Every year for the last eight years, we’ve published a little report we like to call the State of Inbound. In short, this report benchmarks the tactics, challenges, and priorities of marketers and salespeople around the world.

As you would imagine, the landscape has change quite drastically over the course of eight years: new technologies have been introduced, once reliable tactics have lost their appeal, and as a result, company priorities have shifted. 

While challenges such as proving ROI have remained consistent over the last few years, many companies have begun to focus less on things like budget and more on finding an executive sponsor, training their teams, and so on. 

As inbound marketing continues to mature as a practice, we can’t help but wonder what new challenges marketers will encounter.  So for this year’s 2016 report, HubSpot has redesigned the survey with more forward thinking questions. On top our classic questions, we want to know what new channels marketers like you plan on tackling (Snapchat, anyone?), as well as what you think will disrupt a marketer’s day job.

So if you’ve got an opinion on where marketing is going, take HubSpot’s State of Inbound survey today. It’ll take just 10 minutes to complete and is totally anonymous. Best of all, you’ll get the report before it’s released to the general public.

For many companies, there are few things as important as developing and maintaining a culture that attracts and retains their employees. When coworkers get to know each other as people, they’ll be able to communicate better, trust each other more, and work better together.

Sometimes, though, some structured activities can help coax people out of their shells and help break the ice at work.

That’s why the folks at OfficeVibe created the SlideShare below that’s chock full of get-to-know-you and group-building activities. Flip through it for ideas for 10 fun ways for coworkers to get to know one another — especially when welcoming a new employee or group.

What does your team do to get to know one another? Share your ideas in the comments section below. 

Part of running a successful ecommerce business is the ability to keep buyers coming back for more. Excellent customer service has long been a determining factor in a buyer’s loyalty, but you may be surprised to learn it’s not the only thing you can do to make sure your customers buy again. In fact, for a guaranteed return visit, you need a quality product, excellent customer service, and choice closure.

Choice paradox is that pesky psychological hangup that occurs when buyers have too many options available. Maybe those options aren’t all available from just one online store, either. With your products and those of your competitors, buyers can get overwhelmed.

In some cases, those buyers just won’t make a choice at all. They’ll experience choice paralysis and never end up making a purchase. You can help a buyer avoid this particular situation, but again, since your company isn’t the only one selling similar products, there is no way to guarantee buyers won’t still struggle with their choice.

What Is Choice Closure?

If you work hard to eliminate choices for a buyer, leaving them with only the most obvious products, then you’re sure to earn a purchase. That’s the very lesson learned with choice paradox. If you can’t or don’t eliminate all but the obvious choice, a consumer who makes a purchase anyway may suffer remorse later. They’ll agonize over the other options that were available and wonder if they made the wrong decision.

The decision they made doesn’t always revolve around the price paid, either. Yes, getting a great deal is important to consumers, but a quality product that will solve their pains is much more important. Consider a buyer on a cosmetics ecommerce site with 400 different shades of blush. Even after you help them narrow down the shades that match their skin tones, eliminate the brands that test on animals, and include only the options that have a blush brush included, the choices may still be overwhelming. 

After the purchase is made, that buyer might regret spending so much when another brand may have offered the same results. Or, she might regret choosing the cheaper option when the better brands give a more professional appearance. Without some way to reassure the buyer that she made the right decision, you leave that avenue open for regret.

How to Offer Choice Closure

In most cases, choice closure comes with a physical act. It might be testing the product in the store before making a choice. It can even be as easy as placing the purchase in a bag and carrying it to the car. That feeling of making the right choice ends the problem right then and there. For online shoppers, though, the closure isn’t there. Opening a box and removing the new purchase isn’t quite the same as doing the reverse: putting the purchase into a bag and calling the job done. In fact, opening that box and removing the new purchase could start a whole new series of regrets. 

How can you offer closure to a buyer? What can you do to provide that comfort consumers need? Keep three things in mind while you decide. First, the buyer has to perform the act of closure. It’s not something you can do for them. Next, the buyer has to know the act they perform is one of closure, of completing the purchase. Finally, the closure has to happen after they make the purchase.

How you can help buyers attain choice closure:

• Ask consumers for a review or rating on the purchase
• Provide space for buyers to flaunt their purchase
• Wrap purchases to resemble gifts so that opening takes on new meaning

Using Choice Closure Against Competitors

It’s okay to assume that your competitors haven’t attempted to offer closure to their buyers. Just think of all those customers out there struggling with buyers’ remorse because there were just too many choices. What if you presented your products to that buyer again, while he or she is still considering the many other purchases they might have made instead? There’s a good chance you’ll have a new customer next time they need something.

Then, of course, you help them avoid choice paralysis and give them choice closure. When you do these things in addition to providing excellent quality and customer service, then you have a customer for life.

Ever wanted to become a master at Excel? Or learn how to negotiate effectively? What about coding, or become a better writer, or learning how to edit photos?

Thanks to the internet, where there’s a will, there’s a way. 

There’s a whole lot you can teach yourself these days — especially if you have access to an internet connection. You don’t need to buy fancy equipment or sign up for expensive courses to learn skills that could be invaluable to your career and your personal life.

The key is finding the educational material that’s high quality enough to be worth your time. Below, we’ve come up with a list of 13 skills you can teach yourself for free, along with resources to help you acquire those skills. Check ’em out.

