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Whoever said “All publicity is good publicity” lied.

The only truth in it is that bad publicity can bring attention to your brand and expand your reach.

However, first impressions (and every impression) after that can last.

So, if your brand is associated with negative traits and concepts, it can be difficult to change that perception.

Learn what makes up a brand association and how to build a positive one.

Several factors influence brand association, including:

• Brand identity and messaging
• Brand assets, such as logo and colors
• Customer experience
• Product and service quality
• Word of mouth
• Reputation
• Advertisements
• Social media presence

You’ll notice that most of these factors are controlled by the brand itself, which is good news. This means that brands play a key role in how consumers perceive them.

It also signifies that if the association with your brand isn’t particularly positive, you have the potential to change it.

Brand Association Examples

Here are a few common brand association examples.

Charmin – Bears, soft, toilet paper

Google – Search, answers, information

Wikipedia – Information, biography

Anima Iris – Luxury, black excellence

Canva – Graphic design, easy, templates

Rhum Barbancourt – Quality, Haïti, classic

As you can see, most of the associations are a mix of services or products the company may provide along with certain traits and concepts. The hope is that the associations made with your brand are both accurate and positive.

If you find that it’s not, you may need to conduct some consumer research and work to create stronger messaging around your brand.

Brand Association Map

A brand association map is a visual representation of the attributes and concepts associated with your brand. You can also use it to identify threats and opportunities, as well as how you fare against competitors.

Image Source

With a brand association map, you can quickly identify the words tied with your brands and which are the closest, based on proximity to the inner circle.

For instance, the above picture features Nike at the center. It shows that the two biggest associations with the brand are: “Adidas,” a competitor, and “shoes.”

You then have the term “comfortable” which is more closely associated with Nike than the word “long-lasting.”

This can be a great start to identifying where your brand currently stands in consumers’ eyes, and start making changes in your branding and marketing strategy.

If Nike wants consumers to view it as a long-lasting brand rather than one that creates comfortable clothing and shoes, it can take this information to create messaging surrounding this concept along with targeted campaigns.

If it’s unclear what consumers associate with your brand, run a survey.

First, you’ll need a pool of respondents who are familiar with your brand. This can include consumers at every stage of the buyer’s journey from a lead to a customer.

Then, ask your respondents to provide the terms they associate with your brand. You can gather these answers through open-ended questions as well as list questions. You can then ask your respondents to rank the terms by closeness to your brand.

Alternatively, if you already have a list of positive, neutral, and negative attributes relating to your brand, you can use them to craft your survey questions and include your competitors.

Once you gather, clean, and analyze your data, you can produce a brand association map to visually represent your associations.

1. Have a robust branding strategy.

Your branding strategy is a key pillar in building a positive brand association.

For starters, you want to have a strong brand identity. This means knowing your mission, values, personality, unique brand positioning, and voice. If there isn’t much clarity on these, you may leave consumers to make their own guesses, which may not be accurate or favorable.

Your brand identity will then impact your brand assets, namely your logo and brand colors, which tell a story about your brand.

Then, you have your messaging, which highlights the value you offer, communicates the benefits of your brand, and should differentiate you from your competitors.

In addition, you have your brand voice, which is how you communicate with your audience and the impression you leave. This is one of the more concrete factors impacting your brand association.

If your brand voice is friendly, warm, and young, this will translate to the concepts, feelings, and traits your audience ties to your company.

2. Review all customer touchpoints.

Think about how you interact with your target audience.

Online, this includes social media, your website, email, chat, and even on business review sites.

How you nurture your community can play a big role in how they view you. The same goes for how you address unsatisfied customers who voice their concerns on social media, or those who ask questions.

Offline, this looks like phone conversations, in-person meetings, and in-store interactions.

To ensure your brand is putting its best foot forward, make sure you have proper training surrounding customer interactions.

The better your customer service and relationship management, the better reputation you will leave – this then translates to positive brand associations.

3. Consider your partnerships.

The brands and influencers you partner with are also reflections of your brand.

Nowadays, consumers expect brands to be more vocal about social and political issues. This also means being vocal when staff or external partners exhibit behaviors deemed socially unacceptable.

It’s why we often see brands sever ties with celebrities and known figures with whom they had ongoing marketing campaigns.

As such, be selective about who you collaborate with.

4. Identify threats to your brand.

After strengthening your brand strategy, there’s still more work to be done.

You have to be proactive about identifying and neutralizing threats to your brand. This can happen on both small- and large-scale.

On a small scale, this can look like responding to a negative review on Yelp. On a big scale, this can be responding to reports of discrimination within your business.

Social monitoring and listening will be instrumental in keeping your eye on the ball and making sure that you have a plan in place when a threat to your brand shows up.

5. Have a crisis management plan.

You’ve identified a threat to your brand. Now what?

If it’s a big threat, you’ll likely need to refer to your crisis management plan.

When a crisis happens, every minute counts. You want to control the narrative to ensure that your brand isn’t gravely damaged and doesn’t face long-term backlash.

With this in mind, devise a plan early on with actionable steps to address the issues, resolve them quickly, and repair relationships.

Building a positive brand association is a never-ending process as your company grows and evolves. The great news is, the biggest factor influencing your brand association is you.

Creating connections with potential customers is essential when it comes to driving interest and boosting sales. Making these connections can sometimes be difficult, though, as it’s one thing to want to create them and another to figure out how to establish them.

However, one of the great ways to establish these connections is through copywriting, where you use words to speak to consumer emotions and try to entice them to take action after reading your words.

While it may seem simple to write something that you think will resonate with your audience, there are essential principles to follow to ensure that you can effectively convince them. In this post, learn what SEO copywriting is and discover best practices for the process that will help you draw in customers, convert leads, and drive more sales.

SEO copywriting differs from other SEO content writing you may be familiar with, like blogging, as the end goal is to convert leads rather than generate organic traffic. In addition, SEO copywriting is shorter; where a blog post may have almost a thousand words, copywriting content may have less than half of that.

However, the two can go hand in hand. You might create a blog post that includes a CTA created with SEO copywriting principles in mind, and the words entice users to click on what you’re offering to learn more, like downloading a free ebook or another related source.

Here are some examples of content types that may be created with SEO copywriting principles in mind:

• Final checkout screens
• Product descriptions
• On-site navigation instructions
• Advertising content
• Website copy
• Brand messaging
• CTA buttons
• Landing pages

As with all types of SEO, it’s important to understand best practices.

SEO Copywriting Tips and Best Practices

Strong copywriting is a combination of a variety of factors, which we’ll discuss below.

Know your audience.

The first step to successful copywriting is knowing your audience. Without this information, it will be impossible to compel them with your writing as you don’t know who they are or how to appeal to them.

Finding your audience for SEO copywriting follows the same processes you would when creating a targeted marketing campaign, or any type of content you would create for your business: buyer persona research.

Buyer personas are fictional representations of what your ideal customer looks like based on market research and your existing business data and customer profiles. HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool can help with this, as it will guide you through a step-by-step process of outlining who they are, discovering their main pain points, and the solutions they look for based on their needs.

Conduct keyword research.

Keyword research is a critical component of any SEO strategy.

As a refresher, keyword research is the process of uncovering the words your target audience uses when searching for products and services similar to what you offer, and using the keywords in your content to attract those same users to your site.

For copywriting, this research is essential because it helps you uncover user intent behind the keywords your audience searches for so you can write copy that resonates with their needs.

Write for your audience.

The goal of copywriting is to entice your audience to take action. So, as mentioned above, it’s important to always write with your audience in mind. Your buyers are looking for solutions, so you’re writing to tell them why you’re a solution.

For example, say you offer an all-in-one marketing tool. Your persona and keyword research lets you know that your target audience often queries “easy-to-use marketing tools.” You’d want to incorporate that search term into your copy to speak directly to user intent in the hopes that they’ll follow through with the desired action (purchasing your product) because you’ve convinced them that you’re the best fit solution to their needs.

Use intent-relevant action words.

