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When it comes to your business’ branding strategy, establishing a logo is one of the most critical tasks.
Your logo will be pervasive throughout your marketing campaigns, and it’s one of the most prominent branding elements people will think of when someone mentions your company.

Mounting research backs up how important a logo can be to your brand. In fact, a recent study from the Journal of Marketing Research found that an effectively designed logo can “influence brand evaluations, purchase intentions, and brand performance.”
Not sure what it takes to create a killer brand logo? To give you a better idea, check out our list of stand-out logos below.
Logo Examples
1. Geometric Logos

Geometric shapes are highly effective at creating stylish and fun designs. Some can even evoke feelings of movement. It’s particularly popular amongst big brands from Google to Adidas — also proving that you don’t need to belong to a specific industry to use it. The final result is often a clean and modern design.
2. Negative Space Logos

Negative space logos are all about leveraging what you don’t see. Because these logos take more thought to execute, you can typically spot subtle meanings. For instance, you may see hidden letters, icons, or names. A great example is the FedEx logo which uses negative space to create an arrow between the “e” and “x” letters.
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You don’t have to be super obvious with your negative space. Often, these logos use it to add small details that complement the main visual.
3. Typography-Based Logos

Typography can add a clever spin on traditional logos. We often see two varieties — one where typography enhances the imagery (see Hatchet), and the other where typography is incorporated within the imagery, giving it structure (see Burger King).
In the examples above, we see the text and graphics working in harmony — in other words, you can’t have one without the other.
4. Hand-Drawn Logos

Hand-drawn logos feel similar to a personal signature. It gives brands an authentic, rustic, down-to-earth, and even child-like feeling. Most incorporate a sketch of a scene, object, idea, or symbol. Because no two hand-drawn designs are alike, this style almost guarantees a unique and original logo.
5. Overlapping Logos

By using multiple layers, you can create more complex and colorful logos without overwhelming the viewer. It’s an effective strategy that “interrupts” visual elements — or even text — within a design. That said, these logos can be hard to pull off without a designer, so we recommend leaving this trend to the professionals.
Logo Examples in Ads
6. McDonald’s

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McDonald’s “Follow the Arches” campaign highlights the power of logos — even if you can’t see all of it.
It features a portion of its golden arches logo along with a simple line of text — such as “On your left” and “On your right.” With the creative use of its logo and signature colors, consumers instantly recognize the brand — and know that it’s just around the corner.
7. Curtis

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Curtis brings the smell and taste of fruit to life. Add the steam on top, and your mouth begins to water. The yellow logo on the tea label also brings a nice contrast to an otherwise monotone color scheme.
8. Nescafé

This black-and-white ad for Nescafé features rows and rows of zig-zags. It seems confusing at first, until you read the tagline, “Nothing wakes you up as Nescafé.”
Suddenly, these zig-zags become Z’s to represent sleep, and they eventually “wake up” and transform into the Nescafé logo. It’s a playful ad that uses symbols to illustrate the relationship between sleep and coffee.
Logo Examples in Literature
9. Underhill Press

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Here’s another example of an ad that uses the power of symbolism in its logo. Books are born from trees — which is an obvious comparison. But trees also symbolize wisdom, growth, and learning — which artfully plays into the brand’s ethos. Trees are also a critical resource to the environment, as books are to people.
10. Rosebery

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You can see a logo a hundred times without recognizing its full meaning — which is why I like this logo in particular.
Not only does it depict a child reading, but the book also doubles as wings. You can interpret it in multiple ways — for example, books can give kids wings to unleash their imagination or understand the world around them. It’s an effective logo that calls for a second — or even third — glance.
Sources for Logo Inspiration
Arguably the hardest part of creating a logo is knowing where to start. To light your creative spark, we’ve compiled a list of logo inspiration to get the ball rolling.
1. Creative Market

Creative Market is a designer’s playground with over 3 million unique fonts, graphics, themes, photos, and templates.
Use the search bar to browse through logos that match your style or profession. If something catches your eye, you can purchase and download designs right on the platform — or simply use it to gather inspiration.
2. Dribble

Dribble operates as an online portfolio for designers. In fact, it’s one of the largest platforms for designers to share and promote their work — making it an ideal hub for finding inspiration.
Plus, if you want to hire a professional, you can contact artists directly on Dribble or use its Project Board to post a job.
3. Logoimport

