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The internet is full of opinions. But if you want to know what people really think — about products, brands, trends, or industries — Reddit is where you’ll find the unfiltered truth.

Since 2005, Reddit has been the place for honest, no-holds-barred recommendations — whether brands like it or not. As one of the most visited sites in the world, it holds thousands of communities — and the best answers to countless Google searches.

With other social platforms going through lots of upheaval, plenty of brands are making decisions about the future of social media. Reddit isn’t usually top-of-mind, and it’s not for everyone — it’s notoriously tough on brands. But, it’s an incredibly valuable space, as long as you follow the rules.

I’ll take you through the best ways to use Reddit for your brand and how to build genuine connections.

Table of Contents

• Reddit User Demographics
• What content resonates with Reddit users?
• How to Market to Reddit Users
• Tips for Engaging Reddit Users

Reddit User Demographics

If you’re wondering how to market to Reddit’s 100+ million DAUq, or Daily Active Uniques (its term for daily users), without getting downvoted into oblivion, the first step lies in understanding who is on the other end of the computer.

With that in mind, before I go any further, here are a few stats to help you understand who is using Reddit:

• 101.7 million people use Reddit daily, and 379.4 million use it weekly. (Reddit)
• The platform is growing rapidly, with 39% year-over-year growth reported in 2024. (Reddit)
• 1.2 million posts and 9.7 million comments were created daily, on average in 2024. (Reddit)
• 100,000 active subreddits, 500 of which have over 1 million subscribers. (Reddit)
• 90% of posts are made in English, and over 1 billion have been translated into one or more languages. (Reddit)
• 53% of visitors came from outside the U.S., a growth rate of 46% year over year. (Reddit)
• Daily Reddit users spend an average of 20-30 minutes per day on the platform. (Reddit)
• Reddit users skew younger, with Millennials and Gen Z making up the majority, at 43.3% and 29.6% respectively. (Business Insider)

Looking for the demographics of other social media platforms? Read this post.

What content resonates with Reddit users?

Demographics are absolutely important, because you have to know who is using a platform.

But in my experience, it’s not just who uses it, but how they use it. And because each subreddit is so different with its own set of rules and culture, you really have to explore each community to find out how things work in that space.

With that said, to help you better understand how Redditors use the platform, we surveyed 103 Reddit users about their favorite content — and here’s what we learned.

More people use Reddit for personal interests.

The people we surveyed most frequently engage with:

• Product reviews and recommendations (46%).
• News and current events (46%).
• Memes and humor (37%).
• Personal stories and discussions (35%).
• Niche communities and hobbies (32%).

It comes as no surprise that subreddit categories people visit most often relate directly to the types of content. The top three categories are Entertainment & Pop Culture, Memes & Humor, and Technology.

The majority of people use Reddit for personal interests only, with 56.3% saying they never use it professionally. This could work in your favor if you’re a B2C brand.

Business users are still out there … and there are millions of them.

However, if you’re in the B2B space, all is not lost: 11.7% of those we surveyed say they frequently engage in business or industry-related discussions, and another 32% say they do so occasionally.

The key for you will be finding the right subreddits for your brand.

Remember, even though only about 12% of Redditors are business users, that still represents millions of people.

And whatever industry you’re in, there’s probably a community for you. I was surprised by the career diversity of those we surveyed who use Reddit for business purposes. Though a relatively small sample size, the top three industries were Technology, Real Estate, and Healthcare & Life Sciences.

Wondering what other fields were represented? Ecommerce & Retail, Education, Marketing & Advertising, and Finance & Investing rounded out the top seven.

Redditors are okay with brand engagement … to a point.

If you’re a brand wondering if using Reddit to engage with people is a smart marketing move, there’s good news — most Redditors are okay with it. In fact, 46.6% welcome brand engagement if done authentically, and 31.1% don’t mind as long as it’s not intrusive.

However, with 14.6% feeling negatively about brand engagement, I’d advise you to tread carefully here. Be sure to check out the tips I’ve shared below.

Reddit users prefer positive ads.

Even though most of my focus here has been on engagement, since Reddit does allow ads, I also wanted to get a sense of how Reddit users feel about advertising content. A whopping 67% majority say that positive ads that evoke joy are most likely to catch their attention.

How to Market to Reddit Users

Amazingly, 40% of Internet users find a Reddit recommendation most influential to their decision to buy — more than reviews and influencers. However, not all product review content is created equal.

More importantly, the best reviews are organic and not overly promotional.

“Because Reddit is largely anonymous, there’s quite a bit of skepticism. Moderators play a big role in setting the tone for subreddits, but it’s the ability to upvote and downvote content that makes it easier to smoke out people who are shilling versus providing a valuable and helpful solution,” says Bryan Grover, a B2B marketing strategist who uses Reddit personally and professionally.

However, there are definitely opportunities to get your brand in front of new audiences — if you do it the right way.

What is the right way to do it, though?

Understand that authenticity matters more than anything.

All of the Redditors I spoke with feel strongly that brands should be transparent and authentic.

While that can mean different things to different people, those we surveyed overwhelmingly agree that it starts with transparency about being a brand (61%), with another 54% believing that providing valuable insights or expertise contributes to authenticity.

Additionally, 47% feel that brands engaging in discussions like regular users boost their credibility and trust factor.

Build trust by adding value.

One of the subreddits I looked at with Grover had a rule that said no shilling. That means that in that space, you can’t self-promote. However, you can add value to the discussion and share your knowledge — and people pay attention. If your profile is optimized, they can learn more about you and your brand and reach out to start a one-on-one conversation.

In fact, this is Martin Ceisel’s strategy on the subreddits he uses professionally. He is a freelance B2B tech writer who uses Reddit for both personal and professional interests.

“Engaging in organic natural conversation where I can add value or insight might not lead to immediate leads, but I can stand out as knowledgeable in these spaces,” Ceisel says.

If this sounds like a long game, it absolutely can be. That said, I’d argue that most content marketing is a long game, too. By consistently demonstrating you know your stuff, people in your target audience can see that you’ve got the chops to solve their problems with your product.

Know that “fake” or staged posts work against you.

If authenticity is the most important thing, then it makes total sense that posts that feel staged are the biggest turnoff for Reddit users.

Other no-nos?

• Obvious or over-the-top self-promotion.
• Irrelevant or generic content.
• Lack of transparency.

All of this makes sense. When someone walks up to you and tells you how great they are or interrupts your conversation with something completely from left field, you’re going to politely excuse yourself.

The same goes on Reddit.

“I’m more likely to take recommendations from fellow Redditors seriously because they’re in the same boat as me. Conversely, if they are recommending a brand and didn’t disclose that they’re a rep, it would definitely reduce my trust,” shares Grace Fortune, a copywriter who primarily uses Reddit for personal interests and voice of customer research.

That leads me to the next point.

Reddit is a great resource for market research data.

What better place to get to know your audience and their pain points than to head straight to the source? For that matter, it’s also a great place to uncover competitive opportunities by finding out how people are talking about your product and the competition.

With that in mind, Reddit is a goldmine for anyone doing market research and voice of customer (VoC) research. If market research is about identifying opportunities, then VoC is about finding the right words to talk about the problem, solution, and dream state. It’s also about the overall sentiment.

I’ve found that the most effective copywriting uses the same words your audience does to talk about their problems. After all, it makes them feel like you’re speaking directly to them.

And I’m not alone.

“Every time I’m doing research for content, I add ‘Reddit’ to the search term. It’s one of the few places people are actually talking about issues like AI and automation, to name a few,” says Ceisel.

Fortune also uses Reddit for VoC, though she offers a word of caution: “There’s an issue with bots and automated responses on Reddit. If you’re using Reddit for market research, I encourage you to review the account profiles of any responses you’re considering using to ensure they’re legitimate.”

Tips for Engaging Reddit Users

Interestingly enough, both Grover and Ceisel refer to Reddit as the Wild West. The very level of anonymity means that every comment is up for debate and can — and will — be judged on its merit.

And due to the nature of the beast, if you will, there may be a lot of people who aren’t too thrilled that brands are engaging. Remember, 14.6% of those we surveyed said no way to brand engagement. While these folks may be a minority, they still represent about 15 million people. So, if you make them mad, it could turn into a PR nightmare.

That means you’ve got to play by the rules and use Reddit the smart way. Here are a few tips to help you get started on the right foot.

Find the right subreddit and check the rules.

Pick a few topics and search for subreddits to find communities that make sense for you to be in. Generally, you want to find a place where people are choosing to be because they care about the topic.

Grover recommends checking the age of the subreddit and whether or not it has a wiki with the rules and moderators. He also suggests poking around to learn more about the moderators and who they are. The more transparency in the details, and the more established the subreddit, the more trustworthy it is as a resource.

All this information can be found at the top of the subreddit if you’re on desktop or by clicking “see more” on mobile.

Take the rules seriously.

Community members are there because they care about the topic and the community. They will defend the rules, so if the rules say clearly, “No shilling,” you’d better follow them. Otherwise, you will get dragged in the responses.

“Fundamentally, that’s how Reddit works — the community democratically chooses the course correction and lets people know what’s welcome and what’s not welcome,” says Ceisel.

Optimize your profile.

Ultimately, this is the best opportunity for you as a brand. If you regularly show up and engage meaningfully on subreddits, people will go to your profile to learn more about you. Make sure your profile talks about your brand, products, areas of expertise, and interests.

When they’re headed your way to learn more about you, you can be sure you’re sharing what you want people to know about you.

Listen before you speak.

As with lots of things, you’ve got to read the room on Reddit before you start posting. Spend some time getting to know the subreddit and reading up on the discussions. Also pay attention to what gets downvoted. By getting a sense of the vibe, you can engage in more meaningfully ways.

Add value to discussions.

When I talk about any type of marketing campaigns, I coach people to avoid “hit-and-run” or “ding-dong-ditch” moments. By that I mean, don’t just drop in when you have something to promote or sell.

Ceisel says, “My fundamental belief is that I’m not making noise to make noise. I want to contribute to the conversation.”

If you’re building a history — regularly showing up and delivering value, whether that means sharing helpful content, solving problems, or even participating in thought-provoking discussions — people will take notice. And because you’ve taken the time to build that history and trust, it’s far more likely that they’ll be open to your recommendations.

Answer a question (don’t just shill).

This goes hand in hand with adding value, but it’s slightly more nuanced.

Let’s say someone has a question about how to do something technical that you’ve actually published a step-by-step guide on your blog. They come to Reddit for advice — and this is your moment to shine.

But don’t just send them to your blog post.

Answer the question. Show them how to do it. Then, depending on the rules of the subreddit, it may or may not be appropriate to share the blog post.

And Fortune, Ceisel, and Grover all have slightly different takes on this.

Grover was much more resistant to seeing a brand share the link, whereas Ceisel and Fortune were more open to it.

“If this is exactly what you’re talking about, and I think it answers your question or offers some insight, I wouldn’t hesitate to drop the link,” Ceisel says.

Fortune agrees. After answering the question, “You could let me know you’ve got a post and drop the link — I can then decide what I want to do with that information.”

The caveat and common thread are that this should come across as informational, not promotional.

Watch for recommendation posts.

Posts asking for recommendations offer a number of opportunities for you as a marketer and a consumer. So keep an eye out for people asking for advice, recommendations, or solutions.

Notably, 23% of recommendation posts lead to people selecting a brand or product not already on their radar. It also gives you a platform to find out how people are talking about problems (back to VoC), and identify opportunities and demands for new products or offers.

Fortune shares, “It’s a great platform for ideation — people go on Reddit specifically for advice. It’s great to see what people want and how they talk about their problems and experiences.”

And of course, if your product or brand can solve a problem, don’t hesitate to mention it … just be sure to be transparent about your connection. That leads me to the next tip.

Be transparent about who you are.

Always disclose that you’re a brand or you represent a brand — in your profile and in any posts where you’re sharing brand content.

If you’re simply answering a question and highlighting your knowledge, you don’t have to start every post with “I’m Jane Doe from Acme Brand.” In fact, I’d argue that you probably shouldn’t do this as it will come out over the top.

But if you’re answering a question and referring people to your resource, be sure to disclose your connection to it.

Let go of the outcome.

If this sounds like strange advice to and from marketers, buckle up — it’s something I say often. At its core, Reddit is another networking platform — albeit very different from anything else out there. Because it’s about community, all of the best networking rules apply.

Even though yes, if we’re talking about marketing, you have some goals in mind, let go of the immediacy and focus on connecting and sharing value. It allows your authenticity to shine — not a sense of desperation. In turn, that means it’s easier to build trust with the people who may eventually become your buyers.

Doing Reddit Well Means Playing the Long Game

Reddit is a truly organic online community where content is driven largely — if not entirely — by user engagement. I found my conversations with Ceisel, Grover, and Fortune to be fascinating as I’m not a regular Redditor. By that I mean, I use it when I’m looking for answers to specific questions, but don’t regularly participate in any subreddits.

If you’re considering creating a Reddit strategy, know that Reddit isn’t a place for quick wins — but for brands who play by the rules, it can be a great opportunity. If you’re going to be successful as a brand on Reddit, don’t “market.” Show up, engage, and provide value — that’s how you’ll get an opportunity with some of the most skeptical audiences online.

So, instead of asking how to market on Reddit, consider asking, “How can I best contribute?”

Picture this: consumers no longer see ads, compare software options, or visit websites to research products. Instead, AI agents handle it all — silently evaluating options, filtering choices, and making purchases on their behalf.

This isn‘t science fiction. According to Perplexity founder Aravind Srinivas, this shift is already underway, gradually transforming marketing as we know it. His vision reveals a fundamental disruption that businesses can’t afford to ignore.

Think about it: If search disappears, how do companies stay visible? If AI agents filter choices based on data, does brand messaging still matter? And if humans aren’t making the decisions, who are we even marketing to?

In a recent episode of Marketing Against the Grain, I break down what AI agents are, how they’re disrupting marketing and advertising, and what brands should do to stay ahead. I’ll also share three key predictions about the future of AI agents — and what businesses need to do now to prepare. Let’s dive in.

What are AI agents, and why do they matter?

AI agents represent the next generation of advanced digital assistants — sophisticated systems that not only respond to queries but actively make decisions and execute tasks on behalf of users. Rather than spending hours manually searching, comparing options, or evaluating choices, consumers simply delegate these tasks to AI. As a result, humans are no longer the ones clicking ads, consuming content, or browsing brand websites.

Srinivas offers a compelling example to illustrate this shift: vacation planning. Instead of travelers browsing reviews or comparing prices, they might tell their AI agent, “Find me a two-night stay in a city with reliable public transport and a four-star hotel under $250.”

Behind the scenes, the AI agent scans available options, evaluates prices, and books the optimal match — all without the traveler seeing a single advertisement or visiting any travel websites.

Suddenly, marketing isn’t about persuading people. Instead, it’s about ensuring your brand is recognized, recommended, and selected by AI systems that increasingly act as gatekeepers to consumer attention.

3 Key Predications About How AI Agents Will Reshape Marketing and Advertising

As AI agents take over search, purchasing, and product discovery, marketers need to rethink how they reach customers. Here are three big ways I think AI agents are poised to transform the industry.

1. Traditional paid ads will lose their impact.

Today, paid advertising revolves around capturing human attention — whether through search, display, or social media ads. But as AI agents take over decision-making, brands will no longer be competing for clicks or impressions. Instead, they’ll need to appeal directly to AI systems, which will rank and filter results based on structured data rather than consumer behavior signals.

Srinivas aptly refers to this shift as the “spec list future,” where brands compete for an agent’s attention rather than a human’s. Instead of designing ads to influence consumer perception, businesses will need to optimize their structured data, APIs, and algorithmic real-time bidding models to ensure AI agents select them over competitors.

2. Emotional branding will take a backseat to data.

Marketing has always relied on emotional storytelling, using compelling messaging and branding to drive conversions and customer loyalty. But as AI agents take over decision-making, purchasing is expected to become less about perception and more about verifiable product data.

This doesn’t mean brand trust and reputation become irrelevant. Consumers will continue to value these qualities. But, it does introduce a critical new dynamic: AI agents will pre-filter options before a human ever sees them, creating an initial screening layer where emotional appeals hold little sway.