Just as it’s essential to write for your audience’s intent, it’s also important to use intent-relevant action words. You want your copy to let them know why what you have to offer is the best solution, and then lead them to the action you want them to take.

This simply means that you want your copy to draw your audience to make a final decision, maybe by saying something like “Buy Now” or “Sign Up Here,” at the end of your product descriptions.  

Be concise and straightforward.

The harder your copy is to read, the less likely it is that you’ll achieve your ultimate goal of converting users. If they have to put in a significant amount of effort to understand what you have to offer, you’ll likely lose them along the way.

This means avoiding jargon and wordiness and only including what is most relevant to what you’re creating copy for. This can be a difficult skill to develop, so it can be helpful to consider what you would and wouldn’t like to see when browsing for solutions to your pain points and model your strategy off of that.

If I were to take this tip to mind and listen to my own advice while writing this section, I would simply say this: leave no room for confusion or misunderstandings; be straightforward.

Continuous testing.

Something that you may have thought would perform well may not be as aligned with audience intent as you thought, and continuous testing allows you to iterate on what you create to ensure that you satisfy consumer needs.

Testing also  ensures that you’re maximizing your effectiveness. Your copy should help your audience seamlessly come to the solutions you’re providing without putting in extra effort because your copy already explains it all.

An example of continuous testing can be creating multiple versions of CTA’s, each with different copy, that you place on different website pages to see which drives better results.

All-in-all, SEO copywriting comes together like this: the SEO aspect are the keywords you know align with your audience user intent and already have high traffic, and the copywriting element is writing for the user intent behind the keywords that have traffic.

When you utilize this strategy, you’re directly showing your audience how you’ll solve their pain points and entice them to become a customer.

While it can be difficult to define the traits of a good employee, it’s easy to describe the perks.

A good employee, for instance, gets raises, promotions, and praise from managers. She is often a role model for her peers, gets selected for unique projects, and makes the whole work thing look easy.

But what does it mean to be a good employee? And what skills can you work on developing to ensure you’re considered a good — or even great — employee at your own company?

Here, I spoke with HubSpot employees and managers to determine the soft skills required to be a good employee in any role, to ensure you’re earning some of those perks we discussed earlier. Let’s dive in.

1. A growth mindset and willingness to learn.

One of the biggest strengths of any good employee is an eagerness to learn and a growth mindset.

A growth mindset, a term first coined by Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, means you believe you can develop and refine skills and become better at something over time. A fixed mindset, on the other hand, means you feel that your intelligence and skills are inherent and unchangeable.

In the workplace, a marketer with a growth mindset might decide to take a few analytics courses to develop skills related to data, even if her background is more creative in nature. Alternatively, a marketer with a fixed mindset would avoid those courses, claiming “I was never good at math. It’s just not something I can do.”

A growth mindset can influence an employee’s motivation, work ethic, and how well she responds to constructive feedback. As Dweck writes, “The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”

Ultimately, a good employee is someone who is eager to try new things, adopt new skills, and grow.

As HubSpot’s Marketing Manager of the Website Blog, Anna Fitzgerald, says, “A good employee is someone who can notice opportunities where it would make sense for your manager to delegate a task or project to you. It’s a win, win. You take something off your manager’s plate, and the new responsibility helps you grow and develop new skills.”  

2. A positive and solutions-focused attitude.

Employees enjoy working around people who are positive and solutions-focused when challenges arise.

It can be stressful to work around someone who focuses on the negative, or demotivates the rest of the team. For instance, at a previous company I used to work with someone who didn’t feel fulfilled in his role. As a result, he often expressed his criticisms for the company to the rest of our team — which wasn’t a great motivator for anyone.

A positive attitude can inspire your peers to work harder, and lift your team’s spirits when you’re confronted with a frustrating obstacle. Plus, happiness is correlated with greater success. In fact, one study found happy employees are up to 20% more productive than unhappy employees, and happy salespeople produce 37% more sales than their unhappy counterparts.

A positive mindset also helps you shift more quickly into a solutions-focused attitude. For instance, negativity might cause you to feel frustrated when a roadblock presents itself. You might resort to self-blame, criticism, or simply a lack of motivation to alter your strategy.

A positive attitude, however, can help you remain confident, calm, and level-headed when a challenge arises. Positivity can help you reframe the problem in your mind, so you’re able to say, “This challenge is actually an opportunity for us to rethink our strategy and create a better solution as a result.”

Of course, everyone is allowed to have bad days, but the sign of a good employee is someone who doesn’t let that bad mood get in the way of problem-solving or building strong team morale.

3. Empathy and emotional intelligence.

HubSpot’s Marketing Manager Kristen Baker told me she feels that empathy is a critical trait for becoming a good employee.

She says, “A good employee demonstrates empathy when engaging with both colleagues and customers. Additionally, a good employee shows she cares about the impact her work has on those around her.”

Baker adds, “Empathy can help you put yourself in your customers’ shoes, which can increase motivation and purpose. When I understand our customers’ challenges better, I see how much my own role can help serve those needs, and that motivates me to work harder.”

Additionally, emotional intelligence is a vital skill for employees and leaders to hone. The ability to regulate your own emotions — as well as the emotions of others’ — has proven invaluable in the workplace.

To increase your emotional intelligence, try taking an EI quiz to determine how emotionally intelligent you are, and then identify areas for improvement. (HubSpot even offers one!)

To practice empathy in the workplace, consider asking colleagues how they’re doing, and practice active listening skills to develop rapport over time. For instance, if a coworker mentions he’s celebrating his birthday this weekend, remember to follow-up and ask how it went.

Additionally, take the time to understand how your products or services meet your customers’ needs. Put yourself in their shoes. Listen to customer interviews or read survey responses to better understand your customers’ challenges, which will naturally enable you to feel more empathy towards your customers.

4. Accountability.

Being accountable simply means taking responsibility for your actions, and this is an incredibly important skill in the workplace.

People mess up every day — it’s how you handle your mistakes that matters. Go directly to your boss, outline the issue at-hand, and explain how you might’ve created or contributed to the problem.

Showing you’re not afraid to admit when you’re wrong is a sign of a good (and honest) employee. It doesn’t help anyone when you try to hide problems or point fingers.

Additionally, it’s impressive if you take the time to self-reflect and consider how you might change your approach so you meet your goals next time.

For instance, if you’re responsible for getting 12 posts published per month and you only manage to get 10 completed, you’ll want to figure out what prevented you from meeting goal.

Then, when you approach your manager, you can say something like, “I had a difficult time with the last two pieces because I didn’t accurately account for how long each piece would take, particularly the pieces that require external quotes. Now that I’ve reflected, I’ve recognized that I’ll need to write three pieces per week, and give myself an extra couple days to conduct outreach and collect quotes before I begin writing my quote pieces.”

5. Critical, big-picture thinking.

A good employee takes the time to pause in his day-to-day and assess bigger-picture goals, always ensuring his work aligns with the company’s goals and has a positive impact on the company’s bottom-line.

Even if you’ve just started at a new company, it’s never too early to ask questions and take an interest in the larger organization. Strategic, big-picture thinking is a sign of a good employee, and your boss will take notice if you take the time to think critically about the problems or tasks at-hand and how they fit into your company’s overarching strategy.

6. Ambition.

Charlene Strain, a HubSpot Associate Marketing Manager for Global Co-Marketing Acquisition & Partnerships, considers ambition to be a vital trait for any good employee.

Ambition can look differently for everyone, but in this case, we’re talking about ambition as it relates to scalability.

As Strain notes, “To be a good (and even great) employee, you have to look for scalability in every aspect of your role. Find ways to make a process smoother, or implement processes where there isn’t one.”

Strain adds, “If you move up or out to a different role, think about if someone else could fulfill your day-to-day duties easily and grow the role and program. If not, think about ways to lessen this friction.”

A good employee considers how she can make her role more efficient for the company at-large. She also considers how she might create new processes to make her whole team’s outputs easier.

For instance, I’ve seen colleagues clean up outdated filing systems and create new, streamlined Google Drive folders for easy access to critical information. I’ve also seen colleagues re-shape how they tackle their own daily tasks for more efficiency, which has then been used at-scale to rework how HubSpot writers create content.

