8 Common Instagram Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2020

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 1 billion users.

Along with growing its user base, Instagram has expanded its features as well. In the last five years alone, it's embraced business accounts, live video, and advertising, but it's also become a leading platform for social media stories. 

In addition to the network’s impressive growth, users are also highly engaged with the platform. Each day, half of all users use the app and spend an average of 21 minutes on the app. Top brands have quickly realized the potential Instagram presents.

But, while a number of brands have absolutely thrived on the platform, many still struggle to grow their audiences there. This is because a number of seemingly small mistakes could impact your whole strategy on the fast-paced platform.

Whether you’re considering joining, are new to the network, or feel like your Instagram game is lacking, learning about some of the most common Instagram mistakes can help you avoid them and build an effective social strategy.

In this post, we've gathered a list of eight mistakes brands make on the platform, backed by data and HubSpot's own social media team.

The Most Common Mistakes Brands Make on Instagram

1. Brands don't take time to plan out an Instagram strategy.

Instagram offers brands a means of telling their story through photographs, video clips, live video, and Stories, but with all of the features on the app, it can be tempted to create content for every possible post and hope that it's engaging.

When used strategically Instagram is ideal for showcasing products being used in real-life situations, showing the progress of something through photos over time (such as the construction of a vehicle, the making of a new record, showing a new office space from empty to furnished and functional, or a new or favorite recipe from ingredients to the plated final product), or even answering frequently asked questions through short video clips or Instagram Live.

Yes, the possibilities are near limitless on Instagram, but like any other form of digital marketing, you’ll want to define goals early on and create a strategy to help you reach them.

Whether you’re on Instagram to increase brand awareness, showcase a new product line, or add a human element to your brand, each piece of content you publish on the platform should be adding value and help you attain goals.

Who’s doing it right? Quest Nutrition

Quest Nutrition is a nutrition company popular amongst the low carb and fitness crowds. They create nutritional food and drink products to help people reach their own health and fitness goals. According to TOTEMS Analytics, Quest Nutrition grows in follower count by roughly 15k / month. There’s no questioning how well of a job they do connecting with their audience and their lifestyles.

Furthermore, they’re making it work in a somewhat surprising fashion, through video.

Instagram introduced a 15-second video component to their platform back in June of 2013, and the adoption and engagement rates have been lesser than photo content. However, Quest Nutrition has found a way to make it work, driving far more engagement with video content, according to PicStats.

Here’s an example of Quest Nutrition creating a “how-to” video with one of their products, all while sticking to their #CheatClean (health and wellness) message and strategy.

[VIDEO] #Regram from @QuestCooking. Succulent and mouth-watering, these Quest Crab Cakes are deliciously packed with 15g of protein! This #CheatClean recipe gives ”feeling crabby" a whole new meaning. Give it a try! CLICK the link in our profile page to get the recipe or go here - http://po.st/questcrabcakes. Macros per cake (makes 4): Calories:  169. Protein:  15g. Fat: 10g. Net Carb:  4g. #QuestNutrition #OnaQuest #15SecondRecipe

A video posted by questnutrition (@questnutrition) on Mar 2, 2015 at 6:05pm PST

2. Brands focus on production quality rather than audience value.

Because major brands might post high-resolution photos and video content on Instagram, smaller brands might get the impression that you need a fancy camera or a studio to succeed on Instagram. This is far from the truth, according to HubSpot's Social Media Manager Kelly Hendrickson:

"Quality is more than the video equipment you use to film or the design software you use to create. Quality is about providing value," Hendrickson explains.

When you don't focus on creating content that your audience enjoys or values, they might be less likely to like it, share it, or keep following you. 

Take a second to think about how Instagram works. Users typically scroll through a single column of photos, quickly glancing at photos and skimming captions, only slowing down and stopping when something catches their eyes or piques their interest.

Other times they’re exploring content via hashtags, tapping quickly through Instagram Stories, or scrolling through a 3-column search layout until a photo or video stands out.

The more focus you put on the quality and value of the content you’re publishing on Instagram, the more likely users will be to slow down, stop at, and engage with your account and content.

Hendrickson suggests asking yourself, "What can your audience get from your brand’s Instagram account that they can’t get anywhere else? How are you improving their experience on the platform? How are you identifying with them?"

Who’s doing it right? Taco Bell

Taco Bell is no stranger to effectively utilizing social media. By summer of 2020, they had well over 1.4 million followers over a thousand posts with well over that amount of engagements.  

And while you might not typically group fast food and photography, Taco Bell has always made it work and taken full advantage of Instagram's highly-engaged user base.

The fast-food chain does an extraordinary job leveraging vibrant colors in their photos and creates a laidback, entertaining feel through photo and video captions.

Taco Bell's posts and Stories, which often contain delectable images of food are eye-catching, relevant, engaging, and make you crave their products. On top of showing images of their most hunger-inducing meals, Taco Bell also regularly highlights images of customers eating their products in daily life.

Here's just one example where Taco Bell highlighted a recent graduate eating a wrap:

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congrats to all 2020 graduates. 🎉 That’s a wrap!

A post shared by Taco Bell (@tacobell) on May 28, 2020 at 6:08pm PDT

 

3. Brands don't determine a posting frequency that's right for them.

While a number of studies in the last decade hinted that posting more often each day would create more engagement, newer research has debunked the theory that you must post as much as possible to be successful on the current Instagram platform. 

As part of your Instagram strategy, post frequency should be addressed and studied, but you should take more than engagement into account. For example, if posting a lot doesn't get you high engagements, but still takes time away from your overall social media strategy, you might want to post less. On the other hand, if you're a large company that has the resources to post more highly engaging content each day, that might be a tactic you should continue.

Ultimately, you'll want to look for a happy medium between quantity and quality, ensuring one isn’t sacrificed for the other. If you determine that you’re able to post quality content 15 times-per-day, it’s important you stick to a similar posting schedule for a bit and pivot if your engagement numbers change. 

Who’s doing it right? MAC Cosmetics

MAC Cosmetics is a cosmetics manufacturer founded in 1984 in Toronto, Canada. According to TOTEMS Analytics, MAC Cosmetics grows in follower count on Instagram by roughly 231k / month. A post on Instagram earns the cosmetics manufacturer an impressive 34k likes and 300+ comments on average according to PicStats.

MAC Cosmetics is close to hitting 3 million followers and that’s due in part to their frequent and consistent posting schedule. It’s uncommon to go a day without seeing several quality posts from the brand.

Again, it’s worth noting that the brand isn’t sacrificing quality, as you’ll see in the examples below.

 

 

4. Brands purchase followers or engagements.

If you're even slightly considering buying followers or engagements, stop. For years, the network has been cracking down on fake and spam accounts, and they’re taking them out in massive numbers.

"Social media companies are savvy. Whether it be Twitter purging bots or TikTok shadow banning users, social media companies can sniff out fakes pretty quickly. And here’s the thing, so can you audience," Hendrickson reveals. 

"A high purchased follower account won’t meet your brand’s goal of being on Instagram in the first place," Hendrickson explains. "In fact, it can harm them. Do those purchased followers help your genuine audience build an affinity for your brand? Does it make them look to your brand for value? Does it make them trust you?"

"In the end, all these purchases end up doing, is having your audience ask why the likes are so low on a post when you have so many followers," Hendrickson points out. 

So, what should you do instead? Focus on real engagement, like the accounts noted in this post. 

Who’s doing it right? Nike

Nike is a multinational corporation known for their footwear, apparel, sporting equipment, and services. The brand is often referenced for their innovative marketing strategies, and they’ve earned an impressive Instagram audience with a whopping 120 million followers. 

Nike’s attention to quality, compelling and influential messages, and an ability to create genuine connections with their audience through photo and video is what’s earned them one of the most dominant presences on the social network.

The high-quality photos, captivating captions, utilization of location tagging, and branded hashtags are working well for the brand as you’ll see below.

5. Brands focus on gaining -- but not retaining -- followers.

Instagram users are engaged and they’re consuming and enjoying branded content at impressive rates. The social network continues to give brands huge opportunities for growth. However, an engaged following today doesn’t guarantee an engaged following tomorrow. How you interact with and leverage your Instagram following can mean the difference between flourishing and flopping on the social network.

One of the simplest and most effective ways to offset the additional resources needed to create a successful Instagram presence can be found within your audience. Instagram is the perfect platform for promoting user-generated content (UGC), probably more so than any other social network. Whether you’re running a photo contest or are encouraging the use of a branded hashtag, Instagram is the perfect platform for building real relationships with real people.

