The New Approach to Work-Life Balance

CareerBuilder found that nearly half of American workers check email after they leave work, and 45% say they do work during non-business hours.

Additionally, this phenomenon crosses global borders, prompting new laws in France and a campaign in Japan to limit working hours.

Of course, we'd all love a little more balance in our lives. But it's more than that. We need it.

Today's "always on" mentality has serious consequences. Stanford professors Joel Goh, Jeffrey Pfeffer, and Stefanos Zenios found that more than 120,000 deaths per year and approximately 5%–8% of annual healthcare costs may be attributable to workplace stress from long working hours, job insecurity, work-family conflict, high job demands, and low social support at work.

But achieving work-life balance is hard. Obviously, reducing workplace stress is essential. But, despite finding that those who take vacation and travel are happier in their personal and professional lives, Project Time Off also found that more than half of American workers don't take all of the vacation days they've earned.

By contrast, many other countries offer or mandate additional vacation days. For example, The Center for Economic and Policy Research found that the United States is the only country surveyed that doesn't have a law requiring paid leave. Compare that to Germany (20 days), the United Kingdom (28 days), and Australia (20 days). With the exception of the United States, laws in other countries mandate a minimum of 10-30 days of paid leave per year.

The Work-Life Balance Matrix

Work life balance can (and should) look different for everyone, based on what's most important to you. There may be times in life when you're focused on career and personal development, and other times when your focus turns to family or a favorite hobby.

In other words, work-life balance examples run the gamut. But we've got some tips to help you find the work-life balance that's just right for you.

Before addressing areas that might be out of balance, it's a good idea to first understand what you value and how satisfied you are with the time you're allocating to those areas of your life. When I was touring colleges, I used a weighted decision matrix to score each campus on the things I cared about. Ever since, I've used this handy tool to evaluate everything from jobs, to apartments, to vacation spots.

Here's a sample of a completed matrix, with steps to complete your own, below:

Step 1: Create a list of 4-6 categories that most contribute to your satisfaction in life. I recommend using categories that are broad enough to encompass changing life phases, but narrow enough to act upon. You can use anything that contributes to your satisfaction, from hobbies, to career, to family, to spirituality, and volunteer work.

I also recommend that these categories have a significant effect on how you make life choices, how you spend your time, and have actionable and measurable steps associated with them.

For example, while it may significantly increase your satisfaction to "be a successful person," a better category might be career. Or, if your satisfaction is impacted by "helping people," a more actionable category might be "volunteer work."

Step 2: Assign each of the chosen categories a percentage for the amount that the category impacts your satisfaction. For example, if your categories include family, career, hobbies, charity work, and education, you might say that family is 30%, career is 25%, hobbies are 10%, charity work is 20%, and education is 15%.

Be honest with yourself when choosing and rating each category. If you honestly don't receive much satisfaction from hobbies, don't give it more weight than career.

Step 3: Assign a percentage for your current satisfaction in each category. Are you 100% satisfied in your career? Are you only 50% satisfied with your family life? Go through each category and give an honest percentage with how satisfied you are with that area of your life.

Step 4: Multiply the satisfaction percentage with the weight of each category. Now add the categories up. The end percentage is how satisfied you are with your life. What's your total? It's rare than anyone will be 100% satisfied, but maybe 90%? What if your percentage is low, say, 30% satisfied?

Step 5: Analyze the results, and determine which areas of your life are causing the most dissatisfaction. What steps can you take to change that? How much of your satisfaction is built on choices and situations within your control, and how much is not in your control?

7 Work-Smart Strategies

Once you've quantified your life satisfaction, it's time to start tackling areas with lower scores. Most people struggle with finding enough hours in the day to fit it all in, especially for personal time. Working smarter and savvy time management help you free up mental capacity, physical hours, and emotional space to accommodate more of the activities you love.

1. Just say no to low-impact work.

We all want to play as a team, but helping out on too many projects sucks up your time, leaving too little for the work that really matters. Setting quality OKRs (objectives and key results) is the key to knowing which activities are high-value, and which will distract you from accomplishing your goals.

And this doesn't stop with office tasks. If the committee you've chaired for three years no longer brings you joy, step down and get back to participating in a way that feeds your soul. Are too many hobbies making you feel stressed and frenetic? Pare them down to the activities that bring the most pleasure. If an activity is not bringing you joy and helping you progress towards your goals, give it up!

When going through these steps last year, I recognized that I was feeling stressed and guilty about my role as a board member for a local community theater. I kept skipping meetings because of other commitments and I felt like I wasn't contributing. I still wanted to volunteer on an ad-hoc basis, so I sent a note to the board president explaining that while I didn't have time to make the required commitment to board duties for the coming year, I'd still love to participate by helping staff auditions, contributing time and money to opening night festivities, and acting as the house manager for productions. This allowed me to keep the things that brought me joy, and provided much needed support on a more reliable cadence for the theater.

2. Stop multi-tasking.

Seriously. How many browser tabs do you have open right now? Multitasking makes you think you're getting more done, but research from the American Psychological Association has shown it reduces productivity by as much as 40%.

Instead, break each project into time-bound tasks, and spend focused amounts of time completing each element. Prioritize the tasks that require input from others for completion so that you can finish your portion of the project and hand it off to the next worker. Parallelizing work (where multiple work streams happen at the same time by different people) is an efficient use of time, but trying to do it all yourself is a recipe for disaster.

3. Break work down into achievable tasks.

Create a project plan that includes all the tasks you need to accomplish for the quarter. Then, divide the tasks in monthly and weekly to-dos. These can be kept on a team whiteboard, personal notepad, or shared Trello board. Whatever method you choose, make sure that you can check things off the list when complete, and move activities to the next phase of the project when ready.

4. Make your meetings matter.

Many people assume a weekly check-in meeting is needed for their projects … but is it? Do you really need to get in a room for 30 minutes to talk about the status of the checklist, instead of looking at the shared board or exchanging comments in writing?

Useless meetings waste tons of valuable time, so get 'em off the calendar if they aren't adding value! If you want to take a bold step, delete all the recurring meetings off your calendar for the next quarter. Ask organizers to re-send the invites to meetings you should attend, and confirm why they feel your presence is valuable. You might find that check-ins for old projects never re-appear, and the meetings that remain actually do help you move work forward each quarter.

5. Create checklists.

Don't procrastinate on checking things off your list. Sometimes we waste more energy worrying about doing the thing than actually doing the thing itself . David Allen, who wrote the book "Getting Things Done" and offers training on how to be more productive, says that the mind is for having ideas, not holding them.

