A SaaS Marketing Plan for High Growth Companies

November 04, 2015 at 05:00PM

Tour de France winner Greg Lemond once said, "It doesn't get any easier, you just go faster." The same might be said for for the transition from product-market fit to the growth stage of a SaaS company. Once you hit $2 million in ARR, you want to want to get to $10 million in ARR in six quarters or fewer. To do this, you need to achieve about 15 percent month-over-month MRR growth! 

If you're thinking about quitting your startup to train for the Tour de France right now because that sounds more achievable, wait! This is a daunting challenge, but in today's post we're going to look at the four core tenets of a marketing plan (goal setting, tactics, resources and evaluation) that can help you achieve these goals.

The Four Core Tenets of a SaaS Marketing Plan

1) Goal setting

For growth to be lasting, it must be backed by clear goals and an operational framework that allows you to measure exactly what's working and what isn't. When it comes to a marketing plan, this takes two distinct pieces: The first is aligning your marketing and sales teams behind shared goals. The second is giving them the resources that they need to be successful.

Marketing and sales alignment

If you haven't done so yet, it's time to establish a revenue or lead-commitment based on your funnel metrics and revenue-growth goals. Then lock these goals in with a service-level agreement between your marketing and sales teams. To do this, work backward from the gross revenue amount that marketing is responsible for generating (generally around 40 percent).

From here, clearly define how many marketing-qualified leads must be delivered to the sales team in a given month along with what percentage of those will become sales-qualified, then opportunities, then customers. These metrics will allow you to determine how many account executives will be needed for the sales team when factoring monthly quotas and quota-attainment percentages. It will also help you determine how many visitors and leads the marketing team needs to generate to hit its goals by working backwards from these metrics.

HubSpot data clearly indicates that by going through this process, the odds of your team meeting these goals goes up dramatically.

Photo Credit: State of Inbound Marketing

Marketing budget

There are many different fields of thought when it comes to setting a budget. Tomasz Tunguz has noted that SaaS companies invest between 80 and 120 percent of their revenue in sales and marketing, while Jason Lemkin has discussed using 40 percent of your revenue-growth delta as a marketing spend. To confirm this, an analysis conducted by SaaScribe of public SaaS companies showed that when comparing sales and marketing spending to two-year revenue growth rates, each dollar spent on marketing and sales generated $2.20 over that time period—a lasting, positive investment.

Photo Credit: SaaScribe

Whatever model you choose, it's important to ensure that you're setting aside the appropriate resources to hit your goals. Even the best marketers in the business may not be able to get you to where you need to go without the appropriate resources.

2) Tactics

Audience targeting and segmentation

"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself." - Peter Drucker

With product/market fit reached, you're likely just coming out of a period where you've spent an extensive amount of time gaining a deep understanding of your audience. If you haven't yet, and before you do anything else, make sure you document this information into buyer personas. This understanding will be the foundation of every marketing decision you make moving forward. And even if you have already done this, it never hurts to revisit them to ensure they're still accurate. In fact, doing this was one of the key factors that enabled us to double our blog leads.

Keep the content flowing

In 2015, inbound marketing is table stakes for SaaS, and scaling these efforts from how they appeared in your startup marketing initiatives to this high-growth phase will be key for long-term success. The stories of SaaS companies growing their business using this methodology are multiplying by the day. They include HubSpot's prodigious blog, UnBounce's reflections of content success, Wistia's learning library and SEOMoz's vibrant SEO community, to name a few.

Of course, for content to be successful, the strategy must be organized and unique to break through the ever-increasing cacophony of other companies investing in content production. So in your marketing plan, look at some different examples of success to get the creative juices flowing. Then define the key topics and content types that will need to be invested in, and how they relate to your ongoing initiatives.

Paid content promotion and retargeting

With revenue growing and an expanding user base, it's likely that your marketing budget has increased as well. Using this budget to 1) amplify your content with paid advertising, and 2) capture prospects who may not have converted on their first website visit with retargeting are great ways to grow your user base.

Numerous SaaS companies have seen success with various types of paid advertising. While the channels that make the most sense for your business will need to be tested, when done correctly it's possible to lower cost-per-lead and -acquisition. For example, NewsCred was able to create leads that were 50 percent more valuable using LinkedIn than those acquired through AdWords.

Photocredit: NewsCred

Another example of a great retargeting success story comes from Bizible, which was able to quadruple their retargeting return by segmenting its audience by funnel stage. This strategy and investment allowed it to drive leads with content downloads at the top and middle of the funnel and a demo request at the bottom, improving CTR by 433 percent and a drop in CPC of nearly -81%. 

	CTR	CPC
Before	0.09%	$4.77
After	0.48%	$0.91
Change	433.33%	-80.92%

Develop full email conversion paths for each persona

The inaugural State of Pipeline Marketing Report has shown that email marketing is the top channel used by B2B marketers to generate demand.

Photo Credit: State of Pipeline Marketing

With this in mind, and recognizing that as your lead velocity and team scales, the importance of marketing automation will grow. This means that effective lead nurturing needs to be made a priority both at the top of the funnel and in your free trial or post-demo stage.

The best way to approach this is by creating nurture streams and experiences for each of your buyer personas to ensure that they are receiving the most relevant information. It also gives you the opportunity to resell your value proposition and offer them compelling information to re-engage. In some instances these campaigns can even run for a full year, with an email cadence at 1, 4, 7, 14, 21, 30, and 45 days, and then every two weeks after that.

3) Resources

With the goals, budget and tactical strategy in place it's time to assess the resources that will be needed to hit your growth goals.

In-house or outsourced?

The first question that generally arises in finding an answer to this is whether or not this is something that will be done inhouse or outsourced to an agency. This isn't an easy question to answer, but data from the HubSpot State of Inbound Report shows that companies are increasingly turning to agencies for recruiting staff, executives and freelancers for content writing:

Photo Credit: State of Inbound Marketing

Of course, there are clear benefits of a lower fixed-cost and management expense that comes from outsourcing, especially in a high-growth period where resources can be stretched. For those looking for more information on this decision, I highly recommend checking out this post from Neil Patel.

