Category: Marketing Automation

You’ve submitted your resume, talked to a recruiter, and set up a date for the first interview with a great company. But in the days leading up to the big interview, you’re feeling anxious, jittery, and downright scared.
What if you blank on how to answer a question? What should you say about your weaknesses? How soon do you follow up afterward?

If you’re feeling nervous about an upcoming interview, take a deep breath, grab a notepad, and work your way through this interview preparation checklist. You’ll be feeling a little less worried and a lot more confident in no time.
Pre-Interview Preparation Checklist
The steps you take leading up to the interview can really transform a normally stressful experience into something more pleasant. Sure, you could “wing it,” and answer questions on the fly as they come. But nothing will impress an interviewer more than showing that you did your homework. In your interview question prep, it’s smart to analyze your own working habits and study the company.
1. Print multiple copies of your resume.
Some interviews may require you to meet with multiple members of management, plus you may want to have one handy to reference as you talk about prior experiences. Print at least five copies of your resume on nice, high-quality paper, if possible.
2. Prepare a portfolio of your past work.
If the position requires you to show past work, like photographs, successful marketing campaigns, graphic designs, or written articles, gather your best work into one portfolio to share with the hiring team.
3. Review common interview questions.
Create a list of common questions, so you can begin preparing strong answers. Having some general talking points to the most-asked interview questions can help you feel less anxious for the interview process.
Even if the interviewer doesn’t ask one of the exact questions you’ve prepared for, they will likely ask something similar. For example, the interviewer might not ask “Why should we hire you?” but instead may say, “Tell us what makes you stand out from our other candidates.”
Here are some of the most common questions that come up in interview settings:

Why do you want to work for us?
What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
Why should we hire you?
Tell me about a time that you solved a problem at work.
Why are you leaving your current position?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
What’s your biggest accomplishment?
What’s something your current supervisor would say you could improve on?
What is your leadership style?
What would you plan to accomplish in your first 3 months here?

4. Practice answering interview questions out loud.
Now that you’ve come up with a list of commonly asked interview questions, you can start outlining responses. Jot down some notes for every question you come up with, and once you have it all down on paper, start practicing your answers out loud. Sit in front of a mirror and recite responses. Your goal is to make them clear, concise and to the point, so you aren’t rambling in the actual interview.
5. Try having a mock interview for extra practice.
Practicing an interview with a housemate or friend is another effective way to practice your interviewing skills. The mock interviewer can help give you notes on improving your answers or digging more in-depth for certain questions.
6. Spend time researching the company.
It can be embarrassing to enter an interview, only to not know the basics like what the company does or who the CEO is. You should, at bare minimum, be prepared with the company’s products or services, ownership, customer demographics, and main competitors.
It’s also smart to look up any recent press releases about the company to be in the know on its latest developments, and check in on their social media to get an idea of the tone, voice, and key initiatives of the company.
7. Create a list of your accomplishments.
The main point of the interview is to show off your skills and talents in order to score a new job. But when you’re nervous, it’s easy to forget some of the impressive projects you’ve completed or problems you’ve solved during your career. Take notes on some of your biggest career highlights to share with the interviewer.
8. Prepare questions to ask your interviewer.
Asking thoughtful questions to the interviewer shows that you’ve done your homework and you’re interested in the company. Plus, the interview is a two-way street. Just as the company wants to make sure you are the right fit for the job, you should do your due diligence to make sure the company and position are a good fit for you.
Here are some questions to ask about the position, the interviewer, the culture, and the company as a whole:

What does a typical day in this position look like?
What are the biggest challenges in this role?
What do the training and evaluation processes look like for this role?
Why is the person previously in this position leaving?
What do you hope to see the person who takes this position accomplish in the first three months, six months, and first year?
Why did you come to this company, and what is your favorite part of working here?
What are some of the company’s short- and long-term goals, and how would the person in this role help in reaching those targets?
Can you tell me more about the team I’d be working with? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the team or department?
How would you describe the work environment here?
What are the next steps in the hiring process?

Interview Preparation Checklist

It’s the day of the interview. You have your portfolio and resume copies next to your car keys or bus pass, you’ve recited questions and answers in your head for days, and you’re just hours from walking through the front door of the company building. Here’s what to do before and during the interview.
1. Dress the part.
In general, you should wear clothing that fits well and makes you feel good. Mend holes, treat stains, and lint-roll any pet hair on your favorite interview outfit.
What you wear to the interview may vary based on the job and company, but here are some guidelines for what to wear depending on the company’s dress code.

Casual: Dark jeans, slacks, long skirts, or long dresses; button-down shirts, blouses, cardigans, or sweaters; tops without graphics; neat, closed-toe shoes.

Business Casual: Dark slacks or long skirts; button-down tops, blazers; neat, closed-toe shoes.

Formal: Dark suits with slacks or long skirts; dark, tailored dresses; a tie with suits; neat, closed-toe shoes.

2. Arrive on time (or early).
Showing up to an interview can leave a bad first impression. Plan to arrive 10 to 20 minutes early, and give yourself time to find the building, park, and check-in with the front desk. Account for traffic, too — that 9 a.m. interview means that you’ll be driving along during morning rush hour. Have a backup transportation option, such as biking, walking, or getting a ride from a friend, if you typically take public transit, in case the train or bus is running late that day.
If the building is in a location you’ve never been to, make sure you map it out to avoid getting lost. If you’re not great with directions, you may want to practice the drive once or twice in the days leading up to the interview.
3. Bring paper and something to write with.
Taking notes shows that you are invested in what the interviewer is saying to you. But it also means you can review your notes for pros and cons if you are offered the job. Plus, you can revert back to any points the interviewer made early on in your appointment and ask for more information or clarification when it’s your turn to ask questions.
4. Have cash on hand for parking.
Some companies have paid parking garages or valet services for guests. While they might validate the parking ticket for you, don’t assume they will. Bring about $20 in cash just in case you need it for parking. If you don’t need the cash, take yourself out to lunch as a post-interview treat!
5. Be personable and courteous.
Everyone you meet from the parking garage to the interviewer could be your future co-workers. They may also be asked for input on how you interacted with them during the hiring process. Smile, wave hello, and greet anyone you pass. It never hurts to be kind to others!
6. Remain honest and take breaks as needed.
If you fabricate your resume or interview responses, the truth will become clear while you’re on the job. Answer questions honestly, and if you aren’t sure how to respond to a question off the bat, don’t be afraid to take a moment. Simply say, “Great question! Let me think for just one second on this.” We’re all human, and it’s a completely normal response to need to pause before thoughtfully answering a question.
7. Use the STAR method.
The STAR method is a popular technique for responding to even the toughest interview questions. Interviews ask situational questions to gauge how you respond to certain issues. The STAR method addresses multiple components of a problem while allowing you to clearly, thoroughly explain your logic and response.

Situational: Describe the situation or issue.

Task: Explain what your tasks or responsibilities were relating to the situation.

Action: Share what actions you took to complete your tasks and address the situation.

Results: Outline how your actions resolved the issue or what results came from your actions.

8. Stay focused and positive.
Interviewing is stressful and nerve-wracking, but remaining positive and upbeat can make all the difference in your performance. You might be asked why you are leaving your position or how you performed under previous managers and their varied leadership styles. Talking poorly about the company and previous leaders can leave a bad impression on your interviewer.
Keep your answers positive, and stay focused on answering each question with your experience rather than rambling as you respond. This is where practicing answers in the pre-interview preparation can come in handy.
Post-Interview Preparation Checklist
Just because you’ve shaken the hands of your interviewer(s) and taken a big sigh of relief, it doesn’t mean the interview is behind you. Of course, you could be brought in for second, third, or fourth interviews, but no matter what stage you’re at, it’s important to leave a good, lasting impression.
1. Ask about the next steps.
Either at the end of your interview or immediately after, you’ll want to ask about the timeline for the next steps of the hiring process. This way, you can anticipate when you’ll hear back from the company. You may need to take an edit test, share more samples of your work, or return for another interview.
2. Follow up with a thank you.
Always follow up an interview with a thank-you note. It’s best to send along a handwritten note to show your care and attention to detail. But if you don’t have the time to do so, an email is also a thoughtful way to show your appreciation for the interviewer’s time and consideration. If you don’t know the interviewer’s email, you can also email the recruiter or other point of contact and ask them to send along your gratitude.
Get Your Dream Job with Some Interview Prep
The interview question prep process can make or break your interview experience. While sending along your resume and portfolio in advance can give recruiters a good idea of whether or not you’d be great at the job, the interview helps the team learn more about you and how you work.
Don’t forget, interviewing is a two-way street, and the more you prepare, the better questions you can ask. By following this interview preparation checklist, you’ll feel more confident and prepared as you navigate your next interview.

