Category Archives: B2B

It’s no surprise you want to become a paid Instagram influencer, but the idea of getting your posts sponsored might seem laughable if you’re just posting pictures of your brunch instead of skydiving pictures in Australia.

 

But you’re probably more marketable than you think — as Instagram is a popular channel for influencers to partner with all kinds of businesses to post all kinds of content across topic areas for all types of influencers, from micro-influencers to viral celebrities.

I‘ve put this guide together to show you how to get brand deals on Instagram. Read on for actionable tips that’ll help you get your first deal.

Table of Contents:

• What’s a Sponsored Instagram Post?
• How to Get Sponsored on Instagram
• How to Get Brand Deals on Instagram
• Using #ad and #spon Hashtags
• Things to Consider Before Accepting an Instagram Sponsorship
• Pros and Cons of Instagram Sponsorships

Here’s more detail on each type of sponsored post.

Promoted Posts & Ads

Just like X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Facebook, Instagram comes with a native ad management platform.

Advertisers can use this tool to customize a target audience — using attributes like age, sex, location, and interests — and invest a specific amount of money to get their post in front of Instagrammers who identify with this audience.

The thing I’d like to note here is that the advertiser is making and publishing the post. They’re paying Instagram for the audience they want access to, but the post is theirs to create.

Paid Sponsorships

Conversely, paid sponsorships happen between a brand and an influencer on Instagram. The creator will have a brand and an audience relevant to the business.

I like to think of it as social media product placement. Just like a business might pay a TV show to have its brand of soda on the countertop in the series finale, it can also pay a person on Instagram to hold that same soda in a picture on their Instagram feed.

With the basics out of the way, let me walk you through how to start getting sponsorships.

1. Define your brand.

A niche determines the subject matter around which your content revolves. Do you want to post food and health-related content or focus on fashion? Whatever the case, it’s an important step in establishing your brand.

In addition to the type of content you post, branding has a lot to do with your overall aesthetic. How do you want to style your posts? What’s your messaging? To further solidify your brand, you might want to consider creating a cohesive feed theme (use these feeds for inspiration).

Beyond that, consistency is key. A good influencer’s posts are distinguishable and unique — a user flipping through their feed should be able to recognize the content as belonging to one influencer. After all, trust builds as a user continues to see the same type of content on an influencer’s profile.

Anthony Miyazaki, marketing consultant and professor of marketing at Florida International University, considers consistency one of the most important factors when assessing influencers for his clients.

Miyazaki often recommends his clients “seek out influencers who have maintained the same personality, vibe, tone, and style for at least 18 months.”

To further enhance the consistency of your brand, I recommend you connect your Instagram brand with any other online presence.

Creating a website with a similar aesthetic and messaging is a good way to do this. The more you unify your social media accounts, the easier it will be for brands to distinguish how you can help them.

Pro tip: If you have a website or other social media accounts, consider using Linktree to provide a menu of links to your other accounts. This way, you only have to share one link that provides users access to all your different accounts online. (Linktree offers a free and paid plan.)

2. Know your audience.

Up to 34% of social media marketers pick an influencer based on how much their audience engages with the content they post. The truth? You can only get the most engagement by understanding and fulfilling your audience’s needs.

If you understand your audience, you can also correctly identify which brands will succeed most from sponsoring you.

When I spoke to Rahul Vij, CEO of WebSpero Solutions, he stated a good connection between influencers and their audience is crucial for brands because “they want to partner with influencers who feel genuine and relatable to their target audience.”

As an example, Vij mentioned a campaign in which a fashion brand partnered with a micro-influencer focused on sustainable clothing.

He noted that the brand found them appealing because despite “not being a huge celebrity, the influencer had a super-engaged audience who loved their fashion hacks and commitment to eco-friendly practices.”

So, to strengthen your understanding of your audience, I recommend you start by gathering the basics:

• What’s the gender, age, and geographical location of your core demographic?
• Which of your posts do they like the best?
• What times of day do they respond best to content, and what can you infer from this?

With this demographic information, you can start pitching partnerships to brands. After all, brands want to know who they can reach if they work with you.

And a proposal stating something akin to “You’ll be reaching thirty-something, working women, primarily from New York, who often use Instagram first thing in the morning and prefer fitness content” will undoubtedly hit harder than just saying, “You’ll be reaching women.”

Pro tip: You can tell what kind of content your audience likes by keeping an eye on how they engage with your posts. For instance, if a post has lots of likes, saves (bookmarks), and shares, it might mean they like that type of content.

3. Post consistently.

How frequently you post on social media will depend on several factors: how the platform works and the ecosystem on each platform you choose.

Posting frequently on Instagram is important to getting a brand sponsorship because it shows you maintain a presence on the platform.

That said, Instagram is algorithm-based, so a high frequency isn’t as defining a factor as sharing quality content, especially since the algorithm ensures that users don’t see too many posts from one single author at once.

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, suggests sharing a couple of in-feed posts per week and a couple of stories per day.

Pro tip: The best times to post on Instagram range from early afternoon to mid to late evening, specifically from 12 PM to 3 PM, 3 PM to 6 PM, and 6 PM to 9 PM. The best day to post is Saturday, and the worst is Monday.

However, I urge you to also look at your profile analytics and see when you get the most interactions and overall engagement to determine the best Instagram posting schedule for you.

4. Use hashtags and geotags.

Instagram hashtags make your content discoverable, so they’re necessary for growing your following. You can use up to 30 hashtags per post, but we recommend using an average of seven hashtags per post.

I also find it’s best to use hashtags that are as relevant to your content as possible and ensure they aren’t broken or banned.

Moreover, it‘s critical you choose hashtags that aren’t too broad. #Healthyliving, for instance, has over 20,000,000 posts, while #Healthylivingtips only has around 465,000. The less competition, the easier it will be for your content to get discovered.

When you peruse a hashtag’s page, you can also get a deeper sense of what types of content your post will be up against. #Healthylivingtips typically features posts with food recipes, so if your post is about cycling, using this hashtag might not be a good idea.

Location tags are equally important but for a different reason. Geotags can help people find you if they’re interested in a specific location. This helps you gain more followers and appeal to brands interested in reaching a particular demographic.

For instance, a boutique may see you often post fashion tips from the California area, and they‘re looking to appeal to people in that region — it’s a win-win.

Pro tip: I’ve found that using banned hashtags prevents your content from being shown to your audience. To avoid this pitfall, search for the hashtag you want to use on the explore page and open it. If there is a note about a community guideline violation, avoid it.

I also suggest using tools like MetaHashtags to check and remove banned hashtags from your hashtag list.

5. Tag brands in your posts.

Okay, now you‘re officially ready to begin reaching out to brands. You’ve defined your brand and audience and have created quality, authentic posts. Now, you should have a pretty good idea of what types of businesses would benefit from a partnership with you.

It‘s important to start small. If you’re interested in skincare, don‘t go straight for Estée Lauder. Instead, try tagging small skincare start-ups you’ve seen across Instagram in your posts.

When customers ask questions like “Where can I get one?” or “How much?” tag the brand. They will soon see you’ve proven yourself a suitable sales partner and may reach out.

Pro tip: You can tag brands in the photo/video, caption, or comments. My favorite method is using the comment section to repeatedly tag a brand while answering follower questions.

And with 28% of marketers stating that brand mentions are a key metric for measuring the effectiveness of an influencer campaign, you definitely want to get as many of those as you can.

Also, I suggest leveraging the power of hashtags while tagging brands to cast a wide net. Hashtags increase your content’s visibility to a new audience, which might help you get more brand mentions.

6. Include contact information in your bio.

Consider your bio a chance to signal your interest in becoming an influencer. Include an email or website so they can reach you, and include a media kit if possible.

For instance, @brittany_broski adds a Linktree link and includes her email in her bio.

Furthermore, you should use a website or blog to expand on your brand and demonstrate your versatility. For instance, consider adding a press page to your website so brands can take a look at your services.

And once you start getting sponsored by brands, you can add them to this page so brands can see you have experience as an influencer.

Pro tip: I also recommend using your Story Highlights to convey any information you’d like sponsors to see about yourself. Whether it’s past brand collaborations or your rates, it’ll help potential sponsors decide faster.

7. Pitch paid sponsorships.

There’s nothing wrong with reaching out to brands and offering your services. In fact, this approach to getting sponsorships is my favorite. With the right pitch, you might be able to land some gigs without waiting for brands to find you.

Look for brands that clearly invest time and money into their Instagram presence. You can start by researching brands that are already sponsoring influencers in your niche or industry. And remember — it’s okay to start small. Working with smaller brands will allow you to build a portfolio.

Once you‘ve curated a list of brands that might want to partner with you, send them an email. In your pitch, clearly and briefly outline who you are, what you do, and any achievements you have in the field that make you an expert.

Then, explain why you’re a good fit for the brand and include data such as follower count and average engagement rate.

Alternatively, you might consider sending a brand a DM straight from Instagram. It‘s certainly more relevant to the job you’re vying for, but it might get lost if a brand receives hundreds of DMs a day.

Pro tip: Tiffany Knighten, founder of Brand Curators, says that DMs and email aren’t the only ways you can pitch to brands: “LinkedIn can be a great resource to find contacts who work directly for a brand. You can reach out to people in PR, marketing, or partnerships within the brand and send them a brief pitch along with your media kit.”

In addition to reaching out to brands on different channels, I recommend customizing your pitches to each brand’s individual needs. Doing this shows initiative and willingness to do the work that moves the needle for the brand.

8. Know your worth.

Make sure you know how much you’ll charge when brands contact you or before you pitch your platform. Marketers typically pay between $501 and $10K for nano, micro, and macro influencers, with $10K+ budgets reserved for mostly mega influencers.

While you‘ll want to have a minimum set, you can negotiate to encourage brands to pay more. Perhaps for $300, you’ll throw in five Instagram Story posts and a link in your bio to their website for 24 hours. You can use other Instagram features to sweeten the deal. As you grow, you’ll be able to charge more.

Pro tip: There’s no doubt knowing your worth is essential. However, fixating on money can have downsides.

Amelia Munday, marketing specialist at Custom Neon, explains that “being overly aggressive on compensation without considering the partnership’s collaborative nature can also sour deals. Influencers should approach negotiations as a mutual partnership rather than a one-sided benefit.”

With 52% of businesses leveraging Instagram marketing, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get sponsorships. And this is especially true if you consider that you now have access to tools like the Instagram Creator Marketplace.

Initially rolled out in 2022, the Creator Marketplace’s explicit purpose is connecting influencers and brands on Instagram. That means the platform puts the spotlight on you, so all you have to do is prepare to make the best of it.

Here’s how.

1. Activate your creator account.

The Creator Marketplace is a public tool, meaning you and I can access it as long as we have Instagram accounts. But it’s still being rolled out, so you must meet the following eligibility criteria to join for now:

• Be at least 18 years old.
• Be in a region where the marketplace is available (refer to the eligibility criteria for regional information).
• Be compliant with Instagram’s Community Guidelines and Monetization Policies.
• Adhere to the Branded Content Policies and Partner Monetization Policies.
• Convert your account from a personal to a professional account.

2. Optimize your profile for discovery.

After activating your account, you can start optimizing your profile to make it more discoverable by brands.

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My suggestion? Be as thorough as humanly possible. The more details and labels you provide for what you do, the higher the chances that brands will find you.

Here’s how brands may search for influencers like you while using the discovery feature:

• Using keywords or hashtags. By searching “fashion” or “#designer,” brands can see posts from influencers in the fashion industry. Therefore, if I wanted to appear in these searches, I’d use more keywords and hashtags specific to that niche.
• Using filters. Brands can also refine their results using filters such as age, gender, location, interests, and follower count. This is where having a solid idea of who your Instagram followers are comes in handy.
• Following recommendations. Instagram recommends influencers to brands based on how relevant their content is to them. It analyzes factors like the content type you post, your interests, and the brands you work with.
• Browsing categories. Sometimes, brands will simply want to find all the creators in a specific category. So, make sure to choose the right category when switching to a professional account.

3. Set up a portfolio.

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Up to 25% of social media marketers believe that working with influencers will become more important in 2024. For me, this is enough reason to package myself well so that when brands come knocking, they’ll find me ready to unleash my creativity on their businesses.

The portfolio feature does a great job of showing off your experience. I use it to show potential partners who I am, what I’ve worked on, and my previous partnerships. That way, I can let brands know that I’m capable of meeting their expectations.

4. Keep an eye on the Partnership Messaging inbox.

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Once you get discovered, brands can invite you to take part in their projects. Projects allow brands to specify their needs (e.g., the kinds of content they expect from creators, posting frequency, and when they expect you to post).

When brands send these projects directly to you, they land in your partnership inbox — a separate folder in your primary inbox dedicated to communication with brands.

I personally think this feature is a great time-saver if you, like me, have experienced dozens to hundreds of DMs from your followers daily. Not to mention, it helps you avoid the risk of losing business by missing the message in the first place.

That said, I would keep an eye out for brand invitations to projects because they usually have expiration dates and can also work on a first-come-first-serve basis. So, when an invitation comes through, make sure to respond promptly to create a great first impression and capitalize on limited opportunities.

5. Browse projects.

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We‘ve talked about how brands can create projects and send them directly to creators they wish to work with. But there’s more to it. Brands can also make those projects publicly available to any creator on the marketplace.

As the creator, you can browse projects and indicate interest in the ones you‘d like to work on by tapping the “I’m interested” button. So you don’t have to sit and wait for brands to approach you.

What‘s more, you can show interest in joining multiple projects simultaneously. This feature is particularly useful for creators who are just starting out to find their first deal — I’d be scrolling and smashing that “I’m interested” button, personally.

Using #ad and #spon Hashtags

Brands have come under fire in the past for working with influencers but not making it clear that the influencers were paid to share content.

Department store Lord & Taylor, for instance, settled charges with the FTC in 2016 after paying 50 influencers to wear a dress in their posts without hashtagging #sponsorship or #ad.

Instagram prefers that influencers mark paid sponsorships as paid partnerships so their audiences know the intention behind the post. It‘s critical your followers know if you’re getting paid to promote a product. Ethics aside, it could destroy your account‘s credibility if you’re caught, and you could lose everything you’ve worked hard to build — namely, an authentic, trusting community.

In 2017, Instagram released a paid partnership feature to combat this issue. If you tag a brand in a post and the brand confirms the relationship, the ad will be marked at the top with a “paid partnership” label. This also helps the brand gather data regarding how well the campaign is performing.

If you truly don’t want to post #ad or #spon, there are some ways around it. For instance, Airbnb created the hashtag #Airbnb_partner to signal a paid partnership without using the word “ad.”

When in doubt, adhere to Instagram‘s policies. You can read Instagram’s branded content policies in full here.

How to Disclose Paid Partnerships on Instagram

It’s a best practice to disclose paid partnerships to followers so they know that you and your partner will profit from the engagement you bring them.

Here’s how you can easily disclose partnerships with brands for Feed, Stories, Live, Reels, and videos.

Note: This feature is only available for business and creator accounts, and the steps are the same for desktop and mobile devices.

Add a Paid Partnership Label to Instagram Feed Posts

1. Upload your content and add your preferred caption and any filters or effects, then tap “Next.”
2. Tap “Advanced settings.”
3. Toggle the “Add paid partnership label” option underneath Branded content.
4. Tap “Add brand partners” to search for the brand and add them to your post. You can add up to two brands.
5. Optional: If your agreement with the brand allows them to use your content to run ads, toggle “Allow brand partner to promote” on.
6. Tap “Done” to post your content.

Add a Paid Partnership Label to Instagram Stories

1. Once you’ve uploaded the story and added elements like text or a filter, tap the tag icon at the top of the screen.
2. Tap “Add paid partnership label.”
3. Tap “Add brand partners” and search for the brand you’re working with. You can add up to two brands.
4. Optional: If your agreement with the brand allows them to use your content to run ads, toggle “Allow brand partners to promote” on.
5. Tap “Done” to post your Story.

Add a Paid Partnership Label to Instagram Reels

1. After you’ve uploaded your Reel and edited it to your choosing, tap “Next.”
2. Tap “Advanced Settings.”
3. Toggle “Add paid partnership label” into the on position.
4. Tap “Add brand partners” and search for the brand you’re working with. You can add up to two brands.
5. Tap “Done” to post your Reel.

The post below shows the Paid Partnership label in a sponsored Reel from Yes Williamsburg.

Add a Paid Partnership Label to Instagram Live

Note: When you’re Live, you can only tag brands you have approval from

1. When you go live, tap “Details.”
2. Tap “Add brand partners” and search for the brand you’re working with to add a tag to your Live.

Things to Consider Before Accepting an Instagram Sponsorship

Congrats on getting to this stage! Now that you have one or more brands lined up, I suggest you consider the following before accepting the deal(s):

1. The brand’s audience.

The most important thing to do is make sure your connection to the brand is there, which is why working with brands in your niche is important.

For example, if you’re a fitness influencer, it would make sense to partner with athletic wear companies or local fitness studios, but it wouldn’t make much sense to partner with a travel agency.

So, research the brand and look at its Instagram presence, the type of content shared, and the audience that engages with its content to see if it aligns with your brand and interests.

Pro tip: Sponsor’s goals aside, Munday says, “Instagram influencers should consider whether the brand fits their personal brand and ethos. They must think about the preferences of their audience and whether or not their followers will gain from the partnership.”

Your followers make you who you are, so it’s only fair to prioritize their needs before accepting an Instagram sponsorship. I recommend leaving deals that misalign with their interests or needs on the table.

2. A brand’s partnership eligibility requirements.

Brands have eligibility requirements when they partner with influencers, so you should always review their criteria to ensure you meet their qualifications and that their capabilities don’t have unrealistic expectations for you and your processes.

3. The fine print of your contracts.

Protecting your content and ensuring the brand won’t misuse it is essential. You can read the fine print of your contract and partnership to see exactly how brands will use your content, and you can register for a DCMA account to make sure it’s protected by copyright law and can’t be misused.

Pro tip: According to Rex Huxford, director of demand generation at MD Clarity, one of the most common mistakes that green influencers make when they’re getting started is not setting an end date for their content usage.

Huxford recommends “setting a contract in writing outlining how long brands can use your content, where they can use it, and how they can repurpose it. You might not want them to have access to the content indefinitely, especially if your following blows up later.”

4. Instagram’s partner monetization policies and guidelines.

To use Instagram’s Monetization and Promotional tools on Instagram, you have to meet a few specific requirements. You must:

• Reside in a country where monetization and promotional tools are available.
• Adhere to and comply with all community guidelines.
• Comply with content monetization policies.
• Refrain from sharing misinformation.
• Only monetize authentic engagement (you can’t monetize artificial views or engagement).
• Comply with payment terms.
• Must have an authentic presence.

You should also be familiar with rules and laws created by the Federal Trade Commission (or the equivalent in your country). Not complying with requirements and being transparent can cause significant legal issues and may make it harder for you to engage in partnerships in the future.

5. The type of content you can monetize.

All content that helps creators and publishers earn must follow specific rules:

• You can’t monetize static videos, static image polls, slideshows of images, looping videos, text montages, or embedded ads.
• You can’t monetize engagement bait, where you incentivize people to click a link or respond to a post through likes or comments, soliciting engagement.
• You can’t monetize content that is misinformation, misleading medical information, unoriginal content, or drugs.

6. Payment amount and payment terms.

It’s always important to evaluate the offers to make sure you’re compensated fairly and in alignment with your rate, partnership requirements (like how much content you share), and the effort you put in to create the content.

If payment doesn’t align with your level of work, you have the right to negotiate a rate that matches what you’ll have to do, or you can step away if they don’t compensate you against your rate.

Pros and Cons of Instagram Sponsorships

Pros

• Building trust. Working with reputable brands can build your credibility with your viewers and audience because you work with a source they know, and the trust builds even higher if you recommend a product or service they purchase that positively impacts their life.
• Expanding your reach. Partnering with a brand expands your reach to your partners’ audience, helping you grow your awareness and draw in new followers eager to hear from you.
• Monetization. Partnering with brands can help you monetize your platform and get paid for the posts or campaigns you run and are already an expert at creating.

Cons

• Loss of authenticity. Sponsored content can feel inauthentic to viewers, especially if the content seems too sales-y. Since consumers usually prefer authentic content over all else, they may be skeptical of your ads.
• Legal issues. If you don’t comply with legal requirements and Instagram’s content monetization and sponsorship requirements, you risk non-compliance and losing the ability to use the Instagram feature or even the platform.
• Time-consuming. Sponsored partnerships can require a lot of time and effort to coordinate and create content, which can detract from your other content creation efforts.

Over to You

Getting sponsored on Instagram can be challenging — it takes time, effort, and perseverance. But if you work hard to differentiate yourself in the industry and connect on a personal level with your followers, it can be extraordinarily rewarding.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2023 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of Red Bull, is one of my marketing heroes. Not only is he a brilliant business person but he is an absolute genius of marketing strategy. Here’s why.

The story of Red Bull isn’t just the story of a successful beverage; it’s the story of pioneering marketing principles and relentless product differentiation.

Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of Red Bull, came across a little-known energy drink in Thailand and transformed it into a global phenomenon.

By creating a distinct product with a unique design and a powerful tagline, “Red Bull gives you wings,” Dietrich ensured the brand was instantly recognizable, leading it to become one of the most successful businesses in the world.

He leveraged owned media, took bold ownership stakes in cultural trends, and used unconventional marketing tactics to generate buzz and word-of-mouth. His commitment to brand consistency and differentiation not only set Red Bull apart from competitors but also built a loyal customer base and a $16 billion empire.

Outside-the-Box Marketing Ideas from Red Bull

As discussed in a recent episode of Marketing Against the Grain, here are some of the most innovative strategies that fueled Red Bull’s success that can also apply to your own business.

Embracing — and Encouraging — Rumors to Generate Buzz

One of the most unconventional strategies Red Bull applied to promote brand awareness was encouraging and perpetuating rumors about the product (which I imagine would drive most CEOs nuts).

For example, Dietrich intentionally remained vague about the ingredients in Red Bull, leading to wild speculations that it contained bizarre ingredients like bull testicles. Instead of quashing these bizarre rumors, he leaned into them, even dedicating pages on Red Bull’s website to subtly add fuel to the fire.

This strategy played into human curiosity, where mystery drove rabid interest and desire. By not confirming or denying the rumors, Red Bull kept people talking and guessing, which ultimately enticed consumers to try the product for themselves.

Dietrich knew that apathy was the worst thing that you could have as a business. By constantly finding ways to keep people interested in Red Bull, he activated the brand to keep it at the forefront of consumers’ minds.

