Author Archives: i4lead

While many landing pages look different and use a variety of exciting strategies to pull in audiences, they all serve one major purpose — to convert to the next stage in the buyer’s journey.

Rather than serving as a basic advertisement that shows a customer a product, a landing page aims to engage and delight a customer by offering them something that relates to the product or the company’s industry. When they fill out the form and receive a reward of interesting content, they might be even more likely to trust your brand and become a customer.

Quick tip: Want an easy way to add a form to your landing page? HubSpot’s free form builder tool can help you fill your CRM with leads from your website.

Let’s talk through an example of when a landing page can be especially effective. If a business wants to sell an AI product that helps salespeople, they might create a landing page that offers audiences a free video on how to use AI in the sales industry. Interested audiences might offer their contact information in exchange for the valuable information. If they enjoy the video they’ve received, they might be more likely to respond to or purchase a product from a company rep who calls them.

In another scenario, a publishing company that targets an audience of chief executives might create a landing page that invites audiences to sign up for a webinar hosted by an executive at a major company.

After giving their email address on the signup form presented on the landing page, the leads get an email with the webinar dates and log in information, as well as instructions on how to sign up for the publication’s newsletter or subscription. If the user is pleased by the webinar, they might sign up for the newsletter or a subscription to keep up with similar publication content.

Although their purpose is simple enough in theory, actually designing a successful landing page requires some detailed planning and creative testing.

Even after launching your landing page, you’ll want to pay attention to conversion rates to see how well it’s doing.

To determine your conversion rate, simply divide the number of conversions a web page generates by the number of people who visited that page.

If your conversion rate isn’t close to the average just yet, don’t worry. Nailing those percentages can be a bit challenging at first, especially if you have a lot of regular page visitors. Luckily, there are a number of simple conversion rate optimization strategies that can help you boost your current rate quickly.

Regardless of what your business is selling or the conversion action you hope to instigate, it’s helpful to get inspired by seeing what other great landing pages look like.

And because there’s no one “right” way of designing a landing page, you’ll want to check out examples from lots of different industries for different stages of the buying process.

Want to get inspired? Check out the great landing page examples below.

We don’t have access to the analytics for each of these landing pages, so I can’t tell you specifically how well they convert visitors, contacts, leads, and customers. But many of them do follow best practices while also implementing a few new experiments that could give you ideas for your own landing pages.

19 Great Examples of Landing Page Design

1. AirBnB

This AirBnB landing page is a one-stop shop for visitors curious about hosting. It features testimonials from current hosts, articles offering advice, and even a calculator to estimate your weekly average earnings based on your location.

If all this info convinces you to start hosting, the vibrant pink CTA in the header makes it easy to convert on the spot.

2. Wix

Wix has turned its landing page into a creative playground with a stunning and captivating digital illustration that follows you down the page. It’s not overwhelming or distracting — it’s carefully balanced with white space and clear text.

We love the use of design to emphasize certain touchpoints on the page. For instance, the mountain’s peak in the illustration points to the main CTA encouraging visitors to get started.

3. ExpressVPN

What do we love most about this landing page? It’s not what it has, but what it doesn’t — a navigation bar! By removing the navigation bar, ExpressVPN shines a spotlight on the primary CTA.

Why do we take an anti-navigation stance for landing pages? They tend to distract visitors and lead them away from the intended action. Not only is this a landing page design best practice, but we’ve also conducted A/B tests that show removing navigation links from landing pages increases conversion rates.

4. Row House

Besides its sleek design, this landing page gets bonus points for the autoplay video in the background, which adds a degree of movement to an otherwise static page. Speaking of movement, the video shows people working out at Row House, which offers a great introduction to the brand.

If it suits your brand, try enticing visitors with a video component. It could be the difference between passive and active engagement.

5. Codeacademy

I like this page because it’s simple in both copy and design. The form on the page is simple and only requires an email address and password. Or, you can use your LinkedIn, Facebook, GitHub, or Google Plus login, shortening the conversion path even further.

The landing page also offers real-life success stories, testimonials, and other forms of social proof for visitors who need more information before creating an account. This helps make the potentially intimidating world of coding more approachable for beginners.

6. Sunbasket

Sunbasket takes a competitive approach to its landing page, directly comparing its meal delivery service to its main competitor, Blue Apron. As you scroll down the page, a table highlights where Sunbasket’s features exceed those of Blue Apron.

By comparing your products or services to another, you can highlight why yours is the clear winner. It’s a smart way to provide “evidence” to potential customers as to why they should choose you.

7. Curology

I’d argue that the top fold is the most important element of a landing page, alongside the CTA. Curology’s top fold is clean, visually appealing, and to-the-point — and the copy is less than 50 characters long. Users immediately understand the offer and how it can benefit them.

Even if the brand is new to you, its message is loud and clear — regardless of your skin issues, Curology has a custom solution for you.

8. Breather

Here’s another example of clever, delightful design on a landing page. As soon as you visit Breather.com, there’s an instant call to action: indicate where you want to find a space. Plus, it uses location services to figure out where you are, providing instant options nearby.

We love how Breather used simple, to-the-point copy to let the visitor know what the company does, followed immediately by the CTA to select a city. The negative space and soothing color scheme also align with the product –– essentially, room to breathe.

9. Mailchimp

For starters, check out that sunny yellow background color — it’s impossible to ignore. It’s a bold departure from its more subdued home page, yet still on brand.

Besides the color, this landing page gets a shoutout for its CTA placement. It displays a consistent CTA (“Sign Up”) not once or twice, but three times on the page. No matter how far down you scroll, you will see the same button.

This is a solid strategy since the CTA operates as a gateway for converting clients. It should be available to visitors as they move down the page — not just once on the top fold.

10. Paramount Plus

This landing page design has it all. It’s visually appealing, interactive, and offers scannable yet descriptive headers – such as Peak Streaming, Peak Originals, and Peak Family Team. Plus, the background makes each fold look slightly different, creating a captivating scrolling experience.

The landing page also features a repeatable CTA (“Try It Free”) and several strategically-placed content offers, culminating in multiple touchpoints for visitors to convert.

11. CarMax

CarMax is ready to empower visitors to do their own research right on the landing page. It features a search bar that leads to a large database of cars and a calculator that allows visitors to estimate their ideal monthly budget.

For those looking to sell their car, it also includes a form that users can fill out to receive a quote.

It’s clear CarMax wants the buying or selling experience to be as painless as possible. By translating the company’s customer-centric approach on its landing page, CarMax effectively turns a universally dreaded event — purchasing a new car — into a straightforward process without gimmicks or barriers.

12. Edupath

Who is your landing page’s target audience? While most of Edupath’s website content is directed toward students, there are sections dedicated to advising parents on helping their teenagers through college applications and SAT preparation. The landing page below is in one of these sections.

When parents fill out their teenager’s name, email address, and mobile number, a link to download the Edupath app is sent directly to them. The folks at Edupath know students are likely to do something if their parents ask them to — especially if it means they don’t have to surrender their phones.

Plus, it’s an easy, one-click process. This whole conversion path is a clever and helpful way to get the apps on more students’ phones by way of their parents.

13. Startup Institute

Visitors to your website won’t hand over their personal information without knowing what they’re going to get in return. On its landing page, Startup Institute makes abundantly clear what will happen after you apply by listing a Q&A right beside the form. It might prompt some people to say, “They read my mind!”

To avoid hesitancy to fill out a form, use your landing page to set expectations upfront. That clears the air, and can also weed out the people who don’t take your content, product or service seriously.

Simple Landing Pages

14. Uber

People are flooded with information online. This is why creating a skim-able landing page is essential — like this one from Uber.

It features a black and white color scheme, short and easily-digestible sentences, and a simple form. The combination of these elements results in a professional and approachable page.

15. Spotify

This landing page takes a dramatic detour from Spotify’s classic green and black colors — and perhaps that’s the point. It could be a way to signal to visitors that the page serves a different purpose from its other content.

Even though the landing page is relatively simple, the stark color contrast emphasizes the text and CTAs. To entice visitors even more, it lists the most played artist, song, album, and podcast of the year —all of which are available on Spotify. It’s a creative way to promote its content library while attracting visitors to sign up.

16. Canva

Sometimes you need to admire a landing page for its attractive and straightforward design. Similar to the example above, this one features an abundance of white space that accentuates the text and balances the bright colors throughout.

To seal it off, the page ends with a FAQ section. If you suspect visitors will have additional questions about your products or services, you may want to include a similar section too. It lets potential customers better understand what you’re trying to sell them, and sends a message that you’re open to questions.

Product Landing Pages

17. Mooala

Playful isn’t usually the first word that comes to mind when you think of dairy-free milk, but Mooala’s bright and colorful landing page is exactly that.

This example illustrates how you can embrace simplicity while using relatively bold striking colors — like neon green — to highlight important headers and CTAs. To pull this off, stick with colors that correspond with your brand while also capturing the attention of visitors.

18. Nauto

When writing website copy for a product or service, a helpful rule of thumb is to expand on the benefits rather than the features. Such advice also applies to writing landing pages.

For example, instead of bombarding visitors with technical information, Nauto, a fleet safety platform, chooses to highlight its benefits with clear and engaging copy (“Your roadmap for fleet safety”). In doing so, Nauto makes its content offer more appealing.

19. Rover

Putting your pets in the care of another person can be nerve-wracking. Which is why Rover, an on-demand pet care service, leans on social proof to build trust with visitors. The landing page includes testimonials from real clients and copy about its “Rover Guarantee” and 24/7 support. Of course, the cute pictures of animals help too.

Ready to build your landing page?

Whether you’re using a landing page template or building one from scratch, it’s essential to keep these best practices top of mind. And remember to test your landing pages to improve their effectiveness.

You need an email account — whether it’s for networking, job recruitment, downloading resources, transferring files, setting reminders, meeting with colleagues, or something else.

Even with the rise of office chat platforms, you still depend on email for a surprising number of things. But unfortunately, not every email service is completely free. And even the free ones might not be the easiest to use or have all the features you need.

It can be a challenge to find an email service provider at no cost that balances the right features with usability. To help make your search easier, we put together a list of the different types of email accounts you can set up, followed by the best email service providers you can host your account on right now for free.

Types of Email Accounts

There are two main types of email service providers to choose from: Email clients and Webmail.

Let’s briefly go over these different types of providers.

Email clients you’ve likely heard of include Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, and iCloud Mail.

Examples of webmail providers include Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail.

Now, take a look at seven of the best free email service providers (and five of the best email accounts for privacy) you can get your hands on today — both webmail and email clients included. For each email service provider, we’ve highlighted a unique feature to help you find the best fit.

1. Gmail: Best for Offline Accessibility

Unique Feature: Native File Collaboration

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Anyone who already uses and loves the rest of Google’s products.

It might seem like an obvious top pick, but Gmail is just too versatile not to get our first slot. According to Litmus Labs, Gmail has the second-highest email provider market share (behind Apple iPhone’s native email app).

Ironically, one of the reasons Gmail has become so popular is because of all the communication options in your inbox that don’t involve email.

