Blog

On-page SEO has the power to bring countless new visitors — and customers — right to your website.

Additionally, on-page SEO is also completely up to you: You get to establish what the topic and/or goal of each page will be. You get to decide on the target audience for that page. And you get to choose the target keywords and phrases you want to focus on.

This can be intimidating and empowering at the same time. If you’re unsure how to get started, we’ve built this on-page SEO checklist to help guide you.
Jump To:
What is On-Page SEO?

Why On-Page SEO is Important

On-Page SEO Elements

On-Page SEO Checklist

Google’s algorithm ranks your website on three main factors: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO:

We’ll cover on-page SEO elements below.
Off-page SEO refers to social sharing, external linking, and more.
Technical SEO refers to all the SEO elements not included in on-page and off-page practices, such as structured data, site speed, and mobile readiness — the more technical parts of SEO.

Note: This SEO “trilogy” isn’t always divided into three clean sections; some of these SEO elements will overlap. You’ll see how and why throughout this piece.

Why is on-page SEO important?
On-page SEO is important because it tells Google all about your website and how you provide value to visitors and customers. It helps your site be optimized for both human eyes and search engine bots.
Merely creating and publishing your website isn’t enough — you must optimize it for Google and other search engines in order to rank and attract new traffic.
On-page SEO is called “on-page” because the tweaks and changes you make to optimize your website can be seen by visitors on your page (whereas off-page and technical SEO elements aren’t always visible).
Every part of on-page SEO is completely up to you; that’s why it’s critical that you do it correctly. Now, let’s discuss the elements of on-page SEO.

All on-page SEO elements fall into three main categories:

Content elements
HTML elements
Site architecture elements

You’ll see these elements divided into sections below.

Content Elements
Content elements refer to the elements within your site copy and content. In this section, we’ll focus mostly on crafting high-quality page content that benefits your visitors and tells Google that your website provides value.
1. High-Quality Page Content
Page content is the heart of on-page SEO. It tells both search engines and readers what your website and business are all about.
The first step to creating high-quality content is choosing relevant keywords and topics. Conduct keyword research by searching Google for terms and seeing what surfaces for competitors and other websites. You can also use tools like Ahrefs, AnswerthePublic, and UberSuggest.

Also, read our Beginner’s Guide on How to Do Keyword Research for SEO.
Next, consider how your page content falls into the buyer’s journey and visitors’ search intent. These will impact how you will use your keywords and what types of content you will create:

Stage in the Buyer’s Journey
Suggested Content/Website Pages

Awareness
Blog posts, videoshomepage

Consideration
Buyer’s guides, case studiesabout page

Decision
Product demos, comparison toolsproduct or pricing pages, contact page

Now, it’s time to write your page content or clean it up if you’re currently auditing your on-page SEO.
Here are a few best practices for writing high-quality page content (we’ll touch on some of these in more detail below, in our Checklist):

Incorporate short and long-tail keywords naturally.
Add engaging and relevant visual content.
Write for your specific buyer persona(s).
Actively solve your audience’s problem.
Develop content people will share and want to link to.
Optimize for conversions with CTAs to offers and product pages.

Page content is your opportunity to communicate value to Google and your site visitors; it’s the heart of the on-page SEO process. All other on-page SEO elements stem from high-quality page content, so invest ample resources to develop and optimize it.

HTML Elements
HTML elements refer to the elements in your source code.
Note: To see the source code for any page in your browser, click View > Developer > View Source in the top menu.
2. Page Titles
Your website page titles (also known as title tags) are one of the most important SEO elements.

Titles tell both visitors and search engines what they can find on the corresponding pages.
To ensure your site pages rank for the proper intent, be sure to include the focus keyword for each page in the title. Incorporate your keyword as naturally as possible.
Here are some best practices for when developing a page title:

Keep it under 60 characters (per Google’s update) to ensure that your titles display correctly. Although Google doesn’t have an exact character limit, its display titles max out at 600 pixels. Keeping your titles at 60 characters or less ensures the title won’t be cut off in search results.
Don’t stuff the title with keywords. Not only does keyword-stuffing present a spammy and tacky reading experience, but modern search engines are smarter than ever — they’ve been designed to specifically monitor for (and penalize!) content that’s unnaturally stuffed with keywords.
Make it relevant to the page.
Don’t use all caps.
Include your brand in the title, i.e. “The Ultimate Guide to On-Page SEO in 2022 — HubSpot Blog”.

Check out our free data-driven guide to writing effective page titles.
3. Headers
Headers, also known as body tags, refer to the HTML element <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, and so on.

These tags help organize your content for readers and help search engines distinguish what part of your content is most important and relevant, depending on search intent. Incorporate important keywords in your
headers, but choose different ones than what’s in your page title. Put your most important keywords in your <h1> and <h2> headers.

4. Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are the short page descriptions that appear under the title in search results. Although it’s not an official ranking factor for search engines, it can influence whether or not your page is clicked on — therefore, it’s just as important when doing on-page SEO.

Meta descriptions can also be copied over to social media when your content is shared (by using structured markup, which we talk about below), so it can encourage click-throughs from there, too.
Here’s what makes for a good meta description:

Keep it under 160 characters, although Google has been known to allow longer meta descriptions. (Note
Include your entire keyword or keyword phrase.

