Category Archives: B2B

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a stunning product picture is worth a thousand website visits. Although I don’t have data to back up that statement (yet), product photography can be extremely valuable to your ecommerce website strategy.

To reach your target audience members whoprefer buying online, you also need to give your audience clear, eye-catching photos of your products.

But product photography isn’t as simple as pointing and shooting. Even the most basic products need the correct equipment, lighting, and space to produce beautiful images that sell shoppers right from the purchase page.

6 Product Photography Tips (and Examples) for Taking Pictures That Sell

Here are the tips, examples, and supplies you’ll need to effectively photograph and market your products in a way that makes your visitors and prospects want to convert.

1. Don’t be afraid to use your smartphone’s camera.

This is the part where I’m supposed to convince you to invest in a high-end, 50-megapixel (MP) camera with a 100-millimeter screw-on lens. But I’m not going to do that.

If you already own a camera that fits this description, take advantage of it. But for many types of products, it’s completely acceptable to shoot product photos on a smartphone.

Newer smartphones boast powerful camera lenses and settings that allow you to optimize your shots for the different types of light and environments you might shoot in.

If you need more convincing, just check out Apple’s Shot On An iPhone campaignand the photos that have resulted from it over the years such as this one:

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2. Shoot from a tripod for photo consistency.

Before explaining tripods, I’m obligated to start with a cardinal rule: Don’t prop your phone against something sturdy to aim your lens toward the subject.

It’s just too easy for this makeshift setup to slide around during the shoot and cause inconsistencies in your photos’ appearance. If you rest your camera on, say, a stack of books, just be sure this arrangement doesn’t change over the course of the shoot.

There’s no harm in holding your camera yourself when shooting just a few product photos for your ecommerce website. But as your business grows, and you take more photos of more products, it can be difficult to standardize the product’s orientation in each photo when shooting handheld.

To ensure consistency across your products, you’ll need a tripod. And luckily, buying one isn’t always the big, industrial-sized investment it used to be.

Here are two types of tripods to consider.

Traditional vs. Flexible

This is a tradition tripod — there are traditional tripods available for both cameras and smartphones.

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A flexible tripod can be manipulated in a number of ways. You can bend its legs and place it on different surfaces to get the angle you need.

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Mobile Grip

There’s often a screw on the top of your tripod which attaches to your camera to hold it in place. The underside of most professional-grade cameras has a screw hole just for this purpose, but smartphones can use the following adapter:

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The adapter grips the sides of your smartphone and can screw into either type of tripod, allowing you to operate the camera controls with the phone screen facing outward and toward you.

Once you determine which mount you’ll need, set it up in front of your product, and consider putting three pieces of tape on the ground to mark where you’d like to keep each leg of your tripod over the course of the shoot.

3. Choose natural light or artificial light.

Never underestimate how certain types of light can improve (or hinder) your product photography. Remember, buyers get the best look at an item in person, where they can see everything they need to before purchasing. The right lighting arrangement helps you reveal those critical decision-making product features when all website visitors have to go on is a photo.

A single lighting setup might not work for every product — a lighting arrangement that works for some products might weaken the appearance of others.

There are two types of light you can choose as your main light source: natural and artificial light.

Natural Light

Natural light refers to sunlight — simple as that. It’s also known as “soft light” because the sun casts a larger, softer range of light than, say, a lamp shining directly on the product. Ecommerce product shots thrive in natural light if:

• The product is shot outside or meant to be used outside.
• The product is used by, worn on, or shot with a person (people tend to look better in natural light).
• You’re trying to emphasize the product’s surroundings, rather than specific attributes of the product.

Here’s an example of a shot using natural light:

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Artificial Light

Artificial light includes candles, fire, and more commonly, light bulbs. It’s also referred to as “hard light” because it produces a smaller but more focused light surface. This type of light caters to products with physical details that need to be highlighted to impress an online shopper.

Here’s an example of artificial light being use to shoot:

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As a general rule, stick to just one type of light per photo — natural or artificial. Adding natural light to an artificially lit photo can soften a product that’s meant to look sharp, and adding artificial light to a naturally lit photo can sharpen a product that’s meant to look soft. You don’t want to get in your own way.

4. Fill or bounce your light to soften shadows.

Whether you use natural light or artificial light, you’ll need to lessen the shadows that any potential hard light casts on the opposite end of a product.

There are three ways to do this:

Fill Light

Include another, less-intense light source to supplement your main light. This additional light is called your fill light and is used as a counterbalance to soften the natural shadow your main light produces behind an object.

To do this, place your fill light opposite your main light so your product sits between both light sources.

Flashbulb Bounce Card

A bounce card, or reflector card, is a small card that “reflects” or “bounces” the main light back onto the surface beneath your product to reduce shadows.

Some bounce cards attach to the flashbulb of a professional camera lens to diffuse the light from the camera’s flash. This card splashes a softer light onto the subject from above your set — rather than straight at it — so you don’t have long shadows trail behind the object you’re shooting.

See two versions of this item below — both white (left) and foil (right) screens can diffuse the flash.

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Standalone Bounce Card

If you’re shooting from a smartphone, a flashbulb bounce card isn’t an option, since you don’t have a physical flash you can attach it to. Instead, make your own standalone bounce card positioned opposite your main light source.

For beginners to product photography, this bounce card can effectively replace your fill light, which counters the hard light from the camera flash or lamp that’s facing toward the front of your product.

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5. Use a sweep or portrait mode to emphasize the product.

There isn’t one right way to position your product, lights, and bounce cards – they can change dramatically depending on your background. But don’t choose a background based on what’s easiest to create. Backgrounds should resemble how you want your buyers to perceive your product when viewing it online.

Consider first whether you’d like a white background or a more dynamic, real-world background. There’s an easy way to achieve each one.

White Background: Sweep

For white backgrounds, it’s not as simple as setting up a table against white drywall. Even smartphone cameras can pick up little blemishes on a white wall that you wouldn’t notice with the naked eye. To capture a perfect white background with no corners or blemishes, use a sweep.

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A sweep is a large bendable sheet of paper, whose bottom acts as the surface beneath your product and then curves up into a white wall behind the product.

On camera, the sweep’s curve is invisible, emphasizing key product details and allowing the item to own all of a website visitor’s attention.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison showing why a sweep matters:

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Real-World Background: Portrait Mode

Dynamic, real-world backgrounds are very appealing when shooting products that have a specific use or are being modeled by a person — as you saw in the picture of the briefcase earlier in this guide.

But, it’s easy for a real-world background to steal the focus of the photo, making it unclear which item in the photo you’re actually selling.

Give your product depth and emphasis with portrait mode, a picture setting on most professional cameras, and also available on many new smartphones. This setting blurs the background so the context of the product is clear but not competing against the product itself.

Below is a super awesome photo of a HubSpot pen taken in portrait mode on a Google Pixel 2 (I took this picture myself). You can tell the pen sits on a desk with a computer behind it, but the pen is still the focal point for viewers:

“It’s such an incredible photo, Braden. I totally want my own HubSpot pen now.” Get one here!

6. Shoot a variety of images.

My last ecommerce photography tip to you is to not stop at one photo per product. Just as your customers look, hold, use, and even try on merchandise in a store, your website should shoot a variety of images to simulate this very experience.

If you’re shooting clothing, for instance, capture the garment of clothing alone — that is, spread out on a white surface — as well as on a mannequin whose color contrasts the color of the product.

Then, for additional photos, have the clothing modeled on a person, allowing you to take pictures of the product from the person’s different poses and angles.

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Product Photography Set-Up

Next, let’s summarize what we just received — here’s a list of quick product photography set-up tips that you can refer to and share on your team:

1. Decide on a camera — whether or not that means using your smartphone.
2. Get a tripod that works for your camera of choice.
3. Choose natural or artificial lighting — think about which option is best for your product and environment.
4. Determine whether you’ll fill or bounce light.
5. Select sweep or portrait mode.
6. Take several different images to offer your viewers variety.

Get Started With Your Product Photography

Don’t feel obligated to invest in every tip and piece of equipment at once. Apply these product photography tips gradually to see what makes your store look the most presentable, and change your approach as your photography chops get better.

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

Are you a marketer looking to sharpen your expertise and increase your earning potential?

Great! You’re in the right place.

It’s no secret that individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree or higher are more likely to find employment and earn higher incomes than those who do not. But did you know that earning a certification can follow this same trend?

Now, I’m not saying that a certification and a master’s degree hold the same weight in the eyes of a hiring manager or a client who’s considering working with you on a marketing project. What I am saying is that having specialized education in your field won’t hurt and it’ll typically help you.

I know what you’re thinking, “I can learn on the job — experience is more valuable than a certificate.” And you’re not wrong — 15 years of experience compared to five years of experience and a certification isn’t exactly a one-to-one comparison. For entry-level generalist roles, promotions, and freelance work, though, certificates can be the fastest and most affordable way to get ahead.

Given the frequency at which new digital marketing technologies and software are developed, it can be overwhelming to continue learning through blog posts and ebooks alone. That’s where self-paced online courses come in — but which do you choose?

Don’t fret, I’ve done the hard work for you. Below are the best free online courses you can take to strengthen your digital marketing skills. I’ve taken many of them myself and can assure you they’ll be worth your while. Each of these offerings varies in time commitment, but many are self-paced so you can learn on your time. The topics these courses cover include:

• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• SEO Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Web Development and Site Design
• Online Advertising Courses
• Other Digital Marketing Courses

Want to learn more about brands and organizations that offer the courses on the list below? Scroll to the end of this post, or click here, to find affordable online marketing courses.

