How to Write a Blog Post: A Bookmarkable Formula + 5 Free Blog Post Templates

You've probably heard how paramount blogging is to the success of your marketing. Without it, your SEO will tank, you'll have nothing to promote in social media, you'll have no clout with your leads and customers, and you'll have fewer pages to put those valuable calls-to-action that generate inbound leads. Need I say more?

So why, oh why, does almost every marketer I talk to have a laundry list of excuses for why they can't consistently blog? Maybe because, unless you're one of the few people who actually like writing, business blogging kind of stinks. You have to find words, string them together into sentences, and ughhh where do you even start?

Well my friend, the time for excuses is over.

After you read this post, there will be absolutely no reason you can't blog every single day -- and do it quickly. Not only am I about to provide you with a simple blogging formula to follow, but I'm also going to give you free templates for creating five different types of blog posts:

• The How-To Post
• The List-Based Post
• The Curated Collection Post
• The SlideShare Presentation Post
• The Newsjacking Post

With all this blogging how-to, literally anyone can blog as long as they truly know the subject matter they're writing about. And since you're an expert in your industry, there's no longer any reason you can't sit down every day and hammer out an excellent blog post.

How to Write a Blog Post: A Simple Formula to Follow

Step 1: Understand your audience.

Before you start to write, have a clear understanding of your target audience. What do they want to know about? What will resonate with them? This is where creating your buyer personas comes in handy. Consider what you know about your buyer personas and their interests while you're coming up with a topic for your blog post.

For instance, if your readers are millennials looking to start their own business, you probably don't need to provide them with information about getting started in social media -- most of them already have that down. You might, however, want to give them information about how to adjust their approach to social media from a more casual, personal one to a more business-savvy, networking-focused approach. That kind of tweak is what separates you from blogging about generic stuff to the stuff your audience really wants (and needs) to hear.

Don't have buyer personas in place for your business? Here are a few resources to help you get started:

• Create Buyer Personas for Your Business [Free Template]
• Blog Post: How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business
• MakeMyPersona.com [Free Tool]

Step 2: Start with a topic and working title.

Before you even write anything, you need to pick a topic for your blog post. The topic can be pretty general to start with. For example, if you're a plumber, you might start out thinking you want to write about leaky faucets. Then you might come up with a few different working titles -- in other words, iterations or different ways of approaching that topic to help you focus your writing. For example, you might decide to narrow your topic to "Tools for Fixing Leaky Faucets" or "Common Causes of Leaky Faucets." A working title is specific and will guide your post so you can start writing.

Let's take a real post as an example: "How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post." Appropriate, right? The topic, in this case, was probably simply "blogging." Then the working title may have been something like, "The Process for Selecting a Blog Post Topic." And the final title ended up being "How to Choose a Solid Topic for Your Next Blog Post."

See that evolution from topic, to working title, to final title? Even though the working title may not end up being the final title (more on that in a moment), it still provides enough information so you can focus your blog post on something more specific than a generic, overwhelming topic.

If you're having trouble coming up with ideas, check out this blog post from my colleague Ginny Soskey. In this post, Soskey walks through a helpful process for turning one idea into many. Similar to the "leaky faucet" example above, she suggests that you "iterate off old topics to come up with unique and compelling new topics." This can be done by:

• Changing the topic scope
• Adjusting the time frame
• Choosing a new audience
• Taking a positive/negative approach
• Introducing a new format

Step 3: Write an intro (and make it captivating).

We've written more specifically about writing captivating introductions in the post, "How to Write an Introduction," but let's review, shall we?

First, grab the reader's attention. If you lose the reader in the first few paragraphs -- or even sentences -- of the introduction, they will stop reading even before they've given your post a fair shake. You can do this in a number of ways: tell a story or a joke, be empathetic, or grip the reader with an interesting fact or statistic.

Then describe the purpose of the post and explain how it will address a problem the reader may be having. This will give the reader a reason to keep reading and give them a connection to how it will help them improve their work/lives. Here's an example of a post that we think does a good job of attracting a reader's attention right away:

Step 4: Organize your content.

Sometimes, blog posts can have an overwhelming amount of information -- for the reader and the writer. The trick is to organize the info so readers are not intimidated by the length or amount of content. The organization can take multiple forms -- sections, lists, tips, whatever's most appropriate. But it must be organized!

Let's take a look at the post, "How to Use Snapchat: A Detailed Look Into HubSpot’s Snapchat Strategy."There is a lot of content in this post, so we broke it into a few different sections using the following headers: How to Setup Your Snapchat Account, Snaps vs. Stories: What's the Difference?, and How to Use Snapchat for Business. These sections are then separated into sub-sections that to go into more detail and also make the content easier to read.

To complete this step, all you really need to do is outline your post. That way, before you start writing, you know which points you want to cover, and the best order in which to do it. To make things even easier, you can also download and use our free blog post templates, which are pre-organized for five of the most common blog post types. Just fill in the blanks!

Step 5: Write!

The next step -- but not the last -- is actually writing the content. We couldn't forget about that, of course.

Now that you have your outline/template, you're ready to fill in the blanks. Use your outline as a guide and be sure to expand on all of your points as needed. Write about what you already know, and if necessary, do additional research to gather more information, examples, and data to back up your points, providing proper attribution when incorporating external sources. Need help finding accurate and compelling data to use in your post? Check out this roundup of sources -- from Pew Research to Google Trends.

If you find you're having trouble stringing sentences together, you're not alone. Finding your "flow" can be really challenging for a lot of folks. Luckily, there are a ton of tools you can lean on to help you improve your writing. Here are a few to get you started:

• Power Thesaurus: Stuck on a word? Power Thesaurus is a crowdsourced tool that provides users with a ton of alternative word choices from a community of writers.
• ZenPen: If you're having trouble staying focused, check out this distraction-free writing tool. ZenPen creates a minimalist "writing zone" that's designed to help you get words down without having to fuss with formatting right away.
• Cliché Finder: Feeling like your writing might be coming off a little cheesy? Identify instances where you can be more specific using this handy cliché tool.

