Author Archives: i4lead

Welcome to Creator Columns, where we bring expert HubSpot Creator voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.

I’ve been an inclusive marketing strategist and consultant for seven years. My entry into this space was heavily influenced by my lifelong experiences as a frustrated consumer.

Several components of my identity make me different from what is often considered to be “mainstream.” And as a result, brands didn’t often serve me well because of the things that make me different.

Some Consumers Consistently Have Less Than Ideal Customer Experiences

I conducted a research study for a client in 2022 to understand how consumers of hotels and bed and breakfasts think about belonging.

Here’s what a few consumers who are part of underrepresented and underserved communities had to say about their subpar customer experiences:

• “People with food allergies and restrictions should have an opportunity to get everything that they paid for.”
• “I wish they realized that larger people want to travel and feel as though our money is as important as straight-sized individuals. Oftentimes, larger guests will find themselves with tiny towels, hard-to-reach items, not much space between furniture.”
• “I’ve stayed at numerous places where there was nothing to eat on the menu for me (vegan) and staff was not open to making adjustments.”
• “I need grab bars in the shower.”
• “People are allergic to feathers.”

This frustration doesn’t just exist for some hospitality industry consumers. It often impacts people across the board who are part of underrepresented communities. Historically, brands have done a poor job of serving these communities well.

A comprehensive study commissioned by beauty retailer Sephora showed that 2 out of 5, or 40%, of retail shoppers, have personally experienced unfair treatment based on their race or skin color.

Numerous studies show that women are subjected to the “pink tax,” where they are charged (and sometimes taxed, in the case of feminine care products) more for similar products such as razors, toys, and dry cleaning than men are.

One study showed women are charged 48% more for shampoo, even though the ingredients are similar. Another study showed that the pink tax costs women an extra $1,351 annually and more than $100,000 throughout a lifetime.

These less-than-ideal experiences for consumers from underrepresented and underserved communities lead to frustration and much lower conversions with the brands they have these substandard experiences with.

When people are frustrated or feel like they are treated like an afterthought, they don’t convert, don’t make repeat purchases, and don’t achieve success at the same rate as others.

In this episode of the Inclusion & Marketing podcast, I do a deep dive into factors that influence your customers’ success and conversions that you should be aware of so you can fix them.

There’s a simple solution to increase conversions throughout the customer experience you deliver for all the people you want to serve.

Eliminate identity-based friction.

Here’s how to do it.

How to Deliver Conversion-Boosting Customer Experiences

1. Acknowledge the many ways consumers can be different.

Differences are common.

From the standpoint of consumers who have the problem your brand solves, there are a myriad of identities and ways in which they can be different that will have an impact on the customer experience your brand delivers.

Take the time to go through an exercise evaluating all the different ways your ideal customer could be different.

Here’s a list of common dimensions of diversity that impact the way a consumer experiences your brand, and ultimately whether or not they convert.

Once you find the different identities of the consumers you want to serve, the next step is to understand how their needs differ.

This free customer journey map template from HubSpot can help you identify how the journeys of various consumers could differ based on their identities.

Simply acknowledging that not all the customers you serve have the same need helps you expand your way of operating.

For instance, say you own a hotel and did this exercise. If the results highlighted that some of your ideal customers will be allergic to feathers, you might make different choices about the type of bedding you offer. As a result, you could deliver a high-quality and safe experience for all your guests.

Taylor Loren is a marketer who recently launched a content marketing strategy playbook. I loved seeing a callout on her sales page highlighting that the course was built with neurodivergent brains in mind.

The product offering was made to deliver a more inclusive experience because Loren first identified that neurodivergent people are a part of her ideal customer base.

2. Don’t “other” people.

No one likes to feel othered, or like they aren’t part of a group because of their differences. I often remind clients that not everyone has a great relationship with what makes them different, so they often don’t want to be reminded of this when they’re trying to engage with a brand.

Remember, belonging is the goal. The more people feel like they belong with you, the higher your conversion rates will be.

When people feel cast aside or like they aren’t “normal” they are less likely to take action to continue engaging with a brand that makes them feel that way. People who feel othered are less likely to convert.

Instead of labeling things that may make some consumers feel frustrated or upset, enable customers to find what they need without making them feel like something is wrong with them.

Some retail brands have stopped ‘othering’ shoppers who need a larger size by eliminating the “plus-sized” label from the shopping experience.

Here’s an example of a brand using the plus-sized label in a way that ‘others’ people and delivers a substandard customer experience.

Here’s an example of a brand that allows shoppers to find what they need without ‘othering’ them, thus delivering a more positive customer experience that makes more people feel like they belong.

In this episode of the Inclusion & Marketing podcast, I explored the concept of “normal” and how marketers should use it to deliver remarkable customer experiences for all the people they serve.

3. Don’t force people to ‘raise their hands’ to acknowledge their differences.

I spoke at a conference earlier this year, and my session was just before lunchtime. After it was over, I went to the buffet lunch that was set up for the attendees and noticed there weren’t any labels on the food from a food allergy standpoint.

So, I went and asked one of the servers if they could let me know which items were safe, and a few minutes later, someone brought out a prepared plate from the chef full of gluten-free items, including dishes that weren’t included at the buffet.

When I sat down to eat it, the woman next to me heard me talking about my experience of having to wait to get gluten-free food. She told me she was also gluten-free for health reasons. However, she added that she opted to guess which foods in the buffet were gluten-free because she didn’t want to say anything.

It is important to recognize that not everyone who has an identity that makes them different wants to raise their hand and tell the world about the specific needs they have.

Here’s a clip in which famed producer Shonda Rhimes shares about a time when she decided against “raising her hand” to express her need for a special accommodation, even though it could negatively impact her safety.

When working to improve your conversions by eliminating identity-based friction in the customer experience you deliver, take the time to ensure that consumers don’t have to raise their hands to acknowledge their differences and get what they need from you.

Make it so that you’ve included a way for people to easily get their questions answered, get the accommodations they need, or self-identify what will work best for them in their experience without having to detail their personal information to a stranger.

During a research study I conducted for a client, one consumer explained that brands make her feel like she belongs “When I don’t have to ask for accommodation because they are already available.”

In this episode of the Inclusion & Marketing podcast, I walk you through my Inclusive Customer Experience Spectrum to help you identify how to deliver experiences that convert a higher number of customers.

Better Customer Experiences Lead to Higher Conversions

You can increase conversions for your brand. It results from delivering better customer experiences for all the people you serve, including those from underrepresented and underserved communities.

Start by identifying how the people you serve are different. Then, design experiences that make all of your ideal customers feel like they belong with your brand, no matter their identity.

As a new marketing assistant, I once created an email campaign for our biggest product launch. Despite spending hours crafting the seemingly “perfect” message, the next day’s analytics showed dismal open and click-through rates.

The problem? I had neglected the design, resulting in a cluttered mess with no clear call-to-action. This harsh wake-up call taught me that in email marketing, design is as crucial as content.

This experience set me on a path to mastering email design. I learned that effective emails require a balance of engaging copy and visually appealing design that guides readers to action.

In this blog post, I’ve explored email design best practices, covering everything from attention-grabbing subject lines to responsive design.

Why Email Design Matters

With email users expected to reach 4.7 billion by 2026, mastering email design is crucial for reaching and converting your target audience.

Email recipients often scan information and abandon emails that don‘t offer them value or simply appear to be too dense.

That’s why having great email design is so important — it’ll help you capture the attention of, and engage, your email recipients.

Your email design should be attention-grabbing, aesthetically-pleasing, and on-brand, among other things — let’s dive into those things next with these 13 best practices for email design.

1. Craft a strong subject line.

Your email subject line is the first thing anyone sees when you send them an email. It’s the brief statement that’s supposed to pique the interest of your recipients. It should capture their attention so they want to open your email and continue reading.

Here’s what a subject line looks like in your email inbox:

Here’s what a subject line looks like in your mobile device’s email inbox:

A great subject line will have these characteristics:

• Grab the attention of your readers in as few words as possible (remember: less is more).
• Provide value for the recipient that makes them want to open the email.
• Summarize what recipients are going to read and/ or see once they open the email.

2. Write an attention-grabbing pre-header.

Your email pre-header is a preview of what the email is about, similar to the meta description of a web page. It’s the second thing recipients see.

Rather than rewriting the first sentence of your email, you can customize the pre-header to provide an inside look into what your recipients are about to read in your message.

Here’s what a pre-header looks like in your email inbox:

Here’s what a pre-header looks like in your mobile device’s email inbox:

3. Be concise.

How many times throughout the day do you find yourself opening an email thinking, I can’t wait to sit down and take the next 5-10 minutes to really dive into this email from Business X!

If you’re anything like me, your answer is likely rarely or never.

Give email recipients the information they want and need from you without getting into the weeds. This will show them you value their time which has the potential to help you improve email subscriber retainment.

4. Keep your email on-brand.

When your email recipients open your message, they should know the email was sent from your company. Meaning your email should be branded.

To keep your email on-brand, consider using the following tactics:

• Use a tone in your emails that complements your other content and marketing materials (like your website and social media).
• Incorporate the same colors and fonts that you use in your other branding and marketing materials.
• Include your logo, a link to your website, links to your social media accounts, and calls-to-action (CTAs) that are relevant to your products or services. This is a great way to increase brand awareness while also boost conversions.

5. Use the layout to enhance your email’s user experience.

Nobody wants to read a cluttered and unorganized email — this makes recipients feel overwhelmed and can lead to increased abandonment.

Instead, organize your layout with user experience (UX) in mind — meaning, leave empty/white space and strategically place your written and visual content so it’s organized and easy to consume and navigate.

6. Personalize every email.

When you customize an email and tailor it to your recipient, it’ll feel more thoughtful, professional, and personal.

Email personalization also helps you humanize your brand. This touch helps you foster a relationship between your business and email recipients and boost retention rates.

Beyond just using a recipient’s name, personalization is a crucial aspect of email marketing. I asked Nura Busleiman, the head of email marketing operations for the lifecycle team at MarketerHire, how to go beyond using a recipient’s name:

“The most important thing is to understand where in the customer journey your lead is. If they are just getting to know you, they might need different information than someone who already bought your product or service.”

