Day: November 6, 2024

The State of CSS 2024 survey wrapped up and the results are interesting, as always. Even though each section is worth analyzing, we are usually most hyped about the section on the most used CSS features. And if you are interested in writing about web development (maybe start writing with us 😉), you will specifically want to check out the feature’s Reading List section. It holds the features that survey respondents wish to read about after completing the survey and is usually composed of up-and-coming features with low community awareness.

One of the features I was excited to see was my 2024 top pick: CSS Anchor Positioning, ranking in the survey’s Top 4. Just below, you can find Scroll-Driven Animations, another amazing feature that gained broad browser support this year. Both are elegant and offer good DX, but combining them opens up new possibilities that clearly fall into what most of us would have considered JavaScript territory just last year.

I want to show one of those possibilities while learning more about both features. Specifically, we will make the following blog post in which footnotes pop up as comments on the sides of each text.

For this demo, our requirements will be:

• Pop the footnotes up when they get into the screen.
• Attach them to their corresponding texts.
• The footnotes are on the sides of the screen, so we need a mobile fallback.

The Foundation

To start, we will use the following everyday example of a blog post layout: title, cover image, and body of text:

The only thing to notice about the markup is that now and then we have a paragraph with a footnote at the end:

<main class="post">

  <!-- etc. -->

  <p class="note">
    Super intereseting information!
    <span class="footnote"> A footnote about it </span>
  </p>
</main>

Positioning the Footnotes

In that demo, the footnotes are located inside the body of the post just after the text we want to note. However, we want them to be attached as floating bubbles on the side of the text. In the past, we would probably need a mix of absolute and relative positioning along with finding the correct inset properties for each footnote.

However, we can now use anchor positioning for the job, a feature that allows us to position absolute elements relative to other elements — rather than just relative to the containment context it is in. We will be talking about “anchors” and “targets” for a while, so a little terminology as we get going:

• Anchor: This is the element used as a reference for positioning other elements, hence the anchor name.
• Target: This is an absolutely-positioned element placed relative to one or more anchors. The target is the name we will use from now on, but you will often find it as just an “absolutely positioned element” in other resources.

I won’t get into each detail, but if you want to learn more about it I highly recommend our Anchor Positioning Guide for complete information and examples.

The Anchor and Target

It’s easy to know that each .footnote is a target element. Picking our anchor, however, requires more nuance. While it may look like each .note element should be an anchor element, it’s better to choose the whole .post as the anchor. Let me explain if we set the .footnote position to absolute:

.footnote {
  position: absolute;
}

You will notice that the .footnote elements on the post are removed from the normal document flow and they hover visually above their .note elements. This is great news! Since they are already aligned on the vertical axis, we just have to move them on the horizontal axis onto the sides using the post as an anchor.

This is when we would need to find the correct inset property to place them on the sides. While this is doable, it’s a painful choice since:

1. You would have to rely on a magic number.
2. It depends on the viewport.
3. It depends on the footnote’s content since it changes its width.

Elements aren’t anchors by default, so to register the post as an anchor, we have to use the anchor-name property and give it a dashed-ident (a custom name starting with two dashes) as a name.

.post {
  anchor-name: --post;
}

In this case, our target element would be the .footnote. To use a target element, we can keep the absolute positioning and select an anchor element using the position-anchor property, which takes the anchor’s dashed ident. This will make .post the default anchor for the target in the following step.

.footnote {
  position: absolute;
  position-anchor: --post;
}

Moving the Target Around

Instead of choosing an arbitrary inset value for the .footnote‘s left or right properties, we can use the anchor() function. It returns a <length> value with the position of one side of the anchor, allowing us to always set the target’s inset properties correctly. So, we can connect the left side of the target to the right side of the anchor and vice versa:

.footnote {
  position: absolute;
  position-anchor: --post;

  /* To place them on the right */
  left: anchor(right);

  /* or to place them on the left*/
  right: anchor(left);

  /* Just one of them at a time! */
}

However, you will notice that it’s stuck to the side of the post with no space in between. Luckily, the margin property works just as you are hoping it does with target elements and gives a little space between the footnote target and the post anchor. We can also add a little more styles to make things prettier:

.footnote {
  /* ... */

  background-color: #fff;
  border-radius: 20px;
  margin: 0px 20px;
  padding: 20px;
}

Lastly, all our .footnote elements are on the same side of the post, if we want to arrange them one on each side, we can use the nth-of-type() selector to select the even and odd notes and set them on opposite sides.

.note:nth-of-type(odd) .footnote {
  left: anchor(right);
}

.note:nth-of-type(even) .footnote {
  right: anchor(left);
}

We use nth-of-type() instead of nth-child since we just want to iterate over .note elements and not all the siblings.

Just remember to remove the last inset declaration from .footnote, and tada! We have our footnotes on each side. You will notice I also added a little triangle on each footnote, but that’s beyond the scope of this post:

The View-Driven Animation

Let’s get into making the pop-up animation. I find the easiest part since both view and scroll-driven animation are built to be as intuitive as possible. We will start by registering an animation using an everyday @keyframes. What we want is for our footnotes to start being invisible and slowly become bigger and visible:

@keyframes pop-up {
  from {
    opacity: 0;
    transform: scale(0.5);
  }

  to {
    opacity: 1;
  }
}

That’s our animation, now we just have to add it to each .footnote:

.footnote {
  /* ... */
  animation: pop-up linear;
}

This by itself won’t do anything. We usually would have set an animation-duration for it to start. However, view-driven animations don’t run through a set time, rather the animation progression will depend on where the element is on the screen. To do so, we set the animation-timeline to view().

.footnote {
  /* ... */
  animation: pop-up linear;
  animation-timeline: view();
}

This makes the animation finish just as the element is leaving the screen. What we want is for it to finish somewhere more readable. The last touch is setting the animation-range to cover 0% cover 40%. This translates to, “I want the element to start its animation when it’s 0% in the view and end when it’s at 40% in the view.”

.footnote {
  /* ... */
  animation: pop-up linear;
  animation-timeline: view();
  animation-range: cover 0% cover 40%;
}

This amazing tool by Bramus focused on scroll and view-driven animation better shows how the animation-range property works.

What About Mobile?

You may have noticed that this approach to footnotes doesn’t work on smaller screens since there is no space at the sides of the post. The fix is easy. What we want is for the footnotes to display as normal notes on small screens and as comments on larger screens, we can do that by making our comments only available when the screen is bigger than a certain threshold, which is about 1200px. If it isn’t, then the notes are displayed on the body of the post as any other note you may find on the web.

.footnote {
  display: flex;
  gap: 10px;

  border-radius: 20px;
  padding: 20px;

  background-color: #fce6c2;

  &::before {
    content: "Note:";
    font-weight: 600;
  }
}

@media (width > 1200px) {
  /* Styles */
}

Now our comments should be displayed on the sides only when there is enough space for them:

Wrapping Up

If you also like writing about something you are passionate about, you will often find yourself going into random tangents or wanting to add a comment in each paragraph for extra context. At least, that’s my case, so having a way to dynamically show comments is a great addition. Especially when we achieved using only CSS — in a way that we couldn’t just a year ago!

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Popping Comments With CSS Anchor Positioning and View-Driven Animations originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.

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We’re surrounded by ads all day, every day, but how often does one end up living rent-free in your head?

And more importantly, how can you make an ad so good that it takes up prime real estate in your target audience’s head?

While most of us have a pretty good idea of what advertising looks like, we often struggle to nail down exactly what it means — and how to do it well.

From the printing press to pop-up ads, advertising has certainly changed with the times. Despite this, the need for advertising hasn’t changed, and neither have the techniques and best practices that make for quality advertising.

That’s what I’ll cover in this guide.

Advertising is one of the oldest types of marketing and aims to influence the actions of its audience to buy, sell, or do something else.

Good advertising is designed to be highly influential, memorable, and, at times, risqué.

But how does advertising work?

How does advertising work?

Advertising has a simple principle — get people interested in a product being sold.

After arousing interest, the goal is to persuade people to purchase the product, even if they hadn’t previously considered buying it. Ads work by using psychology to influence the way people think and feel about a product or service.

Depending on the goals of your ad campaign, advertising can work for your company in a variety of ways:

• To raise awareness of your brand
• To drive potential customers to your business
• To promote sales for both new and existing products
• To introduce a new product or service to the market
• To differentiate your product from your competitors

Advertising can also be executed in various ways. Radio commercials, billboards, branded T-shirts, and social media endorsements all count as advertising, as we'll discuss later in this guide.

What are advertisers?

Advertisers are the people at a company who are responsible for advertising a product or service. They promote messages about a brand’s products and services to build public preference for the brand.

“Advertiser” can also refer to the entity that's paying for advertising on a billboard, in a magazine, or through a website or mobile application.

Advertisers are important because the whole business of advertising is dependent on them. It’s the advertiser that incurs the cost of advertisements, so if they decide it’s not worth running ads, then the advertisement industry will be in big trouble.

All advertisers are marketers, but not all marketers are advertisers. Let's dig deeper into the differences between advertising and marketing.

Advertising is a subset of marketing, which is the umbrella term for communicating with your audience.

Marketing includes a number of different channels, such as:

• social media
• email marketing
• public relations
• SEO
• paid advertising.

Alternatively, advertising is just one component of marketing.

A company’s overarching marketing strategy will typically include an advertising plan. The advertising portion zooms in on the specific process of creating and publishing persuasive messages to get customers to take action.

Download our free advertising plan kit, which includes templates and a guide.

A Brief History of Advertising

Advertising is one of the oldest segments of business, save for currency and trade. Once products and services arose, so did the need to make them known.

A piece of papyrus from 3000 B.C.E. is widely considered the oldest confirmed piece of advertising — though calling it “advertising” obscures the horror and gravity of the circumstances. Technically, it was a print “ad” in ancient Egypt that offered a reward for the capture and return of an enslaved person named Shem.

Let’s fast-forward about 4,000 years. Here’s a brief look at the past five centuries of advertising:

1472: The first poster advertisement is placed on church doors in London.

1650: The first newspaper ad — a reward for 12 stolen horses — is published. (What’s with these reward-based advertisements?)

1704: The Boston News-Letter prompts its readers to place ads in its paper.

1870: The Powers style of ad copy is born. This style packed a punch — it was short, to the point, truthful, and convincing. Powers said the focus should be on why the consumer should buy your product or service — a message that still resonates for good reason today.

1880: Postcards become one of the hottest new ways to reach customers.

1902: Unilever begins the “longest client-agency relationship in advertising history” when it hires J. Walter Thompson Company to advertise its Lifebuoy Soap.

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1902: Mellins Food advertises on 25 airship flights, becoming the first brand to take this approach.

