Category: Marketing Automation

All about Marketing Automation that you ever wanted to know

  • How to Build and Scale a High-Performance Marketing Team, According to Leaders Who’ve Done It

    In 2020, I started using Headspace.
    And, as it turns out, so did everyone else.
    The meditation app, which was first launched back in 2012, initially generated roughly $30 million in revenue and, as of 2017, had 40,000 subscribers.
    Today, the app has over 2 million users, and is valued at $320 million dollars. How’s that for growth?
    But, when any company scales that quickly, it begs the question: Will the business survive, and even thrive under its newfound success? Or will it crumble?
    Perhaps your company is experiencing similar growth, and your marketing team is feeling the growing pains. Or, maybe your business is brand new, and you’re focused on effectively building a strong marketing team for the first time.
    Whichever the case, the challenges that come along with building or scaling a marketing team can be detrimental to an organization if handled poorly. Which is why I sat down with marketing leaders at Google, Microsoft, Wistia, Canva, and Typeform to learn their tips for successfully building or scaling a team — so that you’re ready when it’s your time to grow.
    Let’s dive in.

    Tips for Building an Effective Marketing Team
    1. Hire with diversity, equity, and inclusion in mind.
    There are countless benefits to diversity in the workplace – for instance, did you know organizations with a diverse leadership team have 19% higher revenue on average than companies with less diverse leaders?
    Or, how about the fact that diverse teams can solve problems faster than cognitively similar people?
    Suffice to say, diversity matters.
    When building an effective marketing team, it’s critical to consider diversity, equity, and inclusion from the very beginning.
    As Google’s Global Head of SMB Partnerships Marketing, Elana Chan, told me, “Hiring is the most important thing you’ll do as a leader — and that also means you need to think about DEI. It’s easy when we’re running fast to just ask people in our own networks to apply for open positions, but it’s worth it to diversify. Every study and even my own experience has proven that diversification and different points of view are important.” Chan adds, “It takes longer to hire people who are outside of your natural network, but it’s worth it. You’ll get the right people for the job and also set the right tone across your organization. It’s important to walk the talk when it comes to DEI, not just when it’s convenient.”
    When you’re first building out your team, you’ll want to ensure you incorporate DEI into your recruitment plans. To do this, consider writing inclusive job descriptions, advertise roles through diverse channels, and standardize your interview process.
    You might also try using recruitment technology like Greenhouse Inclusion to reduce the risks of unconscious bias when interviewing.

    2. Hire people who are hungry enough to try anything.
    If you’re just starting out, you don’t have unlimited budget to hire a slew of marketers who specialize in various marketing activities. Instead, you likely only have the budget for a handful of marketers — or perhaps even just one.
    So … how do you make that one hire count?
    Above all else, Wistia co-founder and CEO Chris Savage believes it’s important to consider how driven your first marketing hire is.
    He told me, “You want to find someone who is extremely hungry, and can make their own things — whether that is video, written content, or audio. Whichever assets your team needs, if you can find someone who can be both the creator and manager of those assets, then you unlock the ability to try things much more easily.”

    “At Wistia,” he adds, “I hired a lot of misfits who were so hungry that they were willing to try anything. Maybe on paper it didn’t make sense, but in reality, it was incredible.”

    For instance, perhaps your marketing team has identified YouTube as a viable opportunity to reach new audiences and convert those users into leads. If that’s the case, consider hiring someone with experience creating video — along with a strong desire to learn quickly, and try new things. 
    3. Hire a marketing customer experience (CX) leader.
    When asked what the most crucial early hire on a marketing team is, John Cosley, Senior Director of Global Brand Marketing at Microsoft Advertising, told me: “Two years ago, I would have said a marketing data scientist — someone who can analyze datasets and help their organizations better understand their customers and identify future opportunities, as well as advise on marketing tactics and analysis methodologies.”
    “Fast forward to today,” He adds, “And I would say that the marketing customer experience (CX) leader is the most crucial early hire in scaling a marketing team. Consumer journeys have increasingly become digital and multi-modal and expectations have increased around privacy and trust, personalization, and quality.”
    If you’re interested in creating a customer experience strategy for your business, take a look at How to Define a Customer Experience (CX) Strategy.
    Ultimately, a customer experience is about putting the customer first. As Cosley told me, “Consumers are more likely to value a brand that values them, so it has become critical for brands today to prioritize the customer experience all the way through the purchasing funnel.”
    4. Hire early. 
    Hiring as you’re scaling can be a bit like trying to build a plane while you’re flying it.
    It can be difficult and messy to get new hires up-to-speed at the same time you need them to perform optimally so your consumers don’t feel the friction. To minimize these challenges, consider hiring months ahead of when you’ll need certain roles filled. 
    As Francois Bondiguel, Canva’s Global Head of B2B Marketing & Growth, told me, “A big challenge that many face as they scale is getting the organizational structure and strategy right. This includes hiring the right people, and ensuring they have leaders in place to guide them through this transformative phase and help them remove roadblocks so they can move fast.”
    “On that note,” Bondiguel adds, “it’s important for key hires to be brought in early to ensure they are properly onboarded prior to projects ramping up. This helps avoid placing unrealistic pressure on new team members as well as the broader group.”
    To do this effectively, take a look at your team’s long-term vision, and brainstorm which role(s) will need to be filled to get your team to the next level.
    5. Use one data set to guide your entire department.
    When you’re first starting out, I’m willing to bet your lean startup team understands the importance of making data-based decisions … but they likely also work in silos.
    Maybe you have two content strategists who focus on lead generation numbers. Then, perhaps you have another social media marketer who focuses on cost-per-acquisition.
    The issue? “When you’re operating in silos, there are also data silos,” Chan tells me. “Which means you can never pull the same number across teams. That’s a mistake. If you start off providing your team with a unified data set, then it’s easier to grow together. It’s much harder to merge data sets later, and then it becomes politics to determine the right numbers to use.”
    To fix this, ensure you have a unified system for collecting and analyzing data even when your team is small. Consider using a CRM to store your data in one place, or creating a department dashboard in Google Analytics.
    Whatever the case, it’s vital you provide your team with a centralized location so your data processes can grow with you as you scale.
    6. Focus on customer retention in the beginning, rather than just customer acquisition. 
    When you start to see your list of customers growing, it can be tempting to want more, more, more. 
    But as a startup, you need to be careful. If you focus exclusively on acquiring new customers, you forget one of your strongest weapons — your existing customers. 
    As Typeform’s VP of Growth, Jim Kim, told me, “Many SaaS-based startups … focus exclusively on customer acquisition and tend to neglect customer retention until they see issues with the customer base size growing.”

