In the depths of almost every internet community lives a troll. A snarky, quick-witted adversary waiting for an opportunity to insert an offbeat remark or uninvited comment. 

With 5.6% of individuals admitting that they self-identify as trolls or enjoy trolling online, it’s likely that you or someone you know has had their feathers ruffled by one of these menacing online villains.  

Known for displaying high levels of psychopathy, narcissism, and sadism, internet trolls get a rise out of distressing others. In fact, they typically feel no remorse for their actions. But why? What fuels them? 

For answers to these questions, check out the video below from the folks at AsapSCIENCE on the anatomy of the modern internet troll. 

Have you had an encounter with an internet troll? Share your experiences in the comments section below.

Creative work takes a tremendous amount of energy. 

So much energy, in fact, that “turning off,” or forgetting about work for a period of time can feel counterproductive to a marketer who is set on creating something engaging and effective – especially if they’re under a deadline. That’s when it’s hardest to get past the guilt of tuning out and turning off. 

Why? Because it seems like you’re wasting time. But are you really?

Are you doing yourself a disservice every time you step away — whether it’s for a short break or long retreat? Or are you investing in your work, and ensuring that it will be as fresh, creative, and persuasive as your potential allows? 

Science says it’s the latter …

The Benefits of Turning Off

Basically, “turning off” means taking a break from work — and not thinking about it while you’re away. Of course, all breaks are not created equal.

How long you turn off for, where you go, and who you’re with during your time away are just a few variables that make every break unique. But regardless of the circumstances, studies continue to prove that you’ll return a better, stronger, and more aware version of yourself.

Specifically, a couple beneficial things will happen:

You’ll improve your performance.

According to a study conducted at The University of Illinois, brief diversions from a task can trigger a dramatic improvement in one’s ability to remain focused on that task for a prolonged period of time. 

In the study, 84 participants were divided into four groups and asked to focus on a repetitive computerized task. The control group worked on the task for 50 minutes with no breaks. The “switch” and “no switch” groups had to memorize four digits before taking on the task, and had to respond if they saw one of those digits. However, the “switch” group was presented with the digits twice. Finally, the “digit ignored” group was also shown four digits, but were asked to ignore them. 

The group that saw no drop in performance? The switch group, as they were given two brief breaks to respond to the digits which allowed them to stay focused.

So if you’re feeling guilty about taking a break, keep in mind that intermittently leaving your work will refocus you, and can actually give you clarity. When it comes to writing, clarity is the mother of desire and action.

You’ll be better prepared to come up with creative solutions.

While it’s easy to assume that day dreaming or taking a break is a waste of time, a study conducted at The University of British Columbia revealed that our brains are actually highly active when we daydream — more so than we previously thought.

When we relax and take a break from challenging thinking, we allow our thoughts and ideas to incubate in our minds. And this ultimately sets us up to generate new, creative solutions.

For example, a study from the University of California, Santa Barbara revealed the benefits of daydreaming by tasking 145 undergraduate students to come up with uses for mundane objects such as toothpicks, bricks, etc. The students were assigned to one of four conditions. While one group received no breaks, three groups were given a 12-minute break to a) rest, b) perform a short-term memory task, and c) do something boring that would allow them to daydream. 

As it turns out, the group of students left to daydream came up with 41% more possibilities than other students. 

(Click here to read more about the hidden benefits of daydreaming.)

You’ll avoid burnout.

When you keep pushing through work without taking a break … it shows. Your energy levels slip. Your smile fades. And your overall demeanor takes a turn for the worst. Not to mention, it can lead to larger issues such as exhaustion or chronic stress. 

While the fear of being seen as replaceable or not having the time to take time off will often keep you from taking the plunge, you won’t be doing anyone any favors when you’re burnt out. 

According to an infographic from CityPass, almost nine out of ten American workers feel like time off increases their happiness, and 91% of business leaders admit that employees who take time off typically return feeling recharged and ready to work more effectively. 

Moral of the story? Book that trip. Your work will be there when you get back. 

How to Take More Breaks and Forget About Work

Experiencing these benefits, of course, means you must turn off. And that’s not something we’re all good at.

To make it easier, check out these seven tips designed to help you take a break from the grind and recollect your thoughts. You’ll notice there are a variety of suggestions — from quick time management breaks to full-fledged sabbaticals — so you’re sure to find something that makes sense for you. 

1) Follow the 20-20-20 Rule. 

Known for being the go-to strategy to avoid straining your eyes and developing a repetitive stress injury (RSI), the 20-20-20 Rule also doubles as a nice, frequent break for people who sit in front of a computer all day.

Here’s what you do: Set a timer to go off every 20 minutes you’re at your desk. As soon as you get the alert, look away from your monitor and stare at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. 

This is a good opportunity to zone out and enter your “diffused” mode — where who knows what’ll happen next.

2) Use the Pomodoro Technique.

In the late 80s, a man named Francesco Cirillo invented an easy productivity method that people still use and love. (And he named it after that kitschy timer your mom used to let you twist.)

Here’s what you do: Set a 25-minute timer and start working. When it goes off, stop working for five minutes. Use your five minutes any way you like, and then promptly get back to work as soon as they’re up. Do that four times in a row, and then take a 30-minute break before starting your fifth session.

By locking you into a timeframe, the Pomodoro Technique incites urgency, which may inspire you to make quicker decisions and waste less time.

3) Capitalize on your Ultradian Rhythm. 

We sleep in cycles, alternating between two forms of sleep: REM (deep, dreamy, restful sleep) and non-REM (less deep, more superficial sleep). And while one may be more intense than the other, both forms must alternate in intervals of 90 minutes to achieve a truly restful night of sleep. It’s called the Ultradian Rhythm, and it just so happens that it’s present in our waking lives, too.

Here’s what you do: Set a timer for 90 minutes and begin working. Silence your phone. Block Facebook. Don’t even stop to edit your work. Just work. When your timer goes off, stop working and take a break for 15 minutes. While taking a break seems unproductive, the act will actually help you balance your energy and avoid burnout. When you’re done, try it again by focusing on a different project for 90 minutes.

By keeping with the ebb and flow of your body, you’ll maximize your productivity and creativity. Skeptical? Here’s the groundbreaking study that proves it’s true. 

4) Actually allow yourself the weekend.

Hopefully, employing some of the more micro time-management methods above will help you clear your workload throughout the week, leaving you completely free over the weekend — which is what you want, right?

Here’s what you do: If years of workaholism have made “turning off” a difficult and unnatural task for you, divide your weekend into activity chunks (the way you would a work day). Doing so may help you become more comfortable with the idea of doing nothing. 