Busleiman’s advice highlights the importance of tailoring your email content to each recipient’s specific stage in the customer journey:

“Understanding their journey will lead you to better emails and results, of course. Your contact needs to understand why they are receiving that email at that moment and what they are expected to do.”

This level of personalization ensures that your emails are not only relevant but also provide clear value to the reader, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion.

7. Incorporate unique visual content.

If recipients open an email and only see paragraphs of information, it’s likely going to be difficult to hold their attention and keep them interested in your message.

Rather, incorporate on-brand and engaging images, videos, GIFs, animations, etc. to break up the written content and create a memorable experience.

And speaking of incorporating creative and unique visual content in your emails, let’s talk emojis.

8. Don’t be afraid to use emojis. 🧡

At first, emojis may seem like an unnecessary or unprofessional addition to an email. While this may be a fair assumption, it’s actually untrue in a number of scenarios.

In fact, when you add emojis to your email subject line and/ or email copy, you can increase your open and click-through rates.

But remember: When using emojis for marketing purposes, make sure you know the meaning and connotation of the specific one(s) you incorporate. 😃

9. Use a responsive design.

A responsive design means your email changes format to fit the screen it’s being viewed on, whether it’s on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device. Recipients will be able to read your emails with ease no matter where or how they’re viewing them.

By incorporating a responsive design, you’ll be able to enhance UX and improve email retention across all devices.

10. Optimize your email with CTAs.

Calls-to-action (CTAs) are used to convert your email recipients. For instance, you can use a CTA to get recipients to follow you on social media, visit your website, chat with a sales rep, or become paying customers.

CTAs should be visible, enticing, and clearly show why they’re valuable to click. Additionally, you might choose to personalize your CTAs to tailor them towards specific recipients — this tactic has been proven to increase conversions.

11. Add an “unsubscribe” button.

Email marketing is highly effective as long as you’re providing relevant content to your recipients.

The unfortunate but true reality of email marketing is that your recipients and customers change over time — especially as your business grows and evolves. Therefore, your content may not always be relevant to certain audience members.

For this reason, allow your recipients to leave (or unsubscribe from your emails) on a good note so they can remember your business in a positive light — who knows, they may need your email content, products, or services again in the future.

To do this, simplify their lives with an easy-to-use and visible “unsubscribe” button.

In addition to offering a better experience for users, you’re actually required by law to add that unsubscribe button.

According to the Federal Trade Commission and CAN-SPAM Act, you’re legally required to include a “clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt-out of getting emails from you in the future.”

Meaning, that unsubscribe button isn’t an option.

(If you need some inspiration, check out these effective unsubscribe pages.)

12. A/B test your design.

Similar to most marketing efforts, email design is an iterative process. You might determine you need to make changes and updates to get the most out of your email design.

But what elements should you focus on when A/B testing? Here Busleiman shares her insights once more:

“Usually, CTAs placed above the fold (visible without scrolling) generally see higher click-through rates. What I do recommend anyway is to always try to talk as your audience talks, understand their customer journey, and show them images that they can find familiar. You can also A/B test attributes such as voice and tone. Don’t make assumptions, just experiments!”

Busleiman’s advice highlights several key areas for A/B testing:

1. CTA placement. Testing the position of your call-to-action, especially above the fold, can significantly improve click-through rates.
2. Language and tone. Experimenting with different ways of speaking to your audience can help you find the most effective communication style.
3. Imagery. Testing various images that resonate with your audience’s experiences can improve engagement.
4. Voice and tone. Even subtle changes in how you express your message can make a big difference.

Pro tip: Remember, the goal of A/B testing is to let data guide your decisions rather than relying on assumptions. By consistently testing these elements, you can continually refine your email design for maximum impact.

13. Design an email signature.

Great email signature design is another way you can establish a professional and personal feel over email.

Email signatures shouldn’t just include your name — they should contain other defining and memorable characteristics about you, your role, contact information, and company.

Here are some specifics you can include in your email signature:

• First and last name
• Contact information (and secondary contact information)
• Job Title / Role
• Company Name
• Link to your meeting calendar
• Social media links (e.g. LinkedIn profile)
• Pronouns
• Photo
• Industry disclaimer or legal requirements

Creating a professional email signature doesn’t have to be complicated. You can easily design one using HubSpot’s free email signature generator, which helps you incorporate all these elements seamlessly.

A great way to streamline the process of working on and incorporate all 13 of the above best practices is to use email design tools and software.

In fact, many of the best practices we reviewed will come up naturally while you’re designing, writing, and planning your messages with email design software.

While these best practices provide a solid foundation, sometimes seeing real-world examples can offer additional insights.

Take a look at our collection of innovative email newsletter designs for more ideas on how to apply these principles creatively.

Email Design Tools

There are a number of email design tools with a wide range of capabilities (some completely unrelated to email design!). Here are some popular examples.

1. HubSpot

HubSpot’s Email Marketing software allows you to create, design, personalize, and optimize all of your emails.

You don’t need any IT or coding knowledge, and you can easily customize mobile-friendly emails. The software allows you to A/B test emails to determine which designs work best.

Additionally, it includes an AI-generated email feature that can significantly enhance your productivity.

2. BEEPro

As a BEEPro user, you can design responsive emails in just minutes.

Smart design tools provide you with a quick way to format your emails and ensure your layout complements your content.

You can also customize and save various email design templates so your messaging and branding is consistent.

3. MailChimp

With over 100 templates offered, MailChimp allows you to customize your email design for your target audience.

If you’re someone who does have coding experience, and you want to take your design a step further, MailChimp offers you the ability to code your template too.

4. Stripo

Stripo requires no HTML knowledge to create and design professional email templates. All of their pre-made templates are responsive so readers can easily view them via any device.

You can also sync your current email service provider (ESP) with the software to access all of your email and contact information from a central location.

5. Chamaileon

As a collaborative email builder, Chamaileon gives you the ability to invite members of your team to collaborate on your designs.

The software ensures your emails will have a responsive design and automatically comes with over 100 pre-made templates to customize for specific recipients.

While these tools can help you create visually appealing emails, it’s also valuable to see how other successful companies are designing their emails. For inspiration and ideas, check out our curated list of effective email marketing examples.

These real-world examples can help you understand how to apply design principles and best practices to your own email campaigns.

Email Design Examples

Let’s take a look at some successful email designs to inspire your work.

HubSpot Marketing Blog

HubSpot used to send emails to Marketing Blog subscribers every day. These included a few blog marketing-related articles to read and learn from. If recipients chose, they could also subscribe to HubSpot’s Sales Blog and Service Blog emails.

The emails were branded so readers immediately know who the email is from and what it will include. To make the daily emails engaging and unique, they included previews of the articles and an occasional quiz.

Starbucks Rewards

Starbucks customers and members may have seen this email, or something similar, in their inbox before:

The email complements Starbucks’ marketing and branding, and there’s plenty of white space separating the written information from the engaging imagery. And the CTA that recipients can click on to activate the offer is clearly placed.

Vital Proteins Email Design

Although Vital Proteins’ email design contains many images and a lot of information, it’s neatly organized so it doesn’t feel overwhelming to recipients. The email’s colors, font, and visuals are on-brand and feature the company’s products.

There’s an obvious CTA that redirects recipients to their Instagram page — in turn, this type of CTA helps the company increase their follower count and brand awareness on the social platform.

Grow Better With Really Good Email Design

Email design is an art form that masterfully blends visual appeal, strategic planning, and psychological principles. It’s a crucial skill that deserves continuous refinement to achieve better results from your email marketing campaigns.

I’m particularly excited about the impact of personalization, which pushed me to explore creative ways to tailor emails beyond just using names.

For example, the potential of emojis to boost open rates challenged my preconceptions, and is something I’ll start experimenting with in subject lines.

Armed with these insights, you can now craft emails that not only reach your audience but also resonate deeply with them.

Remember, great email design is an ongoing process. As email continues to evolve, so too will design best practices. Stay curious, keep experimenting, and most importantly, always prioritize your audience’s experience.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Which AI tactics will keep your site relevant and engaging as website strategies shift from broad audience capture to hyper-personalization?

The days of designing websites solely for broad audience capture and search engine optimization are well behind us. The future now lies in hyper-personalization, where websites cater to the specific needs and preferences of each visitor.

AI is at the forefront of this transformation, providing advanced tools and insights to create more relevant and engaging websites based on individual user data.

While the sheer volume of AI technologies — and the speed at which they’re evolving — might feel overwhelming, it’s critical for marketing leaders to stay current with these advancements.

In our recent Marketing Against the Grain episode, Kieran and I discuss three high-impact AI strategies for optimizing your website, along with emerging tools and examples, to get you started today. Let’s dive in.

High-Impact AI Strategies for Optimizing Your Website

1. Integrate AI chat ASAP.

One essential (and obvious) strategy that many marketers still overlook is integrating AI chat. AI chatbots are key for curating a seamless user journey by giving users exactly what they need.

These bots don’t get annoyed, nor do they get offended. They guide impatient visitors around your site, answer questions, and personalize interactions, making it easy for users to find what they want, without the hassle of endless clicking.

During the episode, we explored the AI voice chatbot on Hume AI’s website. What stood out to us was how the chatbot effortlessly navigated us through the site based on our verbal requests — completely eliminating the need for typing or clicking.

“Why would I ever click through the pages when I can just start this anonymous conversation with a bot and have it do all the work for me?” says Kieran. “It’s like going into a high-end store and having someone immediately assist you.”

AI chat tools like Hume act as virtual concierges, streamlining the overall user journey by providing a direct pathway to the information they seek. This is crucial for optimizing your website, making it more intuitive, efficient, and ultimately, more satisfying for your users.

2. Lean into AI video experimentation.

AI video tools are game-changers for making your website more hyper-personalized and globally accessible.

Imagine greeting each visitor with a video in their native language or with a custom message tailored to their specific interests based on user data. This creates a better experience for everyone, whether they’re local — or halfway across the world.

Tools HeyGen and InfinityAI offer cutting-edge creative potential that you don’t want to miss out on. And while there’s still room for improvement, as a marketing leader, you should be experimenting and exploring these tools now.

