AI Mentions: How to Get LLMs to Mention Your Brand

AI mentions are references to your brand in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, etc. Learn why they‘re important.

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20 Landing Page Examples to Learn From

Would you rather have a beautiful website or a website your customers love?

From a business perspective, you shouldn’t choose either. You should want a high-converting website, instead. And this is where landing pages are so important.

A landing page is a key component in any marketing campaign. Whether you’re running a digital ad, sending an email letter, or posting on social media, you need a webpage that you can send interested visitors to that can help generate leads and conversions.

Many people get caught in the trap of creating designs they like without thinking about what their prospective buyers want and need. Unfortunately, this creates a leaky funnel that’s hard to fix.

But if you want to buck that trend and create landing pages that convert, I’m here to help. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of 20 landing page examples you can gather inspiration from.

We’ll go over each one’s strengths and weaknesses, so you’ll be able to walk away knowing what it takes to create a high-converting landing page for your business.

Key Takeaways

• A landing page is a webpage created with a singular purpose—to generate a conversion, whether that’s a lead, sale, subscription, etc.
• There are five main elements that every successful landing page should have—a bold headline, consistent copy, social proof, one singular offer, and a call to action.
• Looking at landing page examples can be a great way to gather inspiration before you start building out your own landing pages.

What Is a Landing Page?

A landing page is a single webpage designed with a single goal in mind. That goal could be:

• Selling a product
• Signing customers up for a service
• Promoting a product feature
• Sharing an e-book, report, or white paper
• Increasing newsletter subscribers

Potential leads or customers “land on” the webpage, giving it the name “landing page.” It’s a simple page that dives fully into a single offering with the intent of selling the visitor whatever it’s promoting.

5 Elements of an Effective Landing Page

As you scroll through the landing page examples we share below, you might notice that they all appear to follow a similar formula. That’s because you don’t fix what isn’t broken, and the key landing page elements are not broken.

There are five main elements that any high-converting landing page needs to include:

• Bold value proposition at the top of the page. The top of the landing page should clearly state what it’s promoting and why the webpage visitor needs it.
• Messaging consistent from the ad or post that led to the landing page. Upon clicking to your landing page, viewers should see a consistency in messaging from the ad or social media post that initially led them there. That messaging should clearly communicate what the page is promoting, giving further information than the bold heading at the top.
• Social proof, case studies, reviews, testimonials. Social proof is where people tend to lean towards choices that they’ve seen others make, which is why reviews and testimonials can make such a big impact. Include this type of social proof on your landing page to convince people to take action.
• One single, hyper-focused offer. You should be focusing your landing page on one single topic or offer, whether you’re promoting a single software feature, a single service, or a single lead magnet.
• A clear call to action. What do you want people who visit your landing page to do? Use that as your call to action. Make it clear, bold, bright, and easy to click.

20 Amazing Landing Page Examples

Need some inspiration for your next landing page? Check out these 20 examples that you can get inspiration from.

1. GetResponse

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GetResponse is an email marketing platform. This landing page is highlighting a key feature—email signup forms meant to help businesses build their email lists. Powerful headline, check. Eye-catching image, check. List of current clients, check. List of features, check, You get the idea.

It’s quite long, but that just gives the Get Response team more to convince you to create a free account. And there are plenty of CTAs along the way in case you missed the one at the very top of the page.

Three takeaways from GetResponse’s landing page:

• Highlight your copy to make it even more impactful. GetResponse highlights important words and phrases throughout the landing page, drawing your attention to them and making their copy pop.
• Use social proof. The landing page includes a slideable widget filled with customer testimonials that mention this specific feature and how well it works.
• Use multiple CTAs. Because GetResponse’s landing page is so long, they scatter it with CTAs at the end of every section.

2. Slack

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Slack is always on top of its game when it comes to creating some of the best landing pages. They are constantly optimizing for conversions, and that’s the best way to find your winning landing page. This landing page showcases one of its features—voice or video huddles that happen in real time, letting team members essentially call each other to hash something out quickly.

Three takeaways from Slack’s landing page:

• Keep your navigation bar bare. Slack only includes the most important elements in the navigation bar on this landing page: letting current user login and prospective users talk to sales.
• Show the difference between free and premium. If you have a popular free version, use your landing page as a chance to show what users are missing out on by not upgrading.
• Take advantage of multimedia. The page includes looping animated videos that showcase each of the main features, letting interested users see them in action before signing up.

3. CrazyEgg

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This landing page for heatmapping software CrazyEgg showcases a specific feature that the software offers. In this case, it’s the ability to create website pop-ups to increase conversions.

The page leads with a demo link and breakdown of the feature, before you see more detailed information on how it works further down on the page.

Three takeaways from CrazyEgg’s landing page:

• Provide basic instructions. The landing page includes a basic step-by-step for how users can set up pop-ups using the CrazyEgg tool, showing just how quick and easy it is and further selling them on the software.
• Show versatility in applications. The use cases section shows how a variety of different industries can benefit from using this tool.
• Use trust badges. CrazyEgg’s landing page is dotted with trust badges from the likes of G2 and Capterra, adding instant credibility to their offering.

4. Lyft

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Lyft has been growing in the past years, and its website, landing page, and overall online funnel is a driving force, too. They focus on attracting new drivers that want to control their own life.

Once again, we see a giant, attention-grabbing headline that entices users. Now check out the button “Apply to drive.” It implies that it’s not 100 percent sure you’ll be able to get the position — which makes it even more enticing while also stopping candidates from getting carried away.

