This post is a part of Made @ HubSpot, an internal thought leadership series through which we extract lessons from experiments conducted by our very own HubSpotters. Platforms are embedded in our daily lives — whether we realize it or not. Have you recently … ordered food from a service like GrubHub or made a reservation using OpenTable? Booked a ride using Lyft? Used your phone to check your email? All of these seamless interactions require systems to talk to each other via open platforms. What about at work? How many tools do you use to do your job? Do you spend a lot of time updating disparate systems, or do you use a connected stack of technologies to keep things up-to-date? If it’s the latter, you have a platform to thank for your saved time. A platform makes it possible to connect tools, teams, data, and processes under one digital roof. It’s the nucleus of all systems and allows you to connect all your favorite tools seamlessly using integrations. An integration allows disparate systems to talk to each other. By joining tools via integrations, a change made in System A automatically carries through to System B. Leveraging platforms and integrations hasn’t always been commonplace. A couple of years ago, HubSpot Research found that 82% of salespeople and marketers lost up to an hour per day managing siloed tools — a costly mistake. Today, employees recognize that integrating technologies to do their jobs isn’t an option but a requirement. Individual employees are opting to connect their tools and, on average, leverage eight apps to do their job. Employees and businesses alike run on connected applications. Okta found that it’s small-mid sized customers (defined as companies with less than 2,000 employees) average 73 apps — up 38% from last year. While larger customers (companies with over 2,000 employees) leverage closer to 130 apps — up 68% from the past year. From personal life to work, platforms have become a staple in our day-to-day. These platforms are well-oiled machines that initiate seamless connections between technologies. Today, the consumer not only anticipates but also expects their systems to connect — raising the bar for companies to make it possible. But more tools shouldn’t mean more friction. At HubSpot, we want to help our customers connect their tools on our platform to reduce friction and grow better. Customers should have tools and solutions to solve their needs, regardless of if HubSpot built them. Connecting tools allows for uniform data, processes, and experiences. This year, we’re experimenting with ways to expose integrations to our customers to increase adoption. However, as a platform scales, it becomes increasingly tricky for customers to navigate exhaustive lists of integrations and identify what's relevant to them. We recognized this at HubSpot and began experimenting with paid ads to see if this could be a valuable distribution channel to our customers. Our Experiment on Paid Integration AdsAt the end of Q4, the Platform Marketing team decided to use some leftover budget to try a channel we hadn’t yet proven viable for integration adoption — paid ads. We hypothesized that we could influence the adoption of an integration through paid ads. To test our hypothesis, we ran a retargeting campaign for three integrations on Facebook. The ads were surfaced to HubSpot’s retargetable audience. These ads featured three HubSpot-built integrations: Slack, Wordpress, and Eventbrite. We selected these integrations because they are natively built (built by HubSpot) and structured in a way that allowed us to measure multi-touch attribution. By leveraging Google Tag Manager on the in-app integration directory, custom UTM parameters, and funnel reports, we were able to measure all steps from viewing the ad to installing the integration. Before launching the campaign, we tested our Google Analytics custom funnel reports by completing all actions — including installing the integrations to make sure they worked as designed. Before running the campaign, we made the conscious decision to split our budget evenly across all three integration ads — regardless if one ad outperformed the others. We did this to minimize variables for the experiment. Because we ran ads through November and December, we decreased spending from $130 dollars a day to $5 a day on and around holidays. We did this to “pause” the campaign on days where the ads would get lost in the noise, as this data could skew overall results. Lastly, we determined our success metrics. Because we didn’t have apples-to-apples benchmark data for integration paid ads, we worked with our paid team to establish reasonably similar benchmark data. While it wasn’t a direct comparison, we were curious to see how ads could influence multi-step actions. We evaluated our performance based on click-through rates (CTR), cost per click (CPC), and cost per acquisition. Experiment ResultsThe integration ads surpassed our benchmark data for click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), and cost per acquisition at the 7-, 30-, and 44-day marks — supporting our initial hypothesis and prediction. The 30-day CTR for our integration ads was higher than the 7-day and 30-day CTR for the benchmark data, which is surprising as we expected the audience to become more fatigued over time. Fatigue can be measured by the frequency a user views the same ad. For example, at HubSpot, we look at if a viewer has seen the same ad over 2.5 times within 30 days, which we consider high. Additionally, we kept an eye out for an increasing cost per acquisition. Paid ads for these integrations was attractive to our retargetable audience and a legitimate acquisition point for HubSpot. It helped us influence adoption of integrations --- resulting in hundreds of installs in the featured technologies. It also provided us with a data point we’ve been curious to see — the cost of an install. When considering the value and acquisition cost of an install, it’s helpful to understand the impact on the business. At HubSpot, our customers with integrated stacks of technologies tend to be more successful — and they stick around. This makes sense — as the more apps installed, the higher the likelihood someone will stick around. This is a common finding among platform companies. On a recent trip to San Francisco HubSpot’s VP of Platform Ecosystem Scott Brinker found that “a common pattern on platforms is that the more apps a customer integrates into their system, the higher their retention rate will be — for both the platform and the apps integrated into it.” Connecting their tools allows customers to access all their data in one core system while staying flexible and adaptable to their needs as they grow. Since HubSpot doesn’t currently charge integrators to be part of our ecosystem, spending money to drive a net new install may seem counterintuitive. When weighing the long-term benefits of an install for customer value and retention, we are able to determine what is a reasonable cost per install. The experiment cost was worth the insight, as it allowed us to gain a baseline understanding of the cost per acquisition of an integration install. Ultimately you can determine if the long-term value outweighs the upfront cost. (While directional value is a good baseline, you’d ideally look to lifetime value [LTV] to establish actual value.) What This Means for HubSpot — and For YouOur experiment with paid ads outperformed our expectations and helped us reach a larger audience than we anticipated. It became clear that this was and is a viable channel for us to increase adoption of integrations and better understand the cost per integration install. Future looking, we could alter who we target to see how it impacts CTR. We could leverage enrichment software like Datanyze or Clearbit to see if users have tools and cross-reference install data to create a list of folks using tools we integrate with but have yet to connect to. Alternatively, we could leverage this data to target a group of users going through onboarding to encourage them to connect existing tools to HubSpot. Additionally, we could look through the required steps to connect an integration and consider how we could reduce them to simplify the process for our users and potentially increase our CTR. Not a platform company? No problem. This retargeting campaigns can be leveraged to evaluate other valuable actions for your users, such as sign-ups, free trials, or event registration. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/paid-ads-integration-adoption-experiment
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With over 2.7 billion monthly active users and 1.82 billion daily users, Facebook is the largest social network in the world. What began as a way for college students to network has become an essential marketing tool for more than 90 million small businesses. All of those users generate a lot of data. To help companies harness the massive amount of information created within the platform, Facebook released their Insights tool, which shares data about the best day to post, the ideal time to post, and what posts are performing well. If you're marketing on Facebook, understanding how all those numbers relate to your business and audience can be confusing at first. But worry not. This post explains how to analyze Facebook data to get valuable metrics about who's coming to your page and clicking around. By the end, you'll have a better understanding of how Insights can help you connect with both current and potential customers. Running a new Facebook Business Page? Find everything you need to know to elevate your paid and organic efforts in this Facebook Marketing Course. How to Analyze Facebook DataFacebook Insights is separated into two main categories: Audience Insights and Page Insights.
This post focuses on Audience Insights, to help you understand both existing and potential customers. For an in-depth look at how to gather information from Page Insights, check out this guide to Facebook Marketing. To access the data gold mine in Audience Insights, you first have to create a business Page. Once your Page is set up, navigate to Audience Insights by clicking Analyze and Report in your Business Tools menu. Now comes the sleuthing. Pull up your company's target audience profile for reference, because it's time to do research. Step 1: Choose your audience.A pop-up will appear and ask you to pick between the following options:
This part requires some strategy. Are you using Insights to build a buyer persona, see if your strategy is attracting the right people, learn about your audience's interests, or something else entirely? By having a goal in mind, it's easier to put the information to use. Step 2: Filter to fit your goals.With your goal set, it's time to narrow down the audience. You can filter based on:
1. LocationKnowing where in the world your audience lives is helpful for many reasons. If you're an online shop looking to expand, maybe you want to learn whether a specific country is interested in your products. If your company has a physical location, select your city for relevant local metrics. And if you're not bound to any location constraints, keep it open by including countries worldwide. 2. Age and genderAll Facebook users must be 18 years and older, so keep that in mind when evaluating audiences. If you have a specific buyer persona you're researching, filter according to that age range. But if you're looking to expand your audience, it's worthwhile to extend your age range or consider both genders to see if you're missing out on potential customers. 3. InterestsThis is where filtering gets fun — and a little complicated. Keep your search broad by selecting a handful of common interests, like food and reading, or select dozens of interests for a focused pool of people. You have freedom to play with drop down filters or type anything that comes to mind into the search bar. Cooking, Entertainment, Adventure, Flying, Tech, Cake. The list goes on, so let your imagination run wild. Just keep an eye on the number of people in your audience as you refine. If it drops below 1,000 people, Facebook won't populate the data. 4. Page ConnectionsThis filter shows the top "liked" Pages by people within your audience profile. If you're scouting for competitors, this can let you know who to watch. Maybe you're looking for content inspiration, and browsing connected Pages will give you ideas for a campaign collaboration or promotional giveaway. Either way, it's good to know what other Pages pop up in your audience's newsfeed. Step 3: Understand your audience.Sound the applause — you've filtered down your audience profile. Now it's time to dig in further to four categories: Demographics, Page Likes, Location, and Activity. DemographicsFacebook Insights lets you go beyond the basics to see audience information including Language, Relationship Status, Education, Job Titles, and Market Segments. Let's say you're a new food blogger targeting men ages 18-32. If you plug in that information, you can get a detailed look at what your audience does for work, how educated they are, or even whether they're primarily cooking for one or more people. If your ideal audience turns out to largely be single with time-consuming office jobs, this can help focus your content strategy. Maybe your audience would like a post about easy lunch ideas for work or meals that are even better as leftovers. I'm generalizing here, but the more you dig into demographics, the more data you have to hone your marketing efforts. Page LikesSimilar to the Interests filter, this option shows what your audience likes. Check out the Top Categories to learn what people care about the most, with options like Movies, Charities, Companies, Music, Public Figures, News and Media, and Products. Maybe those men whipping up meals for one are interested in TV series like "The Chef Show" or "Chef's Table." If you were to create a blog post round-up of your favorite cooking shows or episodes, it would likely do well among that audience. The key here is to look at what content is relevant both in and out of your industry to review competitors and connected interests. LocationUse this filter to explore the top countries, cities, and languages of your audience profile. Say you're based in the United States but discover your audience has a major presence in Montreal, Canada. It could be worth adjusting your marketing efforts to include content that speaks to both Americans and Canadians. And if you do expand your audience, you may even consider adding a French language option to your website to cater to Québécois customers. ActivitySee how active your audience is compared to the average Facebook user. The most important information in this section is the activity within the past 30 days, broken down by actions like Comments, Posts Liked, Posts Shared, and Ads Clicked. Maybe you're interested in running Facebook Ads but are unsure if anyone in your audience would click. With the Activity data, you have a better idea of how many people would take action. For a more detailed look at how to analyze Facebook Ad performance, take a look at this guide to Facebook Advertising. Explore more Facebook InsightsNow you can wield the power of Audience Insights to help you build buyer personas, hone in your target audience, and expand your customer reach. But if you're on a research roll, you can explore more metrics under Page Insights to see how your content is performing, what people are resonating with, and what posts to promote. So the next time you question whether you're attracting the right followers or are looking for out-of-the-box ideas to engage your audience, pull up Facebook Insights and put the data to work. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31965/how-to-analyze-facebook-insights-to-improve-your-content-strategy-with-video.aspx As a marketer, you're often tasked with accomplishing two main goals: making beautiful content that builds your brand recognition and tells your story ... and generating qualified leads that will help you grow your business. Traditional marketing ethos may consider those to be two different streams of work — crafting impactful video ads, and digging up lower-funnel users — but it doesn't have to be that way. If you're not using video as part of your lead generation tactics, you're missing out on a serious opportunity to create impactful content that directly translates to more leads for your business. Megha Muchhala, Product Marketing Manager at Vimeo, shares some key insights on how to integrate your video efforts with your lead generation tactics. Vimeo's Tips for Generating Leads Straight from VideoWe all know how useful including video on a landing page or an email campaign can be in boosting your conversion rates, but there are also optimizations you can make to your videos themselves that will give you a marketing edge. 1. Add customizable contact forms.Rather than simply relying on CTAs to boost your follows or website traffic, marketers should utilize in-video contact forms to capture specific information from leads. This can be as simple as gathering their email, or more detailed to capture demographic information, short answers to collect personal insight, or other actionable data. Include these forms on videos embedded throughout your digital ecosystem across your website, landing pages, and even blogs to passively build qualified leads, fast. 2. Use a multi-step format.While you've probably heard of multi-step forms before, it's possible you have yet to use one. That's a shame, because it's a format that's been shown to increase form conversion by up to 52.9%. A multi-step form is one that breaks a longer contact form up into a more digestible series of questions, which should boost user experience and, in turn, increase conversions. Using a multi-step form reduces friction and helps you wait to ask for more user guarded information (like an email address) until the user is already a few steps into the process. 3. Optimize it for any platform.You always want your user experience to stay tip-top no matter how they're viewing your video content. We know you take the care to create videos in different formats and aspect ratios depending on your hosting plans, and your contact forms should be no different. Utilize a contact form that displays on mobile and desktop to ensure you're capturing all potential leads. 4. Get creative with your placement.There are pros and cons to dropping contact forms at any point throughout your video, and the right choice generally depends on what kind of content you're sharing. If you're offering premium or long-form content, gating your video with a contact form right up front is a great way to boost leads. If you're telling a shorter form story, placing a contact form in the middle or just before a climax can be incredibly effective in terms of incentivizing information sharing. And while placing your contact form at the end of the video can be risky (considering 50% of viewers stop watching a video after one minute), it can also generate the most qualified leads: those who've watched all the way to the end are the most likely to be engaged with your brand or story anyway. Whatever you choose, we recommend setting up a few A/B tests to determine the best placement. A little testing can go a long way! And speaking of placement, consider your video distribution when deciding your form messaging and placement. Audiences watching a video on your blog are likely far more invested (and thus likely to share some honest info and opinions) than those catching a video on your homepage. Alter your messaging accordingly! Some Final TipsNow that you know about the joys of in-video lead capture, let's review some final tips to make the most of your tactics. 1. Don't ask for too much too early.Make sure to consider the sales funnel when optimizing your contact forms. If you know video is your main acquisition tool (meaning, the first piece of your brand consumers see before becoming fans), know that they might not be so willing to share lots of information with you upfront. Customize your asks as they relate to steps in the funnel: users who are brand loyalists are a lot quicker to give up info than those who've just spotted you via a sponsored ad. 2. Remember to nurture your leads.Leads are great, but if you don't engage them, they're pretty much useless. When capturing leads via contact forms, sync them to your email service provider to make it easy to nurture them. (Just so you know: Vimeo users can automatically sync their leads directly into their HubSpot account, making it simpler than ever to connect with your prospective customers.)Then, keep them engaged! Develop follow-up email campaigns around specific prominent demographics and use your gleaned data to make them even more engaging. Even better, further increase your click-through by embedding GIFs of your videos in your follow-up email campaigns to stand out and get noticed by leads. 3. Always keep SEO in-mind.Your ability to generate leads in your video doesn't mean a whole lot if no one watches your content. SEO can be a massively helpful organic discovery tool to send users to your business. Take the extra time to optimize your website, landing page, and video itself for maximum discoverability. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-leads Whether it’s on Facebook Messenger, their website, or even text messaging, more and more brands are leveraging chatbots to service their customers, market their brand, and even sell their products. But even though most chatbots can handle moderately sophisticated conversations, like welcome conversations and product discovery interactions, the if/then logic that powers their conversational capabilities can be limiting. For instance, if a customer asks a unique yet pressing question that you didn’t account for when designing your chatbot’s logic, there’s no way it can answer their question, which hangs your customer out to dry and ultimately leaves them dissatisfied with your customer service. Fortunately, the next advancement in chatbot technology that can solve this problem is gaining steam -- AI-powered chatbots. By leveraging machine learning and NLP, AI-powered chatbots can understand the intent behind your customers’ requests, account for each customer’s entire conversation history when it interacts with them, and respond to their questions in a natural, human way. If you’re currently using a standard chatbot, but want to upgrade to an AI-powered one, we’ve put together a list of the best AI chatbots for 2021. Read on to find the right one for you. 1. HubSpotHubSpot has an easy and powerful chat builder software that allows you to automate and scale live chat conversations. Your customers will be able to get answers to frequently asked questions, book meetings, and navigate the site. At the same time, their answers are saved in your CRM, allowing you to qualify leads and trigger automation. Keep in mind that HubSpot's chat builder software doesn't quite fall under the category of "AI chatbot" because it uses a rule-based system. However, HubSpot does have code snippets, allowing you to leverage the powerful AI of third-party NLP-driven bots such as Dialogflow. Because HubSpot is a CRM platform, using the HubSpot chatbot in conjunction with code snippets gives you the advantage of easy integration across your marketing, sales, and service tools. 2. IntercomIntercom is software that supports live chat, chat bots, and more to provide messenger-based experiences for prospects. Using machine learning and behavioral data, Intercom can answer up to 33% of queries and provide a personalized experience along the way. 3. Watson AssistantDeveloped by one of the leaders in the AI space, IBM, Watson Assistant is one of the most advanced AI-powered chatbots on the market. Pre-trained with content from your specific industry, Watson Assistant can understand your historical chat or call logs, search for an answer in your knowledge base, ask customers for more clarity, direct them to human representatives, and even give you training recommendations to hone its conversational abilities. Watson Assistant can run on your website, messaging channels, customer service tools, and mobile app. The chatbot also comes with a visual dialog editor, so you don’t need any coding experience to develop it. 4. DriftDrift provides conversational marketing and sales software powered by both automation (rule-based) and artificial intelligence (NLP). According to their website, "Drift's conversational AI is trained on over 6 billion conversations to identify the patterns that engage and convert visitors into qualified pipeline." This means the machine learning that the chatbot comes with is already pre-trained and ready to go. 5. Bold360Trusted by customers like Intuit, Edible Arrangements, and Vodafone, Bold360 patented its own natural language processing technology to help brands build chatbots that can understand your customers’ intent without the need of keyword matching and learn how to deliver the most accurate answers to them. Bold360’s conversational AI can interpret complex language, remember the context of an entire conversation, and reply to customers with natural responses. Customers can even buy your products through the chatbot. You can also give your chatbot its own personality and run it on most messaging channels. 6. Zendesk ChatZendesk offers live chat and chatbots as part of their Zendesk Chat service. Built with powerful automation combined with the technology of Answer Bot and Flow Builder for creating AI-powered conversation flows, it allows you to configure your chatbot to answer common customer questions without writing code. 7. Salesforce EinsteinSalesforce Einstein is AI technology that uses predictive intelligence and machine learning to power many Salesforce features, including Salesforce's Service Cloud and chatbot offerings. It is capable of solving customer queries with its intelligent conversational features, and you can count on it for triage and routing and data-driven insights. 8. RulaiArmed with deep-learning based natural language understanding and adaptive multi-taking capabilities, Ruali, an AI-powered chatbot for enterprise brands, can understand the context of a conversation, predict user behavior, grasp customer preferences, take actions, switch to different tasks, and ask customers for more clarification. Rulai also integrates with most messaging channels, customer service software, enterprise business software, and cloud storage platforms. You can either build a Ruali chatbot from scratch with its drag-and-drop design console and let its AI adapt to your customers or you can implement a pre-trained chatbot that has been fed data from your specific industry. 9. LivePersonBy collecting over 20 years of messaging transcript data and feeding it to their AI-powered chatbot, LivePerson can automate almost every industry’s messaging and integrate with most messaging channels like your website, mobile app, Apple Business Chat, text messaging, Google Rich Business messaging, Line, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Google AdLingo. LivePerson’s BotStudio also lets you build chatbots from scratch, without any coding knowledge, and its analytics dashboard can track metrics like real-time sentiment, bot containment rate, bot conversation time, total conversation time, average order value, and bot contained sales, allowing you to grasp the impact your chatbot has had on your business’ bottom line. 10. InbentaDesigned specifically for enterprise brands, Inbenta’s chatbot leverages machine learning and its own natural language processing engine to detect the context of each customer conversation and accurately answer their questions. Inbenta also offers a dialog manager, which allows you to craft custom conversation flows and paths. Additionally, when Inbenta’s chatbot realizes that one of your customers needs to talk to a human, it’ll escalate the conversation to the appropriate support agent. To make your chatbot seem more human, you create a custom avatar for it, too. 11. AdaTrusted by customers like Medium, Shopify, and MailChimp, Ada is an AI-powered chatbot that features a drag-and-drop builder that you can use to train it, add GIFs to certain messages, and store customer data. Ada can also integrate with most messaging channels and customer service software, send personalized content to your customers, ask for customer feedback, and report on your bots’ time, effort, and cost savings. According to their website, Ada has saved their customers over $100 million in savings and 1 billion minutes of customer service effort. 12. VergicVergic offers an AI-powered chatbot that can serve as your businesses’ first line of customer support, handle transactional chats, and transfer more complicated problems to your actual customer service agents. It’s like a hybrid chatbot that can boost your employees’ productivity. By leveraging natural language processing and natural language understanding, Vergic can also perform sentiment analysis, share documents, highlight pages, manage conversational workflows, and report on chatbot analytics. Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-ai-chatbot Whether you're just starting out with content marketing or you've been using the same approach for a while, it never hurts to revisit your content strategy plan — to make sure it's up-to-date, innovative, and engaging for your prospects and customers, no matter when or how they intend to buy. The first step to getting a leg up on the competition — and actively engaging your audience — is to have a solid, smart content marketing plan in place. If you're having trouble planning for the upcoming year or need some fresh ideas to include in your plan, read on. In this post, we'll dive into what content strategy is, why your business needs a content marketing plan, and what steps you need to take to create your strategy. Plus, we'll explore some examples of effective content marketing strategies for inspiration. What is content strategy?A content strategy is a strategy that takes your business goals, and then uses content as a primary means to achieve those goals. For instance, your business goals might include increasing brand awareness (to ultimately drive more revenue) — to achieve this goal, you might implement a content strategy that focuses on SEO to increase website visibility on the SERPs and drive traffic to your products or services. New business owners might assume a content strategy is a 'nice-to-have', but not entirely necessary early on. However, producing high-quality content to meet business needs can help companies build trust with new audiences and, ultimately, succeed over the long-haul.
