Day: September 12, 2024

I am having a problem understanding the following ...

I am an okay web developer. I am not great. But I want to make money from my skills.
Having said that, when I go to websites like Freelancer to search for a project to work on everyone is asking for an exceptional developer and they pay very little. I don't know how are average joey's make it in this business.

What is your take on this?

A good pitch deck is designed for specifically one thing – to help your startup get funding from investors. But how do you stand out from the crowd, and make a memorable impression?

There’s a delicate balance to creating a deck with just enough slides to entice potential funders, without providing so much information that they are overwhelmed.

Most pitch decks contain less than 20 slides. So how do you create a pitch deck design that stands out? Here are our ten tips to help you get started.

1. Pick a Template or Palette

Whether you are designing a pitch deck from scratch or starting with a template, you need to stick to a visual theme. Slides should have a consistent color and type palette as well as design elements, such as page number or a header/footer.

Streamline your deck to a handful of slide types that fit your content so that the design is consistent from the first to the final slide.

In most cases, a simple pitch deck template is the best option. Look for something with darker text on a light or white background. This color combination is easy to read on screens or in darker rooms when projected onto a wall. (It also makes for easy printing if you want to provide a handout copy to meeting participants.)

2. Use Your Branding

By the time you are ready to talk with investors, you should have a simple brand established. This includes a logo or wordmark and basic color palette. It should also include a list of keywords that you use to talk about your business.

Use all of this in your pitch deck. As you create a slide design, make sure the template incorporates your colors and branding.

These visual elements can make a lasting impression. Make it count.

And don’t make this mistake. Too often, pitch decks “save” the branding as a surprise for the end of the presentation. Don’t. Use your brand throughout so that it starts to stick with the people you are talking to. Give them more opportunity to fall in love with your idea, brand, and company.

3. Include Charts to Simplify Content

Pitch decks are packed with heavy content, including plenty of numbers.

Use charts to simplify this content. Are you experiencing revenue growth? Chart it. A chart is an easy way to see and understand that information quickly. Plus, bar and pie charts are easy to create. (Just make sure to label everything clearly.)

Bonus tip: You can also use pie charts to highlight statistics, again making a text element more visual and understandable.

4. Use Stellar Images

Put forth the effort to get some great images for your pitch deck. Not stock images. Actual photos of your team, product or service.

You know that people are more likely to engage with an image than text and that goes for memory as well. A good image will stand out in someone’s memory longer than a slide full of words.

The challenge is that not everyone has a visual product or service. That’s where you’ll have to be a little more creative, show the team in action or create a diagram or illustration.

Don’t feel like you have to have an image on every slide if they get repetitive. Get a few images that best represent what you are selling with the pitch deck and stick to those. Scatter them strategically throughout the pitch deck.

5. Organize with Icons

Another visual element to consider is icons. These small illustrations can help organize complex ideas and provide visual flow throughout a single slide or the entire design.

Pick an icon set that matches your visual theme and use them to break up the copy, create a grouping, and keep the visual flow moving.

6. Try Tiled Layouts for Complex Information

When it comes to presenting complex information, consider a modular tiled layout style. Titles can help you break down information into smaller, more digestible parts.

These bite-sized bits can eliminate the need for using multiple slides for a handful of facts or figures as well.

Design tiles with color blocks or use icons in each to establish different pieces of content visually.

7. Use Professional Headshots for Team Members

If you plan to include images of your team in the pitch deck (many companies do), invest in professional headshots so that photos are consistent and represent your startup brand well.

This isn’t to say they have to be boring. Photos with personality are acceptable, but all team headshots should be in the same style with similar coloring and backgrounds.

Think about the type of investor you are trying to get money from, what type of photo would appeal to them? Consider that for the style of your team headshots or group photo.

8. Create a Type Hierarchy

Just like with any other type of design, create a hierarchy for text elements.

• Title
• Header
• Secondary header or subhead
• Main body text
• Bulleted text
• Captions
• Infographic text
• Footer text

9. Design with Contrast in Mind

Every element in your pitch deck should include plenty of contrast against the background and other elements. Avoid the temptation to use a template where everything has a similar color or contrast, while these might look great on a screen, they can present readability issues and don’t often render well when projected or printed.

It’s important to balance modern design with readability. It is vital that potential investors understand everything about your startup company when they view the pitch deck. Don’t let “overdesigned” slides get in the way.

10. Get Creative with Text-Heavy Slides

There are some content types and information that will just seem heavy.

The history of your company or business trends, lists or SWOT analyses can get a little overwhelming on a slide. Use more visual formats with less focus on every actual work to communicate this information.

Try slides that use word cloud, timeline formats or XY graphs to present text-heavy or complex information in a more visual way. Even though these slides will still be somewhat thick, they’ll be easier to visually digest.

Conclusion

When creating your pitch deck, remember to keep your business goals in mind. Everything about the deck shows potential investors that you understand your company and business.

The design of your presentation communicates this as well. A professional, easy to understand deck is just one tool in the path of growing your startup.

Are you hoping to bypass overcrowded channels and engage your audience at the perfect moment? If your answer is yes, you may want to learn about Point-of-Need paid advertising opportunities.

Too many advertisers stick to the basics — they pour money into Google keywords, Facebook ads, maybe even a few billboards or podcast spots.

But here’s the problem: these channels are overcrowded, and the competition is fierce. Ultimately, you end up paying top dollar for less impact, and the returns are dwindling.

If you’re ready to set yourself further away from the competition and tap into advertising channels where your audience is actually engaged, it’s time to rethink your approach. As Kieran and I discuss in a recent episode of Marketing Against the Grain, one high-impact way to do that is Point-of-Need advertising.

In this post, we dig into exactly what Point-of-Need advertising is and how you can use it to cut through the advertising noise and capture your audience’s attention when it matters most.

What is Point-of-Need advertising and why does it matter?

I’ll be honest: Point-of-Need (PoN) advertising is a term I made up. But it’s a potent, actionable strategy that Kieran and I frequently use to maximize our ad spend.

