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The media landscape has changed significantly over the years thanks to the rise of the internet and social media. With platforms like YouTube and TikTok, anyone can go online, create content, and find their niche audience. As a result, media has become more decentralized than ever, and millions of content creators have created a new space in the entertainment industry — the creator economy.

But what exactly is the creator economy, and why should marketers care? Here’s everything marketers need to know:

What is the creator economy?

Social Media’s Role in the Creator Economy

Platforms with Content Creator Funds and Programs

How Brands Should Use the Creator Economy

What is the creator economy?

The creator economy is an online-facilitated economy comprised of millions of content creators, such as social media influencers, videographers, bloggers, and other digital creatives. The creator economy also includes software and tools designed to help these creators grow and profit from their content.

The creator economy is a relatively new addition to the media and entertainment industry, and it’s something that anyone from any generation can be a part of. Whether you’re a millennial with a true crime podcast or a Gen Z fashionista with a style blog — you can be a part of the creator economy in whatever niche you choose.

Think about it — if a TikTok account rating bathroom sinks around New York City can go viral, then there really is no limit to what’s possible in the content creation business.

Social Media’s Role in the Creator Economy

The rise of social media has fueled growth in the creator economy. According to Forbes, there are about 50 million content creators across multiple platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitch. That’s about 50 million people participating in the creator economy.

The creator economy saw significant growth during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, many people found themselves working from home or looking for new income streams due to budget cuts and layoffs. This resulted in more people having more time or incentives to create content on platforms like TikTok, Twitch, and YouTube.

In fact, TikTok saw a significant increase in users during the height of the pandemic, which directly contributed to a boom in the content creator economy. According to Statista, TikTok experienced a growth of 180% among users ages 15-25 after the pandemic broke out in the U.S. in 2020.

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Aside from financial opportunities (and an escape from boredom), social media provides a digital space for almost anyone to post their content, promote their work, and build a loyal fanbase. In the creator economy, you can be a creator without investing in expensive equipment or getting the backing of major studios.

For example, Kyle Prue rose to fame on TikTok with videos showcasing his dry humor. All his videos are shot from his apartment using his iPhone and the mic on his Apple headphones. Despite his simple setup, Prue has over 1 million followers on TikTok and 32.5 million likes.

He also wrote and starred in his dark comedy-drama web series, “The Rabbit,” which he posted to YouTube for viewers to watch for free. Prue put the series together with his own money and without the help of any major studios or production companies. Each episode has between 20,000 to 71,000 views.

Platforms with Content Creator Funds and Programs

As I mentioned, many people turned to the creator economy to earn money — especially at the start of the pandemic when companies were experiencing hiring freezes and layoffs. Many digital platforms contribute to this economy via their creator funds and programs, including:

YouTube

For years, content creators on YouTube have made money via ad revenue from video advertisements. YouTube also has the YouTube Partner Programs, which gives creators access to exclusive features and various monetization opportunities. To compete with TikTok, YouTube also launched the YouTube Shorts Fund, dedicating a total of $100 million to creators from 2021 to 2022.

Instagram

To keep up with the growing creator economy, Instagram has rolled out many new opportunities for creators to earn money off their posts to the app. One opportunity is the Instagram Live Badges, which allows users to send monetary tips to their favorite creators during live streams. Another opportunity is the Instagram Reels Play Bonus Program, where creators earn money based on the performance of their Reel.

Other monetary opportunities include:

• Branded content
• Shops for creators to sell directly to their followers
• In-stream video ads
• Affiliate programs

TikTok

TikTok’s Creator Next Program includes its $200 million creator fund, tipping and gifting opportunities, and a creator marketplace to connect creators with brands. The creator fund is accessible to many creators, including those with only 10,000 followers — so long as they have at least 100,000 video views within 30 days.

Twitch

Streaming platform Twitch has its Twitch Partner Program, where creators can earn income in multiple ways. One way is through channel subscriptions. With channel subscriptions, streamers earn revenue when their viewers subscribe via the following options: Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, or Prime.

Bits is another feature of the program, allowing viewers to purchase virtual goods to “cheer” on streamers. Streamers get a percentage of the revenue Twitch receives from these purchases. And finally, Twitch streams can earn money via ad revenue from ads run during their streams.

Other Ways Content Creators Make Money

Though many social media platforms provide creators opportunities to make money through creator funds and programs, content creator earnings typically aren’t very high.

According to a survey by NeoReach and Influencer Marketing Hub, only 1.4% of the 2,000 content creators surveyed earn over $1.4 million annually. Only a little over 20% make a livable wage of $50K or more a year. To combat this issue, content creators will often supplement their income by other means, such as:

• Brand deals and partnerships
• Sponsored content
• Paid subscriptions
• VIP meet-ups
• Event hosting
• Merchandise
• Live and virtual events

Some content creators may also use their online presence as a stepping stone toward more lucrative ventures. For instance, Tabitha Brown is a social media personality and actress who became famous on TikTok for her calming videos of affirmations and recipes.

Her fame on social media led her to being cast in popular television shows like Showtime’s “The Chi.” Brown also has her own show, “All Love,” on Ellen DeGeneres’ digital platform EllenTube as well as a bestselling cookbook and an ongoing partnership with Target.

How Brands Should Use the Creator Economy

Viewers tend to care more about people and personalities than brands in the creator economy. As a result, many major brands have struggled to find their footing on platforms like TikTok or Twitch. However, there is still a way brands should tap into the creator economy to grow their audience and gain revenue — influencer marketing.

Brands should reach out to influencers with a loyal social media following to spread the word about their products or services. A great example of influencer marketing would be the work of TikTok personality Drew Afualo. Afualo is famous on TikTok for creating videos that poke fun at misogynists and uplift women.

Since gaining millions of followers on the app, Afualo has been tapped to promote films like “The Lost City,” starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum.

Online fashion retailer Shein has also worked with Afualo to promote the company’s SheinX collection.

There are many ways to leverage Influencer marketing. Popular tactics include social media takeovers in which an influencer “takes over” a brand’s social media account for a day. Some brands like Genius will host live Q&As with influencers or celebrities on platforms like Instagram Live or Twitter Spaces. Additionally, paid partnerships, product placement, and sponsorships are considered tried and true methods.

Just remember — if you’re leveraging influencer marketing, you’ll need to ensure the influencer’s content and image align with that of your brand. After all, you should always practice discernment with who or what is associated with your brand or organization.

The creator economy is how influencers and creatives earn income by creating content that is unique to them and taps into their niche audience. However, it’s also an excellent avenue for brands to generate awareness and remain relevant in an ever-changing media landscape. Now that you know about this growing economy, you can find new and innovative ways to incorporate it into your marketing strategy.

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.

Networking is connecting with other business professionals, building relationships within and outside your field, and diving into your story to establish the “why” behind your work.

Effective networking highlights your expertise and that of your peers so that you can find a middle ground of opportunity, collaboration, and collective problem-solving. Because of the power of networking, professionals are often told to focus on building their networks.

