If you look at how product pages take shape across different companies, it’s clear they run the gamut. Some go for the direct approach, displaying an image of a product and explaining why someone should buy it.

Other companies create elaborate pages with moving parts and fancy, interactive elements.

Still other companies create delightful product pages that give users an authentic experience as they browse through what the company has to offer.

Believe it or not, not all of the most captivating product pages have enterprise-level programming behind them. To give you an idea of what’s possible — from the small business all the way up to the household name — we scouted out 18 examples that we find truly admirable.

The pages below have mastered their messaging, value propositions, and general product descriptions such that these sites resonate with their unique buyer persona.

(And after checking out these pages, you might want to buy their products, too.)

18 of the Best Product Landing Page Designs

1. Bellroy

Bellroy sells thinner-than-typical wallets. There’s value to that — but what is it, and how do you get the consumer to understand it?

To answer those questions, Bellroy divided its product page into three stages of the buyer’s journey — understanding the problem, how to fix the problem, and how Bellroy can resolve the problem.

There’s even an interactive section that shows how the skinny wallet will fill up in comparison to a different wallet. As users move a slider back and forth along a line, both of the wallets fill up with cards and cash, visually displaying the very problem Bellroy’s skinny wallet solves.

[Click here to see Bellroy’s full product page.]

2. Wistia

Wistia is a video hosting and analytics company that provides users with detailed video performance metrics. It might sound like a snooze-fest, but let’s dive into what really makes this product page stand apart.

First, we’re presented with five, colorful graphics illustrating their tools’ value propositions. And in case that’s all the user really needed to see, those graphics are followed by two calls-to-action.

But, if you continue scrolling, you’ll see a video with information about Wistia’s capabilities for that video — calls-to-action, email collectors, video heatmaps, and viewing trends.

One of the best ways to explain a visual platform’s features is to demonstrate them on a product page. This one shows users all of Wistia’s features and how they work, day-to-day.

[Click here to see Wistia’s full product page.]

3. Square

Square is a mobile transaction company that merchants can use to collect payment from customers — anywhere, any time, as long as they have a compatible phone or tablet.

The product marketing challenge here is to show why Square is an easier alternative than a typical cash register — and its product page displays those reasons in a visually captivating way.

Product Description

The main headline of each section of this product page has bold, succinct copy:

“Small credit card reader, big possibilities.”

The rest of the page is clearly organized headlines — which kind of read like answers to frequently asked questions — plenty of white space, succinct copy, and appropriate images. Anyone looking into each section can understand exactly how Square works at every stage of a transaction.

4. Rent the Runway

Some companies — especially in ecommerce — can have up to thousands of product pages. Rent the Runway, an online dress rental company, is one of them.

Rent the Runway has an individual product page for every dress it carries, with all the information a customer could want — images, measurements, fabric, price, and reviews. So what sets them apart? The exceptional detail of the “Stylist Notes” and “Size & Fit” sections.

Product Description

These details are clearly and carefully curated from stylists and reviewers. They don’t just explain what a dress is made of and how it looks — they cover how it fits on every part of the body, which undergarments should be worn with it, and for which body types it’s best suited. That kind of information not only delights customers and encourages their trust, but it also makes for a more confident buying decision.

Also, notice how there’s plenty of white space surrounding the product images and description. According to research by ConversionXL, that white space creates a higher perceived value — in this case, price — of the product in the user’s mind.

[Click here to see Rent the Runway’s full product page.]

5. Daily Harvest

Daily Harvest develops superfoods in the form of smoothies, soups, and more, and delivers them to your doorstep. What makes these foods’ product pages so outstanding? They show you exactly what makes these foods so super in a format that’s both clear and digestible — no pun intended.

Check out one of the Daily Harvest’s smoothie product pages, below. Not only can you see what the smoothie looks like, but hovering over the lefthand preview icon, below the main image, shows you the foods used to create this drink. Scroll down, and you’ll see each ingredient and a simple description of each one.

Product Description

The product description of this smoothie is just as creative as the landing page itself.

“Kicks fatigue to the curb. Leaves inflammation in the dust. Makes bloating a thing of the past. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Ginger + Greens!”

[Click here to see Daily Harvest’s full product page.]

6. Oreo

If you’ve seen any of Oreo’s marketing, you shouldn’t be surprised they’re on this list. But sometimes, being well known can actually make it harder to create a product page. So how did they do it?

The focus of Oreo’s product page is how these simple, classic cookies can help people unleash their imaginations, dare to wonder, and become generally happier. It features a series of videos, one after another. One is accompanied by the lyrics, “It’s so easy to let your imagination go when you play with Oreo,” paying tribute to the age-old discussion about the “best” way to eat them. The page takes a creative, bold approach to marketing with what might otherwise be thought of as an ordinary snack.

Oreo also took a unique design to this page. Even though the cookies themselves are monochrome, the page is wonderfully colorful, from the videos, to the backgrounds, to the graphics.

[Click here to see Oreo’s full product page.]

7. Fitbit Charge

When I took on this blog post, I asked a few people for their favorite product page suggestions. I was amazed how many people immediately recommended Fitbit — and after checking out the site, I can see why.

The page below helped unveil the original Fitbit Charge — now succeeded by the Fitbit 3 — and starts off with a value proposition, rather than a list of features. It’s a hero image of people hiking a mountain, who we can imagine are wearing Fitbits, with the copy, “Energize your day.”

As you scroll down the page, it goes through four quick steps explaining how the product works. What’s more, a lot of these are interactive — the section under “Everything you need, all in one place” allows users to hover over different features to see how they appear on Fitbit’s mobile app.

But the page also explains why these features are valuable. For example, one tracks everything you do from walking, to running, to sleeping. Why does that matter? Well, you can have your current records on hand, and try to beat them.

Knowing that users might not remember all of the specifics when they leave the page, Fitbit was sure to focus on how these features will actually make a difference in the visitors’ lives. Well played.

[Click here for Fitbit Charge 3’s new product page.]

8. Volkswagen

Volkswagen takes an interactive approach to its product marketing. Instead of listing out all of the features you can have in a car, the company walk you through the process of actually building your car. As you go through that process, Volkswagen highlights the different features you could choose, then gives you a preview of what the car will look like and how that will affect the price.

Even though I’m not currently in the market for a new car, I personally had fun tinkering with the different customization features on the page. What color do I want? Do I want premium audio? (Yes.) It’s an interesting way for the brand to eliminate the notorious connotations of “car salesmen,” by allowing users to learn about and select features independently.

Plus, there’s a nifty matchmaking feature that allows you to see which nearby dealerships have the car with all of your preferences in its inventory.

(If you want to see a regular product page, they’ve got that, too.)

[Click here to see Volkwagen’s full product page.]

9. Seattle Cider

The folks at Seattle Cider claim their cider is “not your standard cider.” Well, neither is the product page. It reads like a story, beginning with attractive, high-definition images of the cider selection, which happen to have really cool label designs. As you hover, an explanation appears of what differentiates Seattle Cider’s products from others, and what makes each variation special.

But my favorite part is what comes next: a really cool, interactive display of how cider is made from start to finish, which plays for users as they scroll. It’s a surprising and delightful user experience that goes above and beyond the typical product page, because it doesn’t just display the products. It shows where they come from, and how.

[Click here to see Seattle Cider’s full product page.]

10. OfficeSpace Software

OfficeSpace sells facility management software to help folks manage, well, office spaces. Like the name, the product page is very clear and direct.

Each section of this product page is dedicated to a different feature of the software. The headline explains the feature, and the subheadline explains why this feature is important as you evaluate different software.

That makes it easy for prospects to quickly digest what the product offers, but also read more details on its value proposition, if they choose to. And, if someone wants to learn even more about a particular feature, there are clear calls-to-action to do so.

[Click here to see OfficeSpace’s full product page.]

11. Orangina

This carbonated citrus drink has been around since 1935, and it has exactly four products — original, red orange, light, and tropical. So, how does Orangina keep its product page both current and special?

For one, it’s fun to explore. When you hover your mouse over any of the blocks, the picture or icon animates — the bottles dance around, the orange slices in half, and the thermometer drops. The animated images and bold colors fit in perfectly with the Orangina brand’s bold, fun personality.

Also, you might notice that some of the blocks are actual products, while the others are simply tips and details about their products. If you don’t have a lot of products to sell, consider interspersing them with tips and information about the products you do have available.

[Click here to see Orangina’s full product page.]

12. Mango Languages

Mango Languages creates “lovable” language-learning experiences for libraries, schools, corporations, government agencies, and individuals. Its homepage has illustrated calls-to-action for each of these buyer personas — from public libraries, to government offices, to those who are homeschooling their kids. Each of those calls-to-action leads to a different product page that’s colorful, clearly written, and very comprehensive.

Take a look at the example for homeschool teachers below. Like every other part of the website, it exudes Mango’s friendly, approachable, and helpful brand personality. The video couldn’t be more delightful. I mean, a guitar-playing mango in a top hat? Yes, please.

As you scroll, you’re greeted with clear value propositions that use playful language that’s true to brand. Everything about the page says “simple to use,” “fun,” and “effective.”

[Click here to see Mango’s full product page.]

13. Helix Mattresses

It’s one thing to sell a mattress — it’s another thing to sell a good night’s sleep. Helix Mattresses is laser-focused on the latter, having designed a product page that organizes each mattress by its level of plushness and support.

By looking at Helix’s product line in chart form, website visitors don’t have to examine each mattress individually to find the attributes they’re looking for. Simply find the row and column that matches your bedding needs, and click through to your chosen mattress’s product page to learn more.

