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For the past ten years, I’ve been using Hollywood screenwriting techniques to help companies create powerful marketing stories. I’ve seen firsthand how powerful storytelling can be in transforming a company’s messaging.

Before we keep going though, spoiler alert, I need you to know that may just ruin movies for you. On the other hand, if you keep reading, I also may just show you how to make your marketing story even more irresistible.

The Power of the Problem in Screenwriting

For a moment, let’s take off our marketing hats and put on our screenwriting hats.

In the world of screenwriting, master storytellers know that to create a gripping narrative, you need to write a powerful problem for a hero to overcome. If there is no problem in the story, there is no story.

Can you imagine Liam Neeson getting the phone call that his daughter is kidnapped (again), but this time, just as he’s about to go off on the terrorist on the other end, his daughter hops on the call and tells him it’s all just a prank. Her friends took her to New York to check out colleges and she’d like him to join her.

Then the rest of the movie is about them just walking around New York enjoying a fall day. That is not an interesting movie. You would walk out.

There has to be a problem for the hero to overcome. A bomb has to be about to go off. A meteor has to be hurling towards earth. A Death Star has to be about to destroy another planet.

The bigger the problem the hero has to overcome, the more the audience pays attention and waits to see if the hero can eventually overcome the problem.

However, there is more to writing an interesting story than just establishing a big problem.

The Three Levels of Problem

So obviously, for a movie to truly grip the audience, the hero has to encounter a big problem. There is something that has to get in the way of what the hero wants. This is called an External Problem.

External Problem

The External Problem is the visible, tangible obstacle or challenge that the main character faces. It’s the surface-level issue that is easily identifiable. In the Hunger Games, Katniss has to win the Hunger Games. In Star Wars, Luke has to destroy a Death Star. Pretty simple to understand.

Here is where I’m going to start ruining movies for you. In order to relate to the audience, screenwriters have to dig deeper than the External Problem. After all, how many of us have had to compete in the Hunger Games or destroy a Death Star? Very few. So how can we relate to the main characters if we’ve never experienced their experience?

Storytellers have learned to hook audiences by introducing two more layers to the problem: Internal Problem and Philosophical Problem.

Internal Problem

Beneath the surface of every External Problem lies an internal struggle. In a movie, the hero has to disarm a bomb (External Problem), but maybe the last time he tried to disarm a bomb, he cut the wrong wire and people died. Now, he is not sure he has what it takes. That is his Internal Problem. How many of us have ever wondered if we have what it takes? Pretty much everyone.

The story is no longer just about destroying a bomb, but it is about the hero’s desire to prove he has what it takes. The Internal Problem becomes the heart of the story and makes the story more relatable to the audience.

Philosophical Problem

The next layer of problem screenwriters use is called the Philosophical Problem.

This is the deepest level, addressing why the problem matters in a larger context or on a moral level. It often relates to what’s right or wrong, fair or unfair. The movie will make an argument that good should triumph over evil or true love should win out over arranged marriages.

By incorporating all three levels, storytellers can create more compelling narratives that deeply resonate with their audience. When the hero overcomes all three levels of problems, the hero wins.

So what does this mean for you as a marketer?

In your marketing, your customer is the hero of your story. One of the most crucial elements in crafting a compelling story for your brand is understanding your customer‘s problem. But here’s the thing — most businesses only scratch the surface when it comes to defining their customer’s issues.

External Problem: The Visible Obstacle

The external problem is what most businesses focus on. It‘s the tangible, visible issue that your customer is facing. For example, if you’re selling lawn care, the external problem might be a weed-filled lawn. It’s easy to identify and straightforward to address. Most marketers get this right.

However, if you stop here, you’re missing out on the real power of storytelling. This is where many companies fall short, failing to connect with their audience on a deeper level.

Internal Problem: The Emotional Struggle

Customers are often more motivated to buy solutions to their internal problems than their external ones. For instance, a homeowner with a weed-filled lawn (External Problem) is not going to hire someone to care for their lawn unless they feel frustrated and embarrassed (Internal Problem).

The Internal Problem is where the real story begins to take shape. It’s what drives the character (or in our case, the customer) to seek a solution. By addressing this level, you show your audience that you truly understand their struggles and make your marketing more interesting.

Philosophical Problem: The Big “Why”

The third and deepest level of problem is philosophical. This is the big picture, the reason why the problem matters in the grand scheme of things. It’s often framed as a question of right and wrong or fairness.

In our lawn care example, the philosophical problem might be, “People should spend more time enjoying their lawn than working on it.” This level adds weight and significance to the customer’s problem, making your product or service feel more important and impactful.

Implementing the Three-Level Problem In Your Marketing

Now, let’s look at how to implement all three levels of problem in your marketing.

1. Identify the External Problem.

Start by clearly defining the tangible issue your product or service solves. Be specific and use language your customers would use themselves. For example: “Our software helps small businesses manage their finances more efficiently.”

2. Uncover the Internal Problem.

Dig deeper to understand the emotional impact of the external problem. What feelings or internal struggles does it create? For our financial software example: “Small business owners feel overwhelmed and stressed about managing their finances, worried they might be making costly mistakes.”

3. Articulate the Philosophical Problem.

Consider the bigger picture. Why is this problem unfair or wrong on a broader scale? For our example: “Hardworking entrepreneurs shouldn’t have to become accounting experts just to run their businesses successfully.”

4. Put all three levels into your messaging.

Once you‘ve identified all three levels, make sure they are in your marketing materials. Here’s how it might look for our financial software: “Managing your small business finances can feel like a full-time job.

Our easy-to-use software streamlines your bookkeeping, giving you peace of mind and more time to focus on what you do best. Because you started a business to pursue your passion, not to become an accountant.”

This message addresses the External Problem (inefficient financial management), the Internal Problem (stress and overwhelm), and the Philosophical Problem (entrepreneurs should be free to focus on what they love).

Making Your Marketing Irresistible With These Screenwriting Techniques

By clearly defining your customer‘s problem at all three levels — external, internal, and philosophical — you create a message that’s not just clear, but deeply resonant and motivating.

Remember, most companies are missing two of these crucial levels in their marketing. By implementing this screenwriting technique, you‘re not just selling a product or service; you’re inviting your customer into a compelling story where they‘re the hero, and you’re the guide they’ve been looking for.

In the paid acquisition world, clicks on your ads can seem like the holy grail. But you need a better way to measure your content’s converting capabilities than just clicks — enter, cost per acquisition.

If you really think about it, clicks only tell you if people arrive at your content. And as much as I wish my clicks could spell out the whole picture for me, they can’t.

Instead, I’ve found the cost per acquisition (or CPA) is a better metric to determine whether my content is engaging enough to persuade my audience to stay and, ultimately, buy into my product or service.

Read on to learn more about what exactly CPA is, the formula for calculating it, how its bidding process works, and some principles for crafting creative and convincing ad copy.

Table of Contents

• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
• Cost Per Acquisition Bidding
• Cost Per Acquisition Formula
• Why is cost per acquisition important?
• What is a good cost per acquisition?
• How to Lower Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) Costs

Many marketers prefer the cost-per-acquisition pricing model because they can define an acquisition before they start advertising and only pay when their desired acquisition or action occurs.

I like this model because it allows you to stretch your advertising budget just a bit farther. (Check out these free templates to help you manage your budget!)

This pricing model is used in a handful of paid marketing mediums, including:

• PPC
• Display
• Social media
• Affiliate
• Email marketing
• Content marketing

Now let’s take a closer look at cost acquisition biddings.

AdRank is calculated by multiplying your maximum cost per acquisition bid with the quality score of your ad. Your quality score ad is impacted by your page’s relevance to the keyword, user experience, and click-through-rate.

This means organizations can’t acquire the top ranking for any keyword they want just because they have the biggest ad budgets, which is a relief for smaller marketers like me. Their content has to be engaging, and because of that, you and I can fairly compete with them.

In other words, Google wants to discourage bad advertisers from advertising bad content, so those with low quality scores will usually only acquire a high ad position if they pay a huge cost per acquisition bid.

If they want to pay a lower cost per acquisition bid, they’ll have to settle with stooping at the bottom of the ad rankings.

Target CPA Bidding

To generate as many conversions as possible within the limits of your advertising budget, consider using Google’s target CPA bidding.

Target CPA bidding leverages machine learning to analyze your campaign’s historical conversion data, recommend an optimal average target CPA, and automatically optimize all your eligible bids to meet the average target CPA you set for all your campaigns.

If you use target CPA bidding, some of your conversions may cost more than others because your quality score or the competition in your ad auction might fluctuate, but Google will try its hardest to keep your cost per acquisition as close to your average target CPA as possible.

Cost Per Acquisition Formula

You’ll want to keep up with your cost per acquisition costs to track in your monthly marketing reports.

To calculate your advertising campaign’s CPA, take your total advertising spend and divide it by the number of acquisitions generated.

Let’s take a moment to play with some numbers to get an idea of how to calculate a CPA. Let’s say you have an advertising budget of $5,000. However, you only spend $2,500 and generate 1,200 conversions.

Your math will look something like this:

CPA= 2,500/1,200

This gives you a CPA of $2.08. In other words, each conversion costs around two dollars of your advertising budget.

(Alternatively, you can use the Return on Ad Spend calculator to quickly crunch these numbers and a few other important metrics!)

Why is cost per acquisition important?

If you’re considering pay-per-click advertising, you need to understand CPA. It’s an important metric to help you plan your advertising strategy.

To help you better understand why, I thought it would be useful to share insights from marketing and advertising specialists.

Here’s what they said when I asked, “Why is cost per acquisition important?”

1. Plan your marketing budget.

Ross Kernez, CEO of SEO Meetup, told me that your CPA can help you better plan your multi-channel marketing strategy, including PPC, social media, and content marketing.

Kernez said, “Knowing your CPA enables better allocation of marketing budgets. It helps marketers identify which channels are more cost-effective in delivering results, allowing them to focus resources on high-performing campaigns while cutting back on underperforming ones.”

2. Improve your advertising’s conversions.

Just like using CPA to plan your budget, you can also use it to improve your advertising efforts.

Cristina Muchi, CEO of Upway Marketing, put it like this, “CPA is the yardstick for measuring how efficiently the marketing dollars are working for the brand. Whether the company is using Facebook ads, Google search, or email marketing, every platform and campaign incurs a cost. CPA shows us which strategies are truly delivering conversions without burning through the budget.”

3. Easily scale your efforts.

Alfred Goldberg, Chief Brand Strategist of Absolute Marketing Solutions, told me that calculating your CPA helps eliminate guesswork in marketing and makes it easier to scale your efforts.

Goldberg said, “You can confidently scale your campaigns when you know your CPA is profitable. If you‘re spending $10 to get a customer who spends $50, why wouldn’t you increase your ad budget? CPA lets you grow without the guesswork.”

What is a good cost per acquisition?

Now that we know why CPA is important for your advertising efforts, let’s discuss the question everyone is asking: what is a good cost per acquisition?

I’m going to let you in on a secret: a “good” cost per acquisition varies by industry. So, while a $5 CPA might be perfect for one industry, it might be entirely too high for another.

I like what Randall Yates, Co-Founder of VA Loan Network, said about it. Yates said, “If you can keep your CPA low, you’re in a position to thrive because every dollar spent brings in more value. It’s like a well-oiled machine — you’re reaching your ideal customers efficiently, and that’s how you scale a business.”

On the flip side, a high CPA is a huge red flag, Yates says.

“It means your marketing efforts aren’t hitting the mark, and you’re throwing money at a problem without getting the returns. I’ve seen businesses struggle and fail because they couldn’t get their CPA under control. So, for me, lowering CPA isn’t just important — it’s make or break,” says Yates.

If you’re worried you’re spending too much on advertising, a good rule of thumb is to maintain a 3 to 1 ratio. In other words, for every three dollars you spend, you can expect one conversion.

It’s helpful to reach out to other marketers in your industry to compare notes. This way, you can get a better understanding of your CPA and if it’s too high or too low for your industry.

How to Lower Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) Costs

Adjusting your cost per acquisition is a starting point for lowering it. However, there are more factors at work that determine the effectiveness of your advertising.

Let’s take a moment to go over how you can lower your CPA costs and maximize your ad spending just by making a few tweaks to your marketing strategies.

1. Optimize your ad copy.

Since your quality score, which measures how positive and relevant of an experience your content provides, is the most influential determinant in securing a top ad ranking, the best way to optimize your cost per acquisition costs is crafting compelling ad copy.

When you sit down to write an ad or landing page copy, your goal should be to write something so captivating that it can grab the attention of a distracted millennial slouched in front of the TV, with their smartphone in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other.

One way to do this is by selling a feeling, not a product. Psychology tells us that emotions drive our behavior, while logic justifies our actions after the fact. Marketing confirms this theory — humans associate the same personality traits with brands as they do with people.

This is also the reason why pitching a product’s features is a lousy attempt at persuasion. Features only appeal to the logical part of your brain, which science suggests doesn’t drive action nearly as well as appealing to the emotional part of your brain does. So don’t just get creative with your copy — get emotional too.

Pro tip: Avoid selling the features and focus on the benefits. For example, don’t just say, “This computer has twelve hours of battery life.” Consider making a more compelling statement like, “With 12 hours of uninterrupted power, you can create, work, or explore the web all day, at your desk or on the go.”

2. Focus on customer retention as a strategy.

To state the obvious, acquiring new customers is often more costly than retaining existing customers. So, by focusing on customer retention, you can leverage the investment you’ve already made in acquiring your existing customers, reducing the need for additional acquisition spending. This ultimately leads to a lower CPA.

On top of that, repeat customers tend to generate more revenue over their lifetime compared to one-time purchasers. By focusing on customer retention, you can increase the customer lifetime value (CLV) of your customer base.

Pro tip: Checking in with your customers, providing targeted support, and focusing on building a solid relationship with them are some of the best ways to increase customer retention.

3. Enhance your landing pages.

Just because you’ve grabbed someone’s attention with your ad doesn’t mean your work is done. You still need to design a compelling landing page that clearly conveys the value of our offer.

In order to do this, consider piquing your audience’s curiosity with an intriguing headline and subheading, and scrapping any external links from your landing page so visitors can only leave your paid acquisition funnel if they exit or convert.

You could also test out video, which can explain the value of your offer in a more engaging way than text can.

If you want to learn how HubSpot creates landing pages that convert at 35% rate, check out this blog post.

Pro tip: Check out HubSpot’s Marketing Software to help drive revenue and optimize your landing pages.

4. Leverage your CRM to prioritize leads.

According to HubSpot research, 44% of marketers say using a customer relationship management software (CRM) to streamline their sales cycle is an effective strategy for lowering CPA costs.

The power of a CRM lies in its ability to centralize and manage your leads. Then, by organizing leads based on their stage in the sales cycle, you can prioritize your efforts on those with the highest potential to convert.

As a result, you can avoid wasteful spending on leads that are less likely to result in conversions, leading to a lower CPA.

Pro tip: Spend some time analyzing how your leads interact with your sales funnel and CRM. This can help you identify sticky points that might lead to customer loss.

5. Conduct market research regularly.

How can you speak to your audience if you don’t know who they are?

Of marketers surveyed by HubSpot, 43.5% say conducting market research to better understand their target audience is an effective strategy for lowering CPA costs. Market research helps you gain insights into the needs, preferences, and behaviors of your target audience.

Ultimately, targeted messaging increases the relevance of your ads and content, resulting in higher engagement, click-through rates, and conversions.

Plus, market research provides valuable demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data about your target audience. This information enables you to advertise on the right platforms and refine your targeting parameters.