That is easier said than done, though, because people from marginalized communities — specifically individuals who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) — have historically been underrepresented and left out of the very spaces that are necessary to be in to make those valuable connections.

In this post, we’ll discuss why networking can be a challenge for LGBTQ+ professionals, where LGBTQ+ professionals can network, and tips for successful networking.

Why is networking a challenge for LGBTQ+ professionals?

The lack of access and representation in leadership roles at organizations can make networking a uniquely arduous task for LGBTQ+ people.

A June 2020 report from McKinsey & Company found that openly LGBTQ+ women comprise only 1.6 percent of managers and an even smaller share of more senior levels within organizations. LGBTQ+ men make up 3% of senior managers/directors, 1.9% of vice presidents, and 2.9% of senior vice presidents.  The same report found that transgender people face exceptionally sharp barriers to advancement in the workplace, and their experience is distinct from that of cisgender people who also identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer.

As a result, finding people to network with that share common values and experiences can be challenging, which is why events specifically for LGBTQ+ professionals are a valuable place to develop relationships.

Where can LGBTQ+ people network?

Professional conferences and events are an excellent opportunity to shift the narrative on representation as they provide opportunities for LGBTQ+ people to network and build connections. And, a beneficial aspect of networking at conferences is that they typically have a sense of community built in via curated programming and central themes.

For LGBTQ+ people, the built-in community environment of conferences can be particularly helpful because research shows that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to feel isolated and less supported by their peers, and management, in workplaces. In addition, conferences also give attendees access to industry leaders they otherwise might not meet to share their stories, experiences, and expertise with.

 

So how can LGBTQ+ people harness the power of networking at conferences? This is an especially important question to answer in 2022 as events return in full force since being largely halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

8 Networking Tips for LGBTQ+ Professionals

Returning to in-person or hybrid networking across virtual and in-person spaces can feel awkward after being out of practice for several years. Here are eight tips to get you started to maximize your opportunities as an LGBTQ+ professional.

1. Find the conference or event’s target audience.

The first step before entering any new situation is to know who your audience is, aka who will be there. Are you attending a primarily or exclusively LGBTQ+ professional conference such as Lesbians Who Tech & Allies and The Out & Equal Workplace Summit, or is it a general industry-wide conference?

When you have this information, it becomes easier to create a plan of action for establishing goals and how you’ll approach people at the event.

2. Create a 360 plan.

Once you know your audience, you can make a 360 plan, meaning what you need to do before the conference, during, and afterward. Yes, any good networking plan involves a post-conference plan, like establishing the tools you’ll use to follow up after meeting new contacts (or reconnecting with former contacts).

A great strategy is to develop a post-conference spreadsheet of the contacts you met,  organize the spreadsheet by industry or company, and include notes about your interactions, talking points or questions you have, etc.

Here are some other questions to take into consideration as you develop your 360 conference networking plan:

• Who do you want to connect with? — Are there specific individuals, people from specific organizations, companies, or industries?
• What do you want to know? — Are you interested in exploring current industry trends, challenges that people in similar roles to you are having, or any new projects people are working on?

3. Establish clear expectations and goals.

Part of developing your plan is establishing clear expectations and goals. Doing this helps you manage your time better and avoid the sense of overwhelm that can be common at conferences from the pressure to connect with as many people as possible.  

Be specific and clear in these goals and expectations. Most importantly, be realistic. For example,

• “I want to walk away with x number of new contacts” — If you are going to use #’s as metrics, be realistic about this. Bigger/more is NOT always better.
• “I want to connect with people from x organization or company.”
• “I want to share my experiences doing x with x people.”

4. Set personal boundaries.

Along with setting clear goals and expectations, you should also be setting clear boundaries.  

We don’t often discuss or think about boundaries regarding networking because the old adage is “More is better.”

Still, setting boundaries can mean not accepting people misgendering you or disrespecting your identity, carefully considering offers for connection to see if they’re relevant to you, asking questions to ensure your expertise is not being taken advantage of, and honoring yourself and your needs as you meet new people.

5. Take advantage of tech tools for connecting.

An integral part of developing your networking plan should be taking advantage of tech tools for connecting.

Many conferences use apps that allow attendees to make profiles, share contact information, make virtual business cards, and more. Take advantage of these tech tools to build your profile and identify people you want to connect with beforehand.

Additionally, ensure your LinkedIn or other profiles are up to date before attending the event. LinkedIn can be a major tool to drive engagement and new connections, especially during and post-conference.

6. Connect for community, not clout (and appreciate the slow build).

Focus on making genuine connections and building community versus falling into the trap of quid pro quo networking “I can do this for you if you can do this for me.” Avoid transactional relationships, and focus on building genuine relationships.

Additionally, appreciate the slow build, especially coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic — people are getting used to reconnecting and networking. It takes more time than it used to to establish those connections, especially if you are trying to break into a new industry or field.

7. Share your unique story.

Your story is the heart of who you are and, in many cases, the “why” behind your work. Come up with 3-4 core talking points of who you are and your why that you will be able to share with folks in conversation as you meet them.

You can even take the next step by having materials ready to showcase who you are, examples of your work, and how to get in touch with you.

8. Take breaks.

Take breaks throughout the conference day. Build them into your schedule, even if they aren’t built into the event schedule itself. You do not have to attend every session, plenary, or talk to maximize your networking capabilities at conferences and events.

On TikTok, anyone can go viral. But due to its quirky nature, it’s often the most creative or silly videos that skyrocket.

Of course, it also helps that TikTok has a massive audience who are super engaged. To increase your chances of being seen, there are a few tips and tricks we recommend you try. 

From leveraging trending audio to green screen effects, read on to discover the 10 best TikTok tricks.

1. Stitch top-performing or relevant videos.

Stitch is a tool that enables you to combine another video on TikTok with one you’re creating. It’s yet another way to collaborate with other TikTokers, leverage user-generated content, and expand your reach.

Start by looking for top-performing videos in your niche. You can do this by using the search bar and typing keywords relating to your brand. Or, check if any videos directly mention your brand.

Once you find a video to stitch, tap the Share icon on the right-hand side.

Then, tap Stitch. This will open an editing tool where you can select five seconds of the video to use in yours.

Let’s look at stitching in action with an example from Puma.

Example: Puma

In case you’re out of the loop, latte art is a huge deal on TikTok — amassing over 2.4 billion views. When one user put the Puma logo on top of a steaming cup of coffee, the brand decided to join the action by “stitching” the original video and attempting to recreate it.

This is a great example of a brand collaborating with its audience and leveraging user-generated content.

2. Use the green screen effect.

TikTok has many filters and effects, but one stands out from the crowd: the green screen effect.

Like a traditional green screen, this effect lets you stay on-screen while different images appear in the background. It adds a whole new level of storytelling by incorporating visual aids.

This filter is ideal for explaining topics, providing recommendations, or whenever visuals could complement your story.

For instance, suppose you’re a fitness influencer. You could explain the proper form of an exercise by referencing photos in the background. In this case, the background visuals enhance your commentary rather than distract from it.

