Category: Marketing Automation

Last Updated on December 15, 2022 by Rakesh Gupta Our latest article discussed why revenue leakage is a data-related problem and how admins play a crucial role in tackling it with their technical know-how and problem-solving experience. Without complete and up-to-date Salesforce data, you can’t see the big picture of
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Throughout the year, we’ve shared a ton of small businesses we’re proud to support on our blog and I’ve had the distinct pleasure of interviewing several entrepreneurs whose dedication to their work has been inspiring. In fact, getting to know them has been my favorite part of this job. These brands are doing a myriad of amazing things, from uplifting their communities, ushering in more representation in their respective fields, creating products they’re passionate about, and focusing on sustainability.As you buy gifts for your loved ones in the coming weeks, we encourage you to support these businesses because, along with doing a lot of good, they also sell some pretty awesome products. That’s why we’ve crafted this gift guide to make your shopping experience a little bit easier this holiday season. We hope you enjoy these brands as much as we do!The below brands all ship items to the U.S. and may deliver to other countries as well.For the snack loverIs it really the holidays if you’re not indulging in delicious foods? These tasty treats are sure to put a smile on anyone’s face.Cinnamon spice loaf from Rize Up BakeryRize Up Bakery’s Cinammon loaf $18Rize Up Bakery is unlike any other bakery you’ve come across. Not only does the San Francisco business have roots in social justice activism, but they make some pretty unique sourdough flavors, including Ube, Garam Masala, and K-Pop Gochujang loaves.But this cinnamon spice loaf bread is bursting with holiday flavors and is the ideal gift for the sourdough lover in your life.💡Hear Rize Up’s founder speak to us about taking a stand with his business in season two, episode seven of Small Business, Big Lessons.Made in Michigan gift basket from Zingerman’s Community of BusinessesThe made in Michigan basket from Zingermans$160Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Zingerman’s Community of Businesses has several restaurants throughout the area. The brand deeply values community, which is why they’ve committed to only opening businesses in Ann Arbor. Fortunately, they do ship certain food items so anyone can enjoy their treats.This made-in-Michigan gift basket contains a wide range of tasty snacks – cherry preserves, peanut butter, chocolate, bread, pasta, and more!💡Learn more about Zingerman’s Community of Businesses and their unique business practices (they once turned down a potential offer from Disney World) in season one, episode six of our podcast Small Business, Big Lesson.Ten Bar stack from Seattle Chocolate$49.99Chocolate bar stack from Seattle ChocolateSeattle Chocolate makes the richest chocolate bars and, even better, the small business has a great mission too. With every purchase of a chocolate bar, the business donates ten percent of proceeds to Girls Inc.This ten bar stack includes flavors like Mexican Hot Chocolate, Rainier Cherry, and Crunchy Peanut Butter and would be perfect under any Christmas tree.Four-pack Granola Bar Mix from Made with LocalGranola mix from Made with Local$34.99A certified B-corporation, there’s a lot to love about Made with Local. The small business is based in Nova Scotia and gives back to their community in all sorts of ways, including sourcing their products locally and employing individuals who have barriers to the mainstream workforce.They also make delicious granola. This four-pack granola mix is a treat you can bake with your loved ones during the holiday.💡Hear Made with Local founder Sheena Russel discuss how she’s grown a successful business that also has a strong social mission on season 2, episode four of Small Business, Big Lessons. Tea Latte & Strainer Gift Box from Kola GoodiesA gift box set from Kola Goodies$35Kola Goodies makes delicious tea blends and sources their ingredients directly from Sri Lankan farmers. Not only does that make their blends incredibly authentic, but it also allows for the small business to support Sri Lankans directly.This gift box is perfect for anyone who appreciates high-quality lattes. Plus, it comes with a gold tea strainer!💡We featured Kola Goodies earlier this year and wrote about the small business’s commitment to give back to Sri Lankans. Learn more here.For the home decor loverWhy not give the gift of style and elegance this holiday season? These brands craft quality products that would look stunning in any home.Geo Hera Concrete Statue with Tray and Diffuser from Janet GwenConcrete goddess statue from Janet Gwen$58Since their inception in 2014, Janet Gwen has created tons of popular products including their signature marble laptop cases. In fact, the brand has gone viral on social media several times as they’ve expanded their product lineup.One of their most popular items these days are these sophisticated concrete statues that come with a diffuser and tray.Vanilla spice candle from Frères BranchiauxFrères Branchiaux candle in vanilla spice$25When Frères Branchiaux was founded back in 2017 its owners – three brothers – were 16, 13, and 11. Despite their young age, they knew they wanted to create quality candles that gave back to their community. That’s why they donate 10 percent of their proceeds to organizations that are combating homelessness.All of their candles smell divine, but this Vanilla spice one, in particular, has the perfect warm and cozy scent for the chillier months.