Day: November 4, 2024

Is learning the basics of web design still on your “someday” list? Why haven’t you got started yet? We’ve put together 30 tips and resources to help you start learning web design this month (and maybe even find yourself a new career path!)

Graphic designers, print designers, and creatives looking to learn something new or break into website need to quit procrastinating. Every day that you don’t take that first step leaves you one day further behind everyone else!

Follow these steps to begin learning how to create your first website, industry best practices, and much more—all in 30 days!

1. Start a Website

The best way to start learning web design is to start doing it. That’s the advice from David Kadavy, author of Design <for> Hackers.

I recommend you start a blog. I started a blog just to have a web design playground, and 7 years later, I launched a best-selling book on the subject. Having a personal project, such as a blog, gives you a place where you can try new things, and your boss won’t fire you if you mess up.

You don’t have to start with a massive website or crazy design; start small. Play with the website, figure out what makes things work. (And make sure to inspect the code, so you can start getting familiar with what’s making your website work.)

Want to get started quickly? First, create your visual sitemap. Then, a website builder like Wix can help to give you a head start with a stylish website design, as you begin to learn the concepts and building blocks of what goes into a website.

2. Read Everything You Can

Start reading. Because you are on this blog, you’re probably used to keeping track of what’s happening in the world of design. Keep reading.

Read everything you can about website design, and trends, and techniques, and best practices. Follow designers you admire on social media.

Cast a wide net for your website design reading as well. Read about the basics to learn some code, read about design theory and read tutorials and current articles.

3. Be An Effective Communicator

If you aren’t the most articulate person, brush up on those skills. A big part of website design is communication.

Website designers have to communicate with clients regularly to figure out what problem the design needs to solve; they have to communicate those solutions and implement them as well.

4. Subscribe to Tuts+ & Envato Elements

Consider a subscription to Envato Elements, which also gets you access to the excellent Tuts+ learning resource.

Tuts+ publish regular courses on graphic and web design, from basic techniques, through to the latest advanced approaches and developments. It’s completely self-paced, taught by expert instructors. You’ll also get access to Envato Elements, which is a great resource for finding graphics, templates, and more to plug into your web design work.

5. Think in HTML

HTML, or hypertext markup language, is a cornerstone of website design. HTML is the skeleton that helps create the structure of a website and once you can read the language, the world of website design will make a lot more sense.

W3Schools has a great HTML starter tutorial with hundreds of HTML examples that you can play with on the screen to see what happens and exactly how it works. (You might find it more intuitive than you imagined.)

6. Play with Code at Codeacademy

While HTML is a good start, you can learn almost any programming language from Codeacademy. The free set of tools teaches you to code using interactive activities and games.

You can pick up a Codeacademy course where and when you need it and start and stop as needed. Pick a subject to learn – web development, programming, data science – or language to focus on – HTML & CSS (a great place to start), Python, Java, SQL, Ruby, and more.

7. Learn to Understand CSS

CSS, or cascading style sheets, define the presentation of a document written in HTML, or XML and SVG.

As defined by Mozilla

CSS describes how elements should be rendered on screen, on paper, in speech, or on other media.

Mozilla also has a great collection of CSS resources to get started, with a solid introduction of how CSS works, including selectors and properties, writing CSS rules, applying CSS to HTML, how to specify length, color, and other units in CSS, cascade and inheritance, box model basics, and debugging CSS. Then modules move on to explain styling text and boxes.

8. Apply Your Design Skills to the Web

If you are already working in a creative or graphic design field, think about the things you already know that you can apply to website design as well. The principles that make something visually appealing don’t change based on medium and all that design theory will come in handy in the digital space as well.

While elements such as learning code might not feel natural, having a design background is a huge bonus. What good is a beautifully coded website if not one wants to interact with it?

9. Pay Attention to Websites You Love

Take note of websites that you love. What about them is appealing to you? (And how can you learn to replicate those elements?) Pay attention to:

• Typography
• Navigation
• Use of images and space
• Design of forms
• Animation and scroll effects
• Color

10. Draw a Wireframe

Wireframing is a web designer’s brainstorming.

In its purest form, a wireframe is a sketch of what the website will be. It’s not an outline of aesthetic elements, rather a blueprint of the website. Drawing a wireframe isn’t really about the look of this design, it’s about the information structure therein.

Not sure how to create a wireframe? Digital Telepathy has a guide of best practices to help you learn.

11. Take Some Time to Learn Sketch

Sketch is a vector-drawing tool for Mac that makes it easy to create design elements. A lot of designers are turning to Sketch to create UI elements and repeating design blocks.

It’s packed with plugins and allows you to export code for easy use and access. It’s one of the most powerful, and popular, tools to come around since Adobe’s Creative Suite and worth your time.

12. Stay Up to Date with Technology

AI, VR, AR, 360-degree video, bots.

It can be hard to keep up with so many new technologies and trend. But you need to make a point to stay on top of these changes.

Tackle them one at a time and start with technologies that are the most directly related to the work you do. If you have a website with online chat, start by learning about bots. Or if you use a lot of video content, play around with 360-degree video.

Elements such as artificial intelligence and virtual or augmented reality are even more complex but are likely to become integrated parts of the website design landscape down the road. At a minimum, you should know what they are and what the potential uses might be.

13. Get Comfortable with SEO

While many web designers think an SEO specialist can handle getting a website ready for search engines to read, there’s a lot of design work that’s connected to SEO.

From the way images are uploaded to creating clean code that’s fast to including meta descriptions on pages and elements, the designer should incorporate search thinking into their workflow.

Freelancers, this is vitally important for you as well. Most clients are savvy enough to ask for an SEO-optimized website. If you work alone, you need to know enough to create a solid framework that Google can read (and be able to refer the client to an SEO specialist if more work needs to be done).

14. Play with a Website Builder

A website builder can be a great way to get comfortable with best practices and how to start building and designing websites.

Most of these tools have plenty of templates and allow you to customize elements and even add code snippets. For simple sites, many website builders also have a free plan where you can create a personal portfolio page or basic website that serves as a playground for you.

Then pick apart the pieces within the website builder. Look at how they are designed and coded to get a feel for how it all comes together. You’ll be amazed by what you can figure out just by picking another design apart.

