5 Dos and Don'ts When Making a SMART Goal [Examples]

When I was 14, my dream was to play college baseball. But I had one small problem — I only weighed 100 pounds and could barely hit the ball out of the infield. Even though I still had four years to bulk up and improve my skills, I knew I had a long way to go before I could play at the collegiate level.

Fortunately, my high school coach always gave me opportunities to shoot for that kept my drive alive. After a grueling practice or workout, he would harp on how a long-term goal is just a series of short-term goals, and he made us write down our off-season training goals every year. But he didn't just accept the first draft of your goal sheet. He would make you edit it until you knew exactly what your goals were and how you were going to achieve them.

Setting a goal like "improve upper body strength" wasn't enough. You had to write down how much you would improve your bench press by and how many times you would work out per week.

Every year, I set off-season SMART goals, and since I had a plan and clear direction, I always achieved them. By the time I was a senior in high school, I had gained 70 pounds and earned a baseball scholarship.

In this post, you'll learn exactly what SMART goals are and how you can set one today. Want to skip to the information you need most? Click on one of these headlines to jump to that section.

• What are SMART Goals?
• Why Are SMART Goals Important?
• SMART Goal Examples
• How to Make a SMART Goal

Download this Template for Free

In the working world, the influence of SMART goals continues to grow. The reason why successful marketing teams always hit their numbers is that they also set SMART goals. Use the template above to follow along and create your own SMART goals.

What are SMART goals?

SMART goals are concrete targets that you aim to hit over a certain period. These goals should be carefully drafted by a manager and their direct report to set them up for success. "SMART" is an acronym that describes the most important characteristics of each goal.

The "SMART" acronym stands for "specific," "measurable," "attainable," "relevant," and "time-bound." Each SMART goal should have these five characteristics to ensure the goal can be reached and benefits the employee. Find out what each characteristic means below, and how to write a SMART goal that exemplifies them.

Why are SMART goals important?

When you make goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound, you're increasing your odds for success by verifying that the goal is achievable, identifying the metrics that define success, and creating a roadmap to reach those metrics.

SMART goals are important to set as they:

• Help you work with clear intentions, not broad or vague goals
• Provide a method to gauge your success by setting benchmarks to meet
• Give sensible objectives that are realistic and achievable
• Cut out unnecessary or irrelevant work that could take away from what’s important
• Set a clear beginning and end to adhere to in reaching your goals

If your goals are abstract, if you don't know what it will take to achieve success, or if you don't give yourself a deadline to complete steps, you may lose focus and fall short of what you want to accomplish.

Do SMART goals actually work?

In short — yes, if done correctly. Setting unrealistic goals and trying to measure them without consideration of previous performance, overly short time frames, or including too many variables will lead you off course.

These goals work if formulated properly and if they take into account the motive and cadence of those working on them. Additionally, your SMART goals can only succeed when the employees working towards them have the means to achieve them.

Let’s take a look at some realistic examples of SMART goals to paint a clearer picture of what they are.

1. Blog Traffic Goal

• Specific: I want to boost our blog's traffic by increasing our weekly publishing frequency from five to eight times a week. Our two bloggers will increase their workload from writing two posts a week to three posts a week, and our editor will increase her workload from writing one post a week to two posts a week.
• Measurable: Our goal is an 8% increase in traffic.
• Attainable: Our blog traffic increased by 5% last month when we increased our weekly publishing frequency from three to five times a week.
• Relevant: By increasing blog traffic, we'll boost brand awareness and generate more leads, giving sales more opportunities to close.
• Time-Bound: End of this month
• SMART Goal: At the end of this month, our blog will see an 8% lift in traffic by increasing our weekly publishing frequency from five posts per week to eight posts per week.

2. Facebook Video Views Goal

• Specific: I want to boost our average views per native video by cutting our video content mix from eight topics to our five most popular topics.
• Measurable: Our goal is a 25% increase in views.
• Attainable: When we cut down our video content mix on Facebook from 10 topics to our eight most popular topics, our average views per native video increased by 20%.
• Relevant: By increasing average views per native video on Facebook, we'll boost our social media following and brand awareness, reaching more potential customers with our video content.
• Time-Bound: In six months
• SMART Goal: In six months, we'll see a 25% increase in average video views per native video on Facebook by cutting our video content mix from eight topics to our five most popular topics.

3. Email Subscription Goal

• Specific: I want to boost the number of email blog subscribers by increasing our Facebook advertising budget on blog posts that historically acquire the most email subscribers.
• Measurable: Our goal is a 50% increase in subscribers.
• Attainable: Since we started using this tactic three months ago, our email blog subscriptions have increased by 40%.
• Relevant: By increasing the number of email blog subscribers, our blog will drive more traffic, boost brand awareness, and drive more leads to our sales team.
• Time-Bound: In three months
• SMART Goal: In three months, we'll see a 50% increase in the number of email blog subscribers by increasing our Facebook advertising budget on posts that historically acquire the most blog subscribers.

4. Webinar Sign-Up Goal

• Specific: I want to increase the number of sign-ups for our Facebook Messenger webinar by promoting it through social, email, our blog, and Facebook Messenger.
• Measurable: Our goal is a 15% increase in sign-ups.
• Attainable: Our last Facebook messenger webinar saw a 10% increase in sign-ups when we only promoted it through social, email, and our blog.
• Relevant: When our webinars generate more leads, sales have more opportunities to close.
• Time-Bound: By April 10, the day of the webinar
• SMART Goal: By April 10, the day of our webinar, we'll see a 15% increase in sign-ups by promoting it through social, email, our blog, and Facebook messenger.