Leveraging FOMO to Capture Consumer Interest

Red Bull excels in leveraging scarcity tactics to create a sense of exclusivity and urgency. For example, when Red Bull was first approved for distribution in England, Dietrich knew he needed to attract the public’s attention — and quickly.

So he had his team place empty Red Bull cans in trash bins all around London, creating the illusion that the drink was incredibly popular.

This social proof tactic played on the psychology of passersby, who would see the empty cans and think, “If so many people are drinking this, it must be worth trying.”

Making potential customers feel like they were missing out helped drive initial consumer adoption and build a loyal customer base — not to mention increasing brand visibility and perceived popularity without the need for expensive advertising campaigns.

Extreme Profit Reinvestment to Drive Long-Term Gains

Dietrich’s deep belief in the power of marketing is a key reason why I consider him a marketing genius.

For example, he was so committed to building a remarkable brand and believed so absolutely in core marketing strategies that he opted to reinvest profits back into marketing efforts, rather than taking meaningful cash out of the business for over 20 years.

This long-term strategy resulted in massive dividends in the form of hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

One of my favorite case studies on this is how Red Bull organizes and finances extreme sports events, spending their marketing budget to professionally film and broadcast them. They then offer this footage for free to TV networks to fill their airwaves.

This incentive-based strategy secures valuable airtime for Red Bull without the costs of traditional advertising.

While competitors were buying 30-second ad spots, Red Bull was likely investing the same amount of money in a completely different way — but enjoying hours of global television exposure reaching millions as a result.

Honing Brand Consistency and Product Differentiation to Drive Longevity

The tagline “Red Bull gives you wings” has been a cornerstone of Red Bull’s branding since Dietrich received a middle-of-the-night call from his friend at the advertising agency.

This tagline was not just a catchy phrase but a reflection of the brand’s ethos and commitment to helping consumers push their limits and achieve extraordinary feats, enabling Red Bull to build a strong, recognizable brand that resonated deeply with its target audience.

This consistency also extended to their product packaging, with the slim, tall can becoming instantly recognizable and synonymous with the brand. Dietrich understood the importance of being fundamentally different to stand out.

He designed the Red Bull can to be skinnier and taller, rather than the short, stocky design typical of other beverages, ensuring their product was visually identifiable on shelves.

This strategic differentiation, much like James Dyson’s approach with his vacuum cleaners, helped Red Bull carve out a unique space in the market, building strong brand recognition and loyalty.

Riding (Counterintuitive) Waves to Drive Rapid Growth

Dietrich’s marketing genius also lies in his ability to identify and ride macro trends to drive business success.

This strategy aligns with Charlie Munger’s ‘wave to surf’ metaphor, where companies capitalize on larger market opportunities to propel their own growth. In Dietrich’s case, he didn’t just find one wave to surf; he found three counterintuitive waves.

First, Red Bull tapped into the extreme sports wave, recognizing the growing popularity of adrenaline-fueled activities. Simultaneously, they capitalized on the emerging energy drink wave, creating a new category of beverages at a time when there were few established competitors.

Finally, Dietrich leveraged the owned media wave by buying a soccer team, hosting sporting events, and even sending a man into outer space. These bold moves garnered massive attention and distinguished Red Bull from its competitors, solidifying its position as an industry leader.

For an in-depth analysis on Red Bull’s marketing plays, check out the full episode of Marketing Against the Grain below:

This blog series is in partnership with Marketing Against the Grain, the video podcast. It digs deeper into ideas shared by marketing leaders Kipp Bodnar (HubSpot’s CMO) and Kieran Flanagan (SVP, Marketing at HubSpot) as they unpack growth strategies and learn from standout founders and peers.

If you want to find the best time to post on Instagram, you’re probably trying to get the highest engagement. Whatever your specific goal (likes, followers), posting when your content will get the most eyes can only benefit your marketing, so I’m glad you’re here.

If you’re new to social media, you may think you should just start posting at different times of day and document your performance post-by-post — but that’s pretty labor-intensive and unnecessarily time-consuming.

There’s gotta be an easier way to figure out when to post on Instagram.

That‘s where we come in. In this post, you’ll find everything you need to start posting at the best times on the popular social media platform, all backed by our 2024 Social Trends Report and other new HubSpot research.

Table of Contents

• What are the best times to post on Instagram?
• Best Time to Post to Instagram Cheatsheet
• How We Found the Best Instagram Posting Times
• Why post on Instagram at a certain time?
• Is there really a best time to post to Instagram?
• Best Time to Post on Instagram by Time Zone
• Best Time Each Day to Post on Instagram
• Best Time to Post Reels on Instagram
• Best Time to Post on Instagram by Industry
• How to Find the Right Time to Post to Instagram for Reach

The times above are for Instagram engagement in local time — meaning that your audience is in the same time zone as you are when you post.

So, if you live in Los Angeles and your primary audience is also in Los Angeles, you would post at the times above. However, if you live in Los Angeles and your target audience is in New York, you’ll want to shift these posting times three hours forward.

Keep this in mind when updating your social media content calendar.

Worst Time to Post on Instagram

So, now that we‘ve established when the sweet spot for posting on Instagram is, let’s take a closer look at when it isn’t. The HubSpot Blog recently asked 697 global Instagram marketers across B2B and B2C industries about the best (and not-so-best) times and days to post on the channel.

According to those findings, the worst time to post on Instagram is between the hours of 6 AM and 8:59 AM and the worst days are Mondays and Tuesdays. This was across B2B and B2C verticals and consistent with results from 2023.

In this chart, you can see the lowest Instagram engagement rates were actually between 6 and 9 AM globally at that time, which isn’t surprising.

No matter where they are, most people are likely just waking up, eating breakfast, commuting, or getting their days started at this time — and you can’t hit “like” in the shower or in between bites of toast.

So night owls, you can rest assured. There’s no need to wake up early to post that Instagram collaboration.

(While social media management software and Instagram itself enable you to schedule posts in advance, this marketer is still waiting for them to support the collaboration feature. Sigh.)

Best Time to Post to Instagram Cheatsheet

How We Found the Best Instagram Posting Times

The data in this article comes from three sources.

First is HubSpot’s 2023 Instagram Engagement report. This extensive report reviewed 110M posts across 1M Instagram users. The report also has several sections specific to English-speaking countries. They analyzed data from close to 85M posts from North America alone.

This post also contains more original 2024 research from the HubSpot Blog team. We surveyed 697 professionals across B2B and B2C about their preferred days and times to post on Instagram.

We also included some data from our 2024 Social Trends Report — where we asked 1,460 social media marketers from across the globe about their biggest trends, goals, challenges, and strategies going into 2024.

Why post on Instagram at a certain time?

I know for many marketers, social media posting is just one more thing to do on a busy day. It can be tempting to post whenever it‘s convenient or seems logical, even if there isn’t any data to back it up.

Here are a few reasons why it’s important to post to Instagram at specific and consistent times.

Increasing Reach

According to eMarketer, US adults spend at least 33 minutes a day on Instagram. That’s about 15 hours a month. So, posting when your top users are online will make a difference.

It will be more likely your content gets seen, increasing its reach to existing followers — but also new folks. This graphic from a machine learning engineer outlines some of the factors in helping new users discover your posts.

Image Source

One of those factors is engagement. Posting content when your followers are active can boost engagement (more on that next) which, in turn, increases the chances that new users will discover your account and posts on the platform.

Check out this post for more tips on how to grow your reach on Instagram. This post from the Instagram blog also outlines how important fresh and recent content is.

Increasing Engagement

According to HubSpot’s research, the global average Instagram engagement rate was 6% in 2023, a slight increase from the year prior.

Instagram engagement has a ripple effect, like throwing a rock in a still pool. The first ripple is obvious — if you get immediate likes, comments, and saves after posting, your post will likely appear in more feeds.

Image Source

The next ripples come from other Instagram features like Favorites, Shopping, and Search & Explore. Each feature has an independent algorithm and weighs engagement differently.

For example, becoming a “Favorite” for your followers means your posts show at the top of their feeds every time they log in.

On the other hand, engagement rates and behavior factor into which posts get bumped to the top of Explore pages. Posting at the right time doesn’t just mean more comments, messages, and saves. It creates more opportunities for engagement.

Building a Loyal Audience

Loyalty takes time and effort to build. It’s especially tough for small businesses that have to compete with big brands on social media. Fortunately, posting during peak times on Instagram helps you reach more of your audience and start building that relationship.

Building loyalty is more than great products and customer service, however. It’s also about reliability. Posting at peak times helps establish a consistent presence in your followers’ lives and sets expectations of when they can hear from you.

For example, say you run your media business in the Pacific time zone, but a third of your customers are in the Australian Eastern time zone.

If you post all your content from 9 AM – 5 PM PST, those posts will appear between 3-11 AM for your Australian customers and many won’t see them.

And what if an unhappy customer in Australia posts a story about your brand that you miss? That one miss could shape that entire audience’s perception of your business.

Understanding when your audience is online can be key to meeting them where they are and fostering brand loyalty.

Testing New Algorithms

Like most online tools, Instagram launches regular updates to improve its user experience. As a business, your team needs to quickly understand how each update could impact your users and adapt your strategy. This is especially true of algorithm updates.

Algorithms are complex. Instagram leaders say that each part of the app uses an independent algorithm, and they aren’t always transparent about what they entail.

If you’re lucky, social media analysts will do the research and share them online quickly, but if not, you can do your own by monitoring your post performance.

What do you need to run reliable and useful tests to help you understand which content your users see after an update? Number one is a consistent posting schedule. The fewer variables your test has, the more trustworthy your results will be.

Posting at the best times for your audience on Instagram will get you in front of the largest audience and give you more data to work off of.

Understanding New Features

Your posting schedule can also help you understand new Instagram features. Carousels, Stories, and Reels are all unique parts of Instagram, and depending on your content and industry, they’ll have different rates of engagement.

When Instagram releases new features like these, it can take time to understand:

• What the new feature does
• When users see new features
• How they interact with each new feature
• Resources needed for feature content

The sooner you understand a new feature, the more likely it is that you’ll make the most of that feature before your competitors. For example, this post on the Instagram blog tells users how to see more of what they want on their feeds.

Like testing an algorithm update, knowing the top posting times for your niche can help you test them for your users faster. Social testing is most useful when you know your test audience, which makes posting time important.

Streamlining Your Posting Schedule

Knowing the best times for your audience can make it much easier to schedule your posts.

Many social media and marketing managers take advantage of social scheduling tools. While these tools can make the process of social media posting much easier, it can be tough to get results if you’re not posting at the right times.

It’s all about creating the right content at the right time for your audience — and set posting times can also help you create a more personalized social media calendar for your buyer personas.

Here are a few more ways that choosing the best posting times for Instagram can help you simplify your posting schedule:

• Creates focused times for content planning and tracking
• Limits the need for “always on” social media management
• Offers opportunities to batch-create targeted post content

Finding Your Best Customers

Instagram allows users to make direct purchases, but it’s also an invaluable lead generation and brand awareness tool that can lead to sales.

But how can the best posting times help you find prospective shoppers? By meeting them when they’re active and paying attention.

If you are new to your industry, the industry-specific posting times below can help you understand when your users are online to actually see your content.

For example, people in financial services are easiest to reach on Instagram on Sunday nights. This is just before the next work week begins. It may be a way to wind down the weekend and prepare for what the next week will bring.

Workers in agriculture are easier to reach on Saturday mornings and mostly skip Instagram during the week. These professionals might be in spots with limited service during the week. Safety is also a concern, so it may be difficult for them to use mobile devices while on the job.

You can also block out these times on your schedule to engage with users who follow your business. Comment on posts, ask authentic questions, and watch videos from your target audience.

These times are when the biggest pool of your users is active online, so it’s the best time to start a conversation.

It‘s easy to send a message on Instagram, but not every message gets a response. If you can be there to engage in real-time, you’ll get much more value from the time you spend on the platform. You’ll also have a better chance of connecting with top customers.

Is there really a “best time” to post to Instagram?

It‘s clear that posting time matters on Instagram. But is there really a best time to post to get the results you’re looking for? To answer this question, let’s hear from some members of the HubSpot social media team.

Content Quality

It can be tempting to churn out content to meet ambitious deadlines in the hopes that the right customers see your posts. But content quality is what creates the most value for your audience.

Brand Social Media Manager at Guild and Former HubSpotter Mathew Cruz says,

“It sounds obvious, but making your content as engaging and optimized as possible for the platform it’s being published on is key. ”

So, begin each post with the best possible content, then optimize to make sure that followers get to feel the impact of your efforts.

“Start with your target audience, and what types of content and information is most useful to them. What kind of content might they save for later? What might they share with a friend? What might incentivize them to comment on your content? Start with these questions and work backwards in order to improve your reach and performance.”

– Annabelle Nyst, Principle Social Media Content Manager, G-P

You can also get some inspiration from top influencers and brands on the platform.

• Top Instagram influencers
• Best brands on Instagram

Another way to create quality content is to line up with recent trends and news. But this strategy isn’t the right fit for everyone. Here’s more useful advice from Annabelle Nyst:

“When it comes to posting around tentpole moments, events, and trending conversations, you should ask yourself: Does this make sense for my brand to be a part of this conversation? Are we adding value here?”

Instagram’s Algorithm

The best posting time isn‘t really about when you post, it’s about when you want users to see your content. But that’s up to the algorithms that are unique to each part of Instagram.

So, the care you put into posting time is only one part of a more complex system that delivers your content to people on the platform.

According to Mathew Cruz: “Instagram’s algorithm and UX changes have made an impact on the effectiveness of posting at specific times. Unless your users are consuming their content in the ‘following’ view, the time your audience will see your content can vary.”

To optimize the chances that people will see and engage with your content, check out these tips:

“Look at what the Instagram algorithm appears to be prioritizing at any given moment – for example, Reels. We know that Instagram has been leaning into Reels as a format in order to compete with TikTok, so how can you incorporate Reels into your strategy?

The more you adhere to what Instagram wants to see, the more the algorithm will favor you. Also, always optimize for value and engagement first.” – Annabelle Nyst

“With Instagram, understanding the UX and algorithm changes can be more effective in strategizing content publishing rather than simply timing.

For example, with Instagram’s shift to pushing video over images, the types of content you choose to create and publish may impact the chances of it being pushed out to users.

Additionally, feeding the algorithm with what your content is about helps it know where it should go. For example, adding relevant captions, hashtags, and sounds can help increase chances of it appearing on the feeds of users that enjoy specific types of content.” – Mathew Cruz

Content Consistency

Social Strategy and Analytics Marketing Manager Erin McCool says: “Quality and consistency of content is more important than timing.”

Consistency is key to taking advantage of social media opportunities. Whether you’re amplifying your stories at the same time each week or posting with branded hashtags, a steady schedule is essential.

If you don‘t have a clear brand voice on Instagram, you won’t reach a wider audience — it‘s as simple as that. Without consistency, it’s unlikely that users will recognize and connect your content to your brand no matter how many times they see it.

So, don’t just post at the best times. Use the best times to post as a guide for a consistent posting schedule. This strategy can help you reach the right audience at the right time with the right content.

Best Time to Post on Instagram by Time Zone/Region

Your location can heavily influence the success of your social media marketing strategy. Audiences behave differently depending on where they are in the world, and you can benefit from knowing when they’re most active on Instagram.

You know that evenings tend to be the best time to post to Instagram for engagement. But how do you make that happen if your audience lives in multiple time zones?

This is where you need to decide the best posting times on Instagram for your audience. To help you make these choices, here’s more compelling data from the 2023 Instagram Engagement Report and our recent research.

North America

According to HubSpot research, the best time to post on Instagram in North America is between 6 to 9 PM, as those were the hours with the highest engagement.

It’s no surprise: People tend to be winding down in the evenings, so naturally, they usually access their Instagram apps at around this time.

As you can see, though, the engagement rate is between 7% to 8% for most hours — you really can’t go wrong with your posting time, so long as you make an effort to study your audience and learn when they’re specifically online.

The hours you might want to avoid specifically are between 6 and 9 AM.

UK and Ireland

The best time to post in the UK and Ireland is from 9 AM to 3 PM to generate high engagement. That’s quite a jump from 2023 when we found 10 PM to 2 AM to be most popular.

You’ll want to avoid the morning hours from 9:00PM to 12:00AM.

Asia-Indian Standard Time

In Asia (specifically India), the best time to post on Instagram is between 6:00 and 9:00 PM. During our research in this region, we saw huge peaks in engagement at those hours.

Indian Standard Time (IST) engagement rates are more volatile. You’ll specifically want to avoid posting between 6 and 9 AM, as those were the times with the lowest engagement.

Best Time Each Day to Post on Instagram

Every day of the week is a good day to post on Instagram, but you’re likely to get the best engagement on weekends.

The chart below shows the average engagement of each day of the week. As you can see, even though weekends are when you’ll see the most engagements, the data is pretty steady throughout the week.

This means that you’ll want to do deeper research to figure out which days are best for you to post. This is where industry-specific data can help.

For example, if your followers work at a desk job with regular hours, they might be taking a lunch break around noon. This would mean that they could be more likely to scroll through Instagram during that time to catch up on the latest from their friends, favorite brands, and influencers.

But what if they work in an industry with a less consistent schedule? For example, real estate agents often work around their clients’ schedules, showing homes on the weekend or after work hours.

This means that their scrolling time will be different from other users. You’ll want to track their behavior or use industry benchmarks to find the best day to post.

Best Time to Post on Instagram by Industry

General data about optimal post timing is a great starting point. But if you want to get more granular, HubSpot research surveyed over 300 professionals to help you engage with your top audience. Here are the best times to post on Instagram for over 16 popular industries as of last year.

Education

Best Times: 9 PM – 12 AM

Best Day: Monday

Worst Days: Wednesday through Sunday

If you work in the education sector, the best time to post is from 9 PM to 12 AM, specifically on Monday. That may be because educators are preparing for the week at this time and may be more receptive to content from education brands.

Healthcare Companies

Best Times: 6-9 PM

Best Day: Saturday

Worst Days: Tuesday through Friday

For healthcare companies, the best time to post on Instagram is in the evenings, from 6 PM to 9 PM, and specifically on Saturday. You’ll want to avoid posting on Tuesdays through Fridays.

Financial Services

Best Times: 9 PM – 12 AM

Best Day: Sunday

Worst Days: Wednesday and Thursday

Financial services companies will want to post from 9 PM and 12 AM — remember, a social media tool can help you schedule late-night posts! — and Sundays are one of the best-performing days in terms of engagement.

Retail

Best Times: 3-6 PM

Best Day: Sunday

Worst Day: Tuesday

Retail companies should consider posting between 3 PM and 6 PM on weekends, especially on Sundays. Tuesdays were the worst day according to our research.

Ecommerce

Best Times: 9 PM – 12 AM

Best Day: Saturday

Worst Days: Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday

Ecommerce brands would benefit from posting between 9 PM to 12 AM, in keeping with the general pattern that evenings perform best for most brands. Saturdays were the best days to post on Instagram, while you’ll want to avoid Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

Business Services

Best Times: 9 AM – 12 PM, 6-9 PM

Best Day: Friday

Worst Days: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday

Companies that offer business services would do well to post on Instagram between 9 AM and 12 PM — the starting hours of most people’s business days. Evenings between 6 and 9 PM also performed well. The best day to post, surprisingly, is on Friday.

Consumer Manufacturing

Best Times: 9 AM – 12 PM

Best Days: Wednesday and Friday

Worst Days: Monday, Tuesday, and Sunday

Consumer manufacturing organizations should post on Instagram in the mornings, between 9 AM and 12 PM. The best days to post are Wednesdays and Fridays.

Manufacturing and Materials

Best Times: 12-6 PM.

Best Days: Friday and Sunday

Worst Days: Monday through Thursday, Saturday

Companies in the manufacturing industry should post in the afternoons between 12 PM and 6 PM, starting with most businesses’ lunch breaks. The best days are Fridays and Sundays.

Construction Companies

Best Times: 6-9 PM

Best Days: Thursday and Sunday

Worst Days: Monday and Saturday

Like most verticals, construction companies would benefit from posting in the evenings between 6 and 9 PM. Thursdays and Sundays are the best days.

Agricultural Organizations

Best Times: 9 AM – 12 PM

Best Day: Saturday

Worst Days: Weekdays

The best time to post on Instagram for agricultural organizations is in the morning, between the hours of 9 AM and 12 PM. You will want to avoid weekdays and post on weekends, specifically on Saturday.

Electronics Organizations

Best Times: 3-6 PM

Best Day: Thursday

Worst Days: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday

Electronics organizations would benefit from posting in the afternoons, between 3 PM and 6 PM. The best day to post is on Thursday.

Energy, Utilities, and Waste Management

Best Times: 6-9 PM

Best Day: Saturday

Worst Days: Sunday through Friday

Energy, utilities, and waste management organizations would benefit from posting between 6 and 9 PM. The best day to post is on Saturday, while our research respondents reported that every other day is a poor option.

Information Technology

Best Times: 6-9 PM

Best Day: Saturday

Worst Days: Monday and Thursday

Like most businesses, IT companies should post in the after-work hours, between 6 and 9 PM. The best day to post is on Saturday, but remember to experiment to find out what works for your audience.

Media and Entertainment

Best Times: 3-6 PM, 9 PM – 12 AM

Best Day: Friday

Worst Days: Sunday and Monday

For media and entertainment companies, the best times to post on Instagram are between 3 PM and 6 PM and 9 PM and 12 AM, and the best day to post is Friday.

Transportation and Logistics

Best Times: 9 AM – 12 PM

Best Day: Saturday

Worst Days: Sunday, Monday, Thursday, and Friday

Transportation and logistics companies would benefit from posting in the morning, between 9 AM and 12 PM. Our respondents reported that Saturday was the best day to post.

Advertising and Marketing Organizations

Best Times: 9 AM – 3 PM

Best Days: Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday

Worst Days: Tuesday and Friday

Advertising and marketing organizations have countless options for posting on Instagram. The best time to post is during the work day from 9 AM to 3 PM, and the best days include Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. You’ll want to avoid Tuesdays and Fridays.

Remember that the guidelines above are just that — guidelines. It’s essential to constantly gauge your engagement rates to find the best times to post for your specific audience. We recommend using the above data as a starting point, then adjusting slightly as time goes on.

Best Time to Post Different Instagram Content Types

What about the different types of Instagram content? What is the best time to publish them and get a good engagement rate? Let’s take a look.

Need help putting together your content? Our free content creation templates can help you get started.

Best Time to Post Reels on Instagram

We recommend following the general guidelines. The best time to post Instagram Reels is in the evening between 6 and 9 PM, when engagement rates increase globally.

That said, you can’t go wrong with posting Reels, because they’re so popular. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri actively shares Instagram updates on Twitter, and many of his recent posts highlight new Reels features and emphasize the importance of this post type.