Free Online Marketing Courses

Free Content Marketing Courses

1. HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification – HubSpot Academy

2. HubSpot Content Marketing Certification – HubSpot Academy

3. Internet Marketing for Smart People – Copyblogger

4. Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content – Coursera

5. The Strategy of Content Marketing – Coursera

6. Copywriting Blunders – Udemy

7. Content Marketing for B2B Enterprises – Udemy

8. Semrush Content Marketing Toolkit Course – Semrush

9. Copywriting Quick Start: Top FREE Writing Tools & Hacks – Udemy

 

Free Social Media Marketing Courses

10. Free Social Media Certification – HubSpot Academy

11. Developing an End-to-End Instagram Marketing Strategy For Your Business – HubSpot Academy

12. Diploma in Social Media Marketing – Alison

13. Facebook Blueprint – Facebook

14. Social Media Analytics – Quintly

15. Social Media Quickstarter – Constant Contact

16. Semrush Social Media Toolkit Course – Semrush

17. Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate – Facebook

 

Free SEO Marketing Courses

18. SEO Training Course – HubSpot Academy

19. Google Digital Marketing Course – Google

20. SEO Training Course by Moz – Udemy

21. SEO – QuickSprout

22. SEO Specialization Course – Coursera

23. Semrush SEO Toolkit Course – Semrush

24. Online SEO Training – Yoast

 

Free Email Marketing Courses

25. HubSpot Email Marketing Certification – HubSpot Academy

26. Email Marketing Course – Sendinblue Academy

27. Email Marketing Made Easy for Beginners – Udemy

28. Email Marketing for Beginners – Skillshare

 

Free Web Development and Site Design Courses

29. Make a Website – CodeAcademy

30. Learn Javascript – CodeAcademy

31. Learn Ruby – CodeAcademy

32. Learn Python 3 – CodeAcademy

33. Learn HTML & CSS – CodeAcademy

34. Learn to Code Awesome Websites – General Assembly 

 

Free Online Advertising & PPC Courses

35. What Digital Advertising Is and How to Do It – HubSpot Academy

36. How to Build a Paid Media Strategy – HubSpot Academy

37. PPC University – Wordstream

38. Advertising Your Business Online – Alison

39. Advanced Competitive Research Practices with Semrush

40. Copywriting 101: Crafting Your First Ad Campaign – Skillshare

41. Semrush Advertising Toolkit Course – Semrush

 

Other Free Digital Marketing Courses

42. Graphic Design Basics – Canva

43. Graphic Design Specialization – Coursera

44. Photoshop 2020: One-on-One Fundamentals – LinkedIn Learning

45. InDesign 2020: Essential Training – LinkedIn Learning

46. Video Marketing Course- HubSpot Academy

47. Event Marketing Course and Certification – Eventbrite

48. Event Sponsorship Course and Certification – Eventbrite

49. Affiliate Marketing for Beginners – Udemy

50. YouTube Ads Certification – YouTube

Benefits of a Digital Marketing Certificate

The most well-known benefit of earning a marketing certificate is the potential for better pay and career advancement, but there are plenty more rewards to reap by honing your skills. Here are a few of the top advantages of earning a digital marketing certificate.

Specializing in a Marketing Niche

The “jack of all trades, master of none” mantra is the marketer’s enemy. Any experienced marketing professional will advise someone looking to enter or grow into the field to narrow their focus. There are simply too many types of marketing to do all of them well. Certifications come in handy because they’re narrow enough in scope to give you a high-level overview of how the skill fits into a larger marketing strategy but tactical enough to show you exactly how to execute the skill in your day-to-day work.

Communicating Advanced Marketing Concepts

Whether you’re interviewing for a marketing role or pitching a client, one thing’s for sure — you’ll need to sound like a skilled marketer. Sure, you can fake it ‘till you make it, but I don’t advise this route. Shibboleths will only get you so far before someone notices a gap in your experience. Certification courses are comprehensive education tools that will teach you essential marketing lingo and exactly what it all means. Best of all, you’ll be able to communicate advanced concepts confidently without over or under-explaining which can undermine your credibility.

Building Your Resume

When it comes down to it, your resume will almost always precede your presence. Before an interview or a client meeting, people will look to your resume and portfolio first to verify your skills. Adding the certifications you’ve received after completing marketing courses is a smart way to get picked up by resume scanners and it’ll catch the attention of human eyes, too. Even if you have several years of experience, a certificate can still help get your foot in the door so you can speak in detail about your experience during an interview.

Where to Find Free and Affordable Courses

The free courses we mentioned above are amazing resources for budget-conscious marketers. They’ll teach you the basics of the subject and give you some tactical knowledge you can apply right away. If you want to become more competitive in the job market or if you have a bit more time and resources to dedicate to furthering your education, check out the following courses. They’re not all free, but they’re affordable and will provide you with up-to-date course material.

HubSpot Academy

HubSpot Academy offers certification and training courses to teach people how inbound marketing and HubSpot software work. Classes are often taught by marketers at HubSpot and are made up of video lessons, quizzes, and tests. Most HubSpot Academy classes are available free of charge, and if you pass the certifications, such as the two below, you get a nifty certificate and badge to share on your social media profiles.

Copyblogger

Copyblogger is a content marketing company that creates content about content (so meta). Its blog provides a ton of great resources about digital marketing, and this class, “Internet Marketing for Smart People,” is made up of ebooks and emailed lessons and other course materials. Copyblogger espouses four pillars of content marketing success, which it delves into over the course of this class.

Coursera

Coursera offers MOOCs (massive online open courses) created and taught online by universities such as Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California system. These courses start at various times throughout the year, so browse the catalog to see when one lines up with your schedule.

Udemy

Udemy is another online learning platform that focuses specifically on courses related to skill building for working professionals. One thing to note about Udemy: The classes we’ve highlighted are free, but the site features a myriad of other paid options for as little as $10, in some cases. If you have a good experience with a free course, try a paid one to get even more value from the content on this site.

Wordstream

Wordstream is a search engine and social media marketing software company that helps marketers drive the greatest ROI from their paid search and social media campaigns. These free guides and ebooks distill learnings and best practices for users with varying levels of expertise running pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Here are some of its topics and offerings:

Social Lock

Social Lock is a social media consulting, management, and strategy agency that also provides educational content and courses. The Standout Social Content Course is a comprehensive guide for small business owners who want to grow sales through social media. Although this course isn’t free, it’s available at an affordable rate and can even be paid in installments if you’re on a tight budget. If you need free resources that can teach you how to generate revenue that can pay for a course like this, Social Lock offers a Hustle with Hashtags eBook and Social Media Post Ideas.

edX

edX is another MOOC provider that features courses offered by top-tier universities, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston University. Like Coursera, classes are taught online and start at specific times throughout the year. Here are just a few of the many courses you can find on edX:

The 4-day Creative Brief

Before a marketing campaign is launched, you’ll need to get your design team onboard, and one of the best ways to do this is by developing a creative brief. The four-day creative brief is an online, self-paced course designed to hone your writing skills and help you convey your unique ideas. Advertising and branding expert Yadira Santana-Dowling condenses this process into just seven lessons so that by the end of it, your creative team has all the information they need to bring the campaign to life.

Alison

Alison offers free online classes in various professional skills users can take at their own pace. This content repository includes courses that lead to certificates and diplomas — you choose which is best for your goals. For an even more rigorous curriculum, you can choose a learning path that combines several lessons and courses into one learning track that gives you a well-rounded learning experience.

Facebook Blueprint

At this point, you probably already know what Facebook is and what it does. What you might not know is that the company offers several training and certification programs. Facebook Blueprint offers self-paced and live e-learning courses for marketers seeking to grow their organizations using Facebook. Blueprint offers classes in different languages on how to use Facebook and Instagram.

quintly Academy

quintly is a social media analytics tool that offers courses through quintly Academy. The self-paced course provides an overview of social media analytics, benchmarking, and goaling using downloadable written materials and video lessons. These courses are available to take at no cost — simply sign in to enroll for free.

Google

Google is another company you’ve probably heard of before, and its digital marketing course offers a ton of valuable information if you plan to advertise on the search engine. You can even take a Google AdWords certification at the end of the process that helps you beef up your resume. Google has expanded its course offerings to include other types of digital marketing, too, so check out the site for up-to-date insights in the marketing world.

Codeacademy

Codeacademy offers free, interactive coding classes that take you from bare-bones to building a fully functioning website. The courses we’ve highlighted below just scratch the surface, though. Codeacademy offers a variety of course topics so you can truly focus on your niche. These classes include lectures and a workspace in the same browser window so you can see the effect of your work as you create it — how cool is that?

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General Assembly

General Assembly offers live online courses that can be accessed for free or for a fee. These courses specialize in technical skills and disciplines like the fundamentals of HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript. Each one is categorized as one of five types that range from full-time immersive learning to on-demand learning. Once you choose your time commitment, simply find a course that works with your schedule.

Canva

Canva helps people easily make beautiful images for web design, and Canva Design School offers design courses that are valuable for any kind of storyteller. The Creativity course explores the challenges of constant creation and innovation and how to do it well — with visuals, of course.

Become a Marketing Powerhouse with These Free Certifications

I’m sure all marketers (myself included) can agree that furthering our education in this field is a worthwhile way to advance our careers or businesses. And earning a certificate from a reputable online course is one of the most convenient ways to accomplish this. Whether you want to take a free online marketing class or you’d like to devote more time and resources to a paid one, you can’t go wrong with one from this list. Just remember to focus your studying on a specific sector of marketing and develop a niche skillset — you’ll be well on your way to success as a consummate marketer.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was originally published in May 2018, but was updated in July 2020 for comprehensiveness and freshness.

Recently, Lululemon announced its program “Like New”, an initiative aimed at collecting gently-worn Lululemon gear and reviving the clothing to re-sell on Lululemon’s online resale shop:

At first glance, the move might seem a bit random coming from the athletic apparel brand — but it makes a lot more sense when you consider buyer personas. 

More than likely, Lululemon has identified its buyer persona as someone who lives an active lifestyle and enjoys getting outside. Lululemon’s buyer persona doesn’t just have one interest or value; she has many. And I’m willing to bet the brand has identified that their buyer persona cares about nature, and the importance of sustainability. 

This is why buyer personas matter: They help you appeal more authentically and personally to your consumers, expand your reach, and create lifelong brand advocates. 

Here, let’s dive into what a buyer persona is. 

What is a buyer persona? 

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.

When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. The more detailed you are, the better.

Try Our Make My Persona Tool to Create Your Own

Buyer personas provide tremendous structure and insight for your company. 

A detailed buyer persona will help you determine where to focus your time, guide product development, and allow for alignment across the organization. As a result, you will be able to attract the most valuable visitors, leads, and customers to your business.

Ready to put this definition into practice? Learn how to create a detailed buyer persona for your business.

After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, Johnny Boufarhat was no longer able to leave the house—let alone go to in-person events—and was looking for a better way to connect with others. In 2019, Boufarhat founded Hopin to bring meaningful connections to virtual and hybrid experiences.

Hopin—one of the fastest-growing companies—is a virtual experiences platform redefining how people around the world connect through immersive video experiences. Hopin’s founding product was a virtual event platform that mirrors the interactive nature of in-person events, conferences, and meetups.

By early 2020, Hopin had over 20,000 event organizers on the waiting list. Today, Hopin employs a fully remote workforce of over 550 people in 42 countries, has over 95,000 event organizers using its platform, and has secured $565 million in Series A-C funding. The company has also impressively reached $80M ARR.

Its exponential growth is fueled by its remote-first workforce and customer-centered acquisition strategy. Hopin has extended its vision to create more engaging video experiences into three new verticals through multiple strategic acquisitions with a product portfolio that spans events, live streaming, content hosting, and team-based collaboration.

An Industry Propelled by the Pandemic

In 2019, the virtual events market was valued at $77.98 billion. But in-person events were still the norm. From scientific conferences to sales summits, job fairs, and networking events to concerts, virtual events weren’t yet commonplace.

But by March of 2020, as lockdowns and travel regulations began, organizations were at risk of event cancellations. Event organizers had two choices: they could either cancel events entirely or adapt and pivot online. In response, the virtual events industry skyrocketed overnight.

As a company focused on recreating the in-person experience online, Hopin was well-positioned for the task at hand. Hopin is an event management software company allowing individuals and organizations to build and host virtual and hybrid conferences, trade shows, career fairs, and more. The company is committed to driving authentic human connections and replicating the in-person experience online with video and integrated tech tools like virtual whiteboards and live polls.

