Google Meet Rolling Out Custom Background Feature for Desktop Users: How to Use

Google Meet has started rolling out a new feature that allows desktop users to change their backgrounds during a video call. The platform has introduced a set of default images that video callers can use to change the background. It includes office spaces, landscapes, and abstract backdrops. Google also offer the option to upload your own image as a background.

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The Year of Blur

By BY ALEX WILLIAMS from NYT Style https://ift.tt/37ZeElU

What if They Could Make the Pandemic Go Poof?

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Halloween Makeup Ideas, From ‘Euphoria’ to ‘Twilight’

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Amazon Tells India Regulator Its Partner Future Retail Is Misleading Public

Amazon has complained to India's market regulator that its local partner Future Retail misled shareholders by incorrectly saying it was complying with its contractual obligations to the US e-commerce giant.

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Google Faces November Deadline for Initial Response to US Antitrust Case

Alphabet's Google must tell a district court how it will respond to a federal antitrust lawsuit by mid-November, with the two sides making initial disclosures later in the month, US Judge Amit Mehta said in a brief order Friday.

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Russian Hackers Said to Have Targeted California, Indiana Democratic Parties

The group of Russian hackers accused of meddling in the 2016 US presidential election earlier this year targeted the email accounts of Democratic state parties in California and Indiana, and influential think tanks in Washington and New York, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

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Twitter Unfreezes New York Post Account Days After Backlash From Republican Lawmakers

Twitter said on Friday it had changed its policy and lifted a freeze it placed on the account of the New York Post after the newspaper published articles about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's son.

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Disney+ Hotstar November 2020: Laxmii, IPL Final, Lego Star Wars, and More

Laxmmi Bomb / Laxmii, The Mandalorian season 2, IPL 2020 final, Lego Star Wars Holiday Special, The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, Marvel’s 616, Inside Pixar, Grey’s Anatomy season 17, His Dark Materials season 2, A Teacher, Big Sky, Industry HBO — the biggest movies, TV series, and sporting events on Disney+ Hotstar in November 2020.

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Tougher New Rules for Tech Giants, More Power to Enforcers: Europe Antitrust Chief

Tech giants will have to do more to weed out illegal and harmful content while online gatekeepers will be bound by a list of dos and don'ts under new rules aimed at reining in their power, Europe's antitrust chief said on Thursday.

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Netflix November 2020 Releases: The Crown Season 4, Ludo, Miss India, and More

The Crown season 4, Ludo movie, Miss India movie, The Divergent Series with Shailene Woodley, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, Hillbilly Elegy, Mosul, La La Land, Blade Runner 2049 — the biggest movies and TV series on Netflix India in November 2020.

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What Video Marketers Can Learn from 5 Memorable Australian Commercials

By September of 2019, nearly 60% of Australia's population was on YouTube.

With internet and social media usage increasing in Australia, the percentage above is likely to grow.

Like people in many other countries, Australians embrace video when it comes to learning new things, entertaining themselves, or even researching new products. Now, with growing access to the web, mobile data, and all sorts of online video platforms, video is more readily at Australian fingertips than ever before.

At this point, if you're a marketer for an Australian company or an international brand looking to gain awareness in the region, video content or video ads could be solid tactics for you.

But, if you've never made a commercial or marketing video for your brand before, you might ask yourself, "Where do I even start?"

One of the best ways to learn how to effectively sell your brand or product through video could be watching commercials from your region's most successful brands.

By looking at some of the most iconic Australian commercials, you can learn about storytelling styles and other video marketing tactics that nurture national or global audiences from the TV or computer screen to stores.

And, even if you don't have the same video budget as a big brand, you can still use their content to consider similar, but more scaleable video strategies.

To help Australian or international marketers in their quest to create compelling video marketing content, here are five great Australian commercials that you can use for inspiration.

5 Iconic Australian Commercials Marketers Can Learn From

"Big Ad" - Carlton Draught (2006)

Carlton Draught's biggest commercial, produced by Young & Rubicam -- formerly George Patterson & Partners, places the viewer in the middle of a blockbuster movie war scene with the mountainous Australian landscape in the background.

As Big Ad begins, one large group of men in red robes walks swiftly towards an incoming group of men in yellow robes. As they get closer to each other with a quickening pace, they sing the words, "It's a big ad. Very big ad. It's a big ad we're in," to the tune of Carl Orff's epic work, "O Fortuna."

As the ad and song reach their climax, the men run towards each other at full speed as they loudly sing, "It's a big ad! For Carlton Draught! It's just so freaking huge! It's a big ad. Expensive ad. This ad better sell us some bloody beer!"

As the thousands of men run closer to each other, viewers see that they're not actually rushing into a huge battle. Instead, from a sky view, viewers can see that the men wearing red are shaping the image of a man drinking beer, while the men in yellow are shaping the beer glass and the beverage going into the man's stomach. The ad ends with close-up shots of the robes men in the group holding out Carlton Draught beer.

The Carlton Draught commercial so memorable because it hilariously and tastefully mocks the ridiculously high-budget commercials, as well as the advertising world, while still spreading huge awareness for Carlton Draught.

When reflecting on Big Ad and the ad industry, a post from O'Reilly notes the epic TV commercial style has "been a central feature of advertising for decades. Its defining characteristics are a dramatic setting, a huge cast, significant dollops of post-production, and a rather po-faced disposition. All of which makes it ripe for satire."

The spot was also part of a broader spoof campaign that mocked the grandeur and masculinity in beer industry advertising. Two other ads within the campaign, titled "Made From Beer," told stories of how science, technology, and horses were involved in the brewing process as well as how all men needed a canoe to seem masculine.

Big Ad, which might be the most memorable commercial in the George Patterson campaign, went on to win a Gold Lion and was nominated for the Grand Prix at the 2006 Cannes Lions Festival.

"Not Happy, Jan!" - Yellow Pages Australia (2000)

Before the internet, brands around the world relied on the Yellow Pages, a book filled with local business ads and phone numbers of individuals with landlines in the immediate area. And, even though some regions don't rely on the Yellow Pages to find all the local contact information we need any more, we can still get an idea of just how important it was to local businesses from the ad below.

In the commercial, a frustrated boss played by comedian Deborah Kennedy flips through the Yellow Pages and calls a scared employee named Jan into her office. Kennedy's character asks Jan why their company's ad isn't featured in it. Jan panics, runs out of the office, and down the street realizing she forgot to order the Yellow Pages ad.

