5 Steps to Run a Project Post-Mortem Meeting [+ Key Questions to Ask]

No project is an unmitigated success or failure.

Even when it seems like a project couldn't have possibly gone better (or worse), there are always lessons to be learned.

Thus, the project post-mortem.

A post-mortem meeting isn't an investigation. It's an inquiry to uncover all the lessons for the future – not a chance to assign blame or put people on the spot.

It's the opportunity to ask: What exactly did we accomplish? And even more importantly: what could we do better next time?

To help your team get the most out of your project post-mortem meetings, we've shared some basic guidelines. Check them out below and make your next post-mortem your most productive one yet.

A productive post-mortem meeting is a chance to fully unpack a project's trajectory and dig deeper into why things unfolded the way they did.

The core benefit is improved efficiency. If done right, you'll identify bottlenecks in your processes and improve your workflows.

Beyond that, a post-mortem meeting will improve:

• Morale – Celebrating your wins in a post-mortem meeting can help bring your team together and create a sense of camaraderie.
• Communication – As you're unpacking what went right and what went wrong, you'll hopefully identify communication gaps that may be hindering the project.
• Transparency – A post-mortem meeting invites everyone to share their perspective on the project overall. This creates a transparent environment in which you can get to the core of the issues.

Post-Mortem Meeting Documentation

To prepare for your post-mortem meeting, there are three key pieces of documentation you'll need:

• A pre-meeting questionnaire – A questionnaire gives your team time to assess the project as a whole. On your end, you'll be able to review the questionnaire to identify patterns and talking points for the meeting. More on that here.
• A meeting agenda – Having an agenda is vital to ensure your meeting runs smoothly. Without one, you may not have time to address your most important issues. For details on how to organize your agenda, jump to this section.
• A meeting worksheet – A worksheet will be helpful during the meeting to organize your team's feedback into the right categories. For instance, your worksheet should include a section for successes, failures, obstacles, and solutions.
• A recap document – Once the meeting is over, draft a document that covers the main points discussed and actionable steps for the future. More on that here.

How to Run a Productive Project Post-Mortem Meeting

1. Make post-mortems a standard part of your team's process.

Post-mortem meetings should be an essential part of your team's process – for the big projects and the smaller ones. Most teams run them for larger projects with definitive start and end dates, but they can be equally useful for smaller-scale or even ongoing projects.

Even though "post-mortem" quite literally means after death, your team doesn't have to wait for the end of a huge, long-term project to get value from a retrospective evaluation.

As you're fleshing out a project's schedule during the kickoff phase, insert mini post-mortems at key milestones. These pulse-checks will give your team the chance to better understand how a project is progressing – and hopefully identify potential issues before they cause permanent damage.

Once the project has officially wrapped, don't wait too long to schedule the final post-mortem, or people will have mentally moved on. In fact, you should schedule the post-mortem when you build out the full project plan, so everyone knows it's an expected part of the project wrap-up.

2. Send out a post-mortem questionnaire before the actual meeting.

The meeting itself shouldn't be scheduled for more than an hour. Not everyone will have a chance to speak up, and some smaller (but still important) issues may not get a lot of discussion time. And frankly, not everyone is comfortable speaking up in this kind of forum.

Using a pre-meeting questionnaire means everyone on your team has an equal opportunity to share their thoughts, and no stray detail flies under the radar.

The questionnaire also provides an opportunity for people to get themselves organized before the meeting. People can dig into why certain things happened (or didn't happen), so they can bring causes and potential solutions to the meeting – not just missteps or hastily formulated theories.

For example, if a project required the creatives on your team to work around the clock to get their deliverables done on time, why did this happen? Was the project timeline set up badly? Were inexperienced people assigned to the wrong tasks?

The responses from the questionnaire should inform the post-mortem meeting's agenda, focusing the discussion on issues that had the biggest impact. Yet the questionnaire also means the "smaller" stuff doesn't get overlooked in the full post-mortem process.

3. Select a moderator to keep the meeting on track.

The goal of a project post-mortem is to constructively evaluate what the project's team accomplished, and what could have been done better.

For this discussion to be productive, someone needs to keep the conversation civil, focused, and moving forward. This is where the meeting moderator comes in.

Establish a moderator before the in-person meeting who can stick to the agenda and lead the discussion in case it gets out of hand. The moderator doesn't have to be the project manager or a member of your leadership team, they just need to be comfortable taking charge.

4. Set a clear agenda.

With so many details to cover in such a short time, it's easy for post-mortem meetings to veer off track. Help keep the discussion in check by building a clear meeting agenda in advance:

Start with a recap of the project's core objectives, briefly going over the goals and metrics established at the kickoff. This portion shouldn't be longer than five minutes and should act as a quick refresher on what your team set out to do.

Briefly review the results. Once you've gone over the primary goals and objectives, take a few minutes to review the project's final results. This should be a straightforward evaluation of whether or not the project met your team's metrics for success. Did you hit the targets you set out to meet?

Delve into the why or why not. Now is the time to dig into why the project ended up the way it did, and how team members are feeling about it. This discussion should take up the bulk of the meeting. We've explained how to structure your examination in this section [jump to last section].

5. Make sure to close the loop.

The post-mortem meeting is just one step of the post-mortem process.

The end result of the questionnaire and meeting should be a post-mortem document outlining conclusions of the inquiry and actionable takeaways for the future.

And this inquiry isn't just about what went well or badly, but what's going to change for the future, and how? What led to great success here that we can bottle and use on other projects?

Circulate the post-mortem roundup document to participants to get their sign-off. Then circulate the department-wide takeaways for future projects to everyone.

So what exactly should a post-mortem examine? There are a few different cross-sections to frame your inquiry. Basic categories of inquiry are planning, execution, results, and communication.

Within each category, you should ask quantitative, qualitative, and subjective questions:

Quantitative Questions to Assess the Project Execution.

These are your standard yes or no questions.

• Were deadlines met or missed?
• Did we provide all deliverables outlined in the project scope?
• Were pre-defined success metrics achieved?
• Were outline workflows and processes followed?
• Was there a budget overrun?

As you look into the project from this perspective, a key underlying question is always: Was the plan good? Did we follow the plan? Was the plan bad? Why?

All the quantitative questions you ask should eventually lead back to this overarching theme.

Qualitative Questions to Go Beyond the Data.

These open-ended questions should evaluate the project beyond the hard data and planning.

• Did we deliver work at the high standards we and our client expect?
• Does the client agree?
• Did people feel like they had the resources, information, and support they needed to get their own tasks done?
• Was campaign criteria or task expectations poorly defined or communicated?

In both the quantitative and qualitative inquiries, get specific about what worked well and what didn't.

For instance, did you have a delivery date for the client to share their personas, but no review time built-in? Perhaps the client sent them in on time (as per the project plan), but they were inadequate for the project's needs.

