We all know about the infamous rivalry between Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks. At the end of the day, they both sell coffee — but they’ve each cultivated strong, unique brands, and have attracted very different audiences as a result.

You can often overhear heated arguments regarding the topic, with people vehemently claiming one coffee chain to be better than the other.

But let’s say you didn’t know about the rivalry, and you’d never heard of either Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts before.

Instead, you stumble across these two very different company profile statements:

Image courtesy of Dunkin’ Donuts

Image courtesy of Starbucks

From their opening paragraphs alone, I’m willing to bet you’re persuaded to check out one brand in more detail over the other. It isn’t just the language itself that gives you a sense of their business — it’s the design, the font, and the color.

Ultimately, your company profile matters. It can intrigue a new visitor to check out your products or services in more detail, and nudge potential customers into choosing your business over competitors.

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• What a company profile is
• Company profile examples
• How a company descriptions fit in
• Company description examples
• How to write a company profile with all this in mind
• Company profile templates to help you out

Here, we’ll explore some of the most creative company profile examples, to ensure you’re able to create a company profile that will attract and engage the right audience. Once you’re done perusing these impressive examples, take a look at our template to get started designing your own.

 

Company Profile Examples

1. Starbucks

Starbucks’ company profile has it all — the company’s mission, background story, products, store atmosphere, and even folklore regarding the name. Best of all, they somehow manage to pull off sounding both genuine and grandiose. I don’t know many other coffee stores that could claim, “our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit”. Starbucks’ company profile is a fantastic example of a store with a common household product — coffee — managing to stand out from the competition through their mission and values.

2. Nordstrom

If your company has an interesting and lengthy history, you might consider creating a visual timeline, like Nordstrom did on their company profile. The profile reads like a creative story from the very first line — “In 1887, John W. Nordstrom, at 16 years old, left Sweden for the United States. He arrived in New York with $5 in his pocket, unable to speak a word of English.” With a good balance of image and text, the timeline serves as a reminder of Nordstrom’s stability and growth.

3. Diehl Group Architects

For both cleanliness and ease-of-use, take a look at Diehl Group Architects’ company profile. The web page uses clickable boxes to separate topics, allowing users to choose which subject they’d like to learn more about. Additionally, the entire design — including the page’s background, which displays a floor-plan — mirrors the company’s purpose.

4. Bloomberg

Nearly nine out of ten people report wanting to see more videos from brands, so you might consider using a compelling video to convey your company’s story, like Bloomberg does in their company profile.

Additionally, Bloomberg’s profile proves the company knows its audience — they offer a few quick statistics, and then link to other areas of the site, such as Careers and Tech. While another business might do well offering a creative, long-form story, Bloomberg’s typical demographic is likely more analytical.

5. Nike

You can get a sense for Nike’s two primary purposes almost instantly — fitness, and people. When you first open their company profile you’re greeted with videos of people of different ages, gender, and nationalities playing sports.

Additionally, their initial introduction is this: “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world”. Below, beside the asteric, it says, “If you have a body, you are an athlete”. As you scroll, you’ll see information on their internal diversity and inclusion initiative, their global community impact, and their sustainable business program, with very little mention of their products.

Nike’s company profile portrays a larger, grander vision, compelling an audience to believe in their brand even before they purchase a product.

6. Seattle Cider

Seattle Cider Company’s profile is fun, and engages the user through compelling graphics that demonstrate the company’s cider process. The page flows seamlessly, and provides critical information regarding the product before displaying the company’s mission and values. This profile is a good example of a company that understands its users’ concerns (in this case, quality ingredients), and addresses those issues while still displaying personality and flair.

7. Delta

Delta’s page is well-organized by topic, and showcases the company’s values, including efforts to engage with the community and promote sustainability. They’ve included brief meta-descriptions below each category. The design allows for users to click-through if they want to learn more. Overall, Delta’s company profile is simple and uncluttered, but includes all the necessary information to demonstrate why Delta is unique.

With this in mind, the description serves to align with the prospect as they are evaluating which providers are right for them. By leaning into a strong brand voice and providing the details that makes your company unique or superior to the prospect’s alternatives, customers will believe in your brand and want to do business with you.

Examples of Company Descriptions

Here are some examples of company descriptions that enhance their organizations’ company profile.

1. HubSpot

On HubSpot’s company profile page, you can find a quick description of the company’s mission and what it does. In just a few words, HubSpot explains that the company’s goal is to help businesses grow through its specialized inbound software.

2. Landed, Inc.

Landed, Inc.’s About Us page starts with their vision statement: “If we want stronger schools and safer communities, we need to support those who make it possible.” From there, they talk about their history before launching into their mission statement and company description. The latter is summarized succinctly in bullet points in its own separate section, making it easy for prospects to find and understand:

3. H&H Wealth

In the “Why Us” page of their website, the founder of H&H Wealth calls out what makes her different from other certified financial planners and leans into why her customers benefit from her unique perspective. She also makes a promise to her clients, which sets the expectations and the tone for the service being delivered. As a result, the tone comes across as that of a partner rather than a vendor.

4. Tesla

In this description, Tesla explains when it was founded, the company mission, and what types of products it specializes in. It also gives added information about the history of the company and how it has continued to grow with the same values. 

5. Yokel Local

Yokel Local provides a lot of information up front for their customers because they know that partnering with an agency (and choosing which one on top of that) is a big decisions for scaling businesses. For that reason, they split it up into two pages.

First, there’s an About page that includes the mission, vision, and history:

Second, there’s a “Why Us” page that talks through the outcomes and process that a customer should expect:

6. The Cru

The Cru is a service that connects members with like-minded women to fuel personal and professional growth. They use an “Our Story” page as a company profile, where the founder details how the organization was formed and how has her own “Cru,” which is a testament to the value of the service. The “letter from the founder” style also feels very personal and welcoming.

Company Profile Templates

Download These Templates for Free

• Company name
• Established date
• Physical address per location
• Contact information

About Us / Our Story / Our Beginning

Here, you’ll want to include a brief introduction to your company, including where, when, and by whom the company was founded, the company’s mission statement, and/or the company’s vision and purpose. In this section, you don’t necessarily want to include products or services — instead, focus on your bigger meaning, and how you stand out from competitors. Tell your story in a compelling way — for instance, HubSpot starts their About Us section with, “More than ten years ago, we had a vision — an inbound world”. HubSpot doesn’t mention their products until further down the page.

If you want to add your company history in a more compact way, consider adding a company timeline, like this one:

Download This Template

Our Mission / Values

Here, you’ll want to say what your company stands for on a larger scale. What is your ultimate goal, and what do you hope your products or services will give people? Take a look at these inspiring company vision and mission statement examples for ideas. Here’s an example:

Download This Template

Our Team

Provide a picture or brief paragraph describing your team — you might focus on leadership, or provide an explanation of your company’s culture. Ultimately, this section should help users understand how your employees can uniquely serve them.

Download This Template

Our Product / Services

Describe a high-level overview of what your product is, and how you hope it will positively impact the user’s life. You can link to a Product page if necessary, so keep this section relatively general.

Start Your Company Profile Today

There are a few elements that can contribute to a stellar company profile, and by adhering to a template, you can build one quickly and effectively.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2019 but has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Ask any successful sports coach how they win so many games, and they’ll tell you they have a unique plan for every single game they coach. To have a fighting chance against any of their opponents, they need to prepare a specific game plan tailored to each of their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. Otherwise, they’ll get crushed.

The same logic applies to business. If you want to build a thriving company that can pull ahead of the competition, you need to prepare yourself for battle before you break into a market. Because companies who can find gaps in your business model will quickly learn how to fill those gaps and solve your customers’ problems better than you can.

The business world moves fast, and it’s full of ambitious companies scrambling to gain the majority of their industry’s market share. So how do you keep up? Writing a viable business plan and following it religiously is one of the most important first steps. Learn more about what a business plan is and how it’s used in this article.

Business plans guide you along the rocky journey of growing a company. Referencing one throughout your voyage will keep you on the path toward success. And if your business plan is compelling enough, it can also convince investors to give you funding.

But how do you actually write a viable and convincing business plan?

Below, let’s review the format of a business plan and sample business plans you can use to inspire your own.

Business Plan Format

Before you get started on your business plan, you might be wondering, “Where do I start? How should I format this?”

Typically, a business plan is a document that will detail how a company will achieve its goals.

Most business plans include the following sections:

Executive Summary

The executive summary is arguably the most important section in the entire business plan. Essentially, it’s the overview or introduction, written in a way to grab readers’ attention and guide them through the rest of the business plan (which may be dozens or hundreds of pages long). 

Most executive summaries include: 

• Mission statement
• Company history and leadership
• Competitive advantage overview
• Financial projections
• Company goals

However, many of these topics will be covered in more detail later on in the business plan, so keep the executive summary clear and brief, including only the most important take-aways.

Here’s an example:

Check out our tips for writing an effective executive summary for more guidance.