Leaving your work computer switched “off” for two days in a row may feel weird at first — like a strange emptiness — but it’s a healthy mental exercise and it’ll help you write your best copy. 

5) Take random days off.

The U.S. Travel Association commissioned a study that found that American workers are using only 77% of their paid time off. That adds up to 169 million forfeited days, which amounts to a whopping $52.4 billion in benefits that were simply given up. 

Don’t do this. It’s your time. And it’s there to help you make the most of your work.

Here’s what you do: If you have some spare days in the bank, give yourself a three-day weekend. Or schedule a Wednesday off and break up the week. Then use that time to do something other than work.

Go ahead. Use your time however you want. (Or look into one of these hobbies that are proven to make you smarter.) And if you’re not at peace with the idea of turning off for an entire day, find solace in the fact that employees who use more vacation days end up with better performance reviews (and higher salaries). 

6) Leave the country.

In 1997, Dan Pink left his job as Chief Speechwriter for then-VP, Al Gore, and began writing books about business, work, and human behavior. He’s since authored several best sellers, including To Sell Is Human, in which he references the concept of the “jolt,” which, I think, is particularly advantageous.

Pink writes:  

Try a jolt of the unfamiliar. Clarity, we’ve learned, depends on comparison. But many times we become so rutted in our own ways that we scarcely notice what we’re doing or why we’re doing it — which can impair our ability to bring clarity to others. Sometimes, as Tufts University psychologist Sam Sommers says, “it takes a jolt of the unfamiliar to remind you just how blind you are to your regular surroundings.”

Here’s what you do: Take Dan’s advice. Give yourself one of the following “jolts.”

• Mini Jolt. Sit on the opposite end of the conference table at your next meeting. Travel home from work using a different route from normal. Instead of ordering what you usually do at your favorite restaurant, choose the eleventh item on the menu. 
• Half Jolt. Spend a day immersed in an environment not typically your own. If you’re a teacher, hang out at a friend’s law office. If you’re an accountant, take an afternoon and spend it with a lifeguard or park ranger.
• Full Jolt. Travel to another country, with a culture different from your own. You’ll likely return jolted — and clarified. 

Remember: Clarity is the mother of desire and action. It’s the ultimate fuel for a marketer. And a Full Jolt is one way to clear your mind and renew your perspective.

7) Escape on sabbatical.

If leaving the country is a Full Jolt, then taking a sabbatical would be a concussion — a derailing, crippling concussion for your career, that is. At least that’s how some people see it. But depending on your professional circumstances, that’s not always the case.

If you’re employed by a progressive company that appreciates the benefits of a sabbatical, then you’ll know that a leave like this has the potential to do wonders for your productivity. 

Here’s what you do: If you get the opportunity to take a sabbatical, do it. It might just change the way you think, act, and create for the better. And at the end of the day, that’s the whole point.

What are your best tips for “turning off” and regaining focus? Share them in the comments section below.

Look, no one has a crystal ball at the ready to tell you who’s going to buy what, and how much, and when. Does that mean you have to wait around to see what a customer’s going to do? Of course not. You can learn a lot about your customers by studying their habits—past visits to your site—to predict what they’ll do next. It’s just a matter of knowing what information you need and when to use it.

From Search to Landing Page

One of your best friends when determining customer behavior predictions is your Google AdWords account. This program determines all the keywords your buyers searched, which of those searches resulted in clicks through to your site, and which of those clicks through resulted in a sale.

Once the buyers have clicked through from AdWords to a landing page on your site, you can use that information to lay a path from start to purchase. After all, you already know what they’re looking for. They told you when they searched Google for it. Should you slow them down in their search by leading them to a generic landing page? By creating more clicks instead of directing them right to the shopping cart and checkout? Of course not. When a buyer tells you what they want to buy, you remove all obstacles.

From Social Media to Website

It’s harder to pin down a visitor’s reason to stopping by when they come through social channels. The hardest of all is a click to the address in your company profile. You can assume that social proof is important to that buyer and react accordingly, but you won’t get much more information than that.

Clicks through from specific social posts, however, can tell you a lot more about the buyers’ thought process. Did they visit to read a particular blog? You might surmise they’re looking for more information. Did they click through an image of your hottest products? Maybe they’re in the market for one of those products, or maybe they just like to know what the trends are.

Every action on social marketing channels will help you narrow down the information you need, so don’t give up. The more information you have about your visitors’ past behavior, the easier you can predict where they’ll go next. 

From First-Time Buyer to Loyal Shopper

Past purchases give you the greatest insight into buyer behavior, don’t they? That’s why you can’t consider the transaction complete once you’ve received payment. Now you know more about that buyer than you ever had, so you can’t just let them walk away forever.

The information you gather after this purchase will tell you what you need to know to move forward. Was the purchase a gift or something necessary to the buyer? Did he or she purchase accessories? Did the buyer spend a lot of time making a decision—evidenced by multiple visits to your site, comparisons between products, and perhaps even conversations with customer service?

What you learn will help you determine if you should continue providing gift ideas to the buyer or if they need more information about similar products for their own use. If they often buy the accessories needed to make your products bigger and better, then they’re probably going to appreciate upselling and cross-selling information.

You never want to make your use of past information creepy, so be careful when showing your hand. Buyers will appreciate a PPC click leading to a landing page, but they may not want to see ads for that exact product following them around for days after their initial search. They might enjoy their social media clicks leading to the right information on your website, but they may get a little freaked out if you strike up a Twitter conversation out of the blue. Your goal is to smooth the path between want and own, to provide the information buyers need as soon as they need it—not to be a stalker.

For a while now, it’s been clear that Instagram isn’t just a social network for foodies and teenagers. In fact, according to Pew Research Center, a whopping 26% of adult internet users use Instagram.

Given the number of people using Instagram, it’s surprising how few businesses have adopted the platform — or even taken it seriously. In a world where visual content has become a crucial part of any business’ marketing strategy, Instagram presents a unique opportunity to visually represent your brand, celebrate its personality, and keep it top-of-mind for all those users who scroll through their Instagram feeds every single day.

Although they’re few and far between, there are some brands out there — in every industry, and with every type of target customer — who are doing really, really well on Instagram.

Ready to get inspired? Check out this list of brands that are thriving on Instagram right now, and what about their posts sets them apart. (Here’s a list of 15 Instagram hacks and features if you’re looking to up your own Instagram game.)

16 Brands That Are Crushing It on Instagram

1) WeWork

WeWork provides shared office spaces in cities and countries all over the globe — so it only makes sense that they should post a lot of photos showcasing their beautiful office spaces. They do an amazing job photographing the spaces in ways that make followers like us wish we could jump into the photos and plop down with our laptops and a coffee.