As Sam Altman from OpenAI said during his interview with 20VC, there are two types of companies: those who are building for what AI can do today, and those building for what it will be able to do in the future.

Our advice: position your company in the latter category and start testing new video advancements now to stay ahead in the long term.

3. Improve multimodality with AI-generated audio.

Think about the best salesperson in your company — it’s often the founder. But founders lack the time to continuously create content for marketing campaigns, product releases, and sales initiatives.

This is where AI-generated audio comes in, providing a new level of authenticity and personalization for your website.

For example, AI audio tools like Character.AI or Delphi AI can replicate the voices of key figures like founders, celebrities, or influencers (with proper consent and licensing), delivering personalized messages or testimonials to your audience.

Additionally, AI-generated audio tools can streamline the creation of high-volume content like product demos, explainer videos, and personalized sales pitches, saving your creative team valuable time and resources.

“Websites are going to be much more multimodal in the future than they are now,” Kieran emphasizes. Integrating AI-generated audio is essential for future-proofing your website, making it more dynamic and aligning with shifting user expectations for a more immersive and interactive online experience.

To watch our entire discussion about website optimization in an era of AI, check out the full episode of Marketing Against the Grain below:

This blog series is in partnership with Marketing Against the Grain, the video podcast. It digs deeper into ideas shared by marketing leaders Kipp Bodnar (HubSpot’s CMO) and Kieran Flanagan (SVP, Marketing at HubSpot) as they unpack growth strategies and learn from standout founders and peers.

Business budgets are a source of truth for your income and expenses. That includes all the money you spend — from A/B testing your marketing campaigns to your monthly office rent.

In my roles, I’ve needed to create budgets for whole projects and smaller writing projects.

While organizing the numbers may sound difficult, I’ve found that using a business budget template makes the process simple. Plus, there are thousands of business budget templates for you to choose from.

In this article, I’ll share seven budget templates that can help organize your finances. But first, you’ll learn about different types of business budgets and how to create one.

Table of Contents

• What is a business budget?
• Types of Budgets for a Business
• How to Create a Business Budget
• How to Manage a Business Budget
• Why is a Budget Important for a Business?
• Best Free Business Budget Templates

The business budget follows a set template, which you can fill in with estimated revenues, plus any recurring or expected business expenses.

For example, say your business is planning a website redesign. You’d need to break down the costs by category: software, content and design, testing, and more.

Having a clear breakdown will help you estimate how much each category will cost and compare it with the actual costs.

Image Source

Business budgets aren’t one size fits all. In fact, there are many different types of budgets that serve various purposes.

Let’s dive into some commonly used budgets:

Master Budget

Think of a master budget as the superhero of budgets.

It brings together all the individual budgets from different parts of your company into one big, consolidated plan. It covers everything from sales and production to marketing and finances.

It includes details like projected revenues, expenses, and profitability for each department or business unit. It also considers important financial aspects like cash flow and capital expenditures. The budget even creates a balance sheet to show the organization’s financial position.

The master budget acts as a guide for decision-making, helps with strategic planning, and gives a clear picture of the overall financial health and performance of your company. It’s like the master plan that ties everything together and helps the organization move in the right direction.

Operating Budget

Your operating budget helps your company figure out how much money it expects to make and spend during a specific period, usually a year. It not only predicts the revenue your business will bring in but also outlines expenses it will need to cover, like salaries, rent, bills, and other operational costs.

By comparing your actual expenses and revenue to the budgeted amounts, your company can see how it’s performing and make adjustments if needed. It helps keep things in check, allowing your business to make wise financial decisions and stay on track with its goals.

Cash Budget

A cash budget estimates the cash inflows and outflows of your business over a specific period, typically a month, quarter, or year. It provides a detailed projection of cash sources and uses, including revenue, expenses, and financing activities.

The cash budget helps you effectively manage your cash flow, plan for cash shortages or surpluses, evaluate the need for external financing and make informed decisions about resource allocation.

By utilizing a cash budget, your business can ensure it has enough cash on hand to meet its financial obligations, navigate fluctuations, and seize growth opportunities.

Static Budget

A static budget is a financial plan that remains unchanged, regardless of actual sales or production volumes.

It’s typically created at the beginning of a budget period and doesn’t account for any fluctuations or changes in business conditions. It also assumes that all variables, such as sales, expenses, and production levels, will remain the same throughout the budget period.

While a static budget provides a baseline for comparison, it may not be realistic for businesses with fluctuating sales volumes or variable expenses.

Departmental Budget

A departmental budget focuses on the financial aspects of a specific department within your company, such as sales, marketing, or human resources.

When creating a departmental budget, you may look at revenue sources like departmental sales, grants, and other sources of income. On the expense side, you consider costs such as salaries, supplies, equipment, and any other expenses unique to that department.

The goal of a departmental budget is to help the department manage its finances wisely. It acts as a guide for making decisions and allocating resources effectively. By comparing the actual numbers to the budgeted amounts, department heads can see if they’re on track or if adjustments need to be made.

Capital Budget

A capital budget is all about planning for big investments in the long term. It focuses on deciding where to spend money on things like upgrading equipment, maintaining facilities, developing new products, and hiring new employees.

The budget looks at the costs of buying new stuff, upgrading existing things, and even considers depreciation, which is when something loses value over time. It also considers the return on investment, like how much money these investments might bring in or how they could save costs in the future.

The budget also looks at different ways to finance these investments, whether it‘s through loans, leases, or other options. It’s all about making smart decisions for the future, evaluating cash flow, and choosing investments that will help the company grow and succeed.

Labor Budget

A labor budget helps you plan and manage the costs related to your employees. It involves figuring out how much your business will spend on wages, salaries, benefits, and other labor-related expenses.

To create a labor budget, you‘ll need to consider factors like how much work needs to be done, how many folks you’ll need to get it done, and how much it’ll all cost. This can help your business forecast and control labor-related expenses and ensure adequate staffing levels.

By having a labor budget in place, your business can monitor and analyze your labor costs to make informed decisions and optimize your resources effectively.

Project Budget

A project budget is a financial plan for a specific project.

Let‘s say you have an exciting new project you want to tackle. A project budget helps you figure out how much money you’ll need and how it will be allocated. It covers everything from personnel to equipment and materials — basically, anything you’ll need to make the project happen.

By creating a project budget, you can make sure the project is doable from a financial standpoint. It helps you keep track of how much you planned to spend versus how much you actually spend as you go along.

That way, you have a clear idea of whether you’re staying on track or if there are any financial challenges that need attention.

How to Create a Business Budget

While creating a business budget can be straightforward, the process may be more complex for larger companies with multiple revenue streams and expenses.

No matter the size of your business, here are the basic steps to creating a business budget.

1. Gather financial data.

Before you create a business budget, it’s important to gather insights from your past financial data. By looking at income statements, expense reports, and sales data, you can spot trends, learn from past experiences, and see where you can make improvements.

Going through your financial history helps you paint an accurate picture of your income and expenses. So, when you start creating your budget, you can set achievable targets and make sure your estimates match what’s actually been happening in your business.

Besides past financials, consider new expenses. For instance, if your business is looking to try a new marketing channel, you’d need to document your goals for that channel. Afterward, walk backward to figure out how much you need to achieve those goals and include it in your budget.

2. Find a template or make a spreadsheet.

There are many free or paid budget templates online. You can start with an existing budget template. We list a few helpful templates below.

Image Source

You may also opt to make a spreadsheet with custom rows and columns based on your business.

3. Fill in revenues.

Once you have your template, start by listing all the sources of your business’ income. With a budget, you’re planning for the future, so you’ll also need to forecast revenue streams based on previous months or years.

For a new small business budget, you’ll rely on your market research to estimate early revenue for your company. If you’re trying out new channels, consider using industry benchmarks to gauge the revenue to expect.

When you estimate your revenue, you’re essentially figuring out how much money you have to work with. This helps you decide where to allocate your resources and which expenses you can fund.

4. Subtract fixed costs for the time period.

Fixed costs are the recurring costs you have during each month, quarter, or year. Examples include insurance, rent for office space, website hosting, and internet.

The key thing to remember about fixed costs is that they stay relatively stable, regardless of changes in business activity. Even if your sales decrease or production slows down, these costs remain the same.

However, it’s important to note that fixed costs can still change over the long term, such as when renegotiating lease agreements or adjusting employee salaries.

5. Consider variable costs.

Variable costs will change from time to time. Unlike fixed costs, variable costs increase or decrease as the level of production or sales changes.

Examples include raw materials needed to manufacture your products, packaging and shipping costs, utility bills, advertising costs, office supplies, and new software or technology.

You may always need to pay some variable costs, like utility bills. However, you can shift how much you spend toward other expenses, like advertising costs, when you have a lower-than-average estimated income.

6. Set aside time for business budget planning.

Unexpected expenses might come up, or you might want to save to expand your business. Either way, review your budget after including all expenses, fixed costs, and variable costs.

Once completed, you can determine how much money you can save. It’s wise to create multiple savings accounts. One should be used for emergencies. The other holds money that can be spent on the business to drive growth.

7. Conduct budget reviews.

Every budget requires periodic reviews. Regular reviews let you know what’s working and respond to changes in your financial outlook.

When doing a budget review, compare your estimated budget to your actual spend. This lets you know how to make better revenue and expense projections.

There is no rule stating when you should conduct your budget review. However, I’d recommend you do it monthly, quarterly, and yearly.

• Monthly reviews: Check your estimated versus actual spend. Look for items whose actual spend surpasses the estimated cost. Consider cost-cutting measures for such items when forecasting your expenses for the next month.
• Quarterly reviews: Use this review to identify month-over-month budget estimates and actual spend for three months. Use the insights to determine what you should spend less or more on and forecast better for the next quarter.
• Yearly reviews: This review lets you assess your projections for the year. If they were accurate, double down on it. If otherwise, reflect on what didn’t work and use what you’ve learned to make better long-term financial projections for the next year.

How to Manage a Business Budget

There are a few key components to managing a healthy business budget.

Budget Preparation

The process all starts with properly preparing and planning the budget at the beginning of each month, quarter, or year.