Kennedy tries to remain calm, counting to ten until she runs to the window bursting with anger. She stares out the window at Jan running away and yells, "Not happy, Jan!"

The ad, produced by Clemenger BBDO, wasn't just funny and entertaining to viewers. It also became iconic in Australian culture. Shortly after airing, the phrase, "Not happy, Jan" became heavily used in vernacular when Australians wanted to jokingly show disappointment related to someone's incompetence.

In a Daily Telegraph interview, Kennedy explained that the phrase "Not happy, Jan," was "like swearing at your kids without swearing. It just took on a life of its own … it was everywhere."

Although people in some areas barely use the Yellow Pages, this ad's storyline still feels timeless and entertaining. Why? Because it cleverly uses humor and relatability to show a need for its product.

Odds are many people have dealt with a bad boss, forgetting to do something important at work, or a need to use the Yellow Pages to learn more about a local business. Similarly, many entrepreneurs and marketers in the 1980s through the early 2000s considered or purchased ads in the Yellow Pages. This ad tells a story that most of its viewers could relate to.

"I Can See the Pub from Here" - XXXX (1988)

Before it was rebranded as XXXX, Castlemaine XXXX's early beer commercials often showed rural Australian residents, farmers, and construction workers getting into humorous, but dangerous, situations just to get ahold of XXXX beer.

After a wild scene, a narrator would read the edgy tagline, "Australians Wouldn't Give a Castlemaine XXXX for Anything Else." Since the tagline was a play on a commonly used phrase curse word, the ads insinuated that Australians wouldn't care so much about any other beer or thing.

Below is one memorable 1986 ad where two cowboys are riding through the Australian landscape when one's horse gets spooked by a snake and tosses him off a cliff.

The cowboy's friend jumps off his horse and clumsily falls down the cliff trying to find his friend who's loudly calling out to him. After the friend continues to fall dramatically down the cliff to reach the other cowboy, he gains his footing and yells, "I'm coming, Snowie!" He then falls down a hill, faceplanting into a tree. At that point, the cowboy who fell off the cliff first yells "Up here!" as the other cowboy looks up confused.

In a funny turn of events, the cowboy who first fell off the cliff is shown nearly unscathed, pleasantly holding on to a tree. He looks at his disheveled friend who's just fallen hundreds of feet down a cliff to save him, smiles, points, and says, "I can see the pub from here."

The camera then points to a middle-of-nowhere pub as Castlemaine's iconic tagline appears:

This campaign, conceived by the agency Saatchi & Saatchi, is effective because it tells an exhilarating story that pulls viewers in, makes them laugh, and ultimately ties back to the main product: beer.

This is a great example of how marketers can use creativity to produce a fairly simple add that gains memorability and awareness all around the country.

"Louie the Fly" - Mortein (1962)

For years, Australians have followed Louie the Fly, an insect who constantly gets killed off in Mortein bug spray commercials. But, decades before the fly was modernized as a full-color cartoon, he was just a basic, hand-drawn animation in the classic black and white ad that introduced him below.

In the commercial, Louie the Fly introduces himself with a fun jingle. He sings, "Louie the Fly, I'm Louie the fly. Straight from rubbish, tip to you. Spreading disease with the greatest of ease. Straight from rubbish, tip to you."

As the fly sings, he also digs through garbage and dances around a messy house.

In the climax of the ad, he sings, "I'm bad and mean and mighty unclean. Afraid of no one, except for the man with the can of Mortein." Then, he turns around to see a can of Mortein spraying him. He looks scared, fades off-screen, and then dies as another singer enters the jingle with, "Poor dead Louie. A victim of Mortein."

After the jingle, Mortein's products are shown as the spokesperson explains that its ingredients safely and effectively kill pests in the home.

While this ad's animation and jingle might feel pretty basic today, it was innovative for its time -- and incredibly risky due to large production expenses. To bring Louie the Fly to life, Mortein's agency, McCann-Erickson, needed help from musicians, sound engineers, animators, and voice actors.

Luckily, audiences enjoyed Louie the Fly -- enabling him to be a notable fictional character in advertising. Even in recent years, Mortein has created ads that continue to show him getting killed off by bug spray products. They even dedicated a page of their website to him in the early 2000s.

Most recently, Louie the Fly's jingle was inducted in the National Film And Sound Archive of Australia's Sounds of Australia registry,

"Mortein ads still feature the unmistakable tune of the original jingle. And while everyone’s favourite gangster fly shows no sign of disappearing ..., the fact that the jingle is now part of Sounds of Australia means it will live on at the NFSA for future generations to enjoy," states a post on NFSA's site.

While Mortein's ad required a high-budget decades ago, marketers with smaller budgets can still take a note from them today. The commercial above is a great example of how a creative storyline or simple jingle can highlight the value and need for a product.

"Happy Little Vegemites" - Vegemite (1956)

Although Vegemite was invented and sold in Australia as early as 1922, it didn't get its first commercial until the 1950s, after it had already become a common Australian ingredient eaten by residents and members of the Australian military during World War II.

While many of the commercials on this list use humor to draw audiences, Vegemite's iconic 1956 ad, produced by Wunderman Thompson (formerly J Walter Thompson), thrived on circus entertainment. In the commercial, children dressed like animals, clowns, and "little Vegemites" sing, dance, and do light circus stunts to Vegemite's original jingle. Behind them sits a large jar of Vegemite.

Vegemite's jingle explained how commonly Vegemite was used as a meal spread and the health benefits it could provide to children. Here's just one excerpt.

"We all enjoy our Vegemite for breakfast, lunch, and tea. Our mummies say we're growing stronger every single week. … We all adore our Vegemite. It puts a rose in every cheek."

As the children finish singing the jingle, a girl sings, "It puts a rose in every cheek." The camera cuts from a close up of her in costume to a close up of her at the dining table eating a meal covered with Vegemite. Then, a narrator explains that Vegemite is a great source of vitamin B12, adding, "Be sure you put Vegemite next to the pepper and salt whenever you set the table!"

Today, Australian marketers still look back at this commercial for how iconic it was. While middle-aged Australians might know parts of the song by heart, others have adopted the term, "Happy little Vegemites" as an ironic way to describe a group of people who are satisfied with something.

Although Vegemite's ad was made nearly 70 years ago, it's still timeless and effective.

First, it pulls a viewer into the action by showing them a fun circus-like song and dance. Then, it educates viewers on the health and taste benefits of the product. Finally, it ends with a clip of a happy girl enjoying Vegemite with her meal, which might have been relatable to the many Australians who had already eaten or heard of Vegemite by this point.