Or, did a lack of oversight by an account manager result in a new PPC campaign manager overspending against the client's ad budget?

Getting into the details will help identify the root of the issues.

Subjective Questions to Understand Employee Perspective

Subjective questions help assess how your team members are feeling and can help leadership identify troubling signs of burnout and fatigue early on.

These questions also let leadership know what processes worked best with their team, helping them plan future projects.

• What did people enjoy most and least about this project?
• How was working with the client?
• What changes would they make to this type of project in the future?
• How could the work run more smoothly with this client or among certain departments in the future?
• Do you want to work on a similar type of project again? If not, why not?

A post-mortem meeting will help your team continuously improve on your process. Keep in mind, a post-mortem that doesn't impact future action is a waste of time. With this in mind, make sure to follow through on your insights to generate greater results on subsequent projects.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in May 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

5 Steps to Run a Project Post-Mortem Meeting [+ Key Questions to Ask] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

80 Things to Check Before, During, and After Launching a Website

Admit it: Launching a new website is stressful — even for the most seasoned digital marketers.

Websites are complex. There are so many things that are easily overlooked, like a broken link or a misspelled word.

And of course, a handful of things could go very, very wrong. Like what if you forget to test an important data capture form and then lose out on generating a bunch of new leads? Or worse, what if you forget to properly set up site redirects, and those valuable search engine visitors get a page not found message?

Instead of worrying about the what ifs, wouldn't it be much easier to have a comprehensive website checklist to run down before every site launch? One that you could use for enterprise websites, microsites, landing pages, and everything in between?

Fortunately, we've created just that. Keep reading to learn everything you need to do before, during, and after launching a website. 

What You Should Do Before Beginning Your Site Design

Whether this is your first website that is being built from scratch or you are doing a website redesign, there are a few steps that you should take before hiring a web designer or diving in yourself.

1. Analyze your previous website (if applicable).

In order to make good decisions, you must first understand where you've been. That starts with your existing website if you have one. Ask yourself: 

• What is the purpose of a new design or overhaul?
• What haven't hasn't been accomplished with this existing site?
• How will a new design serve the new organization?

The answers to these questions can help you identify your gaps, which can then inform goal setting for the new site.

2. Crawl your old site (if applicable) and document its structure. 

You can get an idea of your site's existing structure, pages, and assets by using a crawling tool such as Screaming Frog. This is a necessary step in creating your website development plan because you'll have a more concrete view of what pages existed before, what redirects are in place, and what the meta data currently looks like.

3. Obtain benchmark data from your previous website (if applicable), and confirm testing procedures.

Not only will you want to compare how your new site performs compared to the old, but you'll also want to continue identifying gaps that will provide data-driven insights to aid your new strategy.

Additionally, you'll want to confirm testing procedures. Soon, you'll begin testing your website to make sure all the different components are working, everything flows, and there's a system for tracking bugs and enhancements.

Use a form (like Google Forms) instead of asking people to email their thoughts so the feedback-gathering process is more streamlined. Then, put one person in charge of choosing which bugs to prioritize, and filtering all the creative feedback you receive through the form.

4. Identify your goals for the new design, how you'll achieve them, and how you'll measure success.

Once the gaps are fully fleshed out, you can begin crafting your goals for the design. You may come to conclusions such as: 

• The current site is unwieldy, and we need ease of use. 
• The current site no longer looks trendy, so we need a visual refresh. 
• The current site doesn't perform, so we need a more SEO-friendly structure with a better UX. 

Whatever your goals, you'll want to understand exactly how a new site will help you achieve them so that you can craft its implementation accordingly.

5. List out action items, roles, and responsibilities.

Make a project management checklist for the website. What content needs to be written? What calls-to-action need to be created? 

Make a master list of the things you need for your website and deadlines for when they should be completed. 

Then, assign each action item to an individual or team. It usually takes a lot of people to launch a website: You have marketers writing the content; designers choosing images and laying out the overall look and feel; a technical team doing all the back-end development. To ensure everyone's on the same page and there's no role confusion, you'll want to lay out a comprehensive plan for what each team or person is responsible for.

One great way to do this is by using the DARCI model, which stands for Decision Maker(s), Accountable, Responsible, Consulted, Informed. It's a powerful tool that'll help everyone understand which individual is responsible for completing which action items, which individual(s) or group(s) need to be consulted before any final decisions are made, and who needs to be consulted once a final decision has been made or an action has been taken. 

6. Prepare for worst-case scenarios.

Poll everyone involved in your website launch on their concerns about what could go wrong, and then devise a few backup plans for what to do when — not if — some of these things go wrong.

7. Choose a Solid CMS.

If you've never launched a site before, the long list below might intimidate you. However, it actually shouldn't take too long to run through most of the aspects on this list — especially if you built your website with a solid CMS. 

A CMS, or content management system, often allows you to design a website from a pre-created template, optimize your content for SEO, and edit content after it's published. If you've already built your website, you might have already gained experience with using a CMS. 

But, if you're still building a website, one way to make going through this checklist less time consuming is by building your pages on a CMS that already does a lot of the work for you.

For example, HubSpot's CMS that allows you to create and edit content including landing pages and blog posts. It's features also allow you to organize your content, schedule it, track analytics, and optimize it for SEO. 

Alternatively, you can also test out CMS platforms like WordPress, Wix, or even Drupal.

8. Develop a consistent brand.

Decide on a consistent brand message and tone, one that you're committed to presenting consistently across. This will make you look more legitimate, credible, and memorable.

1. Understand your value proposition.
2. Choose a mission statement, vision statement, and tagline that represents that value as well as your brand identity. 
3. Choose colors and fonts that convey that identity well. 
4. Decide on the type of imagery that you'll use to further convey your messaging.

9. Create your technical SEO strategy.

Take some time to ensure that your website has been given a solid foundation for SEO success. From site architecture and content hierarchy to metadata and XML sitemaps, do not leave any stone unturned.

1. Perform keyword research and decide what you want to rank for. 
2. Create a content strategy that satisfies those keywords. 
3. Understand how your existing pages (if applicable) can be adjusted and which pages will need to be created new. 
4. Figure out which pages are no longer necessary.
5. Map out where unnecessary pages can be redirected to (using a 301 redirect).

10. Strategize your conversion paths.

Once you have an understanding of the primary pages that will exist on your site, you'll need to figure out exactly what actions you want users to take and how you'll capture their information. This includes thinking through: 

• What premium top-of-the-funnel offers are needed
• What bottom-of-the-funnel action will be presented on main pages
• What forms need to be created
• What landing pages and thank you pages need to be created
• How conversions will be tracked
• What actions will happen after a website visitor converts (email responder, etc.)

11. Set up analytics software.

1. Choose which analytics platforms you will be using on the new site.
2. Decide if any previous Analytics tracking scripts will be used or if new accounts/scripts are needed. 
3. Set up new accounts (if applicable).