When you’re in a new role, take the time to consider inefficiencies or small details that could lead to problems as you scale. Those issues could become growth opportunities.

7. Good communication skills.

Finally, a good employee is clear and direct with colleagues. She practices good communication skills — including active listening, setting clear expectations, asking questions, and showing interest in what the other person is saying.

We’ve all worked with colleagues who don’t seem to listen when we speak, or don’t follow-up on something they said they’d do. It’s frustrating, and can reduce trust. A good employee practices strong communication skills every day — both in-person, and online.

A good employee is also able to articulate when she can, and can’t, take on additional projects. This is part of setting clear expectations.

As Jen Stefancik, HubSpot’s Team Manager of Channel Promotions, tells me, “You can say ‘no’ and still be helpful. For example, you shouldn’t take on work you cannot or should not prioritize, but you can still put in the extra effort to suggest other avenues, resources, or advice to the person asking for help.”

It’s important to note — becoming a good employee takes time, and there will be setbacks.

As Clint Fontanella, Manager on HubSpot’s Blog team, puts it, “Most people want to get ahead fast. They want to make more money, get a better job or promotion, and they start to measure themselves on that, rather than day-to-day performance. You’re going to have bad days. There are people who are going to get promotions before you do. Your friend might land a new job and make more money.”

“All you can do is focus on you and be as consistent as possible — both in your work and in your attitude — and good things will happen.”

Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a new blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of Black business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.

The support for Black-owned businesses has increased drastically over the past year due to the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the influence of the Black Lives Matter protests that took place last summer to combat racial injustices in the nation.

Consumers have been actively seeking to buy from Black-owned businesses to help them stay open and increase the economic advancement of Black Americans.

As a result, the search for Black-owned businesses increased by 7,043% on Yelp, and the search term for “Black owned” on Google reached a value of 100 last summer.

Since then, Black-owned businesses have been proactive in increasing their visibility and accessibility through marketing strategies to optimize their outreach.

I spoke with Dana James Mwangi, the founder of Cheers Creative LLC and a Grow with Google Digital Coach, to learn about effective marketing strategies, tools, and approaches Black business owners can use to promote their businesses.

Marketing Strategies for Black-Owned Businesses

1. Use social media platforms to connect directly with your consumers.

Social media is one of the top tools businesses use to promote their services or products. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook have unique features. Black business owners can use these networks to connect directly to their customers, and to the broader community.

Although some businesses want to have a strong presence everywhere, Mwangi suggests entrepreneurs focus on one platform where they receive the most visibility, instead of trying to be present on all of them at once.  

“You want to use social media to get people to your website,” Mwangi said. “You can also use it to get people to sign up for your email list, or both.”

For instance, check out how Rihanna promotes her Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin and Savage X Fenty brands on Instagram with catchy captions and visually appealing posts. Her content is not only relatable, but inclusive to people of all backgrounds.

This tactic can help you secure a potential sale and maintain continuous, effective engagement with your audience. It also enables you to expand your brand reach.

2. Create targeted ads for high-converting audiences.

Social media platforms and search engines like Google offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to create ads that show up on their targeted audience’s timelines or feeds. Mwangi says ads are a great way to market yourself to receive a faster return.

One benefit of using ads is it allows you to choose what audience you want to target. Facebook and Instagram, in particular, offer the option to market to people who follow your brand, or you can customize your targeting preferences by choosing specific details, including age, location, and search behavior.

This gives you more control over who sees your ads, so you can ensure you’re only serving your ads to those most likely to purchase your product or service.

3. Generate an email list, and send out unique case studies or behind-the-scenes information.

Email lists have plenty of benefits for businesses — ultimately, email is one of the strongest opportunities for lead generation and nurturing.

Once you’ve begun growing your email list, consider sending emails with exclusive information, such as your business’ story, or what your company stands for and what matters most to your employees.

Mwangi also recommends companies provide case studies, advice for email subscribers, or sneak peeks of products and services ahead of launches.

Alternatively, you might consider highlighting a consumers’ story to demonstrate the impact your business can have on your email subscribers’ if they choose to purchase.

4. Become a thought leader in your space.

Another way businesses can market themselves is by participating in public speaking, podcasts, or blogging engagements. Although this form of marketing has a slower return to influence sales, Mwangi says it leaves a trail of breadcrumbs for people to reach out online.

This strategy also gives potential collaborators or customers the chance to warm up to the company because they’ve already gained some value from the brand.

For example, take a look at how Tiffany Aliche, the founder of “The Budgetnista”, has been able to use speaking engagements to promote her company and teach women how to properly handle their finances.

Aliche has spoken at 300 events across the country and over 1,000 globally, including EssenceFest and multiple hospitals and colleges.

5. Have an effective, well-designed website.

Once you’ve used the strategies listed above to drive traffic to your website, you want that traffic to feel delighted by what they find. It’s critical, then, that you pay as much attention to the design of your website and its usability as you would to a physical storefront.

A few Black-owned businesses that have aesthetically pleasing websites are Teflar, Pyer Moss, and Bevel.

All three websites incorporate attention-grabbing visuals and videos that immediately catches visitors’ attention once they visit the site. Business owners should not be afraid to stand out when it comes to securing a sale on their webpage.

If you already have a website but don’t feel it’s doing the job, take a look at The Ultimate Guide to Building a Website Redesign Strategy.

6. Use Google My Business and Google Analytics.

Google My Business is a helpful tool for business owners to create custom content to advertise to their target audience. Owners can also use the service in collaboration with Google Analytics to track data and see where people are accessing content.

For instance, Mwangi says that Google Analytics has helped her learn that people come to her website based on the content she posts on her Instagram Stories.

Not only is it showing her that people love her storytelling from this specific feature, but she’s also able to share certain links and information. Google Analytics is a beneficial service to collect data and figure out what’s the best platform for your brand to use.

Black-Owned Business Tips to Keep in Mind

Mwangi emphasizes that the marketing strategies listed above are all valuable pieces of the pie. Still, there are also specific approaches business owners must keep consistent across-the-board to promote company growth.

Let’s dive into those, now. 

7. Be authentic.

Authenticity is an integral approach to ensuring a company’s success. Mwangi says a benefit in garnering customers is a company informing its audience on where it stands.

An example of a Black-owned business that consistently leverages this approach is Black-owned, plant-based feminine care product line, The Honey Pot Company. The Honey Pot Company has always been transparent about where they stand and who they make their products for, which has helped them maintain loyal customers over time.

Black women, in particular, stood in solidarity with the company’s owner, Bea Dixon, when she received bad reviews from predominantly white buyers after Target featured her in a Black History Month commercial.

While people were trying to sabotage her brand, Black women not only took the initiative to combat the company’s rating with positive reviews, but they also spread the word on social media. Although the events that occurred were unfortunate, the publicity ended up working in the company’s favor because people became more aware of the company’s purpose and knew what Dixon stood for.

“Her brand values saved the day for her because her customers knew what she stood for,” Mwangi said. As a result, they supported her and bought out the shelves.

8. Define your target audience.

When entrepreneurs first launch their business, they have the goal to serve everyone, but Mwangi states that “if you’re trying to talk to everyone, then you are talking to no one.”

It’s okay for a business to choose a specific community it wants to advertise to and be unapologetic about it. The benefit of being an entrepreneur is that it guarantees a person the freedom to choose who they want to serve.

“You get the liberty to be as specific as you want and be niched as you want,” Mwangi expressed. “There is still a lane for you to make incredible amounts of profit.”

9. Speak your customers’ language.

The language of your business is also crucial, especially now. With all of the events currently taking place, Mwangi proposes that business owners need to be aware of what’s going on within the community and market accordingly.

Despite current events, business owners should keep in mind that their language should cater to their customers’ identity.

For example, the Black-owned cosmetics line, The Lip Bar, uses its platform to dispel mainstream standards of beauty.

Mwangi highlights how the brand is unapologetic about its purpose, and it takes pride in catering to customers who like to be bold with their makeup and define their beauty standards.