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1904: The Campbell’s Kids are created, piloting the change in advertisement focus from a single ad to an entire campaign.

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1922: Radio ads are born, and businesses purchase 10 mins for $100. Two years later brands would increase their investment by sponsoring an entire radio show, a concept that eventually became known as “sponsored content.”

1925: Advertisers appeal to emotions, focusing on what pleasure customers would receive from their product or service. This old Ford ad exemplifies this perfectly.

1975: VCRs are introduced, and consumers begin to record shows — and fast-forward through advertisements.

1990: Computers become more popular and accessible at home, with over 5 million homes connected to the internet.

1994: The first email spam campaign launches. Banner ads are also introduced.

1995: Search engines like Yahoo! and Alta Vista are born. Ask Jeeves and Google would follow in 1997 and 1998, respectively.

2000: Brands begin to recognize the importance of having an online presence. Procter and Gamble pilot the concept of the content hub with BeingGirl.com.

2005: Facebook expands from Harvard to 21 universities around the world; YouTube posts its first video.

2012: Online videos reach almost 170 million viewers.

2013: Sites like Pinterest and Instagram join the social network scene.

2020: Advertising soars on digital platforms, including social media, podcasts, pay-per-click (PPC), and more. Customer data plays a larger role in advertising targeting and retargeting. Lastly, a rapid increase in mobile devices boosts mobile ads and SMS marketing.

History teaches us that advertising is an ever-changing concept, just like shopping habits and how and where consumers spend their time.

Whereas almost 140 years ago, postcards were the newest form of advertising, brands today are building chatbots for Facebook Messenger and websites and integrating artificial intelligence into their marketing and sales platforms.

Things in the advertising world move fast. Now, let's take a look at how advertising methods have changed and what marketers and advertisers are using today.

Traditional vs. Nontraditional Advertising

Traditional advertising evolved before the ubiquity of the internet: think billboards, handouts, and print ads.

Even though traditional advertising relies on people not being buried in their phones 24/7, it’s not going anywhere.

Billboard ads still punctuate thousands of miles of highway, direct mail in the U.S. is a nearly $40 billion market, and posters are still wheat-pasted on the sides of buildings announcing movie or album launches.

“Nontraditional” is a bit misleading, especially if you’re a digital native for whom this all seems perfectly commonplace: think paid search advertising, social media advertising, and native advertising (affectionately known in some circles as SponCon, or sponsored content).

The line between traditional and nontraditional advertising isn’t quite as cut-and-dried as Before Internet and After Internet, though.

Posters and handouts might include QR codes that you scan with your phone, native advertising might appear in a print newspaper or magazine, and you’ve probably watched TV ads while streaming your favorite show over the internet.

Traditional advertising includes:

• Print ads (magazines, billboards, flyers, etc.)
• Broadcast (TV and radio)
• Salespeople (face-to-face advertising may well be the OG traditional ad tactic)

Nontraditional advertising casts a wide net — it’s basically everything that doesn’t fall under the umbrella of traditional advertising.

In addition to digital marketing and all its subsets, here’s a few favorite campaigns that leverage nontraditional tactics:

• Anti-marketing. Conventional wisdom? Never heard of her. Volkswagen hadn’t, either, when it ran its “Think Small” campaign for the 1959 VW Beetle. Focusing on the car’s small size was, in the company’s own words, “a risky move because at that time most car companies were emphasizing power and luxury oversized and practicality.” Liquid Death is another brand that has successfully employed this technique.
• Experiential marketing. 2023 summer blockbuster Barbie ran a marketing campaign that moviegoers could experience from the comfort of their own computing device. The website BarbieSelfie.ai lets users step inside the Barbie set by uploading a selfie; using AI, the site places you next to Margot Robbie (Barbie) and Ryan Gosling (Ken) at memorable moments in the film.
• Influencer marketing. We all know the drill: Person becomes internet-famous, brands reach out to person, person starts recommending that brand’s products. When done right, it’s a great way for brands to connect with an authentic, trusted voice and boost their visibility. In 2020, when TikToker Charli D’Amelio became one of the platform’s earliest megastars, Dunkin’ Donuts jumped on the opportunity, naming D’Amelio’s go-to drink after her as part of their partnership.

AI and Advertising

Like everything else it touches, artificial intelligence is changing the game for advertisers.

And although marketing and advertising have the highest rate of AI adoption at 37%, that means a majority of marketers and advertisers aren’t using AI.

In a HubSpot survey of more than a thousand marketing and advertising professionals, 57% of respondents said they felt pressure to learn AI — or risk becoming irrelevant.

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That’s Scott Brinker’s impression as well.

The HubSpot VP of platform ecosystems tells me that AI usage “is bifurcated” — some advertisers are “really actively trying to experiment and learn” how AI works, but the majority are still just talking about it.

Brinker says that wider adoption “won’t be one big hype curve — it’ll be dozens of mini hype curves.”

For instance, many marketers (and consumers) are already comfortable with customer-facing chatbots.

These agents are “autonomously and dynamically generating content,” Brinker says, and as we see lower and lower rates of exceptions and errors, the next logical step is for broader adoption of AI-generated personalized emails.

“AI agents for customer service are working,” he adds. “And when we trust them enough, they can do more than just customer service — they also do customer marketing.”

Brinker also offers a word of caution: “We throw a lot in the AI bucket.” And there’s a big difference between, for instance, generative AI that creates content and machine-learning AI that analyzes data, like Google Performance Max.

Katie King, the CEO of AI in Business and the author of AI Strategy for Sales and Marketing: Connecting Marketing, Sales and Customer Experience (a new edition is coming in 2025), tells me she’s been in the industry for 30+ years and says that “in all layers of advertising and public relations and marketing, everything used to be really manual,” recalling having to use fax machines and wait for responses (Ooof.).

King says that AI is now acting as a “copilot” or assistant for advertisers, automating repetitive tasks and freeing up time for more strategic, creative thinking. This reinforces what we found in a HubSpot survey of more than a thousand marketing and advertising professionals.

Of the people already using AI, most use it as a time-saver so they can focus on other things, like creativity and doing tasks they love.

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And speaking of strategy: King says using AI should make advertisers even more strategic, because it “takes away the finger-in-the-air guesswork. AI can help us understand, ‘Yes, this is who I should be targeting. This is what will resonate.’”

Before AI, advertisers’ best source of this information often came through focus groups. And although focus groups are still important to many marketers and advertisers, AI has transformed how they work.

Now, King says that “the selection for the focus group is often done by AI bots, which can help you understand and identify who should be in them.”

When I ask King what she wishes advertisers knew about AI, she stresses that this is happening now — not in five years, not in 10 years — and it’s imperative to understand the ethics of AI and advertising.

“You need to understand privacy and bias and transparency,” she says. “And the brands that use those in advertising are going to get the trust.”

Advertisers need to understand that “if we over-personalize, we can creep into invading somebody’s privacy. But if the consumer or the client gives consent to use their data, then the brand no longer needs to treat people as a big homogenous mass.”

Advertising can look like many different things. Here are the different advertising types and channels advertisers have been using over the years, with examples.

1. Print Advertising

Print advertising refers to posters, bulletins, flyers, and other physically printed promotions. It also refers to newspaper and magazine ads.

How we design and consume print advertising has changed over the years, but it‘s been a steadfast advertising medium — especially as digital advertising has evolved (which we’ll cover next).

Unlike digital media, print advertising can't be tracked and analyzed as clearly. Fortunately, brands have found brilliant ways to incorporate print advertising into broader digital campaigns.

Absolut Vodka

One of the most recognizable and longest-running print ad campaigns was born in 1981, just a few years after Absolut Vodka entered the U.S. market after a century in Sweden. The very first ad, “Absolut Perfection,” played with the brand’s name and added an angelic halo of light above the bottle.

Those two simple elements — the word “Absolut” and an artful photo of the bottle — left plenty of space for decades of variations on the theme. Absolut collaborated with well-known artists, elevating the brand with the likes of Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Annie Leibowitz.

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The sheer number of variations, all cleverly designed and executed, prompted people to begin collecting them. (If you are of a certain age, there’s a solid chance that either you or somebody you know lovingly plastered their college dorm room with Absolut ads.)

Takeaways:

• Simplicity can give you a lot of space and time to flex your creativity. The iconic Absolut campaign ran for 25 years, producing more than 1,500 print ads — that’s a little more than one new ad a week for a quarter of a century.
• Brand consistency, especially over the course of several decades, can expand your market reach.
• Creativity — including collaborations outside your usual wheelhouse — can elevate your brand.

2. Billboards and Public Transit Ads

Billboard advertising encompasses print advertising on a much larger scale. Due to their size, the design, placement, and cost of billboard and public transit ads are different from typical print advertising.

For example, billboards are typically designed with few to no words so that viewers have time to process the message while passing by in a car or train. Also, these ads are used for brand awareness, so they often only include a brand name or phone number (versus a website).

National Geographic’s Shark Bus

Public transit ads are probably my favorite form of traditional advertising, because there’s so much opportunity to have fun and make people laugh — which in turn makes your brand more memorable.

National Geographic’s Shark Week (now SharkFest) needs no introduction, and so a 2005 ad wrapped on city buses used minimal text and maximum teeth.

A realistic image of a shark was wrapped around an entire city bus, with the shark’s mouth — and its extremely long, extremely sharp teeth — centered on the side door. Everytime the bus doors opened and passengers went in and out, it looked to passersby like people were emerging from or disappearing into a shark’s gaping maw.

Takeaways:

• Evaluate unique opportunities within a medium. What worked as a bus wrap won’t work as a TV ad, so don’t expect a TV ad to be easily translatable to a billboard or public transit ad.
• Make people laugh. The unexpected delight of seeing public transportation users walk in and out of a shark’s mouth isn’t something you’re going to forget by the time you walk back inside your office.

3. TV Commercials

TV commercials are short advertisements developed and paid for by companies and organizations looking to capture the audience of a TV show or network program. TV ads have been around since the invention of the television and have changed drastically with the birth of streaming TV.

TV ads have a wide reach (millions) and provide viewers with a multi-sensory ad experience — something print ads and some digital ads can't quite do. Alternatively, TV ads are expensive, avoidable by your audience, and hard to target as accurately as other channels.

John Lewis Christmas Ads

Department store John Lewis has become famous for its heartstring-tugging Christmas ads (or adverts, since it’s a British brand). The two-minute spots tell stories about the power of giving, like this 2022 ad ostensibly about a 40-something guy trying to teach himself to skateboard.

Grab some tissues:

Dr. Annemarie Hanlon, a senior lecturer in digital and social media marketing at Cranfield School of Management, wrote in an article, “​​The trend John Lewis started works because they have transformed the advert from something we want to ignore or fast-forward into something we want to watch.”

