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16 of the Best Professional Bio Examples We’ve Ever Seen [+ Bio Templates]

Resume
January 20, 2021/by
16 of the Best Professional Bio Examples We've Ever Seen  Does your professional bio make a statement? In this article, we have great professional bio examples you should compare yours to — and a series of free bio templates you can use to make it perfect. If you’re anything like me, you probably don't think about your professional bio until you’re suddenly asked to "shoot one over via email." You have approximately one afternoon to come up with it, and that's when you scramble, and the bio ends up reading like this: Rodney Erickson is a content marketing professional at HubSpot, an inbound marketing and sales platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers. Previously, Rodney worked as a marketing manager for a tech software startup. He graduated with honors from Columbia University with a dual degree in Business Administration and Creative Writing." Woof, that was dull. Are you still with me? I swear, not even adding a tidbit about his cats would liven that bio up. To be fair, in certain contexts, your professional bio does need to be more formal, like Mr. Erickson's up there. But in many cases, writing a readable bio — even conversational — is a really good thing. That means dropping that traditional format of listing your accomplishments like a robot and cramming as much professional-sounding jargon in there as you can. How to Write a Bio Download...
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13 Graphic Design Trends to Use in 2021 — and Two to Avoid

Graphic Design
January 19, 2021/by
13 Graphic Design Trends to Use in 2021 — and Two to Avoid 2020 was — in a word — unprecedented.  The only thing nearly as unprecedented as the events of the year itself? The number of times 2020 was described as "unprecedented." With the conclusion of a year unlike any other, it's natural to seek out new looks and approaches.  Desires for new and different –– but also reassuring and less overwhelming ––  experiences will exert significant influence over customer appetites in 2021, including in visual communications and graphic design. Here, let's dive into the graphic design trends you'll see in 2021. Plus, what design techniques you'll want to avoid.  2021 Graphic Design Trends Current graphic design trends for 2021 offer opportunities to update your brand's aesthetic, earn customers' attention, and unlock greater results.  These trends fall into three dominant themes or moods: socially-conscious design, dissonance, and optimism.  Within each theme, there are a number of design techniques and styles you're going to see artists and brands employ. You're going to want to see this –– and not just because it means 2020 is over. 1. Socially-Conscious Design Design and culture are integrally connected. Designer and author Robert L. Peters makes it clear where he thinks real change begins: "Design creates culture. Culture shapes values. Values determine the future." To strive for a better future, it helps to visualize it.  Social unrest and movements for anti-racism have captured national attention, and every brand and business has to take...
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How to Get on Board With the Digital Transformation [+ Examples]

Marketing Strategy
January 16, 2021/by
How to Get on Board With the Digital Transformation Ten years ago, I couldn't have cared less if the new burger place downtown had a website. Now, I don't trust one that doesn't. If your business is online, you're a part of the digital transformation. But it's not enough these days to just "be online." Businesses that will thrive in 2021 that are operating online — and the COVID-19 pandemic has proved this.  Consumer buying behavior has drastically changed — today, most consumers are purchasing products online, including almost 70% of millennials. In 2019, nearly two-thirds of businesses ( 64% ) had a website. If you don't have one, you could be falling behind your online competition.  So, while it’s a great step to have a website and a Facebook page, there’s more to the transformation than just having an online presence — technology should be ever-present in all of your business operations. This piece will explore the digital transformation, why businesses are getting on board, and outline the roadmap for enacting one for your business. We’ll also give some real-life success stories from companies that have bought into the digital transformation.   Essentially, a digital transformation fundamentally changes how businesses provide value to their customers and streamline their processes. It’s a reminder that materials and processes your company uses during day-to-day operations, no matter how big or small, might need a new medium — technology. Let’s take a look at why...
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How to Use Schema Markup to Improve Your Website’s Structure

