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Social media marketing campaigns: What I’d do to stand out on every platform [new data]
You and I both know it: there’s no secret to a successful social media campaign. Instead, there’s just strategy; nowadays, posting won’t cut it — and social media marketers are feeling the pressure more than ever. Tons of moving parts constitute a high-performing, truly modern […]
MarketingYou and I both know it: there’s no secret to a successful social media campaign. Instead, there’s just strategy; nowadays, posting won’t cut it — and social media marketers are feeling the pressure more than ever.
Tons of moving parts constitute a high-performing, truly modern social strategy. According to HubSpot’s 2025 Social Media Trends Report, some of them include building online communities, planning channel-specific content strategies, prioritizing expert voices, and optimizing content for on-platform search.
In short, there’s so much more to consider if you want to create a robust social media marketing campaign that’s as impactful as it is effective.
Luckily, I’m not here to tell you how to run a social media campaign. I’m here to tell you what you should lean on — from tools to tactics — to make your next one a standout sensation. Keep reading to get everything you need (and then some) for your next social media glow-up.
Table of Contents:
- What is a social media marketing campaign?
- What makes a social media campaign successful?
- How to Plan a Social Media Campaign
- How to Run a Social Media Marketing Campaign
- Social Media Campaign Examples
Although a successful social media marketing campaign can be defined by one sentence, I would argue that its contents can’t be.
In the next section, I’ll explain in depth what scroll-stopping social media marketing campaigns entail and provide some eye-opening stats that will hopefully inform how you approach your social media marketing moving forward.
What makes a social media campaign successful?
As I mentioned, the social media landscape has completely changed over recent years.
Over the last year, between algorithm updates, new platform launches, and shifting audience expectations, it’s clear that social media folks need to not only pivot but — and don’t come for me — also consider potentially deconstructing what content planning looks like.
Before I jump into how these shifts could directly impact your brand, I’d like to elaborate on what I mean by all this. Here’s a short breakdown:
- Social media marketing is becoming increasingly reliant on multi-platform strategy and multi-content execution. Brands and their social media marketers should no longer post one type of content, nor should they post on one particular platform. Audiences want to see a variety of content across all the platforms they engage with, even if those platforms and content types aren’t your brand’s bread and butter.
- If a brand wants to drive true ROI, its identity and motivations must be crystal clear through social media marketing. Consumers are done searching high and low to assess whether a brand is really what it says it is. These days, just by glancing at your social media profiles, they expect to get the big picture about a brand’s commitment to social issues, specific demographics of folks, and core values.
- A brand’s social media marketing needs to incorporate AI support wherever possible. If your brand isn’t utilizing AI, it’s missing out on major opportunities to streamline content, improve social listening, and make brand storytelling accessible to more audiences.
Now, I’m sure a couple of those truths were probably difficult to swallow, especially all at once, but they’re necessary … if growth is the goal.
If you want to know what it’ll take to adapt your social media campaigns and strategy for where the future of social is headed, take a look at the list of recommendations I put together below:
1. Investing in Video
Social media marketing is becoming more and more video-centric; now that video’s rise has arrived, it’s not going anywhere.
HubSpot’s 2025 State of Social Media Trends Report revealed that YouTube adoption has grown 65% in the last year. And, according to more data from the report, 83% of marketers feel comfortable posting on YouTube.
However, video strategy doesn’t start and end with YouTube. Check out how B2C and B2B marketers (and their dollars) are showing up across various video platforms:
- 34% of B2C marketers plan to invest more in TikTok this year, 31% in Instagram, and 29% in YouTube.
- 26% of B2B marketers plan to allocate more budget to TikTok in 2025, only 24% plan to expand efforts into Instagram22% will prioritize investments in YouTube.
2. Channel-specific Strategies
Social media marketing campaigns in 2025 are all about getting granular. As social media audiences develop preferences for how they want to engage with and receive content across different platforms, brands must shift and accommodate where their viewership and consumership will be and how to capture folks’ attention.
That said, as you develop a social campaign strategy, consider tailoring your approach for these top social media channels:
- YouTube (ranking at no. 1)
- Instagram (ranking at no. 2)
- TikTok (ranking at no. 3)
Now, although YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok take the top three slots for where brands are showing up, keep in mind that there are niche audiences on other channels. LinkedIn, Substack, Threads, Bluesky, even Facebook, are close runner-ups, so don’t write them — or what they can do for your social strategy — off completely.
3. Long-term Audience Building
If you want your social media marketing campaign to thrive and survive any algorithm, you must grow an audience that believes in every piece of content you create. This starts with slowly cultivating a real community.
Don’t believe me? Peep the stats from State of Social Trends below:
- 64% of companies have dedicated community managers
- 85% of marketers agree that building an active online community is crucial to a successful social media strategy
- 93% of marketers are maintaining or increasing their investment in community in 2025
Ultimately, audience building goes a long way in establishing trust and long-term loyalty. If you’re not invested in the people who make your brand successful, they won’t be invested in what it offers.
4. Leaning on Social Search
Search isn’t dead, it’s just gotten more social.
When you embark on the research phase of building out a social media marketing strategy (more on this later), you should consider two things: 1) how your brand is showing up in social media search results and 2) how you can leverage social search to get the answers you need, to make your social media marketing campaigns stronger.
State of Social Trends uncovered that 89% of marketers agree that optimizing content for on-platform search is important to their social strategy. Plus, 84% of marketers agree that consumers will search for brands on social media this year.
If anything, these numbers should reinforce that social search isn’t just an alternative to traditional search engines; it’s just an essential element to understanding how folks perceive your brand’s offerings and how they rank against others.
5. Having a Diverse Content Mix
I hate to break this to you, but … your next social media campaign strategy cannot prioritize only one content type. No more image-only feeds or motivational posts with curated cursive copy. Ditch ‘em.
Here’s the data from HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report to underscore my strongly written plea for content variety:
- 30% of B2C companies are leveraging short-form video, 22% are amplifying live-streamed video content, while 21% are leveraging user-generated content (UGC) and 20% are leveraging blog posts,
- 23% of marketers plan to invest in relatable content in 2025.
- 23% of marketers also plan to invest in funny content this year.
- 18% of marketers plan to invest in authentic content in 2025, too.
Clearly, audiences are asking for personalized content and to see a brand’s true colors. Therefore, brands and social media marketers should give them what they want. Otherwise, they risk getting left behind (and losing some crazy ROI).
6. Leveraging AI
Lastly, if you’re not leveraging AI in your social media strategy, you’re seriously missing out on ways to scale and streamline your social marketing campaign efforts. HubSpot’s State of Social Trends Report shared the following stats about how marketers are bringing in AI to enhance content creation and performance:
- 1 in 5 marketers plan to explore using AI agents to automate marketing initiatives from end-to-end strategy to execution.
- 75% of marketers agree that using AI helps them be more creative when making social media content.
- 71% of marketers actively use AI tools in social media marketing.
- 77% of marketers agree that AI will make it easier for them to connect with their audience on social media.
How to Plan a Social Media Campaign
There are so many ways to create a successful social media marketing campaign. Of course, your plans will vary based on industry, social media platform, and campaign type. Still, no matter how niche your brand is or what audiences you’re hoping to convert, never underestimate the power of taking it back to the basics.
That said, here are a few foundational tips I suggest keeping in your back pocket to guide the creation of your next social media marketing campaign:
1. Start with researching what’s working (or not).
In the planning stages of your social media marketing campaign, you have to consider your competition. It’s non-negotiable.
When it comes to outshining your competitors on social, I follow one philosophy: what you’re doing is no better than what they’re doing until you do some deep diving to understand what’s oversaturated and what’s actually resonating.
Start with completing a SWOT analysis, then do some lurking on social (Reddit and TikTok will likely have the honest perceptions you’re looking for), then, finally ask yourself the following questions:
- Which companies are similar to yours and already have successful social media accounts?
- Which companies have campaigns that you know did well?
- Do the companies you review typically conduct giveaways, contests, or live videos?
- What is engagement like on their social posts?
By taking a step back and asking yourself these questions, you can determine how to make your campaign unique. But don’t stop there. Look for inspiration elsewhere, too.
If your competition isn’t on social media, you’re not a fan of their previous campaign style, or you have an exceptionally special business, look for other campaigns that inspire you and determine how you can apply elements such as a similar style, level of engagement, aesthetic, or a specific message to your campaign.
2. Craft a strategy that’s informed by multi-channel insights.
Next, you’ll want to craft your campaign strategy. To determine your campaign strategy goals, you should work with data … not just any data, though. The data you’ll want to use should come from the following steps:
Find your target audience (across every platform you post on).
Think about these questions:
- Who are you trying to reach?
- How would you classify your target audience?
- What do you hope this campaign will achieve for your company and audience?
- How can you create continued engagement with your followers throughout your campaign?
Ensuring your content and messaging appeal to your target audience should always be your top priority. In fact, it’s a vital rule while developing your social media marketing campaign.
Never forget who you are trying to connect with and why. If you miss the mark, your audience won’t just notice, they’ll scroll right by your social posts and lose interest in your campaign altogether.
Here are some ways to appeal to your target audience on social media:
- Consider the trends that are resonating with audience across platforms. Ask yourself: What do people want to view these days? What have you seen doing well on other timelines? Think about what you see (and love to interact with) on your own timeline and adapt it to suit your brand’s voice on social.
- Create compelling visual content that feels authentic and engaging. Whether it’s a video on TikTok or a carousel on Instagram, make sure your visual content is compelling and interactive. Give your audience something they haven’t seen before, or add your own spin to something that’s doing well on folks’ timelines.
- Make your audience feel seen. If your followers leave questions, comments, or concerns on your posts, you should respond (‘cause duh). By doing so, you’ll form a personal bond with your audience, making them more loyal to you and your brand.
Choose your content types and format.
Remember what I said earlier about social media marketing becoming increasingly reliant on multi-content execution? At this stage of cultivating your social media marketing campaign, you should start zeroing in on the types of content you’ll need to create.
To determine your content types, you have to first consider the why behind your campaign creation. Here are some traditional instances in which your brand and/or company might create a social media marketing campaign:
- Holidays
- Special occasions or milestones
- Partnerships with other businesses
- User-generated content (UGC) promotions
- Contests or giveaways
Then, consider which content type should be used on what platform. For example, if your campaign uses a lot of still photography, Instagram might be the platform for you. If your campaign requires live streaming and want to share longer videos, TikTok might be a good option. And if you want to release shorter bursts of information, Threads or Bluesky could be a good fit. Think about what each platform is best for and go from there.
Pro tip: One of the best use cases for AI is repurposing your existing content into other formats while keeping a cohesive voice and message.
Personally, I think HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant is great for reusing and recycling content. It allows you to input your key messaging and CTA, then creates coordinating Instagram, Facebook, and Google ad copy without the heavy lifting (aka rewriting the same thing over and over across platforms).
Manage the results of your campaign strategy.
No matter why you’re creating your campaign, you’ll probably be interested in knowing your campaign’s level of success. But to make any conclusions about your success, you’ll need metrics to measure and monitor throughout your campaign.
A popular way to do this is through a metric tracker such as Google Analytics or HubSpot’s social monitoring and metric tracking tool. This type of concrete data will provide you with information like:
- Overall campaign traffic.
- How many new followers you’ve attracted (as well as how many followers you lost).
- Levels of engagement.
- Changes in website traffic.
- Changes in sales.
3. Don’t just post your content — promote it.
Now it’s time to start sharing your campaign and promoting your content. Check out some of the following techniques for promoting and sharing your content (I included some examples, too):
Promote one message throughout your campaign.
You should start by promoting one message on multiple platforms using content that fits the chosen platform. By consistently sharing the same message across your campaign, your followers will hear the same information repeatedly, allowing them to retain your message.
Marketing campaigns have proven that messages are most effective when repeated. Repetition results in familiarity, which fosters trust between your audience and your message, brand, and product. Redundant messages stick.
Balance your promotional and non-promotional content.
Your followers will notice if you’re constantly pushing promotional content on them. By balancing promotional and non-promotional content, your followers will perceive you as helpful and want to engage with you more.
In short, this is about your followers not feeling pressured or pushed into becoming a customer (because no one wants to be pressured into a sale, y’all). You will be most effective if you provide your followers with promotional content balanced with content they find enjoyable, like funny or light-hearted UGC.
Ensure your content is unique to your business.
Create an aesthetic for your campaign that matches your brand. Now, you want this to be unique. Anyone who lands on your page should know it’s yours without reading your profile handle.
When I think about aesthetic done right, I immediately picture Rhode Skin, Hailey Bieber’s “clean girl” skincare and makeup brand.
Rhode does visually-pleasing content exceptionally well. From curated color palettes to soft, dreamy concepts, Rhode creates Pinterest girly-inspired content with a twist. 99% of the time, that “twist” is always a surprise.
