My Blog My Blog

16 Leadership Goals Every Business Leader Should Have

Leadership
/by
16 Leadership Goals Every Business Leader Should Have Outstanding leadership is key to any organization's success. Without it, a business is prone to low morale and frequent turnover. One way to help yourself grow as a leader is to set actionable, trackable leadership goals. These goals should be focused on addressing your weaknesses and building upon your strengths. Whether you’re a seasoned leader, or you’ve just stepped into your first management role, you should always make a point to improve your leadership skills. If you’re not sure where to start, we’ve put together everything you need to know about setting leadership goals and what goals you should focus on. What are leadership goals? How to Set Leadership Goals Leadership SMART Goals Leadership Goals Examples What are leadership goals? Leadership goals are objectives aspiring leaders set that typically pertain to improvements in communication and fostering healthy relationships — both of which create healthy, happy, and productive work environments. As a leader, you should always assess your skills and look for ways to grow and improve. Maybe you’re excellent at organizing data for meetings but could work on your public speaking skills, or you excel at conflict-resolution but could still be a better active listener. Goal-setting is key to effective leadership that can keep up with evolving industries. If you consistently set goals for your leadership style, both your employees and your business will benefit. How to Set Leadership Goals Your strengths and weaknesses as a leader may...

How Consumers Prefer to Interact With Brands [HubSpot Blog Survey]

Sales and Marketing
/by
How Consumers Prefer to Interact With Brands All customers have different communication preferences regarding the brands they like. Some may want to call a company to learn more about what it offers, while others may initiate a conversation with a chatbot.  As your goal is to create a customer experience that speaks to customer needs, you want to know which channels they prefer.  Read on to discover new HubSpot Blog insight about customer communication preferences with their favorite businesses.  Customer Communication Preference Statistics How Customers Prefer to Learn About Products A HubSpot Blog survey asked respondents how they prefer to interact with companies when looking for information about a product or service.  46% said they prefer to review its content (videos, commercials, blog posts, images, etc.), 15% follow or visit its social media accounts, and 9% go to the company’s physical store and read reviews on review sites or social media pages.  Data Source 1. Reviewing Content Audiences overwhelmingly prefer to review the content your business puts out, so it’s essential to speak to this desire in your marketing strategy by creating the useful content your audiences are looking for.  With this tip, it’s important to also be aware of the channels your audiences use the most so you can meet them on their preferred mediums. For example, Gen Z spends most of their time on YouTube, and 47% research products they’re interested in on the platform, followed by Instagram, Snapchat, then TikTok.  2. Social Media When...

Visual Identity Systems: What They Are & Why They Matter

Brand Experience
/by
Visual Identity Systems: What They Are & Why They Matter When we build a brand, we build an experience that reflects a purpose. Visual identity is a huge part of this brand experience. Colors, graphics, and fonts turn brand concepts into visual identities that can be recognized. Once a brand is established, it needs to become a recognizable identity that the external world can perceive. This recognition comes with consistency, and achieving that consistency requires a strong visual identity system. To create a visual identity system, you need all the visual elements that the brand has. The visual identity system’s basics are a strong brand guide and its implementation tasks. The ultimate goal of this system is to turn all the brand assets into principles that all the content team can follow to make sure that the online presence is aligned with the original brand concept. Visual Identity System Benefits A visual identity system is a way to make things easier, help people achieve a manageable and effective workload, and avoid mistakes. These mistakes can take place when there is no clear guidance about how to achieve excellent work results. Putting systems in place turns complex processes into easy-to-understand steps that increase efficiency. An effective visual identity system will help an organization: Improve the outcome of their content creation process. Avoid mistakes related to misunderstanding what the brand entails. Make collaboration between teams easy. Create complex strategies with a strong foundation that...

The Best Fonts for Your Resume in 2022, According to HubSpot Recruiters

Job Search
/by
The Best Fonts for Your Resume in 2022, According to HubSpot Recruiters Studies have shown recruiters typically scan a resume for only about six seconds before making a decision on whether an applicant is fit for a role. With only six seconds to demonstrate your qualifications for a position, every detail counts – including the font you use. The question is, what are the best resume fonts to pass the six-second scan? We asked HubSpot recruiters to reveal the seven best fonts for your resume as well as what they consider in terms of design in general, so your resume can stand out in the pile. Best Fonts for Resumes Does your resume font even matter? Worst Fonts for Resumes Ideal Resume Font Sizes Featured Resource: 12 Free Resume Templates Download Now With only six seconds to demonstrate your qualifications for a position, every detail counts. To evoke a sense of style, professionalism, and uniqueness, it's critical you put effort and consideration into your font choice. When speaking with recruiters, it quickly became clear that classic fonts are still the best options. "I’m a big fan of the 'classics' for resumes – Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, and Cambria. I’m a little old school, but I think they are the cleanest and exude professionalism," said Johanna Fleming, a former senior recruiter at HubSpot. Riley Kundtz, former senior MBA campus recruiter at HubSpot, agreed. "I find the classic formatting...

