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It’s 2024, and the highest-ROI marketing channel is still good ol’ social media. 

Our State of Marketing & Trends Report shows that 43% of marketers use it as a marketing channel. I wonder why that number isn’t even higher.

These days, sharing content on social media is a no-brainer for brands. Whether you’re looking for a strategy refresh or trying out the channel for the first time, this post is your guide to the different types of social media content, what works best, and how it can empower your business.

 

Different Types of Social Media Content

1. Video (Short-form, Specifically)

Social media marketers are still placing their bet on short-form videos in 2024, some even upping the ante: 

• 67% plan to increase their investment in short-form videos
• 31% will maintain their current investment 
• 33% plan to invest more in short-form videos than any other content form

It’s not surprising, considering short videos yield the highest ROI for social media marketing, according to HubSpot’s 2024 Social Media Trends Report.  

Some common examples of short-form videos are TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, and YouTube shorts. This TikTok below is from Candeeze, a small husband-and-wife brand that sells freeze-dried candy online. It racked up 1.8 million views by showing the behind-the-scenes of their business operation. 

Don’t forget live video — they gained steam during the pandemic allowing remote participation in events. Twitch and other popular live-streaming platforms let people interact with their favorite creators in real time. This format has the second highest ROI of all social media content types, according to 57% of marketers.

Long-form videos are also popular, despite having lower ROI than short-form. They’re more costly to produce; consumers expect high production quality from them while lacking the attention span to finish them. 

But if long videos are your jam, don’t worry — for each long-form video you produce, you can repurpose it into multiple shorts, maximizing the value of your resources. 

2. Audio Chat and Live Rooms

Remember when Clubhouse was all everyone could talk about? That frenzy has passed, but audio chats and live rooms are here to stay. Many platforms have native audio features, like Twitter Spaces, LinkedIn Live, and Facebook Live Audio. 

Audio chat rooms let brands directly communicate with audiences and develop closer relationships than seeing a billboard or watching a YouTube video. And, during a time when customers value connections with brands more than ever, audio chat rooms are a valuable tool.

After seeing satisfactory ROI, 91% of social media marketers plan to continue or increase their investment in audio chat and live rooms. 

Audio chat rooms are also trendy among Gen Z, the biggest social media demographic. A Spotify study found that 80% of Gen Z enjoy audio content because it allows them to express their individuality and explore different sides of their personalities. 

3. Content That Represents Brand Values

Almost half of marketers say that content reflecting brand values is part of their existing social media strategy. 

This type of content is anything that highlights what your company stands for, such as commitments to sustainable production practices, fair treatment of employees, social justice, and more. 

Consumers care more than ever about what the brands they buy from stand for and the values they have. They want to know the causes that businesses support and the commitments made to bettering the world.

If you need an example of doing brand value content right, look no further than Patagonia. 

It’s not just about loyalty: Marketers also say that it has the 5th biggest ROI of any trend. 48% of marketers are already posting this type of social media content.

4. User-generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) is content your audience creates that features your business/brand that is not paid for by your business. For example, someone shares a non-sponsored TikTok about how much they like your product or posts a picture wearing your clothing and tags your business.

This type of content is great to share on social media because it helps your audiences see that people use and like your products, vouching for you in a real-life way. Why toot your own horn if you can get someone else to do it, right? 

UGC pays off, as customers trust reviews from friends and family more than they trust branded ads, and nearly 80% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchase decisions, considerably more so than branded content and influencer content.

When you do use UGC, the platforms it performs best on are YouTube (26%), Instagram (24%), and Facebook (21%). 

5. Funny, Trendy, and Relatable Content

Social media marketers know the value of a viral post too well. They’re hard to come by, but you can increase your chance by hopping on viral memes, relating them to your business, and using trending hashtags or sounds. 

This type of buzzy content requires a high level of awareness of what’s happening online, cultural moments, and current events. 

Over 40% of marketers already share funny, trendy, and relatable content on social media, and 59% say they will double down on funny content in 2024, it being the most effective of the three. Consumers love it, too – they’re starved for quality humor from brands. 

Our very own social media team is savvy at this kind of content, like this funny and relatable tweet. 

6. Shoppable Content

Shoppable social media content allows consumers to browse through products on your accounts, discover things they like, and even make a purchase without leaving the app.

The image below is an Instagram storefront for Ink Meets Paper, where someone can browse its products, find what interests them, and make a purchase.

Image Source

This is a valuable content type as social shopping is currently on the rise, and consumers are discovering new products and buying products on social media apps more than ever before.

In fact, social media is the most popular way for Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X to discover new products — over 1 in 5 have made an in-app purchase in the past three months. No wonder 87% of marketers plan to maintain or increase their investment in social selling enablement tools in 2024. 

The most effective platforms for selling in-app are Instagram (26%) and Facebook (26%). 

7. Educational Content

Educational content shares helpful information with audiences that helps them reach their goals and meet their needs. It can come in infographics, videos, text-based posts, images — any of the content types we discussed in this post.

HubSpot often shares educational content through YouTube videos, where viewers can learn more about concepts of interest. The video below is a recent one that educates viewers on creating a brand style guide.

8. Ephemeral/Disappearing Content

Ephemeral/disappearing content is content that only stays up for a certain amount of time, like Instagram Stories that disappear after 24 hours.  

Leveraging people’s FOMO is one of the oldest tricks in the marketing playbook. The feeling gets even more amplified in social media, which is why 47% of brands plan to increase their investment in this kind of “limited-time” content. 

Users only have a set period to engage with it, so they might be more eager to keep track of your profiles and keep returning to experience. 

Creating quizzes and polls in your Stories is a great way to leverage this type of content. People only have a certain amount of time to respond, generating excitement and immediate action and inspiring respondents to come back and see results.

Check out examples from LEGO, Harvard Business Review, and Outback Steakhouse, and see how they’re crushing it at the Instagram Stories game. 

9. Other Types of Content You’re Familiar With

Images

Our recent survey found that 47% of marketers leverage images as a media format, which works well on all social media platforms.

Actually, 54% of marketers think that social media content that’s polished and has high production value (e.g. high resolution images/videos) is even more important than the content being authentic and relatable. But try to aim for both! 

Text-based

We see text-based content on social media everyday, from Twitter(X) threads to thought leadership posts on LinkedIn. The primary goal is to share insight through words — you can pair it with an eye-catching image, but the point of the post is in the text.

Blogs are popular text-based content where people read longer posts and discover helpful information. But a common mistake is sharing blog links directly on social media. Social platform algorithms don’t favor linking out (they want you to stay!), so you better adapt an existing blog post into snackable takeaways that’s more suitable for social users’ habits. 

Infographics

Infographics are a content type with the share-ability and visual appeal of photos but are filled with helpful data and information. It’s an impactful form of social media content and educational content.

The image below is a post from HubSpot’s Instagram account that is an infographic that informs viewers about the most effective traits of a sales leader.

Image Source

Infographics are effective, too, with 51% of marketers that regularly use them saying it yields high ROI.

Repurposing Content Is Still A Valuable Strategy

Social media marketers say they use an average of three platforms in 2024, each with its best practices and norms to follow. 

It can be challenging to create individual pieces of content for every single platform, so many marketers share similar content across platforms but repurpose it to fit the tone and requirements of each one.

The key to success, however, is repurposing content, not resharing. People don’t look fondly at brands that share the exact same thing on each platform. 47% of marketers already share similar content across platforms with tweaks to make it more relevant to the platform’s demands.

It’s a new era for social media. To keep up, I recommend you check out this video about creating a social media strategy this year and beyond. 

Want More Social Media Insights?

Learn more about the State of Social media with more of this data, videos, and exclusive industry tips on our State of Social Media Hub— which will come with a free downloadable resource.

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

When there’s a significant shift in the business landscape or an important win, it’s important to spread the word. A memo is the best way to get the job done. Unlike an email, your memo will go out to your entire department or everyone at the company. No pressure. (Well, maybe some pressure…)

Before writing a memo, I take some time to hype myself up. This bit of internal communication will be read by my peers, my boss, and likely my boss’ boss. Getting the language right is essential, and every word counts.

In this post, I’ll share my experience writing memos along with tips from my peers at HubSpot. From there, I’ll showcase stellar memo examples and a template to help you create your own. Let’s dive in!

Memos are shared to inform readers about new information and have applications for different communities and businesses.

Communities can use memos to tell people within it about public safety guidelines, promote various events, and raise awareness on subjects that affect their lives.

Businesses can use memos to relay information involving newly updated policies, changes in procedure, important milestones, or necessary employee actions, such as attending an upcoming meeting or convention.

I often find myself writing memos when there are significant changes to my program at HubSpot. Perhaps we’re implementing a new workflow, reorganizing the structure of our team, or sharing insights from a project we just completed. Memos denote importance, so I only write them when I have important updates to share that impact multiple stakeholders.

We’ll explore more about when memos are necessary below. But first, let’s discuss how to write a memo.

You can put together a memo in a few short steps. All memos should include the following.

1. Write a heading.

No matter what kind of memo you’re writing, you’ll need to include a heading. This section should include who the memo is for (whether an individual or department), the date, who the memo is from, and a subject line.

Your subject line should be short, attention-grabbing, and give readers a general idea of what the memo is about.

I often pair a main, eye-catching title with a deck below the headline that has more information. For example, if I were writing a post about A.I. in content marketing, I might title it “The Robot Revolution: How A.I. Shapes the Search Landscape.”

Make sure the tone of your title matches the seriousness of the subject matter and your organization’s communication style. A witty opener won’t be right for every memo.

2. Write an introduction.

Remember, you want your memo to be brief and information-packed. Your introduction should be an efficient use of space. It should highlight the issue or problem and the solution you decided to move forward with.

That’s a reality that I personally struggle with. As a writer, I want to include those eloquent phrases and thoughtful transitions that sound great when read aloud. However, I need to take a different approach for memos. My introduction should just summarize the purpose of the memo in two to three sentences.

You can use descriptive language in your intro when it directly relates to the purpose of your memo. Metaphors, similes, and storytelling devices can hook your readers. Kaitlin Milliken, a senior program manager at HubSpot, recalls a memo she created that related to creating a staff made up of subject matter experts.

“I opened with a metaphor about recreational basketball — where people know the rules but don’t have positions they excel in — versus professional basketball where everyone has a specialty,” Milliken says. “I then transitioned into the plays my team was working on to create this pro team.”

When it comes to metaphors, don’t force these comparisons. Only use them where they make sense and when they make your message stronger.

3. Provide background on the issue.

Remember, memos go out to a wide group of employees. Not everyone reading your memo will have the same background that you do as a writer. You’ll need a section to explain any necessary context that folks need to know before going forward.

So, what do you put in? I asked Basha Coleman, one of the best memo writers on my team. Colem is a principal marketing manager on HubSpot’s audience development team.

Coleman says she includes a section at the top of her memos that cover the following:

• The situation.
• The impact of the situation.
• Recommended solutions.

“This gives stakeholders the need-to-know info right away in case they don’t have time to read the whole memo at once,” Coleman says.

Beyond that, I like to link to other important documents that provide context on a topic. That could be a related memo from a different team with more information, a news article that you’re directly responding to, or a relevant dashboard that showcases the issue.

You don’t want this section to be long. However, if folks are interested in learning more, you’ve just given them the power to do so.

The last important tip? Up the urgency. If your memo pitches something new, you want to explain why the change is urgent and the importance of moving now.

“The best way to do this is to explain what we‘re at risk of losing if we don’t take action here,” says Karla Cook Hesterberg, a director of content marketing at HubSpot.

For pitch memos, Hesterberg suggests telling readers why this problem is important/why people should care. For explanatory memos, she recommends explaining what the information in the memo will be used for.

4. Outline action items and timeline (Optional).

Depending on the purpose of your memo, you may have action items for employees to complete or provide a timeline of when changes will take place. For example, they may need to complete a task or provide information by a certain deadline.

This section should include the following:

• When employees can expect changes to go into effect.
• What changes have already been made and what to expect in the future.
• Deadlines they need to adhere to.

When developing a timeline, avoid just creating a paragraph with dates interspersed throughout.

“Don’t be afraid to use visual cues in your memo, like tables, heading colors to display hierarchy of information, charts, and graphs. These can keep a memo brief and skimmable,” suggests Coleman.

Milliken agrees. In a recent memo on building a thought leadership program, she included tables that laid out each step her team would take, more details about what was needed, and when it would occur.

“I also included an infographic of a pipeline to show the stages of the project and how long each would take proportionally,” she says. “This makes it easier to visualize a timetable than just skimming chunks of text.”

Here’s a sample table I created to demonstrate.

If no action is needed on the employee’s behalf, you can leave this section out.

5. Justify any reasoning.

If you’re communicating a request or anything new that could ruffle some feathers, you can make your case by offering rationale as to why your announcement or request is so important.

“Think about your target audience and try to anticipate areas where they might ask questions, have concerns, or need more clarity,” says Hesterberg. “Try to re-read as someone who doesn’t have all the context you have to identify areas you need to build up.”

Remember, as the memo writer, you’re an expert on the subject. You may need to ask a manager or a peer to review your memo with a skeptical eye. Where do they have questions? What needs additional justification?

From there, you can strengthen your case. This often includes featuring statistics as to why it’s critical and urgent to make a change.

“Keep in mind that data is super powerful but must be presented in a way that enhances the narrative rather than confusing it,” says Amanda Sellers, a blog strategy manager at HubSpot.

For example, the phrase “58.97% met the benchmark and 10.26% far exceeded the benchmark” is clunky. Instead, Sellers suggests writing, ”Our strategy is working nearly 70% of the time.”

The first example is unwieldy, Sellers notes, referring to methodology that a broader audience is less likely to care about. Meanwhile, “the second audience demonstrates the more important thing: why that methodology was important and what you can take from it,” Sellers explains.

6. Soften any blows (Optional).

If you’re making a big change that could be seen as controversial or making bold statements where people might feel slighted, you can soften this with a well-placed caveat.

For example, with the rise of AI, you might be communicating a new company policy related to using AI. You could soften the blow by sharing that it hasn’t been an issue for most people, but it’s important to have a clear policy in place for handling it.

7. Include a closing statement.

Your closing statement will include any information you’d like to reinforce. Are there any specific contacts readers should reach out to for questions? If so, include them here.

“A conclusion that just reiterates your main points is boring and likely to be skipped,” Millike says. “End on your most compelling points. You can either reassert urgency or discuss the resources you need to be successful.”

Milliken often closes on the support her team requires to find success. That could be additional financial resources, a champion within leadership, or more time to establish the change.

8. Review and proofread before sending.

This step may seem like a no-brainer, but it‘s important to review your document before sending it out. Memos are meant to inform readers of upcoming changes and relay important information. You don’t want to risk causing confusion with a typo or misstatement.

“Memos often have a broad audience, so you’ll want to craft a narrative that is easily understood no matter who is reading it,” says Sellers. “That means telling a persuasive story, getting to the point quickly, anticipating questions, and cutting jargon to find the simplest way of saying something.”

8. Create any audio or video aids.

Once the memo is written, I like to give it one last pass. What would make the message even more clear? Should I work with creative to build an infographic? Should I amplify the document over our email channels? Now that I’ve invested the time, I want to make sure my message is heard.

Coleman often creates a recording with a deck, highlighting the most important points in the document.

“Including video summaries of my memos with Loom is helpful for accessibility and busy stakeholders who like to listen to updates while working on other tasks,” she notes.

Now that you’ve learned what goes into a memo, here’s an easy-to-follow business memo template with examples of how to use them to serve different needs as guidance.

Types of Memos

Now you know how to write a memo, but before you start banging away at your keyboard, it’s helpful to know the types of memos that are out there.

1. Request Memo

In a nutshell, request memos are exactly what they sound like: memos that are designed to make a request and get a positive response. When writing request memos, focus on using persuasive language and, where possible, stats or numbers to highlight why a “yes” is the right answer.

Some sample uses of request memos might be to request a new purchase from your company or authorization for professional learning or volunteer opportunities.

When writing request memos, be clear in your request, state any costs, share why it’s important, and keep emotion and personal feelings out of the request.

2. Informative Memo

You might see these called announcement memos as well, and they make up the bulk of most memos I’ve seen. The goal of informative memos is to communicate new information to your audience. Sample uses of informative memos might include changes in policy, company news, new processes, or even new staff members.

Ultimately, you can think of an informative memo as a clear, concise way to share announcements with your audience and provide any justification necessary for the new information.

3. Confirmation Memo

You can think of confirmation memos as a paper trail to make sure key stakeholders have a record of discussions. Sample uses of confirmation memos are documenting conversations, so you have justification should it ever be called into question, clarifying anything that has ambiguity to avoid misunderstanding down the road.

When writing confirmation memos, specificity and clarity should be your number one goal.

4. Directive Memo

Directive memos are largely self-explanatory. When you need to communicate how to do something to your audience, you might write a directive memo offering detailed instructions that are easy to follow.

Sample uses of directive memos include sharing how to implement a new process, comply with new requirements, or even complete necessary tasks.

When to Write a Memo

As you’ve seen with the types of memos above, most memos are designed to communicate new information. However, memo purposes stretch far and wide.

“Memos serve a variety of purposes, but generally speaking, they either pitch or propose something new, consolidate information into one place for the sake of alignment, or explain or clarify information about a project or program,” says Hesterberg.

You might write a memo in the following scenarios:

• You have a new policy, and you need to explain it to your audience.
• Sharing important company updates and information.
• Announcing new staff members or promotions.
• Confirming details of a discussion to get everyone on the same page and create a paper trail.
• Teach or tell people how to do something.
• Requesting something and justifying why it matters.

There are lots of possibilities out there. In a nutshell, if you have something you need to share, a memo might be the answer.

Business Memo Template

MEMORANDUM

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT:

I’m writing to inform you that [reason for writing memo].

As our company continues to grow … [evidence or reason to support your opening paragraph].

Please let me know if you have any questions. In the meantime, I’d appreciate your cooperation as [official business information] takes place.

Business Memo Template Format

The business memo template format is designed to effectively communicate your message. A memo should disseminate the necessary information in a way that is easy for a mass number of employees to digest.

An accurate subject line will alert them that this memo is relevant to them specifically. And beginning with an executive summary allows recipients to understand the general message before they dive deeper into the details. The background information offers context to the message, and the overview and timeline should answer questions that are likely to come up.

Header

In your header, you‘ll want to clearly label your content “Memorandum” so your readers know exactly what they’re receiving. As previously mentioned, you‘ll want to include “TO”, “FROM”, “DATE”, and “SUBJECT”. This information is relevant for providing content, like who you’re addressing and why.

Paragraph One

In the first paragraph, you‘ll want to quickly and clearly state the purpose of your memo. You might begin your sentence with the phrase, “I’m writing to inform you … “ or ”I’m writing to request … “.

A memo is meant to be short, clear, and to the point. You’ll want to deliver your most critical information upfront and then use subsequent paragraphs as opportunities to dive into more detail.

Paragraph Two

In the second paragraph, you‘ll want to provide context or supporting evidence. For instance, let’s say your memo informs the company of an internal reorganization.

If this is the case, paragraph two should say something like, “As our company continues to grow, we’ve decided it makes more sense to separate our video production team from our content team. This way, those teams can focus more on their individual goals.”

Paragraph Three

In the third paragraph, you‘ll want to include your specific request of each employee — if you’re planning a team outing, this is the space you’d include, “Please RSVP with dietary restrictions,” or “Please email me with questions.”

On the contrary, if you‘re informing staff of upcoming construction to the building, you might say, “I’d appreciate your cooperation during this time.” Even if there isn‘t any specific action you expect from employees, it’s helpful to include how you hope they’ll handle the news and whether you expect them to do something in response to the memo.

Downloadable Memo Template

Want to see the above memo format in its final form? Download HubSpot’s free business memo templates, shown below. The document gives you a framework that sorts your memorandum into subtopics to help employees better digest the information and understand what’s expected of them after reading it.

Download this Template

Memo Examples

Different industries or situations will require slightly different memos. Certain ones will need to be longer or shorter, others may not have a timeline, and some will have extensive background information. The format of your memo should change to fit the message you want your employees to receive.

Launch Delay Memo

The objective of this memo is to announce that the launch of a product will be delayed. The introduction includes the new date, so a timeline or long overview isn’t necessary. This format of this memo could be applied to other situations where a simple, but important, change is occurring.

What I like: The launch memo provides readers with insight into product launch delays, which can alleviate some frustration that customers or employees may otherwise feel if they were not informed.

Other date changes, promotions, milestones, or product announcements could also utilize this format.

Building Update Memo

There are logistical aspects of a business that concern your employees but don’t necessarily involve their work. This memo depicts an example of a kitchen remodel in the office. It’s a bit of an inconvenience but not one of a large magnitude.

What I like: This memo demonstrates a business’s understanding of the impact that renovations can have on employees and shows respect and consideration for their needs.

This memo format could be applied to other building updates, work-from-home days, or other widespread but minor announcements.

Community Memo

Celebrations, events, theme days, or other fun things for your employees can also be communicated through memos. Community memos like this example are generally shorter because they don’t require much background information or many details.

What I like: This memo has clear directions on where to find the event taking place, something which would’ve been less effective if it only included the floor number.

Memos of this nature should include a summary, date, and location at a minimum.

Persuasion Memo

Persuasion memos are used to encourage readers to take action regarding an event or proposition, like voting or petitioning.

What We Like: This persuasion memo prioritizes giving the reader information to learn on their own and make a decision based on their findings.

The main components of the persuasion memo should include an overview of the task at hand, context to learn more about it, and a call to action that emphasizes the impact the reader can potentially make.

Write Your Memos To the Point

The main difference between a memo and just an email is not the level of complexity. It’s the size of the audience. A memo can be simple or intricate as long as it effectively communicates your message and is relevant to the receiving group of employees. And, the message itself should be clear and concise, no matter which memo format you use.

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

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

Marketers, can we be honest with each other for a second? On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you really understand the world of paid advertising? Are you confident you can launch and maintain a successful PPC strategy?

Although 55% of small businesses in the U.S. do some form of online advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) is still a concept that eludes many of us. As a marketer, PPC is a skill that you should have in your tool belt — or at least have a basic understanding of.

In this guide, we’ll look at everything from the benefits of paid advertising to how to launch your campaign, complete with guidance from experts. Let’s get started.

When done right, PPC can earn you quality leads. If you can create a seamless user journey (which you’ll learn how to do later in this piece), it could mean a massive ROI for your PPC efforts.

Pay-per-click advertising is most common in search engine results pages, like Google or Bing, but is also used on social channels (although CPM is more common).

If you’re wondering where you can find pay-per-click ads, they’re the results you see before and to the right of the organic search results. For instance, check out the ad that came up in my search for “cards.”

Before we go further, you might ask, “Why should I advertise with a PPC campaign?”

According to Beth Chernes, SEO consulting expert, the answer is simple. Beth says:

“Ask yourself: How fast do you want to reach your customers? If you want to immediately direct them to you and your services, PPC ads will do exactly that.

Online advertising offers the benefit of quickly getting the eyes of your ideal customer on you so they’ll take action. You’re paying for speedy results.”

Ana Gotter, a freelance content marketer and PPC copywriter, agrees with Beth and thinks a PPC strategy is just another layer to your overall marketing plan.

She says:

“PPC advertising is an easy way to level the playing field, so to speak.

SEO can take months or even years to really pay off when you’re up against tough competition online, but PPC ads allow you to generate interest now as long as you have the budget for the pay-to-play platforms.”

In other words, a PPC strategy is a helping hand to your SEO strategy. Your PPC strategy is a way to grab a quick win while cultivating your organic reach.

Let’s take a look at PPC terms and definitions before we jump into the parts of a great PPC strategy.

PPC Terms and Definitions

What’s a marketing channel without a few acronyms and a little jargon?

If you’re going to enter the paid advertising space, there are a few terms you should know. Below, we review the main elements of a PPC campaign, ranging from broad to more specific.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

The objective of all forms of digital advertising is to rank for a target keyword, which you can do in several ways.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to any digital marketing (paid or unpaid) done on a search engine, like Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

SEM is an umbrella term that encompasses both paid advertising and search engine optimization (SEO), that is, ranking organically for keywords.

It’s important to note that not all PPC occurs on search engines — social media has PPC ads, too (think: Facebook Ads).

CPC

Cost-per-click (CPC) is the amount that an advertiser pays for each click on your ad. CPC acts as your bid in an auction that determines where your ad will be placed. As you can imagine, a higher bid equates to better ad placement.

You set your CPC at the maximum price you’re willing to pay per click on your ad. What you actually pay is determined by the following formula:

(Competitor’s Ad Rank / Your Quality Score) + 0.01 = Actual CPC.

Let’s go over the terms in this equation so you know what you’re paying for:

Ad Rank

This value determines the position of an ad on a search engine results page. It’s equal to Maximum Bid x Quality Score.

Quality Score

This is the score that search engines give to your ad based on your clickthrough rate (CTR) — measured against the average CTR of ads in that position — the relevance of your keywords, the quality of your landing page, and your past performance on the SERP.

Maximum Bid

This is the maximum you’re willing to pay per click on your ad.

Here’s an image by WordStream that illustrates what I mean:

Image Source

You can set your CPC to manual, where you determine the maximum bid for your ads, or enhanced, which allows the search engines to adjust your bid based on your goals.

One of these enhanced options involves bid strategies that automatically adjust your bids based on either clicks or conversions.

CPM (Cost per Mille)

CPM, also known as cost per thousand, is the cost per one thousand impressions. It’s most commonly used for paid social and display ads.

There are other types of cost-pers, like cost-per-engagement and cost-per-acquisition (CPA), but for the sake of preserving your mental space, we’re going to stick with clicks, a.k.a. CPC.

Campaign

The first step in setting up your PPC ads is determining your ad campaign. You can think of your campaign as the key message or theme you want to get across with your advertisements.

Ad Group

One size doesn’t fit all. That’s why you’ll create a series of ads within your campaign based on a set of highly related keywords. You can set a CPC for each ad group that you create.

Keywords

Each ad within your ad group will target a set of relevant keywords or key terms. These keywords tell search engines which terms or search queries you want your ad to be displayed alongside in SERPs.

Once you determine which keywords perform best, you can set a micro CPC specifically for keywords within your ads.