Sometimes, the twist is food marketing; other times, it’s a contemporary 80s glam revival. Audiences never know what’ll come next, and that’s the fun part. Scroll through the screenshots below to see what I mean:
My point is this: being unique and authentic helps you stand out. It also gives people a reason to want to follow you over your competitors. Regardless of how you choose to stylize your content, it needs to feel cohesive, fun, and connected back to your brand’s offerings.
Engage with your audience regularly.
Say it with me now: No matter how many followers your brand may have, you should always set aside time to nurture your online audience. This means:
- Answering direct messages (DMs).
- “Liking” comments.
- Responding to feedback (even if it’s unkind).
Engaging with your followers, even in small ways, signals that you care about them beyond vanity metrics; that they’re not another number. Moreover, you cultivate relationships and experiences that keep followers invested in your brand by showing up for them consistently.
Create a unique hashtag for your campaign.
All major social media campaigns should have a hashtag that should be the same across social platforms; here’s why:
- Hashtags allow your team members to keep track of interactions.
- Hashtags make it easy for your followers to engage with your campaign.
- Hashtags are unique and memorable.
For example, Black-owned and Gen Z consumer-focused skincare and beauty brand, Topicals, has a newly-launched (but already buzzworthy) social media campaign called Faded Fortune. Faded Fortune may have been born through social, but its success is connected to IRL, one-night-only brand experiences, thus its impact extends beyond the digital space.
Additionally, Topicals’ campaign hashtag for Faded Fortune is, fittingly, “#FadedFortune.” It’s straightforward, simple to remember, and deeply connected to the brand’s in-person activations — as well as the guaranteed high-energy fun that consumers can expect from attending.
Additionally, Faded — a skincare serum and facial cleansing bar designed to brighten acne scarring — is one of Topicals’ core product offerings, so this campaign directly links the concept back to what they sell, grounding consumers in their brand narrative and a niche product-focused experience.
Automate your content with scheduling software.
Although creating engaging content and interacting with your followers may be time-consuming, there is a way to schedule your campaign posts ahead of time. (And, if I’m being totally honest, every social media marketing person is doing some form of pre-scheduling anyway. It’s part of the workflow.)
Tools such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and CoSchedule allow marketers to schedule posts with text, photos, videos, hashtags, and more. Plus, some of these scheduling tools — like HubSpot’s Social Media Management Software — contain analytics features to help users determine which scheduled posts are doing well and which posts need to be modified.
Use live streaming to your advantage.
HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report highlighted that 21% of B2C brands are leveraging live streaming as a part of their content strategy. With live streaming, audience members can watch content in real-time from anywhere around the world, which creates a golden opportunity for brands to expand their reach to new countries, demographics, and customer segments.
TikTok Live is one of the most popular ways to stream live content, followed by other platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. You can use live streaming to demo products for your followers, conduct giveaways and contests, interview guests and influencers, or simply make customers feel personally connected to your brand.
Ultimately, the way you promote your content is your decision, but don’t forget to test and analyze your results. By keeping a close eye on your performance, you’ll know if any immediate changes can or should be modified while the stream is still live. Additionally, you can also apply your findings to future campaigns.
How to Run a Social Media Marketing Campaign
Here’s the thing: there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to run a social media marketing campaign. And I’m not here to convince you otherwise. Every brand’s goals are different, so every campaign will inevitably look a little different, too.
However, when you are running one, there’s a few standard building blocks that you have to prioritize from the very beginning; not all of them aren’t even explicitly responsible for strengthening your social media presence either. Instead, they exist in the backdrop of your overall digital strategy.
To provide more context and help you get a better grasp on these social media marketing campaign do’s, take a look at the list of foundation tips I put together below:
1. Improve brand awareness.
Although your social media marketing campaign may be focused on other KPIs, improving brand awareness should always be a core pillar of your social strategy. In fact, HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing Report noted that 13% of marketers plan to invest in brand awareness for the first time in 2025, so there’s no better time to lean into authenticity and purpose-driven messaging than right now. It’s never too late.
Your brand can improve brand awareness through social media in a variety of ways, such as:
- Posting your campaigns on a variety of platforms (hello cross-posting!).
- Using specific hashtags.
- Providing followers with incentives for sharing your content and tagging their friends (i.e., choosing a lucky follower to receive a goodie box of products).
- Posting a customer’s UGC on your feed or story.
Improving your brand awareness through social media doesn’t need to take a lot of time either. Once you have a plan for your campaign, you will be able to map out exactly where and when it should be posted to keep things efficient. It’s that simple.
2. Connect with your audience.
Connecting with your audience is important in all types of marketing, especially in social media marketing.
In a world with growing distractions and diminishing patience, effective marketing tactics matter more important than ever. The good news, though? Social media has made it easier to connect with potential customers anywhere around the world.
When working on a social media marketing campaign, you want to connect with your audience in two ways: 1) on a surface level — through a reshare, repost, comment, or a “like” — and 2) on a deeper level — through a relatable post that gets them feeling a certain way about your brand or products.
Once you make customers feel seen, they’ll keep coming back.
3. Increase website traffic.
You probably already know this, but social media marketing is a great way to boost website traffic.
On social, customers have little patience and lose interest quickly. By including a URL to your brand’s website (and other social channels) in your bio, you:
- Guide curious scrollers right to your most valuable digital touch points.
- Increase the likelihood that potential customers engage with your product or service in ways that feel most accessible for them.
- Reinforce brand credibility by making it easy for users to find consistent, up-to-date information about your brand.
Here’s some other quick-win suggestions for increasing website traffic and visibility through your social media marketing strategy:
- Your campaign team can respond to followers on social with URLs to specific landing pages on your website. Whether it’s a product page, blog post, or FAQ, providing relevant URLs in conversation shows you’re listening — and it’s a subtle yet powerful way to guide users toward conversion.
- Add a website or landing page URL to your actual post on social media. Don’t just rely on your bio link. Including a clickable link in your actual post (where platforms allow) helps followers take immediate action. A well-placed URL removes friction and directs people exactly where you want them to go.
- Include a strong call-to-action (CTA) in your captions that encourages followers to click through to your website. A strong call-to-action, like “Learn more on our site,” “Shop the collection,” or “Get the full story,” can increase click-through rates while making your post feel purposeful and actionable.
Now that I’ve have reviewed some of the most successful ways to make your social media marketing campaign stronger, let’s dive into some of the best and brightest social media marketing campaign examples.
Social Media Campaign Examples
1. Rhode Skin: Peptide Lip Shape Liner
Dynamic poses. Life-size products. Heels with socks. If Rhode Skin knows how to do one thing right, it’s curating a vibe through social media marketing.
I know I briefly mentioned Rhode Skin, but I’d like to mention it again, especially if I’m going to talk about a masterful social media campaign. Rhode Skin’s peptide lip shape campaign, without a doubt, was one of the most talked about beauty campaigns of 2025.
Starring the brand’s founder, Hailey Bieber, and recently-dubbed pop girl sensation Tate Mcrae, along with several other Rhode dreamgirls, the peptide lip shape campaign hit timelines in late January 2025 and left both Rhode evangelists and folks who were new to the brand pretty floored.
The result? Absolute fanfare takeover for the campaign across Rhode’s hero platforms — TikTok and Instagram — plus tons of UGC, some good, some bad, some neutral.
It’s important that I note that the response to Rhode’s peptide lip shape collection wasn’t all peaches and cream. A chunk of consumers — primarily women of color — had a lot to say about how the product was meant to be used; some felt confused by its longevity and wear.
Nevertheless, people showed up for Rhode. Here are what I think folks can take away from Rhode’s social media marketing campaign:
- Don’t be afraid to get literal with your social media marketing strategy. Rhode’s fitness-themed campaign aligns perfectly with the “shape” part of its collection name — Peptide Lip Shape. From gym-inspired visuals to cool girl athleisure aesthetics, they leaned into the theme and had fun with it. Literal doesn’t have to mean boring — it can actually create a clever, memorable through-line that audiences instantly connect with.
- If you can, put your founder front and center. One thing that Rhode’s customers always anticipate is that Hailey Bieber, its founder, will be at the front and center of its promotional campaigns. By establishing Hailey as a recognizable and consistent brand figurehead, Rhode strengthens brand familiarity and trust. Her presence adds star power, but more importantly, it humanizes the brand and gives audiences someone to follow, not just something to buy.
- Show your audience that you not only have range, but that you listen and don’t judge. After receiving backlash for not being diverse enough in its inaugural blush collection launch, Rhode was intentional about showcasing women with different skin tones — from fair to deep — in the rollout for this campaign. This visual inclusivity showed that Rhode was not only listening but also evolving. It made the brand feel more thoughtful, expansive, and aligned with a broader audience — a smart move that resonated across social channels.
2. On Shoes: Zendaya x ZoneDreamers
In April 2025, On, the Swiss-engineered shoewear and athleisure brand, launched a star-led, space-themed campaign and short film with Zendaya at the forefront of its promotional efforts.
The campaign was designed to spotlight its new Spring/Summer 2025 Movement collection along with its recently-released low-profile sneaker, Cloudzone.
The social media marketing campaign was anchored by two hashtags: “#DreamOn” and “#ZoneDreamers.” Plus, along with the social media marketing campaign rollout, On also released a Zendaya “edit” featuring items from the brand, all hand-picked by Zendaya.
This was On’s first attempt at getting creative and totally out-of-the-box for a collection launch. Although perceptions about the campaign are relatively fresh, On’s consumers have already demonstrated excitement about Zendaya’s association with the brand, shopping her picks, and, of course, watching her in a completely new project (especially post-Challengers).
Here are my takeaways from On’s social media marketing methodology, if you care to take a few notes:
- If you can, get thematic. By world-building and choosing a specific theme to build their newest collection around, On created an immersive experience that extended beyond product alone. The space-meets-sport aesthetic gave the campaign a clear creative direction, made the visuals instantly eye-catching, and offered audiences something more imaginative than a traditional product launch.
- Don’t be afraid of ancillary marketing. On’s decision to place Zendaya not only at the helm of its social media campaign but its sister-short film helped stretch the campaign’s reach across multiple formats and audiences. The cinematic approach blurred the lines between fashion and storytelling — giving people more reasons to engage, share, and talk about the campaign outside of product-focused moments.
- Lean on high-production quality whenever you can. From casual short-form video edits to a longer-form short film, On didn’t cut corners on visual storytelling. This level of polish elevated the campaign and made it feel aspirational, yet still approachable. High-quality creative builds brand trust and makes content feel timeless — something that can be repurposed long after launch week.
3. Redken: Sabrina Carpenter x Acidic Bonding Concentrate Collection
In October 2024, Sabrina Carpenter, pop’s newest diamond of the season, joined Redken as its first-ever global ambassador.
Sabrina’s first assignment? Promote Redken’s Acidic Bonding Concentrate (ABC) collection, aka the source for her healthy, glowing goldilocks.
While on tour, at press events, and through her own social media, Sabrina executed her half of the deal flawlessly. Meanwhile, on socials (particularly Instagram and TikTok), Redken had a Sabrina-style takeover, highlighting UGC content inspired by Sabrina’s go-to look, pictures of Sabrina’s best hair looks, and imagery inspired by her hit single, “Espresso.”
And although Sabrina’s Short ‘n’ Sweet era has been in motion for a while now, the brand is still committed to amplifying their ambassador whenever possible, even as her eras come and go.
In turn, folks and faithful Sabrina fans have adopted Sabrina’s haircare routine through buying the full Redken collection and following her step-by-step process for achieving her signature blonde hair.
Here’s what I think social media marketing folks can take away from Redken’s ABC campaign and partnership with Sabrina:
- Make a long-term investment. By partnering with Sabrina Carpenter as a global ambassador, Redken played the long game. Instead of a one-off collab or limited-time sponsorship, they committed to building a relationship that could evolve with her career — and her fans. That kind of consistency builds trust, awareness, and brand loyalty over time.
- Choose a name and a face that’s easy to remember. Because Sabrina is memorable, Redken’s ABC collection sticks with people. Their partnership with her not only taps into her musical notoriety but also nods to her playful, old Hollywood beauty aesthetic. Combined with a high-profile name like hers, the campaign became instantly recognizable — and even easier to search, reshare, and talk about.
- Match your feed to your brand’s energy. From the start, Redken’s campaign visuals echoed Sabrina’s vibe: fun, polished, confident, and feminine. Their social presence didn’t just sell haircare — it sold a recognizable aesthetic that aligned with their ambassador’s personal brand. That kind of creative cohesion goes a long way in building a social campaign that feels intentional, not just promotional.
Your Social Glow-Up Starts Now
I’ll keep it real — building a social media campaign that actually lands ain’t easy, but it is doable.
Strategy, consistency, creativity, and real-time audience awareness? That’s stuff you’ll need to see results. Whether you’re testing a new format, riding the wave of a trending audio, or deep-diving into platform analytics, what matters most is that you’re showing up with intention.
