3 questions SMBs should ask to maximize their COVID-19 Google Ads credit

Your business got a Google Ads credit to spend this year, now what? Before you spend it, consider these questions first.

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Breaking down the push and pull of expansion, consolidation across the martech app ecosystem

As the martech industry continues to grow exponentially, two paradoxical truths remain constant: Massive consolidation in platforms and massive expansion in apps.

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Has your opinion about attending conferences changed? Take our survey

We will share the results and plan to continue to track this Event Participation Index so that others in the events space, like us, are better equipped to make decisions.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

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Has your opinion about attending conferences changed? Take our survey

We will share the results and plan to continue to track this Event Participation Index so that others in the events space, like us, are better equipped to make decisions.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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SEOs and developers: Why they’re better together [Video]

Google’s Martin Splitt discusses his mission to provide both sides with the knowledge and vocabulary necessary to close the gap.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

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The Ultimate Guide to Podcast Audio, According to HubSpot's Podcast Experts

In 2019, Google began rolling out what is arguably one of the most significant changes to its search engine since the introduction of dedicated video carousels in June 2018, or the introduction of featured snippets in October 2017: Google has begun to ad podcasts to search results.

Every minor tweak to the search algorithm can have marketers scrambling to understand how they can take advantage of this shift — or, for the more pessimistic, how to avoid getting pushed to the dreaded page two of search results.

Adding the podcast to search results is going to affect content creators, SEO specialists, marketers, and perhaps most importantly, it will also likely have a major impact on podcasts.

In this post, we'll explore how to take advantage of the advent of audio SEO. Then we'll dive into how you can create high-quality audio from home, if you're creating a podcast remotely. 

But before we dive into how marketers can create SEO-friendly audio content, let's look at the primary problem Google is solving by indexing all podcast content.

The History of Podcasts Discoverability Problem

If you do any reading on the podcast industry, you will find endless articles lamenting "the discoverability problem" of podcasts.

When people talk about the discoverability problem they're not referring to being able to find a podcast they've already heard of — instead, they're talking about how difficult it is to discover new, unheard-of shows.

For the majority of podcasting, there has been one primary mechanism for discovering new shows: the iTunes Charts. The vast majority of podcast downloads occurs on iTunes.

Despite Android commanding ~75% of smartphone ownership, iTunes commands the vast majority of podcast downloads.

As Google's PM for Podcast Zach Reneau-Wedeen notes: "It's actually so egregious that on a device-by-device basis, the average iPhone listens to over ten times more podcasting than the average Android."

Due to Apple's outsized command of podcast downloads, their charts have played a critical role in helping new shows gain traction.

As a quick overview, the iTunes podcast section has Top 100 charts based on regions. There are charts for the top shows, charts for the top episodes, and then a whole collection of categories and sub-category charts such as Top 100 Business Shows. These charts are algorithmically generated.

iTunes also has a hand-curated list such as "New & Noteworthy" where they can promote interesting new shows that have yet to gain a massive following. Beyond these charts, many podcasts are discovered through word-of-mouth or social media.

The problem with Apple's system for discovering new podcasts is the shows that tend to get traction on the charts are the ones that already have built-in audiences. This is why you tend to see New & Noteworthy being filled with shows from reputable publishers.

The one area that has never been particularly effective for finding a new podcast has been search. In 2018, Google set out to change that.

Google's Quest to Fix Podcast Discoverability

With over 700,000 podcasts out there, millions of episodes and even more hours of content, podcast are a set of data that Google can help people sift through. However, Google is not only trying to make it easier to find podcasts — they’re also trying to rapidly grow the number of people listening to podcasts.

As Google Podcasts Product Manager Zack Reneau-Wedeen notes, "Our team's mission is to help double the amount of podcast listening in the world over the next couple years."

Google’s approach to solving discoverability is two-fold: 1) make podcast discoverable via search, and 2) enable new content creators who have traditionally been excluded from the podcast world to develop new shows and attract new audiences.