10. Start by marketing one (or a few) products.

Additionally, marketing one product rather than multiple products at once has proven to be effective. Mwangi recommends that customers sell one product in different ways or colors to avoid spreading marketing dollars and gain fast momentum.

Mwangi also used the founder of The Lip Bar, Melissa Butler, as an example of this approach. Butler first sold lipstick in different shades, then expanded her product line to lip liners, foundations, tinted moisturizers, eyeshadows, and more.

Another Black-owned business that used this approach is mesh body exfoliator product, Luv Scrub, founded by entrepreneur Caroline Owusu-Ansah. Owusu-Ansah sells cloths in a variety of colors.

“This marketing strategy is also an offering strategy or a product strategy,” Mwangi said. “You don’t have to give people all of these choices when you say that you can fix a problem. You can have one great product that fixes the problem and when you have that, what that means is now your marketing is super concentrated on that product.”

11. Maintain engagement with your community.

An essential factor for staying in business is maintaining customers and keeping them coming back for your product or service. One way to keep people buzzing about a company’s brand is by promoting various offers such as giveaways, contests, hosting Q&As, and doing customer features. Business owners can conduct these offers via social media and newsletters or their website to garner participation.

“Not only are you getting people engaged, but you’re also getting ideas on how to refine [your product or service],” Mwangi said. “They’re literally telling you what they want, how to refine your current products, and what they want out of the next product from you. If you look at it, the people will tell you what they want. You don’t have to make stabs in the dark.”

“Interacting with your customers is good because it’s showing people that you care,” she added. “It also helps you to get information on what your customer is thinking. Now you know even more about what they talk like, what they sound like, and you can make your website talk directly to them because you’ve been talking to them all this time. And listening and asking them questions.”

Overall, when it comes down to marketing, customer service is also needed to cater to customers fully.

Mwangi notes that customer relationship management software helps with this effort.

“Marketing is how you deliver that story, and customer relationship management software helps you back up who you say you are with excellent customer service,” she said.

The above marketing advice, branding, and customer service helps business owners develop successful business strategies and keep up with the demands of the business to attract customers.  

Writing a cover letter can feel like a daunting task, particularly if you don’t have a lot of real-world experience. Fortunately, a cover letter is actually a chance to explain how your extracurriculars and classes have taught you exceptional leadership and time management skills.

To really stand out, it’s important to personalize your cover letter for each internship application you plan to submit. Your cover letter isn’t an opportunity to reiterate your whole resume, though. This is your chance to pick out a few accomplishments from the position description and dive into examples showing how you’ve exhibited these skills.

We’ve created an internship cover letter template to provide some initial structure and inspiration, but we don’t expect this template to be one-size-fits-all. Ideally, you’ll supplement our template with your own creativity and flair.

There are different formats you can use when writing internship cover letters, but you can’t go wrong with the traditional business letter format. Business professionals use this template style to apply for full-time roles, so your cover letter will stand out above the rest. Remember to proofread, use formal terms such as “Dear” and “Sincerely,” and lean towards a professional tone in your body copy.

1. Include your name, date, location, and contact information.

Although some companies are firmly against using applicant tracking systems, chances are many of the companies you apply to will screen your resume and cover letter using one. That means you’ll need to stand out to both an automated system and human recruiters.

Have you ever heard the myth that you’d get credit for writing your name on the SAT exam? The same applies to adding contact information to your cover letter, but it’s 100% true. Make it easy for the recruiter to get in touch with you by providing an up-to-date phone number and email address.

In the past, it was common for job and internship seekers to include their exact address on their cover letter as they’d mail them directly to the hiring managers. In today’s digital world, most hiring teams won’t need to know your exact home address to extend an internship offer, so feel free to leave it off. Simply include your city and state to give the team an idea of your proximity to the office.

Your Name

Your Address

Your City, State, Zip Code

Cell: 555-555-5555

Email: [email protected]

Date

2. Include the company, department, and company address.

If you’re writing a cover letter for several internship opportunities, you’ll find it helpful to search the full name, department, and headquarters address of each company. Doing this as a separate step will help you copy the information accurately in your cover letter. Remember, you don’t want any typos or mistakes in your cover letter, especially when it comes to information that can be easily found on the internet.

Finding the department name may not be as simple, so you can leave that out if you’re unsure. If your company has several campuses or operates in different cities, use the address of the location where the internship will be performed or the office location where your hiring manager works. If your internship will be remote, use the company’s general headquarters address.

Department

Company

Street

City, State Zip

3. Address the hiring manager.

As a student looking for an internship, you’ll definitely set yourself apart from other applicants by being resourceful. You can show your resourcefulness by searching for the hiring manager’s name to properly address them in your cover letter. Occasionally, their title is stated in the role description. You can then search for the role on LinkedIn to identify their name. If you can’t find a name, you can instead address them by title only. Other times, though, finding the name of the hiring manager could be more difficult. If a Google search doesn’t return a first and last name, your best bet is to leave the name out. Sacrificing a bit of personalization is much better than addressing the wrong person in your cover letter.

Dear X, (try to find the hiring manager’s name… if you can’t, you can put “Dear [Company A] Hiring Committee”)

4. Set the context for your application.

In the first paragraph, explain how you heard about the company or position, and if you know anyone at the company, mention them here. Next, express your own interest in the company or position and explain briefly how it relates to your own passions. Don’t forget to introduce yourself in this paragraph, writing your name, your education level, your major, and your interests.

You may opt for a creative first line to capture the reader’s attention. One that worked for me early in my career went something like this:

“Can I tell you a secret? I’ve been telling stories since I was five years old. No, not fibbing — real storytelling…”

This is where you’ll benefit from researching the company’s culture. While this opening statement worked well for startups and more laid-back companies, a big accounting firm might find it culturally off-beat.

5. Sell your experience.

Scan the internship position description and pick out a few qualities you think apply to you — just don’t choose all the descriptors mentioned as it could appear disingenuous and make your cover letter too long. For instance, if I see a company is looking for someone who’s “outgoing, organized, hardworking, and willing to take criticism,” I would pick those that describe me best and focus on providing examples in the body of my cover letter.

Mentioning the traits directly in your cover letter shows you’ve read the position description, and makes your cover letter more scannable. If the hiring manager is looking for someone with content skills, she might scan your cover letter looking for the words that indicate experience with content.

Finally, brainstorm a few compelling examples to show how you embody the most important characteristics. Don’t just write, “I have excellent customer service skills.” You want to prove it. Support your claim by writing something like,

“Last summer, I worked as an orientation leader at my college, serving as a resource for incoming students and their parents. This experience strengthened my customer service skills.”

Even if you don’t have a lot of (or any) job experience, think about highlighting skills you’ve gained from extracurriculars, volunteer experience, or even passion projects:

“My passion for dance led me to become a volunteer dance teacher which helped me develop as a leader.”

6. Close the letter with grace and a call to action.

If the internship application does not explicitly state “please do not contact,” you might choose to conclude by specifying how you will follow up, such as, “I will call next week to see if my qualifications are a match,” or, “I am eager to meet with you to discuss this opportunity, and am available for an interview at a mutually convenient time.” Conclude by thanking the hiring manager for taking the time to consider you, and end on a positive, confident note, such as, “I look forward to speaking with you soon.”

You may even go a step further and give the hiring manager a call to action. Include a link to your online portfolio, a website, or even a YouTube channel where you display your work and personality. To see how often hiring managers are viewing these additional items, include tracking to your link using a URL tracker like Bitly to capture that data.

Sample Internship Cover Letter

Featured Resource: 5 Free Cover Letter Templates

Event Planning Internship Cover Letter

Your Name

1 Hireme Road

Boston, MA, 20813

Cell: 555-555-5555

Email: [email protected]

May 20, 2021

 

Event Planning Department — Internship Program

Company A

35 Recruiting St.

Boston, MA, 29174

 

Dear Internship Coordinator,

At the suggestion of John Smith, a senior marketer at Company A, I am submitting my resume for the Event Coordinator internship position. I am a junior at Elon University, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Sport and Event Management, and am passionate about event planning. I am thrilled to hear about Company A’s Event Coordinator internship program and feel my experiences and skills would be an excellent match for your organization.

