Category Archives: B2B

The reign of keyword dominance is over. How SEO is changing is about to totally rewrite the rulebook. We’re now in the world of AI, chatbots, zero-click searches, and video content.

But what I love most about all these changes is that there’s finally a laser focus on users and what they truly want and need when searching online.

The new landscape may feel unfamiliar, and some updates might look scary at first, but there‘s more potential there than you might think. Let’s dive into how all these SEO changes can positively impact your rankings.

How SEO is Changing

SEO is changing like crazy, and sometimes it seems impossible to keep track of everything that’s going on. While it can feel overwhelming, the core goal is positive: to show only the best content from the Internet.

Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 SEO trends shaping 2024.

1. AEO takes center stage.

The 2024 HubSpot Consumer Trends report shows that a whopping 79% of people rely on search engines for answers.

However, with the advent of ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI chatbots, no one wants to sift through endless details and jump between sites just to find what they’re looking for. People want answers immediately.

 

That’s why Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is more popular than ever before. It delivers direct answers to your questions and uses NLP technology to understand your queries in the same way a human would.

Answer engines gather information from different sources, like databases and even real-time data. But probably the best thing about it? You can ask follow-up questions to delve deeper into a topic.

Here are some tips for a good AEO strategy:

• Combine your AEO with your regular SEO.
• Structure longer content around key questions users might ask.
• Focus on making headings that answer common questions directly.
• Your content must be clear and simple for AI to understand and use.
• Always include FAQs in your articles (if relevant).

2. Hello, zero-click searches.

Something closely related to AEO is zero-click searches. Whether it’s converting currencies, checking restaurant hours, or getting a celebrity bio, users want to access all that information ASAP.

 

Here are some popular ways of providing information through zero-click results:

• Featured snippets. Highlighted blocks of text pulled from websites that directly answer the user’s query.
• Knowledge panels. Information boxes that summarize key details about a particular entity, like a person or place.
• Direct answer boxes. Boxes that display factual answers sourced directly by the search engine without attributing them to a specific website.

Pro tip: Analyze SERPs to find definition-featured snippets, then target those keywords. HubSpot’s SEO Software can help with this by offering personalized recommendations and optimizing content strategy.

3. Don’t ignore the importance of video SEO.

The way users search for information is changing dramatically, and video is leading the charge.

32% of people reported using YouTube to find answers to their questions online, with Millennials (48%) and Gen Z (45%) being the biggest users.

This explosion in video search makes video SEO an essential element of any modern marketing strategy.

If you want to improve your video SEO, here’s the checklist for you:

• Research relevant keywords and use them naturally in your title, description, and tags.
• Write a compelling description highlighting what viewers will learn.
• Invest in good audio and video for a professional look.
• Captivate viewers in the first seconds with a strong intro — make your hook catchy.
• Use captions/subtitles.
• Create a transcript for your website to boost accessibility.
• Share on social media, embed on your site, and think about influencer marketing.
• Create an eye-catching thumbnail using Canva (or a similar tool).
• Regularly upload high-quality videos to establish yourself as a go-to source.

4. Author entities matter.

With the rise of AI-generated content, trust becomes even more crucial. Our study shows that only about 33% of people trust AI-written content, while the remaining 67% are skeptical or don’t trust it at all.

That’s why SEO in 2024 is placing more importance on author entities. This means search engines focus more on the credibility and expertise of the people who create content.

They want to deliver trustworthy and relevant information to users, and knowing who the author is helps establish this credibility.

Remember the Sports Illustrated scandal, where articles were published under fake authors with AI-generated bios and headshots? This not only resulted in poor-quality content but also damaged reader trust.

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That‘s why it’s important to have experts — great writers who can craft authoritative content.

So, create author pages on your website, include writers’ professional photos, detailed bios, and credentials. Highlight their expertise and experience in the field.

Link to their best articles, books, or other publications. This shows readers and search engines their range and quality of work. Include links to their social media profiles to verify their identity and allow your readers to connect.

5. Repurpose your content.

SEO wants more repurposed content this year.

Content repurposing is an excellent way to reach new audiences with your existing material — for example, we wrote this blog post about SEO for Pinterest, and then whipped up a YouTube video, too.

So, how do you repurpose your content effectively? Here are some best practices:

• Check the Google Analytics landing pages report to find high-traffic pages, indicating content that people love.
• Use YouTube Analytics to identify popular videos that can be turned into blog posts or podcast episodes.
• Focus on content that remains relevant over time. Evergreen content like “est ways to clean an iPhone,” can be repurposed multiple times, unlike time-sensitive news.
• Go through your blog and identify posts that are still relevant. Update any outdated information before repurposing.
• Tailor your content to fit the new format.

The biggest advantage of repurposed content is the increased likelihood of landing among the top search results.

That means your blog and YouTube tutorial could both show up when targeting specific keywords. And you’re reaching more audiences — readers, listeners, and viewers alike.

6. Tap into AI SEO Tools.

SEO is getting a major upgrade thanks to AI. One of its best benefits is how much time it saves for SEO managers.

In our survey of over 1,350 marketing professionals, 90% agreed that AI and automation cut down manual tasks, freeing up more time for creative work.

AI tools can also improve ranking, content quality, user experience, and even technical SEO.

For instance, HubSpot AI tools use machine learning and natural language processing to support your SEO efforts. They make it easy to transition between manual and AI-assisted creation, giving you the best of both worlds.

Here’s how the AI tools can help you:

• SEO suggestion tools find optimization opportunities ranked by priority.
• Use the AI content writer for brainstorming topics, drafting email copy, and creating blog posts.
• The AI blog writer helps turn ideas into engaging posts while following SEO best practices.
• The AI paragraph rewriter updates existing content and makes it more effective.

Pro tip: Try out HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator. Powered by AI and Semrush keyword data, this tool crafts amazing blog post titles, outlines, and content.

7. It’s never been easier to get penalized.

We all know that avoiding penalties in SEO is essential for maintaining visibility, reputation, revenue, and long-term growth prospects. But it seems that in 2024, it’s more important than ever.

Google rolled out some major updates that hit websites with penalties out of the blue. It caught a lot of site owners by surprise.

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Also, Google updates its spam detection systems to improve search quality. If your site is impacted, check Google’s spam policies and make necessary changes.

Fixing issues may help over time, but link spam penalties may not be fully reversed.

What can you do about it?

Well, not much, but adhere to search engine guidelines and prioritize ethical SEO practices to protect your site and keep it growing instead of disappearing.

8. Topical relevance over domain authority.

One of the key shifts in SEO for 2024 is the emphasis on narrow topical relevance. Gone are the days when websites could try to be everything to everyone.

Today, search engines reward sites that show expertise in a specific niche. I love how Erika Varangouli explained it in one of her LinkedIn posts:

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And then we have backlinks. They are still crucial for SEO, but the focus is on quality over quantity (but the quantity of quality links matters, too).

Here’s how you can become a “link magnet”:

• Contribute guest posts to high-authority websites within your niche. This establishes you as an expert and earns you a valuable backlink.
• Find broken links on relevant websites and create content that offers a better alternative. Reach out to the webmaster and suggest replacing the broken link with yours.
• Connectively (the new home for HARO) connects journalists with sources. Provide expert insights for relevant queries to earn backlinks from high-traffic news websites.
• Create content that is naturally shareable and linkable — infographics, research studies, or original data analysis.

9. UX becomes an even more important ranking factor.

UX is getting a lot of attention in the SEO world recently.

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) has officially become a Core Web Vital, stepping in for First Input Delay (FID).

This means that websites will now be judged based on how quickly they respond to your clicks and taps, all aimed at making the browsing experience smoother.

 

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For those using Chrome, tools like PageSpeed Insights and the CrUX Dashboard will now give priority to INP over FID.

FID will gradually fade out — but don‘t worry, you’ve got until September 9, 2024, to make the switch to INP.

10. User search intent leads the way.

According to Semrush’s State of Search, Google has totally changed the landscape of SERPs.

User intent is now the driving force behind search engine rankings. Google‘s fine-tuning prioritizes content that fulfills users’ transactional or commercial goals. Informational content isn’t out, but it needs to adapt.

Understanding the “why” behind searches is key. Are users researching a purchase (commercial) or looking to buy (transactional)? Google tailors results to that intent.

SEO needs to follow suit.

Keyword research dives deeper, and content bridges the gap between awareness and action. Think product comparisons, clear buying guides, and informative pieces with a nudge toward conversion.

This is SEO for the customer journey, not just website visits. Businesses create a smooth path from research to purchase by understanding user decision-making and tailoring content.

The future of SEO is clear: prioritize users, and your website will thank you.

Pro tip: To get the most out of your SEO efforts, get the Complete SEO Starter Pack — approved by web designers, hosting providers, and web admins.

How to Adapt to SEO Changes

A “conversion” isn‘t the same for everyone — it’s all in how you define it.

A conversion for a SaaS company might be the act of purchasing a software subscription, while a conversion for a local business might be as simple as a searcher calling their business.

The kinds of conversions you’ll see happening directly on the SERPs depend largely on the types of clients you serve.

So, let’s explore how you can optimize for on-SERP conversions.

1. Local businesses and brands can meet the needs of specific locations.

Google has devoted a huge amount of effort into improving the local search experience for consumers.

Local search results are filled to the brim with special features beyond organic links to a website, with Google My Business (GMB) profiles and “local packs” being two of the most prominent things a local searcher encounters.

For instance, when searching for a “nearby massage studio,” you might come across a Google My Business profile like this one, which includes information on a company’s hours of operation, phone number, address, and reviews from the web.

Again, depending on what a conversion means to you and your clients, both local packs and GMB profiles provide ample opportunity for converstion.

Local packs, shown in the example below, even offer a short list of options based on the business’ proximity to the searcher.

Upon clicking for more info, you‘re given the option to head to the website, find map directions, click-to-call, and sometimes even place an order through a third-party service.

That’s right — for local businesses, there’s an ad-free option to sell your products or services directly in the SERPs.

Now, no one needs to visit your website to find your hours of operation, contact information, or FAQ. Instead, it‘s all laid out for them on Google as soon as they hit “enter.”

In a very real sense, a local client’s Google My Business profile is their new homepage.

There are a multitude of ways marketers can optimize for in-SERP conversions for their local clients:

• Build out accurate listing information for each discrete location to ensure foot traffic driven from search gets to the right place (also a type of conversion!).
• Use Google Posts to promote sales, events, news, products, and special offers to entice both foot traffic and the now-elusive site click. Make sure you have an enticing image that includes a CTA button.
• Reduce friction and create an in-SERP FAQ by answering Google Q&A in GMB profiles.
• Seed common industry questions and answers in the Business Questions section.
• Add UTM tracking to Google My Business profile CTAs to help you accurately report your successes to clients and stakeholders.

2. National and digital brands can harness the power of the low-click landscape.

In-SERP conversions aren’t restricted to your local clients alone. There are several ways certain national and digital-only brands can harness the power of the low-click landscape to make money and generate leads.

• In-SERP bookings. The travel and hospitality industries have a huge amount of potential for conversions directly in the SERP results, with the ability to book a hotel room or a flight often appearing directly below the query.
• Media purchases. Movies, albums, and books often appear with options to buy directly via various platforms on the SERPs. These look quite a lot like Knowledge Panel results, but they drive conversions.

For instance, take a look at the options for immediate, in-SERP purchasing when you search for the book Eat, Pray, Love. Searchers can get the book as an ebook or audiobook straight from the SERP page.

Additionally, it’s interesting to note that in the past, looking up song lyrics would go to Google Play and drive purchases there, but the search engine has pulled back on that recently (possibly due to backlash from lyrics sites).

Suffice to say, it’s worth it to keep an eye out for any experiments or changes Google might make that could represent a conversion opportunity.

3. Businesses can build brand awareness with on-page SERP features.

This section is going to scare some of you, and I don‘t blame you. But consider for just a moment: maybe traffic isn’t the end-all-be-all to search.

Traffic is easy to measure and looks nice in reports, but it doesn’t tell the whole story of your brand. Traffic is a symptom, not a cause.

Your efforts to show up on page one shouldn’t eclipse the fact that, at the end of the day, Google likes to rank brands.

And the low-click landscape is practically built to help your clients build their reputation via branding, messaging, and increased share of voice.

Brand awareness often gets deprioritized since it’s hard to measure, difficult to report on, and there always seems to be something more urgent to analyze.

But branding, messaging, and share of voice have a huge impact on whether or not someone decides to buy from a business and should never be ignored.

In the low-click landscape of search, featured snippets are one of the best ways to achieve multiple goals with one concerted effort.

They appear in the coveted “position zero” spot as the first thing a searcher sees, provide a link back to your site (and can entice a click if you craft them right), and will go a long way toward reinforcing your client’s authority and reputation.

For instance, if your retail site shows up as the number one Google-endorsed answer to five separate queries comparing different products, you’ve got those impressions down, and the consumer is now well-acquainted with the brand.

Ultimately, people used to go to a site to do research, but now they go to Google.

You might see fewer site visits overall, but if the visits you do get result in revenue and intent to purchase, it‘s hard to believe you’re missing out simply because traffic is down.

How to capture featured snippets for improved brand awareness on the SERPs.