Logoimport is an Instagram account that shares designs, illustrations, and graphic inspo from various designers. The account does a great job of tagging the artist on each post, so if something piques your interest, you can view more of an artists’ work with just a few taps.
4. Behance

Owned by Adobe, Behance is a social media platform for artists to showcase and share their creative work.
What’s unique about Behance is its advanced search functionality. Want to browse logos that are all blue? No problem. Want to browse logos that are solely made with Photoshop? You can do that, too. With Behance, you can quickly narrow your searches to see the most relevant designs.
Logo Samples That Anyone Can Use
You don’t need to hire a professional designer — or have an extensive background in graphic design – to create an eye-catching logo. Instead, online resources can help you design one in just a few steps. Take a look at our list below:
1. Canva Templates

If you can’t pin down exactly what you want your logo to look like, try browsing through Canva’s premade design templates. Once you land on a design you like, simply click to download it. This will open the Canva editor where you can customize the text and color scheme of your logo.
Keep in mind that some Canva templates are free, while others may require a Pro account.
2. Logomakr

Logomakr is a tool that allows you to design a logo from scratch with thousands of stock icons and hundreds of fonts. If that’s too much of a feat, you can simply use one of its templates and customize the text, color, and graphics to match your branding.
Although Logomakr is a free tool, you have the option to pay for professional assistance should you need help designing your logo.
3. Logo Garden

If you think it takes days to create a logo, Logo Garden, a design tool, says it can be done in minutes. Its software contains a vast library of graphics, fonts, and colors to build even the most intricate logos. If you get stuck along the way, it also offers design tips and videos to guide you.
After the design is complete, just download it to your computer for a small fee.
4. Designimo

Designimo is a great starting point for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the design process. When you visit the website, you are prompted to share your company name. Once you do so, it will open a new screen with a variety of logos that feature your company name.
From here, you can visualize what style and colors best fit your brand. Or, narrow down your search results by industry — such as real estate, health care, or apparel. This will populate the most relevant designs to pick from.
5. GraphicSprings

GraphicSprings is a design software that promises beautiful logos in three easy steps — first, pick a template from its library, which are categorized under different industries. Then, edit the graphic and text of your logo with its easy drag-and-drop menu. Lastly, download your design for a small fee. Voila, it’s just that simple.
Creating an Effective Logo
Even if you think you’ve landed on a perfect design that’s classic, memorable, and valuable to your messaging, it can be helpful to look at what brands around you are doing to modernize, evolve, or improve their own designs. This way, when it’s time for your logo to get a refresher, you’ll be ready with some great ideas.

“Hi, I am Rogers, a webmaster, a blog writer and a normal E-commerce businessman. I have been running Amazon and Shopify stores for more than 3 years. During the period of running my own stores, I’ve been super aware of the exhaustion and helplessness of doing e-commerce business sometimes. This is the main reason why I created my ecommeCommerceerce tool collection website. There are over 300 tools and software I used or knew collected on this site, which help sellers with their product research, supplier finding, data analysis, keywords finding, SEO, Affiliate marketing… I believe these tools, software, and tutorials can improve our efficiency to some extent. I’m still working on some details right now, but it’s basically done.” Hope you can enjoy my collection here and I also wanna say thank to some kind people here who once gave me feedbacks and encouragement! I wish you all do well, and most importantly, be healthy~ (Here’s the site address) (Btw, If you have any suggestions for the site, please let me know right away:)
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This question, just like pretty much any question about email marketing, has a very simple answer: it depends. Why? Because there are so many variables that come into play with any email marketing campaign. There may be best practices to go off of or even some more methods that seem to be tried and true,…
The post What Day and Time Should You Be Sending Your Email Newsletters? appeared first on Benchmark Email.

