revisions and new assignments.
2. It gives them a vantage point for where their work fell short.
3. It tells them what’s working and what they should keep doing.

If you struggle to find strengths in a writer’s first draft, don’t be afraid to broaden the subject of your praise. For example, if an article on search engine optimization (SEO) is full of advice based on an outdated version of Google’s algorithm, clarify that the writer was right to include such a thorough variety of SEO tactics, as this will make the final article that much more valuable.

2. Call Out a Recurring Mistake Right Away

As a copy editor, I had a bad habit of waiting 10 articles before telling a writer about a mistake they kept making. It was just easier fixing it myself instead of sending it back to them -- so easy that I eventually forgot I’d already fixed these things in previous content. Unfortunately, this became exhausting, and when I finally informed a writer of an error, it didn’t go over well.

Don’t follow younger Braden’s example.

No matter how easy it is in the short term for you to correct chronic flaws in a writer’s work, you’ll eventually want them to learn the right way of doing it in the first place. But when you wait multiple occurrences before flagging the issue, you can cause a lot of confusion. “Why now?” The writer might ask you. “Do you have a new style guide that enforces this?” An awkward “er … not exactly” is sure to follow.

In addition, failing to call out issues in their work right away compromises their trust in your feedback. If you want a writer to listen to your feedback, you need to be honest about their mistakes, 100% of the time.

If you notice a recurring error in a writer’s work, address it on-sight. This solves the problem before it becomes a habit and makes the writer more attentive to the guidelines of their assignment.

3. Provide a Style Guide or Cheat Sheet

Speaking of guidelines, give your writer some. Even if the only editorial parameters you have in place are the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook or the Chicago Manual of Style, make sure this material is in your writer’s hands.

Stylebooks enable your writer to refer to this material instead of reaching out to you every time they’re unsure of something. It also allows you to back up any constructive feedback they might be skeptical of directly via official directions they already have in their possession.

Does your writer’s assignment call for project guidelines that are more complex or specific than AP or Chicago style? Package these heavier guidelines into a PDF ebook that you can distribute to new content creators as they join your ranks (get some ebook design templates here). Here’s one idea:

Use these templates as way to organize the company-specific editorial issues and questions you know will come up frequently.

      

Here are a few ideas of what you might include in such a guide:

• Target audience. Who’s your intended readership? Outline your target buyer persona here so your writers can make sure everything they create benefits this person.
• Product info. How should writers refer to your products or services? Details could range from spelling, to capitalization, to which writing topics are associated with which products -- ensuring any calls to action are directed toward the right conversion paths.
• Competition. Who are your competitors? List each one, and detail how you prefer they be referred to (or not).
• Tone. What tone should your writers take in their writing? Company blogs need to distinguish themselves by talking in a way that resonates with their audience. You might compare your tone to a real-life figure and their style of speech to make a tone guideline more concrete. Perhaps they’re especially formal -- or somewhat snarky.

In addition, take this opportunity to include company exceptions to either the AP or Chicago style guides. Professional writers tend to base their writing style on one of these stylebooks, so use this as a benchmark for your writers as they create content, but don’t hesitate to include exceptions as you see fit.

For example, AP’s stylebook forbids use of the oxford comma (the last comma in a list of three or more items), but you might decide you prefer having it throughout your website. Note exceptions like these in your cheat sheet.

4. Include Edits With Your Revision Requests

Which YouTube video would you rather watch: Someone describing how to play guitar, or someone holding a guitar and demonstrating each chord? The latter, right?

The same goes for feedback on writing. When pointing out a weakness in the text, offer a sample fix.

For example: Let’s say you’re reviewing a post that links out to various sources, but none of those hyperlinks use the name of the source as their anchor text -- a policy of yours in this hypothetical situation. Don’t just describe the issue the way I just did; call out the problem and then fix it for them in a comment once or twice so they know what you mean.

According to Moz, “anchor text” is the clickable word or phrase attached to a hyperlink (see what I did there?).