Use a complete, compelling sentence (or two).
Avoid alphanumeric characters like —, &, or +.

5. Image Alt-text
Image alt-text is like SEO for your images. It tells Google and other search engines what your images are about … which is important because Google now delivers almost as many image-based results as they do text-based results.
That means consumers may be discovering your site through your images. In order for them to do this, though, you have to add alt-text to your images.
Here’s what to keep in mind when adding image alt-text:

Make it descriptive and specific.
Make it contextually relevant to the broader page content.
Keep it shorter than 125 characters.
Use keywords sparingly, and don’t keyword stuff.

6. Structured Markup
Structured markup, or structured data, is the process of “marking up” your website source code to make it easier for Google to find and understand different elements of your content.
Structured markup is the key behind those featured snippets, knowledge panels, and other content features you see when you search for something on Google. It’s also how your specific page information shows up so neatly when someone shares your content on social media.
Note: Structured data is considered technical SEO, but I’m including it here because optimizing it creates a better on-page experience for visitors.

Site Architecture Elements
Site architecture elements refer to the elements that make up your website and site pages. How you structure your website can help Google and other search engines easily crawl the pages and page content.
7. Page URLs
Your page URLs should be simple to digest for both readers and search engines. They are also important when keeping your site hierarchy consistent as you create subpages, blog posts, and other types of internal pages.

For example, in the above URL, “blog” is the sub-domain, “hubspot.com” is the domain, “sales” is the directory for the HubSpot Sales Blog, and “startups” indicates the specific path to that blog post.
Here are a few tips on how to write SEO-friendly URLs:

Remove the extra, unnecessary words.
Use only one or two keywords.
Use HTTPS if possible, as Google now uses that as a positive ranking factor.

8. Internal Linking
Internal linking is the process of hyperlinking to other helpful pages on your website. (See how the words “internal linking” are linked to another HubSpot blog post in the sentence above? That’s an example.)
Internal linking is important for on-page SEO because internal links send readers to other pages on your website, keeping them around longer and thus telling Google your site is valuable and helpful.
Also, the longer visitors are on your website, the more time Google has to crawl and index your site pages. This ultimately helps Google absorb more information about your website and potentially rank it higher on the search engine results pages.
Download our free guide to Internal Linking for SEO.
9. Mobile Responsiveness
Google started favoring sites that are optimized for faster mobile speeds — even for desktop searches.
Mobile responsiveness matters.
It’s critical to choose a website hosting service, site design and theme, and content layout that’s readable and navigable on mobile devices. If you’re not sure about your own site’s mobile readiness, use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool.

10. Site Speed
Whether viewed on a mobile device or desktop, your site must be able to load quickly. When it comes to on-page SEO, page speed counts big-time.
Google cares about user experience first and foremost. If your site loads slowly or haphazardly, it’s likely your visitors aren’t going to stick around — and Google knows that. Moreover, site speed can impact conversions and ROI.
Check your website’s speed anytime using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. If your website is movin’ slow, check out 5 Easy Ways to Help Reduce Your Website’s Page Loading Speed.
Note: Mobile responsiveness and site speed are considered technical SEO, but I’m including them here because optimizing them creates a better on-page experience for visitors.

Now that you understand the different on-page SEO elements, let’s talk through the steps of auditing and improving your on-page SEO.

If you’ve been in search of a solution for organizing and tracking the various on-page SEO elements, you’re in luck. The HubSpot marketing team released an updated version of our On-Page SEO Template, an Excel document that allows you to coordinate pages and keywords — and track changes — all in one place.
Download Now: On-Page SEO Template

In this section, we’ll be using this template as a guide as we walk you through a checklist for your on-page SEO management, step by step. Download the template now and follow along.
Note: The fictional website “http://www.quantify.ly” will be used as an example throughout this post. It’s simply meant to help you imagine how your own website will fit into the template.

1. Crawl your website.
Get an overview of all of your website pages that search engines have indexed. For HubSpot customers, our Page Performance tool (under Reports) will allow you to do this. If you’re not using HubSpot, you can try using a free tool like Xenu’s link crawler.
After crawling your site and exporting the results into an Excel (or .csv) file, there will be three key columns of data that you should focus on:

The web address (a.k.a. URL)
The page title
The page meta description

Copy and paste these three columns into your template.
The URL should be pasted into column B, the page title into column C, and the description into column E.

2. Conduct an SEO audit and define your site architecture.
Now that you have a basic index of your site in the template, you’ll want to organize and prioritize your web pages. Start by defining where within your site architecture your existing pages currently sit.
Do this in column A. Note whether a page is your homepage (ideally you’ll only have one of those), a page in your primary (or secondary) navigation menu, an internal page, and so on.

3. Update URLs, page titles, and meta descriptions.
Review your current URLs, page titles, and meta descriptions to see if they need updating.
(This is the beauty of using a template to organize your SEO: You get a broad overview of the type of content you have on your website.)