You‘ll have to use some elbow grease to capture featured snippets, but it’s well worth the effort.

Not only will you be able to satisfy that easy-to-measure, up-and-to-the-right feeling, but you’ll also be doing a world of good for your brand, beating out competitors in both authority and share of the SERP real estate.

Here are a few key tips on how to start earning featured snippets:

• Identify keywords that trigger snippets that you already rank on page one for. It’s easier to capture a featured snippet if you’re already ranking highly, so optimize the low-hanging fruit for best results.
• Understand and play to the searcher’s intent. You‘ll need to dig into keyword research and possibly refresh your understanding of your brand personas to make sure the queries you’re trying to rank match the intent you want to capture.
• Provide succinct answers. There‘s only so much space in the box Google provides — you’re more likely to capture a snippet if your content is straightforward and helpful. Formatting matters, so see what‘s currently winning and emulate: if it’s a numbered list, for example, edit your content similarly to make it competitive.
• Add summaries to popular content. Your existing content that‘s ranking highly may not be triggering a featured snippet simply because it’s not concise. Adding a summary at the top can help.
• Identify commonly asked questions. You want your client‘s brand to be the most helpful answer a searcher sees, and you want as many searchers to see that answer as possible. Identify the top questions asked that are relevant to your client’s business, product, or services and start from there.

Pro tip: Delve deeper into this topic with our post on SERP feature opportunities.

There’s a lot that goes into winning, monitoring, and retaining featured snippets, but the very first step is being aware of how much they can do for your brand.

Winning at SEO in 2024

Ultimately, not every problem in marketing has a black-and-white answer. The trend of lowered CTR from the SERPs to your site likely isn’t going away soon.

It will prove beneficial in the long run to adjust our expectations and strategies accordingly, rather than chasing the past.

Adapting to the new low-click landscape of search isn‘t going to be as easy as pushing a button, but the fact remains that your SEO strategy is about more than simple website clicks.

It’s about building your brand, attracting qualified customers, and driving the business initiatives that matter most.

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

The first time I managed a marketing budget, I was handed a dollar figure and asked to accomplish X, Y, and Z with it. The following year, I was asked to do more with a slightly smaller budget. Sound familiar?

While this top-down approach is common, it isn’t the only way to budget. The opposite approach is a bottom-up budget, where each department and team proposes a budget according to their needs and goals.

This is common in large organizations and startups alike.

Had I played a more active role in creating that first marketing budget, our strategic approach and performance — not to mention my engagement level — likely would have looked different.

Let’s explore the benefits of bottom-up budgeting and how to implement it at your company.

Table of Contents

• What is a bottom-up budget?
• Example: Building My Own Bottom-Up Budget
• Get Started: How to Create a Bottom-Up Budget in 5 Steps
• Bottom-Up Budget Best Practices
• When to Use a Bottom-Up Budget

What is a bottom-up budget?

A bottom-up budget is a budgeting methodology where individual departments propose their own budgets to be consolidated by the centralized finance team.

Unlike top-down budgeting which takes a prescriptive approach to assigning budget amounts to teams, bottom-up budgeting is a collaborative method.

Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Budgets

For bottom-up budgeting to work, companies need exemplary guidelines, workflows, and communication to navigate the budgeting process.

While this methodology has many advantages, it also has some drawbacks. Each company should carefully weigh the pros and cons and follow best practices.

Pros of Using a Bottom-Up Budget

Bottom-up budgeting gives teams and employees more autonomy and flexibility and can be more accurate. But like any collective decision-making, it’s more complicated to pull off.

Here are four advantages of the bottom-up budgeting approach.

1. Bottom-up budgets improve accuracy.

Finance leaders don’t have an in-depth knowledge of the day-to-day functions, needs, and constraints of each unit. The teams that carry out this work do.

When the teams doing the work create the budget, it’s more likely to be detailed and accurate because of the team’s intimate knowledge of the operational realities.

2. Bottom-up budgets increase team autonomy and engagement.

Inviting teams to participate in the budgeting process gives them more autonomy and engagement with their work. Not only can this help engage and retain employees, but it positions the company for better performance.

“When finance teams give budget owners more ownership and autonomy to create their budget, there is better partnership that can increase accountability to comply with it and improve overall financial performance,” shares Bala Kini, senior director and financial consultant at ZRG Partners.

“This fosters a culture of empowerment and collaboration between all levels of employees.”

3. Bottom-up budgets allow for more agility.

Since teams are experts in their functional areas, they can anticipate how priorities and costs may change from year to year. For instance, non-marketers may be unaware of how the cost of paid advertising has risen in recent years.

Bottom-up budgeting shines as it allows quick adjustments and adaptations to changing market conditions or internal priorities.

4. Bottom-up budgets increase transparency among departments.

Bottom-up budgeting is a collective process, and companies using this method benefit from greater transparency. This contributes to greater trust, accountability, and collaboration.

Cons of Using a Bottom-Up Budget

Despite the benefits, bottom-up budgeting brings some challenges along with it.

1. Bottom-up budgets can lead to misalignment between the company and departments.

If departmental goals and strategies don’t align with overarching company goals, there’s a risk of strategic misalignment.

“I’ve seen cases where lower levels of management are blindsided by their operational needs and deliverables and lose sight of the company’s long-term strategic goals,” says Kini.

How to counter this: Invest in internal development to connect employees and teams to your company values. Include champions from each unit in creating your overarching strategy and vision.

2. The process can be cumbersome and time-consuming.

The process of bottom-up budgeting is more complex and time-consuming. 73% of organizations say they spend too much time on manual budget processes such as validation and data entry, according to Vena.

Bottom-up budgeting involves initial communication, forecasting costs and revenue, consolidating an overall budget, and working through revisions and errors. This can make the process slower and inefficient and create a higher indirect cost from employee time spent on budgeting.

“Building the budget from the ground up can also be daunting for budget contributors,” explains Melissa Howatson, CFO at Vena and host of The CFO Show podcast.

“In many cases, managers would actually prefer to know what the starting guardrails are and go from there. This would also help with reducing the likelihood of budget owners having to start the process over if their proposed budget doesn’t fit with the company’s overall objectives.”

How to counter this: Create a well-defined budget process and oversight (see our detailed implementation tips below).

3. Bottom-up budgets have a greater risk of distorted budgets.

With bottom-up budgets, there’s a risk that each unit will ask for too much money and that the company will overspend.

“There is a high possibility that department leads approach this as a ‘blank check’ opportunity and inflate their expense budget and underestimate revenues (overestimate losses) so that their performance always appears favorable,” cautions Kini.

How to counter this: Take a realistic look at your projected revenue for the year. In the consolidation process, ask departments to make cuts if necessary.

Anatomy of a Bottom-Up Budget

So, what does a bottom-up budget actually look like? A bottom-up budget is more than just numbers on a spreadsheet. Here are all the parts that go into a bottom-up budget.

Revenue Projections

In this section, you’ll add estimates of the income or revenue expected from sales, services, investments, grants, or other sources.

Revenue projections serve as the foundation for budgeting expenses. If your unit isn’t a revenue-generating one, skip this step.

Expense Categories

Start by breaking down your projected expenses into categories like:

• Personnel (salaries, benefits).
• Operating expenses (rent, utilities, office supplies).
• Marketing expenses (agencies, ad campaigns, production).
• Equipment or capital expenditures.
• Research and development.

Expense Estimates

Now, we come to the dollar amounts. Estimate how much you’ll spend on specific activities, projects, or initiatives during the budget period.

Consider direct costs (e.g., materials, labor) as well as indirect costs (e.g., overhead, administrative expenses).

Budget Assumptions

List which assumptions and factors you considered during budget planning, such as revenue and growth projections, inflation rates, market trends, or regulatory changes.

Budget Justifications

Give justifications for each budget line item, detailing the rationale behind it. Link budget items to strategic objectives and performance metrics and account for any increases from the previous budgeting period.

Scenario Planning

In bottom-up budgeting, it’s a good idea to propose more than one budget to management.

This gives teams the agility to adapt, but retain ownership if they don’t receive the budget amount they requested, or unforeseen circumstances change budget assumptions or financial performance during the year.

Scenario planning outlines steps to manage risks, reallocate resources, or adjust budget priorities as needed. Consider the example below from U-nique Accounting Services, which gives the option for three different budget scenarios.

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Example: Building My Own Bottom-Up Budget

Ready to see this in action? Follow along as I create a product marketing budget proposal. For this project, I used a modified version of the HubSpot marketing budget templates.

Download the Marketing Budget Templates

First, I started by breaking my product marketing costs into expense categories.

For these, I chose product/market fit, product testing, product releases, and content. I listed out each anticipated cost, such as $10,000 for user testing sessions under product testing.

In a more detailed version, I would estimate the cost for each category by month, quarter, and year.

You’ll notice that I have two scenarios here. Scenario 1, presumably the ideal one, has a larger budget of $200,000, while Scenario 2 has a smaller overall amount of $150,000 to show how I would adjust for a smaller budget allotment.

Now, to give my finance department and executive leadership some context, I’ve added three additional columns:

• Cost explanation breaking the line item down into smaller costs and needs.
• Objectives showing the goal of each item or initiative it supports.
• Assumptions I made to reach my cost projection.

Below, you’ll see how this looks for the content category.

Finally, here’s the entire budget proposal put together. The graph at the bottom shows how my budget breaks down by category.

The beauty of this template is that I can use it for budget tracking throughout the year, using the actual column to track expenses.

At the end of the year, I can use the actual expense data in a budget analysis to project a more accurate budget for the following year.

Once I submit my budget proposal to my finance department, the consolidated budget will look a lot different. It may look something like this annual budget template from Google Sheets.

Here, you can see my product marketing budget in context with expenses from all across the company: legal, insurance, taxes, and more. That way, company leadership can consider and balance all needs and priorities.

Get Started: How to Create a Bottom-Up Budget in Five Steps

Creating a bottom-up budget is a big undertaking and takes collaboration from every part of a company! Here’s how to approach creating a bottom-up budget.

1. Define budgeting roles.

First, determine all parties with a role to play and how each will participate. Here are the players who typically contribute to the bottom-up budgeting approach:

• Executive leadership. Leadership sets the overall strategy, sets strategic goals, and reviews and approves the final budgets.
• Finance. The finance team is the main player responsible for budgeting. They should develop standardized procedures, train and support department heads, reviewing submissions for accuracy, consistency, and strategic alignment.
• Department heads. Department leads are accountable for the accuracy of their budgets and for ensuring that the budget aligns with their goals. They should work closely with field-level staff and operational leads to identify the best opportunities for resource efficiencies.
• Go-to-market team. Your GTM team can provide key assumptions for the year like new bookings, product launches, and addressable market to inform your budget needs.
• Human Resources. Human resources can contribute to estimates of job salaries, benefits, and other employment costs like retention initiatives.
• IT. Of finance leaders, 49% rely heavily on IT to manage their existing systems. IT departments can provide the right tools and technology to house and analyze budget data, manage approvals, and maintain cybersecurity of financial data.

Make sure that each team understands its roles and responsibilities for a successful partnership between departments.

2. Ask departments to submit a budget proposal.

Next, ask departments to submit their budgets to you. Give a clear scope, guidelines, and timelines for departments, as well as a clear process and appropriate tools to support teams.

“The finance team needs to have a strong process ethic to develop, test, and distribute templates with clear guidelines and communication about timelines, performance metrics, and ways to clarify questions that may arise,” says Kini.

3. Consolidate departmental budgets.

Next, combine all the individual budget proposals into one master budget.

Perform a quality review to check for errors as you input everything into your larger budget.

Together with your revenue projections, you will have a full financial picture of the next budgeting period.

Depending on the complexity of your organization, you may have an initial submission and preliminary review before sending the budget on to leadership.

4. Review, adjust, and finalize your budget.

Once you have a full financial picture validated by the finance team, leadership can review the master budget.

At this stage, they can compare this year’s budget against last year, ask questions of department heads, and ask units to make changes if needed. Once all iterations are complete and approved, you have a bottom-up budget.

5. Track budget metrics.

Once your budget is finalized, the work isn’t done. Throughout the budgeting period, track metrics monthly, track performance, and report variations.

Budgeting metrics vary by industry but may include gross profit margin, operating cash flow, or working capital.

Use budget control methods like budget variance to determine any deviations from or corrections needed to a budget. Consider the variance report below from Vena as an example of how to track budgeted versus actual expenses.

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Bottom-Up Budget Best Practices

To make your budgeting process smooth and successful, follow this advice from mature financial organizations.

Map out budget timelines and guidelines.

To manage the complex process, communicate guidelines and timelines for every step of the process. You may want to use a project management software or other tracking tool to create calendars and keep everyone on track.

Kini advises, “When setting timelines, work backward from target dates and never lose sight of the fact that teams have their operational responsibilities and constraints. Teams need to understand that this is not a ‘once and done’ but an iterative process.”

You should also time your budget process with other key initiatives, like strategic planning.

“Budgeting should be one workstream that is part of a comprehensive annual operating plan,” says Howatson. “The budget creation process should happen with context into other key business plans to make sure they are ultimately aligned.”

Beware of misallocation.

One danger of bottom-up budgeting is that department leaders aren’t all playing by the same rules.