Product Description

It can be difficult to know what “plush,” “firm,” or “supportive” really mean in a mattress — they all seem so subjective. For that reason, Helix is all about brevity in its product descriptions, using evocative explanations of each category a mattress might belong to.

“Plush Feel: Soft top of your mattress that lets you sink in like a cloud.”

“Balanced Support: Not too much, not too little. Best for side sleepers with thin to average body types.”

“Firm feel: Firm top of your mattress with no sink or give.”

[Click here to see Helix’s full product page.]

14. Minwax

Minwax makes products to help people care for their wood furnishings and surfaces. Riveting, right? But the brand has managed to create a product page that’s not only relevant, but also, helps users quickly and easily find what they’re looking for.

That’s thanks partly to the Minwax Product Finder module. It functions like a quiz, asking a series of multiple-choice questions, like “What kind of project is it?” and “What are you looking to do?” Once you answer the questions, the quiz generates recommended products, which includes a handy “Don’t Forget” list with the tools you’ll need to get the job done — things like safety glasses, gloves, and sandpaper. Helpful tips like this go above and beyond a normal ecommerce product page.

[Click here to see Minwax’s full product page.]

15. Ministry of Supply

Ministry of Supply specializes in comfortable formal wear, and it shows you just how comfortable in any one of its garments’ product landing pages.

Take the product page for the Juno Blouse, below. Below the photo gallery of a woman modeling the product, Ministry of Supply gives visitors “proofs,” revealing the blouse’s thread count, materials, and other key qualities that make the product unique.

The product page’s best trait might actually be its motion graphics, using basic looped videos that demonstrate the clothing’s resilience and flexibility.

Product Description

Ministry of Supply describes its products’ technical benefits but without sacrificing a friendly tone:

“Unlike silk, Juno is designed for everyday performance without the fuss. It’s moisture-wicking, breathable, and wrinkle free, so you can dress your best without specialized care.”

[Click here to see Ministry of Supply’s full product page.]

16. Liulishuo

Liulishuo is a China-based startup that builds English language learning tools for personal development and test prep purposes. The company’s mobile app product page offers a clean but media-rich overview of its curriculum.

As you can see below, the bottom of the page plays a crisp motion clip of the video-based coursework in action on a smartphone. It’s essentially an app demo before users even download the app.

At the top of page, Liulishuo makes cool use of QR codes by allowing users to download the app just by scanning the app’s QR code on their mobile device. Presenting a software product in this way is a smart effort to increase customer acquisition simply by making the product easier to get.

[Click here to see Liulishiuo’s full product page.]

17. Metavrse VR Photobooth™

Metavrse, a virtual reality (VR) consultancy and product developer, has just about the most immersive product page we’ve ever seen. The company sells not just VR insight, but also VR tools to help modern businesses better engage their customers in their goods and services.

One of those tools, which has a killer landing page, is the VR Photobooth™.

Metavrse’s VR Photobooth™ features both a VR headset and an actual cube-shaped room that people enter while wearing the headset for a 360-degree, branded experience. And what better way of demonstrating this experience than right there in the center of the product page? Check it out, below.

Metavrse displays its VR headset facing away from the website visitor, with a moving panoramic background that gives businesses a nearly firsthand demo of what’s waiting for them (or, more specifically, their customers).

Product Description

Metavrse elaborates on its VR Photobooth™ via a full PDF, which website visitors can download for free at the bottom of the product page. Regarding the cube-shaped room itself, the company has some enticing but informative product copy:

“Up to 4 guests can enter the booth at once to have their photo taken among a dazzling display of video imagery and mirror magic.”

[Click here to see Metavrse’s full product page.]

18. Nfant®Nipple

Nfant®, an infant nursing product, takes the transition from breastfeeding to oral feeding seriously — as is evident on the company’s product page for the Nfant®Nipple.

What sets this small business apart from other nursing and parenting services is its use of data to attract customers.

The product page below touts several types of bottle top-shaped nipples, and each one offers a different level of flow when the baby is drinking. As involved as the conditions of each product are, however, the product page delivers the information gracefully using color coordination, a video demonstration, and even a graph comparing each product’s flow range that nursing mothers can refer back to.

Nursing moms are always educating themselves on the resources they have for keeping their children healthy as they develop. With that in mind, Nfant’s detailed but easy-to-understand product page knows its buyer persona well.

[Click here to see Nfant’s full product page.]

Product Page Best Practices

So, what have these brands taught us about product pages? It boils down to a few must-haves:

• Make it interesting and fun, especially if you have a less-than-riveting product.
• Make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for.
• Make it personal. Allow users to “build their own” product, to show them that you can meet their preferences.
• Make it informative. Without bogging it down in detail, be sure to include the right pieces of information that will show users what sets your products apart.

Want more website design examples? Check out creative 404 error messages.

When Facebook announced last Friday that tens of millions of user accounts had been compromised in a data breach, many of us wondered: Is this the end of the social network giant as we know it?

It’s not exactly the first major PR crisis involving user privacy to happen — not even the first in a while.

Over the past two years alone, Facebook has been repeatedly weaponized by foreign actors in coordinated misinformation campaigns. The personal data of 87 million of its users was improperly harvested by an app developer. And now, thanks to hackers taking advantage of three separate site bugs, at least 50 million Facebook users have had their accounts compromised. 

The hack was complicated. It was technical, and involved several layers of vulnerabilities that are tricky to understand — which is why we broke it all down here.

And as few additional details about the full impact of the breach have been revealed since the news first broke nearly a week ago, we wanted to measure the public understanding of what happened — as well as the impact on Facebook use.

So, we ran a few surveys — and here’s what we found.

Do People Understand What Happened?

We wanted to measure three things:

1. How many people believe their accounts were affected by Facebook’s latest data breach.
2. To what degree people understand exactly what happened.
3. If people are taking action (for example, deleting their Facebook accounts) in response.

First, we asked 754 internet users across the U.S., UK, and Canada: 
Last week, Facebook experienced a security breach affecting tens of millions of accounts. Was your account one of them?

Over half of respondents don’t believe their accounts were compromised by the breach, with 58% responding “No.”

Facebook hasn’t revealed any details about the composition of the accounts affected, including a geographical distribution, but here’s a breakdown of the responses by region.

Then, we asked another 782 internet users across the same three countries: Last week, Facebook experienced a security breach affecting tens of millions of accounts. How well do you understand what happened?

Despite the complex nature of the breach, the smallest percentage of respondents indicated that they don’t understand what happened at all — while the second-highest, 26.2%, said they completely understand it.

Behind the Numbers

It may be true that over a quarter of respondents fully comprehend the nature of one of Facebook’s largest data breaches to date. But the results might also reflect a general lack of clarity and detailed information around its full extent.

For example, how well do most Facebook users understand the potential impact of the breach on third-party apps that they might use, like Tinder and Spotify?

The stolen credentials of the aforementioned 50 million accounts directly compromised by the hack could extend beyond their logins to Facebook alone. “Those stolen credentials could have been used to gain access to so many other sites,” reads a New York Times article published on October 2 titled, “Facebook Hack Puts Thousands of Other Sites at Risk.”

“Companies that allow customers to log in with Facebook Connect are scrambling,” the story continues, “to figure out whether their own user accounts have been compromised.”

Jason Polakis, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was one of the first experts to bring up this potential added risk.

More importantly, once attackers gain access to those 3rd parties, they can maintain access to user accounts in those websites using the cookies set by those sites. No matter what FB does, they can’t do anything to prevent attackers’ from accessing those accounts. (9/n)

— jason polakis (@jpolakis)
September 29, 2018

On the evening of October 2, Facebook released a statement indicating that its “investigation has so far found no evidence that the attackers accessed any apps using Facebook Login.”

And while Polakis called those findings “good news,” he also emphasized that the overarching issue is far from resolved.

“Attackers accessing private FB user data is a major concern and privacy risk in and of itself,” he tweeted. “This attack is a clear warning of … the need for better remediation options across all 3rd parties that rely on identity providers,” like Facebook.

The (Non) Impact on Usership

To reiterate: This most recent Facebook security breach is a somewhat technically complex one — parts of which even those of us who have been poring over the story since it broke are still trying to figure out.

And Facebook has released little information about who was impacted or how far back the potential account compromise goes. Independent investigations into the breach have been launched, including one from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC).

Investigation commenced into Facebook data breach. @DPCIreland statement beneath. #dataprotection #GDPR #eudatap pic.twitter.com/7eHKUigTq5

— Data Protection Commission Ireland (@DPCIreland)
October 3, 2018

That general lack of clarity could help explain the results we found next, when we asked 732 internet users across the U.S., UK, and Canada: Have you stopped using Facebook or deleted your account as a result of this security breach?

More than half of respondents (60%) said that the breach has not caused them to stop using Facebook, or delete their accounts.

The results raise another question: Are people still using Facebook because they don’t completely understand the full extent, impact, and nature of its security breach? Or is it because they simply don’t care?

I asked two of HubSpot’s VPs of marketing, Jon Dick and Meghan Keaney Anderson, to weigh in. The verdict: At this point, people no longer expect their data or privacy to be protected — and they’re not willing to exchange what they get out of using Facebook for that protection.

“People just assume that their data is constantly breached,” Dick told me a few days after news of the breach first broke. That’s why it’s possible that “the Facebook news didn’t even alarm people.”

It’s also hard for many social media users to feel the effects of an online security issue unless their lives are tangibly compromised — especially when its cause is a social network that they might use day-to-day.

Facebook “is a primary connection point to family members, to news, to society at large,” Keaney Anderson said. “And for now, there is no viable replacement to that.”

