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At Buffer, we’re constantly experimenting with ways we can improve our products and try out new ideas. We recently launched Start Page, a beautiful, flexible, mobile-friendly landing page that you can build in minutes and update in seconds. As a Software Engineer on Buffer’s team I’ve tackled a long list of fun projects, including Start Page. One thing I love about this project, is that as we foray deeper and deeper into user-generated content and customization, we’re discovering new engineering challenges that we haven’t had in our frontends before. In this case, we wanted to introduce 13 new font options (for a total of 16 fonts) and we wanted to make sure that they loaded nice and quickly. As I worked on this, I learned so much I didn’t know about fonts so in this post I want to share more about how we went about this for anyone facing similar challenges.
A screen capture of the Start Page app, demonstrating the new font picker functionalityFonts are render-blocking
Let’s start with the ‘why’. Fonts are generally pretty light resources, which are usually cached in browser so why is it important to ensure a quick loading strategy? Because fonts are high-priority, synchronous requests which means they’re render-blocking. If we can load fonts quickly and/or asynchronously, we can improve site speed.
FOUT and FOIT
Ok, so you don’t want to block your rendering, there are generally two strategies to chose from to handle text loaded before it’s custom font:
FOUT – Flash Of Unstyled TextRenders the text but with a fallback font. Google Fonts can now return with display=swap which instructs the browser to use the fallback font to display the text until the custom font has fully downloaded. If you want to be meticulous, you can find a better fallback font using this app: Font Style Matcher
FOIT – Flash Of Invisible TextHere, the text is rendered with an invisible font until the custom font has fully downloaded. This one makes more sense to use for something like a logo where the brand would be affected if rendered with a fallback font (although for a logo I’d use an SVG but examples!)
THE trick for fast fonts
The general advice nowadays is to preconnect to the font server:
<link rel=”preconnect” href=”https://fonts.gstatic.com/” crossorigin />
<link rel=”preconnect” href=”https://fonts.googleapis.com” />
then preload the fonts:
  <link
      rel=”preload”
      as=”style”
      href=”https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family={your font families here}&display=swap”
    />
Finally as a fallback, request the fonts async by setting media to “print” for browsers which don’t support rel=”preload” (about 12% of browsers in this the year 2021)
<link
      rel=”stylesheet”
      href=”https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family={your font families here}&display=swap”
      media=”print”
      onload=”this.media=’all’”
    />
This works because a regular stylesheet is render-blocking but a print stylesheet is assigned idle priority. After it’s loaded, the link’s media is applied to all.
Hosting your own fonts is the fastest but Google Fonts does a lot for you:

Returns multiple alphabets
Returns a css file customized to the user agent that requested it
When you have multiple fonts, it’s best to make 1 request so it’s quicker
You can tailor your requests to target specific font-weights and formats (bold, italic, thin)

Font Loading API
There’s a new-ish CSS Font Loading API that can request fonts on demand but I found that this doesn’t play nice with Google Fonts because you need the source URL for the fonts and the Google Fonts URL that you get isn’t the source, it’s the request. Google, along with Typekit, does have a library called Web Font Loader, that works like the Font Loading API but plays better with Google Fonts.
So what did we do in Start Page?
We implemented the popular strategy for the builder (the app itself) and while we do have some FOUT on first load ever (remember browser caching!) it’s very minimal, if seen at all. For generated pages, we get the fonts used in the theme before generating the HTML so we can inject only the fonts we need. This makes our generated pages much faster and lighter.We’re excited to see how this experiment will play out and if folks are keen to get more font options. If that’s the case, we might very well look into a more dynamic strategy (like loading only the currently used fonts on load and then sending another request if a user clicks on Appearance to change their fonts). Another option we could look into is implementing a way for requesting multiple fonts if we hosted them ourselves.That’s it for now! Thanks for making it this far, I hope this was interesting for you! Know anything neat about fonts that I didn’t mention here? Share it with us on Twitter.
Resources:The Fastest Google FontsLoading Google Fonts and any other web fonts as fast as possible in early 2021FOIT vs FOUT: a comparison on web font loadingCSS Tricks – font-display

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I once heard a new business owner define their target market as … wait for it … “everyone”.
*cringe*
While it’s nice to believe that everyone would be interested in purchasing your product or service, it’s not wise to define your target market as such.
Not only does this definition (or lack thereof) create way more work for you; it also does a disservice to your actual target market — by over-widening your scope, you fail to inform and educate your audience about how your product or service can improve their lives.

This is where segmentation, targeting, and positioning come into play. We developed this guide to help you understand how and why you should invest time into better understanding your audience and targeting your marketing. Let’s dive in.

At its core, STP marketing helps you to better target your marketing messages and better serve your customer base.
The model can also reveal niche markets, uncover new customer or market opportunities, ultimately making your marketing efforts more efficient and cost-effective.
Conducting an STP Marketing Analysis
STP allows you to take a large, anonymous audience and define how your different products (or different components of the same product) relate to specific consumer segments within that larger audience — thus understanding how to position your product(s) and messaging to grab the attention of each segment.
Let’s unpack each part of the segmentation-targeting-positioning model.
1. Segmentation

Segmentation refers to the process of dividing your audience into smaller groups based on certain characteristics. This process allows you to group your individual audience members into similar groups so you can better communicate your products, features, and benefits that may be most relevant to them.
You can segment your audience based on one or more of these criteria:

Demographics, which typically answer the question of who your buyer is (e.g. age, gender, education, location, and profession)

Psychographics, which answer the question of why your buyer buys (e.g. priorities, personality traits, and beliefs and values)

Lifestyle traits, such as hobbies, entertainment preferences, and non-work activities

Behavior, such as brand loyalty, channel preferences, and other shopping habits

Segmentation may sound a little familiar to another process we often discuss here on the HubSpot blog — creating buyer personas. The two are very similar as they help you drill down the most important factors in your target audience.
But where buyer personas help you create a handful of customer profiles that represent your broader audience, segmentation allows you to split your audience into countless groups, each of which you can uniquely target.
For example, let’s say Paws & Tails is a Chicago pet-sitting company that offers pet-sitting, dog walking, and boarding services. Given the vast number of pet owners in the city, they need to segment their audience into smaller groups to better understand how to position their services.
Based on their research and current customer base, they split their audience into three main segments:

Segment A is made up of high-income pet owners who work often and need daytime dog walking and pet pop-in visits.

