Category Archives: B2B

Over the past three years, I’ve written over 200 marketing content pieces from blog posts to guides to landing pages. Over that time, I’ve witnessed more and more brands investing not just in new content, but in content optimization.

It makes sense why content marketing teams are optimizing their content.

Brands that produce hundreds of pieces of content each year suddenly find themselves with a library of thousands of outdated blog posts that erode brand trust and drag down their SEO.

Your content is an asset that you need to protect and invest in to continue reaping the benefits.

To refresh your content, follow this step-by-step guide to content optimization. I’ve compiled my knowledge from years of optimizing content as a writer and strategist to start you down the road to success.

Table of Contents

• What is content optimization?
• Benefits of Content Optimization
• Challenges of Content Optimization
• How to Optimize Content

What is content optimization?

Content optimization is the act of updating and improving a piece of marketing content to reach content goals like search rankings, engagement, and conversions.

There are several reasons why you should optimize your content.

First, your content may have missed expectations and isn’t performing as you hoped. You can correct for this by optimizing it for new keywords or changing algorithm preferences, like E-E-A-T.

Another reason is that your content has outdated pricing, links, or screenshots of products that hurt your credibility, rankings, and conversions like signups.

How often should you update content?

There’s no hard-and-fast rule for how often to update content. Some content needs to be updated at least once a year, like a blog post on “Top small business apps in 2024.” Others stay evergreen and relevant for longer.

By our own analysis at HubSpot, we found a drop in performance for content more than 571 days old. If your content is approaching two years old, it’s time for an update.

Benefits of Content Optimization

Optimizing your content is an involved process, sometimes taking as long as writing the original content. So, why bother?

When properly optimized, I’ve seen content outperform the original content and reach new audiences. Here’s how.

1. Better SEO and Discoverability

If your older content isn’t drawing traffic, it’s not worth much to you. Content optimization can rescue lagging rankings and boost your visibility in search engines and AI programs like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

When HubSpot began optimizing old content, the brand grew organic views on those posts by an average of 106%.

The higher your content ranks, the more likely you are to gain high-intent traffic— that’s marketing speak for reaching prospects who are looking for your product or service.

2. Better Engagement

The more updated and relevant your content is, the more credible and useful it will be to the reader. In turn, this creates better brand engagement.

If I run into more than one broken link or outdated reference while searching online, I’m likely to go back to the drawing board.

But when I find a good resource that speaks to my problem, I’ll read til the end, click on related content, and even sign up for that brand’s newsletter.

3. More Conversions

The more people discover and engage with your content, the more likely they are to convert by signing up for an email list or demo or making a purchase.

We at HubSpot found that optimizing content more than doubled the monthly leads from older posts.

Excellent content can aid the sales process at every stage. You can also improve the chance of conversions by adding new calls to action (CTAs) that relate to your current offers and promotions.

Challenges of Content Optimization

Of course, content optimization isn’t without its challenges. Here are the top two risks when you optimize your content.

1. Maintaining a Consistent Voice

When you add new keywords or sections, particularly from a different writer from the original content, you risk losing cohesion. Careless updates can result in an article that doesn’t flow well or seems stuffed with keywords, hurting the quality.

2. Risk of Dropped Rankings

Any time you edit already-published content, you run the risk of dropping in rankings as search engines re-analyze your content.

If a piece of content is a top traffic driver for you, proceed with caution.

Figure out which keywords you want to protect and keep those keywords in headers and body copy. Consider what you can add rather than replace in your content, like new examples and sections.

How to Optimize Content

Now, let’s get to the good part — optimizing content.

Before I start, I’ve learned that there are two halves to content optimization: process and tactics. The steps I will go into here are tactics, but it’s equally important to build a structure and repeatable process for optimization.

First, assemble your team. On a small content team, a marketing manager may complete every step in this process. Others may use a team of two to five contributors.

Possible roles include a content manager to create briefs, a writer, an editor, a graphic designer, and a digital content manager.

I also recommend that you create a content optimization checklist to cover every step in the process and can easily delegate optimization steps to freelancers or team members. This has saved me many times from forgetting an important step!

1. Assess your content and goals.

First, assess the content you want to improve and determine an objective for the update. Is your goal to increase search rankings and traffic? Or is it to drive more conversions? Your approach could be very different depending on the objective.

Then, look at the content itself. What are its strengths and weaknesses? Highlight any sections with obvious outdated information, data, or images.

2. Conduct keyword research.

If SEO strategy is your objective, then keyword research is a crucial step in the process. At this stage, I like to use a keyword research tool like Google Ads, Ahrefs, or Moz to see which keywords the content is already ranking for.

Then I can look for related keywords that people may also search for.

Ahref’s “parent topic” feature is useful to see different keywords in relation to one another, along with Google’s People Also Ask (PAA) tool to gather ideas. Identify a primary keyword and secondary keywords that you want to rank for.

3. Analyze competitor content.

Next, I run a Google search to identify the top five search engine page results (SERPs).

A competitor search is helpful for two reasons.

First, to find out what is already working. Is Google rewarding content with lots of images or examples, for instance?

Second, this is helpful to uncover what gaps there are in the SERPs. Are all the top-ranking articles talking about the same three things but forgetting to mention something equally important?

I also look for ways I can differentiate my content to make it stand out.

4. Create a content optimization brief.

With all the information gathered in steps one through three, I can create a content optimization brief. This is particularly useful when handing the optimization off to a second person, like a freelance writer.

Even if you’re a one-person team, this can help to organize your thoughts and strategy. Here’s what to include in a content optimization brief:

• A link to the current content and copy in Google Docs if possible
• Description of the target audience and their search intent
• Primary and secondary keywords to include
• General update instructions, like checking for broken links and outdated research (e.g., Remove any references to the COVID-19 pandemic in content.)

• Specific instructions about this piece of content (e.g., Add a new H2 section at the bottom with five examples of influencer marketing campaigns.)

• Project details like the deadline and how to deliver the updated draft

5. Prepare your draft.

At this stage, I get my document ready for rewriting. After years of working in Word, I switched to Google Docs for the collaborative editing ease. I may already have the content draft in Google Docs but if I don’t, there’s a hack.

I can get ready to work by saving the web page as an HTML file, then right-clicking on the file and opening it in Microsoft Word. From there, I can copy/paste the text into Google Docs and delete any extra formatting I don’t need.

Next, I’ll adjust the outline to include any major changes requested, for example, removing or adding H2 or H3 sections. Any new sections can stay blank for now as long as I can see the outline.

6. Update links and research.

Now that my strategy and outline are set, I can start digging into the draft. I always start with the lowest-hanging fruit— checking for broken links and replacing them with working ones.

If I cite research, I want to include the most recent research available. That often means checking for more recent reports or removing dated research.

Fact-checking is an important piece of content updates too. I review software and often find in my updates that the pricing or feature lists have changed.

In some cases, the product has been rebranded or the company has gone out of business entirely since the original post.

7. Use a content optimization tool.

While I can optimize content with only the instructions in the brief, content optimization tools make the process more robust and efficient. Three tools that I recommend for content optimization are HubSpot, Clearscope, and Dashword.

In Clearscope and Dashword, you enter your primary keyword and search intent and copy/paste the original draft into the program. The tools give you an A-F grade that you can then try to improve.

In Clearscope, you can view the top SERP outlines and common PAA questions to see what you might be missing. Then both give you a readability grade and a sidebar with a list of keywords found in the top SERPs.

The more you add and the lower your readability score, the better your score becomes.

Source

These tools have basically gamified content optimization. Hitting that A+ or A++ score is incredibly satisfying!

Source

HubSpot’s SEO marketing software has the benefit of integrating the optimization tool into your CMS so you already have the content and data at your fingertips and can edit it from one platform.

With the tool, you run an SEO analysis of your entire site, explore keywords and topical coverage for your content, and monitor your performance.

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Beyond providing keywords and recommendations, several of these platforms like HubSpot and Surfer SEO have added content optimization AI tools to write or rewrite content for you.

These can save you time but if you use them, make sure to still edit the content to keep it differentiated and on-brand.

8. Write on-page content.

At this stage, I write new sections and rewrite content sections that need to be reworked. If I didn’t write the original content, I aim to match the voice and style of the original author.

I may rewrite headings and body copy with the primary and secondary keywords.

9. Optimize your off-page SEO with title tags and a meta description.

While you’re rewriting your on-page content, go ahead and optimize your off-page content like title tags and meta description.

Make sure your primary keyword appears in not just your headline but title tag and meta description. Rewriting the meta description can give a better teaser to give people a hook to draw them in and an idea of what to expect in the article.

An off-page SEO checklist is helpful to give content optimization specialists reminders and guidelines to optimize metadata.

9. Optimize for E-E-A-T.

Optimizing for E-E-A-T is another way you can improve your content.

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness and is Google’s framework for helpful, reliable, people-first content.

Essentially, you can build credibility with your readers by adding expert perspectives and first-hand experience.

While Google doesn’t officially list this as a ranking factor, many brands (including us at HubSpot!) have seen improved search rankings.

In one HubSpot test, we found that E-E-A-T-ifying content significantly boosted clicks, signups, and conversions. Here are some tried-and-true ways to adapt your content with expertise and authority:

• Share anecdotes and insights from your personal experience on a topic
• Review software or products personally so you can share your experience
• Interview subject matter experts to include expert quotes and insights on the topic

10. Add images, videos, and alt text.

One brilliant (and underused) tactic for content optimization is optimizing for image search. When someone searches on Google, they see images and video snippets between and around the top-ranked articles.

Others go directly to Google Images to search for information. I’ve found that images and video improve my content’s quality by visualizing information.

Source

I recommend breaking up lengthy text with interspersed images and relevant embedded videos.

Try images like photos, illustrations, and infographics to engage readers. Videos are also a great way to drive engagement, especially if you have an active YouTube strategy.

For best SEO results, add relevant alt text that describes the image for accessibility and includes the primary keyword.

11. Optimize for conversions.

One of my favorite ways to optimize content is to add or update CTAs to encourage action. I love writing a compelling CTA that touches on a reader’s challenges and ties together solutions.

CTAs don’t just belong at the end of a blog post or landing page. Add one CTA “above the fold” on a web page or article, one at the end, and even another in the middle for long content.

12. Edit, publish, and distribute your optimized content.

Once your draft is ready, it’s go time.

Hire a professional editor for structural edits and proofreading to make sure your content still flows and meets your brand guidelines. Then update the content in your CMS and add any new links and images.

Not every marketer uses a distribution strategy for updated content, but I recommend distributing it through social media, newsletters, and more as you would with new content. You can use Content Remix to repurpose your blog content across marketing channels.

Once it’s published, keep an eye on the page analytics so you can watch the magic happen— and improve your optimization strategy over time.

Grow Your Traffic, Engagement, and Conversions with Content Optimization

Through my time as a writer and content marketer, I’ve found that content is a living, breathing thing. It shouldn’t be published, then left to slowly decay. It’s most valuable to brands when it’s updated, expanded, and improved over time.

Just as SEO recommendations change, you can teach yourself a new skill by learning to optimize content and adopt content best practices. Simply create a strategy and repeatable process, find the right tool, and start optimizing!

Just when it looks like I can‘t possibly write anything else about AI, I arrive with another blog post on the subject.

Today, I’m sharing AI automation examples that you can incorporate into your marketing processes to streamline your strategy and outpace the competition.

Let’s dive in!

7 Examples of AI Automation

1. AI Bots

Best for: Streamlining time-consuming, tedious marketing process and engaging with consumers.

A bot is an AI-powered intelligent automation with many use cases for both marketers and consumers. Marketers like myself typically use AI bots to streamline tedious tasks.

For example, I often have to interview marketing leaders and source their quotes for the posts I write. It would take me forever to listen through 30-60 minutes of an interview and fish for the most compelling quotes.

Then, one of my colleagues introduced me to an AI tool called Castmagic, which can transcribe audio into text.

I would then paste the transcribed text into ChatGPT and prompt the chatbot to identify the most interesting quotes from the text. This use of bots cuts hours‘ worth of work into just minutes!

I also save time by using HubSpot’s internal GPT to generate post titles, meta descriptions, outlines, and topic ideas.

And I’m far from the only marketer who saves time using AI tools like bots. According to our recent survey of 1000+ marketers, 86% of marketing professionals say AI helps them save an hour each day in their normal workflow.

Of course, I can’t forget how chatbots help marketers connect with consumers. Chatbots can direct visitors to your website to the correct product or service, answer questions, or troubleshoot issues.

All this can be done quickly and efficiently, and your customers will appreciate the swift action.

In fact, a recent study found that 62% of consumers prefer to engage with digital assistants rather than wait for human agents.

2. AI Personalization

Best for: Quickly gathering data to provide data-driven insights and high-quality personalized content.

According to our 2024 State of Marketing Report, 77% of marketers who use generative AI say it helps them make more personalized content, so AI and personalization already go hand-in-hand.

However, AI can also automate the process of creating personalized content by quickly and efficiently collecting data on customer behavior, preferences, location, and more.

AI then uses this information to generate data-driven insights and tailor content to individual customers.

For example, HubSpot’s Breeze AI gathers quality data to create personalization at scale.

3. AI Content creation

Best for: Creating quick-hit, short-form videos such as Reels, YouTube Shorts, or TikToks.

As a podcaster, blogger, and former YouTuber, I can confirm that content creation, while fun, is incredibly time-consuming.

If you‘re a hobbyist, you probably don’t mind the time spent, but if you’re a marketer, you know you only have so much time to spare for a task.

Fortunately, AI content creation automates the process of crafting content, such as:

• Videos
• Social Media posts
• Blog posts
• Podcasts

For example, I recently made an entire YouTube channel using various types of AI in just minutes. I‘ve also created TikToks and blog posts using only AI.

And let’s not forget my earlier example of using AI tools like Castmagic to transcribe podcast interviews into written content.

4. Lead Generation

Best for: Gathering consumer information to generate leads.

Automated lead generation is among the most useful forms of AI in marketing. Intelligent automation in lead-generating tasks like lead capture, scoring, and nurturing makes finding new customers easier and far less time-consuming.

For example, let‘s say I visit the website of my favorite shoe store, DSW, and I’m greeted by an automated pop-up asking for my name and email address in exchange for 10% off my next purchase.

That information would then be sent to a CRM and would be used for target email campaigns that turn me into a new consistent customer.

AI automation allows this process to be completed in seconds, saving marketers time and money.

5. Customer segmentation

Best for: Meeting your customers’ needs and generating a higher ROI.

AI automation can swiftly categorize your customers into subgroups based on demographics, behaviors, lifestyles, location, and needs.

This is because AI is exceptionally useful for extracting, processing, and applying data. With automated customer segmentation, you can generate personalized content like emails, videos, and more.

As of 2024, almost a quarter of marketers already use AI for customer segmentation.

6. Email marketing

Best for: Running a smooth, personalized email marketing campaign.

I‘ve dabbled in email marketing quite a bit throughout my career.