Point-of-Need (PoN) advertising is a tactic that targets your audience at the exact moment they’re most engaged and in need of something — like getting online during a flight, waiting for a taxi ride, or while watching their favorite show.

Especially when traditional ads are becoming increasingly ignored or skipped over, PoN advertising hits when your audience is already laser-focused. So instead of fighting for attention in crowded channels, you’re placing your brand in front of people when they’re most receptive and primed to pay close attention.

This boosts engagement and increases the chances that your message will stick and drive real results.

3 Ways to Incorporate Point-of-Need Advertising Opportunities

Not sure how to get started with PoN advertising? Kieran and I have you covered.

Learn how to reshape your marketing plans with these three, high-impact approaches, along with resources from HubSpot’s Free Advertising Plan Kit.

Let’s dive in!

1. WiFi Sponsorships

One of the most effective PoN advertising opportunities is WiFi sponsorships in transportation, like in airports or on trains. In fact, one of HubSpot’s most successful ad campaigns for both brand awareness and conversion came from testing WiFi ads on airplanes.

We hypothesized that this type of advertising would hit people when and where they’re more attentive — and we were right.

Think about it: when people are on a plane, train, or subway, they’re stuck. They can’t leave, they’re looking for something to do, and most importantly, they want to get online.

If the ‘price’ of WiFi is watching a short ad, they’re going to watch it until they get access to what they wanted in the first place — and that’s what makes this such a powerful PoN moment.

2. Gig Marketplaces

Another untapped PoN opportunity is in-app ads on gig marketplace platforms like Lyft or DoorDash. These are moments when users are waiting for a time-dependent service — a ride, a delivery — and they’re again actively engaged with the app, waiting for a status update.

Take a look at the customer experience when using Uber, for example. When you open the app to call a ride, you’re immediately locked into the experience — checking the driver’s location, ETA, car description, and other details.

Suddenly, an app that was built for transportation transforms into a robust advertising platform. Yet again, this is because users are completely glued to their screens, willingly giving you their undivided attention, until they get the service they originally ordered.

3. Free or Low-Cost Streaming Services

A final, often overlooked, PoN opportunity is Over-the-Top (OTT) advertising on free or low-cost streaming services like Hulu or the ad-supported version of Peacock.

What’s particularly powerful about this strategy is that OTT allows you to reach viewers who are already open to consuming content. They’ve already settled in to watch an entire film or episode — so what’s another 30 seconds?

Plus, with free streaming services, users already expect ads as part of the experience, making them more likely to engage with your message because it’s a transparent part of the deal.

To learn more about accessing untapped advertising opportunities, check out the full episode of Marketing Against the Grain below:

This blog series is in partnership with Marketing Against the Grain, the video podcast. It digs deeper into ideas shared by marketing leaders Kipp Bodnar (HubSpot’s CMO) and Kieran Flanagan (SVP, Marketing at HubSpot) as they unpack growth strategies and learn from standout founders and peers.

Marketing is all about meeting people where they are — and more often than not, they're on social media. For this reason, it's crucial to invest in social product discovery.

In other words, use social media as a vehicle for consumers to discover your products.

Of course, not all social media platforms are created equal, especially when it comes to product discovery. So, if you're looking to pinpoint the platforms consumers use the most for product research, you've come to the right place.

Here, we'll dive into:

• What is shopper research?
• The top social media channels consumers use for product discovery
• Social Media Product Strategy Examples
• What types of content consumers watch and engage with
• Which platforms you should market your products on

Let's dive in.

Shopper research is critical for a better understanding of the customer journey from initial searches to website visits and eventual purchases.

Plus, the advent of digital- and mobile-first interactions has made this research even more important as the customer journey now includes multiple paths and touchpoints from start to finish.

For example, prospective buyers might hear about your brand from a friend, do their research on social media, and then interact with your e-commerce store through their mobile device.

Understanding all touchpoints along this journey can help companies create more seamless and streamlined experiences for consumers and increase overall ROI.

The Top Social Media Channels Consumers Use For Product Discovery

26% of consumers prefer to discover new products via social media, according to HubSpot's 2024 State of Consumer Trends Report. Let's take a closer look at the channels they leverage for product discovery:

Gen Z

40% of Gen Z have discovered new products on social media in the past three months, and 41% say it's their preferred channel for discovering new products. 

Almost half (48%) of Gen Z consumers prefer to discover new products via short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels. Moreover, almost a third of Gen Z respondents say TikTok is their favorite app.

Millennials

The divide between Millennials and Gen Z seems to be narrowing in terms of how and where they discover new products. Like Gen Z, the majority of Millennials in our survey (43%) say they've discovered a new product via social media in the past three months. 

Furthermore, 47% prefer discovering new products on social media via short-form videos like Instagram Reels, TikToks, and YouTube Shorts. 

"Social media allows me to see the products in context," says consumer and HubSpot Marketing Manager Erica Santiago. "Whether it's an influencer or creator using the product or someone demonstrating how to use it—short-form videos allow me to quickly assess how a product works and if I want to buy it."

Gen X

Gen X discovers new products on social media at the same rate as Gen Z, with 40% saying they've discovered a new product on social media in the last 3 months.

And like both Millennials and Gen Z, the majority of Gen X (36%) prefers short-form videos when it comes to finding new products on social media.

Baby Boomers

Social media falls flat for boomers—only a slim 20% have discovered a product on it in the past three months, and only 8% prefer purchasing a product through that medium.

That said, of those who use social media (43%) prefer discovering new products via social media marketplaces where purchases happen off the app. An example would be Facebook Marketplace. 

Social Media Product Strategy Examples

1. Dizzy With Excitement 

Dizzy With Excitement is a wallpaper brand known for its quirky and artistic designs.

To bring awareness to its brand, DWE collaborates with other creators and brands that focus on off-the-wall designs by incorporating those designs into the wallpaper. The brand then promotes these collaborations via short-form video platforms like TikTok. 

