Category Archives: B2B

You only get one chance to make a first impression on your website or blog — which means you need an introduction that stands out. But what do you say? How do you say it? Should it be long? Short? Funny? Serious?

For many of us, the stress of creating a great introduction drives the dreaded cursor feedback loop: Blink. Blink. Blink. The cursor-on-a-blank-screen sits, waiting for your brilliance but you just can’t find the words. It’s something that all writers — amateur or professional, aspiring or experienced — know and dread. And of all times for it to occur, it seems to plague us the most when trying to write an introduction.

I mean, you already have a blog post you want to write. Can’t you just dive in and write it? Why all the focus on getting the introduction right?

Here’s the thing: Intros set the stage. They establish the tone and let visitors know what to expect.

And it’s not all bad — introductions don’t have to be long or complex. In fact, most people prefer them to be quite quick. They also don’t have to be so difficult.

Let’s break down exactly how to write an introduction that’s short, effective, and relatively painless. And if you’re ever having trouble churning out those intros, come back here and re-read this formula to lift yourself out of that writing rut.

Writing an introduction that captures your audience can help your website traffic (and ultimately, your business) grow better, but doing it right is just as important. Here’s how to write an introduction in three simple steps.

To write an introduction, be mindful of what it’s supposed to achieve. The main goals here are to draw in your reader — a relative stranger, most of the time — and concisely let her know what the article is about. Generally, that consists of three key components:

Step 1) Grab the reader’s attention. That looks different for every piece of writing, but we’ve provided some suggestions below.

Step 2) Present the reason for the post’s existence.

Step 3) Explain how the post will help address the problem that brought your reader to it.

As a lover of all things meta, I will, of course, use this post’s introduction as an example of how to write an intro. It contains different components that create the above introduction “formula,” which you can refer to that when you get stuck with your own.

Below, we’ve gone into more detail on each component.

Writing an Introduction Paragraph

1. Grab the reader’s attention.

There are a few ways to hook your reader from the start. You can be empathetic (“Don’t you hate it when…?”), or tell a story, so the reader immediately feels some emotional resonance with the piece. You could tell a joke (“Ha! This is fun. Let’s read more of this.”). You could shock the reader with a crazy fact or stat (“Whoa. That’s crazy. I must know more!”).

For this intro, I went the “empathetic” route.

Writer’s block stinks. Blank screens and taunting cursors — the worst. Who’s with me?

2. Present the reason for the post’s existence.

Your post needs to have a purpose. The purpose of this post is to address a specific problem — the pain in the butt that is writing intros. But, we have to do it, and therein lies the approach to something important: making writing introductions easier.

Just because you know the purpose of your post, doesn’t mean the reader does — not yet, anyway. It’s your job to validate your post’s importance and give your audience a reason to keep reading.

3. Explain how the post will help address the problem.

Now that the reader is presented with a problem that he or she can relate to — and obviously wants a solution — it’s time to let the audience know what the post will provide, and quickly.

In other words, the introduction should set expectations. Take this post, for example. I don’t want the reader to dive in and expect to see a list of reasons why introductions are important. I want you to expect to read about what makes a good introduction.

But if I hadn’t clarified that in the introduction, you might have expected the former. After all, be honest — did you skim over or forget the title of this post already? That’s okay. That’s why we tell the reader exactly what the post will provide, and why it’s valuable.

Of course, there are other valid ways to write introductions for your marketing content — don’t feel the need to follow this formula for every single piece of content, as some are more casual than others. But, this guide should help provide a solid framework to follow if you’re just getting started, or if it’s just one of those days when the words aren’t flowing.

What makes a good introduction?

While format is fundamental to consistently capture visitor attention, it’s also worth considering stylistic frameworks that can help boost engagement from the first moment users land on your site. These include:

1. Telling a compelling story.

Great stories sell books — and they’re also a fantastic way to open a website blog. Storytelling is part of the human experience and if your intro can tee up a solid story, visitors are more likely to keep reading past the first paragraph.

The caveat? Don’t give it all away up-front. Not only should intros be kept short, but the idea is to have people read all the way through to the end. Instead, start with a great hook about something interesting that happened — “The one time I…”, “It all started when…”

2. Cultivating empathy.

We’re also naturally predisposed to empathy, especially when we can relate to what someone else is saying on a personal level.

Let’s say you’re running a money-saving advice blog. By starting your post with a few of your own experiences with debt and how it impacted your life, you can cultivate empathy from those in similar positions and simultaneously lend your blog greater authority.

3. Establishing common pain points.

There’s no trait more universally human than complaining. We do it about small things — like the weather — and big things, like challenges at work or home. This creates an opportunity for content creators: Establish common ground with familiar pain points.

Consider a home maintenance and repair blog. You could introduce homeowners communally dislike — such as clogged gutters or peeling paint — quickly discuss why it’s so frustrating, and then assure readers you can offer a viable solution.

4. Crafting a human connection.

If you’re running any type of product or service website, expect natural skepticism from visitors. They know you’re trying to sell something and their guard is naturally up, especially against hyperbolic or superfluous claims.

Here, it’s worth considering calling out a company shortfall — “we’re not the best, but”, “we don’t have all the answers” — and then highlighting what sets you apart from the competition. Done right, you can disarm cynical users with honesty, craft a human connection and encourage them to consider your pitch.

5. Asking interesting questions.

You can never go wrong with questions — so long as they’re interesting. Intros that start with “did you know that…” or “ever wondered why…” are great starters if you have relevant information to share.

This can’t be overstated: If your blog doesn’t (or can’t) answer the question you pose in the introduction, choose a different approach. Nothing frustrates visitors faster than discovering that blog intro and body are a content mismatch.

5 Introduction Examples

Curious about what a great introduction looks like in the wild? Let’s break down five great examples.

1. PetaPixel

Photography site PetaPixel offers news, insights, and advice about all things photo-related. In their post “This Free 2.5 Hour Tutorial Covers All Aspects of Wedding Photography,” PetaPixel uses their introduction to highlight the experience of tutorial creator Taylor Jackson, who shoots “60 to 70 weddings every year.”

This quick-hitter introduction helps establish Jackson’s credibility as an expert and cultivates confidence among readers, in turn encouraging them to read the post and click through to the tutorial.

2. Apartment Therapy

Apartment Therapy is all about helping visitors organize, clean, and streamline their apartment space, while also highlighting specific product categories. In their recent post “This Unique Tray is What Your Living Room is Missing,” the site uses one of the techniques mentioned above: Pain points.

“Even maximalists can’t stand clutter,” reads the first intro line. “The reality is that nobody likes to open a cabinet only to be faced with a messy avalanche of knick-knacks and accessories.” By establishing common grounds for complaint, the blog helps set up the benefits of the product it’s trying to sell.

3. Greatist

Greatist is a health and wellness blog that offers advice and tips for readers. Their recent starter toolkit post — “Stop Using Your Shoe as a Hammer: 17 Items for Your Starter Tool Kit” helps cultivate a connection with a simple introductory line: “You don’t have to be a DIY pro to need a tool kit around.”

By highlighting the near-universal need for a simple, streamlined toolkit, the site sets up readers to continue on and discover which tools are critical for starter kits.

4. The Friendly Teacher

Educational advice site The Friendly Teacher opens her “10 Tips for Organizing Your Classroom at the End of the Year” with a simple question: “What do teachers do in the summer?”

The answer is easy: Relax. But as the post points out, leaving classrooms in a state of disrepair only makes more work for the following year — and she’s here to help with 10 simple tips for pre-summer cleanup. The introduction works because it helps put readers in the right frame of mind — a relaxing summer — and then offers actionable tips to reach that goal.

5. BloggingTips.com

BloggingTips.com is exactly what you’d expect: A site dedicated to useful blogging tips that help improve your site. In their recent post, “How To Choose A Blog Name – A New Blogger’s Guide to Selecting a Domain Name And URL”, they don’t waste any time getting to the point of their introduction, noting that, “Once you’ve decided to launch a blog – whether for personal or business purposes – one of the first decisions you have to make involves your domain name selection.”

The biggest benefit of this introduction? Brevity. It gets right to the point. If you’ve got a blog, you need a domain name. This is a great approach when the subject matter you’re tackling is relevant and useful but not inherently compelling: Rather than trying to force a connection or create a convoluted narrative, straight and to the point works best.

Let’s Get Started

Feeling inspired? Good. Next time you find yourself face-to-face with the dreaded blinking cursor, use these resources and compelling examples to find motivation and write simpler, smarter, and stronger introductions.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in September 2013 and has been updated and for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

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Americans of a certain age are more than familiar with the 1989 film Field of Dreams. Even if you haven’t seen this baseball classic, you’ve heard its iconic quote millions of times:

“If you build it, they will come.”

It’s a quote we all love to say. Content Marketers, especially, love using this quote as a jumping-off point. (Hey, wait a minute…) But for a decade now, Marketers have been wagging their collective finger at strategies focusing solely on production without promotion. Much like making the first out of an inning at third base, this is a major no-no.

So yes, this is another piece using this quote as a way to introduce content amplification.

Photo by Nathan Shively on Unsplash

In this blog, we’ll explore what content syndication is and how it works, why content syndication is beneficial for B2B content Marketers, and three misconceptions that give the practice a bad name.

What is Content Syndication?

Content Syndication is the republishing of content on one or more websites in an effort to reach a larger audience. 

Syndicated content can include anything from an article, eBook, webinar, or just about any other format. Publications of all sizes, including most of the largest and most influential sites on the web, feature syndicated content, including the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and CNN. 

The Benefits of Content Syndication for B2B Marketing

Syndicating content offers Marketers the chance to achieve many goals, whether through republishing the original work as is, highlighting key excerpts, or atomizing the asset to better fit a new audience.

