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Order confirmation emails have a 65% open rate, the highest average open rate of all emails. Optimizing these emails is a sure way to get more eyes on your brand.

Beyond brand-building, email confirmations bring peace of mind to your valued customers by verifying that a transaction on your website was successful. Without this confirmation, your customers may feel confused. The consequence is a shaky brand experience and potentially an increase in inquiries for your customer service team.

Let’s explore how you can optimize your confirmation emails with actionable examples and templates. In this article, you’ll explore:

• Confirmation Email Best Practices
• Order Confirmation Email Template
• Order Confirmation Email Examples
• How to Create and Send Order Confirmation Emails
• Order Confirmation Page

Confirmation Email Best Practices

Many confirmation emails are part of a workflow. Once a customer completes a transaction, an email automatically comes out recapping what they bought. Even though this email follows a formal structure, there are still best practices your brand should implement.

For instance, it’s critical your order confirmation email be:

• Mobile-friendly. Many recipients will check their email on their phones to see whether an order was processed.
• Skim-able. Many customers are on-the-go and don’t have time to read dense text. If you have important delivery information you’d like to include, consider linking to it instead of including it in the body text.
• Provides an email and phone number of your customer support, in case the recipient’s order is incorrect.
• Outlines next steps. That includes when the customer can expect an order to ship, or how the customer can track their order.
• Includes shipping address, payment method, and order number.
• Offers upselling opportunities, like products that complement their purchase or upgraded plans to consider in the future.

Additionally, consider how you can include brand voice in your text to cultivate customer loyalty, particularly with first-time customers. You might also add links to your social media accounts or blog, so new customers can find other ways to engage with your brand.

10 Order Confirmation Email Examples

Before you get started on your confirmation email, take inspiration from our round-up of the best email examples. Then, read on for some templates that your team can use.

1. Offer a next step.

Uber’s order confirmation emails are sleek, clean, and aesthetically pleasing. Their design makes use of large text, plenty of white space, and a blue call-to-action to incentivize the rider to “rate or tip” the driver.

What we love: The email is organized so the rider sees the most critical information above-the-fold — a “thank you” followed by the price. The recipient only needs to scroll if they want to.

2. Affirm the purchase.

JetBlue’s order confirmation email opens with their fun and clever slogan, “You’re all set to jet.” This phrase immediately reassures the recipient that their order was successfully processed.

Additionally, the text below the initial slogan promises the recipient “the most legroom in coach, free wi-fi & entertainment, and free snacks & drinks.” Even though the recipient has already paid, JetBlue uses the order confirmation email as another opportunity to cultivate stronger customer loyalty.

What we love: Below the confirmation, JetBlue provides a simple “Manage trip” CTA, so the customer can easily update a seat assignment, add extras, or switch flights. Best of all, they’ve included a link to their mobile app. Customers receiving order confirmations from JetBlue will need their app to access their mobile ticket, so it’s a smart strategy for JetBlue to include the app link.

3. Create a sleek design.

Hausera, an ecommerce site that sells kitchen and bathroom fixtures, does an excellent job ensuring their order confirmation email is sleek, all while offering the recipient any information they may need. They start with positive messaging like “progress is a beautiful thing” and “congratulations” to thank the customer for their order.

What we love: Below the order summary, they include helpful CTAs such as “Keep Shopping,” as well as options to either email, call, or live chat with a support rep. Whether a customer has an issue with their order or simply wants to continue perusing Hausera, the ecommerce site ensures the customer can find the next steps from within the order confirmation itself.

4. Put the most important details up top.

Tobi’s order confirmation email is simple and straightforward. The ecommerce site offers two critical CTAs — “review my order” and “contact customer care” — within the email itself. The recipient is able to immediately check and correct any information if their order doesn’t look right.

What we love: Tobi also effectively outlines their order process within the body text of their email. They tell the customer to ” allow up to 2 business days to process and ship your order.” By including this information in their email, Tobi ensures minimal outreach from customers who are wondering when their order will ship, or why they haven’t received shipping information already.

5. Say, Thanks!

BigStub’s order confirmation email, while admittedly text-heavy, does a good job providing the customer with plenty of critical information throughout their email, including a CTA to check order status, a phone number to contact customer support, and a note regarding delivery details for the recipient’s ticket.

What we love: BigStub offers a $25 rebate within the order confirmation email with enrollment in Great Fun. Even if the customer doesn’t apply for the rebate, the inclusion is still an effective method that allows BigStub to potentially boost positive brand perception.

6. Make it shoppable.

JustBats, an ecommerce site that sells baseball and softball equipment, does an excellent job of cross-selling other products in their order confirmation emails. For instance, if you purchase a glove on their site, you’ll receive an email with the following message — “You have the glove, now get the bat.”

The rest of the email is designed to help a user choose a bat, with CTAs like “Shop all bats” and “Shop closeouts.” The email also features helpful resources to ensure the recipient is able to find the right bat for his or her needs.

What we love: JustBats proves an order confirmation email can be an effective opportunity to suggest other relevant products or services, particularly since the order can help you understand the customer’s needs. In the above example, a glove is a logical next step for someone who has just purchased a bat, and vice versa.

7. Be helpful.

SoulCycle’s order confirmation email effectively provides all relevant information and demonstrates SoulCycle’s ability to go above-and-beyond in customer service. Once they’ve outlined when, where, and on which bike the customer will be riding, SoulCycle includes other useful information including the studio address and a note that shoes and water will be provided.

At the bottom of their email, they send a cheerful invitation that reads “Questions, concerns, or just want to say hello?” with both a phone number and email if the recipient needs to reach customer support.

What we love: SoulCycle pays attention to the language in their order confirmation email, and looks for areas where they can add brand voice.

8. Reinforce meaningful actions.

Take a look at the order confirmation received from Massachusetts’ Franklin Park Zoo upon a recent purchase:

This email provides all the information needed, but it also makes the recipient feel good about the purchase by letting them know that their money was helping support conservation efforts.

9. Teach users about new technology.

Zoom’s confirmation email contains three parts:

• It confirms the purchase.
• It encourages the recipient to use the service by jumping with “schedule a meeting.”
• For the recipients who might be less savvy, Zoom offers demos, webinars, and support.

What we love: The sleek and minimal design underpins the ease of use of Zoom’s meeting software. The email is well-designed with a lot of white space. This makes it easy to read and draws the eye to the most important elements like the iconography representing support and training opportunities.

10. Stay on brand.

SKINICIAN uses a consistent tone throughout its confirmation email. The text at the top is friendly and personable. It affirms the buyer’s purchase with “Happy Healthy Skin is around the corner.” The intro ends with a friendly “we hope you love your new skincare.”

What we love: At the top of the email the recipient can take two actions: “View your order” or “Keep shopping.” An effective addition to this email is the “You saved £5.00,” which reminds the user of the value of shopping at their site.

11 Order Confirmation Email Templates

Looking to craft the perfect confirmation email? Try these email templates to create a confirmation sequence that serves your customers and supports your brand.

1. Educating Customers

What we love: This template gives the recipient everything they need to affirm their purchase, then, it preempts their next needs by offering educational materials.

Either the recipient will know what they need to do next, or they might appreciate guidance to get the most out of their new purchase.

This template also connects the brand to the consumer. The addition of “Contact customer support” shows the brand cares about the user by giving easy access to support.

2. Supporting Your Sales Funnel

What we love: Shoppable email confirmation is likely to take your user back to the website. Plus, it shares products that you know the customer might be interested in.

3. Sharing brand values.

What we love: Remember, 65% of people open confirmation emails, and your buyer might not know everything about your brand yet. Informing your buyers about what sets you aside from the competition can help turn them into loyal customers and brand advocates.

4. Making the Buyer Feel Good

What we love: There’s nothing like the affirmation that you’ve done a good thing. With something like a donation you can expect the donor to feel good already, but they might not appreciate the scale of their contribution. This email template helps to do just that, and it quietly reinforces exactly what the nonprofit is achieving.

5. Welcoming a Buyer Into the Community

What we love: The email covers the details of the purchase and subscription at the top. It eliminates questions about automatic renewal and affirms that the decision is a good one by telling the recipient that others have subscribed too. Finally, the email aims to make the transition into the community easy by encouraging them to introduce themselves and where to do it.

6. Reaffirming the Purchase

What we love: There’s nothing like a quick affirmation of a good decision. This email does that, but it also gives the reasons why the recipient can be happy about the decision by outlining the expectations. The customer service details at the end are a nice addition, just in case there are any nagging worries.

7. Confirming a Booking

What we love: This confirmation template provides all the next steps that the recipient needs to see their hotel or room booking was a success. Additionally, the email is advising the recipient on what they can do next. That includes covering the location and any specific instructions the purchaser might need to be aware of.

8. Opting for Simplicity

What we love: Although simplistic, this confirmation email does everything that it needs to. It’s suitable for brands who want to get to the point and deliver all the core information.

9. Encouraging Referrals

What we love: The tone of this email template is friendly and informative. At the end, the brand prompts the customer to share with a friend for 10% off their next order. You can reinforce this messaging in later emails too, which is especially useful when the order arrives.

10. Upselling

What we love: Similarly to the JustBats and SKINICIAN examples above, this template is giving users an opportunity to go back to the website. The related items next to a “revise your order” button are effective. This CTA can inspire an upsell before the order is fully processed.

11. Incentivize Action

What we love: The notion of a soon-to-be-ending sale encourages users to take action. The shop button makes viewing the sale items easy.

Subject Line Templates

Looking for some quick inspiration for subject lines? Here are a few popular options that you can use in your confirmation emails.

Note: Subject lines vary based on the type of item that is for sale and the action that has been completed.

Ecommerce Purchases

• 🙌🏻 You did it!
• Your purchase is on its way.
• We’ve got your order!

Email Sign-ups

• Email confirmation! You’re one click away.
• You’re almost there! Confirm your email.
• Click here to confirm your email.
• Click to join 10,110 subscribers.

Donations

• Confirm your email for access.
• You’re making a difference.
• You changed a life today.
• You’re amazing! 💙 Thank you for your donation.

How to Create and Send Order Confirmation Emails

There are plenty of online sites with email templates that can help you create confirmation emails.

For instance, you can create an order confirmation email within the HubSpot Email Marketing tool for free. You can choose a pre-made template and customize text, images, and overall design. Or, you can create an email from scratch.

Here’s an example of an order confirmation email made with HubSpot’s email tool.

There are plenty of other order confirmation email templates available through tools such as Stripo and Squarespace.

Alternatively, if you use an ecommerce website builder like X-Cart, you can use one of their email tool add-ons to create your own order confirmation email.

Order Confirmation Page

Typically, when a customer places an order, they’ll see a confirmation page before they even receive the confirmation email.

For instance, here’s what you’ll see when you place an order on Amazon.

Image Source

This page is where you’re redirected when you click the “Buy” or “Purchase” button and signifies that an email should be on its way. An online confirmation page is a temporary notice that tells your customer that their transaction went through correctly. If a customer doesn’t see this page, he or she will likely assume their transaction didn’t work.

When you’re creating an online confirmation page, here are a few things you should include:

• Messaging such as “Success! Your order is confirmed”, as well as a note that the customer should expect an email in their inbox soon.
• An order number, delivery details, and order summary (including total cost).
• Images of the products or services bought.

Additionally, you might include other relevant purchases on a customer’s order confirmation page. For instance, if they’ve purchased a blender on your site, perhaps you want to show them a smoothie recipe book on their order confirmation page.

Ultimately, it’s critical to create order confirmation pages and emails. These details ensure your customer feels supported throughout their entire buyer’s journey.

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

Every day, thousands of publishers benefit from a recurring cash inflow by partnering up with other companies via affiliate programs.

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to monetize your blog, especially when you don’t sell products or services. Joining an affiliate program can get you exclusive access to new content and special deals for your audience — all while earning you more money.

There are many types of affiliate programs, ranging from online courses to website builders to marketing and business affiliates. Here, we’re going to explore the best affiliate programs with the highest earning potential to ensure you can make money off the content you provide.

But first — what exactly is an affiliate program?

To further understand affiliate programs, let’s consider an example. Wirecutter.com, a New York Times company, is a website that lists product recommendations for shoppers. Wirecutter largely earns commission based on affiliate relationships with retailers.

The publication’s affiliate monetization model might make you doubt the legitimacy of its recommendations — but, in fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Wirecutter only makes commission when a reader purchases a product from an affiliate retailer and doesn’t return the product. Wirecutter, then, has no incentive to promote inferior products. If they did, they’d make less money and turn away readers.

How do affiliates make money?

The affiliate gets a unique link (an “affiliate link”) from which clicks can be tracked — typically using cookies. The cookie then tracks the user to see if they make a purchase. If they do within an allotted amount of time, then the affiliate will earn commission.

Each cookie has a “length” or “cookie life”, which simply defines how long the cookie will be tracking the user’s online activity.