Gmail is a regular email inbox tool you can access once you have a Google account. Since it’s built into Google Suite, you can also access a group of free apps that allow you to chat, video conference, and share files with the people in your contact list.

Google Hangouts, available from your inbox’s left sidebar (or the right — you can customize how your inbox is displayed), lets you text and video chat with other Gmail users for the things that might not warrant an email message.

Like most other email accounts today, Gmail also has an intuitive calendar where you can set meetings and reminders.

Pro Tip: You can also use a free product like HubSpot Meetings to easily schedule meetings without back-and-forth emails.

Unlike other email accounts, you can use your Gmail address to log into and manage your YouTube account, as well as collaborate on shared documents and spreadsheets right from a cloud-based Google Drive.

Offering a generous 15 GB of free email storage, Gmail does everything it can to make your inbox less chaotic, including advanced filters that automatically push emails into separate folders as they arrive. And none of these functions costs a dime.

Notable Features:

• Allows you to un-send emails
• 15GB free email storage
• Accessible from any internet-connected device
• 99.9% protection from suspicious/spam emails
• Texts suggestions that help you write emails faster

2. AOL: Best for Interface Organization

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Unique Feature: Unlimited Storage

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Anyone who uses email for most of their communication.

America Online (I feel nostalgic just typing those words) has quietly kept up with today’s standards for a good user experience and is now once again one of the best free email accounts available to you.

Purchased by Verizon in 2015, AOL delivers your email from its classic news-driven homepage and comes with the contemporary spam filters and virus protection you’d expect from your email provider. You can also send text and instant messages from specific windows in your email inbox.

AOL does have something over Gmail, though: unlimited storage. Additionally, you can import email contacts from a CSV, TXT, or LDIF file, so you’re not creating your “buddy list” (get it?) from scratch.

Notable Features:

• Unlimited storage
• Highly customizable
• Offers a spellchecker to reduce errors

3. Outlook: Best for Multiple App Integrations

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Unique Feature: Multiple App Integrations

Sign up here.

Type of email: Email client

Who should use it: Anyone who uses many different platforms to connect with others.

If you ever cringed at the sight of a “Hotmail.com” email address, you can thank Outlook for this outdated domain name.

But there’s good news: Microsoft has reinvented its longstanding email service, and your free Outlook.com email address has many advanced features waiting for you.

While it touts a calendar and message filter similar to Gmail, Outlook also integrates with several other popular communication apps.

For example, you can connect Skype, Facebook, PowerPoint, PayPal, and even task-management software such as Trello — making it very easy to reach and work with non-Outlook users without leaving your inbox.

Outlook offers 15 GB of free storage for each user, along with a super-clean interface.

Notable Features:

• Like with Excel or Word, you can use Add-ins with Outlook
• Easy access to other Microsoft apps like Skype
• Provides aliases that add anonymity to your email
• Excellent email organization
• Great search feature

4. Yahoo! Mail: Best for Lots of Storage

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Unique Feature: Media and attachment history

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Creatives and anyone who sends and receives attachments frequently via email.

Yahoo! Mail, another well-known platform, sits just behind AOL in storage space with a whopping 1 TB (that’s a terabyte) for free, along with a few key social media integrations.

You can have custom background themes and search for key information from your inbox with Yahoo! Mail.

Yahoo! Mail makes it easy to find every photo, video, and document you’ve ever attached or received via email in their tabs on your inbox’s sidebar. This makes the platform especially appealing to those who share documents regularly or simply want an album made of every photo they’ve ever had shared.

Notable Features:

• Connects seamlessly with Yahoo Calendar
• Outstanding email organization
• Customizable themes
• Instant notifications for new emails
• Decent security to keep your account safe and secure

5. iCloud Mail: Best for Data Encryption

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Unique Feature: Label senders as VIPs

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: people who use Mac and want everything on one system.

If you’re a Mac user, you may want to consider using iCloud Mail as your email provider. Their free email account comes with 5GB of storage that you can use to sync your photos, files, or email.

However, it’s important to note that storage is shared between all of your apps and devices — so if you take a lot of photos on your iPhone, you may eat into your email storage allowance for the month. Upgraded plans start at $0.99/month and go up to $9.99/month.

One of the most significant advantages of using iCloud over other email providers on this list is the ease of integration. Apple builds its desktop and iPhone mail apps with all email clients in mind, but it pays special attention to making the experience delightful for iCloud users.

Notable Features:

• Search functionality
• Ability to label senders as VIP to automatically filter important messages and save time
• One-click “Unsubscribe” feature
• 5GB free email storage

6. Mozilla Thunderbird: Best for Managing Multiple Accounts

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Unique Feature: Customization features and the ability to open multiple emails in tabs

Sign up here.

Type of email: Email clients

Who should use it: Anyone looking for a simple but customizable email inbox.

Thunderbird, a free email application from Mozilla, known for Firefox, offers a quick email inbox setup and a simple, easy-to-use user interface.

The app offers customizable features, such as theme settings and app extensions to improve your email experience. The email app also allows you to open multiple emails in tabs, similar to how you would open various web pages in Firefox browsers.

Notable Features:

• It has a large extension library
• Integrates with Google Calendar to make task and meeting scheduling easier
• Smart email organization to reduce cluster

7. Yandex Mail: Best for Translating Emails

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Unique Feature: 10 GB of free cloud storage

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: anyone seeking a free email with additional storage capabilities.

Yandex is a Russian web company that offers a global email tool. You can sign up for a free account with the tool, link it to your Facebook, Twitter, or Gmail accounts, and personalize your email inbox.

Like many of the other providers on this list, Yandex’s email inbox can be set to filter or prioritize emails so you see messages from real people. It can also recognize keywords in messages and subject lines and organize emails into categorized inboxes. Additionally, users who sign up for Yandex mail get 10 GB of free cloud storage.

Notable Features:

• Auto-reminder for unreplied mails
• In-built translator
• Read receipts on sent emails
• 10 GB free cloud storage

8. Zoho

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Unique Feature: 25 Business Addresses

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: startups and small businesses.

This is the first of the free email accounts for privacy to make our list, but it holds a ton of potential for businesses.

The first thing you’ll notice about Zoho is its user-friendliness. From integrating with Google Drive, Box, and other cloud-based file managers, to its built-in task manager, this email service offers a simple way to accomplish all of your daily tasks.

The real difference-maker, though, is the ability to customize the domain name for up to 25 connected email addresses. Want to replace “@zoho.com” with the name of your business’s website? You can do so under Zoho Lite, which gives you 5 GB for free — all under [email protected].

Notable Features:

• Doesn’t scan your inbox for advertisement purposes
• Emails are in an encrypted format
• Notifies you if your messages don’t deliver
• Integrates easily with the Zoho CRM

9. ProtonMail

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Unique Feature: Encrypted email

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Anyone who sends and receives sensitive information.

ProtonMail offers just 500 MB of free space, but for the worthy trade of encrypted email, allowing you to send messages that nobody else can see and disappear after a month.

What’s the catch? Is the service hard to use? ProtonMail is easy to use on any device without any software needed to encrypt your emails, as with most webmail platforms. Its inbox interface is as easy to understand at a glance as the other email services on this list.

And the tool offers quick color-coded labels to help you further organize which emails deserve the most care and protection.

Notable Features:

• No personal information is required to open an account
• Compatible with other email providers
• Optimized inbox to boost productivity
• End-to-end data encryption

10. GMX Mail

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Unique Feature: Alias email addresses

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Anyone who needs multiple emails with one central inbox.

While you may not have heard of GMX Mail, it’s been around for quite a while (since 1997) — and it has a bunch of features that make it worth considering.

First off, GMX offers 65 GB of storage. That’s a lot of storage for a free email service. In fact, they claim that it allows you to keep nearly half a million messages in your Inbox!

Another feature worth noting is the ability to send large attachments. While many services have low caps for your email attachments, GMX Mail allows you to send files up to 50MB. That’s great if you share a ton of photos, presentations, or other large files from your account.

But the feature of GMX Mail that really sets it apart is the ability to set up to 10 alias email addresses all from within one account. This can be useful in many situations — both personally and professionally.

On a personal note, you could use one alias for all of your online purchases and logins — to keep marketing emails separate from your private messages. From a business perspective, multiple email addresses can help manage role-based emails such as [email protected] or [email protected].

Notable Features:

• Spam filter to protect your inbox from suspicious messages
• Easy-to-use inbox management templates
• Mail collector for keeping all your emails (even from other service providers) in a single place

11. Trustifi

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Unique Feature: Data loss prevention

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Anyone who doesn’t want to choose between having a secure and functional inbox.

Trustifi combines the best of a productive and secure email provider in one place.

With available whitelisting and blacklisting options, you can easily choose who you allow to send you messages. Trustifi is also compliant with HIPAA/HITECH, PII, GDPR, FSA, FINRA, LGPD, CCPA, and more, so you don’t have to worry about losing your account overnight.

You can even use the Trustifi add-on to add an extra security layer to your Gmail or Outlook inbox.

Notable Features:

• Ransomware and fraud detection
• Ability to set expiry dates on sent emails
• Seamless integrations with other email systems or service providers
• End-to-end email encryption

12. Mailfence

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Unique Feature: Legal protection

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Anyone looking for a secure email account that integrates with other tools.

Mailfence is a secure browser-based email service provider based in Belgium. Given the laws in Belgium, all your data is locked away from any third-party access.

Their free plan gives you 500 MB of email space. But to truly enjoy the best of Mailfence, you’ll have to hop on a paid plan that starts at €2.50/month.

You’d be able to create up to 10 aliases on the paid plan and have 5GB of email space, among many other features.

With Mailfence, it’s easy to organize your day and business because you’d be able to easily integrate your email account with your contacts, calendar, and documents.

Notable Features:

• Quick integration with a suite of tools
• True OpenPGP end-to-end encryption

How to Make an Email

No matter which provider you choose, creating an email is a simple process. But, it’s still important to know best practices so you can have one that fits your needs the best. The purpose of an email is to provide a space for you to have easy, secure communications. Follow the steps below to create an email:

1. Choose An Email Provider

Select an email provider based on your needs as a user. Think about which features, such as top-tier security, email scheduling capabilities, or integrations, are the most important to you. Also, consider how much storage you will need and what type of provider works best.

2. Choose a Username

Select a username based on the purpose of the account. If it is a professional account, then your name with a significant number will do. The name of your business will do if it’s a business account. You might also consider your [email protected] for professional accounts.

3. Create a Password

Email providers generally have minimum requirements for how secure your password must be. These often include a number or a special character. Follow these guidelines and choose a password that is very unique and has a variety of letters, numbers, and characters to make it very secure.

4. Secure Your Account

Many email providers include ways to add extra security to your account. Take advantage of these features to keep your account and data safe. Setting up two-factor authentication is a great place to start.

5. Write a Signature

Set up an email signature for your account. This saves a lot of time as you are writing emails and helps keep your closing consistent. Include information like your name, your title, and your contact information.