Picture this: You’re a product owner and your team has a backlog of features to implement.
The problem is: Your team is overwhelmed and no one is sure where to start and how to prioritize the tasks. Well, this is where user story mapping can come in handy.

Keep reading to learn how user story mapping is helping product teams get a better understanding of consumer needs and prioritize tasks with a user-first approach.

Before we get into user story mapping, let’s go over the basics. A user story is a short and simple description of a feature told from the perspective of the user. For example, “As a user, I can add items that I’m not ready to purchase yet to my wishlist.”
It forces product teams to build with a user-first approach. A user story map takes this a step further by visualizing the steps a user takes to complete an action.
When product managers, designers, and developers work on a product, sometimes they focus too much on feature specifications. User story mapping gets them out of this framework and redirects them to focus on consumer needs and desired outcomes.
In addition, a user story map will help break down the customer journey into bite-size pieces that teams can tackle and ensure nothing gets lost in the process.
But to be clear, the mapping process isn’t solely for product teams. It can be a valuable cross-functional exercise that helps align marketing, engineering, UX/Design teams along with other departments.
In addition to getting everyone on the same page, creating a user story map also helps:

Determine how to prioritize work if there’s a large backlog of feature implementations, separating must-haves from nice-to-haves.
Break down requirements and visualize how each piece interacts with the other.
Expose roadblocks and dependencies that can impact product delivery.

Is agile story mapping different?
The short answer is no because user story mapping is used within an agile framework.
User stories are used in an agile framework as a way to provide context using simple and natural language. They also represent the smallest unit of work, just as sprints and epics are other measurements.
So, it’s agile story mapping is another way to describe the process of mapping a user story.

User story mapping typically happens at the beginning of a project, as it helps offer structure and get everyone on the same page. However, it can be used at any phase of the project to help identify roadblocks and reprioritize.

Set the frame.

Before you start mapping the story, you’ll want to narrow the scope. Otherwise, you may quickly start feeling overwhelmed and unable to start.
Here are some questions you should be asking:

What problem are we trying to solve?
How does this feature add value?
Who is the audience subset we are building for? (If any)

Once you answer these questions, put it in user story format: “As a [user], I want to be able to [filter my search] results so that I can [quickly find what I’m looking for.”
Following this approach will help you approach the problem tactically.
2. Map out the activities and the steps in the story.
In this step, you want to create a general roadmap for how the user would access and use this feature. Those are your main activities.
The goal here is to outline the big steps necessary to get from start to finish. From there, you lay out the steps.
Following the same example from the previous section, here’s how it could look:
Activities:

Search for products.
Review product details.
Check out. 

Steps:

Type into the search bar and head to the results page.
Scroll through search results in search of specific information.
Select the filtering option to narrow down options by cost.
Review the search results page again with updated options.
Select item and place in cart.
Complete purchase.

As you’ll notice, story mapping requires going from macro to micro.
You’ll likely use input from your participants to map out these details. You want your map to paint an accurate and full picture of what does (and can) happen in this story.
So, you’ll want to lean on your team for input in this step.
3. Group and define the tasks.
Once you’ve mapped out the big details, this is where the collaboration takes off.
Under each step, you should highlight the key actions involved in each activity.
For instance, when a user is in step 5, which is selecting an item and placing it in their cart, there are several substeps they will follow, including viewing the image, reading reviews, scanning related items.
All of these should be mentioned under the big activity groups, also known as the steps. The goal is to identify any gaps in the features of your product currently.
By adding a must-have, could-have, and should-have options in your map, you can rank features by priority. Here’s what you want to consider:

Is there anything else your user could do during one of these activities?
What could disrupt their process at this point? Where could they get stuck?
How else could the user navigate through this page?

This will require a collective effort from your various teams to figure out what’s realistic and what’s doable. For instance, an engineer might point out that a particular task is too big to count as one iteration. Your user researcher could highlight an important step in the process that you guys hadn’t considered.
4. Slice your tasks and get your minimum viable product.
Once everything is laid out, you and your team can start to move through the map to prioritize a list of tasks and cut them into slices.
Each “slice” will include tasks from each activity to create a viable end-to-end experience. It should have a clear outcome as well as a way to measure success. This will be important later when testing and tracking user behavior.
You will continue to separate your slices until you include all the tasks and have a clear plan to move forward.
User Story Mapping Example
In this example, the user story is as follows: “As a user, I want to buy a product easily on this website.”
Once you have all those details, then you can create your map.

Once you’ve added the activities, steps, and tasks, now you can figure out your slices. 

For instance, in this example, the first slice would skip two tasks in the “Search” activity, skip three in the “Get product details” one, and three in the “Check out” section.
The second slice would include features like “Search by category” and “See product in AR.” Once you have all your slices, your team is ready to get to work. 
User Story Mapping Tools
When it comes to user story mapping, there are a lot of ways you could do this.
The most straightforward way is with a conference room, a whiteboard, and a whole lot of sticky notes. That way, you can easily move pieces around as you work and make it a collaborative effort.
Now, if your team is remote, you’ll have to rely on online tools to assist you in this process. Many agile project management software have story mapping features, such as Atlassian’s Jira.
Additional online tools for user story mapping include Featmap, Miro, and Avion.
If your product team can’t agree on where to start for an upcoming or ongoing project, consider creating a user story map. It may take some time away from building but it will definitely pay off down the line.

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“Thought leadership” is one of those buzzwords that we’ve all heard roughly a million times. And while it may feel like one of those terribly overused cliches, based on my experience as a business owner and coach to corporate leaders and entrepreneurs, I understand why we hear it so often.
Because, done well, it works.
I tell you this from personal experience. I’ve also seen the payoffs of thought leadership among the clients I’ve served over the past 10+ years.
Building or affirming your thought leadership—in the right places and with the right audiences—can help you foster trust and credibility with customers, become a go-to voice in your industry, and open up amazing opportunities.
Here’s my story:
In 2010, I got this wild idea to build JobJenny.com, a platform that would offer professionals answers to their most pressing career questions, assist them in navigating business or job transitions, and inspire them to live their best lives.
My initial intention was to create a side hustle business that complimented my then-day job as head of a recruiting agency. I’d low-key answer the most common questions I heard about job search and career development, help people with their resumes, and support them in growing their small businesses.
What I didn’t see coming was this: By sharing my firsthand perspective on how recruiters think and work and lessons learned as I built my own business through my blog, LinkedIn, and subscriber newsletter, I was becoming a thought leader.
But that’s exactly what happened and, as it did, I was able to expand my services, raise prices (a lot), sunset my recruiting business, and attract lucrative partnerships, including one with LinkedIn Learning.
My thought leadership successes were, admittedly, rather accidental, but yours don’t have to be. In fact, if you apply some strategy and planning to this, you (and your business) may benefit from your thought leadership much more quickly than I did.
Here are five quick tips that’ll help you build thought leadership via LinkedIn—one of the best platforms out there for many small business owners (though they’ll work just as well is Instagram or TikTok is your platform of choice):
1. Think About Your Most Important Audience and What They Want to Hear
Certainly, you’ll want the freedom to share perspective and information that’s meaningful to you and aligns with the goals of your business. But, when you get down to it, what matters most is that you’re talking about things that your ideal audience wants to hear.
And, if you’re not sure what that is, try my very non-scientific technique:
Review the questions that come in via your contact page, email, and LinkedIn InMails weekly. What, specifically, are people requesting help with the most?
In my experience, posts inspired by real-life questions and pain points get the most comments, engagement, and shares. I’m guessing you’ll find a similar trend. So, dive into your inbox and start there.
The answers to “What should we talk about?” are, literally, right there in your inbox. Start there.
2. Consider Your Unique Perspective
Do you know what sets you and your business apart? You should. If you don’t, ask your best customers what they appreciate the most about you to help you get clear on your “secret sauce.”
My unique perspective, as a point of reference, is that I insist on showing up as an approachable and relatable human.
Certainly, I want to ensure it’s clear that I know what I’m talking about and I’m hyper-current on my industry. I also understand that the process of changing jobs or careers is stressful for nearly everyone. And so, I work hard to show up in a way that’s non-intimidating, non-boring, and incredibly actionable.
And, it’s working. It’s a key reason I was invited (out of a sea of roughly 3,273,204 job search experts on LinkedIn) to create video courses with LinkedIn Learning. My conversational, roll-up-your-sleeves style also helped me land me a long-term gig as a columnist for The Muse (one of the biggest players in the career space) and an upcoming, still-top-secret writing project, which you’ll see later in 2022.
Figure out what sets you apart, then make sure that the content you share honors your overall brand and your unique perspective.
3. Brainstorm What You’ll Share
Once you’ve got clarity on your audience and unique perspective, spend some time brainstorming topics that align with your goals and affirm your expertise. A few types of content that tend to resonate well on Linkedin in particular include opinion pieces, analysis of industry data, case studies, AMAs (Ask Me Anything), and interviews.
I’ve recently begun using AMAs on LinkedIn (via LinkedIn Live) as a tool for helping potential customers as they contemplate their job search and to point them toward my paid offerings. (Here’s my first one.) So far, the results are incredibly promising. In just a short amount of time weaving video content into my messaging on LinkedIn, I can already see why 87% of those using LinkedIn video for marketing say it’s an effective channel for them.
As you brainstorm, create a list of your best ideas and draw from it over a period of weeks or months. We’re all so busy. Knowing what you’ll share on LinkedIn (and when) will help you stay the course.
4. Play to Your Strengths
Something that seems to create the most stress among entrepreneurs as they chart a course for building thought leadership is that dreaded imposter syndrome.
I can’t tell you how many times clients have told me, “But, I’m not a writer,” or “I’m terrified to speak on camera.”
Here’s the good news: You don’t have to write original content if that’s not your jam. Maybe you’re better off vlogging or doing Q&As on LinkedIn Live.
And, if you’re not a strong writer or comfortable on camera, guess what? You can still build thought leadership, as a curator.
Curators are those magical people we all have in our news feeds who seem to always find the most interesting articles, trends, and information. They pose questions based on what they read. They invite us to weigh in. They create thoughtful debate.
And, in doing so, we come to know them as people who are passionate, intelligent, and engaged in their particular areas of expertise.
We come to know them as thought leaders.
5. Show up Authentically, Always
You’ll probably agree with me when I say that there are plenty of “what not to do” examples of “attempts to build thought leadership” on LinkedIn.They’re everywhere.
When you look close at the stinkers, I’ll bet you’ll notice something. Most of those in your “worst of the worst” category are lacking an extremely important ingredient: authenticity.
You see, people align with—and buy from—those that they know, like, and trust. (In fact, 86 percent of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding which brands they like and support.) And, if you get too hung up on showing up as all buttoned-up on LinkedIn (or any other social media platform), you run the risk that people won’t see who you really are, as an entrepreneur and a person.
Be strategic, for sure. But if you’re serious about leveraging LinkedIn to establish or affirm your thought leadership, you’ve got to show up as the real deal.
Trust me: You’ll be so glad you did.