13 Skills You Can Teach Yourself for Free

1) How to negotiate better.

Whether you’re negotiating with your team to implement an idea or negotiating with your boss for a raise, negotiating skills will come in very, very handy. They’ll help you become more confident, eliminate inequalities, gain a competitive advantage, and even preserve relationships by managing conflict more effectively.

There’s a lot of reading material out there to help you become a better negotiator. If you’re looking for a few quick reads, two helpful blog posts include “How to Disagree Without Being Disagreeable: 7 Tips for Having More Productive Discussions” and “The Introvert’s Guide to Successful Negotiating.”

If you’re looking for a deeper dive, head over to the library and grab these two books: Ronald Shapiro’s “Perfecting Your Pitch: How to Succeed in Business and in Life by Finding Words That Work,” which explores the art of crafting a pitch and the importance of nuanced language, and William Ury’s “Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving,” which serves as a guide to reaching mutually beneficial agreements in any conflict.

Want to take a class? There are a few free online negotiation courses you can choose from, too.

• “Introducing the Art of Negotiation” (Alison)
• “Negotiation: Problems Solved, Not Battles Fought” (Udemy)

You can also practice negotiating for free by simply working on it in real life. Start by practicing being an active listener so that the person on the other side of the negotiation feels like you’re not only hearing them, but also understanding them. Practice feeling out the other person’s emotional state throughout the conversation and choosing your words, tone, and approach based on their emotions. 

2) How to use Microsoft Excel for more than just simple tables.

Most people have some experience with Excel, whether it’s gathering ideas or making simple tables or equations. But if that’s the limit of your Excel knowledge, you’re missing out on a whole world of reporting automation that could save you hours upon hours of time.

Want to work more efficiently in Excel and avoid the tedium of updating your spreadsheets manually? There’s a lot you can learn about Excel for free online. Actually, we’ve created a whole bunch of educational content about Excel here at HubSpot. Here are a few of the best ones:

• “How to Use Excel: The Essential Training Guide for Data-Driven Marketing” (free ebook)
• “9 Excel Templates to Make Marketing Easier” (free templates)
• “How to Use Excel: 14 Simple Excel Shortcuts, Tips & Tricks” (blog post)
• “40 Handy Excel Shortcuts You Can’t Live Without” (blog post)
• “How to Create a Pivot Table in Excel: A Step-by-Step Tutorial” (video & blog post)
• “10 Design Tips to Create Beautiful Excel Charts and Graphs” (blog post)

3) Investing your money.

Investing your money is intimidating for many reasons. First of all, the jargon is foreign. What are index funds? What’s the difference between a 401(k) and a Roth IRA? If you aren’t used to the vocabulary, it can seem pretty daunting. Secondly, the process seems super complicated and overwhelming — not to mention, painfully boring.

At the same time, most of us know it’s important to learn about savings and investment as early as possible, especially if you have a regular income.

There are a lot of helpful resources out there, but I’ve found Investopedia to be especially helpful. Those folks have a ton of free online resources, including this free stocks basics course. I’ve also found LearnVest’s Knowledge Center to be particularly helpful. They have a ton of content about investing along with other personal finance topics like budgeting, saving, loans and mortgages, and so on.

Image Credit: LearnVest’s Knowledge Center

4) How to write better.

Everyone is a writer. This is especially true in our content-driven world, where we all partake in online communication of some sort on a regular basis — from writing emails to authoring blog posts to banging out a few short tweets. Plus, it turns out that there are benefits to doing a bit of freewriting in the morning.

Do you want to cut down on spelling errors and grammatical mistakes? Find your writing voice? Author your first blog post? Get better at structuring your paragraphs? Name your writing goal, and there’s probably a free resource for that.

If you’re looking to improve your writing in a more general sense, start by watching this awesome, 18-minute talk my colleague Beth Dunn gave at INBOUND a few years ago on how to become a better writer. I have this video bookmarked when I need some inspiration.

Like Beth says in her talk, the best way to get better at writing is by practicing. Every day. You can certainly use good ol’ pen and paper to practice, but there are also some great writing prompts apps that’ll give you jumping-off points for a piece. While some of them cost a buck or two (like Prompts and Writing Challenge), there are some free ones out there. Grid Diary, for example, is good for folks who want to write something down in a diary-like format, asking questions like, “What did I do for my family today?” and “How can I make tomorrow better?” (For more tools, check out this list of 31 online tools for improving your writing.)

Looking for a deeper dive into improving your writing? Download our free ebook, “The Marketer’s Pocket Guide to Writing Well,” for free tips on how to become a better writer. You might also check out Macalester College’s lecture series on writing well for full videos on topics like sentence structure, how to write intro paragraphs, how to engage readers, and so on.

Finally, if you’re more interested in cutting back on spelling and grammatical errors, try out the free Hemingway web app. Once you’ve written something down, paste your text into this app and it’ll assess how readable your writing is, as well as identify opportunities to make it simpler.

Here are a couple more grammar- and spelling-related resources that might be helpful, too:

• “Grammar Police: 25 of the Most Common Grammatical Errors We All Need to Stop Making” (blog post)
• “How to Spell Words You Don’t Know: Techniques From Grammar Experts” (infographic)

5) How to read faster.