You’ve got the insights. You’ve got the inspo. Now go out there and post like you mean it. And when it clicks? Trust me — your audience will notice.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Global Expansion Misfires and Triumphs: Lessons from Liquid Death & 7-Eleven
The story of 7-Eleven’s remarkable transformation in Japan offers a masterclass in global expansion done right. Despite being an American brand, 7-Eleven has become a beloved institution in Japan with twice as many stores, and 8x higher profit margins than in its home country. But […]
MarketingThe story of 7-Eleven’s remarkable transformation in Japan offers a masterclass in global expansion done right. Despite being an American brand, 7-Eleven has become a beloved institution in Japan with twice as many stores, and 8x higher profit margins than in its home country.
But not every brand’s international journey ends in success. When Liquid Death, the edgy water brand that conquered American social media, announced its retreat from the UK market, it joined the ranks of companies that couldn’t replicate their domestic success overseas.
What separates global winners from losers? According to behavioral science expert Phil Agnew, the contrast between these two stories reveals universal truths about global expansion that extend far beyond convenience stores and canned water.
The Liquid Death Paradox: Great Marketing, Wrong Context
Liquid Death’s UK exit wasn’t about poor marketing — it was about misunderstanding local market dynamics. Here’s why the edgy water brand struggled in Britain (read our full analysis here):
- Product-Market Misalignment: The UK’s high-quality tap water and naturally cold climate eliminated two key bottled water selling points: quality and refreshment.
- Channel-Behavior Mismatch: While Liquid Death excelled at social media marketing, Brits predominantly buy water in physical stores during routine shopping. “There’s something slightly perverse in trying to sell it online when the sale point is actually in person,” Agnew said.
- Lack of Social Proof: Despite memorable marketing, Agnew himself hasn’t seen “a single person drinking Liquid Death” in England. Without visible consumption by others, the brand couldn’t leverage social proof—a critical factor in adoption.
- Flawed Geographic Strategy: Instead of concentrated saturation in key areas (like Joe & The Juice placing 15 stores in West London), Liquid Death spread too thin across the UK, diluting its impact.
The 7-Eleven Reversal: American Brand, Japanese Triumph
The Liquid Death story becomes even more instructive when compared with 7-Eleven—an American brand that achieved extraordinary success overseas, particularly in Japan.
Despite originating in the US, 7-Eleven has twice as many stores in Japan (21,500) as in America (9,224), despite Japan being much smaller in geography and population. Even more strikingly, 7-Eleven in Japan boasts an operating margin of 27% compared to an average of 3.5% in other countries.
How did an American convenience store chain become a beloved cultural institution abroad while struggling in its home country? The operational differences tell the story:
1. Supply Chain Innovation
In 1979, 7-Eleven Japan created the Nihon Delica Foods Association (NDF), a conglomerate of food production companies dedicated to keeping meals fresh from factory to store. By 2024, they operated 172 factories around Japan, ensuring consistent quality across all locations.
This stands in stark contrast to American 7-Elevens, which rely on shared distribution centers that also supply Walmart, Taco Bell, KFC, and others—creating inconsistent quality and freshness.
2. Inventory Management Excellence
7-Eleven Japan employs a management approach called “Tanpin Kanri”—constantly analyzing what customers are buying, what they’re not, what products to order more of, and what to discontinue. This item-by-item analysis creates a feedback loop that continuously improves product selection.
3. Community Integration Strategy
Perhaps the most profound difference isn’t just quality—it’s how deeply the brand integrates into local community life. In Japan, 7-Eleven functions as:
- A banking center with ATMs and financial services
- A package delivery point
- A bill payment location
- A place to access government services
Japanese 7-Elevens position themselves as neighborhood hubs that people need to visit regularly, whereas American 7-Elevens are viewed as places you stop only when necessary and leave as quickly as possible.
The Global Expansion Blueprint
For brands considering international expansion, here’s a comprehensive approach based on lessons from both stories:
1. Research Beyond Demographics
- Conduct behavioral analysis: Understand how locals actually shop, consume, and make decisions about products in your category. Liquid Death missed that Brits rarely purchase water online.
- Map the competitive landscape: What seems like an innovative product in one market might be redundant in another.
- Identify true market needs: Question your assumptions about product benefits. Liquid Death’s “cold refreshment” benefit was redundant in the UK’s climate.
2. Adapt Your Operations, Not Just Your Marketing
- Localize your supply chain: 7-Eleven Japan created a dedicated network of 172 food production facilities, while American 7-Elevens rely on shared distribution.
- Rethink your distribution strategy: Consider Joe & The Juice’s approach of clustering multiple locations in premium neighborhoods before expanding widely.
- Modify your inventory systems: 7-Eleven Japan’s Tanpin Kanri system created a responsive inventory management approach that matched products to local demand.
3. Build Community Integration
- Identify essential services: 7-Eleven Japan succeeded by becoming a hub for banking, package delivery, and government services.
- Target tastemakers in your specific niche: Agnew suggests that Liquid Death could have sponsored Wimbledon to reach young professionals with disposable income.
- Start with focused saturation: Rather than spreading thinly across an entire country, saturate a specific neighborhood or city first, as Joe & The Juice did. This creates the visibility and social proof needed for broader expansion.
The Value of Operational Excellence
The $47B takeover bid for 7-Eleven’s parent company by Canadian retail giant Couche-Tard suggests that solving these operational and market challenges, even in a seemingly simple business like a convenience store, can create massive value.
As both the Liquid Death and 7-Eleven stories demonstrate, success doesn’t just come from great marketing or a compelling product. It comes from understanding local contexts, adapting operations accordingly, and building systems that create lasting competitive advantages.
The Best AI Search Engines to Try
I’ve fallen down countless rabbit holes while doing seemingly simple searches: “How to make a latte?” turns into “Latte vs. americano?” which turns into “How bad is caffeine for you?” and ends with “Coffee alternatives.” AI-powered search engines can save you time and give you […]
MarketingI’ve fallen down countless rabbit holes while doing seemingly simple searches: “How to make a latte?” turns into “Latte vs. americano?” which turns into “How bad is caffeine for you?” and ends with “Coffee alternatives.” AI-powered search engines can save you time and give you better results — if you know how to use them.
I tested nearly a dozen search engines and narrowed the list to these nine options, which include the best for mobile, the best for users new to AI search, and lots more. Take a sip of your coffee (or coffee alternative), and let’s go.
Table of Contents
What are AI search engines?
AI search engines use some combination of web crawlers, innate artificial intelligence, and user data to improve users’ search experiences and provide more relevant information. Ironically, these machine-powered engines are some of the most intuitive, and ranking among the overall top search engines.
Since AI search engines are built to better understand human intent, they can save you time guessing the combination of keywords that will return your desired results. And search engine results pages (SERPs) will often include AI-generated summaries with cited sources, so you don’t have to click through several URLs to check their relevance.
Want to improve your company’s performance in today’s search landscape? Our new AI Search Grader takes your site and summarizes how your company will perform in AI search. The tool then recommends how you can perform your performance.
How I Tested AI Search Engines
I tested each search engine on Chrome by asking the same question: What are the latest content marketing trends for SaaS companies in 2025? I used incognito mode and cleared the cache between each new search. I stayed logged out except where I’ve noted otherwise (a few require free logins).
All the search engines touched on the same core trends, so my rankings focus on comprehensiveness, readability, overall user experience, citations, and whether a particular search engine is better for certain users.
A note on pricing: Many of these search engines have slightly complicated pricing structures, but most offer a free and at least one paid option. The paid options usually have additional features like extended access to the most recent AI models, but whether you need those models will depend on how you use AI.
9 Best AI Search Engines
1. Best Overall: Perplexity
Perplexity came out on top for its familiar and easy-to-use UX, comprehensive and skimmable results, and depth of resources.
It has a very similar interface to ChatGPT since it uses OpenAI’s language models, so it will feel familiar to a lot of users:
Perplexity’s results include a “Sources” tab at the top, so you can easily toggle to see the list of citations. It’s a great way to skim and make sure its sources are reputable and high-quality.
Unique among all the search engines I tested, Perplexity includes a summary table in its results, which I found immensely helpful — sometimes my eyes cross when I see all that information scroll down my screen, so I appreciated the skimmable summary.
Perplexity cited 20 sources, nearly twice as many as any other AI search engine I tested. It was one of only two that pulled results from YouTube, and it was the only one that also included Reddit (which can be a goldmine if you find the right subreddit).
Perplexity provides a detailed breakdown of trends, plenty of citations, and a summary table. That makes it the best option for experienced marketers, who may need to do deeper research — but also the best for less-experienced marketers who may want to start with the summary.
What I Like
- Visually well organized, with high readability for both new and experienced marketers.
- The summary table is a standout feature.
- Extensive citations and the best search diversity by far, listing 20 sources, including YouTube and Reddit.
What Needs Improvement
- Perplexity was the only AI search engine that didn’t have obvious areas for improvement.
Pricing
Perplexity has a two-tier pricing plan, plus Perplexity Enterprise accounts.
- Free forever: Includes unlimited free searches and three Pro searches a day.
- Professional: $20/month. Includes 300+ Pro searches a day.
2. Best for Visual Learners (and Second-Best Overall): Komo
Komo’s search results begin with a nifty color-coded “Perspective Pulse” — the clearest and cleanest summary of any search engine I tested.
Komo has two other features that make it stand out in a crowd: You can select both a search corpus (e.g., the web, academic sources, socials, news, video, blogs) and one of 10 pre-defined personas.
Personas let you choose how you want the information organized — options include gathering quotes, providing an explainer or a TL;DR, or gathering data. I didn’t test personas for this article, as they require a paid subscription.
Komo also lets you choose which AI model to use for your search. The options include various models from Gemini, Claude, and OpenAI. This is great for experienced AI searchers who have a handle on the pros and cons of all the options out there.
What I Like
- The sources are noted immediately next to the relevant text. But unlike other search engines, which use footnotes or dropdown menus, Komo uses a button with the website’s favicon that breaks up the wall of text. I found it much nicer to look at than other SERPs.
- Decent search diversity, with 10 sources listed.
What Needs Improvement
- There are so many options — AI models! Personas! Search corpora! — that it may overwhelm users who are brand new to AI search.
- Komo needs more search diversity to compete with the likes of Perplexity — but it’s still a close second place for me.
Pricing
- Free plan: $0
- Basic plan: $15/month
- Premium plan: $30/month
- Business plan: $200/month
3. Best for Mobile: Arc Search
I tested Arc Search on an iPhone 14 Pro using the free Arc app for iOS; it’s also available for Android.
Arc is easy to use and easy to read on mobile, and its results were similar in quality to the web-based browsers I tested. Plus, its voice search worked seamlessly, easily working out what “SaaS” was (I pronounced it “sass”).
It also makes it easy to see all the sources at a glance, and Arc and Perplexity were the only AI-powered search engines I tested that pulled results from YouTube videos. Arc cited 11 different sources, which is on par with other AI search engines.
What I Like
- No third-party ads.
- It auto-archives old tabs — between my mobile Chrome and Safari apps, I currently have 216 open tabs, and that’s a record low. So if you’re like me, Arc will be a lot lighter.
- You can switch seamlessly between Arc and Google search, which is particularly useful on mobile.
What Needs Improvement
- I found the UX a bit too cute, and a bit cluttered.
- It took me a moment to realize that “Browse for me” meant searching with AI.
- One of the questions in Arc’s FAQ is how it makes money if it’s both free and ad-free. Problem is, it doesn’t answer it — and that leaves me with more questions.
Pricing
- Free.
4. Best for Google Users: Gemini
If you’re already fully integrated into the Google ecosystem, Gemini is an easy choice for AI-powered search. Formerly known as Bard, the AI chatbot may be attractive to those who have grown accustomed to Google’s many products.
Gabrielle Herrera, a senior marketing manager of community growth at HubSpot, sums it up: “I really enjoy Gemini because it’s integrated with the Google Ecosystem — which was my preferred search engine to begin with.
Gemini is separate from Google’s AI Overviews, which appear at the top of some Google search results (and which I’m not covering here, since it’s not a separate search engine).
Gemini’s results were some of the most comprehensive of the bunch, and it included more information about AI’s role in content marketing trends, including Google’s E-E-A-T search quality rater guidelines.
What I Like
- Good search diversity, with 13 sources cited.
- It has a “Double-check response” feature, which uses Google to run a secondary search of your question to ensure accuracy.
What Needs Improvement
- Gemini includes sources for each bullet point, but you have to click on a down arrow to find them. I’d like to see a comprehensive list of all sources included in the initial results.
Pricing
Gemini has three plan tiers, including one that provides Gemini Advanced free to U.S. college students.
- Gemini is free, but it places some limits on access to its most advanced model.
- Gemini Advanced is $20/month and increases the limits on its “most capable experimental model, 2.5 Pro.”
5. Best for the Privacy-Concerned: Brave Search
Brave Search is the AI-powered engine of choice if privacy is your top concern. It doesn’t track users or their queries, meaning it can’t share or sell personal data — because it never collected it in the first place.