No matter how you slice it, content syndication benefits both the author and the syndicator by:

• Providing publications with new information to their readers
• Offers authors the opportunity to get their content and/or brand in front of a new audience

On the surface, this appears to be a pretty easy win for every party involved. The original creator grows their audience base and the publisher doesn’t need to spend any additional time or resources creating content either on the same topic or on something completely different. This is one of the main reasons why content syndication is so popular—an ever-flowing river of evergreen content and new audiences.

How B2B Marketers Use Content Syndication to Generate Leads

While some Marketers use content syndication solely as a means of amplification to grow their audiences, many B2B demand gen Marketers use it as a part of their lead generation strategy. 

NetLine’s platform is an example of how demand gen Marketers can use content syndication to drive leads. NetLine’s technology allows B2B Marketers to create a content-centric lead generation campaign through an easy to use, and self-service, interface. With 8,000+ B2B marketers holding accounts to the platform, we’re quite familiar with how Marketers are using content syndication to their advantage, so let’s highlight two main ways it occurs.

Additional Points of Connection

Convincing an organization to make a B2B purchase requires a large number of touchpoints. 

According to research from FocusVision, the average B2B buyer consumes 13 pieces of content during their research/decision journey. That’s already a lot of content, and that doesn’t even factor in the total consumption of the whole buyer committee, which Gartner states typically consists of between six to 10 decision-makers. With each member gathering four or five pieces of information independently, one buyer committee could be sifting through as much as 130 pieces of content. 

Knowing those stats, it should come as no surprise that most B2B buyers will not be known by the vendor until very late in their journey. This is possible because the buyers are actively, and intentionally, researching away from the vendor’s site thereby avoiding the dreaded sales calls and emails. Per DemandBase and many other sources, B2B customers today progress more than 70% of the way through the decision-making process before ever engaging a sales representative. Clearly, consumers need a significant amount of information before being ready to talk with someone at your company; content syndication is an efficient way for Marketers to create these additional touches.

It’s a Slow Burn

Brian Buckwalter, Strategic Account Manager here at NetLine, described how his clients use syndication to achieve their demand gen goals. “Content syndication is about engaging professionals with your brand as one step in the journey,” Brian said. “Your goal shouldn’t be to get the user to convert immediately. That’s not the definition of a ‘good lead’.”

“A good analogy is how pharmaceutical companies are marketing to doctors. Pharma reps aren’t just showing up cold at the office and closing the deal anymore with a free lunch. Doctors need to have seen clinical trial data targeted towards doctors prior to dealing with a rep for them to be “sold” on the spot. To respond to this, pharma companies are trying to identify professionals and serve different content based on the needs of medical professionals. This approach has led to more doctors reading through clinical trials on their time and more information detailing the benefits for prospective patients being delivered overall.”

While NetLine’s system certainly enhances reach, our platform’s greatest advantage is connecting content with audiences who aren’t only interested, but also more likely to make a purchasing decision. When a user finds a piece of content they would like to consume, they directly exchange key data points about themselves and their company in exchange for the content, thus becoming a first-party lead.

FWIW, the process of users randomly finding the content doesn’t happen by chance. 

Much of what NetLine accomplishes occurs due to AudienceTarget, a proprietary content recommendation logic, that natively injects content inclusions across the B2B web, email, and tele-verification channels.

At the core, AudienceTarget creates a 1-1 prospect-to-content matching cohort with the sole purpose of yielding leads from professionals who not only have shown engagement to similar content but more importantly meets the filter criteria of your client’s campaign. AudienceTarget by default auto-optimizes on a matrix of values including, but not limited to, matching content to professionals based upon your lead criteria, target account, prospect scoring, content relevance, and prospect prior content consumption patterns.

Using content syndication as a demand generation engine is just one of the benefits it provides to B2B Marketers. But while there are numerous benefits to using content syndication for B2B Marketers, there are some myths that also need to be dispelled. 

3 Misconceptions of Content Syndication

Like it or not, content syndication has often been associated with some of the sketchiest and weirdest ad placements on the web. Even with all of the benefits syndication has to offer, some Marketers are still hesitant due to a number of mistaken beliefs. 

Myth #1: Content Syndication is Only Good for Top-of-Funnel Content

Thanks to some of the biggest names in content syndication, the content that’s been placed throughout the web has a reputation for being evergreen one-offs that can apply to everyone. The thinking is that the targeting isn’t as precise, so therefore your content needs to appeal to a wider audience. This is false.

Not only is the targeting improving by the day, but content syndication can also be used for all aspects of the buying journey, including as a method of nurturing existing client relationships offsite and as they consume content elsewhere around the web. Sure, you can use this tactic to appeal to a broader group of prospects, but savvy Marketers are using syndication to enhance their connections with their clients and target buyers.

Myth #2: Content Syndication Can Negatively Impact SEO

If there’s one thing Google and their search competitors aren’t too fond of, it’s duplication. The biggest issue search engines have with this is that they want to provide the simplest and most direct answers for a given user’s question.

While Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo are smart enough to recognize an original source of content, having canonical tags with your page HTML, along with a backlink to your website from a syndicated link will do a great deal to protect your site. (Neil Patel has an excellent example of how to do this in Step 4 of his Step-by-Step Guide to Syndicating Content (Without Screwing up Your SEO).)

Myth #3: Content Syndication Can Cannibalize Your Site Traffic

Similar to losing love from Google and the gang, syndicating your content doesn’t mean that your own site is going to lose out on visitors. While it is possible that syndicating through a site with a superior ranking could leave you outranked, it’s not a guarantee. Even Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller can’t be sure of it. “[Being outranked] could be [the result of] additional value that the rest of the website brings that when someone goes to that one article maybe they go off and look at other things on that website.”

Ultimately, how you handle the technical side of your syndication matters. Just as we shared in the SEO myth, canonical tags and backlinks are crucial for keeping your site tidy and your numbers climbing upwards.

One to Many to One

Remember the quote we opened the article with? It’s actually not accurate to the film. In the movie, the voice in Kevin Costner’s head actually says, “If you build it, he will come.” Here’s proof.

What’s important to acknowledge about the differences here between they and he (in how the message is being directed) is Marketing to all versus one. Niche still seems to be a dirty word in Marketing; in a world focused on hyper-targeting, many seem to forget how the most popular brands in the world began: With one, singular focus. 

Yes, content syndication allows your content to reach new audiences, generate additional brand exposure and publicity, backlinks, and the ability to grow your organic traffic; but its main purpose is to introduce itself to one more person. 

So, perhaps we should change this quote just one more time for the sake of Marketers everywhere:

“If you promote it, one will come to know where you are.”

Cheesy, yes. But maybe it’s just the kind of thing this field needs.

Copy and paste shortcuts are handy until you have hundreds of data points to manually combine and reformat.

Fortunately, you can use the CONCATENATE Excel function to save time (and curb carpal tunnel) when joining information from cells, rows, or columns.

Meaning “to join together” or “to combine,” concatenate is a way to unite the contents of two or more cells into one cell.

The function allows you to combine data from columns, cells, ranges, and rows into whatever format you desire, making it easy to quickly join names and addresses or properly display dates and times.

There are various ways to set up the CONCATENATE formula in Excel, so we’ll walk through the steps required to use this function and achieve your worksheet goals.

How to Concatenate in Excel

While there are several ways to combine text in Excel worksheets, we’ll be focusing on the CONCATENATE function.

It combines the contents of two or more cells into one cell without physically changing the shape of the cell and is often used to join pieces of text (called text strings or strings) from individual cells into one cell. The resulting text string is the combination of all strings in your CONCATENATE formula.

Here’s a look at how to concatenate in Excel:

Let’s say you have a list of customers whose first and last names are separate. You need everyone’s full names to build a retargeting campaign, so you want to join text from column A (First Name) with the text from column B (Last Name).

Before using the CONCATENATE function, you have to create a new column for your combined text. In the example below, it’s column C (Full Name).

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Now, you’re ready to concatenate the first and last names. To do that, you need to understand both the syntax of the function and how to format the text strings that make up the formula.

Excel Concatenate Formula

Like all Excel functions, the CONCATENATE formula starts with the equals sign (=), followed by the function name, an open parenthesis, and the text arguments. No need to get heated – in this context, arguments simply tell the formula what cells to combine.

=CONCATENATE(text1, [text2], …)

=CONCAT(text1, [text2], …)

text1: This is the first argument to join and can be a number, text, or cell reference.

text2, text3, etc: These are the additional items to combine. The CONCATENATE formula can join up to 255 items, with a total of 8,192 characters.

Note: In all versions of Excel 2016 and beyond, the CONCATENATE function has been replaced with the CONCAT function. This function works in the exact same way, with the added ability to combine text over a range of cells (i.e., =CONCAT(A2:D8)). While you can still access the CONCATENATE function for compatibility reasons, Microsoft warns that CONCATENATE may not be available in future versions of Excel.

Excel Concatenate with Space

Double quotations (” “) include a space between the text arguments wherever you want one to appear. Just remember to insert a comma before and after each set of quotations or else an error message will pop up and the formula won’t run. You’ll know your formula is correct if you hit “Enter” and the new text string appears exactly how you want.

In the name example, you want to combine the text in cells A16 and B16, so add those arguments to the formula. Make sure to place the arguments in the order you want them to appear. To get “First Name Last Name,” set up the CONCATENATE formula like this:

=CONCATENATE((B16, ” “, A16)

Note: If at least one of the CONCATENATE function’s arguments is invalid, the formula will return a #VALUE! Error.

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Now it’s time to apply the CONCATENATE formula to every name in the list. Simply hover over the combined cell until a plus sign (+) appears in the bottom right-hand corner. Then click and hold while dragging the cursor down column C, highlighting all of the cells you want to join.