Last week, after I posted my post, many people came to visit my website in order to give me some feedback and help. I really appreciate it. I received a lot of comments telling me how much they feel confused about my website. For a long time, I think the function and defination of my website is very clear, but your messages made me realize that my website is not that easy to understand. By the way, my website is basically a directory helps manage access to all ecommerce tools in one place. Since I have never built a website like this before, I don’t know how to design it in a normal way. Even though I am aware of the existence of some competitor websites, I didn’t imitate their website design to build mine. However, after receiving a lot of feedback recently, I began to reflect on whether the first screen of my site did not express the purpose of my site very clearly, and maybe it’s time to make a section on the first screen to write the brife introduction of my site on, rather than to put it in the ‘About Us’ page. Here are the first screens of several competitors’ websites. A.https://postimg.cc/dkYDPCH1 B.https://postimg.cc/q67J4x8k C.https://postimg.cc/2VbYG6GX D.https://postimg.cc/gww3k3HH E. https://postimg.cc/K45fWrq1 F.https://postimg.cc/PPwxxKgx Whose design above do you think is suitable for my website’s first screen? Can you help me choose one out of them? Thank you sincerely~~~
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While Google keeps us on our toes with all the algorithm updates they keep rollin’ out, one thing has stayed pretty consistent for inbound marketers looking to optimize their websites for search: keyword research.
In this post, we’ll define what keyword research is, why it’s important, how to conduct your research for your SEO strategy, and choose the right keywords for your website.

Why is keyword research important?
Keyword research provides valuable insight into the queries that your target audience is actually searching on Google. The insight that you can get into these actual search terms can help inform content strategy as well as your larger marketing strategy.
People use keywords to find solutions when conducting research online. So if your content is successful in getting in front of our audience as they conduct searches, you stand to gain more traffic. Therefore, you should be targeting those searches.
In addition, in the inbound methodology, we don’t create content around what we want to tell people; we should be creating content around what people want to discover. In other words, our audience is coming to us.
This all starts with keyword research.
For an inside look into how Arel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hrefs can aid you in your SEO keyword research, check out our case study and exclusive interview here.

Conducting keyword research has many benefits, the most popular reasons being:
Marketing Trend Insight
Conducting effective keyword research can provide you with insights into current marketing trends, and help you center your content on relevant topics and keywords your audience is in search of.
Traffic Growth
When you identify the best fitting keywords for the content you publish, the higher ranking the it is in search engine results — the more traffic you’ll attract to your website.
Customer Acquisition
If your business has content that other business professionals are looking for, you can meet there need and provide them with a call to action that will lead them into the buyer journey from the awareness stage to the point of purchase.
By researching keywords for their popularity, search volume, and general intent, you can tackle the questions that most people in your audience want answers to.
However, keywords themselves because Google has evolved beyond exact-match algorithms.
Keywords vs. Topics
More and more, we hear how much SEO has evolved over just the last 10 years, and how unimportant keywords themselves have become to our ability to rank well for the searches people make every day.
And to some extent, this is true, but in the eyes of an SEO professional it’s a different approach. Rather, it’s the intent behind that keyword, and whether or not a piece of content solves for that intent (we’ll talk more about intent in just a minute).
But that doesn’t mean keyword research is an outdated process. Let me explain:
Keyword research tells you what topics people care about and, assuming you use the right SEO tool, how popular those topics actually are among your audience. The operative term here is topics — by researching keywords that are getting a high volume of searches per month, you can identify and sort your content into topics that you want to create content on. Then, you can use these topics to dictate which keywords you look for and target.
Elements of Keyword Research
There are three main elements to pay attention to when conducting keyword research.
1. Relevance
Google ranks content for relevance. This is where the concept of search intent comes in. Your content will only rank for a keyword if it meets the searchers’ needs. In addition, your content must be the best resource out there for the query. After all, why would Google rank your content higher if it provides less value than other content that exists on the web?
2. Authority
Google will provide more weight to sources it deems authoritative. That means you must do all you can to become an authoritative source by enriching your site with helpful, information content and promoting that content to earn social signals and backlinks. If you’re not seen as authoritative in the space, or if a keyword’s SERPs are loaded with heavy sources you can’t compete with (like Forbes or The Mayo Clinic), you have a lower chance of ranking unless your content is exceptional.
3. Volume
You may end up ranking on the first page for a specific keyword, but if no one ever searches for it, it will not result in traffic to your site. Kind of like setting up shop in a ghost town.
Volume is measured by MSV (monthly search volume), which means the number of times the keyword is searched per month across all audiences.

How to Research Keywords for Your SEO Strategy
I’m going to lay out a keyword research process you can follow to help you come up with a list of terms you should be targeting. That way, you’ll be able to establish and execute a strong keyword strategy that helps you get found for the search terms you actually care about.
Step 1: Make a list of important, relevant topics based on what you know about your business.
To kick off this process, think about the topics you want to rank for in terms of generic buckets. You’ll come up with about 5-10 topic buckets you think are important to your business, and then you’ll use those topic buckets to help come up with some specific keywords later in the process.
If you’re a regular blogger, these are probably the topics you blog about most frequently. Or perhaps they’re the topics that come up the most in sales conversations. Put yourself in the shoes of your buyer personas — what types of topics would your target audience search that you’d want your business to get found for? If you were a company like HubSpot, for example — selling marketing software (which happens to have some awesome SEO tools… but I digress), you might have general topic buckets like:

“inbound marketing” (21K)
“blogging” (19K)
“email marketing” (30K)
“lead generation” (17K)
“SEO” (214K)
“social media marketing” (71K)
“marketing analytics” (6.2K)
“marketing automation” (8.5K)

See those numbers in parentheses to the right of each keyword? That’s their monthly search volume. This data allows you to gauge how important these topics are to your audience, and how many different sub-topics you might need to create content on to be successful with that keyword. To learn more about these sub-topics, we move on to step 2 …
Step 2: Fill in those topic buckets with keywords.
Now that you have a few topic buckets you want to focus on, it’s time to identify some keywords that fall into those buckets. These are keyword phrases you think are important to rank for in the SERPs (search engine results pages) because your target customer is probably conducting searches for those specific terms.
For instance, if I took that last topic bucket for an inbound marketing software company — “marketing automation” — I’d brainstorm some keyword phrases that I think people would type in related to that topic. Those might include:

marketing automation tools
how to use marketing automation software
what is marketing automation?
how to tell if I need marketing automation software
lead nurturing
email marketing automation
top automation tools