5. Landing Page Performance Goal

• Specific: I want our landing pages to generate more leads by switching from a one-column form to a two-column form.
• Measurable: My goal is a 30% increase in lead generation.
• Attainable: When we A/B tested our traditional one-column form versus a two-column form on our highest-traffic landing pages, we discovered that two-column forms convert 27% better than our traditional one-column forms, at a 99% significance level.
• Relevant: If we generate more content leads, sales can close more customers.
• Time-Bound: One year from now

SMART Goal: One year from now, our landing pages will generate 30% more leads by switching their forms from one column to two columns.

6. Link-Building Strategy Goal

• Specific: I want to increase our website's organic traffic by developing a link-building strategy that gets other publishers to link to our website. This increases our ranking in search engine results, allowing us to generate more organic traffic.
• Measurable: Our goal is 40 backlinks to our company homepage.
• Attainable: According to our SEO analysis tool, there are currently 500 low-quality links directing to our homepage from elsewhere on the internet. Given the number of partnerships we currently have with other businesses, and that we generate 10 new inbound links per month without any outreach on our part, an additional 40 inbound links from a single link-building campaign is a significant but feasible target.
• Relevant: Organic traffic is our top source of new leads, and backlinks are one of the biggest ranking factors on search engines like Google. If we build links from high-quality publications, our organic ranking increases, boosting our traffic and leads as a result.
• Time-Bound: four months from now
• SMART Goal: Over the next four months, I will build 40 additional backlinks that direct to www.ourcompany.com. To do so, I will collaborate with Ellie and Andrew from our PR department to connect with publishers and develop an effective outreach strategy.

7. Reducing Churn Rate Goal

• Specific: I want to reduce customer churn by 5% for my company because every customer loss is a reflection of our service’s quality and perception.
• Measurable: Contact 30 at-risk customers per week and provide customer support daily for five new customers during their onboarding process.
• Attainable: Our product offering has just improved and we have the means to invest more into our customer support team, and could potentially have five at-risk customers to upscale monthly.
• Relevant: We can set up a customer knowledge base to track customers’ progression in the buyer’s journey, and prevent churn by contacting them before they lose interest.
• Time-Bound: In 24 weeks

• SMART Goal: In 24 weeks, I will reduce the churn rate by 5% for my company. To do so, we will contact 30 at-risk customers per week and provide/invest in customer support to assist five new customers during onboarding daily and track their progress through a customer knowledge base.

8. Brand Affinity Goal

• Specific: I want to increase our podcast listener count as we are trying to establish ourselves as thought leaders in our market.
• Measurable: A 40% increase in listeners is our goal.
• Attainable: We can increase our current budget and level our podcaster’s cadence, to have the means to hold insightful conversations for our listeners to tune into.
• Relevant: We created a podcast and have dedicated a team to source interesting guests, sound mixing, and eye-catching thumbnails to get it started.
• Time-Bound: In four months
• SMART Goal: In four months, we'll see a 40% increase in average listener count in Apple Podcasts by providing our team the budget and cadence to make insightful podcasts with quality sound mixing and eye-catching thumbnails.

Now that you’ve seen examples of SMART goals, let’s dive into how to make your own.

1. Use specific wording.

When writing SMART goals, keep in mind that they are "specific" in that there's a hard and fast destination the employee is trying to reach. "Get better at my job," isn't a SMART goal because it isn't specific. Instead, ask yourself: What are you getting better at? How much better do you want to get?

If you're a marketing professional, your job probably revolves around key performance indicators or KPIs. Therefore, you might choose a particular KPI or metric that you want to improve on — like visitors, leads, or customers. You should also identify the team members working toward this goal, the resources they have, and their plan of action.

In practice, a specific SMART goal might say, "Clifford and Braden will increase the blog's traffic from email ..." You know exactly who's involved and what you're trying to improve on.

Common SMART Goal Mistake: Vagueness

While you may need to keep some goals more open-ended, you should avoid vagueness that could confuse your team later on. For example, instead of saying, "Clifford will boost email marketing experiences," say "Clifford will boost email marketing click rates by 10%."

2. Include measurable goals.

SMART goals should be "measurable" in that you can track and quantify the goal's progress. "Increase the blog's traffic from email," by itself, isn't a SMART goal because you can't measure the increase. Instead, ask yourself: How much email marketing traffic should you strive for?

If you want to gauge your team's progress, you need to quantify your goals, like achieving an X-percentage increase in visitors, leads, or customers.

Let's build on the SMART goal we started three paragraphs above. Now, our measurable SMART goal might say, "Clifford and Braden will increase the blog's traffic from email by 25% more sessions per month ... " You know what you're increasing, and by how much.

Common SMART Goal Mistake: No KPIs

This is in the same light of avoiding vagueness. While you might need qualitative or open-ended evidence to prove your success, you should still come up with a quantifiable KPI. For example, instead of saying, "Customer service will improve customer happiness," say, "We want the average call satisfaction score from customers to be a seven out of ten or higher."

3. Aim for realistically attainable goals.

An "attainable" SMART goal considers the employee's ability to achieve it. Make sure that X-percentage increase is rooted in reality. If your blog traffic increased by 5% last month, try to increase it by 8-10% this month, rather than a lofty 25%.

It's crucial to base your goals on your own analytics, not industry benchmarks, or else you might bite off more than you can chew. So, let's add some "attainability" to the SMART goal we created earlier in this blog post: "Clifford and Braden will increase the blog's traffic from email by 8-10% more sessions per month ... " This way, you're not setting yourself up to fail.

Common SMART Goal Mistake: Unattainable Goals

Yes. You should always aim to improve. But reaching for completely unattainable goals may knock you off course and make it harder to track progress. Rather than saying, "We want to make 10,000% of what we made in 2021," consider something more attainable, like, "We want to increase sales by 150% this year," or "We have a quarterly goal to reach a 20% year-over-year sales increase."

4. Pick relevant goals that relate to your business.

SMART goals that are "relevant" relate to your company's overall business goals and account for current trends in your industry. For instance, will growing your traffic from email lead to more revenue? And, is it actually possible for you to significantly boost your blog's email traffic given your current email marketing campaigns?