Creating Memorable Content

Whether you're a marketer in Australia or any other country, you can learn a thing or two from all of the iconic Australian ads above. Even if you don't have an agency or a huge video budget to produce content, here are a few tips you can scalably follow:

• Be relatable: One thing Australian commercials do well is create situations that viewers can relate to, such as a pesky fly in the house or the stress of an angry boss. Consider content or video storylines that will allow your audience to identify with your brand.
• Leverage humor: One great way to develop a sense of relatability, while also entertaining your audiences is with humor. This is why many Australian marketers emphasize it within their content.
• Present a value proposition: An ad is no good if people don't understand your product or what it does. Although the ads above place viewers in entertaining scenes or storylines, they still weave in descriptions of what their product is, why people need it, and what makes it unique.

Want to see more effective examples of Australian advertising campaigns and marketing tactics? Check out this post which highlights some of Australia's recent award-winning campaigns.

To learn more about video marketing, you can also download the free resource below.

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What Are The 4 P's of Marketing?

If you've been a marketing professional for years now, learning about the four P's of marketing might seem like a throwback to you.

However, for those of us who work in the industry but didn't study marketing in college, it's entirely possible you haven't heard of the marketing mix.

Below, let's learn about the four P's of marketing and how they're still relevant in today's marketing landscape.

The four P's are meant to help marketers consider everything about a product or service when they're deciding how to market something for their business. Framing your marketing around the four P's will help you learn what the competition is doing and what customers want from you.

You can use the four P's to answer questions about the product, price, place, and promotion of your product or service.

For example, you can ask yourself:

• How does your product meet your customer's needs?
• Where are customers looking for your product?
• What is the value of your product?
• How can you differentiate your product from competitors?

Thinking about your marketing in terms of the four P's will help you strategize how to reach your customers.

Featured Resource: Marketing Mix Templates

Need a way to visualize your marketing mix to share it with your employees or investors? Use these four marketing mix templates to organize your initiatives and activities by the right section. Click here to download them now.

Let's dive into the details below.

1. Product

When you think about your product, consider exactly what you're selling. Is it a specific product? Or is it a service? Your product can be a physical product, an online app, or a service such as house cleaning. Really, anything that you're selling is the product.

Then, think of your brand messaging, the services you offer, and even packaging. When you define your product, think about what problem your product solves for your customers. Consider how your product is different from competing products. What features are unique to your product?

It's important to know your product intimately so you can market it.

2. Price

When it comes to price, you have to consider how much you're going to charge customers for your products or services. Of course, you need to make a profit. But you also need to think about what competitors are charging for the same product or service and how much customers are willing to pay.

Additionally, you can think about what discounts or offers you can use in your marketing.

When you decide on a price, you want to think about perception. Do you want to be known as a cost-effective option in your industry? Or perhaps you're a luxury brand and the price is slightly higher than competition on the market.

Either way, the language you use to market your product will be greatly impacted by the price of your product.

3. Place

When it comes to place, this might mean the physical location of your company, but it could also be defined as anywhere you sell your product, which might be online.

The place is where you market and distribute your product.

Remember, that not every place makes sense for every product. For example, if your target market is seniors, then it won't make sense to market on TikTok. It's important to choose the right places to market your product and meet your customers where they're at.

Think about possible distribution channels, what outlets you could sell your product, whether you're B2B or B2C, etc.

At this point, you'll need to think about how to market your product on all the various channels that make sense for your company.

4. Promotion

Promotion is the bread and butter of marketing. This is when you'll think about how to publicize and advertise your product.

Additionally, you'll discuss brand messaging, brand awareness, and how to generate leads and revenue.

When it comes to promotion, keeping communication in mind is of the utmost importance. What messages will resonate with your target market? How can you best promote your product to them?

Think about where, when, and how you'll promote your brand.

To develop a marketing mix, you'll need to think about how you can uniquely position your brand amongst the competition. The most important part of thinking about the four P's of marketing is to understand the customer, the competition, and your company. You'll evaluate your product and how to promote it.

Even though marketing has changed since the four P's were developed, the foundational elements of the industry haven't. You can apply the concepts of the marketing mix to any type of marketing.

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Twitter Says US Presidential Elections Could Hurt Advertisement Sales

Twitter on Thursday said it expected expenses to increase by close to 20 percent in the fourth quarter compared with a year ago due to an increase in investments, and cautioned that it was hard to predict how advertisers would react as the US presidential election nears on November 3.

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Suddenly, These Law Clerks Were More Than Just Colleagues

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They Crossed Paths at Howard but Caught Feelings in a Hurricane

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Don’t Write Off the Persistent Man From California

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These Two Were Otherwise Engaged. A Decade Later, They’re Wed.

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On-Again, Off-Again, but a Cabdriver Knew They’d Get Married

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From Melbourne to New York, Oceans Couldn’t Keep Them Apart

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YouTube Music, Premium Now Have Over 3 Crore Paid Subscribers Combined: Sundar Pichai

YouTube Music and YouTube Premium paid subscriber base hit three crore subscribers, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has revealed while announcing the company’s quarterly results. The latest number shows an increment from the two crore paid subscribers announced late last year. Alongside YouTube Music and Premium growth, Pichai mentioned that YouTube TV surpassed the mark...

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Paytm, Google Representatives Appear Before House Panel on Personal Data Protection Bill

Representatives of Paytm and Google on Thursday appeared before the Joint Parliamentary Committee that is deliberating upon the various facets of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019.

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Google One Adds Android VPN for 2TB and Higher Plans in US; Will Expand to iOS, More Countries Soon

Alphabet's Google said on Thursday it plans to launch a VPN service for consumers that would be available with certain subscription plans for its Google One cloud storage services.

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Marvell to Buy Inphi in $10 Billion Chip Deal to Bolster Data Centre, 5G Business

Chip supplier Marvell said it has agreed to buy peer Inphi in a $10 billion (roughly Rs. 74,600 crores) cash-and-stock deal aimed at broadening Marvell's footprint in data centres and 5G network infrastructure.

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Instagram Pauses Recent Search Listings in US to Stop Fake Election News

Facebook's Instagram said on Thursday it was making changes to its image sharing platform for US users to prevent the spread of misinformation around the November 3 presidential election.

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TikTok Countersues Rival Video App Triller in Patent Defence

TikTok and its parent firm ByteDance have fired back in court against a patent lawsuit by rival video-sharing app Triller, in a move aimed at heading off infringement claims.

