How to Use LinkedIn: The Ultimate List of LinkedIn Tips

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March 26, 2015 // 8:00 AM
o to U e Linke n: The
Ultimate Li t of Linke n
Tip
Written by Pamela Vaughan | @pamelump
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MARKETING / 2 days ago
How to Use LinkedIn: The
Ultimate List of LinkedIn Tips
MARKETING / 16 hrs ago
A Visual History of Apple Ads:
4 Decades in the Making
MARKETING / 18 hrs ago With more than 347 million users, LinkedIn is the most popular social
network for professionals as well as one of the top social networks overall.
But do you know how to use LinkedIn to its fullest potential?
With new social networks sprouting up constantly, LinkedIn is a platform that
often gets underutilized or put on the back burner. But the truth is, LinkedIn
can be extremely powerful -- especially when you're aware of all the
platform's hidden features that don't get nearly enough exposure as they
deserve. So to help you master LinkedIn, we've compiled the ultimate list of
LinkedIn tips you may be overlooking ... but definitely shouldn't.
What Is LinkedIn?
Before we dive in, here's a quick little primer on LinkedIn for those of you

who may be new to the social network. LinkedIn launched in 2003 and is
currently the third most popular social network in terms of unique monthly
visitors -- right behind Facebook and Twitter. Think Facebook, but with a
more professional feel. The social network is primarily centered around
careers, and it enables users to connect and share content with other
professionals, including colleagues as well as potential employers, business
partners, and new employees. If you're a business on LinkedIn, it can also
be a fantastic marketing tool.
Now, are you ready for a treasure trove of LinkedIn tips? Let's get
our hands dirty ...
We've divided our cheat sheet into three main categories depending on
your goals for using LinkedIn -- LinkedIn profile tips to optimize your LinkedIn
presence, how to use LinkedIn for professional networking, and how to use
LinkedIn for business and marketing. Click these links to jump to individual
sections.
Learn even more about how to use LinkedIn
effectively by downloading our free LinkedIn
guide here.

LinkedIn Profile Tips
1) Customize your public profile URL.
Make your personal profile look more professional (and much easier to
share) by customizing your LinkedIn public profile URL. Instead of a URL
with a million confusing numbers at the end, it will look nice and clean like
this: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelavaughan. Customize your URL
by going here and modifying your public profile URL on the right-hand
side.
2) Add a background photo to your personal
LinkedIn profile.
In June 2014, LinkedIn finally jumped on the cover photo bandwagon and
starting rolling out the ability for users to add a background photo to their
personal profiles. Give your LinkedIn profile a little bit more personality by
adding a background photo of your own. Just keep in mind LinkedIn is
a professional social network, so choose your photo accordingly.
To add a background photo to your profile, click Profile >> Edit Profile in
LinkedIn's top navigation, then click Add a background photo at the top of
your page (or modify an existing background photo by hovering over it and
clicking Edit Background). LinkedIn specifies that your photo must be a

clicking Edit Background). LinkedIn specifies that your photo must be a
JPG, PNG, or GIF file under 8MG in size and should have a resolution of
1400 x 425 pixels for the best look.
Check out how HubSpot CMO Mike Volpe is using his background image,
which shows the HubSpot executive team celebrating HubSpot's IPO by
ringing the NYSE opening bell in October 2014.

3) Create a Profile Badge for your personal
website or blog.
If you have your own personal website or blog, you can promote your
personal LinkedIn presence and help grow your professional network by
adding a Profile Badge that links to your public LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn
has several different badge designs to select from, and you can configure
your own here.
4) Optimize the anchor text for the
blog/website links on your LinkedIn profile.
Instead of using the default "Personal Website"-type anchor text links in your
LinkedIn profile, you can change the anchor text to make those links more
appealing to people who view your profile. So if you want to increase clicks
on the website links you display on your profile, change those links' anchor
text to something more attention-grabbing than the standard options
LinkedIn provides.
For example, if you want to include a link to your blog, rather than choosing

LinkedIn's standard "Blog" anchor text, customize it to include keywords that
indicate what your blog is about, like say "HubSpot's Marketing Blog." Each
profile can display up to three website links like this, and they can be
customized by editing your profile (click Profile >> Edit Profile from the
site's top navigation), clicking the Contact Info section, clicking the pencil
icon next to your website links, and selecting Other in the drop-down menu.
5) Search engine optimize your profile.
You can also optimize your profile to get found by people searching LinkedIn
for key terms you want to get found for. Add these keywords to various
sections of your profile such as your headline or in your summary.
6) Show work samples.
Did you know LinkedIn allows you to add a variety of media such as videos,
images, documents, links, and presentations to the Summary, Education,
and Experience sections of your LinkedIn profile? This enables you to
showcase different projects, provide samples of your work, and better

optimize your LinkedIn profile. Learn more about adding, removing, and
rearranging work samples here.
7) Add, remove, and rearrange entire sections
of your profile.
LinkedIn also enables users to reorder entire sections of your profile in any
way you prefer. When in edit mode, simply hover your mouse over the
double-sided arrow in each section. Your mouse will turn into a four-arrowed
icon, at which point you can click, then drag and drop to another position on
your profile.
You can also customize your profile with sections that apply only to you. Find
a full list of sections to add to and remove from your profile here.
8) Take advantage of Saved Searches.