Example: Levi’s

Using the green screen effect, Levi’s recommends different jeans using product photos in the background. Viewers can easily follow along, and seeing pictures of the jeans may pique their interest.

3. Leverage trending audio.

88% of TikTok users say sound is essential to the TikTok experience. It grabs people’s attention and adds flavor to your content. And for many users, it’s the starting point for creating a great video.

Online communities are internet groups where people with shared interests interact, have discussions, and form relationships.

According to HubSpot’s State of Consumer Trends Report, 24% of social media users have actively participated in an online community in the last three months.

This post will delve into why consumers join online communities, the benefits they get from participating in them, and what this means for marketers.

Why Consumers Participate in Online Communities

The HubSpot Blog’s Consumer Trends Report surveyed over 1000+ consumers and asked them why they join online communities. The top reasons were for fun, to share their same interests with others, and to stay connected with their communities.

Online communities are especially impactful for Gen Z, who value in-the-moment connection. In the past three months, 22% of Gen Z have joined an online community, and 36% of Gen Z actively participated in an online community (higher than any other generation).

Christina Garnett, Senior Marketing Manager, Offline Community & Advocacy, says a draw to online communities is that they remove the friction that can come from in-person communities, as people around the world can connect with others without needing to travel to different locations.

She says that with the advent of smartphones, online communities become “‘In your pocket’ or ‘turn on your laptop’ communities where the only thing you need to feel connected to others is an internet connection.” Access can be as simple as tapping an app on a phone or clicking on a bookmarked website instead of traveling elsewhere, so the appeal increases.

The HubSpot report also asked consumers the most significant benefits they get from participating in online communities, and they said learning new things, gaining new ideas and inspiration, and being able to meet and interact with others with similar interests.

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Garnett adds, “The ability to connect without travel or without a sense of forced communication means that not only can people around the world connect with others, but that those who are more introverted are able to participate in the ways where they are most comfortable instead of feeling forced to go to events and have small talk in order to feel like a member.”

Takeaways for Marketers

There are two types of communities consumers can join: user-built communities, where a consumer creates or joins a community around an interest, like a Reddit board or subreddit, or a community built by a brand or business, like a branded Discord server or Facebook Group.

Even though businesses can only own one type of community, you can leverage both to understand your audience’s likes and dislikes, what they talk about, and even how they talk about your business.

For example, you can use social listening to see how consumers are talking about a new product you’ve launched, or you can ask consumers a question and create an interactive poll in your YouTube Community tab.

Regardless, online communities allow businesses to interact with customers, have conversations, and develop engaging relationships that build a connection — a critical pillar of customer loyalty.

What do HubSpot, Mailchimp, and Wistia have in common? They’re all B2B companies with high-traffic, lead-generating media engines that support their products.

Wondering why so many companies are entering the editorial space? Industry experts cover that and more below.

1. The B2B marketing industry is shifting.

Marketing SVP at HubSpot Kieran Flanagan says the B2B marketing industry has gone through four major phases in the last decade.

What started as a focus on decision-makers has now evolved into a community-led approach that leverages media and publishing.

Many brands follow a product-led growth approach, in which the product itself attracts consumers and drives retention.

Any Atluru, former head of community at Clubhouse, says that this works great for utility-based products that have already been validated socially or don’t require a network of users to thrive. Think Slack and Calendly.

She highlights that a community-led model may be more conducive to brands whose products aren’t particularly unique and gain value through community. Think Peloton and Figma.

In this case, entering the editorial space will be a key part of your success.

Media & Community-Led

The next stage is B2B companies become a destination for their audience. Media (text, video, and audio) & developing an ongoing relationship through a community.

It will be a hard moat to disrupt.

— Kieran Flanagan 🤘 (@searchbrat)
March 24, 2021

2. The ad space is oversaturated.

On an episode of Marketing Against the Grain, CEO and co-founder of Notus, Yuliya Bel argues that ads no longer have the impact they used to.

“Like anything in marketing, there comes a point where it becomes saturated. Where people start to be like ‘Ok, we’ve seen this before, it’s no longer authentic or really speaking to us,’” she said.

She references an eBay study that revealed that brand search ad effectiveness was overestimated by over 4,000%.

With the incredibly high costs of running ads and rampant competition, this begs the question: Is the focus on ads for customer acquisition and engagement the best play?

She argues that investing in producing high-quality content and distribution tactics is the only way to ensure longevity in the online space.

Think about it this way: You could invest $100K into an advertising campaign but once it ends, so does your lead generation. Instead, you could invest that money into building a content team that will produce evergreen content that will bring in leads long after they’re published.

3. You meet your audience where they’re at.

Every brand wants to attract its audience organically.

While social media is the most popular way to achieve this – and the strategy that offers the quickest response – building a media engine is by far the most reliable and sustainable.

Why? The first is that it removes the reliance on third-party applications to reach your audience. If you’re solely relying on TikTok and Facebook, what happens if they are down for a few days? Or do consumers lose interest and transition to a new app?

You’ll constantly be adjusting your strategy based on the platform and trying to hit a moving target.

When you build your own engine, your audience comes to you.

But, you can compete as a publisher.

You can create things that help educate and inform your audience.

Sure, not all of them will buy your product or service, but all of them will remember that you helped them in some way.

That matters!

— Kieran Flanagan 🤘 (@searchbrat)
February 4, 2021

The second reason is that you’re able to attract several personas using varying mediums.

For instance, those who listen to your podcast may have different needs and challenges from those who read your blog posts.

When you’re in the editorial space, you can tailor your content to each user type and where they are in the buyer’s journey. Whereas on social media, you’re throwing out content and hoping that it reaches the audience that will resonate with it the most.

The issue is that the editorial space is a long-term play whereas social media is a quicker turnaround. When building a media arm, you won’t see results overnight – it can take months to years to see the impact of your work so for many businesses, the wait can seem like a waste of time.

However, in the long run, attracting your audience organically through thoughtful content will be the most cost-effective and sustainable method for audience growth.

4. You establish yourself as an industry thought leader.

One of the best ways to stand out in the B2B space is to become a thought leader, a brand others go to for guidance on trends, innovative strategies, and more.

HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar way to differentiate yourself from the competition.

“There are a lot of technology industries where the pace of being able to innovate and create technologies is actually very fast,” he said on the Marketing Against the Grain podcast, “so, you need content and storytelling to differentiate.”

For HubSpot, media has been integral to our success – with our blog being a common first point of contact for many of our leads. Now, we’ve expanded to podcasts, videos, and newsletters.

Flanagan believes it’s crucial when growing your B2B brand.

“The most underrated skill in B2B tech in the future is editorial taste,” he says.

This refers to the ability to know what will resonate with your audience and how to execute it.

Once you’ve gained your audience’s attention and added value to their lives, they will trust the products you recommend to them – even if it’s your own. That’s reason enough for any company to enter the editorial space.