Its AI-powered search engine promises it’s “the only large real-time answer engine that puts privacy first and does not rely on Big Tech search engines.” It wasn’t the best or most powerful search engine I tested, but the quality of information is on par with the rest.
Brave Search also looks a lot like Google, so it’s a great place for AI beginners to start.
What I Like
- Brave has tabs for Images, News, and Videos, just like Google. This stood out among the search engines I tested, which largely provide text-based results.
- Brave is known for its commitment to privacy and security, making it an essential option in the AI-powered search landscape.
What Needs Improvement
- Poor search diversity, citing only four sources.
- I searched normally and with the “Answer with AI” feature for both questions and received identical search results in both modes — so it’s unclear what advantages Brave is bringing to AI-powered search.
Pricing
Brave offers a number of products like a VPN, a proprietary browser, Brave Search API, and lots more.
- Brave Search is free to use.
- Brave Search Premium is $3/month or $29.99/year, and is ad-free. Unlike its competitors, there aren’t any additional features, but Brave touts Premium as a way to support private, independent search.
6. – 7. Best for People Who Hate Search Engines: Claude and ChatGPT
In an informal HubSpot Slack survey on favorite AI search engines, Claude and ChatGPT — despite not actually being search engines — were the top two responses. And if they look like search engines and quack like search engines, I decided they’d pass the duck test.
HubSpot motion designer Oscar Estrada said, “I like that ChatGPT is able to search through both text and voice modes. Also, its deep research functionality is pretty useful.”
ChatGPT is great for newbies — it summarizes each point in just a sentence or two, so I wasn’t overwhelmed with information. It’s also familiar to a lot of folks, since it was one of the first AI chatbots on the scene.
Since HubSpot has an Enterprise Claude account, I signed in and used 3.7 Sonnet. The free version uses a less powerful model.
What I Like
- Claude’s friendly, conversational tone stands out among all the search engines.
- ChatGPT has a “Sources” button that opens a right sidebar — I liked being able to see the list of sources on the same page as the results.
What Needs Improvement
- ChatGPT and Claude have poor search diversity, each listing only five sources for my query.
Pricing
- Both Claude and ChatGPT have perfectly serviceable free versions.
- Claude’s Pro version is $17/month, and ChatGPT Plus is $20/month.
8. Best for Outlook Users: Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot is an AI companion tool that pairs with Microsoft 365 apps, such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
Copilot integrates into Microsoft 365 apps to help with the most appropriate tasks, from writing thought-starters in Word to design help in PowerPoint to email inbox efficiency in Outlook.
Copilot also has a web version that functions similarly to other AI search engines. You enter a question, and it curates a response by scouring the web for references. For this article, I tested the web-based version.
What I Like
- Copilot is built for Microsoft, so if you’re an Outlook user, this may be your search engine of choice.
What Needs Improvement
- Copilot only listed two sources — far fewer than any other search engine.
- Copilot isn’t a search engine first and foremost, and that shows in both the overall UX and the SERPs, which were lacking compared to the others I tested.
Pricing
- Free plan limits access to certain models during peak usage times.
- Microsoft Copilot Pro is $20/month and includes “preferred access to the most advanced models during peak times.”
9. Best for Academic Research: EXA’s Websets
EXA is a bit of a wild card in this experiment, and a word of warning: it’s not for most people.
But for those doing deep academic research or marketers who want an exhaustive list of resources to use for their own research, EXA’s Websets can be a fantastic complement to other search engines.
Instead of summarizing results like most other AI-powered search engines, EXA’s Websets finds blog posts, scholarly articles, and other news related to your query and search criteria. If you prefer to do your own research, this is a great tool for identifying the best and most relevant resources with just one query.
What I Like
- Searches both scholarly journals and articles/blog posts.
- Clearly labels which of your criteria each article “meets” and “misses” — a unique and useful tool for research deep dives.
What Needs Improvement
- The spreadsheet-like interface isn’t nearly as intuitive as others on this list.
- The credits-based free plan starts at 750, and after one search, I was down to 420.
Pricing
EXA’s target audience is AI companies — and as such, it’s the most expensive on this list by a long shot.
- You can try EXA’s Websets for free using a credit-based system.
- The starter plan is $200/month and includes 20k credits; Pro is $800/month and includes 80k credits.
Where There’s A Will, There’s A(I) Way
Before testing AI search engines for this article, I was already an occasional Perplexity user, but I was pleasantly surprised by several others on this list. Whether you’re new to AI or a seasoned pro, try out a few of these search engines and see which ones meet your needs.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2024 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Email Marketing Plan: Craft & Track Your Email Campaign [Free Template]
If you’ve ever tried to put together an email marketing plan, you might have wanted to pull your hair out at least once or twice. Maybe you didn’t have enough time to properly segment your lists, so you knew your clickthrough rate was gonna totally […]
MarketingIf you’ve ever tried to put together an email marketing plan, you might have wanted to pull your hair out at least once or twice. Maybe you didn’t have enough time to properly segment your lists, so you knew your clickthrough rate was gonna totally suck.
Or you were planning several email campaigns at once, so keeping track of all the details for each was kind of like trying to juggle while skateboarding while accomplishing your 50-squats-a-day goal.
Email marketing requires a lot of attention to detail, which is why we put together an email planning template that removes the guesswork and helps set your email campaign up for success. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through how it works.
Table of Contents
Organizing Your Email Marketing Campaign Strategy
The best way to prevent mediocre email marketing is to get organized.
When you’re having difficulty managing all the moving parts of your email campaigns, it’s hard to be proactive and strategic about what you send, which ultimately means your campaigns will be far less fruitful in terms of generating opens, clicks, and qualified leads.
The problem gets worse the more email campaigns you need to plan and send.
To get organized here at HubSpot, our email marketers came up with what we think is a pretty neat email marketing planning template that helps us (and hopefully you, too) keep track of:
- Which emails you’re sending to whom
- The various A/B tests you’re conducting
- The high-level results of each email you’ve sent
We use it as an all-in-one checklist, a calendar, and a communication tool.
Let’s explore how it works, shall we?
How to Plan Your Email Campaigns & Track Results
We realize that not every company sends emails the same way. We encourage you to customize the template according to your individual needs and your organization’s goals.
Since frequency, timing, messaging, content, design, and other elements of email marketing will all vary, feel free to adjust the template by hiding certain columns if you don‘t need them or by adding in new ones we didn’t account for.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Step 1: Download the template.
You’ll want to download your own copy of the template so you can follow along as we explain how it can help you be more strategic about what you send.
Step 2: Open the Email Planning Template in Excel or Google Sheets.
Once you’ve downloaded and opened your Email Marketing Planning Template in Excel or Google Sheets, you’ll notice it contains two tabs. The template itself, which we’ll explore in this post, resides in the “Email Planning Template” tab.
Download the Template
You’ll quickly discover that the Email Planning Template tab is divided into three sections:
- Email Planning (green cells)
- Email Results Tracking (yellow cells)
- A/B Testing Planning & Results (red cells)
Each of the three sections contains columns for the 18 details you should plan for or keep track of in the planning, testing, and results stages of email marketing, which I’ll list in a second.
The planning template will help you think through the 18 details below to ensure you‘ve dotted all your i’s and crossed all your t’s before pressing that irreversible “send” button.
Step 3: Fill out the template‘s ’Email Planning’ section.
This is where you‘ll record the logistics of each email, like when it’s being sent out and who‘s sending it. Here’s what you will record in this section:
1. Email Send Date: When does this email need to land in your prospects’ inboxes? In the template, Column A contains the date of your email send.
Pro tip: If you’re not sure when the best time to send an email for your campaign is, check out these stats we’ve gathered to find the right time.
2. Email Topic: What is your email about? Ex: New Ebook or Monthly Email Newsletter.
3. Owner: Who on your team is crafting this email?
4. Status: Ex: Not Started, In Progress, Ready to Test, Scheduled, Sent.
5. Subject Line: What subject line will you use to entice recipients to open your email?
Pro tip: If you’re struggling to create excellent copy for your emails—be it subject lines or body—consider tools like Campaign Assistant, which can craft high-quality copy quickly with AI.
6. Email Draft Link: Copy and paste the link to your email draft here from your email software for you to keep track of or your team to review. Once the email is live, you can replace the draft link with a link to the live email
7. Send List: Name of your email list, such as “Corporate Executives Interested in Social Media Topics.”
8. Suppression List(s): Names of lists you want to exclude from your send. Ex: “Unengaged Leads and/or Corporate Executives from SMBs.”
Step 4: Fill out the template‘s ’Email Results Tracking’ section.
How did your email do? You’ll record the results in this section.
1. Total Emails Sent: How many email addresses did you send your email to?
2. Total Emails Delivered: Of the email addresses you sent your email to, how many successfully landed in an inbox?
3. Total Emails Opened: Of the email addresses you sent your email to, how many were opened?
4. Total Clicks: How many unique individuals clicked a link in your email?
5. Deliverability: Automatically calculates Total Emails Delivered / Total Emails Sent. Above 95% is ideal, but hard to achieve if your list(s) are purchased. (And you shouldn’t be purchasing lists in the first place.)
6. Open Rate: This automatically calculates the Total number of Emails Opened/delivered. An open rate of 20% would mean that out of every 10 emails delivered, 2 were actually opened.
7. Clickthrough Rate: This automatically calculates the percentage of recipients who clicked a link in your email out of the total emails opened.
8. Leads Generated: How many new potential business contacts did you get from email recipients filing out the form on your landing page?
Pro tip: Get better results by regularly cleaning your email contact list. You can do this by segmenting your contacts.
Step 5: Fill out the ‘A/B Testing Planning & Results’ section.
There are numerous ways to A/B test your emails. You can test your subject lines, image, call-to-action layout, placement of social sharing links and buttons, and pretty much any element you want. Here, you’ll record the A/B test(s) you did on each email.
1. A/B Test Description – Describe any A/B test you‘re conducting with this email send and which metrics you’ll be using to gauge success.
2. Summary of A/B Test Results – What were the results? Which variation won?
And Voilà!
With great planning and organization, you won’t overlook major details, your team will be kept in the loop, you can better track your results, and—because you’ve thought through all you need to when planning campaigns—your emails perform better, too.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August 2014 and has been updated and for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.
Mastering Social Media for Nonprofit Promotion: Insights and New Data from Experts
I’ve fundraised $725,000 in one year for a local charitable foundation, and its social media strategy played a big part in the outcomes. Unlike businesses, nonprofits don’t sell products or services. You have to rethink your approach and simultaneously evoke compassion in your followers, increase […]
MarketingI’ve fundraised $725,000 in one year for a local charitable foundation, and its social media strategy played a big part in the outcomes.
Unlike businesses, nonprofits don’t sell products or services. You have to rethink your approach and simultaneously evoke compassion in your followers, increase their count, and make donors believe in your noble cause.
![Download Now: The 2025 State of Social Media Trends [Free Report]](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/53/3dc1dfd9-2cb4-4498-8c57-19dbb5671820.png)
All under a limited marketing budget. If you’re wondering how to pull this off, keep reading.
Table of Contents
Why Nonprofits Should Use Social Media
How do you tell your story as a nonprofit to attract either donors or engaged audiences? A website alone won’t do. Nobody googles NGOs to make a contribution or become a follower unless they already know you. That means SEO isn’t your winning strategy.
But social media is.
1. Social media gives you brand exposure and visibility.
70% of donors visit a nonprofit’s social media profiles before making a gift, as Bloomerang found. But let’s leave fundraising aside for a moment. Social media is a powerful means to inspire supporters and get your organization discovered by new audiences.
Viral video content on TikTok is your go-to tool. Organizations can build a following exponentially by creating moving or funny content.
An example is a Spotlight Humanity video gathering 1.1M views. The video is quite simple — just a little deed that means a whole life to a child.
2. It helps you nurture supporter relationships.
LinkedIn, X, TikTok, Instagram — all foster two-way communication and keep audiences linked to a cause. It also opens new doors for networking with influential backers.
For example, TeemTreas, a collaborative fundraising campaign launched by YouTube star MrBeast, planted 20+ million trees. The initiative found its supporters across different social media platforms.
3. It adds to your transparency and credibility.
The biggest fear of a supporter is that money will be spent somewhere else. Creating open annual reports with all incoming and spent funds by articles gives immense transparency to an NGO of any size.
Next, you create a series of social media posts where you share your numbers and beneficiaries’ stories.
4. It amplifies fundraising efforts.
Facebook and Instagram offer special tools and solutions for nonprofits to send more givers to your website or raise money directly on Facebook and Instagram.
5. It helps you recruit volunteers and staff.
How did I discover a foundation to fundraise for? Through their Instagram account, namely Reels. How do we gather volunteers to remove debris or help distribute food kits?
Guess the answer. Social media campaigns.
We even hired a few team members who DM’d our Instagram account and offered their help as volunteers.
Media content is the best way to connect with change-makers and create a better world.