15. Find a Mentor

Is there someone you work with that you admire as a web designer? Take them to lunch and pick their brain about the industry.

Finding a mentor that is willing to work with you and help you think about the field and how to learn web design on your own can be invaluable. And while you can probably find a mentor in an online community, nothing is better than a live person that you can meet face-to-face periodically. (Maybe it is worth having online and in-person mentors.)

16. Join the CodePen Community

Once you start getting comfortable with some code and programming, you want to join the CodePen community. The open-source community allows you to share and edit code snippets in a social network of sorts.

Here’s a little more from the site’s founders: “CodePen is a social development environment. At its heart, it allows you to write code in the browser, and see the results of it as you build. A useful and liberating tool for developers of any skill, and particularly empowering for people learning to code. We focus primarily on front-end languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript and preprocessing syntaxes that turn into those things.”

17. Take a Class

For some learners, a more formal classroom setting is best.

There are a ton of classes available – in-person and online – for you to learn web design basics. Start with a local college or online learning hubs such as Udemy or Coursera. Pick up a class at your current ability level and just keep moving forward.

18. Want to Do Something? Google It

For the not-so-traditional-learner, find the answer to the web design problem on Google. There are so many tutorials and videos available that can walk you through almost any problem – and solution.

The key is to search exactly what you need to know and look to a reputable source for the answer. Here’s another tip when it comes to tutorials and videos – more recent content is probably going to give you a better, more complete and more relevant answer. (Remember, some of this stuff is changing fast.)

19. Pay Attention to the User Experience

Nothing can make or break a website like user experience design. You need to plan for it and understand it.

Here’s how the Interaction Design Foundation describes UX design:

User experience (UX) design is the process of creating products that provide meaningful and personally relevant experiences. This involves the careful design of both a product’s usability and the pleasure consumers will derive from using it. It is also concerned with the entire process of acquiring and integrating the product, including aspects of branding, design, usability, and function.

UX designers, or designers who are aware of the process of experience formation, seek to create and shape the factors influencing the process deliberately. To do this, a UX designer will consider the Why, What, and How of product use.

20. Pay Attention to Design Trends

What does a modern website design look like? It’s not a trick question. To design modern websites and user experiences, you need to know what users want and how they are interacting with it. If the last time you downloaded an app or looked at a website on your phone was 2016, you’ve got a lot of ground to make up.

Creating website designs that have modern touches and trends integrated into the design will help your projects stand out. How do you know what’s trending? Keep reading sites like this and pay attention to what other designers are doing. Take note of colors and styles and features that are included in the websites you visit frequently.

21. Create Without Color

Start every design without color. A great designer once told me that if your design works in black and white, it will be flawless in color.

That might not always hold, but it is a great starting point.

By creating designs in black and white, you can see where elements contrast and how they play together. You’ve stripped out any emotional associations with color or eye movement that happens because of it. This simplest form of design will give you an idea if something works as a concept before you move on to finalizing it.

22. Learn to Love Google Fonts

Google Fonts is your friend.

Regardless of how you feel about Google, the ability to browse, sort and select typefaces that you know will work in website designs is important. You don’t have to think about licensing or if typefaces are compatible with specific browsers or not.

The limitation is that you only have what’s in the Google Fonts library to work with. But if you try you can find something that will fit almost every project. It’ll save you a lot of time in the long run.

23. Pick Apart a UI Kit

Download a user interface or icon kit and pick it apart.

Just as you can inspect the code of a website, look at how design elements are constructed for the web. Take note of the scale and grid, look at the color mixes and how files are organized within Photoshop or Illustrator.

Look for a kit to download that includes elements in multiple formats for high-resolution displays. (Downloading a bunch of JPEGs isn’t going to serve you all that well.)

Then try to build or customize an element or two of your own.

24. Become a Typographer

Modern website design has a strong focus on typography … good typography. From hero headers with giant words to layers of text that draw a user into the design, understanding the principles of how to pair type elements and construct engaging text blocks is vital.

Start with Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with Type. (There’s also a book of the same name.) Lupton is the authority on typography and her information will have you thinking like a typographer in no time.

25. Jump into JavaScript

When you are starting to feel pretty good about dabbling with web design, challenge yourself again to learn JavaScript. After HTML and CSS, it is the most important language of the web.

JavaScript is a tool that allows designers to implement complex things and interaction on web pages. It’s what makes a slider slide or that parallax animation animate.

Learn JS has an interactive tutorial to help you get started.

26. Update Your Portfolio

Once you start designing for the web, make sure to update your portfolio with web design projects. This simple action will help you show yourself … and others … that web design is part of your repertoire.

An updated portfolio can help potential clients see what your “style” looks like. Make sure to showcase layouts, colors, typography and different techniques that show what you can do.

27. Challenge Yourself

With so many shortcuts and code snippets to help you fix almost any website issue you are having, don’t get lazy. Remember to challenge yourself continually to learn new skills, new technologies and keep improving your web design game.

The one thing about this field is that it is constantly changing; there’s always something new to learn or try.

28. Maximise Your Experience

Get out there and design. You have to start designing websites to be a web designer.

Start small, but take on projects with others. Ask to join in on a project with a team at work. Tackle a small website for a friend. The more experience you have building websites, the better and faster you will get.

What are you waiting for? Stop procrastinating.

29. Ask for Feedback

Use your network to collect feedback on your website design projects, no matter how small you think they are. Listen to this feedback – even if you don’t like it and see what you can learn.

Aside from visual preference, did the person providing feedback offer suggestions for making the website function better? Could they easily understand the goal of the design? Did they connect with the messaging?

30. Keep Learning New Things

To be a great website designer, you just need to keep playing, trying and learning new things. Make a point to network and communicate with others in the field so that you can stay on top of techniques and visual changes that are in-demand.

If you are looking to learn website design, then this is probably already something you regularly do. But this is an evolving field, and it keeps changing almost every day. Just ask anyone who is doing it.

There are, it would seem, as many AI marketing tools as there are stars in the sky. Do you really need to use them? Probably. Do you need a dozen of them? Probably not.

Here’s a guide to help you cut through the chaos and confusion of AI marketing analytics tools to find some that really work for your needs.