    Kim adds, “By focusing early on efforts to engage and retain the base of customers already acquired, the startup develops a more holistic understanding of the customers they serve, and can gain insights into the things customers really care about that can then be added to the acquisition activities.”

    To prevent customer churn, you’ll want to build out an incredible customer support strategy that enables your existing customers to get their needs met. Additionally, consider how you might provide value beyond the purchase, or create a personalized customer experience so your customers know you care about them.  
    As Kim points out, “It’s an obvious point, but in my experience, it’s hard to remember that retention can actually be a faster way to grow the customer base than new acquisition and usually has a higher marketing ROI, since it’s (generally) cheaper to keep a customer than find a new one.”

    Tips for Scaling Your Marketing Team
    1. Don’t stifle the energy of a startup.
    As you begin to scale, the workplace inevitably changes. Before, conversations happened casually across office desks, or when grabbing a cup of coffee — now, there are formal meetings with agendas.
    And, while you could previously test out a new idea without necessarily requiring buy-in from leadership, now you’re expected to follow stricter processes, which limits the experiments you can try.
    And yet, one thing shouldn’t change as you scale.

    As Chan puts it, “It’s important not to stifle the energy of a startup. That’s the exciting part of being where you are, and I think the acknowledgement that you’re building the car as you’re driving it is okay — and fun.”

    Chan adds, “At Google we have a saying: ‘Operating at the edge of chaos’. If you imagine a frontier, one side is not enough chaos, and the other side is too much chaos. If there’s too much chaos, no one knows what’s happening, and nothing gets done. But if there’s not enough chaos, then there’s no innovation and you’re not moving forward.”
    “It’s your job as a leader to operate as closely to this frontier as possible, and I think in a startup that’s even more true.”
    When you begin to scale, you’re going to need to implement more formal processes. But these processes shouldn’t restrict your employees from taking risks, testing out new ideas, and pushing the boundaries of your marketing efforts.
    Consider, as you scale, how you can protect that “startup energy” at all costs.
    2. Stick with what’s working.
    As you begin to scale, you’re probably looking for new growth opportunities. And, at this point, it might feel like the sky is the limit — your business is rapidly growing, so why not take some risks?
    But, while certain risks are inevitable, it’s not a good idea to expand too far beyond what’s already working.
    As Savage told me, “If you’re a startup that’s making progress in terms of bringing in customers and getting them to use your product or service, then it’s easy to think, ‘Okay, I have one channel that’s working … now let’s add a channel on top of that, and another channel on top, and that’s how I’ll scale.’ Like, PR is working, why not add paid advertising on top?”
    The mistake, Savage says, is that there are often one or two channels you end up underestimating in terms of growth potential. If your content is performing exceedingly well and driving leads for the business, it’s not necessarily a good idea to pivot away from content. Instead, you want to ask yourself — How much more can we expand with our content?

    “There’s good advice in personal finance,” Savage says, “which states that most wealth is built through a concentration of risk, and it’s maintained through a distribution of risk — so, basically, if you want to become wealthy, you need to take just a few big risks.” “It’s the same thing when scaling customer acquisition … There are a few big things you can do. It’s very important to go big on the things that are already working.”
    Rather than investing in social media, digital marketing, video, PR, and blogging all at once, consider which channels drive the most leads for your business. Those are the channels that got you this far, and those are likely the same channels that will get you even further if you focus your efforts.
    3. Treat your culture as a business priority.
    It’s easy enough to foster and maintain a strong culture when you’re a small team. But, as you scale and expand your team, it can get harder to protect the culture that attracted employees to your office in the first place.
    And while culture might just sound like a buzzword used to replace beer garden and yearly ski trips, it’s not.
    In reality, culture is vital to your business’ success — in fact, companies with strong cultures are 1.5X more likely to report average revenue growth of more than 15% over three years.
    As Cosley told me: “In any growing organization, the key to success is embracing and honoring the culture to which you aspire. It’s likely what made your company a great place to work and attracted the high-quality talent that is driving your growth.”
    Cosley adds, “It’s not hard for core values and cultural priorities to erode or even get lost during expansion if that work is not made a priority. As you scale, you’ll want to think and act intentionally about how your culture grows with you, how you define and memorialize it, how it impacts your hiring and onboarding, how you train your leadership, and how you evaluate performance.”
    Keep in mind — whether or not you’ve actively fostered it, your company already has a culture … it just might not be a strong one. And strong cultures can both attract and retain employees for the long-run, so it’s an important business initiative to take the time to create one that aligns with your values and purpose.

