Blog

It goes without saying, but your marketing materials shouldn’t be limited to conventional outbound advertisements — particularly if your business is B2B. Sure, capturing attention is part of the battle, but what happens when a prospect visits your website and sees nothing but some product descriptions and a pricing page?

There has to be more there. You need to have some material to show that you can walk the walk. One kind of content that helps get you there is known as marketing collateral, and it can come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Here, we’ll get a more in-depth understanding of the concept and go over the five most important marketing collateral formats you can use to help establish legitimacy and supplement your sales efforts.

At its core, marketing collateral is a way to let prospects know that you know what you’re talking about. It’s not supposed to be as flashy as conventional advertisements. In creating marketing collateral, your first priority generally isn’t to capture attention — it’s to retain and enhance it.

In most cases, the prospects who are looking at your marketing collateral are curious about your company, but they might not be intimately familiar with you or what you’re offering. Well-crafted marketing collateral can put them at ease. It can help build the kind of trust necessary to start and sustain a customer relationship.

Now you might be wondering, how does marketing collateral relate to marketing materials in general? Good question. 

Marketing Materials vs Marketing Collateral

In general, the difference between marketing materials and marketing collateral comes down to showing not telling. While other marketing materials might tell the reader explicitly why their company or offering is the best, marketing collateral is focused on showing why their company or offering is the best. 

That’s why marketing collateral tends to be educational in some capacity. When done right, the informative nature of the format lets you separate yourself from the competition by letting you showcase an extensive understanding of your industry that others in your space might not be projecting.

If all of your marketing materials are solely dedicated to talking up your product or service, you’ll be selling yourself short. When prospects are deciding to buy, they’re not just considering what’s for sale — they’re considering your company as a whole.

They want to know they’ll be taken care of by a competent, capable, knowledgeable organization that they can rely on to address any issues and concerns they might have as they arise. Creating thoughtful marketing collateral is one way to help that cause.

1. Blog Posts

Producing good marketing collateral is often a matter of consistently providing value to your audience. One of the better forums to create and promote the kind of material that does that on an ongoing basis is a well-maintained company blog.

It allows you to supplement your sales efforts with helpful insight and audience engagement — driving traffic to your website and generating leads through actionable advice, expertise, and entertainment. Below are some examples from HubSpot’s Website Blog. 

Blog Post Example

Image Source

Like any other kind of effective marketing collateral, good blog posts can project authority in your industry. You want to show you’re staying abreast of industry trends and understand the nuances of your space — constantly churning out high-quality, helpful content can help that cause and put your prospects at ease.

Keeping all these benefits in mind, it’s no wonder then that marketers ranked blogs as the second primary form of media used within their content strategy in a recent HubSpot survey.

2. Ebooks

Ebooks are similar to blog posts in that they should project industry authority through engagement, but they tend to be longer, more in-depth, and less snackable than typical blog content. This type of marketing collateral generally attracts prospects with a vested interest in your industry. Below are some examples from HubSpot.

Ebook Example

Image Source

In some ways, an Ebook could be likened to an extended blog post or a few blog posts strung together. Like blog content, an Ebook generally contains accessible language and directly actionable advice.

In many cases, Ebooks are downloadable and can only be accessed in exchange for a prospect’s contact information — making them a powerful vehicle for lead generation.

No matter where your company stands, you likely have the resources and knowhow to channel your industry-specific knowledge into a thoughtful Ebook. Remember, your marketing collateral should be designed to build trust with prospects and customers.

If you can put out Ebooks to reliably bolster their knowledge of your industry, you can convince them they’re in good hands when they buy your product or service.

3. Case Studies

Case studies are offering-specific documents that detail how specific customers saw success as a result of leveraging your product or service. This format is different from the previous two in that it’s never product-agnostic. Below is an example from HubSpot.

Case Study Example

Image Source

Every case study is made in collaboration with a satisfied customer. It’s a form of cross-promotion that shows what your product or service is like in practice — a roadmap that lets prospects imagine what you could do for their business.

Like almost every other example on this list, case studies are educational. They provide a more thorough explanation of how your product or service works through an active example. It’s also another avenue for building trust.

If you can point to reputable customers who are willing to vouch for your business in extensive detail, you can bolster your company’s reputation as a solid, knowledgeable organization with a product or service that delivers results.

4. Testimonials

Testimonials are essentially condensed, snackable case studies. Many — if not most — prospects don’t have the time or interest to delve into a full-on case study. If you want to reach them, you’re going to have to provide quick-hitting content that they can glance over passively. Testimonials can do just that. Below is an example of one from HubSpot.

Testimonial Example

Image Source

This testimonial follows the format’s best practice. It’s visually engaging, clearly establishes who provided the quote, and references specific benefits — a solid example of an appropriately informative, easily digestible piece of marketing collateral. Ultimately, a good testimonial helps project the company’s legitimacy while inspiring potential customers to further explore the product it’s promoting.

5. White Papers

A white paper is a persuasive, authoritative, in-depth report on a specific topic. Generally, one of these documents will raise a problem and present a solution to it.

It’s typically more technical and less accessible than an Ebook. It’s meant to draw a crowd more intimately involved with or interested in your industry — an audience that might naturally run into the issue at the core of the document.

White papers shouldn’t be product pitches. It’s best practice to keep them objective and educational. That being said, the topics you choose need to be relevant to your company or space.

This kind of collateral also needs to be thoroughly researched, thoughtfully formatted, polished, and written in a serious tone. That means no flashy language or cute gimmicks. Below are some examples of topics from HubSpot’s Not Another State of Marketing Report.

White Paper Example

Image Source

As I keep mentioning, every format listed in this article is tailored to project authority to some extent — the white paper is the purest example of that trend. It’s a technical document that’s meant to demonstrate technical knowledge to a crowd with technical prowess.

6. Explainer Videos

Explainer videos — the most commonly-created types of video — are an excellent way to appeal to visual learners. Designed to provide a quick and easy explanation of a product, service, or topic related to your industry, these help your company establish expertise and gain the trust of their target audience.

They are generally between 30 to 90 seconds in length, which translates into a written script of 200 words or less.  This type of collateral can often be found on a website’s homepage, landing pages, prominent product pages, and social media accounts. Below is an example of one from HubSpot.

Explainer Video Example

The explainer video is a quick and memorable way to make an impact on your audience. It can be the difference between a prospect buying your product and not buying it, or subscribing to your YouTube page, and more. 

For inspiration, check out 17 Examples of Fabulous Explainer Videos.

Ready to Create Your Own Marketing Collateral?

Well-crafted marketing collateral can give you a leg up on your competition. Not only is it an excellent vehicle for lead generation, but it can also offer your business an element of authority and trustworthiness to make potential customers more comfortable and inclined to buy from you. If your company isn’t producing it, consider trying out one of the formats listed above.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Serving as your company’s virtual front door, this page is responsible for drawing in a majority of your website’s traffic. Still, despite its prominence, many businesses struggle to optimize it properly.

You see, your homepage needs to wear a lot of hats. Rather than treating it like a dedicated landing page built around one particular action, it should be designed to serve different audiences, from different origins. And in order to do so effectively, it needs to be built with purpose. In other words, you’ll need to incorporate elements that attract traffic, educate visitors, and invite conversions.

To improve the performance of your homepage, check out these elements every homepage must have.

12 Critical Elements Every Website Homepage Must Have

Save

Save

Share this Image On Your Site

<p><strong>Please include attribution to http://blog.hubspot.com with this graphic.</strong><br /><br /><a href=’http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31097/12-Critical-Elements-Every-Homepage-Must-Have-Infographic.aspx’><img class=”alignCenter shadow” src=’http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/homepage-critical-elements-infographic.png’ alt=’12 Critical Elements Every Homepage Must Have’ width=’669px’ border=’0′ /></a></p>

What You Should Include in Your Website Homepage Design

1. Headline

Within three seconds, a website needs to tell visitors what the business has to offer. That’s where your headline comes in. It may only be a few words, but it’s one of the most important pieces of copy on your website.

Many types of people might visit your website, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a few words that hit home for everyone. Instead, write your headline to target a third of those people who are most likely to be happy with your product.

Keep the headline itself clear and simple. Dropbox‘s headline is a great example: “Everything you need for work, all in one place.” It’s simple, yet powerful — no need to decode jargon to figure out what Dropbox really does.

2. Sub-headline

Your sub-headline should supplement the headline by offering a brief description of what you do or what you offer. This can be done effectively by zeroing in on a common pain point that your product or service solves.

Here’s an example of a great sub-headline from Mirror: “Hiding in plain sight.” It hones in on the primary selling point of the mirror gym: It’s a full at-home gym, personal trainer, and workout plan all in the comfort of your home without taking up precious square footage with equipment.

To optimize your headlines for mobile, use larger fonts to give visitors a better experience. Small fonts could force mobile visitors to pinch and zoom in order to read and interact with the content on your site. Our advice? Use the heading options in your page editor. H1 headings are perfect for page titles — there should only be one H1 on a page. Subheadings should follow the order of the hierarchy, H2, H3 … H6, and so on. You can have several of these headings, just make sure they’re in order. For example, you won’t want to jump from an H1 to an H3 — choose an H2 instead.

3. Primary Calls-to-Action

The goal of your homepage is to compel visitors to dig deeper into your website and move them down the funnel. Include two to three calls-to-action above the fold that direct people to different stages of the buying cycle — and place them in spots that are easy to find.

These CTAs should be visually striking, ideally in a color that contrasts with the color scheme of your homepage while still fitting in with the overall design. Keep the copy brief — no more than five words — and action-oriented, so it compels visitors to click whatever you’re offering. Examples of CTA copy are “Sign up,” “Make an appointment,” or “Try it for free.”

Afterschool HQ’s website features two CTAs above the fold, both geared toward program directors who are interested in promoting their after-school programs to families on the site. The note below the longer CTA “Create Your Free Profile” gives visitors the nudge they need to create an account — the first step to becoming an Afterschool HQ provider.