This forces businesses to strike a delicate balance between maintaining their qualitative brand identity for human audiences and simultaneously optimizing quantitative data signals that AI systems prioritize. That includes price competitiveness, feature compatibility, reliability metrics, and integration capabilities.

3. Websites will lose relevancy.

Brands have long depended on SEO and websites to capture traffic and drive conversions. However, as AI agents take over search and discovery, websites may no longer be the primary way people interact with brands.

During my analysis of this trend, I found myself asking a question that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago: “Do we even really need to use a website anymore?” But, that’s the direction we’re heading.

AI agents don’t need to navigate websites like humans do. Instead, they can directly access structured data through APIs, synthesize research from multiple sources simultaneously, and deliver comprehensive answers without a user ever seeing a traditional web page.

This means businesses must rethink their digital presence. Instead of obsessing over website rankings and organic traffic, forward-thinking brands will need to ensure their data is AI-readable, accessible through multiple channels, and verifiable — because that’s what agents will prioritize when making decisions.

How to Prepare for an AI Agent Future

Despite how disruptive AI agents may seem, they also present new opportunities. The brands that adapt first will be positioned to win. Here are six high-impact strategies to prepare.

1. Prioritize data quality.

AI agents thrive on accurate, well-structured information. Make sure your product specs, pricing, and availability are easy to parse — whether that means using detailed metadata on your website or ensuring your API documentation is robust. If your data is messy, agents might skip you in favor of a clearer alternative.

Not sure where to start? Check out Hubspot’s Guide to Data Management, which covers everything from data architecture and modeling to ETL pipelines and migration.

2. Simplify onboarding and usability.

Agents might eventually handle not just product selection but also basic setup. If your onboarding process is too complex or manual, the agent could deem you “incompatible” compared to a competitor’s frictionless onboarding flow. Streamline your UX and technical requirements to stay in the running.

3. Align with the agent’s “preferences.”

AI agents don’t have emotions. They evaluate products based on pre-set criteria, such as cost, reliability, or integrations. Make it easy for agents to match your offering with user preferences by clearly labeling key features in structured formats like product feeds and APIs.

4. Earn customer trust through social proof.

Reviews, testimonials, and objective social proof matter more than ever. Agents evaluate this data for signals that your offering stands up to its claims. Encourage and showcase consistent positive reviews across multiple platforms. It’s a direct line to improved agent-level visibility.

5. Adopt an AI-ready marketing funnel.

Your funnel may need a “direct line” to AI agents. Structured schemas, open APIs, or a well-documented knowledge base can help them gather relevant info quickly. If an agent can’t easily access your product details or specs, it may rank you lower — or ignore you altogether.

6. Blend brand and feature-driven messaging.

Brand identity still counts, especially when a human user steps in at the end to confirm decisions. But, marketing should balance brand storytelling with hard data. Make it clear why your offer is the best match for the agent’s criteria. That hard data often tips the scales in an agent-first selection process.

Your Next Move in an AI-Agent World

These changes won’t happen overnight, but we’re clearly moving toward an agent-centered marketing world. My advice? Start optimizing your data, processes, and messaging now. Even if you’re not yet seeing AI agents in your traffic logs, it pays to stay ahead of the curve.

To learn more about how AI agents are rewriting the rules of marketing, 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.

Building a strong, recognizable brand starts with a well-crafted style guide. This essential playbook ensures that everyone — designers, marketers, web developers, community managers, and product packaging teams — presents a unified and consistent brand image.

The most memorable brands stick with us because they use the same logos, fonts, colors, and imagery repeatedly. Over time, this consistency makes them instantly recognizable. I’ve seen firsthand how a clear brand guide helps teams stay aligned, ensuring that every touchpoint reinforces the brand’s identity.

So, what is a brand style guide? In this article, I’ll go over the elements of a style guide and share some amazing examples in action to help inspire your next branding project or website redesign (I recommend reading till the end to get some valuable insights from HubSpot’s creative team).

Table of Contents

• What are brand guidelines?
• The Elements of a Brand Style Guide
• Style Guide Examples
• Branding Guidelines Tips

What are brand guidelines?

Brand guidelines, also known as a brand style guide, govern the composition, design, and general look-and-feel of a company’s branding. Brand guidelines can dictate the content of a logo, blog, website, advertisement, and similar marketing collateral.

Picture the most recognizable brands you can think of.

Chances are, you’ve learned to recognize them due to one of the following reasons:

• There’s a written or visual consistency across the messaging.
• The same brand colors are reflected across every asset.
• The language sounds familiar.
• It’s all very organized, and while not rigid, it’s cohesive.

But before you sit down to create your branding guidelines, I’d recommend taking a step back and defining your brand’s mission statement and buyer personas. These strategic elements will help you dive into the tactical components of your brand style guide later.

Brand Guidelines Mission Statement

Your brand guidelines mission statement ensures that all your content is working toward the same goal and connecting with your audience. It can also guide your blog and paid content, ad copy, visual media, and slogan.

Brand Guidelines Buyer Persona

Your brand guidelines buyer persona guides your blog content, ad copy, and visual media, which can attract valuable leads and customers to your business. I suggest creating one quickly with our free persona tool.

The Elements of a Brand Style Guide

A brand style guide encompasses much more than just a logo (although that’s important, too). It visually encompasses everything your brand is about — down to your business’s purpose.

Here are some key elements that I believe make or break a brand style guide, with links to in-depth articles if you need more guidance or info:

• Logo. Logos are a powerful way to determine how your brand is perceived. We’ve got a nine-step guide to walk you through it.
• Color palette. Your brand color palette affects every aspect of your design, especially visual impact and user experience. We’ve got 50 unforgettable palettes to inspire you.
• Typography. Typography plays a critical role on any website by ensuring we can comfortably read and process all its text-based content. If a website’s typography works, we won’t notice. If it fails, chances are we’ll bounce off the page.
• Imagery and iconography. Ensure the best possible user experience with these icon best practices.
• Brand voice. Build your best brand voice using our free brand-building guide.

1. City of Chicago

See the full City of Chicago brand guide.

What I like: Chicago’s brand guidelines rest on the beauty and simplicity of the city’s flag, both in terms of color and design.

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I appreciate the level of detail in the branding guide, particularly how it explains the symbolic meaning behind the Chicago Municipal Seal. The guide also provides clear instructions on its proper usage and shows some incorrect examples.

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Plus, the tone of the guide is fun and casual — like its acknowledgement of how popular Chicago stars are in tattoo designs.

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The style guide ensures the city’s visual identity remains consistent across all contexts, as it should for any well-defined brand.

A fun detail: The custom font, Big Shoulders, comes from the Carl Sandburg poem “Chicago,” which gave the city its nickname “City of Big Shoulders.”

2. Olympic Games

See the full Olympic Games brand guide.

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What I like: The Olympic Games still uses the logo and colors from 1913, but the brand was refreshed in 2022 by Ben Hulse. The brand guide is as thorough as any strong style guide should be. It begins with a clear explanation of its mission: to build a better world through sport.

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The bold interpretation of the Olympic colors embodies the brand characteristics: hopeful, universal, inclusive, vibrant, and progressive.

I truly appreciate the structured design approach they’ve adopted, which also aligns with their ideation of being “open, inviting, and inspiring.” I also like how the medal colors are very well-defined.

The style guide not only explains the field of play and sporting lines but also provides detailed guidance on combining graphics, adapting them for various applications, incorporating photography, and even creating lockups.

3. Major League Soccer

See the full Major League Soccer brand guide.

What I like: Major League Soccer’s style guide has to include color combinations for 20 teams. To ensure brand cohesiveness, MLS has a single logo mark, the crest, with no design variations. I love how MLS aptly describes it as “powerful, recognizable, and memorable.”

The guidelines show a nice flowchart of the brands associated with MLS and how they represent different branches of the business.

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It also includes specific guidance on applying color layers to images and how to “keep it moving” in communications related to MLS.

I feel that the style guide strikes a great balance between flexibility for individual teams and a cohesive league-wide aesthetic.

4. Sonic the Hedgehog

See the full Sonic the Hedgehog brand guide.

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What I like: Even cartoons need a style guide. Sonic the Hedgehog’s brand guide includes phrases for each character, which is a fun and novel way to ensure brand consistency.

The best part is that, just like the game itself, the branding is also done in a playful manner. The character size chart is a prime example of this:

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Even the color palette stays true to the game’s vibrant and energetic aesthetic, reinforcing the brand’s identity. It’s a perfect blend of structure and creativity, making sure Sonic and his world remain instantly recognizable across all formats.

5. OpenAI

See the full OpenAI brand guide.

What I like: Unlike other style guides, OpenAI has made use of a video to show their brand guidelines. View it here.

I like how OpenAI has put a lot of thought into the symbolism behind all its color choices. For instance, it uses a lot of black and white in its branding to signify that “OpenAI is an empty vessel that adapts to its content.”

Beyond just showcasing the logo, typography, and fonts, the video effectively communicates the brand’s motto and key message.

Another distinctive feature I liked is that before users can download the logo files from the website, they are required to agree to the usage terms. This way brand usage and compliance is ensured.

Also, I love how the style guide document is continuously refined based on feedback from both internal and external stakeholders. In short, the style guide always remains effective, especially in an industry that is as fast-paced as AI.

6. Reporters San Frontières

See the full Reporters San Frontières brand guide.

What I like: One of RSF’s slogans, “Fight for facts,” is simple but powerful, which is reflected in RSF’s three colors: black, white, and a vibrant pinkish-red. The guide specifies how to use accent colors — red or black should only make up 20% of a design, with white using the other 80%. That reinforces RSF’s spare but muscular branding.

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This is one of the few style guides that provides a template for how to apply the brand to presentations.

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I also like how the guide includes sections on editorial and digital support, ensuring that the brand is applied consistently across both written content and online platforms.

The digital support section addresses how to adapt the brand identity for different digital formats. This way the visual and textual elements are seamlessly integrated into websites, mobile and social media.

7. Czech Railway

See the full Czech Railway brand guide.

A Prague-based studio recently gave government-run rail company SŽDC a new visual identity.

What I like: The Czech Railway’s beautiful color palette is centered around a dark blue and deep orange, and the logo mark evokes railway tracks.

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I really love the extended, sans-serif typeface Styrene that has been used and how it enhances the actual look when used on the trains.

The style guide showcases how the branding would look on billboards. I think every style guide should give a complete picture of how the identity translates into the real world.

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I also appreciate the modern and functional aesthetic. The combination of the bold color palette, clean typography, and thoughtful design elements makes the new branding visually striking.

8. EPA (1977)

See excerpts from the EPA brand guide.

What I like: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 1977 brand guide is a favorite of graphic designers for good reason. Check out the patterns designated as program identifiers, like “toxic substances,” “noise,” and “radiation.”

What I appreciate most about this style guide is its clarity in distinguishing the official seal for formal communications. By explicitly stating which seal is reserved for official use, it eliminates any confusion and ensures proper brand representation.

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The EPA’s jewel-toned rainbow of brand colors includes a muddy green called “Pesticides Green,” “Radiation Red,” and even a color called, ahem, “Solid Waste Brown.”

9. Docusign

See the full Docusign brand guide.

What I like: Docusign includes a page of colored pie charts to demonstrate the correct color ratios.

People often misspell brand names, especially when it comes to capitalization. Docusign addresses this issue effectively by clearly specifying the correct spelling and capitalization in the introduction of its style guide.

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I feel that Docusign stands out with a zinger of an accent color — a bright coral that beautifully contrasts with the purples in the brand palette. Its brand palette stands out for its clarity and visual appeal.

10. Zagreb Airport

See the full Zagreb Airport brand guide.

What I like: Zagreb Airport in Croatia uses a simple triangle as a building block for complex iconography that references Croatian heritage and culture.

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The triangle serves as a versatile design element, appearing in signage, wayfinding, and branding materials in a way that feels both modern and timeless. I love how this geometric approach creates a visually cohesive identity.

I also feel that the style guide thoughtfully balances simplicity across all touchpoints. For instance, safety is an important part of aviation, so the brand guide even shows protective clothing for airport staff.

In short, I appreciate how the branding elements are seamlessly integrated into functional applications associated with the airport’s identity.

11. ClickUp

See the full ClickUp brand guide.

What I like: The addition of color combinations in the copy that align with the logo is a nice touch here. I’m one of those people who loves seeing multiple colors as I feel they bring life to any brand guide.

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Additionally, I like how they have given a different logo and branding to a product inside ClickUp. The logo files are downloadable (in .svg format) from their website for anyone who wants to use them.

I used ClickUp before coming across its brand guidelines, and it made me appreciate just how much clear guidelines contribute to a seamless experience. It’s no surprise that well-structured brand rules make it easier for front-end developers to implement designs accurately.

I appreciate the clever use of “dealbreakers” to highlight incorrect logo usage. Presented as a carousel slider on the website, this interactive approach makes the guidelines engaging and easy to navigate.

When creating brand guidelines, the end goal should be consistency in the final product. The clearer the guidelines are, the easier it is for designers, developers, and marketers to maintain a cohesive brand identity across all touchpoints.

12. Qatar Airways

See the full Qatar Airways brand guide.

What I like: I commend the use of the pictograph in Qatar Airways’ logo. They have incorporated simple lines in the background that subtly evoke fluidity. The oryx symbol, a national emblem of Qatar, adds a unique cultural touch while maintaining a sleek, modern aesthetic.

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I also appreciate how the brand guidelines ensure the logo’s adaptability across different mediums, from aircraft liveries to digital assets, without losing its distinct identity. They have defined their minimum-size application really well (as shown below).

The guide includes specifications for integrating the Oneworld Alliance logo. The co-branding is seamless, as I feel that it maintains Qatar Airways’ strong visual presence. Overall, the entire brand guidelines reinforce the idea of travel and luxury — exactly what it’s supposed to do.

13. Team Canada

See excerpts from the Team Canada brand guide.

What I like: I have included this style guide because of its modern take that adds depth and dynamism. The emblem feels fresh and also does a good job in showcasing the national significance. I feel that to get behind your team and to demonstrate patriotism, you need to connect with symbols that evoke pride and unity — and the designers here have done a great job.

Canada’s red maple leaf could have been a tired symbol, but the designers reimagined it with complex geometric patterns and bold colors.

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The typeface is detailed and uses the “Winnipeg Falcons Hockey” as an example. Overall, the style guide blends tradition with contemporary design. It reinforced a strong national identity in me (even though I’m not a Canadian).

14. Brasil Governo Federal

See the full Brasil Governo Federal brand guide.

What I like: Brasil Governo Federal’s bold style and brash colors are eye-catching, to say the least. The style guide includes information on how to use the logo in video, which is a brand question that often goes unanswered, in my experience.

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A unique thing I like about their brand guide is that they have included how the logo will be in different languages, so it remains consistent across diverse linguistic contexts. This attention to detail ensures that the brand maintains its visual identity regardless of the language in which it appears.

The guide also provides clear specifications on typography, spacing, and color usage, reinforcing a cohesive and recognizable brand presence. I like how they address elements that are often overlooked like application on unstable backgrounds. I think this is a strong example of a well-rounded and practical brand guide.

15. Ryanair

See the full Ryanair brand guidelines.

Ryanair has made itself a brand in recent years, so I decided to see how their brand guide contributes to their fame.

What I like: Ryanair drives customer engagement by relying on witty content. So, even their style guide is an example of it.

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I appreciate their design principles and how they actually align with what they believe in. As Denise Lee puts it, “Professionally, I admire the brand. It’s probably one of the best examples of a lighthouse brand.”

Point #5 aptly applies to them as they are actually transparent in their customer service. They never over promise, and they have established the brand as the “cheapest” airline, so customers’ expectations are set accordingly.

The last part is actually showcased in Ryanair’s marketing. Their marketing is bold, and they aren’t shy in expressing their personality.

16. British Rail

See the full British Rail style guide.

Great British Railways recently updated their brand guidelines to mark the 200 years of train travel since 1825.

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What I like: I like how they’ve used multiple core elements to showcase a distinctive look and feel. I like how the brand guidelines have provided the instructions to make use of a reduced-size logo (including a recommendation not to use the strapline “Years of Train Travel Since 1825” with it).

I appreciate how the brand guide has given an example of how to use clearspace and components that contribute to the aesthetic.