Notice how column D and column F automatically calculate the length of each element. The recommended length for page titles is anything under 60 characters. (And, actually, a quick and easy optimization project is to update all page titles that are longer than 60 characters.)
The recommended length for page meta descriptions is 155-160 characters. This is the perfect length to ensure none of the description is cut off by the ellipses. Make sure you’re not too repetitive with keywords in this space. Writing a good meta description isn’t tough, but it deserves just as much consideration as the page content itself.
(Note: For some sites, you may also have to update the URLs, but that’s not always the case and thus was not included as part of this optimization template.)
4. Make sure your keyword is in your URL.
As we mentioned above, add your keyword to your URL. For example, imagine you own a hot yoga studio called ADYoga. You have a web page that includes videos of your classes. The keyword for this page is “hot yoga online classes” — so, you’d want to include that keyword in your URL. The URL for this web page may look like this: www.ADyoga.com/hot-yoga-online-classes.
5. Include your keyword throughout your web page.
In addition to your URL, you’ll want to add your keyword throughout your web page(s). This includes your title and headers. Sprinkle your keyword throughout your content as well where it fits naturally.
6. Track keywords and topics for each page.
Think of your target keyword as the designated topic for a particular page. If you’re using the HubSpot template, In column O, define just one topic per page.

By doing this, you’ll be able to go more in-depth and provide more detailed information about that topic. This also means that you are only optimizing for one keyword per page, meaning you have a greater chance to rank for that keyword.
There are, of course, a few exceptions to this rule. Your homepage is a classic example. The goal of your homepage is to explain what your entire website is about, and thus you’ll need a few keywords to do that. Another exception is overview pages like services and product pages, which outline what all of your products and services may be.
7. Don’t keyword stuff.
We just covered many examples in which keywords are both helpful and necessary for SEO purposes. However, one mistake many first-timers make when improving their on-page SEO is “keyword stuff”.
Keyword stuffing can be detrimental to your website and web page’s SEO and it can feel spammy to readers/ visitors.
8. Establish value propositions for each page.
A very important next step, which is often overlooked, is establishing a value proposition for each page of your website. Each page should have a goal aside from just ranking for a particular term.
If you’re using the template, you’ll do this in column G.

9. Define your target audience.
Define your target audience — do you have a single buyer persona or multiple personas? Keep this persona in mind as you optimize your site’s pages. (Remember, you are optimizing for humans, too — not just search engine robots.)
In column H of our template, you’ll have the opportunity to define your page’s target audience.

10. Plan new page titles.
Now that you’ve documented your existing page titles and have established value propositions and target audiences for each of your pages, write new page titles (if necessary) to reflect your findings.
You can do this in column K of the template — and double-check each title length in column L.

People usually follow the formula of “Keyword Phrase | Context.” The goal of the page title is to lay out the purpose of the page without being redundant. You should also keep the additional recommendations we made above related to titles.
11. Add new meta descriptions.
As we covered above, meta descriptions should be a short, declarative sentence that incorporates the same keyword as your page’s title.
It should not reflect the content verbatim as it appears on the page. Get as close as you can to the 150-character limit to maximize space and tell visitors as much as possible about your page.
If you need to create new meta descriptions, do so in column M of the template.

12. Review and edit page content as needed.
Good copy needs to be thorough, clear, and provide solutions … so, be compelling! Write for your target audience and about how you can help them. Compelling content is also error-free, so double-check your spelling and grammar.
Aim to have at least 500 words per page, and format content to make it easier to read and digest with the use of headers and subheaders.
Columns P through R can be used to keep track of changes that you’ve made to your content or to note where changes need to be implemented.

13. Incorporate visual content.
Content can be more than just text, so consider what kind of visual content you can incorporate into each page (if it adds value and serves a purpose, of course). Columns S and T allow you to note which visual elements need to be added. When adding an image to a page, be sure to include a descriptive file name and image alt-text.

14. Optimize your visual content.
We talked earlier about image alt text. You’ll want to optimize your visual content this way — and be sure to include your keyword in your image alt text. It’ll help with the page’s SEO as well as offer the potential to rank in image search (e.g. on a search engine image results page or image carousel).
15. Add internal links.
As mentioned earlier, incorporating links throughout your pages is a must, but it’s often something that’s easily overlooked.
Make sure that your anchor text includes more than just your keywords. The goal isn’t to stuff in as many keywords as possible, but to make it easy for people to navigate your site.
Use columns U through W to plan for these elements if you don’t already have them, or to document how you’ll improve them.

16. Include external links.
It may seem counterintuitive to include external links throughout your page considering we just covered multiple reasons why internal linking is so important for on-page SEO. However, external links are also important.
By externally linking, to credible and trustworthy sites, Google will know your page is also credible and trustworthy. Not only does Google want to know your site is well-referenced, but your visitors do, too.
17. Optimize for conversions.
If you’re also not optimizing your site to increase the number of leads, subscribers, and/or customers you’re attracting … you’re doing it wrong.
Remember that each page of your website presents a conversion opportunity. That means every page of your website should include at least one call-to-action (CTA), though many pages may have multiple CTAs.
Columns X through AF allow you to plan for conversions.
Be sure that your site has a mix of CTAs for different stages of the flywheel.
(Note: The On-Page SEO Template refers to the stages of the buying funnel — top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, and bottom of the funnel. If you are a HubSpot customer, you can even use Smart Content to display these specific CTAs only to people in a specific part of the funnel.)
Also, as you add, edit, or update CTAs, be sure to note conversion rate changes in columns Z, AC, and AF.