You can also create multiple budgets, some short-term and some long-term. During this stage, you will also set spending limits and create a system to regularly monitor the budget.

Budget Monitoring

In larger businesses, you might delegate budget tracking to multiple supervisors.

But even if you’re a one-person show, keep a close eye on your budget.

That means setting a time in your schedule each day or week to review the budget and track actual income and expenses. Be sure to compare the actual numbers to the estimates.

Budget Forecasting

With regular budget tracking, you always know how your business is doing.

Check in regularly to determine how you are doing in terms of revenue and where you have losses. Find where you can minimize expenses and how you can move more money into savings.

Why is a Budget Important for a Business?

A budget is crucial for businesses. Without one, you could easily be drowning in expenses or unexpected costs.

The business budget helps with several operations. You can use a business budget to keep track of your finances, save money to help you grow the business or pay bonuses in the future, and prepare for unexpected expenses or emergencies.

You can also review your budget to determine when to take the next leap for your business. For example, you might be dreaming of a larger office building or the latest software, but you want to make sure you have a healthy net revenue before you make the purchase.

Best Free Business Budget Templates

1. Marketing Budget Template

Best for: Companies executing multiple initiatives across several marketing channels

Image Source

Knowing how to manage a marketing budget can be a challenge, but with helpful free templates like this marketing budget template bundle, you can track everything from advertising expenses to events and more.

I like this bundle because it is comprehensive and has eight free business budget templates. There are templates for:

• Branding and creative budget.
• Product marketing budget.
• Paid advertising budget.
• Public relations budget.
• Web design budget.
• Content budget.
• Event budget.

The master budget template brings everything together and serves as your single source of truth. It consolidates the different budgets into a massive, company-wide budget sheet. Having a specific template for each initiative can help teams keep track of spending and plan for growth.

2. Project Budget Template

Best for: In-house teams seeking buy-in for complex projects

Every new project comes with expenses.

This free business budget template will help your team calculate the total cost once you enter your labor, material, and fixed costs. You can easily spot if you’re going over budget midway through a project so you can adjust.

This template is especially useful for small companies that are reporting budgets to clients and for in-house teams getting buy-in for complex projects.

3. Free Business Budget Template

Best for: Businesses of all types executing a minimal number of initiatives

Sometimes, you may need to document a simple budget for a few initiatives. In such cases, this free business budget template, which works in Google Sheets and Excel, may be ideal. I like the idea of Google Sheets because it lets others collaborate and comment on the budget.

These business budget templates feature cells for entering your expenses, category, and budget. Afterward, the spreadsheet uses the data to create your total estimated budget.

4. Small Business Budget Template

Best for: Small businesses and new startups

Image Source

For small businesses, it can be hard to find the time to draw up a budget, but it’s crucial to help keep the business in good health. This is why I like the budget template that Capterra created specifically for small businesses.

This business budget template works with Excel. I like this template because it helps you take inventory of your income and track your monthly expenses. The small business budget template from Capterra includes:

• Operating income.
• Non-operating income.
• Fixed cost.
• Variable cost.

The business expense section of the template is excellent for tracking employee expenses.

The business budget section of the template helps you track your estimated versus actual income. Over time, this information helps you predict the income to expect so you can plan your expenses and have the funds to execute.

To use the business budget template, start by inputting your estimated projections. Once you get the actual figures, input them, and the sheet will calculate the rest automatically.

For the business expense template, you simply input the description and associated cost to get the total cost.

5. Startup Budget Template

Best for: New business owners and startups

Image Source

Sometimes, you may not have previous numbers to rely on to create profit and expense estimates. Trust me, I have been there, and that’s where Gusto’s budget template helps.

If you are a startup, this budget template will help you draw up a budget before your business is officially on the market. You can track all the expenses you need to get your business up and running, estimate your first revenues, and determine where to pinch pennies.

Gusto’s business budget template has sections for entering:

• Expense.
• Expense category.
• Budget.
• Padding.
• Estimated budget.

6. Company Budget Template

Best for: Companies and small businesses with multiple departments

Image Source

If you want to keep track of every penny, use this template from TemplateLab to draw up a detailed budget. I like this template because it’s comprehensive, lists expenses like fixed costs, employee costs, and variable costs.

The expense analysis section of the template also includes pie and bar charts to show your expenditure visually. This business template is useful for small businesses that want to keep track of expenses in one document.

7. Administrative Budget Template

Best for: Companies and small businesses with multiple departments and vast tech stack

Image Source

If you operate your business in-office or work remotely with lots of tools, it may be helpful to keep track of your administrative budget separately.

I like this business budget template from Zapier because it lets you account for administrative expenses like:

• Rent.
• Depreciation.
• Insurance.
• Training and development.
• Communication.
• Marketing tools.
• Sales tools.
• Accounting fees.

Tracking these expenses separately helps you know if you’re overspending on certain elements of your business. It also lets you cut down on what you can do without and save some of your revenue.

Testing It Out

To show you how easy it is to use these templates, I’ll test out the marketing budget template.

Once you download the template, you’ll see the first sheet, showing you how to use it.

What I like about this template: Once I scroll through the sheet, there are populated figures, which I can easily replace. For instance, to enter my content budget, I just need to follow the instructions of filling in my projected expenses.

After each month, I can revisit the template to enter my actual expenses. This lets me know if my projections are right.

A nice inclusion in this template is the year-to-date summary, which continuously updates as I input or delete figures. The graph is also a brilliant touch, as it gives me a virtual overview of where I am spending more.

Following the same process, I can create a product marketing budget, paid advertising budget, public relations budget, etc.

When I finish these individual budgets, I can then populate my master marketing budget with insights from all initiatives. Easy peasy!

Create a business budget to help your company grow.

Making your first business budget can be daunting, especially if you have several revenue streams and expenses. Using a budget template can make getting started easy. And, once you get it set up, these templates are simple to replicate.

With little planning and regular monitoring, you can plan for the future of your business.

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

Everyone knows that ChatGPT can generate content on nearly any topic you can imagine (some information might be made up, but that’s a story for a different article).

So, while I’m not a fan of using it to create articles, I must say that I’m impressed with how helpful it can be for SEO.

In this post, I put together different ways you can use ChatGPT to improve your search rankings – whether it’s through keyword improvements, proper linking, or other tactics. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

• How to Use ChatGPT for SEO
• Benefits of ChatGPT for SEO
• Limitations of Using ChatGPT for SEO
• Tips for Improving SEO With ChatGPT

How to Use ChatGPT for SEO

What exactly is this AI tool capable of? Here are some of the most impactful ways you can use ChatGPT for SEO.

1. Classify keywords by intent.

Correctly understanding your readers’ intent is key to ranking high in Google. After all, if they land on a page and see that the content doesn’t relate to them, they’ll leave your site, negatively affecting your SEO efforts.

So, how can you make sure you apply each keyword to the right landing page or blog post? ChatGPT can give you a hand.

To give you an example, a while back, I worked with a company that wanted to verify how much of their existing content targeted readers at the top and bottom of the funnel. I downloaded the keywords from the brand’s Google Search Console and asked ChatGPT the following prompt:

“Classify the SEO keywords in the Excel spreadsheet by intent. Categorize them into informational, navigational, transactional, general, and commercial categories. Next, generate a pie chart showing the percentages of each intent type.”

Here’s what I got.

Image Source

As you can see, ChatGPT can give you a quick, high-level understanding of what types of phrases are bringing in organic traffic.

Now, as AI isn’t an oracle, I did go back to the Excel file and verified the automatic intent categories for phrases that were in the top 10 in SERP. While ChatGPT didn’t get 100% of them right, it did a decent job overall.

2. Come up with a potential topic for each keyword.

What I like about ChatGPT is that it’s a good idea generator. If you have a list of keywords that fit your offer, you can ask it to suggest topic ideas for blog posts.

Let’s take the keyword “data management consultant” to see what ChatGPT will suggest. To make it easier, I’m going to give it a bit of context on what the topic idea is for:

“I run a software agency and would like to rank for the term “data management consultant.” Data consultancy is one of my company’s services. Please suggest three topic ideas for a blog post we could write.”.

Here’s the output:

Image Source

Image Source

Notice how I’ve asked just for three topics, and ChatGPT gave me that and some more? When you use ChatGPT for content generation ideas, you should always treat it as a starting point.

If you like any of the suggested topics, you can review what other brands that rank in the top 10 search results are writing on – and how you can do better.

3. Suggest content clusters.

If you’ve been reading the HubSpot Blog for a while, you’ve probably noticed how strongly we advocate for content clusters as an SEO-boosting strategy.

Yet, it’s not always easy to choose clusters, let alone decide what articles to create for each of them.

While this is a strategic decision that shouldn’t be left to ChatGPT without any oversight, the AI engine could help point you in the right direction.

Here’s an example of a prompt I used and the results I received:

Image Source

Image Source

Image Source

These results and suggestions can be a good starting point as far as cluster topic and structure are concerned.

However, remember to verify the cluster’s SEO potential in a dedicated tool – ChatGPT doesn’t have access to search or keyword difficulty data.

4. Write meta descriptions.

To many, meta descriptions often seem like an unimportant detail, especially since they’re not officially a ranking factor. Still, as they provide a summary of what’s on your website, they’re a great opportunity to persuade a prospect to visit your site.

Ensuring that at least your key landing pages have a meta will positively impact SEO as they tend to improve CTRs and reduce bounce rates.

I often turn to ChatGPT for creating meta descriptions. I asked ChatGPT to write one for a HubSpot article I wrote.

Here’s the prompt that I used:

“Create an SEO meta description of no more than 120 characters for the following article https://blog.hubspot.com/service/chat-gpt-customer-service. Include the primary keyword ‘ChatGPT customer service,’ along with a call to action.”

Here is the result:

Image Source

You can follow this approach with all your landing pages and articles. It will save you an awful lot of time.

5. Optimize keywords.

I write a lot of SEO content. While my main focus is on creating high-quality pieces packed with unique insights that help prospects tackle their problems, I never ignore SEO.

But, the more keywords you want to rank for, the more time-consuming it is to optimize your article for them.

Unless you ask ChatGPT for help.

That’s what copywriter and digital marketer John Paul Hernandez, does.