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Alphabet Posts Strong Results as Google, YouTube Ads Rebound

Google-parent Alphabet said Thursday its profit climbed to $11.2 billion (roughly Rs. 83,300 crores) in the latest quarter, beating expectations, as ad spending rebounded after being hit by the pandemic.

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Apple One Launch Date Set for October 30, CEO Tim Cook Reveals

Apple One — the subscription bundle that includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and iCloud storage — will launch Friday, October 30, Apple CEO Tim Cook has announced. Apple One costs Rs. 195 / $15 per month (for individuals) or Rs. 365 / $20 per month (for families).

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Amazon Quarterly Profit Triples to $6.3 Billion on Retail, Cloud

Amazon's third-quarter profits tripled from a year ago on strong retail sales during the pandemic and growth in cloud computing, the company announced Thursday.

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Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook Post Strong Profits Amid Pandemic; Apple Sees Dip Due to Weak iPhone Sales

Big Tech powerhouses delivered robust quarterly earnings reports, leveraging the needs of pandemic-hit consumers amid heightened scrutiny of their economic power.

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How to Post on Instagram: A Step-by-Step Guide

With over 1 billion active users, Instagram is undoubtedly one of the most far-reaching social media networks you can use for marketing purposes.

Instagram has proven a viable advertising option for businesses today, and shows no signs of slowing down -- in fact Instagram ad revenues will exceeded $20 billion in ad revenue in 2019, an exponential increase from 1.86 billion in just three years.

If you're not already using Instagram for your business, you're missing out on a ton of opportunity to grow brand awareness and reach a wide audience. Fortunately, adopting an Instagram strategy can be relatively easy with enough time and effort.

However, if you've never used the app, you might be daunted by the first question likely to cross your mind -- How can I post my first image?

If you're ready to post an image to Instagram, we've got you covered. Here, we've cultivated a quick-and-easy guide to posting on Instagram, to ensure you can begin attracting the attention of  your audience with Instagram marketing.

How to Post to Instagram

Posting to Instagram consistently can help businesses find resonance with their audience and grow better, but doing it right is just as important. Here's how to post to your Instagram account step-by-step.

1. Tap the + icon at the bottom of your screen.

See that plus sign [+] in the image above? That's your starting point. See that post from our culture account? That's your end point. Click that plus sign and you'll be ready for the next step, below.

2. Choose a photo or video from your library -- or shoot one in the app.

Instagram will show you the photos already saved to your phone. Choose one of those to post. Alternatively, you can click "Photo" or "Video" in the bottom to take a photo or video within the Instagram app itself, if you don't already have an image you want to use.

Once you choose an image, click "Next" in the top right.

3. Crop the image.

You aren't limited to just a square image on Instagram. You can actually share horizontal or vertical images as well. To get more of your image seen, pinch the screen of the photo you've selected on the Library screen.

However, while Instagram does allow vertical and horizontal options, the images still need to fit into some specific dimensions. So, you might still need to crop a tiny bit of your photo to get it to fit.

4. Try a carousel post.

Do you have multiple photos and want to highlight them all? Instagram allows you to do this with its carousel feature.

As you go to tap a photo or video, first tap the icon just above your photos to the right that looks like stacked squares. Once you tap this, you'll see a number on the corner of every image or video you tap. This number notes where the content will show up in the carousel.

5. Pick a filter.

Instagram offers 24 filters -- scroll to the right to peruse your options, and click on one to preview how it will look on your photo. (Take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Instagram Filters to learn more).

6. Edit your photo.

You can also click "Edit" at the bottom right to adjust contrast, brightness, etc.

When you're ready, click "Next" in the top right.

7. Type your caption.

Get creative and write a nice, interesting caption to go with your photo. Since text can help optimize your post in Instagram's search, writing something can only benefit you.

8. Use hashtags for post optimization.

With Instagram's search feature, users can search by hashtags. So, you should make sure to write relevant hashtags in your caption. If someone does a search of a hashtag you placed in your caption, they might find your post as well as others that included the same one.

9. Tag friends.

Want your friend or their followers to see a photo that you posted of the two of you? Tag them!

On the post page, you can click "Tag People" to tag other Instagram accounts in your post. Alternatively, you can include their handle (or their username beginning with an @ symbol) in your caption.

10. Add your location.

If you're on a fun vacation or at a neat event and you don't feel like including that information in your caption, you can mark where you are in another way. On the post page, tap "Add Location" to put a location on your image (which makes it easier for people to find your post).

When you post an image or video with a location, it will show up between your name and the block of content on the feed.

11. Play with emojis.

Emojis are fun and can make your caption more eye catching. If you know of a few relevant emojis that could fit with your post, stick them in the caption area.

For example, if you're posting a vacation photo, you could include a beach umbrella or a plane to show you flew somewhere.

Be sure not to go overboard and post emojis just for the sake of posting them. If you post a bowling emoji along with a photo of a beach, that obviously won't make sense to people. Similarly, if you post 20 emojis that loosely relate to a post, you might just annoy your followers or come off as desperate.

12. Share the post on other social media platforms

Finally, if you want to share your content on your other, connected social media sites (like Facebook or Twitter), simply slide the bar from the left to the right.

When you're ready to post, click "Share" in the top right.

Instagram Saved Drafts

If you're not ready to post right away, you can also save it to your Instagram Saved Drafts. Simply go back to the filtering and editing step, tap the back arrow in the top left, and select "Save Draft."

13. Edit the post.

Typos happen to everyone! If you just posted something and notice a glaring spelling error, don't panic. Simply tap the three dots that appear on the right across from your name, then tap "Edit."

Now that you know how to post to Instagram, you can begin creating content for the platform and connecting with your audience. If you're a business or brand, you'll want a solid strategy for earning engagement and awareness. 

Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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The 18 Best Lead Generation Plugins to Add to Your WordPress Site

Collecting high-quality leads is a challenging task that marketers face. Even once you've created a fantastic, high-converting landing page, you're not done.

The good news is that there are a number of plugins available that you can add to your WordPress website to help with lead generation.

Before we dive into 18 of the best plugins available, let's cover the characteristics of a powerful and useful lead generation WordPress plugin.

Learn how to build a WordPress website using Elementor with this free course.

What to Look For in a Lead Generation Plugin for Your WordPress Website

Here are some tips to help you pick the best lead generation plugin(s) for your website:

1. There are positioning options.

Your lead capture form's positioning and location on your website play a role in conversion rate. Make sure your chosen tool offers the positioning options you want. Ask yourself: "Do I want to use a popup? A two-step opt-in? An in-content form?"

