We’re all familiar with Flo from Progressive, right?

Stephanie Courtney, the actress that plays her, makes Flo memorable by capturing Flo’s quirkiness — appearing in everything from commercials to print ads, and social media posts.

And do you know who is behind all of that marketing collateral?

Copywriters. The ability to find the exact right words to tell your company’s story isn’t an easy feat, and it’s even harder to do so consistently.

So when we come across companies that are doing it successfully, we think their copywriters deserve a pat on the back (and a raise?). Take a look at some of the companies we think have stellar copywriting, and if you’re looking, maybe get some inspiration for your own brand, too.

1. Omsom

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Why we like it: Omsom’s copy is playful and authentic. Company founders, the Pham sisters, are able to share a bit about their culture, the ingredients, and make home cooking accessible and quick for visitors of all skill sets.

I typically enjoy cooking, but I don’t always have the time. Omsom has made me step my game up. Their ready-to-use starter pouches of spices and sauces have helped me churn out Asian dishes quickly minus the hassle of store-hopping and buying larger quantities than I need. Still, I always end up buying more than intended when I’m on their site because it not only looks delicious, but the copy is a huge motivator to click add-to-cart.

Right at the start, the homepage (pictured above) invites you to “rip, pour, and fire it up” and get ready to stuff your face. By focusing on ease and three simple steps, they’re able to make the value proposition that their product is not only tasty, but time efficient.

There’s also plenty of wordplay used. The founders, who have the last name Pham have worked it into various spots on the site, including their note welcoming visitors to their “Phamily.”

The language is the perfect balance of both playful — even calling out that the Pham sisters were rowdy youths in their definition of Omsom (above) — and no nonsense when it comes to ingredient quality.

2. Articulate

Why we like it: Articulate has nailed the pun game. It’s cheesy in a good way, and makes them more relatable to job seekers. Most people don’t want to just be a cog in a company’s machinery, so by adding some humor, Articulate sets itself apart from other corporate competitors.

Articulate, a HubSpot Agency Partner based in the U.K., is an inbound marketing agency, and their website copy is full of witty, confident copy on pages where you wouldn’t think you’d find it. Here’s exhibit ‘A’:

The copy above introduces Articulate’s “Meet the Team” page — not a page you’d think can pull off witty copy, right? Well, Articulate’s page goes beyond employee photos and their job titles.

In addition to the playful header, “not the usual blah blah,” the copy above takes on a farm theme, assuring visitors that employees aren’t simply “caged hens.” Rather, they’re a “free-range, artisanal, cruelty-free team.” Funny on the surface, but helpful to job seekers who, much like food, want to know where their work comes from and how it’s made.

3. Moosejaw

Why we like it: Moosejaw’s use of humor builds an emotional connection with site visitors — delighting them while providing information they can use.

Not many brands are brave enough to touch the products they’re selling with unconventional copy … but Moosejaw isn’t afraid to have a little fun.

The outdoor apparel outlet store uses humor as a way to sell their products without being overly forward about it. By appealing to people’s emotions, they’re more engaging and memorable.

Here are a few examples:

Same goes for the call-to-action buttons that show up when you hover your mouse over a product photo — like this one, which reads, “Look This Cool.”

Does their brand voice carry over to the product descriptions, you ask? See for yourself:

If you think the brilliant copy stops at their homepage, think again. They extend it to their return policy, too. Here, they do a great job of not sacrificing clarity for humor. Their copywriters successfully made people laugh while still being helpful.

4. First Round Capital

Why we like it: First Round Capital uses language to empathize with their readers. Starting a company is challenging, and First Round Capital understands that and conveys they are there to help.

While a sign of great copywriting is making people smile, another is making people feel understood. The copywriters at First Round do a phenomenal job at letting the value of their offerings for their customers sell themselves.

For example, they hold over 80 events every year connecting their community together. Instead of just explaining that they have events and then listing them out, they begin that section of their website with a simple statement that hits close to home with many entrepreneurs: “Starting a company is lonely.”

Using words like “imperfect,” “safety net,” and “vulnerable” encourages readers to let their guards down and feel understood by the brand and their community.

Plus, you’ve gotta love that last line about stick-on name tags. Those things get stuck in my hair.

5. Trello

Why we like it: Trello’s text is clear and concise, which is exactly what users need in order to learn how to use the product. Switching project management software can be a challenge. Trello’s copy makes sure new users don’t get left behind.

Do you know what Trello is? If the answer is no, then behold the copywriting on their website. Their product description — like most of the copy on their site — is crystal clear:

And then check out how clear this explainer content is:

Some of the use case clarity can be attributed to how smart the product is, but I think copywriters deserve some credit for communicating it clearly, too. They call it like it is, which ultimately makes it really easy to grasp.

And I couldn’t write about the copywriting talent at Trello without including the clever references in the microcopy of their login page:

Each time you refresh the login page, you see a different, equally clever example email belonging to a fictional character, like Ender from Ender’s Game and Dana Scully from The X-Files — a great example of nostalgia marketing. This is a small detail, but nonetheless a reminder that there are real humans behind the website and product’s design. Delightful microcopy like this kinda feels like I just shared a private joke with someone at the company.

6. Velocity Partners

Why we like it: For David Kessler of Velocity Partners, less is more. His use of “word economy” delivers engaging, powerful content in a concise manner.

No post from me about excellent copywriting would be complete without mentioning the folks at Velocity Partners. A B2B marketing agency out of the U.K., we’ve featured co-founder Doug Kessler’s SlideShares (like this one on why marketers need to rise above the deluge of “crappy” content) time and again on this blog because he’s the master of word economy.

What is “word economy”? It’s taking care that every word you use is the right word. It means getting your point across concisely and not dwelling on the details when you don’t have to. In a world of shortening attention spans, this is the ultimate goal when communicating your message.

And since we’re talking about word economy, I’ll shut up and let you check out one of Kessler’s SlideShares for yourself:

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Whereas SlideShares are typically visual, Kessler’s is heavily focused on copy: The design stays constant, and only the text changes. But the copy is engaging and compelling enough for him to pull that off. Why? Because he uses simple words so his readers understand what he’s trying to say without any effort. He writes like he speaks, and it reads like a story, making it easy to flip through in SlideShare form.

The copy on Velocity Partners’ homepage stood out to me, too. Check out, for example, how humble they are when introducing their case studies:

I also like how casual and honest they kept their email subscription call-to-action. The header is especially eye-catching — and it plays off of the popular SlideShare about crappy content we mentioned earlier.

In fact, Velocity Partners’ Harendra Kapur wrote a blog post on what goes into to great B2B writing — starting with this disclaimer, of course.

7. Scott’s Cheap Flights

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Why we like it: The team at Scott’s Cheap Flights positions themselves as travel industry insiders with their handy pro-tips and down to earth lingo.

Scott’s Cheap Flights is known for finding discount airfare, but they’ve branched out with a variety of offerings, including guides. Adding a personal touch, the team at Scott’s has also offered up some pro tips of their own on their “Meet the Team” page.

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Members feel like they’re getting information from seasoned experts, and they’re able to pair these tips with photos of the employee that gave them. This small, but useful addition builds connection with site visitors and improves the company’s credibility.

8. Cultivated Wit

Why we like it: Cultivated Wit’s site copy is very on brand — humorous and witty. What better way to convey what you can offer to visitors than by demonstrating it in real time?

The copywriters over at the “comedy company” Cultivated Wit do a great job of embracing their own brand of quirk throughout their site. They already have one of the best “About” pages in the game, but their delightful copy is spread throughout their site — sometimes in the most unexpected of places.

For example, take a look at the copy around contact information at the very bottom of their homepage:

This section of the homepage is an afterthought at best for most companies. But for these folks, it was an opportunity to have a little fun.

They also have two, unique email subscription calls-to-action on different pages of their website. They’re very different, but both equally funny and delightful. Here’s one from the homepage:

And one from the “About” page:

9. Cards Against Humanity

Why we like it: Their copy is abrasive and a little offensive, which perfectly lines up with their brand voice and audience.

You may or may not be familiar with Cards Against Humanity, the self-declared “party game for horrible people.” It’s a card game — one that’s simultaneously entertaining and inappropriate. The copywriting on the cards themselves are guaranteed to make you laugh.

The brand voice is very distinctive, and can seem a little abrasive, and even a little offensive. But that’s their whole shtick: They’re not trying to appeal to everyone, and that’s perfectly okay. What they do do a great job of doing is appealing to their target audience.

One look at their FAQ page and you’ll see what I mean:

Here’s a sneak peek into some of the answers to these questions. You’ll see they make fun of both themselves and the reader — which is exactly what the card game is about.

10. R/GA

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Why we like it: B2B companies are not exactly known for their humor. R/GA bucks that trend with hilarious hot takes via social media. This light approach makes them more relatable and helps build brand awareness.

I’ve been focusing a lot on site copy so far, so I wanted to check out some examples of excellent social media copywriting.

I know you all like to see some more B2B examples in here, too, so I surfaced one of the best examples of the holy grail: Twitter copy, from a B2B company, that’s funny. Behold, some recent highlights from the R/GA Twitter account:

11. innocent

Why we like it: Like Velocity Partners, innocent’s copy proves that simple language can be just as effective as its more descriptive counterparts. There’s no need for long paragraphs, innocent gets straight to the point.

Check out U.K.-based drink makers innocent, and you’ll see a language, style, and tone that matches their philosophy, product, and even their branding and design. It’s all just clean, straightforward, and simple. And believe it or not, simple is a really, really hard thing to nail in copywriting.

This stands out most on their “Things We Make” page. (Isn’t that page name even beautifully simple?)

This same straightforward-but-charming copywriting philosophy extends to their site navigation:

Their meta description is pretty awesome, too:

And my personal favorite:

12. GymIt

Why we like it: GymIt truly gets their users and expresses it with funny advertising about pretending to move to get out of a contract. The company knows their audience and knows just what to say to hook them and make them smile.

I’ve always loved the copy at GymIt. In fact, I check their site and social profiles all the time to see if they’ve freshened anything up. Luckily, they’re no one-trick pony. They continue to keep their site fresh with captivating copy.

Here are some of my favorites, all of which hit on the pain points of gym-goers that they try to solve — and actually do solve with their customer-friendly policies.

I can vouch for that one. I know how much of a hassle it is to move far away from your gym — and how refreshing it must be to be able to walk in and just … quit.

All of this rolls up to their philosophy, espoused eloquently on their “About” page, that gyms should just be about working out:

Talk about having an understanding of their core audience. The copy both in its value proposition and across its marketing materials reflects a deep understanding of their customers.

And how did their copywriters choose to make sure everyone knew what this new gym franchise was about if they didn’t read that “About” page? This tagline:

Doesn’t get much clearer than that.

13. ModCloth

Why we like it: ModCloth is delightfully quirky and whimsy. Their copy speaks directly to their buyer personas with product copy that helps buyers envision their lives with the item.

ModCloth is a brand that has always had an excellent grasp of their buyer persona, and it comes through in their pun-filled copywriting. All of their products are silly plays on words — check out this screen grab of some of their new arrivals, for example:

Dive into their product description copy, and it’s equally joyous, evocative, and clever — just like their customers. Often, it’ll also tell the story of what you’ll do while wearing their items:

After reading their descriptions, one can imagine what their life would be like if they owned this product. That’s Copywriting 101, but so few brands can actually pull it off like the folks at ModCloth do.

14. Ann Handley

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Why we like it: Despite an impressive portfolio and list of accomplishments, Ann Handley makes her site copy relatable instead of just reading like a resume. It’s the perfect balance of personality and professionalism.

When it comes to building up your own personal brand, it can be easy to get a little too self-promotional. That’s where the copywriting on your site can make a big difference.

On Ann Handley’s personal website, she added bits of microcopy that shows, despite her many accomplishments (like being a best-selling author and award-winning speaker), that she still doesn’t take herself too seriously.

Check out her email subscription call-to-action, for example:

Flex Your CopyWriting Muscles

Anyone can be a successful copywriter with the right brand voice — and a little editorial guidance along the way. Get inspiration from the brands above or start compiling your favorite examples.

This article was originally published January 17, 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Recently, I took a leap of faith and bought leggings online.

I was nervous because of the obvious: I couldn’t see the leggings in person or try them on in-store, and I wasn’t sure how the sizing worked. I didn’t want to pay for shipping and item tax without even knowing if I was going to love my purchase.

Even though ecommerce is a booming industry, projected to earn $6 trillion in 2022, there’s still some anxiety for consumers when buying products through a screen.

Fortunately, some brands have taken that into consideration, and have come up with a way to let consumers try products and services before purchasing them: Try before you buy. Let’s dive into what it is, how it works, and see examples of brands who use this strategy.

According to the 2021 Virtual Shopping Habits Report by Pertfitly, shoppers name the inability to try clothes on as their biggest concern when shopping online. The survey also found that the number one reason consumers return clothes is due to the inability to try them on.

For retailers, this creates a big problem. Not only do they have to worry about losing a customer, but the cost of acquiring another customer.

As a result, many brands are attempting to solve this issue by offering a trial period. In addition, the try-before-you-buy model, some brands are leveraging augmented reality to allow consumers to preview items on themselves or in their homes.

Now that you know what try before you buy is, let’s get into how it works.

How does “Try Before You Buy” work?

Every brand that uses try before you buy may have a slightly different process for this model. In most cases, here’s how it goes:

1. The shopper picks out one or several products to try out.
2. After receiving said product(s), the shopper will have a trial period determined by the retailer.
3. Once the trial period expires, the consumer will have to decide between keeping or returning the item.

Trial periods vary greatly by brand. In addition, some brands will only allow consumers to try one product at a time while others will offer multiple products at a time.

To offer some inspiration, we’ve made a list of six brands that offer unique try-before-you-buy models and takeaways marketers can gain from them.

Try Before You Buy Brand Examples

1. Gemist

Gemist is a sustainable, L.A.-based jewelry brand that offers a two-week trial period for their rings.

While some brands offer the try-before-you-buy option for all products, Gemist limits it to rings, as they’ve identified that as the product that creates the most hesitation from shoppers.

On their website, they say “We all love jewelry, but we get that fit can be tricky—especially with rings.”

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They allow shoppers to order up to three styles for two weeks with a $45 deposit. However, that amount is fully refunded once the products have been returned.

Takeaway

Gemist has found a great balance between meeting its customers’ needs without overextending itself. They are offering a service that they know is of interest to their target audience.

However, this model doesn’t come without risks. As such, they’ve limited it to a product category – making it more manageable. As marketers, our goal is to delight our audience, but it’s important to find a strategy that will also work in the best interest of the company.

2. Prime Wardrobe

Amazon Prime offers a try-before-you-buy service through its clothing service, Prime Wardrobe.

Customers get to shop on the website and choose up to six items to enjoy for seven days, and they’re only charged for what they decide to keep.

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Members can enjoy a full-service shopping experience, with options sorted by style, occasion, or fit, shown above. For consumers that want even more help, Prime Wardrobe offers a personal shopper tool, in which stylists curate a list of items based on your style and budget for $4.99.

Takeaway

Prime Wardrobe is a member-exclusive program for Amazon Prime customers. It’s important to note that this program didn’t always exist. They fit one into their business model in 2017, more than 10 years after the launch of Amazon Prime to delight customers even further.

With this in mind, marketers should always be in touch with their audiences’ challenges, pain points, and interests, as they can spark ideas for future marketing campaigns and even products/services.