Pro tip: Social media platforms, like Reddit forums, are great places to learn about your target audience. Spend some time reading Reddit posts to learn more about their wants, needs, and pain points.

Back to You

Marketers will chase vanity metrics until the end of time, and, if you’re like me, you might feel pressured to do the same, especially when your peers clamor on about their astronomical growth in views or clicks.

As I’ve learned, ad clicks are great, but it only counts if you convert a lead to a sale. So if you ever feel tempted to jump on that train of vanity metrics, remember, the goal in marketing is to persuade someone to take your desired action.

So incentivize your brand to resonate with your audience — that’s the thing that actually keeps people on your content and prompts them to act. And make conversions, not clicks, your carrot.

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

Despite my tendency to let my email inbox bloat with unanswered emails (I just got a warning from Gmail that my inbox is 90% full), I’m actually pretty well-versed in email marketing.

I used to manage the email newsletter at a TV station as a journalist, and I most recently managed the HubSpot Daily Newsletter before it morphed into the Masters in Marketing newsletter, which you should subscribe to if you haven’t already.

Though the marketing landscape is constantly changing, email marketing remains an effective way for businesses to generate leads and convert more leads. That’s why local TV stations use them, your favorite brand likely has one, and HubSpot has a few!

According to our 2024 State of Marketing and Trends Report, about a third of marketers (33%) use email as a channel to connect to their audience. This makes email the second most used channel behind social media.

Email marketing isn’t going away soon, so you should incorporate it into your marketing strategy. Here are some best practices I live by that will help you get the most out of your email marketing strategy.

Table of Contents

• 3 Email Automation Best Practices
• 9 Email Campaign Best Practices
• 10 Email Content Best Practices

3 Email Automation Best Practices

1. Implement AI wherever helpful.

You can’t spell “automation” without AI. I know the use of AI has garnered as much criticism as praise, but believe me when I tell you that all email marketers should be leveraging AI in their campaigns.

AI can streamline your workflows and processes, freeing time to focus on other tasks while ensuring your audience receives timely and engaging content.

In fact, our most recent newsletter survey found that 42% of email marketers saved between 30 minutes and two hours of work each week by using AI.

If that notion alone isn’t enough to convince you to implement AI, remember that while you may not be using AI, your competitors certainly are.

Our survey also found that almost a third of respondents (31%) use AI to edit newsletter content.

28% use AI to generate newsletter headlines or format content and 22% use it to get suggestions for short-form newsletter content such as headlines and preview descriptions.

So, if you want to stay competitive and efficiently generate newsletter content your audience will read, you should look into ways to leverage AI to automate certain processes, such as ideation or segmentation.

2. Look over, fact-check, and edit AI-generated content.

If you‘re using AI to draft any sort of copy for your emails, always double-check for accuracy and legibility. AI can streamline processes and boost efficiency but also make mistakes.

You also want to ensure the copy doesn’t read as being too robotic or impersonal.

3. Create automated emails for opt-ins.

Be prepared for your readers to forget they opted in.

Set up an automated email flow that reminds people they opted into your email database. The auto-responder should be sent out one day, five days, and 10 days after the person subscribes.

Each automated email should also include additional content or bonus material to reward the reader for opting into the newsletter. Otherwise, your readers might not feel they have enough incentive to actually stay on your list.

9 Email Campaign Best Practices

1. Don’t purchase contact lists.

This first tip should be no surprise, but given the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it bears repeating.

Email campaigns depend on a healthy open rate. If you’re contacting people whose information you bought rather than earned from a previous interaction, your emails’ performance will quickly drop.

It also could turn off potential customers if they know you bought their information from another party.

For example, a couple of years ago, I made a big cross-country move and contacted a moving company for a quote on their services.

About a day after contacting them, I was bombarded with emails from other moving companies and services and added to newsletters I had never signed up for.

So, I unsubscribed and blocked many of those businesses that seemed to have received my information from the initial company I contacted. I also blocked that company.

Moral of the story? Don’t buy your contacts, add people to lists without their permission, or share their information without their consent. It’s one way to leave a bad impression on potential consumers.

Remember that the GDPR also requires each European recipient’s consent before contacting them. Purchased email lists usually do not come with that consent.

To help reach your target audience, consider Versium Reach — a platform for B2B marketers that allows you to own data on your target audience across multiple marketing channels.

2. Avoid using ‘No-Reply’ in the sender’s email address.

Have you heard of CAN-SPAM? This long-standing legislation is a popular and important guideline for all email marketers in the U.S.

One major rule in CAN-SPAM is to never use the words “no reply “ or a similar phrase as the email sender’s name (for example, ”[email protected]”).

“No reply” in an email message prevents recipients from responding and even opting out of further emails, which CAN-SPAM protects their right to do so at any time.

Instead, have your automated emails come from a first name ([email protected]). Your customers are much more likely to open emails if they know a human being wrote them, and this keeps you compliant with email regulations.

3. Clean your mailing list regularly.

Listen, I get it. When I managed the HubSpot Daily Email, I absolutely loved seeing thousands of people on our lists who would receive our emails. However, I eventually learned that the quantity of my email list wasn’t nearly as important as the quality.

Some of our email contacts may not have opted out of our email campaign but would still never open our emails. And those types of contacts simply were not helpful to our campaign goals.

People who never open emails make your campaign look worse since you‘re not analyzing the campaign’s quality against your most loyal recipients.

That’s why I strongly suggest you review your list of subscribers who have not engaged with your emails over a certain period and remove them regularly.

This will give you a more accurate email open rate and keep your email campaign clean of people who are no longer interested in hearing from you.

You can also implement a workflow in which they’re gradually moved to a less frequent email list based on activity.

For instance, say you have a daily newsletter. You could implement a workflow in which subscribers who do not open your email in two consecutive weeks are moved to the weekly email.

Then, if subscribers don’t open four consecutive emails, they could be moved to the monthly newsletter, and so on.

It prevents you from bombarding your subscribers with emails they’re not interested in while keeping your list clean.

4. Allow recipients to subscribe to your newsletter.

I know what you’re thinking: “Wait, if they received the email, to begin with, shouldn’t they have already subscribed?”

Usually, yes. Therefore, adding a “Subscribe” button to your email doesn’t help those who’ve already agreed to receive your emails.

But great content is shareable content, and if your current subscribers are forwarding your emails to their friends and colleagues, you’ll want to help them subscribe, too.

I‘m pretty much the queen of newsletters, which is partially why my inbox is so full. I’m always forwarding newsletters to my friends when I think they might interest them. And oftentimes, they end up subscribing, too.

So, add a small but visible CTA that allows the recipient to subscribe to the newsletter if they received this email from someone else.

This email newsletter called Contentment is a great example of how to include a sign-up CTA in your email without distracting from the rest of the content:

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But remember, because your newsletter should already be driving another action, such as downloading an ebook or signing up for a webinar, make sure this “Subscribe” button doesn’t distract or confuse users, weakening your main campaign goal in the process.

5. Include a clear CTA.

Speaking of CTAs, let‘s get into their value. I’ve never sent out a newsletter without ensuring I’ve included a clear CTA. Your CTA directs the receiver to make another move.

When adding a CTA, consider what you want the receiver to do next. Should they set up a call or book a demo?

I‘m subscribed to a newsletter by one of my favorite local music venues to keep current on all the artists and musicians coming through my city. The venue’s newsletter always has a CTA button directing me to Buy Tickets or use a code to get a discount or early bird special.

Do you see how the CTA is clear and simple? Sometimes, a little can go a long way for a quality CTA.

6. Make it personal.

Sending an outbound email isn’t too different from sending a marketing email. You should still be personal, but even more so when you know your email is only being read by the receiver.

Start by letting them know how you know them. Have you already connected on Twitter or in a Slack group? Is this a completely cold email? As my friends like to tell me (though not about emails), “Define the relationship!”

Figure out where you stand so you can personalize the greeting and message.

7. Closely tie emails to landing pages.

If you’re promoting a specific landing page in your email, the landing page should match the email in terms of headline, copy, and content. I’ll even suggest that the color schemes be the same or similar.

The look and feel of your landing page should match the email to help create consistency, which goes a long way toward earning a customer’s trust. Also, make sure you‘re using tracking tools to see which emails and landing pages performed the best so you can keep sending what’s working.

8. Conduct a five-second test.

Send a copy of the email to a friend or colleague. Can they quickly tell what your CTA is? If so, you’re ready to hit send. If not, figure out how you can tweak your subject line. Or, if there’s a different landing page, you should link to it.

9. Follow up.

Follow up when necessary, but don’t bombard the receiver with a million follow-up emails.

Be aware of the typical response time from people in your industry or people you contact. Two days to one week is a reasonable amount of time between sending your first email and sending a follow-up.

10 Email Content Best Practices

1. Stick to fewer than three typefaces.

The less clutter you have in your email, the more conversions you’ll get.

Don’t clutter your message with more than two fonts or typefaces; this can distract readers and ruin your email’s visual appeal.

In the email example below from recruiting SaaS company Greenhouse, the company sticks to just two fonts.

This makes the email easy to read, and readers can focus on the context rather than get distracted by the styling.

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In addition, use web-safe fonts with sizes between 10 and 12 points. This ensures your email will be legible on all readers and devices.

2. Optimize the email’s preview text.

You’ve probably seen emails like the one below with preview texts that say something like, “Email not displaying properly? Click here.”

And, yeah, that‘s helpful, but I have a couple of gripes about it. For one, you should optimize your emails to display properly across various devices, but that’s a conversation for later in this post.

My other issue is that the message in the preview header doesn’t tell your recipients what the email is even about. This lack of information and optimization can negatively affect your open rate.

Your preview text should supplement your subject line by adding details to capture your audience’s attention and encourage them to open. By default, preview text pulls in the first several words of the email body and displays it next to the subject line before the person opens it.

The problem is that custom email templates often include conditional statements like “Can’t see images?” or “Not displaying correctly?” at the top banner, allowing the message to slip right into the preview when it goes out.

As a rule of thumb, always write a custom preheader that teases what your email will offer.

(If you’re having trouble writing your preview text or emails as a whole, this video can help you harness the power of AI for the purpose of email creation.)

Pro tip: HubSpot users can fix this problem by customizing the preview text themselves in the backend of their email marketing newsletter.

3. Include an email signature.

Even if your newsletter is technically being sent to your contacts on behalf of the company rather than an individual, the email should include the signature of a specific person.

Considering that every email sent on behalf of your company is another branding opportunity, it makes sense to include a signature.

Your email signature should include a CTA, whether a link to your website, social media, or a specific landing page.

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Another reason you should include your email signature is because it’s a touch of personalization.

People are naturally more inclined to read an email if they know it came from a human being, not just a collective marketing team. Your email signature is your ticket to their attention.

Want a quick way to make a beautiful email signature? Use HubSpot’s Email Signature Generator. We also have an Out-of-Office Email Generator to make your response to incoming messages just as delightful.

4. Keep the main message and call-to-action above the fold.

Above the fold refers to the information visible to the reader before they scroll down.

Even though recent research suggests that consumers scroll more than they used to because of social media and vertical timelines, above-the-fold content still gets the most attention, considering that people don’t have long attention spans.

According to a recent report from Litmus, people spend an average of nine seconds looking at an email.

With this in mind, place your main message and CTA above the fold. It’s the first thing your recipients will see once they open your email, increasing your conversion rate.

You can also run an A/B test first to validate the hypothesis and see if it works for your emails.

5. Personalize the email greeting.

How often do you read emails that begin with “Dear Member?”

You might segment your email audiences by their customer type (member, subscriber, user, etc.), but it shouldn’t be the first thing recipients see in your company messages.

Personalizing the greeting of your emails with your contacts‘ first names grabs each reader’s attention. For HubSpot users, this is called a personalization token, and creating one looks like this:

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Then, the address line of your email would automatically produce the contact‘s first name by fetching this personalization token in the email’s HTML, like this: Hi, !

Don‘t worry; personalizing an email’s greeting line with 50 recipients‘ names doesn’t mean you’ll have to manually write and send 50 different emails from now on.

Many email marketing tools today allow you to configure the greeting of your email campaign so that it automatically sends with the name of the people on your contact list — so everyone is getting a personal version of the same message.

6. Keep your email around 500 to 650 pixels wide.

If your email template is wider than 650 pixels, it will not show up correctly and will require users to scroll horizontally to read the full message.

This is a pain, to say the least, and will likely affect your conversion, especially when many users read emails on mobile.

One of our most recent email newsletter surveys found that the majority of newsletter subscribers (61%) read them via mobile devices.

Having your template fit within the standard format will make for easier readability, better conversions, and an overall better user experience.

7. A/B your subject lines and calls to action.

If you can‘t seem to increase your email’s open and click-through rates, a couple of things might be wrong: You‘re not emailing the right people (if you’re buying your contact list, see the first tip at the top of this blog post), or the content needs to be improved.

A/B tests can be used to improve almost any of your digital marketing content.

This test splits your recipients into two groups in an email. Group A receives the regular newsletter, while Group B receives the newsletter with a specific variation. The variation can be anything from a different subject to another CTA.

This variation tests whether your audience would be more or less likely to take action based on that element.

HubSpot Marketing Hub users can conduct email A/B tests on everything from the subject line to the call-to-action (CTA) inside the email.

For example, you might change the color of your CTA from red to green to see if your email‘s clickthrough rate increases. If it does, the test indicates that you should change all of your emails’ CTA color to green from now on.

8. Include your logo.

Logos are essential in emails. The average person receives about 121 emails daily, so it‘s easy for recipients to skip over an email, even if it’s from a newsletter they’re happily subscribed to.

One of the best ways to help your email stand out and keep your brand top of mind is to include your logo. One of my favorite newsletters is Bad Brain from music and pop-culture journalist Ashley Reese.

As I said, I tend to let my emails pile up and go unread, but I always stop to read one when I see the bright orange Bad Brain font at the top of the message.

9. Name the offer in your subject line.

If you’re running a promotion, use incentive-focused subject lines like “Free shipping when you spend $25 or more” or “Receive a free iPad with a demo.”

Here’s an example of an email with an enticing subject line and a warm, welcoming body copy. The subject line for this email from Elementor says, “Up to 50% off when upgrading!”

However, do not overwhelm your readers with savings- or product-related emails.

Customer loyalty starts with casual industry insights — only after nurturing should you start introducing offers.

10. Write compelling (but concise) subject lines.

As I said, most email newsletter subscribers read them on mobile devices, so I suggest keeping your subject lines to fewer than 50 characters.

Your email subject line should also create a sense of urgency while giving readers some indication of what to expect once they open the email.

Notice some of the subject lines pulled from my own inbox below. Each subject line is condensed enough to display fully on my iPhone, telling me exactly why I should read more.

And there you have it! 22 email best practices I live by, and that will help your email marketing campaign generate more leads. As I said earlier, email marketing is a tried and true method that isn’t going anywhere any time soon. 

So, it’s important to follow these best practices to set your next campaign up for success.

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

Mid-June, 2024. A full page of indecipherable glyphs runs in The Seattle Times, with the only clue a typewritten-style note at the bottom: “Printed at the request of LONGLEGS.”

A week later, a user named Mr_Downstairs leaves strings of glyphs in the comments on Letterboxd.

Image Source

Billboards pop up; a partially obscured face peers down at drivers. In large red type, there’s nothing more than a phone number and a date. 458.666.4355. 7.12.

It was all part of an eerily good marketing campaign from indie film distributor Neon, and it racked up a respectable $22 million for Longlegs’ opening weekend in July. Arguably — don’t come for me — the campaign itself was more provocative than Nicolas Cage’s madman serial killer.