2. You can add integrations.

Many lead generation plugins exist to help you capture leads and get those leads into your CRM or list management tool. Whether it's your CRM, Sales Hub, or management tool your team uses, make sure your plugin can integrate.

3. There are customizable fields.

Effective lead capture forms are all about balancing the number of fields on a form and the form's conversion rates. Usually, a shorter form means a higher conversion rate. But at the same time, it can also mean less qualified leads.

For each tool, you want the flexibility to collect as much info as you need to qualify a lead. Some tools will only let you collect a name and email, while others let you add and customize as many fields as you want — so keep an eye out for this option while browsing plugins.

There are a number of lead generation plugins for WordPress available — here are 18 of our favorites.

1. HubSpot WordPress Plugin

With HubSpot's WordPress plugin, you get lead generation support that helps you capture leads via multiple avenues on your website. Here are some examples:

• Lead capture forms (use the drag-and-drop form builder to control what information you collect from your leads)
• Popup options (use popups, top banners, and slide-in boxes to capture leads)
• Free live chat module (connect with visitors and offer support or sales information)
• Automated chatbot (respond to FAQs while live chat reps are offline)

No matter which avenue your leads come in from, they're all stored in your free HubSpot CRM which makes tagging and segmention simple.

The plugin can help with tasks outside of lead generation as well including email marketing, CRM and contact management, marketing automation, and reporting and analytics.

You have the ability to integrate HubSpot with over 500 other tools to further enhance capabilities and functionality. Lastly, HubSpot's WordPress plugin is simple to install and applies to all plans and products.

Price: Free

2. Gravity Forms

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Gravity Forms is a general WordPress form plugin that you can use to create all kinds of lead capture forms. The plugin gives you a drag-and-drop form builder as well as 30+ custom field types to collect the information you want from leads.

There are also some neat extensions to enhance your lead collection. For example, the Partial Entries add-on lets you collect information even if someone doesn't fill out the entire form.

By default, Gravity Forms stores all form submissions in your WordPress dashboard — you can also integrate your forms with a variety of email marketing services, CRMs, and help desks. And if that's not enough, the Zapier and Webhooks integrations can help you connect to pretty much anywhere else, too.

Additionally, if you're already using HubSpot's WordPress plugin, HubSpot will automatically grab Gravity Forms submissions and put them into your CRM for easy management.

Price: Starts at $59

3. Hustle

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Hustle is a WordPress marketing plugin featuring customizable popups, slide-ins, embeds, and social sharing bars. All include a wide array of display options, including:

• Posts or pages
• Categories or tags
• Visitor logged-in status
• Device
• Referring website
• Number of times a visitor has been seen
• Specific URLs
• If the visitor has commented before
• Country
• Include on 404 page or not

Embeds are your in-content ads or opt-ins — they can be displayed before or after your post content, or both. You can also use shortcodes or widgets to display the embeds in more specific locations.

What makes Hustle stand out is the fact that every feature and integration is included in the free version. You get all 18+ integrations, including Zapier.

If you're using our HubSpot WordPress plugin, Hustle will automatically grab your submissions and send them into your CRM. Alternatively, you can enable Hustle's native HubSpot integration.

The only limitation of the free version is the amount of popups, slide-ins, embeds, and social share bars you can create in each installation. It’s limited to 3 of each, but that should be plenty for the average user.

Price: Free to start, premium version costs $49 per month

4. Bloom

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Bloom is a popular email opt-in plugin from Elegant Themes. It helps you capture email leads using a variety of form types, including:

• Pop-ups
• Slide-ins
• Content lockers (e.g. lock certain content behind an email subscribe form)
• In-content forms

You get some unique options for triggering your lead capture forms like displaying a form after a person leaves a comment on your site.

The only downside is that you're limited in how much control you have over your forms. For example, you can only customize the existing templates — you can't make your own. And you're limited in the amount of information you can collect from visitors.

If you're okay with those limitations, this tool could be a good one for your team. Plus, you get a nice dashboard where you can view analytics and track lead growth as well as the option to run A/B tests.

Price: $89

5. WPForms

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WPForms is a popular WordPress form plugin that you can use to create … well, pretty much any type of form.

Using its drag-and-drop builder and a variety of form fields, you can create customized lead capture forms to collect as much or as little information as you want from your leads.

Once you have your form, you have a few different ways to work with leads that you collect. WPForms stores all your leads in its own entry manager, which you can access from your WordPress dashboard.

Alternatively, you can sync your forms up with:

• A variety of email marketing services
• Zapier

Additionally, if you're using HubSpot, you can also automatically pull your WPForms submissions into your HubSpot CRM for tagging and segmentation.

Price: Starts free, paid plans range from $39.50 to $199.50

6. Thrive Leads

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Thrive Leads is a popular WordPress lead generation plugin that helps collect email addresses with several different opt-in types, including:

• Lightbox popups
• "Sticky" ribbons
• In-line forms
• Slide-ins
• 2-step opt-ins
• Screen fillers
• Content lockers
• Scroll/welcome mat

For all the various form types, you can use the included templates and drag-and-drop builder to customize things to make them your own.

One area where Thrive Leads goes further than a lot of other solutions is its SmartLinks feature, which lets you display different forms to people depending on where they're coming from. With this feature, you can ensure you're sending different forms to your email list than what appears on your homepage.

Price: $67 for one license, $97 for five licenses

7. Elementor Pro

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Elementor Pro is a popular WordPress page builder plugin that can help you build both lead capture pages and lead capture forms.

Elementor gives you a visual, drag-and-drop builder interface that you can use to create posts or pages on your site — including standalone landing pages.

With Elementor Pro, you also implement a Popup Builder that lets you use the same interface to design and display popups anywhere on your site.

To actually capture leads, you can use Elementor Pro's Form widget, which lets you build custom forms with as many fields as needed. You can then connect those forms to Zapier to send data to your favorite CRM for tagging and segmentation.

Price: $49

8. OptinMonster

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OptinMonster helps you create a variety of different lead capture forms using 75+ pre-built templates and drag-and-drop form builder. With it, you can create:

• Pop-ups
• Floating bars
• Fullscreen overlays
• Slide-ins

One of the areas where OptinMonster really excels is with its targeting and triggering rules. Using detailed rulesets and AND/OR conditions, you can control exactly where and when your lead capture forms appear.