LinkedIn allows users to save up to ten job searches and three people
searches. After conducting a search, clicking the Save search option on
the right allows you to save a search and easily run it again later. You can
also choose to receive weekly or monthly reminders (+ daily for job
searches) via email once new members in the network or jobs match your
saved search criteria.
9) Quickly turn your LinkedIn profile into a
resume.
Job seeking is one of the most common -- and beneficial -- uses of
LinkedIn. Were you aware that LinkedIn enables you to turn your profile into
a resume-friendly format in seconds with its Resume Builder tool? Just
choose a resume template, edit it, and export it as a PDF that you can print,
email, and share.
10) Find a job through LinkedIn's job board.
Now that you've generated that awesome new resume from LinkedIn's
Resume Builder tool, you can use it -- and LinkedIn's Job board -- to help
you land an awesome new position. Using its Advanced search feature,
LinkedIn allows you to search for jobs by keywords, industry, location,
company, experience level, and more. It even suggests jobs you might be

interested in based on the information in your LinkedIn profile. Save some
job searches like we suggested in tip #8 to get alerted when new jobs pop
up, too!
11) Get endorsed for your skills.
Back in 2012, LinkedIn launched a feature called Endorsements, which
enables users to endorse their connections for skills they’ve listed in the
Skills section of their profile -- or recommend one they haven’t yet listed.
These endorsements then show up on your profile within that same
Skills section, as you can see in the screenshot below.

Okay, so you can't guarantee your connections will endorse you for those
skills, but because it's so easy for your LinkedIn contacts to do (all they have
to do is click on the + sign next to a particular skill on your profile), you'll find
that many of them will do it anyway. Just make sure your profile is complete
and you've spent the time to list the skills you want your contacts to endorse
you for. It will definitely give your profile a bit of a credibility boost. You can
also remove endorsements if you find people are endorsing you for skills
that don't accurately describe your strengths.
How to Use LinkedIn for
Professional Networking
12) Use OpenLink to send messages to
people you're not connected to.
Aside from the exception of your fellow group members (more on this in tip
#19), LinkedIn only allows you to send messages to people with whom you
share a first-degree connection. But did you know some people let you send
them messages anyway, even if you're not connected? The ability to be part
of the OpenLink network is only available to premium account holders, but it

allows them to be available for messaging by any other LinkedIn member if
they choose to be. OpenLink members will appear with an icon that looks
like a small ring of dots next to their name in search results and on their
profile.
13) Request an introduction to someone
you're not connected to.
Want to connect with another LinkedIn user but think it would seem too out of
the blue? You can request an introduction to contact a 2nd-degree
connection from a connection you both have in common. Simply visit the
profile of the 2nd-degree connection you want to connect with, click the
triangular drop-down arrow near the top of their profile, select Get
Introduced, choose which shared connection you'd like to request the
introduction from, and explain why you'd like the introduction.

14) Check in on Network Updates.
Found on your LinkedIn homepage, Network Updates are essentially
LinkedIn's version of the Facebook News Feed. Check this feed periodically
for a quick snapshot of what your connections are up to and sharing. You
can also sort by Top Updates or Recent Updates to filter your feed in one
way or the other.

15) Be identifiable.
Allow others to see who you are if you view their profile. To allow this, go into
your Settings (click your thumbnail image in the top right and choose
Privacy & Settings) and click Select what others see when you've
viewed their profile. Make sure you check off the Your name and
headline (Recommended) option. This allows you to take advantage of
the next feature on our list ...

16) Check out who's viewed your LinkedIn
profile.
How? With the Who's Viewed Your Profile feature, of course! This tool,
which is accessible in the main navigation via
the Profile dropdown, enables you to drill down into which other LinkedIn
users have visited your profile page (so yeah, exactly what it sounds like). In
fact, LinkedIn gave this coveted creeper feature a facelift in February 2014,
so the information it provides is even better than ever. You can also see how
you stack up against the profile views for your connections, people in your
company, and other professionals like you.
Has someone been checking out your profile that you might want to connect
with? This might be the "in" you've been waiting for to connect. (Remember,
if you don't make yourself identifiable via tip #15, you won't have access to
this feature. It's a two-way street!)
And if you're interested in trying to boost the number of views to your
own LinkedIn profile, we wrote a little tutorial about how to do it here.
17) Export connections.
Want to transfer your LinkedIn connections to another contact management
system? LinkedIn enables you to easily export your connections. Click