Table of Contents

• How to Use AI for Marketing Analytics
• Tools for Marketing Analytics

How to Use AI for Marketing Analytics

Marketers are using AI in many ways: content creation, automation, efficiency and speed, and more. I talk to a lot of marketers, and it’s rare that I find somebody who isn’t using AI for something.

A lot of marketers find that AI analytics tools are tremendous time-savers. Earlier this year, I spoke with Brent D. Payne, an SEO and the CEO of Loud Interactive, who told me about the proprietary AI tools he uses: “What used to take us a month to do, we have programmed — it took us three months to program it — but we have now programmed to get done in about three hours.”

For this guide, I’ve focused on just analytics tools, though there’s often overlap with uses like content creation and efficiency.

I’ve also included a couple examples of AI-powered tools for each use case, so you can get a sense of the marketing analytics landscape (and how vast it is).

That doesn’t mean you need a different tool for every step of your marketing campaign — many of them (including, ahem, HubSpot’s) use AI to provide analytics for multiple use cases.

Let’s get into it.

1. Data Analysis and Insights

Data analysis is perhaps the most obvious use for AI marketing analytics. Here’s a couple ways current tools can provide more — and faster — insights:

Social Media and Community Monitoring

As somebody who has been known to fall down a research rabbit hole or two, I like to use a mix of community research and trusted resources. (Depending on what I’m researching, a “trusted resource” might be as simple as a company website.)

That’s great for me as a consumer and less great for me as a marketer. AI tools can illuminate the dark funnel, where your potential customers might be researching via social media, Reddit, or other typically untraceable places.

Examples: Audiense, Brand24

Customer Feedback and Sentiment Analysis

In JPMorgan’s 2024 Business Leaders Outlook, nearly half of surveyed companies reported using AI tools like ChatGPT, virtual assistants, and chatbots. And those tools are largely being met with open (human) arms.

A 2024 study of European consumers showed an overwhelming willingness to engage with AI chatbots for customer service. (Spanish consumers were the most likely to engage, with 82% willing to speak to a bot; English consumers were the least likely, at 66%.)

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HubSpot’s chatbot uses AI to help generate leads.

Although they’re ostensibly customer service and/or lead gen bots, these AI chatbots are also able to collect enormous amounts of data that yesteryear’s marketer could only dream of — sentiment analysis (is the consumer swearing in all caps? Definitely not a happy camper), demographic info, even identifying a faulty product or breakdown in customer service before it snowballs.

Examples: SentiSum, Qualtrics

2. Brand Perception

HubSpot released a free tool in 2024 called AI Search Grader. You tell it a little bit about your brand; it tells you how your brand is perceived by AI search engines.

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It uses sentiment analysis to determine how AI search engines perceive your brand, information that can be especially useful for marketers and SEOs who are navigating emerging AI trends in the search landscape.

I’ve used it for a few brands I’m familiar with, and I found its recommendations and analysis to be pretty spot-on.

Examples: HubSpot’s AI Search Grader, of course; AgoraPulse

3. AI Personalization

Marketers know that personalization is a key strategy for building consumer trust and brand loyalty. Savvy marketers know that “personalization” goes a lot deeper than just using a customer’s first name.

Predictive personalization can make your customer feel like your brand gets them. It can make product recommendations based on shopping history and past purchases, find emerging trends in customer behavior, and even forecast outcomes for marketing campaigns for more informed decision-making.

Examples: Optimizely, Albert.ai

Customer Segmentation and Targeting

If you’re using an email marketing platform, you’ve probably already seen AI at work when you add a subject line to your email — more often than not, there’s an option to generate a subject line using AI.

I’ve used some platforms that use AI to let you play with tone, generating and regenerating copy that’s funny, formal, or somewhere in between.

Example: Twilio’s Segment

Personalized Ads

AI can automate the creation of personalized ad variants, allowing for extensive testing of different creatives to determine which resonates best with specific audience segments.

Examples: Smartly.io, Google Ads

4. Email Marketing Automation

Most email marketing platforms these days use AI to some degree, including HubSpot.

If you’re skeptical, consider this: In our 2024 State of AI in Marketing report, 75% of the thousand-plus marketers we surveyed say that using AI for automation helps them reduce the time spent on manual tasks, and gives them more time for the critical or creative aspects of their job.

You know, the fun stuff.

Other examples: ActiveCampaign, Litmus

Real-Time Updates

AI analytics tools can continuously handle and process data in real time, letting you, the marketer, adapt and fine-tune your strategies.

AI tools can update sales sequences in real-time, allowing marketers to adapt their email strategies based on current data and customer interactions to increase engagement.

Advanced A/B Testing

“A/B testing, but make it more” sounds more like a meme than a marketing tool.

But in a Marketing Against the Grain podcast episode, HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar says that AI is poised to take marketers from “A/B testing to A/Z testing, because the AI can do many different creative versions.”

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I had to know: I used Leonardo.ai to see what it would do with A/B testing and the “make it more” meme.

We’ve even got a tool below that lets you do A/B and multivariate testing with video, by using AI to replicate a video that you create, so you can test its performance. For text-based content, this can be useful to test elements like email subject lines.

5. Mapping Customer Journeys

Mapping a customer journey by hand is an excellent way to understand the concept — and it’s a good place to start if you’re new to marketing — but it’s not the most efficient way to map at scale.

Predictive Analytics

A customer journey or buyer’s journey describes the processes your customer (or buyer) goes through when they interact with your brand.

As AI gathers data on your current customers as they move through the funnel, it can predict likely next steps, anticipate obstacles, and identify opportunities for personalization.

Real-time Journey Optimization

Like real-time updates in email platforms, AI can continuously monitor and analyze customer journeys.

That might mean adapting the journey, depending on the customer’s preferences, or figuring out the best times to trigger personalized content or offers.

Examples: Glassbox, Milkymap

There are dozens (and dozens) of AI marketing tools available. Here’s a few that HubSpot AI pros are talking about:

1. Breeze by HubSpot

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Breeze, HubSpot’s AI, has three tools to provide assistance: Breeze Copilot, Breeze Agents, and Breeze Intelligence.

Breeze Copilot (formerly known as ChatSpot) works with AI and your CRM data to help you get work done faster without sacrificing quality.