Trusted resources offer the same tips for the best time to post Reels as for other types of content, such as Carousels and photos. You’ll want to post when your users are online, and that means carefully examining your engagement rates.

The top tip for Reels timing is to post consistently. If your uploading days or times are sporadic, the algorithm won’t prioritize your account visibility.

Best Time to Post Instagram Videos

The best time to post Instagram videos is between the hours of 6 and 9 PM.

Best Time to Post Instagram Stories

The best time to post Instagram Stories is between the hours of 6 and 9 PM. If you work in the B2B sector, you could also benefit from posting an Instagram Story at lunchtime (from 11 AM to 1 PM), where your business audience might be scrolling through their app. That said, global average engagement rates peak in the evenings.

Best Time to Go Live on Instagram

The best time to go live on Instagram is in the evening, when users are unwinding for the day and have the time to watch a live broadcast.

Best Time to Post Instagram Carousels

The best time to post Instagram carousels and photos is between the hours of 6 and 9 PM.

How to Find the Right Time to Post to Instagram for Reach

Data on the best posting times for Instagram is incredibly useful. That said, it‘s often most effective when you’re just starting out.

As you continue to develop your presence on the platform, you might want to boost your results and do some posting time research on your own. The tips below are useful places to start.

1. Use a Social Media Tool

The most effective way to find the best posting time on Instagram is to use a social media tool, which will allow you to post at different times without needing to log into Instagram each time.

Social media software is useful not only because you won’t need to remember to log in to Instagram — you can simply schedule your posts — but because you can test and experiment more precisely.

 

Try HubSpot’s social media tool for free!

Plus, you can see your posting history through reports — there’s no need to go through your Instagram posts one by one.

2. Experiment with Posting Times

To find the best time to post for your brand, it’s essential to experiment.

Our 2023 data strongly suggests that posting in the evening hours from 6 to 9 PM is a great place to start. Then, test out another time — such as lunchtime or mid-afternoon — and see if that changes engagement rates for your posts.

Try to keep the type of posts you make consistent. For instance, test out posting times for Reels specifically, with similar caption lengths and subject matter. That way, the only variable is the posting time itself and not any other characteristic.

3. Check Your Top Posts

Tracking your top posts can help you understand what posts are most popular and which topics draw the most engagement. It can also help you see how posting time impacts those factors.

For example, is that recent post about company events the most exciting content for an online beauty company? Or did it generate the most likes last month because it was posted on Saturday evening, a top time for ecommerce engagement?

You can use Instagram Insights to check out your top-performing posts, as well as factors like:

• Engaged audience
• Total followers
• Most active times

HubSpot customers: You can check the Top Posts report for a quick list of your top ten posts. You can also check interactions, clicks, shares, and impressions for each post.

As you start to look at your social analytics, it can be tempting to focus on the numbers. But when you‘re looking at top posts, it’s important to stick with your creative side and to look at your numbers from your customer’s point of view. As you check your top posts, ask yourself:

• What is special about this post?
• What kind of content is it?
• If it’s a video, what makes this video stand out?
• If it‘s a photograph, how is this photo different from the others you’ve posted?
• Did you edit the post?
• Did you add text or design elements to the post?
• Is there something that ties the people who’ve liked this post together?
• Does this post connect to a current trend or event?

You may want to gather top post insights for a few months before you dig into analyzing your post content. This can help you see the top content your users respond to and when they want to see that type of content.

4. Track Competitor Posting Times

Another way to choose the right time to post for your audience is to figure out who else has their attention. Starting with your top competitors helps you figure out when to post and what content works on different days and times. Competitive analysis can also help you:

• Learn about trends and benchmarks in your niche
• Update your social strategy
• Pinpoint new opportunities

There are a few ways to begin this research.

First, just scrolling through Instagram can give you a wealth of competitor insights. Take a look at a brand’s likes, hashtag copy, and how many hashtags they use. This can give you a quick profile of who follows that brand and what keywords they use, so it can hint at that competitor’s strategy.

If you want to do more detailed research, there are many great tools to help you track your competition. For example, you can create competitor streams with HubSpot’s social media software.

 

Try HubSpot’s social media tool for free!

With this feature, you can track multiple competitors at once and filter your results by social network or time period.

5. Focus On Engagement

Strong engagement on Instagram is between 1-5%. According to HubSpot research, the average engagement in 2021 was 5.86%. The average engagement rate for 2020 was just 2.26%, so these rates can change quickly.

If you want to improve engagement, start by calculating your Instagram engagement rate. You can measure your rate with your all-time numbers, but it can be helpful to break this data into smaller sections, like months or weeks.

That way you can see engagement patterns for your account over time. It can also make it easier to see how the times you post on Instagram could impact your engagement rate.

Engagement rates show how people are reacting to your content. So, whether you’re sharing Reels, going live on Stories, or posting polls, questions, and quizzes, you can measure your impact. Engagement rates can sway based on:

• Audience interest
• Relevance
• Social authority

It’s also important to remember that your most engaging content may not be as sticky at the same hours each day. Some content takes time to pick up views and shares before it makes an impact during peak engagement hours. Other content is like a firework — exploding quickly and disappearing just as fast.

To optimize your post timing for engagement, you need to get organized. The best way to find an ideal posting time is by testing the timing of your posts to see which post time generates the most audience engagement.

For example, what if you want to figure out when you get the most likes and comments on your Instagram carousels?

Say you create and post five different carousels a week and post them at random times. That approach will make it tough to get data that shows you the best times to post carousels for engagement.

But what if you post five similar carousels at a slightly different time each day? Then you can compare your engagement rates with the time you posted each carousel. This can show you the best time to post carousels for engagement so you can plan future carousels with those times in mind.

6. Use Your Data

When you’re new to Instagram, follower and engagement numbers are often low. Numbers for posting time, content type, hashtags, and more can be so similar that you may not spot the patterns that can help you grow.

Social media analytics can make these patterns easier to see and experiment with.

For example, the audience section in Instagram Insights can show you the days and hours when your followers are active. You can use that information to create a posting schedule. This can help you see whether posting during peak hours improves your reach.

At the same time, it’s important to remember that anyone with an account has access to Instagram Insights. And according to our 2024 survey, 48% had 100k to 450k followers.

So, there‘s a good chance that other brands are showing up in your followers’ feeds during that active time. You may want to post outside of active hours to see if your account draws more attention when there’s less competition.

It’s great to have the best times on Instagram available when planning your strategy. But tracking your own data can give you the personalized insights you need to stand out.

Boost Instagram Engagement on Your Schedule

Organic Instagram engagement and a consistent posting schedule go hand in hand. Each industry has natural peaks and valleys of activity each day. This means that your Instagram strategy should flow with them.

Use helpful resources, like this cheat sheet, to plan your social media calendar and watch your engagement rate soar.

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

There’s no end to the number of newsletters you can subscribe to. Email marketers have a lot to compete with in their subscribers’ inboxes.

If you’re wondering how email marketers get through, check out free email newsletter templates that make it easier to design a newsletter.

That’s why a solid newsletter template is crucial to designing an email that people are encouraged to click through. Discover some of my favorites below, plus tips for encouraging engagement.

Table of Contents

• What is email newsletter design? 
• Why Use Email Newsletter Templates for Your Next Campaign?
• Free Email Newsletter Templates
• Best Places to Find Newsletter Templates
• How to Customize Email Newsletter Templates to Increase Engagement

What is email newsletter design?

Email newsletter design encompasses every aspect of the structure and aesthetic of your email newsletters, such as font, images, colors, logos, content, and template layout.

From your subject line to your layout, your newsletter must be cohesive and optimized to entice readers to click and stay subscribed. 

Why Use Email Newsletter Templates for Your Next Campaign?

Creating a template from scratch can be time-consuming and a bit daunting, especially if you’re not very design-savvy. Email newsletter templates give email marketers a solid foundational design they can tweak to their liking.

By using an email design template in your next campaign, you can quickly and effectively create a consistent newsletter style that can be easily maintained even in the event it gets passed onto another DRI. 

“I became the DRI for HubSpot’s Marketing Daily Newsletter a few years into its inception,” HubSpot marketing manager and writer Erica Santiago says. “Fortunately, there was already a solid, tried-and-true template that made transitioning into the responsibility easy, so our audience never noticed a change in who was curating it.”

If done well, email newsletters can do wonders to help you build an engaged subscriber base, keep your business top-of-mind, and nurture leads that are already making their way down the funnel.

However, “done well” means more than just serving up great content. In fact, an often overlooked component of the newsletter creation process is the design.

Don’t have time to build out a custom template from scratch?

I’ve scoured the internet for the best resources for email newsletter templates and compiled them below.

Many of the templates have also been pre-tested for compatibility with major email service providers (ESPs) via Litmus — a web service that allows you to preview the way your email will look on different email clients and devices.

Once you find one you like, download the template and customize it to fit your needs. Depending on compatibility, you can even try out newsletter layouts on Google, Outlook, and other email providers.

1. HubSpot

Start using HubSpot’s free Email Template Builder

Price: Free and paid options available

If you’re a Marketing Hub user, HubSpot offers a great collection of email templates you can use on your next marketing email.

No need to log out and search for a template in another marketplace; these templates are available to you right within the tool.

Once you choose a template, you can start using it immediately right in HubSpot — no HTML or CSS required. I specifically use HubSpot for the templates because of how easy they are to use and the variety of options available.

What I like: HubSpot provides a complete, end-to-end solution for all your marketing requirements since it provides access to our comprehensive CRM, centralizing your customer data.

As an email marketing platform, you can look through hundreds of templates tailored to your subject, content type, customer profile, and customer stage in your funnel. These templates can be customized using your unique customer information in the CRM.

The email solution offers excellent analytics and A/B testing capabilities, so you can keep improving your marketing plan over time.

Best For: Email marketers who have or wish to have multiple newsletters dedicated to different topics associated with your organization. 

2. Litmus

Price: Free

Litmus offers a free email template collection — from newsletter templates to account management templates. All of the templates have been tested with the platform.

While you are required to create a Litmus account with your email address to access the templates, the templates themselves are free of charge.

What I like: Along with the multiple template options, Litmus provides strong customization options like countdown timers to highlight the urgency of a sale or event, progress bars to encourage brand loyalty, and real-time sentiment monitors, which can increase email engagement and revenue.

With its easy-to-use email builder, you can effortlessly access AI-powered email content optimization capabilities such as suggested subject lines and alternate body text tones. Something that I think is quite time-saving in this day and age!

Best For: A retail brand or business that sells food, clothes, or other products. You’ll especially enjoy the countdown timers I mentioned earlier.

3. ConvertKit

Price: Free and paid options

ConvertKit is a creative email template platform that’s a great option for bloggers, course creators, and more. ConvertKit comes with email automation tools, sign-up forms, and many more integrations.

To use ConvertKit’s email newsletter templates, you’ll need to sign up for a plan, but the good news is that they offer both free and pro subscriptions.

While this platform is more on the creative side, its vast array of templates and tool integrations will help businesses in any industry upgrade their email newsletter.

What I like: Since ConvertKit is mostly aimed at digital content creators, it helps you grow your subscriber lists, send targeted newsletters, increase product sales, and establish membership sites. You can also easily embed email marketing and subscriber forms anywhere on your WordPress website.

What I find unique about ConvertKit is its ability to use the A/B test function to compare two distinct subject lines.

It will split-test the subject lines (15% for each line) for the first 30% of your emails. The other 70% of the emails will have the subject line that receives the most opens.

Best For: Content creators and influencers looking to grow their email lists.

4. ZURB: Foundation for Emails

Price: Free

ZURB Studios has 11 responsive email templates available for free, including the newsletter one below. It has a great, fluid layout you can customize with your own colors, images, and wording.

If you want to see how each template looks on different email clients, you can check out screenshots from each template’s email client tests, which are available on the site. These layouts are optimized for most email clients — except for outdated versions of Outlook.

The template kit comes with a separate CSS stylesheet and HTML file to ease the editing process. Most email code editors will place the CSS in line with the HTML itself after both are uploaded separately.

If you’re going to add images to your newsletter, keep in mind that you’ll have to create a separate folder and compress it with the CSS stylesheet before uploading.

What I like: I personally find Zurb’s Masterclass best — because it’s perfect for beginners to learn how to use the templates. You even get three free tutorials on responsive email design.

Pro tip: Once you’ve selected a template, use HubSpot’s free email marketing software to craft your message and send a newsletter out to the world!

Best Used For: Beginners learning to design emails for the first time. 

5. Postcards

Price: Free, Plus — $16 per month, and Pro — $24 per month

Postcards provides some of the best-designed email template builders on the market that are up-to-date and require no previous coding experience.

With Postcards, you can easily create professional-looking emails with their pre-designed email templates that are customizable.

Their email builder is a game-changer for marketers, designers, and developers who want to streamline their email creation process and focus on what matters: crafting engaging content and design.

What I like: You know why I think Postcards works so well? It’s a no-code platform with exceptional content history and enterprise-level collaboration features. You can store your work in the detailed version history, allowing you to go back in time and recover a successful email template.

Best For: Marketers with little to no coding experience. 

6. Flodesk

Price: Free for 30 days

Flodesk is an email newsletter design platform with over 3,000 email templates and designs to enhance your email marketing. Moreover, I’m a big fan of their contemporary template designs, which are quite eye-catching.

Aside from giving you access to a vast array of templates, Flodesk lets you connect your e-commerce site to help with automation and analytics.

Another benefit of Flodesk is that its subscription price ($38/month) is a flat fee. So, whether you’re sending 200 or 2,000 emails, you’ll pay the same price, and you’ll never have to upgrade your subscription to get all of the perks.

Pro tip: Want to segment your customers when sending them newsletters? Well, Flodesk allows you to sort your audience so that you stay as relevant as possible.

Best For: Marketers who leverage segmentation in their emails and who wish to effectively push readers to their e-commerce sites. 

7. 99designs

Price: Free

99designs is a growing online community and collaboration platform for designers and small businesses, and they have a great designer blog and business blog.

As a free offering to their blog readers, they released a set of 45 free email templates — perfect for newsletters, promotional messages, and personalized responses. All of the templates are fully responsive and compatible with all major email clients.

Pro tip: What I think is great about 99designs is that you can also start a design contest to test custom email template options from various designers.

Best For: Marketers new to email marketing who will appreciate 99designs helpful community and intuitive templates. 

8. Moosend

Price: Free for 30 days, Pro — $9 per month, Enterprise — custom

Moosend is an email marketing platform that makes it easy to design custom emails with a drag-and-drop editor and over 70 premade templates.

Moosend also tracks analytics and sends personalized automated emails to subscribers based on their interests and behavior. If you’re interested in landing pages and subscription templates, it includes those as well.

Moosend analyzes your subscriber base to help your business succeed. Like Flodesk, it lets you connect your e-commerce site to attract more subscribers and store all information in one place.

Moosend is free for the first 30 days, and then you would have to upgrade to pro status for $9/month. However, if you choose the annual pro plan, it comes up to $7/month.

Pro tip: There’s no need to export templates — you can actually send your email newsletters through the platform. This makes it that much more convenient, in my opinion.

Best For: Marketers who wish to connect their emails to their e-commerce sites and looking for a convenient all-in-one email marketing platform.

9. Bee Free

Price: Free and paid options available

BEE Free is the ultimate solution for creating captivating emails without any coding skills. With its extensive library of over 1,500 responsive templates, you’ll have a wide range of options to bring your email designs to life.

Plus, I love that there’s no sign up needed. You can just start as is.

They provide a drag-and-drop functionality that empowers you to create on-brand newsletter emails easily, ensuring your message resonates with your audience.

Its collaborative features enable multiple team members to work together seamlessly on email templates, streamlining your workflow and boosting productivity.

BEE Free’s seamless integration with Hubspot allows you to effortlessly export your email designs for a smooth transition.

With its extensive template library, user-friendly interface, and seamless HubSpot integration, you can create stunning, responsive email designs in no time.

Pro tip: There’s even an option to hire a designer on the platform who can help you customize your email templates.

Best For: 

10. Campaign Monitor

Price: Free for 30 days, plans start at $11per month

Campaign Monitor is another free email newsletter template and marketing platform. With a variety of email templates for newsletters, welcome emails, and promotional campaigns, Campaign Monitor makes designing emails easy.

Campaign Monitor also compiles your analytics and tracks when emails are sent, delivered, and opened.

For many businesses, email marketing needs to connect to their website or ecommerce site, and Campaign Monitor does just that.

Campaign Monitor has it all when it comes to templates and helps you maximize your sales by staying on-brand and creating a seamless customer experience.

What I like: Campaign Monitor has one of the most unique features I’ve encountered in an email builder. That is — you can lock specific areas of the template so that your team alters only the information you want them to. This protects your brand identity and important business data.

11. MailerLite

Price: Free and paid plans are available

MailerLite offers various newsletter templates for promotions, announcements, and more. With its trendy newsletter designs, MailerLite makes sure its customers stay up to date while sending newsletters.

You can customize the templates using either an HTML editor or a drag-and-drop editor. You’re also able to connect your MailerLite account to your website. MailerLite has features that allow you to grow your audience with landing pages, subscription forms, and pop-ups.

MailerLite provides data insights as well. One thing I find useful about MailerLite is that they will send your emails based on your customers’ time zones, allowing you to send emails that get the most opens. MailerLite also provides A/B split testing tools so you can identify the best version of every email you send.

Pro tip: With the free plan, you can create your own custom templates. However, if you want to access their template options, you’ll have to look into their paid plans.

Best for: Organizations with customers in various time zones.

12. Sender

Price: Free and paid options available

Sender is an all-in-one email and SMS marketing platform for ecommerce and small to medium-sized businesses who want to reach out to their customers at an affordable and accessible price.

Sender provides delivery-friendly text and branded HTML email newsletters to connect with your email subscribers and biggest fans.

Choose from a library of 35+ visually stunning, premium-feel newsletter design templates that are fully customizable to your specific business requirements.

In addition, all templates have responsiveness baked into the design so that your emails are guaranteed to play nicely on mobile devices.

Besides offering advanced email marketing features such as segmentation and automation, Sender also allows you to design highly responsive and eye-catching pop-ups and forms to attract sign-ups and execute SMS marketing for higher conversions.

Sender has a ton of affordable price points and capabilities even in their free account.

With the Free Forever plan, you can send up to 15,000 emails every month to 2,500 contacts at no cost, with premium features such as segmentation and automation bundled together.

What I like: The best part of using Sender is the access to their support team. And not to mention, I was surprised by their swift response time!

Best For: Email marketers on a budget.

13. Constant Contact

Price: $12 per month or $80 per month

Do you run a non-profit? If so, this is the newsletter tool specifically for you. Constant Contact is an email newsletter builder that offers specific templates to help nonprofits raise funds and market their missions.

With hundreds of templates to choose from, you’ll be sure to find a design based on the template you need and what type of nonprofit you run.

The great thing about Constant Contact is the business analytics. While using the platform, you can see when emails are sent, delivered, opened, and shared. You will also be able to see top trends and send personalized emails to your clients.

Constant Contact also connects with your social media profiles, includes sign-up forms, and offers text message marketing tools.

Contacting your non-profit subscribers via text message can be a great advantage because people check their emails, but people check their text messages more.

While Constant Contact is not free, its features more than make up for it. You can start with the basic subscription ($12/month) or upgrade to a premium account ($80/month) to unlock all the features.

What I like: Fundraising is easier with their integration options, such as DonorPerfect, Blackbaud, Neon CRM, and Qgiv. I found it easy to add any features to promote the event properly.

Best For: Non-profit organizations. 

14. Themezy

Price: Free

Download 16 free HTML, CSS, and PSD customizable email templates on Themezy. You don’t have to submit an email address to get started, and there are various color schemes and layouts to meet your email list’s needs.

Pro tip: The templates are designed to be responsive across devices to ensure that your subscribers can read your newsletter. So, if you’re sending emails on every gadget like I am, you can be sure that your template works regardless.

Best for: Sending marketing emails on multiple devices.

15. Drip

Price: Free for 14 days, then payments based on the number of subscribers

Drip offers email marketing and SMS marketing for e-commerce brands. Drip is a new platform that lets you set up email marketing campaigns through hundreds of customizable templates.

Along with their email newsletter templates, Drip offers excellent customer relations management tools, data analytics, and trend trackers. Through that, you can see how many of your customers bought red shoes within the last year.

As a result, you’ll be able to better market yourself through your campaigns. Drip also has integrations that you can connect to your WordPress website, so you can use Drip without being on Drip.

Drip lets you start with a free 14-day trial, and the cost of your subscription will depend on your number of contacts. For up to 500 contacts, it’s $19/month, and the price goes up from there.

Drip is beneficial to creators and ecommerce businesses because of the various marketing and analytics tools it offers. From email marketing to SMS marketing campaigns, Drip lets you effectively engage your customers.

What I like: You know what I find convenient about Drip? It comes with 150 native integrations, so you can use it with almost any marketing platform.

Best For: E-commerce brands.

16. MailPortfolio by SliceJack

Price: Free

If your marketing strategy is heavily reliant on visuals, MailPortfolio is perfect for you. It’s a minimalist template with no added background distractions.

While it was made for those looking to display personal creative portfolios, it’s also suitable for larger businesses and organizations.

The template has been tested with Litmus, is responsive, and works perfectly on all email clients. (Note: older versions of Outlook may not render all of the fonts, and the Android Gmail app is not fully supported.)

Pro tip: Make sure you don’t use the stock images on the MailPortfolio template. You have to change them — otherwise, your newsletters won’t work as well. Something I learned the hard way.

Best For: Email marketers who love visuals. 

17. Material Design by Paul Goddard

Price: Free

This template is based on Google’s Material Design and has a robotic-retro feel. It is perfect for sending out multi-purpose newsletters featuring new products, events, and other announcements at the same time.

This theme isn’t made for a specific industry, but the template is well-fitting for businesses looking for a timeless, technological look.

Material Design has been tested on Litmus, is compatible with all major ESPs, and is responsive. While its main attraction is its unique design, this theme download also includes customizable HTML files.

Pro tip: What I’ve learned is that if you’re having trouble downloading the template, you can access it from Paul’s Google Drive link, too.

Best For: Multi-purpose newsletters.

18. Briar by SliceJack

Price: Free

Briar is the perfect newsletter template for marketers looking for a fluid, minimalist design featuring images and text that don’t overshadow each other.

It’s perfect for sending out regular newsletters, and you can customize the inline CSS files.

The template has been tested with Litmus and works with all major ESPs. However, some older versions of Outlook may not render all Google fonts. Also, the Android Gmail app is not fully supported.

Pro tip: One hack I learned is that you can easily use these templates for your MailChimp campaigns with their own HTML file.

Best for: Marketers looking for a minimalist design.