4. Supporting Image

Most people are visual. Make sure to use an image (or even a short video) that clearly indicates what you offer. Use images that capture emotion, drive action, and visually tell the story you’re writing about.

To optimize your images for mobile users, use high-quality images that have a reduced file size. (HubSpot customers don’t need to worry about this, as images uploaded to HubSpot’s software are automatically compressed. Otherwise, tools like TinyPNG will do the trick.) Also, always add alt text to your images to make them more accessible to visitors who use screen readers and to take your SEO efforts up a notch.

The 4 Rivers Smokehouse homepage is a great example of emotional imagery: It features a series of short, high definition, and mouthwatering videos that play on a loop behind a simple headline, sub-headline, and primary CTA:

5. Benefits

It’s not only important to describe what you do, but why what you do matters. Prospects want to know about the benefits of buying from you because that’s what will compel them to stick around.

Keep the copy lightweight and easy to read, and speak the language of your customers. Evernote does a great job of listing benefits on their homepage in a way that’s compelling, visually pleasing, and easy to understand:

6. Social Proof

Social proof is a powerful indicator of trust. Your product or service could be the best in the world, and it’s okay to lay that claim — it’s just that people may not believe you unless they hear it from other people, too. And that’s exactly what social proof does.

Include just a few of your best (short) quotes on the homepage, and link to case studies if applicable. Adding a name and photo gives these testimonials more credibility. Lessonly nails this on their homepage with glowing testimonials from actual clients.

7. Navigation

The design and content in your homepage navigation could mean the difference between a website conversion and a bounce. To decrease bounce rate, give your visitors a clear path to the pages they need right from the homepage. Make the navigation menu visible at the top of the page, and organize the links in a hierarchical structure.

No one knows your website better than those who helped design it, so be sure to conduct user tests to make sure it’s simple and intuitive for visitors to find what they’re looking for on your site. Include a search box if you can. (Read this blog post for more helpful website navigation tips.)

Here’s an example of a clear, well-structured navigation design from Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria homepage:

8. Content Offer

To generate even more leads from your homepage, feature a really great content offer, such as a whitepaper, ebook, or guide. Folks who may not be ready to buy might rather download an offer that gives them more information about a topic they’re interested in. If you need inspiration, here are several different content types to pick from.

9. Secondary Calls-to-Action

Include secondary CTAs on your homepage to offer additional conversion opportunities for prospects who aren’t interested in your primary objective. Think of them like the contingency plan: They offer another path for visitors who are not yet ready for something as high-commitment as you’re asking.

While your primary CTAs should be above the fold, place secondary CTAs below the fold to give visitors things to click on when they scroll down. For example, below the fold on Spanx’s homepage, you’ll find three, clearly labeled calls-to-action that give folks who’ve scrolled that far a few more options to click on. These secondary CTAs are for two different types of conversions: one on the far left for $20 off and another, “shop now” to explore the online catalog.

10. Features

In addition to benefits, list some of your key features. This gives people more of an understanding of what’s provided by your products and services. Again, keep the copy light and easy to read. Dropbox for Business, for example, doesn’t shy away from showing off a features matrix right on their homepage below the fold.

11. Resources

Again, most visitors to your website won’t be ready to buy … yet. For folks who are looking for more information, offer a link to a resource center where they can browse relevant information. Not only does this keep them on your webpage for longer, but it also helps you establish your credibility as a thought leader in your industry.

Lovesac adds a resources link to the footer below the fold. Notice how each of these secondary CTAs cover multiple stages in the buying cycle: a credit card link to help customers buy their furniture easily, a fabric swatch guide for those who are still looking for the perfect color before making a purchase, and an online catalog for people who are in the market for new furniture but aren’t yet ready to make a purchase.

12. Success Indicators

In addition to customer success stories, both awards and recognition can also help inspire a good first impression. Is your company a critically acclaimed restaurant? Were you voted best new app this year? Let your homepage visitors know of your accomplishments. Like social proof, it’ll give your business more credibility to those who don’t know you.

On Calendly’s homepage, for example, you’ll find the names of famous organizations that have recognized them, like Gartner and Dropbox.

A Homepage Worth Visiting

The homepage of your site is the first introduction each visitor will have to your business. Before they make up their mind to become a customer, they’ll review your homepage to get an idea of what you sell, why that matters to them, and how they can benefit from what you have to offer.

Make a brilliant first impression with a homepage that incorporates the elements outlined above. And for more inspiration, check out stunning examples of homepages by downloading the free lookbook below.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2012 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Knowing the ins and outs of Excel is essential for organizing data, understanding analytics, and getting the most from your marketing efforts. The tool is great for quickly processing vast amounts of data, but it can be overwhelming if you don’t spend the majority of your workday whipping up spreadsheets.

Fortunately, a few basic skills are all you need to put together an easy-to-read spreadsheet. One is knowing how to merge cells in Excel. Whether you’re planning blog articles for the upcoming quarter, creating an email list for a targeted campaign, or designing SEO-friendly Google ads, merging cells is a handy way to organize your information.

To sharpen your skills, we’ll cover several ways to combine cells.

• How to merge two cells
• How to merge and center cells
• How to merge multiple cells
• How to merge cells without losing data
• A shortcut to merge cells
• Why can’t I merge cells?

Don’t want to start from scratch? Use these free Excel templates as a foundation for your own marketing spreadsheets.

How to Merge Two Cells in Excel

Merging is a way to turn two small cells into one new, large cell. This is useful for organizing information and creating headers, without the need to resize individual cells. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Highlight the two adjacent cells you want to merge (I’m merging A1 and B1 in the example).

Source

Step 2: Under the Home tab, click the ‘Merge’ icon and choose ‘Merge Cells’.

Source

Step 3: That’s it! You’ve merged the cells.

Source

Note: When combining cells, only the data in the upper left cell is saved. Make sure to save the information from the other cell so it’s not lost. If you happen to have data in both A1 and B1, Excel won’t simply wipe it. This alert will pop up:

Source

Don’t want to delete the data? Click ‘Cancel,’ and copy/paste the information into a separate document or cell before merging. If you only need the information in the upper-left cell, click ‘OK’ to merge the cells.

How to Merge and Center Cells in Excel

Say you’re building a marketing report and want your titles to be centered above your data. Merge and center cells by following these steps.

Step 1: Highlight the cells you want to merge.

Source

Step 2: Under the Home tab, click the ‘Merge’ icon and choose ‘Merge & Center.’

Source

Step 3: Your cells will merge and the data will be centered within the cell.

Source

How to Merge Cells in Excel Shortcut

Clicking the correct ‘Merge’ function over and over can be a drag if you need to combine a lot of cells. For fast merging, start by highlighting the cells you want to merge. Then, type the following key combinations.

Excel Shortcuts for Windows

1. Merge Cells: ALT H+M+M
2. Merge & Center: ALT H+M+C
3. Merge Across: ALT H+M+A
4. Unmerge Cells: ALT H+M+U

Excel Shortcuts for OS

The Apple operating system doesn’t have an ALT key, so you have to set up your own shortcut to merge cells.

1. In Excel, click ‘Tools’ under the navigation bar.
2. Select ‘Customize Keyboard.’
3. A pop-up will appear. Under the header ‘Specify a Command’ there are two columns: Categories and Commands. For Categories, select ‘Home Tab.’ For Commands, select ‘Merge Cells.’
4. Select the text box under ‘Press new keyboard shortcut.’ Type the key combination for your shortcut. For example: CONTROL+M.
5. Click ‘OK’ to set your shortcut.
6. You can now use CONTROL+M to merge cells in Excel.
7. Set up additional shortcuts for Merge Across, Merge & Center, or Unmerge.

Source

How to Merge Multiple Cells in Excel

You know the basics, but now you want to get creative and merge more than two cells. Depending on your desired spreadsheet layout, you can use the Merge Across, Merge Cells, or Merge & Center function.

1. Merge Across

This option is used to merge cells within a single row. You can’t use ‘Merge Across’ to combine cells within a column or across multiple rows.

In this example, I’m setting up PPC ads and want to see my description copy in row 17. If I simply resize column F, my table will have too much space between column F and G. Merging multiple cells across row 17 lets me see the copy and keep the table neat.

Step 1: Highlight all the cells you want to merge within the row.

Source

Step 2: Under the Home tab, click the ‘Merge’ icon and choose ‘Merge Across.’

Source

Step 3: The cells merge across the entire highlighted area.

Source

2. Merge & Center

You can merge and center multiple cells across rows and down columns. Just remember the data in the upper-left cell is the only information that will stay once merged. In the example below, I use ‘Merge & Center’ to combine rows 15, 16, and 17 with columns F, G, and H.

Source

Source

3. Merge Cells

The ‘Merge Cells’ function is ideal to combine multiple adjacent cells across rows and columns. It works just like the ‘Merge & Center’ function, except the data will be left-aligned instead of centered after merging.

Source

How to Merge Cells in Excel Without Losing Data

Want to merge cells without losing information from all but the upper left cell? Easy. You can use the ampersand (&) or the CONCATENATE function to combine data from two or more cells.

In the example below, I’m creating copy for Instagram and want to combine the caption with its corresponding link.

Ampersand

Step 1: Choose the cell where you want to put the merged data. Make sure this is separate from the cells you’re merging.

Step 2: Type = in the blank cell and select the first cell to combine.

Step 3: Type & and use ” ” to leave a space between cell data.

Step 4: Type & again before choosing the next cell. Repeat for all the cells you want to combine. An example formula is =D5&” “&E5.

Step 5: Hit Enter. In the example, you can see how the text from cells D5 and E5 merged into F5.

Source

CONCATENATE or CONCAT

The CONCATENATE function (or CONCAT) is another way to combine two or more text strings together.

The formula in Excel is =CONCATENATE (text1,text2,…). Text1 is the first cell to merge and can be a text value, number, or cell reference. Text2 is the next item to join. For this function, you can merge up to 255 items or 8,192 characters.

