Category Archives: B2B

Project charters provide a guiding light for any new initiative. So, whether you work as a project manager or operations professional, you’ll need to become a pro at writing these documents.

Besides providing you with the authorization to begin projects, project charters help you sell your project’s viability to stakeholders. This document will also help get your entire team on board with your plans and deadlines.

In this guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know about project charters. We’ll cover:

• What is a project charter?
• The Benefits of Creating Project Charters
• How to Write a Project Charter
• The Anatomy of a Project Charter
• Project Charter Examples
• Mistakes to Avoid When Creating a Project Charter

The Benefits of Creating Project Charters

“The project charter is such an important document that a project cannot be started without one,” says Rita Mulcahy, a renowned project manager, trainer, and author. This document can keep your team on track to achieve your project objectives on deadline.

Here are other benefits of creating a well-written project charter:

• You’ll decide on a project budget.
• You can define the project outcome.
• You’ll avoid scope creep and meet your deadlines.
• You can get stakeholders’ buy-in for your project.
• You can set the expected start and end dates of the project.
• You can clearly explain how your project goals align with organizational objectives.

Next, we’ll explore best practices for writing a project charter.

How to Write a Project Charter

When writing your project management charter, it’s important to get it right from the onset. “You shouldn’t change a project charter after its approval,” says Mary Beth Imbarrato, author of The Project Roadmap. Last-minute changes can make stakeholders question the project’s feasibility.

This step-by-step guide will help you write a great project charter from the get-go.

1. Gather insights from your project team.

Talking to your team members is essential when creating project charters. Your colleagues can help you set realistic project timelines. They can also help you uncover the goals, scope, and risk mitigation plans for the project.

“You should set aside time for your team members to discuss the project, how they want to approach it, and what’s their current bandwidth,” says Will Yang, Head of Growth at Instrumentl. “Doing this ensures your project team is on the same page.”

2. Store the charter in a central location.

To foster collaboration, store your project charter in a central hub so team members can comment on and edit it.

This gives everyone a sense of ownership of the project. Programs like Google Drive and Dropbox offer co-editing capabilities.

3. Keep the project charter brief.

You may be tempted to capture every detail in your project charter. But remember: You should go in-depth in your project planning document, not in the project charter.

“Stakeholders won’t have the time to read a verbose 15 pages charter because they have other priorities,” advises Konstandinos Christofakis, head of marketing at ULTATEL. “That’s why charters should be a high-level overview of projects, remain short enough to be useful, and long enough to be valuable.”

If information is digestible, the chances of project approval rise, according to Christofakis.

4. Add visuals to your charter.

Using images or design elements can help improve the readability of your project charter and keep your document brief.

For instance, if you want to outline a lengthy communication plan or milestone in your charter, a Gantt chart can help. These charts also stand out in the project charter, allowing team members to reference them easily.

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5. Create a project charter template.

Have you written a project charter in the past? Or perhaps the document you just completed is a masterpiece. Turn these documents into templates that you can use in the future.

Having a template for your project management charter helps you save time and maintain consistency in the future. This approach to project charters also ensures you don’t skip important elements in your document.

Pro tip: If you don’t already have a template, you can browse options online. HubSpot offers a free project charter template that you can download at any time.

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Now that you know the basics of creating project management charters, let’s go over the anatomy of a project charter.

The Anatomy of a Project Management Charter

After developing a project charter, project managers send them to the project sponsor to get approval. A sponsor may include the government, individual financier, or top management of the organization executing the project.

Here are the elements your project charter needs to get approval from sponsors.

1. Project Objective

The project objective is the high-level reason for undertaking the project. Tying objectives to your company goals is a brilliant way to pique stakeholders’ interest in your project.

Pro tip: Use the SMART framework to make your goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

2. Project Overview

Your project overview goes into greater detail about the timeline and ownership of a project. This section outlines details like the project name, project sponsor, project Manager, expected start and completion dates, and estimated budget.

Pro tip: Add a table to your project overview. This makes information skimmable and easy to find.

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3. Project Deliverables

This is a list of the services or products the project team will provide to stakeholders. Be clear on what your team is delivering to avoid any disagreements that’ll make you extend your deadline.

4. Project Scope

The project scope explains the boundaries of the project. While PMs typically write detailed project scopes, keeping it brief in the project charter is a best practice. Why? You can create a detailed scope statement in the project planning phase.

5. Project Stakeholders

This is a list of the names and responsibilities of the parties involved with a project. Stating who’s responsible for different tasks holds your team members accountable.

6. Project Risks

Outlining the risks to a project will help you identify blockers to the success of your project and their potential impact. Doing this enables you to devise risk mitigation strategies.

Pro tip: Create a table of potential risks. Be sure to explain why the risk poses a threat to your project and the mitigation strategies you plan to enact.

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7. Project Resources

Always create a list of resources your project will need. And that’s not just money. Your resources should include team members, facilities, equipment, and other essential items which are critical to the success of your project. This helps you account for everything you need to take the project to the finish line.

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Project Charter Examples

1. Project Management Charter for Lean Six Sigma

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This sample project charter follows the Lean Six Sigma format, one methodology for project management. Teams that already use this framework may opt to structure their project charter in this way.

What we like: The Lean Six Sigma project charter offers a clear scope of work. Project goals also follow the SMART framework, making how the project will benefit the company extremely clear.

Project charter limitations: While this charter outlines key information, including the project goal and problem statement, some key information is missing. The process owner didn’t state the project costs or risks. If you emulate this format, be sure to include this information.

2. Project Management Charter for Website Redesign

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In this project charter, the University of Guelph explores exactly what its web team must do to redesign the school’s library website. That includes all of the necessary stakeholders and who’s owning the project.

What we like: This project has a well-defined scope and timeline. Sponsors know exactly who is working on what and when.

Project charter limitations: While this project explores the risks associated with the project, mitigation plans would improve this section of the document.

Mistakes to Avoid When Creating Project Management Charters

1. Missing a Clear Purpose Statement

Every project should have a clear goal and purpose. But sometimes, the primary objective becomes unclear. To combat this, apply the illusory truth effect, which states the use of repeated information increases understanding.

Lauren Carter, principal consultant at Lauren Ashley Consulting, says she uses this strategy to help her team remember the purpose of projects. In Lauren’s words:

“Project members often lose the ‘North Star’ in the thick of the work. One effective way I prevent this is by having a clear purpose statement in the charter, which I repeat in several ways throughout the project’s lifecycle.”

“This can be as a header on project documents, putting it at the top of timelines or charts, or using it as a metric against which you evaluate planned and unplanned activities that arise.”

2. Creating a Charter Mid-project

Project charters should kick off your initiative. Writing this document halfway through can lead to scope creep, ill-defined responsibilities, and confusion.

“Changing the project charter after initiation and planning means you’ll have to review any work you’ve completed and even rework some completed tasks,” says Mary Beth Imbarrato, a 25-year veteran in the project management industry.

She adds, “This can lead to delays, elevated costs, and create more project risks.”

Mary Beth also says changes to the charter may impact how team members view a project. The result? Reduced commitment and engagement.

The bottom line: Creating the charter before starting the project will help you avoid scope creep, prevent wasted time by redoing work, and keep extra risks to your project at bay.

3. Ignoring Your Company’s Project Charter Template

Using existing project charters as templates can save you time and ensure consistency.

Instead of creating new charters from scratch, request a sample of a completed charter document the company liked and use it as your template. This template will help you understand how your organization prefers to present ideas, allowing you to follow suit and begin projects on the right foot.

Start New Project Without Missteps

A well-thought-out charter is a roadmap for achieving your project objectives in record time.

Get started by gathering input from your team and creating a project charter that will get the green light from stakeholders.

Instagram is a powerful social media platform to help increase brand reach and drive new business, but it can be time-consuming and expensive to consistently share content you need to see your engagement grow in the long-term — which is why you should learn how to repost on Instagram.

In this post, we’ll show you different free ways to repost on Instagram in a few simple steps. But before diving in, let’s discuss why reposting on Instagram can benefit your brand.

Why should your brand repost on Instagram?

Instagram is one of the largest social media sites on the market. With over one billion monthly active users, brands that incorporate the site into marketing strategy can reach larger audiences and gain visibility faster over other social media channels.

And with an audience like that, you want to consistently post high-quality content — but that can take time, effort, and resources that may not fit your budget just yet. Since most marketers post between 3-4 times per week, you should have a backlog of content to keep up with demand. 

Additionally, user-generated content (UGC) performs exceptionally well. In fact, 90% of consumers say UGC holds more influence over their buying decisions than promotional emails and even search engine results.

For instance, consider the power of Warby Parker reposting this funny image from one of its customers, @cjronson:

Not only does the image likely appeal to Warby Parker customers, but it ultimately made Warby Parker marketers’ jobs easier — they didn’t need to create that content in-house.

Reposting to Instagram can help you highlight brand endorsements from your customers, brand loyalists, and employees. UGC is typically considered more trustworthy since a consumer isn’t gaining anything by promoting your product or service (unless it’s an advertisement) — they’re just doing it to tell their audiences that they like your product. 

How to Repost on Instagram

Instagram allows you to repost other users’ Reels and posts to your own Instagram Story using its native reposting functionality. However, it has its limits: It doesn’t let you repost to any permanent part of your Instagram profile, including your feed, Reels, or videos.