For example, if a cookie has a 30-day life, your referral needs to make a purchase within 30-days of clicking your affiliate link in order for you to get paid — otherwise the lead will no longer be trackable.

If you’re interested in starting an affiliate program, there are different types of affiliate programs, and you’ll want to pick the one best-suited for your business. Let’s dive into the types of affiliate programs, next.

Types of Affiliate Programs

If you’re looking to promote products or services, there are a few affiliate programs you can consider. When choosing an affiliate program, you’ll want to keep in mind the avenues or platforms where your audience spends the majority of their time. For instance, does your buyer persona typically read blog posts, scroll Facebook, or use search engines when researching new products?

Alternatively, is your buyer persona someone who’s always looking for a good deal, and would appreciate a link on a coupon site? Or are they more interested in doing tons of research before purchasing, making your promotion efforts more worthwhile on a review site?

While those are questions you’ll have to consider for yourself, let’s take a look at some general types of affiliate programs so you can begin brainstorming potential avenues for your own marketing efforts:

Search Affiliates

With this program, marketers pay their own money to promote affiliate offers on search results or other online advertising platforms like Facebook Advertising. This is a great option for marketers with an SEO background and want to A/B test to see which ads result in the most referrals — and ROI.

Influencer Programs

If you’re a blogger or social media influencer who engages with a specific audience, consider partnering with a company whose products would appeal to them. For instance, if you are a food blogger or YouTube influencer who creates recipe content, consider partnering with a company that sells kitchen appliances by featuring their product in your content in exchange for commission for every product sold via your affiliate link. Ideally, this would result in additional revenue if your audience likes the products you’re promoting.

Review Sites

Blind buying products online can be daunting for consumers, which is why they often turn to review sites during the buyer’s journey so they can conduct research before purchasing. Review sites partner with individual companies or affiliate networks to review products and services in exchange for an affiliate link.

Coupon Sites

Similar to review sites, coupon sites partner with companies to provide buyers with discounts on products and services in exchange for a kickback.

Email Marketing

This is best in small doses. You don’t want to send out bulk emails to an audience who isn’t interested in promoted products or services. However, with proper consideration for who’s receiving the email, this could be an effective method. For instance, if you work for a marketing agency, you could partner with a company that sells design tools and include an affiliate within emails you send to design clients. This could help your clients create higher-quality content while providing an added source of revenue.

Affiliate Networks

Can’t decide on which affiliate program to try first? Consider joining an affiliate network. Instead of offering products from only one company, affiliate networks act as a marketplace and provide a larger pool of brands and offers to choose from. This option may appeal to beginner affiliate marketers because you don’t have to manage as many partnerships at once. Plus, there’s no limit on how many affiliate networks you can join, so the possibilities are endless.

Are you a blogger or small business who would like to join an affiliate program to generate income? Below, we’ll explore the top affiliate programs that you can join.

1. Amazon Associates

Commission: 1-10% (depending on the product category)

Cookie life: 24 hours

Amazon is one of the most popular online shopping platforms, so if you’re looking to buy something, chances are you’ll find it on Amazon.

Amazon Associates get commissions between 1% and 10%, depending on the category the product purchased falls under. The most valuable items to promote are clothes and luxury beauty products, both of which can earn you a 10% cut on the price.

One of the main advantages of doing affiliate marketing with Amazon is that people already know the company and love to shop there, so it’s not a hard sell. The company has very high conversion rates, especially around the holidays. And because the product selection is so vast, it fits most kinds of businesses.

If you write about animals, for instance, you can promote cat treats or dog toys. If your audience is interested in cars, you can recommend jumper cables — you get the idea.

Additionally, if someone ends up on Amazon through your link and buys something other than what your content links to, you still get commission on the user’s entire cart.

Ultimately, the only downside is some categories have particularly low commissions, such as video games and electronics.

For businesses with large audiences, Amazon recently launched their new Amazon Influencer Program as an extension to the Associates program for social media influencers. You get similar benefits to the online Associates program, as well as your own page on Amazon with a unique URL to showcase the products you recommend to your followers.

Currently, you must have a YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook account to qualify. Amazon looks at the number of followers and other engagement metrics of your social media accounts to determine whether you’re eligible for the program.

2. eBay Partner Network

Commission: 1-4%, depending on category

Cookie life: 24 hours

With over one billion listings from a wide range of product categories, eBay’s affiliate program shares a lot of the same advantages as Amazon’s — well-known brand, high conversion rates, and a diverse selection of products.

The eBay Partner Network pays a commission of 1% to 4%. You earn a percentage of the revenue eBay earns from that purchase, based on the product category.

High-ticket items you can promote fall under Parts & Accessories, or Fashion. You can have a look at the complete rate card here. The one downside of this program is that it offers a cap for each category — with most falling well under $1,000. Your earning potential is thus limited.

3. Rakuten Advertising

Commission: Depends on the merchant

Cookie life: Depends on the merchant

Formerly known as Linkshare, Rakuten is one of the oldest affiliate networks in the game. Because Rakuten has been a trusted name in affiliate marketing for so long, it has been able to establish partnerships with some of the biggest brands in the world including Sephora, New Balance, and jetBlue.

Despite Rakuten’s impressive partner roster, it only has partnerships with around 1,000 merchants — which is far less than other competing networks. Still, if you’re a small business or new to affiliate marketing, it may be advantageous to sign up with Rakuten so you can get access to affiliate offers from brands your audience recognizes.

Like many other affiliate networks, commission rates vary based on the product and what merchant it comes from.

4. CJ Affiliate

Commission: Depends on the merchant

Cookie life: Depends on the merchant

CJ Affiliate (formerly known as Commission Junction) is one of the most popular affiliate networks out there, holding 7.69% of the market share.

One of the benefits of using CJ Affiliates is its selection of brand partnerships which cover many verticals including retail, travel, finance, and network & home services. Currently CJ partners with over 3,800 brands including household names such as Barnes & Noble, Office Depot, J.Crew, and Blue Apron.

5. ShareASale

Commission: Depends on the merchant

Cookie life: Depends on the merchant

ShareASale partners with thousands of merchants of all types, so finding the right affiliate product is a breeze — no matter what your niche is. Some of its most well known brand partners are Etsy, Reebok, and Warby Parker.

After joining the network, you have to apply to the individual merchants you want to use. Once approved, you’ll be able to generate affiliate links and view sales stats on the ShareASale dashboard.

Because of the wide variety of products and merchants available, commission rates vary.

6. FlexOffers

Commission: Depends on the merchant

Cookie life: Depends on the merchant

FlexOffers has an impressive affiliate database that is comprised of over 10,000 ad partners from over 65 networks. It partners with some of the biggest retailers on the planet including Samsung, Nike, Microsoft, and Macy’s.

FlexOffers’ easy-to-use dashboard includes access to over 650 million products so you can find the offer that works best for you. Once you find the product you’re looking for, you can then take advantage of its automated affiliate links so you don’t have to create it manually.

Commission rates vary based on the merchant and publishers are paid every month on NET 60 terms, meaning that each month’s commissions are processed 60 days after the last day of the month.

Don’t have time to look through all of the programs? We’ve divided this list into several subsections:

• Best Marketing and Business Affiliate Programs
• Best Online Course Affiliate Programs
• Best Website Builder Affiliate Programs
• Best Web Hosting Affiliate Programs
• Best Retail Affiliate Programs
• Best Beauty and Cosmetic Affiliate Programs
• Best Travel Affiliate Programs
• Best Personal Finance and Investment Affiliate Programs

Let’s get started.

Best Marketing and Business Affiliate Programs

1. HubSpot

Commission: 15% recurring or 100% of the first month’s revenue

Cookie life: 90 days

HubSpot’s mission is to help millions of organizations grow better. HubSpot’s award-winning CRM platform — which is comprised of Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub, and Operations Hub, and a powerful free CRM — gives thousands of companies the tools they need to manage the customer experience — all the way from awareness to advocacy.

As a HubSpot affiliate, you have the choice between a 15% recurring rate for up to one year or a flat rate corresponding to 100% of the first month’s revenue.

HubSpot’s plans range from $50 all the way up to $3,000+ per month. And it is not uncommon for customers to purchase more than one product at a time. So these payouts could quickly add up.

When you join HubSpot’s affiliate program, you gain access to a large creative inventory, including demo videos, banners, and copy examples, all designed to help you earn the most commission possible. Plus, you can cultivate a one-on-one relationship with the HubSpot affiliate team, whose members are all dedicated to helping you succeed.

If you have a large business audience or want to monetize your content, then our affiliate program is likely well-suited for you. (You can learn more about HubSpot by reading HubSpot reviews.)

2. Elementor

Commission: 50% per sale

Cookie life: 45 days

Elementor is a dynamic drag-and-drop website builder used to create more than 7% of all the world’s websites. With hundreds of widgets, integrations, website templates, and design tools, Elementor users can customize and scale their WordPress website-building process without writing a single line of code. Unique amongst WordPress website builders, Elementor now offers cloud hosting features, as well.

Yet, Elementor is more than simple software — it has 100k members in its online community where web creators share advice, host meetups, and push each other to professional growth.

Elementor affiliates earn 50% per sale. The software has five pricing packages, ranging from $49 to $999 per year. This broad array of pricing tiers makes it easier for affiliates to strategically market various plans to specific audiences.

With notable affiliates earning north of $10,000 a month, Elementor is an attractive option to consider.

3. Moosend

Commission: 30% Lifetime Recurring

Cookie life: 90 days

Moosend is an affordable all-in-one email marketing automation solution that enables marketers to promote their business and increase their customer base with engaging campaigns.

Apart from the user-friendly email editor, you’ll get access to online forms, landing pages, audience management tools, segmentation, and personalization features to turn your subscribers into loyal advocates of your brand.

Moosend’s affiliate program allows you to earn a 30% lifetime recurring commission on every plan that your contacts buy. The 90-day cookie will give your audience the time they need to make a purchase, while you can earn extra commissions when your contact upgrades their plan.

Moosend affiliates can benefit from the pre-made materials (banners, templates, etc.) and available resources found in their affiliate dashboard. The affiliate team is also ready to assist and help solve problems that may arise.

4. AWeber

Commission: 30% recurring

Cookie life: One year

AWeber has been the autoresponder of choice for over one million businesses and entrepreneurs since 1998. It’s a great tool for newsletter and email drip campaigns.

Affiliates of AWeber can earn substantial income through two different channels:

• Their in-house program offers a lifetime 30% commission. Plans typically range from around $20 to $150 per month, so the payout can add up.
• Alternatively, you can earn up to $300 per account through CJ Affiliate. However, the cookie life with this option is only 45 days, rather than one year.

5. Sendinblue

Commission: €5 when a referred user creates a free account + €100 if that user buys a subscription

Cookie life: 90 days

Sendinblue is an all-in-one digital marketing platform that helps businesses connect with customers via email marketing, SMS, chat, marketing automation, CRM, and more. This user-friendly tool is rapidly growing in popularity with over 175,000 users worldwide.

The affiliate program has two different streams: one for agencies and one for bloggers.

Sendinblue’s free and affordable pricing plans make it a very attractive revenue opportunity for bloggers and publishers in the email marketing space. You’ll get €100 every time you refer a paying customer and join a network of top affiliates like WPBeginner, Capterra, CodeinWP, emailvendorselection, emailtooltester, and many more.

Note: Even though the payout is in euros, the program is open to the United States and your commission will be converted based on currency rates at the time of the payment.

6. ConvertKit

Commission: 30% recurring

Cookie life: 30 days

A new up-and-comer in the email marketing field, ConvertKit helps its customers grow their customer-base via landing pages, forms, and email drip campaigns. (You can learn more about ConvertKit by reading reviews.)

ConvertKit’s affiliate program is primarily addressed to existing ConvertKit users who feel their audience could benefit from email marketing products. The program offers a lifelong 30% commission for every referred paying customer or webinar subscriber.

With plans ranging anywhere from $29 per month all the way to $2,000+, the income potential is a very attractive offer, and it costs you absolutely nothing to join the program. The program does not, however, offer any special deals or discounts for any product the affiliate might promote.

7. GetResponse

Commission: $100 for every sale referred, or 33% of recurring subscriptions

Cookie life: 120 days

Along with email marketing, GetResponse offers landing pages, opt-in forms, webinar hosting, a CRM tool, and plenty of other marketing automation tools. (You can learn more about GetResponse by reading reviews.)

Just like AWeber, GetResponse has two affiliate programs you can choose from (or, you can join both!):

• Their self-hosted program offers a 33% recurring commission. With plans ranging anywhere from $15 to $1,200/month, the payout can be pretty substantial.
• You can also earn $135 for every sale referred through CJ Affiliate. However, the cookie life is only 30 days, rather than 120 offered in the in-house program.

