21 Things Recruiters Absolutely Hate About Your Resume

I'll never forget one of my first job interviews out of college.

I was applying for a marketing position at a technology company. (No, not HubSpot.) Because my college major had nothing to do with marketing or technology, I'd written "Relevant coursework: Statistics" in the education section of my resume in an effort to draw a connection.

When I came in to interview, everything was going great -- until I met with one of the company's VPs. He sat down, turned my resume over on the table in front of him, scribbled down an advanced statistics question, and pushed it across the table to me.

Crap.

Let's just say it'd been a while since I brushed up on my statistics. I ended up reasoning my way through the problem, but it wasn't a piece of cake -- and I was stressed as heck. I learned an important lesson that day: Never put something on your resume you can't back up 100%. That, my friends, is just one of the many things recruiters hate to see on resumes.

Every recruiter has their own list of things they don't like to see on resumes, and you never know who's going to see yours. That's why it's important to avoid all the most common resume mistakes.

I spoke with some of the top recruiters here at HubSpot to find out the top 21 things recruiters and hiring managers don't want to see on your resume. Needless to say, you may want to bookmark this one ...

21 Things Recruiters Absolutely Hate About Your Resume

1) When you send it in a Google Doc, and then don't grant proper permissions.

Before you send your resume to a recruiter, you need to convert it to a format that allows all recipients to read it as intended.

Ideally, this means converting it into a PDF format so none of the original formatting or spacing is lost in translation. You can convert a Microsoft Word document into a PDF by choosing File > Save as Adobe PDF.

If you have to send your resume over as a Google Doc, at least grant the recipient proper permissions to view it by clicking "Share" in the top-right corner of your Google Doc, entering in the email address of the people you want to include, and choosing "Can view" from the dropdown menu.

Or, you can let anyone read it by clicking that "Share" button and then choosing "Get shareable link" at the top. Then, choose "can view" from the dropdown menu and send that link to the recruiter.

We recommend a PDF format, though. It's much more professional.

2) When your email address is "soccergrl0721@yahoo.com."

There's a lot you can tell about a person from their email address ... and you don't want this to be how the recruiters find out you like soccer. Outdated names can be a red flag, especially for tech-savvy companies. In the same vein, if you're still using a Hotmail, Comcast, Yahoo!, or AOL email address, it's time to upgrade.

If you need to, set up a separate email for your job hunt that's some iteration of your name. It's easy enough to create a new Gmail account for free. If you're interviewing for a technical job, you might consider using or creating an email address associated with your own custom domain to show you know more than the average person about the web and technology.

3) When you mention the wrong company. (Oops.)

Of course, no one ever means to address the wrong company in their resume. But if you're including your intentions as a candidate somewhere on your resume (which we don't recommend, by the way; see #10), then you need to get it right.

"It's unfortunate when a candidate has a good resume or cover letter, but don't proofread and put in the wrong company information," says Emily MacIntyre, Senior Marketing Recruiter here at HubSpot.

Getting this right goes beyond proofreading; it means paying attention to the details of the transaction. Customizing your resumes to different companies is expected, but you need to make sure you're sending the right resumes to the right companies. One tip is to save your different resumes with the company name in the title, like Kolowich-Resume-HubSpot.

4) When you get a little too creative with your fonts.

Recruiters are going to notice the font and formatting of your resume before they even start reading it -- which is why it's important to choose a font that's easily readable and professional.

The most common resume font is Times New Roman, in size 12-point font and black. It's a serif font, which tend to look more professional because they have what’s called “tails” on the letters. These tails make the letter look less block-like than sans serif fonts.

Image Credit: Kensington Design

Serif fonts other than Times New Roman that are great for resumes include Georgia, Bell MT, Goudy Old Style, and Garamond. If you really want to use a sans serif font, try Arial, Tahoma, Century Gothic, or Lucida Sans. Check out this infographic for some more guidance on what makes a good resume font.

Oh, and only use one font. Using two fonts looks a little messy and unprofessional -- and, worse, it can even look unintentional.

The only exception here is for designers. "I've seen some really wild, creative, and awesome resumes from designers, and since that's their craft, I encourage that," says Sean Marsters, Senior Product Recruiter at HubSpot.

5) When your high school is still on there.

Unless you're in high school or college, you can leave your high school off of your resume, says Marsters. He says that college graduates with minimal experience might be able to get away with it, but to most recruiters, it ends up looking like filler information.

The only exception here? If you connected with someone through your high school alumni network. In this case, you'd only want to include it in a resume that you send directly to that person. Otherwise, it could be seen as filler information.

Pro Tip: Three to five years after college or graduate school graduation, you can actually move your "Education" section to the bottom of your resume. Again, the only time you wouldn't want to do this is if you connected with someone through an alumni network, or if you know an executive there also went to your school.

6) When you have two degrees, but only one GPA.