For a complete list of tools for improving your writing skills, check out this post. And if you're looking for more direction, the following resources are chock-full of valuable writing advice:

• The Marketer's Pocket Guide to Writing Well [Free Ebook]
• How to Write Compelling Copy: 7 Tips for Writing Content That Converts
• How to Write With Clarity: 9 Tips for Simplifying Your Message
• Your Blog Posts Are Boring: 9 Tips for Making Your Writing More Interesting
• Your Blog Posts Are Boring: 9 Tips for Making Your Writing More Interesting

Step 6: Edit/proofread your post, and fix your formatting.

You're not quite done yet, but you're close! The editing process is an important part of blogging -- don't overlook it. Ask a grammar-conscious co-worker to copy, edit, and proofread your post, and consider enlisting the help of The Ultimate Editing Checklist. And if you're looking to brush up on your own self-editing skills, turn to these helpful posts for some tips and tricks to get you started:

• Confessions of a HubSpot Editor: 11 Editing Tips From the Trenches
• How to Become a More Efficient Editor: 12 Ways to Speed Up the Editorial Process
• 10 Simple Edits That'll Instantly Improve Any Piece of Writing

When you're ready to check your formatting, keep the following advice in mind ...

Featured Image

Make sure you choose a visually appealing and relevant image for your post. As social networks treat content with images more prominently, visuals are now more responsible than ever for the success of your blog content in social media. In fact, it's been shown that content with relevant images receives 94% more views than content without relevant images.

For help selecting an image for your post, read "How to Select the Perfect Image for Your Next Blog Post" -- and pay close attention to the section about copyright law.

Visual Appearance

No one likes an ugly blog post. And it's not just pictures that make a post visually appealing -- it's the formatting and organization of the post, too.

In a properly formatted and visually appealing blog post, you'll notice that header and sub-headers are used to break up large blocks of text -- and those headers are styled consistently. Here's an example of what that looks like:

Also, screenshots should always have a similar, defined border (see screenshot above for example) so they don't appear as if they're floating in space. And that style should stay consistent from post to post.

Maintaining this consistency makes your content (and your brand) look more professional, and makes it easier on the eyes.

Topics/Tags

Tags are specific, public-facing keywords that describe a post. They also allow readers to browse for more content in the same category on your blog. Refrain from adding a laundry list of tags to each post. Instead, put some thought into a tagging strategy. Think of tags as "topics" or "categories," and choose 10-20 tags that represent all the main topics you want to cover on your blog. Then stick to those.

Step 7: Insert a call-to-action (CTA) at the end.

At the end of every blog post, you should have a CTA that indicates what you want the reader to do next -- subscribe to your blog, download an ebook, register for a webinar or event, read a related article, etc. Typically, you think about the CTA being beneficial for the marketer. Your visitors read your blog post, they click on the CTA, and eventually you generate a lead. But the CTA is also a valuable resource for the person reading your content -- use your CTAs to offer more content similar to the subject of the post they just finished reading.

In the blog post, "What to Post on Instagram: 18 Photo & Video Ideas to Spark Inspiration," for instance, readers are given actionable ideas for creating valuable Instagram content. At the end of the post is a CTA referring readers to download a comprehensive guide on how to use Instagram for business:

See how that's a win-win for everyone? Readers who want to learn more have the opportunity to do so, and the business receives a lead they can nurture ... who may even become a customer! Learn more about how to choose the right CTA for every blog post in this article. And check out this collection of clever CTAs to inspire your own efforts.

Step 8: Optimize for on-page SEO.

After you finish writing, go back and optimize your post for search.

Don't obsess over how many keywords to include. If there are opportunities to incorporate keywords you're targeting, and it won't impact reader experience, do it. If you can make your URL shorter and more keyword-friendly, go for it. But don't cram keywords or shoot for some arbitrary keyword density -- Google's smarter than that!

Here's a little reminder of what you can and should look for:

Meta Description

Meta descriptions are the descriptions below the post's page title on Google's search results pages. They provide searchers with a short summary of the post before clicking into it. They are ideally between 150-160 characters and start with a verb, such as "Learn," "Read," or "Discover." While meta descriptions no longer factor into Google's keyword ranking algorithm, they do give searchers a snapshot of what they will get by reading the post and can help improve your clickthrough rate from search.

Page Title and Headers

Most blogging software uses your post title as your page title, which is the most important on-page SEO element at your disposal. But if you've followed our formula so far, you should already have a working title that will naturally include keywords/phrases your target audience is interested in. Don't over-complicate your title by trying to fit keywords where they don't naturally belong. That said, if there are clear opportunities to add keywords you're targeting to your post title and headers, feel free to take them. Also, try to keep your headlines short -- ideally, under 65 characters -- so they don't get truncated in search engine results.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the word or words that link to another page -- either on your website or on another website. Carefully select which keywords you want to link to other pages on your site, because search engines take that into consideration when ranking your page for certain keywords.

It's also important to consider which pages you link to. Consider linking to pages that you want to rank well for that keyword. You could end up getting it to rank on Google's first page of results instead of its second page, and that ain't small potatoes.

Mobile Optimization

With mobile devices now accounting for nearly 2 out of every 3 minutes spent online, having a website that is responsive or designed for mobile has become more and more critical. In addition to making sure your website's visitors (including your blog's visitors) have the best experience possible, optimizing for mobile will score your website some SEO points.

Back in 2015, Google made a change to its algorithm that now penalizes sites that aren't mobile optimized. This month (May 2016), Google rolled out their second version of the mobile-friendly algorithm update -- creating a sense of urgency for the folks that have yet to update their websites. To make sure your site is getting the maximum SEO benefit possible, check out this free guide: How to Make a Mobile-Friendly Website: SEO Tips for a Post-"Mobilegeddon" World.