Marketing Team Structure

If the team is going to be built in-house, plan to specialize your team by funnel stage to help prioritize where your biggest challenges are and who needs to be hired (and when). In doing so, prioritize top of the funnel first as investments in these leads make everything else possible downstream.

Photo Credit: HubSpot

If that model doesn't feel quite right for your company, you can look at some proven alternatives here.

The VP of Sales

We're going outside the marketing plan now, but I'd be remiss not to at least mention that if a VP of sales has not been hired yet, this will be one of the most crucial hires over the coming year. Christoph Janz has written about this extensively and has shown that as you move from $1.5 million with an eye towards $10 million in ARR, it's going to take an excellent VP of sales to get you there.

Photo Credit: Christoph Janz

4) Evaluation

Of course, any good marketing plan will include how it will be measured. Here are the key metrics that you should look to when gauging the marketing success of your SaaS.

MQL velocity

MQL velocity has been called "the most important metric in SaaS." This is because though sales and pipeline forecasts are useful, they are lagging indicators hinging on both correct opportunity probability assignments and close dates. However, by looking at MQL velocity compared to lead commits, you can see forward-looking insights beyond a traditional pipeline report.

Photo Credit: SaaStr

Opportunities sourced by marketing

The State of Pipeline Marketing report shows that "opportunities sourced" is the primary success metric for B2B marketers. This is because these down-funnel metrics provide a more accurate look into the true contribution of the marketing team than vanity or top-of-funnel metrics alone.

Photo Credit: State of Pipeline Marketing

SaaS Metrics

As the business scales, the core metrics on which you were focusing to find product-market fit will become less relevant as your user base expands. Here's one of my favorite graphics representing this evolution:

Photo Credit: Andrew Chen

There are hundreds of posts out there discussing each of these metrics in detail, but David Skok's blog will give you everything you need to know. And if you're wondering how your business compares to others in the space, check out this SaaS Grader.

Planning for 2016

Creating a comprehensive marketing plan can be a daunting task, but having a clear strategy at the outset will set you up for success. To help SaaS business leaders on this path, we just released our Definitive Guide to SaaS Marketing.

In the guide, we will take you through a number of comprehensive and actionable ways you can create a highly effective marketing strategy to grow your business. In addition, if you're looking for a partner to help you align a plan and strategy with your company's growth goals, don't hesitate to give us a shout.

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11 Personalized Email Examples You Can't Help but Click

November 04, 2015 at 02:00PM

If you're anything like most people, you can probably rattle off 100 different things you'd rather do than dig through your inbox.

It starts to feel like a chore because what's in there isn't very interesting. In fact, only 21% of consumers reported that they've received a memorable promotional email in the past two months, according to a study by Litmus. 

To overcome this, many brands are using email personalization as a strategy for creating more engaging email experiences -- ones that feel less like a robot, and more like a friend.

The best part? Email personalization doesn't need to be insanely complicated to resonate with recipients. To see what I mean, check out these 11 great email examples that cleverly use personalization.

Learn how to create engaging emails of your own by downloading our free guide here.

11 Examples of Email Personalization in Action 

1) JetBlue

Oh, JetBlue. You shouldn't have. 

This anniversary email highlights a creative example of a brand using something as simple as a date to provide a standout experience. Much like a birthday shout out, JetBlue used my colleague's account creation date to trigger a personalized email to celebrate the fact that they've been "emailing for 365 days now."

If you're a HubSpot customer, this is an easy email to replicate for your contacts through fixed date or property-based workflows. This approach allows you to base your workflow on a calendar date or contact property date so you can send anniversary emails, digital birthday cards, renewal reminders, etc. And if your business is sending a high volume of these emails, we also offer the Transactional Email Add-On.

2) Spotify 

Here's another great personalized email example that leverages a user's interests to provide a relevant, value-packed message.

The copy in this email is particularly effective because it frames the personalization in a way that makes the recipient feel like they're being rewarded for their usage. For example, phrases like "top listener" and "be the first to get access" lend themselves to a sense of exclusivity -- making the user feel important. 

The email also closes with a written call-to-action that encourages the recipient to listen to Charles Kelley's new song on Spotify. Again, this push helps to ensure that the user is actively using the streaming service, and therefore continuously reminded of the value. 

3) Amazon 

This year, my team and I dressed up as the dancing pumpkin man from this viral video. Before opting to DIY our own orange masks, my colleague, Lindsay, set out on an Amazon search to find us the real deal.

Within just a couple of days, she received this personalized email from Amazon featuring "products similar to 'full face plastic pumpkin masks'." (Some of them are quite scary, aren't they?)

This email serves as a great example of how to use a contact's search behavior to re-engage them with your company, and hopefully move them closer to a sale. 

4) Dropbox

One of my colleagues received this email example from Dropbox a while back, but it still serves as a strong example of how to use behavioral triggers to improve the user experience.

After logging in on multiple devices, Dropbox sent this friendly email reminding her of a product feature she didn't know existed. Without much effort, this made her experience using Dropbox infinitely better and more efficient.

By educating your visitors on how to properly use your product or service based on their behaviors, it helps to improve retention -- and can even encourages potential upgrades. Think about it: The more she used Dropbox, the more storage she'd likely need, right?

Consider what makes your product or service sticky and set up workflows that remind leads and customers how to take advantage of those sticky features.

5) Live Nation

I'll admit, there are a few loose ends I haven't gotten around to tying up since moving to Boston this year -- my Live Nation account information being one of them. 

So while this email reflects my Connecticut roots, it still serves as a great example of how to use location information to provide a customized email experience. Rather than highlighting any old shows, Live Nation pulled events from a venue in my hometown -- a location that I've purchased tickets for many times in the past. 

By making it easy for me to quickly visualize what's headed to the area and when, Live Nation is able to lower the barrier between me and the point of purchase. 

This type of personalization could be extremely beneficial for a company looking to deliver more relevant messages to international leads or existing customers. (For more tips on reaching international audiences, check out this article from our VP of Localization Nataly Kelly.)

6) Twitter

After following one of her favorite brunch spots on Twitter, my colleague Corey received this email from the social network with suggestions for similar accounts to follow. 