Here's what Google has done to help fix podcast discoverability:

• June 2018: Google rolls out new Google Podcast App
• October 2018: Google partners with PRX creator program to attract new creators and audiences to podcasts.
• March 2019: Google begins indexing podcasts. Google collects information including the name of the podcasts, episode titles and descriptions, and transcriptions of new episodes.
• May 2019: Podcast begins to surface in podcast results

Looking at Google's new smartphone, the Pixel 4's recorder app, you can see how incredibly good big G has gotten at transcribing voices. It makes sense, considering they have tons of data from YouTube videos, Google Home products, and all Android phones.

There is no company better positioned to digest massive amounts of audio data than Google.

So now that they have all of this data on podcasts, let's explore how they've begun to integrate it into search results.

Google Adds Podcast to Search Results

As of writing this, the majority of search results that involve podcasts require the word 'podcast' to be in the search query. We are seeing podcast appear in two ways.

Broad Category Search aka Popular on the Web: When you search a broad topic like "business podcast", shows will show up in a carousel at the top. Clicking on these results will simply open a new search for the name of the show.

Searching for an Answer: When you're looking for a more specific answer and include the word "podcast" you will find a Podcast Carousel. The carousel appears to give weight to the title of the show, then the episode title, show description, and finally the actual content of the episode. In the example below, you can see a mix of shows that either including something about home building in the show, or in the episode title.

The "Popular from the Web" and podcast carousels are the two mechanisms for how Google is surfacing podcasts into search results. In terms of real estate, both these carousels occupy top positions in the SERPs.

HubSpot's SEO strategist Aja Frost explains what the addition of podcasts will mean: "This will definitely have an impact on SEO."

Frost says, "Search is a zero-sum game — there's a set amount of space on the SERP, so every new search feature, like a podcast carousel, means there's less space for the traditional blue links."

Every marketer who cares about their position on Google should be interested in how to get their content into these coveted carousels.

What types of shows will do well?

In this new world of audio SEO who will be the winners? Here are some characteristics of shows we feel will do well:

1. Lots of Episodes: The more episodes your show has, the more likely it will be to surface for a variety of search results.
2. Short Episodes: Generally a show with shorter episodes is likely to have more of them, which increases ranking opportunities. Now that you can play an episode from the search results, it's likely we will see shorter episodes become more popular when someone is looking to answer a question.
3. Quality Audio: Your show will be less likely to be successfully transcribed if it does not have quality audio. This could impact your ability to appear in search queries.
4. Titles Aligned to Queries: If the show title, episode title, or description aligns to a search term with a high search volume, those shows are likely to appear more often.
5. Big-name guests: Elon Musk podcast is going to get a lot more searches than Sam Balter podcasts. Having celebrity guests will help you rank for more popular search terms.

Looking forward in time, we also expect shows with segments to do particularly well. We're in the early stages of audio SEO, but we know that Google has already transcribed the content of the episode. Shows that take one topic and then have particular segments that align to the overarching search term will likely perform well.

For example, let's say our episode is about digital advertising. We might have a segment for each show called "Overview", where the host uses a search-friendly phrase like "Now we’re going to provide an overview of digital advertising on LinkedIn."

Then, another episode might have the same "Overview" segment, and the host might say something like "Now, we’re going to provide an overview of digital advertising on Facebook."

We believe show segments will help surface podcasts to page one of Google.

Optimizing HubSpot's Podcast for SEO

We have officially relaunched our educational podcast Skill Up. The first season of Skill Up focused on SEO and had in-depth conversations with our SEO expert, Matt Barby. There were eight episodes averaging over 40 minutes long.

For the new run of Skill Up, we intend to take a different approach. We're creating seasons based on specific topics which we identify as relevant to our core business and have high search volume. Episodes will be much shorter, averaging ~10 minutes per episode.

Additionally, individual episodes will include segments where the host mentions key phrases.

Finally, we are moving away from an interview format — instead, we want our Skill Up host to act as more of a narrator to the content.

By focusing the content of each season around a specific topic, we're doing right by the listener by providing interesting bite-sized content that is easy to consume.

We're also doing right by the search engines by making titles simple, descriptions keyword-rich, and integrating segments within the episode that makes it easier for search engines to identify parts of the episode.