Segment B is made up of middle-class individuals and families who travel and need overnight boarding or pet-sitting services.

Segment C is made up of older pet owners and retirees who need help caring for their pets.

2. Targeting
With your audience segments in hand, it’s time to move on to the targeting phase. First, however, you must decide which segments are worth targeting with your marketing. To decipher this, ask yourself some questions about each segment:

Is this segment composed of enough potential customers to justify targeting? Would it yield enough profits if the segment were to convert?
Is it measurably different from the other segments?
Is it accessible by all members of Marketing and Sales?
Is your company equipped and able to serve the segment? Are there any physical, legal, social, or technological barriers that could prevent that?

Choosing what segments to target is a strategic decision. Thankfully, certain strategic planning models like the PESTLE analysis can help you better understand the viability of each segment.
It takes a lot of work to successfully target a segment of your audience. Whether you’ve identified two segments or ten, don’t feel the need to target more than one segment at once. Plus — targeting one at a time will help you better position your marketing for each specific segment.

Following our example from before, Paws & Tails conducts research to better understand its Chicago audience. Paws & Tails finds that Segment A makes up 60% of its market size, Segment B makes up 30%, and Segment C makes up 10%. Moreover, Segment A has a higher average income and is willing to pay more for pet-sitting and walking services. Because of this, they choose to focus on Segment A.
3. Positioning
At this point, you should understand the demographics, psychographics, motivations, and pain points of the segments you’ve chosen to target, which can provide a place to start when it comes to positioning your product or service.
First, take a step back and examine your product or service through the perspective of your chosen segment. If you were in their shoes, why would you choose your product over a competitor’s? What features or benefits are most relevant to you, based on the motivations and pain points you’ve identified?
This information is important to defining your brand positioning and understanding how it stacks up next to your competitors. One way to understand where you, well, stand is by building a positioning map, which is “the visual plotting of specific brands against axes, where each axis represents an attribute that is known to drive brand selection.”
The segment you choose to target should dictate what two attributes you plot on your positioning map. For example, let’s say Paws & Tails decides Segment A selects pet-sitting brands based on two attributes: service area and reliability.
By understanding 1) what the target segment deems most important for brand selection and 2) where its competitors succeed (and fall short), Paws & Tails is able to identify an open market opportunity and position its marketing to best fit the needs and goals of its audience.
Using Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning in Marketing
The STP model is a priceless addition to any marketing strategy, regardless of your industry, product, or audience. It prioritizes efficient and effective marketing and ensures you’re delivering only the most relevant, targeted messaging across the board.
It also plays an important role in developing other strategies, such as your buyer personas, customer lifecycle stages, and core brand proposition.
By leading with a consumer-centric approach like STP, you can be sure that every inch of your marketing is relevant to your audience — thus, increasing the likelihood that they convert, purchase, and become lifelong customers.
Examples of Great Market Segmentation and Positioning
Brands are segmenting, targeting, and positioning their audiences and marketing constantly, oftentimes without us (consumers) even noticing. Ever seen a brand or product and thought “Huh, that’s perfect for me” or “Wow, right place at the right time”? Yeah … you’ve been subject to the STP model.
Let’s review a few examples of great marketing segmentation and positioning.
1. Panera Bread

With countless fast casual restaurants on the map, it’s hard to decide where to eat when you’re in the mood for a quick meal. For some reason, Panera Bread always comes to mind (at least for me).
Panera has successfully cornered the “health-conscious” and “climate-conscious” segment of the fast casual dining industry. Is Panera’s food so different from other fast casual options? Not entirely.
But by branding themselves with the perspective that “we believe that good food, food you can feel good about, can bring out the best in all of us”, Panera remains top-of-mind as a place to get high-quality food, fast.
2. AllBirds

Like dining opinions, there are so many shoe brands on the market. But AllBirds didn’t let that stop it from carving out a new niche in a busy space full of comfortable, active shoe options.
How did AllBirds position itself to set itself apart from the competition? By elevating its eco-consciousness and placing that front and center in its marketing. According to the AllBirds website, the brand “crafts with planet-friendly natural materials, like merino wool and eucalyptus trees, because they’re our best chance for a sustainable future.”
At first glance, AllBirds shoes don’t look too terribly different from other running or walking shoes. However, its audience segment that cares about sustainability and earth-conscious products knows the difference.
3. Billie

No longer can businesses simply segment their audiences by “men” and “women” — the individuals within each broad gender group vary too much, and razor brand Billie took note of this.
In an effort to extinguish the “pink tax,” Billie markets cost-friendly razors and associated products. Moreover, they work to normalize body hair and other forgotten or shamed parts of women’s bodies.
Through this positioning, Billie is able to set their products apart from competitors and create a strong, positive community around their brand.
4. Hinge

The world of online dating is a busy, strange place. From Tinder to FarmersOnly.com, there seems to be a place for everyone to meet, well, anyone. Hinge came on the scene only a handful of years ago, yet it has skyrocketed to the top of the list of the most popular and reliable dating app.
Time and time again, I’ve heard that Hinge is a favorite because it works — meaning it helps people meet people and make real relationships. You wouldn’t think a dating app would position themselves to eventually be unnecessary, but that’s exactly what Hinge has done. In fact, its mission statement is to “[build] an app that’s designed to be deleted.”
By putting the needs and desires of its audience front and center, Hinge has created a more trustworthy, in-demand online dating experience and set itself apart from its competitors.
The Case for Using STP Marketing
The segmentation-targeting-positioning model is designed to help you better target your marketing messages and better serve your customer base. It’s a win-win for you and your customers!
This article was originally published October 29, 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

While no content marketing tool can replace a solid strategy and talented humans, having the right tech stack can certainly help you get the job done better, easier, and more efficiently.
There are hundreds of content marketing tools available – some free or cheap – and some very expensive. They also serve tons of different purposes, from content ideation to production to promotion, optimization, and more. The content marketing technology landscape is growing every year.
This is exciting, since it means that if you have a problem, you can probably find a software solution to help you solve it. But it’s also overwhelming. How do you know which of the couple of hundred tools are worth trying?
This post will help clarify those decisions for you. We’ll outline the top content marketing tools available now.

