Welcome to My Blog

If you’re new to using a Chromebook, one of the first things you might be wondering is how to take a screenshot — while it’s simple, it’s certainly not intuitive if you’re used to a Mac or PC.

Luckily, there are two different keyboard commands you can use to take screenshots of either your entire Chromebook screen, or a portion of it — best of all, you can take, save, and access screenshots even while you’re offline.

Next time you’re putting together a presentation or writing a how-to blog post, use these instructions to take screenshots on your Chromebook.

How to Take a Full-Screen Screenshot on a Chromebook

To take a screenshot of your entire Chromebook screen, simply hold down the “Ctrl” key and press the “Switch window” key (this key is at the top, in between your brightness and full screen buttons).

When you press them both at the same time, you’ll see an alert in the bottom right corner that your screenshot has been saved. You’ll find your screenshot in your “Downloads” folder.

Image courtesy of
ReplacementLaptopKeys.com
(edited to illustrate instructions).

How to Take a Partial Screenshot on a Chromebook

If you’d prefer to take a screenshot of a specific, smaller section of your screen, you’ll still press the “Ctrl” and “Switch window” keys, like before. However, you’ll want to additionally hold down the “Shift” key.

Image courtesy of
ReplacementLaptopKeys.com

(edited to illustrate instructions).

Similar to the full-screen screenshot, your partial screenshot will be automatically saved. To locate it, open your “Downloads” folder.

If you’re interested in increasing your productivity further, check out 12 Tools That’ll Keep You Productive Morning, Noon & Night. 

Not long after I first started at HubSpot, I was welcomed with a fresh pair of orange, noise-canceling headphones. At the time, I had no clue that these headphones would carry me through many long work days and some of the deepest, darkest levels of writer’s block.

Over three years later, they are truly the gift that keeps on giving.

You see, for me, listening to music while working is the secret to my productivity. All it takes is the right Beyoncé track, and I go from idle to uber productive. (Seriously, it works like a charm.)

The trouble is, finding the perfect playlist isn’t always easy. With endless streaming music possibilities at my fingertips, it can be hard to nail down just the right tunes to get the wheels turning. So, I did what we do best around here — a little research.

As it turns out, there are a ton of studies that explore the influence of specific types of music as they relate to your productivity levels. To help you find just the right mix, we’ve sourced and curated seven Spotify playlists designed with specific studies in mind. Whether you’re into Mozart or Chance The Rapper, we’re confident that there’s something on this list that will do the trick.

Note: Some of the playlists contain tracks with explicit language that might not be suitable for the office.

7 Science-Backed Office Music Playlists for Productivity

1) Classical Music

One of the most frequently cited studies related to music and productivity is the “Mozart Effect,” which concluded that listening to Mozart for even a brief period each day can boost “abstract reasoning ability.” The study — led by researchers Gordon Shaw, Frances Rauscher, and Katherine Ky — employed 36 Cal-Irvine students who were divided into three groups. Group one listen to a Mozart selection, while group two listened to a relaxation tape, and group three endured 10 minutes of silence. After the listening activity, all 36 students were issued the same test, in which the Mozart group averaged an eight-to-nine point increase in their IQs, compared to the remaining groups.

Since then, the “Mozart Effect” has been hotly contested, but many researchers have gone on to explore the mental benefits of learning and listening to classical music. One recent study, for example, found that elementary-school-aged children who participated in music composition education outperformed students in a control group on reading comprehension.

Think classical music might work for you? Check out this classical-influenced playlist to find out for yourself:

2) Video Game Soundtracks

“Choosing the right video game soundtrack to work to is all about understanding what type of music motivates vs. distracts you when you need to concentrate,” says HubSpot’s Director of Marketing Acquisition (and former video game marketing consultant) Emmy Jonassen.

“For example, if you’re the type who gets amped and focused listening to high-energy music, rhythm game soundtracks, like those from Thumper or Klang, could work well. Conversely, if you need calm to concentrate, the serene soundtracks from exploration games, like ABZÛ and Journey, may do the trick. With thousands of games releasing every year, including many independent titles, there is a soundtrack to suit everyone’s ear,” she went on to explain.