I once managed the newsletter for the TV station I worked for as a journalist and curated HubSpot’s Marketing Daily Newsletter before it was converted to a Master in Marketing.

So, trust me when I say AI automated email marketing made my work as an email marketer a breeze. With AI, I was able to:

• Analyze email performances and open rates to see what worked with my target audience and what didn’t
• Compile analytics to determine the health of my campaigns
• Quickly clean my email lists
• Send personalized, segmented content.

7. Ad targeting and optimization

As you‘ve probably noticed by now, AI is a pro at using data to help create a seamless, targeted marketing campaign. So, it’s no surprise that Ad targeting and optimizing personalized marketing materials are as easy as counting to 3 for AI.

Now, you have some great examples of AI automation in AI. How do you plan to implement intelligent automation into your next marketing campaign?

It’s hard to ignore the fact that video is now a leading trend for marketing teams. I mean, even LinkedIn has jumped on the bandwagon by prioritizing video content (now, whether or not you agree with that, it is a conversation for another day, but I digress).

The truth is that video is here to stay, and marketing teams are investing more in it than ever before.

With 2025 just around the corner, I decided to take a deep dive into some of the latest HubSpot data, including the 2024 Video Marketing Survey, to get a clearer picture of what trends are shaping the field.

I also spoke with a few experts to get their insights on how they’re planning to invest in video marketing as we move into the new year.

Table of Contents

• How much does video marketing cost?
• How much are marketers spending on video marketing?
• How AI Is Making Video Marketing More Affordable
• Affordable Video Marketing Techniques

How much does video marketing cost?

The short answer? It varies wildly. You might spend a few hundred dollars on simple videos or tens of thousands on professional productions.

Typically, the biggest expenses fall into a few categories:

1. Production. Costs for scripting, filming, and shooting, which can range from affordable for smaller teams to expensive for large-scale productions.
2. Post-Production. Editing, adding effects, and finalizing the video. As content gets more polished, this becomes a bigger part of the budget.
3. Promotion. Social media ads, paid search, or sponsored content to get the video in front of the right audience.
4. Tools. Software for editing and video performance analytics, plus any subscriptions to specialized video platforms.

Looking ahead to 2025, I think we’ll see more teams leaning into AI tools to reduce costs, especially in production and post-production.

With the rise of short-form videos, brands might shift toward creating more frequent, lower-cost content for social platforms.

And while social ads will still be a major spend, I expect personalized, interactive video formats will become a bigger part of the budget as brands look for new ways to engage audiences.

How much are marketers spending on video marketing?

The numbers tell an interesting story. Our 2024 Video Marketing Survey shows marketers are putting a significant amount of their total budget into video.

And it’s paying off — 52% report high ROI, while 47% see average returns.

Most marketers that I spoke with plan to increase their video budget next year.

It makes sense when you look at the impact: 52% cite brand awareness as their primary goal, and 41% say video helps customers understand their products better.

What’s the typical budget breakdown? According to digital transformation expert Suriel Arellano, here’s how businesses usually slice it:

• 40-50% on production
• 20-30% on promotion
• The rest on talent and marketing

How AI Is Making Video Marketing More Affordable

Video marketing can get expensive quickly — whether it’s for production, post-production, promotion, or analyzing results.

But AI video tools are seriously changing the game, helping marketers like myself reduce costs across all stages of the process.

Here’s how I’ve seen AI make video marketing more cost-effective.

1. Production Stage: Brainstorming & Scripting

Creating a video from scratch often involves hours of brainstorming, scripting, and outlining. AI tools can significantly speed up this process, reducing the time spent on these tasks.

For example, ChatGPT or Breeze can assist in quickly generating video scripts or brainstorming ideas. By simply providing the AI with a few key details about the video’s objective and audience, marketers can generate entire scripts or outlines in minutes.

This saves both time and money, especially if you have limited resources.

Now, as a professional writer, I should add a disclaimer here. I certainly don’t advocate for ChatGPT replacing human creatives, including writers. A skilled scriptwriter will bring a level of expertise your project desperately needs.

However, I do recommend using ChatGPT to help you brainstorm new ideas or angles and polish certain aspects of the script.

2. Post-Production: Editing & Effects

Once your video is shot, the editing phase can be one of the most expensive stages, especially if you’re hiring a professional editor. AI tools are helping reduce post-production time though by automating many of the tedious tasks.

The cost of editing a video could rack up thousands of dollars easily. AI-powered tools like Descript and Adobe Premiere Pro can automate video editing tasks such as cutting, adding subtitles, and even creating social media-friendly formats.

One of the coolest editing features I’ve seen is text-based editing.

Essentially, you can edit words from a video transcript, and the editor will clip the video accordingly. Given that I have extremely limited video editing skills, I love how easy this is. See it here in action.

Source

3. Promotion: Ads & Audience Targeting

Once your video is ready, promoting it to the right audience is crucial.

Traditional ad spend can quickly add up, especially if you’re relying on manual targeting and content creation. AI tools make it easier to optimize both your promotion strategy and your ad spend.

You can use machine learning to optimize ad placements, identify the best audience, and adjust campaigns in real time to reduce cost per conversion.

You can also use AI-powered translation tools to create multilingual versions of your videos. It can be helpful for reaching international audiences without the expense of hiring multiple voice actors.

Affordable Video Marketing Techniques

1. Weigh your options.

According to our video marketing data, 69% of video marketers surveyed own production equipment while 10% rent, and the remaining group does both. But which approach is right for your brand? Let’s break it down:

	In-House	Agencies
Cost Structure	Lower cost per video, higher upfront investment.	Higher per-video cost, no equipment investment.
Quality	Good for simple content, limited by team skills.	Professional quality, access to expert talent.
Time	Quick turnaround for simple projects.	Longer lead times but consistent delivery.
Control	Full control over process and edits.	Less direct control but professional management.
Best For	Regular, simple content needs (social media, product demos).	Complex projects, high-production value content.

The choice often comes down to your content type and frequency.

For instance, if you’re a makeup brand creating regular tutorial content, in-house production might be perfect — you just need good lighting and a camera to showcase products in action.

However, if you’re a travel brand needing cinematic destination shots with professional talent and multiple locations, an agency could actually be more cost-effective.

Most smaller brands (those with 200 employees or less) report better ROI when working with outside agencies, particularly for high-production value content.

But if you’re planning to create frequent, simple videos for social media, building an in-house team could be a smart long-term investment.

2. Separate need-to-haves from must-haves.

If there’s one piece of video equipment you should focus on, it’s lighting.

Many believe that having the best camera does the trick, but the truth is that lighting is what makes or breaks the quality of a video.

Lighting sets the tone and mood of a video, two elements you need to maintain your audience’s attention in a video.

Sound is another area to splurge on — specifically your mics. This will enhance the quality of your video, especially if you have to settle for low-end cameras.

As for everything else (the camera, the lens, the accessories), I think these are great add-ons, but if you’re on a budget, you can make do with low to mid-range options while still getting a high-quality result.

Pro tip: When you’re filming with a smartphone, I recommend shooting in landscape mode for YouTube but vertical for platforms like TikTok and Instagram Stories. This saves you from having to reshoot or crop later.

3. Focus on engagement over production value.

While 40% of marketers emphasize the importance of engaging video editing, you don’t need expensive software to create compelling content.

What matters most is capturing attention quickly (51% of marketers agree this is crucial) and telling an engaging story (37% prioritize storytelling and scriptwriting).

Pro tip: “Localization and personalization of video content will be a priority in 2025 because it is easier and more affordable than ever thanks to AI,” says Matt Panousis, co-founder of Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies, an AI-enabled VFX studio.

So, finding ways to personalize and humanize your content will be a key aspect of engaging your audience.

4. Use free editing software.

If you’re part of a small business or team that’s trying to create a video marketing strategy without spending much money, don’t worry.

You can use the awesome video tools that come with smartphones, and you can find good video editing software. Some of this software is even free.

One of these tools is HubSpot’s Clip Creator — which can convert text into engaging videos for your business. You can start from a template or generate a video with AI.

I tried creating a few for my own freelance business and loved getting to experiment with different versions.

Get started with HubSpot’s Clip Creator.

5. Involve SMEs for educational content.

Educational videos are one of the most effective content types in 2024, and involving Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) on your team can help you create high-value content without the high cost. SMEs can provide:

• Expert Insight. Adding value to your content with authentic, credible knowledge.
• Efficiency. SMEs are often quicker at delivering accurate and valuable content, which can reduce the need for extensive scriptwriting or research.
• Affordability. Instead of paying for external experts or influencers, your own team members can provide the same level of expertise.

6. Use more video on social media platforms.

The most effective way to promote videos is on social media platforms, with 69% of marketers saying it’s the most effective strategy for reaching audiences.

The best part? It’s essentially free if you already have a strong following. We’ve also seen that you don’t need a massive advertising budget to reach your target audience, so there’s no reason not to try.

My favorite hack here is finding ways to repurpose your content. For example, you can take a single piece of content and turn it into a YouTube video, several TikTok clips, an Instagram reel, and so on.

Video Marketing Is Worth the Investment in 2025

Video marketing can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re working with a tight budget. But here’s what the data is telling us: you don’t need Hollywood production value to create content that resonates with your audience.

With 52% of marketers seeing high ROI from video and 41% saying it helps customers better understand their products, it’s clear to me that video is definitely worth the investment.

Focus on what matters most: capturing attention quickly, telling engaging stories, and getting your content in front of the right eyes through social media.

And with AI tools making video production more accessible than ever, I believe there’s never been a better time to start creating videos that connect with your audience — without breaking the bank.

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

In the early days of my career as a content marketer, I wish I had access to the meeting agenda examples to have today. Back then, I was managing a team that was fairly new to me, and I hated the idea of conducting meetings.

The questions flew around randomly, the objective changed every minute, and we couldn’t come to helpful conclusions. As essential as they were, these meetings did not get anything done.

Research reveals I was not alone: even in 2024 71% of professionals feel meetings are unproductive and inefficient.

Enter: meeting agendas. Having a solid meeting agenda revolutionized how I conduct my meetings.

In this post, I will explain the importance of a meeting agenda and its key components. I’ll also share some of the top meeting agenda examples and templates that I have personally used to transform how my team collaborates.

Table of Contents

• Why a Meeting Agenda is Essential (Even for Short Meetings)
• Meeting Agenda Format
• Meeting Agenda Sample
• 7 Meeting Agenda Examples
• 7 Meeting Agenda Templates

Why a Meeting Agenda is Essential (Even for Short Meetings)

In my opinion, the purpose of the meeting agenda is not limited to achieving KPIs or assigning tasks. It is to balance the fundamental crisis of how people behave in hierarchical groups. Accomplishing tasks as a group is a complicated process, and each member has a different idea of why the meeting is held.

Meeting agendas work as a leveler between the attendees. An agenda informs everyone of the tasks at hand, the preparation needed for that task, what they must achieve at the end, and how, as a group, they will achieve that.

Especially for managers who are statistically known to spend 40% of their time in meetings, agendas are life savers.

A general misconception is that meeting agendas are not required for smaller, more casual meetings. I’d argue otherwise. In order for people to come together and effectively communicate to resolve and strategize, meeting agendas are a necessity. No exceptions!

In a conversation with Reilly Renwick, the chief marketing officer of Pragmatic Mortgage, he mentioned that “Agendas are there to help keep meetings focused and on track.”

“With an agenda, everyone knows what’s being discussed, who’s in charge of each topic, and how much time to expect for each discussion — straight to the point with no room for confusion.”

If you’re wondering if there are any success metrics to prove this point, Renwick said that having a meeting agenda “helped us cut meeting times by about 22-26.3%, making our conversations more focused, and giving us the chance to make quicker decisions.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ll take those shorter meeting times.

Meeting Agenda Format

The format of the meeting agenda is pretty simple. And it should be simple. It should provide an at-a-glance read with the minimum possible cognitive load imposed upon the reader.

Now, let me show you what I think is the basic structure of a meeting agenda.

Meeting Title

This is where you tell people what the meeting is about in just a few words. Think of it as a headline. It should be clear and specific.

Something like “Planning Q4 Goals“ works better than ”Team Meeting.” My advice would be to keep it short and easy to understand, especially since people might get multiple agendas in a day.

Duration

How long will this meeting take? And more importantly, how long is each part of it? Break it into chunks so people know what to expect.

For example:

• Introductions – 5 mins
• Project Updates – 15 mins
• Feedback and Q&A – 10 mins

This helps keep the meeting on track and stops it from dragging on.

Objective

Why is this meeting even happening? Write this in one or two plain sentences. I like to think of this as a quick way to ensure everyone’s on the same page.

For example: “We’re meeting to discuss the Q4 launch plan and finalize roles for execution.“

It doesn’t have to be fancy — just clear.

Agenda Items

This is the list of what you‘re going to talk about, in the order you’ll talk about it. Write it in a way that’s easy to read. Something like:

• Review data from last quarter (Go over key numbers and results)
• Plan marketing campaign (Brainstorm and decide on main goals)

Simple and straightforward, right?

Action Items

What happens next? End the meeting with a clear list of tasks and who’s doing what.

For example:

• Alex: Draft the campaign outline by Friday.
• Sarah: Share competitor analysis report by Monday.

Pro tip: Share the agenda well before the meeting (2-3 days earlier if possible). Also, share relevant documents along with the agenda. This will help everyone be well-prepared for the meeting.

Sheraz Ali, founder of HARO Agency, also shares a similar thought. Here’s what he told me about what his team does:

“A crucial practice we’ve implemented is the pre-agenda communication protocol. Team members receive agenda drafts 48 hours before meetings, allowing them to prepare, contribute potential discussion points, and arrive with thoughtful insights.

This approach transforms meetings from passive information-sharing sessions into dynamic, collaborative experiences.”

Meeting Agenda Sample

If you’re wondering how to create the nuts and bolts of a meeting agenda that’ll help you run a productive and efficient meeting, I’ve designed a sample meeting agenda that you can find below.

It’s based off the meeting agenda that Roger Schwarz, an organizational psychologist, a leadership team consultant, and CEO of Roger Schwarz & Associates, uses to run his team meetings.

Topic	Preparation	Structure
1. What are the current issues with our blog’s email subscription strategy? Time: 15 Minutes Purpose: Analysis Leader: Cliff	Read the attached memo that includes images of recent emails we’ve sent out and our email subscription and engagement data.	1. Review data and highlight the key issues and insights extracted from it Time: 5 Minutes 2. Go over why you think email engagement has suffered Time: 5 Minutes 3. Ask team why they think email engagement has suffered Time: 5 Minutes
2. How should we enhance our blog’s email subscription strategy? Time: 15 Minutes Purpose: Brainstorm Leader: Tova	Come up with three ideas to boost the blog’s email engagement.	1. Propose possible solutions for boosting email engagement Time: 5 Minutes 2. Ask team what they think of your proposed solutions Time: 5 Minutes 3. Ask each team member to propose one of their own solutions Time: 5 Minutes
3. What are the next steps that we should take? Time: 15 Minutes Purpose: Decision Leader: Karla	Think about how you could practically implement each of your ideas into our blog’s email subscription strategy.	1. Decide on a proposed solution or multiple solutions Time: 5 Minutes 2. Explain why we’re going to pursue that specific path Time: 5 Minutes 3. Divvy up responsibilities to each team member Time: 5 Minutes

To dig a bit deeper, let’s explore some excellent meeting agenda examples and what they achieve. These are some of the personal meeting agendas I have created over time for my diverse work meetings. Let’s get into it.