Step 9: Pick a catchy title.

Last but not least, it's time to spruce up that working title of yours. Luckily, we have a simple formula for writing catchy titles that will grab the attention of your reader. Here's what to consider:

1. Start with your working title.
2. As you start to edit your title, keep in mind that it's important to keep the title accurate and clear.
3. Then, work on making your title sexy -- whether it's through strong language, alliteration, or another literary tactic.
4. If you can, optimize for SEO by sneaking some keywords in there (only if it's natural, though!).
5. Finally, see if you can shorten it at all. No one likes a long, overwhelming title -- and remember, Google prefers 65 characters or fewer before it truncates it on its search engine results pages.

If you've mastered the steps above, learn about some way to take your blog posts to the next level in this post. What other steps do you take to refine your blog posts? Don't forget to download your five free blog post templates right here.

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

 

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How to Build a Chatbot from Pitch to Promotion

In April 2016, something happened at Facebook that would quickly result in a revolutionary paradigm shift on the horizon of online communication -- from mobile to desktop, marketing to services, personal to corporate -- everything, really.

Messenger opened its doors to developers with an invitation to create chatbots -- something of which roughly 78% of online adults were unaware. 

Within six months, developers had created about 30,000 active Messenger bots. Today, less than a year later, that number is up 233%, with 100,000 active bots on the platform. 

But it’s not just a popular, funky thing to do. Businesses using chatbots are seeing results, like Sephora, which reportedly earns “an average spend of over $50 from clients who have booked an in-store service via its Messenger assistant,” according to VentureBeat.

In case you’re wondering what the heck a chatbot actually is, though, here’s the condensed definition: A bot is nothing more than a computer program that automates certain tasks, typically by chatting with a user through a conversational interface.

There’s a vast range of chatbots. They can be rule-based, or powered by artificial intelligence (AI), both of which will drastically change the process of developing one. And if you’re looking to formulate your own chatbot strategy -- from building the bot from scratch to promoting it and getting customers to use it -- we’ve developed a basic framework for just that.

Read on, and let’s start building.

How to Build a Chatbot from Pitch to Promotion

1) Decide your bot's purpose.

Ultimately, the purpose of a bot is to provide a service people actually want to use -- time and time again. No bot is meant to do everything, so when you set out to create your own, think of an existing problem that it can fix in a more efficient way.

While there are many types of chatbots, if you’re building one for the first time, you’ll likely want to choose from the following two options:

Informational bots

As the name suggests, these bots provide users with a new format of information consumption. For example, breaking news bots send developing stories as the information becomes available. TechCrunch has a bot of that nature -- check it out below:

Utility bots

These bots are automated to complete tasks and answer questions. In other words, they solve a user’s problem or inquiry via a chat transaction. Customer service bots might immediately come to mind here, but a growing number of utility bots are being built for purposes like booking appointments or shopping online. One of our personal favorites is TacoBot: Taco Bell’s still-in-development bot that allows people to order food via Slack. Join the waitlist here, and check out the preview:

Source: Taco Bell

2) Decide what messaging app your bot will live on.

Earlier, we provided examples of bots that live on Messenger and Slack, respectively. And while those are two very popular options, there are many more available -- for example, Kik and Viber.

Your chatbot’s “home” will largely depend on who’s using what. You’ll want to aim for the apps with an audience that matches the one you’re trying to reach. Slack, for example, tends to be more business-focused, so productivity bots are particularly helpful there.

Sephora is a great example. While the brand has bots on both Messenger and Kik, each one functions differently. The Messenger version is used for customer service, feedback, and booking makeovers:

The Kik version, on the other hand, is designed to help users find products and makeup tips:

3) Decide which platform you’ll use to build the chatbot.

Most messenger apps have tools and documents to help developers build bots -- for example, Messenger has an entire library of resources here.

However, there are numerous platforms that can also help you build your bot -- in some cases, without a lot of coding required. Here are a few that we recommend:

1. Motion AI
2. Chatfuel
3. Botsify
4. Beep Boop
5. Bot Kit
6. Octane.ai

4) Create your bot’s personality.

Remember when we mentioned the importance of matching your bot’s home with the audience you’re trying to reach? Well, we have a similar guiding principle for your bot's personality: It should match your brand.

One of our favorite examples here is Pegg, a financial assistant designed for startups and small businesses -- but speaking as someone who recently returned from vacation, it’s helpful for anyone trying to track their spending. And while finance isn’t something that’s usually associated with a fun, playful voice, Pegg’s bot, HelloPegg, flips that connotation on its head with a cute logo and friendly voice.

5) Build your bot’s flow.

When you begin creating your chatbot, the platform you’re using should provide options on how to build out conversations. Usually, this is by way of providing the user with drag-and-drop or multiple choice responses, or frontloading the bot with if/then statements. For example, with the HelloPegg app above, the if/then flow might look like this:

If the user begins the sentence with, “Spent” -- then respond with, “Who did you pay?”

It’s a way of building a series of questions that are dependent on certain input criteria from the user to reach a given response or solution. Remember, a bot is supposed to be able to understand intent and deliver a solution in the most efficient way possible -- that's the main point of building a conversational strategy. Unlike a type form, for example, not every user can receive the same questions, and each answer the user gives should alter the following question to make the conversation as productive as possible.

Chatbots don't necessarily need to be loquacious -- they serve the purpose solving real problems from real people with the same (or better) ability as a human.

Things like buttons, cards, or other UI elements can be helpful here. For example, when chatting with a friend on Messenger, you might notice that the app prompts you to do certain things, depending on what you’ve typed in -- like when I used it to wish my colleague, Eric Peters, a happy birthday.

To help you build out these various pieces, we created the conversational framework below.