Ad Text

Your keywords should inform your ad text. Remember, your Quality Score is determined by how relevant your ad is; therefore, the text in your ad (and landing page, for that matter) should match the keyword terms you’re targeting.

Landing Page

A landing page is a critical piece of your paid advertising strategy. The landing page is where users will end up once they click your PPC ad.

Whether it’s a dedicated web page, your homepage, or somewhere else, make sure to follow landing page best practices to maximize conversions.

Best PPC Platforms

Now that you understand the PPC basics, I’m guessing your next question is: Where should I advertise?

There are dozens of online spaces where you can spend your coveted ad money, and the best way to vet them is by taking a close look at your potential ROI on each platform.

The most popular advertising platforms are effective because they’re easy to use and, most importantly, highly trafficked. But for a smaller budget, you might consider a lesser-known alternative to these key players.

When choosing a platform, some other things to consider are the availability of keyword terms, where your target audience spends their time and your advertising budget.

Ana says, “PPC advertising has strong targeting options, although it’s also worth noting that many platforms (including Meta specifically) have such strong machine learning capabilities that they’ll help you find your target audience already.”

Here is a non-exhaustive list of some of the top PPC platforms.

Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords)

How many times a day do you hear the phrase “let me Google that?” Probably more than you can count… hence why Google Ads is the king of paid advertising.

Cole Shiflet, co-founder of Accelerate Web Growth, says Google Ads is the best platform to use for your PPC strategy. According to Cole, it’s just “more widely used.”

On average, Google processes over 99,000 search queries every second, giving you plenty of opportunities to target keywords that will get your intended audience to click.

The downside is that keywords are highly competitive on this platform, meaning a larger ad spend.

Best for: Because Google continues to be the most popular search engine, Google Ads is a great option for any marketer who wants to put their business in front of a large audience.

If you’re planning to use this popular platform, start with our free Google Ads PPC Kit.

Bing Ads

Bing is the second largest search engine, so it makes sense that Bing offers an advertising program. Did you know that 61% of Bing searches are branded queries?

Think about it. If you launch a PPC campaign using Bing that targets specific keywords related to your brand, there’s a higher chance your advertisements will be seen by the right target audience.

Best for: Bing Ads is great for marketers with a smaller advertising budget. The perk of using Bing Ads over Google Ads is a slightly lower CPC — but at the expense of a larger audience, of course.

Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads blend in with other posts on the platform.

Facebook Ads is a popular and effective platform for paid ads (more commonly used as CPM than CPC), mainly due to its specific targeting options.

Facebook allows you to target users based on interests, demographics, location, and behaviors.

If you’re worried that your Facebook advertisements give off spammy vibes, don’t be. Facebook allows for native ads, which means ads are introduced and blend into the social feed.

It’s important to know that the average CPC for a Facebook ad is $1.72. Keep that in mind when choosing your PPC platform.

Best for: Facebook Ads are great for reaching audiences on all of the Meta platforms. You can also use Facebook Ads to advertise on Instagram.

AdRoll

Chipotle retargeting me as I search for dessert recipes.

AdRoll is a retargeting platform that advertises to people who have already visited your website. According to AdRoll’s 2024 State of Digital Marketing Report, the average company advertises on six marketing channels.

So, say someone reads your article on cheese making. You can retarget them on other platforms they visit with display ads for your online cooking classes.

While retargeting is possible with Google Ads, the benefit of using AdRoll is that it can display ads on Google and social media sites, which gives you more opportunities to capture clicks or impressions, depending on your goal.

Best for: If you want to keep your business in front of your audience no matter the platform they’re on, AdRolls can do that for you. AdRoll is best for reaching your audience on all of the platforms they visit the most.

RevContent

RevContent focuses specifically on promoting content through PPC. It has the same impact as a guest post, where your content is displayed on an external site, except it’s in the form of a native ad.

And since 21% of consumers plan to move away from social media, it’s not a bad idea to consider native ads on external platforms.

Using RevContent, you still bid on keywords, and your advertisement is displayed next to relevant content. With this platform, you’ll reap the benefits of a low CPC and highly engaged traffic.

Best for: RevContent is great for sending your target audience straight to your landing pages, meaning you’ll get eyes on your content and new leads.

With that explanation out of the way, now let’s look at some benefits of PPC ads.

1. PPC ads are cost-effective.

With PPC ad campaigns, you have complete control over how much you’re willing to spend.

Since you only pay when visitors click the link leading to your website or landing page — with a high chance of conversion — you’ll be getting your money’s worth.

2. PPC ads produce fast results.

Although organic ranking is great, it sometimes takes months or even years to get on the first page of SERPs.

If you’re a startup or small business, you likely don’t have the time to wait for the effect of organic, social, or direct traffic to kick in.

That’s where PPC ads come in.

Stewart Dunlop, the founder of PPC marketing agency PPC.io, explains why it’s so attractive: 

“For businesses who want to accelerate their sales and growth fast, there truly is no better alternative to PPC marketing. With paid ads, you can catapult yourself immediately to the top of search engines and immediately acquire new customers.”

With optimized PPC ads, you can shoot yourself to the top of the SERP within hours of launching your campaign.

3. You can easily control and test PPC ads.

It’s easy to control the keywords you’re targeting, ad placement, or budget with PPC ads. You can also run A/B split tests with different ads to identify the one that produces the highest return on investment.

You can then scale the ads that do well until it no longer produces desirable results.

4. PPC ads allow you to target your ideal customers.

Cole says PPC campaigns are great for a “geo-targeted presence.” Ana also says, “You have the potential to reach members of your target audience whom you might not have ever connected with otherwise.”

With PPC ads, you can skip right past cold audiences to target a warm audience that’s ready to buy your products and services.

You can bid on keywords that solution-aware personas would search for online. Aside from keywords, PPC ads also offer targeting options like past online activity or demographics.

Another excellent use of PPC ads is to create retargeting campaigns targeting visitors who didn’t purchase after landing on your site.

5. Algorithm changes have little effect on PPC ads.

Between the numerous Google algorithm changes and the 200 ranking factors, trying to get free traffic from search engines is a bit unstable compared to PPC advertising.

With PPC ads, you don’t have to worry about algorithm changes; instead, focus on how well your campaigns perform.

6. PPC ads help you rank even with low domain ratings.

Keywords have become increasingly competitive. This makes it more difficult for a business with a low domain authority to get into the top rankings on a search engine or in front of its target audience on a social platform.

With PPC advertising, you can quickly rank for keywords your audience is searching, irrespective of your domain ratings.

7. Data from PPC ads can improve your SEO strategy.

You shouldn’t ditch all your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts altogether — your paid advertising should complement your SEO strategy instead of replacing it.

“When people search for your keywords, you know their search intent and can display the most relevant ad to your audience. This means more clicks and a greater chance of conversion,” says Laura Mittelmann, Paid Acquisition at HubSpot.

How to Build a PPC Campaign

Now that you understand the benefits of PPC and have your key terms, let’s dive into crafting a quality PPC campaign using Google AdWords or some other platform.

1. Set parameters.

First, you should set parameters. Without parameters, you risk your ad being untargeted and ineffective.

You want to put your ad campaigns into the context of your ultimate business goals. Consider how your paid campaigns will contribute to those goals.

Then, think about what you want to accomplish with your ads — whether that be visits, sales, brand awareness, or something else — and how much you’re willing to spend to achieve that goal.

And think about your target audience.

Ana says, “When you’re building a PPC strategy, the first thing you need to do is understand your target audience and how they move through your sales funnel. Considering how people will discover your brand and how and when they’ll interact with it is important.”

Your ad parameters should encompass a few things:

• Who you want to target.
• Theme of your campaign.
• How you will measure success.
• Type of campaign you will run.

2. Create goals and goal metrics.

Your campaign goals will give you something to show for your ad spend as long as you determine how you will measure those goals. Your goal metrics should not be confused with your campaign metrics, which we’ll discuss below.

Let’s touch on some common PPC goals and how to measure them.

• Brand awareness is how familiar your target audience is with your company. It might be a good idea to look into display ads for this goal so you can supplement your copy with engaging imagery. You can measure brand awareness through social engagement, surveys, and direct traffic.
• Lead generation is the direct result of having a relevant and engaging landing page to follow your paid ad. Since you will create a separate landing page for each ad group, you should be able to easily track lead conversions either in the Google Ads interface via a tracking pixel, or through UTM parameters if you’re using a tool like HubSpot.

Pro tip: Use HubSpot’s landing page builder to seamlessly integrate your lead tracking to your PPC strategy.

• Offering a promotion is great if you’re running a limited-time offer, product or service discount, or contest. You should create a dedicated sign-up page or a unique discount code so you know which users came from your ad.
• Sales can be measured by how much of your product or service is sold based on your paid ads. You should be able to track this through CMS software or with attribution reporting.
• Site traffic is a great goal if you have high-quality content throughout your website. If you’re going to spend money getting people to visit your site, you want to have some level of confidence that you can keep them there and eventually convert them into leads.

3. Choose your campaign type.

You don’t only need to know where you’ll advertise but also how. There are many different types of paid advertising campaigns, and the one you choose depends on where you can reach your audience.

Cole’s advice is to take it slow at first. He says, “Start small and adjust your campaign over time.”

That isn’t to say that you can’t advertise through various means; you can also try a combination of campaign types as long as you’re consistently testing and revising.

Different types of campaigns include:

• Search Ads are the most common type of PPC and refer to the text ads that show up on search engine results pages.
• Display Ads allow you to place ads (usually image-based) on external websites, including social. There are several ways to buy display ads, including Google Display Network (GDN) and other ad networks.

Learn how to integrate Display Ads into your inbound marketing plan.

• Social refers to any ads that you see on social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. You can pay to show up in your target audience’s social feed or somewhere else within their profile, depending on the platform.
• Remarketing can use either cookies or a list of contacts that you upload to target people who have previously engaged with your company through some action. That action could be filling out a form, reading a blog, or simply visiting a page on your website.
• Google Shopping is most effective for ecommerce sites. Your ad — including image, price, and a short product description — will show up on a carousel on a search page based on your target keywords.

4. Perform keyword research.

Each ad group you create needs to be assigned a set of keywords to target — that’s how search engines know when and where to display your ad.

The general rule of thumb is to select between one to five keywords per ad group, and those keywords should be extremely relevant — your Quality Score depends on it.

Select keywords that are closely aligned with the specific theme of your ad group. If you find keywords you want to target that fall outside of one theme, you should create a separate ad group for them.

It’s important to note that you’re not stuck with the keywords you start with.

In fact, you should closely monitor your keyword list throughout your campaign — eliminating those that don’t bring in the types of visitors that you’re looking for and increasing your bids on those that do.

Do your best to select the most relevant keywords, but don’t feel pressured to get it 100% right the first time around.

5. Set up Google Analytics for tracking.

Google Analytics is free to use, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t install it on your website. The tool provides insights into how your website is performing, how users interact with your pages, and what content is attractive to visitors.

The information gathered from Google Analytics can be used for PPC and beyond.

Best Practices for a Quality PPC Strategy

You didn’t think we’d let you spend your hard-earned money on advertisements without providing some best practices to follow, did you? Of course not. We want to make sure you succeed with your next PPC campaign.

So, let’s get into some PPC strategies that will help you maximize your efforts and your budget.

As a note, we’re going to dive specifically into paid search ads (those little guys you see in search engines) here.

Write strong PPC ad copy.

Bidding on targeted keywords will get your ad in front of the right people, and good ad copy will get those people to click on your ad.

Like your keywords, your ad needs to solve for the intent of the searcher — you need to give the searcher exactly what they’re looking for and make sure that is clear through the words you use.

Ana suggests thinking about your customers and their needs. Here, the questions are, “What are their pain points? What are their motivations in terms of purchasing when they choose to do so? How can your product solve that?”

Answering those questions can help build a list of targeted keywords to help you with your ad copy.

Search ads consist of a headline, a URL, and a short description, and each of these has limited character requirements to follow. To make the most of this space, make sure your ad copy does the following:

• Speak directly to your target persona.
• Include the main keyword that you’re bidding on.
• Provide an actionable CTA so the searcher knows what to do next.
• Make the offer appealing.
• Use language that matches your landing page copy.
• Perform A/B split tests with your copy.

Consider using HubSpot AI to help you craft ad copy that converts visitors to leads.

Optimize your landing page.

Arguably, the most important element of PPC (after your ad copy) is the page that you send leads to after they click on your ad.

This page needs to be highly targeted, relevant to your ad, deliver what was promised, and present a seamless experience.

Why? Because the point of your landing page is to convert your new visitor into a lead or customer. Not only that, but a high-converting landing page will improve your Quality Score, leading to better ad placements.

There’s nothing that will diminish PPC profits like a poorly crafted landing page.

What should a PPC landing page include to increase conversions? Glad you asked.

• A strong headline that mirrors your search ad.
• Clean design and layout.
• Responsive form that is easy to use with a stand-out CTA button.
• Copy that is very specific and relevant to your target keywords.
• Presents the offer that was promised in your ad.
• A/B tested.

A/B test your PPC ads.

As a marketer, you’ll rarely throw something out to your audience that works without testing it. PPC campaigns are no different. A/B testing is as critical to your paid ad campaign as is every other element.

The goal of testing your ad is to increase both your clickthrough rate and your conversion rate.

The good news is that ads comprise just four parts that you’ll need to test: headline, description, landing page, and target keywords.

Minor tweaks to just one of these elements can significantly alter your results, so you want to make changes one at a time so you can keep track of where improvements come from.

Since there are many variations that you could test one at a time, it’s a good idea to list out all the potential tests you can run and prioritize them by most significant impact.

Finally, you should allow your ads to run long enough to gather the data you need and test them early enough so you don’t waste your budget on a poor-performing ad.

Maximize your ROI.

At a high level, maximizing ROI on your ad campaigns means considering customer lifetime value and customer acquisition costs, which will help you determine how much is worth spending on a new lead and how much of that spend can come from paid advertising.

To get more granular, we need to talk inputs and outputs, that is, 1) lowering your input, a.k.a. cost per lead (CPL), and 2) increasing your return (revenue).

There are a few factors to keep an eye on that will affect both, so let’s break it down.

Ways to Decrease Inputs

• Determine an ad budget before you get started.
• Create more relevant ads. The more relevant, the lower your CPC.
• Improve your Quality Score. The higher your QS, the less search engines will charge you for clicks.

Ways to Increase Revenue

• Follow landing page best practices to increase conversion rates.
• Go after quality leads by being specific with your ad. The more quality your leads, the more likely they will convert and eventually become customers.

Additional PPC Tips and Tricks

There are a few other things you can do to maximize the ROI of your paid ads, whether it’s time spent, budget, clicks, or conversions.

Target the right audiences.

Google allows you to tailor your audience so you save marketing dollars and get in front of the right people. You can upload a customer list so that you don’t waste money on people who have already bought from you.

Google also has options for prospecting audiences. For instance, In-Market Audiences employs user behavior tracking to put you in front of prospects who are in the market for a product or service like yours.

You can also increase your bid for more relevant subgroups within your target audience — a practice called layering audiences.

For example, HubSpot may layer on people who are in the market for CRM software and add a 30% bid adjustment because those people may be more likely to convert.

Adjust your bids.

Bid adjustments allow you to increase or decrease your bids based on performance. You can even make these adjustments based on different categories, like devices, demographics, language, and more.

For example, if a keyword isn’t performing as well on mobile as on desktop, you can add a negative bid adjustment so that when someone searches your keyword on mobile, you’ll bid X% lower than your normal bid.

Custom schedule your ads.

You can set up ad scheduling in Google Ads to display your ad only during specific days and times. This can cut down on ad spend and improve relevance for your target audience.

Use sitelink extensions.

Sitelink extensions allow you to supplement your ad with additional information. For instance, if you’re running an ad for a seasonal promotion at a local store, you can add a sitelink extension to display your store hours and location.

These extensions take up more real estate on SERPs and, therefore, stand out. Not only that, but they play a role in improving your Ad Rank.

Track your conversion rate.

Conversion tracking monitors how your landing page is performing via a tracking code that you place on the page where people land after completing your form (usually a “Thank You” page).

By enabling this feature, you’ll be better equipped to make adjustments that can improve your conversions.

Monitor the performance of your keywords.

Don’t let too much time pass before you check how your keywords are performing. You can place higher bids on the keywords that are creating the best results for your campaign and “defund” or eliminate others.

Select your match types.

Match Types in Google Ads allows you to choose how closely related you want your ad group to be associated with a search team. There are four match types: broad, modified broad, phrase, and exact match.

Google will display your ad in results according to your selection.

For example, if your keyword phrase is “how to catch geese” and you select “broad match,” then Google will display your ad for queries that include any word in your key phrase in any order, including “geese catch” and “geese catch how.”

Choose negative keywords.

A negative keyword list tells search engines what you don’t want to rank for, which is equally as important as what you do.

You might know some of these upfront, but likely you’ll determine these keywords by what isn’t performing so well within your campaign.

Buy social media ads.

Although CPM is more common on social platforms, social media sites do offer PPC that works similarly to search engine ads. You set a budget and bid on ad placements.

The difference is social media ads can show up directly in your news feed on most platforms, decreasing the effectiveness of ad blockers.

Social platforms, like Facebook, let you set targeted demographics and target people based on interests. While paid search is more keyword-focused, paid social broadens into a demographic focus, leading to more ways to target your persona.

Social media has two paid ad functions that are critical to ad success — retargeting and Lookalike Audiences. Retargeting is remarketing to people based on site visits or manually uploaded contact lists.

Lookalike Audiences reviews the people on your marketing list and creates an audience that parallels your list, expanding your potential target. Paid social also allows for a wider variety of ad types, like images, videos, text, and more.

Manage and track your PPC campaigns.

Paid advertising is not “set it and forget it.” You need to manage and constantly monitor your ads to ensure that you’re reaching optimal results.

Management, analysis, and tracking are crucial to a PPC campaign because they provide you with valuable insights and help you create a more effective campaign.

What is PPC management?

PPC management covers a wide range of techniques, including creating and adjusting goals, split testing, introducing new keywords, optimizing conversion paths, and shifting plans to reach goals.

Managing your PPC means looking at your strategy and ad spend. On the one hand, it means iterating on your plan to optimize keyword effectiveness.

On the other hand, it means thinking about how to allocate resources to specific keywords and how to adjust those resources to maximize ROI.

A good management strategy also pays attention to providers — like search engines, social platforms, and ad networks — to monitor changes and updates that could affect paid campaigns.

Overall, PPC management is a hefty undertaking, which is why investing in solid PPC management tools could be a great idea.

Use our PPC management tool to monitor all of your paid campaigns.

PPC Tools and Software

With all of the variables that you need to track, PPC management tools should make things easier.

You can opt to monitor your ads within the platform, but if you’re looking for additional assistance and organization, a robust, easy-to-read spreadsheet or sophisticated software that gives you insight into your ad performance is vital.

If you plan to go the software route, there are some features that you want to look for: multi-user support, cross-platform management, A/B testing, scheduling, reporting, and ad grading.

Here’s a list of some popular, highly-rated PPC software and resources.

• HubSpot offers a robust template to help you monitor and manage the moving parts of your campaign, making it easy to keep track of your ad groups, keywords, and A/B tests.
• WordStream automates the tedious parts of setting up and managing your PPC campaign.
• Metrics Watch streamlines your agency’s reporting process with email-delivered reports. Get all your PPC and marketing data sent directly to your client’s inbox. They also offer a free migration service if you’re coming from a competitor.
• NinjaCat lets you combine all of your analytics from multiple platforms into one report so you can track your entire campaign in one location.
• Optmyzr has end-to-end PPC support, from creation to reporting, and it offers a free trial of its software.
• SEMRush can help you manage the most important part of your PPC campaign — keywords. You can find relevant keywords, manage and optimize your keyword lists, and create negative lists.
• Unbounce is a landing page builder you can use to create landing pages for each of your different PPC campaigns.
• Databox helps businesses track the performance of their ads and displays key metrics across a single dashboard. You can also use Databox’s predictive analysis to estimate how well your ads will do in the future.
• Ahrefs is more than just another SEO tool. You can use Ahrefs to check how well your PPC ads are performing. You can also spy on your competitors’ keywords with Ahrefs.
• Microsoft Advertising Editor (formerly Bing Ad Editor) is a management tool for PPC ads you run through Bing. With this tool, you can manage your bids, research keywords, and make changes to your ads.

PPC Metrics to Track

Metrics are everything (but you already knew that). Here are some key metrics to track within your PPC campaign.

• Clicks refer to the total number of clicks you receive on an ad. This metric is affected by your keyword selection and the relevance of your ad copy.
• Cost per click (CPC) measures the price you pay for each click on your ad.
• Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the percentage of ad views that result in clicks. This metric determines how much you pay (CPC). CTR benchmarks vary by industry.
• Impressions are the number of times an ad is viewed. Cost per mille (CPM) is determined for every thousand impressions. Impressions are most relevant for brand awareness campaigns.
• Ad spend is the amount you are spending on your ads. You can optimize this by improving your Quality Score.
• Return on ad spend (ROAS) is the ROI of your ad campaign. This metric calculates the revenue received for every dollar spent on ads.
• Conversion rate refers to the percentage of people that complete the call-to-action on your landing page and become a lead or customer.
• Cost per conversion refers to the cost to generate a lead. This is calculated as the total cost of an ad divided by the number of conversions.
• Quality Score (QS) determines ad positioning, so it’s an important metric to keep an eye on.

By paying close attention to each of these metrics, you can increase the ROI of your paid campaign and spend less for better results.

Applying the lessons found in this guide about building a PPC campaign, the best practices for a quality PPC strategy, and the tips found in The Ultimate Google Ads PPC Kit will set you well on your way to improving your website’s traffic and conversions.

Go Paid!

Whether you just started your business yesterday or have been around for decades, PPC just might be the boost you need to get an edge on your competition — or at least ahead of them in the SERPs.

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

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A great story or post benefits from great images — like charts, infographics, custom art, and more. I’ve had to look for designers and photographers to work for to add those elements to my writing. A great portfolio is essential to help me make the right choices of who to work with. 
Whether you’re a UX designer, freelance writer, or photographer, an impressive online portfolio is critical for impressing potential clients and landing future jobs.  Once you’ve created your digital portfolio, you’ll need somewhere to host or showcase it — that’s where a portfolio website comes in.

Here, we’ve created a list of the best portfolio websites for designers, freelancers, and photographers to ensure you can showcase your best work in any industry.

Table of Contents

• Best Free Portfolio Websites for Freelance Writers

• Best Free Portfolio Websites for Designers

• Best Free Portfolio Websites for Photographers

• Creating Your Online Portfolio

Examples of your work you could display in an online portfolio include:

• Photographs.

• Writing samples.

• Case studies.

• Spreadsheets.

• Lesson plans.

What you include in your online portfolio varies depending on your field and expertise. I asked Kaitlin Milliken, a senior program manager who runs HubSpot’s Freelance Network, what she looks for in a portfolio. 

“A strong portfolio showcases your best work — whether that be the most intricate of your artistic creations or the best of your writing work,” Milliken says. “If you’ve worked with large companies and well-known brands, that also makes a difference. I know you’re used to working with companies of our size.” 

Milliken also notes that your portfolio should be intuitive, featuring clear navigation and sleek web design. 

“Your portfolio should be easy for me to explore. I’m evaluating your work, so endless scrolling or poor UX pull me away from what you can accomplish,” Milliken says. 

So, your portfolio hosting system matters. To better help you choose a portfolio builder for your needs, let’s dive into some of our favorite portfolio websites that can help you.

1. Journo Portfolio

Image Source

Journo Portfolio offers creatives — including freelance writers — the platform to create sleek and modern digital portfolios. 

Writers can choose from the site’s eight distinct themes and easily showcase their bylines by simply pasting a URL to the platform. Journo Portfolio incorporates the article’s title, publication, date, content, and image. 

Other features include integration with Google Analytics, customizable layouts, search engine optimization, contact forms, and password protection.

You can also blog straight from the platform, which could be helpful if you want to showcase freelance work and your current blog in one place.

What I like: I like that Journo Portfolio’s platform is intuitive. You don’t need too much tech experience to use it. The platform also has a professional look that would help potential clients take a writer seriously.

Pros

• Live preview editor

• Built-in analytics plus Google Analytics integration

• Pre-built themes

• Subscribe and contact forms

• Mobile-friendly

Cons

• The free plan limits you to 10 articles max

• For unlimited articles, you’ll need to pay $5-$10 per month

2. Muck Rack

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Muck Rack is a free media database connecting journalists with PR professionals. Many writers and journalists use the site to find networking and pitching opportunities. You can even include topics you don’t want to cover, filtering out unfit pitches.

Additionally, Muck Rack creates and maintains your portfolio for true ease of use by automatically compiling articles and social media profiles. Once it’s finished, you have the option to customize your bio or choose to spotlight certain pieces.

Muck Rack also offers a news alert system, which enables you to track stories or tweets about a company, brand, or specific story angle. With their news alert system, you can see when other journalists share information or publish stories related to your work, which will help you stay on top of trends.

What I like: Muck Rack has a unique pitch tool and extensive database that makes it easy for outlets to find freelance writers and vice versa. 

I also like that Muck Rack organizes your articles in one place and lets you know who shares your work with their network.

Pros

• Ideal for journalists

• Auto-updates profile

• News alerts system for tracking stories and trends

• Allows you to build media lists easily

Cons

• Some formatting issues when uploading content from Excel

• It doesn’t integrate with other reporting and monitoring tools

3. WordPress

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WordPress, a major content management system (CMS), lets you create a free blog with a separate portfolio page. 

While not explicitly geared towards freelance writers, WordPress offers over 100 free themes to craft a unique blog and showcase your work. WordPress is a good option if you want complete creative control over your portfolio.

You can also use WordPress to showcase your writing and other skills. Suppose you want a page for writing or photography, for instance. In that case, WordPress offers a variety of themes and is flexible enough to enable you to demonstrate various pieces of creative work.

What I like: WordPress is versatile and highly customizable. I find it easy to use and love how SEO-friendly it is. That way, your portfolio website can appear on the results page when your audience searches for specific terms.