Thanks (yet again) to our content-driven world, many of us find ourselves with a list of books we want to read, training we need to complete, and news we need to “stay on top of” every single day. For slow readers like myself, getting through all of this material — and retaining the information from it — can be a huge struggle. How on earth do I get better at skimming?

Turns out, reading faster often means changing the way you read. I, for example, have gotten into the habit of sounding out each word in my head. Without a concerted effort on my part, I’ll never be able to get out of that habit.

Luckily, there are places online that’ll teach you how to read faster and help you practice on a regular basis. Spreeder, for example, is a free online program that claims it can help people learn to to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which they read passages. Simply paste the text you want to read in the text box, choose your settings (like how fast words are flashed, and how many words are flashed at a given time), and press “play.” From there, the app will flash one or more words on the screen at whatever pace you choose.

Once you’ve gotten used to the app, you’ll want to practice speed reading “in the wild,” which you can also do for free using all the content that’s out in the world already. (Remember, improving your reading speed will take time.) Start with easier reading material, like blog posts and short articles. If you’re reading print, use your finger or a pen or index card to set the pace.

6) How to type faster.

If you don’t know how to touch type (i.e. type without looking at the keys), then trust me: It’s worth learning. Think about how much typing you do in a day, and then think about how much faster you’d get things done if you could speed that up. Overall, it’s a skill that will make you much, much more productive.

I’ve spent far too much time playing online typing games and trying to beat my words-per-minute records. There are a lot of typing games out there, but Sense-Lang’s Balloon Typing Game is one of the simplest. In the game, balloons with letters on them float down your screen, and your job is to burst them by hitting the right key before they reach the bottom. If you’re looking for more of a challenge, check out their car racing game.

7) How to take beautiful photos.

You don’t need to take an expensive photography course to learn how to take beautiful photos. In fact, you don’t even need a fancy camera — all it really takes is a smartphone camera, a good subject, and the patience to learn some specific photo-taking techniques.

For example, learning to place the subjects in certain parts of your photos can go a long way to make your photo appear more balanced. The rule of thirds says to break an image down into thirds, both horizontally and vertically (so you have nine parts in total), and then place points of interest in these intersections or along the lines.

To make this easier, turn on gridlines on your phone by following these steps:

• iPhone: Go to “Settings,” choose “Photos & Camera,” and switch “Grid” on.
• Samsung Galaxy S5: Launch the camera app, go to “Settings,” scroll down and tap “Gridlines on.”

Image Credit: Lynda.com

Read through these 17 tips for taking great photos with your smartphone to learn more about how to line up your shots, find interesting perspectives, and take advantage of symmetry, patterns, “leading lines,” and more. Then, get in the habit of taking photos on a regular basis to practice.

8) How to edit those photos.

Once you’ve taken a good photo, don’t just call it a day. Learning how to edit those photos can take them from good to great — and you don’t need fancy editing software. There are plenty of free photo editing apps out there.

• VSCO Cam (free on iOS and Android) is a great choice for editing photos on-the-go, especially if all you want to do is slap on a filter. Their filters have more of a softer, authentic look that resembles real film, as compared with the over-saturated looks of many Instagram filters.
• Snapseed (also free on iOS and Android) is another solid app for doing some basic image enhancements like tuning, cropping, and straightening.
• You can also do wonders for an image simply by editing it in the Instagram app — which is also free. (Read this blog post for step-by-step instructions on how to edit a photo using Instagram.)

Want to edit your photo using Adobe Photoshop? If you don’t already own Photoshop, you can try it for free before you commit. And if you want to learn how to use it, you can also do that for free.

• Here’s a great introductory post from Adobe Support on how to edit your very first photo in Photoshop.
• Here’s a library of 45 Photoshop tutorials — everything from how to create a “soft haze” effect to how to create a faded film look.
• Here’s a free Photoshop tutorial for beginners from HubSpot, which covers 12 of the most useful tools in Photoshop and explains what they do, where to find them, how to use them, and a few tips and tricks for getting the most out of them.

9) How to code.

Nowadays, learning the basics of coding is a huge advantage for marketers, entrepreneurs, and other folks in the business world. Even if you don’t have to do a lot of hard coding yourself, knowing the basics will help empower you to make quick fixes, and help you communicate effectively with developers when you do need help with something.

While there are plenty of coding courses and bootcamps out there that costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars, there are plenty of free online resources you can use to teach yourself.

• Codecademy is a longtime favorite for beginners because it teaches you how to code interactively, and really holds your hand through the learning process.
• Coursera also has a number of free introductory programming courses from universities like University of Washington, Stanford, the University of Toronto, and Vanderbilt.
• The online learning platform Udemy has some free programming courses that are taught via video lessons, like “Programming for Entrepreneurs – HTML & CSS” or “Introduction to Python Programming.”

If you’re just looking for a quick overview of how HTML, CSS, and/or JavaScript work, start by reading this blog post that covers the basics of how these three programming languages work.

10) How to implement inbound marketing.

Gaining some real, in-depth marketing knowledge definitely doesn’t require signing up for an expensive marketing course. There are tons of free resources out there that’ll teach you about everything from the basics for developing a customer-centric inbound strategy, to detailed instructions about how to build an optimized landing page.

Start by heading over to HubSpot Academy, which has a wealth of free resources. The inbound marketing certification course, for example, is a free marketing training course that covers how SEO, blogging, landing pages, lead nurturing, conversion analysis, and reporting come together to form a modern inbound marketing strategy. There are also a whole bunch of helpful training videos on topics like buyer personas, content creation, and more.