Finally, you’ll need to set up your chatbot’s ability to process the natural language that most users will input -- meaning, the conversational vernacular that we use day-to-day. For example, "People don't typically chat using words like 'affirmative' and 'negative'," explains HubSpot Senior Manager of Web Development Dmitry Shamis. "They say things like 'yup' and 'nah, playa' so natural language processing allows your bot to understand the underlying message and sentiment of those words."

The way to do this varies with each platform, so depending on what you’re using to create the bot, going about this step will vary.

6) Connect the bot to the messaging app.

Once you’ve reached this step, you’ve likely finished building your bot. Now, it’s time to connect it to the app where you want it to live.

Many of the resources we listed in section 3 will allow you to do this within the same platform you used to build the bot. Both Motion AI and Chatfuel, for instance, have buttons in the interface that allow you to simply attach your bot directly to your Messenger page. But before you commit to those options, make sure you do thorough research to make sure you won't be expected to pay any fees to the platform in the case that your bot sees a high level of success.

There are a few tools available to help you do this, one of which is the Recast.ai Bot Connector. It’s integrated with a number of apps, including Kik, Messenger, and Slack. It’s open source and free -- check out the instructions for getting started here.

7) Test and train with a beta group.

I don’t know about you, but when I’ve finished a project of which I’m particularly proud, I’m impatient to share it with the world. But as much as we want to get our work out into the hands of the adoring masses, it’s imperative to make sure it works -- especially with something as highly customer-facing and interacting as a chatbot.

That’s why we recommend forming a beta group to test the bot before it’s launched for public consumption. That can be internal or external -- here at HubSpot, for example, we often test new products and features by sharing them with our colleagues and asking them to check for functionality, quality, and bugs.

But whoever you choose to test your chatbot, make sure they’re not afraid to give you their honest feedback. In order to fix a mistake, it needs to be unabashedly pointed out to you first.

8) Promote your chatbot.

Once your chatbot has been thoroughly QA’d and de-bugged, it’s time to release it to the public -- and, of course, promote it.

There are several ways to go about the latter, but for the sake of keeping your strategy focused, we recommend the following steps to get started.

Add it to chatbot directories and catalogs.

Not every app will have a listing like this, but if you’re using one that does, make sure your app is included. (For example, here’s Slack’s.) Otherwise, look to third-party directories like BotList or Bot Finder for such listings.

Create a dedicated, SEO-friendly landing page.

For us, there’s often nothing more frustrating than catching wind of a great chatbot and being unable to find a dedicated website for it. That’s why we encourage you to create a dedicated, central page to explain the purpose, features, and where to find/install your chatbot to avoid any difficulty finding it, or other confusion.

TOPBOTS marketing and strategy specialist Adelyn Zhou emphasizes the importance of such a page. “A dedicated landing page for your bot gives users the option to first read and understand your distinct value add,” she writes on Medium. “Without the introduction, you’re leaving them to deduce your functionality by themselves.”

Include a messaging option in your emails.

Many emails include CTAs and icons for the reader to follow the sender on social media. Now, you can also add an option for your audience to engage with you via chatbot, by including icons for Messenger and Slack, for example.

Continuing the Conversation

Before you begin, remember: The hardest part of this process is not building your chatbot.

It may sound counter-intuitive, but if you re-read the steps above, you’ll see that while the actual bot buildout isn’t without its challenges, it doesn’t present the most difficulty. Rather, the hardest part is improving your conversational strategy over time -- based on how actual humans are interacting with it.

Even after you’ve completed the steps we’ve outlined, your work won’t be completely done. You’ll want to see how users are engaging with your chatbot, and if they’re not, what might be the cause of it. Is it truly addressing the problem it was built to solve? Has it turned out that your audience has other issues it wishes to resolve with a bot?

Think about these different factors once your chatbot goes live, and the various ways you can continue to make it even better.

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How to Create Snapchat Ads in Snapchat Ad Manager

Wondering how to advertise on Snapchat? Have you explored the Snapchat Ad Manager? Businesses of all sizes can create Snap ads with the platform’s self-serve Ad Manager tool. In this article, you’ll discover how to create an ad with Snapchat Ad Manager. Set Up a Snapchat Advertising Account Before you can start advertising on Snapchat, [...]

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How to Create the Best Powerpoint Presentations, With Examples

Some presentations are better than others. Some have gorgeous designs. Some have insanely actionable takeaways. Some just give down-to-earth advice. But the best presentations represent all three.

And if you're looking to get started making your own presentation, why not learn from the best of the best?

To help you kick your own presentations up a notch, we've curated 24 awesome PowerPoint and SlideShare decks below. 

When you're clicking through the presentations below, notice how they weave an interesting story through the format, design their slides, and make their presentations interactive with features exclusive to the platform on which they were created. These are all crucial elements to making an awesome presentation -- ones that you can certainly adapt and apply them to your own, with the right approach.

Even better ... you may just learn a thing or two about marketing while you're at it.

How to Create the Best PowerPoint Presentations

1) Less is more.

Here's the thing -- SlideShare exists for a reason. It allows users to view information in a presentation format without having to go somewhere else to see it presented. When you, a human being, deliver a presentation, chances are that that's part of the reason why people are tuning in. They care about the topic, but they also are curious about the person speaking on it.

That's why it can be valuable to keep your slides simple when delivering a presentation to an audience in-person. You want the focus to be on the message, rather than just the slides themselves. Keep the slides on-topic, but simple enough that people can still pay attention to what you're saying, using the visual presentation to support your message.

2) Keep text to a minimum.

One way to accomplish the aforementioned simplicity is to reduce the amount of text in your presentation. People recall information better when images are paired with it (as opposed to text), so to help your message resonate with the audience, focus on visual content when you create your slides -- we'll cover more on that in a bit.

You certainly won't be alone -- even Google CEO Sundar Pichai practices the reduction of text in his presentations. "Since stories are best told with pictures," he reportedly remarked at Google I/O 2017, "bullet points and text-heavy slides are increasingly avoided at Google."