Market Opportunity

This is where you’ll detail the opportunity in the market. Where is the gap in the current industry and how will your product fill that gap?

In this section, you might include: 

• The size of the market
• Current or potential market share 
• Trends in the industry and consumer behavior
• Where the gap is, what has caused the gap, and how you intend to fill it

To get a thorough understanding of the market opportunity, you’ll want to conduct a TAM, SAM, and SOM analysis and perform market research on your industry. You may also benefit from creating a SWOT analysis to identify some of the insights for this section.

Competitive Landscape

Speaking of market share, you’ll need to create a section that shares details on who the top competitors are. After all, your customers likely have more than one provider to choose from, and you’ll want to understand exactly why they might choose one over another. Performing a competitive analysis can help you uncover: 

• Industry trends that other providers may not be taking advantage of yet
• Strengths in your competition that may be obstacles to handle
• Weaknesses in your competition that may help you develop selling points
• What unique proposition you bring to the market that may resonate with customers

Target Audience

This section will describe who your customer segments are in detail. What is the demographic and psychographic information of your audience?

If your immediate answer is “everyone,” you’ll need to dig deeper. Ask yourself:

• What are the demographics of the people most likely to need/buy your product or service?
• What are the psychographics of this audience? (Desires, triggering events, etc.)
• Why are your offerings valuable to them? 

It can be helpful to build a buyer persona to get in the mindset of your ideal customers and get crystal clear on why you’re targeting them.

Marketing Strategy

Here, you’ll discuss how you’ll acquire new customers with your marketing strategy. You might consider including information on:

• The brand positioning vision and how you’ll cultivate it
• The goal targets you aim to achieve
• The metrics you’ll use to measure success
• The channels and distribution tactics you’ll use

It can help to already have a marketing plan built out to help you inform this component of your business plan.

Key Features and Benefits

At some point in your business plan, you’ll review the key features and benefits of your products and/or services. Laying these out can give readers of your business plan an idea of how you’re positioning yourself in the market and the messaging you’re likely to use. It can even help them gain better insight into your business model.

Pricing and Revenue

This is where you’ll discuss your cost structure and various revenue streams. Your pricing strategy must be solid enough to turn a profit while staying competitive in the industry. For this reason, you might outline: 

• The specific pricing breakdowns per product or service
• Why your pricing is higher or lower than your competition’s
• (If higher) Why customers would be willing to pay more
• (If lower) How you’re able to offer your products or services at a lower cost
• When you expect to break even, what margins you expect, etc.

Financials

This section is particularly informative for investors and leadership teams to determine funding strategies, investment opportunities, etc. According to Forbes, you’ll want to include three main things: 

• Profit/Loss Statement – This answers the question of whether your business is currently profitable. 
• Cash Flow Statement – This details exactly how much cash is incoming and outgoing to provide insight into how much cash a business has on hand.
• Balance Sheet – This outlines assets, liabilities, and equity, which gives insight into how much a business is worth.

While some business plans might include more or less information, these are the key details you’ll want to include.

Keep in mind, that each of these sections will be formatted differently. Some may be in paragraph format, while others will be in charts.

Sample Business Plan Templates

Now that you know what’s included and how to format a business plan, let’s review some templates.

1. HubSpot’s One-Page Business Plan

Download a free, editable one-page business plan template. 

The business plan linked above was created here at HubSpot, and is perfect for businesses of any size — no matter how much strategy they still have to develop. 

Including fields such as Company Description, Required Funding, and Implementation Timeline, this one-page business plan gives businesses a framework for how to build their brand and what tasks to keep track of as they grow. Then, as the business matures, it can expand on its original business plan with a new iteration of the above document.

2. HubSpot’s Downloadable Business Plan Template

We created a business plan template for entrepreneurs.

Download a free, editable one-page business plan template. 

The template is designed as a guide and checklist for starting your own business, so you’ll learn what to include in each section of your business plan and how to do it. There’s also a list for you to check off when you finish each section of your business plan.

Strong game plans help coaches win games and help businesses rocket to the top of their industries. So if you dedicate the time and effort required to write a viable and convincing business plan, you’ll boost your chances of success and even dominance in your market.

3. ThoughtCo’s Sample Business Plan

If you want to reference an actual business plan while writing your own, ThoughtCo’s got you covered. They created a fictional company called Acme Management Technology and wrote an entire business plan for them.

Using their sample business plan as a guide while filling out your own will help you catch and include small yet important details in your business plan that you otherwise might not have noticed.

4. BPlan’s Free Business Plan Template

One of the more financially oriented sample business plans in this list, BPlan’s free business plan template dedicates many of its pages to your business’ financial plan and financial statements.

After filling this business plan out, your company will truly understand its financial health and the steps you need to take to maintain or improve it.

5. Harvard Business Review’s “How to Write a Winning Business Plan”

Most sample business plans teach you what to include in your business plan, but this Harvard Business Review article will take your business plan to the next level — it teaches you the why and how behind writing a business plan.

With the guidance of Stanley Rich and Richard Gumpert, co-authors of Business Plans That Win: Lessons From the MIT Enterprise Forum, you’ll learn how to write a convincing business plan that emphasizes the market demand for your product or service and the financial benefits investors can reap from putting money into your venture, rather than trying to sell them on how great your product or service is.

6. HubSpot’s Complete Guide to Starting a Business

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know writing a business plan is one of the most challenging first steps to starting a business. Fortunately, with HubSpot’s comprehensive guide to starting a business, you’ll learn how to map out all the details of your business by understanding what to include in your business plan and why it’s important to include them. The guide also fleshes out an entire sample business plan for you.

If you need further guidance on starting a business, HubSpot’s guide can teach you how to make your business legal, choose and register your business name, fund your business, gives information about small business tax, and provides marketing, sales, and service tips.

7. Panda Doc’s Free Business Plan Template

Panda Doc’s free business plan template is one of the more detailed and fleshed out sample business plans on this list. It describes what you should include in each of its sections, so you don’t have to come up with everything from scratch.

Once you fill it out, you’ll fully understand your business’ nitty gritty details and how all of its moving parts should work together to contribute to your business’ success.

8. Small Business Administration Free Business Plan Template

The Small Business Administration offers several free business plan templates that can be used to inspire your own plan. Before you get started, you can decide what type of business plan you need — a traditional or lean start-up plan.

Then, you can review the format for both of those plans and view examples of what they might look like.

9. Culina Sample Business Plan

Culina’s sample business plan is a great template to use if you just want to fill in your information. You can also use this template as a guide while you’re gathering important details. After looking at this sample, you’ll have a better understanding of the data and research you need to do for your own business plan.

10. Plum Sample Business Plan

This is one of my favorite sample business plans, because you can see how implementing visuals can help tell the story of your brand. The images in this template are cutting edge, which makes sense for an innovative company like Plum. When you create your own business plan, make sure that the pictures and design you use make sense for your branding.

Additionally, the financial charts included are incredibly helpful if you’re not sure what financial information to include.

11. LiveShopBuy Sample Business Plan

With this business plan, the focus is the investment opportunity. This is an excellent template to use if you’re going to use your business plan as a means to receive funding. The investment opportunity section is placed right up front and is several pages long. Then, the plan goes into more detail about the company synopsis industry analysis.

When you’re first getting starting on your business plan, it can be daunting. That’s why it’s important to make sure you understand the format and information you’ll want to include. Then, you can use a template to guide your process.

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

When I was hired for my first marketing role, I got really excited to pitch new, exciting ideas to my team.

And I thought — as long as I had data to support the potential success of a project — that my team would be thrilled to hear these ideas.

Which they were. But they were also cautious, and one of their biggest concerns was, “Okay, this sounds great … but how much is it going to cost?”

Ultimately, being a successful marketer isn’t just about thinking strategically. It’s also about adhering to a strict budget, and achieving new levels of growth while simultaneously choosing the most cost-effective option for your business.

Here, we’ll explore typical marketing budgets, as well as marketing budgets by industry, so you can determine how your budget matches up against competitors.

Plus, we’ll explore how much of your yearly revenue you should re-invest in marketing materials to see stronger long-term growth.

What’s a typical marketing budget percentage?

As of February 2021, Deloitte’s annual CMO Survey reports that marketing budgets are now roughly 11.7% of total company-wide budget — a slight decrease from the 12.6% marketers saw in June 2020, but still a record high that most marketers haven’t seen over the last four years.

(It’s important to note, we saw record-high marketing budgets over the course of the pandemic as companies relocated some budget towards digital marketing strategies, rather than more offline tactics.)

Gartner’s 2020 CMO survey confirms most marketing budgets rest around 11% of total company budget.

While your own marketing department’s budget depends on a variety of factors — including industry, company revenue performance, and business needs — this should help you ballpark a reasonable percentage of your total company-wide budget that you should allocate for your marketing teams.

Of course, what strategies/channels marketing teams choose to invest in varies depending on individual company goals. For instance, while 73% of companies invested in website optimization in 2020, only 20% invested in machine learning and automation.

