This is a submission for Frontend Challenge v24.04.17, CSS Art: June.

Inspiration
I’m highlighting simple, clean geometric shapes. I wanted to create something that looks both simple and beautiful.

Demo

Here is my CSS Art:

You can see the full code on GitHub and live demo here.

Journey

I am from India and was curious to participate in this dev challenge. My designing is not the best, but I always try to make it better.

I started by drawing some ideas on paper. Then I used CSS to make it real. I played around with properties like clip-path, transform, and animation.

I learned a lot about how powerful CSS can be. I’m proud of the animations I added. Next, I want to learn more about CSS Grid and Flexbox for more complex designs.

What I Feel After Participating in This Challenge

This is the first time I completed a challenge, and it’s really an amazing feeling to submit this. I learned a lot. Thanks, DEV, for these types of challenges!

The post I tried Frontend Challenge: June Edition appeared first on ProdSens.live.

Maintaining clean and efficient code is crucial for project success. Rector PHP emerges as a powerful tool, offering developers a seamless path to code transformation and enhancement.
Rector PHP is an open-source automation tool for PHP, and it simplifies the process of code upgrades, refactoring, and modernization, bringing significant benefits to developers and their projects.

Why Rector PHP Matters

Before to show how to install, how to configure and how to execute Rector PHP, let’s see why using Rector PHP is crucial in writing PHP Code.

Code Refactoring

Rector PHP automates tedious code refactoring tasks, allowing developers to focus on building new features and improving functionality. It transforms legacy code into modern, maintainable structures, enhancing readability and reducing technical debt.
Some examples are:

• removing unused assigns to variables;
• splitting if statement, when if condition always break execution flow;
• adding return type void to function like without any return;
• changing the return type based on strict scalar returns – string, int, float or bool
• adding typed property from assigned types
• … and more …

Standardization Across Projects

If you maintain multiple Open Source projects, consistency across them is crucial in software development.
Rector PHP ensures the uniform application of coding standards across projects, fostering a cohesive and easily understandable codebase. This standardization streamlines collaboration among developers and facilitates a smoother onboarding process for new team members.

The configuration of Rector and the list of rules you want to apply in your code are detailed in the rector.php configuration file. You can create a configuration file using the rector command, either starting from scratch or by copying it from another project. In my case, I have a rector.php file that I reuse across multiple projects.

Efficient Upgrades

Adapting to the latest PHP versions and adopting new language features can be time-consuming. Rector PHP streamlines this process by automatically handling the necessary code changes, making upgrades more efficient and reducing the risk of errors.

For example, if you want to ensure the utilization of new PHP 8.3 features, you can set the LevelSetList::UP_TO_PHP_83 in the configuration. Rector will then update your code to incorporate the new features provided by PHP 8.3. This includes actions such as adding types to constants, introducing the override attribute to overridden methods, and more.

Enhanced Code Quality

Rector PHP actively contributes to improved code quality by addressing common issues, enforcing best practices, and identifying potential weaknesses in the code. This results in a more robust and secure codebase, aligning with the ever-evolving standards of modern PHP development.

Time and Cost Savings

Automating repetitive tasks not only increases development speed but also reduces costs associated with manual code maintenance. Rector PHP allows developers to allocate their time more strategically, focusing on higher-value tasks that contribute to project success.

Adding Rector PHP to your project

For installing Rector PHP you can use the composer command.
Because Rector is a development package, you must use the `–dev’ option.

composer require rector/rector --dev

Once you have installed Rectory PHP you can execute it, launching the command locate in vendor/bin directory:

vendor/bin/rector

The first time you launch Rector PHP in your project, it is detected if the rector.php exists. Unluess you already created the rector.php file, and it doesn’t exist, the rector.php command will automatically create the rector.php configuration file.

Rector will auto-magically define a basic configuration based on the directory found in your project and the version of the PHP used in the composer.json file.
With the configuration file you can define the path (or paths) to analyze:

$rectorConfig->paths([
    __DIR__ . '/src',
]);

With the configuration file you can also set one rule like:

$rectorConfig->rule(InlineConstructorDefaultToPropertyRector::class);

Or setting a set of rules:

$rectorConfig->sets([
    LevelSetList::UP_TO_PHP_82
]);

If you want to explore more the rules, you can take a look at this page:
https://github.com/rectorphp/rector/blob/main/docs/rector_rules_overview.md

As you can see, we have a lot of rules that we can choose.
So to make it easy to start using Rector, you can start from some sets. I usually use these sets:

$rectorConfig->sets([
    SetList::DEAD_CODE,
    SetList::EARLY_RETURN,
    SetList::TYPE_DECLARATION,
    SetList::CODE_QUALITY,
    SetList::CODING_STYLE,
    LevelSetList::UP_TO_PHP_82
]);

In the configuration above, I’m using rules for fixing:

• Dead Code: like removing recasting of the same type, removing if condition that is always true, removing dead condition above return, simplify useless double assigns etc… (more info https://github.com/rectorphp/rector/blob/main/docs/rector_rules_overview.md#deadcode)
• Early return: like changing if/else value to early return, changing nested if to multiple flat if with continue, splitting if statement when if condition always break execution flow etc… (more info https://github.com/rectorphp/rector/blob/main/docs/rector_rules_overview.md#earlyreturn)
• Type declaration: like adding known return type to arrow function, adding parameter types where needed, adding exact fixed array type in known cases (in PHPDoc), adding missing return type declaration based on parent class method , etc… (more info https://github.com/rectorphp/rector/blob/main/docs/rector_rules_overview.md#typedeclaration)
• Code quality: like changing boolval() to faster and readable (bool) $value (and in the same way for string and int and float), changing array_push() to direct variable assign, merging nested if statements etc… (more info https://github.com/rectorphp/rector/blob/main/docs/rector_rules_overview.md#codequality)
• Coding style: like changing array_merge() to spread operator, changing count array comparison to empty array comparison to improve performance, converting escaped {$string} to more readable sprintf or concat, if no mask is used, etc… (more info https://github.com/rectorphp/rector/blob/main/docs/rector_rules_overview.md#codingstyle)

My whole basic rector.php file is:

declare(strict_types=1);

use RectorConfigRectorConfig;
use RectorSetValueObjectLevelSetList;
use RectorSetValueObjectSetList;

return static function (RectorConfig $rectorConfig): void {
    $rectorConfig->paths([
        __DIR__ . '/src',
    ]);

    $rectorConfig->sets([
        SetList::DEAD_CODE,
        SetList::EARLY_RETURN,
        SetList::TYPE_DECLARATION,
        SetList::CODE_QUALITY,
        SetList::CODING_STYLE,
        LevelSetList::UP_TO_PHP_82
    ]);
};

In a daily usage, I would like to suggest to remove the UP_TO_PHP_82 ruleset, and use the UP_TO rule when you want to perform an upgrade of the Ruleset as explained here: https://getrector.com/blog/5-common-mistakes-in-rector-config-and-how-to-avoid-them

Now we’ve installed Rector PHP and setup a minimal configuration, we can execute Rector PHP.

Launching Rector PHP

Now, you can launch the rector command, locate in the vendor/bin directory:

vendor/bin/rector --dry-run

We are using the --dry-run option just to see the potential changes, according to the rules defined in the configuration file. If we want to apply the changes on the source code files, we can execute rector by omitting the --dry-run option:

vendor/bin/rector

The files will be changed according to the defined rules.

If we want to obtain the execution report in JSON format we can use the --output-format=json option:

vendor/bin/rector --output-format=json --dry-run

You can combine the output-format option with the dry-run option.

If you’re using other quality management tools like a static code analyzer and a code style fixer, you’d probably want to orchestrate and manage the execution configuration in a centralized place like the scripts section in the composer file.

Setting the execution in the composer

If you want, you can create a script in the composer file.
This is useful for other people who want to be onboarded into the project and see which command are usually executed.
Here is an extracted section from the composer.json file:

"scripts": {
    "cs-fix": "pint",
    "rector-fix": "rector",
    "rector-preview": "rector --dry-run",
    "rector-ci": "rector --dry-run --no-progress-bar"
},
"scripts-descriptions": {
    "cs-fix": "Fixing the Code Style according to PER standards",
    "rector-fix": "Fixing the code according to the Rector Rules",
    "rector-preview": "Showing the suggested changes from Rector",
    "rector-ci": "Executing Rector in a CI workflow"
}

So now you can execute the composer run rector-fix command to launch rector.

Recap

In summary, Rector PHP stands as a game-changer in PHP development, automating tasks, improving code quality, and simplifying migrations. With its focus on efficiency and best practices, Rector PHP is an invaluable tool for developers seeking streamlined workflows and enhanced codebases. Experience the benefits of automated code transformation with Rector PHP:

• Website: https://getrector.com/
• Documentation: https://getrector.com/documentation
• Rector Playground: https://getrector.com/demo

See you on X https://twitter.com/RmeetsH or see you on Mastodon.

The post Starting with Rector PHP: Improving Your PHP Code with Automation appeared first on ProdSens.live.

When you think about search engine optimization (SEO), one major search engine probably comes to mind: Google. But what about Bing SEO?

With more than a billion monthly users, Bing is the second most popular search engine globally.

Moreover, since Microsoft’s acquisition of OpenAI earlier this year, Bing has begun integrating AI technology into its search engine, and its traffic has increased by more than 15%.

With its growing popularity, Bing SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) should be on the radar for marketers crafting their search engine optimization strategy.

In this comprehensive Bing SEO guide, I’ll help you explore why Bing is still relevant for marketers, offer data-driven, expert-approved Bing SEO tips, and give you the tools you’ll need to optimize your online presence for this increasingly popular search engine.

Should you optimize for Bing?

Why Bing SEO Matters

• Substantial User Base
• Less Competition
• AI-Powered Search
• Risk Diversification

Bing vs. Google: Similarities and Differences

Building the Right Foundation for Bing SEO

• Leverage HubSpot’s SEO Marketing Tools

• Sign Up for Bing’s Webmaster Tools

• Submit a Sitemap to Bing

• Invest in Schema Markup

• Claim Your Business on Bing Places

Tips to Improve Your Bing Ranking

1. Prioritize Exact Keyword Matches

2. Don’t Forget About Meta-Tags

3. Invest in Quality Backlinks

4. Build Strong Domain Authority

5. Ensure Mobile Friendliness

6. Cultivate a Social Media Following

7. Incorporate Images — But Don’t Overdo It

8. Craft Quality Content

Maximize Your Online Visibility with Bing

Should you optimize for Bing?

Is it worth optimizing for Bing? That’s only a question that your team can answer. I’d encourage you to look at it this way: If you’re just starting out on your SEO journey, focusing on Google may make sense.

Plus, you may not have the resources to allocate to both search engines. But as you grow, it’s definitely worth optimizing your online content for Bing, too.

While Bing still has a smaller market share than Google, it remains an important piece of the search engine pie, and it can serve as an important channel for your marketing efforts.

To capitalize on this potential, invest in Bing SEO. That means understanding why Bing SEO matters, the ways in which Bing and Google differ, and what it takes to build a solid foundation for Bing SEO and boost your rankings on this platform.

Why Bing SEO Matters

So, why does Bing SEO matter? That’s a great question. Before diving into the specific strategies that drive success on Bing, it’s helpful to explore why Bing SEO matters for today’s marketers.

There are four key factors underlying Bing’s ongoing relevance:

Substantial User Base

Bing might not have the same search volume as Google, but it still boasts a substantial user base. With over a billion monthly users, Bing captures a noteworthy share of the search market.

If you ignore this audience, you risk missing out on potential customers who are actively seeking information, products, or services related to your business.

Investing in Bing SEO will help you tap into a diverse pool of users and increase your online visibility.

Less Competition

Because most SEO efforts are primarily focused on Google, competition for rankings on its results pages can be fierce. Bing, on the other hand, offers a less crowded landscape.

With fewer websites optimizing for Bing, there’s a greater opportunity to achieve higher rankings and gain visibility in search results. This can be particularly advantageous for businesses operating in highly competitive niches.

AI-Powered Search

Thanks to its acquisition of OpenAI, Microsoft has been able to infuse advanced AI technology into Bing’s search engine.

This has enabled Bing to develop enhanced functionalities, smarter recommendations, and an improved user experience, all of which have been contributing to an increase in user engagement and site visits.

In light of these trends, optimizing your online presence for Bing means aligning your strategy with cutting-edge, rapidly growing technology, ultimately setting your organization up for success in the long term.

Risk Diversification

Finally, relying on Google alone for all of your organic search traffic can be risky.

Unexpected changes to the algorithm or shifts in user behavior can suddenly impact your website’s visibility, leaving you with little recourse to recoup the losses.

Diversifying your SEO efforts by including Bing in your strategy can provide a safety net, helping to mitigate this risk and reduce the potential impact of fluctuations in search engine performance.

Bing vs. Google: Similarities and Differences

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Good news! If you’ve already optimized your website content for Google, you’re off to a solid start for Bing as well.

Many SEO techniques are effective on both platforms, as both search engines reward content that’s relevant, trustworthy, and high-quality.

However, there are also several important differences that marketers should keep in mind when optimizing for Bing. First, Bing is generally more open about its search algorithms than Google is.

This means that marketers can, in many cases, make more informed decisions about exactly how to craft Bing-optimized content.

Another key difference: Google explicitly ignores meta keyword tags, but Bing still uses these tags in its search algorithm. Therefore, with Bing, it’s worth continuing to make sure your web pages have useful, accurate keyword tags.

In general, Google looks more for higher-level topic relevance, while on Bing, specific keywords that exactly match the search terms you’re targeting are more likely to be effective in improving your SERP rankings.

Another important difference is the relative weight of social. Google has stated that social media engagement is not a factor in its search rankings, but on Bing, social plays an important role in determining what content will rank.

As such, driving high-quality social media engagement should be part of your Bing SEO strategy.

Below, I’ll dive into how you can leverage these key differences to build an SEO strategy that considers Bing alongside Google.

Building the Right Foundation for Bing SEO

Any Bing SEO guide would be incomplete without an overview of how teams can build a strong foundation for Bing SEO. There are several important steps to consider, and I’ll walk you through them now.

Leverage HubSpot’s SEO Marketing Tools

Whether you’re just getting started with SEO or looking to take your optimization strategy to the next level, you can’t go wrong with HubSpot’s SEO marketing tools.

These tools are an excellent way to build a strong foundation for your SEO efforts.

The HubSpot platform can help you plan out your SEO strategy, optimize your content for search, and measure ROI, ensuring your Bing SEO strategy is data-driven and aligned with your broader marketing goals.

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Sign Up for Bing’s Webmaster Tools

Next, if you’re looking to optimize for Bing specifically, it’s definitely worth signing up for access to Bing’s webmaster tools.

This suite of tools can help you identify the keywords you already rank for on Bing, gain visibility into the backlinks that Bing has indexed for your website, and subscribe to alerts to make sure you stay on top of any changes.

Creating an account with Bing also gives you access to a comprehensive dashboard with key metrics related to site activity and click rates.

You can even run your website through a range of diagnostic tools, including Bing’s SEO Site Analyzer, keyword research tools, and mobile friendliness audit.

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Submit a Sitemap to Bing

In addition, once you’ve signed up for an account with Bing’s webmaster tools, you can submit a sitemap for your website directly to Bing.