💡We wrote about how these young brothers founded their very own business, check out the article here.Ethiopian Tea Towels from The Flourish MarketAn Ethiopian towel set$16The Flourish Market sells home decor, jewelry, and clothing, and all of their items have a greater social purpose. The brand partners with other small businesses, including B corps, and employs artisans from all over the world with the goal to give back to these very communities.These tea towels were made in Ethiopia by local artisans and would be a staple piece in any kitchen.Handmade Incense & Tea Light Cottage from Inglenook MarketplaceA decorative tea cottage $65Inglenook Marketplace is a small business based in New York that sells a variety of candles, home decor, and even books. These cottages are handmade by a local potter from the Hudson Valley and can be filled with incense or lights, making it a cozy gift that would match any holiday decor.For the fashion loverNot only are fast fashion brands bad for the environment, but their clothing is usually low quality and meant to be replaced quickly. That’s why we love supporting the following brands that’re creating fashionable and comfortable garments with sustainability in mind.Nora Linen coat from Love and ConfuseThe nora black coat from Love and Confuse$93Love and Confuse is a family-run business that is committed to creating clothing that is meant to last for generations, not just one season. All of their products are made with natural linen, they use recycled materials in their packaging, and practice ethical manufacturing.This Nora linen coat in black is both chic and warm for this time of year.Elias kids tracksuit set from This is UnfoldedThis is Unfolded’s tracksuit for kids$32If you want to make an impact with your holiday shopping this year, look no further than This is Unfolded. The brand creates eco-friendly clothing for women and kids and donates proceeds to Pratham, an Indian charity that supports young children’s education.This kid’s tracksuit is a colorful and comfortable gift for the little ones in your life.Half zip long sleeve top in storm from Eyo ActiveEyo Active’s long sleeve top in grey$75Eyo Active creates workout attire with the Earth in mind. Specifically, their products help reduce ocean waste. They use regenerated nylon, also known as econyl, as their main fabric. This repurposed nylon is regenerated from fishing nets that would otherwise pollute the ocean.This long sleeve top is the perfect gift for anyone who loves working out – or even just lounging around!Signs alpaca dog sweater from Alqo WasiAlqo Wasi’s dog sweater$48-62Using ethically sourced alpaca fiber, Alqo Wasi creates beautiful garments for your furry friends. These sweaters are hand weaved by local Peruvian artisans using traditional techniques. This makes their products both a cute and authentic gift for the animal lover in your life.This specific sweater comes in a bold blue and has an intricate pattern.  💡Check out this article we wrote about Alqo Wasi to learn how the small business is working to amplify their local Peruvian community.For the conscientious shopperThese brands are committed to creating nontoxic products and incorporating sustainable practices into their business, making them eco-friendly gifts.Snack cup in mustard from Eizzy BabyEizzy Baby’s snack cup in mustard$12Eizzy Baby creates non-toxic baby items with materials that are both ethically sourced and BPA-free so parents can feel good about the products they give their kids. The small business also has a partnership Angel House International, a Uganda organization that helps girls get out of poverty.Any parent of a toddler would appreciate this snack cup that makes cleaning up a bit easier!💡Check out our blog on how Eizzy Baby founder Assie Khoussa built her brand organically on Instagram. Sunvisor from SaieSaie’s sunvisor$38A makeup brand that puts sustainability first, Saie crafts all of their products with clean ingredients and also gives back in a major way. The brand has partnered with several environmentally conscious organizations including, Climate Neutral, and 1% For The Planet, and are committed to making a difference.Their sunvisor sunscreen is made with nourishing ingredients and provides a subtle glow that would look flattering on anyone.Holiday notecard set from Arctic Haven StudioArctic Haven Studio’s holiday notecards$22You can never go wrong with sending a loved one some good old stationery and Arctic Haven Studio has just that. These notecards feature high-quality prints of hand-crafted paper art inspired by the Alaskan wilderness. The brand uses recycled paper, limits their usage of plastic, and donates a portion of their proceeds to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.💡Learn how Arctic Haven Studio crafts these one-of-a-kind art pieces here.The big bundle From Ocean BottleA four-pack bundle from Ocean Bottle$150Moving away from plastic water bottles to reusable ones is an easy way to help reduce your carbon footprint.You can feel especially good about buying from Ocean Bottle as every bottle purchased helps the brand collect 1000 plastic bottles, ensuring they don’t reach the ocean.This four-pack bundle is a perfect gift to ensure your family and friends always have a reusable bottle when needed.We hope this blog post has introduced you to some amazing small businesses you can support this season and beyond. Wishing you a happy and healthy holiday!