Going out of way your way to suggest a fix not only gives the writer context for the errors you’ve identified and help correcting them, but it also shows you’re genuinely interested in seeing a successful final draft -- to the point where you’ll put in some sweat and effort of your own.

5. Supplement Written Feedback With a Verbal Introduction

When I was a freelance writer for an SEO agency, I had minimal contact with the editor, and that made it difficult for me to find encouragement in the tone of their written comments. By contrast, I regularly met my editor in person while writing for an environmental company and I was always motivated to execute on each request for revision.

Calling or video-chatting a new freelancer -- or even an in-house hire you won’t meet with regularly -- is more important to a working relationship that you might think. Doing so for a new writer establishes a rapport and shorthand that can go a long way toward the writer’s cooperation and understanding as you begin to assign more work to them.

It also makes them more comfortable calling or approaching you if they’re unsure about a piece they’re working on. This can prevent long periods of email tag and ensure both parties stay on task.

After receiving a first submission from a new freelancer, for example, try this:

1. Put aside time to talk it over with them in person or on a video-conferencing platform that allows you to share your computer screen.
   • If you have a Gmail account, Google makes it easy to share your screen on a Google Hangout video chat. See the screenshot below; the red square to the left shows the "share your screen" option -- then you select the screen you'd like to share with the writer to the right.
2. Chat for a few minutes about work history and other personal topics.
3. Then, share your screen with them so they can see your markup of their submission.
4. Casually chat through your feedback on the document line by line, regularly pausing for questions or checks in understanding.

Setting the table like this can present you with opportunities to bring your writer’s professional background into your feedback so they better understand your criticisms. Are they also a photographer? Consider how you might translate editorial issues related to clarity and subtext -- things that are relevant to photographs as well -- for someone who you learn works in more than one medium. It pays serious dividends throughout your business relationship, I promise.

Writers can be quite attached to their words, which means it’s critical that you pick yours carefully. At the same time, even great feedback can lack a few critical ingredients for it to truly benefit a writer. What did you think of this article? Tell me on Twitter (I can take it).

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Why the 'Pivot to Video' Is Dangerous for Publishers

When I read that the average American spends five-and-a-half hours per day watching video content, I scoffed. Between video explainers on Facebook, Game of Thrones, and Netflix, that average is closer to my daily minimum time spent watching videos.

After all, 2017 is “the year of video” -- why shouldn’t people consume more videos, and why shouldn’t creators make more?

As it turns out, there is such a thing as too much video. Publishers like MTV News, which laid off most of its editorial crew last year to focus on video; and Vox Media, which scaled back its video team this year, have seen how hazardous a "pivot to video" can be.

No, not that kind of pivot. I'm talking about the "pivot to video."

What is pivoting to video? It's not changing seats on the couch to get a better view -- it's the latest example of marketers and content creators being so eager to adopt a new platform or medium that they ruin it.

What Is a Pivot to Video?

Pivot to video (verb): To decrease or entirely shutter written editorial operations to focus on creating more video content

Synonyms: restructuring, reorganizing, refocusing

If this sounds like a joke ... well, the dictionary definition is kind of a joke. But "pivoting to video" consists of publications deciding to focus so entirely on video that entire writing and editorial staff are laid off completely.

It started with MTV News.

You might not be surpised to hear this -- after all, the word "television" makes up two of the three letters in MTV. But after an organizational restructuring at MTV in 2015, long-form editorial and video content about politics, culture, and social issues helped improve the network's ratings and engagement on web properties. MTV News staffed its team with content creators who produced documentary-style videos and 4,000-6,000-word long-form written pieces -- most of whom were let go in June of this year, when MTV News "pivoted" to create more short-form music and entertainment video over long-form editorial pieces.

Twitter was flooded with tweets from former employees announcing their newfound employment status, friends calling for publishers to hire them, and content creators from all media decrying -- and defending -- the strategic pivot.