Submitting a sitemap will help boost your Bing SEO by improving how the search engine crawls, indexes, and ranks your website.

Before Bing accepts the sitemap, you’ll be asked to verify your website by placing an XML file on your web server, copying a short meta tag into your website, or adding a CNAME record to your DNS.

Once you’ve verified your website, Bing can use your sitemap to better understand the information and content on your website, ultimately enabling the search engine to provide better, more useful results to users.

Invest in Schema Markup

Schema markup is another important way you can help Bing understand your content and thus improve the quality of the results it provides.

In a nutshell, effective schema markup enables search engines to parse website information and interpret what it means.

This ensures that when your business comes up in Bing’s search results, key data points like your company’s location, a blog post’s author, or an event’s time and date, are clearly and prominently displayed.

Claim Your Business on Bing Places

Finally, if your company has a physical location, claiming your business on Bing Places is critical to ensure users are seeing accurate, up-to-date information about your organization.

Remember: Even if you don’t use Bing yourself or haven’t yet proactively invested in Bing SEO, Bing already lists publicly-available information businesses like hours, location, and more.

However, this information isn’t always accurate, so claiming your business on Bing Places helps ensure everything is up-to-date.

Plus, unclaimed businesses are generally listed below those that have been claimed and verified, so if you needed one more reason to take the extra step, that’s it.

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As such, both to boost your rankings and to confirm that the information shown to customers is consistent and correct, it’s worth taking a few minutes to claim your listing.

To do so, simply find your business on Bing and click “Claim Business.”

You’ll be asked to verify that you’re a business owner or authorized representative.

Once verification is complete, you’ll be able to add photos and videos of your products and services, updated hours of operation, services offered, contact methods, and more.

It’s simple.

Tips to Improve Your Bing Ranking

Once you’ve set up a solid foundation for Bing SEO, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty details. Below, I’ve listed eight tips to help you improve your Bing rankings.

1. Prioritize exact keyword matches

This is one of the main differences between Google and Bing SEO strategy. While Google’s algorithm has grown fairly complex, Bing’s still relies heavily on exact matches between search terms and on-page content.

Rather than considering factors like word usage, context, and semantics, Bing is seeking exact keyword matches.

That means that it’s beneficial to include exact keyword matches in the content on your site.

For example, if you want to rank highly for the phrase “marketing automation software” on Bing, don’t just write content about software tools that can help automate marketing.

Instead, make sure to include the exact phrase “marketing automation software” in the H1 or H2 headings in your content.

2. Don’t forget about meta tags

SEO isn’t just about the content that users see — it’s also about behind-the-scenes content that helps search engines understand what your website is all about.

While both Google and Bing consider the content in your meta tags, Bing is particularly interested in exact matches between keywords and meta descriptions.

As such, make sure that your target keywords are reflected not only on the page, but also in the meta tags that Bing will be looking at.

3. Invest in quality backlinks

Another critical factor in Bing’s ranking algorithm is the quality of your backlinks: That is, the websites across the internet that link back to your site. Importantly, this is an area in which quality is much more important than quantity.

Bing is looking to see whether reputable, relevant, well-established websites are linking to your website, as this can serve as an indication that your website is also trustworthy.

In particular, Bing tends to prioritize links from websites with .edu, .org, or .gov domains, since these sites tend to be associated with official, verified institutions.

Bing also tends to give considerable weight to domain age, with backlinks from older websites having a stronger positive effect on website rankings.

Finally, if spammy, low-quality websites are linking to your site, that can substantially harm your rankings.

So if you’re aware of any of these harmful backlinks, consider either reaching out to the webmaster of the website in question and requesting that they remove the link or using Bing’s webmaster tools to formally disavow the backlink.

4. Build strong domain authority

Of course, domain authority doesn’t just apply to your backlinks — Bing also considers several factors related to the authority of your own URL.

Some of these factors may be outside your control, but it’s still important to keep your domain authority in mind when making key SEO decisions.

The main levers you can pull when it comes to Bing’s assessment of your website’s domain authority are age and keywords.

Bing rewards websites that have been around for a long time, so think carefully before creating a brand new website if you already have one.

In addition, Bing’s focus on exact keyword matches applies not just to on-page content and meta tags but to URLs as well. For instance, Bing is more likely to rank pages highly if the URL includes an exact match to the search terms.

5. Ensure mobile friendliness

As Marketing Consultant Anna Crowe explains, “Even though Bing has said there are no plans to introduce mobile-first indexing on its platform, you still want to make sure your site is mobile friendly.”

When determining mobile friendliness, Bing considers factors such as:

• If the content on your pages fits within the narrower screen width of a mobile device
• Whether or not the text is still readable on mobile
• If your links and buttons are still easy to use on a mobile interface.

If you’re not sure whether your webpage is sufficiently mobile responsive, you can use Bing’s mobile friendliness test tool to quickly gain insight into your site’s current status. Then, improve any areas that don’t earn high marks as necessary.

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6. Cultivate a social media following

While Google has largely removed social media engagement from its search algorithm, Bing still places substantial weight on the social following associated with a website’s domain.

To be sure, that does not mean that you should start paying for followers. Shady tactics that help you rapidly gain a large number of fake followers will be easily detected, and Bing penalizes such behavior.

However, making a genuine investment into building a real, loyal social media following can pay off when it comes to your rankings on Bing.

If Bing sees that your web pages are being shared widely on social media, it’s likely to take that as a good sign about the authority and relevance of your content, and improve your SERP rankings accordingly.

7. Incorporate images — but don’t overdo it

Well-placed images with clear, concise alt text can go a long way to boosting your Bing SEO.

Indeed, while Google is known for largely prioritizing text and html, Bing’s algorithm may reward content with more multimedia components, such as images and video clips.

That said, when it comes to media elements, it’s equally important to avoid overdoing it. Drowning your website in a sea of imagery can often backfire, especially if images or videos make it harder to see the key information on your site.

In addition, excessively intrusive advertisements that block your actual content or interfere with the user experience are also likely to harm your search rankings. For example, here’s a web page layout in which the imagery is intrusive, not helpful:

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8. Craft quality content

There are countless tips and tricks that can help boost your position on Bing’s SERPs. But at the end of the day, just as with SEO on any other platform, your success on Bing comes down to your ability to craft quality content.

That means developing web pages that are relevant, informative, and credible, and free of spammy or misleading content.

A focus on quality is especially important as generative AI creates new possibilities for machine-generated content.

Indeed, in a recent survey of more than 400 marketers, we found that more than half were already incorporating generative AI into their SEO and content development workflows.

Clearly, AI tools can add a lot of value — but it’s important to avoid publishing content that reads like it was written by a robot.

After all, if Bing’s algorithm detects content that appears to be solely designed to boost SERP rankings (rather than to add real value to the user), it’s likely to classify that content as malicious and penalize rankings accordingly.

At the same time, as AI tools are increasingly incorporated into search engines, marketers may benefit from rethinking their approach to content.

In the same survey, marketers predicted that if generative AI is integrated into search engines, “How to” and “Question/Answer” type content will perform the best, perhaps because this format is most likely to correspond to the questions users may ask of an AI-assisted search engine.

As AI evolves, so will the type of content Bing deems as high-quality. But as long as marketers ensure that the intent behind their web content remains to help their users (not to trick the algorithms), they’re likely to be rewarded.

Maximize Your Online Visibility with Bing

While there’s no doubt that Google remains the industry leader for search, factoring in Bing is an increasingly important part of an effective SEO strategy in today’s market.

In particular, Bing’s growing user base, reduced competition, and ongoing investment into cutting-edge AI technologies make the platform an important way to diversify your strategy and maximize your online visibility.

Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to SEO.

Especially as new technologies continue to emerge and disrupt industry standards, it’s critical to take a dynamic, agile approach to crafting (and re-crafting) your marketing strategy.

But if you build a strong foundation and follow the Bing SEO tips listed above, you’ll set yourself up for success and maximize your chances of capitalizing on the unique advantages Bing has to offer.

The post Should Marketers Optimize for Bing? [Data + Expert Tips] appeared first on ProdSens.live.

In today’s competitive job market, your income and career rely on knowing how to communicate your skills and experiences. To do so, you can choose one of two primary vehicles: a resume or a portfolio.

As a freelance writer and author, a portfolio is my greatest asset (and one I’ve been building since my first article was published at 19). Yet, when job searching over the years, a resume has been required by many positions.

Both a portfolio and resume display a person‘s professional skills and experiences, but what are the differences and unique opportunities that each presents?

Let’s look at the key differences between the two to help you pick the best tool for the job (search) at hand.

Portfolios vs. Resumes

Portfolios — What are they?

Resume — What are they?

Making the Right Choice

Portfolios vs. Resumes

A portfolio and resume help job seekers land work, but they have key differences in visibility, convention, and the review process.

Visibility

A resume is tailored for specific job applications. It’s most commonly updated and used when applying for jobs. Further, resumes should be tailored to each specific job application.

A portfolio, on the other hand, is a collection of a person’s professional skills and abilities available online 24/7. It may be viewed by a broader audience beyond just potential clients. Portfolios aren’t necessarily tailored to a specific job.

Convention

Resumes come with a very clear convention. These documents are one or two pages maximum, with experience listed in reverse chronological order. Resumes display your relevant qualifications while being as concise as possible.

A portfolio can be an interactive, creative, and extensive display of a person’s work. You can crumple up the concise document approach and share in-depth information.

That includes real-life samples, exercising any number of portfolio tactics, and creative ideas.

Review Process

A resume isn‘t only reviewed by potential employers; it’s first uploaded to a resume reader and scanned by artificial intelligence (AI).

As a result, following a strict format is often to your advantage, as it makes the document more scannable.

A portfolio is a collection of work samples that can only be reviewed by a real person. Creativity is your friend, as it’s another way to showcase your skills and abilities.

Portfolios — What are they?

A portfolio is a collection of work samples that demonstrate a person’s skills and experience. Portfolios used to be reserved for creative fields.

However, the modern job market has seen an influx of professional portfolios thanks to the gig economy.

Career culture has shifted away from single-job careers. While there may be a unicorn worker in your office who was hired at your company straight out of school, it’s a rarity.

Not only do workers change jobs regularly, but they also change careers more often.

Author and Harvard Business School faculty member Christina Wallace describes pouring yourself into one single job as “the riskiest move you can make” in her book The Portfolio Life. It’s estimated that 29% of workers have changed careers since graduating college.

This has fueled the need for professional portfolios. These repositories are a way of showing your work that focuses on displaying skills rather than summarizing experience. Careers that operate this way are on the rise.

Nicknamed a portfolio career, this is encouraged by the gig economy, where workers have traded a single full-time salary for contract-based roles. Economic uncertainty, such as pandemics and recessions, fuels this.

A portfolio includes details like the type of work that you do and your experience. This can also include any multimedia that displays your skills and experience, such as:

• Photos.
• Videos.
• Audio files.
• Video testimonials.
• Philosophy statement
• Written endorsements and reviews

Advantages of Portfolios

When does a portfolio outshine a resume? Let‘s look at the major perks of using this tool to display an individual’s qualifications.

You can persuasively display skills.

A resume is a brief description of your experience, while a portfolio is an entire collection of a person‘s skills. It doesn’t require you to take complex projects and boil them down to a brief paragraph.

There’s no need to condense an entire career enough to fit on one or two pages.

A portfolio shows all of your skills, experience, and past success in one simple package.

“In today’s rapidly evolving professional landscape, the lines between portfolios and resumes are becoming increasingly blurred,” shared attorney Ahn Min Hwan.

“A lot of professionals opt for online portfolios or personal websites where they sum up their resumes and also display samples of their work, certifications, and testimonials,” he says.

Visuals show instead of tell.

While portfolios have historically been used by web designers, writers, and others in creative industries, they’ve become more of a norm with the rise of portfolio careers. This used to be the key difference between a portfolio and a resume.

Portfolios are powerful and persuasive, especially when it comes to displaying creative talents.

“As humans, we are emotional decision-makers, and often we act on what we find visually appealing,” shared Gabe Marusca, founder of Digital Finest.

Gabe is an experienced web designer who creates websites and landing pages for coaches and consultants.

“In the creative space, having a visually pleasing portfolio not only makes you stand out against the competitors, but it speaks louder than words,” Gabe says.

You can demonstrate capability.

In a world where more than half of Americans have admitted to lying on their resume, portfolios slice through the noise. They show potential clients and employers the money.

“While the resume tells me the history, a portfolio shows me the capability,” shared Amanda Sexton, the founder of FocusWorks. “A portfolio is crucial if you’re in a field where your work can be visualized, demonstrated, or interacted with—like design, content creation, or web development. It offers tangible proof of your skills and achievements.“

Portfolio Examples

Resumes are limited to just one or two pages and follow a strict format, but a digital portfolio can take almost any form to showcase your skills. Let these examples inspire you to start designing right away.

This portfolio example from Nesha V. Frazier spans multiple web pages and shows various types of writing work.

What we like: This portfolio example shows writing samples broken up by category. It spans multiple pages, which is easily done on a portfolio thanks to the medium’s flexibility.

The next digital portfolio example is from Ralu Enea and showcases her skills as a web designer, highlighting her high volume of positive feedback.

What we like: The screenshots showing happy clients make this portfolio feel incredibly authentic and persuasive.

This final digital portfolio example from Gabe Marusca showcases his web design work.

What we like: This digital portfolio takes huge project samples and makes them viewable at a glance. It presents work in a really digestible format instead of leaving the viewer feeling overwhelmed.

Expert Tips for Portfolios

The most noticeable difference between a portfolio and resume design is that a portfolio can take almost any shape or form. Instead of that feeling overwhelming, let it feel empowering with these expert tips on how to get it right.

Use a tagline.

While a portfolio is a collection of your work, it can (and should) still have a sense of organization and structure. That’s where a tagline can help serve as a brief objective or summary statement.

“An attention-grabbing tagline is a terrific approach to bringing individuality into your portfolio while offering companies a broad view of what you can offer them,” shared Eran Mizrahi, the CEO of Ingredient Brothers.

“Bring some zing to the proceedings by capping them off with an unforgettable statement or slogan.” Ingredient Brothers summarizes its product with a memorable tagline on its website:

Keep your portfolio focused.

A portfolio doesn’t need to be a conclusive career summary.

While you may have work samples spanning many years, projects, and industries, a focused portfolio helps a hiring manager or client feel more excited about the potential than a broad portfolio.

“To create a great portfolio, I recommend showcasing only your best projects that highlight your ideal clients,” shared Gabe Marusca. “Ideally, your portfolio visuals should be in high resolution and focused on grabbing viewer attention.”

Resumes — What are they?

A resume is a document that summarizes your work experience as it applies to a specific job.

Often one or two pages long and accompanied by a cover letter, a resume displays relevant experience in reverse chronological order and is customized for individual job applications.

The concept of a resume hasn‘t changed much in your lifetime; in fact, it’s one of the only parts of the hiring process that hasn’t changed.

A well-crafted resume will display relevant skills in a quick and easy format. Broadly speaking, a resume should include any relevant achievements that demonstrate a person’s qualifications for a job.

Some standard features of a resume include:

• Soft skills.
• Contact details.
• Work experience.
• Relevant skills and life experiences.
• Academic and professional qualifications.
• Related volunteer jobs that you’ve worked.
• A professional summary statement (sometimes called a career summary statement).