They don’t stop at posting photos of their shared workspaces, though. They also post a lot of content related to their slogan “Do What You Love,” and they have hashtags that encourage customers to share their own photos of the spaces. Our favorite is the #DogsOfWeWork hashtag. Not only is it awesome because, well … dogs, but it’s also a great way for the company to promote their laid-back culture while also inviting customers to interact with their brand on social. Near the end of each year, they actually choose the best photo submissions to the #DogsOfWeWork hashtag on Instagram and Facebook and put together a calendar for the following year.

Here’s an example of a hiring call they posted, featuring that slogan again, “Do What You Love”:

2) National Geographic

I couldn’t possibly write about the best brands on Instagram without including National Geographic, which posts photos from contributors traveling anywhere from large cities to the Arctic to small African villages. They’ve built an enormous following — 42.4 million followers as of this posting — and established themselves as one of the very top Instagram brands in the world. That’s pretty darn impressive for a brand founded in 1988 and originally known for its print magazines. In our opinion, this is one of the best examples of a company keeping pace with the ever-evolving world of marketing.

3) Coca-Cola Argentina

Coca-Cola’s social media presence is impressive across all the social platforms. Turns out, the company knows a thing or two about branding. It all boils down to understanding their target audience, which tends to be young people who value fun, friendship, and sports. The brand’s personality comes directly from that: It’s happy, playful, friendly, refreshing, and all about sharing and having a good time.

Knowing this, take a look at how Coca-Cola Argentina uses Instagram to celebrate that personality and that target audience. (Want to understand your audience better? Download our free buyer persona templates here.)

4) Frooti

Here’s another brand that uses Instagram to showcase their distinctive personality. Frooti, the largest-selling fruit drink brand in India, posts images that are so unique and so consistent that anyone else posting similar content might be seen as a copycat.

Their images are simple, boldly colored designs with a lot of negative space … and they’re also really, really clever and well though-out. Take a look at some of the examples below to see what I mean. You’ll find a desert scene that reflects into a winter scene, a mango that casts the shadow in the shape of a Frooti bottle, and a Frooti container being worked on by mini figurines as if it were a building under construction. 

5) Frank Bod

This Australian body and skin care brand has one of the best presences on Instagram. Their products are coffee-based, so many of their photos include models covered in their product, which basically looks like coffee grounds. This is their signature play on Instagram, and we love how they make fun of themselves with photos like the dalmatian below. The caption paired with that photo is clever: “Some spots are cute, others are bothersome. Target blemishes with my Creamy Face Cleanser & Creamy Face Scrub, and join the #thefrankeffect.”

In fact, my colleague Ryan Bonnici warns: “Their witty captions will be your new obsession.” Their cheeky hashtag #letsbefrank often follows captions like this one: “I can’t give you jewellery, but I can give you the smoothest décolletage to wear it on, babe. #letsbefrank.” Fans of the Frank Bod use that hashtag to post photos of themselves covered in the product like the brand’s own models, which is a great way for them to interact with and feel close to the brand.

(Warning: Some images on their Instagram page are borderline NSFW.)

6) Lorna Jane

If your brand were a person, how would you describe its personality? Australian activewear company Lorna Jane has done an awesome job answering this important branding question with their Instagram content. Spend just a few seconds scrolling through their photos, and you’ll quickly be able to name their target buyer: a young, sporty, twenty- or thirty-something woman who values looking good while living an active lifestyle.

The images they post, which often show their clothing and accessories, images of women their target buyer persona are colorful, playful, and inspirational, which is a perfect representation of the brand’s essence — in other words, its heart, soul, and spirit.

7) No Your City

The folks at No Your City produce a series that capture the fascinating stories of people all over the world. Their Instagram account, though, is less about these people and stories and more about showcasing gorgeous images from the cities themselves.

What we love about their photos is how closely they follow the best practices for taking great photos with your phone. Each one of their photos seems to follow at least one of these best practices, whether it’s focusing on a single subject, embracing negative space, playing with reflections, or finding interesting perspectives. The photos are consistently stunning, and as a result, the brand has built a solid following.

8) ASOS

Britain-based retail company ASOS doesn’t just post great photos of its clothing and models to their Instagram account — although they do that really well. What the brand does on Instagram with their personal stylists is really interesting.

Each stylist has an account associated with ASOS, like @asos_megan and @asos_isabella, and they function as brand lifestyle ambassadors.

“They’re almost like fashion bloggers,” my colleague Elissa Hudson told me. “Each has their own persona, has a huge Instagram following, and publishes content to their individual Instagram accounts that’s very similar to the type of content fashion bloggers post. Some of them actually are fashion bloggers, actually, which I imagine is a huge factor in why they were hired in the first place. Can you say ready-made audience?”

The folks who run ASOS’ main account post a combination images of their clothing and accessories, their stylists (like the third image below, featuring “beaut hair inspiration from @asos_isabella”), and stuff their target buyer personas would like — such as the ridiculously indulgent milkshake below, which garnered above-average engagement.

9) Califia Farms

Califia Farms’ natural beverage products have some of the most attractive packaging I’ve ever seen. In fact, their packaging is so iconic that it won top honors in the global packaging design category from Beverage World Magazine. Instagram is a perfect platform to showcase that cool, curvy bottle, and the folks at Califia don’t shy away from doing just that: Most of their posts feature their bottles in some way, whether it’s is the main subject of the photo or it’s more of an accessory in the context of the active, healthy lifestyle their buyer personas love.

Something Califia does really well on Instagram is create fun, playful videos and GIFs. Check out this one, which they posted to announce a new product:

And this one, which was just plain clever:

10) Shore Projects

British watch brand, Shore Projects, has a unique relationship with Instagram because they’ve been active on the platform from the very beginning. “For the first six months of launching the business, the only platform that we actually focused on using was Instagram,” says Neil Waller, the company’s co-founder.

The first chunk of text on the company’s homepage reads, “Shore Projects is a watch brand inspired by the beauty and fun of the British seaside.” Clearly, the brand has a strong connection with some very specific imagery, which meant they already had a great foundation for image-based branding on Instagram. Many of their photos are taken on the beaches and coasts of the U.K., and those that aren’t maintain the look and feel of the British seaside with faded colors and a lot of grey and green hues. (Read this blog post to learn more about creating color schemes for your brand’s Instagram content.)