1. Team Sync Meeting Agenda

Team sync meetings are meetings conducted for ongoing projects and recurring tasks where the team needs to touch base periodically.

Here is an agenda I created for that purpose, preferably for a quick 35-minute team meeting (even though the duration isn’t explicitly mentioned).

This agenda is deliberately designed for quick outcomes and is suited for members who are already familiar with working together.

What I like

Not only is this easy to read and understand, but it also helps all attendees know what to expect.

It includes an estimate of the overall duration of the meeting and the distribution of that time. It also specifies the objective and the conclusion of the meeting very well.

Would you appreciate something like this sent to you before a meeting? I definitely would.

2. Brainstorming Session Agenda

Brainstorming sessions are very common in my field of work. In this kind of meeting, people usually come together to generate new ideas and creative solutions.

Here is an example of a meeting agenda for brainstorming sessions. This is a 45-minute meeting schedule, which can become longer if the meeting has more members attending.

For brainstorming sessions, it is important to leave room for an introduction as well as a conclusion.

This meeting agenda example gives the session structure while encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and collaboration. It also leaves room to break the ice and make the attendees comfortable before moving on to the real task: brainstorming.

What I like

This agenda is aware of the unstructured nature of the meeting and concludes by giving time fo ‘follow-ups without dictating what they will be. Personally, I love this one!

3. Client Update Meeting Agenda

Client update meetings usually involve an external client party where the team is liable to provide project status updates.

This meeting agenda example is specially made to touch base with the client for their feedback so the team can be more efficient at giving the client what they want.

The objective is carefully divided to keep all attendees and clients up to date about the project’s development and key achievements; then, the bottlenecks are acknowledged and discussed.

What I like

I really like that there is a specific welcome section to set the tone of the meeting. There’s also room for the client to give feedback and plan the next steps. This is brilliant and works for a rather formal setting.

4. New Team Member Introduction Agenda

This is a very common meeting that happens with all new team members. This agenda is not as purpose-driven as the others. Instead, the objective is to introduce a new member to the team and get them acquainted.

This is another great example of why — whether small, big, formal, or casual — all meetings need an agenda.

What I like

This meeting agenda example allows the new and regular team members to break the ice, encouraging smoother collaboration and momentum within the team.

5. Performance Review Meeting Agenda

Performance review meetings can be one-on-one conversations or even group meetings.

This agenda is suitable for in-depth performance analysis of the team members, from strengths to areas for improvement. In my experience, meetings like these are very difficult to conduct successfully without a meeting agenda.

In this meeting agenda example, you can see the extent of influence that a well-structured meeting agenda can have. It can even strategically set the tone of the meeting, especially in sensitive cases like performance reviews.

What I like

I really like how the agenda offers space to control the flow of the conversation that will occur in the meeting. This allows the attendees and the meeting lead to feel at ease and achieve efficient outcomes.

6. Crisis Management Meeting Agenda

This is a meeting between familiar team members with an urgent problem that needs immediate attention.

Here, there is a deliberate focus on the structure, which starts with determining the challenge. Once everyone is on the same page, the agenda moves on to the present and long-term challenges, setting the stage to find a resolution.

What I like

I really like how there is a recap section in this agenda that confirms action items and timelines. This helps the team members stay on top of their responsibilities and also helps team leads make sure that nothing is left unattended.

7. Strategic Planning Meeting Agenda

Strategic planning meetings map out the big picture and long-term direction of a project or even an organization.

This is a classic strategic planning meeting agenda example where the outcomes are high-stakes; hence, there is a lot of focus on the slow pace of the conversations.

What I like

This meeting agenda example is sweet and simple and probably the most recurring type of meeting agenda. In my experience, these agendas work well because of their straightforward structure.

In addition to all the meeting agenda examples from my work meetings that I shared in the previous section, I’ve also collected some meeting agenda templates that work for various team sizes and industries.

Below are some meeting agenda templates that can help you get started with just a few clicks.

1. HubSpot’s Free Staff Meeting Agenda Template

Staff meetings are one of the most common meetings in an organization.

HubSpot‘s staff meeting agenda template can be perfect for your recurring staff meetings where you’ll need to know what you‘ll talk about, who will be presenting, when they’ll start, and so on.

You can download this agenda template in PDF or Excel format for free and edit it as needed.

Source

What I like

I love how simple and neat this meeting agenda template is. The format is easy to understand, follow, and re-use for any type of staff meeting. It imposes less control on the structure and can be molded as per requirement.

2. HubSpot’s Free Board Meeting Agenda Template

Board meetings are usually high-stakes meetings involving the company‘s board of directors. They are where the company’s most important decisions are made, so there is much less room for error in these meetings.

HubSpot’s free board meeting agenda template will make sure you cover everything you need. This template is also available for download in PDF or Excel format for free.

Source

What I like

I really liked how this template helps you get everyone on the same page by laying out which topics you‘ll discuss and how many minutes you’ll spend on each topic.

3. Project Kickoff Meeting Agenda Template

This is a template that you can use for meetings that introduce a new project or goal where the team needs end-to-end briefing about the objective and tasks. It also simplifies assigning work and summarizing the next steps of the project.

Source

What I like

I love that the template offers a Q&A session. In my experience, there will always be many questions when a project starts, and having space for Q&A is ideal.

4. Problem-Solving Meeting Agenda

This meeting agenda template is useful when teams come together to tackle a specific challenge or issue. It works equally well for meetings where one party drives the conversation, or where the meeting is rather casual between a workgroup coming together to bust their bottlenecks.

Source

What I like

I really like how the template makes space for an in-depth analysis of the problem and the things needed to resolve it. For example, the “What are we missing” section has the potential to bring up topics that might have been neglected before in the meeting.

5. Quarterly Review Meeting Agenda

This specific template is designed for formal meetings where a team or organization’s work over a quarter is overviewed. This template is perfect for meetings that require the attendees to put goals and tasks from a period into perspective.

Source

What I like

This template covers almost everything you would expect from a quarterly review meeting, and I highly recommend using it as is.

6. Stakeholder Alignment Meeting Agenda

Stakeholder alignment meetings are where all the key people involved in a business or project come together to get on the same page.

This template is suitable for such formal meetings where the structure is very important. While adopting templates like this, make sure to keep your company‘s or projects’ hierarchical needs in mind, and add a dedicated time for everyone to speak and share.

Source

What I like

I love the checklists that are provided in the template, as they help you keep track of the various tasks essential to structure the meeting properly.

7. Basic Meeting Agenda Template

This is an all-purpose meeting agenda template that can be used for almost all meetings. If you are confused about the objective or outcome of a meeting, you can start by using this template and slowly work your way to more specific templates.

Source

What I like

I love that this particular template is useful for almost all settings. When in doubt, go for this one!

Meetings Shouldn’t Be a Waste of Time

Unproductive or unorganized meetings are as beneficial to you as procrastinating on the web – they’re time-sucks.

Fortunately, the meeting agenda examples and templates I provided above can help you design and structure a productive and efficient meeting that will make people feel excited, focused, and ready to get to work.

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

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” is one of my favorite teamwork quotes. Seriously, I’ve said this quote in the office and on Zoom. I’ve even set it as my Slack status. Turns out John C. Maxwell said it in 2002.

It remains a popular quote today, in part because he was right: If you’re aiming high, a team helps you hit the mark.

I love quotes. They take truths that we all know and boil them down into something memorable. I use quotes to keep me motivated and stay connected with my team. That’s why I love quotes that are connected to teamwork.

To help take teams to the next level, I’ve collected my favorite 99 quotes about collaboration, teamwork, and determination across the following categories:

• Quotes About Collaboration
• Teamwork Quotes to Inspire Collaboration
• Hard Work Quotes to Inspire Determination
• Short Teamwork Quotes
• Motivational Teamwork Quotes
• Teamwork Quotes From Iconic Business Leaders
• Communication Quotes to Inspire Teamwork

Teamwork Quotes to Inspire Collaboration

I’m the type of person who loves to work collaboratively. That’s why I love group projects that bring multiple great minds together. I can bounce ideas off my teammates and gain their insights.

If you’re looking for a bit of inspiration to get you psyched to work in a team, start with these quotes.

15. “It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” — Charles Darwin (Click to Tweet.)

16. “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” — Henry Ford (Click to Tweet.)

17. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” — Michael Jordan (Click to Tweet.)

18. “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” — Phil Jackson (Click to Tweet.)

19. “The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.” — James Cash Penney (Click to Tweet.)

20. “Politeness is the poison of collaboration.” — Edwin Land (Click to Tweet.)

21. “Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” — Amy Poehler (Click to Tweet.)

22. “Effectively, change is almost impossible without industry-wide collaboration, cooperation, and consensus.” — Simon Mainwaring (Click to Tweet.)

23. “The team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.” — Mia Hamm

Want more? Check out these corporate team-building activities.

24. “Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.” — Patrick Lencioni (Click to Tweet.)

25. “You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.” — Jim Stovall (Click to Tweet.)

26. “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” — Babe Ruth (Click to Tweet.)

27. “There is no such thing as a self-made man. You will reach your goals only with the help of others.” — George Shinn (Click to Tweet.)

28. “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” — Napoleon Hill (Click to Tweet.)

29. “The whole is other than the sum of the parts.” — Kurt Koffka (Click to Tweet.)

30. “A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of himself and his contribution to praise the skills of others.” — Norman Shidle (Click to Tweet.)

31. “The ratio of We’s to I’s is the best indicator of the development of a team.” — Lewis B. Ergen (Click to Tweet.)

32. “Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” — Vince Lombardi (Click to Tweet.)

33. “One piece of log creates a small fire, adequate to warm you up, add just a few more pieces to blast an immense bonfire, large enough to warm up your entire circle of friends; needless to say that individuality counts but teamwork dynamites.” — Jin Kwon (Click to Tweet.)

34. “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” — Reid Hoffman (Click to Tweet.)

35. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” — Mark Twain (Click to Tweet.)

36. “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” — Booker T. Washington (Click to Tweet.)

37. “Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.” — Steve Jobs (Click to Tweet.)

38. “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” — Ryunosuke Satoro (Click to Tweet.)

39. “Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.” — Virginia Burden (Click to Tweet.)

40. “None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.” — Mother Teresa (Click to Tweet.)

41. “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” — Harry Truman (Click to Tweet.)

42. “It takes two flints to make a fire.” — Louisa May Alcott (Click to Tweet.)

43. “The way to achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first.” — Iyanla Vanzant (Click to Tweet.)

44. “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” — African Proverb (Click to Tweet.)

45. “Success is best when it’s shared.” — Howard Schultz (Click to Tweet.)

Need help collaborating effectively? Take a look at 21 marketing collaboration tools to improve teamwork.

Hard Work Quotes to Inspire Determination

We’ve all hit a rut. Trust me, I’ve been there too. Once the caffeine wears off or when I have competing priorities on my plate, I can get so stressed that I feel paralyzed.

A little bit of motivation can get me out of my head and back to the grind. These are my favorite quotes about hard work that keep me inspired.

46. “Hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard.” — Tim Notke (Click to Tweet.)

47. “We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” — Ariana Huffington (Click to Tweet.)

48. “When the ideas are coming, I don’t stop until the ideas stop because that train doesn’t come along all the time.” — Dr. Dre (Click to Tweet.)

49. “Someone once told me growth and comfort do not coexist. And I think it’s a really good thing to remember.” — Ginni Rometty (Click to Tweet.)

50. “Hard work keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit.” — Helena Rubinstein (Click to Tweet.)

51. “Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment.” — Mahatma Gandhi (Click to Tweet.)

52. “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” — Thomas Jefferson (Click to Tweet.)

53. “Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.” — Malcolm Forbes (Click to Tweet.)

54. “The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.” — Vince Lombardi Jr. (Click to Tweet.)

Need tools to boost collaboration and encourage innovation? See how HubSpot can help.

Short Teamwork Quotes

Sometimes, I don’t have the time or energy to read a full motivational speech. Even a paragraph-long pep talk can feel like a big lift. That’s when I turn to short quotes.

These short truisms boil the big ideas about teamwork into something simple and byte-sized.

55. “Teamwork makes the dream work.” — John C. Maxwell (Click to Tweet.)

56. “The bigger the dream, the more important the team.” — Robin Sharma (Click to Tweet.)

57. “None of us is as smart as all of us.” — Ken Blanchard (Click to Tweet.)

58. “If you take out the team in teamwork, it’s just work. Now who wants that?” — Matthew Woodring Stover (Click to Tweet.)

59. “Tough times don’t last. Tough teams do.” — Robert Schuller (Click to Tweet.)

60. “Together, ordinary people can achieve extraordinary results.” — Becka Schoettle (Click to Tweet.)

61. “Communication works for those who work at it.” — John Powell (Click to Tweet.)

62. “Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication.” — Mike Krzyzewski (Click to Tweet.)

63. “It’s better to have a great team than a team of greats.” — Simon Sinek (Click to Tweet.)

64. “Ego is the ultimate killer on a team.” — Patrick Lencioni (Click to Tweet.)

65. “Strategy is not a solo sport, even if you’re the CEO” — Max McKeown (Click to Tweet.)

66. “There is no such thing as a ‘one-man show’ in a winning team.” — Jose B. Cabajar (Click to Tweet.)

67. “Many candles can be kindled from one candle without diminishing it.” — Midrash (Click to Tweet.)

68. “We rise by lifting others.” — Robert Ingersoll (Click to Tweet.)

69. “In teamwork, silence isn’t golden. It’s deadly.” — Mark Sanborn (Click to Tweet.)

70. “A single leaf working alone provides no shade.” — Chuck Page

71. “A successful team is a group of many hands but of one mind.” — Bill Bethel

Motivational Teamwork Quotes

Sometimes, I find the start of a team project to be overwhelming. There are so many things to do and the ball hasn’t even gotten rolling. These motivational teamwork quotes help me start projects on the right foot.

72. “When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes reality.” — Joe Paterno (Click to Tweet.)

73. “The power of one, if fearless and focused, is formidable, but the power of many working together is better.” — Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (Click to Tweet.)

74. “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” — Henry Ford (Click to Tweet.)

75. “When you hand good people possibility, they do great things.” — Biz Stone (Click to Tweet.)

76. “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” — Sun Tzu (Click to Tweet.)

77. “Our destiny is not written for us, it’s written by us.” — Barack Obama (Click to Tweet.)

78. “Every once in a while, you hear an expert that says team chemistry is overrated. You just write that person off.” — Tony La Russa (Click to Tweet.)

79. “Create an environment where people can take risks. If everything has to be brilliant from the word go, you’re never gonna get off the ground.” — Paul Hewson, a.k.a Bono (Click to Tweet.)