Connections in LinkedIn's top navigation, click the settings gear icon in the
top right, and click Export LinkedIn Connections under Advanced
Settings on the right. You'll have the option of either exporting them as a
.CSV or .VCF file.
18) Easily find new connections -- or connect
with old ones!
Speaking of connections, the Connections tab in the top navigation offers
a variety of other tools to grow and connect with contacts in your
professional network. Click Add Connections in the drop-down menu to
import contacts from your email accounts and get suggestions for other

connections, connect with other alumni from your alma mater using the Find
Alumni section, and use the Keep in Touch section to stay in touch with
current connections, keep track of your communications, and get
notifications when contacts in your network change jobs, have birthdays, or
when you haven't chatted with them in a while -- either on desktop or in the
Connected mobile app!
19) Leverage the perks of LinkedIn Groups.
Did you know that if you're a member of the same group as another user,
you can bypass the need to be a first-degree connection in order to
message them? In addition, group members are also able to view the
profiles of other members of the same group without being connected. Join
more groups to enable more messaging and profile viewership capabilities.
20) Take advantage of Advanced Search
options.
LinkedIn's Advanced Search feature provides a much richer search
experience. For example, say you want to find out if you're connected to
anyone who works at a specific company. Type the company name in the
company field in Advanced Search, then filter the results by "Relationship" to
see if you have any first- or second-degree connections to any employees.

21) Share your LinkedIn status updates on
Twitter.
Ever since the LinkedIn/Twitter breakup of 2012, you can no longer
automatically sync your tweets to publish on LinkedIn (or even selectively by
using the hashtags #in or #li in specific tweets). But don't fret -- the opposite
is still possible! So if you're ever posting an update to LinkedIn that you'd
like your Twitter followers to see as well, you can easily syndicate that
update to Twitter by selecting the Everyone + Twitter option in the Share
With dropdown before clicking Share in the LinkedIn update composer.
22) Leverage @mentions in your status
updates.
In 2013, LinkedIn rolled out the ability to tag or @mention other users and
companies in status updates -- much like the way it works on Facebook and
Twitter. Want another LinkedIn user or company to see your status update?

Include the @ symbol immediately followed by the user's/company's name in
your status update. As a result, that user/company will get alerted that you
mentioned them, and their name will also link to their profile/page in the
status update itself.
How to Use LinkedIn for Business
& Marketing
23) Optimize your Company Page.
The design of Company Pages has changed a lot over the years. Make sure
yours is set up correctly and optimized for the newest layout, featuring a
compelling and high-quality banner image (see examples of awesome
LinkedIn Company Page banner images here). We've published an entire
free ebook about how to optimize your page for the latest design, so check
it out. You can also view some examples of fantastic LinkedIn Company
Pages here. Here's how HubSpot's Company Page looks ...

Keep in mind that as of April 2014, LinkedIn no longer supports the
Products & Services tab on Company Pages. This means you'll want to set
up and take advantage of LinkedIn's new Showcase Pages instead, which
leads us to our next tip ...
24) Create targeted Showcase Pages.
Showcase Pages are niche pages that branch off your main LinkedIn
Company Page. They allow you to promote specific products or cater to
your individual marketing personas, providing a more personalized
experience for your Company Page visitors. LinkedIn users can also follow

specific Showcase Pages without having to follow a company's main page
or its other Showcase Pages, allowing your business to tailor the page
closely to the audience specific to the page.
To create a Showcase Page, click the Edit dropdown at the top right of your
Company Page and choose Create a Showcase Page. For more
information about creating Showcase Pages, check out our beginner's
guide.
25) Post Company Status Updates (and target
them!).
Make the most of your LinkedIn Company Page by publishing Company
Status Updates for all your page followers to see. This will give LinkedIn
users even more reason to follow your Company Page, thus growing your
LinkedIn reach. To learn how to enable LinkedIn Company Status Updates,
read this post. Then learn how to create successful LinkedIn status updates

in this blog post.
Been using Company Status Updates for a while? Why not step it up a notch
and leverage the power of segmentation with LinkedIn's targeting options,
which enable you to target your status updates to the Network Updates feed
for specific users. Page admins can target their updates by criteria like
company size, industry, job function, seniority, geography, or by
including/excluding company employees.
26) Use Pulse to keep track of industry news.
Pulse is an awesome section of LinkedIn where you can discover popular