And so on and so on. The point of this step isn’t to come up with your final list of keyword phrases. You just want to end up with a brain dump of phrases you think potential customers might use to search for content related to that particular topic bucket. We’ll narrow the lists down later in the process so you don’t have something too unwieldy.
Although more and more keywords are getting encrypted by Google every day, another smart way to come up with keyword ideas is to figure out which keywords your website is already getting found for. To do this, you’ll need website analytics software like Google Analytics or HubSpot’s Sources report, available in the Traffic Analytics tool. Drill down into your website’s traffic sources, and sift through your organic search traffic bucket to identify the keywords people are using to arrive at your site.
Repeat this exercise for as many topic buckets as you have. And remember, if you’re having trouble coming up with relevant search terms, you can always head on over to your customer-facing colleagues — those who are in Sales or Service and ask them what types of terms their prospects and customers use, or common questions they have. Those are often great starting points for keyword research.
Here at HubSpot, we use the Search Insights Report in this part of the process. This template is designed to help you do the same and bucket your keywords into topic clusters, analyze MSV, and inform your editorial calendar and strategy.
Featured Resource: Search Insights Report Template

Download the Template
Step 3: Understand How Intent Affects Keyword Research and Analyze Accordingly.
Like I said in the previous section, user intent is now one of the most pivotal factors in your ability to rank well on search engines like Google. Today, it’s more important that your web page addresses the problem a searcher intended to solve than simply carries the keyword the searcher used. So, how does this affect the keyword research you do?
It’s easy to take keywords for face value, and unfortunately, keywords can have many different meanings beneath the surface. Because the intent behind a search is so important to your ranking potential, you need to be extra-careful about how you interpret the keywords you target.
Let’s say, for example, you’re researching the keyword “how to start a blog” for an article you want to create. “Blog” can mean a blog post or the blog website itself, and what a searcher’s intent is behind that keyword will influence the direction of your article. Does the searcher want to learn how to start an individual blog post? Or do they want to know how to actually launch a website domain for the purposes of blogging? If your content strategy is only targeting people interested in the latter, you’ll need to make sure of the keyword’s intent before committing to it.
To verify what a user’s intent is in a keyword, it’s a good idea to simply enter this keyword into a search engine yourself, and see what types of results come up. Make sure the type of content Google is closely related to what you’d intend to create for the keyword.
Step 4: Research related search terms.
This is a creative step you may have already thought of when doing keyword research. If not, it’s a great way to fill out those lists.
If you’re struggling to think of more keywords people might be searching about a specific topic, take a look at the related search terms that appear when you plug in a keyword into Google. When you type in your phrase and scroll to the bottom of Google’s results, you’ll notice some suggestions for searches related to your original input. These keywords can spark ideas for other keywords you may want to take into consideration.
Want a bonus? Type in some of those related search terms and look at their related search terms.
Step 5: Use keyword research tools to your advantage.
Keyword research and SEO tools can help you come up with more keyword ideas based on exact match keywords and phrase match keywords based on the ideas you’ve generated up to this point. Some of the most popular ones include:

Ahrefs
SEMrush
Ubersuggest
Google Keyword Planner
SECockpit
Keywords Everywhere
Moz
KeywordTool.io
KWFinder

How to Find and Choose Keywords for Your Website
Once you have an idea of the keywords that you want to rank for, now it’s time to refine your list based on the best ones for your strategy. Here’s how:
Step 1. Use Google Keyword Planner to cut down your keyword list.
In Google’s Keyword Planner, you can get search volume and traffic estimates for keywords you’re considering. Then, take the information you learn from Keyword Planner and use Google Trends to fill in some blanks.
Use the Keyword Planner to flag any terms on your list that have way too little (or way too much) search volume, and don’t help you maintain a healthy mix like we talked about above. But before you delete anything, check out their trend history and projections in Google Trends. You can see whether, say, some low-volume terms might actually be something you should invest in now — and reap the benefits for later.
Or perhaps you’re just looking at a list of terms that is way too unwieldy, and you have to narrow it down somehow … Google Trends can help you determine which terms are trending upward, and are therefore worth more of your focus.
Step 2: Prioritize low-hanging fruit.
What we mean by prioritizing low-hanging fruit is to prioritize keywords that you have a chance of ranking for based on your website’s authority.
Large companies typically go after high search volume keywords, and since these brands are well established already, Google typically rewards them with authority over many topics.
You can also consider keywords that have little competition. Keywords that don’t already have multiple articles battling for the highest rank can afford you the spot by default — if there’s no one else trying to claim it.
Step 3: Check the monthly search volume (MSV) for keywords you’ve chosen.
You want to write content around what people want to discover, and checking MSV can help you do just that.
Monthly search volume is the number of times a search query or keyword is entered into search engines each monthly. Tools like searchvolume.io or Google Trends can help you find out the most searched keywords over related keyword clusters for free.
Step 4: Factor in SERP features as you choose keywords.
There’s several SERP feature snippets that Google will highlight if used correctly. An easy way to find out about them is to look up the keywords of your choosing and see what the first result looks like. But for a quick overview of the types of SERP featured snippets, we’ll summarize what they are here.
Image Packs
Image packs are search results displayed as a horizontal row of images that appear in an organic position. If there’s an image pack, you should write an image-heavy post to win placement in it.

Paragraph Snippets
Featured snippets, or paragraph snippets, are short snippets of text that appear at the top of Google search results for quick answers to common search queries. Understanding the searcher’s intent and providing succinct, concise answers can help in winning the placement.

List Snippets
List snippets, or listicles, are snippets made for posts outlining steps to do something from start to finish — often for “How To” searches. Making posts with direct, clear instructions and formatting can assist in winning this placement.

Video Snippets
Video snippets are short videos that Google will display at the top of a search query page in place of text featured snippets. Posting a video on both YouTube and your website can help you win this placement if tagged in the targeted keywords people are searching for.

Step 5: Check for a mix of head terms and long-tail keywords in each bucket.
Head terms are keyword phrases that are generally shorter and more generic — they’re typically just one to three words in length, depending on who you talk to. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are longer keyword phrases usually containing three or more words.
It’s important to check that you have a mix of head terms and long-tail terms because it’ll give you a keyword strategy that’s well balanced with long-term goals and short-term wins. That’s because head terms are generally searched more frequently, making them often (not always, but often) much more competitive and harder to rank for than long-tail terms. Think about it: Without even looking up search volume or difficulty, which of the following terms do you think would be harder to rank for?

how to write a great blog post
blogging

If you answered #2, you’re absolutely right. But don’t get discouraged. While head terms generally boast the most search volume (meaning greater potential to send you traffic), frankly, the traffic you’ll get from the term “how to write a great blog post” is usually more desirable.
Why?
Because someone who is looking for something that specific is probably a much more qualified searcher for your product or service (presuming you’re in the blogging space) than someone looking for something really generic. And because long-tail keywords tend to be more specific, it’s usually easier to tell what people who search for those keywords are really looking for. Someone searching for the head term “blogging,” on the other hand, could be searching it for a whole host of reasons unrelated to your business.
So check your keyword lists to make sure you have a healthy mix of head terms and long-tail keywords. You definitely want some quick wins that long-tail keywords will afford you, but you should also try to chip away at more difficult head terms over the long haul.
Step 6: See how competitors are ranking for these keywords.
Just because your competitor is doing something doesn’t mean you need to. The same goes for keywords. Just because a keyword is important to your competitor, doesn’t mean it’s important to you. However, understanding what keywords your competitors are trying to rank for is a great way to help you give your list of keywords another evaluation.
If your competitor is ranking for certain keywords that are on your list, too, it definitely makes sense to work on improving your ranking for those. However, don’t ignore the ones your competitors don’t seem to care about. This could be a great opportunity for you to own market share on important terms, too.
Understanding the balance of terms that might be a little more difficult due to competition, versus those terms that are a little more realistic, will help you maintain a similar balance that the mix of long-tail and head terms allows. Remember, the goal is to end up with a list of keywords that provide some quick wins but also helps you make progress toward bigger, more challenging SEO goals.
How do you figure out what keywords your competitors are ranking for, you ask? Aside from manually searching for keywords in an incognito browser and seeing what positions your competitors are in, Arel=”noopener” target=”_blank” hrefs allows you to run a number of free reports that show you the top keywords for the domain you enter. This is a quick way to get a sense of the types of terms your competitors are ranking for.
Best Keywords for SEO
Understand that there’s no “best” keywords, just those that are highly searched by your audience. With this in mind, it’s up to you to craft a strategy that will help you rank pages and drive traffic.
The best keywords for your SEO strategy will take into account relevance, authority, and volume. You want to find highly searched keywords that you can reasonably compete for based on:

The level of competition you’re up against.
Your ability to produce content that exceeds in quality what’s currently ranking.