If you have a college degree and a graduate degree, don't only list the one GPA you're proud of. This calls into question why you've only listed one GPA, and so obviously left the other one out, explains HubSpot's Recruiting Team Lead Dave Fernandez.

The benchmark for being able to remove GPA from your resume altogether is five to seven years after graduation, which is when candidates tend have a solid track record of employment, says Andrew Quinn, VP of Learning and Development at HubSpot.

"But if you did well in school but had lackluster job prospects following graduation because of, say, a bad economy, you could definitely leave it on longer.” It goes both ways, he explained: If you had great jobs and accomplishments following graduation but didn’t have a good GPA, consider removing your GPA earlier. Just don't remove one and not the other if you have multiple degrees.

7) When you list every piece of technology you've ever touched, seen, heard, smelt.

In the technology industry, it's very common for recruiters to see candidates listing out experience with all the technology they've ever heard of. But unless you've cut and edited videos extensively, you can't really put "Final Cut Pro" on your resume.

"Unless you're confident in your skill set and experience in that area, don't add technology just to add fodder," says Marsters.

Same goes with languages you speak, or your college classes. "College students shouldn't feel the need to list out every single class they took at school. In fact, you don't need to add any classes -- but it's OK if you want to list a few important ones relevant to the job you're applying for."

Pro Tip: Unless you can hold your own in an interview on the subjects you're listing, leave them out.

8) When you're "Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint."

Almost every single candidate feels the need to include this phrase on their resume -- but recruiters hate to see it. Basic proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite is assumed for college graduates these days.

"Unless you can run pivot tables, VLOOKUPs, and complex data modeling out of Excel, then don't include proficiency in Excel on your resume," says Marsters. "Writing a 500-word essay in Word and sorting a column in alphabetical order in Excel does not count as proficiency in those systems."

Pro Tip: If you want the Excel chops to be able to include it on your resume, here are the 10 best resources for learning Excel online.

9) When the formatting is all over the place.

Formatting speaks to the way candidates collect their thoughts and organize their ideas. As Quinn explains it, “A candidate’s resume is their ad to me. How are they structuring this ad so I get a clear picture of what they’re capable of?”

There are a few key things every candidate should check off the list before sending in a resume:

• Is your formatting consistent across all positions? For example, if you're bolding job titles, are all job titles bolded?
• Are your margins even?
• Are all items properly aligned? For example, if you've right-aligned dates, are they all lining up in tandem with one another?

Formatting consistency is another reason we recommend you send your resume as a PDF. (See #1.)

10) When you start off with a generalized summary.

Unless a company specifically asks for a summary at the top of your resume (which is doubtful), you really shouldn't include one, says MacIntyre. They're too easy to screw up -- this is a place where candidates have put the name of the wrong company. Plus, they usually come off sounding stuffy and insincere.

Instead, lean in to a "Key Skills" section either at the top or bottom of your resume, in column format, that highlights the top six to nine skills applicable to the role you’re applying for. Be sure to change these skills for each job -- and remember, leave out Microsoft Office Suite unless you're truly proficient.

Pro Tip: Although you should leave this section off your resume, you should write something in the "Summary" section of your LinkedIn profile. Use this section to write out specific skills and achievements, link to your portfolio or blog, and talk about awards you've won or projects you've worked on. The information and skills on here should be applicable to where you’re headed in your career, not irrelevant past skills.

11) When you use the pronouns "I" or "my."

Resumes are not the time to be using pronouns like "I" or "my," says MacIntyre. However, you should still use first-person, not the third-person, when conjugating your verbs.

This is tricky to explain. Here's how I think about it: Don't use the word "I" in your resume, but assume the word "I" when you conjugate your verbs to ensure they're in the first-person. So if you want to write that you develop promotional materials in your current role, write "Develop promotional materials," as in "I develop promotional materials" -- but without using the pronoun "I."

• Correct: "Develop promotional materials."
• Incorrect: "Develops promotional materials."

12) When your verb tenses are wrong.

Speaking of verb conjugation ... make sure all of your verb tenses are in the past tense for past positions, and in the present tense for current positions. Verb tense is evidence of attention to detail, which is important for any job -- especially if you're applying to a job where attention to detail matters, says Quinn.

Using the same example as above, here's how I'd write out that responsibility on a resume if it were my current position versus a past position:

• Current position: "Develop promotional materials."
• Past position: "Developed promotional materials."

The exception here is if you're talking about something that you did in your current position that "ended" in some way. For example, you'd use the past tense to write "Earned a spot in President's Club for achieving XYZ" because it's something you did that had a finite ending.

13) When you list your responsibilities, but not your accomplishments.

Sure, it's helpful for candidates to list out what they were responsible for doing in their job. But it's way more interesting to learn the results the candidates actually drove -- and putting down more responsibilities than accomplishments is a red flag.

Here's a great example: "Instead of writing 'Handled all monetary transactions,' write 'Increased revenue by X% year-over-year, resulting in promotion to Senior Account Manager and entrustment with enterprise-level deals,'" says Fernandez. "The latter is much more telling."