A Word of Caution

Podcasts have evolved alongside but independent of search, social media, YouTube, and blogging. The success of podcasting today is built upon the backs of hard-working creators that have strived to make amazing shows that develop loyal followings.

Podcasts have not become successful through growth hacking, newsjacking, or search engine optimization. Keyword stuffing a low-quality show that does not inspire listeners to subscribe is a recipe for failure. No matter what changes Google makes to their algorithm, better content will ultimately rise to the top.

Above all else, remember you make shows for the listener, not Google's web-crawler.

Next, let's dive into how you might create a high-quality podcast from your living room. 

How to Create a Podcast From Home

2020 hasn't exactly gone as planned, which likely means your company has pivoted to remote work for the foreseeable future.

If your company has a podcast, your team is likely recording podcast episodes from home. For most producers, that means calling guests via Zoom to interview them.

But that's probably not the best way to do it.

That’s not to say a Zoom recording won’t work out well in a pinch. But to put it into baking terms, a Zoom recording is the panko crust. Great for texture, not worth a meal.

While audiences are more forgiving of audio quality during these times, they’re even more appreciative of any production effort.

Traditionally, high-quality recordings were done through tape syncs — booking local audio producers to record your guests in-person. Once you had your host and guest's respective tracks, you'd sync the two together to make it sound like they were in the same room all along. Magic.

In this time of social distancing, however, it’s not safe to tape sync. What you need is to have your guests self-sync.

Here, let's dive into the best practices you can use to create high-quality audio from home.

How to Self-Sync Audio

Fortunately, it's easy enough to record high-quality audio within your own home.

Whether your team is working from home temporarily or you're an entrepreneur aiming to create your own podcast from home permanently, you can follow these instructions to ensure your podcast is top-notch.

Note: To ensure you have backup audio, you'll want to call your guest on Zoom and record through Zoom's software.

To self-sync, your guest will need three basics: a laptop, headphones, and a cell phone. They can always swap the laptop for an iPad or a second phone. With those in hand, here’s the walkthrough list I send to every guest ahead of appearing on our The Growth Show podcast:

1. Use your laptop for the Zoom call

2. Plug in headphones to your laptop

3. Take one headphone out of your ear, leaving the other in

4. Turn down the volume of your headphones/laptop

5. Put your phone on Airplane Mode — or cell data turned off

6. Open the Voice Memo app on your phone (or Google Keep if you have Android)

7. Hit record in voice memo app & turn off screen

8. Put the phone to your non-headphone ear — like talking on a normal phone call

After the interview, you’ll need your guest to email you the audio file they recorded on their phone. This will act as your clean copy, and your Zoom will work as the backup. All that’s left is to sync the phone recording with your host’s track. Go ahead and dub yourself a wizard, because you just made magic.

One More Option

Another option is to record your guests through Zencastr — a cloud-based software that records guests locally through their computer's built-in microphone. All it takes is a simple share of a link and you're all set up.

Your guests will still need an external microphone to get the highest-quality. Otherwise, welcome to the wide world of room noise. There’s only so much you can do to fix it in post.

Ultimately, no set-up is perfect. And sound quality aside, the last thing you want is to re-record an entire interview. That's the stuff of nightmares.

What's most important is that you do your best to record a clean track, making sure to always have a backup in place. That way, when chaos inevitably reigns, there's always a second option.

To learn more about successful podcast creation, check out The Anatomy of a Perfect Podcast Episode, According to HubSpot's Podcast Expert.

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The 13 Best Email Template Builders for Any Budget

Email marketing is an undeniably powerful strategy for lead acquisition and customer retention — in fact, 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI, and 93% use email as a major channel for content distribution.

Of course, creating an email marketing campaign isn't easy, and it might require you to build a template using HTML so you're not designing and altering every new email from scratch.

Thankfully, there are dozens of email template builders available, all of which can help you intuitively and quickly create new email templates for your upcoming campaigns.

Then again, the fact that there are dozens of tools available can pose a challenge — how are you supposed to know which template builder will best suit your needs?

Fortunately, you're in luck. We've done the homework for you, compiling a list of our 13 favorite email template builders, complete with pricing, screenshots, and a general overview of each app's unique features. Keep reading to choose the best email template builder for your company.