Making the Most of Your Email

And with that, you have some of the best options for free email accounts this year. But who knows? Your next email address could be entirely different while giving you just what you need to succeed.

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

No matter the industry your organization operates in and the products and services you provide, your business needs to be constantly improving to keep up with a competitive marketplace and evolving consumer needs.

This process of change isn’t optional. It’s required if you want to succeed. The hard truth is that businesses that do not improve and evolve will eventually find themselves extinct.  

When change is required at your organization, how do you go about implementing it? Willy nilly action without planning can do more harm than good. Rather than approaching change blindly, you may want to borrow a concept from lean manufacturing philosophy — the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle. Read on to learn more.

What is PDCA?

PDCA, which stands for Plan-Do-Check-Act, is an iterative cycle for continuous improvement of people, products, services, and business processes.

The foundation for this concept was developed by American statistician and physicist Walter Shewhart who was passionate about using statistical analysis to create quality improvement. The model itself was developed years later by William Deming who took this concept and turned it into a learning and improvement cycle.

The PDCA model follows a four stage process, which we’ll discuss in more detail below.

The Four Stages of the PDCA Model

As mentioned earlier, approaching change without a plan can spell disaster for your business. Along those same lines, acting on a plan without evaluating your progress can be just as dangerous.

The PDCA cycle aims to eliminate those issues with a four step process, where each step is imperative because it sets you up for success in the next stage. Let’s take a closer look at these steps and what they represent.

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1. Plan

To devise a plan that will successfully implement the desired change in your organization, you will need to ask the following questions:

• What’s the problem you are experiencing?
• What resources will you need to fix this issue?
• What resources do you already have available to us at this time?
• How can you best solve this issue with your available resources?
• What does success look like?

Depending on the magnitude of the problem, this step may be quick and easy, or it may take weeks or even months of discussion to arrive at a plan. Theoretically, the more time you spend here, the easier the rest of the steps will be.

2. Do

With your plan in place, it’s time to put your ideas into practice. The most important thing to keep in mind during this stage is that issues will arise no matter how solid your plan is. Take these problems in stride and be willing (and able) to make adjustments as you go. This is often done in a smaller, controlled environment so you can learn from mistakes and correct them.

Proper communication amongst your team members will help to limit the number of problems as everyone will have a clear idea of their responsibilities and expectations.

3. Check

The most important (and overlooked) stage of change implementation is the “Check.” How did your plan work in the controlled environment? Were your goals achieved or did your intentions fall flat during execution? Now’s your time to identify the flaws in the process and correct them. Perhaps it wasn’t a complete flop, but you have recognized some opportunities for improved effectiveness. Either way, this step is essential.

4. Act

Now that you’ve planned out your change, applied it, and then checked to make sure it was working, it’s time to act on it. If you determined during the Check phase that you met your goals, you can apply your initial plan. This then becomes the “standard” process and best practices for this aspect of your organization. It also becomes the jumping-off point for your next change implementation.

The PDCA Cycle doesn’t stop once you’ve achieved your initial goal, as it is a continuous system that you should consistently review. The great news is that the more you work with it, the easier it becomes. It will be your go-to plan for every member of your team and will help you reach new heights with your business.

PDCA Template

Now that you understand how the PDCA process can help you implement change in your business, you’re probably wondering how to get started.

Like any new program, process, or tool, it’s helpful to have a physical document to work in to compile all of your information, share it with team members, and make updates as time goes on.

You can create your own in Excel or your project management tool or use one of the ready-made templates available to you. The key to a successful PDCA template is clarity. You should write out every step in detail, along with who is responsible for getting it done and by when. The more detailed your plan, the better your execution will be.

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PDCA Best Practices

Along with utilizing a PDCA template, a few other tips will help you implement changes successfully.

1. Ensure that upper management is on-board with these changes. Without their approval, you will not be able to enforce the new policy or procedure you create.

2. Never stop improving. Remember that PDCA isn’t a one-and-done type of procedure. Repeat this cycle constantly, making improvements with each revolution and looking for the next opportunity to create positive change.

3. Once you’ve implemented a policy change, do so across your entire organization. Every department that deals with whatever shift you are creating should adopt this as a new way of operating.

Over To You

Implementing change across your organization won’t be difficult when you learn to plan, do, check, and act.

It is, however, necessary if you want your business to continue growing and thriving. The organizations that reinvent themselves to better meet market needs, their customers, and their employees are the organizations that we will see far into the future.

Adopt the PDCA cycle today and create the best business you can make.

In June 2021, over 440,000 businesses were launched, making it a record high since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Many are focusing on ecommerce businesses, as they offer an easier point of entry. There’s no physical space to scope out, rent to pay, or permits to obtain. However, that doesn’t mean starting an online business is a piece of cake.

Learn what it takes to start an ecommerce business and the steps to start one today.

Tips for Starting an Online Business

1. Design your website with intention.

Your website is your storefront – you don’t want potential customers arriving, looking around, and walking right out.

Think of your website title and meta description as your window display. You want the description to be enticing enough to beat out the competition and get users to click on your website.

Your homepage is the first thing visitors see when they land (or walk in). What will you present to make them keep scrolling? Maybe it’s your latest offer or a striking image from your latest campaign, or perhaps it’s a simple but compelling CTA that will invite curiosity.

Users should be able to navigate your site seamlessly with little friction. That requires a lot of planning, designing, and iterating.

Just as you would take time to curate every section of your store, be sure to give that same care with your website. Every section should have a clear goal and lead users to your desired action.

A first impression can last and can be hard to change – so make sure it’s a good one.

2. Don’t skimp on your creative assets.

We’ve already mentioned the importance of designing your website with care and intention.

Now, let’s get into the elements that will make up your website: your copy and visual elements, such as images and videos.

Your creative assets can make or break your brand perception. Don’t believe me? Look at insurance company The General.

The company recently rebranded and revamped its entire marketing strategy because the public doubted the brand’s credibility due to its perceived low-budget ads. They even addressed it in a commercial.

All this to say that it’s vital that you invest in high-quality visuals as they will be a representation of your brand.

As for your copy, this is important to ensure every message you are putting out is driving the action you want. Otherwise, you may get visitors to your site but not get them to convert. If you don’t feel equipped to take this on yourself, hire a copywriter who specializes in your industry.

For your visual assets, you can:

• Outsource the work to a marketing or branding agency, or work directly with professionals on a contract basis.
• Leverage sites like Pexels and Unsplash to get some high-quality stock product photos and videos that are free for commercial use.
• Use sites like Canva to create beautiful visuals that fit within your brand identity.

3. Social media will be key to your success.

Think of social media as a high-traffic area you want your store to be in.

Social media is one of the biggest discovery points for ecommerce brands, aside from search. If you post content where your audience lives online, you can help them discover your company and build a strong community of brand loyalists.

If you’re doing it right, social media gets them interested in your brand, your website gets them to stick around and move to that next step in the buyer’s journey.

4. Help customers help themselves.

Many ecommerce brands struggle with customer service.

They often have a small team that’s unable to manage large volumes of requests from customers. One way to combat this is by offering helpful resources to current and prospective customers so they can the answers they need quickly.

After running your business for a while, you may notice that you get the same questions repeatedly. This is a clear sign that customers are experiencing friction on your site and need more support. FAQ and knowledge base pages are great ways to address that.

An FAQ section will not only be great for SEO, but also address your visitors’ most pressing questions. A knowledge base will help your customers troubleshoot and solve their issues on their own.

This will also allow your team to focus on addressing more important issues instead of fielding simple requests.

5. Automate when and where you can.

On the topic of customer service, automation is the name of the game.

There are many ways to automate interactions in a way that leads them further down the buyer’s journey. For instance, you could set up a chatbot that is designed to answer common questions from website visitors.

Automation can also look like:

• Email workflow after a customer makes a purchase to ask for a product/service review.
• Ticket creation for a member of your sales team to reach out to a prospect once they visit the pricing page.
• Unpublishing out-of-stock products and email notification sent to fulfillment team.

If you have a workflow in place, there’s probably a way to automate it.

6. Leverage multi-channel selling.

As an ecommerce business, you want to maximize your reach and be everywhere your audience lives.

You may have some customers who shop directly from your store on your website. However, you may have some who shop exclusively on Amazon or Etsy.

To maximize your earning potential, sell your products on multiple marketplaces, as long as they align with your target audience and product.

How to Start Your Own Business Online

1. Identify a gap in the market and validate your idea.

The best ideas stem from personal experience.

Maybe you experienced friction when completing a task and figured out a way to streamline it. Or perhaps you thought of a product that would make your life 10 times simpler.

Wherever the inspiration comes from, it’s definitely worth exploring.

If you’re having trouble coming up with an idea, try the SCAMPER method for brainstorming:

• Substitute – If there’s an existing product/service you want to model yours after, perhaps you can substitute some elements to make it unique. Think vegan ice cream.
• Combine – You also have the option of combining two existing products to make one great one.
• Adapt – Have a product that you think needs some changes? See how you can adapt it to the times, the audience, or the location.
• Modify, Minify, or Magnify – This urges you to look at an existing product or service, and identify certain elements that could use some tweaking.
• Put to another use – Although something may have originally been used for one purpose, doesn’t mean you can’t repurpose it for something else. For instance, Misfits Market takes grocery items that are deemed too ugly for the stores and repurposes them by selling them directly to consumers.
• Eliminate – If you find a current product or process clunky and complex, perhaps you can develop a simpler way of doing things.
• Reserve/Rearrange – The way you present a product or idea can have a big impact on how it’s perceived. This can be your entry into the market.

These options give you the freedom of developing something without the pressure of starting from scratch.

2. Validate your idea.

Once you identify a product or service, you have to validate it.

The hard truth is that not every idea is sustainable for a business. In this stage, you want to make sure that there’s an audience for it and a need in the market.

How do you accomplish this? There are a few ways:

• Research – Resources like Google Trends can help you separate fads from trends that have longevity.
• Competitive analysis – Are there other companies currently offering the same or a similar product? How are they performing?
• Crowdfunding – Crowdfunding puts the power in the hands of the people by allowing them to fund ideas they believe in. This is a great way to confirm the need for your product but also get funds to jumpstart your business.

3. Develop your product and/or service.

This stage is the one that may take the longest.

You’ll need to figure out manufacturing, sourcing, packaging, shipping, pricing – all of the -ings.

The process you follow will all depend on your business type and industry. For instance, if you are developing a new product, that will involve a lot more steps than if you are white labeling (the process of purchasing products from a supplier and marketing it under your brand).

Need more help on this? Read this article on the product development process.

4. Name and file your business.

Once you have a clear understanding of your business and what it offers, you must come up with a name.

When it comes to naming your business, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Avoid names that can limit your business. Say I name my business “Martina Bretous Copywriting,” it insinuates that I only offer copywriting as a service. Say I expand into marketing as a whole, I’ll have to do more work to let my audience know.
• Make sure the name is not already trademarked or tied to a business in your same industry.
• Consider a name that’s catchy and has a relevant meaning.
• Say your business name out loud to see how it sounds.
• Avoid names that are too general. E.g.: “Lux Clothing”
• If you’re debating between a few options, see if the domains and social media handles are available. That can help you narrow down the best choice for you.