Think about it: Playing a video game requires a lot of focus. To make it to the next level, players commonly have to avoid traps, dodge obstacles, and discover secret tools that will help them progress to the next level. As a result, the music selection for video games is often very strategic, in that modern soundtracks tend to reflect epic, inspiring cinematic scores rather than just basic sound effects.

And while studies have revealed mixed results, there is evidence to support that gamers can experience improved performance by playing a game with the volume on. For example, when psychology professor Siu-Lan Tan and her colleagues John Baxa and Matt Spackman specifically honed in on the game “Twilight Princess (Legend of Zelda),” they found that participants who played with both music and sound effects off performed worse than those who played with it on.

Want to try it on for size? Check out the playlist below:

3) Nature Sounds

According to psychophysical data and sound-field analysis published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, listening to “natural” sounds could enhance cognitive functioning, optimize your ability to concentrate, and increase your level of satisfaction.

Think: Waves crashing, birds chirping, streams trickling, and the like.

That could explain why more consumer-facing brands — from Google Home to the newer Noisli — are introducing such ambient sound features to help listeners relax or focus. It might also be behind Spotify’s multiple nature-themed playlists, like this soothing one:

4) Pump Up Songs

After observing that many athletes arrive at the stadium wearing headphones, Kellogg School of Management professor Derek Rucker and three of his colleagues — Loran Nordgren, Li Huang, and Adam Galinsky — set out to answer the question: Does listening to the right kind of music make us feel more powerful or in control?

So, back in 2014, the group of researchers set up a study to gauge how music might influence motivation and subsequent behavior. First, they played several songs for participants in a lab, and asked them — on a scale of one to seven — how powerful, dominant, and determined they felt after listening to each song. There were three “high power” winners: Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” 2 Unlimited’s “Get Ready for This,” and 50 Cent’s “In Da Club.”

Then, to gauge how the music would influence their behavior, they asked participants to listen to the music and then determine whether or not they’d like to go first or second in a debate. As it turned out, those who listened to the high-power playlist volunteered to go first almost twice as often as those who listened to a less powerful playlist.

The lesson? “Just as professional athletes might put on empowering music before they take the field to get them in a powerful state of mind,” Rucker explained, “you might try [this] in certain situations where you want to be empowered.”

Next time you’re looking to feel empowered before a big presentation, interview, or salary review, check out this roundup:

Want more? Check out my colleague Amanda Zantal-Wiener’s picks here.

5) Instrumental Songs

In 2015, Middle Tennessee State University researchers Carol A. Smith and Larry W. Morris discovered that students who listened to “sedative” music during a test scored higher than those who listened to lyrical music. (That somewhat contrasts their initial findings 39 years earlier, which showed that while music didn’t reveal an impact on test scores, those who listened to “stimulative music” showed a significant increase in worry and highly emotional reactions.)

That isn’t to say that it’s entirely impossible to cross things off your list while listening to songs with words — I actually prefer lyrical music, but my colleague, Amanda Zantal-Wiener, has joked about hip hop verses accidentally slipping into her first drafts when she listens to songs with words. If you’re like she is and find that lyrics are too distracting, you may want to experiment with some instrumental options.

For those times, check out these lyric-less tunes — we promise they won’t put you to sleep:

6) “Feel Good” Songs

Buried in deadlines? Trying to unearth yourself from an email mountain after some time out of the office? Regretting that you came back? Whatever’s bugging you, sometimes, the best remedy for productivity loss is a solid dose of “feel good” tunes — you know, the kind that make you spontaneously use a pen as a pantomimed microphone.

But scientifically speaking, music can stimulate the same part of the brain as delicious food and other physical pleasures. Researchers at McGill University, for example, discovered that when participants received the opiod-production-blocking drug naltrexone, they didn’t respond as positively to their favorite tunes as they might normally. The verdict? Our brains are trained to naturally produce these chemicals when we hear our preferred playlist.

And while “feel good” songs vary from person to person, a search for Spotify playlists with those very keywords yields dozens of results. That said, here’s one of our favorites:

Can’t get enough? Here are a few more suggestions from my colleague Amanda.