If you're aware of these factors, you’re more likely to set goals that benefit your company — not just you or your department.

So, what does that do to our SMART goal? It might encourage you to adjust the metric you're using to track the goal's progress. For example, maybe your business has historically relied on organic traffic for generating leads and revenue, and research suggests you can generate more qualified leads this way.

Our SMART goal might instead say, "Clifford and Braden will increase the blog's organic traffic by 8-10% more sessions per month." This way, your traffic increase is aligned with the business's revenue stream.

Common SMART Goal Mistake: Losing Sight of the Company

When your company is doing well, it can be easy to say you want to pivot or grow in another direction. While companies can successfully do this, you don't want your team to lose sight of how the core of your business works.

Rather than saying, "We want to start a new B2B business on top of our B2C business," say something like, "We want to continue increasing B2C sales while researching the impact our products could have on the B2B space in the next year."

5. Make goals time-bound by including a timeframe and deadline information.

A "time-bound" SMART goal keeps you on schedule. Improving on a goal is great, but not if it takes too long. Attaching deadlines to your goals puts a healthy dose of pressure on your team to accomplish them. This helps you make consistent and significant progress in the long term.

For example, which would you prefer: increasing organic traffic by 5% every month, leading to a 30-35% increase in half a year? Or trying to increase traffic by 15% with no deadline and achieving that goal in the same timeframe? If you picked the former, you're right.

So, what does our SMART goal look like once we bound it to a timeframe? "Over the next three months, Clifford and Braden will work to increase the blog's organic traffic by 8-10%, reaching a total of 50,000 organic sessions by the end of August.”

Common SMART Goal Mistake: No Time Frame

Having no timeframe or a really broad span of time noted in your goal will cause the effort to get reprioritized or make it hard for you to see if your team is on track. Rather than saying. "This year, we want to launch a major campaign," say, "In quarter one, we will focus on campaign production in order to launch the campaign in quarter two."

Make Your SMART Goals SMART-er

Now that you know what a SMART goal is, why it's important, and the framework to create one, it's time to put that information into practice. Whether you're setting goals for a personal achievement or as part of hitting important marketing milestones, it's good to start with what you want to achieve and then reverse-engineer it into a concrete SMART goal.

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

5 Dos and Don'ts When Making a SMART Goal [Examples] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

8 Best Video Hosting Sites for Businesses in 2021

In middle school, my best friend and I used to have a show on YouTube where we performed a dare from our audience each week.

We actually had some fans that would watch our videos and dare us to do something on a weekly basis.

While hosting these types of videos on YouTube made sense because they were for entertainment purposes, your business needs a platform with more features so you can create videos for marketing campaigns, sales pitches, and customer service knowledge base articles.

In this post, let's review some of the best video hosting sites for your business.

Video Platforms

1. HubSpot

If you're a HubSpot customer, you might already have access to HubSpot's video hosting, creation, and management tool.

With this tool, you can host and manage video files inside the HubSpot platform and then embed those videos on your website pages, blog posts, social media channels, or knowledge base.

Using the same platform that you use for your marketing, sales, or service tool is a great idea because everything is all in one place. You can optimize your videos for SEO right in the tool.

This video hosting product also allows you to insert CTAs and forms into videos, trigger video workflows that provide targeted content to leads, and video analytics so you know which videos resonate with your audience.

For sales reps, you can use the video hosting tool to send video voicemails or record your screen during a sales call. You can also see if a prospect has watched the video in HubSpot's tool.

Video can also be used for customer service. You can send video tutorials and record your screen right from a ticket to share it with customers for personalized and quick support. Or you can insert these videos into your knowledge base articles or FAQ page.

2. Twenty Three

Twenty Three is another great video hosting service for your business. You can host and embed videos on your site with Twenty Three's 4K HD player. You can also directly clip and duplicate videos in the editor.

The best feature of this site is that you can publish and measure your videos across multiple platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

Additionally, this hosting site connects with other tools you might be using for marketing software, including HubSpot or Marketo.

Plus, you can use analytics to better understand your marketing data.

Using video for your business can help engage your audience, create a branded experience, and drive results.

3. Cincopa

Cincopa is a video and podcast hosting platform for businesses. With this platform, you can create videos for marketing campaigns, sales prospects, or customer support. Additionally, this platform can host podcasts and images as well.

With this hosting site, you can also combine your media gallery to create a video course with images, video, or podcast files. I don't know about you, but I've seen online courses become all the rage in recent years, so this is a great feature to consider.

You can embed these videos on your site, social media, email, and more.

4. Hippo Video

Hippo Video is a video hosting platform that you can use to personalize your video emails for messages, demos, sales pitches, marketing campaigns, and more.

Using videos in the sales cycle can actually get three times more prospect engagement.

With this tool, you can record and send videos right in your email inbox. Additionally, you can integrate this tool with your current stack, including with Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoom, Zendesk, and more.

5. SproutVideo

SproutVideo is a great option for a video hosting platform if you're looking for a no-frills, affordable platform.

With this tool, you can create videos and collaborate with your team. You can share a secure internal video, or live stream a product launch. Whatever your video needs are, this is an excellent option to consider.

Free Video Hosting Sites

6. Vimeo

Vimeo is one of the most popular video hosting sites and for good reason. This simple tool can be used to create, manage, and share high-quality videos.

To create videos, you can use templates, license stock footage, record video messages, or live stream. When you're editing your videos, you might be able to integrate Vimeo with your editor. Vimeo integrates with Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, and others. Then, your videos will be hosted in one central, secure location so you can seamlessly share them with anyone.

You can even create a subscription streaming service for your videos on this platform.

The best part? Vimeo is free. You can upgrade to paid plans, but you'll never have to pay for Vimeo if you don't want or need to.