12. Set a launch date.

Once you have an idea of what needs to get done before the launch, pick a launch date. Give yourself at least a month. Most agencies plan for two-to-three months of research, design, and development.

What to Check Once You've Built Your Site

Once you've chosen a CMS and built a site that you're ready to launch, here's a list of 80 things to check before, during, and after going live. Feel free to copy, edit, and make your own based on the software you're using to launch and host your website.

Don't have time to check all 80? Here's a list of the most important highlights from each section:

Website Launch Checklist

1. Make sure text is accurate and error free.
2. Replace all placeholder images with final images and designs. 
3. Ensure copy aligns with the new brand.
4. Check that all styling preferences have been implemented.
5. Ensure your design is aesthetically pleasing.
6. Ensure that rights to images, fonts, and other content have been properly licensed or cited.
7. Test the site for User Experience (UX).
8. Check that the conversion paths have been implemented properly.
9. Create your site backup strategy. 
10. Store passwords and credentials in a secure place. 
11. Audit the technical SEO implementation for errors.
12. Test the site for user experience again. 
13. Test your conversion path's functionality.
14. Check that integrations with third-party tools are running smoothly.
15. Make a copy of the final website for backup purposes. 
16. Ensure that backups are running properly. 
17. Make sure your site is secure.
18. Comply with all applicable laws.
19. Crawl the site to ensure no errors happened on launch.
20. Check the technical SEO components for errors. 
21. Optimize your metadata.
22. Set up analytics.
23. Build anticipation with teasers before the site is live. 
24. Create a social media strategy for the announcement. 
25. Identify exciting ways to promote engagement for the new site. 
26. Send an email to your existing database. 
27. Continue to promote the launch for a month.

We've grouped items based on pre-launch and post-launch, making sure to touch on page content, design, functionality, SEO, branding, analytics, security, and compliance. Keep on reading to make sure you don't forget a thing before your next launch.

Website Pre-Launch Checklist

Before you launch, it's important to review all of the content on your website with a fine-tooth comb. Of course, that means page content, but don't forget about your premium content, too. From data-driven content and downloadable documents to rich media such as videos and images, you want to make sure everything is in place, working properly, and looking beautiful.

It's important to note — you'll want to set up a staging site to prepare your new website before going live. Staging sites are exact copies of your website on a private server that are used to prepare and proof content and code changes before they go live. The staging site is a place to edit and play around with updates in an environment that's almost identical to the one that will be live. This is so you don't have to worry about crashing your site or screwing something up when you make a change.

Later, you'll sync content and templates between the staging environment and your live website via your content management system (CMS). If you're a HubSpot customer with the website platform, you'll find there's a staging environment built right into the software. It allows you to generate a preview URL of the entire site, so you can click around and test things in context.

1. Make sure text is accurate and error-free.

• Site content has been proofread for spelling and grammar.
• Company contact details are accurate throughout the website.
• Generic content, such as lorem ipsum, has been properly removed and replaced.
• All premium content, such as case studies, ebooks, and whitepapers, have been proofread. Spelling and grammar are correct.
• Copyright date (perhaps in the footer) includes the current year.

2. Replace all placeholder images with final images and designs. 

On occasion, a website designer may use a placeholder image if they didn't have the correct asset at the time of the page's creation. It's up to you to make sure each page is picture-perfect.

3. Ensure copy aligns with the new brand.

• The text has been copy-edited to ensure consistent brand voice and style. 
• All company tag lines and mission statements are up-to-date.

4. Check that all styling preferences have been implemented.

• Paragraphs, headers, lists, and other formatting are correct.
• Brand colors have been implemented correctly, including link and button colors.

5. Ensure your design is aesthetically pleasing.

• Scripts are optimized across web pages.
• Images are optimized across web pages.
• CSS is optimized across web pages.

6. Ensure that rights to images, fonts, and other content have been properly licensed or cited.

Even if you outsourced the design to a web designer/developer, the responsibility falls on you to ensure there are no copyright licensing issues. Otherwise, you could end up with a hefty infringement settlement on your hands.

7. Test the site for User Experience (UX).

• Website pages are compatible across browsers.
• Website pages are compatible across devices.
• Images, videos, and audio files are in the correct places, formatted and working on all devices.
• All premium content, such as case studies, ebooks, and whitepapers, are stored in their proper libraries/databases and work properly.
• Internal links across web pages are working properly. 
• Social media share icons are associated with the correct accounts.
• Company logo is linked to the homepage.

8. Check that the conversion paths have been implemented properly.

• All necessary forms are present. 
• Landing pages and thank you pages have been implemented. 
• The correct buttons and calls-to-action (CTAs) are present in the proper locations. 
• Everything is linked together appropriately.

9. Create your site backup strategy. 

You can prevent loss of data and protect against malware and other damages by properly setting up site security and regular backups. Check that:

• Backup schedule has been created. 
• Backup location has been identified. 
• A plan for implementation is set to be put in motion after launch.

10. Store passwords and credentials in a secure place. 

Many individuals have likely been involved in the website launch up until this point, so ensure that passwords are reset when the time comes and proper password etiquette is followed.

11. Audit the technical SEO implementation for errors. 

• Pages have unique page titles. 
• Pages have unique meta descriptions. 
• Each page has a specific purpose, and pages meant to rank organically are optimized around a single keyword or set of keywords.

12. Conduct a stress test.

In a typical website redesign, it may not be 100% necessary to do a stress test because the traffic spike may not overrun your server's capacity. But a stress test (also called a load test) is a must for any company that plans for a large influx of visitors during specific times — such as the holidays or after a major press event. It'll help you figure out how much simultaneous traffic your website can handle by simulating up to tens of thousands of simultaneous virtual users from different locations around the world.

While stress tests simulate virtual users, the test won't be totally replicating a real-life scenario — so you'll want to find a test that brings you as close to reality as possible. Ask a developer which load tests they recommend. Here at HubSpot, many of our developers use JMeter by Apache, but this is a pretty technical tool that's not ideal for someone who's new to the concept.

Be sure to notify your host or provider that you want to perform a stress test before you actually do one. Otherwise, your test might look like a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on your provider. Many providers (including HubSpot) consider an unauthorized load test a violation of terms of service.

User experience is a key aspect of how they view your company, so testing your website before it goes live will bring more confidence that visitors will not be immediately displeased with your offerings.

Website Post-Launch Checklist

Let's say you've done it. The button has been pushed, the domain is pointing to the new site, and you're about ready to tell the world...

But wait just one second because you still have things to check for now that your site is officially live.

13. Test the site for user experience again. 

Just in case there was an issue with the implementation, you'll want to ensure the experience is consistent with what you reviewed before it went live.