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When you release the cursor, voila! The formula is applied to each cell. This prevents you from having to type out the formula for each cell by letting you concatenate dozens of text strings in an instant.

Excel Concatenate Strings

Whether you combine text and numbers, the result of the CONCATENATE function is always a text string. The naming example above is a fairly simple example, but it’s possible to create longer, more meaningful text strings in Excel. The key to doing so is to ensure your results provide value to whoever is using the information.

Let’s say you’re working on an email campaign and want to personalize the subject line with each customer’s name. Instead of manually typing out name after name, you can use the CONCATENATE function to combine the text strings. For this example, I used a catchy email subject line from Warby Parker.

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I write the following formula, making sure to include commas and spaces where I want them to appear.

=CONCATENATE(B2,” ,”, A2, “,”,” “, C2)

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I then apply the formula to the entire column to generate my list of personalized subject lines.

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As you experiment with longer text strings, know that every cell reference in the CONCATENATE function must be listed separately because it can’t recognize arrays. For instance, your formula should look like =CONCATENATE (B1, B2, B3, B4) rather than =CONCATENATE(B1:B4).

Combining text is simple enough, but throwing dates and times into the mix can result in a messy formula and error-ridden results.

Concatenate Date and Time in Excel

You can prevent issues with time and dates by embedding the TEXT function into the CONCATENATE Excel formula. This will let you control the formatting when combining text with a number or a date.

Let’s look at how to combine all of this information. In this worksheet, I want to record the date and time each blog post went live so I can reference the information during my monthly performance analysis.

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The formula needed to join these three strings may look complicated, but it’s simple once you decide how to format the date and time. I want to leave the dates and times as they are, so I include the date (mm/dd/yyyy) and time (hh:mm:ss) formatting into the CONCATENATE formula.

=CONCATENATE(A2, TEXT(B2,”mm/dd/yyyy”), ” at”, ” “,TEXT(C3,”hh:mm:ss”))

The result is a text string that provides meaningful context by sharing what date and time the posts went live.

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Apply the function to the rest of the worksheet using the same steps as before. Drag the plus (+) sign in the bottom right-hand corner of the combined cell down the column, highlighting the cells you want to concatenate.

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Excel Concatenate Range

If you’re excited about your new Excel skills, you may have the urge to jump in and organize worksheets with thousands of data points. Using the CONCATENATE function can speed up your work, but know that there are limitations.

Excel only allows you to combine 255 items, up to a total of 8,192 characters, using the CONCATENATE function. So you have to work in sections if you want to create hundreds (or thousands) of new text strings.

The CONCATENATE function doesn’t accept arrays (A3:E5), so make sure to list out each argument you want to include in the formula. If you need to combine a massive range of tens or hundreds of cells, try out one of these shortcuts.

Use the CONTROL key.

1. Type in the first part of your formula =CONCATENATE(
2. Hold down the CONTROL key and select the individual cells you want to combine.
3. Release the CONTROL key, type a closing parenthesis, and hit ENTER.

Use the TRANSPOSE function.

If you need to combine hundreds of cells, you don’t want to waste time clicking on each cell. Instead, use the TRANSPOSE function to create an array before swapping it out with the individual cells.

1. Select the cell you want to use the CONCATENATE function.
2. Type in the TRANSPOSE formula to generate an array of cells. It will look similar to this: =TRANSPOSE(A1:A10)
3. With the TRANSPOSE cell selected, press the F9 key in the formula bar to replace the array with the individual values to be concatenated.
4. Delete the brackets around the values so you’re left with only a list.
5. Enter the CONCATENATE formula before the values, and close the formula with a parenthesis.
6. Hit enter to see your new text string.

While certain heavy Excel users say the CONCATENATE function is becoming outdated, it’s still a useful shortcut for combining text strings without impacting the rest of your worksheet. If you’re new to the program, take the time to learn more about how to use Excel and check out these helpful keyboard shortcuts. You’ll be whizzing your way around worksheets and working more efficiently in no time.

If you’ve ever taken a statistics class, the words ‘standard deviation’ might intimidate you. This complex formula provides insightful information for datasets that averages alone cannot reveal, and thankfully, Excel makes calculating this statistic easier than putting pencil to paper.

Standard deviation is frequently used by financial professionals as it can help determine risks in stock portfolios and is often applied to return on investment (ROI).

For marketing professionals, standard deviation can reveal variabilities and risks in datasets that will ultimately help guide campaign decisions.

What is standard deviation?

Simply put, standard deviation is a mathematical term that measures the variation in a set of values. In marketing, standard deviation can help account for widely varying costs or sales. If the numbers in a data set are spread far apart, they have a higher standard deviation.

This measurement can help assess risk when deciding how much budget can be allocated toward certain campaigns based on the standard deviation of the ROI, just to name one example.

How to Calculate Standard Deviation in Excel

There are six standard deviation formulas in Excel, which will be used based on whether you need to calculate sample standard deviation or population standard deviation. This is easy to identify in Excel, as the three formulas for population standard deviation include a P (.P, PA, or P at the end of STDEV).

1. STDEV.S
2. STDEVA
3. STDEV
4. STDEV.P, STDEVPA, STDEVP

STDEV.S

If you are dealing with sample standard deviation and do not need to account for text or logical values, STDEV.S is the formula you will use to calculate standard deviation in Excel.

STDEVA

Alternatively, if you do need to account for text and logical values, use STDEVA, which will consider text and FALSE logical values to 0, while TRUE logical values will be read as 1.

STDEV

STDEV is simply the sample standard deviation formula that will work with older forms of Excel (2007 and before). It is the same as STDEV.S.

STDEVP, STDEVPA, STDEVP

You will almost exclusively use STDEV.S, STDEVA, or STDEV. When determining population standard deviation, you would have to include all datasets for the entirety of the population.

This can actually be far more data and much less useful than examining a smaller portion of the data, or a sample, in which case you would use one of the sample standard deviation formulas.

If you did, for some reason, need to determine the population standard deviation, you could still retrieve sample standard deviations and apply them to the larger dataset. The likelihood of needing these population standard deviation formulas is slim.

As stated by Microsoft, “[STDEVP] has been replaced with one or more new functions that may provide improved accuracy and with names that better reflect their usage. Although this function is still available for backward compatibility, you should consider using the new functions from now on, because this function may not be available in future versions of Excel.”

Sample of Standard Deviation in Excel

STDEV.S, STDEVA, or STDEV will be the most common formulas to use for marketers looking to calculate sample standard deviation in Excel.

These formulas specifically calculate standard deviation for a sample of a dataset, so the result will determine the amount of variability from the average (mean) of the data.

Next, we will determine how to find and use standard deviation formulas in an Excel spreadsheet.

Standard Deviation Excel Formula

As mentioned above, there are a total of six standard deviation Excel formulas, although you’ll only need one or two of them (depending on the version of Excel you use).

The syntax of the standard deviation formula in Excel for STDEV.S is

STDEV.S(number1,[number2],…)

Number1 is required and refers to “The first number argument corresponding to a sample of a population. You can also use a single array or a reference to an array instead of arguments separated by commas,” as explained by Microsoft.

Number2, … is optional. You can include up to 254 number arguments that refer to sample sets or data of a population, or you can use an array or reference to an array instead of number arguments.

This is the STDEV.S formula used by Excel:

x is the sample mean AVERAGE(number1,number2,…) and n is the sample size. Excel thankfully makes light work of applying this formula to data to calculate standard deviation.

Image via Paige Bennett

Excel Standard Deviation Function

How does one find the Excel standard deviation function that they need? In Excel, navigate to the “Formulas” header in the topmost navigation bar. For Excel versions after 2007, the second navigation bar offers a list of popular formulas, and at the end, “More Functions.” Click “More Functions” then “Statistical” and finally scroll down to the STDEV.S or other standard deviation formula for which you need. You can then input Number1 and Number2, ….

Those using an older version of Excel will not have the STDEV.S formula, but they will similarly be able to navigate to STDEV.

Why Standard Deviation is Important to Marketers

Perhaps this seems simple to some marketing professionals, or maybe this is a lot of statistical speak that sounds complex. Either way, mastering this formula and Excel function is crucial for marketers.

In marketing, discussing averages for datasets is commonplace, and this can be insightful. But it can also leave out some crucial information that could impact a campaign.

Standard deviation can show risks, volatility, or variability in a dataset. An average might show a promising campaign to allocate money toward, but standard deviation can show the potential risk and reward of a campaign. Together, averages and standard deviations can offer a comprehensive look at a dataset, so marketers can make the best decisions based on all of the information at hand.

For example, let’s say we have two companies with different order averages.

Company one has an order average of $1,000. Company two has an order average of $1,500.

But Company two has a standard deviation of $500, while Company one has a standard deviation of $50. Company two has a higher order average on the surface, but a deeper dive shows that it is riskier.

Standard Deviation Can Help Marketers Assess Risk

Averages can be meaningful in showing marketers promising campaigns and to forecast their results. But what averages don’t show are the risk and variability within the data.

A higher average sales number might not show a huge range of variability, and ultimately, risk. While standard deviation has long been used in finance to assess risk of stock portfolios and help professionals determine where to invest or what to expect for ROI, marketers can also benefit from using this statistical analysis in their own work.

They just might find some profitable surprises and avoid risky, volatile campaigns or companies by looking at both averages and standard deviation when making decisions.

As a millennial, it’s no surprise that Instagram is one of my favorite social media platforms. This network is the third most popular social media site for Gen Z and millennial audiences.

While scrolling through the site is the easiest thing to do, posting the right content for your audience isn’t.

As a marketer, you’ve probably wondered what type of Instagram content would perform the best for your audience. To help you, we decided to ask consumers what type of video formats they watch the most.