For the typeface, they’ve made use of Rail Alphabet 2. I really appreciate how they’ve thought about designers and included an email to request the font files. The brand guide has also given instructions to designers on avoiding special effects such as underlining and shadows.

I love the fresh choice of colors in the secondary color palette: Vivid sky blue, Sunglow, and Emerald.

17. Elizabeth Line, Transport for London

See the full Elizabeth Line brand guide.

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What I like: TfL, London’s transport authority, created a brand guide for its newest addition, the Elizabeth Line.

The Elizabeth Line aims to deliver a high quality experience that’s delivered through consistency of ambience and environment, and I feel that the brand guidelines reflect that well.

It even includes a section on “design idiom flexibility,” which provides guidance on how much Elizabeth Line branding to use on a scale of “localness” to “Elizabeth Line-ness.”

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The bold purple color of the newest addition stands out while maintaining a sense of familiarity with Transport for London’s existing network, including London Buses and the Underground. I also appreciate the thoughtful reasoning behind this choice.

Given that colors play a crucial role in distinguishing different transport modes, this careful approach helps prevent confusion and enhances the overall user experience. Here’s how Elizabeth Line stands out from the rest:

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Another strong aspect of the design is the restrained use of core colors. By keeping them simple and intentional, the brand avoids visual clutter and ensures clarity for passengers.

18. Medium

See the full Medium brand guide.

What I like: Medium’s simple brand style guide emphasizes usage of its logo, wordmark, and symbol. The logo contains the wordmark or the name of the company. I think that including the name within the logo helps create instant recognition, making it easier for first-time audiences to remember the brand. Even if a company isn’t widely recognized, this approach is a smart branding strategy.

Medium’s logo is the brand’s primary graphic element and was created to feel “confident, premium, timeless, and modern.”

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I value the guide’s clean, minimalist approach. Clear guidelines on spacing, sizing, and color ensure consistent branding, while its simplicity makes application easy.

19. Asana

See the full Asana brand guide.

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What I like: Asana’s simple style guide highlights its logo and color palette.

It also explains how to properly use the brand’s assets. I love the inclusion of visual examples that show the proper and improper application of the brand elements.

Detailed branding information is present related to partnerships. Many brand guidelines don’t include specific instructions on how their logo should be positioned when paired with partner logos or examples featuring existing partners.

Asana stands out by clearly specifying that their logo should always appear on the left-hand side when used alongside partner logos.

The goal for style guides is to be clear to ensure consistency in how the brand is presented in collaborative settings, and Asana does a great job at it.

20. Paris 2024

See the full Paris 2024 brand guide.

What I like: Paris 2024’s brand identity pays homage to the 1924 Olympic Games through Art Deco-inspired design. The thing I liked best is that designers have applied eco-branding methods to reduce the amount of ink and paper needed for physical materials as well as limit the power and data consumption on digital elements.

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The branding details are just exceptional. It not only shows the iconic elements, such as the Eiffel Tower to represent Paris, boats for the ceremony on the Seine, and the flame that will arrive at Marseille on board the Belem.

I also really like the uniqueness of the Paralympic Games poster. I feel that the use of vibrant colors in this poster adds a sense of energy and excitement.

21. Urban Outfitters

See the full Urban Outfitters brand guide.

What I like: Photography, color, and even tone of voice appear in Urban Outfitters’ California-inspired brand guidelines. Plus, the company includes information about its ideal consumer and what the brand believes in.

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The style guide aptly corresponds to Urban Outfitters’ target market. It defines the brand’s personality and how that translates into communication. Basically, it does a great job of showing that it’s made for a young audience.

I also like how the guide embraces a slightly unconventional and artistic approach. The visuals and tone feel effortlessly cool, making the brand guidelines an extension of the lifestyle it promotes.

22. Love to Ride

See the full Love to Ride brand guide.

What I like: Love to Ride, a cycling company, is all about color variety in its visually pleasing style guide. The company’s brand guidelines include nine color codes and tons of detail about its secondary logos and imagery.

Brand guides often emphasize visuals, but I believe compelling copy is just as essential. Love to Ride does this exceptionally well. I think the message resonates seamlessly with marketing efforts.

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Also, the supplementary assets, such as illustrations and icons, are all very well done. My take is that anything that contributes to a richer brand identity should be given just as much attention as the logo and color palette.

To anyone designing brand guidelines, my suggestion is to remember that when every element aligns with the brand’s personality and message, it creates a stronger connection with the audience.

23. Barbican

See the full Barbican brand guide.

What I like: Barbican, an art and learning center in the United Kingdom, sports a loud yet simple style guide focusing heavily on its logo and supporting typefaces.

The entire style guide is cohesive and engaging. The copy is brilliant.

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One thing I found interesting is that the guidelines can’t be viewed on mobile devices as the browser needs to be 798px wide. It’s clearly a strategic interesting design choice because it ensures the guidelines are viewed in their intended format without compromising layout or readability.

This brand style guide includes a convenient copy button at the end of each page, making it effortless for designers and users to replicate and apply the content seamlessly across various platforms.

Another standout feature is the bold use of typography, which perfectly aligns with Barbican’s modern and avant-garde identity. The clean yet striking design approach makes the brand instantly recognizable across different media.

24. I Love New York

See the full I Love New York brand guide.

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What I like: Despite its famously simple T-shirts, I Love New York has a brand style guide. The company begins its guidelines with a thorough explanation of its mission, vision, story, target audience, and tone of voice. Only then does the style guide delve into its logo positioning on various merchandise.

Some brand guides tell the story behind the brand or the reasoning behind design choices, and I Love New York is one of them. The inclusion of a brand pyramid is very thoughtful and resonates with modern values.

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My recommendation is to try to always connect the visual identity to the brand’s values. This way, you’ll end up building a superb style guide.

25. TikTok

See the full TikTok brand guide.

What I like: TikTok’s style guide isn’t just a guide — it’s an interactive brand book. First, it provides an in-depth look into how it brings its brand to life through design.

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Then, it gives an overview of its logo, co-branding, color, and typography. The downloadable assets are a great touch. Everything you need is available directly within the guidelines, so there’s no need to search through separate folders or tools.

I love how an entire section is dedicated to creating content within the TikTok app. This makes it easy to understand how to design for the platform.

I also appreciate how they’ve included co-branding considerations, recognizing that many brands use TikTok for marketing. This shows a strong awareness of how the brand functions in real-world collaborations.

26. University of the Arts Helsinki

See the full University of the Arts Helsinki brand guide.

What I like: The University of the Arts Helsinki guide is divided into two parts: visual guidelines and a text style guide. For both parts, the focus is a lot on flexibility.

I like how the style guide gives a feeling that’s more of a creative branding album than a traditional marketing guide. It shows you dozens of contexts in which you’d see this school’s provocative logo, including animations.

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The guide also gives tips on how to design visual identities using their symbols. Here’s an example:

Also, I really love how the text guide focuses on minor details that hold a lot of value. An example is:

“Put the person first, not their specific quality: e.g., people with disabilities (not disabled people), people who are homeless (not homeless people).”

This shows a deep commitment to inclusive and respectful language. I am of the opinion that all style guides should use communication that is thoughtful and considerate.

27. Western Athletic Conference

See the full Western Athletic Conference brand guide.

What I like: The Western Athletic Conference’s brand style guide includes extensive information about its history, mission, and vision. It also highlights its member universities, athletic championships, and awards it is involved with.

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As I mentioned earlier, a brand guide is a powerful tool for communicating key messages effectively. The WAC brand guide does this exceptionally well by clearly outlining its target markets and core messaging. I think this is a reliable way to ensure consistency across all branding efforts.

I like how the guide shows how the brand elements should be applied, illustrating their representation on uniforms and sports jerseys.

28. Discord

See the full Discord brand guide.

What I like: Discord’s brand style guide is as colorful and playful as the communities it serves. The brand’s motion elements are based on the dot, which represents the Discord user interacting with others in the communities it belongs to.

I appreciate how Discord has come up with its very own names for colors. Blurple is a memorable name that adds personality to the brand while keeping the guidelines engaging.

I also like how the brand guidelines talk about symbol scalability — something that’s often overlooked but incredibly important.

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Also, they have included examples of incorrect symbol usage, making it easy to understand what to avoid. It’s a well-thought-out guide that ensures consistency while still allowing room for creativity.

29. NASA

See the full NASA brand guide.

What I like: NASA’s brand guidelines are one of the most comprehensive style guides I have come across. It describes countless logo placements, color uses, and supporting designs. The branding rules are quite varied. For instance, NASA’s space shuttles have their own branding rules.

The guide talks about supporting elements like typography, imagery, and even the specific proportions required for logo placement, ensuring every visual detail aligns with NASA’s identity. Their insignia has four variations, as shown below.

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The details about what background colors to use are also well-defined.

I appreciate how it covers different contexts, from digital applications to physical branding on spacecraft and uniforms.

I really admire the level of precision, as nothing is left to chance. Even historical elements, like the use of the iconic “worm” and “meatball” logos, are carefully outlined, preserving NASA’s legacy while maintaining a modern, cohesive brand presence.

30. New York City Transit Authority

See the full New York City Transit Authority brand guide.

What I like: Like NASA, the NYCTA has its own graphics standards manual, and it includes some fascinating typography rules for the numbers, arrows, and public transit symbols the average commuter takes for granted every day.

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The guide ensures clarity and consistency in the smallest details. For instance, look at the combination of arrows and how it displays directional information.

The brand guide preserves the visual identity of New York’s transit system while allowing for practical usability. Here’s a page that defines how the line map should be demonstrated.

It’s a perfect example of how thoughtful design can enhance everyday experiences without people even realizing it.

Branding Guidelines Tips

If you want to take your branding style guide to the next level, my suggestion would be to let HubSpot’s Brand Kit Generator do some of the heavy lifting for you.

I’d also recommend following the best practices below, which the HubSpot Creative team has used to disseminate branding information to the rest of the HubSpot Marketing team.

This has made my job as a blogger easier and allows our brand to feel well thought-out and cohesive.

1. Make your guidelines a branded document.

Whether you’re publishing your branding guidelines online or creating an internal presentation, consider making the guidelines themselves a branded document.

Ensure the published document follows your established brand voice, uses the symbols and imagery you’ve created, and employs the colors and typography that make your brand feel like you.

Insights from HubSpot’s Creative Team

When our Creative team rolled out a visual identity refresh for the HubSpot brand, we all received access to a branded playbook that summarized all the changes and described how we should represent HubSpot online moving forward.

Not only was I a huge fan of the refresh, but also of the way it was presented to our team in a branded document.

You can do the same, regardless of your budget. Our Creative team actually used a free tool, Google Slides — so it’s totally doable for a small or freelance brand!

2. Name your brand’s colors.

You’ve already chosen your color palette — why not go as far as naming the colors?

Giving your colors unique names (aside from “blue” or “orange”) can help you tie the tactical elements of your branding into an overall theme or ethos.

Not to mention that it’s awesome to be able to refer to company colors by a unique name. Imagine if we called Solaris, HubSpot’s primary brand color, “HubSpot Orange” — that simply doesn’t have the same ring.

Insights from HubSpot’s Creative Team

In our visual identity refresh, our Creative team brightened and intensified our color palette, then renamed the individual hues.

They wrote, “Every color, tint, and shade is based on central themes. […] Whether it’s a subway line in Paris or a flower-lined street in Japan, the secondary color names are a veritable tour of important cultural and geographical touchstones from HubSpotters all over the world.”

Think about what makes your brand unique and why you chose the colors that you did. For instance, if you work at a law firm that specializes in car accident cases, you might choose red as one of the brand colors and call it “Stop Light.”

3. Create easy-to-use branded templates.

Alongside your branding guidelines should be templates to empower your team to easily design branded assets, even if they’re not designers.

Insights from HubSpot’s Creative Team

At HubSpot, we keep all of our templates in our team’s Canva account. There, anyone (myself included) can edit pre-made designs for any number of use cases.

If you already have a HubSpot account, the good news is that HubSpot now directly integrates with Canva. If you don’t, well, I can say that you’re missing out on some real convenience!

For instance, as a writer on the HubSpot Blog, I have to create graphics to supplement the information I’m sharing. The branded templates made by our Creative team have made my work a great deal easier, and I can imagine that it’s the same for our Social Media team.

Not everyone is a designer, but with templates, you can ensure your brand looks professional no matter who creates an asset.

4. Ensure your branding is optimized for all channels.

Your branding guidelines should include different specifications for different channels.

Or, alternatively, you should have assets and designs that can be adjusted for various channels and media. Not only for sizing purposes, but for accessibility purposes, too.

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For instance, if you primarily market your brand over Instagram and on your website, then your branding should have web-accessible colors, as well as Instagram-friendly designs and sizes.

However, you don’t want to significantly change your branding from channel to channel. It should work relatively well, no matter where you’re marketing your brand.

Build a Memorable Style Guide of Your Own

Once you build your unique brand style guide, customers will recognize your brand and associate it with all the visual cues you want them to.

I hope this collection of standout brand style guides has provided valuable inspiration and insights. Remember that strong branding is not just about aesthetics. It’s about crafting a narrative that resonates. It’s also about building a cohesive identity that reflects your brand’s values, mission, and personality.

Best of luck in creating a timeless and impactful style guide for your brand!

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

What do people want? 

What do people do?

These are the questions marketers have asked for millennia.

Understanding the answers to these questions helps people build companies and power pipelines and inspire more questions. 

Despite literal yottabytes of data constantly flying around us, many marketers feel they don’t really understand what their target audiences want or do.

And that’s troubling.

So how do we solve this?

Simply, to identify what our audiences wants, we must understand what they are already doing.

Enter NetLine’s 9th annual State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report—an in-depth, first-party analysis of how professionals interact with content and what their actions reveal about intent.

Introducing NetLine’s 2025 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

2024’s 7.9 million first-party registrations revealed that much remains the same in B2B.

[ Access the 2025 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report.]

Yes, buyer behaviors are shifting, AI is reshaping our professional lives, and B2B professionals require more from their content than ever.

However, 2024 looks an awful lot like 2023. 

• Content demand grew 26.9% year over year—a testament to the growing appetite for gated content and the treasure trove of intent signals it unlocks. 
• There’s a Catch 22. The time it takes to consume content has widened. This is called The Consumption Gap, and its grown 23.3% over the last year.
• Want to know who is most likely to make a purchase decision in the next 12 months? Produce a Playbook. Compared to other formats, users registering for this content are 115.1% more likely to make a purchase at this time.
• eBooks continue to be a truly dominant format force across all Job Levels, Industries, and Roles. 

But just because what we’ve discovered is similar, it doesn’t mean the takeaways are the same.

What we discovered provides a roadmap for thriving in today’s intent-driven ecosystem. 

5 Game-Changing Insights from the 2025 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report

Below, we’ll explore five key findings that will redefine how you think about content marketing in 2025.

1. Timing is… 

Everything.

We began by asking what people want. 

Once we work our way through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, what people crave is time.

Money, theoretically, is infinite. Time is finite. 

In 2024, the Consumption Gap—the delay between content registration and consumption—reached 38.5 hours, widening by 7.3 hours year over year.

So, while content consumption rates have never been higher, the speed at which content is consumed has never been slower.

This metric reflects more than hesitation; it reveals the competing priorities and overload that today’s buyers face.

2. The Tortoise and the Hare

So what do we do with this information? 

Many marketing teams still run follow-up sequences as if nothing has changed. And it’s costing you money.

Here’s an example:

Your marketing automation fires off a follow-up email within minutes of a lead hitting your CRM.
Your SDR calls within the hour.

But your prospect? They haven’t even opened your content yet.

From their perspective, they haven’t started the conversation. So when your email lands—or your sales rep dials—it feels off. 

The timing isn’t just wrong; it’s disruptive.

Actions like this result in:

• Ignored emails
• Unsubscribes
• Lower conversion rates

Fast follow-ups used to work. (However, if they’ve specifically asked for contact, don’t wait!) 

But today, relevance without readiness just creates friction.

Marketing Aikido

What’s obvious is that our nurturing strategies must adapt. 

Instead of worrying about the lag in consumption, we should be taking advantage of this behavior. Provide timely summaries and follow-ups that respect and embrace the slowdown. 

Providing these tools to your sales colleagues will be extremely useful and, based on average B2B user behavior, will likely be appreciated by the recipient. 