The simplest example is clean-up campaigns.
Bonus: You’re becoming a recognized thought leader in a chosen sector, therefore, boosting brand awareness on a local and global level. Members of your organization will be offered interviews and broadcasts.
How to Build a Nonprofit Social Media Strategy
At District #1 Foundation, a nonprofit I’m part of, we use YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram as our prime channels. However, we will soon be launching TikTok as well. I joined the organization in its first year and needed its solid online presence to communicate with potential donors.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to social media strategy development that you can follow for your own organization.
1. Outline the goals you want to achieve.
You can’t stretch yourself thin and create all possible content at once. Select your three desired outcomes you want to achieve first and build up a strategy around.
I recommend starting with:
- Raising awareness about your mission.
- Recruiting volunteers.
- Increasing donations or recurring gifts.
While chasing these goals, you’ll automatically drive more traffic to your website and build a community of like-minded people.
Secondly, turn these goals into measurable, time-bound objectives.
Example: Grow our Instagram engagement rate to 1.5% and add 1,000 new followers by June 2025. Raise $3,000 to buy equipment for clean-ups. Engage two influencers in the initiative by June 2025.
Once you have it, develop your ICP (an ideal customer profile) that you want to attract. Use HubSpot’s ICP Worksheet to find best-fit supporters.
2. Think of the key audience segments.
Before you write a single caption or cue up a reel, get clear on who you’re talking to. Then, speak in their language.
Donors fund the mission — they want to feel the real impact.
Volunteers give their time — they need a reason to show up.
Advocates and influencers carry your message — they thrive on stories worth sharing.
Each one needs different content.
Tip: Different age groups prefer different platforms. Gen Z may be more active on TikTok or Instagram Reels, while Gen X leans toward Facebook.
Use a free buyer persona generator to understand shared and unique traits of your audiences.
3. Analyze popular volunteer movements and charitable organizations’ social media.
This is your goldmine of thought-provoking, funny, touching, and entertaining campaigns to inspire your content strategy.
Start by analyzing local charitable initiatives and organizations, and look up their social media. Take notes of top-performing posts and make assumptions about why they worked out.
Pay attention to the audience segment a post was created for.
Here, you want to get ideas for attracting volunteers and micro-influencers.
How to find such initiatives? Google charitable organizations registered in your city or country, or use hashtags on social media.
Examples: #AnimalRescue + #Seattle, #HomelessOutreach + #Philly, #LAvolunteers, #BeachCleanup, #ForYou, #donate.
Tip: Use ChatGPT Model 4o to generate relevant hashtags.
4. Create a content strategy.
Plan your content pillars. These are categories of posts you’ll rotate between.
Impact Stories
Videos of beneficiaries, their before and after, or clips taken from the field. This content format is perfect for TikTok and Instagram Reels, as well as for paid ads. It can also be a carousel post.
And remember, your videos shouldn’t always be of superior quality. They must convey emotions and the reality on top of anything else. Look at the post below from an animal shelter rescue from Gaza.
Behind-the-Scenes
These are primarily staff intros and daily team activities, from the office and the field.
Calls to Action
Posts aiming to gather volunteers, emergency response, donate to a cause, sign up for your newsletter, sign a petition, etc.
For example, MercyCorps urges you to donate to skill training programs for smallholder farmers in Guatemala by matching 2X your contribution.
Educational Posts
Infographics, awareness facts, or survey results. In both video and graphic formats.
For example, UNICEF Ukraine shares educational Reels, Stories, and Carousels twice a week to teach parents or youth about how to cope with war-caused anxiety, how to properly feed an active teenager, etc.
In the post below, UNICEF collaborated with a child therapist and featured 24 ideas for tired parents to play with the baby.
Event Highlights
When you attend events for NGOs, fundraising evenings, or talk to government officials, you want to share the news and key takeaways and tag the event or an important person. This way, you forge trustworthiness and increase brand awareness.
You can create a standalone post or repost one of your colleagues.
Donor Spotlights
Received a non-anonymous contribution or signed a new contract with a donor? Turn this into the post! Make photos with a contributor, record a short video-interview (can be done online via Zoom), and make them feel appreciated.
Plus, the giver will repost it and show your work and impact to their audiences.
At District #1, we share such news across all platforms.
5. Measure results and improve.
And, as the final step of your social media strategy for a nonprofit, turn to analytics. Define what metrics you’ll be working towards at the beginning and check every month if you’re on track. Try to replicate top-performing content and see if it yields the same results.
What metrics to track:
- Engagement rate
- Reach/impressions
- Link clicks/traffic
- Follower growth
- Donations from social
Run and analyze all your social media campaigns from one place. Connect with people you care about on each social platform.
Best Social Media Platforms for Nonprofits
According to HubSpot’s 2025 Social Trends Report, 85% of marketers found that social media marketing was effective for their brands. Charitable organizations also saw above-median engagement rates across all social media platforms, with TikTok dominating the engagement rate per video.
While it’s great to have a diversified nonprofit social media strategy, focusing on too many platforms at once uses up a lot of time and resources.
So, instead, I suggest selecting two to four platforms that work best for my cause and sticking to them until you reach your social media goals.
My favorites are Instagram and TikTok. Since each platform has its unique features and user preferences, you should follow different strategies to maximize your content’s impact.
1. Facebook
I’ve been using Facebook ever since I got my first smartphone.
But this year, 1 in 5 marketers plan to cut investments in Facebook and pour budgets into YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, according to the 2025 HubSpot Social Trends Report.
Given that, I’d not prioritize this platform, but ditching it completely would also be a mistake. Millennials are still hanging out on Facebook, meaning your audience can be there. Plus, their private contributions are generous — most millennial donors gave between $100 and $499 in 2024.
(This is also why I advise you to create a buyer persona and understand where your supporters sit.)
Consider No Kid Hungry, a charity organization that aims to end childhood hunger in the U.S. The nonprofit has gained over 334,000 followers by regularly posting about its campaigns and activities on its Facebook Page.
Numbers aside, Facebook offers simplicity and versatility. My peers from nonprofits had success promoting all types of content, from texts and videos to infographics and polls. Let’s look at some strategies they follow.
How to Use Facebook for Nonprofits
- Livestreaming: Compared to pre-recorded videos, livestreams give organizations higher engagement rates. You can provide real-time updates about your nonprofit’s activities by livestreaming them. At the same time, viewers can make donations through the livestream itself.
- Using the donation button: During a fundraising campaign for unsheltered people, one expert created a dedicated Facebook Page with a donation button. This made it easier for supporters to make donations once they visited the page.
- Joining Facebook groups: Groups allow nonprofits to reach a global audience that shares the same passion. You can post on different Facebook groups to ask for donations or volunteers. You can also manage your own group, where you can share updates with supporters.
2. Instagram
Instagram has become the #1 platform for nonprofit discoveries among Gen Z, according to 1,000 surveyed supporters. On top of that, 51% of Gen Z volunteer their time in tandem with their financial contribution.
So, this platform is ideal for engaging the young audience and recruiting volunteers.
However, Instagram only promotes visual content formats like images and videos. This can pose a challenge if you prefer writing about your brand.
Use various reel templates, memes, and other social media trends for nonprofits to turn serious charity information into fun content your audience will love.
Hilarity for Charity’s Instagram posts recently grabbed my attention while scrolling through my newsfeed.
I like how they use content categories and brand colors to create a powerful and supportive atmosphere while educating readers about Alzheimer’s disease.
How to Use Instagram for Nonprofits
- Partnering with influencers. Influencer marketing is one of the key strategies to increase audience interaction, and Instagram is a great place to find public figures who are passionate about charitable causes. You can ask influencers to create reels showcasing their support for your cause.
- Cross-sharing. If I make a post on Facebook, I can share it on Instagram with one click. So, even if you’re low on time, you can quickly run a campaign on two social media platforms at once.
- Using Instagram Stories. You can use Instagram Stories to build curiosity among your followers and get them to visit your profile. Stories typically include sneak peeks into your latest campaigns, shoutouts to supporters, and some behind-the-scenes shots of volunteers working.
3. TikTok
TikTok’s 2.85% engagement rate per video compared to 0.66% for Facebook makes this video-based platform a solid choice for social media marketing strategy for nonprofits. It supports charities not just through fundraising but also by rolling out new features.
For example, in 2023, TikTok donated $250,000 to the Rare Impact Fund while introducing features like sleep reminders and screen-time limits to support mental health.
TikTok’s demographics largely consist of people below the age of 34 . This means I can easily reach Gen-Zers and younger millennials on the app.
Other nonprofits also use TikTok for growth and increased reach. American Cancer Society, for instance, has built a good presence on TikTok and has gained over 28,700 followers.
How to Use TikTok for Nonprofits
- Creating video content: Create videos about field activities, fundraising campaigns, and event planning. This shows supporters how you’ll be spending their donations.
- Using Donation Stickers: Make sure to add Donation Stickers to all videos. This way, followers can directly make donations without spending time searching for a link.
- Uploading short videos: TikTok allows video uploads of up to three minutes. However, I recommend uploading shorter videos that are less than 30 seconds because these get the most engagement.
- Use hashtags: It will make your account and videos discoverable for new supporters and will be added to Google SERPs.
4. X (Formerly Twitter)
Modern businesses are shifting their focus to video-based platforms, but X still has a fair share, with 63% of B2C brands using X. Personally, I also consider X a great nonprofit marketing channel.
But it’s not just me. Other nonprofits have had great results on this platform. Consider Oceana International, an NGO dedicated to saving and restoring the oceans. It has amassed more than 482,800 followers on X.
X has a massive celebrity presence, which means you can grab the attention of celebs who might be interested in working for your cause.
Creating content on the platform is also easy, as it allows users to add short captions to images and videos.
However, what’s tiring about X is that I need to post daily. Otherwise, engagement rates quickly die down, and it becomes difficult to increase your reach once more.
How to Use X for Nonprofits
- Organizing content into threads: X posts (formerly tweets) have a limit of 280 characters. But I’ve found that threads are a great way to get around the limit. Not only do they allow me to share more information, but they also convince the X algorithm that my posts are engaging.
- Posting during prime time: The trick is to post at a time when users are most active. Recent studies found a sweet spot between 9 AM and 11 AM during workdays.
- Using actionable CTAs: Another way I increase my engagement on X is by using calls-to-action like “Share if you support this cause” or “100k likes, and we’ll organize free health checks this month.” This encourages people to interact with my posts through likes, reposts, and comments, increasing my reach.
- Creating branded hashtags: Using popular hashtags can help you reach a large audience. You can also create your own hashtags and encourage followers to use them in their posts.
Similarly, hundreds of other nonprofits have successfully created social media campaigns on platforms like Reddit, Threads, and LinkedIn. The platform you choose depends on your goal and the demographics you want to target.
Meagan Jackman, President and CMO of The Harkey Group, provides guidance to help you choose the ideal platform:
“If a nonprofit needs corporate donations, the team should turn to LinkedIn. If there’s a youth nonprofit looking to speak to parents, they should leverage Facebook. If the message is informational, YouTube is a great medium.”
The ultimate goal is to be where your target audience can find you.
My experience showed that LinkedIn is the most effective way to find institutional partners and large donors. However, I used a mix of personal branding and cold outreach.
Social Media Tips for Nonprofits
Use these tips when designing your social media strategy for a nonprofit organization. It will make you connect with supporters faster.
Prioritize high-engagement formats.
As mentioned above, the best-performing content types for non-profits in 2025 are:
- Short-form video (Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts)
- Photo carousels
- Infographics
- Behind-the-scenes
- Authentic content
A quick iPhone video of a fieldworker explaining what a $25 donation provides is more powerful than a static link post. And $25 can feed a kid, plant 25 trees, and sow hundreds of vegetables.
Write with a human voice.
You want to be:
- Relatable, not robotic
- Emotionally compelling
- Action-driven (use strong CTAs: “Join us,” “Give now,” “Watch this story”)
Make your brand voice heard and convey it through your media formats.
Use AI tools to inspire your content strategy.
Usually, you’ve got endless opportunities to snap a video while working on the site. Every beneficiary, be it a cat, a tree, the ocean, or a human, is a compelling story. But when I’m on a field trip, I always hesitate on what to shoot.
Here, AI can come to the rescue.
As an SMM specialist, it’s your duty to guide your fieldworkers on the type of content you want them to capture. Ideate with ChatGPT or Jasper. Explain the purpose of a field trip and ask a robot to generate ideas for different social media channels.
Use AI to speed up social media strategy creation and ask it to develop a social media calendar.
You’ll save days on it and reinvest time into analytics and creativity.
Collaborate with micro-influencers.
Mega influencers may rack up views, but micro-influencers tend to have tighter-knit communities. Partner with mission-aligned voices who actually care about your cause.
Encourage them to co-create content and become a real part of your initiative.
For example, Weston Koury (@westbrouck) on TikTok partnered with The Good Patch and the It Gets Better Project to raise awareness for LGBTQ+ youth mental health.