I've been laid off by @MTVNews. I'll miss seeing my brilliant, talented colleagues, and I look forward to continuing my career elsewhere.

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) June 28, 2017

.@MTVNews I'm a fan of video. I work in video. But behind strong video, you also need strong storytellers. https://t.co/LBgJZpi9mw

— Traci Lee (@traciglee) June 28, 2017

I’ve been in digital media for 12 years. One thing I’ve learned is that nobody wants to read anything over 1,000 words. MTV is more proof.

— Andy Gray (@AndyGray35) June 28, 2017

But the pivot didn't stop there.

Over the past year thus far, several major publishers have pivoted, structured, reorganized, and refocused on creating video content -- at the cost of writers' and editors' jobs. Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports, Vice, and HuffPost have all focused efforts on creating short-form video content -- and all have laid off writers and editors. One publication -- Vocativ -- laid off its entire editorial staff "to focus exclusively on video content."

In fact, "pivoting to video” has become such a ubiquitous term in the digital space that it’s become a joke in and of itself.

Quit doing this. No one wants video. We all read faster than people talk, it eats up data, and you can’t watch video on the toilet at work. https://t.co/cctmoHKiwz

— Peter Lynn (@Peter_Lynn) July 21, 2017

the WH communications department is pivoting to video

— Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) July 31, 2017

How’s that video push working out for everyone? - Vox Media Lays Off 50 Staffers, or 5% of Workforce https://t.co/wha3GyOVjo via @variety

— Merrill Barr (@MerrillBarr) February 21, 2018

Fast-forward to this year (no pun intended): Facebook announces it will reduce brand and publisher content on its users' news feeds, and Vox Media lays off 50 video producers across Racked, Curbed, SB Nation, and other online properties in its portfolio.

With respect to social media, snarky tweets from within the industry aren't the only reason to take your foot off the video gas pedal. There are a few big reasons a complete pivot to video is ill-advised. Keep reading -- I'll explain.

The Reason People Pivot to Video

Let's call a spade a spade -- publishers are pivoting to video to make money.

In the age of pre-roll and mid-roll advertising, it's harder to ignore a video ad when it's the only thing standing between you and a video you want to watch. Ads are easier to ignore when they live in the side margins and on top of written long-form articles, so publishers might see a greater opportunity to make money from placing video ads over video content.

And the biggest piece of the digital advertising pie now goes not to advertisers or publishers -- but to Facebook and Google. So it's understandable that media companies and publications are doing whatever they can to drive ROI on the content they produce.

But the pivot to video isn't happening at random -- these strategic reorganizations are also a nod to the growing popularity of video content, which we can't deny -- nor would we want to.

We've blogged at length about video being engaging, in-demand, and a smart way for brands to diversify content and connect with audiences in new ways. And making videos is smart -- it just shouldn't be the only content your brand produces.

It's true that videos are growing in popularity -- your audience wants to see videos, videos drive results for your business, and videos are an extremely favorable medium across different social media platforms. It's also true that the human attention span is waning. But this doesn't mean you should send your editorial staff packing. You don't need to "pivot to video" to develop a smart video strategy as part of your content production engine -- and we'll show you how.

What to Keep in Mind When Pivoting to Video

1. People Like to Read

Setting aside for a moment the fact that the written word has been in existence for several thousand years (thank you, Flinstone family), the popularity of video content and written content aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, audiences want more written content and more videos -- so can't we all just get along?

In 2017, we learned that roughly half of consumers want to see more video content -- but almost the same amount also wanted to see more news articles.

But in a new HubSpot Research survey released in February 2018, we learned that the popularity of video content is increasing -- especially among people 18 to 24 years old. What's a marketer to do?

Content consumption preferences are always changing, and they vary across different age groups, content formats, and subject matter. There are some cases when the written word is a better way to share information than video content -- especially as people are still browsing a business's website (and the written content included on it) more than purely video.