8. Fiverr

Commission: $15-50 for Fiverr CPA, $10 CPA + 10% RevShare for Fiverr Hybrid, or 30% of every Fiverr Learn course order

Cookie life: 30 days

Fiverr has a few products you might promote on your own website or blog — including Fiverr (the freelance marketplace with digital services for everything from marketing to tech), Fiverr Pro (access to hand-vetted talent trusted by major brands), and Fiverr Learn (courses for freelancers and businesses looking to expand their skills).

If you work with clients who might need to hire a freelancer for marketing, design, or tech skills, or you write a blog for entrepreneurs and want to promote Fiverr Learn, you might want to consider partnering with Fiverr. The popular site, with over 5.5 million users, offers affiliates a dashboard to manage and monitor campaigns, and creative assets to help you promote their services. Of course, commission varies depending on the service you want to promote. Take a look at their full offerings here.

9. Pabbly

Commission: 30% recurring

Cookie life: 30 days

Pabbly is an online platform that offers multiple marketing and business management tools for email marketing, form building, subscription-billing, email verification, workflow automation, and app integration. The most popular package is Pabbly Plus — a cost-effective bundle of all the Pabbly applications.

Unique features of their affiliate program include:

• You can promote all or any of their products to get a 30% commission within 40 days of the sale.
• They track sales of all their products using a single cookie. So whatever product you promote, it will get you a commission on the sale of all the products purchased through your affiliate link. Also, this will save you from referring each product separately to your audience.
• A single sale of Pabbly products can provide you the minimum commission of $183.

Additionally, they provide a single dashboard for monitoring sales, allowing you to view all your commission-related details — such as sales, referrals, and payouts — in a single place.

10. Unbounce

Commission: 20% of recurring revenue for every customer you refer

Cookie life: 90 days

This popular landing page platform — used by brands such as Campaign Monitor and Zola — helps users design high-converting landing pages for SaaS businesses, ecommerce sites, and agencies. Unbounce’s affiliate program is impressive, giving you the opportunity to earn 20% of the recurring revenue for every customer you refer.

Plus, your site visitors or social media followers get 20% off their first three months using Unbounce, making the exchange valuable for them, as well. Unbounce provides you with plenty of tools to succeed using their affiliate program, including a Partner coach, custom dashboard to track progress, and training and promotional materials to ensure you’re promoting their business as effectively as possible. If you’re a marketer hoping to help clients increase conversions on their landing pages, this partnership could be a win-win for you both.

11. Constant Contact

Commission: $5 for each referral that signs up for a free trial, and $105 when your referrals pay for a new account

Cookie life: 120 days

Constant Contact offers powerful email marketing tools for small businesses, bloggers, and entrepreneurs. Among other things, users of Constant Contact can create Instagram and Facebook Ads, automate their email marketing campaigns, target new ecommerce customers, and send follow-up emails to increase revenue to their online stores.

The company’s affiliate program enables you to earn $5 for all qualified leads, and $105 when the referral becomes a customer of Constant Contact.

Additionally, you’ll receive promotional materials, a tracking dashboard, and personalized support to help you succeed with the affiliate program. Constant Contact is used by major brands including Facebook, WordPress, and Shopify. If you believe your clients or prospects could benefit from email marketing tools, this is a good partnership to consider.

12. Systeme.io

Commission: 40% recurring

Cookie life: 180 Days

Systeme.io is a fast and simple marketing tool that has everything you need to launch, grow, and scale your online business. There are over 200,000 customers that use Systeme.io to build sales funnels, send unlimited emails, create and manage online courses and blogs, run affiliate programs, build websites, and automate almost every aspect of their marketing.

Systeme.io offers 6 different pricing packages, ranging from $27 per month to $828 per year. Along with their extensive pricing tiers, they have multiple lead magnets and online courses that can help affiliates pull in the maximum number of leads to their funnels. Affiliates can leverage all 6 pricing plans and onboarding materials to convert new users.

Systeme.io affiliates earn 40% lifetime commissions on all subscriptions and course sales. Plus, they earn 5% second-tier commissions if their referrals successfully promote the platform themselves​. This affiliate program offers attractive income potential — with a monthly payout of over $100,000 to their affiliates, and over $2,000,000 in total affiliate commissions earned so far.

13. Typeform

Commission: 20% recurring

Cookie life: Unknown

Typeform, which offers conversational forms and surveys including Contact Forms, Employee Satisfaction Surveys, and Event Lead Capture Forms, offers a 20% recurring commission on referrals. That means you’ll earn up to 20% of a referred customers’ subscription to Typeform, as long as the subscription remains active.

This adds up quickly, and the service is relatively cheap, making it easy for your referrals to make a purchase. If you refer 100 customers who sign up for a monthly basic plan, you would bring in $580 every month.

14. Outgrow Affiliate Program

Commission: 20% upfront and 20% recurring

Cookie life: 30 days

Outgrow is an interactive content builder that helps marketers to create personalized content including calculators, viral quizzes, eCommerce recommendations, forms, surveys, chatbots, polls, and assessments. Personalized solutions like interactive content add real value to the customer and increase user engagement, improve conversions, and generate leads that marketers can then use for segmentation and retargeting.

Along with 20% commission upfront and 20% on recurring payments, Outgrow affiliates receive 24/7 chat support and opportunities to get featured on Outgrow’s webinars and podcasts.

Best Online Course Affiliate Programs

15. Thinkific

Commission: 30% recurring

Cookie life: 90 days

Thinkific’s powerful all-in-one platform makes it easy to share your knowledge, grow your audience, and scale the business you already love. The platform enables users to create, market, and sell online courses and membership sites under their own brand.

You’re an ideal candidate for Thinkific’s affiliate program if your audience is made up of any of the following:

• Content creators with skills and knowledge to share;
• Business leaders who want to create courses for customers; or
• Entrepreneurs who want to add new revenue streams

As an affiliate partner, your perks include a 30% lifetime recurring commission, a competitive 90-day cookie window, and access to ready-to-post creative and promotional content. Thinkific affiliate partners earn up to $1,700 per referral every year.

16. Kajabi

Commission: 30% recurring

Cookie life: 30 days

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that lets users create online courses, launch marketing campaigns, build landing pages, and design the perfect website.

The Kajabi Partner Program is currently only open to Kajabi users. As an affiliate, you’ll receive a 30% lifetime commission for any new member you bring to Kajabi that stays active past their trial period. What’s more, you will be treated to special rewards as you progress. Each level unlocks exciting bonuses only available to Kajabi Partners.

17. Teachable

Commission: 30% recurring, with the ability to earn up to 50% commission through monthly bonuses

Cookie life: 90 days

Teachable helps you create and sell beautiful online courses. With over 18 million students and 186 thousand active courses, Teachable is one of the most reputable e-learning platforms. Plus, it’s heavily endorsed by Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income.

Ranging from Facebook ads to cake decorating tips, Teachable is suited for a variety of niche subjects. Teachable’s affiliate program pays a recurring 30% commission on the referral’s monthly subscription fee. Plans can go anywhere from $29 to $499 per month, meaning you’ll be able to earn up to $150 a month per sale.

18. iSpring

Commission: 10% per sale

Cookie life: 90 days

iSpring is an international software development company that produces tools for eLearning content authoring and online training. Their flagship product is iSpring Suite, an award-winning authoring tool that allows the creation of interactive online courses, quizzes, video tutorials, role-plays, and ebooks.

iSpring Suite has an intuitive interface that is familiar to everyone (the tool works as a PowerPoint add-in) and offers solutions for any learning need. And that’s why it has become popular among people from different fields: from university professors to corporate instructional designers.

The affiliate program includes iSpring Suite and iSpring Suite Max, which cost $770 and $970, respectively. Thus, you can earn from $77 to $97 from a single purchase and around $1000/month if you provide 10+ customers monthly. You will receive verified commissions quarterly.

Best Website Builder Affiliate Programs

19. Shopify

Commission: 200% commission after a referral has been an active subscriber for 2 months

Cookie life: 30 days

With nearly 2 million merchants worldwide, Shopify has truly proven itself as a market leader in the drop-shipping industry. Shopify has everything you need to start your online store, including website builders, shopping carts, web hosting and store management tools, analytics features, payment processing, and much more.

If your audience is all about e-commerce and needs help setting up an online store, Shopify’s affiliate program might be for you. Affiliates earn a whooping 200% commission on the cost of a monthly subscription (that’s up to $2,400!). Additionally, when a referral signs up for a Shopify Plus account, you get paid a flat $2,000 bounty payment.

On top of the money, as a Shopify affiliate, you get priority support for your own Shopify store, as well as free Shopify content to promote to your audience.

Joining the program is absolutely free. The main drawbacks may be that the target for this program is quite niche, since you’ll need an audience that sells products online and doesn’t already have a solid e-commerce platform.

20. Leadpages

Commission: Up to 50% commission

Cookie life: 30 days

Leadpages is an online tool that lets you create easy-to-customize landing pages to collect contact information and boost your conversion rates. (You can learn more about LeadPages by reading reviews.)

Their affiliate program is only open to Leadpages customers. Each paying customer referred brings in a lifetime commission of 30%. Membership prices range from $25 to $200 per month.

Leadpages will sometimes run special offers, such as a $5,000 bonus for affiliates who drive 10+ sales by a given date. All affiliates get access to banners, sidebar images, and social media-friendly links. You also have the option to share a unique link to a free content page (like a blog post or video) rather than a product page.

21. Wix

Commission: $100 per Premium sale

Cookie life: 30 days

If you’re interested in unlimited payouts with minimal effort, Wix could be for you. The web development company is one of the most popular web hosting platforms, and offers $100 per Premium referral with no limit on the amount of people you can refer (which means, if you refer 10 people, you’ve already made $1,000). Additionally, Wix provides links and creatives, including banners and landing pages in all languages, to make it easy for you to include their link on your site.

However, it’s important to note that there is a minimum sales target you need to reach to get paid — $300 per month (if you make less than that, your earnings will stay in your account until you reach that benchmark). If you feel your website, blog, or social channel is visited on a regular basis by prospects who might be interested in creating their own website on a hosting platform, this could be a good program for you, but if you’re unsure if you can meet the minimum sales target for a while, you might want to reconsider.

22. Crowdbotics

Commission: Payouts start at $750 per referral and vary by project size

Cookie life: Contact Crowdbotics for more information

Crowdbotics makes it faster than ever to build complete, scalable apps for business. With Crowdbotics, professionals can turn ideas into real code using a matched library of components and a network of on-call experts.

Crowdbotics references a library of millions of production-grade software packages to identify the most effective components and workflows for a given project. Once your referral partner starts building their app, you can claim various rewards from Crowdbotics ranging from cash payouts to development credits.

Best Web Hosting Affiliate Programs

23. WP Engine

Commission: $200+ per signup

Cookie life: 180 days

There are millions of websites on the internet, and more than 40% are built on WordPress. WP Engine provides super-fast web hosting for thousands of WordPress websites around the world.

WP Engine’s affiliate program runs on the ShareASale network. By promoting WP Engine plans, you can earn $200 per signup or 100% of the customer’s first monthly payment — whichever one is higher. You gain access to exclusive affiliate discounts you can offer to your audience.

You can also promote StudioPress themes and earn 35% of the sales generated. These purchases get 60 days of cookie tracking.

It’s important to note — WP Engine’s affiliate program is two-tiered, which means that you’ll get paid not only for referring customers, but also for referring affiliates. You get $50 for each of their referrals.

While it may not be easy to find an audience looking to build a new WordPress website, when you do find those users, the profits can be huge.

24. Kinsta

Commission: Up to $500 per referral + 10% recurring

Cookie life: 60 days

Kinsta was founded in 2013 by veteran WordPress developers “with a desire to create the best WordPress hosting platform in the world.” They strive to offer WordPress hosting that is fast, secure, and reliable.

Kinsta’s affiliate program pays an initial commission, followed by a recurring 10% monthly payment. Affiliates can earn up to $500 initially, depending on the type of plan the referral has purchased:

• Starter: $30
• Pro: $100
• Business: $150
• Enterprise: $500

While 10% may not seem like much, your referrals are likely to have a high lifetime value, thanks to Kinsta’s high customer retention rate of 95%.

25. Bluehost

Commission: $65 per sale

Cookie life: 45 days

Bluehost, a web hosting platform that supports more than 2 million websites, offers a phenomenal affiliate program for any business or entrepreneur looking to monetize their blog or website. If you promote Bluehost’s products or services on your own blog or website (either through custom banners or links), you can earn anywhere from $65 to $130 per sale generated from your website — an incredibly high fee.

Best of all, it’s free to join their affiliate program, and Bluehost offers reliable tracking to ensure you get credit for each lead you provide them. Plus, Bluehost offers affiliate managers who can offer support or personalized advice. With such an accessible program, there are a ton of Bluehost reviews with the pros and cons.

26. Hostgator

Commission: $65 to $125 per signup

Cookie life: 60 days

Hostgator offers both web hosting and building tools, and is incredibly low-cost for startups or ecommerce businesses with limited budgets — for instance, a starter plan costs only $3.84/month.