Give your followers the opportunity to spread your message, share your content, use your hashtags, and serve as advocates to your brand.

Who’s doing it right? BarkBox

BarkBox is a monthly surprise package for dogs that includes toys, treats, and goodies. The company donates 10% of their profits to dogs in need and has already rescued 800 puppies. 

The brand has one of the funniest, most entertaining accounts on Instagram. They feature some of the most popular dogs of Instagram on their account, which has helped them promote engagement, grow their following, and promote branded hashtags. They’ve also created a VIP program that helps them earn business return via Instagram.

There’s a reason BarkBox is raking in 15k likes and 1k comments average on each post.

Try not to laugh (volume recommended).

 

 

 

6. Brands are overly promotional.

Is there anything more unflattering than brands posting nothing but promotional content on their social networks? Buy this, sale on this, big savings, free shipping!

Overly promotional posts come across as selfish, lazy, and depending on timing, potentially distasteful. While there’s certainly a time and a place to be promotional, brands succeeding on Instagram are the ones delivering powerful and meaningful messages, visually presenting their culture, sharing quality photos and videos, and engaging with their audience.

In addition, it’s no secret Instagram is a Facebook-owned entity. If you remember, Facebook made a News Feed update back in November of 2014 announcing significant drops in organic reach for promotional posts.

Don’t be tacky on Instagram.

Who’s doing it right? Ben & Jerry’s

Ben & Jerry’s is a dairy company known for their delicious ice cream, and more recently, their mouth-watering Instagram feed.  The chain's Instagram account has over 1.5 million followers.

Instead of posting pictures of ice cream every day (which would most likely still work for them), Ben & Jerry’s regularly shares fans’ photos on their page. What better way to get people excited about taking pictures with your product than sharing them publicly for the world to see? It’s worked well for the brand that on average scoops 20k likes-per-post according to PicStats.

Below is an example of user-generated content shared by Ben & Jerry’s, along with a video post delivering a very powerful message while utilizing their product.

 

 

7. Brands use as many hashtags as they can think of. 

Similar to other social networks, hashtags play an important role in the discovery process on Instagram. While, lesser-known brands or brands with low follower counts can use popular but relevant hashtags to optimize their posts, using too many can make your brand look spammy, desperate, or out of touch.

While past research once suggested that brands should use 11 or more of Instagram's 30 allotted hashtags for each post, Sprout Social now suggests that less is more. According to the social media software company, using two to five relevant hashtags in a post can yield more engagements that using 10 or more. 

Image Source

In terms of relevancy, brands should also be sure to avoid misusing hashtags in an attempt to increase exposure. This is a surefire way to lose credibility and come off as lazy on a network that was built on authenticity and quality.

Who’s doing it right? GoPro

GoPro is the creator of the "world’s most versatile camera," a favorite amongst extreme athletes, amateur photographers, and pets around the world. According to TOTEM Analytics, GoPro grows in follower count on Instagram by roughly 221k / month and is one of the most popular brands on the network.

With 4.3m followers, GoPro could probably eliminate hashtags completely without sacrificing engagement. The brand chooses to leverage the discovery mechanism and it’s just one of the reasons they’ve created such a memorable Instagram presence.

Below is a GoPro post that gets a couple things right in the hashtag category. For starters, they’re utilizing more than one hashtag. More importantly, they’re utilizing hashtags that are relevant to the photo.

8. Brands avoid Instagram completely.

If you’re still questioning whether or not Instagram has a place in your social media marketing strategy, you’re not alone.

Despite all the opportunities Instagram provides, smart marketers still will approach any new social media platform with caution. They'll ask themselves questions like, "Do I have enough time to manage another social network?," "Is it worth joining Instagram if my business or offerings aren't visually friendly?," or "Do I have the right resources to create quality photos and videos?"

The truth is, the questions above are absolutely worth asking -- especially if your brand has a limited budget or social team. However, you shouldn't let these fears hinder your social strategy too much, especially when the social platform's history is as long and successful as Instagram's.

As the fastest growing major social network with one of the most engaged audiences, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to overlook Instagram's value.

As we mentioned above, in less than six years, the platform's grown to a whopping 1 billion users, while hosting millions of active businesses and influencers who regularly spread awareness about products. 

In 2020, it's safe to say that Instagram is worth considering.

Who’s doing it right? General Electric

General Electric is a power and water, oil and gas, energy management, aviation, healthcare, transportation, and capital corporation. While they may not be the first brand that comes to mind when you think Instagram, General Electric has been known for leveraging social media to connect with their audience.

The brand does an incredible job bringing their core values to life through photo and video on Instagram. In addition, they’ve found a way to take an otherwise very serious subject matter and make it educational, interesting, and exciting.

Working around the clock to build, power, move, and cure the world is the theme they showcase throughout photos and videos like the following:

 

A Mistake-Free Instagram Marketing Strategy

In recent years, Instagram's gone from a social network known for selfies and food pictures to a platform brands are leveraging to deliver meaningful messages, tell stories, and engage with people on a human to human level.

We’ll continue to hear about, read about, speak about, and experience firsthand the opportunity Instagram presents to brands and marketers as network continues to grow.

Brands getting the most out of the network are the ones posting quality content on a consistent basis, and are doing so with a purpose. Even brands that aren't thought of as visually friendly are leveraging the network and seeing it work.

The Instagram community is genuinely interested in connecting with these brands; so much so that they've expressed interest in learning more about brands and products after they've been inspired by what they’re posting.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in March 2015 but was updated in August 2020 for comprehensiveness and freshness. 

 

8 Common Instagram Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2020 was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Create a Professional Email Address [+ Examples]

News flash -- your email address from high school won’t cut it in the real world. Even if “baseballbro25@aim.com” serves as a nostalgic reminder for your peak athletic years, it’ll look like an eyesore on your resume and prompt any recruiter or hiring manager to press delete.

That said, there’s probably at least one person who has the same name as you, so the email address with just your first and last name has most likely been taken by now.

Fortunately, though, a professional email address isn’t limited to just your first and last name. There are plenty of ways you can choose one that any recruiter or hiring manager would consider professional.

1. Choose your email host.

When you first get started with your business, you're going to purchase a domain and hosting site.

One way to create a business email address is to look for the hosting package that includes business email. It's usually an additional cost, but many users choose to set up their business email this way because of the ease.

If you choose this way of creating a business email, you'll need to go to your hosting site and set up your email. Usually this means going to the "Email" section of your hosting site and choosing an email (tips and examples below).

However, another way to set up email is to go through G-Suite instead of your hosting platform (this is what we do at HubSpot). Google will walk you through this process, so it's usually as simple as 1, 2, 3.

2. Connect your email to an email client.

Next, if you chose to host your email through your hosting platform, you'll need to connect your email address to an email client.

To do this, you'll log in to your hosting platform, go to the "Email" section, and find a button that says "Set up Mail Client" or something to that affect.

This will walk you through the process of setting up your email with Outlook, Gmail, or any mail app.

3. Connect your email to your marketing automation software.

Finally, you'll want to make sure that your marketing automation platform has access to your email.

To do this with HubSpot, you can follow these instructions.

Usually, this process will include going to your settings and looking for a "Domains" or "Email Sending" button.

Once you've found this in your automation software, it should walk you through the process of connecting your email.

Now that you know how to set up your business email, let's review some ideas and examples to help you choose your naming conventions.

Professional Email Address Ideas and Examples

Combine your names.

• First name + last name = cliffordchi@domain.com
• First name . last name = clifford.chi@domain.com
• First name - last name = clifford-chi@domain.com
• First name . middle name . last name = clifford.douglas.chi@domain.com
• First name - middle name - last name = clifford-douglas-chi@domain.com
• First initial + last name = cchi@domain.com
• First initial + middle name + last name = cdouglaschi@domain.com
• First initial + middle initial +last name = cdchi@domain.com

Shorten your names.

• cliffchi@domain.com
• cliffdougchi@domain.com
• cliffdouglaschi@domain.com
• clifforddougchi@domain.com

Combine your name with your profession, city, or degree.

• cliffordchiwriter@domain.com
• cliffchiwriter@domain.com
• cchiwriter@domain.com
• cliffordchiboston@domain.com
• cliffchiboston@domain.com
• cchiboston@domain.com
• cliffordchimfa@domain.com
• cliffchimfa@domain.com
• cchimfa@domain.com

Surprisingly, choosing a professional email address can be quite challenging, especially since you can’t spice it up like you can with your personal one. But, as you can see, there are still plenty of ways for choosing a strong professional email address, and, hopefully, we helped you find one.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

How to Create a Professional Email Address [+ Examples] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

14 PowerPoint Presentation Tips to Make More Creative Slideshows [+ Templates]

I like to think of Microsoft PowerPoint as a test of basic marketing skills. To create a passing presentation, I need to demonstrate design skills, technical literacy, and a sense of personal style.