7) White Noise

According to the BBC, about 70% of us work in open-concept work spaces — myself included. And while it’s great to be able to turn our colleagues next door and ask, “Hey, what’s another word for … ?”, many find background chatter distracting.

If that’s the case, you’re certainly not alone — according to a study led by Yamaguchi University, “When carrying out intellectual activities involving memory or arithmetic tasks, it is a common experience for noise to cause an increased psychological impression of ‘annoyance,’ leading to a decline in performance.”

But without an office to call your own, what’s a writer or number-cruncher to do? Neutral, non-verbal background sounds like white noise, which is not the same as nature sounds, can help to block out these distractions — things like the din of a restaurant or shopping mall, an electric fan, or even laundry machines.

And in case you’re wondering — yes. Like all of the above, there is a playlist for that:

So go forth — focus, get pumped, feel good, and rock out.

What are your favorite songs for getting work done? Let us know in the comments.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in March 2015 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Logical fallacies — those logical gaps that invalidate arguments — aren’t always easy to spot.

While some come in the form of loud, glaring inconsistencies, others can easily fly under the radar, sneaking into everyday meetings and conversations undetected.

Having an understanding of these basic logical fallacies can help you more confidently parse the arguments and claims you participate in and witness on a daily basis — separating fact from sharply dressed fiction.

Our list is by no means an exhaustive guide to every formal and informal fallacy, but it should help you build better arguments and identify logical missteps. 

15 Common Logical Fallacies

1) The Straw Man Fallacy

This fallacy occurs when your opponent over-simplifies or misrepresents your argument (i.e., setting up a “straw man”) to make it easier to attack or refute. Instead of fully addressing your actual argument, speakers relying on this fallacy present a superficially similar — but ultimately not equal — version of your real stance, helping them create the illusion of easily defeating you.

Example:

John: I think we should hire someone to redesign our website.

Lola: You’re saying we should throw our money away on external resources instead of building up our in-house design team? That’s going to hurt our company in the long run.

2) The Bandwagon Fallacy

Just because a significant population of people believe a proposition is true, doesn’t automatically make it true. Popularity alone is not enough to validate an argument, though it’s often used as a standalone justification of validity. Arguments in this style don’t take into account whether or not the population validating the argument is actually qualified to do so, or if contrary evidence exists.

While most of us expect to see bandwagon arguments in advertising (e.g., “three out of four people think X brand toothpaste cleans teeth best”), this fallacy can easily sneak it’s way into everyday meetings and conversations.

Example:

The majority of people believe advertisers should spend more money on billboards, so billboards are objectively the best form of advertisement.

3) The Appeal to Authority Fallacy

While appeals to authority are by no means always fallacious, they can quickly become dangerous when you rely too heavily on the opinion of a single person — especially if that person is attempting to validate something outside of their expertise.

Getting an authority figure to back your proposition can be a powerful addition to an existing argument, but it can’t be the pillar your entire argument rests on. Just because someone in a position of power believes something to be true, doesn’t make it true.

Example:

Despite the fact that our Q4 numbers are much lower than usual, we should push forward using the same strategy because our CEO Barbara says this is the best approach.

4) The False Dilemma Fallacy

This common fallacy misleads by presenting complex issues in terms of two inherently opposed sides. Instead of acknowledging that most (if not all) issues can be thought of on a spectrum of possibilities and stances, the false dilemma fallacy asserts that there are only two mutually exclusive outcomes.

This fallacy is particularly problematic because it can lend false credence to extreme stances, ignoring opportunities for compromise or chances to re-frame the issue in a new way.

Example:

We can either agree with Barbara’s plan, or just let the project fail. There is no other option.

5) The Hasty Generalization Fallacy

This fallacy occurs when someone draws expansive conclusions based on inadequate or insufficient evidence. In other words, they jump to conclusions about the validity of a proposition with some — but not enough — evidence to back it up, and overlook potential counterarguments. 

Example:

Two members of my team have become more engaged employees after taking public speaking classes. That proves we should have mandatory public speaking classes for the whole company to improve employee engagement.