In other words, Instagram only lets you temporarily share someone else’s content for 24 hours max. If you do want to keep it permanently, you can add it to an Instagram Story Highlight.

If you’re looking to add a post to your permanent feed and credit the original creator, read about how to do that in the next sections. For now, let’s learn how you can repost content to your Story and add it to your highlights.

1. Navigate to the post, Reel, or video you want to repost.

First, find the right content to share with your followers. You can do this through several avenues:

• Search for industry hashtags and repost popular posts by other brands and influencers
• Search for branded hashtags, which will show you user-generated content made by your customers and fans
• See the posts you’ve been tagged in and repost any that align with your brand
• Find brands that you admire and repost the content that most aligns with your brand

Remember that you can only repost content from users and brands with public profiles.

Note: You can also repost other people’s Stories, so long as you’re tagged in them. You can find those who’ve mentioned you in their Story in your Direct Messages.

2. Click the paper airplane symbol on the post or Reel.

On photos and videos, the button will be located next to the Like and Comment buttons.

On Reels, it will be located between the Comment button and the three dots.

3. On the pop-up menu, click “Add post to your story.”

A pop-up will appear with several options. If you’re sharing a post, you have the option to add it to your story, reply to the poster (if they allow replies), or send the post via Direct Message to anyone you’ve messaged recently.

Similar options appear when you try to share a Reel.

Click Add post to your story or Add reel to your story.

4. Tap to show and hide the post’s caption.

Next, you should see a draft of your story.

You have the option of either showing or hiding the caption. Simply tap the post to toggle between the two.

5. Add text, stickers, hashtags, and other elements.

To get the most engagement possible and align the repost with your brand, spruce up the story with text and other elements. You can even add a link or a call-to-action. Learn how to customize your Instagram Story here.

6. To share, click “Your Story.”

It’s time to finish your repost. At the bottom, click the button that says “Your Story” at the bottom. This will automatically share it with no additional action required.

You also have the option to click “Close Friends”, if you only want a select group to view your story. Last, if you click the right-hand arrow, you’ll see additional options to share the post via DM or with your close friends.

7. Add the shared post to your Highlights.

While Instagram doesn’t allow you to share posts directly to your permanent feed, you can add it to one of your Highlights, which will remain permanently on your profile. Learn how to create Highlights here.

Here’s one example from a stationer called MARK+FOLD:

With Stories, the same best practices should be followed as for sharing a post. If you don’t know the person and suspect the content you’d like to re-share might be licensed material, ask for permission first. Give credit to the original posters whenever possible.

The screenshot method doesn’t require other websites to repost on Instagram. It’s worth nothing that this method only works for reposting photos, not videos.

Here’s how to do it.

1. Find a photo on Instagram you’d like to repost, and take a screenshot with your phone.

• For iOS: Press down on the home and lock buttons simultaneously until your screen flashes.
• For Android: Press down on the sleep/wake and volume down buttons simultaneously until your screen flashes.

2. Tap the new post button.

Once you’ve got your screenshot, return to your Instagram account. Tap the “new post button” in the top right of your Instagram screen (the plus sign inside a square).

Then select “Post” (other options include “Story” “Reels” or “Live”).

3. Resize the photo in the app.

Keep in mind that your phone will take a screenshot of everything on your screen, not just the photo you want to repost. So, be prepared to crop the sides of the screenshot to capture just the image you want to share with your followers.

After you’ve cropped or resized the photo to your liking (by pinching the image and then widening your fingers apart), click “Next” in the top-right of your screen.

4. Edit and add filters of your choice.

Edit and filter the post like you would any other Instagram post.

5. Add a citation.

The repost won’t include a citation, so we suggest adding one by typing “@ + [username]” to credit the original poster with the photo you’re reposting.

6. Add a caption.

At the top you’ll see a preview of your post along with space for a caption. You can choose to tag people or organizations, and add a location.

7. Click share.

Once you’ve finished customizing the post with the options above, click share at the top right corner. The post will be live.

Here’s how the finished product looks:

Pro Tip: When reposting content through screenshots, make sure you properly tag or give credit to the original content owner either within your story by linking to their account, or in the description of a post or reel.

Best Apps for Reposting on Instagram

1. Repost: Posts, Stories, Reels

Price: Free with in-app purchases

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For Instagram for iOS or Android. The app integrates directly with Instagram so you can share content from other Instagram users from your mobile device.

If your brand’s Instagram profile follows a distinct brand style guide, Repost can help you customize your reposts to adhere to those guidelines. Users can pick from 50+ different text styles and symbol art to create eye-catching captions to capture more attention.

2. Reposta

Price: Free

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For Instagram for iOS or Android. Reposta for Instagram is a straightforward way to repost your favorite photos and videos on Instagram while giving credit to the original poster.

When you find something you want to repost in Instagram, simply copy the share URL and open Reposta. Then in Reposta, you can position the attribution mark and send the reposted media back to Instagram.

3. DownloadGram

Price: Free

DownloadGram lets social media users download high-resolution copies of content to repost from their own accounts on channels like Instagram and Twitter. 

There’s no app you need to download to repost using this process, instead you can copy and paste the URL to download video, photos, reels or stories to repost via PC.

Share Your Favorite Instagram Posts

Now that you’ve learned how to repost on Instagram, you can diversify your profile with content sourced from friends, family, and brands. Use the methods above — being sure to cite the source of the original post — to quickly and easily reshare your favorite content.

This article was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Big data for small business may sound like an oxymoron, but big data is just as necessary for small businesses as it is for large corporations. By leveraging big data for your small business, you can discover meaningful insights that put you a step ahead of the competition.

Big data drives revenue because it delivers deep insights into customer behavior. Then, you use those insights to deliver value based on their needs. 

Big data can help you make smarter, faster decisions. Read on to learn more about how to leverage it within your small business.

Big data comes in a few types:

• Structured. Structured data is housed within a traditional database like a spreadsheet or SQL database. An example of structured data is a spreadsheet or log of all your customers’ page visits and dates of recent purchases.

• Unstructured. Unstructured data is found within non-traditional databases such as email, social media posts, texts, and videos. An example is all the tweets on Twitter that mention your brand name. Unstructured data is by far the most abundant type of big data.

• Semi-structured. Semi-structured data is not formatted in a traditional relational database format. Instead, it’s organized to an extent with a certain schema that makes it easier to analyze than unstructured data. An example of semi-structured data is HTML code. 

To quote the famous computer programmer, Daniel Keys Moran: “You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data.”

Big data isn’t perfect, but it’s one of the most powerful weapons in any marketer’s arsenal. Leverage big data in your small business, and you can move more customers through your sales and marketing funnels. It’s as simple as that.

Here are some eye-watering facts about big data:

• Big data could add more than4.4 million jobs to the American economy over the next two years.

• Humans generate 2.5 quintillion data bytes every 24 hours.

• Google processes more than 40,000 search queries every single second. That’s 3.5 billion searches a day, or 1.2 trillion a year.

The Benefits of Big Data For Small Businesses

It’s important to note that big data on its own won’t do much for your organization. However, the right technology systematically extracts large data sets from various sources so you can find patterns, trends, and correlations in this data.

The best analytics tools provide you with deeper insights into your business operations and replace many of the manual methods associated with data analysis.

Read on for some of the main benefits of using big data in your small business.

1. Cuts Costs

Big data can have a significant impact on cost-cutting in your organization by identifying expensive processes and redundant workflows.

With the latest data, you can find areas of your business to scale up or down. This can have long-term financial benefits.

2. Improve Customer Service

Big data drives better customer service. With real-time insights into your customer base, you can discover how consumers think and behave. After you have this information, you can make changes to your business as a result.

Personalized customer service derived from big data analytics will help you engage with customers on a deeper level and provide customized service that drives sales.

“Big data is poised to help marketers reach and engage customers and prospects in ways that businesses are only now starting to understand,” says business journalist Allen Bernard, writing for CIO.com. “Enterprises that don’t embrace analytics may soon see embattled customers voting with their wallets.”

Customer service is more important than ever, and more small businesses are using big data to retain consumers. Why? Just a 5% increase in customer retention generates more than 25% of profit increases.

3. Identify (and Solve) Problems

With big data, you can finally answer all those nagging questions: wWhy do customers abandon their carts? When are customers likely to make a purchase?
Data analytics tools can give valuable insights into customer behavior as they move through your funnels.

Although data analysis isn’t an exact science, it provides you with the tools you need to solve a wide range of complex problems.

As well as tracking customers, you can solve issues associated with suppliers, investors, and other clients. With real-time reports, you get a 360-degree overview of your business, and you can make smarter decisions going forward.

4. Increase Revenue

Big data increases revenue in various ways. Analytics provide you with in-depth intelligence into the customer lifecycle, and you can identify new ways to encourage sales.

Good data might give you the confidence you need to launch a new product or diversify your business, and this could prove lucrative.

On average, companies that incorporate big data into their business generate a profit increase of 8%. Do the same, and it could be the best investment you make in your small business this year.

“Most people used to think that big data was only for big business. But, as time goes on, it is clear that this technology is for everyone,” says Entrepreneur.

5. Team Management

Big data also makes it easier to manage the team in your small business. You can identify employees that provide you with the most value, for example, or employees who require additional resources or training.

This is because analytics systems generate insights that help you increase productivity and keep employees happy.