You can also get a Google Analytics certification for free by taking Google’s GA proficiency course online, and then passing the Google Analytics IQ exam.

To stay on top of marketing trends and news, you might also subscribe to a handful of marketing blogs. Some of our favorites include Unbounce, CrazyEgg, KISSMetrics, Content Marketing Institute, CopyBlogger, and Search Engine Land. (And HubSpot, of course.)

11) How to read and speak in a foreign language.

While it might take years to become totally fluent in a foreign language, you can get pretty close simply by teaching yourself regularly over a long period of time. And you can do it for free.

If you want to learn the old-fashioned way, you might go to your local library to look for language instruction books you can take out and use without having to buy them.

If you prefer going the app route, DuoLingo (free on iOS and Android) is a language-learning app that actually makes the process fun. Each lesson is short, painless, and super visual. Slate even called it “the most productive means of procrastination I’ve ever discovered.” Plus, the listening components make it great for learning pronunciation — even on-the-go.

Another simple hack to keep that new language top-of-mind? Simply change your phone and computer interface languages to the foreign language you’re learning. (Just make sure you know how to navigate to change the settings back.)

• iPhone: Open the “Settings” app, and choose “General.” Choose “Language & Region” and tap on “iPhone Language.” Then, select the language you want to change the iPhone to, and confirm.
• Android: Open the “Settings” app and select “Languages & input.” Select the “Language” option and select the language you want to change your Android device to.

Teaching yourself language skills will only get you so far, though. If you want to practice with other humans (and you live in a city), consider joining language-specific gatherings via Meetup.com, which are volunteer-driven and therefore totally free.

12) How to become a better public speaker.

Did you know that public speaking is the number one fear in America, beating out heights, bugs, and snakes? Whether you share that fear or just want to become a better public speaker, I have good news for you: There’s a lot you can do to improve those skills for free, without textbooks or public speaking classes. Here are a few places to start:

• “A Helpful Guide of Public Speaking Tips” (infographic)
• “The Uneasy Speaker’s Guide to Confident Public Speaking” (blog post)

Want to see how you look when giving a presentation? Knovio is a cool, free app that lets you upload your presentation slides and then record yourself giving the presentation using the camera on your computer or smartphone. You can either review the video yourself, or share it with coworkers or friends for feedback by posting your Knovio presentation to YouTube, Vimeo, or simply emailing it out.

As with learning languages, teaching yourself public speaking skills will get you to a certain point. Try joining a public speaking group via Meetup.com to practice in front of others.

13) How to meditate.

You might be thinking to yourself: Meditation isn’t a business skill! Not so fast, my friend. Turns out starting your day off with a quick meditation session can make you more productive throughout the rest of the day. According to a 2012 study, people who mediated “stayed on tasks longer and made fewer task switches, as well as reporting less negative feedback after task performance.”

Not sure how to meditate? There are a slew of resources online that’ll teach you how to meditate for free. My personal favorite is Headspace, an app that gives you 10 free guided meditation sessions. If you’d rather not pay the monthly subscription fee after that, then try the free guided meditation sessions on UCLA Health that range from three minutes to 20 minutes in length. Here are some more free guided meditation sessions from Fragrant Heart if you can’t get enough.

What other skills can you teach yourself for free? Share them with us in the comments.

Want to become more emotionally intelligent? Then you need to learn to control your negative emotions.

Even the most mild-mannered among us experience conflict every once in a while, whether it’s with co-workers, friends, family, or even strangers. And most of the time, we simply don’t have control over what happens, and/or how our peers react.

What we can control is how we react to what happens. Recognizing, acknowledging, and managing our negative emotions effectively is a big part of increasing emotional intelligence. Why? Because it helps us resolve conflict more quickly, calmly, and effectively — without letting it cloud our judgment or ruin our whole day.

So, how do we calm our brains during conflict? Check out the infographic below from CashNetUSA to learn how conflict and confrontation affects us psychologically, along with helpful tips for keeping your cool and handling these situations rationally and effectively.

We all know that person. The one who runs tons of projects at work, hangs out with family, preserves personal relationships, gets to the gym daily, and still manages to have time to open up that at home brew kit.

Would you believe me if I told you that these hyper-productive individuals aren’t actually working 10X more hours?

Charles Duhigg, author and Pulitzer-winning journalist for The New York Times, has spent years investigating what makes some people and teams more productive than others. Duhigg revealed these findings in his latest book titled “Smarter Faster Better,” which we had an opportunity to discuss with him on this week’s episode of The Growth Show. (Full episode below.)

So what’s the secret to building a happier and more productive team, career, and life? Well, let’s start with a story …

How Hyper-Productive People Manage Their Time

For Duhigg, it all started with an attempt to schedule a conversation with a well-known author. Unfortunately, the author — who was also a Harvard surgeon and writer for The New Yorker — couldn’t find the time to meet with him. That made sense. He’s really busy. However, a later conversation with a mutual friend revealed the truth: the author couldn’t chat because he was taking his kids to a concert and then going on a vacation with his wife.

What kind of wizardry was allowing this guy to make time for his profession, hobbies, and family life — all while dishing out a relaxed persona? What was he doing differently?

In short: A lot.