For sellers,  apply both caution and context to any outreach. 

Before any outreach to your new registrant, review the content they’ve just requested and share whatever quick-hitting synopses and actionable takeaways you have available for their chosen asset. 

This allows you to accomplish the following:

• Say hello without any aggressive demo/sales request
• Establish a connection with a registrant
• Add additional value

We must also recognize the role Format Intent plays for each registration. 

For example, a user registering for a Playbook should be engaged more swiftly than a user requesting an eBook. 

Why? Because for every Playbook request in 2024, there were 50 eBook requests—making the registration of a Playbook an exceptionally rare choice (and often with significant purchase intent).

[More on this in “The eBook Empire”.]

3. C-Level Engagement Surges by 26.5%

For the first time since 2022, C-Level professionals ranked as the second-largest audience, accounting for 12.7% of total registrations. 

For marketing departments, this growth should be celebrated. C-Level reach is something most campaigns hope to achieve. Not only are these professionals eager to consume, but they’re also looking to consume the same formats as their team members. 

C-Level professionals want access to easy-to-consume content. (There’s a reason why Executive Summaries exist.) Their time is limited and, therefore, must squeeze the most from any time investment.

So while we want to engage the C-Level because of their financial sway, remember that they are people with the same amount of time in their day as anyone else.

4. AI Content Demand Grew 186%

Artificial intelligence is now a cornerstone of professional curiosity and production.

In 2024, demand for AI-related content skyrocketed by 186%, led by interest in topics like generative AI (up 493%) and regulatory concerns among legal professionals. 

Specifically, this increase in overall demand signals a critical opportunity to craft AI-focused narratives tailored to diverse industries—from biotech’s fascination with NLP to finance’s embrace of automation.

 

“Generative AI” content registrations grew 5x year-over-year with industries like Banking/Mortgage and Marketing driving this wave. Meanwhile, Journalism’s curiosity about tools like “ChatGPT” highlight how professionals are leveraging AI to unlock creativity and streamline workflows.

The takeaway for marketers is to meet your audience where they are (and where they are going).

Whether it’s speaking to Agriculture’s appetite for “Chatbot” solutions or showcasing the potential of “Robotics” to Executives, the key to success lies in tailoring your messaging to the specific needs of your target audience.

Marketers who align their strategies with these interests will not only grab attention but establish themselves as trusted voices in the AI craziness.

5. The eBook Empire

The 2025 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report paints a compelling picture of the dominance of eBooks as the go-to format for B2B professionals.

Accounting for 53.3% of all demand in 2024, eBook registrations skyrocketed by 71.4% year-over-year, far outpacing any other content format. 

Compared to Guides, eBooks outperformed the second most popular format by registration volume by a staggering 572%. 

Moreover, the efficiency of eBooks is unmatched.

Each asset uploaded to the NetLine platform generates an average of 983 registrations, eclipsing White Papers’ 59.5 registrations per asset. 

These stats underscore eBooks’ unique ability to balance depth, accessibility, and user engagement.

eBooks’ dominance reveals a preference for comprehensive resources that blend rich insights with convenience, making them a cornerstone of top-of-funnel awareness campaigns. 

The caveat with this format is that its popularity does not match its intent signal. Compared to other formats like playbooks and case studies, eBooks were 11.8% less likely to drive buying decisions within a year. 

But that’s okay. 

Every format has a purpose. If your ICP is requesting eBooks, that’s a good thing. They are simply at the top of the funnel and just beginning their journey. Your job is to introduce your business’s expertise in these eBooks and educate throughout your nurture program.

To capitalize fully, marketers must strategically pair eBooks with high-intent formats in their content arsenal, ensuring their campaigns not only spark interest but also have the opportunity to drive conversion.

Why Building Intentional Content Experiences is Critical

We’ve highlighted five of the most interesting learnings from NetLine’s annual B2B content consumption report.

So what comes next?

What should everyone do with this information?

In (re)analyzing the entirety of the 2025 report, one massive thought comes to mind: 

B2B content marketers and teams must shift their focus from simply creating more content to orchestrating smarter, more intentional content experiences.

The insights are clear—buyers are overwhelmed. 

The widening Consumption Gap (38.5 hours!) is proof that audiences need time, space, and relevance to engage meaningfully. 

For marketers, we can’t afford to treat content as a volume game. Instead, we must craft assets that align with specific moments in the buyer’s journey—content that respects their timeline, answers their immediate questions, and gently guides them forward.

The dominance of eBooks and the rise of AI-related content show that while curiosity abounds, purchase intent often lies deeper in the funnel. 

Formats like Case Studies and Playbooks—which are strongly tied to purchase decisions—remind us of the importance of balancing top-of-funnel discovery with bottom-of-funnel precision.

In 2025, teams that thrive will prioritize:

• Smarter Follow-Ups: Respect the time it takes to engage with the content they’ve requested. Want to follow up before the 48-hour window? Be absolutely sure you have contextually relevant messaging.
• Format-Specific Strategies: eBooks need to be your loss-leader. They need to be the content that gets your ICP in the door. From there, use intent-rich formats like Playbooks when targeting buyers close to a decision, while feeding discovery and brand-building efforts.
• Hyper-Personalization with Intent Data: This is the year of data-driven empathy. NetLine’s audience intent data offers a window into what your audience wants—leverage it to deliver personalized, human-first experiences. In an AI-world, this will separate good marketers from great ones.

Using NetLine’s Research to Fix the Broken Demand Generation Playbook

Buyers aren’t ignoring outreach because they aren’t interested; they’re ignoring it because they aren’t ready. 

Pushing too soon leads to lower response rates, more no-shows, and increased frustration for both buyers and sales teams. 

Remember: your timeline is not their timeline.

The most effective teams in 2025 won’t simply move faster; they’ll move smarter. Precision will win over speed, and the companies that adapt now will be the ones leading the charge into the future.

Be deliberate. 

Prioritize actual engagement behaviors, such as nurturing emails that deliver actionable takeaways and synopses and Sales tracking real intent signals instead of relying on outdated MQL definitions.

Different content types reflect different levels of interest—eBooks drive awareness, White Papers indicate deeper research, and Playbooks are strong buying signals. 

Every word, format, and interaction should contribute to a thoughtful, empathetic content strategy that prioritizes quality over quantity and impact over noise. 

This report isn’t just about trends—it’s a blueprint for connection in a world that desperately needs it. 

What Surprised You Most?

As you explore this year’s findings, we’d love to hear your thoughts. What surprised you most? How do you plan to adapt your strategy based on this data? Tag us on LinkedIn with your reflections and questions—we’re here to collaborate and learn together.

Ready to dive deeper? Access the full 2025 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report.

Once upon a time, SEO was just SEO. (Cue Mr. Incredible meme.) Whether you were a billion-dollar national brand or a teen with a Spice Girls Tumblr, you played the same game: Trying to get your page in those ten blue links.

Now, two marketers might not even be playing the SEO game on the same field, let alone with the same rules. So how do they hope to win?

If you’re in SEO, today’s master needs no introduction. If you’re not, all you need to know is that he’s done SEO for more big brands than you have fingers to count them.

Kevin Indig

Growth Advisor for Hims, Toast, Reddit, Dropbox & more

• Claim to fame: Doubling organic traffic at G2, growing Shopify’s traffic by over 75% in 12 months, or standing up Ramp’s organic traffic. Of course, for any of those accomplishments, Kevin acknowledges he can’t take credit alone but gives it to a whole team of talented people.
• Fun Fact: He used to be a club DJ in a former life and played gigs in front of thousands of people. He also competed in powerlifting and weightlifting competitions.

Lesson 1: Find your vertical-specific strategy.

These days, the type of search you perform can lead to a very different experience. A product search might bring you to Google Shopping, while an informational search brings up an AI Overview. That is, if you’re even searching on Google at all.

The result is that SEO can mean radically different things to otherwise similar marketers.

“Based on what vertical you play in, you might not work with the same tools,” Indig says. “You might not even optimize for the same platform.” And a vertical-specific strategy is the only way to stay ahead in the new search game.

He gives the example of a SaaS or B2B brand vying for real estate in Google’s AI Overviews.

“AI Overviews source a lot of citations from YouTube or LinkedIn,” he tells me. So a business that wants to show up in Google search results might… not focus on either their website or Google.

Meanwhile, marketing a B2C product “is much more about Google Merchant Center than Google Search Console. [It’s] a completely different playing field and [there’s] completely different ways to win.”

“The pattern here is fragmentation,” he says. “We cannot just talk about SEO. What form of SEO are we talking about?”

But no matter what vertical you find yourself in, “SEO should not just be on Google anymore.”

Lesson 2: Decide where you want to be.

Indig simply means that good SEO is bigger than just Google these days, but it raises the question about Google’s competitors. So I asked if marketers should even be focusing on Google in the first place?

In true SEO fashion, the answer is “it depends.” (It’s comforting to know some things never change, right?) And what it depends on is — again — your vertical.

So if you’re a small business with a physical presence?

“When it comes to local search, I don’t see anybody getting close to Google in the next decade. [It still] has an absolute stronghold.”

What about eComm?

“I would argue that Google never won. Amazon still holds that space.”

And our fictional SaaS looking to show up in the overviews? That’s where things get a little more gray.

“When it comes to the informational space, I think there is a realistic chance that an LLM like ChatGPT can take significant market share.”

(Now seems like an acceptable time to plug our AI Search Grader? #ShamelessPlug #ButItsActuallyRelevantSo…?)

But that doesn’t mean it’s time to jump ship on Google.

Indig suggests thinking about your digital presence the same way you might consider what kind of store your product belongs in: Where will your ideal customers be looking? And, in this metaphor, Google is a big ol’ shopping mall.

You might head to the mall “if you’re not sure what you need, or you just want to browse around.” But if you’re after [name a very specific thing], you might head [specific thing store].

Lesson 3: Get comfortable with experimenting.

All of these changes amount to one truth: SEO is not a plug-and-play strategy anymore. And, as challenging as that can be, it’s actually a good thing.

“It’s kind of cool, because it feels like the early days of SEO,” Indig says, waxing nostalgic. “There wasn’t an exact playbook — and there was a lot more experimentation.”

If you’ve been doing SEO for less than… let’s say 10-15 years… you might not remember there was a time when none of us knew what we were doing. There was no strategy to follow. Instead, there were simply people discovering tactics that worked (and then beating them to death. But that’s not the point.)

“And I think a lot of people new to SEO, they don’t know that world. And they’re entering that world right now. I think an important skill is to really understand how to experiment, how to learn, and then how to act based on your findings.”

Lingering Questions

This Week’s Question

Right now, it feels like so many brands are investing in beautifully produced, curated, experiential moments that are intended to drive awareness and shareability (and likely very expensive).

How do you think new brands with limited budgets should approach this tactic and still manage to cut through the clutter? — Jackie Widmann, VP of Marketing, BERO Brewing

This Week’s Answer

Indig says: In my experience, the highly produced moments matter at certain moments, like when customers consider a purchase, but what often catches their attention is the highly authentic, unpolished moment.

That’s why influencer marketing works. So, as a brand with a limited budget, I’d focus my budget on a few well-produced marketing assets (like videos of product images) and the rest on authentic, raw moments that build trust and curiosity.

Next Week’s Question

Indig asks: What’s the most underrated marketing channel right now, and why do you think it deserves more attention?

When you hear the word agent, what do you think of? A real estate agent, an insurance agent, or even an FBI agent? Far beyond an assistant following rote instructions, an agent has the power and ability to make things happen on your behalf.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had technology that could carry out independent tasks and take work off your plate? Autonomous agents are rapidly becoming a reality, capable of completing tasks for humans ranging from mundane to complex.

In 2024, just 1% of software included autonomous agents, but by 2028, that number may rise to 33%. In this post, I explore what autonomous agents are, what they can do for you and your customers, and how to implement one at your organization.

Table of Contents

• What is an autonomous agent?
• How can autonomous agents help?
• Autonomous Agents vs. AI Agents
• How Autonomous Agents Work
• Types of Autonomous Agents
• Autonomous Agent Example Use Cases
• How to Implement Autonomous Agents For Your Team

What is an autonomous agent?

An autonomous agent is an AI-powered system designed to complete tasks and make decisions independently to reach a goal. Autonomous agents are a subset of agentic AI, a type of artificial intelligence that learns from interactions and stimuli, makes decisions, and adapts to its environment with minimal or no human intervention.

“Do you need assistance? A Rozzum always completes its task!”

That’s the refrain of Roz, the goal-oriented robot who crash-landed on a remote island in “The Wild Robot” movie, one of my favorite animated film flics. Roz immediately begins adapting to her new environment and searching for a customer. When she finally finds one — caring for an orphaned gosling — she throws her energy into the survival of not only the gosling but the entire island.

Like Roz, autonomous agents operate independently of humans, adapt to their surroundings, and complete goal-directed behavior.

One differentiator that separates agentic AI from other types of AI is access to real-time data and environmental inputs. This differs from a foundation model like ChatGPT, which is pre-trained on large, static datasets and pulls from general knowledge only.

Foundation models rely heavily on human prompts to operate, unlike an autonomous agent, which makes a series of decisions based on its goal.

How can autonomous agents help?

Companies are starting to build autonomous agents for everything from marketing to sales to customer service. Gartner predicts that agentic AI will solve 80% of customer problems by 2029. But how does this look in everyday life?

Examples of autonomous agents include:

• Self-driving cars.
• Autonomous delivery drones and robots.
• AI trading bots that analyze trends and buy or sell based on real-time market data.
• AI cybersecurity agents who can take actions based on threats.
• AI coders that can take high-level goals like “build me a website” or “fix this bug customers have reported” and write and debug code.
• AI content agents that can build and run hyper-personalized campaigns based on a prospect’s behavior and data.

These autonomous agents and others can alleviate challenges in your business, like fraud, customer churn, and the high cost of operations.

When implemented correctly, autonomous agents can speed up processes, increase productivity, increase customer satisfaction, and cut operational costs by as much as 30%.

Autonomous Agents vs. AI Agents

If you’re like me, you were introduced to AI agents through early versions of website chatbots and voice assistants like Siri and Alexa.

While those tools can be incredibly helpful, they rely heavily on human prompting and can only perform tasks or answer questions based on predefined data sets. In other words, they aren’t autonomous.

“A chatbot is just very reactive based on the FAQs or the articles of knowledge that your organization has created. An autonomous agent, however, is going to look at you holistically as a customer,” says Zack Hamilton, Head of Growth Strategy and Enablement for parcelLab.

An autonomous agent is designed to take proactive action based on a goal, like customer retention or satisfaction.

“One of the first agents we built focused on packages that are trending late. If there’s an issue with the carrier or a warehouse delay, the agent monitors that data and proactively notifies customers,” shares Hamilton.

According to Hamilton, “We have retailers globally adopting this because it improves customer satisfaction and reduces call volume. We’ve seen ‘Where’s my order?’ calls decrease by 20 to 30%.”

	Autonomous Agent/Agentic AI	AI Agent
Level of independence	Fully autonomous	Requires user input
Complexity	Can handle dynamic environments	Better for simpler, more structured tasks
End goal	Goal-driven problem-solving	Complete a task, following specific instructions
Learning and adaptability	Continuously learns and evolves	Static, rule-based

How Autonomous Agents Work

Autonomous agents function through a combination of machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and reinforcement learning. Agentic AI uses a system of foundation models, tools, and architectures that enable an autonomous agent to operate. The key is that they’re flexible, with the ability to plan and adapt to challenges that arise.

Let’s take this example from The Wild Robot to see how autonomous agents function.

1. Perceive data from their environment.

Roz is searching for a customer and gets hit by a big wall of water.

2. Analyze the best course of action.

Roz sees another wave coming and determines that climbing a cliff to reach land is the best way to stay safe and find her customer.

3. Act without human intervention.

Roz attempts to climb the cliff but falls into the water again.

4. Learn and optimize their behavior.

Roz observes a crab climbing the cliff sideways and mimics its behavior to scale the cliff successfully.

Types of Autonomous Agents

Interested in building your own autonomous agent? Each autonomous agent follows a different model, so consider these types as you plan.

Deliberate Agents

Deliberative agents are cognitive systems that make decisions based on symbolic reasoning, planning, and maintaining a model of the world.

Example: A chess-playing AI that evaluates future board states before making a move.