Stronger voices may build in a buffer and end up with more budget than they need, whereas leaders who push for efficiency can end up disadvantaged.

“To solve this, it’s important for finance and HR to be effective business partners throughout the whole budget creation process and ensure consistency across how managers are approaching their budget inputs,” advises Howatson.

“Providing budget contributors with guardrails ensures the budget process isn’t entirely open-ended, helping avoid this issue further.”

Support your teams through the budgeting process.

For bottom-up budgeting to work, it must be truly collaborative.

During budget season, teams take on budgeting responsibilities in addition to their everyday job duties. This combination can be stressful already, and a lack of support from finance partners can add to the stress and lower morale.

Open a support channel and communicate regularly about guidelines and deadlines. Make it user-friendly to account for non-technical budget contributors.

During and after the budget cycle, collect feedback to identify areas for improvement.

Ultimately, this helps create the best environment for successful bottom-up budgeting.

“A bottom-up approach allows you to get buy-in from across the business, and because individual managers effectively ‘own’ the budget, they won’t feel like it’s being imposed onto them,” says Howatson.

When to Use a Bottom-Up Budget

Ultimately, the choice between bottom-up and top-down budgeting depends on your specific needs and culture.

Bottom-up budgeting can be advantageous in fast-changing industries or startups where field-level insights are critical, as well as in highly collaborative, cross-disciplinary companies.

To reap its benefits, your company needs strong financial discipline.

If a business is small, operates in a very predictable industry, or doesn’t have a mature finance department, a top-down approach may be more suitable.

Carefully consider the pros and cons before committing to one approach over the other. Whichever you choose, commit to a clear process and stay open to employee feedback.

It’s been a few years since I applied for my first internship, but I still remember the difficulties I encountered. After I finally crafted an eye-catching resume, I faced the daunting prospect of creating an internship cover letter for every application; I honestly didn’t know what to include or the tone I should strike.

Although I got the internship, in the end, I never found out whether my academic achievements, experience, or well-crafted cover letter got my foot in the door. However, I’ve always been curious.

With the benefit of hindsight — and some guidance from cover letter experts and hiring professionals — I’m here to help you write a winning internship cover letter. Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

• How to Write a Cover Letter for an Internship
• Writing My Own Internship Cover Letter
• Internship Cover Letter Examples
• Internship Cover Letter Templates

I’ve seen some creatively designed cover letters, but in my opinion, you can’t go wrong with the traditional business letter format, which you’ll find in our free cover letter templates.

Download our cover letter templates …

Business professionals use this format style to apply for full-time roles and other purposes, so it’s something you can reuse in the future.

Remember to use formal terms such as “Dear” and “Sincerely,” and lean towards a professional tone in your body copy. Even if you know the recruiter personally, always use formal salutations instead of “Hey!” or Hi [name].”

1. Include your name, date, location, and contact information.

Ensure you provide your contact information, such as your phone number, email, and location, on your internship cover letter.

Since you’ll probably be sending your cover letter online (through an email or web form), you don’t need to provide your full home address — your city and state should be enough for most positions.

Your Name

Your Address

Your City, State, Zip Code

Cell: 555-555-5555

Email: [email protected]

Date

2. Include the company name, department, and address.

With your personal information out of the way, it’s time to showcase your research skills a little. Do an internet search to find the full name and address of the company you’re applying to. Try to dig deep to find the department name, but leave it out if you’re unsure.

If the internship will be remote, use the company’s general headquarters address if the internship will be remote.

Department

Company

Street

City, State Zip

3. Address the hiring manager.

Tempted to type “To whom it may concern” or “Dear hiring manager”? In your hunt for an internship position, you’ll stand out from the crowd by being resourceful. So, channel your inner sleuth by tracking down the hiring manager’s name.

You might find their role description on the company website, but if not, your best bet is to look through LinkedIn.

If you can’t find the hiring manager’s name, or you’re unsure if you’re addressing the right person, leave the name out. I think it’s safe to say that sacrificing a bit of personalization is much better than addressing the wrong person in your cover letter.

4. Set the context for your application.

The first paragraph can make or break your internship cover letter and your entire application.

I’ll admit: I’ve always found opening paragraphs tricky, whether they’re for a cover letter, regular email, or a blog post, but they’re essential for creating a strong first impression and engaging the reader.

First, explain how you found out about the company or position. If you know anyone at the company, you can mention them here. Next, express your interest in the company and how it relates to your goals and passions. Also, make sure you get your basic information down, like your name, education level, major, and interests.

Depending on the company and position, you could try a creative approach to get your reader’s attention. Here’s one that worked for me early in my career:

“Can I tell you a secret? I’ve been telling stories since I was five years old. No, not fibbing — real storytelling …”

A word of warning, though: Be sure to research the company’s culture before taking an approach like this. While this opening statement worked well for startups and more laid-back companies, a big accounting firm might find it culturally off-beat.

Pro tip: Geoffrey Scott, hiring manager and certified professional resume writer at Resume Genius, says, “The cover letters that stand out to me are ones where the candidate’s excitement clearly comes through. Of course, the tone must stay professional, but it shouldn’t be dull. When you’re passionate about what you do, it comes through in your cover letter.”

5. Sell your experience and personalize your cover letter.

Your cover letter isn’t supposed to be a summary of your resume, so go deeper and personalize it for your internship application.

To start, read through the specific position’s description and pick out a few qualities that you think apply to you. I don’t recommend choosing all the descriptors mentioned, as it could appear disingenuous and make your cover letter too long.

For instance, if I see a company looking for someone who’s “outgoing, organized, hardworking, and willing to take criticism,” I would pick the qualities that best describe me and focus on providing examples in the body of my cover letter.

You should cover things like:

• Relevant coursework.
• Soft skills (e.g., teamwork, problem-solving).
• Extracurricular activities (e.g., volunteering).
• Work experience (if any).

That said, make sure you tie them to the internship opportunity. For example, you could say, “I understand that this role requires that I consistently meet deadlines. I held down a part-time job while keeping up with my college assignments, which demonstrates my time management skills.”

Pro tip: If you lack relevant experience, use your research and knowledge to show enthusiasm. Daniel Space, a human resources business partner who has worked with companies like Spotify and WebMD, told me he once hired a French major instead of an HR major for an HR internship.

Why? He explains, “Not only did she clearly articulate how she understood the role … she also spent a few sentences describing the company going through a merger and correctly assuming that her work would be in helping with that.”

6. Think about your cover letter’s readers (humans and machines).

According to Jobscan’s research, 487 out of 500 Fortune 500 companies (97.4%) used an Applicant Tracking System in 2023. If you’re not familiar, this is a tool used to streamline hiring tasks.

Why do they matter for internship cover letters? Well, companies use these systems to filter resumes and cover letters based on keywords.

Ben Lamarche, general manager at recruiting firm Lock Search Group, told me that his company screens internship applications using an application tracking system.

When I asked how applicants could get their cover letters seen by a human, he recommended “avoiding excessive formatting, sticking to a basic text layout, and including a few important words from the internship description, such as the precise requirements for skills and knowledge.”

Pro tip: Wondering how long your internship cover letter should be? I recommend you limit it to under a page or around 250 to 400 words. Also, use shorter paragraphs to break up the text.

Here’s what Indrė Padegimienė, talent acquisition specialist at Omnisend, has to say on the matter: “Recruiters are pretty busy people with hundreds of applications to review, so clear and concise communication is key. A five-page cover letter won’t get you a job.”

7. Close the letter with grace and a call to action.

If the internship application does not explicitly state “please do not contact,” you might choose to conclude by specifying how you will follow up, such as, “I will call next week to see if my qualifications are a match,” or “I am eager to meet with you to discuss this opportunity, and am available for an interview at a mutually convenient time.”

In your closing paragraph, thank the hiring manager for taking the time to consider you, and end on a positive, confident note, such as, “I look forward to speaking with you soon.”

Pro tip: You may even go a step further and give the hiring manager a call to action. I don’t think it hurts to include a link to your online portfolio, website, or even a YouTube channel where you display your work and personality.

To see how often hiring managers follow through on your calls to action, track the number of clicks on your link using a URL tracker like Bitly.

8. Proofread, proofread, and proofread.

When I asked Scott (Resume Genius) about the cover letter pitfalls he encounters the most, applicants’ lack of proofreading stood out.

After describing the cover letter mistake of simply summarizing what’s in your resume, he shared, “Another common error that could end up costing you a position is having spelling and grammar mistakes, especially if the internship is for anything that requires close attention to detail, like data entry. This seems obvious, but you wouldn’t believe how often I see it.”

Even with the availability of spell-checking tools like Grammarly, internship applicants still submit cover letters riddled with typos. Let me put it this way: You’ve done the hard part of actually writing your internship cover letter, so don’t let small mistakes put employers off.

Pro tip: Some companies provide AI cover letter generators. You simply input your resume and the job description, and you should get a decent-looking cover letter in seconds.

Just remember that while AI generators can save you time, you should check over everything they produce to ensure the AI hasn’t told any tall tales about your hands-on experience or skill set or made any mistakes. As you’ll see in these ChatGPT-generated internship email examples, caution and revisions are advised.

If you’re still unsure after your check-up, get a friend or classmate to proofread your cover letter for clarity and spelling before you finally sign off on it and hit send.

Writing My Own Internship Cover Letter

Now, I’ll use the tips I gave you above to craft an internship cover letter. In this sample, I will be applying for an event planning position. I start by including my contact information. That includes an address, phone number, and email address.

I also included the recipient’s contact information including the department I’m applying for.

I start with a greeting and the hiring manager’s name. If you can find a direct contact, referring to the person by name is preferred. From there, I mention that I am a referral and mention my contact at the company. I can then introduce myself and discuss relevant school experience relating to the role.

In the next section, I refer to relevant professional experiences. While these may not apply to an event role in corporate, I mention club work that I’ve done that relates to the role. I also reference an orientation job I held at the university that matches the events skillset.

From there, it’s time to wrap up with a conclusion. I also used Preview’s signature function on my Mac to include a handwritten signature followed by a typed version of my name.

Now, let’s explore some other cover letter examples for inspiration.

Internship Cover Letter Examples

To inspire you further, I’ve curated additional internship cover letter examples tailored to different industries and positions. I’ll also explain why each example works and what you can do to evoke a similar response.

1. Hospitality Internship Cover Letter

Why This Cover Letter Example Works

I like that this cover letter demonstrates the applicant’s passion, willingness to learn, and previous industry experience. If I were the hiring manager, I’d shortlist them based on their internship cover letter.

How to Incorporate That Into Your Internship Cover Letter

I recommend you start by analyzing your own transferable skills and experience and seeing how they relate to the internship you’re applying for.

Do you have any examples, facts, or figures that you can include in your letter? This will help the hiring manager understand your interest in the position and give them more of a reason to hire you over the competition.

I often see applicants use statements like, “I helped increase my group’s scores by [X]%.” If you have any figures like this, use them, but be honest about the role you played.

2. Supply Chain Internship Cover Letter

Why This Cover Letter Example Works

I could easily tell that, like many internship applicants, this student had yet to gain professional experience in the field. However, the applicant does a great job of showing enthusiasm for taking on real-world experiences.

They also demonstrate their knowledge of three areas of supply chain management: forecasting, inventory management, and logistics.

How to Incorporate That Into Your Internship Cover Letter

Go through your course notes and write down a list of topics and terms relevant to the internship you’re applying for. After I’ve completed coursework, I sometimes need to remind myself of what I’ve covered.

3. Fashion Design Internship Cover Letter

Why This Cover Letter Example Works

The student wrote a great second paragraph discussing their experience participating in design projects with original pieces that show their “artistic vision.” I also like that the student highlights how their design philosophy aligns well with Sleeves and Thread’s commitment to “pushing boundaries.”

How to Incorporate That Into Your Internship Cover Letter

Do your research on the company you’re applying to. You can compliment them on awards they have won or mention how you would fit well within their company culture.

4. Finance Internship Cover Letter

Why This Cover Letter Example Works

Rebecca takes the time to highlight her skillset, but she also balances her cover letter with reasons why Banking Corporation will be a great fit for her career. She gives plenty of reasons why the company appeals to her, which helps balance the cover letter.

How to Incorporate That Into Your Internship Cover Letter

Don’t be afraid to explain what an internship will do for you. Yes, companies want to know how an intern can help them, but they know you’re mainly there to advance your career.

5. Marketing Internship Cover Letter

Why This Cover Letter Example Works

If you work in marketing or another creative industry, you’ll have more freedom when it comes to drafting your cover letter. Here, Robin takes a novel approach by weaving in colorful language that practically jumps off the page. With just enough pizazz, their personality shines through. I think any marketing hiring manager would be eager to learn more.

How to Incorporate That Into Your Internship Cover Letter

Let your creative side run free! On a blank page (a creative’s nightmare, I know!), type out plenty of eye-catching phrases and sentences to showcase your writing skills. Next, see if you can find the right places to add them to your internship cover letter.

Internship Cover Letter Templates

If, instead of examples, you’d like a jump-off point, don’t worry — I’ve got you covered. Here are some internship cover letter templates to get your creative juices flowing.

Standard Internship Cover Letter Template

This highly customizable internship cover letter is generic but can serve as the foundation for all your applications.