3. Warby Parker

As someone who wears glasses, I was especially interested to dive into how Warby Parker works. Here’s the low-down: consumers try five pairs of frames at home for free, prescription-ready, pick and pay for the frame(s) they like, and send the rest back.

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Let’s expand on that.

Warby Parker’s shopping experience can start a few different ways: consumers can either begin shopping for glasses right away or take a quiz for suggested pairs. All consumers need to do is upload their prescription to get started.

If you don’t have an updated prescription, you can receive one from Warby Parker by booking a comprehensive eye exam at a physical store location. After about 20 minutes, you’ll receive a prescription on the spot. This option shows the business’s commitment to being a full-service eyewear company.

Takeaway

Warby Parker is a great example of how to market a product or service seamlessly. From the design of the website to the copy, shoppers can quickly find what they’re looking for and have the answers to their most pressing questions already there.

4. Casper

Casper is a mattress company that provides consumers with up to 100 nights of trying out its products before committing to a purchase. Additionally, the company offers free shipping, returns, and a 10-year limited warranty on all mattresses.

Casper offers six different mattress types and sizes, like ‘The Wave,’ pictured below.

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On the website, consumers can also purchase other bedding items, such as sheets, glow lights, or pillows, to complete a shopper’s bedroom experience. After a consumer picks their mattress, extras, and finishes their trial, they make the decision to keep or return the product.

If the consumer does not fall in love with their mattress, they can enjoy a full refund of the mattress and ship it back for free. If they do love their mattress, they get to keep it and enjoy night 101 with their new bed.

Casper’s extended free trial is something unique to their service. The idea is that customers can take the time to get used to their new mattress and incorporate it into their nightly routine. After a couple of months with a new mattress, it would be a culture shock to go back to a different one.

Best of all, customers can feel peace of mind knowing that even if they make a huge purchase such as a mattress, they can receive a full refund and free return if they’re not happy — but if they are, their job is done.

Takeaway

While most try-before-you-buy brands have a limited trial period, Casper offers a least 30 days to accommodate its consumers. The brand understands that it takes much longer to assess the value of a bed than it does clothing or a pair of glasses.

The keyword here is value – as marketers, it’s important we understand how our audience perceives the value of our brand and market to them accordingly.

5. Stitch Fix

Stitch Fix is an online clothing company that lets customers create a personalized shopping experience using collections made by real stylists. Customers can take a style quiz, set their budget, and pay a $20 styling fee.

Then, after paying the styling fee, customers receive pieces based on their quiz answers and budget, which they can try on at home before they commit to a purchase. They keep their favorites, send back the others with the company’s free shipping policy, and that’s it.

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Stitch Fix’s wardrobe options include a variety of brands. A customer, depending on their budget, can receive clothes from retailers including The North Face, Free People, Calvin Klein, Nike, Bonobos, Toms, and O’Neil.

The company’s model is appealing to customers who don’t want to leave their house to find an outfit they’d love. The style quiz, with questions about sizing, shopping behavior, and personal preference, is built to ensure that customers will receive choices they like.

The company also doesn’t run on a subscription, so there’s no set commitment. Customers also can enjoy free shipping and returns using Stitch Fix, and the $20 styling fee is a credit toward the items kept, so the customer will always have $20 off their purchase.

Takeaway

Stitch Fix’s service gives power to the customer and delivers the most personalized shopping experience possible to the shopper, from the style quiz to the curated collections by real stylists. They take the worries out of commitments to online shopping, such as shipping prices, incorrect sizing, and receiving items you might not like.

Consumers want to feel in control of their shopping experiences. As such, marketers should consider this in every stage of the buyer’s journey, as they craft their strategies.

6. BlackCart

BlackCart was created to make try-before-you-buy shopping less of a painful guessing game for merchants. They offer a service for merchants that want to implement a try-before-you-buy option within their online store.

With BlackCart, merchants can enjoy integrations with Shopify, Magneto, and WooCommerce, customization options to fit their branding, and no fulfillment charges, all on a fully automated platform.

Merchants can use multiple settings to personalize the sale and shopping experience on their website. These settings include choices such as placing the trial period, exclusions, minimums, a deposit requirement, price, and refunds.

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On the consumer side, shoppers can select items to try from the merchant’s website and pay a fee set by the merchant (shown in the photo above). From there, the items are shipped to try on at home for the time period set by the merchant. After the customer sends unwanted items back, the kept items are charged automatically.

Takeaway

Online business owners will appreciate that BlackCart fits in as part of a merchant’s online store. BlackCart is an example of B2B having a place with try-before-you-buy services as well. They make sure the merchant experience is seamless so they can focus on delighting the consumer.

How is your brand delighting its target audience and how are you communicating that to consumers? If that’s not clear, that’s a sign you may need to go back to the drawing board and re-assessing your marketing strategy.

Try-before-you-buy programs are so versatile, and marketers can definitely take note of the unique ways these programs delight customers and personalize the shopping experience.

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

Did you know there are over 56,000 WordPress plugins available today?

WordPress plugins allow you to enhance your website’s functionality by adding features and capabilities that don’t come standard with the system.

Whether you want to improve your writing, optimize a blog post for SEO, or interpret your site’s analytics, there’s a plugin out there for you.

But with so many options available, it’s tough to figure out the best ones to use — and that’s why we’ve done the work for you.

Below you’ll find a list of the best WordPress plugins (not in any specific order) that every marketer should explore.

These plugins have been reviewed by some of the top marketers in the industry. They’ll also keep both you and your WordPress website running efficiently and effectively. If you want more, check out the official WordPress plugin page.

1. HubSpot WordPress Plugin

HubSpot’s drag-and-drop form builder allows you to easily build contact forms to use on your WordPress website. The plugin also includes a pop-up creator, live chat widget, contact database, and previously written code for you to simply copy and paste into WordPress.

All-in-one plugins provide multiple functionalities in a single plugin, making them a more lightweight solution than having multiple plugins limited to single functionality. Because HubSpot provides everything in one plugin, you can be sure it will not bloat your site, which is important as you consider load speeds.

2. Elementor

Elementor is WordPress’s #1 drag-and-drop page builder with over 2 million downloads and counting. It offers 100+ templates and premade sections for services, testimonials, call-to-action pages, etc. Using Elementor in WordPress, you’ll be able to quickly make the marketing content you need.

Customization features, such as Box Shadows, Background Overlays, Hover Effects, Headline Effects, and Animations, are available with Elementor. These eye-catching effects will help you hold visitors’ attention.

To help you take full advantage of this plugin, we have a free WordPress Training Course using Elementor to help you build your own website.

3. WordPress Landing Pages

Create stunning landing pages for your website with the fantastic WordPress Landing Pages plugin. The visual editor that comes with it makes customizing your landing page easier than ever before. You can even track your conversion rate with just a single click of the mouse. It offers you an easy way of implementing your own custom landing page design.

4. Gravity Forms

If you want to add complex and highly customizable forms to your website, Gravity Forms is a good option for that.

Gravity Forms allows you to build multi-step forms, polls, quizzes, surveys, and more. With this plugin, you can create a wide variety of smart rules and conditions. For example, you can create a rule to limit which domains are accepted on your forms to exclude non-business domains like Gmail or even domains from your competitors.

Moreover, you can easily set up integrations with a variety of tools such as HubSpot for your marketing and Zapier for automation flows. Gravity Forms also integrates with PayPal or Stripe so you can accept payment directly via your forms.

5. WPForms

WPForms is one of the most popular form builder plugins for WordPress, with over 5,000,000 active installations. With this plugin, you can easily add custom forms to your website including contact forms, registration forms, surveys, polls, newsletter signup forms, and many other types.

Creating a form is easy thanks to WPForms’ drag and drop builder. Simply drag the form fields you need and drop them into place. There are even 300+ ready-made form templates to get you started even more quickly.

WPForms also comes with powerful features like smart conditional logic, conversational forms, multi-page forms, email marketing integrations, and payment integrations, just to name a few. This plugin also connects with HubSpot so that you can automatically import contacts from your forms into the HubSpot CRM.

6. MonsterInsights

With MonsterInsights, you can add Google Analytics to your WordPress site without having to touch a line of code or hire a developer.

You can view easy-to-read reports about your site’s analytics straight from your WordPress dashboard. That means you don’t have to leave your site or search through multiple Google Analytics reports to find the important insights you need.

You can set up advanced tracking like eCommerce tracking, form conversion tracking, affiliate link clicks, outbound link clicks, and much more. This plugin works with both Universal Analytics (GA3) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4). You can connect to whichever version you’re running, or both at the same time with the dual tracking feature.

7. All in One SEO

All in One SEO helps you optimize your WordPress website for organic search. The plugin works for people with varying levels of SEO experience, from the non-technical to those with coding experience.

The SEO audit checklist will analyze your entire website for errors and provide actionable insights to improve your SEO and unlock maximum traffic. And with the TruSEO score, you can get an in-depth analysis of how well your content is optimized.

The plugin also has an XML sitemap and image XML sitemap support (which is what informs Google about the URLs on your website that are available for crawling). In addition, it provides you with support in other areas including Google Analytics and custom post types, which is helpful for marketers who are working to measure the success of their campaigns or SEO work and goals.

8. Jetpack

Jetpack is an all-in-one WordPress plugin that offers advanced features such as content tools, mobile themes, and more. You can take advantage of all of Jetpack’s features to enhance your website, or pick and choose just what you want to activate based on your unique needs.

Some of these features include automated social media posting, site statistics and analytics, and different SEO tools to help you measure and promote your website success.

9. Smush

“Smush quickly compresses and optimizes images in bulk, letting you focus on other things,” says Izaak Crook of AppInstitute.

Smush servers do all of the work for you, meaning your images will remain high-quality while reducing their file size. This frees up space on your server so your website will be significantly faster — with clearer, crisp imagery in the end.

10. Broken Link Checker

Want to prevent Google from following broken links on your website? Broken Link Checker parses your posts to identify broken links and notify you when they surface.

To save you time, the plugin makes it easy for you to edit a broken link from the plugin page, eliminating the need to manually go into each post to make changes.

11. The SEO Framework

With The SEO Framework, this plugin likely helps the users to make good decisions about optimization, which may help improve search rankings. You’ll have peace of mind knowing the fundamentals are covered.

Its features can optimize every page, post, and term on your website so it’s not only easier to find on the internet, but it’s also more searchable on all social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

12. Just Writing

Just Writing takes WordPress’ Distraction-Free Writing Mode (DFWM) to a whole new level. This is a WordPress plugin that could be a fine choice for marketers to focus on their work by removing distractions.

This tool also features spellcheck to improve the grammar of an article. It’s continually embedded with more new commands and features in the recent updates to facilitate the users with easy access.

13. Hustle

Hustle is WPMU DEV’s marketing WordPress plugin that features popups, slide-ins, embeds, and social share bars.

Embeds are your in-content ads or opt-ins and can be displayed using the built-in options such as before or after your post content, or both. You can also use shortcodes or widgets to display the embeds in more specific locations. That is in addition to the vast array of targeting options that apply to all other content types as well.

You can store all submissions locally or choose to use one of the many integration options, including HubSpot, to send them to your CRM or mailing list.

14. Google XML Sitemaps

Google XML Sitemaps has the capability of generating a special XML sitemap so search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing could better index your blogs or pages. It then becomes simple for surfers to find your blog and retrieve them more efficiently.

This plugin is compatible with all types of WordPress pages and every Custom URL. A distinctive characteristic of this tool is its notifications that are sent to the search engines each time you create new content.

It’s stated to be the best WordPress plugin. The active installs of this plugin are found to be above 1 million.

15. Pretty Links

Pretty Links is a regularly used plugin that can do more for marketers as it contains many interesting features. It’s capable of performing shrink, track, beautify, and share URLs both on WordPress and off it.

By using this plugin, you can create links using the domain name. it’s available for free in the name of Pretty Links Lite, and you can upgrade to the pro version on subscriptions. In simple words, it helps you in shortening links and exhibits the reports of hits by tracking each hit on your link.

16. Akismet

Akismet WordPress plugin examines the comments of visitors on your blog concerning the Akismet Web service and intimates whether the comment is spam or not. This plugin can spontaneously scan in the comments and would filter out spam smoothly.

You can check the status of the comments in the status history provided by this tool. It has a discard feature that intentionally blocks most hazardous spam, which naturally speeds up your site.

17. Pixel Caffeine

Pixel Caffeine allows you to manage Facebook Pixel and Facebook Commerce Manager all within the plugin.

Tony Capetola of Sales Orders says Pixel Caffeine is a great plugin because “marketers can make use of some more advanced features like the ability to track Facebook Ad conversions within WordPress’s dashboard, the ability to create custom audiences based on last visit time (retention window), WordPress taxonomies (categories, tags, etc.), and previous customers behavior.”

Added bonus: Pixel Caffeine automatically keeps up with Facebook’s latest updates so you don’t have to.

18. Calculated Fields Form

“[Calculated Fields Form] allows you to create simple calculators for your WordPress site. You can easily build finance calculators, quote calculators, booking cost calculators, health/ fitness calculators, and other link-worthy tools,” says Roy Harmon of Advertoscope.

With this plugin, you can also create forms with automatically calculated fields and use predefined form templates that will save you time and ensure accuracy.

19. OptinMonster

Looking to grow your email list? This plugin comes with an easy-to-use form builder to help you create opportunities for your visitors to convert.

OptinMonster is an excellent plugin for email marketing solutions for beginners. You can create many kinds of forms such as Pop-ups, Footer bars, Floating Headers, and many more. All of these forms are mobile-friendly, giving users even more opportunities for growth.

20. Wordfence

Hackers and malware can damage your reputation and marketing momentum by serving malicious software or even disabling your website. The Wordfence WordPress plugin will protect you from those risks.

Once you activate this plugin, it will spontaneously scan your WordPress site to check for infections.

21. Title Experiments

The title of a blog post has a direct impact on click-through rates (CTR). Title Experiments make it easy for you to A/B test one title against another so you can track what converts best and increase your CTR.

22. TablePress

TablePress is a plugin that helps you create, customize, and embed beautiful and unique tables on your WordPress site. Your tables can include all types of data and be placed anywhere on your website.

Swadhin Agrawa of DigitalGYD.com says, “TablePress makes it insanely easy for anyone to create a customizable and responsive table on their blogs.”

23. Editorial Calendar

Keep your blog organized with the help of this plugin. Editorial Calendar uses drag-and-drop functionality to simplify the way you schedule and manage your blog content.

You can also manage posts from multiple authors, quickly edit titles and publishing times, and manage drafts within the plugin.

24. TinyPNG

TinyPNG will make your website faster by automatically optimizing your JPEG and PNG images upon upload.

Images are analyzed, and then the plugin compresses them appropriately. Once this happens, the image is then sent back to your WordPress website to replace the original image.

25. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache helps you improve the performance of your blog. It enhances the user experience by increasing website performance and reducing the download durations through Content Delivery Network (CDN) integration.

It’s a fantastic tool for search engine optimization as it uses techniques such as caching, CDN, minify, and database support. These elements all work together to improve website speed, an important factor in how Google ranks pages.

26. Imsanity

Imsanity is a popular plugin that automatically resizes images without loss of quality and saves you from having to manually scale them before upload.

The Imsanity plugin matches the size of your images with the display in a browser. It resizes previously uploaded images by automatically scaling them down and replacing the original images with the new versions, which saves you time as all of the work is done for you.