Pros

• Ideal for bloggers

• Can create a portfolio page separate from the blog

• 100+ free themes available

• Comes with SSL certificate and JetPack features for improving website performance

Cons

• The free plan shows ads 

• Limited storage at 3 GB

4. Siter.io

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Siter.io is an innovative no-code portfolio builder that allows users to design and publish websites without writing a single line of code. 

Its intuitive interface makes designing directly in the browser, freehand, and using tools you already know. Whether starting your design from scratch or using one of their templates, Siter.io empowers you to create stunning portfolios tailored to your unique vision.

Siter.io works in tandem with Figma and has a popular plugin that can transform your designs into ready-to-launch websites in just a few minutes. The platform is incredibly flexible, allowing you to design any kind of portfolio you want without any design limits. 

Additionally, Siter.io offers secure hosting and SSL certification, ensuring your website is always protected.

What I like: I like how you can collaborate with other creatives to bring your portfolio website to life. This collaboration feature removes confusion and ensures you launch your website on time.

Pros

• Ideal for creative designers, UI/UX designers, and marketers

• Allows an unlimited number of pages, giving you the freedom to create as much content as you want

• Offers secure hosting and SSL certification, ensuring your website is always protected

• Responsive customer support is always available to help you with any questions or issues you encounter

• Fast-loading pages ensure that your website is always performing at its best

Cons

• You may need to integrate other functionalities like ecommerce or third-party extensions externally

5. Clippings.me

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Clippings.me is a site with a simplified approach to sharing your best articles, collateral, or other marketing materials.

You can upload your PDFs, links, and related multimedia to Clippings.me to create a sharp-looking portfolio arranged into specific categories. You can even use social links on your page so that other professionals can reach you more easily.

In addition to uploading and maintaining your portfolio, you can browse through other freelancers’ pages to network and potentially gain prospective clients or collaborators.

What I like: Clippings.me doesn’t try to do too much. The site has a simple goal — to showcase a writer’s work. I found that this site accomplishes its goal well. Setting the entire portfolio up takes less than an hour.

Pros

• Designed intuitively for writers — by writers

• Ideal for beginner or experienced writers looking to expand their careers

• Offers a journalism directory

Cons

• Can only feature up to 10 articles under the free plan

Best Free Portfolio Websites for Designers

6. Behance

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With millions of UX/UI designers, artists, and photographers on the site, Behance is one of the most widely used online portfolio websites. 

It’s also straightforward to use — you can organize your work based on the project, list projects under construction, and ask followers for feedback. Additionally, the site allows you to link your portfolio to your social media accounts.

Behance’s massive digital community makes it an excellent option to get your name out there, particularly since recruiters and interviewers peruse the site to find talent. 

However, Behance displays the number of people who have viewed and liked your work, which can be more advantageous — but riskier — than a more straightforward website portfolio.

What I like: Behance is one of the biggest destinations for anyone looking for a designer. As such, well-positioned designers have an excellent shot at getting noticed. I’ve even browsed this platform to fulfill my graphic design needs! I’ve always been impressed by the talent I encounter.

Pros

• Ideal for creatives who don’t have time to create their standalone portfolio site

• Can get feedback from followers

• Includes social proof in terms of views and likes on the portfolio site

Cons

• Limited design and feature options on the free plan

• The display of views and likes can be risky if not enough people see or appreciate a project

7. Adobe Portfolio

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If you already have a Creative Cloud membership, then Adobe Portfolio is an excellent option to create a single-page website or a full gallery of your work. With Adobe Portfolio, you can set up a sleek and customized portfolio in minutes, and each of the platform’s themes is automatically optimized for any device.

Additionally, Adobe Portfolio can integrate with Behance and Adobe Lightroom to import your projects for greater visibility.

What I like: Adobe Portfolio works well with other Adobe tools and software. As many designers are familiar with the tool, they can quickly create unique portfolios. I like how this offering allows you to create a portfolio on a platform users would already be familiar with. 

Pros

• Option to create a multi- or single-page website

• Offers 18 responsive themes

• Integrations with Behance and Adobe Lightroom

Cons

• It is only free if you have a Creative Cloud membership

8. Fabrik

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Designers use Fabrik to organize their projects without writing a line of code. Even so, you still get creative control over your portfolio by choosing the styles, fonts, and colors best suited for your style.

Fabrik’s themes are intuitive and adaptable to individual project content needs. This flexibility lets you experiment with multiple layouts designed to complement the media formats needed, whether it’s graphic design, fashion, or more. 

With straightforward configurations, the Fabrik portfolio is an easy choice for building and maintaining your portfolio across all devices.

What I like: I love Fabrik’s user-friendly interface and customizable elements, making it less of a chore to design a portfolio. The platform also provides impressive support to its customers.

Pros

• Ideal for creative designers of various specialties

• Allows an unlimited number of blog posts

• Responsive customer support

Cons

• Have to integrate other functionalities like ecommerce or other third-party extensions externally

9. Crevado

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One of the most straightforward free portfolio websites, Crevado lets you use a simple drag-and-drop tool to upload your projects and rearrange them on the screen for true ease of use. 

The site is also automatically optimized for any device, so your portfolio can be viewed on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop.

Crevado also has secure hosting and SSL certification, so your portfolio site remains secure. You can customize your design to suit your preferences without writing any code. Best of all, you can sell your work online thanks to the platform’s integrations with PayPal and Fotomoto.

The only downside is that free users can’t remove the link to Crevado in their website footer. You’ll have to upgrade to a pro account to do so.

What I like: Aside from providing secure hosting, Crevado allows designers to password-protect their sensitive projects from unwanted attention. I love this extra layer of security and recommend Crevedo if you’re concerned about privacy. In addition, Crevedo is easy to maintain and update.

Pros

• Drag-and-drop interface

• Responsive designs

• Secure hosting and SSL certification

• PayPal and Fotomoto integrations allow you to sell work

Cons

• The free plan shows the Crevado link in the website footer

10. Pixpa

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Pixpa is an all-in-one, DIY website-building platform designed to empower creative professionals, freelance writers, and business owners by helping them build feature-rich, professional websites without touching a single line of code.

Pixpa offers a range of modern, mobile-friendly, and responsive templates that can be fully customized using the easy-to-use visual editor and drag-and-drop page builder. 

Rich features, including blogging tools, built-in SEO and marketing tools, social media integrations, multiple gallery options, and ecommerce functionality, make Pixpa the perfect portfolio-building platform for creative professionals. 

The full-fledged blogging platform powered by an intuitive and versatile What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor allows you to create, edit, schedule, and publish blog posts all in one place.

What I like: I love Pixpa’s rich marketing tools that allow you to grow your online presence. That means more people can see your work. You can also use Pixpa to set up an online store to sell your products and services.

Pros

• Beginner-friendly, no-code website-building platform

• Extensive SEO tools allow you to add custom tags and metadata

• SSL security on all websites

• 24×7 customer support through email and live chat

Cons

• There are no built-in options for purchasing custom domain names

11. Dunked

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Dunked is a platform built with designers and creatives in mind. With over 100,000 users, this online portfolio builder lets you share your talents on a stylish and simplistic website.

Dunked’s gallery of professionally designed templates is crafted to complement your creativity and focus on your work. Choose the best one for your aesthetic and switch between themes when they suit you.

You can upload images or multimedia from sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, and SoundCloud, then drag and drop until the website looks exactly how you want.

What I like: I like Dunked because of its clean design and ease of use. Although simple, the design portfolios still look professional on whatever device they appear.

Pros

• Ideal for designers and other creative professionals

• All templates are fully responsive and retina-display ready

• Simple click-and-drag website editing tool to customize your portfolio

Cons

• HTML and CSS knowledge necessary for more extensive customization

• Can’t support case studies or blog posts

Best Free Portfolio Websites for Photographers

12. Flickr

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Undoubtedly one of the most well-known portfolio sites with billions of photos and millions of members, Flickr is an excellent site to share your work, connect with other photographers, and find inspiration for future projects

Photographers who use Flickr as a portfolio should ensure their photos are set to “Public view” and are arranged into folders or categories.

Some photographers suggest creating a more polished portfolio website and then linking to that website from Flickr for more visibility.

What I like: Flickr is a classic that I’ve used many times to find great images for my projects. Flickr levels the playing field and allows amateur photographers to be discovered, provided they share stunning photographs. 

Pros

• Ideal for photographers just starting out

• It is great to connect with others and find inspiration

Cons

• Limited to GIF, PNG, and JPEG photo formats

• Limited to 1,000 photos on the free plan

 

13. Portfoliobox

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Portfoliobox is a website builder specifically designed for photographers, and it’s a good option for crafting a professional-looking responsive gallery of your best work.

Portfoliobox offers an ecommerce link that allows you to sell your prints or other artwork directly from the site (without paying any commission). With the free plan, you can create a blog further to attract visitors and potential customers to your site.

Best of all, Portfoliobox doesn’t make you use a standard theme — instead, you can integrate any style for any page to cultivate a unique, one-of-a-kind website. With over one million users, it’s a good option for professional and novice photographers.

What I like: Portfoliobox allows photographers to design their portfolios in a manner that brings out the best in their photographs. I love the focus on building client relationships. You can receive feedback, deliver projects, and track your client’s favorites in one place.

Pros

• Ideal for photographers at any skill level

• Can sell prints on this site commission-free

• You can use different styles for every page

Cons

• No drag-and-drop functionality

• Limited customization options for ecommerce

14. Krop

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Krop is a creative industry portfolio hosting website used by talented candidates at all experience levels and the globe’s most respected creative brands.

With Krop’s software, creatives can spend less time editing and formatting and more on their projects. Curating portfolio albums is done quickly, and the software offers powerful customizations for personal brandings like logos, color palettes, and more.

This site also serves as a job board, helping professionals network with one another across the globe. Users can strategically place themselves in front of respected creative brands and find work at all experience levels, too.

What I like: You can add as many images as you like to your portfolio without worrying about storage. I hate having to make tough choices about what to feature. With Krop, you won’t need to agonize over which of your favorite projects to cut and which to keep. 

Pros

• Ideal for creative professionals such as photographers, illustrators, or animators

• Password protection for individual albums to share with clients privately

• Unlimited storage for multimedia

• No HTML or CSS knowledge is necessary

Cons

• The majority of job postings are limited to the United States

15. YouPic

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YouPic’s users include famous photographers like Joel Meyerowitz and Julia Fullerton-Batten. This site enables you to craft a free, stunning portfolio to showcase your work. It also lets you buy prints from other photographers or sell your own to earn extra income.

Additionally, the site offers interactive courses to improve your photography skills and a Pinterest-style “Explore” page that lets you check out famous photographs, new artwork, and stories to inspire your gallery. 

And most interesting to note, YouPic allows users to copyright their photos on the blockchain, — making it the first decentralized photography platform. That means YouPic is one of the few platforms that won’t take any rights or ownership of your work.

What I like: While photographers can use YouPic to host their portfolio, the rich array of works displayed on the platform serves as inspiration. I like browsing the different images on YouPic, even if I’m not in the throes of a creative assignment. 

Pros

• Can sell prints on this site commission-free

• Can copyright photos on blockchain

• Doesn’t take any rights or ownership of your work

Cons

• Premium membership is required for YouPic to promote your work

16. Format

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Format is a portfolio website for photographers looking to create and curate their digital gallery or store. Built with tools to help you build a professional website, it offers solutions for supporting a photography business, plus cloud storage to protect your work.

Format has a suite of templates made to fit any aesthetic. It’s designed to serve particular professional situations best, such as for wedding photography or to showcase your artwork. 

It can also change how viewers navigate your work, from gallery formats to more interactive scrolling or slideshow options.

What I like: I love the range of offerings on Format. The site has 90+ templates specifically designed to help photographers show their work. You can also collaborate with clients from the platform and grow your online presence, too.

Pros

• Ideal for professional photographers

• Can support high-quality photos

• Can integrate online stores with no fees for sales

Cons

• The interface comes with a learning curve, but users don’t have to worry about code

Creating Your Online Portfolio

An online portfolio provides evidence of your work and skills, which can set you apart from other candidates or professionals in your field. Using any of the tools above, you can create a free portfolio in no time. What are you waiting for?

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

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

Have you ever set up a form on your site, only to lose track of the information? Creating an HTML email form is an effective way to resolve this issue.

Below, you’ll learn how to create a form that sends an email to you, as well as the customer, after a submission. This simple trick will help you build a seamless inbound strategy.

Ideally, browsers would allow you to route form submissions directly to an email address. However, the reason they don’t is that emailing directly from an HTML web form would reveal the visitor’s email address, making the user vulnerable to malicious activities, such as phishing.

Further, HTML doesn’t offer an option to create a form that sends an email after submission. Instead, you can use the form action element to set a mailto: address (in this case, your own), triggering the submitter’s mail client to open.

This is a last-ditch option if you can’t create a PHP-based form.

However, there are a few problems with the mailto: option:

• It isn’t 100% compatible with all browsers.
• The process isn’t very user-friendly.
• You can’t control the formatting of the data when the form is sent by the browser.
• A warning message will pop up when the user submits the form, letting them know that the information they’re about to send will not be encrypted for privacy.

Instead, you’ll want to look for alternative ways to send an email from a form, which we will discuss below.

How to Make an HTML Form that Sends Email

There are multiple options for creating an HTML form that emails you when a new entry is submitted. The option you choose depends on how you work and what platform you’re using.

This is to say that things are a little different if the plan is to use a mix of HTML and different scripts.

Choose the option that works best with your team’s skill set:

• Method 1: Create an Email Send Form Using HTML
• Method 2: Create an Email Send Form Using PHP
• Method 3: Create an Email Send Form Using a Form Builder
• Method 4: Create an Email Send Form Using a Plugin

Method 1: Create an email send form using HTML (not recommended).

Using just HTML? If you’re starting fresh, our team is here to help. This code will help you create a form that will notify you via email.

The form asks me for the contact’s name and message. It also includes a submit button (not visible in CodePen) that users will click to submit their information.

Note that this code is basic. It won’t look super snazzy. For a more visually appealing form that matches my branding, I would have to add lines of code specific to my needs.

Remember: While you can use just basic HTML, this isn’t the ideal option. This form doesn’t directly send to email addresses but rather opens an email client or tool window to submit the form. This can spook the user out of submitting the form at all.

Pro tip: You might see a customer’s message when you email from an HTML web form. Sadly, your visitors are at risk of phishing due to this security lapse.

So, what HTML code allows you to send form submissions directly to an email address?

To make the form work with your email server and send it to a mailbox, PHP is the answer. Let’s explore that option now.

Method 2: Create an email send form using PHP (advanced).

To create a form that sends an email, PHP is going to be your best friend. PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, and this language collaborates with HTML to process the form.

Before jumping into the process, let’s break down a few form basics.

PHP Forms: What You Need to Know

A web form has two sides: The front end, seen in the browser by visitors, and a backend script running on the server.

The visitor’s web browser uses HTML code to display the form. When the form is submitted, the browser sends the information to the backend using the link mentioned in the “action” attribute of the form tag, sending the form data to that URL.

For example: .

The server then passes the data to the script specified in the action URL — myform-processor.php in this case. Using this data, the backend script can create a database of form submissions, direct the user to another page (e.g., payment), and send an email.

There are other scripting languages you can use in backend programming, like Ruby, Perl, or ASP for Windows. However, PHP is the most popular and is used by almost all web hosting service providers.

If you’re creating a form from scratch, here are the steps you can take. I’ll work through them below.

Step 1: Use PHP to create a page.

For this step, I need to have access to my website’s cPanel on my hosting platform.

When creating a web page, instead of using the “.html” extension, I typed “.php” instead. This is similar to what happens when I save an image as “jpg” versus “png.”

By doing this, the server will know to host the PHP I wrote. Instead of saving the empty HTML page as such, I saved it as “subscriberform.php”. After my page is created and saved, I can then create the form.

Step 2: Make the form using code.

In this step, I write the code to create the form.

If you’re not sure how to create forms in HTML, check out HTML Dog’s resource for a primer on the basics.

The following code is what’s needed for a basic form:

Because this is similar to the HTML-only write-up, these lines will also create a name for the form and an area for subscribers to type a custom message and send it to me.

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An important difference is the action=“subscriberform.php” part. This portion of code is what will make the page send the form when submitted.

Step 3: Make the form send an email.

After I create the form and add all the proper fixings depending on my design preferences, it’s time to create the email portion.

For this, I’m going to scroll to the beginning of the page (the very beginning, even before defining the HTML Doctype). To enable sending data in the email, I have to add code that will process the data. I copied this code:

Everything inside the first and last lines will tell the web page to make these functions perform as PHP. This code also checks to see if a subscriber uses the form. From there, it checks to see if the form was sent.

Further breaking it down, “mail” sends the completed form as an email to “your@email.address,” and the subject line is what follows. In the next line, I can write a copy of the email message inside the quotes, to be sent from whichever email address you choose.

Once the form is submitted, the page sends the data to itself. If the data has been successfully sent, the page sends it as an email. The browser then loads the page’s HTML — the form included.

With that, I have the basic code I need to create the form.

Note that this is just one way to do this. Alternatively, you can also create a form using a builder and then embed it on your website.

What you need to know: Making a PHP form from scratch isn’t beginner-friendly. If you’re looking to use PHP, I suggest you consider using a backend platform with no language dependency. Otherwise, it can be hard to manage email send forms.

Method 3: Create an Email Send Form Using a Form Builder

If you’re not using WordPress to build your website and are not coding-savvy, you may be at a loss as to how you can create a form. This is especially true if your CMS doesn’t offer a drag-and-drop page editor.

Each of the tools below allows you to build a form that sends an email without any coding. The best part is that you don’t need to change content management systems if you don’t want to. Instead, you can embed the form on your website using each tool’s embed code.

Check out my favorite form builders and my thoughts below.

(Pro tip: A drag-and-drop editor can make it much easier and simpler to create an email-sending form. Try CMS Hub. It’s 100% free!)

1. HubSpot: Best Email Form Builder Overall

Start using HubSpot’s free Form Builder tool.

HubSpot includes a form builder in the free tier of all of its products. Because HubSpot already has my email, it will automatically send me a message when a new entry is submitted.

HubSpot’s form builder is linked with other tools in the platform, including Marketing Hub and CMS Hub. Plus, I don’t need any special technical knowledge. If I want to extend the form to include marketing capabilities, I can do so as well. Here’s a walkthrough of how you can add HubSpot forms to your site:

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5f4Nzg7ciw]

For example, I can build custom forms that connect to my contacts list. I can also customize those forms and trigger automatic emails based on the completion of my forms. (Note that the latter requires a premium upgrade.)

If you want to learn how to receive an email after a form submission, take a look at our Knowledge Base article.

Best for: HubSpot’s form builder is the best option if you’re just getting started and don’t want to spend big on making forms. With the help of the form builder tool, anyone, regardless of skill level, can develop visually appealing forms that effectively convert website visitors into leads and expand their business.

2. Forms.io: Best Quick Email Form Builder

Forms.io allowed me to quickly create a form in its drag-and-drop interface. Then, I could embed the form on my site using an HTML embed code. I received an alert or notification when the form was filled out. I could then manage responses in the tool’s backend.

It’s free for 10 users. If your company needs more seats, you can have access for $14.99/month.

Best for: Whether you’re looking to create a singular-step or multiple-step form, Forms.io can get it done in seconds. While using its pre-defined templates, you can easily choose from logos, colors, and fonts to reflect your brand.

3. Jotform: Best Email for Builder for Multiple Forms

If you expect that you’ll need more than one form, Jotform is a great choice.

When I trialed Jotform, I had several options for embedding forms on my website: JavaScript, iFrame, or the entire source code of the form. I also had the option of creating a lightbox or pop-up form.

Jotform is free with its branding. Pricing starts at $24 a month if you want a watermark-free form.

Check out how you can customize your notifications for their feedback form:

Best for: With Jotform, you should be able to access your email forms from any device — just as you can access your emails. Every form is responsive by default, so you can easily complete it on a computer, tablet, or phone. What I find useful is that the app helps to check contributions on the move, even when offline.

You can check out more form builders options here.

Method 4: Create an Email Send Form Using a Plugin

If you’re running a WordPress website, we have good news: You have a plethora of form builder plugins available to you, most of which are free. These tools will all send you an email upon receiving a submission.

1. HubSpot Form Plugin: Best for Lead Generation

If you’re planning to use your form as a lead generation tool, then I highly recommend using the HubSpot form plugin. It links directly to your HubSpot account, allowing you to use it in conjunction with HubSpot CRM, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and more.

Here’s what it’ll look like when you add the plugin to your WordPress site:

Pro tip: Inserting the form via a Hubspot plugin can be necessary to ensure that the embed code remains intact if you find out that your WordPress form is malfunctioning.

2. WPForms: Best for Embedding Anywhere

WPForms is a drag-and-drop form builder that allows you to configure it to email you upon receiving a submission. You can also embed the form anywhere on your site, including the sidebar and footer.

Pro tip: With WPForms, you will immediately receive an email notification as soon as a form is submitted, as shown below. You can even create notifications for numerous recipients and use confirmation features to send the user to a personalized thank-you page or display a custom success message.

3. ARForms: Best for Adaptability

ARForms allows you to receive email notifications based on conditions you’ve set, but you can also get email notifications for all submissions.

You can also integrate it with other tools in your tech stack, including HubSpot, PayPal, and Google Sheets.

Even with their templates, you can personalize your form by adding multiple fields, as shown below:

Pro tip: ARForms’ integrated pop-up form capabilities and range of triggers are what make it so powerful. You can increase your form conversion rates by using trigger actions to make your forms more visible to site users.

The Importance of HTML Forms that Send Emails

Whether you want to convert more visitors to leads, collect information for your sales team, or create loyal brand advocates, forms are imperative to an inbound strategy.

If you don’t have a form that sends emails, you could be missing out on more leads, increased conversions, and engaged customers.

Start leveling up your forms today.

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

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

WYSIWYG. No, this isn’t another one of those newfangled acronyms the kids are using these days — it’s actually been around for quite some time.

“What You See Is What You Get,” or WYSIWYG for short, refers to an HTML editor in which the content on a blog or web page appears as it would when it’s live.

In contrast to traditional editors, a WYSIWYG editor focuses on the end result, allowing you to get a clearer sense of what you’re creating as you’re creating it. In Adobe Dreamweaver to Google Web Designer to the HubSpot Marketing Platform, WYSIWYG editors are simplifying the way we produce content.

But did you ever stop to think about where they came from? Let’s explore.

WYSI-What?

Before it was used to describe the technology that enabled users to visualize what the end product would look like, WYSIWYG — pronounced wiz-ee-wig — was popularized by a newsletter titled WYSIWYG.

Published by Arlene and Jose Ramos, the WYSIWYG newsletter was created for the Pre-Press industry and was eventually sold to employees at the Stanford Research Institute after three years of publishing.

Today, it’s become synonymous with web editing experience — and more related terms have surfaced. From WYSIMOLWYG (what you see is more or less what you get) to WYSIAWYG (what you see is almost what you get), these variations are often used to describe the limitations of certain editors that lack true WYSIWYG functionality.

History of the WYSIWYG Editor

Pre-World Wide Web: Bravo and Word

Before WYSIWYG editors were introduced in the 1970s, content creators had little control over the way their documents appeared. In order to customize content, typists were instructed to use “control codes” that represented the desired formatting. This meant that a function as simple as centering a paragraph was a manual process where the typists were forced to add extra spaces to create the proper format.

It was evident that systems needed to change, but who would be the one to do it?

After earning his M.S. in Engineering Mathematics & Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley under computer scientist Butler Lampson, Charles Simonyi was recruited to Xerox PARC in 1972. It was here that Simonyi and Lampson began developing the WYSIWYG editor, which they’d started to conceptualize while at Berkeley.

By 1974, the world’s first WYSIWYG document preparation program, Bravo, became operational. Bravo was enabled by the first fully networked personal computer, the Xerox Alto, which was developed at Xerox PARC in 1972.

Xerox Alto (Image Credit: Wikipedia)

However, Xerox Alto was never publicly marketed, and upon realizing that the WYSIWYG program would only be used internally at Xerox PARC, Simonyi decided to seek out new opportunities. Interested in the concept of a company that solely focused on software, Simonyi joined Microsoft in 1981.

At Microsoft, Simonyi worked with software developer Richard Brodie to begin development on a WYSIWYG word processor called Multi-Tool Word — which was later renamed Microsoft Word in 1983.

While Microsoft Word has grown to become arguably the most widely used word processing software, it wasn’t the first of its kind. In fact, upon its release, several other tools were already dominating the marketing, including WordStar — the first mature WYSIWYG word processor from MicroPro.

WordStar running on DOS (Source: Wikipedia)

It was evident that progress was being made to expand the market for WYSIWYG programs, but adoption was slow during the 1970s and early 1980s due immature graphics capabilities and bitmap displays. However, as home computers grew more sophisticated, WYSIWYG programs began to crop up more frequently.

Online WYSIWYGs: Adobe Creative Cloud

After the first website went live in 1991, it was time for developers to explore more advanced WYSIWYG HTML editors. The goal was to create an editing interface that made it easy for those who weren’t well versed in HTML to build websites.

The first WYSIWYG HTML editor, WebMagic, was launched by Silicon Graphics in 1995. After securing $2.5 million in funding from Silicon Graphic’s president and COO Tom Jermoluk, John McCrea set out to launch a product line for web authoring.

The only catch? The project’s deadline was less than 80 days away.

With no time to spare, McCrea hit the ground running with the help of VP and General Manager of Visual Magic Divisions, Way Ting. Unwilling to start from scratch, McCrea and Ting managed to struck a deal with Amdahl — a maker of IBM-compatible mainframe computers — that brought them both workable code as well as developer David Koplas. From here, they assembled a small team who would work tirelessly on the project until it was ready for launch on January 25, 1995.

While WebMagic was the first of its kind, similar editors were quick to follow. By October of 1995 Vermeer Technologies — which was acquired by Microsoft in 1996 — released FrontPage. Serving as the first WYSIWYG HTML editor on Windows, FrontPage was a valuable asset for Microsoft during the company’s “browser war” against Netscape. However after years of iteration, Microsoft announced that the program would be superseded by Microsoft SharePoint Designer and Microsoft Expression Web in 2006.