We’ll continue to cover the issue as more details come forward.

Global teams bring perspectives from various cultures and mindsets, but they also bring obvious challenges: different time zones, language barriers, social norm differences, and communication styles.

These are common challenges for nearly any global team, so it’s important to be empathetic and consider how your coworkers around the globe may be experiencing a certain challenge — and how they may not have the same resources as you

That’s easier said than done, though.

One of the biggest challenges for global teams is conducting effective meetings. Specifically, how you can consistently and effectively bring everyone together, talk through action items, and build rapport while everyone is so far away from each other.

Read on to explore some of our best tips for running more effective global meetings.

5 Ways You Can Run More Effective International Meetings

1. Consider Each Team’s Time Zone

Trying to schedule a meeting across multiple time zones is difficult, but leaving out team members from other regions due to a scheduling conflict is never the solution.

One way to approach this is by sending out a quick survey to figure out each team’s time preference. You may discover that your team in Singapore prefers calls later in the day, whereas your team in Ireland likes to meet earlier in the day. Involving each region in planning will help you make sure that your meeting is at the best time possible for all parties.

If there isn’t a convenient time that’ll work for every team, try rotating your meeting time to accommodate each team every few meetings. If you need a meeting scheduler tool that can pick the optimal meeting time for all your global teams, try using Time and Date.

2. Use Technology to Your Advantage

One of the biggest challenges for remote teams is how the difference in time zones can delay productivity.

For example, if you’re based in New York and send a blog post to a coworker in Dublin for edits, they’re actually five hours ahead of you and have most likely stopped working by the time you send your post to them.

Time zone delays like this can lead to simple projects taking three or four times as long as they normally do. But if you leverage the technology listed below, your global team can be agile and efficient.

Instant messaging software

Slack or Skype

Instant messaging apps are a great way to communicate with your team. You can use them for one-time requests and even every day banter.

Slack, the most popular team collaboration software, is the most widely used instant messaging app for a reason — it allows you to see what time zone your coworkers are in, update your status, and catch up on group conversations.

Video Conferencing Software

Zoom

Whether you’re halfway across the world or only 10 miles away from each other, you can always communicate with your teammates through video chat. Video chat enables global teams to facilitate relationships and work directly with others who do not share an office.

But be sure to communicate that a meeting will include video so you don’t catch a remote employee off guard. Another video chat idea your global team could implement is mounting a monitor that live streams another team in a different location to your office’s wall. By seeing your international teammates faces everyday, your global team will feel more connected with each other.

Smart Conferencing Camera

Meeting Owl

The best way to make teammates feel connected during team meetings is by capturing as much of the human element as possible, like facial expressions and body language.

These small yet powerful details strengthen communication and make the conversation feel more natural, even if you’re halfway across the world from each other.

Today, 360° smart conferencing cameras do a great job of picking up everything that’s happening on both ends, so everyone feels more connected with each other.

Shared Documents

Google Drive

Shared, real-time editing in Google Drive eliminates a lot of back-and-forth discussion when you work on projects with your international team. The editing feature is also one of the best tools for easily collaborating on content and seeing what changes your teammates have proposed.

Project management software

Trello or Basecamp

Even though project management is the core of all content and product teams, any type of team can use project management software. Tools like Trello can keep your global team moving fast while staying nimble, allowing anyone to jump into the tool at any time and learn about the recent changes to all your projects.

Calendar

Google Calendar

Shared calendars offer your team the ability to see what’s going on with each employee, team, and office. Knowing each team’s specific calendar also lets you know if another location may have a national holiday or if a team member is out of the office, without having to ask them.

3. Build Your Cultural Competence

The first step towards developing your cultural competence is awareness. Being aware of your own perceptions, culture, background, and biases is essential to understanding how you view other cultures. To strengthen your awareness, start doing some self-reflection and try understanding how your upbringing and culture have shaped the lens through which you see the world.

You should also try to learn more about other cultures. Set up time with a team member from another part of the world to simply get to know them and learn about their culture. If you have time, consider traveling to each team’s specific location to learn about their way of life. Additionally, you could read books written by authors who have the same cultural background as your teammates.

When learning the nuances of different cultures, you also have to consider other things like how each of your teams perceive vacation time, remote work, and professional communication.

According to a survey conducted by Owl Labs this year, which explores how Americans and Europeans perceive vacation policy and vacation guilt, U.S. workers take an average of 15 vacation days per year while European workers take an average of 22 vacation days. Americans also are 50% more likely to feel guilty when they go on vacation compared to Europeans.

Even though Americans and Europeans are right across the pond from each other, there’s still big differences between their perceptions of work and vacation. And if you make a concerted effort to understand how different cultures and regions think about these important topics, you’ll be able to shape the tone and approach of your communication and become a better teammate.

Plus, by immersing yourself in other cultures and staying humble about your own, you’ll not only be able to work better with your global teammates, but you’ll also grow and develop as a person.

4. Do Team Bonding Activities

Global teams need team bonding as much as single region teams do. When your team feels connected, they are able to work better together. Even if your team is scattered around the globe, you can still promote cross-team and cross-continent bonding through the internet. Here are some fun and effective digital bonding strategies you can use today:

1. Set up virtual coffee chats with team members from each office.
2. Encourage the use of Slack or other messaging platforms to casually communicate on a daily basis.
3. Have each office pick a day where they can share their culture with the rest of the team, where you can do the following:
• Order lunches that are native to each team at every office and set up a virtual hangout during breakfast, lunch, or dinner, depending on each team’s time zone.
• Elect a representative from the office who is sharing their culture that day to do a short presentation about their culture.
• You can set up these virtual events during holidays like Thanksgiving, Holi, Boxing Day, or St. Patrick’s Day.
4. If international team members are able to travel to your office, make sure you set up fun and engaging team bonding activities like escape rooms or scavenger hunts.

Global team bonding doesn’t have to be complicated. As a global team manager, all you have to do is encourage your team to communicate with other offices, ask them to help with other teams’ challenges, and think of the whole team as one group.

5. Ask Your Team What Their Preferences Are

Working with global teams means you have to deal with a lot of different opinions and values. If you try to assume what each team is thinking without getting their feedback, you’ll never have productive international meetings and won’t be able to build trust with your global team.

If you are creating, joining, or managing a global team and want to learn what your team members’ preferences are, try sending out an anonymous survey to them, with questions like:

• What is your preferred communication style?
• Are there any holidays or local events that we should be aware of and add to the team’s calendar?
• What software programs do you use?
• What are your preferred times for team meetings?
• What are your preferred times for individual meetings?
• What, if any, challenges have you faced while working on a global team?

Directly asking your team members about their preferences is the best way to improve team bonding and collaboration. To collect this information, try using a tool like TINYpulse, Survey Monkey, or Google Forms. Afterwards, share the data with your team so they can understand how everyone feels about the same issues. Just make sure the answers are anonymous, so you’ll get honest answers.

Build a Global Team that Can Actually Collaborate With Each Other

Diverse teams are the most successful types of teams. But they’re also more challenging to manage. Fortunately, these actionable tips for running more effective international meetings will help you improve your global team’s collaboration and culture.

You’ll often hear someone, when speaking to a friend about work, say, “So, what’s the company culture like?”

In response, you might hear something along the lines of, “Really friendly people. Ping pong tables. Free pizza on Friday’s.”

Culture is a critical component of any organization. As the HubSpot Culture Code states, “Culture is to recruiting as product is to marketing.” To attract and retain talented people, you need to create a culture people will love.

But organizational culture is more than friendly people or a cool office space. Here, we’re going to define organizational culture and describe different types, so you can get a sense for what it is — and why it matters.

What is organizational culture?

Organizational culture is an inherent part of any workplace.

Essentially, organizational culture is the values, behaviors, and shared vision that contribute to the environment of an organization. 

Let’s focus on one aspect of that for a moment — “values”. In this instance, we’re using values as an umbrella term over the whole organization, but also as a label to define the daily interactions between individual employees.

For instance, your company might value autonomy. On a larger scale, you might implement autonomy by allowing leaders to manage their own teams with little interference. However, to truly infiltrate the culture, you’ll want each employee, from intern to VP, to feel autonomous over their own schedules and workload.

For our purposes, it’s important to distinguish the difference between “value” and “behavior”. Your company might value kindness, but to truly create a compassionate culture, you’ll need to ensure each employee follows certain behaviors. Kindness can mean anything from being inclusive during team outings, to remaining open to new ideas during meetings.

If your values don’t play out in your employees’ daily behavior, you’ll never create the kind of culture you want.

Finally, it’s critical your company have a shared vision. Without a shared vision, it’s difficult for your employees to work together towards a common goal, make effective decisions, and move the company forward. Additionally, your vision is the motivating factor that can keep employees engaged when times get hard.

For instance, consider Life is Good, a company with an impressive 4.0 rating on Glassdoor. From an outsider’s perspective, Life is Good sells t-shirts and other apparel. But their vision is bigger than that — “To spread the power of optimism.”

A vision helps a company grow, but it also enables individual employees to stay on track and make the right decisions for the brand. When faced with challenges, Life is Good’s employees might ask themselves, “Well, does this spread optimism, or does it go against our mission?” Ideally, the vision acts as common ground and enables leaders to take a step back and allow for greater autonomy across the organization.

Types of organizational culture

University of Michigan business professors Robert E. Quinn and Kim S. Cameron developed the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument, or OCAI. Using their research in the field, they came up with four different organizational cultures — but, it’s important to note, most organizations are a combination of these cultures. Here, we’ll break them down.