What's more is that the suggestions were actually super relevant -- turns out a couple of them were just right around the corner from her. (Hello, new grub options.)

A company like Twitter that has so much data can usually go one of two ways with personalization: They totally hit the nail on the head, or they have too much data to sift out what's important. This is an example of accurately sifting out what she'd actually care about, and delivering it to her.

7) ModCloth

There are a few things we love about the personalization work in this email from ModCloth. If you're an ecommerce marketer, you'll want to pay close attention to the details of this email.

First, the language in this email is really well tailored to the target persona. For instance, the subject line to this email was, "Eek -- something you like is almost sold out!" You might even notice a smiley face emoticon further down in the message copy. Personalizing your tone and language in your email marketing is just as important as apt use of dynamic tags and proper segmentation.

Second, the tactic they're using to deploy this message -- triggered by on-site behavior  -- makes it easy for the recipient to understand how it specifically pertains to them. In this case, the email was sent to remind my colleague of a dress she'd added to her shopping bag that was almost out of stock. This approach could prove to be incredibly useful for ecommerce marketers around the holiday season to encourage shoppers to take action before key holiday shipping dates. 

(Want all the important 2015 holiday marketing deadlines at your fingertips? Download this free calendar.)

8) Netflix

Am I the only one that spends more time looking for a movie on Netflix than I do actually watching it?

Aware that its database can be overwhelming, Netflix regularly sends out these personalized emails that suggest movies for its users. (If you want to learn more about the science behind the Netflix algorithms, you can brush up on it here.)

By providing a custom recommendation, Netflix helps ensure that users are actively seeing the value of their subscription. In other words, it keeps them watching, which ultimately keeps them paying. 

This approach could be applied to a number of marketing materials -- ebooks, webinars, blog articles, etc. For example, if you find that someone downloaded an ebook on social media tips, you may want to set up a workflow that triggers a follow up email that suggests they check out your social media guide on SlideShare. 

9) Pinterest

In an effort to keep my colleague pinning, Pinterest sent her this personalized email. Based off her past activity on the site, the social network provided some suggestions for other topics she may want to explore. (Butter, Lauren Conrad, and cheese ... I like your style, Ginny.)

And given that she is currently in the process of planning a yellow-themed wedding, I'd say the results were pretty accurate. 

What we love most about the email is its simplicity. It offers up just six topics, which is enough to interest the recipient without overwhelming them, and the copy is quick, friendly, and clear. 

10) WeddingWire

In other wedding-related news, my colleague also received this email example from WeddingWire, an online marketplace for venues, cakes, dresses, etc.

While the copy was clever in and of itself, what really struck us was the personalization used in the subject line. After all, your recipients aren't going to see the content unless you persuade them to click first, right?

By using a witty, custom hashtag --  #GinnysLastHurrah -- in the subject line, WeddingWire inspired her to click on the email, check out their tool for creating hashtags, and forward the email to the rest of us. 

If you want to boost the word-of-mouth influence behind your product or service, you should consider how personalization can help propel your message. 

11) Birchbox

Birchbox is a company that's fixated on personalization in all the right ways -- and all it takes is one glance at the header of this email to see why it's effective.

By transparently admitting that they took a peek at my sample and purchase history before crafting this email, I already get the sense that what comes next will likely be relevant to me ... and it was. 

These little, personalized messages always reinforce why I continue to subscribe to their service. They strengthen my loyalty. 

With 62% of millennials feeling that online content drives their loyalty to a brand, and 46% of U.S. consumers admitting that they’re more likely to switch providers than they were 10 years ago, fostering loyalty through personalization should be a priority. 

Is your company leveraging email personalization? Share your favorite tips below.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in February 2013 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

 

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3 Tips to Promote Your Giving Tuesday Campaign

November 04, 2015 at 01:00PM

Giving Tuesday is right around the corner and everyone is looking for an edge to help them raise more money on December 1st. The effort will be worth it as Giving Tuesday will likely continue its tremendous growth.

Since its inception in 2012, there has been a 470 percent increase in online donations on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Last year, Giving Tuesday raised a whopping $47.5 million.

Your success on December 1st will be greatly impacted by three key factors:

• Timing: Developing a communications plan that starts well before December 1st and continues for a few days afterward.
• Support: Giving stakeholders the resources and tools they need to raise money on your behalf.
• Partnerships: Targeting companies that can dramatically increase your access to awareness, individuals and money.

How you can you excel in all three of these and have your best Giving Tuesday ever.

Start Dripping Now

I have a saying: Persuasion is incremental.

This means that it takes time to get people to act. When applied to Giving Tuesday, this means that if you wait until December 1st to ask people for money, they probably won’t donate because they’re not psychologically ready. You need to prepare them to give.

The first step is to pull at people’s heartstrings. Sure, educating donors is important. But the key to triggering a donation is to engage people’s emotions. You can use all the facts, figures and statistics you want, but unless you make an emotional connection with people you’re selling your efforts short.

The second step is to pick the right channels of communication and to plan your attack.

1. Create a communications calendar that includes your blog, email newsletter and social networks.
2. Depending on the channel, create a weekly or daily drip of content. Mix it up with blog posts, Facebook images, podcasts, Tweets, email copy, photos, videos, infographics, etc.
3. As you get closer to December 1st, intensify your efforts across all channels.
4. Remember, people need to be reminded more than they need to be informed. Don’t overdo the amount of content you share with them. Just give them a nudge with each communication.

On December 2nd reverse the drip. Go heavy on Giving Tuesday related communications - especially thank yous - for a couple days. Then taper your communications and switch to your next goal, which should be year-end giving. 

Turn Supporters Into Fundraisers

Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising is the hot term in nonprofit fundraising right now—and rightfully so. P2P is all about empowering individual supporters to raise money from their network of friends, family and colleagues on behalf of your nonprofit.

The challenge for nonprofits is to provide the right guidance and tools for supporters to launch their own fundraising efforts. For donations, this may mean encouraging supporters to raise money on your behalf using a social fundraising site like GoFundMe or Network for Good.

Yet another P2P opportunity around Giving Tuesday is to help supporters sell something that benefits your organization. For example, with the t-shirt fundraising site Booster, supporters can design and sell a t-shirt to support a cause.