During this time period, many other WYSIWYG HTML editors came to market, including Dreamweaver. Released by Macromedia in 1997, Dreamweaver quickly became another powerful WYSIWYG HTML editor, creating a user-friendly environment for website development.

By 2005, Macromedia was purchased by Adobe — along with the rights to Dreamweaver. Since then, Adobe has maintained development on the software, which now exists amongst other powerful tools in Adobe’s Creative Cloud.

Present Day WYSIWYGs

Thanks to the foundation laid by early WYSIWYG HTML editors, today’s editors are more streamlined than ever before. To get a better feel for how far things have come, let’s take a look at a few noteworthy releases.

Google Web Designer

In September of 2013, Google launched Web Designer, a WYSIWYG tool for building interactive HTML5 websites and ads. Web Designer employs interactivity, animation, and Google integrations to help anyone get a high quality website out the door quickly.

TinyMCE

This platform-independent editor was released as open-source under the LGPL by Ephox. Designed to integrate with content management systems such as WordPress, Drupal, and Django, TinyMCE enables users to convert HTML areas to editor instances.

Source: JangoMail

openElement

OpenElement is a free web authoring software with a WYSIWYG interface. By automatically generating the code necessary for a website to display properly, the software makes it easy for users to drive the direction of their website.

HubSpot Drag-and-Drop Editor

Get started with this tool for free.

This no-code editor offers a true, full-screen WYSIWYG experience. The drag-and-drop interface lets you– or anyone on your team– create compelling content with just a few clicks.

Pro Tip: You can try out this feature for free in the free editions of Content Hub or Marketing Hub.

This change comes as part of our Easy Initiative. Learn more about it here.

 

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

Optimizing your website to generate leads is a no-brainer. However, it’s not as simple as throwing a “Click Here” button on your home page and watching the leads pour in.

Instead, marketers and designers need to take a more strategic approach. In this post, we’ll go over some quick ways that actually work to optimize your website for lead generation.

Table of Contents

• How to Create a Lead Generation Website
• How to Increase Leads on Your Website

How to Create a Lead Generation Website

To understand how to optimize our website, we’ll have to first gain a basic understanding of the lead generation process.

What components are at play when a casual website visitor turns into a lead?

The lead generation process typically starts when a website visitor clicks on a call-to-action (CTA) located on one of your site pages or blog posts. That CTA leads them to a landing page, which includes a form used to collect the visitor’s contact information.

Once the visitor fills out and submits the form, they are then led to a thank-you page. (Learn about this process in more detail in this post.)

Now that we’ve gone over the basics of lead generation, we can get down to the details. Here are the steps to follow to create a lead generation website from scratch.

1. Start with a goal.

Before you build your lead generation website, consider what your goal for it is. Your main goal is, of course, to generate leads, but get even more specific.

What do you want visitors to do on your website? Do you want to educate the buyer on your product or industry?

Then, you’ll probably want to create a free resource like an ebook or whitepaper that they can download by filling out a form and submitting their contact information.

Or perhaps you want to increase the number of people who sign up for your product. In this case, you’ll need to create compelling landing pages and sign-up forms with strong calls-to-action.

Consider what your lead generation goals are to better plan which elements to look for in your lead generation website.

2. Find a CMS tool.

When creating a lead generation website, you have a clear goal: increase leads to your business. That means you should look for a CMS tool that makes it easy to capture and convert leads.

The best CMS tool for lead generation is one that has built-in optimizations that are geared toward lead generation. It should have forms — sign-up forms, contact forms, and more — email marketing capabilities, live chat, and built-in analytics so you can track and measure your lead generation efforts.

And if you’re not a designer or don’t have access to one on your team, you’ll also want to look for a CMS tool that’s easy to use. Look for one with drag-and-drop capabilities or built-in themes.

These features will make it easy to put together a functional and attractive website without having any website development or coding experience.

3. Build a landing page.

Once you have your lead generation website set up, it’s time to build your first landing page. Your CMS tool should make it easy to set up and optimize a landing page that converts.

A few key elements your landing page must have include:

• Compelling headline
• A few sentences of copy
• Bullet points that outline the key benefits
• Product image
• A strong CTA button

Image Source

How to Increase Leads on Your Website

Now that you have your lead generation website set up, let’s unpack nine simple ways to increase leads on your website with these optimizations.

1. Add forms to the pages that get the most traffic.

Once you have a website, it’s important to benchmark your current state of lead generation before you begin so you can track your success and determine the areas where you most need improvement.

Some of your pages might make excellent lead generators, and you don’t even realize it.

To start, conduct an audit of where most of your online traffic and outreach comes from — your lead generators. Here are some common places a business might get visitors:

• Email marketing. Traffic might come from users who click through to your website from one of your emails.
• Social media. Traffic might come from users who engage in a campaign through one of your social media profiles.
• Live chat. Traffic might come in the form of users who reach out to your customer service team through a live chat window on your website.
• Blog posts. Traffic might come from your highest-performing blog posts.

Once you identify where your leads are coming from, you‘ll want to make sure the pages they’re landing on are doing everything they can to nurture a visitor’s interest.

For example, let’s say you use an analytics tool to track your leads.

If you realize most of your potential leads are clicking on inbound links to your website from your LinkedIn page, your next step is to update the pages they’re visiting with content that keeps them on and engaging with your website.

On your most visited website pages, add long-form content that visitors can access through forms that solicit their contact information.

2. Measure the performance of each lead generator.

Test how each of your existing lead generators is contributing to your business using a tool like Website Grader, which evaluates your lead generation sources (including landing pages and CTAs) and provides feedback on ways to improve your existing content.

You can also compare landing pages that are doing well with landing pages that aren’t doing as well.

For example, let’s say that you get 1,000 visits to Landing Page A, and 10 of those people filled out the form and converted into leads. For Landing Page A, you would have a 1% conversion rate.

Let’s say you have another landing page, Landing Page B, that gets 50 visitors to convert into leads for every 1,000 visits. That would be a 5% conversion rate — which is great.

Your next steps could be to see how Landing Page A differs from Landing Page B, and optimize Landing Page A accordingly.

Image Source

Finally, you could try running internal reports. Evaluate landing page visits, CTA clicks, and thank-you page shares to determine which offers are performing the best, and then create more like them.

3. Optimize each step of the lead generation process.

If your visitor searched “lawn care tips” and ended up on a blog post you published called “10 Ways To Improve Your Lawn Care Regimen,” you’d better not link that blog post to an offer for a snow-clearing consultation.

Make sure your offers are related to the page they‘re on so you can capitalize on visitors’ interest in a particular subject.

As soon as a visitor lands on your website, you can start learning about their conversion path. This path starts when a visitor visits your site and ends (hopefully) with them filling out a form and becoming a lead.

Sometimes, a visitor‘s path doesn’t end with the desired goal. In those cases, you can optimize the conversion path.

How? If you want to run an A/B test on a landing page, be sure to test four key pieces of the lead gen process:

The CTAs

Use contrasting colors from your site. Keep it simple — and try a tool like Canva to create images easily, quickly, and for free. Read this blog post for ideas for types of calls-to-action (CTAs) you can test on your blog.

The Landing Pages

Inbound traffic to landing pages still works. According to HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report, marketing teams saw inbound leads increase by 6.66% in 2022. For inspiration, here are 15 examples of well-designed landing pages you can learn from.

The Thank-You Pages

Oftentimes, it‘s the landing pages that get all the love in the lead generation process. But the thank-you page, where the visitor is led to once they submit a form on the landing page and convert into a lead, shouldn’t be overlooked.

In a HubSpot study on engagement rates of thank-you emails, these emails generated a 42% open rate and a 14% CTR.

Along with saying thank you, be sure to include a link for your new lead to actually download the offer on your thank-you page. You can also include social sharing buttons and even a form for another, related offer.

The Kickback Email

Once a visitor converts into a lead and their information enters your database, you have the opportunity to send them a kickback email, i.e., a “thank-you” email.

In the HubSpot email study referenced above, kickback emails doubled the engagement rates (opens and click-throughs) of standard marketing emails.

Use kickback emails as opportunities to include super-specific CTA and encourage sharing on email and social media.

4. Start with a basic CTA on your homepage.

If your homepage‘s design is what catches a person’s attention, the CTA is what keeps it. However, don’t bombard your visitors with an invitation to see the longest or most complex content you have.

Your homepage sits at the top of the marketing funnel and should, therefore, offer either a free trial or subscription to a recurring campaign. Consider including one of the following CTAs on the front of your website.

“Subscribe to Updates”

In general, consumers want their browsing experience to be as non-invasive as their buying experience. Oftentimes, they’re not ready to make a purchase when they first find your website.

To teach them about you with no effort or commitment on their part, invite them to subscribe to an email that notifies them of industry trends and product updates.

Personally follow up with the ones who opt to stay on this mailing list to gauge their interest and eventually turn them into marketing qualified leads (MQLs).

“Try Us for Free”

Free trials and demos are a growing company’s bread and butter. They allow you to generate demand in your business and create a contact list of leads who are currently piloting your product.

On your homepage, have your product available to try for free for a limited time using a CTA and form where you can collect their names and email addresses. At the end of each active product demo, follow up with the user to see what they thought of it.

5. Offer ebooks for download on specific blog posts.

Another non-invasive way to generate interest in your business is to create blog content that promotes an ebook or whitepaper, wherein your website visitors can learn more about the same topic they just read about on your blog.

This is where lead generation meets search engine optimization (SEO).

Blog content is your way of developing the page authority needed to rank your website on Google.

Organic visitors who come from Google are often more intent on finding solutions to a problem you can solve — making this form of lead generation quite valuable.

To start, conduct keyword research on a topic that’s relevant to your industry. Create a group of blog posts around this topic. Then, draft a report that delves much deeper into this topic.

Package this report into a PDF that your blog readers can download using their name, company, and email address.

Using the three-part conversion path described above, email each person their downloaded resource, following up with them through a kickback email that retains each lead‘s interest in the content you’ve provided them.

6. Develop a live chat service for your website.

Live chat services are increasing not just in their sophistication but in how many people expect them when learning about vendors they might want to buy from. This means you could be missing out on a major lead generator.

According to a recent HubSpot survey on live chat consumer behavior, 26% of respondents prefer using live chat over other customer service methods.

Image Source

To generate leads through live chat, audit your website to see which pages your visitors spend most of their time on.

With the right development resources, you can install a live chat tool on the pages where customers need the most assistance or information.

This allows you to casually collect and log insight into their product needs while answering their questions.

Depending on who starts the chat and the questions your visitors have, you can even integrate your customer service team with your live chat feature. This ensures every website visitor has their needs addressed no matter where the conversation goes.

7. Personalize your CTAs.

Dynamic content lets you cater the experience of visiting your website to each unique web visitor.

People who land on your site will see images, buttons, and product options that are specifically tailored to their interests, the pages they‘ve viewed, or items they’ve purchased before.

Better yet, personalized calls-to-action perform 202% better than basic calls-to-action. In other words, dynamic content and on-page personalization help you generate more leads.

How does it work? Here’s an example of what your homepage may look like to a stranger:

And here’s what it would look like to a customer:

Notice the “Welcome Back” header? Visitors who see website pages that remember them from an earlier date are more inclined to stick around and start a conversation with you.

To get dynamic content (or “smart content”) on your site, you’ll need to use a tool like Content Hub.

8. Test, test, test.

We can’t stress this part of the process enough. A/B testing can do wonders for your click-through rates.

For example, when friendbuy tried a simple A/B test on their calls-to-action, they found a 211% improvement in click-throughs on those CTAs.

Something as simple as testing out the wording of your CTA, the layout of your landing page, or the images you’re using can have a huge impact, like the one friendbuy saw. (This free e-book has fantastic tips for getting started with A/B testing.)

9. Nurture your leads.

Remember: No lead is going to magically turn into a customer. Leads are only as good as your nurturing efforts.

Place leads into a workflow once they fill out a form on your landing page so they don’t forget about you, and deliver them valuable content that matches their interest.

Lead nurturing should start with relevant follow-up emails that include great content. As you nurture them, learn as much as you can about them — and then tailor all future sends accordingly.

Here’s an example of a lead nurturing email:

This email offers the recipient some great content, guides them down the funnel, and gets to the point.

Go Forth, and Capture Leads

You depend on leads to close sales and grow your business. Using the tips above, you can take advantage of every opportunity without letting unsatisfied website visitors slip away.

Editor’s note: This post was originally written in May 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

Studies show that 76% of consumers research a business online before visiting in person. That means having a website and building web pages that provide the information consumers want to know is as necessary for companies today as having a phone number.

Maybe you’re starting a new business venture or developing your personal brand. Or, maybe you’re looking to update your company’s outdated website.

Whatever the case, building web pages from scratch can feel overwhelming, particularly without technical expertise or a budget for web developers. Below, let’s go over exactly how to build a website and the tools you need to do it yourself.

Table of Contents:

• Steps to Make a Website
• How to Build a Website with a Website Builder
• How to Build a Website with a CMS
• How to Build a Website with HubSpot
• Build Web Pages: FAQ
• Build Your Website: Tips

Steps to Make a Website

I’ve put together a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to creating a website. Best of all, you won’t need a coder, web designer, or big budget to create one — you’ll just need to follow the steps below.

In general, you’ll carry out these steps before launching your site. But before you get started, you’ll need to choose a platform.

Start building your website by choosing a platform.

The first thing you’ll need to decide is whether you want to create a website using a website builder or a CMS.

Let’s take a look at the definitions of each below.

Website Builder	Content Management System (CMS)
A website builder is a solution that offers domain names, SSL certificates, and templates in one package, typically at a monthly or yearly subscription fee.	A content management system is a platform where you place your website’s content and media files. Domain names, SSL certificates, and hosting is typically purchased separately.

Both website builders and CMS platforms provide the out-of-the-box features, pre-designed templates, and extensions required to create a custom site without coding, but they offer different experiences for creating and managing a website.

Website Builders vs. Content Management Systems

Website Builders	CMS Platforms
Domain registration, hosting, and SSL certificate included In-house templates and themes included (typically less variety) Monthly subscription with free trials available Limited customization Less powerful in functionalities and features Great option for beginners	Domain registration, hosting, and SSL certificate must be purchased separately In-house and third-party templates and themes available (typically more variety) Free CMS platforms available Highly customizable down to the website code More powerful in functionalities and features Great option for sites with growth potential

Website builders provide everything you need to launch a site. You get website building tools, hosting, domain registration, SSL certification, templates, and support in one place, often for a low monthly rate.

This ease of use and pricing appeals to many site owners. However, free website builders, as well as the more expensive alternatives, tend to be limited in flexibility. For example, you can’t add your own custom code, or drag and drop elements anywhere on your posts and pages.

If you want more control over the functionality and appearance of your site, use a CMS. A CMS will provide the content management features, advanced functionality, and customization options required to build larger, more complex sites.

If you decide that a CMS is the best option for your business, consider the software, ease of use, customizability, security, and pricing of different platforms to narrow down your selection.

Let’s look at some examples of both website builders and CMS platforms you could potentially use.

Website Builder Examples	CMS Examples
HubSpot Wix WordPress.com Squarespace Weebly Site123 GoDaddy Webflow	Content Hub WordPress.org Adobe Experience Manager Magento Joomla Drupal Sitecore

Here are some resources comparing some CMS systems with popular website builders:

• HubSpot vs Drupal vs WordPress vs Joomla: Which Is the Right CMS for You?
• WordPress.org vs WordPress.com: What’s the Difference?
• Which Should You Use, Wix or WordPress? Things to Know
• A Head-to-Head Comparison of Weebly vs. WordPress
• The Most Critical Differences Between Squarespace & WordPress
• Shopify vs. WordPress: Where Should You Set Up Shop?

How to Build a Website with a Website Builder

Have you decided that you’d like to use a website builder? Excellent! This is the easiest way to start for most beginners.

You won’t need to know how to code, and everything you need is typically included in one convenient package.

So if you don’t want to go through the hassle of finding a hosting service, domain name, and SSL certificate, this is the option for you.

Let’s go through the process of creating your site using a website builder.

1. Choose a website builder.

First up, choose a website builder that fits your needs and budget. You’ll need to consider the following:

• Cost: Your budget will be by far the most important factor when choosing a website builder. Most require a paid subscription to include premium features such as domain names and increased storage.
• Features: Website builders typically offer different features depending on their target market. Shopify, for example, is specifically designed for ecommerce websites, while WordPress.com is primarily known for blogging.
• Extensions: Check out the extensions and add-ons library for each website builder you’re considering. If they don’t offer something you need for your site, skip that builder.
• Themes and Templates: Some website builders provide more themes and templates, while others provide less variety but more well-designed choices. Check out the template library so you can see what your site could potentially look like once it’s finished.
• Ease-of-use: All website builders are designed to be easy to use: simply sign up on the platform and start building. But some are more intuitive than others. Play around with different builders to find out which one you prefer.
• Support: Is the website builder’s support team known for its responsiveness? Do some research beforehand to ensure the premium subscription will also get you premium support.

No matter what, you’ll want to start with a free trial — that way, you can give the platform a test run before committing.

While most website builders come with a free subscription tier, it doesn’t offer a free domain name or the features you need to build a strong website.

My recommendation is to opt for a paid subscription once you’ve decided on a platform.

Below, I’ve broken down some of the most popular website builders you could choose.

Website Builder	Plans	Good Fit For:
WordPress.com	$4 to $8/month	Blogs
Wix	$14 to $39/month	General Websites
Weebly	$6 to $26/month	General Websites
Shopify	$29 to $299/month	Ecommerce Stores
Squarespace	$12 to $40/month	Creative Websites
HubSpot	Free to $25/month	General Websites

Here are a few more resources to help you choose a website builder:

• Best Website Builders Today and How to Choose One
• Best Free Website Builders to Check Out This Year
• Top Ecommerce Website Builders

And here are some posts listing alternatives:

• Wix Alternatives & Why You Might Want Them
• Squarespace Alternatives & Why You Need One

2. Sign up for a subscription plan that meets your budget and needs.

If you’re just getting started, a free plan is a good way to build your business and get it out there.

But as you grow, you’ll want to upgrade to a subscription as free plans typically don’t include enough features to scale and maintain a professional website.

Before you upgrade, take a close look at the features included in each tier to choose the right subscription for you.

Consider the following questions before choosing a subscription plan:

• How much storage will you need?
• Do you want ads to be removed from your site?
• Will you be setting up an online store?
• Will you want a professional email with your domain name?
• Will you want to customize the site using CSS and HTML?
• How much support do you expect you’ll need?

Most website builders have a pricing page that lays out the differences between plans in an easy-to-scan list. The best part is that you can start with the simplest subscription, then upgrade as you require more features and functionalities.

3. Choose a short and catchy domain name.

Some website builders offer a free subdomain for your site, but you’ll want to upgrade to a paid subscription to get a custom domain.

A custom domain name is one of the easiest ways to appear more professional and legitimate as a company. Imagine you were looking for a freelance writer.

Are you more likely to hire me if my website address is carolineforsey.weebly.com or carolineforsey.com? An extension like “Weebly.com” can confuse visitors and dilute your brand identity.

Worst case scenario: a visitor might assume you can’t afford a premium hosting service or custom domain, and draw conclusions that your business is not fully established.

The good news is that after you upgrade, your premium website builder subscription will include a domain name for free, at least for the first year. You’ll be able to choose it as you’re setting up the site, or do it later.

When choosing a domain name, pick something short and descriptive. The .com top-level domain will work for most websites, but if you’re planning on launching an organization, you can also consider the .org domain.

Domain names are a surprisingly complicated art — you must choose something memorable that doesn’t yet exist. As you make your choice, I’d recommend avoiding the following:

• Including dashes
• Using numbers
• Using a trademarked name

Before signing up on your website builder platform, consider looking up available domain names using a service such as GoDaddy.

That way, you can make sure the domain you want is available before you pay for a subscription on the website builder platform.

Here are some more resources for picking the perfect domain name.

• The Plain-English Guide to Domains & Domain Names
• Tips for Choosing the Perfect Domain Name
• .net vs. .com, and More: What’s the Best Domain Extension?

4. Pick a premade website template.

During your setup process, the website builder will take you to a template library, where you can choose a premade layout to set up your site.

Most website builders will create a different template depending on the type of business or brand you run. For instance, you can choose a template that’s specifically made for:

• Freelancers
• Bloggers
• Local Businesses
• Creatives
• Resume Websites

Every template should have essential features such as a built-in responsive setting and drag-and-drop page editor.

Your website builder should also allow you to import demo data, so that you only have to replace the images and text and not tinker with anything else during the setup process.

5. Customize the template.

You don’t want your site to look like anyone else’s, so you’ll need to customize the template to your liking.

On most platforms, you’ll be able to change the color palette, replace the images, insert social media icons, add personalized forms and menus, and change the size, colors, and fonts of buttons.

Have fun, and don’t forget to use your brand colors. This will be the best part of building your website: making it look like you want it to.

For beautiful templates that are easy to customize, check out the Content Hub theme collection on the Envato marketplace.

6. Add pages to the site.

Next, it’s time to add pages to your site. You’ll need to create, at a minimum:

• A home page
• An about page
• A contact us page
• A services page, if you’re offering any
• A product page, if you’re selling any
• A blog page

You’ll also want to create specific service pages.

For instance, if you’re selling “Digital Marketing Services,” you’ll want to create pages titled “Social Media Marketing Packages” and “Search Engine Marketing Services” under the digital marketing services umbrella.

Our top suggestion would be to put the topic of your page — or your target keyword — in the title of these new pages.

Instead of having a page titled “Services,” you would title it “Digital Marketing Services.” You’ll want to do the same thing for your home page.

You don’t want it to be titled “Home.” Instead, title it “Freelance Digital Marketing Specialist – Your Name.”

Your title shows up in the search results, so it plays an important role in telling visitors what you do.

Here are more resources on creating great page titles:

• What’s a Website Title (Title Tag) & Why Does It Matter for SEO?
• How to Write the Perfect Page Title With SEO in Mind

7. Write optimized content.

This is arguably the most important step. Now that you have your pages set up, what will you put on them?

It’s time to write optimized content to put on all of the pages you’ve created. Get content inspiration from your competitors or use an AI tool like HubSpot’s Content Assistant to help you come up with ideas, create an outline, or optimize your existing content.

Don’t forget to aim for at least 800 words per page. Remember, however, that you can always come back later to write more content. So if you have to write short pages at first, it’s totally fine. Set a date for when you’ll return and add more copy.

Write your content in an editor such as Google Docs and use a grammar checker such as Grammarly to ensure your copy is error-free. When you upload images, be sure to compress them beforehand with a tool such as Toolur or TinyJPG. These steps will ensure your content helps you rank on Google and other search engines.

Check out the following articles on how to write optimized content:

• The Ultimate Guide to Content Creation
• What Is Content Writing? Plus Tips to Take Your Content to the Next Level
• The Ins and Outs of Writing Long-Form Content
• The Ultimate Guide to On-Page SEO
• How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner’s Guide

8. Fill in general settings.

Before pushing your site live, you’ll want to fill in general settings. It’s the same list you would run through if you were setting up your site on a CMS platform.

Here’s what you’ll want to adjust:

• Page titles
• Headings
• Meta descriptions
• Image alt-text
• Structured markup
• Page URLs (or slugs)
• Internal linking
• Mobile responsiveness
• Site speed

Make sure you include a site title and tagline in the “Settings” of your website builder. Go through, and check out the URLs — are those optimized for search?

Any website builder you’re using to build your site should make it easy to optimize these elements on every post and page.

With HubSpot, for example, you can add image alt-text, meta descriptions, headings, and custom URLs right in the CMS.

9. Install extensions and apps.

Last but not least, install add-ons that will increase your website’s functionality. Each website builder typically has a library of extensions and add-ons that you can choose from.

For instance, in the HubSpot App Marketplace, you can filter for, browse, and add a number of different CMS apps and integrations.

Once your pages, content, and plugins are in place, it’s time to push your site live.

The website builder will typically have a button you can click to launch your site into the web. After that, simply watch your organic traffic grow.

And remember: if your website builder doesn’t work for you, you’ll always be able to switch over to a CMS. Speaking of CMS, let’s review the steps involved in building a website with a CMS next.

How to Build a Website with a CMS

Have you chosen to go with a content management system instead?

The process of building a website with a CMS is a little different than setting up a site with a website builder — mainly because you’ll have to buy a domain name and web hosting on your own.

But the process is just as simple, and the powerful customization options make the extra steps worth it.

Here‘s some advice from HubSpot’s Content Hub Senior Product Marketing Manager, Alex Girard, about building a website:

“When building a website, you want to make sure your content helps your customers achieve their goal with your business.

If you sell professional services, can customers learn more about the services you offer and easily get in touch with your team if they have specific questions?

If you‘re an e-comm business, how easy is it for your customers to purchase something right off your website?

Interview your customers about their experience on your website, and don’t be afraid to run experiments on your copy or on other elements of your website.

Constantly iterating on the experience you provide your customers will help you perfect your website over time.”

Below, I’m covering the process of building your website using a CMS from start to finish.

1. Choose a CMS.

The best CMS system for your business will align with your site’s needs and goals.

Let‘s talk about some of the features you’d get from using HubSpot Content Hub to give you an idea of some of the benefits of using content management software.

Example of CMS Software: HubSpot CMS

Price: Free to get started, then $25 per month

HubSpot Content Hub is a web content management system that’s built on HubSpot’s all-in-one CRM Platform. As a result, your team will have the tools necessary to offer a delightful and modern digital experience.

Pro Tip: Get HubSpot Content Hub, the content platform for marketers, developers, and IT teams that’s built on your all-in-one CRM platform.

Below, I broke down some of the most popular website builders you could choose from, including Content Hub.

CMS	Plans	Good Fit For
Content Hub	Free	Scaling Businesses
WordPress.org	Free	General Websites
Adobe Experience Manager	Custom Pricing	Enterprise Businesses
Joomla	Free	General Websites (Recommended for Advanced Users)
Drupal	Free	General Websites (Recommended for Advanced Users)

It’s worth noting that while WordPress.org, Joomla, and Drupal are free, you’ll have to pay for domain names, SSL certificates, hosting, and premium themes and templates, adding to your set-up costs. You might also need the help of a developer if you opt for Joomla and Drupal.