He advocates for making a series of lists to capture and process all the things that you need to accomplish in a day. Once captured, do. Sometimes we get so mired down in the need to make the list perfect, make the steps perfect, make our desk perfect, that we forget that the act of starting means we're one step closing to finishing our task. Once you've got a plan in place, take action.

6. Evaluate your daily schedule.

A long commute is another area that eats up time and contributes stress to most peoples' lives. Want to reduce these effects? Try negotiating for a work-from-home day once or twice a week. Gallup found that in 2017, 43% of Americans said they worked remotely at least some of the time, and with collaboration tools like video, chat, and email, you can stay just as connected to your team.

If a long commute is non-negotiable, use that time for something that you've deemed important to your work life balance. For instance, if you have a goal to advance your knowledge or learn a new skill, you can listen to podcasts or audiobooks, or if you want to focus on well-being you can use apps like Headspace that offer guided meditations for relaxation.

7. Make time for self-care.

As you're thinking about your daily plans, revisit your routines for physical health. You can gain time and nutrition benefits by meal planning and cooking in bulk on the weekends. Freeze meals in pre-portioned containers for easy reheating in the evenings. The time and stress you save each evening allows you to spend more time unwinding with your family, and getting to bed at a reasonable hour.

Speaking of which … how's your sleep schedule? Are you going to bed at a reasonable time, getting a solid night's rest, and waking with energy? If not, commit to a bedtime routine for 30 days, and see how you feel at the end. Keep the elements that improve your rest, and experiment with changes to ensure you get a good night's sleep.

Of course, all of these new habits take time to build and practice to maintain. Some tactics, like deleting all your meetings and negotiating a regular WFH day, can be done right away. Others, like declining low-impact work and focusing on tasks individually, require diligent attention throughout the year.

This article was originally published on Atlassian.com and republished with permission.

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How to Optimize Your Online Marketing Plan: A 4-Step Process

Want to be sure your next marketing plan is optimized for the future? Looking for a framework to follow? In this article, you’ll discover a four-step process to audit and adjust your next marketing plan. #1: Evaluate Your Branding and Online Footprint to Ensure Consistency First, you need to address brand health. Does your brand […]

The post How to Optimize Your Online Marketing Plan: A 4-Step Process appeared first on Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner.

December 31, 2019 at 12:00PM http://bit.ly/2SGpANC
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How Consumers Actually Responded to All Those Black Friday Ads [New Research]

Although Cyber Monday is described as the biggest online shopping event of the year, more than $7.4 billion in online purchases were made on Black Friday in 2019.

While a majority of Black Friday purchases happened online, a Fiserv study found that brick-and-mortar store purchases rose by 4.2% compared to 2018. The same study found that a quarter of people traveled 25 miles or more to stores with Black Friday discounts.

By now, you may know that this was one of the biggest Black Fridays ever. But, as a marketer, you might be wondering what drove people to overcrowded stores and ecommerce websites during the national shopping event. You also might want to learn more about consumer shopping behaviors to strengthen your overall strategy in 2020.

To help you discover more about the consumer behaviors behind Black Friday's 2019 results, I surveyed a pool of more than 300 people using Lucid Software to learn what led them to engage with or purchase products in Black Friday ads.

In this post, I'll fill you in on what I learned from these consumers, arm you with other helpful stats and facts about Black Friday, and offer takeaways that you can use in 2020.

Black Friday's Online Ad Engagement

With crazy Black Friday deals comes an inundation of Black Friday ads throughout all forms of media. It's no surprise that millions of people shopped on Black Friday -- but which ad strategies actually led to purchases?

With more brick and mortar stores than ever, and the bombardment of ads that comes with them, do these Black Friday promotions actually influence purchases? To learn more about the Black Friday ad behaviors, I asked consumers about how they interacted with ads for the shopping holiday.

While you might think that people would get annoyed with the constant stream of ads, or try to completely disregard them, you'll be slightly surprised by the results.

When I asked participants, "Did you engage with any online ads or promotions for Black Friday?", 61% said they engaged with one or more ads in some way, while only 39% said they disregarded them.

Data Source: Lucid Software

Of that 61% of people who engaged with one or more ads, 38% clicked on the promotions without making a purchase, while 23% converted to a customer after clicking the ad.

When it comes to where people saw the ads they clicked on, 62% found promotions on social media.

Data Source: Lucid Software

"Non-social media sites" were also a fairly successful place for promotion, with 38% of people saying they clicked on ads in these locations. These sites could include websites owned by other brands where a native ad is located, search engine platforms, or other areas of the web that aren't considered social media.

Although only 32% of people said they clicked on ads shown in marketing emails, recent research still shows that this tactic is still a vital part of digital marketing. In fact, CampaignMonitor recently published research showing that email marketing was responsible for 20% of holiday-related traffic.

Aside from the ad's location, the product or service advertised could have played a role in an audience's level of engagement. To get an idea of which products were most popular, I asked survey participants, "Which best describes the products or services that were featured in the Black Friday ads you clicked on."

Of those who said they clicked on or purchased something from an ad in the first question of the survey, roughly 36% said the ads they engaged with featured products in the "Gadgets and Technology" category. Meanwhile, two other popular categories were "Fashion and Beauty" and "Home Goods, Furniture, and Decor" which both received votes from more than 18% of participants.

Ads and Black Friday Foot Traffic

In 2019, in-store Black Friday foot traffic dropped 6% lower than in 2018. However, this shopping event was still significant for brick-and-mortar stores as earnings from in-store purchases still rose by 4.2%.

Much of the in-store foot traffic and purchases could have also been because of ads. When I asked consumers if they "entered a store on Black Friday after seeing an ad or promotion for its sales," more than half said, "Yes."

Data Source: Lucid Software

To determine how much impact online ads made on Black Friday foot traffic as compared to physical ads, I asked the same consumers, "Where did you see the Black Friday ads for the store you visited on Black Friday?" Those surveyed could choose from a long list of ad style options from more digital social media promotions to traditional TV commercials or newspaper advertisements.

Although these participants decided to brave crowded physical stores on Black Friday, the survey found that they weren't pulled into them by physical or more traditional ads like billboards, newspaper promotions, or commercials.

Again, social media was the front-runner, as 38% of people who entered stores on Black Friday found ads on these types of platforms first.

Aside from social media, 15% of those who visited a store due to a Black Friday ad said they saw it on the store's own website. Only small portions of those surveyed said they went to a store after seeing television commercials (7%), email marketing ads (7%), newspaper promotions (8%), or physical signage (1%).