Put Your On-Page SEO to Work
Once you finalize your SEO plans, implement these changes on your website or pass them along to someone to implement for you. This will take time to complete, so aim to work on 5 to 10 pages per week.
Remember: SEO is not a one-and-done deal. It’s something you should continually improve upon. You should treat this On-Page SEO Template as a living, breathing document that will help guide your SEO strategy for months (or years) to come.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2012 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Which is better: text-based emails or HTML? The debate is almost as old as email marketing itself. In 2011 and 2014, HubSpot asked survey takers which they prefer, and both years a majority chose HTML. In practice, though, simple, text-based email designs win out time and time again in A/B testing. Of course, it would…
The post The Pros and Cons of Text-Based Email Versus HTML appeared first on Benchmark Email.

submitted by /u/sandrastoneep74 [link] [comments]

Image Source: Freepik Email remains one of the most effective marketing channels: with an average ROI of $38 gained to $1 spent. Nowadays, businesses big and small use email not just to directly promote their products but also to share exclusive content and offers their audience might enjoy, provide one-to-one customer support (or redirect recipients to…
The post How to Manage a Remote Email Marketing Team: 5 Productivity Tool appeared first on Benchmark Email.

At Buffer, we spend a lot of time thinking about growth. Small business growth to be precise. We love reading stories about a start-up candle company growing revenue by 5x on social, and a brand that gained 400,000 followers in its first four years.Amongst many of these stories, we’ve seen one consistent theme. To grow, focus on doing less.In our experience, when growing a business/brand/product, deciding what to do is probably less important than deciding what not to do.We’ve experienced this ourselves at BufferSix months ago we launched Start Page, a free landing page builder that brings together all of your best content in one place. Since launching, 12,724 pages have been built. In the last week, there were 865 Start Pages created and 6,096 people loaded a Start Page. We’re so happy with these metrics and love seeing so many new Start Pages shared on Twitter every day.But, we’re aware there’s more to be done. Just like the 1,000s of other small businesses out there, we focused on doing less by building the essentials with Start Page. But, we’re aware there’s more to be done. We decided to opt for an MVP (minimum viable product) first and asked our customers what to build after. Read on and we’ll share how this approach worked for us.Let customers craft the roadmapAt Buffer, we know that no matter how much insight and expertise you have, predicting the future is pretty much impossible. That’s why, when launching Start Page, we didn’t aim to offer everything customers could possibly need. Instead we focused on the fundamentals and encouraged customers to let us know what to build next. Everyone who uses Buffer is asked to request new features via our Typeform survey. This survey links to an internal Slack channel called #feature-requests. Most days around 10 new requests come through. Each and every request is read by our product team and all are grouped into categories so we can look for trends. Following the Start Page launch, we noticed a number of customers asking Start Page statistics. Things like page views and link clicks.Start Page feedback comes straight into our shared Slack channel.It would have been hard for us to prioritize this feature pre-launch. After all, there were dozens of features we knew users would want. But seeing customers reach out and ask for it confirmed it was a key priority. We started building a statistics feature and launched just a couple of months later in December.Diego, our product manager for Start Page, sharing the news with the team.Ultimately, product releases are a lesson in sacrifice. You have to learn to sacrifice features you might not need. Blogs you shouldn’t write. Messaging that won’t resonate. Focus is vital when bringing a product to market.By releasing early and letting customers craft our roadmap, we’ve managed to build a healthy user-base without months (or years) of development in the shadows. But, gaining users isn’t a given. If you build it, they won’t always come. So here are a few lessons we learned from building a new user-base.Double-down on growth loopsWhen I first started as a product marketer, I assumed that launches were your one and only chance of gaining new users. Get it right and you’re propelled to success. Get it wrong and there’s no second chance. But, as most experienced marketers will tell you, that’s not the only option. Sure, launches can build awareness, interest, and engagement with a new product. But typically that hype is short-lived. After a day, or perhaps a few hours, the launch will fade from customers’ minds. The email is archived, the post is read, and the Twitter feed refreshes. To continuously grow usage for a new product in a sustainable way, you’ll need to build growth loops into your marketing efforts and product design that consistently attract new users without active marketing effort.What’s a growth loop?“Loops are closed systems where the inputs through some process generates more of an output that can be reinvested in the input. There are growth loops that serve different value creation including new users, returning users, defensibility, or efficiency.” (Reforge 2020)With Start Page, we purposefully built a growth loop into the product’s user interface. Here’s how it works: The customer creates a Start PageThe customer shares the Start Page as a link in bioA follower views the Start PageThe follower scrolls to the bottom and clicks “Powered By Buffer”The follower creates their own Start Page♻️ and the loop continuesThe Start Page growth loop.So far, 3,362 people have clicked this “Powered By Buffer” link, and 91 (2.71 percent) have gone on to create their own Start Page. These aren’t astronomical numbers, but it’s a cycle that will continue to deliver as usage grows. What’s unique about these loops is that they don’t require active marketing effort. Get it right, and the growth will propel itself, especially if a few Start Pages go viral. A day after launching, we noticed NATO had created a Start Page, that was a pretty cool endorsement.Sooooo we launched Start Page yesterday.And @NATO created one. 🤯 (https://t.co/HR030U1FK8) pic.twitter.com/9U6kPhoZs7— Tom Redman (@redman) October 14, 2021