80. “Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prison of the past or a pioneer of the future.” — Deepak Chopra (Click to Tweet.)

81. “Decency is avoiding disrespect, not avoiding disagreement. Integrity is trying to get it right, not being right.” — Adam Grant (Click to Tweet.)

82. “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Click to Tweet.)

83. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead (Click to Tweet.)

84. “When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because winning can make you soft. On the other hand, when your team is losing, stick by them. Keep believing.” — Bo Schembechler (Click to Tweet.)

85. “You are either supporting the vision or supporting division.” — Saji Ijiyemi (Click to Tweet.)

86. “Not finance, not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and rare.” — Patrick Lencioni (Click to Tweet.)

87. “Unity is strength… when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.” — Mattie Stepanek

88. “Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success.” — Stephen Covey

Teamwork Quotes From Iconic Business Leaders

Knowing that business behemoths like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and David Packard don’t just value teamwork but actively promote it inspires the heck out of me. Hopefully, these quotes will inspire you, too!

89. “I am a big believer in the power of a team. A good team can win a championship if they have the fundamentals and work together as one.” — Howard Schultz, former CEO of Starbucks

90. “The best team is not the team with the best players, but the team that plays best together.” — Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase

91. “My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other, and the total was greater than the sum of the parts.” — Steve Jobs, Co-founder and former CEO of Apple Inc.

92. “I invite everyone to choose forgiveness rather than division, teamwork over personal ambition.” — Jean-Francois Cope, CEO of Atos

93. “Teams should be able to act with the same unity of purpose and focus as a well-motivated individual.” — Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft Corporation

94. “The five separate fingers are five independent units. Close them and the fist multiplies strength. This is organization.” — James Cash Penney, founder of J.C. Penney

95. “A group of people get together and exist as an institution we call a company so they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not accomplish separately — they make a contribution to society.” — David Packard, Co-founder of Hewlett-Packard

Communication Quotes to Inspire Teamwork

I’m sure you’ve experienced this truth, too: Collaboration, cohesiveness, and teamwork can’t happen without effective communication. The following quotes are a reminder of the importance of communication in facilitating teamwork.

96. “The art of communication is the language of leadership.” — James Humes

97. “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” — Epictetus

98. “Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy, and mutual valuing.” — Rollo May

99. “Communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity.” — Nat Turner

Great quotes can help motivate teams, inspire them to innovate, and get them thinking big. But quotes are just the start. For teamwork to make the dream work, businesses need the right combination of people, processes, and technologies.

It’s this team trifecta that puts companies on the path to success.

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

Faced with an urgent need to brush up my spreadsheet skills, I went online and searched for the best Excel resources available. I discovered a lot of amazing options, both free and paid.

Microsoft Excel is a versatile spreadsheet application that’s useful for data entry and storage, budgeting, data analysis, project management, reporting, inventory management, and much more.

Whether you’re a marketer, freelancer, entrepreneur, or business owner, and no matter your profession, Microsoft Excel is a valuable skill to have.

Today, I’m going to share some of the best ways to learn Excel online free of charge, plus some paid options.

Table of Contents

• Learning Excel
• How to Learn Excel With Free Training Resources
• How to Learn Excel With Paid Training Resources

Here are the things you’ll be learning in Excel through the training resources I’ll share:

Below are the 21 amazing free and paid Excel resources I discovered. Feel free to bookmark your favorites and take advantage of them so you can work more efficiently in Excel.

How to Learn Excel With Free Training Resources

1. GoSkills & HubSpot Academy Excel for Marketers Course

This is one of the best free Excel resources I found out there.

In this GoSkills and HubSpot Academy free Excel for Marketers course, you can quickly get up to speed with Excel’s most common formulas, functions, and shortcuts. This universal course content can be applied to any context, including marketing, and is perfect for those who need a refresher in Excel fundamentals.

By the end of the course, you’ll have mastered time-saving hacks to simplify your workflow and gain a shiny certificate of achievement for your efforts.

 

What I like: I love that I can complete this crash course in just under two hours since it was created for busy people like marketers, business owners, and other professionals.

2. HubSpot Excel Resources

Since Excel is one of the most in-demand skills for data-driven marketers — and because we want marketers and others like you to succeed — we’ve created some of our own educational content about Excel here at HubSpot.

From free eBooks, to templates, to video tutorials, we tried to cover a wide range of Excel-relevant topics.

Here are a few of our best Excel resources:

• Hubspot Academy x GoSkills Excel for Marketers course (free course)
• 50 Hacks to Help You Become an Excel Master (free ebook)
• The Ultimate Guide to Using Microsoft Excel (long-form content)
• 10 Excel Templates to Make Marketing Easier (free templates)
• How to Create a Pivot Table in Excel: A Step-by-Step Tutorial (video and blog post)
• How to Use Excel Like a Pro: 29 Easy Excel Tips, Tricks & Shortcuts (long-form content)

What I like: I’m excited that I can pick and choose resources in different formats, like a video tutorial, a blog post, a free eBook, free templates, a free course, and more.

3. Microsoft’s Excel for Windows Training

To learn a new application, I’m sure it makes a lot of sense to consider the source.

And in this case, no one knows Excel better than the people at Microsoft.

In this training, they did a great job by putting together this resource hub for all Microsoft Office applications and services.

The Excel training has a whole bunch of free tutorials that cover the latest version of Excel, organized into functional learning modules.

Check out the training here.

What I like: It’s great that the videos are broken down into short topics and modules that are practical, straightforward, and easy to understand.

4. The Spreadsheet Page

Unlike most of the Excel resources on this list, the Spreadsheet Page creates and shares professionally designed Excel templates you can download at no cost, and customize for personal, business and educational purposes.

You can find templates for to-do lists, invoices, budgets, calendars and more.

The well-organized site is chock full of helpful Excel tips, collected by an expert named John Walkenbach. Over the past 30 years, he’s written more than 60 Excel books for users of all levels, and around 300 articles and reviews for magazines like InfoWorld, PC World, and PC/Computing.

At one point, he wrote the monthly spreadsheet column for PC World. In other words, the man knows his stuff — and he knows how to present it.

I learned they’ve been around since 2005, and millions of users around the world have downloaded their free templates and workbooks.

They also have a blog where you can find more Excel tips, resources, tutorials, random observations, and jokes.

Source

What I like: When you download any of their templates, you’ll also get a handy tutorial on how to customize the file for your own use, so you can learn by doing. How cool is that?

5. Contextures

Contextures is a place where you can find hundreds of free Excel resources in the form of training videos, tutorials, a monthly newsletter, and sample workbooks.

This Excel resource has hundreds of downloadable spreadsheets that offer step-by-step instructions for performing data validation, adding filters and conditional formatting to rows and columns, designing charts, creating PivotTables, running functions and more.

Debra Dalgleish, a Microsoft Excel Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award recipient, started Contextures in 2000 and has built hundreds of Excel solutions for clients as a consultant. She got her first MVP award from Microsoft in 2001, and every single year since. And in 2021, she also got her 20-year MVP ring.

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What I like: Debra stated clearly on her site that readers should let her know if there’s a topic they think she should cover on Contextures. How nice of her!

6. Chandoo.org

This site is another fantastic resource that can help you learn Excel at no cost.

Purna “Chandoo” Duggirala, Chandoo.org‘s founder, says he has one goal: “to make you awesome at Excel and Power BI.”

He started the blog in 2007 and built it as a community, citing values like humility, passion, fun, and simplicity. He also works to make it a valuable resource for folks who do not have English as their first language.

Today, the blog contains hundreds of Excel articles and tutorials. You can sign up to receive weekly Excel tips through his newsletter, and also watch Excel training videos on his YouTube channel.

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But it’s not all so formal. For example, Chandoo once created a digital Easter egg hunt for a blog post a while back, which included a downloadable Excel workbook containing seven hidden pandas. Readers were challenged to locate the pandas using clues, Excel techniques, and even “I-Spy” skills.

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While the articles, videos, forums, and other parts of the site are free, you can pay to join one of Chandoo’s structured training programs, like Excel School ($147 – $247), or VBA Classes ($97 – $347).

Plus, there’s always the option to buy one of his books — The VLOOKUP Book or Excel Formula Helper Ebook.

What I like: When people ask questions about Excel formulas, formatting, shortcuts, pivot tables, and so on in the forum, anyone can answer them. But I think it’s wonderful that Chandoo goes a step further and uses some of these questions to create articles and tutorials.

7. Excel Easy

I found Excel Easy to be a comprehensive tutorial for learning Excel. Its learnings are divided into chapters, and these are sorted into the following sections:

• Introduction
• Basics
• Functions
• Data Analysis
• VBA
• Examples

In each chapter, Excel Easy walks you through what it perceives to be the fundamentals of Excel, in the form of written guides with screenshots to help you master each concept.

At the end of the tutorial, you have access to 300 examples showing you how to perform each concept in real scenarios. Concepts include basic formulas and functions, how to create a ribbon, creating multiple worksheets, formatting cells, data validation, table creation, and more.

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What I like: With hundreds of examples available for learners to practice with, I believe this can make it easier for beginners to understand and learn Excel at a faster rate.

8. MrExcel.com

With this free Excel resource, you can learn Excel and also get in touch with Excel experts to ask questions or make inquiries.

MrExcel.com was launched by Bill Jelen in 1998m and its claim to fame is its interactive message board, which is constantly monitored by its community of Excel gurus. The board is organized according to subject, like general announcements, questions, and MrExcel.com products.

When a user posts a question, a member of the MrExcel.com expert community will reply with an answer. The questions range from simplifying an Excel task, to solving urgent inquiries.

Not a native English speaker? You can ask questions in your native language.

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What I like: I think it’s great that the site also has a library of helpful Excel books and ebooks. And if you need help with problems that are more complex, you can hire an Excel consultant directly from the website, for a fee.

9. Exceljet

Dave Bruns, a Microsoft Excel MVP award winner, founded Exceljet in 2012 and runs the site with his wife. Their goal is to help ordinary people use Excel faster and more effectively.

I discovered that Exceljet has several thousand pages of content, including articles and over 400 short videos, that allow you to itemize your Excel training based on the project you’re working on.

Other free resources include the following and more:

• 500 Excel Formulas
• 350 Excel Functions
• 222 Excel Shortcuts
• Pivot Table Examples
• Excel Tables Guide
• Pivot Table Examples

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They also have several paid video trainings that take a deeper dive into specific Excel topics of interest to their users and followers.

What I like: With their bite-sized videos, I love that I can watch and practice a skill in less than 10 minutes. And I can subscribe to their free email newsletter to join over 100,000 people who get weekly Excel tips on useful formulas.

10. Excel in an Hour

This crash course is a free tutorial from GoSkills, an award-winning education platform that’s trusted by more than 8000 organizations worldwide.

To my pleasant surprise, Excel in an Hour includes:

• 16 easy-to-digest Excel tutorial videos.
• Downloadable exercise files and reference guides.
• Unlimited quiz and test attempts.
• Certificate of completion.

It was designed to help beginners quickly learn the most common formulas, functions, and tools they need to handle everyday Excel tasks with ease.

The downloadable practice worksheets also make it easy to apply new knowledge to real-world scenarios.

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What I like: I’m really excited that this free course requires no prior knowledge of Excel and I can get a shiny certificate once I complete it. Hurray!

11. Trump Excel

To share his knowledge and help people learn Excel, Sumit Bansal, a Microsoft Excel MVP award winner, created this Excel tutorial site in 2013.

On Trump Excel, I found a huge number of free Excel tutorials and videos like:

• 100+ Excel functions with examples and videos.
• Excel tips you can apply instantly to boost productivity.
• Excel VBA tips to automate repetitive tasks.
• Excel charting tips.
• Excel dashboards, including detailed tutorials, examples, and download files.
• Excel templates for every situation.
• Best Excel books to make you an Excel pro.

But that’s not all. There are also free courses on topics like Excel Power Query, VBA, Dashboard, and a comprehensive Excel training made up of 12+ hours of basic and advanced videos.

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What I like: In addition to the huge number of free Excel resources available, I love the free 51 Excel tips ebook that I can download, study at my convenience, and keep in my personal library.

12. Introduction to MS Excel

Here’s another detailed Excel resource you want to consider. It’s a free training from Simplilearn, a global leader in digital upskilling that offers world-class training to individuals and businesses worldwide.

In this free Excel course, you’ll enjoy seven hours of self-paced video lessons and learn essential spreadsheet features, plus how to automate activities, analyze data, create reports, and use Excel for real-world tasks.

It’s great for beginners and all those who have never used Excel before.

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What I like: I’m excited that this course was designed for beginners no matter their background or profession. And I love that I can get a shareable certificate once I complete the course.

13. Microsoft Excel – Improve Your Skills Quickly

I found this free Excel resource on Udemy, a leader in online learning that’s trusted by over 16,000 companies and millions of learners around the world.

The course instructor, Phillip Burton, has been teaching on Udemy since 2015 and has over 800,000 students so far — plus over 40 video courses. Here’s everything you’re going to learn in this free tutorial:

• Learn more about formatting, filters, and conditional formatting to improve the presentation of your spreadsheets with a few clicks.
• Create tables, Pivot Tables, Charts, Pivot Charts and Sparklines.
• Find out how powerful Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is and automate your code.
• Learn functions such as SUM, SUMIF, VLOOKUP, OFFSET and INDIRECT.

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What I like: It’s great that this course was designed for people who want to develop their Microsoft Excel skills in a couple of hours, including all those using older versions of Excel, who want to learn newer versions. The practice activities included here also help learners gain hands-on experience.

How to Learn Excel With Paid Training Resources

14. GoSkills

GoSkills offers a range of Excel certification courses for all skill levels. Their most popular course is Excel – Basic & Advanced, which teaches essential real-world skills you’ll need for everyday use.

This training starts with the basics and with each lesson, you can build your knowledge from beginner to intermediate and then move to advanced lessons.

By the end of this course, you will be able to handle everything from reports and charts to complex data analysis and project management.

Designed to accommodate busy learners, all lessons are bite-sized (3-7 minutes long) and come with a video tutorial, practical exercise, short quiz, transcripts, and quick reference guide.

The award-winning platform also features courses on business and software skills like Microsoft Office, project management, lean six sigma, productivity, soft skills, finance, development, and design.

Price

• 7 days free trial
• $39 per month, billed monthly
• $20.75 per month, billed yearly

What I like: When you complete this course, you stand a chance of getting a highly sought-after Excel certification that’s recognized worldwide.

15. Excel Essentials from Excel Exposure

This is a paid Excel resource that can help you unlock your inner Excel ninja, overcome your fear of Excel, reduce errors in your Excel documents, automate some tasks, gain confidence, use Excel faster. and save valuable time.

That’s a lot of benefits.

Excel Essentials from Excel Exposure is a self-paced online course with over five hours of content that covers Excel basics, up to advanced concepts like Pivot Tables and VLOOKUPs.

The course instructor, Ben Currier, has spent the last 15 years working in finance and accounting in various industries like real estate, healthcare, video games, diamond jewelry, and more.