27. Revive Old Post

Revive Old Post, previously called Tweet Old Post, helps marketers extend the lifetime of inactive Older posts by smoothly sharing these posts on social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and more.

You can manage multiple accounts using this WordPress plugin so you can promote content across more than one to better serve your needs.

28. Head, Footer and Post Injections

Most WordPress users end up needing to use several plugins — some people even use dozens. Head, Footer and Post Injections is a plugin that allows you to copy any unique code that you use for other plugins, keep it in a centralized and organized location, and easily insert it wherever needed.

The plugin is theme-independent, meaning you’ll never lose your data (no matter how many times you change your website theme).

29. Yoast SEO

Yoast helps you get the most out of your website SEO with straightforward XML Sitemaps, breadcrumb navigation control, content analysis, snippet previews, and several integrations that show you how your website performs in different search engines.

Nicolas Straut of Fundera, says, “This plugin identifies and suggests solutions for potential SEO problems in your content, identifies what you’ve done well and helps you easily edit your snippet, keywords, and other post details.”

30. Redirection

Redirection is a free redirect manager that allows you to set up your 301 redirects and manage 404 errors. There is a logging feature so you can see all of the redirects on your site as well as information about each visitor that is redirected.

31. Autoptimize

This plugin aggregates scripts and styles, which enhance your site’s overall performance. Autoptimize also has an extensive API available so you can tailor the plugin to your website’s needs.

“[Autoptimize] makes it easy for non-technical marketers to make their sites lightning fast. We all know how important it’s to have a fast website — without it, our Google rankings suffer and potential customers will go somewhere else,” says Jon Nastor of Hack the Entrepreneur.

Market Your Business with these Valuable Tools

With plugins like these, you’ll be able to run your website more efficiently and market your business to the world. We hope you found this article helpful in your search for the best plugins WordPress has to offer.

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

How do you convince visitors your website is worth their time? There are so many elements that a top-notch landing page needs, and making those elements the “best” they can be often depends on what your landing page goals are.

If you’re looking to up your landing page game, it’s helpful to know what goes into a great one. We’ve compiled a list of landing pages we love so you can see these impressive designs in action and implement their tactics into your own landing pages.

Sign-Up Landing Pages

1. Shopify

Like many of the other landing pages in this post, Shopify’s trial landing page for sellers keeps it simple. It’s not too text-heavy, but still manages to persuade users by noting a few key points about its top-notch product. Visitors come away knowing that Shopify is an all-in-one platform that is easy to use and trusted by many.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Clean Interface: The user-oriented headline is just a few words, for example, and the page relies on simple graphics and short paragraphs to communicate the trial’s details and benefits.
• Concise CTA: There are only a few fields you need to fill out before you get started. All of this makes it easier for you to quickly get started selling online with their tool.

What Could Be Improved:

• Emphasize Security: The last column states that the platform is safe, but doesn’t explain why. Instead, it mentions that over a million businesses use it. A few words that speak to site security would improve this section since the number of vendors is already stated at the top of the page. Additionally, it would eliminate friction for visitors with security concerns.

2. Great Jones

Many of us have been doing a lot more cooking during the pandemic and looking to upgrade our gear. Great Jones offers up a landing page that’s as beautiful as its Dutch Ovens. It’s very aspirational and taps into all of our ideal kitchen dreams.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Use of Color: Great Jones’ site is colorful just like its cookware. The use of bold colors quickly draws visitors in and makes the cookware stand out.
• Prominent CTA: You can’t miss this giant yellow CTA and bold font $100 Off coupon. Who wouldn’t want $100 off these gorgeous pots?

What Could Be Improved:

• Rollover Descriptions: With so many pans and utensils pictured at once, it would be great if users had the ability to view the name of the item. That way they could find it easier on the site when they’re ready to buy.

3. Muzzle

Muzzle, a Mac app that silences on-screen notifications, fully embraces this show don’t tell mentality on their otherwise minimal landing page. Landing pages help users decide whether or not your product or service is actually worth their precious time and energy. What better way to clearly and straightforwardly communicate your value proposition than by confronting visitors with the very problem your app solves?

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Show Rather Than Tell: Visitors to the page are greeted with a rapid-fire onslaught of embarrassing notifications in the upper left of the screen. Not only is the animation hilarious, it also manages to compellingly convey the app’s usefulness without lengthy descriptions.
• Cohesive Visual Experience: Even the text on the page is a muted gray color, mirroring the function of the product.

What Could Be Improved:

• Could Be Difficult to Read: While the light gray text on white background is great at mimicking the product’s function, it may be harder to read for some.

4. DoorDash

Takeout enthusiasts are no doubt familiar with DoorDash, the app that lets you order food from a variety of restaurants from your phone. Well, instead of customers, this landing page is geared towards recruiting Dashers who make the deliveries.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Emphasizes Dasher Autonomy: This landing page really plays up that Dashers are independent and free to work when they want.
• Highlights Potential Earnings: While there’s no way to prove these earnings are typical, they are certainly enticing for anyone who wants to make extra cash on the side.

What Could Be Improved:

• Advantage Over Competitors: DoorDash is not the only delivery game in town. They could highlight what sets them apart from a competitor like UberEats.

5. Wise

Wise allows you to send or receive money in different currencies and countries, and its landing page separates customers into two categories of either Business or Personal so you’re not distracted by options that don’t apply to you. There’s even a short video to show visitors how the service works before they try it. Since they’re dealing with money, it’s important to get the customer experience right the first time.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Highlights Safety: The security information is out front and center on this page, helping to ease any hesitancy a potential customer might have and assures them that Wise is a safe service to use to send money and receive .
• Emphasizes Value: In several places on the page, in both text and video, Wise reiterates that it’s less expensive than transferring money through a traditional bank.

What Could Be Improved:

• Interface is a Little Busy: While it’s great that customers have access to a wealth of information about the service, there’s a lot going on. There’s video, menus that appear when you scroll and multiple buttons — all within the top half of the page.

6. Airbnb

To help convert visitors into hosts, Airbnb offers some enticing personalization: an estimated weekly average earnings projection based on your location and home size. You can enter additional information about your potential accommodations into the fields to get an even more customized estimation.

If you visit the page already convinced, the clear call-to-action at the top of the page makes it easy to convert on the spot.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Personalization: Airbnb shows you right at the start what you could potentially earn based on your area and the size of your home. This is useful for potential new hosts who may still be figuring out how much they should charge and what they can expect to earn.
• Leverages Community: Further down on the page, those curious about hosting have the option to contact a seasoned Superhost to answer any questions they may have.

What Could Be Improved:

• Nothing: The page is clear, concise, reassures potential hosts Airbnb is safe to use, and offers a personalized experience.

7. Wag!

Wag! is a service that connects dog owners with dog walkers and sitters. This page gets right to the point with a large font encouraging prospects to join, and puts the sign-up form prominently on the right half of the page. The green background color makes the white font and other elements on the page pop. The addition of a QR code on the form is also a nice touch, enabling visitors to scan it, quickly download the app, and sign-up.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Efficient Form: Leaving the form field open on the page means visitors don’t even have to click on a CTA to access it. The QR code further expedites the process.
• Emphasizes Credibility: Including caretaker photos and that more than 351,000 caretakers currently use the service nationwide makes Wag more trustworthy.

What Could Be Improved:

• It’s Not Compelling: Unlike DoorDash mentioned earlier, Wag! makes no mention of why people should join. What are the perks? Are the hours flexible?

8. Wistia

Right off the bat, you notice the blue background with the pop of pink in the form of a “Try for free” button. The page gets right into the action with a video showcasing all the cool content you can create. If you’re having doubts, you can always scroll below to read testimonials from some of Wistia’s 375,000 happy customers.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Ease of Use: The form itself allows users to quickly fill it out by linking to their Google account. Doing so enables the autofill feature, which cuts down on friction for the user.
• Capitalizes on Visuals: As a video host, Wista does a great job of showcasing its capabilities using a variety of mediums. There’s colorful graphics, videos and even a link to marketing focused cartoons.

What Could Be Improved:

• Include an FAQ: Testimonials are great, but sometimes customers have a few concerns that could be answered quickly with an FAQ section. That way they can decide whether or not to sign up without having to leave the page to search for answers.

9. Webflow

Webflow, a design tool for web developers, packs a lot of information into just one GIF. As with Muzzle, Webflow also gets right to the point and demonstrates what their tool can do, rather than just talking about it. The animated GIF is visible in the same frame on the website, so users can see how the product works and sign up without scrolling.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Show Rather Than Tell: Being able to view Webflow’s tool in action gives potential customers a clear idea of not only what it does, but how their user experience will be.
• Removes Risk: In several places on the landing page, visitors are reminded that the service is free. There’s no trial to sign up for. They can build their site for free and decide whether or not to sign up for a plan when they’re ready to launch.

What Could Be Improved:

• Nothing: This landing page is the perfect balance of information, usability, and visuals.

10. Talkspace

Talkspace, an online therapy service, really focuses on trustworthiness with this landing page. All of the information on this page emphasizes that customers will have access to licensed therapists, and drives home that the service is secure and confidential. It’s a great way to reassure those who may be hesitant to participate. The use of shapes is also a clever idea. Pages are often filled with squares and boxes, so putting the CTA inside a large circle immediately draws the viewer in. Overall, the layout is clean, inviting, and informative.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Builds Trust: The focus on customer security works in their favor, especially noting that they are HIPPA compliant.
• Provides Value: In addition to providing details about how Talkspace works, this page also provides several mental health resources and articles.

What Could Be Improved:

Nothing: This page has a great user interface and serves as a great starting point for mental health resources.

Ebook Landing Pages

11. Nauto

Nauto, a data platform for self-driving cars, helps make autonomous driving safer for companies who manage fleets of self-driving vehicles. Naturally, its customers would need all kinds of information to sell them on this platform. Nauto has it, packaged into a super-simple ebook whose landing page gives you both a brief contact form and some preview statistics to prove why this resource is so important.

At the top of the page, shown above, a warm photo of a car’s exterior r hugs the lead-capture form. The green “Download Now” button might’ve even been on purpose (on the road, green means go, after all).

Scroll down, and you’ll see another “Get the eBook” CTA to remind users what’s waiting for them. You’ll also see three jarring statistics about car accidents to entice users to learn more. Check it out below.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Simplicity: There’s no distractions on this landing page, which is perfect given the company’s focus on safe, self-driving vehicles.
• Great Use of Comparison: Further down the page, Nauto offers up side by side footage of a distracted driver vs. a self-driving vehicle. It’s an excellent way to drive the point home that A.I. is a safer bet.

What Could Be Improved:

• Graphics: The warm photo at the top is really difficult to see. Slightly more definition would have helped visitors easily recognize the image as cars.

12. Industrial Strength Marketing

Right off the bat, this landing page pulls me in with a compelling, punchy header: “Don’t Make Me Zoom.” It directly speaks to a common experience most of us have had when we’re browsing on our phones or tablets — and it’s a little sassy, too.

But that’s not the only thing keeping me interested in this landing page. Notice how the color red is strategically placed: It’s right at the top and bottom of the form, drawing you even closer to the conversion event.

Plus, this design is meta to boot: It looks and works great on mobile, too (pictured above) Keep in mind that a lot of visitors will be accessing your landing pages on their smartphones or tablets, and if the design of your website doesn’t work well for them, they might give up and leave your page.

The folks at Industrial Strength Marketing made the fonts and form field big enough so that visitors don’t have to pinch-to-zoom to read and interact with the content, for example.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Voice: The language is punchy and relatable, quickly drawing the reader in.
• Minimalist: The black and white color scheme with just a few pops of red really make the sign up sheet stand out. Additionally the minimalist design works beautifully on mobile and desktop, no pinching required.

What Could Be Improved:

Nothing: Both the mobile and desktop versions illustrate the perfect execution of a

13. Inbound Emotion

Even if you don’t speak Spanish, you can still appreciate the conversion capabilities of this HubSpot partner site. My favorite feature of the page? The form stays in a fixed, prominent position as you scroll through the site. I also love the simple layout and warm colors.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Fixed Form: Having access to the form while scrolling provides a better user experience. No need to scroll back up to the top of the page to find it.
• Simple Interface: The layout is simple, but effective. The use of only two shades of orange give a monochrome feel and keeps the focus on the benefits of the ebook.

What Could Be Improved:

• Make the Form Brief: There were six items to fill out, not including the check boxes option at the end. Longer forms could be a turnoff for some visitors.

14. IMPACT Branding & Design

Full disclosure: IMPACT is a HubSpot partner — but that’s not why they’re included here. IMPACT’s landing pages have long been a source of design inspiration. I love the simple layout of the page, from the large headline copy and detailed featured image, to the outline that surrounds the form, to the colors and fonts that are very pleasing to the eye.

The free guide IMPACT is offering for download here also doesn’t emphasize the download itself in the blue button that allows you to submit your filled-out form. Rather, IMPACT is inviting you to “generate more conversions” — putting the focus on what you stand to gain as a result of reading the guide.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Clever Messaging: You’re not downloading an ebook, you’re learning how to “generate more conversations.” This rephrasing is far more enticing than simply putting a regular download button.
• Simple Use of Color and Fonts: The blue tones work really well on this landing page, giving it variety while keeping the look cohesive. Since there’s lots of text on the page, a simple font is perfect.

What Could Be Improved:

• Nothing: This page encourages downloads in a clever way using a simple layout and colors.

Landing Pages to Learn More

15. Unbounce

It’s no surprise Unbounce made this list —they’ve actually written the book on creating high-converting landing pages. Although there are lots of amazing things about this landing page, the two that I absolutely love are: the multiple ways to access the course, and additional industry-specific report offerings. Unbounce is really skilled at providing visitors the information they need, but also what they didn’t know they needed until they landed on the site.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Gives Visitors Options: When it comes to accessing the course, users can either click the main button above the upper half of the page, or if they’ve been scrolling, click on the course from the sidebar on the left. Eliminating the need to scroll back up to the top of the page.

• Sometimes More is More: In addition to the course, Unbounce provides visitors with industry-specific reports and answers to other landing page-related topics. Providing even more useful information sets Unbounce up as a trusted authority in their field.

What Could Be Improved:

• Descriptions: The course offers several modules and it would be helpful if some offered a brief description. The sidebar menu offers a course list, but a short sentence summarizing what visitors can expect to learn would be helpful.

16. Bills.com

Often, people think landing pages are static pages on your website. But with the right tools, you can make them interactive and personalized.

Take the example above from Bills.com. To see if you’d benefit from their consultation, you answer three questions before you are shown a form.

Then, you answer two more questions, like the one below:

And here’s the final landing page form where you fill out your information:

I’m not sure how the algorithm works (or if there’s one at all), but while I was filling it out, I had some anxiety about not qualifying. Once I found out I did, I was excited to fill out the form, which I’m sure most people who are in debt and using this tool are. By making this offer seem more exclusive before the form appeared on the landing page, I’d bet that Bills.com increased conversions pretty significantly.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Exclusivity: Everyone likes to feel special, which is why exclusivity works so well. The page gives the impression that the offer isn’t given to just anyone, you have to qualify first.

• Interactivity: Anytime you can get users to interact with the page, even if it’s something as simple as using a form with a sliding bar question.

What Could Be Improved:

• More Color: While the site is geared to not so fun topics like bills and debt, it doesn’t mean it has to be boring. The gray leaves much to be desired.