Earlier this year, we also noticed an extremely popular BTS fan account sharing a Start Page which generated 5,957 retweets.12AM KSTDARK&WILD 🎧https://t.co/kQOrYRQzCc pic.twitter.com/v7UZGLc5ZU— BTS Charts (@btschartdata) February 1, 2022

The BTS Start Page is no longer active, but the results were tremendous. On one Start Page for BTS’s PTD gigs, 2,337 people clicked the “Powered by Buffer” link. Not bad, for a small link right at the bottom of the page. Not all growth loops need to go viral though. There are simple growth loops that all of us can build. Mike Eckstein, a Senior Product Marketer here at Buffer, realized that we were sending thousands of onboarding emails to new customers every month. Yet, only ~10 percent of them were creating a Start Page. So, why not tweak those onboarding emails to promote Start Page.Before and after adding the onboarding email growth loop.This small loop had a major impact.Mike sharing the results with the team.The onboarding emails alone doubled traffic to the Start Page landing page from January to March. Just like other growth loops, this model for gaining users is sustainable:Users sign up to Buffer and receive the onboarding email sequenceSome click the link to create a Start PageThese users share that Start Page publicly with their audienceMembers of that audience find out about Buffer and create a Buffer account♻️ and the loop continues.Today, 73 percent of new Start Pages are created by new Buffer users, showcasing the big impact small tweaks can make. But that’s not all! We now promote Start Page on our login page, which is visited around 400,000 times a month, massively increasing the awareness. And we shipped a new landing page, which improved conversions from 0.8 percent to 3.5 percent.  What’s next?For Start Page, our approach to both product marketing and development has been to focus. To hone in on the features and marketing campaigns that will deliver results and double down on them. On the product side, we’ve launched five new features based on feedback. While on the marketing side, we’ve relaunched our landing page to try and rank on Google for popular terms like “link in bio”. We’ll share an update on that work on the blog soon. In the meantime, why not create your own Start Page for free.

Last week, HubSpot wrapped up the third annual World Certification Week – a global virtual event where learners and peers from all around the world connected and grew by dedicating time to their professional development.
This community of people learned about a variety of industry topics, connected with fellow learners and thought leaders, and earned thousands of HubSpot certifications. HubSpot certifications are awarded year-round, but for one week, we donated $5 to education-focused organizations for every certification completed.
The first World Certification Day kicked off in 2020 when a team member bought a “certification day” web domain and we awarded over 2,300 certifications. This event has continued to grow each year, with over 7,800 certifications awarded in 2021 and 11,159 certifications in 2022.
We are lucky to bring people together to share in the sense of community, give back, and grow better. Thanks to you, we were able to donate $10,000 in 2020, $35,000 in 2021, and $50,000 in 2022.

In addition to learning and supporting a good cause, participants from around the world were dedicated to making World Certification Week fun. From learning together in groups and taking certifications live to friendly competitions and certification-inspired videos, participants got creative and made the World Certification Week their own.
World Certification Week Impact
We want to thank the 7,815 of you who took part in World Certification Week and completed 11,159 certifications.
By participating, you advanced your career and gained valuable knowledge while helping others. Your contributions will have a big impact on others as well.
This year’s World Certification Week donations are supporting the following organizations:

Teach For All is a network of partner organizations that came together to develop collective leadership and to ensure children from all around the globe get the opportunity to fulfill their potential.
Laboratoria’s mission is to create opportunities for women in Latin America by developing an inclusive and diverse digital economy.
The Clontarf Foundation aspires to help young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men to improve their education, discipline, life skills, and self-esteem and equip them with the tools to participate more meaningfully in society.
The Halogen Foundation is a not-for-profit Institution of a Public Character (IPC) charity that aims to help young people reach their potential to influence and lead by becoming positive change agents.

What’s next?
We are already excited about what’s in store for WCW 2023 when more learners, companies, and agencies will take part in this initiative and extend the impact.
Until then, you can take HubSpot Academy courses any day of the year. From Inbound to Contextual Marketing, choose the courses that will help you excel in what you do and grow better. See you next year!

Think of every group project you’ve been in – whether in high school, college, internship, or other.
Often, someone would naturally take the reigns without being officially appointed as the leader – that’s called emergent leadership and it’s something you may want to leverage in your professional life.

Learn the key characteristics of emergent leadership, examples of it in daily life, and the benefits of this approach.