Moved by the destruction from the floods in South Carolina last month, Rhett Reeves started a Booster that featured a tee with an outline of the state of South Carolina and one word: Home.

To date, Rhett has sold 6,600 shirts and raised nearly $105,000 for the American Red Cross in South Carolina. Best of all, Rhett has potentially turned on a whole new group of supporters to the work of ARC.

The key to P2P fundraising success is giving supporters the tools they need to succeed. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Use existing platforms like GoFundMe, Network for Good and Booster to turn a donor’s social network into a new network of donors for your nonprofit.

Identify Companies That Can Evangelize For You

A major criticism of Giving Tuesday is that it doesn’t bring in enough “new money.” Instead of bringing in new gifts, nonprofits are collecting money from existing donors that they probably would have gotten anyway.

If true, that’s a terrible waste of a giving day.

To make a bigger pie, you’ll have to add in a few new ingredients. Reach first for companies because they’ll be an excellent source for new Giving Tuesday donors.

But to recruit these donors from businesses, nonprofits need to stop doing one thing and start doing another. First, nonprofits have to stop fighting for the scraps from the company foundation – the tiniest slice of the philanthropic pie. Second, they need to start tapping the power of two groups that businesses have unequaled access to: consumers and employees.

Charles Best, founder of Donorschoose.org, has said: “The key to cause marketing [i.e. win-win partnerships] is the brand enabling the consumer to be a philanthropist.” The transformational dollars you need to achieve your mission isn’t in the company checkbook. It’s in the people that businesses can give you access. 

To raise money from customers and employees on Giving Tuesday, try these two strategies.

Corporate Matching

Matching gifts are free company money that “matches” an employee donation to a qualified nonprofit. As the name suggests, matching gifts double a donation, but guidelines vary depending on the company. Nonprofits don’t take advantage of matching gifts as much as they should. For every donation you receive on Giving Tuesday, you should ask donors one simple question: Who do you work for? 

Checkout Programs

Checkout programs (e.g. charity pinups, register programs, donation boxes, percentage of sales) are the most lucrative business fundraisers because they target customers instead of the company checkbook. Start by asking local retailers, restaurants, convenience stores and other B2C businesses to host checkout fundraisers the week of Giving Tuesday. These programs are easy to execute and can dramatically increase how much you raise on Giving Tuesday.

Regardless of how you plan to promote Giving Tuesday, start reaching out to existing and potential donors now. Remember, December 1st kicks off a critical month of year-end giving. Giving Tuesday isn’t a sprint. It’s a month-long marathon. Don’t stop until you cross the finish line in 2016.

 

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Comic Sans, Helvetica & Times New Roman: A Brief History of 6 Iconic Fonts

November 04, 2015 at 12:00PM

Close your eyes and picture a one-page, typed document -- maybe a resume, or a letter -- that uses the font Times New Roman. Now, change the font of that document to Courier. Now to Comic Sans.

The look and feel of the document would change entirely depending which of those three fonts you employed, right? That's because different fonts were designed specifically for certain contexts.

I like the way Vincent Connare, the inventor of Comic Sans, put it: "A typeface is an answer to a question. Everything I've ever done [in typeface design] is a solution to somebody's problem."

Over time, the use cases for different fonts have evolved -- in some cases, away from their original intention. Let's take a look at the brief history of six iconic typefaces from their invention to how they're used today.

Get tips for using fonts in your content and web designs in our free guide to visual content creation here.

The History of 6 Iconic Fonts

1) Comic Sans

Ah, Comic Sans ... arguably the most controversial typeface in history.

Countless books on typeface design talk about it from both sides of the fence. In the past few years, designers initiated a campaign against it called "Ban Comic Sans," calling it "tacky" and an "epic fail." And according to the inventor of Comic Sans himself, the main designer at Twitter tweeted that the font takes up the second most server space used by complaints -- after airlines and before Justin Bieber.

But its original intent wasn't to polarize the masses; it was to appear in an application meant for young users. Remember those friendly little cartoon assistants that used to help you out on Microsoft Word? You know, the ones that would pop up with a speech bubble reading stuff like, "Looks like you're writing a letter. Would you like help?" 

Well, it turns out the font Comic Sans was originally designed for the text inside the speech bubbles for one of the very first versions of those assistants.

Vincent Connare, who was working at Microsoft at the time, designed the font for the digital assistant Microsoft Bob, a comic software package designed for kids. Times New Roman was the original pick for the font that would go inside the assistant's speech bubbles, but Connare thought it looked strikingly inappropriate for the comic context. He wanted it to look more like comic book writing.

"It only took about three days to get the basic font down," Connare told The Guardian. He consulted comic books and drew the letters with a mouse to get the "wonkiness" he wanted.

While Microsoft Bob didn't last, Comic Sans became a font option on Windows 95 and quickly gained popularity among young children in primary schools and other childcare organizations. The debates arose when other, more supposedly professional organizations began adopting it for use in documents, signage, and on their website. It gained popularity among "regular people who are not typographers or graphic designers," said Connare.

To this day, whether or not Comic Sans is a viable font for professional organizations remains a controversial topic.

2) Times New Roman

Whereas Comic Sans became famous for being funky and playful, Times New Roman gained its popularity from its normalcy and relative anonymity. It's been dubbed a serious font -- even what some call "quintessentially British."

The Times New Roman font can be found all over the place, from the default fonts of your word processors to the pages of your favorite books, and it would be pretty difficult to find someone who has never come across it before.

Far older than Comic Sans, Times New Roman was invented way back in the days of printing presses. In 1929, the Times of London (the font's namesake) hired a typographer named Stanley Morison to create a new text font for the newspaper. Morison worked with an advertising artist for the Times named Victor Larden, who was the one who ultimately drew the letterforms. Check out the image below to see how Times New Roman (left) compares to the font it replaced (right):

Image Credit: New York Public Library

You'll notice Times New Roman is a bit narrower than most text fonts, including the one on the left. That's because a narrower font is better for newspapers, as it can fit more text per line. During the design process, Morison's goal was to create a typeface that was narrow, but still easily readable.