17. Zillow

Zillow did something very similar to Bills.com with their landing page. It starts with a simple form asking for “your home address” ( sounds creepy, but don’t worry. This form field is set on top of a hero image featuring a quaint home at dusk followed by a handy FAQ section.

Of course, the address itself won’t be enough to get a true appraisal value of a home. It just denotes the home’s neighborhood. It’s a bit like playing The Price is Right. You can guess how much homes in the area are worth and then type in an address to see how close you got. If you want to learn more info about a property, Zillow then prompts users to sign-up to continue.

Once you hand over your email, you’ll have access to more data like comparable homes in the area, mortgage tools, and the estimated net profits should you decide to sell.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Games are Fun: Anytime you can make filling out a form feel like a game, it’s a win.

• Establishes Authority on the Topic: Zillow has access to so much housing and neighborhood data, it’s no wonder they are one of the top home search sites in the nation.

What Could Be Improved:

• Nothing: The Zestimate page is simple, but effective. Those with concerns about what a Zestimate is and how it’s calculated have easy access to the homebuying FAQ on the second half of the page.

18. Landbot

Landbot, a service that creates chatbot-based landing pages, puts their own product front and center on their chat-fueled landing page. Visitors are greeted by a friendly bot —complete with emojis and GIFs —who encourages them to provide information in a conversational format instead of via a traditional form.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• It’s Fun: From the bright colors to the GIFs, this page keeps visitors engaged and entertained.
• Show, Not Tell: By having the chatbot right on the page, doing its thing, potential customers can see exactly what they’re getting. The whole experience simulates what it’s like to use Landbot’s product.

What Could Be Improved:

• Nothing: Landbot’s use of a live demo, testimonials, highlighted integration features and detailed breakdown of how the product works leaves new customers ready to sign up at first glance.

19. Webprofits

Like Industrial Strength Marketing mentioned earlier, Webprofits also makes great use of a predominantly black, white and red color scheme. The result is a clean layout that makes great use of the pops of color on the page. It’s a testament to the organization’s expertise in digital marketing and UX design.

The rollover description feature throughout the “What We Do” section, while black and white, uses movement to draw the reader’s attention to the content. Each section changes color and rolls down like a shade to reveal more in depth features.

They also make it easy for you to figure out what Webprofits actually does. The rest of the page offers detailed information about what you’ll get when you give over your information. Plus, it includes strategic CTAs throughout, like “Get in Touch”

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Informative, But Not Overwhelming: There’s a lot of information and text on this page, but the use of well-placed graphics and videos help break things up.

• Multiple CTAs: Placing the same CTA throughout the page makes it so visitors don’t have to scroll all the way to the top to “Get in Touch.”

What Could Be Improved:

• Nothing: Webprofit makes great use of the long landing page format, packing in all the pertinent information visitors would need in one place with a visually appealing experience.

20. Native Poppy

Sometimes, you’ve just got to stop and admire a landing page for being beautiful. Using high-resolution photography and lots of white space, Native Poppy’s landing page is a pleasure to look at.

Aside from its beauty, the page has some great elements: a clear and delightfully pink CTA, an informative “How It Works” section, plus an FAQ at the bottom. Best of all, it plays with language, ditching the phrase “become a subscriber” for “become a wild flower.” I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather be a “wild flower” over a subscriber any day.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Captures Brand Voice: The layout of Wild Poppy mirrors the whimsical vibe of the brand. From the photos, font choice, and “wild flower” subscription, all the messaging works in harmony.

• Persuasive: By highlighting all the perks and discounts of being part of the subscription program, it entices customers to join.

What Could Be Improved:

• Form Visibility: While there are multiple CTAs, it would have been nice to have the form fields on the page for faster sign-up, or as a pop up after clicking, instead of having to click the CTA and then be taken to another series of prompts.

21. Conversion Lab

While I wouldn’t typically include an example of a homepage with a form on it in a post about landing pages, this website is special. The homepage is the entire website — the navigation links just take you to the information below.

When you click “Get My Free Consult,” the entire page darkens to highlight the form. See what it looks like before you click in the photo above.

And, when you click that CTA, check out how the form appears:

It’s a similar function when clicking on any of the headings on the page. Instead of taking you to a different page, it simply jumps to the corresponding section on the homepage.

I love how you don’t have to leave the page to fill out the form, or view any of the features, creating a seamless user experience.

Why This Landing Page Works:

• Creative: Having a homepage that also functions as various landing pages makes Conversion Lab unique. Best of all, it still provides a pleasant user experience.
• Organized Layout: Despite having the homepage and landing pages as one, the page doesn’t feel cluttered or busy at all.

What Could Be Improved:

• Form Placement: It would be nice if the form maybe opened up on one side so visitors could still read the content on the rest of the page.

Landing Page Ideas

A well-optimized landing page can transform prospects into leads by gathering information that can help you better understand, market to, and delight visitors. Since landing pages are crucial for conversions, it’s important to make sure they’re well planned, designed, and executed.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating landing pages:

• Appealing aesthetics: Giving your landing page color and a clean UI can only help. Visitors will want to learn more about your products and see evidence of the value you’re offering. Take a look at #18 on our list — Landbot for a great example of a stunning web page.
• Less is more: Let the offer or images do most of the talking, but be sure to include any and all descriptive headlines and supporting text to make your landing page clear and compelling. This goes for just about all the components on the page: try white space, simple copy, and shorter forms.
• Keep visitors on the page: By removing the main navigation or any distracting backlinks, it’s less likely there will be any lead generation friction that could cause visitors to abandon your page.
• Social Sharing: A simple way of getting visitors to engage with your landing page is including social media sharing buttons so that they can spread your content to their social followings. After all, customers are the center of your marketing flywheel.
• A/B testing: Landing pages are important to get right, and since consumer psychology can sometimes be surprising, it’s always better to experiment with different versions of your pages to see which has the highest conversion rate (CVR). Test the positioning of the offer, kinds of CTAs, or even the color scheme.
• Call-To-Action: The CTA is where the meat of the landing page is, or the tipping point where prospects become contacts. CTAs could ask visitors to subscribe, download, fill out a form, share on social media, and more — but, overall, CTAs are necessary for getting your audiences more engaged with your offering. To generate leads, CTAs should be bold and eye-catching, but most importantly, they need to effectively communicate value.

Creating Landing Pages That Shine

Landing pages aid in growing your customer base and increasing conversions. Create a page that delights customers with a user interface so great, they continue to come back for more.

This article was originally published April 2, 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

While Google keeps us on our toes with all the algorithm updates they keep rollin’ out, one thing has stayed pretty consistent for inbound marketers looking to optimize their websites for search: keyword research.

In this post, we’ll define what keyword research is, why it’s important, how to conduct your research for your SEO strategy, and choose the right keywords for your website.

Why is keyword research important?

Keyword research provides valuable insight into the queries that your target audience is actually searching on Google. The insight that you can get into these actual search terms can help inform content strategy as well as your larger marketing strategy.

People use keywords to find solutions when conducting research online. So if your content is successful in getting in front of our audience as they conduct searches, you stand to gain more traffic. Therefore, you should be targeting those searches.

In addition, in the inbound methodology, we don’t create content around what we want to tell people; we should be creating content around what people want to discover. In other words, our audience is coming to us.

This all starts with keyword research.

For an inside look into how Arel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hrefs can aid you in your SEO keyword research, check out our case study and exclusive interview here.

Conducting keyword research has many benefits, the most popular reasons being:

Marketing Trend Insight

Conducting effective keyword research can provide you with insights into current marketing trends, and help you center your content on relevant topics and keywords your audience is in search of.

Traffic Growth

When you identify the best fitting keywords for the content you publish, the higher ranking the it is in search engine results — the more traffic you’ll attract to your website.

Customer Acquisition

If your business has content that other business professionals are looking for, you can meet there need and provide them with a call to action that will lead them into the buyer journey from the awareness stage to the point of purchase.

By researching keywords for their popularity, search volume, and general intent, you can tackle the questions that most people in your audience want answers to.

However, keywords themselves because Google has evolved beyond exact-match algorithms.

Keywords vs. Topics

More and more, we hear how much SEO has evolved over just the last 10 years, and how unimportant keywords themselves have become to our ability to rank well for the searches people make every day.

And to some extent, this is true, but in the eyes of an SEO professional it’s a different approach. Rather, it’s the intent behind that keyword, and whether or not a piece of content solves for that intent (we’ll talk more about intent in just a minute).

But that doesn’t mean keyword research is an outdated process. Let me explain:

Keyword research tells you what topics people care about and, assuming you use the right SEO tool, how popular those topics actually are among your audience. The operative term here is topics — by researching keywords that are getting a high volume of searches per month, you can identify and sort your content into topics that you want to create content on. Then, you can use these topics to dictate which keywords you look for and target.

Elements of Keyword Research

There are three main elements to pay attention to when conducting keyword research.

1. Relevance

Google ranks content for relevance. This is where the concept of search intent comes in. Your content will only rank for a keyword if it meets the searchers’ needs. In addition, your content must be the best resource out there for the query. After all, why would Google rank your content higher if it provides less value than other content that exists on the web?

2. Authority

Google will provide more weight to sources it deems authoritative. That means you must do all you can to become an authoritative source by enriching your site with helpful, information content and promoting that content to earn social signals and backlinks. If you’re not seen as authoritative in the space, or if a keyword’s SERPs are loaded with heavy sources you can’t compete with (like Forbes or The Mayo Clinic), you have a lower chance of ranking unless your content is exceptional.

3. Volume

You may end up ranking on the first page for a specific keyword, but if no one ever searches for it, it will not result in traffic to your site. Kind of like setting up shop in a ghost town.

Volume is measured by MSV (monthly search volume), which means the number of times the keyword is searched per month across all audiences.

How to Research Keywords for Your SEO Strategy

I’m going to lay out a keyword research process you can follow to help you come up with a list of terms you should be targeting. That way, you’ll be able to establish and execute a strong keyword strategy that helps you get found for the search terms you actually care about.

Step 1: Make a list of important, relevant topics based on what you know about your business.

To kick off this process, think about the topics you want to rank for in terms of generic buckets. You’ll come up with about 5-10 topic buckets you think are important to your business, and then you’ll use those topic buckets to help come up with some specific keywords later in the process.

If you’re a regular blogger, these are probably the topics you blog about most frequently. Or perhaps they’re the topics that come up the most in sales conversations. Put yourself in the shoes of your buyer personas — what types of topics would your target audience search that you’d want your business to get found for? If you were a company like HubSpot, for example — selling marketing software (which happens to have some awesome SEO tools… but I digress), you might have general topic buckets like:

• “inbound marketing” (21K)
• “blogging” (19K)
• “email marketing” (30K)
• “lead generation” (17K)
• “SEO” (214K)
• “social media marketing” (71K)
• “marketing analytics” (6.2K)
• “marketing automation” (8.5K)

See those numbers in parentheses to the right of each keyword? That’s their monthly search volume. This data allows you to gauge how important these topics are to your audience, and how many different sub-topics you might need to create content on to be successful with that keyword. To learn more about these sub-topics, we move on to step 2 …

Step 2: Fill in those topic buckets with keywords.

Now that you have a few topic buckets you want to focus on, it’s time to identify some keywords that fall into those buckets. These are keyword phrases you think are important to rank for in the SERPs (search engine results pages) because your target customer is probably conducting searches for those specific terms.

For instance, if I took that last topic bucket for an inbound marketing software company — “marketing automation” — I’d brainstorm some keyword phrases that I think people would type in related to that topic. Those might include:

• marketing automation tools
• how to use marketing automation software
• what is marketing automation?
• how to tell if I need marketing automation software
• lead nurturing
• email marketing automation
• top automation tools

And so on and so on. The point of this step isn’t to come up with your final list of keyword phrases. You just want to end up with a brain dump of phrases you think potential customers might use to search for content related to that particular topic bucket. We’ll narrow the lists down later in the process so you don’t have something too unwieldy.

Although more and more keywords are getting encrypted by Google every day, another smart way to come up with keyword ideas is to figure out which keywords your website is already getting found for. To do this, you’ll need website analytics software like Google Analytics or HubSpot’s Sources report, available in the Traffic Analytics tool. Drill down into your website’s traffic sources, and sift through your organic search traffic bucket to identify the keywords people are using to arrive at your site.

Repeat this exercise for as many topic buckets as you have. And remember, if you’re having trouble coming up with relevant search terms, you can always head on over to your customer-facing colleagues — those who are in Sales or Service and ask them what types of terms their prospects and customers use, or common questions they have. Those are often great starting points for keyword research.

Here at HubSpot, we use the Search Insights Report in this part of the process. This template is designed to help you do the same and bucket your keywords into topic clusters, analyze MSV, and inform your editorial calendar and strategy.

Featured Resource: Search Insights Report Template

Download the Template

Step 3: Understand How Intent Affects Keyword Research and Analyze Accordingly.

Like I said in the previous section, user intent is now one of the most pivotal factors in your ability to rank well on search engines like Google. Today, it’s more important that your web page addresses the problem a searcher intended to solve than simply carries the keyword the searcher used. So, how does this affect the keyword research you do?

It’s easy to take keywords for face value, and unfortunately, keywords can have many different meanings beneath the surface. Because the intent behind a search is so important to your ranking potential, you need to be extra-careful about how you interpret the keywords you target.

Let’s say, for example, you’re researching the keyword “how to start a blog” for an article you want to create. “Blog” can mean a blog post or the blog website itself, and what a searcher’s intent is behind that keyword will influence the direction of your article. Does the searcher want to learn how to start an individual blog post? Or do they want to know how to actually launch a website domain for the purposes of blogging? If your content strategy is only targeting people interested in the latter, you’ll need to make sure of the keyword’s intent before committing to it.

To verify what a user’s intent is in a keyword, it’s a good idea to simply enter this keyword into a search engine yourself, and see what types of results come up. Make sure the type of content Google is closely related to what you’d intend to create for the keyword.

Step 4: Research related search terms.

This is a creative step you may have already thought of when doing keyword research. If not, it’s a great way to fill out those lists.

If you’re struggling to think of more keywords people might be searching about a specific topic, take a look at the related search terms that appear when you plug in a keyword into Google. When you type in your phrase and scroll to the bottom of Google’s results, you’ll notice some suggestions for searches related to your original input. These keywords can spark ideas for other keywords you may want to take into consideration.

Want a bonus? Type in some of those related search terms and look at their related search terms.

Step 5: Use keyword research tools to your advantage.

Keyword research and SEO tools can help you come up with more keyword ideas based on exact match keywords and phrase match keywords based on the ideas you’ve generated up to this point. Some of the most popular ones include:

• Ahrefs
• SEMrush
• Ubersuggest
• Google Keyword Planner
• SECockpit
• Keywords Everywhere
• Moz
• KeywordTool.io
• KWFinder

How to Find and Choose Keywords for Your Website

Once you have an idea of the keywords that you want to rank for, now it’s time to refine your list based on the best ones for your strategy. Here’s how:

Step 1. Use Google Keyword Planner to cut down your keyword list.

In Google’s Keyword Planner, you can get search volume and traffic estimates for keywords you’re considering. Then, take the information you learn from Keyword Planner and use Google Trends to fill in some blanks.

Use the Keyword Planner to flag any terms on your list that have way too little (or way too much) search volume, and don’t help you maintain a healthy mix like we talked about above. But before you delete anything, check out their trend history and projections in Google Trends. You can see whether, say, some low-volume terms might actually be something you should invest in now — and reap the benefits for later.