Step 1: Highlight a new blank cell where you want to merge the data.

Step 2: In the formula bar, type =CONCATENATE(

Source

Step 3: A formula builder will pop up, allowing you to choose Text1, Text2, and so on. Select the cells you want to merge, in order from first to last. To include spaces between the cell data, you must include ,” “, within the formula. [i.e. =CONCATENATE(D5,” “,E5)]

Source

Step 4: Hit Enter. The data from your selected cells will be combined in the CONCATENATE cell.

Source

Why Can’t I Merge Cells in Excel?

A lot can go wrong if your formula or formatting isn’t set up correctly. If you’re struggling to merge cells, try these troubleshooting tips.

1. Ensure you’re not actively editing a cell you want to merge. The ‘Merge’ icon will be shaded out if you’re in the middle of making changes. To fix this, simply hit ‘Enter’ to stop editing or click onto another cell before clicking back to the cell you’d like to merge.

1. Check if one of the cells is part of an Excel table. Tables have a unique format that don’t allow merging. You can tell you’re on a Table if the ‘Chart Design’ or ‘Format’ tabs across the top of your workbook are highlighted in green and the ‘Merge’ icon is shaded out.

1. Look at the sharing permissions of the Excel workbook. If it’s not shared with you or is protected, you won’t be able to make any changes or merge cells.

How to Unmerge Cells

Maybe you got a little excited trying out your new skills and merged one cell too many. Don’t panic. Simply unmerge your cells by following these steps.

1. Highlight the cells you want to unmerge.
2. Under the Home tab, click the ‘Merge’ icon and choose ‘Unmerge Cells.’
3. Your cells will go back to the original formatting, but you will have lost the information from before the merge.
4. If you need that information, click ‘Command’ + Z (OS) or ‘CTRL’ +Z (Windows) to undo your actions until you see the data pop up.

If you’ve spent any time on the internet, chances are you’ve encountered an HTTP status code.

In simple terms, HTTP status codes are standard response codes that show the relationship between all the things that go on in the background when you travel from web page to web page. Things like the user agent (i.e., your web browser), the server, the web page you’re trying to load, and any third-party web applications you might be running.

Because of the complexity of how all those elements interact, there are many possible HTTP status codes you can run up against.

HTTP status codes identify and diagnose the particular blocker preventing you from loading a resource, and can give you information about the journey you took on the way to a page.

In this article, we’ll cover what you need to know about the HTTP 302 status code – jargon-free.

For starters, it’s helpful to know that all HTTP messages with 3xx are redirection messages.

Say blog.hubspot.com no longer exists, and the content is now permanently housed on blogging.hubspot.com. This would trigger a 301 status code, which indicates a permanent redirection from one location to another.

The 302 redirect, on the other hand, is only temporary. A good example of when to use a 302 status code is for localization and language purposes.

For instance, if you visit a clothing website based in the United Kingdom but you are located in the United States. A 302 redirect would send you to the US version of the site to ensure the currency and other content are displayed correctly, according to your location.

You can also use a 302 status code when:

• Redesigning a page – You can send users to a temporary location while the other page is under construction.
• Conducting A/B tests – Want to test a new page and get feedback on its performance? You can do this with a 302 redirect without hurting your ranking.
• Running a promotion – To drive traffic to a particular offer, you can set up a temporary redirect for a page that usually includes other content.
• A product is sold out – In the case of a sold-out or temporarily unavailable product, you can redirect users to a related page until it is available again.

While this list is not exhaustive, here’s the golden rule to keep in mind: Only use a 302 redirect if the change is temporary.

Furthermore, a 302 status code happens on the server-side and shouldn’t be noticed by users if set up correctly. The web server serving up the 302 redirect will immediately indicate the new location of the page to your browser (and search engines) and should send users there right away.

How a 302 Status Code Affects SEO

From an SEO perspective, it’s important to understand how a 302 status code can impact your ranking and when you should use it.

Firstly, if the location of a page has changed and a redirect has not been set up, this can lead to a 404 status error (i.e., your page cannot be found) and affect your ranking. After all, Google won’t want to send users to a page that leads to nowhere.

One benefit of using a redirect like this is that you don’t have to sacrifice your ranking when you temporarily send users elsewhere.

Say you’re using it to redirect users from a sold-out product page to a relevant product page. You wouldn’t want your unavailable product’s page to drop in ranking, just because it’s currently unavailable. With a 302 status code, you can maintain your ranking.

However, this also means that your temporary URL will not benefit from any link juice because Google knows it won’t be there long.

For comparison, a 301 code typically sends most link equity to your new URL, but your page can experience some drop in ranking as a result of the redirect.

How to Identify & Implement an HTTP 302 Error

If you want to see when you’ve encountered a 302 redirect (or any type of redirect), consider using an application or Chrome extension (like this one, Redirect Path). This type of tool will show you directly in your browser when you run into a redirect.

You can also view and implement the code from the backend by accessing your .htaccess file. To avoid accessing this file, you can also install a redirect manager plugin or an SEO tool that includes a redirect manager (like Yoast SEO Premium).

Overall, you want to make sure you understand how redirection messages affect SEO. A 302 status code can be a great strategy when making temporary changes to your website, like testing new website features and product promotions.

So, when you’re debating between various redirection messages, make sure the one you choose aligns with your long-term strategy.

Getting lost sucks. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a city or a corn maze, the ambiguity of not knowing where you are and what could happen next can make you break out in a cold sweat.

Website visitors feel the same way when they land on a jumbled website. Nearly one in two people leave a website after visiting just one page. We don’t have a lot of time to make a good impression on a user, and with a poor site architecture, you’re guaranteed to increase bounce rates.

It’s critical to structure your site in an intuitive and easy-to-navigate way to retain your audience’s attention. If you don’t, they’ll bounce in seconds. And if people leave your website because your user experience is messy, search engines won’t think highly of you, either.

If you need help structuring a website that will engage an audience and rank on Google, we’ve got you covered. We’ll teach you what website architecture is, why it’s important for UX and SEO, and how you can develop a sound architecture for your own website.

Without question, your website structure plays a critical role in retaining users and boosting conversions.

Implementing a website structure helps you design your website for the user experience. You might have the most amazing content, but if users can’t find it, they’ll leave for a competitor’s site.

A typical website structure looks like a rooted tree graph, in which the home page is the root. The pages that are linked out from the home page are branches, and from there, each page has additional branches sprouting from it. These branches then link to each other.

Here’s what that typically looks like:

Why is website structuring important?

A sound website architecture strengthens your website’s user experience. When you structure your website in an intuitive way, users can seamlessly find the information they’re looking for.

Plus, when your user experience is strong, your search engine rankings will be, too. Users will spend more time on your website and link to your web pages, which are both heavy indicators that your brand creates quality content.

Furthermore, a solid website architecture:

• Helps search engines effectively crawl your website.
• Encourages deep site navigation by providing more pages for users to visit.
• Distributes “page authority” more equitably, so that a page isn’t left out.
• Strengthens topical authority because of the strong internal linking structure between related or similar topics.
• Increases conversions by making it easier to find products and lead-generating content.

Let’s take a look at a few best practices you should keep in mind when designing your site’s architecture.

1. Create a simple top-level navigation menu.

First, don’t provide too many top-level menu items. Second, be sure to deliver the content that’s promised based on the menu item’s name.

For instance, if your users click on the “Email Marketing” tab on your blog’s homepage, they expect to be directed to a list of email marketing posts. From this page, you also need to design a simple navigation path back to your blog’s homepage and your website’s homepage.

Check out an example below from our own website:

The menu is divided into three simple menu items: Software, Pricing, and Resources. Under the “Resources” tab, users can find different resources that are divided into different designations.

Don’t make your users think too hard. A hard-to-navigate website will have a high bounce rate. Users don’t want to waste time trying to find information on your site. If they do, they’ll just leave. So practice empathy and provide an intuitive web experience.

2. Keep your URLs simple and user-friendly.

No user wants to read an URL like this:

example.com/store/rackets/default.aspx?lang=en&category=98a20

It’s important to create user-friendly URLs. Most CMS systems, such as CMS Hub and WordPress, automatically create a user-friendly URL based on your page’s title. It will usually read as follows:

example.com/page-title

You can also create subdirectories that are easy to follow.

example.com/topic/subtopic/page-title

Tip: While subdirectories are helpful from a UX standpoint, they aren’t required to reflect your site’s architecture. Internal linking matters more than URL structure. That means that you can can structure your URLs as follows:

example.com/topic

example.com/subtopic

example.com/longtail-keyword-one

example.com/longtail-keyword-two

You simply have to connect them to each other and to their parent pages with internal links.

3. Model your website architecture after the top players in your industry.

Your customers are used to the website architecture of major brands in your industry, so if you run an ecommerce store, analyze how Amazon structures their website and emulate them. Your website will seem more familiar and, in turn, easier to navigate.

4. Keep your website consistent.

Your website’s navigation format, design principles, and link displays should all follow a consistent pattern. Keeping these elements the same will keep your users on your site longer because it’ll be easier for them to quickly navigate to new pages and click on links.

5. Implement the pillar-cluster internal linking model.

In the pillar-cluster model, you have a parent page (the pillar) linking out to child pages (the cluster). These child pages then link to each other, creating a cluster.

This model makes your internal linking structure clearer and effectively directs users to other pieces of relevant and useful content. When users come across an internal link on your website, they should immediately understand which piece of content the link will direct them to and why that content is linked from the page they’re currently on.

When it comes to designing or redesigning a website, it’s easy to get hung up on the aesthetics. Does that shade of blue look right? Should the logo be on the right side of the screen, or left? What if we put a giant animated GIF in the middle of the page?

However, in a world where folks have more than 1.8 billion websites they can potentially land on, you need to make sure yours is not just a pretty face. It should be designed for usability, how easy your website is to use, and user experience (UX), how enjoyable it is to interact with your website.