However, keep in mind that this was still a rather small sample and that it should not completely rearrange your marketing strategy in 2020.

While only 7% of those surveyed found ads that led them to visit a physical store in marketing newsletters, data shows that including ads and offers in emails is still a vital strategy for gaining web visits, leads, and even in-store foot traffic. We don't encourage pulling email marketing from your strategy just because of one pool of shoppers' Black Friday behaviors.

What Black Friday Means for 2020 Marketing

If you're running a brick-and-mortar or ecommerce operation, these results, as well as mounting research show the importance of developing or constantly improving on a web presence, whether that means purchasing online ad space or taking on free strategies like building a social media profile or creating a Google My Business for your store.

Due to social media's popularity and track record for ROI, you'll definitely want to consider advertising or at least posting for free about your products on platforms that align well with your audience if you aren't doing so already.

If you're trying to build your social presence, or determine which platforms you should be promoting your products or deals on, check out this research-based blog post where I reveal which social media platforms people use to learn about products.

You should also consider experimenting with or expanding on other online tactics to expand on or create a highly digital promotional strategy. For example, continue marketing products your own website, placing native ads on other websites, and embracing email marketing within your strategy.

Boosting your web presence will not only help you promote sales and events, such as Black Friday. But this strategy could also boost brand awareness and conversions throughout the rest of the year.

http://bit.ly/2sx33ba

How Consumers Actually Responded to All Those Black Friday Ads [New Research]

Although Cyber Monday is described as the biggest online shopping event of the year, more than $7.4 billion in online purchases were made on Black Friday in 2019.

While a majority of Black Friday purchases happened online, a Fiserv study found that brick-and-mortar store purchases rose by 4.2% compared to 2018. The same study found that a quarter of people traveled 25 miles or more to stores with Black Friday discounts.

By now, you may know that this was one of the biggest Black Fridays ever. But, as a marketer, you might be wondering what drove people to overcrowded stores and ecommerce websites during the national shopping event. You also might want to learn more about consumer shopping behaviors to strengthen your overall strategy in 2020.

To help you discover more about the consumer behaviors behind Black Friday's 2019 results, I surveyed a pool of more than 300 people using Lucid Software to learn what led them to engage with or purchase products in Black Friday ads.

In this post, I'll fill you in on what I learned from these consumers, arm you with other helpful stats and facts about Black Friday, and offer takeaways that you can use in 2020.

Black Friday's Online Ad Engagement

With crazy Black Friday deals comes an inundation of Black Friday ads throughout all forms of media. It's no surprise that millions of people shopped on Black Friday -- but which ad strategies actually led to purchases?

With more brick and mortar stores than ever, and the bombardment of ads that comes with them, do these Black Friday promotions actually influence purchases? To learn more about the Black Friday ad behaviors, I asked consumers about how they interacted with ads for the shopping holiday.

While you might think that people would get annoyed with the constant stream of ads, or try to completely disregard them, you'll be slightly surprised by the results.

When I asked participants, "Did you engage with any online ads or promotions for Black Friday?", 61% said they engaged with one or more ads in some way, while only 39% said they disregarded them.

Data Source: Lucid Software

Of that 61% of people who engaged with one or more ads, 38% clicked on the promotions without making a purchase, while 23% converted to a customer after clicking the ad.

When it comes to where people saw the ads they clicked on, 62% found promotions on social media.

Data Source: Lucid Software

"Non-social media sites" were also a fairly successful place for promotion, with 38% of people saying they clicked on ads in these locations. These sites could include websites owned by other brands where a native ad is located, search engine platforms, or other areas of the web that aren't considered social media.

Although only 32% of people said they clicked on ads shown in marketing emails, recent research still shows that this tactic is still a vital part of digital marketing. In fact, CampaignMonitor recently published research showing that email marketing was responsible for 20% of holiday-related traffic.

Aside from the ad's location, the product or service advertised could have played a role in an audience's level of engagement. To get an idea of which products were most popular, I asked survey participants, "Which best describes the products or services that were featured in the Black Friday ads you clicked on."

Of those who said they clicked on or purchased something from an ad in the first question of the survey, roughly 36% said the ads they engaged with featured products in the "Gadgets and Technology" category. Meanwhile, two other popular categories were "Fashion and Beauty" and "Home Goods, Furniture, and Decor" which both received votes from more than 18% of participants.

Ads and Black Friday Foot Traffic

In 2019, in-store Black Friday foot traffic dropped 6% lower than in 2018. However, this shopping event was still significant for brick-and-mortar stores as earnings from in-store purchases still rose by 4.2%.

Much of the in-store foot traffic and purchases could have also been because of ads. When I asked consumers if they "entered a store on Black Friday after seeing an ad or promotion for its sales," more than half said, "Yes."

Data Source: Lucid Software

To determine how much impact online ads made on Black Friday foot traffic as compared to physical ads, I asked the same consumers, "Where did you see the Black Friday ads for the store you visited on Black Friday?" Those surveyed could choose from a long list of ad style options from more digital social media promotions to traditional TV commercials or newspaper advertisements.

Although these participants decided to brave crowded physical stores on Black Friday, the survey found that they weren't pulled into them by physical or more traditional ads like billboards, newspaper promotions, or commercials.

Again, social media was the front-runner, as 38% of people who entered stores on Black Friday found ads on these types of platforms first.

Aside from social media, 15% of those who visited a store due to a Black Friday ad said they saw it on the store's own website. Only small portions of those surveyed said they went to a store after seeing television commercials (7%), email marketing ads (7%), newspaper promotions (8%), or physical signage (1%).

However, keep in mind that this was still a rather small sample and that it should not completely rearrange your marketing strategy in 2020.

While only 7% of those surveyed found ads that led them to visit a physical store in marketing newsletters, data shows that including ads and offers in emails is still a vital strategy for gaining web visits, leads, and even in-store foot traffic. We don't encourage pulling email marketing from your strategy just because of one pool of shoppers' Black Friday behaviors.

What Black Friday Means for 2020 Marketing

If you're running a brick-and-mortar or ecommerce operation, these results, as well as mounting research show the importance of developing or constantly improving on a web presence, whether that means purchasing online ad space or taking on free strategies like building a social media profile or creating a Google My Business for your store.

Due to social media's popularity and track record for ROI, you'll definitely want to consider advertising or at least posting for free about your products on platforms that align well with your audience if you aren't doing so already.

If you're trying to build your social presence, or determine which platforms you should be promoting your products or deals on, check out this research-based blog post where I reveal which social media platforms people use to learn about products.