“The value that big data brings to managing employees is in identifying and analyzing the relationship between engagement and retention,” says employee engagement website Hppy. “How and why people are engaging with what they do, how does that translate into the business metrics, and what you can improve to retain them.”

Combined with a great team culture that inspires engagement, the tech stack you use can make all the difference when it comes to managing your team. 

With an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS), you can connect your cloud-based apps for enriched data and the broadest range of insights.

How Small Businesses can Leverage Big Data

Remember: Big data is only one slice of the pie. You need to analyze that data and use the findings to make informed business decisions that move the needle and delight your customers.

So, how can your small business leverage big data for the best results? Here are some examples.

1. Improve your pricing decisions.

You can use big data to make informed decisions on the price of your products and services. If the price of your product is too high, customers will look elsewhere for a better deal, and you’ll get fewer sales.

Using big data, you could compile the prices of a huge amount of items and their prices from competitors. After, you can analyze that data to arrive at an ideal price that is both competitive and lucrative.

Pro tip: Using big data to inform pricing choices can be helpful for most businesses. However, we think the opportunity is greatest for small businesses that sell physical products and have many competitors who sell similar products. 

2. Personalize the experience. 

While streaming platforms are large enterprises, their use of big data acts as a helpful case study. These companies compile data on when their customers watch, how long they watch, what types of content they view, and whether or not they paused. 

Any type of data you can think of related gets collected, analyzed, and used to serve up a highly personalized customer experience.

What we like: Streaming companies have mastered the personalized customer experience. Customers highly value frictionless and positive interactions with businesses. Big data can help your small business personalize communications with customers and delight them.

3. Stay agile.

The advantage small businesses have over the big guys is their ability to be nimble, fail quickly, and iterate on ideas with ease. This applies to big data as well. 

A small business has the opportunity to adopt a data-driven strategy quickly, or even from the very beginning. Consider taking a big data approach within your organization and embracing learning from any growing pains. You can always right the ship later.

4. Use your CRM intelligently.

You probably already use a CRM to manage your customer information, but you’re not necessarily getting the best results from the data inside it.

Before diving into other analytics tools, fully explore the data you already have in your CRM. Here are some valuable questions to ask as you do so.

• What do we know about the people we serve?

• How can we leverage this data to deliver the most value?

• How can we use this data to provide a more personalized experience?

• What automation and new processes can we power with this data?

5. Explore other analytics solutions.

A CRM can only tell you so much about your prospects and customers. With big data analytics solutions, however, you can analyze all the data inside your CRM (and other programs in your tech stack) and find patterns in all this data.

G2 Crowd shortlists some of the best big data solutions on the market, including Azure Databricks and Splunk.

However, if you want a more accessible data strategy, start with the apps you already have, look into your platform, and enrich what you know about your contacts.

Remember: Big data software needs to be user-friendly and flexible enough for everyone on your team who manages data. It also needs to be tailored to your budget and requirements. As a small business, you likely won’t benefit from a data program designed for the world’s biggest multinationals.

6. Integrate your data.

Any data solution is only as good as the data it uses. Out-of-date and inconsistent information won’t provide you with any useful insights. You need to make sure your data is synced and integrated.

By deploying an integration solution, you can keep your contact database consistent between apps. You can sync contacts in real time and streamline contact management.

7. Create insightful reporting.

Once you have interesting data at your fingertips, you need a way to visualize it. With clear reporting, you can easily make deductions and share your insights with other team members and stakeholders.

Act on Your Data

Once you have useful data in your business, what can you do with it? The short answer: automation, personalization, and customization.

Here are some of the most impactful ways to take advantage of big data as a small business:

• Personalize your emails.

• Segment your email lists.

• Use SEO research to influence your content strategy.

• Send the most relevant content to a prospect based on their preferences.

• Trigger internal workflows based on customer actions to provide the best service.

• Create A/B tests for emails and automatically send the best content.

• Automatically organize contacts into the most relevant groups and lists in your CRM.

Big data can benefit your business in various ways, from increased sales to better team management. However, you need to leverage all this data properly to grow your small business to its full potential.

Regardless of the big data processes and tools you choose, it’s important to keep your contact database up to date. Otherwise, you’ll be limited in the results you can get from your customer data.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

 

Staying productive is a goal many of us have, but finding a strategy that works can be challenging. We can also have certain periods where staying focused isn’t an issue, but others where it can feel impossible to stay on task.

This is why reading about productivity is helpful, especially when the content helps you develop your own tactics for dealing with it. Read on to discover a list of productivity blogs featuring high-quality information and strategies you can adopt to get over the productivity hump.

Top Productivity Blogs

1. HubSpot Blog

The HubSpot Blog features various articles on productivity, from tips from experts on their own best practices to lists of tools that can help you be more productive. You can also download a free productivity guide that will help you learn more about productivity and even prioritize your tasks and projects.

Recommended Read: 5 Surprising Research-Backed Tips That Will Boost Your Team’s Productivity

2. Ali Abdaal

Ali Abdaal uses his experience as a doctor and studying for school to write his blog, The Ultimate Guide to Productivity. In his posts, he talks about what it means to be productive and how people can achieve their versions of productivity with the tools they already have.

Recommended Read: The 2-minute productivity rule

3. Thrive Global

Entrepreneur Arianna Huffington is the founder of Thrive Global, a site that features productivity solutions that reference technology, science, and behavioral psychology.

Recommended Read: 5 tips on how to be a multi-passionate and fulfilled creator

4. Study Hacks Blog

Cal Newport, a computer science professor and bestselling author, is the writer behind Study Hacks Blog, where readers can learn how to achieve their productivity goals and use digital tools to enrich their processes instead of letting them get in the way.

Recommended Read: Professio sano in vitam sanam (on balancing work and life)

5. Work in Progress

Work in Progress’s Work Culture section regularly features helpful interviews with experts and productivity discussions to help you learn more about what it looks like and how to tackle it yourself. You’ll even find unique articles like how to distance yourself from the 24/7, always-on culture while still achieving your personal goals.

Recommended Read: Hobbies are the Antidote to Hustle Cutlure that we need

6. Zen Habits

Leo Babuta, the founder of Zen Habits blog, says the site is a resource for finding simplicity and mindfulness in what can sometimes be chaos. The blog has over a million readers who visit to learn about clearing the clutter, prioritizing their interests and happiness, and staying productive and on task.

Recommended Read: Top 30 Tips for Staying Productive and Sane While Working From Home

7. Boss Babe

Boss Babe is an online community for ambitious women to get the resources they need to grow their entrepreneurial careers and achieve success. It offers online courses and programs to build skills, and its website also houses a high-quality blog with productivity advice relevant to everyone.

Recommended Read: Slow Seasons in Business Can Be Your Most Productive – Here’s What to Do Now

8. Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey says he spent an entire year consuming everything productivity-related that he could, from reading books, interviewing experts, and sifting through journal articles, to even conducting his own experiments on productivity. He now uses his learnings to write articles about productivity to help readers develop their sense of productiveness and become more intentional in their processes.

Recommended Read: There Are 2 Types of Busyness

9. See Girl Work

See Girl Work is a Black-owned creative agency with content and strategy outputs that make an impact. It also has a blog that features all types of business-related content for people to learn from and a section specifically dedicated to productivity.

Recommended Read: How to Make a Great To-Do List (That Works)

10. Freedom.to

Freedom.to is a digital tool that allows you to select specific apps and notifications to block to get work done and maximize your productivity. It also has a high-quality blog filled with helpful learning about productivity that will help you maximize your potential and learn more about your needs.

Recommended Read: Am I A Workaholic? A Guide To Finding Balance

11. 99U

99U is a career resource from Adobe that helps people build their skill sets and bring ideas to life. Its blog features inspirational stories about creators and their businesses and helpful information on finding your preferred work-life balance and being productive.

Recommended Read: Is Impostor Syndrome Blocking Your Creative Potential?

12. Asian Efficiency

Asian Efficiency is a blog that features learning resources about productivity and productivity methodologies that can benefit anyone looking to familiarize themselves with the topic and develop their notions of productivity.

Recommended Read: How The 25X Productivity System Got Invented

13. The Marginalian

The Marginalian features articles about lifestyle and achieving one’s goals, often through connections to science and history. It’s a valuable resource for those looking to learn more about productivity and how it can factor into global affairs.

Recommended Read: The Science of Stress

14. James Clear

James Clear has been writing about productivity and healthy habits since 2021. He’s also the author of Atomic Habits, a #1 New York Times bestseller that has sold more than 9 million copies worldwide. On his blog, he writes informative articles about productivity centered around the question “How can we live better?” where he references insights from various fields, interviews with experts, and science-based strategies to improve productivity.

Recommended Read: How to Create a Chain Reaction of Good Habits,

15. The Middle Finger Project

With her book The Middle Finger Project, Ash Ambirge started a movement centered around “having the nerve to enter any damn room you want,” empowering people to take opportunities and build the path they want. The Middle Finger Project blog features articles about life and entrepreneurship, many of which focus on different aspects of productivity.

Recommended Read: U.S. Concept of Time & Why It’s Preventing You From Finding Your Passions

Over to You

Visit some of the blogs on this list, read the recommended post, and see if the advice fits your needs. The right insight will resonate and inspire you to begin creating your strategy for being productive, which will help you meet your goals.