Did you know there was a staggering 19% increase in online holiday retail shopping in 2018? And that online shopping made up 13% of the total holiday sales? This percentage only continued to increase each year after. Understandably, no one imagined we would be battling an uncertain economy and recession in 2022. Thus, as an…
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Recently produced a slick ~30 minute product demo. First half discusses a larger societal shift + problem. Second half demonstrates our product as one potential solve. I think it’s a damn good demo, but 30 minutes is a big ask. I’d like to use the video to drive leads/emails to fill our pipeline on-demand demo). What are some things you’ve done or seen that work especially well for on-demand demos? A few things I’ve been considering: Cutting it up into a snappy trailer >> enter your email to view the entire video Displaying the first 60 seconds >> enter your email to view the entire video Animated gif of video clip with play button overlay >> pop up to enter email to view the entire video Adding chapter markers so users can jump to the most relevant part of the demo for them Grabbing short clips for social ads >> push visitors to a landing page for email capture >> view entire video Adding slide out CTA over video to book time with sales team Any advice/hacks/tips appreciated! submitted by /u/danny_greer [link] [comments]

Order confirmation emails have a 65% open rate, the highest average open rate of all emails. Optimizing these emails is a sure way to get more eyes on your brand.

Beyond brand-building, email confirmations bring peace of mind to your valued customers by verifying that a transaction on your website was successful. Without this confirmation, your customers may feel confused. The consequence is a shaky brand experience and potentially an increase in inquiries for your customer service team.
Let’s explore how you can optimize your confirmation emails with actionable examples and templates. In this article, you’ll explore:

Confirmation Email Best Practices
Order Confirmation Email Template
Order Confirmation Email Examples
How to Create and Send Order Confirmation Emails
Order Confirmation Page

Confirmation Email Best Practices
Many confirmation emails are part of a workflow. Once a customer completes a transaction, an email automatically comes out recapping what they bought. Even though this email follows a formal structure, there are still best practices your brand should implement.
For instance, it’s critical your order confirmation email be:

Mobile-friendly. Many recipients will check their email on their phones to see whether an order was processed.
Skim-able. Many customers are on-the-go and don’t have time to read dense text. If you have important delivery information you’d like to include, consider linking to it instead of including it in the body text.
Provides an email and phone number of your customer support, in case the recipient’s order is incorrect.
Outlines next steps. That includes when the customer can expect an order to ship, or how the customer can track their order.
Includes shipping address, payment method, and order number.
Offers upselling opportunities, like products that complement their purchase or upgraded plans to consider in the future.

Additionally, consider how you can include brand voice in your text to cultivate customer loyalty, particularly with first-time customers. You might also add links to your social media accounts or blog, so new customers can find other ways to engage with your brand.

10 Order Confirmation Email Examples
Before you get started on your confirmation email, take inspiration from our round-up of the best email examples. Then, read on for some templates that your team can use.
1. Offer a next step.

Uber’s order confirmation emails are sleek, clean, and aesthetically pleasing. Their design makes use of large text, plenty of white space, and a blue call-to-action to incentivize the rider to “rate or tip” the driver.
What we love: The email is organized so the rider sees the most critical information above-the-fold — a “thank you” followed by the price. The recipient only needs to scroll if they want to.
2. Affirm the purchase.