articles and trending content tailored to your interests. Browse through the
Your News tab to see what people you follow are publishing, or the Top
Posts tab to monitor the most popular content on Pulse in general.
Use the Discover tab to find and follow specific influencer contributors,
publishers, or topic-related channels to stay on top of news and stories in
your industry. You can also sign up for daily or weekly email summary
notifications of Pulse news (found in the Updates and News section of your
Email Frequency settings), or instant notifications when influencers you're
following post something new.
27) Check out LinkedIn's Content Marketing
Score & Trending Content resources.
If you're a LinkedIn Marketing Solutions customer, you can learn how
impactful your organic and paid LinkedIn content is with the Content
Marketing Score and Trending Content resources. Your Content Marketing
Score measures user engagement with your Sponsored Updates, Company
Pages, LinkedIn Groups, employee updates, and Influencer posts (when
applicable). It then provides recommendations for how you can improve your
score, and thus the effectiveness of your LinkedIn content.
You also can get a sense of which types of content are most popular on
LinkedIn in your industry with LinkedIn's Trending Content

resource. It highlights the most popular content being shared on LinkedIn for
various audiences and topic segments. Monitor this to understand what
content your company should be creating and sharing on LinkedIn to
generate the most engagement.
To learn more about these resources, Marketing Solutions customers can
contact their LinkedIn account executives.
28) Use LinkedIn to generate leads.
In an internal study of HubSpot's customer base, we found that traffic from
LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate
(2.74%) of the top social networks, almost 3 times higher (277%) than
both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%). So yes -- LinkedIn can help
you generate leads. To get the most out of LinkedIn for lead generation,
promote and share links to your blog posts and landing pages in your
Company Status Updates, where appropriate in LinkedIn Groups, on your
Showcase Pages, and in calls-to-action placed in posts you publish via
LinkedIn's publishing platform, Pulse (see tip #33 coming up).
29) Experiment with LinkedIn Ads and
Sponsored Updates.
If you're looking to complement your organic LinkedIn marketing efforts with

some paid advertising, LinkedIn Ads aren't a bad choice to consider. One of
the biggest benefits of LinkedIn Ads? The targeting options! LinkedIn’s PPC
ads let you target specific job titles, job functions, industries, or company
size, to name a few -- you know, the people who are more likely to
want/need what you sell.
If you want to get started with LinkedIn's advertising platform, here's a simple
guide to setting up your first LinkedIn ad campaign. To learn specifically how
to use LinkedIn's newest form of advertising -- Sponsored Updates -- check
out our free guide to succeeding with Sponsored Updates.
30) Use Group Statistics for better targeting
and marketing.
Another little LinkedIn gem that not a lot of users or marketers are aware of
is the fact that you can access statistics for any LinkedIn Group -- even
groups you're not a direct member of. To access the Group Statistics for a
specific LinkedIn Group, click on the group, then click the gear icon in the
group's top navigation. Next, click Group statistics in the About section.

Not only do LinkedIn Group Statistics tell you how many members are in a
group or how active those members are; they also provide other key insights
about the group's members such as their location, seniority, function, and
industry. Use this data to analyze the makeup of a group before you decide
to join, identify which LinkedIn Groups you should target in your LinkedIn Ads
(see tip #29), help guide you in the best ways to segment your Showcase
Pages (see tip #24), or gather insights about your buyer personas to help
you do better marketing outside of LinkedIn.
31) Create your own industry LinkedIn Group
(or subgroups), and join other relevant
groups.
Or you could just create a LinkedIn Group (as well as subgroups if you're so
inclined) of your very own, like HubSpot did with our popular Inbound
Marketers Group. Create a group based on a relevant industry-related topic,
and become a LinkedIn Group administrator. You can then use this group to
establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, grow a community of
advocates, generate new marketing content ideas, and even generate new
leads! You should also consider joining (and getting executives from your
business to join) other relevant groups and participating in discussions to

exhibit thought leadership in your industry.
32) Email your LinkedIn Group.
"Generate newleads from that group, you say?" That's right! One of the
perks of managing a LinkedIn Group is the fact that you can literally email
the members of your group -- up to once per week. These emails take the
form of LinkedIn Announcements, which are messages sent directly to the
email inboxes of group members (if they've enabled messages from groups
in their settings).
This is a prime opportunity for generating leads from LinkedIn, particularly if
you've built up a robust group of users. In fact, at HubSpot, our best
performing LinkedIn lead gen days are usually the days on which we've sent
a LinkedIn Announcement. Here's how to get the most out of your LinkedIn
Group emails.
33) Experiment with publishing content on
Pulse (LinkedIn's publishing platform).
You no longer have to be a LinkedIn Influencer to publish new articles to
LinkedIn Pulse. Publishing is now available to all users, ever since a
February 2014 feature announcement. Experiment with how this feature can
support your marketing goals by creating content for the platform and

promoting it via your Company Page. For example, you could experiment
with syndicating content from your business blog to LinkedIn Pulse and
using it to promote subscription to your full blog.
To publish an article on Pulse, click the pencil icon in the update composer
on your LinkedIn homepage, and start writing! And if you're looking for some
inspiration, check out some of the most popular LinkedIn Pulse articles ever
published here.