Back in 2021, Pinterest introduced a new feature called Idea Pins. Pinterest’s Idea Pins consist of videos or photos grouped together in a format similar to Instagram Stories. These pins appear in the Watch feed of the Pinterest app, almost like the For Your Page on TikTok. Idea Pins are also displayed in the Create section of a brand’s Pinterest profile.

In a press release, Pinterest said Idea Pins make publishing “high-quality, long-lasting, and savable content” simple for content creators.

“With these updates, we’re highlighting the people behind the content and encouraging Pinners to follow creators and engage with the ideas they find,” the press release said.

As you’ll see with the brands below, Idea Pins can be used to tell a story, promote products, give tutorials, and engage with users. Here’s how these 10 brands are using Idea Pins.

10 Brands Using Pinterest Idea Pins

1. Fenty Beauty

Cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty uses Idea Pins to promote the brand’s products and showcase the brand’s inclusivity. The company does this by showing photos of the products and how they look on different skin tones. Fenty also includes videos on its pins of people of color applying makeup and creating different looks.

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One of the biggest concerns facing the cosmetics industry is a lack of inclusivity. Many people of color with darker complexions often struggle to find makeup that matches or complements their skin tone. By using Idea Pins to show variety and how POC look in Fenty products, the company sets itself apart from other cosmetic companies and presents itself as a solution.

2. Oh Joy

Lifestyle brand and design company Oh Joy is the most followed account on Pinterest with 15.2 million followers. Its founder, Joy Cho, uses Idea Pins as a way to speak directly to the company’s audience and give advice on fashion and home decor. For example, in one pin Cho promotes jewelry from Jared. She speaks directly into the camera and tells her audience how she was able to coordinate the jewelry with her outfit.

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Cho then encourages the audience to click through her pins to see more of her favorite Jared pieces and the outfits she matched them with. In other Idea Pins, Cho gives her audience a tour of her home and explains the thought process behind her decor. This is a great way to build audience engagement and to form a bond with viewers.

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3. Food My Muse

Food My Muse is a foodie account that posts recipes and restaurant reviews. The account is run by former restaurant owner Nadia Aidi. While Aidi posts a variety of food-related content, she uses Idea Pins specifically to post videos with step-by-step instructions for different recipes.

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She also includes the full recipe in the description of each pin. This kind of content is great for visual learners and it shows off her expertise as a chef — establishing her credibility as an expert foodie.

4. Mejuri Jewelry

Mejuri Jewelry uses Idea Pins to post photos of its jewelry pieces and categorize its content by theme. In a way, Mejuri uses Idea Pins to create different lookbooks. In one Idea Pin, for instance, Mejuri creates a lookbook showing Pinterest users the different ways they can stack bracelets. Another lookbook consists of Fall 2021 trends, and another Idea Pin uses photos to show how gold and silver jewelry can be styled together.

This method of using pins shows the jewelry Mejuri offers and gives potential buyers practical information about how to style them for any occasion.

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5. Etsy

For its Idea Pins. Etsy leans heavily into video content that gives a behind-the-scenes look into small businesses on Etsy’s website. One Idea Pin includes a sequence of clips showing how one Etsy seller named Tori Lynn paints and glazes a ceramic mug. Another pin is a time-lapse video of another seller named Veruschka converting parts of their home into a workspace where they handmake and ship out their products.

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This type of content doesn’t just promote the products found on Etsy, it also highlights the many businesses and artists selling their wares on the site. In doing so, Etsy attracts both potential buyers and business owners looking for a platform.

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6. Vogue Magazine

Vogue Magazine uses Idea Pins to promote its magazine cover stars via candid videos from the photoshoots. The magazine’s latest Idea Pin, for example, features photos and footage of Serena Williams and her daughter, posing for the magazine’s cover and playing on a beach. Other pins feature celebrities like Rihanna showing her baby bump as well as photos from the Met Gala.

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Vogue’s Idea Pins appeal to its audience’s love of celebrities and fashion, and the pins establish Vogue as being at the center of pop culture.

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7. Bustle

Most of Bustle’s Idea Pins consist of repurposed content from other platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. This method is helpful because it gives older content a second life on Pinterest. TikToks of celebrity interviews and short anecdotes from YouTube are frequently uploaded as Idea Pins, showing off Bustle’s variety of pop-culture content.

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8. Free People

Most of Free People’s pins start with a video of a model wearing the fashion retailer’s clothes and demonstrating the different ways the clothing items can be styled. The video is then followed by photos of the products in different colors and in different outfits. This method makes all the Idea Pins similar and uniform, so followers know what to expect.

Similar to Mejuri Jewelry, Free People also organizes its pins by style and creates a digital lookbook that showcases its clothing and accessories.

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9. The Little Bazaar

The Little Bazaar is an online store selling boho-style clothing. Like most fashion accounts on Pinterest, all of The Little Bazaar’s Idea Pins consist of photos of models wearing their clothes. However, some models are also customers who submitted photos and videos of them wearing the products.

This form of user-generated content is great because it shows Pinterest users how the clothes look on real people and it would encourage people to submit their own content as well.

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10. Lulu’s

Almost all of Lulu’s Idea Pins consist of fashion and lifestyle how-to’s, such as “How to Style a Corset Top” and “How To: Macha Gin Fizz.” However, what I enjoy most about Lulu’s Idea Pins is the cover images. Each cover image includes Lulu’s logo as well as large texts giving a quick explanation of what the pin is about.

This use of Idea Pins is aesthetically pleasing, organized, and helps Pinterest users navigate to the kind of content they’re looking for.

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Idea Pins present more opportunities for brands to get their content on Pinterest users’ feeds, expanding brand awareness. However, brands should also see these pins as a chance to create engaging content that tells a story and provides value.

How-to’s, lookbooks, behind-the-scenes footage, and user-generated content are just a few examples of the many ways you can incorporate Idea Pins into your marketing strategy.

A personal website is your chance to showcase your personality and credentials in an engaging format. But without strong personal website examples to guide you, you may not know how to get started or what will work best for your personal branding.

In this post, we’ll cover the best examples of personal websites we’ve seen — including resume websites, portfolios, blogs, and demo websites.

Why create a personal website?

Here’s the thing about resumes and cover letters: No matter how unique you try to make your own, for the most part, they tend to read dry. And there’s a good reason for it: It’s supposed to be a single, no-frills page that documents your work experience. And while being concise is good, there’s very little opportunity to convey your uniqueness, or for your personality to shine through at all for that matter.

While a resume is a sole, largely unchanging document, a personal website can be customized and updated according to what you’re working on, or what you want to emphasize. It’s both fluid and current.

In addition, 80% of businesses say a personal website is important when evaluating job candidates. Recruiters are looking you up online, and a personal website that tells the story you want to tell can make all the difference between you and a competing candidate.

If you’re thinking about creating a personal website of your very own, check out the examples below that hit the nail on the head. Inspired by a particular type of website?