“I do a few things with ChatGPT to improve SEO optimization. One of them is asking the AI to insert keywords within my human-written article. It’s not perfect, but it gives me an idea of keyword placements to save me time during my final edit.”

Let’s see it in action. I asked ChatGPT to optimize a few paragraphs of the same article I used previously. Here is the prompt:

Image Source

As requested, it came up with a list of LSI and NLP keywords. Here it is:

Image Source

Then, it incorporated them into the draft:

Image Source

Image Source

I think it did a pretty good job. While it might not be perfect, it gives you a good idea of where you could place the keywords.

6. Create catchy headings.

Sometimes when you write content, you get stuck. The heading or title that you wrote isn’t as appealing as you’d like it to be. Sometimes, changing one word can make a big difference.

Instead of spending hours trying to come up with a more catchy title or heading, you can turn to ChatGPT. Here’s an example:

Image Source

Here is the result:

Image Source

You don’t have to use the ChatGPT title as is — you can simply borrow that one word or phrase you like and edit it into your original title. For instance, I quite like the phrase “supercharge productivity,” so I would work that into my title.

7. Suggest a content structure to cover a topic in detail.

I never start writing an article without creating an outline. It helps structure my research and ensure I cover a topic in detail.

While I like having a quick look at what the competition wrote to get a good idea of the expected standard, I never simply copy their structure. I come up with my own outline. Or I ask ChatGPT for assistance.

Let’s see what it can do.

Image Source

This is the output:

Image Source

Image Source

Image Source

Image Source

I must say – this is a really comprehensive outline. It’s a good starting point that can guide my research, and it took ChatGPT 30 seconds to create it. Good job!

Benefits of ChatGPT for SEO

Why should you consider using ChatGPT for search engine optimization? Here are a few reasons.

Saves Time

If I were to pick one benefit of using ChatGPT for SEO, it would undoubtedly be saving time. The AI tool can come up with an answer in just seconds. And the better your prompt (i.e., the more detailed), the better the result.

At first, when ChatGPT launched, I was a bit skeptical and treated it like competition. But the more I use it, the more I appreciate how much time it could save me – you just have to know how to use it.

I recently read an article by Eric Holtzclaw, who talks about how using ChatGPT has helped him save 40 hours of work and $7,500 in costs. He uses it for research and SEO optimization.

To make the most of generative AI like ChatGPT (genAI), you need to decide which tasks you will do, and which can be automated.

Boosts Productivity

Saving time also means that you can dedicate your attention to other parts of your SEO work that need a human touch.

For example, ChatGPT could suggest an article outline and then check your human-written piece for correct SEO keyword use.

Similarly, you could have it check your URL structure in bulk, and decide on an action plan based on its findings.

As someone who began working in SEO before the start of the AI era, I truly recognize it as a productivity game-changer.

Helps Analyze Data and Draw Conclusions

Many SEOs don’t have a technical background, meaning they might not be the biggest experts when it comes to writing regular expressions (RegEx) or using complex Excel formulas.

At the same time, sourcing and analyzing information from different sources lies at the heart of their work.

ChatGPT can help out with both. You can ask it to create RegEx formulas for your website analytics tools, or Excel formulas, by giving it a prompt that specifies the end goal.

For example, you could upload an Excel file and ask it to match keywords that have a search volume of 500 or higher with URLs where you use these keywords but have a CTR lower than 5%. This would show you pages that are currently underperforming and require some work.

Limitations of Using ChatGPT for SEO

There are two types of ChatGPT SEO limitations – those that stem from AI shortcomings as a whole, and those that depend on whether you’re using a free or paid version. Let’s take a deeper dive into this.

It can’t generate truly creative, unique content.

When ChatGPT was launched, brands went crazy for it. Many writers got laid off as companies began using it to create content at scale. I lost a couple of clients because they decided to switch to ChatGPT – a decision I believe was wrong.

While GPT is a great assistant, at least for now, its capability is limited to producing copycat content. This is no longer acceptable; people want to read helpful, unique content written by experts, not AI.

You can use AI to edit your content and make it sound more polished, but relying on it to write an entire article from scratch is not recommended.

Here is proof that readers prefer content written by humans. You can see that from the first month, human content generated more views than its AI counterpart.

Image Source

You can’t remove the human from the loop.

ChatGPT shouldn’t be a replacement for human competencies anywhere – not just in content. Some areas like search engine data analysis will let you automate the majority of the work, while others will call for more human supervision.

The bottom line, though, is that you can’t fully entrust anything to AI without regularly verifying the output.

For example, let me refer back to content cluster topic suggestions. Some of the AI-generated ideas might seem promising, but once you pop them into an SEO tool to check search potential, you’ll see that the main term only gets 10 or 20 visits a month.

So, while helpful, remember that “it still takes time to use AI.”

There’s a risk of AI hallucinations.

A few months ago, I wrote an article about different ways to use ChatGPT. To test its abilities, I asked it to create an article on perfume-making, featuring tips from beauty experts.

It generated one and even included citations from experts. However, when I asked about their source, it provided a list of links that weren’t working.

In short, it appears that ChatGPT fabricated quotations and sources. This is a striking example of AI hallucinations – you can’t fully trust it; you always have to verify the results yourself.

There are differences in capabilities between paid and free ChatGPT.

Finally, let’s discuss the limitations that relate to the version you’re using. There are some differences in the Plus (paid) and Free plan, and I decided to ask about them straight from the source. Here’s what I got:

You can probably get even more out of the paid plan if you use custom GPTs available through the ChatGPT marketplace.

Tips for Improving SEO With ChatGPT

1. Write formulas and build custom functions in Google Sheets.

You can use ChatGPT to write formulas and build custom functions for SEO in Google Sheets – it will help you automate workflows and enhance efficiency.

This tip comes from Vishal Dave, senior digital marketer at Meetanshi.

“You can ask ChatGPT to ‘Create a Google Sheets function to get PageSpeed Insights score of a URL.’ It will provide an app script code. Go to Google Sheets > Extensions > App Scripts and create a new script. Paste the app script code into the editor and replace the API key placeholder with your PageSpeed Insights API key. Then save the function.”

Now, you’ll be able to use the custom ‘=pagespeedinsights(URL)’ function to get PageSpeed insights score directly in your Google Sheets. You can use it to build a visual page speed report using conditional formatting.

Dave adds that marketers can also use ChatGPT to fetch HTML tags, build custom integrations, check HTTP response codes, etc. It seems like it can be of great help when it comes to technical SEO.

2. Improve content structuring and formatting.

Content structure has a significant impact on SEO. It’s important to balance making content engaging to the reader while not ignoring Google recommendations.

You can use ChatGPT to outline and format blog posts to increase their readability and make them SEO-friendly.

Here is how Casey Meraz, CEO at Juris Digital, approaches this task:

“We started by feeding the AI a detailed brief, which included the key topics, target keywords, and user intent behind the search terms. This step ensured that the AI understood the context and purpose of the content.”

They instantly noticed a consistent use of headings and subheadings. Structuring content with clear, keyword-rich headings improved their on-page SEO and readability.

“In one campaign, we restructured 50 existing articles using ChatGPT for headline generation and internal linking suggestions. The result was a 35% increase in organic traffic within three months. We also saw a 20% improvement in time on page, which indicates that better-structured content kept users engaged longer,” says Meraz.

Juris Digital also used ChatGPT to create content that met Google’s featured snippet criteria.

They applied formatting techniques suggested by ChatGPT, including the use of bullet points, numbered lists, and concise summaries at the beginning of articles.

This strategy led to several of their clients’ pages earning featured snippets. One of their clients experienced a 15% spike in CTR after implementing these changes, which they directly attributed to enhanced content structuring and formatting.

3. Generate ideas for internal linking.

Since ChatGPT does a good job of analyzing semantic relationships between phrases and can put them into categories, it can also suggest ideas for internal links.

That’s what Derrick Askew, founder of Savvy Gents, Inc., did for an ecommerce client he worked with.

“By using AI to generate related keyword phrases and content topics, we built a comprehensive internal linking strategy that connected relevant pages more organically.”

By boosting the site’s topical relevance and interconnectedness between different URLs, Askew wanted to make it easier for search engines to crawl and understand the site’s content.

He told me that after implementing this strategy, the ecommerce company saw a 37% increase in organic traffic within four months. This approach gave Askew proof that ChatGPT can help drive traffic and user engagement.

4. Analyze your competitors’ content.

Not everyone realizes this, but ChatGPT can help you run a thorough content gap analysis. You can ask it to review the content on your identified competitors’ sites and tell you which keywords and topics yours doesn’t rank for yet.

Kevin Watts, founder and president at Raincross, told me how they used this capability to understand why their competitors frequently had their content appear in featured snippets, and why they didn’t.

“Using ChatGPT, we generated a list of potential questions and longer-tail keywords our audience was searching for. We then created new content focused on these queries, formatted specifically for featured snippets (e.g., concise answers in bullet points or tables).”

Within three months, this approach has helped Raincross boost its featured snippet appearances by 35%.

Watts also says that the optimized pages received an average organic traffic boost of 28%. This clearly illustrates how ChatGPT ideas can be used to get tangible SEO results.

Some brands, like The Annuity Expert, also use AI to run a granular, semantic content analysis. Shawn Plummer, the company’s CEO, decided to ask ChatGPT for some ideas as to why their website’s content wasn’t ranking highly in Google.

“I provided ChatGPT with a competitor’s content and used the prompt: ‘Create a semantic analysis of this content: [copy-paste content URL of competitor].’” As a result, Plummer received an extract of key entities and concepts, which highlighted some areas that made their competitor’s content rank higher in search.

Plummer then decided to cross-reference the findings from this analysis with their own content.

“I gave it the prompt: ‘Compare your semantic analysis to the competitor’s article to my article [my URL]. Are they semantically close?’ This comparison revealed the semantic gaps in our content”, he says.

To dive even deeper, Plummer suggests using a follow-up prompt: “Create a table listing common semantic concepts/entities and those missing from our article.”

He says that, ever since they’ve started using this method, the company saves a lot of time and gets more intricate insights than by using traditional analytics tools.