19. EmailOctopus

Price: Free

EmailOctopus is a marketing service that launched a series of 11 templates that can be used to create newsletters for a variety of industries.

Whether you’re marketing for a fashion brand or a medical supply company, one of the templates will fit your needs.

The templates have the “typical” newsletter look but allow you to add product announcements, feature stories, and CTAs wherever you’d like.

All of the templates can be modified through any WYSIWYG editor, and the downloads include the HTML files.

These templates have been tested through Litmus across all major ESPs and are responsive to all screen sizes.

What I like: EmailOctopus is also GDPR compliant, so I find using all their free templates safe.

Best For: Product or sale announcements.

20. MailBluster

Price: Free and paid options available

MailBluster brings you an interactive solution for the best email newsletter design. Apart from all the essential email marketing features, MailBluster includes a hefty lot of free email newsletter templates.

Choose from a mass collection of their newsletter templates or create from scratch to build your own. Also, you can customize your own template by editing the existing one from their large template gallery.

These templates are compatible with all major ESPs. Combined with their powerful drag-and-drop editor and email automation feature, you can automate your email newsletter effectively.

Additionally, MailBluster also features interactive real-time tracking and reporting, list segmentation, A/B testing for email marketers, and more.

So, design eye-catching email templates and boost your sales via MailBluster!

What I like: MailBluster offers a free option that allows you to send 62k monthly emails and unlimited subscribers. This is probably the best deal for any company wanting bulk email services.

Plus, what I love most is that they provide one-to-one support regardless of the price tier you’re in.

Best For: Companies want bulk emails on a budget.

21. Klaviyo

Unfortunately, I could not test Klaviyo myself because I didn’t get the demo in time for publishing; however, there are features that stand out to me that I believe make Klaviyo an email newsletter template platform worth checking out.

Of course, Klaviyo has what we’re all here for—aesthetically pleasing template designs. But there are other notable features. 

Klaviyo pulls helpful data from your tech stack via custom and pre-built integrations from e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and Adobe Commerce. Klaviyo is also compatible with shipping platforms like ShipStation and AfterShip.

You can integrate platforms like Facebook Ads and Google Ads. 

Klaviyo users can take this data from their integrations and use it to further personalize their emails. Then, Klaviyo can help you create a complete profile of every customer, which will consist of:

• The products/services they’ve ordered from you
• Their browsing history
• Product preferences
• Preferred channels

You can also automate your newsletter process via Klaviyo AI. 

What I Like: Klaviyo’s features make segmentation and personalization simple.

Best For: E-commerce 

22. Publicate

Publicate boasts a wide variety of email templates that you can customize for your brand. 

Publicate also integrates with Gmail and Outlook and allows users to view detailed analytics of their emails’ performances. 

What I Like: I especially enjoy that it includes a Brand Kit, in which you can upload brand images and logos to be used in your messages.

Best For: A wide variety of businesses and organizations. 

23. Omnisend 

Omnisend is a marketing automation platform that operates email, push notifications, pop-ups, and more. 

With Omnisend, users can set up campaigns across various channels and track metrics. You can also sync Omnisend to your store for better results.

What I Like: Omnisend leverages AI to help users come up with subject lines.

Best For: Marketers seeking an all-in-one email marketing platform

1. Feshto by Liramail

Price: $59 for an all-in-one bundle

Feshto is an email bundle that helps ecommerce companies feature products in their newsletters and share testimonials from satisfied customers. It comes with a weekly digest module, which is their version of a newsletter.

The module features a chic, clean design that ensures your images and copy are not distracting from each other. You can choose from their various layouts, such as “Weekly Digest,” “City Story,” and “Blog Article.”

As mentioned, these templates are perfect for product features and testimonials from satisfied customers. While the default themes are black and white, you can make edits in your preferred WYSIWYG editor.

Feshto’s templates are responsive and compatible with all major ESPs.

2. ThemeForest

Price: $6-$29 per template

ThemeForest is an awesome resource for email templates if you have some budget to spend. Their library has over 460 newsletter templates in all different colors, styles, and themes.

The templates are rated using a four-star system, and you can filter by rating, price, recency, and popularity.

Here’s one example from its library:

Market – Responsive Newsletter with Template Builder ($20)

This template has eight prebuilt layouts, 24 color variations, 24 full-layered PSD files, and more. Plus, it’s supported by all major email clients.

3. HubSpot Email Copy Templates

Price: Free

If you’re looking for written templates that you can put into your email tool, these are the templates for you.

HubSpot offers free email templates that empower you to market and sell your business over email without writing a single line from scratch. These free email template downloads save you time and money.

The templates can be downloaded right to your computer and can be used by any type of business.

4. Mailchimp

Price: Free to $350 per month

Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing platform that helps small and large businesses scale and grow their business through marketing techniques and automations.

Mailchimp has a variety of pre-made templates in its email newsletter tool.

Aside from giving you over 100 designs to choose from, Mailchimp also gives you the option to download their Email Blueprints, which allows you to customize HTML templates.

5. ActiveCampaign

Price: Free to $259 a month

ActiveCampaign is a full-service email provider that offers email marketing automation and CRM tools.

Its library of newsletter templates allows you to create conversion-optimized, visually impactful emails without touching a single line of code.

ActiveCampaign is free, but you will need to sign up for an account to use and view their email templates. You can use the majority of their templates for free, but if you want some customization, you’ll want to upgrade to a paid account.

6. Canva

Price: Free — custom pricing per month

Canva is an online graphics software that provides free templates for a multitude of things like Instagram posts, resumes, and email newsletters.

Canva is a great tool because you can find free templates for specific niches like fashion, tech, culinary, and many more.

While there is a paid tier, many of the premade templates are free, and you can add your own customizations without having to pay extra.

7. Adobe Express

Price: Premium — $9.99 per month, teams — $12.99 per month

Adobe Express, formerly known as Adobe Spark, is another browser-based graphic design tool that has a multitude of templates and functions to help any company create a newsletter.

Similar to Canva, Adobe offers premade templates based on industry categories like photography, architecture, and fashion. To access the templates, you must sign up for an account with Adobe.

8. CakeMail

Price: Free

CakeMail is an email marketing tool that includes user-friendly automation tools and allows you to create customizable emails for any person, occasion, and niche.

CakeMail offers over 50 free editable email templates that are divided into smaller niche categories.

One of the advantages of CakeMail is that you do not have to sign up to use the email templates provided, but if you would like to see how your email campaigns are performing, you can register for an account.

9. MJML

Price: Free

MJML is an HTML-based email designer. They have a wide variety of free templates that are customized for the type of email marketing your company is trying to do, including newsletters, promotions, and seasonal emails.

Once you find a template that you like, MJML allows you to see the template and the HTML code in real time as you edit it.

Because MJML is HTML-based, you will have to copy your code and transfer it to the HTML editor in an email marketing service to use the template.

10. TemplateMonster

Price: Varies, pay per template

TemplateMonster offers a variety of email newsletter templates, all of which are available for relatively low prices.

Their templates are clean, customizable, and easy to use, and they’re compatible with most major email clients, such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail.

Additionally, the templates come with built-in responsive layouts for screen adaptability and PSD sources for a litany of customization options.

11. Microsoft Office Templates

Price: Free and paid email templates

Microsoft Office has a variety of tools, including extensive templates that can be used for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

You can further narrow down your templates depending on the category of your business. While Microsoft does offer free templates, they are limited. For paid templates, you have to download Microsoft 365.

How to Customize Email Newsletter Templates to Increase Engagement

1. Choose headings wisely.

To help with the overall flow of your email, you need to refine your headings and subheadings.

Not only do they draw attention to the most important parts of your newsletter, but they also divide sections and give your text a visual hierarchy to help readers process information in the correct sequence.

2. Create a cohesive look.

Choose consistent typography, colors, and spacing to give your email a cohesive look. You’ll want to choose colors that complement each other and don’t overwhelm the eye.

Knowing a little color theory will pay off and help you create engaging emails.

3. Add your logo and brand colors.

Speaking of cohesiveness, swapping the template’s stock colors for your own branding can quickly create a cohesive design. Use your own logos and brand color scheme so that all of your marketing materials have a similar theme.

4. Keep it short.

No one wants to open a newsletter to see a wall of text. You want your messaging to be concise so that readers can quickly scan it while getting all the pertinent information they need.

5. Put images to use.

Images can greatly increase the readability of your newsletter and provide much-needed buffers between text.

Images and infographics are also great ways to display information in an engaging way. They should be high-quality and in line with your brand’s messaging.

6. Make it mobile-friendly.

As more people use phones to access email, you’ll want to make sure your newsletter has a mobile-friendly design. Choose a responsive design that adapts to whatever mode (tablet, mobile, or desktop) your readers are using.

7. Use clear CTAs.

Increase conversions and engagement by using attention-grabbing CTAs. Entice your readers to click using persuasive language, eye-pleasing colors, and proper placement.

Using a contrasting color design will help your CTA stand out. I find that adding a well-designed button can attract subscribers’ attention and prompt them to take action.

8. Test and make adjustments.

To find the best newsletter format, you’ll need to use A/B testing to determine which performs better. Test out different designs over a set period of time, compare results, and go with the one that performs the best.

Get Started on Your Email Marketing Newsletter

Ready to draft your next email newsletter campaign?

Download one of the excellent newsletter templates from the template galleries and landing pages above. Then, learn how to craft an email newsletter your audience will want to engage with.

Editor’s Note: The post was originally published in December 2018 but was updated for comprehensiveness in December 2019.

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

Less than a year after launch, ChatGPT reported over 100 million weekly users according to OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman.

Our latest research found that there were roughly 127 million monthly visitors to OpenAI’s ChatGPT platform as of May 2024. According to TechCrunch, ChatGPT’s mobile app has had over 110 million installs across iPhone and Android devices.

The result of all this success?

Reports in the New York Times suggested that the tool triggered a “code red” for Google’s search business.

Since then, it seems as if the reports might be true since there’s been a significant amount of shifts and changes that have happened around Google’s search business and the impact that AI has had on the SEO industry at large.

As the founder of an SEO agency that has helped some of the top brands in the world use Google to drive millions of visits — I can appreciate their concern around the shifting behaviors of users.

In this article, we’re going to dive deep into the trends happening in the SEO industry and the role that AI is playing in the constant shifts within the market.

Let’s get to it.

Understanding SEO and Artificial Intelligence

The intersection of SEO (search engine optimization) and AI (artificial intelligence) is having an impact on the entire human experience.

Every single day, billions of people visit Google and other search engines to navigate the web. As these people explore online, they’re sent to landing pages and websites filled with stories, content, videos, messages, and insights.

It’s very possible that the only reason you’re even reading these words today is because a search engine experience led you here.

But here’s what not a lot of people realize.

On the backend of Google’s search engine are a ton of AI-related technologies helping determine what content it should or shouldn’t show based on the search term typed into Google. Search engines use everything from machine learning to natural language processing to help users find the right content at the right time.

Over the last few years, the search experience has been pretty straightforward: A user types in a few keywords, and Google identifies a URL that’s relevant to those keywords and serves it up on a page.

In some instances, the page might include text like a featured snippet which has a part of the content directly on the page, or even rich content like thumbnails for video or an interactive experience like a calculator.

Today, the search engine results page (SERP) is a lot more complex, and the introduction of Google’s Search Generative Experience is an even richer AI-driven experience. Here’s a look at what the experience looks like with Google’s new AI Overview feature incorporated directly into the SERP:

As you can see, the new search experience gives the user the answer to their question directly at the top of the SERP.

The user can decide to click on a link and explore other sites if they would like to, but for some informational queries, all the information they will need can be found directly on this page without having to click and navigate elsewhere.

The fusion of AI and SEO is set to redefine the rules of online visibility and searchability in ways we are only beginning to understand. This collision, though ripe with innovation potential, also harbors the seeds of chaos which can be found in a few key areas:

• The rise of AI-generated content
• Search engines need to maintain quality
• Increased usage of AI tools for search queries

Let’s discuss these trends:

The Rise of AI-Generated Content

When we surveyed marketers on what they thought about AI-generated content, more than 40% said that they thought AI did a worse job creating content than humans:

The sentiment that AI-generated content is bad is held by many. But the truth is that most people can’t tell the difference between AI-generated content and human-generated content unless it’s prompted or the team doesn’t have any human filter between the AI and publishing team.

It’s my belief that the best workflow for teams using AI to create content is one that is inclusive of real human editors to review a piece before it goes live.

Here’s a diagram of the modern AI content marketing workflow that I believe is needed today:

In this approach, humans are still implementing the upfront research and identification of core elements of the content but then allowing AI to support the development of a draft.

As a content marketing agency, we have access to a combination of writers, editors, strategists, and designers who all have unique experience and expertise.

When a client comes to us looking to achieve a certain goal, the strategy team works closely with SMEs to develop plans that incorporate everything from SERP analysis to keyword research to guide the stories that will be written, recorded, and published.

In our experience, AI tools like Hubspot’s Free AI Blog Writer are great for getting an initial draft and outline developed. Once the draft is completed by the AI, a human expert can be assigned to the content for edits and revamp it to make something great.

The integration of AI into SEO workflows heralds a new era of productivity and efficiency. According to Nielsen Norman Group, generative AI systems improve employee productivity by more than 66%. The increase in productivity for more technical jobs like computer coding was even greater than that, as seen below.

This shift means that SEO experts, writers, and marketers who understand AI can do more than those who avoid it. HubSpot AI provides marketers with a suite of different AI tools that will help them accelerate their productivity levels and efficiencies in hours.

The Desire for Search Engine Quality

As AI-generated content increased significantly after the launch of ChatGPT, the quality of content in the SERP declined. Here’s what most people think of the results:

More and more complaints were posted daily on channels like X and LinkedIn suggesting that AI was ruining the search experience for users and that more people were moving their search queries to Reddit, TikTok, and Quora.

As a result, Google rolled out a significant algorithm update that targeted any site that was filling the internet with spam and low-value content.

This update to the Google algorithm wreaked havoc on brands who pressed “publish” on content filled with AI-generated copy but also on a few small publishers who played by the rules but weren’t seen as a source as trustworthy as top media publishers.

In November 2023, Google’s Helpful Content Update took place, and the rise of Reddit domains in the SERP skyrocketed in just a few weeks:

In an episode of Create Like the Greats, I talked about how Reddit can be used as a marketing tool and why more brands should consider it as a part of their mix. Reddit announced a partnership with Google in February 2024, and then Reddit announced a partnership with OpenAI in May 2024.

If these partnerships are a sign of the future, it sounds like Reddit might play a bigger role in training two of the most powerful large language models (LLMs) in the industry. As such, it might make perfect sense for brands to start investing in Reddit as a marketing channel to drive results.

Will AI tools replace the search engine?

Google has over 8.5 billion searches a day.

ChatGPT has over 127 million monthly visitors.

The scale that ChatGPT still requires to compete with Google is significant. It’s been predicted by some experts that Google will lose 25% of its user base in the next four to five years.

The probability of such a significant shift in human behavior on a global scale feels impossible at this stage, and I’m not a believer that this change will happen so quickly.

I believe that now is the right time to continue to invest in SEO and double down on creating content that is highly valuable and insightful to your customers.

If there’s anything that should shift about your strategy, it’s the inclusion of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) in the marketing mix.

The idea of GEO is like SEO — except instead of trying to influence the content that is seeded back from search engines, you’re trying to influence the responses and content that is given back from the generative engines being used by your ideal customers.

GEO is a concept that was studied and submitted for review by Pranjal Aggarwal along with peers of Princeton, Georgia Tech, and IIT Delhi.

The top-performing optimizations cited in the report for GEO efforts included:

• Quotation additions
• Statistic additions
• Fluency optimization
• Cited sources
• Technical terms
• Authoritative comms

The beauty of these findings is that, overall, they’re aligned with best practices for good SEO content. The shift here is simply reassuring the importance of creating high-quality content and making an effort to create content with research, data, experts, and insight.

What do you do with this information?

The best companies and marketers will take this information and view it as the beginning of a new age. We’re going to see shifts and volatility in SEO for the next few years, and it will be increasingly important for brands to monitor the way AI influences both user behavior and technology at large.

The way the search engine results page looks today is likely to change quite significantly in the next 10 years. If there’s one thing I can be confident about, it’s that change in this industry is not only coming — it’s going to happen regularly.

My advice to marketers, brands, and businesses is to stay on top of the trends. Subscribe to newsletters (like Foundation Labs) YouTube channels (like Marketing Against The Grain) and podcasts (like Create Like The Greats) talking about these subjects on the regular.

Follow the industry experts who are sharing information as they learn it. Study the trends, and be intentional about creating things that are valuable for the internet.

Do these things, and I’m confident that you will ride whatever chaotic wave comes our way in the next few years. Buckle up. It’s going to be a fun yet rewarding ride.

Writing a headline can be harder than writing a 1,500-word article. But that’s no excuse for writing bad ones, especially when help is so easy to come by.

Like email subject line testers, headline analyzers can help you get more clicks by using algorithms to assess factors like SEO, word count, and sentiment (is it positive, negative, or neutral?).

There are a lot of headline analyzers out there, and as someone familiar with the overwhelm of too many options, I knew I needed to narrow down the field.

After polling co-workers, combing subreddits, and running some quick tests, I landed on eight analyzers that merited in-depth testing.

Table of Contents

• How I Tested
• The Top 5 Headline Analyzers
• How to Pick the Best Headline Analyzer for You

If you want some perspective on the thorough, thoughtful logic behind my thorough, thoughtful rating criteria, keep reading — but if you want to get right to the good stuff, I won’t take it personally.

Jump straight to my top five headline analyzers or to the final rankings.

How I Tested

To make this a fair fight, I tested the same three headlines in each tool.

I used two winning headlines from an annual contest sponsored by ACES: The Society for Editing, one in the PR and marketing category and one from the national media organization category.

The third headline is for the article you’re reading right now.

• Are You Pumping Up Or Pooping Out? The Perils of Exercising Too Much
• Welcome to the office, Gen Z. You’re the only one here.
• I Tried Out the 8 Best Free Headline Analyzers — Here Are My Results

My Expectations of Free Headline Analyzers

• It should provide specific areas for improvement.
• Suggestions should hold up to common sense.
• Any numbers, measurements, or graphs should be sufficiently explained.
• It should be easy to use and interact with.

Rating Scale

Although most tools provide one or more scores, like an “overall headline score” or an “SEO score,” I haven’t included them here. Without knowing exactly how those scores are calculated, they have limited usefulness in side-by-side comparisons.

That said, none of my five favorites had scores that strayed too far from one another. All the tools gave middling scores to the two award-winning headlines and a much higher score to this piece’s headline.

In other words: All of these headline analyzers will be most useful if search engine optimization (SEO) is your top priority.

But there’s still a few tools on this list with features that can help just about any headline writer.

To find the best of these free headline analyzers, I used a scale of 🤖 (1 robot) to 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖 (5 robots), with one being the worst and five being the best, for each of the following criteria:

Interface: Was it intuitive and easy to understand? Were there too many pop-up ads or a prohibitive number of captchas?

Usefulness: Does the tool give specific advice, alternate headline suggestions, and/or other data? Do its suggestions hold up to common sense? Does it have any features that distinguish it from the competition?

YGWYPF: You get what you pay for. My YGWYPF score assesses the trade-offs: Do you have to provide an email address? Is there a daily limit? Are all the good features locked behind a paid upgrade?

I nixed three tools right off the bat:

1. Capitalize My Title had an eye-bleeding number of banner ads, pop-up ads, and auto-playing video ads. All five of my recommendations have similar features with a more humane number of ads.

2. Emotional Marketing Value’s headline analyzer is a one-trick pony. It assigns a percentage to your emotional marketing value score, but it gives very little context to what that number means.

In the biggest flub of all my tests, it identified “Are You Pumping Up Or Pooping Out? The Perils of Exercising Too Much” as being “predominantly spiritual.”

3. I had high hopes for Sharethrough after reading some reviews, but it just didn’t pass the sniff test.

It insisted that “pooping” was an expletive and flat-out refused to analyze that headline.

Its boilerplate list of suggestions include “Try adding a celebrity” and “Talk about the body,” specifically “eye, ear, mouth, face, feet.”

That may be useful advice if you’re writing about an A-lister’s ears, but otherwise, hard pass.

Honorable Mention: HubSpot’s Free AI Headline Generator

We have to toot our own horn: Although not a headline analyzer per se, our AI headline generator is pretty darn good. It gives you options for headlines and section titles based on a short description and keywords that you provide.

Since it’s not a one-to-one comparison with the rest of the tools, I couldn’t give it my three headlines to analyze, so I’m abstaining from scoring it.

Interface: A clean, intuitive design guides you through a couple screens where you can select the type of content you’re publishing, what writing style you prefer, and what you want your audience to know.

If this is your first time using the Campaign Assistant, there’s a gentle learning curve.

YGWYPF: It does require you to sign up for a free HubSpot account, but you get a lot in return.

Usefulness: The suggested headlines were genuinely some of the best compared to headline analyzers that include alternate headlines.

I gave it a little information about the article you’re reading right now, and one of its title suggestions was “Discover the Top Free Headline Analyzers.”

I ran a couple tests, and one suggested “Free but Not Flawless” for the You Get What You Pay For sections.

What we like: Being able to go deeper than simply analyzing a headline.

It also has a few content types to choose from — a rare feature among headline analyzers — like Google Search ads, landing pages, and marketing emails.

Best for: Marketers who want to efficiently generate ideas and who need more than just headlines.

1. AIO SEO (12/15)

Interface:

🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖
(5 robots) Ads are non-intrusive, and the site is easy to use.

YGWYPF: 🤖🤖🤖 (3 robots) AIO SEO doesn’t require your email address and it doesn’t restrict any features.

What it does have is photo captchas — not every visit, but it happened enough that I’m deducting two 🤖.  

Usefulness: 🤖🤖🤖🤖 (4 robots) A perfectly serviceable offering, AIO SEO scores the usual factors like common and uncommon words, emotional words, power words, and sentiment.

It also gives a target range for each factor, which is more helpful than just a score.

What we like: One distinguishing feature is that AIO SEO flags the beginning and ending words of your headline, noting that most readers only look at the first and last three words before deciding whether to click.

Best for: People with a high threshold for photo captchas and want a straightforward, easy-to-use service.

2. Coschedule’s Headline Studio (10/15)

Interface: 🤖🤖🤖 (3 robots) A little busy and crowded, which isn’t obstructive for sighted users, but it was harder to navigate with a screen reader. Ads are non-intrusive and kept to a minimum.

Usefulness: 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖 (5 robots) Headline Studio has by far the most features of any headline analyzer I tested, and its suggestions were specific and actionable, like “move your topic or keyword to the first or last three words of your headline.”