Another helpful feature is its OnSite Retargeting feature, which lets you display different offers to visitors who have already submitted a lead capture form.

OptinMonster isn't technically a WordPress plugin (it's a SaaS), but it's easy to integrate the OptinMonster service into your WordPress site via its dedicated plugin at WordPress.org.

Price: Starts at $108 per year

9. BoxZilla

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BoxZilla, formerly known as Scroll Triggered Popups, is a useful lead capture plugin that helps you create simple forms that display as either popups or slide-ins on your site.

As the previous name of the plugin suggests, one way you can trigger these forms is as a user scrolls down your page. However, BoxZilla supports other triggers, too, like time on site or exit intent.

Price: Starts free, premium version starts at $48

10. Holler Box

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Holler Box is a simple lead capture plugin that targets itself towards WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads stores, but can really be used for all kinds of WordPress sites.

Holler Box lets you create seven different types of lead capture forms, including popups and slide-ins. However, the most unique option here is Holler Box's faux live chat widget.

This widget looks like a live chat box, but is really just a vehicle to capture leads. Your visitor enters their message and email address.

Then, you can either receive an email notification email yourself, or connect that information to popular email marketing services or your own custom HTML form.

Price: Starts free, premium version starts at $99

11. CallPage

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CallPage is a simple lead capture plugin that helps you collect telephone numbers from potential leads.

To collect phone numbers, it displays a widget that lets visitors enter their phone numbers to receive a call back either right away, or at some point in the future. If you want, you can also collect additional information about your leads, like names or email addresses.

By integrating with Google Analytics, you can also use CallPage to view call histories and analyze the call performance for each traffic source at your site.

Price: Starts free, paid plans start at $159 per month

12. Optin Forms

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Optin Forms is a free lead capture plugin that helps you create simple email opt-in forms on your site and connect those forms to:

• AWeber
• iContact
• MailChimp
• GetResponse
• MadMimi
• Interspire Email Marketer
• ConvertKit

You can choose from five different templates and customize all the text and colors to make them match your site and branding.

From there, you can either automatically add your lead capture form to all your blog posts, or use a shortcode to choose exactly where and when to include your forms.

Price: Free

13. Ninja Forms

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Ninja Forms is another WordPress form plugin that follows in the vein of WPForms or Gravity Forms by letting you use drag-and-drop to build your own custom forms and then hook that data up to various email marketing services, CRMs, or even Zapier or Webhooks. You can also automatically pull in form submissions to your HubSpot CRM as well.

Among other things, you can use Ninja Forms for:

• Contact forms
• Email opt-in forms
• Surveys and polls

Price: Starts free, paid extensions vary in price

14. OnePress Opt-In Panda

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OnePress Opt-In Panda helps you capture leads by locking parts of your content behind a lead capture form. In order to "unlock" the content, your visitors will need to enter their email addresses.

Or, with the premium version of the plugin, you can also add custom fields to collect additional information about your leads.

The plugin works by wrapping your restricted content in a short code, which means that you can restrict as much (or as little) of your content as you want.

With the paid version of the plugin, you also get other helpful features like a lead management dashboard and analytics.

Price: Starts free, premium version costs $26

15. Lead Champion

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Lead Champion detects the leads who leave your website whether or not they complete and submit one of your contact forms. The plugin assigns site visitors a score (that you establish) based on their behavior while on your website — this allows you to evaluate prospects, the effectiveness of your campaigns, and more. 

The plugin helps you easily create forms that complement your branding and website with the configuration panel. It also integrates with other tools — such as Mailchimp, Zapier, and CRMs — to enhance its capabilities. 

Price: Multiple plans available; must contact for price and must have a Lead Champion Booster License

16. Popups, Welcome Bar, Optins and Lead Generation Plugin

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This plugin allows you to design and share branded, eye-catching optins, forms, and calls-to-action on your website to attract your leads. There's never a need to hire a developer with the plugin, as it's simple to set up and use. You can quickly create unique popups with different themes and positions on your site to target leads that way, too. 

The plugin offers four types of optins you can choose from including: 

• Lightbox Popups
• Header & Footer Action Bars
• Toast Notifications
• Slide-in Messengers

The plugin comes with 20 customizable form templates that have responsive design so your leads can view and complete your forms on any device seamlessly. These forms have customizable elements so you can design them in a way that complements your branding and website.

Price: Free, or upgrade to one of two paid plans for more features

17. Forminator

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With Forminator, you can use the drag-and-drop builder to add and customize the layout of forms on your WordPress website. The plugin allows you to easily collect any information you want to ask your leads for, as well as make your forms interactive to boost engagement and generate more conversions. 

With Forminator, you can customize forms with as many fields as you want. You can also create interactive polls, quizzes (that are shareable on social), make calculations and take orders, accept payment, and more. 

The plugin integrates with a number of tools and over 1,000 apps — Forminator is compatible with integrations across multiple categories including email, CRM (including HubSpot), storage, and project managers.

Price: Free

18. Optinly

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Optinly is a WordPress lead generation tool that helps you grow your email list with ease. What makes this plugin stand out is its goal-based approach to campaign creation. You choose your marketing goal, a relevant popup template, and then set your campaign live. With the tool, you can create quite a variety of popups such as:

• Fullscreen Overlays
• Sidebar Widgets
• Floating Bars
• Notification Popups 
• Gamification Popups

The tool comes with several methods to trigger a popup such as exit intent, time-delay, page-based, and device-based. You can also display popups to the same visitor after a specific number of days using the re-targeting options menu. 

With Optinly, you can make nearly any customization with a user-friendly WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. And with animation options such as fade-in, zoom, and flip-in, you can make your popups catch a visitor’s attention quickly.

You can easily integrate Optinly with email marketing platforms like HubSpot, MailChimp, Constant Contact Contact, and AWeber. 

Price: Free to start, growth plan costs $25 per month.

Build Your Lead Generation Plugin Toolbox

When it comes to the best WordPress lead generation plugins, you have a ton of options available — only you know which ones will best fit into your lead generation efforts.

The important thing to remember here is that you don't have to pick just one — you can combine multiple plugins into one cohesive lead generation strategy.

Learn how to build a WordPress website using Elementor with this free course.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in June 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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The AIDA Model: A Proven Framework for Converting Strangers Into Customers

In 1898, Elias St. Elmo Lewis, an eventual inductee of the Advertising Hall of Fame, anonymously wrote a column about three advertising principles he found useful throughout his career in a printing magazine called The Inland Printer, one of the most influential American magazines of the 19th century.