Click one of the following links to jump to that section of this article:

• Personal Resume Websites
• Personal Portfolios
• Personal Blogs
• Personal Demo Websites

Personal Resume Websites

Whether you create a single-page site or a larger portfolio, the web resume serves as a more personalized option for sharing information and demonstrating your technological skills — and it can be used by all types of jobseekers.

Even if you have very little work experience, you can leverage a website to build a better picture of your capabilities and yourself as a candidate, while leaning on your traditional resume to provide the basic background information.

1. Gary Sheng

Unlike a standard resume document, Sheng’s website makes it easy for him to include logos and clickable links that allow his software engineering and web development skills to shine.

We love that visitors can choose to scroll down his page to view all of the website’s categories (“About Me,” “My Passion,” etc.), or jump to a specific page using the top navigation.

The “My System” section reads like a company mission statement, and this personal touch helps humanize his work and make him more memorable.

2. Brandon Johnson

Johnson’s incredible resume must be seen to be believed. Beautiful images of planets help to complement his planetary science background, and animations make his resume more of an experience than a document.

In terms of design, the textured, multi-layered background adds greater depth to the two-dimensional page in a way that evokes feelings of space and the planetary systems, which Johnson’s work focuses on.

3. Quinton Harris

Harris’ resume uses photos to tell his personal story — and it reads kind of like a cool, digital scrapbook. It covers all the bases of a resume — and then some — by discussing his educational background, work experience, and skills in a highly visual way.

Not to mention, the copy is fantastic. It’s clear that Harris took the time to carefully choose the right words to describe each step of his personal and professional journey.

4. Rubens Cantuni

Rubens Cantuni’s resume website hits all the right notes: First, it showcases what he does with a playful GIF showing the word “CIAO” getting edited point-by-point, just as it would in a design tool. Second, it summarizes Cantuni’s key strengths in a personable summary. Third, it lists his experience in a user-friendly collapsible format, so if you want to read more, you can click each individual role. He then leads into his book and portfolio.

At every step, you get to appreciate Cantuni’s strong sense of design, user-first thinking, and sharp business acumen. The designer ends with a call-to-action for visitors to reach out to him. He also prompts recruiters to inquire about his work by mentioning that he can only share certain pieces of his work privately. On your own site, you can leverage projects with non-disclosure agreements as “gated content.”

5. Martine Myrup

Martine Myrup’s website comes up twice on this list — first, as one of the best resume websites, and second, as one of the best portfolio websites we’ve ever seen. As a practicing artist, Myrup must emphasize visuals in her website’s design. But she also includes an HTML curriculum vitae for potential employers and other interested parties to see her degrees, exhibitions, awards, and publications.

The CV is formatted in a way that is clear and easy-to-scan, with bold headings separating each section and dates on the left-hand side. While artists’ CVs are formatted differently than professional CVs, Myrup’s formatting would work in virtually any field with some adjustments.

6. Taylor Vowell

Taylor Vowell’s resume website is an excellent example of how to introduce yourself in a personable way while highlighting your professional experience. He begins with a summary about his personal life: “I am a father of 3, an avid comic and sports card collector, and a huge Avs and Broncos fan.” That draws readers in immediately and gives them a way to break the ice when they reach out to Vowell.

Later down the page, he includes his experience in a carousel with cards for each of his employers. If you’re interested in seeing more of his experience, you can click to the next card, or you can keep scrolling to see his skills in marketing, product design, and technology, as well his strengths and recommendations. This is a strong resume website that ends with a compelling, eye-catching call-to-action.

7. Johannes Schüchner

Johannes Schüchner’s film resume website is an example that demonstrates how to showcase your creativity and personality while still highlighting your most important professional achievements. While the resume is in German, you can still get an understanding of the actor’s key strengths.

At the bottom, casting directors have an option to download a PDF version of Schüchner’s film credits and theater work. This website shows that you can tastefully break the rules on your own site, so long as you remain mindful of your target audience.

8. José Rocha

José Rocha is a designer who uses delightful parallax effects on his site to engage viewers and visitors. He introduces himself as a full-stack designer, covers his key strength areas, and then invites readers to scroll through his experience in a concise, interactive section.

At the top is a transparent navigation bar with his contact information, allowing website visitors to get in contact with him promptly if they want to. At the bottom is a formal form where people can submit an inquiry.

9. Hugo Bazin

Hugo Bazin is a product designer whose resume website combines friendliness with engaging user design. On the top left-hand corner, he includes a sticky button to download his resume in PDF format, but if you’re interested in getting an overview, you can scroll down to the “Experience” section, where you can see his current and previous employers.

Throughout the copy, Bazin uses emojis to showcase his personality, but he’s selective. He keeps emojis out of the “Experience” section of the webpage, where it’s essential to maintain a serious, professional tone.

10. Christian Kaisermann

Christian Kaisermann’s resume website employs unique visuals to keep viewers on the page and showcase his strong coding skills. On the upper right-hand side, you have the option to switch from channel to channel, like you would on an old TV. He also only includes two paragraphs of copy on the homepage, showing that remaining brief is key if you want visitors to focus on your website’s design.

On the bottom left-hand corner, users can access Kaisermann’s crawlable HTML resume, email, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You can also activate “Space Mode,” which brings up a remote control to change the channels — very cool!

Best Practices for Resume Websites

• Code your resume so it can be crawled by search engines.
• Offer a button to download your resume in PDF so the hiring manager can add it to your file.
• Keep branding consistent between the website and document versions: Use similar fonts, colors, and images so you’re easy to recognize.
• Be creative and authentic to yourself. Think about the colors, images, and media you want to be a part of your story that you couldn’t include in a document resume.

Personal Portfolios

Building an online portfolio is a highly useful personal branding and marketing tool if your work experience and skill set call for content creation. In fact, photographers, graphic designers, illustrators, writers, and content marketers can all use web portfolios to show off their skills in a more user-friendly way than a resume or hard copy portfolio.

11. Seán Halpin

Halpin’s portfolio is short, sweet, and to the point, which is authentic to his voice and personal branding outlined on the site. Instead of a lot of copy, Halpin presents large thumbnail cards so that his projects speak for themselves and allow the user to delve deeper if one catches their eye.

12. Tony D’Orio

It’s important to keep the design of your visual portfolio simple to let images capture visitors’ attention, and D’Orio accomplishes this by featuring bold photographs front-and-center on his website. His logo and navigation menu are clear and don’t distract from his work. And he makes it easy for potential customers to download his work free of charge.

Want to give it a try? Click on the hamburger menu in the top left corner, then select + Create a PDF to select as many images as you’d like to download.

Once you open the PDF, you’ll notice that it comes fully equipped with D’Orio’s business card as the cover … just in case you need it.

13. Verena Michelitsch

When you’re a designer, not one pixel on your personal website should go unused. Verena Michelitsch’s portfolio, shown above, is covered end to end in artwork. From her extensive library of work, she chose to exhibit multiple colors, styles, and dimensions so visitors can see just how much range she has as a designer. It’s a perfect example of the classic adage, “show, don’t tell.”