Data-Driven Internship Cover Letter Template

If your major is data-driven, like STEM, marketing, or accounting, I think this is the internship cover letter template for you. With this template, you can include the data highlights of your class projects and assignments to show the hiring manager that you can support your experience with credible facts.

Entry-Level Cover Letter Template

As you approach your senior year of college, you may be looking for entry-level roles rather than internships. Cover letters are just as important for full-time roles as they are for internships, so use this template to make the transition in your job search.

Wrapping Up Your Internship Cover Letter

Worried about not having enough experience or skills to get your preferred internship? Don’t stress over what you haven’t achieved yet — and remember, everyone starts somewhere.

Instead, take stock of your academic and extracurricular achievements and see how you can apply your skills and experience to an internship.

Then, you’re ready to craft a compelling cover letter that shows you’re competent, enthusiastic, and willing to go the extra mile for every position you apply for. Whether you get your preferred internship or not, you’ll be happy that you gave it your best shot.

Advertising communicates the value of your product, services, and brand to the world. The best ads spark interest and ignite a desire for what you offer, build brand awareness, and drive sales.

As a marketer, I’ve learned that the best ads don’t happen by accident. Knowing how to make an ad is about understanding your customer, knowing what medium to use, which metrics matter, and the technical process of creating the ad media.

Ready to start creating ads that get real results? In this guide, I’ll show you how to do it step-by-step. Let’s dive straight in.

Table of Contents

• How to Make an Advertisement
• Start Creating Great Ads Today

Featured Resource: Advertising Planning Templates & Kit

To make your advertising planning easier, use HubSpot’s free Advertising Planning Kit. Included are templates to help you plan and present your ad pitch, schedule your release dates, and inform your stakeholders. We’ve also thrown in an advertising best practices guide to help you choose the advertising method that works best for your business.

1. Define your target audience.

My first step is to clarify who I’m making the ad for. Pinpointing the right audience ensures that my ad cuts through the digital noise to reach people most likely to engage with my product or brand.

I’ve found that the more precisely I define my audience, the better. For example, if I’m promoting a new fitness app, I won’t target a broad audience like “people interested in fitness.” Instead, I’d target ”busy professionals aged 25-40 who are interested in getting fit via high-intensity interval training (HIIT).”

Those details let me create more personalized ads that speak directly to the challenges and interests of my target audience. That personalization helps boost revenues by 5 to 15% according to research from McKinsey.

2. Conduct market research.

After defining my target audience, I need to go deeper into their world. That’s where market research comes in.

Collecting and analyzing data to learn more about my potential customers helps uncover details like their demographics (age, gender, education level, location), psychographics (interests, values, lifestyles), and even their behaviors (purchasing habits, media consumption patterns).

That information helps me answer questions like:

• What is my primary target audience’s age range?
• What are their biggest pain points or challenges?
• What do they spend most of their time doing?
• Where do they live?
• What media or social platforms do they use?
• What types of ads do they commonly see?

There are multiple options for conducting market research. For instance, you can use existing market data, ask them to complete surveys or questionnaires, or even run a focus group.

Baruch Labunski, founder at Rank Secure, suggests an even more hands-on approach: “The best information comes from talking to people in a check-out line. Ask them what they want in a specific product or what would make them buy something.”

HubSpot’s Market Research Kit has everything you need to get started with market research for your ad campaign.

With research in hand, I build profiles of my ideal customers that will influence my decisions moving forward.

These buyer personas are fictionalized profiles that capture my potential customers’ backgrounds, interests, challenges, and how my product, service, or brand adds value to their lives.

My favorite tool to streamline creating buyer personas is HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool.

3. Decide on the ad format.

With my buyer personas to guide me, I need to choose the most effective format(s) to deliver my message. Each format has different strengths and weaknesses, and you may find that using a combination is best for your campaign.

Let’s break down some of the most popular ad formats.

Ad Formats

• Display ads. Appearing in websites and apps, these visual ads are usually served as banner ads or popups. According to Statista, display ads account for 30% of all digital advertising spending in the U.S.
• Video ads. Video’s ability to convey a lot of information quickly makes it popular, and research shows that 91% of businesses use videos as part of their marketing strategy. In fact, video marketing spending is expected to reach $120 billion in 2024. Video ads can be long or short but must be tailored to the advertising platform, whether streaming services, social media, or websites.
• Audio ads. Appearing on audio streaming platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, and Pandora, audio ads are typically 15-30 seconds long and can be music-driven or voice-overs. Like video advertising, audio is growing rapidly, with spending expected to reach $16.09 billion by 2029.
• Influencer marketing ads. Powered by social proof, influencer ads use an influencer discussing or using your product to convince their audience to buy. Influencer ads come in several types, including online videos, product reviews, influencer takeovers on social media, and sponsored content.
• Search engines. These text-based search ads look like a typical search entry plus a “sponsored” note on search engine result pages (SERPs). Because these are usually pay-per-click ads (PPC), how often your ad shows when a person searches for certain phrases or keywords may vary based on what your competition is paying for ads on the same keywords.
• Social media. Social media advertising is one of the fastest-growing advertising channels, with revenue expected to reach $262 billion by 2028. Ads on social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter) are available in several formats. Text, images, videos, carousels, and even sponsored content are available on different networks.
• Podcasts. Often overlooked, podcast advertising is relatively low-cost and reaches a well-targeted audience. Audio ads can be placed before, in the middle, and at the end of episodes, with some podcasts also offering video placements on streaming platforms.

4. Determine the ad’s purpose.

Knowing who I want to reach and how I’ll say it is only part of the battle of how to make an advertisement. Now, I need to know what I want out of the ad.

What is the goal of the ad?

Ad goals usually fall into three categories:

• Brand awareness.
• Product awareness.
• Conversions.

Brand awareness builds a sense of familiarity and positivity with your target audience. The goal is to build credibility for the long term so you can make a sale easier later on. For example, if you say Boeing, most consumers immediately think aircraft.

Product awareness and conversions are both product-focused instead of brand-focused. The main difference is that product awareness focuses on sales later, while conversions focus on making a sale now. For example, limited-time sales promos would be conversion-oriented.

How to Make an Advertisement for a Product vs. for a Brand

When creating an ad for a product, the focus should be on that item. I want to point out the features and benefits of my product rather than just my brand’s overall product category.

Potential customers need to know what the product does and how it helps them. Depending on the product and the platform, I might even create a tutorial showing how to use the product.

In contrast, if I’m building brand awareness, I might talk more about our employees, company culture, history, and value position to build credibility and trust. Brand awareness ads need to connect emotionally for the long term rather than focus on a quick sale.

5. Choose a platform.

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My message’s platform must match the ad format and the target audience’s presence. For example, the perfect ad will fail if I choose a platform my customers don’t use.

HubSpot’s 2024 The State of Marketing report is my favorite tool for helping me narrow down what platform to use for the best ROI.

Use your market research findings (such as where your audience spends the most time online), ad goals (product awareness or brand awareness), and the chosen format to determine the platform that makes the most sense for your ad.

Ad Platforms

Kamel Ben Yacoub, CEO at Getupload, notes that “Paid search platforms like Google Ads are ideal for capturing existing demand from high-intent users actively searching for solutions. Google Users are directly typing the solution they are looking for in the search bar.”

However, social media ads on Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn “are better for generating new demand and awareness reaching users who are not seeking your product but could be interested once they learn about it.”

Pro tip: Don’t restrict yourself to one platform.

For example, my market research might show that my target audience loves X and spends a lot of time on YouTube. A multi-platform approach also casts a wider net, increasing my chances of reaching more of my target audience.

6. Set a budget.

Outside of word-of-mouth advertising, ad campaigns take money, so I must set my budget.

There is no one-size-fits-all budget for ad campaigns. How much to spend depends on the purpose of the ad, the format, the platform, production costs, and how much your brand can afford.

Industry benchmarks and market data can provide a helpful starting point for understanding the average costs associated with different ad formats and platforms, as well as what similar brands are spending. For example, small- to medium-sized businesses spend an average of $1,000 to $7,500 per project on online ads.

Pro tip: Start small and then scale up with time.

Starting with a smaller budget lets you test different strategies, understand what works best for your target audience, and optimize your campaigns before making a larger investment.

Baruch Labunskis suggests that “Too many people want to put all their advertising money into the medium that is the flashiest. Instead, I would suggest stretching your budget further by focusing more of the campaign on the cheaper tools you can run more or longer.”

7. Craft your ad message.

Getting my message right is vital. Not only does the information have to be correct and serve the ad goal, it has to be engaging for the right audience. Even when I use copywriters, I have input into the ad message.

What exactly do I want my ad to say? How do I say it?

Revisit audience insights.

I always revisit my target audience’s needs, desires, and pain points before I draft ad copy. What are their aspirations or greatest desires? What keeps them up at night? By truly understanding their motivations, I can create a message that speaks directly to them and positions my product or service as the ideal solution.

Focus on the benefits.

Lauren Bayne, Founder and CEO of The Creative Brand Refinery, says: “People don’t care about specs; they want to know what problem your product or service solves.”

I always explain how the features translate into tangible benefits. For instance, rather than saying a vacuum cleaner has “strong suction power,” I might say it “cleans in one pass, so you have more time to enjoy the things you love.”

Create an attention-grabbing headline.

TL;DR is real, and your headline is prime real estate with the power to make or break your ad. Use a question, a surprising fact, or a benefit-driven statement to make them stop scrolling and click. My secret for creating killer headlines for ads and landing pages is HubSpot’s Free AI Headline Generator.

Set your product apart from the competition.

Clearly communicating my product’s unique selling proposition (USP) is vital. Why should someone choose my product over the competition? Whether superior quality, exceptional customer service, or unbeatable price, my USP must make a compelling case for why my product is the best choice.

Keep it simple.

Brian Town, CEO and founder of marketing and branding agency Michigan Creative, advises brands to keep the design as simple as possible because “A common pitfall in ad design is cluttering the ad with too much information, which can confuse the message.”

Include a clear call to action (CTA).

Leaving my audience wondering what to do next wastes my ad dollars. I must tell them what I want them to do with a clear and compelling call to action.

Domante Gerdauske, Digital Advertising Team Lead at marketing automation platform Omnisend, says you should always “adjust your CTA to your goals.” For example, for brand awareness, she recommends using “softer CTAs” like “Learn More” or “Visit Our Website.” and leaving “more action-oriented CTAs” for sales campaigns.

Pro tip: Place CTAs carefully.

Don’t let your audience miss a CTA. According to Mike Vanelli, Head Video Producer at Envy: “It should stand out visually and be placed in a contextually relevant spot to draw the user’s eye naturally.”

When I place CTAs, I always try to use a contrasting color scheme or slightly different font to grab attention and place it near a point of interest, like the product image or after a benefit description.

8. Develop or gather creative assets.

Once I have my message, I’ll use visual and auditory elements to support my ad message and capture attention. The type of creative assets you need will depend on the ad format and the platform but can include:

• Photography.
• Voice.
• Music.
• Video.
• Sound effects.
• GIFs.
• Animations.

Tools like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Audition can help you edit these creative assets, or you can use a creative tool like Canva that includes drag-and-drop templates.

Another option is to use stock assets, either royalty-free, rights-managed, or copyright-free, that you can incorporate into your ads. However, remember to ensure that releases are available for any recognizable people and places in the assets.

Popular stock asset sources include:

• Stock photos and illustrations. Shutterstock, Pixabay, and iStock.
• Stock video footage and audio. Pond5, Pexels Videos, and Videvo.
• Music and sound effects. AudioJungle, Free Music Archive, and Epidemic Sound.

If your budget allows it, you can hire freelancers or a professional agency for video editing, photography, sound mixing, and copywriting.

9. Create a test mock-up.

I always test ads before launching a campaign. I recommend this step because:

• Ad designs may not work in all formats. Mock-ups help me visualize an ad’s appearance on the chosen platform and identify potential issues. For example, a horizontal video might not crop well to vertical.
• It helps me spot errors. A mock-up is a quick way to spot errors like off-brand messaging and colors.
• Feedback is critical. I can show the mock-up to colleagues or test audiences for feedback. Their constructive criticism helps me identify areas where the message isn‘t clear or the visuals aren’t engaging so I can make adjustments to ensure a high-quality final product.

10. Create the final ad.

Now, it’s time to bring the ad to life by combining all your developed elements into a cohesive piece ready to run. If you have a rough draft from the previous step, this is where you polish and refine it. That might include tightening the copy, fine-tuning the visuals, and basically ensuring everything flows smoothly.

Again, you can choose a DIY approach using tools like Canva or Photoshop or outsource the ad’s creation to a freelancer or professional ad agency.

How to make a simple video ad in Canva.

To create a simple video you can run on a platform like YouTube or social media using Canva, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Canva and type “Video Ads” into the search field.

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Step 2: Browse Canva’s library of video templates to find one that matches your vision, style, and platform formatting.

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Step 3: Customize the template. Canva’s video ad templates come with pre-designed elements like text boxes, images, video clips, and music. You can replace these elements with your own content.

• Upload your visual elements: Click on Uploads and select your desired file. Then, drag and drop it onto the template. Canva also offers a library of free and premium stock assets. Just be sure to read the licensing terms before use.