It’s free to become a Hostgator affiliate, and their tiered payouts are substantial — you can make $65 per signup if you provide Hostgator with 1-5 signups per month, and up to $125 per signup if you provide Hostgator with over 21 signups. You can either embed tracking links on your site or create a custom coupon code. Since Hostgator provides a 45-day money-back guarantee, it’s low-risk for your website visitors to try it out.

27. GreenGeeks

Commission: $50 for one sale; up to $100 for six sales

Cookie life: 30 days

GreenGeeks, an eco-friendly, secure web hosting platform, allows you to earn up to $100 per sale. They have a tiered program that pays generously — including $50 for just one sale, and $100 for six or more. Additionally, the company provides a selection of creative assets, content, and banners to ensure you’re proud of the link or banner you include on your website or blog.

If you believe your blog readers or website visitors are interested in exploring web hosting platforms (for instance, if you write content for freelancers), this could be a good option to explore. Best of all, the company promotes eco-friendly alternatives, so you can feel good knowing you’re spreading a positive, “green message” to your site visitor

Best Retail Affiliate Programs

Disclaimer: Commissions for retail stores are much smaller because the purchase price is much smaller. But this also means that it’s easier to get your audience to buy those items (low price = low commitment), which could translate into high conversion rates and higher returns.

28. Target

Commission: 1-8% (depending on the product category and sales volume)

Cookie life: 7 days

While it doesn’t offer as wide a selection as Amazon or eBay, Target remains a highly recognizable brand with a variety of different products.

Target’s affiliate program operates on a volume-based commission structure, meaning that your commission increases as the number of items purchased increases. Sadly, a product category that does not benefit from this model is the Health and Beauty products — the commission on this category caps at 1%, regardless of volume.

It’s also critical to note — most people tend to prefer buying Target products in-person, rather than online, so this could have an impact on your returns.

29. Hammacher Schlemmer

Commission: 8% on any sale

Cookie life: 30 days

Hammacher Schlemmer is America’s longest-running catalog with a lifetime of over 150 years, and continues to successfully sell items ranging from electronics to outdoor living gear. Additionally, the company offers an impressive affiliate program with the potential to earn incredibly high commissions.

They offer 8% commission on any product you’re able to sell through your own website or blog. While 8% might not sound like a lot, consider some of the higher-priced items they sell, including a Muhammad Ali Autographed Photo Collage for $5,000, or the Full Immersion Professional Racer’s Simulator for $65,000.

Ultimately, if you’re able to find products or services on Hammacher Schlemmer’s website that align well with your own core offerings or might interest your buyer persona, you might consider partnering with the brand.

Additionally, this affiliate program could be a good idea for an ecommerce business interested in expanding their offerings. Hammacher Schlemmer provides tools (including password-protected online reports) and content to help your online store succeed.

30. Spocket

Commission: 20% per Bronze subscriber; 25% per Silver subscriber; 30% per Gold subscriber (up to 445.50 per subscriber)

Cookie life: 90 days

Spocket, a dropshipping supplier, wholesaler, and distributor of high-quality American and European products, enables entrepreneurs to sell products from thousands of dropshipping suppliers around the world. They also offer an incredibly impressive affiliate program — you can make up to $450 for each customer you refer to Spocket, and you’ll continue to collect commission off your referral’s Spocket account as long as they remain a customer.

Their program will also provide you with the tools and resources you need to successfully promote their business. If your website visitors are entrepreneurs or ecommerce businesses, this is a good affiliate program to explore.

Best Beauty and Cosmetic Affiliate Programs

31. Ulta

Commission: 1-5%

Cookie life: 30 days

Ulta is a go-to brand for beauty enthusiasts who want both affordable and prestigious skincare, makeup, and personal care products. Ulta is popular for its diverse offerings, which can cater to the tastes of a large readership.

Ulta’s affiliate program pays 1-5% in commissions. While this number may seem low, the company is ranked #2 in the beauty and cosmetics online space, meaning that your readers have likely heard of it and could even be current customers. You are provided with dynamic banners and text links to promote Ulta’s products. The company has ongoing promotions, including free shipping and free products, to help you drive more sales.

32. Sephora

Commission: 5%

Cookie life: 24 hours

If you serve a more affluent readership, Sephora is the affiliate program for you. The retailer offers a wide selection of prestige beauty products, including skincare, body care, makeup, and fragrances. Additionally, they offer a superior customer experience — for instance, they offer a free gift with any purchase and have a strong rewards program.

Sephora’s affiliate program offers a 5% commission rate on all sales, which is higher than Ulta’s and most online retailers’ commission rates. Like most programs, Sephora gives affiliates access to promotional banners and other creative assets, which you can use on your site and social media accounts.

The only downside to this program is that the cookie length is uncommonly short: The cookie will expire just 24 hours after the user clicks on the affiliate link.

33. FragranceNet.com

Commission: 1-5%

Cookie life: Unknown

A leader in the online perfume space, FragranceNet.com gives you access to hundreds and thousands of top designer fragrances and aromatherapy products. It sells other products, too, such as skincare and makeup. However, due to its specialization in fragrances, we recommend it for bloggers who primarily write about fragrances.

Affiliates earn 1-5% for every purchase generated through their link. The brand gives you access to links and banners, fresh blog content, seasonal ads, and coupon codes to drive your referral to a conversion. The program is run through the Rakuten platform.

34. BH Cosmetics

Commission: 8%

Cookie life: 60 days

Born and raised in LA, BH Cosmetics is one of the leading companies in the beauty industry. They are passionate about creating new and innovative beauty trends and dedicated to bringing customers the best in cruelty-free cosmetics. They also run promotions and sales regularly to help convert those leads.

BH Cosmetics affiliates receive an 8% commission on purchases made within 60 days of the user’s visit. The site has an average order value of $38 and an on-site conversion rate of 6.46%.

As an affiliate, you’ll get exclusive access to coupons and banners you can use on your website, blog, or emails. You’ll also receive monthly affiliate newsletters. Plus, their dedicated in-house affiliate team runs monthly incentives and affiliate contests to encourage you to promote your affiliate link.

Best Travel Affiliate Programs

35. Boatbookings

Commission: 20% + 10% for returning customers

Cookie life: 30 days

If you think your website visitors might be interested in chartering yachts, you might want to join Boatbookings’ affiliate program. Boatbookings specializes in luxury yacht chartering, boat rentals, and sailing and motor yacht vacations.

On the charter value of a boat, Boatbookings receives commission on the net charter value (not including APA or any additional items ordered). On this commission, affiliates will earn 20% as a base rate, with a possibility for escalating rates if referring multiple clients. When customers return to Boatbookings, affiliates receive an additional 10% commission on that second purchase.

36. Cheapflights

Commission: Flat rate — up to $0.45 per click-out

Cookie life: Session

Cheapflights is a travel comparison site that helps users find the cheapest plane tickets.

Cheapflights is another company that rewards its affiliates not for bringing paying customers, but for sending traffic to their partners.

Affiliates are paid a flat fee when a user clicks through — $0.45 per click-out for desktop and tablet, and $0.25 for mobile.

As an affiliate, you get access to various creative assets, ranging from banners to search boxes and travel widgets, that allow your visitors to conduct a search on your site and display flight results on Cheapflights’ page. This is their most popular travel affiliate tool and generates the highest revenue per visit.

37. Momondo

Commission: Flat rate — up to $0.65 per click-out

Cookie life: Session

Momondo is a global travel search site that compares cheap flights, hotels, and car rental deals.

Each time someone clicks on a flight on Momondo’s website from your site’s link, you will earn $0.65 for desktop and tablet users, and $0.45 for mobile users.

38. Sandals Resorts

Commission: 4%

Cookie life: 60 days

Sandals is one of the most well-recognized names in Caribbean resort travel. All Sandals Resorts offer luxurious vacations for couples and families traveling to Jamaica, The Bahamas, Barbados, and more.

The Sandals affiliate program pays you a commission for referring users to book either a stay in one of the Sandals Resorts, or booking an activity. While 4% might seem like a small percentage, these luxury resorts have daily rates that range from $150 to over $2,000 per person — which means, if a couple were to book a romantic week in a Sandals Resort at $500 per person per night, you would earn a commission of $280!

This program is only worthwhile, however, if your site and audience has a true interest in luxury travel to the Caribbean.

Best Personal Finance and Investment Affiliate Programs

39. Acorns

Commission: $10 per qualified lead

Cookie life: 30 days

Acorn is a “micro-investing” mobile app that helps people between the ages of 25 and 35 invest their money wisely. If you own a financial advice blog that serves this demographic — especially if they haven’t yet accrued capital or assets — this is the affiliate program for you.

Affiliates receive $10 for every referred customer. You’ll receive a wide variety of creative assets to help you promote the app and a dedicated account manager to help you boost your marketing efforts.

40. Sage Financials

Commission: 7% per sale and $5 per free trial

Cookie life: 30 days

Sage Financials — a cloud accounting solution built on Salesforce that provides accounting, analytics, and reporting tools for small and mid-sized businesses — has an impressive affiliate program that includes a dedicated support team, commission paid directly into your bank account (and currency of choice), and detailed reporting on your performance and earnings.

Best of all, you’re able to receive commission even from free sign-ups Sage receives from your website or blog. If you feel your website visitors or blog readers are interested in accounting tools, this could be a good partnership to explore.

Now that we’ve gone over some of the best affiliate programs overall, let’s go over the programs that pay the highest commission.

1. Semrush: $200 per Subscription

Commission: $200 per subscription, $10 per free trial, and $0.01 per new sign up

Cookie life: 10 years

Semrush is a SaaS company that specializes in SEO and competitive analysis tools for digital marketers. Its affiliate program offers $200 per subscription, so if you refer 10 people only, you’ll be bringing in $2,000 per month. Plus, they offer a very generous 10-year cookie life.

Since Semrush’s affiliate program functions under a first cookie attribution model, if a referral were to cancel their subscription and sign up again in the future (within 10 years), you still get commission on that second subscription.

Exclusive Semrush promotional material is available in five different languages, and applicants are automatically pre-approved, so the sign-up process is only a few minutes, enabling you to get started right away.

2. Coursera: Up to 45% Per Sale

Commission: 10-45%

Cookie life: 30 days

Coursera offers over 1,000 courses and specializations ranging anywhere from Digital Marketing to Applied Data Science and Personal Development. Each course consists of pre-recorded videos, puzzles, and assignments.

Coursera’s affiliate program runs on the Linkshare network and offers a commission ranging from 10% to 45% with bonuses for strong performance. Courses and Specializations are generally priced between $29 and $99. As a Coursera affiliate, you get access to professionally-designed banners and a monthly affiliate newsletter with curated content recommendations.

3. BigCommerce: 200% per Sale

Commission: 200% or $1,500 per enterprise customer

Cookie life: 90 days

Founded in 2009, BigCommerce is an online store builder that powers thousands of e-commerce stores in over 150 countries. It serves a wide variety of industries, including

fashion, automotive, manufacturing, food, and health.

When you refer visitors to BigCommerce, you earn 200% of the customer’s first monthly payment (that’s up to $500 per referral!), or $1,500 per enterprise customer.

4. Shift4Shop: $5 – $25 per Signup

Commission: $5 – $25 per Signup

Cookie life: 120 days

Shift4Shop is an e-commerce platform with a high focus on SEO. It provides you with all the tools you need to build, promote, and grow your online store. Users can use Shift4Shop to start an online business, add a shopping cart to an existing site, or replace their current shopping cart platform.

Affiliates earn a commission from $5 to $25 on each referred customer and have access to a wide range of marketing tools and content, including banner images, affiliate marketing-specific newsletters, and more. Affiliates are also put in touch with a dedicated affiliate manager for guidance. Shift4Shop’s affiliate program runs on the ShareASale network.

5. Flywheel: 300% per Signup

Commission: 300%, up to $500 per referral

Cookie life: 90 days

As another dedicated WordPress hosting solution, Flywheel aims to take away all the hassle that comes with web hosting so users can focus on doing what they do best — creating and designing websites.

Flywheel affiliates can earn up to $500 per referral. You get access to tons of creative assets, from banners to co-branded landing pages to stylish social images. The Flywheel team will even work with you to create custom images that can take your commissions to the next level.

It’s worth noting that there is no minimum threshold limit to receive a payment.

6. TripAdvisor: Minimum 50% per Booking

Commission: Minimum 50% per booking

Cookie life: 14 days

Crowned the “world’s largest travel site”, TripAdvisor provides travelers with the wisdom of the crowds to help them decide where to stay, how to fly, what to do, and where to eat. The site helps you compare prices from 200+ hotel booking sites so you can find the lowest price on the hotel that’s right for you.

Powered by Commission Junction, TripAdvisor’s affiliate program pays a 50% commission off the revenue generated from a user clicking on links and/or ads that send them to a TripAdvisor partner site. Which means, unlike most other affiliate programs in this list, you don’t have to wait for your referral to make a purchase to earn your commission. As soon as someone comes from your website and clicks on one of the ads or links on the TripAdvisor website, you get paid.