If the presentation has a problem (like an unintended font, a broken link, or unreadable text), then I’ve probably failed the test.

Even if my spoken presentation is well rehearsed, a bad visual experience can ruin it for the audience.

Expertise means nothing without a good presentation to back it up. For starters, grab your collection of free PowerPoint templates below, and use the tips that follow to perfect your next presentation.

No matter your topic, successful PowerPoints depend on three main factors: your command of PowerPoint's design tools, your attention to presentation processes, and your devotion to consistent style. Here are some simple tips to help you start mastering each of those factors, and don't forget to check out the additional resources at the bottom of this post.

How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation

A presentation is made up of multiple slides, and now that you know how to make one, you can delve deeper into PowerPoint's capabilities.

1. Open a blank presentation again or start from one you've already created.

If you've already created a presentation, double click the icon to open the existing file. Otherwise, open Microsoft PowerPoint, click "File" in the top left corner, and click "New Presentation." From there, you can follow the prompts to set up a new presentation.

2. Choose a "theme" or create your own.

Microsoft offers built-in themes and color variations to help you design your slides with a cohesive look. To choose from these pre-built themes, choose the "File" tab again, select "New", choose one of the options, and click "Create."

Otherwise, you can use PowerPoint elements, your design sense, and your brand's color palette to make your own "theme."

3. Create a variety of slides for different purposes.

You don't want to present the same exact slide, just with different content on it. This would bore your audience. Ensure that you create multiple variations, accommodating some of the common uses for slides. At minimum, you'll need:

• A title slide
• An agenda or table of contents slide
• A slide that introduces the speaker
• Various content slides (create different layouts considering what kind of multimedia you'll use)

4. Use the Duplicate Slides feature to save you time.

There's no reason to create these designs over and over again. Now that you have a few to draw from, you can simply duplicate them before inputting your content. Here's how to do that:

1. On the left pane, right click the thumbnail of the slide you want to duplicate.
2. Choose "Duplicate Slide" from the pop-up menu.

This will automatically add a copy of this slide to the presentation. From there, you can customize it for your needs.

5. Add transitions to your slides (optional).

Done well, transitions can add a little bit of movement and showmanship to your presentation. PowerPoint has several transitions built in for you to choose from.

To access them, select the "Transitions" tab from the top ribbon. From there, you can select a transition for it to preview on your screen. To customize it further, click "Effect Options" and play with the features to find something that suits your liking. To remove a transition, select "Transitions" and click "None."

6. Add animations to your slides (optional).

Like transitions, animations can add movement, reveal information, and help you underscore the points you want to hit during your speech. To animate an element, follow these steps:

1. Select the element you want animated by clicking on it.
2. Choose "Animations" from the top ribbon.
3. You'll have the option to choose from several effects displayed in the ribbon.
4. Clicking on one will give you a preview.
5. To customize the animation, select "Effect Options."
6. To remove an animation, click "None" in the ribbon.

Some of the ways to customize animations include:

• On Click
• With Previous
• After Previous
• Duration
• Delay

These describe how you want the effect to behave, so play around with them until you find an effect that suits your liking.

You'll also have the option to move animations around as you edit your slides with the "Reorder Animation" function in the top ribbon.

7. Save your presentation.

Click "File" and "Save", making sure to specify which folder or destination you want your PowerPoint to be stored.

8. Run your presentation.

It's always good to do a trial run to ensure that your slides are set up properly and your animations fire they way you expect them to.

To present your PowerPoint, go to the "Slide Show" tab and click "Play from Start". The slide will cover your whole screen, blocking out your desktop and PowerPoint software. This is so your audience (in this case, you for the trial run) is solely focused on the visual elements of your presentation.

9. Advance the slides.

When you're done with one slide and want to show the next in your sequence, click your mouse in presentation mode. This will advance the slide.

PowerPoint Presentation Tips

1. Don't let PowerPoint decide how you use PowerPoint.
2. Create custom slide sizes.
3. Edit your slide template design.
4. Write text with your audience in mind.
5. Make sure all of your objects are properly aligned.
6. Use "Format Menus" to better control your objects' designs.
7. Take advantage of PowerPoint's shapes.
8. Create custom shapes.
9. Crop images into custom shapes.
10. Present websites within PowerPoint.
11. Try Using GIFs.
12. Keep it simple.
13. Embed your font files.
14. Save your slides as JPEGs.
15. Embed multimedia. 
16. Bring your own hardware.
17. Use "Presenter View."

PowerPoint Style

1. Don’t let PowerPoint decide how you use PowerPoint.

Microsoft wanted to provide PowerPoint users with a lot of tools. But this does not mean you should use them all. Here are some key things to look out for:

• Make sure that preset PPT themes complement your needs before you adopt them.
• Try to get away from using Microsoft Office’s default fonts, Calibri and Cambria. Using these two typefaces can make the presentation seem underwhelming.
• Professionals should never use PPT’s action sounds. (Please consider your audience above personal preference).
• PowerPoint makes bulleting automatic, but ask yourself: Are bullets actually appropriate for what you need to do? Sometimes they are, but not always.
• Recent PPT defaults include a small shadow on all shapes. Remove this shadow if it's not actually needed. Also, don’t leave shapes in their default blue.

2. Create custom slide sizes.

While you usually can get away with the default slide size for most presentations, you may need to adjust it for larger presentations on weirdly sized displays. If you need to do that, here's how.

• In the top-left corner, choose "File."
• Select "Page Setup."
• Type the height and width of the background you'd like, and click "OK."
• A dialogue box will appear. Click "OK" again.
• Your background is resized!

Tip: Resize your slides before you add any objects to them or the dimensions of your objects will become skewed.

3. Edit your slide template design.

Often, it's much easier to edit your PowerPoint template before you start -- this way, you don't have design each slide by hand. Here's how you do that.

• Select "Themes" in the top navigation.
• In the far right, click "Edit Master," then "Slide Master."
• Make any changes you like, then click "Close Master." All current and future slides in that presentation will use that template.

4. Write text with your audience in mind.

A significant part of a PowerPoint's content is text. Great copy can make or break your presentation, so evaluating your written work from a few different angles could make you seem more persuasive. Thinking about how your text is received differentiates good presenters from the best.

Typography: 

Many people underestimate the influence of typeface, but choosing the right font is important -- the perception of your font type could influence your audience's impression of you. The right font is an opportunity to convey consistent brand personality and professionalism.

Some fonts are seen as clean and professional, but this doesn't mean they're boring. A common mistake is thinking your font isn't "exciting" enough, which could lead you to choose a font that distracts from your overall message.

Source: Workfront

That said, you can still use fun and eccentric fonts -- in moderation. Offsetting a fun font or large letters with something more professional can create an engaging presentation. Above all, be sure you're consistent so your presentation looks the same throughout each slide, so your audience doesn't become distracted by too many disparate fonts.

Source: Design Shack

5. Make sure all of your objects are properly aligned.

Having properly aligned objects on your slide is the key to making it look polished and professional. You can manually try to line up your images ... but we all know how that typically works out. You're trying to make sure all of your objects hang out in the middle of your slide, but when you drag them there, it still doesn't look quite right. Get rid of your guessing game and let PowerPoint work its magic with this trick.

How to align multiple objects:

• Select all objects by holding down "Shift" and clicking on all of them.
• Select "Arrange" in the top options bar, then choose "Align or Distribute."
• Choose the type of alignment you'd like.

How to align objects to the slide:

• Select all objects by holding down "Shift" and clicking on all of them.
• Select "Arrange" in the top options bar, then choose "Align or Distribute."
• Select "Align to Slide."
• Select "Arrange" in the top options bar again, then choose "Align or Distribute."
• Choose the type of alignment you'd like.

PowerPoint Design

6. Use "Format Menus" to better control your objects' designs.

Format menus allow you to do fine adjustments that otherwise seem impossible. To do this, right click on an object and select the "Format" option. Here, you can fine-tune shadows, adjust shape measurements, create reflections, and much more. The menu that will pop up looks like this:

Although the main options can be found on PowerPoint’s format toolbars, look for complete control in the format window menu. Other examples of options available include:

• Adjusting text inside a shape.
• Creating a natural perspective shadow behind an object.
• Recoloring photos manually and with automatic options.

