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Around the globe, more than 300 emails are sent and received each day, on average. That’s 300 opportunities to market yourself and your business in those individual emails you send.

A lot of people treat their email signatures like an afterthought, which is a big missed opportunity. Those signatures are a chance for you to make it clear who you are, make it easy for people to reach you, and give people a place to go to find out more — either about you, about your business, or about something you’re working on.

So, if you’re just putting your name and a point or two of contact information in your signature, you’re not taking full advantage of the opportunity to connect and engage with the people you’re emailing. So what exactly should go in your signature?

1. First and Last Name

Just like with snail mail correspondence, your name should always be included so that the recipient of your message knows who it was from. This manifests in the email signature, often as the first line of text.

2. Affiliation Info (Such as Job Title and Department)

Closely following your name should be your affiliation information. Your affiliations could include your job title, your company or organization, and/or even your department. Your name should eventually be its own draw, of course, as you build a relationship with the recipient, but providing this information provides more context about the conversation and your role in it.

In addition, affiliating yourself with a larger organization lends you more credibility, especially if it’s a recognizable organization. This helps you get the attention of your readers so they take your message seriously.

3. Secondary Contact Information

Secondary contact information is important, too, so that the recipient knows how else to contact you. Secondary information might include phone, fax, or any other method of communication you want to emphasize. In situations where you don’t want to cough up your direct line, you could take this opportunity to promote your personal website — a passive way to open the lines of communication without flooding yourself with outreach if you don’t want it.

4. Social Profile Icons

Your social media presence is a major part of your personal brand because it helps you gain a following in your space and shows people what you care about. You can tell a lot about a person by what they post and how they portray themselves.

That’s why it’s a great idea to include links to your social media pages in your email signature. It not only reinforces your personal brand, but it also helps people find new ways to contact and follow you.

Even better? It can help drive traffic to your online content if you’re posting links to that content on social media. So if you do include social icons in your signature, make sure you’re keeping your social profiles up-to-date and chock full of interesting, relevant content. (In other words, if you haven’t tweeted in six months, you may want to leave Twitter out.)

Why use social media icons instead of simply text links? Because icons are more easily recognizable for folks skimming your signature — and they’ll stand out from the rest of the text in there. According to research from NeoMam Studios, visuals shown in color increase a person’s willingness to read the rest of the content by 80%. That’s a huge advantage. Plus, icons are big space-savers in a place where you might be packing a lot of information.

Even if you have a presence on a lot of social media sites, though, try to cap the number of icons to five or six. Focus on the accounts that matter most to growing your business or building your personal brand.

If you do include a lot of social media icons, at least try to cut back on the other content if possible so your design isn’t too busy. Check out the example below, made using HubSpot’s Email Signature Generator.

5. Call to Action

One of the smartest things you can do in your email signature is include a call-to-action. The best email signature CTAs are simple, up-to-date, non-pushy, and in line with your email style, making them appear more like post-script, and less like a sales pitch. Choose a CTA that aligns with one of your current business goals, and update it when those goals change. Here’s an example of a HubSpotter’s email signature that includes a CTA for the HubSpot Podcast Network:

6. Booking Links

If you find yourself emailing back and forth with colleagues and clients who want to book meetings with you, make it easy for them by including a link to book your calendar right in your email signature. Here’s an example from our own Bryan Lowry, below.

There are many tools out there that’ll help people book appointments. Bryan from the example above uses HubSpot’s shareable personalized booking link. If you’re a HubSpot Sales customer, you can share your personalized meeting link with anyone who you want to book a meeting with and let them choose from your available times. If you want, you can make it so the HubSpot CRM automatically creates a new contact record for anyone who books a meeting if one doesn’t already exist.

If you aren’t a HubSpot customer, one great meeting tool is Calendly, which is free for Basic and lets you integrate your Google or Office 365 calendar. If you’re looking for a Calendly alternative, YouCanBook.me is another booking tool that goes for $7 per calendar per month.

7. Industry Disclaimer or Legal Requirements

Some industries such as legal, financial, and insurance have specific guidelines on email usage and etiquette to protect private information from being transmitted. For this reason, you may want to look into what regulations your industry has in place and include a disclaimer in your signature about email transmissions. Mail-Signatures offers a number of email disclaimer examples, including this one:

“The content of this email is confidential and intended for the recipient specified in the message only. It is strictly forbidden to share any part of this message with any third party, without a written consent of the sender. If you received this message by mistake, please reply to this message and follow with its deletion, so that we can ensure such a mistake does not occur in the future.”

8. Photo or Logo

An image is a great choice to spice up your email signature. If you want a personal touch so that recipients you’ve never met can associate your name with your face, consider using a professional photo in your signature. Alternatively, you can use the company’s logo to add more brand awareness to the email.

9. Pronouns

While not as common in email signatures and certainly not required, adding your preferred pronouns to your signature is helpful, especially when emailing individuals you’ve never met. It also takes ambiguity away if you have a name perceived as gender-neutral.

Now that you know the elements you should include, what does a great email signature look like? Here are some tips for creating signatures that are helpful and professional, including a few great examples.

1. Emphasize your name, affiliation, and secondary contact information.

As you might guess, your name comes first. Closely following your name, however, should be your affiliation and where else people can reach you.

Your affiliation could mean your job title, your company, your school, or a similar organization that you deem important to your recipients. Your name should eventually be its own draw, of course, but using a more popular brand name — and even its logo — ensures you get the attention of your readers and they take your message seriously.

Secondary contact information is important, too. You might not want to endorse your personal phone number, but you could take this opportunity to promote your personal website — a passive way to open the lines of communication without flooding yourself with outreach you don’t want.

Here’s a sample email signature that hits on all three things described above nicely. Kevin’s first and last name are accompanied by his affiliation with the University of Connecticut. He also promotes his personal website so his recipients have another outlet to see his work and contact him for more information.

Want to create a signature like the one below? Use HubSpot’s Email Signature Generator.

2. Keep the colors simple and consistent.

Branding is most effective when it’s consistent — and that includes your email signature. Adding color to your email signature is a nice touch that’ll help it stand out from the rest of your email. But if you do choose to use color, be sure to stick to one or two in addition to dark text.

Use subtle highlights to match your logo or branding, like Brittany Hodak does in her email signature, below. Notice how her social media icons are the same blue hue as the ZinePak logo.

3. Use design hierarchy.

Good design is all about presenting your information in an easily digestible manner. Because your email signature is likely more a list of information than it is a compelling story, you’ll want to use hierarchy to direct readers’ eyes to what they should be reading first.

Scale your name up to a larger font so that it attracts the most attention, like you would on a resume. Then, pick and choose information to bold and color based on importance so you can help guide people’s eyes logically through the design.

4. Make links trackable.

So you put a few links in your email signature, including your CTA and your social media icons. But is anyone actually clicking on them?

To figure out whether the links in your signature are actually attracting clicks and making an impact, you’ll want to make those links trackable — just like you would any other link in your emails.

Follow these instructions to easily make a tracking link that helps you attribute traffic to your website to your email signature. From time to time, you might switch up the format of your signature or the wording inside your signature to see what drives the most clicks.

5. Use space dividers.

Although you never want to jam-pack your email signature for too much information, there are ways to fit a lot of text into a compact area like this one without compromising design.

This is helpful for breaking up different types of information, like your name and contact information, your logo, any calls-to-action you have, or even a disclaimer.

Using space dividers within your design, as in the example below, is one great way to do this. You can also use glyph dividers, which is the vertical bar symbol (i.e., |.)

Image Source

6. Include an international prefix in your contact number.

If you work with people around the world, don’t forget the prefix for your country’s code when you list your contact phone number. Many people overlook this if they aren’t used to dialing international prefixes themselves, but it’s really helpful for your international colleagues and clients to have it right there. Here’s a list of country codes if you don’t know yours.

Here’s an example from Kit Smith, formerly of Brandwatch, a company that has offices in both the United States and Europe and works with international clients. Including the U.S. country code makes it easier for folks in other countries to reach him by phone.

7. Make your design mobile-friendly.

According to Truelist, over a third of professionals open emails on their phone making it a prime method of communication for business and professional matters.

The more people who read email on mobile devices, the more you’ll want to keep mobile users top-of-mind when you’re writing emails — including your email signature.

One major way to make your email signature mobile-friendly is to make your signature’s design easy to read and clickable for mobile users. This is where scale becomes really important. Make sure your text is large enough to read on small mobile screens, and that your links and buttons are large enough — and spaced out enough — for folks to tap on with their fingers.