I asked our spookiest HubSpot marketers: What made Neon’s campaign so effective, and what tactics can we bring to our (hopefully) less macabre marketing efforts?

1. Build a continuous journey for your audience.

“The Longlegs campaign brilliantly invited people to step into the narrative, transforming them into active participants rather than a passive audience. By threading suspense and curiosity throughout its progression, the campaign ensures a dedicated and engaged audience eager for what’s to come.

“For marketers, this approach offers a clear lesson: Aim for more than just a single peak of interest — build a continuous journey that keeps your audience engaged and eagerly anticipating what’s next. By nurturing ongoing interest and curiosity, you create a dynamic relationship that leads to deeper connections and greater loyalty over time.”

—Carly CHILL-iams, director, media monetization

 

 

2. Build community and shared experiences.

“What’s so sharp about the Longlegs campaign is that it applies pressure from two angles. People don’t like unanswered questions but, on the flip side, they LOVE being a part of something.

“When the Longlegs audience tries to answer those unanswered questions, SURPRISE, they’re now part of a mystery game.

“That may be harder to apply if you’re marketing, say, drain plugs, but there are some lessons here that everyone can benefit from.

• Give your audience something to answer for themselves. Maybe that‘s plugging their details into a quote creator. Maybe it’s finding a coupon code somewhere on your site. Even mundane industries can enjoy a little mystery.
• Welcome them into being a part of something bigger. Maybe that’s a social community, a Slack channel, or a product forum. Even just giving a name to your audience can be a powerful way to create that sense of ‘something bigger.’ (Think of Swifties, the Bills Mafia, or Browncoats.)”

—Curt del PRINCE of DARKNESS, senior marketing manager

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“I love that I immediately want to share the experience. I want to send this phone number to my sister and wait for her totally weirded-out reply. It feels so special when a marketing campaign evokes a desire to pull more people in.

“As marketers, we think a lot about how to cut through today’s noisy marketplace. But sometimes we forget that creating an experience our audience wants to share with others is a great way to expand reach (and get our audience to do a bit of the heavy lifting).”

—Meg PraterGEIST, managing editor, blogs

 

 

3. Cultivate suspense.

“At Los Angeles’ BeyondFest this fall, programmers spliced the trailer for the American remake of Speak No Evil into pre-show entertainment, a cinephile joke poking fun at how often the various cuts of the trailer — which gave away much of the film — appeared in movie theaters leading up to its debut.

“Longlegs took an opposite tactic, reveling in minimalism. It never gave too much away in its trailers, leaving viewers to wonder when and how Nicolas Cage, its biggest star, would show up.

“Neon instead invited audiences into its mystery through a series of cryptic codes and phone numbers, building the same sense of dread and intrigue that Maika Monroe’s character — a young FBI agent — experiences in the film.

“Additionally, the marketing built an accessible, interactive alternative reality game (ARG) that could be freely enjoyed by fans everywhere, maintaining interest in the movie without spoiling it or exhausting potential customers.”

—GHOUL-iet Bennett Rylah, senior writer, The Hustle

“I think the marketing was effective because it cultivated a sense of suspense by planting breadcrumbs. Neon lets its target audience fill in the rest with their imagination, which can be the most powerful tool in both horror and marketing.

“Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the actual film — as were a ton of other folks I talked to online and IRL — so the marketing built up too much anticipation for me. The more the campaign let my imagination go wild, the higher my expectations were — and the bigger the discrepancy between my expectations and my experience.

“My takeaways:

• Know when to leave a meaningful blank. What’s left unsaid and unshown gives your audience space to imagine.
• Plant breadcrumbs. Marketers can encourage people to actively engage in your marketing campaign without them even realizing it. Give new information with each iteration of your campaign, and you’ll have your audience yearning for more.
• Use multisensory marketing. The phone number, audio clip, music, etc. contribute to the atmospheric success of this campaign, which the film did deliver on.
• Repurpose your content. A two-hour movie can spin out hundreds of mini content types, whether it‘s a still image, a number, a clip, or a series of puzzle pieces. You don’t even need to create new stuff — just make a meaty product and use the product itself to create marketing assets.”

—DYIN’ Zhong, senior marketing manager

 

 

4. Unite analog and digital marketing strategies.

“Neon did movie marketing, especially horror movie marketing, right.

“Movie promos are notorious for showing all the good parts, but Longlegs beautifully captured the suspense audiences would get in the movie and piqued curiosity without giving anything away.

“I love how the film’s marketing united the analog and digital worlds. People could see the billboard with its eerie imagery and move along, but if they called the phone number, they could actually experience it.

“This strategy brought them into the movie in a way, and made its value more of a reality. It’s not difficult for marketers from all backgrounds to mimic this with the use of URLs and QR codes.

“Plus, Neon’s trailers used behind-the-scenes footage and actual recordings of lead actress Maika Monroe’s heart rate the first time she saw Nic Cage as Longlegs.

“It makes the terror that much more tangible. They didn’t just tell viewers the movie was scary in their marketing, they proved it.”

—Ra-MOAN-a Sukhraj, principal marketing writer

 

 

5. Lean into imagination and interactivity.

“I’m a huge horror fan, and I was really impressed at how Neon took an entirely fictitious threat (Nicolas Cage’s Longlegs) and brought it into our dimension. (The nonfiction threat of Nic Cage himself predates the movie industry.) It’s a creative and immersive way to gain fan attention and build curiosity for moviegoers.

“Smile 2 did something similar, breaking the fourth wall in its marketing campaign by placing odd smiling people in random sports events or news broadcasts to draw attention to the movie.

“In that movie, the sinister smile portends a murderous threat. Bringing elements of it into our world adds legitimacy and makes the movie feel all the more plausible. That strategy also played into word-of-mouth marketing, as regular social media users would post the different smiling people they’d see on TV, igniting even more interest.

“What I take away from these frightful marketing campaigns is that the more imaginative and immersive your marketing team gets, the more you stand to gain from letting your viewers unravel the mystery or story.”

“Tap into their curiosity, use enigmatic symbols or details, and provide interactive elements that encourage investigation and sharing among friends — and you can transform a paid marketing campaign into a real hot topic.”

—Tristen Tay-LORD of the UNDERWORLD, Service Blog editor and marketing manager

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“What made this campaign so effective is that people were given a lot to work with — ciphers to decode, numbers to call, backstories to explore — but none of it gave people what they really wanted: a face reveal of the titular villian. You could only get that by watching the movie, which made people eager to show up.

“My favorite element was the audio of Maika Monroe’s heart rate when she first laid eyes on Longlegs. I expected him to be so agonizingly grotesque and off-putting that I was almost relieved when he was mostly just ugly. Since he wasn’t as hideous as I expected him to be, it made the true horror of the movie (which was also hidden from the trailers) hit even harder.

“Longlegs’ marketing is a lesson in the importance of interactivity. Giving your audience something to do that relates to your product or service makes them want to engage. And pre-engagement makes a product reveal, launch, etc., all the more exciting.”

—GORY Needle, senior marketing manager

6. Trust your audience.

“Longlegs’ minimalist drip marketing is an exercise in restraint. A few lines of glyphs here, a phone number there. It’s straight out of the scream queen playbook: The more that’s left to your imagination, the more horrifying it is.

“But for that to work, you have to trust your audience. That’s not always the easiest thing to accomplish, especially if you’ve been elbow-deep in marketing copy for days or weeks on end. But remember that your audience is made up of real human people, not numbers — the payoff can be tremendous.

—Laura M. DROWNING

Before I start 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’s boss. Getting the language right is essential, and every word counts.

Unlike an email, memos typically go out to your entire department or everyone at the company, so knowing how to format a memo is just as important as what you write. No pressure. (Well, maybe some pressure.)

In this post, I’ll share my experience writing memos, tips from my HubSpot peers, and best practices for using AI throughout the process. From there, I’ll showcase stellar memo examples and a template to help you create your own.

Table of Contents

• Memo Definition, Types, and Parts
• When and How to Write a Memo
• Best Practices for Formatting a Memo
• Memo Examples and Templates

Memos are versatile. 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.

On the other hand, 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.

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.

Types of Memos

When I do have those important updates to share, I like to consider the type of memo I’m writing before I get started. For your reference, here are four of the most common types of memos:

1. Informative Memo

Also known as announcement memos, these make up the bulk of most memos I’ve seen. The goal is to communicate new information to your audience.

Sample use cases: To state changes in policy, company news, and new processes or to welcome new staff members

2. Request Memo

Request memos are designed to make a request and get a positive response. When writing request memos, I’d focus on using persuasive language and include stats or numbers to highlight why a ‘yes’ is the right answer.

Sample use cases: To request a new purchase from your company or to authorize professional learning or volunteer opportunities

3. Confirmation Memo

I think of confirmation memos as a paper trail to make sure key stakeholders have a record of discussions. When writing confirmation memos, specificity and clarity should be your number one goal.

Sample use cases: To document conversations or clarify ambiguity to avoid misunderstanding down the road

4. Directive Memo

If I need to communicate how to do something to my audience, I’d write a directive memo offering detailed instructions that are easy to follow.

Sample use cases: To share how to implement a new process, comply with new requirements, or complete necessary tasks

The main difference between all of these memo types is the purpose behind the writing. However, regardless of purpose, every memo is usually made up of the same component parts.

Parts of a Memo

What are those parts, you ask? Here’s what I include in just about every memo I write: 

• Heading: This section specifies who the memo is to (your audience) and from (you or your department), and it includes the date and a subject to describe what it’s about.
• Introduction: This is your opening paragraph that highlights the purpose of the memo and provides an overview on what the memo is about.
• Background: Here, you want to provide clear, specific context around the problem you’re aiming to solve.
• Recommendations: This is where you’ll list the specific tasks or milestones you plan to complete in order to address the problem you’ve identified.
• Discussion: This is the meat of your memo sandwich — it’s where you’ll justify your recommendations with supporting details that map back to your problem statement.
• Closing: This section creates space for a call to action for your readers. What do you want them to do after reading your memo? State that here.
• Necessary attachments: This is where you can include any supporting documents to back up your research and recommendations.

I’ll show you how I build out each of these elements in our how-to shortly. In the meantime, here’s more on memos from the HubSpot marketing team:

When to Write a Memo

I default to writing a memo when I need to communicate new information in a way that’s more formal than an email.

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.

Onto the how-to.

You can put together a memo in a few short steps, and you can even use AI to help.

To give you an idea of how each step is formatted, I’ll write an example memo, break it down for each step, and include tips for incorporating AI along the way. 

My example memo will be an internal announcement for a writing training session.

1. Start with your heading.

No matter what kind of memo I’m writing, I always include a heading. In this section, I note who the memo is to, who it’s from, the delivery date, and the subject of the memo.

I’d recommend starting off all of your memos with this formatting:

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT:

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

“The headings you use should be descriptive enough that your readers can infer what they’ll get in each section,” suggests Kaitlin Milliken, senior program manager at HubSpot. “Cut the cute language and keep your headings very tactical.”

I always make sure the tone of my subject matches the seriousness of the subject matter and my organization’s communication style. I love a witty opener, but it won’t be right for every memo.

Testing It Out

Here’s how this would look for my example memo about a writing training session:

Simple and to the point.

2. Write your introduction.

Remember, you want your memo to be brief and information-packed. Your introduction should be an efficient use of space. 

Here, I highlight the main issue or problem that your memo aims to resolve along with the intended solution.

“The beginning of any memo should state a clear purpose of what the memo will cover,” says Karla Hesterberg, director of content marketing at HubSpot. “Depending on the subject, this could be as simple as an overview of a statement that establishes the need for a new investment. The more simple and straightforward, the better.”

This is actually 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 to writing memos. I try to remind myself that my introduction should just summarize the purpose of the memo in two to three sentences.

Testing It Out

Using Hesterberg’s tip, here’s how I’d write the introduction for my memo:

You can also use generative AI tools like ChatGPT to help summarize the purpose of your memo. In fact, this is one of my favorite ways to use AI — to condense and recap information.

Here’s an example.

Prompt I used: I’m writing a memo to announce a new training session for writers on my team. The training session is on how to use AI in your writing process without losing the human touch. Write an introduction to summarize this announcement and highlight the importance of this training. Keep the summary brief, around 2-3 sentences, and keep it conversational.

Output:

While I like my original version better, this would be helpful to use as a starting point — especially if I was in a time crunch.

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 the 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. Coleman 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.

Testing It Out

Based on Coleman’s recommendation, here’s how the background I’d include as context for the new training:

Could AI help here? Alana Chinn, Marketing Blog editor at HubSpot, shared her thoughts on using AI in this section:

“Since I have the most context about the situation and impact, I probably wouldn’t use AI in the background section,” she says.

“Tools like ChatGPT probably aren’t going to know which information is the most important to highlight for my audience. But if I did, I’d use AI to organize, summarize, or provide structure around my thoughts.”

Bouncing off of this and following Coleman’s format, I’d suggest outlining the situation, the impact of the situation, and your recommended solutions and asking ChatGPT to summarize those details into a few short paragraphs.

4. Outline action items and timeline.

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.

Of course, if no action is needed on the employee’s behalf, you can leave this section out. But when action is required, here’s what I’m including in this section:

• 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

Pro tip: Whenever I’m developing a timeline, I avoid just creating a paragraph with dates interspersed throughout. It’s harder to read that way.

“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.”

Testing It Out

Here’s a sample table I created to demonstrate.

In terms of using AI for this section, I’d ask my favorite generative AI robot to help me brainstorm appropriate tasks and map action items to a timeline.

Here’s an example.

Prompt I used: Give me 2-3 action items for attendees of a quarterly writing training session that highlights how to use AI tools in writing, and map them to a 6-week timeline.

Output:

I would then take this output, customize it for my team, and add any relevant details based on our internal workflow.

5. Justify your reasoning.

Whenever I have to communicate a request or anything new that could ruffle some feathers, I always try to make my case by offering a rationale as to why it’s 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. For me, 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 a 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.

Testing It Out

To justify the importance of the quarterly writing training session, especially in conjunction with AI tools, I’d add this data point in my memo:

Tools like ChatGPT can also be great for pulling external data to justify your approach or the reasoning behind your memo.

Here’s an example.

Prompt I used: Provide 2-3 data points about the importance of a quarterly writing training on AI tools.

Output:

Big time saver if you let AI do some of the digging for you.

6. Soften any blows.

Sometimes you’re making a big change that could be seen as controversial or making bold statements where people might feel slighted. In instances like these, I like to soften things 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.

Testing It Out

Let’s say my memo took a different position regarding AI for writing. Here’s how I’d format my memo to soften the blow:

AI can also help here if you’re not sure how to mitigate concerns about a particular issue presented in your memo.

Here’s an example.

Prompt I used: Provide language to address concerns that writers may have about using AI in their writing. Note that we have a strict AI policy in place to help guide this new process. Keep it brief, 2-3 sentences.

Output:

Not bad.

7. Communicate urgency.

Any time my memo pitches something new or timely, I make sure I explain why the change is urgent and why it’s important that we move 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 Hesterberg.

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

Testing It Out

Here’s how I’d add urgency to my memo about the training session:

This is relatively straightforward, so I won’t tap AI in for this.

8. Include a closing statement.

When crafting my closing statement I think about the information I really want to reinforce. For example, are there any specific contacts readers should reach out to for questions? If so, I’ll include them here.

“A conclusion that just reiterates your main points is boring and likely to be skipped,” Milliken 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.

Testing It Out

Here’s how I’d wrap up my memo with Milliken’s suggestions in mind:

And from the AI perspective, I’d recommend using a prompt similar to the one we used for the introduction to close things out.

