Category: Marketing Automation

2021 was a big year for the HubSpot content team.
Our team grew, we faced challenges, and we had some fun with experiments.
Experiments can teach you a lot about your audience and help you unlock growth opportunities. Here are some experiments we ran in 2021 and what we learned from them.

Conversion Rate Optimization
In January 2021, the web strategy team decided to run a form optimization experiment to understand how altering our forms would affect our users, ahead of a blog redesign.
When evaluating the current form, the team found that it was breaking several best practices relating to user experience (UX). For instance, the form used asterisks when all fields were required and users were unable to tab through the fields, taking longer to go through the form.
This issue with the UX was further validated with high dropoff rates on offer pages. This meant that a secondary goal was clear: Improve the user experience of the forms on our content offer pages, which would then improve our conversion rate.
With every experiment comes a hypothesis and this one had two, one for each goal:

By redesigning the forms, we will learn the best approach to form design ahead of the blog redesign.
By optimizing content offer forms’ design and functionality, we will improve the user experience and increase user clarity, which will lead to an increase in content leads’ CVR.

When it came to designing the experiment, the team chose an A/B/C/D/E test, leading 20% of traffic to each of the five treatments:

20% would see A, the control – a modal form.
20% would see B – a redesigned, standard version of the form.
20% would see C – the split-screen with a two-column form.
20% would see D – the multi-step form.
20% would see E – the split-screen with single-column form.

Wondering how they came up with these variants? User testing. Earlier in the year, the team had already gathered valuable insights from a user test, in which they learned about users’ preferences and expectations when using forms.
They used this data to design their experiment, something that Principal Marketing Manager at HubSpot Rebecca Hinton says highly contributed to their success.
The test ran on the top 20 converting offer pages and had to run for two weeks to get a reliable sample size for each variant and launched only 33% of traffic to mitigate risk to content lead goals. It ramped up to 60% of traffic during the experiment.
The primary metric used in this experiment was the conversion rate on the content offer form submission and the second was engagement.
“What we found is that displaying a multi-step form vastly outperformed the other treatments we tested, showing a 20% improvement over the control,” said Hinton.
It’s worth noting that the winning variant, D, had a much higher conversion on mobile than it did on desktop. However, the multi-step form performed well on both device types.
“The multi-step form was so successful that we’ve decided to implement it ahead of the pages being redesigned, so we can capitalize on its strong performance,” said Hinton.
A key takeaway here is that one test can (and should) inform another. If you collect user data for a particular feature or project, make sure you keep good documentation as that can serve a purpose later on.
Channel Promotions
Back in June 2021, HubSpot community manager Jenni Kim, then marketing manager on the Channel Promotions team, ran an experiment to explore opportunities for cross-promotion between the YouTube team and the blog team.
Kim described both channels as having an on-and-off relationship, crossing paths from time to time covering the same content and even collaborating at times. However, there was no consistency. This experiment would assess the value of embedding YouTube videos from HubSpot’s channel into relevant blog posts.
The hypothesis was that adding videos to blog posts would enhance the blog reader’s experience and drive meaningful growth for both channels.
Setting up this experiment required cross-collaboration between YouTube, Blog, and SEO teams to design a process while keeping in mind content lead goals, user reading experience, and SEO implications.
Now, let’s dive into the specifics.
One consideration they had to make was which YouTube videos would go and where. Here’s the breakdown they settled on:

Existing Blog Post + Existing YouTube Video (9 blog posts, 9 videos)
Existing Blog Post + New YouTube Video (6 blog posts, 3 videos)
New Blog Post + Existing YouTube Video (4 blog posts, 4 videos)
New Blog Post + New YouTube Video (5 blog posts, 3 videos)

They found that using existing blog posts and videos would offer the most clear results, as you could compare pre- and post-experiment metrics.
Key metrics:

Total organic clicks (TOC) – The blog traffic coming in from the web results tab on Google

Total organic clicks from the video tab – The blog traffic coming in specifically from the video tab on the SERP.