For example, DWE collaborated with TikToker Kaarin Joy, who specializes in unique, whimsical home DIY projects. DWE created wallpaper based on Joy's DIY projects, and Joy showed on TikTok the wallpaper being displayed in her home, tagging DWE in her posts.

2. Heidi Daus

Heidi Daus is a brand specializing in dazzling, sparkly statement jewelry. While the brand doesn't have an official TikTok, it's starting to leverage TikTok by collaborating with creators like Andrea's Fashion Galaxy.

Andrea is a content creator focusing on fashion and style inspiration, and she often refers to herself as a magpie due to her love for shiny clothes and accessories.

So, it made sense Heidi Daus would collaborate with Andrea, who styles a few outfits around the shiny jewelry pieces. The video also features an exclusive discount code viewers can use to buy from the brand. 

Both Heidi Daus and Dizzy With Excitement are great examples of leveraging social media with influencer marketing.

3. Fenty Beauty 

Makeup brand Fenty Beauty is known for leveraging influencer marketing in its strategy, which makes sense considering its founder and owner is one of the most influential pop stars in the world—Rihanna! 

However, Fenty Beauty added something else to its social media strategy—creating its own TikTok filter! TikTok allows creators to create their own filters and share them with other users.

Doing so sparks trends and encourages people to make and share more content using the filter.

In July, Fenty Beauty launched a TikTok filter called its "Lip Combo Generator." The generator cycles through pairs of Fenty lip liners and Fenty lipsticks before generating a combo that appears on the user's lips.

This filter promotes different Fenty products and allows users to see which combo works for them. 

When leveraging different social media platforms, think of clever ways the platform's in-house tools can help you promote your products and give your audience and idea of how it would work for them.

For example, if you're a clothing brand, considering making a filter matching different items to the viewer. 

4. Gibson 

Iconic guitar manufacturing company Gibson Guitar leverages Instagram to promote its latest guitars and amps. Specifically, the brand leans into the art of videography and photography, displaying its productvia s crisp, clean, professional videos and photos. 

Most of the top performing videos feature professional videos of musicians playing the instruments or a carousel of photos highlighting the look and craftsmanship of the products. 

What types of product content do consumers watch or engage with?

If you're looking to leverage social media, it's a good idea to know what types of branded content consumers enjoy.

More than half of consumers (52%) find funny content the most memorable, followed by content showcasing the brand's products via demos, teasers, etc.

Facebook

Facebook has a whopping 3.07 billion monthly active users and has been around since the early 2000s. Most importantly, it provides many opportunities for consumers to discover new products. 

Free Promotion

By now, you probably know that any company can create a Facebook Business Page. Once you create a business page, you can share posts about your products and offerings.

If you have happy customers, you can even ask them to review your business on Facebook so prospects researching you can see how you've pleased your customers in the past.

In addition to creating a page to highlight your brand, you can also post your products on Facebook's Marketplace.

Although individual users often use the Marketplace to sell items they no longer want to other people, Facebook Business pages are also eligible to use this feature.

Our consumer trends survey found that a third of consumers prefer discovering new products via social media marketplaces where purchases happen outside the app. 

Marketplace listings can include product shots, pricing, product specifications, and purchasing information. You should also consider talking about your products or offerings on Facebook Stories.

This might take a little extra effort because it will require you to film or create content in the Story format, but it can help you better connect with prospective buyers who want a better sense of what your brand is about.

Paid Promotion

Because Facebook's feed algorithmically favors posts from individual accounts over businesses, you might decide that you want to put money into Facebook Ads.

Facebook Ads has a solid track record. It's estimated that Facebook Ads can help marketers reach as many as 2.249 billion users. 

With Facebook Ads, you can create advertisements with a certain goal in mind, such as conversions or in-store foot traffic. The detailed ads software also allows you to target specific audience demographics.

As a Facebook advertiser, you can either promote a post you've already created to ensure that it shows up on feeds of users in your demographic, or you can create native ads that might show up in feeds or on Facebook's sidebars. 

While promoted posts look like an average post with a simple tag stating they're promoted, the native ads look more like traditional ads to make it clear to users that the content they're seeing is paid for.

If you want to launch video-based ads, Facebook also allows you to promote video content or buy in-stream ad placements that appear in Facebook Live videos or longer videos that other users have uploaded.

YouTube

YouTube is also popular across multiple age groups. In the last three months, 68% of Millennials have visited YouTube, followed by 69% of Gen Z, and 65% of Gen X. More than half of Baby Boomers (51%) have used YouTube in the last three months.

With a branded YouTube channel, you can publish video content such as demos, tutorials, or customer testimonial videos that give insightful details about why your product is valuable.

By filming your own videos, you can insure that you're highlighting all the great aspects of your product that make it stand out from its competitors.

Alternatively, if you don't have time to create your own videos, sponsoring an influencer's content, tutorial, or review related to your product allows you to tap into that content creator's audience as they tell their followers more about your offerings.

Aside from creating your own account or hiring an influencer to give a review or tutorial, you could also consider paid advertisements. YouTube offers a few ad styles including TrueView, Preroll, and Bumpers.

These ads allow you to submit a short video ad to YouTube which is then placed at the beginning or in the middle of videos with metrics and demographics that match your brand's target.

It's worth noting that almost a quarter of consumers in our survey (24%) say they have discovered new products via YouTube ads in the past three months.

To learn the ins and outs of setting up an ad and determining which style is right for you, check out this guide.

Instagram

Instagram is an excellent platform if you're targeting Gen-Z or millennials who make up the platform's primary audience.

For years, Instagram's visual layout has made it a hot spot for influencer marketing. Influencers regularly post sponsored photos and videos about their experiences with products.

Like YouTube, these influencers also regularly publish video posts or Stories that present tutorials, reviews, and unboxings related to a product.

Aside from influencer marketing, many brands also promote their products on Instagram Stories, Instagram Live, and through standard video or photo posts on Instagram Feed.

Here's an example where Kylie Jenner, the CEO and Founder of Kylie Cosmetics, films a Story-based product tutorial for her company's Instagram account:

Along with free strategies, Instagram offers Shoppable posts. With Shoppable posts, you can promote a product in an Instagram post that links to your Facebook Catalog. Here's an example of what a Shoppable Post looks like:

Here's a blog post that goes into detail about how to use and optimize Shoppable posts.