Plus, with 70% of marketers actively investing in content marketing, it's often critical you develop a good content strategy to compete in your industry. When you develop a content strategy, there are a few questions to answer. Let's dive into those, now. 1. Who will be reading your content?Who's the target audience for your content? For how many audiences are you creating content? Just as your business might have more than one type of customer, your content strategy can cater to more than one type of reader or viewer. Using a variety of content types and channels will help you deliver different content to each type of audience you have in mind and engage everyone your company does business with. 2. What problem will you be solving for your audience(s)?Ideally, your product or service solves a problem you know your audience has. By the same token, your content coaches and educates your audience through this problem as they begin to identify and address it. A sound content strategy supports people on both sides of your product: those who are still figuring out what their main challenges are, and those who are already using your product to overcome these challenges. Your content reinforces the solution(s) you're offering and makes your customers more qualified users of your product. 3. What makes you unique?Your competitors likely have a similar product as yours, which means your potential customers need to know what makes yours better — or, at least, different. This is where content comes in. In order to prove why you're worth buying from, you need to prove why you're worth listening to. 4. What content formats will you focus on?What forms will your content take? Infographics? Videos? Blog posts? Having identified the topics you want to take a position on, you'll need to determine which formats to budget for so you can best express that position. 5. What channels will you publish on?Just as you can create content in different formats, you'll also have different channels you can publish to. Channels can include owned properties, such as your website and blog; and social media properties, such as Facebook and Twitter. We'll talk more about social media content strategy in the step-by-step guide later in this article. 6. How will you manage content creation and publication?Figuring out how you'll create and publish all your content can be a daunting task. It's important for a content strategy to know who's creating what, where it's being published, and when it's going live. Today's content strategies prevent clutter by managing content from a topic standpoint — as explained in the video above. When planning a content editorial calendar around topics, you can easily visualize your company's message and assert yourself as an authority in your market over time. Why Marketers Need to Create a Content Marketing StrategyContent marketing helps businesses prepare and plan for reliable and cost-effective sources of website traffic and new leads. If you can create just one blog post that gets a steady amount of organic traffic, an embedded link to an e-book or free tool will continue generating leads for you as time goes on — long after you click Publish. HubSpot's blog team found this to be key to increasing traffic to the Sales Blog over time — read about their blog strategy here. The reliable source of traffic and leads from your evergreen content will give you the flexibility to experiment with other marketing tactics to generate revenue, such as sponsored content, social media advertising, and distributed content. Plus, your content will not only help attract leads — it will also help educate your target prospects and generate awareness for your brand. How to Create a Content Marketing StrategyNow, let's dive in to learn the specifics of how to create a content marketing plan. Curious how HubSpot Head of Content SEO Aja Frost puts together our content strategy? Check out the video below before jumping into the tactical list. 1. Define your goal.What's your aim for developing a content marketing plan? Why do you want to produce content and create a content marketing plan? Know your goals before you begin planning, and you'll have an easier time determining what's best for your strategy. Download this goal planning template for help figuring out the right content goals. 2. Conduct persona research.To develop a successful plan, you need to clearly define your content's target audience — also known as your buyer persona. This is especially important for those who are starting out or are new to marketing. By knowing your target audience, you can produce more relevant and valuable content that they'll want to read and convert on. If you're an experienced marketer, your target may have changed. Do you want to target a new group of people or expand your current target market? Do you want to keep the same target audience? Revisiting your audience parameters by conducting market research each year is crucial to growing your audience. 3. Run a content audit.Most people start out with blog posts, but if you want to venture out and try producing other content pieces, consider which ones you want to make. For instance, if you've been doing weekly blog posts for the past year, creating an ebook that distills all your blog posts into one ultimate guide would be one way to offer information in a different format. We'll go over several different types of content you can use further down on the list. If you've been in business for a while, review your content marketing efforts and the results from it in the last year by running a content audit. Figure out what you can do differently in the upcoming year and set new goals to reach. Now is a great time to align your team's goals with the rest of your organization's goals. 4. Choose a content management system.Have a system in place where you can create, manage, and track your content, otherwise known as a content management system (CMS). A few vital parts of content management include content creation, content publication, and content analytics. With HubSpot CMS, you can plan, produce, publish, and measure your results all in one place. Another popular CMS is WordPress, to which you can add the HubSpot WordPress plugin for free web forms, live chat, CRM access, email marketing, and analytics. 5. Brainstorm content ideas.Now, it's time to start coming up with ideas for your next content project. Here are some tools to get the wheels turning: HubSpot's Website GraderHubSpot's Website Grader is a great tool to use when you want to see where you're at with your digital marketing. From your blogging efforts to your social media marketing, Website Grader grades vital areas of your marketing and sends you a detailed report to help you optimize and improve each area. With this tool, you can figure out how to make your website more SEO-friendly and discover new content ideas. BlogAboutGet your mind gears going with IMPACT's unique content idea generator, BlogAbout. This tool works a bit like Mad Libs, but instead of joke sentences, it shows you common headline formats with blanks where you can fill in the subject you have in mind. This brainstorming technique helps you put general ideas in contexts that would be appealing to your target audience. Once you have a headline you like, BlogAbout lets you add it to your "Notebook" so you can save your best ideas. HubSpot's Blog Ideas GeneratorGet blog post ideas for an entire year with HubSpot's Blog Ideas Generator. All you need to do is enter general topics or terms you'd like to write about, and this content idea generator does all the work for you. FeedlyThe Feedly RSS feed is a wonderful way to keep track of trendy topics in your industry and find content ideas at the same time. BuzzSumoDiscover popular content and content ideas at BuzzSumo. This company offers a number of market research tools, one of which uses social media shares to determine if a piece of content is popular and well-liked. In turn, this information helps you see which content ideas would do well if you were to create content about them. Blog Post Headline AnalyzerCoSchedule's Blog Post Headline Analyzer tool analyzes headlines and titles and provides feedback on length, word choice, grammar, and keyword search volume. If you have an idea in mind, run a few title options through the Headline Analyzer to see how you could make it stronger, and to move your idea further along in the brainstorming process. 6. Determine which types of content you want to create.There are a variety of options out there for content you can create. In the following section, we'll discuss some of the most popular content formats marketers are creating, including some tools and templates to get you started. 7. Publish and manage your content.Your marketing plan should go beyond the types of content you'll create — it should also cover you'll organize your content. With the help of an editorial calendar, you'll be on the right track for publishing a well-balanced and diverse content library on your website. Then, create a social media content calendar so you can promote and manage your content on other sites. Many of the ideas you think of will be evergreen — they're just as relevant months from now as they are today. That being said, you shouldn't ignore timely topics either. While they may not be the bulk of your editorial calendar, they can help you generate spikes of traffic. Most people count on incorporating popular holidays such as New Year's and Thanksgiving in their marketing efforts, but you don't have to limit yourself to these important marketing dates. If there are niche holidays that might appeal to your audience, it could be worth publishing content on your blog or on social media. Check out this ultimate list of social media holidays — keep an eye on it when you're planning your calendar. Content Strategy ExamplesTo understand what a content strategy is, it's probably helpful if we explore some examples of real-life content strategies based off a few various business goals. To start, let's explore an example of a content strategy used for SEO purposes (with the ultimate goal of attracting new prospects to a website). I'm a huge fan of Evernote's blog, which offers a wealth of knowledge around the topic of productivity. The blog post, How To Stay Disciplined When Times Are Tough, made me laugh out loud — and then incentivized me to grab a pen and write down some of the tips I liked best. But why is a company that sells a note-taking app writing about discipline? Because it's how I found their website, when I searched "How to stay disciplined" on Google. Evernote is a good example of a content strategy used to attract new leads. People interested in reading content related to productivity are likely the same people interested in downloading Evernote's note-taking product (because what's better than a to-do list for helping you stay on-task?). On the contrary, if Evernote's marketing team simply created content for the sake of increasing traffic — like publishing "Our 10 Favorite Beyonce Songs" — it wouldn't be considered a content strategy at all; it would just be content. A strategy needs to align content with business goals — in Evernote's case, the strategy aligns content (blog posts on productivity) with the business goal of attracting leads (people interested in note-taking) to their site. Let's take a look at another example to see how a good content strategy can help businesses with sales enablement. Consider the following scenario: a prospect calls a sales representative at Wistia and asks questions related to Wistia's video hosting service. As the Wistia sales rep speaks with her, he learns her business is using a few other tools to convert leads into sales ... including Intercom. Bingo. Once the call ends, the sales rep sends the prospect a follow-up email with a blog post about Wistia's integration with Intercom, which enables Intercom users to further personalize messages to prospects based off video-watching data they collect through Wistia. This is a prime example of how you might use a content strategy as a sales enablement tool. On the surface, it might seem odd that Wistia has dedicated content regarding another business' tool. However, this content is a great resource for Wistia's sales team, particularly when prospects have concerns regarding how Wistia's product can integrate with their existing software or processes. Now that we've explored a few examples of content strategies, let's dive into different types of content marketing. These are the eight most popular types of content marketing you can create for your readers and customers. 1. Blog PostsIf you haven't already noticed, you're currently reading a blog post. Blog posts live on a website and should be published regularly in order to attract new visitors. Posts should provide valuable content for your audience that makes them inclined to share posts on social media and across other websites. We recommend that blog posts be between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length, but you should experiment to see if your audience prefers longer or shorter reads. Check out our free blog post templates for writing great how-to, listicle, curation, SlideShare presentation, and newsjacking posts on your own blog. 2. EbooksEbooks are lead-generation tools that potential customers can download after submitting a lead form with their contact information. They're typically longer, more in-depth, and published less frequently than blog posts, which are written to attract visitors to a website. Ebooks are the next step in the inbound marketing process: After reading a blog post (such as this one), visitors might want more information. This is where calls-to-action (CTAs) come into play, directing people to a landing page where they can submit their contact information and download an ebook to learn more valuable information for their business. In turn, the business producing the ebook has a new lead for the sales team to contact. 3. Case StudiesCase studies are your opportunity to tell the story of a customer who succeeded in solving a problem by working with you. A case study is perhaps your most versatile type of content marketing because it can take many different forms — some of which are on this list. That's right, case studies can take the form of a blog post, ebook, podcast ... even an infographic. Your goal in a case study is to show the people who are considering your product that the proof is in the pudding. Before choosing a customer for a case study, you should determine which form the testimonial will take and the area of your business to which you're trying to drive value. 4. TemplatesTemplates are a handy content format to try because they generate leads for you while providing tremendous value to your audience. When you provide your audience with template tools to save them time and help them succeed, they're more likely to keep engaging with your content in the future. 5. InfographicsInfographics can organize and visualize data in a more compelling way than words alone. These are great content formats to use if you're trying to share a lot of data in a way that is clear and easy to understand. If you're ready to get started, get our templates for creating beautiful infographics in less than an hour. 6. VideosVideos are a highly engaging content medium and are shareable across social media platforms and websites alike. Videos require a bigger investment of time and resources than written content, but as visual marketing increases in popularity — after all, it's 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content — it's a medium worth experimenting with. HubSpot Research recently found that video is the most preferred form of content. Video also captures people's attention more than any other content format. 7. PodcastsStarting a podcast will help audiences find your brand if they don't have time or interest in reading content every day. The number of podcast listeners is growing — in 2018, nearly one-third of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast in the last month. If you have interesting people to interview or conversations to host, consider podcasting as another content format to experiment with. (Here's our comprehensive guide to starting a podcast.) 