9. 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.

As a writer, I know I 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.”

Testing It Out

I usually ask a coworker to review my memo or use an editing tool like Grammarly or Hemingway to review and proofread.

Here’s an example of Grammarly editing my memo and making suggestions for improvement:

Chinn also says, “I love using AI to proofread my work. As a writer, this is one of the use cases I tap AI for the most. Asking ChatGPT to provide a grammar or tone check, to look for spelling errors or other inconsistencies, or to simplify complex ideas are all quick and easy ways to finalize my content.”

I mean, who says you can’t use AI as your personal peer editor?

10. Create 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 the creative team 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.

Testing It Out

For the sake of time, I won’t create any visuals for my fictional memo.

But another easy way to do this would be to present the memo to your team or relevant stakeholders, record that presentation via Zoom or Microsoft Teams (if remote), and circulate it as a visual learning aid for the future.

Two birds, one stone kind of deal.

Best Practices for Formatting a Memo

Now that you know what types of memos there are, what elements to include in your memo, and how to write one, I have a few overarching formatting best practices for you.

Cater to your audience.

Before you start writing your memo, consider who your audience is. Understanding who will read your memo will help you tailor your message, tone, and CTA for that audience.

Pamela Bump, head of content growth at HubSpot, suggests considering the following questions.

“Are the leaders you’re writing for busy executives who want a quick one-pager focused on the most need-to-know information?” she says. “Or are the readers more inquisitive and interested in soaking in all the information they can get?”

Make it skimmable.

Milliken recalls a time when she wrote a memo that wasn’t skimmable.

“When I was asked to write my first memo, I created a document with huge walls of text,” she says.

“My manager gave me great feedback, encouraging me to use charts and graphs throughout the document. That makes total sense to me now. No one wants to read a huge string of lengthy paragraphs, but they’ll definitely skim a table.”

To make your memo easier to read, use headings and separate paragraphs to break up new thoughts or talking points. You can also add tables and graphs to create a visual break when it makes sense.

Milliken adds, “Bullet points are your friend. They create breaking points throughout your document and keep information easy to digest.”

Be mindful of length.

The length of your memo depends on the type you’re writing. Generally speaking, a memo is one or two paragraphs long. But the length can vary if you’re writing an informative memo versus a request memo.

If your audience is interested in learning, an informative memo can provide more detail, while a request memo should be brief and to the point.

“If you’re unsure, go for a shorter 1-2 page document, but link it to another page or dashboard with further data, context, or information that they can dig into if they choose,” Bump suggests.

Don’t shy away from AI.

Jessica Shee, tech editor & marketing manager at M3datarecovery.com says, “Memo writing can be streamlined by using AI tools like ChatGPT to help with content development, particularly for sections that are routine or involve a lot of data.”

Shee continues, “I would use it to jot down basic concepts, clarify important details, and make sure formal language is understood. AI is also useful for recommending structural changes, enhancing grammar, and proofreading.”

And I agree. AI is a great memo writing tool for time-consuming sections or simple tasks like proofreading and editing. I wouldn’t use it to write an entire memo, and Vaibhav Kamble, CEO at CloudOptimo echoes that sentiment:

“While AI can significantly enhance the efficiency and quality of memo writing, it’s important to remember that human judgment is crucial for adding personal insights and ensuring the memo aligns with organizational goals and values,” Kamble says.

“The combination of AI assistance and human oversight leads to more polished and effective communications.”

Memo Examples

Different industries or situations will require slightly different memos. My memos are going to look a lot different than the memos coming out of a law office, for example.

Pro tip: Certain memos will need to be longer or shorter, others may not have a timeline, and some will have extensive background info. You should always change the format of your memo to fit the message you want your employees to receive.

I pulled together three examples of what that might look like.

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.

Business Memo Template

If you’re writing a business memo, take it from me — HubSpot’s free business memo templates are a fantastic way to help you streamline your work.

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

And here’s another business memo template I use for times when I want to provide a quick write-up — via email, for example.

MEMORANDUM

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT:

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

Let’s walk through the business memo format in more detail.

Business Memo Template Format

The standard 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 you don‘t expect any specific action 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.

Boom. I think I’ve hit all the memo-related points, so I’ll take us home.

Write your memos to the point.

I’d argue 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.

As a content marketer, a website audit is vital to my work.

An analogy I like to use is that optimizing an existing website for search engines without conducting a thorough audit is akin to steering a boat without a rudder.

It’s directionless, at the mercy of the wind and waves (or in this case, algorithm changes).

In this post, I’ll cover what a website audit is, the different types of audits, how to conduct an audit, and ways to use information from an audit to improve your SEO and conversions.

I’ve also spoken with some SEO consultants and specialists who’ve shared actionable tips, which you’ll find interspersed in the article.

Table of Contents

• What is a website audit?
• The Benefits of a Website Audit
• How to Conduct a Website Audit
• Types of Website Audits
• Assessments to Make When Auditing Your Website
• Website Auditing Checklist
• Website Audit Example

Before I dive into the things you should keep an eye out for, let me go through some of the different types of audits you can perform.

Types of Website Audits

Here are a few common audits among marketers.

1. Competitive Website Audit

A competitive website audit tracks your competitors and their online strategies to help you see what opportunities your brand could be missing out on.

Essentially, a competitive audit allows you to see what’s working for other companies in your market so that you can incorporate those tactics into your own strategy.

Start by performing a SWOT analysis on a competitor’s website. In a SWOT analysis, you track the website’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

For example:

• A strength could be that their website is easier to navigate than yours.
• One weakness could be that their website has slower page loading times.
• Opportunities could be items or tools missing from their website that you can add to yours to give you an edge.
• A threat could be that their website ranks higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) than your own, resulting in your site losing leads.

During this audit, also consider the tools and software they are using to streamline their processes. This can help you discover new ways to run your site more efficiently and make it more accessible for consumers.

2. SEO Link Audit

This type of audit processes the links pointing to your website to find potential issues or opportunities in your backlink profile. By evaluating your links, this audit will help optimize your site to rank for your target keywords.

Link audits consider the URL source, domain, and anchor text to see if value and equity (called “link juice”) are being passed on to your page. This will gauge how much a link is helping or hurting your website’s visibility in SERPs.

Links from well-respected websites are much more valuable than links from smaller, less well-known sites.

To perform an SEO link audit, start by gathering all of your link data. You can do this with Google Search Console by entering your domain and then clicking on “Links to Your Site” under “Search Traffic.”

From there, you can download the latest links and create a link audit spreadsheet. Afterward, you manually evaluate your links by paying attention to factors like anchor text, IP address, and page content.

You can also use tools like Ahref’s backlink checker to take the guesswork out of analyzing the value of the links you gathered.

3. Lead Conversion Optimization Audit

A lead conversion optimization audit analyzes a website’s conversion issues and opportunities. In this audit, you’ll need to analyze how traffic is coming to your website and where it’s coming from.

Google Analytics is an excellent tool for this step. Knowing where your traffic is coming from will help you better understand your audience’s behavior and will help you optimize your site’s content to suit their needs.

Speaking of content, you’ll also need to analyze the content on your website. Make sure the content is helpful, informative, and up-to-date.

Is the latest information about your business uploaded to the site and easily visible? Does your content contain keywords and phrases to boost its ranking in SERPs?

Outdated or irrelevant content can hurt conversions and hurt your SERPs ranking.

Other aspects of your website you need to observe are:

• Forms. Do your forms collect enough information to contact a lead?
• Checkout process. If you notice a lot of shopping cart abandonment, customers are likely having issues with the checkout process on your website.
• Design and layout. Are CTAs clear and visible? Is the copy too small and difficult to read? Is the website easy to navigate?
• Overall user experience. Are there any sources of frustration for visitors to your site?

Pro tip: Veruska Anconitano, an international expansion consultant, recommends the following: “Use behavior flow reports in Google Analytics to find drop-off points. To identify this, look at where users exit most frequently in the flow or where they loop back to a previous page.

Once you’ve found these areas, adjust your CTAs, page design, or content to reduce friction. For example, if users often drop off from a product page, consider simplifying the checkout process or adding more trust signals like reviews or guarantees to keep them engaged.

This approach tackles both SEO and conversion by refining the user experience at critical stages.”

4. Social Media Audit

Your brand’s online performance can also be impacted by social media. If your social media presence isn’t pushing more traffic to your website, then it’s time to conduct a social media audit.

To start the audit, create a list of all your company’s social media accounts. Do some extra digging to make sure you don’t miss any you’re not aware of, such as accounts started by other departments.

From there, go through each account to determine if they’re all consistent with the company’s branding — using the same images, logo, tone of voice, etc.

Then, you’ll need to evaluate each page’s performance. What kind of content performs the highest, and which content type performs the lowest? Are these pages being updated frequently?

Finally, use information from the evaluation to better understand your audience and optimize your social media to engage them. You’ll then be able to update your social media strategy to further delight your audience, more effectively attracting them to your website.

5. SEO Website Audit

While an SEO link audit analyzes the links associated with your website, an SEO website audit evaluates all the factors that can impact your site’s performance in SERPs. This includes links but also extends to other aspects such as keyword usage, content, metadata, page speed, user journey, and video optimization.

It‘s possible to conduct an SEO audit on your own, but you’ll likely get more thorough answers in less time by employing an agency.

To perform one by yourself, I would start by understanding the purpose of the audit. Next, crawl and analyze your website using software. Here are some tools to choose from when conducting an SEO site audit (you can mix and match based on your needs):

• Google Search Console (free)
• HubSpot’s website grader (free)
• Ahrefs (paid with certain free tools)
• Semrush (paid but can avail a free trial, also comes with certain free tools)
• SE Ranking’s website audit (paid but can avail a free trial and is more affordable, also comes with allied free tools)
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider (limited free use)

Next, assess:

• Technical SEO. This includes insights on crawling, indexing, security, page speed, Core web vitals, site hierarchy, among others.
• On-page SEO. This includes content (review keywords targeted, content quality/depth, search intent, heading structure, images, videos, CTAs) and user experience.
• Off-page SEO. This includes backlinks, domain authority, and local SEO.

Pro tip: If this is your first site audit, I recommend you start with a free tool (or a free trial of a paid tool) along with Google Search Console to get your feet wet and keep expenses low.

6. Data Privacy Audit

A data privacy audit verifies that you’re following applicable data privacy laws and ensures you’re creating a safe space for website visitors. Search engines look for privacy-related pages when determining whether a website is high-authority.

For example, Google’s primary goal is to serve the best and most trustworthy content to users from reputable sources. Sites that comply with data privacy requirements will most likely be viewed as more authoritative than those that don’t have these essential legal policies.

To conduct a data privacy audit, determine what personal information your site collects from visitors, identify the laws you must follow, list all cookies your site uses, and create and publish website policies to meet legal requirements.

Most websites need a:

• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy
• Consent Banner
• Terms and Conditions Agreement

While you can create these on your own, it’s much easier and more efficient to use managed solutions, like a privacy policy generator.

To take the guesswork and hassles out of privacy compliance, use a reputable generator vetted by a legal team and data privacy experts.

It should also include clauses that meet compliance requirements outlined by the most common data privacy laws.

Now that I’ve covered a few different audits you can conduct to improve your website, let’s discuss the perks of an audit.

1. You can compare your website to your competitors.

Conducting a website audit will allow you to compare your website to your competitors. You can analyze how well you’re ranking against competitors for keywords and determine potential new sources of revenue.

You can use tools, like HubSpot’s Website Grader, to perform an audit on your competitor’s websites to gather more insights. You can learn how your competitors are attracting visitors and see how they’re garnering conversions.

Ultimately, this will help you brainstorm new tactics and strategies for your site.

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2. You can improve your SEO.

With a website audit, you will be able to identify any missed SEO opportunities and remedy any misguided or poorly executed SEO pitfalls (e.g., keyword stuffing, exact match anchor text links, etc.) throughout the content of your website.

An audit will also allow you to refocus your SEO efforts on users first and search engines second. This will safeguard you from constantly chasing changes to search ranking algorithms, meaning you won’t be applying misguided practices just to show up at the top of the SERPs.

Pro tip: One great tool that can help keep your SEO details organized is HubSpot’s free On-Page SEO Template.

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3. You’ll optimize conversion rates.

Website audits also enable you to re-evaluate the effectiveness of your website in terms of lead generation and conversion.

As a result, you’ll be able to spot any previously overlooked opportunities to convert visitors into leads by adding relevant CTAs, as well as identify deficiencies in your landing pages so you can optimize them to boost conversions.

Pro tip: Learn more about CTA selection to optimize the CTAs on your website.

4. You can optimize your website performance.

Website audits usually evaluate a site for its content and technical performance.

As a result, an audit will give you a chance to inspect the robustness of your website’s technical framework and infrastructure.

It will also evaluate how friendly your website is to search engines and determine how easy it is for users to navigate your website to find the content they are looking for.

5. You can identify issues early.

Finally, a website audit finds issues that are hurting your SEO and conversions such as broken links, hidden content, and long page load speed times. Identifying these issues will help you address problems that are diverting traffic.

Assessing both the content and technical aspects of your website will open up opportunities to drastically improve the traffic and conversions your website generates.

Now that I’ve gone over what a website audit is and why you should do one, let’s look at how to conduct one.

1. Run the website URL through a site audit tool.

I’d start with a website auditing tool to help analyze how my site is performing. This can help test various important facets of a site and then provide specific recommendations.

2. Find technical errors.

Technical errors like ones related to performance, SEO, mobile, and security, can negatively impact a customers‘ experience on your website. If I notice visitors aren’t staying on a site for long, or I see a lot of abandoned shopping carts — a website audit is a great way to find out why.

3. Analyze design and UX.

How is the website design working for visitors and customers? Some software have heatmaps showing what parts of a site design draw the most attention. This type of analysis helps communicate how the overall design and user experience impact visitors.

Pro tip: Raquel González, SEO consultant and CEO/Founder at MintyConnect, recommends doing some hands-on work too: “While auditing tools are valuable, they may overlook critical UX elements. Complement their analysis by personally navigating the entire website. This hands-on approach reveals non-functional elements and user journey issues that automated tools might miss, ensuring a more thorough site evaluation.”

4. Assess website content.

An audit also helps me evaluate website content such as blogs, landing pages, product/service pages, among others.

During an audit, I’d want to know how the current pages are stacking up, identify areas of improvement, and ensure that the content targets readers at every stage of the buyer’s journey.

Going deeper, I’d also look at meta descriptions and review image alt text. Additionally, I’d ask: “Is my content ranking well in search engines?” and “Is my on-page SEO and performance aligned with my traffic numbers?”

5. Create a website audit report.

Creating a website audit report that clearly communicates the site issues found (and what to do about them) is an easy job when you have the right tools.

There are a number of choices available, and HubSpot’s Website Grader is one of the most user-friendly. It quickly and automatically generates a report after entering the web address you want to have crawled along with an email address.

For those with more technical experience, Semrsh’s Site Audit Tool is a very thorough reporting option, but getting started for free does require jumping through a few hoops.

You would need to create an account, answer some questions about yourself, and choose to skip a trial in order to create the free audit report.

Their in-depth report can look overwhelming unless you’re coming to the game with some technical chops.

Whichever reporting product you choose, it should provide a clear display of important website categories — such as SEO performance and the effectiveness of your security measures — and then list the individual issues along with recommended fixes.

Having a full website audit report in your hands enables you to start making improvements yourself or to efficiently send the information to the appropriate teams within your organization.