• Ensure your design is rendering as you expected it to across browsers. 
• Ensure your design is rendering as you expected it to across devices. 
• Ensure CSS/HTML is properly validated. 
• CSS styling is rendering properly.
• Favicon is in place and rendering properly. 
• Internal links across web pages are working properly.
• External links across web pages are working properly, and open in a new tab.
• Social media share icons are working properly.
• Feeds are working properly (RSS, news, social media).
• Company logo is linked to the homepage.
• 404 Redirect pages are in place (page-not-found.aspx).

14. Test your conversion path's functionality.

Take some time to test and validate all of the different features on your website. Lead generation forms, CRM integration, and any other technology should work flawlessly across your website.

• Forms are submitting data properly.
• Thank you message or page displays after form is submitted.
• Form data is being emailed to a recipient and/or stored in a company database.
• Auto-responders are working properly (if applicable).

15. Check that integrations with third-party tools are running smoothly.

Integrations such as your CRM, e-commerce software, and/or marketing platform link to your site and help you run your business. If there is a potential issue that can cause data loss, you don't want to find out way after the fact. 

16. Make a copy of the final website for backup purposes. 

Now that everything is in place and finalized, you want to have a pristine copy of it should you experience data corruption or loss. 

17. Ensure that backups are running properly. 

Now is the time to check the implementation of your backup strategy. Check that ongoing copies of the website are being created and stored on a regular basis.

18. Make sure your site is secure.

• 24/7 monitoring scripts are installed.
• There's a plan in place for updating plugins (if applicable). 
• Ensure that all applicable parties are aware of your organization's password etiquette policies.
• Purchase an SSL certificate if need-be. An SSL certificate takes up to two weeks to purchase and set up, so ensure you have it prior to launch. (An SSL certificate will ensure your website is encrypted so hackers can't intercept any of your data. Not only will this put your website visitors at ease, but it'll also boost your website's SEO since SSL is now part of Google's search ranking algorithm.)

19. Comply with all applicable laws.

Make sure your website complies with any applicable laws and regulations. Internet law can be sticky, and each industry has its own set of rules to follow. So it's best to consult with your legal counsel to make sure you aren't missing anything — this post is not legal guidance. Here are a few you might need to know about:

• Web pages offer accessibility for users with disabilities (WAI-ARIA).
• Web pages announce if the website uses cookies (required in some countries).
• Website is compliant with usage rights for purchased or borrowed code, images, and fonts.
• Terms and privacy policies are visible to website visitors.
• Website is PCI compliant (if you're storing and processing credit cards).

20. Crawl the site to ensure no errors happened on launch. 

Compare the crawl to the previous crawl and see if you find any inconsistencies that were not intentional. You'll also want to ensure that all pages have the proper search engine indexing settings.

Additionally, you'll want to check for formatting consistency. Sometimes, font codes get dropped into a page accidentally, so you'll want to scour your site for any of these weird formatting errors. Make sure all your formatting is consistent and there are no weird blips in your copy.

21. Check the technical SEO components for errors.

• Page titles, meta descriptions, and URLs are all present and match the original technical SEO strategy.
• Load time for site pages is optimized.
• A dynamic XML sitemap has been created.
• The XML sitemap has been submitted to search engines.
• Page URLs consistently reflect site information architecture.
• 301 redirects are in place for all old URLs (redirecting old to new pages).
• rel="nofollow" tags are in place on applicable links and pages.
• Images on the website are properly compressed (which helps with load time). 

22. Optimize your metadata.

• Metadata is properly in place for any content in an RSS feed.
• Metadata is properly in place for any social media sharing content.
• Spelling and grammar are correct in all metadata.
• Alt tags have been added to every image.

23. Set up analytics.

Make sure your website is set up to capture web data and analytics. This valuable information will allow you to continually improve your website going forward, so you don't want to forget this stuff.

• Your website analytics codes and tracking scripts have been inserted on website.
• Relevant IP addresses have been excluded from analytics tracking.
• Funnels and goals have been properly created in your analytics software (if applicable).
• Google Webmaster and Google Analytics accounts have been properly synced.
• Google Ads accounts have been properly synced (if applicable).

24. Start a post-launch enhancement list.

The website you launch should be functional, well-designed, and well-positioned. But it probably won't be everything you hoped and dreamed on the first go — and you certainly don't want to spend months of effort designing a site that people may not react well to. What if your client doesn't like it? What if conversion rates plummet? That could add up to lost money and effort.

Instead, it's best to publish a solid website, and then test and build on top of it — a website creation approach known as growth-driven design. Create a document that lists out all the things you can't get done for the launch itself but want to add in the future, and add features and elements to it as you discover more about how users interact with the site. This you can do by using one of these user testing tools. 

How Do You Announce a New Website Launch?

This (hopefully) wasn't a vanity project; you did all of this work so far for the benefit of your website visitors, prospects, and existing customers. Your next step is to tell the world about your new site design. Here's how:

25. Build anticipation with teasers before the site is live. 

A launch of a new product, a launch of a new movie, and — yes — a new site launch all require marketing before the actual release. Think of the last movie you watched in the theater. Did you see the trailer before you decided to buy those movie tickets and popcorn?

Teasers for your website launch can only help to build anticipation and get users wondering what the new experience will be like. This can build buzz and interest once you finally break the news.

26. Create a social media strategy for the announcement. 

Decide what channels you want to promote the news on, how you will make the announcement, and how long the promotion will last.

As you craft your messaging, remember to focus on new features and how they benefit your audience. 

27. Identify exciting ways to promote engagement for the new site. 

For users who aren't as involved in your brand, a new site launch might not seem like a big deal. Your goal, then, is to make it one. Provide an exclusive offer for the first users who visit the site. Or, create a contest that promotes engaging with the site's new features. Whatever you choose, make sure you make it fun and interesting.

28. Send an email to your existing database. 

You may want to give existing leads and customers a head's up about the new design, especially if it will cause any confusion when they next visit. You can break the news as a matter of courtesy but also sneak in ways to underscore the value you're providing.

You can also alert all stakeholders of the redesign and ask them to spread the word of the new website. 

29. Continue to promote the launch for a month. 

Just because you post about your new website once on social media does not mean that your audience will drop everything to visit the site in droves. Make your launch a big deal, and keep the new functionality top of mind so that your audience is prompted multiple times to check it out.

(Once your website is launched, remember to resubmit your XML sitemap to all major search engines once you're done, too.)

Resources for Launching Your First Website

Launching a new website can be a tedious task, but you can alleviate some of the stress by using this comprehensive website launch checklist.

If you're just getting started on your first website, here are a few tools that can help you streamline your process

• CMS: As mentioned above, a CMS can help you design your website, optimize and publish content, and track your analytics once it's launched. If you're looking to test out a few CMS options, start by checking out our 14-day free CMS trial.
• Blogging Guides: If you're interested in using your website to publish a blog that could help you boost brand awareness, it can be helpful to start brainstorming topics. Here's a great guide to how to be a better blogger with tips from our team.
• Landing Page Templates: A landing page is a great way to highlight a product or resource that your brand is offering. It's important to know what elements lead to a landing page that will convert. Here's a guide with examples. Additionally, when using a CMS like HubSpot's, you can create landing pages from pre-designed templates.