When proposing potential ads at your startup, one of the first questions you’ll likely encounter is, “How much will this cost?” If you’ve prepared a killer startup marketing budget, you will be well-equipped to help executives understand and buy into your vision.

A marketing budget should detail how much you’ll spend on paid advertising, fit into your overall strategy, and prove a worthy expenditure based on revenue earned.

In a world where 82% of startups fail from cash flow problems, the stakes are higher for these new businesses. Startups often face limited resources and smaller budgets, making it difficult to stake claim to a marketing budget.

This post covers how to determine what your marketing budget should be and what it needs to include.

Table of Contents

• Marketing Costs for a Startup
• Startup Marketing Budget Considerations
• Tips for Writing a Startup Marketing Budget
• How to Write a Startup Marketing Budget

Marketing Costs for a Startup

When your company is new, determining an initial marketing budget can be confusing. In some cases, budget decisions are top-down, inspired by competitors, or made by setting a goal.

If this isn’t the case for your startup’s operations, focus first on what will bring in the most revenue. Revenue determines what your marketing budget should be and where funds should be allocated.

The money gained from your gross revenue should fund your marketing budget. So, how much of your gross revenue will you need? The average marketing budget for startups should be 11.2% of overall revenue. This percentage gives marketers enough resources to build brand awareness and start attracting leads.

If you’re starting your budget from scratch, consider using a marketing budget template to outline your phase one marketing activities and costs.

Download Free Marketing Budget Templates

To identify your gross revenue, calculate your total number of sales/increases.

If you don’t have a gross revenue estimate yet, determine how much you are projecting to make and use those numbers as benchmarks. Explore tools to help you estimate your gross revenue, like this online calculator from the Small Business Association.

Now that you understand the first step to making a budget, explore other potential needs you may have.

Startup Marketing Budget Considerations

So, what do you need to include in your budget?

Once you have money earmarked, you can begin breaking down the costs. Think of what costs naturally occur in your day-to-day and what resources you’ll need to make your marketing happen.

You can put this information in a spreadsheet or template, like these free marketing offerings from HubSpot.There are no real rules with budget design, as long as it’s comprehensible and detailed enough to be useful.

Remember to consider the following expenses, such as:

• Technology. When you are creating campaigns, factor in the technology you need to use, such as software to build a product page or manage a drip program. There are lots of marketing tools at different price points (and even free software), so be sure to write out what software you’ll need to buy. Check out this blog to determine which products fit your budget.
• Research. If you haven’t yet discovered your target audience, you may need to invest in market research. Read the section “How to Write a Startup Marketing Budget” below for more info on market research.
• Automation. Services that automate marketing processes can make your life much easier. They can also be advantageous to startups that don’t have the resources to spend money on extra hands to complete projects.
• Production. If you need content pieces, product or advertisement videos, or pictures, you will want to budget for these items as well. Instead of paying for multiple different services, you could hire freelancers to fill these roles.
• Paid advertising. Are you planning to run ads on TV, radio, or online? This is the category where you factor in those costs. It’s easy for paid advertising to add up, with some startups spending as much as 20% of their yearly budget on advertising alone. Remember, you can estimate the cost of paid ads. Take a look at our advertising guide to explore prices on anything from PPC ads to social media ads.
• Branding. Assets that build a first impression directly impact your branding. This might include business cards, billboards, swag, and signs.
• Content marketing. Decide how much you’re going to allocate to deliverable content. Consider automation services, likeHubSpotorSprout Social, and content ideas you can produce organically for free.
• Traditional advertising. If applicable to your business, make traditional advertising a line item. Paid advertising usually occurs online, but traditional advertising refers to advertisements such as print and billboards.
• New employees. If you plan on growing your team with full-time or part-time staff, you will likely need to include their costs in your marketing budget.
• Unexpected costs. Expect the unexpected when figuring out your budget. Plan for devices to break or campaigns to take longer than you think they will, generating higher costs.

Working from your business goals helps you make guided budgeting decisions. For example, if your company’s goal is to increase brand awareness, you’ll probably want to devote most of your budget to branding, content marketing, and paid advertising.

Remember that you can play around with free methods for most of these costs. For example, if you are certain that automated software will help your startup, explore free trials or free services that you can use to determine what’s worth the cost.

Tips for Writing a Startup Marketing Budget

Before writing your startup marketing budget, consider the following tips.

1. Check that investments are worthwhile.

Startups have limited resources and need quick wins. Your first goal should always be to get leads for sales. Before committing to an expenditure, ask yourself, “How does this empower sales?” If the answer isn’t obvious, it’s likely not worth the money.

2. Do competitor research.

Check out your main competitors’ websites and blogs. What articles are they writing about? What keywords are they targeting? And, ultimately, how can you improve upon their strategy?

Remember that SEO is a long game, and you likely won’t see immediate wins. However, you should optimize your articles from the beginning to create the right SEO foundation.

3. Understand your customer’s journey.

There’s a reason why your customers chose you. Understanding their buyers’ journeys is valuable information. This knowledge can help you determine which channels are effective and worth budgeting for.

4. Prepare to report on your ROI (return on investment).

You will be accountable for how your marketing budget is spent. Make sure you keep track of the leads you gather and the revenue that can be attributed to marketing.

When you need to report your ROI at the end of the year, you’ll already have data at your fingertips.

5. Review your marketing budget yearly.

Between inflation and economic changes, your budget will almost certainly need an annual review.

In fact, 48% of marketers predict their budget will increase in 2023, according to HubSpot Research. Whether your budget grows or shrinks, you should be ready to make adjustments.

How to Write a Startup Marketing Budget

As a marketing leader, you must set a budget and determine how the money will be spent. This step-by-step guide shares how you can write a clear, concise marketing budget for your startup.

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1. Calculate your revenue, and determine your budget.

Remember, startups typically need to allocate 11% of their revenue(before taxes) to marketing in order to grow. So deciding your budget is as easy as determining 11 percent of your gross revenue, right?

Maybe, but your marketing budget likely needs executive approval. Plus, you’ll want to back up your budgetary decisions with statistics and a solid plan.

Once you’ve identified your overall plan, you can get a ballpark budget estimate. As a guide, think about your business and campaign goals. From those goals, choose the areas you want to invest the most in.

2. Conduct market research.

Thoughtful research can determine which of your products have the best potential for paid marketing campaigns. You’ll also find out which channels attract the most leads.

Remember: Conducting market research might cost you money and require a spot in your budget. This is especially true if you need to incentivize customers to participate with gift cards or promotions.

3. Work with product and sales to identify campaigns.

Your startup sales and product teams have valuable insight into which products need marketing’s special attention. Work closely with these teams to identify which campaigns you want to roll out during the year.

4. Create a marketing calendar.

Assign marketing campaigns potential dates and costs, spreading them out throughout the year, so you don’t use your budget all at once. Once you’ve created a potential calendar, it’s time to get your startup marketing budget approved.

5. Get executive buy-in.

By this point, you should have a solid marketing budget outline. Your marketing budget will likely need explaining and persuasive reasoning.

Make sure you communicate the strategy behind every cost. Finally, be sure to highlight exciting opportunities and how they play into your budget decisions.

Getting Started

A clear marketing budget can help you grow your startup business. By keeping track of expenses and allocating funds towards essential needs, you can reach your campaign goals.

Having a marketing budget can also ensure you have the freedom you need to make decisions without having to run every idea past executives.

Be sure to leverage the passion your startup company has for its product to make marketing a successful and exciting endeavor.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Think about a time when you were on the train, sitting in the airport, or simply lying on the couch, and you had to complete an online form on your smartphone. Did you ever pay attention to the mobile form design?

Chances are you haven’t noticed. That’s the goal — to give users an intuitive experience that gets them to seamlessly fill up the form and continue with their day.

In this guide, we’ll review the most effective ways to do just that. Here, you’ll learn how to design mobile forms that are not clunky or misaligned, but that help boost conversions and create a great user experience.

Table of Contents

• What is mobile form design?
• Mobile vs. Desktop Form Design
• Mobile Form Design: 11 UX Guidelines

Mobile vs. Desktop Form Design

Today, your website visitors aren’t just browsing your site, viewing your content, and completing your forms from their desktop computers. They’re also completing these tasks from their mobile devices.

Mobile was responsible for nearly 60% of global website traffic from April to June 2022. That means it’s critical for your form to be simple to review, complete, and submit via a mobile device.

Why is mobile form design important?

The best mobile form design allows for a positive user experience, which ensures a happy website visitor who’s more likely to convert to a customer and become a returning user.

The design, layout, and functionality of your mobile forms play a large part in your website’s overall user experience.

If your forms aren’t mobile-friendly, you may experience fewer conversions, a loss in mobile site traffic, and an increase in unhappy and frustrated customers. And who wants that?

Why should mobile form design differ from desktop design?

“Everything works differently on mobile, so marketers need to make sure any elements of their websites are always optimized for mobile,” says Lilach Bullock, an award-winning marketing influencer and strategist.

“And that, of course, includes forms — especially since it feels like you constantly have to complete forms while on mobile.”

Specifically, think about the difference in the display or screen size between a mobile device, such as an Apple iPhone, which typically ranges from 4.7″ to 6.7″ in size; and a Mac laptop or desktop, which typically ranges from 13” to 24” in size. It’s safe to assume a form that fits an iPhone screen wouldn’t fit a desktop screen perfectly.