You should also consider experimenting with or expanding on other online tactics to expand on or create a highly digital promotional strategy. For example, continue marketing products your own website, placing native ads on other websites, and embracing email marketing within your strategy.

Boosting your web presence will not only help you promote sales and events, such as Black Friday. But this strategy could also boost brand awareness and conversions throughout the rest of the year.

http://bit.ly/2F40YWO

Personality Tests: a Gimmick or Helpful Management Tool?

My coworkers and I love personality tests. We share them with each other to have fun and get to know each other — an important task since half of our team is remote and sprinkled across the country.

Personality tests have allowed us to gain insight into our lives outside of work. They’ve also helped us better understand our communication and collaboration styles, which has made projects, meetings, and feedback sessions much easier to navigate.

Personality tests can be major assets for teams of any size, location, and skill set. They unlock professional preferences such as how each coworker likes to receive criticism and feedback, and they can boost camaraderie and communication between even the most polar opposite team members.

Let’s dive into the accuracy of personality tests and how to navigate results in the workplace.

How accurate are personality tests?

Personality tests are like going to the gym — you only get out what you put in. If you don’t take personality testing seriously, you shouldn’t expect accurate results.

This is true for any questionnaire you take, but it especially applies to the handful of scientifically-designed personality tests that are often taken within, and applied to, professional settings.

Certain tests — such as the DiSC Assessment, Myers-Briggs, and Holland Code Career Test — were developed by psychologists with a background in mental health and scientific experimentation. Professional opinions about each test vary, but companies around the world still use them, if only just to learn more about their employees and coworkers.

In my opinion (which is not that of a trained psychologist or test-maker), personality tests do have some merit. I’ve taken quite a few professionally-designed tests — and a healthy serving of the fun ones on Buzzfeed, but we won’t count those — and have seen a lot of accuracy in my results.

I’ve also seen some crazy, out-of-character results.

The fact of the matter is, while there are some truths in the Myers-Briggs, DiSC, and Enneagram, our personalities, preferences, and day-to-day dispositions vary too much to take those results as concrete truth.

I think the question here isn’t as much about the accuracy of personality tests (because that question is directly proportional to how seriously your employees take the test, and you can’t count on everyone to do so). I think the more important ask is this — what should you do with the results?

Personality tests are fantastic conversation-starters. They’re good at helping us articulate those intangible preferences, aversions, habits, and weaknesses we otherwise don’t know how to name. They’re also fun for making connections and bridging gaps at work.

As insightful as personality tests are, however, they shouldn’t be the guiding light in how you treat and collaborate with your team — nor should they be the defining factor for hiring and firing decisions. Now, let’s unpack the pros and cons of personality tests.

Pros and Cons of Personality Tests

Personality tests are fun, insightful activities — unless they’re used for major employment and business decisions. If this is the case, it’s wise to scrutinize the benefits and drawbacks of such tools to avoid blindly relying on nuanced results.

PROS OF PERSONALITY TESTS	CONS OF PERSONALITY TESTS
Employers can examine results to see how a candidate may fit into the team and company culture.	Employers can neglect to get to know the candidate and instead assess his or her fit based on test results.
Managers can use results to better understand how to communicate with and provide feedback to employees.	Managers can miss out on important communication opportunities if the setting doesn’t perfectly align with the employee’s test results.
Personality tests provide a relatively unbiased, consistent means of assessing candidates and employees.	Not every candidate or employee may take the personality test seriously and/or not have the capability to fill the test out to the best of his or her ability.
Personality tests look into what a candidate will do in a given situation, versus what he or she has done.	Companies may administer the wrong personality test for the wrong situation.
Personality tests can be fun (more so than the SATs) for candidates to take, and they may be personally invested in the results as well.	Personality tests can be costly and time-consuming for companies, candidates, and employees alike.

When it comes to using personality tests as management tools, don’t allow the results to speak for your employees. Let them complement each person, not replace them — and be careful not to judge a person by their personality test results.

http://bit.ly/2SEQK7A

How to Use Instagram Stories to Promote a Live Event

Does your business host events, workshops, or training experiences? Looking for an effective way to promote these events on Instagram? In this article, you’ll learn how to document live events in Instagram Stories to increase awareness and sales for the next live event. Why Document Live Events With Instagram Stories? A live event can be […]

The post How to Use Instagram Stories to Promote a Live Event appeared first on Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner.

December 30, 2019 at 12:00PM http://bit.ly/2ZBgVgD
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How HubSpot Service, Support, and Sales Reps Stay Productive on a Noisy Floor

As a customer-facing representative — whether you work in sales, service, or support — you’re probably used to working in a busy, noisy office space. Maybe you work on a loud sales floor surrounded by reps chatting on the phone with leads. Perhaps you work in an office space with customer service and support reps working to assist customers over the phone or video chat throughout the day.

Whatever the cause of your workspace being noisy, it’s not always easy to block out the environment around you. That’s why we’ve compiled the following list of tips and tricks HubSpotters use to stay productive and focused in a noisy, busy, and sometimes, distracting workspace.

Before diving into the examples from HubSpotters, let’s take a look at some all-encompassing and actionable techniques to improve your productivity.

Now, let’s hear from HubSpotters about how they use these specific tips and techniques.

1. Block time on your calendar or communicate your need for disruption-free time to your coworkers.

• “One of my staples is creating a ‘working signal’. Since I’m typically on calls and that signifies I’m unable to chat, I usually keep my headphones on to show that I’m still at work. When my headphones come off that means I’m available to speak with or help others. I’ll also find a booth or another area where I know fewer people so I’m less tempted to converse and can focus on the task at hand.” — John Vassar, Customer Onboarding Specialist, HubSpot HQ
• "I find while working in a collaborative environment, people still approach you even if you have headphones on — so, I recommend informing your team in advance when you need time to focus. I set 30 to 60-minute blocks in my calendar that I try to religiously follow. During this time, I won’t get up or go for a wander or banter with any of my colleagues.” — Ricky Huang, Principal Account Executive, HubSpot Sydney

2. Invest in noise-canceling headphones.

• “My headphones have a noise-cancelation feature that I can turn on when it’s really loud. That's typically what a lot of us on the team do.” —Ado Kawuba, Partner Specialist, HubSpot HQ
• “I have noise-canceling headphones (Sony WF-1000XM3) that I wear when I don’t need to be on a call, but have to work on a proposal or something else with a hard deadline.” — Ricky Huang, Principal Account Executive, HubSpot Sydney