Even though resumes themselves haven’t evolved much, the way hiring managers review them has. It’s estimated that resumes are reviewed for less than 10 seconds by a potential employer.

Job seekers can still improve their resume writing and see better results. Here are some of the advantages of using a resume over a portfolio.

Advantages of Resumes

How does a humble one or two-page document stack up against a portfolio? Here are the advantages of using a resume in your job applications.

It’s a universal tool.

While designing a creative portfolio may take days or weeks, a resume is a straightforward and universal tool that doesn‘t need to keep up with the trends (no matter where you’re applying for work).

“Nearly every professional across the globe needs a polished resume or CV when actively searching for work,” shared Amanda Augustine, certified professional career coach, certified professional resume writer, and career expert for ZipJob.

“The moment you decide to start looking for a new job, you instantly become a marketer, and your resume is a key component of your personal marketing toolkit,” Augustine says. “Additionally, your resume often serves as your first point of contact with a prospective employer and will shape that hiring professional’s first impression of your candidacy.”

You’ll create a straightforward snapshot.

While a portfolio has a sense of endlessness to it, a resume is a comforting bite-size look at your professional qualifications.

Arriving at a great resume is far less time-consuming, thanks to its concise and predictable nature. Plus, not being forced to reinvent the wheel saves you a tremendous amount of time.

“A resume really serves as a career snapshot for employers,” shared certified career counselor Brad W. Minton, founder of Mint To Be Career. “If composed well, it provides an overview of your ‘greatest hits’ that are relevant for future target roles so that employers can get a quick indication of your value add.”

Resume Examples

Let’s look at resume examples provided by professional resume writers and career experts. These resumes focus on different roles, fields, and levels of experience.

This first resume example was provided by Andrew Fennell, director of StandOutCV. It’s an example of an entry-level position with a focus on academic achievements:

What we like: The format of this resume leverages color and design while maintaining its readability.

The next resume example was provided by Sylvia Glynn, executive resume writer for Ultmeche. It’s based on the well-known Harvard resume template:

What we like: This no-frills approach to resume design is primed for AI readability while still showcasing all the relevant skills and experiences that hiring managers need to see.

This resume example was provided by Brad W. Minton, certified professional resume writer and founder of Mint To Be Career.

What we like: This resume has a straightforward design that will pass through AI scans, but it still includes some subtle design choices that will show personality to hiring managers.

Is your resume ready to be scanned by AI? Use the free tool Jobscan to see if your resume is helping or hurting you at this phase of the hiring process.

This final resume example was provided by Amanda Augustine, a certified professional career coach, resume writer, and career expert for ZipJob.

What we like: This is a great example of a two-page resume that uses space well by adding columns to break up dense sections. The indentation on this resume also improves readability and makes for smooth and pleasing formatting.

Expert Tips for Resumes

Is a resume right for your job search? Then, it needs to be well-designed, up-to-date, and ready to knock hiring managers’ socks off. Use these tips from expert resume writers to make it happen.

Translate experience, skills, and talent to desired role.

A generic resume that‘s submitted to dozens of companies won’t get the same result as a resume that details your skills and experiences as they directly relate to your desired role.

“A strong resume really boils down to how well you translate what you’ve done into what you can do for the next role,“ shared Brad W. Minton. ”How you do that is by researching the position and company and showcasing how your past experience developed relevant skills for the role you’re seeking now, as well as creating qualitative and quantitative impact.”

Design resumes for functionality.

Designers, writers, and other creatives will be tempted to make their resumes unique and memorable, but that flair is best saved for your portfolio. Overly creative designs stuffed onto one or two pages lead to confusion and sacrifice functionality.

“When formatting and structuring your resume, you need to think about its function rather than just making it look nice. It has to be easy for recruiters to read and pick out the info they are looking for,” shared Andrew Fennell, director of StandOutCV.

Fennell recommends that sections be clearly defined with bold heading and white space. The text should be broken up into bullet points, and the color scheme and font need to make the text crystal clear to readers.

“Photos, icons, and other graphic features are nice to have, but focus on the important stuff first,” Fennell says.

Update and include your LinkedIn account.

A portfolio and resume are actually not stand-alone resources, as resumes can include clickable website links to other resources. Hiring managers will often reach for another snapshot of your skills and abilities: your LinkedIn account.

“My top resume tip is simple, but we often see it overlooked as recruiters. Include a clickable link to your LinkedIn profile just below your name on your resume,” shared Mike Basso, founder and CEO of Sales Talent Command.

“Because of its predictable format, many recruiters and hiring managers like to review a candidate’s LinkedIn profile for additional information,” Mike says.

If you need to be convinced of the power of LinkedIn for job seekers, find someone who’s active on the platform and look at the work experience section of their account.

You may see a blurb that says, “LinkedIn helped me get this job,” which you can see on my account for a position with the SEO company forank:

“Your LinkedIn profile can do a great job of differentiating you from other candidates if well-optimized. So, make it easy for those considering you for opportunities to find your impressive LinkedIn profile,” said Mike Basso.

Update your account and then initiate a LinkedIn strategy to help your account be more attractive to potential employers.

Making the right choice

When making the choice between a portfolio and a resume, see if the decision has already been made for you. The first question to ask is, what is the hiring manager or potential client asking to see?

Your portfolio vs resume debate ends if the hiring process is clearly outlined for you already. When the hiring process is less defined, consider how your experience and skills are best demonstrated and weigh these factors.

• What are the other candidates for this position or contract submitting to demonstrate their skills?
• Does your work require in-depth information to be explained, or can it fit on one or two pages?
• How can you prove your success in past roles?
• Do you have visual examples of your work?

As you’re packaging all the proof of your skills, you need to consider whether a portfolio or resume can showcase your skills and experience best.

If work samples and examples of your work would help you stand out to a hiring manager, aim for a portfolio.

Designers, writers, and anyone who works with multimedia will be able to showcase their skills better with a portfolio than a resume.

However, the majority of open work positions will ask for a resume so that it can be scanned using AI and sent through the standard hiring pipeline. Sometimes, there’s a case for both tools to be used.

When to Use Both

When choosing which tool can help demonstrate your professional capabilities, the answer might be both. While they do have their differences, a portfolio and resume can work in tandem instead of being pitted against each other.

When leveraged properly, it works to your benefit.

“In some cases, using both a portfolio and resume can be highly beneficial,” shared Nate Djeric, founder and career counselor at CareerBoost.io.

“For example, if you’re applying for a marketing role that requires both strategic thinking (resume) and creative execution (portfolio), presenting both can give you an edge,” Nate says.

Consider adding a link to a digital portfolio directly on your resume and also using your portfolio as an excuse to follow up with hiring managers and provide additional information.

Getting Started

Creating an effective portfolio or resume is an imperative task when you‘re putting yourself out there to potential employers and clients.

With these examples, best practices, and expert tips, you’re prepared to package your talent and impress every hiring manager.

The post Portfolios vs. Resumes — The Complete Guide appeared first on ProdSens.live.

PPC landing pages are the newest incarnation of an age-old sales problem: How do you keep warm bodies in their seats long enough to hear your message?

In the digital age, the key is to craft effective PPC landing pages that entice customers to stay, read, and follow the path you’ve carved — a customer journey from curiosity to conversion.

Stick with us as I explain and explore PPC landing pages and the elements that make them work. I’ll then share some great PPC landing pages, examples, and tools you can use to plan, execute, and analyze your PPC campaigns.

Table of Contents

• What is a PPC landing page?
• 5 Elements of a Great PPC Landing Page
• PPC Landing Page Examples
• Tools to Analyze PPC Pages

5 Elements of a Great PPC Landing Page

While there’s so much more to know about landing pages in general, there are five must-have elements in any great PPC landing page, specifically.

Each of these critical elements has an important job to do, and they build on each other to convince the customer to act.

1. Include strong and relevant visuals to grab their attention.

Eyes lead, so you’ll need strong visuals that are directly relevant to:

• Whatever you are selling.
• The wording of the ad you created that led your customer to the landing page.
• Ideally, the wording of your call to action (CTA) as well.

When your audience arrives at your PPC landing page, they should see thematic echoes of the ad they clicked. Strong and relevant images give them confidence that they are in the right place and weren’t swindled into clicking some wayward, spammy link.

Place your hero image near the top of your landing page so it draws attention immediately. If you can, tie the images you choose to your CTA messaging as well.

It’s an added layer of complexity, but when done well it creates a sense of cohesiveness. That way, it feels like every single detail leads to the CTA and contributes to the momentum you are building.

2. Use both a headline and a subheader.

Visitors are soaking in your visuals as they engage your first line of content, so your headline is important and should accomplish the following:

• The headline and hero image must be relevant to one another.
• The words and/or numbers you use in the headline should echo the wording and/or numbers from your advertisement, tying the ad to the landing page in order to start building trust.
• Your headline should include your top keyword, if possible, and work together with the subheadline and visual imagery to establish the style of content to come.

The subheader has three important jobs:

• Transitions content from ad language to CTA language.
• Contains important keywords that may not fit into your headline.
• Establishes the journey of the eyes, leading them downward to the next piece of content.

3. Sell it strategically and with your whole heart.

Your visitor has now transitioned and is ready for more information. Your details should be clear, specific, and really celebrate your product or service.

Organize the valuable aspects of your product into easily digestible chunks that lead from one to the next down the page.

Remember that no matter what you are promoting, it’s about meeting the customers’ needs or giving them a desired experience.

Let them step into the shoes you’re selling, so to speak, by couching the advantages you are offering into contexts your target personas will understand and naturally experience in their lives.

As you wrap up an informational section, write from the perspective of a thoroughly convinced and excited expert. This will lead into the next critical accelerant for your momentum: harnessing the customer perspective.

4. Provide social proof for outside confirmation.

This is the part of your stage show where you’ve done the main ‘song and dance’ and you now tell your audience, “Don’t just take my word for it! Let’s hear from these satisfied customers.”

Inviting feedback from your customers is part of a larger strategy that helps you improve your products, reputation, and marketing strategies.

This is one of the reasons why we collect written reviews, perform surveys, take ratings, etc. You get to use that information to provide social proof of your product’s value and your brand’s trustworthiness.

Testimonials from previous clients are the gold standard, and while written ones are the easiest to get, it’s worth the time and effort to get video testimonials, too.

If you have a lot of good ones to choose from, only put a few of your very best. More than a handful becomes overwhelming, and you can always provide a link to more testimonials to follow if visitors want to see more of them.

5. Create one CTA and repeat it like a mantra.

You want your CTA to be the heartbeat of your page. Your customer only needs to make one decision, and you need to draw their attention to that.

Reduce friction wherever you can so your visitors can ride the wave of your momentum and have good reason to slam that CTA button.

You want to keep your visitor laser focused on that one thing they need to do next. It’s that one ask you are making of them, even if you word it a little differently to entice more than one target persona.

Many landing pages even include a small CTA near the top for those who are already convinced and don’t want to spend a bunch of time on the landing page.

Why? Because customers differ, and that’s okay.

PPC Landing Page Examples

I tracked down some solid examples that make use of all five elements and pointed out where they’ve done an exceptional job.

Corpo Kinetic

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This landing page is a great example of choosing one CTA and letting it be the heartbeat of the page.

What I like about this: Corpo Kinetic uses the same black button over and over, and it stands out on the light background. It’s worded a little differently each time to entice more than one persona, but that button is the beat of the page.

We also see the words Schedule, Start, Join, Learn — and all roads lead to the Booking page, because that is the one action they want to call their customers to.

MTE

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The headline and subheadings taken to the next level.

MTE’s PPC landing page guides the eyes down to the CTA button like reading a book from the top left to the bottom right.

What I like about this: This approach takes advantage of how our eyes were originally trained in childhood when reading. Clever. What else is clever? It creates, in essence, two instances of headline and subheader to get more of their keywords in without looking cluttered.

BestReviews.com

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It is hard to articulate how little time and money most parents have, and how refreshing it is to have a landing page take you to the exact information you searched for with no preamble to scroll through.

This landing page is not fancy, but really nailed the visual elements that resonate with their target audience.

What I like about this: The strong visual is front and center, clearly showing what they’ve determined to be the best thermos overall and then the best budget thermos. Then they put a CTA button under each one to check the price and buy it. Boom — done — every busy parent’s dream internet shopping experience.

LeadPages

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Leadpages does a great overall job with this PPC landing page. The initial ad focuses on conversion, ease, and trying it for free. The landing page subheader hits all three ideas as well to let the visitor know they’re in the right place.

What I like about this: The headline uses an important keyword for them: lead generation. The Try it Free CTA starts in the initial advertisement and continues down the page like a heartbeat to each button.

They include social proof and have eye-grabbing styled images throughout. A landing page creator that practices what it sells — nice work.

Canine Sport Sack

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These people know that good-looking dogs can sell just about anything. Canine Sport Sack’s website has clear and colorful visual assets that catch your eye and guide you to an incredibly informative video of how to size the carrier.

What I like about this: It’s clear they start you here because down below they have their products broken down by size. Their sporty orange buttons change color with roll-over, and I’m still thinking about the adorable footer. Sold.

Generation Genius

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This landing page is a great example in many ways, but in particular of everything outlined in Element 3 (sell strategically and with your whole heart).

They provide photos and videos that let you step into the experiences they are selling before ordering. Valuable aspects of the product are organized in easily digestible chunks that lead from one to the next down the page.

What I like about this: They are really celebrating their product and selling it with their whole heart. Dr. Jeff gives his input as a thoroughly convinced and excited expert, then it rolls right into social proof. Absolutely nailed it.

Havenly

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This PPC landing page does a good job of echoing the ad with the the ideas of Get Matched and Get Started, which end up being the heartbeat of buttons down the page. Even the button that doesn’t match — Find Your Style — echoes the advertisement’s Based on Your Style to let you know you’re in the right place.

What I like about this: They matched the images in the top slider not just to the service but also chose images that coordinate in both color and cleanliness to the style and content of the page to come.

They also opted to put linked keywords at the bottom of the ad that could scoop up interior design adjacent traffic because they offer related content like Living Room Inspiration.

Rocket Expansion

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It’s pretty great how Rocket Expansion chose their CTA to sound more literary than normal. What a fun way to entice the persona of authors who want a website. The CTA buttons stand out nicely and repeat Enquire Now all the way down the page.

What I like about this: They start with relevant hero imagery in a background video, demonstrating a service they actually offer. Social proof is there, and examples of their work for both web and mobile look strong and enticing.

Klaviyo

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Klaviyo put together an on-trend, minimalist landing page that hits the marks. Clearly a good landing page, yet not the norm — that’s kind of their thing.

One of Klaviyo’s big strategies is actively using social media, which is not that typical of B2B. The phone-shaped images they’ve chosen reflect that and act as an indicator of their style and content to come.

What I like about this: They’ve chosen two CTAs to repeat like a heartbeat together, which isn’t typical, but they both lead to sign ups.

It’s not that different from how Corpo Kinetics’ buttons function, it’s just a different configuration. It makes you wonder what their analytics look like, and if they’re learning anything from it.

Colored Organics

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This is a more simplistic PPC landing page than many others on the list, but that’s definitely part of its charm. There’s a surprisingly large selection of baby products tucked behind its Shop CTAs.