After submitting your business name to your state department, you’ll also want to apply for an employee identification number (EIN) for tax purposes.

Lastly, do you need any permits and licenses to operate? Be sure to speak with a professional about the rules and regulations in your state and submit proper documentation before launching your business.

5. Build your brand identity.

Now that the legal details are all covered, you can get to the fun part: Building your brand.

This step is key as it will influence how you market your brand to your target audience. In this step, you’ll need to ask yourself a few questions:

• What is our mission?
• What do we stand for?
• If this brand was a person, how would we describe them?
• How do we want to be perceived in the market?

From there, you can start working on your brand logo, colors, tone, and other creative assets that reflect your identity.

6. Secure your domain and social media handles.

Developing a strong online presence will be instrumental to the success of your ecommerce business. As such, you want to start early.

It’s easy to find and buy a domain online. Top domain sites include:

• Google Domains
• GoDaddy
• NameCheap
• Domain.com

Many site builders, like Squarespace and Wix, and most hosting platforms also allow you to buy your domains directly from them. That way, the site that owns your domain will be the same one where you host your ecommerce site.

7. Choose an ecommerce platform.

The internet is full of ecommerce platforms, each offering different features and benefits.

To start, determine the level of customization you want. There are four categories of ecommerce platforms you can choose from:

• Strictly ecommerce platforms that offer tiered packages based on your needs. Think Shopify, BigCommerce, and Shift4Shop.
• Website builders with templates and ecommerce tools like Square, Wix, Squarespace that can be used to build any site but offer features like product catalog management, shipping tools, abandoned cart recovery.
• Ecommerce WordPress plugins, like WooCommerce, that are ideal for people who already use the CMS and are familiar with its platform, and want to build from it.

To decide, look at what your timeline and what you want to accomplish. Pre-built websites make it easy to build an ecommerce site quickly. However, they’re not very customizable and can be limiting.

On the flip side, there are fully customizable platforms that offer a lot but can take much longer to set up.

Top features to look for in an ecommerce platform include:

• Product and order management
• Mobile compatibility
• Reporting and analytics
• Built-in SEO capabilities
• Abandoned cart recovery
• Third-party system integrations
• Advanced content management system
• Multi-channel sales

8. Develop a marketing strategy.

The last step before launching your business is developing a pre- and post-launch strategy.

The idea behind a pre-launch strategy is to get your target audience excited about your product or service before it’s available. If done right, you’ll have a line of customers waiting to try out your products.

A post-launch strategy is a more long-term marketing strategy that involves tying your business objectives to specific marketing goals, such as building brand awareness and acquiring more leads.

Your marketing strategy should also account for audiences at all stages of the buyer’s journey. If you focus too much on the top of the funnel, you won’t be able to convert leads into customers. If you focus on the bottom of the funnel, you won’t be able to attract new customers to your business.

In 2022, building an ecommerce business is more accessible than it’s ever been. If you follow the steps outlined above, you’ll have your company up and running in no time.

When a new social media app goes viral, you can almost guarantee that at least one of the social tech giants will test a similar, competitive feature.

A couple of months after Clubhouse’s launch, Twitter announced Twitter Spaces, a feature limited to accounts with 600+ followers.

Today, both platforms have greatly expanded. And, each time this happens, marketers wonder, “Which of these social media channels should I use in my strategy? And, is this trend even worth investing in?”

​​The good news? Strong competition around a social media trend, like chat streaming, signals that it’s not going away anytime soon and might be worth investing in. So, the only thing you’ll need to figure out is where to experiment with the trend.

Below, I’ll give you a breakdown of Clubhouse’s biggest competitors as well as some marketing takeaways to help you determine which platform is right for your brand.

Need to brush up on your Clubhouse knowledge before diving in? Check out this post for a recap of what Clubhouse is and why competitors are trying to get in on the action.

Clubhouse Vs. Twitter Spaces

According to HubSpot Blog Research, 44% of marketers plan to leverage live audio chat rooms for the first time on social media in 2022.

The research also suggests that marketers are more interested in Twitter Spaces than in Clubhouse. In fact, it’s the number one emerging social media platform brands invested in this year and marketers say they’ll invest more in that audio platform than Clubhouse.

Meanwhile, 15% of marketers plan to decrease their Clubhouse investment in 2022.

So how does Twitter Spaces match up to Clubhouse? Let’s get into it.

Twitter Spaces was softly rolled out to a small group of beta testers in late December and fully launched in May of 2021.

The Spaces experiment was announced late last year following the success of audio apps like Clubhouse. At that time, Twitter Product Lead, Kayvon Beykpour told TechCrunch, “We think that audio is definitely having a resurgence right now across many digital spaces. … It’ll be fascinating to see how other platforms explore the area as well, but we think it’s a critical one for us, too.”

The feature, which closely resembles Clubhouse Rooms, originally only allowed users with over 600 followers to host a space. Today, the tool is open to all Twitter users regardless of follower count and features prominently on the app as a center tab.

How Twitter Spaces Works

To create a Space, the first thing you must do is click on the center tab icon on the Twitter app. From there, you can scroll through all the conversations happening on the platform.

Once you find a Space you’re interested in, you simply click on it and select “Start Listening.” From there, you can navigate anywhere on the app as you listen and even leave the app while the Space continues.

If one of your followers is hosting a Space, you will see that at the top of your timeline.

Twitter Spaces also allows you to:

• Add captions for accessibility.
• Engage with speakers through emoji reactions.
• Share the Space via Tweet, DM, or link.
• Add up cohosts and speakers.
• Share relevant tweets in the Space.
• Record the Space and share it with audience later on.

In addition, you can preschedule Spaces and prompt audience to set reminders for the event.

At the moment, those who launch a Space can invite up to 10 hand-picked speakers. From there, they can adjust who speaks based on who raises their hand and which speakers need to leave early.

When entering the Space, the UX is similar to Clubhouse in that you can see who’s speaking and who created the Space before seeing a list of other listeners. You’ll also see a down arrow at the top that allows you to minimize, but continue listening to the chat, as well as a “Leave,” request to speak, share, and heart icon – allowing you to signal that you enjoy the discussion.

Like Clubhouse, users will be muted as they enter the room and will need to get speaking privileges from the Space moderator if they’d like to say something

Takeaways for Marketers

While both platforms offer many of the same features, Twitter Spaces has a wider reach.

The platform has over 200 million monetizable daily active users, compared to Clubhouse’s reported 4.9 million daily active users.

In addition, Twitter already has an established platform that offers a timeline, an explore page, and many other tools beyond its audio feature. For brands, this means that you can accomplish many goals on the same platform.

With this in mind, Spaces could also be a natural transition for brands aiming to build a community. At this point, people are already using Twitter to respond to text-based threads and tweets related to their interests, industry, beliefs, and passions.

Now, they can vocally share their thoughts in Spaces without worrying about character limits. This could further engage Twitter’s community-centered audience while also helping brands take community marketing to the next level.

Clubhouse is another community-building platform that is more niche and may work better for brands that already have a strong presence on other social networks.

Clubhouse’s Other Competitors

Instagram Live Rooms

Shortly after Facebook’s CEO and Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg spoke in a Clubhouse room, the social media company was reportedly experimenting with a similar audio feature. While we’re still not certain if and when Facebook will launch a competing feature yet, its company, Instagram, is expanding its Live feature to add chat rooms.

What makes Instagram Live Rooms significantly different from Clubhouse or Spaces is that it streams full video chats rather than audio discussions.

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Before March, Instagram Live allowed two Instagram users (one broadcaster and one guest) to stream their video call for public audiences or followers. For viewers, this experience was like watching two people video call without being able to participate.

Now, Instagram has upped the guest capacity of these rooms from one to three.

A March 1 announcement from Instagram explained, “In the past year, special moments have happened on Live, including informational talks about science and COVID-19 guidelines, interviews with celebrities, and record-breaking rap battles.”

“Creators of all kinds — from fitness instructors to musicians, beauty bloggers, chefs, and activists, all relied on Live to create moments and bring people together to reach their communities in creative ways. We can’t wait to see what more creativity comes from this highly-requested update.”

“We hope that doubling up on Live will open up more creative opportunities — start a talk show, host a jam session or co-create with other artists, host more engaging Q&As or tutorials with your following, or just hang out with more of your friends,” the Instagram statement added.

How to Instagram Live Rooms Will Work

At the moment, the Live Rooms feature is still rolling out, but the brand says it will soon be available to global Instagram users.

When Live Rooms is fully implemented, any user can tap their Stories icon, swipe left to the Live setting, choose a title or foundation to promote in their stream. Then, they can tap the “Rooms” icon and pick guests to be in their broadcast. Viewers will also be able to request to join rooms that are already in progress, as shown below:

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Takeaways for Marketers

While Live Rooms could be an interesting prospect for brands that already have a following there, they do seem to have some limitations.

For example, Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse allow more than five guests while Live Rooms only allows three additional guests. This might make it harder to take questions or comments from audience members who’d like to add to the conversation.

Another factor that could be a pro or con depending on the brand considering it is the visual nature of Live Rooms. Because speakers must appear on camera, some brands will have more opportunities to show products or visuals. Meanwhile, other brands looking for a more open dialogue will need to find only speakers comfortable with appearing on video.

One solid feature that could make Instagram Live Rooms more competitive for brands is Instagram Shopping. In 2020, Instagram added new shopping features that allow brands to share links to products in live streams that can be purchased directly on Instagram. According to Instagram’s announcement, these features will be available in Live Rooms so brands could begin to monetize their live chats.

Facebook and LinkedIn’s Clubhouse Rivals

At this point, Facebook’s Clubhouse alternative is still in the very early stages of development while LinkedIn’s was confirmed in late March. At this point, there aren’t many details on what LinkedIn or Facebook’s final audio platforms could look like when they launch. However, reports hint that they’ll both have a very similar audio-only user experience to Clubhouse.

For example, here’s a look at the audio chat UX LinkedIn is testing, as reported by TechCrunch:

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Suzi Owens, a LinkedIn spokesperson, confirmed that LinkedIn is testing a new audio feature with the UX shown above.

“We’re doing some early tests to create a unique audio experience connected to your professional identity,” Owens said. “And, we’re looking at how we can bring audio to other parts of LinkedIn such as events and groups, to give our members even more ways to connect to their community.”

When it comes to Facebook, not much has been publicly announced about its feature. However, TechCrunch reported back in May that the feature could be part of the Facebook Messenger app. Here’s a very early mockup of the feature, which was recently leaked on Twitter:

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While Facebook confirms that the mockup above was part of its “exploratory” process, the tech company told TechCrunch that the image doesn’t accurately depict the finalized version of the feature.

Takeaways for Marketers

At this point, marketers should keep these options on their radar and be ready to consider these alternatives if they do launch.

While Clubhouse users that love to network and discuss their industry might transition well to LinkedIn’s version, Facebook’s pure size could mean that their in-app audio chat experiences could get more listeners than you’d find on Clubhouse.