Hiring generally comes with ebbs and flows. During one six-month stretch in 2021, a particularly busy season, I spent more than 120 working hours in six months asking more than 350 individuals the same seven questions for our Buffer values screen. At the end of each conversation, I’d turn the conversation over to them, and many of them asked the same few questions, which I’ll cover in another post.
In that time and with the intensity of the sheer volume of calls, I’ve gained a lot of clarity: about hiring, about what candidates are looking for right now, and about myself as well.
Here are a few of those reflections and some of our values questions that you can ponder, too. We’ve been told they’re thought provoking for many candidates.
Hiring at Buffer
Buffer’s hiring process has grown and evolved a lot over the past eight years that I’ve been on the team. One thing remains constant and vital: we begin interviews with a values screen. (Psst, we also intentionally do not seek out “culture fit” anymore – here’s why.)
The general process looks like this:

Application review: We’re reviewing resumes and asking role-specific questions.
Values screen: We screen candidates with Buffer’s values in mind, we do about 15-20 values screens per role via Zoom.
Role or team interview: The hiring manager or fellow teammates interview candidates via Zoom.
(Optional) Technical screen: This is an exercise and then an interview for technical roles done via Zoom.
Executive interview: A final interview with a member of Buffer’s Executive team.

Sometimes the order of these move, or in some roles we find we need to add a take-home test, but this is the process template we start with when we’re hiring.
Our pipeline is fueled by inbound applications and because we are hiring from a global talent pool, we can have upwards of 600 to 800 applications for one open spot on the team. That’s a staggering amount of applicants, and it’s a highly flattering problem to have. The values screen as a first step in the process after reviewing applications helps us reduce a pool of really qualified candidates down to those who are also super aligned with Buffer.
What is the values screen?
The values screen is a nebulous thing and it’s the one interview where you don’t have “wrong” answers in the classic sense. The questions are prompts for us to converse and for us to listen to how a candidate speaks about themselves, their career, and their outlook on a few of our values. It truly is more about the heart behind it and less about a right or ideal answer. Or as one candidate called it, a “vibe check.”
We also tend to value characteristics that otherwise might not be seen as “correct” by other interview standards. Here’s an example: We used to ask the question, “How do you feel life has turned out for you so far?” The goal here wasn’t to hear any one answer. We used this question to measure resilience, optimism and authenticity.
We stopped using this question because 2020 has made this a bit more of a loaded and personal question. We now ask, “What motivates you in life?”
Here’s another secret: I don’t look for answers that fit the mold. If someone says, “Continuously learning or solving a puzzle,” that’s great and fine. If someone says, “My family or money,” that’s also fine. In fact, the more off-the-cuff or true the answer rings, the better.
Who progresses past the values screen?
It’s cliche to some extent, but it’s absolutely true at Buffer: We want to find people who we feel will be equally content here at Buffer as we will with them and their skill set.
Sometimes candidates are exceedingly qualified, but their answers lead me to think they won’t feel as successful in our unique work environment. This is definitely a judgement call and I’m not always correct. But all interviews involve some measure of subjectivity. We have typically four to five rounds of interviews and include a diverse set of interviewers to double check against bias and inconsistency.
This is all evolving
As I write this, I’m handing over all of hiring to our new Talent Acquisition and Onboarding Manager, Janet, as I transition my role to focus more on engagement and culture-building activities for our company. While I learned about HR and hiring while on the job here at Buffer (and thanks to a certification from the Society of Human Resources Management), Janet has spent many years in recruiting and is already offering a fresh outlook on our hiring approach, pipeline management, and applicant experience.
So while some of the elements I’ve touched on might evolve over the next few months or years, I hope it offers some insight to how we’ve hired at Buffer and what we look for.
What questions do you have about how we hire or our values screen? Send us a tweet!

As a writer, I know all about the importance of great hooks.
A good hook is imperative for holding your audience’s attention, and ultimately convincing your audience that you’re worth hearing out.
In sales, it’s no different.
A good sales hook can prevent your prospect from hanging up the phone, or deleting your email entirely. And a great sales hook can start your entire conversation off on the right foot.
Here, we asked six sales reps their tips for creating a convincing sales hook to turn prospects into customers. But first … what is a sales hook?
(If you already know what a sales hook is, and how to create one, feel free to skip to the section where we highlight HubSpot sales reps’ real-life examples.)