Check out the example below, and note how much space there is between different clickable elements like the social media icons. These are great for tapping with your finger on a mobile screen so that users don’t accidentally tap on the Facebook icon when they meant to go to Twitter.

Image Source

8. Use an email signature generator.

If you’ve tried all of these steps and you’re still not happy with how your email signature turned out, don’t fret. These digital sign-offs can be tricky to get perfect. Try a free email signature generator to do the heavy lifting for you instead.

Rather than choosing the colors, fonts, and layout yourself, this generator gives you several combinations to choose from. Simply add your information, photos, and links. Then choose your colors. Once you’re satisfied with your email signature, you can add it to your email account right away.

9. Check your new email signature for quality.

Finally, as with any part of an email, make sure your signature looks as good as you think it does by testing it with various email clients. Microsoft Outlook doesn’t recognize background images, for example, so avoid using those. Other email clients don’t load images by default at all.

Best Professional Email Signature

The best professional email signature will be true to who you are both in and outside the workplace. Once you include the basic contact information, the rest of your email signature is a blank canvas for you to share a bit of personality with each professional email you send.

Armed with these email signature best practices, you can create your own signature that aligns with your brand and gives your emails a little extra umph.

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

It’s never easy notifying someone that they didn’t get the job.

This often leads to generic emails, or worse, complete silence – that’s where a rejection letter template can come in handy.

While it’s never fun to do it, there are kind yet professional ways to reject an applicant that preserve your employer brand.

How to Write a Rejection Letter

You might not think twice about a rejection letter once you send it. But the truth is, your rejection letter is a reflection of your company. If it’s poorly written, that leaves a negative impression of your company that could easily spread to other candidates.

This is why writing a thoughtful rejection letter is key. It allows you to maintain a good relationship with the applicant, even if they were not a good fit for a particular role. Who knows, you may want to circle back to them if another position opens up.

When that comes up, you want a candidate to be excited about the prospect of working with you – and how you communicate plays a pivotal role in this.

It’s critical you remain positive with your language and focus on language from the job description itself.

In addition, keep in mind that a rejection letter is a fantastic opportunity for the candidate to receive positive feedback and learn how to do better in the future. Consider how you can include specific and valuable feedback.

A rejection letter can be broken down into three sections:

Paragraph One

Your first paragraph should be completely personalized and include the applicant’s name and the position for which they applied. Next, thank the candidate for their interest in your company and for taking the time to interview.

Finally, it’s critical you tell the candidate within the first paragraph you’ve decided to move forward with another candidate.

You can let them down kindly by including a compliment in the rejection, such as “While your qualifications are quite impressive …”

Paragraph Two (Optional)

The second paragraph is where the personalization really comes in. What you write will depend on your experience with the candidate and how far into the process they got.

For instance, if you’re rejecting a candidate after the first round, you can keep this section brief and jump to paragraph three. However, for a candidate who reached the final round, you’ll likely want to give more context to the reason for the rejection.

The candidate took time to prepare for your interview process, so if you were impressed by them during the interview, it could make a huge difference to let them know.

Simply include one strength of theirs you remembered from the interview process, like “Our team was particularly impressed with your writing skills.”

To truly add value, you’ll also want to include constructive feedback to help your candidate identify areas of improvement. Take detailed notes during the interview (or ask the hiring manager to do so) and when you reject your applicant, provide one or two areas of improvement.

Focus on one aspect of the job description you feel the candidate didn’t quite match.

Say the role required expertise in data analytics, but the applicant wasn’t strong in this area. You might say, “At this time, we’re looking for candidates with a deeper understanding of data analytics…”

If you were impressed by the candidate and genuinely feel they’d be a good fit for your company down the road, leave the door open by telling them you’ll put them into your contact database and reconsider them in the future.

Additionally, if it was a difficult decision, tell your candidate – it can help soften the blow.

Paragraph Three

Conclude by wishing the candidate luck in their job search, and thanking the applicant again for considering your company.

Standard Rejection Letter

Dear [Name],

Thank you for interviewing for [position] on [date of interview] and taking the time to learn about our company. After careful consideration, we have selected another candidate for the position.

We do hope you’ll keep us in mind when we advertise roles in the future and encourage you to apply again.

We wish you the best of luck in your job search and thank you for your interest in our company.

Sincerely,

[Name]

Feedback Rejection Letter

Dear [Name],

Thank you for interviewing for [position] on [date of interview]. It was a very tough decision but we have selected another candidate for the position.

Our team was particularly impressed with your [skills], but we felt you lacked experience in [skill/experience]. We’d recommend [taking a course/obtaining a certificate/gaining project experience] to improve.

We would like to stay in touch with you for future opportunities that might be a good fit. Please let us know if you’re interested in remaining in our talent pool.

Thanks again for taking the time to apply and come in to meet the team. We wish you the best of luck in your job search and thank you for your interest in our company.

Sincerely,

[Name]

Redirection Rejection Letter

Dear [Name],

Thank you for interviewing for [position] on [date of interview]. After careful consideration, we have decided to move forward with another candidate.

Our team was particularly impressed with your [skills], but we felt you lacked experience in [skill]. However, we believe your skillset would align better with [position] and would love to consider you for it.

Please let us know if you would be interested in discussing it further.

We’d like to thank you again for your time and wish you the best in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,

[Name]

Short Rejection Letter

Dear [Name],

Thank you for interviewing for [position] on [date of interview]. After careful consideration, we have decided to move forward with another candidate.

We thank you for your interest in the company and we wish you the best of luck in your job search.

Sincerely,

[Name]

Notifying a candidate that they have been rejected is never easy. By writing a thoughtful letter fit for the situation, you leave the door open for future collaboration and leave a positive impression of your company.

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

They say the best things often come in small packages. Think about it: jewelry, books, the keys to a new car … all of these things support this notion. And with our attention spans shrinking below that of a goldfish, it should come as no surprise that we crave more focused content at a smaller scale, too.

Here’s where microsites come into play. Unlike regular websites, microsites tend to be simplistic and easier to navigate. This isn’t to say they won’t make you want to poke around for a while, though. In fact, the really great ones do just that. In this post, we’ll show you some great design examples of microsites in action.

What is a microsite?

A microsite is a web page or small website made to promote a company’s product, service, campaign, or event. Microsites typically use a different domain or subdomain from the main company website and include links back to the main website, but act as a separate entity for the brand.

Microsites can help brands achieve a number of things. As HubSpot Product Manager Alex Girard puts it, “You can use a website to create a digital experience for a number of different moments in the buyer’s journey. It doesn’t have to be just a corporate ‘.com’ website for converting visitors to leads. You can build digital experiences that span the entire customer journey.”

For example, many companies use them to highlight a specific campaign or target specific buyer personas. Others use them to tell a short story or to experiment with new types of branded content, or to spread to a new region. With a big event coming up, a company might launch a microsite to spread awareness and promote sign-ups.

Whatever the reason, the goal of a microsite is to engage visitors with a specific message, generate interest, and draw them to the business’s offerings.

1. Website Grader (HubSpot)

HubSpot Website Grader is a microsite to improve your website, for free. Paste in your site’s URL and your email address, and Website Grader will leverage Google Lighthouse’s automated assessment system to assign a grade to your website.

Website Grader calculates your grade based on four key factors — performance (how fast your website is), SEO, mobile, and security — each of which receives its own score. For each factor, Website Grader breaks down your site’s rating and suggests areas for improvement.

Along with its suggestions, Website Grader directs visitors to a HubSpot Academy course on increasing their website grade. If users need more guidance, they can click one of several CTAs on the assessment page to take the course.

2. Listening Together (Spotify)

Spotify knows how to make a microsite — its hugely popular Spotify Wrapped series began as a microsite and has since become a feature of its mobile app. In 2020, the streaming platform introduced a new microsite to support its Listening Together campaign.

The microsite features a spinning three-dimensional map of the Earth covered with pins. Each pair of pins represents two users pressing play on the same track at the same moment. When you click a pin, you can hear the song being played, making this microsite a means for discovering new music.

Overall, it’s the kind of microsite that only a brand like Spotify could pull off, a clever and heartwarming reminder of how music brings us together.

3. My Creative Type (Adobe)

Adobe’s software suite contains more than a couple of industry-standard tools for visual creatives. Beyond the well-renowned tools it makes, a big force behind Adobe’s success is the brand’s ability to align itself with customers through marketing. The microsite My Creative Type is a prime example.