Breeze Agents can help teams automate work and provide tactical knowledge, and Breeze Intelligence can identify your target market, gauge the intent of website visitors, and enrich contact and company data within HubSpot.

Breeze Intelligence in particular, which consists of over 200 million buyer and company profiles, has deep analytical capabilities. It can help you improve form conversion rates, identify buyer intent from companies visiting your website, and keep your database fresh with regular updates.

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Breeze social media agent is one example of how analytics can save you time and brainspace: It uses your past performance, business details, and industry best practices to make your social media content more effective.

Bonus: 95% of our customers say that our AI is easy to use.

2. 1Mind

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If you’ve ever started a new customer-facing job, you’ve likely had interactions where you realized that you hadn’t accumulated enough institutional knowledge to answer questions and solve problems with ease.

1Mind was designed to overcome that problem with an all-knowing (about your product or service, at least) AI avatar that can deliver a human-like chat experience to customers.

Watch HubSpot marketing SVP Kieran Flanagan talk to the AI avatar of One Mind creator Amanda Kahlow:

3. 6sense

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HubSpot contributor Brian Grover writes of 6sense, “I’ve found that when only a small fraction of a total addressable market is buying at any given time, having insight into who is actually looking can turn marketing from guesswork into a predictable pipeline."

Grover says that the newest iteration of 6Sense "has AI sifting through the massive amount of intent data to surface actionable insights” — which lets your team focus on the highest-value tasks and activities.

Pro tip: Grover says that 6Sense “can help you match buying signals to accounts across devices and channels.”

4. Common Room

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One of the first things I do when researching a product or service I might want is to see what everybody else is saying.

That might be as simple as looking at Yelp reviews for a new restaurant, but I’ve also used X and Threads to ask my peers for recommendations.

HubSpot has approximately one (1) zillion Slack channels, and I’ve used it to get movie recommendations and even find a roofer.

Since that’s how most consumers do their research these days, one of Common Room’s services is an AI-powered playbook that can identify ideal customer profiles (ICP) in your community.

If you have a Slack community or use a support forum like Discourse, you can create an ICP in Common Room, which helps you “identify ideal customers in your community” and alert your team when “an ICP is active in the dark funnel,” that is, the untraceable places consumers talk about your service or product, like text messages, word of mouth, or third-party review websites.

Pro tip: Common Room integrates with HubSpot — so if you’re already a HubSpot user, check out Common Room’s HubSpot integration guide.

5. Humantic.ai and 6. TryScout.ai

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In a Marketing Against the Grain podcast episode, Flanagan describes TryScout.ai as a tool “that allows you to ingest data and build campaigns around that data that are very personalized.”

Humantic.ai, Flanagan says, is “very similar,” helping marketers figure out their ideal customer profile.

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These platforms are focused on extracting intelligence from buyer data and crafting personalized campaigns or messages.

Pro tip: TryScout.ai works with LinkedIn to pull leads, and it fills in the blanks that the briefcase app leaves open, like emails and phone numbers.

7. Icon

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HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar describes Icon as “basically [taking] one video — they're even matching you with a creator — then … making 20, 50, however many versions of that video. And then testing them all against each other to see what performs the best.”

HubSpot marketing SVP Kieran Flanagan and Bodnar’s co-host on the Marketing Against the Grain podcast, notes that creator ads tend to perform better than just about anything else “because it brings in an authentic voice.”

Once a creator makes one video, Icon can turn it into 20 and do granular A/B testing on hooks, stories, and calls to action.

Pro tip: Flanagan says that if you’re in a space with a lot of creators, and if advertising is core to how you acquire new demand, you’re well positioned to use a tool like Icon. He suggests experimenting with attaching Icon to your paid advertising and seeing how well those ads run.

Save Time with AI

A lot of folks I talk to remain skeptical about AI, particularly as it’s being used in content creation and other creative tasks.

But when I talk to people who are actually using AI day in, day out, there’s a common thread: AI can’t replace human brains, but it can make a lot of mundane tasks a whole lot faster.

Any of the tools above will let you dip your toes in the AI waters — and give you some time back to do the creative and strategic tasks that you’re great at.

The evolution of Instagram has been action-packed. One day, we’re trying to find the perfect filter for a square-cropped photo of a cup of tea; the next, we’re exploring how to get approved for Instagram Shopping.

At least, that’s how this marketer’s story arc went.

The platform has gone from a simple feed of blurry photos for our friends to a powerhouse for businesses looking to build awareness, generate leads, and sell.

But is it really worth the hype?

Below, we’ll explore new HubSpot research to answer this question, detail how to get approved for Instagram Shopping (with some advice from my own entrepreneurial adventures), and share some tips for selling successfully.

New to Instagram? Our free Instagram for Business Kit can help you lay the foundation for your strategy.

Table of Contents

• Are Instagram Shopping tools effective in 2024?
• Should you use Instagram Shopping for your business?
• Can Instagram Shopping be your only sales channel?
• How to Get Approved for Instagram Shopping
• Instagram Product Tagging
• Savvy Tips for Getting the Most Out of Instagram Shopping

Are Instagram Shopping tools effective in 2024?

“Effective” really depends on your business goals and resources. Still, HubSpot blog research found that 37% of social media marketers reported seeing 25-50% of viewers click through within the first 30 days of publishing a shoppable post on Instagram.

About a third of marketers said 25-50% of these clicks lead to purchases, while 40% estimated the same amount went to non-purchase-related conversions like email subscriptions or content downloads.

These numbers are nothing to scoff at, and they are only growing.

See more in “The HubSpot Blog's Instagram Shopping Report: Data from 500+ Instagram Marketers.”

Clearly, Instagram Shopping can be effective for driving sales and leads that can be nurtured, but is it right for you?

Should you use Instagram Shopping for your business?

The simple answer is yes — and I say this as both a marketer, consumer, and aspiring entrepreneur.

For instance, the numbers show that social selling is poised to be a huge profit driver.

According to our 2024 Consumer Trends Report, social media is the #1 channel for product discovery for most consumers, and one in four users has actually bought something on a social app in the past three months.

Looking at this, 84% of my fellow marketers predict social media shopping will overtake third-party websites like Amazon and brand websites as the preferred channel for buying, and I agree with them.