Web optimization, digital media and search, and digital marketing were the top three priorities for companies when determining budget allocation in 2020 — with roughly 73%, 65%, and 57% of companies (respectively) investing in each.

These trends are predicted to continue into 2021 and beyond.

However, the data we’ve reported so far pertains to marketing budget percentage of overall company budget — but what about marketing budget as it pertains to overall company revenue? Let’s dive into that, next.

Marketing Budget Percentage of Revenue

The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends small businesses (businesses with revenue less than 5 million) allocate between 7% and 8% of total revenue to marketing — assuming your business has margins in the range of 10-12 percent.

The amount of revenue businesses allocate to marketing has increased steadily over the past 10 years, with average marketing percentage of revenue landing around 13% in 2021, compared to just 8% back in 2011.

B2B Product industries allocate, on average, roughly 10% of revenue to marketing, which is similar to B2C Services (10.1%). B2B Services and B2C Product allocate higher numbers of 15% and 18%, respectively, of total revenue.

Of course, decisions related to marketing budget allocation remain largely industry-specific. To determine more accurate, industry-specific insights, let’s explore marketing budgets by industry, next.

Marketing Budget Percentage by Industry [2021 Data]

Deloitte’s 2020 CMO Survey found B2B (product-focused) companies attribute roughly 9.4% of overall budget to marketing efforts, while B2B (services-focused) companies attribute 11.4%.

Alternatively, if you work for a B2C (product-focused) company, Deloitte reports 15.9% of overall budget is the average given to marketing teams — for B2C (service-focused) companies, this is closer to 12%.

Of course, the type of business you work at (B2B or B2C) is only one factor when determining marketing budget percentage. Industry is a major factor, as well.

For instance, marketing expenses are highest in the Education sector at 19.4% of total budget — and they’re lowest in the Energy industry, at roughly 4%.

If you work in the healthcare industry, you might expect to see a marketing budget around 7% of total budget.

Alternatively, consulting services typically attribute 13%. Lastly, technlogy/software platforms attribute 12% of total company budget to marketing.

If you’re unsure how to manage your marketing budget, you’re in luck. We’ve covered marketing budgets extensively in How to Manage Your Entire Marketing Budget [Free Budget Planner Templates]. Take a look at that post to create a marketing budget that works for you — and use templates and samples to get you started.

With more than 740 million active users in 2020, LinkedIn’s expanded from a networking site for professionals to one of the top social media platforms.

By now, most of us have used LinkedIn to market our brands, post industry thought leadership, or look for our dream jobs.

As LinkedIn’s continued to evolve by adding new features, like LinkedIn Stories, it’s steadily grown its user base. While the LinkedIn audience still skews towards career-minded professionals, the industries, interests, and demographics represented on the platform have become much broader since its launch.

Aside from LinkedIn’s user growth, it’s also continued to expand on advertising opportunities, which has helped make it one of the most important channels for B2B marketing.

Today, it’s becoming quite clear that LinkedIn isn’t just for people in executive corporate roles. With millions of company pages and individual members, there’s a discussion, post, or professional network for almost anyone on this channel.

But, despite LinkedIn’s growth and advertising opportunities, many marketers or brands still worry that the platform is still too formal or corporate for their audiences.

The truth is — LinkedIn could very well be one of your most underrated marketing channels.

If LinkedIn’s growth has caught your attention and you want to determine if its audiences and ad offerings are right for you, it’s important to do some research before devoting more time and resources to this network.

To get you started on your LinkedIn research, here are some need-to-know stats about the platform’s audience, growth, and most common marketing tactics.

LinkedIn Stats to Know in 2021

General LinkedIn Stats

• In Q1 of 2021, LinkedIn revenue increased 23 percent year-over-year (LinkedIn)
• In 2020, LinkedIn made $181 billion in revenue. (LinkedIn)
• LinkedIn has more than 740 million active users. (LinkedIn)
• In Q3 of 2020, the amount of content shared on LinkedIn increased by 50 percent. (LinkedIn)
• Marketing Solutions is growing 40 percent year-over-year in Q4 2020. (LinkedIn)
• Nearly 40 million people searched for jobs on LinkedIn each week in Q4 2020 (LinkedIn)
• In 2020, LinkedIn was voted the most trusted network. (Business Insider)

Source

• In Q4 of 2020, professionals watched 2X more LinkedIn Learning content than the year before. (LinkedIn)
• LinkedIn Live streams have increased by 158% since February 2020. (LinkedIn)

LinkedIn Demographics

• 57% of global LinkedIn users are male. (DataReportal)
• While 44% of those between 25 to 30 and 37% of those aged 30 to 49 say they use LinkedIn. (Pew Research Center)
• 49% of internet users who make more than $75,000 annually use LinkedIn while only 26% of those in the $30,000 to $74,999 range use the platform. (Pew Research Center)
• 51% of internet users with a college degree or higher use LinkedIn. (Pew Research Center)
• Four out of five LinkedIn members drive business decisions at their companies. (LinkedIn)
• 174 million U.S. Workers have LinkedIn profiles. (LinkedIn)
• 30% of LinkedIn users live in urban areas. (Hootsuite)

Marketing Tactics and Lead Generation

• LinkedIn is the most popular platform of B2B marketers, followed by Twitter. (Content Marketing Institute)
• As of January 2020, 663.3 million users have been reached by LinkedIn Ads. (We Are Social)
• Data shows that the most engaging LinkedIn posts are published on Wednesdays between 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and noon, Thursday at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., and Friday at 9 a.m. (Sprout Social)
• LinkedIn’s lead conversion rates are 3X higher than other major ad platforms, including Google Ads. (LinkedIn)
• Roughly 15% of marketers are creating content for LinkedIn. (HubSpot)
• Only 10% of marketers say they’re investing in LinkedIn. (HubSpot)
• In a study of over 5,000 businesses, HubSpot found that traffic from LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, almost three times or 277% higher than both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%). (HubSpot) 

LinkedIn User Statistics

• 40 million people look to LinkedIn for job opportunities every week. (LinkedIn)
• Three people are hired each minute on LinkedIn. (LinkedIn)
• There are more than 55 million companies listed on LinkedIn and there are 14 million open jobs on the platform. (LinkedIn)
• For companies who are active on LinkedIn, 30% of their engagement comes from their own employees. They’re 14x more likely to share their employers’ content on the platform compared to other types of content. (LinkedIn)

LinkedIn Advertising Statistics

• LinkedIn Ads accounted for more than a third of LinkedIn’s total revenue in Q4 2020. (LinkedIn).
• Marketing Solutions increased 50%. LinkedIn predicts the jump was caused by advertisers choosing the platform as the trusted way to source warm leads. (LinkedIn)
• Hootsuite and We Are Social report that 727 million people can be reached through LinkedIn advertising. (DataReportal)
• Quarter-over-quarter in 2020, LinkedIn’s advertising reach has increased 3.5%. (DataReportal)

Source

Mastering LinkedIn Marketing

Because LinkedIn has a slightly different audience from other major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you’ll want to understand whether your consumers are engaging there before investing time or resources into a campaign or advertisement. Be sure to keep the stats above, as well as emerging research about the platform and its audiences, in mind as you prepare your next social media strategy.

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

With over 1 billion active users, Instagram is undoubtedly one of the most far-reaching social media networks you can use for marketing purposes.

Instagram has proven a viable advertising option for businesses today, and shows no signs of slowing down — in fact Instagram ad revenues will exceed $18 billion in ad revenue in 2021.

If you’re not already using Instagram for your business, you’re missing out on a ton of opportunity to grow brand awareness and reach a wide audience. Fortunately, adopting an Instagram strategy can be relatively easy with enough time and effort.

However, if you’ve never used the app, you might be daunted by the first question likely to cross your mind — How can I post my first image?

If you’re ready to post an image to Instagram, we’ve got you covered. Here, we’ve cultivated a quick-and-easy guide to posting on Instagram, to ensure you can begin attracting the attention of  your audience with Instagram marketing.

Posting to Instagram consistently can help businesses find resonance with their audience and grow better, but doing it right is just as important. Here’s how to post to your Instagram account step-by-step.

1. Tap the + icon at the top of your screen.

See that plus sign [+] in the image above? That’s your starting point. See that post from our culture account? That’s your end point. Click that plus sign and you’ll be ready for the next step, below.

2. Choose a photo or video from your library or shoot one in the app.

Instagram will show you the photos already saved to your phone. Choose one of those to post. Alternatively, you can click on the camera icon to take a photo or video within the Instagram app itself, if you don’t already have an image you want to use.

Once you select and crop an image (or carousel of multiple images), click the arrow button in the top right corner of the app.

 

5. Try a carousel post of multiple images.

Do you have multiple photos and want to highlight them all? Instagram allows you to do this with its carousel feature.

As you go to tap a photo or video, first tap the icon just above your photos to the right that looks like stacked squares. Once you tap this, you’ll see a number on the corner of every image or video you tap. This number notes where the content will show up in the carousel.