In this post, you’ll learn what video format users like to watch on Instagram, and what size, length, and aspect ratio those videos should be.

Best Video Format for Instagram

Instagram is extremely popular, but did you know there is more than one kind of video format you could use for your content?

To find out which is the most popular we surveyed more than 300 people to see which videos they watch the most.

Ultimately, Instagram Story videos were the most popular video format to watch on the social media site, with 43% of those surveyed watching this type of video content the most.

Besides survey respondents who didn’t use Instagram, the next highest video format to watch were live videos and then videos shared directly in the feed.

The least popular video formats to watch on Instagram were Instagram Reels and IGTV, with only 19% and 13% of respondents watching them respectively.

To view the results, see the graphic below.

Data Source

Now that we know what kind of video formats users like to see, let’s find out how you can post the best video content on Instagram.

This is the proper video quality for a post on the Instagram feed. It will look something like the screenshot below.

For an Instagram Story, the video should be 1080 x 1080 pixels, with an aspect ratio of 9:16. The maximum file size should be 250MB.

It will look something like this screenshot:

While these are the main types of videos to upload on Instagram, you can explore other spec requirements on the Instagram site.

While all these stats are important, one of the ways to keep file size down is to shorten the video. You can’t just upload 24 hours of video content on the platform. Now you might be wondering, “How long can my Instagram videos be?” Let’s dive in below.

How Long Can Instagram Videos Be?

• Instagram Feed — 60 seconds
• Stories — 15 seconds
• Livestream Videos — 60 minutes
• IGTV — 15 seconds – 10 minutes. Verified accounts can post up to 60 minutes of video on IGTV.
• Instagram Feed ads — 2 minutes
• Instagram Carousel Video ads — 60 seconds

Instagram videos are a great way to reach Gen Z or millennial audiences. However, it’s important to think about the type of video content that performs best on the platform. Additionally, knowing the right size and video specifications before filming your videos can help you reach success quicker.

Sitemaps are one of SEO’s oldies but goodies.

In fact, they’re one of the most important elements of SEO, because they help Google and other search engines find the pages on your website.

Not to mention they also help you rank better, because Google is able to locate new pages and identify updates to old pages much more quickly.

In a nutshell: you can’t live without ’em.

I’ve often heard that they can feel overwhelming and quite technical to understand.

But don’t let the frustration of their technicality make you throw your computer out the window — I’ve got your back!

I will show you what sitemaps are, how to create one, how to submit them to Google, and all the essential best practices.

What is a sitemap?

To start off with the basics, a sitemap is a file that provides information about the pages, videos, images, and other files on your website. It’s important for various reasons, including:

• Acting as a roadmap for Google and other search engines to find and better understand your content.
• Leading search engines through your website to crawl and index the essential pages.
• Helping search identify when new pages and updates to old pages are available.
• Helping search engines find alternate language versions of your page.

But before I go further, you must know that there are two types of sitemap formats: HTML and XML. Here’s the basic difference:

HTML sitemaps: This is more like your content sitemap that users can see and use to navigate your site. They’re also commonly referred to as your “website archive.” Some marketers view HTML sitemaps as outdated or even entirely unnecessary.

XML sitemaps: This is the sitemap that’s purely used for indexing and crawling your website and is manually submitted. It’s the more modern form of handling how all your content is stored across your website.

While HTML sitemaps might help users find pages on your site, as John Mueller said, your internal linking should take care of that anyways. So the focus from an SEO perspective should be on XML sitemaps.

Types of Sitemaps

From these two types of sitemaps described above, there are also subsections within them. I’ll now go over these in more detail.

1. Page Sitemap

A page sitemap or regular sitemap improves the indexations of pages and posts. For sites that are not image-focused or video-focused, like photography and videography sites, a page sitemap can also include the images and videos on each page.

A page sitemap without an image would look like this:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>

<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″ >

  <url>

    <loc>https://example.com/</loc>

    <lastmod>2020-09-17</lastmod>

    <changefreq>daily</changefreq>

    <priority>0.9</priority>

   </url>

</urlset>

Include your URLs in <loc> tags. <lastmod> indicates when the page was last edited. <changefreq> indicates how often the page is edited and <priority> indicates how important the page is to other pages on the website as a whole. You can take a look at Sitemaps XML format for more information on these parameters.

2. Video Sitemap

An XML video sitemap is similar to a page sitemap, but of course focuses largely on video content, which means they are only necessary if videos are critical to your business. If they aren’t, save your crawl budget (the finite amount of crawlable pages and resources across your site) and add the video link to your page sitemap.

But if you do need a video sitemap, it would look like this:

Note: This is what a video sitemap looks like. Implement it only if videos are critical to your business.

3. News Sitemap

If you publish news and want to get those news articles featured on top stories and Google News, you need a news sitemap. There’s a crucial rule here: do not include articles that were published longer than the last two days in the file.

Google News sitemaps aren’t favored in regular ranking results, so make sure you only add news articles. Also, they do not support image links, so Google recommends you use structured data to specify your article thumbnail.

4. Image Sitemap

Like the video sitemaps, image sitemaps are only necessary if images are critical to your business, such as a photography or stock photo site. If they aren’t, you can leave them in your page sitemap and mark them up with the image object schema, and they will be crawled along with the page content/URL.

If you believe an image sitemap is needed, it will look like this:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>

<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″ xmlns:image=”http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1″ >

  <url>

    <loc>https://example.com/</loc>

       <image:image>

<image:loc>https://example.com/image-url.png</image:loc>

       </image:image>

      <image:image>

<image:loc>https://example.com/second-image-url.png</image:loc>

      </image:image>

  </url>

</urlset>

5. Sitemap Index

There are a few limitations you’ll want to keep in mind for sitemaps:

• Having too many URLs will only lead to no indexation of some of your pages.
• All sitemaps, except the news sitemap, should have a maximum of 50,000 URLs.
• News sitemaps should have a maximum of 1000 URLs.
• A sitemap should be a maximum of 50MB in uncompressed file size.

As a result of those limitations, you might need to have more than one sitemap. When you use more than one sitemap file, you need an index file that lists all of those sitemaps. It’s the index file that you submit in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. That file should look like this:

XML Sitemap Example

So far, you have seen each sitemap’s structure. Most websites will only need the page sitemap that includes the images on each page. That looks like this:

Sitemap Priorities

Adding priorities to your sitemap is one of the things many people do to differentiate between how important different pages are, but Google’s Gary Illyes mentioned that Google ignores these priorities. In his exact words:

Generally speaking, as long as you are honest about when your content was actually modified, include it in your sitemap so that Google and other search engines know to re-crawl the modified page and index the new content.

How to Create a Sitemap

In this section, I will show you how to create a sitemap without using any generator or plugin. If your website is on WordPress or you’d rather use a generator (which makes this easy), skip to the next section.

These are the exact steps to follow to create a sitemap manually:

1. Decide which pages on your site should be crawled by Google, and determine the canonical version of each page.

Canonical versions are necessary when you have duplicate pages. For example, suppose you serve an international community and have pages for each location with the same language and content, like example.com/us/page and example.com/ca/page for US and Canada visitors, respectively.

In that case, it’s important that you point to the original, which might be example.com/page or one of the two as the canonical. If you’d like to learn more about how this works, this post explains canonicalization in depth.

Furthermore, do not include URLs that are blocked by robots.txt files, require a login to access, or are password-protected, as search bots can’t crawl them. You’ll only get coverage errors in GSC if you add them.

2. Determine if you need more than one sitemap.

Several websites use separate files for pages, posts, and categories. Remember that if you have more than 50,000 URLs, you need multiple sitemaps.

3. Code all your URLs in XML tags to look like the type of sitemap you want to create.

This page explains how to use XML tags in further detail.

4. If you have multiple sitemap files, create a sitemap index file and include the links to the individual sitemaps you created.

This one is already described in the section titled “Sitemap Index”.

Sitemap Generators

Most of us marketers do not have a web development background, so we can’t code to save our lives. If the thought of manually crafting a sitemap gives you a headache, use a sitemap generator and save yourself 12 days of looking through complex coding.

There are several sitemap generators that you can use:

• TechnicalSEO by Merkle has one where you can upload a CSV file with your URLs. It’s especially great if you have different language versions of your pages (hreflang tags).If your website is custom-coded and is not on any CMS or builder that generates a sitemap, you need to use a generator like TechnicalSEO.
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider also has one that I like to use with simple custom-built sites. In Screaming Frog, ensure you are using the spider mode. You can do that by clicking on “Mode” and selecting “spider”. Then type the URL of your home page and let it crawl. When it’s done, click on “Sitemaps.”

For clarification on how to use Screaming Frog, take a look at the image below:

In order to save the XML file to your computer, tick all the options that matter to your site and click on “export”. Then, upload that file to your server in the root directory.

Both tools do not automatically update the sitemap file. Some tools do but are premium, so you pay for the service.

However, you won’t need to deal with any of the above if your website is on WordPress or an ecommerce platform like Shopify.

For WordPress sites, Yoast and Rank Math are popular SEO plugins that generate sitemaps and update them when you edit your posts and pages and Shopify even generates sitemaps automatically.

How to Submit Your Sitemap to Google

The best way to submit your sitemap to Google is through Google Search Console (GSC). There are other ways and additional steps as well, but I will start with GSC, because it’s the most common method.

Follow these steps:

1. Go to Google Search Console and click on “sitemap.”

2. Type your sitemap URL and click Submit. If you have multiple sitemaps with a sitemap index file, you only need to type the URL for the index file.

As an alternative, if you haven’t submitted it to GSC, there is another way to let Google know you have one by adding this line in your robots.txt:

Sitemap: http://example.com/sitemap.xml

But of course the URL here with the one you actually have. And if you have an index file, include only your index file here.