Which audio social media platform should marketers use?

Like we saw with Stories and short-form music video features, every social media platform wants to take advantage of audio social media trends. Because each version is pretty similar to all the others, you might be wondering which channel you should invest in.

At the moment, the jury is still out on which platform will be the most successful for the longest, especially since Twitter and Instagram’s features aren’t fully launched yet. However, when all the social media competitors implement their new features, you’ll want to consider a few factors to determine which is right for you, such as:

• Potential reach: While Twitter and Instagram have the biggest audiences by far, Clubhouse is quickly growing. If this app were to launch an Android version soon, it could potentially burst in growth due to its current buzz and popularity.
• Your following: Do you already have a large following on one platform that has a chat streaming feature? If so, you might want to start there before investing time into another app where you have no audience.
• Media formats: Clubhouse and Twitter’s chat streams are designed to be audio-only, while Instagram Live Rooms will show video. If you prefer staying off-camera, you might want to avoid one of the apps that requires your camera.
• Miscellaneous features: While Clubhouse enables users to make clubs – or groups of users with similar interests, Instagram enables brands to place Instagram Shopping CTAs in their Live streams. While you’re exploring each platform, take note of the smaller features that differentiate them in case one of these tools could help your brand.

Want to learn more about the latest social media trends and expert insights? Download HubSpot’s 2021 Social Media Trends Report for free below.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in June 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Recently, I took a leap of faith and bought leggings online.

I was nervous because of the obvious: I couldn’t see the leggings in person or try them on in-store, and I wasn’t sure how the sizing worked. I didn’t want to pay for shipping and item tax without even knowing if I was going to love my purchase.

Even though ecommerce is a booming industry, projected to earn $6 trillion in 2022, there’s still some anxiety for consumers when buying products through a screen.

Fortunately, some brands have taken that into consideration, and have come up with a way to let consumers try products and services before purchasing them: Try before you buy. Let’s dive into what it is, how it works, and see examples of brands who use this strategy.

According to the 2021 Virtual Shopping Habits Report by Pertfitly, shoppers name the inability to try clothes on as their biggest concern when shopping online. The survey also found that the number one reason consumers return clothes is due to the inability to try them on.

For retailers, this creates a big problem. Not only do they have to worry about losing a customer, but the cost of acquiring another customer.

As a result, many brands are attempting to solve this issue by offering a trial period. In addition, the try-before-you-buy model, some brands are leveraging augmented reality to allow consumers to preview items on themselves or in their homes.

Now that you know what try before you buy is, let’s get into how it works.

How does “Try Before You Buy” work?

Every brand that uses try before you buy may have a slightly different process for this model. In most cases, here’s how it goes:

1. The shopper picks out one or several products to try out.
2. After receiving said product(s), the shopper will have a trial period determined by the retailer.
3. Once the trial period expires, the consumer will have to decide between keeping or returning the item.

Trial periods vary greatly by brand. In addition, some brands will only allow consumers to try one product at a time while others will offer multiple products at a time.

To offer some inspiration, we’ve made a list of six brands that offer unique try-before-you-buy models and takeaways marketers can gain from them.

Try Before You Buy Brand Examples

1. Gemist

Gemist is a sustainable, L.A.-based jewelry brand that offers a two-week trial period for their rings.

While some brands offer the try-before-you-buy option for all products, Gemist limits it to rings, as they’ve identified that as the product that creates the most hesitation from shoppers.

On their website, they say “We all love jewelry, but we get that fit can be tricky—especially with rings.”

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They allow shoppers to order up to three styles for two weeks with a $45 deposit. However, that amount is fully refunded once the products have been returned.

Takeaway

Gemist has found a great balance between meeting its customers’ needs without overextending itself. They are offering a service that they know is of interest to their target audience.

However, this model doesn’t come without risks. As such, they’ve limited it to a product category – making it more manageable. As marketers, our goal is to delight our audience, but it’s important to find a strategy that will also work in the best interest of the company.

2. Prime Wardrobe

Amazon Prime offers a try-before-you-buy service through its clothing service, Prime Wardrobe.

Customers get to shop on the website and choose up to six items to enjoy for seven days, and they’re only charged for what they decide to keep.

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Members can enjoy a full-service shopping experience, with options sorted by style, occasion, or fit, shown above. For consumers that want even more help, Prime Wardrobe offers a personal shopper tool, in which stylists curate a list of items based on your style and budget for $4.99.

Takeaway

Prime Wardrobe is a member-exclusive program for Amazon Prime customers. It’s important to note that this program didn’t always exist. They fit one into their business model in 2017, more than 10 years after the launch of Amazon Prime to delight customers even further.

With this in mind, marketers should always be in touch with their audiences’ challenges, pain points, and interests, as they can spark ideas for future marketing campaigns and even products/services.

3. Warby Parker

As someone who wears glasses, I was especially interested to dive into how Warby Parker works. Here’s the low-down: consumers try five pairs of frames at home for free, prescription-ready, pick and pay for the frame(s) they like, and send the rest back.

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Let’s expand on that.

Warby Parker’s shopping experience can start a few different ways: consumers can either begin shopping for glasses right away or take a quiz for suggested pairs. All consumers need to do is upload their prescription to get started.

If you don’t have an updated prescription, you can receive one from Warby Parker by booking a comprehensive eye exam at a physical store location. After about 20 minutes, you’ll receive a prescription on the spot. This option shows the business’s commitment to being a full-service eyewear company.

Takeaway

Warby Parker is a great example of how to market a product or service seamlessly. From the design of the website to the copy, shoppers can quickly find what they’re looking for and have the answers to their most pressing questions already there.

4. Casper

Casper is a mattress company that provides consumers with up to 100 nights of trying out its products before committing to a purchase. Additionally, the company offers free shipping, returns, and a 10-year limited warranty on all mattresses.

Casper offers six different mattress types and sizes, like ‘The Wave,’ pictured below.

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On the website, consumers can also purchase other bedding items, such as sheets, glow lights, or pillows, to complete a shopper’s bedroom experience. After a consumer picks their mattress, extras, and finishes their trial, they make the decision to keep or return the product.

If the consumer does not fall in love with their mattress, they can enjoy a full refund of the mattress and ship it back for free. If they do love their mattress, they get to keep it and enjoy night 101 with their new bed.

Casper’s extended free trial is something unique to their service. The idea is that customers can take the time to get used to their new mattress and incorporate it into their nightly routine. After a couple of months with a new mattress, it would be a culture shock to go back to a different one.

Best of all, customers can feel peace of mind knowing that even if they make a huge purchase such as a mattress, they can receive a full refund and free return if they’re not happy — but if they are, their job is done.

Takeaway

While most try-before-you-buy brands have a limited trial period, Casper offers a least 30 days to accommodate its consumers. The brand understands that it takes much longer to assess the value of a bed than it does clothing or a pair of glasses.

The keyword here is value – as marketers, it’s important we understand how our audience perceives the value of our brand and market to them accordingly.

5. Stitch Fix

Stitch Fix is an online clothing company that lets customers create a personalized shopping experience using collections made by real stylists. Customers can take a style quiz, set their budget, and pay a $20 styling fee.

Then, after paying the styling fee, customers receive pieces based on their quiz answers and budget, which they can try on at home before they commit to a purchase. They keep their favorites, send back the others with the company’s free shipping policy, and that’s it.

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Stitch Fix’s wardrobe options include a variety of brands. A customer, depending on their budget, can receive clothes from retailers including The North Face, Free People, Calvin Klein, Nike, Bonobos, Toms, and O’Neil.

The company’s model is appealing to customers who don’t want to leave their house to find an outfit they’d love. The style quiz, with questions about sizing, shopping behavior, and personal preference, is built to ensure that customers will receive choices they like.

The company also doesn’t run on a subscription, so there’s no set commitment. Customers also can enjoy free shipping and returns using Stitch Fix, and the $20 styling fee is a credit toward the items kept, so the customer will always have $20 off their purchase.

Takeaway

Stitch Fix’s service gives power to the customer and delivers the most personalized shopping experience possible to the shopper, from the style quiz to the curated collections by real stylists. They take the worries out of commitments to online shopping, such as shipping prices, incorrect sizing, and receiving items you might not like.

Consumers want to feel in control of their shopping experiences. As such, marketers should consider this in every stage of the buyer’s journey, as they craft their strategies.

6. BlackCart

BlackCart was created to make try-before-you-buy shopping less of a painful guessing game for merchants. They offer a service for merchants that want to implement a try-before-you-buy option within their online store.

With BlackCart, merchants can enjoy integrations with Shopify, Magneto, and WooCommerce, customization options to fit their branding, and no fulfillment charges, all on a fully automated platform.

Merchants can use multiple settings to personalize the sale and shopping experience on their website. These settings include choices such as placing the trial period, exclusions, minimums, a deposit requirement, price, and refunds.

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On the consumer side, shoppers can select items to try from the merchant’s website and pay a fee set by the merchant (shown in the photo above). From there, the items are shipped to try on at home for the time period set by the merchant. After the customer sends unwanted items back, the kept items are charged automatically.

Takeaway

Online business owners will appreciate that BlackCart fits in as part of a merchant’s online store. BlackCart is an example of B2B having a place with try-before-you-buy services as well. They make sure the merchant experience is seamless so they can focus on delighting the consumer.

How is your brand delighting its target audience and how are you communicating that to consumers? If that’s not clear, that’s a sign you may need to go back to the drawing board and re-assessing your marketing strategy.

Try-before-you-buy programs are so versatile, and marketers can definitely take note of the unique ways these programs delight customers and personalize the shopping experience.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Picture this: You’re a product owner and your team has a backlog of features to implement.

The problem is: Your team is overwhelmed and no one is sure where to start and how to prioritize the tasks. Well, this is where user story mapping can come in handy.

Keep reading to learn how user story mapping is helping product teams get a better understanding of consumer needs and prioritize tasks with a user-first approach.

Before we get into user story mapping, let’s go over the basics. A user story is a short and simple description of a feature told from the perspective of the user. For example, “As a user, I can add items that I’m not ready to purchase yet to my wishlist.”

It forces product teams to build with a user-first approach. A user story map takes this a step further by visualizing the steps a user takes to complete an action.

When product managers, designers, and developers work on a product, sometimes they focus too much on feature specifications. User story mapping gets them out of this framework and redirects them to focus on consumer needs and desired outcomes.

In addition, a user story map will help break down the customer journey into bite-size pieces that teams can tackle and ensure nothing gets lost in the process.

But to be clear, the mapping process isn’t solely for product teams. It can be a valuable cross-functional exercise that helps align marketing, engineering, UX/Design teams along with other departments.

In addition to getting everyone on the same page, creating a user story map also helps:

• Determine how to prioritize work if there’s a large backlog of feature implementations, separating must-haves from nice-to-haves.
• Break down requirements and visualize how each piece interacts with the other.
• Expose roadblocks and dependencies that can impact product delivery.

Is agile story mapping different?

The short answer is no because user story mapping is used within an agile framework.