1. Marketing Hub

Best for: Consolidating multiple content marketing tools into one centralized location.
What we like: HubSpot’s array of tools and systems grow along with your business, allowing you to scale seamlessly.
HubSpot offers many content marketing tools, and many of them are free to try. These include:

A powerful form builder
Popup tools

Live chat and chatbots

And all-in-one WordPress plugin for marketing

In addition to free content marketing tools, if you really want to build a growth machine, HubSpot has a world-class CMS and the most powerful marketing automation platform in the industry and allows you to centralize everything within a free CRM. This means that, at each and every level of a company’s growth, HubSpot has a solution that can help you build your content marketing program.
HubSpot also makes products for sales and service teams. As such, it can really be the ground control for your whole business.
2. WordPress

Best for: Blogging, publishing editorial content, and creating portfolios.
What we like: The customizable templates are easy to use, allowing users to build a website quickly. Plus, it integrates with multiple plug-ins to take your work to the next level.
WordPress is the most widely used CMS in the world. Search Engine Journal reports that WordPress powers about 39.5% of all sites on the web.
Social proof can sometimes lead us astray, but in this case, it turns out that WordPress is a pretty powerful tool, both at the beginning stages and as you grow your content marketing program (and it’s used by sites like The New Yorker and The Next Web).
At its core, WordPress is an open-source CMS that allows you to host and build websites. You can self-host or host your site via WordPress.com. WordPress contains plugin architecture and a template system so you can customize any website to fit your business, blog, portfolio, or online store.
It’s a highly customizable platform and is widely used by bloggers.
3. Google Docs

Best for: Editing and collaborating with content writers.
Why we like it: It’s free, widely used, and simple to get started. If you can use word processor applications, Google Docs is a must-have.
Google Docs is to content marketing what a kitchen is to chefs: it’s where all of the work gets done before the final presentation.
Personally, I don’t know any content marketers who don’t use Google Docs to draft their articles. It’s the best platform for collaboration by a long shot, but it’s also easy to use and has a pleasant user experience.
You can easily share documents with your team with just a few clicks. Additionally, you can give editing access to specific people and view their comments by using the “suggestions” and “comments” features.
In addition, you can usually find a way to upload Google Docs directly to your CMS. In the case of HubSpot, you can do that by default. If you use WordPress, you can use a tool like Wordable to help you out.
Google Docs is free, quite ubiquitous, and pleasant to use. Not many reasons not to use it.
4. Airstory

Best for: Writing academic papers and collecting research.
Why we like it: Put writer’s block to a halt with Airstory. This app easily organizes and exports your notes, ideas, and research all in one spot.
If you do want to step up your writing and collaboration game, Airstory is a more powerful platform for writers. If you find yourself moving too often between Evernote, Google Docs, Google Drive, and you always seem to have a hundred tabs open for research, it might be time to look into Airstory.
It helps you save quotes, images, and multimedia and drag and drop it into any writing application. As such, it’s an incredible tool for collaboration, but also for writers w
5. Grammarly

Best for: Editing and proofreading content pieces before publication.
Why we like it: Grammarly works across multiple communication mediums, from email to documents to social media.
Grammarly has changed the game for me. I’m not naturally what you would call “detail-oriented,” so if it weren’t for talented editors, you’d be tearing me apart right now for the multitude of grammar mistakes littering my articles.
Grammarly, however, reduces my error rate by probably 50-80%. I still have some mistakes slip through, but to a large extent, Grammarly saves me from embarrassment (not just when writing articles, by the way — it also works for social media and forum comments).
Their browser extension works with Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, and offers a basic grammar and punctuation plan for free.
6. Yoast

Best for: Writing for search engine optimization (SEO).
Why we like it: Yoast is easy to use and one of the best SEO WordPress plugins available.
Yoast is one of my favorite tools for writing SEO-focused content.
It’s a sort of “all-in-one” WordPress plugin for SEO that helps do pretty much everything, including optimizing content for a keyword, previewing and editing meta-descriptions and URL slugs, abstracting away technical SEO tasks, and suggesting relevant internal links. The simple red, yellow, and green indicators make it easy to figure out if you’ve optimized your page correctly, or what could use more work.
They have over 9,000,000 downloads, 4.9 out of 5 stars in the WordPress marketplace, and just anecdotally, everyone I know who uses WordPress uses Yoast. It’s just a great plugin.
7. Buzzsumo

Best for: Carrying out content research and tracking performance metrics.
Why we like it: Buzzsumo takes the guesswork out of influencer marketing and content curation, a bonus for those short on time.
Buzzsumo is a great multi-purpose content marketing research tool.
One of the main things it can do is help you analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor. You can see metrics like social shares, backlinks, and which influencers are sharing a given piece of content.
For content strategy needs, Buzzsumo can also be used to find what topics are trending across various platforms and the kinds of headlines that are receiving the most traction with engagement.
They also have great influencer reports so you can see who the thought leaders are for a given topic area.
8. Ahrefs

Best for: Completing keyword research.
Why we like it: Ahrefs can be used for basic SEO research, but also handle more in-depth projects like performance reports. These reports can be set to the cadence of your choice so you’re always in the loop.
Ahrefs is my personal favorite SEO tool, and I use it just about every day. It’s great for everything from tracking the rankings of your keywords to analyzing your competitors’ keywords and traffic and much more.
Every time I think I’ve mastered the full functionality of Ahrefs, I find a new feature that surprises and delights me. The basics, such as keyword research or site analyzer, are wonderful. But I also love reports like “top pages” (where you can analyze the most valuable pages on a website), or “content gap” (where you can see what competitors rank for that you don’t).
9. Vidyard

Best for: Creating B2B marketing videos, digital marketing, and content creation.