If (for some weird reason) you aren’t using GSC, use the ping service to let Google know it should crawl your file. To do that, type the URL below in your browser:

http://www.google.com/ping?sitemap=https://example.com/sitemap.xml

Replace https://example.com/sitemap.xml with your sitemap URL.

And it’s done!

Sitemap Best Practices

Now that you understand the importance of sitemaps, how they work, and your options for submitting them, let’s make sure the final one you create is in tip-top shape by following these best practices.

1. Use tools to generate automatic sitemaps.

Manually creating and updating an XML sitemap will cost you a lot of time (and is unnecessarily complex). To save time so you can focus on other things like your next Netflix binge, it’s best to use an automatic sitemap generator.

The ones mentioned for WordPress above come with that feature for free. For custom-built sites, you will have to pay, but in my opinion it’s absolutely something worth paying for.

2. Do regular sitemap maintenance checks and updates.

All parts of SEO are an ongoing effort, so check your sitemaps regularly. Search console does an excellent job of letting you know if your submitted URLs have issues with crawling or indexing.

Check the ‘Coverage’ section in GSC regularly and update your site or sitemap when there are errors. The great thing about this is that it tells you what the exact error is with suggestions on how to fix it.

You can also use Screaming Frog for sitemap maintenance. After crawling your website or sitemap URL, check the response code tab for 404 or 5xx errors.

If you are using an automatic sitemap generator tool or plugin, update it when updates are available. Furthermore, periodically view the sitemap by going to your sitemap URL and checking if any page is missing or the last updated time is incorrect.

3. Prioritize high-quality pages in your sitemap.

Although Google no longer pays attention to the priority tag (or so they say), you can still add it because there’s more than Google out there (yes, as an SEO I will admit it). Bing might pay attention to that tag, so it’s still good practice to prioritize high-quality pages in your sitemap.

Sitemap priority shows which pages to crawl and index faster, so you can set priorities using values ranging from 0.00 to 1.00. But make sure not to use the same value for all pages or else Google won’t be able to tell which is most important.

For values, you can go with something like this:

• Homepage – 1.00
• Main landing pages – 0.90
• Other landing pages – 0.85
• Main links on navigation bar – 0.80
• Other pages on site – 0.75
• Top articles/blog posts like hub pages – 0.80
• Blog category pages – 0.75
• Other posts – 0.64

4. Include only canonical versions of URLs in your sitemap.

Your sitemap should only contain URLs that you want search engines to index. That means if a URL points to another as its canonical version, you shouldn’t include it, as it’s a statement to Google and other search engines that you don’t wish for that URL to be indexed.

Ignoring that and including that URL in your sitemap provides conflicting information to Google. The unintended URL might get indexed, or you will get coverage errors in GSC. So, only include the canonical versions, so you can consolidate your position in search engine results.

5. Split up your large sitemaps.

I mentioned this above already that you need to split your sitemap into multiple files if it exceeds 50MB or has more than 50,000 URLs. Never submit large XML files to Google, otherwise some of your URLs will not be indexed – and you know well that every URL matters!

One quick tip here is to save each file with easy to understand names (for you) like page_sitemap1.xml and page_sitemap2.xml.

And with that, I wish you happy sitemapping!

Does any aspect of your job intimidate you?

For content creators, sometimes the most stressful part of the role can be opening a completely blank document to start a new project.

Whether it’s writing a blog post, designing an infographic, or creating an ebook, starting a new piece of content from scratch can be a challenge — especially if you’ve never done it before.

Here at HubSpot, we want to help you do all the challenging, fun parts of the work with less stress. Instead of trying to master how to create every type of content in existence, cut down on the stress and inefficiency and get inspired by our collection of nearly 400 free, customizable content creation templates.

We’ve broken this list down by each type of content marketing template represented. Jump ahead if you specifically want:

• Content Management & Calendar Templates
• Written & Editorial Content Templates
• Design Content Templates
• Social Media Content Templates
• Email Content Templates
• Video Content Templates

Content Management & Calendar Templates

A Content Planning/Goal-Setting Template

(Download the content planning template here.)

HubSpot teamed up with Smart Insights to create a content planning template that will help you put together an effective content marketing plan for either your business or those of your clients. These templates will help you complete a SWOT analysis on your content marketing efforts (and develop a plan to improve them), define the right objectives and KPIs for that plan, brainstorm content ideas and map these across your funnel, and create a timeline for your content plans.

A Content Mapping Template

(Download the content mapping template here)

You’re aware that you need a content marketing strategy in place to support the success of your inbound marketing and sales organizations. But how do you get started? We’ve created a content mapping template so you can experience your target audience’s buyer’s journey. This template helps you identify buyer personas, their challenges and needs, and brainstorm content that provides solutions. You’ll have plenty of targeted blog post ideas to attract your audience to your site and convert them into leads.

A Buyer Persona Template

(Download the buyer persona content template here.)

Marketing with buyer personas means marketing smarter. This buyer persona template will help you easily organize your research to create your very own buyer personas. Use it to create beautiful, well-formatted buyer personas that you can share with your entire company while learning best practices for persona research along the way.

Blog Editorial Calendar Templates

(Download the blog editorial calendar templates here.)

Having an editorial calendar for your marketing content will save you a whole lot of time — not to mention sanity — as you plan your content release timeline. We realize there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, so we’ve created three editorial calendar templates to use at your leisure: one for Google Calendar, one for Excel, and one for Google Sheets. (Read this blog post for a step-by-step guide for using the Google Calendar template.)

Social Media Content Calendar Template

(Download the social media content calendar templates here.)

With so many different social networks to manage, a social media manager’s life becomes a lot easier when they can plan which content to share on each account — and when. This easy-to-use social media content calendar for Microsoft Excel lets you organize your social media activities far in advance. Use it to plan your updates and learn how to properly format your content for the six most popular social networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

On-Page SEO Template

(Download the on-page SEO template here.)

The more content you publish to your website, the more traffic sources you’ll want to prioritize. One of those sources is organic traffic. To make on-page SEO easier, we’ve rolled out a handy planning template to help you create a website structure that organizes each webpage, what its purpose is, how long it should be, and how to optimize the metadata associated with each new page you publish.

Written & Editorial Content Templates

6 Blog Post Templates

(Download the blog post templates here.)

Here’s the thing with blogging: There isn’t one, easy template you can fill in to produce a quality content offering. You need to spend some time researching, brainstorming a title, outlining core content, and so on. Our templates will walk you through the critical steps for creating the following six blog post types:

• How-To Post
• List-Based Post
• Pillar Post
• Infographic Post
• Newsjacking Post
• What is? Post

We’ve seen these formats crush it on our blogs, and we know you can use them to hit your own goals.

18 Ebook Templates

(Download the ebook templates here.)

Year after year, marketers cite lead generation as one of their top content marketing goals for the year. If you want to succeed at lead gen, then you need content offers — like ebooks — to help you get there. Our internal creative design team went to work building 18 beautiful ebook templates — for use in either InDesign, PowerPoint, or Google Slides — for you to download, customize, and publish.

4 Free Memo Templates

(Download the memo templates here.)

Memos are essential content for effective internal communication. While they might not be customer-facing, they can align your team to ensure better, more aligned content is created by everybody on your team.

28 Call-to-Action Templates

(Download the call-to-action templates here.)

To help you design clickable calls-to-action, we’ve built 28 pre-designed CTAs for you. These CTAs are super easy to customize, so you don’t need to know any fancy design programs — just PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Bonus: There’s also a handy free tool in there that lets you track your CTA clicks in real-time so you can see the exact number of clicks that your designs are reeling in.

A Press Release Template

(Download the press release template here.)

While public relations has adapted to be more lovable and less spammy, press releases can be effective when used correctly. Our press release template takes this into consideration and provides an inbound-optimized version. This means the template can help you script press releases and do so in a format optimized for sharing on your company blog. You can easily adapt and customize as needed for your PR needs.

Design Content Templates

12 Pinterest Templates for Business

(Download the Pinterest templates here.)

With more than 478 million monthly active users, Pinterest continues to bring businesses tremendous value. Whether you’re bringing leads to your website, sharing infographic content, or promoting a blog post, Pinterest is a great platform to leverage for content marketing. Download these 12 Pinterest business templates that you can tailor to your product or service offering.

150+ Content Creation Templates

(Download the visual marketing templates here.)

Not a designer? Not a problem. We created over 150 visual marketing templates that are easy-to-use, work for any industry (finance, dentistry, agriculture, law — we’ve got ’em all), and are completely free. The templates include…

• Infographics templates
• Facebook ad templates
• Facebook post templates
• Twitter post templates
• Email header templates
• Blog title templates
• Facebook cover photo templates
• Twitter header templates
• LinkedIn cover photos templates

15 Infographic Templates

(Download the infographic templates here.)

Skip the frustrations and start creating the graphics right away. We’ve created several pre-designed infographic templates that you can customize in PowerPoint or Adobe Illustrator. Within each template, you’ll get guides to teach you how to use the templates effectively.

 

Social Media Content Templates

50 Social Media Graphics Templates

(Download the social media graphics templates here.)

People remember visual information 6x more than written or audio. But we know well that creating visual content takes more time and resources — which is why we’ve created these 50 customizable templates for you. These templates are in Google Slides, so they’re very easy to edit — no Photoshop skills required. Simply customize the text on an image, save it, and post it to social media.

11 Facebook Cover Photo Templates for Businesses

(Download the Facebook cover photo templates here.)

With how frequently businesses change and improve on their Facebook pages today, it’s crucial that you have new material in the pipeline. Double down on your Facebook designs with these 11 templates dedicated to your Facebook cover photo. Get these designs by clicking the link above or the graphic below.

Email Content Templates

15 Email Templates for Marketing and Sales

(Download the email templates for marketing and sales here.)