4. Crop the image.

You aren’t limited to just a square image on Instagram. You can actually share horizontal or vertical images as well. To get more of your image seen, pinch the screen of the photo you’ve selected on the Library screen.

However, while Instagram does allow vertical and horizontal options, the images still need to fit into some specific dimensions. So, you might still need to crop a tiny bit of your photo to get it to fit.

3. Pick a filter.

Instagram offers 24 filters — scroll to the right to peruse your options, and click on one to preview how it will look on your photo.

By default, the filter will be applied by full strength. However, if you want to scale back the intensity of the filter, double click the filter tile once it’s been applied, and a scale selector will appear, allowing you to downplay the effect.

You can also tap the magic wand at the top of the screen to adjust the photo further.

(Take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Instagram Filters to learn more).

6. Edit your photo.

You can also click “Edit” at the bottom right to adjust the image to your specifications.

Here are the editing options that come built in to Instagram for you: 

• Adjust – This helps subtly rotate the image along the center plane, giving it a tilt either to the left or right according to the linear scale at the bottom of the screen.
• Brightness – This helps lighten or darken the image. All you have to do is pull the selector to the left to darken or to the right to lighten.
• Contrast – This helps to increase or decrease the intensity of the image’s colors. Pull the selector to the left for less contrast (a dulling effect) or to the right for more contrast (a higher intensity effect).
• Structure – This helps to add an HD-like effect to the image, bringing out specific details in your photo. Drag the selector to the right to help the image “pop.”
• Warmth – This helps you adjust the temperature of the photo. Drag the selector to the left to increase cool tones in the image, or drag the selector to the right to increase the warm tones in the image. 
• Saturation – This helps you adjust the saturation of the colors in your image. Drag the selector to the left to desaturate the image (all the way to the left if you want a monochrome look), or drag the selector to the right for extremely saturated colors.
• Color – This gives you a number of color options to overlay over your image for interesting color effects. Simply select your color choice and see how it changes the image in the preview box.
• Fade – This softens the intensity of the blacks in your image to create an “aged” photo effect. Simply drag the selector to the right for a higher degree of fade.
• Highlights – This helps you control the intensity of the highlights in your image. Dragging the selector to the left will darken the highlights in your image while dragging the selector to the right will lighten the highlights in your image.
• Shadows – This helps you control the intensity of the shadows in your image. Dragging the selector to the left will darken the shadows in your image while dragging the selector to the right will lighten the shadows in your image.
• Vignette – This darkens the corners of the image, leaving a circle shape in the center. Drag the selector all the way to the right for the most dramatic vignette.
• Tilt Shift – This helps blur the edges of the image in a radial or linear way, drawing focus to the details in the center of the image.
• Sharpen – This helps sharpen certain details of the image, bringing a more dramatic look to subtler elements in the photo.

When you’re ready to move on to the next step after editing, click the arrow button in the top right corner.

7. Type your caption.

Get creative and write a nice, interesting caption to go with your photo. Since text can help optimize your post in Instagram’s search, writing something can only benefit you.

8. Use hashtags for post optimization.

With Instagram’s search feature, users can search by hashtags. So, you should make sure to write relevant hashtags in your caption. If someone does a search of a hashtag you placed in your caption, they might find your post as well as others that included the same one.

9. Tag friends.

Want your friend or their followers to see a photo that you posted of the two of you? Tag them!

On the post page, you can click “Tag People” to tag other Instagram accounts in your post. Alternatively, you can include their handle (or their username beginning with an @ symbol) in your caption.

10. Add your location.

If you’re on a fun vacation or at a neat event and you don’t feel like including that information in your caption, you can mark where you are in another way. On the post page, tap “Add Location” to put a location on your image (which makes it easier for people to find your post).

When you post an image or video with a location, it will show up between your name and the block of content on the feed.

11. Play with emojis.

Emojis are fun and can make your caption more eye catching. If you know of a few relevant emojis that could fit with your post, stick them in the caption area. For example, if you’re posting a vacation photo, you could include a palm tree 🌴 or a plane ✈️ to show you flew somewhere.

Here are the top Instagram emojis you can use:

1. ❤️
2. 😍
3. 😘
4. 😂
5. 😊
6. 😎
7. 💕
8. 😉
9. 💋
10. 👍

However, keep in mind that there’s a multitude of choices to add flair to your posts, from keeping it real 💯 to the cringe face 😬.

Be sure not to go overboard and post emojis just for the sake of posting them. If you post a bowling emoji along with a photo of a beach, that obviously won’t make sense to people. Similarly, if you post 20 emojis that loosely relate to a post, you might just annoy your followers or come off as desperate.

12. Share the post on other social media platforms

Finally, if you want to share your content on your other, connected social media sites (like Facebook or Twitter), simply slide the bar from the left to the right.

Instagram Saved Drafts

If you’re not ready to post right away, you can also save it to your Instagram Saved Drafts. Simply go back to the filtering and editing step, tap the back arrow in the top left, and select “Save Draft.”

13. Edit the post.

Typos happen to everyone! If you just posted something and notice a glaring spelling error, don’t panic. Simply tap the three dots that appear on the right across from your name, then tap “Edit.”

Now that you know how to post to Instagram, you can begin creating content for the platform and connecting with your audience. If you’re a business or brand, you’ll want a solid strategy for earning engagement and awareness. 

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

At HubSpot, customer experience comes first. Always.

Whether our marketing team is selecting a time at which to send an email or our web team team is choosing the size and location of a button on our homepage, the question we always go back to is: “Will this be a good experience for our customers?”

As HubSpot’s Chief Product Officer, this customer-first principle is my guiding light when it comes to product development. And it’s the reason why we don’t buy technology when we want to deliver a new product to our customers. We build it.

This build-first approach is becoming increasingly rare in our industry. Traditional SaaS companies tend to acquire other companies when they want to significantly expand their product offerings or quickly increase their customer base. This can sometimes lead to a quick uptick in revenue — after all, when a company buys another, it acquires all of its customers — but it’s often a very negative experience for the customer.

When two completely different systems are cobbled together after an acquisition, the burden of making them work together is foisted onto the customer. Each company probably took a completely different approach to product development, resulting in different underlying technology, different processes, and different user interfaces.

Reconciling these differences without causing friction for customers is an almost impossible task. And when SaaS companies apply this approach over time, the friction accrues, technical debt goes through the roof, and the customer experience steadily degrades as a result.

This approach solves for the company implementing it, not the customers it’s supposed to serve. That’s why we do things differently at HubSpot. After all, it isn’t like us to follow the crowd.

When most companies were doubling down on the old outbound playbook, we championed inbound approaches instead. When most businesses were wondering whether remote work could ever work, we saw the percentage of HubSpotters working from home hit double digits long before 2020 forced everyone’s hand. And while our industry was still furiously focused on funnels, we embraced the flywheel.

We’re different. It’s in HubSpot’s DNA. It’s even reflected in our company mission: we help organizations grow better. Not grow according to the status quo. Not grow by adhering to age-old playbooks. Grow better.

Just as we believe there’s a better way to grow, we also believe there’s a better way to build. That’s where the Primary Colors come in.

Meet the Primary Colors

Our approach to product development is simple, and it allows us to create multiplicative benefits for customers that no other CRM platform offers. We focus on five foundational elements that span all of our products, and we work at improving each one of them, all of the time. Those elements are: Automation, Content, Data, Messaging, and Reporting. We call them “Primary Colors.”

Every one of our Hubs – CMS Hub, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub – comprises a different blend of the five Primary Colors, meaning that every product on our platform is built on the same underlying foundation.

So when the product team shows up to work every day, the question we ask ourselves isn’t “Which Hub or feature will we work on today?” It’s: “Which Primary Color will we enhance?”

As a result, when we add value to one area of HubSpot, value is automatically added across the entire CRM platform. And that allows us to deliver a steady stream of delight to all of our customers on an ongoing basis.

Here are three ways in which this approach allows us to offer unique value to our customers in the crowded CRM market:

1. Continuous improvement across the platform.

“HubSpot is the perfect, always-improving marketing software” – review on G2

The same five Primary Colors go into building each HubSpot product, so when we improve one Primary Color, we improve every Hub. And every customer of every HubSpot product sees an immediate benefit, whatever part of the platform they use.

For instance, when we invest in making Reporting in Sales Hub more robust, this robustness ripples out to every Reporting tool across the HubSpot CRM platform. So Marketing Hub customers who use our Reporting tools benefit, Service Hub customers who use our Reporting tools benefit, as do CMS Hub customers — all because we invested in improving just one Primary Color.

2. Easy adoption of new products.

“We quickly adopted the Sales Hub Pro and Marketing Enterprise for our growing needs. It has been one of the best decisions we have made” – review on G2

Since all of our Hubs are built on the same Primary Color foundation, our customers can expect a familiar, fast, and friendly user experience every time they add a new feature or product to their tech stack. This means customers can enjoy the benefits of each new addition right away, with no time lost to training, integration, or new-system frustration.