7. Vidyard

Vidyard is one of the only video hosting sites that is built directly with sales in mind. The idea is to build a great sales process to make remote selling easy, from prospecting to proposals, you can record and send videos that add a personal touch at all stages of the sales cycle.

With Vidyard, you can create your videos in just a few clicks, with no video expertise required (that's great for tech-challenged people like me).

This tool is also free. You don't ever have to pay unless you want to upgrade to a different plan with more features.

My favorite feature of this tool is that you can easily create videos, track who watches them, and distribute them an unlimited number of times (yes, even in the free version).

8. Wistia

Another great video hosting site is Wistia. You can host videos and even podcasts on this hosting platform for marketers.

On Wistia, you can upload, customize, and embed branded videos or podcasts on one platform. This also has a free plan that you can use, as long as you don't need to create too many videos a month (three is the max on the free plan). However, if you need more, there are paid plans as well.

But my favorite feature of this tool is that it can integrate with your tech stack and send engagement data to your CRM, ad platforms, and marketing tools.

Video is only continuing to grow, as people spend more time watching video than reading text. As your business continues to evolve, it's important to have a video hosting tool that can grow with you and help you use videos to drive results for all aspects of your business.

8 Best Video Hosting Sites for Businesses in 2021 was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Write the Perfect Email to Apply for an Unlisted Role [Infographic]

Maybe you've been refreshing the Careers page at your dream company for months.

Alternatively, perhaps you've heard glowing reviews about a company from friends — but whenever you check, they're still not hiring for any roles for which you'd qualify.

Whatever the case, if you feel a company's culture could be a great fit for you, you might consider sending a cold email so hiring managers can keep you in-mind if a role becomes available.

But that's easier said than done. If you sound too pushy, you risk alienating the hiring manager. A good cold email should be concise and focus on how you can add value to the team. When done correctly, a cold email is a good opportunity to network and get your name in front of the right people.

Fortunately, the folks at Resume.io put together an infographic, which details the 8 essential elements of a persuasive email you can use to apply at your dream company. Take a look now, and then check out How to Write a Letter of Interest in 2021 [Examples + Template].

 

How to Write the Perfect Email to Apply for an Unlisted Role [Infographic] was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

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Does your Website Make the Grade in 2021?

A while ago (as in 13 years ago) we created the first Website Grader. The goal was simple: help anyone with a website evaluate its effectiveness at attracting an audience of interested and relevant buyers.

We founded HubSpot in 2006 and created Website Grader in 2008 because we believed that the inbound methodology — building meaningful, lasting relationships with prospects and customers — was not only a more effective way to grow a business, it was the right way to grow a business. And we knew how important it was for people to leverage their websites to attract visitors and connect with customers to grow.

Fast forward to 2021, and websites do a whole lot more than attract visitors.

Your website is a sales rep, providing prospects with the features and pricing of your offering. And helping them book a meeting to learn more.

Your website is part of your customer service team, answering questions about your products and services through a knowledge base or chatbot.

Your website is a member of your HR team, sharing information about your company culture and open positions.

The list goes on...

To put it bluntly: your website is really freaking important! Today, 86% of people will find your business online. Your website is your first impression, your primary spokesperson, your around-the-clock inbound sales team — you get my point. It’s one of the most important assets to your business.

It’s no wonder we see businesses invest so much in their websites. In a recent HubSpot Research study, 63% of marketers indicated that they were going to upgrade their website this year.

Website upgrades can include:

• Performance: Page speed, load time, page requests, page size, and more
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Page index, meta descriptions, content plugins, and descriptive link text
• Design: Responsive design, legible font size, and tap targets
• Security: HTTPS and secure javascript libraries

Since 2008, we’ve graded over 1 million unique websites on the above four factors. With all this investment, are they actually getting better? Are businesses focusing on the right website upgrades? For example, are websites providing better security for their visitors. Are they offering faster load speeds for quick access? What about mobile accessibility and SEO best practices?

Let’s take a look at average performance in 2015 compared to this year to see what’s changed.

Website Performance Data (2015 vs 2021)

What surprises me the most about this data is that the improvements in technology over the past five years haven’t led to the same improvement in website performance. The overall grade average has only improved 17.1% in little over five years, and performance has actually decreased by 23.3%. The average website grade in 2020 is a D+ (69.1 out of 100). My mother wouldn’t be happy if I came home with that kind of grade.

We also found that only 3.8% of websites have an overall score of 90 or more. If your website scores above a 90, pat yourself on the back. Here are the percentile ranges from our data:

• 80 overall score: 82nd percentile
• 85 overall score: 91st percentile
• 90 overall score: 96th percentile

Here are some observations of the individual benchmark scores:

Website performance has decreased in the past half-decade.

Websites should load faster in 2021 than they did in 2015 — but the exact opposite is true. Performance was the only benchmark metric that decreased in five years. This includes testing for page size, page requests, page speed, and five additional tests that offer a holistic performance grading.

The result? Websites are slower today than they were in 2015.

This is a risk for businesses: the longer visitors wait for your page to load, the more likely they’ll leave your page.

For every second that your website takes to load, people are leaving your business. Good performance should be a priority when improving your website. How does your website’s performance compare?

Search engine optimization is the biggest winner.

In a 2020 survey, we found that 64% of marketers are actively investing in search engine optimization (SEO) and growing their organic presence.

Marketers care about SEO, and this has led to significant progress in the SEO benchmark since 2015 — a 51.9% improvement. Search engine optimization is essential to getting discovered online. It’s good that so many websites are following SEO best practices to improve the discovery of their business. How does your SEO compare?

Security had the second-biggest gain, but the total average falls short.

Our security benchmark shows that websites have improved their security by 142.3% over five years. This is a huge gain but there’s still a lot of room for improvement — the 2021 average score is only 6.3 out of 10.