JetBlue’s order confirmation email opens with their fun and clever slogan, “You’re all set to jet.” This phrase immediately reassures the recipient that their order was successfully processed.
Additionally, the text below the initial slogan promises the recipient “the most legroom in coach, free wi-fi & entertainment, and free snacks & drinks.” Even though the recipient has already paid, JetBlue uses the order confirmation email as another opportunity to cultivate stronger customer loyalty.
What we love: Below the confirmation, JetBlue provides a simple “Manage trip” CTA, so the customer can easily update a seat assignment, add extras, or switch flights. Best of all, they’ve included a link to their mobile app. Customers receiving order confirmations from JetBlue will need their app to access their mobile ticket, so it’s a smart strategy for JetBlue to include the app link.
3. Create a sleek design.

Hausera, an ecommerce site that sells kitchen and bathroom fixtures, does an excellent job ensuring their order confirmation email is sleek, all while offering the recipient any information they may need. They start with positive messaging like “progress is a beautiful thing” and “congratulations” to thank the customer for their order.

What we love: Below the order summary, they include helpful CTAs such as “Keep Shopping,” as well as options to either email, call, or live chat with a support rep. Whether a customer has an issue with their order or simply wants to continue perusing Hausera, the ecommerce site ensures the customer can find the next steps from within the order confirmation itself.
4. Put the most important details up top.

Tobi’s order confirmation email is simple and straightforward. The ecommerce site offers two critical CTAs — “review my order” and “contact customer care” — within the email itself. The recipient is able to immediately check and correct any information if their order doesn’t look right.
What we love: Tobi also effectively outlines their order process within the body text of their email. They tell the customer to ” allow up to 2 business days to process and ship your order.” By including this information in their email, Tobi ensures minimal outreach from customers who are wondering when their order will ship, or why they haven’t received shipping information already.
5. Say, Thanks!

BigStub’s order confirmation email, while admittedly text-heavy, does a good job providing the customer with plenty of critical information throughout their email, including a CTA to check order status, a phone number to contact customer support, and a note regarding delivery details for the recipient’s ticket.
What we love: BigStub offers a $25 rebate within the order confirmation email with enrollment in Great Fun. Even if the customer doesn’t apply for the rebate, the inclusion is still an effective method that allows BigStub to potentially boost positive brand perception.
6. Make it shoppable.

JustBats, an ecommerce site that sells baseball and softball equipment, does an excellent job of cross-selling other products in their order confirmation emails. For instance, if you purchase a glove on their site, you’ll receive an email with the following message — “You have the glove, now get the bat.”
The rest of the email is designed to help a user choose a bat, with CTAs like “Shop all bats” and “Shop closeouts.” The email also features helpful resources to ensure the recipient is able to find the right bat for his or her needs.
What we love: JustBats proves an order confirmation email can be an effective opportunity to suggest other relevant products or services, particularly since the order can help you understand the customer’s needs. In the above example, a glove is a logical next step for someone who has just purchased a bat, and vice versa.
7. Be helpful.

SoulCycle’s order confirmation email effectively provides all relevant information and demonstrates SoulCycle’s ability to go above-and-beyond in customer service. Once they’ve outlined when, where, and on which bike the customer will be riding, SoulCycle includes other useful information including the studio address and a note that shoes and water will be provided.
At the bottom of their email, they send a cheerful invitation that reads “Questions, concerns, or just want to say hello?” with both a phone number and email if the recipient needs to reach customer support.
What we love: SoulCycle pays attention to the language in their order confirmation email, and looks for areas where they can add brand voice.
8. Reinforce meaningful actions.
Take a look at the order confirmation received from Massachusetts’ Franklin Park Zoo upon a recent purchase:

This email provides all the information needed, but it also makes the recipient feel good about the purchase by letting them know that their money was helping support conservation efforts.
9. Teach users about new technology.

Zoom’s confirmation email contains three parts:

It confirms the purchase.
It encourages the recipient to use the service by jumping with “schedule a meeting.”
For the recipients who might be less savvy, Zoom offers demos, webinars, and support.