On this microsite, visitors complete a short questionnaire to determine their “creative personality.” The 15 questions assess your thinking, behavior, and outlook, each followed by a playful video metaphor for the answer you give.

At the end, you’re given one of eight creative types (I got “the Maker”) and a description of your strengths, potential, motivations, and advice for pursuing creative goals. You can then download your type or share it on social media.

Though it’s not made entirely clear how empirically sound all of this is, it’s still a fun way to bring new aspiring artists into the fold.

4. Emojitracker (Emojipedia)

There’s no “point” to emojitracker.com. It was created by Matthew Rothenberg, former Head of Product at Flickr and Bitly, as an experiment to track all emojis used on Twitter in real-time. Now, it’s maintained as a microsite for Emojipedia.

The only calls-to-action on the site are some outgoing links at the very bottom. Otherwise, it’s just for pure interest. With no navigation bar or way to get to another site, it might actually confuse some visitors.

Emojipedia might break some rules of user interface design, but it also shows that microsites don’t need to have complicated designs and that a cool idea can get you pretty far. Make it simple enough to keep people on the page without taking up too much of their time.

5. Elf Yourself (OfficeMax)

I think it’s a rule that you can’t write about microsites without mentioning Elf Yourself, perhaps the most successful microsite of all time. Come the holiday season, expect your inbox to be rife with animations because Elf Yourself isn’t going away.

What made the site so popular in the first place? Well, it’s hilarious. Besides that, the content is easily shareable, the website is simple to use, and it makes the users the stars. You would hardly know this is a corporate-sponsored site.

OfficeMax used the microsite to be creative and let their freak flag fly, and actually pulled it off. The company focused its campaign on the consumers, not the brand — but the sales tie-in came at the end of the Elf Yourself videos in the form of coupons and promos.

6. Blue Heart (Patagonia)

Patagonia is one of the few exceptional brands that not only offers a top-tier customer experience, but goes above and beyond in its advocacy work. In a partnership with Farm League, the company created a microsite to draw attention to environmental harm caused by hydroelectric dams in the Balkan region.

Unlike most other microsites, the Blue Heart website does not include prominent CTAs directing visitors to the main Patagonia website. Instead, it places focus completely on the story being told with various elements: a short film, articles, and an interactive map.

It’s rare for brands to put out microsites of this quality — Blue Heart is an engaging, visually rich experience with a mission that goes far beyond generating leads for the business to serve a greater mission.

7. Inside CHANEL (Chanel)

Inside Chanel is a microsite that harnesses multimedia to educate visitors on the company’s history and heritage. The site houses a ton of short, social videos that chronicle the people, places, items, and events that have contributed to the continued success of this iconic fashion brand.

The purpose? “The strategy behind this microsite is to create some accessibility of Chanel’s history, but more importantly, their success throughout the years,” explains Dalia Strum, president of Dalia Inc.

We love their video-centric approach to visual storytelling. Each video pulls back the curtain and gives you an exclusive look at behind-the-scenes photos and stories as they pertain to different aspects of the brand — color, couture, and so on.

This site isn’t Chanel’s first stab at microsite creation. In fact, the brand has experimented with multiple microsite formats, including the editorial-style site Chanel News.

8. Xbox Museum (Microsoft)

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its Xbox brand, Microsoft launched the microsite Xbox Museum, a virtual tour of its various consoles throughout the years.

This content-rich site is built around the significant events in Xbox’s history, including console launches, design plans, game releases, and more. You play as a character who navigates a virtual timeline, visiting articles marking each event.

It’s a unique and fitting way to celebrate such a huge milestone for the business, plus a way to capture the nostalgia of long-time fans and the interest of new ones.

9. Life at Home (Ikea)

2020 and 2021 marked a major shift in where and how we spend our time. To shed light on the intersection of mental health and living space, Ikea published a microsite of original research and ways to be happier at home.

Throughout the report, readers learn how our mental health, families, and communities have changed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. They emphasize the role of a comfortable living space and strong relationships in our mental well-being. Other cool elements include a map visualization, videos, and short questions posed to the reader.

Ikea’s microsite expertly connects the importance of safe living spaces and healthy relationships back to its branding, forming positive associations in the minds of visitors and bringing them closer to a purchase.

10. NASA Spacecraft (NASA)

Let’s be honest, spaceships are probably the coolest thing ever, and NASA knows this. That’s why they launched (pun intended) this microsite: to catalog all of its satellites, from its first in 1960 all the way until its most recent launch, the James Webb Space Telescope.

Each spacecraft has its own three-dimensional visualization that you can rotate and view from various angles, along with a brief description. It’s enough to reignite any kid’s (or adult’s) interest in space research and exploration.

11. Chipotle Farmers Market (Chipotle)

Fast casual dining favorite Chipotle wants you to know that its ingredients are sourced sustainably and ethically from family farms, so it launched a microsite dedicated to supporting them.

The Chipotle Farmers Market is a microsite that lists some of the company’s suppliers and links to their websites where you can purchase their products directly. The site is also a means to advertise the Seed Grants program, which gives $5,000 to 50 farmers under 40.

Microsite vs. Website

While microsites are often their own websites, there are a few things that differentiate them from what we usually call websites.

The main difference between a website and a microsite is its purpose. An organization’s website often does many things, including explaining its products or services, sharing its values and mission, and selling products. It’s the main place where visitors, leads, and customers go to learn or do business with you. It’s also probably built in order to drive conversions and encourage visitors to a purchase.

Microsites, on the other hand, could be made for a bunch of different reasons. As Girard explains, microsites are “smaller websites, separate from a company’s corporate website, that enable marketers to quickly build content for and report on the success of a specific initiative.” This initiative could be a campaign, a product launch, an event, or other way to draw in current and potential customers. Still, all microsites are usually focused on brand awareness or conversion. They also typically occupy a different domain or subdomain than the primary website.

Additionally, as their name implies, microsites are typically smaller than full company websites. As we saw in our examples, a microsite could range in size from one page to several, but almost always fewer pages than the main website it’s related to.

Microsite vs. Landing Page

Like microsites, landing pages are focused on a specific goal related to a marketing play. However, a landing page is not a website — it is a single web page within a website intended to inform visitors about an offering and drive conversions.

While landing pages feature minimal design to keep visitors focused on generating leads, microsites encourage exploration and engagement. Microsites aim to build positive connections between people and brands, so visitors are more likely to convert later in their journey.

Microsites: Small But Mighty

At least when it comes to websites, companies don’t like taking risks. The goal is to get visitors from landing to conversion to purchase as seamlessly and as quickly as possible. That’s why businesses spend so much of their resources on design and the user experience.

But, microsites aren’t a company’s main website — that’s the point. As a result, they’re some of the coolest projects on the internet. Microsites are a chance to experiment with new content, promote a unique message, do something offbeat, and, most importantly, create value for visitors.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

I’ll be the first one to admit it: the first time I wrote a blog post, I had a lot of new terminology to learn.

Specifically, I didn’t know the purpose of a meta description and why adding one to a blog post was so important. After all, wouldn’t Google highlight the most relevant part of my blog in search results? Not quite.

This post will show you why meta descriptions are important and how to write effective ones. Before all that, though, let’s discuss what a meta description is.

What is a meta description?

A meta description is the snippet of information below the blue link of a search result. Its purpose is to describe the contents of the page to the searcher.

Any words that match the search term are bolded in the description. The end goal is to convince and persuade the searcher to click through to your website.

Here is an example of a meta description as it would show up on a search engine results (SERP) page:

Notice that, because the query is “What is inbound marketing?”, the two words are bolded in that meta description.

Also notice how the meta description gives a clear and concise snapshot of the topic, which signals to the reader what they can expect.

To remain visible within Google, you should keep your meta descriptions somewhere between 140-160 characters in length.

Why are meta descriptions important?

Meta descriptions are important because they let Google know what your webpage will be about. If Google can read and comprehend the content of your meta description, they will have an easier chance of ranking your page to answer search queries.

🧡 TL;DR: Meta descriptions increase organic traffic and bring more eyes to your webpages.

If you don’t include a meta description, Google will display a snippet of text from the first paragraph of your page. If there’s a search keyword in that text, it’ll be bolded. While this isn’t a bad thing, not including a meta description means missing out on the chance to personalize the message you deliver to browsers.