Security is essential to have on your site to protect customer data. If your website isn’t secure, your visitors might lose trust in your business, especially when shopping on your site. We found that 85% of people won’t visit a site if it’s not secure.

Additionally, security improves discoverability. Starting in 2019, Google prioritized displaying websites with HTTPS in search results. Website Grader checks that your website uses HTTPS and has secure JavaScript libraries.

These two security factors are critical for delivering a secure experience for your visitors. How does your website security compare?

Mobile optimized websites improved marginally.

In the mid-2010s, it felt like every website was going responsive — that is, investing in mobile-first website design. It made sense.

Everywhere I looked, people were heads down on their phones, reading the latest Facebook post or watching a viral YouTube video. And, things haven’t changed much. Well, they have, but now people are scrolling through Instagram or browsing the latest TikTok dance challenge.

Responsiveness wasn’t just a trend — in the first quarter of 2021, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 54.8% of global website traffic. So how do websites stack up on small screens?

We found that our mobile design benchmark average improved by 8% over five years. Today, average websites score 21.6 out of 30 on mobile design. A great improvement, though I’d love to see that number go up even more.

Instagram, for example, is a website that does exceptionally well in how they design and optimize users’ mobile experience. It has a seamless mobile shopping feature for businesses to sell products directly through its mobile website or in-app.

Image Source

One study by Google found that 59% of shoppers surveyed said that shopping on mobile is important when deciding which brand or retailer to buy from.

That’s a huge portion of people looking at your website on mobile and making a decision of whether or not to buy from you. Mobile design will not only impact the experience that people have with your site, but also influences social media posts and your rankings in search engines.

Check your mobile design score on Website Grader.

Where do we go from here?

Our goal with the original Website Grader was to help anyone with a website —developer, marketer, or entrepreneur — to quickly grade their website’s performance. We’ve received good feedback from our users, but we are always growing and evolving.

So we asked ourselves, how could we make Website Grader better?

Our users’ comments had a common thread. They graded their site. They saw where their websites fell short. But we stopped short of teaching them how to improve:

• "More information about how to solve website problems"
• "Instructions on how to get better performance and SEO to get our score higher"
• "How about putting explanations and guidelines for beginners?"

Introducing the New Website Grader

You talked. We listened. Not only have we updated Website Grader’s grading system and foundational technology to get you a more accurate score, but we’ve also created a five-lesson video course that helps you improve your grade. All for free.

You can find the Website Optimization course inside Website Grader starting today.

One last question: How did HubSpot.com score?

HubSpot’s score has not historically been the best. At one point, we averaged 70-80 on Website Grader. Years of marketing updates had slowed things down over time.

Since then, we’ve worked hard to improve HubSpot.com’s design and performance over the last five years for our visitors and customers. Powered by HubSpot CMS Hub, our website now scores a 97 out of 100 on Website Grader — no kidding. It’s something we're extremely proud of.

Your website is one of your most important assets in attracting business. A bad user experience could lose customer interest, but that doesn’t have to happen if you take the necessary steps to optimize it. If you’re curious to see how your site measures up, run it through our Website Grader and find out how you can make your site more delightful.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in June 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Does your Website Make the Grade in 2021? was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

20 of the Best Infographic Examples to Inspire Your Next Design

There's a lot to like about well-designed infographics — whether it’s the beautiful typography, concise messaging, clever layouts, or bold graphics.

Not to mention that people retain 65% of information passed along with an image compared to only 10% when they listen to the same piece of information.

As the fourth most-used type of content marketing, infographics pop up all over the place — from social media posts to whitepapers. But don't be fooled. They require just as much strategic thinking as a blog post or video.

Yet, as this list of the best infographic examples shows, the effort is worthwhile. Adding them to your marketing strategy can increase web traffic by 12% and help you stay competitive in the B2B crowd, where 65% of marketers use infographics.

Luckily, there are numerous resources to create beautiful infographics of your own.

To help inspire your next visual creation, here are a handful of stunning branded infographics to kickstart your creativity.

Best Infographic Examples to Get Inspired

Simple Infographic Examples

1. 10 Records You Can Break Working From Home, by ChairOffice

Although it’s essential to complete your tasks and remain productive while working from home, many employees often find themselves working too hard without any breaks.

This brilliant, yet straightforward infographic from ChairOffice contains 10 world records you can attempt as you take necessary breaks from work.

With vibrant colors, animated characters, and text, this infographic shares a simple message: take breaks. Who knows? You might be breaking a world record.

2. A Simple Guide to Shooting Video By Yourself, by Spielcreative

Although 86% of businesses use videos as part of their marketing strategy, only a few get it right.

Whether it’s background noises, poor lighting, or some other distraction, the videos don’t usually come out the right way.

This infographic from Spielcreative offers tips you’d need to create incredible videos all by yourself.

The use of simple graphics and arrow pointers makes the visualization easy to follow and understand. You also don’t have to strain your eyes to read the text, as it's big enough to read from afar.

3. A Purposeful Life, by Studio Patten

This free infographic from Studio Patten collects different survey results concerning living a purposeful life and presents the data with visually appealing charts.

Although the topic of a purposeful life might be a deep one, this infographic does a great job of presenting the information simply.

There’s also a nice balance between the use of text and data visualization elements.

4. The Most and Least Bike-Friendly Cities In America, by Tower Electric Bikes

Knowing whether a city is bike-friendly or not is a factor cyclists consider when moving.

Naturally, questions about the city’s bike lanes, cyclist fatality rates, and the number of people using bikes would come up in a cyclist’s mind. Tower Electric Bikes answers these questions using this simple infographic.

To make sense of the infographic, Tower Electric Bikes used color gradation (going from green to red) to help its audience of cyclists understand how friendly the different cities in the United States are.

Cyclists can take a look and tell they’d need to avoid the Los Angeles areas if they want to enjoy sunny days out on their bikes.