User stories are used in an agile framework as a way to provide context using simple and natural language. They also represent the smallest unit of work, just as sprints and epics are other measurements.

So, it’s agile story mapping is another way to describe the process of mapping a user story.

User story mapping typically happens at the beginning of a project, as it helps offer structure and get everyone on the same page. However, it can be used at any phase of the project to help identify roadblocks and reprioritize.

1. Set the frame.

Before you start mapping the story, you’ll want to narrow the scope. Otherwise, you may quickly start feeling overwhelmed and unable to start.

Here are some questions you should be asking:

• What problem are we trying to solve?
• How does this feature add value?
• Who is the audience subset we are building for? (If any)

Once you answer these questions, put it in user story format: “As a [user], I want to be able to [filter my search] results so that I can [quickly find what I’m looking for.”

Following this approach will help you approach the problem tactically.

2. Map out the activities and the steps in the story.

In this step, you want to create a general roadmap for how the user would access and use this feature. Those are your main activities.

The goal here is to outline the big steps necessary to get from start to finish. From there, you lay out the steps.

Following the same example from the previous section, here’s how it could look:

Activities:

• Search for products.
• Review product details.
• Check out. 

Steps:

1. Type into the search bar and head to the results page.
2. Scroll through search results in search of specific information.
3. Select the filtering option to narrow down options by cost.
4. Review the search results page again with updated options.
5. Select item and place in cart.
6. Complete purchase.

As you’ll notice, story mapping requires going from macro to micro.

You’ll likely use input from your participants to map out these details. You want your map to paint an accurate and full picture of what does (and can) happen in this story.

So, you’ll want to lean on your team for input in this step.

3. Group and define the tasks.

Once you’ve mapped out the big details, this is where the collaboration takes off.

Under each step, you should highlight the key actions involved in each activity.

For instance, when a user is in step 5, which is selecting an item and placing it in their cart, there are several substeps they will follow, including viewing the image, reading reviews, scanning related items.

All of these should be mentioned under the big activity groups, also known as the steps. The goal is to identify any gaps in the features of your product currently.

By adding a must-have, could-have, and should-have options in your map, you can rank features by priority. Here’s what you want to consider:

• Is there anything else your user could do during one of these activities?
• What could disrupt their process at this point? Where could they get stuck?
• How else could the user navigate through this page?

This will require a collective effort from your various teams to figure out what’s realistic and what’s doable. For instance, an engineer might point out that a particular task is too big to count as one iteration. Your user researcher could highlight an important step in the process that you guys hadn’t considered.

4. Slice your tasks and get your minimum viable product.

Once everything is laid out, you and your team can start to move through the map to prioritize a list of tasks and cut them into slices.

Each “slice” will include tasks from each activity to create a viable end-to-end experience. It should have a clear outcome as well as a way to measure success. This will be important later when testing and tracking user behavior.

You will continue to separate your slices until you include all the tasks and have a clear plan to move forward.

User Story Mapping Example

In this example, the user story is as follows: “As a user, I want to buy a product easily on this website.”

Once you have all those details, then you can create your map.

Once you’ve added the activities, steps, and tasks, now you can figure out your slices. 

For instance, in this example, the first slice would skip two tasks in the “Search” activity, skip three in the “Get product details” one, and three in the “Check out” section.

The second slice would include features like “Search by category” and “See product in AR.” Once you have all your slices, your team is ready to get to work. 

User Story Mapping Tools

When it comes to user story mapping, there are a lot of ways you could do this.

The most straightforward way is with a conference room, a whiteboard, and a whole lot of sticky notes. That way, you can easily move pieces around as you work and make it a collaborative effort.

Now, if your team is remote, you’ll have to rely on online tools to assist you in this process. Many agile project management software have story mapping features, such as Atlassian’s Jira.

Additional online tools for user story mapping include Featmap, Miro, and Avion.

If your product team can’t agree on where to start for an upcoming or ongoing project, consider creating a user story map. It may take some time away from building but it will definitely pay off down the line.

You’ve submitted your resume, talked to a recruiter, and set up a date for the first interview with a great company. But in the days leading up to the big interview, you’re feeling anxious, jittery, and downright scared.

What if you blank on how to answer a question? What should you say about your weaknesses? How soon do you follow up afterward?

If you’re feeling nervous about an upcoming interview, take a deep breath, grab a notepad, and work your way through this interview preparation checklist. You’ll be feeling a little less worried and a lot more confident in no time.

Pre-Interview Preparation Checklist

The steps you take leading up to the interview can really transform a normally stressful experience into something more pleasant. Sure, you could “wing it,” and answer questions on the fly as they come. But nothing will impress an interviewer more than showing that you did your homework. In your interview question prep, it’s smart to analyze your own working habits and study the company.

1. Print multiple copies of your resume.

Some interviews may require you to meet with multiple members of management, plus you may want to have one handy to reference as you talk about prior experiences. Print at least five copies of your resume on nice, high-quality paper, if possible.

2. Prepare a portfolio of your past work.

If the position requires you to show past work, like photographs, successful marketing campaigns, graphic designs, or written articles, gather your best work into one portfolio to share with the hiring team.

3. Review common interview questions.

Create a list of common questions, so you can begin preparing strong answers. Having some general talking points to the most-asked interview questions can help you feel less anxious for the interview process.

Even if the interviewer doesn’t ask one of the exact questions you’ve prepared for, they will likely ask something similar. For example, the interviewer might not ask “Why should we hire you?” but instead may say, “Tell us what makes you stand out from our other candidates.”

Here are some of the most common questions that come up in interview settings:

• Why do you want to work for us?
• What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
• Why should we hire you?
• Tell me about a time that you solved a problem at work.
• Why are you leaving your current position?
• Where do you see yourself in five years?
• What’s your biggest accomplishment?
• What’s something your current supervisor would say you could improve on?
• What is your leadership style?
• What would you plan to accomplish in your first 3 months here?

4. Practice answering interview questions out loud.

Now that you’ve come up with a list of commonly asked interview questions, you can start outlining responses. Jot down some notes for every question you come up with, and once you have it all down on paper, start practicing your answers out loud. Sit in front of a mirror and recite responses. Your goal is to make them clear, concise and to the point, so you aren’t rambling in the actual interview.

5. Try having a mock interview for extra practice.

Practicing an interview with a housemate or friend is another effective way to practice your interviewing skills. The mock interviewer can help give you notes on improving your answers or digging more in-depth for certain questions.

6. Spend time researching the company.

It can be embarrassing to enter an interview, only to not know the basics like what the company does or who the CEO is. You should, at bare minimum, be prepared with the company’s products or services, ownership, customer demographics, and main competitors.

It’s also smart to look up any recent press releases about the company to be in the know on its latest developments, and check in on their social media to get an idea of the tone, voice, and key initiatives of the company.

7. Create a list of your accomplishments.

The main point of the interview is to show off your skills and talents in order to score a new job. But when you’re nervous, it’s easy to forget some of the impressive projects you’ve completed or problems you’ve solved during your career. Take notes on some of your biggest career highlights to share with the interviewer.

8. Prepare questions to ask your interviewer.

Asking thoughtful questions to the interviewer shows that you’ve done your homework and you’re interested in the company. Plus, the interview is a two-way street. Just as the company wants to make sure you are the right fit for the job, you should do your due diligence to make sure the company and position are a good fit for you.

Here are some questions to ask about the position, the interviewer, the culture, and the company as a whole:

• What does a typical day in this position look like?
• What are the biggest challenges in this role?
• What do the training and evaluation processes look like for this role?
• Why is the person previously in this position leaving?
• What do you hope to see the person who takes this position accomplish in the first three months, six months, and first year?
• Why did you come to this company, and what is your favorite part of working here?
• What are some of the company’s short- and long-term goals, and how would the person in this role help in reaching those targets?
• Can you tell me more about the team I’d be working with? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the team or department?
• How would you describe the work environment here?
• What are the next steps in the hiring process?

Interview Preparation Checklist

It’s the day of the interview. You have your portfolio and resume copies next to your car keys or bus pass, you’ve recited questions and answers in your head for days, and you’re just hours from walking through the front door of the company building. Here’s what to do before and during the interview.

1. Dress the part.

In general, you should wear clothing that fits well and makes you feel good. Mend holes, treat stains, and lint-roll any pet hair on your favorite interview outfit.

What you wear to the interview may vary based on the job and company, but here are some guidelines for what to wear depending on the company’s dress code.

• Casual: Dark jeans, slacks, long skirts, or long dresses; button-down shirts, blouses, cardigans, or sweaters; tops without graphics; neat, closed-toe shoes.
• Business Casual: Dark slacks or long skirts; button-down tops, blazers; neat, closed-toe shoes.
• Formal: Dark suits with slacks or long skirts; dark, tailored dresses; a tie with suits; neat, closed-toe shoes.

2. Arrive on time (or early).

Showing up to an interview can leave a bad first impression. Plan to arrive 10 to 20 minutes early, and give yourself time to find the building, park, and check-in with the front desk. Account for traffic, too — that 9 a.m. interview means that you’ll be driving along during morning rush hour. Have a backup transportation option, such as biking, walking, or getting a ride from a friend, if you typically take public transit, in case the train or bus is running late that day.

If the building is in a location you’ve never been to, make sure you map it out to avoid getting lost. If you’re not great with directions, you may want to practice the drive once or twice in the days leading up to the interview.

3. Bring paper and something to write with.

Taking notes shows that you are invested in what the interviewer is saying to you. But it also means you can review your notes for pros and cons if you are offered the job. Plus, you can revert back to any points the interviewer made early on in your appointment and ask for more information or clarification when it’s your turn to ask questions.

4. Have cash on hand for parking.

Some companies have paid parking garages or valet services for guests. While they might validate the parking ticket for you, don’t assume they will. Bring about $20 in cash just in case you need it for parking. If you don’t need the cash, take yourself out to lunch as a post-interview treat!

5. Be personable and courteous.

Everyone you meet from the parking garage to the interviewer could be your future co-workers. They may also be asked for input on how you interacted with them during the hiring process. Smile, wave hello, and greet anyone you pass. It never hurts to be kind to others!

6. Remain honest and take breaks as needed.

If you fabricate your resume or interview responses, the truth will become clear while you’re on the job. Answer questions honestly, and if you aren’t sure how to respond to a question off the bat, don’t be afraid to take a moment. Simply say, “Great question! Let me think for just one second on this.” We’re all human, and it’s a completely normal response to need to pause before thoughtfully answering a question.

7. Use the STAR method.

The STAR method is a popular technique for responding to even the toughest interview questions. Interviews ask situational questions to gauge how you respond to certain issues. The STAR method addresses multiple components of a problem while allowing you to clearly, thoroughly explain your logic and response.

• Situational: Describe the situation or issue.
• Task: Explain what your tasks or responsibilities were relating to the situation.
• Action: Share what actions you took to complete your tasks and address the situation.
• Results: Outline how your actions resolved the issue or what results came from your actions.