8. Social MediaOnce you've been regularly publishing content on your own site for a while, it might be time to start thinking about distributing your content on other sites. This could mean repurposing content into new formats and publishing them on your blog, creating original content specifically for external sites or publishing website content on various social networks. Posting on social media, however, is pivotal to amplifying your brand's reach and delivering your content to your customers where you know they spend their time. Social networks on which businesses often post include: When launching a business account on any of the social networks above, it's important to post the type of content your followers expect to see. On Instagram, for example, users want photos, videos, and graphics that reflect current events, show off user-generated content, or even go behind the scenes of your organization. On Facebook, your options for what to post open up a bit: Not only can you share your blog posts and website content, but you can also post native Facebook videos, product promotions, and original memes that resonate with your customers. You can also interact with other businesses that have a similar audience as your own. While the goal on social media sites like Instagram or Snapchat is to connect more intimately with your audience, your goal on platforms like Facebook and Twitter is to expand that audience, drive traffic toward your website, and start conversations in your industry. Do some basic market research to discover which platforms your buyers are on, and mold your content to their expectations. When you're ready for more ideas, there are a plethora of different content types to diversify your content marketing. It takes time, organization, and creativity to grow a successful content marketing strategy. From building the foundation of your content marketing plan to adding tools to better manage your content, setting up your strategy for the new year won't be a hassle if you follow the steps and explore the resources here. For additional guidance, use HubSpot's Marketing Plan Generator to create a 12-month strategy in just a few minutes. Happy creating! Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/content-marketing-plan Today's consumers have a lot of power. They can research your product or service and make purchase decisions entirely on their own. Moreover, rather than talking to one of your sales reps, they're more likely to ask for referrals from members of their networks or read online reviews. With this in mind, have you adapted your marketing strategy to complement the way today's consumers research, shop, and buy? To do just that, you must have a deep understanding of who your buyers are, your specific market, and what influences the purchase decisions and behavior of your target audience members. Enter: Market Research. Whether you're new to market research, this guide will provide you with a blueprint for conducting a thorough study of your market, target audience, competition, and more. What is market research?Market research is the process of gathering information about your business's buyers personas, target audience, and customers to determine how viable and successful your product or service would be, and/or is, among these people. Why do market research?Market research allows you to meet your buyer where they are. As our world (both digital and analog) becomes louder and demands more and more of our attention, this proves invaluable. By understanding your buyer's problems, pain points, and desired solutions, you can aptly craft your product or service to naturally appeal to them. Market research also provides insight into a wide variety of things that impact your bottom line including:
As you begin honing in on your market research, you'll likely hear about primary and secondary market research. The easiest way to think about primary and secondary research is to envision to umbrellas sitting beneath market research: one for primary market research and one for secondary market research. Beneath these two umbrellas sits a number of different types of market research, which we'll highlight below. Defining which of the two umbrellas your market research fits beneath isn't necessarily crucial, although some marketers prefer to make the distinction. So, in case you encounter a marketer who wants to define your types of market research as primary or secondary — or if you're one of them — let's cover the definitions of the two categories next. Then, we'll look at the different types of market research in the following section. Primary vs. Secondary ResearchThere are two main types of market research that your business can conduct to collect actionable information on your products including primary research and secondary research. Primary ResearchPrimary research is the pursuit of first-hand information about your market and the customers within your market. It's useful when segmenting your market and establishing your buyer personas. Primary market research tends to fall into one of two buckets: exploratory and specific research. Exploratory Primary ResearchThis kind of primary market research is less concerned with measurable customer trends and more about potential problems that would be worth tackling as a team. It normally takes place as a first step — before any specific research has been performed — and may involve open-ended interviews or surveys with small numbers of people. Specific Primary ResearchSpecific primary market research often follows exploratory research and is used to dive into issues or opportunities the business has already identified as important. In specific research, the business can take a smaller or more precise segment of their audience and ask questions aimed at solving a suspected problem. Secondary ResearchSecondary research is all the data and public records you have at your disposal to draw conclusions from(e.g. trend reports, market statistics, industry content, and sales data you already have on your business). Secondary research is particularly useful for analyzing your competitors. The main buckets your secondary market research will fall into include: Public SourcesThese sources are your first and most-accessible layer of material when conducting secondary market research. They're often free to find and review — lots of bang for your buck here. Government statistics are one of the most common types of public sources according to Entrepreneur. Two U.S. examples of public market data are the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor & Statistics, both of which offer helpful information on the state of various industries nationwide. Commercial SourcesThese sources often come in the form of market reports, consisting of industry insight compiled by a research agency like Pew, Gartner, or Forrester. Because this info is so portable and distributable, it typically costs money to download and obtain. Internal SourcesInternal sources deserve more credit for supporting market research than they generally get. Why? This is the market data your organization already has! Average revenue per sale, customer retention rates, and other historical data on the health of old and new accounts can all help you draw conclusions on what your buyers might want right now. Now that we've covered these overarching market research categories, let's get more specific and look at the various types of market research you might choose to conduct. 1. InterviewsInterviews allow for face-to-face discussions (in-person and virtual) so you can allow for a natural flow or conversation and watch your interviewee's body language while doing so. 2. Focus GroupsFocus groups provide you with a handful of carefully-selected people that you can have test out your product, watch a demo, provide feedback, and/or answer specific questions. 3. Product/Service Use ResearchProduct or service use research offers insight into how and why your audience uses your product or service, and specific features of that item. This type of market research also gives you an idea of the product or service's usability for your target audience. 4. Observation-Based ResearchObservation-based research allows you to sit back and watch the ways in which your target audience members go about using your product or service, what works well in terms of UX, what roadblocks they hit, and which aspects of it could be easier for them to use and apply. 5. Buyer Persona ResearchBuyer persona research gives you a realistic look at who makes up your target audience, what their challenges are, why they want your product or service, what they need from your business and brand, and more. 6. Market Segmentation ResearchMarket segmentation research allows you to categorize your target audience into different groups (or segments) based on specific and defining characteristics — this way, you can determine effective ways to meet their needs, understand their pain points and expectations, learn about their goals, and more. 7. Pricing ResearchPricing research gives you an idea of what similar products or services in your market sell for, what your target audience expects to pay — and is willing to pay — for whatever it is you sell, and what's a fair price for you to list your product or service at. All of this information will help you define your pricing strategy. 8. Competitive AnalysisCompetitive analyses are valuable because they give you a deep understanding of the competition in your market and industry. You can learn about what's doing well in your industry, what your target audience is already going for in terms of products like yours, which of your competitors should you work to keep up with and surpass, and how you can clearly separate yourself from the competition. 9. Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty ResearchCustomer satisfaction and loyalty research give you a look into how you can get current customers to return for more business and what will motivate them to do so (e.g. loyalty programs, rewards, remarkable customer service). This research will help you discover the most-effective ways to promote delight among your customers. 10. Brand Awareness ResearchBrand awareness research tells you about what your target audience knows about and recognizes from your brand. It tells you about the associations your audience members make when they think about your business and what they believe you're all about. 11. Campaign ResearchCampaign research entails looking into your past campaigns and analyzing their success among your target audience and current customers. It requires experimentation and then a deep dive into what reached and resonated with your audience so you can keep those elements in mind for your future campaigns and hone in on the aspects of what you do that matters most to those people. Now that you know about the categories and types of market research, let's review how you can conduct your market research. Here's how to do market research step-by-step. 1. Define your buyer persona.Before you dive into how customers in your industry make buying decisions, you must first understand who they are. This is where your buyer personas come in handy. Buyer personas — sometimes referred to as marketing personas — are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers. They help you visualize your audience, streamline your communications, and inform your strategy. Some key characteristics you should be keen on including in your buyer persona are:
The idea is to use your persona as a guideline for how to effectively reach and learn about the real audience members in your industry. Also, you may find that your business lends itself to more than one persona — that's fine! You just need to be thoughtful about each specific persona when you're optimizing and planning your content and campaigns. To get started with creating your personas, check out these free templates, as well as this helpful tool. 2. Identify a persona group to engage.Now that you know who your buyer personas are, use that information to help you identify a group to engage to conduct your market research with — this should be a representative sample of your target customers so you can better understand their actual characteristics, challenges, and buying habits. The group you identify to engage should also be made of people who recently made a purchase or purposefully decided not to make one. Here are some more guidelines and tips to help you get the right participants for your research. How to Identify the Right People to Engage for Market ResearchWhen choosing who to engage for your market research, start by focusing on people who have the characteristics that apply to your buyer persona. You should also: Aim for 10 participants per buyer persona.We recommend focusing on one persona, but if you feel it's necessary to research multiple personas, be sure to recruit a separate sample group for each one. Select people who have recently interacted with you.You may want to focus on people that have completed an evaluation within the past six months — or up to a year if you have a longer sales cycle or niche market. You'll be asking very detailed questions so it's important that their experience is fresh. Gather a mix of participants.You want to recruit people who have purchased your product, purchased a competitor's product, and decided not to purchase anything at all. While your customers will be the easiest to find and recruit, sourcing information from those who aren't customers (yet!) will help you develop a balanced view of your market. Here are some more details on how to select this mix of participants:
3. Prepare research questions for your market research participants.The best way to make sure you get the most out of your conversations is to be prepared. You should always create a discussion guide — whether it's for a focus group, online survey, or a phone interview — to make sure you cover all of the top-of-mind questions and use your time wisely. (Note: This is not intended to be a script. The discussions should be natural and conversational, so we encourage you to go out of order or probe into certain areas as you see fit.) Your discussion guide should be in an outline format, with a time allotment and open-ended questions for each section. Wait, all open-ended questions? Yes — this is a golden rule of market research. You never want to "lead the witness" by asking yes and no questions, as that puts you at risk of unintentionally swaying their thoughts by leading with your own hypothesis. Asking open-ended questions also helps you avoid one-word answers (which aren't very helpful for you). Example Outline of a 30-Minute SurveyHere's a general outline for a 30-minute survey for one B2B buyer. You can use these as talking points for an in-person interview, or as questions posed on a digital form to administer as a survey to your target customers. Background Information (5 Minutes)Ask the buyer to give you a little background information (their title, how long they've been with the company, and so on). Then, ask a fun/easy question to warm things up (first concert attended, favorite restaurant in town, last vacation, etc.). Remember, you want to get to know your buyers in pretty specific ways. You might be able to capture basic information such as age, location, and job title from your contact list, there are some personal and professional challenges you can really only learn by asking. Here are some other key background questions to ask your target audience:
Now, make a transition to acknowledge the specific purchase or interaction they made that led to you including them in the study. The next three stages of the buyer's journey will focus specifically on that purchase. Awareness (5 Minutes)Here, you want to understand how they first realized they had a problem that needed to be solved without getting into whether or not they knew about your brand yet.