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Hopin uses subscriptions for event organizers to access the event software. Meeting multiple price points and customer needs, Hopin offers different subscription tiers, with the starter option beginning at $99/month. Business and enterprise options give customized packages and subscriptions for larger organizations.

Subscriptions create a sustainable revenue model for Hopin, bringing some income predictability to the company. Hopin brings in additional income through ticketed events on Hopin Explore—a platform similar to Eventbrite helping users discover events—with a 7% commission fee on ticket purchases.

Forward-thinking and perceptive, founder Johnny Boufarhat continues to uncover customer needs and prepare Hopin for the new generation of events. What started as a response to his diagnosis evolved into a hybrid platform that completely revolutionized the virtual event space.

Even as vaccines roll out and travel restrictions adjust, the virtual events market is expected to keep growing at a rate of 23.2% and reach $404 billion in the next six years. Hopin is here to stay.

Launching 6 Months Early with a Fully Remote Workforce

In early 2020, Hopin had 12 employees. The original plan was to launch in the fall of 2020, allowing Johnny time to focus on raising funds and developing the company’s suite of services. However, spurred on by in-person event cancellations in March, Johnny and his then small team decided at midnight on a Friday to launch for a conference at risk of cancellation the following Monday.

Hopin could have waited to launch until everything was “ready,” but if ever there was a moment to launch a platform that mirrored in-person interactions and connections, now was the time. Johnny and team stepped in when thousands of event organizers so desperately needed the help.

At this point, no completely remote company had grown so quickly and exponentially. There was no roadmap to follow. No go-to-market strategy. The company had launched in such a short amount of time with a fully remote, growing workforce. It was full speed ahead and growing at an astonishing pace.

Johnny Boufarhat, CEO and Founder of Hopin said:

“Speed has become one of Hopin’s superpowers both in scaling our multi-product platform and incredible, fully-remote workforce. At Hopin we prioritize impact measured by the success of our customers. Our mission is to provide the best possible platform for organizers to create meaningful experiences so the world feels smaller and more connected.”

 

Early on, the majority of Hopin employees came through referrals from other employees. Johnny attributes Hopin’s success to his hiring strategy and leadership philosophy: providing flexibility and autonomy for a fully remote workforce.

Johnny is more concerned about hiring the right people over hiring people from a certain timezone. Having remote talent allows you to bring in the BEST of the best—and find the right culture fit—instead of needing headquarters in a certain country or city to get the right talent. Remote gives you a massive talent pool to build an effective team.

So how does Hopin continue to attract a global pool of top product and engineering employees? With its company culture. Between its very own Vibe Team, active Slack channels, and twice-a-month game nights called ConnectFest, Hopin fosters connectedness for its employees, too.

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For Hopin, business norms aren’t necessary. Working across time zones means employees have flexible schedules. The where, how, and when of working doesn’t matter to Johnny; there’s no digital shoulder-tapping or micromanaging. Hopin’s leadership is mostly concerned about serving the customer, not wondering whether employees sit in their desk chairs between designated hours.

Instead of fearing a loss of control over the business, Johnny places trust in his team. Giving them autonomy and empowering them to take responsibility/ownership. Hopin’s success demonstrates the power of trusting in your remote workforce. With a commitment to remote-first forever and employee autonomy, Hopin draws top talent from across the globe.

Invest in Ecosystem Partners

Using integrated technology, Hopin aims to foster lasting connections among its users. Over the course of one year, Hopin has rapidly built an infrastructure to prepare for the future including an aggressive acquisition strategy to become a multi-product platform leading the way in hybrid events.

As part of its multi-product strategy, Hopin acquired mobile app development company Topi in 2020 as well as video streaming company StreamYard, adding StreamYard’s 3.6 million video content creators to its base.

In early 2021, Hopin acquired video hosting provider Streamable as well as video technology company Jamm. Furthering its mission to become the leading hybrid event platform, Hopin acquired event management company Boomset this June.

Johnny’s merger and acquisition strategy is helping Hopin create a digital ecosystem; a collection of interconnected technology to serve its customers. Rather than operating in silos—or having customers lean on multiple platforms that don’t necessarily communicate well with each other—Hopin makes every component of event planning, execution, and attending, easier.

Having an ecosystem is critical for software growth, as the integrated technologies function together to create a seamless experience for customers.

Hopin’s M&A strategy is twofold: increasing its capacity and improving its brand awareness. Through acquisitions, Hopin’s grows its capacity to serve customers with new tools while introducing a new audience to Hopin’s platform.

Like Hopin, companies need to weigh the financial and opportunity costs of acquisitions. What’s the cost of developing technology on your own? What’s the cost of waiting to bring your customers what they need right now? How much of an audience will the new company bring in?

Johnny knows the value of deciding and acting quickly—the faster he provides a better solution for his customers, the bigger the moat he creates around Hopin.

Hopin’s acquisition approach is to serve the virtual and hybrid event market from every angle and entry point, leveraging technology to help users connect with each other, experience global events together, and build lasting relationships across the world.

Growth During a Time of Economic Uncertainty

Johnny recognized the need for virtual and hybrid events well before the pandemic. As a trailblazing business owner, he didn’t let the murky waters of last year stop him from growing Hopin’s impact.

The company quickly positioned itself as THE virtual and hybrid events platform. Johnny leads Hopin to continuously improve its product suite and provide a memorable experience to expand Hopin’s brand awareness. With the backing of his investments in talent and acquisitions, Johnny carved a new moat in the events marketplace.

Hopin continues to establish its moat by refining and expanding its products. What sets Hopin apart is its emphasis on mirroring the dynamic, interactive nature of in-person events and bringing those experiences online as well as investing in technology to lead in the future of hybrid events.

With 1:1 networking, digital reception lobbies, expos, and even coordinating virtual swag bags, Hopin considers every piece of the event production process to provide memorable and interactive experiences for organizers and attendees alike.

Last spring, when The Atlantic searched for a platform for its festival, the company knew it needed something that wouldn’t cripple under the weight of thousands of attendees. Hopin’s platform can handle 100,000+, making the product an easy choice for event organizers with a significant number of attendees.

Its tech capabilities have made all the difference: leading to quick customer acquisition and expansion. The Wall Street Journal hosted its first virtual event on Hopin last year. So did the United Nations. Hopin has taken SEO rankings by storm with extensive backlinks from reputable sites, every event driving visitors and leads to Hopin’s website:

Image Source

When big-name organizations flocked to one platform, the market paid attention. Small and large organizations across sectors now depend on Hopin to host virtual and hybrid events, including Poshmark, TechCrunch, WeTransfer, and many others. In March 2021 alone, the company saw active event organizers grow from 85K to 90K.

One thing is certain: new moats aren’t impenetrable. Once business owners create a new position in the market, the work isn’t done. Companies need to anticipate the changing tides, rather than waiting for inevitable shifts. Where are there gaps in your product or service offerings? How can your company go above and beyond for its customers?

Even now, Hopin is preparing for the world to go back to normal by expanding its products and services to execute hybrid events—blending in-person and virtual elements to serve a wider audience.

Johnny shows us the importance of understanding every facet of your market; he aims to meet needs and exceed expectations for event organizers AND event attendees alike. Hopin notices what’s missing in the market and brings every piece of the event puzzle together as the one-stop shop for a full-service video event platform.

Leading the Next Generation of Events

At first, catapulted by the pandemic, virtual events were used out of necessity. But now, event organizers see the opportunity in hybrid events: serving a wider audience and making a bigger impact. Founder Johnny Boufarhat aims to make events more accessible and create an environment for connections as natural as an in-person. He’s bringing in the next generation of events through three key strategies:

1. Committing to remote-first.

Hopin isn’t concerned about when, where, or how team members complete their work. The company fully leans into remote-first, allowing flexibility and autonomy for every employee. Above all else, Boufarhat trusts his team to take ownership and do what it takes to get the job done.

2. Investing in strategic M&A.

When it comes to mergers and acquisitions for Hopin, there’s no ego involved. More than anything, Hopin is focused on solving customers’ problems and frustrations—finding innovative solutions to help customers create meaningful experiences and make the world feel smaller.

3. Carving and expanding a new moat.

Hopin didn’t stop at creating a new position in the market. The company is committed to continuously discovering new ways to fill gaps in service and expanding its product offerings to meet customer needs in one place.

Through strategic acquisitions and investments, Johnny Boufarhat demonstrates his careful consideration of customer frustrations, combined with his ability to anticipate future possibilities and act quickly. Rather than waiting for customers’ needs to show themselves, Boufarhat goes beyond what’s in front of him and anticipates the bend in the road ahead: hybrid events that promote scalability and greater access.

No matter how many products or services you sell and offer, or how small or large your business is, no two customers are exactly the same.

Because of this, it’s important to ensure you’re always identifying the trends and patterns that exist among your customers and target audience. In doing so, you’ll have the data and information necessary to effectively target, reach, convert, and retain those people.

To help you with this, turn to the process of behavioral segmentation.

Behavioral Segmentation

In this blog post, we’ll review the definition of behavioral segmentation (which is a process that’s part of behavioral marketing), a tool that can help you group your customers based on their behaviors and actions, as well as examples of behavioral segmentation.

Behavioral Segmentation

To support your behavioral segmentation efforts, we recommend implementing a tool like HubSpot’s Behavioral Targeting software.

With a tool like HubSpot, which comes in a free or paid version with one of the premium Marketing Hub plans, you can collect data about how your target audience interacts with your website, content, and other marketing materials.

You can also take advantage of the active list feature which is used for advanced customer segmentation, targeting, and audience building.

By incorporating HubSpot into your behavioral segmentation workflow, you’ll send targeted messages and relevant material to your audience members at the right time. This process is also automated with audience triggers.

With HubSpot’s Behavioral Targeting tool, you can also:

• Create hyper-segmented lists based on persona and their engagement.
• Leverage CRM data (via your connected, all-in-one CRM platform) to customize your content.
• Share well-timed and engaging nurture campaigns.
• Consistently identify and record specific behavioral events throughout the buyer’s journey that lead to conversions among your prospects.

Pro Tip: Use HubSpot’s Behavioral Targeting tool to personalize outreach at scale and make every interaction you have with prospects and contacts feel special.

Behavioral Segmentation Variables

The behavioral segmentation variables that you need to consider while working on the categorization of your audiences include:

• Sought-after product/service benefits of your audience members.
• Audience member’s product/ service usage rate.
• Audience member’s loyalty status.
• Stage of the buyer’s journey an audience member is in.
• Size of your market segment.
• Level of accessibility your market segment has to your product or service.
• How niche your market segment is.

Next, let’s take a look at some behavioral segmentation examples.

Behavioral Segmentation Examples

There are a number of behavioral segmentation examples — a.k.a. ways to segment your customers based on behavior. Here are some common examples.

1. Purchase Behavior/ Transaction History

Look at a customer’s purchase behavior and transaction history. This provides insight into how and why they decide to convert as well as which stages of the buyer’s journey go smoothly whereas where a prospect may come to a bit of a roadblock along the way. It also gives you an idea of which behaviors are likely to accurately predict a conversion.