Include goals and metrics that recruiters can use to compare you against other candidates. List out the cool stuff you did in every position, and then choose the best four or five and turn them into bullet points like these:

• Drove 37% improvement in newsletter clickthrough rates by rewriting sales copy.
• Grew ecommerce sales 23% in just 6 months by redesigning and A/B testing all landing pages.

(For more examples of actionable data points, download these free resume templates.)

14) When you list outdated or irrelevant experience.

A resume isn't a place where you just tack on a new section every time you add a new job or volunteer opportunity. You should be picky about which roles, skills, experiences, and accomplishments you include -- all based on the role you're applying for.

So unless you're applying for a job that requires lifeguarding skills, you can leave out your summer lifeguarding job from college. If you're further down your career path, list the more recent roles you've had that complement the job you're applying for.

The only exception here is if you're still in college, or you're a recent college graduate with limited experience and you need to "fill out" your resume a little bit. In that case, don't just write that you were responsible for monitoring the waters for people in need of saving; glean relevant skills, such as learning how to resolve challenging, ambiguous situations.

15) When there are large chunks of text.

It takes hiring managers all of six seconds to scan your resume before deciding whether they're interested in you. If they see large chunks of text that aren't broken up by bullet points, it'll turn them off big time. Who likes reading large chunks of text?

It's the same reason bloggers use headers, bullet points, and other formatting tricks to break up long blog posts. It all comes down to making it easier for people to like reading your stuff.

Make sure you're using bullet points to list out your accomplishments underneath each position, and limit them to five or six bullet points per post. The order of your bullet points matters, too: Put the most important, relevant, and impressive ones first.

16) When it's ridden with buzzwords and meaningless clichés.

So you're a hardworking team player with exceptional problem-solving skills? That's cool, but ... what does that actually mean? Anyone could write this on their resume. (And believe me, they do.) It's meaningless. You need to give solid examples that are sincere, BS-free, and backed by evidence.

For example, let's say the job you're applying for is asking for someone with a strong knowledge of the marketing lifecycle. Use your resume as an opportunity to showcase this -- but don't just write, "Developed a strong knowledge of the marketing lifecycle." Write "Developed a strong knowledge of the marketing lifecycle and consumer journey through researching and writing in-depth articles on topics including SEO, content marketing, email marketing, branding, social media, and more."

Same goes for corporate buzzwords: Leave them out. Sweep your resume for annoying jargon and business babble, and replace these phrases with clearly articulated ones that make it clear to the recruiter what you did and how you did it.

17) When you don't explain your gaps.

Most of you know already that gaps in employment are red flags to recruiters -- but that's only true when you don't explain them.

If you took longer than six months off of work, you may want to explain the gap on your resume -- perhaps in italics or parenthesis. “Travelled abroad.” “Took time off for family.” “Took time off for personal reasons.” They just want to see a rational explanation -- that you were doing something productive with your time, not just hanging out watching Netflix. 

If you'd rather leave your resume for the meat of your relevant experiences, you choose to address a gap by including a note in your cover letter or in the email you send to the hiring manager that your resume is attached to: "You'll notice that there is a year-long gap between X and Y jobs. I'm more than happy to explain that further."

Either way, be honest about it. If you're upfront, you'll seem trustworthy instead of fishy.

18) When it's inconsistent with your LinkedIn profile.

If a recruiter is interested in your resume, chances are, they'll look at your LinkedIn profile alongside it to learn more about you -- and check for discrepancies. Make sure you're updating your LinkedIn profile at the same time you're updating your resume. The two don't have to be identical, but they do have to be consistent. 

Pro Tip: Don't want to tip off your current colleagues that you're on the hunt for a new job? To make sure your LinkedIn profile edits aren't broadcast to your network, log in and move your cursor over "Profile" at the top of your homepage, then select "Edit Profile." Find the box on the right-hand side of your profile that says "Notify your network?" and toggle the button so it says "No."

19) When you get a little too crazy with the formatting.

Standing out from the crowd is a good thing, especially when you're competing with hundreds, even thousands of applicants with a single piece of paper. But there is such thing as getting too crazy with the formatting. While recruiters have seen some really cool resumes -- particularly from designers -- sending a resume that strays far away from the normal resume format is a risk.

“If you stray too far from normal formatting, it can be hard to read and understand your resume," warns MacIntyre. "Don’t get so creative with infographic-style resumes that the information becomes difficult to digest.”

If you're willing to take the risk, gut check with a friend before you send your work in. But if you opt for a regularly formatted resume, that's perfectly OK. There are a few, subtle ways to make it stand out from looking like literally everybody else's. 

"You could stand in line at a college career fair and see 200 resumes in a row that all look the exact same," says Marsters. "Recruiters don't want to see word clouds or calligraphy, but it doesn't hurt to find subtle ways to stand out from the crowd," says Marsters. "Start by staying away from the top three options when punching 'resume format' into Google."