Now, you could spend years studying the ins and outs of these disciplines But for the sake of giving you a jumping-off point, we’ve assembled a list of the fundamental guidelines and best practices you can apply to your next website redesign or website launch. Then, we’ll review 10 features you’ll need on your site to put these recommendations into practice. Let’s dive in.

1. Simplicity

While the appearance of your website is certainly important, most people aren’t coming to your site to evaluate how slick the design is. They want to complete some action, or to find some specific piece of information.

Therefore, unnecessary design elements (i.e., those which serve no functional purpose) will only overwhelm and make it more difficult for visitors to accomplish what they’re trying to accomplish.

From a usability and UX perspective, simplicity is your best friend. If you have all the necessary page elements, it’s hard to get too simple. You can employ this principle in a variety of different forms, such as:

• Colors: Basically, don’t use a lot. The Handbook of Computer-Human Interaction recommends using a maximum of five (plus or minus two) different colors in your design.
• Typefaces: The typefaces you choose should be highly legible, so nothing too artsy and very minimal script fonts, if any. For text color, again, keep it minimal and always make sure it contrasts with the background color. A common recommendation is to use a maximum of three different typefaces in a maximum of three different sizes.
• Graphics: Only use graphics if they help a user complete a task or perform a specific function (don’t just add graphics willy-nilly).

Here’s a great example of a simple but effective homepage design from HERoines Inc:

Image Source

2. Visual Hierarchy

Closely tied to the principle of simplicity, visual hierarchy means arranging and organizing website elements so that visitors naturally gravitate toward the most important elements first.

Remember, when it comes to optimizing for usability and UX, the goal is to lead visitors to complete a desired action, but in a way that feels natural and enjoyable. By adjusting the position, color, or size of certain elements, you can structure your site in such a way that viewers will be drawn to those elements first.

In the example below from Spotify, you can see that the main heading “Get 3 months of Premium for free” sits atop the visual hierarchy with its size and page position. It draws your eye to their mission before anything else. This is followed by the “Get 3 Months Free” CTA, which prompts action. Users can click this CTA, or scan the menu items above for more actions.

Image Source

3. Navigability

Planning out intuitive navigation on your site is crucial to help visitors find what they’re looking for. Ideally, a visitor should land on your site and not have to think extensively about where to click next. Moving from point A to point B should be as frictionless as possible.

Here are a few tips for optimizing your site’s navigation:

• Keep the structure of your primary navigation simple (and near the top of your page).
• Include navigation in the footer of your site.
• Consider using breadcrumbs on every page (except your homepage) so users remember their navigation trail.
• Include a search bar near the top of your site so visitors can search by keywords.
• Don’t offer too many navigation options per page. Again, simplicity!
• Include links within your page copy, and make it clear where those links go.
• Don’t make users dig too deep. Try making a basic wireframe map of all your site pages arranged like a pyramid: Your homepage is at the top, and each linked page from the previous forms the next layer. In most cases, it’s best to keep your map no more than three levels deep. Take HubSpot’s site map, for example.

Image Source

One more pointer: Once you’ve settled on what your site’s main (top) navigation will be, keep it consistent. The labels and location of your navigation should remain the same on every page.

This leads us nicely into our next principle…

4. Consistency

In addition to keeping your navigation consistent, the overall look and feel of your site should be similar across all of your site’s pages. Backgrounds, color schemes, typefaces, and even the tone of your writing are all areas where consistency has a positive impact on usability and UX.

That’s not to say every page should follow the same layout. Instead, create different layouts for specific types of pages (e.g., landing pages, informational pages, etc.). By using those layouts consistently, you’ll make it easier for visitors to understand what type of information they’re likely to find on a given page.

In the example below, you can see that Airbnb uses the same layout for all of its “Help” pages, a common practice. Imagine what it would be like from a visitor’s perspective if every “Help” page had its own, unique layout. There would probably be a lot of shoulder shrugging.

Image Source

5. Responsivity

According to Statista, 48% of page global views were from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. And according to our research, 93% of people have left a website because it didn’t display properly on their device.

The takeaway here: To provide a truly great user experience, your site has to be compatible with the many different devices that your visitors are using. In the tech world, this is known as responsive design.

Responsive design means investing in a highly flexible website structure. On a responsive site, content is automatically resized and reshuffled to fit the dimensions of whichever device a visitor happens to be using. This can be accomplished with mobile-friendly HTML templates, or by creating a special mobile site.

Ultimately, it’s more important to provide a great experience across different devices than look identical across those devices.

Image Source

Alongside mobile-friendliness, it’s worth your while to test your website’s cross-cross browser compatibility. In all likelihood, you’ve only viewed your site on one web browser, be it Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or something else.

Now is the time to open your pages on each of these browsers and evaluate how your elements appear. Ideally, there won’t be much difference in presentation, but you can’t know for sure until you see for yourself.

6. Accessibility

The goal of web accessibility is to make a website that anyone can use, including people with disabilities or limitations that affect their browsing experience. As a website designer, it’s your job to think of these users in your UX plan.

Like responsiveness, accessibility applies to your entire site: structure, page format, visuals, and both written and visual content. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative and the World Wide Web Consortium, set the guidelines for web accessibility. In a broad sense, these guidelines state that websites must be:

• Perceivable: Visitors are aware of the content on your site.
• Operable: The functionality of your website should be possible in different ways.
• Understandable: All content and alerts can be easily understood.
• Robust: Your website is usable across different assistive technologies, devices, and browsers.

For a deeper dive into this topic, see our Ultimate Guide to Web Accessibility.

7. Conventionality

A big challenge in web design is balancing originality with your expectations. Most of us are expert internet users, and there are specific conventions we’ve grown accustomed to over time. Such conventions include:

• Placing the main navigation at the top (or left side) of a page.
• Placing a logo at the top left (or center) of a page.
• Making the logo clickable, so it always brings a visitor back to the homepage.
• Having links and buttons that change color/appearance when you hover over them.
• Using a shopping cart icon on an ecommerce site. The icon also has a number badge signifying the number of items in the cart.
• Ensuring image sliders have buttons users can click to manually rotate slides.

While some might opt to throw these out the window for the sake of uniqueness, this is a mistake. There’s still plenty of room for creativity within the constraints of web conventionality.

Let’s briefly consider another field of design, architecture. Building codes are put in place so that folks can easily and safely inhabit spaces. An architect doesn’t complain about these codes or violate them because, aside from legal repercussions, they assure safety and comfort of guests. It doesn’t matter how dazzling the building looks — if you trip on uneven stairs or you can’t get out in a fire, you might prefer to stay outside.

In the same way, you can craft a memorable experience while meeting user expectations. If you violate what users anticipate, they may feel uncomfortable or even frustrated with your site.

8. Credibility

Sticking to web conventions lends your site credibility. In other words, it increases the level of trust your site conveys. And if you’re striving to build a site that provides the best user experience possible, credibility goes a long way.

One of the best methods to improve your credibility is to be clear and honest about the product or service you’re selling. Don’t make visitors dig through dozens of pages to find what it is you do. Be up-front on your homepage, and dedicate some real estate to explaining the value behind what you do.

Another credibility tip: Have a pricing page, also linked on the homepage. Rather than force people to contact you to learn more about pricing, list your prices clearly on your site. This makes your business appear more trustworthy and legitimate.

Here’s an example of an effective pricing page from the Box website:

Image Source

9. User-Centricity

At the end of the day, usability and user experience hinge on the preferences of the end-users. After all, if you’re not designing for them, who are you designing for?

So, while the principles detailed in this list are a great starting point, the final key to improving the design of your site is to conduct user testing, gather feedback, and implement changes based on what you’ve learned.

And don’t bother testing usability by yourself. You’ve already invested a lot of time into your design, which brings your own biases into the equation. Get testers who have never seen your site before, the same as any first-time visitor.

Here are a few user testing tools to get you started:

• Website Grader: Our free tool evaluates your website based on several factors: mobile, design, performance, SEO, and security. It then offers tailored suggestions for improvement. You can learn more about Website Grader in our dedicated blog post.
• Crazy Egg: Track multiple domains under one account and uncover insights about your site’s performance using four different intelligence tools — heat map, scroll map, overlay, and confetti.
• Loop11: Use this tool to easily create usability tests — even if you don’t have any HTML experience.
• The User Is Drunk: Pay Richard Littauer to get drunk and review your site. Don’t believe me? We tried it.

For even more helpful options, see our list of the best user testing tools.

Hopefully, these guidelines are useful in informing the structure of your web pages and website as a whole. But, how does one put these guidelines into practice? Let’s take a look at some actionable best practices you can follow during the design process. 

1. Select a typography that’s easy to read and skim.

Typography refers to how type — meaning letters and characters — are arranged and presented on the page. Since website typography affects not only how we read but how we feel about text on a web page, it’s important to pick carefully. 

Ideally, you want a typeface that is:

• easy to read
• easy to skim
• accessible to all users
• legible across multiple devices and screen sizes

You also want it to match the look and feel of your brand. For example, the luxury fashion brand Burberry refreshed its logo for the first time in 20 years in 2018. It replaced the old serif typeface with a bold, all-caps, sans serif typeface and dropped the knight emblem. The result is a simpler and more modern-looking logo that’s easier to read on any screen — and that reflects changes in the company to become more transparent and appeal to a younger generation. 

Image Source

2. Choose a color scheme that suits your brand.

Like typography, color can affect not only how we understand and interact with content, but how we feel about it. Your color scheme should therefore check off the same boxes as your website typography. It should:

• reinforce your brand identity
• make your site easy to read and navigate
• evoke emotion
• look good

Buzzfeed, for examples, uses the primary colors yellow and red to grab users’ attention and get them excited about the content. It reserves the use of the primary color blue — which is associated with trust — exclusively for links and CTA buttons. Both emotions are ideal to evoke for a media site. 

Image Source

3. Use white space to break up text and other elements.

Whitespace refers to the negative areas in any composition. Whitespace provides users with visual breaks as they process a website’s design or content, which is not only aesthetically pleasing. By minimizing distractions, whitespace makes it easier for users to focus, process information, and understand what it’s important. 