Why we like it: Vidyard’s analytics and personalization features not only help businesses understand how their content is performing, but also demonstrates how to leverage it to boost engagement.
Vidyard is a video marketing platform that helps you host, share, and promote video content on your website.
They have a sales solution as well to help you close more accounts, but the marketing solution is what I’m most used to. Vidyard’s video analytics are robust.You can run A/B tests and personalize videos, and you can even gate videos at a certain time length to help capture leads.
Additionally, they’ll easily optimize your videos for SEO and integrate with various CRM, email, and social platforms.
10. Loom

Best for: Creating video presentations and tutorials.
Why we like it: Loom is versatile and user-friendly. Utilize it to easily answer questions or explain complex topics that require a visual aid.
Loom is a tool that I’ve more recently begun using, but at this point it’s a staple for me.
It’s a simple tool, but one with powerful use cases, even beyond content marketing. What it does is allow you to create, edit, record your screen, and share videos. For content marketing, I love this, because I can create and embed tutorials for technical walkthroughs.
Organizationally, I love it as well. It’s great for communicating quick questions or explaining concepts to other team members (without requiring a full, synchronous meeting).
11. Trello

Best for: Keeping track of tasks and project management.
Why we like it: Trello puts all of your team’s projects in one place and is customizable enough to grow with your changing needs.
When you really start producing content, you’ll need some way to manage the process. This is particularly true if you’re working with many staff writers or guest writers.
My favorite tool for this is Trello.
Trello is a simple kanban and project management tool, which means it can be used for many purposes. In fact, I’ve used it for tons of things, like growth experiments, sales pipelines, and product feature roadmaps.
12. Airtable

Best for: Managing tasks and databases.
Why we like it: Airtable is great for storing lots of data (hello, spreadsheets) in one place and using customized filters to sort it.
Airtable is another project management tool, though it’s a little more complicated (though also customizable). It’s kind of like a mixture between spreadsheets and Trello. Again, with Airtable, the use cases are many, but I really like it for two content marketing purposes:

Editorial calendars
Influencer/writer management
Marketing campaign tracking

I’ve also used Airtable for several other things in the past, including growth experiments and general team operating documents.
13. Google Analytics

Best for: Understanding your audience and tracking site metrics.
Why we like it: Google Analytics is ubiquitous, free, and easy to use. Use it to see how people found your site and observe visitor behavior.
When talking about content marketing tools, you can’t leave measurement out of the discussion.
Sure, you can get some good insights from SEO tools like Google Search Console as well as previously listed tools like Ahrefs. But you’ll also want a digital analytics platform so you can track business metrics.
Google Analytics is one of the most widely used platforms online. It’s easy-to-use (at least the basic configurations), and it’s free. Two big benefits.
However, it’s also very powerful if you’re technical and know how to set up a proper configuration. Not only can you track goals, like form submissions or product purchases, but you can also set up behavioral events, like scroll-depth.
Best of all, you don’t have to do much to get access to all of this data. Simply set up your Google Analytics account, copy the code provided to your website, and you’re good to go. Google Analytics will automatically start tracking the data from your website.
14. Hotjar

Best for: Understanding visitor behavior on your website.
Why we like it: Hotjar’s tools allow business owners to get an accurate read on how visitors experience their site. It’s great for marketers, designers, and researchers.
Hotjar is my favorite user experience analytics tool. It’s got some qualitative tools, such as on-site poll, surveys, and session replays. Where Google Analytics can help you uncover the “what” and “where” of user behavior, Hotjar’s tools can help you start to tiptoe into the “why.”
In addition, they also provide some quantitative tools such as heat maps. These allow you to get a good visual picture of where your visitors are clicking and scrolling.
One use case I love HotJar (outside of CRO) for is to source interesting content ideas:

In the example above, follow-up questions are asked based on what users answered to a previous question. Their responses can then be used to inform your content going forward.
15. Google Optimize

Best for: A/B testing changes to your site’s pages.
Why we like it: Google Optimize harnesses the power of their analytics and statistical tools to help businesses find what your site visitors engage with most and hone in on areas that need improvement. Statistical modeling tools simulate real-world performance for any tests you’d like to perform.
We’ve got a quantitative digital analytics tool (Google Analytics) and a qualitative insights platform (Hotjar), so we presumably can know a lot about our readers and our website at this point. But what if we want to make a change to our blog or landing pages?
My background is in optimization, so if there’s sufficient traffic, I like to set up A/B tests for site changes.
There are many tools out there for this, but I wanted to list Google Optimize because it’s free. It’s also a good starter option to get used to. If you do want to explore other options, here’s a good article comparing the market solutions. But Google Optimize is a great start.
16. Mutiny

Best for: Personalizing B2B websites.
Why we like it: Mutiny leverages smart, AI-driven technology to help guide content recommendations. Its website personalization features allow users to quickly change their website and see results in real time.
A/B testing is one thing; personalization is also an interesting avenue to explore.
Where A/B testing is a controlled experiment with a limited time-horizon, personalization allows you to deliver different unique experiences to subsets of your overall audience.
For example, you could target mobile users with different popup forms. Or you could target visitors who have read three blog posts with an offer for a specific ebook. Additionally, you could target people who scroll 75% of the way down a certain blog post with an in-text CTA.
The options are endless, only limited by your time, resources, creativity, and prioritization.
Anyway, Mutiny is my favorite platform in this space. It’s designed for B2B, so if you’re in ecommerce, you may want to look at another tool like CMS Hub . But Mutiny is a good and promising newer player with lots of functionality.
17. TheStocks.IM

Best for: Sourcing stock images and free photos.
Why we like it: TheStocks.IM aggregates multiple free photo sites into one place, saving you time.
Most good content marketing includes imagery, so it only makes sense to include a stock photo site here in our list of content marketing tools.
I like TheStocks.IM because it aggregates several free stock photo sites, including Unsplash (my favorite) and Pixabay. Just type in the topic or object you’re searching for into the search box, and it will pull up images across all the platforms it sources from.