Times New Roman was released in 1932 as the official typeface of the London Times. It took a while for others to adopt it, though, because it looked its best with more ink and a higher quality paper than many printers were willing to pay for. It wasn't until 1941 that it had its first big American client, Woman's Home Companion, followed by the Chicago Sun-Times in 1953.

After securing these deals, it quickly became popular among printers. Interestingly, although the typeface is now a popular default for books, the Times actually specifically noted that it wasn't appropriate for books. “It is a newspaper type -- and hardly a book type -- for it is strictly appointed for use in short lines -- i.e., in columns," they wrote.

Since the advent of personal computers, the 83-year-old typeface remains one of the first fonts available for each new device.

3) Helvetica

Helvetica is another font that appears virtually everywhere -- more often in branding and signage, rather than in books and newspapers. For example, famous brands like BMW, Oral B, IBM, Target, Staples, and Panasonic all use Helvetica for their logos. The U.S. Government uses Helvetica for all its official forms. It's the default font for Brussels' entire transport system, and became the font for the NYC subway system's signs and maps in 1970.

Image Credit: Kaneva 

But where did Helvetica come from? It was actually a Swiss byproduct of post-war Europe, a time when European companies were searching for ways to modernize their brand, including the look and feel of their advertisements and signage. Previously, it'd been popular to use fancy, decorative typography, but many brands had begun searching for something more neutral, clearer, and edgier.

Enter Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, who invented the typeface that would become Helvetica in Switzerland in 1957. It was originally called "Die Neue Haas Grotesk," but in 1960, the name was changed to Helvetica (Latin for "Swiss) to make it more marketable internationally.

And it served as a solution for what companies were looking for in a modern typeface: It was entirely neutral. At its very core, Helvetica was intended "to not give any impression or have any meaning in itself," according to Web Designer Depot. 

Thanks to its neutrality, Helvetica is an incredibly adaptable font and can be used for a wide range of design projects -- especially when italic, bold, and other weights are added. Starting in the 1960s, it began to gain a reputation overseas, "particularly among the design executives on Madison Avenue," according to Fast Company.

Since then, it's become one of the most widely used fonts of all time; and its clean-cut, professional, and neutral style has made it timeless.

4) Arial

Arial bears a striking resemblance to Helvetica thanks to its simple, modernist look. But there are clear differences between the two, as you can see below in the characters "G," "Q," R," and "1":

Image Credit: I Love Typography

Some suspect that Arial, which was invented 25 years after Helvetica in 1982, was actually created to copy Helvetica directly as a way of using a popular font without forking over any money.

Here's how: Arial was originally designed by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders specifically for IBM’s bitmap font laser printers. It became free with the release of Microsoft Windows 3.1, the popularity of which spurred widespread global use of the Arial typeface. But why did Microsoft choose Arial as their standard typeface instead of sticking with the classic Helvetica? Some say it's because Helvetica's license fee was too high, so this was Microsoft's way of supplying a Helvetica-like font without paying royalties to the folks who owned rights to Helvetica.

Regardless of what you believe, Arial still stands as one of today's most popular typefaces. It's used for a wide variety of design projects, including hotel and vehicle signage, Tommy Hilfiger products, and even all of UPS' stickers.

Image Credit: Design Work Plan

5) Calibri

In the mid-'00s, digital content consumption was on the rise, both on personal computers and mobile devices -- and businesses like Microsoft were noticing. To make on-screen reading more enjoyable, the folks at Microsoft released six new typefaces created especially for extended on-screen reading in a bundle called the ClearType Font Collection.

"The ClearType fonts, unlike some compromises and adaptations in modern typeface design, were conceived from the outset as a marriage of technology and the best in design expertise," reads Microsoft's website.

Calibri is one of the six fonts from Microsoft's collection, and it replaced Times New Roman as Office's default body type in 2007. Unlike Helvetica and Arial, its rounded stems and corners give it a softer and friendlier vibe.

"The [Calibri] family has a generous width that makes reading easier by emphasizing the reading direction," said Lucas de Groot, the man who invented Calibri, in Microsoft's promotional booklet.

Every time you open up a new PowerPoint presentation, you'll see Calibri as the default typeface. While it's certainly a very readable font, it's a little predictable for PowerPoint and SlideShare presentations. If you want to spruce up your presentation a little bit, check out our list of 35 great free fonts you can download to use in your presentations and marketing.

6) Courier

Let's be honest ... The Courier font family isn't a particularly pleasant one to read. As a monospaced typeface, though, it's the picture of uniformity: Each letter takes up the exact same amount of space on a line. I always think of it as one of the default coding fonts and plain text emails.

Image Credit: Hivelogic

Despite being a bit difficult to read, Courier remains one of the most recognizable fonts out there -- even though the days of typewriters are long over. It has its uniformity to thank for its longevity.

Courier was designed in 1955 by Howard Kettler with the original name "Messenger." It's probably most recognizable as the default font for a typewriter because IBM and other companies used it for their typewriters at the time of its invention. (IBM failed to secure the rights to the design, though, and would later redesign the font for their famous Selectric typewriter series.)

By the 1960s, Courier had become the default typeface for official documents. Even the U.S. State Department made it the official font until 2004, when they replaced it with Times New Roman. When typewriters gave way to personal computers, Courier bridged the gap simply because of its popularity at the time. 

Although many consider it a little plain, boring, and frankly illegible in comparison to other typefaces, Courier is still a symbol of bureaucracy and stability. Interestingly, it's also still the preferred typeface for screenplay drafts. Why? Because of the consistent character spacing: According to Screenwriter.io, standard screenplay format is designed so that one page of a screenplay is approximately equal to one minute of screen time, so that consistency is important.

So, there you have it. Every typeface has its own personality, and some have stuck far more effectively than others. Take a look at how typography is used around you, and soon, you'll begin to recognize the differences between each one and why they're used in different contexts.

Which of these classic fonts is your favorite? Which is your least favorite? Share with us in the comments.

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How to Use Google AdWords: A Beginner’s Guide to PPC Advertising [Free Ebook]

November 03, 2015 at 06:00PM

Inbound marketing campaigns are made up of a lot of different elements, making it easy to forget a piece of the puzzle if you're not careful.