2. Occasion

Was it a specific occasion or point in time that influenced your customer’s decision to convert? For instance, is there a specific point in time during the year that they’ll interact with your brand (e.g. if you’re an online greeting card service, you may get repeat customers around the winter holiday season every year). Is a purchase decision based on the time of day or even life stage?

3. Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty provides a solid look at customer behavior — loyalty relates directly to a customer’s habits, actions, needs, usage, and the timing of their actions.

To use customer loyalty when segmenting customers based on behavior, think about: 1) which parts of the buyer’s journey are so delightful that they result in loyalty, 2) how you currently keep loyal customers feeling delighted, 3) which prospects are most likely to become loyal, and 4) which attributes do your loyal customers share.

4. Benefits Sought

Identify what your customers are looking to get out of your product or service — of all of your features, which do they need most to resolve the challenge(s) that they’re experiencing? What specific benefits do they get out of your product and which of those benefits are most important to them?

Determine which of those benefits are influencing their decision to use your product/service most.

5. Customer Journey Stage

Understanding which stage of the customer journey leads to the most conversions or which stage prospects get hung up on most frequently is beneficial information when predicting behavior and segmenting customers based on those behaviors.

However, it’s important to note that using customer journey stages in behavioral segmentation can be difficult because there are so many stages — and within those stages are multiple touchpoints that contribute to behavior or decision to remain in a stage, or move forward to a new stage, of the buyer’s journey.

That’s why it’s recommended to use a platform like your CRM or an AI/ machine learning tool — they record and track all interactions throughout the buyer’s journey to ensure you’re getting a complete view of your customers’ buyer’s journey behavioral data.

6. Engagement

Engagement refers to the type and frequency of engagement you see from certain customers. You might segment your customers based on high engagement versus average engagement versus occasional engagement.

Highly engaged individuals are those who have incorporated your brand into their lives regularly.

Average users may engage with your brand or product/ service fairly regularly but may not take advantage of its full potential and capabilities.

Occasional users may just engage with your brand or product/service randomly based on their specific need but don’t rely on it.

7. Usage

Usage refers to how and/or how much a customer uses your product or service. This may entail segmenting your customers based on how they actually use the product/service, how frequently they use it, how long they use it for in a single session, or which features they use most.

You might choose to segment your customers further into more specific usage categories — for instance, heavy users versus average users versus light users.

Grow Better With Behavioral Segmentation

Behavioral segmentation is a great way to effectively and efficiently target your leads and customers to increase conversions. It helps you time your communications and follow up, and tailor your content in a way that feels personal. Be sure to keep behavioral segmentation variables in mind and incorporate a tool like HubSpot for further support throughout the process.

Recently, our own David Fortino was lucky enough to be invited onto a number of podcasts to talk about NetLine’s 2021 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report for Marketers. 

We’ll be breaking down a few of the most interesting takeaways from each episode so that you can get the most out of each conversation. The second podcast we’ve broken down is B2B Marketing & More, with digital OG Pam Didner.

Digging Deeper into NetLine’s 2021 Content Consumption Report

Considering that our platform is now supporting close to 14,000 pieces of content that are being promoted by B2B Marketers to their various audiences, have access to a ton of first-party data. As such, there’s a lot of insights to be mined from all of that information. But even though we have all this data, we’re big fans of letting the data do the talking without adding too much editorial commentary or a conjecture on top of the data.

And with that in mind, Pam stated the obvious: “I’m pretty sure B2B Marketers will be very interested to hear your insights.” We’d like to agree, Pam, so let’s take a look at what David and Pam discussed during their conversation last month.

Looking for Answers, Looking for Comfort 

It’s safe to say that, for the most part, B2B marketing isn’t ever involved in a life or death conversation (sorry to get so heavy on you). Sure, there are deadlines and pressing client requests that might raise our blood pressure a few points, but our industry doesn’t deal with earth-shattering stuff every day…until it did. 

Last year forced all of us to look at life very differently. Everything was (or at the very least felt) catastrophic, with professionals shaken at their core. They found themselves asking, “is my company going to exist through this?” “Are our customers going to persevere and actually be able to pay us?” “Am I still going to have a job?”

What David shared with Pam was that, while B2B professionals were facing all of this uncertainty, they kept turning to content to provide context and solutions to the issues they faced. “The most intriguing aspect there was that instead of perhaps as humans kind of sucking ourselves back into a shell and just hoping to get through this,” David said, “people actually leaned into content and said, “you know what? This is crazy and it’s scary, but I’m not going to sit still and wait for the world to dictate my outcomes. I’m going to go research; I’m going to level up my skills and I’m going to decide how to be best equipped with knowledge to get through this period.”

And lean in they did, as overall consumption increased more than 22% YOY, as people leaned into content to look for comfort and look for answers. “I think most marketing orgs were put on pause for a period where they were afraid to do much,” David said. “They didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know what to create. Yet your buyers said, “well, we still have a business to run and if you’re not going to create content that speaks to me, someone else is, and I’m going to be out there trying to educate myself to get through this period.”

So it’s a great learning lesson for Marketers that, you know, hopefully, we don’t have to go through something like this again. But if you’re facing some level of challenge and the industry perhaps is going through some, I don’t know, governmental regulation, don’t be silent, right. Be out there constantly leading your buyers versus waiting for them to, you know, find someone else to really educate them through that period of need.

Why First-Party Data is More Compelling Than Third-Party Data

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

About halfway through the episode, Pam asks David a big question. “So you specifically mentioned that first-party consumption is better than third-party consumption. Can you explain what that is?” While she didn’t use the word “Why” specifically, she didn’t necessarily need to; it was implied. 

We’re not shy about our love of first-party data. We don’t just think it’s superior to third-party data, we have the data to back it up. Given the opportunity, David seized it and shared his two cents. 

“The reason why we are of the mindset that first-party is far more compelling than third-party is the richness and the accuracy,” he said. “There’s no such thing as a persona when you’re talking about first-party data, you’re always talking about the person. It literally is Pam, David, Jane or Jim. It’s not Agnes who has two dogs and one cat and she loves an egg salad sandwich. Because [we know direct attributes about a person] there’s a tremendous amount of accuracy.”

Knowing exactly where a registrant works, their role, job level, job function, which industry they work in, and the company’s annualized revenues give businesses so much more to work off of. “The richness of that data is far better than what you can get on the third-party side of the marketplace,” David said. “The [adtech] industry doesn’t like saying this, but it is a form of guessing. You are modeling with high levels of internal confidence that those audiences show propensity to look and feel and act, and eat, and drink and have hobbies that are similar to these other audiences.” 

As David said this, Pam chimed in to highlight that oftentimes, when people register, they may not provide you the information you truly need. “How many times have you and I registered for something and we’ve given out a wrong phone number and no way to verify it [for the company].”

At this point, David talked a bit about NetLine’s technology and how it recognizes a little over 80% of registrants, which offers a seamless registration experience with zero typing. (But that’s a story you can listen to the podcast for…)

What COVID-19 Reinforced for Content Marketing

As we wrote about in our 2021 Content Consumption Report, we identified that the most successful content contained one of at least three core elements: security, predictability, and simplicity. One of the reasons these elements drove so much engagement is because of just how insane 2020 was and how little we all truly knew. But one of the other interesting pieces that David touched on after Pam’s question about the three elements was about how the element of security had a dual meaning. 

“Security took on two different meanings this past year: the first was, corporate security network security, cybersecurity; but then the second was real human security,” David said. “People were not feeling safe. And so what was wild was to see a flood of Marketers start creating content specifically weaving in COVID into it, into their topic, narrative, referencing how their solution is, is potentially going to alleviate concerns around that, workforce security, corporate security, and so on.

HR professionals were some of the most prolific consumers of content during the first few months of pandemic. While healthcare workers were tackling some of the most tenuous and stressful working conditions ever, HR pros were, in their own sense, battening down the hatches so they could weather the storm for their employees and clients alike. “It’s really logical when you look at it,” David said, “as most of the companies in the world didn’t have a distributed workforce and they didn’t have a real formal plan for all of their employees working remote.” In order to handle their new reality, they turned to content to help them.

“I think the pandemic somehow reinforced that [focusing on these three elements] is something that you should always do,” Pam said. “I think Marketers are trying to do that.”

Trying to keep everything together (what your audience needs vs. what the business wants to share with them) is a balancing act that Marketers have been trying to discover for years. The last 18 months may have finally helped to push everyone to the side of delivering value as directly as possible, as it showed us that the only way to have an audience is to make sure that we’re helping as much as possible.

Listen to the Episode

These three highlights are just a taste of what Pam and David dug into during their conversation. We really loved the questions that Pam asked David that would usually catch normal folks off guard…but since David lives and breathes everything NetLine, he was ready with information and answers regardless of how good Pam was…and Pam is good.

This is another must-listen podcast for anyone who is interested in how content can drive more meaningful outcomes via content.

Get comfortable and listen to episode 175 of B2B Marketing & More!

You need an email account — whether it’s for networking, job recruitment, downloading resources, transferring files, setting reminders, meeting with colleagues, or something else.

Even with the rise of office chat platforms, you still depend on email for a surprising number of things. But unfortunately, not every email service is completely free. And even the free ones might not be the easiest to use or have all the features you need.

It can be a challenge to find an email service provider at no cost that balances the right features with usability. To help make your search easier, we put together a list of the different types of email accounts you can set up, followed by the eleven best email service providers you can host your account on right now for free.

It can be challenging to find an email service provider at no cost that balances the right features with usability. To help make your search easier, we put together a list of the different types of email accounts you can set up, followed by the twelve best email service providers you can host your account on right now for free.

Types of Email Accounts

There are two main types of email service providers to choose from:

• Email clients, and
• Webmail

When you use your provider to access your email from a different device or location online, you can use one of three major email protocols to do so: POP3, IMAP, and Exchange.

Let’s briefly go over these different types of providers and protocols.

Email clients you’ve likely heard of include Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, and Apple Mail.

If you want to access this type of email from the web rather than the client’s computer application, the email client uses one of the email protocols described below.

For example, although you might have Outlook installed on your computer, you can also log in to your email account via outlook.com using a specific email protocol.

Webmail providers you’ve likely heard of include Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and AOL (all of which have made our list of best free email accounts below).

If you want to access your webmail from a mail app on your mobile device rather than your desktop web browser, your webmail provider can use one of the email protocols described below.

Before we get into the best free email accounts, let’s talk about those email protocols.

Email Protocols

Email protocols are the systems that actually retrieve your email for you. They can fetch email client accounts on the internet and webmail accounts on a mobile app. Here are the three main types of email protocol your account can use.

POP3

POP stands for “post office protocol” and is best suited for people with just one email account and email client. POP3 is the latest version of this email protocol and allows you to access email while offline. It, therefore, requires less internet bandwidth.

IMAP

IMAP stands for “internet mail access protocol.” And it’s one of the older email protocols available today. IMAP4 is considered the latest version, and unlike the POP protocol, you do not download your email to your offline email client. Instead, all your email stays online while you’re accessing and managing it.