In some cases, audiences don't want videos at all. For example, in the United States, NiemanLab found that video isn't growing as rapidly as one might think.

In fact, roughly half of those surveyed didn't watch any online news videos -- and more than two-thirds said they consumed most news in text format. Most video being consumed was short and sweet and entertaining -- leaving plenty of room at the table for written content consumption, too.

So, people are watching videos, but they're also consuming a lot of text content, too. How should publishers and content producers address the diversifying content preferences of audiences?

The Solution

Make great videos and write great articles. In fact, ideally, you should be writing articles and reports, and then incorporating videos and other multimedia elements into them. Give the people what they want -- which is written, visual, and audio content.

Think about how your audience wants to learn. According to the survey above, people are more interested in consuming in-depth news information by reading it, whereas they might be more interested in watching shorter, more consumable video content. While a video might be a good fit for briefly explaining a complicated topic, it might not be the best fit for a detailed breakdown of SEO best practices -- like in these examples.

If you don't know the answer to this question, ask your audience. If you're not sure about your industry or audience's preferences, ask them. Using an email newsletter or a Twitter poll, ask questions like, "What would you most like us to produce a video about?" or "Do you prefer written or visual explainers?" to figure out where to get started.

The answer to the question of what types of content your audience prefers is an evolving one -- and one that we constantly experiment with here at HubSpot. Read about how we're changing up our social media video strategy in this blog post.

2. Videos Are Hard to Make

Videos are hard to make -- and it shows.

The internet is populated with far too many slideshows and photos set to music that are masquerading as videos -- like this one:

Videos like these don't offer the viewer much more value than reading a story would, but publishers keep making them -- presumably because they get more clicks on social media than an article would.

I don't know about you, but I find these videos extremely annoying -- they either autoplay when I open an article, or I click them to learn more and get no additional information out of them.

Instead, publishers and brands should be striving to make great videos -- which are driven by great stories. You need good storytelling to create a compelling video, and -- guess what? That will require the writing of a script or outline beforehand, and writers and editors can be of tremendous value there.

Additionally, if you remember our finding above, audiences don't just want one thing -- they want it all. Consumers want multimedia articles, in-depth research reports, blog posts, and entertaining videos. There's plenty of room for cross-collaboration between writers, editors, and video producers to create excellent content that solves for constantly-changing consumer preferences.

The Solution

Before implementing a video strategy, invest in resources to do it well, and experiment with creating different videos for different segments of your audience.

This means taking the time (and resources) to invest in video equipment, filming, and editing software, and freelancers or new employees who can make videos -- more specifically, who can make videos well.

By investing in video content up front, you'll ensure that your entire content production team is firing on all cylinders and creating video content that can both eventually rank in search results, and generate millions of views organically -- not just as an ad.

3. Videos Are Tough to Distribute

With the exception of a few major publications -- with content production budgets in the millions -- it's hard to crack the code of not only how to make great videos, but how to monetize them and use them to drive leads, customers, and revenue.

That's partly because digital video is such a new content medium, and content creators are figuring out how to make great videos (see above). It's also because Google search ranking factors and social media algorithms change so frequently, it's hard to nail getting videos surfaced and seen by people on different platforms. Facebook's shift to a more friends- and family-oriented news feed this year is a testament to this, and outlets like Vox Media know it all too well.

Plus, now that more people are jumping on the video content creation bandwagon, search engines and social networks are getting saturated with more videos to compete against.

So you might think that video creation is the hard part, but that's just the beginning. It takes concerted effort for videos to rank in YouTube and Google search results, or to rack up thousands and millions of views on Instagram and Facebook. And even if you do everything right, there could be a reason your audience doesn't want to watch your videos: They might not want to turn up the volume, they might be running low on their monthly data plan, or hey -- they could even be sitting on the toilet.

People have their preferences, and our recent survey above, we know consumers want to see video content alongside in-depth news articles and research content -- and that they want to watch videos on social media. People stream millions of hours of video content across social platforms every day, but these popular social videos might not generate leads at the speed a growing business needs.