That means you can use whitespace to avoid causing information overload or analysis paralysis — and to emphasize important elements on the page. This might help persuade users to take a specific action, like sign up for a newsletter, shop your latest collection, and more.

For example, Eb & flow Yoga Studio uses whitespace to lead users toward a specific action: to sign up for three weeks of classes. Notice that whitespace doesn’t mean the absence of color or imagery. Instead, it means that every element on the page is positioned strategically, with lots of space in between, to avoid overwhelming or confusing visitors. 

Image Source

4. Use texture to add personality and depth.

Resembling a three-dimensional, tactile surface, web textures aim to replicate the physical sensation of touch with another sensation — sight. They’re a great design alternative to solid color backgrounds, particularly if you want to add personality and depth to your site. 

Take a look at the texture on the homepage for the Santa Barbara-based restaurant Mony’s Tacos below. It looks like chalk drawn on a blackboard, doesn’t it? I don’t know about you but I can almost feel the chalk on my fingers just from looking at it. It’s the perfect look for a restaurant that aims to be California’s preferred Funk Zone choice for Mexican delights.

Image Source

5. Add images to engage and inform readers.

Striking a balance between text and images is essential in website design. Incorporating visuals can make your content more informative, engaging, and memorable. You’ve probably heard the statistics that people remember only 20% of what they read, but 80% of what they see? While the exact percentages are debated, the basic idea isn’t. It’s easier for some people to learn and process information visually.

Here’s a unique example of breaking up text with images from a cosmetic company’s website. This shows how endless the possibilities of incorporating imagery into your website design are. 

Image Source

6. Simplify your navigation.

Navigation is one of the most important design elements on a website. It impacts whether visitors arrive on your homepage and browse, or click the “Back” button. That’s why it’s important to keep it as simple as possible. 

Many websites opt for a horizontal navigation bar. This navigation style lists the major pages side by side and is placed in the website header. 

Take the navigation bar on Blavity as an example. The sections featured include three content categories — “News,” “Op-Eds,” and “Lifestyle” — as well as links to their submission page and sign-up page. This provides visitors with easy access to the pages they’re likely looking for. Other nav items are placed in a dropdown menu labelled “More” so they’re still easy to find but not cluttered into the top-level navigation. Finally, the navigation bar is sticky so visitors won’t have to scroll up and down the page to browse the site. 

Image Source

7. Make your CTAs stand out.

CTAs are elements on a web page, advertisement, or another piece of content that encourages the audience to do something. The call to action could be to sign up, subscribe, start a free trial, or learn more, among many others.

You want your CTAs to pop in your website design. To make that happen, consider how you’re using color as well as other elements like background color, surrounding images, and surrounding text.

Square provides an excellent call-to-action example. Using a single image to showcase the simplicity of using their product, Square uses bold typography to also show how unique and future-oriented their product is. Against this dramatic backdrop, the blue “Get Started” CTA awaits your click.

Image Source

8. Optimize for mobile.

We’ve already discussed how important it is for your website to be responsive. But since mobile devices accounted for 59% of organic search engine visits in 2021, we’re doubling down on how important it is to design your website to be mobile-friendly. That might mean altering or removing some elements that would clutter smaller screen sizes or negatively impact load time. 

For an example of one of the best mobile website designs, compare Etsy’s homepage on desktop vs mobile. On desktop, you’ll see a navbar with categories. Hovering over each category will reveal a dropdown menu.

Image Source

On mobile, this collapses behind a hamburger button, which improves the appearance and performance of the mobile site. You’ll also notice that the images are larger — perfect for tapping with your finger on a mobile screen.

9. Limit the options presented to users.

According to Hick’s Law, increasing the number and complexity of choices will increase the time it takes for a person to make a decision. This is bad news in website design. If a website visitor is presented with too many options, they might get frustrated and bounce — or they might pick an option you don’t want, like abandoning their cart. That’s why it’s important to limit the number of options presented to a user. 

For example, a visitor landing on the homepage of Shawn Michelle’s Ice Cream will have three options: to learn more about the company, the flavors, or the ingredients. But instead of presenting all three options at the same time, they are presented one at a time in a slider. This is a great example of implementing Hick’s Law in UX design. 

Image Source

Now we understand the principles and best practices that should guide you throughout the design process. In the next section, let’s run down the essential page elements that you should strongly consider including in your design plan.

1. Header and Footer

The header and footer are a staple of just about every modern website. Try to include them on most of your pages, from your homepage, to your blog posts, and even your “No results found” page.

Your header should contain your branding in the form of a logo and organization name, menu navigation, and maybe a CTA, and/or a search bar if well-spaced and minimal. On the other end, your footer is where many users will instinctively scroll for essential information. In your footer, place contact information, a signup form, links to your common pages, legal and privacy policies, links to translated versions of your site, and social media links.

2. Menu Navigation

Whether it’s a list of links across the header or a tidy and compact hamburger button in the corner, every website needs a guide for navigation positioned at the top of at least your homepage and other important pages. A good menu limits the number of clicks to reach any part of your website to just a few.

To reduce clutter, you might consider making some or all menu options a dropdown menu with links within it, as can be seen on HubSpot’s homepage.

3. Search Bar

In addition to menu navigation, strongly consider placing a search bar at the top of your pages, so users can browse your site for content by keyword. If incorporating this functionality, make sure your results are relevant, forgiving of typos, and capable of approximate keyword matching. Most of us use a high-quality search engine every day, be it Google, Amazon, YouTube, or elsewhere. These all set the standard for your own site search.

4. Branding

Remember the conventions we’ve discussed? One that you see practically everywhere is a logo in the top left corner. On first landing, many visitors’ eyes will instinctively shift to this region to check they’re in the right place. Don’t leave them hanging.

To reinforce this notion, incorporate your company branding into every element you add, piece of content you post, and color scheme you create. That’s why we recommend establishing brand guidelines if you haven’t already — check out our style guide for a reference.

5. Color Palette

Color choice plays a major role in your site’s usability and UX as well. This decision tends to be more subjective than other requirements in this list. But, like everything else we’ve discussed, try to simplify — limit your color selection to 3-4 prominent colors at most.

Starting a color palette from scratch can be surprisingly difficult the first time. We seem to intuitively pick up on which colors work well together and which don’t, but we stumble when trying to pick from the infinite combinations available.

The solution? Try a color palette that’s been shown to work on other websites. Take influence from your favorite sites, and see our list of our favorite website color schemes to get started.

6. Headings

Headings are key to establishing the visual hierarchy we discussed earlier, especially on text-heavy pages. As users skim your pages what you need, a clear and to-the-point heading alerts readers to stop scrolling after finding what they want. Use only as many headings as there are distinct sections of your page, as too much blown-up and bolded text will dampen this effect.

7. Clear Labels

Whenever a user takes an action on your website, it must be obvious exactly what they’re doing and/or where they’re going. All buttons should have clear text or an icon to precisely and concisely signal their purpose. The same goes for in-text links and widgets (simple interactive elements, like dropdowns and text forms).

For example, a button linking to a pricing page should just read “Pricing” — anything beyond that (e.g., “See our prices”, “Check out the pricing page for a deal”) is superfluous. A search bar/button only needs a search glass icon (🔍), and perhaps also the word “Search”, to denote its purpose.

User testing can be a major help here. While you yourself know what all of your interactive page elements do, the same can’t be said for a new user. Testing will give valuable insight into what users think your labels mean beyond your own perspective.

8. Visuals and Media

When incorporating static images, gifs, videos, and other media into your pages, remember to be consistent and intentional in your choices. These elements will draw attention over most other text and will likely stay in users’ minds, so choose wisely.

Here’s just one example of effective media on a homepage. Notice how every image complements the page aesthetic and supports the offer of personalized fitness training with results.

Image Source

Also, all images and videos should be optimized for search engines and include descriptive alt text for accessibility.

9. Calls to Action (CTAs)

Having a pleasing website is great, but how do you know whether your visitors are actually doing what you want? Are they engaging with your content? This is where CTAs come into play.

A CTA is any page element that prompts user action. The action could be adding a product to a card, downloading a content offer, or signing up for an email list. Make your CTA elements prominent in the visual hierarchy (remember our Spotify example), but not intrusive or distracting like many click-through ads tend to be.

If you need ideas for sleek CTAs that drive more conversions, see our CTA examples list.

10. Whitespace

As mentioned above, sometimes it’s about the elements you don’t include. After reading these guidelines and requirements, you may feel tempted to stuff your pages with all the bits and bobs needed for a flawless UX. Don’t forget that your viewers need room to digest all this new info, so give your elements room to breathe.

But, how much whitespace should you have? That’s another personal call, and varies from site to site. So, user testing is handy here as well. What are people focusing on? Do they feel overwhelmed with the density of content? Once again, it all ties back to our first guideline, simplicity.

Design that Puts Users First

Indeed, web design is largely subjective — your website’s look and experience isn’t going to please everyone. However, there are also tried-and-true UX principles that, when carefully considered and incorporated, help visitors feel more at home.

According to Amazon Web Services, 88% of website visitors are less likely to return to a website after a poor experience. And how could you blame them? We’ve surely all been there.

So, as a final bit of usability/UX wisdom, start caring more! Imagine yourself into the shoes (or, more accurately, browser windows) of your visitors, and keep them in mind every step of the design process.

Meet Elizabeth: a 27-year-old nurse who drives a Honda Civic, enjoys making TikToks, and spends most of her time with her beautiful 9-month-old baby.

Elizabeth desperately wants to make more time for herself, but struggles to find the balance between work and home responsibilities. She tries to give herself moments of self-care, but these moments are few and far between. Elizabeth needs a way to recharge, relax, and care for herself.

By this description, you know Elizabeth’s age, profession, gender, desires, struggles, and pain points. All of this information helps you place her in a category in your mind — but none of that information tells you why she buys your product.