8. Stay focused and positive.

Interviewing is stressful and nerve-wracking, but remaining positive and upbeat can make all the difference in your performance. You might be asked why you are leaving your position or how you performed under previous managers and their varied leadership styles. Talking poorly about the company and previous leaders can leave a bad impression on your interviewer.

Keep your answers positive, and stay focused on answering each question with your experience rather than rambling as you respond. This is where practicing answers in the pre-interview preparation can come in handy.

Post-Interview Preparation Checklist

Just because you’ve shaken the hands of your interviewer(s) and taken a big sigh of relief, it doesn’t mean the interview is behind you. Of course, you could be brought in for second, third, or fourth interviews, but no matter what stage you’re at, it’s important to leave a good, lasting impression.

1. Ask about the next steps.

Either at the end of your interview or immediately after, you’ll want to ask about the timeline for the next steps of the hiring process. This way, you can anticipate when you’ll hear back from the company. You may need to take an edit test, share more samples of your work, or return for another interview.

2. Follow up with a thank you.

Always follow up an interview with a thank-you note. It’s best to send along a handwritten note to show your care and attention to detail. But if you don’t have the time to do so, an email is also a thoughtful way to show your appreciation for the interviewer’s time and consideration. If you don’t know the interviewer’s email, you can also email the recruiter or other point of contact and ask them to send along your gratitude.

Get Your Dream Job with Some Interview Prep

The interview question prep process can make or break your interview experience. While sending along your resume and portfolio in advance can give recruiters a good idea of whether or not you’d be great at the job, the interview helps the team learn more about you and how you work.

Don’t forget, interviewing is a two-way street, and the more you prepare, the better questions you can ask. By following this interview preparation checklist, you’ll feel more confident and prepared as you navigate your next interview.

Are you one of the 7.8 million Americans who commute to work every day? If so, I’m guessing you’ve listened to a podcast or two. You’re not alone. According to Infinite Dial, U.S. podcast audiences listen to an average of four to five podcasts per week.

The podcasting industry continues to grow YoY. In fact, Infinite Dial reports that, in 2021, 7 million more people were listening to podcasts than in 2020 alone.

That’s why it’s important to consider podcast advertising for your brand. Here, you’ll learn everything you need to know about podcast advertising — from top podcast advertising strategies to advertising rates and networks.

Podcast Expert Advertising Strategies

Before you get started with podcast advertising, consider this advice from the experts.

Use podcasting for brand awareness, not lead generation.

Rebekah Bek: As a UX writer for Ahrefs, Bek was put in charge of podcast sponsorships. She writes her advice for podcast advertising strategies in this Medium post. Here are the key takeaways:

• Rather than being a tool for lead generation, podcast advertising is a tool for gaining exposure and brand awareness.
• It’s not always about measurable ROI.
• Organic, not scripted, mentions perform best.

Understand your audience may have eclectic tastes.

Midroll: Midroll, a company that matches advertisers with shows , gives their advice to advertisers. Here is the key takeaway:

• It’s wise not to adhere too strictly to a category. Don’t assume that comedy audiences aren’t also entrepreneurs or that listeners to a sports podcast aren’t interested in a comedy special. You may be surprised at how broad and eclectic your audience tastes and needs are.

Ads read by the host perform better than third-party ads.

Jason Hoch: Former Chief Content Officer at HowStuffWorks, Hoch revealed what type of ads work best for their brand in an interview with DigiDay. Here are the key takeaways:

• Ads read by the host perform better than scripted, third-party ads placed in the podcast.
• Listeners feel like they are being shouted at with third-party ads.
• Consider producing organic mentions for better results.

Test and measure the success of your campaigns.

Kurt Kaufer: Partner and CMO at Ad Results Media, a podcast advertising agency, Kaufer wrote a survival guide for podcast advertising in this Forbes post. Here are the key takeaways:

• Measurement is the key to determining success in a podcast advertising campaign. Use promo codes, custom links, and post-checkout surveys to track success.
• Be comfortable knowing not every ad will work at first and that a breadth of shows will need to be tested to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Measuring the success of your podcast campaigns is best done with a tool, like Casted, that gives you an overarching view of critical metrics. With the tool, you can access behavior metrics, demographic data, and traffic information that helps you understand your content’s true value. 

You don’t need to sponsor the biggest podcasts, you can reach the same people on smaller shows.

Sam Balter: Former podcast marketer at HubSpot, Balter wrote about his podcast advertising learnings in this post. Plus, I spoke with him about his top podcast advertising strategies. Here are the key takeaways:

• Pre- and post-roll ad spots are generally cheaper than mid-roll and take less time. In addition, most ads have some sort of call-to-action that prompts listeners to go to a specific URL or use a discount code to get a discount.
• Podcast popularity and listenership will only continue to rise and so will the opportunity to connect with people in a new and novel way.
• When sponsoring podcasts, trust the host to deliver a message in their own voice.
• It’s better to go for frequency than reach. Pick a podcasts where you can purchase three to five ads versus one on a large podcast.

Podcast Advertising Rates 2022

The amount you pay for podcast advertising will vary depending on the length and type of the ad.

It’s essential to know that podcasts offer different pricing structures. Ads are sold on a cost per mille (CPM) or cost per acquisition (CPA) rate. CPM is the cost you’ll pay per 1,000 impressions or downloads. CPA is the cost you’ll pay to acquire a customer. Most ads are priced on a CPM model.

The current average cost of podcast advertising is a CPM of about $25.

AdvertiseCast notes that the average CPM for 30-second ads is $18, and the average CPM for 60-second ads is $25.

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Podcast Advertising Networks

A podcast advertising network is an agency that connects companies or brands with respected podcasts on which to advertise. The goal is to take away the friction in podcast advertising by helping brands promote their products on podcasts and helping podcasters monetize their projects. A few examples include:

1. Midroll

Midroll, now part of SXM Media, is used by over 800 brands to buy ad spots on 300+ podcasts. With such a wide variety of shows, advertisers have the opportunity to use audience-based buying to ensure ads align with podcast topics most relevant to your brand, helping you accurately target relevant users and maximize reach.

Your ads can be pre-recorded or host read, the ladder being a valuable tool for generating brand trust as audiences trust hosts and see them as a valuable source of social proof. 

Midroll prices ads on a CPM model, so you pay based on the number of certified downloads each episode receives. Its website notes that prices can range from $18 to $50 CPM, with higher performing shows being more expensive. 

The advertiser portal also gives you an overview of campaign metrics, helping you see important data like forecasted downloads and ad placement cost per show. 

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2. Podcast One

Podcast One sees more than 2.1 billion annual downloads and 350 different episodes produced weekly, making it a high-impact platform for podcast advertisers. 

It offers pre-recorded and live host endorsements, and you can use its geo-targeting and copy-split capabilities to ensure you target the right audiences and pick placements for your ads that are most relevant to your business. 

With PodcastOne, you also have the unique ability to use visual integrations for your ads in the form of a sponsorship splash, an ad banner, or a forced video ad.

3. Megaphone

Megaphone offers powerful podcast advertising tools with the Spotify Audience Network, helping you target the most relevant listeners that are likely to drive the most impact across a wide variety of podcasts. 

With the service, you can:

• Reach listeners according to their interests, purchase behavior, and things like apps, devices, and platforms that they use.
• Get actionable campaign insights that help you understand performance to ensure you have the right strategy.
• Use dynamic ad insertion to populate ads when downloaded so messaging is fresh and relevant.

Contact Megaphone to obtain pricing information.

4. AdvertiseCast

AdvertiseCast boasts 2,300+ podcasts, a 150,000,000+ monthly listener reach, and 4,200+ available ad spots to choose from, making it a valuable tool for podcast advertisers as you can select target audiences that are the best fit for your business. 

You also have three different podcast ad opportunities to choose from: 

• Baked-in host-read ads (its most popular option), where podcast hosts read your ads within the episode. Pricing is based on length (60 seconds or 30 seconds) and whether you select mid-roll or pre-roll placement. 
• Dynamically inserted ads, which are pre-produced, pre-recorded and scheduled to be inserted into podcast content. Pricing is based on the average number of downloads in the first 30 days. 
• Custom podcast ad units where you can be as creative as you’d like, like a social media plug for your profiles, a 10-second shout out, or a 90-second baked-in mid-roll ad. 

AdvertiseCast also offers an end-to-end ad campaign platform that you can use to manage your ads and view detailed metrics that help you understand campaign performance. You can also make use of the full service solution, where AdvertiseCast manages the process for you.

Podcast Advertising Statistics 2022

1. There are around 2,000,000 podcast shows and over 48 million podcast episodes as of April 2021. (PodcastInsights, 2021)

2. 75% of the US population is familiar with the term “podcasting,” which is up 5% since 2019. (Infinite Dial, 2020)

3. Half of Podcast ads lasted longer in 30 seconds in length. (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2021)

4. A survey of 300,000 listeners found that 63% of people bought something a host had prompted on their show. (AdvertiseCast)

5. Cost per mille (CPM) or cost per 1,000 listeners is the most common pricing method for podcasts. (AdvertiseCast, 2021)

6. Dynamically-inserted ads increased the share of revenues from 48% to 67%. (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2021)

7. Streaming audio and podcasting is projected to be one of the channels with the largest growth in 2022, with a 17.8% increase. (Inside Radio, 2021)

8. Host-read and pre-product ads increased share of revenues from 27% to 35%. (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2021)

9. Local advertising for streaming audio and podcasting will outperform targeted banner advertising and broadcast TV. (Inside Radio, 2021)

10. U.S. Podcast Ad Revenue is set to exceed 2 Billion by 2023. (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2021)

Podcast advertising is a marketing tactic that is continuing to grow. As a majority of people have listened to a podcast, and engagement rates are increasing, brands can no longer ignore podcast advertising.

Did you know there are over 56,000 WordPress plugins available today?

WordPress plugins allow you to enhance your website’s functionality by adding features and capabilities that don’t come standard with the system.

Whether you want to improve your writing, optimize a blog post for SEO, or interpret your site’s analytics, there’s a plugin out there for you.

But with so many options available, it’s tough to figure out the best ones to use — and that’s why we’ve done the work for you.

Below you’ll find a list of the best WordPress plugins (not in any specific order) that every marketer should explore.

These plugins have been reviewed by some of the top marketers in the industry. They’ll also keep both you and your WordPress website running efficiently and effectively. If you want more, check out the official WordPress plugin page.

1. HubSpot WordPress Plugin

HubSpot’s drag-and-drop form builder allows you to easily build contact forms to use on your WordPress website. The plugin also includes a pop-up creator, live chat widget, contact database, and previously written code for you to simply copy and paste into WordPress.

All-in-one plugins provide multiple functionalities in a single plugin, making them a more lightweight solution than having multiple plugins limited to single functionality. Because HubSpot provides everything in one plugin, you can be sure it will not bloat your site, which is important as you consider load speeds.

2. Elementor

Elementor is WordPress’s #1 drag-and-drop page builder with over 2 million downloads and counting. It offers 100+ templates and premade sections for services, testimonials, call-to-action pages, etc. Using Elementor in WordPress, you’ll be able to quickly make the marketing content you need.