Meta Description Examples

Meta descriptions should be quick, one- to two-sentence summaries of the content within your web page. They should tell the reader what they can expect to find after clicking on your link. For example, here’s a meta description for a data-driven marketing report:

This meta description accurately describes what will be found in the report, who is presenting the information, and why the content will be helpful to readers. If browsers were typing in queries such as, “SEO trends in 2021,” it’s likely that this meta description will appear in their results.

Meta descriptions follow a few simple rules: They’re short, descriptive, and use keywords. But after that, you have free reign to play around with what they will say. Use this to your advantage when you’re creating your meta description:

If you know that your webpage will present content that’s usually considered a bit dry, the way to engage browsers is to make a compelling meta description, like the one above.

Readers often check only the first page of results for their search queries. Because of this, where you rank on a webpage matters. Even though meta descriptions aren’t the be-all, end-all that determines your rank, (you’ll want to fully optimize On-Page SEO for that), they sure do help.

A great meta description has the potential to appear on the first page of results, and a great one might even be first, like this example below:

The meta description told Google how their page will fix the challenge of the query.

Now, you may wonder if there’s a secret key or formula to writing a perfect meta description, besides the rules above.While the secret key hasn’t been located yet, there are some tips and tricks you can follow when writing your meta description. Let’s talk about a few, next.

Meta Description Tips

Google suggests that a meta description should tell users what that web page is about. Based on the information in a meta description, the search engine ranks results on relevancy.

Think of meta descriptions as a pitch for your webpage. Communicate why the page will be helpful to the reader, and make sure it accurately reflects what’s on the page. If a reader doesn’t find what the meta description promises, they’re probably going to click away.

Let’s get into some tips for writing an amazing meta description.

1. Answer the question.

It’s likely that people are on Google searching for an answer to a question. Try to get into their heads and think about what they’re looking for that your content can help with.

Use your meta description to answer that question with a solution or benefit. For example, let’s say your web page provides readers with a free template for writing standard operating procedures.

The question audiences will most likely Google is “What is an SOP?” Your meta description, then, should tell readers that they can use your guided template to learn how to write one. For instance, this would be my meta description if I were to write one to answer this query:

💻“Learn everything there is to know about writing a standard operating procedure (SOP), and find out how to write one that’s amazing.”

This meta description answers the question and provides a little detail about the rest of the contents of the post.

2. Mention a solution to the challenge.

Provide a solution to the challenge your readers are looking to solve. For instance, if you’re writing a blog post that’s a listicle roundup of helpful CRM software, mention how many items are in the post and why that post will be valuable to readers.

If I were to write a meta description for a roundup, in this case, I would go with something like this:

💻“Discover the 15 best CRM software options for your small business and learn why they’re great for simplicity, customer retention, and organization.”

Remember, meta descriptions are the elevator pitch of your page — sell the content of your post in a way that will get readers to click. This description tells readers how many options they will read about and why they’re important to know.

3. Keep the description concise.

The body of your page is where you’ll educate your audience, so the meta description doesn’t need to be lengthy. Provide a quick summary of the page — or the point of the page that will stand out to readers. Meta descriptions should be under 160 characters long.

A good way to check the length of a meta description is to draft a tweet. Twitter limits you to 280 characters and lets you know when you reach your limit:

If your description fills more than half of the circle in the tweet box, you should think about trimming it down. Meta descriptions should serve as a snapshot, not the body text of the post — save that for when the readers access your page.

4. Don’t overuse the keywords.

While your meta description should have keywords, it also should read naturally to the reader. If you overuse keywords just to get a high rank, readers might not understand your meta description. A tough-to-follow description could turn a browser away from your page.

For example, let’s say your webpage is delivering a content offer for interview materials and the primary keywords are “interview success,” “tips for great interviews,” and “interview preparation.”

You could write a meta description that reads along the lines of, “An interview success offer that’s free to download to be successful in preparing for interviews.” However, this reads a little clunky and is hard to follow, right? Instead, try going with something more smooth:

💻“Learn the tips and tricks for acing interviews with this downloadable job seeking kit.”

This description still uses two keywords but also makes sense to the reader and gives them the background information they need to know how that offer page will help them.

5. Be engaging and unique to readers.

If you can, make your meta descriptions fun and engaging to read. Something eye-catching that will stop the reader from scrolling through a SERP. This is especially helpful if your webpage content is meant to be engaging and unique.

Match the tone of the content in your meta. Let’s say the content for your webpage is a blog post about funny workplace memes. Your description of this could be straightforward and accomplish everything a meta description should, such as, “These 20 workplace memes are funny, timely, and shareable.”

A description like that covers all of your bases, but it leaves the personality out. The post sounds like it was fun and interesting to put together, so that shouldn’t stop with the body text! Instead, try this more compelling approach:

💻 “Brighten your work day with these fresh, fun memes that any professional can relate to. Cat videos, anyone?”

A description like that sells your content, tells readers what they can expect, and still manages to be interesting in just two sentences.

6. Entice readers with a call-to-action.

If you want to persuade the reader to take action — or create a sense of urgency — try tacking a call-to-action at the end of your description.

Let’s look at this example from Neil Patel:

There are plenty of CTAs to choose from — for example: Learn More, Sign Up Today, or Start a Free Trial. Context matters here, so choose one that works with the content you’re providing.

7. Avoid duplicate meta descriptions.

While Google won’t actively penalize you for duplicating the meta descriptions on your site, it’s still bad for SEO. Why? If you have too many identical descriptions, search engines may flag some of your content as low-quality or redundant, thus impacting your ranking.

Instead, make it meaningful, easy to understand, and descriptive — like it’s an elevator pitch for your blog post.

Back to You

Your meta description is your chance to win over readers. Be sure to create an engaging meta description for your website that persuades people to choose your content first. After all, if your webpages are made to be helpful and valuable to browsers, so should the content that’s describing it.

Consistently creating high-quality, engaging, and relevant content across social channels can be incredibly difficult and time-consuming for marketers.

To combat those challenges, most marketers have relied on reposting content from other creators and brands as an opportunity to fill in their social calendars and provide valuable content on a more consistent basis.

In fact, reposting is an incredibly popular option for sharing information, funny memes, or interesting trends with your own audiences without needing to re-create the wheel — consider, for instance, how Instagram’s #repost hashtag has over 560 million posts.

But as of April 20, 2022, reposted content will no longer be rewarded. Here’s what Instagram’s new algorithm update means for marketers.

What Instagram’s New Algorithm Update Means for Marketers and Creators Alike

Original Content Will Be Prioritized

On April 20, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, tweeted an announcement that Instagram is now ranking based off originality.

As he puts it, “If you create something from scratch, you should get more credit than if you’re re-sharing something you found from someone else. We’re going to do more to try and value original content more, particularly compared to re-posted content.”

On the surface, this seems like a fair deal. If a marketer goes through the trouble to create a unique, original infographic, for instance, she should be rewarded by getting her post ranked higher in the algorithm than someone who is re-posting her same infographic.

Additionally, this is a good experience for users. Instagram users don’t want their feeds to be cluttered with all the same content, reposted again and again. Each time they scroll, they want to see fresh, new posts.

However, ‘originality’ can be a difficult thing to define. For instance: Is it still considered original if it’s a branded video that was first posted on your YouTube account, and then re-posted to your Instagram Stories?

Or — what if your CEO is mentioned in another brand’s post, and you want to re-share with your own audience?

As Mosseri said on Twitter in response to one question, “The idea is if you made it, it’s original. It’s okay if you edited it outside of Instagram and then bring it in via the gallery. Identifying ‘originality’ is hard though, so we will iterate over time.”

It’s looking like this decision is primarily designed to decrease the amount of aggregator accounts on the social platform — accounts which are focused on compilations of other creators’ content, like @HilariousYouTubeVids or @CelebFashionInspo.

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for marketers. It can be incredibly difficult to get your content in front of new audiences, particularly when you’re competing against the same re-posted TikTok video from 50 different accounts.

It’s equally exciting for content creators. In the past, if you created a funny Instagram Stories video and someone re-posted it to their Instagram feed where it gained a ton of traction, you wouldn’t necessarily reap the benefits from that – the re-poster would get the views, likes, and shares.

Now, Instagram is rewarding originality, so if you’re the first one to create and share a piece of content, this new algorithm update should help you remain the sole beneficiary.

Plus, as Mosseri disclosed in response to another tweet, Instagram’s algorithm already prioritizes original content, so this is nothing new. The photo-sharing app is simply leaning more heavily in this direction and re-evaluating the AI systems they currently use to detect original content.