Hanlon also writes, “John Lewis has historically been seen as an expensive shop, but their festive adverts position the brand as offering little Christmas treats, encouraging people who wouldn’t normally shop there to treat someone they love at John Lewis this year.”

By backgrounding the consumerism that’s so often rampant in holiday ads and foregrounding a meaningful story, John Lewis has expanded its brand recognition.

Even people who might not normally shop there — like Americans — now look forward to the annual Christmas ad.

Plus, by exercising a kind of scarcity mindset and only releasing one such ad a year, John Lewis builds anticipation among its target audience.

Takeaways:

• Give the customer what they want, not what you want. John Lewis presumably wants to boost its holiday sales, but instead of running ads promoting luxury gifts or special sale prices, it gives its audience a story. And like “The Beginner” ad above, there’s often a twist or reveal at the end that keeps you tuned in.

4. Radio

Radio advertising refers to spoken advertising spots aired on radio channels between music and other programs. This method dates back to 1920 when commercial radio first aired.

Radio advertising is particularly powerful for local and regional advertising. Nowadays, podcast advertising is a similar but more effective method, especially for national audiences.

Dove’s “Autotune” Campaign

Radio is a difficult medium for advertisers to conquer in this day and age. If you listen to terrestrial radio at all, you’ve probably learned to drown out shouty ads between DJ patter and Top 40 bops.

And if you don’t listen to terrestrial radio, you’re probably listening to podcasts, where you can fast-forward through toothbrush ads you’ve heard a hundred times already.

Dove’s “Autotune” ad is a notable exception in this category, as it uses the audio-only medium to its advantage.

A woman sings, “Magazine model / with immaculate skin / so perfectly curved / and impossibly thin,” as her voice gets increasingly AutoTuned. At the end of the 45-second song, an announcer declares, “Real beauty isn’t a trick of technology.”

Dove has become known for its Real Beauty campaign, which began in 2004, and more recently released an installment denouncing AI-generated images.

The radio spot works as both a standalone ad and an extension of the Real Beauty campaign, with a clever twist on how technology is often used to cover up or unrealistically enhance beauty.

Takeaways:

• As with public transit ads, consider opportunities that are unique to radio.
• Consistent messaging. Even though Dove goes in a different direction with AutoTune than we’re accustomed to seeing in its print or video ads, the message stays the same: Dove stands against unrealistic beauty standards and the technology used to enforce them.

5. Event Advertising

Events (both in-person and virtual) are opportunities to connect with your audience while promoting your brand and products. You can host your own event in the form of a conference, webinar, roundtable, or luncheon.

Another form of event advertising is sponsoring an event or purchasing a booth at a conference or trade show. This is less expensive than hosting your own event, but you still get to engage audience members and promote your brand.

INBOUND

The 2024 INBOUND in Boston convened 12,000 of the best minds in marketing, sales, CX, and tech. It’s an opportunity for HubSpot to show off our products (and announce new ones, like Breeze), but it also gives other companies an opportunity to engage with marketers and promote their brands.

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6. Direct Mail

Direct mail advertising includes postcards, pamphlets, and catalogs mailed directly to the homes of your target audience.

A direct mail advertising strategy is more personal than others on this list, but it's also very costly. (Consider the cost of postage alone.)

Another direct mail strategy is electronic mail, typically through email newsletters or promotions. This overlaps with our next section — digital advertising. That‘s what we’ll unpack next.

KitKat Chunky

It’s hard to stand out in a category that’s littered — literally — with minimalist luxury catalogs, brightly colored political ads, and dozens of foil-wrapped credit card offers.

So Nestlé blended in instead.

In 2012, the U.K.-based direct mail campaign sent mail that mimicked a Royal Mail “sorry we missed you” card. The reason? Too chunky.

Recipients could take the card to their local newsagent (convenience store) to exchange for a KitKat Chunky chocolate bar.

Takeaways:

• Stand out in a congested advertising channel by taking something familiar and giving it an unexpected twist.
• Reward engagement. In this case, recipients of the cleverly disguised ad could get a free candy bar and actually try out the product.

Digital Advertising: How to Advertise Online

As of today, there are over 5 billion internet users. This number is up 427% from 2005. Point being, internet usage is skyrocketing, and it’s not stopping.

If you’re not advertising online, you’re behind the curve. Not only does the internet offer you direct access to more than half the global population — including more than half of your target audience — but it also provides so many different advertising types and channels on which to advertise.

Marketers now have the flexibility to reach their target audiences on multiple fronts, in multiple ways, for multiple budgets. There are also a number of tools (many of which are free) that can help you execute your advertising strategy.

Here are the most common ways to advertise online:

Paid Search Advertising

Whether Google, Yahoo, or Bing, all search engines have their own paid advertising. This is referred to as pay-per-click, or PPC, and involves bidding on keywords and placing ads at the top or sides of search results.

When someone performs a query using one of those search engines, advertisers have the ability to display ads above organic search results. That’s what makes PPC so powerful — it gives your advertisements prime real estate in front of people already searching for relevant topics.

Here’s an example on Google:

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The top listings in the red box are advertisements. Organic search results — the ones that came up as a result of SEO — are below the map snippet.

Use our free AI Google Ads copy generator.

Social Media Advertising

Social media platforms know how valuable their content is, and that’s why they offer the option to sponsor or boost posts.

Social media ads put your message in front of your target audience and encourage them to engage, click-through, and buy.

More and more, social media sites are prioritizing ad space over organic content to bring in more revenue.

Whether you’re a budding or brand-new business, consider running some social media advertisements. These will not only advertise your products and services but also promote your social media pages and grow your following.

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X each have their own version of ads like these.

Here’s how they appear on their respective feeds:

Facebook

Download our free lookbook of 50 Facebook Ad Examples We Actually Clicked.

Instagram

Download our free guide to learn how to run Instagram ads, define goals, moderate engagement, and measure success.

LinkedIn

Download our free guide on How to Run Successful LinkedIn Ads.

X

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Download our free guide on How to Use Twitter for Business.

Native Ads and Sponsored Content

Sponsored content has been around since 1922, when brands would sponsor entire radio shows. Today, sponsored content refers more to native ads and blog or article content subsidized by brands. Native ads are cohesive with surrounding content and easily blend into any design.

Have you ever read a Buzzfeed article that heavily referenced or recommended a certain product or service? It was likely sponsored by a certain brand.

Check out 10 Reasons To Put Away Your Phone On Your Next Trip, promoted by agoda, a hotel or destination booking site. Does it blatantly promote agoda’s services? No. Its primary purpose is to entertain and inform, although agoda is referenced a few times throughout the content.

At the top, the byline reflects agoda’s sponsorship. And as you scroll down the page, another ad sits within the content.

Sponsored content is a great way to promote your brand in content your audience is already familiar with.

Banner and Display Ads

Banner and display ads are an extension of search ads and follow a similar PPC model. But instead of a text-based ad, consumers see a more visual advertisement.

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Banner ads are typically horizontal boxes on top of a web page, whereas display ads are smaller and shown on the side (like in the screenshot above).

Whether you opt for traditional print ads in magazines or subway stations or choose online promotion on social media or search engines, there are a few rules that make for great advertising.

Below are some advertising best practices to apply to all your ads.

Advertising Best Practices

There are a lot of best practices, tips, and tricks when it comes to advertising. It’s an art that’s been perfected over the years, and with the rise of modern types of advertising channels and new media, best practices continue to manifest.

These advertising best practices are:

• Appeal to emotions
• Create positive associations
• Establish a bandwagon effect
• Focus on benefits over features
• Leverage storytelling

In this section, though, we’re going to cover these five famous advertising concepts that still work today — regardless of what type of advertising method or medium you’re using.

When used correctly, these advertising techniques will do wonders for your brand and products.

Appeal to emotions.

While you may not consider the ASPCA a business, their unforgettable Sarah McLachlan commercial is the perfect example of using emotional appeal to entice people to take action.

For most of us, the images in that commercial are hard to watch — we may even turn away. But since it tugs at our heartstrings, we’re more likely to donate to animals in need after seeing the horrors they’re going through.

Create positive associations.

When consumers associate your product with a feeling of happiness, state of achievement, or an accomplished goal, they’re more likely to take notice, remember your product or service, and make a purchase.

You may have been on the receiving end of this before without even realizing it. Have you ever seen your favorite celebrity or Instagram influencer posing with a product or brand and found that you wanted to be, do, or look the same?

Companies create this subconscious connection in advertising, hoping you associate your positive feelings with the product or service they’re promoting.

For example, Under Armour uses Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to create a subconscious connection with customers. It apparently works, since his Rock Delta shoes were the fastest-selling Under Armour shoes of 2017.

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Catchy songs like “Nationwide is on your side" is an example of helping people associate friendliness with the Nationwide brand.

Coca-Cola has a brand advertising campaign that associates its product with friends, family, and fun. When you consider what refreshments to serve at a party or bring on a picnic, Coca-Cola wants you to think of it.

As you create your advertisements, consider what feelings, desires, or goals you want your brand to be associated with. Weave these feelings or goals into your advertisements through stories or videos.

Look for influencers who align with your brand’s core values and demeanor and include them to promote positive association.

Establish a bandwagon effect.

People want to fit in. It’s human nature. Neither you nor I are immune to it.

And it’s this human need for belonging that makes the bandwagon effect so effective. People don’t want to be left out. They find value in their peers’ opinions and don’t want to be the only ones not using the latest and greatest product.

Brands like Maybelline understand this concept well and use it to their advertising advantage. One tube of their top-selling mascara is purchased every five seconds, a statistic that establishes social proof and further supports their claim of “America’s Favorite Mascara.”

Use customer testimonials, survey data, or shareable content to advertise your brand as one worth following or buying into.

Take another approach by promoting a discount for sharing your brand with a friend or family member — so your audience will do the selling for you. Either way, use your advertising to create an inclusive environment that people want to join.

Focus on benefits over features.

Features and benefits are two very different things.

Features are the details of the product or service you’re selling, such as the measurements of a couch or the ingredients of a protein bar.

Benefits, on the other hand, explain why a person should buy a couch or protein bar from you and how their life would benefit from such a purchase.

Advertising should focus on the benefit your product or service brings, not explain what you’re physically selling.

Consider how Southwest Airlines advertises. Instead of explaining, line by line, what a Business Select ticket offers, Southwest paints a picture of what life would be like if you made a purchase. In this advertisement, they focus on the benefits.

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Rather than wasting precious ad space on your product specifications or service details, talk about how a purchase might positively impact your customers.

If you do it right, your creative, benefit-packed advertisement will inspire them to research the features on their own.

Leverage storytelling.

Not unlike our desire to fit in is our penchant for a good story.