Pinterest

Pinterest encourages people to pin image-based posts that inspire them to digital boards, mimicking the process of creating a physical inspiration board.

Because people come to this platform to be inspired to do something, such as travel or home decorating, they might find themselves pinning all sorts of product-oriented images on a themed board.

For example, someone who wants to redecorate their office might create an "Office Inspiration" board and pin photos of furniture or decorative items that they'd like to buy.

Here's an example of what these boards look like:

To make it easier for people to find your products, you could consider starting a Pinterest account and making a few boards to highlight your products. Even better, you can leverage Pinterest's product pins feature and create shippable posts like you would on Instagram. 

To give you a real-world example of how brands use Pinterest, below is a board created by Anthropologie called AnthroLiving, which features shippable posts featuring the brand's home decor products. 

If you have an advertising budget, you can also consider launching pay-per-click ads on Pinterest. Pinterest Ads enables your posts to be seen by people in a specific demographic that matches your own.

The platform also allows you to A/B test photos and target ads to Pinterest users on your contact lists.

Want to learn more about Pinterest Ads and effective experiments to run? Check out this blog post from a PPC and Pinterest expert.

Reddit

Reddit encourages users to create discussion threads in themed online communities, called subreddits. As the platform has evolved, many users have created both threads and subreddits devoted to talking about products, like fast-food restaurants or video games.

Below is an example of a subreddit, or online community, that Reddit users created to talk about all things related to Xbox One.

However, because comments with promotional language in them often get downvoted or buried in feeds by more engaging Reddit threads, you'll need to be creative if you want to engage with audiences on this platform.

While you might want to keep an eye on Reddit or experiment with it, don't put all of your time and resources into it — at least right now.

As it evolves, the platform may become an easier platform to market your brand on, but at the moment, Reddit marketing strategies still require more brainstorming and time than tactics on other social platforms.

Although this platform has been called one of the "trickiest" for marketers to crack, some bigger brands have figured out how to reach the platform's discussion-oriented users.

For example, some brands will create subreddits related to their product, while others will interact by commenting on threads related to their industry.

Aside from creating content for free on Reddit, you can alternatively pay for sponsored posts or ads, similar to Facebook or Twitter. These ads will appear in a user's feed or as a promoted comment in a thread or subreddit.

To learn more about the ins and outs of Reddit marketing, click here for tips and examples of how other brands have cultivated the platform.

Identifying the Right Platforms for Product Marketing

While running ads and product promotions on any social platform can help drive conversion, it’s a good idea to focus on platforms with audiences that already align well with your brand.

For example, broader audiences are actively looking for products or researching brands on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest while Reddit users tend to be more trend-focused.

Similarly, if you're marketing a B2B company, you might see a better ROI from ads on a professional network — like LinkedIn — than ads on a more consumer-friendly platform like Instagram.

Use the information provided above, and start leveraging social media for lead conversion and product marketing.

This article is a sponsored by Luzmo

In this article, I’ll introduce you to Luzmo Flex, a new feature from the Luzmo team who have been working hard making developer tooling to flatten the on-ramp for analytics reporting and data visualization.

With Luzmo Flex, you can hook up a dataset and create beautifully crafted, fully customizable interactive charts that meet your reporting needs. They easily integrate and interact with other components of your web app, allowing you to move away from a traditional “dashboard” interface and build more bespoke data products.

While many charting libraries offer similar features, I often found it challenging to get the data into the right shape that the library needed. In this article, I’ll show you how you can build beautiful data visualizations using the Google Analytics API, and you won’t have to spend any time “massaging” the data!

Well, it’s two things, really. First of all, Luzmo is a low-code platform for embedded analytics. You can create datasets from just about anything, connect them to APIs like Google Analytics or your PostgreSQL database, or even upload static data in a .csv file and start creating data visualizations with drag and drop.

Secondly, Luzmo Flex is their new React component that can be configured to create custom data visualizations. Everything from the way you query your data to the way you display it can be achieved through code using the LuzmoVizItemComponent.

What makes Luzmo Flex unique is that you can reuse the core functionalities of Luzmo’s low-code embedded analytics platform in your custom-coded components.

That means, besides creating ready-to-use datasets, you can set up functions like the following out-of-the-box:

• Multi-tenant analytics: Showing different data or visualizations to different users of your app.
• Localization: Displaying charts in multiple languages, currencies, and timezones without much custom development.
• Interactivity: Set up event listeners to create complex interactivity between Luzmo’s viz items and any non-Luzmo components in your app.

What Can You Build With Luzmo Flex?

By combining these off-the-shelf functions with flexibility through code, Luzmo Flex makes a great solution for building bespoke data products that go beyond the limits of a traditional dashboard interface. Below are a few examples of what that could look like.

Report Builder

A custom report builder that lets users search and filter a dataset and render it out using a number of different charts.

Filter Panel

Enable powerful filtering using HTML Select inputs, which will update each chart shown on the page.

Wearables Dashboard

Or how about a sleep tracker hooked up to your phone to track all those important snoozes?