To recap, Instagram’s new shift towards rewarding original content will:

• Largely penalize aggregator sites. So if your entire account is based off posting funny videos from other people’s accounts, you could see a decrease in ranking. If your account is mostly filled with original content, you shouldn’t be impacted.
• Be iterated on over time. Instagram is still working to define what ‘originality’ means, and as Mosseri puts it, it will take time to get it right when it comes to identifying what’s truly original.
• Allow you to post content you’ve created and edited outside the app. Feel comfortable posting your own content that you’ve already posted on your other social channels, as well as any content you’ve edited outside of Instagram. Since you made it, it’s still original.
• Reconsider your strategy if you primarily post user-generated content. There’s plenty of proof that user-generated content (UGC) is an effective marketing strategy, and it’s not going anywhere. However, if your entire feed is made up of re-posted content from your customers, you might want to reconsider the ratio of UGC to original content. To get around this, consider creating original branded content with quotes or short videos from your customers and advocates.

Instagram’s Algorithm Update Will Also Offer Product Tags and Enhanced People Tags

This is part of a larger Instagram algorithm update, which will also now offer product tags to everyone (they were previously only given to select accounts), as well as enhanced people tags (which allows you to provide a short description beneath your name that will show up when users click on the tags in a post, like ‘Caroline Forsey: Writer’).

In response to the question, Why now?, Mosseri says, “As we lean more into recommendations it’s becoming increasingly important that [we] don’t overvalue aggregators, as that would be bad for creators, and therefore bad for Instagram long term.”

Ultimately, Instagram’s goal here is to ensure its users’ feeds don’t just become one big replica of the same few messages. And that’s a good thing: It means there will be more space, moving forward, for your branded content to reach new audiences, and you’ll see a reward for the hard work of creating unique, one-of-a-kind content.

So, you want to learn how to program. Honestly, great choice — pursuing software or website development is a challenging but highly rewarding career path.

Now, for your next big decision: Which programming language should you start with? It can feel like a daunting choice, since your first language is your first exposure to the world of programming can set the tone for your learning experience.

If you pick one that’s too challenging, you might get discouraged and lose interest early on. Pick one that’s too simple and you may miss out on fundamental concepts you’ll need to lock down an entry-level development job. Plus, with hundreds of programming languages being used today, where do you even begin to look?

Fortunately, you don’t have to learn every language under the sun to break into the field. Many developers before you have come to a general consensus about which programming languages are best for newcomers.

To get you started coding as soon as possible, we’ve compiled 12 excellent beginner options you can pick from depending on your interests and desired career path.

If you’re a beginner, most software engineers recommend learning Python, Java, or C first. Below, we’ll give you a rundown of each of these programming languages and others, while describing what they’re used for and why you might want to try each one.

1. Python

Many new programmers will gravitate to Python as their first language. It has many qualities that make it perfect all-around for beginners.

Python is a high-level, general-purpose scripting language with syntax that is very simple and digestible compared to other programming languages. This makes it easy to learn relatively quickly and start building simple projects without sweating the details.

Python is also known for its broad range of libraries that allow you to extend the language to do just about anything, including software development, data analysis, machine learning, server-side web development, and a ton more.

2. Java

Java is another widely used general-purpose programming language that’s excellent for beginners. Not only is it a great introduction to the art and science of programming — it’s also one of the most sought-after languages at companies of all sizes (including HubSpot!), making it a solid foundation for a career.

The Java Virtual Machine lets Java run on virtually any hardware and operating system, making it among the most widely used programming languages in the world. It’s most commonly on the back ends of software applications, from large-scale enterprise applications to mobile apps. Notably, the Android OS is based on Java.

While Java does have a bit steeper of a learning curve than Python, it’s definitely manageable and one of the best options for first-time programmers.

3. JavaScript

JavaScript (no relation to Java, despite their similar names) is the de facto programming language of the web. It’s primarily used on the front end of websites and applications to make them dynamic and interactive. It can also be used server-side with frameworks like Node.js.

It’s also the most popular programming language according to Stack Overflow, used by 68% of professional developers. It’s also used on over 98% of all websites. With those numbers, it’s safe to say that anyone who wants to learn web development should make JavaScript one of the first languages they learn.

JavaScript is somewhat notorious in the developer community for its complexity, but that’s only if you dig into the advanced stuff. For beginners, JavaScript is intuitive, flexible, and easy to pick up. Plus, you don’t need to install another application or compile your code to see your code work — just run it in your browser.

4. HTML and CSS

Okay, HTML and CSS aren’t technically programming languages. However, if you’re interested in web development, these should be the first two languages you learn besides JavaScript. You can’t really build anything web-based without at least some HTML knowledge, anyway.

HTML is the language that defines the content and structure of web pages. When you view a web page, you’re looking at your browser’s interpretation of an HTML file. CSS is an accompanying language that defines the style of the page — it’s what makes websites look nice, basically.

The good news is that, since HTML and CSS steer clear of the programming part of web development, they’re both pretty straightforward and a great way to get a sense of what coding a website feels like without committing to a whole programming language. Take a few days to get comfortable with these two and, if you like them, consider an introductory JavaScript course.

5. C

Some programming languages, like Python, are ideal for new programmers because their syntax is simple and human-readable. Essentially, you can write programs that do a lot of things with less code. On the other hand, some other languages are more challenging because their syntax is closer to machine code (a very low-level, entirely numerical language that computers process). If you hadn’t already guessed, C is one of these languages.

So, why would anyone start with a lower-level language? Ultimately, starting with C can be more rewarding in the long run because it helps you build a better foundation of knowledge. So much of learning how to program involves problem-solving, rather than just learning syntax. For anyone who wants to dive into the technical side of things and really understand how their programs work, C is your best bet.

For this reason, C is widely taught in introductory college computer science courses. However, it also involves more complex syntax than some other programming languages — you need to write more code to get things done. But, if you want to be challenged, learning C will help you ultimately become a more well-rounded programmer.

A very influential language, C also forms the foundation for most modern programming syntax, so learning will give you key skills you can then apply to other languages. In terms of applications, C is most commonly used for desktop applications, operating systems, and databases.

6. C++

A successor of C, C++ is also popular among programmers. The name comes from the “++” operator in C, which adds a value of one to an integer. (Yes, even developers like to have fun sometimes.)

C++ builds on C by including classes and objects, which allow you to represent real-life objects in the code. This added sophistication opens many more possibilities to the language and makes it much better equipped for developing sophisticated applications, like system or application software, drivers, client-server applications, embedded firmware, and video games.

And, fun side note, C++ was also my first programming language. 🎉 🎉

7. C#

Another popular offshoot of C, C# (pronounced “C sharp”) was developed by Microsoft to run on its .NET platform for Windows applications. C# is still very common in desktop applications, it’s also known it for being the language of the Unity game engine. This means that those interested in video game development will likely need to learn C# at some point.

Once you’ve learned the basics of C, consider taking on C# next, as it will be easier to pick up once you’re familiar with the syntax of the C family of programming languages.

8. Ruby

For you aspiring web developers, this is another popular choice for beginners. Ruby is a server-side scripting language that’s one of the easier ones to read and pick up as a first language.

A big reason for Ruby’s popularity is the open-source web application framework Ruby on Rails, which has been widely adopted by startups and large tech companies like Square, Shopify, Airbnb, and Hulu, making it a valuable skill career-wise.

A main philosophy of Ruby on Rails is convention over configuration. In other words, it trades flexibility for convenience, and a lot of programming decisions are already made for you. While learning Ruby on Rails will be a heavier lift than the basics of Ruby, you’ll eventually be able to help build impressive web applications as a result.

Still, we recommend learning the basics of the Ruby programming language first, before diving into the Rails framework that goes on top of it.

9. PHP

Here’s one more popular server-side scripting language that’s valuable to know if you’re interested in web development. PHP is an open-source language that’s used to build dynamic web pages on-the-fly, making for a more personalized browsing experience. Highly flexible, beginner-friendly, and with tons of frameworks, PHP tops the list for most-used languages by beginners and professionals alike.

PHP is also the core language for the WordPress content management system and is a staple in the WordPress developer’s toolkit. Since WordPress is free and open-source, peeking at its core files is a good way to get some exposure to how PHP powers websites.

10. SQL

Are you interested in working with databases, or any kind of job that involves storing, fetching, and analyzing data? In that case, it’s definitely worth your time to pick up SQL at some point.