On average, affiliates will earn between $0.15-$0.75 per click-out. While it may not seem like a lot, since your revenue is only dependent on clicks (and not purchase), this can add up quite nicely.

7. Volusion: 200% per Signup

Commission: 200% per Signup

Cookie life: 45 days

Volusion is an e-commerce solution that enables small businesses to create, manage, and expand their online stores. They provide customers with exports to help them every step of the way, including help with domain purchase, web design, cart integration, SEO, and security.

Affiliates get paid a 200% commission on the referred customer’s first monthly payment, which can range anywhere from $29 to $299 (or even higher with their Prime custom tier). As an affiliate, you get access to marketing material to assist in your promotional efforts.

8. Invoice Ninja: 50% per Signup

Commission: 50% on all referrals for four years

Cookie life: N/A; instead of cookie, Invoice Ninja tracks by account creation from referral URL (for four years)

Invoice Ninja, a free open-source invoicing app for freelancers and businesses, offers a Ninja Pro Plan for just $10 a month — and, as an affiliate partner, you can make 50% on all referrals for four years. That means, if you refer 100 Pro users, you’ll receive $5,000 every year for the next four years.

Additionally, any user can start free and upgrade when they decide it’s worthwhile, so it’s easy for your site visitors to give the tool a try. You can provide their affiliate link in your email signature, on a blog post, or in an email newsletter, and Invoice Ninja provides both logos and ads to make it easy to promote their tool. If your social media followers or website visitors are typically online entrepreneurs or freelancers, this could be a good partnership to consider.

9. Capitalist Exploits: 50% per Sale

Commission: 50%

Cookie life: 365 days

Capitalist Exploits provides trade recommendations for investors and anyone looking to outperform the market by sharing only the best low-risk/high-reward opportunities to subscribers.

If your target audience consists of investors, high net-worth individuals, people interested in investment, financial advisors, or wealth managers, then this program might be for you.

Capitalist Exploits pays a 50% commission on any referred sale with absolutely no limits. Their products range from $1,575 to $3,499. This means each referral brings you a minimum of $787.50. Affiliates also receive exclusive access to paid membership trials for your audience.

Ultimately, when deciding which program to choose, there are many key elements to keep in mind, including how established your online following is, and how much you want to earn.

And, most importantly — who is your audience, and what are they interested in?

Think about what your website visitors or your social media followers need and could benefit from, and choose an affiliate marketing program that will let you promote products in support of that. Once you do that, you’ll be well on your way to exponentially multiplying your affiliate income.

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

If you’re a marketer, it’s likely been a very – odd – Q4!

On top of racing to the finish with end-of-year reports, campaigns, and project memos, you’re also in the thick of annual planning for the new year.

And, to add one more complicated layer to the mix, many marketing teams are waiting in the balance to see how our uncertain economy and the continuance of unprecedented global events will impact their work.

While we don’t have a crystal ball, our final analytics report of the year aims to give you an insightful glimpse of how industries are performing in Q4, and help you make the most informed decisions for your brand as 2023 begins.

Without further adieu, let’s dive in.

About this Data: These insights are based on data aggregated from 158,000+ HubSpot customers globally between November 2021 and November 2022. Because the data is aggregated from HubSpot customers’ businesses, please keep in mind that the performance of individual businesses, including HubSpot’s, might differ based on their markets, customer base, industry, geography, stage, and/or other factors.

Mid-Q4 Marketing Themes

Overall Themes

With seasonality – which we began to see in our last recap – in full swing, industries linking to retail, travel, and leisure are seeing unsurprising month-to-month upticks in conversions, leads, and even traffic. Meanwhile, industries like construction – which are often less active during the end of the year and in uncertain financial times – are seeing some MoM and YoY decreases.

Overall, year-over-year leads and conversions are trending up, which could be a positive sign for marketers who want to show that their work does impact their brand’s bottom line.

Below, we’ll dig into a few specific marketing themes.

Website Performance Continues to See Seasonality

Website Traffic

Compared to October, websites across industries saw a significant traffic decrease in November, with Construction and Financial Activities seeing the greatest dips. Only Leisure and Hospitality saw a significant MoM gain, which makes sense due to holiday-related travel and annual vacation planning on the rise.

Luckily, many industries are seeing year-over-year traffic boosts.

Manufacturing as well as Trade, Transportation & Utilities (which includes the retail industry) lead the pack with 6.3% and 6.2% increases respectively. The only industry which didn’t see a boost was Construction, which saw a slight dip of 2.6%.

As we mentioned in previous reports, the construction industry’s performance could be due in part to the season as well as current macroeconomic conditions.

Website Conversion Rates

Month-over-month, website conversions were relatively flat across industries. This can happen due to seasonality.

One big exception to the MoM data was Leisure and Hospitality which saw a significant 9.5% increase. Not super surprising during the end-of-year holiday and shopping season.

Year-over-year, we saw the biggest conversion increases from Education & Health Services followed by Leisure and Hospitality. In previous posts, we’ve highlighted that Leisure and Hospitality brands are likely seeing growth due in part to global regions and key travel cities reopening due to fewer COVID-19 restrictions.

Industry	MoM	YoY	Sample size
All	-1.3%	+9.2%	127169
Construction	-2.5%	+2.3%	1177
Education and Health Services	+2.0%	+17.6	3374
Financial Activities	+0.8	+1.7%	3628
Leisure and Hospitality	+9.5%	+13.4%	972
Manufacturing	-0.7%	-0.7%	3606
Professional and Business Services	-3.0%	+10.2%	11,708
Technology, Information and Media	+2.2%	+3.4%	14,208
Trade, Transportation and Utilities	+3.69%	-2.8	3,087

Inbound Leads See Positive Movement

Despite lower or flat traffic and conversions, both YoY and MoM lead trends are actually ticking up across most industries: a positive theme for marketers who are hyper-focused on their business’s bottom line.

Trade, Transportation & Utilities (which includes the bustling retail industry), and Leisure and Hospitality saw the largest MoM gains.

Year over year, Leisure and Hospitality also saw a huge YoY gain along with Education & Health Services. And, as a consistent theme, only Construction saw annual and monthly decreases.

Email Opens Hold Steady Despite More Sends

While most email marketers expect to see email engagement drop as the holidays begin in November, there was only a 1.3% open rate decrease, despite a large 13% increase in sends (likely due to end-of-year campaigns and last-minute pushes to hit numbers). Additionally, more subscribers were likely opening and potentially engaging with emails this month as all industries saw a 10.3% open increase.

Despite positive movements in November, marketing email is still dealing with some long-term challenges as opens and open rates have decreased by 14.5% and 10.1% respectively – even with more companies embracing a slightly more modest number of email sends.

Metric	MoM	YoY	Sample size
Email sends	+13.9%	-3.9%	144,733
Email opens	+10.3%	-14.5%	144,733
Email open rate	-1.3%	-10.1%	144,796

Starting the Year with a Full View

While these November numbers show some industries working their way back from slower growth in 2022 – and a few still continuing to keep up numbers in seasonality and current macro-economic times – it’s important for marketers to look at all possible data when planning out their strategies for January and the new year ahead. That’s why, on top of reports like these, it’s important to look at:

• Your annual and MoM website traffic and conversion data
• Your leads, sales, and revenue, especially as compared to direct competitors
• The direct and indirect ROI of your inbound campaigns, such as marketing newsletters.  

To keep you informed as you kick your new marketing plans off next year, we’ll be launching a series of posts across the HubSpot Blogs in January to give you an overall look at how businesses performed throughout 2022, as well as insights on how business heads, marketers, sales teams, and other departments can adapt in 2023. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, read through our previous reports below:

• Are Seasonality & the Economy Impacting Marketers in Q4? [Traffic & Conversion Data from 150K+ Companies]
• The Top Traffic, Conversion & Lead Trends in Q3: Data & Takeaways from 120,000+ Businesses
• Your Guide to Summer Web Traffic, Conversion & Lead Performance Across Industries [Data from 150,000+ Businesses

Or, download our free State of Marketing Report below to dive deeper into what marketers focused on this year.

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

Aspiring Native entrepreneurs face many challenges in growing small businesses. Complex land lease laws, strained infrastructure, and a chronic lack of credit access all inhibit Indigenous success. However, thanks to growing federal, organizational, and tribal support, potential business owners have more resources available than ever.

Navigating new financial mechanisms, tribal incubators, and government programs can still present a challenge. By appraising available resources, and when to leverage them, Native entrepreneurs gain a great head start in launching new ventures. Starting on the right foot, with the right tools, can make all the difference – especially when climbing over systemic barriers.

Native Community Development Financial Institutions

Native access to capital can prove a complex and frustrating obstacle for up-and-coming business owners. Chronic systemic discrimination, along with general confusion around complicated land laws, can stymie new businesses before they ever get started. Generational poverty often means that Natives don’t have alternative means of obtaining start-up capital, either.

A May 2021 report by the National Indian Council On Aging states that 16.3 percent of Native households don’t use banks.  The same report notes that high poverty rates, systemic racism, and a lack of brick-and-mortar institutions on Native reservations leave many Indigenous people without good financial standing.

Natives also can’t use lands held in trust with the Bureau of Indian Affairs – meaning reservation lands – as collateral. As a result, traditional banking and the consequent access to business loans remain out of reach.

In response, many tribes or non-profit organizations have established Native Community Development Financial Institutions or Native CDFIs. These institutions use non-traditional methods, often backed by tribal or federal funding, to lend to otherwise ineligible borrowers.

There are over 70 Native CDFIs across the United States. Some are tribally owned, such as the Lummi CDFI in Bellingham, Washington. Others are established as regional organizations, such as Native Community Capital in New Laguna, New Mexico. Many are part of an overarching organization called the Native CDFI Network, whose website hosts a list of member institutions.

As Native-led or Native-serving organizations, these institutions understand land law, tribal sovereignty, and the issues facing Indigenous entrepreneurs. Loan officers at Native CDFIs often use metrics other than credit scores or collateral to support their lending or offer financial literacy and credit-building programs to improve clients’ standing.

These groups also share many of the perspectives and experiences of their surrounding constituents, which means a wider array of business models can be encouraged and supported. An October 2022 report from banking giant Wells Fargo notes that traditional, national banks frequently lend more often to tribal enterprises with established presences, while CDFIs help cover the gap for smaller loans and riskier businesses.

Potential Indigenous entrepreneurs who have access to a Native CDFI should make reaching out and establishing a relationship their first step in drumming up business capital. In addition to establishing credit, working with a CDFI to build financial literacy and refine a business model can get things started on a high note.

Business Incubators for Indigenous Entrepreneurs

Good products and services may form the cornerstone of successful business ventures, but they’re just a part of the overall operation. Entrepreneurs need a good understanding of cash flow, marketing, scale, and a wide array of other subjects to maintain that success.

Indigenous-led business incubators serve an important niche, combining traditional business sense with a deep understanding of a community’s traditions, needs, and issues. Where non-Native incubators might falter in addressing challenges specific to Native entrepreneurs, Indigenous incubators work from a Native perspective, tailoring their programs to fit their communities.

For Tuba City, Arizona-based Change Labs, an incubator serving the Navajo (Dine) and Hopi peoples, that means initiatives such as providing storefront space and no-credit-needed micro-loans, according to their Theory of Change report. These tailor programs address the limited availability of workable retail space on Navajo and Hopi lands, as well as a widespread lack of credit.

Incubator cohorts typically include dedicated programs packed with classes, projects, and networking. These cohorts often pair participants with experienced mentors in their chosen industries, building relationships and connections for striking out on their own later.

Much like Native CDFIs, Indigenous incubators form for both tribes and regional organizations. While Change Labs targets the Hopi and Navajo tribes specifically, Traverse City, Mich.-based Arrowhead Incubator aids entrepreneurs across that area. While there aren’t many incubators fully off the ground, the passage of 2020’s Native American Business Incubator Act aims to grow that number considerably. Where there isn’t a resource now, one may exist soon.

Native entrepreneurs growing their businesses or who are uncertain of their next steps may find it worth it to locate an Indigenous-led business incubator either through their tribe or regional support. In the absence of a nearby resource, larger incubators such as the Spokane-based Native Business Center provide a range of online classes and workshops.

Economic Development Organizations for Indigenous Entrepreneurs

Even as Indian Country struggles with building wealth, national organizations work to combat those issues and develop strategies for new Native entrepreneurs. Many of these organizations develop programs for funding and supporting Indigenous businesses. Some of these organizations include:

1.  The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development

The National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development provides a wide array of programs for supporting everything from procurement for Indigenous small businesses to securing government contracts through the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program. The Center also offers Native Edge Institutes, one-day in-person events providing concentrated bursts of business training.

2. The Center for Indian Country Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

The Center for Indian Country Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, which offers data-driven research on industry trends, headwinds facing Indigenous businesses, and policy recommendations.