11) New York Air Book

This Instagram account is run by New Jersey-based photographer named George Steinmetz. While Steinmetz’s general photography covers all sorts of subjects outside of New York City from the air (including “Brazil Dunes,” “Florida Sea Level,” and “Tree People”), he created an Instagram account specifically to post his aerial photographs of New York.

We love that he picked a niche subject and dedicated an entire account to it where he publishes stunning photographs on a consistent basis. While his followers know what type of content to expect from him, he somehow comes up with cool, surprising subjects that make for posts people love to engage with by Liking and commenting.

12) Staples

The folks at Staples do a lot of things right when it comes to their Instagram content, but they do two things particularly well: engaging their followers with questions and calls-to-action in their captions, and staying true to their brand’s playful-yet-practical personality.

When it comes to engaging their followers, it’s all about asking questions in the photo captions. For example, check out the second photo below featuring a series of emojis. The caption paired with this photo reads, “That’s pretty much our day. How about yours? Tell us in emojis.” Scroll through the comments on that photo, and you’ll see followers had a lot of fun responding. The caption paired with the first photo below of the bulletin board is paired with a caption asking people to share comments and photos of their bulletin board ideas to help get teachers ready for the school year.

Staples does a great job staying true to brand by posting fun photos such as the “2016” shot written in office supplies and using the #OfficeHack hashtag to engage their following. 

The folks at Staples also use Instagram to post cute videos and GIFs, like the one below celebrating the fall season:

13) Everlane

Just like your written content should have a consistent voice, your visual content should have a consistent look and feel. People like consistency because in many people’s minds, it equals trust. Everlane has their brand consistency down pat. Whether the subject of a post is one of their products or a city landscape, they stay true to their signature faded, grey/black/white look.

We also love their captions. For example, the first photo below (which is already funny) is paired with the caption, “About how cold we feel right now.” Their captions convey a funny, familiar voice that their buyers can relate to — and their posts get a whole lot of Likes as a result. 

14) Headspace

Like Frooti, Headspace’s Instagram content boasts bold colors and a lot of negative space. Whereas Frooti’s posts were clever and whimsical, though, the folks at Headspace — who are in the business of guided meditation — post a lot of graphics featuring tips, tricks, and reminders for practicing mindfulness and meditation.

For example, the second photo in the examples below challenges followers to turn their phones off for 10 minutes. Since Instagram is primarily a mobile app, the post serves as a timely, friendly reminder of how much time we spend staring at our phones.

15) Saturday Night Live

While a lot of the best Instagram accounts boast high photo quality, in some cases, what’s in the photos themselves matters a lot more. This is the case for the famous sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. Their followers aren’t expecting them to post beautiful, perfectly framed photos. In fact, doing so would feel a little off-brand from its kind of scrappy, informal personality. Instead, they use Instagram to give fans of the show a sort of “backstage pass” with the hashtag #SNLbackstage. 

They also include short videos of the actors doing silly things offstage, or clips of their live shows:

16) FedEx

The theme of FedEx’s Instagram posts is really cool: It’s basically a curation of “FedEx in the Wild.” While this isn’t true of every photo, the vast majority of them are taken and submitted by external contributors. They don’t just post any old photos submitted to them, though: The quality of the photos is so darn good that it’s clear they’re carefully choosing only the best ones. This is a cool way to keep their brand top-of-mind for followers who might, as a result, look for or notice FedEx trucks, planes, or delivery people more often.

Which are your favorite business-run Instagram accounts? Share with us in the comments.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen content become more visual. Marketers have experimented with infographics, videos, and more — and they’ve made plans to keep it up this year.

In fact, 73% of content creators plan to prioritize creating more engaging content in 2016, and 55% plan to prioritize creating visual content.

While this certainly gives us a lot to look forward to, it also creates a bit of a challenge for marketers looking to stand out. To avoid your content getting lost, you’ve got to find a way to create something worthy of your audience’s time and attention. But how?

To help narrow your focus, check on the infographic from Canva below. From quote cards to infographics, this helpful list is designed to inspire your next visual project. 

Click here to download our full collection of free templates for designing stunning visual content like infographics and more. 

A great deal of inbound marketing for schools focuses on gaining the permission to market to someone via email. It’s your job as a marketer to make sure you’re offering content so on-target to your prospects’ needs, that they’re happy to share their information with you—and look forward to future communications. 

Of course, getting a prospective student’s email is just the first step. Once that the lead is in your contact database, are you continuing to share content that addresses their concerns and interests? Content that moves each lead further on the journey to application and then to enrollment?

While other means of content distribution, such as social media, blogs, and more, are vitally important—email still has special status. First, sharing their email is often the first step a prospect takes to identify themselves to you, and let you know they’re interested. Second, people who share their email address and really do want you to send them additional content, need to you to earn their trust. 

Collecting the Right Information to Send the Right Emails 

Before I get to the three emails your potential students and parents want you to send them, I want to take a short, but critical detour. Let’s talk about sign-up forms. 

Effective email nurturing is all about sending the right emails to the right people. To do that, you need to know as much as you can about them to understand which persona they fit and where in their enrollment journey they are. Your sign-up forms are your collection plate for all this information.

At HubSpot, we recommend progressive profiling to make our forms easy for people to fill out, while gathering ever-more valuable intelligence about prospects at each and every conversion. We know that forms with fewer fields have higher conversion rates. So a form displayed to an unknown visitor on your website will only ask for a name and an email, perhaps also program area of interest. Using progressive profiling and Smart Forms, you can auto-populate future forms a prospect sees with the data you already have, and then ask for only one more piece of information.

For example, a 4 year college’s form might ask a parent to provide their student’s high school graduation date. Now that you know Parent Patty’s kid is a sophomore, you won’t email her reminders about application deadlines. Instead, you can send Patty an email about a Career Night event in her area featuring local alumni that she might want to attend with her son or daughter.

With every piece of information your forms collect, you can further segment your prospects into different lists to ensure they’re getting email content geared just for them.

Choosing Compelling Email Topics

The three types of emails your prospects want to get roughly align with the phases in the enrollment cycle. Educational resources that educate prospects about your school and programs are perfect during the awareness phase. For the consideration stage, remind them of important dates throughout the application and enrollment cycle. Once a potential parent and/or student is in the decision stage, it’s time to make offers to connect directly and in-person.

These category-phase pairs aren’t bright lines. There are relevant emails to send prospects from each category in every phase. I’ll share some examples below.

1) Educational Resources

You already have a voluminous content collection you can share about your school or specific programs. You can draw material from existing course guides, course syllabi, and admissions collateral. Also take a look at descriptions of extra-curricular activities and student groups, and their activities. And, your blog content about program and alumni achievements are great sources.