SQL, which stands for Structured Query Language (and is often pronounced “sequel”) is the standard programming language for managing relational databases. A relational database is one in which data points are related to each other, organized in tables of columns and rows.

SQL allows you to add data to, extract data from, and change data inside relational databases, making it most useful for data analysts and scientists, as well as product experts, business analysts, and marketers who wish to factor business data into their decision-making.

You can’t exactly “build” things with SQL in the same sense as other languages here — it has a much more specific purpose. But, if you aspire to work with data in any capacity, SQL is a must-know.

11. Swift

Swift is a newer programming language created by Apple to develop iOS and macOS applications. If you think building apps is something you’d want to do, learn Swift — you’ll need to know it eventually to make a career in iOS and macOS development.

Like other languages we’ve discussed here, Swift has relatively straightforward, human-readable syntax and is a pretty forgiving language when it comes to mistakes. It’s also a very scalable language that makes it easy to translate your projects from small experiments to full-blown app pursuits.

12. Go

To close out our list, we have Go (also known as Golang), a general-purpose. Go was created by Google to support software development projects. It’s similar to C, but with easier syntax and some added functionality to support more efficient building and more scalable projects. Some people see Go as combining the more user-friendly aspects of several programming languages into one.

Go has gained traction among developers of cloud-based applications, AI and machine learning, web servers, data tools, and command-line tools.

For more general advice on how to pick which language to learn first, check out this great video from Codecademy.

Learn to code.

As I said, picking a first programming language is intimidating. But, the good news is that once you get a feel for one language, it’s easier to transfer your knowledge to other similar programming languages. For example, if you started with C, you can take on C++, JavaScript, or PHP without having to relearn a ton of new concepts.

Whichever language you choose, the most important thing isn’t the exact syntax of the language you’re writing (though, yes, that is important). Rather, it’s the fundamental concepts of computer science, the problem-solving skills you pick up along the way, and, eventually, the ability to think computationally as second-nature.

That might all seem far off to you right now. But, with diligent practice and dedication to the languages you’re learning, a new career can be closer than you think.

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

In 2022, it’s clear that Instagram is no longer just a photo-sharing app.

Not only has Instagram become a thriving social media channel with all sorts of video, Story, and even live stream features, but it’s even evolving into a shopping platform that fuses e-commerce and social media together.

And, our recent survey of 580 Instagram marketers found that using the app’s shopping tools enables the highest ROI of any Instagram strategy.

But with a wide variety of shopping tools popping up in feed-based posts, Reels, Live video, Stories, Guides, and the dedicated Shop tab, it can be challenging to figure out where to start.

To help marketers and business professionals like you, let’s take a deep dive into Instagram’s shopping tools to find out:

Which Instagram Shopping Tools Perform Best?

Using Instagram shopping tools is the strategy with the highest ROI and also the strategy used most by Instagram marketers. Most importantly, it’s just getting started.

While just 37% currently use the app’s shopping tools, 94% of them will increase or maintain their investment this year. On top of that, 1 in 3 plan to use Instagram shopping tools for the first time this year.

Also, marketers who leverage Instagram’s shopping tools are 15% more likely to say their Instagram strategy was effective last year than those who don’t. So which tools perform best?

Of the shopping tools, Instagram Live Shopping and Instagram Shops have the highest ROI and are the most leveraged.

Additionally, the use of both live shopping and shops will grow significantly in 2022, with 55% planning to try Instagram Shops and 48% planning to use Instagram live Shopping for the first time.

Instagram Feed Post Shopping, Instagram Stories Shopping, and Instagram Guides Shopping are all used by over 1 in 3 marketers and also lead in terms of ROI.

Reels Shopping has the lowest use and ROI, however, 42% of Instagram marketers plan to use Reels Shopping this year, the 3rd highest of any Instagram shopping tool.

Should You Sell or Launch Products Exclusively Through Instagram Shopping?

Using Instagram Shopping tools is a powerful marketing opportunity, but should you also have an external website to sell your goods and services?

41% of Instagram marketers say most of the brands they work with use Instagram shopping tools exclusively and don’t have a separate website, while 59% use a mix of both.

83% of Instagram marketers say they have worked with a brand that launched a product exclusively on Instagram and 59% of them say launching exclusively on Instagram is better than launching elsewhere.

Launching a product exclusively to your Instagram audience can also be a great way to boost brand loyalty and reward your followers.

This is just one of the many benefits marketers are seeing from using Instagram’s shopping tools. Let’s take a look at what other benefits marketers are getting from social shopping.

The Biggest Benefits of Instagram’s Shopping Tools

Leveraging Instagram shopping tools comes with a wide range of benefits, most notably increased product discoverability, a simplified shopping experience for your customers, ease of partnering with influencers, and the ability to integrate your products into content, making it look more authentic.

I mentioned how Instagram is focused on helping creators monetize their content, and one way to accomplish all of the above is to leverage Shopping from Creators.

While not exactly new, this feature was initially rolled out only to a select few influencers in 2019. It took until March 2022 for Instagram to officially announce that it would be expanded to all users in the U.S.

Shopping from Creators allows influencers to tag your brand’s products directly in their posts, so users can find and purchase products without leaving Instagram. This combines all the benefits listed above, and excels at making partnering with creators easy and look authentic.

Despite all the benefits selling on Instagram offers, there are also challenges. Let’s dive into the top struggles marketers face with Instagram’s shopping tools.

The Biggest Challenges of Instagram Shopping Tools

The top two challenges marketers face with Instagram shopping tools seem to contradict each other – while 38% of those who use Instagram shopping tools struggle with making sales, 45% are having problems due to too many sales and supply chain issues.

Another 37% complain about selling fees, which are currently at 5% per shipment, with shipments under $8 racking up a flat fee of 40 cents. However, fees are being waved through June 30, 2022, to help small businesses recover from the pandemic.

36% of Instagram sellers also take issue with the fact that they don’t have full access to the shopping tools the app has to offer. As the app fully embraces social shopping in 2022, you can expect access to open up to more users.

Social Shopping Is The Future

There’s never been a better time to start selling on social media, and Instagram is the best place to do it.

If you’re ready to get started, take a look at our 2022 Instagram Marketing Report for a detailed breakdown of which strategies, features, and formats are most effective on the app. For a few examples of how brands leverage Instagram Shopping, check out this post or this detailed ultimate guide.

Curious about your overall Instagram strategy, beyond Shopping? Check out our Instagram Engagement Report for even more data.

Equal parts social media platform and search engine, Pinterest had over 431 million active monthly users in early 2022. But the popularity of the platform means it’s a crowded space, and the task of getting followers on Pinterest can feel daunting.

Fortunately, there are tactics you can implement right now to increase your real follower count on Pinterest to increase web traffic, drive sales, and help your grand gain authority.

Here, we’re going to dive into everything you need to know to grow your Pinterest audience today.

1. Use a Pinterest business account.

On Pinterest, business accounts have access to tools such as unique content formats, advanced analytics, shopping features, and the ability to create an ad account to promote your content. 

When creating a new account, you can opt to turn it into a business account during the setup process. If you have an existing account, you can convert it to a business account to maintain authority.

2. Optimize your username and Pinterest bio.

Your username and bio are completely searchable. Make sure you include search terms related to your niche that your customers may be looking for on Pinterest to increase profile visibility. 

For example, content creator Chelsea Clark added the keyword “plant-based wellness” to her Pinterest profile, making her content more likely to show up for users who include the term “plant-based” in their Pinterest search.

Image Source

3. Post Idea Pins.

Idea Pins are a multi-page video-based format that Pinterest rolled out globally in 2021. The beta version of this feature rolled out in 2020 and was called Story Pins, and was initially used similarly to Instagram Stories. 

Now, the Idea Pin feature allows creators and businesses to record, edit, and share up to 20 pages of content within one post. Notable Idea Pin features include the ability to record voiceovers, add transitions, tag other accounts, and add music. 

Because Idea Pins don’t expire after 24 hours like story features on other social media platforms, creators can use the feature to grow their reach and engagement. 

4. Include text on your Idea Pins. 

Once you get the hang of creating Idea Pins, try including text overlays to make your content more accessible, and easy to understand. Text on Idea Pins is also searchable within Pinterest, so make sure you include keywords potential followers are searching for.