But first — why do you need an email template builder, anyway?

Why You Need an Email Template Builder

Email marketing remains one of the highest-ROI marketing strategies, in part because of how easy and inexpensive it is to create a campaign, but if you're designing and sending emails on a frequent basis, you'll need additional support to work efficiently—and maximize your results.

An email template builder grants you several advantages:

• Better design features. Without a template builder, you may struggle to arrange your content in blocks as you want, or add videos to your email.
• Initial time savings. Most email template builders rely on intuitive mechanics, like drag-and-drop editors, so you can design your emails faster.
• Long-term time savings. Creating a library of email templates can save you a ton of time long-term, allowing you to quickly choose and lightly edit past templates for new emails.
• Replicability. Did you see impressive results with your most recent campaign? With an email template builder, you can easily replicate it with some minor tweaks in the future.
• Analytics. Most email template builders also feature built-in analytics, which you can use to study your past email marketing efforts and make improvements to your approach.

Additionally, depending on the email template builder you're using, you may have access to even more features. Let's dive into some of the best builders, next.

The Best Email Template Builders

1. HubSpot

HubSpot offers a comprehensive, start-to-finish solution for all your marketing needs. You can create a sleek, on-brand email campaign using HubSpot's drag-and-drop editor, and customize the template to match your brand and align with your goals.

Additionally, you can customize each email depending on your recipient's lifecycle stage, list membership, or any information in their contact records to ensure each email is designed for optimal conversions. Best of all, the email tool provides top-notch analytics and A/B testing tools so you can continue to refine your marketing strategy over time.

Unique Features

• Analytics to provide deep insights into your email success rates, including open-rate, most popular links clicked in an email, who engages with each email, when and on which device, and what emails perform best.
• Tailor each email to individual subscribers based on lifecycle stage, list membership, or any other contact information to serve the best calls-to-action to segmented groups.
• Ability to run A/B tests to improve open-rates and clickthroughs.
• More than 100 email templates available by default.
• Custom landing page creation tools.
• Advanced social sharing options.
• Integrations with other marketing tools (more than 300 third-party apps).
• 24/7 support from customer service reps.

Pricing

You can get started with HubSpot's email tool for free. Alternatively, if you're already a HubSpot customer (professional or enterprise), the email tool is already included.

2. MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the top names in email marketing, in part because of its accessibility. It's super easy to learn and build your first few email templates, and you can get started right now with a free plan. As you scale your business, you'll find additional options, features, and tools for your needs.

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Unique Features

• More than 100 email templates available by default.
• Custom landing page creation tools.
• Advanced social sharing options.
• Integrations with other marketing tools (more than 300 third-party apps).
• 24/7 support from customer service reps.

Pricing

MailChimp offers a free plan that provides basic templates, marketing CRM, surveys, and even website creation. At $9.99 per month, you'll get additional support, custom branding, A/B testing, and all email templates.

To get access to custom templates, retargeting ads, and better audience insights, you'll need the Standard plan at $14.99 per month. Advanced plans, including a Premium tier at $299.00 per month, are also available, and offer features like advanced segmentation, multivariate testing, and more.

3. BEE Free

BEE Free is a free online email editor that has been used by more than a million people. In just a few clicks, you can get started designing your first email template — or use one of the 150 templates currently available by default. It also offers free design ideas on its own blog.

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Unique Features

• 150 predesigned templates (and additional paid templates).
• Full responsiveness for mobile friendly designs.
• Integration with many SaaS apps.
• Options to pick up where you left off.

Pricing

BEE Free, as you might have guessed, is free. You can drag-and-drop to create emails without even needing to sign up. However, you may eventually want to upgrade to one of three BEE Pro packages, which are targeted to freelancers, marketing teams, and agencies. Pro plans start at $15 per month.

4. Mosaico

Mosaico.io is an open source email template builder, which is something of a rarity. You won't find any predesigned templates, as you would with other email template builders, but you will be able to alter the tool however you see fit.

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Unique Features

• A unique click-based design tool, abandoning the traditional "drag-and-drop" model.
• Community support, due to its open source nature.
• Infinite flexibility, if you're willing to put in the work to customize it.