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Price

• $197 – One-time payment; lifetime access
• $59 per month, billed monthly

What I like: Even though this is a paid course, it’s awesome that the first module is available free of charge.

16. Coursera

Partnering with 350+ leading universities and companies worldwide, Coursera is a global platform for online learning and career development.

The site offers online classes to anyone, anywhere, on a wide variety of topics, ranging from music production to Excel to coaching skills, and much more.

Here are some of the popular Excel resources that I found:

• Introduction to Microsoft Excel
• Using Basic Formulas and Functions in Microsoft Excel
• Excel Skills for Business
• Create Charts and Dashboards Using Microsoft Excel
• Create a Financial Statement Using Microsoft Excel

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Like many real-world classes, each course includes video lectures, interactive quizzes, peer-graded assessments, and the opportunity to connect with fellow students and instructors.

Once you finish a course, you’ll receive formal recognition along with an optional course certificate.

Price

• Learn a single topic or skill: $49-$79 per month
• Complete multiple courses with Coursera Plus Monthly: $59 per month, 7-day free trial
• Complete multiple courses with Coursera Plus Yearly: $399 per year, with a 14-day money-back guarantee

What I like: I love the various pricing options available, especially Coursera Plus monthly, that I can use to complete multiple courses within one or two months.

17. Udemy’s “Microsoft Excel – From Beginner to Expert in 6 Hours”

If you had six hours to spare, how would you use them? “Sleep,” “clean the house,” and “bake something” are some of the things that come to mind. But what if you can become an Excel expert in that amount of time?

That’s what Udemy promises in its “Microsoft Excel – From Beginner to Expert in 6 Hours” course. You will learn everything you need to know about Microsoft Excel, from the fundamentals to the most advanced features.

I also noticed that the course includes five hours of video, an article, 128 downloadable resources, access on mobile and TV, closed captions, lifetime access and a certificate of completion.

Udemy is one of the most bountiful online learning resources out there, and their Excel courses are many. In fact, typing “Excel” into the search bar yields thousands of results, each one displaying a star rating, price, length, and level.

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Price: $149.99, currently discounted to $16.99. (Check page for frequent discounts.)

What I like: It’s amazing that the course instructor, Todd McLeod, is a Microsoft Certified Master Instructor and a university professor with 20+ years of experience teaching Microsoft Excel. I get a lot of value learning from experts who are not only familiar with the tool, but how to teach it.

18. Excel Everest

The name of this resource may look intimidating, but you‘d be surprised how convenient the training is. Excel Everest is an out-of-the-box resource that teaches you Excel while you’re in Excel.

I found out that the product you buy downloads an Excel file to your computer, where you’ll open Excel and engage in walk-throughs of 41 different Excel functions right from a sample spreadsheet.

Topics covered include conditional formatting, VLOOKUP, chart creation, and so much more.

This Excel training resource offers hundreds of exercises, along with video tutorials embedded directly in a sample Excel spreadsheet.

By applying these concepts in Excel as you learn them, you‘ll feel them stick with you long after you complete Excel Everest’s training.

Price: $159

What I like: I think it’s a good sign that top companies like Google, Eventbrite, PlayCore, and more trust Excel Everest for their employee Excel training.

Microsoft Online Excel Training – Learn Excel Formulas, Pivot Tables, Macros, VLOOKUP & more…

19. Learn iT!

Learn iT! offers Excel training in a variety of formats and breaks every lesson down by module. It’s one of the best solutions for Excel learners who want more than just a video series or a written step-by-step guide.

Here are some of their open Excel trainings:

• Excel Introduction
• Excel Intermediate
• Excel Advanced
• Excel Power User
• Excel Pivot Tables
• Excel Intro to Data Analysis
• Excel VBA

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With 28 years of success helping companies and careers grow, Learn iT has upskilled over one million individuals, helped 10,000+ companies upskill their workforce, and also trained people in over 15 countries.

Price

• Excel Introduction, Intermediate, Advanced: $145 – $290
• Excel Power User, Pivot Tables: $145 – $290
• Excel Intro to Data Analysis: $145
• Excel VBA: $995

What I like: I think it’s awesome that you can take your selected course four different ways: an in-person instructor-led session, live online with classmates, privately in a custom-made session, or a self-paced mix of instructor-led and interactive elearning courses.

20. LinkedIn Learning

In case you didn’t know, LinkedIn isn’t just for professional networking. LinkedIn Learning is an online learning platform — yes, from LinkedIn — that provides access to more than 24,000 high-quality on-demand courses.

You can discover and learn various business, technology, and creative topics and skills with the help of subject matter experts (SMEs) who host their training on the LinkedIn Learning platform.

Many of these courses include exercise files, assessments, and video transcripts.

When I searched for Microsoft Excel on LinkedIn Learning, I got over 7,000 results, showing different Excel courses from various SMEs. Here are some of them:

• Excel Essential Training (Microsoft 365)
• Excel: VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP for Beginners
• Excel: Supply Chain Shipping Analysis
• Excel Quick Tips

Check out LinkedIn Learning for all available Excel courses.

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Price

• Premium LinkedIn subscriptions provide unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning.
• Premium LinkedIn subscriptions also offer a one-month free trial.

What I like: It’s wonderful that so many high-quality Excel resources are available to choose from, depending on individual needs, preferences, and priorities.

21. eLearnExcel

eLearnExcel is a Microsoft Excel eLearning company. It’s also a product of the International Academy of Computer Training (IACT) — Ireland’s largest and most experienced IT Training company.

They offer eight Excel training courses, and seven of them provide relevant Excel certifications.

Check out some of their courses below:

• 15 Time-Saving Excel Tips You’ll Use Everyday
• Understand the Basics of Excel Step-by-Step
• Discover the must-know Excel Formulas and Functions
• How to analyze data in Excel to make better decisions
• Discover How to Make Beautiful Charts in Excel

If you complete all eight courses, quizzes, and the Excel Master Project, you’ll be awarded the Excel Master Diploma.

It‘s not a bad item to put on your resume — or on your business’s website, if multiple employees enroll in eLearnExcel’s courses as part of a business subscription.

Price

You can get all courses with any of their membership plans below:

• 14-day free trial
• $24 per month, paid monthly. Cancel anytime!
• $247 for one-year access
• $297 for two-year access
• $999 for lifetime access

What I like: I think it’s lovely that their courses are not only approved by Microsoft, but are also used by them.

Start Learning Excel Online

Whether you need to brush up your Excel skills quickly, or you want to learn Excel from scratch, I’ve shared the best ways to learn Excel online free of charge. I also added some paid resources that are well worth the money.

Personally, I can’t wait to dive into my favorites — I’m planning on taking the Excel for Marketers course from GoSkills and HubSpot Academy, the Spreadsheet Page, Exceljet, Contextures, Excel in an Hour, Trump Excel, and all the HubSpot Excel resources.

Once you’re ready, start with one or more of the free courses. In no time, you’ll be able to increase your productivity, expand your knowledge, and implement the power of Excel for your projects.

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

Welcome to Creator Columns, where we bring expert HubSpot Creator voices to the Blogs that inspire and help you grow better.

I hear people talk about the power of “story” in marketing.

The best marketers — and the best brands — are the ones telling the best stories.

However, I believe most brands are telling the wrong story… And it’s costing them millions.

So… Whose story are you telling?

Every story has four characters: the Hero, the Victim, the Villain, and the Guide. Understanding these roles is a game-changer for anyone looking to build a personal brand that actually connects with people.

Why?

Because how you show up in your marketing — whether you realize it or not — shapes how your audience feels about you.

The most successful marketers don’t try to be the hero of their stories. They step into the role of the guide. This small but powerful shift builds trust, shows you’ve got the goods, and makes your audience want to stick around.

Here’s why it is so important for you to be the guide and not the hero of the story you are telling.

The Four Characters in Every Story

1. The Hero

The Hero is the main character. They’re the ones taking on challenges, figuring things out, and striving for transformation.

We think of heroes as being strong. In reality, heroes in stories are actually weak. They doubt themselves. They make mistakes. They don’t know if they have what it takes. They don’t actually become heroes until the end of the story.

In your business, your customers are the heroes. They’re the ones on the journey, looking for answers to their problems. They are the ones who are struggling.

If you position yourself as the hero of your story, you are actually positioning yourself as weak.

2. The Victim

The victim is stuck, powerless, and unsure how to move forward.

While we can empathize with victims, they don’t inspire action. If your personal brand positions itself as a victim, it will come across as weak or unreliable — not the kind of person people turn to for help. There are real victims in this world, and you may even be a victim from time to time, but never play the victim in your branding.

It makes people feel sorry for you, but it doesn’t make them trust you.

3. The Villain

The villain causes the hero’s struggles. They’re selfish, dismissive, and all about their own gain. Nobody wants to work with a villain.

And yet, some brands unintentionally take on this role by being pushy, manipulative, or putting profits over people. In stories that we love, villains never win.

4. The Guide

The Guide is the helper. They’re wise, empathetic, and laser-focused on helping the hero succeed. Think Yoda from Star Wars or Haymitch from The Hunger Games. The guide isn’t the star, but they’re essential. They’ve been where the hero is, and know exactly how to help them win.

In fact, guides are actually the strongest characters in stories. They are the ones who have already won the day and don’t need to prove anything. This is the role your personal brand should play.

Why Your Personal Brand Should be the Guide

Being the guide means stepping out of the spotlight and letting your customer shine. It’s not about you; it’s about them. Even within your marketing.

This approach creates connection and trust because it shows you understand their struggles and you know how to help.

Take Apple’s marketing, for example. Their products are undeniably cool, but their messaging always puts the customer first. They don’t shout, “Look at us; we’re amazing.” Instead, they show how you can create, connect, and thrive using their tools. Apple is the guide, handing you the lightsaber so you can conquer your galaxy.

Or, look at Nike. Their slogan, “Just Do It,” isn’t about them. It’s a rallying cry for you to push through challenges and go for it. Nike’s role? They’re the trusted partner helping you get there.

How to Step Into the Guide’s Role in Your Personal Brand

The way that a guide shows up in a story is with empathy and expertise. They matter because they know the hero’s struggle, and already know how to conquer that challenge.

Think about Hamich in Hunger Games. He has empathy for Katniss because he was in the Hunger Games, but he also won, so he brings expertise to the table. If the guide doesn’t have these two qualities, they don’t belong in the story.

This is also true with your personal brand — and your customers can sense it.

If I go to a gym and say to a trainer, “I want to get is shape”, and they say “Me too,” they are not my guide. They’re demonstrating empathy, but I’m not looking for a friend. I’m looking for someone to help me succeed.

If I say the same thing to another trainer and they pull up their shirt to reveal a six pack and say, “Just have some discipline and work harder. It’s easy.” They are not my Guide, either. They may have authority, but they lack empathy.

If I say to a third trainer and say I want to get in shape and that trainer says, “I get it. Getting in shape is hard, especially with being so busy. I used to not feel great physically, but I’ve developed a tried and true way to get in shape and feel better physically, while still occasionally eating ice cream.” I just found my trainer.

You need to have both empathy and expertise to be the guide in your customer’s story.

How do you do that?

Lead with empathy.

Empathy is the secret sauce of trust. Start by letting your audience know you get it — you understand their challenges and what they’re up against. Speak their language and show you’re here to help.

Example: Instead of saying, “I’m an award-winning career coach,” try, “I know how exhausting it is to send out job applications and hear crickets. That’s why I’m here to help you land the job you deserve.”

How to do it:

• Start by naming their struggles and then talk about how you understand them.
• Talk about ways you were like them before you found a way forward.
• Speak to feelings like frustration, overwhelm, anxiety, or fear.
• Your messaging should always reflect what your audience cares about. Ditch the jargon and focus on their goals, frustrations, and dreams.
• Always lead with empathy. The old adage is true, “If they don’t know how much you care, they won’t care how much you know.”

Show you know your stuff.

Empathy is great, but people also want to know you’re the real deal. Don’t just tell them you’re an expert — prove it with results. Give a clear demonstration of your proven expertise.

Example: Share transformation stories. For instance, if you’re a business consultant, talk about how you helped a company boost revenue.

How to do it:

• Share before-and-after case studies.
• Show real numbers and data to back up your expertise.
• Create content that teaches your audience something valuable.
• On your website, show awards, certifications, media spotlights, statistics, or logos of big companies you’ve helped.

The only time you should ever talk about yourself in your marketing is when you want to show empathy for your customer’s problem, and evidence of your expertise to show you can solve their problem.

That’s it.

Anything else just positions you as the hero of the story. Your customer may be impressed by you, but they are looking for a guide, not another hero.

It’s About Them, Not You

Building a personal brand that’s all about being the guide isn’t just a smart marketing move — it’s a way to genuinely connect with people. It’s about saying, “I see you, I understand what you’re going through, and I’m here to help.” The specific way you do that is by offering empathy and showing expertise.

So, here’s the big question: Are you positioning yourself as the hero, or are you stepping up as the guide? Stop trying to tell your story and invite your customers into a story where they get to be the hero. Because when they win, you win.

Ok, this has to be one of the most meta projects I’ve worked on: a piece of digital content about digital content — but, hey, it’s an important one.

From toddlers to senior citizens, everyone today wields a mobile device. So much of our lives are spent staring at screens that very few can say they don’t consume digital content, whether they call it that or not.

No one knows this better than modern marketers, but for those of you new to the field or looking for a refresher on what actually falls under the umbrella of digital content, I’m here to break it down.

I’ll also share what some industry thought leaders predict digital content will look like next year.

Table of Contents

• What is digital content?
• Types of Digital Content
• Importance of Digital Content
• How to Create Great Digital Content
• Examples of Great Digital Content
• What will digital content look like in 2025? (According to Experts)

What is digital content?

Simply put, digital content is any type of media used to reach and connect with an audience that is created, hosted, and distributed through the internet.

Many people, like artists, digital creators, journalists, and media organizations, create digital content simply because it’s their offering; it’s a new medium for them to express themselves and communicate with others.

However, businesses, entrepreneurs, and marketers like me usually create digital content to drive traffic and awareness, generate new leads, and convert new customers.

In other words, digital content could also be defined as online media created for content marketing.

Types of Digital Content

Content thought leader and Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs Ann Handley once said, “Everything the light touches is content” — and she’s not really exaggerating.

That email you deleted this morning? Digital content.

The meme your dad texted you this morning? Digital content.

The YouTube video linked in your group chat? Digital content.

This article? Digital content.

And that’s just scratching the surface. Digital content includes, but is not limited to:

• Blogs/Articles
• Videos (Static and Live)
• Podcasts
• Images (Photographs, Graphics, Infographics)
• Emails (Newsletters, RSS feeds, transactional emails)
• Downloads (Guides, Reports)
• Webinars
• Templates
• Interactive Tools (Quizzes, Calculators, etc.)
• Social Media

Now, some of these mediums can exist offline, too, like articles, quizzes, and templates, but when they are digitized, they offer a number of unique and unmatched benefits.