What I like about this: Instead of using bold colors and videos to catch your eye at the top, Colored Organics knows that their target audience is going to be enthralled by a smiling baby in a clean space with a cute jumper that visitors will assume is organic, safe, and healthy.

Banana Republic

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Banana Republic and White House Black Market below deserve kudos for their PPC landing pages. If you’ve ever clicked on retail clothing or department store ads, you can typically expect to be inundated with words and pictures, items, drop menus, and a million chances to leave where you just landed.

What I like about this: Banana Republic leads to the PPC landing page shown above after an original search for denim jacket. That’s a pretty classy place to land compared to companies you might expect to be competing for denim jacket traffic.

They do have drop menus but they are small and unobtrusive — the eye-catching images remain the stars that entice you to scroll down to see more. There you find clean and clear CTA buttons to sign up, sign in, and join.

White House Black Market

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Like Banana Republic, White House Black Market takes its PPC landing pages seriously and makes it clear what to expect from their style and content to come.

WHBM’s ad lands on an enticingly moody video that makes a hero of the idea of light and dark together.

What I like about this: We hear the heartbeat from the buttons down the page that read Shop New Arrivals, Shop Sweaters, and Shop Icons. They want you to get in there and take a look, but won’t be brash or gaudy about it. They’re elevating it and standing apart from the fray.

Home Chef

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Here’s a good example of hitting the marks while keeping it tight and concise. Home Chef focuses on meals in the ad, in the subheader, and the CTAs.

What I like about this: They’ve chosen punchy, yummy imagery of food that is relevant, flavorful, and health-conscious. Their info sections are small but present and lead you down the page like they should.

Volvo’s Electric Vehicle

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There is some hot PPC ad competition between Toyota, Tesla, Nissan, and Volvo right now on a search for electric vehicles. Toyota wins for selling with their whole heart and invoking a healthier planet.

However, Volvo is selling the heck out of their designs and features on their landing page. Did you see those wheels? They look like wind turbines — what a fun idea.

What I like about this: Volvo’s landing page does a solid job of focusing their style and content on futurism. You see cleanliness, technology, efficiency. Their information sections are cleanly batched down the page. CTA buttons read Build Yours to make it personal, and there’s something pretty special at the bottom.

They actually ask visitors what they think of the landing page. Perhaps they’re getting insights that help them edge out the competitors by simply asking.

Litter Robot by Whisker (Kind of)

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So close, Litter Robot! This one deserved to make the list. Their PPC ad led to a product page that makes sense if you know what the product is already, but isn’t in line with PPC landing page practices.

However, if it linked to something like their homepage instead — pictured above — it’d be knocking best practices out of the park. They could even keep the same PPC ad because it already mentions never scooping again.

What I like about this: It’s beautiful and ticks every box:

• Relevant and eye-catching images including an opening video
• Headline that echoes the PPC ad and an enticing subheader that leads toward the CTA
• They sell with their whole heart, are clearly excited about their product, and sections of information are neatly contained in boxes that lead down the page to…
• Social proof in the forms of videos, readable content, and big-name endorsements
• Obvious CTA buttons down the page — a heartbeat that repeats Shop Now

Tools to Analyze PPC Landing Pages

Once you’ve put in the work to create a PPC landing page, next you’ll want to do some analysis.

There are a number of tools available to learn how your landing page data stacks up against competitors, A/B test your design, see what’s working and what can be improved, etc.

Here are four I recommend:

1. HubSpot

Pricing: Free

Additional pricing options:

• Starts as low as $20/mo. for CMS Hub Starter
• Free 14 day trial then as low as $360/mo. for CMS Hub Professional
• Free 14 day trial then $1,200/mo. for CMS Hub Enterprise

Features

• Collaborates with Google Ads and Facebook Ads
• Video analytics to understand how visitors interact with video testimonials
• An optimization tab that gives suggestions on how to improve your search engine performance

What I like: All-in-one solutions. HubSpot offers a free CMS and a diverse suite of tools that have been designed to integrate seamlessly. Analytics are available for all products and plans.

2. Google Analytics 4 for Google Ads

Pricing: Free

Features

• Collects both website and app data for analysis
• Uses machine learning to identify and report changes and trends in your data
• Offers direct integrations with several media platforms

Pro Tip: If you have a CMS-hosted website (whether that’s HubSpot, WordPress, Drupal, Shopify, etc.) and are comfortably settled in with your build, you can simply sign up for a free Google Analytics 4 property and connect it via the CMS.

3. Semrush Advertising Research

Pricing

• Pro: $129.95/mo comes with free trial
• Guru: $249.95/mo comes with free trial
• Business: $499.95
• Custom Plans Available: Contact Semrush for details

Features

• Categorizes keywords based on search intent to improve your accuracy
• Shows examples of your competitors’ live ads locally and/or internationally
• Details the emotional triggers used in competitor’s ad copy
• Lists which keywords your competitors are bidding on

Best for: Charts and graphs aficionados. Semrush has a knack for presenting information graphically/visually, enabling users to better understand and act on their analyses.

4. Ahrefs

Pricing: Note: All plans below benefit from 2 months free if paid annually.

• Lite $99/mo.
• Standard $199/mo.
• Advanced $399/mo.
• Enterprise $900/mo.

Features

• New Keyword Clustering function in all plans
• Standard and higher plans include a new portfolio feature that creates an aggregate report to compare your pre-selected targets (domains, subfolders, or URLs)
• Displays broken links and broken backlinks for easier identification and update

Pro Tip: Ahrefs has a lot to offer, and is best used by people who are already familiar with analytics. Meaningfully navigating, interpreting, and making use of the advanced features takes some time, practice, and experience.

Get Started

I’ve covered the what, why, and how — let’s chat about now. Right now you have the foundational information you need to get started.

Create an enticing advertisement that links to a PPC landing page. Create the landing page content using the advice above. Choose and connect a PPC analysis tool to your landing page.

Then, you can iterate the advertisement and/or the PPC landing page and track the results. If your changes work, you’ll see better results. If not, reiterate to find what works best for your product or brand.

The post How to Make the Perfect PPC Landing Page (+ Examples) appeared first on ProdSens.live.

Prerequisites

Before we dive into the details, make sure you have the following in place:

An AWS account with access to AWS Lambda and other necessary services.
A Node.js project where you can deploy your Lambda function.
Familiarity with Puppeteer and basic AWS Lambda concepts.

Setting up the Environment

The first step is to set up your development environment. In your Node.js project, you’ll need to install the **chrome-aws-lambda **package. This package contains a headless Chromium binary optimized for AWS Lambda environments.
npm install chrome-aws-lambda

Once the package is installed, you can create a Lambda function to run your Puppeteer code.

Creating the AWS Lambda Function

For this example, we’ll create a Lambda function that navigates to a webpage and returns its title. Here’s a sample Lambda function:

const chromium = require('chrome-aws-lambda');

exports.handler = async (event, context) => {
  let result = null;
  let browser = null;

  try {
    browser = await chromium.puppeteer.launch({
      args: chromium.args,
      defaultViewport: chromium.defaultViewport,
      executablePath: await chromium.executablePath,
      headless: chromium.headless,
      ignoreHTTPSErrors: true,
    });

    let page = await browser.newPage();

    await page.goto(event.url || 'https://example.com');

    result = await page.title();
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error);
  } finally {
    if (browser !== null) {
      await browser.close();
    }
  }

  return result;
};

Let’s break down the key parts of this Lambda function:

We import the chrome-aws-lambda package, which provides an optimized Chromium binary for AWS Lambda.
Inside the Lambda handler, we launch a Puppeteer browser using the chromium.puppeteer.launch method. We pass various options, such as command-line arguments and the path to the Chromium binary.

1- We create a new page, navigate to a URL (you can specify the URL as an event parameter), and retrieve the page title.
2-If any errors occur during the process, we log them to the console.
3- Finally, we return the result, which is the page title in this example.

Deploying the Lambda Function

To deploy the Lambda function, you can use the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or a tool like the Serverless Framework. Here, we’ll use the AWS CLI as an example:
Ensure you have the AWS CLI configured with the necessary permissions.
Create a deployment package by packaging your Node.js code and its dependencies. In your project directory, run the following command:

zip -r function.zip node_modules/ your-function.js

1-Replace your-function.js with the name of your Lambda function file.
Create the Lambda function using the AWS CLI. Replace with the appropriate IAM role ARN that gives Lambda permissions to access other AWS resources.

aws lambda create-function --function-name YourFunctionName 
  --zip-file fileb://function.zip 
  --handler your-function.handler 
  --runtime nodejs14.x 
  --role 

2-Invoke your Lambda function using the AWS CLI or any other method you prefer:

aws lambda invoke --function-name YourFunctionName output.txt

Replace YourFunctionName with the name of your Lambda function. You should see the title of the webpage in the output.txt file.

Conclusion

Running Puppeteer in an AWS Lambda function can be a powerful way to automate browser tasks on a serverless infrastructure. With chrome-aws-lambda, you can use an optimized Chromium binary, reducing the cold start time and improving the overall performance of your Lambda functions. This can be useful for various use cases, including web scraping, automated testing, and generating PDFs from web pages. Just keep in mind that AWS Lambda has some limitations, such as execution time limits and memory restrictions, so it’s important to design your functions accordingly.

The post How to Deploy Puppeteer with AWS Lambda appeared first on ProdSens.live.

When was the last time you ran a competitive analysis for your brand? And most importantly, do you know how to do one efficiently?

If you’re not sure, or if the last “analysis” you ran was a quick perusal of a competitor’s website and social media presence, you’re likely missing out on important intelligence that could help your brand grow.

In this detailed guide, you’ll learn how to conduct a competitive analysis that will give your business a competitive advantage in the market.

A competitive analysis can help you learn the ins and outs of how your competition works, and identify potential opportunities where you can out-perform them.

It also enables you to stay atop of industry trends and ensure your product is consistently meeting — and exceeding — industry standards.

Let’s dive into a few more benefits of conducting competitive analyses:

• Helps you identify your product’s unique value proposition and what makes your product different from the competitors’, which can inform future marketing efforts.
• Enables you to identify what your competitor is doing right. This information is critical for staying relevant and ensuring both your product and your marketing campaigns are outperforming industry standards.
• Tells you where your competitors are falling short — which helps you identify areas of opportunities in the marketplace, and test out new, unique marketing strategies they haven’t taken advantage of.
• Learn through customer reviews what’s missing in a competitor’s product, and consider how you might add features to your own product to meet those needs.
• Provides you with a benchmark against which you can measure your growth.

What is competitive market research?

Competitive market research focuses on finding and comparing key market metrics that help identify differences between your products and services and those of your competitors.

Comprehensive market research helps establish the foundation for an effective sales and marketing strategy that helps your company stand out from the crowd.

Next, let’s dive into how you can conduct a competitive analysis for your own company.

Competitive Analysis in Marketing

Every brand can benefit from regular competitor analysis. By performing a competitor analysis, you’ll be able to:

• Identify gaps in the market
• Develop new products and services
• Uncover market trends
• Market and sell more effectively

As you can see, learning any of these four components will lead your brand down the path of achievement.

Next, let’s dive into some steps you can take to conduct a comprehensive competitive analysis.

To run a complete and effective competitive analysis, use these ten templates, which range in purpose from sales, to marketing, to product strategy.

Featured Resource: 10 Competitive Analysis Templates

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1. Determine who your competitors are.

First, you’ll need to figure out who you’re really competing with so you can compare the data accurately. What works in a business similar to yours may not work for your brand.

So how can you do this?

Divide your “competitors” into two categories: direct and indirect.

Direct competitors are businesses that offer a product or service that could pass as a similar substitute for yours, and that operate in your same geographic area.

On the flip side, an indirect competitor provides products that are not the same but could satisfy the same customer need or solve the same problem.

It seems simple enough on paper, but these two terms are often misused.

When comparing your brand, you should only focus on your direct competitors. This is something many brands get wrong.

Let’s use an example: Stitch Fix and Fabletics are both subscription-based services that sell clothes on a monthly basis and serve a similar target audience.

But as we look deeper, we can see that the actual product (clothes in this case) are not the same; one brand focuses on stylish everyday outfits while the other is workout-centric attire only.

Yes, these brands satisfy the same need for women (having trendy clothes delivered right to their doorstep each month), but they do so with completely different types of clothing, making them indirect competitors.

This means Kate Hudson’s team at Fabletics would not want to spend their time studying Stitch Fix too closely since their audiences probably vary quite a bit. Even if it’s only slightly, this tiny variation is enough to make a big difference.

Now, this doesn’t mean you should toss your indirect competitors out the window completely.

Keep these brands on your radar since they could shift positions at any time and cross over into the direct competitor zone. Using our example, Stitch Fix could start a workout line, which would certainly change things for Fabletics.

This is also one of the reasons why you’ll want to routinely run a competitor analysis. The market can and will shift at any time, and if you’re not constantly scoping it out, you won’t be aware of these changes until it’s too late.

2. Determine what products your competitors offer.

At the heart of any business is its product or service, which is what makes this a good place to start.

You’ll want to analyze your competitor’s complete product line and the quality of the products or services they’re offering.

You should also take note of their pricing and any discounts they’re offering customers.

Some questions to consider include:

• Are they a low-cost or high-cost provider?
• Are they working mainly on volume sales or one-off purchases?
• What is their market share?
• What are the characteristics and needs of their ideal customers?
• Are they using different pricing strategies for online purchases versus brick and mortar?
• How does the company differentiate itself from its competitors?
• How do they distribute their products/services?

3. Research your competitors’ sales tactics and results.

Running a sales analysis of your competitors can be a bit tricky.

You’ll want to track down the answers to questions such as:

• What does the sales process look like?
• What channels are they selling through?
• Do they have multiple locations and how does this give them an advantage?
• Are they expanding? Scaling down?
• Do they have partner reselling programs?
• What are their customers’ reasons for not buying? For ending their relationship with the company?
• What are their revenues each year? What about total sales volume?
• Do they regularly discount their products or services?
• How involved is a salesperson in the process?

These helpful pieces of information will give you an idea of how competitive the sales process is, and what information you need to prepare your sales reps with to compete during the final buy stage.

For publicly held companies, you can find annual reports online, but you’ll have to do some sleuthing to find this info from privately owned businesses.

You could find some of this information by searching through your CRM and reaching out to those customers who mentioned they were considering your competitor. Find out what made them choose your product or service over others out there.

To do this, run a report that shows all prospective deals where there was an identified competitor.

If this data is not something you currently record, talk to marketing and sales to implement a system where prospects are questioned about the other companies they are considering.

Essentially, they’ll need to ask their leads (either through a form field or during a one-on-one sales conversation) to identify who their current service providers are, who they’ve used in the past, and who else they are considering during the buying process.

When a competitor is identified, have your sales team dive deeper by asking why they are considering switching to your product. If you’ve already lost the deal, be sure to follow up with the prospect to determine why you lost to your competitor. What services or features attracted the prospect? Was it about price? What’s the prospect’s impression of your sales process? If they’ve already made the switch, find out why they made this decision.

By asking open-ended questions, you’ll have honest feedback about what customers find appealing about your brand and what might be turning customers away.