Pro tip: Preeti Gupta, B2B SaaS SEO consultant and founder of Packted, shares the following advice: “When presenting an audit report, I find it important to prioritize the recommendations based on the input you collected. I do this as simply as assigning priority to each task based on the resources it will take, the impact it will have, and more.”

Assessments to Make When Auditing Your Website

First, go ahead and enter your website into HubSpot’s Website Grader — this will give you a general overview of your website’s strengths so you can gauge your focus on each of the assessments that follow in this article.

Check out HubSpot’s Website Grader

How’d you do? Got an idea of which website audit benefits you need the most? Here we go!

1. Website Performance Assessment

In the first part of your website audit, I’d focus on how users navigate your website — from your homepage to blog posts, to landing pages, and any related content in between.

Make a list of the pages on your website and ask yourself the following questions to evaluate them for optimization opportunities:

Is your website optimized for maximum usability?

The more visitors you can attract to your website, the more opportunities you’ll have to generate leads and, ultimately, customers. But only if your website performs well.

Just having a website does not guarantee results. As part of determining the overall efficiency of your website, your audit should check to make sure your site is designed with your visitors in mind.

The design and overall navigability of your website should correspond with what a person would come to the site to seek out, such as more information on a business-related topic, resources, product/pricing information, testimonials, etc. This will largely depend on your individual business.

The main goal here is to make it easy for people to get the information they‘re looking for. As a result, you’ll likely see conversion rates improve on their own.

To audit your website for usability, consider the following questions:

• Are all the main value propositions of our business easily accessible via our main navigations/menu items?
• Do we have a simple yet intuitive website design and page layout? Make sure pages aren’t too cluttered; littered with ads, CTAs, or links; or void of internal links altogether.
• Are your conversion paths and/or shopping cart or checkout processes intuitive? Are there a ton of distractions along the way that could be creating friction for your site visitors?

Consider doing some user testing with members of your target audience to ensure you‘re effectively surfacing the content they’re looking for and that they find it easy to navigate to the parts of your website they’re interested in.

How is your website’s overall speed?

Are there excessive page sizes or long page load and server response times? Does your site go down frequently? Site speed can be impacted when image files are too large or HTML and CSS needs to be cleaned up.

Ultimately, fast-loading and optimized pages will lead to higher visitor engagement, retention, and conversions. To quickly check a web page’s load time, download MozBar, a toolbar by Moz that you can attach to your browser for simple page analysis every time you visit a website.

2. SEO Assessment

Optimizing the performance of your website is crucial to holding onto visitors, but the above questions aren’t the only ones I’d be asking.

It’s also crucial to audit the content you‘re publishing to ensure it’s actually solving your visitors’ problems.

Is your website content high quality?

As you evaluate your content for quality, think about it from your target audience’s perspective:

• Did this information leave me satisfied?
• Did it answer all of my questions?
• Does it give me all the resources relevant to this topic?
• Do I know what to do next?

Keep in mind quality content should appeal to the interests, needs, and problems of your buyer personas. Present them with interesting and well-written content. Always aim to leave the reader with immediately actionable next steps such as calls-to-action or links to resources.

Is your website search engine optimized?

Make sure all your web pages are following on-page SEO best practices. To audit your content for on-page SEO, conduct a keyword analysis in which you do the following:

• Consult your analytics to review keyword performance. Which keywords are giving you the biggest gains in traffic and leads?
• Assess how well you’re factoring keyword performance into your content strategy. How much relevant content are you adding to your website to target those keywords?
• Review basic on-page SEO elements like URLs, page titles, meta descriptions, and copy. Make sure keywords are included where relevant.

Pro tip: To help you conduct an on-page SEO audit of your content, check out this blog. You can also download our free On-Page SEO template.

3. Conversion Rate Assessment

While high-quality, search-engine-optimized content is a great way to boost your traffic numbers, it’s what happens once those visitors are on your website that really counts.

This is where optimized calls-to-action (CTAs), marketing offers, and landing pages play a major role in the performance of your website.

Not only do they offer you opportunities to capture visitors’ information so you can follow up with leads, but they also keep your visitors engaged with your content and your brand.

To audit your website for maximum conversion potential, I’d ask the following questions:

• How many marketing offers do I have in my content arsenal to gate behind landing pages?
• Do I have a variety of marketing offers that appeal to all my different buyer personas?
• Do I have any landing pages/conversion forms on my website to begin with?
• How optimized are those landing pages?
• Do I have conversion opportunities for visitors in varying stages of the funnel?
• Am I using CTAs effectively? Am I missing opportunities to include CTAs on various pages of my website?

Pro tip: Erica Ylimäki, growth marketer at Trustmary, recommends the following: “Check for bulk optimization options for conversions … Some examples include aiming for a simpler conversion (such as getting visitors to sign up to a newsletter instead of getting them to register to your software) or trying out a new CTA placement (exit intent popups, above the fold, below the fold). In our case, adding a hero CTA to blog posts has been especially effective.”

4. Technical Assessment

Once you‘ve addressed the three primary goals of a website audit, it’s time to loop in a developer or someone from your IT department for a technical evaluation. You could also hire an outside agency — just be sure to do your homework first.

Keep in mind that there may be some carry-over from the three assessments above — website performance, SEO, and conversion rate. The technical evaluation, however, addresses all three to maximize the user experience (UX).

Here’s what I’d be looking for in the technical assessment stage of your website audit.

Is your website design responsive?

Does your website have a responsive design? Meaning, is it a mobile-friendly website?

Smartphone usage worldwide has grown exponentially, and it’s important for websites to be compatible with the rising demand.

Is your website error message free?

Are response code errors popping up all over your website where there shouldn’t be any? Calling out 302-, 404-, and 500-level response codes can be useful to tell users that something’s wrong.

However, having this happen is also an indication that someone isn’t cleaning up broken links and, as a result, leading users to dead ends. Find those error messages and clean up your broken links.

Are your website URLs optimized?

Does your site have URLs of excessive length due to keyword stuffing? Do they contain session IDs and/or include tons of dynamic parameters? In some cases, these URLs are difficult for search engines to index, resulting in lower clickthrough rates from search results.

Does your website have too much Flash or JavaScript?

Identify areas of your navigation that are entirely Flash or JavaScript. Search engines have challenges with reading and accessing these, which could prevent your site from getting indexed.

These elements also present problems from a usability perspective. Visitors are often looking for a very specific piece of information when visiting your site. If they have to sit through a 10-second visual introduction before they can find your hours of operation, you’re going to have a pretty frustrated visitor on your hands.

Is your site structure optimized for search engines?

We already talked about site structure as it relates to accessing content and usability for users, but it’s also important to make sure your site structure is optimal for search engines. If pages on your site are not internally linked to other pages on your site, those pages are less likely to be indexed.

Are you defining how your web pages are crawled and indexed by search engines?

This can be done through various methods that include everything from robots.txt files to sitemaps. These tools help you guide search engines toward your website’s most useful content.

Robots Meta Tags or robots.txt Files

The robots meta tag lets you use a granular, page-specific approach to controlling how an individual page should be indexed and served to users in search results. These tags should sit in the <head> section of a given page.

The robots.txt file, on the other hand, is a text file that allows you to specify how you would like your site to be crawled. Before crawling a website, search engine crawlers will generally request the robots.txt file from a server.

Within the robots.txt file, you can include sections for specific (or all) crawlers with instructions (“directives”) that let them know which parts should or should not be crawled.

Public and XML Sitemaps

Your website should also have public and XML sitemap files. The public sitemap is one that users can access to review the pages of your site, like the index of a book.

The XML sitemap is for search engines to review pages that get added to your site, all in one place. The usual location of a sitemap.xml file is www.domainname.com/sitemap.xml.

The XML sitemap is something every website should have. It offers an opportunity to tell Google and the other search engines which pages on your site you want to be crawled and indexed.

While search engines don’t guarantee they will abide by your sitemap, anecdotal evidence has proven time and time again that XML sitemaps help provide insurance that your pages are found, and found faster — especially if your sitemap(s) dynamically update your new web pages.

Are you defining the canonicalization of content?

The canonicalization of your website content is your final major technical consideration. To gain more control over how your URLs appear in search results — and to minimize issues related to duplicate content — you need to pick a canonical (preferred) URL as the preferred version of the page.

You can indicate your preference to Google in a number of ways. One such way is to insert the canonical tag (rel=“canonical”) in an HTTP header of a page.

Be sure to have someone check that the canonical tag is properly implemented across the site by making sure it points to the correct page, and that every page doesn’t point to the homepage.

Website Auditing Checklist

Before getting started, I’d use this basic website auditing checklist to review certain necessary elements of a site’s performance.

Website Audit Example

To pull all this together, I decided to run a website audit on one of my favorite bloggers, Christina Galbato.

Take a look at the image below. This website is performing well. SEO and mobile are scoring very high. The main areas for improvement for this site would be performance and security.

But, “What does this mean?” Well, let me dive in a little deeper. In each section, the website grader lets me know what I’m (or in this case Christina) is doing well and what could be improved upon.

Then, the grader gives recommendations to improve the site overall.

Next, there’s a table that helps compare the current site to the recommendations.

Wrapping up the Website Audit

At the beginning of the auditing process, I asked the important questions: “How am I doing?” and “How does my website compare to those of my competitors?”

Now, as I complete the audit, I’ll know the answers to those questions — and I’ll have actionable steps to improve my website, thus making it more competitive.

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

Good marketing is always about the customers, period. That’s the most important lesson I’ve learned from all my wins and losses as a marketer.

To launch successful marketing campaigns, you must know every detail about your audience — their goals, aspirations, pain points, and more. And building buyer personas is a good place to start.

I brainstormed with the team and curated 40 buyer persona interview questions to survey your audience and create accurate personas.

Once you have the data, use our free buyer persona template to share your findings with the rest of your company.

Table of Contents

• Why conduct buyer persona interviews?
• 3 Key Benefits of User Persona Surveys & Interviews
• 40 Best Buyer Persona Questions

Why conduct buyer persona interviews?

A buyer persona (or user persona) is a fictionalized representation of your target customer. It essentially gives you an overview of your buyers’ preferences, pain points, motivations, and more.

But even though buyer personas are fictional, you need real-life data to base each persona on. It has to represent your actual customers’ needs and aspirations accurately. That’s where buyer persona interviews and surveys will help you collect data to design these personas.

I use buyer persona surveys and questionnaires to gauge my audience’s needs.

My ideal starting point is choosing a sample group from my customer base. I’ll then share the survey with these participants to comprehensively understand their goals, challenges, jobs to be done, and more.

If you lack the resources to conduct a survey, I recommend using a market research platform like Qualtrics to conduct panels and interviews with your chosen participants.

Once you’ve decided whom you’re going to survey, you can pick specific questions to collect data related to:

• Demographics such as their age, education, occupation, and income.
• Psychographics such as their habits, beliefs, behaviors, and preferences (like shopping preferences).

This information can benefit businesses and brands looking to convert leads, personalize the customer experience, and improve their bottom line.

Here’s a buyer persona example to show how it works. I created this using HubSpot’s free Make My Persona tool.

3 Key Benefits of User Persona Surveys & Interviews

Buyer personas eliminate guesswork from your marketing strategy. These personas tell you the exact problems and aspirations of your target audience.

As a result, you can make data-driven decisions and launch campaigns tailored to your customers’ preferences. I rely heavily on buyer persona surveys to get a pulse of my audience and design accurate personas.

Here are some benefits I’ve experienced from asking the right persona questions.

1. I captured more high-quality leads.

Knowing your customers’ typical challenges and needs helps create campaigns that truly appeal to them. By discovering your target audience’s habits and challenges through persona interviews, you can accurately tailor your sales and marketing campaigns to the users most likely to buy from you.

2. I personalized the customer experience.

Personalizing the customer experience is one of the best ways to stay top-of-mind for potential customers and win their business.

Customers will be more likely to buy from you if they feel like you’re speaking directly to them. You can know them better through persona interviews and recognize their concerns. As a result, it becomes easier to create personalized messaging and connect with them at a deeper level.

3. I improved my bottom line.

Buyer personas can significantly improve your bottom line by maximizing lead generation and driving conversions. These personas will also inform your strategy to deliver a positive and targeted customer experience.

The result? Higher customer retention and brand loyalty.

Pro tip: Build a laser-focused content marketing strategy to generate top-of-funnel interest in your brand. Check out the free content marketing training resources in the HubSpot Academy to build your content strategy today.

Download our free buyer persona template here to learn how to create buyer personas for your business.

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Questions About Their Personal Background

Knowing your buyers’ backgrounds gives you crucial insights into their interests, upbringing, communication style, and other preferences.

In my experience, understanding personal background gives you some much-needed cultural context to positively influence your target buyers.

This is your opportunity to ask buyer persona interview questions related to their education and work experiences, demographics, and personal interests.

Here are some questions I include about buyers’ personal interests:

1. What is your educational background?
2. Share how your career path led you to your current role.
3. Where are you located? How does that influence your work?
4. What is your preferred style of communication?

Questions About Their Company

I always collect information about the company where my target buyers work.

This can include data about the company size, business goals, and challenges faced. This data gives me specific insights to tailor my communication for each buyer based on their work environment.

Besides, when you know the necessary details about your persona’s company, like the number of employees, you can quickly outline the fields for your landing page forms.

Here are some questions I include about the buyers’ company:

5. What industry does your company operate in?
6. How big is your company in terms of revenue and number of employees?
7. What are the primary goals your company is trying to achieve this year?
8. What are the major challenges your company faces in the current market?

Questions About Their Role

The importance of your buyer persona‘s job depends on the product or service you’re selling.

If you‘re a B2C company, you may simply consider this information as another way to better understand the nuances of your persona’s life.

If you’re a B2B company, this information becomes more crucial. Think about the many moving parts for a B2B buyer — are your personas working at a managerial or director level, and are they well-versed in the intricacies of this industry?

Experienced buyers will need less education than someone at an introductory level, who may need to loop in other decision-makers before making purchasing decisions.

Here are some questions I include about buyers’ roles:

9. What is your job title, and how long have you been in this position?
10. What are your primary responsibilities?
11. What does a typical day look like in this role?
12. What knowledge and tools do you use in your job?
13. What are the biggest challenges you face in your day-to-day work?

Pro tip: Try to make these persona interview questions as close-ended as possible. This will bring more objectivity in your buyer personas, and you can quote specific data points about each persona’s role.

Questions About Buyer Goals

Identifying buyers’ goals and motivations is important to define specific outcomes for your messaging. I use this data to identify the key benefits to emphasize for each type of buyer.

You should know what success looks like for your buyers. Understanding their notions of success will help you position your product/service as a more relevant offering. Besides, knowing how buyers measure success will help you demonstrate the specific value they’re looking for.

Here are some questions I include about buyers’ goals:

14. What are your main objectives when considering a product or service like ours?
15. How does your team or company define success for purchases like this?
16. What would make you a champion for the product internally?
17. Are there specific KPIs you need to meet with this purchase?
18. How do you measure success in your role specifically?

Questions About How Buyers Learn

If you’re going to market and sell to these personas, you need to understand how they consume information.

I typically start by collecting information about their required upskilling at work. You can also explore their preferred learning formats, like detailed reports, blog posts, short videos, and podcasts. Ask relevant questions to identify their trusted learning sources, whether it’s industry experts or research platforms.

Your goal should be to understand their learning style entirely. Here are some questions I include about buyers’ buying journey:

19. What type of content or resources do you prefer to learn more about a concept?
20. Where do you typically find information to help you make buying decisions?
21. What publications and thought leaders do you follow for industry insights?
22. Do you attend any industry events or conferences for learning?
23. Which communities and social networks do you participate in?