1. Clan Culture

Clan Culture is a “family-like” culture. People are friendly and respectful towards one another, and leaders are seen as mentors. There’s an emphasis on team-building and employee involvement. Clan Culture organizations prioritize their Human Resources department, and implement long-term HR approaches to encourage teamwork and inclusion. There’s also a strong emphasis on loyalty and tradition.

Smaller companies are typically good examples of Clan Culture. For instance, Propellernet, a Brighton-based marketing agency consistently named a top UK Place to Work, has said they “prioritize the health and well-being of our team, work hard to challenge, engage and inspire them, and have a business plan that focuses on making their dreams come true.”

2. Adhocracy Culture

This is an innovative, dynamic, and creative work environment. Above all else, a Adhocracy Culture promotes freedom and individual innovation. Employees are encouraged to experiment and offer new ideas, and leaders are seen as risk-takers. Ultimately, the organization aims to grow and create new products. Their metric of success is whether they are able to anticipate market needs and develop new solutions to meet that demand.

Apple is a good example of Adhocracy Culture — Steve Jobs, Apple’s founder, once said, “We hire people who want to make the best things in the world.” Apple puts an emphasis on invention and creativity.

3. Market Culture

A Market Culture emphasizes getting things done. There’s a competitive nature both among employees and even between leaders. Employees are motivated by rivalry and reaching goals, and there’s a steadfast focus on winning. Leaders are both hard drivers and rivals. Ultimately, success is measured by market penetration and stock.

Oracle is a good example of Market Culture. Oracle’s executive chairman and co-founder Larry Ellison has said, “I’m addicted to winning. The more you win, the more you want to win.”

4. The Hierarchy Culture

Strict institutional procedures are adhered to closely in a Hierarchy Culture. A leader’s job is primarily to ensure employees follow procedures correctly. In a Hierarchy Culture, there’s a strong emphasis on efficiency and uniformity. Ultimately, the organization’s goals revolve around smooth execution, results, and low costs. A Hierarchy Culture relies on systematic problem-solving and process control to operate effectively.

Bureaucratic organizations like the Department of Motor Vehicles, or Burger King, are good examples of a Hierarchy Culture. These organizations follow corporate procedures to ensure consistency and results. 

Troubleshooting a HTTP 500 Internal Server Error is like solving a mystery. You don’t know what exactly happened or why it happened — all you know is that something’s wrong and you need to fix it.

To guide you through the hassle of troubleshooting the dreaded HTTP 500 Internal Server Error, let’s go over what it exactly means and its most common causes and solutions.

Image Credit: CheckUpDown

Fortunately, there are three common and effective solutions for fixing most HTTP 500 Internal Server Errors: troubleshooting popular software problems, debugging server-side scripts, and asking a server administrator for help.

Troubleshooting Popular Software Problems

If your server runs popular software like WordPress, bad installations, incompatible versions, and incorrect server permissions can all cause a HTTP 500 Internal Server Error. Here’s how you can fix this issue:

• Check to see if your recently installed or upgraded software actually failed to install or upgrade. To refresh your software, check the vendor’s website for instructions.
• Newly activated plugin or themes might conflict with your current plugins or themes. Deactivate them one at a time to identify the exact plugins or themes causing the internal server error.
• If you just upgraded your software, your current plugins or themes might not be compatible with the new upgrade. Deactivating plugins or themes one at a time until the error disappears is the best way to find the root cause of your problem.

Debugging Server-Side Scripts

Custom scripts that are currently getting developed and tested can cause an HTTP 500 Internal Server Error. Here’s how you can fix this issue:

• Wrong permissions on a file or folder that has a script, like a PHP or CGI script, won’t allow the script to run. Check your permissions and make sure you set them correctly on your server.
• Programming errors or unavailable resources can cause one of your scripts to run in an endless loop and make it time out.
• Coding errors of an .htcaccess file and custom scripts can also cause an HTTP 500 Internal Server Error.

Asking a Server Administrator for Help

If troubleshooting popular software problems or debugging server-side scripts doesn’t fix your HTTP 500 Internal Server Error, you should read about the most common causes for this type of issue in your server’s documentation — an HTTP 500 Internal Server Error can occur in different operating systems for a multitude of reasons. You can also ask your server provider to access your error logs and find evidence for the root cause of your problem.

“A simple and affordable way to increase leads and create more conversions through your website.”

Sounds intriguing, right? But what could I possibly be describing? 

I’m referring to sign up web forms. In addition to increasing leads and conversions, sign up forms also help businesses grow their mailing lists and learn more about the people interested in their company and products. They only take minutes to make and can be embedded anywhere on your website.

By the end of this blog post, you will know how to create an impactful sign up form for your website and what to include to achieve the greatest impact possible.

13 Tips to Create a High Converting Sign Up Form

The point of your sign up form is to provide a way for website visitors to opt into your communications or gain more information about your business. A good form makes the opt-in process simple and increases the number of conversions. But what makes a good sign up form? 

These tips will help you create an impactful sign up form that gets you closer to your desired result: more leads.

Keep It Simple

Keep your form simple and easy to fill out. Exclude the fluff, unnecessary wording and extra fields. When it comes to web forms, the more fields, the less likely a person is to want to complete the form. In fact, one instance, less fields can lead to a 120% increase in conversions.

Use One Column, Not Two

When a lead is completing a sign up form, you want to provide them with an easy end-to-end experience and a single column form is the best way to do that. Two-column sign up forms may disrupt reading or cause leads to misinterpret the fields. 

The only time you should place multiple fields on one line is when the questions are so closely related that it makes more sense for your leads to complete them next to one another. For example, first and last name form fields should be placed next to each other.

Source: W3layouts

Don’t Ask For Information Twice

Have you ever filled out a form and been asked to enter your password twice? Sure it helps to ensure accuracy and validity on forms, but asking leads for duplicate information is unnecessary, especially since there are alternatives that will make the process less cumbersome.

 For example, you can unmask passwords so that users can double check their entry before submitting the form. 

Advanced form builders use progressive profiling, which prevents returning users from being asked the same questions when they revisit a website. For example, if a lead signed up for one of your offers and returned to your site at a later date to fill out another form, your form builder would remember the lead and either auto-fill their known information or remove redundant questions from the form altogether. Not only does this keep the form completion process as efficient and easy as possible, but it provides a positive user experience.

Use a CTA Button That Stands Out

You should provide your leads with a clear call-to-action, or “submit” button. The main reason CTA buttons are so important is that they make it clear how a lead should submit the form they just completed. The CTA button itself should be wide and bold so it is easy to see and use — a CTA button should make your leads feel confident that the information they are submitting is going to be seen by the right people.

Eliminate Distractions

Sign up forms should serve one purpose: generate leads. That means eliminating distractions like ads, extra wording, photos or videos. Consider a pop-up, dedicated landing page, or a clean area on your site to keep your users focused on the task at hand — completing your form.

Use Inline Form Validation

Inline form validation stops leads who type incorrect information in the form fields with an error message so they are unable to submit the form until they fix the error.

 For instance, maybe someone types a password that doesn’t meet the requirements, enters an invalid phone number or is missing a few digits in their zip code. If your forms were submitted with this misinformation, they wouldn’t be useful for you or your leads. Inline form validation ensures that only accurate information is submitted and, thereby, saves time for everyone.

Consider Text and Form Field Box Alignment

When you create your sign up form, align your text so it’s easy to read and follow. Place text above your form fields (not below or to the side). When your leads see “Name”, they will know they should write their name in the form field directly below. People are traditionally used to reading left to right, and completing forms in a single column format, so maintaining consistency is important.

Make the Value of Signing Up Clear

Whether you’re offering a free trial, first-time purchase discount, weekly newsletter, or important company information on new products and services, you should state the value of signing up on (or around) your form. This will get your leads excited and provide them with an incentive to complete all those form fields.

Show Social Proof

Social proof is a way to show potential leads that other people are taking action by filling out your form and they should too.

70% of online consumers look at a product review before making a decision to buy something. That’s exactly why marketers often use social proof to encourage visitors to complete their sign up forms. 

Providing proof works — in fact, studies have shown that product reviews written by real customers are 12x more trusted than product descriptions written by companies and manufacturers. Social proof could be a testimonial quote, a product review or a submission counter.

Source: Instapage

For example, when an eBook author added social proof (in the form testimonials) to his website, he experienced an increase in downloads and email sign ups by over 64%… not bad! When people see social proof, they have a reason to trust you and your business which leads to an increase in conversions.

Make Your Form Look Nice

Did you know that 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content and layout are visually unattractive or unpleasant?

People care about your sign up form design. Make your form look professional, visually appealing and ensure it matches the look of your other brand. If you put in the time to create a beautiful form, you will leave a lasting impression on your leads.

Tell Your Leads What Happens After They Sign Up

Once someone completes your sign up form, let them know what to expect next. Whether it’s a weekly email, future product announcements, quarterly company news, or an annual check-in, your new lead should know how and when they will hear from you. 

A common way to do this is by sending your new lead to a “thank you” page or providing an inline message once they submit the form. After all, they did just stop whatever it was they were doing to voluntarily provide you with their information.

Don’t Use CAPTCHAs On Forms

CAPTCHAs are the tests that ask you to enter a code or identify images in a photo before submitting a form. Their purpose is to detect bots and decrease SPAM. 

Source: BeSpecular 

However, completing a CAPTCHA is sometimes tricky, takes time and often frustrates leads. Not to mention, CAPTCHAs are less helpful than they once were since computers have become better at imitating humans. If you’re worried about SPAM, you can try the reCAPTCHA, which allows leads to simply check a box that says, “I’m not a robot” and carry on with their day.