Three takeaways from Lyft’s landing page:

• Make a point with your images. I’d bet Lyft wants to attract female drivers, which is exactly why they’ve chosen the feature image on the landing page.
• Customize data requests. Most landing pages ask for an email. But because Lyft is an app, it asks for your phone number instead.
• Link off to learn more. You don’t want to overwhelm users with information on a landing page, that’s why linking to other pages (as Lyft has done) can be a useful strategy.

5. Zoho

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Zoho’s landing page is a great example of a more full-on, but still extremely powerful messaging. They use more text than the average landing page in the industry, but that’s not necessarily bad. It just means users have more information to make a decision. And in a crowded industry like the CRM space, that can be a highly effective thing.

Three takeaways from Zoho’s landing page:

• Give your users a why. Don’t let users guess how your software stands out. Show them exactly why they should use your software.
• Show how you compare. Comparison tables are a highly effective way to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
• Talk price. If price is a USP for your brand, then mention it. Zoho shows how much users can save by using them instead of a competitor like Salesforce.

6. Squarespace

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Squarespace is a contender for the shortest landing page ever. Seriously, there’s not much more to it than the screenshot I’ve taken above. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t effective.

Rather than trying to get you to create an account, all Squarespace wants you to do here is look at the templates. I reckon they know that once you see how good the templates are and how easy the platform is to use, you’ll be hooked.

Three takeaways from Squarespace’s landing page:

• Short can be sweet. You don’t have to have a massive landing page to convince users to take action. A couple of enticing benefits may be all you need.
• You don’t need much color. Everyone knows color can be used to convey emotion to users. But it’s not essential. And because it’s not on-brand for Squarespace, it’s not used.
• The rule of three. Three is a magic number in marketing and Squarespace uses it to get across their core USPs.

7. ActiveCampaign

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If there’s one thing you can’t fault ActiveCampaign’s landing page for, it’s brevity. They get straight to the point with the key benefit of their platform and encourage you to start a trial by entering your email address. Scroll down further and the rest of the page is similarly pared back, only including key information users need to know.

Three takeaways from ActiveCampaign’s landing page:

• You don’t need fancy graphics. There are no eye-catching images above the fold and only two in total.
• Lean on an authority. Are you highly rated by a trusted authority like G2? If so you can do what Active Campaign has done by showcasing all of your badges.
• Show how your platform works. Images are great, but showing how to use your platform can make a huge difference in your conversion rate.

8. HubSpot

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Cost is a big hurdle for any small business looking to purchase a CRM. That’s why HubSpot makes such a big deal of its free offering in this landing page. But just because you get the software for free doesn’t mean it’s limited. That might be your first thought, but HubSpot assuages those fears by showing all of the features you get below.

Three takeaways from HubSpot’s landing page:

• Get your point across fast. The first three words users read on this landing page will be exactly what they are looking for: free CRM software. They don’t need to know much more to get started.
• Reiterate your USP in your CTA. You can use your CTA to back up your headline by tacking on a short message or reason to take action as HubSpot has done here.
• Use white space. HubSpot’s landing page isn’t too busy or crowded. There’s loads of white space, which makes it super easy to read.

9. Shopify Plus

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Shopify Plus isn’t designed for bootstrapped e-commerce stores or side hustlers. It’s an enterprise product and that shows in this landing page. It talks directly to big businesses, addresses their specific concerns, and shows them the kind of results they can achieve. Best of all, it’s topped off with a piece of ultra-professional video marketing that’s also designed to appeal to the brand’s target audience.

Three takeaways from Shopify Plus’s landing page:

• Tailor your CTA. Enterprise customers aren’t going to make a purchase straight away. That’s why Shpoify encourages them to contact their sales team rather than book a demo.
• Use statistics. The landing page gives hard data about how much better stores can perform by using Shopify Plus. This is much more powerful than a throwaway comment.
• Speak to your customer’s values. Shopify devotes a large chunk to talking about the performance of their platform — something enterprise companies care about deeply.

10. Webflow

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There’s a reason designers aren’t web developers — most don’t know how to code. That doesn’t stop them from designing great-looking websites, but it does mean they need help. Not if they use Webflow, however. Webflow lets designers design and code powerful websites without having to write any themselves. And because the company knows its target audience, everything on the landing page is designed to appeal to designers — from the images to the testimonials to the copy.

Three takeaways from Webflow’s landing page:

• Tailor your landing page to your target audience. This landing page won’t appeal to anyone who can’t design. But that’s the point. Those people won’t use Webflow, designers will.
• Double down on social proof. Webflow understands the power of social proof, which is why they highlight their existing customers multiple times on the page.
• Show, don’t tell. Webflow ends the landing page by showing designers exactly the kind of sites they can create with the platform.

11. ClickFunnels

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The goal of the ClickFunnels landing page is to get you to start using its software. They know that once they’ve got you on their platform, you are way more likely to start paying. With that in mind, everything on the page is geared at showing how easy it is to get started and what you can accomplish with the software. There are dozens of testimonials of high-profile salespeople who have made serious bank with the software and copy that challenges any preconceived ideas you have. It’s a masterclass in persuasive landing page design.

Three takeaways from ClickFunnels’s landing page:

• Let your customers sell for you. Testimonials are so powerful. If you have them from the right people (the kind your prospective customers want to emulate) then they’ll do most of the hard work for you.
• Attack objections early. ClickFunnels does a great job of overcoming common objections (like you need to have good computer skills or your business isn’t a good fit) above the fold.
• Use CTAs liberally. There is a CTA banner after every section on this page, giving users every opportunity to convert.

12. Conversionlab

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Conversionlab has been using this landing page design for years now. I’ve noticed they split test different button CTAs, like book a call, get a free consult, and many more. Keeping their Founder on the main page of the website builds a long-term relationship many businesses nowadays miss out on. They clearly state their services through their persuasive headline and, even if you’re not ready to book a consultation, a pop-up will appear collecting your email.