18. Canva

Best for: Designing your own marketing materials.
Why we like it: Canva’s intuitive UI allows design novices to easily create infographics and other materials suitable for print materials, social media posts, and blogging platforms.
What about when a stock image doesn’t cut it, and you want to make your own imagery?
Canva is a great option here.
With Canva, you really don’t need to have excellent graphic design skills. I’m a horrible designer, and I can make decent looking graphics with Canva. It’s really designed for the layperson.
This tool is great for all kinds of content marketing imagery, like social media images, blog cover photos, Twitter cover photos, etc. It’s pretty all-purpose.
Start with one of their templates or create a new design from scratch. If you can drag and drop, you can create materials using Canva.
19. Adobe Photoshop

Best for: Editing photographs and images, and designing custom materials.
Why we like it: The uses for Photoshop are endless. Mastering this design tool will make your materials look professional and give you more autonomy over the kinds of designs you can use.
Now, what if you want to make your own imagery, but you actually are good at graphic design?
Well, in this case, Photoshop is the gold standard. It’s great for editing photographs as well as creating images such as Facebook photos, blog cover photos, and even screenshot tutorials.
I find that a little bit of skill with Photoshop goes a long way. Mastering Photoshop will allow businesses and marketing teams to create custom designs and materials to suit their needs instead of being tied to a particular template or layout.
Content Marketing Tools Won’t Save a Bad Content Strategy
… but they’ll certainly help you get the job done faster and more effectively.
Although there are many more content marketing tools out there, this list sums up the best tools for most marketing needs. Try them out and watch them enhance your content creation strategy and execution.
This article was originally published March 4, 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Asking “How is everyone?” at the beginning of every meeting isn’t always the best way to encourage team bonding. Sometimes, having a fun ice breaker can aid in that connection.
The best ice breakers have the power to strengthen coworker bonds, stimulate better brainstorming sessions, and create an atmosphere of inclusivity. To get the most value out of your team bonding moments, we’ve compiled a list of the best ice breaker games for the workplace. Next time you get together with your team, use one of these games instead of asking “How is everyone,” and you’re sure to hear some better, more insightful responses than “I’m good.”

Ice Breakers for Meetings
1. One Word Game
The One Word ice breaker allows you to provide initial context into a meeting’s topic, and get everyone in the right mindset for discussion.
To play, you’ll want to divide meeting participants into smaller groups. Then, tell them to think for a minute or two, and then share with their group one word that describes X.
For instance, let’s say you’re leading a meeting on culture. Tell the groups to describe work culture, or your office culture in particular, in one word. Once they’ve shared with their groups, you can invite them to share their word with the entire room.
This game encourages everyone to think about a certain topic in smaller groups ahead of time, which could increase participation during the meeting.
2. Pop Quiz
To successfully loosen everyone up and get them in the right mindset for a meeting, you might consider putting a short Pop Quiz on the board.
If your goal is simply to encourage team bonding, your quiz can be more fun — like, “Match the lyrics with this 80’s song.” However, you might also use the Pop Quiz as an opportunity to introduce participants to the meeting’s theme.
If you’re discussing company changes, for instance, maybe you’ll start by quizzing team members on company history facts (e.g. “What year was this company founded?”).
3. Birth Map
Place a map and a set of pins at the front of a large conference room before a big meeting. As people walk in, ask them to place a pin where they were born or raised.
As the map fills up with pins, people will learn about how diverse their teammates might be. Allow some time at the end of the meeting for your colleagues to walk up and look more closely at the map.
4. Movie Pitch
Perfect for larger groups and movie fanatics, this icebreaker is as crazy as you make it. Divide players into quads and give them 10 minutes to devise the plot of the next award-winning film. You can give them constraints by designating genres like horror, action, comedy, thriller, and more.
If your organization is meeting to brainstorm ideas for specific projects, go ahead and incorporate the topic into their movie pitch prompts to get the creative juices flowing.
Quick Ice Breakers
5. Would You Rather
A classic game played at summer camps everywhere, “Would You Rather” is an excellent, quick ice breaker for the workplace. Next time you’re settling into a meeting or team bonding outing, take turns going around the table and asking each person a “Would You Rather” question.
Here are a few “Would You Rather” questions to get you started:

Would you rather only have summer or winter for the rest of your life?
Would you rather go on a hike or see a movie?
Would you rather never use social media sites and apps again or never watch another movie or TV show?
Would you rather have a horrible short-term memory or a horrible long-term memory?

6. 18 & Under
18 & Under is an engaging and unique way to encourage team members to share fun or interesting stories with one another. Before a meeting, simply go around the room, and ask each person to share one accomplishment they had before they turned 18.
Undoubtedly you’ll get some of lesser importance, like “I bought a skateboard,” but you never know what hidden skills you might discover in your colleagues.
7. Two Truths and a Lie
One of the more classic ice breakers in the list, Two Truths and a Lie can be used anywhere from family parties to company events. To play, you simply ask each person to brainstorm three “facts” about themselves — two of the facts will be true, and one will be a lie.
For instance, I might say, “I once auditioned for the TV show Zoom. I have three brothers. I ziplined in Switzerland once.” Coworkers can take turns guessing which is the lie. (FYI, I have two brothers, not three, so that’s the lie. Unfortunately, I did audition for Zoom.)
Two Truths and a Lie is a fun and engaging game, and more importantly, it can help your team learn facts about one another, so they can begin forming deeper bonds.
8. The Handshake
One of the first ways you get to greet somebody in the workplace is with a handshake.
This ice breaker lets individuals ease up and have a little fun without a hassle. It’s simple — divide the group into pairs of two and have them make the most creative handshake they can in a couple minutes.
If you have more time on your hands, have the pairs split up after showing off their super cool shake and make even more creative ones with new partners. It’s hard to play these games without sharing a laugh, something we all could use in the workday.
Ice Breaker Games for Small Groups
9. Fun Questions
Asking fun questions is an easy and effective ice breaker game. To play, simply go around the room and have each person provide an answer to a fun question. The questions are up to you, but if you’re stuck, here are a few ideas:

If you’re stranded on a desert island and have the option of bringing three items with you, what three items would they be?
If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?
What was the first concert you ever went to?
If you could have any celebrity over for dinner, who would it be and why?