Importance of Digital Content

For modern businesses, the importance of digital content can’t be overstated — and I don’t say this simply because my career depends on it.

Overall, content can drive brand awareness and build trust with your audience but digital content management comes with a wealth of operational benefits that analog mediums don’t.

Benefits of Digital Content

Cost-effective

One of the biggest benefits of digital content is its cost-effectiveness. Many mediums use low — or no-cost tools such as blogging, SEO, and social media, making it accessible for businesses and teams of all sizes.

Yes, paying seasoned, skilled professionals to own and execute your digital content strategy can come at a pretty penny, but the barriers otherwise are quite low.

Plus, your work tends to compound. Once you build site authority and social media followings, quality digital content tends to deliver more without much more immediate attention.

Versatile and Scalable

Don’t get me wrong, I love traditional media. I love seeing what I’ve designed or written brought to life as something tangible that I can touch and feel — but these sensory analog treats are just not as versatile or convenient as digital.

With its online format, digital content is easy to repurpose for different platforms and mediums and enhance for use on larger scales. Blog posts can be turned into videos or social media posts, and podcasts can be transcribed into guides.

Digital content can also be cross-posted or promoted to multiple platforms with just the push of a button. This just can’t be done as efficiently with analog content.

Pro tip: AI can make repurposing content even easier for marketers. Learn more in this article.

Easier Collaboration

Being internet-based, digital content is also easier to share and collaborate on with people near or far. For instance, if I stage an article for publishing in the HubSpot CMS, anyone on my team with the right permissions can go in and leave comments or make edits to it.

All someone needs to share their input is a link and an internet connection.

Better Analytics

When you publish an article in a newspaper or hang a billboard, you can’t truly know how many people took the time to read that message and take action. With digital content, you can.

Most social media tools and content management systems offer in-depth information on your content’s performance, such as views/clicks and conversion rates, but they can also be linked to third-party tools like Google Analytics or Databox to get even more granular.

These insights can help you better understand what types of digital content are working to achieve your goals and what you may need to change.

Ok, so how do you create this oh-so-useful digital content?

How to Create Great Digital Content

Creating digital content isn’t really that different from creating for analog mediums. It’s when the time comes to distribute and analyze that the two go in different directions.

Let’s talk through the five main steps of creating digital content, and I’ll explain.

Plan

At this point, we will assume you’ve already determined what you are trying to achieve with your content.

In other words, you know what you need to get your audience to do or feel after consuming it and grasp who they are and what they’re interested in.

(This is all a part of a greater content marketing plan.)

So, here, you outline your content. You create your game plan for the piece of content you want to create. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Title
• Focus Keywords/Topic
• Key Talking Points
• Medium
• Platform
• Call-to-action

This is the first step I take with every article or piece of content I create.

Research

Now that you know what you’re writing, you can start your content research.

Even if you know the topic like the back of your hand (like I know digital content), you should still be doing some research. I certainly did when working on this piece.

Research is how you know what you’re up against (aka what your competitors say). It’s how you know what perspectives and ideas are already being discussed and what new value you can offer.

It also helps you fact-check yourself and find third-party data to support your claims.

Create

So, you have your outline and your research; here’s where you put them together. This is also where those differences between analog and digital that we talked about can start to show up.

Perhaps you’re writing in a word processor or CMS, stitching clips together in a video tool, or framing graphics in a design tool.

Regardless of the type of content, you’re likely creating it using a computer and possibly even collaborating with your team virtually.

Need some assistance? Tools like Canva have comprehensive libraries of templates and even AI to help you create visual content, while HubSpot’s free AI content writer can help with text.

Publish

After the content has been finalized, it’s time to set it live. With your content living online, it will be accessible to search engines, shareable through links, and in play for engagement via likes, comments, and shares.

Analyze

After your content is live, it’s time to see how it’s performing. Depending on your goals and the platform, this could mean analyzing the clicks, views, and leads generated or likes, shares, and comments. I suggest a minimum of three pulse checks:

• On the day of publish
• One week after publish
• One month after publish

If your digital content is doing very well from the first check or the content is more of a long-term play, I’d increase this frequency.

Examples of Great Digital Content

1. Canva Design School [Resource Center]

Canva does so many things right with its marketing, and its digital content is no exception. “Design School” is essentially the brand’s resource center, where users can learn about design principles, color theory, trends, and how to use the Canva tools.

Source

It offers video-based, on-demand courses, tutorials, and certifications.

Why is this great digital content?

• It offers tons of relevant educational value to the audience
• It showcases Canva’s thought leadership, positioning it as an expert in the design space
• It introduces people to Canva products and teaches how to get value out of them
• Video-based, catering to modern buyer content preferences
• Content exists both on the website and YouTube, expanding its reach and helping with SEO.

2. Semrush: “Barbie Phenomenon” [Infographic]

SEO tool Semrush capitalized on the Barbie movie craze during the summer of 2023 with this infographic.

The film’s marketing made just as much of a splash as the film itself, and Semrush used this design to share various performance stats from its strategy.

Source

Why is this great digital content?

• It incorporates a trending topic.
• It shares information that is of interest to its target audience (marketers) and the greater public, giving it wide appeal and shareability.
• Showcases what Semrush’s data tools can do

3. Strava: “Year in Sport” [Report & User Recap]

Strava’s “Year in Sport” is an annual report released by the fitness company that incorporates several elements. The digital content shares:

• Results from Strava’s global survey of active people, including insights and trends from their motivations and barriers to exercise.
• The biggest news stories and accomplishments of athletes, clubs, and the overall exercise community.

“Year in Sport” also includes a personal year-end recap for paid app users. Like Spotify Wrapped (another great piece of digital content), it shares trends and statistics from the users’ app activity from last year.

Why is this great digital content?

• It shares exclusive insights of interest to their target audience (fitness enthusiasts)
• It offers personalized value through its user recaps, crafting a unique, one-of-a-kind experience for each person.
• User recaps encourage user-generated content (UGC)

4. Sprout Social: 5 Ways to Use AI Customer Service on Social Media [Video]

In this video, social media SaaS company Sprout Social teaches viewers how to use automation and AI customer service to do their best work without losing an authentic, on-brand voice.

While a short video, it makes great use of chapters to make it easier for users to find the information they need, as well as links to additional related resources in the description.

Why is this great digital content?

• It discusses a trending topic (AI) and why it’s relevant to the Sprout audience
• It showcases Sprout Social’s thought leadership and positions it as an expert in the social media/marketing space
• It’s a video catering to modern buyer content preferences
• It’s hosted on YouTube, giving it increased reach potential
• Its description/caption is optimized for traffic, conversion, and search.

5. Allbirds: Flight Status [Sustainability Report]

Footwear company Allbirds differentiates itself on its sustainable products and practices. It calls these practices its “flight plan.”

Source

To keep it honest, the company releases a “Flight Status” or sustainability report every year to keep customers and the market in the loop about how their efforts are performing.

Why is this great digital content?

• It shares important company information that shows credibility.
• It’s ungated, showing they genuinely just care about being transparent not getting leads.
• It doubles down on their company values and those important to their target audience.

6. Il Makiage: Power Match [Quiz]

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve written about this piece of digital content, but hey, it deserves the praise.

Makeup brand Il Makiage’s Power Match is a brilliant online quiz that promises to find users their ideal foundation shade through only a series of multiple-choice questions.

After it identifies your shade, you can buy it directly from the site. They’re so confident in the results that they even let you try the product for 14 days before you have to pay for it.

It has since inspired many copycats, including Maybelline’s Fit Me Routine Finder.

Why is this great digital content?

• It’s interactive and engaging.
• It gives users/customers a customized experience on the website.
• It makes the buying process easier for new customers.
• It’s almost gameified the experience of buying from them, sparking a trend of customers sharing their results on social media. (UGC win!)

7. Google: The Year in Search [Video, Report, & Tool]

Google’s “The Year in Search” is one piece of content I look forward to every year.

It’s an in-depth look at the top Google searches of the previous year, including the most searched questions, the most captivating moments, and the most inspiring people based on search queries.

The campaign involves several different pieces of digital content, such as:

• A video recap (seen above)
• A dedicated landing page detailing the trends
• An interactive tool that lets people dive into the trends in their specific area

Why is this great digital content?:

• It’s interactive and can offer personalized insight.
• It showcases Google’s offering and data only it has access to. This, in turn, highlights just how vast and impactful Google is.
• It makes the buying process easier for new customers.
• It shares information that is of interest to its users and the greater public, giving it wide appeal and shareability.

What will digital content look like in 2025?

Clearly, digital content is a wide umbrella, and it’s constantly evolving. So, what will it look like in 2025? Here’s what three industry experts predict.

More Focus on Personalization

“…I believe the biggest shift is going to happen through personalized content that is tailored to the consumer,” shared founder & CEO of Foundation Ross Simmonds.

While Simmonds maintains video, which will continue to be one of the most valuable assets a brand can invest in, and blog content will still be the most important part of an SEO strategy, personalization is poised to be a key differentiating factor.

“Brands are now able to use AI and code to create content experiences for their audience that are tailored to their needs and their own personal attributes, challenges, goals, and worldviews.”

“I believe more personalized and tailored content is going to be the most interesting and immersive format that we see in 2025. Marketers can prepare for this by experimenting and learning.”

What can you do? Learn everything you can about scaling personalization with AI:

• How to Use AI Personalization Tactics to Scale Marketing Growth
• Take Personalized Marketing to a New Level: 14 Brand Examples
• Top 5 Use Cases for AI Personalization in Marketing

Increased Experimentation

HubSpot’s Head of Audience Development Studio Andrea Hudson, echoed this thought, saying, “The digital content of the future is what we’re tinkering with now; in 2025, we’ll still be experimenting.”

She dove into specifics, saying, “The mass marketing approach of a digital asset working across platforms has been sunset for a while now, and we’re shifting to personalized digital experiences via the creative medium.”

What can you do?

“The only way to prepare for this shift is to become curious about it now by experimenting and leveraging trends as inspiration instead of roadmaps,” advised Hudson.

“Look outside of your industry, set aside a budget for experimentation, and redefine your content KPIs to make sure they’re aligned with what you’re creating.”

“Spotify has found a way to do this for years with their Wrapped campaign and other tentpole moments throughout the year that provide personalized experiences based on behavior and accompanying those experiences with immersive content.”

The Rise of Non-Search Content

“In the digital content space in 2025, one big trend I think we’ll see is marketers leaning more towards discovery channels than ever before rather than search,” explained my HubSpot teammate Caroline Forsey.

“There will be a major emphasis on YouTube, social media platforms, and even more niche channels like Substack or Reddit — essentially, marketers will seek out as many non-search platforms as possible to begin reaching audiences in new places since consumers spend so much of their time passively consuming content on these channels.”

While search engine optimization is still important (there’s a reason Google continues to be the most visited website in the world), it’s not the only way brands can be discovered.

Social media is actually the preferred product discovery channel for Gen Z, millennials, and boomers, and it’s also where they go to consume content.

Leaning more into these channels in 2025 may be critical to digital content success.

What can you do? Review and scale your social media strategy. Here are some resources to help:

• Social Media Marketing: The Ultimate Guide
• Social Media SEO: 10 Social Media Strategies to Boost SEO
• The HubSpot Blog’s 2024 Social Media Marketing Report: Data from 1400+ Global Marketers

Digital Content Gets Bigger and Better

Digital content is both the lifeblood and pulse of modern communication and marketing, continuously evolving to meet the needs of our connected world.

As we look ahead to 2025, the trends highlighted by experts paint an exciting picture of more personalized, experimental, and diversified approaches to content creation and distribution.

To stay ahead, marketers must embrace personalization, experiment fearlessly with emerging formats, and expand their reach to discovery-driven platforms beyond traditional search.

By doing so, they can create meaningful connections, foster engagement, and deliver value that resonates deeply with their audiences.

It’s officially the holiday season. If the majority of your workforce is hybrid or remote, like we are at HubSpot, that means it’s time to come up with a few virtual holiday party ideas for your team.

Let’s face it — traditional in-person holiday parties were arguably easier to plan.

Just order some festive food and drinks to the office (or gather at a local restaurant), throw on some holiday music, let folks mingle for a few hours, and everyone generally left satisfied.

However, hybrid work presents some new challenges.

I’ve pulled together some virtual holiday party ideas and included a few tips from remote HubSpotters on how to host a hybrid or virtual holiday party with ease.

Table of Contents

• How to Plan a Virtual Holiday Party
• Virtual Holiday Party Ideas
• Expert Tips for Hosting a Hybrid Holiday Party

How to Plan a Virtual Holiday Party

The key to planning a successful hybrid or virtual holiday party is the same as one of the most important principles of marketing: knowing your audience. You want it to be engaging for your team, so that’s going to take some prep work.

We’ll get into the list of virtual holiday party ideas in just a moment, but I’ll start you off with five steps to get your party in motion.

1. Pick a good hosting platform.

The platform you use for your virtual holiday party can either make or break the experience, so you’ll want to pick a good one.

Zoom and Microsoft Teams are the most common options for hosting virtual gatherings. Some companies like Confetti and CourseHorse also allow you to facilitate virtual holiday parties on their platforms (for a fee if your budget allows).

My recommendation? If you already use a video conferencing for regular work activities, stick with that one. Your employees are comfortable with it, and you’re likely up to speed on what your hosting capabilities are.

And if you’re planning to include people outside of your organization, integrations like this one with Zoom make it easier to extend the invite externally.

2. Decide on the date and time.

In my opinion, you have about two or three weeks during the holiday season to schedule your party. I’d aim for earlier in December.  The closer you get to the end of the year, the harder it is to get people together.

Consider placing a calendar hold for the party a few months in advance, so your employees can plan around it. No worries if you don’t have all the details yet. You can always fill them in later.

Also, do it on company time, and limit it to two hours or less. The end of year wrap-up circus is a wild one, and your holiday party shouldn’t add any unnecessary stress.

I’d aim for a 3pm start time and plan to wrap it up by the end of the day.

3. Choose the right activity (or activities).

When planning the agenda for your hybrid or virtual holiday party, keep it light and fun. And when in doubt, provide options so people can choose their own adventure.

For example, Zoom lets you set up breakout rooms. You could have one room with an activity (e.g., holiday paint and sip), one with an experience (e.g., virtual self-care session), and another space where people can just hang out and chat.

That way, there’s a little something for everyone.

Tip for hybrid teams: One way to encourage engagement between in-person and remote guests is by placing them in groups or pairs. For example, if you play any virtual holiday mini-games, mix your teams up by location.

4. Make it optional but encouraged.

When you share the virtual holiday party invite with your team, don’t make it mandatory.

I know you may be worried that people won’t show up to an optional event, but things tend to be a little less fun when you feel like you have to be there. At least for me.

If you design a virtual holiday party that people want to attend, you won’t have to worry about attendance. And if you give folks enough notice, they’re more likely to participate.

5. Set the scene and have some fun with it.

The last step on the list is to make sure your virtual holiday party feels like an actual party.