Buyer personas typically include descriptions like Elizabeth’s, along with other demographics and personality information.

In the early days of customer segmentation, this would have been more than enough to inform marketing campaigns and product development. But with growing markets and increased consumer awareness, companies need to go beyond standard buyer personas to reach their audiences.

If we can apply what we’ve learned about how people make decisions, and how we as companies group people together, we’ll be able to reach customers like Elizabeth with empathetic solutions that help her, rather than stereotypical cure-alls that are easily overlooked.

Here, let’s dive into three myths of the buyer persona — and what you can do, instead. 

Standard Buyer Personas Aren’t Enough

The first mention of audience segmentation was by Wendell Smith in 1956. Smith defined market segmentation as, “the adjustment of market offerings to consumer or user requirements.”

Smith knew that creating segments would lead to higher consumer/user satisfaction. But Smith’s idea of segmentation was years before we had a clear understanding of psychology, behavioral economics, unconscious bias, and deeper knowledge about how to provide consumer satisfaction.

Since Smith’s discussion on segmentation, we’ve had major discoveries in the way people think, rationalize, and categorize others. Daniel Kahneman and Amos’ Tversky’s 1974 research paper A Judgement Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases revealed the way people process information, and are influenced. And Clayton Christensen first shared his jobs-to-be-done theory in 2003.

Both of these studies on human behavior, purchasing, and thinking have made a lasting impact on the way we create ad copy, price products, introduce call-to-actions, and influence many other marketing activities — but have yet to influence our way of creating buyer personas.

Using the lessons from Kahneman, Tversky, and Christensen, there are three myths of the standard buyer persona that could be detrimental to your marketing and customer relations. Let’s dive into those, now. 

Myth #1: Your Buyer Persona Needs a Name

We’ve all seen the old advice to give your persona a name that is memorable. Names like Sally Sales Girl and Mary the Marketer will bring your persona to life and create a more concrete persona in your mind and marketing — or so we’re told.

Fact: Naming your buyer persona introduces bias.

The problem with giving your buyer personas a fake name is that you could introduce bias into your marketing.

Introducing naming bias in your marketing means that consciously you’ve determined a particular person as your best customer. That’s good! The problem is you might also unintentionally exclude people who could be a good fit for your product but may not resemble the person you envisioned. And that’s bad.

If Elizabeth is your best fit customer, then you’re more likely to seek out customers who meet your unconscious idea of who Elizabeth is, rather than seek out customers who actually use your product or service.

Studies show that when someone has an easier-to-pronounce name, they are judged more favorably than someone with a harder-to-pronounce name.  And while most studies on unconscious name bias focus on resumes and job applications, we can apply those lessons to buyer personas, as well.

Ease of pronunciation varies depending on where you live or what language you speak. But remember, a name that sounds familiar to you might not sound familiar to your audience.

Solution: Name personas based on segmentation data.

When we create buyer personas, we’re grouping a large number of people into one category. Instead of naming your personas after a person, try naming them after the traits they share. 

Do the majority of these best-fit customers enjoy soccer? Great! Name them ‘The Soccer Players.’ Or maybe they’re using your product to free-up time in their scheduling processes. Wonderful — let’s call them the Free Timers.

Naming this group of people according to their segment, or their need, helps to eliminate any bias that could exist.

This helps focus buyer personas on the category of people you’re serving, not just one pretend person.

Myth Two: Your Buyer Persona Needs a Photo to Make Them More Relatable and Realistic

Most buyer personas have a stock photo on the first page. I’ve even heard of companies using cardboard cutouts of buyer personas in their office.

While I admire the effort to bring to life a category of people, assigning one picture or person to represent a large group of people lays a foundation for bias in your marketing.

Fact: Your buyer persona doesn’t need a face to be realistic.

The buyer persona’s picture most likely represents who you believe your ideal customer looks like, but it’s not likely a good determination of your entire audience. If you’ve given your Elizabeth persona a picture of a middle-aged white female, and 100% of your audience isn’t middle-aged, white, and female, you’ve inaccurately portrayed your audience. 

When we give our personas a stock photo it could introduce racial, gender, or beauty bias. These kinds of biases are so ingrained in our minds that we follow bias patterns even if we don’t logically believe the bias to be true.

This phenomenon is known as the bias blind spot. Studies show that 95% of cognition happens below the threshold of conscious thought. Meaning, you may not be racist, misogynistic, or ageist, but there are patterns ingrained in your mind that influence your decision-making whether you realize it or not.

A Google Image search when searching for ‘Buyer Personas‘ blatantly shows the issue with assigning pictures to buyer personas. There’s not a lot of diversity in these images, and that lack of diversity hurts a company’s growth.

A 2019 survey by the Female Quotient, Ipsos, and Google found “64% of people surveyed said they took some sort of action after seeing an ad that they considered to be diverse or inclusive. Those numbers increase for Latinx+ (85%), Black (79%), Asian/Pacific Islander (79%), LGBTQ (85%), millennial (77%), and teen (76%) consumers.”

Solution: Forget the photo.

Leave the stock photo out of your buyer personas. This isn’t going to harm or hurt any of your marketing efforts and functions. It will be a step toward eliminating unconscious bias. Instead of using a stock photo, get straight to the crucial information.

You may have the urge to add a cartoon character, but that doesn’t alleviate the problem. Skip the pictures altogether, and get straight to the information that will help you resonate, reach, and sell to your customers.

This is the first step in acknowledging that your customers look like a wide variety of races, genders, shapes, and sizes.

When your marketing better represents your audience, your product, messaging, and communications will resonate more clearly.

Myth Three: Buyer Personas Should Describe Character Traits

Most B2B buyer personas are created to inform marketing teams and executives on who their customers are and keep promotional efforts consistent, but limiting buyer personas to only character traits, demographics, and socio-graphic information limits your audience and ability to reach the right people in the right way.

Fact: Buyer personas should tell you why people buy a product or service.

The best way to resonate with your audience is to understand them and empathize with their pain points. Understanding your audience begins with how you build and segment your buyer personas.

If you’re segmenting your audience based on attributes such as brands they like, habits they have, or job titles, then you are grouping people together based on fleeting attributes. 

For instance, say our persona example, Elizabeth, changes jobs, moves to a new city, or changes any trait about her life. As a result, you might unnecessarily shift Elizabeth out of your customer demographic. She loves your product,  and would still buy your product, but now you’re no longer invested in marketing to her segment.

Solution: Segment according to the job-to-be-done.

Instead of building your personas around demographics and character traits, base your personas on what your customers have hired your product/service to do for them.

For example, Elizabeth is a mom, loves long baths, and buys Suave deodorant. The reason she buys Suave has nothing to do with her age, job title, or love of baths. She buys Suave because she’s used it for years, loves the smell, and the way it makes her feel. She is ‘hiring’ Suave deodorant to keep her feeling and smelling great.

Clayton Christensen was the first person to discuss the concept of people hiring products and services for a particular job. 

Combining the emotional psychographic information of buyer personas with a jobs-to-be-done approach will help to inform your marketing efforts and open up your market in a way that allows you to serve all kinds of people. According to Christensen, “Companies that develop offerings centered on jobs, instead of customer attributes and buying behaviors, can excel in the market and avoid disruption.”

The Best Buyer Personas Will be the Tool that Grows Your Business

It’s time buyer personas caught up with our knowledge of how people think, behave, and purchase. When undertaking your next buyer persona project, ditch the fake name and picture, and focus on what your customers hire your product to do for them.

Your marketing deliverables will be more inclusive to a wider audience, while still being narrowly focused and empathetic. Creating better buyer personas will lay a foundation of better marketing practices that resonates with your audience and grows your business.

When it comes to email marketing, there’s no denying how powerful this channel can be.

According to a 2019 Campaign Monitor report, for every $1 you spend, you earn $42 – an astonishing return on investment.

If you’re scaling a business, you may have relied on personal or business email providers like Gmail and Outlook in the past. However, they’re not equipped to manage large volumes of email and provide the data needed to track performance.

That’s where a bulk email service can come in.

Discover the key features you should find in a bulk email service and the top providers in the market.

A mass email service helps you reach a large audience and nurture them one email at a time. In addition to getting direct access to your customer base, you can also track how your emails perform and test various methods to increase clicks and conversions.

While traditional advertising methods, such as print ads and direct mail, can have high return on investment (ROI), it can be difficult to understand how consumers are interacting with your materials. With a bulk email service, you can find out what attracts consumers and what elements lead to higher conversions.

Furthermore, many bulk email services offer automation tools – think workflows and sequences – to help you move leads down the funnel and retain your current clients.

Using a personal or business email can work in the first few months of starting a business but will quickly become ineffective as you grow.

Reasons to Send Bulk Emails

Not sure if it’s the right time to try a bulk email service? The first question you should ask is, “Is our brand investing in email marketing this quarter/year?“

If the answer is yes, then that’s your sign to invest in an email service.

Here are specific examples of when you would send out a mass email to your subscribers:

• Sales promotion – Say you want to promote discounts on certain products or services, sending a mass email to your subscribers is a great way to generate sales.
• Newsletter – Do you want to send out exclusive content to your subscribers? Then a newsletter is the way to go.
• Product updates – A great way to announce a new product feature or line is via email. You can include previews to build some excitement and include calls-to-action (CTA) for conversions.
• Announcements – Are you updating your hours, prices, or services? Or perhaps there’s been a change in your policy. Notifying your subscribers in an email blast is an effective way to spread the news.

With every email you send to subscribers, you’ll want to keep in mind your goals, your audience, the time and day, personalization, and compliance with data protection laws.

You want to invest in an email marketing service, but you’re not sure what to look for – here’s your guide.

These are the key features you should look for in a bulk email service. Some of these features will only be available in a premium package. However, others will be included in the standard or free versions.

1. User Behavior Tracking

The number one tool you’ll need in any bulk email service you select is reporting capabilities. Because what’s the point of investing your time in designing and sending emails if you can’t see how they performed?