3) Rethink visuals.

When you reduce the amount of text in your slides, you'll need compelling visuals to support the message you're delivering to your audience. But that doesn't mean you can just throw some nice-looking photos onto your deck and move on. Like any other content strategy, the visual elements of your presentation need to be strategic and relevant.

Templates

While PowerPoint templates have come a long way since the program was first unveiled to the world, chances are, they're still commonly used. To help make your presentation unique, choose a theme that your audience hasn't seen dozens of times before -- one that matches your brand and complements the topic you're speaking about.

Sometimes, it pays to look beyond to other presentation platforms other than PowerPoint to find unique templates, like Prezi. There are also many visual content design sites that offer customizable templates that you can adapt for your own brand and topic, like Canva. In fact, in addition to templates, Canva also offers its very own platform for building presentations from scratch, which you can check out here.

Charts and Graphs

One of the best ways to support the message you're delivering in your presentation is by including data and statistics -- and the good news is that they, too, can be represented visually, rather than bulleted out in text.

That's where charts and graphs come in: They provide a colorful and engaging way to present the details that support your point. That said, make sure they fit in with the rest of your presentation's visual theme -- otherwise, it'll distract the audience from what you're talking about, rather than enhancing it. 

Color Themes

There's been some research around the way color can influence our emotions, especially when used in marketing -- in some cases, changing the color of a CTA button boosted conversions by 21%.

And while the goal of your presentation may not necessarily be to make a sale, you might be trying to invoke certain feelings or impressions, which a strategic use of color can help you do. Check out Coschedule's guide on the psychology of color in marketing, which highlights the ways different tones, shades, and combinations can influence purchasing decisions.

Fonts

When you do include text, you want it to be readable enough for your audience to fully consume and interpret it easily enough to avoid becoming distracted from your message. If you include text that's too small or dense to easily read, they'll become too focused on trying to decipher it to pay attention to what you're saying.

That's why the designers at Visage recommend choosing Sans Serif fonts that opt for "legibility over fun," noting that text should not only be big enough for people in the back of the room to read it, but also, presented in the right color to maintain visibility over your background.

Image quality

Incorporating this fabulous visual content into your presentation will go to waste if the images are low-quality. Make sure your photos and other visual assets are high-resolution enough to be crisp and clear when displayed on a huge presentation screen.

4) Incorporate multimedia.

There's a reason why we love examples. You can give out the best advice available, but sometimes, in order to believe it, people need to see it in practice.

Multimedia is one way to achieve that -- in a manner that can also capture and maintain your audience's attention. A simple Google search for "music in presentations" yields enough soundtrack results to suggests that it's a unique way of engaging your audience, or at least create a welcoming atmosphere before and after you speak.

Within the presentation itself, video -- as it is in so many other applications -- serves as valuable visual content to keep your audience engaged. After all, 43% of people want to see more video content from marketers, often because it helps to illustrate and explain theories in practice in a way that the spoken word or photographs can't do alone.

24 Great SlideShare & PowerPoint Presentation Examples for Marketers

1) "How to Produce Better Content Ideas," Mark Johnstone

We all get writer's block sometimes. You'll stare at a screen, hoping for inspiration to strike -- and for that idea to be amazing.

But that's not actually the best way to think of ideas. In the presentation below, Mark Johnstone outlines a better way to brainstorm ideas that will help build your business.

How to Produce Better Content Ideas from Mark Johnstone

2) "How Google Works," Eric Schmidt

Ever wonder what it's actually like to work at Google? The presentation below from Eric Schmidt (Alphabet, Inc.'s Executive Chairman and ex-CEO of Google) could clue you in -- it outlines some of the top lessons he and his team have learned from running and hiring for one of the top companies in the world. Besides giving you a peek behind the scenes of a top company, it could inspire you to make changes to the way your business runs.

How Google Works from Eric Schmidt

3) "Fix Your Really Bad PowerPoint," Slide Comet

Okay, maybe your PowerPoint isn't that bad, but this presentation has some awesome takeaways we all could learn from. Even if you're following all the tips in this presentation, you can sure be inspired by its expert copy and design.

Fix Your Really Bad PowerPoint by @slidecomet : based on an ebook by @ThisIsSethsBlog from Slide Comet | Singapore Presentation Designer Agency

4) "KPCB 2017 Internet Trends," Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Mary Meeker's report on the latest internet trends is one of the most hotly anticipated data reports of the year. Even if you gave this presentation a gander when it first came out, it's worth revisiting -- the data's fascinating, current, and relevant to marketers in any industry.

 

5) "Why Content Marketing Fails," Rand Fishkin

Sometimes, the most helpful pieces of content tell you what not to do. Rand Fishkin's presentation does just that. He takes an in-depth look at the most common reasons people fail at content marketing -- and offers practical, original advice on fixing it.

Why Content Marketing Fails from Rand Fishkin

6) "The What If Technique," Motivate Design

Most marketers are looking to grow ... but sometimes they can get stuck making incremental improvements. While these improvements are growth, larger, bigger growth jumps are what most people want. To help you get unstuck from incrementalism, Motivate Design outlined a process in the presentation below.

The What If Technique presented by Motivate Design from Motivate Design

7) "Digital Strategy 101," Bud Caddell

Even though this presentation is almost 100 slides long, its content is pure gold. Caddell answers some of the biggest FAQs about digital strategy in a very accessible way. The reason his slides are so straightforward is because of the way he's laid them out. He's really adept at making "animated" slides explain his story -- something we all should learn how to do.

Digital Strategy 101 from Bud Caddell

8) "10 Ways to Win the Internets," Upworthy

Even though Upworthy's got a bad rap for creating clickbait headlines, their lessons on going viral are incredibly interesting. Besides having great advice about going viral, Upworthy does a great job of making its presentation interactive using clickable links.

