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HubSpot’s Management & Leadership Development Expert Shares Tips for Staying Productive When You Work From Home

Remote Working, remote-work
May 11, 2020/by
HubSpot's Management & Leadership Development Expert Shares Tips for Staying Productive When You Work From Home One of the best training sessions I've attended for my career was the PeopleFuel®️ program by The Energy Project at HubSpot. Here, I learned that to be most productive at work, I needed to manage my energy, not my time. The training was led by Nick Congelosi, HubSpot's Management and Leadership Development Head. His team is responsible for overseeing global leadership development across HubSpot with workshops, certifications, and trainings like PeopleFuel®️. When I left that workshop, I felt confident that I could revitalize my work day. That's why I decided to grab a virtual coffee with Congelosi and learn all about his best tips for staying productive when you work from home. Below, let's review Congelosi's remote work productivity tips, how to stay productive during remote meetings, and best practices for running a productive remote training session. 1. Place a side table next to your desk. Have you ever worked on a cluttered desk? I know I have, and that's how I know how distracting it can be. To help you stay focused during your day, Congelosi recommends placing a side table next to your desk about an arm's length away. You can place your notebook and to-do list on this table, so whatever you're working on is the only thing on your desk. If it's your computer, only have one tab open (or however many you actually need to get that...
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How To Write Meta Descriptions That Don’t Suck

On-page SEO
May 9, 2020/by
How To Write Meta Descriptions That Don't Suck I'll be the first one to admit it: The first time I wrote a blog post, I had a lot of new terminology to learn. SEO, alt text, headers, all of it was new to me. Thankfully, learning how to use these acronyms to my advantage was a quick learning process. However, there was one function of a blog post that took some time getting used to, and that was a meta description. At first, I didn't know the purpose of a meta description, and why it was so important that I should add one to a blog post. "Google will show the accurate text of my blog posts in search results," I thought, "So there's no need for me to add meta descriptions, right?" Not necessarily. This post will show you why meta descriptions are important and how to write effective ones. Before all that, though, let's discuss what a meta description is. What is a meta description? A meta description is the snippet of information below the blue link of a search result. Its purpose is to describe the contents of the page to the searcher. Any words that match the search term are bolded in the description. The end goal is to convince and persuade the searcher to click through to your website. Here is an example of a meta description as it would show up on a search engine results (SERP) page: Notice that, because the...
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How to Write the Perfect Page Title With SEO in Mind

On-page SEO
May 8, 2020/by
How to Write the Perfect Page Title With SEO in Mind In high school, the hardest part of writing an essay for me was coming up with the title. To be honest, titles are still a struggle for me to this day. However, writing titles for blog posts or page titles are a part of my day to day as a marketer. And now I have to think about SEO as well. If you're anything like me, it's helpful to learn best practices you can refer to when you're writing a title. Below, let's learn how to write the perfect page title while keeping SEO in mind. Page Titles and SEO A page title is the title tag that tells a search engine like Google what the title of your web page is. However, a "title tag" is distinct from the "H1" of a page. Your web page can have an H1 that's different from the title tag, though they're often the same by default unless changed in the HTML header of the page. For example, an article title is your H1. If you had a creative idea for an article title, but wanted Google to index a title tag that’s more likely to get clicked, you could edit the title tag to be different from the H1. When you type in a query on Google, title tags are the titles you see on the search engine results page (SERP). So, why do you have to keep SEO...
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How to Implement Affordable AI in 3 Steps, According to the Marketing AI Institute Director

Artificial Intelligence
May 7, 2020/by
How to Implement Affordable AI in 3 Steps, According to the Marketing AI Institute Director Artificial intelligence is continuing to make an impact on the business world. In fact, McKinsey predicts that up to $2.6 trillion in value will be unlocked by AI in marketing and sales alone. But, if you're less tech-savvy, you might be intimidated by terms like "artificial intelligence," "machine learning," and "algorithms." You probably also hear about these technologies and think to yourself, "My business definitely can't afford that." This makes sense. As a good marketer, you should be skeptical about high-priced emerging technologies. After all, we hear a lot of hype about AI from all sorts of blogs, news outlets, and vendors. But, still, sometimes it's hard to tell how a tool works and if it's actually worth your money. Additionally, if you're less familiar with AI, it might seem like it's only a technology used only by industry-leading behemoths. There are so many misconceptions about AI in marketing, that my colleagues and I launched the Marketing AI Institute. At the organization, we aim to make AI approachable and actionable for marketers. To date, we've vetted dozens of AI solutions and have monitored more than 1,500 sales and marketing AI companies with combined funding north of $6.2 billion. As the Institute's director, I’ve advised small and medium-sized companies on AI implementations. We've also piloted several AI tools in our own marketing operations at the Marketing AI Institute -- often for no or extremely...
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How to Pass a Video Interview in Just 7 Steps

Remote Working
May 6, 2020/by
How to Pass a Video Interview in Just 7 Steps Congratulations! If you've landed on this post, it's likely that your resume has impressed the hiring manager(s) at the company you're applying to work for, and you've now been invited to interview. That's a huge accomplishment. There's just one catch — the interview is taking place over a video call, and you've never been in this position before. How do you complete a video interview? And, more than that, how do you pass one? Never fear, we’ll go over all of that below. If you're looking for video interview tips, tricks, and best practices — or just want to know what in the world an automated interview is — you've come to the right place. Passing Video Interviews When you go into your video interview, what should you do to pass? How should you prepare? Above all else, prepare like you would for a traditional interview. Video interviews are meant to be an accessible alternative for a traditional interview. Keeping that in mind will help you get into the right mindset. This is your moment to really sell yourself to the interviewer, and put a personality behind your amazing resume. In fact, going beyond your resume is what impresses one of HubSpot's senior recruiters, Shavon Bell. She says, "When recruiting senior talent, I look for the story beyond the resume. I recognize it can be challenging for a senior leader to fit all of their experience into a...
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The Bad Remote Work Habits You Should Avoid

Uncategorized
May 6, 2020/by
The Bad Remote Work Habits You Should Avoid A few years ago I was at one of those Big Group Dinners with my marketing team and our clients. There were about 15 of us. I liked the group, but I do not like Big Group Dinners — because at Big Group Dinners you eat and drink too much and you have to pretend you're not tired and you wouldn't rather be in bed sleeping. At this particular Big Group Dinner, I was exhausted. I'd been back and forth from NYC to Seattle a million times that month and had a ton of work to do after dinner. So wining and dining clients and schmoozing with my team was at the bottom of my list of priorities, even though it was technically a giant part of my job. That's when I decided to be, "That Person." That Person: The annoying person who deviates from the group order at a Big Group Dinner. I know it doesn't sound like a huge deal, but we were at a Mexican restaurant and if you know anything about Mexican food, it's communal. So you look like a HUGE jerk if you deviate from the group-ordering plan (and Margaritas! Don't forget the Margaritas!). But I knew that if I had one more drink and another plate full of chips, my health was going to suffer. And if my health suffered, my performance suffered. And while client management was part of my job, the other part was...
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