3. Listen to white noise or music (specifically, without lyrics).

• “When I need to just put my head down and focus on doing some work, I usually play white noise which helps block everything else out.” — Sotiria Qirjazi, Customer Onboarding Specialist, HubSpot Dublin
• “I like my classical music — it keeps me focused and blocks out the noise. I stick with music without words so I don’t get distracted singing in my head (typing lyrics into emails!).” — Zoya Khatuntseva, Senior Channel Account Manager at HubSpot, HubSpot HQ

4. Move around, find a quiet space elsewhere, or work remotely when possible.

• "I know firsthand the toll that working on a noisy sales floor can have on reps, so I encourage my team take the time they need to move around the office, visit HubSpot's Meditation Room, work remotely (and work on a flex-schedule, if possible), or just take a break when they feel overwhelmed. This helps improve overall productivity — remember, sometimes you need to sit out an inning to play the whole game." — Dan Love, US Sales Manager, HubSpot HQ
• “While working as a rep, I’d get up and take breaks between my calls. Leaving your desk can do wonders for resetting your focus, especially if you're given a few minutes to write case notes between calls. I’d write my notes quickly and use any extra time to leave my desk, walk around, get coffee, etc. This helped me reduce fatigue and stress whenever I felt it was a very busy or noisy day.” — Clint Fontanella, Service Blog Writer and Editor (former Customer Support Rep), HubSpot HQ
• “I like to grab my laptop and work from somewhere else in the office between my calls to get some time to focus.” — Sebastian Ferreira, Customer Support Specialist, HubSpot Sydney
• “I find that scheduling time to work remotely one day a week or a few times a month really increase productivity levels.” — Serena Shah, Sales Partner Manager, HubSpot HQ
• "I typically take my calls on the sales floor, but when I need time to focus, I'll move to a quiet area of the office to get work done." — Tim Ferraro, Principal BDR, HubSpot HQ

5. Make daily to-do lists and micro-goals, then cross them off items upon completion.

• “I stay productive with HubSpot Tasks and I create micro-goals for myself throughout the day to help me stay focused and make things easier to digest. For example, a micro-goal may be, 'For the next hour, I'm going to either just make calls or strictly focus on my follow-up emails.'" — Cam Karosis, Small Business, HubSpot HQ
• "Make a list of what you want to accomplish that day, so when you get distracted and forget what you were doing, you can reference the list. Additionally, crossing something off a list is very cathartic." — Serena Shah, Sales Partner Manager, HubSpot HQ

6. Experiment with tactics that are specific to your particular role in the office.

• “When my customers can hear it’s noisy in the background, I work harder to ensure they know I’m focused on their problem rather than what’s going on around me. Sometimes, when they hear noise, I worry they’ll be concerned that I’m not completely understanding or hearing their problem. To show I’m 100% focused on them, I try to be more conversational so they can tell I’m fully invested in our conversation and not what is going on in the background.” — Katelyn Tierney, Customer Support Specialist, HubSpot HQ

Stay Focused and Productive

No matter what your current technique is for staying productive on a noisy floor, don’t be afraid to chat with your fellow reps about their favorite tactics. Or, try using one of these tips from HubSpotters located across the globe. Who knows? You might just find your new favorite strategy.

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Creating Stories That Stick: How Marketers Can Win With Story

Want to craft better stories in your marketing? Wondering what makes a good story? To explore the power of stories in marketing, I interview Kindra Hall on the Social Media Marketing Podcast. Kindra is the author of Stories That Stick: How Storytelling Can Captivate Customers, Influence Audiences, and Transform Your Business. She’s also a keynote […]

The post Creating Stories That Stick: How Marketers Can Win With Story appeared first on Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner.

December 27, 2019 at 12:00PM http://bit.ly/2Q1QbTF
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How to Use Instagram Stories in Your Sales Funnel

Want to turn Instagram followers into clients? Wondering how to use Instagram stories to nurture warm leads? In this article, you’ll learn how to use Instagram stories to engage and guide people through your sales funnel. #1: Nurture Warm Instagram Leads in the Middle of the Funnel Instagram stories are best used to target followers […]

The post How to Use Instagram Stories in Your Sales Funnel appeared first on Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner.

December 24, 2019 at 12:00PM http://bit.ly/2PQl6lF
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The State of Video Marketing in 2020 [New Data]

A decade is a long time. I mean, just think back to the end of 2009.

Barack Obama was about to enter his first full year in the White House, Farmville was the flavor of the month with 83 million monthly users on Facebook, and Avatar had just hit movie theatres worldwide, becoming — at the time — the highest-grossing movie ever.

But even then, ten years ago, people were already starting to make big predictions about online video, and its potential to change the world of marketing.

Not all predictions come true — but, as we reach the end of the decade, it’s fair to say that these ones certainly did.

If any marketing trend can lay claim to being the defining tactic of the last ten years, video is surely up there.

A decade ago, video was an expensive, pie-in-the-sky luxury. Since then, it’s become a staple — an accessible, affordable must-have tool to help attract audiences, explain products, and support customers.

And now, as we once again march forward into a brand new decade, new research conducted by Wyzowl strongly suggests:

• Video remains a key priority for marketers.

• Marketers feel more positive about the return on investment offered by video than ever, as it continues to strongly influence traffic, leads, sales, and audience understanding.

• Usage and spend on video marketing are likely to increase yet again in 2020.

• People watch significantly more video than ever before.

• Consumers continue to use video as an integral part of their journey with brands, and are excited to see even more video content in the year ahead.

About the survey

Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing Survey is an annual report, now in its sixth iteration. Every year, we ask a range of questions — many of them the same from year-to-year — to evaluate how the video marketing landscape is changing and growing. 

This time round, our survey was taken by a sample of 656 unique respondents, consisting of professional marketers and consumers.

The key findings…

85% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. This is actually a slight decrease from last years figure (87%) but still represents a highly significant number, which has generally grown since 2016 (the first time we asked this particular question in this way.)

What’s more, 92% of marketers who use video say that it's an important part of their marketing strategy — the highest percentage of any year since 2015.

Perhaps most strikingly, 88% of video marketers reported that video gives them a positive ROI — a 5% increase on last years figure, and a world away from the lowly 33% who felt that way in 2015. This could well be attributed to greater understanding of how to use video, as well as how to track and quantify its impact. 

Looking forward…

As you might expect given all the above, all the signs suggest that usage and spend are on course to continue their growth in 2020.

99% of current video marketers told us they’ll continue using video in 2020, and 95% plan to increase or maintain their spend. 

What’s more, from the people who told us they don’t currently use video, 59% told us they expect to start in 2020.