If you’re like most marketers, you probably spend way more time than you’d like to admit reading and responding to emails. There are many ways you can streamline your inbox to save time, but you ultimately will still have to create and send emails. That’s where these content templates come in. We’ve written the copy for 15 emails marketers and sales reps are likely to send over and over again to save you time and get you results.

Email Marketing Planning Template

(Download the email marketing planning template here.)

Set goals for your email marketing planning with this free template. Available via Excel and Google Sheets, this template can help your marketing team plan an effective email marketing campaign.

Video Content Templates

10 YouTube Business Templates for Banners and Thumbnails

(Download the YouTube Business Templates here.)

Depending on your role as a content creator, you may be responsible for video content, too. A striking thumbnail and banner are a couple of the factors viewers rely on to determine what videos to watch. However, you don’t need to spend hours creating the perfect channel art for each video. These 10 YouTube video content templates make this task simple so you can focus on more important things, like filming, editing, and promoting your videos.

Content Marketing Made Simple

Content marketers are expert storytellers, but designing visual guides and tinkering with excel spreadsheets may not be your favorite part of the job. With hundreds of templates included in this blog post, you can spend more of your precious time doing the work you love.

So, there you have it, content marketers: nearly 400 templates to help you start creating content easily and quickly and further your inbound success.

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

So, you want to become a manager.

The million-dollar question is, how do you get noticed?

Some say it’s by taking on big projects. Others believe face-to-face interactions with upper management are key. The truth is, it’s a combination of those two steps and many others.

We’ll cover them all in this article, featuring five HubSpot managers who share their journeys to becoming managers and what they now look for in managerial candidates.

1. Add value to your team.

The number one way to get noticed as management material is by adding value to your team in your current role.

What does that look like? Well, it depends on your position.

For Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Team Manager at HubSpot Ashley Ladd, it started by volunteering for presentation slides on diversity and inclusion during quarterly meetings.

“It’s very easy for our leadership team to be like, ‘I can do that,’ or ‘our chief legal officer can do that,’ or ‘somebody could do it,'” said Ladd, then program manager, “but I was able to raise my hand and say ‘Hey, I’m willing to take on this part of the presentation’ or ‘I’d love to have that opportunity.'”

Ladd said it pushed her outside of her comfort zone but also gave her visibility with upper management. Furthermore, it allowed her to share more about what she did, and show why she was passionate about her work.

“Those were some of the things earlier on that set me up for being seen as a leader in our space,” said Ladd.

Carina Carlos, product expert manager at HubSpot, added value by identifying a problem in her previous company’s ticket management system and solving for it.

“Solutions aren’t just waiting,” said Carlos. “They’re not just there, you have to think about them, be creative and cover them.”

And that’s exactly what she did. After brainstorming and developing a solution, Carlos pitched it to management and reduced ticket volume by around 40%.

“Taking ownership [is what gets you noticed for management roles], leading projects and thinking of projects that can have a bigger impact in terms of scalability and solving for the root,” she said.

Christopher Simmons, small business sales manager at HubSpot, says adding value looks like a combination of the following:

• Being successful in your role
• Aligning with the company strategy
• Filling in gaps leadership may have
• Giving your perspective proactively
• Speaking up on behalf of people

He believes it requires shifting from an individual contributor mindset to a team one. But as you identify these opportunities, make sure you’re not stepping on other people to do it.

“A key to adding value is dropping pretense,” Simmons says. “What often happens is that people can feel like you are using them as a piece to get to wherever you’re trying to go.”

Whether you start small or go big, there’s always an opportunity for you to add value without pushing others to the side.

2. Volunteer for projects that give you visibility.

One of the best ways to be noticed by upper management is by working on projects your leadership team cares about.

“I was always raising my hand for something because I knew it would give me experience as well as exposure to what I wanted to do and what I didn’t want to do,” said Customer Success Manager at HubSpot Davey Jones.

“So, I had my shortlist of non-negotiables for whatever my next opportunity would be, even if I was leading people,” she continued, “and that came from raising my hand and volunteering.”

Your first step is identifying what those projects are, through company meetings and conversations with your managers and other leaders. Next, break the projects up into two categories: small, low-commitment versus long, high-impact.

Jones emphasizes the importance of having measurable goals to prevent overextending yourself. Because then, you end up underperforming.

The formula is this: Identify projects you’d like to work on and decide how many you will work on per quarter.

“It circles back to leveraging those additional opportunities because a lot of that has a leadership undertone in its own right,” said Jones. “And when you take advantage of those opportunities, you realize ‘Do I want to manage people?'”

During this process, Ladd offers a key piece of advice: zoom out and up.

“As a manager, you have to be able to take yourself out and up and be like, ‘Who is this impacting? Who else do I need to talk to and who else do I need to collaborate with?’ she said.

She continued, “I think sometimes in those moments where I felt that sense of urgency to get something done, I definitely missed the opportunity to say ‘How else can I think about this from a global perspective or a manager perspective?'”

Being solution-oriented is great, but make sure you don’t rush. Have conversations with your colleagues about the best ways to move forward, get their input, and go from there.

Jones adds one more thing to keep in mind when volunteering for projects: Don’t be afraid to change your mind in the middle of it, if it goes beyond the original scope.

“Having a conversation or ongoing conversations with your manager helps because then, they can say, ‘What’s on your plate and what do you want to take off of your plate?'” said Jones. “And then, you look at your projects and say, ‘I don’t like this one, so I’m going to take it off.'”

This is where leveraging your manager’s help is key.

3. Take calculated risks.

When I asked Vrnda LeValley, customer training manager at HubSpot, if there’s a particular moment that stands out to her as a manager-making moment, this is what she answered.

“Yes, a lot of them do and usually they were linked to ‘This might be the day I lose my job,'” she says.

Needless to say, risky moves get you noticed.

“I actually prefer people who do too much. I would rather reel you back instead of push you out there because leadership is a vulnerable position,” said Simmons. “When you’re a leader, you’re going to have to step out and be vulnerable and be exposed.”

He continues, “And it’s a lonely place so, I want people who kind of push the boundaries a little bit. Then, we can teach, tailor, and cultivate.”

However, taking risks doesn’t mean being reckless or a bully.

You need to have a pioneering spirit to be an effective leader, Simmons says, so shrinking back isn’t the answer.

Pay attention to what the business needs and be ready to act on it. This can mean having difficult conversations or stepping up when it’s the right thing to do.

“Ask yourself, ‘How can I do this in a way that is authentically who I am and honors people at the same time?” says Simmons.

If it seems scary to take the risk, Carlos suggests looking at the bigger picture and framing it as a service to the company, your customers, and the team.

And if you mess up, own up to it.

“There needs to be a self-awareness there and an opportunity for you to raise your hand and say ‘I didn’t do something well,'” said Ladd. “Being able to apologize as a manager – it’s humbling work and you have to be able to say, ‘I totally messed that up’ and ‘Here’s my action plan going forward,’ I think that builds trust.”

4. Mentor and be mentored.

Every manager I interviewed spoke of a commitment to mentor and/or be mentored.

Why is mentorship vital to becoming a manager? LeValley says it helps you broaden your thinking.

“You won’t know when you’re thinking small cause you don’t know what big is, so you need a sounding board for that,” she said.

The question is, how do you identify the right people to seek out mentorship from? LeValley suggests asking yourself who impresses you.

“Who do you see that is making the moves that matter and that is coming up with the ideas that are implemented?” says LeValley.

From there, she has a pro-tip: Meet with the leaders’ executive assistants within your first 90 days because they know what matters most to their supervisors.

“They’re designed to have their finger on the pulse,” LeValley says. “They’re designed to assist, so it’s right up their alley.”

However, that’s not the only route toward mentorship. Simmons got informal mentoring at first.

“I went to a group, had a leader – she was amazing, phenomenal [and] she mentored me but it wasn’t labeled as a mentoring relationship,” he said. “Once I decided to move toward management, I went and got formal mentoring.”

He reached out to his then-VP for advice on how to take the next step in his career and asked for mentorship.

Figuring out who to meet with is only one step of the process, the next step is having an action plan for these conversations.

“Whenever I would work with him (my mentor), I would bring what I wanted to talk about. I was proactive,” said Simmons. “I didn’t want to be another deduction from his time, another liability. I wanted to be an asset.”

Simmons didn’t necessarily want answers to specific tactical questions but instead, learn how a leader thinks.

“I wanted to first connect to the story. We learn best through stories,” he said. “So, I want to hear their career path, what their journey has been like. If I can figure out how you think, I can replicate the results.”

He also leveraged peer mentors.

“That really is the secret sauce for me,” said Simmons. “We would kind of mentor each other informally and teach each other things. And I adopted that throughout my career.”

When Simmons came to HubSpot, he adds that his first step wasn’t meeting with the directors, it was networking across with his fellow managers. In particular, those who could offer diversity of thought.

“I am trying to think with people who can supplement my weaknesses or development areas. I know I’m strong in the art of leadership so, I like talking to people who like being in that space,” he said.

“But I am also trying to think like a person who loves systems. So, I’m trying to find people who can think about the business systems, [and learn about] the processes they used.”

With mentoring, there’s humbleness in knowing that you don’t know everything and a willingness to learn from both your peers and your leaders.

5. Speak up and be bold.

Speaking up can be hard, especially at work. But, these five managers agree it’s necessary to become a manager.

“You need to be the voice of reason and fairness on the team you’re on,” said LeValley. “You need to be the person who says, ‘Hey, that’s not nice and that’s not necessary,’ and ‘Let’s hear the idea out.'”

Simmons echoes this sentiment and thinks back to his own experience.