It’ll be hard to choose, but you can narrow it down with a few questions.

For instance, do you need a platform that allows you to add your own custom code or one that supports multiple languages? Would you like a proprietary CMS to help share the responsibility of protecting and maintaining your site, or would you prefer an open-source CMS?

You might also narrow your list by comparing the selection of templates and add-ons offered by each system.

Here are some resources to get you started:

• The Best CMS Systems Today and How to Choose One
• Features Your CMS Absolutely Needs
• The Best Content Management Systems for SEO & Why
• CMS 101: The Beginner’s Guide to Content Hub
• 8 Things You Need to Know to Get Started With HubSpot’s CMS

Here are some comparison and alternatives posts:

• Drupal vs WordPress vs Joomla vs HubSpot: Which Is the Right CMS for You?
• Sitecore vs. WordPress: Which CMS is Best for Your Business?
• WordPress Alternatives & Why You Might Want Them
• Drupal Alternatives to Check Out This Year
• Joomla Alternatives & Why You Might Want Them
• Adobe Experience Manager Alternatives to Check Out

Once you’ve chosen the best CMS platform for your needs, continue to step two.

2. Select a hosting plan.

Web hosting is a service that enables individuals or businesses to run a website on the internet.

The service provider, known as a web host, will store your website files on a secure server that it keeps up and running, and then deliver and display that web content to visitors who type in your URL in their browser.

Website builders include hosting in their packages. Many content management systems don’t work this way. However, HubSpot’s CMS software offers website hosting for free and doesn’t charge extra for usage.

With other CMS software, you’ll have to find your own hosting provider, which will take time and lots of research. There are hundreds of web hosts on the market. Each one might offer different types of hosting, including shared hosting, VPS, and dedicated hosting.

Let’s briefly look at the differences below.

• Shared Hosting: In shared hosting, your website shares the same server and resources with other websites. It’s the most popular type of hosting, particularly among new site owners, because it’s the cheapest option.
• VPS Hosting: If you go for a Virtual Private Server hosting solution, your site will sit on the same server as other websites; however, it will isolate server resources for your site specifically. That means your site will be able to handle higher volumes of regular traffic. It’s a pricier alternative to shared hosting.
• Dedicated Server: With a dedicated server, your site will sit on a server whose resources and space is reserved for your site only. If you’d rather not share a server with any other website, you can upgrade to dedicated server hosting.

Virtually every web host offers shared hosting. However, because your website has to share the same server with many other websites, it can’t support high volumes of traffic and is most vulnerable to hackers and other security threats.

Once you’ve decided what type of hosting you need, you can pick a provider. DreamHost, HostGator, and Bluehost are among the most popular third-party providers and offer free domain registration for the first year. That will simplify the next step in building a website.

Here are resources about hosting you’ll want to check out:

• The Ultimate Guide to Web Hosting
• What Is VPS Hosting? Why It Might Be the Best Option for Your Site
• The Best WordPress Hosting Providers This Year
• Best Free WordPress Hosting Providers This Year
• Bluehost Review

And some comparisons to help you choose the best one:

• SiteGround vs. HostGator Review: Which Is Better for Your WordPress Site?
• Bluehost vs. HostGator: Which Is Better for Your Website?

3. Get a domain name from a domain name provider.

No matter what type of CMS you chose to build your site, you’ll likely have to purchase a domain name.

Purchasing a domain name is typically inexpensive — even for those who sign up for a hosting plan that does not include free domain registration for a year. There are two different approaches you can take.

You can visit a domain site, purchase, and register a domain name there, and then connect it to your hosting account. Both Godaddy.com and Namecheap.com are cheap, secure, and effective options for buying a domain name, with added benefits such as SSL security and Office 365 inboxes.

Or you can complete the entire domain name search and registration process on your hosting provider’s site.

Here’s where it gets tricky. You’ll need to choose a domain name as similar as possible to the name of your company, but with over billions of websites out there today, your company’s name might already be taken.

If your ideal domain name is already taken, consider using a different extension.

Use one of the three most common extensions if you can: .com, .net, or .org. However, if it makes sense for your business, you might want to check out an alternate extension like .us or .shop.

As we covered in the previous section, avoid using dashes, numbers, or trademarked words. Play around with it.

Once you’ve chosen and paid for a domain name, you’ll usually also get personal email accounts attached, so make sure you’re happy to use your domain name as your main online identity.

Below you’ll find some resources about choosing and buying a custom domain:

• Best Domain Registrars to Consider This Year
• How to Choose a Domain Name
• Everything You Need to Know About Custom Domains
• The Simple Guide to Transferring a Domain to Another Registrar (A good read if you’ve already purchased a domain name.)

4. Choose a theme for your site.

Now, for the fun part.

Themes allow you to easily change the look and feel of your site without having to code HTML and CSS from scratch. Themes are made up of templates, modules, images, and global content that control your site’s overall design.

On whatever content management system you chose, take the time to browse through the selection of themes available. Many will come with a directory of free themes, where you can use filters or the search bar to find themes related to your industry, with a specific layout, and more.

Pro Tip: It’s important your theme is responsive, so your site will look the same on all devices.

Other considerations will be specific to your business and site. You might be looking for a static header or a slideshow header, for example.

Or you may need a theme that comes with a front-end builder. Below are some questions you can answer to find the right theme for your site:

• Do you need a variety of layouts or just one?
• Are you looking for a theme with built-in social media widgets or any other functionality?
• Would you like to install a demo site or start from scratch?
• Do you want to purchase a theme that includes its own theme builder?

Ultimately, no one knows your business better than you. Take the time to consider which theme would best represent your brand and most likely appeal to your ideal demographic.

You’ll have a wealth of choices right in your CMS. Take a look, for instance, at the theme marketplace in Content Hub:

You’ll want to stay away from hard-to-read fonts or flashy backgrounds that could distract a consumer from understanding your core message. When in doubt, you can’t go wrong if you choose something clean with straight lines and a limited amount of text.

If you can’t find a free theme that meets your exact specifications, try looking for premium themes in third-party marketplaces.

Below are some resources to get started if you’ve opted for the WordPress CMS:

• The Ultimate Guide to WordPress Themes
• Best Small Business WordPress Themes
• How to Use Multiple WordPress Themes on Your Web Pages
• Best Clean WordPress Themes

Once you’ve selected and installed a theme on your site, move on to the next step.

5. Customize your theme and templates.

Once you’ve chosen a theme, take the time to customize it and its individual templates. Your site’s design and functionality are your chance to persuade an audience to take a closer look.

It’s imperative your design makes sense to your ideal consumer and works to enhance your product’s success rather than hinder it.

That‘s why you should think of your theme and templates as a starting point, rather than the final look. Depending on the website platform you’ve used to build your site, you‘ll have different degrees of control over your site’s appearance.

On more flexible platforms like Content Hub, you‘ll be able to edit your theme’s global settings to make sitewide changes. That means you can make changes to your font and other elements in one place and they’ll be implemented across all pages on your site.

Here’s a great resource if you’re using WordPress:

• How to Customize a WordPress Theme [+Themes for New Websites]

6. Add pages to your site.

It’s important to plan exactly which pages you’ll need to include in your site. While it varies from business to business, you’ll need at least a homepage, an “About Us” page, a “Services/Product” page, and a “Contact Us” page.

You should also add a blog homepage. There are serious benefits to business blogging.

While every CMS is different, it’s typically easy to add and remove pages on whichever platform you use. Let’s take a closer look at the process on WordPress, for example.

• Start by logging into your WordPress dashboard.
• On the left side of the screen, click Pages > Add New.
  
• You can add text, insert images, embed videos, and make any other changes you like.
• When you’re ready, click Publish.

Image Source

Once you’ve decided what pages you need on your site, make sure to add them to the navigation bar. You can rearrange page topics any way you want, or combine them.

You can visit other company websites within your industry to get ideas for how to organize your navigation bar, or which pages to include and exclude if you’re unsure.

7. Write content.

You guessed it: It’s time to write the content you’ll put on your site.

Write rough drafts for pages like your “About Us” page and landing page.

Talk with coworkers and stakeholders — what message do you want to put out there? What tone do you want to set? Should you make jokes and be funny, or aim to be more inspirational?

If your online audience stumbled across your site, what questions would they have first?

Imagine your website is your only chance to have a full conversation with a potential customer.

The home page is the preliminary introduction: “Hey, we do XYZ.” Your “About Us” page digs deeper: “We are XYZ.” And your products or services pages are your big push to the finish line: “You want to work with us? Great, here’s how you’ll benefit.”

During this stage, it’s imperative you do your keyword research.

For instance, if you’re selling eyeglasses, and you notice “retro eyeglasses” is a more popular search term than “vintage eyeglasses,” you might use this research to steer the direction of the content on your site.

If you’re stuck, check out competitor’s websites to gauge what other companies in your industry are doing. You can also use an AI tool like HubSpot’s Content Assistant to save time and spark ideas for your website copy.

We’ve compiled a few more resources to help you get started:

• The Ultimate Guide to Content Creation
• What Is Content Writing? Plus Tips to Take Your Content to the Next Level
• The Ins and Outs of Writing Long-Form Content
• The Ultimate Guide to On-Page SEO
• How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner’s Guide

8. Fill in general settings.

Once you’ve filled in your pages with optimized content, it’s time to fill in the general settings. By adding or adjusting the SEO elements, you can increase your search visibility.

It’s the same as if you were building your site on a website builder. On your pages, you should include:

• Page titles
• Headings
• Meta descriptions
• Image alt-text
• Structured markup
• Page URLs (or slugs)
• Internal linking
• Mobile responsiveness
• Site speed

Each of these elements is essential to your on-page SEO.

They not only help to tell Google about your website and how you provide value to visitors and customers — but they also help optimize your site for human eyes as well as search engine bots.

9. Install add-ons.

Lastly, take a look at your site and figure out what you’re missing. Ideally, your platform will offer all the add-ons you need to extend the functionality of your site.

It’s important to note these add-ons might be called apps, extensions, modules, integrations, or plugins, depending on the platform you use.

If you’re running an ecommerce site on HubSpot, for example, you might use HubSpot’s Shopify extension.

Or, maybe you want to ensure your WordPress website is secure, to protect client data. In that case, you might download the Wordfence Security plugin for firewall protection against attacks, malware, and other threats.

If you’re lacking out-of-the-box features for security, SEO, image compression, and social media, check if your platform offers an app or integration to add that functionality to your site.

It’s much easier to do all this work in one place rather than having to log on to several disconnected platforms.

How to Build a Website with HubSpot

Let’s take a look at how to make a website with Content Hub. If you’re already using HubSpot’s CRM platform, it probably makes the most sense to build a website within HubSpot to integrate all your sales and marketing needs in one place.

Content Hub offers a variety of plugins and extensions, themed templates, and sophisticated tools for SEO analysis.

If you want to build a website with Content Hub, it’s easy and intuitive. Don’t forget to get a domain name and hosting before starting to build your site.

Here’s how:

1. Create a homepage.

Within your HubSpot portal, click “Marketing” on the dashboard at the top of your screen. Navigate down to “Website,” then click “Website Pages.”

After that, click the orange “Create” button and choose “Website Page” from the drop-down.

2. Select a theme.

Now, you’ll be taken to this “Choose a theme” page. Scroll through your options, search page templates, or check out the Marketplace. When you’ve found a template you like, select it.

3. Edit the modules.

This is your web page. You can scroll over text boxes, images, or other modules to edit them. In the below picture, I scrolled over the “Practice Yoga” Banner Text, and when I click it, it allows me to edit that text.

You can also click the “Contents” tool on the left side of your screen and edit from there. For instance, I selected one “Rich Text” option, which directed me to the “Vinyasa” paragraph on the page.

You can then add text, images, sections, forms, and more when you edit it in the “Expanded” view.

4. Create other pages on your website.

When you’re happy with your landing page and want to move on, go back to your dashboard and click “Marketing” at the top of your screen, and then “Website Pages” again.

Here, you’ll click the orange “Create” button and name your page, just like your homepage. Then, you’ll be taken through a similar process of choosing a template and adding content.

If you want a more in-depth tutorial, check out a quick tour of building web pages.

5. Incorporate social media accounts.

If you want to incorporate your social media accounts, go to “Marketing,” then “Social” on your dashboard.

You can monitor all your social media accounts and also publish tweets, Facebook statuses and comments, Instagram pictures, and other content straight from your HubSpot dashboard.

6. View analytics.

If you want to check out your site analytics, go to “Reports” and then “Analytics Tools”. You’ll need to install the tracking code, which is easy to do within the HubSpot platform by clicking the orange “Install the tracking code” button.

If you’re still unsure, check out how to install the HubSpot tracking code.

7. Add a blog to your site.

If you want to write blog posts, go to “Marketing” > “Website” > “Blog” on your dashboard to create, publish, and monitor your website’s blog posts.

8. Install add-ons.

Last, it’s time to install an app from the HubSpot marketplace to extend the functionality of your website. Here’s how.

• In your HubSpot account, click the Marketplace icon in the main navigation bar.
• Under Manage, select Connected apps.
• Click Visit App Marketplace.
• Use the filters in the left sidebar to browse for an app.
  
• Click on an app to see more information.
• On the right, you can review the details of the app. Under Requirements, check whether or not the app is compatible with your HubSpot subscription, and see if there are any app-side subscription requirements.
  
• When you’re ready, click the Install app button in the top right corner of the screen.

Once you’ve completed these steps, just click “Publish” and your site is ready for use.

This is a fairly broad and general overview to get you started building a website with Content Hub, but there are plenty of more in-depth features and tools you might want to explore with a HubSpot specialist, or by checking out HubSpot’s Help Center.

After you’re done building a website via Content Hub, it‘s important to check that you’re not missing any crucial elements or going live with any glaring errors.

Once you‘ve gone through this list above and feel like you’re close to a website launch, check out your website launch checklist for a detailed list of things to check before you go live.

Building Web Pages: FAQs

How much does it cost to build a website?

The cost of building a small business website can range from $500 to $2,500, but the price can be higher if you’re working with a developer.

You should also take into account recurring costs such as hosting, domain name registration, and SSL certification.

Here’s a resource to help you gauge costs:

• We Break Down the Costs of Building & Managing a Website

How hard is it to build a website?

Building a website isn’t hard at all, especially if you opt for a website builder that packages everything for you. In general, you won’t need to touch a single line of code.

How do you create a website for free?

You can create a website for free by signing up for a free subscription on a website builder platform such as HubSpot, Wix, or Weebly.

However, you’ll have a branded subdomain from the provider (e.g. yourname.weebly.com). You’ll also have branding on your website, and free websites are often limited in design, features, and functionalities.

We recommend upgrading to a paid subscription once you get started and are ready to scale.

How do you build a website from scratch?

You can build a website from scratch using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and sometimes, PHP.

You compile these files and then upload them to your web host’s file manager. (You’ll still need to purchase a hosting service and register a domain.)

How much does it cost to hire someone to build a website?

Thumbtack reports that a freelance web designer costs from $750 to $1,000. Upwork reports a $15 to $30/hour range for hiring a web developer on their platform. This is on the low end and accurate pricing for building a small website.

For hiring a web developer for a custom or long-term project, you can expect to pay in the $8,000 to $25,000 range.

Here are some more resources:

• How to Hire a Freelance Web Developer
• Web Designer vs. Web Developer: What’s the Difference & Who Should You Hire?

How long does it take to build a website?

A website takes, on average, three to six months to build if your brand is small or just getting started. If you’re creating a custom or complicated project, you can expect your website to take a year or longer before it is up and running.

Build Your Website: Tips

Ready to build your own site? Let’s take a look at tips you can use to guide the creation of your site.

1. Choose a one-page design if you want to launch your site more quickly.
2. Include a high-contrast button on the top right of your navigation bar telling visitors to contact you.
3. Use Lorem Ipsum text to preview what the written content will look like as you adjust the layout. That way, you don’t have to write all the content right away.
4. Buy an SSL certificate if your CMS doesn’t include one already.
5. Make good use of white space to keep your site as simple and easy-to-read as possible.
6. Set your domain and hosting subscriptions on auto-renew to avoid service interruption.
7. Create Terms of Use and Privacy Policy documents if your site gathers user data.
8. Double-check that your website is responsive by accessing it from your mobile device. Most CMS systems and website builders will automatically make your site responsive, but you always want to double-check.
9. Resize your browser window to test what the elements look like at different browser sizes.
10. Access your site from different browsers (Safari, Chrome, Opera, Microsoft Edge) to see how the elements render depending on the browser.
11. Learn basic HTML and CSS so you can more easily customize your site later.
12. Include high-contrast buttons throughout the page that allow visitors to get in contact with you.
13. Stick to five navigation bar items at most.
14. Ensure your navigation bar shows up on all pages.
15. Create submenus for your navigation items to effectively group your subtopics.
16. Create an XML sitemap for search engine crawlers to find and index your site.
17. Submit your website to Google Search Console once you’ve launched it. That way, Google can crawl it much more quickly.
18. Use an analytics tool such as Google Analytics to see who’s accessing your site and from where.
19. Link internally from page to page so that search engines understand how the pages are related to each other.
20. Use keyword-rich anchor text when linking to internal pages.
21. Link to other strong sites in your niche to signal relevancy to Google.
22. Add your business or personal brand to social media sites and link back to your website.
23. Research other sites in your niche and get content ideas from them.
24. Compress all images to under 250KB. The smaller, the better.
25. Publish and maintain a blog — we’re serious about that. Try to post once a month.
26. Aim for a minimum of 800 words per page and per blog post.
27. Use a grammar-checker such as Grammarly to ensure your copy is error-free.
28. Avoid duplicate and boilerplate content — even one paragraph can be enough to hurt the credibility of your page.
29. Recheck your site architecture to make sure that your page hierarchy makes sense.
30. Create a backup of your site whenever you make major changes.
31. Seek guest posting opportunities and link back to your site in your author bio.
32. Join industry organizations and link back to your site from your member profile.
33. Avoid duplicating pages to use the same layout. If you do, double-check that your slug doesn’t read .com/original-page-copy. This happens more often than you think. If it happens, change your slug. Here’s how to change your slug in WordPress, in case you’re using that CMS.
34. Keep your page URLs short and user-friendly. If the title of a blog post is “50 Ways to Conquer Your Fear of Heights and Fly Worry-Free,” don’t have a URL that reads example.com/20XX-03-25/blog/50-ways-to-conquer-your-fear-of-heights-and-fly-worry-free. Consider instead: example.com/conquer-fear-of-heights.
35. Add breadcrumbs to your website to clarify your site structure. Here’s how to add breadcrumbs in WordPress.

Build a Website to Grow Your Online Reach

Building a website is a must-do for anyone who wants to be online. Without it, you won’t be found at all, and it can help you look more professional and established.

Using this guide, you’ll be sure to publish a site that helps your business or your personal brand grow better.

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

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

According to a recent survey, 70% of customers rely on expert and insider advice. That’s right — that means most people trust bloggers more than celebrities, journalists, or politicians.

But how do you get people to fall in love with your blog in the first place? (Aside from remarkable content, of course.)

Well, just as your website homepage is like the front door to your business, your blog’s design — much like a welcome mat — is the front door to your business blog.

If you’re not attracting people visually, how will you get them to take the next steps to actually read (and, hopefully, subscribe to) your content? Once you’re done creating quality content, you still have the challenge of presenting it in a way that clearly dictates what your blog is about.

Images, text, and links need to be shown off just right — otherwise, readers might abandon your content, if it’s not showcased in a way that’s appealing, easy to follow, and generates more interest.

That’s why we’ve compiled some examples of blog homepages to get you on the right track to designing the perfect blog for your readers. Check ’em out, below.

Inspiring Examples of Beautiful Blog Homepage Design

1. Help Scout

Sometimes, the best blog designs are also the simplest. Help Scout, makers of customer service software, uses a unique but minimalist design on its blog that we love — it limits copy and visuals and embraces negative space.

What we particularly like about this blog is its use of featured images for all posts, including the “Most Recent Posts” section that highlights recent or particularly popular entries. These images catch the readers’ eye and signal what the post is about. And it works — everything about this blog’s design says clean and readable.

2. Microsoft Work & Life

Full disclosure: We’ve totally gushed over Microsoft’s microsites before. We can’t help it — what better way to revitalize an old-school brand than with a blog that boasts beautiful, interactive, and inspiring branded content? Plus, the square images in the layout of these stories are reminiscent of the Microsoft logo. This helps it achieve valuable brand consistency.

Microsoft Work & Life is also a prime example of how a business blog can be a major asset for an overall rebrand. In recent years, Microsoft has worked to humanize its brand, largely in response to a rivalry with Apple.

The “Work & Life” microsite has a simple tagline — “Learn how we’re helping people stay connected, engaged and productive — at work, at school, at home and at play.” It’s the softer side of Microsoft, so to speak.

When you’re trying to convey a certain brand message, you can use your blog to communicate it — both aesthetically and content-wise.

3. Pando

An important aspect of a well-designed blog is a consistent color scheme and style. After all, 80% of consumers say that color boosts their recognition of a brand.

It’s interesting to see how color consistency can unify the more diversified elements of design. Pando, a blog that explores the startup cycle, incorporates a set palette of colors — orange, green, pale blue, lavender, and deep yellow — in several sections of its site. These colors appear in the background, highlight bars, and certain areas of text.

But it also uses several different fonts — all of which manage to look seamless when tied together by a cohesive color scheme.

4. Design Milk

Design Milk, an online contemporary design outlet, uses a simple layout to highlight its posts. If the arrow beside “Read” at the top left points down, you can scroll through featured images and teaser text for a variety of articles. If the arrow beside “Read” points up, you see a perfect showcase of blog topics and highlighted posts.

That’s an internal link strategy, which helps to encourage readers to stay on the site longer.

The social icons at the top of each post are a pleasant addition to the overall look and feel of the site. They’re easy to spot and make it easy to share Design Milk’s content. (And to learn more about adding social buttons to your blog, check out this post.)

5. Fubiz

Fubiz, an art and design blog, is an example of a really sleek design that also includes some cool personalization.

The blog’s homepage makes it easy for readers to side-scroll through “The Highlights.” Below that is the Creativity Finder, where visitors can choose their persona — from “Art Lover” to “Freelance” — location, and the type of content they’re looking for. From there, readers can browse content specifically catered to them.

We can’t help but love the images, too. Each featured image has a distinct style. By using the design to highlight these powerful photographs, Fubiz is able to visually attract visitors to its content.

For a similar look, check out the Content Hub theme collection on the Envato marketplace.

6. Webdesigner Depot

With a name like “Webdesigner Depot,” it’s no wonder that this design news site is visually appealing.

One thing that we particularly like is the responsive images on each individual post. The subtle motion of the image as readers scroll over a range of articles helps catch visitors’ eyes.

And check out the effective use of the featured image to highlight the most recent article. This approach pulls the viewer immediately into the blog’s most recent content.

What’s more, the color scheme, background, and fonts are all consistent — which keeps this blog looking professional, but still distinct from the basic blog templates you might be used to seeing.

7. Mashable

I mean, just look at that header image — bold colors, recognizable gadgets, and contrasting text. It absolutely catches the reader’s eye — no pun intended.

Mashable breaks its content into three noticeable sections on the homepage:

• New posts get attention with a large featured image and three highlighted blocks.
• Posts for each section get attention with a featured image at the top of two to three columns with a short list of headlines underneath.
• Then “Trending” posts show up to the right, with bold text on top of a shadow box graphic.

This multi-pronged approach to displaying content can help readers decide which kind of news matters to them the most. They can quickly choose between attention-grabbing top stories, the hottest posts, or stories on the topic they’re most interested in.

The “Related Stories” that end each post are also a great feature to connect readers to more of the content they’re looking for.

8. Brit + Co

Everything about the Brit + Co homepage says clean, warm, and welcoming. It’s free of clutter, making the content more digestible, and the layout is extremely organized.

We dig the seasonality of the site, too — from avocado jack-o’-lanterns on the first of October to dinner recipes for Valentine’s Day. Adorable, and replete with colorful, fun photos to illustrate each story’s content.

The subtle “This Week’s Stories” header also serves as a nice way to promote popular content, without being too in-your-face about it. Plus, with such great visuals, we took note of the nod to Pinterest. That icon is important to include when your blog incorporates so much attractive imagery.

9. Tesco Food Love Stories

We love the colorful, consistent design of Tesco Food Love Stories, from British grocery chain Tesco.

Remember how we keep harping away at brand consistency? Check out the way this brand naturally incorporates the logo into its photography and featured video.

What Tesco has achieved is a great balance of simplicity and boldness. The layout is minimal, but not dull. Warm and welcoming shades underscore each content highlight and recipe, and the photos add dashes of colors throughout the site. It’s a great example of how the right imagery can achieve an appealing “less-is-more” appearance, especially if that fits in with your overall brand concept.

10. HubSpot

HubSpot’s blog finds a way to pack a lot of exciting content into the page while still being easy on the eyes. Notice that, above the fold, it features one blog post with a large image, title, and call-to-action to read more. The featured image is unique to the brand with an appealing combination of photography and graphics to draw the eye.

To the right, there’s a list of top posts to engage readers with the wide variety of content on the blog. This makes it easy for readers to connect with HubSpot or learn more.

Plus, there’s that consistency again. As you keep scrolling down the page, each section is visually consistent no matter what topic, podcast, video, or blog post you’re looking for. Using this strategy can help you build brand trust.

11. I Love Typography

If you’re into design, you understand the power of fonts. The right font can make words sing on a web page, while the wrong choice can be a hard-to-read mess. So, a blog that features hundreds of fonts has to get creative with blog design.

I Love Typography gets the balance just right with a clean and simple design. Three vertical columns separate blog themes and top posts from the most recent additions to the blog. Meanwhile, it dedicates the right side column to highlighted blog features. This section features fun clickable graphics (like that sweet cassette tape) that balance the bright colors and shapes that dominate the posts on the left-hand side of the blog.

If you’re creating a blog for the first time, this is a smart approach to borrow from. You can also check out these tips on starting a successful blog.