Just think about your own buyer behavior. Social selling is really where things are shifting.

Our research also found modern consumers shop on their phones more than any other device, and this is where they’re most actively engaged on social media as well.

It only makes sense that the two behaviors unite to make shopping as convenient and, frankly, natural as possible.

Instagram, specifically, has an influence that can’t be ignored. According to GWI, it’s the social media platform with the highest cultural impact. It’s where billions hang out, learn, monitor news, be entertained, and even connect with brands.

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It’s the world's third-most popular social media platform and the second-most used for social purchases.

So, it’s certainly worth experimenting with. Plus, only about half of marketers today take advantage of Instagram shopping and social shopping in general.

That means brands that embrace them now truly have a chance to make an impact without worrying about noise or competition.

Learn more about the current state of Instagram marketing and how to adapt your strategy in our 2024 Instagram Engagement Report.

Benefits and Challenges of Instagram’s Shopping Tools

Let’s get more granular about what Instagram Shopping can look like for your business by breaking down the pros and cons.

Pros and Benefits of Instagram Shopping

1. Product Discoverability

When we asked marketers about the biggest benefit of using Instagram’s shopping tools, their number one answer was the increased product discoverability.

As we discussed, Instagram is the third most popular social media platform and welcomes around 2 billion monthly active users.

Also, according to the Kepios Instagram Statistics Report, 62.7% of Instagram users report following or researching brands and products on the app. Add features like the Explore tab, and the opportunity to get your product found by new buyers is massive.

2. Better Shopping Experience

Gone are the days when you needed to leave the app to make a purchase. Now, you can discover a brand and purchase all in the same breath. This means a more enjoyable process for consumers, which can lead to more sales.

In addition, Instagram’s “save” feature (similar to a wishlist) allows users to save products they’re interested in and even be notified if/when they go on sale. (I know I’ve taken advantage of this many times.)

3. Easier Influencer Collaboration

Another key advantage of Instagram’s shopping tools is that influencers can tag products. When you work with creators, they can easily tag the products they’re promoting in posts or Reels and send traffic directly to the brand’s Shop page to take action.

Cons and Challenges of Instagram Shopping

Now, onto the not-so-great obstacles of Instagram’s shopping tools.

1. Fees

Recent HubSpot blog research found one of the biggest challenges for marketers is the fees associated with Instagram’s shopping tools.

37% of marketers aired grievances about Instagram’s selling fees, which are currently 5% per shipment or a flat fee of $0.40 for shipments of $8.00 or less.

This is a fairly high cost, but they could very well avoid it by directing traffic to their website instead.

2. Loss of User Data

Another big concern is the loss of user data. When Instagram serves as the end-to-end sales platform, brands can lose valuable data that could inform future strategies, such as browsing behavior.

Can Instagram Shopping be your only sales channel?

Our research uncovered that Instagram Shopping was the sole ecommerce platform for many brands.

In fact, 41% of marketers surveyed said most of the brands they work with use Instagram’s shopping tools exclusively. Is exclusivity a smart move, though?

One in four marketers said launching a product exclusively on Instagram is effective due to the high discoverability and ease of purchase.

83% even said they have worked with a brand that successfully launched a new product exclusively on the platform.

However, 15% said launching a product/service exclusively on Instagram is worse than launching elsewhere. So clearly, it could be hit or miss.

Pro tip: Test the waters first.

Like many things in marketing, I recommend approaching Instagram Shopping as an experiment. Honestly, considering some of the requirements, I was surprised so many businesses were using Instagram Shopping exclusively.

(More on that in our next section.)

But if you have met all prerequisites, have the means to maintain your Shop, and can afford the fees, go for it. Try listing your products to see if it helps boost sales.

This data will help you determine if it’s worth investing more or even all your efforts into the channel.

How to Get Approved for Instagram Shopping

Now that you have an idea of what to expect from Instagram Shopping, how do you actually get started?

As someone who has tried to set up Instagram Shopping for a passion project, I can tell you it’s not exactly easy. Nevertheless, it can be summarized in three big steps.

1. Make sure you meet all of the prerequisites.

To get approved for Instagram Shopping, you need to meet some specific criteria.

• Your business must be located in a supported market. (Instagram is currently available in about 20 countries.)
• Your business must comply with Instagram and Facebook’s Commerce Policies and Commerce Eligibility Requirements, demonstrating trustworthiness and accurate information about your products.
• Your Instagram account must be a business account. (Not creator, business.) This account must also be linked to a Facebook Page.
• You must have a website for your business.
• You must “check out on Facebook and Instagram” enabled. (This requires sharing tax and personal payout information.)

Sounds pretty direct and helpful, right? Hate to break it to you, but it’s not.

Things can get tricky once you start digging into the various links and policies. Meeting the criteria is often a process in itself. Speaking of which…

Pro tip: Before applying for Instagram Shopping, focus on growing your follower numbers.

Many of Meta’s policies are frustratingly vague, particularly the “Commerce Eligibility Requirements.

Regarding them, the website states that you must have “an authentic, established presence. This may also include maintaining a sufficient follower base,” but the specifics of what this means are not listed anywhere.

When I managed to get on the phone with Meta support last year for my store, I uncovered you must have at least 100 followers on your Instagram or Facebook page before you are eligible for Instagram Shopping.

While not the 10,000 it used to be, this is still a barrier to entry for new businesses, and Meta doesn’t state it anywhere.

Full disclosure: It’s been a while since I had this call, so I’m unsure if this follower minimum is still in place. But, granted, this was similar to the Facebook Live requirements (and those are still enforced), I think it’s worth not taking any chances.

Focus on growing your presence on Instagram, then go down the shopping road. I share 17 tips in this article.

2. Submit your product catalog.

Once all the pieces from step one are in place, you can create a product catalog in the Meta Commerce Manager to connect to your Instagram.

This catalog can be manually added (steps here) or pulled from another platform, such as Shopify or BigCommerce (steps here).

Personally, mine was pulled from a Square online store.

Note: This is actually where my Instagram Shopping journey paused.

From here, I learned I needed to have “check out on Facebook and Instagram” enabled, which required sharing personal information for taxes. It all makes sense, but definitely consider your feelings about data privacy before doing this.