You should be able to track key email metrics, such as:

• Open rate
• Unique clicks
• Click-to-open rate (CTOR)
• Clickthrough rate (CTR)
• Unsubscribe rate
• List growth rate
• Bounce rate

Email providers with advanced reporting features may also allow you to track revenue per subscriber and revenue per email.

2. Drag-and-Drop

A drag-and-drop tool makes designing your email easy. This intuitive feature allows you to select an element from the sidebar, like an image, quote, or button, and drag it to a section in your email.

This will save you time as you determine the best flow for your email and move things around.

3. Email Segmentation & Personalization

Segmenting your emails ensures that your emails are reaching the right people at the right time.

You should look for a bulk email service that allows you to segment your subscriber list based on:

• Location
• Actions taken in the email
• Purchase history
• Type of subscriber (ex: prospect vs current customer)

When you segment your list, you can get higher engagement rates, as the content will be more relevant to your recipients.

4. Split Testing

Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is a great way to understand what resonates with your audience.

Image Source

This feature is particularly helpful if you are struggling to generate high open rates and get subscribers to convert.

By testing out different subject lines and elements within the body of your email, you can determine what works best.

5. Automation

When you’re scaling your email list, the name of the game is automation.

Say you have a content offer and you want to send a sequence of emails to leads after they’ve downloaded the offer. With an automation tool, you can pre-select which emails will go out, in what order, and how many days in each email.

Once you complete the set-up, the automation does all the work for you – nurturing your subscribers and moving them down the buyer’s journey.

This hands-off approach allows you to focus on strategy instead of the tedious work of sending out emails. It can also become impossible to keep track of each subscriber’s stage in the journey and send the appropriate email.

With automation, you can take the guesswork out of the process.

6. Design Templates

If you’re like me, designing isn’t your forte. So, when designing an email, you’ll take all the help you can get.

Having a design template based on the type of email you want to send can not only save you time but ensure you’re following email best practices. This is particularly helpful if you have limited experience designing emails and are just starting out.

What’s great about having a template is that it’s a foundation. You can customize it to fit your needs, but it provides a blueprint from which to work.

7. High Email Delivery Rates

Imagine you work so hard on an email campaign, and it never reaches your subscribers’ inboxes. Frustrating right?

That’s why it’s important to verify your provider’s email delivery rates. You’ll want to select a service with high email delivery rates, as close to 100% as possible.

Best Bulk Email Services

1. HubSpot’s Email Marketing Tool

With HubSpot, you can create, customize and optimize your emails without any coding or design experience.

Image Source

You can send up to 2,000 emails a month, and that doesn’t include test emails to check functionality. The platform offers a user-friendly interface and tools like a drag-and-drop tool to easily design your email, tokens to personalize every email, and an a/b testing feature.

In addition, you can create custom reports based on the data you want to collect and analyze.

The best part? It’s free.

2. ConvertKit

As their name suggests, the platform is designed to help you earn more conversions and generate more revenue.

ConvertKit is known for its advanced automation tools, including custom email funnels, smart filters, and link triggers.

Image Source

Furthermore, the platform has a 98% delivery rate, ensuring that your emails will always reach your subscribers. In addition, the average open rate for ConvertKit emails is an astonishing 30%, according to their website.

ConvertKit offers a free version of its platform all the way up to custom pricing for enterprise-level businesses with over 365,000 subscribers.

3. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a great email service for those who are just starting out in email marketing.

Image Source

The platform offers a user-friendly interface and over 100 templates to choose from.

With their free plan, you can send up to 10,000 emails a month to 2,000 contacts – a great option for small to midsize businesses. As your business grows, you can scale to the premium version, which includes unlimited audiences, multivariate testing, and advanced segmentation with up to 200,000 contacts.

4. Drip

If you have an ecommerce business, consider Drip for your email marketing.

The platform offers pre-built email templates that you can customize to your liking and a user-friendly workflow builder for automation.

In addition, you can schedule automation based on actions your subscribers take. For instance, viewing a product, abandoning their cart, and making a purchase.

Image Source

With Drip, you can easily integrate your online store (like Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce) to make data gathering easier and help you design more targeted emails.

Pricing starts at $19 and goes up based on how many subscribers you have.

5. Insycle

Insycle doesn’t fall under the email provider list. However, this software does work in tandem with providers like HubSpot and Mailchimp to keep your contact list clean.

One of the downsides of having a subscriber list is the potential for duplicate contacts. This can not only impact your metrics (and consequently your data) but also make it difficult to tailor your emails.

Insycle allows you to clean your contacts in bulk, merge duplicate ones, and avoid overwriting data.

Knowing what to look for in an email service is half the battle. Now that you have a list of key features and few tools to choose from, you can find a platform that helps you grow your email list and generate revenue.

A positive brand image can undoubtedly influence a consumer’s decision to buy a product — and, for virtually every business, building a positive brand image starts online.

Nowadays, your reputation is largely dependent on social media and online review sites. For instance, consumers need to read an average of 10 online reviews before they feel they can trust a local business.

Since brand image makes such an impression on someone’s decision to purchase, you must regularly monitor your reputation online. Still, it can feel like a daunting task, particularly when so much of it is out of your control.

Fortunately, there are plenty of tools and strategies you can implement to ensure you’re protecting your brand in 2021. In this post, we’ll give a clear overview of brand reputation management, how to create a plan to manage your business reputation, and high-quality tools to supplement your process.

Reputation management is a continuous process, as it allows you to stay on top of your brand’s public perception and address possible damaging situations as soon as they occur.

When your reputation is positive, you inspire customer loyalty, a significant driver of revenue and growth. A negative reputation can be damaging to sales and customer retention, but it also helps you learn about what customers like, which can be helpful for updating business processes to better meet consumer needs.

Brand safety has recently become discussed in conversation with reputation management, and we’ll explain what it is below.

Brand Reputation Management vs. Brand Safety

According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, brand safety ensures that advertisements, their content, and any content shared by brands are appropriate and not associated with topics of consumer opinions that may be negative. Although somewhat similar concepts, brand safety falls into brand reputation management.

Some examples of scenarios that risk brand safety are correct ad placement. The IAB recommends purchasing ad space from trusted publishers so your ads aren’t next to content that consumers may find offensive or cause them to distrust your brand.

In another scenario, you want your advertisements to be related to what you’re advertising. If customers click on an ad for a new blanket and are led to unrelated content, you’re practicing malicious advertising, which risks the safety of your consumers.

Brand safety goes both ways; your business is protected from outside sources that aim to harm, and your customers are protected from malicious business practices that may cause them to lose money or be exposed to offensive things.

So, as a whole, brand safety is a process within brand reputation management. You’re ensuring that your advertising practices are legitimate, so consumers don’t feel deceived by your brand and don’t need to second-guess your business and distrust what you have to offer.

Reputation Management Plan

Let’s go over a sample reputation management plan that you can adapt to fit your business needs. It’s essential to keep in mind that reputation management is a continuous process, so neither step is one-and-done; they should be consistent as long as your business is up and running.

1. Research and audit.

The first step to reputation management is research. During this phase, you’ll use the internet to discover conversations about your business and what people are saying about you. Aim to seek out all different types of conversations, as all feedback is helpful for understanding perceptions and improving your reputation.

You can conduct this audit from your customer reviews, on review sites, on social media, and by simply searching for your business’s name on Google and various search engines. You can also search for business-relevant keywords or even the feeds of your competitors. Consumers are talking; you just have to meet them where they already are.

As there are many different platforms and websites you’ll use to conduct your research, using a high-quality reputation management tool will make the process easier, and we’ll recommend some below.

2. Establish a management strategy.

Once you know what overall perception is of your brand, you’ll know where you’ll need to focus to improve it. For example, suppose your audit shows that the conversation around your brand is unfavorable. In that case, you will want to employ practices that will help you improve the experiences that people have with your business.

As such, the next step is to create a consistent management strategy. Regardless of what your current standing is, your plans should address the following:

• Who will consistently monitor online conversations?

Designate specific people at your business to be in charge of conducting continuous research and monitoring conversations about your business online. Those already on customer-facing teams are likely the most equipped to deal with customers, like those on marketing or customer service teams.

Either way, those who monitor online conversation and respond to comments should have experience doing so, and understand how to speak with customers.

• How do you decide which comments, reviews, or mentions need responses?

Some people’s only intent is to troll rather than speak about legitimate experiences. These comments and conversations are fake, created on purpose to diminish your reputation. Most comments, however, are based on real interactions, experiences, and thoughts about your brand, both positive and negative.

You should never respond to reviews that seem fake (here’s a guide on spotting and removing them from Google). However, you should respond to comments from real consumers, which is why it’s essential to understand which warrant a response.

It’s not possible to respond to all of them, so maybe you prioritize responding to customer questions or create specific requirements that dictate when a response is necessary, both for positive and negative comments.

• A tone guide for responding to comments.

Responding to comments and conversations about your brand is not worth it if you don’t have a consistent tone of voice that you follow. For example, if you respond to criticism harshly but positive comments with returned positivity, it will do more harm than good.

Develop a standard tone guide that you will use when responding, and aim to stick to it. It can also be helpful to have a crisis management plan in place within your reputation plan to take action during situations that escalate quickly, are difficult to control, and may leave responsible parties frantic and not adhering to standard guidelines.

3. Take action based on comments, feedback, and reviews.

Understanding how consumers view your brand is the most valuable tool for improvement and innovation. Their criticisms and pain points will direct you to areas of your business that need increased attention, and their positive comments let you know what you’re doing right and what you should continue doing.

As you’re hoping to manage your reputation, taking action based on comments, feedback, and reviews helps you manage your reputation as you’re making changes that customers want to see.

4. Continuously practice steps one, two, and three.

As mentioned above, managing your online reputation is a continuous effort. Although it may be nice, rectifying one situation doesn’t mean that everything is smooth sailing from now until forever.