The Solution

We suggest creating multimedia content that serves a variety of purposes on a variety of different platforms. For example, keyword-specific blog posts and YouTube videos might quickly rank in Google and YouTube searches, to help drive visitors to landing pages and lead forms that help brands start selling. On the other hand, entertaining, short-form videos on Facebook and Instagram will help spread a brand's message and attract more people to a website down the line.

If you're just getting started with video marketing, consider the type of video you should make first. Use them to help guide visitors along your marketing funnel -- alongside written content and offers to capture lead information.

Make specific types of videos for specific platforms in the same way you would for different types of written content. That way, the videos you create will have specific goals in mind -- for example, video views, video view rate, or website clicks -- that you can measure and iterate on.

Videos achieve outcomes on social media that written content might not, and written content can achieve search engine rankings that videos might not. The best scenario is to create both types of content -- along with multimedia content -- to meet audiences' ever-changing preferences, and to attract visitors and leads throughout the marketing funnel.

Images: Tumblr, HubSpot Research, NiemanLab

 

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9 Email Marketing Habits It Pays to Break

Before you break any email marketing habits or best practices, it’s important to first understand why they work.

Once you’ve mastered basic email content creation, you'll be in a better position to experiment and test certain components of your strategy. In today’s ultra-competitive email landscape, you need to perform tests in order to find out what drives your specific recipients to open, read, and click.

While the right content and design are necessary components for email success, running tests will help you understand how to stand out in your readers’ inboxes. And to understand what to test, it’s helpful to revisit your current strategies and consider which email habits might be appropriate to mix up, or break altogether.

In this post, we'll explore a number of commonly overlooked email habits you should start breaking and experimenting with to find the best strategy for your company.

9 Email Marketing Habits It Pays to Break

1. You Always Use the Same Sender Name

How to Break It: Get Friendly With Your “From” Name

While it’s helpful to set certain expectations with your email recipients, don’t limit yourself to only sending messages from your company name, or from one team member. Experimenting with “friendly froms” can increase open rates. For example, instead of simply sending an email from the name of your company, you might provide an employee’s name, such as “Tim at Awesome.com”

But before you go crazy, always ensure your email activities do not violate the CAN-SPAM act. Your froms should not be false or misleading. However, there are ways your organization can make adjustments that delight your recipients.

Chubbies, a men’s fashion company with over 1.5 million Facebook followers, is well-known for getting creative with their from names. While their approach is very specific to their organization’s tone, style, and audience, you can look to them for inspiration.

One study found that while Chubbies’ messages had slightly lower inbox placement rates, their “fun and unusual friendly forms” saw higher read rates and lower “delete without reading” rates.

Here’s an example of how Chubbies gets creative with the friendly from:

Chubbies also makes sure their fun “friendly” from names go with their subject lines and preview text.

This synchronization allows them to use every space available to them in your inbox to grab your attention and make a lasting impression. Again, before testing strategies like this yourself, consult with a law professional about the CAN-SPAM act to ensure you’re not in violation.

2. You Treat Your Subject Line Too Literally

How to Break It: Write Copy That Visually Stands Out

Consumers are inundated with emails all day long, which means your subject line is the one factor that will get someone to open your message.

Consider the following example:

What stands out? Caps lock text? Numbers? The use of an emoji? Personalization? Humor? White space?

To catch someone’s attention as they scroll through their unread messages, it’s important to consider how your subject line appears next to others visually.

While your subject line text should reflect the contents of your message and match your organization's tone and style, it’s important to use this space as creatively as possible. Test small tweaks with your audience to see if anything helps grab their attention.

3. Your Preview Text Is Auto-Populated

How to Break It: Use That Hot Preview Text Real Estate

If your email client supports preview text, also known as pre-header text, you can optimize it for every email you send. Allowing this text to auto-populate is a lost opportunity to grab attention or delight your recipients.