As HubSpot’s co-founder, Dharmesh Shah, puts it: “Our customers’ time-to-joy is reduced.”

Once a customer learns how to use Automation in, say, Marketing Hub, they instantly know how Automation works in all of HubSpot’s products across the CRM platform. So as their company scales and adds new products, features, and integrations to their tech stack, they can expect consistency, not complexity.

They don’t have to relearn how Messaging works or how Data is stored every time they add a new Hub — something they would likely have to do if they were working with a system that had been cobbled together through acquisitions or if they use different tools for different customer-facing teams.

3. The ability to run an entire business on a single platform.

“I can manage the website, CRM, email marketing and all other efforts in one single place. This allows me to have a single location for all my data Reporting and have a single source of truth” – review on G2

With HubSpot, fast-growing companies can run their whole business on a single system, because HubSpot offers the same insights and power to marketers, salespeople, and service professionals alike.

And when all teams at a company are working out of the same familiar system, silos crumble, data is centralized, and information flows freely. The whole team has access to the same valuable insights, allowing them to understand their customers better and deliver a seamless experience across every touchpoint.

For example, when a company’s marketing team uses Marketing Hub and its sales team uses Sales Hub, both teams gain access to the same customer data in a centralized CRM. And because both Hubs offer identical functionality for recording and storing Data, it becomes equally easy for each team to access not only the data they generate, but also Data the other team generates.

This gives marketers and salespeople a holistic view of the customer, enabling each of them to tailor their tactics and personalize their outreach. If a prospect is showing particular interest in marketing content about a certain feature, the sales team can see this information in the shared CRM and will know to focus on that feature on their next call with the prospect.

They don’t need to wait on a marketing report or rely on an impersonal script – they can personalize their outreach and hone in on a prospect’s specific areas of interest, all as a result of both Hubs being built on the same foundation.

Building Differently, Growing Better

The challenges that companies face in 2021 are new, so our approach to building our products needs to be new as well. With the rise of the hybrid workplace, we’re all finding our work lives intersecting our home and family lives, too. That raises the bar on what we expect from business software.

People use HubSpot to power their businesses, to provide for their families, to help their communities thrive, and in many cases, to make the world a better place.

It’s now more important than ever that our CRM platform experience feels like something you’d use on the weekends, not just Monday morning.

That’s why we’re fiercely committed to building software that has enterprise-grade power combined with consumer-grade intuitiveness and an experience as delightful as that offered by the apps we all use in our personal lives.

At HubSpot, our bar is set by what our customers need, not what our competitors have done in past decades. With the five Primary Colors powering our platform and our unwavering commitment to never compromise on customer experience, we are excited to continue to help our customers grow better in 2021 and beyond.

Whether it’s with a single client, a large internal team, or external stakeholders, hosting successful, engaging meetings is an art form.

It takes skill to know how to simultaneously capture attention, inform, be interactive, and leave a lasting impression — it’s really not an easy feat.

The prospect of holding a meeting may become even more stressful when the session is online. As meetings are new to the virtual world, there is no roadmap to hosting a successful one.

However, as nice as it would be, a roadmap is not always the key to success. Sometimes the key can be learning from people who have experience hosting virtual meetings and understanding what they think makes them successful. In this post, we’ll discuss common virtual meeting mistakes and get insight from experienced HubSpotters on how to avoid them.

1. Not acknowledging mistakes.

Nobody’s perfect.

Although many people know that, an all-too-common moment in virtual meetings is pushing mistakes under the rug and acting like they haven’t happened. Unfortunately, when everyone is looking at their screen, most people notice mistakes, and ignoring them can create a sense of awkwardness.

In these moments, it’s important to remember that an increasingly virtual world is new to everyone. We’re all aware that adapting to new processes can be difficult, so of course, there will be unexpected issues.

Jon Dick, Senior Vice President of Marketing at HubSpot, agrees, and his advice is relatively straightforward: “As the old saying goes, ‘If you can’t hide it, feature it!’ Slides not sharing? Children bursting into the room? Not on mute? Don’t stress out — just laugh, relax, and acknowledge it.”

2. No backup plan for faulty technology.

A dysfunctional microphone or PowerPoint won’t derail your in-person meeting, but it will effectively shut down a virtual one. Given this, Ashley Ladd, Manager on the Diversity, Inclusion, & Belonging team at HubSpot, says that not having a tech backup plan for your virtual meeting is a mistake.

Ladd says, “Our internet connection is always stable until we need it to be, so having a backup plan ensures flawless execution of your events and less worrying about your connection or having the meeting dropped.”

She says that your plan B can include things like a designated co-host, teammate, or friend to take over if something goes wrong, or while you troubleshoot any issues: “The worst is when you have to spend time fussing with your connection and it interrupts the flow of your meeting.”

3. A lack of discussion and collaboration.

One of the greatest aspects of meetings is the collaboration and discussion that stems from audience engagement. Virtual meetings notably make this harder, and they’re often marked by the opposite.

Becca Stamp, Senior Global Learning and Development Onboarding Specialist at HubSpot, says that a common mistake is not making space for conversation. Her solution is to make a special effort to encourage it: “It’s important to give everyone space to come off mute and contribute throughout the session. Participants can add so much value, both through discussion and chat.”

Jill Noonan, Senior Facilitator at HubSpot, seconds this tip and says: “Create interaction whenever possible. Whether in person or virtual, listening to one person present without any interaction or conversation can be draining for those listening. If you’re presenting in a virtual environment and someone asks a question, open it up for group discussion.”

4. Leaving inclusion and accessibility by the wayside.

Whether your meeting is in-person or virtual, it’s crucial to be mindful of and prioritize inclusion and accessibility.

Opt to use software that adds captions for speech transcription, write alternative descriptive text of images for screen reading devices, and be mindful of the differing experiences that attendees may have.

Ben Perreira, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Program Manager at HubSpot, says that an easy way to show you care about DI&B is to encourage attendees to put pronouns in their profile names. He says, “Add pronouns to your Zoom name as a way of showing up for inclusion during virtual meetings, and encourage your teammates to do so as well.”

5. Trying to multitask.

It’s never been easier to join a meeting, and it’s also never been easier to lose focus during a meeting.

If you’re using a personal computer, it can be especially difficult to stay focused because everything you enjoy is right there in front of you. A quick check of your email can accidentally turn into ten minutes of distractions that take you away from meeting content.

That’s why a common mistake is, or at least trying, to multitask during meetings. Dick says: “Multitasking during your meetings is a sure-fire way to feel uninformed and unaccomplished at the end of the day.” His solution? Easy — “Mute notifications and close email.”

6. Not encouraging speakers and hosts.

Don’t assume that someone may be more comfortable during a virtual meeting because they’re not in front of an in-person audience. It can still be just as nerve-wracking to face a screen full of faces as it is to stare at a room full of people.

However, the support that people receive from attendees during in-person meetings, like applause, can be encouraging and make hosts feel more comfortable. Unfortunately, this support is often missing from virtual meetings.

Even if you can’t clap, Dick says that it’s still essential to show encouragement virtually, as it can feel strange to present without any human reactions. He says, “Hop in the chat window to cheer people on and encourage them when they’re presenting. It’s encouraging and helps people feel like you’re listening.”

7. Leaving no space for networking.

As virtual meetings occur on a digital device, attendees have no further interaction with their peers when they end. Stamp says that forgetting about the hallway chat aspect of meetings can be detrimental, as this time often gives people a chance to network, make connections, and decompress.

She says, about HubSpot employee onboarding, “We have seen incredible value in spending five to ten extra minutes on Zoom at the end of each session. It creates the hallway environment of in-person sessions, and these conversations help us build more community among the cohorts.”

8. Being impersonal.

You may feel pressure to display a more polished side of yourself during virtual meetings. In some cases, like when business executives speak to their teams, it makes sense and is expected that the experience is more corporate and clean cut.

However, being too polished can sometimes dehumanize you, which affects relatability between you and your audience.

Robotic meeting environments can also feel boring and disengaging, which is the opposite of what you want. Noonan’s tip is to display humanity through personalization. She says, “Humanity is extremely important. Knowing when and where to use personal examples or display vulnerability builds trust and shows that we’re all on the same page.”

9. Not using the mute button for all it’s worth.

Nobody wants to accidentally leave their microphone on so everyone can hear them yell to a roommate or ask a pet to stop making noise. It’s not a huge faux pas, but there are easy ways to avoid this short-lived but all-too-common mistake of not using the mute button for all that it’s worth.

Perreira says, “When you’re not talking, mute yourself. The mute/unmute can also serve as a signal to indicate you’re ready to contribute and serve a [sic] helpful way for group members to ensure that those who are looking to speak are given the opportunity to be heard.”

10. Not having fun.

Although hosting can be stressful, Ladd and Stamp say that it’s essential to have fun.