In his column, he states that a successful advertisement should always follow a specific formula.

“The mission of an advertisement is to attract a reader, so that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it; then to convince him, so that when he has read it he will believe it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of success, it is a successful advertisement.”

In other words, copy is only good if it attracts attention, generates interest, and creates conviction, in that order.

Over a century later, Lewis’ principles still ring true. They’re expressed as an acronym, AIDA, and widely used in the advertising industry. In the digital age, brands have even based their entire marketing strategy on the AIDA model.

Before we cover how you can apply the AIDA model to your own content marketing strategy, let’s go over what it is and why it works.

The AIDA Model

The AIDA model describes the four stages a consumer goes through before making a purchasing decision. The stages are Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA). During these four stages, your content will ideally attract attention to your brand, generate interest in your product or service, stimulate a desire for it, and spur action to try or buy it.

Brands use the AIDA model to determine the way they should craft and distribute marketing messages to their target audience at each stage of the buyer’s journey.

The AIDA model is considered a hierarchy of effects model, which means consumers must move through each stage of the model to complete the desired action. Just like a typical marketing funnel, each stage has fewer consumers than the previous one.

How to Apply the AIDA Model to Your Marketing

By creating campaigns and structuring your website with the AIDA model in mind, you can get more control over your prospects' paths to a purchasing decision.

In theory, as they progress through each stage of the model, consumers who learn about your brand will develop certain feelings or emotions about your product or service, which is what ultimately compels them to act. 

Here's what you can do to implement AIDA:

Attract Attention

If your content can grab their attention and deeply engage them, your target audience will start to become curious about what your company actually does.

In this stage, the consumer is asking, "What is it?"

In order to get to this stage, you must first get your content in front of them. This comes with increased brand awareness and effective messaging. 

Example

Effective content marketing is one method of attracting visitors to your website. If you create content that solves their problems and focuses on their passions, you'll be able to draw them in and provide a solution. When executed effectively, your target audience should be able to discover your content through Google, social media, and other channels. 

Generate Interest

Once your target audience is interested in your product or service, they’ll want to learn more about your brand, the benefits of your solution, and your potential fit with them.

In this stage, the goal is to get them to think, "I like it."

In order to get to this stage, your content must be persuasive and engaging. While the first stage of AIDA is capturing their attention, this stage is about holding it. You can do this with a hook. 

Example

Let's say your content marketing was effective in drawing them to the website to learn about a pain, problem, or need they have. You might then "hook" them with engaging storytelling that demonstrates the why behind your solution. 

Stories resonate with humans, and it's a simple way to convey information in a way that stimulates empathy and curiosity.

To generate enough excitement in your prospects to compel them to act, you need to make sure their affinity for your brand hits a certain threshold. The more aligned you are with their needs and values, the more likely you are to achieve success.

Stimulate Desire

People do business with those they know, like, and trust. The first two stages of the AIDA model establish the know and the like. 

The goal of this stage is to change "I like it" to "I want it."

And that's done by cementing in the final piece of the puzzle: Trust.

To do this, keep serving them content. Make sure they subscribe to your blog, follow you on social media, and download your offers. The more prospects interact with your brand, the more they’ll trust you, boosting the chances they’ll eventually buy your product or service.

Example

The prospects you’re most likely to close are the consumers who envision a future with you -- they already enjoy consuming your content and think your product or service will be even better.

For this reason, you must institute a gap between where they are and where they could be with your solution. At the same time, you must establish social proof with case studies and testimonials. 

"Before and After" style content is a great example of how to stimulate desire while gaining trust.

Spur Into Action

After you generate enough desire for your product or service, give your prospects the chance to act on it. After all, what’s the point of creating content and building deep relationships with prospects if there isn’t a clear next step?

The goal is to get them to decide, "I'm getting it."

No matter what the "next step" is, you should compel them to respond with low-friction but high-incentive calls to action.

Example

Whether they're far away or close to a purchasing decision, the next step that you present should be "high-value." In other words, it must help them in some way.

If they understand what the outcome of your offer is and find it valuable to them, they'll be more likely to act (since they aren't simply committing to a sales call or sales content).

Consider exactly how you can provide that value while motivating them to engage with you. 

The CTA for this "next step" or offer should be prominent, clear, and uncomplicated. Perhaps it's a button or banner that spells out what action they must take and what they get if they do. By eliminating friction in the process, you increase your likelihood of success.

The AIDA model is a sturdy framework for guiding your audience through the buyer’s journey and spurring them to act. And if you apply it to your content marketing, you’ll be leveraging a proven formula that can consistently engage, persuade, and convert an audience into customers. However, it starts with knowing your customer journey.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Our Beautiful, Wet Moon in the News

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TikTok Owner ByteDance Launches Education Technology Brand Dali for China

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Spotify Now Has 144 Million Premium Subscribers, Credits Growth to New Markets Like Russia

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Laxmmi Bomb, Ludo, Chhalaang, and More: November 2020 Guide to Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, and Prime Video

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The Marketer's Guide to Segmentation, Targeting, & Positioning

I once heard a new business owner define their target market as … wait for it … “everyone”.

*cringe*

While it’s nice to believe that everyone would be interested in purchasing your product or service, it’s not wise to define your target market as such.

Not only does this definition (or lack thereof) create way more work for you; it also does a disservice to your actual target market — by over-widening your scope, you fail to inform and educate your audience about how your product or service can improve their lives.

This is where segmentation, targeting, and positioning come into play. We developed this guide to help you understand how and why you should invest time into better understanding your audience and targeting your marketing. Let’s dive in.

At its core, STP helps you to better target your marketing messages and better serve your customer base.

The model can also reveal niche markets, uncover new customer or market opportunities, and, ultimately, make your marketing efforts more efficient and cost-effective.

STP allows you to take a large, anonymous audience and define how your different products (or different components of the same product) relate to specific consumer segments within that larger audience — thus understanding how to position your product(s) and messaging to grab the attention of each segment.

Let’s unpack each part of the segmentation-targeting-positioning model.

1. Segmentation

Segmentation refers to the process of dividing your audience into smaller groups based on certain characteristics. This process allows you to group your individual audience members into similar groups so you can better communicate your products, features, and benefits that may be most relevant to them.