    Additionally, Cosley notes, “Culture is not one-dimensional. You need to consider it across areas such as retention and hiring, diversity and inclusion, and employee engagement. And culture is contagious. Not only does it deliver more positive outcomes and business results, it helps with critical talent retention, and can lower the cost and time to acquire new talent.”
    “Treating your culture as a business priority is essential. Without doing so, it could be detrimental to your organization’s potential.”
    To ensure your culture grows with your organization as you scale, take a look at HubSpot’s Ultimate Guide to Company Culture.
    4. Institutionalize key values on your team.
    To build a strong team culture, Chan recommends institutionalizing key values.
    For instance, perhaps you value autonomy, empathy, adaptability, or intellectual growth. As a leader, it’s vital you use these values as foundational building blocks on which your team can grow.
    Chan told me, “For me, learning and intellectual curiosity are really important, so I say to my team, ‘You’re responsible for making the person next to you smarter’. And that creates the onus on bringing your own best game because everyone around you is so incredibly talented — so how are you being additive, collaborative, and innovative from within that culture? You owe it to each other to be your best.”
    5. Praise what’s right … and punish what’s wrong.
    Once you’ve identified the values that matter to your organization, it’s vital you encourage those values in each of your employees.
    When providing performance reviews, for instance, take the time to identify where employees have demonstrated key team values, and where they might still be lacking.
    As Savage told me, “The way you scale it is, you praise the right stuff and punish the wrong stuff. It’s that simple — most culture is modeled. You need the most senior people to act the way you believe you should be acting, and if you do that, it permeates the building.”
    As an example, let’s say you value risk-taking on your team. If that’s the case, you’ll want to praise your team when they take risks, and even praise the failure that might result from those risks.
    Alternatively, if you’re in a mode where you’re risk-averse and looking for optimization of processes, you’d want to praise actions that demonstrate risk management.
    6. Hire for the future — not just today.
    Finally, when you’re scaling, you want to consider who you can hire today that will continue to meet the needs of your business even as those needs change over time.
    For instance, when I was first hired at a startup, I was hired to create blog content. Fast-forward six months, and I was additionally tasked with creating a podcast, and increasing the subscriptions to an email newsletter. As the business scaled, my role changed quickly. So it’s vital you hire with the future in-mind. 
    When asked about the biggest challenge leaders face when scaling, Kim told me, “[It’s] the challenge to balance long-term and short-term hiring. For a larger, more established business, scaling a team is not as challenging. The roles are already clearly defined, and there is likely already someone doing that job. It’s easy to hire for a role like this.
    “But,” Kim adds, “when the team is trying to scale, the roles may be less clear and transitory. What you think you need today could be wildly different tomorrow. Balancing the needs of today, while keeping an eye out on how things might change in the future is something that’s extremely hard to do.”
    Hiring and recruiting isn’t an easy task, but to ensure you’re hiring for the future, you’ll want to take the time to determine someone’s work ethic, flexibility, and ability to shift roles as the needs change. And, as mentioned above, you’ll want to find someone who’s hungry to be there.
    7. Create processes for effective communication. 
    As your team scales, it becomes even more important to ensure you have processes in-place to ensure fair, effective cross-team communication. 
    For instance, perhaps you’ve noticed your meetings have become opportunities for your most extroverted employees to share their successes, while the majority of your team stays silent.
    To combat this, consider creating a meeting agenda or slide deck, so people know what they need to share, and when. 
    As Bondiguel puts it, “Another challenge is communication. You need to put good processes in place (access to documents, meeting cadence, etc.) to ensure the entire team has all the information and context they need to perform and do their best work. This has never been more important as teams adapt to hybrid work environments.”
    And there you have it. Whether you’re officially in the scaling phase or still in the startup phase, these tips should help you ensure you’re building a strong foundation for the future. 

  • How to Create Landing Pages for Real Estate [+Examples]

    When people are looking to buy or rent a new house, what’s the first thing they do? That’s right, they go online.
    In fact, 51% of home searches start on the internet. People search Zillow, Apartments.com, Redfin, and local real estate websites.
    Additionally, people also turn to the internet when they want to value their home or learn more about the real estate market.

    All this to say that when it’s time to generate leads in the real estate industry, posting online and creating a landing page is the first step.
    In this post, we’ll discuss how to create a landing page for real estate and review sample real estate landing pages to inspire your own.

    1. Choose the type of landing page you need.
    Before you can get started, it’s important to understand the different types of real estate landing pages.
    The three main types include:

    Home valuation: This type of landing page lets users type in their address and get a quick idea of how much their home is worth.

    Buying/selling websites: These websites are where buyers and sellers go to place listings online, including Zillow or Redfin.

    Free content: This landing page is usually targeted toward those who want to start working in the real estate industry or are in the beginning stages of buying/selling. You can place free content on a landing page to get leads to download the offer so when the time comes to buy or sell, they think of you.

    Depending on the type of landing page you need, the process and design will be a little different.
    2. Use a simple lead capture form and search function.
    When creating a landing page for real estate, the goal is to gain leads through a lead capture form asking for information (whether it be a name, email, or phone number). The first step to doing this is to have simple search functionality that is front and center in your design for home buying/selling or home valuation.
    If you’re creating a landing page for free content, you won’t need a search function, but you will need a lead capture form that is simple and easy to use (this should also be a large part of your design that is easy to see).
    The simplicity of the search function or lead capture form will make your call to action (CTA) stand out and get people searching through your site.
    With Zillow, the home page has a simple search function so homebuyers can search for houses in a certain area. This keeps the site clean and it gets straight to the point — no distractions.