6) The Slothful Induction Fallacy

Slothful induction is the exact inverse of the hasty generalization fallacy above. This fallacy occurs when sufficient logical evidence strongly indicates a particular conclusion is true, but someone fails to acknowledge it, instead attributing the outcome to coincidence or something unrelated entirely.

Example:

Even though every project Brad has managed in the last two years has run way behind schedule, I still think we can chalk it up to unfortunate circumstances, not his project management skills.

7) The Correlation/Causation Fallacy

If two things appear to be correlated, this doesn’t necessarily indicate that one of those things irrefutably caused the other thing. This might seem like an obvious fallacy to spot, but it can be challenging to catch in practice — particularly when you really want to find a correlation between two points of data to prove your point.

Example:

Our blog views were down in April. We also changed the color of our blog header in April. This means that changing the color of the blog header led to less views in April.

8) The Anecdotal Evidence Fallacy

In place of logical evidence, this fallacy substitutes examples from someone’s personal experience. Arguments that rely heavily on anecdotal evidence tend to overlook the fact that one (possibly isolated) example can’t stand alone as definitive proof of a greater premise.

Example:

One of our clients doubled their conversions after changing all their landing page text to bright red. Therefore, changing all text to red is a proven way to double conversions.

9) The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy

This fallacy gets its colorful name from an anecdote about a Texan who fires his gun at a barn wall, and then proceeds to paint a target around the closest cluster of bullet holes. He then points at the bullet-riddled target as evidence of his expert marksmanship.

Speakers who rely on the Texas sharpshooter fallacy tend to cherry-pick data clusters based on a predetermined conclusion. Instead of letting a full spectrum of evidence lead them to a logical conclusion, they find patterns and correlations in support of their goals, and ignore evidence that contradicts them or suggests the clusters weren’t actually statistically significant. 

Example:

Lisa sold her first startup to an influential tech company, so she must be a successful entrepreneur. (She ignores the fact that four of her startups have failed since then.)

10) The Middle Ground Fallacy

This fallacy assumes that a compromise between two extreme conflicting points is always true. Arguments of this style ignore the possibility that one or both of the extremes could be completely true or false — rendering any form of compromise between the two invalid as well.

Example:

Lola thinks the best way to improve conversions is to redesign the entire company website, but John is firmly against making any changes to the website. Therefore, the best approach is to redesign some portions of the website.

11) The Burden of Proof Fallacy

If a person claims that X is true, it is their responsibility to provide evidence in support of that assertion. It is invalid to claim that X is true until someone else can prove that X is not true. Similarly, it is also invalid to claim that X is true because it’s impossible to prove that X is false.

In other words, just because there is no evidence presented against something, that doesn’t automatically make that thing true.

Example:

Barbara believes the marketing agency’s office is haunted, since no one has ever proven that it isn’t haunted.

12) The Personal Incredulity Fallacy

If you have difficulty understanding how or why something is true, that doesn’t automatically mean the thing in question is false. A personal or collective lack of understanding isn’t enough to render a claim invalid.

Example:

I don’t understand how redesigning our website resulted in more conversions, so there must have been another factor at play. 

13) The “No True Scotsman” Fallacy

Often used to protect assertions that rely on universal generalizations (like “all Marketers love pie”) this fallacy inaccurately deflects counterexamples to a claim by changing the positioning or conditions of the original claim to exclude the counterexample.

In other words, instead of acknolwedging that a counterexample to their original claim exists, the speaker ammends the terms of the claim. In the example below, when Barabara presents a valid counterexample to John’s claim, John changes the terms of his claim to exclude Barbara’s counterexample.

Example:

John: No marketer would ever put two call-to-actions on a single landing page.

Barbara: Lola, a marketer, actually found great success putting two call-to-actions on a single landing page for our last campaign. 

John: Well, no true marketer would put two call-to-actions on a single landing page, so Lola must not be a true marketer. 

14) The Tu quoque Fallacy

The tu quoque fallacy (Latin for “you also”) is an invalid attempt to discredit an opponent by answering criticism with criticism — but never actually presenting a counterargument to the original disputed claim. 