Storytelling helps paint a bigger picture of a brand or company, not simply promote a single product or service. Also, when stories resonate with someone, it’s far easier to motivate him or her to take action.

Storytelling is a technique you should try to infuse in all your advertising. In fact, if you haven’t started crafting your brand’s overall story, you should definitely do so.

Consumers are more likely to remember facts if they’re part of a story, and storytelling is a more persuasive way to connect with customers and sell your product.

Dove employs storytelling in its campaign partnership with Operation Homefront. The videos feature real stories of military men and their families being reunited. The advertisements don’t directly promote Dove products, but instead tell the Dove brand story (and pull on a few heartstrings, too).

Determining your brand story will help you learn how to best discuss your brand in all marketing efforts, not just advertising.

Next, let’s take a look at some of the most memorable ad campaigns, a few of which put these best practices in action.

5 Memorable Ad Campaigns

The best advertisements are the best teachers. Whether it’s the copywriting, design, medium, or target audience, well-executed campaigns can always teach you something new about advertising or positioning.

Here are five campaigns that left a noticeable mark on advertising history.

1. Nike: Just Do It

In the late 1980s, Nike launched its “Just Do It” campaign.

At the time, Reebok was outselling Nike, and Nike needed to act fast to compete against the sneaker conglomerate.

But it wasn’t just the three-word phrase that earned global attention. Their new ad campaign also focused on real people wearing and working out in their products, as opposed to simply featuring clothes and sneakers themselves.

This powerful combination of people plus product helped Nike go from $800 million in 1988 to $9.2 billion just 10 years later.

2. The Absolut Vodka Bottle

Yep, Absolut gets two spots in our guide — its advertising is just that enduring.

Absolut’s “Bottles in the Wild” ad series is the longest uninterrupted campaign in history.

An attempt to grow Absolut’s name internationally, especially throughout the United States, it featured the Absolut bottle in different cities and countries worldwide.

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It launched in 1985 and ran until 2000 — lasting an impressive 25 years.

Absolut’s campaign helped grow the company from a tiny slice of the vodka market share (2.5%) to over half the U.S. imported market share.

To this day, the Absolut brand is the fourth largest spirit company, thanks to its focus on the overall story, not just the product itself.

3. Miller Lite

The folks at Miller Lite used differentiation to reach its goal: getting “real men” to willingly drink light beers.

With its “Great Taste, Less Filling” campaign, it maintained a leading position in the light beer market for several decades after this first campaign aired.

4. Always #LikeAGirl

Always’ #LikeAGirl campaign kicked off in 2014 to “tackle the things society were doing that could harm a young girl’s confidence at puberty.”

The multimedia campaign sought to change “like a girl” from insult to admiration by asking men and women to show them what it meant to run like a girl, throw like a girl, and fight like a girl.

They asked the same questions of girls; invariably, men and women interpreted “like a girl” negatively, and the girls saw it as neutral or positive.

Even though Always’ period products aren’t mentioned in the ads, it aligns the brand with positive associations — and sends a powerful message to viewers.

5. Dos Equis

With its edgy, cool, and sophisticated aesthetic, it’s no surprise that “The Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign put Dos Equis on the map.

This campaign created a positive association between the Dos Equis beer and the feeling of sophistication and poise. Sales quickly jumped by 22% after the campaign launched.

Even more impressive was how Dos Equis found success in a time when craft beers grabbed a foothold in the market and imported beer took a 4% hit. This campaign was a major component of that success.

To learn how to grab the attention of your audience, learn from the professionals. These campaigns are a great example of how brands have used real stories, real people, and real talk to grow their businesses.

Advertising Helps You Grow Better

Equipped with a dense, dynamic history, advertising is an incredible tool to add to your marketing toolbox.

Between print ads, radio sponsorship, TV commercials, and social media promotion, the opportunities to advertise and promote your brand are endless.

To best connect and engage with your audience, speak your customer’s language, appeal to their emotions, and tap into their desire to be a part of a community, create a clear and authentic brand story to illustrate how your brand aligns with their values.

By applying these tried and true practices to your advertising, you’ll build a magnetic brand that attracts customers, establishes a following, and generates revenue.

Do this and your brand will grow into a household name that stands the test of time — just like advertising itself.

I have a confession: I’m a chronic review reader. I start every purchase with a Google search. I rely on content — both from reviewers and from companies themselves — to make my final decision.

So, here’s what I know firsthand: Shoppers are looking for different types of content at different stages of the buyer’s journey.

Here’s an example. I recently decided to automate my LinkedIn thought leadership. To find the right solution, I read listicles about social media management tools.

Once I was acquainted with the market, I looked up product overviews. Then, I watched demos to see how the tools work. When I finally chose Buffer, I had dozens of pieces of content to support my decision.

As a marketer, you need to craft a strategy that supports the different stages of your buyer’s journey. You’ll need material for every step of the content marketing funnel. Below, I’ll share strategies that work — both as a marketer and a consumer.

Let’s dive in.

Table of Contents

• What is the content marketing funnel?
• Levels of the Content Marketing Funnel
• Understanding the Buyer’s Journey in Marketing
• Why Creating Content for the Buyer's Journey Is Important
• Creating Content for Each Stage of the Buyer's Journey
• Content Ideas for Each Stage of the Buyer's Journey

What is the content marketing funnel?

The content marketing funnel maps the buyer's journey from initial awareness, through consideration, to the final purchase decision.

Understanding this division — typically top, middle, and bottom — helps you create targeted content that addresses prospects' needs and nurtures leads through each stage of the decision-making process.

Aligning content with each stage of the buyer's journey helps you provide value, build trust, and guide customers toward choosing your product.

Levels of the Content Marketing Funnel

As I highlighted in the previous section, you can divide your content marketing funnel into three stages.

In this section, I’ll explain what each of these levels involve and the kind of content you can create, using my own business as an example.

Top of the Funnel (ToFu)

At the top of the funnel, I focus on attracting B2B SaaS decision-makers who are just realizing they have content challenges. My goal is to educate and inform, not to pitch my services directly.

I create content like:

• Blog posts addressing common B2B SaaS content struggles
• Infographics showcasing content marketing ROI statistics
• LinkedIn posts sharing quick content strategy tips
• Short videos explaining content trends in SaaS

With these, I hope to attract potential clients and showcase my expertise in the B2B SaaS space.

Middle of the Funnel (MoFu)

In the middle of the funnel, I target B2B SaaS prospects actively seeking content solutions. They're comparing options, so I position my services as the ideal choice.

I develop content such as:

• In-depth guides on creating effective SaaS content strategies
• Case studies highlighting my success with other B2B SaaS clients
• Detailed posts exploring specific content challenges in SaaS
• Comparison charts showing how my approach differs from in-house teams

This content helps prospects evaluate my services and builds trust in my specialized knowledge.

Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu)

At the bottom of the funnel, I focus on B2B SaaS decision-makers ready to choose a content strategist. I aim to overcome any final objections and encourage them to reach out.

I offer content like:

• Free content audits or strategy consultations
• Testimonials from satisfied B2B SaaS clients
• Detailed breakdowns of my content strategy process
• ROI projections based on previous client results

The goal of this content is to convert prospects into clients by offering the last piece of information or reassurance they need to choose my services.

Understanding the Buyer’s Journey in Marketing

Throughout my years as a content strategist for B2B SaaS companies, I‘ve personally discovered the buyer’s journey is rarely a straight path.

With the exception of impulse software purchases (which are rare in B2B), most decision-makers begin in an “unaware stage.” They typically fit the demographics of an ideal client — what I call a buyer persona — but they‘re unaware of the SaaS solution or don’t yet realize they need it.

A triggering event often changes their situation or highlights a pain point that needs solving. This is what kicks off their buyer's journey.

Let me share an example I've used with clients: Imagine a growing startup realizes its project management is becoming chaotic. These companies rarely decide to purchase a SaaS project management tool immediately.

Instead, they often turn to the internet to learn more and make decisions as they progress through the following stages. My job is to assist them in that decision-making process through strategic content.

Awareness Stage

In the awareness stage, B2B buyers are experiencing a problem or pain point, and their goal is to alleviate it. They're typically looking for informational resources to more clearly understand, frame, and give a name to their problem.

A common search query a prospect might begin with is: “How to improve team productivity?” At this stage, they‘re not yet thinking about specific SaaS solutions; it’s much too early for that.

Instead, they‘re looking to contextualize their problem first. As a B2B SaaS content strategist, I’ve discovered that showing up in search engine results, even in these early stages, is crucial to establishing authority and gaining the trust of buyers starting the journey.

Consideration Stage

Moving to the consideration stage, I‘ve observed that B2B buyers have usually clearly defined and named their problem.

They’re now committed to researching and understanding all available approaches and methods to solving their defined problem or opportunity. In other words, I've seen how they start considering potential SaaS solutions.

From my work, I know that a typical search inquiry a prospect would make at this stage might be: “Project management software vs. traditional methods?” In the consideration stage, the prospect isn't yet ready to buy, but they are deciding on the potential solution for them.

My strategy here is to consider indirect competitors and educate prospects on the pros and cons of various SaaS options.

Decision Stage

Once they've progressed to the decision stage, B2B buyers have typically decided on their solution strategy, method, or approach.

Their goal now is to compile a list of available SaaS vendors, make a short list, and ultimately make a final purchase decision.

Prospects at this stage make search inquiries like: “Asana vs. Trello vs. Jira.” At this point, they‘re ready to invest in a solution.

They’ll likely go with a SaaS provider they like, know, and trust so long as that provider can meet their specific business needs.

Why Creating Content for the Buyer's Journey Is Important

As in all marketing disciplines, it’s essential to understand your audience: how they think, the answers they seek, and the path they tend to take to find a solution.

From that research, you can begin crafting a documented content strategy that maps your content to the various stages of the buyer's journey.

When you don‘t completely understand your audience, it creates a disconnect between your business and your potential customers.

For content marketers like me, this usually means you’re putting out content your readers don't really relate to, which can cause you to lose them.

To avoid this, you‘ll have to consider the stage they’re at in their journey, how to meet them there, and the best channels to put the content in front of them. The internet has made it easier for marketers (and salespeople) to engage customers at the various stages of their journey using content marketing.

That’s one of the main reasons why 14% of marketers consider content marketing the marketing channel with the highest return on investment (ROI).

HubSpot's marketing platform offers powerful automation tools that can help streamline this process. I love how you can use the platform to create personalized content experiences, see how users engage at each stage of their buying process, and send tailored content when users need it.

Creating the right content at the right time can, however, be a challenge.

Building a content strategy starts with identifying the types of content you’ll need to reach your audience according to their progression through the buyer’s journey, and we’ll guide you through it in terms of both the marketing flywheel.