14. Gari Cruze

Cruze is a copywriter. But by turning his website into a portfolio featuring images from different campaigns he’s worked on, he makes visitors want to keep clicking to learn more about him. Also, there’s a great CTA at the top of the page that leads visitors to his latest blog post.

His site’s humorous copy — specifically in the “17 Random Things” and “Oh Yes, They’re Talking” sections — serves to show off his skills, while making himself more memorable as well. These pages also include his contact information on the right-hand side, making it easy to reach out and connect at any point:

15. Melanie Daveid

Daveid’s website is a great example of “less is more.”

This developer’s portfolio features clear, well-branded imagery of campaigns and apps that Daveid worked on, and she shows off her coding skills when you click through to see the specifics of her work.

While it might seem overly minimal to only include just a few examples of her work, Daveid did her portfolio a service by including her best, most noteworthy campaigns. At the end of the day, it’s better to have fewer examples of excellence in your portfolio than many examples of mediocrity.

16. The Beast Is Back

Christopher Lee’s portfolio is busy and colorful in a way that works. When you read more about Lee on his easily navigable site, you realize that such a fun and vibrant homepage is perfect for an illustrator and toy designer.

Known by his brand name, “The Beast Is Back,” Lee’s web portfolio highlights eye-catching designs with recognizable brands, such as Target and Mario, along with links to purchase his work. This is another gallery-style portfolio with pops of color that make it fun and give it personality, thus making it more memorable.

17. Daniel Grindrod

This freelance videographer is another example of a simple but sleek portfolio, allowing his potential clients to browse deeper into his “Work” and “Stills” sections. The opening video on the homepage — as shown on the still image above — also ensures his site visitors know that he’s actively creating beautiful work.

18. Byron McNally

In his portfolio, Byron McNally doesn’t immediately include his work but rather a photo of himself, which immediately fosters a connection between him and website visitors. This minimal website design also invites users to continue engaging with the website’s content and see some of his recent film, commercial, and music productions.

19. Martine Myrup

Martine Myrup was also in our list of best resume websites, but her portfolio is worth a mention, too. With its muted colors and creative use of typography, it immediately conveys her artistic vision and aesthetic. The page also includes a sticky bright green button prompting you to check out her CV. As you scroll down the page, you can see a preview of her work and click on the one that most interests you, then get in contact with her using the email at the bottom.

20. Davide Perozzi

Davide Perozzi uses his website to showcase his strong design skills and creative typography, as well as his previous work. When you hover over each item in his portfolio, an image preview pops up, giving you the opportunity to check out more. The website uses scrolling effects and bold text to keep viewers engaged.

Best Practices for Portfolio Websites

• Use mainly visuals. Even if you’re showcasing your written work, using logos or other branding is more eye-catching for your visitors.
• Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Your personality, style, and sense of humor could be what sets you apart from other sites!
• Organization is key. If your portfolio is full of photos, logos, and other images, make sure it’s easy for visitors to navigate to where they can contact you.
• Brand yourself. Choose a logo or icon to make your information easily identifiable.

Personal Blogs

Consistently publishing on a blog is a great way to attract attention on social media and search engines — and drive traffic to your site. Blogging is a smart way to give your work a personality, chronicle your experiences, and stretch your writing muscles. You might write a personal blog if you’re a writer by trade, but virtually anyone can benefit from adding a blog to their site and providing useful content for their audience.

21. The Everywhereist

This blog looks a bit busier, but its consistent branding helps visitors easily navigate the site. The travel blog uses globe iconography to move visitors around the site, making it easy to explore sections beyond the blog.

Owned by writer Geraldine DeRuiter, this blog also features a “Best Of” section that allows new visitors to learn about what the blog covers to get acclimated. The color scheme is warm, neutral, and free of excess clutter that could distract from the content.

22. Side Hustle Nation

Side Hustle Nation is the business blog of Nick Loper, an advisor whose website offers tons of valuable financial advice for individual business owners. His homepage, shown above, sets a lighthearted yet passionate tone for his readers. It suggests you’ll get friendly content all committed to a single goal: financial freedom. The green call to action, “Start Here,” helps first-time visitors know exactly how to navigate his website.

On Nick’s blog page, you’ll see content that shows readers how Nick, himself, creates content that helps his business grow. These content types give people a peek behind the curtain of your operation, showing them you practice what you preach and that your insight is tried and true.

23. fifty coffees

The website fifty coffees chronicles the author’s series of coffee meetings in search of her next job opportunity, and it does a great job of using photography and visuals to assist in the telling of her lengthy stories.

The best part? Each post ends with numbered takeaways from her meetings for ease of reading comprehension. The high-quality photography used to complement the stories is like icing on the cake.

24. Minimalist Baker

I’m not highlighting Dana’s food blog just because the food looks delicious and I’m hungry. Her blog uses a simple white background to let her food photography pop, unique branding to make her memorable, and mini-bio to personalize her website.

25. Mr. Money Mustache

Mr. Money Mustache might take on an old-school, Gangs of New York-style facade, but his blog design — and the advice the blog offers — couldn’t be more fresh (he also doesn’t really look like that).

This financial blog is a funny, browsable website that offers sound insight into money management for the layperson. While his personal stories help support the legitimacy of his advice, the navigation links surrounding his logo make it easy to jump right into his content without any prior context around his brand.

26. Marco Feng

Marco Feng’s travel blog is colorful, unique, and informative. When you arrive at the site, you can immediately jump in to the blog post that draws your attention the most, or explore by destination. Our favorite part of the site is the scrolling banner at the top that provides social proof: As a reader, you’d be joining 3 million others. Leveraging your audience size will help you look more authoritative and establish your site as a go-to.

27. Miramono

Miramono is a unique photography blog created by Fernando Puente, where he curates a “selection of photographers he deeeeply loves.” In it, he includes interviews, essays, and photo selections. At the bottom is an eye-catching graphic prompting viewers to subscribe. We love the simplicity of the website’s design, as well as its unique value proposition.

28. Beamaker

This blog combines engaging visual design with user-friendliness. Since Japanese is written vertically, the home page includes a series of vertical cards, each for a different blog post. You can then click on each card to expand a specific post. The writer divides his musings into three categories: Make, Think, and Jumble. He discusses his personal life at home as well as his life at work, epitomizing what a personal blog should contain.

29. Salt in Our Hair

Salt in Our Hair is a travel blog with exceptional user design. The bloggers, Nick and Hannah, introduce themselves on the welcome screen. Users then have the option of choosing a specific destination to read about or finding a specific topic using the menu up top.

30. Daniel See

Daniel See uses the blog section of his website to share his thoughts on design. As a designer, he uses his subject-matter expertise to write blog posts about creative processes. He also prompts readers to submit their feedback and ideas by including a button to “let him know your thoughts.”

Best Practices for Blogs

• Keep your site simple and clutter-free to avoid additional distractions beyond blog posts.
• Publish often. Those who prioritize marketing efforts are 13x more likely to see positive ROI.
• Experiment with different blog styles, such as lists, interviews, graphics, and bullets.
• Employ visuals to break up text and add context to your discussion.