When building data-intensive applications, using something like Recharts, a well-known React charting library, you’ll likely need to reformat the data to fit the required shape. For instance, if I request the top 3 page views from the last seven days for my site, paulie.dev, I would have to use the Google Analytics API using the following query.

import dotenv from 'dotenv';
import { BetaAnalyticsDataClient } from '@google-analytics/data';
dotenv.config();

const credentials = JSON.parse(
  Buffer.from(process.env.GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS_BASE64, 'base64').toString('utf-8')
);

const analyticsDataClient = new BetaAnalyticsDataClient({
  credentials,
});

const [{ rows }] = await analyticsDataClient.runReport({
  property: properties/${process.env.GA4_PROPERTY_ID},
  dateRanges: [
    {
      startDate: '7daysAgo',
      endDate: 'today',
    },
  ],
  dimensions: [
    {
      name: 'fullPageUrl',
    },
    {
      name: 'pageTitle',
    },
  ],
  metrics: [
    {
      name: 'totalUsers',
    },
  ],
  limit: 3,
  metricAggregations: ['MAXIMUM'],
});

The response would look something like this:

[
  {
    "dimensionValues": [
      {
        "value": "www.paulie.dev/",
        "oneValue": "value"
      },
      {
        "value": "Paul Scanlon | Home",
        "oneValue": "value"
      }
    ],
    "metricValues": [
      {
        "value": "61",
        "oneValue": "value"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "dimensionValues": [
      {
        "value": "www.paulie.dev/posts/2023/11/a-set-of-sign-in-with-google-buttons-made-with-tailwind/",
        "oneValue": "value"
      },
      {
        "value": "Paul Scanlon | A set of: \"Sign In With Google\" Buttons Made With Tailwind",
        "oneValue": "value"
      }
    ],
    "metricValues": [
      {
        "value": "41",
        "oneValue": "value"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "dimensionValues": [
      {
        "value": "www.paulie.dev/posts/2023/10/what-is-a-proxy-redirect/",
        "oneValue": "value"
      },
      {
        "value": "Paul Scanlon | What Is a Proxy Redirect?",
        "oneValue": "value"
      }
    ],
    "metricValues": [
      {
        "value": "23",
        "oneValue": "value"
      }
    ]
  }
]

To make that data work with Recharts, I’d need to reformat it so it conforms to the following data shape.

[
  {
    "name": "Paul Scanlon | Home",
    "value": 61
  },
  {
    "name": "Paul Scanlon | A set of: \"Sign In With Google\" Buttons Made With Tailwind",
    "value": 41
  },
  {
    "name": "Paul Scanlon | What Is a Proxy Redirect?",
    "value": 23
  }
]

To accomplish this, I’d need to use an Array.prototype.map() to iterate over each item, destructure the relevant data and return a key-value pair for the name and value for each.

const data = response.rows.map((row) => {
  const { dimensionValues, metricValues } = row;

  const pageTitle = dimensionValues[1].value;
  const totalUsers = parseInt(metricValues[0].value);

  return {
    name: pageTitle,
    value: totalUsers,
  };
});

And naturally, if you’re reformatting data this way in your application, you’d also want to write unit tests to ensure the data is always formatted correctly to avoid breaking your application… and all of this before you even get on to creating your charts!

With Luzmo Flex, all of this goes away, leaving you more time to focus on which data to display and how best to display it.

Typically, when building user interfaces that display data insights, your first job will be to figure out how to query the data source. This can take many forms, from RESTful API requests to direct database queries or sometimes reading from static files. Your next job will be figuring out when and how often these requests need to occur.

• For data that rarely changes: Perhaps a query in the build step will work.
• For data that changes regularly: A server-side request on page load.
• For ever-changing data: A client-side request that polls an API on an interval.

Each will likely inform your application’s architecture, and there’s no single solution to this. Your last job, as mentioned, will be wrangling the responses, reformatting the data, and displaying it in the UI.

Below, I’ll show you how to do this using Luzmo Flex by using a simple example product.

Here’s a screenshot of a simple data product I’ve built that displays three different charts for different reporting dimensions exposed by the Google Analytics API for page views for my site, paulie.dev, from the last seven days.

You can find all the code used in this article on the following link:

• https://github.com/luzmo-official/luzmo-flex-tutorial

Before we get going, hop over to Luzmo and sign up for a free trial. You might also like to have a read of one of the getting started guides listed below. In this article, I’ll be using the Next.js starter.

• Getting started with Luzmo Data Visualization and Next.js
  • https://github.com/luzmo-official/luzmo-getting-started-next-js
• Getting started with Luzmo Data Visualization and Astro
  • https://github.com/luzmo-official/luzmo-getting-started-astro

To create data visualization, you’ll first need data! To achieve this using Luzmo, head over to the dashboard, select Datasets from the navigation, and select GA4 Google Analytics. Follow the steps shown in the UI to connect Luzmo with your Google Analytics account.

With the setup complete, you can now select which reporting dimensions to add to your dataset. To follow along with this article, select Custom selection.

Lastly, select the following using the search input. Device Category, Page Title, Date, and Total users, then click Import when you’re ready.

You now have all the data required to build the Google Analytics dashboard. You can access the dataset ID from the URL address bar in your browser. You’ll need this in a later step.

If you’ve followed along from either of the first two getting started guides, you’ll have your API Key, API Token, App server, and API host environment variables set up and saved in a .env file.

Install Dependencies

If you’ve cloned one of the starter repositories, run the following to install the required dependencies.

npm install

Next, install the Luzmo React Embed dependency which exports the LuzmoVizItemComponent.

npm install  @luzmo/react-embed@latest

Now, find page.tsx located in the src/app directory, and add your dataset id as shown below.

Add the access object from the destructured response and pass access.datasets[0].id onto the LuzmoClientComponent component using a prop named datasetId.

// src/app/page.tsx


+ import dynamic from 'next/dynamic';

import Luzmo from '@luzmo/nodejs-sdk';
- import LuzmoClientComponent from './components/luzmo-client-component';
+ const LuzmoClientComponent = dynamic(() => import('./components/luzmo-client-component'), {
  ssr: false,
});


const client = new Luzmo({
  api_key: process.env.LUZMO_API_KEY!,
  api_token: process.env.LUZMO_API_TOKEN!,
  host: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_LUZMO_API_HOST!,
});

export default async function Home() {
  const response = await client.create('authorization', {
    type: 'embed',
    username: 'user id',
    name: 'first name last name',
    email: 'name@email.com',
    access: {
      datasets: [
        {
-          id: '<dataset_id>',
+          id: '42b43db3-24b2-45e7-98c5-3fcdef20b1a3',
          rights: 'use',
        },
      ],
    },
  });

-  const { id, token } = response;
+  const { id, token, access } = response;

-  return <LuzmoClientComponent authKey={id} authToken={token} />;
+  return <LuzmoClientComponent authKey={id} authToken={token} datasetId={access.datasets[0].id} />;
}

And lastly, find luzmo-client-component.tsx located in src/app/components. This is where you’ll be creating your charts.