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• Replace text placeholders: Click on the placeholder text and replace it with your copy.

Step 4: Edit the fonts and colors to reflect your brand style and identity by clicking Styles.

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Step 5: (Optional) Enhance your video with animations, other visual effects, and audio.

Step 6: Click the play button to preview your video ad and ensure everything looks and sounds good. Adjust the visuals, text, or audio elements as needed.

Step 7: Once satisfied, download your video ad in your preferred format and resolution.

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11. Check the small details.

The smallest details can impact ad success. Picture this: you’ve crafted a fantastic ad for a concert your company is hosting. You’ve identified your target audience, developed a compelling message, and included a clear call to action.

However, one crucial detail is missing: the ad doesn‘t mention where or when the event is happening. While viewers might click through to your website for specifics, there’s no guarantee they’ll take that extra step and buy a ticket without details first.

So, before releasing my ad, I always do a final check to ensure I’ve not overlooked any crucial details that could prevent viewers from taking action.

12. Determine how to measure success.

The final action I take before officially launching my ad is defining how to track results. I know what I want to achieve from Step 4, but I need to measure it.

I take the overarching goal I defined earlier and break it down into specific, measurable objectives. For example, suppose my goal is building brand awareness. In that case, I might define success as reaching a specific number of people with my ad on a relevant platform.

If my goal is sales, I might define success as a certain number of sales generated through ad clicks or by the use of a promo code.

Determine key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics you’ll track to measure progress or success. KPI examples include:

• Impressions. The number of times your ad is displayed.
• Clicks. The number of times users click on your ad.
• Click-through-rate. The percentage of people who see your ad and click on it.
• Conversion rate. The percentage of people who see your ad and complete a desired action.

Don’t get overwhelmed, and try to track every possible metric. Focus on a handful that directly align with your ad campaign goals for better results. Personally, I like to focus on no more than three KPIs per campaign.

13. Launch your ad.

Now’s the moment of reckoning — putting your ad out there for the world to see. How you launch your ad will be different for each platform.

I like to review each platform’s steps frequently to ensure I have all the details covered. Here are some of my favorite resources for launching ads on traditional and social media advertising platforms:

• How to Launch a Facebook Ad
• How to Launch a LinkedIn Ad
• How to Launch an Instagram Ad
• How to Launch an X (Twitter) Ad
• How to Launch a YouTube Ad
• How to Launch a Google Ad
• How to Launch a TV Ad
• How to Launch a Billboard Ad

14. Track and analyze performance.

The work isn’t over after I’ve launched my ad. While the ad runs, I need to analyze and track its performance, focusing specifically on the metrics I defined earlier.

Thankfully, most digital platforms — including search engines, social media platforms, and display networks — have built-in analytics tools that make it extremely easy to measure and track most of these metrics, including impressions, clicks, and conversions.

For those that don’t have these inbuilt analytics, most easily integrate with external tracking and ad management tools, including my favorite, HubSpot’s own Ad Management Software.

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By closely monitoring an ad‘s performance, I can determine whether it’s meeting my goals and identify areas for improvement. Analyzing data over time reveals patterns and trends that help me optimize future ad campaigns for even better results.

15. Continuously optimize your ad.

Many platforms have the ability to tweak ads during their run.

I might slightly adjust the ad copy, test new visuals, refine audience targeting, or adjust spending. For example, if I run multiple ads and one starts going viral, I’ll shift some budget away from other ads and put more into the popular one.

Another powerful technique I recommend is A/B testing. For A/B testing, I create several versions of my ad with different headlines, images, and CTAs and run them at the same time to see which works better.

Over time, those results help me identify the winning elements and optimize my future ad campaigns for maximum impact.

Start Creating Great Ads Today

Well-crafted ads can do wonders for your business, but the best ads require careful planning and strategic execution.

Don’t wait longer to unlock the power of effective advertising. Use our comprehensive “how to make an advertisement” guide to create eye-catching ads that produce positive outcomes for your brand.

Every time I visit my favorite coffee shop, the barista gives me a smile, nods, and brings my go-to order in a few minutes. It’s a relationship built on trust and loyalty. Imagine if all your customers felt the same about your brand.

In crowded markets where buyers are spoilt for choice, gaining consumer confidence can help you become a trusted name. This confidence will ultimately influence buying decisions and drive business growth.

In this article, I’ll explain consumer confidence and provide actionable tips for increasing this index for your business.

We’ll cover:

• What is consumer confidence?
• How is consumer confidence measured?
• Why is consumer confidence important?
• How to Increase Consumer Confidence in Your Business

What is consumer confidence?

Consumer confidence measures the degree of optimism customers feel about spending money on purchases. It predicts economic conditions for upcoming months based on consumers’ financial situation and willingness to spend or save money.

If people are optimistic about their finances, they’ll likely spend more and drive economic growth. But if they feel pessimistic, they’ll minimize spending, leading to a slowdown.

Here are three pillars for businesses to build consumer confidence and gain customer loyalty:

• Honesty. When brands choose authenticity over popularity and keep their messaging transparent, they set the right expectations for potential buyers. This creates a more truthful buying experience where consumers aren’t worried about being scammed or getting low-quality products/services.
• Trust. Trust is an extension of the honesty pillar. For consumers to trust your business, you have to make realistic promises and deliver on all promises — right from deals and discounts to timely delivery and customer support. This ultimately leads to greater satisfaction and healthy relationships, translating into customer loyalty.
• Consistency. To retain consumer confidence, you need to consistently deliver premium-quality products/services. This is a big part of building your reputation as a trusted, high-quality brand, which allows people to make more confident buying decisions.

Now that we’ve cleared the basics, let’s understand how consumer confidence is measured and why it matters to your business.

How is consumer confidence measured?

The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) is an economic indicator where the Conference Board measures people’s financial behaviors and willingness to spend.

The board surveys around 5,000 households in the U.S. to assess their attitudes toward spending or saving. Then, they release a monthly report providing insights about the economic conditions and predictions for the coming months.

Here’s how the CCI is measured in different phases:

• Survey creation. The CCI survey includes five questions about people’s present situation and future expectations. Respondents can choose from three options to answer a question: positive, negative, or neutral.
• Relative value calculation. After all the data is collected, the positive responses for each question are divided by the sum of all positive + negative responses. This gives the relative value for every question, which is compared against the relative values from 1985 (the original benchmark for CCI).
• Interpretation. The average of the relative value of all five questions becomes the Consumer Confidence Index. The index value of >100 indicates a high confidence level and economic growth. On the other hand, an index value below 100 signals a slowdown with a low willingness to spend.

With this detailed breakdown of the Consumer Confidence Index, it’s time to address the big question: Does CCI even matter for businesses?

Why is consumer confidence important?

Consumer confidence can directly impact business growth. A high confidence index means people are willing to spend more and increase consumption. This can improve sales, increase revenue, create employment, and create a sustainable growth loop.

If you’re wondering about CCI’s impact on your business, here are four ways a high confidence index can benefit businesses:

• Higher sales and revenue. When people feel financially secure, they’re more eager to spend money. This can unlock new revenue streams for businesses and drive more conversions.
• Business expansion. A consistently positive buying sentiment means businesses will have enough cash flow to expand their operations. You can hire more employees, open a new branch, enter new markets, or add more product lines/services.
• Greater customer loyalty. High CCI also promises customer retention because customers can continue to shop from brands they trust. You have the opportunity to create long-term relationships with repeat buyers.
• Stable workforce. Another big benefit for companies operating in a high-confidence climate is the ability to stabilize their workforce. You don’t have to hire rapidly or lay people off, and instead focus on mutual growth.

Put simply, the CCI can have a domino effect on the economy and your business. A positive index can create opportunities for hypergrowth, but a negative index can push you into a slump.

So, what can you do to increase people’s confidence in your brand? Let’s find out.

How to Increase Consumer Confidence in Your Business

I spent days researching what businesses need to build and maximize consumer confidence. Here are four best practices for increasing people’s confidence in your brand.

1. Maintain an authentic brand image.

The higher the degree of trust people have in your brand, the more likely they will buy from you. You can cultivate this trust in a few ways. Let’s break them down.

Transparency

Give people an unfiltered, unedited view of how you build your products or deliver your services. For example, if you’re a B2B SaaS company, you can talk about the behind-the-scenes process of building, and if you’re an ecommerce brand, you can talk about how your products are made.

In this post, Cosmix highlights how its product is different from most on the market because it’s made with real vanilla. This video gives you a glimpse of its manufacturing process.

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Brand Values

Of consumers, 84% buy from brands whose values align with theirs. People will resonate more with your brand when they know you’re committed to making an impact in society. So, spotlight your values at different touchpoints in the buyer journey so buyers can trust your brand.

Take a page from H&M‘s book with their message about sustainability and mission to build a circular economy.

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Social Proof

Building social proof is another great way to establish consumer trust. That’s because people trust brands when they hear a friend or acquaintance endorsing them. You can work on word-of-mouth marketing or strategically use social proof to win consumers’ confidence.

Creating a trustworthy brand image is a good place to start your efforts to increase consumer confidence. Once the foundations are set, you can implement these best practices to double down on this progress.

2. Simplify the buying experience.

With so many options available to your target buyers, you can’t afford to make any mistakes in the buying experience. The slightest friction in this journey can send people away, looking for alternatives.

That’s why you have to make the buying process as simple and seamless as possible.

Here’s a handy checklist I created after observing some of the most effective buying journeys from discovery to purchase:

• Website navigation. Make your website so easy to navigate that people can shop even while asleep. Instead of frustratingly searching, it should give customers what they need in a few clicks.
• Clear pricing details. Be transparent and share your pricing information upfront to help people make an informed buying decision. You should also avoid complex price points to avoid confusion.
• On-demand support. Offer round-the-clock support or create a self-serve support model for people to find relevant answers whenever they need.
• Convenient checkout. Make checkout a breeze without asking people to jump through hoops. You can also add a guest checkout option for quick orders.
• Multiple payment options. Given that at least 15% of consumers expect high payment diversification, you should add various payment options to maximize conversions. Here’s an example of Cleartrip offering various payment methods:

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3. Embrace consultative selling.

The rule of thumb for modern businesses: People don’t like being sold to. Gone are the days when pushy sales tactics could close deals and drive sales. Today, customers expect a more meaningful relationship with brands.

You have to focus on solving actual pain points instead of blatantly promoting your product/service. That’s called consultative selling, a needs-based selling approach in which you act as a helpful advisor, trying to provide tailored solutions and build a relationship.

Here are a few ways to leverage consultative selling to increase consumer confidence:

• Listen intently to your audience and understand their pain points.
• Share user-generated content to contextualize your solution for their use cases.
• Ask questions and encourage people to open up about their challenges + expectations.
• Share helpful resources tailored to specific challenges to educate and guide customers.
• Proactively support customers after purchase to solve queries and ask for feedback.

This post by Fable&Mane presents a great example of an existing customer showing how she uses one of their products and how it’s benefitted her.

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4. Deliver empathetic support.

Customer support is a critical link in building consumer confidence. If you want people to continue buying from your business, you have to focus equally on their post-purchase experience.

You can start by training your support team to listen carefully, validate people’s feelings, and respond with empathy. As part of the training program, you can host roleplay sessions, create support materials, and run mock sessions to help the team inculcate this message.

Besides direct support, communities are among the best channels to deliver support and delight customers. Our Consumer Trends Report suggests that 19% of respondents joined an online community, and at that same time, 24% actively participated in one. A thriving community can become a channel for support and turn into a growth lever.

You can also leverage social channels to deliver proactive support and address grievances.

Chewy’s support team presents an excellent example of how it’s done. They engage with people mentioning them on social channels and go the extra mile to help customers.

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Maximize Consumer Confidence in Your Brand

Gaining consumer confidence isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore. You need to strengthen your brand reputation and consistently deliver value to your buyers to win their trust.

I’ve outlined different ways in which a positive Consumer Confidence Index can help businesses. You can also strategize to get started with these best practices to increase confidence in your brand and delight customers through consultative selling, seamless checkout journeys, and round-the-clock support.

As a youngster, way back in 2010, I remember watching a YouTube video that fascinated me.

I was learning to play the keyboard at the time and came across an upload by MysteryGuitarMan that lets you play a song by clicking on piano keys displayed on the screen. My song of choice? “Mary had a little lamb,” a classic for beginners.

This interaction was possible due to YouTube annotations, a feature that opened up novel avenues for creativity and conversions on the platform. Although no longer available today, other tools have come to the fore.

In this article, I’ll cover:

• What were YouTube Annotations?
• What are YouTube Cards?
• What is a YouTube End Screen?
• How to Add YouTube Cards
• How to Add a YouTube End Screen
• YouTube Cards and End Screen Best Practices

What were YouTube Annotations?

YouTube annotations were an in-built feature introduced in 2008 that let creators layer text and links on their video, typically displayed on-screen for a specific duration. This opened up a variety of interactive options — to add remarks, title videos, prompt subscriptions, link to social channels/websites, highlight merchandise, include dialogue in thought balloons, and even create pick-your-own-ending storylines.

You could develop annotations from within the platform using the annotations editor. There were five types of annotations to choose from: speech bubble, note, title, label, and spotlight.