Content leads/CVR – The number of viewers who converted through a blog post by signing up for an offer and the view-to-lead conversion rate on the blog on a post-level.

Organic video views – Videos that came directly from the blog post embed.

The experiment ran for roughly three months, as that would be enough time to measure the SEO impact.
The results found that embedding YouTube videos into relevant blog posts had a positive impact on both YouTube views, contributing 15% of total views. Leads and CVR stayed consistent, which is considered a win, as the experiment didn’t negatively impact conversion.
As for TOC from the video tab, an average of 8% of clicks came from this section – making it a solid SEO opportunity for both channels.
The most challenging part for Kim was the adaptability they needed to exercise to start this experiment.
“A lot of the teams were all working pretty independently,” said Kim, “So, we had to understand everyone’s processes and then try to find that middle point to bring everyone together.”
As a result of this experiment, both teams developed a sustainable collaborative process to help both teams generate more traffic.
Audience Growth
When it comes to blogging, one of the most important metrics is organic traffic. This refers to the non-paid traffic that comes from search engines.
On the HubSpot Blog, the team also leverages non-organic content coming from sources like email, social media, and other websites.
Pamela Bump, senior marketing manager responsible for audience growth on the blog team, shares that the HubSpot Blogs already had incredible success from our non-organic content, creating clickable, shareable blog posts with original research, quotes from experts, and insights on industry trends.
“Not only did our non-organic program help to increase our non-search traffic, but we also were able to write posts that eventually began to rank on search because we were ahead of trends,” said Bump.
To capitalize on this success, Bump led an experiment to create hybrid posts, combining the shareability of non-organic content with the SEO of organic content.
“The goal of this experiment was to see if our blog posts could pull in the sudden bursts in traffic from non-search channels that non-organic blog posts achieve soon after publishing,” Bump said, “while also gaining more evergreen traffic over time search as these posts begin to rank on search result pages.”
She called this the “Hybrid Effect.”
“These assignments were laid out by both myself and our SEO strategist and combined SEO elements, like keyword optimizations and search-driven formatting,” said Bump, “while still including non-organic elements like quotes from experts, original data, news mentions, and trend coverage.”
The result? In the first year of testing hybrid content, Bump says it has led to huge benefits for the blog, pulling in strong numbers comparable to organic traffic.
“The average views we get from hybrids in their first month is about 10% lower than that of non-organic piece,” said Bump. “However, it can be more than 30% higher than the first month’s traffic of a completely organic piece of content.”
In the long term, Bump says that the average hybrids and non-organic piece published in 2021 only had about a 1,000 to 2,000 view difference while gaining more keywords on average than a non-organic piece and gaining faster traffic than an organic piece in its first year.
Because of this success, the team has made the hybrid model a permanent strategy on the blog team.
“In 2022, we plan to increase our investment in hybrid content by 10% while also training writers on how to optimize organic pieces with non-organic elements for hybrid growth,” said Bump.
In every experiment mentioned above, there’s something to learn – whether it’s the importance of collaboration or the value of historical data. If there’s an experiment you’ve been thinking of running, take this as your sign and use these insights to guide you.

Like any major marketing strategy of the past decade, social media has had plenty of time to accumulate some big myths.
And despite the fact that data has disproven a number of marketing myths today, some marketers will still hold onto a few, simply because it’s hard to keep up-to-date on what’s really going on with social media.