There’s also an AI chatbot with even more specific analyses as well as suggestions for alternate headlines.

Headline Studio was the only one that could analyze headlines based on content type or platform, like blog headlines, email subjects, or Instagram captions.

YGWYPF: 🤖🤖 (2 robots) Headline Studio earned my lowest YGWYPF score for its steep trade-offs.

Free accounts get only 10 credits a month, and the average user goes through two to four credits per piece of content. Because you have to set up a free account, you’ll find yourself on an email list.

What we like: The ability to analyze based on content type is a real winner. Also, Headline Studio saves your analyses — so even though I used up my 10 credits pretty quickly, I could go back and read the full analyses of previous headlines.

Best for: Occasional users, because you’ll zip through those 10 credits with just two or three pieces of content.

Headline Studio could also be useful for content creators writing social media headlines.

But if you publish frequent written content, you can get many of the same features elsewhere with fewer restrictions.

3. Easy Peasy AI (12/15)

Interface: 🤖🤖🤖🤖 (4 robots) Although it was the simplest of the bunch, Easy Peasy AI’s interface really worked for me, and it was the quickest to navigate with a screen reader.

Instead of colorful graphs and unexplained percentages, Easy Peasy provides a numbered list of the basics: Word count, emotional impact, use of numbers, word choice, and use of superlatives.

YGWYPF: 🤖🤖🤖🤖 (4 robots) It limits you to three analyses a day, which is pretty reasonable as far as free tools go.

Ads are appropriately sized and not intrusive. To get more than three analyses or to enable “cutting-edge AI technology for superior performance and more accurate results,” you’ll need a paid upgrade.

Usefulness: 🤖🤖🤖🤖 (4 robots) Easy Peasy gave me four specific suggestions for improvement and five alternative headlines.

But I’m deducting one 🤖for how far some of the alternate headlines strayed from their original meaning.

One of the alternates for “Welcome to the office, Gen Z. You’re the only one here.” was “Embrace the Office, Gen Z: Your Time to Shine.”

What we like: Frankly, not having a number assigned to each score makes it easier to digest and apply the suggestions.

It also has more specificity than other tools, making it a solid choice for writers who want to get into the nuts and bolts of great headlines.

Best for: People who want to learn how to write better headlines and can work within the three-a-day limit. Also good for people who prefer text over graphics.

4. IsItWP (14/15)

Interface: 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖 (5 robots) Results are displayed in a grid-like format, which is easy on the eyes and easy to understand.

Usefulness: 🤖🤖🤖🤖 (4 robots) IsItWP covers the basics, like word count, emotional words, and power words.

Minus one 🤖for not explaining the scores: It noted that 18% of the words in one headline were common, but instead of providing a goal, it told me to use “more common words.”

YGWYPF: 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖 (5 robots) There’s no restrictions, and the lone pop-up ad didn’t detract from the experience.

What we like: The interface stood out among its competitors — I liked seeing all the results at once with minimal scrolling.

Best for: People with higher-volume needs and want a clean, simple tool for quick headline checks.

5. MonsterInsights (13/15)

Interface: 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖 (5 robots) Nice, clean, and easy to read and use. Ads are very non-intrusive.

Usefulness: 🤖🤖🤖 (3 robots) MonsterInsights’ features don’t stand out from the crowd, but it doesn’t have any major flaws, either.

Although you have to do quite a lot of scrolling to read the entire analysis, there’s a neat summary at the end.

YGWYPF: 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖 (5 robots) No major trade-offs in terms of limited credits or other restrictions, and it doesn’t require an email address.

What we like: It suggested using more emotional, uncommon, and power words, and it gave me goals in each category.

For instance, one headline scored 38% in the common words category, and it suggested 20 – 30% to get more clicks.

Best for: Writers who need a gut check or guidance making minor tweaks.

How to Pick the Best Headline Analyzer for You

• The overall winner was IsItWP, for its simple graphics, the ability to see the entire analysis on a single page, and solid, if unfrilly, headline-analyzing features.
• If you need a daily headline analyzer for gut checks or quick tweaks, you won’t go wrong with my middle-of-the-packers, AIO SEO and MonsterInsights.
• If you use a screen reader or otherwise prefer text over graphics, go with Easy Peasy AI.
• If you want deeper analyses, alternate headlines, or more ways of learning to write good headlines, use Coschedule’s Headline Studio (for infrequent use) or Easy Peasy AI (for frequent use).
• It earned the lowest score overall, but its usefulness score stood a robot head above the rest. So if you want a feature-rich headline analyzer for infrequent use, I recommend Coschedule’s Headline Studio.
• Although I abstained from giving our own tool a score, HubSpot’s Free AI Headline Generator is the best bet for marketers who are looking for something more in-depth than a simple headline analysis.

(Un)fortunately, content creation is still a very manual job, but on the bright side, there are some great content writing apps that can help us — a ton.

Crafting ideas, organizing content, refining language, and boosting readability are just a taste of what these tools bring to the table.

Below, I’ve curated a list of 52 fantastic tools and resources to help you research, write, edit, and design content more easily.

You‘ll notice there are a lot of design tools in here. That’s because visual content is often part of the content creation process where people get the most nervous and frustrated. So don’t worry, I’ve got a lot in there for you.

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• Free Tools for Content Research
• Free Content Writing Tools
• Free Tools for Content Editing
• Free Design Tools
• Free Productivity Tools
• Content Editing Software

1. HubSpot AI Content Writer

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If you‘re looking to create content, such as emails, landing pages, blog posts, or social media posts, HubSpot’s AI Content Writer can generate that for you.

Simply provide the audience, the intended message, the desired length, and the tone you want to set. Additionally, I use it to generate outlines, headlines, and content suggestions.

What I like: It analyzes what my audience likes and suggests content ideas accordingly. It‘s a lifesaver for brainstorming, especially when I’m swamped.

2. HubSpot AI Blog Writer

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Designed for blog posts, you can use HubSpot‘s AI Blog Writer to create new content by giving it prompts or topics. The AI blog writer also integrates with HubSpot’s blog software.

What I like: The in-built reporting judges the content’s ROI and lets me see what‘s working and what’s not.

3. Ahrefs’ Keyword Generator

Plug in a topic, and Ahrefs’ generator will spit out hundreds of related keywords in seconds. The list is sorted by search volume — how many times a keyword is searched for per month — so you can quickly gauge how valuable they are to you.

Or, if you’re making videos instead of written content, check out Ahrefs’ YouTube Keyword Tool, too.

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What disappoints me a bit is that this tool may lack deeper insights into keyword difficulty or competitive analysis for other markets. It works best for the US, while functionality for others could definitely be improved.

What I like: Its speed and efficiency are top-notch. Plugging in a topic and receiving a comprehensive list of keyword suggestions within seconds is fantastic.

4. HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator

Now, you’ve got your keywords. However, you may not be sure of an angle or title to get your creativity moving. HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator can help you.

Simply enter a few keywords that your blog focuses on, and the Blog Ideas Generator will produce a week‘s worth of titles and topic ideas for you.

It might not produce the final title of your blog post, but it helps get you thinking about creative new angles for topics you’ve written about before.

Here are the blog post titles I received when I entered “content,” “inbound marketing,” and “blogging.”

What I like: It can generate customized content based on not only my algorithms, but also my audience. And then, I can directly publish it into HubSpot CMS.

5. Answer the Public

After you’ve found your keywords and angle, the next challenge is figuring out what exactly to talk about. Answer the Public can be a huge help with that.

This tool is designed to raise more questions than it answers. In fact, it shows you all of the questions that people are asking about your topic.

This is extremely useful for fleshing out the body of your writing and may even spark some ideas for brand-new content.

What I like: I appreciate the visual representation of data and the depth of insights it provides. I receive a comprehensive list of questions, prepositions, comparisons, and related searches by entering one single word.

6. Google Trends

Google Trends provides past and current interest data on the topics you’re writing about.

The best part is the “related queries” feature, which gives you rising and “breakout” keywords that are getting more popular. This lets you get ahead of the curve (and your competitors.)

Although it has many positive sides, it’s hard to interpret at first, honestly. Also, data is in percentages, not absolute numbers, and it lacks detailed city-level information.

What I like: The graphical representation of data makes it easy to spot patterns and emerging trends.

7. Google Scholar

When I need expert sourcing to back up my writing, Google Scholar helps a lot. It’s a search engine that gives me access to academic papers, medical journals, scientific reports, theses, dissertations, and more.

Plus, I can save resources in my library and get alerts about new publications related to my topic. However, its coverage is broad but not complete, so it shouldn‘t be your only research tool. And many full-text items aren’t free online.

What I like: I can quickly get my hands on the latest findings or in a specific year (filtering is super easy).

8. Google Docs Explore Tool

The Google Docs Explore tool allows you to do web and image searches without ever leaving your document.

My favorite option is the ability to search from my own Google Drive account. All I have to do is click the diamond logo at the bottom right of your window, then type in a search and hit enter.

What I like: The smart suggestions and search functionality help streamline the writing and editing process.

9. Site:search (Advanced Search Operators)

This is a handy Google hack I use every day. Basically, it allows you to do a Google search that’s limited to a particular website.

For example, if I wanted to search HubSpot‘s blog for marketing resources so I can cite one of our old blog posts, I’d do a site:search for blog.hubspot.com with the search term marketing resources.

The formula for site search is site:samplewebsite.com [search query]. So, my example would be site:blog.hubspot.com marketing resources.

What I like: Itallows me to filter results by file type, exclude certain terms, or find pages that link to a specific URL and makes my searches more targeted.

10. Google Search Console

Doing SEO and keyword research? Your marketing software should be able to help. But if it can‘t (or you’d like to augment your data like I do), Google Search Console can be a great help.

You can check things like the number of indexed pages on your website, submit your site to Google so you’re getting crawled and indexed, and even disavow bad inbound links.

It also can give you information on search queries that have a large volume of impressions but a low clickthrough rate.

Within Google Search Console, go to “Performance” and choose the “Queries” tab.

You’ll see a table showing a search query, impressions, clicks, and click through rate (CTR). Comparing this data to your other analytics data can help uncover some new content opportunities.

What I like: The ability to monitor and fix indexing issues, submit sitemaps, and see how Googlebot views my site improves the experience.

11. Percentage Change Calculator

I can‘t even begin to tell you how useful this little calculator is when looking for and analyzing data.

Ever want to know the percentage change of two values without having to remember the formula? Simply enter the two values into this calculator, and it’ll spit out the percentage change. Trust me, you’ll want to bookmark this one.

Here are a few other handy calculators:

• 3-way percentage calculator — calculates answers to these questions: What is X% of Y? X is what percent of Y? X is Y% of what?
• Conversion rate calculator — spits out a conversion rate when you enter the total visitor count during a specific time frame and the number of times during that time frame those visitors took a specific action.
• A/B test calculator — works for a basic scenario with two groups of people (A & B) who get to see one version of your website and for whom you track the number of conversions or goals (purchases, downloads, clickthroughs, etc.).
• ROI calculator — analyzes your website’s monthly sales and lead generation efforts to determine ways in which marketing efforts can be optimized.

What I like: The intuitive interface requires just the original and new values and provides instant and accurate results.

12. Evernote

I use the free version of Evernote every single day. From to-do lists and research notes to writing entire chunks of articles, it’s proven helpful at every step of the writing and editing process.

One great feature? Its mobile, desktop, and web apps sync automatically as long as you have an internet connection. (And if you work offline, it‘ll sync the next time you have internet.)

Plus — and this is super important for content creators like us — it’s constantly saving and syncing your work automatically, making it a safe place to write and store ideas.

Use it to keep a running list of ideas, take notes, store inspiring articles or ebooks, or plan your editorial and social media publishing calendars.

However, although I love it a lot, Evernote‘s con is that it can’t export data easily to other applications.

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What I like: My favorite features are the web clipper extension and searchable handwriting recognition tool.

13. Blog Post Templates

All blog posts aren’t created equal, but I’ve found that there are steps you can take to make your posts comprehensive and shareable.

Instead of starting from scratch, you’ll save time and, hopefully, nail your blog goals.

What I like: The collection contains how-to, listicle, newsjack, infographic, pillar page, and curation post templates. You just need to fill out a short form to access them.

14. CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer

Your headline is both the first and possibly the only chance for you to compel readers to keep reading — so I always spend the extra few minutes coming up with a really good one.

What does a really good headline look like? The free tool Headline Analyzer by CoSchedule can tell you. It scores your headline quality and rates its ability to drive social shares, traffic, and SEO value.

In my experience, its strength is helping you strengthen specific components of your title. For example, it reports on perceived sentiment and commonality of word types. It’ll even show you how it will appear in search results.

So although you should take these scores and grades with a grain of salt, you can use this to give your headlines a “once-over.”

What I like: The real-time feedback and suggestions allow me to iterate and refine my headlines until they resonate with my target audience.

15. TitleCase

Once you have your perfect title, it’s time to perfect your capitalization.

This simple tool automatically capitalizes your titles according to the style you choose– including AP, APA, Chicago, and more.

What I like: It’s possible to set exceptions if your own style guide differs from more traditional rules.

16. OneLook Thesaurus

If you’ve ever struggled to find a word that was right on the tip of your tongue, you’ll understand why I geek out over OneLook thesaurus. OneLook describes itself as a “reverse dictionary.”

If you can’t think of the word you need, OneLook lets you describe it with a phrase or list of words. Then, it offers hundreds of related words, synonyms, and even rhyming words.

What I like: It filters results by part of speech or letter numbers, helps narrow down choices, and finds the perfect word for the context.

17. Lose the Very

“[A]void using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose.”

This is the advice Robin Williams gave in Dead Poet’s Society, and Lose the Very will help you do just that. This tool isn’t just very useful, it’s instrumental.

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What I like: The reverse dictionary feature helps when I have a concept in mind but can’t recall the specific term.

18. WordCounter

While data can suggest an ideal, there is no one “right answer” for how long a blog post should be.

The important part is that it serves its purpose — whether that’s thought leadership, driving leads, explaining a new concept, or something else.

Although I don‘t recommend writing blog posts with a word count in mind, sometimes word count can come in handy.

WordCounter works exactly the way you think it does: Paste in your content, and it’ll spit out exactly how many words you have. It also offers reading level, reading time, and speaking time.

What I like: I appreciate the ability to talk instead of typing and see synonyms for a word by clicking on it.

19. HubSpot’s Free CMS

Hear me out before you scroll on by. A CMS is not just a place to write your content. (In fact, I prefer not to write it in the CMS.) HubSpot’s free CMS also makes actionable SEO recommendations that can help you optimize your writing.

Plus, the drag-and-drop editor means that your writers can upload their own content without having to also moonlight as programmers.

Here at HubSpot, our bloggers add their finished content directly to the CMS. This makes it easy to collaborate on editing, publishing, and promotion.

Get started with the free CMS

What I like: It provides everything I need to create, manage, and optimize my website without any technical expertise (my biggest pain point).

20. The Beginner’s Guide to HTML and CSS for Marketers

While this isn’t strictly a writing resource, basic coding knowledge is quickly becoming a must-have skill for the modern marketer — bloggers and written content creators included.

But learning from scratch can be daunting. Where on earth do you start?

If you’re a total beginner, start with The Beginner’s Guide to HTML and CSS for Marketers, which my colleagues at HubSpot. It’ll teach you quick but useful hacks anyone, regardless of coding knowledge, can use in their marketing.

For example, it helped me learn how to make small changes to HTML like altering headers and spacing, creating text in block-quote form, and inserting social share links. My personal favorite is the hack to change font colors.

Once I’ve mastered these basic HTML skills, I moved on to Codeacademy’s free interactive courses. They found a way to make learning HTML and CSS actually fun — and you can go through each lesson at your own pace.

What I like: There are guides with useful sections that are great for amateurs, such as a comparison between CSS and HTML, what to avoid in both languages, basic HTML codes, and more.

21. Word2CleanHTML

If you like drafting blog posts in programs like Microsoft Word, Evernote, or Google Drive instead of your content management system (CMS), then this simple tool can be your best friend.

Why? Because when you copy a document from Microsoft Office and paste it into your CMS, lots of little, weird formatting issues can crop up in your HTML.

Word2CleanHTML applies filters to fix all those things added into the HTML, resulting in well-formatted HTML you can paste directly into a web page CMS.

Simply paste in your draft, click one button, and then copy the resulting HTML straight from the tool. When you paste that into your CMS (most will have buttons reading “HTML” or “</>” in their toolbar above your draft), it will appear nice and clean. No hair-pulling or swimming through code required.

What I like: The options to remove empty paragraphs, indent with tabs rather than spaces, and replace non-ascii with HTML entities work well with CMS systems.

22. Grammarly

While human editors will be able to catch most grammatical errors, editing tools like Grammarly are great for triple-checking before you press “publish” or “send.” I use it every day for everything — even for typing simple WhatsApp messages.

The free version of Grammarly checks for grammatical errors, clarity, and delivery. The premium version offers advanced advice on word choice, readability, and punctuation – and even checks for plagiarism.

My advice for you: Don’t take it too seriously. For instance, it often suggests too many commas or unnatural phrasings that can ruin the flow of your piece. I use it only for fixing grammar issues and typos.

What I like: Its mobile app is probably the coolest ever. It fixes grammar in real time and provides suggestions. Once you fix it all, you get a sweet message like “You deserve a break!”

23. Hemingway App

Ernest Hemingway, admired for his succinct writing style, is the namesake of this handy editing app.

Want to make your written content easier to read? Paste your content into this free web app, and it’ll assess your writing and identify opportunities to make it simpler.

My favorite features include identifying passive voice and hard-to-read sentences. Check out the right-hand side of the screenshot below, where the tool has summed up how readable my writing is with a grade.

(Some room for improvement here.) Their suggestion to improve readability overall? Shoot for lower than a 10th grade reading level.

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What I like: The formatting tools, premium AI editing, algorithm-based color suggestions, and summary of data shown on the right side make writing a breeze.

24. Editorial Calendar Template

Creating a balanced editorial calendar can be tough, especially if you don‘t have one centralized calendar that you and your team can refer to.

To save you time and headache, we’ve created editorial calendar templates for Google Calendar, Google Sheets, and Excel that you can fill in and share with your team to start the next month or year off on the right foot.

What I like: These templates help me fill gaps in my content calendar, as well as track strategic planning, events, and multi-site publications.

25. HubSpot Marketing Hub

An editor’s job is to publish top-notch content, but as you likely know, most editors wear a whole host of other hats. HubSpot’s marketing tools are designed to help you execute on all your tasks — from planning content to managing SEO.

What are my favorite features of HubSpot? When I’m trying to grow my readership, adding an embedded or popup form is a great way to capture the contact information from previously anonymous visitors.

This helps grow my mailing lists and consequently build readership to my blog properties.

What I like: I appreciate the ability to track and report on marketing KPIs for individual pages. This allows me to make data-driven editorial decisions to make sure my content is working.

26. Movavi Video Editor

Movavi Video Editor is a handy movie editor for all content creators that allows you to make social media hits in no time.

I have tried many video editing tools, but this one is my favorite choice because of its user-friendly interface, which is much less confusing than others.

Easily edit your footage – crop, trim, and resize clips. Add awesome filters and music. Take your content to the next level with thrilling effects: use titles, overlays, transitions, and intros.

Play around with slow motion, color correction, and chroma key. Take advantage of this free video-editing software to wow your audience.

What I like: The quick rendering times and brilliant transitions make video editing easy.

27. WebFX Readability Test

Unless you’re writing furniture assembly instructions, it’s important that your content is easy to read and easy to digest.

The WebFX readability test grades your content according to five different academic scales, then averages them together into one score. You’ll also get statistics about word complexity and the density of your sentences.

WebFX allows you to paste in your text or simply input a URL.

What I like: There are different readability formulas such as Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, and SMOG Index.

28. StackEdit

StackEdit is a markdown editor. In plain English, that means it turns your text into HTML. Or your HTML into text. This one can also render math equations, flow charts, diagrams, and ASCII characters.

Why would an editor need this? Because it can give you a live preview of what your content will look like as you edit it. It helps me a lot when I write about technical topics or coding.

What I like: Syntax highlights, file sharing, and live preview make converting text easy.

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29. & 30. Nimbus Screenshot & Screen Video Recorder

This is another tool I use every day. Sure, you can capture a screenshot of your entire screen or part of your screen using the old keyboard shortcut method. But what if you want your screenshot to include stuff that’s not visible on your screen?

Nimbus Screenshot lets you capture the visible part of a web page, a selected area, a selected scroll (my personal favorite), the entire page, or the entire browser window — including everything below the fold.

The Chrome extension also lets you record video from your screen or webcam. You can then convert it to gif or mp4 format.

Once you’ve taken the screenshot or screencast, you can crop, edit, annotate (like adding notes and callouts), and choose to print or save to your desktop or Google Drive.

What I like: I can choose to record system audio, microphone input, or both, which provides flexibility for different types of content.

31. Canva

If you like creating beautiful visual content in a really short amount of time, you‘ll love Canva just like I do.

The time and resources it takes to learn design, pay for design assets, and/or get inspired to create beauty from scratch can be really difficult when you’re staring at a long list of to-dos.

But Canva offers a huge library of pre-made templates and assets that you can manipulate while also adding your own imagery.

Best of all, they have so many assets and graphics available for free that you won‘t have to pay a cent if you don’t want to.

If you want to use more “premium” assets and graphics found through their image search, they‘ll charge you $1 for each. But there’s plenty of value for free.

Here’s an example of something you could make:

What I like: Canva has one of the user-friendly interfaces — even beginners won’t get lost here.

32. Infogram

Similar to Canva, Infogram is a visual content tool that focuses on helping you create infographics, charts, and data visualization.

If you like to create charts using Microsoft Excel, you’re in luck — it also offers compatibility with Excel through Infogram Charts. Also, their infographics are responsive on mobile devices.

But compared to Canva, I need to admit that formatting images can sometimes be a bit tricky (with glitches) because it’s a web-based program.

What I like: There are bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs, and more advanced options like bubble charts and tree maps.

33. Infographic Templates

As a content marketer, you might feel more comfortable creating written content than visual content, but that’s no excuse to exclude infographics from your strategy.

Visual content is growing in demand from your audience, and infographics are particularly shareable. To me, a blog without visuals feels like a person without a soul.

That’s why we‘ve created the backbones of 15 different templates that you can easily play around with to customize for your content and audience. Here’s a sneak peek of one template, and you can grab the rest here.

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What I like: Timeline infographics that chronologically showcase events, and each template conveys information super clearly.

34. Google Fonts

Want to spruce up your site pages, presentations, ebooks, and other content with cool and different new fonts? Little-known fact: Google has a directory of 600 free fonts ready for you to download and use.