7. Take advantage of PowerPoint's shapes.

Many users don’t realize how flexible PowerPoint’s shape tools have become. In combination with the expanded format options released by Microsoft in 2010, the potential for good design with shapes is readily available. PowerPoint provides the user with a bunch of great shape options beyond the traditional rectangle, oval, and rounded rectangle patterns, unlike even professional design programs like Adobe Creative Suite or Quark.

Today’s shapes include a highly functional Smart Shapes function, which enables you to create diagrams and flow charts in no time. These tools are especially valuable when you consider that PowerPoint is a visual medium. Paragraphing and bullet lists are boring -- you can use shapes to help express your message more clearly.

8. Create custom shapes.

When you create a shape, right click and press "Edit Points." By editing points, you can create custom shapes that fit your specific need. For instance, you can reshape arrows to fit the dimensions you like.

Another option is to combine two shapes together. When selecting two shapes, right-click and go to the "Grouping" sub-menu to see a variety of options.

• Combine creates a custom shape that has overlapping portions of the two previous shapes cut out.
• Union makes one completely merged shape.
• Intersect builds a shape of only the overlapping sections of the two previous shapes.
• Subtract cuts out the overlapping portion of one shape from the other.

By using these tools rather than trying to edit points precisely, you can create accurately measured custom shapes.

9. Crop images into custom shapes.

Besides creating custom shapes in your presentation, you can also use PowerPoint to crop existing images into new shapes. Here's how you do that:

• Click on the image and select "Format" in the options bar.
• Choose "Crop," then "Mask to Shape," and then choose your desired shape. Ta-da! Custom-shaped photos.

Learn more about creating images for your marketing channels in the video below.

10. Present websites within PowerPoint.

Tradition says that if you want to show a website in a PowerPoint, you should just create link to the page and prompt a browser to open. For PC users, there’s a better option.

Third party software that integrates fully into PowerPoint’s developer tab can be used to embed a website directly into your PowerPoint using a normal HTML iframe. One of the best tools is LiveWeb, a third-party software developed independently.

By using LiveWeb, you don’t have to interrupt your PowerPoint, and your presentation will remain fluid and natural. Whether you embed a whole webpage or just a YouTube video, this can be a high-quality third party improvement.

Unfortunately, Mac users don’t have a similar option. Agood second choice is to take screen shots of the website, link in through a browser, or embed media (such as a YouTube video) by downloading it directly to your computer.

11. Try Using GIFs.

GIFs are looped animated images used to communicate a mood, idea, information, and much more. Users add GIFs to Powerpoints to be funny or quickly demo a process. It's easy to add GIFs to your slides. To do so, simply follow these steps:

• Download and save the GIF you want.
• Go to the slide you want the GIF on.
• Go to the "Home" tab, and click either "Insert" or "Picture".
• From the "Picture" drop-down menu, choose "Picture from File".
• Navigate to where you saved your GIF and select it. Then, choose "Insert".
• To play the animated GIF, click the "Slide Show" tab and then "Play from Current Slide".

PowerPoint Process

12. Keep it simple.

PowerPoint is an excellent tool to support your presentation with visual information, graphics, and supplemental points. This means  that your powerpoint should not be your entire presentation. Your slides -- no matter how creative and beautiful -- shouldn't be the star of the show. Keep your text and images clear and concise, using them only to supplement your message and authority. 

If your slides have dense and cluttered information, it will both distract your audience and make it much more likely that you will lose their attention. Nothing in your slides should be superfluous! Keep your presentation persuasive by keeping it clean. There are a few ways to do this:

• Limit bullet points and text.
• Avoid paragraphs and long quotes.
• Maintain "white space" or "negative space".
• Keep percentages, graphs, and data super basic.

13. Embed your font files.

One constant problem presenters have with PowerPoint is that fonts seem to change when presenters move from one computer to another. In reality, the fonts are not changing -- the presentation computer just doesn’t have the same font files installed. If you’re using a PC and presenting on a PC, then there is a smooth work around for this issue. (When you involve Mac systems, the solution is a bit rougher. See Tip #11.)

Here’s the trick: When you save your PowerPoint file (only on a PC), you should click Save Options in the "Save As …" dialog window. Then, select the "Embed TrueType fonts" check box and press "OK." Now, your presentation will keep the font file and your fonts will not change when you move computers (unless you give your presentation on a Mac).

14. Save your slides as JPEGs.

In PowerPoint for Mac 2011, there is no option to embed fonts within the presentation. So unless you use ubiquitous typefaces like Arial or Tahoma, your PPT is likely going to encounter font changeson different computers.

The most certain way of avoiding this is by saving your final presentation as JPEGs, and then inserting these JPEGs onto your slides. On a Mac, users can easily drag and drop the JPEGs into PPT with fast load time. If you do not use actions in your presentation, then this option works especially well.

If you want your presentation to appear "animated," you'll need to do a little tinkering. All you need to do is save JPEGs of each "frame" of the animation. Then, in your final presentation, you'll just display those JPEGs in the order you'd like the animation to appear. While you'll technically have several new slides in place of one original one, your audience won't know the difference.

An important consideration: If your PPT includes a lot of JPEGs, then the file size will increase.

15. Embed multimedia.

PowerPoint allows you to either link to video/audio files externally or to embed the media directly in your presentation. You should embed these files if you can, but if you use a Mac, you cannot actually embed the video (see note below). For PCs, two great reasons for embedding are:

• Embedding allows you to play media directly in your presentation. It will look much more professional than switching between windows.
• Embedding also means that the file stays within the PowerPoint presentation, so it should play normally without extra work (except on a Mac).

Note: Mac OS users of PowerPoint should be extra careful about using multimedia files.

If you use PowerPoint for Mac, then you will always need to bring the video and/or audio file with you in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation. It’s best to only insert video or audio files once the presentation and the containing folder have been saved on a portable drive in their permanent folder. Also, if the presentation will be played on a Windows computer, then Mac users need to make sure their multimedia files are in WMV format. This tip gets a bit complicated, so if you want to use PowerPoint effectively, consider using the same operating system for designing andpresenting, no matter what.

16. Bring your own hardware.

Between operating systems, PowerPoint is still a bit jumpy. Even between differing PPT versions, things can change. One way to fix these problems is to make sure that you have the right hardware -- so just bring along your own laptop when you're presenting.

17. Use "Presenter View."

In most presentation situations, there will be both a presenter’s screen and the main projected display for your presentation. PowerPoint has a great tool called Presenter View, which can be found in the "Slide Show" tab of PowerPoint 2010 (or 2011 for Mac). Included in the Presenter View is an area for notes, a timer/clock, and a presentation display.

For many presenters, this tool can help unify their spoken presentation and their visual aid. You never want to make the PowerPoint seem like a stack of notes that you use a crutch. Use the Presenter View option to help create a more natural presentation.

Pro Tip: At the start of the presentation, you should also hit CTRL + H to make the cursor disappear. Hitting the "A" key will bring it back if you need it!

With style, design, and presentation processes under your belt, you can do a lot more with PowerPoint than just presentations for your clients. PowerPoint and similar slide applications are flexible tools that should not be forgotten. With a great template, you can be on your way to creating presentations that wow your audience.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

14 PowerPoint Presentation Tips to Make More Creative Slideshows [+ Templates] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Build Community-Centric Virtual Events, According to Moz's CMO

As you're probably well-familiar at this point, 2020 has brought with it plenty of disruption and change.

Consider, for instance, the fact that I'm writing this post from my living room, which has slowly morphed into my full-time office (as well as a workout studio, movie theatre, and popular after-work happy hour spot).

Along with a personal change in routine, the pandemic has severely altered how companies conduct nearly every aspect of business.

And one major change? Conferences.

In the early months of 2020, many businesses were faced with a similar problem: Should we host our event or conference entirely online, and if so, will it deliver the same value for attendees?

Moz was no different, but while many companies were shifting a smaller-scale event online, Moz was dealing with an entirely different beast: MozCon, a 15-year-old SEO and digital marketing conference with thousands of attendees from across the globe.

Here, I spoke with Christina Mautz, CMO and Head of Sales at Moz, to learn how business leaders can still build impactful events virtually — plus, how leaders can foster a sense of collaboration and community, even when entirely remote.

Best Practices for Shifting Your Event Online

1. Re-envision your event entirely when shifting to online — don't just "copy and paste" the in-person schedule.

Venturing into virtual events is unknown territory for many businesses. While some companies believe they have experience due to hosting webinars, events are an entirely different beast.