Editor's Note: This blog post was originally published in August 2014, but was updated for comprehensiveness and freshness in June 2021.

80 Things to Check Before, During, and After Launching a Website was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

3 Ways to Leverage Brand Champions for Your Business

In our personal lives, we all want people who champion us.

If we're lucky, that will start with our family and extend to our friends and significant others. In an ideal work environment, our managers will also champion us and help us climb the ladder.

There's nothing better than having people cheering for you on the sidelines and advocating for you in the rooms you're not in.

As a business owner, you also want that level of support for your brand.

That's where a brand champion comes in as someone who promotes your business and helps grow your loyalty base.

Let's dive into why you need a brand champion, how to get one, and how to incorporate it into your marketing strategy.

Depending on the size of your business, you may have one or several champions. Sometimes, that role is embedded in your staff's responsibilities.

For instance, an employer brand specialist is responsible for promoting a company's culture and benefits to outside candidates. That, in itself, is a type of brand champion, as their role is centered around campaigning for your brand.

You can say the same for brand ambassadors who partner with businesses to promote them and generate leads.

A key difference to note here is that there is typically a contractual obligation for ambassadors to promote your brand. Champions may be incentivized to do so, but they're not required to celebrate your brand.

In a small company, the business owner can be the brand champion, motivating employees internally and networking externally to gain more customers.

The key takeaway is that anyone can be a brand champion, and the more champions your brand has, the stronger it will be.

How to Be (and Gain) a Brand Champion

To be a brand champion, there are a few key characteristics and traits you must have. A brand champion should:

• Be passionate about the company.
• Know the company's vision, mission, and values.
• Be invested in the brand's long-term success and growth.
• Have the skills to lead growth initiatives.
• Stay updated on the most effective strategies to build brand loyalty with employees and consumers.

One place where you might want to start looking for brand champions is with your employees.

Studies show that how businesses treat their employees plays a big role in how trustworthy they seem. Especially in times of crisis, consumers look at how brands treat their own.

Encouraging your employees to become brand champions will require some structural implementations within your organization.

You want an environment that creates happy employees because happy employees make great champions who will boost your brand without you even asking.

It's like when you love a product you've just bought. You'll find any opportunity to tell people how much you love it – even if you don't have a 10% referral discount code.

Start by conducting regular employee net promoter score (eNPS) surveys. This will tell you how satisfied your employees are and let you know how you can better support them. Once you identify opportunities for improvement, be sure to follow through with action to let your employees know their voices are heard and taken seriously.

If your company is publicly traded, consider offering your employees restricted stock units (RSUs). RSUs are stocks given to employees as a form of compensation with a vesting schedule that can span anywhere from one to a few years after the employee's start date.

Giving your employees an equity stake in your company can build their loyalty to your company and have them invested in its growth.

Other ways to turn your employees into brand champions include:

• Providing professional development opportunities.
• Investing in diversity and inclusion initiatives, such as employee resource groups (ERGs).
• Creating psychological safety.

How to Leverage Brand Champion Marketing

1. Invest in employer branding.

Employer branding is a form of marketing in which the target audience is candidates interested in joining your company. However, it can create a very positive perception of your brand to consumers.

We've mentioned how important employees are to building brand trust. If consumers think you are mistreating your employees or playing profit over people, this can tarnish your brand image.

Your employer branding specialist is the person behind the strategies to showcase your internal brand champions.

At HubSpot, we have @HubSpotLife on Instagram, where we post employee takeovers, our Culture Code, and more.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by HubSpot Life (@hubspotlife)

It's an opportunity for our employees to tell the world about what they love about working at HubSpot and share their personal experiences.

Employer branding is all about giving people an inside look at the benefits of working at your business.

2. Amplify your brand evangelists' voices.

Whether you're a small or large business, you probably know who your biggest customer supporters are.

You may know them by name or through data you've collected (like NPS surveys). These customers and loyalists are a gold mine when it comes to championing your business.

Odds are, they're doing it already through word of mouth. Why not amplify their voices to maximize their impact?

One way to do so is by asking your evangelists to leave you reviews on sites like Google My Business, Yelp, and Facebook.

If you're running a campaign and want to include testimonials, reach out to your top supporters and ask them to participate. You could repurpose those same testimonials for your website, landing pages, and more.

Another way to amplify your champions' voice is by offering them custom referral codes. When your champion refers someone to your brand, they and the recipient get a discount on their next purchase. And you gain a new customer – it's a win-win-win.

3. Engage your brand champions on social media.

Think of your social media followers as brand champions in training.

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They already like your brand, that's why they're following you. The more you nurture your relationship with them and build a community, the more loyal they'll become. Eventually, they'll turn into your brand champions.

There are countless ways to engage your community on social media, including:

• Responding to comments
• Creating private groups
• Creating polls and surveys
• Conducting Q&As
• Going live with your followers
• Reposting user-generated content

Brand champions do wonders for your public image, as they advocate for your brand in a way that doesn't feel like an advertisement. So, nurture those champions and leverage them to further your brand's growth.

3 Ways to Leverage Brand Champions for Your Business was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

These Big Social Media Platforms are Taking on Clubhouse: What Marketers Need to Know

If you've read the news or surfed through social media recently, you've probably heard about the new social media audio app called Clubhouse.

In the last few months, Clubhouse, which allows users to drop in on audio calls as listeners or speakers, has received a $100 million valuation and grown to more than 10 million active users. Now, tech giants like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn are unsurprisingly building similar features to get in on the chat-streaming action.

If you're feeling deja vu following the competition around Snapchat Stories, and TikTok's musical overlay features, you're not alone.

When a new social media app goes viral, you can almost guarantee that at least one of the social tech giants will test a similar, competitive feature. And, each time this happens, marketers wonder, "Which of these social media channels should I use in my strategy? And, is this trend even worth investing in?"

The good news? Strong competition around a social media trend, like chat streaming, signals that it’s not going away anytime soon and might be worth investing in. So, the only thing you’ll need to figure out is where to experiment with the trend.

Below, I'll give you a breakdown of Clubhouse's four biggest potential competitors, as well as some marketing takeaways to help you determine which platform is right for your brand.

Need to brush up on your Clubhouse knowledge before diving in? Check out this post for a recap of what Clubhouse is and why competitors are trying to get in on the action.

What We Know About Twitter Spaces

Twitter Spaces was softly rolled out to a small group of beta testers in late December and fully launched in May of 2021. The feature, which closely resembles Clubhouse Rooms, allows users with over 600 followers to host a space -- or audio chatroom that anyone on Twitter or just a few pre-selected followers can be invited to.