Have some light holiday music playing in the background. Encourage your team members to use holiday-themed virtual backgrounds or dress in holiday gear.

Maybe even send them a festive treat to enjoy during the party — like a hot chocolate kit or holiday cookies.

The right ambiance will draw people in and make them stay.

Tip for hybrid teams: Create a shared experience for all attendees so everyone feels included. For example, if your in-person decor includes paper snowflakes and vanilla candles, consider sending virtual guests a smaller-scale version of these items for their home office.

Virtual Holiday Party Ideas

Now, onto the fun part. I scoured the Internet, bothered my colleagues, and dug deep into my memory bank of holiday parties past to give you 21 virtual holiday party ideas to consider this year.

P.S. The ones with a 🎄 are some of my favorites:

1. ‘Anything’ Presentations 🎄
2. Holiday Recipe Swap 🎄
3. Virtual Self-Care Session 🎄
4. Holiday Card Writing 🎄
5. Ugly Sweater Contest
6. Virtual Scavenger Hunt 🎄
7. Holiday Paint and Sip
8. Virtual Escape Room
9. Holiday Cooking or Baking Class
10. Virtual Talent Show
11. Holiday-Themed Trivia
12. Virtual Coffee, Tea, or Wine Tasting 🎄
13. Home Office Holiday Decorating Contest
14. Holiday Movie Watch Party
15. Holiday Guessing Game
16. Virtual Gift Exchange
17. Name That (Holiday) Tune 🎄
18. Virtual Team Awards
19. Virtual Holiday Mini-Games
20. Holiday Icebreakers
21. Early Holiday Break 🎄

1. ‘Anything’ Presentations

You probably weren’t expecting the first virtual holiday party idea on this list to be focused on presentation building, but hear me out.

Last year, the HubSpot Blog team organized a holiday mixer where everyone had an opportunity to share a two-minute presentation on anything.

It was so much fun that we’re bringing it back this year for round two! From Bravo’s Vanderpump Rules to “What makes a good karaoke song?” — truly, no topic is off limits.

How to Execute It

• Ask team members to put together a two-minute presentation on a topic of their choosing. Give them at least two weeks of notice to prepare.
• Include a few presentation options for inspiration. They can present live with some storytelling, put together a presentation deck, or record their presentation to share.
• Before the holiday party, put everyone’s names into a random name picker, and choose the presenter order by drawing names. (It’s a lot of fun to do this live, but you can also jot down the order in advance.)
• If someone doesn’t have a topic prepared, you reserve the right to assign them a low-pressure topic (e.g., favorite vacation, best day of the week, etc.) to present on the spot.

Here’s a sneak peek at the instructions we received this year:

2. Holiday Recipe Swap

Holiday recipe swaps are great because of two reasons:

1.  It’s a quick way to add to your personal recipe collection, and
2. People usually contribute their favorites based on taste, convenience, or tradition.

In other words, you’re almost guaranteed to get some good ones. Plus, it’s a low-lift virtual holiday party option that’s pretty easy to execute.

How to Execute It

• Ask everyone to submit one or two of their favorite holiday recipes and compile them into a document. Bonus points if you have time to organize them by type (e.g., appetizer, main, side, dessert).
• During your holiday party, encourage each member of your team to introduce their recipe and why it’s special to them. If you want to take it a step further, encourage participants to cook a sample of their recipe to present (and eat).
• Circulate the document before or after the party so everyone can browse the list and try new meals over the holiday break.

3. Virtual Self-Care Session

The holidays are a time to relax and unwind.

Give your employees a head start by bringing in a virtual yoga instructor, facilitating some guided meditation, or encouraging them to take time during the party to do something they enjoy off-camera.

How to Execute It

• Decide which activities you’ll focus on. You can use resources like Let’s Roam to set up a virtual yoga session or YouTube to access free relaxation and meditation videos (see example below).
• You can also send a team poll to see which activities they’re most interested in. You may even have an employee who’s willing to lead a self-care session.
• During the party, host a full group session or consider using breakout rooms so people can pick which sessions to participate in or rotate between a few.

4. Holiday Card Writing

There are a couple of different ways to incorporate holiday cards into your virtual holiday party. Your employees can write some for their teammates.

Or you can use the time to write holiday cards for a good cause like Caring by Card does for nursing home residents.

How to Execute It

If you want to do an internal holiday card swap:

• Use an online generator to randomly pair teammates to write cards for each other, and let everyone know who their partner is ahead of time.
• Then, ask them to write a holiday card to exchange with their partner during the party. Sites like American Greetings let you create and send virtual cards, but you could also use one of Canva’s free holiday card templates.
• When folks join the meeting, you can put the partners into breakout rooms to facilitate the exchange. Then, you can bring everyone back together for an optional show and tell.

If you want to do holiday card writing for a cause:

• Find a cause you want to support. Charities like Caring by Card and The Angel Card Project can help you get your greeting cards into the hands of those who need them the most.
• During the party, you and your employees can spend time writing holiday cards for good.

5. Ugly Sweater Contest

This one’s a classic, and it requires little to no planning on your part.

To host a virtual ugly sweater contest, simply ask everyone to wear their ‘ugliest’ holiday gear for the festivities. Employees can make their own or pull something questionable out of their old winter clothes bin.

If you do make it a contest, consider offering a prize like a gift card or a work perk for the winner. Extra vacation hours, anyone?

How to Execute It

• Announce the contest in advance to give people enough time to prepare, and include a reminder in your holiday party invite.
• During the party, do a show-and-tell of everyone’s ugly sweaters. You could also use some time during the holiday party to allow guests to create them in real-time.
• Then, allow people to vote for their favorites. Zoom’s polling feature is a good option for this. The person with the most votes wins. Or if you have a larger team, you can have first, second, and third-place winners.

6. Virtual Scavenger Hunt

There are so many different ways to integrate a scavenger hunt into your remote holiday party. You can pick from tons of templates online and adapt them for virtual use.

But my favorite way to do this is to focus the hunt on items around the house. The first person to bring back an item related to your prompt wins.

Some prompts may include:

• Grab something you decorate your house with for the holidays.
• Bring back something that rhymes with ‘tree.’
• Show us something red that you use for work.

How to Execute It

• Create a list of prompts (similar to mine above) before the party. You could consider crowdsourcing ideas from your team and selecting them at random.
• During the party, the host announces the prompt and notes who finds the item first in each round. The person who wins the most rounds gets a prize. (When I’ve done this in the past, prizes have included gift cards or free company gear.)
• You can also hold time after each round for an optional show-and-tell if people are interested in sharing more about the items they found.

7. Holiday Paint and Sip

A virtual paint and sip party is an informal way for your employees to test out their holiday art skills. Everyone gets a canvas, some paint, and a few brushes to try and recreate a picture of your choice while enjoying a beverage of theirs.

It does require you to provide the supplies, but you can find low cost options on Amazon or from craft stores like Michaels. You could also consider giving your employees a small stipend to gather their own materials.

Plus, companies like Online Paint & Sip offer cost-friendly pre-recorded classes that you can screen share with your team to facilitate the experience.

How to Execute It

• Purchase a pre-recorded class or hire a live instructor to lead the paint and sip experience on your desired day and time.
• Send the paint supplies to all participants ahead of the event.
• Spend your virtual holiday party painting and socializing with your colleagues, and encourage everyone to enjoy their favorite drink while they work.

8. Virtual Escape Room

Escape rooms are fun team-building activities because they require you to solve a time-sensitive puzzle — like a series of riddles or mini-games — to accomplish a goal.

The last time I visited one in person, we had to follow a set of clues to find a hidden key that allowed us to break out of the room before time ran out. We got an hour to complete the mission. (And we got out in 59 minutes, ha.)

Companies like Puzzle Break, Mystery Escape Room, or The Escape Game allow you to host these at home and online.

How to Execute It

• Pick your virtual escape room experience, and include instructions to join the game in your holiday party invite.
• Then, break your team out into groups. Keep in mind that some platforms limit games to 10-15 people, while others allow for larger groups. You may need to schedule multiple escape rooms to accommodate your team.
• Kick off the party, and let the games begin. Once everyone is done, you can bring the full team back together for a fun debrief on how things went. And you could even offer a prize for the team(s) who escape the fastest.

Source

9. Holiday Cooking or Baking Class

Personally, I love holiday parties that involve food, and that can be hard to do in a remote setting. If you choose to do a cooking or baking session for your virtual holiday party, you have a few options.

You can hire a chef to lead the class, ask someone food-savvy on your team to volunteer, or host an unstructured cooking/baking hour.

How to Execute It

• Check out an online cooking class service like Cozymeal to book a team slot, or pick a recipe (or offer a few options from this list) on your own.
• Add the participation instructions and ingredients list to your holiday party invite. Make sure you give people enough time to pick things up. Bonus points if you can provide a small stipend to purchase the ingredients.
• When everyone joins the virtual party, the chef or team lead will walk them through the meal prep process in real-time. For more informal gatherings, just let everyone know when it’s time to start cooking.
• Eat, drink, and be merry with your teammates. Participants can ask questions and chat amongst themselves while they cook.

10. Virtual Talent Show

Calling all singers, dancers, and talents in between. Another virtual holiday party option is to host a talent show. Give your team members an opportunity to show off what they’re good at — outside of work, of course.

You’ll be surprised how many hidden talents you uncover. And you get to learn more about your colleagues and what makes them special.

How to Execute It

• Ask everyone to submit their talent ahead of time, and create a schedule for the event. Depending on the size of your team, you may want to impose a time limit (e.g., 2-3 minutes per act).
• Delegate a host to emcee the talent show and introduce each of the participants in order of performance.
• If you feel inclined to make it a contest, you can use the polling feature on your platform of choice to let people vote for their favorite acts. However, I’d recommend treating it more like a showcase so everyone feels comfortable participating.

11. Holiday-Themed Trivia

Holiday trivia is another traditional choice and usually a crowd-pleaser. You can snag trivia questions from across the web or use a formal platform like Kahoot to test your teammates’ knowledge on all things holiday fun.

How to Execute It

• Compile your trivia questions or choose your online trivia game. If you use a platform like Kahoot, most of the work is done for you, and employees can join the trivia game from their own computers. Be sure to include any access info in the holiday party invite.
• If you’re creating the game yourself, build a trivia slide deck and put each trivia question on its own slide. Share your screen during the party, cycle through each question, and ask participants to drop their answers into the chat.
• Whoever submits the correct answer the fastest wins the round, and the person who wins the most rounds gets a small prize.

12. Virtual Coffee, Tea, or Wine Tasting

Tastings of any kind are sure to be a hit at your next virtual holiday party.

Companies like Driftaway (for coffee), Open Door Tea (for tea), and In Good Taste (for wine) allow you to send samples to all of your employees, and they provide instructions on how to conduct the tasting from home.

How to Execute It

• Decide on which type of tasting you’ll facilitate. It’s always a good idea to get input from your team to ensure maximum enjoyment. And if you’re going to host a tasting that involves alcohol, make sure you have a non-alcoholic option available for those who don’t drink.
• During the party, have the host guide the team through the tasting experience based on the instructions provided for each sample. Some companies offer professional guides, so you could also bring in an expert to do this part.

13. Home Office Holiday Decorating Contest

I always think of meticulously decorated cubicles for contests like these, but this is very much transferable to virtual settings.

By now, remote and hybrid employees have set up some type of space in their homes to do work — whether it’s the kitchen table or an actual desk. This gives your employees an excuse to decorate their homes and get into the holiday spirit.

How to Execute It

• There aren’t many rules here. Let your employees know you’re holding a holiday decorating contest, and ask them to bring their ‘submissions’ to the holiday party.
• Admire everyone’s decor via Zoom or Teams and vote on a winner (or two). And if you have the budget for it, reward the winner for their design skills.

I have to say, this one below might be hard to beat. But if you’re looking for more inspo, take a browse through Pinterest.

Source

14. Holiday Movie Watch Party

A holiday movie watch party is one of the best ways for your team to turn their brains off. Send around an employee survey to ask for movie favorites, and consider offering multiple movie options in different breakout rooms at the party.

How to Execute It

• Decide which movie (or movies) you’ll play. Load it up using one of your personal streaming accounts or ask a few team members to contribute theirs.
• Happy watching! Screen share the movie in one large group and/or designate multiple people to share a movie in each room.

15. Holiday Guessing Game

This one is similar to holiday trivia but it’s more of a who-said-what guessing game. You can source fun holiday facts from your team and turn those into questions.

To help with sourcing, try conversation starters like ‘What’s your favorite holiday memory?’ or ‘What’s the best holiday movie?’ Then, during the party, let your employees guess which fact belongs to which teammate.

How to Execute It

• Build a guessing game slide deck and put each fun fact on its own slide. Share your screen during the party, cycle through each fact, and ask participants to drop their guesses into the chat.
• Reveal who the fact belongs to and give that employee the option to share more details with the team.

16. Virtual Gift Exchange

The season of giving calls for a gift exchange.

Apps like Elfster make Secret Santas easier than ever to execute. Users can even create wishlists so gift-givers have a few items to choose from.

This ensures everyone is happy with their receivables (and it takes some of the pressure off the Secret Santas, too).

How to Execute It

• Use a tool like Elfster to invite your team to the gift exchange. Set a spending limit (e.g., $15 or less) and ensure you give your employees enough time to brainstorm and send a gift to their exchange partner.
• You can choose to have everyone present their gift items during the holiday party or use that time to reveal the pairs and make the virtual exchange.

17. Name That (Holiday) Tune

A spin on the show Name That Tune, this virtual holiday party idea is for music lovers. If you choose this activity, you get to listen to holiday music and inspire a little friendly competition among your coworkers.

How to Execute It

• Break everyone into small teams (2-4 people), and have each team choose their own name. Jot down all of the team names, and choose a captain on each team to keep score.
• Play a short clip of a holiday song for the first team. Make sure you brainstorm a list in advance and have as many queued up as possible.
• Give the team a time limit to guess the title and artist of the song. Give them one point for each correct answer. You can also choose to open the song up to the group if the selected team guesses incorrectly. Then, the first team to get it right wins the point(s).
• Repeat for as many rounds as you’d like. The team with the most points wins.

18. Virtual Team Awards

Why not use your virtual holiday party as an opportunity to recognize your team’s hard work throughout the year? It’s the perfect time to show your employees some love.

You could even make it fun. Rather than only focusing on task-based achievements (such as top performer or most organized), try to incorporate superlatives (such as most likely to make work fun or best at small talk).

How to Execute It

• Create your list of awards and/or superlatives. Then, circulate a poll via Google Forms or a tool like Doodle and ask your employees to vote for their teammates in each category.
• Use the party to reveal the winners of each award or superlative. Allow time for each winner to give a brief speech of appreciation.

19. Virtual Holiday Mini-Games

From Gingerbread Wars to Quiplash, the holiday mini-game opportunities are endless. Sites like Team Bridge have a full suite of social games for remote teams of all sizes and interests.

If you want to keep things simple, you can set up a bingo game with premade holiday bingo cards (or build your own on Canva). You could also use skribbl.io to play Pictionary.