And You’ve Got the Right Keywords for Your Website SEO
You now have a list of keywords that’ll help you focus on the right topics for your business, and get you some short-term and long-term gains.
Be sure to re-evaluate these keywords every few months — once a quarter is a good benchmark, but some businesses like to do it even more often than that. As you gain even more authority in the SERPs, you’ll find that you can add more and more keywords to your lists to tackle as you work on maintaining your current presence, and then growing in new areas on top of that.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in May 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

How do you convince visitors your website is worth their time? There are so many elements that a top-notch landing page needs, and making those elements the “best” they can be often depends on what your landing page goals are.

If you’re looking to up your landing page game, it’s helpful to know what goes into a great one. We’ve compiled a list of landing pages we love so you can see these impressive designs in action and implement their tactics into your own landing pages.

Sign-Up Landing Pages
1. Shopify

Like many of the other landing pages in this post, Shopify’s trial landing page for sellers keeps it simple. It’s not too text-heavy, but still manages to persuade users by noting a few key points about its top-notch product. Visitors come away knowing that Shopify is an all-in-one platform that is easy to use and trusted by many.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Clean Interface: The user-oriented headline is just a few words, for example, and the page relies on simple graphics and short paragraphs to communicate the trial’s details and benefits.

Concise CTA: There are only a few fields you need to fill out before you get started. All of this makes it easier for you to quickly get started selling online with their tool.

What Could Be Improved:

Emphasize Security: The last column states that the platform is safe, but doesn’t explain why. Instead, it mentions that over a million businesses use it. A few words that speak to site security would improve this section since the number of vendors is already stated at the top of the page. Additionally, it would eliminate friction for visitors with security concerns.

2. Great Jones

Many of us have been doing a lot more cooking during the pandemic and looking to upgrade our gear. Great Jones offers up a landing page that’s as beautiful as its Dutch Ovens. It’s very aspirational and taps into all of our ideal kitchen dreams.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Use of Color: Great Jones’ site is colorful just like its cookware. The use of bold colors quickly draws visitors in and makes the cookware stand out.

Prominent CTA: You can’t miss this giant yellow CTA and bold font $100 Off coupon. Who wouldn’t want $100 off these gorgeous pots?

What Could Be Improved:

Rollover Descriptions: With so many pans and utensils pictured at once, it would be great if users had the ability to view the name of the item. That way they could find it easier on the site when they’re ready to buy.

3. Muzzle

Muzzle, a Mac app that silences on-screen notifications, fully embraces this show don’t tell mentality on their otherwise minimal landing page. Landing pages help users decide whether or not your product or service is actually worth their precious time and energy. What better way to clearly and straightforwardly communicate your value proposition than by confronting visitors with the very problem your app solves?
Why This Landing Page Works:

Show Rather Than Tell: Visitors to the page are greeted with a rapid-fire onslaught of embarrassing notifications in the upper left of the screen. Not only is the animation hilarious, it also manages to compellingly convey the app’s usefulness without lengthy descriptions.

Cohesive Visual Experience: Even the text on the page is a muted gray color, mirroring the function of the product.

What Could Be Improved:

Could Be Difficult to Read: While the light gray text on white background is great at mimicking the product’s function, it may be harder to read for some.

4. DoorDash

Takeout enthusiasts are no doubt familiar with DoorDash, the app that lets you order food from a variety of restaurants from your phone. Well, instead of customers, this landing page is geared towards recruiting Dashers who make the deliveries.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Emphasizes Dasher Autonomy: This landing page really plays up that Dashers are independent and free to work when they want.

Highlights Potential Earnings: While there’s no way to prove these earnings are typical, they are certainly enticing for anyone who wants to make extra cash on the side.

What Could Be Improved:

Advantage Over Competitors: DoorDash is not the only delivery game in town. They could highlight what sets them apart from a competitor like UberEats.

5. Wise

Wise allows you to send or receive money in different currencies and countries, and its landing page separates customers into two categories of either Business or Personal so you’re not distracted by options that don’t apply to you. There’s even a short video to show visitors how the service works before they try it. Since they’re dealing with money, it’s important to get the customer experience right the first time.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Highlights Safety: The security information is out front and center on this page, helping to ease any hesitancy a potential customer might have and assures them that Wise is a safe service to use to send money and receive .

Emphasizes Value: In several places on the page, in both text and video, Wise reiterates that it’s less expensive than transferring money through a traditional bank.

What Could Be Improved:

Interface is a Little Busy: While it’s great that customers have access to a wealth of information about the service, there’s a lot going on. There’s video, menus that appear when you scroll and multiple buttons — all within the top half of the page.

6. Airbnb

To help convert visitors into hosts, Airbnb offers some enticing personalization: an estimated weekly average earnings projection based on your location and home size. You can enter additional information about your potential accommodations into the fields to get an even more customized estimation.
If you visit the page already convinced, the clear call-to-action at the top of the page makes it easy to convert on the spot.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Personalization: Airbnb shows you right at the start what you could potentially earn based on your area and the size of your home. This is useful for potential new hosts who may still be figuring out how much they should charge and what they can expect to earn.

Leverages Community: Further down on the page, those curious about hosting have the option to contact a seasoned Superhost to answer any questions they may have.

What Could Be Improved:

Nothing: The page is clear, concise, reassures potential hosts Airbnb is safe to use, and offers a personalized experience.

7. Wag!

Wag! is a service that connects dog owners with dog walkers and sitters. This page gets right to the point with a large font encouraging prospects to join, and puts the sign-up form prominently on the right half of the page. The green background color makes the white font and other elements on the page pop. The addition of a QR code on the form is also a nice touch, enabling visitors to scan it, quickly download the app, and sign-up.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Efficient Form: Leaving the form field open on the page means visitors don’t even have to click on a CTA to access it. The QR code further expedites the process.
Emphasizes Credibility: Including caretaker photos and that more than 351,000 caretakers currently use the service nationwide makes Wag more trustworthy.

What Could Be Improved:

It’s Not Compelling: Unlike DoorDash mentioned earlier, Wag! makes no mention of why people should join. What are the perks? Are the hours flexible?

8. Wistia

Right off the bat, you notice the blue background with the pop of pink in the form of a “Try for free” button. The page gets right into the action with a video showcasing all the cool content you can create. If you’re having doubts, you can always scroll below to read testimonials from some of Wistia’s 375,000 happy customers.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Ease of Use: The form itself allows users to quickly fill it out by linking to their Google account. Doing so enables the autofill feature, which cuts down on friction for the user.

Capitalizes on Visuals: As a video host, Wista does a great job of showcasing its capabilities using a variety of mediums. There’s colorful graphics, videos and even a link to marketing focused cartoons.

What Could Be Improved:

Include an FAQ: Testimonials are great, but sometimes customers have a few concerns that could be answered quickly with an FAQ section. That way they can decide whether or not to sign up without having to leave the page to search for answers.

9. Webflow

Webflow, a design tool for web developers, packs a lot of information into just one GIF. As with Muzzle, Webflow also gets right to the point and demonstrates what their tool can do, rather than just talking about it. The animated GIF is visible in the same frame on the website, so users can see how the product works and sign up without scrolling.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Show Rather Than Tell: Being able to view Webflow’s tool in action gives potential customers a clear idea of not only what it does, but how their user experience will be.

Removes Risk: In several places on the landing page, visitors are reminded that the service is free. There’s no trial to sign up for. They can build their site for free and decide whether or not to sign up for a plan when they’re ready to launch.

What Could Be Improved:

Nothing: This landing page is the perfect balance of information, usability, and visuals.

10. Talkspace

Talkspace, an online therapy service, really focuses on trustworthiness with this landing page. All of the information on this page emphasizes that customers will have access to licensed therapists, and drives home that the service is secure and confidential. It’s a great way to reassure those who may be hesitant to participate. The use of shapes is also a clever idea. Pages are often filled with squares and boxes, so putting the CTA inside a large circle immediately draws the viewer in. Overall, the layout is clean, inviting, and informative.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Builds Trust: The focus on customer security works in their favor, especially noting that they are HIPPA compliant.