If your mobile visitors cannot easily read, complete, and submit your form, you may lose their business. So creating a mobile-friendly form that fits the screen of any mobile device is crucial to creating a great user experience in order to leave a lasting impression on your visitors and help you boost conversions.

What is responsive web design?

If you want to take mobile form design a step further and ensure your entire website is functional on all types of devices, you can implement a responsive website design.

Responsive web design takes into consideration the user’s screen size, platform, orientation, and environment. This is a simple and effective way to create a great user experience since so many people are constantly visiting and browsing different websites on various devices.

There are several ways you can make sure your site has a responsive design. For example, if you’re a WordPress user, there are several responsive WordPress themes that you can install and use to design your site.

Additionally, if you’re building, or have built, your site with software such as Squarespace, your site may automatically come with responsive web design.

Today, responsive web design is a popular choice for businesses due to the sheer number of people visiting websites via a variety of different mobile devices. But for now, let’s get back to discussing mobile form design.

Mobile Form Design: 11 UX Guidelines

“When designing your mobile forms,” explains Bullock, “it’s important to keep things simple and make them as quick as possible. [Forms] are more difficult to complete on mobile and everything feels like it takes longer than it should.”

In other words, the most important thing is simplicity for the end-user. When creating a mobile-friendly form, there are some steps you’ll want to take to provide the best user experience possible for your visitors. Let’s review 11 of these mobile form design best practices that you can begin implementing today.

1. Minimize the number of form fields.

Ever heard the saying, “less is more”? Well, that’s precisely what you should be thinking while creating your mobile form.

Between the size of a mobile device’s screen and the amount of content you need to place in your form, it’s easy to accidentally make your form feel cluttered. Remember to remove unnecessary fluff. Only keep the form fields for information that you absolutely need.

To streamline the process, you’ll also want to label your form fields clearly and succinctly, and mark optional fields as “optional” or include an asterisk next to the required ones.

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The aim is to make the form as easy as possible to fill out so that the chances of people completing the form go up.

2. Automate inputs when possible.

If you accidentally mistype your street address and the form corrects the spelling for you, the form autocorrects your response.

If you begin typing your shipping address and a box pops up with the rest of your address asking you if you want to “autofill” the rest of the form fields with your saved address, then your form is autocompleting your response for you.

By implementing autocorrect and autofill features on your mobile forms, you’ll improve user experience by making it quick, simple, and straightforward for users to enter their details.

In the below example, a person can easily autofill their information by clicking on the small pop-up that appears.

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3. Use a single-column layout.

When you’re creating a long or multi-step form, list all of your content in a single-column layout.

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Single-column form layouts are:

a. Easier to read.

Placing all your form fields in a single-column format allows your visitors to focus on only one item at a time, making your form easier to read.

b. Less daunting.

If you look at a form, especially in a tight space as you would on a mobile device, and see a large amount of content smushed together, you may feel overwhelmed. That’s why separating your content by rows and placing your form fields in a single-column format make your content look and feel less intimidating.

c. Quicker to complete.

When you place your multi-step form in a single column, leads can complete it more quickly than they would a multi-column form. That’s because the format makes the form easier to read and work through step-by-step.

Take a look at this sign-up form on the HubSpot website when viewed from a desktop or a laptop.

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The two-column layout makes sense here, as there’s plenty of space on the wider screen to work with. Now check out the same form when viewed from a mobile device.

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This single-column layout allows the eye to flow naturally while preventing clutter on the compact mobile screen.

4. Consistency matters (and so does form appearance).

How do you close a folder or an open tab on your laptop?

By clicking the ‘x’ button in the top-right corner.

But what if the button didn’t appear while on a particular application? How would you feel when you went to close the window?

Confused or irritated, maybe. You might spend a minute or two figuring out how to shut the application.

This is just a broad example but serves well to illustrate the importance of consistency. Watch this video to learn more.

Consistency in form design applies not just to style (colors, typography, logo, etc.) but to generally-accepted conventions that people are used to.

Here are some tips to ensure a consistent experience:

• Match your form’s look and feel to your brand and website.
• Ensure your form’s styling and formatting are consistent and complementary (nothing should look jarring or out of place).
• Align your form field inputs to the left.
• Affix each label above its corresponding input box and left-align it.
• Use an asterisk to indicate compulsory questions.

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First impressions leave a lasting impression (in life and in business). That goes for your mobile forms. Nobody wants to complete a dark, difficult-to-read, cluttered, and unattractive form.

Your mobile form should be highly functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. Its appearance should contribute to its readability and positive user experience. To achieve this, use a simple and easy-to-read font style and size, a color palette that doesn’t feel overwhelming, and minimal form fields.

5. Keep in mind the touch experience.

Think about how you hold your phone while texting.

Most likely, gripping the phone with two hands while using your thumbs to interact with the screen. Or you might even do it single-handedly or type by using your index finger.

We interact with smartphones much differently than a laptop or desktop (cue the texting thumb), and mobile form design should reflect that.

Here are some suggestions to keep in mind:

• Have adequate whitespace to keep the form clutter-free and avoid accidental button presses.
• Ensure buttons are logically positioned (for example, the submit button near the bottom of the form, so users don’t have to scroll up to find it).
• Check that the text (font size and style) is legible on the small mobile screen (no one wants to pinch their screen and zoom in to be able to read the text).
• Make sure the form fields and buttons are large enough to be comfortably tapped with a finger.
• Make the form pop-up towards the lower part of the screen (where possible) to make it easy to reach.

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6. Leverage input constraints.

Input constraints restrict the type of response a person can enter in a form field. This can include a word limit (say, while filling out a job application form) or only being able to input digits (in the case of a phone number).

This is seen in the form below, where a numeric keyboard pops up when a person goes to enter their phone number.

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Input constraints maximize form efficiency by limiting inadvertent mistakes, delays, or confusion. For example, if someone was trying to make a reservation for a table at a restaurant and accidentally selected a date in the past, the constraint would prevent them from actually being able to select and confirm that date.

This is especially crucial when designing for mobile as smaller screens make it harder to enter information accurately. By setting input constraints, you’ll save people time while completing your form fields, and prevent yourself from receiving long-winded or invalid answers.

Here’s another example of an input constraint.

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7. Create clear action buttons.

Buttons are an underrated aspect of mobile form design. Think about it: You get a form submission or conversion only after the right button is pressed. So you really can’t overlook this element.

This UI cheat sheet and UX Planet blog are great resources for designing effective buttons. Here’s a quick run-through of some of the mentioned principles that you can apply to your mobile forms.

• Too many buttons spoil the broth (just like form fields, keep only the essential buttons).
• Style and label your buttons consistently (capitalization, formatting, alignment, etc.).
• Let the focus shine on the primary button (the main action you want the user to take) by making it stand out by size or color.
• Right is right — a common rule of thumb for mobile is to position the main button on the right side and the second one on the left (though this can vary according to individual needs).
• Specific labels are almost always the answer (“Edit this page” over “Edit”).

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8. Provide card scanners for payments.

Tried entering your credit card details in a form via your smartphone? Typing a bunch of numbers on a small screen with a small keyboard can be a tedious process.

Card scanning apps, such as Microblink, have become increasingly popular for that exact reason. When making a purchase, your visitors can click a button that takes them to a screen where they can use their mobile device’s camera to take a secure photo of the front and back of their card, whether that be their license or credit card.

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With just a couple of pictures, your leads will be finished with one of the most time-consuming parts of the mobile form completion process — keeping your visitors efficient as well as frustration and error-free.

9. Explain the need for specific information.

While completing a simple email signup or a registration form, have you ever been asked to provide personal information that has nothing to do with the signup form itself?

This is a common occurrence in all types of forms (not just mobile). Asking someone for personal or other sensitive information without explaining your need for it can seem sketchy.

When asking a question that doesn’t directly relate to the reason your visitor is filling out the form, it’s essential to create a summary box (with additional information) that the person can click on to understand why you’re asking for this information.

Such indicators can also help provide extra guidance on completing a form field when the instructions are not immediately apparent. In the image below, a summary box pops up when a person hovers over the icon.

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These small details will make your form feel professional and thoughtful while reducing the odds of the user leaving halfway.

10. Gather validation and feedback.

User experience is at the heart of good mobile form design. And validation and feedback play an important role in providing a great UX.

Validation lets people know if the information they’ve entered is right (or not). Notice the green ticks in the form fields below.

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While completing mobile forms, your visitors are bound to make a mistake here or there. The form should flag these errors in real-time so the user can correct them immediately.

For example, if someone adds the incorrect zip code alongside their street address, the mobile form should display an error message. This should indicate — in easy-to-understand language — the error location and how the person can rectify it (as seen in the image below).

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It’s also crucial to give people feedback as they go through the form. For example, a progress bar on lengthy, multi-step forms can make the form-filling process more engaging by showing users how far they’ve reached and how long they have left to complete it.

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Consider a person filling out the above form without a progress bar. They’ll be clicking the ‘next’ button with no idea of when the form ends, and might even abandon it just before the final step in frustration.

Once people submit their forms, you should direct them to another screen or page that says something like, “Success!” or “Thank you” so they know their submission worked.

Here’s an example of a success page on HubSpot that appears after a user signs up to receive a free Google Ads kit.

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11. Make forms accessible.

