It’s that time of the week again. So kick back, relax, and enjoy some marketing talk.

• The best insights from the State of Marketing in 2024 report. Our main takeaways from HubSpot’s annual report.

• Why you should send more plain text emails. The benefits of this type of email and how to create great ones.

🌎 The best insights from the State of Marketing in 2024 report.

Every year, HubSpot releases its big State of Marketing report. They survey thousands of marketers to determine what’s working, what’s trending, and what people are thinking about.

The 2024 report just dropped, so let’s talk about it.

We pulled out the pieces that we thought were most interesting and wanted to share them with you. If you want to read the full report for yourself, be our guest. But fair warning, it’s long!

Top challenges for marketers.

Overall

Overall, marketers said the biggest challenges they face are generating traffic and leads and keeping up with trends. Closely followed by understanding customers and their needs, having low-quality data, and achieving sales-marketing alignment.

It’s no surprise that the top challenge is generating traffic and leads. After all, that is the primary job of most marketers. But hey, if you figure out a silver bullet way to generate leads and traffic, let us know so we can use it, too! 😉

But, unfortunately, this challenge probably isn’t ever going away. Marketing requires constant trial and error.

Keeping up with trends is a simpler issue to solve. Our best advice here is to make time for it. Schedule dedicated slots into your week to do research. Read, watch videos, and listen to podcasts about what other companies and marketers are trying and having success with.

If you need to better understand customer needs, the answer is simple: talk to more customers and prospects. Conduct interviews and ask them what their needs and pain points are.

Having low-quality data is a more complicated issue to solve. There are a lot of reasons why data might be low quality. It could be outdated, incomplete, incorrect, disorganized, etc. If you feel like your organization struggles with this challenge, start by identifying why your data is low-quality. Then solve for that.

A lack of alignment between sales and marketing teams is a tale as old as time. The key to solving this issue is generally communication. Over communication. If you feel out of sync with your sales team, it’s probably time to call a meeting to clear the air and get back on the same page.

Content challenges

When it comes to content, marketers say idea generation and creating engaging content are the biggest struggles.

Coming up with ideas can feel challenging. But the good news is that getting good at it is like building a muscle. If you put in the reps, it just happens.

The first step is to go into what we call “observer mode.” Go through your day-to-day like normal, except observe and be aware of anything that catches your attention. Make a mental note of why it captured you or what you liked about it.

Do this enough times, and your brain will start to make connections and riff on its own. Next thing you know, you’ll be spitting out original ideas left and right.

If you want to create more engaging content, the best way to do so is to study engaging content.

Again, go into “observer mode.” When you notice something that piques your interest, analyze it.

Why did it grab your attention? Did it have a great hook?

What tone is it in? How formal or informal is it?

How long or short is it?

Was the entire thing engaging or just part of it?

You’ll start noticing patterns you can copy in your own content creation.

Return on investment.

By channel

It was a mixed bag when it came to which channels produced the best ROI for marketers. Not one channel stood out as the clear winner.

Proof that every business is different and must test things to see what will work best for them. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to marketing.

By trend

After trying out different trends, marketers reported that short form videos resulted in the most ROI.

We expect this trend to continue to grow as platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts continue to become more popular. And as more B2B brands experiment with short form video on channels like LinkedIn.

How AI is being used.

There has obviously been an unbelievable amount of hype around AI in the last year and a half. It’s left many of us wondering what AI tools and tactics are practical in the long term versus which will fizzle out.

According to marketers, they’re mainly using AI to help with idea generation and outline creation.

But most teams still leave the heavy lifting to the humans.

📰  In the news this week.

🎈 Maintaining customer loyalty in the face of inflation.

💰  How to make sure organic traffic actually drives revenue.

✍️  How to win over journalists & improve earned media coverage.

🏈  Why the Kansas City Chiefs have the strongest brand in the NFL.

🤓  Reddit is where lifelong learners live.

✉️ Why you should send more plain text emails.

Email is still the top marketing channel for the majority of brands. But there’s one type of email that doesn’t get the love it deserves, and today, we hope to change that.

Plain text emails are criminally underrated.

Why? Because since they’re devoid of elaborate designs, they have higher deliverability and engagement.

Plain text emails offer readers a refreshing break from traditional email marketing content. And they help brands foster a more human connection.

Benefits of plain text emails for B2B marketing.

There are a few benefits of using plain text emails:

1. Better deliverability and faster load times.

2. Builds a more personal connection with the audience.

3. Encourages two-way communication and direct replies.

4. Breaks through the noise inside an inbox.

How to craft great plain text emails.

There are several best practices to remember when writing a plain text email:

• Add personalization wherever you can.

• Keep it simple and have a clear purpose.

• Frequent line breaks. No huge paragraphs or blocks of text.

• Keep sentences short and to the point.

• Write like you talk. Don’t be overly formal.

• Have ONE clear call to action.

A well-crafted, plain text email keeps things simple but effective.

😂 Marketing meme of the week.

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