Provides Value: In addition to providing details about how Talkspace works, this page also provides several mental health resources and articles.

What Could Be Improved:
Nothing: This page has a great user interface and serves as a great starting point for mental health resources.
Ebook Landing Pages
11. Nauto

Nauto, a data platform for self-driving cars, helps make autonomous driving safer for companies who manage fleets of self-driving vehicles. Naturally, its customers would need all kinds of information to sell them on this platform. Nauto has it, packaged into a super-simple ebook whose landing page gives you both a brief contact form and some preview statistics to prove why this resource is so important.
At the top of the page, shown above, a warm photo of a car’s exterior r hugs the lead-capture form. The green “Download Now” button might’ve even been on purpose (on the road, green means go, after all).
Scroll down, and you’ll see another “Get the eBook” CTA to remind users what’s waiting for them. You’ll also see three jarring statistics about car accidents to entice users to learn more. Check it out below.

Why This Landing Page Works:

Simplicity: There’s no distractions on this landing page, which is perfect given the company’s focus on safe, self-driving vehicles.

Great Use of Comparison: Further down the page, Nauto offers up side by side footage of a distracted driver vs. a self-driving vehicle. It’s an excellent way to drive the point home that A.I. is a safer bet.

What Could Be Improved:

Graphics: The warm photo at the top is really difficult to see. Slightly more definition would have helped visitors easily recognize the image as cars.

12. Industrial Strength Marketing

Right off the bat, this landing page pulls me in with a compelling, punchy header: “Don’t Make Me Zoom.” It directly speaks to a common experience most of us have had when we’re browsing on our phones or tablets — and it’s a little sassy, too.
But that’s not the only thing keeping me interested in this landing page. Notice how the color red is strategically placed: It’s right at the top and bottom of the form, drawing you even closer to the conversion event.

Plus, this design is meta to boot: It looks and works great on mobile, too (pictured above) Keep in mind that a lot of visitors will be accessing your landing pages on their smartphones or tablets, and if the design of your website doesn’t work well for them, they might give up and leave your page.
The folks at Industrial Strength Marketing made the fonts and form field big enough so that visitors don’t have to pinch-to-zoom to read and interact with the content, for example.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Voice: The language is punchy and relatable, quickly drawing the reader in.

Minimalist: The black and white color scheme with just a few pops of red really make the sign up sheet stand out. Additionally the minimalist design works beautifully on mobile and desktop, no pinching required.

What Could Be Improved:
Nothing: Both the mobile and desktop versions illustrate the perfect execution of a
13. Inbound Emotion

Even if you don’t speak Spanish, you can still appreciate the conversion capabilities of this HubSpot partner site. My favorite feature of the page? The form stays in a fixed, prominent position as you scroll through the site. I also love the simple layout and warm colors.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Fixed Form: Having access to the form while scrolling provides a better user experience. No need to scroll back up to the top of the page to find it.

Simple Interface: The layout is simple, but effective. The use of only two shades of orange give a monochrome feel and keeps the focus on the benefits of the ebook.

What Could Be Improved:

Make the Form Brief: There were six items to fill out, not including the check boxes option at the end. Longer forms could be a turnoff for some visitors.

14. IMPACT Branding & Design

Full disclosure: IMPACT is a HubSpot partner — but that’s not why they’re included here. IMPACT’s landing pages have long been a source of design inspiration. I love the simple layout of the page, from the large headline copy and detailed featured image, to the outline that surrounds the form, to the colors and fonts that are very pleasing to the eye.
The free guide IMPACT is offering for download here also doesn’t emphasize the download itself in the blue button that allows you to submit your filled-out form. Rather, IMPACT is inviting you to “generate more conversions” — putting the focus on what you stand to gain as a result of reading the guide.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Clever Messaging: You’re not downloading an ebook, you’re learning how to “generate more conversations.” This rephrasing is far more enticing than simply putting a regular download button.

Simple Use of Color and Fonts: The blue tones work really well on this landing page, giving it variety while keeping the look cohesive. Since there’s lots of text on the page, a simple font is perfect.

What Could Be Improved:

Nothing: This page encourages downloads in a clever way using a simple layout and colors.

Landing Pages to Learn More
15. Unbounce

It’s no surprise Unbounce made this list —they’ve actually written the book on creating high-converting landing pages. Although there are lots of amazing things about this landing page, the two that I absolutely love are: the multiple ways to access the course, and additional industry-specific report offerings. Unbounce is really skilled at providing visitors the information they need, but also what they didn’t know they needed until they landed on the site.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Gives Visitors Options: When it comes to accessing the course, users can either click the main button above the upper half of the page, or if they’ve been scrolling, click on the course from the sidebar on the left. Eliminating the need to scroll back up to the top of the page.

Sometimes More is More: In addition to the course, Unbounce provides visitors with industry-specific reports and answers to other landing page-related topics. Providing even more useful information sets Unbounce up as a trusted authority in their field.

What Could Be Improved:

Descriptions: The course offers several modules and it would be helpful if some offered a brief description. The sidebar menu offers a course list, but a short sentence summarizing what visitors can expect to learn would be helpful.

16. Bills.com

Often, people think landing pages are static pages on your website. But with the right tools, you can make them interactive and personalized.
Take the example above from Bills.com. To see if you’d benefit from their consultation, you answer three questions before you are shown a form.
Then, you answer two more questions, like the one below:

And here’s the final landing page form where you fill out your information:

I’m not sure how the algorithm works (or if there’s one at all), but while I was filling it out, I had some anxiety about not qualifying. Once I found out I did, I was excited to fill out the form, which I’m sure most people who are in debt and using this tool are. By making this offer seem more exclusive before the form appeared on the landing page, I’d bet that Bills.com increased conversions pretty significantly.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Exclusivity: Everyone likes to feel special, which is why exclusivity works so well. The page gives the impression that the offer isn’t given to just anyone, you have to qualify first.

Interactivity: Anytime you can get users to interact with the page, even if it’s something as simple as using a form with a sliding bar question.

What Could Be Improved:

More Color: While the site is geared to not so fun topics like bills and debt, it doesn’t mean it has to be boring. The gray leaves much to be desired.

17. Zillow

Zillow did something very similar to Bills.com with their landing page. It starts with a simple form asking for “your home address” ( sounds creepy, but don’t worry. This form field is set on top of a hero image featuring a quaint home at dusk followed by a handy FAQ section.
Of course, the address itself won’t be enough to get a true appraisal value of a home. It just denotes the home’s neighborhood. It’s a bit like playing The Price is Right. You can guess how much homes in the area are worth and then type in an address to see how close you got. If you want to learn more info about a property, Zillow then prompts users to sign-up to continue.
Once you hand over your email, you’ll have access to more data like comparable homes in the area, mortgage tools, and the estimated net profits should you decide to sell.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Games are Fun: Anytime you can make filling out a form feel like a game, it’s a win.

Establishes Authority on the Topic: Zillow has access to so much housing and neighborhood data, it’s no wonder they are one of the top home search sites in the nation.

What Could Be Improved:

Nothing: The Zestimate page is simple, but effective. Those with concerns about what a Zestimate is and how it’s calculated have easy access to the homebuying FAQ on the second half of the page.

18. Landbot

Landbot, a service that creates chatbot-based landing pages, puts their own product front and center on their chat-fueled landing page. Visitors are greeted by a friendly bot —complete with emojis and GIFs —who encourages them to provide information in a conversational format instead of via a traditional form.
Why This Landing Page Works:

It’s Fun: From the bright colors to the GIFs, this page keeps visitors engaged and entertained.

Show, Not Tell: By having the chatbot right on the page, doing its thing, potential customers can see exactly what they’re getting. The whole experience simulates what it’s like to use Landbot’s product.

What Could Be Improved:

Nothing: Landbot’s use of a live demo, testimonials, highlighted integration features and detailed breakdown of how the product works leaves new customers ready to sign up at first glance.

19. Webprofits

Like Industrial Strength Marketing mentioned earlier, Webprofits also makes great use of a predominantly black, white and red color scheme. The result is a clean layout that makes great use of the pops of color on the page. It’s a testament to the organization’s expertise in digital marketing and UX design.
The rollover description feature throughout the “What We Do” section, while black and white, uses movement to draw the reader’s attention to the content. Each section changes color and rolls down like a shade to reveal more in depth features.
They also make it easy for you to figure out what Webprofits actually does. The rest of the page offers detailed information about what you’ll get when you give over your information. Plus, it includes strategic CTAs throughout, like “Get in Touch”
Why This Landing Page Works:

Informative, But Not Overwhelming: There’s a lot of information and text on this page, but the use of well-placed graphics and videos help break things up.