Once you’ve answered these questions, you can start scoping out your competitor’s marketing efforts.

4. Take a look at your competitors’ pricing, as well as any perks they offer.

There are a few major factors that go into correctly pricing your product — and one major one is understanding how much your competitors are charging for a similar product or service.

If you feel your product offers superior features compared to those of a competitor, you might consider making your product or service more expensive than industry standards. However, if you do that, you’ll want to ensure your sales reps are ready to explain why your product is worth the additional cost.

Alternatively, perhaps you feel there’s a gap in your industry for affordable products. If that’s the case, you might aim to charge less than competitors and appeal to prospects who aren’t looking to break the bank for a high-quality product.

Of course, other factors go into correctly pricing a product, but it’s critical you stay on top of industry pricing to ensure you’re pricing your product in a way that feels reasonable to prospects.

Additionally, take a look at any perks your competitors’ offer and how you might match those perks to compete. For instance, perhaps your competitors offer a major referral discount or a month-long free trial version. These perks could be the reason you’re losing customers, so if it feels reasonable for your brand, consider where you might match those perks — or provide some unique perks of your own if competitors’ don’t offer any.

5. Ensure you’re meeting competitive shipping costs.

Did you know expensive shipping is the number one reason for cart abandonment?

Nowadays, free shipping is a major perk that can attract consumers to choose one brand over another. If you work in an industry where shipping is a major factor — like ecommerce — you’ll want to take a look at competitors’ shipping costs and ensure you’re meeting (if not exceeding) those prices.

If most of your competitors’ offer free shipping, you’ll want to look into the option for your own company. If free shipping isn’t a practical option for your business, consider how you might differentiate in other ways — including loyalty programs, holiday discounts, or giveaways on social media.

6. Analyze how your competitors market their products.

Analyzing your competitor’s website is the fastest way to gauge their marketing efforts. Take note of any of the following items and copy down the specific URL for future reference:

• Do they have a blog?
• Are they creating whitepapers or ebooks?
• Do they post videos or webinars?
• Do they have a podcast?
• Are they using static visual content such as infographics and cartoons?
• What about slide decks?
• Do they have a FAQs section?
• Are there featured articles?
• Do you see press releases?
• Do they have a media kit?
• What about case studies?
• Do they publish buying guides and data sheets?
• What online and offline advertising campaigns are they running?

7. Take note of your competition’s content strategy.

Then, take a look at the quantity of these items. Do they have several hundred blog posts or a small handful? Are there five white papers and just one ebook?

Next, determine the frequency of these content assets. Are they publishing something new each week or once a month? How often does a new ebook or case study come out?

Chances are if you come across a robust archive of content, your competitor has been publishing regularly. Depending on the topics they’re discussing, this content may help you hone in on their lead-generating strategies.

From there, you should move on to evaluating the quality of their content. After all, if the quality is lacking, it won’t matter how often they post since their target audience won’t find much value in it.

Choose a small handful of samples to review instead of tackling every single piece to make the process more manageable.

Your sampler should include content pieces covering a variety of topics so you’ll have a fairly complete picture of what your competitor shares with their target audience.

When analyzing your competitor’s content, consider the following questions:

• How accurate is their content?
• Are spelling or grammar errors present?
• How in-depth does their content go? (Is it at the introductory level that just scratches the surface or does it include more advanced topics with high-level ideas?)
• What tone do they use?
• Is the content structured for readability? (Are they using bullet points, bold headings, and numbered lists?)
• Is their content free and available to anyone or do their readers need to opt-in?
• Who is writing their content? (In-house team? One person? Multiple contributors?)
• Is there a visible byline or bio attached to their articles?

As you continue to scan the content, pay attention to the photos and imagery your competitors are using.

Do you quickly scroll past generic stock photos or are you impressed by custom illustrations and images? If they’re using stock photos, do they at least have overlays of text quotes or calls-to-action that are specific to their business?

If their photos are custom, are they sourced from outside graphic professionals or do they appear to be done in-house?

When you have a solid understanding of your competitor’s content marketing strategy, it’s time to find out if it’s truly working for them.

8. Learn what technology stack your competitors’ use.

Understanding what types of technology your competitors’ use can be critical for helping your own company reduce friction and increase momentum within your organization.

For instance, perhaps you’ve seen positive reviews about a competitor’s customer service — as you’re conducting research, you learn the customer uses powerful customer service software you haven’t been taking advantage of. This information should arm you with the opportunity to outperform your competitors’ processes.

To figure out which software your competitors’ use, type the company’s URL into Built With, an effective tool for unveiling what technology your competitors’ site runs on, along with third-party plugins ranging from analytics systems to CRMs.

Alternatively, you might consider looking at competitors’ job listings, particularly for engineer or web developer roles. The job listing will likely mention which tools a candidate needs to be familiar with — a creative way to gain intel into the technology your competitors’ use.

9. Analyze the level of engagement on your competitor’s content.

To gauge how engaging your competitor’s content is to their readers, you’ll need to see how their target audience responds to what they’re posting.

Check the average number of comments, shares, and likes on your competitor’s content and find out if:

• Certain topics resonate better than others
• The comments are negative, positive, or a mix
• People are tweeting about specific topics more than others
• Readers respond better to Facebook updates about certain content
• Don’t forget to note if your competitor categorizes their content using tags, and if they have social media follow and share buttons attached to each piece of content.

10. Observe how they promote their marketing content.

From engagement, you’ll move right along to your competitor’s content promotion strategy.

• Keyword density in the copy itself
• Image ALT text tags
• Use of internal linking

The following questions can also help you prioritize and focus on what to pay attention to:

• Which keywords are your competitors focusing on that you still haven’t tapped into?
• What content of theirs is highly shared and linked to? How does your content compare?
• Which social media platforms are your target audience using?
• What other sites are linking back to your competitor’s site, but not yours?
• Who else is sharing what your competitors are publishing?
• Who is referring traffic to your competitor’s site?
• For the keywords you want to focus on, what is the difficulty level? There are several free (and paid) tools that will give you a comprehensive evaluation of your competitor’s search engine optimization.

11. Look at their social media presence, strategies, and go-to platforms

The last area you’ll want to evaluate when it comes to marketing is your competitor’s social media presence and engagement rates.

How does your competition drive engagement with their brand through social media? Do you see social sharing buttons with each article? Does your competitor have links to their social media channels in the header, footer, or somewhere else? Are these clearly visible? Do they use calls-to-action with these buttons?

If your competitors are using a social network that you may not be on, it’s worth learning more about how that platform may be able to help your business, too. To determine if a new social media platform is worth your time, check your competitor’s engagement rates on those sites. First, visit the following sites to see if your competition has an account on these platforms:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Snapchat
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Pinterest

Then, take note of the following quantitative items from each platform:

• Number of fans/followers
• Posting frequency and consistency
• Content engagement (Are users leaving comments or sharing their posts?)
• Content virality (How many shares, repins, and retweets do their posts get?)

With the same critical eye you used to gauge your competition’s content marketing strategy, take a fine-toothed comb to analyze their social media strategy.

What kind of content are they posting? Are they more focused on driving people to landing pages, resulting in new leads? Or are they posting visual content to promote engagement and brand awareness?

How much of this content is original? Do they share curated content from other sources? Are these sources regular contributors? What is the overall tone of the content?

How does your competition interact with its followers? How frequently do their followers interact with their content?

After you collect this data, generate an overall grade for the quality of your competitor’s content. This will help you compare the rest of your competitors using a similar grading scale.

12. Perform a SWOT Analysis to learn their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

As you evaluate each component in your competitor analysis (business, sales, and marketing), get into the habit of performing a simplified SWOT analysis at the same time.

This means you’ll take note of your competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats any time you assess an overall grade.

Some questions to get you started include:

• What is your competitor doing well? (Products, content marketing, social
• Where does your competitor have the advantage over your brand?
• What is the weakest area for your competitor?
• Where does your brand have the advantage over your competitor?
• What could they do better with?
• In what areas would you consider this competitor a threat?
• Are there opportunities in the market that your competitor has identified?

You’ll be able to compare their weaknesses against your strengths and vice versa. By doing this, you can better position your company, and you’ll start to uncover areas for improvement within your own brand.

Competitive Product Analysis

Product analysis drills down to discover key differences and similarities in products that share the same general market. This type of analysis if you have a competitor selling products in a similar market niche to your own – you want to make sure that wherever possible, you aren’t losing market share to the competition.

Leveraging the example above, we can drill down and discover some of the key differentiators in product offerings.

Step 1: Assess your current product pricing.

The first step in any product analysis is to assess current pricing.

Nintendo offers three models of its Switch console: The smaller lite version is priced at $199, the standard version is $299, and the new OLED version is $349.

Sony, meanwhile, offers two versions of its Playstation 5 console: The standard edition costs $499 and the digital version, which doesn’t include a disc drive, is $399.

Step 2: Compare key features

Next is a comparison of key features. In the case of our console example, this means comparing features like processing power, memory, and hard drive space.

Step 3: Pinpoint differentiators

With basic features compared, it’s time to dive deeper with differentiators. While a glance at the chart above seems to indicate that the PS5 is outperforming its competition, this data only tells part of the story.

Here’s why: The big selling point of the standard and OLED Switch models is that they can be played as either handheld consoles or docked with a base station connected to a TV. What’s more, this “switching” happens seamlessly, allowing players to play whenever, wherever.

The Playstation offering, meanwhile, has leaned into market-exclusive games that are only available on its system to help differentiate them from their competitors.

Step 4: Identify market gaps

The last step in a competitive product analysis is looking for gaps in the market that could help your company get ahead. When it comes to the console market, one potential opportunity gaining traction is the delivery of games via cloud-based services rather than physical hardware. Companies like Nvidia and Google have already made inroads in this space and if they can overcome issues with bandwidth and latency, it could change the market at scale.

Competitive Analysis Example

How do you stack up against the competition? Where are you similar, and what sets you apart? This is the goal of competitive analysis. By understanding where your brand and competitors overlap and diverge, you’re better positioned to make strategic decisions that can help grow your brand.

Of course, it’s one thing to understand the benefits of competitive analysis, and it’s another to actually carry out an analysis that yields actionable results. Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered with a quick example.

Sony vs. Nintendo: Not all fun and games

Let’s take a look at popular gaming system companies Sony and Nintendo. Sony’s newest offering – the Playstation 5 – recently hit the market but has been plagued by supply shortages. Nintendo’s Switch console, meanwhile, has been around for several years but remains a consistent seller, especially among teens and children. This scenario is familiar for many companies on both sides of the coin; some have introduced new products designed to compete with established market leaders, while others are looking to ensure that reliable sales don’t fall.

Using some of the steps listed above, here’s a quick competitive analysis example.

1. Determine who your competitors are.

In our example, it’s Sony vs Nintendo, but it’s also worth considering Microsoft’s Xbox, which occupies the same general market vertical. This is critical for effective analysis; even if you’re focused on specific competitors and how they compare, it’s worth considering other similar market offerings.

2. Determine what products your competitors offer.

Playstation offers two PS5 versions, digital and standard, at different price points, while Nintendo offers three versions of its console. Both companies also sell peripherals – for example, Sony sells virtual reality (VR) add-ons while Nintendo sells gaming peripherals such as steering wheels, tennis rackets, and differing controller configurations.

3. Research your competitors’ sales tactics and results.

When it comes to sales tactics and marketing, Sony and Nintendo have very different approaches.

In part thanks to the recent semiconductor shortage, Sony has driven up demand via scarcity – very low volumes of PS5 consoles remain available. Nintendo, meanwhile, has adopted a broader approach by targeting families as their primary customer base. This effort is bolstered by the Switch Lite product line, which is smaller and less expensive, making it a popular choice for children.

The numbers tell the tale: Through September 2021, Nintendo sold 14.3 million consoles, while Sony sold 7.8 million.

4. Take a look at your competitors’ pricing, as well as any perks they offer.

Sony has the higher price point: Their standard PS5 sells for $499, while Nintendo’s most expensive offering comes in at $349. Both offer robust digital marketplaces and the ability to easily download new games or services.

Here, the key differentiators are flexibility and fidelity. The Switch is flexible – users can dock it with their television and play it like a standard console, or pick it up and take it anywhere as a handheld gaming system. The PS5, meanwhile, has superior graphics hardware and processing power for gamers who want the highest-fidelity experience.

5. Analyze how your competitors market their products.

If you compare the marketing efforts of Nintendo and Sony, the difference is immediately apparent: Sony’s ads feature realistic in-game footage and speak to the exclusive nature of their game titles; the company has managed to secure deals with several high-profile game developers for exclusive access to new and existing IPs.

Nintendo, meanwhile, uses brightly-lit ads showing happy families playing together or children using their smaller Switches while traveling.

6. Analyze the level of engagement on your competitor’s content.

Engagement helps drive sales and encourage repeat purchases. While there are several ways to measure engagement, social media is one of the most straightforward: In general, more followers equates to more engagement and greater market impact.

When it comes to our example, Sony enjoys a significant lead over Nintendo: While the official Playstation Facebook page has 38 million followers, Nintendo has just 5 million.

Competitive Analysis Templates

Competitive analysis is complex, especially when you’re assessing multiple companies and products simultaneously. To help streamline the process, we’ve created 10 free templates that make it possible to see how you stack up against the competition – and what you can do to increase market share.

Let’s break down our SWOT analysis template. Here’s what it looks like:

Download Free Templates

Strengths – Identify your strengths. These may include specific pieces of intellectual property, products that are unique to the market, or a workforce that outperforms the competition.

Weaknesses – Here, it’s worth considering potential issues around pricing, leadership, staff turnover, and new competitors in the market.

Opportunities – This part of the SWOT analysis can focus on new market niches, evolving consumer preferences, or new technologies being developed by your company.

Threats – These might include new taxes or regulations on existing products or an increasing number of similar products in the same market space that could negatively affect your overall share.

How Does Your Business Stack Up?

Before you accurately compare your competition, you need to establish a baseline. This also helps when it comes time to perform a SWOT analysis.

Take an objective look at your business, sales, and marketing reports through the same metrics you use to evaluate your competition.

Record this information just like you would with a competitor and use this as your baseline to compare across the board.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published prior to July 2018 but has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The post What’s a Competitive Analysis & How Do You Conduct One? appeared first on ProdSens.live.

Think about the brands you purchase from over and over. Why do you choose to buy products and or services from them even when cheaper options exist?

Well, there’s a good reason for it — because of their values which are expressed in their mission statement. As consumers, we like to patronize businesses that have values we believe in.

Still, Loyalty doesn’t happen overnight. Building brand loyalty, like creating mission and vision statements, takes time. If you’re in a bit of a time crunch, use this table of contents to find precisely what you’re looking for to inspire the development of your company’s mission:

This brief description helps customers, employees, and leadership understand the organization’s top priorities.

As a company grows, it may reach its early goals, and they’ll change. So, it’s important to revise mission statements as needed to reflect the business’s new culture as it achieves its goals and develops new targets.

What makes a good mission statement?

The best brands combine physical, emotional, and logical elements into one exceptional customer (and employee) experience that you value as much as they do. A good mission statement will not only explain your brand’s purpose, but will also foster a connection with customers.

When your brand creates a genuine connection with customers and employees, they’ll stay loyal to your company, thereby increasing your overall profitability.