As an executive member of the Student Union Board at Elon, I am in charge of organizing, promoting, and implementing multiple school-related social activities per week, while being challenged to design new events. I work cohesively with a diverse team made up of students and faculty, and I also foster relationships with novelty companies.

My experience as an Orientation Leader has further prepared me for this internship. It was essential that I remain positive, outgoing, and energized during move-in day and act as a liaison between new students, families, and faculty in a fast-paced and demanding environment. I was expected to maintain a highly professional customer service ethic while interacting with families and new students.

My Elon University experiences, executive board membership, and orientation leadership role have prepared me to be successful in the Event Coordinator internship program. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss how I can add value to Company A.

Sincerely,

(handwritten signature)

Your Name

Marketing Internship Cover Letter Template

Your Name

1 Hireme Road

Boston, MA, 20813

Cell: 555-555-5555

Email: [email protected]

May 20, 2021

 

Marketing Department — Internship Program

Company A

35 Recruiting St.

Boston, MA, 29174

 

Dear Internship Coordinator,

I am a passionate, creative, and driven Elon University student with leadership and event planning experience, as well as strong communication skills. I am seeking opportunities to showcase my writing abilities in a challenging and stimulating environment. My skills and experiences will enable me to deliver successful results as a digital marketing intern for Company B.

Please allow me to highlight my key skills:

• Prior experience writing blog posts and press releases for marketing objectives
• Strong communication skills and ability to adopt voice for diverse audiences and varying purposes
• Efficient in managing multiple projects with fast-moving deadlines through organization and time-management skills
• A firm understanding of grammar rules and how to write effectively
• Experience in leadership positions, both as Student Union Board executive leader and as an Elon Orientation Leader
• Proven ability to form positive relationships with people from around the globe, exhibited by my internship experience in China last summer
• Experience organizing, promoting, and implementing social events
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Photoshop, and Premiere), and social media platforms

In closing, I look forward to the opportunity to discuss how I can be an asset to Company B. I will call next week to see if you agree that my qualifications are a match for the position. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

(handwritten signature)

Your Name

Internship Cover Letter Templates

Standard Internship Cover Letter Template

Use this cover letter template as a foundation for your cover letter. You can customize it to fit your experience and the companies you’ll be applying to.

Download this cover letter template

Data-Driven Internship Cover Letter Template

If your major is data-driven like STEM, marketing, or accounting, this is the internship cover letter template for you. With this template, you can include the data highlights of your class projects and assignments to show the hiring manager that you can support your experience with credible facts.

Download this cover letter template

Entry-level Cover Letter Template

As you approach your senior year of college, you may be looking for entry-level roles rather than internships. Cover letters are just as important for full-time roles as they are for internships, so use this template to make the transition in your job search.

Download this cover letter template

Wrapping Up Your Letter of Recommendation

A resume isn’t always enough to make an impression. Including a cover letter in your internship application is the first step to setting yourself apart from other applicants. Study and apply the six steps for writing a professional internship cover letter and use one of these samples or templates to customize it. Your resume gives the highlights of your time in college while your cover letter tells the story of how those experiences will serve you as an intern with your future employer. Use it to your advantage to land the first role in your career as you navigate college and beyond.

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

It goes without saying, but your marketing materials shouldn’t be limited to conventional outbound advertisements — particularly if your business is B2B. Sure, capturing attention is part of the battle, but what happens when a prospect visits your website and sees nothing but some product descriptions and a pricing page?

There has to be more there. You need to have some material to show that you can walk the walk. One kind of content that helps get you there is known as marketing collateral, and it can come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Here, we’ll get a more in-depth understanding of the concept and go over the five most important marketing collateral formats you can use to help establish legitimacy and supplement your sales efforts.

At its core, marketing collateral is a way to let prospects know that you know what you’re talking about. It’s not supposed to be as flashy as conventional advertisements. In creating marketing collateral, your first priority generally isn’t to capture attention — it’s to retain and enhance it.

In most cases, the prospects who are looking at your marketing collateral are curious about your company, but they might not be intimately familiar with you or what you’re offering. Well-crafted marketing collateral can put them at ease. It can help build the kind of trust necessary to start and sustain a customer relationship.

Now you might be wondering, how does marketing collateral relate to marketing materials in general? Good question. 

Marketing Materials vs Marketing Collateral

In general, the difference between marketing materials and marketing collateral comes down to showing not telling. While other marketing materials might tell the reader explicitly why their company or offering is the best, marketing collateral is focused on showing why their company or offering is the best. 

That’s why marketing collateral tends to be educational in some capacity. When done right, the informative nature of the format lets you separate yourself from the competition by letting you showcase an extensive understanding of your industry that others in your space might not be projecting.

If all of your marketing materials are solely dedicated to talking up your product or service, you’ll be selling yourself short. When prospects are deciding to buy, they’re not just considering what’s for sale — they’re considering your company as a whole.

They want to know they’ll be taken care of by a competent, capable, knowledgeable organization that they can rely on to address any issues and concerns they might have as they arise. Creating thoughtful marketing collateral is one way to help that cause.

1. Blog Posts

Producing good marketing collateral is often a matter of consistently providing value to your audience. One of the better forums to create and promote the kind of material that does that on an ongoing basis is a well-maintained company blog.

It allows you to supplement your sales efforts with helpful insight and audience engagement — driving traffic to your website and generating leads through actionable advice, expertise, and entertainment. Below are some examples from HubSpot’s Website Blog. 

Blog Post Example

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Like any other kind of effective marketing collateral, good blog posts can project authority in your industry. You want to show you’re staying abreast of industry trends and understand the nuances of your space — constantly churning out high-quality, helpful content can help that cause and put your prospects at ease.

Keeping all these benefits in mind, it’s no wonder then that marketers ranked blogs as the second primary form of media used within their content strategy in a recent HubSpot survey.

2. Ebooks

Ebooks are similar to blog posts in that they should project industry authority through engagement, but they tend to be longer, more in-depth, and less snackable than typical blog content. This type of marketing collateral generally attracts prospects with a vested interest in your industry. Below are some examples from HubSpot.

Ebook Example

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In some ways, an Ebook could be likened to an extended blog post or a few blog posts strung together. Like blog content, an Ebook generally contains accessible language and directly actionable advice.

In many cases, Ebooks are downloadable and can only be accessed in exchange for a prospect’s contact information — making them a powerful vehicle for lead generation.

No matter where your company stands, you likely have the resources and knowhow to channel your industry-specific knowledge into a thoughtful Ebook. Remember, your marketing collateral should be designed to build trust with prospects and customers.

If you can put out Ebooks to reliably bolster their knowledge of your industry, you can convince them they’re in good hands when they buy your product or service.

3. Case Studies

Case studies are offering-specific documents that detail how specific customers saw success as a result of leveraging your product or service. This format is different from the previous two in that it’s never product-agnostic. Below is an example from HubSpot.

Case Study Example

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Every case study is made in collaboration with a satisfied customer. It’s a form of cross-promotion that shows what your product or service is like in practice — a roadmap that lets prospects imagine what you could do for their business.

Like almost every other example on this list, case studies are educational. They provide a more thorough explanation of how your product or service works through an active example. It’s also another avenue for building trust.

If you can point to reputable customers who are willing to vouch for your business in extensive detail, you can bolster your company’s reputation as a solid, knowledgeable organization with a product or service that delivers results.

4. Testimonials

Testimonials are essentially condensed, snackable case studies. Many — if not most — prospects don’t have the time or interest to delve into a full-on case study. If you want to reach them, you’re going to have to provide quick-hitting content that they can glance over passively. Testimonials can do just that. Below is an example of one from HubSpot.

Testimonial Example

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This testimonial follows the format’s best practice. It’s visually engaging, clearly establishes who provided the quote, and references specific benefits — a solid example of an appropriately informative, easily digestible piece of marketing collateral. Ultimately, a good testimonial helps project the company’s legitimacy while inspiring potential customers to further explore the product it’s promoting.