What we love: The sleek and minimal design underpins the ease of use of Zoom’s meeting software. The email is well-designed with a lot of white space. This makes it easy to read and draws the eye to the most important elements like the iconography representing support and training opportunities.
10. Stay on brand.

SKINICIAN uses a consistent tone throughout its confirmation email. The text at the top is friendly and personable. It affirms the buyer’s purchase with “Happy Healthy Skin is around the corner.” The intro ends with a friendly “we hope you love your new skincare.”
What we love: At the top of the email the recipient can take two actions: “View your order” or “Keep shopping.” An effective addition to this email is the “You saved £5.00,” which reminds the user of the value of shopping at their site.

11 Order Confirmation Email Templates
Looking to craft the perfect confirmation email? Try these email templates to create a confirmation sequence that serves your customers and supports your brand.
1. Educating Customers
What we love: This template gives the recipient everything they need to affirm their purchase, then, it preempts their next needs by offering educational materials.
Either the recipient will know what they need to do next, or they might appreciate guidance to get the most out of their new purchase.
This template also connects the brand to the consumer. The addition of “Contact customer support” shows the brand cares about the user by giving easy access to support.
2. Supporting Your Sales Funnel

What we love: Shoppable email confirmation is likely to take your user back to the website. Plus, it shares products that you know the customer might be interested in.
3. Sharing brand values.

What we love: Remember, 65% of people open confirmation emails, and your buyer might not know everything about your brand yet. Informing your buyers about what sets you aside from the competition can help turn them into loyal customers and brand advocates.
4. Making the Buyer Feel Good

What we love: There’s nothing like the affirmation that you’ve done a good thing. With something like a donation you can expect the donor to feel good already, but they might not appreciate the scale of their contribution. This email template helps to do just that, and it quietly reinforces exactly what the nonprofit is achieving.
5. Welcoming a Buyer Into the Community

What we love: The email covers the details of the purchase and subscription at the top. It eliminates questions about automatic renewal and affirms that the decision is a good one by telling the recipient that others have subscribed too. Finally, the email aims to make the transition into the community easy by encouraging them to introduce themselves and where to do it.
6. Reaffirming the Purchase

What we love: There’s nothing like a quick affirmation of a good decision. This email does that, but it also gives the reasons why the recipient can be happy about the decision by outlining the expectations. The customer service details at the end are a nice addition, just in case there are any nagging worries.
7. Confirming a Booking

What we love: This confirmation template provides all the next steps that the recipient needs to see their hotel or room booking was a success. Additionally, the email is advising the recipient on what they can do next. That includes covering the location and any specific instructions the purchaser might need to be aware of.
8. Opting for Simplicity
What we love: Although simplistic, this confirmation email does everything that it needs to. It’s suitable for brands who want to get to the point and deliver all the core information.
9. Encouraging Referrals

What we love: The tone of this email template is friendly and informative. At the end, the brand prompts the customer to share with a friend for 10% off their next order. You can reinforce this messaging in later emails too, which is especially useful when the order arrives.
10. Upselling

What we love: Similarly to the JustBats and SKINICIAN examples above, this template is giving users an opportunity to go back to the website. The related items next to a “revise your order” button are effective. This CTA can inspire an upsell before the order is fully processed.
11. Incentivize Action

What we love: The notion of a soon-to-be-ending sale encourages users to take action. The shop button makes viewing the sale items easy.
Subject Line Templates
Looking for some quick inspiration for subject lines? Here are a few popular options that you can use in your confirmation emails.
Note: Subject lines vary based on the type of item that is for sale and the action that has been completed.
Ecommerce Purchases

🙌🏻 You did it!
Your purchase is on its way.
We’ve got your order!

Email Sign-ups

Email confirmation! You’re one click away.
You’re almost there! Confirm your email.
Click here to confirm your email.
Click to join 10,110 subscribers.

Donations

Confirm your email for access.
You’re making a difference.
You changed a life today.
You’re amazing! 💙 Thank you for your donation.

How to Create and Send Order Confirmation Emails
There are plenty of online sites with email templates that can help you create confirmation emails.
For instance, you can create an order confirmation email within the HubSpot Email Marketing tool for free. You can choose a pre-made template and customize text, images, and overall design. Or, you can create an email from scratch.
Here’s an example of an order confirmation email made with HubSpot’s email tool.