Structured Data
January 16, 2021/by
How to Use Schema Markup to Improve Your Website's Structure Just like when I first watched The Matrix, when I initially heard the term "schema markup," I was intimidated by the technical know-how I felt I needed to understand it. However, just like the movie, understanding schema markup isn't as difficult as you might think. As a marketer, schema markup is important because you want to make it as easy as possible for search engines to crawl your website. The easier it is for Google to understand your site, the higher in search engines your website can appear. Below, let's review what schema markup is, where to add it, and how it can improve your website's structure. What Is Schema Markup? Schema markup is code you can add to your website that helps search engines return better results for users. Essentially, it gives vital information to search engines to include in your listing that can improve visibility online, as well as click-through rates. In 2011, top search engines including Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Yandex collaborated to create schema.org, which is a "collaborative, community activity with a mission to create, maintain, and promote schemas for structured data on the Internet, on web pages, in email messages, and beyond." Ultimately, schema markup is a form of microdata. According to Wikipedia, "microdata is an HTML specification used to nest metadata within existing content on web pages. Search engines, web crawlers, and browsers can extract and process microdata from a web page...
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How to Run Marketing Team Meetings That Don’t Suck

Meetings
January 15, 2021/by
How to Run Marketing Team Meetings That Don't Suck Meetings suck. They're time for people to avoid doing actual work, stare blankly at each other, throw in generic comments to look like they're paying attention, and if you're lucky, maybe come out with some wicked notebook doodles. Is that how people perceive your marketing meetings? I hope not, because they don't actually have to be that way. Turn your marketing meetings into something useful by — you guessed it — creating compelling content! (Oh my gosh, inbound marketing concepts work in real life, too!) As your team grows, it's important for everyone to get in a room together and talk about what they've been working on in their corner of the world. So to ensure those marketing meetings aren't blocks of time your team dreads, make note of these tips for how to make marketing team meetings truly useful for your employees. How to Run an Effective Meeting While this post will primarily focus on marketing meetings, I want to address a team-agnostic section about effective meetings as a whole. As I said above, meetings can be a grandiose waste of time. It's tempting to run your work by others, gather feedback or affirmation, or simply avoid the tough stuff by calling meetings. I'm here to tell you — don't do it. The first step to running effective meetings is to only schedule meetings when absolutely necessary. Quarterly meetings to report on company progress and important news?...
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How to Leverage Sensory Language in Your Blog Posts [Data + Expert Tips]

Blogging
January 15, 2021/by
How to Leverage Sensory Language in Your Blog Posts Check this out: "You're sitting in the creaky, mesh-backed, black ergonomic desk chair you bought at a discount off Amazon — hunched over, eyes reluctantly wide open, staring intently at a dimly lit laptop screen bearing a blank document. It's 4:45 PM. For most of the day, you've heard hardly anything except for the occasional click-clack of keys to commit some fruitless inspiration to your blog post and the intermittent spells of grating silence that came after deleting everything you jotted down. The lasting taste of the coffee you drank about two hours earlier has gone sour but still coats your tongue and the roof of your mouth. And you can feel the effects of the caffeine slowly waning. Subtle muscle fatigue is setting in. Your eyelids are heavy and it's a struggle in and of itself to keep them from covering your aching, weary eyes. Your mind has gone stagnant — trapped in the clutches of what's most commonly known as writer's block." Now, I like to think that passage was vivid and immersive, and that's mostly a credit to the kind of language I used and the personal sensations I played on — specifically how it described the sensory experiences of the subject matter. That language is most commonly known as sensory language, and it's a powerful resource for any writer to understand and apply. Here, we'll cover what sensory language is, review some of the data...
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How to Create a Successful Blog Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide

Blogging
January 13, 2021/by
How to Create a Successful Blog Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide Did you know that 55% of marketers say blogging is their top inbound marketing priority? Did you also know that these marketers are 13x more likely to see positive ROI than marketers who don't invest in blogging? Over the last decade or so, businesses have increased revenue, improved brand awareness, and boosted conversions with valuable written content published for their target audience and customers. The key here is that their blog content is valuable — it isn't enough to simply have a blog; there has to be a purpose or reason for its existence. So, how can you create and maintain a successful blog that provides your target audience worthwhile, high-quality content — all while building your business's reputation as an industry thought-leader and expert? The answer is with a blog marketing strategy. Before we review the steps to your blog marketing strategy, let's take a look at how to start a successful blog. We'll also include examples of successful blog sites to illustrate some of these steps. 1. Choose your blog topic and purpose. The first part of developing your blogging strategy is to clearly define your blog's topic and purpose. Your blog topic should be broad enough so you can write hundreds of articles about it but also specific enough to relate to your business niche and area(s) of expertise. When thinking about your blog's purpose, ask yourself, "Why does this blog exist?" You...
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The Ultimate Guide to Design Templates