Consideration (10 Minutes)Now you want to get very specific about how and where the buyer researched potential solutions. Plan to interject to ask for more details.
If they don't come up organically, ask about search engines, websites visited, people consulted, and so on. Probe, as appropriate, with some of the following questions:
Decision (10 Minutes)
ClosingHere, you want to wrap up and understand what could have been better for the buyer.
4. List your primary competitors.List your primary competitors — keep in mind listing the competition isn't always as simple as Company X versus Company Y. Sometimes, a division of a company might compete with your main product or service, even though that company's brand might put more effort in another area. For example. Apple is known for its laptops and mobile devices but Apple Music competes with Spotify over its music streaming service. From a content standpoint, you might compete with a blog, YouTube channel, or similar publication for inbound website visitors — even though their products don't overlap with yours at all. And a toothpaste company might compete with magazines like Health.com or Prevention on certain blog topics related to health and hygiene even though the magazines don't actually sell oral care products. Identifying Industry CompetitorsTo identify competitors whose products or services overlap with yours, determine which industry or industries you're pursuing. Start high-level, using terms like education, construction, media & entertainment, food service, healthcare, retail, financial services, telecommunications, and agriculture. The list goes on, but find an industry term that you identify with, and use it to create a list of companies that also belong to this industry. You can build your list the following ways:
Identifying Content CompetitorsSearch engines are your best friends in this area of secondary market research. To find the online publications with which you compete, take the overarching industry term you identified in the section above, and come up with a handful of more specific industry terms your company identifies with. A catering business, for example, might generally be a "food service" company, but also consider itself a vendor in "event catering," "cake catering," "baked goods," and more. Once you have this list, do the following:
After a series of similar Google searches for the industry terms you identify with, look for repetition in the website domains that have come up. Examine the first two or three results pages for each search you conducted. These websites are clearly respected for the content they create in your industry, and should be watched carefully as you build your own library of videos, reports, web pages, and blog posts. 5. Summarize your findings.Feeling overwhelmed by the notes you took? We suggest looking for common themes that will help you tell a story and create a list of action items. To make the process easier, try using your favorite presentation software to make a report, as it will make it easy to add in quotes, diagrams, or call clips. Feel free to add your own flair, but the following outline should help you craft a clear summary:
Market Research Report TemplateWithin a market research kit, there are a number of critical pieces of information for your business's success. Let's take a look at what those different kit elements are next. Pro Tip: Upon downloading HubSpot's free Market Research Kit, you'll receive editable templates for each of the given parts of the kit as well as instructions on how to use the templates and kit, and a mock presentation that you can edit and customize. Download HubSpot's free, editable market research report template here. 1. Five Forces Analysis TemplateUse Porter's Five Forces Model to understand an industry by analyzing five different criteria and how high the power, threat, or rivalry in each area is — here are the five criteria:
2. SWOT Analysis Template
A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis looks at your internal strengths and weaknesses, and your external opportunities and threats within the market.
A SWOT analysis highlights direct areas of opportunity your company can continue, build, focus on, and work to overcome.
3. Market Survey TemplateBoth market surveys and focus groups (which we'll cover in the next section) help you uncover important information about your buyer personas, target audience, current customers, market, competition, and more (e.g. demand for your product or service, potential pricing, impressions of your branding, etc.). Surveys should contain a variety of question types, like multiple choice, rankings, and open-ended responses. Ask quantitative and short-answer questions to save you time and to more easily draw conclusions. (Save longer questions that will warrant more detailed responses for your focus groups.) Here are some categories of questions you should ask via survey:
4. Focus Group TemplateFocus groups are an opportunity to collect in-depth, qualitative data from your real customers or members of your target audience. You should ask your focus group participants open-ended questions. While doing so, keep these tips top of mind:
Conduct Market Research to Grow BetterConducting market research can be a very eye-opening experience. Even if you think you know your buyers pretty well, completing the study will likely uncover new channels and messaging tips to help improve your interactions. Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/market-research-buyers-journey-guide Building a website is, in many ways, an exercise of willpower. It’s tempting to get distracted by the bells and whistles of the design process, and forget all about creating compelling content. It's that compelling content that's crucial to making inbound marketing work for your business. So how do you balance your remarkable content creation with your web design needs? It all starts with the "About Us" page. For a remarkable About page, all you need to do is figure out your company's unique identity, and then share it with the world. Easy, right? Of course not. Your "About Us" page is one of the most important pages on your website, and it needs to be well crafted. This profile also happens to be one of the most commonly overlooked pages, which is why you should make it stand out. The good news? It can be done. In fact, there are some companies out there with remarkable "About Us" pages, the elements of which you can emulate on your own website. By the end of this post, you'll be introduced to:
1. Yellow Leaf HammocksWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It tells us a story.When you have a great story about how your product or service was built to change lives, share it. The "About Us" page is a great place for it to live, too. Good stories humanize your brand, providing context and meaning for your product. What’s more, good stories are sticky -- which means people are more likely to connect with them and pass them on. Yellow Leaf Hammocks tells users about its product by describing how the hammocks empower artisan weavers and their families. The company breaks down different pieces of the story into sections that combine words and easily digestible graphics, painting a picture instead of big chunks of text. They're clear about why they're different: "Not a Charity," the page reads. And then: "This is the basis for a brighter future, built on a hand up, not a handout." Every company has a story to tell, so break out your storytelling skills from that random English class you took years ago and put them to work on your "About Us" page. Using descriptive and emotive copy and gorgeous graphics, an "About Us" page with a story works harder for your business than a generic one. 2. Eight Hour DayWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's human.People tend to think that "About Us" pages have to sound formal to gain credibility and trust. But most people find it easier to trust real human beings, rather than a description that sounds like it came from an automaton. Trying to sound too professional on your "About Us" page results in stiff, “safe” copy and design -- the perfect way to make sure your company blends in with the masses. Instead, Eight Hour Day showcases the people behind the company and humanizes its brand. Introducing the founders by name and featuring the photos of them on the "About Us" page drives home the point that Nathan and Katie are -- as they so astutely put it -- "two individuals with a passion for creativity -- creativity makes us happy." When you’re designing your "About Us" page, avoid industry jargon and replace it with an authentic voice -- yours -- to describe your product or service. Sure, it needs to be polished and free of errors, but it should always sound friendly and real. 3. ApptopiaWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It skips the business babble.We know -- no industry jargon. If you think it makes you sound super smart on your "About Us" page, think again. People want and appreciate straight talk about what your business does. After all, if people can't figure out what you do, how will they know they need your product or service? So, skip the industry lingo -- that's what Apptopia does on its "About Us" page. The startup's simple but polished language effectively communicates the company's offering while still allowing the Average Joe to understand it.
4. MozWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's humble.Instead of following the classic "About Us" script and writing a few paragraphs about the company's mission and origins, try something different -- there are plenty of ways to make your brand more compelling to someone who doesn't know about you. Take Moz, for example. A lot has happened since it was founded in 2004, so the company chose to share those milestones using a fun and clean design that incorporates clear headers, concise blurbs, and little graphics to break up the text. We especially love the humble references to how Moz received funding, how it switched its brand positioning -- and most importantly, how it switched back to its original model. This speaks volumes to the value honesty and humbleness can play to your customers. Don't be afraid to talk about your ups and downs; your customers will trust what you say that much more. 5. Yokel LocalWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: Personality, personality, personality.Yokel Local does a few things well on their About Us page: They call out who they work with, they tell their story and mission, and they showcase the team behind the brand. This last element is key because Yokel Local knows that their "vibe" wins over prospective clients. After all, when you hire an agency, you're hiring its people. And people have personality. Because "Yokel Local" is a bit of a kooky name that gives people pause, they poke fun at it by providing the definition, which then leads into photos of the team at work (and at play), the agency's story, their mission and values, and the people who make the magic happen. This magic is included all over the about page as their employees make goofy faces, wear ugly Christmas sweaters, and work/play hard. 6. NikeWhy the About Us Page Rocks: It knows its audience.Nike might seem like a company that's too big to inspire smaller businesses. You might even wonder if Nike even still has an "About Us" page. As a matter of fact, it does, and it hasn't forgotten the company's roots. Nike began on the campus of the University of Oregon by the hand of the college's track coach, Bill Bowerman. And even though he no longer works at the company, one of his beloved quotes still brands the bottom of Nike's "About Us" page below: "If you have a body, you are an athlete." This bold sentence, referenced by the asterisked "Athlete" in the words right above it, sheds important light on Nike's audience. The brand may be big today, but Nike is all about the rising stars -- who Nike depends on to, according to the rest of its "About Us" page, "expand human potential." The takeaway for marketers? Know your audience, and make it obvious to that audience the instant they read about you on your website. 7. Refinery29Why the "About Us" Page Rocks: It tells you what's most important.Here's another instance where any area of your website -- not just the "About Us" page -- is an opportunity to break the mold. Many companies add just a simple mission statement or company profile, but people often don't want to ready a wall of text explaining what you do. So, Refinery29 broke it down to convey the intangible qualities that are tough to include in a basic "About Us" page. Although Refinery29 does introduce its page with a description of its business, its goes out on a bang -- four bangs, to be exact. The organization is on a "mission," sure, but there's also an "essence" of Refinery29, a "promise" it keeps, and a "vibe" it gives off. These aren't company traits you'd think to include when starting out, but they're what your customers often make gut decisions on when buying. 8. Bulldog SkincareWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's lovable and memorable.What's the difference between "average" marketing and lovable marketing? It's the difference between creating generic webpages that provide great information, but in a straightforward, black-and-white kind of way -- versus creating webpages that provide great information and are infused with color, personality, and stay true to a company's unique brand voice. When you create lovable marketing, you can start a movement of brand evangelists and advocates who will help you grow. Where does this fit into a company's "About Us" page? The folks at Bulldog, a men's skincare company that was named for the colloquial "man's best friend" -- a dog -- could have typed up a few paragraphs about where the brand came from and how they were one of the first in the space to redefine and eliminate stereotypes around men's grooming. But that text alone would have been a bit, well, average. Instead, the "About Us" page is pithy, colorful, and leads with the lovable mug of an adorable bulldog -- fitting the name and the brand. And it states the purpose of the products -- to help customers from waking up with the (admittedly adorable) wrinkly face you see when you visit Bulldog's website. Play on your own words -- it's okay to have fun and pun with your brand, as it helps to inject personality and humor into your "About Us" page. It primes visitors for a story in a way that makes them immediately feel something. That's how you create memorable, lovable marketing. 9. DoomtreeWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: Its shows, tells, and has a soundtrack.One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words, according to Forrester Research's Dr. James McQuivey. But what about audio and visual, too, all combined with a really cool story? Well, that's one way to tell your story in an engaging way -- through multimedia. Doomtree is built on a bit of an innovative concept: That a group of talented artists can each have thriving solo careers, but can still come together on a regular basis to create great music. It's not a band -- it's a crew. It's an unconventional concept with an equally interesting backstory that "started as a mess of friends in Minneapolis, fooling around after school, trying to make music without reading the manual." And as soon as you arrive on Doomtree's 'About Us' page, you're greeted with big, bold photos of those friends. As you scroll down, users are treated to even more interaction with the crew's tracks and music videos. That makes sense, because it gives visitors an instant sample of Doomtree's product. What's more, the entire "About Us" page is responsive, including the video. That's important -- not only because it offers site visitors a great mobile experience, but also for Google search ranking -- especially now that such mobile usage has surpassed desktop. 10. AcciyoWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It gets at their prospect's pain... with a fun pop culture tie-in.Acciyo is a company committed to "empowering news readers to tack back control of their news diets." With that in mind, their big headline gets to the heart of their prospects' pain: "Reading the news today is like opening a book at chapter three: You're instantly lost." This headline implies that Acciyo will help eliminate that "lost" feeling and get clarity on the news that their audiences consumes. Best of all, it asserts this simply and elegantly with a Harry Potter tie-in. The headline's concept deals with books, then asserts that the name was derived from Harry Potter, and lays out the team members as "Wizards Behind the Magic" with their Hogwarts Houses proudly displayed. This provides the About Page with a cohesive theme that visitors can relate to while adding a touch of personality. 11. CerosWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's interactive and funny.Ceros' About Us page is interactive and engaging. As you scroll, the text slowly moves up the page, with bold — and humorous — statistics, like "4 beers on tap". Additionally, Ceros' uses images of their impressive, unique office space to further personalize the page. Best of all, Ceros' keeps the text on the page short-and-sweet, with powerful statements like "We exist to unlock creativity". The Culture section further demonstrates Ceros' playful brand voice, with core values like "We wear our chicken suits". 12. MarketiveWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's compelling, with fun scrollable features.Rarely have I seen a more powerful opening statement than the one Marketive uses in their About Us page: "Got a solid product? We tell your target audience that you exist." Additionally, Marketive's About Us page displays original designs rather than photos to support the text, and the page is simply fun to scroll through. Plus, I appreciated Marketive's layout — starting with what they do, moving into which types of industries they help, and ending with the company's earlier milestones. The interactive milestone calendar at the bottom is especially impressive. It authentically represents some humble beginnings (including two unsuccessful startups that inspired present-day Marketive), and features a fun scroll element that highlights various dates throughout the calendar. 13. Sweet Loren'sWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's playful and reflects the brand's personality.Start-to-finish, Sweet Loren's About Us page is playful, engaging, and colorful. The page starts with a 60-second video, and even incorporates cookie dough-scooping gifs. As you scroll, you'll move through some of Sweet Loren's impressive values, including inclusivity and refusing to compromise. Best of all, Sweet Loren's yummy products are last on the page, ensuring you're fully primed to purchase only after learning about Sweet Loren's mission and differentiating factor: creating non-GMO, gluten-free, plant-based, and delicious cookie dough. 14. TalExWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It focuses on social responsibility.TalEx has an interesting origin story, in which two women left a major recruiting firm to build their own and ended up landing AOL as a major client of theirs — which was previously their old employers' client. TalEx has since seen unprecedented growth at 4,900% in the three years since it began. You'll learn all this and more on their About Us page, but what really makes their page stand out is the company's emphasis on social responsibility, which takes up nearly half the page and explains the company's dedication to giving 5% of its net profit annually to various philanthropic organizations. 15. SkinnyDippedWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's authentic and down-to-earth.SkinnyDipped's About Us page features a few sweet, polaroid images of the employees (including three of the co-founders as young children), and a moving nod to Josh Dickerson, a family friend whose death inspired the family to start the business. Their About Us page is well-written and inspiring — for instance, they write, "We decided to start a business … That it would be centered around food was obvious. For us—family, friends, food and love are all tangled up." By the time you finish reading their story (and the individual employee bios), you'll be as impressed by SkinnyDipped's brand values as you are by their delicious products. 16. LoveBug ProbioticsWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's playful and informative.LoveBug Probiotics' About Us page features an image of the founder's four young children wearing "Chief Fun Officer", "Chief Giggle Officer", "Chief Silly Officer" and "Chief Humor Officer" t-shirts. I'll admit — there aren't many About Us pages with cuter introductions than that. The page effectively includes all the information you'd need on the company to make an informed purchasing decision — including how the founder came up with the idea, her personal ties to her vision, the science behind her probiotics, and even an opportunity to find local stores that carry LoveBug probiotics. Plus, while the products are science-backed, the About Us page doesn't confuse visitors with difficult-to-understand facts: instead, the page is simple, straightforward, and helpful. 17. Brown and CoconutWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It's simple and no-fuss.Sometimes, simpler is better — as is the case with Brown and Coconut's About Us page, which features a photo of the two co-founders alongside a few paragraphs of text, outlining the purpose and vision behind Brown and Coconut. Plus, the opening sentence is incredibly relatable and draws the reader in: "After years of suffering from severe acne and frustrated by the lack of effectiveness and further damage they experienced with popular skin care products, Brown and Coconut founders and sisters, Letisha and Zeena Brown embarked on a journey to heal their skin from the inside out." What I liked best about this About Us page is the simple, no-fuss language they used to describe their business. Plus, rather than ending with a CTA directing visitors to their products, the co-founders instead choose to include a CTA to follow their business on Instagram, promoting a likely more effective, long-term lead generation strategy that starts with brand awareness. 18. Kuno CreativeWhy the "About Us" Page Rocks: It focuses on people rather than products.Kuno Creative's About Us page effectively focuses on what makes the company different: its people. While the first paragraph describes the origin of the digital marketing agency, the majority of the page is taken up by black-and-white shots of all its employees along with descriptions of each member, like a modern day yearbook. Plus, the page looks sleek and clean, with plenty of white space and large blue lettering to draw attention without overwhelming visitors. If you're unsure what you want to include in your About Us page, consider taking note of how Kuno Creative focuses on its people, rather than its product, in the About Us page — a great way to humanize your brand. 1. Joe PaytonWhy the "About Me" Page Rocks: It's confident, creative, and easy to skim."About Us" pages might encompass the values of more than one person or entity, but they're no more important to the image of a business than your personal about page. Take Joe Payton's "About Me" page, below. Not only does Joe's illustrative self-portrait give him a personal brand that customers will remember, but it also demonstrates his expertise as a designer and animator. His website visitors can learn not just what he does, but why he does it, in an easily digestible way. Being able to express his values as a creative professional in such a well-organized page is something to be desired by anyone creating their own about page. 2. Kero OneWhy the "About Me" Page Rocks: It's multilingual.Kero One is a hip-hop artist and DJ from San Francisco, and his "About Me" page carries a valuable lesson to personal brands who cater to more than one audience -- especially if those audiences speak different languages. Kero One's story starts at his childhood, when he was six years old and first discovered a passion for hip-hop. Knowing how old and genuine his love for the genre is adds tremendous value to his own music in the eyes of his listeners. While this entrepreneur's childhood interests help to deepen his audience, the second screenshot below helps Kero One widen it. His "About Me" page first tells his story in English, then in Japanese, then in Korean, then in Chinese. Accommodating these Southeast Asian audiences makes his brand more inclusive of all the audiences he identifies with. ... 3. Aja FrostWhy the "About Me" Page Rocks: It's data-driven.Alright, we might be biased in highlighting this professional, as Aja is our very own SEO strategist at HubSpot. Nonetheless, the ingenuity she brings to the company isn't lost on her website's "About Me" page. Being a data-driven professional, Aja knows her own clients as a freelance writer and strategist don't just want to see what she's written -- they want to see how her content has performed. With that in mind, her "About Me" page tells a story of her career growth, which peaks -- no pun intended -- at an impressive line graph showing the result of an SEO strategy she implemented for the HubSpot Blog. (The graph's sharp decline at September simply indicates when she stopped collecting data.) Following the impressive chart, Aja closes out her about page with a personal note on what she does in her spare time -- always a good way to humanize yourself in the eyes of your potential customers. 