Creating Content for Each Stage of the Buyer's Journey

Once you have an idea of your buyer persona and how prospects move closer to purchase, you can begin creating content for your buyer at different stages and tailor that content per channel.

Doing so can help you map your content to the relevant stages of the buyer’s journey to make a marketing funnel.

Your journey may look very different depending on your industry, business model, product, pricing, and audience.

Some B2C customers, for example, spend very little time in the middle of the buyer’s journey compared to B2B customers, who require far more nurturing, engagement, and relationship development before a purchase is made.

A $50 pair of sneakers, for instance, requires a lot less hand-holding when it comes to making purchase decisions than a $10,000 business software investment.

Content Ideas for Each Stage of the Buyer's Journey

Because audiences can vary widely based on industry and intent, persona research is of the utmost importance.

By understanding their unique process for awareness and evaluation, you can create a truly effective content marketing funnel and strategy packed with custom content that best supports their journey toward making a purchase.

So, let’s take it from the top and start from the beginning of the buyer’s journey.

At the awareness stage, a buyer is looking for top-level educational content to help direct them to a solution, like blog posts, social content, and ebooks.

Their value as a lead is low because there’s no guarantee that they’ll buy from you. But those who find your content helpful and interesting may journey on to the middle of the funnel.

The ideal channels for the awareness stage may include:

• Blogging
• Search Engine Marketing
• Social Media Marketing

Let’s run through the different content formats best suited for these channels.

1. Blog Post

A blog post is an ideal piece of content targeting the awareness stage.

By targeting a pain, problem, or topic your target audience wants to discover and then posting it to your website, you’re creating a brand asset that’s crawlable by Google and discoverable by search engine users.

You can also promote your blog content across other channels.

When I’m having trouble ideating topics that align with my audience’s pain points, HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator can come in handy — just type in a few details about your audience or content, and the platform will generate catchy titles relevant to your input.

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Ahrefs does blog content right. They include original data and informational advice to create long-form articles that serve their audience.

Featured Resource: 6 Free Blog Post Templates

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2. Social Media Post

You can use social media to promote your other content, and you can also create content specifically for the channel.

According to Backlinko, 86.1% of all eligible audiences aged 18+ are active on social media. Since I target B2B SaaS companies, my social channel of choice is LinkedIn.

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In the above example, I’ve shared a carousel on my top tools on LinkedIn. These formats are popular on LinkedIn, as the content is created to be snackable with short-form take-aways.

3. Whitepaper

A whitepaper is an organization’s report or guide on a particular topic.

Whitepapers are especially useful as downloadable offers when readers want to go more in-depth on a specific subject they’re reading about.

I‘ve found it’s crucial to provide unique information your audience can‘t find elsewhere, which helps audiences understand the report’s value and compels them to download it.

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Every year, HubSpot publishes a survey on the state of marketing to provide helpful guidance based on thought leadership to marketers, sales professionals, and business owners.

Inside, readers find statistics from a broad survey and industry experts’ opinions on what the data means and where the industry is going.

4. Checklist

For complicated tasks with many moving parts, your audience may simply want a blueprint that spells out what they’re supposed to do to achieve their end goal.

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Buying a home is a perfect example of this, and Opendoor meets its audience’s needs by providing a handy checklist (in infographic form!) for the reader that spells out all the steps that need to be taken. The graphic is aesthetically pleasing and even allows room for a few tips along the way.

5. How-To Video

My experience has taught me that sometimes, the best way to solve a pain or problem is to learn a new skill.

While a purchase may be required along the way, your audience often needs to become more informed about the problem and potential solutions first. That‘s where I’ve seen instructional video content really shine.

HubSpot Marketing has a series of videos dedicated to teaching viewers about where SEO principles are broken down to the audience in easy-to-understand language and visuals. Knowing that SEO is a complex subject, the Marketing team aims to make it accessible to viewers.

6. Kit or Tool

I‘ve learned that informational content for a broad audience isn’t always sufficient for my buyer personas to make a decision.

In some cases, they require more utility or personalization. That‘s why I’ve found kits and tools to be excellent content pieces for guiding readers along their path to purchase.

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Nerdwallet creates content around several financial topics, budgeting being one of them. It can be challenging to create a budget, though, so they developed a calculator that allows users to provide their own numbers to receive customized recommendations.

7. Ebook or Tip Sheet

Similar to whitepapers, I've had success using ebooks and tip sheets as downloadable content. However, I typically make these shorter and more actionable.

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CoSchedule combines a few tactics by promoting their headline analyzer tool with a blog post about writing great headlines that drive traffic.

On that blog post, they include a great tip sheet of powerful words to include in headlines if you want to catch a reader’s attention.

Featured Resource: 36 Free Ebook Templates

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8. Educational Webinar

A webinar is a web seminar where information is typically provided through video.

A webinar can be prerecorded or streamed live, which opens up many possibilities for disseminating information to an audience that wants more visual and auditory content.

At HubSpot, we create webinars as a key part of our content marketing strategy and often run a valuable topic multiple times to get more mileage out of the content.

Moving on from the awareness stage content, let’s delve into the next stage of the buyer’s journey.

When someone moves into the consideration stage, it means you’ve captured their attention. They know they have a problem that has to be solved, and now they’re trying to discover the best solution. The need for a future purchase commitment creeps up as they’re evaluating their options.

This stage is typically a point of extended engagement where you’re nurturing a lead, building a relationship, and establishing trust between the audience and your brand.

The ideal channels for your consideration stage may include:

• Website or Blogging
• Search Engine Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Social Media

Let’s go through the best content formats for this part of the buyer’s journey.

1. Product Comparison Guides

In the consideration stage, the buyer persona still considers solutions to their pain or problem. For this reason, product comparisons are a great way to help them decide.

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For example, when I worked with a project management SaaS, we created comparison guides between different competitor tools to help our readers understand which tool might work best for their team.

2. Case Study

I've successfully used case studies in both the consideration and decision stages. In my view, a well-crafted case study convinces the reader that our solution works by showcasing real results for actual clients.

When I create case studies for my B2B SaaS clients, I make sure to appeal to both emotions and logic. I tell a compelling story about the client's challenges while providing detailed, quantitative data on how our solution solved their problems.

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HubSpot Partner Agency Blueleadz tells a story about their client and their problems while providing a detailed account of how they solved them.

Featured Resource: 3 Free Case Study Templates

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3. Free Sample

A free sample is another example of content or an offer that overlaps between the buyer’s journey stages. Consider this: An individual wants to paint the inside of their home but doesn’t know what color.

As they consider which color (the solution) to use, they pick up paint chip cards from their hardware store. A provider creates these cards based on their individual solution. When the individual falls in love with a color, they already know who the provider is that makes it.

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SILKCARDS taps into this buying behavior by offering samples of their unique printing methods on the content that they create.

They know their business is tactile, and digital content alone is not enough to close a deal. Once their prospective customer holds the sample in their hands, other business cards are put to shame.

So, now that you’ve provided content to help customers list out or sample their options, it’s time to move them into the decision stage.

As prospects near the end of the buyer’s journey, they’re evaluating providers down to specific or specialized offerings.

Marketers, in turn, want to go above and beyond their expectations and provide an easy and frictionless customer experience that can win them over their competitors.

Handling objections, remove hesitation, position ahead of comp

In my experience, the most effective channels for decision-stage content include:

• Website.
• Email marketing.
• Live chat and chatbots for service.

Here are the content formats I've found most effective in helping prospects get closer to purchase.

1. Free Trial or Live Demo

Most of my clients in B2B SaaS offer free trials of their products. Free trials allow potential customers to experience the power of the tools firsthand. Once they see how new tools impact productivity and efficiency, they’re much more likely to become paying customers.

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Dropbox Sign does this well. Though they have a free option with limitations, they know that offering a free trial upfront is the key to getting clients into their larger tiers. Their pricing page sets the prospect’s expectations and points them to the free trial.

2. Consultation Offer

A consultation is another example of providing just a little bit of service in exchange for the opportunity to close the sale.

The best consultation reduces the anxiety of entering into a sales conversation by promising something concrete they can walk away with (a strategy or actionable advice) in exchange for their time.

In my B2B SaaS strategies, I often include consultation offers. I've found they work best when they promise concrete, actionable advice.

To increase conversions, I always make scheduling as frictionless as possible and use automated booking systems like Calendly.

3. Coupon

A coupon appeals to a fear of missing out (FOMO) mindset.

By reducing the price by a certain amount, a coupon is handing a price objection while convincing the prospect that they’re leaving money on the table if they don’t use the coupon. This inertia is enough to win the prospect’s business.

While traditional coupons aren‘t as common in B2B SaaS, I’ve had success with limited-time offers or special pricing for early adopters. This creates a sense of urgency and can be the final push a prospect needs to make a decision.

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Fragrant Jewels does this well by gamifying its coupons.

By spinning the wheel, the website visitors have the chance to get a coupon before checking out the products. They’ll likely evaluate the products that are a good deal with the coupon they won.

Beyond the decision stage, I always emphasize the importance of creating content to satisfy existing customers. In my experience, this often includes comprehensive knowledge bases, regular feature update announcements, and advanced tips and tricks to help users get the most out of the software.

Mapping Content Across All Stages of the Buying Cycle

In my years of experience as a content strategist, I’ve learned that every business has a unique buyer’s journey — one that demands a tailored approach for optimal results. I can't simply replicate a strategy from one client to another.

And that starts by getting to know your audience and understanding their needs, pain points, and decision-making process. Once you have that understanding, you develop a strategy that maps custom content — whether it’s educational blog posts or product demos — to each phase of their journey.

When a content strategy truly matches a buyer's journey, it improves customer relationships while boosting conversions and loyalty.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Coming up with effective lead generation ideas is tough — and I’m the world’s worst at putting off this aspect of my marketing strategy.

Sending cold emails and scraping together lists for lead generation can be difficult because — let‘s face it — often, people don’t want to take the time out of their schedules to talk.

What if you could reach your lead generation goals using methods that actually add value for your prospects? And what happens when traditional lead generation methods fall flat due to internal or external circumstances?

This lead generation utopia I'm describing is a possibility. To walk you through how to achieve this for your business, I’ve asked the experts and detailed several creative methods you can add to your lead generation strategy.

These ideas provide valuable information that helps prospects rather than simply pushing them to make a purchase.

Let's unpack these 21 creative lead generation ideas to spark activity on your content offers, email lists, websites, and conversion rates.

And for more on lead generation, you can explore all of HubSpot's free lead generation content and resources in one place.

Social Media Lead Generation

1. Partner with influencers.

One of the quickest ways to gain traction and drum up new leads is to partner with influencers within your niche.

Influencers have a special way of connecting with their audiences, and when they showcase your brand, you expand your reach to a larger audience.