3. The National Minority Supplier Development Council

The National Minority Supplier Development Council certifies and supports businesses whose owners are majority Native American, Asian-American, African American, Asian-Pacific, or Hispanic. The council connects member businesses with over 500 corporate members,  provides seminars and training, and offers a range of capital access programs, like the Growth Initiative.

In addition to wide-net organizations like the above, many states have American Indian Chambers of Commerce, such as chapters in Oklahoma and New Mexico. These organizations provide advocacy, management, and networking services to Native-owned businesses in their given regions, making them crucial and powerful tools for accessing localized support.

Federal and Tribal Government Programs for Indigenous Entrepreneurs

New COVID-19 era legislation has poured unprecedented funding into Indian Country and prompted the development of new federal support. Some of that is leveraged toward small businesses, chiefly through offices like the Small Business Administration, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

1. The Small Business Administration

The SBA offers free technical assistance for business owners through the Office of Native American Affairs. The Administration also partners with Native-led organizations like RedWind and Sister Sky, Inc. to provide entrepreneurial workshops for Indigenous business owners. The administration also manages the 8(a) Business Development Program, which offers federal contracting preference to certified minority-owned businesses.  

2. The Bureau of Indian Affairs

The Bureau of Indian Affairs supports Indigenous entrepreneurs through its Native American Business Development Institute, which can fund feasibility studies and market research for business plans. The agency also manages the Indian Loan Guarantee and Insurance Program, which can help provide collateral and support for first-time borrowers.

3. The U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency

Lastly, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency serves minority-owned businesses with research, market data, and a wide swathe of Native-centered business grants and projects.

It’s also worth checking in with individual tribes and their corresponding economic development institutions. While tribal gaming continues to be a juggernaut in generating tribal revenue, tribal acquisitions and diversification are on the rise – a tribal member’s small business may be the next best fit for the tribe’s economic strategy. Alternatively, tribes may have support programs and individualized help available for citizens running new ventures.

Use What’s Out There to Build Your Career

Starting a business can be hard in the best circumstances – and Native American entrepreneurs hardly ever begin in the best circumstances. As more and more institutions grapple with Indian Country’s generational trauma and how best to ease that trauma, Native business owners find themselves with more resources than ever.

Native businesses are important parts of local, tribal, and state economies, generating roughly $50 billion a year across the United States, according to an SBA report. Moreover, starting a successful business remains one of the fastest ways to pull a family out of poverty and begin creating generational wealth, combating one of the longest-running problems in Indian Country.

With the range of new opportunities available, it’s never been a better time to start a new business, whether that’s selling arts and crafts, providing IT services, construction contracting, or a large-scale farming enterprise. Aspiring Indigenous business owners should take advantage of renewed interest in Indian Country’s well-being and secure self-sufficiency and success for themselves in the future.

As a business, you likely run marketing campaigns all year round.

There are specific occasions, though, where you might spend more time and money on your efforts to maximize exposure and inspire the most sales. Holidays are a great example of this, where events like Black Friday can bring in significant sales and revenue compared to other days of the year.

In this post, we’ll go over insights from marketers on the holidays and annual events that they spend the most money on and why.

What holidays and annual events do marketers build strategies for?

We asked marketers and advertisers about the holidays/annual events they plan to build marketing strategies for in the next 12 months. They were asked to select up to three options, and the top three responses were:

• Winter/End of Year Holidays (ex. New Years Day)
• Black Friday
• Halloween

What holidays and annual events do marketers spend the most money on?

We asked marketers and advertisers about the holidays/annual events they spend the most time and money on marketing. The top holidays were winter/end of year holidays, Black Friday, Halloween, and Valentine’s Day.

We also asked marketers why they spend the most money on the events they selected and the most common responses were that their selected annual holidays and events drive the most sales and bring in the most revenue.

For example, some marketers said they spend the most money on marketing for Black Friday because people begin their holiday shopping during this time and are more excited and willing to spend money, so reaching them with effective and personalized campaigns is essential. Marketers can spend more time and effort creating marketing campaigns for Black Friday because it pays off.

Holidays and Annual Events Provide Opportunity for All Businesses

Every business is different, but holidays and annual events are great for sales. How do your marketing campaigns, marketing spending, and high-traffic events align with other marketers?

As a writer for HubSpot, the most I thought I would use our product was creating marketing blog posts and measuring their performance over time. I never envisioned myself actually using a CMS to, well, you know, build a website.

But, that quickly changed in the Fall of 2022 when I created a blog that cataloged my journey down the Great Divide, a mountain bike trail that stretches from Canada to Mexico.

Before I knew it, I was managing Pedaling4Pups.com and producing a handful of blog posts each week all while biking the 2700-mile trail. Even as a seasoned blogger, I was amazed at how much I learned about creating content — mostly when doing it on the go.

Here’s what publishing a blog post looks like when you’re 12K feet above sea level:

In this post, I wanted to share the lessons that I learned about content creation from my trip. Below are five tips you can use to create awesome content from the top of a mountain, on a sandy beach, or wherever inspiration hits you.

How to Start Creating Content On the Go

If you’re just here for the tips, scroll on down to the next section for the good stuff — I promise I won’t hold it against you.

If you’re curious about the blog that I created and are wondering how I managed to publish 2 posts per week all while biking through thousands of miles of remote wilderness, you’re in the right place.

I had two goals when creating my blog. First, I wanted a way to easily share updates with friends and family. What better way to do that than with weekly blog posts accompanied by a recurring newsletter that readers could sign up for?

The other goal was more personal. I wanted to use my platform to generate donations for a charity. Readers could follow my journey while simultaneously having the opportunity to donate to a cause that I was passionate about.

This led to me to create Pedaling4Pups.com, a dog-centric blog that would not only follow my journey on the Great Divide but would also support an animal shelter in Ukraine. While on the trail, I wrote two posts per week all by writing and uploading content via my smartphone.

When I was at my campsite, I would type up content in my Notes app, then upload it to the blog whenever I had the luxury of cell service.

It was an awesome way to pass the time and I was shocked at how easy it was to pull off. With pre-made templates and themes, creating a website took no time at all, and writing and uploading posts on a phone is more efficient than you may think.

Skeptical? I would be, too. It wasn’t always a downhill ride (bike pun intended) and I had to adapt my content creation skills to fit each situation I found myself in. Read on to learn about how I did it and what you can do for your website if you ever find yourself in a similar situation.

5 Tips for Producing Content On the Go

1. You can produce content literally anywhere.

Creating content on the go is easier than you think. If you have a smartphone or a tablet, you’re already halfway there. I used HubSpot on my phone, but you can use any blogging tool that offers a mobile CMS.

Even if you just have a pen and paper, sitting in a tent in the middle of the woods, you can still come up with stories, lessons, or other pieces of interesting content that your audience will want to read. Just jot it down while it’s fresh in your mind then transfer it to your phone or laptop as soon as you get the chance.

As for the actual creation part, you will still need a platform to post your content on as well as internet access so you can share it with the world. Some platforms to consider using while on the go:

• Your Website: Don’t have one? If I can create one, then I’d argue most land mammals can, too (sorry whales). Just grab any free website builder and you’re off to the races.
• Social Media: Tik Tok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Club Penguin — take your pick. There are plenty of social media sites to choose from and they all have their own features that make them unique.
• Community Forums: These days, it’s tough to be original on the Internet. But, that’s okay. There’s strength in numbers which means there’s likely a community forum or chatroom that would be interested in your content.
• News/Media Outlets: While I didn’t do this personally, I do know two content creators who did get some media attention for their perilous canoe trip down the Mississippi River.

When it comes to uploading content, you might have to get a little creative as to when and where you’ll have internet access. Here are a few places to keep an eye out for if you’re in need of internet or cell phone charging while on the go:

• Libraries: Libraries always have free wifi and usually don’t care if you hang out for a while. They may even have computers you can use if you’re tired of uploading content via cell phone.
• Gas Stations: Gas stations are great places to upload content. Many offer free wifi and there are often charging ports scattered around the building.
• Rest Areas: Rest areas are a no-brainer if you’re traveling via a busy road. Along with bathrooms and snacks, these places are pretty reliable for free wifi and charging stations.
• Public Parks: While wifi may vary from park to park, keep an eye out for charging ports as well. I found parks were one of my favorite places to stop and steal a charge for a while.
• Restaurants + Coffee Shops: So long as you’re a paying customer, most businesses won’t mind you plugging your phone into their wall outlets. Some will even have free wifi you can use to upload your content.

So, there you go. If I can find a way to upload a blog post here:

Then I have the utmost confidence that you can upload your content anywhere, too.

2. People still read personal blogs.

That’s right. Social media hasn’t stolen all of blogging’s thunder. Sure, you can post like-grabbing pics on Instagram, or shoot viral videos on Tik Tok, but you can’t replace the storytelling ability that a blog platform offers.

Blogs are excellent spaces to share personal experiences, and you don’t have to be sponsored by a business to be a popular blogger, either.

In fact, our research shows that nearly a quarter of all creator businesses do not yet generate income (mine for sure didn’t). That means you don’t need to be a business to drum up an audience for your website, you just need to create compelling content.

​​

Here are some tips for creating awesome content on the go:

1. Be transparent: If you’re posting about personal experiences, make them real. People want genuine content and most are good at sniffing out when something is fake. And, as soon as they think you’re ingenuine, it’ll be hard to win them back.
2. Be optimistic: Don’t drown in your sorrows or seek empathy too often from your readers. While this may gain you some attention in the short term, people will grow tired of hearing about the negatives if they aren’t ever followed by a few positives.
3. Don’t shy away from conflict: Now don’t get me wrong. This is not me saying go out and stir up trouble. This is me saying that my two top-performing posts were the ones where I faced the biggest challenges on my journey. People want to hear about your struggles and how you overcome them so don’t be afraid to play up the dramatics when it calls for it.
4. Break the 4th wall: Don’t be afraid to talk directly to your reader. This makes the experience feel more personal like they’re on the journey with you.

3. Anyone can be a content creator.

Before this trip, the most website-building experience I had was creating my bio on AOL Instant Messenger. I do know some coding, enough to know I know nothing about coding — certainly not enough to build a full-scale website.

Fortunately, I had one thing going for me. I worked for a company that sells this website-building tool you might be familiar with. It’s called HubSpot, and like Squarespace or WordPress, one of its tools is a drag-and-drop website builder that makes blogging simple for non-technical people like me.

Is this a plug for HubSpot? Yes, but that’s not my point. My point is, anyone can build a website if they have access to a drag-and-drop page builder.

Mine took me about a week or so to design, and from there I was posting content in no time. I used a pre-built template for my web pages so none of my design involved hard coding and I was thrilled with how much customization I had access to with each of the modules that were already included on the page.

The hard part was getting into the mindset of a content creator. You have to be a little vulnerable and willing to accept that some content won’t perform as well as others. In time, you’ll get the hang of it, but learning what works and what doesn’t can certainly pose an intimidating challenge for new content creators.

4.  Content creators are everywhere.

One of the coolest things about my journey was how many other content creators I ran into. My hands-down favorites were Jesse and Fien who manage the website “Two Tired Belgians.” These two adventurers are biking from Alaska to Argentina all in one, two-year trip — putting my measly little ride through the Rockies to shame.

The good news is that you don’t have to travel 20K miles by bike to become a content creator. There are plenty of reasons to get into content creation and bikepacking is only one of many.

Below, are a few other reasons why content creators do what they do.

5. Remember, it’s just a blog.

At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that your blog is just a blog. Don’t overthink it, just enjoy it as an outlet to share your experiences with others.

After all, if you’re not making money from it, you should be having fun with it and testing what works with your audience and what doesn’t. If you aren’t having fun creating your content, your audience is not going to have fun interacting with it.

I learned this lesson when I wrote about my tent getting sprayed by a sprinkler system in the middle of a frigid night. Trying to find some humor in the situation, I wrote about the experience as if I were at war with the sprinkler system and used military terms to describe how I moved my tent to safety or “engaged in defensive maneuvers.”

I was soaking wet, cold, and sitting in the dark waiting for a sprinkler to stop spraying my tent. The last thing I wanted to do was write about it. So, I had some fun with it.

I poked fun at myself for pitching my tent in such a ridiculous spot and sarcastically applauded my efforts to salvage the night of sleep. It was quirky and probably not all that funny, but it was what I needed to do to get a post out that day.

To my surprise, this was one of my best-performing blog posts. Friends and family reached out to tell me how much they enjoyed the lighthearted storytelling and how they thought the whole situation was hilarious and was glad I shared it.

While it wasn’t my shining moment as a bikepacker, it was memorable and by putting my own humorous spin on the situation, I shared a genuine experience that my audience wanted to hear more about — isn’t that the mark of a good piece of content? 

Bonus: Dog content always sells.

If there’s one fundamental truth that I can speak to about bikeblogging, it’s that dog content always sells. It might not make sense, it might be irrelevant, but sprinkle in a few pics of pups if you can and you might just see your engagement go up a little bit.