The Spaces experiment was announced late last year following the success of audio apps like Clubhouse. At that time, Twitter Product Lead, Kayvon Beykpour told TechCrunch, “We think that audio is definitely having a resurgence right now across many digital spaces. … It’ll be fascinating to see how other platforms explore the area as well, but we think it’s a critical one for us, too."

How Twitter Spaces Works

Although Twitter Spaces is still evolving and will roll out more features in the coming months, those who have access to the full feature already can create a Space by holding the post button of their Twitter app and choosing the new Spaces icon, or by tapping their Fleets icon and choosing to create a Space instead of a Fleet.

At the moment, when a Space is launched, it's public and can be seen in your followers' Fleets bar, as shown below. In the near future, Twitter says it plans to enable scheduling and room ticket capabilities that allow people to preschedule chats or sell tickets to a private space.

At the moment, those who launch a Space can invite up to 10 hand-picked speakers. From there, they can adjust who speaks based on who raises their hand and which speakers need to leave early. At the moment, it does not seem like there's a cap on the number of people who can tune in and potentially request to speak. In the future, Twitter plans to expand the feature and allow co-hosting privileges which will allow two users to host and run a space.

When entering the Space, the UX is similar to Clubhouse in that you can see who's speaking and who created the Space before seeing a list of other listeners. You'll also see a down arrow at the top that allows you to minimize, but continue listening to the chat, as well as a "Leave," request to speak, share, and heart icon -- allowing you to signal that you enjoy the discussion.  

Like Clubhouse, users will be muted as they enter the room and will need to get speaking privileges from the Space moderator if they'd like to say something.

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Takeaways for Marketers

Spaces is still evolving with new users gaining access each day. However, this feature could be a good fit for brands that are looking for a broad audience and completely public platform.

While Twitter's audience exceeds 330 million monthly active users, its app is also available to all smartphone users. Meanwhile, Clubhouse is still invite-only and can't be accessed by Android users despite its fast growth.

For Twitter and brands aiming to build a community of followers on the platform, Spaces could also be a natural transition. At this point, people are already using Twitter to respond to text-based threads and tweets related to their interests, industry, beliefs, and passions. Now, they can vocally share their thoughts in Spaces without worrying about character limits. This could further engage Twitter's community-centered audience while also helping brands take community marketing to the next level.

What we Know About Instagram Live Rooms

Shortly after Facebook's CEO and Co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg spoke in a Clubhouse room, the social media company was reportedly experimenting with a similar audio feature. While we're still not certain if and when Facebook will launch a competing feature yet, its company, Instagram, is expanding its Live feature to add chat rooms.

What makes Instagram Live Rooms significantly different from Clubhouse or Spaces is that it streams full video chats rather than audio discussions.

Before March, Instagram Live allowed two Instagram users (one broadcaster and one guest) to stream their video call for public audiences or followers. For viewers, this experience was like watching two people video call without being able to participate. Now, Instagram has upped the guest capacity of these rooms from one to three. Here's what the format looks like today:

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A March 1 announcement from Instagram explained, "In the past year, special moments have happened on Live, including informational talks about science and COVID-19 guidelines, interviews with celebrities and record-breaking rap battles. Creators of all kinds — from fitness instructors to musicians, beauty bloggers, chefs and activists, all relied on Live to create moments and bring people together to reach their communities in creative ways. We can’t wait to see what more creativity comes from this highly-requested update."

"We hope that doubling up on Live will open up more creative opportunities — start a talk show, host a jam session or co-create with other artists, host more engaging Q&As or tutorials with your following, or just hang out with more of your friends," the Instagram statement added.

How to Instagram Live Rooms Will Work

At the moment, the Live Rooms feature is still rolling out, but it will soon be available to global Instagram users.

When Live Rooms is fully implemented, any user can tap their Stories icon, swipe left to the Live setting, choose a title or foundation to promote in their stream. Then, they can tap the "Rooms" icon and pick guests to be in their broadcast. Viewers will also be able to request to join rooms that are already in progress, as shown below:

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Takeaways for Marketers

While Live Rooms could be an interesting prospect for brands that already have a following there, they do seem to have some limitations. For example, while Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse allow more than five guests -- aside from the moderator, Live Rooms only allows three additional guests. This might make it harder to take questions or comments from audience members who'd like to add to the conversation.

Another factor that could be a pro or con depending on the brand considering it is the visual nature of Live Rooms. Because speakers must appear on camera, some brands will have more opportunities to show products or visuals. Meanwhile, other brands looking for a more open dialogue will need to find only speakers comfortable with appearing on video.

One solid feature that could make Instagram Live Rooms more competitive for brands is Instagram Shopping. In 2020, Instagram added new shopping features that allow brands to share links to products in live streams that can be purchased directly on Instagram. According to Instagram's announcement, these features will be available in Live Rooms so brands could begin to monetize their live chats.

Facebook and LinkedIn’s Clubhouse Rivals

At this point, Facebook’s Clubhouse alternative is still in the very early stages of development while LinkedIn’s was confirmed in late March. At this point, there aren't many details on what LinkedIn or Facebook’s final audio platforms could look like when they launch. However, reports hint that they’ll both have a very similar audio-only user experience to Clubhouse.

For example, here's a look at the audio chat UX LinkedIn is testing, as reported by TechCrunch:

Image Source

Suzi Owens, a LinkedIn spokesperson, confirmed that LinkedIn is testing a new audio feature with the UX shown above.

"We’re doing some early tests to create a unique audio experience connected to your professional identity," Owens said. "And, we’re looking at how we can bring audio to other parts of LinkedIn such as events and groups, to give our members even more ways to connect to their community."

When it comes to Facebook, not much has been publicly announced about its feature. However, TechCrunch reports that the feature could be part of the Facebook Messenger app. Here’s a very early mockup of the feature, which was recently leaked on Twitter:

Image Source

While Facebook confirms that the mockup above was part of its "exploratory" process, the tech company told TechCrunch that the image doesn't accurately depict the finalized version of the feature.

Takeaways for Marketers

At this point, marketers should keep these options on their radar and be ready to consider these alternatives if they do launch. While Clubhouse users that love to network and discuss their industry might transition well to LinkedIn’s version, Facebook's pure size could mean that their in-app audio chat experiences could get more listeners than you’d find on Clubhouse.

Which Audio Social Media Platform Should Marketers Use

Like we saw with Stories and short-form music video features, every social media platform wants to take advantage of audio social media trends. Because each version is pretty similar to all the others, you might be wondering which channel you should invest in.