Though it takes some code, the use of this space will help you stand out from others who do not go to the same lengths to make theirs unique.

Experiment with clever, related text, like how Chubbies does in the example above, or try using just a few words to create more white space.

In the example below, Crate and Barrel writes preview text that is an extension of their subject line and creates eye-catching white space.

And in the following example, the Skimm uses their preview text to address a previous technical error in a light-hearted manner.

4. Your Copy Is So Professional It’s Boring

How to Break It: Develop a Distinct Tone of Voice

Your organization’s tone of voice can be one of your biggest differentiators. Whether you use a certain style of humor or strive to sound as academic as possible, a well-crafted voice allows readers to connect with your organization on a human-to-human level.

In a time when technological advancement has us fondly looking to the past and remembering more intimate times, businesses can struggle to both scale and maintain the “humanness” of a mom-and pop-shop.

Your tone can help you combat that struggle. The answer is having a personality.

According to one of Chubbies’ four founders, Tom, they thought, “Everything’s a little too serious in men’s fashion.” To stand out and attract people to their brand, he says, “We wrote our emails like we were writing to our friends.”

In a podcast interview by Smart Passive Income, he advised organizations to think about their own brand as a unique person.

“Think about it like a person with a personality. More often than not, that personality is going to be yours—as the business owner, as the person who’s going to be writing or creating this content. Write about the things you care about, write about the things that have an emotional connection with you, and that’s where you’ll start to find kernels. We were not knocking it out of the park every time we wrote but because we were passionate about it, it enabled us to keep testing and keep driving.”

When you approach your communication under this lens, you’re bound to create content that doesn’t just deliver a message, but also forms a connection.

5. Your CTA Is Literal

How to Break It: Get Creative With Button Copy

Every inch of your email is an opportunity and each word should be intentional, especially the areas that ask your readers to take an action.

Here a few favorite examples of ways to get clever and entice your reader to click. Today’s consumer is well aware of the fact that you’re trying to lead them to a desired action. With that in mind, you might experiment with your call to action copy and use each “click here” spot as a chance to delight.

 

InVision uses witty copy and bright colors to catch the eye and entice their readers to click.

Classy, an online fundraising platform for nonprofits, similarly uses the CTA as an opportunity to be more playful with their copy and create a memorable experience for their blog subscribers.

6. You Keep It Short and Sweet

How to Break It: Experiment With Length

The Skimm’s 6 million email subscribers prove that emails don’t always have to be short and sweet, or highly visual to be successful. While some data points to ideally having relatively short email copy, the Skimm’s emails can get quite long (though they are broken into sections for digestibility). And while they don’t typically include very many visual components, they focus on making one thing very easy for the reader. Sharing.

In this example alone, there are nine opportunities to share the email with a friend or colleague. Which leads us to our next habit:

7. You’re Focused on Content

How to Break It: Consider How Design Feeds Growth

If content is King, design is Queen.

Your content could be strong and interesting, but if your design doesn’t include the ability to easily share your message, you’re holding your content back. According to Bernadette Jiwa, author of Marketing: A Love Story, “Growth hacking is really the practice of creating and leveraging word-of-mouth with intention.”

She continues, “Growth hackers optimize their business to acquire new customers by first delighting one customer and then making it easy for that customer to share the store with friends.”

You work hard to ensure your content delights—don’t send it off to die in the bowels of your clientele’ inboxes. Incorporate tools that give your email the legs it needs to grow.

8. You Use Personas to Make Assumptions

How to Break It: Demonstrate Intimacy

As marketers, we have to make assumptions. We can’t possibly know each of our audience members intimately. While segmentation and building personas is important to delivering relevant content, today’s consumers are expecting you to more about them than ever.

If you can’t demonstrate intimacy, you’re going to fall short. If marketers aren’t using segmentation by now, they’re at least aware of the tactic and how other organizations benefit from it. While developing personas and lists to send more personalized messages is a step in the right direction, we can take action to further personalize our content and show readers we’re paying attention—and that we’re listening.