Did you send a well-segmented email? Do you have engaging tweets and Facebook posts going out at optimal times? Did you optimize your blog posts and landing pages for search? What about ads? Are you running those?

*Record scratch* … hold the phone. Ads aren’t inbound ... are they?

It turns out that if you approach ad creation with an inbound mindset, they can be an extremely effective way to increase leads and customers and enhance your overall inbound marketing campaign.

In fact, when done correctly, businesses generally make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on AdWords, according to Google. 

“It’s the content that matters, not the format or path to it. When ads equal good content or help people find it, they contribute to a well-rounded inbound marketing strategy,” explains HubSpot Co-Founder, Dharmesh Shah.

So to enable you with the tools you need to create successful PPC ads using Google AdWords, we've created a comprehensive free guide, How to Use Google AdWords: A Beginner’s Guide to PPC Advertising. In this guide, you’ll learn how to:

• Use Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads as a part of a well-rounded inbound marketing campaign
• Use the right keywords to create relevant (and highly searchable) ads and landing pages
• Recognize keyword match types and when to use them
• Create your Google AdWords account and set budgets
• Optimize your ad copy to maximize clicks
• Determine the right goals and metrics for your ads
• … and more!

So, what are you waiting for? Download How to Use Google AdWords: A Beginner’s Guide to PPC Advertising and start earning $2 for every $1 you put in.

Have you seen success with Google AdWords? Let us know how your ads performed in the comments below.

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17 Ways to Prep Your Ecommerce Site for the Holiday Rush

November 03, 2015 at 04:30PM

The holidays are coming quickly. Are you ready? Maybe you’ve already started your prep work so you won’t struggle when the orders start rolling in. If not, now’s the time to start decking the halls. Sometimes you need more than a brief overview to get everything organized. That’s why this checklist is everything you need. Ready to get started?

1) Mobile Responsiveness

Not set up for mobile shopping? Your customers will go elsewhere. Projections say 30-35% of shoppers will complete their purchases on mobile devices.

2) Site Traffic

Not used to an influx of visitors to your site? You don’t want to lose valuable sales while your site is down. Be ready for anything. 

3) Site Speed

If your site takes more than three seconds to load, you could lose up to 40% of your buyers. Check your site speed and streamline whatever you can.

4) Content Calendar

If you haven’t already started planning your blogs, videos, tweets, and Facebook posts, get on that pronto. Some are already advertising for the holidays, which puts you behind the times.

5) Social Inbox

Know what your buyers are saying about you on social media? Now’s the time to start listening. Be ready to meet their needs when they mention your company in social channels.

6) Sales Planning

Nothing is more embarrassing than launching a sale with the wrong prices and products. Even more embarrassing is losing so much money with your accidental sales that you have to recant. Plan early and pay attention to every single detail. Keep a spreadsheet with all information so you can come back to double-check.

7) Sales Emails

You need time to plan the right copy for your sales emails. If you wait too late, you’ll miss your chance to really move buyers with your words.

8) Graphic Design

Don’t leave all the design work until the last minute, or you might not have a graphic designer on staff for much longer. Get all your graphics ready to go—and there will be a lot—well before you’re ready to use them. Emails, website banners, CTAs, gift guides, blog headers, PPC ads… The list goes on.

9) Ad Keywords

Do you know which keywords you’ll use for your pay-per-click ads? If not, start planning now. You’ll be in competition with many companies for top search spots, so using the most popular choices isn’t an option. You need a strategy, and strategy takes time.

10) Ad Copy

With your keywords chosen, it’s time to consider your ad copy. You need to make sure those terms fit naturally in your copy. If they don’t, you won’t get anywhere with potential buyers.

11) Abandoned Cart Emails

Start planning early for those who’ll inevitably leave your site without making a purchase. Keep in mind that 75% of those deserters do plan to buy; they may just need a little nudge.

12) Social Media Ads

With paid options extending to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and even Instagram, you need to determine the best outlet for your paid ads. Then make sure your message fits your outlet and audience.

13) Plan Shipping

If you want to offer some shipping deals this season, start planning now. You’ll need to adjust your checkout page so that everyone gets the shipping plan they need. Remember that shipping prices are the number one reason for cart abandonment.

14) Plan Staffing

Will you need extra hands on deck during the holidays? Now’s the time to plan for it rather than the day of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

15) Plan Returns

With a higher purchase rate during the holidays, you also have to be prepared for a higher rate of returns. Sometimes people will make gift purchases that just don’t work out. Are you ready to accept those products back and process refunds or exchanges?

16) Track Traffic

To plan for future holiday seasons, you’ll need to know your traffic for this year. Keep an eye on what drives people to your site so you can tweak the results and get even more buyers in the future.

17) Customer Service

Are you ready to field all questions and complaints? Someone should be alert at all hours to keep an eye on social channels, answer the phone, or respond to emails. Keeping buyers satisfied is one of the most important tasks you’ll tackle.

And now you’re ready… theoretically. If you’ve never experienced a holiday sales season, nothing can prepare you for what’s about to come. At least you’ll have all your ducks in a row!

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8 of the Top Marketing Challenges Marketers Face (And Their Solutions)

November 03, 2015 at 02:00PM

Every marketer faces different challenges. Although we typically share similar goals, some teams are stuck on hiring top talent, while others are having trouble finding the right technology for their needs.

Whatever the case may be, there’s always at least one area that you can stand to improve. In other words, there’s always room to optimize the various components of your strategy and turn your marketing into an even more effective revenue generator.

Curious about what kinds of obstacles other marketers are up against? We polled thousands of marketers on the challenges they face, as well as the tactics they’ve used to meet those challenges head-on. Here are some of the most common challenges marketers reported to be struggling with ... and their solutions.

To learn more about the challenges marketers face today, download the free 2015 State of Inbound Report here.

The Most Common Marketing Problems We Face, According to 2015 State of Inbound Report

According to our report, proving ROI and getting more budget are the leading challenges marketers face. Here's how each marketing challenge breaks down, by company size:

Image Credit: The 2015 State of Inbound Report

Let's go through each of these top challenges and how marketers can address them.