You can segment your audience based on one or more of these criteria:

• Demographics, which typically answer the question of who your buyer is (e.g. age, gender, education, location, and profession)
• Psychographics, which answer the question of why your buyer buys (e.g. priorities, personality traits, and beliefs and values)
• Lifestyle traits, such as hobbies, entertainment preferences, and non-work activities
• Behavior, such as brand loyalty, channel preferences, and other shopping habits

Segmentation may sound a little familiar to another process we often discuss here on the HubSpot blog — creating buyer personas. The two are very similar as they help you drill down the most important factors in your target audience.

But where buyer personas help you create a handful customer profiles that represent your broader audience, segmentation allows you to split your audience into countless segments, each of which you can uniquely target.

For example, let’s say Paws & Tails is a Chicago pet-sitting company that offers pet-sitting, dog walking, and boarding services. Given the vast number of pet owners in the city, they need to segment their audience into smaller groups to better understand how to position their services.

Based on their research and current customer base, they split their audience into three main segments:

1. Segment A is made up of high-income pet owners who work often and need daytime dog walking and pet pop-in visits
2. Segment B is made up of middle-class individuals and families who travel and need overnight boarding or pet-sitting services
3. Segment C is made up of older pet owners and retirees who need help caring for their pets

2. Targeting

With your audience segments in hand, it’s time to move on to the targeting phase. First, however, you must decide which segments are worth targeting with your marketing. To decipher this, ask yourself some questions about each segment:

• Is this segment composed of enough potential customers to justify targeting? Would it yield enough profits if the segment were to convert?
• Is it measurably different from the other segments?
• Is it accessible by all members of Marketing and Sales?
• Is your company equipped and able to serve the segment? Are there any physical, legal, social, or technological barriers that could prevent that?

Choosing what segments to target is a strategic decision. Thankfully, certain strategic planning models like the PESTLE analysis can help you better understand the viability of each segment.

It takes a lot of work to successfully target a segment of your audience. Whether you’ve identified two segments or ten, don’t feel the need to target more than one segment at once. Plus — targeting one at a time will help you better position your marketing for each specific segment much better.

Following our example from before, Paws & Tails conducts research to better understand its Chicago audience. Paws & Tails finds that Segment A makes up 60% of its market size, Segment B makes up 30%, and Segment C makes up 10%. Moreover, Segment A has a higher average income and is willing to pay more for pet-sitting and walking services. Because of this, they choose to focus on Segment A.

3. Positioning

At this point, you should understand the demographics, psychographics, motivations, and pain points of the segment(s) you’ve chosen to target, which can provide a place to start when it comes to positioning your product or service.

First, take a step back and examine your product or service through the perspective of your chosen segment. If you were in their shoes, why would you choose your product over a competitor’s? What features or benefits are most relevant to you, based on the motivations and pain points you’ve identified?

This information is important to defining your brand positioning and understanding how it stacks up next to your competitors. One way to understand where you, well, stand is by building a positioning map, which is “the visual plotting of specific brands against axes, where each axis represents an attribute that is known to drive brand selection.”

The segment you choose to target should dictate what two attributes you plot on your positioning map. For example, let’s say Paws & Tails decides Segment A selects pet-sitting brands based on two attributes: service area and reliability. Here’s what a brand positioning map (with fictitious brands) may look like.

By understanding 1) what the target segment deems most important for brand selection and 2) where its competitors succeed (and fall short), Paws & Tails is able to identify an open market opportunity and position its marketing to best fit the needs and goals of its audience.

What is segmentation, targeting, and positioning in marketing?

The STP model is a priceless addition to any marketing strategy, regardless of your industry, product, or audience. It prioritizes efficient and effective marketing and ensures you’re delivering only the most relevant, targeted messaging across the board.

It also plays an important role in developing other strategies, such as your buyer personas, customer lifecycle stages, and core brand proposition.

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By leading with a consumer-centric approach like STP, you can be sure that every inch of your marketing is relevant to your audience — thus, increasing the likelihood that they convert, purchase, and become lifelong customers.

Examples of Great Market Segmentation and Positioning

Brands are segmenting, targeting, and positioning their audiences and marketing constantly, oftentimes without us (consumers) even noticing. Ever seen a brand or product and thought “Huh, that’s perfect for me” or “Wow, right place at the right time”? Yeah … you’ve been subject to the STP model.

Let’s review a few examples of great marketing segmentation and positioning.

1. Panera Bread

With countless fast casual restaurants on the map, it’s hard to decide where to eat when you’re in the mood for a quick meal, But, for some reason, Panera Bread always comes to mind (at least for me).

Panera has successfully cornered the “health-conscious” and “climate-conscious” segment of the fast casual dining industry. Is Panera’s food so different from other fast casual options? Not entirely.

But by branding themselves with the perspective that “we believe that good food, food you can feel good about, can bring out the best in all of us”, Panera remains top-of-mind as a place to get high-quality food, fast.

2. AllBirds

Like dining opinions, there are so many shoe brands on the market. But AllBirds didn’t let that stop it from carving out a new niche in a busy space full of comfortable, active shoe options.

How did AllBirds position itself to set itself apart from the competition? By elevating it’s eco-consciousness and placing that front and center in its marketing. According to the AllBirds website, the brand “crafts with planet-friendly natural materials, like merino wool and eucalyptus trees, because they're our best chance for a sustainable future.”

At first glance, AllBirds shoes don’t look too terribly different from other running or walking shoes. However, its audience segment that cares about sustainability and earth-conscious products knows the difference.

3. Billie

No longer can businesses simply segment their audiences by “men” and women” — the individuals within each broad gender group vary too much, and razor brand Billie took note of this.

In an effort to extinguish the “pink tax,” Billie markets cost-friendly razors and associated products. Moreover, they work to normalize body hair and other forgotten or shamed parts of women’s bodies.

Through this positioning, Billie is able to set their products apart from competitors and create a strong, positive community around their brand.

4. Hinge

The world of online dating is a busy, strange place. From Tinder to FarmersOnly.com, there seems to be a place for everyone to meet, well, anyone. Hinge came on the scene only a handful of years ago, yet it has skyrocketed to the top of the list of the most popular and reliable dating app.

Time and time again, I’ve heard that Hinge is a favorite because it works — meaning it helps people meet people and make real relationships. You wouldn’t think a dating app would position themselves to eventually be unnecessary, but that’s exactly what Hinge has done. In fact, it’s mission statement is “we built an app that’s designed to be deleted.”

By putting the needs and desires of its audience front and center, Hinge has created a more trustworthy, in-demand online dating experience and set itself apart from its competitors.

The segmentation-targeting-positioning model is designed to help you better target your marketing messages and better serve your customer base. It’s a win-win for you and your customers!

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