Accessibility is fundamental to the usability of your form. Forms designed with accessibility in mind can be used by a wider range of people, including those with visual, physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities.

Here are some specific recommendations for creating accessible forms from the World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative, WebAIM, and The A11Y Project Checklist).

• Check that the text doesn’t pixelate or become fuzzy when zooming into your form (for better visualization).
• Label your form elements in a way that can be clearly understood when read by a screen reader.
• Ensure your form is accessible in both portrait and landscape modes.
• Avoid the use of a time limit (where possible) to give people sufficient time to respond.
• Include captions or transcripts for any video or audio components in your form.
• Keep color contrast in mind. Here’s a free tool that can help with that.
• Check that your form is fully-usable with just a keyboard.

A great way to ensure that all of the above mobile form design strategies stick is by exploring what you should not do in form design. The below video looks at some examples of what not to do when designing forms on both mobile and desktop.

Back To You

It’s no secret that your website visitors are completing and submitting your web forms via their mobile devices. That’s because it’s convenient and efficient, as most people carry some type of mobile device with them everywhere, making it crucial for your forms to be mobile-friendly.

Otherwise, your forms will be difficult to read, complete, and submit, which may frustrate your leads or cause you to lose their business altogether.

By considering your mobile form design and implementing these guidelines, you’ll enhance your mobile form user experience, build positive relationships with your leads and customers, and boost your conversions.

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

Social Media Sara starts her day scrolling through TikTok. She is an avid fan of podcasts and handles social media strategy at her company.

This is a snapshot of what a buyer persona looks like. You may have a great product or service, but without understanding your target customers, you might as well just market to the void. Buyer personas are the antidote to that. By creating buyer personas, you will gain clarity on who you’re marketing to and reach your ideal customers.

In this blog post, we’ll cover the following:

• What is a persona?
• Why you need a persona
• How to create a persona
• Best persona creation tools

Read on to learn more.

Every business has a target audience, which is further divided into different customer segments. Within those segments, there are different types of buyers — not every customer has uniform wants and needs. A buyer persona details your ideal customer and maps out their story. 

A buyer persona is linked to a buyer’s journey, but the buyer persona focuses on who will go on the journey. Take Social Media Sara, for example. Her company determined that their target social media person often spends time scrolling TikTok and listening to podcasts. Because of this, they might create a marketing campaign that meets her where she is in a targeted TikTok video or in an ad on her favorite marketing podcast

Naturally, every business will have more than one type of customer — it makes sense to create multiple buyer personas for the different types of customers you want to reach.

Why You Need a Persona

A buyer persona extends beyond simply describing your audience; the powerful insights generated by a buyer persona can be leveraged to make better business decisions. 

Ultimately, a well-crafted buyer persona will help you understand your ideal customer and their goals, provide guidance on how to tailor your marketing strategy, guide product development, and help you prioritize your time.

When done well, buyer personas are incredibly valuable for marketing. They can help you find gaps in the content you create. You will also be able to use buyer personas to tailor your content so that it is relevant. Buyer personas can even help you figure out ad spend. 

How to Create a Persona

Creating a buyer persona can seem daunting at first, but it doesn’t need to be once you know the key components of a buyer persona. Backed by data and insights, devising a buyer persona is a very creative process, much like coming up with a semi-fictional character. In this section, we will go over the steps to creating a persona and what to include in a persona.

Steps to creating a persona

1. Conduct research

Research forms the foundation of your persona. Analyze data from your current customers and conduct market research to figure out who your ideal customer is. Combining demographic, behavioral, and psychographic data will yield the best results — the more types of data you analyze, the more comprehensive your buyer persona will be. You can collect data from your current customers through your CRM and conduct market research through surveys, interviews, and paid databases. 

The insights from your research and analysis will help you figure out key information like demographics, business size, job title or position, goals and objectives, and challenges and pain points.

2. Ask the right questions

Reference your list of questions to guide you in the buyer persona creation process. A basic list of questions can include the following:

• What is their profession?
• What does a typical day in their life look like?
• Where do they go for information?
• How do they prefer to obtain goods and services?
• What is important to them when choosing a vendor?
• What do they value most?
• What are their goals?

3. Dive into your customer’s interests, goals and objectives, and pain points

The key to creating a useful buyer persona is understanding where your customer is coming from and putting together a story. Your buyer persona is not a mere aggregation of data points; by putting together a story based on research, you humanize your customer. Your customer’s interests can include anything from podcasts to TikTok. Once you have the foundation, you can then dive into their goals and objectives. What do they want to achieve for their business? What are the challenges standing in their way?

4. Map the persona to your product

Mapping the buyer persona to your product is a key step. By doing so, you will understand how to solve for the customer.

To learn more about these steps and other ways to develop a persona in more detail, check out this blog post, or you can generate your own now with this free tool from HubSpot.

What to include in a persona

Descriptive name

Come up with a descriptive name for your customer. You can use a realistic first and last name, or a fun moniker like “Marketing Mary” or “Social Media Sara.”

Occupation

Your customer needs an occupation. Identify your customer’s job title and the industry they work in. It would also be helpful to note if they are a decision maker.

Demographics

Basic demographic information like age, gender, education, and income is useful to identify.

Interests

Include their interests. What media do they consume? What are their hobbies?

Goals and objectives

Define their business goals and objectives. What do they want to achieve for their business? How do they plan to get there?

Pain points

Identify their pain points — this will help you gain clarity on how your product can solve for your customer’s needs.

Best Persona Creation Tools

Luckily, there is a wide variety of tools you can use to create your buyer persona. In this section, we spotlight some of our favorites.

HubSpot Persona Generator

Source: HubSpot

HubSpot’s Persona Generator streamlines the buyer persona creation process — and it’s free. Simply plug in the details like age, education level, industry, company size, job title, and more. The persona generator guides you in creating a buyer persona step by step. 

Additionally, HubSpot offers free and convenient buyer persona templates.

Userforge

Source: Userforge

With a user persona creator, user story template, and story mapping canvas, Userforge has a variety of options for creating effective buyer personas. The user persona creator lets you choose content sections: quote, goals, story, needs, frustrations, values, blockers, habits, and motivators. This program is free.

Xtensio

Source: Xtensio

Xtensio’s template goes beyond the basics. The clean but visually appealing template design is packed with information to help you understand your target customer in a holistic manner. 

Get Started With Personas

Buyer personas are critical for any business. The insights you can derive from a well-crafted buyer persona can shape your content strategy, ad spend, product development, and more. Get started with HubSpot’s free buyer persona creation tools.

Influencer marketing has become more integral to marketing campaigns as brands try to reach audiences on platforms geared toward community building and creating content than companies. When you think of influencer marketing, you probably think of influencers with large followings collaborating with brands; however, smaller influencers (also called micro-influencers) are gaining traction among marketers.

HubSpot recently surveyed 1,200 global marketers and found that 64% of marketers listed micro-influencers among the creators they worked with throughout 2022. 53% of marketers said they plan on working with micro-influencers in 2023. So, why are marketers shifting their focus toward micro-influencers, and should you do the same? To answer these questions, here are four data-driven reasons to work with micro-influencers on your next campaign.

What are micro-influencers?

Our survey defined micro-influencers as creators and influencers with a follower/subscriber count ranging from 10,000 to 99,999. Micro-influencers are very well known within their niche and have a close relationship with their followers, resulting in high engagement.

Why Companies Should Work with Micro-Influencers

Here are four reasons your company should consider working with micro-influencers.

1. Micro-influencers have excellent engagement rates.

Our survey found that 33% of marketers reported having the most success with micro-influencers compared to nano, macro, and mega-influencers. As I said before, micro-influencers have very high engagement, so it’s no surprise that a third of our respondents reported great success working with them.

Micro-influencers boast high engagement because it’s easier to connect with and build a bond with fewer followers versus millions of followers.

A recent study by Later x Forh shows that the fewer followers an influencer has on Instagram, the higher their engagement rate. Instagram users with less than 1000 followers also receive likes from up to 8% of total followers, while users with 10 million+ followers receive only 1.7%.

2. They are more cost-effective than macro-influencers.

According to Shopify, micro-influencers with 5,000 to 30,000 followers charge between $73 and $318 per social media post. Specifically, Shopify says businesses can expect to pay micro-influencers around the following prices:

• $172 for an Instagram post
• $219 for an Instagram video
• $73 for an Instagram story
• $318 for a Facebook post
• $908 for a YouTube video

This is less than influencers with more than 500,000 followers. These influencers typically charge between $2,085 and $3,318 per post. For these influencers, companies can expect to pay:

• $2,085 for an Instagram post
• $3,318 for an Instagram video
• $721 for an Instagram story
• $2,400 for a Facebook post
• $3,857 for a YouTube video

If you’re a smaller business looking to tap into a more targeted audience online without exceeding your budget, micro-influencers would be a worthy investment.

3. They account for almost half of all influencers.

Micro-influencers with 5,000 to 20,000 followers account for 47.3 percent of influencers. Mid-tier influencers make up 26.8%, and nano-influencers make up 18.74%. Macro-influencers are rare in the influencer marketing landscape.

With micro-influencers making up such a massive portion of the market, finding one who fits your niche, shares your vision, and can tap into your audience is highly possible.