1) Providing the ROI of Your Marketing Activities

Why It's a Challenge

Measuring the ROI (return on investment) of your marketing activities was the top marketing challenge, according to the 2015 State of Inbound report. But it's a vital way for marketers to understand the effectiveness of each particular marketing campaign, piece of content, etc.

Plus, proving ROI often goes hand-in-hand with making an argument to increase budget: No ROI tracking, no demonstrable ROI. No ROI, no budget. 

But tracking the ROI of every single marketing activity isn't always easy, especially if you don't have two-way communication between your marketing activities and sales reports. 

What Can You Do?

When it comes to providing ROI, there's a strong case to be made for dedicating time and resources to establishing links between marketing activities and sales results. This means using both marketing software (like HubSpot) and a CRM solution (like HubSpot's free CRM), and then tying them together to close the loop between your marketing and sales efforts. That way, you can directly see how many leads and customers are generated through your marketing activities.

Leading marketers also check their analytics frequently. In our survey, respondents who achieved greater ROI in 2015 than the previous year were approximately 20% more likely to check their marketing analytics 3+ times per week (or have someone on their team do so).

Finally, when it comes to increasing ROI, inbound marketing is proven to be the best bang for your buck. Every company we surveyed -- regardless of marketing spend -- was 3X as likely to see a higher ROI on inbound marketing campaigns than on outbound.

(Use this ROI calculator to simulate the potential ROI you could realize by conducting inbound marketing.)

2) Securing Enough Budget

Why It's a Challenge

Securing more budget has been the second-most pressing challenge for survey respondents the last two years running. But marketers know getting more budget is often easier said than done -- especially for smaller organizations that aren't working with sizable nor flexible marketing spend.

And an increased budget is important: Our data showed that the more budget marketers have to begin with (until they hit the $5 million dollar ceiling), the more they’re likely to receive next year. More than half of all marketers with budgets over $25,000 saw a bump in funds since 2014.

But the key to securing more money for your team might not be that complex. Here's what you can do.

What Can You Do?

The key to unlocking budget lies in being able to prove the ROI of your marketing efforts. According to our report, respondents whose teams demonstrated positive marketing ROI in 2015 were more than twice as likely to receive higher budget.

We found that, for marketers who did see a change to their inbound budget from 2014 to 2015, the most important factor to driving a higher inbound budget was past success with inbound marketing. However, past failure with inbound marketing also resulted in a higher budget: Of those who failed with inbound last year, 81% increased budget as a result. This means that top marketers realize inbound marketing is a long game. If you get off to a slow start, you shouldn’t back off -- in fact, you might consider doubling down.

Again, the only way to have that data is to track it in the first place. Respondents who tracked ROI were over 20% more likely to receive higher budget than their counterparts who failed to keep tabs. Marketers can't afford to be loose about their ROI tracking.

3) Managing Your Website

Why It's a Challenge

Managing a website was the third biggest challenge for marketers in 2015 -- especially for small companies fighting to reach the growth phase, as well as for nonprofit organizations. For nonprofits, managing a website was actually the #1 concern, ranking above providing ROI and securing more budget.

But, chances are, your website's performance is high on your list of priorities. It's an asset that works around the clock to draw in visitors, convert them, and help you hit your goals, after all. 

Issues with website management includes a variety of different factors, from writing and optimizing the content to designing beautiful webpages. Here are a few things marketers can do to deal with this challenge. 

What Can You Do?

First, read this report to see how your website stacks up against 26,000 other websites. It also includes a deep analysis on the four most critical elements of website performance and design, from average load time and website security, to mobile friendliness and SEO.

If your primary challenge with managing a website has to do with the skills and resources you have available, you aren't alone. This is especially true for small companies who don't have all the talent in-house required to cover content, optimization, design, and back-end website management.

One solution? Hire freelancers and agency partners. This year, our data showed an increase in the number of respondents who indicated they use freelancers and agency partners for content creation. To find freelancers, we recommend:

• Tapping into your personal and professional network by posting on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social networks with a description of what you're looking for.
• Browsing freelance writers and designers based on their portfolios and areas of interest. For writers, check out Zerys and Contently. For designers, check out Behance & Elance.
• Browsing HubSpot's Services Marketplace, which lists a wide variety of designers from partner companies and agencies we've deemed credible.

Overall, you can make website management easier on your team by hosting your website on a platform that integrates all your marketing channels like HubSpot's COS.

Finally, for the projects you want to keep in-house, here is a list of blog posts that might be helpful to your team:

• Blog post: 15 of the Best Website Homepage Design Examples
• Blog post: Lead Gen 101: How to Create an Intuitive Website Conversion Path
• Blog post: Web Design 101: How HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Work
• Blog post: The 8 Elements of Modern Web Design (And Web Design Trends to Watch)
• Blog post: The Beginner's Guide to SSL: What It Is & Why It Makes Your Website More Secure
• Blog post: Designing a Website Blueprint: How to Create Your XML Sitemap
• Ebook: The Ultimate Workbook for Redesigning Your Website

4) Identifying the Right Technologies for Your Needs

Why It's a Challenge

Finding the right technologies was the fourth biggest concern for marketers this year. Oftentimes, this is because feedback on technology is scattered. Marketers might turn to colleagues, friends in the industry, and/or analyst reports to figure out which technologies best fit their needs -- only to find that feedback is spread across emails, social media, and so on from people of varied reputability.

When you're looking for a tool, software, or piece of technology to solve a specific marketing problem, where do you go to find it?

What Can You Do?

For those of you looking for a tool, software, or piece of technology to solve a specific marketing problem, we recommend taking a look at Growthverse: a free, interactive, online visualization of the marketing technology landscape that focuses on the business problems marketers are trying to solve, and leads them to specific pieces of marketing technology that aim to solve those problems. We've found it to be a really well visualized map of carefully curated marketing technology resources. (Click here to read a blog post about how Growthverse works.)

It's worth noting that the main tool in top marketers’ arsenals is a platform for automating their team’s marketing efforts. We found that although our respondents indicated using an array of specific products, the larger trend was telling: The top marketers use marketing automation software in some form or another. Specifically, those who saw a higher marketing ROI in 2014 were more likely to have used marketing automation software than not. In addition, those same respondents were more likely to see more budget unlocked as a result, and had almost no chance of receiving a lower budget.