Emergent leadership allows the right leader to be elected once they have demonstrated their potential in group settings. This will be someone who has earned the respect and trust of their colleagues and are able to inspire them.
Too often, companies bring in new leaders and there’s a big adjustment period. They may struggle with communication, understanding their teams’ values, establishing trust, or a number of key elements needed to propel a team forward.
This approach democratizes leadership by letting employees make key decisions regarding not only their leaders but also their projects. As a result, you can get employees who are more invested in the company and serve as its champion.
Promoting emergent leadership within your team is all about fostering an environment of collaboration and ownership. As a manager, you will serve as a resource while allowing your team to take the lead.
By creating this environment, your direct reports will feel comfortable bringing their full selves to work and take the lead whenever their skills align.
To recap, emergent leadership:

Promotes ownership and independence over one’s work.
Fosters a collaborative environment.
Can create a more cohesive team.
Prevents bottlenecks by empowering employees to be decision-makers.

Emergent Leadership Characteristics
Wondering how to identify a leader within your organization? Here are some key traits to look for.
Influential
A key characteristic of any leader is someone who is capable of impacting someone’s character and/or behavior.
Look for comments from team members like “X suggested this approach,” and “After speaking with X, I…” – Statements like these demonstrate the impact that someone has on other members of the team.
Reliable
If anything, a leader should be reliable as it’s key to building trust. It means you rely on that person to be consistent and dependable. Whether that’s in their work, communication, or another format.
How do your direct reports show up for others? Do they provide resources? Are they available to mentor? Do they follow through? If the answer’s “yes,” you’ve got a reliable person on your hands.
Inspiring
A great leader helps others feel they are capable of more. When you’re evaluating your staff, an emergent leader is someone who brings fresh ideas and perspectives, cheers others on, and is always striving to improve.
Collaborative
Emergent leadership can only happen in a collaborative environment. Look for people who celebrate new perspectives, create space for others, and invite knowledge exchanges.
Emergent Leadership Examples
The most popular example of emergent leadership comes from the famous medical TV drama, “Grey’s Anatomy.” In one episode, residents were tasked with solving a difficult case together. The goal was to help them work better together but also see who would naturally emerge as the leader of the group.
The most extroverted person in the group often seems like the obvious choice but that’s not always the answer. Just like in real life, the emergent leader in the show was the one who displayed an ability to listen, delegate, make decisions, and inspire confidence from others.
Now back to real life.
Photo app VSCO is one company that leverages emergent leadership to encourage brand champions in its own employees.
According to its former VP of People and Places, Katy Shields, the brand believes that giving up control early on in the company’s growth can help it self-correct in the face of adversity.
Back in 2015, Laszlo Bock, former SVP of People Operations at Google explained how Google tackled this.

He said, “What we realized…is that giving up power is just as important to leadership as seizing power.”
Assigned leadership is the straightforward approach most organizations take. However, emergent leadership could prove to be more effective.

Pinterest is often undervalued by social media marketers and considered an unnecessary component of a marketing strategy — unfortunately, if this isn’t the case for your team, you could be missing out on a major source of traffic and income.
Pinterest offers plenty of unique opportunities for marketers to reach leads and influence consumer purchasing behavior. In fact, Pinners are 7x more influential than any other platform along their purchasing journey.

If you’re interested in exploring how Pinterest advertising can help you attract customers, keep reading.
Pinterest Advertising
With over 442 million monthly active users, Pinterest is a great place for businesses to advertise products. Ads show up on users’ feeds and searches in the same format as a regular Pin, making the experience unobtrusive for users while putting your content right in front of them.
There is a large potential reach when you create ads for Pinterest audiences — and, best of all, users are also actively searching the site for products like yours to buy.
Why Advertise on Pinterest

The reach can be incredible. If your content is engaging and valuable, it can be re-pinned again and again to different users’ boards and continue to drive consumers back to your website.
Pins have a much longer lifespan than Tweets or Instagram posts. This longevity makes them a particularly powerful asset. Pins can show up in a user’s feed months after initially posted.
Pinterest drives purchases. According to Pinterest’s Feed Optimization Playbook, 83% of weekly “Pinners” have made a purchase based on content they saw from brands on Pinterest.

All of which is to say — a paid advertising strategy for Pinterest isn’t such a bad idea, and could help bolster your organic presence by gaining traction with potential buyers, and improving brand recognition.

Pinterest Ad Types
There are a few ways to promote your content on Pinterest. To determine which ad format is best for your business, it’s important to know the goals of your campaign and the attributes of each Pinterest promotion format.
1. Try On Product Pins
Accessory and beauty businesses have a new way to interact with users through Ads. Pinterest’s Try on feature uses augmented reality to enable users on the app to virtually try on products using Pinterest Lens. This feature will combine your content with their technology to create a virtual fitting room for users.
Image Source
Businesses will need to go through their Pinterest account manager to get set up and must already have a product catalog uploaded.
2. Idea Pins
Idea Pins are Pinterest’s multi-page video format that allows creators to make their video content shoppable. Creators can partner with brands to utilize affiliate links and sponsored content.
Image Source
These are similar to Instagram Stories, but with a bevy of publishing tools. Ideal Pins come with:

Video recording and editing for up to 20 pages of content
Voice over recording so creators can add their own personal voice
Ghost mode transition tools (for before & after videos)
Detail pages for instructions or ingredients
Multi-draft save feature
Topic and user tagging

The new feature has already proven to be a standout for Pinners garnering 9x more comments than traditional pins. Pinners are 89% more likely to exhibit shopping intent on products tagged in Idea Pins than on standalone Product Pins.
3. Promoted Pins
At first glance, Promoted Pins look and act just like a regular static Pin, but they have a small “Promoted” label to set them apart. Promoted Pins are boosted and targeted to reach more people. Users can even pin your Promoted Pins to their boards, share them, and comment on them.
Once a user shares a Promoted Pin, the “Promoted” label disappears, and subsequent re-pins are considered earned media — meaning, after the first pin, organic exposure to the content is free.
Here are some guidelines to follow when creating a Promoted Pin advertisement:

The file has to be PNG or JPEG.
Your content cannot go over 10 MB.
There is a description copy limit of 500 characters.
Your aspect ratio must be 2:3 and should be vertically oriented.