Upworthy: 10 Ways To Win The Internets from Upworthy

9) "Crap: The Content Marketing Deluge," Velocity Partners

Even though this SlideShare is a few years old, it's one every content marketer should flip through. The reason we love it so much is because the message -- and delivery of that message -- is pretty much flawless. Definitely take a second to flip through the presentation, as you'll learn a great lesson while also soaking up a great piece of SlideShare content.

Crap. The Content Marketing Deluge. from Velocity Partners

10) "What Would Steve Do? 10 Lessons from the World's Most Captivating Presenters," HubSpot

Not to toot our own horn, but this presentation has been one of our most successful ones, so we wanted to share it with you. I personally love how actionable tips are provided in a visual way. For example, in slides 47 through 49, the author explains the difference between "showing" and "telling" by putting the word "circle" next to a picture of a circle. Although showing, not telling, is a key storytelling technique in writing, it's especially effective in presentations.

What Would Steve Do? 10 Lessons from the World's Most Captivating Presenters from HubSpot

11) "How I Got 2.5 Million Views on SlideShare," Nick Demey

Feeling inspired to create a SlideShare of your own? Make sure you flip through Nick Demey's presentation first. He shares some tried-and-true tips for creating awesome presentations that rack up tons of views.

How I got 2.5 Million views on Slideshare (by @nickdemey @boardofinno) from Board of Innovation .com

12) "10 Powerful Body Language Tips for Your Next Presentation," Soap Presentations

This presentation is inspirational from a design perspective -- we especially love the color scheme. Using complementary colors (colors opposite each other on the color wheel) can be overwhelming at times, but because Soap Presentations uses them with lots of white space in the background, the colors draw your attention to the content of the slides.

10 Powerful Body Language Tips for your next Presentation from soappresentations

13) "What 33 Successful Entrepreneurs Learned From Failure," ReferralCandy

Learning from mistakes is a crucial part of growing in your professional and personal lives. But sometimes, it's better to learn from others' mistakes instead of making them yourself. This presentation outlines some core lessons successful entrepreneurs have learned by making mistakes. Read on so you don't have to make the same ones.

What 33 Successful Entrepreneurs Learned From Failure from ReferralCandy

14) "Displaying Data," Bipul Deb Nath

We admire presentation for its exceptional display of data -- now this post will explain how to do the same in your own presentations. I also love how this presentation is very concise and minimal, as it helps communicate a fairly advanced topic in an easy-to-understand way.

Displaying Data from Bipul Deb Nath

15) "Design Your Career 2017," Slides That Rock

This presentation's advice is applicable and its design admirable. The whole black-and-white color scheme really makes the salmon accent color pop -- and the SlideShare creatively combines these elements for different slide layouts. Definitely bookmark this presentation as an example of a great SlideShare design.

Design Your Career 2015 from Slides That Rock

16) "A-Z Culture Glossary 2017," sparks & honey

The first time I heard the phrase "on fleek," I had no idea what it meant. (Apparently, it's a term that means "on point," in case you were wondering.)

If you're like me and feel like it's nearly impossible to keep up with the latest cultural trends, spend time with the presentation below. It'll outline the most popular trends you should know this year -- most definitely worth a read.

 

17) "The History of SEO," HubSpot

SEO’s changed a lot in the past two decades. Most of us are concerned with keeping up with the latest and greatest changes … but have you ever taken a minute to step back in time? The presentation below will walk you through SEO history from the very beginning -- it's been a fascinating ride.

The History of SEO from HubSpot

18) "5 Killer Ways to Design the Same Slide," Crispy Presentations

Once you start designing presentations, it’s easy to fall back on tried-and-true layouts, photos, fonts, and colors. While keeping everything consistent can be good for branding or for shipping a deck quickly, it can also prevent people from noticing the awesome new content you’ve put together. The quick presentation below shows you a few different ways you can design the same slide -- all depending on what you want it to accomplish.

Five Killer Ways to Design The Same Slide from Crispy Presentations

19) "The Seven Deadly Social Media Sins," XPLAIN

Besides having some great takeaways for any inbound marketer, I love how this presentation successfully uses Creative Commons images in almost every slide. It's pretty inspirational -- even if you don't have budget for stock photos, you can have an engaging presentation.

The Seven Deadly Social Media Sins from XPLAIN

20) "The Minimum Lovable Product," Spook Studio

When they’re first getting started, many startups and agile teams talk about creating a minimal viable product -- using the smallest amount of resources to produce something that’s good enough to begin testing. After all, why pour tons of resources into something that you don’t know will work?

This presentation challenges the MVP concept in favor for creating something that people love. Check it out -- it has lessons even for those of us who aren’t building technology every day.

The Minimum Loveable Product from Spook Studio

21) "How to Teach Yourself HTML and CSS This Month," Ryan Bonhardt

Lots of people have “learn to code” on their to-do list ... but they never get to it. In marketing, knowing how to navigate code is becoming even more important to being successful. If you’ve been waiting to get started with coding, check out the presentation below.

How To Teach Yourself HTML And CSS This Month from Ryan Bonhardt

22) "How People Really Hold and Touch (Their Phones)," Steven Hoober

When you hear the phrase “design for mobile” what do you think? Probably that you need to create a responsive website, and that’s about it.

But that’s not all you need to worry about. When you’re creating mobile-optimized content, you need to know how people actually use their phones -- and the presentation below will you a great overview of consumer behavior.

How People Really Hold and Touch (their Phones) from Steven Hoober

23) "How to Really Get Into Marketing," Inbound.org

If you're graduating from school or making a career change and looking to get into marketing, it can feel tough to actually get started. It's one of those "you need experience to get the job, but you have no experience" conundrums.

Well, that's where this presentation comes in. Hull growth marketer Ed Fry -- once employee #1 at Inbound.org -- gives real, actionable tips to help you get your foot in the door at your next marketing gig.