(P.S. If you're working on a marketing resume specifically, then use these free templates to get you started.)

20) When it's basically a novel.

Remember how nobody likes to read a ton of text? Recruiters don't want to flip through multiple pages to read about your experiences. A good rule of thumb is to limit your resume to one page for every ten years of experience. Chances are, recruiters won't even get to page two -- but if you absolutely must bleed onto another page, then definitely don't exceed two.

If you're having trouble cutting your resume down, think about tip #13 and make sure any outdated or irrelevant work experience is cut. You might also consider cutting your education section if you're more than five years out of college or have a lot of solid, relevant experience.

21) When you pair it with unprofessional email copy.

There are a lot of jobs out there that ask people to apply via email. But think about how many emails those recruiters get. Do you think they actually open the resumes in every single one of those emails?

Not a chance. What you write in that email will make a huge difference in whether or not the person you send it to actually opens your resume and gives you a shot. That's why you have to spend time crafting an email that's concise, professional, and makes you sound appropriately enthusiastic about the position.

Your subject line should make it totally clear what the content of your email is -- something like "Application: Content Writer".

As for the email itself, clearly state the position name and team you're applying for. Write 1–3 sentences explaining why you think you're good for the position and why you're excited about the role. Then, end with something like, "I've attached my resume in case you'd like to learn more about my background and experiences. Feel free to contact me by email or phone [give phone number here] with any questions. Thanks for taking the time to read my application."

And finally, don't forget to name your resume attachment something clear and professional, like Kolowich-Resume-HubSpot.

If you've gotten this far and your resume is clear of all these things, then you're ready to send it in. Good luck with your search! (P.S. We're hiring.)

What do you absolutely hate seeing on a resume? Share with us in the comments.

via HubSpot Marketing Blog http://bitly.com/2a1SYbP

7 Foolproof Ways to Pitch Inbound Marketing to Your Nonprofit Organization

We understand: change is difficult in the nonprofit world.

Everything takes time, and many projects require approval from multiple levels of superiors. It may seem daunting to suggest a change of course. In the case of inbound marketing, though, the change is worth fighting for.

Here are seven talking points to convince your team that your organization needs to adopt inbound marketing. And, for a more in-depth look, check our our ebook, "A Crash Course on Inbound Marketing for Nonprofits."

1) "It's becoming easier and easier for people to avoid our calls and emails. Let's create content that people will seek out themselves."

Between caller ID and smart email filters, it's increasingly difficult to reach your audiences. Plus, phone calls often disrupt people's days. How can you reach the greatest number of people you want to be talking to? 

Create great content.

Great content acts as a magnet for your website. Your constituents will come to you when they’re looking to get involved, and your donors will approach you when they’re ready to contribute. You won't have to worry about reaching them at a time that's convenient for them.

2) "We'll produce a body of knowledge that shows off our expertise in an accessible way, becoming a trusted source of information in the process."

Creating written content that drives traffic to your site requires you to frame your ideas, projects, and initiatives in a manner that the average citizen can understand. Showcasing your expertise and your ability to connect with donors, volunteers, or members is crucial to building a broad base of support. 

When information is accessible to constituents, they'll be far more trusting of your organization and its ability to allocate resources honestly. They’ll also become more informed on the challenges surrounding your cause.

3) "Creating this content will force us to think deeply about what our beneficiaries, volunteers, and donors actually want and need."

In order to craft content that will drive website engagement, you first need to consider what your desired audience is looking for. In the process, you'll break through surface to really understand their day-to-day goals and challenges as well as objections to your platform and initiatives.

Take the process of drafting a case study—one of the most compelling forms of content that serves to convince new donors and volunteers to join your cause. Putting together a case study requires you to go out and get to know the people you’re serving and their stories of struggle.

Research, writing, and repackaging your ideas in accessible formats like case studies are activities that will make your team more introspective. By keeping the focus on who you're serving, you'll inevitably serve their needs better.

4) "When budgets get tight, we'll be prepared."

You're all too familiar with shoestring budgets, and if you’re in a managerial position, you understand the difficulty of deciding whether it’s worth it to spend a bit more on paid advertising int the hopes of bringing in more donations.

The success of most traditional marketing campaigns directly corresponds with the amount of resources (both human and financial) at one's disposal. Think about it this way: when you purchase a print ad, online ad, or billboard, you're really renting that rectangle of space. 

Wouldn't you rather build up an arsenal of material that you own?

When you own something, you have it forever and you can repurpose it as often as you'd like. Sounds like a compelling argument for creating content.

Inevitably, a recession will arrive, and it will be hard to commit to spending large sums on advertising. If you're forced to cut staff, the output of phone banks and other forms of outreach will be lower.

Protect yourself against market downturns by proactively creating a wealth of resources that bring in the most relevant visitors possible and require little manpower for maintenance.

(Not to mention that writing is free!)