Ladd recalls a BLACKhub community check-in where attendees played a game called This or That. She says, “We did a Black History Month edition, so our game featured Black leaders in sports, film, entrepreneurship, and more. We had about eight different slides, and it was a fun, quick, and easy way to get everyone interacting and participating.”

Stamp makes space for these moments during onboarding meetings as well: “Schedule optional coffee, lunch, or afternoon hang-outs to help attendees connect. This gives our new hires a space to get to know each other in an authentic and more personal way.”

Virtual Meetings Can Still Be Successful, Engaging, and Fulfilling

Although there are quite a few mistakes on this list, they are exactly that — mistakes. They aren’t the end of the world, and nobody will penalize you for them.

Consider the advice from experienced HubSpotters, and you’ll likely find yourself hosting engaging virtual meetings that are just as impactful as those you can have in-person.

You might know your Instagram content is good, but imagine how much better it will seem if it looks like 10,000 people agree.

Whether you’re trying to become a social media celebrity or simply looking to spread brand awareness on Instagram, it can be tempting to take shortcuts wherever you can in order to expand your audience, including ‘buying’ Instagram followers.

Here, we’ve gone ahead and covered all the questions you might have about buying Instagram followers to give you a better idea of how it actually works. We’ve also explored the pros and cons, so you can decide for yourself if it’s a good move for your brand.

1,000 followers seems like a good deal for the price of a small Starbucks latte. But of course, if it really was that cheap and easy, everyone would be doing it. So what’s the catch? Is buying Instagram followers legal and safe for your business? Is it a worthwhile investment?

The main reason buying Instagram followers can prove to be a wasted investment is because the accounts you follow often aren’t real.

How to Buy Instagram Followers

The vast majority of purchasable followers are either bots or inactive accounts. Here’s how it works:

The Fake Follower Vendors

Buying fake followers on Instagram is much harder now than it was a few years ago. Why? Instagram has been cracking down on accounts that violate their terms of service. What used to be fairly above-board is now an enigma. In order to buy Instagram followers these days, you’ll need to know someone who can put you in contact with a vendor who will actually deliver the bots — I mean followers — they say they will (you’ll also want to choose someone that you trust with your credit card information).

But what happens once you’ve paid for your followers? Assuming the vendor is legitimate (as legitimate as can be for this type of service) you’ll wait anywhere from a few minutes to a few days for your followers to trickle in. The sellers roll out your followers over time so as not to alert Instagram that something fishy is going on. Once you have your brand new automated followers, don’t expect much. These followers won’t do much for your engagement metrics.

When you buy Instagram followers, you’re paying for a number alone. Engagement is not guaranteed, or even likely.

When you buy Instagram followers, you’re paying for a number alone. Engagement is not guaranteed, or even likely.

Instagram Bots

Instagram bots are everywhere — you’ve likely come across several of them today alone. There are companies out there who have automated the process of creating bots so well that they can then sell these bots as followers. In some cases, the bots may even assume the identity of a real person, using stolen images and names.

Depending on the service, these dummy accounts may even seem organic, running on automation to share and like content. Some can even be programmed to produce content. However, because they’re not real people, they will not have an organic-looking following-to-follower ratio. As a result, the engagement they do produce will have little impact.

Without real followers to engage with your content, your posts are essentially hidden from everyone except your inauthentic audience. Plus, your bot followers won’t discuss your brand in real life with friends or family, because, well … they don’t exist in real life (no offense, bots).

Inactive Accounts

However, not all fake followers are bots. There are some companies that sell followers that are genuine accounts.

In this situation, the accounts are created either because they’re managed by users whose only goal is to get followed in return or for the sole reason to offer this service. And while these followers might show early engagement, they’ll ultimately become a drain on your Instagram account’s performance metrics when their accounts go dormant.

After all, if their account was created for the sole purpose of fulfilling sponsorship requests, the real person behind the account has little reason to dwell on the newsfeed, interact with content, or purchase the goods and services being advertised.

Without that interaction, your follower numbers are inflated with none of the value that organic followers would bring.

In addition to buying followers directly, you can also pay services to strategically follow other accounts on your behalf based on your preferences (location, hashtag usage, account type, and gender). Ideally, those followed accounts will then follow you back.

With this option, your followers are more likely to be real people, but engagement is still unlikely. Since you can’t even guarantee these accounts will follow you back, it’s a risky investment. Most accounts won’t follow you back, and even if they do, they probably aren’t going to be long-term, loyal, or active followers.

You’ll get early engagement that tapers off over time.

Purchased Instagram followers also provide no long-term value to your profile’s content. The followers you buy might give you views, likes, and comments early into acquiring them as a follower, but the attention they throw you now won’t be there later — when you start reporting on how your Instagram account is performing.

And how helpful, really, are 10,000 followers that don’t engage with you? Engagement is key to how Instagram’s algorithm displays posts to users. Without likes or comments, your post probably won’t show up on your audience’s newsfeeds, and it also won’t show up on any Explore Pages.

You could hurt your credibility.

Having a lot of followers could convince users to follow you organically, but it’s not a guarantee.

Remember the risks: these followers will probably never like or comment on a post, and if you’re caught with a ton of fake followers, you could ruin your credibility with your real audience.

Users might notice you don’t have a ton of engagement on your posts, which could deter them from following you. If you have 10,000 followers but only four likes per post, it won’t take people long to realize something is up.

Think of it this way: would you keep following an account if you saw that most of their “loyal audience” were inactive accounts or bots? I’m guessing not. It could seem deceitful, and lead you to believe the brand couldn’t get authentic followers through good content alone.

Bought Instagram followers can distort your performance metrics.

It’s practically impossible to measure how well your target audience is connecting with your brand if a high percentage of that audience isn’t real. How will you measure posts that do well with your real audience if those bots and inactive accounts skew the ratio?

If you don’t know how well your posts are doing or what your real audience thinks, you’ll never convert your Instagram followers into real customers. And isn’t that the point?

Ultimately, if you pay for Instagram followers, you aren’t paying for quality, real-life followers. You’re paying for a blank number. And since Instagram’s algorithm is largely tied to engagement, not followers, buying followers isn’t a long-term solution. In fact, it isn’t really a solution at all.

Take the time, energy, and money that you would’ve dedicated to buying followers, and focus instead on building genuine relationships with a real audience. If your content is engaging and authentic, your loyal followers will spread the word and engage with your brand without needing any bribes.

Instagram identifies and purges fake followers.

Recently, Instagram has updated its terms of use to identify and remove inauthentic accounts from its platform. Instagram is removing any likes, follows, or comments from third-party apps that are designed to artificially grow accounts’ audiences. By buying followers, you violate Instagram’s community guidelines and it may trigger a reaction from Instagram moderators.

Instagram is looking to maintain genuine interactions on its site, protecting real accounts and experiences. Fake or bought activity infringes upon this mission and might result in consequences, so it’s better to grow your audience organically.

Alternatives to Buying Instagram Followers

Instagram’s new algorithm rewards engagement more than follower count, displaying content similar to posts users engaged with in the past. In order to drive engagement, there are many different actions you can try on the platform to get in front of your ideal audience.

By using good Instagram marketing practices — whether you are building your personal brand or a company account — you can better reach the nearly 800 million monthly Instagram users and build an authentic audience.

1. Make your account public.

First, make your account public so that users can see your profile and content. This way, you can grow your audience organically when your content pops up on users’ explore pages, attracting and delighting your target viewership.

2. Give users a reason to follow you by publishing quality content.

Next, publish a variety of posts to your feed: you can post images, GIFs, videos, Boomerangs, quizzes on your story, how-tos, user-generated content, and so much more. Build trust and excitement among your followers by using high-quality photos, writing catchy captions, posting consistently, and keeping up a unique style overall to differentiate yourself from other accounts. Do your research on which hashtags generate a lot of buzz and which are aligned with your brand — hashtags can be a great way to reach new audiences if done correctly.

Depending on your brand personality, it can help to be funny or witty in your content. Having an acute awareness of how your brand is perceived and the trends going around Instagram will serve you when choosing content to post and how to interact with your Instagram community.

3. Use Instagram to its fullest capability.

Lastly, utilize the many different channels on the platform, like Instagram Live, IGTV, Instagram Stories, or Shopping on Instagram. There are so many different ways to connect with users, and by driving engagement through these features, you can drive engagement and traffic organically and authentically.

4. Use Hashtags

Hashtags are like goldmines for finding new audiences. Users follow hashtags for updates about specific topics that interest them. If you use them intentionally in your captions, you have a great chance of showing up on the newsfeeds of people who’ve never seen your content before.

But don’t start adding random hashtags to all your content. You’ll need a hashtag strategy to ensure you’re targeting the right people. Moreover, the sweet spot for Instagram hashtags is 30. That might seem like a lot, but if you have a strategy for how you’ll use them, you’ll likely find more than 30 that would work for you. The key for hashtags is to be intentional with them. The reward will be well worth the effort.