Source: Google

Test Your Sign Up Forms

First, test that your form works. Your leads should have no issue providing their information and submitting it to your server. Then, test which variation of your form is most effective through an A/B test.

Four Great Sign Up Form Examples

A great way to create an impactful sign up form is to look at other successful examples. Although each business has different needs and requirements, there are still common elements shared among successful web forms that you can learn from. Here are four examples to consider:

Netflix

Source: Netflix

Netflix has a quick and easy sign up form with a clear incentive: a free, one-month trial. All new users need to do to get started is create an account with an email address and a password. It’s quick and simple, which is key to increasing conversions. The copy about hating paperwork doesn’t hurt either — it shows how Netflix relates to their customers.

Grubhub 

Source: Grubhub

Grubhub uses a pop-up sign up form, which eliminates distractions by darkening the background to bring the form into focus. Leads are asked for just three pieces of information that they can either fill out manually or automatically using their Facebook or Google account. Grubhub knows how to create an efficient and easy experience for their visitors.

Equinox

Source: Equinox

Signing up for a gym membership requires a lot of personal information, but Equinox knows how to keep the process simple. The club has separate forms for personal, billing and account information that are displayed as a user progresses. Not only that, but their selections are displayed alongside the form, which allows leads to confidently hit “Submit” at the end of the form.

HubSpot CRM

Source: HubSpot

The HubSpot CRM sign up form only requires leads to complete four fields — first name, last name, email and password — before submitting. HubSpot places the first and last name form fields side by side to shorten the form. Lastly, the form is branded, looks nice and matches HubSpot’s aesthetic.

A Google Sign Up Form Template You Can Use Right Away

Now that we’ve reviewed some great sign up form examples, let’s check out a couple of (free) templates you can use to create your own sign up form. All you need is access to the Google Suite (if you already have a Gmail account, you’re good to go).

Picnic Sign Up Form: Google Sheets 

Source: Google Sheets

This form in Google Sheets is clearly color coated, labeled and organized. Google Sheets allows you to make spreadsheet forms that are as in-depth as you want them to be. You can also share your forms publicly with the click of a button and design them in any way they see fit.

T-Shirt Sign Up Form: Google Forms

Google Forms is another quick way to create sign up forms. With this free software, you can build a professional-looking form and share it publicly. Google Forms has a large selection of templates to choose from and this T-Shirt sign up form is just one of them. Google Forms allows you to collect information in a variety of ways, such as large and short-entry text fields, multiple choice, checkboxes and more.

Conclusion

Sign up forms are a way to generate leads and build your mailing lists. They also allow you to learn more about the people most interested in your brand, products and services. With a simple, visually appealing and easy-to-follow sign up form, you will increase your conversions.

When you’re sifting through your News Feed, what tends to catch your attention? More likely than not, it’s YouTube videos, pictures, animated GIFs, and other visual content, right?

While text-based content is always important when seeking answers to a question, creating visuals such as infographics, charts, graphs, animated GIFs, and other shareable images can do wonders for catching your readers’ attention and enhancing your article or report.

I know what you might be thinking: “I don’t know how to design awesome visuals. I’m not creative.”

Hi. I’m Bethany, and I will be the first to tell you that I’m not naturally artistic. And yet, I found a strength in data visualization at HubSpot, where I’ve spent most of my days creating infographics and other visuals for blog posts.

So, while I wouldn’t say I’m naturally artistic, I have learned how to create compelling visual content. So can you.

While there are many tools out there to help even the most inartistic of us to create compelling visuals, some parts of graphic design take a little more background knowledge.

Take picking the right colors, for instance. It’s something that might seem easy at first, but when you’re staring down a color wheel, you’re going to wish you had some information on what you’re looking at.

Consider this your introductory course to color theory. Read on to learn about the terms, tools, and tips you should know to pick the best colors for your designs.

Color Theory 101

Let’s first go back to high school art class to discuss the basics of color.

Remember hearing about primary, secondary, and tertiary colors? They’re pretty important if you want to understand, well, everything else about color.

Primary Colors

Primary colors are those you can’t create by combining two or more other colors together. They’re a lot like prime numbers, which can’t be created by multiplying two other numbers together.

There are three primary colors:

• Red
• Yellow
• Blue

Think of primary colors as your parent colors, anchoring your design in a general color scheme. Any one or combination of these colors can give your brand guardrails when you move to explore other shades, tones, and tints (we’ll talk about those in just a minute).

When designing or even painting with primary colors, don’t feel restricted to just the three primary colors listed above. Orange isn’t a primary color, for example, but brands can certainly use orange as their dominant color (as we at HubSpot know this quite well).

Knowing which primary colors create orange is your ticket to identifying colors that might go well with orange — given the right shade, tone, or tint. This brings us to our next type of color …

Secondary Colors

Secondary colors are the colors that are formed by combining any two of the three primary colors listed above. Check out the color theory model above — see how each secondary color is supported by two of the three primary colors?

There are three secondary colors: orange, purple, and green. You can create each one using two of the three primary colors. Here are the general rules of secondary color creation:

• Red + Yellow = Orange
• Blue + Red = Purple
• Yellow + Blue = Green

Keep in mind that the color mixtures above only work if you use the purest form of each primary color. This pure form is known as a color’s hue, and you’ll see how these hues compare to the variants underneath each color in the color wheel below.

Tertiary Colors

Tertiary colors are created when you mix a primary color with secondary color.

From here, color gets a little more complicated. And if you want to learn how the experts choose color in their design, you’ve got to first understand all the other components of color.

The most important component of tertiary colors is that not every primary color can match with a secondary color to create a tertiary color. For example, red can’t mix in harmony with green, and blue can’t mix in harmony with orange — both mixtures would result in a slightly brown color (unless of course that’s what you’re looking for).

Instead, tertiary colors are created when a primary color mixes with a secondary color that comes next to it on the color wheel below. There are six tertiary colors that fit this requirement:

• Red + Purple = Red-Purple (magenta)
• Red + Orange = Red-Orange (vermillion)
• Blue + Purple = Blue-Purple (violet)
• Blue + Green = Blue-Green (teal)
• Yellow + Orange = Yellow-Orange (amber)
• Yellow + Green = Yellow-Green (chartreuse)

The Color Theory Wheel

Okay, great. So now you know what the “main” colors are, but you and I both know that choosing color, especially on a computer, has much wider range than 12 basic colors.

This is the impetus behind the color wheel, a circle graph that charts each primary, secondary, and tertiary color — as well as their respective hues, tints, tones, and shades. Visualizing colors in this way helps you choose color schemes by showing you how each color relates to the color that comes next to it on a rainbow color scale. (As you probably know, the colors of a rainbow, in order, are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.)

When choosing colors for a color scheme, the color wheel gives you opportunities to create brighter, lighter, softer, and darker colors by mixing white, black, and gray with the original colors. These mixes create the color variants described below:

Hue

Hue is pretty much synonymous to what we actually mean when we said the word “color.” All of the primary and secondary colors, for instance, are “hues.”

Hues are important to remember when combining two primary colors to create a secondary color. If you don’t use the hues of the two primary colors you’re mixing together, you won’t generate the hue of the secondary color. This is because a hue has the fewest other colors inside it. By mixing two primary colors that carry other tints, tones, and shades inside them, you’re technically adding more than two colors to the mixture — making your final color dependent on the compatibility of more than two colors.

If you were to mix the hues of red and blue together, for instance, you’d get purple, right? But mix a tint of red with the hue of blue, and you’ll get a slightly tinted purple in return.

Shade

You may recognize the term “shade” because it’s used quite often to refer to light and dark versions of the same hue. But actually, a shade is technically the color that you get when you add black to any given hue. The various “shades” just refer to how much black you’re adding.

Tint

A tint is the opposite of a shade, but people don’t often distinguish between a color’s shade and a color’s tint. You get a different tint when you add white to a color. So, a color can have a range of both shades and tints.

Tone (or Saturation)

You can also add both white and black to a color to create a tone. Tone and saturation essentially mean the same thing, but most people will use saturation if they’re talking about colors being created for digital images. Tone will be used more often for painting.

Adding and Subtracting Color

If you’ve ever played around with color on any computer program, you’ve probably seen a module that listed RGB or CMYK colors with some numbers next to the letters.

Ever wondered what those letters mean?

CMYK

CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key (Black). Those also happen to be the colors listed on your ink cartridges for your printer. That’s no coincidence.

CMYK is the subtractive color model. It’s called that because you have to subtract colors to get to white. That means the opposite is true — the more colors you add, the closer you get to black. Confusing, right?

Think about printing a piece of paper. When you first put a sheet in the printer, you’re typically printing on a white piece of paper. By adding color, you’re blocking the white wavelengths from getting through.

Then, let’s say you were to put that printed piece of paper back in the printer, and print something on it again. You’ll notice the areas that have been printed on twice tend to colors closer to black.

I find it easier to think about CMYK in terms of its corresponding numbers. CMYK works on a scale of 0 to 100. If C=100, M=100, Y=100, and K=100, you end up with a black color. But, if all four colors equal 0, you end up with true white.

RGB

RGB color models, on the other hand, are designed for electronic displays, including computers.

RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue, and is based on the additive color model of light waves. This means, the more color you add, the closer you get towards white. For computers, RGB is created using scales from 0 to 255. So, black would be R=0, G=0, and B=0. White would be R=255, G=255, and B=255.

When you’re creating color on a computer, your color module will usually list both RGB and CMYK numbers. In practice you can use either one to find colors, and the other color model will adjust accordingly.