At the moment, the jury is still out on which platform will be the most successful for the longest, especially since Twitter and Instagram's features aren't fully launched yet. However, when all the social media competitors implement their new features, you'll want to consider a few factors to determine which is right for you, such as:

• Potential reach: While Twitter and Instagram have the biggest audiences by far, Clubhouse is quickly growing. If this app were to launch an Android version soon, it could potentially burst in growth due to its current buzz and popularity.
• Your following: Do you already have a large following on one platform that has a chat streaming feature? If so, you might want to start there before investing time into another app where you have no audience.
• Media formats: Clubhouse and Twitter's chat streams are designed to be audio-only, while Instagram Live Rooms will show video. If you prefer staying off-camera, you might want to avoid one of the apps that requires your camera.
• Miscellaneous features: While Clubhouse enables users to make clubs -- or groups of users with similar interests, Instagram enables brands to place Instagram Shopping CTAs in their Live streams. While you're exploring each platform, take note of the smaller features that differentiate them in case one of these tools could help your brand.

Want to learn more about the latest social media trends and expert insights? Download HubSpot's 2021 Social Media Trends Report for free below.

These Big Social Media Platforms are Taking on Clubhouse: What Marketers Need to Know was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

The Top 3 Reasons Consumers Read Blogs & How to Attract Them in 2021 [New Data]

In 2021, there's no question that blogging is beneficial to any marketing strategy.

But, while blogging has been known to help brands boost leads, SEO, and credibility, many busy marketers might still worry that blogging's effectiveness could be losing steam.

Fears that "blogging is dead" haven't been eased by research. Recently, when we polled over 300 people to ask them how often they read blogs, roughly 40% said "never." This followed HubSpot's Not Another State of Marketing Report, which revealed that blogging fell from the first to third-most-common content strategy between 2018 and 2020.

But, before you get wrapped up in all the negative data, it's important to remember that blogging is still incredibly valuable to marketers -- but the way you approach blogging matters more than ever. And, while our past survey found that 40% of people never read blogs, it conversely revealed that 60% of consumers read this content regularly.

The truth is, blogging is alive and well. You'll just need to work a tiny bit harder to persuade people to read your content than you have in the past.

So, what's one way to get into a consumer's head and figure out how to motivate them to read your blog? Performing another survey.

Rather than asking more than 300 people, "Do you read blogs?", I recently launched a follow-up Lucid survey that asked, "Why do you most commonly read blog posts?"

In the survey, which asked participants to select the most common reason that they consume blog content, answer options included, "To learn how to do something new," "To be entertained," "To learn more about products or brands," and "To learn about news and trends in my job industry."

With the number of leads that business blogs are known to generate, you might assume that a large chunk of people read blogs to learn about brands or products. But, actually, you might be surprised -- and a little concerned -- by the highest and lowest-ranking reasons for blog readership:

In fact, only four percent of consumers say they read blogs to learn about brands or products.

According to the results of the survey, more people are actually driven to read blogs that teach them how to do something new. While 33% selected this reasoning, 20% said they read blogs to be entertained, while 12% read blogs to learn about news or trends in their job industry.

Additionally, 9% said they're driven to read blogs for all of the reasons given.

Data Source

What exactly do the results above mean?

To win over blog readers, you'll need to create content that provides some type of informative value or entertainment, rather than purely using your blog to discuss your brand or product.

In this blog post, I'll walk you through the top three reasons why the general consumer population is driven to read blogs. I'll also show you how to create blog content that fulfills your reader's needs while still subtly spreading brand awareness.

3 Reasons People Read Blogs

1. People read blogs to learn something new.

By far, the most common reason that people will read a blog post is to learn something new. This result doesn't surprise me at all.

Why? Posts that include guides, step-by-step processes, tutorial videos, or fast-facts often gain a large amount of search traffic. This is because people are looking up instructions for how to do things on Google every day.

Even when posts aren't informing people of how to do something on a granular level, blogs that discuss complex topics such as studies, trends, or topics people are less familiar with can pique a person's curiosity.

Psychologically,  researchers have reported that humans crave valuable information similarly to how they crave food and financial wealth. As a blogger, you can harness this to create content that both piques curiosity, while discussing topics related to your brand, service, or products.

For example, on the Marketing Blog, we might show our readers how to use a new social media network, like Clubhouse. By doing this, marketers or social media users who want to learn how to do this could find our content in search or on social media and read it to learn how to create this content.

On a broader scope, our blog might create multiple pieces of content that discuss a trend from multiple angles. For example, when the app TikTok emerged, we wrote a few blog posts to answer common marketer questions like, "What is TikTok?", "How do brands market themselves on TikTok?", or "How do you leverage influencer marketing on TikTok?"

Aside from helping our readers, guide or trend-related blogs allow us to highlight the level of research and knowledge we've gained as marketers. This could also demonstrate to a prospect that HubSpot is a credible company that sells quality products within the marketing industry.

2. People read blogs to be entertained.

While people crave knowledge, they also like to be entertained. Each day, people might read blogs that tell interesting stories, make them laugh, or intrigue them in some other way.

This lines up well with 2020 research noting that more consumers were watching videos and consuming online content for the sake of fun and escapism. 

But, as a business blogger, You might be asking yourself, "How can I entertain my readers while still keeping my blog professional?"

The truth is, when you think creatively, there are a number of ways you can entertain your audience while still staying on brand.

For example, you could create a fun infographic or photo post about a viral trend in your industry, While your readers might not be willing to invest in this viral trend, the imagery and information about the trend might entertain them. In one of our posts, we highlighted funny memes that marketers used in their actual campaigns.

Alternatively, you could also create a fun, but informative, video or podcast to go with your blog post. With this added layer of content, you could dive deeper into discussing a viral marketing trend, or interview an industry expert that people in your field follow. While this might not be "entertaining" for people outside of your industry, it might be more interesting than the average blogs people in your field might be reading.

Here's an example of a blog post that combines text and video for a better reader experience:

3. People read blogs to learn about trends related to their job industry.

While people might not be interested in reading blogs that specifically discuss your product or brand, they could be more intrigued by a blog that discusses an industry your product is affiliated with.

While the poll result noted in the introduction came from general consumers with mixed professional backgrounds, it's likely that those in the workforce will read a blog if it educates them or provides them with valuable information about their industry.

When looking at the HubSpot Blog readership and data, it's clear that our audiences enjoying reading content related to trends in the marketing, sales, service, or website industries. And, when we get tips from experts or data on how to navigate these trends, our readers are even more engaged. 

For example, our industry recently started buzzing about the social media audio app, Clubhouse. While HubSpot had been watching this trend while the app was still primarily used by celebrities, we started to churn out content about it once every-day users and brands began to get invited to join the app.

On top of just explaining what Clubhouse was and why the app was going viral, we also added to the post by including quotes and opinions from social media marketers about the social platform's brand potential.

Here's an example of one of the posts we wrote that discussed the viral new trend and app. 

Aside from responding to trends, you can additionally write about breaking news related to your field. For example, here's another post where we discussed how a third-party cookie phaseout could impact marketers.