“There were moments early in my career when I had a platform and I didn’t say what I know I needed to say, my gut was saying ‘Say something’ but I was like, ‘Oh they can’t handle this,'” he said. “Those were missed opportunities because leaders have a pioneering spirit, that’s part of the DNA of the best leaders that I’ve studied.”

Simmons’ point is that leaders can handle a little pushback.

If you feel scared, Ladd says it helps to think of the bigger picture.

“it’s very easy to get very granular and be like ‘This impacts me and this is the issue I’m having’ but what I try to do is take a step back and realize that this can’t be just a me thing,” she says. “I could be feeling this way, but I bet you, eight or 10 other people are feeling this way, too.”

It’s about lending your voice to be that bridge between all these voices, she says, and articulating it in a way that feels it doesn’t feel like an attack but empowering instead.

Ladd recalls last year being a pivotal moment for her to speak up when the conversation around social justice was at the forefront.

“I could just continue to do my job, keep doing what I’m doing and giving feedback here and there,” she said, “but I was able to step up and say ‘It’s not just about me anymore, it’s about our community here.”

Speaking up can (and should) also extend to your customers.

In her role in customer success, Jones fiercely advocated for her customers.

“When I think back to my role as an individual contributor, it was mostly around doing what was right for the customer, no matter how many people disagreed with me,” she said, “and being able to advocate for them in a way that somebody else, who was a little bit shyer or didn’t think they had enough buy-in or support, would.”

And because she did that, customers returned the favor by singing her praises to upper management.

One thing you want to keep in mind though is your timing. LeValley had to learn that lesson.

“I would ask these questions in a group and the whole group would reel and I’d be like ‘I just wanted to know’ and not realizing the impact,” said LeValley. “So, be very aware of your influence as you’re building your brand.”

It won’t always be clear when the right time is, but consider what stage the company is in and what its priorities are.

6. Connect with your leadership team.

Part of becoming a manager is forging connections with the leaders at your company and understanding the bigger picture.

“Put yourself in the rooms that matter when you can,” said LeValley, “even if it’s ‘Hey I just want to touch base for 15 minutes,’ or ‘I had an idea about this,’ ‘Can you explain the strategy behind this?'”

This requires some visibility, which some would say it’s harder to get these days as working remotely is the new norm. You can’t exactly start a conversation with upper management after a meeting, or have a quick word while getting coffee in the communal kitchen or get to know them at a happy hour.

But LeValley thinks it’s actually easier now: fewer interruptions and distractions.

Set up an initial coffee chat with those key people you’re interested in speaking with and go from there.

LeValley pro-tip: Call your first meeting a coffee chat and everything thereafter a strategic touch base or something similar.

“Don’t marginalize yourself by calling it a coffee chat after the first one.”

It’s all about framing your conversations in a strategic light because that’s how you want to be viewed.

7. Be a resource to others.

One thing Simmons learned from his mentors is the importance of supporting your peers.

“My leader would say, ‘Whenever we promote someone, we want everybody in the org to say, ‘OK, that makes sense,” he said. “It makes sense for that person to be in that role because they’ve been adding value for so long.'”

Jones did it by always making herself available to assist her colleagues.

“I was called somewhere between like the ‘mama bear’ on the team and then also be a first responder,” said Jones, “because whenever there was an issue, somebody would call me in and say, ‘Davey, I know you’re not a part of this thing, but can you help us put this fire out?’ And I’m like, ‘OK, give me the problem.'”

She also got involved with new hire onboarding, unofficially mentoring others on her team.

“Typically, what happens before somebody goes into leadership, you’re going to ask somebody else, ‘Hey, tell me about X. Have you worked with them before? What were your experiences?’ Simmons said. “And if you’re a person who burns bridges because you’re not people-smart, then we should know that before.”

Wondering what are some actions you can take today to support your colleagues? Listen to their concerns, offer to help when you can, and provide resources.

8. Have career conversations with your manager.

As you start making plans to become a manager, leverage your manager’s insight and support.

“Every single day, I would ask my manager, ‘What can I do to make your job easier,?’ which is different from ‘How are you?'” said LeValley. “I asked my manager and my skip-level, whom you should definitely be meeting with at least once a quarter, ‘What could I learn or be good at that would make this organization better?’ and then you do it.”

This is an opportunity to make your aspirations clear with your manager and find opportunities to show what you’re made of.

“Being able to make the space and time for conversations with your manager is the thing that helps move the needle,” said Ladd.

Start by asking your manager for quarterly career chats. Then, prepare talking points and areas of focus. Lastly, keep your manager informed on your progress, the projects you’re working on, and leverage their help to identify career development opportunities.

9. Act with empathy and vulnerability.

Now more than ever, having empathy is central to being a good manager.

“I think companies tend to hire managers because they’re functional, right? You can get the job done right. You had experience in this thing for three to six years,” said Jones, “but they never really have the behavioral questions in there like, how do you manage your people and how do you manage the culture of your team?”

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fight for social justice, Jones was hiring managers and she looked for people who made concessions for their team, ones that weren’t mandated by HR.

“How do you show up for somebody in a way that you may not have considered had you not gotten to know them a little bit more?” she says.

Managing people is a very delicate balancing act, adds Carlos, so it requires someone who can be vulnerable, create psychological safety, and show up for their team.

“Being able to bring out the best performance in them is a dance you have to learn to do each time,” she says.

So, how do you practice empathy? It starts in your role. Look at how you speak to customers. Do you understand their struggles? Do you prioritize their needs?

What about your peers, do you listen actively to their ideas and concerns? Do you ask questions to get to the root of their problems?

These are all ways to lead with empathy before you step into a managerial role.

10. Know the bigger picture.

When you become a manager, your priorities take a backseat and the company’s needs take the wheel.

This requires understanding the company’s broader strategy and investing in projects that align with them.

It begs the question: Does your purpose align with your company’s?

That’s why before you seek out that management role, LeValley recommends getting clear on your ‘why.’

“If you ask me why I want to get promoted and why I want to become a manager, [the answer is] because before I retire, I want to be responsible for supporting 15 people from marginalized communities to senior manager level,” she says. “You can’t argue with that answer.”

Once you identify your ‘why,’ mean it, voice it, and take action.

“I look for why they come to work, why they say the things that they do, why they support the decisions they support, why they speak up on behalf of others,” LeValley says. “If they do, I look a lot of what really motivates them, because if it’s money, you’re not my type of manager.”

For LeValley, your ‘why’ should go beyond yourself. It should be a desire to elevate others and support their success.

A big red flag is me-statements.

Phrases like: “I can do it but I don’t see how this is going to get me noticed,” or personal success stories that don’t mention anyone else.

“People that see the train heading off the tracks, and maybe they get off, but they don’t bring anybody else with them,” says LeValley.

Carlos says another concern is someone focused on just hitting their own goals.

“It would be a little concerning if someone was not looking at things holistically, [saying things like] ‘I hit like this metric of X tickets, therefore, I should be a manager,’ she said. “It’s not just about that, there’s a lot more to consider.”

She adds that you have to focus on empowering those around you.

“What the mindset shift for a manager is, how do you multiply your impact through these people and empower them, work through them, lead them toward this conclusion and this performance?” says Carlos.

11. Learn and practice.

Who better to learn from than people who have done it before?

You already know this, of course, that’s why you’re reading this article. But let’s explore how our HubSpot managers learned and practiced leadership before they stepped into their roles.

“One of my mentors would say the call to leadership is a call to preparation,” Simmons said. “So, one of the things I would do, and I’m kind of maniacal about this, is read everything I could on leadership, watch videos, listen to talks.

Simmons’ favorite books on leadership include “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek, “Multipliers” by Liz Wiseman, “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, and “The Ideal Team Player” by Patrick Lencioni. Oh, and anything by John Maxwell.

Simmons also volunteered for leadership roles outside of his company.

“Following the 10,000-hour rule, I was spending two hours every Saturday for eight years, not only facilitating conversation within the group but also taking leadership roles, organizing community service projects,” he says.

“[Part of that preparation] is volunteering out the time to become a better leader because again, you are a leader before you actually have the role.”

On her end, Ladd leaned on her colleagues who exhibited behaviors she wanted to replicate.

“Doing the work before you get there is so important,” she says. “For me, it was ‘What’s that thing Maggie does to ensure that folks feel psychologically safe in meetings?’ I want to make sure I do that, too.”

She continued, “How do you facilitate an in-depth conversation like Alex does and make sure that it’s something that folks want to engage with?”

Learning from your peers is as valuable as learning from the greats. Once you learn the strategies, practice, practice, practice.

12. Network across.

One of the biggest missed opportunities you can make on your journey to becoming a manager is not connecting with your peers.

LeValley recalls her own experience with this.

“I was in an environment where I was considerably older than the colleagues in my office and I wasn’t into what they were into. So, I did a lot of separating myself because look, I’m here to do a job [and] I’m going to go to work,” she says, “but that wasn’t good because I didn’t receive feedback like ‘Are you a fit?’ That shouldn’t matter, but it does. Are you a fit for management?”

She was trustworthy, professional, and capable, but one thing she hadn’t thought about was the social aspect of being a manager.

“When we go out for beers as a management team, do we want you there? And I contrast that with my friend who doesn’t drink at all, but they still wanted her there,” LeValley adds. “So it’s not that you have to drink.”

Not only is networking important for getting that approval from your peers, but also getting to know them.

“One indication of a good manager is what they know individually about all the other people that they used to work with,” Jones says. “If you don’t know much about them, like their individual working styles, then that tells me that you are managing them in a one-size-fits-all approach.”

Being a manager means understanding that it takes different tactics to manage different people. You’ll only know what those are by getting to know everyone on a personal level.

At the core of all these tips is a commitment to elevating those around you and being aligned with the company’s needs.

By using a combination of the tactics outlined above, you’ll become a manager in no time – just as these five managers did.