Use advanced data-driven tactics.
Focus on conversions that matter. Donation clicks, volunteer sign-ups, event RSVPs. Combine social data with CRM insights for full-funnel tracking.
Remember to A/B-test multiple versions of the same post across different sub-audiences. Analyze micro-conversions (e.g., 10-second video views vs. link clicks) to refine messaging.
Add unique UTM tags to campaign posts to measure platform ROI and see exactly which source drives the highest-value actions.
Having these data points, you can double down on what works, even with a limited budget.
Nonprofit Social Media Examples
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity is a charitable foundation that helps with social housing. It has a presence on all social media except for TikTok. However, I noticed that their Instagram generates the most engagement.
Their team focuses on creating field content, showing construction in progress, and featuring stories with happy beneficiaries.
The page looks vibrant and really gives off that strong mission vibe. I recommend that nonprofits study this Instagram and take notes on the field content.
Dollar For
Dollar For has a noble mission to pay hospital bills that people can’t afford. It has amassed a great following across different social media platforms without investing in fancy video production. TikTok has 93,500 followers, while Instagram has 64,600 followers.
The founder of the organization records his thoughts on the topic and posts educational content every day, including beneficiaries’ stories, medical bills that are queuing to be paid, etc.
I love that level of authenticity! It allows for a real connection with the mission and his passion, which is contagious.
Note: They repurpose the same content across different platforms while changing captions and colors. And this strategy works! You can replicate this too for cost-effectiveness.
The Wildlife Trusts
Their noble mission is to restore nature across the globe. A 100-year-old foundation found its supporters on X (aka Twitter) with 272,100 followers and an active audience under its posts.
They share beautiful nature posts while also sparking debates with the UK government. One moment it’s a funny animal meme, the next — it’s a call for donations or an educational infographic.
The Wildlife Trust is an excellent example of how different content performs and how it resonates with both loyal supporters and new visitors. I also love how they use emojis in clever ways to strengthen that connection with nature.
Learn from their posts and write down which posts captured your attention. Think ‘why?’ for a second. Note it, too. Then, replicate the strategy.
Support Your Cause Through Social Media for Nonprofits
I know firsthand how tough nonprofit marketing can be — I’ve been there. But once I started focusing on building a strong presence across platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram (soon TikTok), I saw how much easier it became to connect with people and donors who truly care.
That’s why I believe in leaning into best practices and staying on top of social media trends. It’s helped me grow awareness, build trust, and create real engagement — and I’m confident it can do the same for you.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
A Web Accessibility Checklist to Make Your Content 100% Compliant
When creating any website, you want everyone who visits to fully experience it, no matter their abilities. That’s where the Web Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) come in. These formalized standards have set the foundation for inclusivity in web design.
Website
When creating any website, you want everyone who visits to fully experience it, no matter their abilities. That’s where the Web Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) come in. These formalized standards have set the foundation for inclusivity in web design.
The Types of Business Structures and How To Choose the Right One
After years as a B2B SaaS content consultant, I’ve learned that while starting a business is exciting, setting up the right structure is so important. Different business structures offer various benefits, but choosing the wrong one can hurt you legally and financially in the long […]
SalesAfter years as a B2B SaaS content consultant, I’ve learned that while starting a business is exciting, setting up the right structure is so important. Different business structures offer various benefits, but choosing the wrong one can hurt you legally and financially in the long run.
Let me share what I‘ve learned about choosing the right business legal structure based on my own journey and the experiences I’ve had working with other consultants in our industry.
Table of Contents
- What is a business legal structure?
- Four Types of Business Structures
- Think Bigger Than Your Current Situation
What is a business legal structure?
A business legal structure, or business entity, is a classification of a company and how it operates. It also regulates your federal and state tax obligations.
There are four primary categories:
- Sole proprietorship.
- Partnership.
- Limited liability company (LLC).
- Corporation.
When I first started, I carefully considered whether I‘d want to bring on partners or scale my business later. I’ve discovered how expensive and time-consuming it can be to change your business structure down the road, so I always advise thinking about your future plans when choosing a business structure.
Four Types of Business Structures
|
Feature |
Sole Proprietorship |
LLC |
Partnership |
Corporation |
|
Formation Costs |
$0-100 |
$100-800 |
$200-1,000 |
$500-2,000 |
|
Liability Protection |
None |
Full |
Varies by type |
Full |
|
Tax Treatment |
Personal tax only |
Pass-through |
Pass-through |
Double taxation (C-Corp) |
|
Paperwork |
Minimal |
Moderate |
Moderate |
Extensive |
|
Raising Capital |
Difficult |
Moderate |
Moderate |
Easiest |
|
Management |
Owner only |
Flexible |
Shared |
Board of Directors |
|
Example Clients |
Freelance writers |
Small agencies |
Marketing firms |
HubSpot, enterprises |
|
Growth Potential |
Limited |
Good |
Moderate |
Highest |
|
Asset Protection |
None |
Strong |
Varies |
Strongest |
|
Common Use Case |
Starting out |
Growing consultancy |
Shared expertise |
Enterprise SaaS |
|
Personal Tax Impact |
Direct |
Pass-through |
Pass-through |
Salary + Dividends |
|
Exit Strategy |
Simple closure |
Can be sold/transfer |
Complex dissolution |
Stock sale/merger |
1. Sole Proprietorship
A sole proprietorship is the easiest business structure to start. In fact, when I first began freelancing, I discovered there‘s no setup involved — you’re automatically considered a sole proprietor.
This means you own and operate the business as one individual — there’s no difference between the owner and the business. You file taxes under your legal name or the name of the business you registered with the Division of Corporations.
Here’s a snapshot of the pros and cons of sole proprietorships.
The only way around this is to purchase business insurance and include liability waivers in contracts. Another option is to transfer or share personal assets with someone else.
For taxes, sole proprietors must pay federal and state income taxes, depending on where they operate. Some states don’t charge income taxes for sole proprietorships, such as Florida.
It’s free to establish a sole proprietorship, but if you register a Doing Business As (DBA) name, you’ll pay between $10 and $100.
Examples of sole proprietors include freelancers, gig workers, and small business owners like writers, web developers, hair stylists, and online store owners.
Example: Content Writing Services
I started my B2B SaaS content consulting business as a sole proprietorship, which was the simplest way to begin. I wrote blog posts, whitepapers, and case studies for software companies under my own name, filing taxes with Schedule C.
While this structure worked initially, I realized that as I took on larger enterprise clients and higher-value projects, I needed more liability protection and growth potential.
2. Partnership
A partnership is like a sole proprietorship, except two or more people own it. There are two types of business partnerships:
- Limited liability partnerships (LLP).
- Limited partnerships (LP).
In an LLP legal business structure, each partner has limited liability. The partners’ personal assets are off-limits in litigation and for debt repayment. Plus, partners are protected from the actions of other partners.
So if one co-owner gets sued for misconduct, the other partners aren’t responsible for the costs that incur.
An LP is a little different — one or more general partners (GPs) have unlimited liability, and the other owners have limited liability. Some differences include:
|
LPs |
GPs |
|
Only liable for debt up to the amount they’ve invested |
Part owners have specialized knowledge and skills in the industry, so they take part in business operations (e.g., doctors or lawyers in a practice) |
|
Can make business decisions as long as it’s in line with what’s in the partnership contract |
Personal assets are susceptible to seizure to repay business debts (there’s no limit to how much the GP can be liable to repay) |
|
Has authority to act on the company’s behalf, without permission or knowledge of the LPs |
All partners decide the voting power LPs will have, which can be restricted to certain areas. For example, an LP may have 20% voting power because they invested 20% of the capital in the company and can only vote on matters revolving around equipment purchases and acquisitions.
The partnership agreement details the roles and rights of each partner to prevent future conflicts and is critical to have before establishing the business.
It should outline:
|
Profit and loss sharing |
What percentage each partner receive in profits and losses — equal or based on the contributions/investments of each partner |
|
Dissolution terms |
What happens if one or more partners decide to leave the business voluntarily or involuntarily (e.g., death, incapacitation, breach of agreement, etc.) |
|
Management rights and responsibilities |
What each owner will control in the business and their duties (e.g., finances, operations, etc.) |
|
Capital contributions |
How much each owner will invest in the company to launch and maintain it |
|
Dispute resolution |
How the partners will resolve problems (e.g., mediation or other process) |
This isn’t an all-inclusive list, but it provides an idea of what most partnership agreements cover.
Note that partnerships are tax-reporting entities (not tax-paying). It’s required to file Form 1065 annually to provide information to the IRS about business profits and losses. However, the business doesn’t pay taxes to the government.
Instead, profits and losses pass through to the owners. Each owner must fill out a tax return and include details about their percentage share of the profit (based on the partnership agreement). They then pay taxes on their portion of the profits or report a loss.
Partnerships aren’t difficult to form, but require detailed agreements that are best done with the help of an attorney.
The cost to start a business partnership depends on several factors like:
- Location/state of registration.
- Number of partners involved.
- Type of partnership (LP vs LLP).
- Complexity of partnership agreement.
For example, registration fees can range from around $200 for an LP in Delaware to $1,061 for an LLP in Florida. Many states also require annual renewal fees, which can be as high as $820.
Examples of partnerships include medical, legal, and dental practices.
Example: Digital Content Solutions
Another freelancer and I considered forming a partnership to combine our expertise. I‘d handle B2B SaaS content strategy and writing while they’d manage SEO and content distribution, and we would have split profits 60-40 based on workload, with me as the majority partner.
However, we opted against this structure due to shared liability concerns. If one partner made a mistake with a client’s product messaging or SEO strategy, both of us would be personally liable.
3. Limited Liability Company
A limited liability company, or LLC, is a mix of corporate, sole proprietorship, and partnership legal business structures. It provides liability protection to safeguard your personal possessions from business debts.
LLCs can have one or more members, like a partnership. However, some states require the business to dissolve when someone leaves the company. You can then re-form the company under the same or a different business structure.
If you plan to sell the company one day, include a clause in the agreement about buying, selling, and transferring ownership of the LLC.
An LLC is a tax-reporting entity and must file an informational tax return. However, it pays no taxes to the IRS as its business income passes through the company to the LLC members. Each member files an individual tax return to report their share of profits or losses. This can prevent double taxation (paying corporate taxes on the profits, while also paying personal income tax on your owner’s salary).
However, since LLC members are self-employed, they pay self-employment tax contributions for Medicare and Social Security.
Note:
- If you’re the only LLC member, you can report business expenses using Form 1040 Schedule C, E, or F.
- If there are two or more LLC members, each must file a partnership return using Form 1065.
Each LLC member’s profit share is taxable income, including undistributed profits.
The cost to form an LLC depends on the state but can range between $100 and $800. In addition, if you are doing business in your state, it is best to form an LLC in that state. Otherwise, if you form an LLC in another state, you will have to pay your fees twice.
You must also have articles of organization (certification of formation) before establishing the business.
Some states require an LLC operating agreement outlining:
- Profit and loss sharing.
- Buy-sell provisions.
- Member voting power.
- Ownership interest per member.
- Rights and responsibilities of each member.
LLC is an ideal business structure for medium-risk companies. It separates your business and personal finances, since you’ll need a separate LLC bank account to run your business (this holds true for all business structures except for sole proprietorship).
Examples of LLCs include real estate companies, law firms, accounting firms, and consulting businesses.
Example: My Current LLC Structure
I operate my B2B SaaS content consulting business as an LLC, which protects my personal assets while maintaining operational flexibility.
This structure works perfectly for my high-value consulting work with software companies, where a single messaging mistake could potentially impact a client’s product launch.
I can also easily bring on subcontractors for larger projects, scale my services, and maintain professional credibility with enterprise clients who prefer working with LLCs over sole proprietors.
4. Corporation
A corporation, or C-corp, is independent of the people who own and run it (shareholders). As a shareholder, you own portions (shares) of the corporation, giving you partial ownership rights.
Shareholder benefits include:
- More shares = greater voting power in company decisions.
- Receive dividends (share of post-tax profits).
- Dividends only taxed upon distribution to shareholders.
- Personal assets protected from business liabilities.
- Shares can be passed on after death according to formal documents.
A corporation is considered a separate legal person — it has its own assets and liabilities. Therefore, it can do things separate from its owners, such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, and pay taxes. Its structure even protects shareholders’ personal assets from business liabilities and debts.
It’s similar to a partnership, except corporations are owned by shareholders who elect directors to oversee the company. The board of directors then hires managers to run the business. So it’s an attractive option for investors who want to earn from the company, but don’t want to work “in” the business.
There are two types of corporations: C-Corporations and S-Corporations. Here are some of their differences.
|
Feature |
C-Corporation |
S-Corporation |
|
Tax form |
Form 1120 |
Form 1120S |
|
Who pays taxes |
Corporation pays tax on profits, AND shareholders pay tax on dividends |
Only shareholders pay tax on their share of profits |
|
Tax treatment |
Double taxation |
Pass-through taxation |
It’s common for sole proprietors and LLC businesses to elect to be taxed as S-corporations to save on taxes. But it’s only worth it if you earn at least $75k a year.