Pro tip: I recommend doing independent research to learn how your target buyers learn before framing these questions. You can identify and explore the most popular resources and communities for your buyers. This way, you can skip the obvious questions and focus on collecting more meaningful information.

Questions About Their Shopping Preferences

You should understand your buyers’ evaluation process when making a purchase.

Before buying a product, you need to get a behind-the-scenes look at their analysis. Ask about the avenues they use to find information, such as online searches, review websites, network recommendations, and more.

If you can anticipate the objections your persona will have, you can be prepared for them in the sales process. You will also be able to educate them in your marketing collateral to help allay fears right away.

Here are some questions I include about buyers’ shopping preferences:

24. Describe a recent purchase from start to finish.
25. How do you typically find, research, and evaluate vendors or products?
26. What factors are most important when making a purchase decision?
27. How do you prefer to interact with potential vendors?
28. What makes you trust a brand enough to purchase from them?

Questions About Values

Your buyers’ values are central to purchasing decisions. You can stand out among sellers by showcasing your commitment to the core values your buyers believe in. I’ve observed how this value alignment can also win buyers’ trust in the long term and build loyalty.

Here are some questions I include about buyers’ values:

29. What values or ethics guide your buying decisions?
30. What would make you loyal to a brand over time?
31. How important is it that a company aligns with your values?
32. Are there social or environmental issues that you prioritize when choosing products?

Questions About Pains and Challenges

Buyers’ pain points are a critical part of your personas. When you know their problems and challenges, you can offer specific solutions that resonate with them. It makes your pitch unique and shows you’ve done your homework.

Plus, it’s good to understand the solutions they’ve tried in the past, but they didn’t work. You can empathize with them and present your offering as a better alternative to eliminate all frustrations.

Here are some questions I include about buyers’ pain points:

33. What are the biggest challenges or pain points you face in your role?
34. How are these challenges affecting your ability to meet your goals?
35. Have you tried solutions in the past that didn’t work? What were they lacking?
36. What would solving these challenges mean for your business or role?

Questions About Their Environment

A buyer’s environment typically involves their work setup and the industry they operate in.

Knowing these details makes it easier to identify their priorities and fit your offering in their preferred context. For example, remote workers will focus on greater collaboration, while in-person employees may need better equipment.

I always include some of these persona interview questions to understand market trends and shifts in my buyers’ space.

Here are some questions I include about buyers’ environments:

37. How does your work environment impact your buying decisions?
38. How does your company adapt to shifts in the market or industry?
39. Are there any market trends or external factors influencing your company’s strategy?
40. What tools or technology do you currently use? Are there any limitations impacting your performance?

Pick the right buyer persona interview questions.

Building buyer personas can help you create a customer-first marketing strategy and tailor your messaging to their goals and aspirations. I use buyer personas to prepare the groundwork for every campaign I launch.

After creating dozens of buyer persona surveys and interviews, I’ve handpicked these buyer persona interview questions. Use these to survey a small sample of your target audience and collect crucial data to define your buyer personas.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

B2B ecommerce is a thriving industry. Growing at a rate of over 10% each year, B2B ecommerce will generate over $3 billion in sales by 2027.

However, no matter how familiar you are with B2C (business-to-consumer) ecommerce, selling to businesses is an entirely different beast.

I wanted to find out how exactly B2B ecommerce strategies differ from B2C ones, the different types of B2B ecommerce channels, and how to successfully market a B2B business, so I talked to the people who know it best.

Here’s how to get your B2B ecommerce strategy right, according to industry experts.

Table of Contents

• What is B2B ecommerce?
• Types of B2B Ecommerce
• B2B Ecommerce vs. B2C Ecommerce
• 3 Top B2B Ecommerce Marketing Strategies
• B2B Ecommerce Examples

B2B Ecommerce vs. B2C Ecommerce

There’s more than just a single-letter difference between B2B and B2C ecommerce. Everything from sales to customer acquisition to ecommerce trends is different when you’re selling to businesses online.

To better understand how B2B ecommerce differs — and can be more challenging — I spoke to a few experts.

Buying Cycle

For starters, the B2B ecommerce buying cycle is much longer than B2C.

Steve Hutt, the founder of eCommerceFastlane, suggests the process can stretch anywhere from three to nine months, depending on the industry. There are several reasons for this.

For one, B2B ecommerce involves multiple decision-makers. Even if you’re only in contact with one person, they need to get buy-in from their team.

Instead of selling to a single customer with a single need, you’re essentially selling to a team of people who may have multiple challenges to address. The approval process can take time on their end, which means B2B sellers also need to be flexible.

“This extended timeline requires patience and a strategic approach to nurturing leads,” says Hutt.

Order Value

Another key difference is the average order value (AOV). When you’re dealing with higher-priced goods or services or bulk orders through wholesale, each sale carries more weight. Where sales volume might be the goal in B2C ecommerce, order value is prioritized in B2B ecommerce sales.

“According to recent industry data, the average B2B order value sits at $491, compared to the average B2C order of $147,” explains Hutt. “This higher value reflects the bulk purchasing common in B2B transactions and underscores the importance of each sale.”

Pricing

Similarly, pricing is also a major difference between B2B ecommerce and B2C. B2C customers typically expect a straightforward, fixed price on whatever they’re purchasing, whereas B2B pricing structures are more fluid, suggests Gianluca Ferruggia, the general manager at online B2B marketplace DesignRush.

“We’re often adjusting prices based on volume, specific contract terms, or ongoing negotiations,” says Ferruggia. “This makes transparent pricing a real challenge, and is a stark difference from the B2C world.”

Onboarding Process

Another difference I heard from ecommerce experts is the onboarding process. B2B products often have greater technical complexity, which leads to longer onboarding processes.

“In some industries, this can extend up to three months,” says Hutt. “However, this complexity also allows businesses to showcase their expertise and provide value through comprehensive support.”

Customer Retention

Customer retention also tends to be higher for B2B companies compared to B2C. When you consider how long the sales and onboarding processes are, not to mention the AOV being higher, it makes sense that customers invest longer.

“This higher retention rate emphasizes the long-term nature of B2B relationships,” says Hutt.

Data from SaaS Capital found that B2B SaaS companies have a median gross retention rate of 91%. Another report found that B2B industries like manufacturing have a 67% customer retention rate.

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Before you can venture into B2B digital commerce, it’s important to understand how the industry is broken down. There are several types of B2B ecommerce channels. I want to highlight the most common types here.

1. Wholesale

B2B wholesale is a model where businesses sell goods or services in bulk to other businesses. Wholesale prices are typically offered at a discount for bulk purchases.

The goods are then sold to consumers at retail price for a profit. Businesses can sell wholesale from their own ecommerce site or use a B2B marketplace like Alibaba or Amazon Business.

2. Manufacturers

Manufacturers are businesses that create goods and products from raw materials, usually at their own factory or warehouse.

Manufacturers can sell directly to customers or work with a partner, like a distributor, to help them sell their products.

3. Distributors

Distributors work with manufacturers to sell the manufactured product to customers. Distributors use ecommerce marketing channels to promote the manufacturer’s goods in an effort to increase sales.

4. B2B Marketplace

B2B marketplaces are a growing (and thriving) sector of B2B ecommerce.

These marketplaces are online platforms that allow businesses to sell to each other. Think of them as retail platforms designed just for businesses rather than consumers.

According to Statista, Amazon Business and Alibaba are leading platforms among generalist B2B marketplaces. There are also specialized B2B marketplaces, such as DesignRush, which connects service providers with companies.

5. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is another popular type of B2B ecommerce. This business model involves companies paying a fee, either monthly or annually, to another company for access to the latter’s software.

Companies like HubSpot, Microsoft, and Dropbox are just a few examples of B2B SaaS platforms.

3 Top B2B Ecommerce Marketing Strategies

If you’re in the B2B digital commerce space and curious about how to improve your marketing, I asked the experts for their top ecommerce marketing strategies for B2B companies.

Strategy #1: Email Nurture Campaigns

As I mentioned earlier, the B2B sales cycle is much longer than the typical B2C process. Sellers must be actively engaged with prospects throughout the cycle if they want to stay on their radar.

This is where email nurture campaigns can be beneficial.

Tools like Opensend and Retention can help you identify potential customers after they’ve visited your website, i.e., when buyers are in their research phase, and target them with personalized outreach.

“Once we identify these potential leads, we initiate a personalized ‘Thanks for visiting’ campaign,” says Hutt. “We integrate the newly discovered email addresses into our email service provider (ESP), like Klaviyo, to start nurturing campaigns. This approach helps maintain brand visibility throughout the longer B2B sales cycle.”

Strategy #2: Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Account-based marketing (ABM) has also gained a lot of traction in B2B ecommerce, and for a good reason.

Personalization in sales is more important than ever, especially when 75% of B2B buyers prefer a self-service experience over working directly with a sales rep.

This means that when you do have an opportunity to meet with a prospect, your pitch must be tailored to their business needs to make the most of their time.

B2B sellers must show their commitment by regularly engaging with customers, offering tailored insights, adapting to their evolving needs, and giving buyers personalized marketing content that speaks to their pain points.

Being proactive with your marketing fosters loyalty and creates opportunities to add value to the relationship.

“For high-value accounts, ABM is a great way to provide value through a personalized content cadence that speaks directly to each stakeholder’s unique challenges,” says Belinda Conde, head of marketing at Datos, a Semrush Company.

“One thing I’ve found especially important in B2B is focusing on problem-solving rather than feature-selling. It’s about providing value first — helping your audience tackle their pain points before you even ask for anything in return.”

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Strategy #3: Educational Content

I heard from a lot of experts that educational, hyper-relevant content is essential for any B2B ecommerce marketing strategy.

A B2B buyer wants to see evidence such as case studies, ROI calculators, and industry-specific guides. They want proof that your solution doesn’t just sound good but works in practice and for businesses like theirs, shares Paul Drecksler, an ecommerce expert and the founder of Shopifreaks.

“B2B ecommerce marketing is about meeting [customers] where they are and saying, ‘We get your world, and here’s exactly how we fit into it,’” he says.

Drecksler shares one marketing campaign that stuck out to him. “I remember one campaign that focused on segmented landing pages with tailored messaging for each industry,” he recalls.

“Each page had its own set of statistics, examples, and testimonials specific to that sector — whether it was healthcare, finance, or logistics — and each vertical got a narrative that showed an understanding of their unique challenges and priorities.”

B2B Ecommerce Examples

If you’re looking for inspiration for your ecommerce business, I’ve collected a few B2B ecommerce examples that I found helpful.

In my opinion, these companies showcase how to tailor content, landing pages, and user experience to a B2B buyer in an impactful way.

Microsoft

Microsoft showcases its use cases for different industries by creating industry-specific landing pages. They outline their solutions for healthcare, education, finance, and more.

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What I like most is the way Microsoft markets its AI solutions. They have a section on their website that is tailored to business leaders.

I like that this campaign speaks to a specific buyer and breaks down the AI use cases that business leaders seek, like boosting productivity, optimizing efficiency, and driving more value across the business.

Faire

Faire is a B2B wholesale platform that connects independent retailers and brands. Even though I’m neither a retailer nor do I sell products, I’ve been a longtime fan of the Faire platform. I personally love its branding and messaging.

To me, it’s clear Faire knows its target market and tailors everything from its imagery to its copy to that customer.

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I especially like how the website is organized. Wholesale customers can browse different products by categories, bestsellers, or even based on the values that align with their brand.

Grainger

Grainger is a leading distributor of industrial supplies and equipment. The business operates retail stores and an ecommerce site for businesses of all sizes to shop for the tools and parts they need for a job.

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My favorite part about Grainger’s ecommerce experience is the bulk order process. The simple feature is straightforward and mimics an order pad you’d see a salesperson use in-store. Buyers can easily browse the product catalog, add the item numbers and quantities to their bulk orders, and make their purchases.

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Shopify

Shopify regularly shares educational content for sellers across its blog and social media. This marketing content showcases Shopify’s deep industry knowledge and how its specific features can help businesses improve their sales.

For example, this LinkedIn carousel from Shopify breaks down three platform features that Shopify merchants can use to optimize their shipping strategy during Black Friday shopping.

This speaks to one of their customer’s pain points — keeping up with the influx of sales during the holiday season — and showcases how Shopify can help.

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Check out HubSpot’s Commerce Software to launch your B2B ecommerce business online.

What I Learned About B2B Ecommerce

While I initially began this article thinking B2B ecommerce was wildly different from B2C ecommerce, I learned that they have a lot in common.

B2B ecommerce is built off of the same principles as any other ecommerce — selling products or services — but the channels, processes, pricing, and marketing strategies are different.

Like consumer ecommerce, it’s critical to understand your audience when you’re in the B2B ecommerce space. When you understand their pain points, perceived value, and what they’re looking for in a partner, you can optimize your ecommerce experience to suit their needs.

On a recent Marketing Against the Grain podcast episode, HubSpot founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah sat down with hosts Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan to discuss the rise of AI agents.

When I heard the term “AI agents,” I thought of little robots sneaking around like spies, completing tasks for marketers.

Obviously, that‘s not completely true (they don’t wear suits), but they are very helpful to marketers and are predicted to greatly improve their efficiency and productivity.

AI agents are the latest AI trends to crop in sales and marketing, but are they worth it? Let’s get into some of the points covered in the episode:

• What is an AI agent?
• When to Use AI Agents
• AI Agents in Content Marketing
• Concerns with AI Agents

What is an AI agent?

According to Shah, an AI agent is a piece of software that uses AI to accomplish a multi-step goal.

“There are varying definitions of what an AI agent actually is,” he says. “There is a spectrum of capabilities. You have very simple agents and sophisticated agents that do multi-agent things and reasoning.”

But whether we’re talking about simple AI agents or more complex ones, the standout feature is their ability to carry out multistep goals that require different functions. According to Shah, this capability separates them from AI tools such as ChatGPT.

Think of it like this: When I use an AI tool like ChaGPT, it’s a simple back-and-forth interaction. I make a request, and the chatbot responds.

“Whereas with an agent, you’re giving it a higher order goal, and it may need to invoke Language Modeling (LM) or multiple LMs and use other AI tools and some classic tools to pull together whatever goal you’re trying to accomplish.”

A simple way to think about it is that AI agents are the next generation of automation tools to streamline marketing workflows and tasks.

When to Use AI Agents

So, when should you use an AI agent instead of a standard AI tool like a chatbot? This is actually what I find most interesting about the podcast‘s discussion of AI agents.

When we think of AI, it’s hard to banish the thought (fear) of it replacing humans. However, Shah explains that an AI agent is most helpful when a human is needed to kick off the task, but many steps can be taken without human intervention.

For example, let’s say a small business owner wants to route leads in their CRM using ChatGPT. They could plug customer data into ChatGPT to see what the chatbot generates.

However, if they want to take things a step further, they could use an AI Agent to bring them the most recent company numbers added to the CRM to conduct research.

They could then write rules about how they want the lead writing to happen.

“This is all doable with today’s technology and AI agents,” Shah says.

Essentially, AI agents should be used when “you know what to do manually, and you could do it manually—but you want to automate some of those steps instead of trying to do this kind of one-off shot with ChatGPT,” according to Shah.

AI Agents in Content Marketing

If you‘re a content creator and marketer like him, you’re probably curious about how AI agents can help in the realm of content marketing, such as creating blog content, social media posts, videos, and graphics.

I‘ve said in the past that marketers should think of AI as a digital assistant. If that’s the case (and it is), think of AI agents as your digital team.

“The really exciting thing about these agents is that they can actually use each other,” Shah explains.