5) "Instead of making a one-way request for support, we’ll already have provided them with value at the moment when they see our CTAs.”

When people are attracted to your website for the content it contains, they'll come in knowing that you have something to offer them: knowledge, a unique perspective, or inspiration. It won't be a one-way request for support, funds, or volunteer hours—instead, it will be a genuine exchange of ideas, something that benefits both you and them.

6) “It opens the door to connecting with our community in a new way.”

A crucial part of any inbound strategy is social media amplification of content. It might seem counterintuitive to create a Facebook page or Twitter profile for an agency in sector that is traditionally a serious one, but if you're looking to engage with the widest range of people possible, social media is the best way to amplify your impact. 

You can't ignore the pervasiveness of social media in our 21st-century lives. Social media is where many people get their news now since they check it so often. By staying off the platform, you're bound to be sacrificing the chance to connect with a critical portion of your constituency. 

At their core, social media platforms are mediums for engagement and conversation. They're the perfect place to connect with people and share your message. If you can show that you understand digital trends and that you’re willing to share updates, engage with other industry players, and correspond with community members, you’ll seem far more accessible - and garner more support.

7) “We’ll be able to keep track of how we’ve engaged with different people much more easily since it’s tech-based.”

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of inbound is the power it affords you in tracking how various people have interacted with your materials. Organizing your inbound efforts allows you to pinpoint exactly which methods are most effective at targeting certain demographics.

Similarly, tracking improves efficiency. Overtime, you’ll be able to see who responds well to your content and spend time reaching out to those people. Inbound gives you valuable insight into the workings of your audience’s minds, allowing you to avoid aimlessly sending out emails to and calling thousands of people.

Trying Out These Talking Points

These talking points are just some ideas to get you thinking about how to get buy-in for change at your organization. To help structure your conversation, take a look at our free kit on selling inbound to your board --in includes a customizable PPT presentation that your team will love, and more.  

via HubSpot Marketing Blog http://bitly.com/2aA7zt4

101 Marketing Ideas to Help You Generate More Business [Free Ebook]

Planning, organizing, and executing a full-blown marketing strategy is no easy feat. However, there are tons of creative ways to generate more business for your company without overhauling your entire marketing strategy.

By focusing on smaller aspects of your marketing at a time, making changes to your marketing strategy is much more realistic. For example, you might take advantage of an upcoming holiday and run a campaign around it, test out new a marketing email template, offer a new type of loyalty program, or make it your goal to up your social media presence. There are tons of untapped opportunities waiting for you to take action on.

That's why we combined brainpower with Square to bring you a list of 101 Marketing Ideas to Generate More Business. Whether you're just starting up your business or simply looking for new, creative ideas to generate new business, these 101 ideas are just what your business needs.

What's inside?

• Tips on aligning your sales and marketing efforts.
• Tips on engaging with the community and marketing for your customer's desires.
• Ideas to improve your social media and email marketing automation.
• Different things to test out for your business to see what works.
• A variety of different marketing ideas for brick and mortar locations as well as e-commerce stores.
• How to create and promote high-quality content.

Download your copy today by clicking here.

via HubSpot Marketing Blog http://bitly.com/2a1G6m2

7 Common Mistakes That Make Clients Ignore Your Emails

Every day, 112.4 billion business emails fly around the world. That's 122 emails sent and received every day per person. Despite the growth of other online communication channels, email continues to multiply. Which means people (including client-type people) are searching for reasons to ignore emails that don't need their attention so they can focus on messages and tasks that do.

If your clients are responding in a timely manner, or not responding at all, the problem may well be that your emails are terrible. 

7 Common Email Mistakes That Cause Clients to Ignore You

1) Not Being Clear and Specific About What You Want

What is the purpose of your email? Have you made it obvious to the reader? Perhaps people you email don't reply back to you because they don't know you're expecting anything back from them.

Whatever you need -- a decision, a file, a commitment -- ask for it, and let them know by when you need it. If no response is needed because you're just sharing an update, let them know that too.

You might think you’re asking for exactly what you need, but people still aren't responding. Keep reading. Can they find your request amid everything else in the rest of your email? Do they know you're expecting them, not someone else, to act?

2) TL;DR – Too Long; Didn't Read

We've all gotten these emails. When we see massive blocks of text, we feel exhausted just at the thought of having to parse it for whatever is important. You're not reading them. Why do you expect your clients to?

Excise the fluff. Get rid of all the qualifier words, such as I was hoping, if you could, when you have some time, etc.

You can also remove the extensive retelling of whatever the broader issue is. Definitely, provide enough context in your email so the recipient knows what you're talking about, but only as it relates to the specific need of this email. And keep it brief.

Whatever you're writing, use shorter sentences and simpler words. If you absolutely must write a lot, use short paragraphs, bullet lists, and white space to avoid the appearance of a word tsunami.

3) Copying Too Many People

There are two main dangers to copying too many people on your emails when it comes to getting an answer.