3. Turn on Shopping features.

After your catalog has been reviewed and approved, you then need to actually turn on your Instagram shopping features.

To do this:

• Go to your Instagram business profile in the app and tap the hamburger menu. (The three horizontal lines are in the right-hand corner.)
• Hit “Settings.”
• Then, tap “Business” and “Shopping.”

From here, you should see a message confirming your account has been approved for Instagram shopping and find the “Shop” button added to your Instagram profile. Finally!

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Instagram Product Tagging

OK, I know that was a lot, but hey, you made it farther than I have so far. Congrats!

Now, you can start adding Instagram product tags (some call these Instagram Shopping tags) to your content.

Why should you tag products? Well, having your product catalog on Instagram is only helpful if people can find your products. Tagging is the easiest way to ensure that happens.

Plus, brands that use product tags generate 37% more sales than those that don’t.

How to Add Instagram Product Tags

You can add Instagram product tags to many different types of content on the platform, including feed posts/carousels, Stories, and Videos/Reels. Here’s how, according to Meta.

How to Tag Products in Instagram Feed Posts (Including Carousels)

1. When creating (or editing) a feed post, tap “Tag Products” to open the tagging menu.
2. Tap on the object you’d like to add product tags to.
3. Search your catalog to find the product you want to tag.
4. Select the product(s).
5. Tap “Done.”

Dollar Shave Club is great about tagging products in its feed posts. As you can see in this example, they tag a different product on each slide of the carousel.

How to Tag Products in Instagram Stories

1. When creating a story, tap the sticker icon.
2. Tap the “Product” sticker and select the product you want to tag.
3. Publish your story.

Many brands opt to link to their website in Stories to check out rather than tagging products — possibly to avoid fees — but Allbirds does a great job of including a mix of both.

Again, people can only use your Instagram Shop if they know it exists. Linking to it in content that gets a lot of eyes, like Stories, is a smart way to get the word out.

How to Tag Products in Reels/Videos

1. Once you’ve recorded your reel, tap “Tag Products.”
2. Add the products or collections you want to feature.
3. Tap “Done.”

South Asian fashion line HoliChic by Megha is not shy about tagging products in creative Reels. Just take this video, for example.

Watching this, many of you may be thinking, “But what if the products sell out?” Wouldn’t that make the content obsolete and create a bad customer experience?

While users may be disappointed to see a product out of stock, it’s not like they'll get slapped with a 404 page.

Tagging products in Reels still takes viewers to your Instagram Shop even if the products are sold out, so they can explore similar options.

Who knows, maybe they’ll find something they like even better.

Note: Businesses can tag up to five products per post and include tags in captions and Instagram Lives.

Savvy Tips for Getting the Most Out of Instagram Shopping

So, you know how to tag products and lead people to your Instagram Shop, but how can you truly get the most out of it? Here are some expert tips and tricks.

1. Optimize your product detail pages (PDP).

Like you would on your website or ecommerce store, optimize the product detail pages in your Instagram Shop to create the best shopping experience.

This means including the details buyers need to know to make a smart purchase decision in your descriptions, like:

• Pricing
• Product size/dimensions
• Materials/ingredients
• Product uses/benefits
• Shipping/return details

World Market has impressive PDPs, though they uniquely lead users to check out on their website rather than directly on Instagram.

You can view full details about the product, its price, how long it takes to ship, and even return information.

Need help with writing your product descriptions? Check out our article, “8 Strategies for Writing Product Descriptions That'll Generate Revenue.”

Pro tip: Product descriptions are also a great use case for AI tools like HubSpot’s Breeze.

2. Include high-quality images and videos.

Another important part of a successful product detail page on Instagram Shopping is high-quality images and videos.

As with any online shopping, people can’t touch and feel the products they’re browsing on Instagram like they could in person.

The visuals on your product page are their only chance to get an idea of what they’re actually buying, so make them clear, detailed, and visually appealing.

Once again, I have to praise HoliChic here. Their PDPs always include multiple visuals of their products, including studio and editorial images and videos.

If you’re new to product photography, don’t worry! Our article “The Beginner's Guide to Product Photography [Tutorial + Examples]” can help.

3. Work with influencers and customers to tag products.

Another thing you’ll notice on HoliChic’s PDPs is that they include tons of influencer and user-generated content.

That’s one of the best features of Instagram Shops if you ask me — The pages automatically pull in content where the product is tagged on the platform to provide even more detail for potential buyers.

Knowing this, you absolutely want to collaborate with influencers your audience loves to promote and tag your products in their content.

Affiliating with voices your buyer's trust speaks highly of your brand and helps you reach new audiences and increase your chances of getting sales.

Dig deeper into Instagram Influencer Marketing in The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Influencer Marketing for Brands.

Nike takes advantage of this in their Instagram Shopping strategy. As you scroll in their shop, you’ll see it highlighted in a section labeled “shop the feed.”

4. Set up collections (aka categories).

Collections, or categories as they're also listed, are one of the best ways to keep your Instagram Shop organized and make it easier for shoppers to navigate and find what they want.

Like Bath & Body Works, you can use collections to group products by themes, like new arrivals, gifts, seasonal trends, and even collaborations.

5. Be careful not to overlap tags.

As mentioned earlier, you can tag up to five products in your Instagram posts. However, be careful not to overlap them visually.

While it can be an eye-catching experience to tap on a post and see a bunch of different links come up (at least, I think it’s a fun surprise), if one tag covers another, it can look messy and confusing.

It also makes the tags in question harder to click.

In this example, Glossier does a great job of getting a lot of product promotion out of one post, but I wish the tags were just a little more spaced to make them easier to read.

6. Add Stories with product tags to Highlights.

Stories are Instagram's most popular feature, so, of course, you want to tag your products in them. But remember, Stories expire after 24 hours.

Don’t let all that great content go to waste. Make sure to add any Stories that include product links to “Highlights” on your profile so they don’t just disappear.

By doing this, your audience can enjoy the content for as long as you want to feature it, and an additional link and tag to your shop is maintained.

I really like Allbirds’ strategy of using Highlights to organize tagged Stories by product.

In fact, that’s where I got the example I shared earlier.

7. Promote your product content with ads.

Everything we’ve mentioned so far is a tried-and-true organic tactic, but let’s face it — it can take a while to see organic results on social media. If you have the budget, try promoting your product-focused content using Instagram ads.