How they work: These agents use complex algorithms, like search and planning techniques, to evaluate possible outcomes and choose an optimal action.

Reflexive Agents

Simple reflex agents act on current sensor inputs, adjusting to environmental inputs in real time.

Reflexive agents are not typically agentic AI on their own but are an integral piece of agentic AI models.

Example: A simple thermostat adjusts its heating or cooling based on temperature readings.

How they work: Reflexive agents continuously monitor the environment through sensors or cameras, reacting based on inputs.

Hybrid Agents

Hybrid agents combine different AI architectures, such as reflexive and deliberative systems, to reach the best outcomes. Typically, a reactive component will handle real-time responses, while a deliberative system will plan ahead.

Example: A self-driving car uses deliberate reasoning to plan and follow a route, then uses reflexive reasoning to slam on its brakes when a pedestrian crosses its path.

How they work: They integrate reactive behavior (quick responses) with goal-oriented planning and utility-based optimization to carry out complex tasks.

Model-Based Agents

Model-based agents maintain an internal model of their environment to predict how actions will affect future states.

Example: Autonomous vacuums like Roomba, which maps a room and navigates obstacles with a model.

How they work: Model-based agents use mapping techniques and predictive algorithms to handle dynamic environments effectively.

Learning Agent

Learning agents improve performance over time by analyzing past experiences and modifying behavior based on feedback.

Example: A recommendation system like Netflix, which adapts to user preferences based on viewing history.

How they work: These systems use reinforcement learning or other machine learning techniques to refine their algorithms based on new data and feedback from previous actions.

Hierarchical Agents

I also learned that multi-agent systems are possible in agentic AI (mind blown!). Consider, for instance, a system where a high-level autonomous agent oversees lower-level agents that manage specialized functions like customer service, customer retention, and selling.

Example: Swarm by OpenAI, while still experimental, allows autonomous agents to work together or even create new autonomous agents to reach an overarching goal.

How they work: Each Hierarchical Autonomous Agent Swarm (HAAS) starts with a supreme oversight board (Tier 0), the top of the hierarchy, which oversees the mission and ethical framework. The board makes high-level decisions and can make Executive agents (Tier 1), similar to C-suite roles.

Executive agents can create lower-tier agents (Tier 2) to perform specified tasks like data analysis or customer support. Lower-level and executive agents cannot override the authority of the tier above them.

Goal-Based vs. Utility-Based Agents

While some autonomous agents are goal-based, others are utility-based. Goal-based agents follow a specific, pre-defined goal, like getting from point A to point B. Take, for instance, the Roomba example. Did you clean all accessible floor space? Then, check that your goal is accomplished. These are simpler to design and implement and work well with tasks with a clear objective.

A utility-based agent, on the other hand, makes decisions based on utility.

The agent doesn’t only care about goal completion. It wants to optimize an outcome, like efficiency or time to completion. One good example is Uber’s algorithm, which considers both wait time and trip cost when matching riders with drivers. Utility-based agents are highly adaptable and flexible, requiring more sophisticated modeling.

Autonomous Agent Example Use Cases

Ready to see autonomous agents in action? While agentic AI is still new and evolving, you can learn from these businesses putting autonomous agents to work.

Joy by VoiceCareAI

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While we aren’t quite ready for autonomous agents to make healthcare diagnoses and treatments, there are other viable uses for autonomous agents in healthcare.

Take, for example, administrative tasks like insurance verification, prior authorizations, and claims processing, which health systems say require 70,000 calls per month.

Joy, an autonomous agent from startup VoiceCareAI, is being piloted by the Mayo Clinic and others to call insurers to complete these functions. For example, Joy can call to check if there’s a prior authorization on file. If there’s not, request one, then follow up later for the number.

Since clinicians spend over 60% of their time on administrative work, this frees them up for patient care. Now, all we need is a consumer version to negotiate with our insurance companies for us.

Avride Delivery Robots

Source

Get ready. Your next pizza or coffee may come via robot.

Fleets of robot couriers like Avride are rolling out on college campuses, delivering everything from hot food to groceries to shopping hauls.

Like self-driving cars, delivery robots need to make real-time decisions in a dynamic environment, navigating streets, pedestrians, and challenges like weather, construction, or animals. Avride boasts complete autonomy for its robots, which use an extensive array of sensors for environmental inputs so they can complete their goal.

LOXM by JPMorgan & Chase

Source

The stock market is a complex venture, requiring traders to make hundreds of decisions a day based on factors like global news headlines, company performance, and stock market activity.

That’s why it made a great area for JPMorgan & Chase to build an autonomous AI trading agent. LOXM uses NLP and machine learning to understand the market in real-time and execute client orders based on optimal outcomes like trade prices and minimizing market impact.

JPMorgan & Chase reports that LOXM has improved order efficiency by 15% and is introducing agentic AI in other areas, including contract intelligence, recruiting, and employee productivity.

How to Implement Autonomous Agents For Your Team

So, how do you tap into the power of autonomous agents? I spoke to CX experts on the frontlines of this work about how to start building agentic AI at your company. Here’s what they said.

1. Identify pain points in your business.

First, examine the friction points in your business to uncover opportunities for growth and automation.

“Think about the overall customer experiences — what are your biggest frictions, and what‘s impacting your bottom line the most? That could be customer retention, customer lifetime value, or a high customer acquisition cost. There’s always that one business metric,” says Hamilton. “Then think, ‘Okay, how can I apply an agent to that?’”

2. Define objectives.

Next, choose the pain point that you want to solve and choose an objective. “Start small. It can be a very small use case,” advises Hamilton. Clearly outline the tasks and goals you want the agent to achieve and make them quantifiable when possible. Here are several examples:

• Identify and qualify potential customers based on online behavior
• Reduce fraudulent transactions
• Identify and fix software bugs autonomously
• Increase average order value

3. Choose the right tools.

Select the appropriate AI tools and platforms, such as Breeze AI by HubSpot, to support your agent’s development. You can build one in-house, using employees or contract labor, or license an existing one like parcelLab.

While many AI tools are built into or integrated with tools you already use, in some cases, AI tools are robust enough to replace some of your tools.

“Think about an agent as its own kind of tech stack, essentially. It will leverage the different tools we have, like communication tools, but we’ll no longer have to have 10 or 12 different pieces of tech to respond to customers — that’s exciting,” says Hamilton.

4. Develop and test.

As you begin to code and build your model, use machine learning algorithms to develop the agent and test its capabilities in real-world scenarios.

“The agents will be leveraging everyone’s data, and so all the teams cross-functionally are going to have to respond. So start small, A/B test, and learn. Make updates continuously,” recommends Hamilton.

5. Integrate with existing systems and data.

As you build and test your autonomous agent, it’s critical that your data is clean and your systems work together seamlessly. This will take strong leadership and cross-departmental collaboration to make sure that all systems are working together well.

“The agent will only be as efficient with your data as you are. So if you have challenges in your data and it’s not accurate, of course, the agent is only going to spit out what you feed it,” Hamilton warns.

6. Prepare and upskill your team.

Don’t underestimate the need to educate and empower your team for successful integration. When your employees first hear about agentic AI, their instinct might be fear. They may worry about losing their job to AI or having to learn a whole new skill set.

What you need is effective change management.

“There’s a healthy degree of skepticism of, ‘Will this work?’ ‘How will this work?’ and ‘How will our customers react to it?’” says Hamilton.

“What I would say to organizations is that how you lead with that skepticism will determine how your employees will respond. Focus on how the AI will free employees up from low-value tasks to let them work smarter and faster, rather than being replaced.”

It’s also smart to hire, train, and upskill your workers on AI skills and prompt engineering to build capacity for the workforce you’ll need five years from now.

7. Monitor and optimize.

As you roll out an autonomous agent, make sure to create a monitoring system that can document the actions and decisions taken by the agent. Audit the decisions early on so you can identify problems and make tweaks. Monitoring also allows you to measure your KPIs and the lagging impact of your autonomous agents, so you can measure the value and continue investment.

8. Scale up.

After you’ve run one successful AI pilot, you can use what you’ve learned to grow and scale.

“Once you feel confident as an organization, then maybe have that specific agent take on a bigger task, or introduce a second agent focused on a different objective,” recommends Hamilton.

Put Autonomous Agents to Work for You

From everything I’ve learned, I believe that autonomous agents aren’t just another AI trend— they’re the future of how we’ll interact with brands. Beyond basic AI assistants, autonomous agents can analyze data and learn from interactions to enhance customer experience and improve efficiency.

So, the question isn’t whether you should explore autonomous agents — it’s how soon you can start. Approach the challenge through the lens of change management, and you’ll emerge with a redefined stronger team.

Earlier this year, HubSpot went viral — and not exactly in a good way. A few companies posted data suggesting that we had lost 80% of our blog traffic. Overnight, the news was all over X and LinkedIn.

As marketers ourselves, we know better than anyone that hot takes drive clicks. But, what actually happened to our traffic? Have we really reached the end of SEO as we know it? And is this really the downfall of HubSpot’s core strategy?

As one of the people who built HubSpot’s SEO strategy from the ground up, I’d like to think I can offer a bit more of a nuanced perspective. And while I’d never begrudge our fellow content creators jumping aboard the latest hot take bandwagon, in this case, I’d argue that the reality is a bit more complex than social media might have you think.

That’s why I wrote this post: Not just to set the record straight (spoilers: no, the end of HubSpot is not nigh) but also to help marketers understand the very real challenges that today’s AI-powered search ecosystem poses. I’ll also share the steps marketers can take to meet those challenges and come out ahead.

What Actually Happened to HubSpot’s Traffic

Let’s start with what actually happened. There are three important pieces to the traffic puzzle that the clickbait headlines and apocalyptic posts have (by and large) ignored.

1. Shifting from Information to Influence

None of us could have predicted the incredible impact that AI tools like ChatGPT have had over the last few years. However, we have been taking steps to keep HubSpot’s strategy relevant since long before the recent hype cycle.

Specifically, as far back as early 2020, we began to see that Google was demanding a new approach. While our original SEO strategy focused on providing concrete, informational content, over the last five years search engines have increasingly rewarded influence rather than just information — and we adapted our strategy accordingly.

We invested in channels like YouTube, podcasts, and social media. We built out HubSpot Academy, and, importantly, we acquired the founder-centric news site The Hustle. These platforms came together to transform our content from largely informational into an ever-present part of our target customers’ lives.

We never cared about vanity metrics like traffic, but especially in recent years, we became increasingly focused on cultivating influence rather than just providing information. You can see the results in posts like this one, where a HubSpot customer describes the literal years-long journey he took to discover our brand, fall under our influence, and, eventually, buy our product.

Image Source

The point was never to maximize page views. We wanted to build influence so that when people eventually need a product that we sell, they come to us first.

Recent updates to Google’s algorithm added new urgency to this shift toward influence over information, but these changes were already in motion years before the recent media kerfuffle.

Today, Google is pushing people to dial into their core areas of expertise, and they’re rewarding sites that focus on content that’s relevant to those areas. That’s a bit of a departure from how it used to work, when search algorithms rewarded quantity alongside quality.

But, we had already been working to dial up the quality piece of our content equation, to focus in on the content that’s most relevant to our customers. This choice put us in a good position to get ahead of these changes when they emerged.

2. The Disruption (and Opportunity) of LLMs

The next major trend that everyone has been talking about is the so-called “death of blue links.” With the proliferation of AI assistants and automatically-generated summaries, a lot of questions that users used to click a link to answer can now be answered without ever leaving your ChatGPT window or Google AI Overview.

There’s no denying that these no-click searches have cannibalized a lot of traditional search traffic. At the same time, we’ve also seen that HubSpot content actually performs really well within AI-generated responses. Why is our traffic from LLMs increasing? Because of the diverse, influence-focused playbook we just described.

Today, we’re not just influencing humans — we’re influencing robots, too. We are marketing to both, and as LLMs become an increasingly relevant platform, that investment has begun paying off.

I saw this just the other day: I was in a Slack thread with a colleague, and they were using ChatGPT to do some research on the new AI model, DeepSeek. What did ChatGPT show them? A link to Kieren’s own video on DeepSeek.

By developing high-quality content on topics where we have real expertise, we’ve been able to cultivate influence among humans and algorithms alike. So, yes, we might be getting fewer clicks from search (just like everyone else is). But, we’re also getting new visibility for our most relevant content, as these LLMs recognize our content as high-quality and offer it as reference materials to their users.

3. The Strength of Transactional Search

The last trend worth noting is that while traffic has indeed fallen for many of our informational keywords, performance for transactional keywords is as strong as ever.

In fact, when it comes to keywords focused on specific products, actions, or problems that users need help with, our search volume has actually grown substantially. This is important because while our informational content strategy has shifted toward a more influence-focused approach, our transactional search volume remains an important driver of conversions.

Growing Search Traffic in an AI-Powered World

So, what does this mean for your business? Of course, I can’t tell you exactly what to do, and I can’t predict the future. But here are three strategies that we’re pursuing — and that I think are likely to benefit other marketers.

1. Double down on depth, not breadth.

First, if you’re trying to build an SEO strategy, start by asking yourself: Do I have unique data? Unique insights? A unique customer base with a unique perspective?

If you do, you should be able to own that area of expertise and get some strong search traffic around it. But if you don’t, then a generic LLM could likely create the same content as you … which means you’re probably not going to get much traffic for it.

In today’s landscape, you have to be smart. You have to have a highly differentiated point of view, highly differentiated data, and a clear reason why you’re uniquely qualified to share your story. Without that, you’ll struggle to be successful long-term.

When SEO first emerged, a lot of effort was spent on developing broad coverage. But with AI, coverage is no longer the problem. Today, what people need is depth. They need high-quality, expert-backed takes on their questions. As long as that’s something you can deliver consistently, you’ll still have a good shot at sustained success.

2. Optimize for both humans and robots.

Step one is doubling down on the content that you’re uniquely qualified to create. Step two is figuring out how to get that content to appear in the AI-generated responses that are increasingly relevant for many markets.

Fortunately, we’ve found that the same strategy that works for humans works for robots, too: It’s all about influence. To succeed in an AI landscape, you need to think about your content not just with respect to the traffic and clicks it can generate in the near-term, but with respect to the influence it can foster over the long haul.

3. Continue with transactional SEO.

Finally, we’ve found that while recent advances in AI and search algorithms have dramatically transformed many aspects of the online content landscape, transactional search has remained relatively unchanged.

What does this look like in practice? Transactional search is when someone searches for a keyword that’s specific to your product or the problem they’re looking to solve.

A lot of SEO has traditionally focused on broader informational content. This content may be interesting to your customers, but that doesn’t solve an immediate problem. Instead, transactional search is also an important piece of the SEO equation … and we’ve been seeing that it’s still well worth the investment.

A New Era of SEO

SEO has always been about providing value to the customer. In the past, that meant information, but now, it’s about influence and highly differentiated expertise. In today’s landscape, success hinges on obsessing over what value humans can provide that AI can’t.

Here at HubSpot, we’re learning right along with you. We’ll make some missteps, to be sure. However, we’ve found that overall, our strategy still seems to be working — no matter what you might have heard online.

To learn more about lead-scoring tactics and marketing growth strategies, 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.

Meta houses three huge social media platforms, each offering their own benefits and drawbacks.

When we surveyed marketers in 2025, we wanted to find out which one is best for social metrics – like audience growth and site traffic – and where they’re re-investing.

We’ll dive into that along with key differences among various segments, like B2B vs. B2C brands, company sizes, and industry.

Facebook, Instagram, or Threads: Where Marketers Spend Their Time in 2025

I won’t bury the lede – Instagram is by far the most popular and highest performing Meta platform among marketers we surveyed. In fact, it’s a top one across the board. 

Facebook isn’t far behind performance wise, though. Threads is, however, a different story.

Before we look at segmented data points, here are key data points on the ROI marketers report on Meta platforms, and the investments they’re making.

Firstly, the 2025 State of AI report found that marketers are investing most in video-first platforms – 76% of respondents say their company uses Instagram.

Facebook comes in right behind at 61% as the third most used app.

Thread hasn’t picked up steam, as the least used app at 9%, behind Tumblr, Discord and Pinterest.

Performance-wise, marketers rank Instagram as the top performing platform for site traffic, engagement, audience growth, and influencer marketing.