However, these were properly viewable only on desktop devices, not on mobile. With the proliferation of smartphones, among other factors, YouTube sunsetted its annotations editor in 2017 and ceased displaying earlier annotations on videos in 2019. YouTube cards and end screens have taken their place.

What are YouTube Cards?

YouTube cards, or info cards, are narrow clickable boxes — urging viewers to take a specific action — that appear near the upper edge of the screen for a short duration while a video is playing. Launched in 2015, it comes as a built-in feature within YouTube Studio that lets creators add these elements to videos. There are four types of cards currently available: video, playlist, channel, or link.

Here’s an overview of what each type does, according to the YouTube Help Center:

While not as versatile as YouTube annotations, the main draw is that cards work smoothly on mobile devices and offer a clutter-free viewing experience (taking up a small portion of the screen). Creators can use cards to share related videos, provide additional resources, or even promote certain websites (for those in YouTube’s Partner Program), all while the primary video is going on.

Here’s a look at a YouTube card on the HubSpot Marketing channel (check out the top right corner from 02:15 to 02:20):

What is a YouTube End Screen?

A YouTube end screen lets creators place a single or multiple defined call-to-actions (CTAs) in the final 5-20 seconds of a video. Introduced in 2016, a year after cards, this tool helps drive continued audience involvement.

There are different types of elements you can include on an end screen. Here’s a look at what they are straight from the horse’s mouth, or in other words, the YouTube Help Center:

A key difference between YouTube annotations and an end screen lies in the name itself. An end screen can only be placed toward the close of the video, while annotations could be included throughout. End screens are also more structured, mobile-friendly, and can’t be turned off, unlike annotations. However, annotations offered greater functionality in terms of creative use cases.

Below is an example of a YouTube end screen (08:03 onwards). It features a link to the channel’s latest upload, a subscription button, and a link to a resource center.

How To Add YouTube Cards

Step 1: Log into your YouTube account.

Click on your account’s profile picture (in the top right corner next to the notification bell) and then YouTube Studio.

Step 2: Prepare your video.

This step will vary depending on whether you’re uploading a new video or adding a YouTube Card to an already-published video on your channel.

For a new video:

• Click on “CREATE,” the button with a video camera icon next to it on the top right corner of the page. Then, select “upload videos” from the drop-down menu.
• Upload your file and fill in the necessary information about the video in the “Details” window that pops up — such as title, description, audience, and image thumbnail. Then, click on “Next,” and the “Video elements” tab will open. Choose “Add cards.”

For an already-published video:

• Click on “Content” from the menu on the left. Then, click on the title of the video you wish to add the cards to.
• Scroll, and you’ll see a button that reads “Cards.” Click on it.

Step 3: Choose the type of card.

Next, a window will pop up where you can identify the particular content piece you wish to link out to.

Step 4: Enter teaser text and a custom message.

Remember, each has a limit of 30 characters. Then, use the timeline to move the card to a specific time in your video and the zoom buttons to position it accurately.

Preview how the card will appear. Then, repeat steps three and four to add all the cards you want (there’s a limit of five per video). Finally, click on “Save.” And voila, you’re done!

How To Add a YouTube End Screen

Step 1: Follow steps one and two from the section on how to add YouTube Cards.

The only difference arises in the final part of step two — select “end screen” instead of “cards.” So, if you’re uploading a new video, click on “Add” next to the “Add an end screen” option on the “Video elements” window. And if you’re working on an already-published one, choose “End screen” (see image below).

Step 2: Choose your end screen.

You can choose to import an end screen from a video already on your channel or create a fresh one. To use a pre-existing end screen, click “Import from video” and then pick the one with your desired end screen.

Alternatively, create a new end screen by choosing any of the available templates or customizing your own. Click on “Element” in the top left corner, and choose from a video, playlist, channel, subscription button, or link (for YouTube Partner Program members). Then, fill in the necessary details. You can add multiple end-screen elements by selecting the “Element” option again.

Step 3: Check out the preview.

The preview window lets you refine the end screen further. Reposition elements by using your cursor to drag and drop, and resize video elements if required. You can also use the timeline to adjust the duration of each element.

Once you’re happy with the final result, click on “Save.”

YouTube Cards and End Screen Best Practices

Here are some tips to consider when creating a YouTube Card or an End Screen:

1. Conceptualize your end screen during the writing process.

This has two benefits:

• It gives you the freedom to get creative.
• It allows you to take control of the video narrative and let it seamlessly transition into the end screen.

“Unfortunately, most creators just slap the end-screen onto any new video with the hopes that viewers will click through. If creators really want to get more clicks on an end screen, they should verbally explain why the next video is particularly relevant,” says Matt Koval, founder of YouTube consulting firm Creator Dynamics, who also worked within YouTube for close to ten years.

In other words, Koval says, they should pitch the viewer on why it makes perfect sense to watch this video next.

2. Consider featuring cards in the second half of your video.

There’s a simple reason behind this.

Liron Segev, YouTube growth and security strategist (with over one million subscribers on his YouTube channel), explains, “Cards need to be strategically placed because if the viewer is interested in that topic, they will abandon the current video to check out the playlist, channel, video, or link in the card.”

This could be a bad signal for the current video, Segev says. It can seem like the video didn’t satisfy the audience (due to abandonment rates). “Therefore, it is advisable not to place cards in the first half of the video so that the audience doesn’t leave before consuming at least 50% of the video,” Segev notes.

3. Follow basic design principles.

Providing a good user experience is critical to get viewers to engage with your content. And good design lends to that. Here are some principles to keep in mind when creating cards and end screens:

• Branding and customization. A strong brand identity helps increase recall value. You can create a custom background video — complete with your channel’s brand elements like color, font, text, graphics, and icons — for your end screen to provide that ‘wow’ factor. However, also ensure a smooth transition from the main content to the end screen.
• Balance and readability. Provide sufficient whitespace on your end screen to let your CTAs shine through. Preview it before going live to ensure it displays well. When it comes to short videos, limit the number of cards you include, to ensure the audience doesn’t get overwhelmed.
• Relevance. Would you click on a card that prompts you to view a playlist of funny cat videos while watching a video on sales plan templates. Likely not (unless you’re a sucker for cats, like me). Jokes aside, it’s vital to recommend content and CTAs relevant to your video for a higher click-through rate.

4. Be strategic about your call-to-actions on the end screen.

Imagine you reach an end screen with four equally-sized elements — asking you to watch a video, subscribe, check out a playlist, or purchase a product. There’s likely going to be some friction in your mind about which choice to select. Compare this to an end screen with just one or two elements.

The goal of an end screen is to get a conversion. So think about the primary action you want the viewer to take after watching your video and shine the spotlight on it. For multiple elements, you can follow the principle of visual hierarchy to draw attention to your CTAs in order of importance.

5. Use the pointer finger to direct audience attention to your end screen.

Let’s suppose the main CTA on your end screen is a relevant video. “When ending the current video, physically point where the end screen video element would be placed, while advising the audience why they should watch it.

Both the words and the physical action of pointing tend to result in more clicks,” says Liron.

Want to up your YouTube game further? Check out our free YouTube Marketing Course on HubSpot Academy.

Beyond the Video: Leveraging YouTube Cards and End Screens Well

YouTube Cards and End Screens are potent tools in a creator’s arsenal to increase channel watch time, boost audience interaction, and persuade viewers to take your desired action. Clicks, subs, conversions — that’s what you can get with well-planned cards and end screens!

Explore the simple tips mentioned above to get started. Then, observe the analytics and iterate as needed.

Research shows that company swag can be a highly effective tool for boosting engagement. In fact, in one recent study, 61% of survey respondents agreed that promotional products help build brand awareness, and 58% reported that they loved getting swag.

That being said, through my experience as the head of marketing at two different tech companies, I’ve found that not all swag is equally well-received. What does it take to make sure that you invest in creating swag that people will actually like?

In this article, I’ll start by explaining what company swag is and how to order it, and then I’ll dive into some of my favorite ideas for company swag.

What is Company Swag?

Broadly speaking, “swag” refers to any kind of gift or product that companies give away for free in order to drive engagement and brand awareness.

In many cases, swag is used as a sales tool. For example, giving gifts to clients can be a great way to make sure existing customers feel valued — and to keep your brand top-of-mind. Similarly, many companies give out small, branded items such, as pens or pencils, to prospective customers at conferences or other events.

However, swag isn’t just a sales tool. Another important application of company swag is as a tool for retention and employee engagement.

Whether as a welcome gift for new employees, a holiday gift for an entire team, or a congratulations gift for team members who’ve reached an anniversary milestone, giving employees swag helps them feel appreciated.

Plus, if the swag is something they can use or wear in their day-to-day lives — like a water bottle or hoodie with your company’s logo — it allows them to serve as ambassadors of the company wherever they go.

How to Order Swag

Clearly, company swag can be hugely valuable — but it’s also easy to get it wrong. Specifically, when it comes to ordering swag, it’s vital to make sure to consider the budget you can afford to invest, the quantity of swag items you’ll need, the best vendors to work with, and the lead time it’ll take.

Budget

The first important consideration to keep in mind is budget. While you may be tempted to launch straight into designing and ordering your swag, I’ve learned firsthand that it’s critical to start by making sure you know how much you can spend on the project.

In some organizations, there is already an established budget for swag, whether on a monthly or annual basis. That said, even if the budget is set, it’s still essential to avoid making assumptions: I recommend getting explicit approval for the exact amount you plan to spend to avoid running into problems or misaligned expectations down the line.

In other cases, there may not be a predefined budget. For example, I worked with a startup that had never ordered swag before, so my boss wasn’t sure how much we should be spending on it.

If you don’t have a budget, you can benchmark against other major line items in your team’s budget, do some online research, and ask for input from colleagues to get a sense of what would be reasonable.

Then, you can share that estimate with the relevant decision-makers — and again, be sure to get explicit approval before clicking “buy.”

Quantity

The next question you’ll need to think about is quantity. How many shirts, hats, or pens do you need? Answering this question will depend on how you intend to use the swag.

If you want to get something for every employee on your team or in your department, start by counting the number of expected recipients. Remember to account for potential new additions to the team, as well as some extras, in case you’ve forgotten anyone.

Alongside the number of recipients, there’s also the question of timing. When I’ve ordered swag in the past, it’s sometimes for a single, one-off event, but more often, I’ve planned to use a single order of swag for multiple events.

For example, if you’re buying branded water bottles for new employees, it probably doesn’t make sense to just buy enough for your current cohort of new hires. Instead, it may be worth estimating how many new hires you expect to have over the next six months or even the next year, and getting enough swag to last you through several cohorts.

Vendors

Once you’ve determined how much you can spend and the rough amount of swag you’ll need, it’s time to start thinking about vendors. There are countless options for swag vendors, all of whom offer different types of products at different price points and quality levels.

If you’re not sure where to start, a quick Google search can get you some initial options. In addition, I always recommend asking friends or coworkers for their advice. They may be able to tell you about a vendor that you wouldn’t have found on your own, and input from someone you trust can help boost your confidence that the vendor will deliver as promised.

Plus, some vendors offer referral deals and discounts, potentially saving both you and your colleague some cash.

Lead Time

Finally, don’t forget about lead time, or the time it will take for a vendor to make and ship your swag to you. This is especially important if you’ve got a hard deadline, like a conference or holiday party where you plan to give out the swag.

In my experience, you’re unlikely to find a vendor who can offer a lead time of less than 5-10 business days — so make sure to plan ahead, and build some extra buffer time into your schedule in case of delays.

Best Company Swag Ideas

All right, so you’ve set a budget, decided on quantity, chosen a vendor, and accounted for lead time. But what exactly should you order? Below, I’ve shared some of my favorite company swag ideas, from apparel to wellness and beyond.

Apparel

One of the biggest benefits of apparel is that if employees like the swag, they’ll wear it for years, spreading awareness of your brand everywhere they go. Here are some of my favorite options for apparel swag.

Hats

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Who doesn’t need a hat? One of the lower-cost types of apparel, hats are always a popular swag option. If you’re in a warmer climate, try baseball caps, and if you’re somewhere with colder weather, beanies may be more appreciated.

T-Shirts

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Branded T-shirts are another great giveaway. They’re also a good option if you’re looking to get a bit more creative with your design, since there’s plenty of room to include not just your logo, but a custom slogan or other design elements.

Hoodies

If you’ve got a bit more budget, everyone loves a nice, cozy hoodie. These are an especially good idea if your team is based somewhere with colder weather, or if your office tends to have the air conditioning cranked up.

Socks

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Socks are a fun swag idea that also offer loads of customization options. Beyond just adding your logo or other designs, you can also think about different styles. Would your employees appreciate fuzzy socks? Extra-long socks? The possibilities are endless.

Jackets

A high-quality jacket is another swag item I’ve found is often a big hit. In fact, I know people who have kept wearing their company-branded jackets years after leaving the job! Especially for people in colder-weather locations, jackets or coats are often very much appreciated.

Sunglasses

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In contrast, if you’re based someplace with plenty of sun, consider looking into custom sunglasses. You can get glasses in your brand colors, and you can also have your logo or slogan printed on the sides.

Sunglasses may be especially popular if your employees spend time outside while on the job, or if your team enjoys outdoor activities in their time off.