How To (Really) Get Into Marketing from Inbound.org

24) "Search for Meaning in B2B Marketing," Velocity Partners

Sometimes, it's easy to get bogged down and think you're doing "just marketing." You're not operating on people and saving lives, right?

From the creators of "Crap: The Content Marketing Deluge" comes the following presentation. If you're ever feeling down-in-the-dumps about marketing, I'd highly recommend reading it. It's thoughtful, funny, and a great presentation to keep in your back pocket for a rainy day.

The Search for Meaning in B2B Marketing from Velocity Partners

 

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2015 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in January 2015 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

 

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How to Integrate Facebook Messenger Bots With Facebook Live

Want more leads and conversions from your Facebook Live videos? Did you know using a chatbot can boost your results? Integrating Messenger bots with your Facebook Live broadcasts makes it easy for viewers to sign up for and receive your offers. In this article, you’ll discover how to create a Facebook Messenger bot that generates [...]

This post How to Integrate Facebook Messenger Bots With Facebook Live first appeared on .
- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

August 14, 2017 at 12:00PM http://bit.ly/2vUi9qZ
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Why the "Pivot to Video" Is Misguided

When I read that the average American spends five-and-a-half hours per day watching video content, I scoffed -- because between video explainers on Facebook, Game of Thrones, and Netflix, that average is closer to my daily minimum time spent watching videos.

After all, 2017 is “the year of video” -- so why shouldn’t people consume more videos, and why shouldn’t creators make more?

As it turns out, there is such a thing as too much video -- and it happens when publishers “pivot to video.”

No, not that kind of pivot. I'm talking about the "pivot to video."

What is pivoting to video? No, it's not changing seats on the couch to get a better view -- it's the latest example of marketers and content creators being so eager to adopt a new platform or medium that they ruin it.

What Is Pivoting to Video?

Pivot to video (verb): To decrease or entirely shutter written editorial operations to focus on creating more video content

Synonyms: restructuring, reorganizing, refocusing

If this sounds like a joke ... well, the dictionary definition is kind of a joke. But "pivoting to video" consists of publications deciding to focus so entirely on video that entire writing and editorial staff are laid off completely. In fact, Esquire pivoted to video the day I started writing this blog post:

some personal news (i know, i know): esquire has decided to end its digital features program, which means i am out of a job.

— Megan Greenwell (@megreenwell) August 7, 2017

Esquire isn't the first publisher to do this. It started with MTV News.

You might not be surpised to hear this -- after all, the word "television" makes up two of the three letters in MTV. But after an organizational restructuring at MTV in 2015, long-form editorial and video content about politics, culture, and social issues helped improve the network's ratings and engagement on web properties. MTV News staffed its team with content creators who produced documentary-style videos and 4,000-6,000-word long-form written pieces -- most of whom were let go in June of this year, when MTV News "pivoted" to create more short-form music and entertainment video over long-form editorial pieces.

Twitter was flooded with tweets from former employees announcing their newfound employment status, friends calling for publishers to hire them, and content creators from all media decrying -- and defending -- the strategic pivot.

I've been laid off by @MTVNews. I'll miss seeing my brilliant, talented colleagues, and I look forward to continuing my career elsewhere.

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) June 28, 2017

.@MTVNews I'm a fan of video. I work in video. But behind strong video, you also need strong storytellers. http://bit.ly/2w31mTl

— Traci Lee (@traciglee) June 28, 2017

I’ve been in digital media for 12 years. One thing I’ve learned is that nobody wants to read anything over 1,000 words. MTV is more proof.

— Andy Gray (@AndyGray35) June 28, 2017

But the pivot didn't stop there.

Over the past year thus far, several major publishers have pivoted, structured, reorganized, and refocused on creating video content -- at the cost of writers' and editors' jobs. Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports, Vice, and HuffPost have all focused efforts on creating short-form video content -- and all have laid off writers and editors. One publication -- Vocativ -- laid off its entire editorial staff "to focus exclusively on video content."

In fact, "pivoting to video” has become such a ubiquitous term in the digital space that it’s become a joke in and of itself.

Quit doing this. No one wants video. We all read faster than people talk, it eats up data, and you can’t watch video on the toilet at work. http://bit.ly/2w340rR

— Peter Lynn (@Peter_Lynn) July 21, 2017

the WH communications department is pivoting to video

— Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) July 31, 2017

But funny tweets notwithstanding, we need to talk about why you shouldn’t pivot to video -- at least, not fully.

What Pivoting to Video Is All About

Let's call a spade a spade -- publishers are pivoting to video to make money.

In the age of pre-roll and mid-roll advertising, it's harder to ignore a video ad when it's the only thing standing between you and a video you want to watch. Ads are easier to ignore when they live in the side margins and on top of written long-form articles, so publishers might see a greater opportunity to make money from placing video ads over video content.

And the biggest piece of the digital advertising pie now goes not to advertisers or publishers -- but to Facebook and Google. So it's understandable that media companies and publications are doing whatever they can to drive ROI on the content they produce.

But the pivot to video isn't happening at random -- these strategic reorganizations are also a nod to the growing popularity of video content, which we can't deny -- nor would we want to.

We've blogged at length about video being engaging, in-demand, and a smart way for brands to diversify content and connect with audiences in new ways. And making videos is smart -- it just shouldn't be the only content your brand produces.

It's true that videos are growing in popularity -- your audience wants to see videos, videos drive results for your business, and videos are an extremely favorable medium across different social media platforms. It's also true that the human attention span is waning. But this doesn't mean you should send your editorial staff packing. You don't need to "pivot to video" to develop a smart video strategy as part of your content production engine -- and we'll show you how.

Why Pivoting to Video Is Bad (and What You Should Do Instead)

1) People like to read.

Setting aside for a moment the fact that the written word has been in existence for several thousand years (Thank you, Flinstone family), the popularity of video content and written content aren't mutually exclusive. In fact, audiences want more written content and more videos -- so can't we all just get along?