There are plenty of other order confirmation email templates available through tools such as Stripo and Squarespace.
Alternatively, if you use an ecommerce website builder like X-Cart, you can use one of their email tool add-ons to create your own order confirmation email.

Order Confirmation Page
Typically, when a customer places an order, they’ll see a confirmation page before they even receive the confirmation email.
For instance, here’s what you’ll see when you place an order on Amazon.

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This page is where you’re redirected when you click the “Buy” or “Purchase” button and signifies that an email should be on its way. An online confirmation page is a temporary notice that tells your customer that their transaction went through correctly. If a customer doesn’t see this page, he or she will likely assume their transaction didn’t work.
When you’re creating an online confirmation page, here are a few things you should include:

Messaging such as “Success! Your order is confirmed”, as well as a note that the customer should expect an email in their inbox soon.
An order number, delivery details, and order summary (including total cost).
Images of the products or services bought.

Additionally, you might include other relevant purchases on a customer’s order confirmation page. For instance, if they’ve purchased a blender on your site, perhaps you want to show them a smoothie recipe book on their order confirmation page.
Ultimately, it’s critical to create order confirmation pages and emails. These details ensure your customer feels supported throughout their entire buyer’s journey.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in Aug. 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. 

Whether you’re completing recurring tasks or creating a new program, process documentation can help you formalize your business endeavors. In fact, creating documentation helps improve coordination, structure, and consistency in your organization.

This post gathers best practices for process documentation. Here, you’ll learn:

What is process documentation?
Why Process Documentation Matters
Process Documentation Benefits
Creating Process Documentation
Tips for Process Documentation

Process documentation could be a step-by-step tutorial on a new software tool or an onboarding document for new hires. This practice allows you to be proactive in designing internal systems and processes that save time, capital, and valuable energy.

Why Process Documentation Matters
If you lack structure and details for core organizational processes, your business is more at risk for inefficiencies. Process documentation provides an additional layer of protection for your organization.
The lack of documentation can lead to the following organizational challenges.
Lack of Information Retention
If just one person has extensive knowledge about a process, the organization is at risk of losing that knowledge if they leave. Process documentation helps outline the information that this person holds and allows you to store it in a way that others can access.
Redundancies
Without a roadmap, there’s a higher chance that time will be wasted on unnecessary or repetitive tasks. Process documentation can help you outline and visualize these redundancies so that you can create a better solution.
Bottlenecking
Bottlenecking can happen at any stage of the process. It’s important to find out where bottlenecks come from and why. Identifying these delays and hurdles will be helpful when creating more efficiency.
Revenue Loss
Less productivity means more time and energy is exhausted on the execution of processes in your organization. Team members then have less availability to take on new projects. This disorganization can lead to lost revenue, or even turnover, at your business.

Process Documentation Benefits
Process documentation is critical to the overall function and flow of the systems within your organization. Other common benefits of process documentation follow.
It creates resilience against change.
Process documentation allows your organization to maintain a steady pace and momentum, despite moving pieces. By breaking everything down (as granularly as possible), individual components of the process may be shifted or replaced with considerable ease.
This can be especially helpful when there is restructuring or staffing changes at your organization. When one person leaves your team, their knowledge can live on. If a new teammate joins, documentation will help them ramp up quickly.
You’ll identify dispensable processes and steps.
When diving into your organizational processes, you’ll determine whether a process is bringing justifiable value to your organization. You’ll be able to identify which steps within your processes are necessary and effective.
Are there any steps that can be altered or eliminated without sacrificing efficacy? This practice will create clarity for your team.
It collects and organizes knowledge.
A process document contains collective knowledge on a given approach to a topic. By making these documents easily accessible to team members, you allow for the growth and flow of information throughout the organization.
It allows for self-evaluation and accounts for variables.
Process documentation allows team members to reflect on their individual contributions. They can see precisely their impact on the outcome of a given process.
Creating documentation is also helpful in identifying where to make adjustments to refine the process for better outcomes.
It ensures compliance.
Your team should include relevant process documents in the onboarding and training process. You can then ensure that team members, new and old alike, have all the information they need to complete a task.
By specifying parameters, you can make sure that safety, legal, or other compliance is achieved.
It minimizes mistakes.
Mistakes are a natural part of life. However, you’ll want to avoid missteps in your business whenever possible. Step-by-step instructions to complete a task can help you minimize these mistakes.