Moz has 15 years of experience creating world-class events. But shifting from in-person to virtual required "all hands on deck", given our goal was to recreate an experience our attendees have come to love and expect from us.

We decided to shift to virtual just before our governor's ban of large-scale events, which left us only two-and-a-half months to re-envision and re-plan the event. While pivoting was a difficult choice, it needed to be made for the safety of our company, the community, and our attendees.

Thankfully, MozCon is a valued and well-known event for our community, so we were successful in hitting our goal for the number of tickets we needed to sell to break-even (we do not run the event for profit), even though the timeline was greatly condensed.

The goal for MozCon Virtual was to provide attendees with the same awesome content experience and overall value they would get from the usual live format. This required us to shorten the event (as our typical three-day conference just wasn't going to fly online) and come up with a new design and attendee engagement strategy.

2. Pre-record sessions ahead of time to increase accessibility, and design a dynamic agenda to keep participants engaged.

Given that our primary goal was to ensure superior content, we focused much of our attention on confirming and/or convincing our existing (expert) speakers to participate. This included the decision to pre-record all sessions with enough time to allow for full closed captioning, to aid in accessibility for all attendees.

We made the decision to make the video recordings available not just during the event but immediately after to increase participation from our many international attendees in different time zones — this was a great success for the participants who joined us from 49 different countries. We also sought support from our partners Seamless Events to ensure our speakers had high-touch support to pre-record their session using high-quality A/V tools like:

• Logitech C920 HD Pro Webcam
• Neewer Backdrop Support System
• Neewer Gray Photography Backdrops
• UBeesize 8-inch Selfie Ring Light w/ Tripod Stand
• Z ZAFFIRO USB Lavalier Lapel Clip Microphone
• Vilcome 4-in-1 USB C Hub Adapter

Finally, we knew that it is often challenging to stay engaged during online events — even when the content is incredible. So we purposely designed a dynamic agenda with sessions we could view together mixed in with a plethora of "birds of a feather" break-out sessions to allow for actual live interactions with attendees.

We chose a virtual event platform among the many available that enabled live break-out sessions as well as live-chat with the speaker and other attendees while viewing each pre-recorded session.

Challenges of Hosting MozCon Virtually

1. Our first challenge was ensuring our marketing team could still "work the event" — plus, fostering collaboration digitally.

Building and executing an in-person conference requires an incredible team, but don't assume virtual events are any easier or less labor-intensive. The challenges are different and can make or break the experience attendees walk away with. Critical to our success was ensuring that we still made space for our marketing team to both plan and "work the event" with the support of our long-time partner, Proper Planning.

We also spent a lot of time thinking about the different challenges we would face. For example, how do you foster collaboration using screens so people feel as if they're in a breakout room? For us, that equated to creating an environment that felt authentic and community-oriented.

We accomplished this by providing an avenue for our speakers to connect through chat while sessions ran, and by creating "Birds of a Feather" sessions allowing us to speak freely and network. These sessions included topics like:

• Ask a CMO
• Ask an SEO
• B2b2c Marketing
• Evergreen Backlinks
• Separating SEO and Content Marketing
• Current Trends in the Agency World

2. Our second challenge was creating a safe, welcoming virtual environment.

Similar to our expectations for MozCon in years past, our mission to foster a safe environment remained top of mind. To us, this means more than ensuring physical safety. We believe in full inclusivity which extends to a responsibility on our part to ensure that all speakers, sponsors, and attendees are able to participate in a welcome, nurturing, and safe environment.

We do not tolerate disrespect or harassment of speakers or conference participants in any form, so moderators were stationed in each virtual room to moderate chat and quickly handle any issues. Of course, participants remained respectful and collaborative, but it was important going in that people knew they would be welcomed as part of our community and that they had support should an issue arise.

So ... Did It Work?

For those planning virtual events, I encourage leaders to be realistic about expectations and goals. At Moz, our event isn't intended to make a profit.

However, with meticulous preparation we were able to break-even and double our usual number of attendees.

In part, this was due to lowering the price point and being able to accommodate more people virtually than in-person. This was a huge win.

Here are a few recommendations:

• Record sessions like we did here so efforts can continually be amplified and reach new people
• Use a combination of live and pre-recorded sessions so speakers (and your own sales and customer success teams) have the option to interact with attendees throughout the event
• If live sessions are the only route available, ensure a moderator is present to facilitate questions
• Ensure sponsors are a good match for your attendees, and provide them with a unique space within your virtual event -- either a “hub” on your platform or a designated space on your agenda
• Prioritize a strong social media engagement plan -- before, during, and after the event; it provides attendees, speakers, and even sponsors ways to build excitement before, share learnings during, and continue the conversation after -- on platforms that also provide great exposure for your brand

How to Foster Community Digitally

1. Leverage pre-recorded videos, so speakers have the time to answer questions and engage with attendees in-the-moment.

Moz has a robust community of marketers and search engine optimization professionals who love to engage, so we made the decision to leverage pre-recorded videos, giving our speakers the freedom to interact as the video ran and answer questions from attendees the moment they arose. Our attendees loved the opportunity to engage directly with speakers versus the typical in-person event experience of waiting in the long line near the stage just to say hello.

While this approach might seem surprising, it fostered collaboration, provided high-quality resources and meant our guests would be engaged instead of simply "watching" for hours on end.

How to Build Community-Centric Virtual Events, According to Moz's CMO was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

11 Tips for Virtually Pitching Marketing Campaigns

It's no secret that agencies are accustomed to wooing clients during in-person pitches.

In fact, the term "pitch theater" is regularly used in the agency world to describe over-the-top presentations that go to great lengths to win accounts.

But, with the recent shift to remote work, agencies can no longer rely on a firm handshake, in-person meetings, and casual small talk to help land them a client.

If you're one of the many marketers or agency members who thrive during in-person pitches, you might still be learning how to create a presentation that brings your memorable charm and flair to a small computer screen.

Luckily, as you pivot some aspects of your presentation style to a new video-friendly format, you can leverage your inner creativity, meeting software, and other digital tools to give you a leg up against other agencies vying for the same clients.

With a creative mindset, it actually isn't too hard to give a concise virtual presentation that answers most of a prospect's burning questions. In this post, I'll highlight 11 tips for planning, practicing, and presenting virtual pitches.

11 Tips for Giving Virtually Pitching Marketing Campaigns

Preparing Your Pitch

1. Map out a plan for a smooth virtual presentation.

With the growth of video call technology, most or all elements of a pitch can be virtual. For example, you can simply share your screen to show your peers a presentation, or send a video pitch to your team if you can't book a full meeting. However, virtualizing your presentation will still take careful planning.

As you map out your pitch, take the time to figure out which parts require a screen share as well as who on your team will be presenting. Then, once you've outlined your presentation, practice using features like screen share ahead of time to prevent technical difficulties during the actual pitch.

As you'll plan, you'll also want to identify pitching elements that might be more challenging virtually.

For example, if you're pitching a physical product or campaign asset in-person, you might pass the item around, or let a member of your audience test-run it. Or, you might be a fan of asking audiences to raise their hands if they agree with a statement relating to a pain point that your campaign will solve for.

The interactive in-person presentation tactics above might not be possible during your virtual pitch where everyone is looking at your slide deck. So, you'll want to come up with alternatives. Instead of having an audience member demonstrate something, perform the demo yourself. Or, instead of polling the audience by asking them to raise their hands, ask them to answer a question with "yes" or "no" in your video call's chat area.

2. Remember: Timing is everything.

When giving an in-person pitch, you might have a half-hour to give the actual presentation and answer questions. Then, you might even get some bonus time after the meeting if stakeholders stick around to ask questions, or chat with you as you walk out of the meeting room. While you'll have lots of opportunities to leave a good impression in person, you'll likely be limited to an exact time slot if you're just hosting a video call.

While you might be tempted to bring all the fun elements of in-person "pitch theater" to a short video call, you'll actually want to cut to the chase and give stakeholders the information they need as soon as possible.

Quickly, but concisely, describe your project idea, why you think it will be a good investment, any data-backed evidence of your claims, and what resources you'll need to complete the campaign.

You'll also want to address the concerns your team leader or client might have and explain how your project will avoid those blockers. Addressing an audience member's concerns in your presentation might eliminate some of the need for a question-and-answer period and will make your prospect believe that you value their goals and mission.

Practicing Your Pitch

3. Record yourself as you practice pitching.

Like with any virtual or in-person presentation, practice makes perfect.