Pro tip: Nicole Rossi, Marketing Coordinator at Custom Neon, told me partnering with influencers is an effective lead generation idea, but the key is to create landing pages relevant to your campaign.

Rossi said, “Partnering with influencers has also been an incredibly successful lead-generation tool for us. Influencers that share our brand values are partnered with us, and together we develop giveaway campaigns or offer special discount codes to their audience. With this approach, we can reach unexplored markets and produce leads through forms or landing sites made specifically for the campaign.”

Networking Lead Generation Ideas

2. Do a LinkedIn audit.

If LinkedIn is your jam, you could be sitting on an untapped market — your connections.

Melissa Lohrer, Founder at Waverly Ave Consulting, said, “Sometimes, your next best opportunity is already in front of you. Audit your existing LinkedIn connections — there are likely untapped opportunities sitting directly in your network. Growth isn’t always about bringing in new people but nurturing who’s already in your corner and leveraging those relationships to create momentum. This is your fastest path to conversion.”

3. Schedule coffee chats.

When it comes down to it, gaining a qualified lead starts with connecting on a human level. No-strings-attached networking is a great way to connect with members of your audience, build meaningful relationships, and begin a slow (but warm!) conversion.

Erin Pennings, a copywriter and marketing strategist, told me coffee chats are her favorite way to connect with your target audience.

Pennings said, “In my experience, the number one lead gen strategy is building relationships with other people. It‘s not networking in the traditional sense of the word, but simply about making connections. It’s not usually a fast-burn strategy because human connections take time, but it's a great way to create an effective referral network.

“I love reaching out to people to schedule no-pitch coffee chats where the primary goal is getting to know people — and I always ask them who I can connect them with or who would be a good referral for them, and they generally reciprocate. Often I can make connections right away to support them, and then when I need to get contracts or work at the door, I know I can reach out to see if they know anyone I know.”

4. Use customer reviews in your pop-ups.

Want to build trust and brag about your clout? Consider showing off your customer reviews. Visitors lurking on your website want to know what real customers think of your product or service before they, too, take the plunge.

That’s why Johannes Karjula, CEO at Trustmary.com, uses a customer review pop-up to drive conversions.

Karjula said, “The best strategy to generate leads is to use an exit-intent popup that features customer reviews and an offer or discount code. These work especially well if someone is very close to converting: either buying or booking a meeting. If they're about to leave, throwing social proof to their faces is great in proving that they actually need the product or service in question.”

Content Marketing Lead Generation

5. Create valuable content (blog posts, podcasts).

Your audience wants content, whether that’s a blog post, a podcast, or a video. That's why I think content marketing remains one of the most effective and recognizable ideas for lead generation strategies.

Roland Jakob, managing partner of BlazeKin Media, says, “The most effective lead generation idea I‘ve encountered is the strategic use of personalized content marketing. In my experience, creating tailored content that speaks directly to your target audience’s pain points and interests is incredibly powerful. I‘ve found that when we develop in-depth blog posts, engaging videos, or insightful podcasts that genuinely address our audience’s needs, we not only attract potential leads but also establish ourselves as trusted authorities in our field — which is what you ultimately want.”

6. Share success secrets from thought leaders.

Want to provide unique value in your content? Reach out to a thought leader in your industry or even your company.

By interviewing an expert to uncover their secrets, you prove to potential customers that you're dedicated to delivering the best advice and insight out there.

Below you‘ll see Groove’s take on this approach through an interview with the CEO of The Foundation, Andy Drish.

The folks at Groove frequently interview successful founders and ask very specific questions from which everyone can learn something. Then, Groove shares those interviews with audience members on its blog.

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Not only is the interview with Drish chock-full of quotes, lessons, and actionable takeaways for entrepreneurs, but it also features an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) with the interview subject in the comments section.

This touch helps further Groove's reputation as a resource for expert information among its audience.

7. Compile real-life examples with actionable takeaways.

Finding effective examples to learn from can be equally as valuable and difficult. A list of best practices, current trends, or real-life examples in your industry is an excellent way to drive prospects to a guide or offer where they can opt-in.

The Content Marketing Institute knows this and makes a point to share current content marketing trends every year in a blog post.

This blog post acts as a resource to inspire site visitors to be successful with their marketing strategies, and, ultimately, search their website for guides and opt-in offers to up their content game.

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8. Show what’s working for your company.

I can’t be the only marketer who’s nosey, right?

It’s why I find sharing a transparent post that pulls back the curtain on something with which you've seen success (or failure) interesting. And I know your potential leads find it interesting, too.

Other companies going through a similar stage of growth — or approaching your size — can gain a lot of inspiration from transparency posts and ultimately avoid making the same mistakes.

In an effort to provide an insightful resource, consider sharing how you’ve built your platform or a lesson you’ve learned along the way. You can share your insights in a blog post or a downloadable guide.

Just don’t forget to include a final call-to-action to encourage readers to join your email list.

9. Create a handy checklist.

Who doesn‘t have a running to-do list that sometimes gets a little bit too long? If you’re planning an upcoming webinar, you can be sure there's a lot that goes into it.

HubSpot created a handy webinar checklist that marketers can download and use to make sure they don't miss any critical steps in their webinar production.

Pro tip: HubSpot uses the gated offer to prove its brand's expertise on the subject and encourage checklist downloads.

10. Offer insightful, downloadable case studies.

One of the best ways to gain new leads and spark interest in your products or services is to show how your brand is an asset to your clients. Case studies help get your message across while doubling as a lead magnet.

Krissy Selda, a digital marketing specialist at Array Marketing Agency, is a huge fan of case studies. Selda told me, “From experience, publishing case studies has been the most powerful lead generation tactic because they demonstrate how your business consistently meets customer expectations.

“By showcasing the value of your products or services, case studies allow potential clients to envision themselves benefiting from your success. When customers see tangible results from businesses or individuals similar to themselves, they are more inclined to engage with your product or service. This makes them one of the most effective content marketing tools for driving leads.”

11. Create an interactive quiz or tool.

Consider offering a quiz to your website visitors as a creative way to learn more about them and obtain their contact information.

The goal is to “bargain” the result of the quiz in return for a new lead, which can be very effective when done right.

Cassandra Gucwa, founder of Menerva Digital, says tools and quizzes are “a great way to offer something that is valuable to your potential target audience and gather their email or information. Some examples of free tools would include a cost calculator, savings calculator, or a tool that checks how secure your email address is.”

Another similar method is offering an interactive tool, such as the HubSpot Website Grader. The Website Grader is a free online tool that visitors can use to grade their websites against key metrics and discover ways to improve them.

To use the tool, visitors must submit their email — which provides HubSpot with new leads interested in improving their web presence.

Video Marketing Lead Generation

12. Personalize video content.

91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. And for good reason: it’s a great way to connect with qualified leads and convert them to paying clients.

Whether you use short- or long-form video, the key to video marketing lead generation is to personalize your content.

For Mike Vannelli, Creative Director of Envy Creative, personalizing video starts with understanding the unique perspectives of your audience.

Vannelli told me, “One of my favorite lead generation tactics is leveraging personalized video content. We create tailored video messages based on specific pain points or challenges a prospect is facing. It‘s not just about sending a generic promo — it’s about showing that we understand their unique needs.

“These personalized videos are then embedded in emails or used as landing page content. Adding a clickable call-to-action at the end, like scheduling a demo or downloading a valuable resource, boosts engagement like nothing else. The human touch combined with targeted messaging has consistently driven better conversion rates for us.”

Email Marketing Lead Generation

13. Create a valuable course or guide.

A well-developed course or guide is like gaining access to a real class — for free. For busy marketers, this type of offer can prove to be incredibly valuable.

Pro tip: This approach tends to work well for in-depth topics. You can create an email course, host a course on your platform, or create a downloadable guide for visitors to read. HubSpot offers tons of free courses and downloadable guides like Introduction to Lead Generation.

These courses and guides help people with different content consumption styles get the same valuable information that's on the blog, and it helps HubSpot generate new leads to engage with over email.

14. Provide gated offers with best practices.

When you explore a marketing tactic in a blog post or e-book, I find it helpful to know what others are doing to have success with the same method.

Compiling those best practices into a list is incredibly useful to a marketer looking to get started in a particular arena.

For example, HubSpot offers a comprehensive list of SEO best practices from a variety of experts, which aims to help its target audience achieve a greater return on investment from content marketing.

The ebook provides value for readers trying to crack a complicated marketing strategy — and in exchange for their contact information, they get insider tips from a variety of expert sources.

Event-Based Lead Generation

15. Offer webinars and live demonstrations.

If you’re looking for another lead generation idea, consider hosting seminars or live events. Webinars and live events are perfect opportunities to mingle with your audience while also providing them with useful information and new skills (and upselling your products and services!).

Cache Merrill, founder of Zibtek, told me, “Webinars are an excellent tool for presenting one’s expertise and building trust. We try to cover the ‘correct’ topics relevant to what we do. Finally, we expect to have a very good number of conversions at the end where audiences are eager to have a closer interaction request for a consultation or a demo.”

Referral and Partnership Lead Generation

16. Create a referral ecosystem.

Lead generation doesn’t have to be a solo endeavor. I’ve mentioned working with influencers as an example of how to make conversions a team sport.

However, influencers aren’t the only people you can recruit for your lead generation efforts. Instead, ask your network for referrals.

Lohrer calls this “creating a referral ecosystem.”

Lohrer explained it to me like this: “Choose your top three clients and tell them you're looking for more like them. Ask for introductions to their peers or advice on where to find similar high-value clients. Better yet, ask them to introduce you to someone you want to meet to make it easy for them.

On top of that, partnering with complimentary service providers — those who work with the same client base in different ways — or those who influence your clients (think advisors or coaches) can help create a steady, mutual referral stream.”

17. Solicit brand partnerships.

Like influencer partnerships, connecting with other brands is a great way to tap into other markets and connect with a larger audience. You’ll want to ensure the brands you connect with are relevant to your niche. The more relevant the niche, the more likely their audience aligns with your own.

Roland Jakob, managing partner of BlazeKin Media, agrees that brand partnerships are an effective form of lead generation.

Jakob told me, “At BlazeKin Media, I’ve connected creators with major brands like Coca-Cola, Sephora, and others, driving high-quality leads by expanding reach and boosting credibility. The key is ensuring these collaborations provide real value to the brands, creators, and audience, leading to engaged prospects who are more likely to convert into loyal customers.”

Freemium and Trial-Based Lead Generation

18. Offer a free trial or a freemium product.

Is there anyone else out there who hates a free trial or product? I am pretty sure there isn’t. Everyone loves free. It’s the reason offering a free trial or a freemium product works so well as a lead generation tactic.

Yevhenii Tymoshenko, chief marketing officer at Skylum, understands that free trials lead to qualified leads, which is why a free trial paired with personalized marketing are their go-to lead generation ideas.