And this isn’t just among Meta platforms, Instagram is the top performer across all social media platforms we surveyed marketers on.

Facebook lags behind by an average of 12%.

This sets the stage for where marketers are investing in 2025.

Instagram is among the top 3 platforms marketers are investing in this year.

Twenty three (23) percent of marketers plan to cut off their investment in Facebook this year, compared to only 9% for Instagram. In addition, six percent more marketers plan to invest in Instagram than Facebook.

Now that we’ve looked at each platform across the board, let’s dig into some insights within key segments.

B2B vs. B2C

When looking at how marketers reported ROI on Instagram and Facebook, there wasn’t more than a 5% difference between B2B and B2C businesses.

In terms of 2025 investments, B2B and B2C were in lockstep in their approach to Threads, with 27% increasing their investment, 25% maintaining the same investment amount, and 26% decreasing or cutting it entirely.

We saw some variance in 4 areas:

• Facebook investment – Forty six percent (46) of B2B businesses plan to decrease or cut their Facebook investment in 2025 compared to 35% of B2C businesses.
• Instagram investment – Our report shows a 7% higher investment from B2C brands.
• Brand safety – Twenty one (21) percent of B2B businesses are uncomfortable about their brand’s safety on Threads compared to only 10% of B2C. Marketers are showing a similar trend on Instagram, 11% of B2B are uncomfortable on it compared to only 3% of B2C.
• Influencer marketing – B2C brands are 9% more likely than B2B to work with influencers most on Instagram. That said, B2C and B2C businesses report similar ROI on the platform.

Company Size

Midsize (201-2,000 employees) and large (2,000+ employees) companies are more likely than small (1-200) companies to build community on Facebook.

In addition, midsize companies also report better community building efforts on Instagram, compared to small and large companies.

We also saw some interesting variance as it pertains to their approach to Threads and the ROI they report.

Threads is more popular among marketers working at midsize companies, with 13% reporting that they leverage it, compared to only 4% at small companies and 7% at large ones.

However, the data suggests smaller companies have a harder time finding success on Threads.

• Companies with 1-200 employees were more likely to see low ROI from using Threads.
• 31% of respondents from small companies reported low ROI from Threads, compared to only 18% from midsize ones and 16% from large ones.

This trend was also apparent for Instagram – 20% of respondents from small businesses reported low ROI from the platform, 11% more than for midsize companies and 12% for large companies.

Industry

Generally, marketers at nonprofit/government orgs report lower performance results compared to B2B and B2C brands.

Marketers at B2B and B2C companies are more likely to report high ROI on the Meta platforms than nonprofit and gov. orgs.

In addition, 40 to 48% of marketers for B2B and B2C brands report high ROI on Instagram, compared to only 20% for non-profit/government orgs.

That said, Meta platforms are not leveraged as much from nonprofit and government orgs. Only 56% of nonprofit and government orgs leverage Instagram, 14% less than B2B businesses and 21% less than B2C ones.

Social Pros Compare Benefits of Each Meta Platform

Brand Safety

Marketers feel most comfortable on established platforms for brand safety.

81% of marketers surveyed reported they feel comfortable posting and advertising on Facebook. Seventy-five percent of marketers reported the same on Instagram.

As the newest platform from Meta, only 41% of marketers reported feeling comfortable on Threads.

Source

Community Building

We also see a similar trend for community building.

Established platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, are where social media marketers build community on the most.

Forty percent of marketers say Instagram is most effective for building an active community on social media, earning the top spot across all platforms.

Facebook ranked third at 33%.

Influencer Marketing

Unsurprisingly, marketers report that Instagram provides the highest ROI of all three platforms.

Across all platforms, Instagram and Facebook are among the top 5 for ROI, with 45% reporting high ROI for Instagram and 38% for Facebook.

Twenty six (26) percent of marketers report wanting to work with influencers on Instagram the most, compared to 14% for Facebook.

Key Takeaways

Marketers are clear on one thing: Instagram is the clear winner among Meta platforms. It’s the platform that they see the best results from and plan to invest the most in.

Facebook, as the most established platform, is a close second – even when we expand beyond Meta.

Without short-form video features or a proven history of ROI, Threads lags way behind.

Over the last year, I’ve seen AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT transform from cool tech novelties into total game-changers. These technologies are no longer nice-to-haves — they’re critical for any organization looking to stay competitive.

Of course, implementing new AI-powered tools is often easier said than done. In this article, I’ll share some common roadblocks, including a few I’ve encountered as HubSpot’s senior director of global growth. Then, I’ll share some tips and tricks for becoming an AI champion on your marketing team.

By the end of this post, you’ll have the tools you need to drive effective AI adoption across your organization. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

• Common Roadblocks to Implementing AI
• How to Drive Lasting AI Adoption
• Become Your Team’s AI Champion

Common Roadblocks to Implementing AI

In my experience, AI implementation requires buy-in at every level — from executives who need to sign off on tools to the individual contributors who actually use AI tools. So, to drive adoption, you need to address a wide range of concerns. Here are the most common I’ve heard.

Decision-makers are excited about AI but have yet to unlock its productivity potential.

Many people may see AI tools as fun new toys but struggle to recognize their potential as useful productivity tools. As a result, I’ve seen teams get excited to use AI on smaller projects but hesitant to invest in a larger-scale implementation.

For example, when I first started learning about AI, I appreciated how it could help me with discrete tasks, like putting together memos, coming up with ideas for experiments, and drafting copy. But, I didn’t truly understand just how powerful AI could be until I started using it for data analysis.

Specifically, after a lengthy homepage optimization project, I used Claude to understand exactly how the shift was impacting our top-of-funnel and down-funnel metrics. Then, I asked it to create two summaries: one for an executive-level audience and one for my team and our other stakeholders.

The entire process took less than two hours (including the time it took for me to fact-check Claude’s conclusions, which I always recommend doing). Without AI, it would’ve taken me days, as well as at least one (human) analyst.

When people see AI as just a fun novelty, they’re unlikely to invest their time and energy into implementation. So, to get people excited about AI’s true potential, it’s important to highlight the incredible, quantifiable impact it can have on your business. Communicate your wins in terms of hours and dollars saved.

People don’t understand how AI works.

Despite the increasing prevalence of AI across a wide range of applications, many people are still unfamiliar with how the technology underlying these tools works. This can make people understandably nervous to rely on AI-powered tools for important business needs.

I’ve noticed that reluctance and AI nerves are especially prevalent when stakeholders are less technologically savvy. Providing some basic AI education can help calm these fears.

Stakeholders have been burned before.

In other cases, I’ve seen teams hesitate to adopt a new AI solution because they’ve been burned in the past by a similar initiative that didn’t go well. Perhaps a product was advertised as a high-powered solution but ended up offering little to the team. Or, maybe, a previous solution was just poorly implemented.

Executives who have seen an AI solution fail before may hesitate to try another one. Champions will need to arm themselves with extra data and a compelling case for why results will be better this time.

Teams have enthusiasm without a strategic perspective.

Of course, resistance to AI isn’t the only factor that can hinder effective implementation. On the other end of the spectrum, I’ve run into managers and executives who are extremely eager to adopt AI. However, they may lack the strategic perspective to identify and move forward with the best approach.

These AI enthusiasts may jump to sign up for the latest, greatest AI tool without stopping to determine whether it’s really a good fit for their organization’s needs. Similarly, they may rush the implementation phase, skipping important planning or communication steps.

While experimenting and moving quickly can lead to AI wins, teams should take the time to build an AI strategy with clearly mapped objectives. Are you trying to save time and/or money? Improve quality? Getting clear on the strategy and “why” from the jump can help you choose the right tools, speed up implementation, and stay aligned with leadership.

Teams have siloed data.

Finally, the challenge I’ve encountered most often when implementing AI across an organization is siloed, disconnected data. After all, your AI recommendations can only be as smart as the data you feed into the system.

If you’re not able to access all the data that’s relevant to the task at hand, then you’ll struggle to get value out of AI tools. That’s also true when accessing that data requires hours of manual work across several inconsistent systems.

How to Drive Lasting AI Adoption

When it comes to implementing AI, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Organizations will face different challenges and benefit from different approaches. That said, I’ve found the strategies below an effective route to overcoming the roadblocks.

The end result is lasting AI adoption that helps your marketing team grow.

Illustrate a compelling “before” and “after.”

To get buy-in from key decision-makers, it’s important to move past the theoretical benefits of AI and make the case for your specific project. To tell that story, illustrate a clear, compelling “before” and “after.”

For example, the first big AI initiative that I pitched to my team was for an AI-powered search grader. The project would use OpenAI’s API to tell prospects how well their brand was performing in AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.

To get people on board, I didn’t just claim that the tool would be helpful. Instead, I explained how I was currently doing many hours of manual analysis each week to calculate how often HubSpot showed up — and how — in AI engine responses.

I also explained that our prospects and customers were going to face this challenge too (if they weren’t facing it already!). And it worked: Our leadership got it right away, and they quickly greenlit the project.

When it comes to AI, I’ve found that describing how the current system works now and how it could work with the new tool is usually successful. Be sure to outline the ROI and benefits of that future state clearly.

Educate key stakeholders.

AI champions are often educators. After all, people probably won’t get excited about AI if they don’t know how it works — and even if they do, they’re unlikely to be able to use it successfully without at least a basic understanding of the underpinning technology.

With this in mind, whenever I work with colleagues who are less familiar with AI, I’ll start by explaining how the system will work. In some cases, I’ll share the basics of these technologies, including what a large language model (LLM) is and the best practices for using it. Beyond these general explanations of the technology, I’ll also explain how our particular implementation will work.

When acting as an AI educator, be sure to provide the information needed to understand and adopt the idea without drowning people in details.

Start with a proof-of-concept.

Big ideas can be exciting, but I’ve found that starting with a rough proof-of-concept is often the best way to get buy-in and bring an idea to life. A low-risk, minimum viable product (MVP) can help illustrate the benefits of AI without requiring a large up-front investment.

By offering a smaller-scale proof-of-concept, you can help your executive team feel more comfortable greenlighting an AI project. You can also frame your investment as an experiment, rather than a long-term commitment.

Reign in excessive enthusiasm.

On the other hand, when stakeholders are so enthusiastic about AI that they may rush implementation or ignore critical issues, I try to reign them in. Instead of directly squashing their ideas, I ask lots of questions.

For example, I might ask, “Why are you thinking about the project this way?”, “What are we trying to accomplish with AI?”, and “Why is AI valuable for this work?” Ultimately, I usually say, “Now that I better understand what you’re trying to do, can I suggest an alternative?”

Approaching over-enthusiasm with genuine curiosity and a willingness to solve for their end goal can help you steer them in a better direction while preserving the relationship.

Embrace an ecosystem approach.

I’ve learned firsthand how vital it is for marketers to leverage data from across their platforms to drive growth. That means knocking down silos and embracing an ecosystem approach. Making this shift involves engaging internal teams across the organization and external partners.

What does that look like in practice? Let’s start with the internal team. Say that your sales and service teams use Gong to track customer calls. Gong gives you access to extensive call transcripts that are rich in prospect data, offering insights into how you can best position your product.

Marketers can use AI tools to analyze this information and identify potential risks or opportunities for growth. However, this is only possible if teams know what data they’re collecting and share that information freely.

Now, onto the external ecosystem. When you work with partners, not every AI-driven innovation needs to be built by your team. You can work with external partner organizations in your ecosystem that can build solutions for your company.

Let’s use HubSpot as an example. Our Solutions Partners provide services that complement HubSpot’s platform offerings — from implementations to AI-driven analytics to advanced custom integrations. Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Partners build and sell apps that enhance our software’s capabilities, including those featuring AI. The average HubSpot customer uses 9+ apps — leveraging custom tools that help them better serve users in their industries or verticals.

It’s a win-win. Our partners get access to HubSpot customers, an ecosystem that represents a $30 billion opportunity for app and service partners by 2028. Our platform gets enhanced capabilities that can better serve and attract customers — all without any investment dollars from our internal team.

By building out AI capabilities as part of a larger, integrated ecosystem, companies can better serve and grow their customer base. In my experience, that speaks to leadership and drives buy-in.

Become Your Team’s AI Champion

At the end of the day, AI is a tool like any other. For it to make an impact across an organization, it needs a champion to get everyone on board and drive lasting growth. By steering clear of common roadblocks and using the strategies I described above, you’ll be on your way to becoming the AI champion your marketing team needs.

I know firsthand that staring at a blank page is the hardest part of writing a business plan. Whether you’re launching a new venture or refining an existing one, having a roadmap is key. But, figuring out where to start? That’s another story.

To get over the hump, I recommend looking at real business plan examples. Seeing how other companies have structured their plans can spark ideas, give you a clear format to follow, and make the whole process feel way less overwhelming.

So what does a good business plan look like? And how do you write one that’s both viable and convincing? In this post, I’ll share my favorite sample business plans and examples and walk you through the ideal business plan format.

Table of Contents

• Business Plan Types
• Business Plan Format
• Sample Business Plan: Section by Section
• Sample Business Plan Templates
• Top Business Plan Examples
• Startup Business Plan Examples

Business Plan Types

The format of your business plan will vary based on what offering you provide and who you’re targeting. So, I’ve added this quick review of different business plan types that can help you make the right decision. Check out this post to learn more.

1. Startups

Startup business plans are for proposing new ideas and getting them off the ground. In this type of business plan, you should focus on what makes your offering different from competitors — in fact, you’ll even need a whole section dedicated to market analysis. You’ll also describe how you plan to secure funding or a request for funding to keep your business afloat.

2. Internal Use

Not every business plan is meant for the public. In fact, internal business plans allow leaders to share goals, strategies, or performance updates with stakeholders who work at the company. In my opinion, internal business plans are useful for alignment and building support for ambitious goals. You can also share roadmaps you expect employees to follow.

4. Strategic Initiatives

Strategic business plans are also shared internally. This plan covers long-term business objectives that might not have been included in the startup business plan. Your strategic plan can be revisited based on your company’s maturity. You may also slot updates yearly, every few years, or based on major milestones.

5. Business Acquisition or Repositioning

When a business is moving forward with an acquisition or repositioning, it may need extra structure and support. This type of business plan expands on a company’s acquisition or repositioning strategy. Here leaders can explain why the acquisition occurred and how the company will restructure to incorporate the acquisition.

6. Growth

Growth can happen organically as a business becomes more established. However, most leaders find growth plans can be helpful gauge progress. Growth business plans create a structure with specific expansion targets. This type of business plan can help teams focus on short-term growth goals, and align resources with those goals.

Business Plan Format

So, now that you know the different types, what actually goes into a business plan? Below, I’ll create a startup business plan that’s detailed, research-backed, and compelling enough to convince investors to offer funding.

But first, let’s talk about the sections you actually need to include. In my experience, the most comprehensive and convincing business plans contain the following sections.

Executive Summary

Your executive summary is the most important section of the entire business plan. It is an overview of and introduction to your entire project. I’d recommend adding two main elements to your executive summary: your company description and your offerings.

Company Description

Highlight your company’s mission statement and goals, a brief overview of your history and leadership, and your top accomplishments as a business.

Tell potential investors who you are and why what you do matters. Naturally, they’re going to want to know who they’re getting into business with upfront. This is a great opportunity to showcase your impact.

Need some extra help firming up your business goals? I’d recommend HubSpot Academy’s free course to help you set meaningful goals that matter most for your business.

Products and Services

Incorporate an overview of your offerings. This doesn’t have to be extensive, it’s a chance to introduce your industry and overall purpose as a business. I recommend including snippets of information about your financial projections and competitive advantage here as well.

Keep in mind that you’ll cover many of these topics in more detail later on in the business plan. The executive summary should be clear and brief, only including the most important takeaways.

How to Get It Right

Remember, this is just the intro of your plan. You should focus on the most important highlights only while keeping the entire summary under one page. Busy executives often make initial judgments based on just these few paragraphs, so you need to make them count.

Market Opportunity

Here you’ll describe gaps in your industry’s market and how you plan to fill them. This section should be focused on the demand for your offering and the potential for growth. Ask and answer: Where is the gap in the current industry, and how will my product fill that gap?

To get a thorough understanding of the market opportunity, conduct a TAM, SAM, SOM analysis, a SWOT analysis, and perform market research on your industry to get insights for this section. More specifically, here’s what I’d include.