4. Madison ButlerWhy the "About Me" Page Rocks: It welcomes the audience into a conversation.Madison Butler is an HR change maker "committed to deconstructing the status quo and rebuilding corporate America, one organization at a time." She does this through her DEI work and her advocacy. The About page, which doubles as the site's homepage, calls this out at the very top in one bold statement: "I'm here to ensure organizations know how to make space for everyone." It's simple, effective, and to-the-point. Then, "You belong here." This second sentence in the headline underscores the inclusivity of Butler's mission and work. It's even emphasized further where the phrase is repeated in the footer. 5. Sara DietschyWhy the "About Me" Page Rocks: It has variety but still aligns with her personal brand.This professional YouTube content creator has an eclectic collection of videos related to technology and culture, and expresses that diversity all over her "About Me" page. In addition to the vibrant self-portrait at the top of the page, Sara's first sentence tells you just how many people subscribe to her channel: 350,000. This is an important number to know for her potential video advertisers and collaborators who want to know how much exposure they'd get by working with her or advertising on her channel. The colored tiles lining the page -- starting with the red one, as shown below -- also do a terrific job segmenting her work by the types of projects she takes up and for whom she's done them. That Intel logo in the second photo of Sara, below, is sure to turn some visitors' heads as they're perusing her website. 6. ShaDrenaWhy the "About Me" Page Works: The combination of brand voice and monochrome palette breaks the mold.ShaDrena is a graphic artist whose mission is to "visually build creative rebellious brands beyond a logo." She exemplifies this mission for her own brand on her About page. In three sections — About, Bio, and Random Facts — the audience gets the full ShaDrena experience, which is more than just design. It's also about voice and personality. As a self-described "creative hustler," "rule breaker," and "designer of dope brands," the language ShaDrena uses on her site comes across as edgy and authentic, a perfect way to make copy mirror personality. All of this is presented in blacks, whites, and grays when it's not common to see monochrome color palettes, which subverts the expectations one would have for a graphic designer. 7. Marc EnsignWhy the "About Me" Page Rocks: It's funny but professional.This branding expert does two things super well on his about page: He takes his work seriously, but doesn't take himself too seriously. Marketers know there's value to keeping a casual tone in the content they create, but in order to attract customers, you need to prove you have discipline and integrity. That's a tough balance to get right. Marc Ensign nails that balance between friendly and formal with a confident opening statement, followed by an amusing smiley photo of himself to set an inviting tone. 8. Miracle Inameti-ArchibongWhy the "About Me" Section Rocks: It has dynamic angles and clear storytelling.With excellent design that emphasizes her copy, Miracle Inameti-Archibong's site is a masterclass at how to do a one-page website well. The content is presented with large clear images, cool and bold colors, dynamic angles and blocks, and simple typography. This design supports the story in her About Me section, which spans over a decade but is clearly laid out in just four sentences. The reader knows her career span without being overwhelmed with too much information. That's when she dives further into her expertise and the meat of the About section, which is thoughtfully paired with testimonials on the right that provide social proof for it. How to Write an About Page
It's tough to establish one all-encompassing template for your "About Us" page -- there are just so many ways you can go about telling your company story. But, per the real "About Us" pages we've just highlighted, there are some steps you should keep in mind when getting started. Here are five steps to writing an "About Us" page based on some of the things that impressed us about the examples above. 1. Establish a mission statement.Your "About Us" page can and will be much longer than a single mission statement, but in order to draw people in, you need to succinctly state your goal in the industry up front. What are you here to do? Why should your website visitors care? 2. Outline your company story.You might not have a long history of changes and growth your company has endured (yet), but it's a nice touch to talk about where you came from in your "About Us" page. So, isolate the milestones prior your company's founding, and use them to give readers some backstory on your current venture. 3. Reveal how you've evolved.Even if you're a young company, there's no shame in admitting your business strategy -- or even personal way of thinking -- has changed since you began. In fact, in about pages, these evolutions can improve the story you tell to website visitors. About pages are perfect spaces to talk about where you started, how you've grown, and the ideals that have helped your organization mature. Use these moments to further your company story and show people that you're always ready to change and adapt to the needs of your industry. 4. State your "aha!" moment.Every good company was founded on an idea -- something the current marketplace might not yet offer. What was your idea? Use this "Aha!" moment as a pivot point when telling your company story. What was a challenge you faced while developing your company? How did this challenge or discovery shape what you are today? 5. Explain who you serve.As much as you want as many eyeballs on your "About Us" page as possible, you won't do business with every single one of them. That's why it's crucial that you identify and mention your core customer. Who should care you exist? Which eyeballs are you here to serve? 6. Explain what you're offering them.As you're explaining who you serve, make it clear what it is you're offering. Too often companies generalize their product or service in the language of their website, making it hard to understand what it is the customer is actually paying for. They're afraid literal explanations of their products aren't interesting enough, or will sound unappealing in writing. And that's a fair concern. However, by investing just a sentence or two into telling your potential customers exactly what they'll receive can keep them on your website for longer and interested in learning more. 7. Cite examples of who you've served.Got some loyal customers in your portfolio? Use your about page to let the world know who already trusts and benefits from your work. Knowing about your company's past successes can influence your prospects' purchasing decisions because they will be able to envision their success in the success of your past customers. Even if you don't yet have case studies to expand on the problems you've helped buyers solve, it's in your interest to briefly mention who you've done this for. And your about page is the perfect platform for it. 8. Describe your values.Customers want to be treated like human beings. For that to happen, they need to feel that they're being treated by human beings. When finishing your "About Us" page, describe who you are as a person or a team, and what your personal values are. What's your company culture like? What bigger picture in life drives your business? An LED lightbulb maker might sell 10 different lamp styles, for example, but that might not be the most important characteristic to its primary audience. Maybe this lightbulb developer was founded on a commitment to environmental protection, and every bulb the company makes was built by people who are dedicated to making the world more energy-efficient. Keep in mind a secondary audience of your company's "About Us" page consists of your future employees. This is another reason describing your personal values is a good idea -- the key to your job candidates' hearts is to show them you have one too. About Us Page Templates That RockCopy is an important element of an About page. However, you'll also want to keep user experience in mind as you showcase your brand story and identity to the world. Here are some of the top About Us and About Me page templates to use or draw inspiration from: 1. Sodium v2 (HubSpot)Tell your prospects about you using bold color and by telling your story. This template can help with that with its bold color (that can be customized) and timeline-like layout. Website visitors will know where you've come and where you're going. 2. Touraza Template (WordPress)If you want something with a little flavor, the Touraza template is a good choice. With the "meet the team" section near the top with geometric designs and striking typography, you'll be able to showcase the humans behind your brand. 3. Logan Template (Shopify)This template makes use of large images in a modern layout to break up the ample white space. The result: A clean and enjoyable reading experience. The top of the page puts the brand story (or other introductory text) first, supported by a large image that speaks for itself. The pops of color can be customized to your brand style, drawing emphasis to the most important elements you want to highlight. 4. Mercuric Modular Premium (HubSpot)Make a statement with a stylish slider and smooth 3D animations. This template can be edited using user-friendly modules and other effects to catch your website visitors' attention. It comes with counter boxes, progress bars, and animated images for you to customize. There's also a full template pack for the other pages of your site. 5. Coax Template (WordPress)The advantage of the Coax template is that it's powered by Elementor, a page builder that makes customization easy. Even if you want to keep some of the defaults, though, this template is beautiful, letting the typography and copy take center stage. Ideal for a personal brand, you can choose to lay out your content similarly to a resume with big subheads on the left and descriptive text on the right. 6. Clean (HubSpot)This template is 100% drag-and-drop ready, making setup a breeze. With an elegant header and overlay, you'll make a great first impression as you tell your brand story. Zero coding is required, it's completely customizable, and it's backed by a 100% happiness guarantee. 7. Negocis (HubSpot)Do you think that your story is best told visually? This template supports icons and other elements that appeal to website visitors who want to understand your impact. It features image sliders, social sharing buttons, and more. At this point, we hope that creating an "About Us" page doesn't seem like a daunting task -- rather, we hope you're ready to have some fun with it. With a good story to tell, creative copy, humility, and digestible visuals, you're on your way to an eye-catching user experience. Even better? You're becoming part of the exception -- and standing out from a sea of "About Us" pages. What makes you different? We're eager to learn more ... about you. Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/remarkable-about-us-page-examples You know LinkedIn — the professional, polished, responsible sibling of the social media sphere. Considering the social network has 722 million+ members, you almost certainly already have a profile. The stats about its effectiveness and usage are mind-boggling: for instance, three people are hired every minute on LinkedIn, and the network reports a 55% increase in conversations between connections just in the last quarter. If you're anything like me, you read these stats and get the feeling you should be getting more out of your LinkedIn experience. But navigating a world of over 700 million individuals can seem pretty daunting – and, like any social network, there's plenty of spammy content from publishers clogging feeds with self-promotional materials. You've probably seen these cringe-worthy posts. Things like: "I was rushing into a job interview, but stopped to help a woman collect a bunch of papers she'd dropped in the lobby. Turned out she was the hiring manager. I got the job on the spot. #karma" But, unique amongst social media platforms, you can rest-assured that individuals show up on LinkedIn thinking about work. This means LinkedIn users are primed for social selling, and there are ample opportunities to find, connect, and build relationships with potential prospects on the network. The data backs this up: a HubSpot study of over 5,000 businesses found LinkedIn traffic generated almost three times the visitor-to-lead conversion rate of either Twitter or Facebook. This is extremely valuable in any profession – and especially if you work in the B2B space. Get the essential guide to using LinkedIn for marketing and professional networking.So, how do you focus in on a community of people from your industry or with shared interests to get the most out of this massive network? Enter: LinkedIn Groups. Here, we're going to explore what LinkedIn Groups are, as well as LinkedIn Group best practices, and the most impressive Groups to join on the network. Let's dive in. What are LinkedIn Groups?LinkedIn Groups is a dedicated space for professionals to share expertise, seek advice, and build meaningful relationships. They've been around for a while, but, as the trend in social media moves towards more intentional, self-selected communities, their importance continues to grow. Groups represent a targeted opportunity to build your personal brand and professional community on LinkedIn. Only members of a given group can view, post, or comment on conversations within that group. Groups can set their own admissions criteria and establish admins as gatekeepers. By default, your Group affiliations show up at the bottom of your LinkedIn Profile under the 'Interests' section. You can edit the visibility for specific groups –– just one of the many ways to customize how your LinkedIn Profile represents your personal and professional brand. Unlisted Groups don't appear in search results, and only fellow group members will see the group's information on your Profile. These more private communities require a direct link or admin invitation for access. LinkedIn Groups Best PracticesTo get the most out of LinkedIn Groups communities, be a good community member. Consider that your Golden Rule in this ecosystem. Let your work and your insight speak for itself –– avoiding blatant self-promotion or outright spam. Other best practices for becoming a valued group member include:
Pro-Tip: Want to capitalize on time you spend acclimating yourself to a LinkedIn Group and its particular community? Leadjet is a browser extension that helps salespeople work faster and more efficiently. Automatically add LinkedIn prospects in a single click to your CRM, without wasting time to enter the data manually. With a tool like Leadjet, you're easing into a Group's community and meaningfully adding to your pipeline of high-quality prospects at the same time. Win-win. Navigating LinkedIn GroupsYou can navigate to LinkedIn Groups in several ways. Look for Groups directly in the Search bar, just as you would find connections, companies or anything else on LinkedIn. You can also find them in the 'Work' grid on your Navigation bar within LinkedIn, or at linkedin.com/groups. How to Find Groups on LinkedInLook for groups that match your industry and interests by searching for relevant titles, keywords, or phrases. For virtually any industry or job function, you'll find a number of LinkedIn Groups.