Personal Demo Websites

Another cool way to promote yourself and your skills is to create a personal website that doubles as a demonstration of your coding, design, illustration, or developer skills. These sites can be interactive and animated in a way that provides information about you and also shows hiring managers why they should work with you. This is a great website option for technical and artistic content creators such as developers, animators, UX designers, website content managers, and illustrators.

31. Albino Tonnina

Tonnina is showcasing advanced and complicated web development skills, but the images and storytelling methods he uses are simple and easy to understand. In the process, you get a demo of the depth of his animation and coding experience.

32. Robby Leonardi

Leonardi’s incredible demo website uses animation and web development skills to turn his portfolio and resume into a video game for site visitors. The whimsical branding and unique way of sharing information ensure that his site is memorable to visitors.

33. Samuel Reed

Reed uses his page as a start-to-finish demo of how to code a website. His website starts as a blank white page and ends as a fully interactive site that visitors can watch him code themselves. The cool factor makes this website memorable, and it makes his skills extremely marketable.

34. Renaud Rohlinger

Renaud Rohlinger’s demo site does a great job of showing his 3D design chops, and it takes it a step further by telling visitors all about him and his passions. It’s the perfect balance of a demo and a mini-portfolio.

Plus, we love the video he includes as the background, as well as the parallax effects that activate as you scroll down the page.

35. Enric Moreu

Enric Moreu showcases his 3D design skills by creating an interactive 3D resume. As users scroll, the page smoothly takes them through Moreu’s spoken languages, coding languages, skills, and work experiences. It’s engaging, light on text, and visually striking.

36. Mariah Weathersby

Mariah Weathersby has coded a striking “playable” resume that pays homage to old-school games and showcases her strong design skills. If you love experiencing nostalgia, this demo website will reel you in. If you only want the resume, you have the option of downloading a text-based version — a win-win.

37. Isaac Fayemi

Isaac Fayemi’s demo website is subtle and striking at the same time. Rather than loading the page with excessive graphics, he has created a 3D version of his head that follows your cursor as you move around. You have two options: To find out more about him or check out more of his work. This demo website is a stellar example of how to keep it simple while still delighting the senses.

Best Practices for Demo Websites

• Brand yourself and use consistent logos and colors to identify your name and your skills amongst the bevy of visuals.
• Don’t overwhelm your visitors with too many visuals at once — especially if your demo is animated. Be sure to keep imagery easy to understand so visitors aren’t bombarded when they visit your site.

Developing a Personal Website

Regardless of the type of personal website you’re building, there’s plenty of inspiration above on how to convey personality while connecting with your audience. Keeping the above tips in mind, remember to design for your audience’s experience, and most importantly, have fun.

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

You win!

It’s a short, simple phrase, but a powerful one — and it’s the basis for gamification in marketing.

By incorporating game elements into marketing efforts such as brand awareness, reward programs, or new product promotions, businesses can turn basic campaigns into connective efforts that keep customers coming back for more.

The challenge? While it’s easy to find anecdotal evidence of gamification making marketing efforts better, it’s more difficult to track down a gamification guide that helps marketers make this approach work for them. In this piece, we’ll walk you through gamification basics, common strategies, and real-life examples to help your campaign take the lead.

Put simply, it’s the process of turning any process into a game. For marketing teams, it could be turning your inbound marketing into a game in order to achieve a specific outcome. Your audience (customers, leads, fans, followers, readers, whoever) engages in a game that offers the chance to win something, and in return, you get a marketing boost.

It’s sort of like when we host a webinar and say whoever tweets the webinar’s hashtag the most gets a free ticket to our next marketing conference — it taps into people’s competitive spirit and drive to win, and gets our content more exposure on Twitter. Again, a win-win scenario, and one that’s more creative than just asking someone, “Hey, can you tweet this link?”

Some common gamification strategies for marketing teams include:

Website Games

Website games take many forms. They can be simple, “spin the wheel” pages that pop up when customers click through to products or when they arrive on your site, or they might be virtual scratch cards that let buyers earn a discount on their favorite products.

No matter the type, the key to website games working is keeping them simple and relatively unobtrusive. Make it easy for users to play, always let them win something, and let them quickly close out games if they’re not interested.

Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs are also a great way to gamify the customer experience. By offering customers points, stars, or other currency after they make a purchase and tying these currencies to discounts or special offers, brands can keep their target audience coming back.

Completion Meters

Another way to engage customer interest is through completion meters. This is an especially useful tactic for brands looking to keep customers interested in their mobile applications. By giving users a goal to reach or another level to earn — along with commensurate benefits — companies can drive ongoing engagement.

Virtual Badges

Virtual badges or rewards for specific actions can help keep customers coming back and encourage them to earn the next digital award, especially if it’s tied to a discount or other benefit.

It’s one thing to know the basics — it’s another to implement gamification efforts that directly benefit your business. Here’s a look at 10 real-life examples for your brand to try.

KFC: Mobile gaming

KFC Japan decided the best way to engage users was with a mobile “advergame” called Shrimp Attack. The premise was simple: Users swiped away at virtual shrimp falling from a cartoon sky and encouraged them to try the restaurant’s new line of battered shrimp with reward vouchers.

According to Gamify, the company that created the game, 22% of people who played the game redeemed their vouchers and the company had to adjust campaign timing to account for increased demand.

Under Armour: Trivia

Under Armour engaged with users through its “Steph IQ” quiz application, which asked questions about point guard Steph Curry whenever he sank his first three-pointer of a regular season game. The app was set up elimination-style to test users’ knowledge of Curry while also engaging them with the Under Armour brand.

M&M’s: Digital puzzles

In 2010, popular and delicious candy brand M&M’s launched a chocolate-coated pretzel flavor. While the new treat did well, the company wanted to boost user engagement. The solution? A digital puzzle that tasked users with finding a pretzel image hidden in a field of M&M’s.

The effort worked: M&M’s saw 25,000 new likes for the company and the game was shared over 6,00 times.

Starbucks: Rewards app

Want a coffee? Why not get some rewards to go with it? This is the idea behind the Starbucks Rewards app, which gives customers the ability to earn “stars” for every purchase which can be redeemed for drinks or food.

The star-based solution has seen significant success: According to QSR Magazine, the app-based membership program accounted for 52% of all US store sales in 2021.

Nike: Fitness competition

NikeFuel is a fitness app that pairs with Nike wearable devices and encourages users to share their fitness goals and accomplishments. Not only does this help promote social recognition of the brand but also helps Nike integrate their brand into the everyday lives of users.

Duolingo: Gamified education

Oh, that owl. If you’re familiar with this language-learning app, you know that the company’s owl mascot appears regularly to remind users that they haven’t done their session for the day.

More importantly, however, is the use of minigames to help users learn a new language. With multiple short games that include selecting the right word to complete a sentence, listening to a phrase and then translating it, or speaking into your device’s microphone to see if you have the pronunciation right, Duolingo is doing gamification right.