Tymoshenko told me, “Once a user is signed up for a free trial, we make use of personalized marketing to ultimately convert them.”

Free trials of a brand‘s services help get a prospect’s foot halfway through the door. If the free trial helps them and provides great value, they're more likely to purchase the full product and become a customer.

Another similar strategy is to offer a freemium product, similar to how HubSpot offers the free forever HubSpot CRM. By offering a portion of your product or service line for free, you give users a taste of your brand and build trust and awareness among your user base.

Tymoshenko also incorporates freemium products into Skylum’s marketing operations.

He said, “We‘ve also been testing giving limited free access to certain new features of our products … This is a good way to generate qualified leads that would purchase your product in the end. And if, for some reason, that doesn’t happen, we can offer custom discounts to some users.”

SEO Lead Generation

19. Leverage the SEO power of customer reviews.

Review platforms generally have a strong presence in organic search, making them a great opportunity to expand your brand presence and get noticed by the right people.

When you encourage users to leave reviews on a third-party platform with strong SEO — like Yelp or Google — you increase the chances of being found by qualified prospects in search, without paying a dime.

Google recognizes the independent role of these sites in helping people find what they’re looking for and seems to favor review sites in search engine results.

Imagine your company on this list. There’s a high chance your product would be included in what McKinsey calls the “initial consideration set” leading to the “moment of purchase” during the consumer decision journey.

You also outmaneuver competitors in high-value keyword searches. This is crucial considering that many B2B searches start with a generic keyword phrase.

20. Optimize your website.

Here’s a hot tip for lead generation: Don’t overlook your website. Ensuring your website is optimized and ready for the search engines is a quick way to turn it into a lead generating machine.

Colton De Vos, marketing and communications specialist at Resolute Technology Solutions, told me that if your website generates lots of traffic, but only converts a few leads, then you should consider making changes to your site to encourage conversions.

De Vos said, “Invest the time to tweak your website content and design to persuade visitors to make the leap and contact your business. Make it easy for prospects to reach out. Include many easy options for them to engage, and facilitate their research of your company. Feature trust factors such as reviews, case studies, and the value your company has brought others.”

Pro tip: Consider connecting your marketing software to your website to make it easier for leads to get in contact with you.

Paid Lead Generation

21. Paid advertising.

My last lead generation idea to share is paid advertising. Think of paid ads as billboards in the online space. A great billboard catches attention and encourages the potential customer to take action of some kind.

Online paid advertising does the same thing. Plus, with the right landing page and forms, you can easily convert visitors to leads.

Sophie Musumeci, CEO and Founder of Real Entrepreneur Women, uses paid advertising as part of her lead generation efforts. But she told me there has to be a well-thought-out strategy for it to work well and convert leads.

Musumeci said, “I’m a fan of strategic paid advertising. It amplifies your reach, but it’s critical that the ads are targeted, clear, and focused on the results your audience is craving.”

You can launch paid ads on nearly every social media platform, including setting up ads on Facebook and Pinterest. You can also set up ads on Google and other search engines.

Pro tip: Wherever you decide to spend your marketing dollars, take the time to understand your audience and learn the places they hang out online. This can help you determine the best places for your ads.

Effective Lead Generation Ideas for You

I’ve found creating an effective lead generation strategy to be an art and a science. For me, the best strategy combines several lead generation ideas, like cultivating connections with my network and offering high-value content.

You might find, however, that paid advertising or partnering with brands and influencers works better for your niche.

Whichever lead generation strategy you experiment with next, make sure the content is useful to your audience so they'll return to your website again and again.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in February 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Are you looking for a way to create a quick title scene or a slideshow in Premiere Pro? Then these free Premiere Pro templates will come in handy.

One of the best features of Premiere Pro is the ability to use templates. With templates, you can instantly create various types of video projects. Even if you don’t have much experience in using the app, templates are fairly easy to use.

There are plenty of amazing Premiere Pro templates out there. But, most of them are premium templates. Don’t worry, if you’re low on budget or looking for a template for a personal project, we’ve got you covered.

In this collection, we feature some of the best free Premiere Pro templates we’ve come across (as well as a few premium ones too). You can use them to create all kinds of projects from titles to lower-thirds, slideshows, and much more.

Motion Array – Unlimited Video Downloads

Motion Array offers an unlimited download marketplace for all your video making needs, with over 80,000 premium-quality templates, stock videos and music files to help you make better videos, faster and easier than ever. Motion Array is a one-stop shop for all your video post-production needs, and now has over 50 professional plugins to power up your video editor.

Motion Array’s Standard Universal License allows you to use unlimited assets from Motion Array marketplace in as many projects as you’d like. It’s all membership based, so you can sign up for a month or a year and grab any assets you need, when you need them (plus, you can cancel any time and keep the items you licensed).

Not only that, you can grab a $50 discount for annual subscriptions by clicking through the link above!

The Space – Creative Slideshow Premiere Pro Template

The Space is a modern video slideshow template for Premiere Pro. This template features stylish transition effects and animations that will help you create a stylish presentation for a business, agency, or a creative project.

Urban Opener –  Modern Premiere Pro Template

Just as the name suggests, this Premiere Pro template is made for creating openers for videos with an urban design style. The template includes 18 placeholders for adding photos and videos as well as 8 placeholders for text.

Conference & Event Promo Template for Premiere Pro

This is a professional Premiere pro template you can use to design attractive promo videos for corporate events and conferences. It features multiple styles of slide designs that you can easily customize to create your own promo clips.

YouTube End-Cards MOGRTs for Premiere Pro

You can use this collection of Premiere Pro templates to create stylish end-screen cards for your YouTube videos. It includes 5 different end card templates in MOGRT format. You can easily edit them to change text and colors as well.

Bigger Action Opener Free Premiere Pro Template

This free Premiere Pro template will allow you to add big, bold, and attention-grabbing openers for your videos without effort. There are 32 text placeholders in this template with big titles. You’ll also have 13 media placeholders for adding images or videos to the opener.

Street Opener Free Premiere Pro Template

Add a cool and trendy intro for your video using this free Premiere Pro template. It comes with a modern and stylish design that will fit perfectly with your social media videos. The template has 23 media placeholders with 14 text layers.

Free Lyrics Titles Premiere Pro Template

You can use this free Premiere Pro template to add colorful and creative song lyrics to videos. It has an easily customizable design with beautiful text effects for giving a cool look to the lyrics titles. The template includes 5 different title designs.

Free Dirty Fresh Opener for Premiere Pro

This Premiere Pro template features a stylish design with urban animations, effects, and bold typography. It’s perfect for adding a fresh opener to your social media videos and promos.

Free Instagram Story Slideshow for Premiere Pro

Grab this free Premiere Pro template to craft an attractive Instagram story to promote your products. The template features a slideshow-style design with multiple media placeholders.

Free Glitch Logo Premiere Pro Template

Create a stylish logo intro for your video using this free Premiere Pro template. It comes with a glitch-style logo animation and you can easily place your logo or customize text however you like.

Free Cloud Logo Premiere Pro Template

This free Premiere Pro template allows you to create a cool logo sting surrounded by clouds. It includes a beautiful logo reveal animation that shows your logo as if it’s flying through the clouds.

10 Smooth Zoom Transitions for Premiere Pro

This is a bundle of free transitions for Premiere Pro. It has 10 different transitions with smooth zoom effects, including shape zoom, lens zoom, rotate zoom, and more, to create cool transitions between clips.

Free 75 Glitch Transitions for Premiere Pro

If you’re a fan of glitch-style transitions, give this free Premiere Pro template pack a try. It includes 75 different glitch effects you can use to create transitions for your videos. There’s a tutorial that shows you how to use these transitions as well.

City Slideshow – Free Premiere Pro Template

Download this high-quality Premiere Pro template for free to create slideshow scenes for your business and promo videos. The template includes stylish transitions with minimal effects that give it a more professional look and feel.

Large Title Slideshow Free Premiere Pro Template

This free Premiere Pro template includes multiple title scene designs with bold boxed text and overlays. Each title design can be easily customized to your preference as well.

65+ Free Premiere Pro Color Grading Templates

A massive bundle full of color grading presets you can use to give a Hollywood-look to your YouTube vlogs and other videos. There are more than 65 different presets and visual styles in this pack.

Split Screen Transitions for Premiere Pro

If you’re looking for a unique transition to grab the viewer’s attention, this Premiere Pro transitions pack is for you. It features stylish split-screen transitions with multiple styles of designs. You can also fully customize and adjust each transition to your preference. A must-have for professional editors.

Free Zoom Bounce Transition for Premiere Pro

This Premiere Pro transition is perfect for adding a short and quick animation between your video clips. It features an inward zoom effect that creates a cool animation while transitioning.

Free Premiere Pro Reverse Spin Transition

This Premiere Pro transition is also free to download and use in your projects. It features a quick reverse spin animation that transitions between video clips in a fun and creative way.

Free Diagonal Multicolor Transition for Premiere Pro

A fun and colorful transition for Premiere Pro with creative diagonal shapes. In this transition, the multicolor shapes cover the entire screen to reveal the next clip. It’s completely free to use.

Free Distort Sideways Transition for Premiere Pro

Another simple and minimal transition for your professional video projects. This one features a distortion effect that creates a sideways scrolling animation to transition to the next clip in a natural-looking effect.

Boxed Audio Visualizer – Free Premiere Pro Template

This Premiere Pro template allows you to add a visualizer animation to your audio clips. It’s perfect for adding a stylish visual to your audio content, especially when sharing them on Instagram and TikTok.

Particle Heart – Free Wedding Premiere Pro Template

A beautifully animated slideshow template for creating wedding videos. This template can be used to create title scenes as well as photo and video slideshows in Premiere pro.

Fresh Food Promo Free Premiere Pro Template

This free Premiere Pro template allows you to create a simple promo video to promote food products. Of course, you can easily customize it to promote other types of products too.

Free 48 Zoom Lens Transitions for Premiere Pro

Looking for fresh transitions to style your videos? Then grab this free bundle of Premiere Pro transitions. It includes 48 different transitions featuring zoom lens and optical effects. All are free to download and use in your projects.

6 Free Premiere Pro Title Templates

This Premiere Pro template pack includes 6 simple and minimal title templates. They are perfect for adding title scenes to your YouTube and social media videos. The templates come in Full HD resolution.

Free Instagram Product Promo Premiere Pro Template

Use this template to create attractive Instagram Stories to promote your product sales and promotions. It features an easily editable design with cool animations to grab the user’s attention.

Free YouTube End Screen Premiere Pro Template

You can add a professional end-screen to your YouTube videos using this free Premiere Pro template. It features simple animations with an easily editable design as well as an animated play button.