These questions serve two purposes — first, they allow your coworkers to get into a sillier, more creative mindset. Second, they encourage conversation on topics typically reserved for outside the office, which enables members of your team to get to know one another on a deeper level.
Meg Prater, Sr. Marketing Manager of the HubSpot blog, says “When I first started including ice-breaker questions in our weekly team stand-up meetings, the experience was … cringeworthy. It felt like exactly what it was: organized fun. But we kept at it. I listened to feedback and tried to incorporate it into better ice breakers.”
She continued, “For example, some folks on our team don’t watch a lot of T.V. and felt a little excluded when we’d fall down a rabbit hole of shows we were binging. Keeping the ice breakers inclusive keeps everyone engaged. Now, our ice-breakers can take 15+ minutes to get through and yield some of our biggest laughs and revelations of the week.”
10. Personality Quiz
This ice breaker can promote team bonding, and it’s one of the easier options on the list. Simply choose a brief personality quiz on your phone or computer (if you’re stuck, here’s a list), and pull it up on a projector or send the link to everyone.
Once everyone has completed the personality assessment, have each colleague mention one thing they agree or disagree with from their results. This game allows your team members to gain a new perspective on their peers, and it’s also a fun and easy way to get an interesting conversation started.
11. Who is it?
Have everyone write a unique, strange, or unexpected fact about them on a piece of paper. Then, put the pieces of paper into a hat and mix them around. Pull from the hat and read each fact.
Allow the team to try and guess who wrote it. After they guess, ask the employee who wrote the fact to identify themselves and give any further context if necessary. This could be a great way to get to know surprising new things about your teammates.
12. Marshmallow Challenge
Tom Wujec, a business visualization expert, initially presented his Marshmallow Challenge at TED. To play, you simply divide your team into groups of four and give each group 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and a marshmallow. Whichever team can build the tallest structure, wins — the trick is, the marshmallow must be on top.
There are a few reasons this game works as both a great ice breaker and a team-building exercise. First, the most successful teams are the groups of people who don’t spend time competing for power.
The game forces your colleagues to work collaboratively when brainstorming potential solutions. Second, the Marshmallow Challenge encourages people to think quickly and offer alternative solutions when their initial idea fails.
With the Marshmallow Challenge, you can strengthen your team’s brainstorming and problem-solving skills, and your team can also have some fun. A win, win.
13. Scavenger Hunt
At HubSpot, we conduct a scavenger hunt for new hires on the first day of their training. It’s fun and encourages collaboration, but additionally, it can help employees learn their way around the office.
Fortunately, you can conduct a scavenger hunt for your team even if they’ve worked at your office for years.
Simply split up your team into groups, and give each group a shortlist of items to find — if you work in a smaller space, maybe you can hide some funny items around the office ahead of time. You might even provide an incentive for the winning team, like a $50 Amazon gift card.
A scavenger hunt is also an exceptional opportunity for cross-department interaction. Consider reaching out to managers from other departments and creating groups of employees who don’t often get to work together.
14. No Smiling
This game is simple and meant to energize your team. Get your colleagues in a circle and ask one volunteer to sit or stand in the middle. Tell the volunteer that they can not laugh or smile, regardless of what happens. Then have each other colleagues take turns telling the volunteer a work-appropriate joke.
The goal of the volunteer is to hear a joke from every colleague around the circle, while the goal of the other team members is to make the volunteer laugh.
This icebreaker can be helpful in new-employee or management training to lighten the pressure of starting a new job. It can also be helpful as a way of lightening the mood on teams that regularly deal with stressful projects or situations.
15. This is Better Than That
Aside from being a fun team activity, this might be a great energizer for sales employees or others that regularly pitch, market, and sell products.
Ask your team to find four to seven items around the office and bring them to one room. These items could be something they use daily, like a pen or a chair. However, you should encourage them to find items that are more odd or unique. This will make the game more challenging.
Line the items up and split the group into sub-teams. Task each team with picking an item they would use to survive if stranded on a desert island.
Tell team members that they cannot pick more than one and must assume it is the only item they will have on that island. Allow the teams time to deliberate and then ask them to present the item they chose and why.
Virtual Icebreakers for Dispersed Teams
16. Choose Your Favorite
For this icebreaker, all you have to do is answer the question about your favorite things. You’ll ask your team to choose their favorite movie, song, T.V. show, etc. The question can change every week.
This icebreaker helps your team get to know each other even when they work remotely and can spark conversation on what everyone likes or dislikes.
17. Trivia Game
If you’re looking for a remote icebreaker that’s more of a game, and less discussion-based, you can host a trivia game.
Kahoot is a trivia platform you can use for free (hosts up to 10 people). To get started, all you’ll need to do is sign up for a free Kahoot account.
Then, you can choose a featured trivia game to play. To run this remotely, you’ll want to share your screen with your team. Everyone will need to have a separate device to use so they can enter the game and submit their answers.
18. Share an Embarrassing Photo
This is one of my favorite icebreakers because it’s a fun way to get to know your team. For this game, have everyone bring in an embarrassing photo and tell the story behind it.
Have your team members share their screen or send a file to the team leader to share with everyone.
To make this more interesting, you can have people guess whose photo it is before your team member shares their story. Doing this icebreaker is a great way to build connections remotely.
19. One Word Pulse Check
For this icebreaker, have everyone on your team go around and share a word or phrase that represents how they feel that day.
Sr. Manager, Christina Perricone, says this is her favorite icebreaker.
“The person sharing gets to decide whether or not to elaborate, and everyone listens without response. The purpose of the exercise is to give people a chance to release and/or reveal emotional setbacks, obstacles, wins, highlights, or anything else that might be impacting how they show up to work that day. It provides a space for participants to bring their entire self to work and it gives the team context for how to support that team member that day,” Perricone adds.
20. Meet my Pet