The Ultimate Guide to Human Resources

Human Resources
/by
The Ultimate Guide to Human Resources Remarkable Human Resources (HR) employees are critical at every company. They handle all employee relations so you can focus on your side of the business. Before we discuss more reasons why your company needs an impactful HR department and how you can go about building one, let's talk more about what human resources actually means. Based on this definition alone, you can see how it would be difficult to run your operation successfully without the assistance HR provides. That’s why even small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have HR departments with employees who oversee all management, engagement, and development between the company and its employees. HR departments exist to support you and your employees so you can continue doing your jobs successfully. The work and responsibilities of a human resources employee will touch a large portion of your business every day. So what does that mean for you? Let's review some of the most common responsibilities these employees have so you can better understand the impact HR will have on your company. Handle employee relations HR handles the employee-to-employee relationships as well as the employee-to-company relationship. This means they work to develop positive interactions and treatment among all employees within your company so they feel good about coming to work, are committed to their jobs, and are invested in the growth of the business. Whether it’s a personal matter or a work-related issue, human resources will handle all issues with...

How to Accept Payments Online [7 Top Payment Processing Providers]

Ecommerce Sales
/by
How to Accept Payments Online With only 16% of consumers carrying cash and the popularity of ecommerce, if you don't have a payment processor for your business, you're missing out. In this post, we'll talk about the software options available for accepting payments online — including some free options, and how payment processing can help streamline your business processes and increase sales. But first, let's cover the basics of how payment processing works. What is payment processing? A payment processor is a company that facilitates electronic payments (credit card, digital wallets, ACH) between a business and the bank. Essentially payment processors handle all of the backend logistics between merchants, banks, and credit card companies that enable businesses to accept payment. How does payment processing work? When you shop at a retailer and pay with a credit card, the payment processor works in the background to authenticate and complete the transaction, moving the money from your account to the business’ account. Here’s what happens behind the scenes when a customer makes a card payment: A customer gives the merchant their credit or debit card to make a purchase. This is either done using a payment terminal in-person or through an online payment page. The card information goes through a payment gateway or portal which encrypts the customer's personal data to ensure privacy and sends it to the payment processor. The payment processor then sends a request to the customer’s issuing bank to see if...

30 Popular Job Boards That Will Help You Hire The Most Qualified Candidates

Human Resources
/by
30 Popular Job Boards That Will Help You Hire The Most Qualified Candidates As a recruiter, your job isn’t limited to simply finding the best candidates. You also have to promote these roles on job boards and convince applicants to join your company.  In other words, you’re not just a recruiter — you’re also a marketer and a salesperson. But, how do you know which job boards will help you find the most qualified applications for your specific position? Read on to find out.  Table of Contents:  What is the best job search engine? Best Job Boards Best Job Boards for Hiring College Students Best Job Boards for Hiring Freelancers Best Job Boards for Hiring Remote and Hybrid Workers 1. Glassdoor Key Features: A large pool of potential candidates (55M+ per month) List your jobs and include detailed descriptions of preferred skills and qualifications.  Review resumes, send messages to candidates, and schedule interviews to begin recruitment.  Create an employer brand profile to help candidates learn more about your business and culture.  You can pay to feature jobs for more visibility. 2. LinkedIn Jobs Price: Contact for pricing. Key Features: A network of over 700 million professionals.  Your job listings are matched with the most qualified professionals who have noted in their profiles to be open to work and looking for new roles.  A rating...

A Privacy First-World Won’t Hurt Your Customer Relationships, It Will Transform Them: Insights from HubSpot’s CMO

Marketing Trends
/by
A Privacy First-World Won't Hurt Your Customer Relationships, It Will Transform Them: Insights from HubSpot's CMO As marketers, we thrive on data. Data can help us identify when content is underperforming, and pivot to provide the highest value to our prospects and customers. It can also enable us to explore new, underutilized channels, and discover the best platforms to connect with our audiences. All of this is to say: Any changes to the existing data collection ecosystem will create uncertainty around the future of marketing, and make some marketers fearful about how their current strategies will perform in a privacy-first world. But a privacy-first world doesn't inhibit a company's ability to know and better serve their customers — it improves it. A privacy-first world is a world in which creating and maintaining relationships directly with your customers is the only way to truly understand them. Here, we'll explore how the future of privacy will impact your business. Plus, how you can prepare for it. What is a privacy-first world? A privacy-first world means that a company's strategies, technologies, and solutions will need to adhere to a consumer's right to data privacy and security, first and foremost. This shift has been a long time coming. Consumers no longer trust corporations with their data — in fact, only about one-third of customers believe companies are currently using their data responsibly. Additionally, in the past year alone, 76% of consumers feel they don't know what companies are doing with their data. To combat consumers' concerns, regulations...