“They [productive people] govern their own minds in a way most of us don’t. They see these choices that most of us don’t even know are there. They get more done with less stress and waste,” explains Duhigg. But this is just the tip of the iceberg in Duhigg’s explanation of why these types of people are succeeding. (For a deeper dive, check out Duhigg’s interview with The Growth Show.)

In search of some actionable insights, we asked Duhigg to come up with one thing that non-productivity experts could start doing today to work smarter, faster, and better.

His answer? Make better to-do lists … because you are probably doing them all wrong.

The Right Way to Write a To-Do List: A 3-Step Process

Already writing to-do lists? Kudos to you. You’re on the right track. We just might need to switch lanes to get you to your optimal level of productivity.

While there are plenty of strategies and tests out there to help you master to-do list creation, Duhigg’s research-backed approach suggests that we might be looking at them the wrong way.

You see, the way that most people write to-do lists is by starting with low impact, low maintenance tasks, and saving the daunting tasks for last. They want to cross items off the list as soon as possible. Why? Because it makes them feel good (thanks, dopamine!).

As a result, most people put easy items at the top — or even add items they’ve already completed — in hopes of gaining some instant gratification. Psychologists refer to this as using a to-do list for mood repair. And according to an article by Timothy Psychyl in Psychology Today, putting off tough items and saving them for last actually increases the amount of negative feelings we experience later on.

To combat this, Duhigg suggests the following process.

Step 1: Think of your stretch goal for the day.

This could be anything from coming up with a new promotion strategy to organizing your kitchen. Think of the larger picture.

Step 2: Write your goal at the top of your page.

By keeping the stretch goal at the top of the page you never lose sight of your top priority. This helps keep you on track to ensure tasks you are completing are moving you towards the end goal.

Step 3: Break your goal down into actionable/measurable steps.

Large goals can seem intimidating. By breaking them down into small, approachable pieces rather than one big ominous mass, it becomes much easier to make progress.

To start, try to determine what are you are capable of accomplishing in a particular time frame, and then evaluate how are you going to measure your progress. For example, Charles uses SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) to help set these next steps. (Here’s a helpful template to help you set marketing SMART goals.)

The lesson? If you want to get closer to your stretch goal faster, take an extra minute to re-work your to-do list. This small step could help you not only boost your productivity, but also eliminate that anxious feeling you get when you procrastinate. (These 10 to-do list tools won’t hurt either.)

Want more advice on how to be productive? Check out the rest of our conversation with Duhigg on The Growth Show on iTunes.

(P.S. Don’t hesitate to leave a review! We are always looking to hear from listeners like you.)

The ROI Hang Up

In a professional landscape of annoying jargon, ROI (Return on Investment for anyone who’s taken shelter under a rock for the past few decades) might be the most overused acronym of all. Everyone from CEOs to Directors to entry level associates understand the need and importance of determining just how much you can expect to “get back” from an expenditure of time, money or resources of any kind.  And by no means is the concern misdirected- any business with a focus on growth or profitability can’t just blindly spend its resources. 

Developing metrics for measuring ROI is not only a productive exercise, but a necessary one.  But this is where the conversation gets a bit hairy, because ROI is rarely guaranteed.  There are no magic crystal balls that give businesses the ability to assess the probability or levels of ROI.  If there was, the business world would be nothing short of predictable, stable, and quite frankly, maybe a little boring!

That said however, ROI is still the buzzword du jour and because investable resources are limited and must be spent wisely, it’s a concept that continues to hold significant importance and priority in consumers’ decision making processes. To illustrate, let me share a personal experience about a flooded basement that has been the bane of my existence over the last two months.

The Great Flood of 2016

Earlier this year, January 5th to be exact, I discovered a flood in my finished basement.  It was 7:30pm, my husband was away at a conference in Miami and I was sitting on the couch watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with my  2 year old- just moments away from heading upstairs to start her bedtime routine. And that’s when I heard it- a gushing noise coming from my basement. My heart sank.  I jumped up, raced downstairs and saw a flood of water pouring from the basement ceiling,  down the walls and into the carpet which was a sopping, soaking, mushy mess.

Drywall was crumbling, the ceiling was sagging and my furniture, tables, technology- all ruined.  Long story short, I quickly turned off my home’s water supply and called my insurance company to submit my first ever homeowner’s insurance claim. I’ll refrain from mentioning any names to protect reputations but I’d like more than anything to tell you the name of this company so you stay far, far away from them!.  

Long story short, my insurance company decided not to reimburse my expenses which after water and mold mitigation, plumbing repairs and reconstruction were upwards of $20K.  They have these people called Adjusters whose sole purpose in life is to screw over homeowners and protect the insurance companies from actually having to pay policyholders when something like a basement flood happens.  

So here I am, $20K in the red with a flooded, now unfinished basement.  I’m also a full time working mom with a demanding career, 7.5 months pregnant, caring for a toddler and have a husband who travels most of the week.  Who has time to deal with insurance claims and headaches?  Not me!  

I needed help so of course, I turned to my long time friend Google and as expected, Google delivered.  I learned that in unfortunate circumstances like mine homeowners have options in the form of Public Adjusters who basically fight with the insurance company on behalf of homeowners, negotiating better reimbursements, advocating for the fair treatment of people like me and championing a positive financial outcome for us.