IMAP is particularly useful for people who have more than one email account and access them from multiple devices or locations.

Exchange

Exchange is a Microsoft email protocol and is pretty similar to the IMAP protocol explained above. This protocol allows you to not only access your email over the internet from multiple devices, but also tasks, calendars, and contact information tethered to that email address.

For this reason, it’s beneficial to organizations whose employees share many types of information and collaborate remotely.

Now, take a look at seven of the best free email service providers (and 5 of the best email accounts for privacy) you can get your hands on today — both webmail and email clients included. For each email service provider, we highlighted a unique feature to help you find the best fit.

1. Gmail

Unique Feature: Native File Collaboration

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Anyone who already uses and loves the rest of Google’s products.

It might seem like an obvious top pick, but Gmail is just too versatile not to get our first slot. According to Litmus Labs, Gmail has the second-highest email provider market share (behind Apple iPhone’s native email app).

Ironically, one of the reasons Gmail has become so popular is because of all the communication options in your inbox that don’t involve email.

Gmail is a regular email inbox tool you can access once you have a Google account. Since it’s built into Google Suite, you can also access a group of free apps that allow you to chat, video conference, and share files with the people in your contact list.

Google Hangouts, available from your inbox’s left sidebar (or the right — you can customize how your inbox is displayed), lets you text and video chat with other Gmail users for the things that might not warrant an email message.

Like most other email accounts today, Gmail also has an intuitive calendar where you can set meetings and reminders.

Pro Tip: You can also use a free product like HubSpot Meetings to easily schedule meetings without back-and-forth emails.

Unlike other email accounts, you can use your Gmail address to log into and manage your YouTube account, as well as collaborate on shared documents and spreadsheets right from a cloud-based Google Drive.

Offering a generous 15 GB of free email storage, Gmail does everything it can to make your inbox less chaotic, including advanced filters that automatically push emails into separate folders as they arrive. And none of these functions costs a dime.

Pros:

• Allows you to un-send emails
• 15GB free email storage
• Accessible from any internet-connected device
• 99.9% protection from suspicious/spam emails
• Texts suggestions that help you write emails faster

2. AOL

Source

Unique Feature: Unlimited Storage

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Anyone who uses email for most of their communication.

America Online (I feel nostalgic just typing those words) has quietly kept up with today’s standards for a good user experience and is now once again one of the best free email accounts available to you.

Purchased by Verizon in 2015, AOL delivers your email from its classic news-driven homepage and comes with the contemporary spam filters and virus protection you’d expect from your email provider. You can also send text and instant messages from specific windows in your email inbox.

AOL does have something over Gmail, though: unlimited storage. Additionally, you can import email contacts from a CSV, TXT, or LDIF file, so you’re not creating your “buddy list” (get it?) from scratch.

Pros:

• Unlimited storage
• Highly customizable
• Offers a spellchecker to reduce errors

3. Outlook

Source

Unique Feature: Multiple App Integrations

Sign up here.

Type of email: Email client

Who should use it: Anyone who uses many different platforms to connect with others.

If you ever cringed at the sight of a “Hotmail.com” email address, you can thank Outlook for this outdated domain name.

But there’s good news: Microsoft has reinvented its longstanding email service, and your free Outlook.com email address has many advanced features waiting for you.

While it touts a calendar and message filter similar to Gmail, Outlook also integrates with several other popular communication apps.

For example, you can connect Skype, Facebook, PowerPoint, PayPal, and even task-management software such as Trello — making it very easy to reach and work with non-Outlook users without leaving your inbox.

Outlook offers 15 GB of free storage for each user, along with a super-clean interface.

Pros:

• Like with Excel or Word, you can use Add-ins with Outlook
• Easy access to other Microsoft apps like Skype
• Provides aliases that add anonymity to your email
• Excellent email organization
• Great search feature

4. Yahoo! Mail

Source

Unique Feature: Media and attachment history

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Creatives and anyone who sends and receives attachments frequently via email.

Yahoo! Mail, another well-known platform, sits just behind AOL in storage space with a whopping 1 TB (that’s a terabyte) for free, along with a few key social media integrations.

You can have custom background themes and search for key information from your inbox with Yahoo! Mail.

Yahoo! Mail makes it easy to find every photo, video, and document you’ve ever attached or received via email in their tabs on your inbox’s sidebar. This makes the platform especially appealing to those who share documents regularly or simply want an album made of every photo they’ve ever had shared.

Pros:

• Connects seamlessly with Yahoo Calendar
• Outstanding email organization
• Customizable themes
• Instant notifications for new emails
• Decent security to keep your account safe and secure

5. iCloud Mail

Source

Unique Feature: Label senders as VIPs

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: people who use Mac and want everything on one system.

If you’re a Mac user, you may want to consider using iCloud Mail as your email provider. Their free email account comes with 5GB of storage that you can use to sync your photos, files, or email.

However, it’s important to note that storage is shared between all of your apps and devices — so if you take a lot of photos on your iPhone, you may eat into your email storage allowance for the month. Upgraded plans start at $0.99/month and go up to $9.99/month.

One of the most significant advantages of using iCloud over other email providers on this list is the ease of integration. Apple builds its desktop and iPhone mail apps with all email clients in mind, but it pays special attention to making the experience delightful for iCloud users.

Pros:

• Search functionality
• Ability to label senders as VIP to automatically filter important messages and save time
• One-click “Unsubscribe” feature
• 5GB free email storage

6. Mozilla Thunderbird

Source

Unique Feature: Customization features and the ability to open multiple emails in tabs

Sign up here.

Type of email: Email clients

Who should use it: Anyone looking for a simple but customizable email inbox.

Thunderbird, a free email application from Mozilla, known for Firefox, offers a quick email inbox setup and a simple, easy-to-use user interface.

The app offers customizable features, such as theme settings and app extensions to improve your email experience. The email app also allows you to open multiple emails in tabs, similar to how you would open various web pages in Firefox browsers.

Pros:

• It has a large extension library
• Integrates with Google Calendar to make task and meeting scheduling easier
• Smart email organization to reduce cluster

7. Yandex Mail

Source

Unique Feature: 10 GB of free cloud storage

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: anyone seeking a free email with additional storage capabilities.

Yandex is a Russian web company that offers a global email tool. You can sign up for a free account with the tool, link it to your Facebook, Twitter, or Gmail accounts, and personalize your email inbox.

Like many of the other providers on this list, Yandex’s email inbox can be set to filter or prioritize emails so you see messages from real people. It can also recognize keywords in messages and subject lines and organize emails into categorized inboxes. Additionally, users who sign up for Yandex mail get 10 GB of free cloud storage.

Pros:

• Auto-reminder for un-replied mails
• In-built translator
• Read receipts on sent emails
• 10 GB free cloud storage

8. Zoho

Source

Unique Feature: 25 Business Addresses

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: startups and small businesses.

This is the first of the free email accounts for privacy to make our list, but it holds a ton of potential for businesses.

The first thing you’ll notice about Zoho is its user-friendliness. From integrating with Google Drive, Box, and other cloud-based file managers, to its built-in task manager, this email service offers a simple way to accomplish all of your daily tasks.

The real difference-maker, though, is the ability to customize the domain name for up to 25 connected email addresses. Want to replace “@zoho.com” with the name of your business’s website? You can do so under Zoho Lite, which gives you 5 GB for free — all under [email protected].

Pros:

• Doesn’t scan your inbox for advertisement purposes
• Emails are in an encrypted format
• Notifies you if your messages don’t deliver
• Integrates easily with the Zoho CRM

9. ProtonMail

Source

Unique Feature: Encrypted email

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Anyone who sends and receives sensitive information.

ProtonMail offers just 500 MB of free space, but for the worthy trade of encrypted email, allowing you to send messages that nobody else can see and disappear after a month.

What’s the catch? Is the service hard to use? ProtonMail is easy to use on any device without any software needed to encrypt your emails, as with most webmail platforms. Its inbox interface is as easy to understand at a glance as the other email services on this list.

And the tool offers quick color-coded labels to help you further organize which emails deserve the most care and protection.

Pros:

• No personal information is required to open an account
• Compatible with other email providers
• Optimized inbox to boost productivity
• End-to-end data encryption

10. GMX Mail

Source

Unique Feature: Alias email addresses

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Anyone who needs multiple emails with one central inbox.

While you may not have heard of GMX Mail, it’s been around for quite a while (since 1997) — and it has a bunch of features that make it worth considering.

First off, GMX offers 65GB of storage. That’s a lot of storage for a free email service. In fact, they claim that it allows you to keep nearly half a million messages in your Inbox!

Another feature worth noting is the ability to send large attachments. While many services have low caps for your email attachments, GMX Mail allows you to send files up to 50MB. That’s great if you share a ton of photos, presentations, or other large files from your account.

But the feature of GMX Mail that really sets it apart is the ability to set up to 10 alias email addresses all from within one account. This can be useful in many situations — both personally and professionally.

On a personal note, you could use one alias for all of your online purchases and logins — to keep marketing emails separate from your private messages. From a business perspective, multiple email addresses can help manage role-based emails such as [email protected] or [email protected].

Pros:

• Spam filter to protect your inbox from suspicious messages
• Easy-to-use inbox management templates
• Mail collector for keeping all your emails (even from other service providers) in a single place

11. Trustifi

Source

Unique Feature: Data loss prevention

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Anyone who doesn’t want to choose between having a secure and functional inbox.

Trustifi combines the best of a productive and secure email provider in one place.

With available whitelisting and blacklisting options, you can easily choose who you allow to send you messages. Trustifi is also compliant with HIPAA/HITECH, PII, GDPR, FSA, FINRA, LGPD, CCPA, and more, so you don’t have to worry about losing your account overnight.

You can even use the Trustifi add-on to add an extra security layer to your Gmail or Outlook inbox.

Pros:

• Ransomware and fraud detection
• Ability to set expiry dates on sent emails
• Seamless integrations with other email systems or service providers
• End-to-end email encryption

12. Mailfence

Source

Unique Feature: Legal protection

Sign up here.

Type of email: Webmail

Who should use it: Anyone looking for a secure email account that integrates with other tools.

Mailfence is a secure browser-based email service provider based in Belgium. Given the laws in Belgium, all your data is locked away from any third-party access.

Their free plan gives you 500 MB of email space. But to truly enjoy the best of Mailfence, you’ll have to hop on a paid plan that starts at €2.50/month.

You’d be able to create up to 10 aliases on the paid plan and have 5GB of email space, among many other features.

With Mailfence, it easy to organize your day and business because you’d be able to easily integrate your email account with your contacts, calendar, and documents.

Pros:

• Quick integration with a suite of tools
• True OpenPGP end-to-end encryption

Making the Most of Your Email

And with that, you have some of the best options for free email accounts this year. But who knows? Your next email address could be entirely different while giving you just what you need to succeed.

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

I recently bought a new laptop. Before deciding which one was right for me, I read through a number of online reviews to ensure I was making an informed decision. Once I narrowed my search down to a couple of models, I visited the store to examine specs in person before committing.