Really, any content you already have about your school or its programs can be promoted by or shaped into an email. As always, the key is delivering the right school content to the right prospect. A private academy might send an excerpt with link to the blog post about the Ivy League college acceptance rate of its students to parent prospects. A student prospect who has shown interest in nursing will get a guide about the different types of nursing certifications and degrees offered. A student’s parent who spent a lot of time on your financial assistance web page will receive an email about financial aid sources. 

2) Important Dates

Reminder emails are always useful. Dates relevant to the application and enrollment cycle should be sent to the right prospect segments. Early phase emails can cover open houses, open alumni events, and career fairs. Later on, application deadlines, including early decision deadlines, and financial aid submissions will be helpful. After acceptance, an email encouraging confirming their enrollment spot before the deadline can boost enrollment rates.

You may also want to create a list of important dates or time frames, for certain tasks that don’t necessarily have a firm deadline, but require a certain order and timeliness to be done right. Prospects identified while early in their research phase for a school could get emails about how soon to ask for written recommendations, or when to narrow their research to a short list of schools. You can also email information about when and where to research for scholarship opportunities.

Last, get copies of all program and student groups activities calendar, and scour them for other events and dates. Look for events that parents and students can attend that will give them a real taste of life at your school: parent-teacher nights, student performances, the Homecoming game, a faculty tea, open lectures sponsored by a program or student group.

3) Offers to Connect

Create a list of all the direct, person-to-person touch points you offer. Categorize them by journey phase. Start with the ways prospective students can interact with students, alumni or faculty, such as scheduled calls or meetings, or an invitation to a weekend program. You may want to promote signing up for a campus tour to early stage prospects to move them into the next phase of applying.

As they move further down the enrollment cycle, suggest a meeting with an admissions officer. Someone who’s downloaded an application may be invited to meet with an admissions officer. Accepted applicants should get emails about meet-ups with other potential enrollees.

One Last Note for Your Emails

Whatever the topic of your email, make sure it includes a call-to-action (CTA) that tightens the relationship between your institution and the prospect.

In some cases, like offer-to-connect emails, the CTA is obvious. You want the prospect to register for that tour or arrange that interview. But all your emails should have one CTA relevant to the email’s content. It may be the link back to the blog post or to download a new guide that provides more in-depth discussion of the email’s topic. For educational resource emails, always encourage the recipient to forward or share the email with people they think would also find it interesting.

Having a follow-up CTA in the email not only pulls the prospect forward in the journey, but also provides more intelligence about that prospect to you, so your next email to the prospect is even more welcome.

When Payal Kadakia quit her job at Warner Music Group, she didn’t have a backup plan. All she knew was she wasn’t happy in her current job — and she needed to do something about it. 

She spent several weeks trying to figure out what that something would be. After much soul-searching, she finally landed on her big idea: a fitness search engine that would surface new classes in your area. 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all smooth sailing from there. Her original idea didn’t quite pan out — she couldn’t get the traction she needed to grow it into a scalable business. 

But Payal didn’t give up. Three years and several pivots later, she has landed on a business model that works. Her company, now called ClassPass, is valued at over $400 million and has expanded to 36 cities and 3 countries worldwide.

In this episode of The Growth Show, Payal walks us through the twists and turns of building ClassPass — and what she’s learned along the way.

To listen to this episode in your browser, click the play button below, or click here to listen in your iTunes app.

Check out the latest recaps of The Growth Show episodes by clicking here.

Wouldn’t it be great if creating infographics was as simple as writing regular ol’ text-based blog posts? Unfortunately, the reality is that making visual content like this usually takes a lot more time, effort, and let’s face it — skill — than the written word. Usually.

But considering the popularity and effectiveness of visual content in marketing today, you can’t just afford to throw in the towel.

That’s why we decided to take all the pain and suffering out of infographic creation. Seriously — don’t throw in the towel just yet. You, too, can create professional-looking, high-quality infographics, and quickly. I’m going to prove it. First things first:

Download our 15 free infographic templates here.

Then, all you have to do is provide the content to use inside them. Easy as that! In fact, I’m going to show you just how easy it is by taking one of our 15 infographic templates in PowerPoint (pictured above) and creating my own, customized infographic with it. Then, I’ll explain exactly what I did so you get a sense of how easy it really is. 

Would you rather watch this tutorial instead of read it? Check out the video below:

Click here to download your free infographic templates.

How to Create Infographics For Free in Under an Hour

Step 1: Collect your data/content, and choose your desired template.

Your first step is to collect the data/content you’ll be using to populate your infographic, and choose an infographic template appropriate for representing that data. The important thing is to choose a template that specifically works for the type of data set/content you want to present. As you saw pictured above, you can download our 15 infographic templates in PowerPoint and choose whichever template you’d like. Some of your template options here include a timeline, flowchart, side-by-side comparison, and a data-driven infographic.

You can either collect third-party data or use your own original data. If you use third-party data, just be sure you properly cite your sources — just like in any other good piece of content.

To keep your infographic uncluttered by a ton of different source URLs, a great way to cite your sources is to include a simple URL at the bottom of your infographic that links to a page on your site listing the individual stats used in your infographic, and their sources — such as the blog post you’re using to publish your infographic. That way, your infographic looks clean and professional, yet people will still be able to access the sources no matter where the infographic gets shared or embedded. It may also even drive visitors back to your site.

For the sake of time (remember, our mission is to create an infographic in under an hour), for my infographic, I’m going to choose a compilation of social media stats, charts, and graphs we’ve already collected from our 2015 Social Media Benchmarks Report, and I’m going to pick the “Cold Hard Numbers” infographic from our collection of infographic templates, which is appropriate for my data set since it conveys statistics using charts and graphs. This template is pictured below:

Step 2: Customize your infographic.

Obviously, this is the most time-consuming part — but it’s also the most fun! Simply come up with a catchy title, plug in your data/content, and adjust your font sizes and formatting. Feel free to switch up the graphics, too, so they’re relevant to the data you’re citing. You can use the simple graphs and charts provided by PowerPoint to create things like the bar graph or the pie chart. (Note: Download our free infographic templates for a cheat sheet for using PowerPoint’s various features and tools.)

To customize the look of the infographic even more, you might add or change up the colors or font styles.

Finally, I included a link to my source (which can be found here), as well as the HubSpot logo so people know who created the infographic if it gets shared in social media or embedded on other websites — which is definitely something you want, since one of the main benefits of infographics is their shareability.