How to Execute It

• Pick a handful of games and designate game ‘hosts’ in breakout rooms. Let your employees join whichever activities they want throughout the party.
• Consider leaving the main room open so that people who aren’t game lovers can mix and mingle.

20. Holiday Icebreakers

If you’re using your virtual holiday party as a team-building opportunity, try pulling together a set of holiday-related icebreaker questions and popcorn-ing them around the virtual room.

Here are some ideas:

• What’s the best gift you’ve ever given someone?
• Do you prefer apple pie or pumpkin pie?
• Name your least favorite holiday movie or song.
• Would you rather have wet socks or no jacket in the winter?

How to Execute It

• Gather a list of icebreaker questions, and drop them in the chat during the party. Pass the question around to each teammate until everyone answers.
• Repeat!

21. Early Holiday Break

I may have actually saved the best for last. Instead of hosting a formal party, tell your employees to sign off an hour or two early before the holidays.

Sometimes the best virtual holiday party is no virtual holiday party at all.

How to Execute It

• Let folks know ahead of time that you’re closing up shop early so they can prepare accordingly. Then, do not work during the designated holiday time off. 

(I mean it. Yeah, I’m looking at you, overachiever.)

Ready to put one of these virtual holiday party ideas into practice? Take note of these tips from remote and hybrid HubSpotters as you prepare to host your party.

1. Pick a goal.

When you‘re planning your virtual holiday party, decide what your goal is. For example, it’s hard to play a game while also getting to know each other. But if your goal is just to have fun, a game might be the perfect fit.

Caroline Merewether, a hybrid senior director of product strategy and ops at HubSpot, says, “The biggest takeaway is to figure out if it’s more about deepening relationships or playing a game.”

One of Merewether’s favorite events her team put on was a virtual escape room.

“It was fun to do something different, and that was a nice mental shift. But it wasn’t great for getting to know people because we were trying to solve for clues. For our next party, we wanted to drive conversation between us,” she adds.

For her team‘s next virtual holiday party, they’re sending everyone international candies to try, hosting a costume contest, and playing some online trivia.

Jeff Boulter, a remote staff technical lead at HubSpot, decided to combine the interactive activity with a way of getting to know each other via an interactive trivia game.

To start, Boulter sent out a Google Form with a mixture of icebreaker questions. A few examples included:

• What was your first online handle or email address?
• What‘s the weirdest job you’ve ever had?
• What’s your least favorite song?
• What’s an unusual skill you have?

Then, they used a free online trivia site called MyQuiz.

Here, the answers were either picking one person from their squad (whose least favorite song is “It’s a Small World,” for example) or picking the correct answer amongst three other made-up answers.

The picture below is an example of what one of the questions looked like.

2. Plan in advance.

It’s also important to give yourself enough time to plan your party. Send invites ahead of time, finalize the agenda, and test-run activities before the big day.

Eimear Marrinan, the VP of culture at HubSpot (and one of our hybrid employees), says, “The end of the year is busy. Really busy! Give people advanced notice and book time in advance.”

She continues, “A lot of people are juggling right now, so being protective of time is important. Similarly, be mindful of caregivers on your team, or anyone that may have blocked time in their day.”

Navigating team calendars is always tricky, and it’s even more difficult around the holidays. Make sure you plan accordingly. Otherwise, you may have a few no-shows.

3. Use a spreadsheet to stay organized.

There are a lot of logistics involved in hosting a virtual holiday party.

Kara Korosec, a remote senior customer success manager at HubSpot, emphasizes the power of a good spreadsheet for staying on top of your plans.

“I used to coordinate Secret Santa at my last company, a 100% remote company,” says Korosec. “I set up a spreadsheet where everyone listed some of their interests. Then, we used a random generator to make assignments.”

Korosec continues, “Everyone had a budget of $50 and used the spreadsheet as inspiration for what to get. After the gifts were mailed, we had a Zoom where we shared our gifts and guessed who our Secret Santa was.”

Ah, the power of spreadsheets.

4. Tap vendors to make it interactive.

Virtual events might automatically feel a little hands-off, but this doesn‘t have to be the case. In Korosec’s Secret Santa example, they opened the gifts on a live Zoom call.

The goal here is to be creative.

Marrinan says, “There are a ton of amazing remote vendors and minority-owned businesses that we partner with on the Culture Team, and they are doing amazing work.”

I’ve already mentioned a few options like Cozymeal and Online Paint & Sip above, so as Marrinan notes, “If your budget allows for it, consider outsourcing to the experts.”

5. Incorporate food and drinks.

Providing food and drinks is typically part of in-person holiday gigs. So why can’t this be true of remote holiday parties, too?

If your budget allows, treat your employees to a holiday lunch with a digital gift card from Uber Eats or DoorDash.

If you’re planning to provide food in any capacity, Marrinan shares some important (chicken) nuggets of advice:

“Ask questions if you’re incorporating food and drinks. Are there allergies or preferences? If you’re arranging a cocktail hour, does everyone drink alcohol? This is all about being inclusive in how you’re arranging your event.”

Refreshments give people a reason to celebrate and enjoy the party. Make sure you’re aware of any restrictions so everyone can indulge.

Speaking of inclusivity …

6. Always lead with an inclusive mindset.

A major obstacle to remote meetings is making people feel included. And at HubSpot, inclusivity is at the core of our company culture.

Marrinan suggests, “We are working in a distributed and remote world right now, so when thinking through a holiday event for you and your team think big and think global.”

She continues, “Will the timezone work for all on your team? Do ‘The Holidays’ resonate across the globe? Make sure you plan something fun and inclusive that everyone can get involved in.”

7. Send something physical.

Just because your event is remote, doesn‘t mean you can’t include a physical element in your virtual holiday party.

“Can you send something out to the team in advance to spur some excitement? This doesn’t have to be a physical gift — maybe it is a handwritten card or a note of gratitude,” Marrinan shares.

“A holiday event doesn’t have to be a big, big thing. Sometimes it’s the simple acts of kindness that go a long way for people.”

‘Tis the Season for Virtual Holiday Parties

Holiday parties are fun and festive events, and hybrid or remote companies can still keep that tradition alive. Use these virtual holiday party ideas to unwind and celebrate with your team.

Morale will be all the better for it.

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

Many years ago, as a new online business owner, content cadence was tough for me to understand. I didn’t know how many blog posts per week were ideal or the best posting cadence for social media. But today, that’s no longer the case.

If you’re a marketer or business owner who’s clueless about content cadence — or unhappy with the results of your posting cadence — don’t worry. You’re not alone, and you’re in the right place.

In this post, I’ll explain what content cadence is, how to determine the best posting cadence for your business, and how often marketers publish content. I’ll also share my tips on how often to post blogs, videos, and social media content.

Table of Contents

• What is content cadence?
• How to Determine Content Cadence
• How often do marketers publish content?
• How often should you post content?

How to Determine Content Cadence

The right content cadence can increase engagement with your target audience, keep your brand top-of-mind, and also generate more leads. But there’s no one size that fits all. The best posting cadence for you may be wrong for others, and vice versa.

To determine the right content cadence for you, I’ve identified eight actionable steps you need to take.

1. Know and understand your target audience.

Without a solid knowledge and understanding of your target audience, you’ll most likely get your content cadence wrong.

So, identify your target audience first, and learn everything you can about them. For example, what age range do they belong to? What’s their gender, marital status, income bracket, passion, hobbies, likes and dislikes, and so on?

2. Identify relevant topics to write about.

You can get your content cadence right when you create content on topics that grab and keep your target audience’s attention. For example:

• Write about topics of interest to them.
• Create content that provides solutions to their problems and challenges.
• Give them the information they are searching for.
• Answer their questions.
• Provide tips and tricks that can help them succeed.

3. Determine the types of content to create.

Take everything you know about your target audience into consideration and create the right type of content for them. Do they love short-form or long-form content? Or do they prefer video over text?

Also, don’t forget that members of your audience won’t be at the same stage of the buyer’s journey at the same time. As a result, they will need different types of content depending on their current stage.

This means you need to be ready and able to provide content like blog posts, in-depth guides, case studies, white papers, videos, and so on.

4. Choose the right platform.

The success of your content cadence will also depend on using the right platform.

Are you going to publish on your blog or on social media platforms? Once you’re focused on your target audience, you can’t go wrong. In other words, my tip here is to go where your target audience is.

I know it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the many platforms and posting times and content types and what goes where and when, but the best advice I received on this was always: start small, but start!

If you’re just getting started on social, for instance, choose one platform and then expand after you’re comfortable and have established your content cadence there.

Or, if you already have an existing presence or cadence and you’re just tweaking things, you can also take that slow and introduce your new posting cadence gradually.

5. Identify the right content frequency.

Content frequency is an important part of content cadence, and it refers to the volume of content published within a specific period of time — for example, how many blog posts per week, per day, or even per month?

For best results, consider a frequency that won’t overwhelm your audience.

Or you.

6. Know the best times to post.

Posting content on the wrong day or at the wrong time can mess up your content cadence and reduce engagement.

I recommend you find out the specific days and times your audience is most active on different platforms. Then, try to post with this in mind.

If you’re just starting out with posting content, check out the resources in the next section to help you get started with scheduling.

On the other hand, if you already have a content calendar and just want to change your content cadence, you could slowly shift your content into a new slot you’ve chosen.

I find being methodical and making small changes is the best way to do this. Then, you can test your posting time and iterate from there (I’ll share more on that below.)

7. Create a content calendar.

Once you know your topics, content types, the right platforms, and content frequency, you need to create a content calendar.

A content calendar (aka editorial calendar) is a documented plan or schedule of all your upcoming content, where you plan to publish, and when.

A content calendar will give you an overview of all your tasks in advance, help you track and complete each one on time, and keep you organized.

Without an editorial calendar to help you juggle all these moving parts successfully, getting your content cadence right might feel unwieldy at first.

To help you hit the ground running, you can start with HubSpot’s free content calendar templates.

I have used these templates as a starting point for my content calendars for years, and whether you use one of them out of the box, or tweak it and make it your own, I always appreciated this as a solid starting point.

Without a calendar, your efforts are pretty much wasted (you’ll lack focus and strategy, trust me!), so I encourage you to take the time to make friends with your content calendar.

8. Experiment, audit, and tweak.

Identify key engagement metrics that will be measured for each platform. Then, experiment and publish relevant content for a set period of time. Next, audit your audience’s behavior and review your content’s performance.

For example, you can conduct a:

• Website audit to assess your blog and web pages.
• Social media audit to review your social media channels.

After your audits, you‘ll have comprehensive information and a detailed analysis of your content’s performance and audience’s behavior.

If you achieved your desired level of engagement, then you’ve found the right content cadence for your business. But if not, use relevant insights from your audit report to tweak, optimize, and iterate on all your earlier steps. Then, experiment again until you achieve your goal.

Remember, content cadence varies for every organization.

How often do marketers publish content?

To answer this question, HubSpot surveyed over 1,200 marketers to determine how often they publish content across various channels. The results showed that:

• 34% of marketers publish content multiple times a week.
• 33% publish content once a day.
• Only 13% reported publishing content multiple times a day.
• 10% said they publish weekly.
• 6% said multiple times per month.
• 4% said once a month or less.

But which posting frequency is the most effective?

• Most marketers (35%) who publish once daily described their 2022 marketing strategy as effective.

However, 33% of the marketers who publish multiple times a week said their marketing strategy was effective, 39% described the same cadence as neither effective nor ineffective, and most (43%) described it as ineffective.

For me, this just reiterates the advice I shared earlier: how often you should post content really depends on when and where your audience is most active online.

How often should you post content?

Next, I’m going to share a few tips for posting blog, video and social media content. You can also use what you learned from your experiments and audit to inform your decision-making here.

How often should marketers post blog content?

I think how often you publish a blog post will depend on various factors, such as:

• Your goal
• Your target audience preferences
• Your budget and resources
• Your blog’s age and size
• Number of new and old posts on your blog

For example, if your main goal is to boost organic traffic, I recommend posting optimized content as frequently as possible.

Consider educational content like how-to’s, listicles, and campaign round-ups to keep your blog posts fresh and consistent.

Running out of ideas? Check out 101 blog post ideas for inspiration.

For organic traffic, I think:

• Small blogs should post new content 3-4 times a week.
• Larger blogs should post new and updated content 4-5 times a week.

If your goal is to raise brand awareness, you likely won‘t need to post as often as you would for organic traffic. That’s because you need to focus more on building your brand‘s voice than on boosting numbers.

You’ll also need to diversify your posts and provide more informative content to boost brand awareness.

Therefore, for brand awareness:

• Small blogs should post new content once or twice a month.
• Larger blogs should post new and updated content 3-4 times a week.

How often should marketers post social media content?

With so many social media platforms out there, how often you post depends on the platform, how it works, and when your target audience is active there. But here’s what I recommend as a jumping-off point:

Facebook

Post multiple times a day, especially between 12 PM and 3 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.

Instagram

Post multiple times a day from 12 PM to 3 PM or from 6 PM to 9 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.

LinkedIn

Post multiple times per week from 3 PM to 6 PM on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

X (formerly Twitter)

Post multiple times a day from 12 PM to 3 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.

TikTok

Post multiple times a day between 6 PM and 9 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.

Pinterest

Post multiple times a day from 12 PM to 3 PM on Thursdays and Saturdays.

How often should marketers post video content?

Video consumption has risen over the years and is still going up. For instance:

• 89% of consumers want to see more videos from brands in 2024, according to Wyzowl.
• In 2023, companies hosting their videos on Wistia saw video plays jump by 15% and total watch time soar by 44%.

According to Kyle Denhoff, senior director of marketing and audience development at HubSpot:

“There are two changes in the market indicating a need for more video content.

First, the search landscape is being disrupted by AI. Second, we’re seeing a shift to a video-first consumption of content for audiences.”

In short, consumers are watching more and more videos, and marketers can use that to their advantage.

How often you post videos will vary depending on the following factors:

• The platform and how it works.
• Your target audience’s appetite for video content.
• Types of video content.
• Length of the video.

Here are my tips for maximizing your video content output.

Post content on:

• Your blog. Every time you publish a new blog post, find a way to incorporate a video. For example, your blog post can be repurposed into a video and published within the post itself or somewhere else on the blog. This way, your audience can choose to read the post, or watch it as a video, or both.
• YouTube. Post videos three times a week, or daily, if you can. But if not, posting once a week is also a good starting point.

• Other social media platforms. Consider videos as part of your social media content, and use the posting frequency discussed earlier for each platform.

Pro tip: If you need a quick way to maximize your video content output, try HubSpot’s Clip Creator, a free AI-powered tool that converts text to video.

Getting Your Content Cadence Right

As I’ve discussed here, content cadence varies from one business to another, and there’s no reason to copy others blindly.

At the same time, using industry benchmarks — and your own experiment results — will really help you nail the right cadence for you.

Above all, I encourage you to experiment. Establishing the right posting cadence isn’t always a quick process, so give yourself time to try things out, iterate, and see what works.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in December 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.