5. How to Enjoy Studying, by IvyPanda

Studying doesn’t always have to be a chore. IvyPanda created this excellent infographic design to help students enjoy studying instead of feeling burned out or turning to social media because of boredom.

The use of bright colors and minimalist animated design is brilliant from IvyPanda.

Business Infographic Examples

6. How SMB Sales Teams Are Keeping Up in 2020, by Zendesk

We all know 2020 led to massive changes in the way we work, buy, and enjoy leisure time. But this infographic by Zendesk hones in on a specific group (SMB sales teams) to show how they keep up with the times.

Through research-backed data, clear visuals, and concise copy, the main point comes across crystal clear: Know customers' expectations to meet them where they are.

This infographic does an excellent job following one theme, from start to finish. Readers can answer "What's the point?" within the first few sentences — a best practice, according to CoSchedule.

This helps focus your infographic and avoids cramming too much information into one piece, which is why Zendesk flowed from the research and stats to how SMB sales teams adopt new technology to keep up.

It even includes the benefits of CRM technology, like a 52% increase in productivity from sales reps. Of course, the benefits align with the customer service software Zendesk offers, making the infographic a good sales tool for its team.

7. Content Marketing in Times of Uncertainty, by LinkedIn

More than eight out of 10 people want brands to act as a news source in uncertain times, foster a sense of community, and provide educational resources. Whew.

As a content marketer, those are significant expectations to live up to. LinkedIn realized the changing global landscape would alter customer expectations and, as a result, content marketing strategies. So the team put together this handy infographic to help marketers focus on what matters most.

This infographic example features several design elements from LinkedIn's current brand. The graphics adhere to its primary and complementary color scheme, include diverse illustrations, and relate to the work-from-home times.

It also uses color block banners to add visual interest and break up chunks of text. But my favorite part? The ruler graphic on how to measure ROI and show why your efforts are worthwhile.

8. How to Be Productive While Working From Home, by Bannersnack

Working from home isn't the pajama party many people (used to) imagine. As offices closed and millions turned dining tables into home office spaces, Bannersnack created this infographic to help its employees transition to a different way of working. As a freelancer working remotely for the past five years, I found it full of practical tips and valuable tools.

Beyond essential elements like brand colors, Bannersnack includes information people can immediately put to use. While it's easy to stay planted on your couch all day, Bannersnack recommends finding multiple workspaces for different tasks — an inspirational spot for creative thinking and another for deep work and crunched deadlines.

Tips like this may seem small once you've been working remotely for a while, but for newcomers, it's one less thing you have to learn while adjusting to a different routine.

9. 45 Slack Tricks That Will Impress Your Boss, by Net Credit

A tool as powerful as Slack has many features most people will never use, yet this infographic makes it easy to look like the cool "Slack-er" at the company even if you've only mastered the /giphy shortcut until now.

Net Credit starts with a handful of stats to inform readers and give an idea of Slack's scope. Who knew people spend 50 million hours on the platform in one week? I'm intrigued and want to keep reading.

As you scroll down the graphic, you see a combination of direct headlines "Read Channel Highlight" followed by text instructions and visual cues. As a visual learner, I appreciate how these cues mirror the actual interface.

Each section is organized to help you find what you're looking for, whether it's "#channel" or "message" tips. Finance may be Net Credit's bread and butter, but this infographic shows how its team is adaptable and helpful — exactly what you want in a financial partner.

10. How Bad Data Affects Businesses, TD Insights

A bad egg spoils the whole bunch, but what effect does bad data have on businesses? TD Insights answers that question with this excellent infographic design.

The use of contrast makes this infographic visually appealing. Any reader can quickly identify the main themes and points of the design because of the creative use of different fonts.

Timeline Infographic Examples

11. Tech's Bizarre Beginnings & Lucrative Pivots, by Visual Capitalist

The beauty of infographics? They can be used by dozens of industries for hundreds of different purposes. But the best ones are often unexpected.

Take this graphic designed by Visual Capitalist. It reveals the wild origin stories of some of the biggest tech companies today. I had no idea YouTube began as a video dating site with the tagline "Tune In. Hook Up."

As a growing online publication that focuses on data and technology news, Visual Capitalist's audience is likely interested in stories around company pivots that led to success.

That information, coupled with a simple timeline structure, fun graphics, and hard-hitting metrics, makes it tough to look away from this infographic. Plus, we all need reminders that it's not where you start but where you're going.

12. Power Shifts, Studio Patten

The United States is a powerful nation, but that wasn’t the case centuries ago.

In this infographic, Studio Patten takes us on a journey through the years that show the most powerful nations at different times in history.

This infographic is simple, but it also uses creative images and text to provide a history lesson.

13. The Evolution of US Vaccines, by Janet Haniak

Humans have been fighting diseases and pandemics long before COVID-19. Here is one of the many infographics that make it easy to learn about past vaccines created to combat these diseases.

The use of real-life images instead of cartoon characters makes this infographic more believable. Instead of complicating the infographic, the designer made the timeline appear on a single line, with the notable event branching out of that line.

14. The Journey of Oprah Winfrey, by Blue Mail Media

Oprah Winfrey is one of the most powerful women alive today. But did you know she grew up in a poverty-stricken family and had a tough childhood?

This infographic from Blue Mail Media allows us to look into Oprah's early life and how she grew to become who she is today.

Although this infographic has a prominent blue background, the other bright colors make engaging with it easy. The quote breaks also add personality to the infographic.

15. Apple History Timeline, by Viziononline

Apple is the subject of this creative infographic created by Viziononline, and why not? Apple is one of the largest corporations in the world. In fact, you’re likely reading this article on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

But was Apple always this big?

With one look, a reader can tell that this visualization is about Apple because of the different products that appear throughout the infographic.