    3. Always pay attention to curb appeal.
    Everyone knows that curb appeal is important when it comes to buying or selling a home. The same holds true for your landing page. Use clear, crisp imagery that inspires home buyers to imagine their new life in the house you’re selling. When this happens, buyers are more likely to convert.
    The visual design of your landing page is even more important than most landing pages. If people don’t like the design of the landing page, they might not even like the house because they can’t see past the poor web design.
    4. Write honest copy.
    The copy you write for each house should be honest. You’ll want to include detailed information and use descriptive adjectives that will paint a picture for prospective buyers. But don’t embellish.
    When people start visiting your house they’ll see what’s true and what isn’t. If you aren’t being honest in your copy, then people won’t want to work with you because they can’t trust you. You should use short copy that’s punchy and to the point.
    Buying or selling a home is a major financial and life decision. Trust is of the utmost importance between you and your prospective leads.
    5. Include testimonials.
    Although most home buying efforts begin online, most people hire real estate agents through referrals. In fact, 42% of sellers who use real estate agents find these agents through referrals and 82% of all real estate transactions come from referrals. This means that customer testimonials and reviews are very important. On your landing page, include testimonials so visitors know they can trust you.
    It’s a particularly good idea to place testimonials near your CTA, so it motivates people to click on your form.
    You can also place badges or awards on your landing pages to instill a sense of professionalism and credibility.
    6. Highlight the benefits of your offer.
    Depending on the type of landing page, you might need to highlight the benefit of your content offer. For example, if you have a home valuation calculator, it’s important to write copy that emphasizes why this will give a seller more power in the process. Or if you’re giving away a free checklist or ebook, explain how it helps people in the process of buying or selling.
    This is how you’ll communicate your value with your leads, which will inspire them to convert.
    7. Be personal.
    The intent of your landing page is important. Your landing page will look different if it’s a home valuation, buying/selling, or content offer page. The point of creating a landing page is to create a personal experience for those interested in certain offers.
    That’s why landing pages are different from your everyday website. These pages keep customers focused on going down the path they want: searching for a home, getting in contact with an agent, etc.
    Additionally, the design of your landing page should be personalized to the experience of the viewer. This means that your page should be optimized for mobile, tablet, and desktop experiences. You might also have an app that will help your visitors come back anytime they’re looking for a home.
    Best Real Estate Landing Pages
    1. Redfin Home Valuation Landing Page

    Talk about a simple landing page. This is a no-fuss home valuation landing page that lets visitors get a real-time estimate of how much their home is worth.
    This landing page is a good example of being simple, using short, punchy text and engaging graphics to draw attention to the simple CTA of entering a home address.

    2. Hill Realty Group

    This is a great example of a realty group’s home search landing page. First, it focuses on the curb appeal of the properties and areas that it sells houses in. Then, it includes a simple property search where you can include your location, bed and bath requirements, etc.

    3. The H. Williams Group

    This is a sample real estate landing page with a content offer. This realtor has a simple lead capture form enticing visitors to download her guide to Alexandria. This is a great content offer because people looking for a guide to the area are most likely going to move there and may contact her to be their realtor.
    Additionally, this page is great because all the focus is on the simple capture form. The design is sleek and simple, with a logo, picture, headline, and capture form. That’s it. That’s why this landing page works.

    Creating a real estate landing page is very important for marketing your listings or offers. That’s why it’s important to create a landing page that will convert visitors into buyers.

  • How blog make money?

    How blog & bloggers make money? The Helpful Guide


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

  • Job Opportunities with a growing Marketing Automation company – Customer.io!

    Customer.io is hiring for our Marketing/Sales team! We’re looking to hire a:

    Paid Media Marketing Manager (Demand Generation Manager) Product Marketing Manager Brand Coordinator Channel Account Manager
    All positions would be full-time, permanent roles at a remote-first and globally distributed Saas company. Each job listing includes salary range, benefits, and what you can expect from the interview process. Please apply if qualified and interested, and feel free to share with your network! We’re also hiring Engineers, Engineering Managers, Solutions Architects, and more! You can see all of our listings at customer.io/careers.
    submitted by /u/techhiringrecruiter1 [link] [comments]

  • 27 Truly Inspiring Company Vision and Mission Statement Examples

    Think about the brands you purchase from over and over. Why do you choose the ones you do, even when cheaper options exist?
    Do you usually fly with a particular airline? Do you buy your coffee from the same place every morning? Do you recommend a specific restaurant whenever out-of-towners ask for suggestions?
    Well, there’s a good reason for it.
    The reason we stay loyal to brands is because of their values. The best brands combine physical, emotional, and logical elements into one exceptional customer (and employee) experience that you value as much as they do.
    When your brand creates a genuine connection with customers and employees, they’ll stay loyal to your company. This helps you increase your overall profitability while building a solid foundation of brand promoters.
    Achieving this type of connection is no easy task. The companies that succeed at this stay true to their core values and create a brand that employees and customers are proud to associate with.
    That’s where company mission and vision statements come into play. This article will explain what makes them different and provide you with examples of vision and mission statements from growing companies.
    If you’re in a bit of a time crunch, use this table of contents to find precisely what you’re looking for:

    As a company grows, its objectives and goals may be reached, and in turn, they’ll change. Therefore, mission statements should be revised as needed to reflect the business’s new culture as previous goals are met.
    Both mission and vision statements are often combined into one comprehensive “mission statement” to define the organization’s reason for existing and its outlook for internal and external audiences — like employees, partners, board members, consumers, and shareholders.

    The difference between mission and vision statements lies in the purpose they serve.

    A mission statement is a literal quote stating what a brand or company is setting out to do. This lets the public know the product and service it provides, who it makes it for, and why it’s doing it. A vision statement is a brand looking toward the future and saying what it hopes to achieve through its mission statement. This is more conceptual, as it’s a glimpse into what the brand can become in the eyes of the consumer and the value it will bring in longevity.
    In summary, the main differences between a mission and vision statement are:

    Mission statements describe the current purpose a company serves. The company’s function, target audience, and key offerings are elements that are often mentioned in a mission statement.
    Vision statements are a look into a company’s future or what its overarching vision is. The same elements from the mission statement can be included in a vision statement, but they’ll be described in the future tense.

    Now that we know what they are, let’s dive into some useful examples of each across different industries.

    Free Guide: 100 Mission Statement Templates & Examples

    Need more examples to build your mission statement? Download our free overview of mission statements – complete with 100 templates and examples to help you develop a stand-out mission statement.
    1. Life Is Good: To spread the power of optimism.