One great way to practice a virtual pitch could be to record yourself doing it through a screen recorder or video call software. After you record yourself, rewatch your pitch and make notes of where you need improvement. While you can make notes about your speaking or the content of your pitch, you can also make notes on more technical aspects, like how well you navigated to your slideshow or any presentation glitches that occurred.

Recording and reviewing your practice sessions will ensure that your clients or teammates see a crisp and clear presentation when you're giving it online.

Aside from recording yourself, consider hosting a video call with a few of your teammates where you run through your presentation. While the recording will help you troubleshoot many things, it's always helpful to have another person give feedback or point out any technical issues they discover from their computer.

For example, many schools using Zoom to host classes have discovered that some students and teachers can't use its Whiteboard tool because the feature isn't available on Chromebooks. If you discover something like this when practicing your marketing pitch with other users on the call, you'll have time to pivot and adjust your pitch accordingly.

4. Test your visuals, videos, and sound before your call.

For any type of pitch, a slide deck with videos and visual aids enables your clients to see quick facts, visualize the campaign you're pitching, and grasp any hard data that you throw at them quickly.

But, as you create a presentation, keep in mind that company stakeholders will be viewing it over a video call software. And. while some videos or visuals might look and sound absolutely stunning in-person, they could show up poorly on video calls, especially in areas with slower internet speeds.

As you practice your pitch with your team on a video call, or while recording yourself privately, make sure you know how to play a video within your slide show, ensure that your graphics are high resolution, double-check that any GIFs placed will play automatically, and turn your volume up to test any sound elements.

Cut anything from your pitch that will look or sound poorly over a video call. For example, if a video in your presentation seems to be buffering, blurry, or sounds muffled, consider swapping it out with a photo or GIF.

Additionally, accept feedback from your team if they see blurry imagery or can't hear something when you're giving a practice run. This is how members on my team recently discovered that having your headphones plugged in when playing a video can prevent your call attendees from hearing the sound. Had one of our colleagues not rehearsed for us, we wouldn't have caught and resolved this potential technical difficulty ahead of time.

Giving Your Campaign Pitch

5. Prepare your workspace for virtual meetings.

As you would with any other virtual meeting, pick or create a workspace that offers you a professional-looking background, limited noise, and a solid internet connection.

In a HubSpot Blog post, my colleague, Lindsay Kolowich gave a great example of a poor virtual meeting workspace:

"A colleague of mine once had a call with a client whose neighbor was mowing the lawn right outside his home office window. Sounds super distracting, doesn't it?" Kolowich said.

"Be mindful of where you are and what's going on in the background," advised Kolowich. "Certain rooms are noisier than others, even if you're at home. And while it's probably adorable when your dog jumps on your lap and peers into the camera, you're typically better off letting pets go outside to play before the meeting starts."

6. Embrace video call "waiting rooms."

Some video call tools now offer a "Waiting Room" feature. This allows those on the call to be shown just the call's title and other basic information until the host allows them to enter the meeting.

When you're hosting a video call, having a Waiting Room will enable you to enter the call first, see a list of who's on the call, and let them in all at once or one at a time. The room also ensures that your attendees will only see you when you're ready to be seen.

The Waiting Room feature might be a great option for hosts that want to avoid the awkwardness of saying hello to everyone one by one, or for teams that want to get on a call a few minutes ahead of time for a quick chat before their eager clients log on.

Here's a look at how the Waiting Room feature works on Zoom.

7. Greet your client or teammates before sharing your screen.

As with any in-person meeting, greet your teammates or clients, and possibly make a bit of small talk before jumping into a pitch. This will allow the team to bond with you and see you as a person who cares about their time. You should also thank this team for attending your meeting before the pitch as well as after.

8. Look at the camera for the entire call.

During an in-person pitch or presentation, you can work the room or energize the audience by moving around, making eye contact, or speaking directly to a few specific stakeholders in your meeting. On a video call, these speaking tactics can obviously be much more challenging. This is why simply turning on your camera, looking directly into it, and speaking energetically can go a long way with your audience.

When you enter your video call, be sure to turn on the camera as soon as possible if it isn't already showing you onscreen. Surprisingly, some marketers and telecommuters regularly forget to do this.

"Turn on the video during your meetings," advised Christina Perricone, a senior marketing manager, in a recent blog post.

"Ninety-three percent of communication is non-verbal," Perricone added. "Being remote puts you at a disadvantage when it comes to reading facial expressions and body language during meetings. Video calls mitigate the disconnect that can arise from not being in-person."

Once you turn the camera on, remember that your audience of team leads or clients will be able to see you even when you are sharing a presentation on your screen. While it might be tempting to focus on your presentation when there's no immediate audience in the room with you, eye contact is still an important way to grab and hold attention from your audience.

Although you'll be doing a pitch virtually, you can mimic making eye contact by looking at the camera or the center of your screen rather than reading the text directly from your slides.

9. Make sure your notes aren't on your screen share.

Presentation notes can be a helpful way to remind yourself of data, points to make, or transitions to add in your presentation. However, things can get pretty awkward if you share your screen and accidentally show your audience your private notes at the same time.

Depending on which video software you use, you can likely share just your presentation with your audience using screen share settings. When you do this, you'll still be able to see your presentation and a digital notepad with text for each slide. However, your audience will only be able to see the presentation.

Before you begin your presentation or during a practice session, have a colleague log on to the video software earlier in the day and test your screen sharing strategy to ensure that they see only your slides and not your notes.

Wrapping Up Your Pitch

10. Turn your screen-share off and allow time for questions.

After you give your pitch, you should leave a bit of extra time to answer your client or team leader's questions about the project. This can also be a great time for you to continue making connections with the people you're pitching to. To ensure that everyone is talking to each other face-to-face, make sure you turn your screen share off so you have a better view of who you're talking to.

At the conclusion of the call, thank your audiences again for their time and discuss what next steps they can take if they're interested in accepting your pitch.

11. Leverage your video call recording in follow-up emails.

Sometimes, important stakeholders who were invited to your call won't be able to attend, or your stakeholders might want to refer back to your presentation later. When you give an in-person pitch, it might be more challenging or odd to have someone film your presentation just in case. But, with video calls, recording your presentation is possible and feels much more natural

Before you begin your presentation, be sure to inform your attendees that you'll be recording it, just in case someone wants to hide their video or is uncomfortable with being recorded. Once the presentation is done, you'll be able to send that recording in a follow-up email to stakeholders that could and couldn't make the presentation.

Aside from sending the recording, which can help stakeholders reflect on the questions answered and the discussions that happened during the pitch session, you can send other digital documents like the slide deck, links to marketing content or any other assets you think will seal the deal.

Like any good follow-up email, be sure to thank attendees for their time and note that you enjoyed your conversation with them. Also remind them that they can reach out to you with questions, comments, or feedback related to the pitch you've given. For a few follow-up email examples, check out this blog post.

Nailing Your Virtual Pitch

If you're used to pitching marketing campaign ideas in person, virtual pitching could be quite the transition. However, while you'll need to make a few tweaks to adapt your pitch to a video call setting, it's certainly possible to effectively persuade teams with virtual presentations.

At its core, a pitch clearly explains a campaign or tactic, research that defends why it might work, and how you plan to efficiently execute on the strategy. These are all important tidbits of information that can easily be explained or shown visually in a video-based presentation.

To learn more about how to perfect a virtual pitch, check out this post related to pitch deck design, this piece that creatively compares pitches to debates, and this guide to running virtual meetings.

11 Tips for Virtually Pitching Marketing Campaigns was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

What a Serial Entrepreneur Learned From Spending Nearly $1M on Facebook Ads

When it comes to Facebook ads, you might feel like you've won the lottery if your ads perform well.

However, you couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, I've spent more than $900K on Facebook ads in over 4 years.

Facebook ads are a complex and nuanced form of marketing.

Spending close to a million on ecommerce, real estate, festivals, mobile apps, and much more, I can say that I've learned a thing or two about running successful Facebook ads.

1. Keep a bigger audience.

When people start running Facebook ads, they often try to have the most laser-targeted audience and often end up aggregating around 100,000 people. This might seem like a big audience, but it really isn't.

What's more? By targeting "interests" people have, you have to remember that those are not set in stone.

For example, Facebook thinks I like hunting but I've never done it before. That's why it's important to target a larger audience of at least one million people at first and let Facebook find people who like what you're promoting.

2. Retarget with a large enough audience.

Don't start segmenting your retargeting at the beginning. For example, you could have segmented audiences of people who visited your website in the last 7 days, 14 days and 21 days, but you shouldn't just yet.