To help you separate fact from fiction, I put my MythBusters hat on and drudged up some of the most common social media myths out there. Let’s dive into some social media myths we’ve all probably heard from colleagues or friends and why you need to leave these old ways of thinking behind.
20 Social Media Myths to Leave Behind in 2022
1. My customers aren’t on social media.
In 2021, over 3.7 billion people worldwide are active on social media. Today, it seems like there’s a social platform for everything and everyone. While family and friends connect on sites like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, professionals are networking on LinkedIn.
Odds are, at least one social media platform has an audience that will align with your brand. Not sure which one is the best for you? Check out this blog post to explore which social platform(s) are best-suited for your brand — and which probably won’t work for your needs.
2. You should join every single social media network immediately.
Just because I can name a lot of social networks, it doesn’t mean I should set up a profile on all of them.
By all means, research other social networks. Set up a company profile or page and give ’em the old college try. But you may find that some aren’t really worth your time. If that’s the case, consider removing your profile and move on. You should only devote time and resources to the platforms that align most with your audience and marketing tactics.
The best marketers use data to identify which marketing activities yield the best results — if a social network isn’t helping you out, cut it loose.
3. Pinterest is only for B2C organizations.
Pinterest is totally awesome for B2C marketers, to be sure. But usually, when someone says a channel is only for B2C, the B2B marketer in me takes that as a challenge to prove it’s not so.
Turns out some of my colleagues feel the same way because one of them wrote an entire guide to using Pinterest for business. You can also check out the accounts of brands like GE, Microsoft, Econsultancy, and yours truly for some B2B Pinterest inspiration!
4. You should only try to get fans and followers that will become customers.
Quality is important, yes, but don’t underestimate the power of a large social reach. Remember some of these points next time you bemoan acquiring a fan or follower that lives outside of your sales territory or target demographic:

More fans and followers means you’re gaining access to their fans and followers.
If they’re an influencer, their clout transfers to you by association.
When they share your content, your SEO improves.
They may still refer business your way.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also target a specific, high-converting audience on your social channels — to figure out your ideal target audience on social media, check out this post.
5. You should only schedule posts during the workweek.
While you shouldn’t force your social media manager to work on the weekends, you certainly can schedule posts or launch social media ads on the weekends ahead of time — and, depending on your audience, it might be a good idea.
Of course, you’ll need to identify when your audience uses certain social platforms the most. While pique social media engagement times occur around the middle of the week, most platforms also have high engagement times during the weekends and evenings as well.
6. You’ll have amazing social media engagement if you ask your friends and family “Like” every post.
You can’t just have your mom and uncle Like every post you put up on Facebook. Although it might feel like you see a lot of posts that your friends or family members like, Facebook and other social media algorithms are a bit more sophisticated than that when it comes to determining which posts get seen.
To get social media feeds to favor your content, you’ll need a variety of people interacting with your content — both to grow your reach, and to show up in users’ news feeds.
So, rather than encouraging just your friends or family members to Like or heart your posts, encourage your followers to Like, comment, or share to encourage further discussion and spread your brand awareness.
7. You have to respond to social activity immediately.
There’s no doubt a speedy response is appreciated, but it isn’t always required. People understand that you’re running a business. There are other things going on. If you get back in a timely manner, but not in mere seconds, it’s alright.
There are exceptions, of course. For instance, Verizon runs a few Twitter accounts. One is @VerizonSupport. While Verizon will share blog posts and educational marketing materials on this Twitter, it also uses it to respond to questions or concerns from prospects or customers.
Because Verizon’s support account is for customer service rather than marketing, reps who manage this channel should be responding immediately to inquiries.
Another example could be if you’re running a social media account that receives a complaint that is public to all users and could hurt your credibility. In that scenario, you should consult your service team as soon as possible and write a thoughtful reply that shows you’re taking the feedback seriously.
8. Social media is only about engaging conversation — and not a place to share branded content.
It’s not that conversations aren’t important. You can’t just ignore your fans. But, while it’s beneficial to stimulate conversations and discussions with your audience, it’s not the only point to social media marketing.

Aside from allowing you to virtually connect with people, social media is a lead generator, a non-organic traffic tool, and a great place to share your best content.

If you publish valuable posts, they might not always stimulate conversation, but they could lead people to your website and products.
9. Social media marketing tactics don’t drive bottom-line results.
Piggybacking off of the last myth, you can actually generate value beyond just “engagement” and “brand equity” from social media. Social media drives leads and customers, period.
Don’t believe me? Here are a few stats you should know:

34% of consumers use social media to learn about brands and their products and services.
Facebook ads are used by 70% of marketers, and there were 10 million active advertisers on the platform in Q3 2021.
83% of people use Instagram to discover new products and services and 87% said they took a specific action, like making a purchase, after seeing product information.