Interactive Infographic Examples

16. Response to COVID-19, by the U.S Food and Drug Administration

It wouldn't be a 2021 round-up without mentioning the global pandemic that kept many of us at home for months. The bright spot? There are infographics galore educating people on how to wash their hands and social distance properly.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also relied on this visual medium to share how their regulatory department addressed COVID-19.

This infographic example made our list for several reasons. First, to show how infographics can highlight the impact, instead of sharing step-by-step instructions or research-oriented content.

The impact of each action is organized into separate columns and given a distinct color to help your eyes track from top to bottom. While this flow breaks the typical left-to-right reading pattern, it's not distracting or difficult to follow.

The healthcare worker design at the top of the page nods to those on the frontlines, the colors align with the brand, actual numbers are easy to read, and the page isn't crowded with text.

So the next time you need to explain the fruits of your labors to your boss, help win them over with an impact-driven infographic.

17. Pianeta Plastica, by Manuel Bortoletti for GEDI Gruppo

“Che bello” is the first thought that comes to mind for this design. The stunning data visualizations, oceanic color scheme, and easy-to-understand layout let the visuals do the talking. Visme explains how an infographic follows this essential best practice if it makes sense with all of the text removed.

That may seem impossible, but designer Manuel Bortoletti pulls it off with informative maps accompanied by clear keys and a bar graph that uses oil tankers to inform readers about how oil circulates the globe.

Even with my incredibly limited Italian, I understand that the main point of the piece is to inform readers about the impact of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And since this infographic was designed for the Italian media outlet GEDI Gruppo, it stays on-brand with a more formal editorial tone.

18. How to Properly Wear a Mask, by John Hopkins Medicine

Education is the crux of an infographic. And when you have mere seconds to capture people's increasingly narrow attention span, the information better be easy to learn.

That's why one of the best infographic examples comes from John Hopkins Medicine. They designed an infographic to share tips on a crucial COVID-19 procedure: wearing a mask.

Is covering your nose important? You bet. What about wearing a bandana as a mask? No way. Hopkins uses a combination of straightforward graphics and copy to make the do's and don'ts very clear.

As a renowned medical institution, Hopkins has the experience and authority to educate people on this topic, so it fits its brand and is helpful for everyone's health — a true win-win.

19. The Sustainable Development Goals Report, by the United Nations

Infographics are a great way to add visual flavor to otherwise dry content, like annual reports and whitepapers.

What stands out in this infographic example is how it can be used as one visual or divided into 17 sections — one for each Sustainable Development Goal. This allows the content team to choose which type of content best fits the target audience.

If the UN is speaking to organizations that empower women and girls, they can share the "Gender Equality'' graphic. But a non-profit that promotes all of the UN goals will likely be interested in the entire design.

While a lot of information is packed into each graphic, it's never overwhelming. Each goal is separate from the other with bold headers and distinct colors, which are also used to differentiate the UN's marketing efforts.

20. Ocean Pollution, by Stephanie Phung

Designer Stephanie Phung created this engaging visualization to make more people aware of the ocean’s current state of pollution.

This free infographic uses art to tell a story about the financial and environmental implications of ocean pollution. The designer also uses colors and design elements — the blue color for the sea — that people are already familiar with.

Ready to start designing stunning infographics?

Now that your creativity is sparked, it's the perfect time to start creating your infographics.

While the infographics you create might be different from those on this list, ensure they’re colorful and engaging. And most importantly, that the infographics pass across information in a manner that’s easy to understand.

20 of the Best Infographic Examples to Inspire Your Next Design was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Scheduling Instagram Posts: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know

Ensuring your Instagram audience sees your content increases chances of engagement, brand awareness, referral traffic, and conversions.

However,  sometimes it's not super efficient for you and your team members to be hovering over your phones or laptops in order to post on Instagram at the exact time you believe you'll be able to get the greatest amount of audience engagement.

You may also have other things going on throughout the workday that need to take precedence over opening the Instagram app and clicking "Post" on your content.

This is where Instagram scheduling software comes into play. 

Can you schedule Instagram posts?

Yes! Luckily, Instagram's API lets users of marketing tools like HubSpot schedule Instagram posts in advance.

In other words, if you use social media scheduling software, you can upload your content, choose when it goes live on Instagram, and know that it'll be posted for your audience without you having to lift another finger.

As mentioned, to start, you'll need a third-party tool to do the scheduling. Below are a few handy options for your consideration. 

1. HubSpot Social Media Management Software

Price: $0/month (Free), $45/month (Starter), $800/month (Professional), $3,200/month (Enterprise)

With HubSpot's Social Media tool, which is part of HubSpot Marketing Hub, you can schedule and publish social posts to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. From within HubSpot, you can edit your post, schedule it, and add @mentions to tag other accounts and users. 

Upload the image that you want to share on Instagram to HubSpot and then drag and drop it into the post that you're scheduling. You can preview the final post prior to it going live so you're able to see exactly what your visitors are going to see. 

After you choose the date and time that your Instagram post will be shared and preview it, tag it with a relevant HubSpot campaign so all of your social posts that are associated with a marketing campaign you're already running are organized. 

Once you schedule your post, you can select "Schedule another" to plan another social post — there's an option to auto-copy and paste content from the post that you just scheduled so you're able to plan similar posts for different dates, times, and platforms.  

Lastly, if you're using HubSpot's social tool to schedule and publish across other platforms, target specific audience groups (for instance, you can target specific countries or languages on Facebook). 

Get HubSpot's Social Media Management Software to help you focus more on connecting with your customers and target audience by using time-saving publishing and scheduling tools that prioritize social interactions.

2. Later

Price: Free, $12.50/mo (Starter), $20.83 (Growth), $33.33 (Advanced) 

Later is a social media post scheduler dedicated to Instagram. The platform includes a full social content calendar, drag-and-drop post planning, and the ability to publish automatically to your Instagram Business profile. In addition, the service's Linkin.bio feature allows you to link certain posts to specific product pages.