Or perhaps you’re just looking at a list of terms that is way too unwieldy, and you have to narrow it down somehow … Google Trends can help you determine which terms are trending upward, and are therefore worth more of your focus.

Step 2: Prioritize low-hanging fruit.

What we mean by prioritizing low-hanging fruit is to prioritize keywords that you have a chance of ranking for based on your website’s authority.

Large companies typically go after high search volume keywords, and since these brands are well established already, Google typically rewards them with authority over many topics.

You can also consider keywords that have little competition. Keywords that don’t already have multiple articles battling for the highest rank can afford you the spot by default — if there’s no one else trying to claim it.

Step 3: Check the monthly search volume (MSV) for keywords you’ve chosen.

You want to write content around what people want to discover, and checking MSV can help you do just that.

Monthly search volume is the number of times a search query or keyword is entered into search engines each monthly. Tools like searchvolume.io or Google Trends can help you find out the most searched keywords over related keyword clusters for free.

Step 4: Factor in SERP features as you choose keywords.

There’s several SERP feature snippets that Google will highlight if used correctly. An easy way to find out about them is to look up the keywords of your choosing and see what the first result looks like. But for a quick overview of the types of SERP featured snippets, we’ll summarize what they are here.

Image Packs

Image packs are search results displayed as a horizontal row of images that appear in an organic position. If there’s an image pack, you should write an image-heavy post to win placement in it.

Paragraph Snippets

Featured snippets, or paragraph snippets, are short snippets of text that appear at the top of Google search results for quick answers to common search queries. Understanding the searcher’s intent and providing succinct, concise answers can help in winning the placement.

List Snippets

List snippets, or listicles, are snippets made for posts outlining steps to do something from start to finish — often for “How To” searches. Making posts with direct, clear instructions and formatting can assist in winning this placement.

Video Snippets

Video snippets are short videos that Google will display at the top of a search query page in place of text featured snippets. Posting a video on both YouTube and your website can help you win this placement if tagged in the targeted keywords people are searching for.

Step 5: Check for a mix of head terms and long-tail keywords in each bucket.

Head terms are keyword phrases that are generally shorter and more generic — they’re typically just one to three words in length, depending on who you talk to. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are longer keyword phrases usually containing three or more words.

It’s important to check that you have a mix of head terms and long-tail terms because it’ll give you a keyword strategy that’s well balanced with long-term goals and short-term wins. That’s because head terms are generally searched more frequently, making them often (not always, but often) much more competitive and harder to rank for than long-tail terms. Think about it: Without even looking up search volume or difficulty, which of the following terms do you think would be harder to rank for?

1. how to write a great blog post
2. blogging

If you answered #2, you’re absolutely right. But don’t get discouraged. While head terms generally boast the most search volume (meaning greater potential to send you traffic), frankly, the traffic you’ll get from the term “how to write a great blog post” is usually more desirable.

Why?

Because someone who is looking for something that specific is probably a much more qualified searcher for your product or service (presuming you’re in the blogging space) than someone looking for something really generic. And because long-tail keywords tend to be more specific, it’s usually easier to tell what people who search for those keywords are really looking for. Someone searching for the head term “blogging,” on the other hand, could be searching it for a whole host of reasons unrelated to your business.

So check your keyword lists to make sure you have a healthy mix of head terms and long-tail keywords. You definitely want some quick wins that long-tail keywords will afford you, but you should also try to chip away at more difficult head terms over the long haul.

Step 6: See how competitors are ranking for these keywords.

Just because your competitor is doing something doesn’t mean you need to. The same goes for keywords. Just because a keyword is important to your competitor, doesn’t mean it’s important to you. However, understanding what keywords your competitors are trying to rank for is a great way to help you give your list of keywords another evaluation.

If your competitor is ranking for certain keywords that are on your list, too, it definitely makes sense to work on improving your ranking for those. However, don’t ignore the ones your competitors don’t seem to care about. This could be a great opportunity for you to own market share on important terms, too.

Understanding the balance of terms that might be a little more difficult due to competition, versus those terms that are a little more realistic, will help you maintain a similar balance that the mix of long-tail and head terms allows. Remember, the goal is to end up with a list of keywords that provide some quick wins but also helps you make progress toward bigger, more challenging SEO goals.

How do you figure out what keywords your competitors are ranking for, you ask? Aside from manually searching for keywords in an incognito browser and seeing what positions your competitors are in, Arel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hrefs allows you to run a number of free reports that show you the top keywords for the domain you enter. This is a quick way to get a sense of the types of terms your competitors are ranking for.

Best Keywords for SEO

Understand that there’s no “best” keywords, just those that are highly searched by your audience. With this in mind, it’s up to you to craft a strategy that will help you rank pages and drive traffic.

The best keywords for your SEO strategy will take into account relevance, authority, and volume. You want to find highly searched keywords that you can reasonably compete for based on:

1. The level of competition you’re up against.
2. Your ability to produce content that exceeds in quality what’s currently ranking.

And You’ve Got the Right Keywords for Your Website SEO

You now have a list of keywords that’ll help you focus on the right topics for your business, and get you some short-term and long-term gains.

Be sure to re-evaluate these keywords every few months — once a quarter is a good benchmark, but some businesses like to do it even more often than that. As you gain even more authority in the SERPs, you’ll find that you can add more and more keywords to your lists to tackle as you work on maintaining your current presence, and then growing in new areas on top of that.

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

Have you ever wasted an entire day in Photoshop?So have I. It’s not like you start out aimlessly. You have a simple goal in mind, like cropping a photo, improving the resolution, or changing the size of the canvas. But then, you see all the options. And before you know it, you’re attempting to solve The Riddle of the Sphinx.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just press a button, and magically, Photoshop would do what you wanted it to do? It turns out there are a wealth of Photoshop shortcuts that do exactly this.

By pressing a few keys on your computer keyboard at the same time, you can select tools, manipulate images and layers, and even make adjustments to your project’s canvas. We’ll show you how to do all of that (and more) in this guide.

Save all of these shortcuts to your desktop by downloading the PDF version here.

Note: All of these shortcuts can be accessed on PC and Mac, but sometimes, they’re different on each operating system. We’ve included both types below, and in the cases where they might be different, Mac instructions appear in italicized parentheses. Also, in these formulas, the plus sign (+) is present only to represent the combination of key commands. On occasion, it might be part of the command itself, like when you press the plus sign to zoom into a part of an image. Otherwise, don’t press the plus sign between commands.

Getting Set Up

You’d think setting up your content in Photoshop would be second nature. But sometimes, the shortcuts to change the background size, or zoom into your project aren’t what you think. Here are some of the most crucial fundamental shortcuts to know:

1. Change image size

Control + Alt + i (Command + Option + i )

2. Change canvas size

Control + Alt + c (Command + Option + c )

3. Zoom in

Control + + (Command + + )

4. Zoom out

Control + – (Command + – )

5. Scale Proportionately

Hold the shift key while selecting the object

6. Scale in place (from center of the object)

Hold shift + option while selecting the object

7. Show Rulers

Control + r (Command + r)

8. Show or hide the grid (the automatically-generated horizontal and vertical lines that help align objects to the canvas.)

Control + ‘ (Command + ‘ )

Choosing the Right Tools

These shortcuts will activate different groups of tools, like “Lasso,” “Brush,” or “Spot Healing Brush.” Within these tools, though, there are different functions. Under the “Magic Wand” tool group, for example, you have the option to execute a new selection or add and subtract from a current one.

Each one of these tools has a keyboard shortcut, and we’ve outlined some of them below.

9. Pointer, a.k.a. Move Tool

v

10. Magic Wand

w

11. Rectangular Marquee, a.k.a. the Select Tool

m

12. Lasso

l

13. Eyedropper

i

14. Crop

c

15. Eraser

e

16. Rectangle

u

17. Horizontal Type

t

18. Brush

b

19. History Brush

y

20. Spot Healing Brush

j

21. Gradient

g

22. Path Selection

a

23. Hand

h

24. Rotate View

r

25. Pen

p

26. Clone Stamp

s

27. Dodge

o

28. Zoom Tool

z

29. Default Foreground and Background Colors

d

30. Switch Foreground and Background Colors

x

31. Edit in Quick Mask Mode

q

32. Change Screen Mode

x

33. Full Screen

f

Using the Brush Tool

With the brush settings, you can change the size, shape, and transparency of your brush strokes to achieve a number of different visual effects. To use these keyboard shortcuts, first select the Brush tool by pressing b.

34. Select previous or next brush style

, or .

35. Select the first or last brush style used

Shift + , or .

36. Display precise crosshair for brushes

Caps Lock or Shift + Caps Lock (Caps Lock)

37. Toggle airbrush option

Shift + Alt + p (Shift + Option + p)

Using the Marquee Tool (for Slicing/Selecting)

When used correctly, the marquee tool will let you select individual elements, entire graphics, and determine what is copied, cut, and pasted into your graphics. To use these keyboard shortcuts, first select the Marquee tool by pressing m.

38. Toggle between Slice tool and Slice Selection tool

Control (Command)

39. Draw square slice

Shift + drag

40. Draw from center outward

Alt + drag (Option + drag)

41. Draw square slice from center outward

Shift + alt + drag (Shift + option + drag)

42. Reposition the slice while creating the slice

Spacebar + drag

Using Different Blending Options

Blending options include a number of features to enhance the look of your graphic. You can always choose a blending option by going to the top menu bar, under Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options. Or, you can double-click any layer to bring up the options for that particular layer.

Once you open blending options, you can use keyboard shortcuts to select them without moving your mouse. To use the shortcuts, select the Move tool (“v”), and then select the layer you’d like to use the blending options on. Below are some of the most popular modes.

43. Cycle through blending modes

Shift + + or –

44. Normal mode

Shift + Alt + n (Shift + Option + n)

45. Dissolve

Shift + Alt + i (Shift + Option + i)

46. Darken

Shift + Alt + k (Shift + Option + k)

47. Lighten

Shift + Alt + g (Shift + Option + g)

48. Multiply

Shift + Alt + m (Shift + Option + m)

49. Overlay

Shift + Alt + o (Shift + Option + o)

50. Hue

Shift + Alt + u (Shift + Option + u)

51. Saturation

Shift + Alt + t (Shift + Option + t)

52. Luminosity

Shift + Alt + y (Shift + Option + y)

For more niche blending shortcuts, check out these tips from Adobe.

Manipulating Layers & Objects

If you want to modify an object or get complex with multiple layers, here are some shortcuts you might like to know:

 

Click to Enlarge

53. Select all objects

Control + a (Command + a )

54. Deselect all objects

Control + d (Command + d )

55. Select the inverse of the selected objects

Shift + Control + i (Shift + Command + i )

56. Select all layers

Control + Alt + a (Command + Option + a)

57. Merge all layers

Control + Shift + E (Command + Shift + e)

58. Select top layer

Alt + . (Option + .)

59. Select bottom layer

Alt + , (Option + ,)

Note: In shortcuts 55-57, the brackets ([ ]) are the keystrokes in the command, and “OR” refers to the actual word — as in, press one bracket OR the other, not the letters “o” and “r.”

60. Select next layer down or up

Alt + [ OR ] (Option + [ OR ])

61. Move target layer down or up

Control + [ OR ] (Command + [ OR ])

62. Move layer to the bottom or top

Control + Shift + [ OR ] (Command + Shift + [ OR ])

63. Create a new layer

Shift + Control + n (Shift + Command + n)

64. Group selected layers

Control + g (Command + g)

65. Ungroup selected layers

Control + Shift + g (Command + Shift + g)

66. Merge and flatten selected layers

Control + e (Command + e)

67. Combine all layers into a new layer on top of the other layers

Control + Shift + Alt + e (Command + Shift + Option + e)

Note: This step gets you one, combined layer, with all elements of that layer in separate layers below — which is different from a traditional merge-and-flatten layers command.

68. Transform your object (includes resizing and rotating)

Control + t (Command + t)

69. Multiple Undos

Control + Alt + z (Command + Option + z)

And Finally — Save Your Work for Later

Congratulations — you’ve finished working on your project, and now, you’re ready to share it with the world. Save time-saving your project by using these simple shortcuts:

70. Save as

Control + Shift + s (Command + Shift + s)

71. Save for web and devices

Control + Shift + Alt + s (Command + Shift + Option + s)

With every campaign comes specific goals advertisers want to achieve. For some, it’s brand awareness. For others, it’s increased website traffic.

But what if your goal is to reach audiences who are already prime to take action? With Google Discover ads, you can reach them – up to 3 billion of them to be exact.

Let’s dive into what Google Discovery ads are, how they work, and how to set one up today.

Using customer intent signals, Google uses machine learning to determine when users are most likely to engage with a brand. According to Google, brands should use it to:

• Scale their conversions.
• Reach new customers.
• Reconnect with previous customers.

Another thing that sets Google Discovery ads apart from other campaigns is the limited campaign settings. Advertisers cannot adjust:

• Ad rotation
• Frequency capping
• Delivery method
• Device targeting
• Placement targeting
• Contextual targeting
• Manual bid strategies

This campaign type offers automated campaign settings for bidding and targeting so that advertisers can focus on optimizing campaign performance.

Discovery Ads vs. Display Ads

The key difference in these ads is who they’re reaching and where.

Discovery ads reach those exhibiting high-intent behavior, as determined by Google’s algorithms. For instance, they’re great for ecommerce businesses looking to acquire new consumers and introduce their audiences to products and/or services.

Display ads, on the other hand, are not always meant to drive this type of action. In addition, display ads deliver ads in the Google Display Network whereas Discovery ads are only on Google feeds.

To launch a Discovery campaign, you first have to gather your creative assets, such as your copy, images, and logo. Next, you need a daily budget high enough to cover at least 10 times your target CPA bid.

Then, you’ll need to enable sitewide tagging in your ad account along with conversion tracking. Lastly, you must review and ensure you comply with Google’s personalized ad policies.

Once you’ve completed these key steps, you can start setting up your campaign.

Step 1: Set up a Google Discover ad campaign.

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.

2. Click ‘Campaigns’ located on the left of the page menu.

3. Click the ‘+’ button, then select ‘New campaign.’

4. Choose your marketing objective.

5. Click on the ‘Discovery campaign’ type.

6. Select ‘Continue.’

7. Pick your geographic and language targeting for this campaign.

8. Select your audiences.

   1. You can choose between customer intent, your data (i.e. remarketing list), and in-market audiences.

9. Set your bidding strategy and average daily budget.

10. Click ‘Save and continue.’

11. Click ‘Save.’

After setting up your campaign, the next step is setting up your single-image ad and multi-image carousel ad.

Step 2: Upload your creative assets.

There are two formats available for Discovery campaigns: single-image ads and multi-image carousel ads.

For this campaign, you must upload multiple versions of some assets, as Google will create different combinations to optimize your campaigns, such as:

• Headlines – You must upload between three to five headlines up to 40 characters each.
• Description – You can have anywhere from one to five descriptions up to 90 characters.
• Business name, CTA, and Final URL – You can only have one of each.
• Images – You must have at least one landscape image, one square image, and a square logo, with a maximum file size of 5MB.

For additional information on asset requirements for Discovery ads, click here.

Here are the steps to upload your creative assets:

1. Log into your Google Ads account.

2. Click on “Campaigns” and select your Discovery campaign.

3. On the left page menu, click on “Ads & Extensions.”

4. Click on the “+” icon then select “Discovery ad” or “Discovery Carousel ad.”

5. Upload.

Step 3: Undergo the “Learning” period.