Shah mentions generative AI tools as an example and the need for images generated for your business to adhere to a style and color palette specific to your brand.

“So, I built an agent called a Color Palette Extractor,” he says. “It’s a very simple agent. All you do is give it the home page or any web page. It will take a screenshot of that web page, determine which colors are used, and give you a palette proportional to the percentage of real estate that color took.”

In other words, the AI agent will generate a color palette based on the web page you fed it.

You can then take the color palette that the agent produced and pass it to another agent that will incorporate that palette to generate images or other content.

“So that’s the composing two agents that didn’t know anything about each other until you glued them together creatively,” he says.

From there, you can take the image and run it through a LinkedIn post generator, incorporating the results of the previous two agents. That’s three agents working together as a team to generate content for your business.

Concerns with AI Agents

Listening to the podcast, Shah, Bodnar, and Flanagan’s excitement about the possibilities presented by AI agents was impossible to ignore.

Shan event mentions a future where AI agents could be treated almost as salaried employees and a natural part of marketing teams.

“Some day, agents are going to have a salary that is, say, $2.00 a month, or whatever the price tag happens to be,” he says.

While I mentioned earlier that humans are still needed when using AI agents, there are concerns about what a human‘s role could look like if we’re talking about teams of AI agents.

Personally, I think an explanation would be that human marketers will still be integral to the marketing process even with the addition of AI agents, they just need to amp up their skills and consider a supervising role.

Think about it: Even the greatest teams need a leader and supervisor.

Jeremy Kahn, AI editor at Fortune Magazine, seems to share my sentiment in an interview with Fortunate Magazine.

“We need to redefine human roles, focusing on higher-level skills for supervising systems. I anticipate people will oversee multiple AI systems simultaneously, serving as both guides and judges of these systems’ outputs,” Kahn says.

So, are AI agents worth the investment?

I think any technological advances that can streamline processes, free up time for marketers, and keep their businesses competitive are worth the investment. However, with great AI advancements comes great responsibility. 

In pretty much every post I’ve ever written about AI (and I‘ve written a lot), I’ve said that AI best practices include overlooking, proofing, and adding a human touch to every AI-generated output. And that doesn’t change with the use of AI agents.

In fact, I think it’s even more important to supervise your team of AI agents and tools because more machines involved means more cooks in the kitchen.

So, yes, look into AI agents and consider ways they can make your life easier as a marketer or business owner. Just make sure you’re supervising your team of agents. 

While I’m not a business owner and haven’t branded my own business, I’ve been an employee at companies that have undergone large-scale rebrands.

Most recently, Nickelodeon, where I work full-time in marketing, pulled off a rebranding strategy in 2023 for the first time in 14 years.

We brought back the “splat,” a shape inspired by Nickelodeon’s iconic green slime, as a tactic to tap into both kids and their nostalgic parents who are former 90s Nick Kids themselves. This was part of an effort to position Nickelodeon as a brand that brings families across generations together to enjoy quality time.

In my opinion, this is an example of a company rebranding correctly and out of necessity. In a competitive entertainment landscape fighting for kids’ attention, Nickelodeon knew we couldn’t keep doing more of the same.

Sometimes (but not all the time!), one of the best ways to move forward is by leaning on and adapting past successes.

It’s not easy to know when is the right time to invest in a rebrand and how to handle that rebrand successfully, so I‘ve prepared this post to help guide the process, plus examples of other brands who’ve successfully rebranded their website, name, logo, mission, and purpose.

Table of Contents

• What is rebranding?
• Rebranding Strategy
• How to Rebrand a Company
• Rebranding Examples
• The Right (and Wrong) Reasons to Rebrand
• Partial vs. Total Rebrand
• Bad Rebranding Examples

Understanding what rebranding is is only part of the battle. Now, you must ensure you have the right reasons to rebrand.

The Right (and Wrong) Reasons to Rebrand

Rebrands are complicated and carry big risks.

Even big brands aren’t immune — just look at X, which is considered one of the biggest recent rebranding fails. Elon Musk rebranded Twitter as X in 2023 by renaming and restyling the entire brand.

As a result, 78% of U.S. iOS users gave the app 1-star reviews, compared to 50% two weeks prior. Most of the negative reviews mentioned disliking the new name and logo.

While it will take time to see the true long-term effects of this rebranding, it’s clear that abrupt, random changes to brands with generally positive sentiments and long-standing reputations can be incredibly detrimental.

That’s why knowing the risks of rebranding can help determine whether or not you’re jumping into a rebrand for the right reasons.

If sales have been slow or brand awareness efforts don’t seem to be paying off, rebranding may not be the best immediate step.

These issues can potentially be solved with a new content marketing strategy or by conducting market research to identify the underlying cause.

But if you‘re considering a rebrand because your company’s vision, mission, values, and market are no longer reflected in your brand, then a rebrand might be the right decision.

There are a few other major reasons you might consider a rebrand. I will demonstrate these reasons using my fictitious indoor cycling business, Psyched 2 Cyc.

4 Right Reasons for Rebranding

New Locations

Psyched 2 Cyc started as a singular, local studio in New York City, so I selected a punny name that likely only works in English.

After growing throughout NYC and the country, my business is now looking to expand to non-English, international markets that may not identify with the business name. This could be a good time to consider a full brand rename.

Market Repositioning

The name Psyched 2 Cyc was chosen with young fitness enthusiasts at heart — hence the abbreviated word “Cyc” and the use of “2” instead of “to.”

But I’d now like to target older consumers interested in improving their fitness with a low-impact workout like indoor cycling.

Thus, I may need to refresh my brand name (or consider rewriting it in full as Psyched to Cycle) to better resonate with people of all ages.

New Philosophy

I started my business as primarily an indoor cycling studio. Thus, our mission, vision, and values all surround the idea of fitness, health, and wellness through the use of an indoor bike.

If I want to expand my business to include another modality, such as strength, yoga, or running, it makes sense to want to reevaluate my brand. That way, I can build new MVVs that align with the growing business offerings.

Mergers and Acquisitions

To grow my business, audience, and offerings, I have partnered with a strength training studio, Sweat Power.

Combining our two brands either means that we agree to adopt the branding of one of the studios, or we must work together to come up with a new name, logo, and positioning that best reflects our new brand.

Additionally, here are a few reasons not to rebrand.

4 Wrong Reasons for Rebranding

Boredom

It’s been more than two decades, and I’m feeling uninspired by the logo and slogan I selected back when I first launched Psyched 2 Cyc. I’m itching for some change that will refresh my business and make it look more elevated.

However, my customers (who see my branding much less frequently) might love — or quickly recognize — the signature color and logo I’ve come to loathe. I should consider how a sudden change to my branding could leave consumers confused or disappointed.

Covering Up a Crisis

One of my business’s executives recently received bad press that has reflected badly on Psyched 2 Cyc. I’m desperate for a big rebranding shift that will help us move past this period of negativity.

However, most consumers and employees are smart enough to see right through my rebrand and recognize it for what it is — a cover-up. It’s best to handle bad press with respect, authenticity, and actionable change.

Impact and Ego

I’ve recently hired some new leaders who are excited about a rebranding as they feel they were brought in to help freshen up Psyched 2 Cyc’s brand. They want to refresh our mission statement and values.

However, the kind of institutional change they want to implement doesn’t justify a rebrand. It’s more about them making their mark and producing radical change.

Looking for Attention

Classes have been half-full at best, and several instructors have recently quit. I’m tempted to execute a rebrand to bring life back to the brand and encourage new instructors to want to teach at Psyched 2 Cyc.

At best, this may generate some short-term buzz without any sales and marketing strategy to sustain it. At worst, I could lose brand recognition and set back sales and marketing efforts even more.

If you’ve determined a rebrand is still the right choice for you, keep reading to learn how to devise a rebranding strategy.

Rebranding efforts may include:

1. Creating a new logo.

One of the main strategies of rebranding is creating a new logo. A new logo is a clear sign to consumers that your brand’s identity is different. A new logo can involve new colors, modern typography, or a new icon that better represents your brand.

Pro tip: Use your brand’s vision, mission, and values to inspire your new aesthetic. For instance, Pepsi rebranded in 2023 for the first time in 14 years for its 125th anniversary.

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The logo still uses the essence of the past logo, which helps maintain consistency and brand recognition with loyal customers. However, the new logo incorporates bolder colors and a vintage appearance that ties back to the company’s long heritage.

I also appreciate that the logo is now more compact, making it easier to place on products and ads. Lastly, Pepsi has made its brand name much easier to read in the new logo, in all-caps and bold black font, rather than the blue, wavy, lower-case previous version.

2. Shifting brand position.

Unfortunately, rebranding isn’t as easy as hiring an agency to redesign your logo. It’s essential to shift your brand positioning.

The products, services, or content being marketed need to communicate a certain message, whether that’s a mission, values, or vision.

This is the best way to set your brand apart from competitors and draw in consumers aligned with these beliefs.

Pro tip: Chances are, you’ll need to reestablish a unique selling proposition and take stock of what distinguishes your brand from the crowd. This will help you better connect with you target audience and understand your position in the market.

In 2015, Gucci shifted its brand positioning to appeal to younger generations. To do this, they pivoted from polished and provocative to quirky and contemporary. They also focused more on communication that would resonate on Instagram and adopted a progressive stance on gender fluidity.

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These changes significantly increased sales with Millennial and Gen Z consumers who were able to better resonate with Gucci’s mission, values, and vision.

3. Creating new ads.

Once the logo and messaging are locked, it’s time to create new advertisements and content with this messaging in mind.

These ads should communicate the changes to your brand and what they mean for customers. This can help draw in a new demographic and reach larger audiences.

Pro tip: New logos and messaging will only go far if you can invest in marketing to show the world these rebranding changes. For instance, Eurostar rebranded in 2023 after merging with Thalys, a French-Belgian high-speed train operator, as part of a goal to reach 30 million passengers by 2030.

After updating visual elements, the brand, now Eurostar Group, created an ad campaign around the slogan “Together We Go Further,” involving a promo, out-of-home, and digital.

The campaign highlighted the brand’s key traits — European, inclusive, unique, and sustainable — to emphasize the excitement of discovering a vibrant world of travel through Europe.

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The overall rebranding strategy resulted in route growth in 2023 in major routes, such as Paris to London and Paris to Amsterdam, as well as an increase in online sales, website conversions, and mobile app downloads.

4. Changing your brand’s voice.

The last step of a solid rebranding strategy is changing the brand‘s voice.

This is the perspective from which you write all your marketing content. Your voice can be formal, casual, witty, or whatever tone best reflects your brand. Change your brand’s voice accordingly and announce your rebrand in this new tone.

Pro tip: Think of your brand as a person. When they walk into a party, are they cracking jokes and the life of the party, or are they professional and no-nonsense? Use your brand personality to inform this brand voice.

Duolingo began as a traditional language learning app and has since evolved into a silly, humorously-aggressive brand. Users started creating memes in 2019 about the evil owl mascot, Duo, who would berate them to practice.

The brand leaned into this personality and adapted its brand voice to fit this new persona.

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The brand voice is now very quirky, personable, and young, and, at times, leans into the “evil Duo” voice which has made it ultra-popular on social media.

Embracing this brand voice has aided Duolingo’s entire rebranding strategy, as it now leans on the voice to dictate its brand identity, marketing methods, goals, and target audience.

Not all rebrands are created equal, so let’s first consider whether a partial or total rebrand is the best option for your business.

Partial vs. Total Rebrand

The more established your business and brand, the more you have to lose from a rebrand. If your business is more mature, a partial rebrand can help you retain the brand loyalty you’ve built, while refreshing your image to keep up with the times.

Think of a partial rebrand as an adjustment focused on visual brand identity to suit new offerings or markets, as opposed to a complete identity crisis.

That‘s not to say that a partial rebrand can’t be effective. Just look at Pringles.

They redesigned their mascot, Mr. P, in 2021 with a more simple, contemporary look. This partial rebrand helped them maintain their iconic brand identity while giving their mascot a bold, refreshed appearance.

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However, if the goal is a complete identity shift involving your company’s mission, vision, and values, a total rebrand might be necessary.

This option is typically suited to situations like mergers, product overhauls, and other similarly foundational shifts.

If a partial rebrand is a quick touch-up, the total rebrand is a complete makeover.

Take a look at the following five steps to successfully implement a rebrand.

1. Reestablish your brand’s audience and market.

Let’s return to my fictional indoor cycling business, Psyched 2 Cyc. When I got into this business, I expected my target audience to be in their 20s and early 30s, since that is the most common demographic for other cycling studios like SoulCycle.

However, after extensive market research, I realized my target market was different from what I had assumed.

Key research found that 50% of respondents spend less than 10 minutes traveling to cycling classes, and 92% complete the trip in under 30 minutes. That means only 8% of participants are willing to travel more than 30 minutes to my studio.

This has changed my entire philosophy since the neighborhood my studio launched in has a slightly older demographic (30s-40s adults with families).

Now, I can re-establish my brand’s audience and market, knowing I will have the most luck drawing in new members who live within 30 (or ideally 10!) minutes of the studio.

Pro tip: Focus groups are a great way to discover (or re-discover) your target market. You may be surprised to find that your audience isn’t who you thought it was.

2. Redefine your company’s vision, mission, and values.

What am I doing? How am I doing it? Why am I doing it?

These are the three questions I will ask myself when reevaluating my vision, mission, and values for Psyched 2 Cyc’s rebrand. These messaging foundations will likely change as my company grows.

New products, priorities, services, or stakeholders can completely undo what once seemed like a given.

Here is how I will analyze the following factors to gauge which parts of my brand will need some TLC.

Vision

Vision is the “What am I doing?” of the puzzle. It’s the North Star for every action my company undertakes, and it’s critical to have a firm understanding of my vision before moving forward.

Originally when I founded Psyched 2 Cyc, I simply wanted to build a new cycling studio since it’s a modality I love. Now that I have established my brand in this way, I can adapt my vision to be more specific or forward-thinking.

I founded the studio originally to target women since women are a large portion of indoor cycling participants. After all, 67% of U.S. Peloton owners are women, and women are the fastest-growing demographic in indoor cycling in 2024, with a 9% increase in cycling activities.

However, now that I’ve established my brand in the eyes of women, I’d like to rebrand to be more inclusive to both men and women.

Just because women are a large percentage of indoor cycling enthusiasts doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for men here, too.

Mission

The mission is the “How am I doing it?” component. This is my company’s roadmap for how we will achieve the vision of drawing in more males to my brand.

I’m interested in adding a virtual component to my brand since 26% of Les Mills survey respondents regularly attend virtual indoor cycling classes. On top of that, data found that men are more likely to attend virtual classes than women.

This could be a great way to draw in men who may not be as inclined to take classes in a live studio but would be interested in doing so at home.

My mission is to incorporate virtual classes to target more men in a predominantly female space.

Values

Values are the “Why am I doing this” element. It’s why I’m working towards my vision and dedicated to my mission.

Now that I have adapted my vision and mission, I should accordingly adapt my values to align with this new strategy. For example, I will incorporate the following new values:

• Raise the bar. This is both a play on words (since the handlebar is a key part of any bike) and a commitment to continuously compete with yesterday’s performance.
• Room for all. This again has a dual meaning: as I embark on a journey to create a more inclusive space for all people in a predominantly young, female environment, this value will be essential. But it also indicates that Psyched 2 Cyc will create a literal “room” for all; whether in our studio room or your room at home taking a virtual class.

Understandably, some of my founding values might become unsustainable. It’s more effective to prioritize new values rather than cling to past ones, which may limit change.