5. White Papers

A white paper is a persuasive, authoritative, in-depth report on a specific topic. Generally, one of these documents will raise a problem and present a solution to it.

It’s typically more technical and less accessible than an Ebook. It’s meant to draw a crowd more intimately involved with or interested in your industry — an audience that might naturally run into the issue at the core of the document.

White papers shouldn’t be product pitches. It’s best practice to keep them objective and educational. That being said, the topics you choose need to be relevant to your company or space.

This kind of collateral also needs to be thoroughly researched, thoughtfully formatted, polished, and written in a serious tone. That means no flashy language or cute gimmicks. Below are some examples of topics from HubSpot’s Not Another State of Marketing Report.

White Paper Example

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As I keep mentioning, every format listed in this article is tailored to project authority to some extent — the white paper is the purest example of that trend. It’s a technical document that’s meant to demonstrate technical knowledge to a crowd with technical prowess.

6. Explainer Videos

Explainer videos — the most commonly-created types of video — are an excellent way to appeal to visual learners. Designed to provide a quick and easy explanation of a product, service, or topic related to your industry, these help your company establish expertise and gain the trust of their target audience.

They are generally between 30 to 90 seconds in length, which translates into a written script of 200 words or less.  This type of collateral can often be found on a website’s homepage, landing pages, prominent product pages, and social media accounts. Below is an example of one from HubSpot.

Explainer Video Example

The explainer video is a quick and memorable way to make an impact on your audience. It can be the difference between a prospect buying your product and not buying it, or subscribing to your YouTube page, and more. 

For inspiration, check out 17 Examples of Fabulous Explainer Videos.

Ready to Create Your Own Marketing Collateral?

Well-crafted marketing collateral can give you a leg up on your competition. Not only is it an excellent vehicle for lead generation, but it can also offer your business an element of authority and trustworthiness to make potential customers more comfortable and inclined to buy from you. If your company isn’t producing it, consider trying out one of the formats listed above.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Serving as your company’s virtual front door, this page is responsible for drawing in a majority of your website’s traffic. Still, despite its prominence, many businesses struggle to optimize it properly.

You see, your homepage needs to wear a lot of hats. Rather than treating it like a dedicated landing page built around one particular action, it should be designed to serve different audiences, from different origins. And in order to do so effectively, it needs to be built with purpose. In other words, you’ll need to incorporate elements that attract traffic, educate visitors, and invite conversions.

To improve the performance of your homepage, check out these elements every homepage must have.

12 Critical Elements Every Website Homepage Must Have

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What You Should Include in Your Website Homepage Design

1. Headline

Within three seconds, a website needs to tell visitors what the business has to offer. That’s where your headline comes in. It may only be a few words, but it’s one of the most important pieces of copy on your website.

Many types of people might visit your website, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a few words that hit home for everyone. Instead, write your headline to target a third of those people who are most likely to be happy with your product.

Keep the headline itself clear and simple. Dropbox‘s headline is a great example: “Everything you need for work, all in one place.” It’s simple, yet powerful — no need to decode jargon to figure out what Dropbox really does.

2. Sub-headline

Your sub-headline should supplement the headline by offering a brief description of what you do or what you offer. This can be done effectively by zeroing in on a common pain point that your product or service solves.

Here’s an example of a great sub-headline from Mirror: “Hiding in plain sight.” It hones in on the primary selling point of the mirror gym: It’s a full at-home gym, personal trainer, and workout plan all in the comfort of your home without taking up precious square footage with equipment.

To optimize your headlines for mobile, use larger fonts to give visitors a better experience. Small fonts could force mobile visitors to pinch and zoom in order to read and interact with the content on your site. Our advice? Use the heading options in your page editor. H1 headings are perfect for page titles — there should only be one H1 on a page. Subheadings should follow the order of the hierarchy, H2, H3 … H6, and so on. You can have several of these headings, just make sure they’re in order. For example, you won’t want to jump from an H1 to an H3 — choose an H2 instead.

3. Primary Calls-to-Action

The goal of your homepage is to compel visitors to dig deeper into your website and move them down the funnel. Include two to three calls-to-action above the fold that direct people to different stages of the buying cycle — and place them in spots that are easy to find.

These CTAs should be visually striking, ideally in a color that contrasts with the color scheme of your homepage while still fitting in with the overall design. Keep the copy brief — no more than five words — and action-oriented, so it compels visitors to click whatever you’re offering. Examples of CTA copy are “Sign up,” “Make an appointment,” or “Try it for free.”

Afterschool HQ’s website features two CTAs above the fold, both geared toward program directors who are interested in promoting their after-school programs to families on the site. The note below the longer CTA “Create Your Free Profile” gives visitors the nudge they need to create an account — the first step to becoming an Afterschool HQ provider.

4. Supporting Image

Most people are visual. Make sure to use an image (or even a short video) that clearly indicates what you offer. Use images that capture emotion, drive action, and visually tell the story you’re writing about.

To optimize your images for mobile users, use high-quality images that have a reduced file size. (HubSpot customers don’t need to worry about this, as images uploaded to HubSpot’s software are automatically compressed. Otherwise, tools like TinyPNG will do the trick.) Also, always add alt text to your images to make them more accessible to visitors who use screen readers and to take your SEO efforts up a notch.

The 4 Rivers Smokehouse homepage is a great example of emotional imagery: It features a series of short, high definition, and mouthwatering videos that play on a loop behind a simple headline, sub-headline, and primary CTA:

5. Benefits

It’s not only important to describe what you do, but why what you do matters. Prospects want to know about the benefits of buying from you because that’s what will compel them to stick around.

Keep the copy lightweight and easy to read, and speak the language of your customers. Evernote does a great job of listing benefits on their homepage in a way that’s compelling, visually pleasing, and easy to understand:

6. Social Proof

Social proof is a powerful indicator of trust. Your product or service could be the best in the world, and it’s okay to lay that claim — it’s just that people may not believe you unless they hear it from other people, too. And that’s exactly what social proof does.

Include just a few of your best (short) quotes on the homepage, and link to case studies if applicable. Adding a name and photo gives these testimonials more credibility. Lessonly nails this on their homepage with glowing testimonials from actual clients.

7. Navigation

The design and content in your homepage navigation could mean the difference between a website conversion and a bounce. To decrease bounce rate, give your visitors a clear path to the pages they need right from the homepage. Make the navigation menu visible at the top of the page, and organize the links in a hierarchical structure.

No one knows your website better than those who helped design it, so be sure to conduct user tests to make sure it’s simple and intuitive for visitors to find what they’re looking for on your site. Include a search box if you can. (Read this blog post for more helpful website navigation tips.)

Here’s an example of a clear, well-structured navigation design from Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria homepage:

8. Content Offer

To generate even more leads from your homepage, feature a really great content offer, such as a whitepaper, ebook, or guide. Folks who may not be ready to buy might rather download an offer that gives them more information about a topic they’re interested in. If you need inspiration, here are several different content types to pick from.

9. Secondary Calls-to-Action

Include secondary CTAs on your homepage to offer additional conversion opportunities for prospects who aren’t interested in your primary objective. Think of them like the contingency plan: They offer another path for visitors who are not yet ready for something as high-commitment as you’re asking.

While your primary CTAs should be above the fold, place secondary CTAs below the fold to give visitors things to click on when they scroll down. For example, below the fold on Spanx’s homepage, you’ll find three, clearly labeled calls-to-action that give folks who’ve scrolled that far a few more options to click on. These secondary CTAs are for two different types of conversions: one on the far left for $20 off and another, “shop now” to explore the online catalog.

10. Features

In addition to benefits, list some of your key features. This gives people more of an understanding of what’s provided by your products and services. Again, keep the copy light and easy to read. Dropbox for Business, for example, doesn’t shy away from showing off a features matrix right on their homepage below the fold.

11. Resources

Again, most visitors to your website won’t be ready to buy … yet. For folks who are looking for more information, offer a link to a resource center where they can browse relevant information. Not only does this keep them on your webpage for longer, but it also helps you establish your credibility as a thought leader in your industry.