The net result of this is that we can all expect to see more noise and competition for audience attention in the coming 12 months. And, given that 92% of video marketers feel the level of noise and competition increased noticeably in 2019 ... that’s a lot of noise!

Of course, while this is a challenge, it isn’t an insurmountable one. It simply raises the bar in terms of content quality. Video needs to be well-planned, and very well-executed.

The big opportunities…

You’d be forgiven for looking at these numbers and feeling that video might be on the verge of reaching saturation point. Most of the data points around usage, spend and consumer opinion are in the 80s and 90s — where they’ve held, consistently, for a number of years.

But the good news is that there still seems to be underutilized opportunities for marketers to explore around video.

Unsurprisingly, YouTube and Facebook are the most widely used platforms among video marketers — used by 85% and 79%, respectively. 

But some of the lesser-used video tactics also seem to be reaping real results for video marketers.

Most notably, for the first time ever, LinkedIn has emerged as the most successful channel for video marketers, with an overwhelming 87% of LinkedIn video marketers describing it as an effective channel.

TikTok — often cited as a video platform with huge potential (and not only by Gary Vee) — remains largely untapped, with only around 1 in 10 video marketers having given it a shot. Out of those who've tried it out, though, 66% report having seen success.

There are flops to go with the success stories, too, though. Snapchat continues its poor performance of recent years. Only 11% of video marketers say they've used Snapchat as a video channel, and, out of those, less than half report success, making it comfortably the lowest-performing video marketing platform for the third year in a row.

To Sum Up

Video looks set to continue its ten-year overnight success story into the coming decade. These stats paint a picture of a media type that’s almost universally popular among both marketers and their audiences, helping achieve a number of incredibly important goals.

You can check out the full report — with plenty more data points — and get a downloadable version by visiting Wyzowls State of Video Marketing 2020 page.

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The Guide to Successful Silent Videos for Facebook Video Ads (+ Examples)

In recent years, Facebook has become a powerful platform for posting, sharing, and watching videos. In fact, nowadays, people watch more than 100 million hours of Facebook videos on a daily basis.

However, unlike traditional viewing on television and even YouTube, a large percentage of people watch Facebook videos from their smartphones, and play them silently from their news feed.

This is creating an environment where content creators and brands must compete in a soundless, auto-play Facebook environment.

In addition, after Facebook went public and had pressure to monetize their platform, the social media giant turned to a paid-only ad-revenue model.

Due to Facebook's pay-to-play environment, brands have to pay for Facebook reach, and also make sure what they're putting out is getting high return on investment (ROI). Therefore, many brands are turning to video, as opposed to images, for their ads, since video typically results in higher engagement and improved conversions.

This creates a marketplace where brands have to keep two things in mind:

1. To get seen, you have to pay
2. To get attention, video is better but it'll have to work without audio

Unfortunately, as more businesses jump into the Facebook marketplace, there are more and more mistakes being made. Graham Mudd, Facebook's Director of Ads Product Marketing, estimates that up to 40% of Facebook video ads fail to communicate when the sound isn't on.

When it comes to silent video ads for Facebook, the luxuries of audio are gone, but the pressure for conversions is still there. Therefore, brands and entrepreneurs need to change their thinking on what it means to communicate through video, and more specifically, silent video.

Storytelling Visually, Not Verbally

People watch 85% of videos on Facebook without clicking on the 'sound' button.

To satisfy the majority of viewers who will watch videos without sound, brands and entrepreneurs need to master what it means to tell a story without verbally saying anything.

Here are a few tips on how to do just that.

1. Create a script that can work with or without dialogue.

Notably, video production is usually based on a script. But you should avoid depending on the dialogue entirely, since this could set you up for a loss.

Content creators often know readers won't read every line of content you publish — they might skim, skip paragraphs, or leave the page before reaching the end. Similarly, the majority of Facebook users will not listen to your videos.

Some filmmakers may find this odd, since traditional videos have a beautiful mix of both visuals and audio. But change is inevitable, so you need to adapt to the current methods that people view content.

When creating Facebook silent video ads, you want to get a competitive edge with a script that can still sell your brand even when silent.

Right off the bat, concepts such as interviews or a speaking host should be placed at bay. This includes those that could also pass the message through subtitles. Always remember that context is key, and you need to use a strong visual narrative.

For instance, Reolink's Argus Security Camera offers a simple, yet effective example of a video that worked with no dialogue. At first glance it looks like the video is just images with captions, but a couple seconds in, a hand swoops in and yanks the camera out of the frame.

It's a perfect example of communicating a product's value with a combination of text and movement, without needing to rely on any narration or verbal explanation.

2. Emphasize big, bold visuals.

It's equally important to make the images bold, big, and highly visual for your video to 'pop.' You have to catch the eyes of your viewers as they scroll the sea of jokes, celebrity gossip, their exes, and opinionated posts.

The images you choose should be high-contrast with bold visuals, and noticeable enough to prevent confusion with any regular video content with audio. By building a reputation of digestible silent content, your viewers will always slow down to check out any new videos from you on their feed.

You can see an example of this creative visual approach with the UAG MacBook Drop Test video.

Whatever it is, just make sure your visual editing touches add something that people aren't used to seeing.

3. Create content that explains itself.

For an immediate impact, you need to come up with content that does not need audio or words to explain the happiness, frustration, or 'cool factors' of your brand. You can begin with a question or a shocking statement with great visuals.

This is one of those times where you don't want to overcomplicate things. Think about your product or service and cut to the core of what you're offering. There is no room for anything subtle or meta here — just cut to the chase.

Privacy Pop executes this extremely well in their videos. While introducing a relatively innovative product to the market, they cut straight to the core of what they are offering and communicate the value of their bed tents.

Often in the name of creativity, companies can really go off the deep end of messaging and symbolism. For Facebook Video Ads, everything is silent and you really only have a handful of seconds to stop the viewer from scrolling. A confusing message will ensure that they will not stop on your ad.

4. Place your call-to-action wisely.

Though not in the video itself, call-to-action buttons are extremely important in getting conversions. There are two decisions to make regarding your call-to-action. The first regards which CTA prompt will produce the best results.

To find out, Adespresso A/B tested four prompts (in addition to a CTA with no button at all) using a Facebook call-to-action button.

The results were compelling:

● No button at all produced the worst results — 20 leads for $12.50 each

● "Sign Up" generated 26 leads at $9.62 per lead

● "Learn More" generated 36 leads at $9.94 per lead

● “Download” garnered 49 leads at $5.10 per lead

The best performance was for "Download," which generated 49 leads at a cost of $5.10 per lead.