Evaluate Groups' descriptions, as well as connections from your network who are already members, to determine which Groups are the best fit for you. LinkedIn Groups DirectoryBrowse the LinkedIn Groups Directory — accessible from the right navigation as well as the search drop-down in the upper left part of the LinkedIn user interface. Search by name, phrase, or keyword, and sift through results based on either the group name or a keyword in the group description. How to Join Groups on LinkedInYou can join a Group on LinkedIn by click "Request to Join" on a Group's home or profile page. Your request goes directly to the Group Admins, who evaluate your fit for the Group. Or, if another connection invites you to join a group, simply 'Accept' on the invite from your inbox or notifications screens, as you would a standard Connection request. Where are my Groups on LinkedIn?LinkedIn Groups impact the appearance of your LinkedIn Profile in several ways. As mentioned, people looking at Groups can see which of their connections are already members. Additionally, the 'Interests' section at the bottom portion of your Profile displays a selection of information, including topics and experts you follow on LinkedIn, as well as Group memberships. If you've been on LinkedIn for a while, you may have some outdated or inactive Group memberships. You can curate what displays on your Profile for others to see by leaving Groups that no longer interest you. But what if you want to continue receiving messages from certain Groups but don't want them to appear on your profile? On the page listing all of your Group affiliations, click the three dots to the right of any Group listing and select "Update your settings": On the linked sub-page, toggle "Display group on profile" to "No", which maintains your membership but hides it from the 'Interests' section of your profile. This ensures that only other members or people searching directly for that Group can potentially see your affiliation. Now, you can stay connected to that high school alumni group or keep following a competitor's learning community without this information popping up for just anyone to see on your profile. The above applies for Listed Groups. Unlisted Groups are not publicly searchable and will not appear on your profile, except to other people who are also members of the same group. Potential members can only see or access the Group after receiving an invitation from a current member or Admin. Best Groups to Join on LinkedInWhatever your industry, role, or goal for joining LinkedIn Groups, there's likely no shortage of curated recommendations for the best Groups. To start, you might check out resources like "20 LinkedIn Groups Every Marketer Should Join" or "11 Must-Join LinkedIn Groups For Recruiters." It's also helpful to think beyond immediate or explicitly professional affiliations. Don't limit yourself to only joining groups directly related to your industry. Alumni groups are often both particularly active and helpful – especially if you're trying to break into a new field or build relationships in a new region. Seek out groups that your ideal customers belong to and be an active, engaged member of the groups you join to maximize potential for meaningful networking and social selling. Explore LinkedIn Groups' potential to support your own goals by joining a couple of Groups today. Get started with one or two groups in your industry, and another based on where you went to school or a favorite personal interest. Think of them as digital versions of groups and spaces you'd consider visiting offline, too. Begin observing the conversations, looking for ways to contribute, and assessing how you might fit into the Group's community. Good luck! [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4710/5-tips-for-creating-promoting-and-managing-a-linkedin-group.aspx Wouldn't it be great if creating infographics was as simple as writing regular old text-based blog posts? Unfortunately, making visual content like this usually takes a lot more time, effort, and let's face it -- skill -- than the written word. Usually. But considering the popularity and effectiveness of visual content in marketing today, you can't just afford to throw in the towel. That's why we decided to take all the pain and suffering out of infographic creation. Seriously -- don't give up just yet. You, too, can create infographics that are professional-looking, high-quality, and completed in under an hour. I'm going to prove it. First things first: Then, all you have to do is provide the content to use inside them. Easy as that. In fact, I'm going to show you just how easy it is to make your own infographic by demonstrating with one of our 15 infographic templates in PowerPoint (pictured above). Then, I'll explain exactly what I did so you get a sense of how easy it really is. How to Make an Infographic
1. Identify the audience for your infographic.Infographics don't sell themselves on design alone. You need to deliver "info" that's just as compelling as the "graphic," and to do that, you need to know the audience your infographic intends to reach. According to Harvard Business Review, there are five possible audiences that can change how you choose and visualize your data: novice, generalist, managerial, expert, and executive. Start by comparing your infographic's ideal reader with one of these five audiences -- which one applies to your reader? When thinking about the data you want to visualize, let the five audiences above dictate how advanced your data will be. A "novice" audience, for example, might need data whose meaning is more obvious at first blush. An "expert" might be more interested in getting into the weeds of your numbers and posing theories around them. An "executive" has more in common with a novice audience in that they only have time for the simplest or most critical information, and the affect it'll have on the business. 2. Collect your content and relevant data.Using the audience you've chosen above, your next step is to organize all the content and data you'll use in the infographic. You can either collect third-party data or use your own original data. If you use third-party data, just be sure you properly cite your sources -- just like in any other good piece of content.
That way, your infographic looks clean and professional, yet people will still be able to access the sources no matter where the infographic gets shared or embedded. It may also even drive visitors back to your site. 3. Choose your desired infographic template.Your next step is to choose an infographic template appropriate for representing that data. The important thing is to choose a template that specifically works for the type of data set/content you want to present. As you saw pictured above, you can download our 15 infographic templates in PowerPoint and choose whichever template you'd like. Some of your template options in the offer linked above include a timeline, flowchart, side-by-side comparison, and a data-driven infographic. Here are some basic ideas for choosing an infographic template that suits the story you want your data to tell:
4. Download your template to PowerPoint.For the sake of time (remember, our mission is to create an infographic in under an hour), I'm going to create an infographic based on a compilation of steps and best practices we put together in our guide, How to Run an Inbound Marketing Campaign in 2018. For this, I've picked the "World's Greatest Timeline" infographic template from our collection of infographic templates, which is helpful for my data set since it will allow me to outline each step of the campaign creation process in order. 5. Customize your infographicObviously, this is the most time-consuming part -- but it's also the most fun. Simply come up with a catchy title, plug in your data/content, and adjust your font sizes and formatting. Feel free to switch up the graphics and colors, too, so they're relevant to your brand and the data you're providing. To customize the look of the infographic even more, you might add or change up the colors or font styles. In this example, you'll notice that I've inputted my text and changed the font colors to HubSpot's signature orange and dark blue: You're not limited by what the template includes, either. You can use the tools in PowerPoint's software to create bar graphs, pie charts, and other visuals to support your data. (Note: Download our free infographic templates for a cheat sheet for using PowerPoint's various features and tools.) 6. Include a footer with your sources and logo.Finally, I included a link to my source (which can be found here), as well as the HubSpot logo so people know who created the infographic if it gets shared in social media or embedded on other websites -- which is definitely something you want, since one of the main benefits of creating infographics is their shareability. 7. Add embed code and a Pinterest button, and publish it.The only thing left to do is to publish and promote your awesome new infographic. As I mentioned earlier, we recommend using your blog to publish it (including your list of sources), including a Pinterest button for visitors to easily "pin" your infographic on Pinterest, and create and add an embed code for visitors to share it on their own websites and blogs, as we did above. Share This Image On Your Site<p><strong>Please include attribution to blog.hubspot.com with this graphic.</strong><br /><br /><a href='https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/create-infographics-with-free-powerpoint-templates'><img src='https://blog.hubspot.com/hs-fs/hubfs/free_infographic_template_custom-1.png?t=1519094621186&width=1138&height=3412&name=free_infographic_template_custom-1.png' alt='free_infographic_template_custom-1' width='660px' border='0' /></a></p>That's it! This whole thing took me under an hour to put together -- much shorter than it would've taken me if I'd started from scratch (not to mention more professional looking... and less expensive than hiring a designer). That's it! This whole thing took me under an hour to put together -- much less time (not to mention more professional looking) than it would've taken me if I'd started from scratch. Plus, it's less expensive than hiring a designer and using the resources you might want to save for larger campaigns. Editor's note: This post was originally published in May 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/create-infographics-with-free-powerpoint-templates Did you know that landing pages have the highest conversion rate at 23% than other types of signup forms? It’s true, but landing pages don't convert visitors to leads all by themselves. If they don’t have attractive and compelling offers behind them, they won't generate the leads your sales team is looking for. That's why it's so important to create valuable content people want to download, and then package it in a way that's visually appealing to your readers. An ebook is a practical content choice that delivers so much value to your audience that they won’t mind submitting a lead form to download it. WP Forms reports that ebooks are the most popular lead magnet amongst subscribers, with 27.7% of marketers using them. Adding ebooks to your content archive can be a worthwhile effort, but it’ll take work. While every step of creating an ebook is critical, a substantial step of the ebook development process is creating a design that helps tell the story in the copy. A professional and functional design makes the copy more readable to your audience, thus making it more likely that they’ll refer back to it and maybe even share it with a friend. We know not every team has someone in-house who can (or has time to) whip up a slick, shareable ebook design. But we have good news: You don't need to be a designer by trade to design beautiful ebooks yourself. With the right resources and approach, you can deliver valuable content to your audience in a fraction of the time. A few years ago. we created ebook templates to help make this process easier for you. They were so popular that we decided to revamp the offer and include PowerPoint, Adobe Indesign, and Google Slides formats. We hope these templates minimize the time you spend on the details of design, allowing you to concentrate on writing valuable, lead-generating content your readers will love.
Start With One of These Free Ebook TemplatesEach of these templates is sure to organize your content into a readable, shareable ebook that your readers will enjoy. Each one is complete with a table of contents, chapter page, copy pages, and a call-to-action page at the end. Here is a preview of some of the ebooks you'll find in the template bundle: 1. Artistic ThemeFor the marketer, salesperson, or designer who needs to communicate a vision from high-level strategy to detail, the Artistic theme template is a smart choice. This template uses white space to set boundaries between sections, giving your ebook a clean, uncluttered charm. Colorful headers with serif fonts, eye-catching graphics, and stunning images will make your ebook come to life. The Artistic theme includes several unique layout options including light and heavy text pages, photo layouts, and more so that the design is fresh from one page to another. The Artistic Theme Ebook Template is best for:
2. Professional ThemeAppeal to the professional yet bold aesthetic, the Professional theme ebook template. Image-based title pages and thick, bold fonts draw attention to headlines and big ideas while body pages with room for photos make it perfect for a showcase or inspiration guide. The Professional template is made with the visual communicator in mind. Social media experts, event planners, and web designers — this one is for you! The Professional Theme Ebook Template is best for:
3. Honeycomb ThemeYour ebook is sure to get the crowd buzzing with this honeycomb-inspired design. The hexagonal shapes in the background are neutral-colored in the original ebook template, but adding in your brand colors can make these hives look sweet. Inside, you'll find page layouts for quotes and captioned photos, making it a good choice for ebooks with a healthy balance of imagery and copy. The Honeycomb Theme Ebook template is best for:
4. Triad ThemeGreat for educational workbooks that include heavy visual designs, the Triad theme provides plenty of space to organize your content on every page. The triangular shapes in this template give your ebook a sense of direction that keeps the reader moving forward. The bold complementary colors jump right off the page and grab your attention, but this template can be edited to incorporate your brand colors. The Triad Theme Ebook Template is best for:
With these polished templates, you’ll be able to:
Start Creating Your Ebook For FreeEbooks are one of the most popular content offerings available to consumers, but the effort required to make them can deter content creators from starting the process. These templates make designing your ebook simple so you can spend more time sharing your big ideas with the world. Editor's note: This post was originally published in July 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. [Read More ...] from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/free-ebook-templates |
Joseph Ashley
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