As for the SEO results from ChatGPT-inspired changes, Plummer said that they “saw a 25% improvement in our content’s ranking for target keywords.”

Pro tip: Not sure who to shortlist as your competitors for your content gap analysis? Use ChatSpot to get a list of the top ten competitors in under ten seconds. All you need to do is add your domain.

5. Optimize content for voice search.

This might be one of ChatGPT’s lesser-known SEO capabilities, but it’s an extremely powerful one.

Optimizing content for voice search can not only help meet legal accessibility requirements but also secure interest from those who don’t engage in text-based browsing.

“Given the rise of virtual assistants like Siri and Google Now, focusing on voice search has become essential for enhancing local SEO,” says Rex Liu, chief revenue officer at GoSite.

Liu adds that while working with local businesses, the company used ChatGPT to generate conversational content that aligns with how customers speak.

They prompted ChatGPT with questions that indicated high intent, such as “Where can I find a reliable plumber near me?” They then built content around these conversational queries, improving the chances of appearing in voice search results.

“This particular strategy was applied to a local home services business. Over three months, the implementation led to a 20% increase in click-through rates from voice search and a 17% rise in local customer inquiries.”

Liu says these results underline the importance of matching questions with conversational search habits.

6. Boost your website accessibility.

Some of you might not know it, but accessibility matters for SEO. While Google doesn’t have a specific ranking factor for it, it values user experience. The more accessible your website is, the better the experience for the user.

This is something that Guy Leon, founder and CEO of betterweb.ai, recognizes, so they use ChatGPT to enhance inclusiveness.

“Working with a client’s e-commerce site, we used ChatGPT to rewrite image alt texts and implement semantic HTML. This ensured that screen readers could properly interpret the content. Additionally, ChatGPT helped us identify and adjust areas of poor color contrast to meet accessibility standards.

The outcome was striking: within four months, the client saw a 35% increase in organic traffic, a 40% boost in visitor engagement, and a notable uptick in mobile traffic by 53%”.

Not only did this help their client meet legal accessibility criteria, but it also enhanced their page‘s load speed and search rankings.

By integrating web accessibility with SEO using ChatGPT, bettwerweb.ai transformed their client’s user experience and significantly improved the site’s performance metrics.

ChatGPT Has a Great Analytical Skill for SEO

If we look at all the ways ChatGPT can help with SEO, we can safely assume that it will become a long-term companion for marketing teams.

That said, you need to be smart about how you use it — the quality of the insights depends on your prompt and its informational value.

Also, remember that ChatGPT can’t make decisions or craft entire SEO strategies. It’s a tool, and, as such, it will always be prone to error.

That’s why, while I encourage you to use ChatGPT for SEO, I also strongly recommend verifying all of its output before you use it for decision-making.

In the age of social media, most brand communities exist mainly online via social media platforms like Reddit, TikTok, Facebook, or X.

So, when you think of community management, you might think the person in charge of that is a social media manager.

However, that may not be the case. There are actually significant differences between social media and community management, though the two can go hand-in-hand. What are those differences? Well, keep reading to find out.

Community Management vs Social Media Management

Here are some key differences between community management and social media management.

1. Different Goals

Community managers aim to boost brand visibility and engagement. They also work extensively toward a long-term goal of crafting a strong, supportive community around the brand—which can take years.

Conversely, social media managers often have sales-related goals and are concerned with social media ROI. They usually create or post content to redirect followers to the brand’s website, where they can purchase or perform a specific action.

Social media managers often measure their success by tracking conversion and click-through rates.

2. Different Responsibilities

HubSpot’s Principal Marketing Manager of Community, Erica Finley, says, “The biggest distinction between community management and social media management is that community is peer-to-peer and social media is one-to-many.”

She mentions how she used to work for a brand with an excellent social media presence.

“The rapport was great between the brand accounts and the fans, and it created a very positive brand affinity,” she explains.

There was just one problem.

“The drawback, however, was that the fans didn’t have a place to congregate without us — to share their enthusiasm, exchange best practices, ask their questions, and strengthen their networks,” Finley says.

“Giving them a dedicated community space with specific guardrails and special rituals that we developed over time allowed them to flourish personally and professionally.”

In other words, community managers don‘t just manage specific platforms; they create a culture around their brand that benefits the brand and its consumers.

On the other hand, social media managers are mainly concerned with growing a brand’s presence on digital platforms.

3. Different Skills

Social media managers must be knowledgeable about social media trends, strategies, and the current landscape.

They must also be able to track social media metrics as they apply to each platform and use their findings to create or improve a strategy.

Community managers require a different skill set. They must possess excellent interpersonal skills to build and facilitate relationships between the brand and its audience.

Community managers must also be problem solvers who can quickly, professionally, and seamlessly resolve conflict or issues in the brand’s community.

4. Different Measures of Success

Social media managers measure their success concerning the company’s overall yearly goals.

So, if a company wants to boost sales by the end of the year, a social media manager would check metrics to see if their social media posts convinced people to make a purchase.

If a company wants to boost web traffic, a social media manager will analyze data to see how many website visitors came from platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.

On the other hand, measuring success for a community manager can be less clear.

“Community efforts are not hard to quantify, but there will still be leadership teams who ‘don’t get it,” Finley says. “Community isn’t new, but it’s newer and less strictly defined in business settings than sales or digital marketing.”

Community managers often focus less on how their work led to direct sales and more on brand awareness and how often people talk about the brand online (and if the chatter is positive).

Success is measured by how the brand’s community grows in the long run and how users interact with the brand.

How Community Managers and Social Media Managers Can Work Together

Community and social media managers can work in tandem to build your brand’s representation, bridge the gap between the organization and its target audience, and drive sales.

Social media managers ensure a fun and engaging line of communication via digital platforms, while community managers build rapport. Mix them both, and you have a dream team.

Social media managers can help keep community managers informed about what social media platforms work best when communicating with target consumers and what best practices on those platforms are.

From there, community managers can facilitate space for consumers to engage with the brand, network, and grow.

So, you want to hire a community manager to help raise brand awareness for your company and better connect with your consumers. There‘s just one problem: You’re not sure how to hire a community manager.

What qualities should you look for when hiring? Where can you find a community manager? Why do you even need one? Well, you‘ve come to the right blog because I’m about to explain all of that and more.

Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about how to hire a community manager.

Why hire a community manager?

81% of consumers need to trust a brand to consider buying. The primary function of a community manager is to build rapport, trust, and community with a brand’s audience.

Naturally, a community manager will help your brand forge trust with your consumers, leading them to purchase your products and services.

“Consumers make decisions based on opinions from people they know, like, and trust,” says Erica Finley, HubSpot‘s Principal Marketing Manager of Community.

She says, “Word of mouth has never been more powerful, and seeing real-life use cases, being able to ask questions, and hearing earnest reactions to products and services are no longer just ’nice-to-haves.'”

According to Finley, community managers “carve out dedicated spaces that folks can lean into for inspiration, advice, entertainment, and more.” And all this occurs while raising brand awareness.

So, now that you know the perks of hiring a community manager, you just need to find one. But where?

Where to find a community manager

The good news is there are multiple places to find great community manager candidates. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Community Club. This nonprofit offers an excellent resource for connecting with experienced community managers.

• CMX Hub. This website includes a job board where you can post and search for community management positions. It’s especially valuable for finding candidates who are specifically looking to grow in these roles.

• LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows you to explore potential community managers’ profiles, experiences, and endorsements. You can also post your own job openings and join numerous groups dedicated to community management where professionals discuss industry trends, share advice, and exchange job opportunities.

• Facebook Groups. Facebook is home to community management groups, some location-based while others are industry-specific. These groups are excellent for posting job openings, asking for recommendations, and connecting directly with potential hires.

• Upwork. Upwork is great if you are looking to hire a community manager on a contract or freelance basis. You can create a job post that outlines the project you’re hiring for and the qualifications you need.

Qualities to Look for in a Community Manager

“Community managers are often mediators for community conflicts and may be required to draft crisis communications,” Finley says. “They have to be curious and adept at conducting research, both online and via people-centric methods like focus groups.”

Community managers also sometimes act as content creators and may be called to create entire calendars based on a specific persona or theme concerning the brand.

“They are public speakers who often serve as emcees and facilitators for community events,” she says. “The list goes on/”

In short, community managers must have the following qualities:

• Public speaking skills
• Conflict and crisis management skills
• Curiosity and thorough research skills
• A knack for creativity and content creation

How to Write a Community Manager Job Description

All right, the two Ericas (Finley and I) explained why you should hire a community manager, where to find one, and what qualities they should possess. Now, we must dive into writing a community manager job description.

Essentially, your job description should include the following:

• Who/what your company is
• What your goals are
• How a community manager will help achieve said goals
• What qualities and experience does the manager need to be successful in the organization

Let’s look at this community manager job posting from Scale AI.

Scale AI starts by explaining the company’s goal and how the community manager fits into their vision:

“Scale’s Generative AI business unit is nascent and is currently seeing historic levels of growth. As a Community Manager, you will spearhead initiatives that will connect with the thousands of Contributors on our platform.”

In other words, Scale Ai is seeing unprecedented growth and needs a community manager to nurture its growing audience.

Then, the company explains what the community manager will do, such as:

• “Collaborate with the Operations, Support, Communications, and Marketing teams to create and execute community engagement campaigns and content.

• Develop and execute community engagement strategies to increase participation and satisfaction, including overseeing community platforms like Reddit and Linkedin and managing our internal Slack community.

• Be responsible for community support to answer questions, complaints, or comments on our platforms and social media channels.

• Organize virtual events to foster a sense of community, monitor community feedback and sentiment to proactively address concerns, and manage and grow our online presence across various platforms.

Finally, the job posting lists the skills and background experience needed to succeed, including:

• “Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Finance, or related field and 2+ years Communications, Marketing Operations, Field Operations, Program Management, Project Management, or related experience

• Managed the social media presence of a technology product.

• Strong and clear communication skills, both verbal and written – able to synthesize complex details into accessible and digestible content.

• Ability to analyze quantitative metrics and adapt strategies accordingly.

• A strong orientation towards outcomes and a willingness to roll up your sleeves to get the job done.

• Passion for creating a positive and engaging community experience.”