Simply find and select the fonts you like from their directory, then click “Use” to get the HTML code you can copy and paste onto your site.

I usually download the fonts to my desktop and use them when making new marketing content by clicking “Add to Collection.” (Click here for step-by-step instructions for doing this in the HubSpot software.)

What I like: You can preview text in real-time to see how each font will look in my project before making a selection.

35. Image Color Picker

Remember that time you wanted to match your call-to-action design to that color you were using on all your event swag … but the one person who would know what that color was didn’t work at your company anymore?

Next time that happens, snag a picture of that swag and upload it to ImageColorPicker.com, or use any image URL to do the same thing.

Select any point of the picture and immediately see its corresponding HEX, RGB, and HSV values.

What I like: The ability to zoom in for precise selection makes it easy to capture the exact color I need.

36. PowerPoint Templates

Is there anything more boring than a PowerPoint presentation featuring black text on a white background?

With the help of these templates, you‘ll be able to put together compelling, visually appealing presentations.

Whether you’re driving lead generation or reporting on your blog‘s growth to your team, keep your audience’s attention with these eye-catching presentations.

What I like: It’s straightforward, easy to use, and designed for everyone–from high schoolers to business pros.

37. SlideShare Templates

SlideShare doesn’t need to be daunting.

I can easily create shareable, embeddable SlideShare presentations in PowerPoint with the help of these templates, no need to start from scratch or hire a freelancer.

What I like: From sleek business styles to funky creative vibes, there’s something for every flavor.

38. Haiku Deck

If you‘ve ever had to create a PowerPoint or SlideShare presentation in a pinch, you’ll wish you knew about Haiku Deck. This tool helps you quickly find simple layouts, beautiful images, and great fonts. It’s available for the web and for iPad.

Want to see what one looks like? Below’s an example I pulled from their list of featured decks. Note the simplicity of the design. If you want to create super detailed slides, this may not be the right tool for you.

What I like: There’s a library of content for inspiration and the ability to search for images based on keywords.

39. HubSpot’s Free Stock Photos

Searching for and buying stock imagery can be a pain in the you-know-what, especially when it comes to deciphering legalese for different use cases.

I have a liberal arts degree, and Nietzsche was easier to read than whatever legalese stock imagery companies tended to give me. All I wanted to know is whether to cite or not cite a stock image of a laptop. Why was it so hard?

That’s why our team decided to create a library of 550+ free and royalty-free stock photos. Whether it‘s a unique image needed for an ebook or that perfect photo you want to add to a blog post, that collection should have you covered.

Here’s one of our “around the kitchen” stock photos — yum.

The Free Stock Photos You’ve Been Searching For

What I like: Unlike some other stock photo sites, I can find an image for every occasion or opportunity.

40. PlaceIt

PlaceIt serves a very specific purpose: It allows you to upload images of your site or product into real-world environments of people holding phones, tablets, and laptops.

PlaceIt will automatically alter the image to make it appear natural with the angle of the phone’s screen — which will save you time learning and/or editing in more advanced software to get the angle right.

You‘ll have to pay per image to get really large or high-resolution versions, though I’ve found free images work just fine for blog posts and product page content. The paid downloads also remove that PlaceIt watermark from the bottom right.

What I like: PaceIt has a friendly user interface, quick editing, and templates of business cards that definitely improve productivity.

41. LICEcap

Looking for the perfect GIF to include in your blog post? If it doesn’t already exist on Giphy, you can make one yourself using LICEcap. Film a screenshot and turn it into a GIF using this handy, free tool. I use LICEcap for my blog posts, too.

What I like: The ability to customize frame rate and recording size which allows me to create high-quality GIFs.

42. & 43. The Noun Project & ICONS8

Like with stock photos, another challenge content creators face is finding elegant icons that resize without getting all fuzzy. There are a few resources out there for great, resizable icons.

The Noun Project is an extensive library of thousands of icons uploaded by contributors. With a free account, you can use icons as long as you either give credit to the creator or purchase them royalty-free for $1.99 apiece.

In addition to free icons, ICONS8 also offers stock photos, illustrations, and AI-generated faces. Many of these are available completely free, provided you include attribution and a link.

To that, I say …

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What I like: You can find simple icons that are available for free and fair use.

44. Cofftivity

Being the tiniest bit distracted actually helps you be more creative. That’s why, for many people, myself included, white noise helps promote focus.

There are a lot of white noise generators out there, but my favorite is Cofftivity.

This particular one offers non-stop café background sounds at varying intensities, from “Morning Murmur” and “University Undertones” to “Lunchtime Lounge” and “Brazil Bistro.” It’s available on the web and as an app on iOS and Android.

What I like: I always gravitate to the murmur of conversation and clinking of dishes — two sounds that instantly increase my productivity levels.

45. TomatoTimers

If you’ve never heard of the Pomodoro technique, your life might be about to change forever.

But seriously, before I started using it, my workday was a total mess. I was constantly switching between tasks and not finishing anything on time.

Pomodoro is a productivity hack that consists of working in 25 minute intervals separated by taking short, regular breaks. This cycle helps you to resist distractions, and makes bigger projects seem like less-daunting, bite-sized tasks.

But remembering where you’re at in a cycle and constantly re-setting your timer can be a bit of a hassle.

Enter the TomatoTimer. This free tool is a simple, looping timer that keeps track of your Pomodoro cycle for you. So you can spend less time messing with timers, and more time being productive.

What I like: It’s easy to create a custom timer based on personal preferences.

46. Trello

Trello is a kanban-style project management tool, and it’s way more powerful than you’d expect free software to be.

Their unique layout of cards and lists is well-suited for organizing content calendars, writing sprints, collaborative projects, and more.

Plus, it integrates with hundreds of other tools – including Slack, Google Drive, Mailchimp, and yes, even HubSpot.

There’s just one thing I don’t like about it. When you‘re not online, Trello’s features aren’t as effective due to its web-based nature. This can be a drawback for users who need constant access, especially in areas with spotty internet connections.

What I like: Ability to leave comments and mention team members directly on cards to keep everyone informed and on the same page.

47. OneTab

If you’re like me, you always have 100 tabs open, both literally and metaphorically. OneTab is designed to help out with the literal ones.

This browser extension instantly turns your open tabs into a list of URLs that you can save, export, or share. It even retains the list if your browser crashes or you restart your computer.

Then, when you’re ready to use that tab again, you can click it to go right back to where you were.

What I like: It reduces memory usage in my browser and keeps it running smoothly without crashes.

48. Giphy

You know that coworker who always seems to find the perfect animated GIFs for your social posts or internal chat client? With the free Giphy Chrome extension, you’ll be able to find great GIFs just as quickly.

To use the tool, all you have to do is open the extension in Chrome, search, choose a GIF, and drag and drop. So far, I tested it in Gmail, X and Facebook, and it works perfectly! Plus, they’re constantly expanding support.

What I like: You can filter GIFs by category, such as “Reactions,” ”Emotions,” or “TV Shows,” as well as by source and rating.

In every writer’s toolkit, there should be at least one “virtual editor.” This software analyzes your work, suggests improvements, and streamlines the entire editing process.

Here are four options that might be a good fit for you.

49. Jasper AI

Jasper AI offers suggestions and improvements to the text like flow, wording, new fragments of text, etc. It can even write the whole article guided by your prompts.

My POV: the quality is actually pretty good (which is not the case with all similar tools on the market).

Whether it’s articles, blog posts, social media captions, or product descriptions, Jasper AI knows its business.

I always try to be as detailed as possible when prompting, so it can provide me with the best possible results.

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What I like: Jasper dives into the intricacies of language and offers precise suggestions to refine and really improve writing.

50. Wordtune

Wordtune is an AI-powered tool for all writers who encounter challenges with clarity and sentence structure in their writing; in other words — for all of us.

Simply input your text and, in a matter of seconds, Wordtune generates alternative better-sound versions to clunky sentences. The AI-version is presented in purple for easy differentiation from the original content.

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You can also edit content to be more formal or casual.

What I like: Its Chrome extension, iOS app, and Microsoft Word add-in are user friendly. I also love its very detailed guides to learn how to use every single feature.

51. Semrush SEO Writing Assistant

Semrush Writing Assistant cones with features like real-time data insights and detailed improvement tips to your articles. It’s a great tool for improved readability, engagement, and SEO improvements to outrank competitors.

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The tool integrates with Google Docs and WordPress, which is a huge plus for me because I hate the hassle of copying and pasting between different tools for editing purposes.

What I like: Real-time score updates and the plagiarism checker are fantastic.

52. Ginger

Finally, Ginger software functions as both a rephrasing tool and a proofreader tailored for social media and email content. I love its expanded vocabulary, which provides more diverse word options that are suitable for my writing.

To use it, just submit your text and then click the “Rephrase” button to view multiple versions, all displayed in bold font.

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Want more input and details on your writing? Click on the “Edit in Ginger” icon and it will detect all your writing issues along with synonym suggestions.

What I like: Reading and paraphrasing features are super helpful for foreigners.

It‘s Not the Wand, It’s the Wizard

The tools and resources listed above can help you create, but it’s ultimately up to you to control the quality of your content.

You still need to know your customers incredibly well, understand what challenges they face that your product or service solves, and create content that helps them address those challenges.

The brains and heart behind the content creator trump the code behind any tools and technology — and that’s a good thing for succeeding in marketing today.

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

Every business’s goal is attracting and converting leads into loyal customers. 

Doing this requires B2B sales and marketing teams to possess a deep understanding of prospects’ pain points and purchase behavior. In recent years, account-based marketing (ABM) and inbound marketing have been the primary means of procurement.

Today, these tactics aren’t as successful. So what’s a B2B pro to do?

Enter intent data.

In this post, we’re diving into everything you need to know about how intent data is collected. 

Key Takeaways Identify Key Data Sources: Leverage first-party data from your own website and email campaigns, second-party data from partnerships, and third-party data from external providers. Prioritize Data Privacy: Ensure all data collection complies with GDPR and other privacy regulations to maintain trust and avoid legal issues. Utilize Behavioral Tracking: Implement tools to track online behaviors such as page visits, content downloads, and engagement with emails to gather intent data. Integrate Intent Data with CRM: Seamlessly integrate collected intent data with your CRM system to enrich customer profiles and enhance targeting accuracy. Segment Audiences Effectively: Use intent data to segment your audience based on their position in the buyer journey, allowing for personalized and timely marketing efforts. Analyze and Act: Regularly analyze the intent data to identify trends and actionable insights, adjusting your marketing strategies accordingly to drive conversions.

What is intent data?

Intent data, also referred to as purchase intent or buyer intent data, inform organizations of the type of questions potential leads have so sales and marketing teams can provide the answers they’re searching for.

Intent data refers to a collection of consumer online behaviors that indicate whether a prospect has identified a problem, is actively searching for a solution, or has become interested in a specific product or service.

A simple way to remember intent data is that it is what a lead intends to do. 

For instance, a buyer actively comparing products in your category likely intends to make a purchase soon. In contrast, a prospect reading up on your category type likely only intends to research. 

Intent data is based on the type of content a prospect consumes. By revealing what type of content a buyer is reading—such as product reviews or comparison pages—an organization can begin to sell and market to prospects that are ready to buy (and stop wasting resources on those that are not). 

All of this is great information.

How this data is acquired is just as relevant as the insight it provides. 

So, how is intent data collected?

Intent data encompasses the range of online research a potential buyer is conducting across the web, including downloading resources from your company website and interacting with customer testimonials on third-party review websites. 

As such, intent data is collected in numerous ways.

The top methods of B2B intent data collection are from first, second, and third-party sources. 

1st Party Intent Data

First-party data refers to insights collected through channels your organization owns, such as your company website and email campaigns. These channels allow your sales and marketing teams to gather relevant high-quality information in near real-time and communicate with leads directly. 

First-party data is all about the one-to-one relationship between a business and its audience/prospects/customers. It can be collected through cookies and IP addresses to follow leads across your website, content hubs, and company-run communities, such as forums. These insights can also be collected directly from consumers themselves, such as through online surveys and company contact forms. 

Methods to collect first-party intent data include but are not limited to:

• Gathering data from your customer relationship management (CRM) platform 
• Retrieving data from buyer actions on your company website or mobile app 
• Analyzing data inputted on customer surveys or contact questionnaires 
• Usage of smartforms which collect relevant user details in exchange for content
• Sourcing data from buyer email or subscription campaigns 

2nd Party Intent Data

Second-party intent data refers to first-party insights collected by one company and provided to another through an intent data partnership or a monetary payment. 

The company collecting first-party data typically has a direct relationship with the consumers whose insights they sell.

For instance, many second-party intent data sources are software review platforms, such as Capterra and TrustRadius. These platforms operate with the consent of users to track insights like opinions on product features and on-site behavior, then aggregate, anonymize, and sell the data. 

Methods to collect second-party intent data include but are not limited to: 

• Gaining contact information through gated content on review sites, such as demo videos 
• Analyzing product category engagement on software review websites
• Assessing product vendor interactions on software review platforms 
• Reviewing customer surveys through software review providers

3rd Party Intent Data

Third-party intent data refers to insights collected from outside sources that maintain indirect relationships with consumers at the time data is obtained. Third-party data providers scour the internet for consumer insights that can be anonymized and sold to reveal relevant buyer intent. 

Data providers often monitor hundreds of thousands of channels to gather user insights, from advertising networks and consumer search history to governmental and academic sources. These insights are typically segmented into categories like keywords or stages in the marketing funnel. 

Methods to collect third-party intent data include but are not limited to: 

• Acquiring behavioral data from a content publisher’s network of websites and apps
• Paying for consumer online activity, like recent searches, through data providers
• Purchasing bidstream data from ad publishers’ websites or applications
• Obtaining consumer ad engagement via third-party providers

Which intent data collection method is the best for B2B?

With so many marketing and sales activities reliant on relevant and timely consumer insights, intent data collection is integral for B2B organizations.

Take a look at the pros and cons of each data collection method for B2B marketers.

1st Party Data Collection

First-party data is often considered the top data collection method for B2B because it incurs no additional costs to gather; however, there are still a few drawbacks that can limit its effectiveness. 

Pros

First-party intent data collection is both budget- and privacy-friendly, particularly for B2B organizations that must adhere to data protection requirements, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

There are no additional costs to collect first-party data because it’s sourced directly from channels your business owns, such as your company website. Plus, with your company at the helm of collecting and storing consumer insights, it’s much simpler to ensure regulatory compliance. 

Likewise, first-party intent data can be easily connected to specific contacts or accounts your team has been working on—like learning a prospect from a company you’re targeting has signed up for an upcoming webinar. Similarly, these insights are controlled to better match your marketing needs. 

Cons

Though it’s advantageous to your budget, the fact that first-party intent data is limited to your owned channels restricts the visibility and volume of the insights you acquire. Because there is a limited reach, you will only receive insights through actions taken on your company channels. 

So, despite its benefits, first-party intent data alone lacks a lot of the scope required to inform effective sales and marketing initiatives. Similarly, it lacks the scale offered by larger data providers. Plus, it can be difficult to aggregate and analyze first-party data from across your organization. 

2nd Party Data Collection

Second-party intent data is also referred to as downstream intent, as it contains actionable insights gleaned from outside sources that collected the data directly from consumers. But at what cost?

Pros

Second-party data is sourced from real buyers who are currently reading product reviews and running provider or pricing comparisons. In terms of the marketing and sales funnel, second-party data relies on bottom-funnel signals, which indicates that these buyers are preparing to purchase.

Compared to first-party data, second-party insights make it easier for sales and marketing teams to communicate with prospects who are ready to buy. And because 2nd party data is derived from larger review websites, it comes with more context, higher volume, and a higher degree of accuracy. 

Cons

The most obvious con of second-party data collection is the additional cost. While most second-party data originates from data partnerships, they will likely incur some kind of cost. The added cost makes it difficult to compare providers unless your company has a steep budget.

Moreover, the majority of second-party data is constrained to the bottom funnel. Though these insights are beneficial, they lack details on top-of-funnel activity. This makes it difficult to identify accounts that have just located a problem and begun researching, giving competitors an advantage. 

3rd Party Data Collection

Third-party data collection unlocks access to a massive volume of buyer activity; however, you can become reliant on outside providers that may not adhere to industry data protection standards.

Pros

Third-party intent data collection opens the door to the highest volume of buyer insights with the most market coverage. In other words, third-party data collection is the key to accessing outside sources that provide a broader view of accounts’ purchase intent beyond bottom-funnel activity.

Unlike second-party intent data collectors, which aggregate and anonymize insights only, third-party data collectors take it a step further to segment these insights by topical intent. Topical intent can then inform a keyword strategy that better targets and resonates with potential buyers. 

Cons

Like second-party intent collection, gathering third-party insights will come at an additional cost. However, it also comes with additional insights, many of which you must sift through to identify reliable signs of purchase intent. Third-party data alone is not a full picture of the sales funnel.

Because it can stem from ad publishers, 3rd party data may be limited to top-of-funnel signals. For this reason, the topical intent behind searches may require additional details to convert buyers. Plus, it’s integral to find a provider that’s transparent and compliant with consumer data collection.

A combination of 1st Party and 3rd Party Data Collection

First-party intent data collection and third-party intent data collection alone may not provide the full picture of the marketing and sales funnel, but combined, they’re much more impactful. 

Pros

Third-party intent data helps provide context to the first-party intent data your organization has collected. For instance, learning that a prospect who’s been viewing your company’s accounting software website has also interacted with paid ads about analytics helps reveal the pain points they want your solution to address. 

Likewise, because third-party data collection often informs organizations of prospects who have just entered the marketing and sales funnel, organizations can leverage first-party data to initiate communication. This combination allows B2B brands to remain a step ahead of the competition. 

Cons

Though third-party data is often quite robust, it is not as reliable as the insights your B2B organization has sourced directly from potential buyers. Therefore, there is a necessity to vet third-party data providers and confirm the accuracy against the first-party insights you already own.

More importantly, relying on first- and third-party data alone often neglects much of what occurs as prospects make their way through the funnel. With the addition of second-party intent data, your organization can track leads as they begin research, build a shortlist of options, and finally, convert.

A combination of 1st Party, 2nd Party and 3rd Party Data Collection

When it comes to B2B organizations, no initiatives provide a 360-degree view of the entire marketing and sales funnel quite like a combination of first, second, and third-party data collection.

Pros

As mentioned above, a combination of first, second, and third-party intent data collection covers every base as prospects make their way through the funnel. While third-party data may provide insight into the top of the funnel, second and first-party data encompass the middle and bottom.

With a combination of all intent data collection methods, sales and marketing teams can not only identify new leads in near real-time but also understand their pain points and purchase behavior. This process allows for seamless targeting as prospects make their way to ultimate conversion.

Cons

Though a combination of first, second, and third-party intent data collection provides the most robust insights, it also comes at the steepest cost. While B2B organizations can directly gather their own first-party intent data, second and third-party data will each incur separate costs to obtain.

Moreover, the addition of various intent data sources increases the pressure on B2B organizations to maintain proper data protection requirements, such as HIPAA and GDPR. With additional data sources comes the need to ensure that data providers are transparent about how data is collected. 

Pitfalls to avoid when collecting intent data

Here are the top struggles to keep in mind when collecting intent data. 

Allowing departments to work in silos 

Intent data encompasses multiple departments, so it requires the inclusion of all relevant teams. 

Sales reps must be in contact with the marketing department, which tracks the progression of leads through the funnel. They must also be in contact with the content team, who is responsible for creating website pages, product comparison articles, and gated content (like ebooks) that address topical intent. 

In other words, there’s no room for silos when collecting and analyzing intent data. 

Neglecting data protection standards

Data protection standards aren’t merely suggestions, they’re mandatory processes for all B2B organizations. If your organization already collects first-party intent data, it’s essential you comply with standards like HIPAA and GDPR when obtaining, analyzing, and storing consumer insights. It’s equally as crucial to vet any second or third-party data providers to ensure regulatory compliance. 

Quantity taking precedence over quality

What good is a high volume of data if it’s also low-quality? Accuracy must be at the top of mind for intent data collection. Even though a large quantity of intent data is necessary to segment prospects into targeted lists, that data must be timely and relevant for effective marketing and sales initiatives.

Waiting too late to act on sales-ready leads

Whether it’s first-party data collection (like a prospect submitting a demo request form) or second-party data collection (like a prospect comparing product vendors), much of intent data identifies sales-ready leads. Waiting to act on these prospects allows time for competitor sales reps to close the deal in their favor instead. It’s essential to have a timely reaction to intent data signals.

How to do B2B intent data marketing the right way

With the above pitfalls of B2B intent data collection in mind, it’s vital to identify methods to deploy intent data marketing the right way. These four tips can help maximize the impacts of intent data.

Provide intent data in real-time

To avoid waiting too late to act on sales-ready leads, it’s wise to provide intent data to the relevant departments in as close to real-time as possible. For instance, imagine a prospect begins researching topics related to your business or views a software comparison page with your product. 

By creating a workflow that alerts sales reps to this activity, you can leverage intent data in near real-time. For example, an automated trigger on your company’s CRM can instantly deliver intent data to allow reps to communicate with hot leads or have marketers develop related materials. 

Prioritize bottom-funnel leads

Allow intent data to prioritize your list of accounts by the highest likelihood of converting. Intent data should reveal which accounts are at the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel. By prioritizing bottom-funnel leads, you direct resources to those more likely to make a purchase decision sooner. 

Personalize your outreach

Beyond a funnel stage, intent data also reveals exactly what a prospect is looking for—whether it’s viewing a specific product page on your website or comparing two software vendors. From previous online activity to recent Google searches, understanding the topics leads are searching for allows you to customize your content marketing and personalize your outreach for optimal close rates.

Protect against churn risk 

Intent data is not relevant to new customers alone. On the contrary, it can also reveal when a current customer is browsing through competitor vendors on software review sites and inform you if they’re at risk of churn. To keep your churn rate low and customer lifetime value (CLV) high, assess current customer intent data and include remarketing campaigns with your intent data initiatives.

How NetLine can help with your intent data collection

Regardless of your existing marketing abilities, procedures, or technology, NetLine is committed to assisting you. Our aim is to ensure that no one overlooks the immense potential that intent data holds. We invite you to discover these possibilities and understand how your sales and marketing performance could skyrocket. Connect with our team today.

We can’t deny AI’s cultural renaissance. It has become a part of everyday workflows and conversations. HubSpot’s AI Proof & Positioning Report found that workers are most concerned about losing their jobs due to AI, and the #1 reason they don’t use AI is because they worry about becoming too reliant on it.

While I understand how unsettling it can feel to have a tool that seems to do your job better than you (the expert), I’ve recognized that AI is actually just helping me do my job better and faster.