The first chart you’ll create is a Donut chart that shows the various devices used by visitors to your site.

Add the following code to luzmo-client-component.tsx component.

// src/app/component/luzmo-client-component.tsx

'use client';

+ import { LuzmoVizItemComponent } from '@luzmo/react-embed';

interface Props {
  authKey: string;
  authToken: string;
+  datasetId: string;
}

- export default function LuzmoClientComponent({ authKey, authToken}: Props) {
+ export default function LuzmoClientComponent({ authKey, authToken, datasetId }: Props) {

+  const date = new Date(new Date().getTime() - 7 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000).toISOString(); // creates a date 7 days ago

  console.log({ authKey, authToken });

  return (
    <section>
+    <div className='w-1/2 h-80'>
+      <LuzmoVizItemComponent
+        appServer={process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_LUZMO_APP_SERVER}
+        apiHost={process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_LUZMO_API_HOST}
+        authKey={authKey}
+        authToken={authToken}
+        type='donut-chart'
+        options={{
+          title: {
+            en: Devices from last 7 days,
+          },
+          display: {
+            title: true,
+          },
+          mode: 'donut',
+          legend: {
+            position: 'bottom',
+          },
+        }}
+        slots={[
+          {
+            name: 'measure',
+            content: [
+              {
+                label: {
+                  en: 'Total users',
+                },
+                column: '<column id>', // Total users
+                set: datasetId,
+                type: 'numeric',
+                format: '.4f',
+              },
+            ],
+          },
+          {
+            name: 'category',
+            content: [
+              {
+                label: {
+                  en: 'Device category',
+                },
+                column: '<column id>', // Device category
+                set: datasetId,
+                type: 'hierarchy',
+              },
+            ],
+          },
+        ]}
+        filters={[
+          {
+            condition: 'or',
+            filters: [
+              {
+                expression: '? >= ?',
+                parameters: [
+                  {
+                    column_id: '<column id>', // Date
+                    dataset_id: datasetId,
+                  },
+                  date,
+                ],
+              },
+            ],
+          },
+        ]}
+      />
+    <div/>
    </section>
  );
}

There’s quite a lot going on in the above code snippet, and I will explain it all in due course, but first, I’ll need to cover a particularly tricky part of the configuration.

Column IDs

You’ll notice the filters parameters, measure, and category content all require a column id.

In the filters parameters, the key is named column_id, and in the measure and category, the key is named column. Both of these are actually the column IDs from the dataset. And here’s how you can find them.

Back in the Luzmo dashboard, click into your dataset and look for the “more dots” next to each column heading. From the menu, select Copy column id. Add each column ID to the keys in the configuration objects.

In my example, I’m using the Total users for the measure, the Device category for the category, and the Date for the filter.

If you’ve added the column IDs correctly, you should be able to see a rendered chart on your screen!

… and as promised, here’s a breakdown of the configuration.

Initial Props Donut chart

The first part is fairly straightforward. appServer and authKey are the environment variables you saved to your .env file, and authKey and authToken are destructured from the authorization request and passed into this component via props.

The type prop determines which type of chart to render. In my example, I’m using donut-chart, but you could choose from one of the many options available, area-chart, bar-chart, bubble-chart, box-plot, and many more. You can see all the available options in the Luzmo documentation under Chart docs.

<LuzmoVizItemComponent
  appServer={process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_LUZMO_APP_SERVER}
  apiHost={process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_LUZMO_API_HOST}
  authKey={authKey}
  authToken={authToken}
  type='donut-chart'

The one thing I should point out is my use of Tailwind classes: w-1/2 (width: 50%) and h-80 (height: 20rem). The LuzmoVizItemComponent ships with height 100%, so you’ll need to wrap the component with an element that has an actual height, or you won’t be able to see the chart on the page as it could be 100% of the height of an element with no height.

Donut Chart Options

The options object is where you can customize the appearance of your chart. It accepts many configuration options, among which:

• A title for the chart that accepts a locale with corresponding text to display.
• A display title value to determine if the title is shown or not.
• A mode to determine if the chart is to be of type donut or pie chart.
• A legend option to determine where the legend can be positioned.

All the available configuration options can be seen in the Donut chart documentation.

options={{
  title: {
    en: `Devices from last 7 days`,
  },
  display: {
    title: true,
  },
  mode: 'donut',
  legend: {
    position: 'bottom',
  },
}}

Donut Chart Slots

Slots are where you can configure which column from your dataset to use for the category and measure.

Slots can contain multiple measures, useful for displaying two columns of data per chart, but if more than two are used, one will become the measure.

Each measure contains a content array. The content array, among many other configurations, can include the following:

• A label and locale,
• The column id from the dataset,
• The datasetId,
• The type of data you’re displaying,
• A format for the data.

The format used here is Python syntax for floating-point numbers; it’s similar to JavaScript’s .toFixed() method, e.g number.toFixed(4).

The hierarchy type is ​​the Luzmo standard data type. Any text column is considered as an hierarchical data type.

You can read more in the Donut chart documentation about available configuration options for slots.

slots={[
  {
    name: 'measure',
    content: [
      {
        label: {
          en: 'Total users',
        },
        column: '<column id>', // Total users
        set: datasetId,
        type: 'numeric',
        format: '.4f',
      },
    ],
  },
  {
    name: 'category',
    content: [
      {
        label: {
          en: 'Device category',
        },
        column: '<column id>', // Device category
        set: datasetId,
        type: 'hierarchy',
      },
    ],
  },
]}

Donut Chart Filters

The filters object is where you can apply conditions that will determine which data will be shown. In my example, I only want to show data from the last seven days. To accomplish this, I first create the date variable:

const date = new Date(new Date().getTime() - 7 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000).toISOString();

This would produce an ISO date string, e.g., 2024-08-21T14:25:40.088Z, which I can use with the filter. The filter uses Luzmo’s Filter Expressions, to determine if the date for each row of the data is greater than or equal to the date variable. You can read more about Filter Expressions in Luzmo’s Academy article.

filters={[
  {
    condition: 'or',
    filters: [
      {
        expression: '? >= ?',
        parameters: [
          {
            column_id: '<column id>', // Date
            dataset_id: datasetId,
          },
          date,
        ],
      },
    ],
  },
]}

The second chart you’ll be creating is a Line chart that displays the number of page views on each date from the last seven days from folks who visit your site.