Always research and monitor conversations about your business to get a sense of where your reputation stands, follow the steps of your plan, and act on the feedback you receive.

Let’s go over some high-quality tools you can use to supplement your reputation management process.

Reputation Management Software

It can be helpful to use reputation management software, particularly if you work for a small-to-medium-sized business with limited PR resources. Below we’ll review some options.

1. Yext Reviews

Since inconsistent information can negatively affect your local SEO, it’s critical you ensure your business’s data is listed consistently across each site. Fortunately, Yext lets you fix any inconsistent business information all in one place.

Additionally, the software enables you to manage your social media accounts and respond to authentic customer reviews, ensuring you have a good grasp on your brand’s true online reputation. Yext is ideal for small-to-medium-sized businesses as well as major enterprise companies — some of its impressive customers include Marriott Hotels and T-Mobile.

Price: Starts at $199/year

Image Source

2. ReviewTrackers

ReviewTrackers collects online reviews from over 100 third-party review sites, including Google, TripAdvisor, and Facebook. A critical feature to call out is that you can receive notifications whenever a customer leaves a review, ensuring you’re up-to-speed on feedback.

The cloud-based reputation and review management software also allows you to track trending issues and topics to show you the bigger picture around customer issues and provides competitor tracking and performance analytics.

The tool, used by customers such as Sears and Triple A, is available for enterprise companies and small-to-medium sized businesses.

Price: Custom depending on your size and business needs (request a demo here).

Image Source

3. Podium

More than likely, the idea of managing your reputation on different sites ranging from Facebook to Google to Yelp is a stressful and overwhelming one — fortunately, software like Podium allows you to see all customer interactions and online reviews in a single dashboard. Your employees can use Podium to request reviews, respond to reviews in real-time, and even exchange text messages with potential customers.

Podium’s support team is available via phone, online chat, or email, ensuring you have the help you need to properly implement their tool. The software works best for small-to-medium local businesses with the time and resources to manually send texts to customers or leads.

Price: Custom depending on your size and business needs. (Ask for a quote here).

Image Source

4. BirdEye

BirdEye, a SaaS tool used by more than 50,000 businesses, collects feedback from over 150 online review sources to ensure you have the complete picture regarding your brand’s online reputation.

You can monitor, promote, and respond to reviews within one dashboard. Additionally, you can use BirdEye to request reviews from customers on both desktop and mobile devices or within BirdEye’s messenger tool.

Along with review monitoring, BirdEye provides features to manage your social accounts, gain insight into your competitors’ customers, and create surveys and tickets to further improve your customer’s overall experience with your brand.

Price: Custom depending on your size and business needs. (Ask for a quote here).

Image Source

5. Cision

Cision Communications Cloud lets you track your brand mentions across millions of online stores, as well as any social media mentions. Best of all, Cision helps you reach audiences across traditional, digital, and social platforms, ensuring your brand is thriving across all marketing channels.

While Cision provides tools to ensure you’re able to monitor and protect your online brand, its features are particularly impressive for strategic, proactive PR outreach. For instance, Cision helps you find media outlets and specific contacts within the industry to reach out with pitches, or figure out which industry influencers can best help spread your message and positively impact your brand’s image.

Cision also provides automated analysis to help you translate your campaigns into valuable global insights. The tool is used by companies such as Comcast and Bayer.

Price: Custom depending on your size and business needs. (Ask for a quote here).

Reputation Management for Businesses

To understand how a business might implement a reputation management strategy, I spoke with Ellie Flanagan, Senior Corporate Communications Manager at HubSpot.

She told me — “The first step in shoring up your brand’s presence online is making sure that all of your owned channels reflect your current imagery, messaging, and values. Check for outdated logos, company descriptions, or mission statements. It’s also helpful to do regular audits of other places where your logo or brand might be in use — such as on partner or customer websites.”

To conduct regular audits, you might use one of the software tools listed above. Additionally, you can use reputation management software to check for inconsistencies, such as Yext. Alternatively, there are tools such as Express Update or My Business Listing Manager that help you monitor for outdated information (check out A Comprehensive Guide to Local SEO in 2021 to learn more).

Flanagan also says, “Make sure you have clear language on your website that outlines your company’s trademarks and sets guidelines for how others can use your brand assets. That will be a helpful reference if you need to reach out to someone who’s using your brand incorrectly or without permission.”

I also spoke with Alice Sol, a Public Relations Specialist at HubSpot. She told me — “Protecting your brand has never been more important, and that goes hand-in-hand with customer trust. We live in a world where information travels rapidly, and we can get a response in seconds at the touch of a button. Technology has enabled us, as consumers, to get in touch with brands quickly — at the same time, it’s given brands the ability to form deeper connections and resolve issues faster.”

Sol also advises businesses to do their best to meet customer needs and ensure a seamless experience, start-to-finish. She says, “The stakes [on delivering a good experience] are getting higher. 80% of consumers say they have stopped doing business with a company because of a poor experience. If a customer has a bad experience, technology allows information about that experience to travel quickly. At the same time, if a customer has a very positive experience, that creates a strong brand reputation and forms trust.”

“Your customers are your biggest asset and it’s critical to take those needs very seriously by responding in a timely manner and communicating effectively.”

To sum it up, when protecting your online reputation, you’ll want to focus on the following tactics:

• Make sure all your owned channels reflect your current imagery, messaging, and values,
• Ensure all online information regarding your business is up-to-date and consistent,
• Use precise language on your website to outline your company’s trademarks and set guidelines,
• Cultivate a positive user experience, start-to-finish,
• Listen to customer feedback and respond to negative feedback with helpful, actionable solutions when possible.

If you want further information regarding how to cultivate a comprehensive, cohesive customer experience, take a look at How to Define a Customer Experience (CX) Strategy, which provides you with the six areas of a successful digital customer strategy.

When you’re trying to make a good first impression, a greeting is critical. Saying “Yo, what’s up” to your new employer will evoke a different, likely more negative reaction than, “Hello, it’s nice to meet you.” 

A cover letter greeting is just as important as your first in-person salutation. It’s a chance to demonstrate professionalism and even effort — for instance, addressing your hiring manager by first and last name shows you did your research. 

Here, we’ll explore the best cover letter greetings you can use to ensure your cover letter is well-received.

Cover Letter Salutation and Greeting Examples

Sometimes job listings let you know who will be in charge of your application process, but sometimes they don’t. Let’s go over how to address your cover letters for either situation. Please note that it’s always important to capitalize the nouns for all of your greetings.

1. Dear Hiring Manager,
2. Dear [name of team or department you’re applying for a position in],
3. Dear [company name] Recruiter,
4. To the [name of team you are applying for a position in] Department,
5. Dear [title of the person you would report to],
6. Dear [position title] Hiring Manager,
7. Dear [hiring manager, recruiter, or name of point of contact],
8. Dear Human Resources Manager.

Below we’ll go over an example of how to start a cover letter greeting when you have the name of the hiring manager, recruiter, or point of contact for your application process.

How To Start a Cover Letter Greeting

1. Use “Hello,” or “Dear,” followed by their first and last name.

If the job description includes the hiring manager’s name, or if you’ve managed to figure it out through research (which we’ll cover below), an easy greeting uses a full name with a “Dear” or “Hello” before it. Additionally, this helps prevent the possibility of misgendering someone that can come from using “Dear Ms./Mr.”

2. Include their title if possible.

If you’re writing to a hiring manager with a title like “Dr.” or “Professor,” include it in your greeting. It will demonstrate a level of respect and that you’ve done your research. It’s also non-gender specific, again reducing the likelihood of misgendering. 

For instance, you might start your cover letter like this — “Dear Dr. Grace [Insert Last Name].”

3. If you don’t know their name, you can still make it specific.

If you’ve done your research and can’t find a specific person hiring for the role, it’s likely because the company has a team assembled to delegate the hiring responsibilities. To address a letter to a team, figure out the department or group in which the role falls. Then, follow this formula — “Dear [Department] Hiring Team.”

For instance, if you’re applying for a role within Customer Service, you might say, “Dear Customer Service Hiring Committee,” or “Dear Customer Service Hiring Team.” 

However, it’s worth putting in the effort to research who the hiring manager may be, as the information can sometimes be easy to find.

How to Address a Cover Letter Without a Name

A customized greeting goes a long way towards helping your cover letter stand out in a sea of “To Whom It May Concern.” Let’s go over what you can do to uncover who the hiring manager or person responsible for the application process may be. 

Find Recruiters on Company Website

An easy way to try and find the direct responsible individual is by visiting the company website and looking for an “About Us” tab. Some businesses list names of people who work there, and you can browse through the list to see if you can find the recruiter for your position or relevant department.

Find Recruiters on LinkedIn

Some companies have such big teams that each department has its own recruiter or hiring manager. LinkedIn can come in handy here, as you can use the “People” tab to search for keywords like “hiring manager + department you’re applying to,” or “department you’re applying to + recruiter” to figure out who the direct responsible individual is for different departments. 

Find Recruiters on Twitter

Twitter is also a great social media tool for identifying recruiters or hiring managers. You can search through keywords related to the business you’re hoping to work for and browse through profiles to see what you can find. Most professionals using Twitter have some description of their job position in their bio, so you should be able to identify them when you see them. 

You can also search on Twitter for the position title you’re applying for to see if a recruiter has Tweeted a link on their profile. 

If you’ve done all your research and you can’t find a hiring manager to address your letter to, and you weren’t given a name in the application process, there are still some alternatives:

1. Dear Hiring Manager
2. Dear [name of team or department you’re applying for a position in]
3. Dear [position title] Hiring Manager
4. Dear Human Resources Manager

To Whom It May Concern is an often recommended option, but most would say that you shy away from it as it is considered a more outdated and less personalized greeting than others on this list. It would be safe to consider using it as a last resort option.

At the end of the day, when writing your cover letter, your ultimate goal is to make a good impression. If you’re able to find the name of the recruiter or hiring manager, use their name, but if not, any of the recommended greetings in this post will do.