    The Life is Good brand is about more than spreading optimism — although, with uplifting T-shirt slogans like “Seas The Day” and “Forecast: Mostly Sunny,” it’s hard not to crack a smile.
    There are tons of T-shirt companies in the world, but Life is Good’s mission sets itself apart with a mission statement that goes beyond fun clothing: to spread the power of optimism.
    This mission is perhaps a little unexpected if you’re not familiar with the company’s public charity: How will a T-shirt company help spread optimism? Life is Good answers that question below the fold, where the mission is explained in more detail using a video and with links to the company’s community and the Life is Good Kids Foundation page. We really like how lofty yet specific this mission statement is — it’s a hard-to-balance combination.
    2. sweetgreen: To inspire healthier communities by connecting people to real food.

    Notice that sweetgreen’s mission is positioned to align with your values — not just written as something the brand believes. We love the inclusive language used in its statement.
    The language lets us know the company is all about connecting its growing network of farmers growing healthy, local ingredients with us — the customer — because we’re the ones who want more locally grown, healthy food options.
    The mission to connect people is what makes this statement so strong. And, that promise has gone beyond sweetgreen’s website and walls of its food shops: The team has made strides in the communities where it’s opened stores as well. Primarily, it provides education to young kids on healthy eating, fitness, sustainability, and where food comes from.
    3. Patagonia: We’re in business to save our home planet.

    Patagonia’s mission statement spotlights the company’s commitment to help the environment and save the earth. The people behind the brand believe that among the most direct ways to limit ecological impacts is with goods that last for generations or can be recycled so the materials in them remain in use.
    In the name of this cause, the company donates time, services, and at least 1% of its sales to hundreds of environmental groups worldwide.
    If your company has a similar focus on growing your business and giving back, think about talking about both the benefit you bring to customers and the value you want to bring to a greater cause in your mission statement.
    4. American Express: Become essential to our customers by providing differentiated products and services to help them achieve their aspirations.

    Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.
    — Simon Sinek (@simonsinek)
    The tweet above is from Simon Sinek, and it’s one that we repeat here at HubSpot all the time. American Express sets itself apart from other credit card companies in its list of values, with an ode to excellent customer service, which is something it’s famous for.
    We especially love the emphasis on teamwork and supporting employees so that the people inside the organization can be in the best position to support their customers.
    5. Warby Parker: To offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.
    This “objective” statement from Warby Parker uses words that reflect a young and daring personality: “rebellious,” “revolutionary,” “socially-conscious.” In one sentence, the brand takes us back to the root of why it was founded while also revealing its vision for a better future.
    The longer-form version of the mission reads: “We believe that buying glasses should be easy and fun. It should leave you happy and good-looking, with money in your pocket,” which further shows how Warby Parker doesn’t hold back on letting its unique personality shine through. Here, the mission statement’s success all comes down to spot-on word choice.
    6. InvisionApp: Question Assumptions. Think Deeply. Iterate as a Lifestyle. Details, Details. Design is Everywhere. Integrity.

    These days, it can seem like every B2B company page looks the same — but InvisionApp has one of the cooler company pages I’ve seen. Scroll down to “Our Core Values,” and hover over any of the icons, and you’ll find a short-but-sweet piece of the overall company mission under each one.
    We love the way the statements are laid out under each icon. Each description is brief, authentic, and business babble-free — which makes the folks at InvisionApp seem trustworthy and genuine.
    7. Honest Tea: To create and promote great-tasting, healthy, organic beverages.

    Honest Tea’s mission statement begins with a simple punch line connoting its tea is real, pure, and therefore not full of artificial chemicals. The brand is speaking to an audience that’s tired of finding ingredients in its tea that can’t be pronounced and has been searching for a tea that’s exactly what it says it is.
    Not only does Honest Tea have a punny name, but it also centers its mission around the name. For some time, the company even published a Mission Report each year in an effort to be “transparent about our business practices and live up to our mission to seek to create and promote great-tasting, healthier, organic beverages.”
    8. IKEA: To create a better everyday life for the many people.

    The folks at IKEA dream big. The vision-based mission statement could have been one of beautiful, affordable furniture, but instead, it’s to make everyday life better for its customers. It’s a partnership: IKEA finds deals all over the world and buys in bulk, then we choose the furniture and pick it up at a self-service warehouse.
    “Our business idea supports this vision … so [that] as many people as possible will be able to afford them,” the brand states.
    Using words like “as many people as possible” makes a huge company like IKEA much more accessible and appealing to customers.
    9. Nordstrom: To give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible.

    When it comes to customer commitment, not many companies are as hyper-focused as Nordstrom is. Although clothing selection, quality, and value all have a place in the company’s mission statement, it’s crystal clear that it’s all about the customer: “Nordstrom works relentlessly to give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible.”
    If you’ve ever shopped at a Nordstrom, you’ll know the brand will uphold the high standard for customer service mentioned in its mission statement, as associates are always roaming the sales floors, asking customers whether they’ve been helped, and doing everything they can to make the shopping experience a memorable one.
    10. Cradles to Crayons: Provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school, and at play.

    Cradles to Crayons divided its mission and model into three sections that read like a game plan: The Need, The Mission, and The Model. The “rule of three” is a powerful rhetorical device called a tricolon that’s usually used in speechwriting to help make an idea more memorable. A tricolon is a series of three parallel elements of roughly the same length — think “I came; I saw; I conquered.”
    11. Universal Health Services, Inc.: To provide superior quality healthcare services that: PATIENTS recommend to family and friends, PHYSICIANS prefer for their patients, PURCHASERS select for their clients, EMPLOYEES are proud of, and INVESTORS seek for long-term returns.

    A company thrives when it pleases its customers, its employees, its partners, and its investors — and Universal Health Services endeavors to do just that, according to its mission statement. As a health care service, it specifically strives to please its patients, physicians, purchasers, employees, and investors. We love the emphasis on each facet of the organization by capitalizing the font and making it red for easy skimming.
    12. JetBlue: To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground.