64% of buyers would rather send a brand a message on social media than call for customer service.

43% of Gen Z consumers have made a native purchase from a social media platform.

75% of Millennials say social media helps them engage with companies and brands.

79% of people say that user-generated content on social media significantly impacts their purchasing decisions.

Ultimately, particularly through advertising or influencer marketing strategies, social media can be a viable opportunity for increasing sales. (Just check my bank account every time I scroll Instagram and “Swipe Up to Buy”.)

10. It looks tacky to seem relatable as a brand on social media.
The content you publish on social media should always keep your target audience in mind — but that doesn’t mean you can’t also publish content that shows your brand’s personality. Or, frankly, even your community manager’s personality.
There are people behind your company; don’t be afraid to show that with your own special brand of humor, pictures of people that work at your company, and links to news content that you find particularly entertaining … even if it’s not directly related to your industry.
11. Hashtags are essential for every post.
You know those tweets that look like this?
Love this article on #socialmedia #marketing that talks about #pinterest and has an image of a #puppy #lol
The point of hashtags is that they join together common conversation threads. So while it’s nice to have a hashtag for an event, like a webinar or a trade show, don’t lose your mind if it doesn’t become a trending topic. It’s not necessarily going to blow your leads goal out of the water if it does … think of hashtags as a way to be more user-friendly for those following the hashtag, not a way to make all your marketing dreams come true.
12. Social media monitoring takes forever.
One social media monitoring scenario: Glue your eyes to your computer screen, open five tabs for each of your social networks, chug three espressos, click between tabs, and hit refresh like a maniac.
Alternate social media monitoring scenario: Use social media monitoring software that alerts you when important terms are mentioned; check back to your accounts briefly every hour or two to see if you need to respond to anyone, follow someone back, etc.
That second one takes you, in aggregate, maybe 30 minutes a day. No big deal. Everybody breathe. Everything’s gonna be alright.
13. Social media managers should be new graduates or have years of experience.
This isn’t just a myth. It’s actually an ageist theory that should be completely abandoned — if it hasn’t been already.
Being good at social media marketing, or any job for that matter, has absolutely nothing to do with how young or old you are. You can learn the tools and strategies at any age, and make mistakes at any age, too.
Instead of considering a social media manager’s age range, look for the candidate who’s both creative and analytically-minded enough to manage your presence. To learn more about how to hire the best social media manager for your brand, check out this post.
14. Only young people use social media.
Think that the only people on social media are Gen Z and millennials? Think again.
Consider this: 40% of internet users age 46 to 55 are on LinkedIn by the end of 2020; roughly 55% of Facebook users are over the age of 35 as of 2021; and in 2020, over 70% of 45-64-year-old U.S. internet users watched videos on YouTube.
More than likely, your audience (at any age!) is on social media — the key is figuring out which one they prefer the most.
15. Newer platforms, like Snapchat and TikTok, aren’t worth taking seriously.
Snapchat and TikTok are both mobile social media apps that have pulled in millennials and Gen Z due to their unique platforms. While Snapchat thrives on ephemeral content, AR filters, and Bitmoji features, TikTok highlights goofy, fun, or musical 10 to 60-second videos similar to Vines.
Despite the fact that these platforms pull in odd content created by users, it doesn’t necessarily mean that brands can’t use the apps to gain credibility and awareness.
At this point, a plethora of brands — from publishers to B2C companies — have created profiles or ads for TikTok. One of the most surprising and oldest brands to build a TikTok strategy is The Washington Post. Although the publication has a very formal social media presence on other platforms, they use TikTok to highlight the funny, yet human, side of working in a newsroom.
Similarly, a number of larger businesses have also launched paid promotions or long-form Stories on Snapchat Discover. To learn more about these companies and the content they’ve launched, check out this blog post.