Definitely not a science, but it’s a wagon I’m willing to hitch my horse to.

Which generation do you think is the hardest to reach with marketing content?

Is it Gen Z, hiding out on TikTok and exploring virtual worlds like Roblox? Or Millennials who many other generations think are busy with “quiet quitting?”

While the two generations above are incredibly unique, it’s neither. The data we recently found might just surprise you. 

According to our most recent survey of 1,200+ marketers, it turns out Baby Boomers (age 55+) are the hardest to reach: 

Because Boomers are the oldest generation, and might even have more purchasing power than others, you’d think we’d know them — and where to market to them — pretty well by now. Right?

The truth is, while marketers find it challenging to understand and engage younger ever-evolving generations, Boomers are the clear outlier.

Why? It all goes back to how Boomers like to discover and purchase products, which stands out like a sore thumb compared to other generations.

How Boomers’ Shopping Habits are Different

You might think Boomers are the hardest to reach because they’re not always on the internet, but our survey of over 1,000 consumers shows that more than two-thirds of Boomers use social media. On top of that, searching online is one of the most common ways they discover new products.

So what exactly is it that makes the 65+ audience so hard to reach? In a nutshell, most marketing efforts targeting either Gen Z, Millennials, or Gen X will likely reach all three generations to some extent – while leaving boomers in the dark.

For example, marketers can effectively reach the three younger generations by advertising on social media, streaming services, and on YouTube — but this would do a terrible job of reaching Boomers, shown in yellow below.

Just 17% of Boomers have discovered a product on social media in the past 3 months. This drops to 13% for streaming services like Netflix, and goes down to 8% for YouTube ads. In comparison, these are among the best channels for reaching Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X.

So where can you actually reach the elusive Baby Boomers?

 

The Top 3 Marketing Channels to Reach Boomers

Television Ads Drive Boomer Product Discovery

More than any other generation, Boomers prefer to discover new products through television ads, which is also where they discover new products most often

Online Search is Second Best, but Boomers Do It Differently

Online search is second-best for reaching Baby Boomers. While this channel is also a top product discovery channel across generations, Boomers are searching differently.

All other generations heavily favor their phones for online shopping, while most Boomers are using their computers.

Boomers Prefer Retail Shopping More Than Any Other Generation

Another common and highly preferred product discovery channel for Boomers is in retail stores. 44% of Boomers have found new products in stores in the past 3 months, and 37% of them say it is their preferred method. Both numbers are the highest of any other generation.

Keeping Up With Consumer Trends

Boomers might be the most unique, but each generation has its own way of engaging with brands and their content.

To keep you updated on how each generation’s shopping habits change over time, we’ll be running our consumer trends survey twice a year. For a more detailed breakdown of Boomers’ shopping habits, along with every other generation, check out our full Consumer Trends Report.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation went up 8.2% between September 2021 and September 2022. As a result, experts theorized that this would take a toll on both retailers and shoppers.

Shoppers would be looking for larger-than-normal discounts while retailers could struggle to offer them.

Below, we’ll highlight what we learned from polling 300+ consumers after this Black Friday. Then, we’ll share a few marketing tips on creating effective Black Friday ads.

What We Learned About Black Friday Shoppers & Brands in 2022

1. Inflation didn’t have the impact we expected.

The word everyone had on their mind in the weeks leading up to Black Friday was inflation. With inflation up over 7%, retailers feared consumer spending would be much lower than typical.

According to Retail Dive, brands like Target and ThredUp projected lower earnings for Q4.

Contrary to speculation, consumer spending did not see a sharp decrease this year. In fact, one Adobe Analytics report found that online spending was up 2.3% year-over-year.

One way consumers handled rising inflation is by using buy-now-pay-later services. According to a CNBC report, these transactions increased 78% compared to the week prior.

One thing’s for sure: Black Friday is no longer the long lines and midnight openings. Consumers believe they can get the same – or better – deals online and as such, visiting a store will require a different motivation.

For ecommerce brands, this is great news. For offline brands, this may require adopting a new approach that prioritizes an online-first strategy.

More on that in the next section.

2. Ecommerce brands are outperforming stores.

One Criteo survey suggests that Black Friday is becoming more like Cyber Monday, as consumers are conducting most of their transactions online.

The survey found that retailers’ websites saw a 9% year-over-year increase in the week leading up to Black Friday. In addition, consumers increased their online transactions by 4.8% globally.

Here’s another shocking figure: Online transactions for U.S. retailers increased over 374% month-over-month whereas in-store ones only increased by 64%. This suggests that online deals are more enticing to consumers.

Retailers in the EMEA region also saw similar trends, although the increases weren’t as high.

According to the Criteo study, a large reason for that is price. Consumers spend a lot of time online to find the best deals and they also believe they can find better prices this way versus in person.

We surveyed 325 U.S. consumers and when asked, “Did you go to a physical store on Black Friday after seeing an ad for its deals?” only 38.5% answered yes.

3. Social media was a top channel for Black Friday ad engagement.

It seems impossible to go through Black Friday without seeing at least one ad. When we ran this survey last year, respondents clicked on the ads they saw on social media the most.

This year, online ads (meaning on websites or search engines) took the #1 spot with 32.9% of respondents saying those are the Black Friday ads they clicked on. However, social media came close with 32%.

Social media can be a big revenue driver when it comes to Black Friday ads. And the opportunities it offers continue to expand.

Let’s take a look at Instagram for example. You can discover a brand, scroll through its profile, see a product you like, and complete a purchase without ever leaving the platform.

With so many social media platforms offering ecommerce features, brands can attract shoppers at any stage of the buyer’s journey and consumers can experience a seamless shopping experience. It’s a win-win.

From an advertising perspective, it’s important that brands strategize and launch their campaigns early.

According to Nerd Wallet, brands like Target and Amazon started their Black Friday campaigns as early as Oct. 6 this year.

This is in response to a recent consumer trend where shoppers start their holiday shopping earlier than in previous years. As a result, brands are launching early to ensure potential consumers are seeing which promotions they have to offer.

So, instead of waiting for the week leading up to Black Friday, when timelines are already flooded with ads, consider starting a few weeks before and you may get better results.

5 Tips for Creating Effective Black Friday Ads

1. Plan (and launch) early.

This year, consumers started holiday shopping early.

We can’t predict with full accuracy what things will look like next year. So, in absence of knowledge, it’s better to stay ready so you don’t have to get ready.

In other words, don’t start planning your promotion strategy in early November. You want to give your team enough time to plan an effective strategy that will reach your target audience at the right place and at the right time.

You’ll need enough time to craft a plan, develop the strategy, build the creative assets, and launch the campaign. You’ll also need to account for any obstacles you may encounter along the way.

2. Highlight how a service or product can solve for your customer.

Your ads should aim to educate ideal customers about your offerings, how they can help them, or why they might need them in their daily lives.

But, how do you convey that your offerings are valuable, important, or necessities when you don’t actually sell an essential product? Although it can take some creativity, it is possible to do this.

Above is an example of Twitter content from InfoArmor, an information security service owned by Allstate.

In the tweet, InfoArmor shared a blog post about the dangers of information security when working remotely and how InfoArmor could protect remote employee information.

3. Diversify your promotion channels.

We mentioned that social media is a huge revenue generator during Black Friday.

However, that doesn’t mean it’s the only channel you should leverage to attract shoppers. In fact, you should promote your ads across all channels to maximize your reach.

Have a newsletter? Share your offers there. You could also consider running a Google Ads campaign.

Regardless of which online platforms you embrace, be sure to create content that speaks to those customers, rather than just placing a basic ad on every website you can access.

By creating content that’s tailored to the platforms your customers use, you’ll increase the likelihood of catching their eyes as they scroll through endless web pages, feeds, or email inboxes. And, once you grab their attention, you can use that content to highlight your value proposition in an entertaining or interesting way.

For example, if you’re creating an ad for Instagram, it might be tempting to just use a picture of the ad you made for a website or newspaper on with a basic caption.

But, that might not be engaging for people scrolling through their feeds looking for valuable product information or entertaining content. Instead, consider creating a short marketing video or a series of photos of customers with your product to better engage this audience.

Below is a great example of a Black Friday post that could also work well as an ad on Instagram. The post shows a video demo of someone from Hair Vivi putting on one of the brand’s wigs.

While the video shows viewers how easy it is to put on the wig, the caption also highlights the product’s value and the company’s Black Friday deals.

4. Present deals, sales, or affordable offers.

Budget-conscious shoppers will be looking for the best deals this holiday season. If you can offer a deal or sale on your product or offering, highlight that information in your advertising.

Here’s a great ad from Walmart that highlights all the online deals they’ll be offering this year:

Along with the ad highlighting a bunch of great deals and alternatives for Black Friday in-person sales, the ad is also interesting because it’s interactive online but formatted so it can also work as a static print ad if needed.

Aside from the ad above, Walmart has created content with a similar aesthetic and deal-oriented message for social media platforms like Facebook. Here’s a screenshot of featured content on its Facebook Business page.

5. Embrace video marketing.

If you think video marketing is only for big brands, think again.

In our 2022 State of Marketing Report, we found that video is the leading form of marketing content used across industries. And, with Gen-Z and millennials embracing video more than ever for product discovery, this format becomes more of a low-hanging fruit each year.

In the last year, we’ve seen all sorts of small and large brands affordably embrace video to attract and nurture leads.

Every Black Friday is an opportunity to learn more about your target audience. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t, and look out for trends that will help you improve your ad strategy.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in December 2019 but was updated for freshness and comprehensiveness.

When creating a company site, few things are more important than website homepage designs. The homepage is your brand’s virtual front door. If a new visitor doesn’t like what they see, their knee-jerk reaction is to hit the “back” button.

What makes a website’s homepage design brilliant instead of bland? It has to look good — but it also has to work even better. That’s why the most brilliant homepages on this list don’t just score high in beauty but also in brains and creativity.

Before we dive into the examples, let’s go over best practices. You’ll notice the best website homepage designs we look at take these principles and implement them for optimal results.

All of the homepage designs shown here use a combination of the following elements.

Not every page is perfect, but the best homepage designs get many of these right.

1. The design clearly answers “Who I am,” “What I do,” and/or “What can you (the visitor) do here.”

If you’re a well-known brand or company (i.e., Coca-Cola) you may be able to get away with not having to describe who you are and what you do; but the reality is, most businesses still need to answer these questions so that each visitor knows they are in the “right place.”

Steven Krugg sums it up best in his best-selling book, Don’t Make Me Think: If visitors can’t identify what it is you do within seconds, they won’t stick around long.

2. The design resonates with the target audience.

A homepage needs to be narrowly focused — speaking to the right people in their language. The best homepages avoid “corporate gobbledygook,” and eliminate the fluff.

3. The design communicates a compelling value proposition.

When a visitor arrives on your homepage, it needs to compel them to stick around. The homepage is the best place to nail your value proposition so that prospects choose to stay on your website and not navigate to your competitors’.

4. The design is optimized for multiple devices.

All the homepages listed here are highly usable, meaning they are easy to navigate and there aren’t “flashy” objects that get in the way of browsing, such as flash banners, animations, pop-ups, or overly-complicated and unnecessary elements. Many are also mobile-optimized, which is an incredibly important must-have in today’s mobile world.

5. The design includes calls-to-action (CTAs).

Every homepage listed here effectively uses primary and secondary calls-to-action to direct visitors to the next logical step. Examples include “Free Trial,” “Schedule a Demo,” “Buy Now,” or “Learn More.”

Remember, the goal of the homepage is to compel visitors to dig deeper into your website and move them further down the funnel. CTAs tell them what to do next so they don’t get overwhelmed or lost. More importantly, CTAs turn your homepage into a sales or lead-generation engine, and not just brochure-wear.

6. The design is always changing.

The best homepages aren’t always static. Some of them are constantly changing to reflect the needs, problems, and questions of their visitors. Some homepages also change from A/B testing or dynamic content.

7. The design is effective.

A well-designed page is essential to build trust, communicate value, and navigate visitors to the next step. As such, these homepages effectively use layout, CTA placement, whitespace, colors, fonts, and other supporting elements.

Now, let’s dive into 23 examples demonstrating what excellent website homepage designs can do for real businesses.

1. FreshBooks

VIEW ENTIRE HOMEPAGE

Why It’s Brilliant

• It’s easy to consume. There is much debate on whether short or long homepages work better. If you choose to do the latter, you need to make it easy to scroll and read — and that’s exactly what this site does. It almost acts like a story.
• There’s great use of contrast and positioning with the primary calls-to-action — it’s clear what the company wants you to convert on when you arrive.
• The copy used in the calls-to-action “Buy Now & Save” is compelling.
• FreshBooks uses customer testimonials on the homepage to tell real-world stories of why to use the product.