Consider what data you might share with your readers to develop a sense of intimacy or help them learn about their own behaviors.

For example, Spotify uses data to demonstrate how well they know their users. These unique messages feel “one-of-a-kind” because they are. Each user receives a message with personalized data and insights around their own actions.

9. You Talk Too Much About Yourself

How to Break It: Send an Email, Just Because

It can be easy for messaging to get a little out of balance. After all, your marketing efforts are intended to make your audience aware of the value of your products and/or services. But to become a brand that people identify with in a meaningful way, you need to do more than just keep them updated on your latest deals and features.

You need to add value to each person’s life. Develop a cadence for connecting over something unrelated to your sales efforts, but very related to your organization’s core values and culture.

This will help you to grow a following of like-minded individuals passionate about who you are and how you make them feel, not just what you’re selling.

For example, Spotify sends messages to let their users know about upcoming concerts in their area:

Additionally, Chubbies sends a “Weekender” email every Friday that doesn’t include links to products. Instead, they round up fun and entertaining bits of information purely aimed at providing a laugh. This fits right into their culture and core values, as indicated by the statement on their website, “We believe in the weekend.”

According to Kyle, one of their founders, “It’s all about all the wild stuff in the world and what you should be doing this coming weekend. And the purpose of it is to send you into the weekend. It doesn’t drive sales. It’s for nothing but creating a valuable experience with our customers. And we’ve done that every Friday for six years. That’s part of how we build a real relationship with our customers.”

Ready to Switch Things Up?

While best practices emerge for a reason, if you’re not regularly experimenting in this competitive communications landscape, your efforts will soon appear stale and your growth, stagnant. Build time into your team’s workflows to reassess your current best practices regularly to allow for ample creativity.

 

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A Disaster Waiting to Happen? Businesses Could Send You Ads on Messenger

In November 2017, Facebook began internally testing Messenger Broadcast: a service for businesses that allows them to send marketing content to users, without building a bot.

Last week, the social media platform announced that Messenger Broadcast would be available for testing to select Page administrators in the U.S., Mexico, and Thailand.

While several businesses have been using Messenger as a customer service communication method, that's been largely restricted to those who can build bots: software that simulates a conversation with humans on messaging platforms. Many Messenger users see them when they first reach out to a brand with a question or when they execute a task.

But despite these functionalities, which are still emerging, Messenger is still in somewhat early stages of use as a direct method of broadcasting promotional content from Pages to users.

As with any new feature, there are pros and cons.

The Pros

At first glance, this feature seems beneficial to small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) that might not have the in-house coding talent or budgets to build bots. That limits the way these brands can interact with users on Messenger, as any communication they receive requires a manual response.

With Messenger Broadcast, however, businesses facing this issue can use a fairly comprehensive messaging setup -- which appears to be similar to creating a promoted post on a Facebook Page -- to compose a title and text, add visuals, and create a call-to-action for the message recipients.

And, similar to promoted posts or ads, Page administrators can also target recipients according to interests.

Source: TechCrunch

According to TechCrunch, Messenger Broadcast is free for businesses to use -- for now. Prior to the recent display of ads, Facebook had not outwardly monetized the platform, despite a user base of 1.6 billion.

Broadcast might provide another method for doing so -- and if its trial is successful, Facebook could begin tiering charges for Pages according to targeted audience size. 

The news comes at a time when many SMBs are experiencing some frustration with Facebook due to a declined reach following the channel's algorithm changes surfacing less Page content. 

But "by building tools like Broadcast into Messenger that allow SMBs to better communicate with their customers," says Dylan Sellberg, HubSpot's associate product manager for messaging, "Facebook has a shot at earning back the good graces of this massive market."