Lovesac adds a resources link to the footer below the fold. Notice how each of these secondary CTAs cover multiple stages in the buying cycle: a credit card link to help customers buy their furniture easily, a fabric swatch guide for those who are still looking for the perfect color before making a purchase, and an online catalog for people who are in the market for new furniture but aren’t yet ready to make a purchase.

12. Success Indicators

In addition to customer success stories, both awards and recognition can also help inspire a good first impression. Is your company a critically acclaimed restaurant? Were you voted best new app this year? Let your homepage visitors know of your accomplishments. Like social proof, it’ll give your business more credibility to those who don’t know you.

On Calendly’s homepage, for example, you’ll find the names of famous organizations that have recognized them, like Gartner and Dropbox.

A Homepage Worth Visiting

The homepage of your site is the first introduction each visitor will have to your business. Before they make up their mind to become a customer, they’ll review your homepage to get an idea of what you sell, why that matters to them, and how they can benefit from what you have to offer.

Make a brilliant first impression with a homepage that incorporates the elements outlined above. And for more inspiration, check out stunning examples of homepages by downloading the free lookbook below.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2012 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Knowing the ins and outs of Excel is essential for organizing data, understanding analytics, and getting the most from your marketing efforts. The tool is great for quickly processing vast amounts of data, but it can be overwhelming if you don’t spend the majority of your workday whipping up spreadsheets.

Fortunately, a few basic skills are all you need to put together an easy-to-read spreadsheet. One is knowing how to merge cells in Excel. Whether you’re planning blog articles for the upcoming quarter, creating an email list for a targeted campaign, or designing SEO-friendly Google ads, merging cells is a handy way to organize your information.

To sharpen your skills, we’ll cover several ways to combine cells.

• How to merge two cells
• How to merge and center cells
• How to merge multiple cells
• How to merge cells without losing data
• A shortcut to merge cells
• Why can’t I merge cells?

Don’t want to start from scratch? Use these free Excel templates as a foundation for your own marketing spreadsheets.

How to Merge Two Cells in Excel

Merging is a way to turn two small cells into one new, large cell. This is useful for organizing information and creating headers, without the need to resize individual cells. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Highlight the two adjacent cells you want to merge (I’m merging A1 and B1 in the example).

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Step 2: Under the Home tab, click the ‘Merge’ icon and choose ‘Merge Cells’.

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Step 3: That’s it! You’ve merged the cells.

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Note: When combining cells, only the data in the upper left cell is saved. Make sure to save the information from the other cell so it’s not lost. If you happen to have data in both A1 and B1, Excel won’t simply wipe it. This alert will pop up:

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Don’t want to delete the data? Click ‘Cancel,’ and copy/paste the information into a separate document or cell before merging. If you only need the information in the upper-left cell, click ‘OK’ to merge the cells.

How to Merge and Center Cells in Excel

Say you’re building a marketing report and want your titles to be centered above your data. Merge and center cells by following these steps.

Step 1: Highlight the cells you want to merge.

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Step 2: Under the Home tab, click the ‘Merge’ icon and choose ‘Merge & Center.’

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Step 3: Your cells will merge and the data will be centered within the cell.

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How to Merge Cells in Excel Shortcut

Clicking the correct ‘Merge’ function over and over can be a drag if you need to combine a lot of cells. For fast merging, start by highlighting the cells you want to merge. Then, type the following key combinations.

Excel Shortcuts for Windows

1. Merge Cells: ALT H+M+M
2. Merge & Center: ALT H+M+C
3. Merge Across: ALT H+M+A
4. Unmerge Cells: ALT H+M+U

Excel Shortcuts for OS

The Apple operating system doesn’t have an ALT key, so you have to set up your own shortcut to merge cells.

1. In Excel, click ‘Tools’ under the navigation bar.
2. Select ‘Customize Keyboard.’
3. A pop-up will appear. Under the header ‘Specify a Command’ there are two columns: Categories and Commands. For Categories, select ‘Home Tab.’ For Commands, select ‘Merge Cells.’
4. Select the text box under ‘Press new keyboard shortcut.’ Type the key combination for your shortcut. For example: CONTROL+M.
5. Click ‘OK’ to set your shortcut.
6. You can now use CONTROL+M to merge cells in Excel.
7. Set up additional shortcuts for Merge Across, Merge & Center, or Unmerge.

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How to Merge Multiple Cells in Excel

You know the basics, but now you want to get creative and merge more than two cells. Depending on your desired spreadsheet layout, you can use the Merge Across, Merge Cells, or Merge & Center function.

1. Merge Across

This option is used to merge cells within a single row. You can’t use ‘Merge Across’ to combine cells within a column or across multiple rows.

In this example, I’m setting up PPC ads and want to see my description copy in row 17. If I simply resize column F, my table will have too much space between column F and G. Merging multiple cells across row 17 lets me see the copy and keep the table neat.

Step 1: Highlight all the cells you want to merge within the row.

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Step 2: Under the Home tab, click the ‘Merge’ icon and choose ‘Merge Across.’

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Step 3: The cells merge across the entire highlighted area.

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2. Merge & Center

You can merge and center multiple cells across rows and down columns. Just remember the data in the upper-left cell is the only information that will stay once merged. In the example below, I use ‘Merge & Center’ to combine rows 15, 16, and 17 with columns F, G, and H.

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3. Merge Cells

The ‘Merge Cells’ function is ideal to combine multiple adjacent cells across rows and columns. It works just like the ‘Merge & Center’ function, except the data will be left-aligned instead of centered after merging.

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How to Merge Cells in Excel Without Losing Data

Want to merge cells without losing information from all but the upper left cell? Easy. You can use the ampersand (&) or the CONCATENATE function to combine data from two or more cells.

In the example below, I’m creating copy for Instagram and want to combine the caption with its corresponding link.

Ampersand

Step 1: Choose the cell where you want to put the merged data. Make sure this is separate from the cells you’re merging.

Step 2: Type = in the blank cell and select the first cell to combine.

Step 3: Type & and use ” ” to leave a space between cell data.

Step 4: Type & again before choosing the next cell. Repeat for all the cells you want to combine. An example formula is =D5&” “&E5.

Step 5: Hit Enter. In the example, you can see how the text from cells D5 and E5 merged into F5.

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CONCATENATE or CONCAT

The CONCATENATE function (or CONCAT) is another way to combine two or more text strings together.

The formula in Excel is =CONCATENATE (text1,text2,…). Text1 is the first cell to merge and can be a text value, number, or cell reference. Text2 is the next item to join. For this function, you can merge up to 255 items or 8,192 characters.

Step 1: Highlight a new blank cell where you want to merge the data.

Step 2: In the formula bar, type =CONCATENATE(

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Step 3: A formula builder will pop up, allowing you to choose Text1, Text2, and so on. Select the cells you want to merge, in order from first to last. To include spaces between the cell data, you must include ,” “, within the formula. [i.e. =CONCATENATE(D5,” “,E5)]

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Step 4: Hit Enter. The data from your selected cells will be combined in the CONCATENATE cell.

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Why Can’t I Merge Cells in Excel?

A lot can go wrong if your formula or formatting isn’t set up correctly. If you’re struggling to merge cells, try these troubleshooting tips.

1. Ensure you’re not actively editing a cell you want to merge. The ‘Merge’ icon will be shaded out if you’re in the middle of making changes. To fix this, simply hit ‘Enter’ to stop editing or click onto another cell before clicking back to the cell you’d like to merge.

1. Check if one of the cells is part of an Excel table. Tables have a unique format that don’t allow merging. You can tell you’re on a Table if the ‘Chart Design’ or ‘Format’ tabs across the top of your workbook are highlighted in green and the ‘Merge’ icon is shaded out.

1. Look at the sharing permissions of the Excel workbook. If it’s not shared with you or is protected, you won’t be able to make any changes or merge cells.

How to Unmerge Cells

Maybe you got a little excited trying out your new skills and merged one cell too many. Don’t panic. Simply unmerge your cells by following these steps.