Pricing

Mosaico is currently completely open source, so you can use it for free. In fact, the entire code base is available on GitHub.

5. Email Monster

Email Monster is another free email template builder, with a simple, easy-to-grasp approach. You can choose any of its 100+ base kit templates and edit the template as you see fit. You can also install the free Chrome extension if you want to integrate directly into Gmail.

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Unique Features

• Template designs are immediately available, so you can start in mere minutes.
• A free Chrome plugin so you can use the tool directly in your browser.
• The ability to save and download templates for future use.

Pricing

Email Monster is free, with no upgrades or paid plan options available at this time.

6. AWeber

AWeber is specifically designed for small businesses eager to get started with email marketing, but who might have trouble knowing where to begin. Predesigned templates, custom designs, and email automation are all available.

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Unique Features

• A drag and drop AMP carousel, which allows you to add AMP image carousels to your emails.
• AWeber's Smart Designer, which uses AI to construct and recommend email templates.
• A campaign marketplace that allows you to design and launch full email campaigns.
• 24/7 customer service.

Pricing

Pricing scales based on the number of subscribers you're emailing. Plans start at $19 per month, which covers you up to 500 subscribers. The top tier, for 10,000 to 25,000 subscribers, is $149 per month. Pricing options for businesses with more than 25,000 subscribers are available upon request. You can also choose to be billed quarterly or annually to reduce your per-month costs.

7. Unlayer

Unlayer allows you to build email templates from scratch, but also utilize merge tags and embed customizable, dynamic content into the body of your messages. It's designed for SaaS companies, but could feasibly be used by any industry.

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Unique Features

• Dynamic content that changes based on defined conditions.
• Large-scale template management.
• Developer friendliness, with full support documentation, for unique customizations.
• Options for landing pages and further marketing support.

Pricing

The basic plan option is free. Premium packages are available at $99 for startups, $199 for businesses, and $399 for growing businesses.

8. Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is primarily focused on email marketing, but has other features you can use for a variety of other marketing and ecommerce purposes. Because it's designed to work for teams, it's ideal if you have many people working together on your campaigns.

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Unique Features

• Template management and collaboration for teams.
• Built-in support for surveys with unlimited questions.
• 80 predesigned email templates.

Pricing

Pricing varies based on how many subscribers you have. You can get started for free, but if you want access for more features, or if you need more support, you'll need the Basic plan for $9 per month, the Unlimited plan for $29 per month, or the Premier plan for $149.

9. Chamaileon.io

Chamaileon.io is a cleverly-named email template builder that allows your team to design emails collaboratively, complete with drag-and-drop mechanics so you never have to worry about coding. You can also design and follow a set email campaign workflow, simplifying your efforts in the future.

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Unique Features

• Collaborative email design for teams working together on the same templates.
• Unique and flexible account roles for multiple levels of access.
• Replicable testing settings to allow for easy testing of new designs.

Pricing

The free plan gives you much of what you need as an individual, but as you start adding seats and getting access to more features, the cost goes up. Premium plans start at $20 per month, with the Pro plan at $40 per month, and the Pro Team plan at $200 per month.

10. Designmodo

Designmodo's email builder is designed to bring teams together for the email template building process. You can use it to design emails however you like, then export as HTML, or to a full email service provider like Mailchimp.

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Unique Features

• Modular designs that help you stack, customize, and rearrange your options.
• Long-term content management to help you revisit previous successes.
• Unlimited exports, which is ideal if you're exporting to other services frequently.

Pricing

For a single user and 10 modules, you can use Postcards for free. Business plans start at $15 per month, and an agency plan starts at $25 per month.

11. Stripo.email

Stripo.email helps you create responsive email templates without any HTML coding skills necessary. It also features innate dynamic AMP support, and a robust testing tool to help you preview your email in more than 90 popular environments, including variants for devices and browsers.

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Unique Features

• Drag-and-drop AMP blocks for image carousel and/or accordion support.
• Thorough testing in nearly 100 different environments.
• A customizable module library, allowing you to reuse past successful elements.
• Integration with many ESPs and third-party tools.