What is a sales hook?
A sales hook is the same thing as a sales pitch. Essentially, a sales hook (or pitch) is a condensed sales presentation that gets the conversation started regarding what your business is, as well as your product or services’ main benefits.
A sales hook should be a quick, 1-2 minute rundown of how your product or service can help your prospect. A concise, persuasive sales hook opens the door to longer conversations down the line.
Also considered an ‘elevator pitch’, your sales hook can be delivered via email, over the phone, or in person. However, your strategy will need to shift depending on the platform you use to communicate with the prospect. An in-person hook sounds different than an email hook.
Next, let’s explore how you can create a sales hook.
5 Tips for Creating a Sales Hook, According to HubSpot Sales Reps
1. Do your customer research.
To create a sales hook, you’ll want to start by researching the customer — including their unique challenges, pain points, and needs.
HubSpot Sales Manager Alex Santangelo recommends speaking in the prospect’s language.
“For instance,” Santangelo says, “If you’re speaking to a customer in the B2C e-commerce space, you don’t want to use language that reflects a B2B buyer’s typical goals — instead, you’ll want to talk about how your product will help reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC) and increase customer lifetime value — concepts that are specifically top-of-mind for an e-commerce buyer.”
Consider, for instance, what your prospects’ goals are — and then work backwards. What potential challenges could inhibit your prospect from reaching their goals? What are they missing in their current strategy? How can you save them time or money?
Doing your research includes getting creative about figuring out your prospect’s situation. For instance, let’s say you’re pitching a social media tool. For starters, you’ll want to take a look at your prospect’s existing social media content, and seek out areas for improvement. Then use this information to guide your hook.  
In this example, a good hook might be: “I noticed your brand is active on LinkedIn and Facebook, but hasn’t taken advantage of Instagram. A competitor I’ve worked with in your industry saw 37% audience growth and 12% increase in sales as a result of implementing a strong Instagram influencer strategy using our social media tool. Want to know more?”
Brian Pickett, a mid-market sales rep at HubSpot, agrees that conducting adequate research ahead of your hook is critical for success.
As Pickett puts it, “I often see new sales reps pitch a product before they have gathered enough information from the prospective buyer. My advice is to truly understand who you are speaking with, what metrics they care about, how things are done today, and where your product can help them specifically.”
Pickett adds, “Once you have this information, it’s important to craft your sales hook around the details they shared with you while using their language, not your own. A good sales hook is not one-size-fits-all but crafted around the prospect and their needs, goals, and desires.”

2. Figure out the customer’s pain points.
As any psychologist will tell you: The pain of losing is twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining.
Which is why your hook doesn’t need to focus on the benefits of your product or service. Instead, it should focus on your prospect’s pain points — and how you can solve for them.
If you’re unsure how to learn a customer’s pain points, you’re in luck — we’ve written a whole post about that.
A customer’s pain points might include positioning pain points (i.e. “No one knows who our company is”), financial pain points (“Revenue is up, but profitability is low”), or process pain points (“Customer churn is high because our service department is inundated and can’t keep up”).
Figuring out your customer’s biggest pain points is vital for creating a narrative in which your product or service becomes a necessity to your customer’s success or long-term growth. Of course, you don’t want to lie and pretend your product is a solution if it isn’t one. If you identify a prospect’s pain point and recognize your product isn’t a good solution for their needs, that’s a strong sign you’ll want to move on and find prospects that are a better fit.
3. Ask a question as your sales hook.
Associate Inbound Growth Specialist Dan Taft recommends creating a hook that starts with a question.
“As someone who came from a restaurant background and jumped into this B2B sales world cold, something that helped me immensely was to put myself in the shoes of the person I am selling to — for instance, rather than using bland subject lines like ‘HubSpot intro’, I’d try something like ‘growth strategy’ or ‘revenue targets 2022’, to help connect with folks on topics they care about.”
Additionally, Taft recommends making educated guesses on what your prospect’s challenge might be, and then addressing that challenge through a question.
As an example, he says, “You could say something like, ‘How many hours does it take you a week to create reports?’ It’s great when you get a response like, ‘Way too long’ back.”
HubSpot ​​Growth Specialist Jack Chascin also encourages reps to consider how they might tailor their hooks towards the prospect in a way that encourages a positive response.
“For instance,” Chascin says, “if I’m targeting a manufacturing company I want to make sure I’m sharing relevant information that resonates with the pain points my solution can solve for in that industry.”

Chascin says, “If I’m in the prospects shoes, I’d be a lot more apt to respond to someone who I believe has taken the time to try and understand me and my role than someone who is reaching out to me as just another prospect.”