But as with anything else in life, there’s a fee associated with their services and some are more qualified than others.  I came across a local public insurance adjuster called The Claim Guide, read some reviews and called them.  On their homepage, right above their phone number is the following message:

“No Charge Unless You Receive Funds

MAXIMUM settlement. SHORTEST time. LOWEST fee.”

That enticed me so I called them, but I had a few questions.  I’d never heard of a public insurance adjuster before and I wanted to know:

• How much money could they really get me back?
• Would the settlement they got me be enough to cover my damage and repairs?
• How long would it take before I’d see the actual cash money?
• Was this whole public adjuster process actually legit or was I getting my hopes up?

I wanted to understand what my ROI would be.  If I was going to invest my time, optimism and hope in this company, I wanted my questions answered.  But they couldn’t exactly answer my questions (at least not in the way I had asked them). They couldn’t tell me with certainty how much I’d get back and how long it would take.

Those outcomes were based on unknown variable beyond their control, things like the mood of the insurance company representatives at the time of negotiations, how many other claims were ahead of mine in the insurance company’s queue, and whether or not my mortgage company would demand the settlement funds be deposited into an escrow account (I really hope you never have to deal with any of this- it’s such a hassle!!).  

When my ROI based questions weren’t met with guaranteed responses, I became skeptical, and then I realized I was asking for answers that simply couldn’t be known at that stage in the process.  I then sheepishly realized I was no different than the marketing prospects I talk to every day who ask me questions like:

• If we invest $10K/month in a marketing retainer with Stratus, how many new customers will we get this year?
• If we need to increase revenue by 20% this quarter, how many email campaigns do we have to launch?
• How many times a week do we need to blog to increase our website traffic by 4K visits each month?

It’s not that these aren’t fair concerns and questions, but they’re not realistic.  There’s no way for me to know what a client’s results will be before implementing their marketing strategy.  If I could promise ROI, prospects would be flocking to our door, knocking it down and begging Stratus to be their agency.  But it’s just not that simple.  Just as The Claim Guide couldn’t make promises to me due to unknown variables beyond their control, marketing agencies can’t either.  

The Letdown of an ROI Guarantee and A Better Alternative

Why don’t we know how many email campaigns it will take to generate a 25% lead generation increase? It’s because we have to dive in begin piloting the strategy- in the case of email initiatives, we have to experiment with A/B testing subject lines, messaging and Calls to Action (CTAs) to see what resonates with a particular audience.  And while our approach to “experimentation” is not only calculated but also guided by experience expertise and best practices, marketing is not a one-size-fits-all-approach.

Sure I can tell you that for a similar client in a similar industry, we saw the most success using a question-based, personalized subject line with a text-based CTA and generated a 30% open rate with a 40% view:submission conversion rate, but that certainly isn’t going to guarantee you’ll see the same results.  And wouldn’t we both feel pretty disappointed at the end of the year if we made promises to you based on past results only to discover that your buyer personas are more skeptical, less willing to work with a new vendor and generally don’t respond well to emails as a marketing tactic?  

When I speak about the dangers and unrealistic nature of ROI promises in marketing terms, it all sounds perfectly logical, however when I was wearing the hat of a consumer (in my case, a homeowner in distress), I immediately wanted The Claim Guide to promise results. Instead of making guarantees however, they did the responsible thing by talking with me about things within their control:

• Their expertise and experience getting homeowners the money they deserve
• Building trust with me by explaining my options, my rights, and educating me about their process
• Providing me with references to other satisfied customers they had helped
• Showing me documented success stories, not as an indication of what I should expect but as proof of their ability to help clients
• Delivering unbelievably empathetic, responsive and proactive customer service

Rather than telling me what I wanted to hear just to “sell me”, their approach to answering my ROI-driven questions was transparent, factual and authentic.  In turn, realistic expectations were built from the onset of our relationship. So how does this story about a basement flood and a stressed out very pregnant chick end?  Glad you asked.  I chose to work with The Claim Guide.  

I put my confidence in their capabilities and today, less than 6 weeks later, I have a check in hand that will cover the full cost of restoring my basement to its pre-flood condition.  I won’t be paying a penny out of pocket.  

As a business or professional in pursuit of marketing support, you should expect and demand  the same transparency.  Agencies like Stratus can’t (and SHOULDN’T) promise results, but here’s what they should be able to guarantee:

1) A collaborative strategic partnership that is focused on achieving defined goals– in many cases, the strategic capabilities of your agency partner will make or break your marketing success

2) Deep internalization of your company, goals, products and services, culture, buyer personas, industry and competition– Without this a marketing plan is only skin-deep

3) Constant testing and measuring of implemented initiatives– this enables agility so resources are allocated to the right places

4) Ideas– you hired a marketing agency to be the expert right? They should constantly bring you ideas and recommendations for optimal marketing ROI, not the other way around!

5) Transparency– you should never have to wonder what your agency is up to, what they’re working on, how they’re spending their time or even worse, if they’re actually spending time on your account (yikes!).  

All marketing activities should be tied to measurable and defined goals so there’s nothing esoteric or unknown about your plan.  Tools like Tickspot, Basecamp, HubSpot and Google Docs are designed to keep you on the same even playing field as your agency.  You are the client, and you deserve to be “in the know”.

6) Expertise– you can analyze relevant expertise in many ways but the most important factor is actual marketing know-how and experience. An agency may not have expertise within your specific industry, product or audience and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  

A capable marketing team can quickly ramp up on need to know industry knowledge (see our point about deep internalization above) but years of marketing experience (successes, failures, and all the lessons learned in between) can’t be faked or obtained overnight.

