Q1 Marketing Plays That’ll Start Your Year Strong, According to State of Marketing Data

Ah, quarter one. It is a time when many people replicate on the final 12 months, make new bets, and refresh our playbooks. If the fourth quarter is about ending sturdy, then the primary quarter is about beginning good.

It is an thrilling time but additionally a bit overwhelming. You could have new targets to achieve and new methods to execute. You additionally must create sufficient room to pivot at a second’s discover.

However haven’t any worry – right here, I’ve rounded up seven data-backed methods for nailing Q1, in addition to Q1 advertising suggestions from HubSpot consultants. Let’s dive in.

1. Eager about influencer advertising? Begin with micro-influencers.

Half of entrepreneurs plan to extend their influencer advertising funding in 2024. When you’ve at all times wished to work with influencers — however the price ticket appears out of attain — I’ve some excellent news.

Amongst entrepreneurs who leverage influencer advertising, practically half (47%) discovered probably the most success with micro-influencers. These are influencers who’ve anyplace from 10,000 to 100,000 followers. Whereas these creators haven’t got tens of millions of followers, they maintain affect with a smaller, extra engaged neighborhood.

In truth, when requested in regards to the largest advantages of working with micro-influencers, 42% of entrepreneurs say micro-influencers are inexpensive, adopted by 39% who say micro-influencers give entry to extra area of interest communities.

Wish to study extra about working with micro-influencers? Try this helpful guide.

2. Method social media as an ecommerce platform.

Web sites like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay have been the highest canine within the ecommerce space for many years. However now we’re seeing social media platforms — like Instagram, TikTok, and Fb — evolve into purchasing locations, creating new alternatives for entrepreneurs.

50% of entrepreneurs plan to extend their funding in social commerce in 2024, and 14% plan to leverage it for the primary time this 12 months.

On the patron facet, 67% have already bought by means of social media platforms. What’s extra, customers ages 18-54 prefer to discover new merchandise on social media. Personally, I’ve bought far too many merchandise on TikTok than I care to say, so it is good to know I am not alone. 

What makes social media such an efficient ecommerce channel is that it offers entrepreneurs entry to a fairly extensive internet of individuals. This permits them to faucet into audiences who’re already engaged, which is right for model constructing and product discovery.

On high of that, working influencer campaigns on social media is changing into rather more streamlined; influencers drive consciousness to merchandise, and customers should buy them with out ever leaving the app.

However, most significantly, platforms like Fb and Instagram supply highly effective analytics, enabling entrepreneurs to achieve their audiences for optimum affect.

3. Double down on short-form video content material.

Quick-form video continues its reign on social media, with 53% of entrepreneurs planning to extend their funding in 2024. It is also the pattern entrepreneurs are investing in probably the most this 12 months, outpacing influencer advertising, podcasting, and live-streaming.

However wait, there’s extra: short-form video generated probably the most ROI from any media format for entrepreneurs final 12 months, intently adopted by pictures. It is clear that audiences love visible content material, and platforms like TikTok and Instagram can assist you amplify it.

Quick-form video is not essentially new (bear in mind Vine, anybody?). Nevertheless it’s rapidly confirmed itself as an efficient advertising format. It is comparatively low-cost — if in any respect — with fast turnaround occasions. This permits entrepreneurs to leap on tendencies and showcase their model’s persona. It additionally suits inside the fast-paced social media panorama the place consideration spans are brief.

4. Up-level your customer support with a multi-channel technique.

For 1 in 4 entrepreneurs, offering customer support by means of social media grew to become extra necessary in 2023, and I predict this pattern will carry into this 12 months. 

In truth, 50% of entrepreneurs plan to proceed the identical funding in social media as a customer support instrument in 2024, whereas 33% plan to extend their funding.

If this pattern tells us something, it is that elevating your customer support to a brand new degree requires adopting a multi-channel technique. Whereas the extra conventional channels (e.g., cellphone and e mail) are removed from over, you need to make the most of different alternatives to attach along with your prospects, like social media direct messages, reside chats, and extra.

Not solely does a multi-channel technique supply extra comfort to prospects, nevertheless it additionally permits them to interact and work together along with your model in the best way they like.

5. Leverage AI for productiveness.

AI: it was seen as a risk to entrepreneurs at first, however now the dialog is altering. Oddly sufficient, synthetic intelligence has given most individuals, entrepreneurs or not, a larger appreciation for human creativity and inventiveness. 