However, many web programs will only give you the RGB values or a HEX code (the code assigned to color for CSS and HTML). So, if you’re designing digital images, RGB is probably your best bet for choosing colors.

Now that we’ve got all of the basics of color theory down, let’s talk about how to actually use this newfound knowledge to form designs that perfect your brand and resonate with your audience.

You’ve probably noticed before that some colors look great together and others, well, just don’t. The colors we choose can help enhance a design, or it can take away from a design.

When you’re figuring out how to design a graphic, it’s important to remember that how we perceive colors depends on the context in which we see it.

1. Consider your color context.

Color context refers to how we perceive colors as they contrast with another color. Look at the pairs of circles in the example below to see what I mean.

The middle of each of the circles is the same size, shape, and color. The only thing that changes is the background color. Yet, the middle circles appear softer or brighter depending on the contrasting color behind it. You may even notice movement or depth changes just based on one color change.

This is because the way in which we use two colors together changes how we perceive it. So, when you’re choosing colors for your graphic designs, think about how much contrast you want throughout the design.

For instance, if you were creating a simple bar chart, would you want a dark background with dark bars? Probably not. You’d most likely want to create a contrast between your bars and the background itself since you want your viewers to focus on the bars, not the background.

Choosing colors with high contrast, however, isn’t always as hard as choosing colors that look good together.

For me, this is where choosing color is trickiest. I could spend hours choosing colors for an infographic simply because it takes awhile to get a feel for what looks best together.

In reality, though, I usually don’t have hours to spend just choosing colors. (And that’d probably be a waste of time even if I did have a few hours.)

Luckily, there are logical rules for how to create color schemes that work together.

2. Refer to a color wheel to identify analogous colors.

Analogous color schemes are formed by pairing one main color with the two colors directly next to it on the color wheel. You can also add two additional colors (which are found next to the two outside colors) if you want to use a five-color scheme instead of just three colors.

Analogous structures do not create themes with high contrasting colors, so they’re typically used to create a softer, less contrasting design. For example, you could use an analogous structure to create a color scheme with autumn or spring colors.

I like to use this color scheme to create warmer (red, oranges, and yellows) or cooler (purples, blues, and greens) color palettes like the one below. There isn’t a high contrast between these colors, but don’t they just look nice together?

I’d probably use this palette to design an image rather than an infographic or bar chart as I would want all of the elements in the image to blend together nicely.

3. Refer to a color wheel to identify complementary colors.

You may have guessed it, but a complementary color scheme is based on the use of two colors directly across from each other on the color wheel and relevant tints of those colors.

The complementary color scheme provides the greatest amount of color contrast. Because of this, you should be careful about how you use the complementary colors in a scheme. It’s best to use one color predominantly and use the second color as accents in your design.

The complementary color scheme is also great for charts and graphs. High contrast helps you highlight important points and takeaways.

However, if I were to use these colors in an infographic, I’d probably need to use a much lighter color for the actual background. Can you imagine choosing one of the oranges as a background with blues as accents and text? That’d probably be too overpowering and difficult to read.

4. Focus on monochromatic colors in the same hue.

Using a monochromatic schemes allows you create a color scheme based on various shades and tints of one hue. Although it lacks color contrast, it often ends up looking very clean and polished. It also allows you to easily change the darkness and lightness of your colors.

I like to use monochromatic color schemes for charts and graphs, but only when creating high contrast isn’t necessary. However, monochromatic schemes don’t tend to “pop,” so if you’re looking for a color scheme that’s bright and attention grabbing, this one isn’t your best bet.

Check out all the monochromatic colors that fall under the red hue, a primary color.

5. Use a triadic color scheme to create high contrast.

Triadic color schemes offer high contrasting color schemes while retaining the same tone. Triadic color schemes are created by choosing three colors that are equally placed in lines around the color wheel.

Triad color schemes are useful for creating high contrast between each color in a design, but they can also seem overpowering if all of your colors are chosen on the same point in a line around the color wheel.

To subdue some of your colors in a triadic scheme, you can choose one dominant color and use the others sparingly, or simply subdue the other two colors by choosing a softer tint.

The triadic color scheme looks great in graphics like bar or pie charts because it offers the contrast you need to create comparisons.

However, if I were using this color scheme to create an infographic, I’d be more likely to choose one color as the background color, such as the yellow or light green, and a darker contrasting color as the dominant color. I then might use the other three colors as accents throughout. By changing up the intensity of the colors in the design, I can highlight important points and takeaways.

6. Create a split complementary color scheme.

A split complementary scheme includes one dominant color and the two colors directly adjacent to the dominant color’s complement. This creates a more nuanced color palette than a complementary color scheme while still retaining the benefits of contrasting colors.

The split complementary color scheme can be difficult to balance well because unlike analogous or monochromatic color schemes, the colors used all provide contrast (similar to the complementary scheme).

I can imagine using the following split complementary color scheme in a variety of ways. I could use this in an chart or graph because it gives me the contrast I need and the colors remain visually appealing.

I could also imagine using these colors in an infographic, although I’d play around with the colors a bit more to see which pairs look best together.

The positive and negative aspect of the split complementary color model is that you can use any two colors in the scheme and get great contrast … but that also means it can also be tricky to find the right balance between the colors. As a result, you may end up playing around with this one a bit more to find the right combination of contrast.

No matter which color scheme you choose, try and keep in mind what your graphic needs. If you need to create contrast, then choose a color scheme that gives you that. On the other hand, if you just need to find the best “versions” of certain colors, then play around with the monochromatic color scheme to find the perfect shades and tints.

I’ve found that simply understanding how color schemes are built goes a long way for helping me choose the right color scheme. If I just think: “What is the goal of this graphic?” I can start to determine how much (or how little) contrast I need.

Remember, if you build a color scheme with five colors, that doesn’t mean you have to use all five. Sometimes just choosing two colors from a color scheme looks much better than cramming all five colors together in one graphic.

7. Think beyond the presets, but start with just one color.

Before I send you off to create amazing images to improve you blog and social posts, let me give you a few extra tips for choosing colors:

• Don’t stick with presets. Almost every program you use will automatically give you preset colors. Get past the presets and explore color on your own. Don’t let the program decide how you use color in your design.
• Start with one color you like. Every time I design something, I start with one color and build the color scheme from there. If you try and start with more than one color, you’ll have a harder time finding harmony between your colors.
• Save your color schemes. If you find a color (or color scheme) you like, it’ll probably be useful to you later. I wouldn’t suggest using the same color scheme for every chart or graphic you create, but you can always use different schemes in different ways later on.
• Practice makes perfect. The more you play with color and practice design, the better you get. No one creates their masterpiece the first time around.

Color Tools

There’s been a lot of theory and practical information for actually understanding which colors go best together and why. But when it comes down to the actual task of choosing colors while you’re designing, it’s always a great idea to have tools to help you actually do the work quickly and easily.

Luckily, there are a number of tools to help you find and choose colors for your designs.

Adobe Color

One of my favorite color tools to use while I’m designing anything — whether it’s an infographic or just a pie chart — is Adobe Color (previously Adobe Kuler).

This free online tool allows you to quickly build color schemes based on the color structures that were explained earlier in this post. Once you’ve chosen the colors in the scheme you’d like, you can copy and paste the HEX or RGB codes into whatever program you’re using.

It also features hundreds of premade color schemes for you to explore and use in your own designs. If you’re an Adobe user, you can easily save your themes to your account.

Illustrator Color Guide

I spend a lot of time in Adobe Illustrator, and one of my most-used features is the color guide. The color guide allows you to choose one color, and it will automatically generate a five-color scheme for you. It will also give you a range of tints and shades for each color in the scheme.

If you switch your main color, the color guide will switch the corresponding colors in that scheme. So if you’ve chosen a complementary color scheme with main color of blue, once you switch your main color to red, the complementary color will also switch from orange to green.

Like Adobe Color, the color guide has a number of preset modes to choose the kind of color scheme you want. This helps you pick the right color scheme style within the program you’re already using.

After you’ve created the color scheme that you want, you can save that scheme in the “Color Themes” module for you to use throughout your project or in the future.

Preset Color Guides

If you’re not an Adobe user, you’ve probably used Microsoft Office products at least once. All of the Office products have preset colors that you can use and play around with to create color schemes. PowerPoint also has number of color scheme presets that you can use to draw inspiration for your designs.

Where the color schemes are located in PowerPoint will depend on which version you use, but once you find the color “themes” of your document, you can open up the preferences and locate the RGB and HEX codes for the colors used.

You can then copy and paste those codes to be used in whatever program you’re using to do your design work.

There’s a lot of theory in this post, I know. But when it comes to choosing colors, understanding the theory behind color can do wonders for how you actually use color.

The first ecommerce sale was made in 1994 … and can you guess what it was?

It was a Sting CD.

Dan Kohn, a 21-year-old who ran a website called NetMarket, sold Sting’s Ten Summoner’s Tales CD to a friend who purchased it with his credit card for $12.48 plus shipping costs. These exchanges are what we know as ecommerce today: Sales of services and goods made through the internet.

Ecommerce has come a long way since 1994, and it’s growing as more shoppers turn to devices and computers as the primary tools for discovering and buying new products. Let’s take a deeper look at what ecommerce is and the growth trends around it, as well as some basic getting started tips.

Ecommerce Trends in 2018

The biggest trend around ecommerce right now is growth — and that growth extends far and wide.