2. Airbnb

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant

• It includes the destination and date search form that most visitors come looking for, right up front, guiding visitors to the logical next step.
• The search form is “smart,” meaning it’ll auto-fill the user’s last search if they’re logged in.
• The primary call-to-action (“Search”) contrasts with the background and stands out; but the secondary call-to-action for hosts is visible above the fold, too.
• It offers suggestions for excursions and getaways Airbnb users can book on the same site as their lodgings to get visitors more excited about booking their trip on the site. It also shows which of these offerings are most popular among other users.

3. Pixelgrade

Why It’s Brilliant

• You know right off the bat what this company is all about: WordPress Themes. The big title, followed by a descriptive subtitle, lets visitors know what to expect.
• The design is simple, and the color combination does a great job of making the call to action stand out.
• The right side provides a glimpse into what the company’s  WordPress themes look like without having to scroll or dig deeper.

4. Mint

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant

• It’s a simple design with a strong, no-jargon headline and sub-headline.
• The homepage gives off a secure but easy-going vibe, which is important for a product that handles financial information.
• It also contains a simple, direct, and compelling call-to-action copy: “Sign up free.” The CTA design is also brilliant — the secured lock icon hits home the safety message once again.

5. Dropbox (Business)

View entire homepage 

Why It’s Brilliant

• Dropbox carries over its simple design and branding. It includes everything important: A big, bold, call-to-action button “Find your plan” along with a sample image to show you everything that Dropbox is capable of
• Dropbox’s homepage and website is the ultimate example of simplicity. It limits its use of copy and visuals and embraces whitespace.
• Its headline is simple yet powerful: “Do more than store with Dropbox” It leaves a little bit to the imagination of the reader of the endless possibilities

6. 4 Rivers Smokehouse

Why It’s Brilliant

• The emphasis on family, community and locally made food gives you every reason to want to support this business. And that’s before you get to the video playback, showing the exquisite food here.
• The bright orange buttons for ordering direct your attention to the meat of the page. If you want a great meal, you are just one click away.

7. The Stepping Stone Group

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant

• This website is beautiful in its simplicity. The backdrop shows real families who have worked with the Stepping Stones Group and seen results. The headline appeals to the visitors’ emotional side: “Transforming Lives Together.” This subtle messaging is effective because it includes the visitor in this process.
• There are several pathways visitors can take when they arrive on the page, but the calls-to-action are positioned well, worded, and in contrast with the rest of the page.

8. Melyssa Griffin

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant

• Melyssa immediately demonstrates value to the visitor with a quick and fun quiz. This is a clear call to action.
• She adds a face to her brand. This isn’t just a random website; she makes it clear she’s a human with a personality whom people can connect to.
• The page uses bright colors without being overwhelming and makes it easy to understand what Melyssa’s central business offerings are.

9. Jill Konrath

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant

• It’s simple and gets straight to the point. From the headline and sub-headline, it’s clear exactly what Jill Konrath does (and how she can help your business).
• It also gives easy access to Jill’s thought leadership materials, which is important to establishing her credibility as a keynote speaker.
• It’s easy to subscribe to the newsletter and get in touch — two of her primary calls to action.
• The pop-up subscription CTA uses social proof to get you to join her thousands of other fans.
• It includes news outlet logos and testimonials as social proof.

10. Evernote

Why It’s Brilliant

• Over the years, Evernote has turned from a simple note-saving app into a suite of business products. This isn’t always easy to convey on a homepage, but Evernote does a nice job of packaging many potential messages into a few key benefits.
• This homepage uses a combination of white space and its signature bright green and white highlights to make conversion paths stand out.
• Following a simple headline (“Remember Everything”), the eye path then leads you to its call to action, “Sign Up For Free.”
• Evernote also offers a one-click signup process through Google to help visitors save even more time.

11. Telerik and Kendo UI

Why It’s Brilliant

• “Stuffy enterprise” isn’t the feeling you get when you arrive at Telerik’s website. For a company that offers many technology products, its bold colors, fun designs, and videography give off an elegant and modern vibe. Just one important aspect of making visitors feel welcome and letting them know they’re dealing with real people.
• The simple, high-level overview of its six product offers is a very clear way of communicating what the company does and how people can learn more.
• The copy is lightweight and easy to read. It speaks the language of its customers.

12. eWedding

Why It’s Brilliant

• For those love birds planning their big day, eWedding is a great destination for building a custom wedding website. The homepage isn’t cluttered and only includes the necessary elements to get people to start building their websites.
• The sub-headline “912,470 couples can’t be wrong!” is great social proof of the company’s effectiveness.
• The headline is straightforward, and the site includes a call-to-action that reduces friction with the copy, “Start Now.”

13. Basecamp

Why It’s Brilliant

• For a long time, Basecamp has had brilliant homepages, and here you can see why. It often features awesome headlines and clever cartoons.
• The call-to-action is bold and above the fold.
• In this example, the company chose a more blog-like homepage (or single page site approach), which provides much more information on the product.
• The customer quote is a bold and emphatic testimonial speaking to the benefits and results of using the product.

14. charity: water

Why It’s Brilliant

• This isn’t your typical non-profit website. Lots of visuals, creative copy, and the use of interactive web design make this stand out.
• The donation box is a great way to capture attention and allow visitors to donate frictionlessly.
• It employs great uses of video and photography, particularly in capturing emotion that causes action.

15. TechValidate by SurveyMonkey

Why It’s Brilliant

• This homepage is beautifully designed. The use of whitespace, contrasting colors, and customer-centric design are particularly noteworthy.
• The headline is clear and compelling, as are the calls to action.
• There’s also a great information hierarchy, making it easy to scan and understand the page quickly.

16. Chipotle

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant

• The homepage is a great example of agility and constant change. Chipotle’s current homepage is all about the food, which it uses as a unique value proposition to get you to start clicking through your site.
• The food photography is detailed and mouthwateringly beautiful. Now that’s an effective use of visuals.

17. Medium

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant

• The subtle use of whitespace allows Medium to highlight some of their trending articles to get visitors interested and give an idea of what they can expect to find.
• The headline “Stay curious” immediately tells users what the website is about. Medium makes it easy to sign up — click “Get Started.”
• The homepage uses social proof to get visitors to start clicking around: The “Popular on Medium” and “Staff Picks” sections let me know where to find high-quality content.

18. Digiday

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant

• Unlike other online news publications that inundate homepages with as many headlines and images as possible, Digiday’s homepage highlights one article. Its featured image is eye-catching, and the headline asks to be clicked now that the visitor knows what they’re going to read.
• The top of the homepage shows off each of the different resources on Digiday’s website, letting you see all they offer.
• The use of whitespace is a great way to highlight the different trending topics and articles available on Digiday’s website.

19. KIND Snacks

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant

• The bold colors produce contrast, making the words and images stand out on the page.
• “Explore our snacks” at the bottom of the page is a great way to let visitors visualize what is available for purchase.
• KIND also makes great use of the holiday season, creating a good CTA for their holiday sale.

20. Ahrefs

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant

• The color contrast between the blue, white, and orange colors is eye-catching and makes the headline and CTA pop.
• The sub-headline and CTA are a compelling pair: To start tracking and outranking competitors for free is a great offer.
• The homepage presents many options for the visitor, but it isn’t cluttered, thanks to the solid background and simple typography.

21. A24 Films

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant

• The film company’s homepage is made up of only trailers for its new films. We know video content is format audiences want to see more of, and this is a great strategy to showcase A24’s work in a highly engaging way.
• At the top of the homepage, A24 offers a clean and concise menu that directs customers to all the most important parts of its website.

22. Ellevest

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant

• The images show, rather than tell, one of the company’s value propositions: a desktop site and mobile app that move with you.
• “Get Started” is a great CTA — in fact, we use it ourselves here at HubSpot. When clicked, it takes visitors through a few simple steps to set up a profile and start investing.
• The “As Featured In” section is great social proof and features several prominent brands that users are familiar with.

23. HubSpot

View entire homepage

Why It’s Brilliant (If We Do Say So Ourselves)

• “Powerful, not overpowering” is a perfect descriptor, paired with a simple image of the CRM to prove our belief in this tagline. Note how white space is used at the top to bring visitors’ attention to the different features offered.
• Throughout the homepage, our bright blue and orange themes keep returning to draw your eye to links and CTAs.

Getting Started With Homepage Designs

Finding the perfect homepage design is a tall task, but keep an eye out for the common themes in the designs we curated here. Look for ways to get across cohesive branding imagery without being overbearing.

Most important of all, make sure your company’s strengths shine through in your webpage design.

Looking for more inspiration? Check out these incredible About Us pages or a Theme Marketplace.

 

Taking the risk with any new platform is daunting. After all, no one wants to dedicate their time, energy, or budget into something with little return.

That said, it’s hard to ignore the hype around TikTok, its fantastic engagement rate, and its massive user base. If you’re willing to get creative, TikTok could be the perfect home for your short-form videos.

Here, I spoke with HubSpot’s social media team to gather their best tips for bringing your brand on TikTok.

1. Know where your audience hangs out.

It’s important to know where your audience hangs out online. For some brands, this includes TikTok — for others, not so much. For instance, if you sell retirement homes, you won’t get much traction with the platform’s predominantly younger audience.

“TikTok is obviously all the rage right now, and it makes sense that brands want to jump in. But before you do so, make sure to take time to ask the right questions: Does it make sense for our brand to show up on TikTok? Is our target audience there?,” advises Annabelle Nyst, senior marketing manager at HubSpot.

If you’re debating whether or not to bring your brand on TikTok, remember to hinge your decision on the most important factor: your target audience.

2. Find your “why.”

Getting started on TikTok can feel overwhelming, especially when you don’t have a goal to work towards. 

Think of your goal as your compass. It influences the videos you make, the topics you cover, and your overall strategy. You don’t need to have a specific goal right off the bat — and it will likely change over time — but you should have an idea of the general direction you want to go.

Here are a few common goals:

• Build an engaged community
• Increase brand awareness
• Improve brand image
• Promote products
• Generate website traffic
• Expand your audience
• Provide customer service
• Educate your audience

It’s just as important to track your progress. Take a look at several key performance indicators (KPIs) like profile views, video views, video likes, and follower growth to see if you’re inching closer to your goals.

3. Determine how you’ll provide value.

The next step is determining how you want to present your brand on TikTok. For Nyst, this starts with answering a simple question: how will you provide value to users?

“Asking this question upfront will help you establish what your purpose is for being on TikTok, and what your brand’s presence might look like on the platform,” she told me.

For instance, Gymshark, a popular fitness apparel brand, provides value by entertaining its fans with fitness-related challenges, skits, and clothing hauls. It’s no surprise the brand has over 4 million followers on the platform.

Because TikTok is quirky by nature, it creates a misconception that “serious” brands don’t have a place on the platform. This isn’t true. However, you may have to approach your brand from a different angle. 

For example, the Washington Post has raked up over 1 million followers on TikTok. If you haven’t seen their videos, you might expect serious content. Instead, you’ll find comedic skits about the latest breaking news.

The ultimate goal is to provide value in an engaging way. This is achievable for many brands — serious or not.

4. Save time by creating a content calendar.

TikTok surpassed 1 billion monthly active users in 2021. On top of that, millions of conversations happen on the platform daily, and trends come and go at rapid speed. 

In short, TikTok can get overwhelming. For this reason, Nyst recommends planning a content calendar. 

“Things move quickly on TikTok, and gaining new followers often depends on having a bank of existing content on your profile. So, think ahead to how many videos a week you’d like to post, and what kind of topics you’ll focus on,” she advises.

That said, TikTok is a trends-driven platform, so make sure to leave space in your content calendar to jump on trends and create time-sensitive content.

Additionally, you also need to decide how often you should post on TikTok. Nyst favors quality over quantity, advising brands to aim for 1-2 videos per week. In other words, consistency is key.

Another upside to posting consistently? The more you post, the more insights you gain from your viewers. This will help you understand what topics and video styles they respond to the most.

Want to know the best day and time to publish your videos on TikTok? Check out this helpful guide.

5. Insert your voice strategically.

When you first join TikTok, it’s tempting to join every conversation, hop on every trend, and participate in every challenge. However, brands need to set guardrails and be strategic with their content, says Nyst.

“There are so many conversations happening at once on TikTok, and they’re changing all the time. It’s important to remember that your brand doesn’t need to be a part of every single conversation – so try to pick the ones where it makes sense to insert your voice,” Nyst told me.

She adds, “Sure, the latest dance trend might be exciting, but can your brand actually bring something new, unique, or valuable to the table?”

Not every trend or challenge will align with your brand or its messaging. On top of that, if you can’t add a new or unique spin, it’s better to skip it entirely. But don’t worry about missing out — trends on TikTok are a dime a dozen, and another one is right around the corner.

Back To You

TikTok is the new kid on the block — and has quickly become a viable (and exciting) marketing platform. Before jumping in, make sure that TikTok makes sense for your brand. Once you’re on the platform, focus on targeting your audience with valuable content on a consistent basis.