In the example below, Lola makes a claim. Instead of presenting evidence against Lola’s claim, John levels a claim against Lola. This attack doesn’t actually help John succeed in proving Lola wrong, since he doesn’t address her original claim in any capacity.

Example:

Lola: I don’t think John would be a good fit to manage this project, because he doesn’t have a lot of experience with project management.

John: But you don’t have a lot of experience in project management either!

15) The Fallacy Fallacy

Here’s something vital to keep in mind when sniffing out fallacies: just because someone’s argument relies on a fallacy doesn’t necessarily mean that their claim is inherently untrue.

Making a fallacy-riddled claim doesn’t automatically invalidate the premise of the argument — it just means the argument doesn’t actually validate their premise. In other words, their argument sucks, but they aren’t necessarily wrong. 

Example: 

John’s argument in favor of redesigning the company website clearly relied heavily on cherry-picked statistics in support of his claim, so Lola decided that redesigning the website must not be a good decision.  

The past 24 hours — and two years, really — have not been kind to Facebook.

In case you missed it, the social media giant released its Q2 2018 earnings report yesterday, where it was indicated that user growth has all but ceased completely in the U.S. and Canada — and fallen in Europe.

Source: Facebook

Overall, the company missed on estimates for its quarterly earnings — for the first time since 2015 — and as soon as the report was released, its stock price began to drop.

But things only became worse during the earnings call, when executives warned that growth (in both user counts and revenue) would continue decelerate in the third and fourth quarters, and perplexed analysts repeatedly asked for answers.

By the time the call ended, Facebook’s stock price dropping over 23% by the time the call ended. And overnight, the company lost $123.4 billion — or nearly 20% — of its value.

Source: Google

But according to our research, people aren’t really surprised — and they expect Facebook to recover from this latest (significant) stumbling block.

Most People Aren’t Surprised by Facebook’s Slowed Growth — and Think the Company Will Recover

No Surprise Here

We posed a question to 695 internet users across the U.S., UK, and Canada: 

After Facebook announced that its growth and earnings slowed last quarter, the company’s stock lost over 20% in value overnight.

Are you surprised that Facebook’s growth is slowing down?

Globally, 60% of respondents said they were not surprised by Facebook’s slowed growth.

Data collected with Lucid. Sample size: 695.

When broken down by region, respondents from the UK were the most surprised, and the least so in Canada.

Data collected with Lucid. Sample size: 695.

The Expected Rebound

Then, we wanted to measure how much people expect Facebook to rebound from this week’s loss. We asked 633 internet users across the U.S., UK, and Canada: 

After Facebook announced that its growth and earnings slowed last quarter, the company’s stock lost over 20% in value overnight.

Do you think Facebook will recover?

Globally, nearly three-quarters of respondents — 72% –  said they do believe that Facebook will recover from the missed earnings and subsequent loss in value.

Data collected with Lucid. Sample size: 633.

When broken down by region, respondents from the UK were both the most optimistic about Facebook’s recovery, with Canada showing the most pessimism.

Data collected with Lucid. Sample size: 633.

What Could Be Behind These Numbers

The hours following the earnings call have struck quite a debate among analysts and journalists alike. Was the miss on estimates — as well as the overall fallout from the earnings report — the result of “years of privacy controversies finally [catching] up with Facebook“?

Or is Facebook simply running out of people to reach in its largest market — the U.S. and Canada — leading to a plateau in user growth? 

Many believe that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Could the slowed user growth could be the result, for instance, of people fleeing from the platform after months of scandal upon scandal?

Are these mutually exclusive, though? https://t.co/JrfeFL7yGQ

— Amanda Zantal-Wiener (@Amanda_ZW)
July 26, 2018

“So far” being the operative term here, methinks. Being rife with scandal may not have *directly* caused $FB to drop so drastically, but I’d venture to say it played a key role in slowing user growth, especially in the U.S., which … is a major factor in the deceleration, no? https://t.co/sB0yo5vfuP

— Amanda Zantal-Wiener (@Amanda_ZW)
July 26, 2018

Facebook has been making critical changes to its platform — even prior to March Cambridge Analytica revelations about the misuse of personal data — that the company warned would either reduce time spent on the site, or ad revenue (or both).