Still skeptical? Read on for more data from our AI Proof & Positioning Report and The HubSpot Blog’s State of AI Report, which surveyed 1100 marketers.

Table of Contents

• AI Productivity Stats
• How I Tested the Best AI Tools for Work
• AI Productivity Tools
• My Takeaways From Using AI Productivity Tools

AI Productivity Stats

AI tools help marketers quickly sift through large amounts of information and present it less complexly. I can attest that, as a marketer, AI tools like ChatGPT and Grammarly have helped me streamline research, present text clearly and concisely, and increase my ability to multitask across several campaigns.

Professionals who have implemented AI and automation into their workflow share that these tools help them get menial tasks done faster, improve the efficiency of their tasks and goals, and free up time that could be better spent on the most critical responsibilities.

In this way, AI is not only improving productivity but also helping to make your job more enjoyable.

Here are some survey results from real industry professionals who see the value of AI in their daily workflows.

1. 75% of respondents either somewhat agreed or strongly agreed that AI helped save time on manual tasks.
2. AI tools give marketing teams 12.5 hours back per week, which equates to 25-26 additional working days per year. This allows marketers to focus on strategic tasks, creative work, and people management.
3. 84% of bloggers/SEOs state that AI and automation have impacted their SEO strategy.
4. 83% of marketers say that AI helps them create significantly more content than they could without.
5. 85% of salespeople using AI and automation say it makes their prospecting efforts more effective.
6. 72% of businesses that have implemented AI tools state that AI and automation make their employees more productive.
7. 68% of business leaders say that AI can help their company scale in a way impossible without it.
8. 53% of marketers who use generative AI to write copy say they only need to make minor edits to the text afterward.

How I Tested the Best AI Tools for Work

So many AI tools exist, each with different purposes and value factors. I believe the best way to test new tools is to apply them to my work — kill two birds with one stone, and all.

To evaluate the productivity tools mentioned below, I applied each during my writing for this blog post. Whether to increase the speed of the actual writing or improve my time management around the writing process, I found the tools below essential to marketers and writers.

While I specifically applied them to my work as a writer, I can confirm that, as a marketer, I already use some of the tools below or would happily implement them in my day-to-day job at Nickelodeon. After all, 35% of marketers say they already use AI and automation tools daily.

AI Productivity Tools

1. Jasper

As a blog writer, I naturally started my research with a content creation tool.

Jasper is an AI tool that helps write all sorts of enterprise-marketing-style content, from press releases to website landing pages to, yes, blog posts. It is the second-most popular AI tool for marketing.

I used the “Brand Voice” feature to link one of my recent HubSpot blog posts. This feature helps the tool establish your “voice” so it can best match that when generating text.

Next, I clicked “Create Content” and toggled to “Create a blog post.” The post you are reading is best served as a listicle, so I chose “Listicle” as my type of post. Jasper then asked me to fill in the topic, audience, and outline.

After filling in this quick information, I hit “Generate now.” Watch for yourself how Jasper sprung to the test.

I didn’t expect the post to be ready to send after Jasper wrote it since AI content is not complete enough to publish on its own about 96% of the time. I was correct in my thinking because the post was far too short and a bit too stiff.

But that’s okay since only 5% of marketers use generative AI to write entire pieces of content. More people simply use it to spark inspiration (35%), create an outline (33%), or get a few paragraphs to expand upon (25%).

What I Like

• The “Brand Voice” feature allows you to upload or link to your or your brand’s writing samples so Jasper can pump out content that meets your unique style. Many writers, like myself, are very protective of our voices, so this feature made me feel comfortable and confident that the text could stay true to me.
• Your content takes just seconds to be written up. You merely need to fill in some brief information about the content, such as topic, target audience, or call to action, and Jasper will quickly use that information to draft a comparable piece. My jaw dropped at how fast the tool pumped out a version — albeit shorter and less delightful — of this very blog post.
• Jasper does a great job of staying within the criteria you request. For my blog post, for example, I listed the exact headline titles and number of tools I wanted to incorporate, and the tool made sure to follow those guardrails.
• You can create a Campaign to keep all your content in one place. If I were using this tool for my job at Nickelodeon, I could organize social and print ads, email newsletters, Instagram post copy, and press releases for the same new kids’ series campaign within the same folder.

What Needs Improvement

• Even though I linked to a recent HubSpot blog post to help establish my voice, the AI-generated post was less personal, much shorter, and more formal than my writing usually is. The idea of “Brand Voice” is smart, but it may require several writing samples before Jasper recognizes your style.

Pricing

• Creator plan: $39/month ($468/year) – 1 user
• Pro plan: $59/month/seat ($708/year) – up to 6 users
• Business plan: Must contact Jasper team for pricing.

2. Grammarly

Grammarly is a tool I’ve been using since college before AI had a name. I’ve always been obsessed with words and grammar (very cool, I know), so I became equally as obsessed with a tool that could improve my writing in real-time.

I have the free Grammarly for Chrome extension, which offers suggestions on various writing-related issues, including correctness, tone suggestions, full sentence rewrites, clarity, engagement, and delivery.

How crazy is that? You can see how Grammarly can provide live feedback while you type. It’s an essential tool for content creators of all kinds. No matter how short or long your text is, having an AI co-creator looking over your shoulder like an AP English teacher is helpful.

Why I Like It

• You can receive writing suggestions as you go (like I do with the Grammarly extension), or if you’d rather type up your text and obtain feedback at the end, you can upload a document or copy and paste an entire body of text directly into the Grammarly tool.
• Grammarly analyzes your piece for the topic and argument and uses its “Increase your impact” feature to suggest how to meet these goals. This elevates the tool from a spelling and grammar checker to an end-to-end writing companion in seconds.
• The power is still in your hands as the writer; while Grammarly offers recommendations on everything from rephrasing a complicated sentence to selecting a more substantial synonym, you make the ultimate decision. I know my writing best, so I choose to exercise my creative liberty when Grammarly’s suggestions are less technical.
• Students and professionals alike can use the “Check for plagiarism” feature to ensure you haven’t accidentally borrowed some phrases from another source.
• The AI tool can easily be integrated into other tools, websites, and apps, such as Microsoft Suite, Google Drive, iOS, Android, and even Hubspot, so you can ensure your writing improves across all platforms.

What Needs Improvement

• As much as I love this tool, I must admit it can sometimes be visually distracting. I’m constantly sifting through dozens of multi-colored, underlined words and phrases, which can become tedious.
• As is true for all AI tools, Grammarly can’t be trusted to be 100% perfect. It’s always best to use your expertise as a writer (or that of a trusted colleague or friend) to give your writing a once-over and ensure Grammarly doesn’t miss an incorrect verb tense or unnecessary capitalization.

Pricing

• Free plan: $0
• Premium plan: $12/month, billed annually (or $30/month, billed monthly)
• Business plan: $15/month, billed annually (or $25/month, billed monthly)

3. ChatGPT

We’ve all heard of it — one of the forerunners in the AI industry. In 2022, OpenAI developed ChatGPT, a chatbot and virtual assistant, and it has quickly become a trusted tool for knowledge, answers, ideas, and support. You can chat about various topics, as seen from the suggested prompts below.

53% of marketers who use AI tools use chatbots. For this blog post, I was curious about what differentiates ChatGPT from other chatbots, so I asked.

As you can see, ChatGPT is unique because it has knowledge of a wide range of subjects and can understand and communicate in a human-like manner. It’s made to converse, so you don’t need to formalize your writing, and it can typically comprehend minor spelling and grammar mistakes, as I tested below:

Why I Like It

• ChatGPT offers priceless assistance to professionals. You can train your ChatGPT to meet your specific professional needs, such as conducting market research or finding ideas for customer surveys, by inputting your brand guidelines into the “Custom Instructions” feature, building templates for prompts, and more.
• It easily integrates with other tools and websites, offering opportunities for personalization, AI-fueled conversations with consumers, and efficient streamlining of information and data across platforms. I recently used the Expedia app’s AI assistant, which has ChatGPT technology, to plan a trip to Charleston.
• You can rely on ChatGPT for many use cases that may otherwise need to be split up across several AI tools. I’ve used it to find out what kinds of influencers are most popular in international markets, discover synonyms for common words, and even learn how to use up leftover produce in my fridge.

What Needs Improvement

• ChatGPT cannot learn in real-time, so its knowledge only exists up until the last time it was updated (currently January 2022). That means some of its information might be slightly outdated or no longer factual.
• While it can communicate like a human, it is not human. ChatGPT might sometimes miss the context for or misinterpret your prompts or questions. It can also provide biased or incorrect information, so its word cannot be relied on as law.

Pricing

• Free plan: $0
• Plus plan: $20/month
• Team plan: $25/user/month, billed annually (or $30/user/month, billed monthly)
• Enterprise plan: Must contact ChatGPT team for pricing.

4. Reclaim

“Reclaim” your time with Reclaim, an AI calendar scheduling app that optimizes your (and your team’s) schedules to increase personal and team productivity, all while prioritizing your work-life balance.

Reclaim boasts giving you back an extra work day every week, with 7.6 more productive hours, which I know I could certainly use.

I completed a good chunk of this post on a rolling basis but found myself a couple of days before the due date with approximately 8 hours of writing left. I used Reclaim to help me optimize my time around my morning workouts, Nickelodeon working hours, and evening social plans to get my post done in time.

Reclaim also offers a variety of professional and personal habit templates to choose from, and it will automatically fit the habit into your calendar for however long and at whatever cadence you prefer.

My work calendar quickly fills up with meetings, so I would use Reclaim to set up Focus Time throughout my week to work on projects and Mindfulness breaks to ensure I take short walks and time away from my screen.

Marketers spend approximately five hours daily on manual, administrative, or operational tasks. AI tools like Reclaim can help the average marketer save nearly 2.5 hours daily on these tasks and spend more time on the things that matter most.

Why I Like It

• It’s hard to schedule time for personal activities such as reading, exercising, or having a proper lunch during the workday. Reclaim encourages you to make time for these things and automatically adds these habits to your calendar.
• The “Smart Meetings” feature analyzes your entire team’s schedules and finds the best time for recurring meetings, so you don’t need to manually look up calendars, email colleagues, and manage scheduling conflicts.
• The “Calendar Sync” feature helped me combine my Nickelodeon, HubSpot, and personal calendars to maximize my time and efficiently prioritize all my commitments.

What Needs Improvement

• The app isn’t as user-friendly as other AI tools I tested. It took some time for me to get acquainted with the various features and to figure out the best way to optimize Reclaim for my HubSpot Blog writing needs.
• Reclaim works best in a work setting if all your team members also use it. Otherwise, you’re unable to exercise some of the best features, like “Smart Meetings.”

Pricing

• Lite plan: $0 – 1 user
• Starter plan: $8/user/month – up to 10 users
• Business plan: $12/user/month – up to 100 users
• Enterprise plan: $18/user/month – over 100 users

5. ChatPDF

48% of marketers today use generative AI tools like ChatPDF to conduct research. ChatPDF has revolutionized the idea of “skimming” into an AI-powered machine. You simply upload any PDF and wait for ChatPDF to absorb the information.

Then, you are brought to a chat page, where you can ask any questions about the PDF. The chat feature is highly beneficial for students and professors looking to summarize lengthy educational materials.

However, it also has endless possibilities for professionals. Received a 50-slide presentation from a client that you need to sift through by the morning? Or a 30-page report from a consumer survey that will provide insights for your next campaign? ChatPDF has your back.

As you can see, ChatPDF helps you digest large amounts of information and pick out whatever data points and conclusions are necessary for your work. I enjoy using this tool as a fact-checker or second set of eyes.

I read through the HubSpot Blog’s State of AI Report, a 33-page PDF, to research some key AI productivity stats and data. Then, I used ChatPDF to double-check my work and ensure I included the most important material in this blog post.

Why I Like It

• This tool is a perfect example of how AI can help us do our jobs better without actually doing our jobs. ChatPDF doesn’t give you any new information; instead, it helps you cut through the noise and get the exact data you need.
• The tool is very easy to use. Its look is simple, which works well for this type of AI tool. Even the most technologically challenged individual can figure out ChatPDF.
• You can upload a PDF in any language. This is especially helpful for me, as I work in International Marketing. Rather than asking my regional marketing teams to translate their PDFs into English before sending them to me, I can accept the original format and summarize it myself.
• I appreciate that, rather than merely summarizing the contents of a PDF, this AI tool introduces a chatbot feature. This way, you ask for precisely what you want, which works twofold — you aren’t bogged down by unneeded information and are forced to have some semblance of the contents since you have to know what to ask for. It prevents us from getting negligent with our work.

What Needs Improvement

• The tool has a very niche purpose. Unlike ChatGPT, which can be used for various personal and professional tasks, ChatPDF has a limited workflow. It does what it does well, but you may not need to use it daily.

Pricing

• Free plan: $0
• Plus plan: $5/month
• Premium plan: $15/month

6. DreamStudio

Stability AI is the owner of a variety of AI products for text-to-image and video generation. Marketers who use AI to generate written and visual content save an average of more than 3 hours per piece, so I was looking forward to testing DreamStudio, the web-based app version of Stable Diffusion 3.

I am not a natural artist or designer, but at Nickelodeon, I occasionally brief our creative teams on a new series (from main characters to animation style to locations), which they then use to inform the creation of the series key art.

Tools like DreamStudio would help me quickly visualize my marketing strategy, which the creative team could use as a diving off point.

I decided to test this tool to generate an image I could use within this blog post (see How I Tested the Best AI Tools for Work).

This prompt was a great example of the capabilities of this text-to-image generator. I added various prompts and filters to hone in on the exact type of image I wanted.

Learning how to write strong prompts that guide image generation is the most effective way to use text-to-image generative tools. Chatbots can help with that by drafting a specific prompt for your desired image, which can then be plugged into DreamStudio.

Why I Like It

• As I mentioned, this is a great way to visually bring your ideas to life. Like a written outline before a blog post, DreamStudio can provide you with an image outline that you can use as inspiration for your design or photography work.
• You can generate imagery to back up a pitch at work. If I had an exciting idea for a Nickelodeon activation, I could use AI-generated imagery to bring my idea to life and help my team visualize it.
• Not all image generators have a “Negative Prompt” feature, but it is very helpful to share not only what you want to see but also what you want to avoid in your image. You can also play with the aspect ratio and the number of images you receive.
• Rather than a monthly subscription, as with other AI tools, DreamStudio allows you to buy credits per image, which offers more flexibility.

What Needs Improvement

• The images generated weren’t always accurate. One of the times I tested my above prompt, the images on the laptop screen resembled scenes from a fantasy movie rather than AI-related imagery. While promising, this tool may take some trial and error to lock down exactly what you’re looking for.

Pricing

• 25 free credits
• $10/1,000 credits: Approximately 5,000 images

My Takeaways From Using AI Productivity Tools

I was lucky to test some of these remarkable AI tools while writing this blog post. I had already used or heard of some, whereas others were completely new.

Grammarly proved to be the most useful tool for me as a writer. I used a free trial of the Premium version, and the intelligence of its suggestions blew me away.

Most of us have to do some sort of writing for our careers, so it is an invaluable tool to take your text from satisfactory to extraordinary.

The tool that surprised me the most was ChatPDF. I had heard of it on social media and was aware that students heavily use it, but I didn’t expect how useful it would be in a work setting. It’s incredibly intuitive and is a great example of how AI can increase efficiency without compromising the standard of our work.

While many may fear AI overtaking their expertise, we can’t deny the significance of humanity in everything we do. That’s why I always use generative writing and content suggestions as only an outline or jumping point.

AI may be able to elevate our lives, but it can never replace what we, as unique individuals, have to offer.

When it comes to website success, what you see is what you get. If the budget is tight or non-existent, free graphic design software can make a real impact on how you present yourself in digital spaces.

As an admittedly lousy product photographer, please believe me when I say that graphic design software is a key reason my small businesses still exist. It’s been a while since I needed to make anything new, but I’m still paying monthly fees for the software I built my visual assets with.

I hope you’ll join me on this new exploration — I’m trying out different free graphic design software suites so I can say from experience which I find to be the best. Hopefully I’ll find free software that works well for me so I can ditch the fees while also demonstrating some software that could fit your needs as well.≠

Table of Contents

• Why fuss with learning graphic design software?
• What is the best free graphic design software?
• How I Tested the Best Free Design Software
• Free Design Software: Features to Look For
• Picking the Right Platform for Graphic Design
• The Best Free Graphic Design Software for Marketers and Beginners

Why fuss with learning graphic design software?

Answer: Visuals are critical to attracting customers, clients, and potential investors. Recent research found that it takes just 2.6 seconds for users’ eyes to focus on a specific area of your website.

Then, it takes 0.05 seconds for visitors to form a general first impression of your site. This means you have just one opportunity to change their minds or reinforce this impression — and it all happens in the first three seconds of arrival.

While compelling text, blog, and social media content can help set your brand apart from the competition, the visual appeal of your site is the first thing users see when they follow backlinks or click through search engine results.

So it really is important to create webpages that are both aesthetically appealing and contextually relevant.

For larger businesses, this often means hiring dedicated graphic designers to develop eye-catching designs and deploy them consistently across web pages, social channels, and various forms of physical advertising.

But what if SMB budgets don’t support this type of spending? This is where free graphic design software can meaningfully support your success.

What is the best free graphic design software?

Businesses and designers vary, and so do their needs. Unfortunately, I cannot just pluck an informed answer out of the void. You’ll have to start with a little research to figure out what you need from design software.

If your research turns up a specific problem — your images aren’t compelling, your text is hard to read, or your color scheme hurts the eyes — you’ll be closer to a solution best fit to your unique issue.

Next, while just about any free graphic design software offers the ability to customize the look and feel of your site without breaking the bank, it’s tricky to tell which one will be the most efficient for you.

More specifically, the one left holding the bag on such a project. Two broad factors impact this outcome: your current skill with graphics and your use case.

Does the design software match your abilities?

The best-fit software is the one that has tools which meet you at your current graphical ability.

For example, if you have no experience with graphic tools, look for a solution that’s simple, streamlined, and does most of the work behind-the-scenes.

If you have a graphic design background or natural inclination, tools with more robust customization and control may be a better fit.

Does the software suit your potential use case?

If you’re planning to revamp your entire site with new colors, images, logos, and menus, you’ll need an in-depth solution that provides this level of control.

On the other hand, if you’re starting small with minor changes to your color scheme or image quality, a deep level of granular adjustment isn’t necessary and can feel overwhelming.

So which software tool is the best fit for your business’s use case and your skill level? I’m going to help you narrow that down as I test several on the market.

How I Tested the Best Free Design Software

I want to offer you actionable insights, and there are several common design projects that businesses regularly need done. I’ll tackle them with each design suite to see what works well and what could be better.

Here’s what I’m looking for:

• Logo design
• Ease of element manipulation
• Social media post creation
• Templates for physical advertising like business cards and mailers

To do this, I’ll be working with one of my own business identities — Threadcraftian — because I already have a collection of assets to plug and play with.

My son and I make pet bandanas in fun prints, so it’s nothing complicated, should be easy to follow, and we’ll get to work with animal images to keep things light.

Free Design Software: Features to Look For

Any graphic design software should have certain features that you will need at some point in your design journey.

If the ones I’m investigating don’t have these, I’ll feel like they are behind the times and we can find something better.

You may end up having to pay for some of these features, but I’m hoping to find at least one suite of tools that can do them all for free.

Feature 1: Flexibility of File Type and Size

In my experience, if you bring in a vector image, it should be able to leave as any file type. If you bring in a PNG, it should be able to leave as a JPEG.

If you bring in a large image, you should be able to shrink it without losing quality. If you bring in a small image, it might warn you that blowing it up could result in losing image quality.

Feature 2: Background Eraser

Having a reliable background eraser where you don’t have to awkwardly outline things with your finger on a mouse pad is a must.

People who do graphic design for a living typically have a screen/pad and stylus solution for this. If you’re just trying to get something done for your business on a budget, though, we need to make sure it’s still going to be easy.

Feature 3: Templates

The more templates the better. Saving time by finding something close to what you want and making changes to it can be a huge time saver.

They should, of course, also have a way to start from scratch if you’re just not seeing anything like what you’re trying to accomplish.

Feature 4: Social Post Creation … Maybe Even Scheduling?

I would love to see interactivity between the design software and social platforms, even if it’s through an app you add to the design software.

What I don’t want to do is the gymnastics of creating and saving the image in one program … then going to a social platform to upload the image there, do your SEO work, then schedule.

Having to do that again for every social platform you’re present in? That’s a hot mess.

Picking the Right Platform for Graphic Design

Most of the design suites I use on this list are available on multiple platforms — such as PC, Mac, and mobile — but is there a distinct advantage to selecting one platform over the other?

For beginners, opting for PC might be your best choice. While Macs remain a powerhouse for graphic design, their user interface (UI) is less intuitive than their PC and mobile counterparts. This presents a learning curve you likely don’t need if you’re just getting started with graphic design.

The real answer is: It truly depends entirely on your needs.

• For graphic design professionals, Mac-based solutions may be preferable for their focus on function over form.
• Social media marketers who focus their entire line of work on mobile marketing may need to be able to work efficiently on mobile.
• Small business owners like me who need it to be user-friendly and intuitive? I’ll use this old PC until it disintegrates because it has never let me down.

The Best Free Graphic Design Software for Marketers and Beginners

1. DesignWizard

Platform: Windows

Image Source

DesignWizard ranks among the best free graphic design software for beginners. The tool offers a large database of images along with a host of free templates (over 10,000), plus a simple, easy-to-use interface.

While you can also quickly create custom templates, DesignWizard excels as a front-line, free graphic design tool for beginners.

Testing It Out

Signing up was super simple, but I got snagged on email verification to activate the account. No email came. Five minutes later I hit their “Resend” option and then the verification email showed up in under 10 seconds. Onward!

The interface is very simple, as promised. Three buttons, a search bar, and a slider of project types with an option to start from scratch with an image size of your choosing. The template search bar was top and center, so I did that first.

I tried searching for various social post templates, but the only applicable result was “Instagram Image.” Not great.

The slider of project types shows that they do have templates for Facebook ads, Twitter Post (this is after the name change to X), LinkedIn Post, etc. That’s a little better.

The left sidebar has a Template button, so I clicked that. Here it’s easy to browse by category. Now I’m seeing the huge range of templates. I wonder why the search bar was so ineffective?

I try the search bar on the template page for logos.

Almost everything here has a little crown in the corner indicating that you can only access it if you upgrade to the paid version, so I grab the first free thing I can find: a text logo for a barber shop.

The first thing I need is an image, so I click on “Elements” and choose “Graphics,” and then search for “Pet.” I find a cute, stylish dog that will work for Threadcraftian.