Nothing fills a meeting with smiles like photos of colleagues’ furry friends. Take turns showing off the cutest pictures and videos of your pet.
For those who don’t have any, they can either make a joke pet (the infamous pet rock) or share a dream pet they would have.
Zoom Icebreakers
21. Paint a Picture, Build a Story
In this ice breaker, playoff your teammates’ artistry and create a scenario of their masterpieces. Gartic Phone gives you a short time frame to sketch photos based on other players’ prompts — and can result in some hilarious artwork.
The more nonsensical the prompt, the funnier the drawings become. You’ll also get brownie points if you save and share some of the funniest drawings and share them with the team on Slack afterward.
22. Guess That Drawing
Drawasaurus is one of my favorite online drawing games to play with colleagues. Players get to choose from three random prompts to quickly interpret and draw their vision. Other players can score more points for identifying the word the fastest and take turns going until the timer goes out.
23. Alphabet Brainstorm
Thinking off the top of your head is a lot harder said than done in Scattegories. The host of the game can choose from topics as broad as foods and countries or as weird as “Things Granny would say.”
Each round the game will highlight a random letter of the alphabet and let players come up with any noun or phrase that starts with said letter. The best part — players can dispute answers amongst each other to take the win. A perfect icebreaker for your overly competitive colleagues.
24. Show and Tell
A rather straightforward ice breaker, team members can share an object they love over Zoom. Whether it’s a prized-collectible or an item that sparks nostalgia, there’s plenty of stories waiting to be told.
25. Bucket List
Outside of the workplace, your teammates are people with aspirations and goals you wouldn’t know about from the average coffee chat. Have team members share some bucket list items they want to achieve in the future.
Not only can these be inspirational, but they also open the floor for team members to encourage one another to pursue their dreams, too. It’s a particularly uplifting team-bonding activity that will bring your team even closer together.
26. Share the Love
While dispersed teams may not have the chance to share a handshake or hug, you can still share the love amongst each other in this icebreaker. Say something lovely with another team member, and it could be anything you want as long as it’s respectful and in good judgment.
For each person that receives a kind message, they will be the next one to share a message to a member of the group who hasn’t received one — ensuring everyone gets an equal amount of praise. Shout them out for their helpfulness in a project, for the energy they bring to the team, or for their lovely smile.
27. Arts and Crafts
Making something with your team can be a great opportunity to learn something new and keep decorative mementos in your space to remind you of your team. Have everyone follow the same instructions to make a craft like simple origami, a drawing, or painting by a designated instructor in the Zoom call or YouTube tutorial.
28. What Do We Have in Common?
This icebreaker is best suited for new hires who may feel more reserved as they virtually meet the team.
Find common ground and get the conversation going with your team members. Have a manager or team leader start the conversation by sharing something they have an interest in, like popular TV, music, foods, or whatever they love to get everyone thinking. Popcorn it over to the most enthusiastic team member with that same interest and have them share a new one.
Typical icebreaker questions can get people to say a sentence or two about the subject, but if you’re passionate about it, you’ll see more personality come out from the most unexpected colleagues in the call.
29. Name That Tune
Music brings people together, and you’d be surprised to learn how many of your coworkers are raving about the top trending song on TikTok or Spotify.
Take turns whistling, tapping, or even playing an instrument (if you gave one) to the tune of a popular song and have your teammates guess the name. Figure out who’s a fan of the classics by clapping and stomping to the tune of “We Will Rock You” by Queen, or do whatever it takes to help your colleagues recognize your favorite tunes.
30. Themed Meetings
Hosting themed meetings is the best icebreaker for the holiday season. Share a laugh and snap photos of you and your colleagues dressed up as elves with Zoom backgrounds at the North Pole, or in your spookiest costumes for Halloween.
Make sure your theme is chosen in good judgment as some holidays have cultural ties, keep this icebreaker for more commercial holidays.
Break the Ice and Get to Business
Icebreakers can seem cringeworthy, but are actually a great way to build trust within your team. Even if you work remotely, team bonding is an important part of running a productive, effective team.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Corporations like Apple, Nike, and Starbucks are known for their solid, instantly recognizable brands that are woven through everything they do. While the same can be said for many smaller businesses, building a brand from the ground up can feel daunting for entrepreneurs, especially if you’ve never done it before.
While you don’t need to spend millions creating the next iconic logo, it is worth going through the process of strategically developing your brand. Think of brand building as part of the foundation of your business. While a brand isn’t necessarily a tangible thing, it’s important for connecting with customers, shaping their perception of your company, and building trust among them. Plus, if you have a recognizable brand, it can help potential or one-time customers remember you or help you stay top of mind in the future.
These days, the strongest brands out there have a clear “why.” During every interaction with a business, customers are clear on why it exists, why it stands out, and why they should buy from it. With that in mind, here’s a step-by-step process that companies of any size can use to create a standout, memorable brand.
How do potential customers feel when they feel when they see your name, logo, and colors, or when they read your emails and social posts? Do they connect with your business? Do they want to be part of it? Will they remember it in the future? These questions are at the heart of branding.
Step 1: Define “Who” Your Business Is
A business isn’t a living thing, of course, but it should embody some of the same elements. It needs to have a personality, to live by certain values, to have goals, and to provide a source of connection.
After all, a brand isn’t just a name and a logo, it’s about who your company is and how people feel when they see that name or logo. So, before you begin thinking about design elements, you have to define who your company is.
Mission and Goals
A great place to start is with your company’s mission and goals. You likely have some idea of your company’s main goals; they’re why you started your business or what you hope to achieve, both in the short and long term.
Your mission statement embodies that. Think of it as the action statement that describes what you’re aiming for and how you’re going to get there. Ideally, it should also reflect how you’ll do so in a way that stands out from other companies.
Keep it short and focused, like these well-known examples:

Tesla: “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

LinkedIn: “To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”

Nordstrom: “To give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible.”

Values
Once you have your mission statement—your guiding light, so to speak—start to think about your business’ values, or the core principles you want your company and its employees to live by.
These might tangentially relate to your goals and mission, but feel free to think outside the box, too. Maybe you want to ensure that your employees and people who partner with the company feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions. One of your values, then, could be honesty or openness.
Try to keep your list to the five or six you feel most strongly about. This is a lesson we learned firsthand at Buffer. Originally, we had 10 values, but we found that was too many for most employees to remember. We narrowed them down to these six in 2018:

Default to transparency
Cultivate positivity
Show gratitude
Practice reflection
Improve consistently
Act beyond yourself

Your mission statement and values may live on your website or social accounts, or they may exist only for you and your employees. Either way, what’s most important is determining how you will implement them and truly live by them day to day. More than just words on a page, your mission and values should be infused into every aspect of how you do business.
Candle company Keap’s mission and values are all about reconnecting with yourself and restoring a balance with nature, and this “why” is infused throughout every aspect of the brand’s imagery, copy, and marketing efforts. Learn more in this recent feature.Audience
The best brands don’t appeal to everyone on the planet; rather, they aim to really resonate with a specific group of people. (This is especially true for small businesses with limited inventory and marketing budgets.)
To determine who your audience (or ideal audience) is, research who tends to buy your product or service the most. Think about who you had in mind when you started the business, too. What problem are you solving, and for whom? It can also be helpful to consider who your competitors are targeting and whether you want to serve the same group of people or reach an entirely different one.
Once you have a general idea of your target demographics, develop personas for them. Have fun with it! Name these proverbial people, sketch out their personalities, and really bring them to life in your head.
A local cooking school, for example, might choose to focus on one of these specific personas:
The Savvy Gourmet: Skilled in the kitchen, these cooking aficionados love mastering new skills that’ll impress their friends and are willing to work (and pay) to do so.
The Motivated Parent: These moms, dads, and caregivers are always seeking to broaden their kids’ horizons, build their interest in cooking, and keep them entertained on rainy Saturdays.
The New Homeowner: Whether they’re new college grads, transplants from roommate-filled apartments, or people who simply never learned their way around the kitchen, these folks want to learn cooking basics in a friendly, non-judgmental environment.
Once you have these “people” in mind, it’ll be easier to develop a brand and content that speaks directly to them.
Step 2: Create a Cohesive Visual Identity
Now that you have a better idea of what you want to accomplish, what you want to stand by, and who you’re talking and selling to, you can start to create a visual identity that matches that.
Don’t even think about logos or other designed elements yet—start with the bigger picture. Consider:

What moods or emotions do you want to evoke when people see your brand?
What should people believe about your company, just by looking at it?
Do you want to align with industry norms or stand apart from them? For example, both financial companies and health food brands tend to use the color green, so it’s a decision for your brand whether to follow the norm or eschew it.

With this in mind, create mood boards that draw inspiration from things you see. It could be anything: the colors you see while on a walk, a design element from another brand that you’d like to emulate and make your own, or a piece of art that inspires you. Searching for brand style guides on Pinterest can also help you gather ideas.
Pinterest is an endless source of inspiration for visual identity. (Source)Look for common themes in what you’ve pulled together. Is it colorful? Full of shades of gray? Is the imagery bright and saturated, or more muted? What does the typography look like? All of these seemingly small things send a certain message. And if that’s the message you want to send, they can start to become the visual elements of your brand.
A graphic designer can help you develop a cohesive visual identity, but there are also free resources that can help you pull these elements together. Canva, for example, offers tools for designing a logo and choosing a color palette, while Looka and Mojomox are all-in-one brand identity generators.
Browse Canva’s library of color palettes, or generate your own from a photo. (Source)No matter which approach you choose, keep the big picture in mind and ensure the logo, fonts, brand colors, and imagery will all work together in service of your mission, audience, and overall goals.
A few things to remember:

Brand colors are more than just the color on your logo. Most brands have a primary color and one to three supporting colors, including a neutral like a shade of black or white.
You’ll want to choose at least two fonts: one for headlines or titles and one for supporting text.
If design isn’t your forte, it’s okay to keep things simple. While it’s fun to be bold and creative, a basic logo (for example, your company name in a sleek, simple font) works perfectly well. You want your brand to stand out, but going too over-the-top can detract from a professional feel.
Working with templates on sites like Canva is a great way to ensure design consistency across your website, marketing materials, social posts, and more.

Step 3: Find Your Voice
People can see your brand, and now they need to hear it (or read it on their screens). The voice you use when communicating with your audience via email, on social media, and in-person is an essential part of your brand that should align with your values and visuals.
Pay attention to how you speak personally and how you speak about the business. Then go back to how your audience will best connect with you. How do they want to be spoken to? How do you want them to feel? What tone and style will help them get to know what your company is all about?
Write down a few words and phrases that come to mind. Then, as you speak to customers or write social media posts, see what’s working, what you like, and what your audience connects to. You can define and refine from there.
Inspirational, motivational, and full of emojis and abbreviations: The Peony Collective’s brand speaks to its audience of Instagram-savvy entrepreneurs. (Source)Here are a few things to consider as you develop your brand voice:

The overall tone you’d like to strike: Think about how, if your brand could speak, it would talk to someone. Some brands are confident and authoritative (think Apple), others are warm and welcoming (like Starbucks), and a well-done few are funny and clever (just look at Taco Bell’s Twitter feed).

The words and phrases you’d like to use regularly (and avoid): This can go back to your original research on the emotions you want to evoke and your brand’s values.

The writing style that you’ll use: Short, direct sentences have a different feel than longer, more detailed ones, and things like exclamation points, emojis, and slang can all contribute to a different voice and tone.

This is another great time to pull examples of things you read and like, especially if they’re for your target audience. Identifying the words, phrases, expressions, and styles that work (and those that don’t) can help you slowly build out your own brand voice.
Step 4: Let it Grow
It’s perfectly fine to tweak or modify your brand as you go. In fact, you should. Think of it as a living, breathing entity that evolves as your business and audience do, and as the world changes. While you do want to maintain consistency in your visuals and voice, it’s perfectly fine to check in every now and then and see if there are elements of your brand that you’d like to alter, update, or remove.
If your budget allows, you could perform A/B tests with members of your ideal audience to see what resonates (for instance, running two Facebook ads with different text). Use this type of research to inform a particularly tough or close decision or to solidify that your brand is having the impact you’d like it to.
Build Your Brand
Now that you know what steps you need to take to start building your own brand, grab a notebook or open a blank document and start brainstorming. Then edit and refine your work, remembering that each of the elements above should work together, staying true to your vision, your goals for your business, and of course, your “why.” It is, after all, what the most authentic, memorable brands are built on.