AI cannot replicate that (no less than convincingly), however it will probably help us within the course of. This is the reason 75% of entrepreneurs both considerably or strongly agree that AI helps them deal with the extra inventive points of their job.

A technique AI is supercharging productiveness is by taking the extra monotonous and tedious work off entrepreneurs’ plates. 78% of entrepreneurs agree that AI helps them spend much less time on guide duties like knowledge entry and scheduling conferences. AI additionally helps 40% of entrepreneurs with knowledge reporting and 39% for analysis. 

If you have not leveraged AI but, it might be time to discover methods so as to add it to your workflow. Try this article in case you need assistance determining the place to start out.

6. As AI streamlines the content material creation course of, have safeguards to keep up high quality.

When you learn #5, I defined how AI may be useful to entrepreneurs wanting to spice up their productiveness — however now I want so as to add a giant caveat.

Whereas AI is useful to entrepreneurs, it is from infallible. AI writing instruments like ChatGPT, for instance, are educated on restricted knowledge, so they could generate outdated or inaccurate content material. And, clearly, the very last thing you need to do is publish outdated or inaccurate content material.

Fortunately, most entrepreneurs are conscious of those shortcomings. 67% of entrepreneurs agree that AI typically gives incorrect info. Nonetheless, solely 27% of entrepreneurs are “very assured” they’d know if the data AI produced was inaccurate.

The answer is not to cease utilizing AI altogether, however to have guardrails in place to keep up the standard of your content material, reviews, and so forth. All the time have a human editor to evaluation your supplies and double-check for any inaccuracies with quotes and statistics. For extra suggestions, go to this article.

7. Social accountability is not going out of fashion.

For 1 / 4 (25%) of entrepreneurs, creating content material that displays their model values was the largest change within the advertising trade from 2022 to 2023. 

Quick ahead to right now, and 45% of entrepreneurs plan to extend their funding in such a content material this 12 months. 

Manufacturers acknowledge that value-driven content material is not only a nice-to-have; it is changing into important for contemporary customers. We regularly see enhanced model loyalty and higher enterprise outcomes when customers really feel aligned with a model and its values. 

Nonetheless, a key aspect on this technique is authenticity. Immediately’s customers are extremely discerning and may spot when a model is disingenuous. In the end, value-driven content material is about constructing a real and sustainable reference to the viewers, which requires a considerate method.

Q1 Advertising and marketing Suggestions from HubSpot Consultants

Embrace an elastic method.

An enormous a part of formulating a robust advertising technique is knowing that it’d change. This is the reason Drue Stinnett, Content material Advertising and marketing Supervisor at HubSpot, recommends an elastic method.

She advised me, “Be adaptable and able to pivot all year long. By embracing an elastic method to your advertising efforts, you may rapidly reply to market shifts, client suggestions, and rising alternatives.” 

The flexibility to make fast pivots additionally offers you a extra aggressive edge. As Stinnett factors out, “Adaptability additionally permits your methods to stay efficient inside a fast-paced enterprise panorama.”

Mirror on final 12 months’s efficiency.

Entrepreneurs needs to be forward-thinking — in fact – however this typically entails trying again. 

As Carly Williams, Head of Monetization at HubSpot, advised me, “Earlier than you dive proper in, take a second to replicate on final 12 months’s efficiency and let go of methods that did not present a return. This train will enable you unlock sources to assist contemporary concepts and success within the 12 months forward.”

In doing so, you may strike the fitting stability — innovating and attempting new issues the place wanted, but additionally recognizing and executing methods that work nicely.

Return to fundamentals.

“To achieve 2024, entrepreneurs will discover themselves in exploration mode,” Basha Coleman, Senior Program Supervisor at HubSpot, advised me.

And if there’s one space you must constantly discover, it is your audience.

“Getting interested by your viewers—what they like, and what they’re doing with the content material that they like, and the place they’re partaking with it, goes to be an evergreen technique that entrepreneurs will discover themselves coming again to all through Q1 and the remainder of 2024,” she provides.

Understanding your audience is one thing that by no means goes out of fashion. But when your content material is not sparking engagement — otherwise you’ve observed shifts in your viewers’s habits and preferences — it is a good indication to revisit your viewers and refresh your methods accordingly.

Again to You

As we wrap up, do not forget that Q1 is about beginning good and staying versatile. 2024 already presents loads of alternative, as long as you keep inventive, centered, and adaptable.