Productivity

The next category of swag ideas is related to productivity. These are items that employees might choose to take home, but they can also use them while in the office.

Sticky Notes

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A classic swag item, sticky notes are something we all need — just make sure you choose ones that are big enough that they will actually be useful.

Pens 

You can never have enough pens! Pens are a great option to keep your company top-of-mind every time an employee writes something down.

Pencils

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For employees who prefer something erasable, branded pencils are another low-cost swag option that are always appreciated.

Erasers

While a little less common than pens and pencils, erasers are one of my favorite swag ideas. They can come in almost any size, shape, or color, giving you countless customization options, and they’re both affordable and universally useful.

Mouse Pads

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While a lot of productivity items are fairly small, mouse pads give you a decent amount of real estate to work with, giving you a lot more flexibility and space to include custom designs.

Travel

Another one of my favorite categories of swag is travel items. After all, whether I’m just taking the train into the office or embarking on an international flight, I always need travel items to help with the journey.

Tote Bag

Tote bags can be a versatile option for coming to work, heading to the gym, or going on a longer trip. Plus, they’re big enough to include some larger artwork, beyond just a company logo or slogan.

Travel Mug

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Are your employees big coffee or tea drinkers? If so, a travel mug is sure to be a hit. Make sure you get one with good reviews, though, since the last thing you want is people associating your company with spilling hot coffee all over themselves on the drive to work.

Water Bottle

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Give your people the gift of hydration! Whether they keep it on their desk, take it to the gym, or carry it in their bag, everyone needs a water bottle to help them stay hydrated throughout the day.

Lunch Box

While you might not have used a lunch box since grade school, this is a unique swag option that can make a big impact. A lunch box is also more versatile than you might think. Some employees might just use it to carry their lunch to work, but others might take it to the park for a picnic, or even use it as a mini cooler for a beach day.

Beach Towel

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If you’re looking for a swag option with maximum real estate for your creative designs and imagery, look no further — not only is a beach towel fun and useful, but it gives you all the space you could want for a large, custom design.

Wellness

Swag isn’t just about free stuff. It’s about showing people they matter. And how better to send that message than with swag that’s focused on supporting their health and wellness? Here are some of my favorite wellness-related swag ideas.

Lip Balm

Help your employees stave off chapped lips with a branded lip balm. You can add a custom logo or slogan on the side of the tube, reminding people of your brand every time they take it out.

Tissue Packs

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Many people carry around a pack of tissues in their bag or purse. So why not replace it with a custom-designed package? This is a useful gift that’s small enough to travel easily, but a little more substantial and unusual than a lip balm.

Fidget Spinners

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In recent years, fidget spinners have become massively popular. That said, they’re still a relatively uncommon swag gift, so offering a branded fidget spinner can be a great way to stand out from the crowd.

Stress Balls

A classic swag gift, stress balls are a low-cost yet highly versatile option. They can come in virtually any color, size, or shape, and some companies even develop custom stress balls in a unique shape that’s relevant to their business.

Hand Sanitizer

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Especially in the post-Covid era, hand sanitizer has become an increasingly appreciated gift. Encourage your people to stay healthy while also keeping each other safe with a custom bottle of hand sanitizer.

Tech

Finally, if your organization enjoys tech and gadgets, it may be worth looking into tech swag options. Some of these can get a little pricey, but there are also plenty of low-cost options to consider.

Power Bank

We’ve all been there: You pull out your phone to check a message or make an important call while on the go, only to discover that the battery’s dead. A portable power bank can be a real lifesaver, and there are plenty of low-cost ones on the market if budget is a concern.

Mini Speaker

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If you’re open to spending a bit more money, a custom-branded mini speaker is another great, techy swag gift. This might be an especially fitting gift for a company in the audio industry, or for an employee who’s a big music buff.

Charging Cable

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A lower-cost option, phone charging cables are always useful. They don’t offer too much room for customization, but you can include a logo or small image, as well as exploring options for colors aligned with your branding.

Headphones

From cheap, wired headphones to advanced, noise-canceling headphones or earbuds, headphones offer a wide range of price points and quality levels to choose from. They’re also useful in a wide range of settings, from playing music to help you concentrate at work to listening to an audiobook on your commute home.

USB Drive

Finally, USB drives are another low-cost swag idea that can easily be customized with your logo and brand colors. USB drives are also useful in a wide range of contexts, and if an employee uses it to store important files, they’ll likely be looking at it every day!

Align Your Company Swag with Your Company Culture

At the end of the day, the most important factor to consider when ordering company swag is your company’s culture. The best swag aligns not just with your brand colors and style guide, but with the culture of your organization.

For example, if you’re a wellness-focused organization, wellness-related swag gifts may be appropriate. In contrast, if your team is highly technical, techy swag may be more appreciated. It’s all about understanding the culture of your organization, and then identifying the best kinds of swag for your unique team.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Whether you’re delivering a huge presentation or hosting a webinar, a touch of humor works like a charm to delight your audience. Plus, a joke here and there can convey a fun and creative company culture.

I always use marketing jokes as an ice-breaker to start a conversation in a group or keep things breezy in the middle of a serious discussion.

No matter how corny you sound, you can catch people’s attention and create a fun impression — especially when you’re cracking niche jokes about marketers. I’ve rounded up 26 marketing jokes that you can keep up your sleeve for your next big meeting or networking event.

26 Marketing Jokes for Your Amusement

One-liner marketing jokes can instantly make people laugh and put you in the limelight. With this list of jokes I’ve handpicked myself, you don’t even have to try hard to be funny.

Just memorize the ones you love, and you’re all set to make quite an impression in your next meeting. My only tip: Don’t shy away from being cheesy!

And don’t forget to check our collection of the funniest commercials of all time for an extra dose of comedic inspiration.

Digital Marketing Jokes

1. What do you call a landing page with a high bounce rate?

A takeoff page.

2. Why don’t marketers make good chefs?

Because they’re too obsessed with serving ads rather than actual cooking.

3. Why are some marketers bad at catching fish?

Because they’re only trying top-of-funnel tactics.

4. What did one prospective lead say to the marketer?

Catch me if you can!

5. What’s a marketer’s favorite drink?

Brand-y!

6. How did Yoda get his first lead?

He used the Sales Force.

7. Why would marketers make good football players?

Because they’re good at “converting” opportunities.

8. Why do marketers hate trampoline parks?

Because the bounce rate is so high!

9. Why did the marketer’s fiance call off their wedding?

Because he printed “call-to-action” cards instead of save-the-date cards.

10. Why does it take marketers so long to order a pizza?

Because they have to run A/B tests to choose the best toppings.

SEO Jokes

11. Why did the SEO expert cross the road?

To get to the first page.

12. Why did the SEO expert join the highway patrol?

Because they love heavy traffic!

13. What do an SEO marketer, a fitness freak, and a gardener have in common?

They all prefer the “organic” stuff.

14. Where do SEOs go to cry?

On the second page of Google, where nobody can find them.

15. Why don’t SEO experts and military men get along?

Because they’re both vying for better ranks.

16. What did SEOs dress up as for Halloween?

404 Error Pages!

Social Media Marketing Jokes

17. Why did the social media marketer go to the hospital?

He wanted to get viral (ideas).

18. What’s the difference between LinkedIn and a comedy club?

Comedians share at least some true stories, while on LinkedIn, it’s all made up.

19. Why would Sherlock Holmes make a good social media marketer?

Because he’s good at stalking other people.

20. How does a social media marketer stay cool during a crisis?

They just keep refreshing their feed until it blows over!

21. Why do social media marketers go to therapy?

To cope with their fear of creating unfunny memes.

22. Why did the social media marketer join the book club?

Because they heard it’s a good place to find “lit”erary captions for memes.

Content Writing Jokes

23. Three content writers walk into a bar.

They don’t get a drink because they already have too many open tabs.

24. How did Harry Potter become a content writer?

He used his skills in spell-checking!

25. Why do content writers feel cold all the time?

Because they’re surrounded by drafts.

26. Copywriters: We don’t want to sound too promotional in our messaging.

Also Copywriters:

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Infuse humor in your business meetings.

Nobody likes to sit for hours and listen to boring, endless conversations. You’ll either zone out and start daydreaming or feel mentally drained in just a few minutes.

The best meetings are always ones with fun energy — jokes are cracked, legs pulled, people roasted, and much more! It all comes down to how you shape your company culture and create the work environment.

If your company has a fun culture where meetings are incomplete without silly jokes, then bookmark this list of marketing jokes to have a blast with your colleagues.

As I‘ve moved up in my marketing career, I’ve realized how important it is to be on the same page as the CEO.

In this recent episode of Marketing Against the Grain, we explore this topic and offer tips for enhancing your communications with executive leadership. Here are five actionable insights that CMOs and marketing leaders can use to improve their communication with executive leadership and secure buy-in to transform their marketing results.

Why CEO-CMO Communication Is Critical for Success

The relationship between a company’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is pivotal for steering marketing strategy, staying in tune with customer needs, and ensuring business longevity. A report by McKinsey & Company underscores the significance of this alignment, revealing that CEOs who prioritize marketing integration as part of their growth strategy see their companies twice as likely to achieve more than 5% annual growth.

As Kieran and I discuss, however, the CEO-CMO dynamic in many companies is often riddled with communication challenges. For example, one frustration I often hear from founders is that they feel like their marketing lacks differentiation from competitors and that their marketing teams aren’t being creative enough.

At the same time, I also receive feedback from marketing leaders about how their CEOs don’t understand marketing, and how they struggle to defend their creative vision because the executive team doesn’t know what ‘good’ marketing looks like.

This disconnect leads to fragmented communication, diminished business impact, and ultimately, a barrier to achieving marketing goals. So what are some high-impact approaches to better align your marketing strategy with your CEO to avoid these pitfalls?

How to Improve Communication With Your CEO

As someone who’s served as a CMO for almost a decade, I’ve seen firsthand that the CEO-CMO relationship doesn’t have to be adversarial. But like any successful partnership, it requires effort and understanding from both sides. So let’s explore five ways you can bridge the communication gap and secure CEO buy-in to drive your marketing vision forward.

1. Articulate the value of both demand creation and capture.

CMOs must know how to articulate the value of creating and capturing demand. While capturing demand through measurable channels like paid marketing and search is generally understood by many CEOs, leadership often overlooks how creating demand through less measurable efforts — like content creation and brand storytelling — amplifies these results over the longer term.

This misunderstanding can lead to an imbalanced focus on immediate ROI, undervaluing the importance of creative, top-of-funnel marketing. But as Kieran points out, “The more demand you create, the more valuable all those capture channels are,” highlighting the importance of how innovative tactics in demand creation are essential for elevating the effectiveness of demand capture strategies.

2. Align marketing objectives with business strategy.

Successful CMOs know how to demonstrate how their marketing initiatives align with the broader business objectives, positioning marketing not just as a cost center — but as a critical driver of the company’s success.

In my experience, CMOs are at their best when they’re aspiring to be CEOs. For example, instead of focusing purely on the tactical marketing details (which is easy to get distracted by), they also know how to evaluate the big-picture business context and industry landscape. As a result, they’re able to more effectively align with executive leadership, ensuring their team’s approach addresses pain points and drives impactful outcomes.

3. Adapt and innovate budget allocation.

Especially in competitive markets, CMOs need to repeatedly take a hard look at their budgets to make sure they are not just repeating past strategies — but are actively adapting and innovating their spending to meet new challenges. In other words: if you need different results than last year, then you need to spend your money differently.

If you’re feeling unsure about how to get started, I recommend beginning by scrutinizing all of last year’s expenditures. What needs to change? What should stay the same?

By strategically shifting funds to new and potentially higher-impact activities, CMOs promote a culture of agility and responsiveness, ensuring they’re ahead of the curve and maximizing the impact of every marketing dollar.

4. Rigorously manage risk in marketing initiatives.

Effective risk management requires CMOs to track their higher-risk creative projects to ensure they align with the business’s risk tolerance. For example, establishing monthly campaign priorities, organizing weekly project reviews, or leading daily standups enables CMOS to keep a close eye on each project’s development.

Additionally, defining key campaign metrics upfront improves project risk management by providing a transparent framework to measure progress. Teams can then identify potential challenges before they become problematic and make real-time adjustments, while still pursuing big bets that could lead to big business wins.

5. Prioritize cross-department alignment.

Marketing leaders who complain that their CEO isn’t on board are usually not in tight alignment with their peers in pushing the business forward. Strong peer relationships with other departments like sales, finance, product, and customer success are crucial for CMOs to establish a united front that’s aligned with the CEO’s business goals.

For example, when sales teams express excitement about a brand campaign — and product leaders affirm the alignment with product value propositions — a CEO may be more likely to support these efforts. This cohesive approach not only shows how marketing initiatives enhance other teams but also improves the visibility of your team’s contributions to company objectives.

For a quick explainer on what it takes to get a CEO’s buy-in for high-risk marketing campaigns, 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.

An ecommerce customer journey map helps you drive better business results whether you’re an ecommerce business owner or a marketing manager for an online store.

While ecommerce journeys may be quicker than business-to-business buying cycles, that doesn’t mean they have fewer customer touch points. It’s crucial to understand your buyers’ stages and the touch points that influence each sale.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to improve and map your ecommerce company’s customer journey.