5. Focus on a specific audience. 

Even if your products or services could, in theory, be purchased by anyone, you should laser focus your Pinterest marketing strategy. You’ll find that as you narrow your target, the better you’ll be able to create content that actually resonates with them. By identifying a niche and dominating it, you can expand your reach as your content is consumed, shared, and recognized. 

Creating a buyer persona is the first step to defining your audience, humanizing them, and understanding their needs.

6. Post original images.

84% of Pinners use Pinterest to decide what to buy — which means it’s critical you position yourself in front of them by creating original content for your brand. Try posting original infographics, graphics, or photos that reflect your brand’s message. Additionally, when you do re-pin, make sure you’re re-pinning content that aligns well with your own brand.

7. Include relevant topic tags to increase video reach.

Pinterest is no longer encouraging the use of hashtags and instead recommends creators use topic tags to categorize their content and improve reach. Here’s how you can use the topic tag feature:

8. Create a cohesive brand for recognition on the platform.

People do business with those they like, know, and trust, so the goal is to go from a stranger in your prospects’ eyes to being known and trusted. On Pinterest, that means increasing the number of impressions your content earns from your target audience. An “impression” refers to any time a prospect “sees” you or your brand. If you don’t have a consistent look and feel, your content won’t be recognized as being related, which means you never build that trust. 

According to Forbes, color improves brand recognition by up to 80%, and consistent brand presentation across platforms increases revenue by up to 23%. The big takeaway is that a consistent (and recognizable) brand identity is paramount to increasing ROI for your Pinterest marketing efforts. By building a brand identity, your target audience will start to recognize you in the niche, which is the first step to building trust.

9. Post infographics to promote proprietary data for your company.

Infographics are a perfect mix of data, visual, and written content, making them extremely shareable. For this reason, 40% of marketers reported that infographics were the type of visual content that helped them reach their marketing goals in 2021 according to Venngage. 

Infographics do well on Pinterest, particularly, as it’s a visual platform with the capability of displaying long, vertical images. By creating a custom-branded infographic and sharing it on Pinterest, you’re establishing credibility by educating your audience. It also gives another opportunity for “impressions” to increase your brand recognition if the infographic is branded properly.

10. Use keywords in your board names and pin descriptions.

Pinterest users typically find brands through hashtags and searches, so it’s important you include both in your descriptions and images.

When writing your pin description, it’s critical you remain specific and descriptive. This ensures the highest chance that your pin will match a user’s true search intent. For instance, let’s say you have a pin for healthy dinner recipes. You’re more likely to have users find and engage with your pin if it’s saved to a board titled “Healthy Recipes” (which is what they are likely searching for) than something vague like “Healthy.”

11. Include relevant keywords in your Pinterest name, too.

Pinterest marketing doesn’t just come down to the shareability of individual posts but also discoverability. You’ll want to position your brand in front of Pinterest users who are actually searching for your content. By including a couple of relevant keywords into your Pinterest name, your account is more likely to show up for interested searchers.

12. Use Pinterest Trends to plan your content.

Those using Pinterest business accounts have access to a tool called Pinterest Trends, which shows which keywords and topics are trending across various niche areas. Use the trends tool to find what your potential customers are searching for and let these results inform what content you share.

Pinterest also creates an annual report called Pinterest Predicts, which outlines which topics will likely trend on Pinterest for the upcoming year based on search patterns and unique data.

13. Share new content weekly.

According to Pinterest, the recommended posting cadence is at least one original pin per week. To get the most out of your Pinterest traffic, make sure your pins lead back to your website (or that you’re linking your Idea Pins to your products).

14. Be active and engaged on Pinterest.

Like any social media site, Pinterest favors active accounts. This includes ensuring you pin on a regular basis, manually pin others’ pins, and follow other boards. If you have trouble keeping up with your Pinterest activity, create a social media calendar to have a more focused and organized publishing strategy. You can also try using a tool like Tailwind, which allows you to schedule your Pinterest pins ahead of time.

It’s vital you re-pin often. Consider going to the “Explore” and “Trending” pages and re-pinning from there. The more you re-pin and engage with other boards, the more likely you are to increase your reach.

15. Follow other users.

If someone is following a business with similar content to yours, chances are they’d be a good follower for you as well. Take some time to research competitors’ and follow their followers — if your content is up-to-par, they’ll more than likely follow you back.

Alternatively, perhaps there are businesses with products or services that work well in conjunction with your own. For instance, let’s say you’re an interior designer, and you find a company that sells handmade furniture on Pinterest. You might follow some of their followers since their followers are likely interested in either decorating or sprucing up their home.

16. Add a Pinterest follow button to your newsletter or website.

You can likely increase traffic to your Pinterest account if you embed a Pinterest follow button in an email newsletter or on your website. Since traffic to your site, or subscribers to your newsletter, are probably already interested in your product or services, they’re a strong audience to target.

Plus, depending on where they are in their buyer’s journey, your Pinterest account might actually help them decide whether your business is the right fit for them.

17. Use Pinterest sections to organize your boards.

Pinterest sections are similar to H2 sections of your blog posts — they enable you to organize your full Pinterest board into categories, so users can more easily find exactly what they’re looking for.

For instance, take a look at Twins Mommy Blog’s board:

Sections, then, make your individual content more likely to be found and re-pinned.

18. Promote your pins.

If you have a business account on Pinterest, you could consider putting money behind a pin to increase visibility and reach — similar to paying for an ad on Facebook.

For instance, take a look at what I see when I type “travel” into Pinterest:

For increased visibility and reach, then, why not?

19. A/B test your pins to see what works.

You don’t have to throw spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. By testing different variables with your audience, you can continually improve your campaigns as you learn more about what resonates with them. 

Here are some different variables to compare on Pinterest: 

• Alternate headlines for your pin title
• Alternate thumbnail images for your pin
• Alternate post copy for your pin’s description

Just be sure to only test one variable at a time. Set a time period to run the test, and then compare each post’s performance using Pinterest analytics. Just make sure your A/B test’s results are statistically significant before you make any decisions on future runs.

20. Use Pinterest’s free shopping tools.

If you’re looking to drive traffic to specific products, you can create Product Pins that have additional metadata to make them even more searchable which increases your chances of being found by users on the platform. 

21. Join the verified merchant program.

Increase your company’s credibility by becoming a verified merchant on Pinterest. Accounts that are a part of the program receive a coveted verified check mark confirming the account has been vetted by Pinterest, have products show up under related search terms, can activate a profile “shop” tab, and are able to access unique insights to see conversion data.

Image Source

22. Apply for Rich Pins.

If you anticipate users pinning content directly from your website, you may want to consider applying for Rich Pins.

Rich pins automatically pull in key data from your website when Pinterest Pins are created, and allow existing pins to remain up-to-date with what’s listed on your website. There are three types of rich pins:

1. Product Rich Pins pull accurate inventory and product availability information from your website. 
2. Recipe Rich Pins which include a recipe name, list of ingredients, and pertinent cooking information pulled from blog posts that feature recipes. 
3. Article Rich Pins that include the title of an article, meta description, and author information. 

Rich Pins are free to use. To get started, add the necessary meta tags provided by Pinterest to your website, then submit an application. 

23. Re-pin older content.

Pinterest Pins have a lifespan of about four months, which is significantly longer than other social media platforms such as the 15-minute span of a tweet, or the 48-hour span of an Instagram post.

With this in mind, don’t be afraid to pin older content to new boards to continue its lifespan even further and engage with a whole new audience. 

If you do decide to create pins from older content, make sure you refresh the images for better engagement. 

24. Claim your website on Pinterest.

If you haven’t already, make sure your company’s website is claimed by the official Pinterest account. According to Tailwind, 80% of Pinterest accounts with high engagement have claimed their websites on Pinterest. 

In the image below, you can see the publication The Good Trade has claimed its website with the globe and checkmark symbol next to the company’s URL.

Image Source

25. Schedule your pins.

Like most social media platforms, the key to success on Pinterest is consistency. To make sharing to Pinterest simple and easy, consider scheduling your pins in advance so they can go live when your audience is most likely to engage. 

You can use popular software such as Tailwind to schedule your pins or use the scheduling tool within the Pinterest platform. 

Reasons to Avoid Buying Pinterest Followers

Sure, there are tools you can use to buy Pinterest followers but this method is not in your best interest.

Buying Pinterest followers essentially means you’re buying fake accounts to increase the number of followers you have, which will make it look like your business is popular on Pinterest. This can be tempting — why do the hard work of cultivating a following, when you can pay less than $20 for 1,000 followers, instantly?