• The size of the market.
• Current or potential market share.
• Trends in the industry and consumer behavior.
• Where the gap is.
• What caused the gap.
• How you intend to fill it.

How to Get It Right

When writing this section, start with the unmet needs your business addresses, including why current solutions fall short. Then, quantify your target market with specific, verifiable data on market size, growth trends, and addressable segments.

Competitive Landscape Analysis

This section offers an overview of your competitors — including their strengths and weaknesses. The goal here is to differentiate your offerings in the industry.

Performing a competitive analysis can help you uncover the following:

• Industry trends that other brands may not be utilizing.
• Strengths in your competition that may be obstacles to handle.
• Weaknesses in your competition that may help you develop selling points.
• The unique proposition you bring to the market that may resonate with customers.

How to Get It Right

I recommend creating a detailed comparison matrix that evaluates your direct and indirect competitors in the market. You can note helpful factors that customers consider, like pricing, features, and market share. This formatting helps highlight where your business has distinct advantages.

Target Audience

This section describes your ideal customers, the problems that you can solve for them, and your customer acquisition strategy.

Use this section to describe who your customer segments are in detail. I’d recommend building a buyer persona to get in the mindset of your ideal customers and be clear about why you’re targeting them.

Here are some questions I’d ask myself:

• What demographics will most likely need/buy your product or service?
• What are the psychographics of this audience? (Desires, triggering events, etc.)
• Why are your offerings valuable to them?

How to Get It Right

When describing your target audience, be specific. You should include behavioral, demographic, and psychographic characteristics so your readers have a better sense of your ideal persona. Be sure to include any market research you’ve conducted that can drive the point home.

Marketing Strategy

Here, you need to discuss how you’ll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy. I think it’s helpful to have a marketing plan built out in advance to make this part of your business plan easier. I’d also suggest including these details:

• Your brand positioning vision and how you’ll cultivate it.
• The goal targets you aim to achieve.
• The metrics you’ll use to measure success.
• The channels and distribution tactics you’ll use.

How to Get It Right

As a marketer, I recommend outlining a clear customer acquisition strategy. Be specific about channels, tactics, and messaging — including realistic cost projections and expected conversion rates. Any KPIs you establish here should be measurable.

Key Features and Benefits

At some point in your business plan, you have to review the key features and benefits of your products and/or services.

This can educate readers on how you’re positioning yourself in the market and the messaging you’re likely to use. It can even help potential investors gain better insight into your business model.

Use plain language to emphasize the value of your product/service, how it solves the problems of your target audience, and how you’ll scale up over time.

How to Get It Right

In this section, I recommend focusing on customer outcomes instead of technical specifications. Each feature should connect to a specific, tangible benefit for your customer. Emphasize unique selling points first, and support each benefit claim with evidence to build credibility.

Pricing and Revenue

In this section, discuss your cost structure and various revenue streams. Your pricing strategy must be solid enough to turn a profit, while staying competitive in the industry. For this reason, here’s what I’d outline in this section:

• The specific pricing breakdowns per product or service.
• Why your pricing is higher or lower than your competition’s.
• (If higher) Why customers would still be willing to pay more.
• (If lower) How you’re able to offer your products or services at a lower cost.
• When you expect to break even, what margins do you expect, etc?

How to Get It Right

Present multiple revenue streams and any growth projections you might have. If working with investors, they’ll want to know the initial pricing model and how revenue will scale.

Financials

To me, this section is particularly informative for investors and leadership teams to figure out funding strategies, investment opportunities, and more. While some business plans might include more or less information, according to Forbes you’ll want to include three main details:

• Profit/Loss Statement. This answers the question of whether your business is currently profitable.
• Cash Flow Statement. This details exactly how much cash is incoming and outgoing to give insight into how much cash a business has on hand.
• Balance Sheet. This outlines assets, liabilities, and equity, which gives insight into how much a business is worth.

How to Get It Right

This is a great spot to highlight the most compelling financial indicators that can attract investors, such as customer acquisition costs relative to lifetime value. These metrics signal a sustainable business model.

Sample Business Plan: Section by Section

Okay, now that we have a format established, I wanted to share a business plan I made. Below, I’ll dive deep into the world of gluten-free bagels for a fictional, startup bakery. This executive summary example was created with HubSpot’s business plan template.

1. Executive Summary Example

Our Mission

Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels offers gluten-free bagels, along with various toppings, other gluten-free breakfast sandwich items, and coffee. The facility is entirely gluten-free. Our team expects to catch the interest of gluten-free, celiac, or health-conscious community members who are seeking an enjoyable cafe to socialize. Due to a lack of gluten-free bagel products in the food industry currently, we expect mild competition and are confident we will be able to build a strong market position.

The Company and Management

Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels was founded in 2010 by Maria Jones, who first began selling her gluten-free bagels online from her home, using social media to spread the word. In 2012 she bought a retail location in Hamilton, MA, which now employs four full-time employees and six part-time employees. Prior to her bagel shop, Maria was a chef in New York and has extensive experience in the food industry.

Along with Maria Jones, Gluten Free Bagel Shop has a board of advisors. The advisors are:

1. Jeni King, partner at Winding Communications, Ltd.
2. Henry Wilson, president of Blue Robin, LLP.

Our Product

We offer gluten-free products ranging from bagels and cream cheese to blueberry muffins, coffee, and pastries. Our customers are health-conscious, community-oriented people who enjoy gluten-free products. We will create a welcoming, warm environment with opportunities for open mic nights, poetry readings, and other community functions. We will focus on creating an environment in which someone feels comfortable meeting a friend for lunch, or working remotely.

Our Competitive Advantages

While there are other coffee shops and cafes in the North Shore region, there are none that offer purely gluten-free options. This restricts those suffering from gluten-free illnesses or simply those with a gluten-free preference. This will be our primary selling point. Additionally, our market research [see Section 3] has shown a demand for a community-oriented coffee and bagel shop in the town of Hamilton, MA.

Financial Considerations

Our sales projections for the first year are $400,000. We project a 15% growth rate over the next two years. By year three, we project 61% gross margins.

We will have four full-time employees. The salary for each employee will be $50,000.

Start-up Financing Requirements

We are seeking to raise $125,000 in startup to finance year one. The owner has invested $50,000 to meet working capital requirements and will use a loan of $100,000 to supplement the rest.

Why This Example Works

The executive summary above succinctly shares the biggest takeaways from the business plan. A busy investor wouldn’t need to read every page or flip around for important details. The most important information is all here and easy to find.

You can also tell who this business plan is for: potential investors who can help finance year one. When writing an executive summary, you should customize the message to your audience. For example, this plan focuses on projected sales, growth, and financing needs.

Tips for Writing Your Executive Summary

• Start with a strong introduction of your company, showcase your mission and impact, and then outline the offering you provide.
• Clearly define a problem, explain how your product solves that problem, and show why the market needs your business.
• Be sure to highlight your value proposition, market opportunity, and growth potential.
• Keep it concise and support ideas with data.

Feel free to check out our tips for writing an effective executive summary.

2. Market Opportunity Example

The gluten-free food market has experienced explosive growth over the past decade, with a current global market valuation of $7.5 billion and projected annual growth of 9.2% through 2028. This growth is driven by three key factors:

• Increasing celiac disease diagnoses (affecting approximately 1% of the population).
• Rising non-celiac gluten sensitivity awareness (estimated at 6% of consumers).
• And expanding consumer preferences (with 30% of consumers reporting they sometimes purchase gluten-free products).

Addressable Market Size

The total addressable market for Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels within the Hamilton and North Shore region includes:

• Primary Market (5-mile radius): Approximately 35,000 residents, with an estimated 2,800 individuals following gluten-free diets either by necessity or choice.
• Secondary Market (15-mile radius): An additional 120,000 residents, including communities with above-average household incomes and health-conscious populations.

Based on spending patterns for specialty food items and café services, we project the total addressable market value at $4.2 million annually, with Maria’s positioned to capture 12-15% market share within three years.

Why This Example Works

I like this example because it divides the market opportunity in two ways. First, the plan focuses on trends related to the population at large that make gluten-free shoppers a growing market segment. The second part of the plan takes these general trends and explores how they impact the local community.

Tips for Writing Your Market Opportunity Section

• Focus on demand and potential for growth.
• Use market research, surveys, and industry trend data to support your market forecast and projections.
• Add a review of regulation shifts, tech advances, and consumer behavior changes.
• Refer to reliable sources.
• Showcase how your business can make the most of this opportunity.

3. Competitive Landscape Analysis Example

Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels operates at the intersection of three food service categories: specialty bakeries, gluten-free establishments, and community-oriented cafes. This unique positioning creates a competitive advantage while also requiring analysis of competitors across overlapping sectors.

Dedicated Gluten-Free Establishments

Competitor	Location	Primary Offering	Strengths	Weaknesses
Celia’s Safe Eatery	Boston, MA	Full-service restaurant with gluten-free menu	Wide menu variety Strong brand recognition	High price point Urban location only Limited breakfast options
Pure Bread Bakery	Salem, MA	Gluten-free breads and pastries	Wholesale distribution Certified gluten-free Strong online presence	Limited cafe seating No coffee program Minimal community engagement
Free & Clear Sweets	Beverly, MA	Gluten-free desserts and treats	Appealing visual branding Strong social media following Multiple dietary accommodations	No savory options Limited hours (Th-Sun only) Small production capacity

While these competitors offer gluten-free products, none specifically focus on bagels as their signature item, and all are located at considerable distances from Hamilton, creating significant geographic advantage for Maria’s. Additionally, our comprehensive approach to breakfast items, coffee, and community engagement creates multiple differentiation points.

Local Cafés and Bakeries

Competitor	Location	Gluten-Free Options	Community Focus	Competitive Threat Level
Hamilton Coffee House	Hamilton, MA	Limited (2-3 items, cross-contamination risk)	High (events, workspace)	Medium
Baxter’s Bakery	Hamilton, MA	None	Low	Low
Morning Grind	Wenham, MA	Limited (pre-packaged items only)	Medium (local art)	Medium-Low
North Shore Bagel Shop	Beverly, MA	None	Low	Low

These competitors capture general café traffic but present minimal threat to our core gluten-free customer base due to their limited offerings and cross-contamination risks that exclude celiac and highly sensitive customers.

Why This Example Works

I like how the competitive landscape section of this business plan clearly outline top competitors. It also highlights specific industry knowledge and the importance of location. Tables make everything easy to skim, so I’m not wasting any time.

Tips for Writing Your Competitive Landscape

• Complete in-depth research, then emphasize your most important findings.
• Compare your unique selling proposition (USP) to your direct and indirect competitors.
• Look for specific advantages and barriers in the competitive landscape. Then, highlight how that information could impact your business.
• Outline growth opportunities from a competitive perspective.
• Add customer feedback and insights to support your competitive analysis.

4. Target Audience

Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels serves three distinct customer segments, each with unique characteristics, needs, and purchasing behaviors:

1. Medical Necessity Customers (35% of Revenue)

Demographic Profile:

• Adults aged 25-65 with diagnosed celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity
• Slightly female-skewed (60% women, 40% men)
• Higher education levels (70% college graduates)
• Household income: $75,000+ annually
• Health-conscious and informed consumers

Psychographic Characteristics:

• Highly ingredient-conscious and label-readers
• Risk-averse regarding food preparation
• Willing to travel farther for safe food options

Behavioral Patterns:

• Average visit frequency: 2-3 times weekly
• Average transaction value: $14.50
• Most likely to purchase breakfast items and take-home products

2. Health and Wellness Adopters (40% of Revenue)

Demographic Profile:

• Adults aged 22-45
• Gender balanced (55% women, 45% men)
• Fitness-oriented and active lifestyles
• Household income: $60,000+ annually

Psychographic Characteristics:

• Health-trend aware
• Quality and ingredient-focused rather than price-sensitive
• Balance health goals with enjoyment and taste

Behavioral Patterns:

• Average visit frequency: 1-2 times weekly
• Average transaction value: $12.75
• 40% use the space for remote work or meetings

3. Community and Convenience Customers (25% of Revenue)

Demographic Profile:

• Local Hamilton residents within 5-mile radius
• Multi-generational (18-75)
• Mix of families, empty-nesters, and young professionals
• Household income: Varied, $50,000-125,000 annually

Psychographic Characteristics:

• Value local businesses and personal connections
• Appreciate authentic, non-chain experiences

Behavioral Patterns:

• Average visit frequency: 1-2 times weekly
• Average transaction value: $11.25
• Most likely to visit during weekend hours

Why This Example Works

This section include information about different types of shoppers organized by persona. The reader can clearly see the different motivations that drive each type of customer. The information above is specific, showing that the business knows their audience and has surveyed them.

Tips for Writing Your Target Audience Section

• Include details on the size and growth potential of your target audience.
• Figure out and refine the pain points for your target audience, then show why your product is a useful solution.
• Describe your targeted customer acquisition strategy in detail.
• Share anticipated challenges your business may face in acquiring customers and how you plan to address them.
• Add case studies, testimonials, and other data to support your target audience ideas.
• Remember to consider niche audiences and segments of your target audience in your business plan.

5. Marketing Strategy

Brand Positioning

Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels will position itself as the premier dedicated gluten-free café in the North Shore region, emphasizing three core brand pillars:

• Safety & Trust: 100% gluten-free facility with rigorous protocols
• Artisanal Quality: Handcrafted products that match or exceed conventional alternatives
• Community Connection: A welcoming “third place” for gathering and connection

Multi-Channel Strategy

Website & SEO ($8,000 annually)

• Optimize for local search terms (“gluten-free Hamilton,” “celiac safe dining”)
• Mobile-first design with online ordering capability

Social Media Marketing ($12,000 annually)

• Instagram: Daily content showcasing products, behind-the-scenes, and customer stories
• Facebook: Community event promotion and targeted advertising to local audience
• TikTok: Recipe demonstrations and gluten-free education content

Email Marketing ($4,000 annually)

• Segmented campaigns for each customer persona
• Weekly newsletters with promotions, events, and new products
• Automated birthday and anniversary offers

Loyalty Program ($5,000 annually)

• Tiered rewards program with personalized benefits
• Digital loyalty app with ordering integration
• Referral incentives for existing customers

Local Print & Media ($6,000 annually)

• Targeted ads in local publications
• Quarterly feature stories in regional food magazines
• Community bulletin boards and local directories

Signage & Physical Presence ($7,000 annually)

• Enhanced storefront visibility
• Vehicle wrap for delivery van
• Local event sponsorship banners

Marketing Calendar & Implementation

The marketing strategy will be implemented through a detailed quarterly calendar with:

• Weekly social media content schedule
• Monthly promotional themes
• Seasonal product and event launches
• Quarterly review and optimization cycles

Why This Example Works

Even though this strategy is brief, the section specifies how much the business plans to invest on each marketing channel and on what activities. The plan also specifies how the marketing team or business owner plans to promote the bagel shop by including calendar details.

Tips for Writing Your Marketing Strategy

• Include a section about how you believe your brand vision will appeal to customers.
• Add the budget and resources you’ll need to put your plan in place.
• Outline strategies for specific marketing segments.
• Explain how you plan to create marketing content.
• Review how your marketing strategy will scale with the growth of your business.
• Cover a range of channels and tactics to highlight your ability to adapt your plan in the face of change.

6. Key Features and Benefits

Maria’s Gluten Free Bagels serves consumers seeking a high-quality, gluten-free dining option. Our flagship offering is our artisanal gluten-free bagels, made with recipes developed decades. The texture and taste are the same as regular bagels — a big achievement when dietary restrictions limit customers to subpar alternatives. The dedicated gluten-free facility eliminates all cross-contamination risks, providing peace of mind to celiac and highly sensitive customers.

Beyond our signature bagels, we provide a full cafe experience with gluten-free breakfast sandwiches, pastries, and specialty coffee. This menu transforms what could be merely a bakery into a destination where customers can enjoy a full meal. Our community-centered approach features regular events. We can deliver value beyond food by creating a social hub where dietary restrictions don’t limit participation.

Why This Example Works

Because this example focuses on a bagel shop, this business plan section is short and sweet. I focused first on the flagship product, the bagels themselves, and describe what makes them standout. Then, I cover secondary benefits, like a full menu and community space.