Pricing

The free plan is all you'll need to get started. Billed yearly, the Business plan is $125 (or $10.42 per month), and the Agency plan is $400 (or $33.33 per month).

12. Taxi for Email

Taxi for Email provides scalable email template creation, as well as the ability to create email workflows. It also allows you to assign various tasks and permissions to your team, so each of your marketers can play a role in perfecting your email campaign.

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Unique Features

• Team dynamics, including collaborative tools, access assignment, and user permissions.
• Robust testing on-demand as you design.
• Support for multiple languages and email segmentation.

Pricing

Taxi for Email doesn't publish their pricing, but you can submit a short contact form on their website to get a free quote.

13. SendGrid

SendGrid is an email service that provides support for email template designs — additionally, it offers email functions like automatic shipping notifications and password resets. It also boasts an open API, which you can use to integrate with just about anything.

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Unique Features

• A wide variety of tools, including email design, automation, signup forms, and more.
• APIs, SMTP Relay, and Webhooks.
• Delivery optimization tools so you can increase delivery rates.

Pricing

The basic version of the tool is free, and paid plans start at $14.95 per month for the essentials, or $89.95 per month for the Pro plan. Rates increase as you send more emails per month.

Choose the Best Email Template Builder for Your Needs

While it's arguable that some of these email template builders are superior to some of the others, all of them have strengths and weaknesses. The best email template builder will be the one that most closely aligns with your organization's goals — giving you all the tools you need, at a price within your budget.

When you narrow the list down to a few options, give each one a try (since most of these tools either offer a free trial, or a free version altogether), and get a hands-on feel for which tool might serve your organization best.

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How to Run a Successful Grassroots Marketing Campaign [+ Examples]

When I try to think of marketing campaigns that were emotional and memorable, one of the first ones that comes to mind is the Dove Real Beauty campaign.

The reason?

Dove uses grassroots marketing strategies to create targeted content that their audience wants to share with everyone they know.

As a marketer, that might seem like a daunting task. However, grassroots marketing can actually be cost-effective and achievable for any brand.

Below, let's review grassroots marketing from the best strategies to examples that'll inspire your own campaigns.

Grassroots marketing is similar to viral marketing because the goal is to create content that your audience wants to share. However, this might be more cost-effective since you're building a campaign that's targeted at a smaller, specific audience.

These campaigns will be different from your everyday marketing campaigns because your goal is to inspire a small audience to take action. With other marketing campaigns, you're probably hoping to reach a large number of people. However, with grassroots marketing, you're creating highly specific content with the hope that your audience will share your message for you.

1. Know your target audience.

It's true, it's going to be important for you to know your audience for any marketing campaign. However, with grassroots marketing it's a necessity.

The entire concept of grassroots marketing is that your audience will share your content for you. Yet, they won't do that if your content doesn't inspire them to.

Before you get started with grassroots marketing, you need to know what motivates and inspires your audience. Figure out what they care about and create content surrounding that.

2. Get creative and inspire action.

Again, your grassroots marketing content should inspire your audience to take action. But you might be wondering, "How do I do that?"

One way is be creative and start a movement. Your content doesn't have to be political, but it has to be inspiring and relatable.

3. Focus on storytelling.

While I might be biased because I'm a writer, the best grassroots marketing campaigns are focused on storytelling.

Ideally, your content will explore your audience's emotions. For example, if your target audience is parents, you can create a video that's focused on the parent/child relationship. This will tug at their heartstrings and make them want to share with their friends.

In fact, think about grassroots marketing as a way to tell your audience's stories. If they feel represented by your content, they're going to share it wildly.

4. Start hyperlocal.

It might seem like grassroots marketing is about creating viral content, however, no grassroots campaign started that way.

With grassroots marketing, your content should be laser focused on your target audience. The goal is to attain national attention by sheer shareability and word of mouth.

5. Use reviews to your advantage.

One strategy for your grassroots campaign should be to focus on getting reviews. You should spend time building your reputation on Yelp or Google reviews so you can gain organic attention online.

For example, a year ago, I started to hear all about this thing called a Hydro Flask. I saw the reviews and heard people talking about it for months. I finally decided to buy one even though I had literally never used a water bottle in my day-to-day life before.