Multiple CTAs: Placing the same CTA throughout the page makes it so visitors don’t have to scroll all the way to the top to “Get in Touch.”

What Could Be Improved:

Nothing: Webprofit makes great use of the long landing page format, packing in all the pertinent information visitors would need in one place with a visually appealing experience.

20. Native Poppy

Sometimes, you’ve just got to stop and admire a landing page for being beautiful. Using high-resolution photography and lots of white space, Native Poppy’s landing page is a pleasure to look at.
Aside from its beauty, the page has some great elements: a clear and delightfully pink CTA, an informative “How It Works” section, plus an FAQ at the bottom. Best of all, it plays with language, ditching the phrase “become a subscriber” for “become a wild flower.” I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather be a “wild flower” over a subscriber any day.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Captures Brand Voice: The layout of Wild Poppy mirrors the whimsical vibe of the brand. From the photos, font choice, and “wild flower” subscription, all the messaging works in harmony.

Persuasive: By highlighting all the perks and discounts of being part of the subscription program, it entices customers to join.

What Could Be Improved:

Form Visibility: While there are multiple CTAs, it would have been nice to have the form fields on the page for faster sign-up, or as a pop up after clicking, instead of having to click the CTA and then be taken to another series of prompts.

21. Conversion Lab

While I wouldn’t typically include an example of a homepage with a form on it in a post about landing pages, this website is special. The homepage is the entire website — the navigation links just take you to the information below.
When you click “Get My Free Consult,” the entire page darkens to highlight the form. See what it looks like before you click in the photo above.
And, when you click that CTA, check out how the form appears:

It’s a similar function when clicking on any of the headings on the page. Instead of taking you to a different page, it simply jumps to the corresponding section on the homepage.
I love how you don’t have to leave the page to fill out the form, or view any of the features, creating a seamless user experience.
Why This Landing Page Works:

Creative: Having a homepage that also functions as various landing pages makes Conversion Lab unique. Best of all, it still provides a pleasant user experience.

Organized Layout: Despite having the homepage and landing pages as one, the page doesn’t feel cluttered or busy at all.

What Could Be Improved:

Form Placement: It would be nice if the form maybe opened up on one side so visitors could still read the content on the rest of the page.

Landing Page Ideas
A well-optimized landing page can transform prospects into leads by gathering information that can help you better understand, market to, and delight visitors. Since landing pages are crucial for conversions, it’s important to make sure they’re well planned, designed, and executed.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating landing pages:

Appealing aesthetics: Giving your landing page color and a clean UI can only help. Visitors will want to learn more about your products and see evidence of the value you’re offering. Take a look at #18 on our list — Landbot for a great example of a stunning web page.

Less is more: Let the offer or images do most of the talking, but be sure to include any and all descriptive headlines and supporting text to make your landing page clear and compelling. This goes for just about all the components on the page: try white space, simple copy, and shorter forms.

Keep visitors on the page: By removing the main navigation or any distracting backlinks, it’s less likely there will be any lead generation friction that could cause visitors to abandon your page.

Social Sharing: A simple way of getting visitors to engage with your landing page is including social media sharing buttons so that they can spread your content to their social followings. After all, customers are the center of your marketing flywheel.

A/B testing: Landing pages are important to get right, and since consumer psychology can sometimes be surprising, it’s always better to experiment with different versions of your pages to see which has the highest conversion rate (CVR). Test the positioning of the offer, kinds of CTAs, or even the color scheme.

Call-To-Action: The CTA is where the meat of the landing page is, or the tipping point where prospects become contacts. CTAs could ask visitors to subscribe, download, fill out a form, share on social media, and more — but, overall, CTAs are necessary for getting your audiences more engaged with your offering. To generate leads, CTAs should be bold and eye-catching, but most importantly, they need to effectively communicate value.

Creating Landing Pages That Shine
Landing pages aid in growing your customer base and increasing conversions. Create a page that delights customers with a user interface so great, they continue to come back for more.
This article was originally published April 2, 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Did you know there are over 56,000 WordPress plugins available today?

WordPress plugins allow you to enhance your website’s functionality by adding features and capabilities that don’t come standard with the system.
Whether you want to improve your writing, optimize a blog post for SEO, or interpret your site’s analytics, there’s a plugin out there for you.
But with so many options available, it’s tough to figure out the best ones to use — and that’s why we’ve done the work for you.

Below you’ll find a list of the best WordPress plugins (not in any specific order) that every marketer should explore.

These plugins have been reviewed by some of the top marketers in the industry. They’ll also keep both you and your WordPress website running efficiently and effectively. If you want more, check out the official WordPress plugin page.
1. HubSpot WordPress Plugin

HubSpot’s drag-and-drop form builder allows you to easily build contact forms to use on your WordPress website. The plugin also includes a pop-up creator, live chat widget, contact database, and previously written code for you to simply copy and paste into WordPress.
All-in-one plugins provide multiple functionalities in a single plugin, making them a more lightweight solution than having multiple plugins limited to single functionality. Because HubSpot provides everything in one plugin, you can be sure it will not bloat your site, which is important as you consider load speeds.

2. Elementor

Elementor is WordPress’s #1 drag-and-drop page builder with over 2 million downloads and counting. It offers 100+ templates and premade sections for services, testimonials, call-to-action pages, etc. Using Elementor in WordPress, you’ll be able to quickly make the marketing content you need.
Customization features, such as Box Shadows, Background Overlays, Hover Effects, Headline Effects, and Animations, are available with Elementor. These eye-catching effects will help you hold visitors’ attention.
To help you take full advantage of this plugin, we have a free WordPress Training Course using Elementor to help you build your own website.

3. WordPress Landing Pages

Create stunning landing pages for your website with the fantastic WordPress Landing Pages plugin. The visual editor that comes with it makes customizing your landing page easier than ever before. You can even track your conversion rate with just a single click of the mouse. It offers you an easy way of implementing your own custom landing page design.

4. Gravity Forms

If you want to add complex and highly customizable forms to your website, Gravity Forms is a good option for that.
Gravity Forms allows you to build multi-step forms, polls, quizzes, surveys, and more. With this plugin, you can create a wide variety of smart rules and conditions. For example, you can create a rule to limit which domains are accepted on your forms to exclude non-business domains like Gmail or even domains from your competitors.
Moreover, you can easily set up integrations with a variety of tools such as HubSpot for your marketing and Zapier for automation flows. Gravity Forms also integrates with PayPal or Stripe so you can accept payment directly via your forms.

5. WPForms

WPForms is one of the most popular form builder plugins for WordPress, with over 5,000,000 active installations. With this plugin, you can easily add custom forms to your website including contact forms, registration forms, surveys, polls, newsletter signup forms, and many other types.
Creating a form is easy thanks to WPForms’ drag and drop builder. Simply drag the form fields you need and drop them into place. There are even 300+ ready-made form templates to get you started even more quickly.
WPForms also comes with powerful features like smart conditional logic, conversational forms, multi-page forms, email marketing integrations, and payment integrations, just to name a few. This plugin also connects with HubSpot so that you can automatically import contacts from your forms into the HubSpot CRM.

6. MonsterInsights

With MonsterInsights, you can add Google Analytics to your WordPress site without having to touch a line of code or hire a developer.
You can view easy-to-read reports about your site’s analytics straight from your WordPress dashboard. That means you don’t have to leave your site or search through multiple Google Analytics reports to find the important insights you need.
You can set up advanced tracking like eCommerce tracking, form conversion tracking, affiliate link clicks, outbound link clicks, and much more. This plugin works with both Universal Analytics (GA3) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4). You can connect to whichever version you’re running, or both at the same time with the dual tracking feature.

7. All in One SEO

All in One SEO helps you optimize your WordPress website for organic search. The plugin works for people with varying levels of SEO experience, from the non-technical to those with coding experience.
The SEO audit checklist will analyze your entire website for errors and provide actionable insights to improve your SEO and unlock maximum traffic. And with the TruSEO score, you can get an in-depth analysis of how well your content is optimized.
The plugin also has an XML sitemap and image XML sitemap support (which is what informs Google about the URLs on your website that are available for crawling). In addition, it provides you with support in other areas including Google Analytics and custom post types, which is helpful for marketers who are working to measure the success of their campaigns or SEO work and goals.

8. Jetpack

Jetpack is an all-in-one WordPress plugin that offers advanced features such as content tools, mobile themes, and more. You can take advantage of all of Jetpack’s features to enhance your website, or pick and choose just what you want to activate based on your unique needs.
Some of these features include automated social media posting, site statistics and analytics, and different SEO tools to help you measure and promote your website success.