Mission statements also help you stand out in the marketplace, differentiating your brand from the competition.

What are the 3 parts of a mission statement?

Your mission statement should clearly express what your brand does, how it does it, and why the brand does it. You can quickly sum this up in your mission statement by providing the following:

1. Brand Purpose: What does your product or service do, or aim to offer and for whom?
2. Brand Values: What does your company stand for? For example, are you environmentally conscious and provide a more sustainable solution to solve a problem? Values are what make your company unique.
3. Brand Goals: What does your company accomplish for customers? Why should they purchase from you instead of other competitors?

With these three components, you can create a mission that is unique to your brand and resonates with potential customers. Next, we’ll guide you step by step on how to write a proper mission statement to build on as your company evolves.

1. Explain your company’s product or service offering.

You want prospects to understand what your company does in a literal sense. This means explaining your offering in basic, clear terms. Your explanation should answer the most basic questions like:

• Are you selling a product or service?
• Why would customers buy it?
• How does your offering solve for the customer?

Record your answers and focus on how your product or service brings value to your buyer personas, otherwise known as your target audience.

2. Identify the company’s core values.

Now, this is where you can start thinking bigger. You didn’t just make a product or service at random. Instead, you’re most likely motivated by a set of core values.

Core values are deeply ingrained principles that guide a company’s actions. Take HubSpot’s culture code, HEART, for example:

• Humble
• Empathetic
• Adaptable
• Remarkable
• Transparent

These are principles that not only company employees respect, but are principles that our customers appreciate as well. By identifying core values that hold meaning on personal and organizational levels, you’ll have an appealing set to add to your mission statement.

3. Connect how your company’s offering aligns with your values.

So how can your company offering serve your core values? You need to draw a connection between the two in a way that makes sense to the public.

For example, if one of your core values centers on innovation, you want to frame your product or service as pushing boundaries and explaining how it helps customers innovate their lives or business practices. Essentially, you’re taking the literal benefit of the offering and expanding it to serve a higher purpose.

4. Condense these statements into one.

A mission statement can be as short as a single sentence, or as long as a paragraph, but it’s meant to be a short summary of your company’s purpose. You need to state the what, who, and why of your company:

• What: The company offering
• Who: Who you’re selling to
• Why: The core values you do it for

Once you have successfully conveyed your message, it’s time to refine and perfect your statement.

5. Make sure it’s clear, concise, and free of fluff.

Above all, your mission statement is a marketing asset that is meant to be clear, concise, and free of fluff. It should clearly outline the purpose of your company offering and show the common goals the company is working to achieve. You should also have other team members or advisors read the mission statement and make adjustments if needed according to their recommendations.

What makes a good vision statement?

A good vision statement should be bold and ambitious. They’re meant to be inspirational, big-picture declarations of what your company strives to be in the future. They give customers a peek into your company’s trajectory and build customer loyalty by allowing them to align their support with your vision because they believe in the future of your brand as well.

What are the 3 parts of a vision statement?

Your company vision is meant to be inspirational while also aligning with the company’s mission. A vision statement should have the following characteristics:

1. Aspirational and Ambitious: Have a lofty outlook for what you want your business to accomplish? Here’s the place to put it. Your vision statement should be aspirational and showcase how your business will grow in the future.
2. Practical and Achievable: While your statement should be ambitious, it shouldn’t be impossible. Set a goal that is both challenging and practical.
3. General: Your vision should be broad enough to encompass all of your brand’s overall goals. Think of it as umbrella for your mission statement and company objectives to nest under.

Both mission and vision statements are often combined into one comprehensive “mission statement” to define the organization’s reason for existing and its outlook for internal and external audiences — like employees, partners, board members, consumers, and shareholders.

The difference between mission and vision statements lies in the purpose they serve.

A mission statement is a literal quote stating what a brand or company is setting out to do. This lets the public know the product and service it offers, who it makes it for, and why it’s doing it. A vision statement is a brand looking toward the future and saying what it hopes to achieve through its mission statement. This is more conceptual, as it’s a glimpse into what the brand can become in the eyes of the consumer and the value it will bring in longevity.

In summary, the main differences between a mission statement and a vision statement are:

• Mission statements describe the current purpose a company serves. The company’s function, target audience, and key offerings are elements that are often mentioned in a mission statement.
• Vision statements are a look into a company’s future or what its overarching vision is. The same elements from the mission statement can be included in a vision statement, but they’ll be described in the future tense.

Now that we know what they are, let’s dive into some useful examples of each across different industries.

Mission and Vision Statement Template

Free Guide: 100 Mission Statement Templates & Examples

Need more examples to build your mission statement? Download our free overview of mission statements – complete with 100 templates and examples to help you develop a stand-out mission statement.

Create a mission statement with these useful templates, like this example below:

1. Life Is Good: To spread the power of optimism.

Image Source

The Life is Good brand is about more than spreading optimism — although, with uplifting T-shirt slogans like “Seas The Day” and “Forecast: Mostly Sunny,” it’s hard not to crack a smile.

There are tons of T-shirt companies in the world, but Life is Good’s mission sets itself apart with a mission statement that goes beyond fun clothing: to spread the power of optimism.

This mission is perhaps a little unexpected if you’re not familiar with the company’s public charity: How will a T-shirt company help spread optimism? Life is Good answers that question below the fold, where the mission is explained in more detail using a video and with links to the company’s community and the Life is Good Playmaker Project page. We really like how lofty yet specific this mission statement is — it’s a hard-to-balance combination.

2. sweetgreen: Building healthier communities by connecting people to real food.

Image Source

Notice that sweetgreen’s mission is positioned to align with your values — not just written as something the brand believes. We love the inclusive language used in its statement.

The language lets us know the company is all about connecting its growing network of farmers growing healthy, local ingredients with us — the customer — because we’re the ones who want more locally grown, healthy food options.

The mission to connect people is what makes this statement so strong. And, that promise has gone beyond sweetgreen’s website and walls of its food shops: The team has made strides in the communities where it’s opened stores as well. Primarily, it offers education to young kids on healthy eating, fitness, sustainability, and where food comes from.

3. Patagonia: Build the best product, Cause no unnecessary harm, Use business to protect nature, Not bound by convention.

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Patagonia’s mission statement spotlights the company’s commitment to help the environment and save the earth. The people behind the brand believe that among the most direct ways to limit ecological impacts is with goods that last for generations or can be recycled so the materials in them stay in use.

In the name of this cause, the company donates time, services, and at least 1% of its sales to hundreds of environmental groups worldwide.

If your company has a similar focus on growing your business and giving back, think about talking about both the benefit you bring to customers and the value you want to bring to a greater cause in your mission statement.

4. American Express: Become essential to our customers by providing differentiated products and services to help them achieve their aspirations.

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Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.

— Simon Sinek (@simonsinek)

The tweet above is from Simon Sinek, and it’s one that we repeat here at HubSpot all the time. American Express sets itself apart from other credit card companies in its list of values, with an ode to excellent customer service, which is something it’s famous for.

We especially love the emphasis on teamwork and supporting employees so that the people inside the organization can be in the best position to support their customers.

5. Warby Parker: To inspire and impact the world with vision, purpose, and style.

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In one sentence, the brand takes us to the root of why it was founded while also revealing its vision for a better future.

The longer-form version of the mission reads: “We’re constantly asking ourselves how we can do more and make a greater impact—and that starts by reimagining everything that a company and industry can be. We want to demonstrate that a business can scale, be profitable, and do good in the world—without charging a premium for it. And we’ve learned that it takes creativity, empathy, and innovation to achieve that goal.” This further shows how Warby Parker doesn’t hold back on letting its unique personality shine through. Here, the mission statement’s success all comes down to spot-on word choice.

6.InvisionApp: Transform the way people work together by helping them collaborate better. Faster. On everything. From anywhere.

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We love the way this statement is emphasized by bringing it back to InVision’s customers — top brands like Google, Zillow, and Slack — and linking to those stories. This mission statement is brief, authentic, and business babble-free — which makes the folks at InvisionApp seem trustworthy and genuine.

7. Honest Tea: To create and promote great-tasting, healthy, organic beverages.

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Honest Tea’s mission statement begins with a simple punch line connoting its tea is real, pure, and therefore not full of artificial chemicals. The brand is speaking to an audience that’s tired of finding ingredients in its tea that can’t be pronounced and has been searching for a tea that’s exactly what it says it is.

Not only does Honest Tea have a punny name, but it also centers its mission around the name. For some time, the company even published a Mission Report each year in an effort to be “transparent about our business practices and live up to our mission to seek to create and promote great-tasting, healthier, organic beverages.”

8. IKEA: To offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them

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The folks at IKEA dream big. The vision-based mission statement could have been one of beautiful, affordable furniture, but instead, it’s to make everyday life better for its customers. It’s a partnership: IKEA finds deals all over the world and buys in bulk, then we choose the furniture and pick it up at a self-service warehouse.

“Our business idea supports this vision … so [that] as many people as possible will be able to afford them,” the brand states.

Using words like “as many people as possible” makes a huge company like IKEA much more accessible and appealing to customers.

9. Nordstrom: Offering customers the very best service, selection, quality, and value.

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When it comes to customer commitment, few companies are as hyper-focused as Nordstrom is. Although clothing selection, quality, and value all have a place in the company’s mission statement, it’s clear that it’s all about the customer: “Nordstrom works relentlessly to give customers the most compelling shopping experience possible.”

If you’ve ever shopped at a Nordstrom, you’ll know the brand will uphold the high standard for customer service mentioned in its mission statement, as associates are always roaming the sales floors, asking customers whether they’ve been helped, and doing everything they can to make the shopping experience a memorable one.

10. Cradles to Crayons: Provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school, and at play.

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Cradles to Crayons divided its mission and model into three sections that read like a game plan: The Need, The Mission, and The Model. The “rule of three” is a powerful rhetorical device called a tricolon that’s usually used in speechwriting to help make an idea more memorable. A tricolon is a series of three parallel elements of roughly the same length — think “I came; I saw; I conquered.”

11. Universal Health Services, Inc.: To provide superior quality healthcare services that: PATIENTS recommend to family and friends, PHYSICIANS prefer for their patients, PURCHASERS select for their clients, EMPLOYEES are proud of, and INVESTORS seek for long-term returns.

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A company thrives when it pleases its customers, its employees, its partners, and its investors — and Universal Health Services endeavors to do just that, according to its mission statement. As a healthcare service, it specifically strives to please its patients, physicians, purchasers, employees, and investors. We love the emphasis on each facet of the organization by capitalizing the font and making it red for easy skimming.

12. JetBlue: To inspire humanity – both in the air and on the ground.

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JetBlue’s committed to its founding mission through lovable marketing, charitable partnerships, and influential programs — and we love the approachable language used to describe these endeavors. For example, the brand writes how it “set out in 2000 to bring humanity back to the skies.”

For those of us who want to learn more about any of its specific efforts, JetBlue offers details on the Soar With Reading program, its partnership with KaBOOM!, the JetBlue Foundation, environmental and social reporting, and so on. It breaks down all these initiatives really well with big headers, bullet points, pictures, and links to other web pages visitors can click to learn more. JetBlue also encourages visitors to volunteer or donate their TrueBlue points.

13. Workday: Our core values guide everything we do — Employees, Customer Service, Innovation, Integrity, Fun, Profitability.

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Workday, a human resources (HR) task automation service, doesn’t use its mission statement to highlight the features of its product or how it intends to help HR professionals improve in such-and-such a way.

Instead, the business takes a stance on values. There’s a lot of great tech out there. But at Workday, it revolves around the people. We love how confident yet kind this mission statement is. It observes the state of its industry — which Workday believes lacks a human touch — and builds company values around it.

14. Lowe’s: Together, deliver the right home improvement products, with the best service and value, across every channel and community we serve.

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Sometimes the best way to communicate is direct. Lowe’s mission statement hones in on the who, how, what, and why behind this powerful home improvement brand.

It’s also a great lesson in how the words and phrases you choose show your audience the force behind your mission. This mission statement begins with the word “together.” So, no matter what location, products, or channel, the top priority of its mission is that it happens as a team.

That focus on togetherness also creates a foundation for the volunteer, scholarship, and charitable work that this organization does.

15. Tesla: Accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

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A car company’s punny use of the word “accelerating” is just one reason this mission statement sticks out. But Tesla makes this list because of how its mission statement describes the industry.

It may be a car company, but Tesla’s primary interest isn’t just automobiles — it’s promoting sustainable energy. And, sustainable energy still has a “long road” ahead of it (pun intended) — hence the world’s “transition” into this market.

Ultimately, a mission statement that can admit to the industry’s immaturity is exactly what gets customers to root for it — and Tesla does that nicely.

16. Invisible Children: Partners with local peacebuilders across central Africa to end violent conflict through locally-led solutions.

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Invisible Children is a non-profit that raises awareness around the violence affecting communities across Central Africa, and the company takes quite a confident tone in its mission.

The most valuable quality of this mission statement is that it has an end goal. Many companies’ visions and missions are intentionally left open-ended so that the business might always be needed by the community. But Invisible Children wants to “end” violent conflict facing African families with local solutions. It’s an admirable mission that all businesses — not just nonprofits — can learn from when motivating customers.

17. TED: Spread ideas, foster community and create impact.

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We’ve all seen TED Talks online before. Well, the company happens to have one of the most concise mission statements out there.

TED, which stands for “Technology Education and Design,” has a succinct mission statement that shines through in every Talk you’ve seen the company publish on the internet. That mission statement starts with “Spread ideas.” Sometimes, the best way to get an audience to remember you is to zoom out as far as your business’s vision can go. What do you really care about? TED has recorded some of the most famous presentations globally. Then, it hones in on what great ideas can do — foster community and create impact.

18. Microsoft: To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

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Microsoft is one of the most well-known technology companies in the world. It makes gadgets for work, play, and creative purposes on a worldwide scale, and its mission statement reflects that. Through its product offering and pricing, it can empower every person and organization.

19. Disney: To entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling.

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Disney’s mission statement goes beyond providing ordinary entertainment. It intends to tell stories and drive creativity that inspires future generations through its work. This is an exceptional mission statement because it goes beyond giving consumers programs to watch, but ones that excite and change the way people see them and the world around them.

20. Meta: Giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.

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Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is a major social media platform with a concise vision statement. It provides a platform to stay in touch with loved ones and potentially connect to people around the world.

21. Vista Equity Partners: By providing technology expertise, operational guidance and capital for sustainable growth, we empower organizations across all industries to stay ahead in the digital economy.

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Some businesses sell a clear and easy-to-understand product or service. But many companies need to combine branding with product education. This means that some mission statements need to not only communicate how a brand does business but also make it easy to see what it’s selling.

Vista Equity Partners is a leading technology brand that supports a wide range of people, technologies, and products. In its mission statement, it clarifies what its company offers and why. It does this using the terms its audience uses most often to describe how it can help.

22. Dunkin’: Everything we do is about you. We strive to keep you at your best, and we remain loyal to you, your tastes and your time. That’s what America runs on.

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Dunkin’s mission goes beyond remaining a large coffee chain. Rather, the brand wants to be the consummate leader in the coffee and donut industry. It wants to become a place known for fun, food, and recreation.

Now that we’ve gone over successful mission statements, what does a good vision statement look like? Check out some of the following company vision statements — and get inspired to write one for your brand.