At this point, you can certainly take any popular social media platform seriously. But, as we noted when debunking previous myths in this post, you should identify which platforms best match your audience and your goals before spending time and money to build a strategy for them.
16. You don’t have enough content to have a social media channel.
The thing with social media is that it moves really fast. What’s posted today might very well be forgotten about tomorrow. It’s easy to think of this as a problem by saying, “I don’t have enough content to post.” But, alternatively, you could just repurpose content or re-share great content regularly.
According to HubSpot blog research, 91% of marketers surveyed say their company re-purposes content across various social media channels.
If the topic your post discusses is evergreen, it will almost always be useful, even if you repurpose or repost it later. This doesn’t mean you should share the exact same link and update commentary day after day, but if a few weeks go by and you want to re-promote something, go for it. Just do your loyal fans a favor and find a new interesting nugget of information to call out in your update.
17. Social media gives people a venue to publicly bash your company.
The truth is, angry customers already have plenty of venues: word of mouth, Google reviews, Yelp reviews, and many other places on the internet that will allow them to give feedback when they aren’t happy. Not creating a Facebook page simply for fear of negative feedback isn’t protecting you from an angry wrath.
Instead, get ahead of the conversation by being aware when negative reviews are taking place, reading them, responding to the customer, and coming up with solutions for their problems. Additionally, when customers are pleased, encourage them to share their positive stories.
18. Social media is too “fluffy” to have solid metrics around.
Again, social media isn’t about fluffy things we talked about earlier, like “brand equity” and “engaging conversation.”
Yes, those things happen, but it doesn’t mean you can’t measure the effectiveness of your social media activities.
With HubSpot marketing tools, you can identify exactly how much traffic social media drives to your website, how many leads social media generates, and how many of those leads become customers.
From there, you can even calculate things like the average cost-per-lead and customer — across individual social media networks, and in aggregate — just like you do with every other marketing channel (right?).
19. Social media is completely free marketing.
It’s free to join, but it’s still a resource investment. Even if you are posting for free, you’ll likely need to pay an employee to manage your channels and build strategies. And, as your social media strategy grows more successful, you might decide to up time and money investments.
Luckily, social media is still one of the most affordable ways to boost audiences, brand awareness, and ultimately leads. This makes the investment worth your while.
20. It’s best to stick with the same social media strategies that have worked in the past.
According to a survey of over 1,000 marketers for the HubSpot blog, 80% of respondents said their company’s social media strategy would be changing from 2021 to 2022 – and for good reason.
Social media platforms are constantly changing, and recycling the same goals over and over could be doing your company a disservice.
For example, in 2020, Instagram launched its Reels feature to give users a short-form video option reminiscent of TikTok. By mid-2021, the platform announced Reels would be prioritized in its infamous algorithm and would be pushed to wider audiences over static image posts.
Companies that were still relying on an early 2020 strategy that didn’t include Reels or short-form video may miss out on a good opportunity to get their content seen by a wider audience.
The social media strategies that worked in the past may not be effective today, and social media teams that can remain agile and ready to pivot may be in a better position to succeed in the ever-changing social media landscape.
Navigating Social Media Marketing
Now that you’ve learned about the falsehoods and myths behind social media, it’s time to start looking at the actual research-back tactics that could make your brand successful on a given network.
For more data that backs why you need a social media marketing strategy in 2022, check out this list of stats. For tactical advice on various social media tactics and platforms, read our Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2012 but was updated for comprehensiveness and freshness.