I suggest regrouping all your custom audiences at the beginning to make sure your audience is big enough. If you don't, everyone in your retargeting audience will have seen your ads 100 times and you won't see results.

3. Don't scale unless you get results.

A lot of people want to spend more on Facebook ads too aggressively. Let's say they spent $2, made $10, and now want to spend $100 a day. But you shouldn't do that just yet.

Make sure you get sales every day for at least two weeks before starting to be aggressive with your scaling. You might have been lucky with the first sale but it doesn't mean you'll find consistency and that's what you need to scale.

4. Retargeting is everything.

You'll make most of your money from retargeting. I know your budget for Facebook retargeting is often smaller than the one from your cold audience, but it's the most important audience.

You should spend as much time creating new Facebook ads creative for your custom audiences as you do your cold audiences.

5. Low CPC doesn't equal results.

You should measure your return-on-investment on your Facebook ads rather than your CPC.

Getting a good cost-per-click is awesome if your goal is just to get traffic, but not all traffic is created equal. I'm sure you'd rather have 4 people converting from 50 visitors than 1 person converting from 1,000 visitors.

6. Analyze and optimize your demographics.

It's essential to take a look at which ages, gender or location brings you the most results.

One word of caution -- don't draw conclusions until after you've at least reached 2,000 to 10,000 people. If you don't, you'll become really confused because your conclusions are probably false.

7. Pay attention to cash flow management.

Make sure you have a credit card limit high enough to spend the amount you want. Take into consideration that it might take you a little bit of time for your credit card to receive your payment.

This is cash flow management, but for scaling it's very important. One trick is to have multiple credit cards, because if your ads stop you most likely will lose the optimization you had and thus your results.

Also, make sure Facebook allows you to spend the daily amount you want to spend.

One last word of advice -- go slowly. You might realize that $100/day gives you the most profits, just like you might realize that $100K/day gives you the best results.

Once you've mastered all the technicalities of Facebook ads, all that matters is being aware of the traffic temperature of your audiences.

You essentially want to create ads that attract people by finding a way to make them appreciate what your brand is about. The best results we got from Facebook ads didn't come from the ads themselves but rather the relationship the brand had prior with their clients.

Remember, Facebook ads are only a distribution channel and there's only so much you can say to change people's minds. The art is in the entire digital marketing strategy. Everything has a part to play in your success.

What a Serial Entrepreneur Learned From Spending Nearly $1M on Facebook Ads was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Learn Excel Online: 19 Free and Paid Resources for Excel Training

Like many marketers, I have a bit of experience with Microsoft Excel. I've used it to organize events, plan meals, and sort data -- but I don't have nearly the advanced knowledge I wish I did.

And thanks to those limited skills, I'm constantly subjecting myself to the tedium of updating my spreadsheets manually.

Like me, you're missing out on a world of Excel training courses that could teach me how to automate my reports and save hours of time.

When I asked even my most Excel-savvy colleagues where they picked up their knowledge, they told me things like, "I mostly learned from colleagues and friends," or, "When I have a specific question, I ask someone or search on Google." Fair enough. But as a beginner, I probably have a few too many Excel questions to rely on colleagues -- or Google -- to answer every one.

I can't be the only one out there who wants to master the world's most popular data analysis and visualization solution -- or at least learn how to create charts and graphs that'll impress my manager.

So in the spirit of becoming a more productive, data-driven marketer, I scoured the internet for the best online resources for learning Excel. Half of them are free, and the ones that aren't might be worth the investment. In these trainings, you'll learn the following:

Learning Excel

1. Create PivotTables to find relationships between data.
2. Enter formulas across cells, rows, and columns.
3. Conduct a VLOOKUP across an entire column.
4. Run accounting functions to track business finances.
5. Group, ungroup, and reformat rows and columns.
6. Perform data validation to control the format of cell values.
7. Use keyboard shortcuts to make quick changes to cell values.
8. Create charts from your spreadsheet data.
9. Develop histograms of data from the charts you create.
10. Create dashboards to manage multiple groups of performance data.
11. Add conditional formatting to rows and columns that fit certain criteria.
12. Print your Excel spreadsheet for presenting to others.

Take a look at the free and paid resources below. Bookmark your favorites and get that much closer to working more efficiently in Excel.

How to Learn Excel With Free Training Resources

1. Microsoft's Excel for Windows Training

When it comes to learning a new application, why not start at the source? After all, no one knows Excel better than the people at Microsoft.

In fact, they've done a great job putting together this resource hub for all Microsoft Office applications and services. The Excel training has a whole bunch of free tutorials that cover the latest version of Excel organized into functional learning modules.

 

 

Source: Microsoft

2. HubSpot Excel Resources

Seeing as Excel is one of the most in-demand skills for data-driven marketers -- and because we want marketers like you to succeed -- we've created some of our own educational content about Excel here at HubSpot. From free ebooks, to templates, to video tutorials, we aim to cover a wide range of Excel-relevant topics.

Here are a few of our best:

• "How to Use Excel: The Essential Training Guide for Data-Driven Marketing" (free ebook)
• The Ultimate Guide to Using Microsoft Excel (long-form content)
• "9 Excel Templates to Make Marketing Easier" (free templates)
• "How to Create a Pivot Table in Excel: A Step-by-Step Tutorial" (video & blog post)

3. Excel Exposure

Excel Exposure is a free series of written and video-based courses to help you learn Excel regardless of your skill level. There are nearly 40 lessons -- split into "Beginner," "Intermediate," and "Advanced" -- each no more than 20 minutes long.

In addition to this a-la-carte curriculum, Excel Exposure offers a "Master Workbook" that lives directly in Excel to help you practice what you learn in each lesson. Learnings include data and time functions, how to group and ungroup rows and columns, using conditional formatting, PivotTables, chart design, and more.

4. The Spreadsheet Page

Here's a very well-organized site that's chock full of helpful Excel tips, collected by an expert named John Walkenbach. Over the past 30 years, he's written more than 60 Excel books for users of all levels, and around 300 articles and reviews for magazines like InfoWorld, PC World, and PC/Computing. At one point, he wrote the monthly spreadsheet column for PC World. In other words, the man knows his stuff -- and he knows how to present it.

The most helpful part of his website is probably the Excel Tips tab, which has a long list of useful pointers on formatting, formulas, charts and graphics, and printing. The tips themselves include everything from working with fractions, to unlinking a pivot table from its source data, to spreadsheet protection FAQs.

The Downloads tab is another particularly helpful section of Walkenbach's site, where he's added free, ungated download links to files he created, like free Excel workbooks and add-ins. For example, there's one Excel workbook available for download that gives examples of custom number formats, which you can play with and tweak on your own time, and get familiar with them without having to start from scratch.

5. Contextures

Contextures is a place for free Excel instructions in the form of quick tips, blog posts, a newsletter, and even .zip files you can download to see how various functions work in the context of real tables of data.

This resource has literally hundreds of downloadable spreadsheets that open in Excel and offer step-by-step instructions for performing data validation, adding filters to rows and columns, adding conditional formatting to rows and columns, designing charts, creating PivotTables, running functions, and more.

6. Chandoo.org

Purna "Chandoo" Duggirala, Chandoo.org's founder, says he has one goal: "to make you awesome at Excel and charting." He started the blog in 2007 and, today, it contains more than 450 articles and tutorials on using Excel and making better charts. He's built the blog as a community, citing values like humility, passion, fun, and simplicity.

He also works to make it a valuable resource for the folks for whom English is not their first language.

Most of his tips stem from forums, where people ask questions about Excel -- about formulas, formatting, shortcuts, pivot tables, and so on -- and anyone can answer them. Chandoo then uses some of the more helpful forum questions to create articles and tutorials.

Source: Chandoo.org

But it's not all so formal. For example, Chandoo once created a digital Easter egg hunt for a blog post, which included a downloadable Excel workbook containing seven hidden pandas. Readers were challenged to locate the pandas using clues, Excel techniques, and even "I-Spy" skills.

Source: Chandoo.org

While the articles, forums, and other parts of the site are free, you can pay to join one of Chandoo's structured training programs, like Excel School ($147 - $247), or VBA Classes ($97 - $347). Plus, there's always the option to buy one of his books -- The VLOOKUP Book or Excel Formula Helper Ebook.