Tips for Writing Your Key Features and Benefits

• Emphasize why and how your product or service offers value to customers.
• Talk about how your products and services have the potential to scale.
• Focus on customer needs, and how the features and benefits you are sharing meet those needs.
• Offer proof of concept for your ideas, like case studies or pilot program feedback.
• Proofread this section carefully, and remove any jargon or complex language.

7. Pricing and Revenue

Core Product Pricing:

• Plain Bagels: $3.25 each/$17.95 half-dozen (30% premium over conventional bagels)
• Specialty Bagels (Everything, Sesame, etc.): $3.75 each/$20.95 half-dozen
• Cream Cheese/Spreads: $1.95-$3.50 depending on variety
• Breakfast Sandwiches: $6.95-$9.95
• Coffee Beverages: $2.75-$5.50
• Pastries and Baked Goods: $3.95-$5.50

This pricing structure has been validated through customer surveys, which revealed that 78% of our medical necessity customers and 65% of health-conscious customers consider our pricing “reasonable” or “very reasonable.”

Revenue Streams

• In-Store Retail Sales (62% of revenue): Direct sales of food and beverages in our café location, with an average transaction value of $12.85 and approximately 220 transactions daily.
• Online Orders and Delivery (30% of revenue): Direct-to-consumer sales through our website and third-party delivery platforms, with slightly higher pricing to offset fees.
• Catering Services (6% of revenue): Custom orders for business meetings, events, and gatherings, with package pricing starting at $9.95 per person.
• Merchandise and Packaged Products (2% of revenue): Branded merchandise, gluten-free mixes, and specialty items that extend our brand presence.

Why This Example Works

I like how this business plan example begins with product pricing and then shows what percent these items contribute to the shop’s revenue. By including customer survey results, investors know that the prices have been set with customers in mind.

Tips for Writing Your Pricing and Revenue Section

• Get specific about your pricing strategy. Specifically, how you connect that strategy to customer needs and product value.
• If you are asking a premium price, share unique features or innovations that justify that price point.
• Show how you plan to communicate pricing to customers.
• Create an overview of every revenue stream for your business and how each stream adds to your business model as a whole.
• Share plans to develop new revenue streams in the future.
• Show how and when pricing will vary by customer segment, and how pricing aligns with marketing strategies.
• Restate your value proposition and explain how it aligns with your revenue model.

8. Financials

Three-Year Financial Summary

Financial Metric	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
Total Revenue	$400,000	$460,000	$580,000
Gross Profit	$268,000	$314,900	$403,900
Gross Margin	67%	68.5%	69.6%
Operating Expenses	$208,000	$226,200	$263,800
EBITDA	$60,000	$88,700	$140,100
EBITDA Margin	15%	19.3%	24.2%
Net Income	$39,600	$63,020	$105,075
Net Profit Margin	9.9%	13.7%	18.1%

Cash Flow Projections

Cash Flow Item	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3
Beginning Cash	$33,000	$48,600	$92,620
Cash from Operations	$60,000	$88,700	$140,100
Debt Service	($24,000)	($24,000)	($24,000)
Capital Expenditures	($15,000)	($12,000)	($18,000)
Tax Payments	($5,400)	($8,680)	($15,225)
Ending Cash	$48,600	$92,620	$175,495

For the $50,000 owner investment and $25,000 additional funding requested:

• Projected simple ROI: 40% annually by Year 3
• Estimated payback period: 28 months
• Internal Rate of Return (IRR): 32%

Why This Example Works

Not only are charts with financial information included, but the business plan also features an estimated timeline on when investors can expect a return on their investment. This can help the business secure funding and speak directly to potential investors.

Tips for Writing Your Financials Section

• Growth potential is important in this section too. Use your data and create a forecast of financial performance for the next three to five years.
• Include any data that supports your projections, to assure investors of the credibility of your proposal.
• Add a break-even analysis to show that your business plan is financially practical. This information can also help you pivot quickly as your business grows.
• Add a section that reviews potential risks and how sensitive your plan is to changes in the market.
• Triple-check all financial information in your plan for accuracy.
• Show how any proposed funding needs align with your plans for growth.

Sample Business Plan Templates

Now that you know how to format a business plan, let’s review some of my favorite templates that can make the process quick and easy.

1. HubSpot’s One-Page Business Plan

Download a free, editable one-page business plan template.

This business plan was created here at HubSpot and is perfect for businesses of any size — no matter how many strategies you still have to develop. I love how all important information is kept to one page, keeping information focused.

Fields such as Company Description, Required Funding, and Implementation Timeline give this business plan a framework for how to build your brand and what tasks to keep track of as you grow. Then, as the business matures, you can expand on your original business plan with a new iteration of the above document.

Why I Like This Business Plan

This one-page business plan is a fantastic choice for the new business owner who doesn’t have the time or resources to draft a full-blown business plan. It includes all the essential sections in an accessible, bullet-point-friendly format. That way, you can get the broad strokes down before honing in on the details.

2. HubSpot’s Downloadable Business Plan Template

Download a free, editable one-page business plan template.

We also created a business plan template for entrepreneurs. The template is designed as a guide and checklist for starting your own business. You’ll learn what to include in each section of your business plan and how to do it. There’s also a list for you to check off when you finish each section of your business plan.

I appreciate that these templates are designed specifically for startups. You’re prompted with a description of what the section should include, then a box where you can fill in the information.

Why I Like This Business Plan

This business plan kit is essential for the budding entrepreneur who needs a more extensive document to share with investors and other stakeholders.

It not only includes sections for your executive summary, product line, market analysis, marketing plan, and sales plan, but it also offers hands-on guidance for filling out those sections.

3. LivePlan Business Plan Template

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If you want to attract investors with your business plan, consider this free template from LivePlan. It’s a sample business plan template that’s structured in an SBA-lender-approved format and also designed to impress lenders and investors.

Each section includes detailed instructions and prompts to help you think through and communicate the uniqueness of your business.

Why I Like This Business Plan

With the help of this template, plus all the additional prompts, instructions and pro tips provided, creating an investor-friendly business plan becomes simple and straightforward,

4. CFI Business Plan Template

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This basic template from the Corporate Finance Institute (CFI) covers all the important sections needed to create a credible business plan to achieve your goals. The CFI template allows you to dive deep into operations. You can outline information related to management and finances that a standard plan just glosses over.

Why I Like This Business Plan

This template is a great option whether you want to pitch investors and financial institutions or create a business plan that serves as a road map for your business.

5. BPlan’s Free Business Plan Template

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One of the more financially oriented sample business plans in this list, BPlan’s free business plan template dedicates many of its pages to your business’s financial plan and financial statements.

After filling this business plan out, your company will truly understand its financial health and the steps you need to take to improve it.

Why I Like This Business Plan

I absolutely love this business plan template because of its ease of use and hands-on instructions. If you feel overwhelmed by the thought of writing an entire business plan, consider using this template to help you with the process.

6. Growthink Business Plan Template

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If you’re looking for a detailed free template that can guide you to identify your business goals, develop actionable strategies and create a winning business plan, Growthink has you covered.

This sample business plan can be used for any type of business and is available in both PDF and Word files.

Why I Like This Business Plan

This is a fantastic template for both new and existing businesses. If you want to improve the bottom line of your existing company or revitalize your strategy, this is an excellent template to use and follow.

7. HubSpot’s Complete Guide to Starting a Business

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If you’re an entrepreneur, you know writing a business plan is one of the most challenging first steps to starting a business.

Fortunately, with HubSpot‘s comprehensive guide to starting a business, you’ll learn how to map out all the details by understanding what to include in your business plan and why it’s important to include them. This guide also fleshes out an entire sample business plan for you.

If you need further guidance on starting a business, HubSpot’s guide can teach you how to make your business legal, choose and register your business name, and fund your business. It will also give small business tax information and includes marketing, sales, and service tips.

Why I Like This Business Plan

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of starting a business — including writing your business plan — with a high level of exactitude and detail. It also offers other resources you might need, such as market analysis templates. So if you’re in the midst of starting your business, this is an excellent guide for you.

Since writing this article, there’s now an amazing suite of products available for new business builders called HubSpot Starter.

It’s essential for businesses trying to get their plan in motion, giving you all the tools you need to build your brand online. It can be a huge help in finding critical information to build out your business plan with realistic numbers — among many other benefits — and I highly recommend it.

8. Panda Doc’s Free Business Plan Template

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PandaDoc’s free business plan template is one of the more detailed and fleshed-out sample business plans on this list. It describes what you should include in each section, so you don’t have to come up with everything from scratch.

Once you fill it out, you’ll fully understand your business’ nitty-gritty details and how all of its moving parts should work together to contribute to its success.

Why I Like This Business Plan

This template has two things I love: comprehensiveness and in-depth instructions. Plus, it’s synced with PandaDoc’s e-signature software so that you and other stakeholders can sign it with ease. For that reason, I especially love it for those starting a business with a partner or with a board of directors.

9. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

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The Small Business Administration (SBA) offers several free business plan templates that can be used to inspire your own plan.

Before you get started, you can decide what type of business plan you need — a traditional or lean start-up plan.

Then, you can review the format for both of those plans and view examples of what they might look like.

Why I Like This Business Plan

I love both of the SBA’s templates because of their versatility. You can choose between two options and use the existing content in the templates to flesh out your own plan. Plus, if needed, you can get a free business counselor to help you along the way.

Top Business Plan Examples

I’ve compiled some completed business plan samples to help you get an idea of how to customize a plan for your business. While some are extensive, others are fairly simple. Let’s take a look.

1. LiveFlow

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One of the major business expenses is marketing. How you handle your marketing reflects your company’s revenue.

I included this business plan to show you how you can ensure your marketing team is aligned with your overall business plan to get results. The plan also shows you how to track even the smallest metrics of your campaigns, like ROI and payback periods instead of just focusing on big metrics like gross and revenue.

Fintech startup, LiveFlow, allows users to sync real-time data from its accounting services, payment platforms, and banks into custom reports. This eliminates the task of pulling reports together manually, saving teams time and helping automate workflows.

“Using this framework over a traditional marketing plan will help you set a profitable marketing strategy taking things like CAC, LTV, Payback period, and P&L into consideration,” explains LiveFlow co-founder, Lasse Kalkar.

Why I Like This Business Plan

When it came to including marketing strategy in its business plan, LiveFlow created a separate marketing profit and loss statement to track the company’s progress with its marketing initiatives.

This is a great approach, allowing businesses to focus on where their marketing dollars are making the most impact. Having this information handy will enable you to build out your business plan’s marketing section with confidence. LiveFlow has shared the template here. You can test it for yourself.

2. Core Strength Pilates Studio

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This sample business plan for a fitness studio is detailed and comprehensive. And guess what? It was created in minutes, using a free AI business plan generator.

In their operations plan, Core Strength also shared milestones they hope to achieve within a few months like securing a location, getting necessary permits and licenses, studio setup, hiring instructors, establishing an online presence, and more

If you’re seeking outside funding for your business, this is a great sample business plan to use and model your business plan after.

Why I Like It

This business plan example is well-prepared and I think it’s great for service-based businesses such as gyms, boxing classes, dancing studios, etc. I also love all the details and milestones shared in the operations plan and other sections.

3. Patagonia

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Sometimes, all you need is a solid mission statement and core values to guide you on how to go about everything. You do this by creating a business plan revolving around how to fulfill your statement best.

For example, Patagonia is an eco-friendly company, so their plan discusses how to make the best environmentally friendly products without causing harm.

A good mission statement should not only resonate with consumers but also serve as a core value compass for employees as well.

Why I Like This Business Plan

Patagonia has one of the most compelling mission statements I’ve seen:

“Together, let’s prioritize purpose over profit and protect this wondrous planet, our only home.”

It reels you in from the start, and the environmentally friendly theme continues throughout the rest of the statement.

This mission goes on to explain that they are out to “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, and use business to protect nature.”

Their mission statement is compelling and detailed, with each section outlining how they will accomplish their goal.

4. Vesta Home Automation

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This executive summary for a smart home device startup is part of a business plan created by students at Mount Royal University.

While it lacks some of the sleek visuals of the templates above, its executive summary does a great job of demonstrating how invested they are in the business. Right away, they mention they’ve invested $200,000 into the company already, which shows investors they have skin in the game and aren’t just looking for someone else to foot the bill.

Why I Like This Business Plan

This is the kind of business plan you need when applying for business funds. It clearly illustrates the company’s expected future and how it has been progressing over the years.

5. NALB Creative Center

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This fictional business plan for an art supply store includes everything one might need in a business plan. One of its most notable sections is its market analysis summary, which includes an overview of the population growth in the business’ target geographical area, as well as a breakdown of the types of potential customers they expect to welcome at the store.

This sort of granular insight is essential for understanding and communicating your business’s growth potential. Plus, it lays a strong foundation for creating relevant and useful buyer personas.

It’s essential to keep this information up-to-date as your market and target buyer changes. For that reason, you should carry out market research as often as possible to ensure that you’re targeting the correct audience and sharing accurate information with your investors.

Why I Like This Business Plan

Due to its comprehensiveness, it’s an excellent example to follow if you’re opening a brick-and-mortar store and need to get external funding to start your business.

6. Curriculum Companion Suites (CCS)

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If you’re looking for a SaaS business plan example, look no further than this business plan for a fictional educational software company called Curriculum Companion Suites.

One of the most notable features of this business plan is the executive summary, which includes an overview of the product, market, and mission.

The first two are essential for software companies because the product offering is so often at the forefront of the company’s strategy. Without that information being immediately available to investors and executives, then you risk writing an unfocused business plan.

Why I Like This Business Plan

It’s essential to front-load your company’s mission if it explains your “Why?” and this example does just that. In other words, why do you do what you do, and why should stakeholders care? This is an important section to include if you feel that your mission will drive interest in the business and its offerings.

7. FreshField Market

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This AI-generated sample business plan for a grocery store is an excellent example of how to outline your business plan and ensure it flows naturally, engages readers, and provides the critical information investors and stakeholders need.

Why I Like This Business Plan

You can use this template as a guide whenever you‘re gathering important information for your own business plan. As a result, get a better understanding of the data and research you need to create a winning business plan.

8. Plum Sample Business Plan

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When creating your own business plan, make sure the pictures and design you use make sense for your branding. The images in this plan are cutting-edge, which makes sense for an innovative company like Plum.

Why I Like This Business Plan

This is one of my favorite sample business plans because you can see how implementing visuals can help tell your brand‘s story. Additionally, the financial charts included are an excellent guide if you’re not sure what financial information to include.

Startup Business Plan Examples

Because most startups are new companies just entering the market, it’s okay to keep your startup business plans short and concise with enough information.

Here are some startup business plan examples and templates I also discovered:

1. BusinessDojo Startup Business Plan

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If you want to launch a highly profitable startup business quickly and need a stress-free way to develop your business plan faster, this startup business plan from Business Dojo is a great option. It’s a complete business plan that’s fully customizable. With this business plan, you will get all the data about your market and industry trends.

Why I Like It

Once you buy this business plan, you’ll have free unrestricted access to a team of experts with over 12 years of experience writing business plans for entrepreneurs. They will be available to discuss with you, answer your questions, and ensure you get a business plan that’s customized for you and your business at no extra cost.

2. Restaurant Lean Business Plan

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This lean business plan example for a restaurant is a fantastic option for an entrepreneur who wants to attract investors as quickly as possible. It’s a customer-centric business plan that’s condensed to a single page, focuses mainly on the major aspects of a business, and provides insights on key performance indicators and business metrics.

Why I Like It

I love how simple, clear and visually appealing this startup business plan is. You need less time and resources to create it, and people can quickly read and understand everything at a glance.

Get Started Writing Your Business Plan

Whether you’re writing a business plan for the first time or not, the entire process can appear daunting or overwhelming, and I get it. But it doesn’t have to be.

To help you avoid starting from scratch, I’ve shared my favorite templates and sample business plans above. Most of the templates are free and I’m excited because you can choose one, customize it for your business and hit the ground running.

In addition, feel free to read the sample business plans for more ideas and inspiration. And if you’re interested, AI tools are also available to help you write your business plan faster.

All in all, start by understanding the unique value your business provides, then communicate it effectively through a type of business plan that can help you achieve your goals.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure to learn more about how we use AI.