3. Tailwind

Price: Free, $9.99/mo (Pro), $19.99 (Advanced), $39.99 (Max)

Tailwind is a social media scheduler and smart assistant platform specifically for Instagram and Pinterest. Using smart features like bulk image uploading and the built-in Hashtag Finder, the tool allows small businesses to quickly personalize their Instagram posts and get them scheduled.

The tool also allows you to visually plan and preview your Instagram post schedule and grid via a single dashboard so you can see what your audience will see prior to posting. 

4. Buffer

Price: Free, $15/mo (Pro), $65/mo (Premium), $99/mo (Business) 

Buffer allows you to schedule social media posts across six social networks: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+. Buffer for Instagram makes it easy to manage and schedule your Instagram posts via a single dashboard.

There's an option to include hashtags in your Instagram post in the Comments section versus in the caption (to keep the post and caption looking as simple as possible). You can also analyze your Instagram posts to determine what worked among your target audience using Buffer's social media analytics feature. 

In addition to a mobile app for iOS and Android, Buffer also offers an extension for your internet browser.

5. Sked Social

Price: $25/mo (Fundamentals), $75/mo (Essentials), $135/mo (Professional)

Sked Social offers an Instagram scheduling and auto-posting tool for Instagram posts and stories. You can plan to automatically post your stories, whether they're photo stories or video stories, using the tool so you never have to intervene or receive reminders to click "Post" again. 

You can also schedule your Instagram posts via iOS or Android so you can upload content directly from your mobile device's camera roll. 

6. Sprout Social

Price: $99/mo (Standard), $149/mo (Professional), $249/mo (Advanced)

Sprout Social is a social media management platform that's compatible with six major social networks including Instagram. It has a social media content calendar that allows you to schedule your social posts and then measure different engagement metrics once live. 

Easily upload the image you want to post on Instagram, add the caption and other Instagram post details (e.g. location), and then schedule it to go out at the date and time of your choosing.

The tool's social listening abilities also help you identify unique trends across your Instagram content and then apply these trends to the rest of your Instagram marketing strategy. 

7. Loomly

Price: $34 /mo (Base), $76 /mo (Standard), $159 /mo (Advanced), $332 /mo (Premium), Contact Us (Enterprise) 

Loomly is a brand success platform with content management and social media publishing and scheduling features. Schedule your social media posts in advance — there are automated scheduling and publishing options for a variety of social platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google. Loomly also offers automated Instagram Ad (and Facebook Ad) publishing. 

With the platform, easily manage your organic and paid social media content — you can also get notifications (via email, Slack, and more) whenever one of your team members works on a piece of social content to make for easy team-wide collaboration. The tool provides social media post recommendations based on trends, events, holidays, and social platform best practices.

Next, let's dive into how to schedule Instagram posts for an Instagram Business page — for the sake of this post, we'll use HubSpot as our scheduling and publishing tool. 

1. Ensure you have admin access to your Facebook Business Page.

Instagram and Facebook might be separate accounts to you personally, but businesses that want to automate their Instagram posting schedule will need to tether both accounts together. So, you'll need the username and password of your business's Facebook account to do this — in other words, head over to the Instagram Business landing page to set up your account if you don't already have one.

2. Switch to your Business profile on the Instagram mobile app and connect this account to Facebook.

If you have a personal Instagram account, you probably know you can manage more than one profile from the app — and the other profile is your business account (keep in mind you'll need an Instagram Business account to schedule Instagram posts in HubSpot).

To switch to your Instagram Business page from your personal page, navigate to your profile on your mobile device and tap the three dots in the upper-right corner of your screen. Then, in the next screen, select "Switch to Business Profile," as shown below:

Under "Settings," select "Linked Accounts." Here's where you can select Facebook and link your two accounts together. You might be asked to "Log in With Facebook," at which point you'll enter your business account's username and password. Otherwise, select "Continue as [yourself]."

3. Open HubSpot and use the "Social" tool to integrate your Instagram profile.

Now that your Instagram profile is anchored to Facebook, you're ready to integrate it with your post scheduler. As mentioned, for our purposes, we'll be using HubSpot's Social tool.

Open HubSpot, select "Settings" > "Marketing" > "Social" > "Connect Account" > "Facebook and Instagram."

 

Click the first option, "Facebook & Instagram," and follow the prompts to complete this step (which are listed here in greater detail). 

4. Create your first social post for your Instagram account.

Once your Instagram account is integrated into HubSpot, you'll see an option to "Create social post" in your HubSpot dashboard. Click it, and you'll see icons for which social network you want to start with. Select the Instagram icon to compose your first post for your Instagram account. 

5. Compose a message with your desired visual assets, captions, and hashtags.

Customize your Instagram post and upload an image using the landscape icons on the bottom-lefthand corner of the white text field that appears, as shown below:

Then, caption your image with the text, hashtags, and user mentions you'd like to post your photo with, as they should appear on Instagram.

6. Set the date and time of your Instagram post.

Just above the photo that you're posting, you'll see a field where you can add the date and time that your post will be scheduled to go live. Use this field to set the exact date and time you want your post to automatically go live on your Instagram profile.

7. Preview your post to make sure it looks right.

Any grammatical errors? Are all your intended hashtags included? Is the image successfully uploaded? Check to make sure, and you'll be ready to schedule.

8. Click "Schedule message."

Got any more Instagram posts planned? Draft them now and schedule all of them at the same time — with HubSpot, you can schedule your social posts in bulk.

Once every post you want to schedule has been loaded into HubSpot, you can hit the "Schedule" button on the page.

Schedule Your Instagram Posts

Start scheduling your Instagram posts to make your workflow more efficient and to ensure the content you need to get in front of your audience does so in a timely fashion. 

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

Scheduling Instagram Posts: Absolutely Everything You 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