Image Source
4. Video Pins
Promoted Video Pins are exactly like Promoted Pins — except the static image is replaced with a video.
Seven out of 10 Pinners say Pinterest is where they go to find new products, making video a great medium to reach and engage potential customers. Therefore, just as with Idea Pins, Pinterest and video advertising go hand-in-hand.
Pinterest offers two options for video sizing: max-width, or standard. Standard videos are the same size as regular Pins and cost less than a max-width Pin, which spreads across a user’s entire feed.
No matter what size you choose, Pinterest videos auto-play once they’re 50 percent in view. Plus, the Promoted Video Pins have a conversion optimization option to better serve advertisers with traffic or conversion goals. This new option brings the user to a landing page on the advertiser’s website, as well as a close-up of the video.
Here are some guidelines to follow when creating a Promoted Video Pin advertisement:

The file has to be either an MP4 or MOV.
Your video cannot exceed 2 GB.
The video must meet a minimum of four seconds, and cannot go over 15 minutes.
Your aspect ratio must fall between 1:91:1 and 1:2.
There is a description copy limit of 500 characters.
Make sure to create a video that’s not dependent on audio for greater accessibility and for those who scroll with sound off.

5. Carousels
Promoted Carousels contain up to five images that users can swipe through. Carousels are used to give a deeper brand story within one Pin.
This feature behaves the same as other Pins, except it will have dots beneath the images that signal additional content. Each carousel image can be different and have a different title, description, and link to another landing page.
Here are some guidelines to follow when creating a Promoted Carousel advertisement:

File type: PNG or JPEG
Ideal aspect ratio: 1:1 or 2:3
File size: Max 10 MB
Title copy: Max 100 characters
Description copy: Max 500 characters

6. Collections
Collection ads appear as a combination of one larger, hero image (or video) followed by three smaller, secondary photos. When a user taps on a collection ad, they’re taken to a full-screen experience where they can view the hero image and up to 24 secondary images.
Image Source
They’re a great way to showcase a variety of products in one ad. Plus, they are easy to create using the catalog feature. Just select the product groups you’d like to feature from your catalog and Pinterest create an ad that displays the most relevant products for the user from your product feed.
Currently, collections ads can only be created on desktop and are targeted to users on the mobile app.
7. Shopping
Pinterest shopping ads let you target customers early while they’re just browsing. Like Collections, these ads are created by pulling from your product catalog. When a user clicks on your image or video, it takes them directly to a link where they can purchase the product.
Simply set up your product groups in catalog and Pinterest will use your product data to show relevant products to users. With this feature, there’s no need to set up any additional targeting.

Curious about how to advertise on Pinterest? We’ll walk through all the steps next.
1. Create a business account.
First you’ll need to create a Pinterest business account. This will give you access to all of their ad tools and features. You also have the option to convert your personal account to a business one once you’ve logged in.
2. Choose your campaign objective.
Each of your Pinterest campaigns starts with an objective. Choosing your campaign goal is what determines what ad formats are available to you. There are several categories to choose from — Build Awareness, Consideration, Conversions, and more.
If you’re not sure what you need, you can select one of the goals listed in the short questionnaire pictured below to get started.
Conversion optimization is a campaign objective that optimizes your advertisements for specific actions outside of clicks. Now, advertisers have a way to directly inspire people to take action — like leading a user to an online checkout or newsletter sign-up with no extra steps.
If you want people to discover your business, choose Brand awareness for standard Pins or Video views for Promoted Video Pins as your campaign objective. For these two objectives, you can set a maximum cost for every 1,000 impressions your ad receives.
If your Pinterest goals are to drive qualified leads to your website or improve traffic, choose Traffic or App install for your campaign objective.
For these campaigns, you set a maximum cost-per-click — which means you are only charged when people click through your Promoted Pin to visit your website.
3. Set your campaign budget.
If you want to spend your campaign money evenly over a specific time period, select lifetime. Select daily to choose the amount spent each day. You’ll have to automatically adjust the budgets based on how long you want your ad to deliver.

Next, you’ll set a maximum bid. A bid determines the highest amount of money you’d like to pay for an action, like an engagement or click, on Pinterest. Pinterest will recommend an amount for you depending on your target audience, and what competitors are spending.
Make sure your budget for Pinterest ads reflect your overall marketing goals and the importance of the platform for your business.
4. Create an Ad group.
With Ad groups you can lump together related ads within the same campaign and track them.
For example you could create a beauty campaign with one ad group for “women 35 to 45” and another for “women under 30” and see which performs better.
5. Choose your target audience.
Targeting allows you to reach people who are searching for your content and who are ready to actively engage. Targeting is an important part of promoted ads because, without it, you’ll have less interest.