Creating Process Documentation
Now that you’ve seen how essential process documentation is to your organization, let’s explore how you can implement it in your own businesses.

1. Identify your purpose.
Before you start writing, hold a brainstorming session. During this time, you should determine what your end document should accomplish. Are you creating a training guide? Are you laying out a process for senior leadership?
You’ll want to establish a clear name for the process you’re documenting and a clear objective for what you are trying to accomplish.
2. Determine your audience.
Next, identify your audience and why you need to explain this process to them. For example, is this for the sales team or new hires? The audience will determine the information that you include.
3. Identify the format.
You’ll want to decide what’s essential for you to include in your documentation. And that goes beyond text. Will you need visuals? Perhaps your document would benefit from graphs, tables, or a flow chart. Perhaps a PDF or webpage isn’t the best format. Some processes are best explained over video.
Here, you’ll determine which format or visual best communicates necessary information.
4. Define scope.
Your scope will establish what is and isn’t included in your documentation. This can help you keep a narrow focus on the specific task that is being documented. Working within a defined scope will help your team avoid information overload.
5. Identify the necessary tools and resources.
Next, determine what you’ll need to complete the task. That includes relevant software, tools, and capital needed for each step of the process. These resources are sometimes referred to as inputs.
6. Determine sequence.
When possible, outline the sequential steps needed to repeat a process. This plays a huge role in increasing efficiency and determining the overall success of any task.
However, not every task has a clear sequential order. Sometimes you’ll need to evaluate various scenarios and potential outcomes to determine the order of operations for your process. In this case, create different sequences for each scenario.
7. Determine responsible parties.
The next step is to think of each stakeholder’s role. This portion of your document should be as detailed as possible. Include timeline expectations for each person and how these deadlines support your overall timeline goals.
8. Identify boundaries.
Your document should lay out any boundaries that shape your process. That includes process timelines, due dates, budgetary limitations, key performance markers, etc.
If you’re considering changing your process, establishing firm boundaries will help you understand any limitations. You’ll be able to identify what you can shift and what must remain constant.
In the staffing process document below, boundaries related to human resources are clearly defined. The document also lays out where HR’s involvement stops.

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9. Explain exceptions and contingencies.
Be mindful of exceptions that can arise and account for them in your process documentation. The same goes for contingencies. You should outline when team members would have to deviate from the designated sequence of steps.
10. Review and test.
Once you’ve considered all of these factors and documented your process, you’re going to review your work. Edit your document. Then, test your instructions by completing the task as outlined. If all goes right, you should achieve the desired outcomes of your task.
Remember: If your process involves multiple stakeholders, this may end up being a project involving layers of feedback. Each perspective offers you a greater opportunity to optimize improvements in your processes.

Tips for Process Documentation
Before your team begins writing, here are some pointers that can help you make the most of your effort.
1. Keep it brief.
You have the choice of being as wordy or as short-handed as you’d like. We recommend being as concise as possible. Say enough to get the idea across, without being repetitive or using filler words.
2. Include visuals (where applicable).
Visuals can make your document more engaging. For example, images or infographics can break up large chunks of text. That can make your document easier to read.
In other cases, graphs or tables may be the most helpful way to display information. For complex topics or visual processes, a video may work best.
Pro tip: If you’re showing how one step leads to the next, consider a flow chart.

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3. Give your team editing power.
Give your stakeholders the ability to edit process documentation. This simple tweak to your document’s permissions settings can save a lot of time and back-and-forth between your team. As processes change over time, you’ll have multiple members of your organization who can keep your content up-to-date.
4. Stay flexible.
Remember: There is no one right way to document processes. The only way to do process documentation wrong is to skip it entirely.
The way you create documentation may change over time. In fact, your document itself will likely go through multiple iterations. Keep a flexible mindset for the best results.
Getting Started with Documentation
Now, that you’ve explored best practices for process documentation, you can start writing.
Remember: Documenting the steps to your most frequently followed processes saves your team from having to constantly reinvent the wheel. Your team will instead have a firm baseline. Instead, they can innovate the wheel if need be.

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