For example, your business generates $100k in earnings per year — and instead of the entire amount passing onto you like a regular LLC member, you could split the $100k by paying yourself a salary of $50k and taking the rest as dividends. You’ll pay $7,650 in self-employment tax (or 15.3%) for your pass-through income — not the dividends — saving you $7,650 compared with getting all $100k as a pass-through.
Although forming a corporation is the most complex, it’s affordable, costing between $50 and $200.
Examples of corporations include social media companies, software companies, and grocery chains.
Example: My B2B SaaS Clients like HubSpot
Most of my clients, including HubSpot, operate as corporations. This structure makes sense for SaaS companies because they often need to raise significant capital, have multiple shareholders, and plan for rapid growth.
As a content consultant, I work directly with their marketing teams but understand that major decisions go through their board of directors.
The corporate structure helps these companies manage complex operations across multiple products, attract top talent with stock options, and maintain the professional image needed for enterprise sales.
Think Bigger Than Your Current Situation
Writing this piece reminded me of all the conversations I‘ve had with fellow consultants who rushed into choosing a business structure without proper research. I’ve seen talented writers get stuck in partnerships that limited their growth and others who outgrew their sole proprietorships but waited too long to make a change.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution — understand where you want your business to go and build the right foundation to get there.
While the paperwork and legal considerations might seem overwhelming at first, investing time in this decision early on saves considerable headaches down the road.
The Top 4 Roadblocks to Your Team’s Productivity and How AI Can Solve Them, According to Asana’s Head of Corporate Marketing
Here’s what a typical Monday morning looks like for me: I open my computer and see a few Slack messages about a campaign I’m launching on Tuesday. After answering those, I check my inbox and find I’ve been tagged in some slides for that same […]
MarketingHere’s what a typical Monday morning looks like for me: I open my computer and see a few Slack messages about a campaign I’m launching on Tuesday.
After answering those, I check my inbox and find I’ve been tagged in some slides for that same campaign. Once I’m done responding, I hop on a Zoom call with stakeholders to discuss last-minute tasks for launch. A few ask me to send a follow-up email, so I do. Others prefer to be tagged in the relevant Google Docs, so I take care of that, too.
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Suddenly, it’s 1 p.m., and I’ve barely touched my to-do list. My entire morning has been spent jumping between messaging apps, slide decks, and Zoom calls — just trying to keep everyone aligned.
Sound familiar?
I spoke with Jake Cerf, head of corporate marketing at Asana, to untangle the biggest challenges most teams currently face when it comes to productivity — and how you can solve them.
What Teams Get Wrong When It Comes to Productivity
Jake empathizes with the chaos that can ensue when you don’t focus on creating efficient processes for team-wide productivity.
“It can get chaotic,” he told me, adding, “Before I joined Asana, I reflected back on how I spent my time coordinating with folks — and it was a mess. We would be on email, Slack, and Google Docs and Slides. And you never really knew who was doing what, and when, and it was too easy to lose sight of the objective we were all after.”
Which sounds painfully relatable — especially, if we also pair this with the time we spend on meetings. According to an analysis by Flowtrace, the average employee spent 392 hours on meetings in 2024 (which translates to a full 16 days).
Fortunately, Jake shared some tried-and-true tips with me for cleaning up your team’s processes and creating more scalable options to improve cross-functional collaboration.
1. Each team leader needs to know how their work ladders up to corporate objectives — and they need to make it clear in their workflows.
I always want to know how my work connects to broader strategic initiatives — and so do most other people. They want to feel seen, valued, and know they are making an impact.
So much of a leader’s job is about making sure people are working on the right priorities and aligning to goals that move the needle. Yet, according to Slingshot, over 80% of employees don’t know what they’re working toward, which hurts both productivity and motivation.
That’s what makes a product like Asana so crucial. Jake has an easy time ensuring he isn’t micromanaging his team on specific tasks. That’s because in Asana he can see how each sub-task his team is responsible for ladders up to the company’s key objectives for the year.
Additionally, to solve for conflicting cross-department goals, I think it can be helpful to use one centralized productivity tool that highlights the top-down priorities for the company.
“As a leader, so much of our job is making sure people are working on the right things, helping unblock team members and enabling them to have a North star. It’s good for productivity because when folks feel like they’re working on things that matter, they do better work,” Jake says.
He adds, “You don’t have to be as in-the-weeds on the details. You can tell team members the what and the why, and they can figure the rest out. But being clear about big picture objectives unlocks productivity up, down, and across the organization.”
If you’re dealing with productivity issues, I suggest you start by ensuring each leader is aligned on the major company objectives for 2025 — and then task them with demonstrating how all of their team’s projects ladder up to that ultimate goal. If a task doesn’t fit, it’s time to consider re-focusing on the activities that do.
2. Assign your AI a “role” to uplevel your team’s productivity.
A 2024 survey by Tech.co found that businesses using AI tools extensively are seeing a 72% boost in productivity — pretty impressive, right?
There’s been plenty of conversation surrounding AI over the past few years, but people are still skeptical about the improvements it can make to their daily lives.
At the same time, however, certain professionals are now strongly relying on it to boost their productivity. Our 2025 survey on AI use among marketers worldwide found that 66% use it in their work. In the U.S. alone, this figure is even higher, reaching 74%. I think this explains Jake’s observation that AI has proven much more useful as a teammate rather than just a tool.
“My life changed drastically when I stopped prompting AI with generic requests like, ‘Please write this blog post,’ and instead honed in on who I wanted AI to be: ‘Please write this blog post as if you’re a tech writer at a large-scale SaaS company,’” Jake says.
Jake highly recommends assigning AI a “role” when leveraging AI for productivity.
“When teams are working on an important initiative, and you give each AI bot its own specific role, the output is much greater. Let’s say you’re writing a blog post — you can assign AI to be the editor, the fact-checker, or the content strategist,” says Jake.
I noticed these use cases when reviewing the responses to our 2025 State of AI in Marketing survey. Over 46% of marketers say they use AI as a researcher and for idea generation, while nearly 37% ask it to create a rough draft and build upon it themselves.
Jake also adds, “If you use tools like Asana, you’ll have access to AI that is one of the world’s greatest project managers. It can help you unblock issues and triage requests and make sure people are working on the right things.”
Ideally, the productivity tools you leverage already have AI capabilities built in. If not, look into which plug-ins or external tools you might use to increase efficiency.
3. Leverage AI to minimize busywork.
The antithesis of productivity is busywork. Recent studies show that office workers dedicate over 50% of their time to repetitive tasks, such as manual data entry and document creation.
If your team is bogged down by menial tasks, they likely don’t have the energy or time to focus on the big picture objectives that account for most of your team’s impact.
That’s a major roadblock — and one that can be solved with AI.
Jake offers the example of repurposing content as one opportunity for increased productivity. He says, “With AI, you can take a keynote presentation and ask AI to draft a blog post on the keynote. Or, you can take your keynote script and ask AI to design the presentation itself.”
He continues, “Finding new avenues to increase the longevity and impact of your content is one of the best ways to use AI.”
I Built An App With Claude 3.5 In Less Than 10 Hours
Additionally, Jake encourages marketers to leverage AI for content creation, as well as more creative outputs like manager reviews, sending feedback to teammates, riffing on ideas, role-playing scenarios, and more.
The majority of marketers who responded in our 2025 State of AI Marketing report use AI to ideate content and for basic research and outlining. However, only 4.18% use it to write entire content pieces — highlighting that most marketers see AI as a tool for support rather than full automation.
4. Have one centralized workspace for teams to work cross-functionally.
Finally, none of this is possible without creating a strong foundation for efficient, scalable cross-functional collaboration.
Remember those slide decks, and Google Docs, and Slack messages, and emails I mentioned earlier? Why not try to put more of your work in one centralized place?
“Productivity comes down to visibility,” Jake says. “Your team needs to be rowing in the same direction. Having a tool like Asana has been super helpful for our team productivity — you need a place where you can set your goals and then track all of the team’s work and hold people accountable.”
“Plus,” he adds, “It’s crucial you use the same centralized workspace when you’re setting strategy so that you have alignment around the tasks and initiatives that will help you achieve your goals.”
Productive Workflows Level Up Teams
Jumping between 30 different messaging and content creation apps and tools isn’t conducive to long-term productivity. As a leader, it’s your job to figure out how to centralize as much as you can in one place — and then use AI to supercharge it all.
To learn more about how HubSpot and Asana are helping marketers drive productivity, take a look at the HubSpot and Asana integration available today.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2024 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
The Future of Social Media [Research]: What Marketers Need to Know in 2025
Social media has changed considerably since the MySpace days, and it‘s part of a marketer’s job to stay on top of its advancements. You’re probably wondering what the future of social media could look like and how marketers are adapting. To answer your question, here […]
MarketingSocial media has changed considerably since the MySpace days, and it‘s part of a marketer’s job to stay on top of its advancements.
You’re probably wondering what the future of social media could look like and how marketers are adapting.
To answer your question, here are my predictions based on the latest industry research and data from social media marketers.
Table of Contents
What is the future of social media?
Through our multiple surveys, research, and additional data, here’s what I predict for the future of social media:
- Consumers will shop directly on social media apps.
- Consumers will search for information on social media or via AI instead of traditional search engines.
- Consumers and brands will rely on social media for customer service
- Brands will rely on influencers, especially micro-influencers, rather than celebrities.
- Brands will create more short-form content to connect with their audiences.
- Brands will leverage AI tools to create personalized content for their audiences.
- Brands will place a greater emphasis on creating an active social media community.
Now, let’s dive deeper into each of these trends.
Social Media Trends: 2025 and Beyond
Direct Shopping Experience on Most Socials
69% of marketers agree that more shopping will happen on social media than on brand websites or third-party marketplaces, according to our 2025 Social Media Trends Report.
39% of survey respondents told us that they already sell their products directly within a social media platform, like Instagram Shops, for example.
Instagram was one of the first social platforms to offer a seamless shopping experience and integration. Now, other platforms have jumped on the bandwagon, too, for good reason.
The move to social selling makes a lot of sense when you realize that Gen Z has joined the working class in recent years and now has tremendous spending power.
Our consumer trends report found that most Gen-Zers prefer to discover new products on social media — specifically short-form videos.
This means that to remain competitive, social platforms will have to offer integrated shopping experiences to keep consumers on the platform. And, it also means brands need to pivot their marketing strategies which includes adding more video content to your social selling toolkit.
According to survey respondents, YouTube’s social shopping tools had the highest ROI compared to other social channels.
Social selling is here to stay and will continue to shape social media trends.
Search on Social Media Instead of Engines
A few weeks ago, I posted to Facebook asking for the best local photographer for new headshots. Using my friends’ suggestions, I found a great photographer who blew me away with the quality of her work.
I’m not the only one who uses social media for recommendations and reviews. It’s becoming more common for consumers to search for products, recommendations, or reviews on social media rather than search engines.
According to our 2025 Social Media Trends Report, 84% of social media marketers believe consumers will search for brands more often on social media before turning to a search engine. 26% also say that optimizing their social media accounts for social search will become more important in 2025.
In 2025, you’ll find advanced search tools integrated into most social platforms.
For example, when you‘re watching a video on TikTok, you’ll notice a small search bar at the bottom of the screen with a keyword or topic associated with it. When you click on that search bar, the app will take you to more videos associated with the keyword.
If traditional search engines fail to meet consumer needs, TikTok and other social platforms may take the lead in product and content discovery as they prioritize visual content.
As a marketer, this means you must treat social media content similar to how you’d treat content for search engines. Make sure your posts are optimized so social platforms can categorize them and increase the chances that they’ll show up when users search for relevant keywords.
Another rival for search engines in 2025 is AI chatbots like ChatGPT. Users can ask ChatGPT questions in the form of prompts, and the bot will generate answers to their queries.
ChatGPT currently has 400 million weekly users. While the AI chatbot is seeing increased usage for search, Google still rivals the tool. According to recent data, Google Search handles 373 times more searches than ChatGPT.
Social Media Will Become a Primary Channel for Customer Service
Social media has long been a communication channel between customers and brands.
Think about it: if I’m already scrolling through social media, it’s much easier to send a quick DM or leave a comment when I have a question or concern than it is to reach out through a website.
79% of marketers agree that social media will become consumers’ preferred channel for customer service in 2025.
Additionally, 29% of survey respondents say that improving customer service and retention is the primary goal of their company’s social media strategy this year.
To make sure you’re meeting customer expectations, customer service must be included in your social media strategy. Not only should you have a process for managing customer DMs and comments, but marketers must also consider how customers are using social media to communicate with brands.
More Reliance on Micro-Influencers and Creators
According to our 2025 Social Media Trends Report, 75% of brands plan to work with influencers and creators to be the face of their brands.