    JetBlue’s committed to its founding mission through lovable marketing, charitable partnerships, and influential programs — and we love the approachable language used to describe these endeavors. For example, the brand writes how it “set out in 2000 to bring humanity back to the skies.”
    For those of us who want to learn more about any of its specific efforts, JetBlue’s provided details on the Soar With Reading program, its partnership with KaBOOM!, the JetBlue Foundation, environmental and social reporting, and so on. It breaks down all these initiatives really well with big headers, bullet points, pictures, and links to other web pages visitors can click to learn more. JetBlue also encourages visitors to volunteer or donate their TrueBlue points.
    13. Workday: To put people at the center of enterprise software.

    Workday, a human resources (HR) task automation service, doesn’t use its mission statement to highlight the features of its product or how it intends to help HR professionals improve in such-and-such a way.
    Instead, the business takes a stance on the state of enterprise software in general: There’s a lot of great tech out there. But at Workday, it revolves around the people. We love how confident yet kind this mission statement is. It observes the state of its industry — which Workday believes lacks a human touch — and builds company values around it.
    14. Prezi: To reinvent how people share knowledge, tell stories, and inspire their audiences to act.

    If you know Prezi, you know how engaging it can make your next business presentation look. According to its mission statement, the company’s clever slide animations and three-dimensional experience aren’t just superficial product features. With every decision Prezi makes, it’s all about the story you tell and the audience that story affects.
    15. Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

    A car company’s punny use of the word “accelerate” is just one reason this mission statement sticks out. However, Tesla makes this list because of how its mission statement describes the industry.
    It may be a car company, but Tesla’s primary interest isn’t just automobiles — it’s promoting sustainable energy. And, sustainable energy still has a “long road” ahead of it (pun intended) — hence the world’s “transition” into this market.
    Ultimately, a mission statement that can admit to the industry’s immaturity is exactly what gets customers to root for it — and Tesla does that nicely.
    16. Invisible Children: To end violence and exploitation facing our world’s most isolated and vulnerable communities.

    Invisible Children is a non-profit that raises awareness around the violence affecting communities across Central Africa, and the company takes quite a confident tone in its mission.
    The most valuable quality of this mission statement is that it has an end goal. Many companies’ visions and missions are intentionally left open-ended so that the business might always be needed by the community. Invisible Children, on the other hand, wants to “end” the violence facing African families. It’s an admirable mission that all businesses — not just nonprofits — can learn from when motivating customers.
    17. TED: Spread ideas.

    We’ve all seen TED Talks online before. Well, the company happens to have one of the most concise mission statements out there.
    TED, which stands for “Technology Education and Design,” has a two-word mission statement that shines through in every Talk you’ve seen the company publish on the internet. That mission statement: “Spread ideas.” Sometimes, the best way to get an audience to remember you is to zoom out as far as your business’s vision can go. What do you really care about? TED has recorded some of the most famous presentations globally, but in the grand scheme of things, all it wants is to spread ideas around to its viewers.
    Now that we’ve gone over successful mission statements, what does a good vision statement look like? Check out some of the following company vision statements — and get inspired to write one for your brand.

    1. Alzheimer’s Association: A world without Alzheimer’s disease.

    The Alzheimer’s Association conducts global research and provides quality care and support to people with dementia. This vision statement looks into the future where people won’t have to battle this currently incurable disease. With the work that it’s doing in the present, both employees and consumers can see how the organization achieves its vision by helping those in need.
    2. Teach for America: One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

    Teach for America creates a network of leaders to provide equal education opportunities to children in need. This organization’s day-to-day work includes helping marginalized students receive the proper education they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Its vision statement is what it hopes to see through its efforts — a nation where no child is left behind.
    3. Creative Commons: Realizing the full potential of the internet — universal access to research and education, full participation in culture — to drive a new era of development, growth, and productivity.

    This nonprofit’s vision statement is broad. It helps overcome legal obstacles to share knowledge and creativity around the world. By working closely with major institutions, its vision is an innovative internet that isn’t barred by paywalls.
    4. Microsoft (at its founding): A computer on every desk and in every home.

    Microsoft is one of the most well-known technology companies in the world. It makes gadgets for work, play, and creative purposes on a worldwide scale, and its vision statement reflects that. Through its product offering and pricing, it can provide technology to anyone who needs it.
    5. Australia Department of Health: Better health and wellbeing for all Australians, now and for future generations.

    This government department has a clear vision for its country. Through health policies, programs, and regulations, it has the means to improve the healthcare of Australian citizens.
    6. LinkedIn: Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.

    LinkedIn is a professional networking service that gives people the opportunity to seek employment. Its vision statement intends to provide employees of every level a chance to get the job they need.
    7. Disney: To entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds, and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.

    Disney’s vision statement goes beyond providing ordinary entertainment. It intends to tell stories and drive creativity that inspires future generations through its work. This is an exceptional vision statement because it goes beyond giving consumers programs to watch, but ones that excite and change the way people see them and the world around them.
    8. Facebook: Connect with friends and the world around you on Facebook.

    Facebook is a major social media platform with a concise vision statement. It provides a platform to stay in touch with loved ones and potentially connect to people around the world.
    9. Southwest: To be the world’s most loved, most efficient, and most profitable airline.

    Southwest Airlines is an international airline that strives to serve its flyers with a smile. Its vision statement is unique because it sees itself not just excelling in profit but outstanding customer service, too. Its vision is possible through its strategy and can lead its employees to be at the level they work toward.
    10. Dunkin’: To be always the desired place for great coffee beverages and delicious complementary doughnuts & bakery products to enjoy with family and friends.