Three takeaways from Conversionlab’s landing page:

• Put your team front and center. You can build instant relatability with users by putting your team members on your landing page.
• Don’t be afraid to give it all away. Conversion Lab’s landing page explains in detail what it’s like to work with them, so every prospect knows exactly what to expect.
• Try twice to convert. Following up with an email (collected via pop-up) is a great way to ensure that a high percentage of prospects that land on your website will end up booking a call with you.

13. Semrush (404)

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Semrush is an SEO platform. Here’s a landing page example for their tool that showed up as an ad in organic search. The button is bright (and on-brand) and makes it clear what your next step would be. The main headline focuses on the benefit — grow your online visibility — and the third line focuses on another key benefit — you only need one platform. That’s appealing to marketers who are juggling a ton of tools.

Three takeaways from Semrush’s landing page:

• Know your audience. The landing page’s CTA focuses on a known pain point of digital marketers: that they have to juggle dozens of different tools.
• Roll out the big guns for testimonials. Semrush lists some of their biggest customers prominently on the homepage. If these massive companies use the platform, surely you should, too?
• Use variety with your CTA buttons. Each of the CTA buttons lead to the signup form, but the copy is different in each one, ensuring they hit the pain point that will get someone to click, no matter where they’re at on the page.

14. HelloFresh

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HelloFresh is a meal-kit delivery service, and this landing page is another ad-based page that’s focused entirely on its offering, with no additional navigation.

Like other landing pages, the content is limited. They use a heading, CTA, and images to show how the platform works and some of the user options. However, I suspect that’s on purpose — after all, the premise is relatively simple, it’s more about showing how the service fits into people’s lifestyles.

Three takeaways from HelloFresh’ landing page:

• Strategic discounts make a difference. The page is offering a discount, but it’s automatically applied the second someone clicks on the page, creating an enticing offering that requires no additional effort on the customer’s side—they just have to click “Redeem” or “Get Started.”
• Use high-quality visuals. HelloFresh prides itself on high-quality, fresh ingredients, and the images here present these front-and-center.
• Strategic link placement. The carousel at the bottom is neatly aligned with different dietary needs and preferences, helping move users down the sales funnel.

15. Doordash

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Doordash probably doesn’t have to worry as much about getting customers as it does about recruiting new drivers to meet demand. That’s the goal of this landing page that shows users what they stand to gain from becoming a Dasher. It’s on-brand, carefully lays out the benefits of becoming your own boss, and shows you how much you could earn. The only thing it’s missing is social proof.

Three takeaways from Doordash’s landing page:

• Put the user front and center. Everything on this landing page, from the copy to the images revolves around the user. It’s about what they can achieve and speak directly to them.
• Pre-qualify users on your landing page. Doordash clearly lists the requirements drivers have to meet, meaning they’ll need to spend less time vetting candidates in the future.
• Don’t rule out the impact of social proof. The lack of testimonials from current Dashers really lets this page down. The experience of current drivers is probably high on a prospective driver’s checklist.

16. Airbnb

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Want to know how much you could rent your property for on Airbnb? That’s exactly what the company’s landing page helps you to understand. This fun and interactive landing page gives users a taste of what they can earn by renting out their property on Airbnb and then shows them how easy the process is.

Three takeaways from Airbnb’s landing page:

• Dynamic pages can work a dream. As soon as you land on Airbnb’s landing page it automatically changes the content depending on your location. That creates a highly personalized and interactive experience that’s more likely to convert users.
• CTAs don’t have to take center stage. The CTA to create an Airbnb account is tucked away in the right-hand corner of the page. But that doesn’t make it any less prominent or visible.
• Make it interactive. Users can play with the slider bar to see how much they could earn by renting out their property for longer. The more you slide, the bigger the number gets, and the more tempting it is to create an account.

17. Zillow

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Every homeowner wants to know how much their property is worth. It’s that simple desire that Zillow capitalizes on with this landing page, which aims to generate leads for the company’s mortgage business. It’s short, simple and incredibly alluring for both curious homeowners and buyers looking to understand the potential value of a new home.

Three takeaways from Zillow’s landing page:

• Eye-catching imagery can play a big role. The biggest element on Zillow’s landing page isn’t the CTA, but the image behind it. It’s doing a lot of legwork creating an aspirational feel to the page.
• Clearly contrast copy and images. There’s a danger that the overlay copy on the background image could get lost. But Zillow does a great job of ensuring the contrast is clear and the copy is readable.
• Give users more information, but only if they want it. There’s a tendency for the best landing pages to overwhelm users with information. Zillow avoids this by providing FAQs that only appear if users click on them.

18. Visme

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Visme is a graphic design tool that offers a number of templates for different types of business-centric designs, like presentations, infographics, e-books, and the like. This landing page is all about the fact that you can create e-books with the tool, highlighting only e-book templates and other features related to e-book creation.

What I like:

Three takeaways from NP Digital’s landing page:

• Brand consistency matters. All of the copy and images are related to this singular type of design. This page is perfect for ebook-related ads but also a great SEO play as well.
• Showcasing different product. The examples section does a great job showing off the variety of different e-books that this product can make.
• CTAs after key features. The page design here places the CTA button after all the different breakdowns of major features, meaning that the user can buy as soon as they see the feature that matters most to them..

19. Wix

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Wix is a website builder, and this landing page goes all in on its website design capabilities. It showcases all features related to getting a new website up and off the ground.