7. Excel Easy

Excel Easy is a comprehensive tutorial for learning Excel, breaking down its learnings into chapters. Those chapters are sorted into the following sections:

• Introduction
• Basics
• Functions
• Data Analysis
• VBA
• Examples

In each chapter, Excel Easy walks you through what it perceives to be the fundamentals of Excel, in the form of written guides with screenshots to help you master each concept. At the end of the tutorial, you have access too 300 examples showing you how to perform each concept in real scenarios. Concepts include basic formulas and functions, how to create a ribbon, creating multiple worksheets, formatting cells, data validation, table creation, and more.

8. MrExcel.com

Here's a resource that puts we mere mortals in touch with Excel experts. MrExcel.com's claim to fame is its interactive message board, which is constantly monitored by its community of Excel gurus.

The board is organized according to subject, like general announcements, questions, and MrExcel.com products. When a user posts a question, a member of the MrExcel.com expert community will reply with an answer. The questions range from simplifying an Excel task, to solving urgent inquiries.

Not a native English speaker? You can ask questions in your native language.

Aside from posting questions on the message board, you can also browse Mr. Excel's "Hot Topics" -- found on the left-hand side of its homepage -- which includes things like finding the cumulative sum of even or odd rows, or removing the leading zero within a text field. The site also has a library of helpful Excel books and ebooks, and if you need help with problems that are more complex, you can even hire an Excel consultant directly from the website, for a fee.

9. Exceljet

Exceljet offers hundreds of free formula walk-throughs, videos, and blog posts that allow you to itemize your Excel training based on the project you're working on. It also has several paid programs that take a deeper dive into specific Excel topics its users -- of which there are more than 10,000 -- are interested in.

10. EdX Excel Courses

Here's a budget-friendly option for those in search of a more formal course, rather than a one-off tutorial: EdX is a nonprofit that provides free education for people around the globe -- with an interesting model of Excel training sessions, both timed and self-paced.

When users enroll in a course that's marked as "Verified," they have the option to pay a fee in exchange for an instructor-signed certificate with the institution's logo, to verify the achievement and increase job prospects. Those fees are used to fund the courses, giving you the option to take them for free if you don't mind foregoing the certificate.

Otherwise, there are some courses offered at a "Professional Education" level, for which the fee isn't optional. One example is the Business and Data Analysis Skills course, offered for $149.

To help you choose the right one, each edX course includes reviews (with a rating up to five stars), and information on length and amount of effort, usually measured in hours per week. There are also details on the level of knowledge required, along with video transcripts.

11. Annielytics Video Tutorials

Annie Cushing, a web analytics data expert, created the Annielytics blog and YouTube channel to share her knowledge with the world. Don't let the punny name fool you -- both are chock full of really good, specific, and in-depth web analytics tips.

While the content here isn't all Excel-related -- much of it is about Google Analytics, for example -- it does contain some great Excel video tutorials. Even better, they were created with marketing and web analytics in mind, so they're directly applicable to things like marketing data reports. The Excel-specific videos can be found here, or by searching her YouTube channel for "Excel".

The Excel topics vary widely, from how to create interactive pivot tables, to how to add a scrolling table to your dashboard using the INDEX function. The videos also vary in length depending on topic complexity, ranging from two-and-a-half-minutes, to those over half an hour long. To give you an idea of what the videos are like, here's one of our favorites, which covers a comprehensive overview of Excel charts:

12. Khan Academy

When visitors arrive at the Khan Academy website, they're greeted with two simple but powerful lines of text: "You only have to know one thing: You can learn anything." And from algebra to astronomy, this resource offers a plethora of free courses on, well, almost anything -- for free.

That includes a few video tutorials on Excel. Most of them are part of larger, multi-installment courses on broader topics, like statistics. A general search for "Microsoft Excel" yields what might look like limited results, but they actually explain some fundamental parts of using Excel, like distributions and fitting lines to data.

How to Learn Excel With Paid Training Resources

13. Lynda.com's Excel Training and Tutorials

Price: Free to try | $29.99/month membership

If you're willing to invest a little cash in your Excel training, Lynda's Excel Training and Tutorials are a worthwhile place to spend it. Members of this LinkedIn subsidiary have access to thousands of courses on business, technology, creative skills, and software that'll help you work toward your personal and professional goals.

Included are over 100 courses on Excel, and over 4,000 video tutorials covering every version of the program, at any level of expertise. They cover a broad range of topics, from something as general as "Statistics with Excel Part One," to more niche topics, like "Data Visualization Storytelling Essentials."

14. Coursera

Pricing varies per course

While Lynda.com asks for a monthly all-access membership fee, Coursera charges on a course-to-course basis. Partnering with top universities and organizations worldwide, the site offers online classes on a number of topics, ranging from music production to coaching skills.

There are only a few courses pertaining to Excel, but if you're looking for one that's on a formally academic level, they could be a good fit for you. In fact, many of the Excel-related courses come from Duke University, such as "Excel to MySQL: Analytic Techniques for Business Specialization."

That said, these courses don't come cheap -- after all, they're the same ones that are taught at top universities around the world. And like many real-world classes, each includes video lectures, interactive quizzes, peer-graded assessments, and the opportunity to connect with fellow students and instructors. Once you finish a course, you'll receive formal recognition, along with an optional course certificate.

15. Udemy's "Microsoft - From Beginner to Expert in 6 Hours"

Price: $12.99

If you had six hours to spare, how would you use them? "Sleep," "clean the house," and "bake something" are some of the things that come to the top of my mind, but try this on for size -- what if you could become an Excel expert in that amount of time?

That's what Udemy promises in its "Microsoft Excel - From Beginner to Expert in 6 Hours" course. Udemy is one of the most bountiful online learning resources out there, and its Excel courses certainly don't end with that single option. In fact, when I return to the homepage, it displays several additional lessons on the topic, in case I want to explore my options.

Those options are many. In fact, just typing "Excel" into the search bar yields dozens of results, each one displaying a star rating, price, length, and level.

16. Excel Everest

Price: $159

The name of this resource may look intimidating, but you'd be surprised how convenient the training is.

Excel Everest is an out-of-the-box resource that teaches you Excel while you're in Excel. The product you buy downloads an Excel file to your computer, where you'll open Excel and engage in walk-throughs of 41 different Excel functions right from a sample spreadsheet. Topics covered include conditional formatting, VLOOKUP, chart creation, and so much more.

This Excel training resource offers hundreds of exercises, along with video tutorials embedded directly in a sample Excel spreadsheet. By applying these concepts in Excel as you learn them, you'll feel them stick with you long after you complete Excel Everest's training.

17. Learn iT!

Price: $135 - $290

Learn iT! offers Excel training in a variety of formats and breaks every lesson down by module. It's the best solution for Excel users who might not be receptive to just a video series or written step-by-step guide.

With Learn iT!, Excel users can select from five different courses: Pivot Tables, Intro to Data Analysis, Programming with VBA, Excel Power User, and a basic Excel course for general users. Each course states the course's duration (in days) and the number of modules the course consists of.

The best part about Learn iT! is that you can take your selected course four different ways: an in-person instructor-led session, live online with classmates, privately in a custom-made session, or a self-paced mix of instructor-led and interactive e-learning courses.

18. LinkedIn Learning Products

Price: Free to try | $29.99 mo.

LinkedIn isn't just for professional networking. You can also learn a ton on various business topics with the help of subject matter experts (SMEs) who host trainings on the LinkedIn Learning platform. Microsoft Excel is one such topic.

Dennis Taylor, a business consultant you can also learn from on Lynda.com, is one SME who hosts Excel training courses on LinkedIn. His courses range from six hours to 23 hours in total training time, and can be completed on your schedule.

Check out LinkedIn Learning for all available Excel courses.

19. eLearnExcel

Price: $24/month

Not only does eLearnExcel give you eight Excel training courses to choose from, but it awards seven Excel certifications as well.

eLearnExcel makes this promise: by taking all of its Excel courses, you'll have a skill in Excel that's greater than 99% of Excel users today. Trusted by Microsoft itself, this suite of training products breaks down Excel's concepts in easy, digestible video modules -- allowing you to learn the Excel concepts that are most relevant to you. Courses range from 45 minutes to six hours in duration.

Seven of these courses award you a certification that corresponds with the course you took. If you complete all seven, you're awarded an Excel Master Diploma. It's not a bad item to put on your resume -- or on your business's website, if multiple employees enroll in eLearnExcel's courses as part of a business subscription.

Ready to get started? With these tools, you'll be using Excel with little-to-no-sweat, in no time. Plus, practice makes perfect -- that's why there are so many tiered levels of courses available.

Start where you can, and as you begin using more functions and commands, you can continue to expand your knowledge and implement the power of Excel for your projects.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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