 

By responding to trends and news on your website, you position your blog as the go-to place for the latest industry trend insights, as well as educational information and general tips. 

Creating Content That Fulfills Reader Needs in 2021

So, how do you create engaging content that pulls in audiences with all different reading motivations while still spreading brand awareness about your product or service? Consider publishing blog posts that combine industry trends, how-tos, and entertainment. After all, nine percent of the survey recipients polled above said they read blogs for all of the reasons on the list I gave.

Here are two examples of how you can create content that fulfills the interests of multiple groups of blog readers.

Teach your readers how to do something in your industry.

At the HubSpot Blog, each of our posts teaches readers about something specific. For example, the post you're currently reading highlights the research we've done about how people read blogs and shows you how to leverage these results.

In other posts, we'll also inform marketers by giving them a step-by-step guide to a marketing tactic or examples of how brands leverage promotional trends. Regardless of what we write about, we're always trying to teach readers something valuable.

When you create content that educates people about strategies related to your industry, it's also easier to subtly discuss your product in a way that doesn't seem shameless of over promotional.

For example, when we're discussing a strategy that HubSpot can help with, we might subtly link readers to a tool or resource we offer that can help them. Here's an example of a HubSpot mention in a post about form building tools:

We also like to include free offers related to our content at the end of each blog post. When we do this, a reader can learn more about the topic we've just taught them about. And, when they fill out a simple form requesting the free resource, they can choose whether or not they'd like to be contacted about one of our products. This allows the reader to feel like they are receiving valuable information without being forced to learn about our products.

Even when you don't specifically acknowledge a product, an industry blog focused on informing readers can show off your company's level of expertise. When your brand is seen as highly knowledgeable about your industry, readers might think that your products were also created by your staff of industry experts.

Entertain industry readers while still informing them.

Even though an industry blog will likely target company employees or leaders, this doesn't mean your content can't be informative and entertaining. For example, you can use videos, GIFs, imagery, or interactive blog assets to add to your content while keeping it interesting for the reader.

For example, you could consider embedding a trivia or personality quiz related to your industry, as we did in this blog post:

On occasion, you could also create a fun, suitable for work posts that your industry readers can relate to. For example, here's a Service Blog post where we highlight GIFs related to working on a customer service floor:

Entertaining blog content on an industry blog can similarly show off your expertise. But, importantly, this content also allows your reader to relate to your brand on a more human level.

Building an Effective 2021 Blog Strategy

While it can be great to run with one successful content type, the blogs with the most credibility and quickest growth often have a mix of content that entertains or informs readers, makes them aware of brands or products, or teaches them something new. And, with 9% of consumers in the poll above saying that they'll read blogs for "all" reasons listed, there's a good chance that a mix will intrigue and fulfill the reading needs of multiple different groups.

To learn more about how to drive internet users to your blog, check out this post. For tips on how to be a blogger, check out this post with advice from our own blog team.

Editor's Note: This blog post was originally published in May 2020 but was recently updated for comprehensiveness and freshness.

The Top 3 Reasons Consumers Read Blogs & How to Attract Them in 2021 [New Data] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Find and Remove Duplicates in Excel

"I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try."

These Taylor Swift lyrics, in the song "mirrorball", perfectly explain my relationship with numbers, math, and anything concerning data analytics.

However, as a marketer, data analysis is one of the most important aspects of my job. But like most marketers, who prefer strategy and creativity, numbers and Excel reports don't come naturally to me.

That's why it's important to know how to work in Excel and find shortcuts to help make the process easier.

Today, we'll dive into one of those processes -- how to find and remove duplicates in Excel.

1. Find and highlight duplicates in Excel through conditional formatting.

The first step of removing duplicates will be to find them. An easy way to do this is through conditional formatting.

You can do that by following these steps:

1. Make sure you're on the Home tab.
2. Select the entire table by hitting the button on the top left.
3. Click Conditional Formatting → Highlight Cells Rules → Duplicate Values.
4. In the area titled "Format With", change how you want duplicates to be highlighted. You can choose highlighting, bolding text, changing the color of text, etc.

And voila. Your duplicates are now highlighted. It should look something like this:

2. Count duplicates in Excel.

Now that you've found your duplicates, you might want to count them and see how many there are, especially if you have a large dataset.

To do this, you can use this formula =COUNTIF(A:A, A2). The formula means that Excel is going to count how many times a certain value is used in a certain place.

The column A:A stands for the data table you're looking at. This will probably be a different value on your Excel sheet. Then, A2 references the value you want to count the frequency of.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Create a new sheet in your Excel doc.

   I found that the easiest way to count duplicates in Excel is to create a new sheet in your Excel workbook.

   Then, copy and paste the column that you want to count duplicates in. In the example below, I copied and pasted the blog titles from the editorial calendar to see if there were any duplicate titles.

   Then, create another column for "occurrences." This is where we'll put the formula. Your new sheet should look something like this:

   
2. Insert the formula.

Now, you can insert the formula in the first cell under occurrences. You'll type in or copy and paste the formula. Then highlight A:A (we're going to replace this with your dataset), and click on the sheet in your Excel doc that has the data. Now, you can click on the top left to select the entire sheet, or you can just highlight the column or rows with your data.

For the second value, you'll want to go back to your second sheet, highlight the A2, and choose the value next to it on the left. In most cases, this will stay A2, A3, A4, etc.

See what this looks like in action here:

3. Remove duplicates with the remove duplicates feature.

Now it's time to remove the duplicates from your dataset.

Before you do this, I'd recommend duplicating/copying your dataset into another sheet or a whole other workbook altogether. You always want to keep your original data intact, even though you can use Excel to remove and filter the data you want. You don't want to lose data because of a wrong click.

Once you've made a copy of your data, it's time to remove the duplicates.

To remove duplicates, follow these steps:

1. Select the worksheet that has duplicate values that you want to remove. Click Data → Table Tools → Remove Duplicates.
2. Choose the columns where you want to remove the duplicates.

   In this case, I only want to remove duplicate blog titles. So I'll choose column D. I kept "My list has headers" checked because there are two rows of headers before the data starts on this sheet.

   Remember that Excel will remove the entire row where the duplicate value is.

   
3. Review data.

Excel will now show you have many duplicate values were found, removed, and how many unique values remain.

Now you can review your data. Comparing my first dataset to this dataset, you can see that all the rows containing the same blog title were deleted.

This is what the sheet used to look like:

And this is what it looks like now:

When you remove duplicates from Excel, it's important to note which column you want to remove duplicates from and remember that Excel is removing duplicates within a selected table range. You can highlight the whole workbook or you can just highlight the rows that have data in it.

Excel will automatically keep the first occurrence of the value.

Working on marketing reports or any marketing Excel sheet can leave you frustrated and banging your head against the wall (is it just me?). That's why using Excel templates and following these simple instructions on formulas can help you level up your game.

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