Three takeaways from Wix’s landing page:

• Don’t neglect the visual factor. As you scroll, you’re met with colorful blocks that each highlight its own feature, making this a visually appealing landing page that keeps users engaged the entire time.
  Show your work. The examples section here does a great job of showing the full breadth of sites that Wix can help build.
• Use FAQs (when it makes sense). FAQs can be very useful for helping go into greater detail about a product without clogging up the page experience. They are great for SEO, too!

20. NP Digital

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Let’s end with one of the best landing page examples from my digital marketing agency, NP Digital. Unlike some of the other examples in this list, the goal of this landing page isn’t to get people to buy a product or sign up to a service. I want users to download a market research report my team and I created.

As you can see, it’s quite a bit shorter than a normal landing page. That’s because it doesn’t need elements like social proof or loads of images. All I want to get across is a snapshot of what you can read in the report and how you can download it.

Three takeaways from NP Digital’s landing page:

• Don’t let users enter fake information. I email the document to the address you provide in the form. That means you have to enter your correct email address to get the document and I don’t have to waste time scrubbing fake emails from my database.
• Sometimes you can ask for more information. Your opt-in form doesn’t have to be tiny in order to convert. Because I’m giving away a lot of information for free, I can ask for more information in return.
• Long landing pages don’t necessarily make the best landing pages. If you don’t want users to waste time scrolling, don’t make them. Only give them the information they need to convert.

7 Tips for Creating Killer Landing Pages

You’ve seen the best of the best. Now you’re ready to create a landing page that drives business growth. These seven tips will help you create the high-converting landing pages you’ve been dreaming of:

1. Include clear calls to action. Your call to action should be specifically tied to your goal and should be supported by everything else on your page, from the headline and body copy to the images and overall layout. Avoid bland CTAs like “Submit” that don’t explain the next steps.
2. Keep your landing page forms simple. Only require users to provide the minimum amount of information they need, usually just their name and email. Asking for too much information early on decreases the chances a user will complete the action you want them to take.
3. Ensure your copy is clear and concise. The best landing page copy should be clear, easy to read, and make a specific point. Use bullet points, headings, and bold font to make content easier to read. Every single sentence and word on your landing page should serve a purpose, and that purpose should be to support your call to action. If it doesn’t do that, cut it.
4. Include vital information above the fold. That includes a benefit-focused headline and a CTA. Hopefully, at least a small percentage of your visitors will be ready to buy as soon as they arrive on your landing page.
5. Ensure your landing pages look the same as your campaign ads. If your page is tied to an email or PPC campaign, make sure the landing page echoes the look and feel of the ad or email. The easiest way to do this is to carry over fonts, images, and colors from your campaign to your landing page. This is especially important for paid ads, as it can increase your quality score.
6. A/B test your landing page. A/B testing means running two different landing pages and changing just one element to see which performs best. For example, you might use two different images and see which one drives the most conversions.
7. Use fewer images and a large font. Visual clutter detracts from the message and CTAs. Larger font sizes are also a good idea to keep visitors’ eyes focused on what matters and reduce eye strain. Just don’t go overboard and put everything in a headline-size font — no one wants to be yelled at.

In general, a great landing page includes:

• A strong heading that includes your main keyword
• A subheading that clarifies the heading
• Copy that explains the offer
• An image, video, or illustration that supports the offer
• A form or CTA button where the user can convert

You might also include social proof or trust symbols, such as reviews, testimonials, and logos of previous customers.

Building Out Your Next Landing Page

While there are some consistent elements between all strong landing pages, the exact design will depend on your goals, your business, and your industry.

Let me ask you a couple of questions that will guide you in the right direction.

What do you want to accomplish with your landing page?

The most common landing page goals are:

• Getting people to opt-in in exchange for free value on a subject.
• Selling a low-ticket product like a book or a mini-course.
• Promoting a free trial offer for a monthly service or software.

You’ve got to know exactly what offer you want to present on your landing page before creating it.

Are you committed to this project or are you just trying out an offer?

Building a high-converting landing page is not an overnight effort.

You might find yourself optimizing a non-profitable landing page for months before it starts generating real returns. If you’re not ready for that, then I recommend you quit before you even start.

Yes, you can get lucky and hit a home run on your first try, but don’t count on it.

Be ready for the long game so you catch the long-term gains that are so much sweeter than a short-term spike in traffic.

What’s your budget?

Before you begin designing your landing page, you need to prepare a solid budget.

You can’t expect everything to go smoothly throughout the process. Problems are going to occur and most times the easiest and fastest way to solve them is to pay someone who is an expert in the field.

That can be a developer, a funnel designer/builder, an ad specialist, or a CRO consultant. Either way, you should be ready to pay someone to do it right so you don’t face the same problems over and over.

In marketing and life, one of the best ways to test the quality of your work is to put it in front of an audience. For landing pages, you can do that by running ads to see if the traffic converts.

If it does, you raise your ad budget and try to scale. If it doesn’t convert at first, then you should let a professional take a look at it.

Even if you already hired someone to build it for you, don’t expect them to help you here. Yes, they could optimize your page, but you’ve got to keep in mind that people have an emotional attachment to their work.

That’s why you need a third party to help you out.

When it comes to optimizing a landing page for conversions, think about hiring an agency.

Big marketing agencies nowadays have had hundreds if not thousands of clients who have been in your exact situation. That’s why hiring a marketing agency to help you increase your conversion is the best bet.

Talking about CRO (conversion rate optimization) there’s no better choice than NP Digital.

I might be biased, but I think it’s the best marketing agency for both SEO and CRO.