To phrase the above scenario slightly differently, I was “pulled” into consider certain brands due to their laptop marketing. Then, I was “pushed” into selecting the right one for me by going to the store to read the marketing materials and see the laptops in person.

This is just one example of how push and pull marketing are at work both separately and together.

In this blog post. we’ll cover push marketing, pull marketing, push and pull marketing strategies, and examples of each.

What is push marketing?

Push marketing is a strategy focused on “pushing” products to a specific audience.

Also known as direct marketing, push marketing is a form of general advertising. When I grocery shop, I look for the signs that notate sales and gravitate towards them — picking up limes I never knew I needed. This is an example of push marketing.

Push Marketing Strategy

To understand a push marketing strategy, let’s consider Suzie.

Suzie’s marketing company is ready for its big debut. But the local businesses she’s trying to work with have no idea her company exists. This is a job for push marketing.

So, Suzie reaches out to businesses in her area via email marketing, puts ads in local shops, and creates a social media business page to expand her reach.

Because Suzie’s goal is to introduce her company to local businesses as she launches her new service, push marketing is an effective way to get the word out about what she does and what she offers.

For a business that’s been around for a while but still wants to execute a push strategy, another option is running a limited-time offer for your product. Use a channel your target market is closely tied to, such as a social media platform, or use landing pages to your advantage by including a CTA at the end.

What is pull marketing?

Now, let’s talk about pull marketing.

For instance, if someone is looking for a new babysitter, they might visit Care.com. They can select a babysitter based on a list of preferences that are specifically shown to fit their needs.

In the age of consumers educating themselves on products and services, pull marketing has become vital to markets with heavy saturation, like new apps or clothing companies. Pull marketing shows how you are unique as a brand.

Pull Marketing Strategy

To put this in the context of another business, let’s take a look at Luis.

When businesses are looking for a point-of-sale (POS) system, Luis wants his POS to be the one they choose.

Pull marketing channels are exactly what Luis needs to achieve this. To pull his target market, Luis starts a blog on his website, runs specialized and high-traffic social media campaigns, and focuses on differentiating his brand from his competitors.

To amp up his pull marketing strategy, Luis focuses on SEO for his online marketing to make his system discoverable to his target market. Google reviews, and word-of-mouth reviews on sites like Yelp are his best friends throughout his campaign.

Since Luis has already developed a following from his app’s debut, he can focus on credibility and reliability rather than marketing to make the next sale. After a while, this will pull customers to his business. Pull marketing strategies generally take longer than push marketing to drive results, but this strategy ensures long-term customers and growth.

Now you may be wondering about the best ways to ensure you’re selecting the right type of marketing for your business — to help with just that, lets more thoroughly compare the two strategies.

Is push or pull marketing more effective?

To decide which method best fits your business, think about how you want to approach consumers.

If you are trying to get the word out about your business, push will most likely be the way to go. If you’re a marketer building brand buzz in your market — perhaps about a specific product or service — pull would probably be best.

There are a few cons to push marketing — mainly splitting costs and keeping long-term customers. If your company is working with a supplier to implement a push marketing strategy, you’d have to split profits with the supplier at the end of the day, which means less revenue for you. Since push marketing focuses on short-term sales, building brand loyalty is difficult with an outbound strategy.

Meanwhile, a downside to pull marketing is that you might not cater to the right target audience. In order to connect to your consumers, you need to know who they are and what they’re looking for. For instance, an athlete shopping for running shoes might not be interested in advertisements for heels.

An effective way to make sure you’re covering all bases with your marketing strategy is by implementing a push and pull marketing strategy — you can marry the best parts of both strategies in a way that’s complementary to your business, audience, and goals.

Push and Pull Marketing Strategy

Push and pull marketing strategies can work together. Customers need a push for demand to be created and a pull to satisfy that demand. For those who haven’t heard of your company, a push is needed. For those a little further along in their buyer’s journey, you can pull them in.

The way you incorporate both strategies at your company will depend on your unique push and pull goals — to help you determine what your push and pull strategy will look like, lets review some examples of push marketing followed by examples of pull marketing. Then, you’ll have a stronger understanding of what your strategy will end up looking like.

Push Strategy Examples

1. Display Ads

Display ads appear in areas that are specifically dedicated to paid ads and may be formatted in a variety of ways, such as a banner ad. There are also display ads on social media platforms, such as Instagram, that you can create and share.

2. Billboards

Billboards are an effective way of building brand awareness and broadcasting your business, product, service, or campaign to as many people as possible. They’re strategically placed in high-traffic areas to get as many eyes on them (and hopefully, members of your target audience).

3. Direct Marketing

Direct marketing and direct advertising are also forms of push marketing — this can happen in a showroom, at a trade show, or in a brick-and-mortar store. It might also entail someone at a grocery store, like Trader Joes, offering free samples to shoppers.

Pull Strategy Examples

1. Social Media Marketing

Disregarding social media paid ads, as mentioned in the push strategy section above, there are a number of ways you can use social media marketing as a form of pull marketing. This includes how-to videos, influencer content (e.g. an influencer sharing a demo on how they use your product), beautiful images and videos of your product, and co-marketing campaigns on social media.

2. SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy that allows you to get your content, web pages, and more in front of the people who are searching for relevant keywords, phrases, and terms.

When you optimize your web pages and other content for those search terms your target audience is actively looking for, your marketing materials and web pages will appear in front of them organically. This is a great way to naturally get in front of your target audience and buyer perosnas without feeling pushy while also increasing brand awareness.

3. Blogs

Blogging is an effective way of educating your target audience and providing them with the knowledge they need to make informed buying decisions, understand how to use and apply your product or service, or gain insight into changes in an industry, product updates, etc.

When you search engine optimize your blog content, it appears in front of your target audience organically on search engines like Google, automatically increasing the number of people who see and interact with your content as well as improving brand awareness and more.

Start Using Push and Pull Marketing

Start using push and pull marketing strategies to combine the power of outbound and inbound strategies and get the most out of your marketing efforts.

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

Nowadays, Instagram is often someone’s initial contact with a brand, and nearly half of its users
shop on the platform each week. If it’s the entryway for half of your potential sales, don’t you want your profile to look clean and inviting?

Taking the time to create an engaging Instagram feed aesthetic is one of the most effective ways to persuade someone to follow your business’s Instagram account or peruse your posts. You only have one chance to make a good first impression — so it’s critical that you put effort into your Instagram feed.

Finding the perfect place to start is tough — where do you find inspiration? What color scheme should you use? How do you organize your posts so they look like a unit?

We know you enjoy learning by example, so we’ve compiled the answers to all of these questions in a list of stunning Instagram themes. We hope these inspire your own feed’s transformation. But beware, these feeds are so desirable, you’ll have a hard time choosing just one.

Tools to Create Your Own Instagram Theme

Creating a theme on your own requires a keen eye for detail. When you’re editing several posts a week that follow the same theme, you’ll want to have a design tool handy to make that workflow easier. Pre-set filters, color palettes, and graphic elements are just a few of the features these tools use, but if you have a sophisticated theme to maintain, a few of these tools include advanced features like video editing and layout previews. Here are our top five favorite tools to use when editing photos for an Instagram theme.

1. VSCO

Creators look to VSCO when they want to achieve the most unique photo edits. This app is one of the top-ranked photo editing tools among photographers because it includes advanced editing features without needing to pull out all the stops in Photoshop. If you’re in a hurry and want to create an Instagram theme quickly, use one of the 200+ VSCO presets including name-brand designs by Kodak, Agfa, and Ilford. If you’ll be including video as part of your content lineup on Instagram, you can use the same presets from the images so every square of content blends seamlessly into the next no matter what format it’s in.

2. FaceTune2

FaceTune2 is a powerful photo editing app that can be downloaded on the App Store or Google Play. The free version of the app includes all the basic editing features like brightness, lighting, cropping, and filters. The pro version gives you more detailed control over retouching and background editing. For video snippets, use FaceTune Video to make detailed adjustments right from your mobile device — you’ll just need to download the app separately for that capability. If you’re starting to test whether an Instagram theme is right for your brand, FaceTune2 is an affordable tool worth trying.

3. Canva

You know Canva as a user-friendly and free option to create graphics, but it can be a powerful photo editing tool to curate your Instagram theme. For more abstract themes that mix imagery with graphic art, you can add shapes, textures, and text to your images. Using the photo editor, you can import your image and adjust the levels, add filters, and apply unique effects to give each piece of content a look that’s unique to your brand.

4. Adobe Illustrator

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Have you ever used Adobe Illustrator to create interesting overlays and tints for images? You can do the same thing to develop your Instagram theme. Traditionally, Adobe Illustrator is the go-to tool to create vectors and logos, but this software has some pretty handy features for creating photo filters and designs. Moreover, you can layout your artboards in an Instagram-style grid to see exactly how each image will appear in your feed.

5. Photoshop

Photoshop is the most well-known photo editing software, and it works especially well for creating Instagram themes. If you have the capacity to pull out all the stops and tweak every detail, Photoshop will get the job done. Not only are the editing, filter, and adjustment options virtually limitless, Photoshop is great for batch processing the same edits across several images in a matter of seconds. You’ll also optimize your workflow by using photoshop to edit the composition, alter the background, and remove any unwanted components of an image without switching to another editing software to add your filter. With Photoshop, you have complete control over your theme which means you won’t have to worry about your profile looking exactly like someone else’s.

1. Transition

If you aren’t set on one specific Instagram theme, consider the transition theme. With this aesthetic, you can experiment with merging colors every couple of images. For example, you could start with a black theme and include beige accents in every image. From there, gradually introduce the next color, in this case, blue. Eventually, you’ll find that your Instagram feed will seamlessly transition between the colors you choose which keeps things interesting without straying from a cohesive look and feel.

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2. Black and White

A polished black and white theme is a good choice to evoke a sense of sophistication. The lack of color draws you into the photo’s main subject and suggests a timeless element to your business. @Lisedesmet’s black and white feed, for instance, focuses the user’s gaze on the image’s subject, like the black sneakers or white balloon.

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3. Bright Colors

If your company’s brand is meant to imply playfulness or fun, there’s probably no better way than to create a feed full of bright colors. Bright colors are attention-grabbing and lighthearted, which could be ideal for attracting a younger audience. @Aww.sam’s feed, for instance, showcases someone who doesn’t take herself too seriously.

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4. Minimalist

For an artsier edge, consider taking a minimalist approach to your feed, like @emwng does. The images are inviting and slightly whimsical in their simplicity, and cultivate feelings of serenity and stability. The pup pics only add wholesomeness to this minimalist theme. Plus, minimalist feeds are less distracting by nature, so it can be easier to get a true sense of the brand from the feed alone, without clicking on individual posts.

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5. One Color

One of the easiest ways to pick a theme for your feed is to choose one color and stick to it — this can help steer your creative direction, and looks clean and cohesive from afar. It’s particularly appealing if you choose an aesthetically pleasing and calm color, like the soft pink used in the popular hashtag #blackwomeninpink.