5. Engage with Other Instagram Users

A good rule of thumb on Instagram is to engage with other users. Whether you like, comment, save or share their posts, every interaction counts for you and them. Instagram’s algorithm favors engagement which means the more you interact (and the more people interact with you) the more likely it will be that your content appears on more and more news feeds. That means more visibility and growth for your page.

Before you go overboard, remember that Instagram does have a limit to this “rule.” There have been cases where the social media platform blocked users from engaging with content if they liked and commented on more than a few hundred posts in an hour.

6. Use Instagram Stories

500 million daily active Instagram users used Instagram stories in 2019. Needles to say, the audience for this feature is simply waiting and watching for the next viral video or meme to slide across their screens. What makes stories arguably even better for growth than the traditional Instagram feed is the ability for users to interact with the content in a story. Polls, quizzes, and questions are engagement magnets — the more people interact with those elements, the more people Instagram will share your story with.

There’s a Better Way to Grow on Instagram

Instagram has been one of the fastest-growing social media platforms for several years and it’s showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. The pressure to keep up and with the growth can make buying followers tempting, but don’t succumb to that pressure. Between repercussions from the platform itself, lower engagement metrics, and the risk of spamming well-meaning users with bot comments, buying Instagram followers is simply not worth the trouble. The alternatives in this article can help you navigate a path toward organic follower  growth that will be worth more than 10,000 fake followers could ever be.

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

Forums provide the opportunity to build an online community that allows your audience to connect in a place where they know their interests are shared. This sense of connectedness is more important than ever in a time where more work, communication, and socialization is being done online. 

Online communities are particularly beneficial for businesses because they allow customers to interact with each other in a smaller circle than they could via social media, which increases engagement and brand affinity.

For instance, let’s say one of your customers has a very unique problem with your product or service, and posts about it on your forum. That post is much easier to find than it would be on social media, where millions of users are talking about a million different things.

Even better, maybe another forum user has faced that same problem and can answer their question before your service reps even see it.

There is an incredible amount of value in reaching and building your community using a forum. Here, we’re going to explore the best forum software to get you started.

1. WordPress (With Plugin)

Price: Free (plus the cost of hosting)

Using a multi-purpose platform like a CMS to power your online community allows you access to many different software options in the form of plugins and applications. For instance, you might use the bbPress plugin to create multisite forums, and maintain them from one dashboard within your WordPress site. This is a great option if you want to set up a regular website and forum together.

There are many options to choose from using WordPress, all of which will provide you with the basic forum features you need, plus plenty of useful extras.

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2. Joomla!

Price: Starts at $99 per year (plus development and hosting costs)

Joomla! Is a CMS software like WordPress, but requires more attention to detail and management. This is a robust CMS that will power your forum plugins like Kunena or EasyDiscuss, which are specifically created for Joomla!’s system. The price point comes from the open-source content management system, which will allow you to build powerful online applications alongside your forum software.

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3. Discourse

Price: Starts at $100 per month (plus cost of hosting)

Discourse is open-source forum software that you can in tandem with your existing website and CMS platform. Not only can community members use it on their mobile devices,  but they’ll also get dynamic notifications, badges, emoji, and more. Best of all, there’s a built-in moderation system to help you protect your community from spam and abuse.

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4. Vanilla Forums

Price: Variable based on your needs

Vanilla has an abundance of features — one of the most notable being the intuitive dashboard that lets you manage every aspect of your community forum. You can view stats, manage users, and use an advanced editor that recognizes HTML, BBCode, and Markdown using this software.

Additionally, Vanilla gives you the ability to adjust permissions of forums or members if you’re looking to control access. The software enables customers to submit, view and vote on ideas to drive innovation for your business, or use the Q&A option to connect with and help each other get more out of your products or services. Best of all, Vanilla offers an on-boarding process with useful checklists, training materials, and help from one of their support reps.

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5. Codoforum

Price: Free

Codoforum is forum software that has a fresh UI with modern design. It’s simple, clean, and easy to use. Codoforum is built with PHP using the latest coding patterns and is fully compliant with new PSR standards. This software provides a responsive layout structure for mobile and desktop, SSO and integration, as well as mention notifications for users.

Since it’s free to use, Codoforum is a good option if you’re still testing out forums or aren’t sure whether they’ll be useful for your own website and community.

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6. phpBB

Price: Free

PhpBB is a forum platform that has a typical and intuitive board set-up where users can post public or private messages. With phpBB, you can create as many internal messaging boards as you want without any additional costs.

Additionally, you can use extensions to add new options to your forum community. This makes the software very customizable, and allows you to adapt the software to the growing needs of your audience.

Among other things, phpBB lets you create password-protected forums for added security, sub-forums, the option to display active topics at the top of your forum, and the ability to add forum rules at the top of a forum to ensure your community abides by set guidelines.

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7. VBulletin

Price: vBulletin 5 Connect $249, $15/month

Over 100,000 websites are built on vBulletin — including NASA, EA, and Sony Pictures — so it’s a popular option for hosting your forum. The software includes tons of great features, including built-in SEO, security, and responsive web design. With VBulletin you can have an unlimited hierarchy of forums as well as private forums.

Best of all, VBulletin provides fun and unique features for your community members, including private messaging, a friends list, member birthdays (shown on the Forum homepage), and the ability to see who’s online.

VBulletin is not known for being the fastest forum, but its design is clean and it offers quality support for its users.

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8. Invision Community

Price: Varies for forum size/data needs, but starts at $45/month for 65 online visitors

IP Board was a very popular forum software that has since expanded to Invision Community, which includes a forum application in addition to its other offerings. According to the Invision Community website, the forums module powers thousands of message boards around the web, and Invision Community has many other community management apps to help you interact with your audience.

The software allows your users to take control over their own online communities, which you can monitor at your discretion. For instance, Invision Community lets users create and manage their own communities, called “Clubs”, which are fully integrated with your website — these clubs get designated Club Leaders, who can add new forums, calendars, or galleries to the community.

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9. Flarum

Price: Free

Flaurm has a streamlined design that is extremely easy to navigate. Forums using this software are fully responsive, and features include smooth animations and available swipe features for mobile optimization. Flarum was built by the developers of esoTalk and FluxBB, two of the fastest forum platforms, and has great performance reviews.

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10. MyBB

Price: Free

MyBB is a free and open-source forum software that powers thousands of communities. It features hundreds of plugins and themes for you to customize, and the users that exist on the forum will help you establish your own community. Users have also contributed to the translations available for the content on the software. Now, forums are available in over 30 languages to help you grow a more global community.

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11. inSided

Price: Variable based on your needs

inSided is a full-featured Community Platform aimed at Customer Success and Community professionals looking to increase engagement, advocacy, and effectively gather product feedback. 

They have a killer combination of a customer community platform, a knowledge base, and in-app support. What sets them apart from other platforms are integrations with software like Zendesk, Salesforce, Mixpanel, and Gainsight so that you can connect your community to your entire tech-stack and create a 360 degree view of your customer.

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Ways to Build Your Community Using Forum Software

People notice when brands listen to and converse with their customers, and they especially notice when brands foster their own communities. How? Through the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Customers who view themselves as valued members of your community are much more likely to talk about your brand to their friends.

Here’s how you can build a strong community using your forum software.

1. Spread the word.

Nobody will join your online community if they don’t know it exists. Spread the word about your new forum by including CTAs to join your forum in email newsletters or social posts. Ask your brand ambassadors or loyal fans to start posting about the forum, and post content on the forum so when other users join, you already have an established presence on the channel.

2. Listen to and check on your community regularly.

Reviewing your forum and responding to what your audience has to say is a crucial part of community building. Your customers are far less likely to continue to interact and engage on your forum if they feel as though they are being ignored. Responding to their feedback shows your users that you value their opinions and care about their experiences with your product.

Additionally, it’s your job to make sure everything is running smoothly on your forum. Checking on your community regularly will help you dissolve any service escalations, and give people the support they are seeking.

3. Foster a helpful discourse.

A forum should be a safe place for your customers, prospects, employees, fans, and audience to interact, ask, and answer questions. By establishing a helpful ethos early on, or creating community guidelines that prioritize patience and kindness within responses, your community will grow without the need to constantly monitor it 24/7.

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

If you’ve ever came across Tim Ferris’s iconic book on how to just work four hours per week, you’ve probably dreamed of sipping a Mojito on a beach while your money worked for you in the background. One of the main ideas he constantly talks about is the concept of passive income.

After all, having an income chart like this is the main goal of many online entrepreneurs:

For many entrepreneurs looking to build an online business or marketers looking to monetize their web traffic, affiliate marketing is often how they got started with generating income.

Affiliate marketing is one of the world’s most popular methods of generating passive income online, and it continues to grow. In fact, affiliate marketing spend is reported to increase to $8.2 billion by 2022 — up from $5.4 billion in 2017.

If you’re looking for a complete guide to affiliate marketing, read more to find out how you can promote products as an affiliate to create an additional source of income.