34) Recruit new talent.
Looking to fill a position or two on your marketing team -- or anywhere else
within your company, for that matter? Then be sure to build out the Careers
section of your Company Page, which you can use to promote your
available job openings. For more robust customization options for your
Careers section, you can also purchase a Silver or Gold Careers package,
which allows you to add a large, clickable cover image that can be
transformed into a call-to-action. This image can direct users to a specific
job, a list of jobs and opportunities located on your website, or examples of
your company’s culture. The Silver or Gold packages also enables
dynamic, customizable modules (that display different version of the page
based on viewers' LinkedIn profiles), analytics about who is viewing the
page, direct links to recruiters, video content, etc.
The look and feel of your Careers page depends on what information and
images you choose to include, such as a list of jobs, people at your
company, a summary section for your careers, what employees are saying
about working at your company, and recent updates. Furthermore, if you're
actively recruiting candidates with specific skills and expertise, don't forget

about LinkedIn's Advanced Search feature (see tip #20 above).
35) Use LinkedIn for sales prospecting and
social selling.
LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for sales professionals, too! Some of the
LinkedIn features we've already touched upon in this cheat sheet -- e.g.
Saved Searches (tip #8), LinkedIn Groups (tip #19 and #31), Skills (tip
#11), introduction requests (tip #13), etc. -- can also be great tools for sales
prospecting and social selling. Check out this blog post on our Sales Blog to
learn more about how to use LinkedIn for social selling. (And subscribe to
our Sales Blog for more great social selling content here.)
36) Add the Company Follow and LinkedIn
share buttons to your website/content.
Promote your company's LinkedIn presence and help grow the reach of your
Company Page by adding the Company Follow button to your website.
Furthermore, consider adding the LinkedIn Share button to your various
content assets like blog posts, emails, and landing pages to extend the
reach of your content to LinkedIn users. To learn how to build and use these
buttons and more, check out our cheat sheet for creating social media
buttons.

37) Analyze your LinkedIn marketing
performance with the Analytics tab on your
Company Page.
So ... how are your LinkedIn marketing efforts faring? Use the Analytics Tab
for Company Pages to evaluate the performance of your Company Page.
This tab offers data about the effectiveness of your page's status updates,
engagement, and reach, as well as information about your page's followers -
- demographics, where they came from, how your following has grown over
time, how your data compares to other companies, etc.
Access your page's analytics by clicking the Analytics tab in the top
navigation of your Company Page. For even more analytics about how your
LinkedIn marketing efforts are helping you generate traffic, leads, and
customers, you'll need a closed-loop marketing analytics tool like HubSpot.
What other LinkedIn tricks do you use to make the most of your
LinkedIn presence? Share them in the comments below!
Editor's Note: This post has been updated to reflect the latest LinkedIn
features as of March 2015.