    Notice the interesting use of the word “complementary” in this vision statement. No, the chain isn’t envisioning giving out freebies in the future. Its vision goes beyond remaining a large coffee chain. Rather, the brand wants to be the consummate leader in the coffee and donut industry. It wants to become a place known for fun, food, and recreation.
    Inspire Through Brand Values
    Brand values play a much more significant role in customer loyalty than you think. Showing that your business understands its audience — and can appeal to them on an emotional level — could be the decision point for a customer’s next purchase. We hope you found some insight in this post that can help you brainstorm your inspiring vision and mission statements for your business.
    Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

  • 9 Creative Company Profile Examples to Inspire You [Templates]

    What do your customers know about you?
    Is it that you sell X product and that your website is located at example-domain.com? That’s not enough to build a brand identity that resonates with buyers and establishes your brand as the right choice.

    Creating a compelling company profile will help your customers understand your company beyond the basics. Ultimately, your company profile is what intrigues a new visitor to check out your products or services in more detail, and nudge potential customers into choosing your business over competitors.
    In this article, we’ll discuss:

    What a company profile is
    Company profile examples
    How a company descriptions fit in
    Company description examples
    How to write a company profile with all this in mind
    Company profile templates to help you out

    To illustrate, lets’ take a look at two famous examples.
    We all know about the infamous rivalry between Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks. At the end of the day, they both sell coffee — but they’ve each cultivated strong, unique brands, and have attracted very different audiences as a result.
    You can often overhear heated arguments regarding the topic, with people vehemently claiming one coffee chain to be better than the other. But let’s say you didn’t know about the rivalry, and you’d never heard of either Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts before.
    Instead, you stumble across these two very different company profile statements:
    Image Source

    Image Source
    From their opening paragraphs alone, I’m willing to bet you’re persuaded to check out one brand in more detail over the other. It isn’t just the language itself that gives you a sense of their business — it’s the design, the font, and the color.
    That’s why having a company profile is so important.
    Why Company Profiles are Important
    It’s quite easy to skip over company profiles and simply write a cut-and-dry “about” page that doesn’t tell much about you.
    Company profiles go a step beyond the standard “about” page by sharing how your company got started down to where it is today — and why you continue to serve customers.
    Here are some of the reasons why having a company profile is important:
    A company profile will differentiate your brand.
    A company profile will naturally describe what makes your company unique. It will automatically differentiate your brand because no other company has the exact same founding story and reason for existing that you do. Your history and values are integral parts of a brand positioning strategy, and a company profile is the one place where you can mention these pieces of information without it feeling extraneous or out-of-place.
    A company profile may justify a higher price point.
    If you go into detail about your production values or ethically sourced materials, you may be able to justify a higher price point for your products and services. For instance, Starbucks’ coffee may not necessarily be better than Dunkin’ Donuts’ coffee — but because Starbucks goes into detail about its high-quality ingredients, it immediately creates the sense that you’ll be paying a premium for its goods.
    A company profile will build your reputation.
    What do you want to be known for? As the company that started as a small family-owned shop but then grew into a billion-dollar enterprise? As the company that places sustainability and ethics at the forefront of its efforts? You can build your reputation through marketing, service, and sales campaigns, but it all begins with the company profile.
    Who you are, where you come from, and why you exist will create the groundwork needed for fostering a positive reputation.
    The importance of creating a company profile can’t be overstated, but if you’re not sure how to write one, don’t fret — below, we go over what you should include in your profile.
    Your company profile shouldn’t be a regurgitation of your “about us” page — though your company profile can certainly be part of your “about us” page. The truth is, a company profile is less about what you do than about why you do it and how you got started doing it.
    Here’s a handy list of things you should include in your company profile:

    Your business name
    The year you were founded
    Your founder’s name
    Your original business name, if you had one
    The original reason your business was founded (or the former vision or mission for the company)
    How that reason, mission, or vision changed over the years
    A description of your products and services
    Your current mission and vision statement

    Your motto or slogan

    Your company values

    In your company profile, you should strive to describe how you solve for customers’ pain, what problems you seek to solve, and why you’re different from the competition. Those three pieces of information should be infused into every section of your company profile, as opposed to having dedicated sections.
    If you’re not sure how to get started, below we’ll explore some of the most creative company profile examples. That way, you can create a company profile that will attract and engage the right audience. Once you’re done perusing these impressive examples, take a look at our template to get started designing your own.

    Company Profile Examples
    1. Starbucks

    Starbucks’ company profile has it all — the company’s mission, background story, products, store atmosphere, and even folklore regarding the name. Best of all, they somehow manage to pull off sounding both genuine and grandiose. I don’t know many other coffee stores that could claim that their mission is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit.”
    Starbucks’ company profile is a fantastic example of a store with a common household product — coffee — managing to stand out from the competition through their mission and values.
    2. Wales Bonner

    If your company has an interesting and intellectual history, you might consider creating a company profile like Wales Bonner’s. The profile reads like an essay from the very first line — “Informed by broad research encompassing critical theory, musical composition, literature and history, WALES BONNER embraces a multiplicity of perspectives, proposing a distinct notion of luxury, via a hybrid of European and Afro-Atlantic approaches.”
    After sharing the brand’s intellectual background, it then describes the owner’s path to founding it, starting from the time she was a college student. With a good balance of image and text, the timeline serves as a reminder of Wales Bonner’s stability and growth.
    3. Diehl Group Architects

    For both cleanliness and ease-of-use, take a look at Diehl Group Architects’ company profile. The web page uses clickable boxes to separate topics, allowing users to choose which subject they’d like to learn more about. Additionally, the entire design — including the page’s background, which displays a floor-plan — mirrors the company’s purpose.
    4. Bloomberg

    Nearly nine out of ten people report wanting to see more videos from brands, so you might consider using a compelling video to convey your company’s story, like Bloomberg does in their company profile.
    Additionally, Bloomberg’s profile proves the company knows its audience — they offer a few quick statistics, and then link to other areas of the site, such as Careers and Tech. While another business might do well offering a creative, long-form story, Bloomberg’s typical demographic is likely more analytical.
    5. Nike