Free YouTube Animated Subscribe Buttons Template

Use this free Premiere Pro template to add a subscribe and Like button element to your YouTube videos. It will help encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel and like your videos.

Free Premiere Pro Brush Transitions

A collection of transitions for Premiere Pro. This bundle includes 10 unique transition effects with brush-style animations. They are perfect for giving a creative and artistic look to your videos.

Free In And Out Zoom Transition for Premiere Pro

A simple and free Premiere Pro transition for adding a quick and fast transition. The template includes a clean in and out zoom animation that’s a great choice for various business and professional videos.

15 Free Logo Reveal Premiere Pro Intro Templates

This is a collection of 15 different logo reveal templates for Premiere Pro. It includes various styles of logo reveals with many different styles and designs that are suitable for all kinds of brands and businesses.

Free Zoom Burn Transition Premiere Pro Template

With this free Premiere Pro transition, you can add a creative animation between clips with a zoom burn effect. It’s especially great for fashion, lifestyle, and Instagram videos.

Free Arrows Premiere Pro Transition Template

This free Premiere Pro template includes a colorful transition that features triangle shapes. You can easily customize the transition effect to your preference. And it’s ideal for both personal and creative projects.

Free Twirling Bokeh Transition for Premiere Pro

This Premiere Pro template allows you to add a cool transition effect inspired by bokeh. It will fit in nicely with many different types of videos and Premiere Pro projects.

Free Gold Particles Logo Reveal Premiere Pro Template

A great free logo reveal template you can edit and customize using Premiere Pro. This template reveals your logo with a golden particles animation. It’s ideal for showcasing luxury brands and logos.

Retro VHS Slideshow Free Premiere Pro Template

This Premiere Pro template allows you to add a retro look and feel to your videos. It features a slideshow design featuring glitching effects and a faded film effect that makes your videos look like a film from the 1980s.

10 Free Animated Title Templates for Premiere Pro

A collection of 10 creative title templates for Premiere Pro. Each title in this template pack features a different animation. And they are perfect for everything from YouTube videos to film projects and more.

Color Glitch Transition Free Premiere Pro Template

This is a tutorial on how to create an attractive color glitch animation in Premiere Pro. The video tutorial is free on YouTube and you can also download the project files used in the tutorial for free. The link is in the description box.

Glitch Opener – Free Premiere Pro Template

Looking to create a quick opening scene for a YouTube video or a social media promo clip? Then this free template is for you. It features a stylish opening with a glitching effect and text tiled that also has a distorted effect. It’s perfect for tech, fashion, gaming, and various other video projects.

Rotating Letters Title – Free Premiere Pro Template

Creating professional title scenes is not always easy. To help save your time, use this free template in your next project. This Premiere Pro template features a modern title scene that has rotating letters forming the title in a creative way. The template will fit in perfectly with all sorts of social media and promotional videos.

Film Glitch Title – Free Premiere Pro Template

This free Premiere Pro template is perfect for crafting title scenes for various types of videos. It features a very colorful design with a glitching effect. You can easily customize it to your preference as well.

Faded Glitch – Free Premiere Pro Title Template

Another free Premiere Pro title template featuring a unique effect. This template is most suitable for creative and educational videos as it comes with a creative glitching effect that stands out from the crowd.

Big Stretch Intro – Free Premiere Pro Template

If you want to add a fun and quirky title or intro scene to your videos, this free Premiere Pro template will come in handy. It features an animation that stretches the titles. It includes 4 media placeholders and 9 title placeholders.

Frame Split Transition – Free Premiere Pro Template

This is a popular transition effect that many professionals use to add a smooth transition between clips and segments. With this template, you can also add that same transition effect in your videos for free. The template features a unique effect that makes your screen split into different directions to reveal the next scene.

Fashion Promo Premiere Pro Template

This modern Premiere Pro template is perfect for promoting a fashion brand or apparel products. You can use it to create promo videos for ads, product pages, and even for social media promotions. It comes in full HD resolution.

Liquid Broadcast – Essential Graphics for Premiere Pro

When creating content for a network or a brand, it’s important to have all your video overlays with the same style and design. This is a complete bundle that includes all the overlays you need to create content for broadcasting networks and channels. All of the templates feature beautiful and customizable liquid-themed designs.

Animated Cluster Title – Free Premiere Pro Template

If you ever wanted to promote and showcase various taglines, hashtags, or product features at the end of your video promotions, this template will come in handy. It allows you to feature a cluster title with a text delay animation that can be applied to several taglines. It also features two-tone colors as well. Ideal for social media promotions.

Static Transition – Free Mogrt Template

Another free Premiere Pro template with a popular transition effect. This effect lets you add a static distortion effect to your videos. It will help make your YouTube videos look more creative and trendy. The template itself is easily editable and it’s perfect for adding quick transitions.

3D Spin Transition – Free Premiere Pro Template

Another creative transition effect for Premiere Pro. This template features a spinning transition effect with a 3D-like look and feel. It completely spins one scene around to reveal the next. It’s quite attention-grabbing. And it’s most suitable for social media and promo videos.

Corporate Opener – Free Premiere Pro Template

Now, your corporate promo video will also need a professional-looking opening scene. This free template will help you get that part done without an effort. The template features a stylish and fully editable opener that includes 15 different image or video placeholders. It also comes with 28 text placeholders and a logo placeholder to promote your brand.

21 Free Mogrt Templates for Premiere Pro

This pack comes with several useful elements you can use in your various Premiere Pro projects. It includes 8 text title scene animations and 13 animated transition effects with editable colors. You can use them in various video projects and creations free of charge.

50+ Free Social Media Marketing Mogrt Templates

A complete bundle made for social media marketing projects. This pack features 50 different templates for not only Premiere Pro but also Instagram backgrounds and social media icons. For Premiere Pro, it features 6 text overlay animations, 20 titles, and 7 trendy Instagram story templates. All of which are easily customizable.

Video Editor Toolkit – 220+ Free Premiere Pro Templates

This is a massive bundle full of templates and goodies that every video editor should have. It includes a total of 220 templates and presets. Including animations and transitions for Premiere Pro. And for Final Cut Pro X. It has everything you need to create a complete video project. And it’s free!

Free Action Wipe Transitions For Premiere Pro 

You can use this free transition templates to add professional transitions between scenes and clips. The template features several different transitions that wipe in different directions. The simple and minimal design makes them suitable for all kinds of business and creative video projects.

5 Free Title Templates For Premiere Pro

This is another great free bundle featuring a few simple title templates. These titles feature minimal designs and are ideal for various social media and YouTube videos. It includes 5 different title designs in Full HD resolution. The link includes a tutorial on how to use the templates as well.

Brush Stylish Free Logo Reveal Premiere Pro Template

Every YouTube video usually starts with a logo reveal. With this free template, you can also add a stylish logo reveal scene to your own YouTube videos. It features a colorful effect featuring brush strokes. If you have a YouTube channel related to creative work, design, or art, this template is perfect for you. The template is fully customizable and available in Full HD resolution.

Instagram Stories – Free Premiere Pro Templates

Running out of ideas for making attractive Instagram stories? Then grab this free templates pack to start making stylish stories for your followers. This bundle includes 10 different Premiere Pro templates for making various styles of trendy Instagram stories. The size of the templates is already adjusted for Instagram so there’s no need to customize. Just place your own text and images and hit publish.

Modern Promo – Free Premiere Pro Template

This is a free Premiere Pro template you can use to design a trendy promotional video for your corporate brand, creative agency, or even for Instagram. The template is easily customizable and comes with 22 placeholders for media and 16 placeholders for text.

Rolling Slideshow – Free Premiere Pro Template

A collection of stylish transition effects featuring modern and subtle effects. This free template includes 12 unique transition effects you can use to create a modern slideshow of your videos and images. It includes 13 placeholders for images or videos as well as 12 placeholders for text.

13 Free Textured Motion Graphics For Premiere Pro

This is a pack of 13 different textured effects that can be used to create titles, lower thirds, and much more in your videos. It comes with 7 title animations, 3 lower thirds, and 3 trendy transition effects done in the same style. You’ll need After Effects installed on your computer to edit the effects.

20 Glitch Transitions for Premiere Pro

If you’re making a technology-themed video, this free Premiere Pro template will allow you to add more style to it with glitching transition effects. This bundle includes 20 unique glitch effects you can use to create stylish transitions for various tech and social media videos.

21 Free Premiere Pro Templates

This is a collection of free Premiere Pro templates that includes a variety of motion graphics elements. It features 8 animated titles and 13 stylishly modern transition effects. All of the effects and elements are easily customizable as well.

Typography Titles – Free Premiere Pro Template

Looking for a template to create a stylish title scene for your videos? Then this free template will come in handy. It features a set of modern and stylish titles you can customize to make them your own. They are ideal for titles, quotes, and descriptions as well.

Smooth Grid Transitions for Premiere Pro

A set of 12 creative transition effects for Premiere Pro. You can use this pack to create stylish transitions featuring a grid effect. It’s easily customizable and comes with 8 direction and 4 position presets.

15 Free Camera Shake Presets for Premiere Pro

Add a camera shake effect to your videos using this free Premiere Pro template. It includes 15 different styles of camera shake effects that will make your videos look more upbeat and energetic.

Three Line Title – Free Premiere Pro Template

If you’re looking for a creative title design to add a unique title scene to your videos, this template will come in handy. It features a stylish title design with bold text in three lines in an outline font. The title scene takes over the entire screen as well.

Cube Glyph Title – Free Premiere Pro Template

A creative title scene featuring lots of stylish glyphs and minimal design. This template is perfect for adding a title to design-related videos and even coding and programming videos. The title is easily editable to your preference.

Vibrant Shapes Instagram Story Premiere Pro Template

Want to create a colorful Instagram story that attracts everyone’s attention? Then use this free Story template. It features easily editable text placeholders and an optimized design for making modern and creative Instagram stories.

5 Free Ink Transitions Templates for Premiere Pro

The ink-style transitions are popular in video editing, especially for photo slideshow and wedding video albums. This free bundle gives you 5 different ink transition animations you can use to create all those creative videos. It even includes media placeholders for easily adding your own photos and videos as well.

Unique Titles – Free Motion Graphics Template

This is a pack of simple and clean title scenes for Premiere Pro. It includes 11 different title designs you can customize to fit different types of videos. They are most suitable for vlogs and social media videos. The templates are available in Full HD resolution and they’re fully editable as well.

300+ Premiere Pro Transitions Pack

With more than 300 different transitions to choose from, this massive bundle will give you plenty of options to add stylish transition animations to various videos. It includes various shapes-based animations. And all of the templates are available in Full HD and 4K resolutions.

New to Premiere Pro? Then check out our list of best beginner guides and tutorials.