If you’re at the stage where you want to optimize your existing landing page but you don’t know exactly how to do it, then book a quick call with a member of my team who can unravel the secret conversion optimization methods your business needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

I hope these best landing page examples can serve as an inspiration to create a high-converting landing page. To get the most out of your landing page, be sure to:

• Find what your best customers struggle the most with and then solve this problem with a short and punchy headline.
• Use credibility and videos if possible.
• Know your goals — Is it to get their email or phone number? Have them call? Start a free/paid trial or something else?
• Use clear and easy-to-follow calls to action.

Finally: always, always optimize your landing pages.

You can NOT be perfect from day one. Every business on this list tests its pages dozens if not hundreds of times before finding the best landing page.

Even then, they still optimize.

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AI in Marketing: How It Works + Examples

If you’re not using AI in marketing, you’re already falling behind. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are becoming more and more prominent, and many have functions specifically designed to help marketers better promote their products and services.

Throughout this article, we’re going to dive deeper into what AI in marketing looks like, sharing the benefits of taking advantage of AI, how AI can be used in marketing, plus some AI marketing tools to get you started.

Key Takeaways

• AI can provide a number of benefits for your marketing team, like speeding up tedious tasks, providing you with better insights, and boosting your overall results.
• You can use AI as part of your content planning and creation process, to gather competitive insights, to improve your customer service, and more.
• There are a number of AI tools that can help you automate processes and streamline your strategy.

Benefits of Using AI in Marketing

Why should you incorporate AI into your marketing strategy? There are so many benefits that these tools can bring to your team—if you use them right.

Speed Up Processes

AI can help marketers speed up processes and spend less time conducting certain tasks manually. According to HubSpot’s State of AI Report, 79% of marketers agree that AI helps them to spend less time on manual tasks, showing just how valuable these new tools can be.

Improve Personalization

AI can analyze customer data at scale, helping you to gather more insights and understand how to better personalize your content and segment your audience. Better personalization can provide your business with better results from your marketing campaigns.

Better Insights

Because AI can analyze data more effectively than humans can, you can get better insights. For example, AI analysis can help you identify trends earlier, forecast sales and customer behavior more efficiently, and help your marketing team make better decisions.

Cost Savings

Incorporating AI tools into your team’s daily processes can save time and resources, resulting in cost savings within your marketing budget. While AI shouldn’t replace core human workers, there are certain tasks that it can take off their plates, letting them focus on things that actually impact your business’s bottom line.

Higher ROI

Because AI tools can help your marketing team better understand customers, personalize campaigns, and ship better content, you’ll see a higher return on investment (ROI) as a result. Start using AI within your day-to-day marketing tasks to see how it can help improve your performance.

How AI Works With Marketing: 9 Use Cases

Because AI is a newer technology, you might not be sure how it works with marketing quite yet. However, there are a number of key use cases that AI can help with.

• Content planning: AI chatbots can be a huge help in brainstorming content ideas. Tell the chatbot about your business and your overall content goals and ask for topics that you may not have covered yet. You can then run the ideas through an SEO tool to find top keywords to center your content around.
• Content creation: While AI shouldn’t be handling the entire content creation process, it can still provide some assistance. Get help creating a comprehensive outline, get ideas for your introduction, or get AI to start with a summary that you can expand on.
• Marketing automation: Incorporate AI tools into your marketing automation workflows to further your team’s productivity. AI tools can be used as a step within your workflows or they can help you set up new workflows, improving efficiency.
• Customer service: AI can be a huge help within customer service. Use an AI-powered chatbot on your website to help answer basic customer questions while also escalating issues to a human service representative for larger issues. This can make sure your customer service team is only having to deal with major issues, with AI responding to all smaller queries.
• Audience segmentation: AI tools can analyze large amounts of customer data, helping you to segment out your audience in a much more effective way than if your team were analyzing the information themselves. Segmentation can help you create more personalized campaigns and marketing efforts.
• Social listening: Incorporate AI into your social listening strategy to more quickly analyze the data, understand overall sentiment, and generate a summary of overall customer conversations. This type of AI assistance can make your social listening strategy much more effective.
• Competitive intelligence: Again, because AI is such a powerful tool when it comes to analyzing data, it can be a huge help when looking at competitive insights. Discover how your competitors are faring in comparison to your own performance, plus analyze market trends to see what you can expect in the future.
• Predictive analytics: Similarly, AI can also be used to predict customer behavior, taking a look at past campaigns and forecasting future results based on historical data. This can be a huge help when creating new campaigns so that you can make them better than ever.
• Administrative tasks: AI is also hugely helpful with basic administrative tasks like data entry, scheduling, pulling reports, and more. Use AI for the boring manual tasks to free up your team’s time for more important work.

3 Examples of AI in Marketing

Let’s look at some real life examples of businesses using AI in ways that market their products or make working with their business feel more appealing.

Spotify

Spotify is a music streaming service that recently launched its own AI product to help its users have a better listening experience. This AI product is called “DJ,” and it analyzes your top songs and plays music based on your past listening habits.

The DJ will play five songs that all come with a similar vibe, then come back onto the “mic” to share your next five songs. If there’s a set of songs that listeners aren’t interested in, they can tap the “DJ” icon to move onto the next set.

It’s a unique experience that really helps to set Spotify apart from other streaming platforms.

Curlsmith

Curlsmith is a beauty brand focused on curl care. It has a chatbot widget on its website to help customers find what they’re looking for.

As you can see, the chatbot responses are all “Automated with AI.” Customers can use this chatbot to:

• Find the right products for their curl type
• Check in on a recent order
• Ask questions about shopping with Curlsmith
• Ask about discounts
• Change an order

There are programmed responses, but if a user says that they need additional help, there’s a conversational AI chatbot implemented as well that will analyze a user’s response in order to provide them with the best customer service.