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6. Two Colors

If you’re interested in creating a highly cohesive feed but don’t want to stick to the one-color theme, consider trying two. Two colors can help your feed look organized and clean — plus, if you choose branded colors, it can help you create cohesion between your other social media sites the website itself. I recommend choosing two contrasting colors for a punchy look like the one shown in @Dreaming_outloud’s profile.

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7. Pastels

Similar to the one-color idea, it might be useful to choose one color palette for your feed, like @creativekipi’s use of pastels. Pastels, in particular, often used for Easter eggs or cupcake decorations, appear childlike and cheerful. Plus, they’re captivating and unexpected.

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8. One Subject

As evident from @mustdoflorida’s feed (and username), it’s possible to focus your feed on one singular object or idea — like beach-related objects and activities in Florida. If you’re aiming to showcase your creativity or photography skills, it could be compelling to create a feed where each post follows one theme.

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9. Puzzle

Creating a puzzle out of your feed is complicated and takes some planning, but can reap big rewards in terms of uniqueness and engaging an audience. @Juniperoats’ posts, for instance, make the most sense when you look at it from the feed, rather than individual posts. It’s hard not to be both impressed and enthralled by the final result, and if you post puzzle piece pictures individually, you can evoke serious curiosity from your followers.

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10. Unique Angles

Displaying everyday items and activities from unexpected angles is sure to draw attention to your Instagram feed. Similar to the way lines create a theme, angles use direction to create interest. Taking an image of different subjects from similar angles can unite even the most uncommon photos into a consistent theme.

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11. Text Only

A picture is worth a thousand words, but how many pictures is a well-designed quote worth? Confident Woman Co. breaks the rules of Instagram that say images should have a face in them to get the best engagement. Not so with this Instagram theme.

The bright colors and highlighted text make this layout aesthetically pleasing both in the Instagram grid format and as a one-off post on the feed. Even within this strict text-only theme, there’s still room to break up the monotony with a type-treated font and textured background like the last image does in the middle row.

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12. Checkerboard

If you’re not a big fan of horizontal or vertical lines, you might try a checkerboard theme. Similar to horizontal lines, this theme allows you to alternate between content and images or colors as seen in @thefemalehustlers’ feed.

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13. Black or White Borders

While it is a bit jarring to have black or white borders outlining every image, it definitely sets your feed apart from everyone else’s. @Beautifulandyummy, for instance, uses black borders to draw attention to her images, and the finished feed looks both polished and sophisticated. This theme will likely be more successful if you’re aiming to sell fashion products or want to evoke an edgier feel for your brand.

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14. Same Filter

If you prefer uniformity, you’ll probably like this Instagram theme, which focuses on using the same filter (or set of filters) for every post. From close up, this doesn’t make much difference on your images, but from afar, it definitely makes the feed appear more cohesive. @marianna_hewitt, for example, is able to make her posts of hair, drinks, and fashion seem more refined and professional, simply by using the same filter for all her posts.

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15. Flatlays

If your primary goal with Instagram is to showcase your products, you might want a Flatlay theme. Flatlay is an effective way to tell a story simply by arranging objects in an image a certain way and makes it easier to direct viewers’ attention to a product. As seen in @thedailyedited’s feed, a flatlay theme looks fresh and modern.

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16. Vintage

If it aligns with your brand, vintage is a creative and striking aesthetic that looks both artsy and laid-back. And, while “vintage” might sound a little bit vague, it’s easy to conjure. Simply try a filter like Slumber or Aden (built into Instagram), or play around with a third-party editing tool to find a soft, hazy filter that makes your photos look like they were taken from an old polaroid camera.

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17. Repetition

In @girleatworld’s Instagram account, you can count on one thing to remain consistent throughout her feed: she’s always holding up food in her hand. This type of repetition looks clean and engaging, and as a follower, it means I always recognize one of her posts as I’m scrolling through my own feed. Consider how you might evoke similar repetition in your own posts to create a brand image all your own.

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18. Mix-and-match Horizontal and Vertical Borders

While this admittedly requires some planning, the resulting feed is incredibly eye-catching and unique. Simply use the Preview app and choose two different white borders, Vela and Sole, to alternate between horizontal and vertical borders. The resulting feed will look spaced out and clean.

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19. Quotes

If you’re a writer or content creator, you might consider creating an entire feed of quotes, like @thegoodquote feed, which showcases quotes on different mediums, ranging from paperback books to Tweets. Consider typing your quotes and changing up the color of the background, or handwriting your quotes and placing them near interesting objects like flowers or a coffee mug.

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20. Dark Colors

@JackHarding‘s nature photos are nothing short of spectacular, and he highlights their beauty by filtering with a dark overtone. To do this, consider desaturating your content and using filters with cooler colors, like greens and blues, rather than warm ones. The resulting feed looks clean, sleek, and professional.

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21. Rainbow

One way to introduce color into your feed? Try creating a rainbow by slowly progressing your posts through the colors of the rainbow, starting at red and ending at purple (and then, starting all over again). The resulting feed is stunning.

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22. Doodle

Most people on Instagram stick to photos and filters, so to stand out, you might consider adding drawings or cartoon doodles on top of (or replacing) regular photo posts. This is a good idea if you’re an artist or a web designer and want to draw attention to your artistic abilities — plus, it’s sure to get a smile from your followers, like these adorable doodles shown below by @josie.doodles.

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23. Content Elements

Similar elements in your photos can create an enticing Instagram theme. In this example by The Container Store Custom Closets, the theme uses shelves or clothes in each image to visually bring the feed together. Rather than each photo appearing as a separate room, they all combine to create a smooth layout that displays The Container Store’s products in a way that feels natural to the viewer.

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24. Structural Lines

Something about this Instagram feed feels different, doesn’t it? Aside from the content focusing on skyscrapers, the lines of the buildings in each image turn this layout into a unique theme. If your brand isn’t in the business of building skyscrapers, you can still implement a theme like this by looking for straight or curved lines in the photos your capture. The key to creating crisp lines from the subjects in your photos is to snap them in great lighting and find symmetry in the image wherever possible.

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25. Horizontal Lines

If your brand does well with aligning photography with content, you might consider organizing your posts in a thoughtful way — for instance, creating either horizontal or vertical lines, with your rows alternating between colors, text, or even subject distance. @mariahb.makeup employs this tactic, and her feed looks clean and intriguing as a result.

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How to Create an Instagram Theme

1. Choose a consistent color palette.

One major factor of any Instagram theme is consistency. For instance, you wouldn’t want to regularly change your theme from black-and-white to rainbow — this could confuse your followers and damage your brand image. Of course, a complete company rebrand might require you to shift your Instagram strategy, but for the most part, you want to stay consistent with the types of visual content you post on Instagram.

For this reason, you’ll need to choose a color palette to adhere to when creating an Instagram theme. Perhaps you choose to use brand colors. HubSpot’s Instagram, for instance, primarily uses blues, oranges, and teal, three colors prominently displayed on HubSpot’s website and products.

Alternatively, maybe you choose one of the themes listed above, such as black-and-white. Whatever the case, to create an Instagram theme, it’s critical you stick to a few colors throughout all of your content.

2. Use the same filter for each post, or edit each post similarly.

As noted above, consistency is a critical element in any Instagram theme, so you’ll want to find your favorite one or two filters and use them for each of your posts. You can use Instagram’s built-in filters, or try an editing app like VSCO or Snapseed. Alternatively, if you’re going for a minimalist look, you might skip filters entirely and simply use a few editing features, like contrast and exposure.

Whatever you choose, though, you’ll want to continue to edit each of your posts similarly to create a cohesive feed.

3. Use a visual feed planner to plan posts far in advance.

It’s vital that you plan your Instagram posts ahead of time for a few different reasons, including ensuring you post a good variety of content and that you post it during a good time of day.

Additionally, when creating an Instagram theme, you’ll need to plan posts in advance to figure out how they fit together — like puzzle pieces, your individual pieces of content need to reinforce your theme as a whole. To plan posts far in advance and visualize how they reinforce your theme, you’ll want to use a visual Instagram planner like Later or Planoly. Best of all, you can use these apps to preview your feed and ensure your theme is looking the way you want it to look before you press “Publish” on any of your posts.

4. Don’t lock yourself into a theme you can’t enjoy for the long haul.

In middle school, I often liked to change my “look” — one day I aimed for preppy, and the next I chose a more athletic look. Of course, as I got older, I began to understand what style I could stick with for the long haul and started shopping for clothes that fit my authentic style so I wasn’t constantly purchasing new clothes and getting sick of them a few weeks later.

Similarly, you don’t want to choose an Instagram theme you can’t live with for a long time. Your Instagram theme should be an accurate reflection of your brand, and if it isn’t, it probably won’t last. Just because rainbow colors sound interesting at the get-go doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for your company’s social media aesthetic as a whole.

When in doubt, choose a more simple theme that provides you the opportunity to get creative and experiment without straying too far off-theme.

How to Use an Instagram Theme on Your Profile

1. Choose what photos you want to post before choosing your theme.

When you start an Instagram theme, there are so many options to choose from. Filters, colors, styles, angles — the choices are endless. But it’s important to keep in mind that these things won’t make your theme stand out. The content is still the star of the show. If the images aren’t balanced on the feed, your theme will look like a photo dump that happens to have the same filter on it.

To curate the perfect Instagram theme, choose what photos you plan to post before choosing a theme. I highly recommend laying these photos out in a nine-square grid as well so you can see how the photos blend together.

2. Don’t forget the captions.

Sure, no one is going to see the captions of your Instagram photos when they’re looking at your theme in the grid-view, but they will see them when you post each photo individually. There will be times when an image you post may be of something abstract, like the corner of a building, an empty suitcase, or a pair of sunglasses. On their own, these things might not be so interesting, but a thoughtful caption that ties the image to your overall theme can help keep your followers engaged when they might otherwise check out and keep scrolling past your profile.

If you’re having a bit of writer’s block, check out these 201 Instagram captions for every type of post.

3. Switch up your theme with color blocks.

Earlier, we talked about choosing a theme that you can commit to for the long haul. But there’s an exception to that rule — color transitions. Some of the best themes aren’t based on a specific color at all. Rather than using the same color palette throughout the Instagram feed, you can have colors blend into one another with each photo. This way, you can include a larger variety of photos without limiting yourself to specific hues.

A Cohesive Instagram Theme At Your Fingertips

Instagram marketing is more than numbers. As the most visual social media platform today, what you post and how it looks directly affects engagement, followers, and how your brand shows up online. A cohesive Instagram theme can help your brand convey a value proposition, promote a product, or execute a campaign. Colors and filters make beautiful themes, but there are several additional ways to stop your followers mid-scroll with a fun, unified aesthetic.

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

What do the White House, Sports Illustrated, and my cousin Jimmy all have in common?

They all publish content on Medium.

For the White House, that content includes State of the Union addresses and policy announcements. Sports Illustrated, meanwhile, manages a sports news publication called The Cauldron. My cousin Jimmy? He publishes an ongoing series on advanced cat grooming techniques.

And that, my friends, is Medium in microcosm.