10 Interview Questions to Ask Community Manager Applicant

Whether you‘re interviewing for community manager positions or you’re looking for a community manager for your organization, here are some interview questions to know:

1. What skills and qualifications do you have to prepare you for this job?

2. How do you measure your success as a community manager?

3. What strategies do you or would you use to strengthen our brand’s tie to our community?

4. How would you build our community from the ground up? What strategies would you use?

5. How do you stay up-to-date on the latest best practices in community management?

6. What has been your proudest accomplishment as a community manager?

7. What does community mean to you?

8. Do you have experience using social media to build or maintain a community? Explain.

9. How can you guide members of our community to our website to purchase a product or service?

10. How would you describe your management style?

Whew! We covered a lot in this post about community management, the skills it takes, where to find community managers, and how to create job postings for the role.

Now, you‘re ready to either level up your craft as a community manager or you’re prepared to hire one for your organization.

Either way, good luck!

Community management helps you build trust, loyalty, and connection with your audience. It’s also how you make sure your audience gets the most out of what you offer them.

Given its importance, I understand why engaging with your own communities can feel daunting—you likely don’t want to mess it up.

Not to fear. I did some online digging for this piece and found some excellent community management examples to share with you. They’re great inspiration, and give you an idea of how other brands have cultivated their own successful communities.

Community Management Examples

1. The Spot

The Spot is HubSpot’s online community dedicated to supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion among underrepresented professionals. All Black Collective is a community within The Spot for Black professionals.

In the image below, Kyle Foster, Senior Marketing Manager at HubSpot and member of The Spot Community Team, shares a post that asks members what they want to see in the community.

This kind of direct communication is a great example of community management.

Image Source

Why I Like This Community Management Example

I think Foster’s ask is a great example of audience-centric community management. He asks for explicit feedback, so any replies are a direct insight into what members want.

Any feedback he puts into action shows members that they’re listened to, their presence in the community is valued, and that community managers want members to get value from being in the community.

The Spot is also advertised as a supportive community for people traditionally left out of conversations, so Foster’s post only furthers the community mission by including people in the conversation.

How to Make This Your Own: The Spot’s audience-centric community management strategy bolsters member satisfaction. To do this yourself, I recommend exactly what Foster did: ask your members about their preferences and how you can help them and act on their feedback.

2. Spotify Ideas

Spotify Ideas community is a place for Spotify users to submit ideas and recommendations for future Spotify features.

Image Source

This forum is an excellent example of using community management for audience-led growth.

Why I Like This Community Management Example

Spotify’s Ideas community is meant to help drive product innovations based on the experience of people who use the product daily.

It also does a great job of generating excitement and encouraging participation with gamification-like rules. Members can vote for and comment on ideas they like, and ideas with more traction and activity are more likely to be sent to Spotify teams to review and incorporate into product updates.

How to Make This Your Own: Spotify is a big brand, so it can create a community specifically for pushing product innovation. I know this isn’t an option for everyone, but you can still create opportunities to solicit feedback about your product or service.

A few methods I recommend are asking for feedback on a website forum (if you have one), sharing feedback surveys in email newsletters, and soliciting feedback in comment sections — these are all ways to get the information you need to drive innovation.

3. Topicals

Topicals is one of my favorite skincare brands.

Its products help and I appreciate its commitment to helping people understand the science behind its products and why they work.

It’s very active on social media and does a great job of using comment sections to provide support. The image below is an example of one of those interactions.

Image Source

Why I Like This Community Management Example

In the image above, Topicals answered a question in the comments, a good example of support as a community management tool.

First, it showed that it’s committed to helping people succeed with its products and will answer questions when asked.

Second, its response helps the original asker and anyone else browsing its profile with the same question get closer to a purchase decision.

Even if people don’t have that same question, they’re learning that the comment section is a great resource for information and probably a quicker way to get support before potentially reaching out via DM or filing a help ticket.

How to Make This Your Own: To get like Topicals, do exactly like Topicals. Actively engage with people in your comment sections and try to answer questions. I recommend keeping your responses live (unless you make product changes) so anyone who browses can benefit from the support you’ve already offered.

4. Hunter Harris

Hunter Harris is a journalist, screenwriter, podcaster, and pop culture connoisseur. Her newsletter, Hung Up, is essays, interviews, reviews, gossip, recommendations — anything she’s hung up on.

She also offers the Hung Up chat for real-time conversation about newsletter content and trending topics. In the email pictured below, Harris expertly draws attention to the chat and converts people with a sense of urgency: the latest episode just came out; let’s talk about it.

Image Source

Why I Like This Community Management Example

I think Harris’ Hung Up chat is a great example of cultivating engagement within a community based on a shared interest, which happens to be Harris’ takes on pop culture, television, news, etc.

Yes, reading a personal newsletter can feel like a conversation, but the chat lets people have actual conversations and engage with other Hung Up fans and Harris herself. Everyone participating in the conversation has a shared interest and is eager to hear more of what Harris has to say.

The chat also helps Harris keep people coming back. Most TV shows have weekly episode releases, and pop culture moments are fleeting, so the only way to stay current is to be active in the chat.

How to Make This Your Own: To follow in Hariss’s footsteps, create opportunities for your community to engage and have real-time discussions. You can create chat rooms like she did, encourage interaction on your social media channels (like a Facebook group), or use any of your branded channels that allow for discussion.

My top tip is to encourage engagement if you’re looking for it. As Harris does, set the topic of conversation and tell your audiences that you want to hear their takes, too. When people interact, they’ll deepen the connections they have with you, as well as the other members they communicate with.

5. Apple

Apple Support Community is a place for people to submit questions about Apple products and services and for extremely knowledgeable brand enthusiasts to answer them. People can vote on the helpfulness of solutions, ensuring that the forum is filled with genuine help for those who need it.

It’s a great example of community-led community management.

Image Source

Why I Like This Community Management Example

Interaction between members is critical to any online community, which is why I like Apple’s approach.

People are already passionate about Apple’s products, and it leverages that passion to create a self-sufficient community of experts eager to have conversations about Apple and support others who have questions about their products.

One of the main reasons it’s so successful and requires little intervention from Apple employees is that members earn points based on their activity. Helpful answers and solutions earn more points. Points rank people at different levels, and higher levels mean more trusted experts.

For example, a Level 10 member with more than 200,000 points (like the profile pictured below) is a trusted source of information.

Image Source

Earning points and leveling up also guarantees engagement, as people seeking expert status are excited to return, answer questions, and earn points that give them access to exclusive perks.

How to Make This Your Own: Yes, Apple has dedicated fans like no other, but most brands still have loyal supporters (even if it’s a smaller group). I recommend identifying your most loyal customers and creating opportunities for them to support other customers.

If you have the means to create a separate forum for community-led support, you can replicate Apple’s exact strategy.

However, I also recommend something as simple as asking a loyal customer for their top tip and circulating that in your marketing materials or creating case studies/customer stories that spotlight fans and their advice for getting the most out of your product.

6. Popheads

Popheads has a subreddit dedicated to pop music discussions. It occasionally invites artists to the forum to host AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions to interact with fans and generate excitement.

It’s a great example of using exclusivity and engagement as a community management tool.

Why I Like This Community Management Example

Chappell Roan is an artist who did an AMA session on the subreddit.

Image Source

Given that she has a large fan base that was likely eager to interact with her and build connections, the exclusivity of an AMA and the potential to have their questions answered drew people in.

The session generated excitement, especially for people who got responses, and also built loyalty as people were likely eager to come back to take advantage of any other exclusive opportunities to interact with famous artists.

Image Source

How to Make This Your Own: If you offer something that could benefit from exclusivity, use it to your advantage when cultivating your community. I know that having a budget for celebrities isn’t common, but they’re usually not needed.

For example, you can host exclusive events or opportunities for select members or work with micro-influencers to create unique moments for community engagement.

Hype gets people talking and can encourage people who haven’t been able to take part to do what they can to be chosen next time.

7. Canva Communities

Canvassadors is Canva’s community-led management strategy.

Every community has Canvassadors responsible for moderation, facilitating events, educating members, and inspiring conversation. Canvassadors are elected, which gives them legitimacy among members.

Why I Like This Community Management Example

I like Canva’s approach to community management for the same reason I like Apple’s: it’s a community for Canva users and enthusiasts to talk, help each other out, and get more use out of the platform.

True fans who love the product advocate for it and, since they use it themselves, know how to educate people on how to use it.

How to Make This Your Own: If it makes sense for your brand, my top tip for making Canva’s community-led management strategy your own is creating an ambassador program for your business.

Your ambassadors can act as brand champions, and you can work with them to advocate for your brand, initiate discussions, and build your community.

Over to You

I’ve just reviewed a few great community management examples from brands that I like. Taking inspiration from them is a great way to get started managing your own community.

Pick what you like best from what they’ve done, relate it to your own business, and start engaging; your loyal fans are eager to interact with you.

The headlines tell us SEO is dead. The podcast bros tell us AI will make blogs obsolete. Google tells us, “It’s Tuesday, so there’s another algorithm update, suckers.”

If I could boil down the content rhetoric over the last 12-18 months to one phrase, it would be “Evolve or die.”

So we’ve evolved. And I bet you have to.

My name is Meg, I oversee HubSpot’s full portfolio of English language blogs. And, I’m tired, y’all.

The HubSpot Blog Team is made up of 23 incredibly talented and experienced writers, editors, and strategists. We work with a world-class Content SEO Team. We have the domain authority of being the HubSpot Blog. And … we’ve been challenged to keep up with the rapid pace of the change demanded from us over the last year.

If we’ve found it challenging, I know there are probably a few others feeling the same. So, I thought we’d share some of our playbook with you. It might be similar to yours or it might have a few nuggets you find helpful.

Regardless, it’s rough out there. So the more knowledge sharing we do, the better, right?

In the beginning, there was an update.

The month was March. The year was 2023. The update was Core.

For the uninitiated, Google rolled out an update to its Core Algorithm in March 2023 (what we refer to internally as the “M23 update”). This is nothing new. Google rolls out updates a few times a year. They fix bugs, ensure high-quality SERP results, and move the search-driven world merrily along.