U.S. Ecommerce Growth

Ecommerce has seen tremendous growth within the U.S. in the last 10 years. In fact, data from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows that in 2017, U.S. ecommerce sales grew faster than it had since 2011 and that it represented 49% of the growth in total retail sales. That growth trend isn’t slowing down, either. Statista data predicts that ecommerce revenue will surpass $638 billion in the U.S. by 2022.

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Global Ecommerce Growth

Global ecommerce is rapidly growing, too. Emarketer trend data indicates that retail ecommerce sales may exceed $4.058 trillion by as soon as 2020. As more shoppers look for products across borders and from international marketplaces, an uptick in ecommerce sales is evident around the globe.

The Nielsen Connected Commerce report said, “Shoppers are increasingly looking outside their country’s borders, as 57% of online respondents in the study who made an online purchase in the past six months say they bought from an overseas retailer.”

Ecommerce Growth by Category

ComScore data indicates there are a few particular industries seeing rapid change in regard to retail ecommerce growth. Jewelry and watches was at the top of the growth chart (as of 2016) with 39% growth, followed by furniture, appliances, and equipment (26%), and video games/accessories (24%).

 

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With this foundation of understanding around ecommerce, let’s now move on to some best practices and tips around the world of online sales.

Benefits of Ecommerce

Ecommerce is not a trend, and it isn’t going away any time soon. The reason is that selling goods and services on the internet highly benefits both the seller and the buyer. Here’s why. 

Benefits to the buyer:

• Convenience
• Quicker and easier transactions
• Informed purchasing decisions
• Easier price and product comparisons
• Improved delivery process
• Targeted communication 

Benefits to the seller:

• Lower overhead costs due to the elimination of brick and mortar locations
• The ability to sell goods around-the-clock (versus traditional store hours)
• Ability to reach customers beyond geographical location
• More control over the selling process and tracking, especially if there’s one portal that handles point-of-sale (POS)
• Greater visibility to potential customers via SEO
• More control over personnel costs and inventory management

Types of Ecommerce

There are three classifications of ecommerce. The classification depends on who is selling to who.

Business to Business (B2B)

Goods and services are sold from one company to another. For example, HubSpot provides products to other companies that are looking to grow better.

Business to Consumer (B2C)

A business sells to a customer. This is one of the most common types of ecommerce. An example would be an online clothing store or the online segment of some popular brick and mortar business, like Walmart or Target.

Consumer to Consumer (C2C)

As you may have guessed — consumers sell directly to consumer via online marketplaces. Craigslist, Ebay, and Amazon are all examples of C2C ecommerce.

Best Practices for Ecommerce Websites

When you’re ready to build an inbound ecommerce website, there are a few best practices to keep in mind that will help you get results out of your time and effort.

1. Select and customize a mobile-friendly theme.

BrightEdge data shows that more than half (57%) of web traffic now comes from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets — which means it’s essential to use a mobile-friendly theme when building your ecommerce website.

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On ecommerce platforms, you can browse a selection of free and premium themes (all of which are mobile-optimized) and find one that’s best suited for your needs. Plus: From there, you can customize the templated website theme. By adding your color scheme and branding elements (like your logo), you can make your ecommerce website look 100% custom-made.

Take a look at this Shopify template example:

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2. Optimize for the web.

Web optimization encompasses a wide range of strategies and tactics that help convert more site visitors into customers, but let’s focus on two in particular:

• Write enticing product descriptions. Use persuasive copywriting triggers to make your product descriptions sell. That means tapping into psychological tactics like fear of missing out, reciprocity, exclusivity, and more — all of which encourage site visitors to buy (and to buy NOW).
• Add beautiful product images. When it comes to marketing, visuals are extremely important — especially for online buyers who can’t see or touch products before making a purchase. Along with static product images, add context by incorporating images of models using the product and videos that give customers a 360-degree view.

3. Create a stellar customer experience.

Research indicates that customer experience will overtake price and product as the primary brand differentiator for sales by 2020. This means it’s important to focus on creating an impressive customer experience across all of your brand’s various touchpoints.

A few ideas to get you started:

• Add a FAQ page. Answering frequently asked questions on your ecommerce website helps potential customers quickly and easily find the information they need to complete a purchase.
• Reduce image sizes for quick load times. Survey data shows more than half of website visitors expect a page to load in less than two seconds. At more than three seconds, they leave the page (and aren’t likely to return.) Reduce the size of your on-site images so it loads quickly.
• Leverage user-generated content. Including user-generated content (think customer reviews, images from social media, and testimonials) on your ecommerce site means adding elements of social proof — which can improve the overall buying experience for customers.

Ecommerce Marketing Best Practices

What do you need to know about marketing for an ecommerce business? Here are a few best practices that can help jumpstart your efforts.

Test social media ads.

With 1.18 billion daily active users, Facebook has a huge audience that can be tapped. Consider targeting your audience with social media posts and videos and experiment to see what works best and drives sales and revenue.

Collect email addresses and stay in touch.

Recent data shows that three-quarters of companies agree that email marketing offers “excellent” to “good” ROI. By collecting email addresses on-site and asking customers to opt-in to future communications from you, you can give visitors a reason to keep coming back to your ecommerce site again and again via offers, sales, VIP discounts, and more.

Use personalization to tailor offers/messaging.

Personalization is more important than ever for online shoppers. In fact, research shows 74% of online consumers get frustrated with websites when offers, ads, and promotions appear that have nothing to do with their interests. Make sure you’re leveraging personalized product suggestions, personalizing your email marketing efforts, and generally striving to make each customer feel like you’re speaking only to him or her.

Gather feedback via surveys.

The best way to keep a finger on the pulse of what your audience wants is to ask them. Leverage online surveys to gather feedback on everything from product to your marketing efforts to customer service interactions.

How to Choose the Best Ecommerce Software

When searching for the best ecommerce platform and software to meet your needs, there are many factors to consider. Look for:

• Themes and customization abilities: You should be able to customize ready-made themes that allow you to personalize and add company branding.
• Domain name customization: Make sure you can get a custom domain name and URL (so you don’t have to include the platform’s name in your website URL).
• Expert, 24/7 support: Take the time to explore the platform’s service in detail. If an emergency crops up down the road, you want to be sure you’ll have fast, reliable support at a moment’s notice.
• Flexible payment options: Customers want to pay in a variety of ways today — from credit cards to digital wallets and beyond. Look for an ecommerce software solution that is flexible enough to support many different secure payment options.
• Multiple language abilities: Your customers may be coming from all over the world, so you need to be able to speak their language. It’s a good idea to work with a tool that supports many different languages.

If you’re looking to start a business or want to switch from your current platform, consider the software options below:

Examples of Inspiring Shopify Ecommerce Stores

Not sure what your ecommerce store should look like? Here are a few examples of inspiring stores to help get your creative wheels turning.

Tattly

Because Tattly offers a product that’s highly visual in nature, they’ve opted for a theme that’s photo-centric. This lets new visitors quickly get acquainted with the product offering and provides a few different paths for deeper product exploration, too.

Graydon Skincare

Graydon Skincare uses a website layout with a large rotating header image that helps communicate a feeling around the brand and product. The images feature different products sold by the brand, and the simple top navigation makes it easy for customers to quickly find what they’re looking for.

18Waits

18Waits also uses large rotating photos on the home page of their ecommerce store — but they sometimes integrate them with promotional offers. This helps shoppers visualize themselves wearing the product, while also enticing them to check out a special sale going on, too. Overall, the theme they’ve used is fairly minimal, which puts all the focus on the photography.

Easy Tiger

Speaking of minimal … Easy Tiger takes minimal design to the extreme. With a clean white background and no distracting design elements, all the focus is on their products. The red text also pops from the screen, making it easy to read and consume.

BluKicks

BluKicks also uses an image-centric approach on their homepage with quick navigation to product types. The lifestyle-type images they spotlight here communicate a certain feeling to shoppers — and ups the beachy charm of their product.

Sales Tax

Now, you might be worried about how sales tax should be incorporated into your online sales. Let’s look at a state-by-state breakdown of sales tax. There are five states that do not currently collect sales tax: Delaware, Oregon, Montana, New Hampshire, and Alaska.

Sales Tax by State

State	Tax Rate
Alabama	4.00%
Alaska	0.00%
Arizona	5.60%
Arkansas	6.50%
California	7.25%
Colorado	2.90%
Connecticut	6.35%
Delaware	0.00%
Florida	6.00%
Georgia	4.00%
Hawaii	4.00%
Idaho	6.00%
Illinois	6.25%
Indiana	7.00%
Iowa	6.00%
Kansas	6.50%
Kentucky	6.00%
Louisiana	5.00%
Maine	5.50%
Maryland	6.00%
Massachusetts	6.25%
Michigan	6.00%
Minnesota	6.875%
Mississippi	7.00%
Missouri	4.225%
Montana	0.00%
Nebraska	5.50%
Nevada	6.85%
New Hampshire	0.00%
New Jersey	6.625%
New Mexico	5.125%
New York	4.00%
North Carolina	4.75%
North Dakota	5.00%
Ohio	5.75%
Oklahoma	4.50%
Oregon	0.00%
Pennsylvania	6.00%
Rhode Island	7.00%
South Carolina	6.00%
South Dakota	4.50%
Tennessee	7.00%
Texas	6.25%
Utah	5.95%
Vermont	6.00%
Virginia	5.30%
Washington	6.50%
West Virginia	6.00%
Wisconsin	5.00%
Wyoming	4.00%
D.C.	5.75%

 

Source: Based on 2018 Data. Refer to State’s Department of Revenue for up-to-date rates.