1. Alzheimer’s Association: A world without Alzheimer’s and all other dementia.

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The Alzheimer’s Association conducts global research and gives quality care and support to people with dementia. This vision statement looks into the future where people won’t have to battle this now incurable disease. With the work that it’s doing in the present, both employees and consumers can see how the organization achieves its vision by helping those in need.

2. Teach for America: One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

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Teach for America creates a network of leaders to provide equal education opportunities to children in need. This organization’s day-to-day work includes helping marginalized students receive the proper education they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Its vision statement is what it hopes to see through its efforts — a nation where no child is left behind.

3. Creative Commons: Help others realize the full potential of the internet.

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This nonprofit’s vision statement is broad. It helps overcome legal obstacles to share knowledge and creativity around the world. By working closely with major institutions, its vision is an innovative internet that isn’t barred by paywalls.

4. Chipotle: We believe that food has the power to change the world.

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Delicious tacos, burritos, and bowls aren’t the only things that Chipotle is passionate about. Many fast food brands differentiate with products. But Chipotle offers a belief instead. This idea fuels practices like using local and organic produce, using responsibly raised meat, and cutting greenhouse emissions. Chipotle’s vision statement makes it clear what inspires and drives the actions of this international brand.

5. Australia Department of Health: Better health and wellbeing for all Australians, now and for future generations.

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This government department has a clear vision for its country. Through health policies, programs, and regulations, it has the means to improve the healthcare of Australian citizens.

6. LinkedIn: Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce.

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LinkedIn is a professional networking service that gives people the opportunity to seek employment. Its vision statement intends to give employees of every level a chance to get the job they need.

7. Purely Elizabeth: We believe that food can heal.

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Purely Elizabeth is a food brand selling granola, oatmeal, and cereal products. Its extended vision statement reads: “When you eat better, you feel better. It’s that simple. That’s why we use superfoods with vibrant flavors and rich textures to create delicious foods to help you thrive on your wellness journey.”

Food brands have a lot of competition, and this brand’s broad and inspiring vision offers a chance to connect more deeply with customers. Its podcast, blog, and recipe resources offer useful tools and tips for anyone looking to heal their bodies with their food choices.

8. AllHere: Connecting All Families with the Right Support at the Right Time

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Attendance is a big challenge for schools and families, especially with students in middle and high school. AllHere offers AI services like mobile messaging to overcome administrative and communication challenges. This helps students, parents, and teachers get the support they need for student success.

This vision statement emphasizes that this challenge is bigger than individual habits. It’s an empowering vision of an educational system that works for everyone.

9. Southwest: To be the world’s most loved, most efficient, and most profitable airline.

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Southwest Airlines is an international airline that strives to serve its flyers with a smile. Its vision statement is unique because it sees itself not just excelling in profit but outstanding customer service, too. Its vision is possible through its strategy and can lead its employees to be at the level they work toward.

10. Supergoop!: Change the way the world thinks about sunscreen.

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For a vision statement to excite, but not overwhelm, it should be both broad and specific. Company mission statement examples like the one above from Supergoop! show that it may be tricky, but it’s also possible to balance those two extremes.

This vision says that sunscreen is important AND that sunscreen is more than sunscreen. This simple statement helps the audience think more about what its products are and what they should expect from those products. It’s about education, awareness, and quality. And this vision statement keeps the tone positive, bright, and direct.

Inspire Through Brand Values

Brand values play a much more significant role in customer loyalty than you think. Showing that your business understands its audience — and can appeal to them on an emotional level — could be the decision point for a customer’s next purchase. We hope you found some insight in this post that can help you brainstorm your inspiring vision and mission statements for your business.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

The post 32 Mission and Vision Statement Examples That Will Inspire Your Buyers appeared first on ProdSens.live.

A memo (also known as a memorandum, or “reminder”) is used for internal communications regarding procedures or official business within an organization.

Unlike an email, a memo is a message you send to a large group of employees, like your entire department or everyone at the company. You might need to write a memo to inform staff of upcoming events or broadcast internal changes.

If you need to inform your employees of official internal business, we’ll show you how to write a memo to better communicate your message. But before we break it down, let’s talk about the many purposes of memos.

Memorandums are shared to inform readers about new information and have applications for different communities and businesses.

Communities can use memos to tell people within it about public safety guidelines, promote various events, raise awareness on subjects that affect their lives.

Businesses can use memos to relay information involving newly updated policy, changes in procedure, or persuade employees to take an action, such as attend an upcoming meeting, convention, or a celebration for organizational milestones.

Next, we’ll walk you through writing a memo of your own.

You can put together a memo in a few short steps. All memos should include the following:

1. Write a heading.

No matter what kind of memo you’re writing, you’ll need to include a heading. This section should include who the memo is for (whether an individual or department), the date, who the memo is from, and a subject line.

Your subject line should be, short, attention-grabbing, and give readers a general idea of what the memo is about.

2. Write an introduction.

Your introduction should summarize the purpose of your memo in two to three sentences. It should highlight the issue or problem and the solution you decided to move forward with.

3. Provide background on the issue.

In this section, explain the reasoning behind the memo. For example, it could be changes in the budget, a company restructuring, or a new rollout of procedures. This explanation should provide justification for the changes being implemented.

4. Outline action items and timeline (Optional).

Depending on the purpose of your memo, you may have action items for employees to complete or provide a timeline of when changes will take place. For example, they may need to complete a task or provide information by a certain deadline. This section should include the following:

• When employees can expect changes to go into effect
• What changes have already been made and what to expect in the future
• Deadlines they need to adhere to

If no action is needed on the employee’s behalf, you can leave this section out.

5. Include a closing statement.

Your closing statement will include any information you’d like to reinforce. Are there any specific contacts readers should reach out to for questions? If so, include them here.

6. Review and proofread before sending.

This step may seem like a no-brainer but it’s important to review your document before sending it out. Memos are meant to inform readers of upcoming changes and relay important information. You don’t want to risk causing confusion with a typo or misstatement.

To begin making your own business memos, here’s an easy-to-follow business memo template with examples of how to use them to serve different needs as guidance.

Business Memo Template

MEMORANDUM

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

SUBJECT:

I’m writing to inform you that [reason for writing memo].

As our company continues to grow … [evidence or reason to support your opening paragraph].

Please let me know if you have any questions. In the meantime, I’d appreciate your cooperation as [official business information] takes place.

Business Memo Template Format

The business memo template format is designed to effectively communicate your message. A memo should disseminate the necessary information in a way that is easy for a mass number of employees to digest.

An accurate subject line will alert them that this memo is relevant to them specifically. And beginning with an executive summary allows recipients to understand the general message before they dive deeper into the details. The background information offers context to the message, and the overview and timeline should answer questions that are likely to come up.

Header:

In your header, you’ll want to clearly label your content “Memorandum” so your readers know exactly what they’re receiving. As previously mentioned, you’ll want to include “TO”, “FROM”, “DATE”, and “SUBJECT”. This information is relevant for providing content, like who you’re addressing, and why.

Paragraph One:

In the first paragraph, you’ll want to quickly and clearly state the purpose of your memo. You might begin your sentence with the phrase, “I’m writing to inform you … ” or “I’m writing to request … “. A memo is meant to be short, clear, and to the point. You’ll want to deliver your most critical information upfront, and then use subsequent paragraphs as opportunities to dive into more detail.

Paragraph Two:

In the second paragraph, you’ll want to provide context or supporting evidence. For instance, let’s say your memo is informing the company of an internal re-organization. If this is the case, paragraph two should say something like, “As our company continues to grow, we’ve decided it makes more sense to separate our video production team from our content team. This way, those teams can focus more on their individual goals.”

Paragraph Three:

In the third paragraph, you’ll want to include your specific request of each employee — if you’re planning a team outing, this is the space you’d include, “Please RSVP with dietary restrictions,” or “Please email me with questions.”

On the contrary, if you’re informing staff of upcoming construction to the building, you might say, “I’d appreciate your cooperation during this time.” Even if there isn’t any specific action you expect from employees, it’s helpful to include how you hope they’ll handle the news and whether you expect them to do something in response to the memo.

Downloadable Memo Template

Want to see the above memo format in its final form? Download HubSpot’s free business memo templates, shown below. The document gives you a framework that sorts your memorandum into subtopics to help employees better digest the information and understand what’s expected of them after reading it.

Download this Template

Memo Examples

Different industries or situations will require slightly different memos. Certain ones will need to be longer or shorter, others may not have a timeline, and some will have extensive background information. The format of your memo should change to fit the message you want your employees to receive.

Launch Delay Memo

The objective of this memo is to announce that the launch of a product will be delayed. The introduction includes the new date, so a timeline or long overview isn’t necessary. This format of this memo could be applied to other situations where a simple, but important, change is occurring.

What We Like: The launch memo provides readers with insight behind product launch delays, which can alleviate some frustration that customers or employees may otherwise feel if they were not informed.

Other date changes, promotions, milestones, or product announcements could also utilize this format.

Building Update Memo

There are logistical aspects of a business that concern your employees, but don’t necessarily involve their work. This memo depicts an example of a kitchen remodel in the office. It’s a bit of an inconvenience but not one of a large magnitude.

What We Like: This memo demonstrates a business’s understanding of the impact that renovations can have on employees and shows respect and consideration for their needs.

This memo format could be applied to other building updates, work-from-home days, or other widespread but minor announcements.

Community Memo

Celebrations, events, theme days, or other fun things for your employees can also be communicated through memos. Community memos like this example are generally shorter because they don’t require much background information or many details.

What We Like: This memo has clear directions on where to find the event taking place, something which would’ve been less effective if it only would’ve included the floor number.

Memos of this nature should include a summary, date, and location at minimum.

Persuasion Memo

Persuasion memos are used to encourage readers to take action regarding an event or proposition, like voting or petitioning.

What We Like: This persuasion memo prioritizes giving the reader information to learn on their own and make a decision based on their findings.

The main components of the persuasion memo should include an overview of the task at hand, context to learn more about it, and a call to action that emphasizes the impact the reader can potentially make.

Write Your Memos To the Point

The main difference between a memo and just an email is not the level of complexity, it’s the size of the audience. A memo can be simple or intricate, as long as it effectively communicates your message and is relevant to the receiving group of employees. And the message itself should be clear and concise, no matter which memo format you use.

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

The post How to Write a Memo [Template & Examples] appeared first on ProdSens.live.

There are more type of charts and graphs than ever before because there’s more data. In fact, the volume of data in 2025 will be almost double the data we create, capture, copy, and consume today.

This makes data visualization essential for businesses. Different types of graphs and charts can help you:

• Motivate your team to take action.
• Impress stakeholders with goal progress.
• Show your audience what you value as a business.

Data visualization builds trust and can organize diverse teams around new initiatives. Let’s talk about the types of graphs and charts that you can use to grow your business.

Different Types of Graphs for Data Visualization

1. Bar Graph

A bar graph should be used to avoid clutter when one data label is long or if you have more than 10 items to compare.

Best Use Cases for These Types of Graphs

Bar graphs can help you compare data between different groups or to track changes over time. Bar graphs are most useful when there are big changes or to show how one group compares against other groups.

The example above compares the number of customers by business role. It makes it easy to see that there is more than twice the number of customers per role for individual contributors than any other group.

A bar graph also makes it easy to see which group of data is highest or most common.

For example, at the start of the pandemic, online businesses saw a big jump in traffic. So, if you want to look at monthly traffic for an online business, a bar graph would make it easy to see that jump.

Other use cases for bar graphs include:

• Product comparisons.
• Product usage.
• Category comparisons.
• Marketing traffic by month or year.
• Marketing conversions.

Design Best Practices for Bar Graphs

• Use consistent colors throughout the chart, selecting accent colors to highlight meaningful data points or changes over time.
• Use horizontal labels to improve readability.
• Start the y-axis at 0 to appropriately reflect the values in your graph.

2. Line Graph

A line graph reveals trends or progress over time, and you can use it to show many different categories of data. You should use it when you chart a continuous data set.

Best Use Cases for These Types of Graphs

Line graphs help users track changes over short and long periods. Because of this, these types of graphs are good for seeing small changes.

Line graphs can help you compare changes for more than one group over the same period. They’re also helpful for measuring how different groups relate to each other.

A business might use this graph to compare sales rates for different products or services over time.

These charts are also helpful for measuring service channel performance. For example, a line graph that tracks how many chats or emails your team responds to per month.

Design Best Practices for Line Graphs

• Use solid lines only.
• Don’t plot more than four lines to avoid visual distractions.
• Use the right height so the lines take up roughly 2/3 of the y-axis’ height.

3. Bullet Graph

A bullet graph reveals progress towards a goal, compares this to another measure, and provides context in the form of a rating or performance.

Best Use Cases for These Types of Graphs

In the example above, the bullet graph shows the number of new customers against a set customer goal. Bullet graphs are great for comparing performance against goals like this.

These types of graphs can also help teams assess possible roadblocks because you can analyze data in a tight visual display.

For example, you could create a series of bullet graphs measuring performance against benchmarks or use a single bullet graph to visualize these KPIs against their goals:

• Revenue.
• Profit.
• Customer satisfaction.
• Average order size.
• New customers.

Seeing this data at a glance and alongside each other can help teams make quick decisions.

Bullet graphs are one of the best ways to display year-over-year data analysis. You can also use bullet graphs to visualize:

• Customer satisfaction scores.
• Product usage.
• Customer shopping habits.
• Social media usage by platform.

Design Best Practices for Bullet Graphs

• Use contrasting colors to highlight how the data is progressing.
• Use one color in different shades to gauge progress.

Different Types of Charts for Data Visualization

To better understand these chart types and how you can use them, here’s an overview of each:

1. Column Chart

Use a column chart to show a comparison among different items or to show a comparison of items over time. You could use this format to see the revenue per landing page or customers by close date.

Best Use Cases for This Type of Chart

You can use both column charts and bar graphs to display changes in data, but column charts are best for negative data. The main difference, of course, is that column charts show information vertically while bar graphs show data horizontally.

For example, warehouses often track the number of accidents on the shop floor. When the number of incidents falls below the monthly average, a column chart can make that change easier to see in a presentation.

In the example above, this column chart measures the number of customers by close date. Column charts make it easy to see data changes over a period of time. This means that they have many use cases, including:

• Customer survey data, like showing how many customers prefer a specific product or how much a customer uses a product each day.
• Sales volume, like showing which services are the top sellers each month or the number of sales per week.
• Profit and loss, showing where business investments are growing or falling.

Design Best Practices for Column Charts

• Use consistent colors throughout the chart, selecting accent colors to highlight meaningful data points or changes over time.
• Use horizontal labels to improve readability.
• Start the y-axis at 0 to appropriately reflect the values in your graph.

2. Dual-Axis Chart

A dual-axis chart allows you to plot data using two y-axes and a shared x-axis. It has three data sets. One is a continuous data set, and the other is better suited to grouping by category. Use this chart to visualize a correlation or the lack thereof between these three data sets.

Best Use Cases for This Type of Chart

A dual-axis chart makes it easy to see relationships between different data sets. They can also help with comparing trends.

For example, the chart above shows how many new customers this company brings in each month. It also shows how much revenue those customers are bringing the company.