Here’s a little exercise for you: Check the timestamps on the emails you’ve gotten in the past day. What have you found? For me, I noticed that most of my emails, especially my subscription emails, were sent between 9-10 AM, or 5-6 PM.

This isn’t a coincidence, either.

While the answer to “What’s the perfect time to send an email to my customers?” isn’t an exact science, there are some key findings we’ve discovered through heavy research, and those times listed above are right in line with what we found. Keep reading to find out the best time to send an email, according to our findings.

If you’re sending emails that include a sale or promotion, try sending them during the times your audience tends to take their lunch breaks simply because they may be more likely to check their emails at this time.

If you want something more specific when it comes to what time and day you should send an email, we found some researched-backed best practices.

The following numbers are from GetResponse, an email marketing software that combed its data to compile a report of email marketing benchmarks. They analyzed 4 billion emails from 1,000 active senders.

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The highest line of the graph represents the open rate. The purple line (i.e., the one below it) represents the click-to-open rate. Below that, the dark blue line, represents the click-through rate. The almost transparent data counts the number of messages sent in percent value.

This gets into the best day to send through an email. CampaignMonitor collected data from millions of emails used on their service. They put together the best day as it pertains to data collection.

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From this data, it looks like the best days for seeing a good blanket of success fall during the workweek. People are mostly opening and reading through emails in the middle of the week. It’s also good to keep in mind the lowest unsubscribe rate: during the beginning of the week.

Keeping your audience in mind is a good tip for figuring out the time to send your emails. If your buyer persona is a professional with a nine-to-five job, sending emails during their ideal downtimes is the best. For instance, HubSpot sends emails between 8-9:30 AM ET to match our audience’s daily routines.

Why Email Matters For Your Business

Automated email marketing provides a chance for you to improve sales conversions — maybe even by 14%. It’s a way to send customers unique offers — such as product sales or newsletters updates — with information your reader can’t get anywhere else.

Emails should be personalized with what your customers want to see, allowing you an instant way to communicate with them. Your emails should contain information your customers are interested in learning more about, such as discount offers, business updates, or product/service launches.

HubSpot‘s marketing email tool allows users to create and send automated emails for free. It also gives you the option to schedule your emails according to the preferences you’ve set. Then, your emails will be sent to the list(s) of contacts you select.

When you reach this option in your automated email tool, you probably spend some time wondering when exactly your audience would like to receive your email, especially if it includes a limited-time offer. You want to make sure the highest number of customers possible are reading your emails.

How to Measure the Performance of Your Email Sends

If you’re wondering about the best time to send a marketing email, there’s something you should know first. There’s a lot of data out there on the subject that provides differing answers, and one reason is that it depends on your audience and, more importantly, how you’re measuring success.

For example, the best time for people to open your emails could differ from the best time for people to take action. Here is a breakdown of the most important email metrics:

Click-through rate

Click-through rate refers to the number of people who open a link or image in an email. This number will always be smaller than the total number of emails opened since some people will open your email but then abandon it without engaging with it any further.

Click-to-open rate

When comparing the number of people that opened your email and the number that clicked on any links, that data is called click-to-open rate. This metric helps you identify which information in your emails is relevant to consumers. Finding CTOR is done by diving CTR by the open rate and multiplying it by 100%. For example, if your email receives 200 clicks and 120 opens, your click-to-open rate is 60%.

Open rate

The open rate, then, is the percentage found from the number of subscribers who opened your email campaign. Emails that have great open rates have short, effective subject lines. Plus, they’re optimized for previews and preheader text.

Entrepreneur concurs with the GetResponse data above but breaks it down further based on audience type:

The big takeaway here is that you’ll want to segment your B2B audience down even further, perhaps by job function or seniority, to accommodate different behaviors and modes of working with your email sends. You may even find that other times work better for your list.

B2B is great and all, but does the time you send an email matter when marketing consumer and personal goods?

Again, keep in mind that studies differ, consumer behavior is always changing, and performance varies based on which metric you’re using as your ultimate goal. Continue experimenting and seeing what works best with your audience. One way to do this is by using an automation tool like Seventh Sense which will fine-tune your email sends using artificial intelligence.

Email marketing can be a tricky subject. There are so many industries taking advantage of it in their own way and making an impact.

Your subscribers are already interested in your content. They appreciate what you are offering as a company, and as long as you’re sending them emails that relate to that, you have a good chance of obtaining great metrics.

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

Adobe Illustrator is a popular tool for designing vector graphics, logos, icons, and more.

But when you’re a web or graphic designer with a small budget, you probably can’t afford Adobe Illustrator’s steep $239.88/yr pricing.

Luckily, there are plenty of top-notch free alternatives on the market, some of which offer features unparalleled by Illustrator. In this post, we’re sharing the top seven free alternatives to Adobe Illustrator so you can produce beautiful designs on a budget.

If you’re shopping for a program that offers features comparable in quality to Adobe’s product, check out our list of the top free alternatives to Illustrator.

1. Inkscape

One of the most comparable substitutes to Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape has plenty of similar sketching, illustrating, and editing tools, including keys to move and rotate by screen pixels, bitmap tracing, color painting over objects, and edit gradients with handles.

You can create complex textures and gradients in Inkscape, too. Unlike some free tools, this tool allows layering, grouping, and locking objects so you can completely customize the look and feel of a project while maintaining a streamlined workflow.

Inkscape is a quality product for pro- or semi-pro web designers working within SVG file format. It also offers an open source vector graphics package, so if you have the technical skills, you can incorporate Inkscape into your other software programs.

Best for:

Pro and semi-pro illustrators and web designers

Platform:

Mac, Windows, Linux

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2. GIMP

GIMP, which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, has limited vector functions but has similar tools to Photoshop, making it an impressive image editor with powerful image manipulation options. Better still, GIMP provides options for customization and third party plug-ins, so if your image editing needs are somewhat unique, you might want to check this tool out.

GIMP is free and open source, so there is a market of third party plugins to enhance your productivity and design capabilities. If this sounds technically advanced, GIMP offers tutorials for newcomers to the tool so you get the most out of it.

Best for:

Advanced designers who need a custom tool to create illustrations and graphics

Platform:

Mac, Windows, Linux

3. BoxySVG

BoxySVG runs as an extension in Google Chrome, so it’s easy to store vector graphics including icons, charts, and illustrations on the web. It provides options for Google Fonts integration and has an Open Clip Art Library, as well as illustrator tools including pens, bezier curves, groups, shapes, text, and more.

Ultimately, BoxySVG is simpler than Illustrator, and while this means less advanced tools, it also means a quicker and easier process for creating vector graphic files.

The intuitive user interface gives you a clean workspace so you can complete your workflow without clutter or overlapping toolboxes. Keyboard shortcuts keep tools accessible without switching between tabs or searching through several icons.

The 15-day free trial includes these features. After that, you’ll have the option to purchase either the premium or standard plan.

Best used for:

Designers who produce a low volume of designs, but still need a quality tool

Platform:

Mac app, Windows app, Chrome app, Web app

4. Pixlr

Pixlr offers plenty of features for editing, creating, and sharing creative images. While it’s less advanced in function than Illustrator, it’s cloud-based and supported on mobile, desktop, or the web.

Pixlr has two options: Pixlr E for photo editing and Pixlr X for graphic design. Pixlr X includes regularly updated templates for social media, presentations, resumes, business cards, newsletters, and event invitations. Pixlr E includes a photo collage maker that combines your favorite photos into a clean, cohesive design.

Best used for:

Individuals whose position requires them to work from different devices to create images

Platform:

Windows, Mac, Web, Mobile

5. Gravit

You’ll find plenty of your basic vector-editing tools in Gravit, including pen, line, knife, slice, bezigon, gradient editor. It also has more advanced features, such as boolean operations, symbols, international text support, and more.

Plus, it’s designed in a user-friendly interface and offers video tutorials. Gravit works from right within any browser, which means you can edit and export your files anywhere with wifi. It also supports cmyk rendering, so you can print quality images without downloading anything.

You can also import and export files in a variety of formats including pdf, png, jpg, svg, and sketch — which makes this option more flexible than Illustrator.

Best used for:

Freelance illustrators and designers who need a robust design tool

Platform:

Mac, Linux, Windows, Chrome, Any Browser

6. Affinity Designer

With rasterizing controls, infinite zooming, a precision-engineered pen tool, automatic snapping points, colors that pop, and an extensive array of vector editing tools, this system truly compares in design and function to Adobe Illustrator. The full version is $49.99, but the 90-day trial version is free and offers plenty of the full version tools.

What’s unique about this tool is that it supports vector and raster workspaces — with the click of a button you can switch between the two for a versatile design experience.

Your workflow is the foundation of a great design, so Affinity Designer gives you unlimited artboards, detailed version history, customizable keyboard shortcuts, and the ability to save your file in the most popular vector and raster formats.

Best used for:

Experienced designers with a need for advanced vector and raster tools

Platform:

Mac, Windows, iPad

7. DesignEvo

Although this design tool is free, it brings a lot of value. With over 10,000 design templates to get you started, this app is ideal for the designer who’s just starting out. DesignEvo helps you perfect your style, develop your workflow, and build your portfolio — all without spending a penny on expensive software.

You’ll have access to royalty-free fonts, color schemes, and an easy-to-use logo editor (plus dozens of logo categories). When you’ve designed the perfect vector, logo, or icon, export it from DesignEvo and into your preferred storage cloud in the most popular high-resolution formats.

Best used for:

Individuals starting a business who need a logo and other assets

Platform:

Mac

Adobe Alternatives for Any Budget

Creating professional vector graphics doesn’t have to be an expensive line item in your budget. If you’re just starting out in the graphic design field or if you’re an experienced designer looking for budget-friendly tools, one of these free alternatives is sure to work well for you.

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