1. Highlight the cells you want to unmerge.
2. Under the Home tab, click the ‘Merge’ icon and choose ‘Unmerge Cells.’
3. Your cells will go back to the original formatting, but you will have lost the information from before the merge.
4. If you need that information, click ‘Command’ + Z (OS) or ‘CTRL’ +Z (Windows) to undo your actions until you see the data pop up.

If you’ve spent any time on the internet, chances are you’ve encountered an HTTP status code.

In simple terms, HTTP status codes are standard response codes that show the relationship between all the things that go on in the background when you travel from web page to web page. Things like the user agent (i.e., your web browser), the server, the web page you’re trying to load, and any third-party web applications you might be running.

Because of the complexity of how all those elements interact, there are many possible HTTP status codes you can run up against.

HTTP status codes identify and diagnose the particular blocker preventing you from loading a resource, and can give you information about the journey you took on the way to a page.

In this article, we’ll cover what you need to know about the HTTP 302 status code – jargon-free.

For starters, it’s helpful to know that all HTTP messages with 3xx are redirection messages.

Say blog.hubspot.com no longer exists, and the content is now permanently housed on blogging.hubspot.com. This would trigger a 301 status code, which indicates a permanent redirection from one location to another.

The 302 redirect, on the other hand, is only temporary. A good example of when to use a 302 status code is for localization and language purposes.

For instance, if you visit a clothing website based in the United Kingdom but you are located in the United States. A 302 redirect would send you to the US version of the site to ensure the currency and other content are displayed correctly, according to your location.

You can also use a 302 status code when:

• Redesigning a page – You can send users to a temporary location while the other page is under construction.
• Conducting A/B tests – Want to test a new page and get feedback on its performance? You can do this with a 302 redirect without hurting your ranking.
• Running a promotion – To drive traffic to a particular offer, you can set up a temporary redirect for a page that usually includes other content.
• A product is sold out – In the case of a sold-out or temporarily unavailable product, you can redirect users to a related page until it is available again.

While this list is not exhaustive, here’s the golden rule to keep in mind: Only use a 302 redirect if the change is temporary.

Furthermore, a 302 status code happens on the server-side and shouldn’t be noticed by users if set up correctly. The web server serving up the 302 redirect will immediately indicate the new location of the page to your browser (and search engines) and should send users there right away.

How a 302 Status Code Affects SEO

From an SEO perspective, it’s important to understand how a 302 status code can impact your ranking and when you should use it.

Firstly, if the location of a page has changed and a redirect has not been set up, this can lead to a 404 status error (i.e., your page cannot be found) and affect your ranking. After all, Google won’t want to send users to a page that leads to nowhere.

One benefit of using a redirect like this is that you don’t have to sacrifice your ranking when you temporarily send users elsewhere.

Say you’re using it to redirect users from a sold-out product page to a relevant product page. You wouldn’t want your unavailable product’s page to drop in ranking, just because it’s currently unavailable. With a 302 status code, you can maintain your ranking.

However, this also means that your temporary URL will not benefit from any link juice because Google knows it won’t be there long.

For comparison, a 301 code typically sends most link equity to your new URL, but your page can experience some drop in ranking as a result of the redirect.

How to Identify & Implement an HTTP 302 Error

If you want to see when you’ve encountered a 302 redirect (or any type of redirect), consider using an application or Chrome extension (like this one, Redirect Path). This type of tool will show you directly in your browser when you run into a redirect.

You can also view and implement the code from the backend by accessing your .htaccess file. To avoid accessing this file, you can also install a redirect manager plugin or an SEO tool that includes a redirect manager (like Yoast SEO Premium).

Overall, you want to make sure you understand how redirection messages affect SEO. A 302 status code can be a great strategy when making temporary changes to your website, like testing new website features and product promotions.

So, when you’re debating between various redirection messages, make sure the one you choose aligns with your long-term strategy.

Getting lost sucks. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a city or a corn maze, the ambiguity of not knowing where you are and what could happen next can make you break out in a cold sweat.

Website visitors feel the same way when they land on a jumbled website. Nearly one in two people leave a website after visiting just one page. We don’t have a lot of time to make a good impression on a user, and with a poor site architecture, you’re guaranteed to increase bounce rates.

It’s critical to structure your site in an intuitive and easy-to-navigate way to retain your audience’s attention. If you don’t, they’ll bounce in seconds. And if people leave your website because your user experience is messy, search engines won’t think highly of you, either.

If you need help structuring a website that will engage an audience and rank on Google, we’ve got you covered. We’ll teach you what website architecture is, why it’s important for UX and SEO, and how you can develop a sound architecture for your own website.

Without question, your website structure plays a critical role in retaining users and boosting conversions.

Implementing a website structure helps you design your website for the user experience. You might have the most amazing content, but if users can’t find it, they’ll leave for a competitor’s site.

A typical website structure looks like a rooted tree graph, in which the home page is the root. The pages that are linked out from the home page are branches, and from there, each page has additional branches sprouting from it. These branches then link to each other.

Here’s what that typically looks like:

Why is website structuring important?

A sound website architecture strengthens your website’s user experience. When you structure your website in an intuitive way, users can seamlessly find the information they’re looking for.

Plus, when your user experience is strong, your search engine rankings will be, too. Users will spend more time on your website and link to your web pages, which are both heavy indicators that your brand creates quality content.

Furthermore, a solid website architecture:

• Helps search engines effectively crawl your website.
• Encourages deep site navigation by providing more pages for users to visit.
• Distributes “page authority” more equitably, so that a page isn’t left out.
• Strengthens topical authority because of the strong internal linking structure between related or similar topics.
• Increases conversions by making it easier to find products and lead-generating content.

Let’s take a look at a few best practices you should keep in mind when designing your site’s architecture.

1. Create a simple top-level navigation menu.

First, don’t provide too many top-level menu items. Second, be sure to deliver the content that’s promised based on the menu item’s name.

For instance, if your users click on the “Email Marketing” tab on your blog’s homepage, they expect to be directed to a list of email marketing posts. From this page, you also need to design a simple navigation path back to your blog’s homepage and your website’s homepage.

Check out an example below from our own website:

The menu is divided into three simple menu items: Software, Pricing, and Resources. Under the “Resources” tab, users can find different resources that are divided into different designations.

Don’t make your users think too hard. A hard-to-navigate website will have a high bounce rate. Users don’t want to waste time trying to find information on your site. If they do, they’ll just leave. So practice empathy and provide an intuitive web experience.

2. Keep your URLs simple and user-friendly.

No user wants to read an URL like this:

example.com/store/rackets/default.aspx?lang=en&category=98a20

It’s important to create user-friendly URLs. Most CMS systems, such as CMS Hub and WordPress, automatically create a user-friendly URL based on your page’s title. It will usually read as follows:

example.com/page-title

You can also create subdirectories that are easy to follow.

example.com/topic/subtopic/page-title

Tip: While subdirectories are helpful from a UX standpoint, they aren’t required to reflect your site’s architecture. Internal linking matters more than URL structure. That means that you can can structure your URLs as follows:

example.com/topic

example.com/subtopic

example.com/longtail-keyword-one

example.com/longtail-keyword-two

You simply have to connect them to each other and to their parent pages with internal links.

3. Model your website architecture after the top players in your industry.

Your customers are used to the website architecture of major brands in your industry, so if you run an ecommerce store, analyze how Amazon structures their website and emulate them. Your website will seem more familiar and, in turn, easier to navigate.

4. Keep your website consistent.

Your website’s navigation format, design principles, and link displays should all follow a consistent pattern. Keeping these elements the same will keep your users on your site longer because it’ll be easier for them to quickly navigate to new pages and click on links.

5. Implement the pillar-cluster internal linking model.

In the pillar-cluster model, you have a parent page (the pillar) linking out to child pages (the cluster). These child pages then link to each other, creating a cluster.

This model makes your internal linking structure clearer and effectively directs users to other pieces of relevant and useful content. When users come across an internal link on your website, they should immediately understand which piece of content the link will direct them to and why that content is linked from the page they’re currently on.