That’s it! This whole thing took me under an hour to put together — much shorter than it would’ve taken me if I’d started from scratch (not to mention more professional looking … and cheaper than hiring a designer). Here it is:

Share this Image On Your Site

<p><strong>Please include attribution to http://ift.tt/n37HpG with this graphic.</strong><br /><br /><a href=’http://ift.tt/1gDlo7Y’><img src=’http://ift.tt/1TnwGQf’ alt=’social-media-benchmarks-hubspot’ width=’669px’ border=’0′ /></a></p>

Step 3: Add an embed code and “Pin It” button, and publish it!

The only thing left to do is to publish and promote your awesome new infographic. As I mentioned earlier, we recommend using your blog to publish it (including your list of sources), including a “Pin It” button for visitors to easily share your infographic on Pinterest, and create and add an embed code for visitors to share it on their own websites and blogs, as we did above.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August 2013 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

 

Where do you see yourself in five years?

That question is, as HubSpot recruiter Emily MacIntyre puts it, “so boring.” 

But love ’em or hate ’em, those tried-and-true interview questions still make their way into even seasoned interviewers’ candidate conversations.

And even if you’ve aced the question in past interviews, somehow you seem to black out the embarrassment of fumbling through your answers. So when it comes time to interview again, you’re left sweating and tripping over your words as you try to remember how you tied together your real passion of opening up a skydiving joint with your work optimizing paid search campaigns.

In an attempt at helping you stay dry and composed in your next interview, we’ve collected a lot of those popular interview questions — curated from Glassdoor’s list of the most popular interview questions in 2015 — and supplied you with some guidance on how to nail the answers. No sweat. No tears. Minimal stumbling. 

How to Answer 10 of the Most Common Interview Questions

1) What are your strengths/weaknesses?

Candidates typically struggle with this question because it forces them to awkwardly toe the line between bravado and confidence, self-defeat and self-assessment. This is why you sometimes get that urge to answer with fake-weaknesses — the folks over at Glassdoor say a popular one is the whole “I’m a perfectionist” routine. Oh woe is you.

This question may take the form of other questions, too, so listen carefully. “You may hear a recruiter say ‘What’s one thing you want to learn more about?’ when trying to get at a weakness,” MacIntyre says.

What interviewers are getting at here is an honest skills assessment — in terms of both competencies and gaps. The way I stopped getting tripped up on this question is by remembering that a poor skill match in a role is just as bad for the company as it is for me. (If you’ve never slipped through the cracks in a hiring process and ended up in a role for which you’re not suited, just take my word on this one.)

From there, it’s simply a matter of having taken the time to reflect on what your strengths and weaknesses are relative to the position for which you’re interviewing.

For example, if you’re interviewing for an SEO position, a relevant strength to tout might be your analytical abilities. Start with that, and be prepared to explain some real-life scenarios in which you get to flex that muscle. For the same position, a perfectly reasonable weakness might be your writing. You could then go on to explain that while writing is part of your job, it takes you a while to get new pieces of content out the door. Glassdoor also recommends following up with how you’re addressing that weakness — so perhaps you could talk about how you’re taking a class in business writing, or working with a colleague who’s a skilled editor.

Again, you may find that there are gaps in the skill sets or qualities needed in the role — but it’s better you find out now than six months later when you’re back on the job market.

2) Why are you interested in this role/company?

If you’re focusing on candidate-centric things — work-life balance, benefits, compensation, better commute — you’re thinking about this question wrong.

Glassdoor’s advice? “Do your research on the job and company so you can give a few solid examples on why you’re good for the company, and how you can add value to them.” Your interests should lie at the intersection of company needs, responsibilities of the role, and candidate competencies.

That being said, it’s fine to show a little bit of your personal motivation. For example, if you’re interviewing for a podcasting position, here’s how you might break down the answer to this question:

Company Needs: We need to keep better company in terms of who we partner with and create content with.

Responsibilities of the Role: Source talent, come up with episode topics, prep guests, and edit episodes.

Candidate Competencies: Skilled with Audition, finger on the pulse of the industry, deadline-oriented, able to sell people on ideas.

Personal Motivation: I want to work with high profile people so I can learn from them and get some good connections.

So, what’s the intersection of company needs, role responsibilities, candidate competencies, and personal motivation? You might talk about how you’ve learned a lot over the years by interacting with, reading, or listening to the heavy-hitters in your industry, and you’ve seen firsthand the impact exposure to them can have on a company as well as an individual. Not only does an answer like that relate to the needs of the role and the company, but it ties in your abilities and shows that you’re personally motivated by the mission.

3) Why do you want to leave your current role/company?

This is always a fun balancing act, particularly when you’re running away from a job rather than to one. (Not the ideal situation to be in, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.)

The right way to answer this question is to focus on opportunity. Be forward thinking. Talk about what this role or company offers and why that’s important to you. Don’t focus on what your current role lacks, why you don’t like your company, or how you feel like you’ve hit a ceiling.

So if your next step up at your current company is to a Director role, but that seat is currently occupied by a lifer, frame your answer around how you’d like to make an impact in a certain area that this new role or company provides. Or if you’re bored with an aspect of your day-to-day that is less prominent in the role for which you’re interviewing, focus on the chance to up your skill-level that the new position offers.

And no matter what you do, no matter how tempting it is, don’t badmouth coworkers, bosses, or companies. You’re wearing your professional pants today.

4) Why was there a gap in your employment history?

Recruiters are more forgiving of employment gaps than you might think, particularly if you’re working in marketing or tech. Often people leave jobs to pursue personal interests or take a professional risk that doesn’t end up panning out — and they’re left without a job for a while.

I asked MacIntyre for her perspective on employment gaps just to make sure I wasn’t being too lenient as a hiring manager. “There aren’t too many red flags, unless they left a company suddenly without having a job lined up,” she said. “I’m just listening for a good reason, whether it’s downsizing, trouble finding the right role, or embarking on a career change.”

5) What can you offer us that someone else cannot?

I really hate this question, because it puts you in the position of explaining why you’re a special flower when, frankly, there are other people out there that can do this job, too. There just are. But alas, people ask it anyway, so here’s what I’ve learned about how to answer this question well.

First, don’t harp on skills. Any candidate they’re seriously considering for the position will have a similar skill set, so this isn’t something unique that you can offer. Where people tend to differ more is in their qualities — persistence, drive, creativity, etc.

Then, try to align the qualities that make you stand out with the problem or difficulties inherent in the role. For example, if the role requires getting buy-in from a lot of different stakeholders in order to move work forward, that’s a really tough thing to do. No matter how skilled you are at your discipline, inability to get over that hurdle will make you ineffective. So maybe you highlight that you’re great at building relationships, and talk about how you’ve done that in the past. Or you could talk about your creative approach to problem solving, and how you’ve used that to get over people-related hurdles in the past.