They’re doing so well, in fact, that research has been published on their methods.

Wordle: Streak counter

If you haven’t heard of Wordle, where have you been? This get-it-in-six tries word guessing app was recently purchased by the New York Times, and while the company hasn’t heavily monetized it yet, there’s certainly potential to head in that direction.

One key element of the game beyond the game itself is the streak counter, which shows users their completion rate over all the puzzles they’ve done. Miss a day, and your counter starts over.

eBay: Emotional investment

While eBay doesn’t get the kind of traction it used to thanks to the rise of sites like Amazon and Etsy, it still generated almost $2.5 billion worth of sales in Q1 2022.

Part of the appeal is the game-like structure of the sales process. Users bid on items they want, and if they’re lucky can score a great deal — if they’re not outbid. EBay allows users to both set a maximum bid and get notifications if they’re outbid, allowing them to continually engage with the purchase process.

The US Army: First-person gaming

To help capture the interest of new recruits, the US Army created its own FPS game called America’s Army: Proving Grounds. This allows gamers to try out small-group tactics that prioritize working together with squad mates and is available on popular app stores such as Steam.

Headspace: Social sharing

Meditation app Headspace encourages users to complete their first medication within three minutes of opening the app. If they do, they receive an achievement they can share with others. All achievements are sharable, allowing Headspace users to continually connect.

Time to Level Up

Gamification in marketing can help your campaigns go from forgettable to fun, both engaging users and driving increased sales.

Best bet? Start simply. Select one approach to gamification and implement it on your website, mobile application, or email campaigns. Then, see how users react and make changes to improve the experience.

With a little time and effort, your brand can level up gamification marketing and create reciprocal interaction with customers that both drives initial conversion and creates sustained interest.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2012 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The easier it is for customers to find your webpage, the better your chances of engaging new visitors and driving new conversions.

In practice, however, this means more than having great content — it means taking steps to improve SEO performance so that search engine algorithms will be more likely to return your page as a top result.

The more traffic your blog or site receives, the better. But drive-bys aren’t enough to drive user engagement and ultimately boost sales — instead, you need to convince potential customers that it’s worth sticking around. Topical content and its counterpart, evergreen content, can help you achieve this goal.Consider that 38% of people will leave your site if the content or layout is unattractive. In other words, if they don’t find anything of value ASAP, they won’t stay.

Of course, this raises an important question: When it comes to topical content vs. evergreen content, which delivers the best bang for your virtual buck? Which type drives more visitors to stay? Here’s what you need to know about boosting traffic with these common content types.

Topical content focuses on current events or information to deliver targeted and relevant content to visitors. For example, a local roofing company might use the event of a large storm rolling through the city or county as a jumping-off point for a blog post about handling hail or wind damage. This type of topical content is relevant to their target audience in the moment, offers actionable advice, and may help drive conversions.

HubSpot’s recent State of Consumer Trends blog is a good example of topical content. The statistics provided are timely, relevant, and actionable in the near future.

Like the evergreen tree, this type of content is always around and relevant. Unlike the time-based nature of topical content that requires regular updating to stay compelling, evergreen content has a longer-term appeal that lets you post it and (mostly) forget about it.

Common types of evergreen content include how-to articles, tips, or listicles that are broadly applicable. HubSpot’s list of 15 Customer Success Metrics That Actually Matter is a great example of actionable evergreen content.

Topical Content Pros and Cons

Considering using topical content on your site? Here are two pros and two cons to this approach.

Pro #1: Less legwork

Topical content is there for the taking. A quick review of relevant industry websites or digital news outlets can provide inspiration for your next post, meaning your team can cut down the amount of time required to find your next content focus.

Pro #2: Multiple traffic opportunities

Relevant stories can gain traction across multiple points of content. In practice, this means you can drive traffic from social media sites, emails, and web searches simultaneously to your site.

Con #1: It’s Not Just You

Interesting content is interesting to everyone. This means that other sites are also posting their own take on topical content, making it harder to stand out from the crowd.

Con #2: Trust is Built, not Posted

Just because you make a great post and get traffic to your site, it doesn’t mean that visitors automatically become buyers. Instead, it takes time to build up trust, meaning you’ll need more than just topical content to drive conversion.

Evergreen Content Pros and Cons

Thinking of an evergreen effort on your website? Here are some common pros and cons.

Pro #1: Stays Fresher, Longer

Evergreen content naturally stays fresher for longer, in turn driving steady traffic to your site. You can also update rather than replace this content as needed to keep users coming back.

Pro #2: Ideal for Entry-Level Content

How-to’s and listicles that cater to beginners learning a new skill or understanding a topic are great choices for evergreen content, since there’s always someone looking to learn.

Con #1: Brainstorms can Run Dry

The more evergreen content you post, the harder it can be to think of new topics. This creates a situation where your team may spend more time work-shopping posts rather than creating evergreen content.

Con #2: Success is a Slow Process

Where topical content posts can drive big spikes in traffic over short time periods, evergreen content is more slow and steady. While this is great for long-term growth, it won’t help if you’re looking to capitalize on seasonal or event-driven demand.

Ideally, topical and evergreen content work in concert to help boost your website traffic. Not sure what that looks like in practice? Here are six tips to get you started.

1. Use content planning templates for your topical and evergreen content

When it comes to getting the most from topical and evergreen content, planning templates are a great place to start, since they provide a solid foundation for your long-term traffic strategy.

Check out HubSpot’s free Content Marketing Planning Template to get your content creation campaign off the ground.

2. Set a schedule for regular topical refreshes

To keep topical content relevant, schedule regular refreshes. The length of time between refreshes depends on the type of content — for social media posts, any more than a week can start to get stale. For blog posts, two weeks to a month at most.

3. Get the right tools

Before creating your content, make sure you’re on the right SEO track. Tools like Google AdWords and Google Trends can help you find keywords that are on the way up or have sustained search volume to inform your content strategy.

4. Topical content: Don’t hold back

Swing for the fences when it comes to topical content. Given the number of other sites doing the same thing, it’s worth going all-in with content that’s relevant to your target audience. Even if it doesn’t land as intended, it’s ephemeral enough that you can recover quickly.

5. Evergreen content: Think about the long-term

For evergreen content, think about long-term traffic potential. Is the content useful to your current user base? Can it be updated as the market changes to remain relevant?

6. Find a content balance

Finally, find a balance between topical and evergreen. While a totally topical approach can produce quick-win results, it won’t provide sustained success. Evergreen efforts, meanwhile, offer steady progress but aren’t enough to jump-start customer interest or capitalize on market trends.

Directing Traffic: The Double Benefit of Evergreen and Topical Content

Put simply? Both topical and evergreen content offer benefits for your site. Where evergreen efforts can help boost SEO and deliver steady visitor numbers, topical content helps your site get noticed when relevant and timely events have customers looking for answers.

In other words, it’s not about topical vs evergreen content: It’s about finding a way to balance both that gets visitors interested and keeps them coming back.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2010 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.