The Future of Ecommerce
Sales tax is a hot topic in the news right now — and the Supreme Court may be making changes to the policies for ecommerce retailers. Be sure to stay up-to-date on the latest laws and regulations.

The future of ecommerce is a bright one, and with the right strategy and tools, launching an online business can be easier than you ever imagined. Tap into the audience of engaged online shoppers and get your piece of the growing ecommerce pie.

“Unriddled” is HubSpot’s weekly digest of the tech headlines you need to know. We give you the top tech stories in a quick, scannable way and break it all down. It’s tech news: explained.

Unriddled: The Tech News You Need

1. A former Facebook executive is taking the lead at Instagram.

Following the departure last week of its co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instagram announced that Adam Mosseri — the company’s current VP of product — will be assuming the role of “Head of Instagram.” Because the title is somewhat ambiguous, Instagram’s official statement noted that in his new role, Mosseri will “oversee all functions of the business and will recruit a new executive team including a head of engineering, head of product, and head of operations.” Read full statement >>

Humbled and excited by the new role leading Instagram, thank you @Kevin @Mikeyk for all you’ve done. https://t.co/ViVQUI5z8i

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri)
October 1, 2018

2. Amazon has raised its minimum wage for all U.S. employees to $15/hour.

Early Tuesday morning, Amazon announced that the minimum wage for all 350,000 of its U.S. workers — which applies to all full-time, temporary, and seasonal employees within the company’s warehouse and customer service teams — is now $15/hour. The new minimum wage will also apply to U.S. Whole Foods workers (which is owned by Amazon), and takes effect November 1. The announcement comes after harsh criticism from many, including some U.S. lawmakers, and has left some saying that while the raise is a step in the right direction, it’s still not enough. Read full statement >>

3. Meanwhile, Amazon is trying another type of brick-and-mortar experience.

Amazon opened Amazon 4-star last week: a new brick-and-mortar retail location that only sells items rated 4 stars and above on Amazon, are top sellers, or what the company describes as “is new and trending on Amazon.com.” The store, located in New York’s SoHo neighborhood, is a successor to Amazon Go, the company’s small chain of cashier-less stores. Read full statement >>

Amazon 4-star opens tomorrow in the SoHo neighborhood of #NYC – check out a sneak peek of the store here: https://t.co/tA2G8zI5OK pic.twitter.com/UYD0UeEkA5

— Amazon News (@amazonnews)
September 26, 2018

4. A new California law might require bots to announce themselves.

Last Friday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that will ban automated social media accounts — a.k.a., bots — from posing as actual people, particularly when selling something or posting election-related content. While bot accounts are still allowed to exist and interact with other users, the bill also dictates that they must be labeled as such, and that “the disclosure … shall be clear, conspicuous, and reasonably designed to inform persons with whom the bot communicates or interacts that it is a bot.” Read full story >>

5. Up to 90 million Facebook users may have had their accounts compromised as a result of a site hack.

Facebook’s data breach last week exploited three separate bugs on the site, which caused a sequence of events that ultimately led to hackers being able to use Facebook — and other third-party sites — as the compromised user. It’s a story that has left many confused, in part because Facebook itself says it doesn’t have much information about the extent of the attack. Here’s our breakdown of what happened, and how it’s impacted public perception. Read full story >>

6. The future of VR is kind of scary — but it doesn’t have to be.

On the heels of Oculus Connect — Facebook’s annual virtual reality (VR) conference — we reflect on the somewhat frightening future of VR, should the technology ever go mainstream. But it’s not all bad news. A new Oculus VR headset, for example, has actually proven to be a positive experience for some, with strong potential for good use cases in healthcare, education, and more. Read full story >>

That’s all for today. Until next week, feel free to weigh in on Twitter to ask us your tech news questions, or to let us know what kind of events and topics you’d like us to cover.

Employee satisfaction is critical for more than just glowing Glassdoor reviews — it can also mean all the difference for your company’s long-term growth.

Consider this: from 1998 to 2005, stock prices for companies listed in Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” rose 14%. In comparison, companies not on the list reported a 6% increase. Coincidence? Probably not.

When employees are happy, they’re much more likely to be productive and engaged at work. To produce exceptional results, then, it’s critical your team feels fulfilled at the office. But, while you might think you have a pulse on your employee’s satisfaction, you could be wrong.

One 2017 Gallup poll found more than half of employees (51%) are actively looking for a new job or keeping an eye out for openings. That means half of the workforce, and potentially half of your employees, feel unfulfilled in their current positions.

To find out whether your employees are truly happy and engaged at work, it’s critical you send out an anonymous employee satisfaction survey. Consider asking these nine questions to gather truly helpful insights regarding your employees’ happiness.

1. Do you find your work meaningful?

A 2017 Globoforce’s WorkHuman Research Institute survey found the number one reason people stick around at their companies was “My job — I find the work meaningful”. Most notably, 32% of respondents chose this as their first option, surpassing compensation, company culture, and even coworkers or managerial support.

People need to feel their work is meaningful. Ultimately, there’s no amount of compensation or office perks you can offer employees to stick around, if they don’t feel their work matters. To ensure low turnover rates, focus on hiring people who find meaning in your company, and work to motivate and inspire your team as often as possible.

2. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your work-life balance?

Without good work-life balance, your employees could quickly burnout, or become resentful of a company that doesn’t afford them the time they need to pursue other hobbies or spend time with family. To ensure long-term satisfaction at work, it’s critical you encourage a good work-life balance for all your employees.

Having a healthy work-life balance at your company doesn’t just satisfy your current employees — it also helps you attract a valuable and impressive talent pool of recruits. According to the 2017 Randstad Employer Brand Research report, 45% of employees say a good work-life balance is a key contributor to a company’s attractiveness.

3. Are you inspired by the purpose and mission of our company?

If your employees’ don’t believe in your company’s purpose or mission, they aren’t going to be fully engaged at work, and won’t feel motivated to deliver exceptional results. Additionally, without a strong mission statement, it’s impossible to encourage strong leadership and unity across the organization. But you don’t need to work for UNICEF to find purpose in your brand. 

For instance, Zappos is an online shoe and apparel retailer. On the surface, it might seem like Zappos’ purpose is to provide shoes and clothing. But Zappos takes a different approach — their mission is actually “delivering happiness to customers, employees, and vendors.” It’s worth noting Zappos has just five percent employee turnover. Undoubtedly, their strong purpose and vision are key factors in their high employee retention rate. 

You’ll want to ask your employees if they are inspired by your company’s purpose or mission. If they’re not, consider how you can incorporate or even re-define your mission statement and philosophy, to ensure your employees’ understand their work is contributing to a greater purpose.

4. Do you like our company culture?

Creating a good company culture is necessary for retaining top talent. If you don’t believe me, consider this — according to a Columbia University study, the likelihood of job turnover at an organization with high company culture is 13.9 percent — whereas the probability of job turnover in low company cultures is almost 50 percent.

It’s critical your employees’ enjoy your work culture, which includes workplace environment, company goals and expectations, and company values. We’ve discussed already how important it is that your employees’ are happy for long-term productivity and growth. Additionally, a good workplace environment can foster better relationships between coworkers, enabling higher collaboration and efficiency.

5. On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend our company as a good place to work?

Many companies offer referral incentives when an employee recommends a strong candidate for a position, and for good reason — it reduces the cost and effort it takes to find and recruit top talent, and additionally, your employees are likely good judges of someone who would fit in well with your company’s culture.

Ideally, your employees’ are likely to recommend your company as a good place to work. If they aren’t likely to do so, you’re losing out on some exceptional candidates, and it’s also an indicator your current employees aren’t as happy as they could be.

6. Hypothetically, if you were to quit tomorrow, what would your reason be?

This question is a fantastic opportunity to uncover unforeseen reasons you risk losing employees’ down the road. You might find employees’ often feel undervalued, or believe there aren’t enough growth opportunities. By identifying these issues, you can create new strategies that attempt to mitigate these problems and create a better culture for all your employees long-term.

7. Do you feel valued at work?

Feeling valued and appreciated at work is a necessary component to low turnover rates, and high employee satisfaction. In fact, 79% of employees who quit their jobs cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason for leaving.

If your employees feel valued, they will often go the extra mile — staying late, volunteering to help other teams’ complete projects, and putting optimal effort into their own work. On the contrary, if they don’t feel respected by leadership, they won’t feel as inclined to deliver phenomenal results.

It’s critical everyone at your company, from the intern to the VP, feel valued and appreciated for their contribution to your company’s goal. If they don’t feel like important assets to your team, they’ll eventually seek out alternative opportunities.

8. Do you feel there is a scope for personal growth such as skill enhancement?

In 2016, millennials became the largest generation in the workforce. And while there are stereotypes that millennials are obsessive “job-hoppers”, a Bridge survey found 86% of millennials would stay in their current position if they were offered career training and development.

Ultimately, the more your company can nurture growth, the longer your employees’ will stick around. In the long-run, it’s cheaper for you to train and develop your current employees, than to consistently hire and train new ones. Career training and professional development are key motivators to employee retention, so it’s critical you discover whether your employees’ feel satisfied with their current growth opportunities.

9. Does your team inspire you to do your best work?

Employees’ spend a good deal of time around their team members, so their happiness and productivity relies heavily on whether they enjoy spending time with coworkers. For this reason, you’ll want to find out if your employees’ feel inspired by the team.

If your team is able to inspire one another, it will promote increased creativity and collaboration. Additionally, it makes your job as a leader easier, if coworkers are able to find renewed inspiration and motivation from each other. If most of your employees’ don’t feel inspired, consider implementing team-building exercises to foster a better team environment.