Image Source

The reason? Researchers suspect it's because "Sign Up" creates concerns that users will need to provide credit card information and "Learn More" suggests more reading, which would be time-consuming.

The second decision involves where in your video you want to place the CTA. The CTA of the video and the Facebook video ads should tie together.

Remember, your CTA in the video should ultimately urge the person to click the CTA button below the video. This is something you should A/B test — try placing your CTA at the opening, in the middle, and at the end to see which placement your viewers prefer.

You should also try displaying the CTA in graphic text throughout the video. See which placement performs best before launching your campaign.

5. Drop your discount or offer early.

There's no guarantee consumers will watch an ad all the way through. In fact, Facebook ads on average capture just 60 seconds of viewers' attention — some people, of course, will leave before that — so it's important to frontload your most important information, like a discount or special offer.

Additionally, make sure your offer works naturally with what precedes and follows it — in other words, don't segregate your discount from other video features, like the value and benefits of your product or service.

Visual Storytelling Toolset

Here are some tactics we use in our Facebook video production strategy that you can use to create successful silent video ads for Facebook.

1. Use Animations

Due to their visual-heavy nature, animations allow for an easy and effective transition to silent videos. We have found that for clients who are strapped on budget, animations provide a great alternative. Animated videos do not require actors, cameras, multiple locations, or other typical expenses needed for a video shoot.

Be sure to design an outline or script that can work without a voiceover. This way, the animated silent video ad could make a fast transition to the social platform without much effort.

When creating these silent animated videos there are certain factors that you need to think about beyond a typical video commercial shoot, including:

• Creating a Mood Board/Style Guide: The video you create will be all graphics, so it's extremely important to keep colors, graphics, text, and transitions on-brand and looking clean. If you have ever tried designing a flier on your own, without design experience, you'll know that people tend to go overboard with colors and clutter. Animations are exactly the same. Mood boards allow you to stay on theme and remind you of the aesthetic that you're trying to achieve. Common tools that our team uses is Abduzeedo.com and Pinterest to share ideas when formulating mood boards.
• Create a Storyboard: With animations, video storyboards are extremely important. It reminds you of the message you are trying to tell and helps keep the animation concise.

2. Establish a Quick Connection

You must connect and capture the attention of your audience right away. According to research, 65% of viewers who watch the initial three seconds of a video ad will continue watching for more than 10 seconds. Therefore, you must consider videos and thumbnail images that can hook people to your story.

To connect the silent video to your brand, you might try using brand colors, imagery, and themes.

In this video, Airtable effectively grabs your attention with the use of child actors to detail the product's features. It provides a nice change of pace from the usual business videos we see every day.

This is where your creativity needs to shine. You need to pique that curiosity. Create an introduction that makes people think, "What is this?"

When ideating on how to do this, our team always likes to review movie trailers and commercials that have caught our eye. When looking for these techniques, you don't need to keep your search only to Facebook video ads — instead, you might check out Superbowl ads, trending YouTube commercials, or ads on Hulu.

3. Make Graphics Large

Need some extra help to get your point or idea across without using audio? You can get creative and use large titles that emphasize the key features or steps of your video.

To draw more attention to your video, you can also include flashy transitions. However, it's critical you ensure they remain within your brand's signature feel and look to retain consistency with your overall marketing strategy.

You might also consider keeping the title or point of the video at the top of the video at all times.

Here's a great example from BBC Three:

This style of presenting videos is becoming more and more popular for brands and content creators as it helps overcome the silent aspects of videos, since it tells viewers who might not have been paying attention at the beginning of the video what the video is about.

4. Add Subtitles

Understandably, you might feel you can't completely get your point across without using words. In this case, you can add subtitles as you upload.

Fortunately, Facebook has a feature where you can automatically add captions using their software.

We always recommend reviewing the captions before publishing. Captioning technology isn't at the point where it gets everything 100% right. There are many tools that exist that can help you transcribe if you want a more exact transcription, but many can get pricey if you want 100% accuracy. Alternatively, if you use Facebook's feature, you can go through and edit yourself for clarity.

5. Optimize the Ad Description and Title

For more a successful silent video ad, you need to keep the title and description engaging to let viewers know what to expect. These two sections also provide important information on your video topic to the site's targeting algorithms. Therefore, you need to ensure that all the relevant keywords are included in your ad. Other than ensuring relevance in your copy, always generate enough curiosity since some titles are catchier than others.

To optimize the title and ad description, you need to refer back to your initial goals. Ad descriptions and titles are often an afterthought where companies have someone quickly upload and write the first thing that comes to mind. This is not the way to do it.

Facebook titles and descriptions are like the subject line of an email. They are often written last and with the least amount of time spent, yet they are often the most important part of the email. The same goes for Facebook titles.

6. Keep It Short

Considering most people tune out so fast, what is the ideal length for a Facebook video to tell your story and sell your brand? If you intend to use in-stream videos (those placed during or before other content), it is recommended that you keep it in the five –15 second range. The maximum allowance, however, stands at 31 seconds. Alternatively, standalone ads should last less than 15 seconds, since shorter video ads have higher completion rates.

A great example is the throwback Google Chrome YouTube commercials that the company used to demonstrate the browser's superior speed.

What we recommend here is to be ruthless when creating your storyboard and script. Having discipline in the beginning of your video ideation will help reign in the excess further down the line.

Don't wait until the end when all shots are done and you are trying to stuff everything in. You'll often find that your video is at least 10x longer than needed. Having a strict storyboard and script in the beginning will help drive decision-making when certain members on the team have fallen in love with a scene and don't want to make any cuts.

7. Copy the "News" Style

Most marketers are familiar with Facebook's algorithm changes earlier this year, the ones that prioritized news from friends and family over those from publishers. This placed a new onus on advertisers to create ads which mimic what a user typically sees in their news feed.

Of course, this isn't a new concept in advertising — "native ads" have been around for quite a while, as have best practice strategies for creating them. To get the most out of your Facebook ads, then, you might try copying the "news" style.

That means, among other things, using images and short video clips overlayed with text on colored backgrounds and using third-person delivery, similar to the style used in news feeds.

A great tool that you can use is Lumen5. Many publications use tools like Lumen5 to create real-time videos so that they can be the first to report, despite not having produced a short segment yet.

Below is an example of using the "news" style for brand marketing purposes:

You'll notice that rather than looking like an overt advertisement, the Tesla video looks almost like a review.

Entrepreneurs can leverage tools like this to help create the same look and leverage the authoritative style that is associated with this style.