Pinterest has several targeting options that you can use singularly or combine together for a unique targeting approach.

Audiences combine your customer knowledge with behavioral insights from Pinterest. If someone has recently bought something from your site or engaged with your Pinterest content, this allows you to target that person for an ad.
Keywords show your ad to someone who is searching for that kind of content. If you set specific keywords like “tropical vacation” or “apple pie recipes”, your ads will target people searching for those things.
Interests target people based on the types of content they regularly engage with. Your apple pie recipe ads would most likely be served to people who have an interest in baking or preparing for Thanksgiving.
Expanded will provide you with additional interest and keywords based on your ad’s content and who you’re trying to reach.
Demographics allows you to select a specific location, language, device, or gender.
Placements gives you the option to choose where your ad is delivered. If you don’t want your promoted Pins to show up when someone is browsing, and only appear in search results, you can specify that here.

6. Design your ad.
Now it’s time to create an ad. For this you can use an image that you have already pinned or start with the template below.

7. Maximize your SEO efforts.
By adding an interest and keywords to your descriptions, they become more relevant to people who are actively searching for that content. Keep in mind that hashtags don’t add any ranking value.
On Pinterest, categories of interest are already sorted and categorized. You should explore the available topics that are relevant to your business and target those queries — if you need inspiration, check out the seven categories that do exceptionally well on Pinterest.
Your boards also provide an opportunity for SEO. Boards inform Pinterest’s search engine on how to categorize your Pins, which improves visibility. Focusing on both will support your SEO efforts.
8. Add value.
Endless product promotions on a Pinterest feed aren’t the best way to get an audience’s attention — and keep it. More than likely, you’ll just become a disruption and get unfollowed. You have to add value to every touchpoint with your customer for them to engage with your content.
To add value on Pinterest, try adding Pins that your audience will want to engage with that don’t include your product or business. You might offer added value by showcasing services or interests that compliment your own.
For example, if you sell cars, share content about upkeep or car accessories. Alternatively, if you’re running a Pinterest page for a coffee shop, try Pinning playlist ideas for people to listen to while they work. There is plenty of content available to curate for your audience’s benefit.
9. Mix up your content.
If you’re busy targeting your content to a persona, you’ll miss out on the organic connections and interests of your audience. While helpful for first steps, personas don’t give you everything you need to know about the people who are interacting with your ads.
Keep your content seasonal and relevant. Yes, it is good to make evergreen content — but don’t miss out on pop culture or holiday opportunities to spark interest.
10. Monitor campaign performance.
Finally, you need to keep an eye on your campaign performance to determine the success of your ads, or why they didn’t perform as you expected.
When you’re in Pinterest Ads Manager, click on Analytics and you’ll be shown an overview of all your campaigns and key metrics. These metrics include impressions, total clicks, earned cost-per-impression, effective cost-per-click, and more.
Every campaign has the opportunity to increase brand awareness or inspire purchases. After looking at your analytics, you can determine whether or not you need to widen your audience, increase your budget, or try a different ad format. Pinterest advertisements are not an exact science, so experiments are key to being successful on the platform.
Now that the logistics are out of the way, check out the Pinterest ad examples below for inspiration.
Pinterest Ad Examples
Each of these ads is an example of Pinterest advertising done right with actionable tips that you can take away as you create your own:
1. Ulta
Image Source
Pinterest is an excellent platform for beauty brands to showcase their products. This video ad from Ulta takes advantage of seasonality in the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day, creating an ad that is captivating and timely.
2. Ruggable

Image Source
In this ad, the image speaks for itself, which lends well to the visual nature of the Pinterest platform. The rug is front and center in an attractive home space that draws the eye (and probably triggers the shopping tendencies of those who like decorating). It does come with a catchy tagline: “Back to Homeschool.” Because who needs a back-to-school sale to buy cool stuff?
3. Love Sweat Fitness

Image Source
A big audience on Pinterest is the foodies who love to find and share recipes. Love Sweat Fitness, a fitness brand, is appealing to that crowd with easy and healthy holiday sides. The best part of the ad is how it combines high-quality imagery with attractive typography.
4. Acuity Scheduling

Image Source
One thing to take away from this ad is that Pinterest advertising isn’t just for home goods, recipes, and ecommerce. Those in the B2B space can definitely take advantage of the advertising opportunities… and who knows, your audience might be browsing for home goods, too.
This ad sets up the value proposition in a text format and gets right at the heart of the audience’s pains: “Stop scheduling time to schedule clients.” They then pair it with a call-to-action: “Start Booking Now.”
5. Torrid

Image Source
In this Pinterest ad, Torrid is using retargeting options to put their products in front of people who already visited the Torrid website. After visiting this product’s page on torrid.com, the ad “followed” me to Pinterest to stay top of mind and earn the sale.
Create Your Pinterest Campaign
Now that you have seen what Pinterest ads can look like, take the inspiration from the examples above and put it to action on your own advertising efforts.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in April 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.