12. 500px

The photography blog, 500px, leads with one featured article and a big, bold, high-definition photo to draw the reader in. That makes it pretty clear what the blog is about — it boasts valuable content on photography with gripping photography.

Plus, how cool is it that the social links are right there, obviously displayed above the fold? They keep readers engaged with the content and make it easy to share the photography. Plus content with images gets more than double the engagement on Facebook as posts without images do.

13. Wired

The more topics you have on your blog, the more chaotic the experience can be for your readers. That’s why we like the refreshing simplicity of Wired’s blog design.

Depending on the size of your screen there could be eight or more headlines above the fold alone, but this design is still easy to scan and dig in.

Every post includes a featured image to draw you in. Then, striking font choices make it quick to understand the category, author, and headline for each post at a glance.

If your blog started simple and you’re having a hard time making it work as it grows, this blog is great inspiration for a redesign. You can also use this workbook for redesigning your blog website.

14. Golde

Golde is another blog that uses images for great communication. Using the brand name as a starting point for its blog “The Golden Hour,” Golde makes a featured image the focus of each blog post.

Then, the gorgeous photography uses yellow and green tones in each photograph. This creates a consistent, warm, and appealing feel to draw you into each blog post.

Once you click on a post, this blog makes perfect use of the space below the text to highlight products, recipes, and other useful resources.

15. Recode

Ads are a useful way for many blogs to generate income. Many small businesses offer a blog to highlight their products and services. At the same time, other standalone blogs can struggle to balance design with the need to monetize their content.

Recode features the latest tech news using an asymmetrical grid structure. Bold thumbnail images paired with headline text align with larger images with overlaid text in all caps.

This variety of approaches to image and text make it easy for viewers to scan and choose the post they want to read. The layout includes some animation too and this adds excitement to the blog layout.

Besides being a great user experience, this design lets the blog weave in ads that aren’t distracting to the eyes. At the same time, they also don’t blend in with the organic content, letting Recode create an authentic experience for its readers.

16. Pluralsight

This blog is a great reminder that blog designs don’t have to get super fancy.

Notice the bold title at the top and center of the page. Then the featured illustration at the top uses a bright background and simple white-on-black text. That bold brand presence stays constant throughout the company’s blog.

The clean fonts, for example, match the logo and stay in line with the brand’s clear, informative voice. And the grid structure and headers for each section make it easy to understand what you can find on the blog.

We also like the easily-navigable archive links at the top and how easy it is to see the blog archive with minimal scrolling.

17. Crayon

Many blogs want to show readers a little bit of everything they offer. But depth can be just as enticing to readers as breadth. If you want your visitors to dive into what your blog writers have to say, this blog design gives them an easy choice — just start reading.

With an extended teaser in the header, the focus above-the-fold for the Crayon blog is the latest blog post. As a reader scrolls down, they’ll find a grid with more content from the blog.

We also like the color coding by topic, which makes it easy to locate blogs of interest at a glance. You can see more text-forward blog design examples here.

18. Black Travelbox

To clear up any confusion, Black Travelbox doesn’t make suitcases. It makes personal care products for travel. But the company has done a great job of connecting its portable balms, conditioners, and more with the joy of travel.

Plus, the folks at this company’s “Travel and Slay” blog know a thing or two about brand consistency across channels. The blog has a simple color scheme and matching fonts help to create a unified user experience from the shop to general content. At the same time, it throws in bold, colorful images to catch readers’ attention.

Visit the website and have a scroll — we think it’s pretty cool how the images vary, but each blog entry highlights a different “travel crush.” Then, it packs each post with bright photographs, smart interviews, and joyful stories.

19. Pixelgrade

Pixelgrade is a design studio that creates stunning WordPress themes for creative people and small businesses. Their blog page does a great job of highlighting one of their most recent or popular blog posts, alongside a clear call-to-action and a short excerpt.

What I like best is that the design of the page is 100% in line with their brand. If you like the design of their blog, chances are you’ll also want to try one of their smart and beautifully-designed WordPress themes.

For more WordPress blog design ideas, check out this post about WordPress themes for bloggers.

20. BarkPost

We kind of like dogs here at HubSpot. So when a blog dedicated to life as a dog owner came across our radar, it got our attention.

BarkPost, the blog of canine subscription box company BarkBox, is a great example of design for many reasons. First, look at the big fun font in every header — it’s quick and easy to read, even from a mobile device.

Adorable images make the posts for each topic noticeable, too — and, of course, all in the brand-matching, trustworthy blue.

We also like that BarkPost draws attention to its sister companies. Whether you’re interested in doggie dental care or the best food for your pup, this fun blog design makes it easy for dog parents and lovers alike to find the latest news and resources.

21. Goodwill Industries International

Who says nonprofit organizations can’t blog? Nay, they should. Check out this ultimate nonprofit marketing guide to make yours great.

In this example, Goodwill’s clean, colorful navigation (again — the trustworthy blue) draws the reader to the important elements of this blog.

The posts are also neatly positioned and easily accessible to readers. And, visitors can pick the type of information that matters to them the most by choosing a topic from the simple buttons in the graphic above the fold.

Finally, we love the emphasis on personal stories on the Goodwill blog. This design has long-form teasers that lead readers into this organization’s programs. This approach makes it easy to learn why so many people chose to support Goodwill.

22. Springly

Keeping the nonprofit blogging train going is Springly, which makes excellent use of a simple grid format by highlighting the greatest resources of most nonprofits — dedicated people.

This blog has a simplistic design with concise text and a clear color palette for nonprofits looking for useful resources.

Each article card features the first name and picture of the author, shining the spotlight on its contributors. It also shows how long it will take to read the post.

Placing time and people at the forefront aligns with what most nonprofits focus on. This approach makes the blog more valuable to those who are most likely to contribute and use it.

Still looking for more inspiration and ideas? Click here to check out over 70 more examples of website blogs, homepages, and landing page designs.

Use These Blog Design Examples to Build Your Best Blog

Creating a beautiful blog isn’t just about looks. If you want your readers to really fall in love, the design of your blog should match the needs and expectations of your users. What’s most important to them? And what does your blog offer that no one else can?

Don’t just skim through these inspiring blog designs. Use them as a springboard to imagine how your blog can both connect with your audience and improve your blog design. Then, watch your readership grow.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

If your business is reasonably successful, you may come up with many reasons why an effective website isn’t all that relevant for you.

Sure, you understand the need to have some web presence, but you might not believe that an effective website is going to make that big of a difference for your particular business — especially if you’re already plenty profitable.

What do you think? Do you need a website to run a successful business?

This article discusses reasons why having a business website is a wise investment and why you sometimes don’t need a website.

Does My Business Need a Website?

Many business owners ask, “Since I have a small business with a small workforce, and since we don’t sell anything online, do I need a website?”

The answer is YES!

If you have a business, you should have a website to avoid losing business to competitors that already have one.

Furthermore, are you sure you can’t sell your product online? COVID-19 has altered the retail landscape, with millions of shoppers online looking for everything from books to clips to houses to natural gas and more. So while you dither, your competitor has likely seen how effective a website can be for their business.

You definitely don’t want to be left behind.

But you might ask, “Doesn’t my Facebook page count?”

Do I Need a Website if I Have a Facebook Page?

It’s common for businesses to rely on Facebook or other social media platforms as their main advertisement channel. And these channels offer advantages.

For example, they help build a larger audience and even help you carry out market research. However, a Facebook page should not replace your business website. Here are some reasons why.

1. You Don’t Own Your Facebook Page

What happens if, one morning, Facebook decides that it won’t support businesses anymore? If your Facebook page were your sole online presence, all the clients and followers you built would likely disappear.

In fact, not too long ago, Facebook was down globally, causing moments of frenzy.

And while it’s doubtful Facebook will stop supporting businesses, you don’t have any say in the changes Facebook chooses to implement.

However, with your website, you have total control over your websites’ appearance and features.

2. Facebook Has SEO Limitations

Think about it. Where do you go when looking for a business locally? Facebook or Google? The 3.5 billion daily queries on Google show that most people turn to search engines over social networks to find information.

A business website allows you to position yourself so people will find you when they make search queries concerning the products you sell or the services you provide. Even if you can easily compete with larger websites, you can optimize your site for local searches to attract an audience in your area.

3. A Website is More Credible

A business website is a badge of trust, and people only buy from businesses they know, like, and trust. So while it might be quicker to create a Facebook page, you would be able to command more authority and trust with a business website.

4. Attention is Fleeting on Facebook

Facebook is massively competitive. Having your business listed on Facebook means that you’re constantly fighting off competition from several other companies.

What’s more, you have to compete with your potential client’s Facebook friends. Many people find advertisements annoying, especially when they want to interact with friends, making them ignore your business posts or ads.

On the other hand, a business website ensures that you have a potential client’s full attention. So while you might do some legwork to get them over to your website, once they’re on your website, the chances of patronage are higher.

Now, we aren’t saying you shouldn’t have a Facebook page for your business. But, instead, your Facebook page and other social media should support your website—not replace it.

Benefits of a Website

Whether you’re a small or big business, a business website offers plenty of advantages. Here are the most significant benefits of having a business website.

1. A Business Website Makes You Look Professional

Anyone can create a company page on Facebook; it’s free and can be done in a jiffy. This low barrier to entry takes away much of the credibility of a business social media page. Customers don’t know who’s behind a Facebook page, where they are, and whether it’s all a scam.

On the other hand, creating a business website is not free and indicates that you’re relatively serious about your business. Therefore, a business website makes you look more professional and credible.

2. It’s an Essential Step in Your Customer’s Journey

An effective website is where you want your audience from different channels to end up. It’s on the website that you’ll inspire action from your potential clients.

Your website is like a physical shop—people walk by it until they come in to look at what you offer. So even if they don’t buy something the first time they walk in, they might buy something on subsequent visits.

On a similar vein, customers come across your business via different channels like social media feeds. If the social feed ad is interesting, they’ll expect to visit your website to find out more about the business. If there isn’t a website, they might not take the next logical step in the customer journey.

3. A Website Increases Your Visibility

There are over 4.5 billion active internet users worldwide, and over 90% of them accessed the Internet via mobile devices.

Without a website, your business is virtually invisible to these people. With COVID-19 pushing the global market even more digital, your business will become invisible to those that matter unless you invest in a website.

4. It’s Essential For Local Businesses

Many small business owners don’t see the need to invest in an effective business website. However, they’re currently missing out on an incredible source of revenue.

The following statistics show how important a website is for a local business:

• 46% of search on Google include local intent
• 97% of users use search to find local businesses
• 28% of users purchased an item after a local search
• 70% of users will visit a store because of what they found online

A business website will help you capture all of this potential and make your business even more profitable.

5. It Offers Social Proof

What your customers say about your business can determine whether others patronize you or not. So while review websites like Yelp are good, your website is the best place for people to get more information about your business.

Displaying your best testimonials on your website is an effective way to establish trust and social proof. What is more, publishing your best reviews on your website ensures that third-party review sites don’t minimize the good things people say about your business.

6. A Business Website Gives Lasting Value

One of the best things about investing in a business website is how it continues to generate value for you even years after you’ve created it.

When you pay for ads on social media, your potential clients only see your ads for as long as you run them. If they don’t see it, you’ll have to pay again to run the ad campaign.

On the other hand, a business website will give you ROI over time. Even if it doesn’t give you returns in the first year, you have time to tweak things until you get returns.

7. Creating a Business Website is Easier and Cheaper Than You Think

Many business owners refuse to create a website because they believe it’s difficult and expensive to create an effective website. However, that’s not true.

There has never been an easier and cheaper time to create high-quality websites. There are affordable, easy-to-use website builders available to you. Creating a website and hosting a website is pretty straightforward.

8. A Business Website Lets You Sell Online

Ecommerce sales are exploding and are projected to hit over $5.4 trillion in 2022. Surely, none of these sales happen with businesses that don’t own websites.

Even if you aren’t a traditional ecommerce business, having an online storefront can help you attract new customers and help you continue selling even when your physical store is closed.

9. You Have Complete Control Over Your Website

Since your website is your property, you get absolute design freedom — unlike with social media platforms.

You can share user reviews, videos, images, and whatever else you desire.

Also, you don’t have to follow the constantly updated rules of social platforms. And if there’s a social media blackout, like when Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp all disappeared for several hours, your website and its content remain safe.

10. A Business Website is Easy to Manage

Managing websites used to be daunting. However, with a content management system (CMS) like Content Hub or WordPress, it’s now easier than ever to manage a website. In addition, you don’t need any technical skills to keep your website up to date.

11. Websites Improve Customer Service

An effective website will contain plenty of important information your customers need. Therefore, there’s no need for them to call about location, hours of operation, and other simple questions. By helping customers, a website improves the overall customer experience.

Furthermore, since simple questions from customers don’t bog down your workforce, they can focus on other vital processes that increase company productivity.

12. A Website Helps You Edge Out The Competition

Even as a small business, an effective website allows you to compete with your industry’s “big boys.” If you play your cards right and properly optimize your website, it’s possible to outrank bigger websites, and get quality leads organically from search engines.

But even with the many benefits a website provides, is it still possible that you don’t need one for your business? Yes, and here are some reasons why.

5 Reasons Why Your Business Doesn’t Need a Website

Here are some reasons why your business might not need a website.

1. You’re Not Looking to Grow

One of the primary reasons for having a working, effective website is to increase the number of clients you have and grow your revenues. If you’re not looking to grow your business significantly, there’s probably little reason to try and find more clients or increase your revenues.

2. You Have Enough Leads

Many businesses do a great job of getting referral customers and tapping their existing network for new business. If this is you, then perhaps a website is not that important. This assumes, of course, that your Rolodex will continue to be an effective mechanism for you to get all the new business you need.

3. You’re Not Hiring Any Time Soon

If you are looking to increase staff, the chances are that your prospective hires will likely want to learn more about you. And they’ll probably turn to your website.

With all other things being equal, potential recruits will pick a company with a vibrant website over one with a brochure on the web.

Small businesses would be well served by a website, as they don’t have the resources that can help attract exceptional people outside of their immediate network. A website can help with that.

But if you’re not looking to hire top talent, then you can do without a business website.

4. You’re Operating in a Virtual Monopoly

If you have the luxury of running a business for which there’s very little (if any) competition, and you’ve got an offering that people must have, a website is probably not crucial. Your clients need what you have, and there’s nowhere else to go. Congratulations! Though a shiny new website might impress your spouse and colleagues, you probably don’t need one to improve your business.

5. You Don’t Expect to Sell the Company Any Time Soon

For more and more types of businesses, the website is an important asset that factors into valuation discussions. This is particularly true if you have a startup business, a hi-tech business, or one that “scales” well (i.e., adding new customers does not increase costs proportionately).

The reason is quite simple. If you have an effective website and can demonstrate that it is successful at helping you get new clients, you have a better business than someone who doesn’t. The Internet is an excellent way for many companies to have a low customer acquisition cost.

The other nice thing about the Internet as a vehicle for marketing and sales is that it can be more easily measured. Imagine if you are selling your business and showing the acquirer a chart of your web traffic (and how it’s grown over time) and precise data on how that traffic translates into revenues — you will likely find that the two are highly correlated. If I were on the buying side, I’d sit up and take notice.

Final Thoughts

The decision to either create a website for your business or not is ultimately yours to make. However, if part of your business goals is to improve lead generation, visibility, social proof, and authority, then creating a website is an excellent place to start.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2006 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

Search engine optimization (SEO) may seem like a straightforward concept.

You pick keywords related to your business, create content with those keywords, and you’re set to watch your site grow — a simple three-step process, right? Nope.

While those are fundamental elements of SEO, it can actually be quite challenging to create a strategy that helps you drive traffic and enough of it to meet your overall business goals.

It can be difficult to get your feet off the ground. Thankfully, there are various tools specifically designed to help you with SEO, build domain authority, and achieve high ROI. In this post, we’ll hear inspiring stories from HubSpot clients that have used our SEO tools to achieve business success.

5 SEO Success Stories To Inspire Your 2021 Strategy

1. Ironpaper

Ironpaper is a digital marketing agency that helps their B2B clients grow. They worked with one of their clients, Goddard, to achieve significant success using HubSpot’s SEO tools.

Jonathan Franchell, CEO and Founder of Ironpaper, says, “While Goddard fills a real need for their customers by designing medical devices, historically they’ve struggled to find quality leads that could use their services. Instead, their website attracted a lot of spam and unqualified contacts.” Ironpaper began making critical SEO updates with HubSpot tools on Goddard’s site, focusing on internal linking, content strategy with business-relevant keywords, and technical SEO issues like broken links and meta tags.

Over an eight-month campaign, Ironpaper helped Goddard gain 2,361 Google positions across various keywords relevant to their offerings. Franchell says, “Because we created targeted content centered on strategic keywords, Goddard’s Google rankings increased even throughout a dip in traffic.”

The company also now ranks in the top 100 for 50 strategically targeted terms and can use HubSpot’s insights reports and dashboards to monitor their progress to ensure that their future marketing efforts are hyper-targeted for the audience they’ve worked hard to develop.

2. Apptega

Apptega is a cybersecurity and compliance platform. As they grew their business, they knew they would need an optimized website that generated leads. They also recognized that their existing WordPress site wouldn’t be enough for them to reach their goals.

Joelle Palmer, Apptega’s Digital Marketing Manager, says, “We had built a Frankenstein monster in WordPress. Our dev team would constantly have to drop what they were doing and fix our website.” Apptega then decided to migrate its existing site into Content Hub.

Apptega saw almost immediate success with HubSpot’s SEO tools: “We saw one of our core pages move from a number100+ ranking on Google to position number three in two weeks. SEO usually takes three to six months to work…that was truly amazing for us as a company to experience.”

Some of the tools Apptega used within Marketing Hub to achieve their growth are the on-page SEO recommendations that direct users to pages that need attention and additional ways to optimize content.

3. Beacon Digital Marketing

Beacon Digital Marketing specializes in driving results for FinTech, SaaS, and B2B businesses.

As HubSpot Platinum Partners, they understand how to use and implement HubSpot tools to drive growth and success. While they typically assist other businesses, they took an internal look in August 2020 and decided to implement an SEO overhaul of a post on their blog that they believed could perform better than it already was.

They focused on a few critical areas for improvement: updating metadata, optimizing for a featured snippet, and re-targeting original keywords. The HubSpot content mapping tool helped them create a strategic pillar-cluster plan, and the on-page SEO recommendations provided them with helpful tips. After implementing their new strategy, they noticed an almost immediate 50% increase in page views: July 2020 showed 991 organic search traffic views, and August 2020 had 1,552.

Their optimization allowed them to draw more traffic to an existing blog post, and they have also seen an increase in organic traffic to additional pages on their website. This goes to show that a well-rounded SEO strategy can impact all areas of your business, as an increase in traffic leads to curious customers eager to learn more about what you have to offer.

4. Take Note

Take Note is a UK-based business that provides a range of audio and video transcription services, captions, and on-site note-taking. When demand for their business grew, they struggled with balancing disconnected tools to support their needs and obtain consistent growth. Thomas Carter, Director of Marketing at Take Note, said, “I think for us, SEO is the way to grow within such a competitive market.”

The business officially signed on to HubSpot in 2018 and has since increased its website traffic by 22%. At the same time, their customer base and revenue have grown by 16-22%. They’ve also seen an increase in leads. Carter adds, “Long term, we want to continue to focus on ensuring the quality of our services remains exceptionally high while using technology such as HubSpot to automate and optimize behind the scenes.”

5. Revenue River

Revenue River is a digital sales and marketing agency that helps companies scale and become competitive in their industry. One of their clients, Kofinas Fertility Group, saw their site traffic significantly impacted by COVID-19. Eric Pratt, the Managing Partner at Revenue River, says, “The site saw declines from mid-February all the way through May.”

The business got to work and conducted competitive analysis and keyword research to identify areas of opportunity for growth. They decided that the best course of action was to create pillar content and supporting content clusters, which would help them establish their domain as a source of authority in their industry.

Since implementing the new strategy in November of 2020, the site has nearly doubled its organic traffic. Between March and June of 2020, they saw 86K impressions, and January-March 2021 saw 1.1M.

Pratt says this success “Came about because of a combination of SEO strategy planning for research, topic clustering, and on-site/page optimization features to enrich the SEO appeal of the content we’re producing and publishing through HubSpot.”

Improving Your SEO Doesn’t Have To Be A Challenge.

The success stories we’ve highlighted in this post show that SEO doesn’t have to be a challenge, especially with the help of a high-powered SEO tool. Learn from these clients and create a strategy that works for your business.

 

 

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

The insights from this article came from the HubSpot Academy’s Free Website Optimization Course. Take the full course to learn more about responsive design and how to optimize your website’s performance.

Across the world, over 50% of total internet activity is done on mobile devices. Desktops follow behind with a little over 45% of total internet activity, and tablets make up the rest.

Today, with so many people surfing the web from their phones, it’s essential to offer a great mobile website experience. Without it, you can’t cater to the majority of internet users, and are likely missing out on traffic and leads for your business as a result.

So how do you create an effective mobile experience? That’s where responsive design comes in.

Simply put, responsive web design is the method of designing web pages that appear in their optimized form across all devices.

In other words, a responsive design will automatically reformat your website for all screen sizes. This allows your website visitors to easily view and interact with your site no matter what device they’re using.

Here, let’s explore how responsive design works, and take a look at some examples to inspire your own responsive web design in 2020.

How does responsive design work?

A website developed with responsiveness in-mind adjusts to the size of the device and browser to display the content appropriately. Breakpoints are set up to target ranges that define specific displays. For example, you generally see breakpoints for phones, tablets, and desktops.

There are a number of responsive web design best practices to follow:

1. Buttons: A person’s finger is much larger than the pointer on a computer screen. Buttons and hyperlinks should be at least 48 pixels wide and 48 pixels tall to ensure all users can click them.
2. SVGs: Scalable Vector Graphic Files define an image’s shape in terms of vectors, meaning they can scale infinitely without losing quality image quality.
3. Responsive Images: Not all of your images are going to be SVGs. For these, you’ll want to use CSS rules to automatically adjust the dimensions of the image to fit the users’ screen size.
4. Fonts: Make sure that your font is legible across all devices. At a minimum, Google recommends using a base font size of 16 CSS pixels.
5. Device Features: While prospects and customers can’t call you over their computers, they definitely can on their smartphones. Consider changing your “Chat Now!” CTA to “Call Now!” and include your business phone number in lieu of email.
6. Test: As always, test your responsive website on different devices and browsers. To see how your website is currently performing, check out HubSpot’s Website Grader tool.

Responsive Web Design vs. Isolated Mobile Web Pages

There are two major methods for creating mobile websites: responsive design and mobile templates. Responsive design requires you only have one website that is coded to adapt to all screen sizes, no matter the device the website’s being displayed on.

In contrast, a mobile template is a completely separate entity requiring you to have a second, mobile-only website or subdomain. Mobile templates are also built for each specific site, not per screen size.

Mobile-only websites can be great solutions for larger applications such as Facebook and Twitter, but for most businesses, a responsive website is much more cost-efficient, and easier to develop and maintain.

Unlike isolated mobile websites, where you create a whole separate version of a website for mobile devices, responsive design adapts the layout to any screen size by using fluid, proportion-based grids. Responsive websites serve the same HTML to all devices and use CSS media queries to change how your website should look on each device.

As the number of people surfing the web from their phones continues to climb, a responsive design will make your life as a marketer easier and your website more effective. A mobile-friendly website will save you money in the long run, deliver a great user experience, and perform better across all devices.

Responsive Web Design Examples

If you aren’t using responsive web design already, then you’re in luck because it’s very easy nowadays to get started with it.

For example, on the HubSpot Content Hub alone, there are hundreds of templates available for free or purchase that are all responsive right out of the box. Let’s take a look at five remarkable examples of responsive web design in action from HubSpot developers for some inspiration.

1. Gingr, a pet-care software company, outshines the competition.

SmartBug Media designed a new website for a pet-focused SaaS company, Gingr, that reflected the brand’s fun voice while providing rich UX and mobile functionality. The design balances organic shapes with realistic imagery, which conveys and reinforces Gingr’s unique solution and professional yet modern voice.

To add texture without creating clutter, the site integrates shapes that play off Gingr’s logo, as well as uses organic shapes that resemble animal hair. The website functions well across devices by reorganizing the page elements while keeping the CTA above-the-fold.

2. Sunspace Twin Cities’ new website drives 40% increase in revenue.

Specializing in sunspace porch windows, Sunspace Twin Cities provides luxury porch windows to homeowners and contractors in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin.

The website has a functional UX that makes the most out of the space available on desktop, tablets, and mobile devices. Both the header and body copy are clearly legible, and the simple design allows the website’s content to speak for itself. Best of all, once the company updated their website’s design, they saw a 40% increase in revenue.

 

3. Hongda Service’s B2B website redesign.

It can be difficult to design a website that translates well cross-culturally. Hongda’s management team knew that appealing to foreigners was paramount to their success as a China-based company, and they were happy to progress with HubSpot to generate more leads.

The purpose of their design was to resonate with a Western audience. The blue primary and orange accent colors help this website stand out. Additionally, the site’s elements are easy to engage with across devices.

4. Energy sustainability platform Net4energy redesigns for both B2C and B2B customers.

Net4energy is a multisided platform that connects users who want to learn more about energy sustainability concepts and providers of products and services. Net4energy aims to inspire and educate users with guides, ebooks, and helpful content.

With their responsive design, Net4energy is able to offer their content to audiences whether they’re in the office or on-the-go. This example functions well because the header copy and CTA are resized to take up the right amount of space on each device without decreasing the readability or usability of the site.

5. ACYP creates a modular website design.

ACYP (the Advocate for Children and Young People) wanted to create a fresh new look for their website and the ability to manage it going forward. This required building page templates and modules using HubSpots’s draggable module CMS function.

The website uses a variety of modules that automatically adjust their width and height depending on the device they’re being viewed on. The images resize to take up just the right amount of space so that the header and body copy are immediately visible, even on mobile.

To learn more about how to create a high-performing website to grow traffic and leads, check out HubSpot Academy’s free Website Optimization Course.

 

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

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This summer — as countries reopened — people who’d been stuck inside were finally breathing a cautious sigh of relief. At the same time, some company leaders were doing the opposite.