Customization features, such as Box Shadows, Background Overlays, Hover Effects, Headline Effects, and Animations, are available with Elementor. These eye-catching effects will help you hold visitors’ attention.

To help you take full advantage of this plugin, we have a free WordPress Training Course using Elementor to help you build your own website.

3. WordPress Landing Pages

Create stunning landing pages for your website with the fantastic WordPress Landing Pages plugin. The visual editor that comes with it makes customizing your landing page easier than ever before. You can even track your conversion rate with just a single click of the mouse. It offers you an easy way of implementing your own custom landing page design.

4. Gravity Forms

If you want to add complex and highly customizable forms to your website, Gravity Forms is a good option for that.

Gravity Forms allows you to build multi-step forms, polls, quizzes, surveys, and more. With this plugin, you can create a wide variety of smart rules and conditions. For example, you can create a rule to limit which domains are accepted on your forms to exclude non-business domains like Gmail or even domains from your competitors.

Moreover, you can easily set up integrations with a variety of tools such as HubSpot for your marketing and Zapier for automation flows. Gravity Forms also integrates with PayPal or Stripe so you can accept payment directly via your forms.

5. WPForms

WPForms is one of the most popular form builder plugins for WordPress, with over 5,000,000 active installations. With this plugin, you can easily add custom forms to your website including contact forms, registration forms, surveys, polls, newsletter signup forms, and many other types.

Creating a form is easy thanks to WPForms’ drag and drop builder. Simply drag the form fields you need and drop them into place. There are even 300+ ready-made form templates to get you started even more quickly.

WPForms also comes with powerful features like smart conditional logic, conversational forms, multi-page forms, email marketing integrations, and payment integrations, just to name a few. This plugin also connects with HubSpot so that you can automatically import contacts from your forms into the HubSpot CRM.

6. MonsterInsights

With MonsterInsights, you can add Google Analytics to your WordPress site without having to touch a line of code or hire a developer.

You can view easy-to-read reports about your site’s analytics straight from your WordPress dashboard. That means you don’t have to leave your site or search through multiple Google Analytics reports to find the important insights you need.

You can set up advanced tracking like eCommerce tracking, form conversion tracking, affiliate link clicks, outbound link clicks, and much more. This plugin works with both Universal Analytics (GA3) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4). You can connect to whichever version you’re running, or both at the same time with the dual tracking feature.

7. All in One SEO

All in One SEO helps you optimize your WordPress website for organic search. The plugin works for people with varying levels of SEO experience, from the non-technical to those with coding experience.

The SEO audit checklist will analyze your entire website for errors and provide actionable insights to improve your SEO and unlock maximum traffic. And with the TruSEO score, you can get an in-depth analysis of how well your content is optimized.

The plugin also has an XML sitemap and image XML sitemap support (which is what informs Google about the URLs on your website that are available for crawling). In addition, it provides you with support in other areas including Google Analytics and custom post types, which is helpful for marketers who are working to measure the success of their campaigns or SEO work and goals.

8. Jetpack

Jetpack is an all-in-one WordPress plugin that offers advanced features such as content tools, mobile themes, and more. You can take advantage of all of Jetpack’s features to enhance your website, or pick and choose just what you want to activate based on your unique needs.

Some of these features include automated social media posting, site statistics and analytics, and different SEO tools to help you measure and promote your website success.

9. Smush

“Smush quickly compresses and optimizes images in bulk, letting you focus on other things,” says Izaak Crook of AppInstitute.

Smush servers do all of the work for you, meaning your images will remain high-quality while reducing their file size. This frees up space on your server so your website will be significantly faster — with clearer, crisp imagery in the end.

10. Broken Link Checker

Want to prevent Google from following broken links on your website? Broken Link Checker parses your posts to identify broken links and notify you when they surface.

To save you time, the plugin makes it easy for you to edit a broken link from the plugin page, eliminating the need to manually go into each post to make changes.

11. The SEO Framework

With The SEO Framework, this plugin likely helps the users to make good decisions about optimization, which may help improve search rankings. You’ll have peace of mind knowing the fundamentals are covered.

Its features can optimize every page, post, and term on your website so it’s not only easier to find on the internet, but it’s also more searchable on all social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

12. Just Writing

Just Writing takes WordPress’ Distraction-Free Writing Mode (DFWM) to a whole new level. This is a WordPress plugin that could be a fine choice for marketers to focus on their work by removing distractions.

This tool also features spellcheck to improve the grammar of an article. It’s continually embedded with more new commands and features in the recent updates to facilitate the users with easy access.

13. Hustle

Hustle is WPMU DEV’s marketing WordPress plugin that features popups, slide-ins, embeds, and social share bars.

Embeds are your in-content ads or opt-ins and can be displayed using the built-in options such as before or after your post content, or both. You can also use shortcodes or widgets to display the embeds in more specific locations. That is in addition to the vast array of targeting options that apply to all other content types as well.

You can store all submissions locally or choose to use one of the many integration options, including HubSpot, to send them to your CRM or mailing list.

14. Google XML Sitemaps

Google XML Sitemaps has the capability of generating a special XML sitemap so search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing could better index your blogs or pages. It then becomes simple for surfers to find your blog and retrieve them more efficiently.

This plugin is compatible with all types of WordPress pages and every Custom URL. A distinctive characteristic of this tool is its notifications that are sent to the search engines each time you create new content.

It’s stated to be the best WordPress plugin. The active installs of this plugin are found to be above 1 million.

15. Pretty Links

Pretty Links is a regularly used plugin that can do more for marketers as it contains many interesting features. It’s capable of performing shrink, track, beautify, and share URLs both on WordPress and off it.

By using this plugin, you can create links using the domain name. it’s available for free in the name of Pretty Links Lite, and you can upgrade to the pro version on subscriptions. In simple words, it helps you in shortening links and exhibits the reports of hits by tracking each hit on your link.

16. Akismet

Akismet WordPress plugin examines the comments of visitors on your blog concerning the Akismet Web service and intimates whether the comment is spam or not. This plugin can spontaneously scan in the comments and would filter out spam smoothly.

You can check the status of the comments in the status history provided by this tool. It has a discard feature that intentionally blocks most hazardous spam, which naturally speeds up your site.

17. Pixel Caffeine

Pixel Caffeine allows you to manage Facebook Pixel and Facebook Commerce Manager all within the plugin.

Tony Capetola of Sales Orders says Pixel Caffeine is a great plugin because “marketers can make use of some more advanced features like the ability to track Facebook Ad conversions within WordPress’s dashboard, the ability to create custom audiences based on last visit time (retention window), WordPress taxonomies (categories, tags, etc.), and previous customers behavior.”

Added bonus: Pixel Caffeine automatically keeps up with Facebook’s latest updates so you don’t have to.

18. Calculated Fields Form

“[Calculated Fields Form] allows you to create simple calculators for your WordPress site. You can easily build finance calculators, quote calculators, booking cost calculators, health/ fitness calculators, and other link-worthy tools,” says Roy Harmon of Advertoscope.

With this plugin, you can also create forms with automatically calculated fields and use predefined form templates that will save you time and ensure accuracy.

19. OptinMonster

Looking to grow your email list? This plugin comes with an easy-to-use form builder to help you create opportunities for your visitors to convert.

OptinMonster is an excellent plugin for email marketing solutions for beginners. You can create many kinds of forms such as Pop-ups, Footer bars, Floating Headers, and many more. All of these forms are mobile-friendly, giving users even more opportunities for growth.

20. Wordfence

Hackers and malware can damage your reputation and marketing momentum by serving malicious software or even disabling your website. The Wordfence WordPress plugin will protect you from those risks.

Once you activate this plugin, it will spontaneously scan your WordPress site to check for infections.

21. Title Experiments

The title of a blog post has a direct impact on click-through rates (CTR). Title Experiments make it easy for you to A/B test one title against another so you can track what converts best and increase your CTR.

22. TablePress

TablePress is a plugin that helps you create, customize, and embed beautiful and unique tables on your WordPress site. Your tables can include all types of data and be placed anywhere on your website.

Swadhin Agrawa of DigitalGYD.com says, “TablePress makes it insanely easy for anyone to create a customizable and responsive table on their blogs.”

23. Editorial Calendar

Keep your blog organized with the help of this plugin. Editorial Calendar uses drag-and-drop functionality to simplify the way you schedule and manage your blog content.

You can also manage posts from multiple authors, quickly edit titles and publishing times, and manage drafts within the plugin.

24. TinyPNG

TinyPNG will make your website faster by automatically optimizing your JPEG and PNG images upon upload.

Images are analyzed, and then the plugin compresses them appropriately. Once this happens, the image is then sent back to your WordPress website to replace the original image.

25. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache helps you improve the performance of your blog. It enhances the user experience by increasing website performance and reducing the download durations through Content Delivery Network (CDN) integration.

It’s a fantastic tool for search engine optimization as it uses techniques such as caching, CDN, minify, and database support. These elements all work together to improve website speed, an important factor in how Google ranks pages.

26. Imsanity

Imsanity is a popular plugin that automatically resizes images without loss of quality and saves you from having to manually scale them before upload.

The Imsanity plugin matches the size of your images with the display in a browser. It resizes previously uploaded images by automatically scaling them down and replacing the original images with the new versions, which saves you time as all of the work is done for you.

27. Revive Old Post

Revive Old Post, previously called Tweet Old Post, helps marketers extend the lifetime of inactive Older posts by smoothly sharing these posts on social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and more.

You can manage multiple accounts using this WordPress plugin so you can promote content across more than one to better serve your needs.

28. Head, Footer and Post Injections

Most WordPress users end up needing to use several plugins — some people even use dozens. Head, Footer and Post Injections is a plugin that allows you to copy any unique code that you use for other plugins, keep it in a centralized and organized location, and easily insert it wherever needed.

The plugin is theme-independent, meaning you’ll never lose your data (no matter how many times you change your website theme).

29. Yoast SEO

Yoast helps you get the most out of your website SEO with straightforward XML Sitemaps, breadcrumb navigation control, content analysis, snippet previews, and several integrations that show you how your website performs in different search engines.

Nicolas Straut of Fundera, says, “This plugin identifies and suggests solutions for potential SEO problems in your content, identifies what you’ve done well and helps you easily edit your snippet, keywords, and other post details.”

30. Redirection

Redirection is a free redirect manager that allows you to set up your 301 redirects and manage 404 errors. There is a logging feature so you can see all of the redirects on your site as well as information about each visitor that is redirected.

31. Autoptimize

This plugin aggregates scripts and styles, which enhance your site’s overall performance. Autoptimize also has an extensive API available so you can tailor the plugin to your website’s needs.

“[Autoptimize] makes it easy for non-technical marketers to make their sites lightning fast. We all know how important it’s to have a fast website — without it, our Google rankings suffer and potential customers will go somewhere else,” says Jon Nastor of Hack the Entrepreneur.

Market Your Business with these Valuable Tools

With plugins like these, you’ll be able to run your website more efficiently and market your business to the world. We hope you found this article helpful in your search for the best plugins WordPress has to offer.

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