4. They foster authenticity and trust within their niche.

As mentioned earlier, micro-influencers can form a close bond with their audience, which leads to higher engagement than macro-influencers. Suppose you’re able to get a micro-influencer to support your product. In that case, that influencer will likely boost your reputation and build confidence regarding your business.

5 Brands Who Collaborate with Micro-Influencers

The following brands have included micro-influencer marketing in their marketing strategy:

1. La Croix

Sparkling water brand La Croix has collaborated with multiple micro-influencers to showcase its products. To encourage influencer collaborations, the brand sends vouchers for free cases of their drinks to micro-influencers with as little as 1000 followers. For example, the following Instagram post shows micro-influencer and journalist Andrea Albers holding a can of La Croix next to a Christmas tree.

2. Daniel Wellington

Daniel Wellington is a Swedish watch brand that started its global ambassador community to foster collaborations with micro-influencers. The company’s daily #DWPickoftheday contest challenges influencers to create exciting content to be featured on the company’s main account. Micro-influencers like Melanie Vaclavikova are often featured on the company’s Instagram.

3. Asos

Online retailer Asos works with micro-influencers via its Asos Insiders program. Through the program, Asos finds influencers of all follower counts to promote its clothing and beauty products. One micro-influencer the retailer has worked with is Lauren Nicole, a fashion influencer and editor with 74.6 followers on Instagram.

4. Coca-Cola

Even huge, long-standing brands like Coca-Cola have leveraged micro-influencer marketing in campaigns. Coca-Cola’s #Cokeambassador campaign welcomes influencers to post photos and videos of themselves with Coca-Cola products.

5. Sperry

Boat shoe brand Sperry frequently collaborates with micro-influencers on its social media. Sperry will grant influencers a budget to engage their community and audience. The company also launched OpenSponsorship to connect athletes with the brand, resulting in over 6,000 athletes from 160 sports working with Sperry.

In short, micro-influencers have excellent engagement and a close bond with their followers. Leveraging micro-influencers in your next marketing campaign is an effective and budget-friendly way to tap into your target audience on social media or community-based platforms. Now that you know the benefits of micro-influencers, you’re ready to collaborate with those whose work aligns with your vision.

 

 

This post is a part of The Crisis of Disconnection, a thought leadership series examining the latest research and insights to uncover how businesses can meet their growth goals, even amidst unprecedented changes to the way we work.

Despite our hyperconnected world, reaching customers and target audiences has never been harder. And, as we continue to see a shifting economy, evolving platforms, and constantly changing audience preferences, unless we take action the Crisis of Disconnection will only grow in 2023.

In this blog series, we’ve brought you up to speed on the Crisis of Disconnection, while outlining how the growth challenges ahead for your business won’t be your average walk in the park. Now, with the daunting stuff behind us, let’s turn our attention toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

If you’ve been following along, we’re glad you’re back. If you’re just joining us now, we’re glad you’re here.

How We Got Disconnected – And Why Fixing It is Vital

Before we go any further, let’s recap the disconnection challenges that have been giving business leaders pause:

• Point solutions are expensive, incomplete, and create more complexity than clarity. 74% of CRM buyers feel their teams have to switch between too many tools to get the job done
• People feel disconnected from each other — whether they’re at home or in the office. Only 49% of flex workers in the U.S. felt their team was working effectively in a hybrid environment.
• Strategies that once worked to connect with customers are no longer working. More than 30% of marketers say that they are experiencing average-to-no returns on their digital marketing investments.

It’s true that disconnection between your business and your customers — fueled by disconnection among employees and systems — is slowing growth.

If there’s a topline takeaway from our Crisis of Disconnection series, it’s this: connection can no longer be an afterthought.

Scaling companies need to place connection at the center of their business growth strategies. Otherwise, navigating the ever-evolving consumer landscape in the coming years will feel like an uphill battle.

Luckily, our research demonstrates that businesses are up for the challenge. The question is — how can you forge stronger connections across all facets of your company?

How to Re-align and Re-Connect Your Brand for Growth in 2023

1. Focus on Customer Connection, Not Customer Management

Suffice to say, we believe that the flywheel is pretty important when it comes to growing your business. The purpose of the flywheel is to accelerate growth, and spinning the flywheel (and achieving that growth) is only made possible through a strong connection to your customers. Not just to the ones you already have, but also to the ones to come.

In a world where 68% of companies are selling remotely, meeting your customers where they are has never been more important. But modern consumers feel like they’re being overloaded with an abundance of content, which only works to push them away from forging meaningful connections with businesses:

• 65% of google searches end without a click
• The average blog growth rate is -1.6%

Overcoming digital fatigue and distrust is no small feat, but working to build a connected business growth strategy is well worth the time and effort. This starts by optimizing every stage of the buyer’s journey to foster greater connection and purposeful communication.

2. Let Data Take the Guesswork Out of Advertising

Work to advertise in the places where your target customers are spending their time. When data tells you that your audience is primed to make purchasing decisions on a given platform, put more eggs into that basket versus wasting advertising spend elsewhere. It also doesn’t hurt to partner with trusted influencers in the space who’ve already built a connection with your target customers that you can leverage.

• 93% of all online interactions start with a search engine.
• 58% of millennials agree that social platforms are better than online searches for finding new products.
• 60% of marketers believe influencer marketing is the most effective marketing trend.

Clearly, even though the search engine experience may not be a perfect one as consumers are overwhelmed with content and often give up the search before clicking on anything, it remains an important place to be since most people who do end up interacting with a business online start on a search engine.

However, that may change in the future as the experience continues to suffer and both consumers and marketers are shifting their focus to social media as a channel for discovery and connection.

Of course, these are general trends, and advertising performance will vary depending on your specific audience. We always recommend doing your own research before committing to an advertising plan.

The key thing to remember here is that data should be driving these marketing decisions. Guessing isn’t good enough anymore — do your research to learn which channels and platforms your customers are spending the most time on. You can accomplish this by simply asking customers, followers, and prospects for their two cents. Don’t be shy! This is where first-party data can be your best friend. Lean on it to gain a better understanding of customers and their purchasing decisions.

While the question used to be, “How many channels are you active in?”,  the more important question to be asking yourself today is, “How unified are those channels and are they providing a consistent, personalized customer experience?”. In order to give your organization the information it needs to develop deep connections with customers, you must connect:

• With the right customers using segmentation based on real-time, clear, and clean data.
• In the most convenient place using an omni-channel approach
• At the optimal time – whether that’s now, later, or somewhere in between
• With the right context using first-party data to add personalization to all of your interactions.

Once you’ve nailed down where your customers are, it’s time to figure out how to attract and delight them. 62% of consumers say a brand will lose their loyalty if they deliver an unpersonalized experience, so make sure you’re offering something that is relevant and valuable to each specific consumer. Remember — what works for one buyer persona may fall flat with another.

In the past, businesses looked backward to get a sense of what worked. We believe the future is about looking forward, finding ways to analyze real-time data to understand not only how well you’ve connected with customers up until now, but also how to optimize those customer connections in the future.

3. Make it Easy to Buy

Buyers expect their experiences discovering and buying B2B and B2C goods and services to feel the same, regardless of who they’re buying from. Naturally, you want to provide easy payment solutions and options for how your customers buy.

But just like it’s important to personalize content for each buyer persona, so too is it important to cater purchasing options to the particular needs of your audience. Whether that means working through a sales representative or buying through an online portal, understand what your consumers want so you can give them the experience they desire.

• Just over 50% of SMBs still rely on disparate solutions to manage payment data, averaging five tools per purchase transaction.
• 83% of buyers say convenience while shopping is more important compared to five years ago.
• Only 19% of consumers prefer to message a company’s chatbot when reaching out to a company online. 45% prefer a human representative.

Updating your old go-to-market strategies for the new world requires you to connect with your customers on a more meaningful level. Of course, building those connections hinges on the connectivity of your people.

4. Near, Far, Wherever You Are: Help your Teams Connect

As you can imagine, it’s much harder to connect with customers when you’re having a hard time connecting with the people across from you — whether that be in the office or over Zoom.

Disconnected teams create silos within your organization, and a disconnected business is one that’s not able to reach its full potential.

23% of businesses cite difficulties with communication and collaboration between teams as one of their top business challenges. 45% of workers say that the number of people they interact with at work decreased, and 57% of people say that they engage in fewer social activities these days. All that’s to say, connecting with one another isn’t as easy as it used to be. However, a fully remote or hybrid work model doesn’t necessarily have to equal disconnection between your teams.

Take HubSpot, for example.

Even before the global pandemic, we believed in building a company where people could do their best work. For some, that’s in an office building. For others, that’s from a home office. With the goal of making work-life harmony a reality, we committed to being a flexible, hybrid company that ties culture to our values, people, and mission, not locations.

In the words of our Director of Culture, Eimear Marrinan, “Culture does not need four walls to thrive.”

While the old ways of working may never return, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of company culture as we know it. The key is to ensure teams can buy into a common goal, and are able to work together as one to reach it.

Build a social connection that motivates your teams and enables them to foster better working relationships, even if it’s in a remote setting. 59% of people would like to keep working remotely as much as possible going forward, so building a culture that thrives in a hybrid work environment should be top-of-mind for businesses.

The times may be a-changin’, but the craving for community is still consistent throughout every workforce. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to being a hybrid company, and getting it right may take some time.