First, no one is responding or getting you what you need because they're assuming someone else on the thread is taking care of it. Call it a permutation of the "bystander effect."

Second, copying too many people is an email habit. If you do it, you probably do it a lot. Which means you've taught people that you often send emails that aren't relevant to them or need their response. You've trained them to put your emails in the low priority category.

4) Sending too Many Emails or Prolonging Email Threads

Closely related to copying too many people, constantly sending emails or irrelevant reply emails, teaches people the same lesson. Everyone has someone's name they dread seeing pop up in their inbox. Don't be that person.

If you want clients to respond to your emails, make sure your emails are substantive.

 

5) Bad Subject Lines

The rules of email marketing apply to business email. A great email buried under a rotten subject line isn't going to get the attention it deserves. Your email subject lines need to be concise and action-oriented.

Since so many people are sorting through emails on their phones, write your subject lines to work on mobile as well. The same applies to the first line of your email. If that is all they see in a preview pane (on mobile or desktop), use it to give them a reason to keep reading.

Here's a nice refresher on how to write a five star subject line.

6) Bad Manners

Writing short and direct emails doesn't require forsaking all forms of civilized behavior. An email that says nothing but "send me ebook feedback today" is direct and concise. But who wants to respond to that?

Basic letter etiquette still applies, like including a greeting and a sign-off. Email also has its own etiquette worth following, so lose the ALL CAPS. Also, people are seriously put off by bad grammar in emails.

People like helping out nice people. So be nice.

7) Email Wasn't the Right Mode of Communication

We have lots of ways to communicate with clients -- email is merely one option. For some needs, it's not the best option. Quick questions may be better suited to text or a chat app. Some issues require a thoughtful, give-and-take discussion that email can't accommodate. It may be worth it to pick up the phone or have a video chat. This is especially true if the discussion will involve a number of people.

We have a number of social technologies that provide alternate means of communication. Your goal is to get a response, not another email. Before sending the email, consider if it's the communication method that will most efficiently get you what you need.

via HubSpot Marketing Blog http://bitly.com/2adNtYX

How images like #DonDaleKids let us 'perform' our shock and outrage

What the Heck is Thought Leadership Anyway?

Let’s all ask ourselves a really dumb question that’s less dumb than you might think: what on Earth is thought leadership?

Look. I get it. We’re all inbound marketers here. We were all trained to do this. We’ve got the certifications and we’ve taken the courses and we’ve been in the trenches. We know what thought leadership is: it’s about building up a great reputation by giving your expertise away so that people think of your business first. It’s about being the last word on a subject. Basically, it’s about turning your clients into Steve Jobs.

We’ve all heard that exact comparison made before. Apple has thought leadership. There might have been better smartphones than Apple's, but the iPhone is the one you think of first. Steve set the stage, built the category, and developed a reputation for being the guy with his finger on the pulse of technology and how we interact with it as we live our lives.

And all we have to do is turn our clients into Steve Jobs.

So take a second and reflect on how insane an expectation that is. No matter who we are, no matter who our clients are, we have to make them the Steve Jobs of their industry. The Steve Jobs of pest control. The Steve Jobs of foundation inspection. The Steve Jobs of real estate. The Steve Jobs of industrial cleaning services.

If this is how we’re thinking about thought leadership, we are setting ourselves an impossible task. Thought leadership needs to be something else on a practical, day-to-day level, consonant with reasonable, achievable goals.

So now the question doesn’t seem so dumb. If thought leadership isn’t turning your local party planning company into the Steve Jobs of Event Production, what the heck is it?

Thought leadership is establishing a client as someone reliable, not about blazing a path forward into the future.

The key figure you’re looking for here isn’t Steve Jobs; it’s the Orkin Man. Nobody is asking the Orkin Man about the bold new future of pest control. Nobody is expecting him to transform the industry by rethinking about the way humans and pests interact, turning it into a productive partnership. And nobody – nobody – is reading the Orkin Man’s blog on a regular basis, waiting eagerly for the next post about summer roach breeding.

What they are doing is turning right to him when they need help. Because they know they can trust that name. That’s thought leadership. It’s what Apple and the Orkin Man have in common: they’re the standard by which others are judged, and that means different things to different industries, and as long as we’re fixated on the Steve Jobs model, we’ll go about it all wrong.

I can’t tell you the conversations I’ve had where we’ve tried to zero in on a way to make some perfectly respectable local business into a Total Game Changer. And why not? I mean, that would drive a lot of inbound traffic. But it’s not a reasonable expectation or a meaningful goal.

So it’s time to think about how to make your clients the Orkin Man for their market: the first person they think of, not because they’ve set out to reinvent the wheel, but because they’re well-known for making great wheels to begin with. And the thing is that it’s actually really hard to do.

Reputation is something you can help along, but it’s not something you can create out of whole cloth. The reason Steve Jobs was who Steve Jobs was, frankly, was because he was Steve Jobs. You build a reputation for reliability by being reliable. You build a reputation for excellence by being excellent. What we can do as marketers is simply make it easier for that reputation to spread. Our job is to facilitate, not to create; it’s to smooth the path, not design the map.