Heinz

Heinz put together a creative ad campaign a couple of years ago and used AI to help them build it. The ad told the story of how the Heinz team typed “ketchup” into an AI image generator, and the output was a ketchup bottle with a logo that looked eerily similar to the Heinz logo.

The campaign essentially said, “even AI knows ketchup is Heinz,” and showcased several other prompts the team ran through the AI image generator, all including the word “ketchup,” and the output they received.

This was a creative way to incorporate AI tools in a marketing campaign that also provided an extremely effective result.

AI Marketing Tools to Use

If you want to get started incorporating artificial intelligence into your marketing strategy, you need to find the right tools to use. Below, we introduce you to six different AI marketing tools, each with its own use case.

ChatGPT – AI Chatbot

ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot that can provide answers to anything you type into the text box. It can help with things like:

• Brainstorming
• Outlining
• Conducting research
• Optimizing content
• Analyzing your market

But ChatGPT can honestly help with nearly any request you might have for it. You can also upload Excel files and have it analyze historical data, helping you generate predictive analytics, forecast customer behavior, and gather competitive insights, even without tools that are more catered to those capabilities.

If you don’t use any other AI tool, you should at least have a ChatGPT account under your belt.

Pricing: Completely free for limited (but still extensive) use. To get access to more models and more capabilities, premium plans start at $20/month.

Jasper – Content Generation

If you’re looking for help with your content generation, Jasper is the perfect tool for you. The tool provides an intuitive workspace that makes it easy to generate content at scale, optimize content so it hits every mark, conduct research to fully flesh out your content, and more.

While Jasper is the ultimate content generation tool for marketers, it also offers AI agent capabilities. AI agents are tools that can operate autonomously, helping marketers get more done in less time.

Pricing: Plans start at $39/month/seat.

Midjourney – Image Generation

Midjourney is an AI-powered image generation platform. It was originally built through a Discord server (which still remains active), but now can be accessed through an easy-to-use web app. Users can input any text-based description, upload images for reference, and incorporate some of Midjourney’s built-in parameters to create images for any marketing needs.

Generate realistic images, animated images, surreal art, and more. Midjourney is also starting to delve into video generation, which can be a game changer for creating marketing video ads and commercials.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $8/month.

Hootsuite – Social Copy Generation

Hootsuite is a social media management platform, but it also offers a number of free AI-powered tools that can help marketers get ideas for their social copy and captions. Some of the available tools include:

• Caption generator
• Tweet generator
• Video title generator
• Video description generator
• Hashtag generator
• Username generator
• Social media bio generator
• Content ideas generator
• Blog ideas generator

Take advantage of these completely free tools to help you brainstorm more ideas and captions for your social media content. These free tools are also their own example of AI in marketing, as they help promote Hootsuite alongside providing free value.

Pricing: The AI-powered generators are completely free to access. Hootsuite’s suite of social media management tools start at $99/user/month.

Zapier – Marketing Automation

Zapier is an AI-powered marketing automation platform that makes it easy for marketers to set up automated workflows. Zapier works via “zaps” that connect tools together to create an automation that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

For example, automatically add leads to your CRM, automatically add your new blog posts to your social media content calendar, or automatically add new customers to a spreadsheet for tracking.

These are some basic zaps, though. Zapier also offers a number of extensive workflows that incorporate their AI capabilities, helping marketers to automate more complex tasks as well.

Pricing: Free for up to 100 tasks/month. For more usage, paid plans start at $19.99/month.

Tidio – Chatbot

Tidio is a chatbot software that enables businesses to create their own AI-powered chatbots for their customers to interact with. Users can get customer support from your AI bot, chat with your bot about product suggestions, and make appointments all through your Tidio chatbot.

Train the Lyro AI assistant with your business information so they can help customers out, while also escalating more serious concerns or more unique questions directly to a human customer service representative.

Pricing: Plans are flexible based on the number of conversations you expect to have per month. Get access to the tool for free for 50 conversations or less. Plans start at $24.17/month for 100 conversations and go up from there.

FAQs

AI Is the Future of Marketing

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a key part of marketing these days. You can use the tools to help generate content for your marketing campaigns, analyze results, predict upcoming trends, and so much more. To get even more ideas for how to use AI in your marketing efforts, check out our arsenal of AI tools.

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Google: Soft 404s Use Crawl Budget Despite 200 OK Status via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google clarifies that soft 404 pages consume crawl budget, even when they return a 200 OK status. Here’s how this affects your site.

The post Google: Soft 404s Use Crawl Budget Despite 200 OK Status appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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What Is Trendjacking & How to Do it for Your Brand

Do you remember the viral “Little Miss?” meme revival from 2022?

That’s a great example of trendjacking, or inserting your brand into viral online conversations.

It felt like every brand — from global airlines to your local coffee shop — jumped into labeling themselves. Some were hilariously on-point and others…well, not so. For every well-executed moment like a wellness brand that tailored their take to be timely, irreverent, and match their core voice, dozens more missed the mark. And like it or not, audiences can tell.

That’s the fine line with trendjacking. What was once a cheeky social media trick has become a high-stakes play for many modern social media marketers. To stand out and not alienate, brands need more than speed. They need emotional intelligence, audience awareness, and restraint to not jump on every viral moment.

How can you harness what’s trending without sounding tone-deaf or jumping the shark? Let’s break down the basics of effective trendjacking and how you can approach it in a smart way.

Key Takeaways

• Trendjacking is the practice of inserting your brand into viral conversations in a way that feels timely, relevant, and authentic.
• Success requires cultural awareness, audience alignment, and speed. Not every trend is right for every brand.
• Smart brands use social listening tools and planned content workflows to catch trends before they peak.
• Measuring trendjacking goes beyond likes. Look at sentiment shifts and meaningful engagement.
• The future of trendjacking will likely be shaped by AI tools, new platforms, and the growing demand for authenticity.