 
4. Practice active listening skills.
Giving an effective hook isn’t about making a statement and walking away — instead, it’s about spending more time listening to the prospect than you spend speaking.
Tori Rotermund, a Principal Account Executive at HubSpot, told me one tip she gives new sales reps is to ensure their sales hook lines up with what the prospect wants to accomplish — something you’ll only figure out by listening.
As Rotermund puts it, “Active listening and asking the right questions are critical to understanding 1) if and how we can help, and 2) articulating it to the customer in a way that gets them excited and makes them feel confident in your solution.”
Sales reps who practice active listening should focus on what the customer is actually saying, rather than waiting until they’re done talking to launch into a pre-planned pitch. Active listening is a four-part process and requires you to listen, confirm you heard the customer correctly, ask relevant follow-up questions, and let the customer guide the conversation.

5. Make it personal and have some fun with it.
HubSpot Sales BDR Amber Brown-Hospedale told me she would encourage new reps to have fun with their sales hook.
Brown-Hospedale says, “This is your first impression in connecting with someone. Make it personal, but also have fun as if you were going out for coffee, or hanging out after work.”
She adds, “There was one prospect I was reaching out to and I realized in addition to sales and marketing, her storytelling interests involved theatre, as well. So, I wrote: ‘Is there a particular day this week or next that works best to put time on the calendar? If nothing else, as a former theatre major we can block some time off in your day to come up with our own soliloquies of the season? Hah!’”
Brown-Hospedale told me the prospect soon followed up, said “LOL”, and booked time with her. Adding a personal touch shows the prospect you’ve done your research, and it will ideally also make them smile.
These prospects are people, after all, with a myriad of interests and hobbies outside of work — figure out how to connect with them on a personal level, and you’ll find it easier to gain their trust and establish a strong relationship from the beginning.
If you’re pressed for time, consider implementing a tool like Icebreaker, which sends you articles already curated by your own internal teams to effectively re-engage the prospect and elicit a response.
Additionally, equipping your sales reps with a tool like Co-Pilot, which curates personalized conversation starters related to local weather, local and company-specific headlines, or local holidays, could go a long way towards increasing the personalization of your outreach efforts.
Next, let’s dive into three real-life examples, used by HubSpot sales reps to effectively land deals. 
Effective Sales Hook Examples

1. The hook that highlights the sales rep’s industry experience. 
“Hey there, thanks for taking a moment to speak with me. A lot of companies I’ve been speaking to within your industry have been struggling to attract new customers, and have also had difficulty getting existing customers to renew. I’m curious if that’s similar to what your experiencing?”
Why this works: This is an effective hook because it highlights the rep’s experience with the prospect’s specific industry — something that immediately signifies the rep’s ability to help solve for the prospects’ unique challenges. It also ends with a question that will enable the prospect to speak about his or her challenges, which will help the rep tailor their approach.

2. The hook that demonstrates gaps in the prospect’s current internal processes. 
“Company prides itself on offering omni-channel growth software that improves service levels and reduces operational costs. Do you feel you inherited a growth platform that does the same for you?”
Why this works: The first line — “Company prides itself on offering omni-channel growth software that improves service levels and reduces operational costs” — was copy-and-pasted from the front page of the company’s website, and used to highlight the irony that the company touted certain product benefits to their customers, but didn’t receive the same benefits from their own internal software. This hook works because it proves the sales rep has done their research on the prospect and feels well-equipped to point out any gaps in their current strategy.
3. The hook that identifies the prospect’s pain points. 
“Hey [name]. I hope that you and your family are safe, healthy and well during these unprecedented times.
I wanted to reach out with a short video to outline some reasons [my product] could be a strong fit for your team. [My product] can consolidate all the different solutions you’re using (for instance, I saw you’re using

for marketing and for social media management). By consolidating all that into one suite, you’ll have a 360 degree view of all your contacts and customers in a central database.
You’ll then be able to take all that information and leverage it for more effective and targeted ad campaigns.
If this is timely for you, happy to have a conversation about other ways [my product] can help you increase conversions and decrease customer churn. If not, happy to be a resource for you in the future.”
Why this works: This is an effective hook because the sales rep took the time to identify the prospect’s pain points — namely, having a messy system with various products that don’t necessarily fit together seamlessly. Focus on how your product or service can make your prospect’s life easier, and you’ll have an effective hook.

Ultimately, learning how to create effective hooks is a matter of trial and error. As you test out new hooks, take note of which ones prove most effective for continuing the conversation with prospects. Using these tips and examples as inspiration, you’re well on your way to creating strong hooks that attract new customers for the long-haul.