Brand Voice

Now that I’ve shifted my vision, mission, and values while rebranding, how I convey these aspects of my company will also have to change. What I’m saying is changing, so how I say it will also need to change.

For instance, I have been using a tone of voice that’s young, modern, and feminine. Now that I’m shifting to target a slightly older demographic and males, I will want to adapt my language to be more attractive to these audiences.

3. Rename your company during a rebrand.

Changing names is a big undertaking and can cost brand recognition and organic search traffic in one fell swoop. I would only rename Psyched 2 Cyc if it’s a dire need and I had a plan for recovery as part of my post-rebrand strategy.

As mentioned earlier, I selected the name to attract a younger audience, which is why I used “2” instead of “to” and the shortened term “Cyc.”

Perhaps, in wanting to rebrand to attract my slightly older target audience, I may reconsider changing the name to resonate better with the residents in the surrounding area.

Ideally, the best course of action is to keep the same name to retain brand recognition, but if I want to better align with my new company identity, I can return to the drawing board.

Pro tip: It can be difficult to begin your brainstorming session. Some starter ideas for the renaming process are:

• Make a new word
• Use an old word in new ways
• Say what I do (literally)
• Modify a word’s spelling
• Add a prefix or suffix
• Look to other languages
• Bring two words together
• Create an acronym
• Use a location

4. Reconsider your brand’s slogan.

A good slogan is catchy and will capture my company’s mission and vision. Unlike changing names, changing slogans is a little easier for my marketing efforts, so I won’t lose sight of my existing customers tied to the Psyched 2 Cyc brand.

That doesn’t mean I won’t still consider this carefully and ensure I’m changing the slogan for the right reasons.

Repetition builds recognition, and I don’t want to change too many aspects of my brand that people have come to love and remember.

An idea for a new slogan for Psyched 2 Cyc that can better represent my new mission and vision would be “Spin, Your Way.”

This highlights the purpose (an indoor cycling studio) and emphasizes that we are trying to be more inclusive and that there is space for anyone, regardless of age, ability, or class style preference.

Pro tip: Slogans can be equally as difficult to come up with as brand names. Some ways to discover new ideas for slogans are:

• Make a claim
• Get metaphorical
• Use poetic language
• Provide instructions
• Leverage labels
• Compliment customers

5. Rebuild your brand identity.

The tangible elements I use to communicate the Psyched 2 Cyc brand have been in play for several years, which has given me plenty of time to reconsider their strengths and weaknesses before deciding to replace some of them.

Refreshing some of the visual components of my brand could be a great way to rebrand without changing something as drastic as the company name or slogan.

I can consider redesigning my logo, using new colors in my brand material, or even creating new brand guidelines.

Logo

When I selected my initial logo, I had little budget and couldn’t invest dollars into hiring an external agency to design some options. Instead, I had the help of an artist friend who designed my idea for me.

Unfortunately, I don’t think my logo has a real impact on customers. It’s very generic and doesn’t reflect what is unique about Psyched 2 Cyc. So, I will return to the basics of what makes a good logo to help me get it right this time.

• Stay simple. Jamming as much symbolism as possible into a logo generally doesn’t work well and can become too complex or confusing for customers to understand. Now that my brand is more established, I can show confidence with a simple, clean logo.
• Make an impact. While it’s important to be simple, I still want to make my logo memorable. There are a lot of indoor cycling brands out there, and I want my logo to be bold enough to stand out amongst competitors.
• Be adaptable. I didn’t initially consider the limitations of my original logo. Now that I know all the places my logo lives — digitally on my website, app, and social media; in print on products like fitness apparel, water bottles, and our cycling shoes; and in a huge, neon sign in the studio — I can keep these channels in mind during the redesign.
• Aim for appropriate. I designed the logo for a younger, female audience, and now that I’m expanding my target market, I might want a logo that better attracts this audience.
• Look to the long term. This rebrand will likely cost me a lot of money, so I don’t want to do another one anytime soon. Therefore, I will consider my vision, mission, values, and purpose to ensure my new logo can support them in the long run.
• Maintain through-lines. The logo, while not as much as the name, is still one of my brand’s most memorable components. I want to avoid losing brand recognition by maintaining the parts of my old logo that worked.

Take a look at the Nickelodeon logo change from 2023 below. We retained the same iconic orange color and font but re-incorporated the “splat,” which would be memorable with parents.

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Color Palette

I know color is very impactful in branding — some colors are now synonymous with the brands that use them, like McDonald’s yellow. However, choosing the right color can be difficult, so I might consider changing the color to reflect Psyched 2 Cyc’s rebrand.

For example, our brand logo is currently red, which I chose since red is a vibrant, powerful color that reflects fitness well. However, I now see how many competitors also have red logos, such as CycleBar, and want to choose a new color that can stand out.

According to the psychology of color, green can represent growth, freshness, and health, which resonates with fitness well. It also has an adventurous, competitive personality, which ties fairly well with cycling.

Therefore, I might consider changing my logo to dark green, especially since I don’t know many fitness brands with a green logo.

Before making any drastic changes, I will check how the color shows up on-screen and in print to ensure consistency and that I like the look.

Typography

I chose an expressive, regal font for my original logo to help it pop and appear elevated against competitors. However, I now realize that it doesn’t represent my brand well — too much sophistication can make the brand come across as elite and inaccessible to the average person, which is not what Psyched 2 Cyc is about.

When reevaluating fonts, I will ensure the font is consistent with my target market and messaging uncovered in the rebrand. A more traditional serif or sans-serif font may be better suited when trying to attract a slightly older demographic.

I will also ensure that the font is easily accessible for web design and offers various weights and cuts for different channels.

Take the 2023 Minute Maid logo rebrand, for instance, in which they adopted a softer, bolder, and more inviting new font.

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Shapes and Imagery Revisited

Like logo, color palette, and typography, my imagery and shapes play a vital role in Psyched 2 Cyc’s brand identity. In changing those other visual elements, it makes sense to reconsider my imagery and shapes to keep everything cohesive in the rebrand.

Since I want my studio to be more approachable to new demographics, such as older people and men, I might consider softer lines and rounder shapes that provide a more welcoming appearance to new customers.

Of course, having everything visually aligned isn’t enough. These visual elements must support the core messages of my brand, too.

Brand Guidelines

After going through all the trouble of creating a new brand identity for my business, I want to use all these elements correctly.

Having brand guidelines will help guide me in the rebranding process to ensure consistency in this new stage for Psyched 2 Cyc.

Brand guidelines will be especially critical when showcasing my new logo. These guidelines will make it as easy as possible for customers to see, recognize, and remember my logo, making up for any lost familiarity from the original logo.

When writing my logo guidelines, I will consider the following:

• Logo elements. What visual elements make up my logo? When and how are each of them used?
• Color variations. What does the colored version of my logo look like? What about black and white? When are each of these used?
• Clear space. Also called padding, this is the space around my logo that prevents overlap or obscuring. I will aim for at least 10% of width at all times.
• Unacceptable uses. What can never be done to my logo? What color variations, rotations, scaling, etc. do I want to avoid?

These guidelines will be essential for me to distribute to my team so everyone has the information they need to handle the rebrand effortlessly.

It will be important for my team members and external agencies we hire to help us with the website and app redesign, building out our rebrand campaign, and creating new marketing materials.

6. Track brand sentiment along the way.

Though part of the reason for my rebrand is to attract new customers, my current customers are loyal and trusted. Therefore, I will get feedback from them on the rebrand elements I am considering.

I plan to conduct focus groups to see if the new branding images and messages communicate my new mission, values, and vision. If I don’t receive positive feedback, I may need to go back to the drawing board.

I know one of the most crucial steps in rebranding is tracking brand sentiment before, during, and after a rebrand launch, so I will look at brand sentiment before the rebrand to see what current or potential customers like and dislike about Psyched 2 Cyc’s branding.

Is it clear what our brand offers? Is the branding consistent? How does it compare to similar indoor cycling studios? What is something about our branding that either drew them in or made them reconsider joining our studio?

With these answers in mind, I can conduct my rebrand strategically, adding new messaging that aligns with my audience. As a plus, this also helps my current customers feel valued since their thoughts will be taken into consideration.

7. Plan a successful launch.

The rebrand will only be successful and meaningful if people actually know it’s happening. Therefore, I know that I can’t simply change the colors, fonts, and logo on our Psyched 2 Cyc website, app, and social media. I need to communicate what the rebrand means and let people know we’ve made intentional growth.

First, I plan to run a marketing campaign involving digital display banners, print ads, and a short promo that can run on TV and social media.

I will also organize a press release to announce the launch of our rebrand that will sit on our website and social channels. This allows me to share exactly why Psyched 2 Cyc needed a rebrand and what it means for our future.

This will be the perfect way for us to reset and remain consistent and on-brand in all marketing efforts moving forward.

We’ve lost our way over the past few years as priorities changed to membership retention, but I believe a solid rebrand will help redefine our branding.

Now that we‘ve explored various aspects of rebranding regarding my fictional brand Psyched 2 Cyc, let’s take a look at some real-world examples for further inspiration.

1. 7UP

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7UP’s new identity was inspired by the soda itself. The company wanted to create a new visual identity that captures the soda’s effervescent essence while modernizing with changing times.

They first handled this with a new “UPliftment” positioning, based on its history of being enjoyed in joyful moments with loved ones. This new strategy promises to “offer light relief from the mundanities of daily life.”

To feed into this “UP” movement, the brand angled its new logo up to focus on upward movement. 7UP also wanted to embrace its global audience, so the packaging logo was designed to be translated into various languages for worldwide unification.

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These changes, and the new citrus colors in the palette, have helped 7UP create a bolder, brighter, more confident, and “bubbly” persona, while still staying true to its green color. This rebrand has been widely applauded for its simplistic, minimalistic, and modern execution.

2. LG

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LG first hinted at its upcoming rebrand in April 2023 with the debut of its new and improved logo — maintaining the same icon but transitioning it from 3D to 2D. The new logo is also animated and expressive and can perform eight motions (including nodding and winking).

Beyond the logo change, LG introduced a younger and more playful appearance in August 2023 with new brand characters, Joy and Ryder, that showcase LG’s fun side while playing into the company’s heritage and Korean culture.

To add even more energy to their rebrand, LG also integrated a brighter, bolder shade of red into their color palette.

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They even incorporated new values, such as “Warmth to Power a Smile,” and made their “Life’s Good” slogan more prominent in marketing. These changes were part of an effort to attract Millennial and Gen Z audiences and redefine the brand as innovative, modern, and people-centric.

3. Reddit

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The biggest change in Reddit’s 2023 rebrand was bringing their iconic mascot Snoo to life with a new dynamic 3D look. Snoo is less robotic and more a playful creature who can perform eight motions, such as spinning.

The brand repositioned Reddit as “the heart of the internet” to highlight its role in society as a space for communication and discourse. This repositioning is also evident in the frame around Snoo and the “d” in the Reddit logo, which are now speech bubbles to emphasize the same point.

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Reddit’s new brand identity also involves four pillars: “inherently eclectic”, “positively different”, “delightfully absurd”, and “genuinely candid”, which help tie all these changes and refreshes together.

The rebrand was done to modernize Reddit’s look with changes such as 3D design elements, a simplified color palette, and new typefaces, while re-emphasizing what people already know and love Reddit for — being a hub for community and conversation.

4. Jell-O

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The 2023 Jell-O rebrand involved a change in logo and packaging for all products. The goal was to attract younger parents and kids with playful, simple, colorful imagery and bring back some of the “jiggly fun and…wonder” that has always been associated with the brand.

This new positioning played into the new designs by incorporating a modern aesthetic while showcasing the many fun flavors Jell-O has to offer. The logo shifted to a blockier sans serif font against a white background for a 3D effect, with the “O” resting slightly above.

The packaging also now includes cartoonish images of pudding swirls and jelly fruit instead of the more realistic images previously shown. This helps the brand target younger parents with fruit images that reveal healthier options while making the packaging more eccentric and light-hearted.

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This rebrand was well-received as consumers saw it as a way to significantly modernize the branding while maintaining some of its classic, beloved traits.

5. WhatsApp

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As part of the parent company Meta, which faced significant backlash for its 2021 rebrand, WhatsApp has remained relatively scandal-free. Thus, it seems the 2023 rebrand was aimed at helping set WhatsApp apart from the rest of Meta’s brands.

The goal was to evolve the brand from a social media tool to a “secure, intimate product designed to give anyone … the ability to connect and enact change.” The team worked to further the notion of “Forward. Together” based on WhatsApp being a trusted platform for safe, reliable global connection.

The color palette aligns with various product touchpoints, and new graphic modules allow for flexible storytelling. They also capture the spirit of WhatsApp by visually showcasing how back and forth communication looks.

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Since WhatsApp has nearly three billion global active users, the rebrand created a unified look that would resonate with people everywhere, regardless of age, region, literacy, or bandwidth.

It successfully established itself as a communication tool while prioritizing brand recognition with an unchanged logo and commitment to the brand’s iconic green color.

Bad Rebranding Examples

1. Comcast

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Comcast has been known to have the most hated customer service in the United States. So, the company changed its name and rebranded its logo to Xfinity. However, the company didn’t change its history of bad practices.

While the company could have worked on improving customer support, they spent money on a cosmetic upgrade, which didn’t help them earn back the trust of their customers. Superficial updates like a name and logo change can’t help a company unless followed by brand identity and reputation changes.

Beyond this, the name change itself is perplexing and, frankly, a waste of money and time. Many customers were confused about whether Comcast and Xfinity were the same thing, or if one owned the other. This is the exact fear in an abrupt brand name change — causing audience confusion or ridicule which can lead to a loss in current and potential customers.

2. Gap

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Remember that list of reasons to and not to rebrand above? Gap made the mistake of rebranding for seemingly no reason. The company changed its logo and caused outrage among its customers. Just six days later, the company returned to its original logo.

The new logo didn’t communicate anything new about the brand and took the personality out of Gap’s logo. Additionally, customers had an emotional bond with the logo, and changing it for no reason caused upset customers.

Rather than immediately coming clean, Gap tried to justify the new logo as a deliberate move to crowdsource new ideas for a logo. As this was met with even more criticism, the brand quickly reinstated its original logo and finally acknowledged its error.

Overall, the urge to quickly modernize a logo has been seen as a panic strategy, rather than one rooted in a true desire to shift a brand’s positioning or perception. If there’s nothing to back up a move this big (and expensive), it is more than likely to receive negative backlash.

3. Weight Watchers

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Weight Watchers changed its name and logo to shift its focus from weight loss and dieting to wellness. However, the new name WW left consumers confused. People didn’t know what it stood for, and it erased brand recognition.

The rebrand was also handled rather abruptly. There wasn’t enough lead time to prepare consumers for the name and strategy change. To add to it, the “Wellness that Works” slogan didn’t inform consumers of what was going to change about the brand.

While the reasoning behind the rebrand was positive, the follow-through left people wanting more. Weight Watchers should have better explained why it was making this shift and how it would handle this change — preferably with new product or service offerings.

Are you ready to rebrand?

From the examples shared above, it’s clear that the most successful rebrands were ones that were centered around customers in some way.

Whether it was LG aligning with the interests of younger consumers or Jell-O returning to its playful roots, these brands made necessary changes to restate their presence in either the same or a new market.

The important thing to keep in mind if your business is ready to tackle a rebrand is that clear intentions and brand consistency are key. This post taught me that you need legitimate reasons for seeing a rebrand through.

But you also need to be able to handle the time and budget it will take to make all the changes and launch a marketing campaign to reveal the rebrand to your audience.

When you’re ready to make these changes, make them count.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.