    You can get a sense for Nike’s two primary purposes almost instantly — fitness and people. When you first open their company profile, you’re greeted with videos of people of different ages, gender, and nationalities playing sports.
    Additionally, their initial introduction is this: “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.” Below, beside the asterisk, it says, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” As you scroll, you’ll see information on their internal diversity and inclusion initiative, their global community impact, and their sustainable business program, with very little mention of their products.
    Nike’s company profile portrays a larger, grander vision, compelling an audience to believe in their brand even before they purchase a product.
    6. Seattle Cider

    Seattle Cider Company’s profile is minimal and engages the user through compelling animations that demonstrate the company’s cider selection. The page flows seamlessly, and provides critical information regarding the product before displaying the company’s mission and values. This profile is a good example of a company that understands its users’ concerns (in this case, quality ingredients), and addresses those issues while still displaying personality and flair.
    7. Delta

    Delta’s page is well-organized by topic, and showcases the company’s values, including efforts to engage with the community and promote sustainability. They’ve included brief meta-descriptions below each category. The design allows for users to click-through if they want to learn more. Overall, Delta’s company profile is simple and uncluttered, but includes all the necessary information to demonstrate why Delta is unique.
    8. Roam Loud

    Do you have a personal story behind your company’s founding? Roam Loud’s example is one you may just want to copy. The brand’s company profile is simple yet effective, starting with a friendly greeting (“Hey there!”) and ending with a list of values. In between, the founder makes it clear why she created this brand — and why its existence is so important to her and prospective buyers.
    9. MAD Architects

    For simplicity and informativeness, take a look at MAD Architects’ company profile. The profile isn’t shy about the firm’s numerous accomplishments, and it gives readers the opportunity to dive deeper by listing the firm’s exhibitions, lectures, awards, and publications, all visible on different tabs within the same page. If your business is a leader in its field, it’s important to establish that in your company profile. Consider creating one similar to MAD Architects’ profile.

    With this in mind, the description serves to align with the prospect as they are evaluating which providers are right for them. By leaning into a strong brand voice and providing details about what makes your company unique or superior to the prospect’s alternatives, customers will believe in your brand and want to do business with you.

    Examples of Company Descriptions
    Here are some examples of company descriptions that enhance their organizations’ company profile.
    1. HubSpot

    On HubSpot’s company profile page, you can find a quick description of the company’s mission and what it does. In just a few words, HubSpot explains that the company’s goal is to help businesses grow through its specialized inbound software.
    2. Landed, Inc.

    Landed, Inc.’s About Us page starts with their vision statement: “If we want stronger schools and safer communities, we need to support those who make it possible.” From there, they talk about their history before launching into their mission statement and company description. The latter is summarized succinctly in bullet points in its own separate section, making it easy for prospects to find and understand.
    3. H&H Wealth

    In the “Why Us” page of their website, the founder of H&H Wealth calls out what makes her different from other certified financial planners and leans into why her customers benefit from her unique perspective. She also makes a promise to her clients, which sets the expectations and the tone for the service being delivered. As a result, the tone comes across as that of a partner rather than a vendor.
    4. Tesla

    In this description, Tesla explains when it was founded, the company mission, and what types of products it specializes in. It also gives added information about the history of the company and how it has continued to grow with the same values.
    5. Authentique Agency

    Authentique Agency provides a lot of information up front for their customers because they know that partnering with an agency (and choosing which one on top of that) is a big decision for scaling businesses. It not only provides information about its values, but about its long-standing experience in the industry and primary goals when they work with clients.
    6. The Cru

    The Cru is a service that connects members with like-minded women to fuel personal and professional growth. They use an “Our Story” page as a company profile, where the founder details how the organization was formed and how she now has her own “Cru” (a play on the word “crew”). This summary is a testament to the value of the service. The “letter from the founder” style also feels very personal and welcoming.
    7. H.J Russell & Company

    H.J Russell & Company opens up its description with its history and specialities: “H. J. Russell & Company, founded over 60 years ago, is a vertically integrated service provider specializing in real estate development, construction, program management, and property management.” It also makes its values clear in the last sentence, so that you get a snapshot of the company’s values, key value proposition, and leadership status in just a few sentences.
    8. Carol H. Williams

    Carol H. Williams, an advertising agency, doesn’t have an “about” page or a formal company description. But it does include a snapshot of what the company is all about in its “Team” page. It emphasizes its core values and uses trendy language (“#squadgoals”) to establish that it keeps up with the current trends.

    Company Profile Templates

    Download These Templates for Free

    Company name
    Established date
    Physical address per location
    Contact information

    About Us / Our Story / Our Beginning
    Here, you’ll want to include a brief introduction to your company, including where, when, and by whom the company was founded, the company’s mission statement, and/or the company’s vision and purpose. In this section, you don’t necessarily want to include products or services — instead, focus on your bigger meaning, and how you stand out from competitors. Tell your story in a compelling way — for instance, HubSpot starts their About Us section with, “More than ten years ago, we had a vision — an inbound world”. HubSpot doesn’t mention their products until further down the page.
    If you want to add your company history in a more compact way, consider adding a company timeline, like this one:

    Download This Template
    Our Mission / Values
    Here, you’ll want to say what your company stands for on a larger scale. What is your ultimate goal, and what do you hope your products or services will give people? Take a look at these inspiring company vision and mission statement examples for ideas. Here’s an example:

    Download This Template
    Our Team
    Provide a picture or brief paragraph describing your team — you might focus on leadership, or provide an explanation of your company’s culture. Ultimately, this section should help users understand how your employees can uniquely serve them.

    Download This Template
    Our Product / Services
    Describe a high-level overview of what your product is, and how you hope it will positively impact the user’s life. You can link to a Product page if necessary, so keep this section relatively general.
    Start Your Company Profile Today
    There are a few elements that can contribute to a stellar company profile, and by adhering to a template, you can build one quickly and effectively.
    Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2019 but has been updated for comprehensiveness.

  • An Ultimate Guide to Personalized Emails

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