5) Training Your Team

Why It's a Challenge

Marketers found training their team to be the fifth biggest challenge this year. Whether it's training them on the concepts and tools they'll be using every day or making sure they're achieving their full potential, the struggle was real across the board. 

To combat this, I’ll share some tips I’ve used during my trainings to make sure the concepts and tool tips stick and have a lasting effect on your team and your marketing. 

What Can You Do?

To get an overall idea of where your team stands, take a few minutes to assess each of your team members' marketing strengths and weaknesses, levels of expertise, and passion/commitment to your company. Then, objectively rate the priority (or level of importance) of their expertise and their contribution to bottom line objectives (ROI) to date. Here's a simple assessment tool from Lean Labs to help you evaluate your team so you can figure out who needs recognition and who needs coaching.

Next, check out this awesome resource from HubSpot Academy, The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Training. It's a guide that'll help you navigate all the marketing training options you have, from quick daily habits to more rigorous, career-launching investments. 

You also might consider requiring your team members to rack up some online marketing certification. HubSpot Academy, for example, offers certifications, documentation, and training programs to help people master the basics of inbound marketing. Google also offers training and certifications on analytics with their online Analytics Academy.

What about new hire training, specifically? We recommend creating a training plan for new team members. Here at HubSpot, each new marketer is given a 100-day plan like this one to lay out specific goals and help new hires demonstrate their effectiveness.

6) Targeting Content for an International Audience

Why It's a Challenge

Targeting is a key component of all aspects of marketing. To be more effective at targeting, one of the first things any marketer needs do is identify their buyer personas to determine who it is they should be marketing to. If you're expanding internationally, it can be a big challenge not only to figure out the best ways to market to an international audience, but also to organize and optimize your site for different countries.

What Can You Do?

Start by reading this blog post on 22 global marketing hacks and resources. There are some really helpful tips in there that'll help give you some direction on global marketing, including how to identify your top three growth markets, how to explore local trends, and tips on choosing the best localization providers. (For a more in-depth guide, download our free ebook, The Global Marketing Playbook.)

Remember, your website visitors might speak a plethora of different languages and live in totally different time zones. To make your content appealing to a wide audience, you'll need to keep your global visitors top-of-mind when creating all your content. This means being aware of seasonal references, translating units of measure and monetary references, and giving translators the tools and permissions to customize and adapt content for a specific audience when they need to.

Finally, be sure you're optimizing your website for international visitors, too. One of the first and most important decisions you'll need to make is determining which domain structure should be used for additional languages and countries. (For more tips and resources on global marketing expansion, browse our international inbound marketing hub.)

7) Hiring Top Talent

Why It's a Challenge

Hiring top talent was the seventh biggest challenge marketers reported experiencing this year. Why? Many companies are shifting more resources to inbound marketing, which means higher and higher demand for top marketing talent. But supply simply isn't keeping up. From sourcing the right candidates to evaluating for the right skills, finding the perfect person could take months ... or more.

What's more, the type of marketing talent companies are looking for is changing, too. In Moz and Fractl's analysis of thousands of job postings on Indeed.com, they concluded that employers are seeking marketers with technical and creative skill sets. And the quick rate at which the demand for these jobs are rising has caused a marketing skills gap, "making it difficult to find candidates with the technical, creative, and business proficiencies needed to succeed in digital marketing."

What Can You Do?

Employers are looking for marketers with a diverse skill set that includes digital marketing, content marketing, SEO, and social media marketing. To find the best inbound marketer for your team, the first thing you should do is decide what that person needs to be able to achieve for your business.

Ask yourself: What will the new marketer's tasks and duties include? What skills do those tasks and duties require? What goals or challenges will the new marketer face? Use your answers to these questions to write a compelling job description. (Here are 37 pre-written marketing job descriptions to help you get started.)

Next, post your jobs where talented inbound marketers will find them. While traditional job sites like Indeed.com, CareerBuilder.com, or LinkedIn will help you cast a wide net, we recommend checking out Inbound.org, which is the only job listing service in the world that's exclusively focused on inbound marketing and sales jobs.

Finally, download this free kit on building and managing an agile, modern marketing team. The kit includes eight more, ready-made marketing job descriptions, information on finding and hiring the perfect inbound marketer, interview questions for candidates, and how to recruit and evaluate marketing interns. 

8) Finding an Executive Sponsor

Why It's a Challenge

Having an executive sponsor usually means you have someone in a highly placed position pushing your agenda for you. While finding one is eighth on the list of top marketing challenges, we've found this priority has become significantly more important for marketers in 2015 as compared to 2014. Specifically, finding an executive sponsor was more than 7X as likely to be cited as a challenge in 2015 as it was in 2014.

This makes sense, given that our survey respondents skewed toward SMBs: Marketers who are highly focused on securing more budget (and proving the ROI of their marketing spend) are likely interested in getting executives on their side to secure buy-in for inbound marketing practices. 

We also found that senior executives favor inbound marketing more than managers do:

Image Credit: The 2015 State of Inbound Report

Among managers or senior managers, outbound was perceived to be the best marketing approach in terms of generating ROI. Inbound catches up to outbound at the non-executive VP/director level, and passes it at the executive rank (executive-level personnel represented over a third of all survey respondents).

What Can You Do?

One key way to help convince an executive to help push your inbound marketing agenda -- and hopefully become a sponsor -- is to use data to make a compelling case for inbound marketing. It's much harder to refute data than it is mission statements and philosophies. Read this blog post to learn more about using data to make your case. (Bonus: You'll also find in there 100 stats, charts, and graphs to get inbound marketing buy-in.)

Does Your Company Face Any of These Challenges?

A thorough analysis of your marketing strategy and its current performance will help you discover where your biggest marketing opportunity lies. This will allow you to focus on improving the areas that need the most attention, so you can start making your marketing far more effective.

If you're faced with a challenge and want ideas on how to best tackle it, you can always consider getting some help by any of the various types of marketing training that are available.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in November 2012 and has been updated for freshness and comprehensiveness.

 

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