Instagram ads (run through the Facebook Ads network) let you get specific about the audience you want to reach and pay to get your content in front of them.

Here are a few articles to get you started:

• The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Stories Ads
• A Step-by-Step Guide to Advertising on Instagram
• The Guide to Instagram Ad Costs
• Instagram Ad Specs & Sizes: an Updated Guide

Pro tip: If you’re just starting out with Instagram ads, don’t start from scratch. Experiment by “boosting” a post that is already getting strong engagement. What’s a boosted post, you ask? This article can explain.

Get approved, and get results.

Shopping on Instagram may not be the most common behavior right now, but it is growing.

If you’re an ecommerce business with the funds and the followers, use the tips we outlined in the article to get approved for Instagram Shopping and start seeing what kind of results it can drive for you.

I won’t pretend I’m an event marketer. But my mom has been a director of special events for over 20 years (shoutout to her), so I completely understand the importance of good event registration tools.

I’ve heard her rattle off the many tasks that need to be completed before, during, and after an event. And she comes from a small team, so it’s very easy for things to feel overwhelming … and quickly.

So, I did two things: 1) I sat down with my event pro of a mom to talk about her favorite event registration software, and 2) I scoured the internet to give you a few more options to choose from.

All I ask for in return? An invite to your next event 😉

Let’s get into it.

I’ve broken this list into three sections:

1. Free Event Registration Tools: You may see a familiar face here since it’s one option that’s always free.
2. An Event Director’s Favorite Tools: These are a couple of my mom’s picks based on her experience running events for a large, well-known non-profit for the last 20 years. (Here’s a hint: Great futures start there.)
3. Best Online Registration Tools: These are all of the highly-rated event registration tools that I found in my search that offer paid or both free and paid plans.

Pro tip: Before you start your search for the perfect event registration tool, I’d recommend creating an event checklist if you haven’t already. Might I offer HubSpot’s Ultimate Event Planning Checklist? It covers everything you need to know to seamlessly execute any event.

Anywho, happy browsing!

Free Event Registration Tools

1. HubSpot Free Online Form Builder

Download the Online Form Builder for Free

I know, I’m tooting our own horn a little bit here. But HubSpot’s Free Online Form Builder really does make it easy for you to design an event registration form.

The drag-and-drop builder lets you create, integrate, and share forms with your audience. Plus, all of the attendee contact information is automatically stored in your CRM. Nice.

What I like most: There are over 1,000 form fields and over 12 field types you can use to customize your event registration form. Plus, it’s versatile and offers plugins with tools like WordPress and integrations with tools like Gravity Forms.

You can’t really go wrong if you use a free tool like this for event registration (or as your Content Hub, CRM, Marketing Software, Sales Software, or Service Software, for that matter).

Okay, I’ll stop gushing now.

An Event Director’s Favorite Tools

2. Cvent

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Cvent’s event technology allows you to personalize your registration experience.

You can build automated workflows to collect signups. You can also customize the guest experience using targeted campaigns and Cvent's comprehensive library of event templates.

I asked my mom, an esteemed director of special events, what she likes most about Cvent, and she said, “the great thing about it is you can do as little or as much as you need it to do.”

“The first year we used it, we had an 800-900 attendee event, and we used to do all of the registration manually. Now, we’re able to use Cvent to print badges and set up self-registration with minimal involvement from our staff.”

Overall, she’s a fan of the scalability of the platform and the support it provides to businesses with little to no resources. She notes that this tool “has been a huge help for her small but mighty resource development team.”

Price: Contact Cvent for pricing.

3. OneCause

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OneCause offers a customized ticketing and fundraising platform. You can create custom ticket types, group packages, and promo codes for attendees. So, if you work at a non-profit or oversee donor events like my mom, this one’s for you.

Similar to Cvent, she likes OneCause because it cuts down her manual work by a ton. She says, “it allows us to sell tickets to attendees and sponsorships to our biggest donors.”

Plus, it’s really good for managing other event elements including silent auctions.

“My team sends the auction link to guests through OneCause, and winners get notified at the end of the night and pay directly via the platform. It’s super simple, and the backend is easy to navigate,” she says.

Price: Contact OneCause for pricing details.

Best Online Registration Tools

4. Google Forms

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I send a good amount of surveys to my team, and I always use the free version of Google Forms.

It works great for personal use, but I found that Google also offers a paid version for teams that comes with greater security and control over your data.

Google Forms allows you to:

• Create and send event registration forms for attendees and track all sign-ups.
• Drag and drop your form fields to customize the registration experience.
• Add images, videos, and custom logic to your form as you see fit.

What the G2 score says: Google Workspace has a G2 score of 4.6. Here’s what users think:

• Pros: Positive reviews say the tool allows you to easily “create a ticketing system for sign up by attendees” and “promote events through email marketing and social media platforms.”
• Cons: Others say the “formatting and design of the forms could use an upgrade” and they’d “love integration with Gmail” and other tools so they can embed short forms during the registration process.

Note: Since I don’t have personal experience with most of these tools, I sifted through the G2 reviews to give you an idea of what works best for users and what doesn’t. I’ll include insights like the above for each tool in this section.

What I like most: Since Google Forms Workspace requires a Google Business Plan, you’ll also gain access to Google's other products as well as more data storage, wider video hosting options, and added security and management controls for your events.

Price: Plans range in price from $6 to $18 per month.

5. Splash

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During my search, I learned that Splash was recently acquired by Cvent, but it’s still operating as an event marketing program for online, in-person, and hybrid events.

Splash allows you to:

• Design and customize responsive web pages and emails for your event.
• Share registration forms and RSVPs to support attendee signup.
• Create smart guest lists, targeting, and email marketing features to streamline event registration and promotion.

What the G2 score says: Splash has a G2 score of 4.4. Here’s what users think:

• Pros: Positive reviews say it’s a “user-friendly platform” that makes it “easy to create landing pages and registration forms.” They mention you “don’t have to be a designer or developer at all” to use it.
• Cons: Others say that the “website builder” and “some design aspects” are a bit limited, and the reporting features aren’t “exceptionally versatile.”