I change the background color to teal, then a nice apricot that I think complements the teal sunglasses and bowtie better. There are no rulers I can see, but I toggle the “Snap”option at the bottom to find the center of the design.

As for text, I head to the top toolbar to change the fonts, typefaces, typography, lettering (whatever you want to call them — no judgment here).

I love that they show the selected word “Threadcraftian” in each font — it’s super easy to visualize your word instead of having to select each font individually to see how your text looks.

Each element moves as a unit, it’s easy to shrink or expand, and there’s a free-floating dot at the top to turn your element, too. It’s kind of slow-moving, which I find a bit frustrating.

It does offer flexibility of resizing. You can easily change your design to the optimal size for each social platform you choose. I changed mine from an Instagram image to a Facebook post.

After you save your design (the little floppy disk icon on top right), you hit the “Share” icon (three dots connected by a line) and can choose between PNG, JPEG, and MP4 — the important basics.

Lastly, background erasure. I go to upload an image of my own to see if I can take out the background. Oh, here’s the price barrier at last. I can’t upload my own assets for free; I can only use their tools to create something.

This is a bummer if you’ve already created logos and branded imagery or a special typeface for your business.

I was not able to find a background eraser even for their own photos.

However, you are able to change the background to be see-through so you can, for example, print just the design elements without having to print a background, which would be ideal for clear stickers or labels.

Despite an easy-to-use interface and no upfront costs, it’s worth noting that most of the more powerful options in DesignWizard are only available in its for-pay version at $9.99/month.

This software is fine for when you need to whip something up real quick, but not great if you want to make adjustments to existing assets. Also, there’s no social posting scheduler. The search continues.

2. Canva

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS

Whether you’re looking to create an ebook, infographic, business card, or email header, Canva has a template to simplify your process.

The free web design tool, developed by non-designers, offers professional, easy-to-customize templates for just about any design need you can think of. Like logos, which you can then add to website banners.

Testing It Out

Truth: I used Canva to create everything I have for Threadcraftian. I found it to be incredibly intuitive, it works smoothly, and there are bajillions of elements to choose from. The drawback? I needed to invest in the paid version as I skilled up.

The bright side is that for just $15/month, I can do everything I’ve ever needed to.

While Canva’s free version is great for new designers working with templates, you can access more complex tools and features — such as the all-important background eraser, resize functions, and team sharing — in the paid version.

But hopefully by this article’s end, we’ll be able to sniff out one of the more advanced free graphic design softwares that can do things as complicated as the business cards I wanted to make.

One of the downsides of Canva is that it’s used so frequently, and by so many, that people have started recognizing the pre-made templates and elements. There are folks out there who can see a Canva design a mile away.

That’s not a unique problem, though, in web design — experienced designers can look at just about any website and tell you if it was made from scratch or if it’s a familiar template from various no-or-low-code website builders.

Have you seen these popular Canva elements around? I see them everywhere. I still love them.

The thing is, this is not a problem unique to web design, so I don’t think it’s worth any worry if you like using Canva. I was a florist for over ten years and can see popular arrangements from a mile away.

This one is called Morning Melody and it’s by Teleflora. I’ve made it a million times. It still sells like crazy because it’s still cute and affordable. In the same way, your designs in Canva will still work if they look good.

3. Lunacy

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux

Note: Lunacy was the only software on this list that I couldn’t work with directly.

This one looks pretty amazing. Lunacy is a graphic design software specializing in vector graphics editing. It’s absolutely free.

There are no hidden charges, ads, or locked features, making it a powerful and accessible solution for all kinds of designers. It has a special focus on helping beginner UI/UX designers who can’t afford a subscription to expensive graphic design apps like Photoshop.

Even though it’s geared toward beginner graphic designers, Lunacy has a wide range of highly useful tools that provide in-depth and advanced features including a ready-to-use UI kit, placeholder text generator, pen, eyedropper tools, and a whole lot more.

It’s advertised as being fantastic for teams. You can easily share a document with up to 100 teammates and edit it together, comment on others’ work, and get feedback — all in real time. You can also put all of your assets on the cloud, safely and securely, so teams can access various branded elements easily.

If you’re a larger company, you can also opt to keep all of the work on your own secure servers/networks, which they call “Bunker Mode.” This makes Lunacy a strong collaboration tool for graphic design teams and group projects, even with a remote workforce.

But wait, there’s more. Whether you use Windows, Mac, or Linux doesn’t matter, they’ve got you covered. They have native integration with several other software suites, and then apps as well to widen the range of what you can do between programs.

What I love most about this, before I even really get into it, is that the company itself is listening to the people. They welcome input and ideas in an open development model which has given them advantages such as suite translation into 23+ languages.

They have a backlog of features that people have asked for that they constantly work on. You can even vote on features you want or need to get them closer to the top of the backlog for development. This means that Lunacy is living and growing and has every opportunity to get even better with time.

Testing It Out

Now, let’s get it. First you register, then you come back to the main page and choose an operating system and follow the link to the store for your OS.

Download it and choose the “Pin it to Start” so you know where to find it from then on. It offers up a tutorial to click through if you’re new, otherwise it looks a lot like Photoshop.

Oh, hold on. Oh, no — no matter how I move the mouse the whole canvas moves with it. I’ll try some work-arounds. No progress.

I’m closing the Tutorial tab. This brings me to what looks like a very manageable home page. I log in with my credentials from when I registered.

I try to open a new document and … the canvas is still stuck to my mouse movement. I’m looking up fixes, but the Lunacy FAQ and Forum don’t seem to have anything about it. To the internet!

It seems this same issue has happened in Adobe and some other design software as well. The recommendation is to try Alt+V. When I do this, it changes the hand to a pointer but the pointer is still stuck to my mouse movement.

Space bar freezes the canvas in place and changes the hand from open to closed, or closed to open — but it’s still stuck.

I am devastated that this isn’t working for me, because it sounds awesome. I’ve spent over an hour trying to figure this out, and we have lots more software to cover. Live in a world of hope with me and give Lunacy a try, because if it does what it says it can, it deserves a spot on this list.

4. Paint 3D

Platform: Windows

The classic Microsoft design tool is back, free, and updated to deliver more functionality. While it can’t compete with the more robust design tools on our list, Paint 3D comes with eight realistic textures, 2D cutout creation, and a host of 3D elements to choose from along with tools and effects.

If you’re a beginner looking for an easy entry point into graphic design, Paint 3D is a place to start. There’s almost no learning curve, and since it’s made by Microsoft, the tool naturally works well on all Windows 10 devices. I decided to use their 3D library rather than something for Threadcraftian this time.

Testing It Out

I said there’s “almost” no learning curve because some of the tools are not intuitive to me.

It took me a few minutes to see that “Selec”is used to outline a space to add an element to the canvas, but once the element is there you just click on it to move it — you don’t draw an outline around it to select it to then move it.

To try it for yourself, follow the link above, download the installer, open the program, and choose to open a new file or open one you already have. There’s not a whole lot, so you can play with pretty much everything it has to offer within an hour to decide if this is enough design software for you.

For me, the best feature here is the super easy “History” recording. There’s a toggle for “StartRecording” — then you drag the slider and see the history of your piece playing out, then toggle the recording back off and it has made an MP4 video walkthrough of the work you’ve done.

5. Adobe Spark

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS

Adobe Spark is a free alternative to the company’s popular, for-pay Adobe Illustrator. While it’s not nearly as full-featured, it does support integration with other Adobe products.

It’s easy to use, and it comes with a host of free templates. If you’re looking to quickly create posters or videos for ad campaigns, Spark is a great choice.

Testing It Out

To test it for myself, I’m signing up and it’s asking a handful of questions to get things started on the right foot and collect some consumer data from you — that’s usually the real price for free things.

I’m here to design for a business, I’m in Marketing, I want to work with logos and social media content, and … I like their organic and minimalist styles. Let’s go!

Yes, this has a free, built-in social scheduler. I knew we’d find one eventually.

On the homepage, you can see in the left-hand navigation that there’s a little crown icon that indicates features you’ll need to upgrade to Premium to use.

But this suite gives us free logo templates and a free background remover. I’m going to walk you through using a template to create and then schedule a social post — in this case on Pinterest.

I’m clicking the “Schedule”icon on the left sidebar, and then the “Manage Connections” button in the top right corner.

They let you connect a selection of major social channels at no cost, but for certain ones like SnapChat and YouTube you’ll need to upgrade to Premium. But today I’m just connecting my Instagram and Pinterest accounts.

It’s quick and easy.

Okay, now that our channels are set, I’m heading back to “Home” and typing Pinterest templates into the top search bar. Sooo, there’s over 20,000. Awesome.

Okay, I found one that makes me happy and fits the Threadcraftian brand. I can see right off the bat on the left that I can erase the background of whatever image I have selected for free.

If you guys could see me right now, you’d find me grinning with fingers templed like a villain. I make a few changes with the super intuitive design features and we go from GRWM to GRWP:

Then there’s a bright blue “Share”button at top right. I click that and choose “Schedule Post.” I choose my social channel (in this case, Pinterest), fill my fields with SEO-optimized content, and then choose the date I want this post to go live.

You can review your scheduled posts, edit them, and even just drag and drop the post from one day to another. This is amazing.

I played with making logos and that’s the same as making adjustments to the Pinterest template: easy.

What I would say is that their catalog of elements is not as developed as Canva’s, and I was not able to locate frames that allow you to drag and drop an image inside of them, which I have found handy in the past. Here’s a quick logo.

The last thing I want to check is how easy resizing is. And the answer is … it’s a Premium feature.

The size you start with is what you stay with, so if you need to control that more closely — or if you were hoping to make one design and hit a few buttons to change it to every ideal size for your social channels — you’ll need to pay for that.

I definitely think this is a very powerful and user-friendly design suite. It’s a great starting point for beginners that won’t feel overwhelming, but it’s less useful for more in-depth projects or for experienced designers unless you start paying for features.

The good news is that Spark is available for both web and mobile, meaning you can design anywhere, anytime. Plus, collaboration is one of the free features — you just send an invitation to work on the same design together simultaneously. AI generative fill is also a free option up to 25 credits per month.

6. Krita

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Android, Linux

Image Source

Krita is a free, open-source painting program made by artists, for artists. Ongoing development of this tool depends on donations and is driven by the needs of the designer community at large.

It’s no surprise, then, that Krita includes a customizable user interface, feature-rich toolset, and a comprehensive resource manager.

Testing It Out

Yep, this is way beyond my ability. Visual arts skills are hard enough when holding a paintbrush — and I don’t even have a graphics pad/stylus. It’s just me and my laptop trackpad against the world, and the world is clearly winning.

This program requires training and/or lengthy study akin to Photoshop. This is actually a bit less intuitive than Photoshop for me.

I was able to locate some templates when opening a new file, and ended up on a comic book page. It clearly has a million tools and features, and every menu opens up at least a dozen more options. It has an animation studio function too.

It’s overwhelming in my hands, but clearly an amazing free suite of tools for someone who knows Photoshop.

For businesses looking to boost their graphic design impact without investing in expensive programs, Krita is a great tool — if they have the help of an experienced designer.

For companies in need of simple, streamlined solutions, other software on this list offers a better fit.

7. Corel Vector (previously Gravit Designer)

Platforms: PC, Mac, Chrome OS, Linux

Image Source

Corel Vector (which used to be called Gravit Designer) is a vector design application created by the makers of Corel Draw.

With a host of tools for creating vector art and a self-adjusting interface, Gravit earns its place among the best free graphic design software for Mac and Windows — the tool is also available for ChromeOS and Linux.

While I don’t technically consider this to be free software, when you sign up for a free trial of Corel Vector, you automatically get access to “Pro” features for the duration of the trial.

This includes the ability to work offline and see version history. However, you lose these features when your trial is up unless you’re willing to pay for a subscription.

Testing It Out

I’m starting on a blank page, and I can tell you immediately that if you’ve never worked with Corel before, you are going to have a harder time with this than other free software.

Around half of the buttons are missing mouseover text, so I have no idea what these icons mean or do. I had to overcome a mental barrier, conjure up my inner Rambo, and just click all the buttons to get to here:

Hmm. This software doesn’t feel natural to me. It has a two-column setup with more granular controls like a good from-scratch designer needs.

It isn’t easy for me to figure out how to bring my own images in. It appears to have some of the functionality of Canva, with libraries of icons, shapes, and images to choose from — like this handsome pup.

The thing is, it’s nowhere near as intuitive as Canva or Adobe Spark, and it’s also nowhere near as granular as Krita. Maybe it could be beneficial as a bridge for people who want to learn more design skills but still appreciate some support from pre-made elements?

Luckily, there are tutorials to show you how to use this program, and there are a lot of them. What I appreciate about the tutorials is that they can dig deep or stay immediately functional for you. You can learn about vectors and rasterization, or simply just learn how to design branded business cards or product mockups.

Something weird to me is that your account is still called a Gravit Designer Account. Worse, I did not see a way to download the Rambo image as any file type other than .gvdesign, which doesn’t play nicely with other programs I run. I ended up doing a screenshot to capture that charming canine up there.

Also, trying to zoom in and out with my touchscreen was jumpy between set zoom percentages. You can overcome that by double-clicking the percentage and typing one in, but other programs have been much smoother for me overall.

This is a solid option if you have Corel skills but not a lot of turn-around time. If you’ve worked with Corel in the past, you’ll be more familiar with the interface and more likely to knock out a project before the trial is up.

To me, it seems like a step backward for Photoshop users. It also feels like it could be a step for people who have historically preferred templates but want to get more familiar with tighter controls.

8. Blender

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux

Blender is an open-source, 3D creation suite that makes it possible for graphic designers to create everything from rigging and animation to rendering and motion tracking. It also provides support for 2D animation and has an active community of users committed to helping Blender improve.

Testing It Out

This is clearly meant for people who know what they are doing — if they are not already graphic designers in the gaming and film industries, they probably aim to be. There is a manual available, and it is massive. It has its own glossary, index, add-ons, etc. and it does not auto-update, yet there are dailyupdates available.

I don’t know that my computer can even run this program on my geriatric laptop. Their community forums suggest downloading an old version to see if you like it before investing in more powerful hardware. Good to know, but we’re going for it.

So … it seems to be functional, and I tried the video editor, seen above, thinking maybe I could edit something existing. But I can’t seem to get any of my .MP4 files to open. I can’t get my .MOVs to open, either. I guess my paltry files aren’t strong enough for this beast.

Okay, here is the 2D editor, one more among manyBlender editing suites.

I was able to figure this out a little bit — it’s basically drawing a picture that’s a little bit different each time to get from point A to point B, and the bottom is the measure of time over which those changes happen to make it appear to move.

I made a Ze Frank-level animation about how I feel like a Sparkling Fraud trying to figure this out — and it worked. But I was not able to figure out how to export it. Sorry, friends.

While Blender is a powerful tool, it’s not ideal for beginners. Complex menus and a truly stunning number of design options mean you need to know your way around graphic design programs to make use of this tool.

I asked a couple of friends in the graphic design industry about Blender — adjectives that came up were “beefy” and “overwhelming,” but also the idea that it has its place.

One said that Blender is great for modeling, but using it can feel disjointed because of the open source aspect where anybody can add what they want.

Another reported that some tools are going to be better — and better documented for use and troubleshooting — than others. A third recommended spending a few weeks doing various tutorials to learn how to use it, starting with The Donut.

9. Inkscape

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux

Inkspace’s tagline is “draw freely” and it lives up to that mantra — there’s no cost for this graphic design tool and it packs a host of features for both beginners and experienced marketers.

I heard that the sluggish controls can frustrate some users if they’re looking to quickly create and publish designs. I went ahead and made sure to uninstall everything I’ve tried thus far before installing this one.

Testing It Out

Not bad. It gives the look of the complicated programs, but I didn’t find this nearly as intimidating.

I was able to choose the sizing for a print product — in this case, a business card. I was also easily able to import some fun and colorful elements from my brand.

I like that the tools most people know and use for any number of programs are readily available. Not as intuitive as, say, Adobe Spark, but this feelslike something I could learn.

The drop-down menus are very familiar, and they keep options categorized in a nested way that I can understand.

Even if I don’t know the tool’s name, I know that it’s a subcategory of something larger that I do have an idea about. I was able to explore it and make some things happen in a way I couldn’t with, say, Krita or Blender.

In addition to cross-platform support and an active community who adds to the programming, Inkscape is known for superior vector art options and wide format compatibility.

10. SketchUp

Platforms: Windows, Mac

SketchUp offers both free and paid design plans, with its no-cost version still offering substantial advantages for designers.

A robust modeling platform, it’s a great tool for creating 2D or 3D designs for furniture or other complex objects. It’s parent company is Trimble, so you start by signing up for a Trimble ID, then it takes you to the in-browser interface.

Testing It Out

Let’s see if I can design a new booth for Threadcraftian for markets this fall.

Oh, check this out. There’s an Instructor on the right-side toolbar that goes over how to use each tool and even has an animation to show you what will happen. Awesome, that is exactly what I need.

Okay, but seriously — everything should have this feature. It took a hot minute for me to get the hang of the order of operations: select the surface you want to change, hold shift to select multiple surfaces, then select the move tool to move the object.

My attempt is not perfect by any means, but it definitely gets the idea across of what I have in mind.

I would definitely use this again and take the time to dig deeper. The problems I had were rotating a cylinder and measuring exactly. There’s probably a way to freeze movement along one axis that is helpful, but I couldn’t figure that one out.

With a fairly easy-to-use interface and several sources of support, SketchUp is a great tool if you’re looking to create product pages that feature in-depth images and dimensions. Potential drawbacks include limited storage space as well as no mobile support for free plans.

11. GIMP

Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux

GIMP is one of the most popular open-source design tools. It’s often compared to its closest for-pay competitor, Photoshop, with users on both sides making passionate arguments for one platform over the other.

It can be developed with a number of programming languages including Python, Perl, Scheme, and others. There are loads of plug-ins and scripts available, and the workspace is highly adjustable.

You’ll be able to design logos and print advertising, but it doesn’t do social scheduling unless someone programmed a plug-in for that. I decided to create a website banner — there were pre-set sizes to pick from — yet I was able to specify a custom 1200×400 pixels.

Testing It Out

I actually did find this to be pretty intuitive. I was able to lay down a shape and use the “Warp Transform” to turn a black dot into a bird body and a white dot into a wing to create a bird. Same for a spool of thread. Then I used the pencil feature to create the needle with thread that the bird is holding.

It was easy to import the colorful background for Threadcraftian, and I was able to lay out the text in Bremlin. The layers were easy to use and I found a lock feature that joined the wing and the body of the bird into one moveable layer. It was also easy to export this website banner as a PNG.

I can see why people like this. There are a ton of options, but it doesn’t feel so overwhelming.

At first, when I right-clicked and saw whole rows of more options I was a little intimidated, but then realized that they were all the same as the top row of menu categories. It was just a quicker way to access the tools in place where working.

It is easy to see why GIMP gets high praise as a free design tool for its support of all file formats, ease of digital retouching, and ability to quickly create new designs from scratch.

In addition, GIMP features a customizable interface that allows more experienced designers to make use of the tool’s capabilities. Worth noting: GIMP does not support any Photoshop plugins.

12. DocHipo

Platform: Web

DocHipo is a popular choice for marketers looking for easy-to-use graphic design software. You’ll get access to free templates for designing your marketing collateral, such as posters, flyers, brochures, presentations, business cards, social media posts, advertisement graphics, and more.

The advertised advantage of using this graphic design software is its range of exclusive design assets, such as illustrations, icons, stickers, and animations. You can also access millions of stock photos and hundreds of free fonts. Let’s give it a spin.

Testing It Out

At first it looks like the only thing to do is use their templates, but once you click into a template type, you have the option of a blank template to work with. It prompts you to add widgets and then start your manipulations.

I’ve chosen to do a Facebook Ad this time, so it sets the canvas to 1200×628 for me. I was able to enter the Pantone hex code for apricot, the current color of the year.

It is a lot like Canva in that there are a number of free options, but the best ones have the little golden crowns to indicate they come with a paid upgrade.

You can insert maps, create QR codes, and make collages for free. I keep searching for design elements and icons like animals, dogs, cats, and there’s just not much of anything.

The elements, graphics, and illustrations — even the paid ones — are just okay. Nothing stellar. This seems to benefit marketers who want to grab and go with pre-made templates. Here are some of the elements I found:

Generative AI images is a paid feature, but with so many photos I don’t see why you’d need it unless your company wants you to use AI. There is also an AI text generator, but as a professional writer, I’m sure you can guess what I think of that.

Version history is also a paid feature. It looks like you can use AI translation for free until the very last step, but then it pops up that it’s a paid feature. Grr.

At last, we hit the big advantage: photography. There really are a ton of photos to choose from, rivaling or surpassing Canva. This was the feature I thought would do well enough for a Facebook ad:

DocHipo’s drag-and-drop editor makes it easy for beginners to customize designs within minutes, and includes widgets to connect your Typeform or Jotform accounts.

Its intuitive interface makes it a strong choice for graphic design software for beginners. Users can take advantage of a free plan, but you are likely to be happier with the paid version for more advanced capabilities.

13. Genially

Platform: Windows

Genially is known for making design easy with a user-friendly interface and robust options that allow designers to create their own artwork from scratch. The shining jewel of this software is that you can leverage pre-built templates to add interactive features such as buttons, layers, and hidden text.

I haven’t seen anything designed to create interactive elements yet, so this is super interesting. Now that I see what this is capable of, I’ll make a fundraising pitch with information about the business and an eye toward growth.

Testing It Out

This is extremely cool, but when I got to the very end, it turns out that downloading it is a premium feature. The reason is that they provide you with a link to the interactive piece that is branded. So it works beautifully, but people will know it’s because you used their product.

The free version of Genially has no limits on the number of projects you can create and there are now more than 12,000,000 users worldwide designing with Genially and supporting the community.

There is a caveat, however. While the free version is substantive, some features — such as offline viewing and brand personalization — are reserved for paid plans only.

Creating a Great First Impression

The first thing users see when they land on your website significantly impacts their perception of your brand — and their likelihood to become paying customers.

The right graphic design software ensures your site delivers visual value from first impressions to eventual purchases, streamlining the process of ongoing aesthetic adjustment.

Knowing that visuals are so important, weighing your access to various platforms, and being honest about your own skill level, which software will you choose?

For me, Adobe Spark won the day with its wide range of easy-to-use features at no cost. I’ll be moving over from Canva to save my little business the monthly fee.

Should I decide to work on my design skills, I think I’ll go with Inkscape or GIMP.

When I feel like growing my marketing skills? I’ll definitely spend more time exploring Genially. To me, engaging interaction with a brand from the first click creates a great first impression.

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