Topics: Social Media
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Simple Queries
Written by Rachel Sprung
Ever heard of the computer language called SQL? You may have heard
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about it in the context of data analysis, but never really thought it would apply
to you as a marketer. Or, you may have thought to yourself, "That's for the
really advanced data users. I could never do that."
Well, you couldn't be more wrong! The most successful marketers are data-
driven, and one of the most important parts of being data-driven is being
able to collect data from databases quickly.
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8 Great Marketing Blogs You Probably Don't
Follow (But Should)
Written by Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré
In the past couple of years, a few excellent, and informative sources of
marketing wisdom have risen to prominence. With thoughtful content,
original ideas, clear how-tos, and consistent schedules, these blogs have
become household names (at least in your marketing department).
While these blogs deserve the recognition and readership they've cultivated,
many people assume that those are the only places you should go for
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original, quality marketing ideas.
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Why We Acquired Rekindle
Written by Brian Halligan
As you may have seen, HubSpot has acquired Rekindle, a Boston based
technology startup with unique IP and innovations that we believe will help
HubSpot and our customers advance. But how? Below I’ve taken the time to
share some of my thoughts on why we made this specific acquisition and
how we view acquisitions like these as part of our commitment to rapid
growth and transforming the marketing and sales landscape.
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3 Big Retailers That Also Rock Ecommerce
Written by Morgan Jacobson
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Ecommerce and mobile commerce are obviously here to stay, much to the
chagrin of major brick-and-mortar retailers. We’ve seen some of the biggest
names in shopping go under, with Borders Books perhaps the most
obvious. Then there’s the story of Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, which
failed after the introduction of Netflix. Those that don’t conform to buyers’
need for convenience and privacy simply can’t survive.
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How to Produce an Internet Radio Show
Written by Michael Reynolds
There are lots of ways to generate and publish content for your inbound
marketing efforts. From the tried and true written word that powers your
corporate blog to infographics, webinars, video and ebooks, the number of
channels available to you seem almost endless.
It can be frustrating at times to try to cut through the noise with this much
content being published. While publishing relevant information can help you
create a loyal community of constituents, do you ever wonder if you could
reach more people by adapting your content to a different style?
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If you're struggling to figure out "what's next," you might want to explore the
idea of hosting your own live internet radio show.
Read More
Starting a New Job? 8 Tips for Having a
Great First Day
Written by Lauren Pedigo
Congrats! After all the time you spent perfecting your resume, networking
with people, and researching the company, you landed an interview -- and
nailed it. The next day, you were offered the job (and gleefully accepted it).
The hard part is over, right?
Truthfully, the hard part is just beginning.
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The Inbound Marketing Kit You've Been
Waiting For [Free Download]
Written by Erik Devaney
As an ancient Greek philosopher once said, "So many inbound marketing
resources on the web; so little time to read them."
A wise and prophetic (and entirely fabricated) insight, indeed.
For modern marketers living in the age of information overload, prioritizing
the resources you want to learn from can be overwhelming.
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12 Tools & Resources to Help You Create
Better Buyer Personas
Written by Siobhán McGinty
At first, creating buyer personas seems simple. They're just semi-fictional
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representations of your ideal customers, after all.
But when you actually get into the nitty-gritty of creating them, it's easy to get
tripped up. One of the biggest challenges you are likely to encounter
revolves around actually gathering the information you need to construct your
personas.
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10 Simple Web Copywriting Tips for
Increasing Conversions
Written by Eric Murphy
Web copy is often the difference between visitors and leads, and leads and
customers. It plays an integral role for consumers at every stage of the
buying cycle, from awareness to decision making and advocacy.
Most marketers can identify poor web copy when they see it. Why? Because
poor web copy doesn’t read smoothly, stir emotions, influence behaviors, or
make explicit calls to action—it feels purposeless—and that’s just bad
marketing. And yet, web copywriting is a strategy that sometimes falls by the
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wayside, overlooked for other site priorities like gated content, video,
design, and functionality.
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The Essential Reading List for Growth
Hackers: 15 Experts to Follow
Written by Laxman Papineni
I've always been in awe of growth hacking. Although I see a lot of different
definitions surrounding this buzzword, I like growth hacker Aaron Ginn’s
summation the best:
One reason I like this definition is because it hints at the how
much entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals can learn from the depth
of understanding growth hackers have about how companies grow -- and
their ability to draw connections between how a company is performing, and
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A growth hacker is someone whose passion and focus is
pushing a metric through use of a testable and scalable
methodology.
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the actions needed to lead to healthy, rapid growth that improve
performance and set a company up for success.
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Think Grammar Doesn't Matter? It Could Be
Holding You Back From a Promotion
Written by Allison VanNest
Many people think that once they leave school, they don't need to worry
about grammar. In the real world, most people will just figure out what you
mean ... right?
Not quite. Turns out, quality writing can help you get ahead in your career --
and poor writing can hold you back. So if you want to get ahead in the
workplace, change careers, or find a job, then it’s time to dust off that
dictionary, thumb through your thesaurus, and get a grip on grammar.
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A Wikipedia Expert's Thoughts on the NYPD
Editing Controversy
Written by William Beutler
Editor's Note: Recently, Capital NewYork reported that NYPD computers
had been used to make edits to Wikipedia entries on police-related
topics. We asked Wikipedia expert and President of Beutler Ink William