What is Medium?

Medium is a social publishing platform that is open to all and home to a diverse array of stories, ideas, and perspectives. Anyone can be an individual contributor, and popular topics on Medium range from mental health to social media, and from world affairs and trending news to productivity hacks. 

As Medium founder (and Blogger creator/Twitter co-founder) Ev Williams wrote when he first launched the platform in 2012:

“Medium is not about who you are or whom you know, but about what you have to say.”

To help emphasize the importance of what it is you’re saying, the overall design of Medium is minimalistic, featuring lots of white space and limited formatting options. Want to change the header typeface to Comic Sans? You can’t. Medium won’t allow for such atrocities of design.

But that’s just one of many little nuances that come with the territory for Medium users. In fact, if you’re just getting started on the platform, there’s a fair amount to learn before you hit publish. Let’s get into it …

Writing for Medium

Anyone who has a Medium account can write for Medium — there’s no other vetting process involved. To get started, simply sign up for a free Medium account (or upgrade to the full $5/month membership for unlimited access), and you’re ready to start writing from there.

However, your post needs to adhere to Medium’s content guidelines and rules. For instance, you can’t promote controversial or extreme content on your Medium account. You can’t facilitate buying or selling social media interactions, including off-platform. And you can’t publish anything considered affiliate marketing content. 

For the full list of rules in regards to content, take a look at this post on Medium Rules. 

As a marketer, Medium presents an opportunity for you to reach a new audience with your content. The platform is geared toward sharing longer-form, more well-thought-out content. (But of course, given the open-to-all nature of Medium, that isn’t the only type of content you find there.)

Whether you’re looking into Medium for its publishing capabilities or you simply want to learn more about the platform before you set up an account and start exploring, you’ve come to the right place.

How to Use Medium

Getting Started With Medium

1. Creating an Account

While it’s true that anyone can view Medium content (regardless of whether or not they have a Medium account), in order to publish and interact with folks on the platform, you need to have an account and be logged in.

Fortunately, you can create an account in less than a minute by going to Medium.com and clicking the “Get started” button in the center of the page (or the “Sign in / Sign up” link at the top of the page). From there you’ll have three different sign-up options to choose from: Google, Facebook, and email.

My recommendation: Sign up for Medium using Facebook. That way all of your existing connections from Facebook who are on Medium will automatically be following your account once it’s created. This saves you the trouble of having to build up a new audience entirely from scratch.

Regardless of the option you go with to start, you can always link your Twitter or Facebook to your Medium account later via the “Connections” tab in the Settings menu:

The Settings menu is also where you can update your username/profile page URL. If you sign up with Twitter, your profile page URL, by default, will be medium.com/@YourTwitterHandle. But you’re free to change it. From the Settings menu you can also control what email notifications you receive from Medium. (You’ll learn about what triggers these notifications in the sections to follow.)

The other main things to remember when it comes to setup? Adding a profile photo and writing up a short (160-character max) bio for your Medium profile page. (Note: If you sign up using Twitter, your Twitter profile photo and bio will be automatically synced to your Medium account.)

2. Following People, Publications, & Tags

With a Twitter feed, the content that’s surfaced comes primarily from the accounts of the people and organizations you follow.

With a Medium feed, the content that’s surfaced comes not only from the accounts of the people and organizations you follow, but also from the publications and tags you follow. What’s more, when you search for content on Medium, people, publications, and tags all show up in the results.

Medium publications are collections of stories based around a common theme. Anyone can create them — yourself included — and the way they work is fairly straightforward.

As the creator of a publication, you’re an editor by default, which means you have the ability to a) add writers to your publication, b) edit and publish the stories that are submitted by your writers, and c) review the metrics for all of the stories that are part of your publication. As the publication’s creator, you’ll also have the ability to appoint new editors (so they can do all of that stuff I just mentioned).

Now, on to tags.

Tags are sort of like the hashtags of the Medium ecosystem. When you publish a story on Medium, you get the option to add up to three tags, which appear at the bottom of your story. Clicking a tag brings you to a page where you can see more stories with the same tag, as well as some suggestions for other tags you might be interested in.

The main benefit of following tags is that it can help personalize your Medium experience. Instead of surfacing content based solely on your social graph (i.e., the people/publications you follow), Medium uses tags to surface content that’s based on your specific interests as well. For example, if you’re into baseball, you could follow the “baseball” tag. Into “small fluffy dog breeds”? Yep, there’s a tag for that (granted only one story has been published under it).

So far in this introduction to Medium, we’ve acted mostly as passive observers. We’ve set up an account, and started following some accounts, publications, and tags. In the next section, we’ll dive into the more interactive aspects of Medium.

How to Interact With Medium Content

3. Recommend, share and bookmark content.

The “Recommend” is the “Like” of the Medium world. It’s a way to show you that you appreciate the content that someone has shared.

When reading a story on Medium, there are two places where you can recommend it: At the bottom of the actual story, where you see the clapping hand symbol …

Or on the nav bar that appears at the left of the screen when you scroll through a story …

In either case, you’ll need to click on the clapping hand icon you see to recommend a story. Once clicked, the hands will change from an outline to solid green. To see the full list of people who’ve recommended a story, you can click on that little number you see next to the heart. (Note: You can clap up to 50 times per post, and you can clap for as many posts as you want.)

When you recommend a story, the writer, by default, will receive an email notification. (But that’s something you can control in Settings). The more recommends a story receives, the more likely it will be to get shared around the Medium network. Stories that receive the most recommends within a given time period get featured on Medium’s “Top stories” page.

In the same two locations where you can recommend a story, you can also share that story to Twitter or Facebook (by clicking one of the social icons), and you can bookmark the story for later reading by clicking the bookmark icon (which turns solid once clicked).

Once you bookmark a story, it will appear on your “Lists” page, which you can access from Medium’s homepage on the bookmark icon: 

4. Highlight specific words.

In addition to recommending, sharing, and bookmarking Medium stories, you can unlock a second level of interaction by selecting a section of text with your cursor. Once you’ve highlighted some text, a pop-up menu will appear that gives you four options:

1. Highlight: Clicking the highlighter icon (pencil symbol) will put a green highlight around the text you’ve selected, which is visible to your Medium followers. By default, a story’s writer will receive a notification when a section of that story is highlighted.
2. Response: Clicking the speech bubble icon will allow you to write a response to the story you’re reading. The section of text you’ve highlighted will appear at the top of your response. (More on responses in a second!)
3. Text Shot: Clicking the Twitter icon will generate a “Text Shot,” which is a tweet that automatically pulls in the text you’ve highlighted as a screenshot.
4. Private Note: Clicking the lock icon will allow you to send the writer of the story a private note. (Note: This functionality can be turned on and off in your account settings.)

5. Write responses.

Unlike traditional blog comments, Medium responses are treated as individual stories. That means in addition to appearing at the bottoms of the stories you respond to, the responses you write are documented on your profile page, and have the potential to take off and get highly circulated just like traditional stories.

As a newcomer to Medium, writing responses can be a great way to engage with people on the platform without having to commit to writing a full-blown story. It can also help you come up with ideas for your first story when you do decide to write it.

How to Write and Publish on Medium

6. Format text in your posts.

From the Medium homepage, you can access the Medium editor and start writing or laying out a story by clicking on your profile icon at the top-right of the Medium page, and then selecting “Write a story”: 

As you’ll likely discover, writing in Medium’s editor is highly intuitive and — from a stylistic perspective — nearly impossible to screw up.

By highlighting text, you can unveil several basic formatting options, including bold, italics, and hyperlinking. You can also designate text as an H1 or as an H2 (using the big T or little t) …

And you can choose between two different styles of blockquotes. Option A:

And Option B:

Of course, if you really want to get fancy, you can use Medium’s drop caps function. Know those enlarged, stylized letters you sometimes see at the beginning of sentences? Those are drop caps. According to the Medium team, they’re useful for “pacing, starting a new chapter, or just a little typographical delight.”

Another option for creating some separation between different sections of a story in Medium is to use a part, or separator. In order to insert one, you’ll first need to click that little plus icon that appears when you’re on an empty line of your story.

Clicking that plus icon will open up a menu with four options. The one on the far right — the icon with the two little lines — is the separator.

 Here’s what it looks like on the page:

7. Add images and media.

Adding images, videos, and other media (e.g., tweets) to your Medium story can be as simple as copying and pasting their URLs into Medium’s editor. The editor, in most cases, can automatically recognize the media’s format and render it accordingly.

Alternatively, you can click on the plus icon to open the same menu you used to insert the separator in the previous step. From there, you can upload an image from your computer, insert a URL to a video, or insert the embed code to another type of media using the corresponding icons.

Depending on the specific size of the image you upload, you’ll have two different size options to choose from for displaying that image. These size options, which will appear in a pop-up menu after you insert an image, include left-aligned and center-aligned.

By default, Medium will display the formatting option that best fits the dimensions of the image you insert.

8. Share drafts and publish posts.

When you’ve finished your story and are happy with how everything looks, head up to the top nav where you’ll find two links: “Share” and “Publish.”

Clicking “Share” will generate a link to the draft of your story, which you can share with anyone — even if they don’t have a Medium account. And the people you share the draft with will also have the option of leaving you notes.

Clicking the “Publish” button, meanwhile, will open a menu where you can select up to three tags for your story.

Medium will recommend some tags by default, but you can also search for tags and create new ones by simply entering text.

Once you’ve selected tags for your story, you can hit the “Publish” button to share your story with the world.

9. Measure your results.

In order to see how your stories (and responses) are performing, you can go to the “Stats” page using the URL medium.com/me/stats. You can also navigate to the “Stats” page via the dropdown menu at the top right of the Medium homepage (the bell icon).

When you arrive on the “Stats” page, you’ll first see the aggregate number of views, reads, and recommends your stories and responses have received over the past 30 days. There’s also a graph that provides day-by-day granularity. By hovering over a column on the graph, you can view metrics for the specific day to which that column corresponds.

If you keep scrolling down the page, you’ll be able to view the individual stats for each of your stories. Specifically, Medium provides data on views, reads, read ratio, and recommends.

Here’s a quick rundown on what those metrics mean:

1. Views: The number of people who visited a story’s page.
2. Reads: An estimate of how many visitors read a story all the way through.
3. Read Ratio: The percentage of visitors that ends up reading an entire story (i.e., the difference between reads and views). According to Ev Williams, this ratio is an important factor in determining how a story gets ranked/surfaced on Medium.
4. Recommends: The number of recommends a story receives. 

The Medium App 

If you prefer consuming and interacting with content on-the-go, consider downloading the Medium app. The app features the same stories and content you’ll find on desktop, with the added bonus of a mobile-first interface. 

On the app, you can surface content related to your interests. These curated lists depend on the tags, publications, or authors you follow. You can also use the app’s Explore feature to find new, interesting content. Similarly to desktop, you can use the app to engage with fellow Medium readers and join conversations as they’re happening. 

Remember, this was just an introductory look at how to use Medium. There are several more features and options we haven’t covered, but we’ll do so in future posts.