9. Smush

“Smush quickly compresses and optimizes images in bulk, letting you focus on other things,” says Izaak Crook of AppInstitute.
Smush servers do all of the work for you, meaning your images will remain high-quality while reducing their file size. This frees up space on your server so your website will be significantly faster — with clearer, crisp imagery in the end.

10. Broken Link Checker

Want to prevent Google from following broken links on your website? Broken Link Checker parses your posts to identify broken links and notify you when they surface.
To save you time, the plugin makes it easy for you to edit a broken link from the plugin page, eliminating the need to manually go into each post to make changes.

11. The SEO Framework

With The SEO Framework, this plugin likely helps the users to make good decisions about optimization, which may help improve search rankings. You’ll have peace of mind knowing the fundamentals are covered.
Its features can optimize every page, post, and term on your website so it’s not only easier to find on the internet, but it’s also more searchable on all social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

12. Just Writing

Just Writing takes WordPress’ Distraction-Free Writing Mode (DFWM) to a whole new level. This is a WordPress plugin that could be a fine choice for marketers to focus on their work by removing distractions.
This tool also features spellcheck to improve the grammar of an article. It’s continually embedded with more new commands and features in the recent updates to facilitate the users with easy access.

13. Hustle

Hustle is WPMU DEV’s marketing WordPress plugin that features popups, slide-ins, embeds, and social share bars.
Embeds are your in-content ads or opt-ins and can be displayed using the built-in options such as before or after your post content, or both. You can also use shortcodes or widgets to display the embeds in more specific locations. That is in addition to the vast array of targeting options that apply to all other content types as well.
You can store all submissions locally or choose to use one of the many integration options, including HubSpot, to send them to your CRM or mailing list.

14. Google XML Sitemaps

Google XML Sitemaps has the capability of generating a special XML sitemap so search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing could better index your blogs or pages. It then becomes simple for surfers to find your blog and retrieve them more efficiently.
This plugin is compatible with all types of WordPress pages and every Custom URL. A distinctive characteristic of this tool is its notifications that are sent to the search engines each time you create new content.
It’s stated to be the best WordPress plugin. The active installs of this plugin are found to be above 1 million.

15. Pretty Links

Pretty Links is a regularly used plugin that can do more for marketers as it contains many interesting features. It’s capable of performing shrink, track, beautify, and share URLs both on WordPress and off it.
By using this plugin, you can create links using the domain name. it’s available for free in the name of Pretty Links Lite, and you can upgrade to the pro version on subscriptions. In simple words, it helps you in shortening links and exhibits the reports of hits by tracking each hit on your link.

16. Akismet

Akismet WordPress plugin examines the comments of visitors on your blog concerning the Akismet Web service and intimates whether the comment is spam or not. This plugin can spontaneously scan in the comments and would filter out spam smoothly.
You can check the status of the comments in the status history provided by this tool. It has a discard feature that intentionally blocks most hazardous spam, which naturally speeds up your site.

17. Pixel Caffeine

Pixel Caffeine allows you to manage Facebook Pixel and Facebook Commerce Manager all within the plugin.
Tony Capetola of Sales Orders says Pixel Caffeine is a great plugin because “marketers can make use of some more advanced features like the ability to track Facebook Ad conversions within WordPress’s dashboard, the ability to create custom audiences based on last visit time (retention window), WordPress taxonomies (categories, tags, etc.), and previous customers behavior.”
Added bonus: Pixel Caffeine automatically keeps up with Facebook’s latest updates so you don’t have to.

18. Calculated Fields Form

“[Calculated Fields Form] allows you to create simple calculators for your WordPress site. You can easily build finance calculators, quote calculators, booking cost calculators, health/ fitness calculators, and other link-worthy tools,” says Roy Harmon of Advertoscope.
With this plugin, you can also create forms with automatically calculated fields and use predefined form templates that will save you time and ensure accuracy.

19. OptinMonster

Looking to grow your email list? This plugin comes with an easy-to-use form builder to help you create opportunities for your visitors to convert.
OptinMonster is an excellent plugin for email marketing solutions for beginners. You can create many kinds of forms such as Pop-ups, Footer bars, Floating Headers, and many more. All of these forms are mobile-friendly, giving users even more opportunities for growth.

20. Wordfence

Hackers and malware can damage your reputation and marketing momentum by serving malicious software or even disabling your website. The Wordfence WordPress plugin will protect you from those risks.
Once you activate this plugin, it will spontaneously scan your WordPress site to check for infections.

21. Title Experiments

The title of a blog post has a direct impact on click-through rates (CTR). Title Experiments make it easy for you to A/B test one title against another so you can track what converts best and increase your CTR.

22. TablePress

TablePress is a plugin that helps you create, customize, and embed beautiful and unique tables on your WordPress site. Your tables can include all types of data and be placed anywhere on your website.
Swadhin Agrawa of DigitalGYD.com says, “TablePress makes it insanely easy for anyone to create a customizable and responsive table on their blogs.”

23. Editorial Calendar

Keep your blog organized with the help of this plugin. Editorial Calendar uses drag-and-drop functionality to simplify the way you schedule and manage your blog content.
You can also manage posts from multiple authors, quickly edit titles and publishing times, and manage drafts within the plugin.

24. TinyPNG

TinyPNG will make your website faster by automatically optimizing your JPEG and PNG images upon upload.
Images are analyzed, and then the plugin compresses them appropriately. Once this happens, the image is then sent back to your WordPress website to replace the original image.

25. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache helps you improve the performance of your blog. It enhances the user experience by increasing website performance and reducing the download durations through Content Delivery Network (CDN) integration.
It’s a fantastic tool for search engine optimization as it uses techniques such as caching, CDN, minify, and database support. These elements all work together to improve website speed, an important factor in how Google ranks pages.

26. Imsanity

Imsanity is a popular plugin that automatically resizes images without loss of quality and saves you from having to manually scale them before upload.
The Imsanity plugin matches the size of your images with the display in a browser. It resizes previously uploaded images by automatically scaling them down and replacing the original images with the new versions, which saves you time as all of the work is done for you.

27. Revive Old Post

Revive Old Post, previously called Tweet Old Post, helps marketers extend the lifetime of inactive Older posts by smoothly sharing these posts on social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and more.
You can manage multiple accounts using this WordPress plugin so you can promote content across more than one to better serve your needs.

28. Head, Footer and Post Injections

Most WordPress users end up needing to use several plugins — some people even use dozens. Head, Footer and Post Injections is a plugin that allows you to copy any unique code that you use for other plugins, keep it in a centralized and organized location, and easily insert it wherever needed.
The plugin is theme-independent, meaning you’ll never lose your data (no matter how many times you change your website theme).

29. Yoast SEO

Yoast helps you get the most out of your website SEO with straightforward XML Sitemaps, breadcrumb navigation control, content analysis, snippet previews, and several integrations that show you how your website performs in different search engines.
Nicolas Straut of Fundera, says, “This plugin identifies and suggests solutions for potential SEO problems in your content, identifies what you’ve done well and helps you easily edit your snippet, keywords, and other post details.”

30. Redirection

Redirection is a free redirect manager that allows you to set up your 301 redirects and manage 404 errors. There is a logging feature so you can see all of the redirects on your site as well as information about each visitor that is redirected.

31. Autoptimize

This plugin aggregates scripts and styles, which enhance your site’s overall performance. Autoptimize also has an extensive API available so you can tailor the plugin to your website’s needs.
“[Autoptimize] makes it easy for non-technical marketers to make their sites lightning fast. We all know how important it’s to have a fast website — without it, our Google rankings suffer and potential customers will go somewhere else,” says Jon Nastor of Hack the Entrepreneur.

Market Your Business with these Valuable Tools
With plugins like these, you’ll be able to run your website more efficiently and market your business to the world. We hope you found this article helpful in your search for the best plugins WordPress has to offer.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in January 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Salesforce delivers tons of new functionalities to Pardot like control over enhanced landing pages, which now include layout templates, header code support, and inline form styles. You also get Lightning templates for Salesforce Engage and expanded automation support and Einstein Engagement Frequency for enhanced emails. Get more out of Pardot
The post Pardot Spring’22 Release: Top 10 Features appeared first on Automation Champion.

https://youtu.be/VGPHSCkRGa8 Brian Kurtz, Living Legend of Direct Marketing, Shares His Secrets #marketing #interview #thecontributors #directmarketing #infomercial #overdeliver #briankurtz #ltv #RFM #listbuilding #salesexcellence #victorgichun https://preview.redd.it/ryajz2hmi3a81.jpg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=782e97a65424cd189c87ee31b000386947ee5aa5
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