This makes it simple to see the connection between the number of customers and increased revenue.

You can use dual-axis charts to compare:

• Price and volume of your products.
• Revenue and units sold.
• Sales and profit margin.
• Individual sales performance.

Design Best Practices for Dual-Axis Charts

• Use the y-axis on the left side for the primary variable because brains naturally look left first.
• Use different graphing styles to illustrate the two data sets, as illustrated above.
• Choose contrasting colors for the two data sets.

3. Area Chart

An area chart is basically a line chart, but the space between the x-axis and the line is filled with a color or pattern. It is useful for showing part-to-whole relations, like showing individual sales reps’ contributions to total sales for a year. It helps you analyze both overall and individual trend information.

Best Use Cases for These Types of Charts

Area charts help show changes over time. They work best for big differences between data sets and help visualize big trends.

For example, the chart above shows users by creation date and life cycle stage.

A line chart could show more subscribers than marketing qualified leads. But this area chart emphasizes how much bigger the number of subscribers is than any other group.

These charts make the size of a group and how groups relate to each other more visually important than data changes over time.

Area graphs can help your business to:

• Visualize which product categories or products within a category are most popular.
• Show key performance indicator (KPI) goals vs. outcomes.
• Spot and analyze industry trends.

Design Best Practices for Area Charts

• Use transparent colors so information isn’t obscured in the background.
• Don’t display more than four categories to avoid clutter.
• Organize highly variable data at the top of the chart to make it easy to read.

4. Stacked Bar Chart

Use this chart to compare many different items and show the composition of each item you’re comparing.

Best Use Cases for These Types of Graphs

These graphs are helpful when a group starts in one column and moves to another over time.

For example, the difference between a marketing qualified lead (MQL) and a sales qualified lead (SQL) is sometimes hard to see. The chart above helps stakeholders see these two lead types from a single point of view — when a lead changes from MQL to SQL.

Stacked bar charts are excellent for marketing. They make it simple to add a lot of data on a single chart or to make a point with limited space.

These graphs can show multiple takeaways, so they’re also super for quarterly meetings when you have a lot to say but not a lot of time to say it.

Stacked bar charts are also a smart option for planning or strategy meetings. This is because these charts can show a lot of information at once, but they also make it easy to focus on one stack at a time or move data as needed.

You can also use these charts to:

• Show the frequency of survey responses.
• Identify outliers in historical data.
• Compare a part of a strategy to its performance as a whole.

Design Best Practices for Stacked Bar Graphs

• Best used to illustrate part-to-whole relationships.
• Use contrasting colors for greater clarity.
• Make the chart scale large enough to view group sizes in relation to one another.

5. Mekko Chart

Also known as a Marimekko chart, this type of graph can compare values, measure each one’s composition, and show data distribution across each one.

It’s similar to a stacked bar, except the Mekko’s x-axis can capture another dimension of your values — instead of time progression, like column charts often do. In the graphic below, the x-axis compares the cities to one another.

Image Source

Best Use Cases for This Type of Chart

You can use a Mekko chart to show growth, market share, or competitor analysis.

For example, the Mekko chart above shows the market share of asset managers grouped by location and the value of their assets. This chart clarifies which firms manage the most assets in different areas.

It’s also easy to see which asset managers are the largest and how they relate to each other.

Mekko charts can seem more complex than other types of charts and graphs, so it’s best to use these in situations where you want to emphasize scale or differences between groups of data.

Other use cases for Mekko charts include:

• Detailed profit and loss statements.
• Revenue by brand and region.
• Product profitability.
• Share of voice by industry or niche.

Design Best Practices for Mekko Charts

• Vary your bar heights if the portion size is an important point of comparison.
• Don’t include too many composite values within each bar. Consider reevaluating your presentation if you have a lot of data.
• Order your bars from left to right in such a way that exposes a relevant trend or message.

6. Pie Chart

A pie chart shows a static number and how categories represent part of a whole — the composition of something. A pie chart represents numbers in percentages, and the total sum of all segments needs to equal 100%.

Best Use Cases for This Type of Chart

The image above shows another example of customers by role in the company.

The bar graph example shows you that there are more individual contributors than any other role. But this pie chart makes it clear that they make up over 50% of customer roles.

Pie charts make it easy to see a section in relation to the whole, so they are good for showing:

• Customer personas in relation to all customers.
• Revenue from your most popular products or product types in relation to all product sales.
• Percent of total profit from different store locations.

Design Best Practices for Pie Charts

• Don’t illustrate too many categories to ensure differentiation between slices.
• Ensure that the slice values add up to 100%.
• Order slices according to their size.

7. Scatter Plot Chart

A scatter plot or scattergram chart will show the relationship between two different variables or reveal distribution trends.

Use this chart when there are many different data points, and you want to highlight similarities in the data set. This is useful when looking for outliers or understanding your data’s distribution.

Best Use Cases for These Types of Charts

Scatter plots are helpful in situations where you have too much data to see a pattern quickly. They are best when you use them to show relationships between two large data sets.

In the example above, this chart shows how customer happiness relates to the time it takes for them to get a response.

This type of graph makes it easy to compare two data sets. Use cases might include:

• Employment and manufacturing output.
• Retail sales and inflation.
• Visitor numbers and outdoor temperature.
• Sales growth and tax laws.

Try to choose two data sets that already have a positive or negative relationship. That said, this type of graph can also make it easier to see data that falls outside of normal patterns.

Design Best Practices for Scatter Plots

• Include more variables, like different sizes, to incorporate more data.
• Start the y-axis at 0 to represent data accurately.
• If you use trend lines, only use a maximum of two to make your plot easy to understand.

8. Bubble Chart

A bubble chart is similar to a scatter plot in that it can show distribution or relationship. There is a third data set shown by the size of the bubble or circle.

Best Use Cases for This Type of Chart

In the example above, the number of hours spent online isn’t just compared to the user’s age, as it would be on a scatter plot chart.

Instead, you can also see how the gender of the user impacts time spent online.

This makes bubble charts useful for seeing the rise or fall of trends over time. It also lets you add another option when you’re trying to understand relationships between different segments or categories.

For example, if you want to launch a new product, this chart could help you quickly see your new product’s cost, risk, and value. This can help you focus your energies on a low-risk new product with a high potential return.

You can also use bubble charts for:

• Top sales by month and location.
• Customer satisfaction surveys.
• Store performance tracking.
• Marketing campaign reviews.

Design Best Practices for Bubble Charts

• Scale bubbles according to area, not diameter.
• Make sure labels are clear and visible.
• Use circular shapes only.

9. Waterfall Chart

Use a waterfall chart to show how an initial value changes with intermediate values — either positive or negative — and results in a final value.

Use this chart to reveal the composition of a number. An example of this would be to showcase how different departments influence overall company revenue and lead to a specific profit number.

Image Source

Best Use Cases for This Type of Chart

These types of charts make it easier to understand how internal and external factors impact a product or campaign as a whole.

In the example above, the chart moves from the starting balance on the far left to the ending balance on the far right. Factors in the center include deposits, transfers in and out, and bank fees.

A waterfall chart offers a quick visual, making complex processes and outcomes easier to see and troubleshoot. For example, SaaS companies often measure customer churn. This format can help visualize changes in new, current, and free trial users or changes by user segment.

You may also want to try a waterfall chart to show:

• Changes in revenue or profit over time.
• Inventory audits.
• Employee staffing reviews.

Design Best Practices for Waterfall Charts

• Use contrasting colors to highlight differences in data sets.
• Choose warm colors to indicate increases and cool colors to indicate decreases.

10. Funnel Chart

A funnel chart shows a series of steps and the completion rate for each step. Use this type of chart to track the sales process or the conversion rate across a series of pages or steps.

Best Use Cases for These Types of Charts

The most common use case for a funnel chart is the marketing or sales funnel. But there are many other ways to use this versatile chart.

If you have at least four stages of sequential data, this chart can help you easily see what inputs or outputs impact the final results.

For example, a funnel chart can help you see how to improve your buyer journey or shopping cart workflow. This is because it can help pinpoint major drop-off points.

Other stellar options for these types of charts include:

• Deal pipelines.
• Conversion and retention analysis.
• Bottlenecks in manufacturing and other multi-step processes.
• Marketing campaign performance.
• Website conversion tracking.

Design Best Practices for Funnel Charts

• Scale the size of each section to accurately reflect the size of the data set.
• Use contrasting colors or one color in graduated hues, from darkest to lightest, as the size of the funnel decreases.

11. Heat Map

A heat map shows the relationship between two items and provides rating information, such as high to low or poor to excellent. This chart displays the rating information using varying colors or saturation.

Best Use Cases for Heat Maps

In the example above, the darker the shade of green shows where the majority of people agree.

With enough data, heat maps can make a viewpoint that might seem subjective more concrete. This makes it easier for a business to act on customer sentiment.

There are many uses for these types of charts. In fact, many tech companies use heat map tools to gauge user experience for apps, online tools, and website design.

Another common use for heat map graphs is location assessment. If you’re trying to find the right location for your new store, these maps can give you an idea of what the area is like in ways that a visit can’t communicate.

Heat maps can also help with spotting patterns, so they’re good for analyzing trends that change quickly, like ad conversions. They can also help with:

• Competitor research.
• Customer sentiment.
• Sales outreach.
• Campaign impact.
• Customer demographics.

Design Best Practices for Heat Map

• Use a basic and clear map outline to avoid distracting from the data.
• Use a single color in varying shades to show changes in data.
• Avoid using multiple patterns.

12. Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart is a horizontal chart that dates back to 1917. This chart maps the different tasks completed over a period of time.

Gantt charting is one of the most essential tools for project managers. It brings all the completed and uncompleted tasks into one place and tracks the progress of each.

While the left side of the chart displays all the tasks, the right side shows the progress and schedule for each of these tasks.

This chart type allows you to:

• Break projects into tasks.
• Track the start and end of the tasks.
• Set important events, meetings, and announcements.
• Assign tasks to the team and individuals.

Best Use Cases for This Type of Chart

Gantt charts are perfect for analyzing, road mapping, and monitoring progress over a period of time.

The chart above divides the different tasks involved in product creation. Each of these tasks has a timeline that can be mapped on the calendar view.

From the vision and strategy to the seed funding round, the Gantt chart helps project management teams build long-term strategies.

The best part? You can bring the stakeholders, project team, and managers to a single place.

You can use Gantt charts in various tasks, including:

• Tracking employee records as a human resource.
• Tracking sales leads in a sales process.
• Plan and track construction work.

Design Best Practices for Gantt Charts

• Use same colors for a similar group of activities.
• Make sure to label the task dependencies to map project start and completion.
• Use light colors that align with the texts and grids of the chart.

13. Treemap

A treemap is a chart that represents hierarchical data in a tree-like diagram. As evident from the name, treemaps have data organized as branches and sub-branches.

The data in the chart is nested in the form of rectangles and sub-rectangles. Each of these rectangles and sub-rectangles has different dimensions and plot colors which are assigned w.r.t to the quantitative data.

Image Source

Best Use Cases for This Type of Chart

The treemap chart compares the different products in a category or sub-category. In the diagram above, the products are divided by revenue.

Look at the four parent categories: Fruits, Vegetables, Dairy, and Meat. This is followed by subsequent sub-categories or sub-products. The dimensions of these rectangles are in proportion to their numerical quantity and other rectangles in the same category.

The colors of these rectangles are plotted as per the revenue generated. Treemap charts are effective in differentiating between the products that lie in the same group but are divided into different sub-groups.

This form of mapping chart is best used:

• When there are hundreds of categories and even deeper layers of sub-categories. For example, Total votes cast w.r.t. States.
• To study the data with respect to only two quantitative values.
• To compare the performance of products and identify similarities and anomalies within a single or multiple categories.

Design Best Practices for Treemaps

• Use contrasting and bright colors to highlight differences between sub-categories.
• Organize the rectangles in order of larger area to smaller in size (i.e., from top to bottom).
• Mark down each rectangle with text or numbers to make it easy to read.

How to Choose the Right Chart or Graph for Your Data

Channels like social media or blogs have multiple data sources, and managing these complex content assets can get overwhelming. What should you be tracking? What matters most?

How do you visualize and analyze the data so you can extract insights and actionable information?

1. Identify your goals for presenting the data.

Do you want to convince or clarify a point? Are you trying to visualize data that helped you solve a problem? Or are you trying to communicate a change that’s happening?

A chart or graph can help you compare different values, understand how different parts impact the whole, or analyze trends. Charts and graphs can also be useful for recognizing data that veers away from what you’re used to or help you see relationships between groups.

Clarify your goals, then use them to guide your chart selection.

2. Figure out what data you need to achieve your goal.

Different types of charts and graphs use different kinds of data. Graphs usually represent numerical data, while charts are visual representations of data that may or may not use numbers.

So, while all graphs are a type of chart, not all charts are graphs. If you don’t already have the kind of data you need, you might need to spend some time putting your data together before building your chart.

3. Gather your data.

Most businesses collect numerical data regularly, but you may need to put in some extra time to collect the right data for your chart. Besides quantitative data tools that measure traffic, revenue, and other user data, you might need some qualitative data.

These are some other ways you can gather data for your data visualization:

• Interviews 
• Quizzes and surveys
• Customer reviews
• Reviewing customer documents and records
• Community boards

4. Select the right type of graph or chart.

Choosing the wrong visual aid or defaulting to the most common type of data visualization could confuse your viewer or lead to mistaken data interpretation.

But a chart is only useful to you and your business if it communicates your point clearly and effectively.

Ask yourself the questions below to help find the right chart or graph type.

Download the Excel templates mentioned in the video here.

5 Questions to Ask When Deciding Which Type of Chart to Use

1. Do you want to compare values?

Charts and graphs are perfect for comparing one or many value sets, and they can easily show the low and high values in the data sets. To create a comparison chart, use these types of graphs:

• Column
• Mekko
• Bar
• Pie
• Line
• Scatter plot
• Bullet

2. Do you want to show the composition of something?

Use this type of chart to show how individual parts make up the whole of something, like the device type used for mobile visitors to your website or total sales broken down by sales rep.

To show composition, use these charts:

• Pie
• Stacked bar
• Mekko
• Area
• Waterfall

3. Do you want to understand the distribution of your data?

Distribution charts help you to understand outliers, the normal tendency, and the range of information in your values.

Use these charts to show distribution:

• Scatter plot
• Mekko
• Line
• Column
• Bar

4. Are you interested in analyzing trends in your data set?

If you want more information about how a data set performed during a specific time, there are specific chart types that do extremely well.

You should choose one of the following:

• Line
• Dual-axis line
• Column

5. Do you want to better understand the relationship between value sets?

Relationship charts can show how one variable relates to one or many different variables. You could use this to show how something positively affects, has no effect, or negatively affects another variable.

When trying to establish the relationship between things, use these charts:

• Scatter plot
• Bubble
• Line

Featured Resource: The Marketer’s Guide to Data Visualization

Download this free data visualization guide to learn which graphs to use in your marketing, presentations, or project — and how to use them effectively.

Put these new types of charts and graphs into action.

Now that you’ve chosen the best graph or chart for your project, try a data visualization resource that makes your point clear and visual.

Data visualization is just one part of great communication. To show your customers, employees, leadership, and investors that they’re important, keep making time to learn.

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

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