There are typically four parties involved in affiliate marketing:

• Affiliates: The promoters of the product
• Product creators: The creators of the product
• Networks: The networks managing the affiliates
• Consumers: The end users of the product

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You don’t always need a network to become an affiliate, but the other three parties (the affiliates, the product creators, and the consumers) form the core of an affiliate program.

Who are the affiliates?

An affiliate, also known as a publisher, can be an individual or a company. Typically, these are other bloggers or content creators operating in the industry of the product they are creating.

They help promote the product or service by creating content like blog posts, videos, or other media.

They can also promote their content to get transactions by putting up ads, capturing search traffic from SEO, or building an email list.

When one of their visitors creates a transaction, which could be a purchase or submitting a lead form, the affiliate gets a commission. How much commission is structured depends on the affiliate program terms.

Who are the merchants?

A merchant, also known as the product creator or advertiser, is typically the creator of the product or services. They offer revenue sharing and commissions to people or other companies (affiliates), which have a significant following on their brand.

The merchant can be a company like HubSpot, which offers a commission to every affiliate who’s able to get their visitors to make a purchase.

Or it can be an individual like Pat Flynn, who offers an affiliate program with his podcasts.

The merchants can be anyone from a solopreneur to a big company, as long as they are willing to pay their affiliates to help them gain a transaction.

Sometimes the merchant does not even have to be the product creator, as in the case of the Amazon Associates Program.

Who are the affiliate networks?

An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between the merchants and their affiliates. In some cases, a network is not necessary, but some companies choose to work with a network to add a layer of trust.

The network manages the relationship and provides third-party checks and balances. Third-party checks can be important because they bring down fraud rates.

Some popular networks include ClickBank and ShareASale.

Some merchants choose to work with an affiliate network because they lack the time or resources to track, report, and manage payments to the affiliates. They might also choose to work with multiple affiliates or publishers within the affiliate network.

Who are the consumers?

The consumers or customers are the ones who makes the transaction. They are the ones who purchase the product or submit the lead form in order for the affiliate to gain the commission.

Let’s say you owned a popular knitting blog that saw 100,000 hits per month, and a knitting supply company contacted you about promoting their needles and yarn on your website. As an affiliate, you’d place links to their products throughout your blog content. In this case, you’d receive affiliate income if a visitor landed on your blog and took an action — either a click, form submission, or purchase.

We’ll talk more about getting paid in the next section. In the meantime, here are some common affiliate marketing models:

Pay-Per-Click (PPC): The affiliate gets paid for all clicks that were generated, regardless of whether a lead or sale happened. This is fairly rare since all the risk is on the product creator.

Pay-Per-Lead (PPL): The affiliate gets paid for every lead they generated. This could be an online form submission, trial creation, or any pre-purchase. This is a shared risk on both the merchant and the affiliate.

Pay-Per-Sale (PPS): The affiliate gets paid for every sale they generated. This is the most common model since all the risk is on the affiliate.

Now, let’s talk about how to get started with affiliate marketing.

When it comes to affiliate marketing, most people think it’s a process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s or company’s products.

While affiliate marketing can seem straightforward — just find a product you love, promote it, and earn a piece of profit with every sale you make — there are actually a few moving parts you need to a monitor.

1. Choose a platform and niche.

To be an affiliate, you need to have influence. Establishing a website or blog that specializes in a niche is the best way to establish influence. Whether you focus on finance, personal health, business, or even cats, a niched blog or website will help you gain influence and build an audience.

Affiliate marketers build audiences through blogs (on WordPress or HubSpot),via newsletters, or even on YouTube or other social media channels.

2. Build an audience.

A large, engaged audience is a highly valuable asset for any blog or website. Having people who read, view, and engage with your content can help you make affiliate income.

The best way to build an audience is to first establish who your target audience is, and you can find your target audience by researching competitors, monitoring your traffic, and conducting first-hand research by talking to subscribers and customers.

Once you establish this group, grow and cultivate your loyal online audience through targeted content and emails. Give your audience a reason to read and engage with your content, and they’ll find a reason to purchase your recommended products, too.

3. Sign up for an affiliate program.

The best way to get started with affiliate marketing is by signing up for an affiliate program like the Amazon Associates or HubSpot Affiliate Program. After signing up, you will get an affiliate link that contains a unique ID. You can then use this link in your content.

There are typically no upfront costs when it comes to joining an affiliate program, but your variable ongoing costs will depend on how you want to promote the products. If you choose to outsource content or run ads, those are costs that will come out of your pocket.

4. Choose which products to promote.

Choosing the right product to promote, working with the right company, fostering relationships, and updating content are all core essentials of excelling at affiliate marketing.

According to Pat Flynn, one of the pioneers of creating passive income through providing value to his audience, there are two important rules when it comes to affiliate marketing:

• Only recommend products as an affiliate that you’re extremely very familiar with. If you are not confident in the product and do not feel it will help people, do not promote it.
• Never tell anyone to directly buy a product. Always recommend products based on your experience and in the context of what you’ve done.

When it comes to choosing the right products, David Gonzalez — founder of an affiliate management agency, suggests that you should think about these three components when choosing a product to promote:

1. Your audience: Will the product resonate with them and make them grateful you promoted it?
2. Product quality & value: Would you advocate your best friend buying it?
3. Profitability: Does the offer have highly competitive conversions & payouts?

After reading these recommendations, do any products come to mind?

5. Create remarkable content that promotes your affiliate products.

To see the best success with affiliate marketing, you need to create genuine and remarkable content that promotes your chosen products. Write a roundup blog post of your favorite products. Create comparison charts that discuss the merits of similar products. Interview other users and fans of the products to showcase different opinions.

Regardless of what kind of content you create, ensure it features authentic reviews and mentions of your affiliate products. Avoid discussing and promoting products you haven’t used yourself.

6. Optimize and track.

Whenever your visitor clicks on your unique affiliate link, a cookie is inserted in their browser to track actions.

When they make a transaction that is a qualified action (could be a sale or lead form submission, depending on the terms of the program), the merchant is able to record this action and attribute it to you as an affiliate so they can make a payout.

You should track your own affiliate content, too, to see what has performed well and what you can improve and promote. Understanding what content resonates best with your audience will show you what to focus on for future affiliate marketing opportunities.

7. Get paid.

There are different structures when it comes to payout, which varies based on affiliate program terms.

Commission payouts by the company are usually given on a monthly basis, but this varies depending on the affiliate program terms.

It could be a weekly payout or a monthly payment for all the leads or sales you’ve made.

You’ll want to pay attention to the payout structure when choosing an affiliate program to join, which ultimately depends on the goals you have.

You might want to understand the commission structure of the company or product creator. Are you looking for a commission per sale or commission per lead generated? Are you looking at a recurring commission or a one-off payment?

Depending on your goals, this will affect which product you choose, how you plan to promote the product as well as how much time & resources you want to invest.

For instance, if you choose to promote your content via paid ads, then that’s a cost you have to account for. You will have to compare how much you’ve spent to promote each piece of content or to generate each purchase against how much commission you’re getting for each referred sale.

Or, if you have a blog and website, then you will have to pay for hosting. In this case, this should be a flat fee spread out across all your referred sale.

Use this marketing plan generator to calculate how much you need to invest to get a basic marketing plan up and running.

How much can you make from affiliate programs?

You might be wondering, what are established affiliates earnings? (established affiliates are those working full-time.) Well, that varies. I’ve seen super affiliates earn upwards of $100,000 per month.

Making money from an affiliate program is more about the profits than the revenue you’re getting.

An affiliate making $5000/day might be worse off than another affiliate making $500/day with no cash outflow because the former might be spending most of his revenue on paid acquisition.

At the end of the day, before becoming an affiliate, you have to align your expectations to your earning potential. What kind of industry or niche you operate in, and what kind of work you do depends a lot on how much you want to make.

If you focus on ads like Adwords or Facebook to promote your affiliate products, how much money you invest is as important (if not more) as how much you make.

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

Too often do I hear this misconception: affiliate marketing is dead.

In today’s landscape of online marketing, people often mention that some variant of X is dead — SEO, email, mobile, etc.

The test of time is a pretty good test; if something has stayed around for a while, there’s a better chance of it sticking around for a while.

Everything evolves, and there are tactics that don’t work the exact same way as they did before. Affiliate marketing, of course, is no exception to that rule.

Affiliate marketing has evolved from a get-rich-quick scheme into something that requires you to build real trust with you audience to reap the rewards of the work that you put in.

At the end of the day, becoming a successful affiliate marketer as a beginner requires you to nail down the fundamentals of marketing. Authenticity is hard to fake, especially when it comes to building your own personal brand.

A brand that promotes products incessantly without any regard for bring real value to its audience will find affiliate marketing to be a short-lived source of income. Choosing the right products to promote, stemming from a true passion for what the product does, forms the basis of all your promotional activities.

While there are many tactics to scale your promotion, the golden rule of affiliate marketing stays the same: only promote products you love and treat your audience like humans.

Build your own brand, choose products that you love, create authentic content and you will be on your way to building a real source of passive income.

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