These are all qualities unique to you (and, yes, maybe some other people out there), but if you have the skill set and the qualities they need — hey, you’re sitting right in front of ’em, and the other person isn’t. 😉

6) Tell me about an accomplishment you’re extremely proud of.

This is a question that you might hear phrased in a couple different ways. One of the ways MacIntyre has positioned it is, “What’s something you can do better than a room of 100 people?” She says questions like this are great because they take someone out of the day-to-day, and get candidates talking about something they’re passionate about. This gives a great window into who the person is, not just what kind of work they do.

So no matter how this question is phrased, if you hear it, keep in mind that the recruiter is probably looking to understand what makes you tick. What motivates you. What you’re passionate about. Some interviewers are open to hearing about accomplishments outside of work, while others will be more interested in hearing about something work-related — it’s alright to ask if they have a preference for one or the other. But be prepared with a few examples on each side just so you’re not caught with your metaphorical pants down.

If you’re uncomfortable bragging, remember that this question is all about what you’re proud of. They specifically asked to hear it! So don’t worry about sounding like you’re full of yourself, and tell a short but interesting story about what you did, and why it mattered to you.

“The best questions let the candidates shine,” MacIntyre shared, “and that’s why I love ones like this.”

7) Tell me about a time you made a mistake.

The worst way to answer this question is to take the same approach candidates often take in the “what’s your weakness?” question. Trying to frame a mistake as someone else’s fault, or highlighting an inconsequential mistake to imply that you only make small mistakes, is a total cop out.

There’s also a way to answer this question that isn’t a monumental failure, but isn’t a huge success, either — and that’s thinking of a mistake that’s so far back in your career that it’s pointless to bring up today. For example, if you’ve got nine years of experience in funnel marketing and you’re talking about the time you failed to copyedit an email in 2007, you’ve technically answered the question, but not satisfactorily. Yes, you’ve admitted a mistake, but it’s not relevant to the professional you are today or the role for which you’re interviewing. 

Instead, think about a real mistake from the recent past — the last year or two — that has a clear takeaway you can share with the interviewer. Here’s a hypothetical example that an interviewer would love to hear for, let’s say, a Sr. Manager of PR:

“A few years ago I found myself in dire straits from a hiring standpoint. I misread some cues from someone on my team in terms of how engaged they were, and I ended up losing them to another team internally. It left us without a copywriter, and I ended up having to take on all of that extra workload while scrambling to backfill. In retrospect, I realize I should’ve been having more proactive conversations with that employee about her career growth. She loved the work she was doing as a writer, but just felt there wasn’t enough progression for her on the team — which I could’ve outlined for her had I been more communicative with her about it. I ended up finding someone great to backfill her, and I outlined a strong career path for her that we talk about on a quarterly basis.”

8) How do you handle stress or pressure?

Not well.

I mean, what do you want me to say? I think that’s why this question trips people up a lot — the kneejerk reaction is that you’re being asked how stress makes you feel, not how you react to it. But that’s what the interviewer is getting at: what actions you take when stressful situations present themselves.

And you do take certain actions. Try to reflect on the last three to five situations in which you were stressed at work. What did you do to move past the stress? If you jot down what you did, you might see a framework start to emerge.

By way of example, I know a lot of people I work with respond to stressful situations by taking a step back from the chaos and writing down a list of what needs to get accomplished to get their arms around the problem. They find breaking up a big, complex problem into its components makes it easy to start doing productive things to calm down.

Try to answer in terms of frameworks like that instead of cringing and saying “Oh, heh, I love stress, heh, bring it on!”

9) What would your direct reports/boss/colleagues say about you?

“This is one of those questions where they’ll respond something like ‘I’m not a micromanager,’ or ‘I lead by example,’ so you have to take answers to this with a grain of salt,” says MacIntyre.

But questions like this that lend themselves to trite or fluffy answers give you an opportunity to stand out. MacIntyre says if she does ask a question like this, she gets excited when she hears an individualized response — something that tells her more about the candidate as a person. That could be anything from “I’m an unrelenting fan of Bruce Springsteen” — something (presumably) unrelated to the work at hand — to, “That I’m a sucker for beautiful design and I totally geek out doing it whenever it pops up in my role.”

Much like the questions about your weaknesses or a time you’ve failed, just be sure you don’t use this question as an opportunity to humblebrag. Keep your “tendency to work too hard” to yourself.

10) What questions do you have for me?

The biggest mistake you can make with this question is to have no questions. It indicates a lack of curiosity and research.

The second biggest mistake you can make is asking superficial questions. This also indicates a lack of research, but perhaps worse, it doesn’t exactly make you sound smart.

What’s an example of a stupid question? For starters, anything you can find out on your own through a bit of research. These include information like basic company history, product or service suites, key hires, or company performance — provided the company releases information publicly. 

Unless you’re in the final stage of the interview, it’s also smart to steer clear of questions that are related to HR — things like time off, salary, or benefits packages. If you’re still in the stages of exploring whether there’s a mutual fit, jumping to this end stage may advance the interview process too fast, and it could turn out unfavorably for you as a result.

Some better questions to ask are ones that are built off of the conversation you’ve had with the interviewer. Dig deeper into something you talked about that lends itself to more nuanced discussion. For example, if you’ve been interviewing for a writing position and the interviewer briefly mentioned that writers on the team dabble in design, you might ask some follow up questions, such as:

• “You mentioned writers dabble in design. Were they already capable of design before they started here, or did they learn on the job? What resources did they use to learn?”
• “You mentioned writers dabble in design — do they also dabble in other secondary skills, like coding?”
• “You mentioned writers dabble in design. How often do they do their own design work, versus working with the internal design team, freelancer, or agency?”

Another great topic for discussion is team structure, and how teams interact with one another. Getting context on how the team you’re interviewing for is structured, and how they fit into to the larger organization, is not only a thoughtful question but also critical information for you to have. Without it, it’ll be hard to know whether the position is right for you based on where you are in your career — and where you want to be. 

Nailing Not Just the Answers, But the Delivery

The contents of one’s answers are just one part of the interview. And while they should be enough to move the hiring conversation forward, some interviewers can get thrown by the content of the answer if the delivery is poor.

Poor delivery could be a matter of stammering, saying a distracting number of “likes” and “ums,” getting short of breath and speaking in an awkward cadence, or just droning on long after you’ve sufficiently answered the question. This sounds like trite advice (and maybe it is, but here we are): The interviewer wants you to do well. They don’t want to keep interviewing candidates, and they definitely don’t want to be in a super awkward conversation for a half hour watching you squirm.