What I like most: To me, Splash appears to be the integration queen. You can use Splash with your marketing automation platform and CRM (hey there, HubSpot) to analyze event data and use it to inform your future campaigns and events.

Price: Try Splash for free, request a demo, or speak with a sales rep to learn about the right plan for your team.

6. Whova

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Whova is an event management tool that comes with some pretty robust event registration features. I’m talking branded ticketing experiences, retargeting campaigns, and exhibitor or sponsor tiering.

Whova allows you to:

• Create tickets within minutes and customize your registration workflows.
• Offer discount pricing for early-bird or group ticket purchases) and different types of tickets (e.g., single vs. multi-day pass).
• Ask attendees questions about your event during registration (e.g., what made them want to attend or what they're most excited for).
• Receive early registration payouts to help cover your event expenses.

What the G2 score says: Whova has a G2 score of … drum roll, please … 4.8. Here’s what users think:

• Pros: Positive reviews say the platform “simplifies event management” and “solves the backup that occurs during initial event registration.” They mention it’s a “one-stop-shop” for events and a huge “time saver.”
• Cons: Others say they got “lost in the app” given the many features, and that Whova probably needs “a few more capture points for visitors” on registration.

What I like most: From what I’ve seen, this platform works hard for that high G2 score. From embeddable registration widgets to real-time attendee tracking, you can find just about anything you need to run your event from start to finish.

Price: Contact Whova directly for a quote.

7. Eventbrite

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I’ve used Eventbrite to register for local meetups in Washington, DC, and niche fitness classes like puppy yoga. On the attendee side, it’s pretty easy to use for registration and to track my upcoming events.

On the event management side, Eventbrite allows you to set up your event registration in three easy steps:

• Enter your event details — the who, what, where, when, and why.
• Create your tickets and select the price or type (e.g., single vs. multi-day pass). You can also offer discounts for early-bird and group purchases.
• Open your registration and share the event via web page or social media.

What the G2 score says: Eventbrite has a G2 score of 4.3. Here’s what users think:

• Pros: Positive reviews say Eventbrite offers "multiple types of registration setups" and "management dashboards with good analytics tools." Users also like that you can "customize the registration look and feel" using your own graphics and logos.
• Cons: This one actually comes from an event guru (my mom, again). She said it "doesn’t work well for large events" that require "more detailed attendee data and tracking options."

What I like most: The simple three-step setup seems like it would work great for smaller-scale events and newer event marketers. Plus, Eventbrite is recognizable. As a consumer, I trust the platform as a reliable source to find events near me.

Price: Eventbrite offers both free and paid plans. The Essentials and Professional plans are free if you host a free event. Eventbrite will only charge you when you sell a paid ticket.

8. vFairs

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vFairs is another end-to-end event platform that helps you manage the entire event lifecycle. I looked through the software suite, and it includes check-in and badge printing software, virtual events software, event ticketing and registration software, and more.

vFairs allows you to:

• Create a branded event landing page to promote your event and capture registrations.
• Customize your registration forms through a self-serve, drag-and-drop module.
• Implement if/then conditions on the forms to personalize the data collected based on user selection.
• Securely collect payments through popular payment platforms like Stripe and PayPal.

What the G2 score says: vFairs has a G2 score of 4.7. Here’s what users think:

• Pros: Positive reviews say the platform is “extremely easy to use” and “incredibly user friendly” with little to no technical issues upon implementation.
• Cons: Others say the platform is robust, but “some features could benefit from more customization options.” And because it’s very comprehensive, it can be “confusing to navigate” at times.

What I like most: With vFairs, you can automatically trigger email workflows for different user segments both within the platform and through integrations with your CRM. I always love when tools remove the manual aspects of my work and play well with others.

Price: Contact vFairs for a customized quote.

9. RSVPify

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I poked around the RSVPify platform, and I can tell you it’s designed to handle events of all sizes — everything from casual events to enterprise and professional conferences.

RSVPify allows you to:

• Leverage customizable and responsive event registration and setup tools.
• Streamline ticket sales, collect donations, create custom event check-ins QR codes.
• Build an event website with event-specific templates and a variety of integration options.

What the G2 score says: RSVPify has a G2 score of 4.6. Here’s what users think:

• Pros: Positive reviews say the process for keeping track of guest details was “seamless and organized.” They mention the “modern interface” and say the platform provides a “simplified experience” for both admin and attendees.
• Cons: Others say there’s a “lack of customization for event emails and landing pages” and that added features like discount codes “weren’t easily accessible.”

What I like the most: It’s the versatility for me. Whether you need to host multiple marquee events simultaneously, an annual gala, or your wedding, RSVPify has a solution.

Price: There’s a free option available, and paid options range from $19/month (for personal events) to $39/month (for professional events).

10. Accelevents

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In my opinion, Accelevents is a great option for events that require advanced coordination. It’s a complete solution with ticketing and registration features like assigned seating, pre-registration, and the ability to sell add-ons like merch or subscriptions.

Accelevents allows you to:

• Design a custom registration experience for in-person, virtual, or hybrid events.
• Create custom flows with conditional logic, attendee segmentation, embeddable widgets, and unique link tracking.
• Build custom API integrations or natively integrate with your CRM and marketing automation tools.

What the G2 score says: Accelevents has a G2 score of 4.7. Here’s what users think:

• Pros: Positive reviews speak volumes about their chat support, citing that customer service is “SO FAST” and “10 seconds away and always ready to help.” They also mention it has the “best value for overall features and customization.”
• Cons: Others say the mobile app was “a bit cumbersome” and they ran into a “few bugs“ and “minor issues” while using the platform.

What I like the most: I am a big, big fan of stellar customer service. As I looked through the reviews, I saw tons of compliments for the Accelevents support team, and I think that’s a huge win — especially for tech products.

Price: Contact Accelevents for a free trial and to schedule a demo.

RSVPs Made Easy (Well, At Least Easier)

My advice for picking event registration software is this: Think about the registration features you absolutely can’t live without, and find a tool that does them well.

Most of the tools out there (and on this list) are comprehensive, but some are better than others in certain areas. Do the research, and choose the right tool for your specific needs.

Meanwhile, I’ll be here rooting for the moment you can sit back and watch all of those hard-earned attendee sign-ups roll in.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in January 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.