But this algorithm update was different. The impact it had on many publishers would be felt over the following months.

Here’s a snapshot of the organic traffic HubSpot’s blogs saw before the M23 update:

Pre-M23 update: Were we ever this young?

And here’s what things looked like once the M23 update finished rolling out:

Post-M23 update: Trust me, it got worse.

Our Content SEO Team flagged a few areas in which our blog properties were hit hardest:

• Page Experience: The blogs were negatively impacted by our technical page experience, specifically page speed and performance.
• Content Freshness: Content freshness also negatively impacted our performance, specifically posts that had not been updated in 571+ days.

We have a lot of graphs showing the sharp declines in page experience, but they all look pretty much like this:

This was fun to explain to leadership.

Our Technical SEOs immediately dug into page experience. But what did the Blog Team do?

Well, first we panicked, re-evaluated our career decisions, and pondered the end of the written word as we know it. You know, the sorts of things introverted English majors-turned-marketing-writers do.

Then, we looked at the data, and immediately began to overhaul our approach to content on the Blog. This really hinged on the increasing value Google appeared to be putting on experience-driven content (i.e., the new ‘E’ in E-E-A-T)

Wait, what’s E-E-A-T?

If you work in content, you’re probably familiar with Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines. These are the criteria Google uses to evaluate what content it surfaces to users in the SERPs. The E-E-A-T acronym stands for expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness.

In 2022, Google added an additional ‘E’ for ‘Experience’ to this acronym, and after the M23 update, we felt the effects.

The publishers most impacted by experience-driven content were:

• Trying to rank for a wide range of topics.
• Providing no evidence the author has proven experience with the topics they’re writing about.
• Product reviews/roundups based on what others have said.

The HubSpot Blog was guilty on all counts. Our library spanned hundreds of topics across multiple industries. Our writers were expert researchers and generalists, but they didn’t always have direct, lived experience with every single topic they wrote about.

Who was winning in the experience era? It was publishers who:

• Provided ample evidence of real experience (like writing in the first person).

• Added original images, screenshots, and video.
• Included unique anecdotes you wouldn’t have unless you actually tested the thing yourself.

Armed with this information (and more than a little humility), we got to work.

The HubSpot Blog’s E-E-A-T Case Study

Is there anything a marketer loves more than running a case study (except for becoming a moderately successful LinkedIn influencer)? HubSpot Content SEO Strategist Ivelisse Rodriguez ran our E-E-A-T case study and built the playbook for how the HubSpot Blog approaches “E-E-A-T-ified” content (i.e., content that’s less susceptible to AIOs and more likely to rank).

The case study focused on E-E-A-Tifying/historically updating our 17 Best Free Website Builders to Check Out in 2024 [+Pros & Cons] blog post.

Why this post? Well, it was a top driver of traffic, leads, and signups for the business, but demand had become volatile after the M23 update:

This is totally fine, right?

And here’s the massive boost in traffic the post enjoyed after Rodriguez’s successful E-E-A-T-ification:

Go on, Ivelisse.

Signups alone increased +251% and CVR followed at +26%. How did Rodriguez do it? Simple, she made (E)xperience Soup. Here’s her recipe:

She infused lived experience with her personal opinions and balanced it all out with an objective observation. Boom, a tasty soup packed with leads, traffic, and signups. Everything a growing marketer needs.

She used this recipe as a framework for structuring the entire piece. Take a look:

• Personal Anecdote: “I Can’t count the number of WordPress.com sites I’ve built for fun. It’s easy to sign up, it’s free, and its included domain name is not as ugly (and more recognizable) than others on this list. “Brandname.wordpress.com” has a nice ring to it, right?”
• Subjective Opinion: “The themes are modern and mobile-optimized. I was surprised to find that I liked quite a few of the designs. When I’ve used WordPress in the past, I found the themes lackluster, but it seems to have updated its library.”
• Objective Observation: “Keep in mind that the site is still in the bare minimum stages. You still need to go into the dashboard and add pages and content. Unfortunately, on the free version, you can’t install plugins, including the HubSpot WordPress marketing plugin.”

Of course, it’s easier to make (E)xperience Soup when you have experience with the product or subject matter you’re writing about. But how do you take an E-E-A-T-ified approach on a subject you have limited experience in? Let’s take a look at how Rodriguez approached this challenge:

• Personal Anecdote: “I was surprised to see that Webflow includes different workspaces, something I didn’t run across in other tools (except CMS Hub, which allows you to have access to different portals). This makes Webflow an excellent choice for large teams where you might have different workspaces depending on permissions or job function.”
• Subjective Opinion: “Webflow’s page builder is complicated and the learning curve is steep. While the tool does include a setup checklist, it’s not as simple to follow as others on this list.”
• Objective Observation: “You can add HTML elements such as sections, containers, divs, lists, buttons, headings, and so on. The tool does include more technical language, so you’ll encounter terms such as “V Flex,” which refers to a vertical flexbox.”

Rodriguez is transparent about using the product for the first time. She’s also open about what she liked and didn’t like about Webflow’s functionality — something pre-E-E-A-T HubSpot bloggers would never …

The full E-E-A-T treatment for this piece focused on a few areas:

• Demoing the products, focusing on a beginner’s perspective. Gone are the days where publishers could round up the top product reviews in the SERPs and build upon them for a skyscraper-type listicle. Real-world insight and experience with the products are non-negotiable.
• Truncating the list from 17 to seven items, using personal preference and an un-scientific method. We can talk about those Google leaks in another post, but even before that peek behind the curtain, we knew shorter lists would allow us to go deeper into our topics — an important E-E-A-T factor.
• Writing the article in first-person point of view, creating (E)xperience soup by mixing in personal anecdotes, subjective opinions, and objective observations.
• Incorporating personal opinion and personal experience into the post. Rodriguez states her experience in the first paragraph of the piece. And she’s clear about what she likes and doesn’t like about each product.

The success of Rodriguez’ case study led us to overhaul our approach to blog content. We threw out the organic strategy that worked so well from 2017-2022 and embraced a new HubSpot style that would help us write the best-possible content for our audience and remain competitive in the SERPs.

Don’t call it a glow up.

We’re certainly not out of the immensely convoluted Google woods yet. But I’m proud to share that the portion of HubSpot blog posts our team has E-E-A-T-ified over the last nine months have stabilized and, in some instances, seen increases that rival our original case study.

I see you.

Maybe it’s been a minute since someone said this to you, but your written work is so important. Your content strategy is valuable. And the words you string together for email copy, blog posts, and YouTube scripts are appreciated.

Content folks are a scrappy bunch, and I think we’ve all become a bit better over the last year. I’m excited to see us continue to evolve, and I hope to share more of how the HubSpot Blog is changing with you soon.

As of 2024, 86% of social media marketers say building an active and engaging online community is critical to a successful social media strategy.

If your company wants to build or expand its social media community, you’re probably wondering which approach is better—in-house or outsourced community management.

Fortunately, I have years of experience in both and can give some advice based on what I learned working in-house and later for an outsourced marketing firm.

Here’s what you need to know.

Table of Contents:

In-House Community Management 

Outsourced Community Management

How to Choose Between In-House and Outsourced Community Management

In-House Community Management

In-house community management is when an internal employee or team manages community relations between a brand and its audience, especially on social media.

For example, when I was a journalist at First Coast News in Jacksonville, I was a part of the team of reporters that managed First Coast Weather Watchers, a Facebook Community page the station started to better connect with its audience.

Image Source

As was the rest of my team, I was already an internal employee with First Coast News, so we would be considered in-house community management.

Outsourced Community Management

Outsourced community management is when an organization has its online community managed by an outside source, such as a freelancer or marketing firm.

Before working at HubSpot, I worked for a marketing firm that would write content for clients’ web pages.

We also had a team to manage our clients’ social media pages and communicate with their community. This would be outsourced community management since our team was employed by the marketing firm rather than the clients.

How to Choose Between In-House and Outsourced Community Management

Here’s what I notice most companies consider when deciding between in-house and outsourced community management.

Budget

Let’s go back to my TV station example. Most local television news stations have a very tight budget, so it made sense for leadership to keep community management in-house.

In contrast, the companies I worked with at the marketing firm had a bigger budget and could afford to outsource community management. So, when choosing between in-house or community management, consider your budget.

According to ContentFac, outsourcing social media marketing (which includes community management) can cost anywhere from $3,000 to $20,000 per month, with an average of $4,000 to $7,000 per month.

If that sounds like a stretch for your budget, consider hiring in-house.

Expertise

First Coast News easily formed a community management team in-house because we already had the needed expertise.

Most journalists have already honed the skill of connecting with their community and are pretty social media savvy (that’s often how they get the scoops for their stories).

On the other hand, my clients at the marketing firm typically consisted of business owners unfamiliar with social media marketing and didn’t have the time to build their online communities from scratch. So, they outsourced to my firm.

Ask yourself if any employees or positions within your organization can easily lend themselves to social media community management. Is there anyone who is social media savvy?

Do they know the intricacies of Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, or other platforms?

Can you hire someone to work in-house?

If not, consider outsourcing.

Control

Finally, you will want to consider how much control you will relinquish. Okay, back to the news example. Trust and a positive reputation are gold for any news outlet.

Their audiences need to know the information is accurate, reliable, and coming from a trustworthy source.

Outsourcing our social media community management would have meant entrusting our reputation and our audience’s trust to another organization, and those factors were simply too precious for us to gamble with.

So, we stayed in-house.

However, my clients at the marketing firm were not news outlets, and they did not have to strictly adhere to the tenets of journalism. Again, they were not very savvy with social media and could use the extra help to bring their vision to life.

So, they entrusted the firm I was working for with their vision and community management goals. This meant collaborating with writers and marketing managers and trusting our process.

If you’re comfortable placing some control in the hands of a marketing firm, freelancer, or outsourced manager, then outsourcing could work for you. If that seems too big of a risk, then consider in-house community management.

Both in-house and outsourced community management have their perks, but it’s up to you and your organization to decide which approach is best for the success of community management.

Now that you know the differences between the two approaches and what factors to consider, you’re one step closer to deciding which way to go in your online marketing campaign. Good luck!