8. Blur Your Introduction

People watch a lot of videos on Facebook. According to WordStream, for example, almost half of Facebook users watch at least one hour of Facebook videos every day. That means, to be effective, your ad needs to make an impact in the first few seconds.

As Social Media Examiner notes, "To be effective, video ads have to accomplish two things: grab the user's attention in 2-3 seconds and have a short duration, probably no more than 20 seconds total."

There are several ways to grab the user's attention at the start of your Facebook video ad. One trick you might try is to blur your introduction. This creates suspense as users become curious about what will follow, especially if they're quickly scrolling through multiple video ads. For best results, limit the blurring to the first couple of seconds.

Ultimately, producing and distributing effective Facebook video ads — the kind that increase clickthrough and conversion rates and boost sales — is challenging, especially given the increasing competition among advertisers. Ideally, you can use the strategies above to get started, and iterate on your process as you learn more about what works for your brand's unique Facebook audience.

Interested in further inspiration? Check out HubSpot's 11 Soundless Videos We Love (And Why).

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23 Valuable Tools and Apps for Marketers

Looking for some new ways to improve your social media management and content creation? Wondering which tools and apps to try? In this article, you’ll find 23 desktop tools and mobile apps that will save you time and effort in your daily marketing workflow. #1: Quickly Find the Best Emoji for Your Message Emojim is […]

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December 23, 2019 at 12:00PM http://bit.ly/2Zg6lvs
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Instagram Brand Collab Manager and Pinterest Trends Tool

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore the latest way Instagram is connecting brands with influencers on the platform and upcoming Instagram Stories features […]

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December 21, 2019 at 12:00PM http://bit.ly/2Y1lJK1
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Neuroscience and Marketing: How People Make Decisions

Have you ever wondered why some marketing campaigns connect with people while others flop? Want insight into how the brain makes decisions that compel people to take action? To explore the science behind how people make decisions, I interview Tracy Trost on the Social Media Marketing Podcast. Tracy is a neuroscience marketing expert and the […]

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December 20, 2019 at 12:00PM http://bit.ly/38ZrdLS
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How to Create an HTML Form That Sends You an Email

Sometimes, improving UX can cost a lot of money.

And oftentimes, some of the problems website visitors have are easy, simple fixes.

That begs the question: How can you find out if customers are enjoying their website experience?

The answer may be simpler than you think.

Having forms on your website is an effective way to get customer feedback about their experience during their visit. These forms give you insight about how to improve your website's UX for higher conversions in the long run.

Whether you want to convert more visitors to leads, collect information for your sales team, or create more loyal brand advocates, forms are imperative to an inbound strategy. 

Ultimately, forms are critical for solving dissatisfaction in a customer's experience, which ensures stronger customer relationships. If you don't have a form on your website, you could be missing out on more leads, higher conversions, and happier long-term customers.

Here, we're going to walk you through how to create a certain type of form — one that sends an email to you, as well as the customer, to ensure the form was received.

How to Create a Form in HTML and Send it to Email

It is possible to create an HTML form that sends emails, but it depends on how you work and on what platform you're working. This is to say that things are a little different if the plan is to use a mix of HTML and different scripts.

Using the Basics

Using just HTML? We've got you covered. From starting fresh, here is a sample code for use:

<form action=”mailto:contact@yourdomain.com”

method=”POST”

enctype=”multipart/form-data”

name=”EmailForm”>

Name:<br>

<input type=”text” size=”19″ name=”ContactName”><br><br>

Message:<br> <textarea name=”ContactCommentt” rows=”6″ cols=”20″>

</textarea><br><br> <input type=”submit” value=”Submit”> </form>

This code will create a form that asks for the contact's name, message, and includes a submit button. Note that this code is basic — it won't look super snazzy. For a more beautiful one, you'll have to add some more lines of code specific to your needs.

Another thing to note with this code is that it doesn't directly send to email addresses, but it can open in an email client or tool window to submit the form.

To make it so the form can work with your email server and send it to a mailbox, PHP is the answer — let's explore that option now.

Making a Complete Form

To create a form subscribers can contact you with, the PHP script is going to be your best friend. I know, another acronym. This one stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, and this language collaborates with HTML to process the form.

If you need to make a complete form, follow the steps below.

When you're creating a webpage, instead of using the ".html" extension, type ".php" instead. This is similar to what happens when you save an image as "jpg" versus "png".

By doing this, the server will know to host the PHP you write. Instead of saving the empty HTML page as such, save it as something like this: "subscriberform.php". After your page is created and saved, you'll then be able to create the form.

In this step, you'll write the code to create the form. The following code is what's needed for a basic form:

<form method="post" action="subscriberform.php">

<textarea name="message"></textarea>

<input type="submit">

</form>

Because this is similar to the HTML-only write-up, these lines will also create a name for the form and an area for subscribers to type a custom message and send it to you.

An important difference is the "action=contact.php" part. This portion of code is what will make the page send the form when submitted. Recall that in the first example, that wasn't an option.

After you create the form and add all the proper fixings depending on your design preferences, it's time to create the email portion.

For this, you're going to scroll to the beginning of the page (the very beginning). To enable sending data in the email, we have to add code that will process the data. Copy this code or create something similar:

<?php

if($_POST["message"]) {

mail("your@email.address", "Here is the subject line",

$_POST["insert your message here"]. "From: an@email.address");

}

?>

Recall that everything inside the first and last lines will tell the webpage to make these functions perform as PHP. This code also checks to see if a subscriber uses the form. From there, it checks to see if the form was sent.

Further breaking it down, "mail" sends the completed form as an email to "your@email.address," and the subject line is what follows. In the next line, you can write copy of the email message inside the quotes, to be sent from whichever email address you choose.

With that, you have the basic code you need to create the form.

Note that this is just one way to do this — alternatively, you can also create a form using a CRM like HubSpot.

If you're a HubSpot customer, keep reading to learn how to use HubSpot's tool to create an HTML form that sends you an email.

Using HubSpot

HubSpot Forms is part of the Marketing Hub, and doesn't require any previous technical knowledge.

If you want to learn how to receive an email after a form submission, take a look at our Knowledge Base article.

When you're using HubSpot Forms, you can build custom forms that connect to your contacts list. You can also customize those forms and trigger automatic emails based on the completion of your forms. Note that the latter requires a premium upgrade. Click here for more information about HubSpot's forms.

HTML forms are a fairly simple process and an excellent way to connect with subscribers. Having these on your site gives customers an easy way to contact your company or sign-up for emails.

Forms that send an email back to you keeps information in your inbox for reference and ease. Remember that these aren't your only options for building forms. If you want a list of tools that help build forms, check out our post here.

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