Design Templates
January 12, 2021/by
The Ultimate Guide to Design Templates If someone asked you to create an infographic, where would you start? Surely not with a blank Google Doc or sheet of paper. No, you’d likely search for an infographic design template to use as a starting point — or at least draw ideas from. Design templates are incredibly helpful tools for today’s marketers. They provide guidance and inspiration for almost all types of content and save precious time and energy. We created this guide to help you make the most of design templates for your business. Keep reading to get started or use the chapter links below to jump ahead. Benefits of Design Templates Good design is valuable, but not everyone can afford to hire a freelance designer or in-house design team. Design templates remove any complicated design steps and equip even the most novice graphic designer to create gorgeous visuals. Here are some other reasons to use design templates. Design templates are convenient and fast. Design templates save marketers (or business owners or even designers) the energy it takes to recreate the same design time and time again. They provide a shortcut so you only have to spend time filling in the critical details. Design templates also save you time. Facing a deadline for print ads or postcards? Preparing for a restaurant launch and need a new menu? Grab a design template, fill in the necessary text, and send it on its way. Design templates are systematized....
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8 Inclusive Advertising Tips for 2021, According to Microsoft’s Head of Inclusive Marketing

Advertising Best Practices
January 12, 2021/by
8 Inclusive Advertising Tips for 2021, According to Microsoft's Head of Inclusive Marketing Advertising can help create a direct connection between consumers and your brand, and is a critical component of marketing. And inclusive advertising can yield dramatic results and increase brand trust, loyalty, and better overall brand perception. In fact, 64% of people said they are more trusting of brands that represent diversity in ads, and 85% of consumers said they will only consider a brand they trust. Advertising that works hard for your company has never been more important as we come off the heels of a challenging year affecting all businesses. However, there is one concept that rang true for us all that can inform our approach in advertising for 2021 and beyond – that is, we are all interconnected and interdependent, both as consumers and as advertisers.   In this post, we'll provide eight tips curated from Microsoft's Marketing with Purpose Playbook to help you create more inclusive advertising, reach more customers, and grow your business. 1. Showcase human diversity in your campaigns. Inclusive advertising means having diversity authentically represented in your ads and promotions, while aligning it to your local market's composition of diversity. It also means considering the many dimensions of human diversity, including (but not limited to) age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, location, language preference and gender expression. Additionally, you'll be able to expand your ability to connect and tailor ad creative and promotions with your audience when you consider experiential diversity like ability, parental...
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How to Eliminate Render-Blocking Resources From Your WordPress Website

wordpress website
January 12, 2021/by
How to Eliminate Render-Blocking Resources From Your WordPress Website Have you ever finished creating a WordPress website and loved everything about it? Then, promptly began to hate it after realizing it takes forever to load? Not only are slow loading speeds a nuisance for you and your visitors, but they can also cost you significantly when it comes to SEO. Since 2010, Google algorithms have accounted for loading speed in ranking decisions, so slow pages appear lower on results pages. You might be familiar with the common culprits of poor page performance — excessive content, uncompressed image files, insufficient hosting, and lack of caching to name a few. But, there’s another often-overlooked perpetrator in play: render-blocking resources. Don’t get me wrong — CSS and JavaScript are great. Without CSS, websites would be walls of plain text. Without JavaScript, we wouldn’t be able to add dynamic, interactive, engaging elements to our websites. But, if executed at the wrong time, both CSS and JavaScript can put a dent in your website performance. Here’s why: When a web browser first loads a web page, it parses all the page’s HTML before displaying it onscreen to a visitor. When the browser encounters a link to a CSS file, a JavaScript file, or an inline script (i.e., JavaScript code in the HTML document itself), it pauses the HTML parsing to fetch and execute the code, which slows everything down. If you’ve optimized your page performance in WordPress and are still experiencing problems, render-blocking resources may...
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