That began with a January News Feed algorithm change that would prioritize content from users’ friends and family over that from brands. The change was largely in response to scrutiny over the weaponization of Facebook by foreign actors to spread misinformation and ultimately influence the 2016 U.S. presidential elections — by emphasizing content from one’s personal network, the visibility of possible misinformation or divisive content would (ideally) be suppressed.

When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg published the statement above, he explicitly noted:

“By making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down.”

Since then — especially after the Cambridge Analytica revelations — Facebook has only continued to make changes that reduce the visibility of certain types of content and, perhaps as a result, reduce the amount of time spent (as well as users) on the network.

Mike Isaac of The New York Times summarized it nicely:

if you give users more control over privacy, which they have long asked for, advertising takes a hit

if you increase the amount of employees it takes to make your platform safer, margin takes a hit

facebook is giving people what they want and getting killed in the market for it pic.twitter.com/yOLxkzMSzu

— ಠ_ಠ (@MikeIsaac)
July 25, 2018

Saying for certain whether or not Facebook will recover from this significant loss in value is tricky. Experts are falling on both sides of the issue, and for good reason. The company is still facing a high degree of scrutiny over things like data protection and election integrity, which both have an impact on user trust (and, therefore, potential user growth).

But as HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar noted after yesterday’s earnings call, the company also still has room to grow. 

“The core network can reach saturation in markets like the U.S.,” he said at the time, “but it can still grow in emerging markets,” as well as through its portfolio of apps like Instagram and WhatsApp — both of which serve as sources of ad revenue.

Eventually, Facebook could run out of new users to reach, especially in areas where slowed user growth could also correlate with a declining population. 

But throughout the call, Zuckerberg emphasized the company’s refusal to compromise on investments in new products and innovations — despite its investments in better security.

“Overall, this is a critical year for Facebook,” he said in his opening remarks. “We’ve … forged ahead with new innovations, and are adapting our services to the new trends of messaging, stories, videos, and groups.”

We’ll be keeping an eye on these innovations and trends alike.

Since launching The Growth Show podcast in February 2015, we’ve been fortunate to land interviews with some really busy people, including executives of billion-dollar businesses and founders on the cusp of building the next big thing.

For some of them, we had an “in.” Somebody knew somebody else and happily made the introduction.

But we weren’t so lucky with some of the other guests. We wanted to get in touch, but didn’t have mutual connections. So I’d send them an email — targeted, relevant to their interests, and completely custom, but still the first email I had ever sent them. In most situations, this is called a cold email. And somehow, among all of the other pitches they get for podcast interviews, speaking engagements, and business consulting, these guests noticed my emails in their inbox and actually responded.

What Is a Cold Email?

There isn’t a set formula for the perfect pitch-based email. In fact, cold emails — messages that are sent to many recipients without any previous relationship or conversation with them — are widely discouraged in the marketing industry. And if you send commercial emails to recipients living in Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires that your contacts opt in to the message before receiving it.

So how did I manage to get a response from the guests I wanted to host on our podcast?

Although the emails I sent did serve to help develop our brand, media relations follows a slightly different etiquette than your average email marketing campaign when communicating to the brands you want to work with. See the bullet points below to get a general sense of that etiquette:

• Pitch an idea, not a subscription.
• Address one person, not dozens.
• If there’s something in it for both parties, you’re more likely to get a response.

It’s true. Some of our show’s desired guests employ PR reps whose job is to manage the type of outreach I was sending.

My experience contacting potential podcast guests doesn’t mean you have to be a member of the press to send an email to someone you’ve never met. However, it does mean you need to be careful with whom at a company you reach out to, what your message is offering them, and how you landed their email address in the first place.

Below are a few things you can do to give yourself the best chance at getting a response. This advice will help you whether you are trying to find a guest for your podcast, network with a member of your industry, or even pitch a local reporter to get some solid earned media attention.