7) References that speak to dedication– Any agency will tell you they’re dedicated to your success (could you imagine the reaction they’d get if they didn’t claim this??!!) but here’s where asking to talk with some existing and past clients proves beneficial.  

Often prospects want to talk with references about results and ROI but as I mentioned above, past results don’t guarantee future outcomes.  Instead, a better way for a prospect to leverage references is by finding out how dedicated the agency is to achieving success for their clients.  

Do they go out of their way to try something new and innovative? Do they quickly and consistently respond to calls and emails?  Do they put in necessary extra hours or resources to meet a deadline no matter what, no matter when?

What To Do If A Marketing Agency Guarantees ROI

Easy- run far away.  I’m not kidding.  Unless you’re in the market for a basket full of dashed hopes, disappointments and unmet expectations, pick up your ball and go home.  Choosing a marketing agency is a huge decision and you deserve to know the truth about what you should expect from the process.  

If you could guarantee ROI (not just in business but in life!) everything from hiring a marketing partner to choosing the right public insurance adjuster to help with a flood claim to ordering the most delicious menu item at a new restaurant would be easy, fool-proof and risk-free.  Because that’s not the case and decisions of any kind carry some level of correlating unpredictability, you should do your research and be as empowered as possible in your decision making process.  

For anyone reading this who might be in the process or beginning stages of hiring a marketing partner, we developed a checklist of objective tips called 7 Tips for Selecting the Right Marketing Agency that will help you standardize your search and choose an agency that’s truly right for you.  Good luck and don’t forget to hit the road at the hint of ROI promises.

Business blogging “best practices” instruct bloggers to include a relevant call-to-action at the bottom of every blog post. This is nothing groundbreaking — it’s how you convert visitors to your blog into valuable inbound leads for your business.

But are those end-of-post calls-to-action (CTAs) really the best option? After all, any conversion rate optimization expert worth their salt knows to take industry “best practices” with, well, a grain of salt.

Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing HubSpot’s Marketing Blog. While I’ve been able to identify which individual blog posts generate the most leads, I’d never dug any deeper to understand which specific calls-to-action within those blog posts people were actually converting on.

Until now.

When we introduced a new type of CTA to our blog posts as part of the historical optimization project last year, we ultimately doubled the conversion rates of the posts we added it to. So it got me wondering: Are end-of-post CTAs really the best way to generate leads from our blog? How do different types of CTAs within a post compare?

To get a better understanding of where our blog leads are coming from on the post level, I analyzed a cohort of 11 posts on the blog that generate an above average number of leads every month. 

To do so, I created unique tracking URLs (using HubSpot) for the CTAs used within each blog post. Essentially, any individual link within a blog post that led to a landing page got its own tracking URL. So for a post with 10 different CTAs, I created 10 unique tracking URLs. Then I replaced the links within those posts using my unique tracking URLs, and waited four weeks to collect data. 

Here’s what I found …

End-of-post banner CTAs contributed an average of just 6% of posts’ total leads.

Crazy, huh? Actually, when you think about it, it’s really not that surprising that these CTAs get very little play. We’ll talk about the reasons why in just a minute.

Here’s how an end-of-post banner CTA might look on our blog. It’s essentially a full-width banner CTA at the very bottom of the post, and it typically includes some copy, an image, and a “download” button.

So, if our leads aren’t coming from the CTAs at the bottom of our blog posts, where are they coming from … and why?

Anchor text CTAs are responsible for the majority of our blog leads.

I know what you’re thinking: “What the heck is an ‘anchor text CTA’?”

An anchor text CTA is the term I’ve given to a specific kind of text-based call-to-action. It’s a standalone line of text linked to a landing page, and it’s styled as an H3 or an H4 to make it stand out from the rest of the post’s body copy. On HubSpot’s Marketing Blog, we mainly use these between the post’s first few introductory paragraphs, but we may also add them throughout the post in cases like this.

Here’s an example of an anchor text CTA within one of our blog posts:

In every single post we tracked, the anchor text CTA was responsible for the largest percentage of that post’s leads (by far).

In fact, between 47% and 93% of a post’s leads came from the anchor text CTA alone.

And the data gets even more compelling when you factor in the anchor text CTA’s cousin — the internal link CTA. 

An ‘internal link CTA’ is my term for what is essentially an anchor text CTA, but rather than being styled as an H3 or an H3 in a separate line of text, it’s positioned within a paragraph block, making it blend in more with the content around it. It could be something as discrete as hyperlinking a keyword to a landing page like you see in image A below, or something more direct like you see in image B (which we found to be the most successful type of internal link CTA).

Image A:

Image B:

Now here’s what’s interesting about this …

Between 83% and 93% of each post’s leads came from anchor text CTAs and internal link CTAs.

As more and more people use their mobile phones to surf the internet, marketers have had to rethink how and where we create, share, and optimize content on the web — including email.

In the past year or two, we’ve seen a number of notable changes in the way people check and read their email. For example, many folks who bought the Apple Watch often use it to check email; Office 365 replaced Outlook.com; and more people than ever are using email apps on their smartphones.

How has this affected email client market share?