Beutler to comment on this news story.
New Yorkers and the social web alike were stunned to learn that NYPD
computers had been used to make surreptitious Wikipedia edits on entries
related to police department controversies, including pages covering the
"stop-and-frisk" policy and the deaths of Eric Garner and Amadou Diallo.
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8 Phrases You'll Hear When You Have a Big
Problem in Your Creative Department
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People don't always come out and say what they really mean. Often,
managers have to decipher how a department is really doing by studying the
numbers, observing behavior, and paying close attention to the words their
employees use.
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The #1 Productivity Investment Sales
Teams Are Making This Year [Research]
Written by Emma Snider
This post originally appeared on the Sales section of Inbound Hub. To
read more content like this, subscribe to Sales.
There are several levers sales leaders can pull to boost their teams'
productivity. The tricky part is knowing which to prioritize. Should they double
down on rep training? Implement new technology? Or would the organization
benefit most from a compensation plan shake-up?
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Read More
How to Respond to People on Twitter: A
Simple Guide for Businesses [Infographic]
Thanks to Twitter, businesses are closer to consumers than ever before.
Tweets haven't replaced phone calls and handwritten letters, but they've
become a popular way for consumers to vocalize their questions, praise, or
complaints -- all in plain view of anyone who can find the conversation online.
But customers don't just expect you to read their tweets about you -- they
also expect you to reply.
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5 Landing Page A/B Tests (And Their
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Surprising Results)
Written by Ryan Lynch
Intuition is a powerful and often unexplainable phenomenon of human nature.
Using hunches based off of past experience and knowledge, we often
believe we can predict another person’s actions or intentions. This cognitive
miracle empowers humans to trust their gut feelings and make decisions
with little to no objective support. It’s a beautiful thing, but one that often has
negative repercussions on your marketing.
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A Simple Formula for Writing Kick-Ass Blog
Titles
Written by Corey Eridon
Look, I said ass.
And in a minute, you'll know why. It's one thing to write great content, but it's
another thing to get it read and ranked -- which is where nailing the
title comes in. Titles are what sell the content. They represent it in search
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title comes in. Titles are what sell the content. They represent it in search
engines, in email, and on social media. It's no surprise, then, that one of the
most common questions we get is around crafting titles.
So let's just dive right in, shall we? This post will outline a simple formula
for writing kick-ass titles and headlines.
<
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Improve Conversion Rates by Changing Your
Shipping Options [Infographic]
Written by Susannah Morris
For ecommerce companies, shipping options have a big impact on
conversion rates. In fact, 93% of online shoppers say that free shipping
would encourage them to make more purchases online. And beyond
conversion rates, shipping options can also be a lever to increase average
purchase value and increase the lifetime value of your customers.
Read More
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The 10 Essential Videos All Schools Should
Have on Their Website
Written by David Ross
A picture's worth a thousand words, but a video is worth even more in your
marketing efforts for your educational institution. Videos can help your
campus come to life for prospective students, as they see the people,
programs, and places that make your school great. Especially if you have a
lot of prospective students not from the immediate vincinity of your campus,
video can be a good way to reach those who don't have the opportunity to
visit. Here are ten types of videos you should include in your marketing
efforts.
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9 Smart Ways to Measure Your Sales
Enablement Efforts
Written by Debbie Farese
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Any marketer can tell you that marketing has become a data-driven
discipline. Most of us can tell you what metrics we track for our efforts at the
top and middle of the funnel. Traffic? Check. Leads? Check. Opportunities?
Check.
But as our efforts fall further down the funnel, measurement gets much
harder. When it comes sales enablement, there’s no one number that can
measure the results of your efforts or tell you what projects to prioritize.
Read More
How to Add a CTA Button to Your Facebook
Page [Quick Tip]
Facebook added a very handy feature in December 2014: the option to
place a simple call-to-action button at the top of your Facebook Page. While
only available to select businesses at first, Facebook has recently started to
roll it out to the U.S. and the rest of the world.
The CTA's functionality is pretty simple: You choose from seven pre-made
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button options ("Sign Up," "Shop Now," "Contact Us," "Book Now," "Use
App," Watch Video," and "Play Game") and link it to any website you want.
Read More
3 Neuroscience Findings That'll Make You a
Better Marketer
Written by
Marketers are constantly trying to grab the attention of their audience in new
and innovative ways. This feat is made more and more challenging by the
influx of data and data-related searches on the internet.
Let's play a little game of "Did You Know?" with the help of research from
the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
Read More
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8 Mistakes Brands Make With Instagram
Written by Craig Kilgore
Since coming into existence in 2010, Instagram has given brands the
opportunity to engage with their audience and tell their story through the
power of visuals. The Facebook-owned app was one of the fastest growing
major social networks in 2014, and is now home to more than 300 million
accounts.
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14 Ways to Increase Your Clickthrough Rate
on Twitter
Written by Neil Patel
Tweeting is easy. You can type up anything in three seconds and press
"tweet." But sending a clickable tweet -- that, my friend, is a science.
Thankfully, making your tweets clickable doesn't "just happen" based on the
whim of the Twitter gods. It happens when you intentionally apply a certain
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set of principles.
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Google and Consumers Agree: You Need a
Mobile-Friendly Ecommerce Site
Written by Tracey Wallace
Brands with both a physical and digital presence make almost 30% more in
revenue. Consumers report a higher level of satisfaction with brands that
have both a brick-and-mortar and online store, according to a recent study.
Legacy brands who once hailed shopping malls as their “mecca” are now