How to Write a Cold Email That Isn’t Actually Cold

HubSpot customers: It is against HubSpot’s Acceptable Use Policy to email multiple sales or marketing leads, with whom you’ve had no prior conversation (also known as “cold emails”), when creating email sequences through a HubSpot product. The following information is meant to educate readers on improving their pitches, introductions, and similar one-on-one email conversations — especially in the media relations space — such that these emails do not conflict with the GDPR and anti-spam regulations around the world.

Avoid the Classic Cold Email Subject Line

You could spend an entire day writing the best email body copy known to man, but if no one opens the email, your efforts will go to waste.

To make sure that doesn’t happen, you need a compelling subject line. This advice might sound obvious, yet there are still so many poorly written subject lines. Just open up your inbox and see how many emails are in there that you’ll never read. You can only get so many subject lines like, “The leading cloud-based software in hyper-local social media marketing.”

So, how do you write a good subject line? Figure out what you are ultimately trying to say and then boil down that request to five to seven words. Once you get to those five to seven words, make sure those words speak to the interests of your recipient and clearly communicate what you’d like from that email exchange. Here are a few more guidelines to ensure your subject lines entice someone to open.

One of my favorite ways to get someone’s attention is to put their name in the subject line. For example: “Brandee — having you on HubSpot’s podcast” or “Chris — source for your article on marketing trends.” I use this every time I conduct media outreach.

Make It Clear Why You’re Reaching Out to Them Specifically

Here’s how most cold email outreach is done: Write a pitch, copy, paste, send, repeat (and maybe change the greeting to really spice things up).

You might’ve gotten these types of emails before from sales reps — isn’t it annoying?

Your recipient has gotten them, too. To avoid the typical irritations of cold email, you need to make it clear why you’re reaching out to them specifically. Adam Grant, a professor at Wharton and author of Give and Take, talks about how when people feel they have nothing unique to contribute, they will feel very little responsibility to help.

So, when writing a message for media relations or a similar effort, warm it up so it doesn’t sound like an annoying cold email. Don’t just make it clear why you’re reaching out — make it clear why you’re reaching out to them. The best pitches highlight what specifically drew you to that particular person. Using the example of reaching out for a podcast: Add a sentence or two about how specifically that person’s work would be a great fit with your audience and why.

Showing that you did your homework isn’t just important because you need to be relevant, but it also shows that you put some time and effort into reaching out. This is one of the easiest ways to show that your email isn’t just another canned message from a sales rep or a PR pro.

Use Social Proof and Point to Results

Adding in a little social proof and some high-level stats to your pitch will take your homework from a B- to the top of the class.

If you’ve interviewed a colleague of your desired contact or spoken to someone they know, include that in your pitch (in sales, this could be a case study or a local customer reference). This also works if you’ve interviewed someone that they would consider a peer or competitor. The chances of you landing the CEO of Nike, for example, would dramatically increase if you could tell their PR team that you just finished an interview with the CEO of Adidas.

If you have the numbers to back up what you’re pitching, include those as well. Would you rather be on a podcast that 100 people were going to listen to, or 100,000?

Keep It Short, Simple, and Written Like a Human

Everyone is busy and their inbox is already full. Don’t make things worse. Try and keep your email short, sweet, and to the point. In media relations, this is all the more important — you need to ensure your message sticks out among the rest of the press pitches they get. Would you read a five-paragraph essay from someone that you’ve never talked to before? Probably not.

One of the best ways to keep things short and sweet is to write like a human. If you saw this person out in public and had to walk up and say hi, how would you start your conversation? You wouldn’t jump right into your pitch. Most likely you’d start with something like “Hey Emily, I’m Dave. I read your column every week and love how you’re focused on startups in Boston. I wanted to talk to you about my company because ___.” Writing your email like you were talking to someone in real life makes it feel much more approachable and relevant.

There isn’t a formula for writing an email to someone you’ve never spoken to before, but using the tips above can help you make a better impression and hopefully earn a response from your recipient.

Nailing your pitch to potential guests is just one part of getting your podcast off the ground. Want help with the rest of the process? Here’s everything you need to know about starting a podcast.