What it’s really all about is positioning.

Let me work with a practical example. Imagine a client that’s a software company offering enterprise-level solutions within a tightly regulated marketplace. They aren’t out there reinventing the wheel; what they do is iterative improvements that always make their clients’ day-to-day operations smoother.

Establishing thought leadership means figuring out what kind of company they wanted to be seen as – a software consultancy that knows their market inside and out – and providing opportunities for their leadership team to engage with potential clients.

It means one-on-one engagement within a small, tight business community where they could demonstrate their expertise and experience. It means providing the sales collateral support to help them back up their claims. It means putting the pieces in place for meetings to happen by getting the right information about their leads.

Above all, it means making sure people get the opportunity to experience their thought leadership.

See, that’s not the same thing as being Steve Jobs. It’s not going out there and transforming the world. It’s just about making sure everyone knows your client is the best who needs to know. Whatever that means for your client’s industry.

For a pizza place, it’s about making sure you’re getting press and providing opportunities for people to try your pizza. For a shoe manufacturer, it means getting endorsements and demonstrating that you make a better shoe for a specific use. It’s always different, and that’s always something you need to sit down and think about: what is thought leadership for this business?

There’s no one-and-done easy-fit solution that matches every company. And the sooner we recognize that, the sooner we can start actually helping build up that thought leadership we love talking so much about.

via HubSpot Marketing Blog http://bitly.com/2amUy7V

How to Become a More Productive Writer: 7 Helpful Tips

The simple dream of most writers is being able to write more. And it’s not only writing more, it’s writing effortlessly.

But it's not just authors or professional writers who dream of this. These days, a lot of marketing roles will require you to dust of your writing skills at one point or another. And there’s nothing worse than simply not being able to write -- especially when the pressure of a deadline is looming over your head.

Yes, we’ve all been there.

That's why this past January I decided that I was done with crawling over the finish line with my work in hand. I was done with the pressure. I knew there was a better way to write.

So I set out to find some answers. Here's what I learned in the process ...

How to Become a More Productive Writer: 7 Helpful Tips

1) Find the right tools.

My immediate goal was to help shape my productivity and measure my writing. To do so, I started to treat my computer like a toolbox. Every application that I called on had the ability to influence my performance -- both for better and for worse.

To measure my productivity, I started using a time management tool called RescueTime.

I do all of my writing in Google Docs and RescueTime gives me a weekly report of the amount of hours I’ve spent using Google Docs. Simply put, the more time spent in Google Docs, the more words I am likely to write.

The tool also makes it easy to set goals, track your progress, and understand your productivity patterns -- which proved helpful during this process.

Similar to RescueTime, Grammarly-- a writing-enhancement platform -- will give you a report detailing the number of words you've written in a given week. For this reason, I started using the tool to measure my progress.

Here’s a sample of the data I collected on my journey to improve my writing:

When I was feeling like I couldn't write another word, I pulled up this data to remind myself of how far I'd come. I could write another word. In fact, I could probably write a couple thousand more words if I pushed myself.

2) Find your biological prime time.

Brainpicking’s "writer’s timetable" clearly illustrates the correlation between writers' wake-up times and their level of productivity. After checking this out, I decided that I wanted to capture something similar: a set time of the day to focus on writing.

To do this, I knew that I needed to first figure out when my optimum output would be -- in terms of both quality and quantity. For instance, it’s no good waking up early to write something if your best work comes out a night -- or vice versa.

So how do you figure out where you stand? Quite simply, you just run some productivity tests on yourself. To do so, I picked up some tips from productivity expert Chris Bailey. In this blog post, Bailey outlines a process for finding your "biological prime time" -- a term coined by Sam Carpenter in his book Work the System.

He explains how he kept track of his energy, focus, and motivation levels for 21 days straight. Here's a look at what he saw:

Image Credit: A Life of Productivity

After about a month of duplicating this type of testing on myself, I found that my productivity arch would run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and my best work would normally come out between 10:00 a.m. - 12:00. p.m.

Now that I had this information, I could use this daily window to focus on my writing when it mattered most. Additionally, knowing this helped me stop feeling so guilty when I found myself unable to produce anything meaningful after 3 p.m. because I knew it just wasn't the right time for me to get work done.

3) Experiment with journaling.

Tim Ferriss has an insightful post on his morning journal that got me thinking. Almost every morning Ferriss sits down with a cup of tea and takes time to write in The Artist’s Way: Morning Pages Journal, a book by Julia Cameron. He uses this as a daily practice of production.

Here's an excerpt from one of his entries:

Image Credit: Tim Ferriss

This was the exact remedy I was looking for. I realized that writing perfectly wasn’t the goal ... it was to just get writing.

So I began my way to a better morning routine.