That's the result of a great grassroots marketing campaign.

With reviews from happy customers amplifying your message, you can reach people you weren't even targeting originally.

6. Create YouTube content.

YouTube is one of the best channels to disseminate your grassroots marketing content. On this social media platform, you can share highly targeted content that's educational, helpful, and emotional.

If your video continues to get shared by your audience, you can begin to reach even more people organically because your video might rank better.

Grassroots Marketing Ideas

1. Text your customer.

With grassroots marketing, it's important to get creative with how you reach your audience. One way to do this is to use text marketing.

With SMS messages, you can have a real conversation with your customers. You can learn about them, send them one-touch surveys, or offer targeted marketing based on their feedback.

The trick with text marketing is to only send messages to customers who have signed up to receive your texts. No one wants to get a random text from an unidentified number.

2. Include visuals.

Almost every grassroots marketing campaign should be focused around the visuals.

In fact, in a 2018 HubSpot survey, 54% of consumers wanted to see more video content from a brand or business they support.

Visual content is what your audience wants to see. Plus, the main idea is that grassroots marketing is shareable and visual content is easier to share.

3. Don't forget a call-to-action.

Not to beat a dead horse, but your grassroots marketing campaign should inspire action. To do this, you have to include a call-to-action in your campaign.

With successful grassroots marketing, your target audience has shared your content with their friends. Now that you have people's attention, you need to decide what to do with it. For example, you can ask people to donate to a cause or purchase a product.

4. Support a cause.

A quick and easy way to implement grassroots marketing in your strategy is to support a cause that your audience cares about.

When people see that your company is charitable, they're more likely to trust you and have positive associations with your brand.

You can support a cause by donating, encouraging your audience to donate, amplifying and representing the message of a cause, or listing the causes you support on your website.

When your content is focused around philanthropic efforts, your audience is more likely to share it.

5. Use influencers.

Influencer marketing is a modern day version of grassroots marketing.

The theory is that when influential people promote your brand, your audience is more likely to share that message and be inspired to take action.

To get started, you could send influencers in your niche free products, or discounts. Hopefully, that will inspire them to talk about your brand and spread the word.

Grassroots Marketing Examples

1. Extra Gum Commercial.

I don't typically cry when I see commercials on TV. However, Extra Gum has made me emotional with several of their grassroots marketing campaigns.

This first commercial tells the story of a father and daughter who bonded over making origami birds from Extra gum wrappers. This hasn't aired since 2015, but it was one of the first campaigns I thought of when I thought of grassroots marketing.

In this second commercial, we get to watch the love story of a couple who meets in high school, falls in love, and captures their love story by drawing on Extra gum wrappers. Again, this last aired over a year ago, but I remembered it because of the emotional storytelling.

Both these commercials are meant to tug at your heart strings and inspire you to share them with your family and friends.

2. ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

In 2014, the ALS ice bucket challenge went viral. The concept was that you would take a video pouring a bucket of ice water on yourself and then challenge someone else to do the same. If you participated, you were supposed to donate money to the ALS Association.

Before this campaign went viral, people weren't exactly talking about ALS. In fact, many people might not have even heard of the disease. That's how you know this was a successful grassroots marketing campaign.

It started with a small idea, and grew to a national campaign.

For this challenge to be shareable, everyone who participated had to nominate a friend to do it.

This grassroots campaign started a movement, inspired action, and supported a cause. Plus, celebrities and influential people got involved.

Below are a couple of images of the celebrities that participated in sharing the grassroots campaign.

Image Source

Image Source

3. Dove Real Beauty Campaign.

This is one of my favorite grassroots marketing campaigns. That's why it bears mentioning twice.

In the Dove Real Beauty campaign, Dove had a forensic artist draw women as they saw themselves and then as strangers saw them.

This is an excellent example of what grassroots content will look like when you know your audience intimately. By knowing its audience of real women, Dove was able to start a movement. In fact, this video has over 68 million views on YouTube.

The powerful video barely mentioned the product, but inspired women around the world.

Grassroots marketing is a great way to focus on reaching your audience, with the hope that they'll share your campaign with people they know. Essentially, it's word of mouth marketing at its best.

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