Table of Contents:

• What is the Ecommerce Customer Journey?
• Why is the Ecommerce Customer Journey Important?
• Stages of the Ecommerce Customer Journey
• How to Improve Your Ecommerce Customer Journey
• Ecommerce Customer Journey Map

In the awareness stage, customers might hear about your product through social media ads, find it through search engine results, or get word-of-mouth recommendations. Think of shoppers as explorers looking for a promise of something new.

As they move into consideration, they become discerning evaluators, comparing prices, reading customer reviews, and envisioning how your product fits into their lives.

Upon buying your product at the decision or conversion stage, new customers experience your product’s features, enjoy its benefits, and even share it with friends. Your customer service takes over at this point as buyers encounter challenges or have questions related to product usage.

Finally, satisfied buyers become loyal customers in the retention stage and then, hopefully, brand advocates in the advocacy stage, spreading the word about your product.

For starters, I have more control of my marketing and sales efforts as each step in a customer’s digital voyage unveils opportunities for optimization and innovation. From the moment they land at an online store to the final checkout process, every interaction shapes their perception, influences their likelihood of return, and cultivates brand loyalty.

Analyzing their paths empowers me to address these critical questions:

• Where do they hesitate to take action?
• What triggers their interest?
• Why do they abandon carts?

Armed with answers, I can tailor my marketing strategies to fit their experiences, address their concerns, and foster trust.

This understanding helps me devise smarter marketing campaigns, personalized product recommendations, and better user interfaces.

The takeaway is that an accurate map of your customer journey paves the way to improved conversions, retention, and brand advocacy.

Stages of the Ecommerce Customer Journey

1. Awareness

Potential customers become aware of problems and start researching to understand them better. In the process, they seek relevant solutions, dispel misconceptions, and consider solutions.

For instance, let’s say your shop sells products to help customers get organized and stay on task. If your prospect wants to establish a morning routine, they might start with a casual online search. After browsing through Google and catching sight of social media ads, they consider starting a journal to document their morning routine.

2. Consideration

During the consideration phase, shoppers weigh various products and strategies to address their needs.

Your prospect now has a clearer understanding of their purchase intent and starts vetting potential solutions. They may begin scouring ecommerce platforms like Amazon or even Google for available morning routine journals and evaluating their reviews.

3. Decision

In the decision stage, customers compare the features and prices of various options and then narrow down their choices. They weigh benefits against costs, seeking the best value.

Ultimately, shoppers will buy your product if it satisfies their needs or desires. For instance, perhaps your journal includes tips to help them establish their new routine.

4. Retention

The quality of your products and customer service is crucial to the customer retention stage. HubSpot’s 2024 Consumer Trends Report found the top purchasing factors for consumers include product quality (51%) and past experiences with a product or brand (25%).

If your morning routine journal arrives late or poor packaging has led to ripped pages, your customer might not check out your other products.

Conversely, positive experiences encourage repeat purchases.

To boost retention, you can also employ strategic marketing, using ads retargeting and social media posts to keep products visible to previous buyers. Exposing your products frequently to delighted customers through a consistent, omnichannel presence improves your chances of attracting them to repurchase.

5. Advocacy

Prioritizing customer satisfaction fosters lasting business relationships. Customers at this stage will provide testimonials and advocate for your brand through word-of-mouth and social media endorsements.

If you habitually give first-time and repeat customers positive experiences, they’ll return, join your loyalty program, and bring their circle on board, increasing your customer lifetime value.

You can deepen your understanding of the ecommerce customer journey with HubSpot Academy’s free Ecommerce Marketing Course.

How to Improve Your Ecommerce Customer Journey

Understanding how the ecommerce customer journey works sets the stage for enhancing your own. In this section, I’ll show you how to use proven engagement principles to convert more customers.

1. Improve customer delight.

Customers who enjoy interacting with you are more likely to journey with your brand. The more you delight customers, the higher your campaigns’ conversion rates and the deeper customers engage with your brand.

Here’s how to get a sea of happy customers:

• Personalize rewards for birthdays or special events.
• Host exclusive events.
• Provide branded swag.
• Cultivate a brand community.
• Surprise with flash sales or loyalty discounts.
• Engage one-on-one on social media.

Pro tip: What delights my customers may not delight yours, so be creative and keep exploring ways to build lasting connections.

2. Create FOMO.

The fear of missing out (FOMO) is the anxiety of feeling left out from enjoyable experiences others are having. Renowned business psychologist and author Robert Cialdini popularized the idea in his book Influence.

FOMO is one of the most potent marketing tools I use across all customer journey stages.

You can rouse this feeling in any of these ways:

• Display the number of products in stock.
• Add a sale countdown timer on the product page.
• Show a count of product views hourly or daily.
• Stress limited supplies.
• Spotlight event dates and set up a countdown email series.

At first, using FOMO may feel uncomfortable because you don’t want to come off as manipulative to buyers.

But FOMO is only a tool. It’s how you use it that makes it good or bad.

Customers have thanked me for notifying them that a product is on sale or an item they’re interested in will be out of stock soon.

3. Conduct surveys.

Search and market data give me a bird’s-eye view of patterns in customer behavior and demographic metrics, but surveys help me get personal with them. Talking to customers online or in person helps unearth insights other data collection methods might miss.

I like to use both real-time survey methods — like video or phone calls and in-person or online chats — as well as prerecorded options, such as forms, videos, SMS, website pop-ups, and emails.

When I create surveys, I aim to gather information that expounds on what I learned from my initial audience research. I typically ask my customers questions related to why they act or feel a certain way.

For example, I may ask:

• Why choose us over competitors for this product?
• Which alternatives or competitors did you weigh before buying?
• What key issues do you need [product] to address?
• What’s your budget for this solution?
• What [product] features do you prioritize and why?

The insights I gather from these questions reveal preferences and patterns among my target audience that will inform my business decisions.

For instance, if millennials are willing to spend $500 and boomers $1,500 on my product, I might adjust my offerings and messaging to attract boomers more.

4. Raise your social proof.

Customers have an easier time acting on recommendations and feeling confident when they see they’re not alone.

So, I engage the power of social proof.

Social proof is where people look to others’ actions or opinions to guide their behavior. And it works. Over 20% of consumers (and 36% of millennials) have purchased a product in the last three months based on an influencer’s recommendation.

Here’s how I use it:

• Showcase reviews and testimonials.
• Display purchase count.
• Feature social media mentions.

If I can ensure shoppers see that others like my products, it boosts their likelihood of buying from my brand.

5. Personalize every touch point.

Nowadays, buyers expect you to call them by name. I go beyond this and create personalized journeys that meet customer needs and expectations using customer data from every touch point.

Here’s how I offer personalized experiences:

• Include the contact’s name in messages.
• Customize offerings by location, purchase, or browsing history.
• Tailor exit pop-ups to each stage of the buyer journey.
• Craft offers that match prospective customers’ desires.

Thanks to HubSpot’s marketing automation software and my customer data, I can deliver unique experiences at scale. (As a HubSpot employee, I may be biased, but I’ve found that this tool is easy to use and can automate virtually any marketing task.)

For more tips, I recommend you read this article on customer journey thinking and watch the video below.

Now that we understand how the ecommerce customer journey works and ways to make it better, let’s bring it to life with a map.

Ecommerce Customer Journey Map

An ecommerce customer journey map shows the different steps your customer goes through and helps you plan how to improve each customer touch point. It highlights where they are in the buying process, their goals, and how they interact with your ecommerce store at various stages.

Use the ecommerce customer journey template below as your launchpad. Consider your customers’ thoughts, feelings, actions, and research interests to uncover how they arrive at buying decisions.

What is the customer thinking or feeling?

Weigh your ideal customer’s thoughts and motivations across the awareness, consideration, and decision stages. Empathizing with, understanding, and addressing buyers’ expectations and worries helps guide them smoothly throughout the buying process.

Let’s assume a prospect is looking to go camping in the winter and exploring my outdoor gear web store for answers:

• Awareness. They’re going camping in the winter for the first time and feel unsure about packing. They want to know what gear to buy and how to pack it in a simple and compact way.
• Consideration. They’re comparing winter camping gear and feel uncertain about what to buy. They seek advice through blog posts and forums on finding compact, easy-to-use equipment to make their camping trip successful and enjoyable.
• Decision. The prospect decides to buy my brand’s winter camping gear. They feel more confident and prepared for their first winter camping adventure.
• Retention. Their new gear helped make their winter camping trip a success. They trust my brand, feeling confident in the quality and reliability.
• Advocacy. Impressed by the gear’s performance, they share positive reviews online, encouraging others to buy the same equipment.

What is the customer’s action?

In my experience, customers can move forward from, return to, or repeat a previous stage or drop off the flywheel at any point in their journey.

Here’s how it could play out using that prospective customer from the winter gear example:

• Awareness. They want information about staying warm while camping in the winter, so they exchange their email address for my free warm-clothing guide and access to my community of winter camping buffs.
• Consideration. The prospective customer is considering thermal wear and other winter camping gear. So, they watch a live demo of how to combine thermal wear with other clothing items.
• Decision. The customer is serious about buying and looks for a discount.
• Retention. The customer asks follow-up questions to help them use the thermal wear and returns for more equipment for future adventures.
• Advocacy. My responsiveness to their questions and support requests wins them over, so they subscribe to my referral program.

What or where is the buyer researching?

Buyers forage for information from disparate sources before reaching a decision.

So, here’s how their research journey will go:

• Awareness. They engage with blogs, white papers, social posts, and short videos to find the information they need and answer questions about preparing for winter camping.
• Consideration. The prospect is now curious about camping gear, like outdoor heaters, lighters, lanterns, sleeping bags, camping chairs, thermal clothing, and backpacks to carry it all. So, they’re comparing the best options, reading case studies, and watching longer videos to help them understand the benefits and drawbacks of these items.
• Decision. They buy their preferred camping items from my website after weighing each product through buyer reviews, samples, and specification sheets and using my chatbot to ask questions.
• Retention. They might visit competitor websites or even buy competitor products to compare them with mine. They’ll also review post-purchase support documents.
• Advocacy. When referring a potential buyer, they’ll share my blog posts, guides, and knowledge base articles to educate their friends and contacts about my product.

How will we move the buyer along their journey with us in mind?

Using incentives in your calls-to-action (CTAs) can drive a faster response, and subtle messaging can guide buyers along their path.

Going back to the winter camping gear example, here’s what that could look like:

• Awareness. I ask prospects for their email address in exchange for free guides on how to choose the best camping gear for their needs.
• Consideration. Once I have their contact information, I’ll engage my leads with more valuable content related to winter camping, warming them up to chatting with my sales team or buying my camping gear.
• Decision. I demonstrate that I’m placing the customer’s interests ahead of profits by being honest about what my product can and can’t do. Whether the customer is ready to close a deal, sign up for a lesser offer, or part ways, I work to keep them in my flywheel for future sales or referral opportunities.
• Retention. I respond quickly to post-purchase questions and provide detailed user guides. I also offer free replacements for defective products.
• Advocacy. I proactively invite and incentivize customers to review and rate products and join my referral and loyalty programs.

Here’s what my map for the winter camping gear example would look like.

How to build an ecommerce customer journey map

Here are some tips for building and using your customer journey map:

• Define objectives. Clarify your goals, such as understanding pain points or enhancing the user experience.
• Identify personas. Create a detailed customer persona, including demographics, behaviors, and needs, to tailor the map and visualize your ideal customer’s experience.
• List touch points. Identify all points of interaction between your customer and business, from initial awareness to post-purchase. Consider taking the HubSpot Ecommerce Marketing Course to learn how to improve the user experience in every stage.
• Gather data. Collect quantitative and qualitative data from customer feedback, surveys, analytics, and interviews to understand experiences at each touch point.
• Map the current journey. Visualize the current customer experience by plotting the touch points and data on a timeline or diagram. Then, use a template to map your user journey.
• Identify pain points and opportunities. Highlight areas where customers face challenges and opportunities to improve their experience.
• Develop solutions. Brainstorm and highlight changes or enhancements to address identified issues, enhance your touch points for search engine optimization (SEO), and improve your user journey.
• Implement changes. Put the proposed solutions into action and adjust your processes, technology, or communication strategies accordingly.
• Track and update. Continuously track the performance of implemented changes and update your journey map to reflect new insights and business developments.

Here’s the takeaway: Mapping your ecommerce customer journey is vital for targeting the right audience and ensuring a great customer experience. Happy customers typically stick around longer and attract more buyers.

Creating the Best Ecommerce Customer Journey Possible

The best online shopping experiences result from understanding how customers go through the buying stages. Although the ecommerce shopping cycle is swift, customers still interact with multiple touch points before they buy, so you must plan carefully.

As a marketer, I rely on data, templates, and proven strategies to optimize each stage of the ecommerce customer journey. Delighting customers, creating a sense of urgency, asking for feedback, showing off happy customers, and personalizing experiences are all proven ways to generate desirable results.

In the end, a well-made map of how customers will experience your online shop helps attract more buyers, keep them coming back, and get them talking about your brand.

Ready to start? Look below for free templates to map your ecommerce customer journey.

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