This was an easy prescription: I bought a cheap notebook and I kept it in my bag. I'd write in it every weekday while on the train heading into the office.

When I was writing, I'd focus on two areas:

• What’s worrying me in my personal life.
• What’s worrying me in my working life.

To round off the journaling and get myself in a positive frame of mind, I'd write three things that I was grateful for that day -- a trick stolen from The Five-Minute Journal.

(Check out this post for more on the power of morning freewriting.)

4) Work offline to avoid problems.

We’re in a world dominated by notifications, and that little red dot can be seductive to us at our weakest moments.

Avoiding the temptation to browse around online -- whether it’s Slack channels, social media sites, or your inbox -- can be really tough. For me, it was especially hard to avoid Slack, as the company I work for, Kayako, is spread across the globe with remote workers and two main offices in England and India.

So while I had to use Slack for internal communication purposes, it was serving as a big distraction. With people pulling me in numerous directions all day long, there was a lot of task switching going on. And all that task switching has a dramatic impact on the quality and quantity of work you produce.

In fact, research shows that multitaskers:

• Experience a 40% drop in productivity
• Take 50% longer to accomplish a single task
• Make up to 50% more errors

Not to mention, task switching reduces our chances of finding our flow. And as writers, finding your flow is necessary: Did you know it takes around 23 minutes to return to a task after you're interrupted?

So while you don’t have to go as far as Samuel Huelick -- who wrote this “break up letter" to Slack -- clearly stating to your team you’re going offline for a couple of hours can help you regain control and focus. Give it a try.

5) Set deadlines.

Almost everyone procrastinates -- especially when it comes to things that have no deadline. You know, things you've always wanted to do, but never had to do -- like traveling, or starting a business, or getting in shape, or writing a book.

Don't believe in the power of deadlines? I'd encourage you to allow Tim Urban’s comical (yet drilling) TED Talk about procrastination sink in before you make that call ...

During my journey to become a better writer, the importance of deadlines became even clearer to me. And while there is research out there that suggests self-imposed deadlines don't cut it, this practice has helped me push through work and hit goals time and time again. After all, Parkinson's Law states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for it's completion."

I put my deadline rule to the rest when I found out my company was hiring a content marketing manager -- a role I knew I was interested in. To declare my interest in the job, I set up a couple of meetings and worked directly with our director of marketing to come up with a goal-oriented checklist of things to achieve to secure the role.

One task on that list? Producing an ebook on customer service team hiring ... which I gave myself one week to draft.

And guess what? I got it done.

Would I have been able to write the ebook if I hadn't publicly held myself accountable? Probably not -- in fact, it could have easily taken me a month.

Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, explains that publicly committing to a time frame for completion can be an incredibly powerful motivator. When you tell others that you're going to do X by Y time, your reputation is on the line.

"It's a good way to keep score," he told The New York Times.

6) Structure your work accordingly.

One habit I’ve managed to overcome when writing blog posts is omitting structure. Before I used to wait for inspiration to kick in on a subject and charge full speed ahead into my writing until I’d hit the inevitable roadblock and couldn’t write any more.

Now I commit to creating a blog post structure before I even write my first word. I designate 20-30 minutes to plan, and focus my structure on capturing three essential parts:

• The audience and their view/perspective.
• Best practices powered by research and supporting material.
• The actionable takeaway.

Of course, there are different ways to approach this type of structural outline -- for example, Copyblogger recommends the MAP technique or the S.P.E.E.D. approach -- but I'll leave that up to you. The important thing is that you're putting a plan in place before you get started, as this extra step can do wonders for your productivity.

7) Get feedback throughout the process.

As a writer, having someone else look over your blog can be one of the most helpful things when you're starting to feel stuck. A fresh set of eyes can help you identify gaps in your post that you'd likely overlook, and getting this type of feedback early on could mean the difference between putting out something impressive and having to trash your post entirely.

At Kayako, we use a three-step editing process that works particularly well for putting out high quality content:

• First round of edits: Structural.
• Second round of edits: Core content and insight.
• Third round of edits: Spelling and grammar.

But before we dive into that process, we review articles as a team in a weekly editor's meeting to screen for quality, identify opportunities for improvement, and so on.

If it sounds like a lot ... that's because it is. But it's that level of detail that makes it easier for our writer's to complete a piece that they're proud of -- without spending a lifetime on it.

Remember: It's easy to get lost in a post that you've been working on for a while. Rather than wasting time trying to determine what's missing on your own, ask for that feedback upfront. Trust me, it's worth it.

Ready to Get More Writing Done?

Getting better at writing doesn’t have to happen right at once. I’ve been optimizing my writing by experimenting with an array of different techniques over the past six months -- it’s only now that I feel like I am near my best.

You can start with any of these techniques listed above and incorporate them into your day to make you more efficient as a writer. There is no set methodology. Just try a few strategies out until you find what works best for you.

via HubSpot Marketing Blog http://bitly.com/2aaZzSE