Why? In past years, entire industries saw summer slumps — or seasonal dips in sales or web traffic. This year, business leaders expected sharper dips as more consumers finally unplugged. Aside from this, they were also dealing with frequent HR requests from employees who’d been waiting months to take vacations or change companies entirely.

In fact, the Society of Human Resources Management reported that 41% of employees felt burnt out while 48% felt mentally exhausted by the end of their workdays. This, in turn, may have been impacting productivity and job retention levels.

Ultimately, leaders worried that 2021’s summer trends would impact their bottom line. But did they?

Throughout the summer, we dove into June and July web traffic and deal data from over 103,000 anonymous HubSpot customers around the globe. Then, we compared their summer results to pre-pandemic benchmarks from the summer of 2019. These were our key findings: 

2021 Summer Business Performance

Note: When looking at the charts and data below, each year’s traffic or deal benchmark is equal to its April numbers. Therefore, if industries were 10% under benchmark in June 2019, they saw a 10% dip since April 2019.

Web Traffic Went Down

In June 2021, global traffic dipped across almost all industries and segments. Compared to 2019, websites also saw less overall traffic growth. This dipping continued throughout the summer, while 2019 saw traffic slump level out by that point in the season.

Trouble seeing this graph? Click here for a JPEG..

The only industry that wasn’t slumping traffic-wise was Leisure and Hospitality, which saw a whopping 17.72% traffic increase between April and June of 2021. This was nearly the opposite of what we saw in 2019 when traffic decreased for websites in the industry by 13.27% from April to June.

Although Leisure and Hospitality’s early and continued summer traffic patterns were impressive, they’re still fairly unsurprising as news outlets continued to report spikes in reopening-related travel, outings, and excursions this summer.

 

Trouble seeing this graph? Click here for a PDF.

A few of the industries that saw the largest initial dips in traffic from April to June 2021 are Construction (-12%), Financial Activities (-11%), Manufacturing (-7.2%), and Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (-7.1%)

When looking at our data, June seemed to be the month with the most seasonal changes or slumps. As compared to 2019, some of the segments that saw larger traffic slumps were Trade, Transportation, and Utilities — which saw 3.7% growth from April to June in 2019 and a 7.11% loss during the same time in 2021; Education and Health Services — which saw 17.52% growth in 2019, but a 2.7% loss in 2021; and Construction — which only saw a 0.16% decrease by June of 2019 but saw a 12.06% loss in 2021.

Aside from Leisure and Hospitality, segments seeing the smallest slumps in summer traffic were Professional and Business Services with under a 1% drop, and Education and Health Services with just a 2.7% drop.

From a geographic standpoint, these traffic trends happened in all territories, except for Asia (and Australia later in the summer). These geographies either saw steady growth or leveled out traffic rather than large dips.

Trouble seeing this graph? Click here for a PDF.

While it’s unclear why Asia’s web traffic rose and Australia’s traffic stopped dipping, these trends might have been due to lockdowns and stay-at-home orders in these territories due to the continuing pandemic. 

Deals Went Up

Yes. You read that correctly. While traffic is seeing a summer slowdown, deal closings across industries are climbing.

Industries seeing the biggest growth from April to June of 2021 include Leisure and Hospitality (+44.7%), Manufacturing (+13.65%), and Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+10.62%), while segments seeing the slowest growth are Construction and Financial Activities, which both have just under a 2% increase from their April benchmarks.

Businesses are also seeing a higher rate of deal closings than they did between April and June of 2019 — when five of the eight segments we studied saw at least a 3.5% dip in deal closings.

Trouble seeing this graph? Click here for a PDF.

While deal closings were up in June, and only dipped slightly in the later summer months, leaders still aimed to remain cautious throughout the summer.

Although deals were climbing, it was thought that businesses could’ve still seen dips in later summer months due to consumers continuing to travel, employee vacations, or teams feeling less pressured to close deals at the beginning of a new quarter. However, one optimistic point to note was that deal closings did not see similar lifts in June 2019, when many industries actually saw dips.

Ultimately, during summer or other seasonal slumps, successful leaders monitored traffic, as well as deals created, qualified leads, and deals closed to get a full look at their brand’s performance.

This data shows that more deal closings, but fewer qualified leads, signups, or deals created during seasonal slumps might not be a cause for concern. However, when your business sees a slowdown or shift of any kind, there are plenty of steps you can take to ensure future success.

How to Prepare For and Respond to Seasonal Trends 

Although summer has come to an end, seasonality will always be something brands need to navigate. Whether you’re in a summer or winter slump, or seeing a seasonal uptick in business — here are some expert tips on how to keep your business growing and thriving year round. 

1. Prepare when you can for business shifts.

During a seasonal slump, businesses can still take time to predict and prepare for what’s to come.

Alicia Butler Pierre, Host of the Business Infrastructure Podcast and CEO of Equilibria, Inc. says, “There are two major ways businesses can predict, diagnose, and/or prepare for a seasonal slump: resource planning and contingency planning.”

• Contingency planning: This strategy — which often includes creating a premortem, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), and disaster recovery and business continuity plan –helps brands prepare for unexpected dips or upticks caused by outside factors like news events or national disasters.
• Resource planning: “As your company utilizes different resources that serve as inputs into producing a good or delivering a service (outputs), you should collect data such as transaction dates, sale or invoice amounts, product or service type, and some customer demographic data.” says Butler Pierre. “If you notice the same patterns and trends year after year, you are in a better position to forecast and prepare for seasonal slumps. This, in turn, lets you know when to expand or contract inputs like labor and inventory.”

Image Courtesy of Alicia Butler Pierre

Data shows that a strong plan can be rewarding when business begins to pick up. In 2020, as consumers quickly turned to online stores for essentials, businesses that weren’t online were rushing to build online stores, while online stores were struggling to fulfill high-demand orders on time. Around this time, more than 50% of shoppers chose to buy products from brands with more product availability over brands they were originally loyal to.

“I strongly advocate businesses focus on improvements to their business infrastructure during seasonal slumps. It’s difficult to make improvements while things are moving so quickly, as all hands are on deck trying to fulfill orders and meet project deadlines,” says Butler Pierre.

“Improvements can include things like technology and equipment upgrades, process automation, and reconfiguring (or relocating) your physical work location. With these improvements in place, your company can work through the chaos that can accompany a seasonal uptick without compromising quality and excellent customer service,” Butler Pierre adds.

2. Launch demand plays.

“Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with macro trends in the market a lot is out of your control,” says Emmy Jonassen, HubSpot’s VP of Acquisition. “For example, there’s not much you can do if prospects are not visiting your site or talking to reps because they’re all on vacation.”

While you might not be able to solve seasonal business patterns, Jonassen says there are things you can do in the now to help the short and long term:

• Getting through the slump: When you’re facing a period of slowed demand, any incremental lift at the top of the funnel can go a long way. During times like these consider adjustments you could make in the short term to help in the short term. For example, could you increase your paid spend temporarily? Could you remove a field in your lead form for a period of time to improve CVR? Could you manufacture a bit of demand with a campaign or offer that provides timely and unique value?
• Making the most of what you have: In periods of soft demand, you want to make sure that you’re not leaving anything on the table. One way to do this is to perform an audit of your key acquisition drivers and invest in making optimizations. For example, if you’re able to improve search rankings and conversion rates of core landing pages, it will help you generate incremental demand. Investing in these kinds of optimizations will also put you in a much better position to capture demand when traffic does start to pick up.
• Weatherproof for the long-term: Periods of slowed demand can help us see where the holes are in our demand-generation engines. Use this time to identify where your engine’s holes are and put in place plans that work toward patching them in the future. For example, if your desktop conversion rates are outperforming your mobile conversion rates because you haven’t invested in a mobile-optimized site, now could be a great time to start planning that project.

3. Use data to guide your strategy.

Although dips on website views might concern you, seasonal traffic slumps aren’t unusual. And, you can use analytics tools to prepare for and respond to them.

On the HubSpot Blog team, we use tools like HubSpot Traffic Analytics to examine and prepare for seasonal dips due to vacations, office closings, and global holidays that take people off-line during the summer or winter months.

Because summer and winter are filled with vacations and holidays, we often use summer to focus on historical optimization, long-term conversion plays, process planning, and trend-responsive content that can gain quick bursts in traffic when search engines are impacted by seasonality. Meanwhile, we’ll often perform end-of-year planning and take personal time to recharge in winter, so we can start a new year fully refueled.

While a seasonal slump is a good time to look at and respond to unexpected traffic losses, it’s also important to remember that some decreases could be beyond your control and mostly due to seasonality. Additionally, if you’re a leader, you should look at other data aside from just traffic.

For example, you might also want to take a wider look at KPIs like online leads, email subscriber growth, online sales, and deal creation to learn how much web traffic losses are immediately impacting you. If traffic is down, but leads or deals are up, you might not need to pivot your whole strategy. If everything is going down — that’s when you might want to take a deep look at your overall processes.

Ultimately, as with process planning, digging into the analytics you have available will help you determine the best way to handle a traffic slump or uptick. To learn more about building an effective web analytics strategy specifically, check out this post.

4. Don’t forget about your current customers.

While deals are on the rise at the moment, some industries, such as construction and financial activities historically see dips or slower growth in the summer. Luckily, when business is slow, you can still take the time you need to maintain and potentially gain more business from your current clientele.

From a sales leadership perspective, Dan Tyre, Director at HubSpot, says that managers and teams should “look for ways to upsell or cross-sell new customers from the first six months of the year” or “use the time to work your referral program.”

“I like to call top customers in July to check in regarding the state of our relationship and see if there are other divisions or connections that can use similar help,” Tyre adds.

Additionally, leaders and companies can take more time to ensure their processes and operations are running smoothly when business is slow.

Regardless of whether you’re focused on gaining new clients or maintaining your customer list, tools like HubSpot’s Sales or Service Hubs can help you by allowing you to track deal creation, contact activities, and service inquiries. You can also use these tools to communicate with customers and prospects across different platforms like email, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.

5. Strengthen team communication.

While you’ll want to stay in contact with prospects and customers during times of slump or business uptick, communication with your team will also be incredibly vital. While poor communication can halt processes completely, great communication could speed up the pace of projects that provide great revenue.

Regardless of how busy your business is, take time to check in with your teams through meetings, platforms like Slack or Zoom, or email updates.

Additionally, to keep everyone in the know of each other’s schedules during a busy summer, you should ensure that calendars are up to date with meeting times, blocks for heads-down solo work, and time off.

6. Balance results with employee well-being.

As seasonal trends fluctuate, it can be easy for managers and teams to get swept up with work and forget about taking time to unplug. And, as economies reopen and employees gain the ability to travel, the balance between self-care and productivity will be even more important for leaders to consider.

“Time away from the office may be a bit more pronounced this year, but it’s not unique. The key to any process is managing expectations and understanding who’s available when to keep consistency in the sales process,” Tyre explains. “It’s advantageous for everyone to manage lower levels of stress and take time off. In many cases, a no-meeting Friday or work from home Friday can increase salespeople productivity.”

Senior Product Marketing Manager Alex Girard similarly says, “First, I think it’s important to understand the value in taking time off. When employees use their time off, they’ll come back refreshed and able to do their best work.”

“Second, make sure you’re prioritizing the important work that will drive real impact,” Girard adds. “If your team is taking time off, make sure everyone on the team is aligned around what’s important, what is not, and what can be postponed for later. This will ensure you keep things moving during periods of high vacation time.”

Tools to Help You Navigate a Seasonal Slump or Uptick

• HubSpot Business Software: HubSpot’s CRM, Marketing, Sales, Service, and Content Hub can help you and your team measure your performance; identify slumps, upticks, or major snags in your process; and assist you in moving customers through the buyer’s journey — even during a time of seasonality.  
• Google Workspace or Microsoft Outlook: These programs allow teams to keep all their documents, calendars, and emails in one suite of tools that can streamline communication, project management, and the creation of new processes that will be vital to business growth.
• Task Management Tools: If you work with multiple teammates or are managing multiple projects this summer, tools like HubSpot, Trello, Asana, and Jira can help you track the progress of what your team is working on and identify where any blockers might exist.
• Communication Tools: Lastly, if you’re on a dispersed team like many HubSpotters, you’ll want to leverage a communication platform like Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom to stay in contact with everyone you’re working with — even when there’s not enough time to schedule a meeting or check-in.

Editor’s Notes:

1. This post was first published in July 2021, but was updated in September to follow up data from the later summer months. 

2, The data from HubSpot’s customer base is reflective of companies that have invested in an online presence and use inbound as a key part of their growth strategy. Because the data is aggregated, please keep in mind that individual businesses, including HubSpot’s, may differ based on their own markets, customer base, industry, geography, stage, and/or other factors.

How We Protect the Privacy of Our Customers’ Data

We employ the following anonymization techniques to remove or modify personally identifiable information so that data cannot be associated with any one individual:

• Attribute suppression refers to the removal of an entire part of data in a dataset. Before sharing any customer data we apply suppression to any data attribute that on its own identifies an individual (e.g. name, company name) or has been assigned to an individual.
• Generalization involves a deliberate reduction in the precision of data, such as converting company size into a company size range. We apply generalization to indirect identifiers. These are data attributes that on their own don’t identify individuals, but could identify an individual when combined with other information. We use the k-anonymity model as a guideline to ensure any record’s direct and/or indirect identifiers are shared by at least k(set at 100)-1 other records,  protecting our customer’s data against linking attacks.
• Aggregation refers to converting a dataset from a list of records to summarized values. We apply aggregation by displaying a cohort’s mean or median values for a metric.

 

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

It’s no secret that poor user experience (UX) isn’t going to keep your customers and target audience coming back to your website. Poor UX also negatively impacts your ability to rank on Google’s search engine results page (SERP).

To ensure your website has delightful UX for your visitors as well as one that meets Google’s standards for ranking, you’ll want to focus on Core Web Vitals.

Core Web Vitals

At a high level, Google’s Core Web Vitals exist to fix poor user experiences on your website — Google knows that poor UX leads to higher bounce rates and that’s why they take page performance into consideration when determining your page’s ranking.

Core Web Vitals are meant to be applied by all site owners on each of their web pages to ensure all three Vitals — which we’ll talk more about below — are measured.

HubSpot Core Web Vitals

HubSpot’s SEO audit tool reviews all three of Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics for you. Below, we’ll cover the ways in which HubSpot can help you prepare for Core Web Vitals.

How HubSpot Helps Users Prep for Core Web Vitals

Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics are part of the search engine’s page ranking algorithm. HubSpot’s SEO audit tool flags pages with unsatisfactory scores based on Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics. Specifically, HubSpot uses Google Lighthouse to automatically scan all pages that make up a website. The tool then flags pages that fail any of these metrics.

Three Core Web Vitals that HubSpot’s SEO audit tool flags:

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1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

LCP is perceived page load speed. It refers to how quickly a page can load and render all of its visual elements to the screen.

2. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

CLS is visual stability. It refers to how often users experience unexpected layout shifts on a web page.

3. First Input Delay (FID)

FID is load responsiveness. It’s a quantifiable measurement of how users feel when a page is unresponsive.

An alternative measurement for FID is Total Blocking Time (TBT). TBT is the quantifiable measurement of how much a non-interactive page is before becoming interactive. In other words, TBT measures the total amount of time that a page is blocked from responding to user input. HubSpot scans and flags web pages that have a TBT of over 300 milliseconds for you (because Google believes a good TBT is anything less than 300 milliseconds).

Who benefits from HubSpot’s SEO audit tool?

HubSpot can help you prepare for Core Web Vitals whether or not you’re a Content Hub user — in fact, it’s available to those who are Content Hub Professional and Enterprise users as well as Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise users. You can use HubSpot’s SEO audit tool whether you’re on a HubSpot-hosted website or a website hosted by another platform.

Pro Tip: Get HubSpot Content Hub or Marketing Hub to begin measuring your web pages’ UX against Google’s Core Web Vitals. 

Start Prepping For Core Web Vitals With HubSpot

With HubSpot, you’ll know if your web pages meet Google Core Web Vitals. As a result, you’ll be able to ensure your web pages are offering your visitors delightful UX. Additionally, you’ll know that your web pages have a significantly better chance at ranking for your keywords and phrases than they would if they didn’t meet Google’s criteria.

 

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

Just like every building needs a foundation, every business needs brand architecture. It’s the structure that allows you to organize your offerings, develop a brand identity, and gain brand equity.

The right brand architecture provides clarity around your products or services and influences how your brands and sub-brands relate to one another.

Without this framework, there’s no connection between your brand’s offerings, messaging, and identity. This inconsistency can confuse consumers and dilute the overall value of the brand. (Think of it like walking through a building where every room has vastly different interior design).

To ensure your brand architecture fits your business, this post will share the various brand architecture models, highlight real-life examples, and provide steps to choose the best structure for your company.

What is brand architecture?

Brand architecture is the organizational framework a company uses to structure its brands, sub-brands, and products or services.

The framework helps define both the breadth and the depth of a brand, which makes it easier to develop marketing campaigns, identify growth opportunities, and ensure consumers understand the offerings.

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Companies use brand architecture to inform internal efforts. It acts as the foundation for the brand identity, style guide, and brand story, but it also helps increase efficiency by highlighting opportunities for cross-promotion, brand awareness, and mergers and acquisitions.

Brand architecture isn’t always obvious to consumers, who use it as a way to categorize the company and understand how it meets their needs. For example, people may not know that Alphabet is the parent company of Google. But they have a specific perception of Google’s brand equity and transfer it to products like Google Sheets, Google Docs, or Google Search.

Ultimately, brand architecture is meant to bring order to a brand’s offerings and build brand equity. Not every architecture will work for every business, so let’s look at the options to see which may be the right fit for your brand.

Brand Architecture Models

The most common brand architecture models are branded house, house of brands, endorsed brands, and hybrid brands.

Branded House

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A branded house architecture combines several house brands under a single umbrella brand, leveraging the well-established master brand for its equity, awareness, and customer loyalty. Oftentimes, the house brands are designed to target different audience segments to maximize reach and revenue.

For instance, Apple uses a branded house architecture to create a seamless look and feel across its sub-brands: iPad, iPhone, iMac, Watch, and TV. By leaning on Apple’s loyal customer base, the sub-brands increase their equity and more easily attract buyers.

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The following companies use a branded house architecture:

• FedEx: FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Office, etc
• Virgin: Virgin Mobile, Virgin Pulse, Virgin Money, etc
• HubSpot: Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, Content Hub, Operations Hub

House of Brands

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A house of brands architecture downplays the master brand in order to feature the sub-brands. This structure allows the sub-brands to shine on their own because they aren’t tied to the messaging, appearance, or positioning of the master brands. But it also increases the complexity because each brand has a distinct audience, brand identity, marketing strategy, and equity.

Due to that complexity, companies that use a house of brands structure are often large global brands with established equity. While the master brand may be widely recognized, like the consumer goods company Unilever, it can also be behind the scenes, like the fast-food company Yum! Brands.

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The following companies use a house of brands architecture:

• Procter & Gamble: Pampers, Tide, Bounty, Bounce, Dawn, Tampax, and more
• Yum! Brands: KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill
• GE Appliances: Monogram, Café, GE, GE Profile, Haier and Hotpoint
• Focus Brands: Aunties Anne’s, Cinnabon, Jamba Juice, Carvel, and more
• PepsiCo: Pepsi, Lays, Quaker Oats, Gatorade, Aquafina, Tropicana, and more

Hybrid Brand

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A hybrid brand architecture combines the house of brands and branded house models. The goal of this structure is for the sub-brands to have similar styles as the master brand while maintaining distinct brand identities.

Companies that use a hybrid architecture may mention the master brand in marketing, but most adopt this model as a way to keep the master and sub-brands separate after rounds of mergers and acquisitions. It’s also a good approach for brands that want to cater to vastly different target audiences, like Marriott Bonvoy.

By taking a hybrid approach, the company maintains a diverse portfolio of brands that includes luxury hotels, such as the Ritz-Carlton, alongside budget-friendly options, such as Residence Inn.

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The following companies use a hybrid approach:

• Alphabet: Google, Nest, YouTube, Fitbit, Waze, and more

• Microsoft: LinkedIn, Skype, GitHub, Mojang, and more

• Amazon: AmazonBasics, Presto!, Mama Bear, AmazonFresh, Zappos, and more
• Levi’s: Levi’s, Dockers, Denizen, and Signature by Levi Strauss & Co

Endorsed Brand

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Another option for brand architecture is the endorsed brand model, which has a master brand and sub-brands that rely on an association with it. Each sub-brand benefits from the strength of the others because they all share the same endorsement.

Oftentimes, an endorsed brand incorporates the logo and colors of the master brand. Of course, this allows the sub-brand to leverage the reputation of the main brand for improved brand equity, awareness, and security.

The endorsed approach is great for companies that use a hybrid approach and want each sub-brand to have its own identity, without separating it from the master brand. Unlike the house of brands approach, the endorsed model lets everyone know the main brand behind the products or services. And unlike the branded house approach, an endorsed brand can have a different look or feel from the master brand.

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The following brands use an endorsed approach:

• Nescafe by Nestle
• Playstation by Sony
• Rice Krispies by Kellog
• Polo by Ralph Lauren

How to Develop Brand Architecture

Defining brand architecture is one of the first steps a company should take when building a brand because it lays the foundation for an organized, intuitive branding strategy. Although brand architecture can become complex, with dozens of sub-brands, the right structure can ensure each brand remains true to its identity.

You can develop a brand architecture for your business in three steps: research, strategy, and application.

1. Research

Strong brands don’t simply choose a model and run with it. Conducting research is an essential step to developing brand architecture because it gives you the information you need to organize offerings in a way that makes sense for your company, customers, and industry.

The more data, the better. But gathering the following information will provide the insights you need to get started.

• Brand audit – Brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand perception, brand equity, brand assets, and brand portfolio
• Market research – Buyer personas, market segmentation, product/service use, pricing, customer satisfaction, and competitive analysis

Before you make any decision, it’s wise to review your company’s mission, vision, and values to ensure the brand architecture aligns with business goals.

2. Strategy

With data in hand, it’s time to design the brand architecture. If you’re revamping an old architecture, this step may require tough decisions on whether to get rid of or sell brands that don’t fit into your desired architecture. If you’re starting from scratch, you have to decide how closely you want your current (or future) sub-brands to be connected to the master brand.

You can test out each architecture by seeing what the brand would look like in each approach and creating a list of pros and cons. Maybe the branded house model won’t work because you have several distinct brands that can’t be grouped under the parent brand.

When you find a structure that may work, outline the connections between the master brands, sub-brands, and products or services. You need to know how everything works together because defining distinct brands, designing cross-promotions, or marketing to customers.

Along the way, make sure to consider your available resources (employees, budget, time). Certain approaches take more work than others, so you want to choose a brand architecture that fits your current capacity as well as your future vision.

3. Application

Choosing a brand architecture is just the start of creating a lasting brand that people love. But for the sake of this article, the last step is to share the finalized structure with your team.

Since brand architecture is part of your brand identity, you can unveil it alongside your overarching brand positioning strategy. Make sure to include a clear structure that highlights the relationships between the master brand, sub-brands, and offerings, in addition to any connections between sub-brands. Everyone on the team should know the strategic role of every brand within the architecture framework and how it relates to customers.

As your company grows, your brand architecture must change to include any new offerings or brands — whether it’s the result of a new product launch or an acquisition.

By taking time to conduct brand research, develop a brand architecture strategy, and share it with your team, you’re setting your entire organization up to make efficient branding decisions that have a long-term effect on brand equity.

 

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

Content creation isn’t always as simple as we’d like it to be. It’d be great if marketers could just snap their fingers to launch a successful email campaign, YouTube series, or blog.

However, all content requires extensive planning, team effort, and a consistent content workflow to keep everything and everyone on track.

In this article, we’re going to explore what a content workflow is, why your team needs one, and the steps to craft the right content workflow to reach your marketing goals.

What is a content workflow?

Why Marketers Need a Content Workflow

Content Creation Workflow: Task-based Workflows vs. Status-based Workflows

Task-based Workflows

Status-based Workflows

Content Strategy Workflow: How to Build One

 

Key to an effective content workflow is clearly defining the people’s roles, the documents and materials at each stage, and the timeline in which everything must be completed. Your content workflow may change depending on the content type.

It’s normal for the materials, people, and timelines defined in one workflow to change depending on the content you’re creating, such as a blog, video, live stream, or web copy.

Why Marketers Need a Content Workflow

Content workflows ensure a project launches successfully without any hiccups. With a content workflow, you can:

• Create content that is consistent, timely, and accurate.
• Guarantee realistic deadlines and outcomes.
• Proactively plan for common roadblocks in content planning and launches
• Clearly establish how every team member fits in the big picture of creating the content

Essentially, a content workflow keeps you and your team on track to a seamless launch. Without a content workflow, you and your team are likelier to miss deadlines, make errors, and experience difficulty working toward your common goal.

Content Creation Workflow: Task-based Workflows vs. Status-based Workflows

Before learning how to build a content creation workflow, you must understand which would benefit your team the most — task- or status-based workflow.

Knowing the difference between the two will help you strategize the right workflow for you next project.

Task-based Workflows

Each stage of a task-based workflow is a task that needs to be carried out before moving on to the next step. In a task-based workflow, each step is described in detail, and everyone working on the project knows what is expected of them.

Task-based workflows are especially useful for new content teams because whoever is assigned to the task gets a clear idea of what needs to be done and what happens next.

Status-based Workflows

Status-based workflows are most often preferred by more experienced teams. In a status-based workflow, each stage is defined by status, and the stages don’t include detailed descriptions of what needs to be done like in task-based workflows.

Status-based workflows can be easier to track and can be used in a wide variety of content type. However, it’s crucial your team understands the content creation process and their roles within it.

Content Strategy Workflow: How to Build One

Follow these steps to craft a content workflow for you and your team.

1. Establish your content goals and audience.

Your goals will inform the content you want to create and the audience you’re trying to reach.

Is your goal to create brand awareness? If so, you’ll likely want to create product-led blogs or engaging social media posts. If you’re working to delight and retain your current customers, an effective email campaign would be the best fit.

2. Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of everyone on your team.

Once you know your content goals and who your audience is, you’re ready to decide who on your marketing team will be involved in the project.