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Without freezing rows or columns in your Excel spreadsheet, everything moves when you scroll through the page, as shown in the gif below.
This can be frustrating if you can’t always see key data markers that explain what data is what, like column headers or row titles.
As with many things on Excel, there are tricks that help you make your spreadsheets easier to read, like the freeze function. In this post, learn how to freeze rows and columns in Excel to ensure that, when you scroll around, you’ll always be able to view the key data points that matter most.

How to Freeze a Top Row in Excel
The image below is the sample data set I’ll use to run through the explanations in this piece.
1. To freeze the top row in an Excel spreadsheet, navigate to the header toolbar and select
View, as shown in the image below.
2. When the
View menu options appear, Click
Freeze Top Row, outlined in red in the image below.  

Once selected, everything in the top row of your Excel spreadsheet (row 1) will be frozen, and you can scroll up and down in your spreadsheet, but the top rows won’t move, as shown in the gif below.

How to Freeze a Specific Row in Excel
While excel has native functions for freezing the top row of a data set and the first column of a data set, there are additional steps to take to freeze other elements of your data set that aren’t those two things.
1. To freeze a specific row in Excel, select the row number immediately underneath the one you want frozen. For this example, I’m selecting row number three to freeze row number two.

2. After selecting your row, navigate to View in the header toolbar and select Freeze Panes.
Once selected, you’ll be able to scroll up and down through your spreadsheet and always see row two.
Note that using the Freeze Panes function to freeze rows also freezes every row above the row you initially selected. For example, in the gif below, I selected row five which also freeze rows four, three, two, and one.

How to Freeze the First Column in Excel
1. To freeze the first column of your Excel spreadsheet (column A), navigate to the Excel header toolbar, select View, and click Freeze First Column.
Once selected, you’ll be able to scroll side to side within your sheet, and the first column of your data set will always be visible, as shown in the image below.

How to Freeze a Specific Column in Excel
1. If you want to freeze a specific column in excel, select the column letter that is immediately next to the column you want frozen and click Freeze Panes in the View header menu.
Once selected, you can scroll side to side through your entire data set and continue to see those columns. In the gif below, I’ve frozen columns A and B.
Using the freeze function in Excel makes your spreadsheets easier to understand, as you can ensure that critical rows and columns are always visible as you scroll through your data.

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Last Updated on January 20, 2022 by Rakesh Gupta Salesforce Flow is one of the most powerful tools provided by Salesforce to implement business requirements declaratively. Salesforce Flow helps businesses to save time, as well as money, by implementing solutions quickly. In theory, implementation of Salesforce Flow is straightforward – you create a
The post Getting Started with Salesforce Flow – Part 83 (Learn How to Designate a Recipient to Receive Error Emails) appeared first on Automation Champion.

When we experimented with a four-day workweek it was initially for one month. As our CEO, Joel Gascoigne, wrote about in May 2020 when we first started the experiment, “This 4-day workweek period is about well-being, mental health, and placing us as humans and our families first.”
Joel’s announcement about the four-day workweek in April, 2020.At the end of May, while we were collecting the data on how the experiment went, we continued working a four-day workweek. In June, after we saw that the results were overall good for us, we shifted to a four-day workweek for the rest of 2020. Our team was surprised by these results, having expected naturally diminished productivity with fewer workdays. At the time, our Chief of Staff, Carolyn Kopprasch, wrote:
“Since the intention was to give temporary relief from typical expectations to teammates during an especially hard and unprecedented time, we did not set goals around productivity or results. In fact, we expected a tangible drop in productivity due to reduced hours.However, due to increased rest and reflection, many of you have shared that you felt your weekly productivity was in fact not all that different, and that your quality of work was higher while experiencing improved overall wellbeing.”
In the end, we shifted to a four-day workweek for the foreseeable future at the end of 2020.Now, we’re three months away from having operated by a four-day workweek for two years. We recently ran an internal survey to check in with the Buffer team on how many days they are working, if they feel happier and more productive, and finally, if they are able to get the work required of them completed in four days.
Here are the results:
91% of our team are happier and more productive working four days a week This is a great piece of data for us — 91 percent of our teammates either agree or strongly agree that they are happier and more productive now that they work a four-day workweek, as for the remaining nine percent, on the scale they all selected “neutral.” This was our hope when we first started out experimenting with a four-day workweek and we’re thrilled that this is still the impact nearly two years later.
Most of our team is only working four days a week One of the most common questions we get is if we are really only working four days a week, and now we have the data to confidently say — yes, most of our team are only working four days a week, or they choose to work five shorter days, which is an option several parents felt better suited their families. In our most recent survey, 73 percent of Buffer teammates are only working a four-day workweek (or five shorter days which is an option). The remaining 27 percent said they are working more than four days, most commonly people work four and a half days and use Fridays to catch up on tasks. On Fridays we don’t schedule meetings and no communication via email, Slack, or Threads is expected of our team. Some people do choose to use it as an “overflow” day and that’s something we support as an organization assuming this doesn’t turn into overworking.
84% of our team are able to get all of their work done in four days a week Finally, we also wanted to know if teammates feel they can get all of their work done in four days a week, and 84 percent of our team either agree or strongly agree that they are able to get the work required of them completed in four days.This has been an adjustment as it isn’t easy to suddenly change the workweek, so each team and teammate have been experimenting over these last years to adjust their work, projects, deadlines, and expectations to be realistic with a four-day workweek. There’s always room for improvement but we’re happy to see this number as high as it is right now. We’ve communicated to our team that we know changing long-standing habits and expectations from a five-day workweek will take time. After all, we’ve worked our whole careers with a five-day workweek paradigm. So when we see responses in our survey about people who don’t feel like they can get all the work they need to do done in five days, it prompts us to question a few key things:

Is the workload reasonable for a 4-day work week?
Are these instances constant, or one-offs because of pressing deadlines or big projects?
Is there feedback we can provide to the individual or team to help streamline or work more efficiently?

We want the four-day workweek to apply to everyone equally, and since we apply this uniquely to different teams (like our advocacy team), we are open to creative solutions and re-iterating a flexible schedule. A four-day workweek, like remote working in general, requires trusting teammates to be honest about their work demands and workloads. It’s a dialogue between manager and teammate and something we encourage our company to continue to iterate on.
What we’re tackling in 2022
A question that comes up a lot with the four-day workweek is if there are any unexpected drawbacks or challenges. We’ve been wrestling with one in particular: how connected we feel as a team when you have fewer hours in the workweek to allow for casual conversations and team-building activities. In 2020, when we launched the pilot, we did intentionally reduce the number of hangouts and casual events to leave room for productive work in the week. We still have 1-2 team-wide events each quarter such as All Hands or Town Halls with our Executive team and those are recorded for anyone who cannot attend. Our engagement scores have decreased from the beginning of 2021 (employee net promoter score went from 33 to 19), which is something tied to many, many factors including team turnover, product direction, and external influences. One thing that has been highlighted in our surveys is the reduction in team-building events such as Zoom hangouts, guest speakers, and in-person events such as our retreat.For 2022, we’re diving back into more intentional team-building both asynchronously, synchronously, and the occasional in-person meetup where available. We still want to maintain a balance of productive work during our 32-hour workweek, but also have some purposeful events that are part of the larger building block of team connectedness. We’ll follow up with future blogs about things we’ve done in the past and initiatives we’re trying for 2022!
Where do you start?
Many companies are now exploring a four-day workweek and emboldening their employees to be flexible and efficient in their workweeks. We’ve been asked by a lot of companies were to even begin about experimenting with a four-day workweek—and here are our best resources and steps to kick off a discussion or test!

We tested it on a small scale (one month), with a few key survey questions to measure success.

We then rolled it out to a 6-month pilot trial, continually surveying our team and gathering objective productivity statistics (like lines of code written, customer satisfaction numbers, etc.)
We clarified and finessed how we approach a four-day workweek with our customer support team. (We alternate days off amongst our support staff so that we still have 24/7 in our customer support inbox.)

At the end of seven months of a four-day workweek, we felt enough momentum and positive reaction to commit to one more year of a four-day workweek, with added clarifications around the use of the 5th day as “overflow” and performance expectations for this as a perk.
After nearly two years, we’ve felt more confident than ever in our new systems, though we’ll continue to question, survey, and test out different habits to work efficiently and still bond as a company. We’re still working on the ideal balance of team engagement and events within the midst of a shorter workweek.

Even almost two years in, we still have a lot to learn about working four days a week. We’ll continue sharing as we go, and we’d love to hear from you! What questions do you have about working a four-day workweek? Send us a tweet!