At HubSpot, we’re always learning how we can improve the way we work. Focusing on the critical ingredients — flexibility, empathy, communication, and inclusion — when building your work environment will inevitably put you on the path toward growth and success.

With all that said, we still haven’t gotten to another central, and sometimes overlooked, element of connection when it comes to your business — your systems, tools, and data. Pulling off all the above won’t be possible if you don’t have connected solutions in place to keep people and processes working in harmony.

5. Spend Less Time Configuring, and More Time Connecting

The average scaling company has 242 SaaS tools today. If that sounds like a lot, you’re right!

Expecting better relationships with customers and greater connection between teams when this many tools are in play is wishful thinking. In reality, less is more.

You need more than data. You need context.

You need more than content. You need connection.

You need more than contacts. You need community.

Hitting these goals largely depends on the connectedness of your internal systems, data, and tools. Your teams should be able to move away from focusing on building connections in a technical sense and towards fostering more meaningful connections on a human level.

Trying to make your myriad of disparate systems work together can feel like you’re swimming upstream. Instead, turn around and invest in a connected platform that streamlines and seamlessly connects your data.

Putting in the time and effort upfront to integrate a connected platform is well worth the long-term savings. One in four businesses today believe disconnected data and systems are among their chief concerns as they grow. And the ever-popular point solution approach brings with it its own set of problems.

Point solutions end up exacerbating silos across teams, which is ultimately not the point of implementing new tools and software. In reality, your teams work together closely, and giving them the means to connect and collaborate seamlessly largely hinges on the systems you put in front of them.

The time is now to prioritize “best-in-connection” solutions versus best-in-class tools. A platform that has connection at its core enables your teams to access data, collaborate with one another, and work through their responsibilities with no bumps along the way.

The trickle-down effect of disconnected systems negatively impacts your people, which ultimately impacts the customer experience. Making customer connection a central pillar of your business growth strategy starts by prioritizing a best-in-connection, all-on-one platform that delights employees and customers alike.

Time to Get Connected

That’s a wrap on our Crisis of Disconnection blog series! We want you to know that this is a concept we’re still deeply investigating, so while this is the end of this particular blog series, we’re just getting started talking about connection and how to optimize your business for it. Stay tuned for more on how HubSpot is actively working to address the Crisis of Disconnection!

In the meantime, be sure to check out HubSpot solutions, like our Free CRM or our Marketing, Sales, Service and CMS Hubs, which can help connect your team and grow better in 2023.

We love webinars. It’s a format we have a great appreciation for and one we use quite a bit alongside our friends at ON24 and the ABMLA. 

But while we love webinars, we need to acknowledge something about the format.

They’re not a lead volume driver.

If you’re expecting your webinars (specifically Live Webinars) to be your volume workhorse, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Webinars Are Bottom of Funnel Content Format

Marketers have always been obsessed with volume. It’s logical, of course—they’re simply trying to improve their odds of generating a conversion. 

In terms of lead volume, the best content format over the past six years (if not longer) on the NetLine platform has been eBooks. Year over year, total eBook registrations grew 15.5%, accounting for 43.3% of all requests. 

According to our 2022 Consumption Report, all Webinar formats combined represented 2.3%. It’s also worth mentioning that On-Demand Webinar registrations increased by 45%—40.75% more registrations than Live Webinars. 

To underline just how popular eBooks are amongst B2B audiences: Guides, Cheat Sheets, Tips & Tricks Guides, White Papers, Research Reports, Kits, Webinars, and Checklists combined still represent a smaller number of registrations than eBooks.

In short, if you’re looking to diversify your content library beyond text-based formats, Webinars are a terrific option. They simply pale in comparison to eBooks, Guides, Cheat Sheets, and White Papers. 

Despite this fact, there is something that White Papers have in common with Webinars.

Their ability to signal a buyer’s maturation along the purchase path.

Live Webinar Registrations Are an Intent-Rich Signal 

Knowing when (and who within) your audience plans to make investments is incredibly valuable information. 

Thanks to our How Buyer-Level Intent Data Reveals “Who” is Ready to Buy report, we learned that ~31% of all respondents expect to make purchases within the next 12 months. Going further, 15.2% of all respondents shared they would be in market within the next six months.

This research also revealed fascinating equivalencies between the buying journey and content format. Based on this data, we can suggest that White Paper registrations are a greater indication that a user is in a late stage of a purchasing decision. 

Webinar registrations, however, represent the most significant purchase intent signal. 

Users registering for Webinars are 29% more likely to be correlated with a purchase decision within the next six months. This is due to the fact that as users progress further into their buying journey, the fewer “peers” they have, meaning there’s less volume at this stage. 

The volume may not be there, but your interested prospects certainly are. 

The Live Webinar Paradox

Marketers use NetLine (or any lead generation vendor) to leverage our expertise in demand generation and lead nurturing to fill their pipeline with engaged prospects at scale. 

The majority of content formats are quite good at accomplishing this goal. The challenge with a Live Webinar, however, is that while we (and the client) can generate interest, getting a user to come to the event is quite difficult.

Herein lies the crux of the issue that Live Webinars face: Attendance. 

What Truly Drives Live Webinar Attendance

Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash

The concept of “real-time” is fascinating. It’s what has sparked a massive influx of cash into the world of professional sports in the United States. For example, while baseball’s popularity has declined in recent years, local broadcasters pay top dollar in order to capture the attention of their market for more than six months each year. 

In short, these broadcasters pay because fans pay attention in real-time thanks to how much they care. The same ideas can be applied to Live Webinars. 

The importance of the subject matter, speaker, and perception of the session will immensely drive attendance rates and cannot be understated. Sessions lacking oomph will surely take a hit when people feel like they can miss the session. 

Conversely, something perceived as must-see webinar content will draw attention even through busy schedules. 

ON24’s Webinar Benchmarks Report 2022 states that, in 2021, 59% of Webinar registrants became attendees. ”Of registrants, 35% converted into live webinar attendees and 24% converted into on-demand attendees.” Live Webinars outpacing On-Demand Webinars in terms of attendance rate is surprising. NetLine has seen client campaign content cover the spectrum of engagement. 

Content that failed to resonate strongly failed to clear 5% attendee rates. Content that commanded excitement and mindshare resulted in attendance rates north of 50%. 

Live Webinar Volume vs. On-Demand Webinar Volume

We shared earlier that On-Demand Webinar registrations increased by 45% YOY; 40.75% more registrations than Live Webinars. Part of this comes down to the availability of On-Demand Webinars. Historically, the volume of content available for a given format is a reflection on audience demand. The more users consume, the more marketers will produce. 

In 2021, Live Webinars represented 3% of all content added by B2B marketers on the NetLine platform. While this is less than half of the offerings available for On-Demand Webinars (7.3%), this isn’t an insignificant figure for a format so closely associated with serious purchase consideration. 

In the end, On-Demand Webinars feature a modest 7% increase in registration activity in comparison to Live Webinars.

On the surface, everything appears to be quite similar. But it’s not. 

Ultimately, the reason why these two Webinar configurations are so different is simple: On-Demand Webinars can be consumed on your time. 

Live Webinars cannot.

Resetting Expectations

We don’t want you to walk away with the impression that Live Webinars aren’t worthwhile.

They most certainly are. They simply need to be deployed correctly.

With all of these factors laid out, it’s easier to realize how improbable it is for any bottom-of-funnel-oriented format to drive large volume. Conclusively, we hope you leave this article knowing two things:

1. Live Webinars cannot be expected to always drive high lead volume
2. Live Webinars are a wonderful content marketing format for engaging with high-intent buyers

That’s it. The details above require greater attention, as well as additional efforts to educate B2B professionals. It needs to be taught and discussed so we no longer have reason to scratch our heads when a Live Webinar doesn’t deliver the volume you were hoping for.

When to Use Live Webinars in Your Content Marketing Strategy

As we’ve shown with the data provided, the values that Live Webinars provide come at the bottom of the funnel, toward the end of the buyer’s journey.

Live Webinars should be leveraged for your most engaged prospects, providing information that can only be heard and seen by attending. Use this time as a means of demonstrating your industry authority, innovation in the space, and your ability to solve specific problems for your customers.

Without being this tailored, your efforts will likely be for naught, leaving you with low turnout that could have been shared via email or a demo. 

When Not to Use Live Webinars in Your Content Marketing Strategy

Obviously, if you’re banking on massive volume to fill your funnel, we’d suggest starting with another content format before moving those registrants over to webinars once they have demonstrated greater intent. 

The list of options for the top of the funnel is endless, as Live Webinars won’t serve those just exploring for the first time. However, eBooks, Guides, and White Papers are a marketer’s best friend if you’re looking to drive lead volume

Live Webinars Are a Great Content Format

Now that you know how best to use Live Webinars, we hope your content strategy will be improved because of it. 

Live Webinar registrations and show-ups are chockful of superb intent data. Armed with this knowledge, you should be better equipped to crush your next one.

Ultimately, it’s important to find balance in your content approach. 

Regardless of its ability to drive leads or conversions, each format serves a different purpose for your audience. Avoid relying on personal preferences or opinions to drive your content strategy and production. Instead, lean on your audience data; look closely at the needs of your buyers and their consumption trends to better understand your audience. 

This should yield a content library that not only offers a solid mix of formats but one that speaks to buyers across their journey. When all is said and done, that’s all you want anyway: The opportunity to connect with your prospect at every stage.