Last year, we learned that almost half of consumers want to see more video content -- but almost the same amount also wanted to see more news articles.

And in a new HubSpot Research survey forthcoming later this year, we learned that the popularity of video content is increasing -- especially among people in their teens and early 20s. But people of all ages wanted to see more in-depth multimedia articles, ebooks, and blog posts, too -- and you shouldn't cast that segment of your audience aside in favor of solely creating content in the latest and most popular medium.

Content consumption preferences are always changing, and they vary across different age groups, content formats, and subject matter. There are some cases when the written word is a better way to share information than video content, and in some cases, audiences don't want videos at all. For example, in the United States, NiemanLab found that video isn't growing as rapidly as one might think.

In fact, roughly half of those surveyed didn't watch any online news videos -- and more than two-thirds said they consumed most news in text format. Most video being consumed was short and sweet and entertaining -- leaving plenty of room at the table for written content consumption, too.

So, people are watching videos, but they're also consuming a lot of text content, too. How should publishers and content producers address the diversifying content preferences of audiences?

The Solution?

Make great videos, and write great articles. In fact, ideally, you should be writing articles and reports, and then incorporating videos and other multimedia elements into them. Give the people what they want -- which is written, visual, and audio content.

Think about how your audience wants to learn. According to the survey above, people are more interested in consuming in-depth news information by reading it, whereas they might be more interested in watching shorter, more consumable video content. While a video might be a good fit for briefly explaining a complicated topic, it might not be the best fit for a detailed breakdown of SEO best practices -- like in these examples.

If you don't know the answer to this question, ask your audience. If you're not sure about your industry or audience's preferences, ask them. Using an email newsletter or a Twitter poll, ask questions like, "What would you most like us to produce a video about?" or "Do you prefer written or visual explainers?" to figure out where to get started.

The answer to the question of what types of content your audience prefers is an evolving one -- and one that we constantly experiment with here at HubSpot. Read about how we're changing up our social media video strategy in this blog post.

2) Videos are hard to make.

Videos are hard to make -- and it shows.

The internet is populated with far too many slideshows and photos set to music that are masquerading as videos -- like this one:

Videos like these don't offer the viewer much more value than reading a story would, but publishers keep making them -- presumably because they get more clicks on social media than an article would.

I don't know about you, but I find these videos extremely annoying -- they either autoplay when I open an article, or I click them to learn more and get no additional information out of them.

Instead, publishers and brands should be striving to make great videos -- which are driven by great stories. You need good storytelling to create a compelling video, and -- guess what? That will require the writing of a script or outline beforehand, and writers and editors can be of tremendous value there.

Additionally, if you remember our finding above, audiences don't just want one thing -- they want it all. Consumers want multimedia articles, in-depth research reports, blog posts, and entertaining videos. There's plenty of room for cross-collaboration between writers, editors, and video producers to create excellent content that solves for constantly-changing consumer preferences.

The Solution?

Before implementing a video strategy, invest in resources to do it well, and experiment with creating different videos for different segments of your audience.

This means taking the time (and resources) to invest in video equipment, filming, and editing software, and freelancers or new employees who can make videos -- more specifically, who can make videos well.

By investing in video content up front, you'll ensure that your entire content production team is firing on all cylinders and creating video content that can both eventually rank in search results, and generate millions of views organically -- not just as an ad.

3) Videos are tough to distribute.

With the exception of a few major publications -- with content production budgets in the millions -- it's hard to crack the code of not only how to make great videos, but how to monetize them and use them to drive leads, customers, and revenue.

That's partly because digital video is such a new content medium, and content creators are figuring out how to make great videos (see above). It's also because Google search ranking factors and social media algorithms change so frequently that it's hard to nail getting videos surfaced and seen by people on different platforms.

And now that more people are jumping on the video content creation bandwagon, search engines and social networks are getting saturated with more videos to compete against.

So you might think that video creation is the hard part, but that's just the beginning. It takes concerted effort for videos to rank in YouTube and Google search results, or to rack up thousands and millions of views on Instagram and Facebook. And even if you do everything right, there could be a bunch of reasons people don't want to watch your videos -- they might not want to turn up the volume, they might be running low on their monthly data plan, or hey -- they could even be sitting on the toilet.

People have their preferences, and in our forthcoming survey, we found that consumers want to watch video content and read in-depth news and research content -- and that they want to watch videos on social media. Millions of hours of video content are streamed across social platforms every day, but these popular social videos might not generate leads at the speed a growing business needs.

So, we suggest creating multimedia content that serves a variety of purposes on a variety of different platforms. For example, keyword-specific blog posts and YouTube videos might quickly rank in Google and YouTube searches, to help drive visitors to landing pages and lead forms that help brands start selling. On the other hand, entertaining, short-form videos on Facebook and Instagram will help spread a brand's message and attract more people to a website down the line.

If you're just getting started with video marketing, we have ideas for the type of video you should make first. Use them to help guide visitors along your marketing funnel -- alongside written content and offers to capture lead information.

The Solution?

Make specific types of videos for specific platforms in the same way you would for different types of written content. That way, the videos you create will have specific goals in mind -- for example, video views, video view rate, or website clicks -- that you can measure and iterate on.

Videos achieve outcomes on social media that written content might not, and written content can achieve search engine rankings that videos might not. The best scenario is to create both types of content -- along with multimedia content -- to meet audiences' ever-changing preferences, and to attract visitors and leads throughout the marketing funnel.

Images: Tumblr, HubSpot Research, NiemanLab

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Facebook TV, YouTube Mobile Share and Chat, and Facebook Live for Stories

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 with Michael Stelzner, we explore Facebook Watch (their TV solution), YouTube mobile share and chat with Amy Schmittauer, Facebook [...]

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- Your Guide to the Social Media Jungle

August 12, 2017 at 12:00PM http://bit.ly/2haJ6kb
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