What Is Trendjacking?

Trendjacking is the practice of injecting your brand into a popular or viral conversation to boost visibility, engagement, or relevance. Brands jump on trending topics like memes, social media challenges, or major pop culture moments to join the conversation in ways that are timely and clever.

Trendjacking really gained traction during the heyday of Twitter (now X), when brands like Oreo seized viral moments (the “You can still dunk in the dark” tweet during the 2013 Super Bowl blackout) and earned massive engagement for real-time creativity. That post was a signal to marketers that being culturally responsive could pay huge engagement dividends. 

Trendjacking isn’t a completely new strategy, though. It has its roots in the older PR strategy of newsjacking. Popularized by David Meerman Scott, newsjacking focused on inserting brands’ perspectives into breaking news stories to get media coverage. Trendjacking is just an evolution of that strategy, tapping into a broader range of online moments. 

When you do it well, trendjacking can help your brand show personality, relevance, and humor. But it’s not a strategy without risks, especially if you do it without considering nuance or alignment to your brand’s values.

How to Pull off an Effective Trendjacking Campaign

Let’s say you’re ready to drive into trendjacking. How do you do it right? Like many effective social media strategies, the best trendjacking campaigns start long before a trend even surfaces. Success often hinges on preparation and cultural awareness, but the real secret is the agility to act fast without sacrificing your brand’s integrity.

Identify Potential Trends

Trendjacking starts with awareness. The earlier you spot a trend, the better your odds of leading the conversation rather than chasing it.

Start with traditional sources. Social listening tools such as AnswerThePublic, TikTok Creator Search Insights, or Sprout Social can surface what’s gaining traction across different platforms. The latter can help you keep an eye on places like X, Bluesky, TikTok’s trending page, Reddit threads, and even Google Trends to stay ahead of the curve. Using these tools doesn’t just tell you what’s trending. They help you catch the wave before it crests.

Effective trendjacking goes deeper than identifying meme formats or hashtags, though. Ask yourself these questions:

• Why is this trending?
• What emotion is it tapping into?
• What cultural shift or behavioral insight is at play?

Take, for example, the “Girl Dinner” trend. It wasn’t just a meme. It was a commentary on autonomy, wellness fatigue, and the pushback against curated perfection.

In addition to staying on top of developing trends, think ahead. Certain events almost always spawn viral moments: award shows, the Met Gala, political debates, and major sporting events are excellent fodder for trends. Develop a calendar of these events and build a properly resourced team that can act when the internet lights up.

Assess the Trend’s Relevance

Before you jump into the trend, assess whether or not it’s right for you. Ask important, hard questions, like “Does this trend actually align with our brand?” and “Will our audience care?” Finally, will it feel authentic or forced?

Many brands falter here. Chasing a trend that’s off-brand does more than fall flat; it risks damaging your credibility. The Duolingo x Scrub Daddy “cursed collab” worked because both brands share a quirky, unfiltered tone. If a serious financial brand tried the same joke? Cue the confused and cringing followers.

Assess risk, too. Some trends carry baggage, like political undercurrents, social controversies, or rapidly shifting sentiment. Your internal team should include diverse perspectives to help flag possible missteps.

Beyond relevance, hopping on the trend should add to your brand’s story. If it doesn’t connect to your values or content pillars, it might be better to skip it. Not every viral moment is worth jumping into. Restraint is often what separates trend-chasers from trend leaders. 

Produce the Content—Quickly!

Once you’ve vetted a trend, it’s “go time.” Timing is everything in trendjacking. Wait too long, and you’re just adding noise to an already crowded feed.

In practice, your team needs a streamlined workflow to move from idea to pressing the publish button in hours, not days. Empower social managers with decision-making autonomy. Maintain a library of pre-approved assets like brand visuals, fonts, and tone examples so your team can capitalize on trends without needing to create a full-scale design from scratch.

Creating internal “trend kits” or rapid response playbooks can help your team execute quickly and safely. Remember: the most memorable trendjacks feel both spontaneous and strategically on-brand because they are.

Creating Impactful Trendjacking Content

Once you’ve identified the right trend and confirmed it makes sense for your brand to participate, the real magic begins: creating content to hit the sweet spot of relevance, creativity, and authenticity. Not every trendjacking post needs to be laugh-out-loud funny or ultra-slick, but it should always bring something fresh and on-brand to the table. Some tried-and-true strategies for creating trendjacking content that resonates include:

1. Customize by Platform

What works on TikTok might not work on LinkedIn, and vice versa. Tailor your content’s tone, format, and visuals to the platform you’re posting on. Wendy’s built their brand on X with snarky one-liners, but the food chain takes a more curated and visual approach on Instagram.

2. Embrace the Weird (Strategically)

Humor, absurdity, and left-field creativity often fuel viral trends. But you can’t force it. Duolingo’s TikTok presence leans fully into weirdness, but it’s consistent with their edgy, millennial-savvy voice.

Add Value. Don’t Just Copy

Don’t simply copy-paste a trending meme format. Add your brand’s POV, a clever twist, or insights that enhance the original. For example, Canva recently leveraged the app’s ability to create color schemes with the growing popularity of Labubu toys.

4. Prioritize Authenticity

Your audience can smell a cash grab a mile away. If the trend doesn’t align with your values or voice, skip it. If you really feel like you need to participate, subtly nod to the trend without trying to dominate it. Engage, like, or reply to accounts that have posted content in the trend without creating new assets on your own.

5. Keep the Content High-Quality

Even in a fast-moving trend cycle, visuals (and sound) matter. Low-res graphics or clunky text overlays can kill your momentum. Use templates or pre-approved brand assets to keep things polished under pressure.