having to close shop, and once-startup, online-only brands, including Warby
Parker and Birchbox, are moving in and opening their doors.
Read More
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What Does a Great Buyer Persona Look Like?
Dissecting 3 Real-Life Examples
Written by Lisa Toner
Any project you undertake gets easier when you have real examples to
guide you -- but it's not always easy to find them. Take buyer personas, for
instance. Most companies keep theirs under lock and key, making it really
difficult for other marketers to find inspiration and guidance to make their
own.
So we decided to help.
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A Vivid Vision for HubSpot's Content
Written by Joe Chernov
The program began as it always did -- with a spritely, “Welcome to
INBOUND Radio on SiriusXM channel 125.” Host Mike Volpe went on to
introduce the day’s guests. First up was a prominent Stanford medical
researcher, who’d made a breakthrough in Parkinson’s treatment thanks to
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researcher, who’d made a breakthrough in Parkinson’s treatment thanks to
the millions of iPhone and Apple Watch users who volunteered to have their
health monitored through their mobile devices. “Giving away your health data
is about as inbound as it gets,” observed Volpe when he wrapped up the
interview from HubSpot’s brand new Cambridge recording studio.
Read More
4 Truths Healthcare Providers Need to
Know About Content Marketing
Written by Carrie Dagenhard
Healthcare marketing isn’t easy. (But you already knew that, didn’t you?)
New Affordable Care Act stipulations, HIPAA laws, and increasing
government involvement have regulatory committees tightening their grip on
all forms of outbound communication.
This means that while marketing departments and compliance professionals
have always butted heads, the new state of healthcare has created an
unyielding stalemate between the two departments. But there is a cure.
Read More
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7 Negotiation Techniques That'll Boost Your
Power at the Bargaining Table
You didn’t get into this business to spend your days arguing. Conflict
resolution was certainly not in your job description when you started out as a
designer, account manager, or copywriter. Instead, you daydream about
quiet days agonizing over creative -- not being on stage in a courtroom.
But the reality is that you have to lead the charge for your agency, and that
sometimes requires you to deal with hard-bargaining clients who want more
work at less money.
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How to Easily Create Custom Pin It URLs for
Pinterest
Written by
Nowadays, many marketers -- especially those in the ecommerce space --
are using Pinterest to achieve their business goals. After all, Pinterest
boasts the highest average checkout value of all social media referral
shoppers.
One way they're using Pinterest is by adding Pin It buttons to their websites
to leverage the platform’s shopping power. After all, adding these Pin It
buttons gives fans another outlet for sharing your stuff with their networks --
which helps drive more traffic to your website while organically increasing
your Pinterest following.
Read More
How Inbound Marketing Can Boost
Enrollment for Daycares
Written by Johnny Hughes
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If you’re a child care owner, director, or start-up who’s tired of struggling to
find new ways to fill the enrollment for your daycare, then inbound marketing
might be the golden ticket you’ve been looking for.
In this article, you will learn what stages a parent goes through when
selecting a new child care facility and discover fresh marketing techniques
proven to help you boost enrollment immediately with inbound marketing.
Read More
10 Companies That Totally Nail Copywriting
Written by Corey Eridon
You all know The Old Spice Guy, right? The years-old "The Man Your Man
Could Smell Like" campaign was memorable for many reasons, but one of
them was that it gave Old Spice a voice. A voice that came through in every
video, commercial, tagline, Facebook update, tweet -- you name it.
And do you know who is behind all of that marketing collateral?
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Read More
Industry Benchmarks for Social Media
Engagement: How Much Should Your Posts
Receive?
Written by Maggie Hibma
One of the best feelings as a marketer is when you spend time crafting the
perfect message for your social accounts and then your audience actually
engages with that post. Interactions like shares, comments, retweets, and
favorites tell you that your messages are resonating with your fans and
followers.
But how you know when the number of interactions you’re getting is good?
And what does “good” mean, anyway?
Read More
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11 Expert Tips for Growing Your Company's
Blog
Written by Siobhán McGinty
Most marketers dream about the day their blog has "made it."
How we define "making it" differs. Maybe it's when we reach a certain traffic
or lead goal. Maybe it's the day one of our posts finally gets shared by an
influencer. Or maybe, it's when your blog makes a "blogs to watch" roundup.
Read More
How to Grow Your Email List by Running a
Contest
Written by Jessica Webb
Marketers often think of running contests for things like branding, customer
delight, and fan engagement -- but that's not all they're good for. Created a
certain way, contests can also help you fill your funnel, making your
audience and your boss happy at the same time.
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We've seen this happen first-hand at HubSpot. Last December, my team
had the idea to run a contest, but wanted to see if there was a way to tie it
more closely to business objectives.
Read More
Creating Internal Buy-In for Inbound
Marketing in Higher Education
Written by
You’ve read all the books, you’ve listened to all the top influencer podcasts,
and you’ve analyzed case study upon case study. You’re sold and ready to
start implementing an inbound strategy for your higher education institution.
Now comes the tough part, selling your colleagues on the value.
When Val Fox, a director in Bentley University's marketing and
communication department, wanted to implement Hubspot for their
PreparedU program, one of the first things she had to do was “sell people
internally” on the idea.
Read More
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7 Ways to Create a Long-Lasting
Relationship Between Content and Design
Written by Danielle Irigoyen
When it comes to building a strong brand, no matter what your industry,
every company's key to success starts with stellar content and equally stellar
design. Whether you’re creating a website, infographic, print ad, email
campaign, blog post, social media account, etc., there’s always a need for
some degree of both parts.
Read More
14 Tools & Resources for Conducting Market
Research
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We are creatures of habit, especially when it comes to buying behavior. We
know the location of our favorite products in the store, and we trust that they'll
work year after year. In fact, research shows Americans buy the same 150
items, which accounts for 85% of household needs.
Read More ›

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