That's especially true for those who are already working with limited resources, for whom "building chatbots is a technical skill far out of the realm of possibility," Sellberg continues. "Creating basic experiences on Messenger that solve for a specific use-case, like customer support or disseminating popular information, is something businesses can lean into. After all, they've been executing on this playbook via email for decades."

It's that likening to email, however, that causes concerns about Broadcast. Between the display ads -- and the potential to receive messages from Pages -- some wonder if the introduction of promotional content on Messenger defeats the purpose of Facebook's algorithm change to emphasize friends-and-family content.

"This is reminiscent of Facebook’s 2012 experiment where anyone could message anyone else for as little as $1 and as much as $100 for Zuckerberg himself," says Daria Marmer, HubSpot's product lead. "That failed, I think, because it was totally outbound -- users didn’t have to show any interest in the message or who it was coming from."

And while Marmer recognizes the doubts around this latest feature, she says it's different than the discontinued Messenger experiment of 2012. For starters, Page administrators can only send this content to users who have proactively reached out to them on the platform before.

"This time, Facebook is taking a more of an inbound approach in letting businesses message only customers who had previously interacted with them," she explains. "I think this inbound strategy will work both for Facebook as a revenue stream, and for marketers, who will be able to use Messenger as a better converting channel than email."

Sellberg, for his part, also understands the concerns -- but also believes the protocol to disallow businesses from cold-messaging users could make a better user experience.

"Many will look at Broadcast and say that it will create a poor, spam-filled, end-user experience," he says. "But I think this is an opportunity for businesses to create high-quality, end-user communication -- something that stands out and really delights."

The Cons

Not everyone is quite so excited about Messenger Broadcast.

As someone who personally uses Messenger more than Facebook itself -- primarily to avoid rogue content from Pages and individuals to whom I'm not particularly attached -- I certainly understand the concern that Messenger could morph into a new-school email inbox, of sorts.

Even the protective protocols -- the ones dictating Page administrators can only send this contact to users who have already messaged them -- are not entirely different from email opt-in rules.

What's more, it isn't entirely clear how users can "unsubscribe" from Broadcast messages, though it could be as simple as the options to mute conversations with or notifications from Pages that are already available.

Some believe we are, in a way, "going back to square one" in terms of best practices for creating and sharing content. 

"If Facebook doesn't teach people how to make valuable, non-intrusive experiences" with the introduction of Messenger Broadcast, says HubSpot Conversational Marketing Manager Connor Cirillo, "this is a disaster waiting to happen."

That's where the analogy to opting into emails becomes particularly salient. While users, in this case, have expressed some level of interest in communicating with the business by messaging it in the first place, that doesn't mean the future communication -- like a Broadcast -- will be contextual or valuable to that user (or group of users, since the option allows sending the Broadcast to multiple users at once).

"Messaging is intimate. As businesses, we have to respect that," says Cirillio. "If a brand doesn’t know how to chat with someone, and only knows how to talk at them, users will get turned off."

Which means, Cirillo explains, even if a user initiates communication with a Page, what it does in response might not necessarily make for a delightful experience if the content of the message isn't relevant or helpful. 

"Just because I asked the pizza place when it's open," he says, "doesn’t mean I want untargeted coupons blasted at me."

It's About Quality Content ... Again

When both sides of the argument are evaluated, the key takeaway on Messenger Broadcast is essentially the same as it is for any new medium of this kind: Content that's high-quality, relevant to the user, and helpful is the most likely to succeed. Even with the cons in mind, if brands using this service can figure that out -- they're more likely to see better results.

And that, says Sellberg, might serve as a barrier to entry for brands who aren't quite ready to use this feature -- for the business and the user alike.

"Plainly, I don’t think marketers who haven't leveraged Messenger at all will not use this tool," he explains. "However, even if they do, they can only Broadcast to those who have messaged them first," which could minimize the intrusive nature of any messages they send.

Because the feature is in its earliest stages, how or if this ultimately plays out has yet to be determined. 

As always, feel free to weigh in with thoughts or questions on Twitter.

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