For content creation workflows, you’ll need content creators (bloggers, YouTubers, videographers, etc.), editors, type, and other stakeholders involved in content creation.

Whether your team is using a a task-based workflow or a status-based workflow, everyone involved must have a clear definition of their role, duties, and where they fit within the process.

For example, your workflow is for a YouTube content series — the content creators will be in charge of crafting the content. The editors will be tasked with ensuring the content is of the best quality and contains no errors.

Senior editors or project managers will give the final approval to launch each episode in the series.

This is also the time to figure out the tools and materials your team will need to create and launch the content.

For example, content management systems like Content Hub are essential for publishing blog posts. Canva and Adobe Photoshop are great tools for design.

You’ll may also need to consider things like mics and cameras for videos, or email automation software for email campaigns.

3. Decide the content types and frequency of output.

Figure out the kind of content you want to create and how often you want to put this content out. For example, you might decide you want to put out YouTube videos once a week or Instagram Reels every other day.

Now is also a great time to create a content calendar to plan your projects in advance and to ensure you content is launched on time.

4. Develop the content creation process.

Brainstorm with your team the different steps that must take place for your brand’s content to launch successfully. These steps will vary depending on the kind of content you’re creating.

For example, the process to craft and launch a blog post may look like:

1. Strategizing
2. Planning
3. Creating
4. Editing
5. Publishing
6. Analyzing

These tasks may seem broad, but this is where you want to expand. For example, strategizing typically means performing content audits, creating buyer personas, and conducting keyword research.

Editing might involve implementing SEO techniques or adding images and links.

Every step in the process needs to be accounted for so it can be assigned to the appropriate team member.

5. Document and automate your workflow.

Companies typically use standard operating procedures (SOPs) to keep their teams aligned with the process. Marketing Hub, Trello, and Evernote are examples of systems that give teams easy access to documents like SOPs.

HubSpot also has an all-in-one workflow automated software that allows user to align all of their teams’ processes so there’s no confusion or hiccups from task to task.

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We offer templates or you can create your workflow from scratch to easily hand leads from marketing to sales.

Content workflows are a must-have if you want to create content regularly and efficiently with your team informed every step of the way. With a content workflow, you can increase productivity, reduce errors, and boost workplace engagement.

Think of your workflow as a roadmap for a seamless content launch that takes you to your goals.

 

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

Developing a consistent brand starts with creating a brand style guide. These branding rule books help graphic designers, marketers, web developers, community managers, and even product packaging departments all stay on the same page, and present a unified vision of the brand to the public.

The best brands stick in our brains because their presence is defined by the repetition of the same logo, fonts, colors, and images. Once we see them enough, they become instantly recognizable, bringing us a clear sense of reliability and security. All of this is possible when each member of your team adheres to a cohesive brand style guide.

In this article, we’ll go over what brand guidelines are, the elements of a style guide, and some amazing examples of them in action to use as inspiration for your next branding project or website redesign.

Picture the most recognizable brands you can think of. Chances are, you’ve learned to recognize them because of the consistency across the messaging — written or visual — these brands broadcast. The same brand colors are reflected across them. The language sounds familiar. It’s all very organized and, while not rigid, it’s cohesive.

Even if you work at a small company, you can also create a brand style guide that takes your company’s visual identity to the next level. But before you sit down to create your branding guidelines, it’s essential to take a step back and define your brand’s mission statement and buyer personas.

These strategic elements will help you dive into the tactical components of your brand style guide later.

Brand Guidelines Mission Statement

Your mission statement is an action-oriented statement declaring your organization’s purpose, making it the compass of your brand style guide. It ensures that all your content is working toward the same goal and connecting with your audience. This statement can guide your blog and paid content, ad copy, visual media, and slogan.

You can either include your mission statement within your style guide, create a separate document that you can reference during the creation process, or distill your mission statement into a slogan that you can place at the head of your document.

Brand Guidelines Buyer Persona

A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. It includes details on your customer’s job title, age, gender, and professional challenges — therefore stipulating for whom your brand publishes content.

Your buyer persona guides your blog content, ad copy, and visual media, which can attract valuable leads and customers to your business.

Download our free resource on how to create your own style guide with brand guidelines templates to follow. Creating a consistent style guide isn’t easy, but with these tools you can build an unforgettable one with ease.

Next, we’ll go over a few elements you’d find in a brand style guide and which parts of a brand they can influence.

Download our free resource on how to create your own style guide with brand guidelines templates to follow. Creating a consistent style guide isn’t easy, but with these tools you can build an unforgettable one with ease.

The Elements of a Brand Style Guide

A brand style guide encompasses much more than just a logo (although that’s important, too). It visually encompasses everything your brand is about — down to your business’ purpose. Here are some key elements that make or break a brand style guide.

Logo

Your logo might seem like the simplest aspect of your branding guidelines, but in reality, it’s one of the most complex and most important parts.

In your guide, you should include a visual of your logo, explain its design details, and describe how it can be used by external and internal publishers (with or without your brand symbol, for instance, or with certain spacing requirements).

You should also include wrong usages — i.e, you might advise against rotating the design or curving the font. That way, whether you or someone else is publishing information about your company, your logo looks consistent everywhere.

If your brand is well-known and many outlets publish information about you, you might want to provide an entire document outlining acceptable use policies for your logo.

Color Palette

The color palette is probably one of the most distinctive and recognizable parts of a company’s branding guidelines. It’s the group of colors your company uses to design its brand assets, guiding every piece of visual content created. These color combinations often follow HEX or RGB color codes, and govern your logo, web design, printed ads, and event collateral.

A brand color palette should not only include your primary color, but also a wide variety of secondary, tertiary, and neutral colors. This will allow you to come up with more dynamic and varied designs in the content creation stage. If you don’t define an array of options, you can run the risk of having your team create content with random secondary colors, which can look inconsistent.

Typography

Typography is a visual element of your brand style guide that goes beyond the font you use in your company logo. It supports your brand’s design down to the links and copy on your website — even your tagline. We recommend specifying a primary and secondary font, with a mixture of serifs and font weights for different use cases.

Remember, the goal of your branding guidelines is to empower your people and external stakeholders to create consistent but varied collateral on behalf of your brand. You don’t want to limit them with a single font option.

For instance, HubSpot’s primary font is Lexend Deca (sans-serif), while our secondary font is Queens (serif). They’re both integrated in our very own Content Hub, and our design tool, Canva, where we can use a wide variety of font weights to create assets.

Don’t forget: Typography plays a major role in your website’s user experience, so you want to make sure it is visually appealing while also being accessible and easy to read.

Imagery and Iconography

You may be able to only include your logo, colors, and fonts in your guidelines, but if you’d like to create a stronger style guide, consider including approved imagery, pre-designed icons, and custom symbols for your company to use across your website and print collateral.

If your budget is smaller, you can recommend photographic styles (i.e candid versus staged, etcetera), and then direct content creators to your preferred stock photo provider (i.e. Shutterstock, Unsplash). Alternatively, you can commission a company photoshoot at a studio and make the resulting photography available for creative use.

Symbols and icons can also be a great addition to your branding guidelines. As with photos, you can always find free icons online and recommend what to use versus what not to use — for instance, you might prefer to use outline icons only, and not full-color. You can also commission custom icons from a freelance graphic designer.

Brand Voice

If your company visuals are the flesh and bones of your style guide, your brand voice is the beating heart.

The importance of your brand voice can’t be overstated. Whether you want your company’s personality to be friendly and casual, or distant and formal, you want to make it easy for marketers, salespeople, and content creators on your team to know how to represent your brand online. This will ensure consistent messaging across all channels.

You can also include a full editorial style guide. The job of an editorial style guide is to commit an editorial stylebook on how to phrase certain products, list topics the brand can and cannot write about, and other companies it can mention. Your editorial style guide can guide your blog content, video scripts, website and landing page copy, PR talking points, and knowledge base articles.

As you can see, the purpose of the brand style guide is to form and maintain all of the various elements of a company that, when combined, spell out the entire brand as it’s recognized.

Intrigued? Check out 21 of the best ones we could find.

1. Medium

Medium simple brand style guide emphasizes usage of its logo, wordmark, and symbol. Medium’s logo is the brand’s primary graphic element and was created to feel “confident, premium, timeless, and modern.”

See the full brand guide here.

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2. Walmart

Walmart is one of the world’s largest and most recognizable brands, so it’s no surprise that its brand guide is extremely thorough.

The guide includes the brand’s logo, photography, typography, illustrations, iconography, voice, editorial style, and more. Walmart’s color palette is so integral to its brand identity that its primary color is called “Walmart Blue.”

See the full brand guide here.

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3. Asana

Asana’s simple style guide highlights its logo and color palette. It also explains how to properly use the brand’s assets.

See the full brand guide here.

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4. Skype

Everyone’s favorite video chat platform also has a squeaky-clean style guide for its brand. Skype, now owned by Microsoft, focuses primarily on its product phrasing and logo placement.

See the full brand guide here.

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5. Barre & Soul

Barre & Soul’s brand style guide includes variations of its logo, logo spacing, secondary logos, supporting imagery, and a five-color color palette.

See the full brand guide here.

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6. Spotify

Spotify’s style guide might appear simple and green, but there’s more to the brand than just a lime green circle. Spotify’s color palette includes three color codes, while the rest of the company’s branding guidelines focus heavily on logo variation and album artwork.

The style guide even allows you to download an icon version of its logo, making it easier to represent the company without manually recreating it.

See the full brand guide here.

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7. Starbucks

Starbucks’ interactive brand style guide includes details about how to use its core elements such as the iconic Siren logo and green color palette.

Plus, the guide features a visual spectrum of how their creative assets can be used across different channels as well as case studies of different seasonal campaigns and product launches.

See the full brand guide here.

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8. Paris 2024

Paris 2024’s brand identity pays homage to the 1924 Olympic Games through Art Deco inspired design. The iconic emblem, color scheme, typeface, and iconography are all detailed in its brand guide. Best of all, designers applied eco-branding methods to Paris 2024’s brand materials to reduce the amount of ink and paper needed for physical materials as well as limit the power and data consumption on digital elements.

See the full brand guide here.

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9. Urban Outfitters

Photography, color, and even tone of voice appear in Urban Outfitters’ California-inspired brand guidelines. However, the company isn’t shy to include information about its ideal consumer and what the brand believes in, as well.

See the full brand guide here.

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10. Love to Ride

Love to Ride, a cycling company, is all about color variety in its visually pleasing style guide. The company’s brand guidelines include nine color codes and tons of detail about its secondary logos and imagery.

See the full brand guide here.

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11. Barbican

Barbican, an art and learning center in the United Kingdom, sports a loud yet simple style guide focusing heavily on its logo and supporting typefaces.

See the full brand guide here.

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12. I Love New York

Despite its famously simple t-shirts, I Love New York has a brand style guide. The company begins its guidelines with a thorough explanation of its mission, vision, story, target audience, and tone of voice. Only then does the style guide delve into its logo positioning on various merchandise.

See the full brand guide here.

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13. TikTok

TikTok’s style guide isn’t just a guide — it’s an interactive brand book. First, it provides an in-depth look into how it brings its brand to life through design. Then, it gives an overview of its logo, co-branding, color, and typography. At its core, TikTok is a brand that “celebrates the relentless energy, creativity, and expression of [its] users.”

See the full brand guide here.

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14. University of the Arts Helsinki

The style guide of the University of the Arts Helsinki is more of a creative branding album than a traditional marketing guide. It shows you dozens of contexts in which you’d see this school’s provocative logo, including animations.

See the full brand guide here.

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15. Ivy Lane Events

Ivy Lane Events’ bold style guide is reflective of the edgy events the company produces. In it, you’ll find a mood board with dark, romantic visuals inspired by “victorian gothic style and vintage book art.” The guide also details the proper usage design elements such as the wordmark, primary icon, secondary logos, color, and typography.

See the full brand guide here.

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16. Western Athletic Conference

The Western Athletic Conference’s brand style guide includes extensive information about its history, mission, and vision. It also highlights its member universities and athletic championships and awards it is involved with. The brand elements include logo, colors, slogan, patch, and more.

See the full brand guide here.

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17. Discord

Discord’s brand guide is as colorful and playful as the communities it serves. The brand’s motion elements are based on the dot, which represents the Discord user interacting with others in the communities it belongs to. The guide describes usage of Discord’s typography, colors, and icon (lovingly named Clyde).

See the full brand guide here.

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18. Netflix

As far as its public brand assets are concerned, Netflix is focused primarily on the treatment of its logo. The company offers a simple set of rules governing the size, spacing, and placement of its famous capitalized typeface, as well as a single color code for its classic red logo.

See the full brand guide here.

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19. Scrimshaw Coffee

Featuring a six-code color palette, this “laid back,” “cool,” and “eclectic” brand has a number of secondary logos it embraces in various situations.

See the full brand guide here.

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20. NASA

NASA’s “Graphics Standards Manual” is as official and complex as you think it is. At 220 pages, the guide describes countless logo placements, color uses, and supporting designs. And yes, NASA’s space shuttles have their own branding rules.

See the full brand guide here.

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21. New York City Transit Authority

Like NASA, the NYCTA has its own Graphics Standards Manual, and it includes some fascinating typography rules for the numbers, arrows, and public transit symbols the average commuter takes for granted every day.

See the full brand guide here.

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Branding Guidelines Tips

If you want to take your branding style guide to the next level, I recommend following these best practices, which the HubSpot Creative team has used to disseminate branding information to the rest of the HubSpot Marketing team.

This has not only made my job as a blogger easier, but also makes our branding feel well thought-out and cohesive.

1. Make your guidelines a branded document.

Whether you’re publishing your branding guidelines online or creating an internal presentation, consider making the guidelines themselves a branded document. Ensure the published document follows your established brand voice, uses the symbols and imagery you’ve created, and employs the colors and typography that makes your brand feel like you.

When our Creative team rolled out a visual identity refresh for the HubSpot brand, we all received access to a branded playbook that summarized all the changes and described how we should represent HubSpot online moving forward. Not only was I a huge fan of the refresh, but also of the way it was presented to our team in a branded document.

You can do the same, regardless of your budget. Our Creative team actually used a free tool, Google Slides — so it’s totally doable for a small or freelance brand!

2. Name your brand’s colors.

You’ve already chosen your color palette — why go as far as naming the colors? Giving your colors unique names (aside from “blue” or “orange”) can help you tie the tactical elements of your branding into an overall theme or ethos.

Not to mention that it’s awesome to be able to refer to company colors by a unique name. Imagine if we called Solaris, HubSpot’s primary brand color, “HubSpot Orange” — that simply doesn’t have the same ring.

In our visual identity refresh, our Creative team brightened and intensified our color palette, then renamed the individual hues. They wrote, “Every color, tint, and shade is based on central themes. […] Whether it’s a subway line in Paris, or a flower-lined street in Japan, the secondary color names are a veritable tour of important cultural and geographical touchstones from HubSpotters all over the world.”

Think about what makes your brand unique, and why you chose the colors that you did. For instance, if you work at a law firm that specializes in car accident cases, you might choose red as one of the brand colors and call it “Stop Light.”

3. Create easy-to-use branded templates.

Alongside your branding guidelines should be templates to empower your team to easily design branded assets, even if they’re not designers. At HubSpot, we keep all of our templates in our team’s Canva account. There, anyone (myself included) can edit pre-made designs for any number of use cases.

As a writer on the HubSpot blog, I have to create graphics to supplement the information I’m sharing. The branded templates made by our Creative team have made my work a great deal easier — and I can imagine that it’s the same for our Social Media team, when they need to publish an update on any one of HubSpot’s social media profiles.

Whether you run a small or large business, you can benefit from creating at least one template that could be adjusted to different sizes. Not everyone is a designer, but with templates, you can ensure your brand looks professional no matter who creates an asset.

4. Ensure your branding is optimized for all channels.

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Your branding guidelines should include different specifications for different channels — or, alternatively, you should have assets and designs that can be adjusted for various channels and mediums. Not only for sizing purposes, but for accessibility purposes, too.

For instance, if you primarily market your brand over Instagram and on your website, then your branding should have web accessible colors, as well as Instagram-friendly designs and sizes. On Instagram, you might want to avoid small, light typography, and so your font should work well for that channel, too.

You don’t want to significantly change your branding from channel to channel; it should work relatively well no matter where you’re marketing your brand.

Build a Memorable Style Guide of Your Own

Once you build your unique brand style guide, customers will recognize your brand and associate it with all the visual cues you want them to. We hope you were inspired by our list of amazing brand style guides and wish you luck in creating a timeless style of your own.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.

Our view at Stack - Simplify growth with an all-in-one platform. Powerful marketing, sales, and support automation. Integrated CMS. Scalable software. Crafted for customer experience.

It’s no secret that more and more people are accessing the internet using their mobile devices in addition to or in place of desktop computers. In fact, there are almost 7 billion mobile users worldwide. (For reference, the world population is currently 7.8 billion. That’s a lot of mobile activity.)

But what they’re doing on those mobile devices is even more compelling for marketers like us.

40% of consumers use their mobile device to conduct research prior to making an in-person purchase. More than half routinely make purchases using their smartphones, and 55% of shoppers make mobile purchases after finding products on social media.

As a result, companies that have responsive websites generate more leads and maintain an increasing competitive advantage over companies that don’t.

But what exactly is responsive website design, how does it work, and why should you make the switch? This guide sets out to answer those questions, offer some compelling statistics, and teach you the key features of responsive design all marketers should know about. Let’s get started.

 

 

 

Responsive web design is no longer a suggestion — it’s a critical investment to build your brand awareness, diversify your user experience (UX), and convert more site visitors.

It also saves your business valuable time. You can’t possibly design a separate website for each potential device your visitors may use — not to mention future technologies. Responsive web design ensures your website is compatible with all devices and screens to ensure a delightful experience … both modern-day devices and those yet to be invented.

Let’s dig more into why responsive design is so important nowadays.

 

Why Responsive Web Design is Important

Responsive design allows you to reach a broader, more engaged audience wherever and however they choose to browse.

More importantly, a lack of responsive web design can do the opposite — it can alienate your website from customers looking for an engaging mobile experience. In fact, research shows that you can lose up to 90% of your potential customers due to a poor mobile-friendly experience.

That’s a lot of customers — and revenue.

Let’s unpack three major benefits of responsive web design.

1. Responsive web design helps consumers discover your website.

A lot of people access Google on their mobile devices — 63%, in fact. Google also penalizes websites that don’t offer a responsive design. Its mobile-first indexing can actually impact how your website ranks and can cause it to be bumped down on search engine results pages (SERPs) in favor of websites that offer consumers a mobile-friendly design.

So, if the majority of your audience is searching on their smartphone (as the above statistic says), and your website doesn’t feature a responsive design, customers may not find your website at all.

2. Responsive web design keeps shoppers on your website longer.

Website bounce rates on smartphones are almost 40% (compared to only 27% for tablets). Also, a web page that loads in five seconds or less guarantees 70% longer viewing sessions.

Mobile users expect quick, high-quality website experiences (so does Google) — expectations that you can meet with a responsive website design.

Use our Website Grader to grade your website in seconds and learn how to improve it for free.

3. Responsive web design builds positive brand recognition and trust with consumers.

Finally, 57% of consumers say they’re not likely to recommend a business with a poorly-designed mobile website. The same report shows that more than half of online shoppers who are disappointed by a business’s online presence are likely to think negatively about the business itself.

Responsive website design delights online shoppers, encourages them to recommend your business, and brings them back to buy more.

 

How to Make a Responsive Web Design

It is possible to make your own responsive website using CSS and HTML. But this is like taking lengthy backroads when an expressway is available. In this case, the expressway would be a content management system (CMS) or a website builder.

A CMS is a software that allows you to build your website without knowing how to code — and that includes knowing how to code for responsive design. Site builders are similar tools, but they give up some functionality offered by a CMS in exchange for ease of use and lower pricing.

Responsive web design can be achieved using either a CMS or site builder that facilitate responsive designs. Here are a few common choices.

1. Content Hub

Content Hub is a content platform that includes a fully-hosted, fully-integrated CMS. It connects to your other HubSpot tools so you can present a unified marketing, sales, service, and site browsing experience for your visitors, customers, and employees.

In terms of your site building experience, Content Hub offers pre-built website themes that are also mobile-optimized to meet your visitors and customers wherever and however they’re browsing.

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2. WordPress

WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS and maintains this superlative by offering one of the most straightforward website builders — the Gutenberg editor.

WordPress offers thousands of themes and templates to start with, including numerous templates with responsive design. (Find more responsive WordPress themes here and here, too.)

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Note: Once you’ve set up a theme for your WordPress website, engage and convert your visitors with free forms, live chat, email marketing, and analytics by adding HubSpot’s WordPress plugin.

3. Squarespace

Squarespace is a popular site builder that offers gorgeous site designs and creative tools.

Squarespace offers 60 mobile-optimized templates from which you can choose to quickly build your site. Within the Squarespace editor, you can also transition from desktop to tablet to mobile view to ensure your designs seamlessly respond to different devices.

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4. Wix

Wix is another site builder that offers free and paid website subscriptions. It provides an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor, free hosting, and security features.

All Wix templates provide a mobile-optimized experience for visitors. Like Squarespace, the Wix editor allows you to see how your website looks on multiple devices.

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In addition to creating a responsive web design using one of the above CMS tools or site builders, read this blog post to learn how to optimize your website for mobile use, too.

 

Responsive Web Design Best Practices

With an intuitive CMS or site builder, responsive design is easy. But even if you’re using the very best CMS, it can’t compensate for mobile-friendly content and media — that part is up to you. Let’s talk about some responsive web design best practices to help you create the most mobile-friendly web experience for your visitors and customers.

1. Don’t neglect your buttons.

What do you want site visitors to do when they land on your website? Take action, right? This could be by clicking a call-to-action (CTA) like Learn More, Download, or even Buy.

How do site visitors interact with these buttons when on your desktop site? If these CTAs pop up, scroll, or are located at the bottom of your web page, you may need to reevaluate how mobile visitors can access these.

For example, let’s say you offer a main CTA like Get HubSpot Free at the top of your desktop site where visitors can see if from every page.

When you view your mobile site, however, it doesn’t fit into the header. Instead of removing it altogether, consider moving the button or including it in your hamburger menu (the three lines in the top corner), where visitors can still see and click it.

In addition, consider the size of clickable areas on your mobile site. Unlike a desktop, where visitors can use a mouse cursor to click buttons and links, they’re using fingers to navigate your website on their smartphone or tablet.

It’s recommended that clickable elements on mobile devices be at least 48 pixels in height. This includes buttons, form fields, inline links, and menu navigation.

2. Use scalable vector graphics.

If your website includes illustrations or icons, they should be formatted as scalable vector graphics (SVGs).

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SVGs can be scaled infinitely, unlike other media formats like JPGs and PNGs. This ensures your website provides a high-quality browsing experience for users on any device. They also help your site load faster — which we’ve already discussed is a good thing for user experience and SERP rankings.

3. Make sure your images scale.

Illustrations and icons aren’t the only media type changing size on varying devices. Your images have to scale, too.

For example, desktop websites may require images at 1200 pixels, whereas mobile websites may need those at 400 pixels. Using the larger resolution on all devices can slow down your page speed, so that approach isn’t recommended.

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Instead, consider uploading different image resolutions and designating which image you want to display on each device. This is typically achieved by assigning different “media” tags to specific “source” objects (e.g. tablet or mobile) in your website code.

Note: HubSpot enables automatic image resizing on content — yet another reason to build your responsive website on Content Hub!

4. Consider your typography.

A font that looks gorgeous on your desktop site may not read so well on a mobile device that’s a quarter of the size. If visitors can’t read your website, they certainly won’t click on or buy anything.

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Alternatively, revolving your website fonts around the mobile experience can leave your desktop users with ugly words that are too big and clash with your branding.

Here’s our best advice for typography on responsive web design:

• 16pt body type is the rule of thumb for desktop and mobile web content.

• Avoid uber thin fonts that fade away on smaller screens.

• Make sure all headings are clearly larger than body and subheading content.

• Use contrasting colors for your typography so it doesn’t fade into your website background colors.

5. Take advantage of device features.

While prospects and customers can’t call you over their computers, they definitely can on their smartphones. Consider changing your “Chat Now!” CTA to “Call Now!” and include your business phone number in lieu of email.

Additionally, if your business has a mobile application, prompt site visitors to open your app from your website — something they might not be able to do on their computers.

6. Test your website often.

As always, test your responsive website on different devices and browsers. Check out Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to see how your site performs.

This handy tool by Matt Kersley will also provide a peek at your website on different sized devices. You can, of course, use your own mobile devices, too.

 

Responsive Web Design Templates

The best way to ensure your website has a responsive design is to start with a responsive web design template. Below are five gorgeous templates available on HubSpot Asset Marketplace that will give your site visitors a mobile-friendly browsing experience.

Get access to thousands of templates with HubSpot Marketing Professional.

1. DjanGo Responsive Design Template

Price: $200

The DjanGo template is a fully-customizable and responsive site template. Its modern, minimalist design allows visitors to focus on your site content and product information.

2. Prodigy Responsive Design Template

Price: Free

The Prodigy template is a clean website template that reaches your audience with bright media and multiple CTAs. It automatically converts its design to fit any device used by your site visitors.

3. Quantum Responsive Design Template

Price: $75

The Quantum template is a multi-purpose theme that captures your audience with bold headings and a video background. Customize your site with a variety of page layouts and custom modules.

4. Kalahari Responsive Design Template

Price: $199

The Kalahari template is a responsive theme that offers dynamic navigation and customization at the page level. Use this template to convert your audience with bright, standout CTAs.

5. Startup Framework Responsive Design Template

Price: Free

The Startup Framework template is a unique website template with bold typography and bright graphics. Build it natively within HubSpot’s content editor and choose from thousands of icons and dozens of custom modules.

Respond to Your Audience with Responsive Design

With so many consumers shopping and browsing on their mobile devices, responsive design is an absolute must-have. Without it, you could be missing out on leads, customers, and revenue.

Use these tools, templates, and best practices to get started with responsive web design today.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

 

If Hubspot is of interest and you'd like more information, please do make contact or take a look in more detail here.

Credit: Original article published here.