Once your campaign goes live, you must allow two weeks for Google Ads to optimize your bids.

During this time frame, you may see the label “Learning” next to your bid strategy status. This is an indication that you should avoid making any bidding changes and assess once that time expires.

Google Discovery Ad Examples

Gmail Feed

One place Discovery ads will show up is in Gmail. When you navigate to the “Promotions” or “Social” tabs, you may see ads like this:

Once you click on one of the ads, it will open up like an email and show details on the offer from the brand – as shown below.

YouTube Home Feed

Another place you’ll find Discovery ads is in the YouTube app.

As you scroll down the “Home” tab, you will likely see ads like these with the yellow “Ad” indicator.

Google App Discover

Have the Google app downloaded on your device? You may see Discovery ads if you have the “Discover” feature turned on.

The Discover feeds offers personalized content to users based on their web history, interests, and saved items. Here’s an example of an ad on the app:

One thing to note about the Discover feed is that it’s unavailable to consumers in Germany, Australia, and France. As a result, those consumers also won’t see ads like these in their Google App.

Google Discovery Ads is Google’s latest tool to help advertisers reach their target audience. As always, be sure to experiment and optimize your campaigns.

Whether you want that job promotion or to sidestep into a new field, you’ll need to commit to learning new skills. One of the best ways you can do that is by taking free online courses.

Blog posts and podcasts are great starting points for exploring a particular topic. But online business courses will provide you with the time and space you need to explore a topic in depth and truly master a new skill. Plus, most courses are made up of on-demand videos and exercises that you can progress through at your own pace.

Below, we’ve gathered the best free online business courses. These cover the main business skills you’ll need to advance in today’s rapidly changing workplace — from digital marketing and coding to selling, managing conflicts, and more. Keep reading to become an expert in whatever subject you feel can best help you succeed.

If you’d prefer, click on one of the following topics to jump straight to courses regarding that topic in particular:

• Best Free Online Courses Overall
• Fundamental Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• SEM
• Sales
• Ecommerce
• Coding
• Personal & Professional Development
• Design
• Business & Finance
• Writing
• Communication
• Entrepreneurship
• Humanities
• Languages

Free Online Courses

Learning new skills can be both time-consuming and challenging. In fact, according to Josh Kaufman, international bestselling author of The Personal MBA, it takes 20 hours to go from knowing nothing about a particular subject to being pretty good at it. Of course, if you want to become an expert, that takes even longer.

Online courses allow you to get a head-start on the fundamental skills you need to grow in your career or switch to a new field. Here are the absolute best ones:

• Fundamental Marketing: Inbound Marketing Certification by HubSpot Academy
• Content Marketing: Content Marketing Certification by HubSpot Academy
• Social Media Marketing: Social Media Marketing Course by HubSpot Academy
• Email Marketing: Cold Email Masterclass by Mailshake
• SEM: Google Ads by Google Skillshop
• Sales: Inbound Sales Certification by HubSpot Academy
• Ecommerce: How to Start a Dropshipping Business by Shopify Academy
• Coding: Intro to HTML and CSS by Udacity
• Personal & Professional Development: Conquering the Fear of Public Speaking by Udemy
• Design: Graphic Design Course by HubSpot Academy
• Business & Finance: The Fundamentals of Business by Smartly
• Writing: Good with Words: Writing and Editing by University of Michigan
• Communication: Communication Skills – Persuasion and Motivation by Alison
• Entrepreneurship: How to Build a Startup by Udacity
• Humanities: Introduction to Digital Humanities by Harvard University
• Languages: Basic Spanish 1: Getting Started by the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia

Ready to start developing your skills? Let’s take a look at the best courses below.

Free Fundamental Marketing Courses

1. Inbound Marketing Certification by HubSpot Academy

Length: 4-5 Hours

From attracting leads to engaging prospects and delighting customers, this course covers the fundamentals of what inbound marketing is all about. It’s ideal for new graduates who’d like to go into marketing or for any experienced professional who’s considering shifting into a marketing career. It will give you the foundational knowledge you need to move into any marketing job.

Recommended for:

• New marketing professionals
• Experienced non-marketing professionals shifting into marketing

2. Build Your Web Presence by Google Digital Garage

Length: 30-60 Minutes

Learn the basics of websites, local business listings, review sites, social media, mobile apps, and more. This course is a helpful introduction to making your business visible online without delving too deeply into the specifics. We recommend it for small business owners and marketers just starting out in their careers.

Recommended for:

• Small business owners
• New marketing professionals at small businesses

3. Google Analytics for Beginners by Google Analytics Academy

Length: 4-6 Hours

This course shows new Google Analytics users how to create an account, implement a tracking code, and set up data filters. You’ll learn how to navigate the Google Analytics interface and reports, and set up dashboards and shortcuts. We recommend this course for both beginner and advanced marketers who need a refresher on Google Analytics or need more advanced instruction.

Recommended for:

• Marketing professionals at every level

Free Content Marketing Courses

4. Content Marketing Certification by HubSpot Academy

Length: 6-7 Hours

Power your business with remarkable content. This course will teach you how storytelling, content creation, repurposing, and promotion come together to build a content marketing machine that grows your business, and your career. While every professional will benefit from taking the content marketing certification course, it’s especially recommended for new content writers and content managers.

Recommended for:

• New content marketers, content writers, and content managers
• Experienced non-marketing professionals moving into a content marketing role

5. Viral Marketing and How to Create Contagious Content by Coursera

Length: 4-5 Hours

Ever wondered why some things become popular, while other things don’t? This course explains how things catch on, and can help you apply those ideas to become a more effective marketer. This is a good course to take if you feel your marketing efforts aren’t yielding the results you want or aren’t becoming as widespread as you’d like.

While individual contributors would benefit from taking this course, marketing managers who have a hand on ideation and strategy would most benefit from the knowledge they gain.

Recommended for:

• Mid- and senior-level marketers with a hand on strategy and ideation
• Brand managers of all levels

6. Online Video Marketing Course by HubSpot Academy

Length: 2 Hours

This online video marketing training will teach you how to get started with online video marketing to better attract, engage, and delight your audience. It’s an excellent course for individual contributors with a hand on video creation and content creation. Managers would also benefit from taking the first course, “How to Create a Successful Video Marketing Strategy,” if they’ve not yet established a video marketing strategy.

Recommended for:

• Video and content marketers getting started with video marketing
• Marketing managers who want to start a video marketing strategy

Free Social Media Marketing Courses

7. Social Media Marketing Course by HubSpot Academy

Length: 4-5 Hours

This course provides you with everything you need to build a social media strategy — including tools to help you attract new customers, build loyalty, and shape a positive conversation around your business. It’s a great fit for marketers of all levels who need a strong foundation on social media marketing.

Recommended for:

• Marketers of all levels delving into social media marketing
• Business owners who want to create a social media marketing strategy

Once you’ve completed this overarching social media marketing course, you can then jump into the following channel-specific courses.

• Facebook Marketing (~1.5 Hours): Facebook is a huge platform, ripe with marketing opportunity. Learn how to develop an effective marketing strategy using Facebook that covers all the bases.
• Twitter for Business Marketing (~2 Hours): You know Twitter beyond the basics, and now it’s time to bump it up a notch. In this course, you’ll learn the advancements in building and launching a successful Twitter marketing strategy.
• Instagram Marketing (~2.5 Hours): An Instagram marketing and advertising strategy is one of the most powerful ways to connect with customers and drive marketing impact. This course takes you from the beginning to the end of planning an Instagram marketing strategy.
• YouTube Marketing (1.5-2 Hours): HubSpot’s course in YouTube Marketing is an in-depth, expansive set of tools and lessons that offer successful strategies to grow a monetized, optimized YouTube channel. It’s ideal for social media managers and anyone who would be creating videos for your company’s YouTube channel.

8. Introduction to Social Media Strategy by Skillshare

Length: 30-60 Minutes

Whether you’re looking to foster brand awareness, increase website traffic, or drive sales, this course can teach you how to craft a social media strategy to achieve your goals on Facebook and Twitter. From finding your voice to buying paid advertising, this course walks you through a proven process for creating custom social strategies. It’s ideal for new marketers who need a quick refresher or overview.

Note: Skillshare offers community members free access to its courses for 14 days — you’ll need to sign up as a member to access the class for free.

Recommended for:

• Marketers of all levels delving into social media marketing
• Business owners who want to create a social media marketing strategy

9. Video Storytelling for Social Media by Social Creators

Length: 5 Days

This crash course is set up like a challenge. The goal? Help you make high-quality videos with your iPhone or Android device so you can start vlogging and share engaging videos on your social media accounts. It’s ideal if you’re planning to market your brand or business over video-based channels such as Instagram or TikTok, and it’s specially a good fit if you don’t want to spend money on expensive video gear.

Recommended for:

• Video marketers and content creators wanting to create storytelling videos
• Freelance bloggers and content creators wanting to create more videos

10. How to Create an Instagram Content Plan by Later

Length: 1-1.5 Hours

This video series is a great introduction to the Instagram world. You’ll learn how to gain more followers, build a community, and create content that drives true engagement. It’s ideal for you if you’re interested in finding influencer partners on Instagram and build a visual identity.

Recommended for:

• Marketers at small businesses without an Instagram strategy
• Freelance bloggers and online content creators

11. Free Social Media Analytics Course for Beginners by Quintly

Length: 10-11 Hours

This class will cover the basic principles of social media analytics, and is helpful both for beginners and for marketers who want to refresh their knowledge. It aims to help anybody involved in social media analytics, whether you’re working for a brand, an agency, or the media. We highly recommend this course for new social media marketing managers who don’t know how to measure analytics for their company’s social channels.

Recommended for:

• New social media marketing managers who are unfamiliar with social media analytics
• Any marketer who’s interested in specializing in social media marketing

12. Twitter Flight School by Twitter

Length: Various

Twitter Flight School isn’t so much as a course as it is a school for both advanced and beginner Twitter marketers. Whether you’re a social media coordinator or the director of social media marketing at an enterprise firm, Twitter Flight School’s courses will help you build the knowledge and skills you need to scale and improve your Twitter marketing strategy.

The courses have been designed to help you level up your expertise with advertising on Twitter, so that you can succeed. We don’t recommend it if you’re not planning to extensively use Twitter as a marketing channel.

Recommended for:

• New and experienced social media professionals who are planning to use Twitter extensively
• Any marketer or professional who wants to specialize in Twitter marketing

Free Email Marketing Courses

13. Cold Email Masterclass by Mailshake

Length: Self-Paced

Whether you use cold emails to connect with influencers, build your personal brand, find mentors, or grow your network, there’s no underestimating their power. Sujan Patel reveals eight lessons that will show you how to turn theory into practice, tapping into existing cold email best practices and deploying them in a way that’s both efficient and effective.

It’s not applicable just to cold emails, either. You can use the course to learn email writing best practices that will serve you as you market to leads and prospects who’ve subscribed to your email list.

Recommended for:

• Any marketer or professional who’s planning to email leads or other professionals in their network
• Any professional who wants to improve their cold emailing skills

14. Email Marketing Certification by HubSpot Academy

Length: ~3.5 Hours

Email marketing is a necessity to learn. By completing HubSpot’s course, you’ll walk away with expansive knowledge in all things email marketing, from templates to testing, as well as a certification to add to your resume. This is an excellent follow-up to the Cold Email Masterclass, allowing you to specialize specifically in email marketing. You’ll learn to segment your user base and optimize email deliverability rates.

Recommended for:

• Marketers of all levels who are planning to do email marketing

Free SEM Courses

15. Google Ads by Google Skillshop

Length: Various

If you don’t know where to start with Google’s ad products, Google’s Skillshop for Google Ads may be for you. You’ll figure out where to get started in mini, bite-sized lessons or jump straight into the certification process. Topics include programmatic ads, search ads, discovery ads, and video ads. If you already have experience with Google Ads, you can forgo taking the courses and instead apply your existing knowledge using a series of exercises.

Recommended for:

• Marketers of all levels who want to further their knowledge or practice their existing Google Ads knowledge
• Business owners who want to learn how to set up Google Ads

16. SEO Certification Course by HubSpot Academy

Length: 2-3 Hours

Interested in building traffic, but unsure about a successful strategy? Our SEO crash course eliminates the pains of navigating a concrete SEO strategy and provides you with the tools to implement a winning one. Because it starts from a basic starting point, we recommend it for beginner marketers only. If you’ve been in a digital marketing role for a few years, chances are you’re familiar with most of this information.

Recommended for:

• New marketers who want to learn the basics of SEO and improve their SEO skills
• Experienced non-marketing professionals who want to learn SEO

Free Sales Courses

17. Inbound Sales Certification by HubSpot Academy

Length: 2-2.5 Hours

In this certification course, you’ll learn how to grow your sales pipeline, close more leads, and grow your career. It’s ideal for new sales professionals or experienced salespeople who need a refresher or formal training in core sales skills.

Recommended for:

• New and aspiring salespeople
• Experienced sales professionals who need a refresher in sales fundamentals

Once you complete this initial certification, you can then dive into more specific topics such as sales enablement and management training.

• Sales Enablement Certification (Length: 4-5 Hours): In this self-paced online course and exam, you’ll learn how to align marketing and sales for optimal efficiency. You’ll learn to bridge the gap between marketing and sales teams with strategies and tactics from sales leaders.
• Sales Management Training (Length: 3 Hours): Learn how to define your target market, create a scalable sales process, and build training, coaching, hiring, and on-boarding programs to help your sales team grow.

18. The Art of Sales: Mastering the Selling Process Specialization by Northwestern University

Length: 6 Months

This course is designed to make you more effective and efficient as you pursue your sales goals. Understand how to stand out in the crowd, attract customers, and build support for initiatives within your company. Plus, the most important art in sales is knowing how to get a “yes.” This course teaches this, as well as methods to improve efficiency as a salesperson.

Recommended for:

• Sales managers who want to improve the performance of their sales team
• Experienced salespeople looking to level-up their skills

19. The SMART Sales System by SalesScripter

Length: 16-18 Hours

This program is designed to give you a strategy-backed process. It covers building a value proposition, asking the right questions, closing more effectively, and more. You’ll sell more, and even better — selling will become more fun. After you’ve watched all of the videos in the training course, you’ll have an overview of the most important topics in sales.

Recommended for:

• New sales professionals trying to get a high-level overview of the most important sales topics
• Sales managers who want to level-up their team

Free Ecommerce Courses

20. How to Start a Dropshipping Business by Shopify Academy

Length: 1.5-2 Hours

Dropshipping is a business model where you don’t keep any products in stock at your own warehouses, but rather ship them directly from the manufacturers’ or suppliers’ warehouses. It’s one of the best ways to start an ecommerce business with few overhead and startup costs. In this course, Corey Ferreira shares his methods for finding a product to sell, testing its popularity, and building an unforgettable brand.

Recommended for:

• Anyone who’d like to start an ecommerce business with a dropshipping model

21. Product Photography for Ecommerce by Shopify Academy

Length: 2 Hours

In this course, you’ll learn how to set up your own home studio and take product photos with your smartphone or digital SLR. This is an ideal course for anyone who’s planning to sell the products they make in their online store. If you’re starting a dropshipping business, you can skip taking this course.