Unfortunately, buying followers does more harm than good. Here’s why.

1. It’s against Pinterest guidelines.

In fact, your company could be banned from the site if Pinterest figures out you’ve bought followers according to their guidelines.

2. You’ll tank your engagement (and overall performance, too).

Increasing your follower count can actually harm your success on Pinterest since Pinterest’s algorithm doesn’t just measure follower count — it also measures engagement metrics.

For instance, let’s say you have 100 real followers and 1,000 fake ones. You post a pin that is re-pinned 10 times. Out of your real followers, that’s 10% — an incredibly good engagement number. But Pinterest calculates 10 re-pins out of 1,100, which is less than one percent.

Ultimately, more followers could decrease your engagement metrics, which will make both Pinterest and your real followers believe your content isn’t actually that good.

3. Buying followers doesn’t result in ROI. 

Those fake followers will never become real customers. You will become much more successful on the platform if you take the time and resources you would’ve dedicated to buying followers and use it instead to implement some of the strategies listed above.

It’s critical you work diligently to find and engage with real people — because only real people can help you figure out what your potential future customers expect and prefer from their online content.

Now that you know how to increase your number of real Pinterest followers, it’s time for the most time-consuming but most fun part of Pinterest marketing: creating and implementing a content strategy for your business.

Editor note: This post was originally published on March 25, 2019 but was updated for comprehensiveness.

From TikTok to Clubhouse to Lasso, it seems like new viral social media platforms are popping up every day. Furthermore, many of the ones that were once en vogue have suddenly waned in popularity. If you’re a marketer, keeping up with these trends can be difficult but necessary in building and maintaining a strong audience.

Over the years, we’ve kept you up-to-date about the social media platforms you should care about. But you may be wondering, where are these viral social media platforms now? And which ones are still worth investing in? Here’s what you need to know.

Viral social media platforms: Where are they now?

1. TikTok

We first pointed out TikTok as the app marketers should watch back in 2019. At the time, the app had over 500 million monthly active users. Since then, that number has doubled to over 1 billion monthly active users.

In 2019, we saw brands like Guess experimenting with TikTok by creating their own unique viral video challenges. We predicted more industries and brands would start getting creative with their marketing tactics and dabble with TikTok over time.

However, in 2022, brands are still struggling to find their place on TikTok. In 2022, InVideo reported 50% of top brands do not have a presence on TikTok. This includes billion-dollar brands like Google, Ikea, and YouTube.

But this doesn’t mean businesses are counting the app out — far from it, actually. Through our own surveys, we found that 65% of social media marketers who leverage TikTok plan on increasing their investment in 2022.

Leveraging TikTok Influencer Marketing

If you’re a marketer looking to start leveraging the app, or increase your investment, a great way to do so is via influencer marketing. While many brands are still floundering to fit in on the app, TikTok influencers are popping every day and seeing huge success.

One example of this would be Drew Afualo (@drewafualo on TiKTok). The Los Angeles-based content creator rose to fame on TikTok by calling out misogynistic creators and users on the app.

In January, Afualo saw her account grow from 1.5 million followers to 4 million in just two months, according to Buzzfeed. As of April 2022, the account has 6.9 million followers.

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

@drewafualo
#ad Make sure you check out The Lost City out 3/25 😎 Sandra Bullock is the baddest period @Paramount Pictures
#fyp
#xyzbca
#girls
#men
#funny
#college
#embarrassing
#OscarsAtHome
#WomenOwnedBusiness
♬ Joy (30 seconds) – TimTaj

She has also partnered with the online fashion retailer Shein to promote their SheinX collection.

@drewafualo Lmk which outfit is your fave 🤓 Shop the
#SHEINX Collection & use my code “DREW” to save 15% off the entire @SHEIN US site!
#SHEINpartner
#fyp
#xyzbca
#girls
#men
#funny
#college
♬ original sound – Drew Afualo

TikTok content creators like Afualo create meaningful connections with their audience and understand the app in ways that many brands do not. This makes influencer marketing a great method for brands or businesses looking to market themselves on TikTok.

In our survey, we found that 57% of influencer marketers reported influencer marketing as one of the most effective trends they leverage. We also found that 86% of marketers plan to continue investing the same amount or increase their investment in influencer marketing.

2. Clubhouse

I remember when Clubhouse was launched in 2020. It felt like an exclusive club where you had to know someone who could get you in. And in a way, it was. Clubhouse is an audio chat-based app. When it launched, users had to receive an invitation from another user to join.

In July 2021, app developers removed Clubhouse’s invite-only system, allowing anyone to join the platform.

When we first mentioned Clubhouse back in February 2021, the app was only available on iOS devices. However, the following May, it became available on Android devices as well.

In our initial reports, we said we weren’t quite sure whether Clubhouse could work for brands and marketers. And, in the last year, Clubhouse’s popularity has started to wane as other platforms, like Twitter via Twitter Spaces, dabble with audio chats.

Is Marketing on Clubhouse Valuable?

In February 2021, Clubhouse peaked at nearly 10 million monthly downloads. Just two months later, in April 2021, that number plummeted to just 900,000 downloads, according to Forbes. But don’t let that dissuade you from leveraging the audio app. Numbers suggest Clubhouse could be experiencing a resurgence in 2022.

In December 2021, the app was downloaded 1.3 million times and, as of the start of 2022, Clubhouse is ranked number 12 in social networking on the app store, according to InfluencerMarketing Hub.

So, is there value in marketing on Clubhouse? It depends on your approach. A huge draw for Clubhouse was its association with celebrities like Drake, Kevin Hart, and Tiffany Haddish. With that in mind, utilizing well-known influencers or industry micro-influencers to promote your brand on Clubhouse could be a worthy investment.

Clubhouse can also be a useful platform to host focus groups and to create personal connections with your audience.

However, if you find yourself struggling to find an influencer big enough to draw your audience to Clubhouse, or your audience doesn’t seem to frequent the app, it may be best to invest elsewhere.

3. Twitter Spaces

Launched in 2020, Twitter Spaces is Twitter’s answer to Clubhouse. It’s a feature that allows users to join and host live audio discussions on the Twitter app.

We predicted that Twitter Spaces would be a great feature because Twitter is already a dialogue-friendly platform with very little focus on visuals.

Though there aren’t any statistics regarding Twitter Spaces popularity among users, Twitter itself is a hugely successful app. Twitter reported its annual revenue in 2021 was $5 billion, a 37% increase in its year-over-year revenue.

In a recent HubSpot survey, we also discovered that just 14% of social media marketers leverage audio chat rooms like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, however, 68% of those who do say it is the most effective social media marketing strategy they use.

Knowing the popularity of Twitter, and that your competitors are likely to increase their investment in audio chats, Twitter Spaces is definitely a feature you should consider in your marketing strategy.

Your brand can use Twitter Spaces to create meaningful engagement with its audience, connect during over trending topics and cultural moments, or hold large-scale focus groups to gain feedback on a product or service.

4. Houseparty

Launched in 2016, Houseparty was a group-messaging app that allowed video chats and could host up to eight users at a time. For added fun, participants could use unique filters, stickers, and other features to keep the party going. Two years after its founding, the app launched an in-chat gaming feature so users could play games with friends.

In 2019, we wrote, “For example, a small makeup company might sponsor a ‘houseparty’ where an influencer can answer beauty questions and show attendees how to use one of their new beauty products.”

However, Houseparty was shut down in September 2021 after being acquired by Fortnite developer Epic Games. The game developer said, “The team behind Houseparty is working on creating new ways to have meaningful and authentic social interactions at metaverse scale across the Epic Games family.”

5. Lasso

We first pointed to Lasso as a social media platform marketers should watch back in 2019. Launched by Facebook in 2018, Lasso was a short video platform meant to compete with TikTok.

We stared into our crystal ball in 2019 and wrote, “While Lasso is just getting started, it might be a promising platform in the future because it’s owned by Facebook. This could mean the app might benefit from Facebook’s user base, technological resources, and financing.”

Unfortunately, Lasso never really tapped into the Gen Z audience Facebook was trying to attain, and the app was shut down in July 2020. The platform was scrapped as Facebook began testing Instagrams TikTok-like feature, Reels.

Trying to promote your brand on an app that isn’t as popular as it once was can feel like showing up to a party after almost everyone’s gone home. Fortunately, new platforms are always on the rise, so there will always be new and creative ways to tap into your audience. And you can trust us to share what’s next.