Trendjacking is not the time to let the copywriter have the keys to the Canva account.

When Trendjacking Goes Wrong…

Trendjacking is a real double-edged sword. When done right, it’s clever, memorable, and engaging. When done wrong, it’s also memorable, but for the wrong reasons; it’s tone-deaf, confusing, or even damaging to your brand. Avoid these common pitfalls.

Tone-deaf or Insensitive Posting

Some trends are tied to serious or sensitive events, and misjudging the tone can result in intense backlash. That’s what happened to Pepsi in 2017 for their ad that featured Kendall Jenner, which co-opted protest imagery to sell soda (and promptly got called out for trivializing real social movements).

Just because a topic is trending doesn’t mean it’s safe territory. Assign someone on your team to assess social sentiment and cultural context before engaging.

Jumping in Too Late

Timing is critical. A trend that peaked two days ago may already feel stale, especially if your post doesn’t add anything new. Joining late makes your brand look like it’s scrambling to stay relevant, not leading the conversation.

To avoid this, consider streamlining your approvals process and having brand-safe assets ready to go.

Misunderstanding the Trend

One of the fastest ways to make a brand look out of touch is to misinterpret the trend altogether. Imagine someone at your company wanted to tweet a meme that referenced “Netflix and chill,” without realizing its NSFW subtext. The internet might notice and not in a good way.

Before trendjacking, do a quick sentiment check. What does this trend actually mean to the people participating in it?

Forcing the Fit

If the trend doesn’t suit your brand voice, values, or audience, don’t force it. It’s painfully obvious when a B2B SaaS brand shoehorns itself into a Gen Z meme format meant for fashion or pop culture. This usually results in low engagement at best and audience cringe at worst.

Brands need a straightforward internal process for evaluating the risk of trendjacking campaigns. Who gets to greenlight? What criteria does the content meet? Building a lightweight risk assessment checklist or review board (creative + legal + DEI leads) can help you act quickly and responsibly.

Lack of Crisis Planning

Even with the best of intentions, things can go sideways fast. That’s why it’s smart to develop a basic crisis response protocol before engaging with fast-moving or culturally sensitive trends. Know who will respond, how quickly, and what steps to take if content sparks backlash. 

Measuring Success and Finding Learnings for the Future

With your trendjacking content out in the world, it’s time to answer the big question: Did it work?

Start by measuring the basics: likes, shares, reach, and impressions. These top-level metrics help assess immediate visibility and initial audience reaction.

Smart marketers go further, though. The most impactful trendjacking efforts don’t just rack up views. They strengthen brand equity and move the needle on meaningful outcomes. Ask yourself:

• Was the engagement meaningful? Analyze the sentiment and depth of conversation in your engagement. Did people share it with thoughtful comments or tag their friends, or was the engagement just a flood of indifferent likes?
• Did it shape perception or sentiment? Use social listening tools to see if brand sentiment improved during and after the campaign. Google Analytics and UTM parameters can help tie social moments back to web traffic and conversion goals.
• Did it drive real behavior? Track clicks, sign-ups, or sales lifts during and after the campaign. This is another instance where Google Analytics and UTM parameters can help tie those moments back to web traffic and conversion goals.
• Did it strengthen community? Great trendjacking does more than entertain. It builds a sense of belonging. If the post sparked DMs, follow-up content ideas, or user-generated content (UGC), that’s a sign your audience is invested.

Want to level up your campaign? Try aligning your trendjacking posts with keyword-focused content or campaign themes. This gives your SEO strategy a boost, especially in a world where Search Everywhere is the norm (and users can Google the trend and stumble onto your brand).

Upcoming Trendjacking Trends

The art and science of trendjacking will only evolve as the digital landscape shifts. Marketers who want to stay ahead of the curve will need to keep a pulse on what’s trending and how those trends take shape and spread. The future of trendjacking will evolve thanks to things like AI, new platforms, and the rise of “unpolished” realness.

1. AI-powered Content Creation

AI is creating massive shifts in real-time marketing as tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Runway help brands generate reactive content faster than ever. From clever captions to custom visuals, the future of trendjacking likely includes AI-enhanced creativity. The big challenge for brands is to remain authentic in the face of automation.

Could ChatGPT help brands jump on the enthusiasm for Labubu without spending the time to go out and source a doll? Possibly.

2. New and Niche Platforms

Instagram, TikTok, and X may reign supreme among platforms, but that won’t always be the case. Bluesky is becoming increasingly popular, and YouTube Shorts has challenged TikTok as a vehicle for short-form video content creation. Expect trendjacking to require more platform-specific fluency, understanding not just the content but the culture of each channel.

3. The Rise of “Unpolished” Realness

Consumers are tired of overproduced content. The next wave of trendjacking will favor brands that show up with honesty, humor, and heart. Even if that means posting something that feels more lo-fi than high-concept. Authenticity isn’t just a “nice to have” anymore. It’s a prerequisite for engagement.

Bobe’s Pizza may be a small Indiana brand, but they lean on authentic content that resonates with their core audience.

The bottom line is that the future of trendjacking isn’t about being fast. It’s about being fast, smart, and real while building systems to let your brand respond with agility and intention.

FAQs

Conclusion

Trendjacking is about moving fast and smart. When you do it right, it can drive massive visibility and deepen brand affinity. It takes planning, awareness, and a clear voice to avoid the pitfalls and stand out in the scroll. Whether it’s memes, moments, or movements, show up with purpose.

If you need help crafting an agile social strategy that’s authentic and audience-focused, contact NP Digital to help you lead the conversation, not just follow it.

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