Recommended for:

• Ecommerce sellers who need photos of the products they sell
• Marketers at small ecommerce businesses

22. Ecommerce Marketing Training by HubSpot Academy

Length: 30-60 Minutes

If you work for an ecommerce business and want to implement an inbound marketing strategy, this is a good course for you. In this short crash course, you’ll learn the basics of selling more online, and how that fits into an inbound strategy. We recommend taking this course once you’ve got the basics down, such as how to run a dropshipping business.

Recommended for:

• Ecommerce sellers who want to grow their business

23. Email Marketing for Ecommerce by MailChimp

Length: ~30 Minutes

Learn how to use automation, optimization, and personalization to boost your business through email. Once you’ve got the leads from your ecommerce website, it’s time to nurture them through email marketing. This course will run through the entire process. Due to its inclusion of advanced marketing topics such as A/B testing and segmentation, we recommend it for experienced marketers at an ecommerce retailer.

Recommended for:

• Experienced marketers working at ecommerce businesses
• Freelance marketers with ecommerce clients

Free Coding & Developer Courses

24. Intro to HTML and CSS by Udacity

Length: ~3 Weeks

In this course, you’ll learn the fundamentals of HTML and CSS, two core web development languages, along with best practices and professional problem-solving techniques using Developer Tools. This online coding lesson offers easy-to-follow instructions, interactive quizzes, and a tested curriculum that can help anyone learn how to code.

Recommended for:

• Marketers, salespeople, and freelancers wanting to learn HTML and CSS

Udacity offers a variety of other courses that can teach you to code. Once you’ve covered HTML and CSS, you can then dive into:

• Intro to JavaScript (Length: ~2 Weeks): After HTML and CSS, JavaScript is an essential language to learn if you’re planning to create high-performing websites. Udacity’s Intro to JavaScript course will cover all the basics you need to know.
• Intro to Python Programming (Length: ~5 Weeks): Get to grips with key computer science concepts in this introductory Python course. You’ll learn by doing, and will build your own search engine and social network.
• Self-Driving Fundamentals: Featuring Apollo (Length: ~4 Weeks): Through this course, you’ll be able to identify key parts of self-driving cars and get to know Apollo architecture. You’ll be able to utilize Apollo HD Map, localization, perception, prediction, planning, and control, and start the learning path of building a self-driving car. We recommend taking this course for fun.

25. Learn Java by Codecademy

Length: 25 Hours

Codecademy offers an excellent repository of coding courses. If you didn’t like Udemy’s HTML and CSS class, we highly recommend learning it from Codeacademy instead. One of the languages you can learn is Java, which can be used to create web applications, software-as-a-service products, and mobile apps.

Because it’s a more advanced programming topic, we only recommend it if you’re planning to start a computer science career or develop your own web app or SaaS.

Recommended for:

• Any professional who’s interested in shifting into a developer role or code their own app

26. Introduction to iOS App Development, Xcode, and Interface Builder by Devslopes

Length: 10-15 Hours

This iPhone app development course will give you all you need to create your very own iOS app from the ground up. You’ll specifically learn how to create an app using XCode, Apple’s iOS app builder, and Interface Builder, which is a feature within Xcode. With clear video tutorials that are easy to follow, this course will get you up-to-date with the latest in iPhone app development trends.

Recommended for:

• Any professional who’s interested in coding their own iOS app

27. Algorithms, Part I by Princeton University

Length: ~53 Hours

This course by Princeton University covers the essential information that every serious programmer needs to know about algorithms and data structures, with emphasis on applications and scientific performance analysis of Java implementations. Because algorithms are a more advanced coding topic, we only recommend it if you’re planning to shift into a programming career. If that doesn’t sound like you, start with Udemy’s HTML and CSS course instead.

Recommended for:

• Any professional who’s interested in shifting into a programming career

28. Machine Learning by Stanford University

Length: ~60 Hours

The description of this course reads, “Machine learning is the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed.” In other words, machine learning allows computers to act based on prior user input. Speech recognition and self-driving cars are examples of machine learning. If you want to create a web or mobile application that uses machine learning to improve the user experience, we recommend this course. This is an advanced coding topic that’s only recommended for current programmers.

Recommended for:

• Programmers who want to get foundational knowledge in machine learning

Free Personal & Professional Development Courses

29. Conquering the Fear of Public Speaking by Udemy

Length: 30-60 Minutes

We all fear public speaking — or, at the very least, feel a measure of anxiety whenever we have to give a speech or a presentation. This course will teach you techniques to overcome the fear of public speaking, as well as how to avoid feeling nervous before speaking publicly. It’s a short course, too.

Recommended for:

• Anyone who wants to overcome the fear of public speaking

30. Learning How to Learn: Powerful Mental Tools to Help You Master Tough Subjects by Deep Teaching Solutions

Length: ~15 Hours

Whether you’re a student or a young professional, learning how to digest and access information is a key skill to succeed at both school and work. This delightfully “meta” course teaches you how to learn new subjects and retain information.

Recommended for:

• Students of all levels who want to get better at retaining information
• Professionals of all levels who want to learn how to retain information

31. Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills by University of Michigan

Length: ~17 Hours

In this course created by the University of Michigan, you’ll learn about and practice four key steps to a successful negotiation. While negotiation skills may be most often used at work, and specifically during a sales call or prior to signing an employment contract, it can also be used in your day-to-day and personal interactions.

Recommended for:

• Professionals of all levels

32. The Manager’s Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Managing People at Work by University of London

Length: ~29 Hours

This course gives you a practical guide to managing people at work. It doesn’t matter whether you are a first-time manager in a shop or a middle manager in an office environment — the same skills apply to every workplace.

Recommended for:

• Mid- to senior-level professionals moving into a managerial role

33. Career Success Specialization by University of California, Irvine

Length: ~2 Hours / Week (11 Months)

This series of courses will teach you project management skills, communication skills, time management skills, and financial skills — all of which are needed to succeed in today’s workforce. You’ll also learn business writing and negotiation skills. We recommend it for new graduates or anyone who’s still in college.

Recommended for:

• New college grads or current college students

34. The Science of Happiness by University of California, Berkeley

Length: 4-5 Hours / Week (11 Weeks)

Feeling down because of the pandemic? We’re right there with you. This course by UC Berkeley will walk you through the concept of happiness from a scientific and psychological standpoint, and give you practical tips for boosting happiness when you’re feeling blue.

Recommended for:

• Anyone who’d like to improve their happiness in work and life

35. The Science of Wellbeing by Yale University

Length: ~19 Hours

The purpose of this course is to not only learn what psychological research says about what makes us happy, but also to put those strategies into practice. It’s an excellent follow-up to UC Berkeley’s course above. It’ll help you rewire the way you think about happiness.

Recommended for:

• Anyone who’d like to improve their happiness in work and life

Free Design Courses

36. Graphic Design Course by HubSpot Academy

Length: 30-60 Minutes

Need to become a graphic designer in less than an hour? This course by HubSpot Academy offers basic concepts in graphic design to create designs that accurately represent your brand. You can then translate these concepts to any tool of your choosing, including Adobe Illustrator, Canva, and even PowerPoint.

Recommended for:

• Non-design professionals who need to learn the basics of graphic design

37. Learn Adobe Illustrator From Scratch by EduOnix

Length: 10-11 Hours

Adobe Illustrator is one of the best tools you can use for your graphic design projects. In this course by EduOnix, you’’ll learn how to master Adobe Illustrator with real world examples. We only recommend it if you have an active Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.

Recommended for:

• Designers who need to learn how to use Adobe Illustrator quickly

Free Business & Finance Courses

38. The Fundamental of Business by Smartly

Length: 2-3 Hours / Week (6-8 Weeks)

Designed with input from business professors, Smartly’s Fundamentals of Business course combines a self-guided software approach with collaborative online case studies and group projects. It’s a flexible yet structured course for the modern professional who wants to learn the basics of business.

Recommended for:

• Early-career professionals who want to start a business or move into executive roles

31. Stock Market Investing for Beginners by Udemy

Length: 1.5-2 Hours

Learn the basics of the stock market through comprehensive, interesting, and fun lectures. This is an essential course for anyone who’d like to invest and diversify their portfolio.

Recommended for:

• Anyone who wants to start investing

32. Corporate Finance by New York University

Length: Self-Paced

New York University’s Corporate Finance course is a big-picture class. It looks at the financial principles that govern how businesses raise funds, invest those funds in assets and projects, and return those funds to investors. This would be a helpful course for both entrepreneurs and professionals considering starting a career in corporate finance.

Recommended for:

• Entrepreneurs
• Professionals moving into executive roles
• Professionals interested in shifting into corporate finance

Free Writing Online Courses

33. Good with Words: Writing and Editing by University of Michigan

Length: 18-20 Hours

Good with Words: Writing and Editing prepares you to write strong prose from a grammatical, technical, and syntactical standpoint. This is an excellent option for anyone who’d like to strengthen their writing skills without necessarily diving into additional topics such as marketing or essay writing. It’s a great foundational course for any type of writing discipline, including fiction writing.

To take this course for free, click the “Enroll for Free” button. In the pop-up, click “Audit the course.” This will give you the option to view the course materials without paying for the certificate.

Recommended for:

• Any professional who writes emails, social posts, articles, and web pages in their role

34. Business Blogging by HubSpot Academy

Length: 2 Hours

Business blogging is more than just writing and publishing content in the hopes you’ll attract customers. In this course, you’ll learn how to craft a blogging strategy that drives business growth, create quality blog content that customers love, and build a guest blogging strategy that’s powered by SEO.

Recommended for:

• Mid- to senior-level marketers who have a hand on their company’s marketing strategy

Free Communication Online Courses

35. Communication Skills – Persuasion and Motivation by NPTEL

Length: 1.5-3 Hours

This course will introduce you to essential communication skills that aid persuasion, guide you through the differences between persuasion and manipulation, and show you how to use strong communication to motivate the people around you. These abilities will be a great boost for both your professional and personal relationships.

Recommended for:

• Anyone who’d like to improve their communication skills

36. Conflict Management Specialization by University of California, Irvine

Length: 4 Months

With this series of courses by the University of California Irvine, you’ll learn listening skills, verbal and non-verbal communication skills, and how to assemble a conflict management plan likely to yield positive resolutions. While anyone would benefit from taking this course, it’s specially recommended for professionals in people-management roles.

Recommended for:

• Mid- to senior-level professionals who manage teams or other people
• Anyone who’d like to improve their conflict management skills

Free Entrepreneurship Online Courses

37. How to Build a Startup by Udacity

Length: ~1 Month

In this course, Steve Blank provides insight into the key steps needed to build a successful start-up. You’ll learn the various types of business models, the parts of a value proposition, the concept of customer segmentation, and more. This is a top-to-bottom course that will give you the foundations you need for starting a business.

Recommended for:

• First-time entrepreneurs

38. Business Strategy Specialization by University of Virginia

Length: ~6 Months

Develop your ability to think strategically, analyze your competition, recommend a positioning strategy, and create value. In this course, you’ll explore the underlying theory and foundation of a successful business strategy, and gain the tools you need to understand that strategy.

Recommended for:

• Entrepreneurs with an existing business they’d like to grow

39. Marketing Fundamentals: Who Is Your Customer? by Babson College

Length: 3-4 Weeks

Marketing Fundamentals: Who Is Your Customer? will help you discover how to acquire the right customers and grow your startup business. While it’s branded as a marketing course, it’s designed for entrepreneurs who don’t know how to begin marketing their new product or service, and who want to understand their target market. That said, it’s also a great course to take if you’re interested in going into marketing.

Recommended for:

• Entrepreneurs without a marketing background
• Professionals with an interest in marketing

Free Humanities Online Courses

40. Introduction to Digital Humanities by Harvard University

Length: ~7 Weeks

The term “humanities” encompasses a wide variety of disciplines and fields. Regardless of your favorite humanities subject, learning how to carry out research and visualize the subject using digital tools is essential if you’d like to progress in your career.

Recommended for:

• Any professional who carries out research in the humanities

41. Modern Masterpieces of World Literature by Harvard University

Length: ~8 Weeks

Explore some of the world’s most salient literary masterpieces in Harvard’s Modern Masterpieces of World Literature course. You’ll get a taste not only of the English literary tradition, but of others around the globe, too.

Recommended for:

• Any professional who’s interested in global literature

42. Global History Lab by Princeton University

Length: ~3 Months

If you’re in need of a history course, consider Princeton University’s Global History Lab. We recommend it for beginners who want an overview of history from the 14th century up until now. While the course is sometimes archived, you may be able to access it live and discuss the course materials with other current students.

Recommended for:

• Any professional who’s interested in history

43. Gender and Sexuality: Applications in Society by the University of British Columbia

Length: ~6 Weeks

If you’re interested in studying gender from a theoretical and epistemological standpoint, Gender and Sexuality: Applications in Society is the course you need to take. It will give you an overarching overview of gender and sexuality through a variety of perspectives and lenses.

Recommended for:

• Any professional who’s interested in gender and sexuality

Free Language Online Courses

44. Basic strongish 1: Getting Started by the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia

Length: ~7 Weeks

Learning a new language is always a worthwhile investment, especially if you’re a global marketer or salesperson. This basic strongish course by the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia will help you establish a foundation for further learning.

Recommended for:

• Any professional who’s planning to use strongish at work or for leisure

45. Mandarin Chinese Level 1 by MandarinX

Length: ~6 Weeks

If you’re planning to expand your business into the Asian market, then learning Mandarin is key, given that Mandarin is the most spoken language in Asia. It’s also a popular language for business. Mandarin Chinese Level 1 will give you the foundation you need to take more advanced Mandarin courses.

Recommended for:

• Any professional who’s planning to use Mandarin at work or for leisure

46. Getting Started with French 1 by The Open University

Length: ~6 Weeks

Have you been wanting to learn French? Getting Started with French 1 will teach you the basic phrases you need to interact with others in a French-speaking environment. We highly recommend taking all of the courses in this series as a precursor for more advanced language study.

Recommended for:

• Any professional who’s planning to use French at work or for leisure

Learning is an investment that continues to pay.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”

That’s never been truer than it is today. With new technologies emerging at breakneck speeds, there’s a palpable pressure to continuously upskill.

We hope you found the online business courses you need for the next step in your career — whether you’re looking for a promotion or a sidestep into an entirely new field.

Whatever your reason, learning new skills will give you a competitive advantage in today’s rapidly changing workplace. Plus, the more you invest in your learning, the better you’ll grow.

If you’re looking for one single place to learn how to take your career to the next level and/or grow your business, check out HubSpot Academy. It contains tons of free certified courses on everything from inbound and content marketing to social media and sales.

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

Sometimes employees stay at a company for many years, loving the work they do and feeling like they’re exactly where they’re meant to be. Conversely, some employees leave and pursue other opportunities.

Whatever the case is for your business, you likely want to retain all of your employees, whether they’ve been with you for ten years or just started last quarter.

In this post, learn what employee retention is and discover high-impact strategies that will help you satisfy your employees and keep a low retention rate.

What is employee retention?

Employee retention is a business’s ability to keep their employees and reduce employee turnover, which is when employees leave their jobs for other opportunities or reasons.

Increasing employee retention directly impacts business success, as having more employees or the right amount of employees makes it easier to reach business goals.

Employee retention is expressed as a percentage, and below we’ll discuss how it’s measured.

How to Calculate Employee Retention Rate

The formula to calculate your employee retention rate is rather straightforward. You simply divide your total number of remaining employees during a set period by the total number of employees you began with during that same period and multiply the number by 100.