So, remember to:

• Chill. Breathe.
• Speak slowly so you don’t trip on your words or lose your breath mid-monologue. One way to enforce this is via an old theatre trick in which you force yourself to speak just a little bit slower than you think is natural. It helps you enunciate, gives you time to choose your words more carefully, and makes it easier for the listener to absorb what you’re saying. Just don’t go so slow that they think they’re in a time warp or something. 
• If you’re unsure of how to answer a question out the gate, take a beat and think of how you really want to answer instead of starting a tangent just to fill the silence.
• Look for facial and other physical cues that the interviewer is ready for you to wrap it up on a question.
• Stop saying “like.” And “um.” Slowing down your cadence a touch will also help with this.

To reinforce the importance of remaining calm, cool, and collected in your delivery, I’ll tell you an interviewing story my friend relayed to me about a really kind recruiter that helped her get her current job. In her first in-person interview, she was really nervous and apparently it showed in the first round of feedback.

The recruiter called her back and said, “When you come back tomorrow, drink a beer and just relax.”

Some Parting Thoughts on Interviewing

Everyone bombs some of their interviews. If you bomb the interview because of lack of preparedness, that’s one thing. If you bomb it because it just wasn’t a fit, try not to get down on yourself by remembering that it’s not just that you weren’t a fit. It’s that you and the company weren’t fits for each other. For example, if someone lobbed me one of those purposefully weird interview questions like “How many zeros can you fit in a Subaru?”, I’d be both SOL in the job department and relieved because that’s an insane question to ask someone. 

You might also do well to remember that interviewing is kind of like dating. If it’s been a while, you might really suck at it. But you’ll get back in your groove the more you do it. So if you find yourself newly on the job market, try to stack your interviews in order of interest if possible — scheduling the ones you have more interest in after you’ve had a few trial runs at less interesting roles. 

If you can’t stack your interviews, ask a forgiving friend or family member to do some dry runs with you. It’ll be awkward, but saying the answers to common questions you might come up against — like, out loud — will make it more likely to come out with some degree of eloquence when it really counts.

Any marketer will tell you: happy salespeople are the currency of a job well-done. When you bring awesome leads to your account reps, you make their jobs infinitely easier. Instead of weeding through mismatched prospects, they can focus on closing deals with solid fits. This efficiency is especially important in the media world where established sources of revenue are waning, and publishers are needing to get creative in how they’re keeping their businesses alive.

Inbound has the potential to fundamentally change the publishing industry in terms of how media reps sell, in addition to how they generate leads to the products that they’re selling. But still, marketers have a hard time convincing their sales teams to participate in inbound marketing efforts and to sell inbound marketing to advertisers.

Sales leaders would rather focus on familiar terrain that they know works: reaching out to potential prospects on LinkedIn and selling the same advertising solutions for years. But then you hear stories of companies that have lead engines that are 100% inbound. You also hear about publishers like The Next Web that are using their own content as inbound marketing tools—to drive sales to events and courses.

It’s time for a change and for sales teams to help lead the charge.

To demonstrate the value of inbound and get your sales reps participating, you need to show the ROI: in media especially, short-term quick wins are fizzling out. Account reps need to focus on building lasting prospect-and audience connections. Here’s how to convince your sales team that inbound is worth their while:

1) Demystify Inbound

Banner ads are easy to sell and implement because they represent a very simple model: click in, click out, make purchase. When it comes to tracking the ROI of content, however, the path is much less clear.

For one, audiences follow a series of complex interactions en route to the path to sale. Try to show your media account reps a diagram, and they’ll be instantly confused.

But you know it works.

Instead of getting bogged down with marketing mechanics, explain the dynamics you’re observing in terms of common sense. Tell a powerful, human story—that people need to do their research before committing to a purchase decision. Point your sales team to key leaders like Rishi Dave, CMO of Dun and Bradstreet, who put it eloquently: “today’s buyer is entirely research driven.”

Inbound is where all internal team conversations should converge. Not to mention, when sales reps practice inbound themselves, they’ll do a better job selling its value proposition to advertisers.

2) Help Connect the Dots

This bullet point speaks specifically do sponsored content campaigns.

Keep in mind that you, Ms. Marketer, might be a native ads expert. Your sales reps, however. They’ve likely never run a marketing campaign in their lives. Given that sponsored content is a new business area, the topic is also difficult to explain.

If you want sales teams to sell inbound, you need to help them speak to audiences of marketers, just like you. Here are some ways that you can help:

• Define the stage of your marketing funnel that your ad products are targeting and explain, in plain English, how they work
• Listen in on a few sales calls and chime in with specific marketing expertise
• Create sales enablement and one-sheets that speak to the value of your sponsored content campaigns
• Help establish clarity around value-based pricing, how long campaigns should run, and how results will be measured in terms of viewed, leads, and customers
• Check out our Ebook, “Why Publishers Need to Think Like Marketers” 

Lay out clear selling points around inbound for your company’s target customers. Help coach your sales teams around marketing-speak.

3) Provide Examples

Your company’s prospects and customers want stories and hard facts, not theories about ‘new marketing trends.’ Fortunately, inbound has been around for a few years, so there are plenty of resources to help. If you’re looking for inbound success stories, take a look at HubSpot’s success stories. You can point your advertisers to this page directly, to explain the mechanics of inbound campaigns.

Remember that success will vary from industry to industry, so you’ll want to make sure that your stories are relatable to your audience’s specific needs. The more tangible you are, the more likely sales teams and prospects will be to listen to your case.

4) Consult on Packages for Advertisers

As a marketer, you’re in the best position to empathize with the needs of your company’s target customer. Just like the prospects who cross paths with your sales team, you’re in the customer acquisition and retention trenches—every day.

So don’t lurk in the backgrounds.

Listen in on sales calls and recommend packages for your sales reps to sell (and upsell). Offer suggestions and examples for ways that your team can bundle inbound marketing options into your advertiser programs. Make sure that you factor in the metrics that your sales team is communicating to advertisers. You’ll want to include the following details:

• Type of content that your team can create
• Placement of that content and how it fits into your organic browsing experience
• Ideal timeframes for a campaign to run
• The forecasted # of views that campaigns generate
• Any related email sends
• Typical costs per lead

Speak in the language of marketers and emphasize your unique value add as a media company. Your prospects will take notice and listen to what you have to offer more closely.

Once You Do Prove the Value of Inbound

New doors will open for your media brand.  You’ll unlock new sources of value and carve out new revenue opportunities. Your persistence is worth it. Keep forging ahead.