31% of marketers say working with smaller influencers, particularly those with followings between 1K and 100K, is a better investment than working with large creators and influencers.
More importantly, consumers trust influencers and creators. From my experience, I’m more likely to be interested in a product if someone who’s relatable to me endorses it. Truthfully, that’s how I landed on the Curly Girl Method and totally changed the health of my hair!
This is likely because, with influencers specializing in an area, their opinions are more valuable than those of a faceless brand.
Say I’m looking for hiking gear. A hiking influencer who hikes all year long and has a history of reviewing hiking products will probably offer more insight than a friend who went hiking once.
As a result, niche content creators — although strangers — can be deemed more relatable than a major influencer or celebrity. In the future, that trend will likely continue as content creators are popping up in new niches every day.
And the platforms that marketers plan to work with influencers and creators the most on in 2025? Instagram and YouTube.
Short-Form Video Will Become More Important Than Ever
If the saying, “Content is king,” is true, short-form video is next in line for the crown. According to our research, 26% of marketers say short-form video is more important than ever. And 57% of brands plan to incorporate this content into their social media strategy.
Short-form video encompasses everything from shopping ads to entertainment to explainer videos. 48% of marketers agree funny videos yield the highest ROI.
It makes sense that marketers plan to place a higher focus on creating short-form video content, considering they also report that YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are the top social media platforms (in that order). 30% of marketers plan to increase their investment in TikTok in 2025.
Like TikTok, which is the fourth-ranked platform, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook all feature their own version of a short-form video platform.
I’m sure there are other social media users like me who get stuck watching videos as they pop up in the feed. Because short-form video is easily consumed, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that 71% of marketers agree it has a high ROI.
67% of respondents to our survey plan to invest more of their marketing dollars in creating short-form content in 2025.
AI Will Become a Helpful Tool for Boosting Social Media Strategies
Our Social Media Trends Report shows that 73% of marketers use generative AI tools to create social media content. And 81% of marketers already using AI say it positively impacts their work.
What’s surprising is that marketers are using generative AI tools for more than creating social media copy and adapting the tone of their copy to better resonate with their social media followers.
Here’s how marketers use AI for social media:
- 52% of marketers say they use AI to create images for their posts.
- 47% of marketers use AI to create short-form videos.
- 38% of marketers use AI to generate infographics.
- 36% of marketers use AI to write captions.
I personally use AI-powered video editors to create my short-form content, and it’s never been easier — especially since I’m a novice at video editing.
AI tools aren’t fail-proof, though; they’re constantly adapting to new data sets and algorithm changes. However, even with AI’s limitations, 70% of marketers say AI can help them create content that better aligns with their target audience’s interests.
Given that the market for AI technology is expected to grow to 826 billion dollars by 2030, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that AI tools will become a large part of any marketer’s social media marketing strategy.
Greater Focus on Building an Active Social Media Community
With an estimated 5.24 billion social media users worldwide, according to our 2025 Social Media Trends Report, more and more brands plan to spend time cultivating an active and engaged social media community. 40% of marketers plan on investing in building their social media community more in 2025.
79% of markets say an active social media community is important to their overall social media strategy. Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook are the top platforms marketers use to build their communities, with Instagram being the most effective.
To create an active community, marketers are diversifying their community-building strategies.
Here’s how:
- 17% of marketers say they’ll focus on growing a social media following.
- 28% of social media managers plan to create better brand awareness and target a new audience.
- 16% of marketers hope to understand their customers and their needs better.
- 18% of survey respondents plan to foster relationships with customers to build stronger brand loyalty.
Social media moves incredibly quickly, so we can’t say with certainty what the future will look like. But given recent data, we can say it’s likely headed in this direction.
Check out our 2025 Social Media Trends Report to gain more insights that can help you plan your social media strategy.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2025 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
What Is a Joint Venture? [+ How It Can Grow Your Business]
I once worked with a client who completely changed the way I think about business growth. He ran a mid-sized tech company, growing steadily but slowly — until everything suddenly took off. I asked him what changed. His answer? “Joint ventures.” That was the first […]
SalesI once worked with a client who completely changed the way I think about business growth. He ran a mid-sized tech company, growing steadily but slowly — until everything suddenly took off. I asked him what changed. His answer? “Joint ventures.”
That was the first time I really understood what a joint venture is — a strategic partnership where two businesses combine strengths while staying independent. Instead of building new tech from scratch, he partnered with a company that had what he needed. In return, his company provided the market access his partner lacked. The result? They both scaled faster than they ever could alone.
Since then, I’ve seen joint ventures reshape industries, from tech to automotive. Unlike acquisitions, they let businesses share resources without giving up control. Of course, not all joint ventures work, but when done right, they can be a game-changer.
Table of Contents
- What is a joint venture?
- 4 Types of Joint Ventures
- Joint Venture Examples
- The Advantages and Disadvantages of a Joint Venture
- Joint Venture Alternatives
- Takeaway Thoughts
Take BMW and Brilliance Auto Group, for example. They partnered to produce BMW vehicles in China, helping BMW expand in a highly regulated market while Brilliance gained access to BMW’s engineering expertise.
Or, Google and NASA — collaborating on AI and quantum computing at NASA’s Ames Research Center to push space exploration and data analysis forward.
Every joint venture is built on a contract that spells out how things work. Think: Who’s contributing what, how decisions get made, and how profits (or losses) are split. Some agreements are simple, just covering the basics, while others go deep into financing structures and decision-making authority.
Pro tip: I’ve learned that clear governance is everything. Who has the final say? How will disputes be handled? Sorting these out upfront keeps things running smoothly and avoids unnecessary power struggles.
Why Companies Form Joint Ventures
When growth feels risky, I get why companies look at joint ventures as the smarter bet. Instead of taking on the cost and complexity of a full acquisition or building from the ground up, they team up simply because it’s just more practical at times.
Right now, 60% of companies say JVs hold up better in economic downturns, and 58% see them as a safer bet than mergers and acquisitions (M&A), especially given today’s geopolitical climate. And I see the appeal.
A strong JV can help businesses:
- Break into new markets without starting from scratch.
- Share the financial and operational load of big projects.
- Leverage each other’s expertise for faster innovation.
- Streamline operations and cut inefficiencies.
- Gain a competitive edge without going all-in alone.
It’s less about ownership and more about strategic advantage — because the right partnership can get you further faster.
I’ve seen joint ventures work wonders when done right. They help businesses cut costs, boost efficiency, and share risks. But not all joint ventures are created equal. There are four main types.
1. Project-Based Joint Venture
A project-based joint venture has two or more parties working on a specific project. This agreement is usually temporary, lasting until the project’s completion.
One of my favorite examples? NASA and Boeing teaming up to develop a new type of sustainable airplane, the X-66. NASA’s goal is to reach net-zero carbon emissions in aviation by 2050, and developing the X-66 with Boeing is the first important step in this project.
Project-based joint ventures can also include:
- Construction firms joining forces to tackle a massive development.
- Tech companies co-developing a product, then parting ways once it’s launched.
- Retailers banding together to break into a new market.
Pro tip: I always recommend doing some deep due diligence before committing. Make sure you and your potential partner align on company culture, decision-making, and operational capacity. Misalignment here can be a dealbreaker later. Use HubSpot’s Free Business Startup Kit to align you and your cofounder’s vision — and even pitch your new venture to investors.
2. Functional-Based Joint Venture
A functional-based joint venture is a long-term collaboration where two or more parties share resources to support each other’s operations. Unlike project-based ventures, this one keeps going as long as it works for both sides.
Say I own a bakery. To expand my reach, I might partner with a local coffee shop. They sell my pastries, I promote their coffee beans, and suddenly, we’re both growing.
Microsoft and OpenAI, for example, began working together in 2023. Microsoft provides cloud computing infrastructure through Azure while OpenAI develops AI models that Microsoft has exclusive access to. They share the revenue they jointly produce and plan to expand their partnership with new projects in 2025.
3. Vertical Joint Venture
A vertical joint venture takes place between buyers and suppliers — usually when a traditional supplier-buyer relationship doesn’t maximize benefits. This type of joint venture helps create economies of scale and cut costs for both parties.
One recent example I found fascinating was Honda and LG Energy Solutions investing $4.4B in an Ohio battery plant. Honda gets a steady supply of high-quality battery modules, while LG secures a long-term manufacturing partner.
4. Horizontal Joint Venture
A horizontal joint venture happens when two companies in the same industry team up to gain a competitive edge. The twist? They may also be competitors.
For instance, semiconductor producers Intel and UMC formed a joint venture in 2024 to collaborate on advanced chip production. They are at the same level of the industry but Intel provides cutting-edge chip design expertise and access to U.S. government incentives (e.g., CHIPS Act funding) while UMC, a Taiwanese company, provides manufacturing expertise in mature node production, helping Intel scale up older chip manufacturing. Moreover, this international partnership aims to help avoid future supply chain disruptions.
Pro tip: I can’t stress this enough — clear, frequent communication is non-negotiable in a joint venture, especially when working with a competitor. Transparency builds trust, and trust keeps the partnership running smoothly.
Joint Venture Examples
Telstra and Accenture
In early 2025, Telstra joined forces with Accenture in a seven-year venture to push AI and data transformation forward — fast. The goal? To embed AI deep into Telstra’s systems, improving network performance, customer experience, and efficiency across the board.
With Accenture’s AI expertise, Telstra gets access to cutting-edge tools and a stronger data infrastructure. Meanwhile, Accenture locks in a major telecom client, helping shape the AI-driven future of one of Australia’s biggest providers. For Telstra, this means faster automation and smarter systems. For Accenture, it’s a proving ground for its AI innovations.
Mitsubishi Corporation and Nissan
By March 2025, Mitsubishi Corporation and Nissan are rolling out a joint venture aimed at two big things: making autonomous driving more practical and turning EV batteries into scalable energy storage.
Nissan brings the EV and self-driving expertise, while Mitsubishi taps into its massive business network to commercialize these innovations in the market. Beyond an auto partnership, I see this as a bold move to tackle real-world problems, from urban congestion to sustainable energy storage.
Volkswagen and Rivian
Volkswagen and Rivian made it official in late 2024, forming “Rivian and VW Group Technology, LLC” — a venture dedicated to developing next-gen EV software and electrical architecture, with the first models slated to roll out in 2027.
For Volkswagen, this means access to Rivian’s cutting-edge tech to accelerate its EV roadmap. For Rivian, it’s deep-pocketed support to expand its technology across more vehicles. With up to $5.8 billion on the table, this deal focuses on making EVs more accessible, affordable, and packed with smarter software.
At its core, this is a win-win: Volkswagen picks up the pace in the EV race, and Rivian cements itself as a leader in automotive tech.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of a Joint Venture
I’ve seen joint ventures unlock incredible opportunities — new markets, fresh expertise, and access to resources that would’ve been out of reach solo. But they’re not without their challenges.
Here’s why I’d consider a joint venture:
- Access new markets, knowledge, and resources.
- Combined financial resources means sharing both risks and rewards.
- Each partner brings unique strengths to the table, making the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
- Increased speed to market — something I always appreciate in business.
Here are some reasons I may not:
- More people involved means more complexity (and red tape).
- Potential for disagreement or a partner not upholding their end of the bargain.
- Possibility of unbalanced power dynamics.
Joint Venture Alternatives
Joint ventures can be a smart way to grow a business, but they’re not always the right fit. If you’re weighing your options, I recommend considering the following alternatives as well.
Strategic Alliances
Strategic alliances are agreements between two or more companies that involve sharing resources, such as technology or personnel, to achieve a shared goal.
I like to think of a strategic alliance as teaming up without tying the knot. The key difference from a joint venture? You don’t have to create a new legal entity. Each company stays independent while working together, which makes this a more flexible option if you want the benefits of collaboration without giving up control.
Partnerships
A partnership is a formal agreement between two or more people to run a business together. It comes with some big perks — shared profits, access to more capital, and a bigger network — but it also requires trust. If one partner decides to leave, things can get complicated fast.
I find Gauri Manglik’s perspective, as CEO and co-founder of Instrumentl, apt here: “A partnership can help you maintain more control over what happens with your company than a joint venture or an alliance. You maintain the autonomy to make decisions and keep the rights and responsibilities to your brand and product/service offerings.”
Pro tip: Choosing between a joint venture, strategic alliance, or partnership comes down to how much control you want to keep and how much risk you’re willing to take. If you’re unsure, I’d recommend talking to a business lawyer to make sure you’re making the right move and protecting yourself in the process.
Takeaway Thoughts
I’ve seen firsthand how powerful joint ventures can be when they’re set up right — but I’ve also seen how easily they can go off the rails. Without a solid plan, clear governance, and real trust, things can fall apart fast. That’s why so many businesses opt for strategic alliances or partnerships instead — collaboration without the legal and operational headaches.
If you’re thinking about a joint venture (or any kind of business partnership), prioritize laying the right groundwork upfront.
Editor’s Note: This blog was originally published in December 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