Initial Props Line Chart

As with the Donut chart, the initial props are pretty much the same, but the type has been changed to line-chart.

<LuzmoVizItemComponent
  appServer={process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_LUZMO_APP_SERVER}
  apiHost={process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_LUZMO_API_HOST}
  authKey={authKey}
  authToken={authToken}
  type='line-chart'

Line Chart Options

The options for the Line chart are as follows, and the mode has been changed to line-chart.

options={{
  title: {
    en: `Site visits from last 7 days`,
  },
  display: {
    title: true,
  },
  mode: 'grouped',
}}

Line Chart Slots

The slots object is almost the same as before with the Donut chart, but for the Line chart, I’m using the date column from the dataset instead of the device category, and instead of category, I’m using the x-axis slot type. To ensure I’m formatting the data correctly (by day), I’ve used level 5. You can read more about levels in the docs.

slots={[
  {
    name: 'measure',
    content: [
      {
        label: {
          en: 'Total users',
        },
        column: '<column id>', // Total users
        set: datasetId,
        type: 'numeric',
        format: '.4f',
      },
    ],
  },
  {
    name: 'x-axis',
    content: [
      {
        label: {
          en: 'Date',
        },
        column: '<column id>', // Date
        set: datasetId,
        type: 'datetime',
        level: 5,
      },
    ],
  },
]}

Line Chart Filters

I’ve used the same filters as I used in the Donut chart.

The last chart you’ll be creating is a Bar chart that displays the number of page views for the top ten most viewed pages on your site.

Initial Props Bar Chart

As with the Donut and Line chart, the initial props are pretty much the same, but the type has been changed to bar-chart.

<LuzmoVizItemComponent
  className='w-full h-80'
  appServer={process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_LUZMO_APP_SERVER}
  apiHost={process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_LUZMO_API_HOST}
  authKey={authKey}
  authToken={authToken}
  type='bar-chart'

Bar Chart Options

The options for the Bar chart are a little more involved. I’ve included some styling options for the border-radii of the bars, limited the number of results to 10, and sorted the data by the highest page view count first using the sort by measure and direction options.

options={{
  title: {
    en: `Page views from last 7 days`,
  },
  display: {
    title: true,
  },
  mode: 'grouped',
  bars: {
    roundedCorners: 5,
  },
  limit: {
    number: 10,
  },
  sort: {
    by: 'measure',
    direction: 'desc',
  },
}}

Line Chart Slots

As with the Line chart, I’ve used an axis for one of the columns from the dataset. In this case, it’s the y-axis which displays the page title.

slots={[
  {
    name: 'measure',
    content: [
      {
        label: {
          en: 'Total users',
        },
        column: '<column id>', // Total users
        set: datasetId,
        type: 'numeric',
        format: '.4f',
      },
    ],
  },
  {
    name: 'y-axis',
    content: [
      {
        label: {
          en: 'Page title',
        },
        column: '<column id>', // Page title
        set: datasetId,
        type: 'hierarchy',
      },
    ],
  },
]}

Bar Chart Filters

I’ve used the same filters as I used in the Donut and Line chart.

As you can see, there are plenty of types of charts and customization options. Because this is just an “ordinary” React component, you can very easily make it configurable by an end user by allowing options to be set and unset using HTML input elements, checkbox, select, date, and so on.

But for me, the real power behind this is not having to mutate data!

This is particularly pertinent when displaying multiple charts with different reporting dimensions. Typically, this would require each to have their own utility function or reformatting method. That said, setting column IDs and dataset IDs is a little fiddly, but once you have the component hooked up to the dataset, you can configure and reconfigure as much as you like, all without having to rewrite data formatting functions.

If you’re interested in bringing data to life in your application and want to get it done without the usual headaches, book a free demo with the Luzmo team to learn more!

It might be one of the most asked questions among freelance designers: what do you charge clients?

There can be so many variables in setting rates that you can stick to, and you have to make a choice between hourly and fixed options. Either way, a good pricing strategy can help you get the clients you want and earn a solid income from freelance work.

After you figure out pricing. Which is a challenge for almost anyone!

How Much Do Other Designers Charge?

The easiest way to figure out your rates is to see how much other designers are charging for their services.

Indeed, one of the largest online job boards, has a salary explorer tool that shows you the hourly rates and the salaries of professionals in each industry. The site allows you to browse the rates based on your country and even provides pricing data for different cities.

If you’re a freelancer, this is a great place to start your search for the ideal rate.

If you’re joining a company, agency, or seeking a full-time role, Glassdoor is the best place to learn about the salaries of other designers. Here you can explore the salaries submitted by fellow designers and even let you filter them based on your years of experience, industry, and more. Payscale is another website that provides similar information.

But don’t stop there. You can also ask directly from other designers. Use forums and sites like Reddit to ask other designers how much they are charging for different types of services. You’d be surprised how helpful the designer community can be.

It’s important to remember that these average rates are calculated based on the pricing data submitted by designers with various levels of experience and skills.

It will be difficult to find your exact number by looking at these websites. But, they will at least help you find a ballpark number to get started.

Set an Hourly Rate, for Starters

For most freelancers, setting an hourly rate is the place to start. It provides a baseline comparison to other freelancers in the market and is something clients can understand, as long as they are flexible with hours worked and pricing.

You can use time tracking software to keep up with exactly how much time you spend on projects – as long as you actually remember to use it and have solid focus while working on projects.