As part of their 2016 “State of Email” report, the folks at Litmus analyzed over 13 billion email opens to see where subscribers are opening and reading emails. Check out the resulting infographic below to learn how email client market share statistics have changed in the past year, why these changes happened, and how they might affect your email campaigns.

These days, collecting email addresses from people isn’t easy. After enduring their fair share of spammy messages, people have become hesitant about handing their information over to just anyone.

For marketers, this presents a unique challenge. When people aren’t willing to open up a line of communication with you, it becomes difficult to stay in touch with them. How will you notify them when you publish new content? How will you keep your traffic numbers afloat without their support?

When you’re building out your online presence, having a strong email list can really help you expand your reach. However, it’s not the only way to get the word out about your content. Think about it: What’s easier? Connecting with 1,000 people and getting their email individually or getting to know one influencer with 100,000 connections?

Building relationships with people who already have a large network can open up a ton of growth opportunities. Wondering how to get started? I’ll walk you through it.

How to Find and Engage With Influential People Online

Step 1: Identify the right platform to connect with them.

Influencers hang out in a ton of different online settings, however, I’ve found that email, Twitter, and Facebook groups have proven to be hot spots for this type of engagement. (I’m currently exploring Snapchat, too!)

Of these options, I lean heavily on Twitter for building connections, as it works great for real-time interactions. When I see an influencer tweet something, I use the information to drive a discussion with them while their interest in the topic is still fresh.

Keep in mind that the relationship isn’t built after you send one tweet. Engaging an influencer on Twitter takes time, so be patient. And if you’re having trouble coming up with a way to connect with them, check out this helpful guide for tips on effective outreach.

Step 2: Identify who you want to connect with.

When looking for people to connect with, keep this rule in mind: Never view someone as somebody to use, but instead someone you can help. Yes, we have goals, but if you can start by helping them, they’ll be more inclined to help you. This is commonly referred to as the concept of reciprocity. And it’s much easier to help one another when you have something in common.

Which leads me to my next exercise …

To narrow your focus and identify influencers that you share common ground with, start by grabbing a piece of paper or opening a fresh Google Doc. Then, begin writing words that describe your brand. For example, here’s what I would write:

1. SEO
2. Entrepreneur
3. WordPress
4. Blogging
5. Email List Builder

Based on the keywords, I’m your average marketing blogger. I’m someone who wants to build an email list, which requires me to generate traffic.

Now that you have this information, pull up your Twitter account and start typing these keywords into the search bar. (You can also add hashtags to the words: #SEO, #Entrepreneur, and so on.) Then, click on the “Accounts” tab to pull up accounts that are tied to your keywords and start connecting with people.

Think your work is over? Not quite. To keep your social circle strong, you’ll need to maintain those connections beyond just following them. How do you do this with hundreds of people? It’s simple.

Step 3: Maintain your relationships.

With Twitter, maintaining relationships isn’t that hard. In order to remain connected to the folks you just followed, you’ll want to start by creating a list.

To do so, simply visit a user’s profile and click the gear symbol and select “Add or remove from lists…” from the menu.

Then, add them to an existing list by checking the box next to it, or create a brand new one. If you’re starting a new list, I ’d suggest creating the list based on their expertise, such as SEO. That way you’ll know what to focus on when engaging with members from that list.

Now that you have this down, you need to pump up your exposure. It’s helpful if you can convince someone to follow you back, as that will provide you with an opportunity to appear their feed and to make another impression on them. How do you get people to follow you? Here are a few suggestions:

• Retweet them. “The influencers you target will receive notifications each time you retweet them. You’ll still making your face and name familiar,” according to the folks at Social Caffeine.
• Write posts that mention them. Whip up a list post for your blog that features an example from their website or portfolio. Then, send them a tweet to put the post on their radar.
• Add color to your message. Researchers found that colored visuals increase people’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%, so try adding a colorful image to your message.
• Do your research. Find out when the influencers that you are targeting spend the most time on social media and reach out to them during those hours.

Step 4: Take the relationship to the next level.

You’ve been staying in front of them with Twitter, and from there you know who responds the most. Based on this information, the next step is to turn that social conversation into an email exchange, invite, call, contract, wave of traffic, or whatever you need.

To initiate this, try sending them a simple tweet telling them you have a proposal and request that they follow you to receive a DM. If that doesn’t work, start by subscribing to their email list and begin engaging with their emails. If you like something they sent out, tell them. If you run into a 404 error page after clicking one of their links, let them know. If they publish something about a challenge they overcame, share a story with them about how you dealt with a similar situation.

When I interviewed Social Media Examiner’s Mike Stelzner on my podcast , he told me that the best way to get an influencer’s attention is by making them a video and sharing your message that way. He said out of 10,000 emails a month, it was rare to get a message this way. The lesson? Often the best way to stand out is to study what everyone is doing, and do something different.

Step 5: Set a connection goal.

You now know all the steps it takes to effectively engage with an influencer — from identifying the right platform to building out the initial relationship. Now what?

It’s time to set a connection goal. This goal will make it easier for you to hold yourself accountable for conducting regular outreach. Personally, I try to aim for 10-20 a day. Do I always hit this number? No. But it helps me continue to make steady progress. And that’s what it’s all about, right?

Working towards my goal has helped me to not only land guest posting opportunities and initiate some consulting inquires, but also connect with influencers such as Neil Patel.

What can this process help you achieve? Give it a try to find out for yourself.