For example, let’s say you began Q1 with 43 employees and finished Q1 with 39 employees. Your equation would look like this:

(39 / 43) x 100

And your employee retention rate would be 90.69%, or 90.7% rounded to the nearest 10th.

Why is employee retention rate important?

Employee retention rate is important because it helps you understand how your business fares in keeping employees and whether or not there need to be improvements to your employee retention strategies.

If your rate tells you that you have lower retention, your business likely spends more money hiring new employees than helping existing employees succeed. In fact, according to Gallup, the cost of replacing employees can range from .5 to 2x times an employee’s annual salary.

How to Improve Employee Retention

Recent HubSpot Data found that marketers reported that they believed that the reasons for high employee turnover were a lack of work-life balance, lack of flexible schedule, or lack of career growth opportunities.

Data Source

Improving employee retention means reducing employee turnover and continuing to meet overall business goals that contribute to success. It usually begins with hiring the right employee and additional strategies we’ll discuss below.

Employee Retention Strategies

1. Use comprehensive hiring practices.

As mentioned above, employee retention often begins by simply hiring the right people. And, the best way to hire the right people is to have a recruitment process that ensures you’re hiring the right people.

It’s best not to subject candidates to a long and drawn-out process as it may send them elsewhere. More so, going through interviewing in a way that helps you best understand the candidate and if they possess the right skills for the role or will be able to develop them on the job.

2. Strive to create supportive work environments.

Employees need to work in environments where they feel supported; a key to retaining employees. Therefore, strive to create an environment where employees flourish and perform to their best abilities.

Some of the best ways to do so are by providing adequate on-the-job training, practicing effective and clear communication, and offering benefits and perks.

3. Provide proper training and development.

Training and development are crucial to employee retention.

If employees aren’t adequately trained for their jobs, they may feel underprepared for their work or as if they aren’t performing well. If employees feel like they can’t do their job, they may pursue opportunities that offer comprehensive onboarding and on-the-job training.

4. Always communicate.

Communication is a pillar of employee retention. When people understand what is expected of them and there are open lines of communication, they’re more likely to feel prepared for their jobs and ask questions if they are confused.

For example, if you’re a people manager, saying “You need to improve next quarter” is less effective than saying, “Next quarter I’d like to see improvement in XYZ areas, and some ways to ensure you’re meeting targets in those areas is to do XYZ.”

Communication is also critical for higher-level executives, as employees want to hear from business leaders about how the business is faring and how their job duties relate to overall success.

5. Offer benefits and perks.  

Benefits and perks are a significant part of employee retention. Offering them shows employees that you genuinely care about their wellbeing, and it can give them a sense of security about their lives. For example, benefits like health insurance ensure employees can find adequate care if they get sick.

Added perks can be fitness discounts, access to corporate deals, or maybe even providing coffee in the workplace. If you’re hoping to include perks directly related to employee desires, ask employees for feedback about what they’re interested in having offered.

6. Create career development plans.

Working with employees to create a path for development at work is a great way to encourage retention. It gives people a goal to work towards and can be a significant motivating factor.

Quarterly, bi-annual, or annual career chats where managers sit down with employees and discuss where they want to be, how they can get there, and what opportunities are open to them is a great way to practice this.

7. Provide effective manager training.

Employees sometimes leave their jobs because they don’t feel supported by their managers. To combat this, ensure that your business invests in effective training for managers so they can effectively support employees and their development.

Effective training also ensures managers are equipped to have tough conversations with employees when necessary, like letting them know that they need to further develop specific skills or make changes to their job processes.

All in all, people want to feel that their managers care about them, and proper training can ensure that this happens.

8. Create internal recognition programs.

A great way for employees to feel seen and appreciated at work is to have internal award programs, where employees are recognized for their hard work. You’ll show employees that you value what they do for your business, and all of their coworkers can be aware of their impact.

In practice, this can look like a peer recognition program where coworkers nominate other team members or a manager nominated award.

9. Support employees in educational endeavors.

One reason employees leave companies is to go back to school and continue their education.

Instead of losing employees, you can consider supporting their educational development while they remain on the job. For example, some companies pay for or reimburse employees for academic courses they complete while still working for the company.

10. Encourage skill development.

You want employees to receive the training they need to succeed at their jobs. Still, you should also encourage employees to develop additional skills that will aid in their professional development. By doing so, employees can progress into new roles within your organization instead of seeking opportunities elsewhere.

For example, say an employee is stuck in a rut where they feel like they already know how to do their job but are desiring to do something more. If there are no opportunities at their current workplace to learn new skills, they may seek an opportunity at another company that will allow them to learn new skills.

Instead, if that employee can develop additional skills while remaining on the job, they may be more likely to stay. For example, employees can propose new projects within their team that will place them outside of their comfort zone and require new skills, or take on a workplace opportunity that requires new skills, like organizing a speaker series and learning about recruiting talent.

11. Show employees how their work affects customers.

A great way to help employees see that their job means something is to ensure they know how their work affects customers. This could look like highlighting customer success stories or case studies where employees can truly see the fruits of their efforts and how a customer has succeeded because of the work they’ve done.

Conversely, when employees don’t feel like their work means something, or they don’t understand how they can help the customer, they may be more likely to pursue an opportunity where they clearly see how they make an impact.

12. Offer fair compensation.

A significant reason employees leave is that they feel they aren’t adequately compensated for their work. Case in point — LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends Report from 2020 found that companies rated highly in providing fair compensation had a 56% lower rate of attrition.

Therefore, a best practice for increasing employee retention is to ensure that you’re fairly compensating employees, starting with baseline salary. You can also consider offering raises, promotions, or taking on new responsibilities.

13. Always provide actionable feedback.

Employees want to understand their performance, so providing feedback is critical. They’ll know areas of high performance, as well as specific skills that need improvement.

Having this feedback shows employees that you care about their performance and how it affects the company. When feedback is actionable, you show that you care about their development and aren’t just instructing them to do better with no additional advice.

Employees that aren’t given feedback are left confused about their performance and unsure if they need to make changes, lacking guidance, and may go somewhere else where they understand more about how they’re fairing.

14. Encourage a proper work-life balance.

Employees who feel they’re expected to be in work mode 24/7 will be stressed and likely develop feelings of burnout. They may also decide to pursue work elsewhere, where they know that it is encouraged to live a life outside of work.

Instead, encourage people to have a work-life balance and set boundaries. For example, maybe you say that people should set time frames in which they will be doing work, and then times where they will put everything aside and pick it up tomorrow.

Promoting this balance can also look like encouraging employees to take time off when necessary or even taking breaks during the workday.

15. Practice effective change management.

All workplaces have to deal with change, and sometimes that change can be unexpected.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an excellent example of practicing effective change management. Millions of people worldwide were suddenly expected to pivot to different working styles, and change management was necessary to prepare workers for these changes and create a smooth transition.

Being able to reassure employees when changes are happening, both big and small, can help assuage any fears and anxieties they may have about doing their jobs. Without this, employees may feel they are being left behind and seek opportunities elsewhere.

16. Always emphasize teamwork.

Rarely do people work in silos, so you should always encourage employees to work together as a team so people feel as though they aren’t working independently to help solve company needs.

Encourage employees to get to know their coworkers, contribute in group settings, and collaborate when necessary. You can also encourage employees to turn to each other for advice and assistance before reaching out to a manager.

17. Offer flexible work options.

LinkedIn’s Global Talent Report names four P’s of employee experience: people, place, product, and process. Place, concerning employee retention, means where people work, whether physically in the office, are remote, or a combination of the two.

This means that a critical aspect of employee retention is offering employees to choose a preferred mode of work, whether that be entirely in-person at an office, a hybrid option between working at home and going into the office, or completely remote.

By doing this, employees can pick a mode of work that speaks best to their needs. For example, some people are caregivers to family and friends, so having the opportunity to work from home and continue to provide care can be the difference between retaining them or losing them to a company with more flexibility.

18. Create an inclusive work environment.

An inclusive workspace is critical to retention, as employees who feel safe and valued in the workplace are more likely to stay within your company.

This means that it’s important to champion diversity, inclusion, and belonging at work so that all individual employees feel recognized, seen, and cared for by your business. You can do things like:

• Create diversity programming,
• Create employee resource groups so employees can connect with others in the workplace that share similar identities,
• Create an inclusive language guide for your business to refer to to ensure that writing is inclusive of everyone.

Companies that don’t practice diversity see its effects in their retention — for example, nearly 50% of people of color have quit a job because of experiencing or witnessing discrimination at work.

Retaining your employees often begins by hiring the right person. But even then, it’s essential to continuously work to make employees feel safe, comfortable, and able to succeed at their jobs.

If you’ve calculated your business’s business retention rate and found that you want to raise it, leverage the tips on this list to begin lowering your turnover rate.

While most social media feeds are distractingly busy,Instagram is different — you can only look at one post at a time. This makes it a great medium for businesses looking to make the most of visual elements.

And while Instagram’s simple, clean interface makes it easy to focus on users’ beautiful photography and interesting videos, it also leaves something to be desired: the ability to easily repost other users’ content. This is a major roadblock when you want to share content your target audience could benefit from.

But fear not: for every problem, the internet has afforded a solution. We tested out four different ways to repost content on Instagram in a few simple steps. All of these methods are free, but some require you to download an app from the iOS App Store or Google Play first.

To repost someone else’s Instagram post, it’s best to obtain permission first to ensure you are not infringing on someone else’s copyright or license. Additionally, giving the creator credit for their work is recommended. Once permissions are squared away, repost using one of the methods below.

The screenshot method doesn’t require other websites to repost on Instagram. It’s worth nothing that this method only works for reposting photos, not videos. Here’s how to do it:

1. Find a photo on Instagram you’d like to repost, and take a screenshot with your phone.

• For iOS: Press down on the home and lock buttons simultaneously until your screen flashes.
• For Android: Press down on the sleep/wake and volume down buttons simultaneously until your screen flashes.

2. Tap the new post button.

Once you’ve got your screenshot, return to your Instagram account. Tap the “new post button” in the top right of your Instagram screen.

Then select post from the drop down menu.

3. Resize the photo in the app.

Keep in mind that your phone will take a screenshot of everything on your screen, not just the photo you want to repost. So, be prepared to crop the sides of the screenshot to capture just the image you want to share with your followers.

After you’ve cropped or resized the photo to your liking, click “next.”

4. Edit and add filters of your choice.

Edit and filter the post like you would any other Instagram post.

5. Add a citation.

The repost won’t include a citation, so we suggest adding one by typing “@ + [username]” to credit the original poster with the photo you’re reposting.

6. Add a caption.

At the top you’ll see a preview of your post along with space for a caption. You can choose to tag people or organizations, and a location.

7. Click share

Once you’ve finished customizing the post with the options above, click share at the top right corner. The post will be live.

Instagram Reposting Apps

In addition to using the screenshot method, you can also use a third party app. The options below are our favorite apps for reposting on Instagram.

Repost: For Instagram

1. Download Repost for Instagram.

Download Repost: For Instagram for iOS or Android. The app integrates directly with Instagram so you can share content from other Instagram users from your mobile device.

2. Identify a photo or video to repost.

Open your Instagram app and find a photo or video you’d like to repost from your own Instagram account. Tap your chosen photo from the original poster’s photo gallery to see its full view, as shown below.

(Psst — do you follow HubSpot on Instagram?)

3. Copy the post’s share URL to your clipboard.

Once you’re on the photo’s or video’s landing page, tap the “…” icon in the upper-righthand corner of the post. Then, tap “Copy Link.”

4. Open Repost: For Instagram.

Once the photo is copied to your phone’s clipboard, open Repost: For Instagram. The post you copied will automatically be on the app’s inbox, as shown below.Tap the arrow on the right hand side of the post. There, you can edit how you want the repost icon to appear on Instagram.

You can choose to copy the original caption to your post or add a new one later.

Tap the arrow icon at the top or “share.” Then, tap the Instagram icon to edit your draft.

5. Edit the post’s caption and share your repost.

Write a caption and click “ok” when finished.

When you’re ready to share the post, tap “share” as you would a regular Instagram post.

Using InstaRepost

1. Download InstaRepost.

Download InstaRepost for Android devices to share content from other Instagram users from your own Instagram account via your mobile device.

2. Give InstaRepost access to your Instagram account.

Open InstaRepost, log in using your Instagram credentials, and authorize it to access photos, friends, and similar content associated with your Instagram account.

3. Use InstaRepost to look up the original poster’s username.

InstaRepost will only show you a small selection from your Instagram feed. If you know what post you’re looking for, tap the magnifying glass icon on the bottom toolbar of the InstaRepost app to access the Explore tab. Enter the username of the person whose photo you want to repost.

Image Source

Image Source

4. Save the photo to your phone’s camera roll.

Once you’ve found a post you want to reshare, tap the arrow in the lower right hand corner. Then, tap “Repost,” then “Repost” again. This will first save the photo to your mobile device’s native camera roll, where you can retrieve it in the Instagram app.

Navigate to your Instagram app and tap “Library.” You’ll see the post saved to your phone’s camera roll. Tap the photo to pull it into Instagram.

5. Add a filter and a citation, and share your repost.

Add a filter and edit the post as you would any other. Then, select “Next” and tap the caption field to paste the original caption. The repost won’t automatically include a citation, so we suggest adding one by typing “@ + [username]” to credit the content’s original poster. Then, press “Share.”

Here’s how the post appears on your Instagram profile:

Using DownloadGram

DownloadGram lets Instagram users download high-resolution copies of Instagram photos and videos to repost from their own accounts. Luckily, there isn’t an app you need to download to repost using this process. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open Instagram and find a photo or video to repost.

Open your Instagram app and find the post you want to repost. Tap the “…” icon in the upper righthand corner of the post and click “Copy Share URL” (this button will be the same for both iOS and Android mobile devices).

2. Paste the post’s share URL into DownloadGram.

Open your mobile internet browser and navigate to DownloadGram — or simply, downloadgram.org. Paste the URL into the text box that appears on the website’s homepage. Then, tap “Download.”

Tap the “Download Image” button that appears further down DownloadGram’s homepage.

3. Download the post.

You’ll be directed to a new webpage with the content ready to download. Tap the download icon — the box with an upward-facing arrow, as shown below — then tap “save image.”

4. Open Instagram and find the photo or video in your camera roll.

Return to your Instagram app. The image will be saved to your phone’s native camera roll, so edit it as you would any other Instagram post.

5. Add a caption and share your repost.

The repost won’t include a citation, so we suggest adding one by typing “@ + [username]” to credit the original poster with the photo or video. Then, press “Share.” Here’s how the post appears on your Instagram profile:

1. Open the instagram app and find the photo or video you’d like to add to your story.

2. Click the paper plane icon at the bottom of the post.

3. Click “add to your story.”

4. Personalize the draft post with stickers or text.

You should see a draft of your story. Use the icons at the top to modify text, color, stickers and other animations.

5. Click “your story” in the bottom left corner.

You also have the option to click “close friends” on the right, bottom corner (shown above) if you only want a select group to view your story. Then your new post should show up in your story like in the example below.

With stories, the same best practices should be followed as for sharing a post. If you don’t know the person and suspect the content you’d like to re-share might be licensed material, ask for permission first. Give credit to the original posters whenever possible.

Share Your Favorite Instagram Posts

Now that you’ve learned how to repost on Instagram, you can diversify your profile with content sourced from friends, family, and brands. Use the methods above — being sure to cite the source of the original post — to quickly and easily reshare your favorite content.

This article was originally published November 18, 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.