An hourly rate is great if you work at a moderate pace, take on projects that don’t shift a lot in time (clients don’t love getting revised pricing estimates) and like the flexibility of this time accounting method. On the other hand, some designers find that hourly rates hold them back because they can finish projects quickly and hours worked is not the only price consideration.

Be Competitive

If you decide to charge the same rates other designers are charging, it will be very difficult to land clients, unless you already have a good reputation.

In the beginning, it’s important to ask for a competitive rate that will position you above other designers. That doesn’t mean you need to charge cheaper and lower. You can still charge the same rates by providing more value.

For example, including additional tasks or services for free with your existing services is a great way to get the attention of the clients.

Consider Value-Based Pricing

If you’re an experienced designer with a variety of skill sets, years’ worth of knowledge, and success stories to back your claims, you should consider using a value-based pricing model.

This pricing strategy involves charging a rate based on the outcome of the project. For example, if you’re working on an advertising campaign for a high-profile client, you can charge them 10-20% of the sales they generate from the designs you make for them.

Most clients won’t be open to this type of pricing model and that will provide you with an even better opportunity to ask for a higher hourly rate or project price.

TheFutur YouTube channel has a great roleplay video that shows how this strategy plays out.

Know Your Costs

Your rate needs to reflect your costs plus take-home cash for yourself. Remember to include elements like taxes, rent and lights, software and other supplies when pricing projects. You need to be able to cover all costs before you’ll ever make any money as a freelancer.

The first thing you need to do is create a budget for your monthly and yearly expenses. This will help you find a yearly income goal. Simply put, it’s a way to figure out how much you need to earn.

Then figure out how many hours you are willing to work. This is an important factor that will help determine your hourly rate or even fixed rates for projects. If you’re willing to work longer hours, you’ll be able to charge competitive rates.

Again, income goals and work hours all depend on your skill set, experience, and location.

Price Hourly or by the Project

The alternative to hourly pricing is project pricing. Project pricing is preferred by a lot of designers who have been freelancing for a while.

This might be the best case for project pricing out there from Jake Jorgovan for Career Foundry:

When you charge based on the project, you are tying the price of the project to the client’s end result. The end result is all that the client cares about.

Shifting the focus of my freelancing away from the time I worked and toward the value I delivered changed everything. It completely changed my income potential and how much I made.

Setting project rates is a little trickier. Everyone does it a little differently. (Jorgovan even suggests making it up… kind of.)

Over the years, I have developed a little more of a strategy based on market and industry rates, creative flexibility with the project, client budget and potential long-term value, timeline and how I “feel about it” from the start.

• Market and industry rates: What are others charging for similar services in your market? I tend to price well below agency pricing – I am a team of one and can’t provide the round the clock services of a full team – and in the middle of what other freelancers in my market charge based on how long I’ve been in the business.
• Creative flexibility: The dirty secret is that I charge a little more for dud projects. No client will ever know who they are, but I do quote a little lower for a project that I really want to stretch my creative muscles. It helps me grow and expands my portfolio for later. The routine stuff gets more routine pricing.
• Client budget and value: An accountant once said to me, charge every client what they are willing to pay. It took a while to really get this, but it all comes back to value. What is the project worth to them? The client is coming to you for your value and expertise. Price accordingly to show that your work is valuable. (A $5 logo never said “value” to anyone.)
• Timetable: A project with a super-fast turn around is worth more to a client than something they need in 6 months. Think about scheduling to ensure that you can get it in and get it done on time. Think about whether you will have to price more to account for other projects getting bumped back.
• The “feel:” Check your gut when you meet with a client for the first time. Do they know what they want? Or will they waffle? Clients that will require a lot of hand-holding along the way will take a lot more of your time for the same work. You should probably charge a little more here.

The biggest problem with project rates is that sometimes you’ll get it wrong. There are projects that will suck up your time and frustrate you to no end because you just estimated wrong. If this happens frequently, then you are an hourly rate kind of freelancer. If it only happens once in a while, project rates can be a great option.

Pro tip: Use a combination of project and hourly rates. Opt for hourly rates for small projects (or friends and family if you dare work with them) that will come in under $250. This includes simple logo design, a business card or poster for clients that you know and will almost always take the design as is with a few minor revisions. Use project rates for anything that requires a lot of setup or time, such as website redesigns, branding or large packets of information.

Include Contingencies

No matter what pricing structure you use, make sure to include a scope for each project and room for contingencies in the estimate.

Include some rules with client estimates to keep scope creep from eating away at potential earnings.

Include guidelines for:

• What exactly the project entails, such as one website design with up to 10 pages.
• Number of revisions included.
• Rate for changes beyond the scope.
• Payment guidelines; this is vital for big projects or large timelines where you might need to get some of the money up front.
• Any additional fees, such as late charges, processing later or maintenance or upsells.

So What Should I Actually Charge?

As you can figure from all the information above, there’s no magic formula.

Price too low and you’ll worry about making enough money to pay the bills. (You can also run the risk of having too many clients because of underpricing.)

Price too high and you might have trouble getting projects.

You want to be somewhere in the middle, where you can take the clients you want and refer others elsewhere. And so much of it matters where you live and where the clients are based.

Contently has a solid database of freelance rates for writing, design and photography so you can see what people are actually getting paid. (Plus you can sort by category, rate or date.)

Bonsai also has a rates database that you can put in options such as design or development, skills, experience and location to get an idea of what hourly rates look like.

It can be tricky. The good news is that when you figure it out, you’ll know because your client mix will feel just right with a few large project, a few small projects and rewarding work.

Conclusion

OK, so maybe you did not get the exact answer you wanted. I could have told you to charge everyone $75 per hour for any project. But that would be a disservice to you.

It’s all about how you work and your client relationships. Feel them out. Understand their needs and work with clients to find just the right pricing strategy.

Freelancing 101 is an occasional series to help the increasing number of freelancers in the market. Whether you are a designer, writer, developer or wear multiple hats, we will share tips, resources and ideas to help you make the most of your small business. Is there something in particular you want to know? Let me know at carrie@designshack.net.

Creative commons photos by Death to the Stock Photo .

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